You made the point exactly when you said: “…we all aren’t superstars by nature. Some of us need a gentle push, a few tips and tricks, a little guidance on our paths.” Personal branding is, essentially, the promotion of our attributes. Some folks (like the ones cited in your post), intuitively know how to do that, but they don't see it as anything extraordinary because it happens so effortlessly for them. To eschew personal branding because it's an ingrained part of who some people are would put many who don't have an idea of how to effectively convey their attributes at a distinct disadvantage.

I do agree with Mitch Joel's issue with personal branding when people “seem and feel like plastic and taste like vanilla.” That tends to happen when folks try to apply corporate branding principles too rigidly to the individual level. Problem is, personal branding differs from corporate branding. The goal of corporate branding is to promote attributes that will resonate positively with as many people as possible, while the goal of personal branding should be to resonate with the *right* people. If a person implementing personal branding feels slick, they're not doing it right because there's no authenticity. It lacks the stamp of their personality that would make it uniquely theirs. Done right, no one personal brand would be like another. The process to get there can be the same, but the outcome will be different based on interests and personality nuances.

Another thing I noticed in the posts you referenced is a sense that someone with a good personal brand should never make mistakes or let them be known. Uh, no. I don't agree with that. People are human, and everyone makes mistakes. There is no way to hide every gaff from the public. What differentiates a person from the crowd is the way that the situation is handled after the fact. Tom Peters did a video a while back in which he talks about messing up. His advice when someone screws up is to “[m]ake those responses [to the problem] positive, quick, and overwhelming.” So it's not a matter of never making a mistake; it's more a matter of owning up to it and making it right. In the end, it brings more authenticity to the personal brand.