Beyond celebrity pimping - Glasshouse gets into personal branding

I really enjoyed & admired  Thomas Gad and Annete Rosencreutz's book 'managing brand me'.So much so that I actually...

May 29, 2008

I really enjoyed & admired  Thomas Gad and Annete Rosencreutz’s book ‘managing brand me‘.So much so that I actually created a personal brand profile on this basis.  

My personal brand essence is  ’creative analysis’ - or so I decided, back in 2002.

But it has recently struck me though that the model of rational, spiritual, functional and emotional self is great for achieving personal brand consistency,  it lacks ‘interactivity’ as a model.  It gives good guidance on how to talk to myself, but is not so much help on how to talk to others. Great for guidance on how to behave, but not on how to achieve.  

To address this, we have added two interactive dimensions to the model - the economic self and the altruistic self - drawing out the rectangle into a pyramid something like THIS.

The logic is simple: take everything you stand for on the 4 Brand Me dimensions: R vs E & S vs F and translate it into an action model for your personal bottom line - how your brand will generate personal wealth ( Me Inc. ) and how you will create social impact (Me.org).

At Glasshouse we’re starting to use this approach as a planning tool for clients like Andrew and Nada Kakabadse, Isaac Mostovicz and David Butter For each of them, in different ways, we are enabling them to build a personal brand identity at a key moment of life change. A bit like counselling and a bit like branding, it’s an interesting sideline to the day job, trying, frustratedly to change the world.    

Maybe though, this personal branding is actually a better solution - helping others, who are far better equipped, to change it even faster…Certainly there’s no shortage of clients. As more and more of us embrace a portfolio career, devoid of corporate affiliation Me Inc. becomes the critical profit centre…and we become more and more obsessed with personal reputation.