It occurred to me after getting some comments about my last post that I hadn’t clearly stated how you can apply my experience to refining your own personal brand, which was really kind of the point! So here is the exercise in four sort of simple steps.

This exercise will provide you with a powerful statement of who you are that is backed up by your own real life revelations, trials, tribulations and joys. If you get stumped, feel free to give me a shout from the contact page, or via the comments section.

How to refine your personal brand

1. Take stock of the last 1-3 years of your life
Write down your major events and life experiences. Highlight both the bad and good. Even during a tough year, you’re sure to find some beautiful moments. Write them all down as either a list or a story – whichever your preference. I find it easier to write them as a story because it helps me process the events and find connections. Writing things down like this can be tough, but the reflection time will do your soul some good.

2. Reflect on your strengths and beliefs
Now that you have your story or list, write down 5-10 personal strengths and beliefs that helped you make it through the period of time. These don’t necessarily have to be deeply profound things – it can be anything. Your performance increase while on coffee could qualify, as could the inspiration you get from seeing your child grow.

3. Drill down on your biggest strengths
Got that list of 5-10 personal strengths and beliefs? Good. Now, think about what it is that you do. What do you bring to your clients, family, friends, or boss? How do you help them? In this step, you will drill down your list to no more than 3 strengths. I often find that the first list of 5-10 items contains some overlapping qualities. Find the similarities and use one word or phrase to combine those into one strength.

4. Say it and believe it
Now that you have a short list of 1-3 items, you should have a powerful testament to who you are and what you offer your clients. Repeat it to yourself, and make it part of your mantra. It may well change the way you talk about yourself and market your products and services. It will definitely provide you with a powerful statement of who you are that is backed up by your life experiences.

[Heads up: This post is three times as long as a normal post, but I promise it will be worth the read. If you skip to the end, you will be completely lacking context and it won't make any sense at all, so give yourself a good five minutes to take it all in. If it wasn't worth it, send me a rock in the mail.]

This is a great exercise to do at least once every few years. It’s also a great way to define or redefine your personal brand. Your life experiences shape what you believe in and how you act. This exercise can have a profound effect on how people perceive you, how you think about yourself, and how you market yourself.

How did I get where I am today?

The question presents an opportunity to really reflect on the defining moments of my recent past, the things that have reshaped me as a person, and changed the way I approach both life and business.

How the change began

I was working an average of 80-90 hours per week back in 2003 when a long-time client made some out of the blue bizarrely violent threats on my life. Ironically, I had helped this client increase annual revenues by over $3m and increased advertising response by 700%. By all accounts we were doing great work for them. I considered the client’s comments seriously, and decided the risk wasn’t worth the business. After eleven years of working with the client, I abruptly ended the relationship and instantly lost 60% of our revenues.

The sudden downturn in business provided the perfect opportunity to take a good long break. I traveled some and discovered the art of relaxation. For two years, I took on projects that were more appealing and less profitable, and I worked less.

When I decided to rebuild in 2005, things had changed quite a lot, but I plugged away at building a new network and gaining new clients until the business was again healthy. It took me until 2007 to bring the business back to where it needed to be.

Then a few things happened that really derailed Train of Thought. One large client stiffed us for several months of work, and it was a big hit. We recovered just in time for another client to do the same thing, and that one nearly sank us (these two events caused some major policy changes that have virtually eliminated the possibility of not getting paid). That was 2008. Somehow we made it to 2009, but by the time I got there, the stress caused by fallout of the non-paying clients had taken a huge toll on my immune system.

Then I got sick. Really sick.

It’s just about impossible to explain your levels of physical pain to another person in any sort of comprehensible manner. And before you try, know this: No one wants to know, and in all likelihood, no matter how hard you try to convey your pain, it’s highly unlikely that anyone will “get” what you are saying. Pain is an individual thing that everyone experiences differently, and each person has enough pain of their own.

I hit an all time low in April of 2009 when I got nailed by a stress-induced illness. Shocks of pain racked my body several times per day. After breaking bones and tearing muscles in the past, I thought I had a high pain tolerance. Until this, I didn’t truly know what pain was.

