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Personal Branding Boot Camp – February 4, 2012

Mary Rosenbaum | December 12th, 2011

Make 2012 the year you take control of your career or business!

Whether you know it or not, you already have a personal brand. But is it the brand or reputation you want or need to get ahead in your career or business?

Working on your career is as important as doing a great job at work. It is easy to get caught up with deadlines, projects, and the everyday world of family and friends. When did you last take the time to evaluate where you are going in your career? And even more importantly, do you have a clear understanding or awareness of where you are now, what makes you unique, how others view you, and how you want others to view you?

Give yourself the best gift possible for the New Year – an opportunity to take a step back so you can take an important step forward!

The goal of this workshop is to enable you to:

–       leverage your strengths

–       be more memorable

–       enjoy greater visibility

–       have greater self-confidence

–       deliver on your brand promise authentically

–       increase your self-awareness

–       stand out from the crowd

–       enjoy greater job/career fulfillment

Workshop details

The February 4 all day workshop is limited to a small group to facilitate learning and participation. Through individual and small group exercises, you will:

–       define your goals and construct an action plan to help you achieve them

–       understand your values, how they affect what you do, and how you do it

–       learn to inject your passions into your world of work

–       define how your skills, talents, and abilities differentiate you from the competition

–       identify your target audience and determine ways to reach them

–       clearly articulate how you want to be known

–       work on defining and building your personal brand

Fee Includes

  1. An interactive all day workshop including individual and group work exercises led by Mary Rosenbaum.
  2. A workbook you can continue using and modifying after the workshop is over.
  3. A 360Assessment (cost of $150.00 included in fee).*
  4. Of course, breakfast and lunch.

*See below for a detailed description of the 360Assessment

SIGN UP NOW

Feedback from former workshop participants

What they found valuable How did they change?
“Understanding my differentiator, what’s valuable and how to speak to it.”

“Stating my goals – that I can do it!”

“Personal branding and how it can help or hinder you in achieving your goals.”

“The 360 Assessment made me aware of how I come off to others.”

“The 360 let me see how others view me. It felt great.” (the 360 assessment was mentioned consistently in the reviews as a positive eye-opener)

“The section that asks you to do an action plan-forces you to review everything and decide what is most important to you.”

“Action planning around 360 feedback.”

“Understanding your differentiation-helps structure your brand.”

“Defining values and passions.”

“Personal stories and how they were inspired.”

 “More aware of the impact I have on people.”

“More aware of what I project and how I have control.”

“Clarified what actions I need to take to achieve my goals.”

“Understanding the strengths I need to enhance.”

“More self-aware.”

“Be more confident and trust my instincts.”

“I have even more confidence that I am doing a great job and that people recognize it.”

“Being more aware of how I come off and continuing to build my brand.”

“A heightened sense of self-awareness.”

“Re-igniting my passions (I had lost sight of).”

“Living my values.”

“Identifying the strengths I need to amp up or shine a spotlight on and bring my passion more into my work life.”

READY TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR CAREER?

SIGN UP NOW

Who is this for?

–       professionals inside organizations and entrepreneurs who want to improve the way they communicate and articulate their unique value added

–       client facing professionals who need to differentiate themselves from their competitors

–       professionals who need to better align their reputation with their professional goals both inside and outside their organization

More About the 360 Assessment:

Integral to the program is the 360 Reach Assessment, the first and leading web-based personal brand assessment that will help you get the real story of how you are perceived by those around you. It provides the critical feedback you need to expand your success and continue thriving in a competitive business environment.  The first phase, the self-assessment and the raters assessment, will be assigned as pre-work before the workshop so that each of you will have your complete report with you when we meet as a group.

The assessment focuses 99% on the positive, on your strengths and abilities, as the personal branding process is all about highlighting those attributes and qualities that help you stand out. It takes the raters you select (friends, family, colleagues, managers, clients) only 10-15 minutes to complete this on-line assessment.

This assessment has already been taken by more than 700,000 people worldwide and the reviews are outstanding. The personal branding process cannot be completed without an understanding of how others view you. Why? Because it’s critical to know if how others view you is equal to how you view yourself.

So Take The First Step to Taking Control of Your Career in 2012

Give Yourself the Gift You Deserve.

