I feel that personal branding should be the heartbeat of higher education. The logic here is that the sooner you discover your personal brand, the more risks you can take, as well as the easier it is to carve our your career path. 
Today I spoke at Boston College to some freshman and seniors who are trying to understand what it takes to start a business, as well as incorporate personal branding in their lives. The presentation was almost an hour in length and I went over various topics, such as the current dilemma (economic recession), a brief history of personal branding and how self-impression needs to equal perception.
As an exercise, two students volunteered to write down three attributes about themselves and about each other, with the sole object of matching perception with self-impression. That is how you know if you are branding yourself correctly.
Next, I went through my personal branding story and provided insights and learnings at each step. Also, I touched on Google searchability, the definition and elements of personal branding, the Octopus Model of Relevancy, key terms, the 4-step process, tangible and intangible aspects, and benefits. The main idea was that personal branding is the small piece of an iceberg that people notice, and that networking is the large piece that few people recognize because it’s below the ocean. By developing an eBrand, you are in fact drawing people to your brand, in what I call a “pull strategy.”
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Here is 10 minutes of my presentation:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkBU1EgRugQ]
These are the slides I used:
[slideshare id=274756&doc=f-1203565996913989-3&w=425]
Special thanks to my fellow Personal Branding Magazine staff member, Scott Bradley, for organizing this event.
