A personal brand is an apparatus.
At first, it seems like a powerful tool. A way to manage perception. You can use it to package and productize yourself. You tell yourself it’s how you’ll stand out and get yours.
But then the distortions begin.
Because the idea of a personal brand is already an ideological product. It’s not neutral. It’s an artifact of the attention economy. The apparatus is engineered to feel empowering, but optimized to extract.
It also becomes nearly impossible to separate the idea of a personal brand from the products that promise to give you one.
All the frameworks, courses, influencers, chattering away at you with the personas they offer as brands glowing with the aura of icons. They are noisy and visible. They look like evidence of the effectiveness of personal branding by taking on the mystical attributes of the already-branded.
As it turns out, a personal brand is a lot like “wellness.” Someone who looks radiant, curated, and self-possessed enough can proclaim themselves an expert and sell a product that lets you anoint yourself with the oily sheen of wellness, too.
Behind the illusion lies the final distortion.
The influencer implodes into their own influence. Their brand collapses in on itself. It becomes schtick. You’re caught in the loop and trapped in a typecasted cage.
The apparatus of a personal brand becomes the apparatus that holds you.