Two weeks in, I honestly thought I wasn’t going to make it, and to be totally honest, at the height of the pain there were a couple of times when I didn’t want to make it. That sounds ominous now, but at the time, it was difficult to think straight. You ever wake up bolting upright from your blissful twenty minutes of sleep, screaming at the top of your lungs from the pain? I hope not. I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone. It felt like someone had driven railroad spikes right through my body (not that I would know what that actually feels like).

Three weeks into this, an acquaintance saw the anguish on my face, and told me about an herbal remedy that works specifically on virus-related pain. I got some, and to my utter amazement, it worked. Three more weeks of living with the pain at about 20%, and I was healthy again.

With barely enough time to get enough miles on the bike, I picked back up my goal of riding the Seattle to Portland bicycle ride. I made it, completing the 204 mile ride for the third and hardest time. I got to enjoy a special exhausted moment, riding across the line with my good friend Jerry Baker. It was his 30th STP.

Then, the fit hit the shan.

The following week, I needed a root canal. The dentist accidentally poked a hole through the bottom of the root and pushed the infected nerve down to the jaw instead of pulling it out. He left it there and sent me home. I thought I had learned about real pain in April. I was wrong.

The nerve he poked through just happened to extend up the jaw to my right eye, ear, trigeminal nerve, temple, and all the way up to the side and back of my skull. For two months, several times per day, I experienced 6-minute shocks of pain that racked the entire right side of my head. They were completely random, coming on with no warning. I had to take painkillers the entire time just to be able to tolerate the barely dulled pain. I was literally crying or screaming at the top of my lungs every time it happened. At one point, my doctor’s office had me scheduled for an emergency MRI of my brain to rule out the possibility of brain tumors. Even a year later, writing this now is difficult, so fresh are the memories.

When you’re on painkillers, many things happen, and all of them are bad. The worst side-effect for me was an immediate blurring of my vision. I never needed glasses before this, but I had to get a pair of fairly strong glasses just to be able to work. My vision never recovered.

And what of the dentist who did this? Well, he refused to acknowledge that anything was wrong at all. Nearly every time I called, he told me he didn’t have any appointments available, and said the mysterious comment, “You shouldn’t be in any pain,” whatever that meant. It seems lost on him that his error cost me roughly four months of my life and salary, not to mention the lost marketing time. I found it disturbing that he essentially blew me off after admitting his error.

When I finally emerged from the pain and endured a foggy recovery month, three things happened:
1) I found myself incredibly angry.
2) My financial life was in tatters.
3) I no longer knew what I believed in.

You might think that pain is part of what defines me, but nothing could be further from the truth. I focus on the positive, so it’s the wisdom gained from the experience of being in extreme pain that has reshaped me. Pain itself is not a thing to be defined by. To hell with pain.

The anger

My anger was a natural reaction to an unknown quantity. There was no way to predict this. I felt like I deserved some great reward for surviving, but there wasn’t any apparent reward. There was no one to be angry with (except the dentist), and no way to really address the anger. After about a week, I finally decided that the reward was getting to continue living, fighting and surviving, hopefully with some happiness along the way.

My destroyed financial life

When you get sick, big banks do not care. They treat you like you are scum of the earth. In fact, if they know you are really sick, they come after you like sharks sensing blood, trying to get any last remaining pieces of your money before you croak. It’s a disgusting thing to experience because it shows you how utterly, grotesquely inhumane big banks can really be. In my case, it was Chase Home Finance, holder of my mortgage servicing, who aggressively came after me. So, while I was battling skull-gripping pain, Chase was calling me 5-6 time per day, rudely demanding house payments, which in some cases were not even behind schedule. They called as early as 7:40AM, and as late as 8PM, seven days a week.

I had never learned about the six-month rule that says you should always have six months of salary in the bank to cover expenses in a time of crisis. No one told me about that until after my crisis. (No one to blame of course.)

When I got sick, I pulled back on all marketing because I didn’t know if I could complete the work, and I did not want to disappoint my clients or cause them any delays. As with any business, when you stop marketing, you will inevitably experience a slow-down approximately six months down the road. That is exactly what happened to me.

Additionally, I had to spend about $7k out of pocket to cover medical and dental expenses. I had to literally choose between my health or my house payment and taxes. I chose my health. I’ve been clawing my way out of this situation ever since. A year on, I will be truly lucky if I can manage to keep my house.

