Ashton Kutcher recently made a bold personal branding statement by attempting to shed the “hilarious moron” image he’s best known for and shared some special sentiments with the viewers of the 2013 Teen Choice Awards.
What You Can Learn About Personal Branding from Ashton Kutcher
If you didn’t get a chance to catch Ashton’s (or should I say Chris’) speech, take a look at the video above. It appears as if after being chosen to play the role of the entrepreneurial mastermind Steve Jobs, Kutcher has started to rethink the decisions he’s made since he first started in his career.
Kutcher’s speech gives the clear impression that he’s dropped his familiar “lovable idiot” routine in exchange for a more serious, and respectable persona. Kutcher grabbed everyone’s attention by admitting that Ashton is not in fact his real name, and used the silence that this “insider secret” created to get to his actual point. During the course of his speech, Kutcher made three incredibly well thought out and valuable points that I feel I not only agree with 100%, but I feel are easily translated into the correct way to pursue personal branding.
Opportunity Looks a Lot Like Work
The first of Ashton’s three points was about opportunity, where he explains that “opportunity looks a lot like work.” He claims that before he became an actor, he never came across a job that he was “better than.” From carrying shingles up a ladder to sweeping dust off the floors, he considered every amount of work he did an opportunity to move towards something better.
“I’ve never had a job in my life that I was better than… I was always just lucky to have a job…”
Whether you’re a college student or a small business owner, opportunity in the business world does in fact mean work. In order to seize an opportunity, we all have to work diligently to obtain our goals. When you’re attempting to brand yourself, whether as an industry expert or a trustworthy service provider, no opportunity to make a positive reflection on yourself is too small or insignificant. Far too often, I find (especially with my generation) that people seem to want to skip the small steps and jump right into the top spot. If you take from his speech what I did, it’s a great way of saying “don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty on the road to success.” When it comes to branding yourself, don’t allow any step that you need to take to get to the top become something you consider “beneath you.” Most importantly, keep in mind that if you want to get anywhere in life or in business, coasting through life expecting good things to happen almost never gets anyone the results they expect.
The Sexiest Thing in The Entire World is Being Really Smart
Despite what we may have learned in High School, it becomes pretty obvious that once you get past appearances and start looking for substance, finding a lack of substance is pretty unsatisfying. The same thing applies to the entrepreneurial and business world. The absolute worst thing you can do when branding your business is to oversell your product and absolutely under deliver when the time to produce results comes along.
“The sexiest thing in the entire world, is being really smart, and being thoughtful and being generous. Everything else is crap, I promise you…”
When you’re working on personal branding or branding your business, your goal should not only be to create an image that generates revenue, but one that results in you looking like the industry expert. If you own a local business and every other business in your industry has a terrible reputation for poor quality and lack of knowledge, the absolute best thing that you can do is make yourself stand apart as the go-to resource for quality and expertise. Develop your skills, continue your education and show off your knowledge. Whether you do it by sharing great information on Facebook or by writing informative posts on your blog, label yourself as the person to go to for answers. When the brand new storefronts and expensive advertising of your competition leads customers to find out that it’s all just a “pretty face,” your expert knowledge and quality service will be plenty enough to generate the business you’ve been hoping for.
Build a Life, Don’t Live One
It was very clear from Ashton’s speech that working on his movie about Steve Jobs had a major effect on his perception of life and success, that ultimately led him on his on personal branding journey to fix the image that he’s had since he starred on That 70′s Show. If there’s anything that you can take away from his speech, this point is the absolute best.
“Everything around us that we call life, was made up by people that are no smarter than you…”
The point in his final statement was very clear, don’t be content to simply live life. We are given so many opportunities, whether realized or not, to make something of our lives, it simply takes the effort to get there. As a future business owner, it’s likely that you can understand this better than anyone. Brand yourself as someone who works for everything they achieve and don’t allow yourself to take shortcuts in pursuit of your goals. With a little bit of hard work on your path to success, personal branding won’t even need to be something you concern yourself with as the results of your efforts and the service you provide for people will be evidence enough of the quality you can provide them.
What advice do you have to give on personal branding? Did you get a completely different message from Ashton Kutcher’s speech? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Personal Branding - Take a Tip From Ashton Kutcher
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