Tiger Woods and You??

Can we really separate our personal life from our business? Not according to internet guru  Gary Vaynerchuk you can't. Today, it’s just a cold hard reality that every person is their own branding channel and more than capable of broadcasting anything they want to the world at large via the internet. I mean it’s just as easy as sending a tweet isn’t it?  See @michaelbesson

Today everything you do and everything you write is pretty much out in the open till digital death do you part. Did you ever STOP TO THINK that everything about you will be on the internet for your kids' kids to see???

So, if we say one thing and do another, sooner or later you’re going to get called out on it.

Unlike some politicians that can keep their customers for two, four or seven years despite their irrational personal lives, the rules of real business are somewhat different. For our personal brands to have substance, they must be consistent with our personal life.

It is dangerous to build a personal brand around a certain reputation or persona that may not be willing or able to live up to that brand.

That’s not to say that you can't still do things right and have some crazed wacko blog about you somewhere about something completely untrue; “it’s happened to me”.  But it does mean that in today’s digital business environment sooner or later, how you show up consistently over time and over the internet will eventually prevail.  If you’re honest, work with integrity and offer people a serious value proposition that will show up over time. Contrarily, if you’re schlepping crap and trying to make a fast buck, the digital world will nail you and when it does, it’s game over!

That is why when guys like Eliot Spitzer or Tiger Woods get exposed we feel cheated and let down. It’s as if we had bought an expensive product only to find out that it doesn’t perform as advertised.

It used to be that business was business and what we did in our personal life was personal, but in the age of personal branding and social media business is personal. SO what’s the answer? DO things right, play the game to win but play the game to give more than you get in return. Process how to give someone a $1000 of value for $100 and people will write your ticket to success.

Michael Besson is the founder of www.eBizChanger.com and Innovative Business Group in Las Vegas Nevada. He can be found at www.MichaelBesson.com or 702.430.9728 where he serves start-up and emerging company clients deliveringbleeding-edge online marketing methodologies, strategic planning and business development consulting services since 1994.  You may want to call Michael before your competitor does.  You see, they may be reading this too.