“Shift: How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career, and Your Personal Brand” by Peter Arnell, Broadway Books, $23.
Arnell, who helped reshape the images and messages of name brands including Banana Republic, Reebok, Samsung, GNC and Pepsi, delves into the realm of personal branding. In the marketing world, people associate with brands because of image and value perception. It works the same way on a personal level. Would you rather associate with go-to people or empty suits?
When it comes to shaping your personal brand, think of yourself as a product. You need to combine design, marketing, experience and communication into a professional image. Don’t think that expensive clothes and a new haircut will create that image. What will? Think about what you want to communicate to others. What’s your personal message? Your actions must back it up. How does your message connect with others? After all, your brand is in the eye of the beholder — you are who they think you are. They may not see what you see.
Change starts when you take a good look in the mirror and see what they see. To do that you have to conduct a reality check — encourage people to tell you the truth. Give people permission to tell you what they really think. That honesty may hurt your feelings, but it should be an awakening hurt. Change becomes truth when people notice it — and tell you about it.
Experience counts, too. “Don’t think the past is over.” It keeps moments alive and evokes triggers from the past that allow you to move forward. Arnell’s take on memories: “They stay with me; I rethink them over and over, teasing out the meaning, drawing out the lessons. Sometimes these wrinkles in time push me to something new…”
One of his defining life lessons came from his grandfather who told him to “fish where the fish are.” Be alert to changing situations; to build your brand, you have to be where the action is. And don’t be a minnow.
Arnell weaves personal and corporate branding stories into a “Yes I can” lesson in change.
“Well Connected: An Unconventional Approach to Building Genuine, Effective Business Relationships” by Gordon Curtis with Greg Lewis, Jossey-Bass, $26.95.
Terry, my friend who believes on the cutting edge social networking, always brags about his 12,000+ LinkedIn connections. He’s constantly tweeting, too. While he’s connected, he’s not well connected — all those connections and tweets haven’t helped build his corporate training business.
When it comes to networking, the authors believe that quality trumps quantity. Time spent building connections and sending one-to-many messages comes at the expense of building the deeper, really-personal, time-intensive relationships “that lead to real connection and exchange of measurable value”.
Social networking emphasizes “social” contacts; real networking is done with handshakes and phone calls. An analogy: Joe the job hunter posts his résumé on all the major online job boards and waits for an employer to find him. He responds to ads, too, and waits for his phone to ring.
Jane the job hunter focuses on hiring managers. She meets them at events of professional associations, committee work at large charities and personal recommendations. She comes prepared to discuss their business so she comes across as a peer, not a job hunter. She follows up with the contacts she’s made by staying on their radar by sending them targeted information. Jane will find opportunity first.
You build relationships by meeting knowledgeable, like-minded people who understand that investing their time helping others pay dividends. You share information with your eye on what you can do to establish credibility. Initially, you give more than get. Curtis calls this “progressive reciprocity”.
Does “meet and maintain contact” take time? Yes. Is it time well spent? Definitely.
Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.
