Lessons Learned: Knakal Knuggets - #50: Everything you do creates a personal brand. In the real estate brokerage business, regardless of what firm you work for, everything you do creates an impression of you by others, and that impression creates a brand. Yes, the firm has a brand and a reputation, but so do you! And yours will stick with you regardless of where you are working. Everything we do creates impressions and impacts the way people perceive us. The way we speak, the way we dress, the way we interact with people, what we eat, what we drink, the materials we send out to folks, and the people we work with, especially our partners—everything we do creates those impressions. So it is important to be conscious of how we are interacting with people, who we are associating with, and the way we carry ourselves. Some of the famous quotes on personal brand include: “If you are not branding yourself, you can be sure others do it for you.” “Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” “Your personal brand is a promise to your clients...a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability.” "The keys to branding success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity, and accountability.” John Jantsch is credited with saying, “Personal branding is the art of becoming knowable, likable, and trustable.” Lots to be learned from these quotes. But it is also important to be genuine and to present yourself honestly.  As Oscar Wilde has said, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”