We???ve gone through a strange change, from people not realizing that they need to be their own brand, to people not realizing how being the brand impacts the way they do business. It???s interesting, really. Tom Peters was the first person I recall talking about it, back in the Alan Webber days of FastCompany (The Brand Called You). Back then, we were all cubicle farmers and beige employees of the cog-world (okay, not true, but that???s what it felt like). But now, we???re getting the opposite, where people have all the tools to make a brand and do so, but don???t really know how to leverage that brand into anything resembling a business. So, in some ways, there???s been a bit of a see-saw. We used to have people that would prosper by turning their wonderfulness into a personal brand.

via When YOU Are the Brand.