I spoke at the worship conference this week at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church. It was a great group - focused on music - and we discussed personal branding and how it can impact your career. One of the points I made that I also discuss in my book "Branding Faith' is the principle that you can't brand a lie. Whatever your brand story is, you'd better be able to live up to that promise. In that sense, a compelling brand isn't much different from your reputation, and as many have said, it takes years to build a reputation and seconds to destroy it.

We've seen another sad example this week with Governor Mark Sanford from South Carolina. He's based much of his political career on values and morality. He voted to censure Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and has long been a voice promoting family values and religious faith. With four young boys, he was an example of a solid family. But this week we discovered that he's been having a year-long affair. He spun out of control and at the end disappeared to Argentina to see his lover.

On top of those revelations, their erotically-tinged emails have been published on TV and in newspapers across the country. In a media-driven culture, nothing stays hidden for long.

Be who you say you are. Be honest and authentic. Because once your brand story is exposed as a fraud, it's almost impossible to recover.