The other day I showed a
colleague of mine this photo of my desk:
She found it amusing that I had
my logo on my own computer’s wallpaper, and I suppose I can understand why. But
if my logo is on my desktop’s wallpaper it’s for a reason. It’s to remind me of
my brand, of why I write and what I want to achieve. If I don’t truly believe
in my own brand, I can’t expect anyone else to.
But it got me thinking; what is a brand?
You don’t need to be a business
(profit or non-profit), or have a commercial venture of any kind to need
branding. We all need a brand. And by “brand” I mean something intrinsic yet intangible which represents us as wholly as
possible. It goes beyond a simple logo, slogan or marketing gimmick.
We all know people with great
branding. People with integrity, kindness and wisdom. The kind of people we go
to when we need advice or reassurance. The kind of people who are quite
literally...kind.
Likewise, we all know people we
want to steer clear of. People we want nothing to do with because they are bad
news. For whatever the reason may be these people are negative, bad-minded and/or
cruel. Their brand stinks.
Without going into a rant, I
think we should all take the time to nurture our personal brands. The majority
of us spend countless hours and resources investing in the brands of others,
for example – fawning over the mundane lives of celebrities, wearing our
favourite labels, pouring many hours into our day jobs, being lifelong supporters of a sports team or player, and spending more time
on social media platforms than we do with our loved ones and friends.
If we spent more time focusing on
our individual brands I bet we would see vast improvements in all elements of
our lives (work, health, relationships, finances etc).
What state is your brand in?
Think about it. Congratulate yourself if you think it’s in a good place, and
get working on it if it isn’t.
