"Building a brand" makes me want to vomit

Is omission lying? Or is omission curation?

The Nude Maja, c. 1800, by Francisco Goya

Personal branding is an unavoidable component of working in a field like writing. People need to know who you are in order to find the things you write, you need to cultivate interest in your work. A big component of that, unfortunately, is proving to a potential audience that you are a person worth being interested in. There’s still work that stands on its own based on merit, but when you’re a freelancer, you are constantly having to sell yourself. Selling yourself to potential employers, selling your work to your readers, and if you are something of a blogger like myself (for lack of a better title), you have to sell your persona too.