Personal Branding Without Being a Douche
jasonshen.com
jasonshen.com
But I still have an issue with the notion of my character and reputation being tied to the language of 'brand'. I think it cedes too much ground to the encroachment of marketing into some of the essential parts of human interaction, reducing what we present and edit of ourselves to mere marketing.
Contrast with _why. Here's a guy who clearly edited himself in a radical way, created a persona, built a following, but it would be hard for me to see _why as a 'brand', because the content of his persona was focused on creativity and his contributions to the community, not his marketability.
I totally get that we're all always editing ourselves to present a certain point of view of who we are, from the profile pics we use on Twitter/FB/LinkedIn, to the style we use in our tweets, speeches, presentations, etc. -- it's impossible to eliminate that from our interactions publicly and online.
But do we have to concede that much ground to the business side of things that we call it "branding"? I hope we have different ways of tying our public selves to a kind of integrity that goes beyond the ethics of commerce, to something deeper.
Commerce is such a powerful force in our everyday lives anyway, can we find a broader language to describe this process than something that tends to reduce us to products?
...oops
I used the word "personal branding" mostly because it is the established term that covers what I'm talking about. But I agree with your point in that it sort of turns people into products.
I guess a larger point I should have made in the blog post and that I did in the talk is this:
Your name has a meaning to people, even if you choose to not think about it. Recognizing that what people think / feel when considering "you" is something I want to encourage. Shaping your reputation/brand/name into something positive and making it a useful tool for achieving your goals is, IMO, a worthwhile endeavor.
But the idea of 'Public Rhetoric' has been around far longer, and that's what we're really talking about -- the connection between what I present in public speech or other forum, to a truth about myself -- the 'ethos' of rhetoric.
It's an ancient problem, and the concern I have with propagating the language of 'branding' is that it pulls it too close to the ethics of Mad Men for my taste. There are other ways to, ahem, spin this I think.
The intent of our public rhetoric should be more than just commerce or marketability, as you demonstrate with the charity you started at Stanford.
But I see a problem with the language of 'branding' so close to the idea of 'charity.' It raises a question of ethos -- why are you doing this? For self-promotion or for some other human good?
Of course this has always been a problem, and language can always be used to obscure our true motives. But declaring something as 'branding' outright seems to me to subtly give too much license to our more selfish intents. I'd rather we still talk about Speech or Rhetoric or Reputation than Branding, if for no other reason than it at least creates some distance between commerce and altruism.
And now I've taken this conversation into Aristotelian waters way outside my pay grade...
It's great to have a discussion about this. I think the concern that people have with businesses is that profit is a rather cold motive. We wonder if at the core of every corporation is an empty vessel, an icy void, a dispassionate pursuit of the bigger bottom line.
As I mentioned in the post, I think the best brands (and businesses) have a mission that is higher than profit. Of course, some might dispute that claim as simply another cold-hearted way to make a buck, but from what we know about Steve Jobs, it seems that he really saw Apple as a vehicle for delivering insanely great products to the world.
And that's why their advertising and marketing resonates so much with us.
I think of it like this: brand -> reputation -> character -> legacy. You've got to work backward from what you want your legacy to be. The usefulness of calling "branding" is that we can use other words/tools/strategies from business and marketing in an analogous way.
Business can be more than "just commerce" in my opinion. But yes, we have to watch our words because they suggest our intent. Would love to hear more about your thoughts on this.
Jason
But language tends to go the way of our cultural stories, and the question here is, which narrative about business is dominant -- the narrative of disconnected douchey 1-percenters or the more benevolent narrative put out there by companies like American Apparel?
Unfortunately, it would seem that the former is what our society tends to associate with 'business' and 'branding', and companies like American Apparel (assuming you, er, buy into their whole story of championing local industry) haven't turned that tide. Maybe someday. For now, imo, Mad Men still rule the day.
However, I think someone like Sachin Agarwal would benefit from reading this and taking it to heart. Sachin's recent post, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3218607, came off as douchey. What I took from that post is that Sachin used his self-proclaimed fanboy relationship with Apple for gain. The tone of the post was slightly cocky and speciously reverent.
