A strong clinical reputation earns trust from patients who find you. A personal brand decides how many of them ever do.
The Manifesto's surgeon example is exact: a pristine reputation and assumed authority do not translate into exposure on their own. A doctor who contributes to journals, co-authors studies, appears in the media, or writes a book can go from anybody's doctor to the sought-after surgeon or the researcher donors support.
Healthcare also carries the strictest obligations of any profession here. Patient privacy and evidence come before every post, and the personal brand has to be built inside those lines.
A doctor may have a pristine reputation as a surgeon and be granted assumed authority, but alone their reputation doesn’t necessarily translate to massive exposure.
Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence, Second Edition, chapter 5
Most clinicians are known to their patients and colleagues. The Local Hero is the right target for a community practice; The State Representative is within reach for specialists who publish and speak.
Where most stand: Tier 2, Friends and FamilyBuild toward: Tier 4, The State Representative
The tier measures how large a position is. How good it is, is measured by The Five Personal Brand Pillars. Read more about the six tiers.
The moves MCG starts with for healthcare and medical professionals, grouped by pillar, in order. Each one cites the subchapter of Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence it comes from.
Advice Isaac Mashman has given on his own shows and in interviews that applies to healthcare and medical professionals, from the same library MCG consultants work from. Each one keeps the words he said it in, and links to the transcript where there is one.
Alongside your customers, create content for the people who want to get into your field themselves. Offer them teaching or consulting as a second line of revenue.
“that's how you can also monetize your personal brand”
Unrivaled Results with Mashman Ventures, “UNRIVALED: Personal Branding Training”, April 13, 2022
If your public presence is only a list of what you offer, build a name of your own around it: your story, your views, your face, on more than one platform.
Read the transcript ↗ (opens in a new tab)“they don't have a brand for themselves”
Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, “We’re All Playing Too Small”, July 31, 2020
Collect your accolades, results, and recognitions in one place and feature the best of them where people first find you.
Read the transcript ↗ (opens in a new tab)“shine that spotlight on the individual”
Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, “What Is Public Relations”, April 18, 2022
Before any decision with lasting public consequences, ask whether you are willing to carry it for the rest of your career. Some marks on a reputation do not wash out.
Read the transcript ↗ (opens in a new tab)“it follows you for the rest of your life”
Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, “The Fundamentals of Personal Branding”, August 19, 2020
All consumed media educates, entertains, inspires, or connects. The Skyline Strategy asks for two pieces about your work for every one about your life. Here is one of each, for each purpose.
| Purpose | Brand Post | Personal Post |
|---|---|---|
| EducateTeach something useful. | A health myth corrected with evidence. | How you look after yourself on long shifts. |
| EntertainMake it enjoyable to follow you. | The question patients ask that always makes you smile. | Your life outside the clinic. |
| InspireShow what is possible. | A recovery story, with consent and no identifying details. | Why you chose medicine. |
| ConnectGive people a reason to reply. | Answer a common question from the community. | Ask what would make appointments less stressful. |
Draw a Week
Two posts about your work, one about your life, drawn from the ideas above.
Plan the ratio with the free Skyline Planner (opens in a new tab).
Never share identifiable patient information, and get written consent for any story.
Check every public claim against the evidence and cite your sources.
Use one consistent photo and bio across hospital, practice, and personal profiles.
Twenty-five questions, about seven minutes, free. Choose Healthcare / Medical Professional on the intake and the audit scores all five pillars, places you on The Hierarchy of Personal Branding, and returns the three moves that would raise your score most, each traced to the subchapter it comes from.
Every doctor already has a personal brand; patients and peers form an impression regardless. Building it is the choice, and the answer is yes. Publishing, speaking, and patient education are how a clinician becomes the one patients and peers seek out.
Accurate, evidence-based education on the questions patients ask most, why you chose medicine, and life outside the clinic, never identifiable patient details.
Ask satisfied patients within your professional rules, and never trade anything for a review.
Clients hire a lawyer, not a letterhead. The attorneys whose names are mentioned in the right circles are the ones who built a personal brand on purpose.
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.
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.
Follower counts only get you so far. What matters more is how much the people who follow you trust you.
To be a public figure is to be watched. As your efforts pay off, the people who hold leverage over you, and what they could do with it, matter more.
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.
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.
