Sunday Intensive
Personal Brand
Identity, Reputation & the Future You
Sunday, October 4th, Room 105

October Intensive:
Saturday
Opening Circle
Followup
Personal Brand Agenda
“The Future You”
Discover your brand
Create your brand
Communicate your brand

Tells us:
In 30 seconds, what is
Opening Circle the one thing that you
absolutely excel at, that
above all else you are
better at then almost
anyone else?

The Online vs
Offline Life
“The lines are blurring”

Followup Discussion
What new thoughts have you had
since yesterday on issues of privacy?
Any changes?

Followup Discussion
What new thoughts have you had
since yesterday on issues of privacy?
Any changes?
A discussion of privacy differences
between generations & gender

Personal Brand
“The Future You”

What is Brand
Brand is a perception or emotion,
maintained by a buyer or prospective buyer, that
describes his experience related to doing
business with an organization or consuming its
products and services.

What is Brand
Brand is a perception or emotion,
maintained by a buyer or prospective buyer, that
describes his experience related to doing
business with an organization or consuming its
products and services.
Commodity: Coffee $0.99
Brand: Starbucks $4.69
Brand: sneakers into nike
Brand: diamonds into tiffany’s
Brand:

What is Personal Brand?
A perception or emotion, maintained by
someone other then you, that describes the
total experience of having a relationship with
you.

What is Personal Brand?
Personal Brand first showed up in 1987 when
Tom Peters wrote “The Brand Called You” for Fast
Company magazine
We are the CEOs of our own companies
It is the process by which you market yourself to
others
It is what makes you unique
Or more importantly, what someone remembers that
is unique about you
It is how you make a difference and how you
communicate that difference

What is Personal Brand?
How you present yourself
Your uniqueness
Your skills and abilities
Your image
Your potential
You as a person – your “humanity”

Your First Impression
A first impression is usually made in less than 30
seconds
Studies have shown it can take 21 new
interactions to change that first impression

Why is Personal Brand
Important
Who currently controls your brand?
Your employer?
Google?
Does your personal brand serve you?
If you search in google for your name, do you come
up?
If you search in google for your professional speciality,
does your name come up?
Is the knowledge you share with others
considered to be authentic?
Or are you interpreted to be a spokesman for others?

Benefits
Increases your visibility and presence
Demonstrates your competence, experience, and
contributions
Differentiates yourself from others
Gain confidence in your own abilities
Increases your level of engagement
Focuses you on your goals and objectives
Leverage your social network

Career
Increase your career opportunities
Resumes are dying
no one trusts a resume

You
You are unique and original
You are a leader and influential
You deserve to be compensated for your
passions
You want others to believe in you
You are credible and authentic
You want others to be able to market you

There are negative
connotation to personal
Self-Promotion branding
Because it related to self-
promotion

There are negative
connotation to personal
Self-Promotion branding
Because it related to self-
promotion
Self-promotion is only bad
when practiced at the expense
of others

There are negative
connotation to personal
Self-Promotion branding
Because it related to self-
promotion
Self-promotion is only bad
when practiced at the expense
of others
It doesn’t have to be bad if it is
used for good

There are negative
connotation to personal
Self-Promotion branding
Because it related to self-
promotion
Self-promotion is only bad
when practiced at the expense
of others
It doesn’t have to be bad if it is
used for good
It is good when you provide
value

Personal Brand and the
Corporation
Corporations often discourage personal brand
An individuals personal brand does not belong to the
corporation
...thus corporations fear investing in personal brand
and then someone leaving
Executives with their own personal brand may fear
usurpation
...and thus may play politics against
Too many voices can dilute a corporations message
and brand
...thus have policies to limit number of voices

Value of Personal Brand
to Corporations
An employee with personal brand is considered
to be a “more authentic” then a spokesperson
Personal brands in a company can help a
company appear more human
Personal brands can say things that a corporation
wants to be heard, but can’t say
Personal brands increase the value of their most
important asset, their people

Discover Your
Brand
“The Future You”

Your Personal Brand
All that you are should support your personal
brand
You are a whole person, not just your profession
Is your personal brand powerful to people to
know you?
Does a clear, concise, positive idea come to mind
when people think of you?
How about people that don’t know you?

