51 Personal Branding Quotes: Powerful Advice You Can’t Miss


Putting together this list of branding quotes was extremely important to us.

Here’s why:

Making a name for yourself can be tough and sometimes frustrating. It’s requires skill, patience, and consistent effort.

Occasionally you see other thought leaders (like the ones quoted below) and it seems like they have it all figured out. They have an audience and everyone hangs on their every word.

Honestly, it can be a little discouraging.

That’s why we felt so strongly about sharing these personal branding quotes. You can use them as inspiration, motivation, or just something cool to tweet.

When you’re feeling burnt out or not up for promoting yourself online we hope these quotes will help you keep your eye on the ball. This stuff matters, and it’s on you to take action!

We hope you enjoy them (we certainly do).

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Quotes about branding and trust

Trust is the most important aspect of branding without a doubt. Whether that brand is a person or company, it they aren’t trusted they won’t get very far.

You have to connect with your audience on a level that runs deeper than whatever it is that you’re trying to promote. Providing incredible value on a consistent basis is essential. There’s too much noise out there for you to succeed by doing anything less.

Here are some branding quotes about trust that we love.

  • If people like you they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you. – Zig Ziglar
  • Your brand is your public identity, what you’re trusted for. And for your brand to endure, it has to be tested, redefined, managed, and expanded as markets evolve. Brands either learn or disappear. – Lisa Gansky
  • Great companies that build an enduring brand have an emotional relationship with customers that has no barrier. And that emotional relationship is on the most important characteristic, which is trust. – Howard Schultz
  • Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealized, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character and no public trust. – Richard Branson
  • Personal branding is the art of becoming knowable, likable and trustable. – John Jantsch
  • If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand. –  Howard Schultz
  • A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. – Seth Godin
  • Thought leadership happens when you’re willing to have your brand stand for more than what you sell – Seth Price

Simon Mainwaring quote on branding.

  • The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability. – Simon Mainwaring
  • An authentic and honest brand narrative is fundamental today; otherwise, you will simply be edited out. – Marco Bizzarri
  • For a truly effective social campaign, a brand needs to embrace the first principles of marketing, which involves brand definition and consistent storytelling. – Simon Mainwaring
  • Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination. It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful. – Sir Richard Branson
  • A great brand is a story that’s never completely told. A brand is a metaphorical story that connects with something very deep – a fundamental appreciation of mythology. Stories create the emotional context people need to locate themselves in a larger experience. – Scott Bedbury
  • People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic. – Seth Godin
  • Loyalty is not won by being first. It is won by being best. – Stefan Persson
  • Personal branding is all about building rapport at scale and rapport is one of the most fundamental sales techniques. Whether you call it personal branding or charisma, It’s a very powerful tool that veteran salespeople naturally employ to close more deals with less effort. – Mark Roberge

Some people still think of businesses when they hear “brand”, however an individual’s brand is just as important – no matter what stage of life you’re in.

Whether you own a company, just graduated college, or are simply looking for a job, you have to craft a brand that makes sense to you and the audience you want to influence.

Assume that everyone you care about impressing will look you up online, because statistically speaking that’s pretty darn accurate.

These are our favorite personal branding quotes from experts we highly respect.

Our favorite personal branding quotes

Personal branding quote from Tim Ferriss.

  • Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records. Going on a date? Chances are that your “blind” date has Googled your name. Going to a job interview? Ditto. – Tim Ferriss
  • It’s important to build a personal brand because it’s the only thing you’re going to have. Your reputation online, and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so you’ve got to be a good person. You can’t hide anything, and more importantly, you’ve got to be out there at some level. – Gary Vaynerchuk

Branding quotes pulled from Accelepoint Webzine. People think of you.

