All Marketers are Liars, but what's the story you tell yourself, about yourself?

[Joseph Coplans]

This post is more than about Seth Godin’s book, All Marketers are Liars, it’s how his book relates to your story concerning your personal brand.

But first, here’s a first glimpse into the book as told through the voice of the editorial review for those of you who haven’t read it: (by the way, it’s a really fun read and well-written to boot)

Book Description
Every marketer tells a story. And if they do it right, we believe them. We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass. We believe that an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne is vastly superior to a $36,000 VW Touareg, which is virtually the same car. We believe that $225 Pumas will make our feet feel better-and look cooler-than $20 no-names . . . and believing it makes it true.

Successful marketers don't talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story. A story we want to believe.

This is a book about doing what consumers demand-painting vivid pictures that they choose to believe. Every organization-from nonprofits to car companies, from political campaigns to wineglass blowers-must understand that the rules have changed (again). In an economy where the richest have an infinite number of choices (and no time to make them), every organization is a marketer and all marketing is about telling stories.

But wait. There’s more. A lot more.


Seth Godin’s book is not only a great book, it’s an important read. And it’s an important read for anyone who is exploring the vital perceptions of the story people play in their heads about the essential brand elements that make up your personal brand.

Seth Godin, wrote that book mostly for marketers.

Or marketing culture — for the world of products and services. Products and Services that depend on brand perception.

But my point is, individuals have a story too. And you have story coming at you and working for you from TWO distinct angles:

First, there’s the story people tell themselves concerning who they think you are and with that is the story they tell themselves about your profession.

Secondly, there’s the story you tell yourself about…yourself. (SYT-YAY)

The story you tell yourself repeatedly that is at the basis of how you shape your own person brand to yourself, the business and personal narrative that you use to sell yourself to yourself everyday.

So, even if you haven’t read the book or don’t intend to, you can surely appreciate the title. All Marketers are Liars is a play on the perception people carry around in their minds about marketers. It’s a dubious and negative one, but it’s supposed to be playfully exaggerated in this context to prove a point: most people are suspicious of marketers. Most people feel companies will say anything to sell their products.

And that’s the whole point of the book. People carry with them an untold story that is telling itself often without you realizing it’s being told.

We’re simply not conscious of our good and bad stories that are playing on a loop with or without our permission.

So for my first point, there’s the story people tell themselves concerning who they think you are: That’s age, gender, stature, class, and a whole lot of that is based on some surface elements. So forget those things. Just dressing for success, is oftentimes a great way to escape the surface judgments of others. (unless you thrive on those surface judgments and hey, that’s a different story)

What’s more important is recognizing is that people may or may not relate to you for a BILLION reasons. None of which may have ANYTHING to do with you. The goal of a strong personal brand is to build the character aspects that champion and showcase your Universal Values. (I capitalized Universal Values for effect, for fun too).

The second half of the first part of the story told concerning your personal brand is the story people tell themselves about your profession.

Some professions have more baggage than others. Sales? Yikes. What baggage doesn’t sales have? Are you an accountant? People associate your profession with…shall we say…the yawn factor? Or “squareness” to use a very 60’s-70’s term. That’s a prejudice. That’s a profession prejudice. Oh, and lawyers too. Anyone like sharks in their water? (I’m just going to cartoonish extremes here to prove a point)

It would be interesting to find out what the common perception is of your profession if you don’t already know. Is it valued? Is it under-valued? Is it dismissed? Disliked? Is it heralded? Do people think one thing in your industry and think another outside your industry? Do you often find yourself fighting perceptions about what you do? — even to yourself?

And amazing to consider and remember is that people carry around a story about the company you work for. And that story may or may not work to your advantage. Somebody who works for Charles Schwab is considered a low financial risk in terms of their personal credit and more or less, that person becomes somebody who is “set for life” and in a stable financial career. Though the truth may be otherwise. That employee may have horrible credit and may be facing a workplace crisis and the only thing they may be clinging to is the reputation that the name of their company affords them.

Sometimes people, employees, take on the identity of a company. Often you’re branded whether you like it or not. And that brand follows you around. IBM sales training is the best in the country. If you move from IBM to a fortune 500 company in a different industry, chances are that reputation for excellence will follow you. It’s hard to imagine that being a bad thing unless you want to entirely disassociate yourself from aggressive sales teams in your new career move, especially with everyone asking you, “So why’d you leave such a top-notch super-sales force?”
That might get a tad fatiguing, I suspect.

And finally there’s the story you tell yourself about yourself. That’s really what I’ve been leading up to in this post. It’s the most important story of all when considering a developed and enriched personal brand, which will always serve you because it’s the core basis for why you do what you do, and the inspiration behind your self-discovery.

The story you tell yourself about yourself (SYT-YAY) the one that’s in your head, the one you may not know is being told, is ultimately how you derive meaning from what you do. SYT-YAY is also a huge subject. The biggest of all.

The story you tell yourself about yourself is a gateway to how others perceive you, and it’s a story that demands authenticity and yet, imagination. Honesty, and maybe the inspired actions of an alter-ego egging you on to “fake it until you make it”.

Paradox? Sure. But the point is, the self-discovery never ends. The commitment to find inspiration is a contract we keep with ourselves that never expires. And the goal is to learn as much as we can about ourselves even if it feels like we sometimes takes steps backwards to get there.
All Marketers are Liars is a terrific book about story. And its ideas are just a short hop to the camouflaged or spring-loaded stories waiting for discovery in our personal brands…

End “SYT-YAY” Part 1.