Is this the future of everyone’s personal brand?

Picture_9 Dan Schawbel is 23.  He has a full-time job.  A blog.  And a personal brand (Rob Cuesta's take).

(In comparison, when I was 23, I had a dog.)

Dan has embraced personal branding an d has expended a significant amount of energy to mastering it.  His blog is all about it.  He's created a magazine focused on it.  By the way, Donald Trump graces the cover of the first issue and thinker/doer Guy Kawasaki penned an article.

Oh yeah…and he's built his digital personal brand site.  A site dedicated to 360 degrees of Dan.  His professional life, personal life, ambitions and creations.  All in one spot.

What do you think?  Will everyone have one of these?  What would you put on your personal branding site?  Where would you draw the line?  Or isn't there one any more?

P.S.  If you didn't think owning yourname.com was important — ask Dan what he thinks about it.

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11 comments on “Is this the future of everyone’s personal brand?

  1. What’s the longevity of such a personal branding program like his? Wouldn’t it get boring after a while? Well, I guess if you love yourself that much, and enough people are willing to listen because you make them feel better about themselves…then I guess so.

    In all, personal branding is based on the personality of the individual; they’ll often use common tools and tactics relative to others.

  2. Rob Cuesta says:

    Do people have an opinion about you? Do people come to you for certain things that you know, and not bother for others? Have you ever tried on a piece of clothing and thought “that’s just not me”? We ALL have a personal brand, we have it already, and it’s with us for life. The question is not whether you love yourself “that much”; it’s whether you love yourself enough to take control of that brand, or you’re happy to let someone else do it for you.

    If you’re in business, would you be happy letting your main competitor write your website or your brochures? If you’re applying for a job, would you let another applicant write your resume or your covering letter? That’s effectively what’s happening to a lot of people. We live in a connected world, as Jon says. When you apply for a job, when you request a meeting: people will try to find out about you. They’ll Google you, they’ll reach out to their networks. Personal branding is about making sure that you know what messages they’ll get back.

  3. Jon,

    I like it…mystreams.

    So do you envision a day when all of the Facebooks, LinkedIns, etc will merge and we will have one central place where we digitally reside?

    Drew

  4. Mario,

    So are you saying you do or don’t believe in personal branding? Do you think a personal brand goes beyond someone’s personality?

    Or if I am funny and punctual…is that the essence of my brand?

    Drew

  5. Rob,

    So do you believe that someone can craft a personal brand or is it more of something we just have…but we can “polish” and position in the best light?

    People who have been in the work world for awhile would clearly have established a brand by their performance and behavior. But someone right out of school like Dan…could he choose what he wanted his brand to be and then build it on purpose?

    Drew

  6. John says:

    Great post. Dan is a real case study. The difference between Dan and most people is not that he HAS a personal brand, but that he MANAGES it. A good way to look at personal brands is along a continuum. And unless you are a ghost person, you have already been pigeon-holed. I wrote about the personal branding continuum at http://blog.johnwburrows.com/2007/09/05/promotability-and-the-brand-continuum , if you are interested.

  7. Lin Edards says:

    I can not believe you have featured Dan Schawbel given the usual high quality and trust we have in your blog.

    He is a young upstart who frankly has no experience in building a credible personal brand. I would believe him more if he had another 10 years of experience and expertise behind him.

    He bugs everyone who writes a post about personal branding with insipid comments on their blogs – not adding any value at all – which is one of the fundamentals of building a strong personal brand.

    Drew if you are going to cover this subject, at least profile someone credible – or we will lose faith in your personal brand.

  8. John,

    So are you saying that you fall into the camp of “a person can manage and control” their brand?

    How does the outside world influence that, do you think? How much of our own brand do we control and how much of it is outside us?

    Can we “manage” if our behaviors are inconsistent with the brand are are actions louder than words?

    Drew

  9. Lin,

    First and foremost — it sounds like you have a personal beef with Dan. I have no desire to get in the middle of that, nor do I want this blog to be the scene of a drama.

    Second, I think you should re-read my post. I never said if I thought Dan was smart, doing the right thing or a spokesperson we should all listen to. What I did…which is usually what I do is hold up an example and ask you, my readers, what they think.

    So if we take your personal feelings for Dan out of the mix….where do you stand on the issue of personal branding and each person having a site dedicated to themselves?

    Drew

  10. Yes I believe in PB (Peanut Butter that is 😀 )
    I must then digress in my postulation of PB’s basis. I believe it to be a projected image of self manifested by the individual through volition and behavior. The receiver’s perception however, is formed largely on the laws of relativity: time, affilial proximity, internal bias, and common interest.

  11. Mario,

    Without a doubt, personal branding does not exist in a vaccum and the perceptions of the “receiver” have great influence.

    I’ve never gone to the extent of self defining my personal brand attributes. I just try be as authentic as I can be.

    Do you think we should all go to that next level and define/articulate our personal brand values and deliverables?

    Drew

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