Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world’s leading brands, such as Raytheon, Salesforce.com, Loreal and Home Depot. His new book, “Fire Them Up!” includes insights from inspiring business leaders, entrepreneurs, and educators who reveal what he calls the seven simple secrets of motivation. As a world recognized personal brand, Carmine was able to field interviews with Marissa Mayer, Steve Jobs, Howard Schultz and Jay Adelson for his book. You can read an excerpt from his book here. He writes his communications column every week for BusinessWeek.com.

Introduction

I think one of the biggest challenges with personal branding is leading with influence. How do you get others to hear and speak your message? How do you convince them that you are right for a job or for a promotion? In Carmine’s book, it doesn’t matter what your current position is; you need to understand how to influence others. He argues that life is all about building successful relationships with colleagues, clients, employees or just about anyone else. The book shares real life examples from some of the most influential personal brands, as well as reveals Carmine’s seven secrets of success.

The 7 Sample Secrets

• 1) Ignite your enthusiasm. You need to light a fire in your heart before sparking one in others. If you don’t have genuine passion in your work, how are you supposed to convince people join you?
• 2) Navigate the way. Deliver a specific, consistent and memorable vision. Although enthusiasm may open the door, a vision can take hold of your listeners and pull them to the other side. Visions must be summarized in a single line and be profound.
• 3) Sell the benefit. Put your listeners before yourself. Carmine explains how focused entrepreneurs know their target market and can clearly explain how their product or service improves the lives of people and businesses in that market.
• 4) Paint a picture. Tell a powerful, memorable, and actionable story. Inspiring individuals sell themselves, their vision, and their values by turning their message into a story that keeps you interest and entertained. When this happens, it’s easy to remember key points and take action.
• 5) Invite participation. Solicit input, overcome objections, and develop a winning strategy. Instead of announcing your vision, get other people to embrace it. You need to open up a dialogue with people by making them equal participants in your project.
• 6) Reinforce an optimistic outlook. Optimists will use the outcome of a project to learn, adjust and grow to have a better chance of success next time around. They don’t give up, despite the obstacles ahead.
• 7) Encourage their potential. Praise people, invest in them, and unleash their potentials. This one goes back to the notion of giving before receiving. If all you want to do is ask for favors, people will divest in your personal brand. People’s dearest treasures are people and not material objects. The best compliment you can give someone is “you make me want to be a better person.”

For anyone looking to establish a powerful and influential personal brand, this book will guide you to the promise land.