5 Personal Branding Lessons from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Recently I have watched the Disney’s version of Snow White and the seven dwarfs with my gorgeous daughters and it made me think about personal branding. As I was arguing previously, personal branding is not a new thing, just the term was recently invented. It existed in ancient times and it was transposed in fairy tales that we loved when we were kids. Here is what Snow White story can teach us about personal branding:
1. Make your elevator pitch be your name. Snow White has her name from the fact that she had a very white skin. Also the seven dwarfs have their names derived from one of their differentiating characteristics: Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, Bashful, Sneezy and Sleepy. Some other people are using this lesson. For example William Arruda is the Personal Branding Guru and everywhere his name appears it will be associated with his elevator pitch or Dan Schawbel is the your personal branding expert.
2. Differentiate and get out of the crowd. Snow White was beautiful, but so was her step mother. So instead of branding herself as the most beautiful, she has chosen her name based on another characteristic that differentiates her. The seven dwarfs were all small. In order to differentiate one from the other they got their names based on their way of being: Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, Bashful, Sneezy and Sleepy. There are tons of people on Twitter that call themselves gurus or experts. In order to differentiate we have to call ourselves something different. I’ve seen people which instead of saying that they are ninjas or gurus in a certain field they have chosen to say that they are pioneers. This still transmit their expertise but they differentiate from the crowd.
3. Measure your brand constantly. Every day Snow White’s step mother, the  Queen was asking her mirror, a kind of a personal branding grading tool, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all?”. We have to do the same using specific tools. For example I monitor my online presence every day. I also monitor my competition (other personal branding strategists) and what’s new in my field.
4. Killing your competition does not work on the long term. As we can find out from the end of the story, fighting against our competition is not a valid strategy. Instead we should outsmart the brands that are in the same niche, or create a niche where we are the only player.
5. There is no win without struggle. Snow White had to fight for her personal brand. Her mother had to fight to give birth. She first had to wish, to have a vision (I wish I had a daughter that had skin white as snow, lips red as blood and hair black as ebony), then she gave her life for Snow White to be born. We have to do the same thing. If anybody thinks that I’ll do this and that and I’ll have immediate results, he’s definitely wrong. Personal branding is a continuous effort and the results take time to become visible

Have you found other personal branding lessons in fairy tales? Be sure to post the links in the comments below.