And yet, as David mentions, I contradict myself openly because I know that I need to brand myself for my own work. And maybe that's the critical distinction. I brand what I do…I can never brand who I am.

I agree with David Zinger when he said, “My brand is only a guide not some narrow view of myself that I always have to fit into.”

I'd love to understand your perspective though. How is it that you feel restricted in your personal branding?

And I would never consider you disingenuous for voicing your concerns. I consider you engaged.

Thanks so much for adding a fresh perspective to the dialogue.

I agree with the reputation part of branding. It's similar to what Rosa proposed as Ho‘ohanohano. We carry our reputation and integrity with us every day and everywhere we go. Where I fall off the boat is the notion of unified impression. This is really where my point of the renaissance person kicks in. To intentionally limit ourselves in order to fit into a brand model is poor bargain. Yet, as Bill mentions below, there is some benefits to working from a Twitter profile approach.

There really are no right answers here, which is liberating all on its own.

When it comes to how we work in an organization, though, I think that strategy definitely is iconoclastic.

Your introduction and your “brand” is what's in your focus *right now*. When you introduce yourself, distill it to the reason why you're there.

Your reputation is what those you've influenced have seen – a meta-brand, essentially.

The danger in personal branding is taking the exercise to the extreme and getting personal about it. The self is non-existent and impermanent. But the more we identify with it, the more susceptible we are to potential pain (conceit, low self-esteem) or perhaps a constriction of potential (if we have established tight boundaries).

Personal branding is much less what we say about ourselves and more about what others say about us. It helps me to get outside of myself by hearing what others say and what they think.

I am certainly more than a brand and my brand is only a guide not some narrow view of myself that I always have to fit into. of course, I easily get carried away into a million things and my intention with branding is to bring back the focus. I will be redoing my website this September and I want to have a tighter focus that really contributes to what I want to offer others beyond a great batch of interesting articles on engagement.

The value for me is to keep thinking about strengths, value, visibility, authenticity and how I engaged in these.

I believe personal branding can play a very vital role in employee engagement. Help employees recognize their strengths, value, and visibility and they will be less vulnerable to work changes and shifts.

I love the dialogue as it is getting me thinking in helpful ways about projects I am currently immersed in. Thanks to each of you.

There are many interests from which to choose, however, In practice over only the last 4 months, the twitter short profile concept has directed me down a path where I now have an elevator speech, (people are engaging and asking focused questions about my intentions), a business plan is in progress that supports this profile, and I am branding myself. Short and easy.

The twitter profile as a seed inspired this “branding”, not so much as about “me” but about a problem, about a cause, about a solution.

I feel confident I will survive my branding, I have another few ready to go when wild salmon return to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I'm resisting the temptation to think about it now.