Ezra’s posterous

There are haters out there who claim that there is no such thing as personal branding.
I partially agree with them.

One inherent problem in language is that we only have a limited amount of it, and when we recognize something in the world we attempt to compare it to something else that we do know.
Like "Coffee Talk with Linda Richman" would posit, Personal Branding is neither personal nor branding. Anyone who does it will tell you that its not just for personal, it's also about business.And traditional branding is choosing one positive message, and focusing the brand about that.

As much as the current presidential elections will disagree, people are more complex than one message.

In my estimation, Personal Branding is being cognizant of every single action you do.

When you get dressed in the morning (or afternoon or night), you think "Will this help me achieve what I want to achieve today?"
Clothing makes you memorable. Someone recently told me that he noticed that at times when I am wearing a suit and tie, he can see me wearing flip flops. Personally, I try to include one or two 'what is he doing' or 'made you look' articles in every outfit (or ensemble or "everything I wear"). It could be sunglasses at night, a vest that is a vestige from an earlier time, a tie with a polo shirt, anything.
But It does not have to be weird. My grandfather has a massive tie collection of hundreds of ties. You could see one on the street from a mile away, and say that that is a "Donald" tie. My grandfather had the reputation of being 'Dapper Don'. The funniest compliment I received this week was when @aaswartz said something about that 'nice sunglass man'.
People pay more attention to this than you make think. The one night that I did not completely follow my own advice, someone chided me for dressing too plain. (Not in those words, but...)

When you choose a place to eat, you think "How will this help me strengthen my relationships?"
Tonight I went to the same sushi establishment for the third time this week, and for probably the 40th or 50th time this year. The entire staff knows me, the manager stops me on the street and asks how I am doing. The bartenders know me by name. When earlier this week, I needed a table with a line around the corner, the manager had me seated within 4 minutes. I eat a lot of sushi, as I only eat gluten-free, and I made a decision to travel a little further to eat in this one place.
Many of my friends know that I frequent this place, and therefore many text me before going there. As luck would have it, I received such a text as I was eating there tonight. I turned to the bartender, and asked her to give my group of friends aperitifs on me. They received their drinks, I received the same, and my bill reflected none of this. My dinner companion looked at me shocked, like 'what just happened?'
With that one action, I extended my reputation with the friends, as well as with the establishment, without really doing much.
You can replace the word "eat" with just about anything. Choose the places you frequent carefully, they say a lot about you, and about who you will meet there.

When you are about to do something online, you think "What does this say about me?"
This works in both the micro- and the macro-sense.
Micro-sense: before you tweet something, post something to your FB profile, or on your blog, put on your google goggles, and think "what does this say about me?"
I have disabled most actions I perform on facebook from being published on my feed for this reason. Twice in the past week, I saw two tweeple leave their online persona, and only in those two instances they made the right decision, because it strengthened what I thought about them. (They both usually do extremely sardonic humor, and both were cases about people in trouble/pain. One was @nick.)
People read your blog either because you are extremely witty, insightful, inciteful, or because they are your family member. In the last case, they only continue because of one of the first three reasons.

Macro-sense: What sort of projects are you working on - and what do they say about you. As I am a Gemini and everything that entails, I always try to show two sides of me. Two upcoming sites that I am either creating or working on are (respectively) on Hedonism and Gratitude. In my mind, that speaks greater volumes than if I were creating sites for Button Collecting and String Beans.The latter may actually be more financially viable (who knows with SEO these days), but with the former I can then extend both of those sub-brands into really interesting directions (already on the table..).

You never know.
My mother's mantra. Of course she says it about dating, but I extend it to everything besides dating. I'm a rebel.
The line between business and personal is fading. You don't know where that next connection is going to come from. This is the culmination of every other part that preceded this. Old time networking occured on the links, modern networking knows no borders. I have made successful personal connections from business contacts and vice versa. You never know what will cause that spark to kindle. Apparently, I made certain business contacts by asking people to jump into a pool with me. Or perhaps, in spite of asking the individuals. :)

Is this branding? I don't know.

But if you think about what you are doing, you will probably get closer to your goal, than just running into something willy-nilly.

The first step, as was inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi must be Gnothi Seauton, or Know Thyself.

Once you do that, you can start "staying on message" by looking at every single action you do, and asking "WWID" (what would I do?). (Tattoo that on the inside of your wrist).

Praying to the gods probably can help as well.

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