“There is a charge for the eyeing of my scars. There is a charge for the hearing of my heart. There is a charge, a very large charge, for a word, or a touch, or a bit of blood, or a piece of my hair or my clothes” – Sylvia Plath, Lazarus.

Truth is essential, truth feeds our soul and truth sets us free. But the truth is not free.

When we are a personal brand, when we are charging for sharing our truth, our story, our big fat opinion (as my dear friend Dyana Valentine says) where do the boundaries lie?

It takes something from me to tell these tales.

It frees something too.

If you have struggled with people eying your scars, come and check out my latest article on Positively Positive, Keeping Your Shine: Understanding & Managing Misconceptions & Judgments.

Navigating Personal Branding

Are we selling ourselves along with our experiences?

Branding; personally making our truth into cash and a living. Where are the consequences?

Can you grow outside your brand or will it grow with you?

Do you turn your life into work? When something sweet and juicy happens in your life, if the first thought is that you can tweet about it, then maybe the personal branding needs a little more space.

Somewhere between being paid to do what you love and being turned into a product, cut into shiny pretty pieces to be sold, is the place of dancing. After all, a sales woman sells her patter, a model her beauty, a writer her ability, a builder her strength.

Are personal brands any different?

We are hardly the first generation to live and work with personal branding, it is ancient and powerful. What do you think the 18th Century society beauties, the notorious painters and poets, the famous highway man and the beloved princesses and witches were all doing? Maybe we are the first generation to conceptualise and use it so tactically. To teach it even.

I am an exercise in my own boundaries, comfort zone and living, breathing expression of truth. In the shape of a girl.

Where do your boundaries lie and what are you questioning?

Image courtesy of Aleksi Tappura.