Is Your Personal Brand LINtastic?

February 22, 2012 By 2 Comments

My trip last weekend to keynote at Ball State University took me in to the heart of basketball country. Everywhere you looked there was connection to the game.

Coupled with this has been the meteoric rise of Jeremy Lin over the past two weeks. A social media personal branding sensation.

It was a case of basketball, basketball, basketball! It truly has been LINsanity (he has just applied to trademark that phrase!).

There are a number of lessons from Jeremy’s LINtastic recent success that you can take and apply to your own personal brand;

1. Continue to play to your strengths.
Even though he was not picked up originally by an NBA team, dropped and relegated to minor leagues he still continued to play to his own set of strengths.

Personal Brand Lesson
It is important to understand your weaknesses and how they might impact on your brand. But if you spend all your time on them you draw attention to them and you will never get a weakness to a point of strength. Take the extra time and effort to leverage your strengths.

2. Be ready for the opportunity.
A number of injuries and poor results gave him another chance, just when the team were considering releasing him. His persistence paid off and now he has helped the team to win 8 of the last 10 games.

Personal Brand Lesson
In the new reality that is work today the next opportunity might come when you least expect it. You have to be ready. Once you have been given the chance make the most of it and be sure to give 110%. People will remember you for your hard work and results.

3. Be authentic, remember where you came from.
There have been his detractors, but Lin has remained humble and appreciative of the chance to play. Even crass (or just thoughtless) sports reporting he recognised as a mistake and accepted apologies.

Personal Brand Lesson
Your personal brand is who you are. It should not be some false image or manufactured personna. The temptation once you have found more success might be to conveniently forget the past. Remain true to who you are and recognise what got you where you are now.

What other lessons can you see and apply to your career and personal brand from the recent LINsanity?

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He helps employees in leading Fortune 500 corporations realise they can be more successful and productive at work by NOT checking their personalities at the door.

Filed Under: Everything is a Brand, Personal Branding Quick Tips, Personal Branding Trends, Sports Tagged With: , , ,

Do You Love Your Personal Brand?

February 14, 2012 By 2 Comments

Happy Valentines Day!

Do you love YOU enough?

How often do you take time to reflect on your strengths?

I would quite confidently suggest very little. In my work with leaders and employees in Fortune 500 Companies the most under leveraged part of their personal brands are their core strengths.

Your core strengths are the things that you do so naturally and so well that you perform them almost sub-consciously. When I point out to someone that others have identified a particular strength in them they say

“Oh really, but I do that all the time!” – EXACTLY!

Many people are very poor at spending enough time on their own personal development. It might only be in their annual reviews that they do this. Those experiences are not always very positive ones. 5 minutes spent reviewing what you did well. Then 55 minutes spent on strategies to bring weaknesses up to, at best, an average level of performance.

Some may view this as either a little simplistic or harsh. Truth is that only 42% of North Americans believe that working mostly on their strengths will mean they are more successful. That drops to an alarming 24% of Japanese and Chinese.

Very often it is difficult for you to articulate your top strengths and how they might be reflected in your career to date. If you can identify those strengths, you are ahead of the game. And you will love yourself more!

You can also take this information and create your examples, or stories, around how you have used that strength in business situations. People love stories. They will be more likely to want to work with you and for you based on these emotional connections.

There are many other assessments and tests that can be taken to understand more about yourself. It is probably best to find one or two that resonate and make sense to you.

Another good personal brand exercise is to conduct a SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats. In each area ask yourself these questions:

Strengths – what are my strengths, what do I have that is positive, that can help me achieve my goals?

Weaknesses – what are my weaknesses, where am I challenged the most?

Opportunities – if I was able to overcome those weaknesses and utlilise my strengths what will result for me? What is the upside?

Threats – what is the down side if I do not address those challenges?

It’s not just enough to be aware of your strengths. Take the time to discover if you have other hidden talents either through your own analysis or from the feedback of others – ideally both. The foundation of ALL strong brands are built in part on maximising strengths.

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He helps employees in leading Fortune 500 corporations realise they can be more successful and productive at work by NOT checking their personalities at the door.

Filed Under: Discovering Your Brand, Personal Branding Quick Tips Tagged With: ,

Personal Branding is Like Taking the Stairs – There Are Always Easier Options

February 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When you walk in to the lobby of a tall office building, often you will see the sign for the stairs. But does that sign say enough to make you ignore the elevators and walk the stairs?

Chance are no. Unless you are still sticking to a new years resolution!

But if you saw the sign above, chances are by over 35%, that you would. Even 9 months after the sign was first posted. This is what researchers in New York found after placing a few of these around the city.

So if something that simple can cause that type of re-action and continued action, what can you be saying about yourself that might get the same result?

One immediately obvious place would be your business card.

Rather than say Accountant. What re-action might you get if it were to say – Honest assessment. Accurate results – Accountant?

