My Speech On Personal Branding
- Posted on: Oct. 9, 2008
- 46 Comments
So we were supposed to speak for 15 minutes each. Julia spoke for 40, she has a slide show with every scrap of bullshit press she ever had. Ive never seen Julia talk before. She’s an idiot. She says the stupidest shit. She curses constantly and lacks in sophistication. Her advice was to just be a fake. Just like her. She is actually proud of her lack of brains. She thinks it’s funny as long as she gets press. Julia represents so many things that are wrong with our society. I mean Non Society. Ill post some nonsense later.
Posted in 1938 Media, Dopes, Julia Allison46 comments
Her ‘advice’ was to be fake? Oh, wait.. what else COULD it be? Fake it till you make it is what cheapens the industry and devalues the notion of true quality and skill. Nonsociety boasts a ‘tech’ tartshop blogger with zero talent. I’d like to see her go head to head with Olivia Munn.
Good talk. Now I understand the context of your bullshit theory. The fact that Julia is on stage for it is priceless even if beyond her grasp.
ReplyLoren, great speech (brevity is the soul of whit).
Another point is not only does personal branding not scale, it also makes your business infinitely harder (if not impossible) to sell off.
For example, while you could sell 1938 Media if wanted to, Johnchow.com would be much harder to sell.
ReplyYup
ReplyJulia==Porn Star Branding.
ReplyI don’t need any advice from Loren Feldman on Personal Branding, ok?
For that, I watch all the videos here:
http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/
ReplyThere’s an MBA course in what you said: “Personal branding doesn’t scale.”That is brilliant…and a brilliant observation.
You made really great points–and “Do what you love and success will follow” is simply the way to brand (or gain reputation). It’s the only way to do it sustainably.
ReplyI could not agree with you more. Excellent speech.
Skitzzo has a good point…
ReplyYou and Gary Vaynerchuk are very inspiring. Julia, not so much.
Thank you Loren for the great video,
ReplyDaniel Kemp
Still digesting a lot of these points, but in a nutshell-f’ing brilliant. It was so refreshing to hear your perspective on this topic. I think this is still such a new concept, and people are trying to identify how to build up their public persona while retaining their dignity. Can’t wait to hear more from you on this subject..
ReplySo, you point out Julia’s a fake, and then go on to say nobody really knows anything about you. She’s using her name as the brand name shell, you’re using 1938media–but everyone talks about you, not the company name flashed in post-roll on the vids. What’s the difference?
Are you saying the fact that 1938media isn’t a person allows audience to accept more diverse and higher quantities of content because it’s not tied tightly to just you? Nobody gives a shit about your company name, they just love your entertainment, and the fact that you’re so unique is what burns an impression into everyone’s brain.
The company name is great for banking, hiring employees, getting corporate gigs and dealing with people who are accustomed to writing paper with entities rather than individuals. But customers know there are very few truly valuable and talented people in each organization and they try desperately to keep in touch with them, rather than being subject to the company’s branded umbrella, diluted by those who try to fulfill on what the principal has promised. Most often, that fulfillment is of poor quality. Scale, yes. But quality preservation, no. Scalability is only valuable if it’s accompanied by consistency.
You have many talents, some we know about, some we never will, based on what you choose to share or broadcast. But the experience of dealing with 1938media is personified by you, and your uniqueness in the entertainment experience will never be supplanted by a brand name.
Similarly, everyone knows Gary V’s got WLTV as his distribution channel, both for outgoing promotion and inflow of business, and that’s scalable. But nobody will be impacted by transactions with his company brand fractionally compared to experiences directly tied to him as an electrifying person…unless he somehow trains everyone on his staff to function with the same ethos, energy, customer service and passion. He may be one of few people on earth who could actually pull that off. FedEx sort of does, and a scant few other B2C companies do. Most can’t. Can you?
Replywould you be so kind as to share with us what was the occasion of this speech?
ReplyLoren Fan. Your comment was too long for me to read.
