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Starting a personal brand is fun, challenging, AND DANGEROUS! Discover why, reason #6…
It’s easy for personal brands and SMBs to get overwhelmed in a sea of marketing and branding voices, choices, and channels. Robby Fowler taps into 20 years of personal brand experience to help you clearly connect the dots between your branding, marketing and business strategy. To avoid being another burnt-out leader or under-performing brand or business, tune into this podcast. Build a personal brand and business that breathes life into you and your customer.
The Brand ED Podcast EP 61
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Welcome to this episode of the podcast as we continue our series, _The Seven Deadly Dangers of Building a Personal Brand Business_.
Building a personal brand business is a wonderful opportunity. I have a personal brand. You likely, if you're listening, you want a personal brand. You want to grow and build a thriving, personal brand business. It is wonderful.
[00:00:25] The Question Worth Asking for Personal Brands
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The question we're asking in this series, is with all of the promise behind personal branding, are there any inherent dangers that come with building a personal brand business? And should we be aware of those dangers? Or should we just put our head down and go about our business and we'll figure that later?
I'm suggesting there are some inherent dangers. And we would be wise as we're building our personal brand businesses to pay attention to them so that we can be on the lookout for them and not create unnecessary harm or damage as we're trying to do something as fulfilling as building a personal brand business.
[00:01:01] Recap
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So let me recap where we've been. Here are the first five deadly dangers that we've covered so far.
Deadly danger number one is that personal brands have little to no accountability. There's no built-in accountability.
Number two, personal brands play on a dangerous field. That field is the internet. It moves ~really, ~really fast, and it is very far reaching. Those are both strengths and dangers or weaknesses.
Deadly danger number three, we said, is the fact that the personal brand movement as a whole, it's a very young movement. So we're not exactly sure how all of this plays out. And the data is not quite in yet, at least in this regard, to know, " Hey, is this a good thing, a bad thing, or are there some implications or ramifications that we're unaware of?"
Deadly danger number four of building a personal brand business is that personal brands --probably more than any other promise out there-- promise freedom. It's the promise of freedom. But we all know freedom, when it goes unchecked, to can be very, very dangerous.
And then deadly danger, number five, we said personal brands place a premium value on producing. You just produce more stuff, not necessarily on reproducing-- that is actually helping others; reproducing what it is you do in the lives of others, so that they can go do the same. It places value on producing, usually producing sales. More sales of the course of the product, of the book of the speaking engagements or whatever. We don't have time to step back and go, "Hey, is that actually reproducing itself in others? Or am I just continuing to produce more stuff?"
[00:02:52] Deadly Danger #6 of Building a Personal Brand Business
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So today we turn our attention to deadly danger. Number six. I'll share that with you. And then I'll tell you where we're headed in this episode. *Deadly danger number six is this: personal brands can catch lightning in a bottle, but character formation never comes at the speed of lightening.*
Deadly danger number six is that personal brands can catch lightning in a bottle, but character formation, it just doesn't come at the speed of lightning.
To say it another way. Personal brands often reward charisma over character.
[00:03:26] Preview: Where Are We Headed?
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So, where are we headed in this episode?
[00:03:28] 1. How Do Personal Brands Catch Lightening in a Bottle?
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The first thing we're going to do is we're going to take a look at how do personal brands catch lightning in a bottle. I think there's three levels of lightning in a bottle that we can catch, or that's enticing to us as personal brands. So how do we catch lightning in a bottle? What I mean by that?
[00:03:42] 2. How Does Our Context Provide Dangerous Kindling & Lighter Fluid
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And question number two, is this, how does our current cultural context contribute to, or provide the kindling-- that dry wood -- to some dangerous lighter fluid that surrounds personal brands. So that's where we're headed.
[00:03:56] 3 Levels of Lightening in a Bottle Personal Brands Covet
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Let's start by taking a quick look at when we say a personal brand can catch lightning in a bottle. What do we mean?