SIGN UP NOW

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It’s Your Reputation, So Handle With Care

Mary Rosenbaum | August 18th, 2011

What are you doing to build, nurture, maintain, and grow your reputation? With all the hype about social media it becomes easy to take your eye off the ball of what really drives your career and your business. Whether you are in sales or some other profession, an entrepreneur or a small business owner, your number one focus should be your reputation. Your reputation includes much more than the work you deliver. It says a lot about you as a person and your company as a reflection of you.

Everyone has heard of word-of-mouth buzz – the holy grail of marketing. Every experience is stored in the mind with a story attached to it. Your brand is only as strong as the stories people tell about it. The stories we spread are either about what really upsets us or what makes us really happy. Maintaining and growing your reputation, your brand, depends on the stories that reflect the positive results rather than the negative surprises.

This summer I had an opportunity to work with a number of small businesses and service providers across a variety of industries. On a scale of 1-10 very few would receive a score higher than 6 and there were three that fell well below 5. Would I recommend them to others? Not in good conscience. Are there stories based on these experiences that I pass along that are less than flattering? Yes.

So what did they do wrong? The bottom line was that the experience of working with them was so unpleasant that it became memorable, in a negative way. So in spite of the fact that they ultimately completed their respective assignments the word-of-mouth buzz was not positive.

But we can all learn from their mistakes. Here are my suggestions for actions you can take to help you maintain a strong personal brand and a stellar reputation.

1. Manage expectations and eliminate negative surprises. If you find yourself unable to deliver on time or deliver what is expected, keep your client or your boss informed as quickly as possible. By managing expectations and keeping them in the loop you involve them in the process, are able to ask for their input, and make them partners in your success.

2. Tell the truth. There is nothing worse than losing your credibility. It’s not great to have to deliver bad news but if you lie and are found out you risk losing a lot more than if you told the truth. And the reality is, you will be found out eventually.

3. Communicate regularly and keep everyone informed of your progress. Returning phone calls in a timely fashion is imperative in maintaining a good relationship. Especially when you have bad news to deliver because no news is worse than bad news. Keeping your clients or managers in the dark by simply dodging their calls or emails only raises their internal barometer and puts them closer to exploding rather than understanding.

4. Under-promise and over-deliver. When pitching business or a project make sure your proposals and time frame are realistic, the results attainable and the ultimate costs in line with your experience and their needs or budgets. Failing to deliver on promise because of poorly thought out or researched proposals and strategic plans will not help you build strong and lasting relationships with your clients, your managers, and your colleagues.

If you communicate and collaborate with integrity and honesty you will all have a better experience working together. Mistakes happen, issues occur, and circumstances change. Unless you take ownership and step up to accept responsibility your brand will diminish in the eyes of those who work with you or your company. And you can bet on it – they will spread the word.

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years Mary Rosenbaum empowers careerists and entrepreneurs to gain greater clarity and more effectively communicate their unique promise of value. Strong leadership means leading with your strengths. Get her free report Top Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

Follow me on Twitter @Careersguru

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Feedback: Is It a Gift or Castor Oil?

Mary Rosenbaum | August 2nd, 2011

How open are you to feedback from those you work with and for, or even from friends and relatives? I know from past experience that praise goes down real easy. Constructive criticism, no matter how couched the wording, goes down like castor oil – it may be good for you but it tastes really bitter and you want to spit it out as quickly as possible.

Yet, how can we learn so we can continue to earn? How we view and judge ourselves is very much like the way we see ourselves in the mirror. The mirror I look at is different than the one that others hold up in front of me. To prove it let me ask you this question:

Have you ever walked down the street and caught your reflection in a store’s plate glass window? Is it the same image you see every morning in your bathroom mirror? I know for a fact it isn’t the same image for me or for most people I know. Seeing yourself with “fresh” eyes can be an enlightening experience.

Obtaining feedback from others is a great way to see yourself with “fresh” eyes. But only if you let yourself really hear what they have to say.

Recently I had an opportunity to provide feedback to my friend Carolyn, a real estate broker. Quite by accident I found out that a neighbor of mine had spoken with Carolyn about renting a house and came away from that conversation with the belief that Carolyn no longer wanted to work on rentals. Of course, this could not be farther from the truth as Carolyn relies on converting rental clients into buyers as well as benefitting from their positive word of mouth advertising. Yet, this recent exchange had just the opposite effect.

I thought this would be a great opportunity for Carolyn to learn from this past exchange how she misrepresented the value she provides clients –  her brand –  and think of different ways to handle this in the future. Instead, Carolyn made this conversation all about how she did everything right and how the client was the one at fault. To further minimize the impact of this feedback, Carolyn ended by saying that this client’s opinions really did not matter. The feedback went down like castor oil – spit out as quickly as possible.

