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Wendy Marx

January 31, 2008

Dell Hell Revisited and Personal Branding

Remember “Dell Hell.” That’s when Dell learned – or should have learned – the power of consumer anger. Blogger Jeff Jarvis reamed Dell for its shabby customer service and the story was amplified into a “blame Dell” crusade across the ‘Net.

Well, now it is a few years later and you would have thought the computer behemoth would have learned about the power of word of mouth and personal branding. I’m here to report that Dell has moved up one notch, but only a notch, and now qualifies for purgatory.

I recently had a significant problem with my Dell desktop (still under warranty) and warily called Dell customer service. After spending about 15 minutes between being on hold and providing information to a rep, I was told that Dell’s system was down. No one could help me until the system was back up and I should call back later. I have no clue why I wasn’t immediately told that the system was down.

Believing that system down or not, I was still entitled to help, I decided to exercise Consumer Rights Principle Number One: Seek out a higher authority -- and asked for a supervisor. The supervisor explained that Dell was actually being helpful by not helping me because the system’s being down meant that the company couldn’t confirm my identify. When I reminded him about Dell’s inglorious past and mentioned that I planned to blog about the company, he offered to have someone call me back as soon as the system was back up.

A rep in fact called me back within a half hour and proceeded to spend an hour on the phone with me without fixing my system. I don’t blame the rep but the fact that computer diagnostics by phone is sort of like witch doctoring. The rep usually doesn’t have a clue what the cause of the problem is and goes through the usually incantations. What I was left with was a choice between two evils: replace the hard drive or the operating system though for all I know neither is the problem. Any computer experts out there want to make a house call?

Meanwhile, all of this reinforces the need to realize that every customer’s opinion counts in building both a consumer and a personal brand.

Love to hear your thoughts and experiences?

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:36 AM | Add Comment

January 24, 2008

Personal Branding and the Candidates

As a self-professed political junkie, this campaign season has been a bountiful cornucopia of riches not to mention a national stage for personal branding. Spending gobs of money on advertising and image building, the presidential candidates can tell us a lot about what to do --- and not do about branding ourselves. There’s a fascinating article in this week’s New Yorker by George Packer about the different visions for the country of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama: Clinton as executive, Obama as visionary. Ultimately, it’s a choice of leadership styles: hands-on vs. inspirational. Or in the candidates’ lingo, “experience” vs. “change.”

Like a tagline in a branding campaign, these descriptions of the candidates resonate deeply and become symbols of their personalities. Fairly or not, one official quoted in the article says about each,

“When I’m with her, I feel she wants to impress me. When I’m with him, I feel he wants to know what I have to offer him.”

Like it or not, perception and image are reality in a political campaign – and for that matter in our professional lives. In private life, Clinton’s personality is said to be very different from her “all business” public persona. Tellingly, a Simon & Shuster editor says about Clinton, :Clinton’s personality is refreshingly sharp and clear – but she can’t show it.”

Clinton despite all her years in public service is still something of an enigma. “In her personal life, she’s always seemed like she had something to hide,” the article quotes Dee Dee Myers, a former White House press secretary under Bill Clinton, saying of Hillary Clinton. On the other hand, Packer presents Obama as more comfortable with himself and consequently more open. He suggests that Hillary hasn’t quite connected her heart with her head in her public pronouncements.

As we work to brand ourselves, there’s an important lesson here in the importance of integrating our personal brands with our sense of self so we come across as authentic. Otherwise, there’s a disconnect in our presentation and our words remain cold facts that could be uttered by anyone.

How do we connect our passions with our beliefs and knowledge? I’d love to hear from you.

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:44 AM | 1 Comment

January 17, 2008

Careers: Hillary Clinton and Personal Branding

It’s easy to be cynical about Hillary Clinton’s statement about finding her voice in the snowy streets of New Hampshire. For heaven’s sake, here’s a 60-year-old woman who has been in public life most of her life just discovering who she is – Geeze.

"Over the last week, I listened to you, and, in the process, I found my voice,” she said in her New Hampshire victory speech.

Yet, I think Hillary was reacting to the over-scripted reality of political life. She was saying that she finally could let a little of her personality show beneath her tightly-controlled public image. The public “ice lady” had melted a little. And, boy, it felt good.

