This is the final post in a series about blogging your personal brand. I’ve written a post for beginners, as well as intermediate and advanced users. Please review those posts before reviewing this one.
1) Podcast your brand on your blog
When it comes to personal branding, I typically recommend that you become the master of your domain (a niche) instead of trying to position yourself for a large, saturated and boring topic. Well, the economic landscape has changed and you can’t just succeed by being a specialist within a corporation. If you’re an entrepreneur and have a steady business, focused on a niche, then this disregard this blog post. The new means that in order to keep your job, you must be flexible (easy adapt to business changes), learning new functions within your business, and networking outside of your group or organization, while still specializing.
Today, I spoke with Gretchen Rubin, who just might be the happiest woman on earth. She shares her happiness tips everyday on her world famous blog (over 17,000 subscribers), while blogging at the Huffington Post, being an author of several books and, soon, taking over the world. In this interview, Gretchen reflects on 2008, gives you tips for 2009, shares some of her blogging strategies and then analyzes her own personal brand for all of us.
Today, I spoke with John Gerzema, who is the Chief Insights Officer for Young & Rubicam Group and an author. We discuss the three main challenges marketers face in today’s marketplace, what the brand bubble is and how to measure it, as well as his five-stage model for brand creativity and change. John, then gives us his perspective on personal branding.
What challenges do marketers have these days? How are they different than years ago?
Marketing is facing a convergence of forces:
For the release of my new book and to capture everything I do in the personal branding world, I had new business cards made. It costs about $170 to get 1,000 double-sided, color, 12 pt thick, glossy business card. One side is the cover of my book and the other has my picture, with my contact information, two media quotes and my title. From a branding perspective, these business cards will make people remember my face and the book that I have coming out in April. Whether you’re in college, an entrepreneur or a manager, you should have your own business card. If you want to learn how to create your own business cards, see my previous post on this topic.
Today, I spoke with John Eckberg, who has spoken with many successful entrepreneurs and celebrities, wrapping up his interviews in a book and sharing a few today for this blog. The two we will discuss are Donald Trump and P Diddy, who, in my opinion, truly represent the epitome of personal branding. Donald Trump understood early in his career that personal branding would give him an edge, while P Diddy figured out that being around people who were smarter than him would help accelerate his business success.
What can Donald Trump teach us about building a powerful brand (personal/product/corporate)?
We’ve spoken about how your network will soon be a job qualification back in October. I think it’s even more than that now, taking the economic climate and the rise of social media as a mainstream vehicle into account. Your network, which is naked online and seen by employers and your management, will become one of the most important promotional items for your company or prospective company.
We should all have a marketing mindset now. If you don’t, it’s time to start reading this blog and acquire one!
Today, I spoke with Hayagreeva Rao, who is a professor at Stanford Business School and author. He talks about what a “market rebel” is, why they are important, some examples of rebels, the benefits and how personal branding relates. Hayagreeva makes a great case why you should become a market rebel to stand out amongst your peers and start innovating to change the world. Although, market rebels aren’t readily visible, they are able to innovate within company’s or as entrepreneurs. Innovation causes change and change is needed for progress!
What are market rebels? Why are they important?
Recently, I was interviewed by Rick Burnes of Hubspot about my upcoming book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. As of today, my book is doing very well on pre-orders, ranking #26 on Amazon for job hunting bestsellers, #54 for web marketing and #70 e-commerce. I want to thank everyone for helping promote the book so far and for your ongoing support throughout the past few years. The coolest thing is that the book doesn’t even come out in stores until April 7th of 2009, which means there seems to be a big need for it already!
Today, I spoke with David Armano, who is a well-known blogger and visual expert. He’s best known for his marketing diagrams and speaks at a lot of industry events. I spoke to David about how he’s grown his personal brand, what it takes to become known in a cluttered world and tips he has for bloggers who are just starting out. One of the main themes in our talk was how he separates his personal brand from his employers brand and how he’s able to make both brands mutually benefit over time. I’m in a similar situation to David, so it was helpful to see how he’s handled it.
