Associations that affect your brand are all around you everyday.  Your group of friends, where you go to network, social clubs, chambers of commerce, and professional associations are all examples of associations that affect your brand. How, you might wonder? Let’s look at several examples.

What makes a great association experience?  Associating with friends who lift you up, and who you also support, make for wonderful friendships.  You feel good.  Your friends feel good.  And your reputation among those friends is stellar.  That’s the way it should be, and it is quite normal. If you are hanging out with friends who zap your energy, these associations affect your brand in and adverse way.

Networking situations are another example of associations that affect your brand.  Such groups are most notable for helping to expand your business outreach, often with social implications.  In an ideal situation, you should find ways to help others before they help you.  It can be challenging to meet your obligations if your business is new, or if you’re uncomfortable with a networking format.  You have to think about whether people you know could benefit from the new associations you are making through that group.

Here’s a tip.  In joining a networking group, be sure that you study what other group members’ businesses actually are, and if there is symmetry between your business and with at least one other existing group member before joining.  A lack of early planning may lead to an example of associations that affect your brand adversely.  However, when you’re in a group where you can help others, and where the group helps to promote you, too, and you have good relations with the members, this can be very positive for your brand.

Chambers of commerce and other civic organizations are similar to networking groups as associations that affect your brand.  You want to be part of organizations where their values and yours are mutually aligned.  If their politics, policies, or other standards, don’t mesh with yours, you may not enjoy schmoozing with the affiliated people, despite feeling a need to do it.  But when you can comfortably embrace an organization, and know it’s a good fit for you, it makes being a member and taking on roles within the organization enjoyable.

Then there are professional associations.  I was a member of one for my profession of image consultants for ten years until I realized how this association was negatively affecting my brand.  Now, professional associations should be a wonderful place to create a community of likeminded people to grow professionally and support one another through comprehensive education and even certification opportunities.  Often, these professional associations are helpful in aiding your marketing outreach.  Becoming actively involved in a professional association can lead to lasting rewards.  I grew professionally through my tenure as a member, and met wonderful colleagues from around the world who I respect and admire.

But, ultimately, this proved to be an association that affected my brand adversely, and I want to tell you why so it doesn’t happen to you.  As one of the only men in this particular professional association, an unwritten value of the organization is that it was created by and for women.  Try as I did to fit in, there was always so much push back, for being a man, for being gay, and even for my age. When I was stonewalled from taking on a leadership role, one of the global association’s founding members told me that it was because I was too young.  The context of gender, orientation, and age bias perpetrated by the power elite resulted in their attitude that I needed to be “controlled.”

I love my work as much as breathing.  It’s a necessary element of my life, and I don’t think I could choose another profession any more than it would be possible to live without breathing.  I also cannot change my gender, sexual orientation, or even my age until nature takes its course.  In an association that pledges to codes of ethics and civility, too many people tried to “control” me and cut off my oxygen access.  Despite there being some people who showed me respect and that I was valued, I was treated as the outsider and I was never going to fit in to the culture.  It is not inclusive.  It can turn you inside out and make you feel just awful about yourself, when in fact, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with you.

These are all examples of how your associations can affect your brand.  Don’t let the behavior of others adversely affect your reputation.  Never worry about being liked by everyone.  It’s far better to be liked by those you respect and when you are able to support one another and grow together.

Remember, your personal brand is comprised of the perception others have of you, as well as your own self-perception.  When others’ negative perceptions of you are false and it is hurtful to the point that it is affecting how you see yourself, get away from that situation.  That’s the definition of a toxic association, and it most certainly affects your brand.

We don’t operate our lives in a vacuum.  We need to associate with others.  We want to associate with others.  It’s what makes life worth living.  Above all else, perhaps of all associations that affect your brand, the one that matters most is the one you have with yourself.  As a colleague from Pennsylvania recently reminded me, “To thine own self be true.”  I agree with her.  The truth will set the record straight and set you free.

Joseph Rosenfeld helps high-profile individuals revitalize, manage, and be secure in their personal visual brand. Visit JosephRosenfeld.com for details.

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