My beliefs, rediscovered

Once I got over the anger and shock of my newly destroyed finances and credit rating, I began asking myself what I believed in. This was another natural reaction to the experiences I had gone through. Virtually everything I had been investing my time and energy into before getting sick had abandoned me when I needed it most. So what did I believe in?

The answer did not come quickly. Initially, I told myself I believed in nothing. It’s kind of hard to go anywhere from there though, so I kept asking the question. Eventually, one thing emerged: People. I believe in people.

My belief in people

How did I come to the conclusion that I believed in people? After all, Chase’s people had treated me like crap. The two nonpaying clients and the dentist were clearly looking only to protect their own tails. Still, these particular individuals comprised nothing more than a bank’s staff of underpaid, corporate brainwashed employees, a couple of people with different priorities, and a dentist who should have retired while he could still see straight and had better judgment. These people did not define all of humanity.

It was people who helped me through, helped me survive. You can read about those extraordinary friends in a thank you on my personal blog.

My personal brand, redefined

What does all of this mean in the context of my personal brand? Well, let’s add it up.

• I’m an experienced businessman who has enjoyed the highs of success and the lows of hard times. I enjoy working hard to exceed my clients’ expectations. I enjoy a mutually respectful working relationship. I can solve my clients problems, and they pay me well for my expertise.

• I’ve lived through health hell, and I’m aware that it can get worse, which helps keep my priorities in order.

• I’m a fighter and a survivor.

• I believe in people.

• I no longer sweat the small stuff, and most stuff is small. In other words, I have a good perspective and objectivity.

Why is this valuable for personal branding?

Try thinking about your personal brand this way:
When you know what drives you, you have goals and purpose. When you know what you believe in, you have self-confidence and trust in others. When you have wisdom, you can better prepare for whatever may come your way. When all of these elements are present, you have the clarity needed to focus and succeed.

SO: Goals, purpose, beliefs, self-confidence, trust, wisdom, focus, clarity, and preparedness. These are all essential building blocks for personal and business success. We all have our strengths and defining experiences. Reflecting on them can show you insights into how you see yourself, and how others know you. Those insights can provide the fuel you need to increase your confidence, communicate your brand value in a more compelling manner, and reach greater success.

The number one thing my clients get in working with me is broad-perspective strategy and creative, that can only come from a wealth of life experience. Before I lived through this, I did not describe my work this way. I was one creative among many. Now I know beyond doubt that I’m unusual. This inevitably effects my marketing.

This changes my brand positioning, my personal brand, and my prospective clients’ perception of me. In short, these experiences have reshaped me as a person and a professional, making me even more valuable to (and appreciative of) my clients.

To apply this lesson to your own personal brand, check out my next (much shorter) post.

Did you find this helpful? Share you own experiences in comments below, or feel free to share your story privately on the contact page.

Objectivity has long been one of the most important qualities that graphic designers and consultants bring to the table. Its value cannot be understated, especially when it comes to personal branding.

Your identity is a tough thing to objectively examine because you are personally invested in it on a daily basis. You have a close relationship with your identity. This is important though because you are asking your prospects and clients to have the exact same type of close daily relationship with you and your brand.

Most people are not capable of objectively examining their own personal brand because 1) They are too close to their own beliefs and rituals to have true objectivity, and 2) They lack experience in brand development (especially the effective variety).

Give it a try

There is a good chance you’re thinking you are the exception, the one person in the world capable of objectively examining your identity. You might be right, but realistically, the chances are not so good.

Don’t get me wrong – I encourage you to try it. In fact, I will be starting a series of public examinations of my own personal brand right here on Branding Revolution. Just like you, I am one ambitious mofo.

I fully expect to discover some things during this exploration that will make even me uncomfortable, but that’s a natural part of the process. It’s what we do with the knowledge gained that counts.

I’ve worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and companies on local, national and international levels during the last 25 years, and honestly, I have met only a small handful of people capable of an objective self-examination of their identity. I have met a ton of people who thought they could do it, tried, and failed miserably at it. I’ve met people who accepted their own biased examination as the gospel truth, which inevitably leads to self-delusion and an ineffective personal brand. I admire people’s optimism and efforts nonetheless.

Now you might be thinking, ‘OK then, I’ll ask my friends for help.’ Think again. Your friends are already personally invested in your identity. They have thoughts and perceptions of you – both positive and negative – that no one else has. They prop you up, push you down, and are closer to you than nearly anyone. They are great for gaining alternate perspectives, but they are insiders, too close to you to be objective.

