Unless You Are An NBA Star Protect Your Personal Brand

Although I'm not a huge NBA fan, like many other Ohioans, I found myself following the Lebron James "Decision" (it was either that or watch the World Cup, child please).  Throughout the process I was fascinated with the deterioration of the "personal brand" that he had spend the past 10 or so years building.  By the time he finally announced I found myself thinking...what an A-hole.  Was this bad advice or bad branding?  As time pasted I started thinking that this could have been a calculated effort to shift his personal brand to appeal to a different demographic.  I think in Lebron's case he is just an A-hole but I think there is a lesson here.  Most of us won't get paid millions of dollars regardless of how people see us so it is important that your personal brand be managed not just allowed to flow with the current.

Honestly your brand is not how you see yourself it is how others see you.  You can attempt to influence but you can't control perceptions of others.  This is why managing your personal brand is important.  Now more than every there is a tremendous amount of information floating around the internet about you.  This information might be old or even incorrect but there may be people using that information and building an opinion about you.  You can go in after the fact and take down those Facebook pics of you and your friends in Mexico but are they really gone or have they sunk your chances of getting that dream job?

As you move along your life think about what you are all about.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  Knowing this will allow you to prep the steps you want to take in your life.  If you really want to build a personal brand decide how you can best position yourself relating to reaching your goals. Remember there is more than one way to get to the same destination.   As you build your brand don't create something that you are not.  You should take advice, read, plan but choose a path that will allow you to be yourself.  You might get away with playing a character for awhile but you'll be much more comfortable being genuine. 

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