Politicians normally are masters of personal branding. Their campaigns are slogan-ridden (tag lines in branding terms), and personality- and message-driven. Hillary’s problem has been that her softer side often got lost in her endless thrust to stay on message. It’s an important lesson for personal branding. No matter how professional we are and what we do, part of how people evaluate us is based on our personality. It’s often said that people hire people that they like – that their gut says will work out.

Regardless of how wise that is, the fact is that people make decisions, conscious or not, based on how they relate to us. It’s a simple fact of human nature. The important point is not to contort your personality into something you’re not. And you always want to maintain a professional image. But at the same time don’t be afraid to let people see some of your personality. It’s what makes you human and what got you where you are today. What do you think?

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:56 AM | 7 Comments

January 10, 2008

Careers: The Marketer's Personal Brander

It’s a funny thing about marketers. In my experience, many are savvy, hard-hitters when it comes to marketing everyone but themselves. In a sort of a replay of the shoemaker’s children story, these idea-a-second folks shoot blanks when it comes to their own marketing.

Then there’s Tom Anderson, CEO of Anderson Analytics, a two-year-old Stamford, CT-based market research company that does all sorts of heavy lifting, including data mining and text analytics, to help companies make sense of huge chunks of data. Tom, besides being a top flight market researcher, is one of the best marketers of his own business that I know. In just two years he has built his company from the ground up to where he and his four employees service 18 clients, including big name firms like Unilever, Starwood and Yahoo.

He’s built his business without a drop of advertising but a lot of smarts and personal branding. This includes networking the heck on social networking sites like Linkedin. Where many of us – and I count myself among the number – dawdle on the site – Tom has 1600 linkedin contacts – even with being discrete about whom he agrees to join his network. Beyond that, he sends out newsletters he writes and designs about twice a year. Not content to just send Christmas cards, every two months or so he emails custom-designed cards for Thanksgiving, Columbus Day and other holidays. The cards, while often humorous, reinforce his brand and remind the recipient of what he’s about and why anyone should care.

A few times a month, he issues press releases on research he’s done touting the results. Google the name Anderson Analytics and you’ll see the company is all over the Net. Having a common name like Tom Anderson can be a bit problematic. Tom gets around that since his given name is Tom H.C. Anderson though some references to him use the vanilla Tom Anderson. It’s not always easy but those of us with more common names should try in this search engine-driven world to encourage people writing about us to use our middle names or initials as well. Otherwise, we risk being lost in the search engine sea.

Tom furthers his personal brand by speaking at five to six conferences throughout the US and Europe in his quest to build a global network. Even though he works a zillion hours a week, he still has time to volunteer with organizations like MENG and the Stamford Historical Society, where he serves on the board of directors as membership and marketing chairman.

He is also smart about partnership relationships and partners with folks like SPSS, a statistical company and speaks at several of their conferences.

Here are some ideas from Tom on building a personal brand:

• Think differently. Study what your competitors do but see how you can then go one better.
• Work with smart people. Hiring low-rent people costs you in the end. Far better to pay a little more upfront and get trustworthy, top flight workers.
• Give back. Volunteer and you’ll find you get back more than you give.

Posted by Wendy Marx at 8:57 AM | Add Comment

January 3, 2008

Careers: Personal Branding Excuses

I got hit by the old “blame it on the state” routine this holiday weekend. We were skiing at Whiteface Mountain, near Lake Placid over New Year’s, and unfortunately, my husband hurt himself the first day out, fortunately, not seriously. I didn’t want to ski after he got hurt (I had only done two short warm up runs), and quit for the day. When I asked “guest services” about getting a refund for the day, I was told I could fill out a form and it would take a good three weeks for my request to be “adjudicated.” And, the guest services representative added, “It’s the state of New York so I’m sorry but I wouldn’t count on anything. It’s not the same as a privately-run mountain.”

OK. We all know government is a bureaucratic rat’s nest. But come on. Adjudicate a simple refund request? The mountain can immediately tell by scanning my ticket how many runs I had skied. They can also easily confirm my husband’s injury in one quick check. What a ridiculous waste of time not to mention lousy customer service.

