Personal Branding is Bullshit (And How Not to Get Castrated by Conformity)
The Soulpreneur Series Free Issue No. 22
Imagine for a moment you’re a young bull on a traditional ranch. One day, early in your life, you’re rounded up into a fenced pen.
You get roped and tossed to the ground. You smell the dust, something hot, and burning flesh. Then you see the knife…
…Personal branding has some parallels.
To Brand, Burn, and Lose Bits of Yourself
When a young bull gets branded, it’s not just for recognition (e.g., the ranch’s brand) — it also generally gets de-horned and castrated.
It loses something vital—pieces of its identity, its power, and its autonomy—all to serve the needs of the ranch and ranchers.
The word “brand” comes from ancient roots—it means to burn. For centuries, livestock have been marked with red-hot irons. This practice was for recognition, to signal ownership.
But in the digital age, especially among content creators, writers, and influencers, personal branding has become the red-hot iron that many folks suggest is vital for success.
But let’s slow down and explore this with a little more depth.
It’s everywhere.
We’re bombarded with advice to build a personal brand. But this practice has little connection to the original roots of branding—or even its modern meaning in the corporate world.
Back in the Middle Ages, artisans used branding to distinguish their products at the market. And in that context, “market” meant the literal, physical market where people bought goods.
Now, we’re in a world with over 5 billion people online and using social media.
The “market” is often a vague, overwhelming force. It’s no longer a simple physical space, but a relentless, massive, invisible expectation.
In more recent eras — the mass manufacturing era — brands emerged to differentiate products—think logos, slogans, colours, and packaging to make one similar product stand out from another (e.g. shoes, coffee, etc.)
But personal branding in the digital age?
It’s a trap. A lie we’re told to fit into, and one that strips away individuality, authenticity and uniqueness.
The Danger of Conformity (And, How Not to Get Castrated)
In this online era of relentless digital exposure, the idea of personal branding has become a powerful vomitous mantra for many.
From self-help gurus to career consultants, a constant push to craft a polished, marketable persona. But it’s Bullshit.
(And I say this with respect to many colleagues who have sipped this particular flavour of Un-Kool-Aid…)
Just like a young bull is made to conform to the ranch’s needs, personal branding trims away distinct parts of your identity.
It’s not just about standing out—it’s about fitting into neatly labelled boxes designed by societal expectations or an invisible online “market.”
But what is this market, really? With billions of people online, who exactly are we branding ourselves for?
By trying to align ourselves with what’s popular or trendy, we fall into a trap. We lose our unique voice. We dilute our creativity. We limit our potential for real success.
We begin to lose pieces of ourselves—just like that young bull, branded and castrated, losing parts of its power and identity.
Three Ways Personal Branding Hurts You
1. Unnecessary Pressure and Conformity
This bullshit idea of personal branding applies constant pressure to maintain a perfect, curated image. This will lead to stress, anxiety, and burnout.
You start living a double life—the “branded” persona versus your authentic self. In the end, it’s exhausting and will most likely leave you disconnected from your real identity.
I see this regularly in the digital realm. Overly posing photos, the Instagram-perfect family (knowing full well a household is struggling), the bullshit LinkedIn “I’m so proud and humbled” promotion announcements (knowing full well someone is locked into a toxic sick system).
Why do folks feel they need to post this drivel?
👉 Conforming to some false expectation (that is not their own) — that’s why.
2. Superficial Judgments
When you reduce yourself to a personal brand, you encourage people to judge you superficially. People will focus on your image, not your depth.
Real-life—losses, failures, the messy stuff—gets left out.
You become a false caricature of yourself, and people will not see or will stop seeing the complex, real person with depth and breadth in their lives. Which leads to… 👇
3. Inauthenticity
Personal branding shifts the focus from building real skills and creating meaningful work to simply projecting an image, telling a false bullshit story, and trying to fit into the ranch’s expectations (like a branded bull).
People start to focus on seeming innovative, successful, or knowledgeable — rather than being so.
The result? Mistrust. Tuning out.
People sense when your image doesn’t match your reality. In other words, they smell the bullshit (on the ranch). We all recognize when folks are missing bits of their real selves.
Castrated from reality. Trying to fit into some boxed-in brand. Some identity dictated by forces outside of our Self.
A Solution? Reject Personal Branding
So, how do you avoid the pitfalls of personal branding?
Reject the branding iron altogether. Rather than succumbing to this bullshit concept and getting burn scars — turn your focus inward. Ask yourself:
Who am I in this work?
What are my actual, real, true values? (Not the bullshit ones ‘the market’ wants)
What makes me unique? (And we are all completely unique—live this)
Your authenticity and unique Self are your greatest strengths. It’s about living (and sometimes sharing) the messy, real, and complex parts of yourself — and the things you’re working.
The failures, the scars, the lessons. You don’t need to fit into some BS notion of a brand. Instead, Be You—and let authenticity shine in your work.
Authenticity Over Branding
Personal branding is an illusion. It’s a trap that will result in over-conformity, burnout, and inauthenticity.
Forget about fitting into a mould. Maybe try focussing on solving real problems, sharing your unique story, and letting your work reflect who you truly are.
The world doesn’t need more brands—it needs a unique and authentic you.
Super accurate. I do quite a bit of career consulting in my practice and I see the damage done from other “experts” who focus on sales-y practices rather than on helping the individual understand their skills, expertise, interests and the way they can naturally find good opportunities in the market. We can call it storytelling creep
Thanks for this David. The pressure to brand is heavy on us writers and creatives these days (I stopped aspiring to be a 'content creator'). I'm still working on developing my voice, not just as a writer, but as a human. I think I'll always be working on this in one form or another and at different stages of my life. So the idea of 'branding' myself would be very counter-productive to that creative vision.
I like your focus on 'building real skills and creating meaningful work'. I believe there are a lot of people out there with real skills making quiet, creative livings online who are satisfied to stay out of the limelight. I aim to be one of them.