You Are Your Brand
What I Think About Personal Branding
I always believed (and still do) that jazz musicians should spend some more time marketing the fantastic work they do.
Don’t get me wrong: I absolutely admire the hours dedicated to mastering the music and the instrument. But it would make me so much happier to see the people that most inspire me sharing what they are doing more openly — especially given today’s means.
What do you think?
A few months ago I was approached and asked to give a short talk for a networking event — the theme was along the lines of ‘personal branding’ and ‘taking things into the market’ and was held in Valletta (Malta).
So cool!
I knew there was a lot to say. I had only been into this ‘marketing’ thing for a bit over a year, but was hooked. The next day I sat myself down to write some notes:
- People that had most influenced me with their work (such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss, Elliott Hulse, Seth Godin, Simon Sinek, and others)
- Some of the most important books I came across.
I stared at the names and titles - I had nothing. “What am I really supposed to be talking about? Am I up for this — who am I kidding?”
After a few weeks of insight and some deep breaths, here’s what I came up with…
LIFESTYLE & ATTITUDE
- Humility vs Ego
“One of the most dangerous places to be, is thinking we already know something” — Elliott Hulse
I would dare say that this is the most important mindset because developing your personal brand implies constant self-improvement. To refer to an extreme example in jazz history, legendary pianist Bill Evans spent the majority of his life believing he wasn’t a great pianist — hence, he strove.
This is where a healthy dose of ego will benefit: it is essential to believe in your strengths and have a realistic perception of them.
Humility is the way forward — just keep learning.
2. Cultivating a Passion
Relax, this isn’t going to be a ‘follow your passion’ thing — God knows there are enough of those running around.
I would like to say this however: I believe nobody is born with a passion — that’s bullshit. A passion is cultivated, the initial phases being mere interest in a subject. This develops into a passion when enough time has been invested in learning as much as possible and getting excited enough about wanting to learn more (and possibly bringing your personal touch to it eventually).
3. Meditative Rituals & Morning Routines for Efficiency
Developing and marketing your brand is obviously time-consuming, so one of the most effective ways to remain ahead of the game is efficiency. Meditation can be of immense help, but I believe this can take many forms; spend a hour at the gym (I’d minimise interaction as much as possible), read a book alone in absolute silence, breathe deeply.
I have tried all of these and feel they work well (as for a fixed early morning routine, I’ll have to get back to you about that). The advantage of your workouts being your meditation is that getting in shape will also keep you energised and positive.
4. Risk-Taking
I’m sure you know where I’m going with this — getting comfortable taking risks and failing will put you in a position to seek opportunities where others haven’t. I also believe that it will make you more creative, interpreting things differently and being confident about it.
I might be wrong, but whatever.
IN-PERSON NETWORKING
Once you start sorting out even minor things from your lifestyle and changing your attitude, I feel that networking with new people takes on a whole new dimension. You’re now more relaxed, focused, mentally and physically healthy, and ready to learn from anyone (humility, remember?).
By combining these aspects, your appearance and presence (mainly body language) improve. There are countless videos and books you can read about this subject — I’ll just nudge you towards this gem, and let you find the rest for yourself.
This is essential since, as the title of the post says, you are your brand. How do you move? How do you communicate? What do you say when you speak? Do you listen?
That is your brand.
I’ll keep it simple and just list some of the most important books you can start with:
- ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ — Dale Carnegie (learning how to listen)
- ‘Unstoppable Confidence’ — Kent Sayre (neuro-linguistic programming)
- ‘The Power of Eye Contact’ — Michael Ellsberg
- You can refer to this list for more; I’ll keep adding books as I go along.
A LEADERSHIP ATTITUDE
Considering you are doing all the right things (or most of them) to better your communication and networking skills, it is most probable that others will start to think of you as a ‘leader’ of sorts. The reason being that people perceive certain characteristics in others that make them feel safe.
In fact, author Simon Sinek says that:
“Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting and, most importantly, a way of communicating.”
Notice, that these three aspects sum up all that has been mentioned in this post. Thinking relates to your attitude, acting and communicating relate to how others perceive you in person.
Improving your networking skills has made you more of a leader — in turn, this new attitude will make it easier for you to expand your network and take it to the next level.
Enter Seth Godin…
“Leaders lead when they take positions, when they connect with their tribes, and when they help the tribe connect to itself.”
So, in order to lead, we must find our tribe. This is where tactics of social media marketing come into the picture. There are an unlimited number of ways to do this, and so many applications to choose from.
Certainly, the person that has taught me the most about this over the past months has been Gary Vaynerchuk. Check out his YouTube show Ask Gary Vee, go through his books, watch his keynote speeches — just go nuts, you won’t regret it.
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