Have you ever viewed your personal brand in 3-D? I recently came across philosopher Tom Morris in the book “Cycling Philosophy for Everyone”
who has a theory of success called the ’3-D Approach to Life.’
- Discover your positive talents.
- Develop the most meaningful and beneficial of those talents.
- Deploy your talents into the world for the good of others and yourself.
One of the chapters in this book is called “Lance Armstrong and True Success”. The authors introduce Tom Morris’ 3-D Approach as applied to Lance.
- Lance discovered his positive talents at a young age. Being drawn to endurance sports and starting off as a triathlete, he soon discovered he had a special talent on the bike. This then became his focus.
- He developed this talent through intense and regimented training plans to capitalize on his strength. After a battle with cancer he focused his talent on one thing – winning the Tour de France. This focus developed him into the greatest cyclist in the history of the Tour with 7 consecutive wins.
- While he started the Livestrong Foundation soon after his fight with cancer, he fully deployed this talent for the good of others upon his return to professional cycling in 2009 after a “mini-retirement”. He made it very clear that he was back on his bike for cancer survival and not for the glory of another Tour win.
Personal Branding is About ‘Inner Growth and Outer Achievement’
The basis of the 3-D Philospophy is to experience inner growth and use it for outer achievement. According to Morris, true success is ‘a process of self-examination, personal development, and active service.’ The parallels to personal branding are very obvious.
- We discover our brand by uncovering our unique promise of value – what makes us stand out. This is achieved through a process of examining ourselves and collecting feedback from others. The 360Reach Personal Brand Assessment is the best tool to collect this feedback and compare the similarities and difference with our self-examination.
- Once we have this clarity about our strengths, attributes, and talents, we can create a clear plan to develop our brand using both online and offline methods. This communication plan taps into methods we enjoy doing. Obviously if Lance did not enjoy cycling he would not have developed this talent. Likewise, if you hate the thought of public speaking then develop your brand using other methods.
- Finally, with a solid development plan in place, we can clearly, consistently, and constantly deploy our brand in every aspect of our lives. Of course, we do this to maximize our own visibility an credibility, but more importantly we looks for ways to use our strengths to help others. This is where active service comes into place as we give back to our brand community and network.
A New 3-D Approach to Success: Ditch, Dare, Do!
William Arruda and Deb Dib have officially given personal branding its own set of 3-D glasses. Their soon to be released book, “Ditch, Dare, Do!,” challenges long-held career assumptions and habits by encouraging us to shatter a mindset holding back our success (the ‘Ditch‘), challenging us to step up our game (the ‘Dare‘), and leading us into action to ensure our success (the ‘Do‘). Be part of this new 3-D approach and register here to be notified when this groundbreaking book is available!
Let others see your brand in 3-D and you will certainly stand out!
Peter Sterlacci, Founder of BeYB – Believe. Become. Be Your 
Brand, combines personal branding strategy with cycling imagery to empower on-the-move careerists in global companies in Japan to shift gears, get out of the saddle, and sprint to career success
I launched this Blog with one objective - to provide unique insights and practical advice for using the power of personal branding to achieve your goals. It’s dedicated to those who want to be wildly successful by maximizing what makes them unique, relevant and compelling.
It’s no coincidence that so many people are leaving corporate jobs that no longer serve them and looking for work that means something to them. You hit the nail on the head: it’s about using your talents, skills and strengths for something meaningful. We are seeing a huge trend in people wanting to do business with people they engage with on a deeper level than businesses of past decades. Developing brand clarity has to happen before marketing can do its job. Great post.
Hi Jenny. Thanks for the comment. I totally agree with you that there must be greater meaning in what we do and we need to have unyielding faith in the fact that it does. That is the awesome thing about personal branding as it gives us the permission to simply be authentic and to use that authenticity in a meaningful way for both ourselves and others.