I think there's really three levels. These will be probably familiar with you once I point them out and you'll go, "oh yeah."
So as a personal brand, we typically want one of these three-- if you're just asking us if we would like it-- in this order.
[00:04:16] Top-Level: Viral
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*Number one lightning in a bottle: we'd love it if we shared something, produced something, put something out in the world and it went *_*viral*_*.*
That's kind of the mountaintop of catching lightning in a bottle. It's hard to predict. It's unlikely that that will happen to very many of us. But that's the king of the mountain, is something goes viral. And in that case, you catch lightning in a bottle. You go from unknown to well-known in a matter of seconds, right? It goes hopefully in a positive way. * *
*Number two level of lightening in a bottle is *_*trending*_*.* If we produce something that's trending. So consider you write an article that gets picked up by a magazine. It happens to land at the right place at the right time. And man, it really starts to take off, starts to trend upward, gets lots of reads, lots of feedback.
[00:04:45] Mid-Level: Trending
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Now, eyeballs are coming to you. Opportunities coming to you, which leads to level number three.
Few things go viral. It's great. If you can catch lightning in a bottle in the sense that yours is on the leading edge of a trend, right? It's trending upwards.
[00:05:20] Realistic Level: Opportunity
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Or the third one, that's more realistic for most of us. *You have lightning in a bottle in a sense of a unique *_*opportunity*_* coming your way.* That can be an interview you've landed on a very large podcast that has a very large audience. We tend to look at that and go, man, I've got this big opportunity coming up. Perhaps that's getting invited to speak at a conference or on a stage that sets you up in front of an audience that's much bigger or different than you usually get.
But you get the idea. Those are the ways that a personal brand at times can catch lightning in a bottle.
*Viral*, you produce something that's viral. Something that's *trending.* Or just a normal kind of *opportunity*. But to you, and to me, that's a big opportunity. It feels like a big opportunity.
So we've said personal brands can be dangerous because you can catch lightning in a bottle that is you can produce something that's viral. Something that's trending that brings this whole new level of attention to you. Or even an opportunity that lands you much more eyeballs, much more visibility, a bigger platform quickly.
We've just said the danger is that character formation never comes at the speed of lightening. So that's how personal brands can catch lightning in a bottle.
[00:06:35] The Highly Flammable Kindling of Our Cultural Context
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Then next question we said we're going to take a brief look at is, _how does our current cultural context, provide what I'm calling the kindling to some dangerous lighter fluid? _
Here's the kindling I think that's out there. It's really three parts. So you take entrepreneurial spirit. You can sense it in the air. Being an entrepreneur, getting involved in a personal brand, starting a personal brand. It is very-- speaking of trending-- it's trending right now.
[00:06:49] Kindling #1: Entrepreneurial Spirit
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My good friend, Mike Kim, he's been a guest on the show. He released his book, _You Are The Brand,_ aimed at personal brands. Oddly enough, this was a surprise to all of us that were a part of that very successful book launch, it landed, I believe number one -- I would have to go back and look -- number one on Amazon in the job hunting category; like looking for a job. That tells you that there is an entrepreneurial spirit that is alive and kicking out there. Personal branding is very popular right now. That's what I mean, kindling.
[00:07:44] Kindling #2: Hyper-Individualism
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So you take this *entrepreneurial spirit* that's in the air right now. You add to that a culture, at least in our north American context, a culture of *hyper-individualism*. Hyper-individualism. It's all about us as individuals.
[00:08:01] Kindling #3: Unchecked Entitlement
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And then lastly, you add to that a sense of this *unchecked entitlement.* That is, if I start a personal brand and say something I'm entitled to the fact that you should listen.
So there's just this subtle undercurrent of entitlement, plus hyperindividualism that matches well with this entrepreneurial spirit in the air that makes it very attractive to start a personal brand business.
