Road to Me 2.0: The Ultimate Personal Business Card Revealed

January 1, 2009 at 5:43 pm | In Me 2.0, Misc, Personal Branding, marketing | 7 Comments

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.

3 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before 2009

December 26, 2008 at 6:17 pm | In Career Development, Misc, Personal Branding | 3 Comments

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.

How to Brand Yourself When You Have a Twin

December 23, 2008 at 3:52 pm | In Brand Yourself As, Misc, Personal Branding, Success Strategies | 6 Comments

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.  Of course, people can gain and lose weight, change their hair color, grow taller and have their skin age, but for the most part their appearance remains the same.

You officially have a twin brother/sister

How can you brand yourself so you separate yourself from your twin? People get confused when they meet twins all the time.  It’s nearly impossible to remember their names.  You are probably guilty of trying to analyze them and pick them apart!  People who really scrutinize twins typically say “oh it’s that one with the mole.”  Even parents of twins can get confused at first.  Over time, they figure it out because they have to.

Predicaments

  • The twins interview at the same company, at the same time, for the same position.
  • One twin goes on a date with a guy and then the guy sees the other twin the next morning.
  • The two twins sit in class and the teacher swaps their grades.
  • One twin sleeps in, while the other twin receives an award that his/her twin won.
  • One twin starts an online TV show and gets sick.  The other twin takes over and isn’t as funny, so viewers notice and comment.
  • A hiring manager is conducting research for an open position, finds both twins Facebook accounts and selects the wrong twin for the position.

How to differentiate yourself as a twin

1.  Play up your name as much as possible. Whenever you have the chance to say or write your name, do it and repeat it.  Purchase your unique domain name and accounts on the leading social networks.  If you are using a picture of yourself online, then edit your name into it.

2.  Use your hair as a secret weapon. The picture of the Olsen Twins depicts the girls with two completely different hair styles.  Anyone in the world can have a different style, whether it’s long, curled, or standing up.  Even if you’re triplets, you can change this on a dime.

3.  Buy a different wardrobe. If you both wear the same black ACDC t-shirt everyday, no one will ever get your name right and I wouldn’t blame them.  Hopefully, if you are a twin, you will have a different favorite color and clothing style.   Don’t borrow each others clothing because you have the same weight and chest size.

4.  Follow your passion and don’t copy. Some twins just hold the same profession because they are always around each other and rub off on one another.  Try to follow your passion instead of just taking the easy path.  You will regret it later if you don’t.

Each Content Posting Reminds People Your Brand Exists

December 15, 2008 at 12:29 pm | In Misc, Personal Branding, Success Methodologies, social media | 7 Comments

A lot of my friends, colleagues, ex-classmates and family wonder why I post ten times a week on this blog, in addition to filming podcasts, tweeting roughly fifty times or so per week and more. There are a lot of reason to be a content producer, not just a consumer, but today I want to go over the branding aspect that might be overlooked.

Traditional brand reminders

For a brand to be recollected, relative to a certain brand set (company, product, person), it has to be shown multiple times within a specific time period.

When you overload people’s senses, especially the ones in your target audience, they have no choice but to remember your name and what you stand for, at a minimum. For example, some celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lil Wayne and Brad Pitt, are making the covers of major magazines like US Magazine and People Magazine.

You can’t even leave a convenience store without seeing their face! Product brands like Gillette Razors and iPods are remembered because of TV commercials, subway advertising, print advertising and more. After a long history of advertising and PR, things begin to resonate quicker.

Let’s say the press stops caring about a celebrity or brands stop advertising altogether for a year. Would you remember it? I would say, depending on the strength of the brand (equity), some brands would lose a lot of mindshare.

Why you have to produce content regularly

Every single time you post on your blog, upload a YouTube video, or tweet using Twitter, you are reminding people of your existence and your promise of value. Your readers or visitors will make a mental note that you are still in the conversation, actively participating by providing them (hopefully) something useful or entertaining or both.

Over time, people start paying a lot of attention to those who contribute content regularly and consistently. These individuals, possibly yourself, reap extraordinary rewards, such as a possible job offer, speaker opportunity, consulting gig and more.

The opportunity cost for being a “light producer”

If you did a blog post once every month, and you weren’t a celebrity, I think people would forget about you. They would just move onto the next blog that could provide the same or greater value. Since there are over 133 million blogs, it’s pretty easy to unsubscribe and subscribe to a different one. When people don’t see your name after a while they forget about you, but if you choose to produce content constantly, they won’t have a choice but to remember you.

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