My Quick and Dirty Secret of Personal Branding

K. So... I just spent $1997 on The Quick and Dirty Guide to Personal Branding, and another $497 on The Dirty Guide to Becoming a Quick Branding Personality. Please don't tell me these were wasted purchases? (Although, to be fair, I did get a month's free subscription to The Brander's Quick Guide to Getting Personally Dirty - that counts, yes?). In other news - couldn't agree more, mate. :)

Love this. I bet you got quite a few views from people who legitimately thought they were about to experience the ultimate, super-secret way to better your personal branding!

Hey Jay, This post made me smile. This post reminds me of the people who are trying to find the 'get rich quick' schemes like the ones that guarantee 20 million dollars in 5 hours...sorry to say, they don't exist! Patience is key to anything and everything that is going to be great. You've just got yourself a new reader. :) Cheers!

So true. I imagine it would be hard to build personal brand without actually living it. If you think you're in a year going to be the fashion guru of the internet, you really need to be into fashion and live in the world of fashion. My experience also is, that often the people who are the real gurus of something didn't actually try to be one, but were genuinly interested on thing they are doing.

Not fair...I was hoping for a quick and dirty instead you give me a long and clean version....censored at that...whatevs

I've seen some people literally explode onto the scene by having an outstanding attitude with something important to say. But for the average person, as it has been stated, it takes time, paying your dues and making connections before you succeed in building a "personal brand".

"Start taking steps every day to become that person. That’s how you build your personal brand." This is, in essence, one of the core messages I want to give on my Microtransactions talk at Ignite. Like 12 steps, 30 days clean and serene... little steps can make a big impact. It's a fairly 'common sense' idea that motivational speakers, program management trainers, and talk show hosts tell us, but it works. Look a year ahead, find out the tremendous 'Value' (capital V!) you'll gain, but earn it in tiny little transactions of time and effort. The disparity between what you get and what you give makes it easier to go forth and conquer.

All I can say is, nicely done. You're right, and putting shit into it, even temporarily, quickly results in shit. As to where putting dedication to it shows results far slower... but gratifying. After all, why waste *any* time putting effort in if you put only a quarter of yourself in and won't ever get results (other than a reputation for a shoddy hack)?

This advice works for more than just personal branding. Far-fetched pipe dreams can often be accomplished over long periods of time if you work towards them one small do-able step at a time.

Hiya Jay, Top of the morning to you. Been reading your blog for a while and must say not only is very informative but more importantly it puts a smile on my face every morning and so I'm hooked. While I recognize the value in what you have said it must inject here that our society has conditioned us to expect no less than instant gratification. Let's be honest the majority of us either have no idea of what hard work is or it has become a very vague memory on the horizon. The internet is overrun with "instant success stories" and so I’m sure that loads of persons will click through on your link today excited to read your “quick and dirty secret” hope they aren’t too disappointed..

So true! What's your take on brands that are really trying to build a big online membership, it's their core business actually....but change their "personal brand" every few weeks / months, as in constantly putting new people into the social media for them and ditching the older ones in the process. All in a desperate push to get more members online, in a push for a "community". Is it online suicide?