Or better still, include one of your emotional attributes.

Honest assessment. Accurate results. Fun approach. – Accountant.

When communicating your personal brand it’s important to reflect the real you, after all it’s going to be the reason why people want to hire you, work with you and for you. The fact you can perform great tax returns is a given. If you have a little fun too – that’s the difference.

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He helps employees in leading Fortune 500 corporations realise they can be more successful and productive at work by NOT checking their personalities at the door.

Filed Under: Personal Branding Quick Tips Tagged With: ,

Is Your Personal Brand Stepping Out of it’s Comfort Zone?

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

While waiting for his owner to return from some local shopping, Bernard here knows where his boundaries are and he is not going to stray at all, he has become too comfortable in his surroundings. Of course perhaps he knows (or has experienced) that if he were to jump out of the back of the truck he might be placing himself in danger.

Unfortunately, at work, this is something we are all a little guilty of. Perhaps on occasion, it’s not going to be life threatening, we need to take a risk or two and leap out of our comfort zone – or maybe just a gentle step will do.

Three simple things to consider as a way to step out of your personal brand comfort zone at work;

1. Bring a little more of your personality to work. Choose something from home that you are passionate about or that means a lot to you and add it to your desk, cubicle or office space. Perhaps a favourite picture, photo or desk ornament.

2. Consider adding a piece of jewellery or favourite coloured accessory and making it a regular part of your wardrobe. It does not all have to be navy and black.

3. Identify a skill or strength that you are well known for, that you have a reputation for delivering on consistently and mention it in your outgoing voicemail message. If you pride yourself on returning calls promptly, say so in your voicemail. BUT if you are not good at getting back to people do not date your voicemail either!

What can you be doing with your personal brand to step out of your comfort zone?

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He helps employees in leading Fortune 500 corporations realise they can be more successful and productive at work by NOT checking their personalities at the door.

Filed Under: Employee Brand Activation, Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding Quick Tips Tagged With: , , ,

Is your career facing a Kodak moment?

January 20, 2012 By 1 Comment

No doubt the business school case studies in years to come about the sad demise of Kodak and it’s brand will raise many questions about the effectiveness of it’s leaders. The filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy by Kodak this week has many lessons for all businesses, but what can you learn from this and be sure that you are not facing the same in your career?

1. Don’t underestimate the impact your ideas have.
It was the mid-70′s when Kodak actually developed for the first digital camera. Can you imagine how far ahead they may have been in the market place and for how long had they moved on this revolutionary idea.

Personal Brand Lesson - just because your industry or vocation has done it the same way for a long time and everyone is comfortable with that way does not mean an idea out of left field is not a better one. Be willing to challenge the status quo.

2. Don’t be complacent or greedy.
Kodak leaders decided to shelve the digital camera because they felt it was going to do too much damage to their highly lucrative and profitable film business.

Personal Brand Lesson – it makes sense to maximise your value with the core strengths you have. But know that you need to continually develop yourself and add new skills. Demands and markets change, so your brand has to evolve over time. Anticipate demands and start adding to your skill set now.

3. Be Prepared to Re-brand
The plan for Kodak is to sell it’s $2 billion worth of patents and emerge as a more agile company in the printer business. They see revenue and profit in ink (HP generates $9 billion a year in ink cartridges). But does the tagline of the “Kodak Moment” still apply? Likely not, as they become less and less synonymous with photos a re-brand of the company would almost seem inevitable.

Personal Brand Lesson - the experts tell us that the workforce of the future might well be in many different vocation, not just jobs, in their lifetime. The foundation and core of your brand might remain the same, but sometimes the message and your target audience will change and a re-branding is necessary.

How do you see business the lessons from the likes of RIM and Kodak apply to your career and personal brand?

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He helps employees in leading Fortune 500 corporations realise they can be more successful and productive at work by NOT checking their personalities at the door.

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Everything is a Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding Quick Tips, Recession-Proof Your Career Tagged With: , , , ,

How e-mail can damage your personal brand

December 17, 2011 By 5 Comments

The recent report of an executive recruiter in the UK being fired for e-mailing a job candidate to go away using colourful language – but accidentally copying everyone (all 4,000+ of them!) on the candidates blast list, highlights the dangers of damaging your personal brand and career by relying too much on technology. What is that recruiter going to say when the question comes up “Why did you leave your last job?”

The candidate also was obviously damaging their brand (and job search chances) by sending out such a generic application to so many people. I am seeing far too much of that at the moment. I get you that finding a job is tough, but use time wisely to be more targetted, not spray and pray job seeking that says I don’t really care.

Just last week, I was talking with both a colleague on the very subject of e-mail versus picking up this still very useful piece of technology called the telephone and also coaching a client on the dangers of mis-understood communication, when a quuick conversation would have eliminated all the angst that they ended up experiencing.

