Is calling your clients muppets good for your personal brand?

March 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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The very public resignation by Greg Smith from Goldman Sachs last week using an op-ed piece in the New York Times is not a recommended tactic for your career! Certainly not at the top of your personal brand communications plan! However, what he did was good personal branding. One of the very first exercises that I get clients to undertake and a core part of the personal brand building foundation is the Values exercise. I describe Values as being your moral compass. The things that we stand by in all situations, or if they are being compromised either by ourselves or someone else it makes us angry or upset. You only have to see Greg Smith's outburst to understand that on some level his personal values were being effected by working at Goldman Sachs. Now in reading the 'backlash' from his very public outburst there may be other underlying reasons for his departure. But none the less he finally reached a point where all the benefits of working there could not outweigh how he … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employees Are The Brand, Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers Tagged With: , , ,

Personal Branding Resources

December 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

These resources are brought to you by William Arruda as part of the Reach 10th Anniversary Celebration ... 10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Reach Personal Branding Top 10 Videos from Personal Branding TV Top 10 Social Media Dos for A Successful Job Search 10 Ways to Give to Your Network 10 Days to Establishing and Achieving Your Goals Top 10 Ways to Unearth The Brand Called YOU Top 10 Most Viewed Commercial Breaks 10 Days to Understanding Your Professional Reputation 10 Ways to Build and Maintain Your Professional Network 10 Days to Writing a Compelling Branded Bio 10 Steps to Recession-Proof Your Career Ten Most-Read Blog Posts from The Personal Branding Blog 10 Days to a Perfect Linkedin Profile 10 Tools For Creating a Website That Exudes Your Personal Brand Ten Days to Creating Your Personal Brand Identity System The Ten Most Re-Tweeted Tweets Ten Tips Towards Career Reinvention Ten Days to Positioning You and Your Brand How Not to Build Your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Discovering Your Brand, Employee Brand Activation, Employees Are The Brand, Everything is a Brand, Executive Branding, Expressing Your Brand, Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

10 Tips Towards Career REinvention

November 23, 2011 by 1 Comment

By Randi Bussin If you find yourself burned out, dissatisfied, or seeking more passion in your career, perhaps it is time for you to think about a career change/reinvention. Career reinvention can be a long and scary process. Here are 10 quick tips to help you get there with ease. 1.  Assess Your Career Likes and Dislikes Take a step back and think about your career likes and dislikes, otherwise, you might just grab any opportunity to take you out of your misery. 2.  Identify Your Motivated Skills It is important to make a distinction between the skills you are good at and those you are good at AND enjoy. The latter, called “motivated skills,” typically leads to career satisfaction and should be central to your focus in career transition. 3.  Assess Your Interests or Passions Finding things you are interested in and passionate about most likely will lead to career enjoyment. Reflect on your past and the things you have enjoyed, whether in a professional or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Discovering Your Brand, Employee Brand Activation, Employees Are The Brand, Reach 10th Anniversary Celebration Tagged With: , , , ,

Which way at work?

October 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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There was a recent article in the Globe & Mail, Top 12 Workplace Myths, taken from a chapter in the new book Fuse: Making Sense of the New Cogenerational Workplace™ - the article ended by offering what they called Fusions as key learnings from the chapter - I have added what you need to do about them in relation to your personal brand. The most likable people get promoted, not the hardest workers. - If likeable is one of your key differentiating attributes then certainly you want to highlight it, but do not ignore other attributes that you have that make you memorable and different (positive of course!). However it's not a replacement for hard work - that still has to happen - but it has to be hard PRODUCTIVE and ideally MEASURABLE work! Broadcast the work you’re doing, especially to your managers. - It seems to be the greatest aversion in the workplace - 'bragging' about your accomplishments and activity. I use the term bragging very loosely - we do not like braggers, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Employee Brand Activation, Employees Are The Brand, Expressing Your Brand, Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers Tagged With: , ,

Technology and the Human Side of Personal Branding

September 2, 2011 by 4 Comments
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Almost every Sunday morning at 7:00 I join a group of fellow cyclists in Kyoto, Japan for a ride. As we gathered outside the bike shop this past week, I admired the wide range of bikes from "classic" steel models to current day carbon racers. I realized how technology has played such a huge role in the development of bicycles over the years. While the bicycle at it's most basic level was invented to meet a functional need for transportation, technology has enabled it to evolve into wider reaching applications for a wider audience. The Evolution of Personal Branding You might be asking, "What's the connection to personal branding?"  Personal branding was first introduced in Tom Peter's "classic" 1997 Fast Company article, The Brand Called You.  He introduced personal branding as a functional business need: "Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employees Are The Brand, Personal Branding Quick Tips, Sports Tagged With: , , ,

