When your personal brand takes a hit

This week’s blog is by guest blogger, Rochelle Moulton, of Be Unforgettable Media, Inc.

Our personal brand is vital to our success as professionals and small business owners. Rochelle shares some good advice on what to do when something goes wrong in your business, and your personal brand is on the line. How you handle it can make all the difference to the future success of your company.

Lori

When your personal brand takes a hit

By: Rochelle Moulton, Chief Branding Officer for Be Unforgettable Media, Inc.

Being a public figure makes a fall from grace particularly humiliating. Witness Paula Deen’s self-propelled implosion last week: lawsuit, racial slurs, bungled apologies, fired from her biggest platform.

But just because you’re not a fixture on cable TV doesn’t mean your personal brand can’t—or won’t—take a hit now and then.

It can be your own damned fault—or a series of outside events that pull you into your own personal tsunami.

What matters most is what you do with it.

Crisis experts have a prescription for handling this, which is way harder than it sounds:

• Do your homework so you completely understand what happened;

• Share just the right amount of information (too much or too little will backfire); and

• Above all else, Be honest.

Honest, as in a heart-felt “I’m sorry”. If delivered humbly and appropriately, it is a very good start to show that you “get” the harm you’ve caused.

But it’s not enough to just say I’m sorry. You have to also do the hardest part, which is: take action. You have to get to the core of the issue and fix it. Until you do, your mistake demonstrates who you really are more clearly than a thousand successes.

And here’s the rub when we’re talking personal brand: There are no short-cuts. The change—the hard, deep work—has to come from you. It’s your actions, your promises, your worldview—YOU—that are in the bull’s eye. You’ve got no one to blame and nowhere to hide.

The silver lining? If the hit to your brand wasn’t lethal, it just may win you some converts who will admire your new-found wisdom.

_____________________________________________________

Rochelle Moulton is the Chief Branding Officer for Be Unforgettable Media, Inc. in Los Angeles, California. She works with consultants, executives, published authors, and social change artists by providing them with compelling personal brands that expand their reach, influence and revenue. For more information, visit her website; or her LinkedIn profile.

Lori T. Williams is a 23 year attorney based in Birmingham, MI. She owns a legal referral and legal consulting business called Your Legal Resource, PLLC. She assists individuals and small businesses in need of legal advice or representation by connecting them with the right legal specialist for their situation. She also provides consulting services for attorneys and other professional service providers on how to generate more business through effective branding, marketing, networking, and by creating strategic partnerships. For more information, visitwww.bestlegalresource.com.