Have you seen the Times Magazine? It just released its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. I looked at the list and boy, aren’t I in complete agreement especially with regards to the ones whose brands I have lately been closely following.
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Take Lewis Hamilton for instance. (I love F1!!!) He happens to be one of the people on the list. From his active support of the Black Lives Matter movement to Human Rights Issues to his environmental awareness campaigns like the Amazon Forest, I must say that he is doing a hell of a great job.
Of course, not everyone agrees. A quick look at the Formula1 Official Instagram page will show you how divided people are in terms of his activism. Some people feel that he should just stick to racing.
However, just as much as people are against him, there is a group of people who are Pro-him all the way, and that includes his MercedesAMGF1 team. He has continuously stood by his word and actions despite constant criticisms.
So what makes a person an influential brand? What would it mean to you to be an influential brand?
I surveyed a group of 50 people about this and here are a sample of the responses I received.
Maria, a CEO at a Start up told me that she thinks it was the ability to be featured or seen on industry or business magazines such as Forbes and Entrepreneur.
John, a dentist, thought it was the ability to be invited for speaking engagements to industry events such as the American Dental Association Annual Meeting.
Carla, who is an aspiring social media influencer thought that it would be her ability to have a strong and engaging social media presence that would attract big brands to contact her for advertising opportunities.
While the above answers all have an element of truth, they do not fully encompass what a great and influential personal brand truly is. Here are 3 things that figures with influential brands have in common:
1. Proactivity:
While the answers above are results of having a notable personal brand, they also somewhat portray it as reactive and waiting for acknowledgment from others.
In truth, there is more to an influential personal brand rather than “waiting to be invited until they are invited to events” or “contacted by brands” or be seen doing the “hip activity d’ jour”
To be influential, one needs to be more proactive than that.
If you look at the great influential figures of our times, you will notice that there was no amount of waiting from their end. They went all out.
Jesus, one of the most influential figures in Christianity, actually taught His disciples how to be “fishers of men”.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
If Jesus was here on earth in 2020, He would very well be known as a movement leader.
Which then brings me to my second common characteristic of influential persons.
2. They have A die-hard audience:
They have a dedicated group of people who believe in them. Dan Kennedy is quoted to have said that people do business with people they agree with even more than those they like or admire and trust”.
These types of people will agree with them philosophically.
Cue in Lewis Hamilton’s supporters, Trumps die hard supporters or name your most popular political/influential figure, etc.
However, one of biggest mistakes that most entrepreneurs or c-level executives make when trying to build their personal brands and executive presence is they forget about the audience they intend to influence.
They are quickly lost in the tactical approaches such as the looks of their websites, their photo shoots, quickly escalating the whole process into a zero ROI vanity project. Without an audience, why bother build a personal brand?
This finally leads into the final characteristic:
3. A Distinctive Voice:
To be a person influence, one must have a resonant message for their audience or movement. To express this, one needs a voice and a distinctive one at that.
Consequently, for a voice to be distinctive enough, it is certainly going to attract differing opinions from others. The more repelling it is, the more influential you become.
Wishy-washy messages do not stand a chance in the world of influence.
So who is the most influential person you have met or heard of to-date? Do you agree with Times Most influential list for 2020? Let me hear your opinions below.