What a Personal Brand Pays You Back.
The first question the firm asks every client is why. Vanity, mission, or money: most people are driven by one, some by all three. Each one returns something real: more revenue, a wider vision, and the feeling of being known for who you are. This page shows how, with examples from Personal Branding: A Manifesto on Fame and Influence.
The Asset Is You.
Asked to sum up personal branding in one word, Isaac answers: you. Who you are, what people know you for, and the distinct combination of traits that only you possess. That is why the return compounds: it is attached to the one asset that goes everywhere you go.
- Experiences
- Hobbies
- Interests
- Passions
- Fears
- Successes
- Failures
- Reputation
It Works While You Sleep.
Imagine a personal promoter tagging along with you around the clock. You could be asleep in your own bed, and people would still be contacting you because of who you are. That promoter is your personal brand.
Obscurity is the enemy of success. The more attention you have, the more comfortably you can turn it into a return, and a promoter that never clocks out is the cheapest one you will ever have. Many of today's marketing channels are free to use: in sixty seconds a phone can put a message in front of nearly all of the developed world.
Personal Branding 101 and chapters 1.7 and 8.5 of the Manifesto.
Attention Alone Does Not Pay.
Fame is the result of accumulated attention. Influence is trust: the ability to get someone to take action or change the way they think. The return lives where the two meet. Fame without influence is like fuel and oxygen without heat. A fire needs all three to burn.
An influencer with millions of followers launched her own business and could not sell more than a couple dozen pieces of apparel. Fame and attention, without influence. That is the gap the work closes.
Personal Branding 101 and chapters 1.4 to 1.6 of the Manifesto. For the full definition, read What Is Personal Branding; for the method, Fame and Influence in the Wiki.
The Same Hour, Priced by Reputation.
The consultant starting out might only be able to charge $100 per consultation. As their reputation grows and their personal brand scales, they can eventually charge as much as, or even more than, $10,000 for an hour of their time, because they now carry a track record of results.
From the essay Identity Positioning: A Macroscopic View on Personal Branding, in the Second Edition of the Manifesto. An illustration of the range, not a promise of a fee.
Revenue, Vision, and How It Feels.
None of the three outranks the others. A person may be driven by one, a combination, or all three, and the mix can change over time without undermining the brand. Here is what each one pays back, in the book's own examples.
It Increases Revenue
Driven by money
- Higher rates. The consultant who charges more because of their name, and the lawyer who attracts weighty accounts because they are mentioned in exclusive circles.
- New income streams. Awareness driven to a business, sponsorships and affiliates, and being paid to speak on stage.
- Better deals. The young investor whose personal brand gets them into rooms with decision makers.
- Bigger endorsements. The influencer who lands larger partnerships, and the author or entertainer who earns a place on major promotional outlets.
- Promotions and contracts. Employees and intrapreneurs whose public image opens the door to promotion, and the college athlete scouted for a multimillion-dollar contract.
- A company built on a name. The small business owner who becomes a public figure and subject matter expert. Given two companies, people buy from the one whose owner they know.
It Expands Your Vision
Driven by mission
- A platform for what you care about. A widely known name gives you the overhead to spread awareness and spark and progress movements, doing good at low cost and high efficiency.
- Causes at scale. Richard Branson's initiatives on climate change, a clean environment, and support for students, and Bill Gates's dedication to eradicating disease.
- Pain into purpose. The public speaker who was a victim of abuse and turned it into their greatest power.
- Reach beyond a room. The mission-oriented teacher who inspires legions of new teachers, and charity leaders whose stories attract more donations.
- A village, changed. Whang-od of Buscalan, Philippines, a tattoo artist past a hundred years old, single-handedly created a market for tourism for her village and saved the Kalinga style of tattooing from extinction.
- A legacy. The halls and institutions named after Carnegie and Rockefeller, and achievements still attributed to Steve Jobs years later.
It Makes You Feel Good
Driven by vanity, and by being known
- Recognition. People like being recognized and known. Being famous makes you feel good, and the book treats that as a legitimate, ingrained human motive rather than something to be ashamed of.
- Validation. The singer met by a stadium full of people shouting their name and singing their songs.
- Proof. Proving others wrong while proving yourself right is one of the most primal feelings there is.
- Confidence. Confidence is a symptom of action. Building a name in public is action, repeated until the fear of the stage or the camera loses its grip.
- Better relationships. A healthy relationship with yourself carries into your partnerships, which are born of intent rather than desperation, and long-term relationships end up more fulfilling.
- From nobody to somebody. The quiet satisfaction of a name that now carries weight where it once carried none.
Know Your Reason.
Then Measure It.
Most of the time, people are held back because they do not know why they are building a personal brand, or they do not know where to start. Knowing which reason drives you is where the work begins. The Brand Audit shows where your brand stands today, and an engagement with MCG returns time saved, money saved, and face saved. See how a consultation works.
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.