When Your Personal Brand And Company Brand Collide

June 16, 2011 by 2 Comments

You are your own entity. As far as a personal brand goes, you are its face, owner and personality. Personal brands are defined by the individual and help, as the individual operates as an employee, to endorse a product or service. By keeping yourself individual as you involve yourself with corporations and companies, you will bring your personal touch to the industry and create a more expansive opportunity. Should you merge? If you are considering merging your personal brand with a company brand, you should consider what the purpose of doing this? Think about what services you will bring to the company and what their dealings with you will be. If it is your company you are creating, then it is possible to simply merge at a partial level. By doing this you can expand your reach through two different brand names. Both can assist one another and amplify your abilities. Risks are sometimes a necessity during business ventures, but consider the saying: "Don’t put all your … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employees Are The Brand, Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers Tagged With: , , ,

Expat Careers: Your Personal Brand is a True Reflection of Who You Are – Not Your Job Title

April 24, 2011 by 2 Comments
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YOUR PERSONAL BRAND IS A TRUE REFLECTION OF WHO YOU ARE -  NOT YOUR JOB TITLE Sometimes we can attach ourselves to our jobs and job titles to such a degree that they begin to feel like part of us. We start defining ourselves in terms of these things. Because losing them would make us feel like we were losing part of ourselves, we begin to make decisions based on the notion that they ARE part of us. So taking care of ourselves means taking care of our job title and our job. If a job was not a good fit for someone but they believed it to be a part of who they are, then they would naturally be at odds with themselves for even considering a a career change. Yes, issues of stress, chances of success, loss of salary and status and other things would come into play.  But if they asked themselves, "Who am I if not a [insert job title]?" and could not answer, the idea of not knowing their place or role in the professional world could provoke feelings that would send a person running. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employees Are The Brand, Executive Branding, Expressing Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs, Strong Personal Brands Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Is Your Brand Nestled In Professionalism?

April 3, 2010 by 4 Comments

This week’s #brandchat was all a flurry about Nestle and their handling of what some would call a “brandjacking” from Greenpeace then carried on by their thousands of Facebook fans. From an article by the Wall Street Journal regarding the incident to host of comments, BRANDidos discussed what went wrong; how could it have been prevented; to how can they (or any other brand) recover from this.First, what is a brandjacking?  During the chat, we defined it in three ways: Every time someone unofficial represents themselves as speaking for a company or, To hijack a brand to deceive or divert attention; often used in abusive or fraudulent activities devised for gain at the expense of the goodwill, brand equity and customer trust of actual brand owners or, A brandjacking by a consumer refers to how the consumer perceives or uses your product or service. A smart company will learn rather than fight this positive reaction. One of my favorite books covers this subject: Brand … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employees Are The Brand, Exuding Your Brand, Personal Branding for Careers, Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs

The Person Closest to the Customer Is the Company

January 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Martin Luther King Jr. built a social movement around a dream of what equality really meant. Brands built on potential and possibilities go far. Non-profits have known it all along.  Work your mission through people who have a large circle of influence that they’re close to and they’ll deliver friends and funds. You see it in letter writing campaigns from friends and neighbors asking for your donation; or “lock up” fundraisers where they lock up someone with a large Rolodex who starts dialing for dollars;  to walks with “corporate chairs” delivering large teams of volunteers and friends to come to “kickoff” meetings garnering more companies to participate. Stock shows and rodeos are big in Texas. The programs teach students responsibility, finishing what they start, negotiation and showmanship along with relationship, people and life skills.  In the buyer’s ring, you’ll witness community people forge new friendships, explore ways to pool resources, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employees Are The Brand

Corporate Drone or Company Advocate?

January 9, 2010 by 4 Comments

Every industry along with the companies within that industry have acronyms that they use exclusively.  J.L.P. is one acronym used by well known international retail giant.  It stands for “just like picture”.  And, now copycat retailers try to customize that acronym with one of their own, LLP (“looks like picture”).  “Just like picture” means that they want a merchandising display to look “just like the picture” that was sent from their corporate or regional headquarters.  No variances, nothing adjusted to the locale, nothing different will be accepted – they want it “just like picture”. Yet, what do you do when the “picture” was built for a store in a large metropolitan area where people utilize public transportation readily and there’s a store virtually on every corner and your store resides in a rural population, where there is no public transit and it’s 200 miles between cities?  Does “just like picture” work or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Employees Are The Brand
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