7
Rebranding
If ever someone needed to ditch an old personal brand and start from scratch with a new one, it was 16-year-old Alfred Yankovic, an introverted college freshman who had spent most of his sheltered childhood alone in his room playing the accordion.
After skipping three grades along the way, Yankovic—you know him as Weird Al Yankovic—wound up as a teenage outcast at California Polytechnic State University—pining to be one of the cool kids on campus but never being able to pull that off.
He tried. Four hours away from his overprotective parents, he rebranded himself as “Al,” which, he assumed, sounded cooler than “Alfred.” He knew nobody, so nobody knew that he had been two years younger and twice as smart as most everyone in his high school class, had never gone on a date, and spent his evenings listening to radio DJ Dr. Demento, a comedian with an oddball take on music and life.
But the guys in the dorm called him “weird Al” anyway and stole his clothes while he was in the shower. That changed when one of them befriended him and helped him channel his “weird”—and his flawless mastery of the accordion—into a hilarious musical parody show that lit him on fire with popularity.
Today he’s a gazillionaire who has sold more than 12 million albums and has fans all over the world.
Yankovic couldn’t shake the “weird,” so he leaned into it. He branded himself as so weird—a different kind of weird than he grew up with, though—that the college kids, and eventually, millions of fans, consider him the coolest of the cool.
That’s what the awkward, geeky introvert from suburban Los Angeles wanted: to be one of the cool kids.
Still an introvert by nature, he rebranded himself as an outrageous geek, and in the process found a way to showcase his enormous talent and his inner entertainer to find success.
Today when people call him “weird,” it’s a compliment. In fact, that’s the name he gave his brand: “Weird Al.” “Weird” is what he sells—for lots and lots of money and fame.
IS YOUR BRAND WORKING?
One of the basic principles of personal branding is that everybody has one—even if you didn’t choose it, create it, or even know about it.
Seven-year-old Weird Al didn’t sit in his room and cook up a brand that would sell him as a weirdo. What kid wants to be considered weird?
He hid in his room and, starting at age seven, learned how to play thousands of songs on the accordion. Perhaps if he thought about branding at all (but, really, what seven-year-old does that?), he thought his brand would be “master accordion player” or “amazing musician.” It wasn’t, at least back then. It was just plain weird.
“Weird” is what others thought about him, even if that’s not how he thought of himself. Others assigned him that brand.
Still, by age 16, he knew he had to rebrand, and he so did. So can you.
IS IT TIME TO REBRAND?
If your brand isn’t working for you because it’s no longer a good fit—or perhaps it never was—it’s time to rebrand.
Here’s how to know when it’s time to rebrand.
1. Your Brand Has Created Itself
That happens to people who don’t believe it’s important to consciously and carefully craft a brand that will help them sell themselves. They might not think they have a brand, but they do. Others observe their behavior and listen to what they say and come to conclusions—including many assumptions about the person—right or wrong. In short, others will create a brand for you, whether you like what they choose or not, if you don’t create, live, and sell a definitive brand for yourself.
That’s what happened to Bradley, a really tall, way-too-skinny college freshman with a high-pitched voice who just seemed to say the wrong thing at the wrong time too often. He interrupted people when it wasn’t his turn to talk. He laughed out loud when others around him would think laughing was inappropriate. Sometimes he stood up in the middle of class or during a conversation and walked away, presumably because he was bored.
Although he was smart, very kind, reliable, and interesting, Bradley had few friends. Even the kids he grew up with in his neighborhood didn’t know he had these qualities because the immature flaws were so much more obvious.
When Bradley, a brilliant writer, got passed over for the job of captain of the college’s debate team, he confided his disappointment in a trusted professor, who gently explained that his personality was holding him back. Others had assigned him the brand of “goofy, inappropriate, and oddball,” which is what he was selling, even though he was whip-smart and uber-talented.
