Identity precedes image. How the firm defines the position a person intends to hold before anything is built on it, and how that position is measured.
Most of this field sells tactics. MCG begins every engagement with a position: who the person intends to be, what they want from it, and how far it should reach. This guide gathers the methods the firm uses to set that position and to measure it, across the Wiki, the lessons, and the tips.
The Manifesto calls them the 4 Pillar Questions. They exist to give a person clarity before they spend money or time, because a strategy built on an unclear answer to the first question rarely survives the first hard month.
The second question has a companion that is easy to skip: what do you not want to be known for? Knowing the opposite tells you what to avoid.
Define who you want to be, understand your desired outcomes, and reverse engineer the steps to get there.
Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence, Second Edition, 1.7
The questions come first because each answer depends on the one before it. The Five Personal Brand Pillars then measure how good a position is, and The Hierarchy of Personal Branding measures how large it is. The full entry: The 4 Pillar Questions.
Four questions MCG asks every client before any strategy, in this order, because each answer depends on the one before it.
How MCG measures the quality of a personal brand. Five pillars, always in this order, weighted into one composite out of 100.
Six tiers that measure how far a personal brand reaches. Everyone starts at the bottom, and each tier above asks for more effort, time, and resources than the one before it.
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.
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.
How you would describe yourself in less than a minute. The Manifesto's version is not a sales pitch; it sells you as someone to get to know or follow.
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.
A coach's personal brand is the proof of the method. People hire the coach whose life and results already show what they are selling.
A large audience is fame. Whether it buys, believes, or follows you to a new platform is influence, and that is the part a creator has to build on purpose.
Performance earns attention. A personal brand decides whether that attention is still yours when the season, the contract, or the playing career ends.
The work is the art. The personal brand is why people wait for the next release, share it when it arrives, and still know your name in between.
A degree and a résumé say what you have done. A personal brand tells the people who hire what you are working to become, and lets them find you first.
A teacher already shapes how hundreds of students think. A personal brand carries that reach past one classroom, to other teachers and to everyone who wants to learn the subject.
A cause needs a face people trust. A personal brand is how the leader earns that trust, and then points the attention at the mission instead of at themselves.
A show is an extension of its host. The host is the reason listeners come back, guests say yes, and the next show starts with an audience.
Each defined once in Personal Branding Terms and Doctrine.
From the Personal Branding Tips, one practical move a day. Every Identity tip is on the tips page.
Advice Isaac Mashman has given on this subject on his own shows and in interviews, as the Doctrine Library cites it, each linked to its transcript. His own guide to the subject, with his strongest explanation and more interviews, is on isaacmashman.com: Isaac Mashman's guide to personal branding advice (opens in a new tab).
Make sure your bio says who you are, what you do, where you are, and why you do it.
Read the transcript ↗ (opens in a new tab)“i like to cover the who, what, where and why”
DoubleB Creates Podcast, “Creating An Unrivaled Personal Brand With Isaac Mashman”, December 21, 2020
Check that a stranger could tell, within a minute of meeting you or finding you, what you do and which industry you are in. Fix whatever is missing.
Read the transcript ↗ (opens in a new tab)“if i don't know you, i can't flow you”
Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, “The Fundamentals of Personal Branding”, August 19, 2020
As you approach a goal, write the next one. Keep your sights on the level above where you physically are.
Read the transcript ↗ (opens in a new tab)“we should always be aiming higher”
Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, “The #1 Threat to Your Success”, June 22, 2020
As told in the Manifesto and on this site.
The first of the Personal Branding Tips asks for one sentence: why you are building a personal brand, whether vanity, mission, money, or a mix. The answer tells you when the strategy needs to change.
Tip 1: Write Your Why in One LineThe Skyline Strategy keeps both sides of a personal brand rising: for every two steps that grow the brand side, take one that grows the personal side.
The Skyline StrategyEveryone starts at the bottom of The Hierarchy of Personal Branding, and each tier above asks for more effort, time, and resources than the one before it.
The Hierarchy of Personal BrandingThe Bespoke Personal Brand Consultation and Strategy, virtual or in person.
How Consultations WorkFree. It scores all five pillars and places you on the Hierarchy.
Take the Brand Audit (opens in a new tab)Engagements are accepted by application. The firm reviews every one.
Request a ConsultationThe Leaning Tower, leverage, controversy, crises, endorsements, and a record of wins that speaks for you.
Visibility and edification, distribution, omnipresence, and the executives, authors, and builders it matters to most.
The FORM questions, introductions that skip the line, The Power of 3, and a contact list that solves problems.
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.
Consultations are virtual or in person. See what each includes, and what is asked of you: Virtual or In Person.
