Authenticity: Your Key to Success

Martha Stewart has said that she realizes she’s more than a person -- she’s a brand.

Your personal brand is a larger-than-life version of you. It’s the identity or role you play in your business, community and social spheres. It’s your overall image and how people feel about that image. Crafting your personal brand so that you have power, influence, respect, goodwill and loyalty from your public is the goal of PR.

When PR professionals help their clients create a personal brand, we don’t encourage them to act phony or pretend to be something they aren’t. Instead we encourage people to figure out what their strengths are, then play to those strengths.

Faking it isn’t cool. Just look at the serious dressing down Oprah Winfrey gave author James Frey for the lies perpetrated in his supposed nonfiction memoir, A Million Little Pieces. Ouch. That whole episode was painful to watch unfold.

Maybe one of the reasons Reality TV is so popular these days is because rather than watching professional actors playing scripted parts, we are watching actual people being their (supposedly) authentic selves. On reality shows such as "America’s Biggest Loser" and "America’s Next Top Model," ordinary people’s transformations fascinate the millions who watch.

But building an authentic personal brand is a larger effort than simply telling the truth or being yourself. It has to do with finding meaning in your personal and professional life, doing what you’re meant to do, following your unique path with real passion, and letting the world know about what gifts you have to give.

In the PBS series, “The Power of Myth,” journalist Bill Moyers interviewed the late professor and mythologist Joseph Campbell, who said that giving your gift to the world will have to come out of your own experience and the fulfillment of your own potentialities, not someone else’s. Campbell’s words echo Shakespeare’s, “This above all: to thine own self be true,” and Goethe’s, “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”

Pretending to be something you’re not creates suffering and confusion. Imitating someone else will never allow you to shine as a special star. So start out by examining who you are and how you can promote your unique value to the world. If you are feeling doubt, confusion or despair about your personal brand, just continue to deal with others in an honest and accountable way. Act upon your values and publicly affirm them. Be authentic!

The late Robert Terry, author of Authentic Leadership, said that “Authenticity self-corrects.” I think he was right.