It really depends. Some personal brands are built almost overnight while others take a few years to be established.
One thing is certain though: it does take time. This is not a get-famous-quick promotional strategy. The unique idea associated with the personal brand name does take time to get acceptance by the public and the media. In some industries, some concepts catch on really fast (tech-world) while in others they do take forever (medicine).


Larry Page and Sergey Brin are two personal brands that became powerful in less than five years. Why? Their unique, next-generation idea, PageRank that helped them build a fast and relevant search engine, caught on pretty fast and the rise of their company Google helped them become celebrities in their own right and their status shot even higher when they started making the Forbes list of the richest people in the world.
Note: if someone becomes too famous too fast without first gaining acceptance and credibility, he may suffer the one hit wonder syndrome. Think, American Idol’s William Hung, China’s Sister Lotus or anyone you can think of who became ubiquitous almost overnight and a few months later, you already have forgotten all about them!

Building a powerful personal brand does take time, timing and patience. Results however can be felt soon enough in forms of increased client base, expert status, salary or fee raise to name a few rewards.
