ISSUE 253 : Wednesday, July 7, 2009
Note: Happy Birthday Seth Godin. WeOwnGM.com is dedicated to you.

I have a torn and twisted paper towel taped to a wall in my office. It came from a bathroom floor in a dive I frequent. A drunken slum soldier had just been ousted by security from his face down rapture on the bathroom floor. A floor which represented as close to the bottom as I allow myself to get these days. And so when I spied this paper towel, I had to have it. I had to take it back to the Hollywood Hills and tape it to the wall over my iMac and scrawl in black Sharpie, “The Bottom.” So as not to forget.

This was the start of my current self-branding phase. Any brand worth branding has to start with the truth. The truth about the Harry Webber brand is that if it is not successful, my ass could end up on somebody’s bathroom floor. Rock fucking bottom.

Once you have a clear idea of what is at stake for the brand then you can accurately identify your obstacles. Those liabilities can then be overcome.

The first obstacle is finance. Is there enough money, time, talent to do it right? If the answer is no, stop right there. You only have one opportunity for your brand to make a first impression. If the impression is bootyass, then I strongly suggest you pass. If there is a chance in hell you can pull it off then, as Seth Godin advised me on WeOwnGM.com last weekend, “Go for it, Harry.”

My brand objective is simple. I want Harry Webber to become synonymous with the new improved advertising practices of the 21st Century. To accomplish this I have chosen to reinvent Advertising. So, my tag line is short and catchy. “Harry Webber Is Reinventing Advertising.” There it is. A simple declarative statement designed to stick permanently in the memory banks for all who read it. People are not products. They have to be branded like a service industry.

A personal brand needs to tell everybody why they should give a shit about you. e.g. “Harry Webber created “I’m Stuck On Band-Aid Brand.” (Yawn) “So what?” you say. OK, how about “Harry Webber Is Reinventing Advertising?” Yeah, it’s about time somebody did something. Advertising sucks. However when you do this: “Harry Webber created “I’m Stuck On Band-Aid Brand and now he is reinventing Advertising” you may have something that will get Marketing decision-makers (the ones with bucks) to say, “Tell me more.”

That's why it’s important to consider who the audience for your self-branding effort is BEFORE you set your objective in stone. Who are they? what do they want/need? How can I best give/sell it to them? Tossing these questions around for a month is a good place to start.

Next comes the package. That would be you. Or in my case, me. I started walking two miles every day. To drop the weight and build stamina. I shaved my head (in tribute to Georg Olden) and grew a beard and moustache) to signal a brand “redesign.” I started commenting on industry blogs to build readership for my principal media platform…the one you are currently reading. And last but not least, I rebuilt my website.

The biggest challenge/pain in the ass in the whole personal rebranding process is coming up with an adequate reason for doing it all in the first place. I had done alright for myself as a high-priced hired gun in the agency business. But more and more of my work was “think” oriented, as opposed to “art” or “copy” assignments. And considerably more than half of my clients were “clients” as opposed to “agencies.” It was time for the HarryWebber.com portfolio site to go. Time for the HarryWebber.com Brain For Rent site to emerge. And so it has.

HarryWebber.com only has one job. Brand support. When somebody reads that “Harry Webber Is Reinventing Advertising” they may (or may not) want to find out what makes this guy think he can pull that off. The brand support for that claim is found at HarryWebber.com. “Harry Webber Knows.” And page after page of accomplishments in advertising, entertainment, technology, the web, media, education and advanced practices. It gives me a headache just thinking about it. But like the Sunday NY Times, you don’t have to read it all. But it’s good to know it's there. And for those who still need to see the latest creative stuff, there’s a link to RelentlessCreativity.com in the navigation.

Now that that is done I can go back to the beach.