Several years ago, I owned an Internet marketing franchise that worked with businesses on anything they needed to be successful online. The franchisor handled all the fulfillment, and my role was essentially sales/consulting. (Side note: This was a terrible idea for me, primarily because I’m a terrible ‘salesperson.’)
I hired an assistant who would make calls to schedule appointments for me. Peggy was a fantastic, really interesting 70+ year old woman with a truly fascinating background. Peggy was also opinionated.
After a short amount of training, she jumped right in and started scheduling appointments for me. This allowed me to focus on other things to promote my little start-up business. After a few short weeks with me, Peggy had a suggestion. (Actually, it may have been more of a command now that I think about it.)
She said that I HAD to do a better job of promoting Rob Croll, and not just the company. Having no real concept of ‘personal branding’ at the time, and in keeping with the franchisor’s suggestions, I agreed with her but continued full steam ahead focusing almost exclusively on building a name for the business.
Peggy Was Right
After a few years of owning the franchise, I decided to move on. I regrouped, but knew that I wanted to stay in the Internet marketing industry, and – since I couldn’t continue to use the franchise name – renamed my company.
You can see where this is going.
I’d spent two years and a significant amount of money and energy branding my business, which was now dead.
Why You Need Personal Branding
My story with the franchise business is but one example of why you need to be developing your personal brand NOW.
This new digital world we live in gives you unprecedented opportunities to share yourself with the rest of the world.
And you’re going to need them.
Think of what will happen the next time you apply for a job or you have a new prospective client for your freelancing business. What do you think the odds are that someone’s going to ‘Google’ your name?
Pretty high, don’t you think?
(Next time: What does your online presence say about you?)
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Personal Brand and Corporate Brand are not mutually exclusive.
I learned the hard way that building “The Brand that is You” can also builds a new Corporate Brand at the same time. Let’s face it, in SMBs, people buy from people. When you have built your Iconic Brand, then people buy “The Brand”.
Corporations want people to buy “The Brand”. Nonetheless, they started as a Perosnal Brand first. Examples? Sam Walton of the Iconic Brands Walmart & Sams Club. Richard Branson for Virgin (records, airlines, now space travel).
{ 2 trackbacks }