Introduction
“One of the sad things today is that so many people
are frightened by the wonder of their own presence.
They are dying to tie themselves into a system, a role,
or to an image, or to a pre-determined identity that
other people have actually settled on for them.”
—John O’Donohue, Irish philosopher1
Imagine it’s the last day of your working life. The last log off has been completed and the last hand has been shaken. You are surveying your career and remembering the days and years of making and creating something that filled you with purpose and pride. The mistakes you made have been embraced and overcome in a life punctuated by courage and integrity. In looking back, you know you have honoured yourself, made a contribution to everyone you worked with and touched people’s lives in unique and unexpected ways. Your legacy is a rich tapestry of achievement after a life lived in step with your values, with firm footprints paved for others to follow in. Your reputation, or ‘brand’, is intact.
The buzz phrase ‘personal branding’ used to drive me nuts. And yet, I began to catch myself using this term consistently when working with my clients in daily coaching sessions, in the training workshops I led, in speeches I delivered and the everyday running of my company, Fresh Eyre. I had always thought there were more than enough books, social media articles and presentations about personal branding. So I was surprised when the nagging chitter chatter in my mind persisted with the questions, ‘What can I say about personal branding that is different? What do I know and could share with others?’ As it turns out, I’ve had an abundance of experience in growing my own successful brand and helping others grow theirs, so I thought it was time for me to join the conversation with my own unique perspectives and usual candour.
I have had endless conversations with friends and clients and given many workshops and presentations about personal branding. I hear quite regularly how people dislike the term ‘personal branding’ and frankly, I get that and nod in agreement. It’s much maligned, however, because too often the concept of personal branding is used cynically by people to lie, manipulate, self-promote and sell untruths. Making this distinction is a good learning point and I hope you will be challenged in this book to see personal branding as an opportunity to be fully and authentically expressed, which is the opposite of manipulative self-promotion in which one markets and sells a fake person or product.
During many conversations with my publishe
