Episode 82
The Personal Brand Show (Pt. 1)
March 31, 2017 · Mike Murphy
EP82: THE PERSONAL BRAND SHOW (PT. 1) How To Build A Personal Brand: Episode Summary: What is a personal brand? What does it take to build a personal brand? 5 core principles or steps to building a brand.
Episode Summary: Part 1 of a 2-part series on building a personal brand — what a personal brand actually is, and the 5 core principles behind building one from scratch.
What You’ll Learn
- What a personal brand actually is, beyond the Wikipedia definition
- Why starting before you feel ready matters more than any other single factor
- The 5 core principles behind building a personal brand
- Why teaching and sharing knowledge builds authority faster than almost anything else
“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” — attributed to Confucius
This is Part 1 of a two-part series: today covers what a personal brand is and the core principles behind building one; Part 2 covers the exact strategies and processes used to build the Mike Murphy brand specifically.
What Is a Personal Brand?
Per Wikipedia: “Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands… the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual, group, or organization.”
In simpler terms: a personal brand is building a business around yourself. Showing up and being genuinely you is the whole requirement — building a living around your own skills and uniqueness, doing the work you actually love.
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” — Jeff Bezos
How to Build a Personal Brand
Start yesterday. Put yourself out there — press upload, press publish. Let people into the process and the journey. Earlier is always better. Worth revisiting: Gary Vaynerchuk’s Document vs. Create — building a brand is fundamentally about community, relationships, and trust, and the more people see what makes you genuinely different, the stronger the brand grows.
Develop your skills. A strong personal brand isn’t a guarantee — it has to be earned against a lot of competition chasing the same attention. That means reading, watching tutorials, and practicing relentlessly.
Create often and with consistency. Sharing what makes you distinctly you — voice, style, signature approach. Daily creation builds real self-awareness over time: what you’re good at, what you’re not, and what actually makes you happy. When unsure what to make, try everything even remotely interesting and just start making things.
Treat it like a business. Personal branding has a genuine operational side — time and money both need managing.
Teach or share what you know. The more knowledge shared, the more you’re perceived as an authority — and in a crowded, noisy space, being seen as a trusted resource is one of the most reliable ways to stand out.
Wrap-Up
Personal branding is the ongoing process of marketing yourself and your work as a business brand.
To build one:
- Start as soon as possible. People are drawn to the behind-the-scenes view — don’t wait until every piece is in place.
- Practice and hard work. Real skill is what rises above the noise.
- Create often and build a body of work. More creation, more consistency, more people paying attention.
- Get organized and hone business skills.
- Teach. Sharing knowledge builds trust and authority, and confidence follows from helping others.
- Time. None of this happens overnight — it takes real time to build.