With his professor’s help, he rebranded. His first move—a pure Bradley move, for sure—was to start wearing thick, black eyeglasses, even though his vision is perfect. He believed others identify those who wear glasses as smart.
Then he ditched his hoodies and high-water jeans (not a fashion statement; he was just too tall for his pants) and started dressing nicer for school. He started counting to three before he spoke, which stopped most of his knee-jerk, sometimes inappropriate reactions to what others were saying. And he quit trying to engage his classmates with his personal stories and instead talked about the books he was reading and the short stories he was writing.
By the time he graduated, Bradley not only was captain of the debate team; he was valedictorian and was selected to make a speech at graduation. He’s still a bit of an oddball, but his brand is more “quirky intellectual” than “goofy college kid.”
2. You Have Outgrown Your Original Brand
If you were savvy enough to create a brand right out of high school or college that helped you sell your way into a great job, career, or relationship, kudos to you! But the brand that was perfect for you when you were 18 or 21 might not work for the 30- or 45-year-old you.
I was all ears when a young couple who moved into my neighborhood told me the story of how they met.
They went to the same high school, and both agreed that they absolutely could not stand each other. She came from a wealthy family, was sort of spoiled, and made her priorities clothes, boys, and cheerleading, not necessarily in that order. Her brand: “too cool for school.”
He rode his bike to school, wore long hair before long hair was cool, and palled around with a group of guys who smoked in the parking lot in between classes, if they even attended. His brand: also “too cool for school,” but in a much different way.
They simply didn’t run in the same crowd. But when they ran into each other at their 20-year high school reunion—both single parents by that time—it turns out they both had become chefs, and they shared a passion for cooking and traveling.
She traded her spoiled rich-girl brand for one that sells, “I earn what I have.” He rebranded from “looking cool is more important than being smart” to “being smart is cool after all.”
Chances are good that your life doesn’t look the same now as it did when you were starting out. Your brand shouldn’t, either.
Regularly updating your brand keeps you in touch with what you want to sell now and gives you the most important tool for selling it.
3. You’re Ready for the Next Level
Whether you’re ready to go from worker bee to boss, from single to married, from childless to parenthood, or from an established career to a new one, you need to rebrand.
Millions of people came out of the pandemic needing to rebrand after using their downtime during the lockdown to reconsider how happy—or unhappy—they were with their careers and their lifestyles.
Carlotta is one of them. Carlotta was a stay-at-home mom for the six years since her second child was born, after she and her husband had decided she would quit her job as a personal shopper at her favorite boutique so she could raise their kids full-time.
She loved her job, but she loves her kids more. After a stressful semester of pandemic-induced homeschooling and her littlest one’s entry into first grade, Carlotta got the itch to go back to work.
This time around, though, she wanted to be a store manager—or at least work her way up to that. She knew clothing stores, like so many other businesses, were having a hard time finding good employees, so she started filling out applications. She expected to get multiple job offers.
She did—but not for managerial positions. The hiring managers wanted her to work as a stylist or a salesperson, and all of them—including the manager at the boutique where she worked six years ago—gave her the same reason: “You don’t have management experience.”
“Oh, yes I do,” she said to herself. Her work running her house and caring for her family had given her the skills she would need to supervise employees, organize inventory, and otherwise see to it that the store operated smoothly.
She needed to rebrand. So she reorganized her résumé into skill sets instead of into a linear timeline of where she worked doing what job. She prepared a list of managerial skills and the specific household and family tasks that require those same skills. She researched the stores’ policies, merchandise, and histories so she could offer suggestions for improvement. She bought a beautiful pantsuit from a boutique that was just the kind of shop where she wanted to work—and wore it to every job interview.
It took some doing, but she convinced one store manager to hire her as an assistant manager in charge of inventory and staffing. Her new brand: “manager material.”
4. You’ve Lost or Changed Your Passion or Purpose
I know more than one teacher who left the field of education because of a lack of support from higher-ups and parents. I’ve met lots of sales reps who burned out after a couple of years on the job because they worked for bosses who pressured them into meeting quotas instead of spending time getting to know clients and their needs.
