putting the "personal" back into personal branding

Personal branding...whoa, did I open a can of worms there or what?! When I started "studying" the concept of the personal brand after stumbling upon my first fateful tome on the subject circa 2001, I had no idea what an impact it would eventually have in our new, emerging world. Slowly, we've seen great brands built around people (and what a no-no that used to be) succeed like Oprah, stumble but eventually persevere like Martha. Economies have faltered and jobs have been eliminated. We've had to take a frankly objective look at ourselves to regain our income-earning, title-having, respect-commanding status. We've put together resumes and cover letters and attended networking meetings, putting our very best foot forward. We've turned into master sellers of our most important product: us. And, believe me, as an independent I totally understand this process because otherwise I couldn't support my rather deadly lipgloss habit.

But isn't this also about separating ourselves from our jobs, in a way? I don't mean that bull about work/life balance (but that's an entirely different post for another day), but about NOT identifying ourselves in that pre-conditioned, Americanized, job-first way. About identifying ourselves with what's really, truly, deeply important to us?? Think about our culture: what's the first question strangers ask you after being introduced? Is is "Tell me about your family?" or "What's your life's quest?" No, I'm pretty sure that the standard opener is "So, what do you do?" And they don't mean, where do you derive your energy...

I've really seen it play out in my own personal world, as well. Not having a firm grip on my own mission, vision, values, image and so forth has slowed me. Looking back now - after having had many years of wild and wonderful, uncomfortable and unreasonable, well-intentioned and downright stupid life experiences - I think I intuitively realized that I had a path, but I frequently wandered off of it in search of something I THOUGHT I needed. I have done this with jobs, many of which I have loved and learned a lot from but haven't served my vision well. I've done this with personal relationships, again learning and growing, but straying from my journey time and again. Yes, part of this could simply be chalked up to growing older, growing up. Living and learning. But don't you get the feeling sometimes that there are people out there that "got it" so much earlier in life than you? What makes them so damned smart? Why can't I seem to get it?? Whether or not you believe in such things as reincarnation, there is a this-life equivalent that's widely understood: you will learn the same lessons - a.k.a., make the same mistakes - over and over again (date the same guy, hang around the same people, take the same ill-fitting job, lose the same 10 lbs) until you decide to stop. Until you realize where your path is taking you and what you need to do (and...ahem...stop doing, for pete's sake) to get yourself back on the journey.

I've been reading some incredible books and blogs and stories lately about personal branding. I even put together a couple of posts myself and threw them on Twitter only to see my own following grow and grow in response. This is a hot-button topic out there, people! But, I wondered, did I call it the right thing? Am I REALLY talking about Personal Branding the way these insightful people are? Because I felt like the incredible breadth of knowledge out there didn't really capture the finer essence of what I meant to say. No, I don't mean to say that I've struck on something new. But I do feel like I'm trying to highlight something important, something slightly different.

I mean here today to start putting some separation between Personal Branding: The Key to Success and Personal Branding: the Finding Your Way Forward version. Because if you take a strictly business view of branding and what it brings to a company, it's obvious to most why this is important. You see why branding yourself appropriately can lead to that businessy/career-type success. You may not know how to do it (and if that's the case, there are many fabulous experts I'd be happy to direct you to) but you know it's getting to be one of those no-brainer things to do. However, if you take it back to a PERSON inside of all of this, there are many ways that personal branding becomes just as applicable in your holistic life. Have you thought about:

• why people struggle meeting their mate? keeping a marriage healthy?
• why you keep fighting the weight loss battle?
• why you're even keeping that ongoing family feud going?
• why there are fears (named and unnamed) lurking around in your head?

There are MANY subjects such as these. I think we've all either been there, are there now or are watching a good friend struggle though something like this, right? And I guess this is where things start to get a little therapy-self-helpy but in my mind, getting a grip on who you are and what you stand for is the first step toward finding not only career or outward success. But toward finding internal contentment as well. In my circle of friends, we sometimes talk about acceptance. Not that you have to accept that your life is your life and that's all you're going to get, so buck up. But moreso that once you quiet down, acknowledge yourself and accept that you are really quite good right here and now, then doors can start opening for you. You will have a better perspective on your personal goals and assessing whether or not they're serving your real life's mission. You will start to see how you're sabotaging yourself from your REAL goals by letting false ideas suck up your time and mess up decisions. You can see why hanging so much of your pre-bottled expectation on a simple first date can send you spinning. You will figure out why panic and fear don't make good job search coaches. You will take responsibility for the role you played in some of your past not-so-stellar-moments. And so forth.

And, my theory? You'll start to see how to fix 'em.