Illustration by Eric Petersen

In 2013, I traveled to Alaska to give a talk to a group of local reporters. The conference organizers had asked me to speak about how journalists can create a “personal brand,” and tantalized by a subsidized vacation in the Alaskan wilderness, I quickly agreed. On the flight to Anchorage, I perused the local headlines. The Pirates of Penzance was opening at the opera. Free TV access in rural parts of the state was under threat. A respected rescue pilot had died in a helicopter crash. Reading these articles, I knew I was in trouble.

“Thanks for coming to the smarmy marketing panel!” I joked awkwardly, before attempting to sell the assembled journalists on the virtues of having a personal web site and using Twitter. There were more than a few blank stares—and why not? These were people who wanted to report from government meetings and write about local businesses, not land a job at a glossy New York magazine. Most of their readers already knew them personally, because they were neighbors. Despite what the event’s planners believed, why would they need a “brand”?

And yet everyone seems to think they need a personal brand these days. I know because a lot of people ask me about it. I’m a self-employed freelance writer who makes a good living for someone with no dependents. Although it’s more of a tax designation, I am technically the CEO of my own corporation. I have a decent Twitter following, a popular podcast, and an email newsletter that strangers subscribe to. I tell people all the time that, given the turmoil in the media industry, I have more job security now that I work for a dozen media companies at any given time than I did back when I was a full-time staff member at one.

But branding yourself has become a professional goal for more than just journalists. Today, Fortune 500 companies hold seminars to train their employees in the art of personal branding, and an entire industry of coaches is flourishing to teach nonprofit managers and small-business owners how to get a leg up on the competition. By the year 2020, according to software company Intuit, 40 percent of the workforce will consist of freelancers and independent contractors. Whether you’re a financial planner or a fashion blogger, a personal brand has come to seem like a professional requirement—the key to success and fulfillment in an increasingly cutthroat and unstable economy. “Every person is a media company,” said Dan Schawbel, 32, a brand consultant in New York and one of the leading figures in the personal branding industry. “Anyone can have a platform now, whether you’re a janitor or a CEO.”

What is a personal brand, though? The truth is, I’m not quite sure. I can’t even tell you what my brand is, exactly. Sure, there are topics like gender and technology to which I return again and again as a writer, but I’m just pursuing things that interest me, or that editors approach me to write about. No real strategy to see here! For anyone trying to figure out how to make it in media—or any other industry, really—that’s hardly a recipe for success.