The carpenter works barefoot

There is a familiar paradox in the communications industry: the best brand builders often have the most muted personal and organizational brands. They know exactly why clients need clear positioning, a consistent identity system, and a deep narrative. But when it comes to themselves, they do not apply this. This is not laziness. It is a structural trap.

Hammering syndrome

This is called the “cobbler's children” syndrome (the shoemaker's children go barefoot): the best experts tend to serve others first, while their own needs wait at the back of the line. For agencies and communications professionals, this mechanism is even stronger, for two specific reasons.

First, there is limited capacity. When all creative energy and strategic time are poured into paid projects, there is nothing left for oneself. Second, there is a lack of observational distance. To build a good brand, one needs to view the organization from the outside, like a stranger encountering it for the first time. Insiders can hardly do this, as they are too familiar with their own story to recognize their true weaknesses and strengths.

A brand is not what you say about yourself. It is the perception others have of you when you are not in the room.

Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap

When positioning is replaced by recommendations

Most agencies and freelance communications professionals in Vietnam operate on an implicit model: clients arrive through acquaintances, direct referrals and the founder's personal reputation. This model works, but it has two hard limits.

The first limit is scale. Referrals can't be replicated in a linear way. Every new client needs a conversation that explains everything from scratch, because no brand stands ready to speak on your behalf. The second limit is price. When clients can't tell how you differ from anyone else, the default question becomes how much you cost, not what you bring. This pushes even agencies with real expertise into a price competition they don't want to join.

Three reasons an agency can't see itself clearly

In addition to the two reasons mentioned, there is a third, less discussed reason: communicators often do not believe they need what they sell to clients. They know how to build a brand, so why go through the strategic process like an ordinary client? This belief is the biggest blind spot.

Knowing the theory does not mean you can apply it to yourself. A good doctor still needs another colleague to examine them because no one can objectively listen to their own heart. The same goes for branding.

• No one from the outside asks the hard question: "Why should I choose you instead of someone else?"
• Confusing personal aesthetic taste with brand positioning. These two are not the same.
• There is no deadline or mandatory budget, so the "our own brand" project stays stuck at "we'll do it later."

The consequence: the agency becomes a commodity

Without clear positioning, every agency looks the same to a new client. Beautiful portfolio, long case studies, but no answer to the fundamental question. Who are you, who do you serve best, and what is the reason to trust you over anyone else.

Wally Olins once wrote that a brand expresses itself through four vectors: products, environments, communications and behavior. For an agency, the “behavior” vector matters especially, because clients will be watching: are you doing for yourself what you advise them to do? If the answer is no, that is a risk signal, even if unintentional.

Self-reflection principle: where to start

The most practical approach is to start with the three questions you would ask any client in an initial discovery session, rather than spending six months on a grand rebrand project for yourself.

The first question: who is your ideal client, specific enough that you can describe a real person? The second question: when they have a problem you can solve, where are they, what are they thinking, and what terms are they searching for? The third question: after working with you, how will they describe that experience to others?

If you can't answer these three questions clearly and without ambiguity, your brand doesn't yet exist in any practical sense. You are running on personal reputation and lucky connections, not on brand assets accumulated over time.

Byron Sharp points out that distinctive brand assets only create mental availability (presence in the customer's mind when they are ready to buy) when they are repeated consistently. For agencies and communications professionals, this means every post, every proposal and every meeting is a chance to either build or erode the brand. There is no neutral ground.

Positioning is not something you do with a product. It is something you do with the mind of potential customers.

Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

The only difference: treating yourself like a client

The practical conclusion is to apply the same process you already use for others: book an initial discovery session for yourself, and write the brief as if you were a client hiring an outside agency. If possible, have an outsider lead that session so you truly sit in the client's seat.

Good communications professionals know better than anyone that a brand is not something you build once and finish. But before it can accumulate, it needs to exist. And it begins to exist from the moment you decide to treat your own brand with the same seriousness you give to a paying client.