Lessons for Overcoming Business Challenges and Building an Enduring Personal Brand.
“Your brand is your public identity, what you’re trusted for. And for your brand to endure, it has to be tested, redefined, managed, and expanded as markets evolve. Brands either learn or disappear.” – Lisa Gansky.
The way how one presents oneself professionally and personally has a huge impact on business success. One’s personal brand becomes their presentation card, first impression, and competitive advantage wrapped all in one. For this reason, personal branding is no longer just an option in today’s hyperconnected world, but has become a priority. It’s about how people find you, evaluate you, and above all, decide whether to work with you or not. However, to the challenges that this supposes we must add the tough times that any business can experience — that bump in the road in which many brands get trapped, others give up and the most skillful and determined overcome to continue to the next level. In many cases, it is these crises that test not only the solidity of a brand’s identity but also the veracity of its strengths, its commitment to its objectives and its ability to manage itself in unfavorable circumstances.
In this article, readers will find real examples, with valuable testimonies from their protagonists, of winning cases of personal brands that have known how to maintain and strengthen a personal identity in the face of setbacks, and how that can make a difference in the possibilities of success. Their insights serve as guidance for both aspiring entrepreneurs and established businesses, highlighting the most effective strategies for achieving an authentic and compelling brand presence, even in challenging times.
Marina Byezhanova, Co-founder of Brand of a Leader
Many leaders equate personal branding with reputation management, and yet there is so much more to it. When done correctly, a personal brand amasses a strong network of inspired audience members. In turn, this protects us in times of crises, which we all face as business leaders. One of my crises came during COVID when every single client put their projects with my organization on hold, faced with the uncertainty of the markets and unpredictability of their own internal structures. Having built my visibility, portability and a platform, however, I was able to turn to my digital audience with transparency and vulnerability sharing my organizational challenges. Within a few days of that same week, opportunities began to trickle in and – within a few months – they began to flood in. All because of the connection I had built with people that I did not even know, but who knew me, through the power of my personal brand.
Kayley Hamilton, CEO & Founder at Uplvl Agency
We are in a time when it’s no longer just B2B or B2C — it’s H2H: Human to Human. Successful founders today are growing their companies by making themselves visible through their personal brands. A personal brand behind a company sets it up for success and resilience because that is what builds a loyal community of people. Through a personal brand, a relationship bond can be built one to many. And audience loyalty to a real human can outlast loyalty for a company. During times of adversity, humility and empathy can be communicated and connect with audiences through a company’s founder. It’s much harder to personify that coming from a company. An entire industry is built on covering personal brands, and that’s Hollywood news. As a former celebrity reporter, I’ve seen how celebrities lead with their personal brands to garner media attention for their current project or collaboration. That’s because they know that is what entertainment media outlets cover and these publications cover the person behind the character because that is what their readers want. People want to feel connected to other people, so as a business owner, if you lean into the narrative of your personal brand, you’ll build long-term loyal audiences.
Giuseppe Quarata, Chairman & Founder at Quarata Consulting
Well, if you have a well-defined brand that is recognized for something you do, the reality is that the brand itself will generate sales. What I mean is that brands like Nike, or Lego will always sell even without any marketing at all because they have such a great brand that there is a full community of people that would keep buying it. Nike recognized that adding a personal brand like Jordan to their brand created a movement that was based on the person of Michael Jordan and that not only increased their revenue but also built a community that will keep buying and investing in that brand even when they go through hard times. This is one reason why brands should be made from people for people. Creating brands that give to the community will help to receive back during times of adversity. A personal brand can also help you create organic growth. Organic growth is one of the three growth levers, and it significantly adds to shareholders’ value because every new dollar of EBITDA generated is multiplied by the industry multiple that the company sells for.
Shannon Powers, Chief Strategy Officer, SVP at kglobal
If you’re in the entrepreneurial world and I reference black turtlenecks, gray hoodies, or orange glasses, chances are you immediately conjure the images of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Seth Godin, respectively. That’s the pull of a strong personal brand.
Of course, the clothing is just the trapping. The real power lies in what those artifacts represent in your mind. Steve’s turtlenecks stand for creativity and immaculate design. Mark and his hoodies are a heuristic for technical expertise prevailing above all else. And Seth’s orange glasses are shorthand for bold thinking and being willing to swim against the current.
The value of a personal brand extends far beyond capturing associations in the popular imagination. It becomes a shortcut for a whole set of assumptions about how you will relate to your clients or customers, navigate partner relationships, report to investors, and treat employees. This type of influence can be a major factor in the success and resilience of a company, particularly during challenging times. And it holds as true for startup CEOs as it does for a news broadcaster or the matriarch behind a mom-and-pop shop.
As a Senior Vice President of a consulting firm leading our PR team, I’ve relied on the personal brand I’ve cultivated over my professional years to help sell new business, attract and retain employees, and navigate a lot of change.
