Personal Brand: Creating and Managing an Identity that Promotes Mission & Vision

1. Personal Branding
Creating and Managing an
Identity that Promotes
Mission & Vision
Sunday, October 10th, 9:15a Room 105

2. Create a Name
Badge
Welcome! Your Name
“Christopher Allen”
Your Tagline
“Entrepreneur, Advisor
& Technologist”
Optionally, your
Affiliation:
“www.LifeWithAlacrity.com”

3. Give your elevator
pitch
Check In #1 Keep it brief — you only
have a few floors!
Your audience is current
classmates, alums, faculty,
staff and friends of BGI
Remember, these people
are also prospective
employers, employees, or
connections to
professional
opportunities!

4. Personal Brand
“The Future You”

5. 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.

6. 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

7. “Publication is a self-invasion
of privacy.”
Change Agent – Marshall McLuhan
“In exchange for power,
influence, command and a
place in history, a president
gives up the bulk of his
privacy.”
– Roger Mudd
“You already have zero
privacy – get over it”
– Scott McNeally
“I restore myself alone. A
career is born in public —
talent in privacy.”
– Marilyn Monroe

8. Discussion of
Readings
“The Knowledge is in the
Room”

9. What were your takeaways
from Optional Readings?
Takeaways

10. SELF BRANDING TIPS
BUILD UP FROM THE BOTTOM
BE CONSISTENT
CONNECT YOUR NAME WITH WHAT YOU STAND
FOR- OVER AND OVER
BE SINCERE, KNOW YOURSELF
LINK KEYWORDS AND SEARCHES TO YOUR BRAND
BRAND WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR OTHERS
GIVE AND RECEIVE, BE INTERACTIVE
STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

11. Personal Branding 101:
Discover and Create your
Creation
• Business cards
Discovery • Resume
• Personal Process • Portfolio
• Find your Passion • Blog
• LinkedIn
• Develop a Plan
• facebook
• Master your Niche • Twitter
• Video Resume
Self Impression = • Wardrobe
How People See You • Email Address
Your Personal Branding Toolkit

12. Control Your
Personal Brand
Claim Your Google Profile
Reserve Name on Social Networks
Establish a Personal Hub
Have a Reputation Management Strategy
Promote You
Dan Schwabel (http://mashable.com/2009/04/30/control-­‐personal-­‐brand/)

13. Personal Branding vs. Self-­‐Promo4on
Personal Branding Self-­‐Promo4on
Mutually Beneficial & Sustainable It’s about ME!
Collabora4ve But Can You Help ME?
Dale Carnegie once said: "You can make more friends in 2 months by being interested in
other people than you can in 2 years trying to gets others to be interested in you.”

14. How to you develop a successful personal brand?
+ + =
Source: Shah, Salma "Developing A Successful Personal Brand" Women Unlimited: hQp://www.women-­‐unlimited.co.uk/developing-­‐a-­‐successful-­‐
personal-­‐brand/

15. Your brand as a safety net

16. What color is Your Brand?
Energy Mystery
Ambition
Power Passion Inspiration
Desire Potency Wealth Royalty
Determination Competition
Energy Courage Spirituality
Success Action Luxury Integrity
Determination Love Magic Truth Trust
Encouragement Force Peace
Confidence
Potency Vitality Loyalty
Joy Luck
Productivity Authority
Strength Sunshine Nature
Vision Energy Growth Youth
Intellect Warmth Rebirth Optimism
Happiness
Light Fertility Healing
Creativity Relaxation
Warning Spring
By Caleb Summers

17. What tunes FASCINATE others?
Power
Pres8ge
Alarm
Vice
Trust
Lust Mys8que

18. 18

19. BRAND: REPUTATION:
HOPE / CHANGE PERFORMANCE AS PRESIDENT

20. “Brand Phobia: How to fight your
personal brand demons and win”
Women’s Myths @ branding:
Myth #1: If I Am Good, They
Will Come
Myth #2: Marke8ng Myself Is a
Dirty Business
Myth #3: I Can't Control What
Other People Think
By Lyn Chamberlin

21. Excuse ME! (defend your brand!)
Especially:
-subordinates
-minorities
-women
n.carduner

22. Here’s the way you want to have it!
An individual consultant’s model –
personal branding – is being sold to
companies, and it doesn’t work on a
large scale. It does not work for
corporate communica4ons …

23. After the break, tell us:
In 30 seconds, what is
Check In #2 the one thing that you
absolutely excel at, that
above all else you are
better at than almost
anyone else?

24. Discover Your
Brand
“The Future You”

25. Tell us:
In 30 seconds, what is
Check In #2 the one thing that you
absolutely excel at, that
above all else you are
better at than almost
anyone else?

