The Important Personal Branding Advice Nobody Ever Gives Your Small Business

If you hang around with other business owners, you’ll find we’re careful about what we say to each other. You have to know someone very well before you’ll venture a comment like, “Isn’t he really all smoke and mirrors — a big fancy guru act but he’s really broke?” Or, “She talks a good game but she’s really living off her trust fund.”

So I rolled my eyes when I read a well known marketer’s post on Facebook (I changed a few details):

I got B’s in college, not A’s. ⁠ My family wasn’t especially wealthy. I grew up in a quiet little town. ⁠

There is nothing in my past that’s exceptional. I didn’t inherit a trust fund and we weren’t well-connected. I did know how to relate to people and how to talk to all kinds of people. I managed to talk my way into modeling assignments for a top magazine.

All I can say is, “You must be kidding.”

As a former college professor, I can tell you that lots of people who went on to get PhDs and teach weren’t straight-A students. One of my most successful colleagues couldn’t spell. He had to get an assistant to review his many well-published papers.

Being a B student who’s “from an ordinary family” hardly places you at a disadvantage…