What are your brands?

What happens when the logos that you wear become part of your brand – and then something changes?  Let’s talk about caveats in personal branding.

video transcript

I own 17 T-shirts, 14 collared shirts, 11 jackets, and two expensive pairs of shoes that all bear the brand of a company I don’t work for.  

“Brand” is an interesting thing. One early example of branding comes from whiskey – where distillers branded their logo on the barrels to show their pride that theirs wasn’t a commodity or sub-standard product. In fact, bartenders would display the barrels above their shelves as way to prove their quality products.

Today, many companies ensure you have a variety of wearable logos. And while some of them might only be suitable for trade shows; if an employee takes pride in being part of that organization, many end up wearing the shirts, jackets, the backpacks, the hats every day. When my wardrobe was full of Microsoft and Xbox logos, it started some interesting conversations at restaurants and airports. Wearing logos for my last company also created fun conversations with random IT folks. Last year, my wardrobe had four buckets, lots of green from my employer, lots of maroon as a former student at Texas A&M, a lot of scouting shirts, and then some “other”. There were probably days when I looked like a race car driver, with a variety of logos across my ensemble.

At some point, instead of you representing the brands, the logos you wear become part of your brand; part of your identity of how others see you and how you see yourself.

Some of what brands you is permanent, but other brands are temporary. So what happens when you no longer want to represent a brand? Maybe you’ve left the org or no longer root for that team. Some of my favorite “good jackets” last year are what I now wear just for camping or thrown in the back of my trunk “in-case”, since they’re bound to get stained or torn up.

Couple years ago, I simplified my life by purging some of my “good” activities to make more room to do “great” things. What I hadn’t anticipated was how much of my own sense of self was tied up in those roles. So, when I purged those endeavors, I was surprised how much of my social circles and some of my identity was also purged.

That was unsettling and forced me to ask 3 questions that I’ll offer you:

1. How do you define yourself?  What shapes how you engage with others?
2. Do you wear those brands? Maybe not logos on shirts, but do you visibly demonstrate those values or priorities?
3. If you left an org or team tomorrow, how would that affect how others see you and more importantly, how you see yourself?

See you next Monday