Personal Brands Take Time

In fact, building any brand takes time. That is why as marketers we are quite specific about using

the word build instead of others. Have you ever heard that House Martins song, 'Build'? Have you at least ever played with LEGO? It seems the desire for rushing things up comes natural to us, but we should not pay full attention to the final result we expect (mainly, because we never know what we can actually expect), but instead focus on every single brick and block in our construction. I would reccommend that anyone who's interested in building a brand read Keller's resonance model. It may not save you time, but it will save you tears.

Now, let's talk personal brands. While a business may have the opportunity of testing several brands and diversify their investment, you will have to put all your eggs in one basket. You are your only product, so you cannot afford to fail.

What else do you need to keep in mind?

You need consistency. It is vital that everything you do that reflects on your brand (pretty much everything you do that others can see) has to make sense with what you've done before. That doesn't mean evolution is wrong. You should evolve, and your brand should evolve with you, but you should not maintain your identity. Otherwise, you everyone will be confuse about who you are. What can you do to allow for changes should they ever be necessary? You can keep things general. But you have to define this from the start. For example, if your base your brand on your creative and innovative capacities, changes can be expected, as long as they are coherent with your innovative identity. If you build your brand around your artistic talent, you should think twice before giving it a conservative business look.