All the ‘gurus’ are telling us that 2012 is going to be the year of mobile, but with that will come an even greater temptation to say it in text versus verbally.

Some quick tips to keep your conversations live and real in 2012;

1. Resist the temptation to respond to an e-mail straight away. A client once said to me there is rarely such a thing as an accounting emergency, and the same should apply to your situation.

2. Before you pen an e-mail or a reply, consider if this form of communication is the best way to get your message across? If it is, be sure to re-read it once and double check the to, cc and bcc box recipients.

3. When in doubt pick up the phone or arrange a face to face. So much can be mis-interpreted by the written word, if it’s important let the other person know that by having a conversation.

4. Make time for 15 minutes every day. We are all guilty (me included) of not connecting properly with people because we feel that we have no time. Stop the Facebook likes, Twitter re-tweets and Four Square check-in’s and use that 15 minutes a day to pick up the phone to three people you know and say hello.

5. Set the send function to delay by 10 minutes, then if you forgot to attach a document or another thought came in to your head you have a chance of only having to send once.

As my colleague Dave Howlett said, “I am much more likely to remember you for that call than a tweet, like, poke or follow”.

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He helps employees in leading Fortune 500 corporations realise they can be more successful and productive at work by NOT checking their personalities at the door.

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding Quick Tips Tagged With: , ,

Your business card is not the Queen of Spades

December 7, 2011 By 4 Comments


We love to play various card games. My kids especially love Crazy 8′s, it’s a fast paced game with the main goal to get rid of all your cards before any opponents. They get extra enthusiastic when they lay a card down that causes you as the next player to pick more cards up – especially the Queen of Spades, where the penalty is 5 extra cards!

Unfortunately at many events people treat it like a game of Crazy 8′s and use their business cards in the same way – they come around trying to put their cards down (or in your hands) as quickly as possible, many times moving on before even asking you anything or getting your card in return – more worried about their next turn instead.

At two recent networking events I experienced two classic examples of this, which resulted in the damaging of each person’s personal brand in a big way.

1. At the first event I was standing at a small drinks table with three other people, all of us in conversation. This person ‘barged’ in to the group, had their business cards in hand like a deck of cards and proceeded to ‘deal’ us each one card on the table in front of us, with the comment of “I am X and I do Y” and then walked on to the next group.

We all looked at each other slightly bemused, continued our conversations and when we did depart not one of us picked up a card.

2. At the other event I was in conversation with one other person who I had not seen for a while and was really interested in catching up. This person just came up to us both and shoved their card in our hands and walked on.

Not more than 10 minutes later they were back, had completely forgotten who they had already given cards to, and tried to give us their card again. My blue recycling bin was the only place I filed that card!

Your business card is very often the only physical reminder someone has of your personal brand, so make sure you are using it wisely.

Establish some kind of rapport or relationship with someone before offering your card, or wait until they ask for it. Or if you feel you can offer some value to that person make sure to ask for theirs.

But however you decide to exchange cards, as the American Express ad’s say – don’t leave home without them!

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He works on leadership brands with executives, managers and teams for leading Fortune 500 corporations.

Filed Under: Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding Quick Tips Tagged With: , ,

Engage Brain Before Tweeting – 5 Personal Brand Lessons From Ashton Kutcher

November 16, 2011 By 3 Comments

So another celebrity, this time Ashton Kutcher, has proven to us all what we already know – that we are no different from each other when it comes to making mistakes. Last week on seeing the headline about Penn State firing their football coach he immediately put his stream of consciousness on Twitter and told his 8 million followers what he thought.

This was his original tweet;

@aplusk: How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste

Within minutes the backlash started, nasty responses started to fly and within hours he had removed the tweet, apologized and then decided to suspend tweeting whilst he no doubt consulted with his PR advisors.

As of immediately I will stop tweeting until I find a way to properly manage this feed. I feel awful about this error. Won’t happen again.

Just a few hours later he announced his Twitter account was going to be handled by his PR agency.

Twitter Management http://post.ly/3rk2N

So what are the personal brand lessons you can learn from Kutchner’s mistake?

1. Engage brain before tweeeting. Actually this goes for all posts, status updates and anything else you are thinking of posting online. Consider the wider impact. A personal opinion shared with a couple of friends becomes a whole different ball game when you send it out to the universe. What you say online is a reflection of your personal brand, once it’s out there it’s hard to take back. Removing a twitter post does not make it go away.

2. Stop digging. If you have dug yourself in to a hole, do not try to justify what you have done, the hole only gets deeper. Kutcher claimed to have just responded to a headline, being more or betyter informed might have been a better approach. Take a deep breath, throw the shovel to one side and consider how you are going to start to fill the hole in.

