The Brand Called You (Fast Company)

Question 1

Why is having a brand important, in the new world of work?

Answer 1

It helps you stand out and prosper.

Question 2

To be in business today, what is our most important job?

Answer 2

To be head marketer for the brand called You.

Question 3

Who has a chance to stand out?

Answer 3

Everyone! Every individual has a chance to learn, improve, and build up their skills.

Question 4

What is the brand a promise of?

Answer 4

The VALUE you will receive.

Question 5

What does it take to create a distinctive role for yourself?

Answer 5

Create a message and a strategy to promote the brand called You.

Question 6

What is the first step to becoming your own brand?

Answer 6

Identify the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors - or your colleagues.

Question 7

What is the approach (standard model) that the corporate biggies use when creating a brand?

Answer 7

The Feature-Benefit model, in which every feature they offer in their product or service yields an identifiable, distinguishable benefit for their customer or client.

Question 8

When developing your personal brand, what questions should you ask yourself?

Answer 8

• What do I do that adds remarkable, measurable, distinguished, distinctive value?
• What do I do that I am most proud of?
• What have I accomplished that I can unabashedly brag about?
• What do I want to be famous for?

Question 9

What is the first step to a branding campaign?

Answer 9

Visibility! How you market your brand.

Question 10

What is the hardest part about visibility?

Answer 10

Getting started. From there, visibility multiplies.

Question 11

What is important to remember about your personal visibility campaign?

Answer 11

It all matters! Everything you choose to do, and not to do, communicates the value and character of the brand.

Question 12

What is the key to any personal branding campaign?

Answer 12

Word-of-mouth marketing.

The big trick to building your brand is finding ways to nurture your network of colleagues.

Question 13

When establishing your personal brand, what types of power is important?

Answer 13

INFLUENCE & REPUTATIONAL POWER: Being known for making a significant contribution in your particular area.

Question 14

What is the linkage between power and growing your brand?

Answer 14

Getting and using power intelligently, responsibly, and powerfully, are essential skills for growing your brand.

Question 15

Power is largely a matter of _____.

Answer 15

Perception!

If you want people to see you as a powerful brand, act like a credible leader.

Question 16

What is the key to growing your power?

Answer 16

Recognize that we live in a project-based world!

As such, you should be thinking, breathing, acting, and working in projects.

Question 17

What is the importance of loyalty in personal branding?

Answer 17

Loyalty is the only thing that matters. This is loyalty to colleagues, teams, projects, customers, and yourself.

Question 18

Why is growing Me. Inc. a “gravy’ for the company you work for?

Answer 18

The projects you lead, the networks you develop, the customers you delight, the braggables you create, generate credit for the firm.

As long as you learn, grow, build relationships, and deliver great results, it is good for you… and great for the company!

This is a Win-Win logic!

Question 19

What are the two lessons in this age of free agency?

Answer 19

1. Treat your resume as a marketing brochure
2. Check with the market on a regular basis, to have a reliable read on your brand’s value. Put together your own “user’s group” for honest, helpful feedback on your performance, growth, value.

Question 20

How has the concept of a “career” changed?

Answer 20

A career is now a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly re-invent you as a brand.

There is no longer the concept of a career ladder.

Question 21

What are the four things you have to measure yourself against?

Answer 21

• Being a great teammate and a supportive colleague
• Being an exceptional expert at something that has real value
• Being a broad-gauged visionary (leader, teacher, farsighted “imagineer”)
• Being a businessperson, obsessed with pragmatic outcomes

Question 22

“There is no single path to success. And there is no one right way to create the brand called You. Except this: __________. ________”

Answer 22

Start today. Or else.