As someone who specializes in helping clients understand, communicate, and leverage their personal brands, I know that one of the main ingredients in the branding process is being clear on the impact you have on others (seeing your reflection in a different mirror). Why? Because in your personal and professional life, your reputation, how you are known, will always precede you.

You are always trying to reach your networks network so you have to know: What are your followers going to say to theirs? What information will Carolyn’s former client be passing along to others? And what impression has Carolyn been conveying to her other clients?

How others view your work and the value you deliver may be different than your own perceptions of how you come across. Here are a few ways to continue to learn so you can earn:

1. Solicit feedback. Ask those around you for ways you could improve upon what you do for or with them. They will feel flattered that you think their opinion is valuable. By having them try to help you get better or clearer on the way you work makes them feel like partners in your success.

2. Be courageous and be humble. Rather than becoming defensive and going into attack mode thank them for their honesty. Let the words sink in. Go back and think about what you heard not from the standpoint of how you felt when you heard them but rather how these words apply to what you know about yourself versus how others see you. Most importantly use these comments to help move you closer to where you want to be.

3. Reciprocate with honest feedback and become a partner in the success of others.

For those of you who have the courage to gain a better understanding of how you impact others and how this affects your career or business, contact me for information on how an online 360 assessment can help you highlight your strengths and define your brand.

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years Mary Rosenbaum empowers careerists and entrepreneurs to gain greater clarity and more effectively communicate their unique promise of value. Strong leadership means leading with your strengths. Get her free report Top Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

Follow me on Twitter @Careersguru

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No Man or Woman is an Island: Who is on Your Cheering Squad?

Mary Rosenbaum | July 20th, 2011

Who is on your cheering squad? Who is in your box? I loved watching all of Novak Djokovic’s family, friends, team members, and compatriots leap to their feet, tears in their eyes as Djokovic won the last point of the men’s singles tennis championship at Wimbledon earlier this month. The tension of the two week tournament coupled with a year of hard work and much transformation was clearly visible on all their faces throughout the event. But success proved to be the great antidote to all the stress. Success for them and for him.

Djokovic did not nor could not win all by himself.

His team – his family, friends, coaches, physician, nutritionist, physiotherapist, trainer, and his many vocal Serbian fans – provided Djokovic with the mental, emotional, and physical support, encouragement, and expertise that helped propel him to achieving his #1 ranking in men’s tennis.

Who do you turn to for expert advice, support and encouragement? A friend, colleague, relative, spouse, partner? A common problem many professionals face, whether they are entrepreneurs or careerists, is trying to do it all themselves. Life is tough enough without having to be an expert in everything you do. A “board of advisors” who you can run ideas past, who have an expertise that can prove valuable to you, who provide you with a realistic appraisal of your actions, and who support your goals and dreams is a necessary ingredient to getting to where you want to go.

At the same time, there is nothing worse than having a great “board of advisors” and ignoring what they have to say. This has been a difficult year for Djokovic and he relied heavily on the many members of his team, implementing changes in his diet, his coaches, his behavior with the media and with his opponents, his focus and his body language both on and off the court. Trusting his team and the advice they provided enabled him to win.

Achieving success in your career or business requires the same level of commitment from your team or board of advisors as it does for professional athletes. So how can you select the members of your team? What should you be looking for? Here are some ideas to incorporate when forming and working with your board of advisors.

1. Find experts who can fill the gaps. If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner perhaps your need is for someone with financial strength or marketing prowess. A coach might be in order for you if you are aspiring to take on a leadership role. Surround yourself with those whose expertise dovetails well with yours so you can focus on what you do best and rely on them for the advice and knowledge that make them experts in what they do.

2. Commit to being open minded. Learn to accept criticism without becoming defensive.

3. Don’t fall in love with your ideas or your team members if something is not working. Djokovic hired a second coach, Todd Martin, but quickly learned that this decision was not a good one for his team. Admit mistakes and move on.

4. Trust your board of advisors. You don’t have to love all your team members. Mutual respect is earned based on the value they provide. And respect results in trust.

5. Look for team members who have a variety of experience. Answers come from many places, so the greater the depth and breadth of experiences they can call on, the better your results.

