Warnings on personal branding? I’m not sure what personal branding is—and definitely didn’t know it was dangerous.

Personal branding, defining and refining the you who you want the world to see, makes a lot of sense even if you don’t perceive yourself to be selling yourself or anything else.

Why? Even if you don’t perceive yourself to be selling yourself … you are. Unless, of course, you are a sociopath or a recluse. Selling yourself is really not a bad thing. Most of us would prefer to be liked rather than not liked; respected rather than disrespected; trusted rather than mistrusted; understood rather than misunderstood; heard rather than ignored.

Those are qualities and dynamics we like to sell. And they don’t sound very dangerous.

Personal branding sounds a lot less conniving when we use old adages to describe it, like put your best foot forward or you only have one chance to make a good first impression or dress for the part. [Read more…]