The Rotting Age of Personal Brands
No, I do not have a personal brand. You shouldn’t either.
In our current influencer culture, many people are building a personal brand to sell products, classes, even themselves, to pursue wealth and fame. But this pursuit is a hollow pathway to burnout, shame, or - worse - personal destruction.
Trust takes time to build… and an instant to destroy.
Consider the very public examples of the last couple of decades: Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos1, the Fyre Festival2, Dan Bilzerian3, Jussie Smollett, Kevin Spacey, not to mention the countless religious leaders who have been outed4… the list goes on—public images destroyed in an instant.
In most cases, this was because what was inside didn’t match what was being sold on the outside.
In pursuit of fame, wealth, and status, these individuals hid what was rotten underneath, took advantage of people, or outright misrepresented themselves. In the societal cult of ‘fake it till you make it,’ the con artist is king. But when the con is over, the repercussions leave society in shambles. We were not built to trust quickly and be manipulated at this scale. But the fame-building of social media charisma has created a dissonance. We trust quickly, love too boldly, and take a vengeful turn just as quickly.
People crave authenticity, and that yearning for authenticity can be devastating when someone we believed was credible is a charlatan. We want to feel like the person on the other side of the phone screen, speaking up at the podium or preaching from the pulpit, has earned that trust placed on them. So when leaders fall, the destruction isn’t just exclusive to them… we feel it too.
Credibility is Trust
Credibility is ‘banked’ trust. It shows people that you say what you mean, you mean what you say, and your actions back that up.
The personal brand would tell you, “Because I’m awesome, you should buy this thing.”
The personal brand ties itself to products.
Its value is wrapped in metrics and sales.
And the personal brand will sell at any cost.
The personal brand is designed to sell and profit. All other considerations are secondary. The personal brand is prone to shortcuts, get-rich-quick schemes, and selling oneself to a desired end. It has no qualms with a change in stance if the check clears. It makes strange bedfellows, practices art-of-the-deal chicanery; all in an effort to expand itself: cancerous, reckless growth.
How do we avoid this fast food binge of celebrity and society self-destruction? It starts with us.
You don’t need a personal brand. You need a personal ethos, a foundation of beliefs you stand on, not perform for.
Ethos has taken on many shapes over the thousands of years it has been studied. In the original Greek, it meant "character or a custom. In our modern time, it has two distinct meanings:
In rhetoric (persuasion)
Ethos refers to the credibility, trustworthiness, or moral character of the speaker or writer.
Or at a macro level:
In culture or society
Ethos can also mean the characteristic spirit, values, or beliefs of a group, community, or organization.
Ask yourself: what would you die for? Who would you die for? Why?
The ideals and people you would die for form the bedrock of your sense of self. These foundations won’t shift or move if a temptation comes begging to be ‘sold.’ I was taught once: there are things you write in the sand, and there are things you carve in stone.
What will you hold hard and fast to when tested?
These are beliefs and values you hold, whether individually or as a community, that weather storms and the societal collapses described when faulty personal brands and selfish leaders run amok.
It may look like Proverbs 4:23
"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."
The heart (your inner self, ethos) is the source of action, not an image you project to attain value.
Or for others, maybe it looks like Confucius
"The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions."
A Confucian ethos centers on internal virtue, relational harmony, and ACTIONS that reflect it; not self-promotion for personal gain.
Brene Brown's work is a more modern example of thought around ethos, credibility, and the inner self. While a great deal of her writing concerns vulnerability, her deeper work is about living wholeheartedly from a grounded place with clear values, courage, and consistency of character.
"Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; choosing what is right over what is fun, fast, or easy; and choosing to practice your values rather than simply professing them."5
Our inner ethos does not demand its way.
It doesn’t demand respect or status.
Our inner ethos does not crumble or shift with the waves.
It is not fragile.
It does not boast or break others.
It remains and sustains a life of consistent values through action.
A personal brand will protect its revenue stream at all costs. It will maintain wealth and access without compromise. It is obsessed with maintaining or growing its ‘seat at the table’ with the algorithm, in committees, staying on top of news cycles, or fighting to keep the flock in line. This drives personal brand self-promotion and outsized ego trips.
But someone living in their ethos maintains SELF, demands less, and offers more. The strength of a personal ethos is that, at a moment’s notice, you know how you would respond to hard questions, external criticism, and healthy opportunities for growth. Because rather than a personal brand that nomadically jumps from one opportunity to another, your basecamp is always within sight.
Without the fragility of a revenue stream, with a personal ethos guiding you, you can make room for others.
AGAIN, ask yourself:
What would you die for?
Who would you die for?
Why?
Start here. Let’s build our personal ethos and find our inner selves.
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Theranos raised over $700 million on false claims of revolutionary blood-testing. Holmes was later convicted of four counts of fraud and sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2022. Informative documentary: The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (HBO, 2019)
McFarland (organizer of the Fyre festival) pleaded guilty to wire fraud and served 4 years in federal prison. Documentaries: Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (Netflix, 2019), Fyre Fraud (Hulu, 2019)
Dan Bilzerian gained fame as a social media influencer showcasing extravagant luxury—cash, models, yachts. Meanwhile, his company Ignite International Brands lost over $50 million in 2019 due to heavy marketing and high operational costs ; his extravagant lifestyle was propped up by leasing residences and others paying his expenses.
I could write an entire post JUST ABOUT this list: Ravi Zacharias, Mark Driscoll, Bill Hybels, Carl Lentz, Jerry Falwell Jr., James MacDonald, Ted Haggard. A simple google search returns damning receipts.
Brené Brown, Dare to Lead (2018), Chapter 2: Living into Our Values.