I have a unique connection with the idea of personal branding. It’s a term that in some ways has been co-opted and hijacked by influencers, commoditized by corporations, and generally “ickified.” I believe that one of life’s goals is to evolve to a point where you are 100% YOU, and those types of content directly oppose that intention. For that reason, I vastly prefer the deeper and more meaningful term “life design.”
To me, life design transcends surface and performative presentation and digs deep, past your professional persona, to align your personal brand with your core essence and being. I am very much a believer in the concept, and it comes with some backstory.
A handful of years ago, I got sick. Very sick. Seemingly out of nowhere I developed an intense brain fog, crippling chronic pain, and unbelievable fatigue. It was scary. Like, 28 Days Later scary.
No one seemed to have a diagnosis, but it was clear that something was very wrong. We didn’t know for over a year why I couldn’t form a complete thought, participate meaningfully in a conversation, or walk across the room without lying down and resting. I lost 40 pounds and was shocked to see this frail and feeble zombie guy in the mirror. And no one could tell me what was causing it.
My wife was worried sick, but she channeled that fear into action to keep the family running and travel with me to countless doctors’ appointments— where I was told I suffered everything from pre-cancer, autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, toxic mold exposure, or my favorite— “it’s just in your mind.”
We didn’t tell many people outside of our family what was happening because we didn’t know what to say to them. A number of friends and colleagues asked me if I was dying. I withdrew from anything social, embarrassed that I couldn’t keep up with a conversation while staring blankly, like a cow, at the person in front of me. My fledgling agency was on life support, doing the bare minimum to keep us whole. For any projects that seemed too complicated, I referred them to other agencies.
Finally, after over a year of struggle, I was diagnosed with severe and chronic Lyme Disease and Erlychiosis, contracted via a common tick. Both are super bad news, especially if untreated. I had managed to dodge organ failure from the Erlychiosis, but every other complication was at level ten. I was also told that due to the long-term infection, we had passed the point of treatment and I would likely not fully recover and never regain the quality of life I had enjoyed before getting sick.
We didn’t like that prognosis. We dove into every bit of research we could find on Lyme and Erlychiosis, flying around the country to meet with doctors, specialists, and alternative healers galore. Near our wits’ end, we were sent to a referral-only doctor and holistic specialist who had cured himself of the same malady many years before. It took two years of daily phone check-ins, a cooler full of supplements I carried everywhere, and some truly unorthodox treatment, but I was slowly able to heal. I have some wild stories.
Needless to say, we were beyond relieved when treatment started to show signs of working. Slow, incremental improvements grew exponentially over time, and I began to regain physical strength and mental capacity. I was overjoyed at this second chance at a life with my family. Life was a wreck at the moment, but I tried to frame it as an opportunity to rebuild and “design” the life I wanted for the future.
I build brands for a living. Creating a brand is to manifest a vision of an organization’s future. Brand design is an agent of change. Could the principles of brand building apply to our lives and careers, as well? It was worth a try.
The best branding honors who you are today but also charts a course for who you will become. It is a catalyst for growth and the bridge that takes you from where you are to where you want to be. It crafts a strategy for success and builds assets to make it real.
In short, branding is not about communicating value; it’s about creating value. It is not what you make. Branding is what you make possible. That was exciting to imagine.
Applying the principles and processes of brand building to my life was a unique process of self-discovery, unflinching honesty, and wild aspiration. The results were transformative. I emerged with a radically new perspective on life, work, and purpose.
We are all “life designers.” The question is, are we designing life with intention? Our decisions and choices shape our daily experiences, relationships, professional paths, and life journeys. Without clear goals, strategy, and action, it’s easy for life to seemingly “happen to us.” This always makes me think of David Byrne’s lyrics in Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime: “How did I get here?” That song was on heavy rotation.
Since I started exploring the idea of life design and personal branding, my curiosity has led me down a forest’s worth of rabbit holes— via tons of reading, research, and long conversations about how we can shape our lives using the same principles we use to shape an organization’s future.
Over the past few years, research has honed my understanding of life design from my original ramshackle approach to something more structured and comprehensive. I thought it might be valuable to share what I’ve learned here.
It’s important to note that, if it interests you, the outline below is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Many people have seen fantastic gains from an a-la-carte approach, so don’t be afraid to dip a toe in. Also, some of the ideas I’ll outline apply more directly to our professional lives than our personal journeys. I’ll note those instances throughout.
