Salamon Rules of Personal Branding: Rule # 2 — Create The Product
Personal Branding seems to have a lot of opponents, that is, people who don’t get the concept in its entirety. Many folks I’ve spoken with think Personal Branding is all about self-promotion. It isn’t. Personal Branding is about branding yourself like a good company or product would be marketed. Make the product good as hell. Have something to offer the consumer and always improve it. When Personal Branding is explained like that, I usually get nods in agreement.
How do you create the product? How do you self-develop and market what you can you contribute? Everyone has a unique set of talents. Yes–I know, you’ve already heard that one. People talk about talents, but what do they really mean?
When I talk about your unique talents, I am talking about those which are created when your habits, natural abilities, and experience converge into focus. My younger brother, Jacob Salamon, is a very talented designer. His main habit is that he’s anal retentive. When we lived together he despised the fact that I didn’t squeeze the toothpaste to the top of the bottle. If I took the hand towel off the rack and didn’t put it back….well, you get the picture. Jacob has a natural ability of having everything in his life fit his picture of design. He knows how he wants his world to look which is why he is a designer. What makes him talented is the fact that he uses his design skills every single day. He has created countless logos, brochures, and websites, including my own.
You can only market your talents once you have a product or something to contribute. Sam Decker, a fantastic marketer, and CMO of Bazaarvoice, is a perfect example. He markets himself as “The World’s Cheapest Marketer”. One of his main talents is resourcefulness. He can make people talk without having to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars. The point is that he first has to prove himself as a successful marketer, before he can claim to be a successful “cheap marketer”.
As an exercise for yourself, try figure out your talents. What are your habits & natural abilities? How have you used them to be successful now and in the past? Now how can you market them under one package? In short, focus on two things: Self-Development and Mass Communication.
August 30, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Let’s take a step back here. Personal Branding is perceived as self-promotion, when it is much much more. By branding yourself you are creating an image that your audience can either buy into or step away from. Your goal is to use your brand to establish new relationships and to get from point A to point B in your career.
August 30, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Agreed. Like a company, a person can either buy into your brand or walk away. The constant is that we should always focus on both sides, improving the product and the marketing.
August 31, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Interesting too that many successful brands create loyal followers AND critics - the stronger one, typically the stronger the other. Take Wal-Mart, for example. Some people hate, others can’t live without it.
That, in my opinion, makes branding at a personal level too terrifying for some people to buy in to. They don’t want to risk anyone perceiving them negatively, so they avoid opportunities that could build them raving fans.
September 5, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Adam
Interesting ideas. I find the hardest part is differentiating yourself amongst people who share similar talents. It all becomes a game of how to make yourself look different from the masses.
I just wrote an interesting post on my blog along these lines….http://karenhegmann.typepad.com/tellingthestory/2007/09/dare-to-be-diff.html.
September 6, 2007 at 7:42 pm
[...] you know who you are and how you stand out? Do you know what your unique perspective of the world is? If you don’t, then I’d be willing to bet that others don’t [...]
September 7, 2007 at 6:19 am
Hi Karen, It’s true that you must differentiate to get noticed. If you have the same percieved talents as everyone else, then of course no one will notice you.
Cut through the clutter. Find out what you bring that no one else does and then market and communicate that idea!
October 15, 2007 at 6:42 am
[...] It is the basis of creating a recognizable name. We learned how to improve your ‘product’ and how to refine your unique value proposition to the world. We showed that you have to have an [...]