The Four Hour Work Week Project – Allison Reynolds

One of the stumbling blocks I have had with personal branding is worrying about the little bits about me that are not perfect (and that I would like to change but probably can’t). Thing is, if you give enough value and are genuine enough your tribe/followers/gang will forgive you those foibles anyway.

In fact I am starting to suspect that some of these foibles are left by these people because it is PART of their brand, not a detriment to it.

There are some classic examples in the circles I follow

Ed Dale of the Thirty Day Challenge is spelling challenged. There was a brief shining moment (after the release of 30DC+) when his spelling improved and I instantly thought that he was having someone else write his stuff *narrows eyes*.

Dan Raine of the excellent Immediate Edge can’t help himself but announce things that are delayed. If Dan ever announces something and it happens on time there will be a collective gasp of amazement from people that follow him.

Frank Kern is known to lose interest in his projects. Stephen Fry gets depressed at times. I am pretty sure you could name the imperfections of people you admire as well.

I once asked someone I admire why they didn’t follow me back on Twitter and they said that there was too much “cock talk” and their followers followed who they followed and they didn’t want them affected by my adult vocabulary. I could have taken that and gone “OMG they hate me!” but instead I thought about what they said, weighed up whether to change, and realised that would be changing a part of me that is ME. I am very adult-swim and that isn’t going to change.

While I would rather be known for the good work I do, maybe it’s not so bad to be recognised for an imperfection, than not being recognised at all.