Branding, leadership consultants discuss personal brands

Posted by Elena del Valle on March 18, 2011

Be Your Own Brand book cover

Photos: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

David McNally, a film producer and author, and Karl D. Speak, a brand building consultant and author believe everyone has a personal brand. They think of it as the way that other people perceive who a person is and what he or she stands for. Building a personal brand, they say, is about understanding who someone is and wants to be, and identifying the right way to share that impression with others in a genuine way.

The best way to do that, according to them, is to “make a positive difference in the lives of others.” In 2002 they published the first edition of Be Your Own Brand, a book about personal branding. In Be Your Own Brand Achieve More of What You Want by Being More of Who You Are Second Edition (Berret-Koehler Publishers, $19.95) published this year, they share their original ideas on personal brand building and expand on the changes that have taken place since they published the first edition.

They are convinced that the concept of a personal brand has become more accepted in the business environment; and that social media is playing a role in facilitating the development of personal brands. The idea behind a personal brand is to create a brand that is distinctive, of interest to others and “consistent in the way it is perceived and presented,” they say.

Karl Speak

According to the authors, someone with a strong personal brand uses his or her qualities to make a difference in other people’s lives. The 143-page softcover book is divided into ten chapters and three main sections: Personal Brand Basics, Designing Your Personal Brand of Making a Difference, and Using the Power of Alignment to Build a Strong Personal Brand.

McNally’s books and films have been translated to twelve languages and been available in twenty countries. Speak founded Brand Tool Box Ltd., an internal branding company, in 1984.