  • Even individuals need to develop a brand for themselves …. Whatever your area of expertise, you can take steps to make people think of YOU when they think of your field. – Accelepoint Webzine
  • Your brand is a gateway to your true work. You know you are here to do something – to create something or help others in some way. The question is, how can you set up your life and work so that you can do it? The answer lies in your brand. When you create a compelling brand you attract people who want the promise of your brand – which you deliver. – Dave Buck
  • Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own. – Bruce Lee
  • Build a lifestyle around your brand, and the audience will follow. – Eva Chen
  • Personal Branding is all about your unique promise of value and what you bring to the table. It’s (also) about getting your potential clients to choose you as the only solution to their problem. – Dr. Sarah David
  • Think about what people are doing on Facebook today. They’re keeping up with their friends and family, but they’re also building an image and identity for themselves, which in a sense is their brand. – Mark Zuckerberg
  • Focus on identifying your target audience, communicating an authentic message that they want and need and project yourself as an “expert” within your niche. – Kim Garst
  • Apart from creating a vibrant branded Twitter account for your startup, business owners should consider creating their own personal account on Twitter. Fans and followers often want to connect with the person behind the brand. – Lewis Howes
  • Building a profitable personal brand online is not a sprint, and something that happens over night. Don’t aim for perfection early on. Instead allow your brand to evolve naturally over time and focus on providing massive value and over deliver to your target audience. Then you will get more clear over your message and brand as well. Always remember that –  Navid Moazzez
  • As an entrepreneur, one of the biggest challenges you will face will be building your brand. The ultimate goal is to set your company and your brand apart from the crowd. If you form a strategy without doing the research, your brand will barely float – and at the speed industries move at today, brands sink fast. – Ryan Holmes
  • You have to understand your own personal DNA. Don’t do things because I do them or Steve Jobs or Mark Cuban tried it. You need to know your personal brand and stay true to it. – Gary Vaynerchuk
  • If you don’t share your ideas, no one will know if they’re any good. – Dorie Clark
  • Start by knowing what you want and who you are, build credibility around it and deliver it online in a compelling way. – Krista Neher
  • Brand yourself for the career you want, not the job you have. – Dan Schawbel
  • It is important for me that I represent a brand that reflects my personality. – Liya Kebede
  • All of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You. – Tom Peters
  • Your brand is a gateway to your true work. You know you are here to do something—to create something or help others in some way. The question is, how can you set up your life and work so that you can do it? The answer lies in your brand. When you create a compelling brand you attract people who want the promise of your brand – which you deliver. – Dave Buck
  • You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do. – Henry Ford
  • Be Bold, and Original. Tell ’em something that they don’t know – Melinda Emmerson
  • Focus on a content niche where you can be the leading expert in the world on that particular topic. – Joe Pulizzi
  • If you try to resonate with everyone, you will resonate with no one. – John Lee Dumas

With social media and the digital world so prominent today, it’s become a bit easier for us to create a brand online that people can see at any moment.

This is great for those looking to build out their positive brand for others to find, but can be detrimental to those unaware of just how much their social image matters. The more unaware you are, the more likely it is that you’ll unintentionally damage your reputation at some point.

Anything you say or do in front of an audience (live, as well as on the internet) becomes a part of your brand and what you stand for. In addition, a lack of an online presence can also hinder whatever opportunities you are seeking.

These branding quotes are all about the need to protect and control the conversation around your name or brand. If you don’t, someone else will.

Quotes about controlling your brand reputation

  • We all have personal brands and most of us have already left a digital footprint, whether we like it or not. Proper social media use highlights your strengths that may not shine through in an interview or application and gives the world a broader view of who you are. Use it wisely. – Amy Jo Martin
  • It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. – Warren Buffett
  • Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. — Jeff Bezos
  • If you’re not branding yourself, you can be sure others do it for you. – unknown
  • If you don’t give the market the story to talk about, they’ll define your brand’s story for you. – David Brier

Ray Allen quote on personal branding and the importance of establishing yourself on social media.

  • You don’t need a corporation or a marketing company to brand you now: you can do it yourself. You can establish who you are with a social media following. – Ray Allen
  • Social media is changing the way we communicate and the way we are perceived, both positively and negatively. Every time you post a photo, or update your status, you are contributing to your own digital footprint and personal brand. – Amy Jo Martin

Chris Anderson quote. Your brand is what Google says it is.

  • Your brand isn’t what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is. – Chris Anderson
  • Remember that your reputation is everything. You build your personal brand through everything you do, whether big actions or small decisions, and that brand will stay with you throughout your career. – Jan Fields
  • You have to have a brand to be relevant today, the world has changed. Anyone with a smartphone is now a journalist, you have computers writing articles, how are you and I going to stay relevant today how is anyone going to stay relevant today, it’s your brand. – Mark Schaefer

We hope that these branding quotes will help inspire and motivate you to keep charging ahead even when progress is slow. It’s a necessary part of the professional landscape these days and doing it right can win you more opportunities.

If you want to win more opportunities and build up your brand, try out our free software. It will help automate the process of controlling your brand online and free up a lot of time.

Give your brand a big boost
Our software helps your brand look great online so you can win more opportunities.