26. 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
already know you?
Does a clear, concise, positive idea come to mind
when people think of you?
Is your personal brand effective with people that
don’t know you?

27. CEO of Your Own Brand
You are the CEO of your own career
What is a title for your career now
that is likely to be true in 2 years?
Mine now is “Entrepreneur, Advisor &
Technologist”
What is the best one sentence
introduction of your professional
self?
“I am a long-time entrepreneur & technologist focused
on the opportunities found in the social web, online
trust and virtual communities, which I write about in
my blog Life With Alacrity and teach in the sustainable
MBA program at Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

28. A purpose
Last weekend at intensive, we did a journaling
exercise.We built up through the questions,
"What do I consider my personal identity?" and
"What are my core competencies?" to the
ultimate question of, "What is my purpose?" Yes,
that general. Purpose. By the time I go to that Beth
question, I knew exactly what to write, so I quickly Breisnes
wrote down my response and shut my notebook.
"My purpose in life is to learn and to
share."

29. A declaration
Today I revisited the profile, and noticed, after our
exercise in branding, that while accurate, it was
still less than complete. Taking a deep breath, I
added the declaration: I am a passionate,
creative leader. Utterly true.
Bonnie J
Wallace

30. Joy
“One of the major driving forces in my life is joy. I
want lasting and long-term joy for myself and
everyone. If you look at all the things that go into
joy: humor, health, community, environment, etc.
you get to the need for a more simple and
sustainable life for humans on this planet. Melissa
Therefore, I will often focus on happiness as Dingman
the outcome of sustainability efforts.”

31. “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

32. “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

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

34. 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 brand buddy to
help you identify three key
phrases that are most
important and effective at
evoking “the authentic you”

35. Share your 3 key phrases!
Check In #3

36. Discover
Your Brand
“The Future
You”

37. Our Goals
Finalize your Personal Brand
Know your keywords and key phrases
Update your profiles
Your Channel Profile one last time
Then your Google Profile
Get advice from Personal Brand Buddies
Sign up for LinkedIn
Add your fellow students
Update your LinkedIn Profile

38. 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?

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

40. Know Your Keywords
Given the important words from
your personal brand and identity
exercises:
What related words are possibly more
evocative? Try Thesaurus, OED, roots
What other words are often paired with
those words.Try Google Suggest
What adjectives or adverbs can you add
to both make you more unique and
more evocative?
Is their any pairing of words worthy of a
blog name?

41. I’ve mostly worked in entrepreneurial
Initial words startups, so this was these were
the first words I looked up

42. I right-clicked (option-clicked) the word
Mac Dictionary “startup” to look it up in the Mac Dictionary

43. This is the definition of “startup”
Mac Dictionary in the built-in Mac Dictionary.

44. Mac Dictionary The root word for “startup” is start

45. I looked up “start” using the
Mac Thesaurus built-in Mac Thesaurus

46. I just grab any word that is evocative or has
More words some emotional context attached to it

47. “eager” was the root of one of the more
More words interesting words, so I looked that up further

48. “eager” had a latin root, so I looked up that
Latin Dictionary in the Lewis-Short Latin/English Dictionary

49. These are the results of looking up
Latin Dictionary the word “eager” in the online
Lewis & Short English/Latin dictionary

50. alacritas looked familar,
Latin Dictionary similar to the word alacrity

51. Mac Dictionary I liked the basic definition “cheerful readiness”

52. I liked the evocation of positive emotions
Mac Thesaurus in almost all of these synonyms

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

54. I looked up the domain
Domain Lookup http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/selectDomain

55. Unfortunately, alacrity.com was not
Domain Lookup available, so I needed a longer domain name

56. Google Suggest is the feature where you begin
Google Suggest words and google suggests the most common
pairings. Useful for finding important pairs.

57. Google Suggest used to give numbers, but there
Google Suggest #s are third party tools that still do:
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-information/

58. Once I had some words, I tried pairing them in
Pairing Words different ways, different combos, until one stuck

59. I can also be useful to check the username
KnowEm.com http://www.knowem.com

60. What makes a word evocative?
A word that brings to mind a
Evocative memory, mood or image.
The best evocative words
have an emotional context.
However, be very aware of
emotional context, as it may
not be what you think.
Evocative does not mean
provocative

61. It is possible to go too far.
If there is a choice between
Authentic an evocative word and
authentic one, pick the
authentic.
However, humor can make a
big difference:
I was tired of the title “CEO
& President”, so on one of
my old game industry
business cards I said instead
“CEO & Herder of Cats”. It
showed I was boss, but not
stuffy, a useful image.

