By Kevin Gephart

I believe personal branding is critical to us as “INTRApreneurs”  The idea of “a personal brand” is unusual to some people (i.e., you see this practiced among successful realtors).

There are many great resources for how to build your personal brand (Wikipedia is one, as is the chapter, “Positioning Yourself and Your Career” in the branding bible “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, by Ries and Trout. There are many others).

Let me explain why you need a personal brand.

Companies no longer assure “careers“ as they have in the past. I was told long before the Uber-era that we are in a gig society. We need to polish our skill set and our reputation/influence so we will always get the gig we want.

I was taught that every interaction with a prospect/client either leaves a positive feeling or a negative feeling; it is seldom neutral. Any interactions with prospects/clients should flow from a well thought out, well executed personal brand.  I would define personal branding as your intentional, unique, and authentic reputation.  Social media now conveys us all with a “reputation”. It has also made it very easy to design, implement, and nurture a personal brand.

In the era of a very noisy marketplace personal branding/influencing is more important than ever. Because prospects/clients decide in the first 10 minutes of meeting you whether you are “worth” their time; personal branding can make a critical difference.

You want the prospect/client to appreciate your unique combination of skills, experience, and personality.

Use your personal branding to differentiate yourself. Done well, you can unify your personal branding with your company’s in ways no corporate branding can possibly do.

Some reps let their personal brand develop organically seemly beyond their control. With some strategic thinking you can finesse your personal brand to depict you as a marketing leader.

As OOH reps we can/do exhibit many attributes of our personal brand: The problem-solver, the chin-wagger, the commercial visitor, the price-cutter, the schmoozer, the good ole boy, the sustaining resource, the creative resource, the model of integrity, the responsive rep, etc.

I always tried to position myself as a “resource”, as I had varied media sales/management experience and I was a student of the local marketplace, therefore I could offer a broad range of ideas. I would often close my conversations with, “let me know how I can be a resource for you”. It sounds better than “let me know when I can sell you something”.

The reality is sometimes management may want you to act in a way contrary to your brand.

Don’t compromise your brand, be smart. Don’t lose your job and don’t damage your brand.

Karl Eller (founder of Eller Media, now Clear Channel Outdoor) in his book, “INTEGRITY IS ALL YOU”VE GOT”, talks about the importance of staying true to your core.

When you craft and capitalize on a strategic personal brand…you own it!  100%!  It can’t be taken away by a job change or a management change, it will live on for your entire career.

Kevin Gephart spent 35+ years selling advertising including 12 years at Clear Channel Outdoor in Minneapolis. He welcomes your sales questions or comments.  You can reach him at kevinjgephart@gmail.com or by using the form below.

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