It feels all wrong, as a journalist, meeting a personal branding guru. You
lose all faith in your critical judgment. My first impression of Louise
Mowbray, just so you know, is of a groomed, attractive brunette in enormous
diamonds. But Louise Mowbray is an expert in first impressions. “We are
branded every day of the week,” she tells me. “At cocktail parties, or
business meetings, or whatever it might be. Personal branding is about
starting to manage your personal brand.”
So you wonder. The grooming, the diamonds, the brunetteness, even. That’s
deliberate, right? Isn’t she doing this exact process on herself? “All the
time,” says Mowbray. By her own branding, Mowbray is an image and personal
branding consultant. Her clients are chief executives, politicians, media
types, professionals of any other sort. Her background is in finance and
recruitment, and she used to be the Middle East managing director for
Quintessentially, the British concierge service. Now, according to her
website, she specialises in “helping both private and corporate clients from
around the world to develop strong first impressions, confidence and
success”.
“It is as old as the hills,” says Mowbray, by means of putting this all into
English. “Like her or loathe her, Paris Hilton has an incredibly strong
personal brand. She was recently offered a million dollars to talk about how
she made that brand. It is not about creating something perfect, and it is
not about masking who you are. Nobody buys vanilla; we like character.”
We meet in the very swanky, very now Wolseley restaurant, in London, which is
her idea not mine, and which I choose to read things into. She asks the
waiter for a “very large cappuccino” and warns me that she sometimes swears.
I judge. Then I worry that I am supposed to. Then I judge that. It is all
very confusing.
Today, though, is not about Mowbray’s branding. It is about finding mine.
“Your personal brand,” says Mowbray, “is something that is unique and
compelling about you. It has to be authentic and it has to be consistent.”
This is not about reinvention. It is about recognising what is already there
and figuring out what you can do with it. Just like Paris Hilton. In other
words, instead of me interviewing her, she is interviewing me.
It is a curiously invasive process. Particularly because it’s rather
compulsive. There is a confessional aspect to it. Mowbray politely zooms in
on all the bits of yourself that you would normally, in polite conversation,
lock away. The aspirational bits. The competitive bits. Normally, she says,
she will visit a client in their office or place of work. This makes sense.
In a restaurant, it all feels a little brazen. I am a little too aware of
the straining, incredulous ears of the couple at the next table. I hope they
don’t know me. I hope they don’t know my boss.
Mowbray starts, pretty much, by asking about my goals. I struggle. Wouldn’t
you? Goals? Me? Part of me would be happier confessing to haemorrhoids than
goals. What goals I have, moreover, are woolly and ill-defined. I waffle.
Eventually, Mowbray pins me down on the basics. Like anybody, I want to earn
a bit more and work a bit less.
“So,” she says, cutting through the drivel. “You want to increase your value.”
By now, the ears at the next table are fully extended. Mowbray is
systematic, and thorough. Who do I think my rivals are? What do I think of
them? How much do I think they are paid? Who do I want to impress? It is not
the kind of thing I’m comfortable talking about, sober.
We discuss my career history. Then we move on to perception. How, wonders
Mowbray, am I perceived in my workplace? I’m not too sure. Messy. Reliable.
Smoking. That sort of thing.
“You’re brand has been a bit haphazard,” she decides, making me feel a little
like Boris Johnson, “but persistently haphazard. I would say that you are
not strong on recognising your market value. In fact, you rebel against
recognising it.” I’m finding this all distinctly uncomfortable. I figure out
exactly why a little later, when we come to my “brand statement”.
Professionally, and in a sentence, what am I? A satirist, I allow,
eventually. A low-key, self-deprecating satirist.
Mowbray loves this. “Perfect!” she says. “That’s your brand. When people need
low-key, self-deprecating satire, you are the man they come to. Right?” And
so we move on, to discussing how I can make this come about.
She thinks I should be trying hard to do more television and more radio.
Inevitably, Have I Got News For You should be a goal. I should make a
bigger deal about having written a novel, and I should definitely be trying
harder to write another one. I need to make a splash. When people want a
burger, they know they can go to McDonald’s. When people want a wry chuckle
over their corn-flakes, they should know they can go to me.
To be honest, I’ve a hunch that as soon as you start shouting about being a
low-key, self-deprecating satirist, you seem to be well on the way to not
being one. Ultimately, I suspect this would be an altogether more beneficial
process were I not doing it for the sole purpose of writing about it
afterwards. I’m fairly happy being directionless.
Normally, there are two reasons why clients go to her. Sometimes it is because
they have recently had change forced on them and they need to adjust. Or,
sometimes, it is because they are seeking a competitive advantage and don’t
wish to be overlooked. “After it, all of them say, I feel like I am actually
in control of my career again,” she says. “I’m only provoking people to
think about what they do on a day-to-day basis in a slightly different way.
It might be fairly obvious, but they just haven’t thought of it before. The
mind’s psyche is an incredible thing. Often, it does the rest of the work
for you.”
Hugo Rifkind writes My Week in the main paper today
Tricks of the trade: how to build your personal brand
Personal brands need to be four things: compelling to their market;
authentic; consistent; and known.
1. Find out how you are actually perceived or what your reputation is.
Ask a variety of people.
2. Spend time exploring what it is about you that is compelling to
your target market.
3. Ask yourself if what you are offering is authentic. If not, it will
breed only mistrust.
4. Make sure that your message or what you deliver is consistent. If
it is erratic, it will undermine your efforts.
5. Create a personal brand statement outlining who you are, what you
do, how you do it and why it is compelling . . . and use abridged versions
of it consistently wherever appropriate.
6. Explore how you can make your personal brand known to your market
or audience and then act on it.
For more tips and information, visit www.mowbraybydesign.com
Louise Mowbray meets with clients for an initial hour and a half
consultation, then works with them for a minimum of three months with at
least one hourly meeting per month. The initial meeting costs £500, with
subsequent hours costing £350.
