The future of branding your product is personal branding

Beginning with my book KNOWN, I’ve been a relentless advocate for the critical importance of personal branding. Although there are still some skeptics, it’s hard to believe that there is even a debate about this issue any more.

Not only is personal branding crucial for an individual’s long-term success, increasingly it is going to determine whether your company succeeds in this world. I’ll make my case for that today.

You must be known

I recently read an excellent summary of the business case for the personal brand by the talented young writer Nicholas Cole. He wrote:

If you don’t have a personal brand online, people aren’t going to work with you.

Do you know how every single conversation I have with people in business goes? Like this.

“Hey Cole, yeah so I was looking you up online. Really impressive stuff.

Actually, I was reading one of your articles, which got me thinking…”.

Every single time. Without fail.

We are in a transition period in business.

When you meet with someone, what do you do beforehand? You look them up online. What do you do after that coffee meeting? You look them up online.