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Celebrity branding

Have You Thought of Re-Naming Yourself?

Unless you have erased Facebook from your world you can’t help to have noticed the announcement last week about their changing the company name to Meta. We can all speculate as to the reason behind this, beyond the inevitable PR spin from Facebook, and perhaps tie it back to the bad press and coverage they have been receiving lately. But there is a lot more to the name change than… Read More »Have You Thought of Re-Naming Yourself?

5 Personal Brand Lessons for You From Halloween

Halloween was not a celebration for me growing up in the UK. In fact, it was never even on our radar as kids. The big fall event for us was always Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th. This is a classic British, slightly twisted, celebration of religion-inspired attempts to blow up the government and execute the conspirators and involves large fires, burning human effigies and setting off huge amounts of… Read More »5 Personal Brand Lessons for You From Halloween

This is ‘No Time to Die’

Last week I posted a poll on social media asking for people’s choice on the next James Bond. I also asked for one of the options whether it was time for a female Bond? Daniel Craig doesn’t think there should be by the way. Of the two names I picked, 38% preferred George Clooney and 29% Jennifer Lawrence. Whilst not statistically significant it was interesting to see some of the… Read More »This is ‘No Time to Die’

A Personal Brand to MARVEL

There are probably very few of us who can say we have not been touched by the work of Stan Lee in some way or another. Be it watching one of the awesome Marvel movies over the last few years, tuning into the TV series of Spiderman or Bruce Banner & The Hulk from the 80’s and 90’s or picking up and devouring a Marvel comic as a kid. In… Read More »A Personal Brand to MARVEL

What Will be Your Personal Brand Legacy?

“In my own work, I’ve tried to anticipate what’s coming over the horizon, to hasten its arrival, and to apply it to people’s lives in a meaningful way.”     Yesterday saw the passing of the probably much lesser known Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Quite possibly one of the most influential people of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries and not only because he helped popularize the most prevalent… Read More »What Will be Your Personal Brand Legacy?

Whats Wrong With This Picture?

The recent surprise Democratic House candidate election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who at 28, could potentially be the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, by 15% over incumbent Joe Crowley who led by 36%, was a lesson for us all in being attuned to the preferences of our target audiences or market. It was also a great lesson in political personal branding. There were likely a number of factors that attributed… Read More »Whats Wrong With This Picture?

The One Question I Always Get on Personal Branding

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Image Fast Company Magazine August 1997

Next year will see the 20-year anniversary of the Fast Company magazine article “The Brand Called You” by Tom Peters. This was two years before his book series, which included “Brand You 50” were published. Most recognize the article as the ‘birth’ of personal branding or at the least the first time that the concept of having a personal brand appeared on the business radar. When you Google “Brand Called You” the article still appears at the top of the rankings. Read the article here

Many people still minimize the power of personal branding and some label it as egotistical and ridiculous. The criticism is legitimate towards those who have likened branding yourself to branding a bar of chocolate. In fact, the intention is to show the contrast between a person and a corporation when it comes to branding.

It probably took ten years after that article, for the notion of owning your personal brand to be embraced as an accepted way of managing your career, business, and even life. Celebrity branding has exploded with constant exposure and an unquenchable thirst for more. This leaves many people feeling inadequate unless they too garner the same visibility. Sadly credibility can sometimes take a back seat.

Social media has been both a blessing and curse and can be blamed for some of the hype, expectation, and disdain that personal branding attracts. But fault can also lie at the feet of the ‘gurus’ and experts who tell you to “Fake it until you make it” or encourage you to turn your social media streams into a one-way flow of personally branding me, me, me that should never be turned off.

When it comes to personal branding the one question I always get is

Read More »The One Question I Always Get on Personal Branding

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of Brand Trump

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Since the advent of social media, I doubt there have been many events that have garnished as many comments, engagement, and mainstream media column inches as the US Presidential election, and in particular about Donald J. Trump.

I have often cited Trump, the businessman, as an example of a strong personal brand. He often followed the three C’s of branding – Clarity of message, Consistent delivery of that message and Constantly working at getting that message heard and noticed in his business dealings.

Without getting into an intense political debate, it could be argued that he delivered on the latter in his political run, but missed the mark on the clarity and consistency.

There is going to be a lot more said and written about this election, his presidency, as well as the hours spent analyzing why and how he became the 45th President of the United States.

So what were the plus and minus aspects of his campaign from a branding perspective?

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Will Today be Trump or Clinton’s Best Day at Work?

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By the end of the day, one of the candidates may well be looking back to today as one of their best days at work, at least so far. Of course, the work for the successful President of the United States is only just beginning, some future days maybe best days and some may be the worst, it’s not an easy job for sure. The best and worst seems to be how many of you look at your own jobs and careers.

Presenteeism, time spent at the workplace while not productively engaged in work, is the new absenteeism

The conclusion of a 2015 Canadian study, The True Picture of Workplace Absenteeism, with 1,300 people including just over 1,000 employees, found that 80 percent of respondents self-reported experience with presenteeism. 81 percent indicated that they had gone into work while they could not perform as well as they would have liked.

The reasons for doing so included physical sickness (47 percent), stress or anxiety (40 percent) and workplace issues and/or problems with co-workers or managers (22 percent). Depression was specified as the cause by 15 percent of respondents.

A quick Google search of #BestWorkDay uncovers plenty of top 10 lists on ways to ensure you have your best days at work. The common advice to these problems seems to fall into two camps.

Read More »Will Today be Trump or Clinton’s Best Day at Work?

3 Critical Personal Brand Lessons From the Closing of Vine

All Hallows Eve is the time of the year dedicated to remembering the dead. It seems fitting that on Halloween we reflect on the personal brand lessons from the news last week that Twitter will be closing down their 6-second video app Vine. It may have come as a surprise to many of you, however, the ‘Vine Personal Brand Stars’ that it helped to create have already been moving on… Read More »3 Critical Personal Brand Lessons From the Closing of Vine