Heidi Roizen explains personal branding as consistency in how you behave and communicate. She uses Starbucks as an example of a predictable experience, and argues that responsiveness, follow-through, and playing to your strengths build trust and a strong network over time.
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I used to talk about personal brands when I would talk about building a network, and then I decided that that sounds icky. And we're not all— we're not personal brands, and we're not going to go out and, you know, and there was this funny TV show Entourage once where they were all talking about personal brand, and it was a really funny episode, and I kind of at the end of that I said I'm never going to say the words personal brand again. And here I've broken it, but only to say I find that icky. But There is something. If you think about what does a brand really mean, a brand is a promise of consistency, right? If I say Starbucks, you guys, in your mind immediately, you know what the logo looks like. You kinda know what the inside of the place looks like. The food is gonna be consistent. Even the barista is gonna have sort of— there's gonna be a certain style and attitude. The music, you kinda know what that's gonna be. And all over the world, you'll be in Edinburgh, Scotland, and you'll see a Starbucks, and you know if you go into that Starbucks, you're gonna have a certain experience. So if you think about brands as consistency, I think that's a really good way to think about brands and branding. And when you think about your own personal brand, even though I hate those words, think about consistency. When you present a consistent image and response and attitude to people, people learn who you are and they learn what to expect from you. And I think that's very helpful in building your network because it means Over time, people can develop a sort of a shorthand about how to deal with you. For example, with me, I'm very responsive, and I believe in being responsive, and people know that if they email me something, I'm either gonna get it done or I'm gonna tell them why I can't get it done. I'm very short with my communications, generally. Sometimes I'm a little wordy, but for the most part, I try to be very to the point. I try to be respectful. I try to be— and I try— I'm very consistent in my Like, if you listen to me talk here, and then you follow me to London, and you go to the board of this big company I'm on with all these British guys, and you listen to me talk there, I'm very consistent. I have the same personality. I don't try to be something different. Part of it, I actually think, is because the more consistent you are over time, the more you will find the sinking into the things that you actually are best at doing. Because you're— I'll liken it to if you're going to try to be someone you're not, it's like if you've ever gone— I speak German very badly. And when I go to Germany and I try to do business in German all day, I get to the hotel at the end of the day and I've got a headache because trying to be a person who speaks German all day is really hard for me. It's a lot easier to speak English all day. So I really think that this is one of those cases of if I'm consistent and if I'm me and I focus on my strengths, I just do a lot better than if I try to be someone else all day long. And I can guarantee you guys are all thinking— think about a person who is inconsistent in your life. Think about a person who half the time they schedule something with you and they don't show up, or they say they are going to do something and they don't do it. Think about how you feel about that person. Is that a person you are willing to go out of your way to help? Is that a person that when you see an email from them you think right away, okay, I am going to jump on that, I am going to do something for that person? So I would just encourage you, if you can be that consistent person and you can follow through and you will build a reputation over time with the people in your network that you are that person and that you are consistent, I think you will get more help over time.
