What Is Your Digital Legacy?

Considering the Brand You Leave Your Kids

As a business person, I feel very lucky to be alive in a time when we really do have unique opportunities when it comes to starting businesses. For less investment than ever, we can create a company, a brand and a tribe. The internet (and explosion of social media tools) have allowed us to reach thousands of people without huge media buys.

That is so good.

When it comes to young and old people looking for work, I often caution them about what personal brand you are building. It is truly remarkable to me that a huge percentage of people that can’t find work don’t examine what they post on social. So many times their social profile (which every smart business person checks) makes them un-hireable. I am not a moralist, but come one. You will be representing my brand.

The other side of that is you have the ability (if you are smart) to craft a great brand for yourself (and yes still be fun) if you think about it. So you can do more to make yourself stand out (both good and bad) than ever before.

All of this got me thinking as I was taking a trip with my daughters recently. When I am gone, what will be my online legacy? What pictures will they find of me? Videos? Will I make them proud?

That was a bit of an “ah ha” moment for me. I have always been focused on personal brand. That is important to me. But nothing is more important to me than the opinion (long term) of my daughters. So I want to make sure I am leaving them a legacy to be proud of…and maybe some lessons along the way.

The best part is, if I consider them…then my personal brand will take care of itself.