This is the third post in a series about blogging your personal brand. I’ve written a post for beginners and one for intermediate users. Please review those posts before indulging in this one.
1) Host your own blog
Instead of borrowing someone else’s space and redirecting your domain name to that space, you have the ability to install WordPress on your own host. In January, I’ll be switching over to PersonalBrandingBlog.com instead of my PersonalBrandingBlog.wordpress.com because I want to own my blog entirely, have more control over the page elements, make money and turn it into a larger property.
Here are 3 questions you should ask yourself before we enter 2009. The reason why I’m asking these is because I want you to think about how you can keep your job and pursue your passion at the same time.
1. Are you committed to your current career path for the rest of your life?
This may seem like an extreme and overstated question, but it’s actually extremely important. Although technology is set to go through rapid advancements from today till the day you retire, your personal brand remains the same. Your brand is who you are and, although you may gain new skills and stay relevant to your audience, you are your brand.
Commitment is just as important in relationships, as it is with careers and branding. If you aren’t satisfied and convinced that you have chosen the proper, long-term, career path for yourself, then before the ball drops in 2009, start thinking about it. This questions has nothing to do with your current job. A job is a stepping stone to something larger. A career is a chosen pursuit. If, even for a second, you question your career path, you better reflect on it, change it and secure a different position to help get back on track. The most successful people discover their strengths and pursue their passion.
2. If you just won a million dollars would you quit your job?
A lot of people in this world give up before they claim victory or they settle based on their current financial standing. Many lottery winners revert back to being poor or middle-class because they don’t have a millionaire mindset. They mentally want to have thousands of dollars and not millions, so they deplete their winnings over a short period of time. This question takes into account that you just received a full (non-taxed) million dollars in your bank account. Would you retire? Would you go on vacation around the world for the rest of your life?
If you answer “yes” to both of these questions, then review question #1. The most successful people are passionate about what they do and instead of retiring, they continue to practice their “hobby” and get paid. They might not work as hard, especially if they’ve established a strong personal brand name, but they enjoy what they do so much, that retiring is boring to them.
Remember that it’s what you do that makes you who you are and how you project that to others that makes you memorable. That being said, if you’re a 30 year old retired millionaire going out to a bar meeting women, and they ask “what do you do for a living,” your answer might turn them off.
3. Does your current company need your services to do business?
This question will tell you how much “job security” you’ll have in 2009. If you run your own business, then you can rephrase this to “do your clients need your services to succeed”? Whichever question you answer, I want you to think long and hard about how important your skills are to other people.
You will probably be laid off if you respond “no” to this question. The big problem in this economy is that there is no sign of hope. Marketing and sales positions are some of the first to go because they are seen as “fluff.” The company’s that keep their top marketing people and find some means to give them an adequate budget will succeed because they can break through less clutter and get the company’s name out there. Becoming more valuable to your customers and/or company will help keep you afloat!
Best of luck in 2009.
Today, I spoke with Cal Newport, who has already written two books for college students, and has a great blog on how to hack college. Cal has a lot of knowledge when it comes to how to succeed at college, make the most out of your time in college and how you brand yourself as the top college graduate to get into grad school. His advice is very interesting, especially his points about not majoring in business and how to differentiate yourself without having two majors. He even helps us dissects the college admissions process, so high schoolers know what it takes to get into the top schools. This interview is a must-read for any ambitious college student!
Today, I spoke with Kellie A. McElhaney, who is a professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and one of the main brains behind the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative that is spreading all over the world. When it comes to employer branding, successful corporations are able to bridge their brand and that of a noble cause together. Kellie talks about what CSR is, why most company’s fail to do a good job with CSR, how company’s and their employee can get involved today and the impact all of this has on Gen-Y.
A family catastrophy
It’s Christmas right now and I’m Jewish, so I figured I would have time to record a short two minute video for all of you. I would like to wish you all a merry Christmas, happy Channukah and a pre - happy new year! This week has been extremely difficult for me, as you might have seen on Facebook and Twitter.
