A Lesson in Personal Branding From Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Karen Tiber Leland
Fri, 05 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

With the Tony Awards just around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’ve learned about branding from a recent visit to Broadway.

Last year when I heard that a new musical called Beautiful had opened based on the life and music of Carole King, I shrugged my shoulders, cocked my head to the side and went, “Eh.”

Fast forward a year. Three friends whose taste in musical theater I consider impeccable all suggested I see the show one night in New York when a canceled dinner appointment left me with a free evening. Their glowing revues and hearty raves convinced me, and I bought a last-minute ticket at the box office.

You know how this story ends. I basically cried (for good reasons, not bad) through the entire show. I could tell you what a tour de force performance Chilina Kennedy gave in the title role, or how much I learned about the creation of the music I’ve known my whole life, or how inspiring the story of King overcoming struggle was … but this isn’t a theater review.

It is a look at the elements that go into making a personal brand so strong, so emotionally connected, so lasting, that it can sustain a musical all on its own merits.

Seeing King’s life laid out so linearly got me thinking about the ways a personal brand becomes iconic. Here’s what I learned (and you can too) from Carole King about personal branding:

Struggle Can Create Character

I say “can” here because not everyone who suffers or struggles uses it to inform the development of their character. But King did. Despite being knocked down by life circumstances, on more than one occasion, she used her hardships to expand her creative expression. Which is what led to all those famous songs, which turned her into a Grammy Award-winning singer, which made her the icon she still is today. See how this works?

In part what makes our personal brand appealing to others is that they can see themselves in it. The authenticity of an entrepreneur or executive whose personal brand has seen some hard times and has come through them — with humility — is very attractive.

How this applies to you: Have you made your story, your struggles, your failures, and what you learned from them a part of your personal brand narrative? If not, you might want to. The purpose is not to manipulate people’s emotions, but to inspire them with their own greatness and ability to overcome and grow into who they can be.

Persistence Is Key

No overnight sensation, King faced a lot of nos in her early career before hearing yes. Like most great brands (personal or product), she had to reinvent herself several times over, before hitting the nail on the head. In short, Carole King was not always Carole King. That brand took time, experimentation, and persistence for her to evolve into the icon she is today.

How this applies to you: What have you given up on that is really important to you? Where do you consider yourself to have failed that you still feel bad about? What aspects of your past do you disown because you think they might hurt your personal brand? Can you see a way to reframe these things as part of what will ultimately get you to the place of highest self-expression? Is there something in all that suffering that can inspire others?

Great Personal Brands Are Built on Community

One of my clients says, “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” Don’t like the way your brand is going? Consider changing who you are hanging around with professionally or personally.

While it’s easy to think our personal brand is a solo act, shaped only by our own actions, in reality it’s more of a community project. The conversations we have with those around us and the people we choose to do business with and enter into collaborations with all have an impact on our personal brand.

P.S. One of my favorite moments in “Beautiful” was the curtain call, when the audience was invited to sing along with the cast.

How this applies to you: Make a list of the five people you spend the most time with. Ask yourself, “How does my relationship with this person shape my personal brand?” Is that collaboration (and all relationships are essentially that) bringing me energy, or taking it away? Am I more of my best self because of that relationship, or less? If you don’t like the answers, you might want to consider changing dance partners.

On June 7th I’ll be like all the other theater geeks I know, glued to the TV seeing which of the season’s shows take home a Tony. But I will also be watching for something else I know will rear its head at least a few times in the evening: someone whose depth and breadth of life experience, combined with authenticity, has given them a personal brand worth staying up for.