ReplySteven
It was a Personal Branding seminar put on by Media Bistro
ReplyI couldn’t disagree more. As he clearly states, he doesn’t know anything about personal branding. Yes, he’s on Twitter, and the relationships he creates with other people through those interactions IS his personal brand. Do you watch this video and thing “straight shooter”? That’s the brand association you’ve created. Do you think “grumpy ass who got beat up in school a lot”? That’s the brand association you’ve created too. Before making such declarations about personal branding, perhaps he should have learned what the term actually means.
ReplyHehe.. Basically, it’s a counterpoint put in a positive way.
Dig you, disagree with your assertion in the keynote, wanted to discuss.
ReplyDave,
You are in the business of selling this bullshit. Of course you’ll disagree. Personal Branding is a fucking joke, which I guess is why your business model makes me laugh.
ReplyAnd Dave? How come I was there and you weren’t if you are the “expert”
ReplyLoren Fan
Gotcha. I hear ya, but I’m right. Promise. It all means nothing. Your output, your work is your brand. My brand stands for the most creative funniest vids around. Period. They will be remembered, not me.
ReplySkitzzo,
People that come here don’t care about 1938media, they care about Loren Feldman.
ReplyThink it this way: if tomorrow Loren decides to stop making videos here and sell the site to John Doe (another video blogger), nobody will come back on this site. And at the same time if LF decides to make his videos somewhere else, his audience will follow. Because this is Loren’s audience and not 1938media’s.
Loren Feldman and his style, image, reputation and identity are the reasons why people “buy” (come here and spend time), thus he’s the brand.
Loren,
I can’t tell you how much respect I have for you as a man and artist. fuck these idiots who can’t wrap their heads around it.
ReplyAlex, I don’t care about any of this. I just like the videos. If 1938 puts out videos by other people that are entertaining, I will watch, and I do. So the brand is not limited to Loren, and that is smart.
ReplyAlex,
Point taken ,but at the same time, when I launch new talent here, you will give them a shot because 1938 Media stands for something bigger than myself.
ReplyDick,
The feeling is mutual my friend.
ReplyMy personal brand is a holiday. How dare you. This is basically outing all the bloggers out there who have been shoving this bullshit in front of advertisers. People like Scoble should be ashamed of themselves.
Thanks Loren for highlighting the truth again. You keep on saying what we are all thinking
ReplyLoren,
Yeah, the more diverse the people and content become, the more 1938 Media will stand for something bigger than Loren Feldman.
ReplyIt was nice meeting you and your girl. Great job.
ReplyKeep on posting these amazing, funny videos that make me laugh to tears!
Thank you Loren!
great speech, thanks.
ReplyLoren: I was there. It was funny as hell. Julia was Julia, Gary was great (as usual), but I have a new appreciation for you. Thanks! Mark (AKA @cheeky_geeky)
ReplyThank you Mark. Glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyLoren…I wasn’t there, and I couldn’t be bothered watching the video. What were the key points?
ReplyI have no idea what the word “brand” means. What I do know is that the stuff that goes online is not me, it is a representation of me and can be associated with any bunch of stuff. My job is to make people think what I want them to think when they see my name or avatar.
Now it doesn’t always work
but I do interpret that online image as a brand of sorts, in that there are connotations associated with it when people see it.
I also think it’s very difficult to fake and that if you are a twat, you will come over as a twat, but if you admit you’re a twat does that make you less of a twat because you are being honest and twats tend not to be honest.
Interesting, 8 mins of video has made me stop work and think for 30 mins.
This raises more questions than it answers.
ReplyThis is good. I knew “do what you love” but would sometimes see money and chase after it. And it just sucked. Had to relearn the hard way what I knew all along.
ReplyAlex,
1938media stands for edgy videos. Right now it happens to be all Loren but if Loren sold the site to someone tomorrow and they came out and put out videos with the same edge etc, it would still provide a platform and an audience for the new owner.
And, as Loren mentioned he can easily expand out with new talent. That’s the scalability factor.
ReplyReally interesting post, Loren! I do agree that people overplay personal branding and underplay reputation. In my Amazon bestselling book ‘How to Build Your Reputation’, I explain why. In a nutshell, your personal brand is that blend of all the cues, images and messages you give out, from the way you look to the way you walk and talk. it’s your website, your business card, your network and the way your skills and values manifest.