Understanding the Personal Brand Concept, and Life Design.
A personal brand shouldn’t be simply about shameless self-promotion—it’s the deliberate cultivation of how others perceive, remember, and engage with you professionally and personally. While traditional professional development focuses primarily on skills and achievements, strategic personal branding focuses on creating a cohesive narrative around your unique value proposition and people’s consistent experiences when interacting with you.
The key is that it needs to be true. Aspiration is valuable in charting your course, but it needs to be balanced with honesty.
Richard Branson doesn’t just lead Virgin Group; he embodies adventurous entrepreneurship. Brené Brown doesn’t just research vulnerability; she exemplifies authentic leadership. Yvon Chouinard doesn’t just sell outdoor gear; he personifies environmental activism in business.
I love these examples because, in each instance, there is little or no separation between these folks’ core essence and outward brand. They approach life design holistically and honestly, and that’s a big part of why each is celebrated.
So, is personal branding different from corporate branding? Fundamentally, personal branding incorporates the core principles of organizational branding—establishing a consistent identity, communicating values, and creating emotional connections. However, several factors make personal branding distinctly powerful:
Authenticity is Imperative: Unlike corporate brands, personal brands cannot exist separately from the individual’s genuine personality, values, and capabilities. Let your unguarded, true self guide your outward persona.
Relationship-Centered: Personal brands thrive on direct human connections rather than transactional exchanges. Connecting with people in meaningful, personal ways is the purest way to share what you stand for.
Expertise Manifestation: Successful personal brands transform abstract expertise into tangible value through distinctive expression. This feels a bit technical, but I boil it down to the idea of being of purpose and helping others.
Cross-Context Flexibility: Effective personal brands maintain coherence across professional and personal environments while adapting appropriately to different situations. In short, don’t code switch needlessly to meet others’ expectations. Certainly, read the room and behave appropriately, but don’t try to be something you’re not.
Evolution Transparency: Personal brands must visibly grow and evolve alongside the individual, unlike corporate brands that often resist visible change. We all grow and evolve; it’s part of what keeps life (and us) interesting. Embrace it with transparency. The Beastie Boys, and their path from snot-nosed punks to socially conscious elder statesmen of the alternative scene, is a great example.
Essential Elements of Personal Brand Development
Creating an authentic brand requires attention to several key areas:
1. Brand Positioning and Strategy
Before updating LinkedIn profiles or launching websites, individuals with successful personal brands develop a comprehensive strategic foundation that addresses the following:
Professional Identity Definition: Precisely which professional (and personal) territory are you claiming? Industry innovator? Thought leader? Problem-solver? Bridge-builder between disciplines? And how does that relate to your personal life and essence? Harmony between the two is key.
Value System: What specific beliefs and principles guide your decisions and contributions? These must reflect genuine convictions rather than social or marketplace trends.
Competitive Differentiation: This concept relates more to the workplace. How will you establish a distinctive position within your chosen professional space? This requires an honest assessment of territory already claimed by others with similar qualifications. Just as we teach businesses, it’s good to be different.
Relevance Strategy: How will your brand meaningfully contribute to conversations that matter in your industry or company? Similarly, how can you bring value and joy to the people in your life?
Purpose Beyond Advancement: The most compelling personal brands stand for something larger than individual success—whether advancing industry standards, mentoring emerging talent, championing diversity, or solving significant challenges. This goes for life design as well— service to others is good for the soul.
2. Brand Expression System
Effective personal brands need cohesive expression systems that consistently communicate their unique value across all touchpoints:
Professional Aesthetic: Successful personal brands develop distinctive visual approaches to presentation—from photography styles and color palettes to environmental preferences and personal appearance considerations. In our personal lives, this idea is illustrated by our personal sense of style and aesthetics. Anna Wintour, David Lynch, and Tyler, the Creator are great examples.
Communication Philosophy: More than just effective communication, personal brands need distinctive approaches that reflect their fundamental values—whether data-driven, story-centered, visually-focused, or principle-oriented. Flipping the coin to look at our personal lives, finding your voice is an important step in life design.
Signature Frameworks: Proprietary models, processes, or frameworks that organize your thinking create intellectual property unique to your personal brand. Our personal point of view is equally paramount. Over the past few years, I have sharpened my focus on the ideas of curiosity and wonder in everyday life.
Space Utilization: Physical and digital environments—from office arrangements to video backgrounds—should intentionally reflect personal brand attributes. The same goes for our day-to-day lives. The environments we create for ourselves dramatically impact our moods and mindsets.
