The dysfunction of personal brands
A brand is the gut feeling a person has about an organization, product or service. Not about a person. Here’s why Because from a functional perspective, an organization, product or service adapts to the market, even when that means they need to change the core of themselves.A rebrand. The way they adapt is by either adding, changing or eliminating features and characteristics. It can make them take radical pivots to their core, even to change or disappear completely while keeping its…
Sprinkling personality in
“Along the way, sprinkle in personality so people see the person behind the personal brand.” Doesn’t this feel like there are 2 different things here? You And your “personal brand”. Which will mean that your personal brand is something artificial. That’s why it needs a “sprinkle in personality”. If you need to sprinkle personality to it, it is something flat, shallow, interchangeable. Unnoticeable. Ignorable. And shallow can’t be authentic. Which means you cannot be a brand. Because you’re…
Leveraging effort
“People buy/do things because they aspire to become something else.” Most marketing (and advertising) bros Well, that’s not necessarily true. A (desire to) change is a representation of who you are. Inspired by something: low effort, high impact. Aspiring to something: high effort, unclear impact. Which one would you take?
How many people…
If you’re running a customer satisfaction or customer service-driven business, how many people with a background in hospitality have you had involved in it? Or how many of your people (or yourself if you run a solo biz) have been involved with hospitality? Here’s the thing. Seeing things through a hospitality lens shifts the way you think and act towards your customers. It goes Beyond customers, guests. What’s the minimum, going the extra mile. Thinking ahead of them, not to what they need,…
“You need a personal brand”
You’re a brand, you’re the product. Get all the bells and whistles of a brand (visuals, narratives, stories, etc.). Be “consistent” on your projected image. Put yourself out there. Make noise (so people will hear you). Always be pitching. Always be selling. The end goal? To get your clients to trust you. The approach? Showing your “personal brand” “This is me. These are my values. This is my personality” → Me, Me, Me. Here’s the thing Your clients don’t care. They care about themselves and…
How to see different
Ads are pretty much the same —most of the times, at most of the places. Be it Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, US, Germany, Netherlands, India or Sri Lanka. Different brands, different markets and ads look the same. They share the same perspective, the same sales pitch, quite similar concepts, same stories… heck, even same colors. How can they stand out if it all looks and feels the same? How can YOU stand out in a world of sameness? Being a vortex.
A punch in the face.
“Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the face.” Mike Tyson However, if you have an approach… You can receive a quite decent amount of punches and still get ahead. You prep to get more punches, learn how to dodge some, how to receive others, how to see them coming (so that you adapt). That’s an approach. On the other hand, a plan is static. If something changes, it’s now a different plan. An approach lets *you* change and tune in your plans (or dismiss them). An approach is…
A thing
As humans, we want things to look human to us, so that they become familiar. Hence, the use of language, mascots, adding personality traits to businesses/brands, cartoons, etc. It makes them non-threatening. However, it doesn’t go the other way around: making people things. Well, unless you’re a psycho or run an exploitative way of “biz”. That’s why also, the whole HR thinking and leadership has been shifting from Resources and Capital into Talent and Development. Because a thing, becomes a…
The extra mile
Talking about underpromising and overdelivering, here’s an exercise for you. 🙂 Take 5 brands/companies you LOVE. Not that you like very much or that they’re quite good. That you LOOOOVE. → Do they underpromise to you? → Or do they make you a promise, keep it and deliver on it? When they go the extra mile for you is not underpromising and overdelivering. It has to do more with their values and capacity. Here’s the thing If/When they can’t go that extra mile, they tell you and you’re OK with…
Giving others power.
Empowerment. How it’s commonly understood: to give others power. And just like that, it becomes a tool for command and control, because just as you can give power, you can take it away. It turns into a way to keep people within rails and expect that someone else will take responsibility for them at the end. It comes from the ego “I can empower others”. However… Here’s its definition: Empowerment. “The process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life.”…