I am blessed with a gift for examining, processing, designing, and verbalizing people’s identities and helping them discover their personal brands. I am exceptional at it, yet I am aware that no one can know what everyone thinks about each aspect of them self. When I want an objective opinion about myself, I seek outside feedback. I highly suggest that if you are serious about discovering, exploring, and developing your personal brand, you seek external, professional help. That said, you can start laying the groundwork for discovering and defining your personal brand today.

You have your own set of impressions based on your intentions. The people who interact with your personal brand have different perceptions and experiences. It is entirely possible to align both yours and your clients perceptions and experiences. In fact, that is one of the primary goals of personal branding. It is not an easy thing to do by any stretch of the imagination, yet it is extremely empowering and worth the effort. If you can gain additional perspectives from an objective outside resource, all the better.

You can start by reading this post and doing the quick exercise it contains.

What does your personal brand look like?

The short answer: It looks like you. You are the most clear picture of your personal brand.

Now for the longer answer that I can’t give in an elevator: A personal brand is much like a corporate brand except, well, more personal. It’s a combination of your visual and verbal dialog, combined with your actions, but when a brand is taken to a personal level, the elements that make up those three core ingredients are much more intricate.

When I zero down this equation to one person, I’m looking at nearly every detail that effects how people experience you and how you experience yourself. I also look at what makes you the person you are.

How do you get a snapshot of your personal brand? A quick picture is worth the roughly half hour it takes to put together. Here are 3.5 not-so-easy steps to discovering your personal brand. The last half step is SUPER IMPORTANT, so don’t skip it! It’s that first little baby step that you have to take if you want to evolve and grow. I promise you it will feel good.

1. Look into your eyes

If you want a picture of your personal brand, get up out of your chair, walk to the nearest full body mirror, and take a long hard look. Look at your excited eyes or the subtle wrinkles around them when you smile. Check out your posture before you straighten it up. How is your energy – both before and after coffee? Now, look down at your shoes and the clothes you wear. Notice how they make you feel. Got that feeling in your mind? Good. That’s a big part of how people see you.

2. Look out from their eyes

Note: It is nearly impossible to do this objectively by yourself because you have a daily relationship with your brand, yet I encourage you to give it a try.

Take a long hard look at your business card, logo and website – the most basic core elements of your brand identity. Remember, your identity speaks for you when you are not there. Your brand identity is a huge part of how people perceive you because most of the time, you and your clients are not together. Most often when people interact with your brand, you are not there, but your brand identity is. Does your identity speak to you, your audience, or both?

Read the copy on your site. Is it vibrant, exciting and positive, or does it put people to sleep? Does it drone on about the same old things, or are you bringing something totally unique to the table? Are you hiding your best secrets, or are you putting it right out there, hands open and on the table, driving home your unique qualities and winning approach?

3. How active are your actions?

Think about the things you say and the tone of your voice. Ask yourself some of questions, such as: Do you have integrity? Do you make empty promises, or do you follow up on your commitments? Think about how you treat people and how you respond to their needs. Do you speak with wisdom and authority? Are you quiet and reserved? Think about the sum total of your actions. Got all those things in your mind together? Write them down.

Add it up
Now, add up the results of items one, two, and three. Without gaining the incredibly important objective opinion (you can do that later), you will have a super quick capsule of your personal brand.

Your Assignment (the all-important .5)

You can start defining your personal brand today. It isn’t easy, but it is worth it. Tell me what you see when you look at yourself, your logo, business card and website. Tell me how you treat yourself and everyone you come into contact with.

Do you like what you see? Is it real? Do other people like it? Do they see the same things as you? Is there something you would like to improve?

I challenge you to think differently about your personal brand. Think about how to make it better by investing in real, meaningful, icky, scary, empowering change. Tell me in the comments one thing you can do to improve your personal brand – so it’s stated, and might actually become real to you. (If you’re shy, just put “Superhero X” in the name field.)

There, didn’t that feel good?

Your brand is kind of like breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Your brand is the motivational fuel that gets your business through each day.

