Is Personal Branding For Real?

It is easy to name your favorite brands, for sure. But what about your own brand? Today I joined the Recruiting Animal as his radio show guest for a high-energy debate about personal branding. You can listen to my defense, err, the debate here. It is strange to me that so many people react to personal branding as a farce or a non-event. Being the best isn't enough when there are alot of people who are the best (make the company the most money, are "A" players, land the blue chip clients). You have to explain how it is that you CAN land the blue chip clients. Otherwise, while you've made the top ten, you're only sitting pretty in the ten spot.

In my recent guest entry on the thoughtLEADERS blog, I talk about how Apple's iPod's have such a large percentage of the market share of mp3 players. Are they technically the best? Maybe, maybe not. But they don't brand the product on technical features. It's about the cool factor, the click wheel, the design, the colors. That's their iPod brand.

So for all you detractors out there, please go ahead and keep doing a great job at work. Alot of people do a great job. If you're one of them, how do you stand out? What combination of features, of behaviors make you the one that's remembered?