So that's the kindling I'm talking about. Hyper-individualism, unchecked entitlement, and a spirit of entrepreneurialship, that's just in the air, like electricity buzzing in the air a little bit right now.
That's the kindling.
[00:08:42] The Dangerous Personal Brand Ingniter Fluid
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Here's the igniter fluid that goes along with personal branding.
I want you to imagine a personal brand, like a bottle, a plastic bottle of igniter fluid. If you flipped it over and looked at the ingredients, *there are four ingredients that I think make it dangerous*.
Here's what I mean. Here are the four ingredients of that lighter fluid or igniter fluid. They each begin with a C. I'm going to give you the first two, and then I'll tell a little story and example of this.
[00:09:10] Lighter Fluid Ingredient #1: Charisma
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*The first ingredient in that lighter fluid around personal branding is the ingredient of charisma.*
When it comes to building a personal brand, here is the true, sometimes harsh, reality. The more charisma, just natural charisma you have, which oftentimes it's just hard to put your finger on. Some people have it. Some people don't, some people have a lot of it, but charisma works really well in the personal branding space.
In fact it may trump all else. I'll come back and share a story about what that looks like and what I mean.
[00:09:46] Lighter Fluid Ingredient #2: Certainty
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*The second ingredient in this lighter fluid is certainty.* So we've got charisma and then certainty.
Certainty oftentimes in the personal branding space comes from sharing my own story.
Sometimes we call this your founder’s story. But when you peel back the layers, it really starts to become not just a founder story. Over time as a charismatic leader shares that story with certainty-- with a sense of confidence, with a sense of clarity, with a well crafted founder story, which is very important in personal branding.
It's very helpful in personal branding, but there is a dark side that we'll look at even more in deadly danger number seven.
A good founder story told with certainty by a charismatic leader often becomes and taps into this hero's journey. Think about it. If I tell the founder story of how I started my personal brand business, and let's imagine that I'm way more charismatic than I naturally am, that that story really is a hero's journey. That's the kind of story my founder's story starts to fit into.
It's the age old tale of, I found myself in this harsh environment, maybe it was like corporate America, whatever. I found myself out, wandering in the wilderness. I made a break for the promise land of personal brand. I broke free from the harsh environment. I overcame obstacles along the way. This is classic hero's journey, right? All to start this new life and build a new life for myself, maybe even in a hero's journey, build a whole new kingdom or empire for myself.
That's a hero's journey. It's very common to craft a personal brand founder story in a similar model. And then when you add charisma to that, man, it becomes powerful.
[00:11:40] A Short Story of Charisma + Certainty
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I can remember a conference that I helped put on. This was several years back. Someone who attended the conference, he was a friend and this is a leader who's just charismatic.
He is magnetic. He is attractional. What I mean is when he wakes up in the morning, he just attracts people. He has just has this innate ability to draw a crowd. High, high levels of charisma.
At this particular conference, I can remember-- cause this was a joke between us going back and forth that he didn't even really see how magnetic and charismatic his personality was.
So at this conference, he was not a speaker. He was just a regular old attender. And I can remember at one of the breaks during the day in the conference, everyone's milling around during this break. And I look up and I looked over at him and he literally had probably 12 to 15 people around him.
Not a speaker at the event. Just a normal person attending the event, the conference. But he just had his magnetic. Some people are like that. That works very, very well in the personal brand space.
We see that sometimes in our political leaders that the charismatic leader oftentimes wins the vote. It doesn't have anything to do necessarily with their policy. They just have the gift of charisma.
So when you take charisma and then you add this certainty behind the ability of that charismatic leader to share that founder story, which is really this hero's journey. No wonder we all cheer. The reason we're drawn to the hero's journey, storytelling model is we want to find ourselves in that story.
We want to be that hero. We also want to leave the harsh environment, make a break for it, start a personal brand business that's as successful as theirs that overcomes those obstacles and builds this new life, right?
If you're interested in launching a personal brand, that's an attractive story to you, especially when it's told well, by a charismatic leader.