Take it in, each and every morning, just like the eggs and toast, protein shake or coffee you crave at the start of each day. Each of us interacts with our brand every single day, whether it’s Monday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Monday-Friday, you have a relationship with your brand. You think about it, you see it, you interact with it. Saturday, that relationship probably changes. Your brand relationship on Sunday is very likely different from Mon-Sat.

As you drive to work, you may be thinking about a ton of things, but chances are that some of your thoughts are centered on some part of your company’s brand.

Monday is the day I use to set the tone for the week. I generally get a ton of work planned and started. Monday is the day that Train of Thought is in my mind all day, from the moment I wake until I put the computer to sleep late in the day.

Tuesday is most often the day when I connect with my craft. I sit at the drafting table and draw or paint. Traditional craft one of the big differences that sets my brand apart.

Wednesday through Friday I work my tail off. Saturday and Sunday are days I use to recharge my soul. It’s time away from my corporate brand, days used to connect with what makes me, well, me.

All week long, when I see my logo, I know what it stands for, and as a result, I am reminded of what I stand for. Train of Thought’s identity provides motivation, it tells me why I need to stay on task, and it reinforces the importance of following the creative path, practices and procedures that have led to our success.

Exercise: Get a clear picture of how you interact with your brand each day.

1. Carry a pad of paper and pen all day.

2. Write down every single way you interact with your company’s brand. If you think about work, write down your thought. If you imagine your office, write down how you imagine it. If you have positive or negative thoughts about how a meeting will go, write them down. If you think about a person you have to interact with, write down your thoughts about the person and the interaction. Is your identity on your company car? Write it down. Does the paint in your office match your identity? Write it down. Do you think about how your efforts need to reflect your company’s reputation? Write it down. Each and every time you see your company’s logo or identity characteristics, write it down. Think about the feelings your brand identity evokes.

By day’s end, if you are writing down every single thought that has to do with your brand, you should have at least 70-100 entries. If you have significantly less than that, you may be taking your brand touch points for granted, not staying true to your brand, or you’re not engaged in your marketing.

This exercise works for both corporate and personal brands. Give it a try. You might be surprised at just how much your own identity is wrapped around your brand. If you try it, and you find the results surprising, add a comment below.

Everyone has a personal brand, whether they know it or not. If you change or define yourself in profound ways you can change how people perceive you. You can also change your own self-perception, which can be an empowering experience.

When you reinvent yourself, you could say that you are rebranding yourself. Your body language, identity materials, behavior, compassion, humor, expressions, contributions, the way you dress, the service you provide – all of these characteristics and more define your personal brand. You may be surprised to learn that your social media profiles have little to do with personal branding.

The idea of a personal brand is not really a new concept. It’s just a newer take on an old practice. A personal brand is much like a corporate brand, but perhaps simpler. The process of personal branding is pretty much identical to branding a business.

The big difference between corporate branding and personal branding is end-goals. Personal brands are generally designed for personal advancement or improvement. If you work for a company with a weak corporate brand, you may benefit from strengthening your personal brand and carefully standing apart from your employer’s brand.

Common goals for personal brands include elevating your personal or professional profile, clarifying your goals, stating and living by your beliefs, building confidence, and changing the way people perceive you. Can a personal brand really do all that? Yes, it can, but not by itself. You have to believe it and live it. It’s not enough to say, ‘I’m going to change.’ Change only happens when you really want it as bad as you want the air you breathe.

One of the most profound parts of personal branding is the development itself. In the development process, you get to see yourself in a whole different light. You discover habits and patterns you perhaps weren’t aware of, you learn how you developed into the person or professional you are, and you learn strategies for change that really work.

I’m going to publicly explore my personal brand right here in the coming months. The best way to learn about personal branding is from experience, so if you would like to be profiled or spotlight your own personal brand, get in touch.

It’s time to get real, get honest, time to make meaningful connections. It’s time to believe in your brand.

How can I, Kelly Hobkirk, brand development specialist, graphic designer, writer, entrepreneur possibly claim to be starting a revolution in branding? It’s a bold claim coming from a guy who hasn’t the street cred of an Ogilvy, nor the blogger prowess of a Rowse. I lack the notoriety of some of the larger players in graphic design, yet I am quite an accomplished, award-winning designer. (I might be famous, it’s just that few people have ever heard of me.) Until now, no one has heard of a need for a revolution in branding, but it’s high time.