6. Make sure everyone has the same goal in mind. Clearly define what your goals are and what time frame you have in mind. If you all know where you are going you have a better chance of getting there on time.

7. Ask for help. This is the hardest advice to follow. Yet, if you do ask more often than not you will be rewarded with more than you expect.

8. Give back. Especially to those who “volunteer” to be on your board. There is tremendous power in teams that help one another reach their goals.

No wo(man) is an island. Going it alone takes longer and generally falls short of what you can accomplish. What are some of the attributes you look for in your team or board of advisors?

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years Mary Rosenbaum empowers careerists and entrepreneurs to gain greater clarity and more effectively communicate their unique promise of value. Strong leadership means leading with your strengths. Get her free report Top Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

Follow me on Twitter @Careersguru

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The Human Connection: A Win/Win for You and Your Company

Mary Rosenbaum | April 26th, 2011

If you have ever led or been on a team or worked on a project with others then you know how it feels when a group of people work together successfully, mutually supporting each other so that the work gets done. The feeling you get in these situations is a sense of flow, knowing “someone has your back” and that you are all working toward a common goal.

In order for this to happen, there has to be a connection that links you with your co-workers or employees. It could be common values (family, honesty, integrity) or common interests and passions. It could be a shared view of the world. Whatever it is, the relationship between you is deeper and with it comes trust and a sense of reciprocal responsibility for one another.

I co-led a leadership branding workshop for senior professionals a few weeks ago and was asked a question by one of the participants. He asked, “Why is it so important for me to bring my personal life into the office? After all, I do a great job, I have moved up in my company, all without letting most people know what goes on with me outside the office.”

The reality is he did not have to bring his personal life, his passions, interests, or experiences into the office in order to be successful. As a senior member of a management team, bifurcating his life has not negatively affected his career path. Or has it? Has there been any give up by not being open about ALL of who he is? Would other opportunities have presented themselves had he shared his many interests, passions, and vision with others? Would he have benefited from greater collaboration or a more interesting workplace where he didn’t have to sensor himself and where others openly shared with him?

Of course, we’ll never know the answers to these questions. But what I have experienced is that when you bring ALL of who you are into your workplace it is as if you put sticky tape all over your body, inviting others to connect with you on any one of those areas, and inspiring them to do the same in return. And what you get out of it is an opportunity to build closer relationships with those you work with and for, and to make your day better, more interesting, more varied, and more fun.

As a leader is there value to having your team or group be more open about their passions and interests at work? In an article by Polly LaBarre for the Management Innovation eXchange, she interviewed Ivy Ross, a design executive who has worked with major brand companies like Calvin Klein, Swatch, Coach and Mattel.

Faced with consolidating and absorbing large numbers of design professionals onto her team, Ms. Ross wanted to have everyone connect and bond with one another as quickly as possible because she firmly believes that creativity and innovation begin with real connection. She held a meeting and had each person bring in their favorite object. A video was made as each person talked about that object, themselves, and what designing clothing meant to them. The videos were condensed and distributed, providing everyone with a Facebook alternative to getting to know their co-workers on a more personal and individual level. Close connections were made based on the information disclosed, the type of information that you might never learn about by working with someone or that might take years to uncover. This sharing created an environment of trust and cooperation resulting in productive and creative teamwork.

So being ALL you of who you are wherever you are is a win/win for you and your company. To summarize, the benefits of bringing the human side of you, your passions, interests, and vision of the world to work include:

  1. Showing others the many dimensions of who you are.
  2. Allowing others to connect with you on the many different points (sticky tape) you have exposed.
  3. Exemplifying trust and a willingness to open up to others by sharing.
  4. Creating deeper bonds and encouraging collaboration.
  5. Opening the door so others can share as well.
  6. Highlighting your core values, an important connection point on every level.

What makes relationships powerful is the human connection. Without it you end up with a work environment that resembles bleached out cotton – it may do the job it was designed for but can be colorless and lacking an interesting texture.

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years Mary Rosenbaum empowers careerists and entrepreneurs to gain greater clarity and more effectively communicate their unique promise of value. Strong leadership means leading with your strengths. Get her free report Top Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

Follow me on Twitter @Careersguru

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Personal Branding: Is Your Reputation Holding You Back?

Mary Rosenbaum | February 3rd, 2011

In response to a post I recently wrote on bullet proofing your reputation, I was asked if it was possible to repair a damaged reputation. This begs another question. What if your reputation is not damaged but the way you are viewed limits the heights you can reach? Can you change the way people view you or do you have to leave town, change your job or career, or learn to own the reputation others have of you?

