Personal Branding Weekly – Ownership is the Key

This applies to your personal brand.  Take ownership of it, manage it, nurture it, focus it and defend it.  Your personal brand sets the cadence of your first impression and even now first impressions (even online) are lasting.

Budding entrepreneurs, it’s easy to overlook this. When you’ve waited and planned to finally start your own business it’s easy to want to leave in a passionate fury – don’t. Remember, that retaining the relationships you’ve developed as an employee will be key and important for you to keep as you start your new business. Even if they’re not someone you would consider a prospect, it’s important to leave on a positive note since you never know who someone will become or who they influence.

Start early and even as an employee take ownership of your personal brand.

1. Develop your list of contacts and make sure you have everything from email addresses, phone numbers, contact information, social sites they have and their personal information that will help build rapport and help you remember who they are.)
2. Manage your online profiles using BrandYourself.com. Be sure that on your profile you share your “entrepreneurial nature” in your description. This will help frame who you are to your connections when you strike out on your own.
3. Keep things separate. Use your personal email and resources for your venture. Do not use your company email, phones or any of the company resources for your upcoming business opportunity. Once you’re branded as a “borrower” (or a stealer) that’s a tough brand to reverse.

Here’s what we covered this week to help you with this:

• Passed Over for the Top Job by Kevin Monahan
• Humility: The Personality Trait That Creates Champions by Skip Weisman
• Angry? Frustrated? Recruiters Want to Know! by Nance Rosen
• 5 Branding Mistakes You Didn’t Know Were Making by Heather Huhman
• No MBA? No Problem by Alex Freund
• Establish the Sale and Create a Returning Clientele by Elinor Stutz
• 6 Steps to Find Happiness in Your Career by Ceren Cubukcu
• A Tale of Two Job Markets by Richard Kirby
• Job Seekers – Be Found and Promote Your Personal Brand by Robin Ogden
• Personal Brands Create Value by Maria Elena Duron
• Build Your Brand with the Power of Consistency by Susan Gilbert
• Dealing with the Unexpected by Jeff Shuey
• When Should Personal and Corporate Social Media Accounts Collide by The Young Entrepreneur Council
• Flexibility in Your Career Plan Can Lead to Success! by Beth Kuhel
• Tips to Generating Repeat and Referral Business by Leslie Truex
• Why Personal Connections Matter & Can Get You Hired by Glassdoor.com
• Five Phone Calls You Need to Make This Week by Erik Deckers
• Time for a Reset? by Kevin Monahan

Seven takeaways from this week:

1. Do we take enough time to evaluate the changes affecting the brand? (Author, Kevin Monahan)
2. But the phone is still the best, most effective, most efficient means of communication I’ll ever hold in my hand. (Author, Erik Deckers)
3. Keep in mind that getting a job and getting a great job are different things.(Author, Barbara Kiviat)
4. A systematized follow-up plan keeps your business in their minds and builds good will that leads to repeat and referral business. (Author, Leslie Truex)
5. Stay open to new opportunities; It can lead to your success and happiness. (Author, Beth Kuhel)
6. Don’t share it if you couldn’t say it in a meeting. (Author, Trevor Sumner)
7. Find work that doesn’t feel like work (Barry Nalebuf)

No one owned it more than the men and women who lay their lives down and sacrifice them at the altar of freedom each and every day. Today, we remember and we celebrate the tremendous sacrifices they have made.  Honor our Veterans today. They took ownership of making sure that we all could enjoy our freedoms.

To help you make better connections, here are some tweets you can share:

You don’t have to spend hours each day, but the phone is still the most effective and efficient means of communication. http://ow.ly/qE3Gq [tweet this]

Focus on the belief that there are no difficult people and that everyone is communicating with the same purpose in mind.http://ow.ly/qE40m [tweet this]

Recent changes? It may be time to adjust your personal brand to reflect the new paradigms in your life. http://ow.ly/qE49R [tweet this]

Repeat and referral customers require less work to convert to a sale because they’re already conditioned to like you. http://ow.ly/qE4hm [tweet this]

These days customer experience goes a long way in determining how a company is perceived. http://ow.ly/qE4St [tweet this]

What do benefits have to do with your brand? The answer is that it’s all about protecting your potential. http://ow.ly/qE55d [tweet this]

Get in touch with the excitement to inspire others with your work, and it will start to steer you out of that blocking fear. http://ow.ly/qE5Mk [tweet this]

This next week we’ll share insights and case studies on:

• Why you were fired.
• Tools versus skills.
• Networking tips that we can only learn from the Godfather.
• People skills to instill trust

Now, tell me below – what are you doing to “own it” this week?

Are you busy? Here’s some quick and easy tips on Social Marketing for busy people.