The term "personal branding" means to receive the person concerned by marking or labeling the person as a brand or something reduced to a mark of people. However, the expression "branding" in humans sounds catchier.

To date, there is no uniform definition of personal branding. Given a large number of primarily American books, countless magazine articles, blogs, websites, magazines, and other media sources, the definitions of the term sometimes differ significantly from author to author.

Regarding the traditional approaches of personal branding, Hubert K. Rampersad formulates it from today's perspective: "Most traditional personal branding concepts focus mainly on personal marketing, image building, selling, packaging, outward appearances, promoting yourself, and becoming famous".

Dan Schawbel states what personal branding is not changing who you are in order to fit others' expectations. The explanations from the beginning to the present day range from the marketing of pure appearances to the use of psychologically relevant approaches.

The definition of the first personal branding author comes from Tom Peters. In his Fast Company article from 1997, he uses the term "personal branding" but does not define it, as such. Peters writes of himself as the inventor of the term Brand You, which is used synonymously for personal branding.

My modern-language (aka Peters-speak) term for this ancient, self-reliant, networked, word-of-mouth-dependent, distinguished craftsperson: brand you. Brand you = who you are. He also explains that this is a pragmatic, commercial idea about survival, but also about opportunities and about self-definition. These and more will be discovered in this audiobook.