“Tag” yourself using separate
post-it notes:
Tag Self Write down three, short
(2-3 word) phrases that
you use to introduce
yourself
Describe the three things
you are most passionate
about
Describe three thing
unique about yourself

“Tag” everyone
Wander quietly and “tag”
Tag Others your fellow students on
their back with post-it
notes. Use a word or short
phrase.
Focus on what makes them
unique
Gift them by with an
acknowledgment of
something they are good at
they may not know
Write something you found
most memorable about
them

Find an opposite partner
Pick a personal you know
Tag Review the least, whom you were
least able to tag
They will be your partner
for this round
Take all of the tags off their
back

Take turns and compare
the lists of tags that you
Tag Review wrote for yourself, and
those that others wrote for
you.
Discuss how are they the
same and how are they
different.
Ask your partner to help
you identify three key
phrases that are most
important and effective at
evoking “the authentic you”

Defining your Personal
Brand
Understand your SWOT
Strengths – personal attributes that help you
Weaknesses – personal attributes that hinder you
Opportunities – external conditions that you can
leverage and exploit
Threats – external conditions that hold you back or
may hurt you

Strengths & Weaknesses
What are your personal strengths?
What do you offer that your market finds relevant?
What other strengths do you have that are not part
of what you think offer? What passions?
What values do you hold and how do you
demonstrate them?
How can you better leverage your strengths?
What are your personal weaknesses?
What habits and limitations get in your way?
What weaknesses can you change?
What weaknesses can you integrate?

Opportunities & Threats
What are your opportunities?
What is changing in the world that you want to be a
part of?
What is changing in your life?
What are your threats?
What external factors are holding you back?
How can you mitigate those challenges?
PESTLE
What is changing Politically, Economically, Socially,
Technology, Legally, and Environmentally that will
affect your future life?

Create Your
Brand
“The Future You”

Creating Personal Brand
What is your current personal brand?
How do you currently project it?
What words and phrases does you currently use?
Are they unique enough?
Are they evocative enough?
Does the the way you present yourself
consistent with your brand?

Focusing Your Personal
Brand
Differentiate yourself from your peers
Who are your colleagues, your competition?
What is it that you offer that is unique?
What words and phrases do you use?
Being careful with key phrases and wording can avoid
difficult connotations
Do your services to reflect your personal brand?
What services do you wish to offer that have been
difficult to market?

Tangible Assets
Tangible Assets
Your website or blog
Your business card
Your resume, portfolio and references
Your social network

Intangible Assets
Intangible Assets
Name
Appearance
Competencies
Personality
Mission
Vision
Values

Building Your Personal
Brand
Position your focused message in the hearts and
minds of your target audience
Deliver your message clearly and quickly
Persist and be consistent in your marketing efforts
Project credibility
Don’t forget the basics
Who are you
What do you do
What makes you unique
Most importantly: be authentic and honest

Communicate
Your Brand
“The Authentic You”

Your Brand Name
Decide what kind of name to use
A unique personal name or moniker
ChristopherRayAllen – my full name
ChristopherA – my preferred moniker
A meaningful word or phrase you can claim
Alacrity – “cheerful promptitude” is my core word
Life With Alacrity – my blog and typical first contact
Alacrity Management, Alacrity Ventures, Alacrity
Ventures are sub-brands
A nym (a pseudonym)
Tenebrass (only 339 google results) vs Tenebras (1m+)

Account Best Practices
Use same account name, spelling, upper case,
nicknames, and logins across all platforms.
Max 15 characters
No punctuation
Avoid numbers
Use namecheck.com & knowem.com
Try to own the domain even if you don’t use it
Use CamelCase when first registering
Have a backup nickname
Close as possible to preferred nickname

Consistent Style
Same personal avatar image on all public
platforms
Same or similar description and keywords
When possible, use similar fonts, colors, artistic
style, etc.
I use nicely kerned elegant serifed font for logo
I elegant san-serif fonts in body copy
Gill Sans in presentations
Trebuchet in web pages
Colors largely the same on blog, business card,
presentations, even my shirt for important conferences

Avatar
Ideally a closeup of your face
People have a much larger ability to remember faces
then names
Put your face anywhere people may need to
remember you
My face is on the back of my business card
If you have privacy concerns, consider
commissioning a unique caricature

Consistency
Be consistent
Have one consistent personality (or message) in lots
of different places, not a different personality (or
message) in each place
Because the world is small and the people who meet
you in one place, you will meet in another place also

Given the important words
from your tags:
Related Keywords Use google suggest to find
related words
Are any of these two
word phrases worthy of a
blog name?

Google Search: Alacrity http://www.google.com/search?q=alacrity

Know your Keywords
Make sure every page you use has the important
ones
Make a list for yourself
Look at words of your colleagues & competitors
Look at search logs to see which are searched
See which keywords are indexed more
Use noun, adverb, adjective forms if possible
Know the synonyms
Be particularly careful with keywords in titles

roots: your important life
influences and beliefs
Tree of Life trunk: your life structure,
particularly those aspects that
are quite firm and fixed
branches: key relationships and
connections, directions, interests,
how you spend time
leaves: your unique information
and knowledge - and sources
thereof
buds: your ideas and hopes for
the future, and their potential
fruit: your achievements
flowers: what makes you special,
your strengths
thorns: your sharp edges

BGI Guides

BGI Guides
What are topics?
Review scope
Blog Search for related blogs

Questions?
Feedback?
ChristopherA@LifeWithAlacrity.com
NO Elluminate Monday! Next is
Elluminate Session C
October 12, 2009: 7pm PT