3 Ways You Could Be Damaging Your Personal Brand Offline

In personal branding, every impression counts, so don’t leave a bad one.

Consistency is the golden rule of branding. And it’s no different for your personal brand. In this post, I’ll explore three ways you could be creating inconsistency in your offline personal brand. And breaking trust in it.

Let’s explore risky personal brand business through a culturally trending example.

Love them or not, it’s undeniable that ‘the Sussexes’, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, have a widely-watched personal brand. And it’s not always for the best reasons. They’ve suffered more personal brand challenges than most public figures in recent years.

Their branding challenges were not lost on the creators of the animated sitcom, South Park.

In February 2023, they released an episode titled ‘The Worldwide Privacy Tour’. The episode takes aim at the couple's calls for privacy. Calls made while amassing astronomical media partnerships. This includes a six-part Netflix documentary, podcast series and three-part book deal. All supported by a PR blitz that would make the Kardashians blush.

It seems the South Park team had their finger on the pulse of public sentiment. In January 2023, Prince Harry released his biography, Spare. Said to be the best-selling non-fiction book of all time. But, the polls following the release showed the couple’s popularity plummeted into the negatives.

Despite having many loyal fans, why have the Sussexes garnered as much disdain? Including from turned fans. From a personal branding perspective, it’s at least in part due to violating the cardinal rule of personal branding - consistency.

Consistency builds trust and trust builds loyalty. Through relentless consistency, trust takes a long time to build. But, it is broken quickly. This explains the once rockstar royals’ lightning demise from wider public favour.

You don’t need to be on the royal stage to take personal brand consistency seriously. Inconsistency could also be quietly killing your personal brand.

We often believe rapid brand damage occurs with poor choices online. And, as I explored last week, you could be hurting your personal brand online in several ways. But, now we’re going to focus on offline faux pas.

Here are the simplest ways you could be damaging your personal brand without even realising it:

1. Speaking badly about people who aren’t present

Carl Jung popularised the concept that “perception is projection”. Meaning that anything that we experience externally is a result of our internal state. Including your thoughts, feelings, values and beliefs.

Personal branding asks you to define your personal brand values. When you’re crystal clear on your personal brand values and the beliefs underpinning them, it’s your guiding compass for your actions.

Speaking badly about people who aren’t present would likely violate at least some of most people’s personal brand values.

Have you noticed that people who speak ill about others only make themselves look worse than those they’re speaking about? When you do this, it’s your brand that suffers. You display an inconsistency that immediately breaks trust in your brand.

Our values unite us. When your actions display a lack of your values or violate other people’s values, you break trust. Much of the criticism Prince Harry received for his tell-all biography, Spare, was that he violated universal values.

2. A poorly maintained shop front window for your personal brand

Research has shown that first impressions are formed in less than a millisecond.

Have you ever had a senior executive visit your desk, and imply obvious disapproval of what you thought was organised chaos? I did - as a young professional, albeit in a much less paperless era. But, from that point onwards, I understood the power of the shop front window of your personal brand. I now keep a desk so clear it would impress cleaning extraordinaire, Marie Kondo.

Whatever your office space, maintain a standard you would be proud to align with your personal brand style. If you want to be known as professional and organised, is that what your workspace says? Remember, it is part of the retail experience of your personal brand.

3. Misaligning your personal brand’s actions and words

Like in business, personal branding requires you to be clear on your key messages. When you know your messages, you find every opportunity to communicate them.

The Sussexes, for example, have strong messages on the environment. However, are often criticised for being jet-setting eco-warriors. The mixed messages don’t sit well with a lot of the public.

This is also true for their criticisms of the media. They have come out against the media for several years. But this makes the couple's openness in allowing a six-part Netflix documentary series into their homes confusing. And through numerous other interviews, they used the media against their families. Something they were criticising the same people of doing.

You may not have multi-million dollar media deals. But, whatever your equivalent, ensure you’re actually living your key messages. Actions speak louder than words. And they need to be consistent with each other.

Trust in your personal brand can take a long time to build. But, it can be broken quickly. Inconsistency is one of the quickest ways to break personal brand trust. Act in alignment with your ideal personal brand. And others’ trust in it will grow.

So, is your personal brand consistent offline?

PS. Learn what three mistakes could be hurting your personal brand online in last week’s blog.