Why would I make such a claim? A branding revolution. Well, in my twenty-five year design and advertising career, I have worked with a metric ton of entrepreneurs, small to medium size businesses, and a couple handfuls of massive corporations with international reach. In all that time, with nearly all of those businesses, I have observed one alarming consistency: Few people actually believe in their brands.

How can that be?

What is your brand?

Brands started out as a way to mark ownership of cattle, or essentially as a sort of crude logo. The term ‘brand’ has evolved since then to mean a whole lot more for you and your business.

Simply put, your brand is your characteristics and beliefs, expressed visually, verbally, and by your actions.

Your brand is the pillar of your beliefs. It is the single most effective marketing tool you will ever have. If you don’t believe in your brand, you probably would be well-served to find a new job.

Why your brand is monumental

What happens when you don’t believe in your brand? Employees don’t believe. They work to collect a paycheck. They work less hard and sell less effectively because it’s hard to dedicate yourself to selling something you don’t believe in. Customers don’t believe in you either. Sales drop. Brand loyalty ceases to exist. Brand equity tumbles. Your position in your market is devalued. Your company is worth less, and people don’t care about you.

If you don’t believe in your brand, you have an express ticket to a sharp downward spiral, which can lead only to failure. This is a scary fact, and it can get a whole lot worse.

Brands have become weak

The three most common problems with personal brands, small business brands, and even large corporate brands are:
1. Lack of foundation in reality
2. Poor design lacking in sound strategy
3. Squandered opportunity

During the last few years I’ve watched a stunning amount of companies not just shoot themselves in the foot, but blow their feet clean off by developing brands with little or no foundation in reality. The result is a seemingly deliberate disconnect. Why would anyone do that?

Many companies skip strategy altogether, moving from some vague idea of who they are to an identity that fails to accurately portray them. This is really a shame because when it is developed right your brand is the most powerful, affordable, and valuable marketing tool you and your company will have during the entire life of your business.

If you are not personally invested in your brand, guess what? No one else will be either. Your employees won’t believe the spiel you feed them, and neither will your customers and prospects.

Branding is hard work

It is not hard to believe in your brand. But it is hard to create a brand you can believe in. It truly is hard work, and it’s an ongoing process.

Why is it so hard to create a brand with meaning? Most people do not understand their brand. They have no idea what is its purpose, what it stands for, how far it can reach, and how it effects them on a daily basis. Many companies do not understand what a brand actually is, and they lack an understanding of the process of branding.

Many graphic designers also are confused about what branding is, so when a company turns to a graphic designer for brand development, they often have no idea what they’re getting into. Sometimes they hire a designer who hasn’t the foggiest idea what branding is.

Branding is not something you pick up in a week or two, and it cannot be learned exclusively from reading. Good brand development requires an in-depth knowledge of strategy, graphic design, typography, web design, outstanding copywriting, a keen eye for detail, an understanding of people, business experience, and life experience, among other elements.

Most people believe that no matter the state of their brand, it must be a positive thing, but that’s not even close to the truth. Some brands are poisoned. Some brands are buried. Some brands lost their way so long ago that no one knows the way back. Some people believe that brands are worthless. I don’t know where this belief originates, but after spending about ten minutes with a person, I can usually figure it out.

Turning a brand around — revolutionizing it — is not an easy thing to do, but the effort is well worth it. Are you ready to revolutionize your brand?

Why is branding so hard?

Brands do not grow on websites. They are not available for $40 on ebay. You cannot design a logo, slap it on a business card and a website, and claim that you have a brand. You cannot set up a few social media profiles and claim that you have a brand. Yet, that’s what people are doing. They’re creating empty brands.

If you are shortchanging your brand development, you are shortchanging your success. You are telling yourself, your employees, and your customers that you are not worthy of their attention. Are you worthy?

My guess is you probably are worthy. Then I invite you to take this ride on Branding Revolution to change your life and your business.

Some key topics we’ll be addressing on Branding Revolution include:
• Finding meaning in your brand
• Personal branding
• Small business branding
• Staying true to your brand
• How your brand fits into your marketing
• Keeping your brand strong

It is important to understand not only your brand itself, but to some extent the process of branding. You don’t need to become a branding expert, but some insights will go a long way towards helping you get the most out of your brand or personal brand.

What are your experiences with branding? If you find this post inspiring, please add your comments. Thanks for reading.