Cattle Call

The idea of developing a 'personal brand' has been a theme since I started this course in September. Our teachers have been promising that during our time at Centennial, we will develop our personal brand and eventually use it as a means to sell ourselves in the field. What, you ask, is a personal brand? That's what I want to know, too.

Self-branding seems similar to the idea of creating an online personality - it's just taking that personality offline and into the real world. Taking the aspects of yourself you are most fond of and most willing to develop, and turning them into your identity. And hey, while you're at it, why not throw in some traits you wish were a little more dominant, too?

But once you've created your personal brand, how are you going to know that it's a brand potential employers will want? And on the other end of the spectrum, what if that personal brand works wonders on your employers but eventually leads to conflict with your peers, co-workers, and future business partners?

Let's return to the Mercury 7. In the early 1960s, John Glenn (pictured with his Mercury capsule, Friendship 7) was the typical All-American - the clean cut, good looking, religious, faithful to his wife Marine. He quickly became the poster boy of NASA by showcasing these attributes at press conferences. But as Tom Wolfe flushes out in The Right Stuff, this all-around good guy brand that won over the American public was a source of conflict between Glenn and his fellow astronauts. NASA executives also found Glenn's good-guy brand to be a negative feature, as Flight Director Chris Kraft discusses in his autobiography, Flight.

So, how are we supposed to keep everyone happy? To keep ourselves safe and neutral, how many personal brands should we develop? Should we become two-sided, reserving a do-no-wrong-never-say-no brand for our employers while using the work-hard-play-harder-super-cool-guy brand on our colleagues? And what happens when we end up in a supervisor position and have employees reporting to us directly? Are we meant to develop a third laid-back-but-gets-it-done-while-still-enjoying-a-pint-at-lunch-with-the-staff brand?