In a highly acclaimed song from the movie True Crime, artist Diana Krall poses the question “why should I care?” I reference this song partly because I want to answer the question “why should we care about storytelling and personal branding” and partly because True Crime is a highly underrated movie that proves Clint Eastwood is as good a director as he is an actor.

The concept of personal branding has been around since 1997 when management guru Tom Peters penned an article in Fast Company Magazine, The Brand Called You, arguing we have entered an era where we are all CEO’s of Me Inc. Essentially, globalization and technological innovation put the nail in the coffin of the social compact between employees and employers. Now we are all free agents as companies routinely “re-organize” and employees switch careers. Career counselors estimate those in generation “y” and beyond will change jobs, on average, nine times. This trend makes it virtually impossible to accurately answer the cocktail party question, what do you do? You do lots of things and will do lots more over your career.

Professionally, the return on investment (ROI) for taking the time to decipher your own story and understand the concepts of personal branding is the ability to show how your disparate skills, passions and personality traits make you a free agent worth bidding for.

While many have written about the professional advantages of personal branding, few have delved into the personal advantages of personal branding (given that personal is in the name of the concept, this is a shame). Did you know studies have shown that the average 26 year old woman has been hit on 5,000 times? It is no wonder it is so difficult to meet someone given the competition for companionship. If we take the time to understand what emotional needs we can fulfill for someone else, we will have a much easier time in finding someone we can build chemistry with.

Personally, the ROI of developing and telling your story is the ability to show, in a couple of minutes, how you have a combination of traits, passions and skills to help another person be happy.

I believe it would be a true crime for you to miss out on this opportunity to develop a compelling and interesting personal story. Come on I know you are as good a director as Clint Eastwood.

Do you believe the hype? I am always up for a good debate. Let me know honestly what you think.