_*As it turns out, you can justify almost anything if you believe you're on that kind of a mission. *_
You can justify almost anything when you take charismatic leader that can share that kind of a compelling story, because we all want to find ourselves in that story. And it turns out you can justify almost anything if you believe you're on this hero's journey mission.
That's got positive sides. That's also can be very dangerous.
What happens when you combine those first two parts of the ingredient? That's what turns us into lighter food. It's this is compounding effect of charismatic leader telling this hero story journey, a founder's story.
Man, we are attracted to that. We're very convinced by that.
So we just need to be careful of those first two ingredients. Cause that's the first two ingredients in lighter fluid and this scenario and this metaphor.
The last two ingredients also begin with the letter C. So we've got the charisma of a leader combined with the certainty of kind of pitching and selling this heroes, founder story.
Which doesn't mean it's a false story. It's just really powerful and very compelling.
[00:14:48] Lighter Fluid Ingredient #3: Counting the Numbers
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Ingredient number three and ingredient number four in this lighter fluid is counting. And what I mean is the numbers go up. The social media followers go up the likes, go up. The email list goes up the webinar attenders, go up.
As we start to count the numbers, the numbers are trending upward.
[00:15:09] Lighter Fluid Ingredient #4: Cash Validates
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And when we take this upward growth of numbers and we combine the fourth C, the fourth ingredient of this lighter fluid, and that's *cash*. That is, Hey, my numbers are on the rise and my revenue is on the rise. What that equals, unfortunately, in this space almost all the time that builds this inherent authority.
The success and the increase in numbers is the validation that what we're doing is right. Good. True.
Now we know that's not necessarily the case, but that's what tends to happen. Things get overlooked because success is the end. And those things that we've talked about that we tolerate.
So let's say personal brand. They're absolutely killing it, crushing it. There's some questionable things about the character, but Hey, look at the results.
And so we tolerate, we overlook, we don't pay that much attention to... We excuse. _*We excuse things in light of success*_, because we say, "Well, I mean, it's successful." If that's what it takes or costs along the way, it's worth it in the end, because... _look at the counting_, the numbers are going up. _Look at the cash_. This is working.
*Those four ingredients create lighter fluid. *
*The* *charisma* of the leader. *The* *certainty* of his or her ability to cast that story, that founder story, that's _a hero's journey_ that we're all compelled by. And then they say, look at *the numbers*, they're on the rise. And look at the proof. The proof is in the pudding, *the cash* speaks. This is successful.
Now we have our authority that you stand on top of. And that can be a good thing, but that can be a really dangerous thing.
[00:16:51] What's Missing?
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*What's the missing ingredient that turns it into lighter fluid?* _*We need the fire extinguisher of character.*_
And you can catch lightning in a bottle. Hand that over to a charismatic leader that can spin a good story. That can naturally grow the numbers. And then turn that into revenue. We say that's success. That becomes the gavel that says this is all working. It's worth. It must be good.
You combine that with the kindling of a hyper-individualistic culture, an unchecked sense of entitlement.
In my opinion, that's really dangerous.
_*Charisma over character is deadly.*_ And it can absolutely be missing in a personal brand business. You can have great charisma and success.
Character is much harder to see, to identify and to grow.
_So lightening in a bottle plus kindling plus that lighter fluid, we just need to be aware in the personal branding space that you can catch lightning in a bottle, but your character and character formation never comes at the speed of lightning._
[00:18:03] Questions for Reflection
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Here's some questions for reflection for us, like we've been doing at the end of each of these episodes. A couple of things for you to chew on and to think about.
[00:18:12] Question 1
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Here's one. Personal brands in many ways is an invitation to our own version or maybe level of celebrity. To our own celebrity.
Maybe not Hollywood celebrity, but celebrity in our neck of the woods. Hey, I can build an audience. I can grow this tribe around me. And I am the leader of the tribe. There is a sense of "_celebrity-ness_" --if that's a word-- that goes with personal branding.
