Tag: BrandBoard

Personal Branding, Story + Narrative1 Comment

This Much We Know? You Will Know Me From This Blog

ThisMuchWeKnow

I have learned many things from writing the TMWK blog for a year, with more than 260 posts. Here are 10 revelations, so far. I want to separate out a key piece. Because the blog is me working out loud, sharing my knowledge, perspective, beliefs and opinions, it is the CLEAREST, most precise way you can know me (well, unless you KNOW me IRL). I say This Much We Know. I mean, this is who I am, how I move out into the world. If you read this blog, you know me, you know my motivations, my focus, my gift and … Continue reading This Much We Know? You Will Know Me From This Blog

Personal Branding1 Comment

Want To Know About Personal Branding? Step Right This Way…

ThisMuchWeKnow

I closed out 2013 with a series of posts on personal branding and the BrandBoard process we excel at here at TMWK. To welcome the new year, here is a quick review of the content. It’s Me > You Every Time It starts with you. How you define yourself is the most important thing – more important than how other people define you. You own your brand. More >> Do You Have A Head-Heart-Hand Brand? We cannot be all things to all people. Don’t try it. Focus on where you make the difference. We find that most people have a … Continue reading Want To Know About Personal Branding? Step Right This Way…

Personal Branding, Story + Narrative1 Comment

Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Synthesizing Your AwesomeSauce

ThisMuchWeKnow

This is where the hard work begins, and the pay-off too. You have a ton of data, and several interesting ideas to play with. Perhaps your brand has a theme to it. You have a beautiful BrandBoard to share! Now what? Well, now we synthesize. This means distilling down all the brand content into 2-3 core ideas around which you can build a story. Although you brand might skew in a particular direction – mine is a heavily head brand – it does not mean you have no skills in the other Head-Heart-Hand elements. When you meet people, generally you … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Synthesizing Your AwesomeSauce

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Dissecting Your Personal Brand: 180 Degree Peer Review

ThisMuchWeKnow

I have received a 360 degree peer review – a very interesting process of understand the good, bad and ugly about myself. Illuminating. Personal branding is not 360 feedback. It is 180 degree feedback – it looks forward into the marketplace; it does not (generally) look behind the curtains at the malignancy and maleficence within us all. Save that for the psychologist’s couch, please. No, we want input from your cohort about how great you are, to drive your brand to new heights and to either agree or challenge your own thinking about how you show up. Seeing Eye To Eye. Generally, I … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: 180 Degree Peer Review

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Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Personality Tests

ThisMuchWeKnow

At TMWK, we do not pretend to be psychologists. We are marketeers! We want to develop a brand with you in the most powerful and meaningful way. We do not want to tell you who you are – that’s your job. We provide some inputs, and the stimulation. So, if you have “personality tests” from other sources, we can add those in – we like data, the more the merrier, because in much data we see patterns, themes emerge, and from that – your brand essence. So, I have nothing particular to add about these tests other than – it’s … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: Personality Tests

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Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Do You Show Up Online?

ThisMuchWeKnow

We have to think differently about our personal brand than we did 10-15 years ago. Then, in order to get ahead, to get promotion, to get on that juicy project you could scan your immediate work environment and determine who it was you had to impact to make a difference. Now, things have changed. Your network of influence might be social, virtual, global, segmented based on the communities in which you hang, participate, lead. When I am hiring, the first thing I do in a cursory scan of a resume is to look for online avenues of investigation – therein … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Do You Show Up Online?

Personal Branding, The Curious Will Inherit The World2 Comments

Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Does Your Brain Work?

ThisMuchWeKnow

The number one area of reading everyone should be doing to better understand the(ir) human condition is modern advances in neurology – we have come to understand more about the workings of brain in the last 20 years than in the previous 10000 years. I remember as a Economics undergrad participating in game theory studies with my professors as they pulled apart long standing arguments about rational decision-making. It is fascinating stuff. So, when we look at your personal brand, part of the process is to reflect on how we make decisions, because it definitely informs how we show up. … Continue reading Dissecting Your Personal Brand: How Does Your Brain Work?

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How BrandBoards Help You Say: “This Is How I Make The Difference.”

ThisMuchWeKnow

We are always tinkering with the personal branding process at TMWK, trying to work out how to leverage cool inputs (“Snakes!”) and unexpected syntheses (“Heart brand!”) to drive epiphanies that make people more successful in their lives. My instinct is to limit the focus to our professional lives, but my experience is different. Talking with my wife about my BrandBoard was a most illuminating conversation about how she sees me; and uncovered things she didn’t know about me, given the work-home divide that occurs when you have two kids demanding your attention at the end of the day. The BrandBoard … Continue reading How BrandBoards Help You Say: “This Is How I Make The Difference.”

Personal Branding1 Comment

Personal Branding: Are You A Head, Heart, Or Hand Brand?

ThisMuchWeKnow

When you think about branding, synthesis is critical. You cannot be all things to all (wo)men. You have to choose where your brand stands in the marketplace: niche, low-brow, action, sophisticated, smart, edgy? It cannot be them all. Moreover, there is no wrong place to stand in the marketplace. Just stand somewhere, and sell your wares. [In MarComms, many of us suffer from the curse of the Generalist – where it is impossible to articulate one’s brand in any way other than “I do a bit of everything.”] This plays out when we delve into personal branding. Most people orient … Continue reading Personal Branding: Are You A Head, Heart, Or Hand Brand?

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When People Tell You Who YOU Are, Don’t Believe Them

ThisMuchWeKnow

Who are you? How do you show up at your best? How do you make the big difference? These big questions are important ones, increasingly so in light of the changes that will be wrought on all us knowledge workers in the mid-term. At TMWK, we turn these questions into a quest to uncover and polish your personal brand. Being able to articulate your value will make a difference in how people see you; who wants to work with you; what great projects you will be a part of. How do we do it? By having you distill your crazy-ass … Continue reading When People Tell You Who YOU Are, Don’t Believe Them

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My Personal Brand: Revisited. Being The Best In The World At *THIS*

ThisMuchWeKnow

It is time to revisit my personal brand.  We have been developing the personal branding system to fully synthesize the input elements and to get to the brand essence. The BrandBoards have been redesigned to better illustrate this. What is that essence? A bit of Head – Heart – Hand. Usually, people have a brand essence clearly in one of the HHH camps. This is good news. Here is where you make the biggest difference; how you show up BIG. Mine, very clearly, is a HEAD brand. I do my best work by thinking; intellectualizing. It does mean I cannot … Continue reading My Personal Brand: Revisited. Being The Best In The World At *THIS*