The Brand Fuzz

Back in 2021, at Indian Institute of Management Indore, I attended a workshop on personal branding.

And something said by Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman stayed with me.

The personality you saw on MTV Roadies?
Not fully real.
Highly curated.
Contract-driven.
TRP-focused.

That “angry”, “aggressive”, “intimidating” image?
A constructed brand.

And that’s when it hit me
Personal branding is powerful.

People don’t know you.
They know the version of you that is consistently shown.

Branding can build authority.
Branding can build fear.
Branding can build aspiration.

But here’s the real question:

Are you consciously building your image
or are you accidentally letting the market define it for you?

Because once perception is set,
it takes years to shift.

Your brand is not just your logo.
It’s the story people repeat about you when you’re not in the room.

Build it intentionally.