Digital Ecosystem Integration: An online presence must coherently extend a personal brand’s in-person experience while adapting appropriately to each platform.
3. Brand Voice, Storytelling & Relationship Building
How you communicate may ultimately define your brand more than any other factor:
Distinctive Expression Style: Do you communicate as a provocative challenger? A collaborative facilitator? A thoughtful caregiver? An analytical clarifier? Your voice should remain consistent while adapting to context, from professional to personal settings.
Personal Narrative: Compelling personal stories and professional journey narratives create emotional connections and memorability. Storytelling is one of our most moving and memorable forms of communication.
Relationship Development: A LOT of the books I’ve read say, “Successful personal brands develop systematic approaches to nurturing professional relationships, whether through thoughtful follow-up practices, value-first engagement, or consistent presence.” That feels a bit calculating to me. Just focus on meeting new folks who are doing interesting things, and keep in touch.
Content Ecosystem: Strategic personal brands aren’t random content creators—they become recognized sources for specific types of insights, curating and creating content that reinforces their professional positioning. I think this is true personally as well— sharing insight that speaks to your core purpose and interests can bring new perspectives to friends and colleagues.
Major Personal Brand Archetypes
In looking at the concept of personal branding, I’ve observed several distinct approaches emerging in the professional landscape:
The Visionary Guide
These personal brands position themselves as forward-thinking navigators who help others understand emerging trends and future opportunities within their domain.
Example: Amy Webb has built her brand around strategic foresight and emerging technology analysis. Rather than presenting herself as merely a futurist researcher, she’s established a distinctive approach to quantitative futurism through her Future Today Institute. Her annual tech trends report, distinctive data visualization techniques, and consistent methodology have made her the embodiment of accessible yet rigorous future forecasting.
The Bridge Builder
These personal brands establish their value by connecting different worlds, translating between disciplines, or making complex domains accessible to broader audiences.
Example: Neil deGrasse Tyson has created a brand centered on making astrophysics accessible to mainstream audiences. His communication style balances scientific precision with relatable pop culture references. His consistent presence across platforms—from podcasts and television to social media platforms and books—maintains a coherent brand focused on infectious enthusiasm for science rather than academic credentials.
The Practical Innovator
These personal brands combine creativity with pragmatism, positioning themselves as sources of implementable innovation rather than purely theoretical ideas.
Example: Nir Eyal developed his brand at the intersection of behavioral design and practical business application. Through his “Hooked” model for building habit-forming products, distinctive visual frameworks, and consistent focus on ethical persuasion techniques, he’s created intellectual property that serves as the foundation for his consulting, writing, and speaking. His brand promise centers on translating behavioral psychology into actionable business strategies.
The Authentic Authority
These personal brands establish credibility through demonstrated expertise combined with transparent vulnerability, sharing both successes and lessons from failures.
Example: Brené Brown has built her brand on the authentic embodiment of her research on vulnerability and courage. Her personal stories of struggle illustrate her scholarly findings, creating a brand that models the very principles she teaches. Her distinctive communication style—combining research data with disarming humor and personal disclosure—has created a uniquely approachable form of thought leadership.
The Industry Reimaginer
These personal brands challenge established conventions within their field, presenting alternative approaches or frameworks that question the status quo.
Example: Scott Galloway transformed from one of countless business professors into a distinctive brand by developing a provocative, data-driven perspective on the technology industry. His abrasive yet insightful analysis, distinctive presentation style featuring simple visuals with bold statements, and willingness to make specific predictions rather than generic observations have created a brand that stands apart from traditional business commentary.
Building Your Personal Brand
If you’re working to develop your personal brand/life design, these sequential steps will help ensure you build on solid foundations:
1. Conduct Brand Discovery Research
This may read a bit clinical, but the key takeaway is to take an honest look at where you stand today before plotting a course to where you want to go. Before diving into a strategy, understand:
Current perception among key professional (or personal) audiences
Professional landscape positioning relative to peers and competitors
Your authentic strengths, values, and distinctive approaches
A gap analysis between current perception and aspirational positioning
Compatible communication channels and formats for your natural strengths
2. Develop Your Brand Strategy Foundation
Document these crucial elements before any creative development:
Personal brand positioning statement defining your professional territory and/or your personal “Why” and mission. Mine, for example, is to create things that bring joy and value to people’s lives and to create prosperity for my family.
