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If you don’t think a personal brand is important, take a look at Bryson DeChambeau.
Following DeChambeau’s epic U.S. Open win, a lot of the commentary hasn’t centered so much on the level of his play but rather the measure of his character. He was always an exceptional golfer, as an amateur and a pro. Yet, he was never particularly likeable. As golf writer James Colgan put it, DeChambeau, just two years ago was “despised by crowds at most major tournaments and cast off by fellow players,” and known as “the guy who fought petulant battles and stepped on every conceivable rake and viewed social media as a personal invitation for self-flagellation.”
That’s low praise indeed, and it’s also 180 degrees from how the golf world views him today. He is affable. He is charismatic. At a time when many professional golfers stay in their zones throughout a tournament, DeChambeau banters with the crowd, gives more than his share of fist bumps and high fives, and laughs at some of his own mistakes. He is hard not to root for.
That’s the power of a personal brand.
I’ve talked to many financial advisors about branding over the years, and invariably, they scoff when we wander into the concept of personal brand. I don’t blame them. The term invites cringe, conjuring images of Instagram influencers mindlessly hawking themselves or their products. Worse, advisors fear that a focus on personal brand will make them look egotistical or self-absorbed when they really want to keep themselves and their practices focused on their clients.
I get it, but you must also consider how people view you personally. DeChambeau is successful not simply because he’s exceptional at golf but because he has worked hard to change the way others view him as a person. That has won him fans. Similarly, as an advisor, you are probably very good at the nuts and bolts of your daily work, but true success comes from your ability to connect with your clients. Yes, you have made your clients money and persevered and protected their families’ wealth, but so has everyone else. It’s what you do. The reason you attract and retain clients is very often because of what you believe. That means you are projecting – through social media, marketing, or communications –what is important to you, what values you cherish, or what drives you. When you marry what you do to what you believe, you show people who you are. That, in sum, is your personal brand.
Yes, defining your personal brand is that easy. So, why does it seem so loathsome or difficult? I’ll take a mea culpa for my industry. Marketers tend to overcomplicate these kinds of things. The irony of marketing and communications is that we often engage in the oxymoronic task of trying to create authenticity for people and brands. There’s the old saying – attributed to folks like Groucho Marx and Jack Benny, but really penned by French novelist Jean Giraudoux – that “the secret to success is sincerity. Once you’ve learned to fake that, you’ve got it made.” So, we have convinced ourselves and our clients that we have to find the absolute perfect word or image rather than looking or sounding like ourselves. AI has made it even worse, with ChatGPT spitting out word salads of corporate-speak and image enhancements that make headshots look like low-grade anime.
It’s OK, from the standpoint of personal brand, to be who you are. If being who you are is somehow lacking, then, as DeChambeau showed, there is always room for improvement. After all, just as your business evolves with the markets and client needs, so, too, do we, as humans, continue to evolve. Your brand may change over time, but you will always be you.
So, no more mulligans in avoiding the talk over personal brand. It’s important if you want to win more clients from outside the ropes, which, as Bryson DeChambeau showed, is key to truly winning respect as a champion.
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