When I was a wee little boy growing up, I wanted to be a fireman. It seemed considerably more achievable than becoming a ThunderCat or Batman, which were my other career choices when I was 8 years old.
At school I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do as a career. Potentially something arty or sporty, but back in the ’90s I was told neither of those were moneymakers, so I had to think about getting a proper job.
Today I would classify myself as a designer and educator helping the next generation of creatives build more opportunity for themselves. That feels very aligned with who I am now. But I’ve also been a barman, factory worker, waiter, tattoo apprentice, window cleaner, failed businessman, unemployable bum, and many other things on the journey to finding this particular version of me.
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And that is one of the wonderful things about being a human: Nobody really freaking knows who they’re going to become.
The person you are today is probably very different from the person you were five years ago, and if you’re doing this thing called life properly, there’s a good chance the person you’ll become five years from now will look different again.
And from what my mum tells me, that’s completely normal.
Most of us are making it up as we go, collecting experiences and continuously falling forward into newer versions of ourselves. We’re supposed to evolve.
So in this little article I want to share my perspective on a topic that I think deserves a little more questioning: personal branding.
More specifically, I want to explore why I don’t think humans should think of themselves as brands, and why applying brand logic to a human being can potentially do more harm than good.
Brand logic vs. human logic
Now, I’m not here to suggest that personal branding doesn’t exist. That would cause a riot. Instead, I’d like to challenge some of the advice being peddled around willy-nilly on the dopamine drug train that is social media.
To do that, I think we first need to agree on the difference between brand logic and human logic.
A brand’s job is to reduce complexity.
Brands are trying to be recognized at scale, and for that to happen they need to simplify things. They need to make themselves easier to understand, remember, and choose. They do that better when they’re associated with a couple of very clear ideas.
Humans, on the other hand, operate very differently, my friends.
We change our minds all the time. We become interested in new things. We learn stuff, we grow our minds, and then we see the world differently because of it. And an important thing to add is that humans don’t naturally operate at scale. We evolved in small communities and tribes, not in front of thousands of random people online.
So if brands become stronger through consistency and humans become stronger through change, are we really sure those two things belong together?
That’s why I find phrases like “You are your brand” and “Everyone has a personal brand” a little, well, problematic.
Being known for something and being a brand are not the same thing.
I understand that these phrases are often being used as shortcuts, but even when I account for that nuance, I still think they fundamentally misunderstand what a brand is—and what a human needs.
People should know you exist
I don’t want this to come across as a rant or a black-and-white argument, as some of the advice coming out of the personal brand camp is incredibly useful.
Visibility matters, for sure, because if nobody knows what the heck you do, how on earth are they supposed to hire you? Other people need to know you exist, people.
I absolutely believe humans should become known.
Known for doing good work, having interesting ideas, standing for something, and making a positive impact on the people around them.
But becoming known and becoming a product are not the same thing.
Being known, or what most would simply call a reputation, is something people gift you over time. It forms through your behavior and the way you consistently show up for yourself. You don’t have to manufacture it, force it, or spend every waking minute trying to manage how you’re perceived by others.
A reputation happens naturally as you continue growing into the person you’re becoming.
A dangerous shift
And this is where I think we can run into trouble. Because the moment we start thinking of ourselves as a brand, our focus can shift. Instead of asking, “Who am I becoming?” we start asking, “How will this look to other people?”
The danger is that we start viewing ourselves through the eyes of an audience before we’ve had a chance to fully understand ourselves. We start looking at ourselves from the outside in.
At first, that might not sound like too much of a problem. In fact, it actually sounds pretty bloody sensible. If you’re running a business, surely you should care how people feel when they see you.
But I don’t believe growth and perception always want the same thing.
The thing about growth is that it can look a bit messy from the outside. You change your mind, let go of old ideas, and, more often than we’d like to admit, realize you got something wrong. That’s all part of the process.
And brand logic doesn’t particularly reward that kind of thinking.
Brands gain strength through their consistency. They keep showing up in roughly the same way until people know exactly what to expect from them.
And I think that’s where a lot of people can run into a bit of an issue. The more successful a personal brand becomes, the more pressure there can be to keep being the person your audience already knows—to keep talking about the same things, showing up in the same way, and feeding the machine that made people pay attention in the first place.
That’s the personal brand trap.
The human becomes responsible for holding on to a version of themselves they may have already outgrown. And as we see more people choosing freelance careers, building solo businesses, and creating opportunities for themselves online, I think this becomes an increasingly important conversation to navigate.
I know that perception matters, visibility matters, being known matters, and creating opportunity matters. But so does growth as a human being.
Perhaps the challenge isn’t figuring out how to turn people into brands. Instead, it’s figuring out how to help people become known without trapping them.
Someone worth paying attention to
I’d hate to think that personal branding, the very thing so many people turn to in search of more opportunity, could end up becoming the thing that stops them from becoming who they’re supposed to be.
So if I can leave you with a little bit of advice here it would be this: Focus on the things you want to be known for, but don’t lose sight of the person you’re becoming along the way.
Maybe the goal isn’t to manage perception at all. Perhaps it’s simply to become someone worth paying attention to.
Humans are supposed to evolve.
Brands are supposed to repeat.
The problems arise when we start applying the rules of one to the other. So don’t flatten yourself into a product mindset just because the internet tells you that’s the secret to success.
Focus on becoming known for your craft, your kindness, and your character. Keep sharing what matters to you, because opportunity has a funny way of finding people who do.
Just please remember to sprinkle a little patience on yourself along the way.
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