What seemed like dream jobs when they accepted them felt more like nightmares as the years wore on—and so they changed careers, some pretty late in life.
What they did next: They rebranded.
A career change brought about by disillusionment can be harder than you might think. Teachers, sales reps, and many other professionals attach their identities to their jobs. Unlike Carlotta, who wanted to step up a level in the same field, these people are starting over in new industries, or creating their own businesses, or dropping out of the workforce altogether.
That can call for ditching the old brand and creating a totally new one.
The good news, as you’ll read later in this chapter, is that rebranding—no matter how drastically you want to change—draws on the parts of you that never change just as heavily as it incorporates the “new you” that you want to present.
5. You’re Stuck
Once you’ve done the same thing for a long time, others tend to stereotype you into that role. That makes it hard to win a promotion or even make a lateral move, because nobody believes you can do anything besides what they already know you can do.
It happens to actors all the time. Could Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) star in a romantic comedy after playing a police officer on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit for 20-plus years? Even in the three TV series that Matthew LeBlanc starred in after Friends, did he ever play a character very much unlike Joey? Can you remember seeing Vin Diesel playing anything other than an action hero in the movies—even though he has?
You can get typecast at work as the new guy. You can be remembered for the big project you messed up, even though you’ve saved the day many times since. You might always be the one who drank too much at one holiday party five years ago or who missed a big presentation by showing up on time at the wrong address. You can even be pigeonholed as so good at one job that there’s no way the boss would ever want to move you to another one—even though you want to go.
That’s when it’s time to rebrand. If you’re asking yourself, “Why do they keep telling that story?” especially when you’ve been trying to change the script, it’s time to rebrand.
You can show up to your old situation with a new brand, or you can start fresh with it someplace else. Either way, the only way to get unstuck when others with long memories won’t let you soar is to create a brand that will sell you as the person you want to be known as, not the person they knew you as.
6. You Blew It
It happens. Sometimes we go far off brand in a moment of desperation or because of a regrettable lapse in judgment.
Look at America’s favorite mom, Lori Loughlin, who played Aunt Becky on Full House and the most wholesome characters in a slew of family-oriented Hallmark movies before getting caught paying bribes to get her daughters into a prestigious university.
It’s not impossible to recover from an off-brand fiasco, but it’s not easy.
Rebranding is usually required in these cases. And the second time around, it’s a good idea to choose a brand that you can actually live up to. Remember, branding doesn’t stop once you create your brand. You have to live your brand. You have to sell it.
If you do, you might pull it off. I know an event planner who was the administrative assistant in the events department of a large company. She did the detailed logistical work of reserving convention halls and hotel rooms, ordering coffee and food, troubleshooting problems for clients attending the event, and keeping the workflow going for the printing of programs and name badges. Her boss, who was the events manager, spent much of her time marketing the event and nailing down celebrity speakers.
The assistant had started at the company right out of college and had a lot to learn. She learned well, but her colleagues and manager always viewed her as young and inexperienced, even after five years.
When the events manager retired, the administrative assistant was passed over for the job because she didn’t have management experience. But she was up to the challenge, so she made herself invaluable to the new manager by dressing, acting, and working as if she, herself, were a manager, too.
Six months later, she resigned from the company and started her own event-planning business. Her first client: her old company. Looks like she sold her new brand pretty well.
7. Opportunity Knocks
Sometimes our lives change in unexpected ways. When that happens, it’s time to rebrand.
Nobody has embraced this more gracefully than Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano.
Brian, who won more gold medals in figure skating than anyone in the history of the sport, leveraged his 1988 Olympic win into a successful career as a professional figure skater. Over the years, Brian has been a sports commentator, written a book about skating, and won a prime-time Emmy award. He has donated much of his time to various charities and started his own charity, a learn-to-skate program for inner-city youth.
