Archive for July, 2009
What Goes Around Comes Around
Posted by admin in Personal Branding on July 30th, 2009
My parents taught me the maxim “If you can’t say something nice about someone don’t say anything.” It was a good rule but as I was growing up into the wise old owl I am now I didn’t always follow it and occasionally I’d make a slip.
That’s when another general truth my parents taught me kicked in “What goes round comes round.” That one took me awhile to understand but now I realise they were referring to karma or everything in life is cyclical and will eventually balance out.
Those maxims are even more relevant on the Internet as it quickly becomes a bigger part of our lives and introduces new ways for us to communicate and express our thoughts and opinions.
But one thing you may or may not be aware of is that once you express your thoughts or opinions on the Internet they will be archived forever, literally. This means that if you create a webpage, leave a comment on a blog, participate in a forum discussion, post to Facebook or Twitter, whatever you write leaves your control and enters into some server side database that you have no control over.
An example of a public archive is the Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine a project started in 1996 that now has over 150 Billion web pages archived and searchable. You can search the archive and view web pages published years back and may no longer be online, or that’s what the original publisher may think.
So in your quest to create your personal brand my parents maxims become even more important because what you publish will always be available to anyone who really wants to find it.
Remember your brand is what people do think about you and if you make a habit of expressing unsavoury opinions of people, karma will kick in and come back and bite you. And always be aware of the Way Back Machine and such like because they are probably allies of karma.
Scott Williams
Scott Williams is a vibrant business consultant, lifestyle coach and business branding expert who helps people and corporations prepare themselves for a healthier, fitter and more effective future.
He has spent the past 15 years perfecting the art of performance - first as an elite sportsperson and then transferring this knowledge and experience to forward thinking businesses, individuals, national athletes and sporting teams.
As the co founder of Australia’s current Fitness Business of the Year, The Telstra Australian Business of the Year Micro Cba and Canberra’s P.T Business of the Year the last two years running, Scott has first hand experience into the demands and pressures of growing a business and keeping key personnel on target and on track.
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Who knows what is in the future?
Posted by Janice in Personal Branding on July 21st, 2009
The question of your future is not always easy to answer. Life can be very tricky and you could end up doing something that you had never thought would be possible for you.
So I believe it is good practice to set yourself up for anything to happen in the future , all good of course.This is where personally branding yourself will assist you in attracting the right results and place you in a stong position for whatever comes your way..
I was speaking to a friend today and that is exactly what has happened to her. She was pretty well set up in her career and was working for a large International Company in sales. Over the years she has worked hard to build her skills and is now an excellent trainor and Team leader.
In the Company she was well respected and had a good reputation so she saw no reason to give any thought to her reputation outside of the compnay.
branding is a key to future success
Everything that she did was only reflected in the Company that she worked for and the one she assumed she would be with for a long time to come.
With the sudden change in the International economic climate this future plan dissolved very quickly leaving her with a clean slate to start all over again.
If she had been branding herself as a separate entity from the Company she worked in she would now have a great asset to assist her in moving to a new position or starting her own consulting company.
All the experience and training that she had acquired would have been reflected in her blogs etc and she would have built her own credentials .
Instead she walked out with a reference ,experience and needed to start applying for positons and preparing a cv.
T0 start a branding/blog website and begin to Brand herself at this time was too late for her current interviews or plans.
The important aspect of blogging and branding is that it needs to be accumulative over a period of time and there is no way of short cutting this.
So, to insure future results it makes sense to me that no matter where a person works they would be better to have a Branding tool that is totally separate from where they currently work or contract to.
John Bertrand The Brand
Posted by admin in Personal Branding, Uncategorized on July 21st, 2009
Anyone who was around ten years old or older in 1983 knows who John Bertrand is. Along with the crew of Australia II he stopped the nation whilst we watched or listened to his magnificent efforts in winning the Americas Cup. The first time the cup had been taken away from the Americans in over 100 years.
It was a mammoth effort, and ever since, the John Bertrand name (Personal Brand) has been associated with sailing. I’m sure over the years sponsors have paid John mega dollars for him to be associated with their products and brand.
But some smart fellow has the use of the John Bertrand brand for a few dollars each year, not the thousands of dollars conventional sponsors would pay.
He did this by registering the domain name JohnBertrand.com and put up a website at www.johnbertrand.com but the clever part is the website sells sailing equipment.
I’m obviously assuming that the person who owns the domain is not the famous John Bertrand, I have no way of knowing, but the website doesn’t look classy enough to be owned by the John Bertrand, also a whois domain search shows it’s registered to someone in the U.S.
I also assume the owner of the website is making money from the John Bertrand brand because it’s been online several years.
Be aware, the owner of the domain may also be called John Bertram and just got lucky, there’s no law that I am aware of stops this kind of marketing, it’s a case of first come first served with domain registration.
So the moral of this story is to register your domain name if it’s still available because it would be a crying shame to win an Americas Cup and have someone else profit from your great deeds.
Hitting the Right Note With Personal Branding
Posted by John in Entertainers, Personal Brands on July 21st, 2009
Shelley Harland is a singer who travels the world promoting her music and providing entertainment to thousands.
Her personal brand website is shelleyharland.com and the first thing that happens when you visit her site is that you hear tracks from her most recent album Wonder.
This makes very good sense as singing is what she does for a living. She has a mailing list that people can join and a link to iTunes which is also very appropriate for a singer.
Irrespective of where she goes with her music she will always be known as Shelley Harland and therefore her personal brand will develop with her fame.
One of the distinct advantages of personal branding is that your name is a constant. People who meet you can easily find you online by typing your name into Google.
Do this at Google for Shelley Harland and you’ll find that her personal branding website is number one.
If you have not registered your name as a domain you can do so very easily by clicking here.
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