The Secret to Becoming an Industry Rock Star
by Timothy P. O'Brien, Esq., Speaker, Coach, Trainer-The Personal Branding Group
Make no mistake—a great personal brand beats great talent every time. Purists hate to hear this, but it’s true. Think about the most high-profile people in your profession. Are they typically heralded for their scholarship? In most cases what these stars are known for is their individual identities. Their names are synonymous with a particular practice area. So, what’s the secret? How did these titans become rock stars in the world of business? The answer is: A superstar emerges when solid talent is wedded with a great personal brand.
The Key Word or Phrase
Building a great personal brand begins with deciding what you want to be known for and then packaging that something into a word or phrase you’d like others to think of when they think of you. That something could be a particular skill (e.g., cross-examiner), a personality trait (e.g., honesty) or an aspect of your background (e.g., Jewish). The key is to be authentic. Whatever it is that you would like to build your personal brand upon, it must be a true reflection of the real you. And keep in mind, not everyone can be a leading man or woman; some of us must play the character parts.
When selecting the word or phrase, it’s okay to be catchy—but never, ever be cheesy. For example, Jerry West was amazing under pressure. He came to be known as “Mr. Clutch.” Marilyn Monroe was sexy. Laura Bush is a classy lady.
Building a Great Personal Brand
Picking your personal brand is easy. Building a great one is hard. A great personal brand is built one brick at a time, and you CANNOT skip steps.
Think Strategically
The first step is to think strategically. Find a way to associate yourself with a high-profile platform. It can be an innovative strategy, an industry association, a political issue or candidate relevant to your industry. Whatever path you choose, your objective is to select the platform that maximizes the opportunity of exposure for you and the personal brand you’ve chosen.
For instance, I know of one prominent financial planner in Los Angeles whose skills are average at best and yet his name recognition and reputation are right up there with the majors in his field. Why? Because he has a knack for attaching himself to the right rising political stars or to the latest hot issue. Is this fair? Who knows. But what I do know is he picks his clients and names his price.
Be Intentional
The second step is to be intentional. You must intentionally practice the behaviors that build powerful personal brand equity. Personal brand equity is the positive emotional feelings others experience when they think of you (a.k.a. goodwill). Goodwill can only be built over time by practicing good deeds. Think Mitzvah. Know that everything you do or say, as well as the people with whom you associate, will directly impact the quality of your personal brand equity.
There are literally thousands of actions you can take to positively reinforce your personal brand. I have broken these down into three broad categories: Brandits™, Brandication™ and Brandworking™.
Practice Good Brandits™
Brandits are the habits we consistently practice to positively reinforce our personal brands. You need to think in terms of character traits. How would you like others to describe you? Courageous? Principled? Interesting? Once you’ve selected your trait, wed it to a habit.
For example, suppose the word you want others to think of when they think of you is smart. A big personal branding issue for me is personal appearance. I am forever hounding my clients to dress in a style that reinforces their personal brand. Creating a compelling personal appearance is the quickest way to start building powerful personal brand equity. The reason is that expectations create reality. If people expect you to be smart because you look smart, then you will be smarter in their eyes. How many times have you been at a cocktail party and, because of someone’s sharp appearance (whom you’ve never met), you automatically assumed this person must be somebody special? The net effect of this expectation was you probably either gravitated toward that person or treated him or her differently from the rest of the crowd.
Effective Brandication™
Brandication is the act of using communication artfully to build powerful personal brand equity. Think of the deference others show great communicators. We’ve witnessed their power in the form of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. But being a great communicator is so much more than being a great public speaker.
The best communicators have the extraordinary ability to instantly develop rapport with other human beings. The two keys to building great rapport are mastering the arts of: (1) asking good questions and (2) actively listening. Both of these skills are swiftly becoming endangered species in the cold world of electronic efficiency. If you want to start a buzz about yourself, get curious about others.
A second Brandication tool is the ability to be open, honest and direct with people. Being open, honest and direct takes guts, which sadly seems to be a rare commodity these days. Political correctness and fear of being branded as judgmental have made us gun-shy about speaking our minds truthfully. Therefore, the person who is unafraid to step up to the microphone and say what others wish they had the courage to say shines above all the rest.
A third Brandication tool is what I call “perceptual agility.” Agility implies flexibility and nimbleness. The best communicators have the rare capacity to quickly size up conflicts from every stakeholder’s point of view and arrive at an amicable compromise where everyone wins—or at least feels he or she does.
Practice Smart Brandworking™
By now you should have this theme figured out—Brandworking is networking in a manner that builds powerful personal brand equity. Mark Twain once said, “You can judge a man by the books he reads and the company he keeps.” The same principle holds true for personal branding. We all have a tendency to judge others by the caliber of the company they keep, the parties they are invited to and the people who seek out their advice. Remember, expectations create reality. “Gosh, if she thinks he’s great, he must be.”
The principle focus of your Brandworking efforts should be to seek out people who are better than you and who can pull you up. This is hard for many people because it requires that they subordinate their egos to others. By “better” I do not mean better as a human being. Rather, they are just a little farther down the road in a specific area than you are. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, “Does this person have access, knowledge or resources I lack?” If so, make a connection.
I caution you against climbing strictly for status. This is typically referred to as commoditizing people for your immediate needs and then moving on once those needs have been met. If you do this, I guarantee you, you will kill your personal brand.
Conclusion
I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a fellow summer associate at a New York law firm in 1988. We were talking about our childhoods and I asked him, “Where did you grow up?” to which he replied, “Park Avenue.” I, who was from New Jersey, responded, “Wow. You know you’ve made it when you get to Park Avenue.” Smirking, he said, “Heck, anyone can get to Park Avenue. You know you’ve made it when you can stay there.” How true.
And so it is with personal branding. Almost anybody can draw attention once. The trick is to make it stick permanently. The best way to do this is to select an authentic personal brand and then work tenaciously to build personal brand equity until others find you irresistible. Only then can you hope to become a true industry rock star.
Copyright Timothy P. O’Brien, Esq.. All rights reserved. Timothy P. O’Brien, The Personal Branding Group, teaches professionals how to position themselves as “The Person to See”™ in their business by helping them create compelling personal brands and marketing those brands better than their competition. For more about Tim, visit The Personal Branding Group.