And we need to ask ourself, "What is our fascination with celebrity?" Because I think as a culture, again, at least in the North American culture, we are fascinated with celebrity.
How quickly we look at celebrity. How easily we'll give our attention to anything celebrity. How magnetic the pull is towards celebrity. And how much we'll tolerate in the name of celebrity is frightening, honestly.
So the question is: if a personal brand is an invitation to your own little version of celebrity. We just need to wrestle with that. What is our fascination with celebrity? Why are we so drawn to that? It probably needs a governor on there, so it doesn't get out of hand.
[00:19:23] Question 2
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Another question for us to reflect on in light of this deadly danger, is that personal brands tap into a deep sense of purpose. That's because this personal brand that I am starting or growing or launching, now that becomes the vehicle around which I'm building my life of purpose. You'll hear this a lot in the personal brand space.
Remember that hero's journey, you leave the entrapments and the harshness of whatever it is that you were doing to start this personal brand. And you unleashed to the world your version of you. Your unique take on...
Now this personal brand business starts to really get intertwined and tangled up with like our purpose and identity.
*And so the danger is what happens when you take the personal brand piece away? Do you lose your identity?* Do you lose your sense of purpose if you don't have a personal brand? Are those so wrapped up together that that you'll be in trouble?
I will tell you a personal story from this in another episode. I'll either do it along with number seven or the follow-up episode.
I just want to share my own journey and experience of what it looks like when those things can get intertwined because I think you and I would do well to pay attention to that.
[00:20:42] Question 3
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The next question to think through is *how do you grow your character to bear the weight of this personal brand business that you're growing?* Your hope is that next year your personal brand business is more influential. It's bigger. You've grown at bigger than it is right now.
How do you grow your character to bear the weight of that? So as the business grows, the personal brand business grows, your platform grows, your influence grows. How do you make sure your character is growing at the same pace to bear the weight of that? That's something I think we all need to wrestle with.
[00:21:14] Question 4
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And then the last question is how do we manage this inherent tension? The speed at which a personal brand can move. One of its strengths is a personal brand can move at the speed of business.
That's what we talked about in part with danger number two that we play on the field of the internet. The internet is fast. So the strength of a personal brand, it is not a massive corporate battleship that takes forever to turn. You can turn on a dime as a personal brand. You can move at the speed of business. It's a strength. Here's the challenge. *How do we manage the tension of the speed at which you can move as a personal brand and accountability?* That accountability we need.
That is danger number one, there's no built in accountability and personal branding. So how do we bring in accountability? _*Because here's the reality: the tension is personal brands can move fast. Accountability is slow.*_ Because accountability requires bringing other people into the loop. As a personal brand that they're not in your day-to-day brand.
_To bring them into the loop. To catch them up. To let them process and weigh in on your life and business takes time._ That's in tension against the speed at which you can move when it's just you. _So how do we manage that tension of speed and accountability? Because accountability takes time._
[00:22:31] Closing
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That's it for today's episode. I want to tell you about a training opportunity. That's coming up Wednesday, September 22nd. I am going to do a new training. I'm going to do a live build of the perfect personal brand single page website, right in front of your eyes. You can hop in, see me build this thing live.
It's going to be a little crazy. And then you can ask questions. It's going to be a great opportunity for you to finally see it with your own eyes. Like what does this look like to have a website that would help my personal brand business grow? Just go to robbyf.com/training and sign up.
We've already had a ton of people sign up, actually. So make sure you go grab your spot. I may have to cap that training here pretty quick. So go grab your seat. Robbyf.com/training. Watch that live build right in front of your eyes. It should be a lot of fun together.
Hey, if you've enjoyed this episode or any other episode, I'd love your help.
If you leave a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts that really does help get the word out and get this into the hands of more personal brands.
Until the next episode, go and build a life-giving brand.