Sprinkling personality in
“Along the way, sprinkle in personality so people see the person behind the personal brand.” Doesn’t this feel like there are 2 different things here? You And your “personal brand”. Which will mean that your personal brand is something artificial. That’s why it needs a “sprinkle in personality”. If you need to sprinkle personality to it, it is something flat, shallow, interchangeable. Unnoticeable. Ignorable. And shallow can’t be authentic. Which means you cannot be a brand. Because you’re…
Leveraging effort
“People buy/do things because they aspire to become something else.” Most marketing (and advertising) bros Well, that’s not necessarily true. A (desire to) change is a representation of who you are. Inspired by something: low effort, high impact. Aspiring to something: high effort, unclear impact. Which one would you take?
“You need a personal brand”
You’re a brand, you’re the product. Get all the bells and whistles of a brand (visuals, narratives, stories, etc.). Be “consistent” on your projected image. Put yourself out there. Make noise (so people will hear you). Always be pitching. Always be selling. The end goal? To get your clients to trust you. The approach? Showing your “personal brand” “This is me. These are my values. This is my personality” → Me, Me, Me. Here’s the thing Your clients don’t care. They care about themselves and…
A thing
As humans, we want things to look human to us, so that they become familiar. Hence, the use of language, mascots, adding personality traits to businesses/brands, cartoons, etc. It makes them non-threatening. However, it doesn’t go the other way around: making people things. Well, unless you’re a psycho or run an exploitative way of “biz”. That’s why also, the whole HR thinking and leadership has been shifting from Resources and Capital into Talent and Development. Because a thing, becomes a…
Personal rebranding
A personal brand means you are a brand. If you’re a brand, then you can rebrand. You can change your visuals. Your stories. Your narratives. Your beliefs. Your values. To fit into whatever you think the market will agree. And if you fit in, how can you stand out?
Personal branding 101
There’s no such thing as personal brand. Brands are artificial. Artificial can’t be authentic. The choice is yours.
How many people…
If you’re running a customer satisfaction or customer service-driven business, how many people with a background in hospitality have you had involved in it? Or how many of your people (or yourself if you run a solo biz) have been involved with hospitality? Here’s the thing. Seeing things through a hospitality lens shifts the way you think and act towards your customers. It goes Beyond customers, guests. What’s the minimum, going the extra mile. Thinking ahead of them, not to what they need,…
Vortex
Broad in interests and inputs, specific and specialized in the application. To stand out in a world of sameness, you need to feed yourself of a broad range of what’s going on around you and beyond. Creativity is the ability to see (opportunity). Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi And originality is a reflection of it (you can see more of this on The Originality Arc here, here and here). The more information and knowledge you have access to, the more chances to imagine and see different realities. Once…
How to see different
Ads are pretty much the same —most of the times, at most of the places. Be it Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, US, Germany, Netherlands, India or Sri Lanka. Different brands, different markets and ads look the same. They share the same perspective, the same sales pitch, quite similar concepts, same stories… heck, even same colors. How can they stand out if it all looks and feels the same? How can YOU stand out in a world of sameness? Being a vortex.
Prepared-unpreparedness
When going into running a workshop, having a sales call or getting to know a new prospect’s situation, I’ve come to get prepared-unprepared. WTH you mean, Rod? That you come with a rough idea of the context, so you can better grasp the nuances of the situation. However, going in at the same time with the unpreparedness to approach things with curiosity and in spirits of having a conversation. In a convo, you get to listen to understand, to make deeper questions, to challenge what you and your…
