There has been a recent spike in the "Personal Branding" awareness. And it may be for you and it may not...now. The reason I say that is it depends on where you are in your evolution.
That evolution is that unintended, yet almost required journey you must go on to make it in the MLM, Network Marketing, or Home-based Business. Don't get me wrong, entrepreneurs in the "brick and mortar" businesses go through it too, but I will venture to say their journey is a little bit different than ours. The difference being that those "normal" businesses do not have the focus solely on the business owner as a driver of the business (and I am saying this in the sense, my Ace Hardware, or my Pet Emporium has a physical presence in the market place), in MLM (as many of you may have found out) takes a little more than buying the start up kit.
Back to my point. If you are just starting out or deciding to get going in your MLM business, my advice is to keep focused on driving the marketing or exposure of that business. But it may be a good idea to keep this "Personal Branding" idea in the back of your mind, because ultimately, that is what you will be driving your business on. The idea of folks not so much joining XYZ company but joining you in what ever it is you are doing.
However, if you are getting your leads and your business is getting to a point where there is some consistency of results, be it from online marketing, phone calls, flyers, what ever, it may do you some good to understand some of the concepts behind "Personal Branding".
In a nutshell, to me anyway, Personal Branding is where you make yourself the gate way to something greater (how I can help you build your business) as opposed to a product or company (the best gizmos in the world that everybody will buy hand over fist).
The subtle difference there, the key is, that if the value added is you, you are not dependant on a product or a company so it doesn't matter what the product. But the other way, if the company goes belly up, or if people stop wanting flip cell phones, buggy whips, etc. there will be consequences.
Now taking this from the viewpoint of a Network Marketing business, and this is why I think it is something you will "grow" into as you develop your business, because part of the Personal Branding process is to find you. It is the process of creating a marketing image and packaging that image and conveying that image to the market place. And the key to making it a lasting "brand" is you will have had to do some soul searching as to what you really want to do, what you really want provide, and how you want to provide it.
You can't maintain credibility if your "personal brand" changes with the seasons. So it is advised your brand be in something that is congruent with your vision, purpose, values, passions and goals.
Further more, (and another reason I think new folks may have to work their way into a "personal brand") as you have developed your business to a particular level, you have no doubt had some successes as well as learning opportunities. And I will venture to say the successes you had helped guide your new areas of expertise. So you got real good at, say, email marketing, you found good ways to do it, found ways that really impacted your bottom line, discovered certain things you didn't like and would not do again, became aware of methods that did work, and others that didn't. So you are developing skills that you can pull into your personal brand..."The Email Expert", and the brand is born.
But again, if you really hate email marketing, and are just doing it for the money I would suggest not becoming or branding your self "The Email Expert", maybe save that expertise as a subset of the special skills you bring to your customers.
The point it seems I'm hammering is the power of your personal brand comes as a combination of using and promoting your skills, which in turn have activities that you truly love to do. It is when you have this coming together or synergy you have the makings of a spectacular "Personal Brand".
Hunter Williams is an attraction marketing coach in the MLM, Network Marketing Business. He helps folks determine their Personal Branding strategies. He teaches people how to supplement corporate income while working at home, part time, until it is "walk away" time.
For free information that will teach you how to take your MLM or Network Marketing business to the next level, visit his website at: Hunter's MLM Playbook.