The Skyline Strategy
A 2:1 ratio from Identity Positioning: A Macroscopic View on Personal Branding. For every two steps that grow the brand side, take one that grows the personal side.
What The Skyline Strategy Is
Identity Positioning™ splits the phrase in two: the personal side holds who you are, and the brand side holds what you do. A personal brand built only from the brand side reads like a resume and gives strangers no reason to care. The Skyline Strategy keeps both sides rising together.
It rests on a simple observation: all consumed media does four things. It educates, entertains, inspires or motivates, and connects. Content that only ever educates never connects, and a skyline of one building is not a skyline.
For every 2 steps that grow the brand side, take 1 that grows your personal.
Identity Positioning: A Macroscopic View on Personal Branding, included in Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence, Second Edition
How to Apply It
- Sort Your Ideas Into Two ColumnsBrand content and actions: tutorials, client stories, professional lessons. Personal content and actions: your life, your interests, your community.
- Keep the Ratio at Two to OneFor every two pieces from the brand column, publish or do one from the personal column.
- Tag What Each Piece DoesMark each piece as educating, entertaining, inspiring, or connecting, and make sure all four appear over time.
Where It Comes From
- Source
- Identity Positioning: A Macroscopic View on Personal Branding (2024), included in Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence, Second Edition
- Pillar It Serves
- Seamless Branding
- Free Tool
- Skyline Planner (opens in a new tab)
The Full Method Is in the Book
This page is a summary. The subchapter itself goes further, with the reasoning, the stories behind it, and the exercise that closes it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Skyline Strategy?
A 2:1 ratio from the Identity Positioning™ essay: for every two pieces of business or professional content or action, one piece of personal content or action.
Does the Skyline Strategy apply to actions as well as posts?
Yes. It applies to what you do as well as what you publish: speaking, volunteering, and showing up in your community count.
Related
Business Owners and Founders
Your company has a brand. So do you, and the two should grow together. A founder's personal brand opens doors the company cannot open alone.
Executives and C-Suite Leaders
More executives are becoming the public face of their companies. The ones who do it well build a presence before a crisis or a stock price asks them to.
Finance, Credit, and Banking Professionals
In finance, trust is the product. A personal brand is how a client decides to trust you with their money before they have ever met you.
The Art of Storytelling
Sharing stories from your own life is one of the best ways to build rapport. People who only hear about your profession only stay for what they can get.
Seamless Branding
There should be no doubt who you are when someone introduces you, on or offline, and no question that you are the right person to follow.
The 4 Laws of Personal Branding
Chapter 2 of the Manifesto sets out four laws that build in order. Without familiarity there is no connection; without fame and influence, a personal brand has little reach or weight.
Your name is already being interpreted. The question is who are they, and what are they thinking?
Engagements are accepted by application and seats are limited each quarter. Tell us who you are, what you are building, and the position you intend to hold.