You, Inc. The Art of Selling Yourself.
© 2007 Harry Beckwith and Christine Clifford Beckwith – 316 Pages Hardback
5R Score: 21/35
The ‘Steps’
- What people buy
- Planning and preparing
- Communicating
- Listening and speaking
- Relating
- Attitude and beliefs
- Tactics and habits
- Successes and delightful failures
On a scale of 1-7
Relevance – is it right for personal branding? - 5
Resonance does it make sense to the reader? - 5
Relation is there a connection for everyone? - 4
Remarkability – does it stand out, will it get noticed? - 4
Real – does the personal brand come through? – 3
Would you pick it up?
Probably one of the more instantly recognised books on personal branding, this book left me a little disappointed or rather confused. In the Introduction the former husband and wife team comment that this is really a fusion of three books that they were working on at the time – hence I suspect the con-fusion.
Having said that, there are a wealth of nuggets to be gleaned that can be applied to personal branding. What is really missing is a true process, there are steps but the content just seems to be haphazard. Harry Beckwith’s other books seem to have better structure.
Relevance
This is a personal branding book that has more sales emphasis than most. In part caused by one of the authors being very sales focused, in the instances that this area is covered it almost seems disconnected from the rest of the book.
Resonance
If you are looking for a personal branding book with structure and step by step instructions and actions this is not the one. There are a number of others published that are much clearer and simpler.
This book reminded me strongly of Tom Peters original personal branding book The Brand You 50. The ideas and tips are in short 2-3 page format. So punchy and quick. This makes it a good book to pick up and put down numerous times in the week, or to dip in to when you need something specific.
Relation
There are many references to the world or product/service marketing and branding, naturally given the authors line of business and backgrounds. Much of the advice is very applicable for the company employee, perhaps less so for the small business owner – although the sales aspects may be more appealing to that group.
Remarkability
I liked the fact that I could pick up and put down this book, especially as I normally have two or three books on the go at the same time! The whole tactics and habits section is the best part of the book, with lots of common sense ideas and good etiquette reminders too!
Real
The personal brands of the writers do not really come through at all, although there are some good final examples of delights and failures of other personal brands at the end of the book.