The Fearless Fish Out of Water – How to succeed when you’re the only one like you.
© 2009 Robin Fisher-Roffer – 213 Pages Hardback
5R Score: 30/35
The 7 Steps
- Go fishing for the real you
- Use your differences as a lure
- Find a few fish like you
- Swim in the ocean your way
- Put yourself out on the line
- Evolve by casting a wide net
- Reel in your unique power
On a scale of 1-7
Relevance – is it right for personal branding? - 7
Resonance does it make sense to the reader? - 6
Relation is there a connection for everyone? - 5
Remarkability – does it stand out, will it get noticed? - 5
Real – does the personal brand come through? – 7
Would you pick it up?
This is one of those books that I found by chance, whilst ‘trawling’ (pardon the pun) the shelves of the local library. It was not a book I was aware of, although the author I knew from her very good first book, “Make a Name for Yourself: Eight Steps Every Woman Needs to Create a Personal Brand Strategy for Success” an early personal branding resource.
This book approaches personal branding from almost the opposite direction. Robin, the author, always felt like the fish out of water, and it is people like this who really were the very early pioneers in what we now call personal branding. They already felt different, embraced it and were able to use that differentiation to their advantage in building successful careers and businesses. What I really liked about this book is there are plenty of examples and also it offers lots of practical actions and exercises at the end of each chapter.
Relevance
The reader has to be prepared to view the whole notion of personal branding from a different perspective. Something I talk about often is that we already have a personal brand, the key is understanding what that brand is and then communicating it. A number of other books try to manufacture from the other end, this one says its already there, now use it.
Resonance
Whilst the book almost avoids the label of personal branding, there are some similarities between this and her first book. However this one carries much more of Robin’s own personal brand and its 7 year evolution between the two publications.
For the more straightforward, perhaps even traditional. personal branding process I would favour her first book. This ‘Fearless Fish’ content I would almost label as an advanced approach. The reason I say that is many times you end up talking in much greater depth and much more personally to clients in personal branding than they had originally expected, because it does touch on a whole life not just career and business. Robin has captured that through her own lessons and others she has interacted with in this book.
Relation
Much of her experience has been in the entertainment field so many of the examples and profiles come from that group, but there are smatterings of others to learn from too.
For the individual looking to get a little deeper understanding of who and what their personal brand is this is a good read.
Remarkability
I really enjoyed the fresher, more authentic approach to the whole personal branding process that this book offers. It is not going to be for everyone but those that do read this book will get a lot of value from it.
One challenge might be where to find it on the bookshelf – at my local library it was under self-help, but not careers. Better to buy your own copy online!
Real
This is a very real personal branding work. Robin does not hide aspects her personal brand at all that others might be reluctant to expose. That makes for the readers greater comfort with their own brand and makes the book a much more engaging and believable piece.