A few years ago Alec Baldwin went through a very public and messy divorce. During that time a tape of a message he left on his daughter’s answering machine became public. He said some terrible things, calling her unspeakable names and using words not commonly associated with good parenting. Given the speed of social media, the tape went viral and nearly destroyed his career. His starring role on the TV show 30 Rock appeared to be in jeopardy as rumors about his impending replacement spread throughout the industry.

So what did Alec Baldwin do?

He spent the next couple of years burnishing a reputation where his name became synonymous with philanthropy out on the East End of Long Island and in NYC. He became the voice of Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera, freely donated his time, talents, and name to large and small charities alike representing the arts, aids, children, the aged. Well, you get the picture. In fact, some consider him the unofficial mayor of the Hamptons, in attendance at almost every benefit throughout the spring and summer months.

He took the negative news and buried it under everything that was positive and did that in the most visible way possible. He led with different values – giving back, caring, generosity, and humility, letting them outshine the ones that got him in trouble. According to friends and relatives, this was the REAL Alec Baldwin, and the public embraced him.

So yes, you can repair the damage AND you can also change the way people see you. You are in control of your brand. I am not suggesting you create it. In fact, anything that smacks of inauthenticity will be quickly seen as manipulative. By way of example, was it a coincidence that Mark Zuckerberg donated $100 million to Newark’s crumbling public school system at the same time that the movie Social Network came out? Does it really matter? The fact is, the coincidence of timing diminished the positive effects it might have had on his personal brand regardless of the fact that his gift will help tens of thousands of students.

Repairing your brand image or changing the way others view you is totally in your hands. Here are some ideas you can use to help you change other people’s opinions of who THEY THINK you are with who YOU KNOW you are.

1. Change your behavior to better reflect your values and your goals. In Baldwin’s case he put a spotlight on the person he knew he was and did it with such gusto that it literally buried the negative news onto the back pages of Google. If you want to move into leadership or get that promotion act as if you already have it. Take on some of the responsibilities of the position whenever possible and take ownership of the results, good or bad. The more you take on the challenges of the new role the more others see you as a possibility for the role you want.

2. Communicate your goals and aspirations clearly. Let those in power know what your goals are and seek out their help in attaining them. Baldwin was industrious in seeking out the philanthropies that would benefit from his involvement (and from whom he would benefit as well) until enough of a critical mass was reached where they sought him out. Reach out to those who can help you in a way that clearly communicates the benefit to you and to them – answer the Why of what you want to do and expand your tribe of supporters.

3.Be authentic in everything you do: be who you are and not who you think you should be. Leading with your core values will ensure that you stay on track and honestly represent who you are.

4. Don’t expect overnight miracles. Opinions are formed in just a few minutes, but changing them takes a lot more time. The right actions coupled with patience and persistence are the keys to achieving your goals.

I wanted to give a shout out to Kelly Fleuhr for including me as #6 in the 25 Best Career Blogs You Aren’t Reading Yet.  Check out some of the others on the list.

http://www.ultrasoundtechnologistschools.org/25-best-career-blogs-you-arent-reading-yet.html#6

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years Mary Rosenbaum empowers careerists and entrepreneurs to gain greater clarity and more effectively communicate their unique promise of value. Strong leadership means leading with your strengths. Get her free report Top Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

Follow me on Twitter @Careersguru

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Personal Branding-Value Your Past in Creating Your Future

Mary Rosenbaum | June 17th, 2010

I love going into antique stores. For me it’s about learning the history of some object that caught my eye – who crafted it, who owned it, what it was originally used for, where it was found or from whom it was purchased. This information provides me with the substance that makes the object more real, more interesting, and more memorable.

Believe it or not, the same holds true for you as a professional or entrepreneur. We are always talking about the value of being authentic as part of your personal brand. When your brand is authentic it includes everything about you as well as your history. Your history is as vital to your brand as it is in making the antique more desirable.

Early in my career I worked in investment banking. As an analyst I learned how to compare and evaluate companies, synthesizing vast amounts of information including earnings, market penetration, comparability, economic conditions, consumer sentiment, and so forth.