62. Create Your
Brand
“The Future You”

63. During the next two
Create Your weeks, you will be
Brand creating the first draft of
your Personal Brand
Unique
Evocative
Concise
Memorable

64. You should:
Find a second Brand
Brand Buddy Buddy, someone who
knows you well
The pair of someone who
doesn’t know you well plus
someone who does, works
best
Share your drafts with
them

65. Consistency
Be consistent
Try to 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

66. 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

67. 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+)

68. 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
google.com/a/cpanel/domain/selectDomain
Use CamelCase when first registering
Have a backup nickname
Close as possible to preferred nickname

69. Password Management
Have at least two passwords
Create a “non-secure” password for non-financial
websites
Pick a memorable long word or short phrase,
e.g.““amber waves”, “perspicacious”
Shorten it to 7 characters
“ambrwvs”, “prspccus”
Convert a letter other then first to number
O=0, L=1, E=3, S=5 e.g. “ambrwv5” or “pr5pccus”
Use letter from domain name for last char, and
capitalize it
e.g. second o from google “ambrwv5O” or “pr5pccusO”
Same technique but longer word for financial
or use supergenpass bookmarklet

70. 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

71. Update Your Profiles
Starting with your Channel profile,
update your profiles to your new
Personal Brand
Ask colleagues and friends for their
impressions – it is difficult to judge
your profile yourself
Think about your profile’s audience:
The Channel: fellow students, teachers
LinkedIn: future professional colleagues
Google Profile: generic
Blogger Profile: your blog audience

72. Don’t Fill Out Everything
Just because a website asks you a
question, you don’t have to answer
Why answer “My superpower” or
“Something I can’t find on Google” or
“Where I grew up”?
Answer only those questions that
support your Personal Brand
Interests is often useful profile field
Keep a text file with your standard
profile answers

73. Reflecting on
Your Brand
“The Authentic You”

74. Assign role
Speaker
Echo Exercise Listener/Echoer
Observer
Swap

75. Refining Your
Brand
“The Authentic You”

76. 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

77. 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?

78. 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?

79. Optionally, fill out your
Personal Brand Personal Brand Worksheet
Worksheet (in the google docs folder):
Use it to help inform your
thoughts, but don’t let it
limit you
Share your results with
your Brand Buddies
Refine and iterate
“Perfection is the enemy of
the good”

80. 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

81. Branding Assignments for next week
(Wed August 13th 6pm):
Assignments Discover your related
keywords
Update your Channel
Profile (again!)
Optionally:
Share your problems &
questions with class
update your LinkedIn &
Google profiles
share your worksheet or
tree of life with class

82. BGI Guides

83. BGI Guides
What are your topics?
Review your scope?
Too broad?
Too narrow?

84. Before you start blogging
Start with Google Blog Search & Technorati to find
interesting blogs about your field.
Visit the blogs. Find ones that interest you. Comment
when you have something to say.
Establish Google Reader and then feed new posts from
those blogs to it. Use the Reader instead of going to
each site.
Save useful websites in Delicious. Tag them with words
that make sense to you.
Share your Delicious favorites with your network. Get
their favorites. Then visit those sites and add to your
Reader using RSS feeds.

85. Building Blog Content
Writing Purposeful Content
consistent with continuity
keyword rich
remember to link and attribute
Your content labels your blog
be careful about names, tags, and keywords
Build upon your body of work
Write timeless content
Blog passionately
Give readers a reason to return
Give readers a reason to blog about your blog
Your comments in other blogs may better as posts

86. Blog on a schedule
When you are beginning, ideally 2-3 posts a week
Only one a week needs to be “serious”
At least one a week should be a thoughtful
response to someone else’s blog post
One a week can just be a quick post of best from
your delicious bookmarks

87. Finding Topics
Search through your outbox
Every Friday, reuse something you’ve already written
Google Reader
Read through the titles of posts
Look for trends
Star those that you want to read first
Read stars
Add labels
Search Blogs
Look for blogs using your keywords
Comment or Trackback

88. When to Post
Post just before your readers are ready
Highest traffic is Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday, and
Saturday, between 6am–11am EST
Most comments are Monday,Tuesday & Wednesday,
between 7a–11am EST
Be prepared after
Schedule yourself time to promote
Respond to comments swiftly
Monitor your trackbacks and technorati

89. 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

90. Blog Assignments for next week
(Sunday evening August
Assignments 18th):
Name your Blog
Create your Blog
Post about Water & on
Blog Action Day (October
15th)

91. Questions?
Feedback?
Christopher.Allen@BGI.edu
Next session is Elluminate Session B
October 13, 2010: 6pm PT