Your reputation is more crucial. It’s what people think, do, feel and say when they come into contact with you or those messages. It’s people’s perceptions of your personal brand that ultimately dictate whether you get the job, make the promotion or win the deal.
I say your reputation is your REP - Reason Everyone Pays! When people pay you money, attention and respect, you’ve got a great personal brand that leads to a phenomenal reputation!
ReplyRob, the book plug is a bit in poor taste. Dontcha think?
ReplyI loved the comment on how personal brands do not scale. My only question there, names like Steve Jobs scaled up fairly well, though not through a twitter account or anything like that. Movie actors are in the same boat.
Having said that, I think you are completely accurate that personal branding is not a goal to strive for.
ReplyContent, content, content…
Personal branding is a fraud, just like all the fluffy branding advertising web-social-media-early-adopterish Scobleified professionals that think a cute logo and a blog write-up will sell non-working broken stuff. The content makes the brand, not the other way around.
No one knows what John Irving dresses like (or cares), and he still hits NYT lists bigtime. Nicholas Sparks, could walk around in his torn underwear, and still sell boatloads of torture pulp. The content becomes the brand, Irving’s moody New England panache, Sparks with mountains of cheese-whiz romance. And Wolfe still all harks back to Right and Bonfire, living offa Kool Aid fumes forever, Alice in Wonderlandish White Suits notwithstanding, and he’s been lacking in recent hits. The branding becomes bigger than his work. And then Stephenie Meyer with the made-for-bad-TV cliched-beyond-all-eternity Mormon Vampires, and given her bland cement-clunks style, I already picture her in some Victorianish 18th Century Amish dress, covered in football-field of fabric, neck to toe, light blue, with minimal frill, without a hint of inviting French V-Necks.
People buy the new AC/DC, because they want to hear that 70s clean-hard-rock headache-induction screaming, not Richard Wagnerifiefd Gesamtkunstwerk. People flock Joel and Ethan Coen as they expect a quirky off-Hollywood beat, if Coen went bad David Zucker (and bad is beyond redundant here) then all the personal branding in the world couldn’t save them.
Personal branding is just ego, without a body of work to support it or blogger spew.
ReplyStyle vs. substance. The thing is Loren, your content has its own style too. That’s the brand. Julia is doing her thing and will fade into the background noise as Paris Hilton did. Unless she can come up with a second act she’s fated to fade. 15-minutes can only last so long.
Personal branding is a kin to business branding for consultants. Those who offer substantive value will last. Those who don’t won’t.
ReplySubstantive value? That doesn’t scale either, mass culture and the market, doesn’t exactly will out to the highest ideal, look at Microsoft or Walker, Texas Ranger. And Paris just a hooked new MTV gig. Pond scum sometimes rises to the top; with great talent ending up stuck on a VH1 ‘Relive the 80s for the 80th Time, Whatever Happened To’ special. Why? Acts of God. Life is absurd.
Branding is just a mental picture, nothing more, all this buzzwordy wind, moving nothing.
Replylove your work, love you cut the bullshit, just signed up for the password protected videos and i can’t wait to see what you share on there as well!
ReplyNice work.
Once we’re talking scalability, you’re all correct, 1938 Media can take on new people and grow to something bigger than Loren Feldman. But in addition to that point, which is, essentially, extending into space, non-personal branding extends into time, too. I’d like to think that if I spent a good portion of my life building a brand, I wouldn’t want it to die with me. There is a long term sense in which your personal brand can, at best, degenerate into a non-personal corporate brand that happens to have the same name as a person that once existed. I guess we’re all mostly marketing for the here and now, but I like to think I’m building something to endure.
Replyunitil this post i didn’t know who she was and now I’ll never forget… barnding works
ReplyChristopher Coulter…
You couldn’t be more wrong about Walker, Texas Ranger. That is some high end shit. Paul Haggis material.
Say ‘hi’ to Ann for me. She’ll know.
ReplyPaul Haggis material? Ummm, he created it, of course it be “Paul Haggis material”. Paul either goes drama without end, deeper meanings inferred, Crashy blah blah, or long-arc Black Donnelly, even then it was drama without an end, but then that’s real life. Walker is written well, but the execution just doesn’t make it, it’s cheeze-whiz Everest high, heck it’s worldwide known for it’s camp.
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