3. Apologize. We all make mistakes, we would never advance as a race if we didn’t. But if you make a mistake or say something you regret, say you are sorry – as long as you mean it.

4. Take a moment to reflect on your mistake. What can you learn from the experience? Share with others what you have learned so that they are less likely to make the same mistake. What will you be careful not to repeat? Be sure to understand the lead up to the mistake, what else was going on to distract you and make you do that knee jerk thing and try to minimise it’s impact next time.

5. Don’t STOP tweeting. Social media to some extent has given some people an over blown view of their opinions, but for authenticity your personal brand reflections should be yours not some paid PR person or assistant – make it real, unless you are a company.

Mistakes happen and he is handling the fallout as best he can, his 8 million followers will probably not know if his next tweet is him or a handler – BUT the world will not stop turning because Ashton Kutcher has changed his approach to Twitter, and we have many greater concerns to expend our energy on.

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He works on leadership brands with executives, managers and teams for leading Fortune 500 corporations.

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Expressing Your Brand, Social Media, Sports Tagged With: , ,

On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month – remember those who gave and still do.

November 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As on all remembrance days I will be remembering the sacrifices and bravery of all and in particular my father (above) who served as an instrument basher in the Royal Air Force for 6 years in WWII and my Grandad who served in both the army and navy in WWI – Lest We Forget

This was originally posted in November 2009, but in our busy, ever connected world, felt it was worthy of repeat.

Like many of you this past week, I had the opportunity to attend a remembrance day event. This one was part of a client event and included a talk by a WWII veteran.

As I listened intently to his stories I was distracted by a bright light in the dimmed auditorium. I glanced across and noticed an invited guest to the event checking and sending e- mail on their smartphone. Initially I gave the benefit of the doubt, you never know when someone has something personal and urgent going on.

But the scrolling, clicking and tapping of the keyboard continued. Finally I had to lean across and ask the person if the e-mail was so important that they felt it warranted the disprespect they were showing to someone who served to afford them the freedom to text in the first place. They quickly put the phone away.

A lot went through my mind before I said something. Most people would know me as someone not normally one who would speak out. But this individual was compromising one of my key values – Respect. Your core values are a key component of your personal brand and you should stand up for them and live them every day.

The final question I asked myself before I said something was. How would I feel on the drive home if I said nothing?

How are you living and expressing your values? Are they a core part of your personal brand?

What do you think? Take a moment to add your toonies worth.

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He works on leadership brands with executives, managers and teams for leading Fortune 500 corporations.

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Discovering Your Brand Tagged With: , , ,

Paul Allen – Idea Man – a memoir by the co-founder of Microsoft

November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Personal Brand Leadership – Book Review

© 2011 MIE Services LLC – 358 pages hardback $- US 27.95 / Cdn $35

PERSONAL BRAND LEADERSHIP POINTERS

From this book you will learn:

- The importance of having several avenues of interest to round out your brand.
- How you can enjoy your passions AND make it part of who you are.
- Remain true to your core beliefs and not wavering.
- Understand the power of doing what you’re uniquely good at.

Paul Allen is certainly best known by many as the co-founder of Microsoft, who left in the early 1980′s but still wound up a multi-billionaire. Many might also choose to pick up this book to find out the insider scoop on what really happened in his ‘fall out’ with Bill Gates. Certainly the publishers have positioned this book to portray these very two renowned key points.

However there is much more to this autobiography than just dishing the dirt and making billions from Microsoft. It could be argued that Allen has had more influence across a wider spectrum with his various successes and failures since, than an ever lasting impact with what remains of his legacy inside Microsoft. After all how much of Allen’s work or influence even is in what the company is now – over 35 years later?

What was more insightful was Allen’s ability to think ahead of the technology curve (and beyond tech.) in a number of ways. This is more where the title “Idea Man” comes in to play – he invested, in some cases more closely gambled, on technology such as streaming content, wireless technology, consumer space travel. Some proved successful, others failed, but likely more from being too soon than completely wrong.

The book can appear in places dry (read – too much technical information that may not have been needed) and although you learn of the trappings that wealth brings – yachts, sports teams, playing guitar with Bono – you certainly also understand Paul Allen to be a very private man, close to his immediate family but you learn little of his own personal life – something in an autobiography is lacking.

Overall an interesting insight in the personal brand leadership of a technology titan, a community leader and philanthropist and some interesting lessons about business.

Personal Brand Leadership Rating – 3.5 stars

Read about the Personal Brand that is Paul Allen HERE

Paul Copcutt first aligned with personal branding after reading Tom Peters ‘Brand You 50’ in 1997. Now a sought after speaker and media resource he has been featured by Forbes, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Elle. He works with executives, managers and teams for leading Fortune 500 corporations.

Filed Under: Books, Executive Branding, Expressing Your Brand, Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs, Sports, Strong Personal Brands, Web/Tech Tagged With: , , ,
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