Sujan Patel: – VIP Contributor
Entrepreneur and Marketer, Co-founder of Web Profits

April 3, 2017
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

“Personal branding is one of the most important skills that every professional must master at some point in their career,” marketing speaker Seth Price says on his website. “It’s the culmination of many different skills.”
He’s right: At the end of the day, your personal brand is the only thing you truly have. It’s your reputation online; and, in the business world, your personal brand drives your game. It has to reflect the fact that you are transparent, forward-thinking and willing to put everything out there to achieve success.

However, some things may not go as planned, and the consequences could have a lasting impact on your business or career. Case in point: 53 percent of decision-makers said in one survey that they had eliminated vendors from consideration based on information they found online.
Here are seven warning signs that your personal brand, too, might be in trouble.

1. You’ve become a “character.”
A strong personal brand is a critical part of growing as an entrepreneur. It’s how people come to identify with you. Your brand is supposed to be a reflection of your unique experience and authority. But it can also grow out of proportion: This can happen when you exaggerate in hopes of standing out or fitting into certain social interactions.

 

Read more at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/282477