That doesn’t sound like it would be useful for someone whose expertise is in personal branding and career management. Yet, it’s those same analytical skills that provide the underpinning for me to help clients evaluate, compare, synthesize and communicate how their talents, experience, skills, passions, vision, and values enable them to stand out from the competition. This past experience is a piece of the puzzle that makes up ALL of who I am and what I offer. My history is part of what makes me more interesting, more unique, more memorable, and of course, it helps me stand out.

When you are working on your personal brand try to answer these questions:

1. What are you are good at – what comes to you easily?
2. How did you come to own this particular skill?
3. How does it enhance what you do?
4. How can it enhance what you want to do (remember, brands are aspirational)?
5. Why are you good at it – does this fulfill a particular passion, interest, value?
6. Does this help you differentiate yourself from your competition – why?

The experiences in your life should not be compartmentalized, instead they should be mined and brought to the surface. They are your precious gems. So take a walk through your past, connect the dots to your present, and set the stage for your future.

If you have any personal branding stories to share I would love to hear them.

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years, Mary Rosenbaum helps careerists and entrepreneurs position themselves so they can stand out from the competition. Get her free report Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

Follow me on Twitter @Careersguru

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Marketing and Sales: Procrastination – The Enemy of Success

Mary Rosenbaum | June 10th, 2010

As someone who has always worked in positions where I was marketing and selling my services or the services of my company, I know how hard it can sometimes be to get yourself motivated and make those calls. And interestingly enough, it’s even harder when business is slower. That sounds like an oxymoron because when business is slow you

a) have the time to market and connect

b) should be more motivated to get business

Here are some techniques I use for getting off the fence and generating some new business:

1. Make a list of existing and former clients.

Make sure you are on target and properly servicing those clients still actively engaged with you and your company. Keeping your existing clients should always be a high priority. Reconnecting with past clients is also a good way of generating new assignments and keeping your name front and center in the event that a new project or assignment develops.

2. Make a list of everyone who has ever referred business.

If you haven’t done so already, start reconnecting and re-establishing your relationships. There is a fine line here between calling someone specifically for new referrals and calling someone to reconnect. Make sure the message you send is more reflective of the latter rather than the former. Focus on building and maintaining your relationships and staying top of mind.

3. Make a list of potential clients.

There are two categories in this group. The first category includes people or companies who can be considered low hanging fruit. How often have you neglected to follow up with people you met at events or conferences who expressed an interest in continuing the discussion? Or how about people who responded to your articles, attended seminars you gave, signed up for your website, asked for more information about your company, or maybe you were given some names of people who might have an interest but never followed up?

The second category includes companies or people who fall into your target audience but with whom you have no contact. This is where your personal network or your network on LinkedIn might be helpful. Learning as much as you can about people or companies who fall into this group would be instrumental in making your initial contact and taking it to the next level.

Developing relationships with potential clients is a longer term strategy and consequently should be an ongoing activity regardless of market conditions.

4. Eliminate unnecessary busy work.

We have all been there. It’s easy to get busy doing everything but what really needs to get done. Selling and marketing can be fun, especially when economic conditions are booming. It’s a lot harder to get yourself going when times are tough. Procrastination is the enemy of success.

So stop getting in your own way and move forward with purpose.

What other tools do you use to generate new leads and new business?

Follow me on Twitter @careersguru

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years, Mary Rosenbaum helps entrepreneurs and careerists position themselves so they can stand out from the competition. Get her free report Top Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

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Personal Branding: Treat Your Blog as if it was a Gift

Mary Rosenbaum | May 26th, 2010

If you are like me you have probably received countless birthday or christmas gifts that were not what you wanted or even needed. What did you do with those gifts, put them in the back of your closet, returned them if you could, re-gifted them to someone else? One thing is certain, you didn’t use this gift or benefit from it in any way. In fact, you probably forgot about it as soon as you put it away.

If you want people to read your blog or newsletter you have to think of these communications as a gift. All too often I receive newsletters or blog postings that either rehash old news or reword something either they or someone in the industry has already written about. What they don’t include is anything of value for me. Value can be defined in many ways. For example, it can provide me with a new way of looking at something, or a new approach I can apply to my business or life, or even a story I can relate to.

If you have read my past posts on the value of a strong brand, writing a blog and the rules of blogging then you know that providing your target audience with some added value is more important than just getting something out there with your name on it. Your blog or newsletter should convey your opinions in your area of expertise. One of the benefits of writing a blog is to communicate your thought leadership (your personal brand) in a way that exhibits your expertise in a “show” and not “tell” fashion. Distributing a blog or newsletter that doesn’t provide valuable content can only hurt your personal brand – your reputation. Why? Because people will immediately delete your emails based on their past experience with you.