Today, I spoke with G.L. Hoffman, who is one of the louder voices in the career and job space. He is an entrepreneur and now author and is here to tell us how to dig our jobs. The main message here is that if you don’t like your job, get out of it and find one that you do enjoy. G.L. shares a few tips you might not have heard before as well.
G.L., what can a dog with a shovel teach us about digging our job?
Reader question
“I have recently gone solo and started a consulting business (with a handful of employees)… from a social networking branding perspective (i.e. twitter, blog etc.) should I concentrate on building myself or my company brand. I know the answer is both, but which one first and foremost would you recommend, for example should my blog, facebook page, twitter names be me or my company. What would you suggest?” - Joe Newbert
When you have a unique name, face, personal brand statement and skill set, differentiation is natural and fairly easy. Out of everything I just mentioned, your face is perhaps the most important asset you have, both online and offline. We spoke about how to brand yourself with business cards some time ago and how your cards should contain a picture on one side because that’s how people will remember you. When was the last time you forgot a face? Unless you meet someone when they are five years old and then visit them when they are twenty-five, there aren’t drastic changes in their physical appearance.
Today, I spoke with Laura T. Coffey, who is the queen of giving business and personal finance advice tips. She is a writer for MSNBC and is here today to coach you through this recession, give you hope and tips you can use to make smarter decisions before you let the recession cast a dark shadow over your career. Laura is very smart and experienced in this area and has advice for people in all positions right now, including entrepreneurs, people who are unemployed and workers.
I’ve been asked by a lot of people for an article that introduces personal branding. I went searching through my archives and found that I really didn’t have an up-to-date article that goes over personal branding at a high level. More and more educators are interested in this space and most of my posts are for someone with basic knowledge and skills. Before we step into 2009, I’d like to go over the basics of what you need to know to get started on your brand for next year. “Building my personal brand” should be on all of your new years resolution lists.
The history of personal branding
Tom Peters crafted an article for the August 1st, 1997 issue of Fast Company Magazine, entitled “The Brand Called You,” which explored the evolution of career development, and exposed a new mindset for the new millennium. Basically, instead of relying on a company for career guidance, it’s up to you to take ownership of the brand called you. Personal branding called for everyone to become a “free agent,” which not everyone bought into back then. Now there are tools available for you to grasp your brand and shape it (social media).
Web 2.0’s impact on personal branding
Before web 2.0 changed our world, it was really hard to get enough press to really stand out. There weren’t blogs, so you’d have to get your local newspaper, or mainstream media to write about you. You could go to a networking event and meet five to ten people each time. You could sit in your college class and meet ten new people. Web 2.0 amplified how we network, first impressions and personal visibility and self-promotion forever.
Me 1.0 was hidden behind a corporate brand, without an outside voice and not being able to afford excessive promotion (PR & advertising). Me 2.0, as I call it, is when you get to stand in front of your company, at the cost of your time and with the ability to carry your voice across the world in a matter of seconds (think Twitter). I’ve captured this change in my new book, rightfully called, Me 2.0.
Why personal branding was inevitable
There are two main reasons why personal branding is becoming a core part of our culture. Sadly, it’s nothing revolutionary! First, we are all being judged all the time, even when we’re sleeping (our online profiles are still up!). Second, we have to constantly sell our ideas to teachers, managers, venture capitalists, our friends and family, to make things happen in our lives. We have to convince them to take action.
Personal branding defined
In 2007, I gathered a group of international brand and career experts to collaborate on a single definition for personal branding. After analyzing the definition and reciting it in a few presentations back then, I felt it was too long, thus no one could remember it. For 2008, I shortened it to “how we market ourselves to others.” Personal branding is a process.
Personal branding: how we market ourselves to others.
The personal branding process (DCCM)
1. Discover: The first thing you need to do is to figure out who you are, what you want to do in life, while focusing on your strengths, passions and goals. After that, you should create a development plan that aligns your short-term and long-term goals and, finally, a personal marketing plan.
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