For the rest of my readers who don’t follow Shelly as religiously as I do, we were conversing on Twitter about an awesome conference she’s at and was encouraging me to attend: SOBCon 2010

I bet you have certain core values that carry across your multiple talents and interests. Even when you are acting out the legacy someone else’s name stands for.

I read some of your work when I can because it is smart. But I am often confused if you believe in brand strategy or not. Even in this post AND your last statement in your comment is the latest example.

Think about strategy for those becoming or sustaining something remarkable, those are the referrals we get. Not a commodity or generic hire or one size fit’s all consultant at $200/hour – reading books and blogs is for them – but someone or a culture of people with desire to change conventional wisdom – those people ask for the brand manager. They are not interested in the authors of trendy self-promo, personal development personal brand”ing” for help. That is not what it is about and it is obvious most marketers and citizen journalist online don’t know this difference (personal or business brand).

How many brand managers do you know on twitter?

As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m a big fan of the idea of building a brand around a person – I do it for my clients and I’ve spoken on the topic and taught techniques in university classrooms. But I object to the discipline of branding becoming a proxy for self-help, professional development, or truly personal integrity – and I see that as the trend right now.

To me branding is about creating a space where you and your customers can meet to share value – and in the case of “person brands” that space can’t be IN the person being branded; it has to be BETWEEN that person and the customers they want to address.

Fun post and seeing a side of you that normally might not be shared with all. Is that not personal brand authenticity in itself?

For me the definition of personal brand authenticity is more about the person than the role. I too play a number of roles other than consultant, but the whole me is what my personal brand is.

Sometimes people will look to bring parts of those other roles to work because like you they are passionate about what they do in a number of areas and that reflects more of the person and their overall brand and they want to convey that.

You say not to, or you do not feel comfortable with it. That’s okay too, after all you should not be expected to do something you are not comfortable with.

Personal brand is resonating with more people because thel ines between professional and personal are blurring and many people are comfortable with expressing and sharing that. Those that are not then the notion of personal brand is not going to appeal to them.

Much like all brands, they are not for everyone and they can make that choice, that is the beauty of branding.

Just my toonies worth