Our team recently underwent two acquisitions, leaving us with a third parent company in just four years. That kind of transition breeds feelings of uncertainty, which is inherently destabilizing. If not handled well, there’s a risk of both clients and employees jumping ship.
There can also be a countervailing force, one that helps steady the waters: providing a sense of security in leadership and how you will handle what’s to come. But words without prior supporting evidence will go so far. A strong personal brand can help bridge the gap. That’s because a personal brand is about others already experiencing you.
In my years leading this team and working with our clients, I became known for setting high standards and respecting the whole team’s opinions. So when I spoke to junior employees about the transition, rather than shop the market, they wanted to stick around to see where our future led — because they knew I would invite them to play a part. When I spoke to clients, they expressed confidence that I would continue to ensure the team did whatever it took to achieve excellent results.
None of this would have been credible had I simply made an assertion. But it was what I was known for that made a difference when needed most.
The best personal brands are authentic, rooted in a differentiated approach, and serve as an easy-to-grasp representation of your complex beliefs and behaviors. The good news is that leaders who are clear on their values and priorities have a head start in building their brands. They just need to make sure that it shows up in everything they say and do. And if you have a memorable physical representation .. all the better to remember you by.
Evan Zall, Owner, President at Longview Strategies
Commerce is driven by community, community is driven by trust – and an authentic personal brand can be a powerful cornerstone of that trust. CEOs who are open, thoughtful, and consistent in their message and narrative become voices that audiences rely on for information and, in challenging circumstances, a sense of security. When difficult times come around, a well-cultivated personal brand opens the door for leaders to provide comfort in the moment, confidence in their outlook, and a path to improvement.
Of course, creating that personal brand takes patience and practice. Don’t expect trust to compound overnight. Find your voice, your values, your passion, your expertise, and put it all together in a long-term pulse of insight and commentary across multiple channels. You’ll find it can build into a brand that generates great value, not just to you and your company, but to the community that looks to you for guidance.
Andrew Hall, Founder, Fund Manager at PaperClip Asset Management
Your branding as a fund manager is your armor. It’s the first thing anyone will care about when researching your fund, and a good leader at the helm is the difference between investor confidence and total failure.
These benefits can be broken down into X factors that are essential to success.
Trust: Simplest of these points is the basic trust in your competence and respect for your person. The ability to trust in your expertise is almost entirely dependent on you as a manager. Many failed managers will try to paint investors as overly suspicious, but this is the exact opposite of the truth. In the world of fund management, the best investors are actively seeking reasons to say “Yes” and build a working relationship with you. Speak precisely, manage your affairs with due consideration, and give a genuine smile. There is no secret trick to build trust–at the end of the day, the only way is to be your best self.
Delineation: You can’t begin a relationship if you can’t be noticed, so your iconography matters. In a crowded market, the quality of your branding is defined by good taste (which is not half as subjective as people with bad taste insist.) The real objective of branding is to put a wrap of professionalism on your best self, and so it is important to keep things subtle. Good personal branding in your clothing and grooming is gold, and a well-managed social media presence is platinum. Give these things a significant portion of your attention as you set up your business and you will go far. After all–Steve Jobs was known for his turtleneck in the public consciousness before the iPhone.
Communication: Problems are going to happen. In the world of business, through no fault of your own, disaster is a constant companion waiting to show up again. When the going gets rough, you need the skill to communicate effectively with all involved parties, speaking to them in the terms they care about and with the intention of maintaining confidence.
A CEO who neglects his investors will soon lose them. A CEO who doesn’t support his team will find them disengaged and half-hearted. A CEO who balks at public opinion will find their whole company sinking with them.
On the other hand, an effective CEO with a long and storied history of effective communication will have the implicit faith of all involved parties–His investors will assume he has a plan even before he tells it, and his team will be eager to contribute to designing and implementing that plan for maximum efficacy. If communication is the nerves of an organization, the communication skills of the CEO are its brain, and the buck ultimately stops with you. Know what you want to say, and say it precisely and without excuses or meaningless self-aggrandizement.
Teamwork: Speaking of your team, you can only have one when your personal brand is strong, and I can prove it with a simple thought experiment: In the absence of projects and politics, just as an individual person, would you rather spend your time with the awkward and robotic Mark Zuckerberg, or the fiery and weird Elon Musk? There is a lot to be said for your personal sense of enthusiasm when it comes to attracting talent.
Another issue at hand is that far too many CEOs think that you get an amazing team with cash incentives or stock options, and surround themselves with useless yes-men as a result. The plain truth is that a truly exceptional team that will work miracles comes from a place of passion, and no other place. Passion is a playful notion which is sometimes uncouth, but universally understood by instinct. To ignite the passion of your team is the easiest thing in the world.
If you want experts, you must have a plan and produce wonders. Exceptional people do not settle for mediocre plans. Socrates said “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom” and that notion has not changed in thousands of years since.