Just like everyone else, my email inbox is filled with newsletters, email blasts, and blogs. With the limited time we have and the surplus of information we receive make sure the communications you send out are worthwhile. Let’s make sure the delete button is reserved for someone else. If you follow these rules they just might help you keep your audience and grow your following.

1. Know what your target audience wants and needs. Look at the responses (if any) you get from your postings and determine how they can be better focused to improve the content you provide and the engagement you develop with your audience. Research the work of other thought leaders in your industry. Read the comments they receive, see how you can address some of the issues that are being raised, but with a different point of view.

2. Make sure you are not underestimating your readers’ sophistication or knowledge. There is nothing worse than providing information that is so “been there, done that, old hat”.

3. Are you addressing the right target audience? I know I receive emails from companies and individuals providing valuable information on hi tech products for large businesses, classes on becoming a fashion designer, and courses on passing the bar exam, among others. Just because you have someone’s email address it doesn’t mean they want to receive your gift of communication and knowledge.

4. Don’t overuse the send button. Unless you have something worthwhile to write about, don’t write. I know I have said in the past that consistency and constancy in communication builds credibility as well as a following. You should write at least one time per week to maintain that following. But having said this, there is nothing worse than writing just to publish – because you dilute the value of your blog and of your brand.

5. Connect with your readers in a way that resonates with them not only on a business level but on a personal level as well. The more authentic you are in your writing, the more your ideas will resonate with your audience.

Having the right formula – original ideas and content, well written text, reader connection and engagement, – will result in a growing targeted following.

What tools do you use to keep their finger off the delete button? Please share them with us.

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years Mary Rosenbaum helps careerists and entrepreneurs position themselves so they can stand out from the competition. Get her free report Top Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

Follow me on Twitter @Careersguru

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Brand Your Personal Brand in the Minds of Others

Mary Rosenbaum | April 30th, 2010

If you were to ask three colleagues, three friends, and three family members to describe your attributes, strengths, and abilities do you know what they would say? Would they all say the same things? There has been much written about personal branding, in fact, I have written and spoken a great deal about it as well. But have you thought about what it actually means?

Personal BRANDING is the process by which you determine how you want to be viewed by others and then go about BRANDING the words you want them to use when describing you. You are in effect BRANDING your “reputation” in the minds of others.

How do you do this?

1. Find out what others think of you? Have a conversation and ask them the questions that would bring out how they would describe you to others. If you want more detailed information, a 360 assessment is a great tool to use because it offers anonymity and that ensures a higher degree of honesty and accuracy.

2. Do a Strengths, Weakness, Attribute, and Talents analysis (SWAT) using information they provide and include your own self analysis. Once you have this information determine which skills, talents, abilities, attributes and strengths are ones that will further your career. Those are the ones you want to highlight. If there are weaknesses that might prevent you from attaining your goals, think of ways you can ameliorate them (take courses, connect with those who can help you overcome them, partner with people who can fill in your gaps). If they are not road blockers, just forget them and move on.

3. Do a comparative analysis of the skills and abilities you bring to your work. Try to determine how you are the same and what makes you different than your competitors. What gets you in the game – education, years of experience, similar skill sets – should be the same. What makes you different is a combination of what others think of you, special talents and skills you bring to your work, and the way in which you provide your service or do your job.

4. Develop an elevator pitch or personal branding statement that provides the listener with information on what you do, why you do it, what your differentiating qualities are, and the value you provide. You don’t have to be looking for a job or pitching a client to develop a strong personal branding statement or pitch. The reason you are doing this is so that you can “brand” this description into the minds of all you meet and already know.

5. Make sure your messaging is clear and consistent. Everyone should understand what you do and the value you provide. And it should be consistent for everyone you meet.

6. Always be on brand. Make sure that the work you do and the way you present yourself, on and off line are always on brand. It takes a great deal of time to build a reputation, to solidify your brand in other peoples’ minds. It takes considerably less time to destroy it.

Are there other ways you have in identifying your unique promise of value, your personal brand? We would love to hear about them.

Utilizing her experience of over 25 years, Mary Rosenbaum helps entrepreneurs and careerists position themselves so they can stand out from the competition. Get her free report Top Strategies for Getting Visible and Getting Ahead.

Follow me on Twitter @careersguru

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