Scrolling through LinkedIn, I see endless profiles indistinguishable from the other. The same could be said about Instagram... Actually, NPR recently reported AI generated profiles on LinkedIn were pushing propaganda and spamming us all. Hypeauditor’s latest analysis found only 55 percent of the followers on Instagram were real. And Elon Musks' recent acquisition attempt reminded us of the problem with Twitter's spam bots.

Across all these social networks, it's almost as if these profiles are manufactured from the same template… and indeed, many of these “professionals” do copy each other: learning from the same gurus, employing the same "best" practices, and yes, literally using the same templates, same colors, fonts, and imagery.

Every time I see one of these profiles, I wonder underneath all that, who that person is truly? IF there is even an actual living, breathing person in the first place? Or if it was just another algorithm, some AI, dressed up as a professional?

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So what makes a bad brand? I think the worst brand is the generic brand… a disposable, replaceable, low-value commodity… an irrelevant afterthought in the minds of consumers.

I truly worry that even if I have achieved some success: if it was just dumb-luck? Could it have been anyone else? Why was it me, specifically?

For me, the big hope for branding is that we become even more human, more uniquely us (i.e. less generic and less corporate). And in creating a unique identity, we can start to differentiate and distinguish ourselves from the competitive marketplace... so others see us as the singular solution to their problem. They see us, as us!