Barbara Corcoran knows better than most what it takes to build a powerful brand. 28 years after founding The Corcoran Group, her real-estate company, she sold it for twice its estimated value. As she puts it: “They paid me for my sales . . . but then they paid me double for my brand.” Brand-building isn’t happenstance – a lucky byproduct of professional success – it’s a daily practice, and time spent becoming a name to be reckoned with is time well spent. “Good old fashioned grandstanding...