The term “personal brand” always bothered me.
It feels like it meant you had to become someone, suddenly be authentic, or use our own names to talk about our services or how our pet fish acts like a splashing whale.
I’m all for the human connects with human, like how certain name carry “weight” like Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Bill Gates.
MJ: Basketball (no GOAT debates please)
Serena Williams: Tennis
Bill Gates: Microsoft
Though they are known for a certain aspect of their life, they’re more than what we know of them.
For instance, did you know Serena Williams loves Avatar the Last Airbender? As a fan of the series myself, I get giddy when I hear stories like these since it’s wholesome and authentic.
So if that’s the case, why would we ever call ourselves a brand or try and be like one?
Perhaps much of this lies looking within ourselves, and understand us and not “how do I become authentic with my name”.
Take my client, Healing for Change, for example. When our client came to us, the owner brought in her experience, set of values she wanted Healing for Change to be, the people the brand attracted to name a few.
The owner bred life into a brand she wanted to bring to life!
If she wanted to bring in the Golden State Warriors, it’d be separate from Healing for Change.
Another example was when I used @noboundariesdesign as a name to carry me, Jen Lau, and me as a designer.
Though it did the marketing piece, the problem with that was if I wanted to connect with someone who wasn’t doing design or marketing, No Boundaries Design wouldn’t make any sense.
I switched handles to imjenlau because I wanted to connect with people and go behind the scenes with the brands I create.
Being my brands feels icky since its not what I want.
It’s the actions I take through the brands I own that demonstrate how my clients achieve what they came to me for.
So yes, there’s going to be a business and transaction aspect to these brands (gotta be real with this).
But certainly, I don’t want Jen Lau to be a business.
I’m just Jen. And Jen is a number one fan and big advocate of No Boundaries Design and Uncovering Layers.
All to say this: personal brand vs personal growth are separate.
Sure there may be values you carry or a vision you see for the world as how you might lead, however, personal anything requires you to do a little bit of soul-searching, looking within yourself and your heart.
It’s not one where you suddenly call yourself a “personal brand” and now you suddenly have to be authentic.
Again, look within you.
Tune into the next episode where I talk about “Know, Like, and Trust”.
