Isaac Mashman on reputation: what it is, why it is part of a personal brand rather than the whole of one, why it cannot be bought, and how a single misstep can bring it down.
Isaac Mashman treats reputation as an asset to be built on purpose and protected with patience. He is careful about one distinction above all: a reputation is an aspect of a personal brand, not the personal brand itself. This guide gathers where he makes the case.
Your reputation is an aspect of your personal brand but it is not your personal brand. Reputation is the general consensus surrounding a subject.
Is that consensus positive or negative?
Is there trust or concern?
Authority or mediocrity?
Fourteen subchapters follow the idea through, from the Leaning Tower to Compiling Wins. The third, It Can’t Be Bought, argues against buying credibility with paid placements or followers. Every line from Chapter 5, Reputation Management. The quote on its own page.
Each conversation opens at the moment the passage begins, in the full transcript of Isaac’s words.
“Thinking that you can buy your way into a positive reputation is a fool’s way of thinking.”
“True authority figures are who they are and let their results speak for themselves.”
As told in the Manifesto, his essays, and on this site.
The Manifesto's Leaning Tower reads the story as a warning: Goliath fell from the belief that he was too big to fall, and his reputation fell with him while David's began. The subchapter sets out four ways to respond to a controversy: The Path of Accountability, Denial, Resolution Without Resolve, and Complete Ignorance.
Lines from 5.1, Leaning TowerIsaac does not buy press placements, features, or followings. In It Can’t Be Bought he writes that he has never paid out of pocket for any press feature, and when he compiled a list of personal branding leaders to watch, no one on it had paid to be there.
Top 8 Personal Branding Leaders to WatchIsaac once answered every pitch with his life story. Today, when he writes to a journalist, he leaves his qualifications to his record: a quick Google search, his email says, should suffice.
The Benefits of Being Able to Say Google MeReputation's single misstep, on Mashman Consulting Group's doctrine page.
The Leaning Tower (opens in a new tab)Five ways to respond when a negative spotlight lands, from the firm's Doctrine Library.
Dealing With Crises (opens in a new tab)The standard Isaac holds himself to, written down.
The Executive Code of Ethics