Core value hierarchy with primary and secondary principles, ie, what you stand for and believe in.
Audience personas with specific ways you create value for each. This reads as pretty stiff, but thinking about how you can help people in different aspects of your job and life is a great exercise.
Professional conversation territories where you have the legitimacy to contribute.
Relationship cultivation philosophy and systematic approach— again, see my point above about this one.
Content ecosystem strategy across channels, ie, how to best communicate in each media or environmental setting.
3. Create Your Brand Expression System
This speaks more to our professional lives than personal, but some insights cross over. With strategy in place, you can develop:
Your own visual identity system— this might be photography direction, color application, media tools, wardrobe, and even environment considerations.
Verbal identity guidelines with distinctive vocabulary and communication patterns. What is your voice, and what do you have to say?
Experience design principles for in-person and digital interactions. What do you want folks to take away from an interaction?
Intellectual property frameworks unique to your perspective. What’s your point of view? Your expertise and insight?
Collaboration criteria for partnerships and professional affiliations.
Measurement framework for personal brand equity.
4. Plan Your Brand Activation Strategy
This is where the rubber hits the road, and things begin to happen. How do you share your evolved personal brand? In a professional setting, consider these launch essentials:
Professional network engagement strategy with prioritized relationships
Content calendar balancing different formats and platforms
Speaking and writing opportunity targets aligned with positioning
Digital presence optimization across priority platforms
Credential and social proof development roadmap
These steps are designed for professional personal brand launches, but you can see how a more informal approach could also apply to life design.
Common Personal Branding Pitfalls
As personal branding grows increasingly important, I’ve observed several recurring challenges worth avoiding:
Inauthentic Positioning
Personal brands attempting to claim territory disconnected from genuine expertise, values, or personality quickly collapse under scrutiny. Authenticity requires honest self-assessment, feedback from trusted sources, and courage to embrace your actual strengths rather than aspirational ones.
Aesthetic Focus Without Substance
Many professionals invest heavily in visual identity elements while neglecting the more profound value proposition and expertise development that defines compelling personal brands. Polished LinkedIn profiles without distinctive perspectives create initially attractive but ultimately forgettable professional impressions.
Platform Obsession Over Relationship Building
Personal brands focusing exclusively on follower metrics rather than meaningful professional relationships fail to develop the network that drives real opportunity. Relationship cultivation requires intentional maintenance, not just content production for social media platforms.
Inconsistency Across Contexts
Personal brands that present radically different personas across different professional settings create confusion and erode trust. Successful personal brands maintain core elements while appropriately adapting to different environments.
Becoming Outdated
Personal brands that fail to evolve with industry developments and career progression appear stagnant. The most effective personal brands continuously incorporate new expertise and perspectives while maintaining consistent core principles.
Measuring Personal Brand Success
Unlike traditional career development, personal brands require specific metrics to evaluate performance. While this section leans more into professional life, there are ideas that can apply to designing our personal lives as well.
Opportunity Flow: Track the quantity and quality of unsolicited professional opportunities, speaking invitations, and partnership proposals. Think about the metrics that matter to you on the personal side as well. Those might be quality of interactions, new connections, or quantity of time with loved ones.
Relationship Quality: Assess the depth and reciprocity of your professional network connections rather than size alone. This goes for personal relationships as well.
Distinctive Association: Measure how consistently you’re associated with specific concepts, approaches, or perspectives in professional discussions. In your personal life, how do people think of you, and why? Consider what sparks people to reach out, connect, invite, or share.
Premium Valuation: On the professional front, valuate your ability to command premium compensation compared to market rates for similar qualifications.
Platform Effectiveness: Track how successfully your ideas spread and influence others within your professional (or personal) ecosystem.
Real-World Personal Branding Success Stories
Examining successful personal brands provides valuable insights:
Mark Manson: Transforming Philosophical Concepts Through Distinctive Voice
Mark Manson transformed from one of countless self-improvement bloggers into a distinctive, strong personal brand through his counterintuitive approach to life advice. Rather than adopting the typical motivational tone of his category, he developed a profanity-laced, brutally honest voice that made philosophical concepts accessible through unexpected language. His “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” positioning created a blue ocean in the crowded self-help space by explicitly rejecting conventional positivity while delivering profound insights wrapped in distinctive expression.
His consistent aesthetic (minimalist black and orange), provocative article titles, and commitment to addressing uncomfortable truths created a personal brand that stands apart from motivational speakers while addressing similar fundamental human challenges. Most importantly, Manson built intellectual property through distinctive frameworks like “The Feedback Loop from Hell” that organize complex ideas into memorable systems.
