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Wrote a little bit about this back in July 2014 (throwback): if you actively worry about and cultivate your personal brand, doesn’t that mean you’re inherently less authentic? I would argue yes. One of the major modern examples, at least to me, is women who want makeup and lighting to be perfect for their first IG photo with a new baby. That’s definitely personal brand, but is it authentic, considering she was just screaming and pushing and the baby looked blue when it came out? Right. So there’s one side and there’s another side, and in that example, they don’t often meet up in the middle.
I think we increasingly see this with the Woke Revolution of the last 3–5 years too. There are people who go online and tweet/post/Stories about “lifting up all voices” and “listening” and “trying harder” and “standing together” and all that … and it’s good for their personal brand, in that people might notice them, respond to them, and give them influential or paid opportunities, i.e. speaking/panels (when events return) or work projects. So they’ve cultivated a personal brand around justice and general wokeness … but … are they doing the work?
Because I could argue, and probably quite successfully, that some guy/gal sitting at Proctor and Gamble working on a diversity plan and trying to get executive sponsorship … well, that person may not have the time to tweet about “standing together,”…