At age 46, Brian did a major rebranding, prompted by the animated 1999 South Park movie, which featured a song called, “What Would Brian Boitano Do?”
The movie introduced Brian to a younger audience of 18- to 24-year-olds, most of whom had never heard of him.
Brian, always good-natured, embraced the South Park humor and incorporated it into his brand.
He worked with the Food Network to create a show called What Would Brian Boitano Make? that featured him cooking for guests in his home. The show ran for two seasons in 2009 and 2010. He used the South Park song as the show’s theme song. He also wrote a cookbook and has opened a Boitano’s Lounge in the Kindler Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska—one of a series of lounges to come.
As life throws opportunities your way, take advantage of the chance to elevate a part of your brand that you might not have been able to show off while you were busy building and living a brand that made you successful in another area.
And if you’re reluctant to make a wholesale change in your life, ask yourself, “What would Brian Boitano do?”
SELLING A NEW BRAND
My tried-and-true, five-step sales process that you’ll learn more about in Chapter 10 is just as effective when you’ve rebranded and want to sell your new brand as it is when you’re starting out and selling a brand for the first time.
But when you rebrand, the sale might be more difficult.
The reason? If you have rebranded without relocating, you might have to sell your new brand to the same people who have already bought your original brand, which you did such a good job of selling.
In other words, you’re selling against yourself—your old self.
So it is doubly important, when you rebrand, to create a brand that you can live and sell.
To sell your new brand, you have to live it. As you live it, you may face challenges, including the following.
1. You Are Selling Against the Ghost of Your Past
Or at least you’re selling against the notion that others have of you, based on the brand you sold them before.
2. Any Slip-up Could Reinforce Your Old Brand
Be conscious of the behaviors that others might associate with your old brand.
3. Living Your New Brand Might Require Some Initial Sacrifices
Say you want to be a stand-up comic. You enjoy doing stand-up routines and often take the mic at small events or at work parties. You’ve never asked anyone to pay you. But if you intend to make your living as a stand-up, you’ll have to start getting paid. As you rebrand, you will only be able to accept invitations for paid gigs.
• • • • • • • • • •
A lot can go wrong when you switch gears as you sell against your old brand, including:
• Nobody will buy what you’re selling. If you’re still behaving as you did when you were selling your original brand, others will not trust that this “new you” is actually the real you.
• It could be a hard sell. Convincing others that you can do something they have never seen you do before can be difficult. Use your new brand to prove you have the skill set you need to get where you want to go.
• Others might not want you to change. If you’re rebranding because you’re stuck in a job you’ve outgrown, you might find that your boss doesn’t want you to move. The hard work that got you to the point of rebranding might be making your boss look good, so she doesn’t want to move you. Or perhaps she feels threatened by an employee who is grooming herself for a promotion—and she fears you will take her job. Change isn’t just hard for the person who is changing. Your new direction certainly will affect others.
• Others might reinforce your old brand. No matter how hard you sell your new brand, others might try to sell against you. That is especially true of people who might be jealous of your confidence or success. Someone might spread the word that you’re not qualified for what you’re going after. Not everyone is happy when a colleague, competitor, or subordinate is on the rise.
• Without a solid plan, your sale could fail. In Chapter 3, we explored how to plan and create a brand that you will be able to live and sell. The process is the same when you rebrand: Planning is key. Don’t try to sell until you know for sure what you’re selling, why you’re selling, and to whom you need to sell it.
SOLICIT FEEDBACK
How do you know when it’s time to rebrand? Ask people.
Do your friends tell others how great you are? Or do you occasionally hear that someone referred to you in a way that’s off brand for you?
Asking for feedback about your brand from others is the best way to know if you’re living it as you intend. It’s the best way to know if others perceive you the way you hope they do.
When Aki was a kid, her father was an executive of a big company; and every now and then, her father slept late on a workday and left the house at around 9:30 a.m. instead of at 8 a.m. as usual. She asked him if he would get in trouble for being late, and he said he had risen to an important level at the company and he could set his own hours.