Dorie Clark: Methodical Expertise Development as Personal Brand Strategy
Dorie Clark built her personal brand through systematic expertise cultivation and transparent documentation of her professional development process. Rather than claiming thought leadership, she created a step-by-step roadmap for establishing recognized expertise that simultaneously demonstrated her own implementation of these principles.
Her approach transformed the nebulous concept of “becoming a thought leader” into a structured methodology through her books “Stand Out” and “Recognized Expert.” Her personal brand combines practical, implementable frameworks with authentic narration of her own journey from journalist to recognized business authority.
Clark’s consistent emphasis on long-term reputation building over short-term visibility, distinctive three-year horizon thinking, and commitment to relationship cultivation has created a sustainable personal brand that practices precisely what it preaches. By building intellectual property around the very process she followed, she created self-reinforcing credibility.
Adam Grant: Academic Rigor Translated Through Narrative Technique
Adam Grant transformed from one of many organizational psychology professors into a distinctive thought leader by developing a consistent approach to translating academic research into actionable insights through compelling storytelling. His personal brand centers on making behavioral science accessible without oversimplification.
Grant’s give-and-take framework, emphasis on evidence-based counterintuitive findings, and consistent focus on generosity as a success strategy have created a coherent narrative across his books, speaking, and advisory work. His personal brand consistently reinforces his positioning as the bridge between academic research and practical workplace application.
His distinctive approach to public intellectualism—maintaining scholarly credibility while embracing mainstream platforms like TED and masterfully using storytelling to illustrate research findings—has created a template for academics seeking broader influence without sacrificing rigor.
Sara Blakely: Authentic Entrepreneurship Embodied
Sara Blakely built her personal brand on transparent entrepreneurial storytelling that transformed her from an anonymous founder into the relatable personification of Spanx. Rather than presenting a polished business persona, Blakely consistently shared authentic stories of her challenges, mistakes, and unconventional approaches.
Her personal brand emphasizes persistence over perfection, with her fax machine cold-calling story and patent filing experiences becoming signature narratives that communicate her values more effectively than mission statements. Her visual presentation—consistently approachable rather than aspirationally polished—reinforces her positioning as the authentic entrepreneur who prioritizes progress over perception.
Most importantly, Blakely’s personal brand seamlessly aligns with her company’s ethos of practical solutions delivered with personality. By embodying the same qualities her products represent, she created a founder-brand symbiosis that amplifies both her personal influence and her company’s distinctive position.
The Future of Personal Branding
As the professional landscape evolves, several trends will shape personal brand development:
Integrated Digital-Physical Presence
The most successful personal brands will seamlessly blend in-person authority with digital expression, recognizing that professional reputation exists online and offline across multiple realms (business communications, personal website, social media tools) that must maintain coherence.
Collaborative Brand Ecosystems
Strategic alliance formation between complementary personal brands will create powerful personal and professional ecosystems that amplify individual influence while delivering comprehensive value to shared audiences.
Value-First Content Approaches
As audience attention becomes increasingly scarce, personal brands will shift from promotional content (ie traditional digital marketing) toward genuine value delivery that demonstrates expertise rather than merely claiming it.
Specialized Micro-Positioning
We’ll see increasingly specific professional territory claims, with successful personal brands occupying highly defined niches rather than broad professional categories.
Technology-Enhanced Human Connection
Personal brands will leverage automation and AI to scale reach while paradoxically creating more authentic human connections through freed capacity for meaningful engagement.
Wrap Up: The Strategic Imperative of Personal Branding
As professional environments grow increasingly competitive and opportunity flows through networks more than traditional hierarchies, personal branding offers a powerful approach to creating sustainable career advantage and meaningful impact. However, this path requires genuine expertise development, authentic relationship cultivation, and consistent expression across all professional touchpoints. Many of the principles that drive personal branding can be valuable in our everyday lives, as well.
The professionals who will thrive long-term are building more than attractive social media profiles or impressive credentials. They’re creating comprehensive personal brand ecosystems that provide distinctive value, memorable positioning, and meaningful contributions while remaining true to their authentic strengths and values.
For individuals entering this process or elevating existing personal brands, investing in strategic personal brand development isn’t optional—it’s the fundamental difference between building sustainable professional relevance and becoming an interchangeable resource in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
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