In conclusion, a strong personal brand helps an asset management company succeed and remain resilient by encouraging relationships, setting oneself apart from rivals, exhibiting flexibility, facilitating efficient communication, drawing in talent, and developing a solid long-term reputation. A person’s capacity to retain stability and navigate uncertainty can be greatly enhanced by their personal brand during trying circumstances.
The value of a personal brand can not be overstated. Humans think in narratives, and all other forms of thinking are artificial. Your personal brand as a CEO is your way of selecting your place in the narrative sphere that makes up the collective understanding of the world that people, writ large, use to navigate society. Iconic archetypes like the heroic visionary, the wise king, or the brilliant and disruptive trickster are as old as the written word and still form the basis of branding to this day.
Know yourself well, and you will understand what people expect of you implicitly. From there, you can create the wonders that build your reputation, the expert team members that will implement those wonders, and the systems of communication that allow you to maintain that reputation when disaster comes to visit.
There’s nothing more powerful than an old idea, right?
Dielle Charon, Founder and Business and Sales Coach at Dielle Charon Coaching
A well-crafted personal brand keeps the business successful and resilient. If sales are lower than the goal, we know exactly what our purpose and mission are and how to make decisions based on this brand.
When we are experiencing rapid growth and need our team to be strong and ready for the challenges of growth, the decisions are clear and centralized around the brand that has been created. This means that in Dielle Charon Coaching, freedom and emancipation for women of color is our mission. We keep this as our vision and brand vision is created from this. With our assets, we think through what portrays this vision. We choose a lot of black and white to give that historic feel of freedom as well as social justice.
I can easily make sales decisions with my brand as the driving force. I do not need to share every part of my life, but my well-formed brand helps me to know what to share and how to drive it back to sales.
Jerry Brook, Creator and Author of Good Together
All branding is personal branding. Relationships are personal. Every company is made up of individuals. Companies are an inanimate entity. They are nothing more than words on paper, articles of incorporation.
There are no companies without any employees which make up, and therefore, represent the company. Each of those employees makes a contribution to the branding of the company. If one of the employees makes a misstep it is seen as a reflection on the company. That is why so many companies now react and respond quickly and decisively when their employees are involved in, or perceived to be involved in, unacceptable behavior. Not even the CEOs are immune to disciplinary actions, up to and including termination.
When I worked for a Fortune 500 company, the clients were considerably more interested in me, and my abilities than the company’s image.
Personal branding are the relationships that stand behind every company transaction. I enter into a contract with an individual because I believe that I know them and can trust them. If people believe in us as individuals, they are much more likely to extend a certain amount of understanding for our imperfections.
There is no magical company doctrine that governs the integrity of a business while superseding the very people that make up that business.
Can anyone deny that Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg? Can we deny that Twitter was Jack Dorsey, even though at the end he only owned approximately twenty percent of the company.
And as for Tesla, Space X, and X, these are all abstractions of the personality of Elon Musk. In other words, all of these major corporations are the personal brands of their leaders.
Facebook wasn’t the first Social Community website. Tesla isn’t the only electric vehicle manufacturer. So why did they survive and thrive, while others didn’t? It all comes down to personal branding. People believed in, and bought into, the personal identity or personal brand, of the founders.
A company doesn’t claim to care for and encourage healthy relationships, I do. A company didn’t create an app with the purpose of assisting people in finding, building, and maintaining healthy relationships, I did. Only a person can express and uphold values.
I would also assert that this is the reason why so many second-generation companies fail. The personal branding of the founder does not transfer onto either the company or to the successors.
Regardless of the situation, it all comes down to the character of the individuals who embody the commitments that are made. That is the personal branding of the employees.
Sam Kadel, Founder at KBA Web
As CEO, I firmly believe that cultivating an authentic personal brand represents far more than just public image control. It serves as a powerful strategic asset for leading effectively and navigating challenges. My personal brand solidifies trust by openly showcasing the vision and values steering our company’s direction. This human connection galvanizes teams and stakeholders alike behind a greater purpose transcending profits. Perhaps most critically though, maintaining credibility through personal brand integrity becomes the ultimate crisis mitigation tool. When faced with adversity, owning accountability and transparently demonstrating resolute principles positions me to uphold confidence while charting a path forward honorably. Personal branding is essential competitive armor that, properly harnessed, propels organizations through uncertainty towards sustainable success on the merits of respected leadership.
Kal Wiggins, CEO at Epic Designs Lab
In challenging times, a distinct personal brand is the key to standing out.
By building your audience and leveraging your personal brand for your company, you can improve customer loyalty, align your values with organizational goals, and more clearly define your value. All these can become the deciding factor for your prospect choosing you over your competitor.
When leveraging your brand, keep in mind that authenticity is crucial, so focus on providing maximum value and be yourself. It should help you increase trust with your customers and prospects, reduce churn, and be a valuable asset to help you edge out the competition.