Fast-forward 20 years, and Aki is working as a veterinary assistant for a small animal hospital. The veterinarians always compliment her on her techniques and often choose her over the other assistants to help during surgeries.
Aki feels her job is important, so she figured that entitled her to show up a little late every day. Instead of getting there at 7 a.m. like the other assistants, she typically arrived at 7:30 or later.
When it was time for her six-month performance evaluation, the head veterinarian put her on probation and told her if she was late again, she would be fired. He said she wasn’t doing her job well because she wasn’t there at 7 a.m. to check in the animals arriving for surgery at that time, and that was delaying the schedule for everyone.
Aki’s brand, which she thought was “important enough to entitle her to arrive late,” actually was “the assistant who can’t get to work on time and backs everything up.”
She was never late again.
The feedback Aki received shocked her into realizing that her own perception was very different from the perception of those around her when it came to what important people are allowed to do at work. She had no idea others had a negative impression of her.
So she rebranded to “on time, every day.”
No matter how consistently you live your brand, it’s possible you will rub some people, sometime, the wrong way. It’s better to know that than to continue doing whatever you’re doing that these people might perceive negatively. It’s better to suffer hurt feelings than to continue with a brand that’s working against you without your knowledge.
This is why I ask others for feedback. I ask speech organizers to invite audience members to fill out evaluations. I ask clients to tell me how I helped them and how I could have done better. I even ask my friends how I did when I organize a get-together or do them a favor.
I loved hearing about Tomás, the neighbor of my friend Rashida, who volunteers for her neighborhood association. Rashida described Tomás, a young dad who is president of the association, as “truly kind; the nicest person on the block.” Tomás asked Rashida to host the neighborhood party in her yard, and Rashida agreed. Rashida, a great planner, blocked the date on her calendar as soon as she made the commitment, which was two months before the party.
Then she planned her month, carefully avoiding conflicts with the party date.
So imagine her surprise when she got an email that Tomás had sent to the whole neighborhood, polling the recipients about which date they would like for the party and where they would like the party to be.
Rashida confronted Tomás, who told her that another neighbor, who had volunteered to play live music at the party, couldn’t make it on the original date, so he was searching for an alternative. But Rashida wasn’t available any other Saturday that month, having built her schedule around the commitment she had made to host the party. Rashida was upset and told Tomás she felt betrayed.
She and Tomás exchanged a number of text messages. Tomás apologized and restored the original date.
Then Tomás asked Rashida, “Did I respond OK with you?”
Rashida wasn’t expecting that. Tomás was asking for feedback so he would know for sure that the issue was resolved; so he would understand if he and Rashida would remain on friendly terms; and so he would know if he handled the situation correctly. Tomás likes to learn from that feedback in case he needs to change his approach—tweak his brand a bit—if a similar situation arises in the future.
What a great brand! And way to live it, Tomás!
Feedback, even when it hurts a little, only makes our brands stronger. Coming right out and asking for it, in fact, strengthens your brand. Someone who is concerned enough about another’s feelings and opinions to risk negative feedback is someone whom people want to know and deal with. Tomás’s brand, in Rashida’s opinion, is “good neighbor.”
If you’re not soliciting feedback, your brand is not going to grow.
Are you finished growing? Are you finished learning? Are you finished expanding your horizons?
If not, ask for feedback. Ask for it at work, from your friends, and from your neighbors. Then use it to strengthen your brand. If the feedback is critical or persistent, consider using it to rebrand.
If your brand is the sharpest tool in your sales toolkit, then feedback about it is the sharpener that can make it even stronger.
Feedback helps you measure the effectiveness of your brand. It helps you know where you need to soften, strengthen, or otherwise hone the way you present yourself to others.
It will tell you when it’s time to tweak, add to, or ditch parts of your brand that aren’t working in your favor. It will even let you know when it’s time to rebrand.