Branding is important and it's increasingly difficult to avoid it as our lives become more public through technology. Consciously putting effort into presenting yourself in a good light isn't something that's automatic; it requires practice. If you put too much effort into it, then you might come off as a sleazy used car salesman. Focus on what you do and how you do it and the branding will emerge effortlessly and naturally. You won't be a product that way; you'll be a process (or a platform, as Jason puts it).
It's typically not my style to call out specific individuals and make examples of them. Sachin's post didn't make an explicit reference to his persona, but I thought it was useful for the discussion. Both Zach and Sachin have appeared on the front page several times. I think they can handle the criticism - positive or negative.
Here's a good site to get started:
http://www.magnificentbastard.com/
Lots of good advice, I agree with most of it. A more important step is to head to a high-end clothing store, the type that sticks a salesperson on everyone who walks through the door. Yes, the clothing is expensive, but in conjunction with the professional advice it is very much worth it.
"Anytime you hear someone say 'Personal Branding' it means 'I'm going to lie to you and steal all your money'"
I thought it was pretty spot on based on my experiences with all the people that are so gung-ho about the buzzwords. :)
sebastianmarshall.com
Then again, I did think of it, so maybe they're doing something right.
Edit: apologies, the author of this article and the referenced are one in the same, according to the author. My mistake!
Some of his experiments may be considered silly by some people, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he is working on becoming the best version of himself he can be - an admirable mission everyone should strive to have, but few unfortunately do.
I don't know Jason, but he seems like a really cool guy with a lot of drive, dreams and ambition.
Promoting pectoral-shortening exercises among an audience of people who a) largely do not understand how to exercise their bodies in a balanced way and b) spend most of their days hunched or slouching in front of a computer, is not self-improvement. It's sophomoric bragging, and it's irresponsible.
How can I put this? Everything he uses to self-promote seems like he set a goal which sounds impressive (e.g. "100 pushups"), but actually requires a fairly short period of commitment to achieve. It's as if he's molding his entire life for SEO, blog hits, and self-promotion, rather than achievement and improvement. To me, that's douchey.
I wrote about my personal experience with cold showers and how I feel they have improved my life. This is an experiment with an N of 1. Most notably:
"It also helps me temper my emotional responses to things. I no longer have the panicky feeling that a ton cold water on your skin gives you for more than a few seconds when I take my cold showers – I’ve trained myself to calm down and overcome this natural response. And I’ve noticed this ability to temper my response overlap into other areas of my life"
If you haven't tried taking cold showers regularly you might be surprised by the results.
I never posted the 100 pushups article on HN so I'm not sure what you mean about being irresponsibly promoting pushups.
I agree that the 100 pushups requires a relatively short period of commitment. Yet it seems impressive. Which is why in my post I wrote:
"It turns out, with about 4-6 weeks of pushup training 3x a week (~10 mins per session), you can do build your capacity to do something rather difficult: 100 pushups in a row."
The point of that post was not to show off how awesome I am, but to encourage people to go after goals that seem difficult because with consistent effort, large goals can be conquered.
I find it unfortunate that my life comes across to you as molded for SEO and blog hits as that is not my intention. As I state in this post and in my about section, I write to provide resources to help others.
In all honesty, this is the only post of yours I've ever read. I might dig in further and decide that I think you really are a douche. I don't know. But so far I like your style. Especially how you handle all the negativity.
Friendly advice: folks might be more inclined to take your advice and your "brand" as something actually post-adolescent if your public face to the world consisted of choices of words other than your odd, repeated use of variants of the word "douche" in your writing and in the headline you self-posted here on HN....not amusing and actually offensive to many women and men.
I think most people are familiar with the term "douche" or "douchebag" and that it's usage is similar to "bastard" -- very far removed from the original meaning. I certainly don't mean to offend anyone but like I mention with the case study of Amit - it's pretty much impossible to please everyone.
Doesn't mean that people won't be offended by it still, but an interesting way to think about it.