What’s Your Brand?

We are constantly bombarded with advertisements and slogans establishing a company’s brand. To this day, if someone mentions the company Alka-Seltzer, their tagline (from the 1970s) “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, Oh what a relief it is” automatically plays in my head. I’m sure there are plenty of examples of brands playing around in yours.

These days, “brand” is also applied to people. At first, I found this troubling as I was stuck in the mode of thinking of brand in terms of marketing. With time, I realized that brand, when it comes to people, is about impact – how you show up, what you care about, what you want to be known for.

There are plenty of examples in public life: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leading the Civil Rights Movement; President Jimmy Carter and his work with Habitat for Humanity; Steve and Melinda Gates for philanthropic work for world health. And there are those who have had direct personal impact – my high school English teacher who encouraged my writing, a boss who trusted me to get the job done. They all had brands – ingrained ways of being and doing that impacted those around them.

What is your brand? When you walk into … and out of a room … what do you want the impact to be? This bears thinking about. You have an effect in every interaction you have. You are in control of what you are known for. You choose how you show up. When you choose intentionally, your impact grows exponentially. And, when you practice it wholeheartedly and consistently, you have established a brand.

This Week:  Reflect on how you are showing up and the impact you are having on those around you. Is it what you want to be known for? Is it helping or hindering what you care about achieving? What do you want your brand to be? Be intentional about establishing it in all aspects of your life.