1. 1) Your Personal Brand1) Your Personal Brand
2) Problem Solving2) Problem Solving
THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
September 2012
WIRELESS:
U/N: tia
P/W: colgate

2. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
1) Your Personal Brand1) Your Personal Brand

3. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Your Personal BrandYour Personal Brand
• How you are perceived…both ‘stand-alone’, and relative
to your peers/competitors.
• Do you actually know? Are you strong enough to look
in the mirror, and see what others see?
• Why does it matter? Why should you care?
• Based on what your brand stands for, you will be: accepted,
embraced, ignored, rejected, recommended, despised,
or….?

4. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Your Personal BrandYour Personal Brand
• Is your personal brand really relevant to your success?
• Your personal brand is only relevant if you need to
interact with humans to achieve your objectives.
• Or, if you want to ask someone for something
o help, access, money, advice, a favor, “become my partner”; “buy my
service”, etc.;

5. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Your Personal BrandYour Personal Brand
• What creates your personal brand? Every one of your
‘touch-points’
• ‘Touch-points’= each element of your persona that
‘touches’ the world
• Visually; physically; orally; your actions; your thinking;
degree to which you link ‘word and deed’/are trusted (do
you deliver on your commitments?); problem-solving
abilities (do you solve problems or deliver them?); your
values; et.al.

6. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
‘‘Engineering’ Your Personal BrandEngineering’ Your Personal Brand
• It can be done…but it takes strength, self-confidence,
honesty and HUMILITY
• You have to be willing to look in the mirror and see what’s
there
• It starts with a self-assessment; and input from people who
will be honest with you….who are VERY hard to find…
• Requires: being open; being “coachable”

7. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
‘‘Engineering’ Your Personal BrandEngineering’ Your Personal Brand
• We all have limitations/areas that need work
• BUT -- limitations are only weaknesses if:
o we fail to acknowledge them
o we fail to act on that knowledge

8. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
‘‘Engineering’ Your Personal BrandEngineering’ Your Personal Brand
• Every one of us can improve our brand…and this should be
a life-long commitment.
• My challenge to you: if you could re-engineer your personal
brand, how would you change it…what
dimensions/elements would you want to engineer?
• And, do you actually KNOW what elements of your
personal brand need to be addressed?

9. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Improve Your Personal Brand…TodayImprove Your Personal Brand…Today
• 1) Find 4-5 people who will tell you the truth about
you. Ideally—360 degrees represented (peers,
subordinates, bosses.)
• 2) Ask them for:
o 2-3 strengths/positive elements of your brand
o 2-3 limitations/areas you need to work on
o get it in writing
o and tell them you NEED THE TRUTH

10. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Improve Your Personal Brand…TodayImprove Your Personal Brand…Today
• 3) Look across the ‘limitations’ and identify consistent
themes/areas to work on
• 4) For each ‘limitation’:
o create a reminder that you see EVERY DAY;
o create 1-2 CONCRETE actions/things you can
do to address this limitation/manage around it;
o look at ‘a’ and act on ‘b’ … DAILY.
• If you do ‘4’ (above), you will improve your
personal brand. Period. You can start…today.

11. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
2) Problem Solving2) Problem Solving

12. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving
• For every entrepreneur, there will always be problems,
obstacles, adversity, and challenges
• “Your ability to succeed will be directly
proportional to your ability to solve problems”
• Remember: Entrepreneurs are guerilla fighters

13. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving
• There is a reason why the word ‘creative’
often precedes the word ‘problem-solving’,
and why the words ‘rigid’ and ‘linear’ don’t.

14. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving
• Two problem-solving tools: affinity and incentives
• Affinity: nature of your relationship/connection with
someone
o Customer, prospect, friend, family, etc.
o Stronger affinity = bigger potential ask
o Affinity; often driven by your personal brand

15. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving
• Incentives: a motivating/compelling reason to do a
particular thing
o ‘Everybody has their price’
o Q) To use incentives effectively requires….?
o A) Knowledge of your target and what motivates them—ego,
money, affinity, power, desire to help, etc.;

16. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Problem-SolvingProblem-Solving
• Very few of the problems that you will
confront can’t be solved…with some focus,
creativity and determination.

17. THOUGHT INTO ACTION INSTITUTE
Problem-Solving: Final ThoughtsProblem-Solving: Final Thoughts
• ‘Delivering problems’ hurts your personal brand;
solving them enhances it
• So, when you come to the table with a problem in
one hand…….make sure to have a solution in the
other hand.