The always excellent Nilofer Merchant has a great piece in HBR this week on getting the right focus about your personal brand.

She argues that brand-as-marketing misses the point. Your brand should be the essence of what you offer. The brand follows the work. It should answer these two questions:

• What is it you care about?
• How will you find and work with allies?

Agreed.

At TMWK, we say your personal brand is a calling card that says:

“Let me show you what I can do.”

“I am part of the solution. I can help. Let’s talk.”

[In times of flux], people will say, in return, “Thank you.”

Merchant calls this onlyness.

Good stuff!

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