This is probably the single most important thing that you need to remember about personal branding.
Rule number one, be memorable.
People need to remember who you are.
There were eight billion people in this world.
In ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine percent of them are completely
forgettable.
How are you going to be remembered among those eight billion people, how are you going to stand out?
That is the number one biggest challenge you have in developing a personal brand.
Anthropologists have looked at people and how they organize themselves and things like villages, and
historically there was an upper limit on how big that village could be and usually it was around two
hundred people.
And when we look at who people are able to associate it with some level of personal engagement and to
some extent who they're able to recall when they're thinking of specific events or being able to recommend
somebody for something, usually that limit is around two hundred people.
So given that limited capacity of people to remember other people, you need to put a lot of effort
into just making sure that you're remembered.
And to highlight that point.
We're going to cite.
One of the most renowned business professors in the United States comes from the Stanford Graduate School
of Business, is Jeffrey Pfeffer.
And if you haven't heard Jeffrey, I highly recommend that you check out his books.
He's probably most famous for his books on power.
So how people gain power in organizations are able to keep power as CEOs, for example, even when they're
not very good at the job.
Very, very fascinating research.
But Jeffrey also gives us key insights in terms of what's going to be important in building a personal
brand, and let's look at this quotation.
Being memorable equals getting picked.
Now, what Jeffrey is talking about is not personal brand, he's talking about his power getting promoted,
for example, getting that CEO position, that senior director position, whatever it is, wherever
you are in the corporate ladder.
But one of the most important things he's saying is that if you're not memorable, you're forgettable.
You're not even in the consideration set.
Nobody's even thinking of you.
You're not even in the game.
But because you're memorable, even if there's some slight negativity or risk associated with how people
remember you, at least you're being considered.
And that's what you're trying to do when you're developing a personal brand.
You need to be considered and to be considered.
You've got to be memorable.
Let's look at another quote from here.
To become memorable, do things that are somewhat unexpected.
Dress or talk in ways that draw attention and mostly don't follow all the rules of behavior so closely.
OK, so what he's pointing out here is basically that most people are conformists, they're following
the rules of behavior.
They're doing things as is expected.
They're staying in line.
But if you really want to be memorable, you need to do some things that show that you're not a conformist,
that you're a little bit different, and it doesn't necessarily mean you go and you trash the office
or do something dramatic and negative like that to get attention.
It can actually be somewhat subtle thing.
So, for example, how you dress, maybe wear bright colored ties when nobody else even wears a tie.
Or maybe you have some sort of distinctive glasses that really stand out, or maybe there's something
that you're closely associated with, like having pictures of animals in your office, these types of
things make it easy for people to remember because maybe they're a little bit quirky.
Maybe the way you talk, maybe you're known for your heavy Southern accent, something that you tried
to suppress all these years to fit into the Midwest or wherever you are.
But maybe that accent is actually what makes you iconic, makes you memorable.
What you're trying to do is get attention.
You need to do some things to get attention and they don't necessarily have to be overdramatic, but
they have to be noticeable and they need to stand out enough that people are actually able to remember
you as a unique person instead of just falling into the sea of people in the office or whatever your
work environment is.