I can never understand why government can’t adopt some of the marketing and accountability of the private sector. Are citizens lower level folks than stock or equity holders? It also makes you wonder at the morale of government employees if they are shackled by the great manacle of the state anytime they try to help someone.

Of course it’s easy to point the finger at someone and find fault. The fact is that we all are guilty to some extent of handcuffing ourselves and not taking that extra step. It’s very easy to blame our not doing so on a million and one things: “The information wasn’t available.” “We couldn’t reach the person and gave up.” “We were told ‘no.’ ” “I’m tired.” I’m a firm believer that there is often another way around the bend and it’s up to us to steer the vessel of our lives so we get where we want to be. We will never succeed in branding ourselves if we take the easy way out.

Wishing you a wonderful New Year with much success branding yourself along with determination, pluck and a little luck tucked along for good measure!

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Corporate Public Relations, Marx Communications

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:33 AM | 2 Comments

December 27, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding Wishes

Wishing you and your family a joyous, healthy and prosperous New Year! May you find imaginative and successful ways to differentiate yourself. May you dream big, may your personal brand soar and may your business and career resound with the sounds of success!

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:19 AM | Add Comment

December 20, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding No Nos

I got stood up this week. My new hire, Chris, left me a voicemail one hour before he was to begin his first day on the job to tell me he wasn’t coming. He had accepted another job for more money and benefits.

It’s not a new story. I’m sure most people in a hiring capacity have similar tales of woe to report. But it’s a good lesson in personal branding. Chris certainly burned his bridges with me besides failing Ethics 101. While it’s certainly important to further your career, there’s no advantage doing it at someone else’s expense. Chris surely didn’t get his offer one hour before he called to kiss me off. No reason he couldn’t have called me the week before. Not that the outcome would have been different in my case; but it would have made a world of difference in my opinion of him.

Rule Number Two in personal branding and career management is not to burn bridges. The person you write off today could be in a position to further your career tomorrow. Rule Number One is to behave ethically. Sure, you can get ahead by stomping on others – and history of course is filled with villians who have profited off of other’s misery. But, in the end, beside behaving like a heel and hurting others, you’ve stained your own good name.

In the spirit of the holidays, let’s remember that in business as in life, giving is what makes us human and enobles our souls.

A warm and wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with promising new opportunities and the continual joy of self-discovery and helping others.

And much personal branding success!

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Public Relations, Marx Communications

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:36 AM | 11 Comments

December 13, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding and Values

I just read an excellent interview with Bill George in Strategy & Business, whose ideas of leadership I blogged about last week and continue to be struck by his emphasis on a "personal compass." By this he means a set of values that helps you stay on course -- and help steer you back if you veer off.

As we go about creating our personal brands, our businesses and what we do almost by definition will evolve. However, at our core, we all need a set of values that are part of our personal brand. This can be anything from providing the best customer service possible to knowing when not to cross the line. During this holiday season when it's so easy to get caught up in the commercialization of the gift giving, I recommend giving a gift to ourselves of self-reflection. To take a little time to be sure our values are aligned with our work and that we're headed in the right direction. I know I'm going to take a dose of my own medicine and do a little soul-searching. In my own case, I've been working too many hours and believe I can work smarter and more productively.

How are you defining your values? What are you doing to stay true to them? I'd love to hear from you.

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Public Relations, Marx Communications

Posted by Wendy Marx at 8:40 AM | 1 Comment

December 6, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding Leadership

I read a wonderful profile of William Styron by his daughter, Alexandra Syron in The New Yorker. Styron was not an easy man to have for a father, given his extreme moodiness and withdrawal, but the author nevertheless loved her father. What makes the article so poignant is that the daughter ultimately finds her father in the pages of his novel, "Sophie's Choice," which she first reads late in life. However, she is never able to share what she has learned with her father.

By now you're probably wondering what all this has to do with personal branding. Bear with me for a minute. I've also been thinking a lot about leadership and how that relates to personal branding. The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article about a new book, "True North," by Bill George that analyzes what defines a leader.

In an interview with the Journal, George says,

"What we learned was that leadership is not about traits and characteristics. What really stood out was (the leaders') life stories. That's where they found their passion to lead -- their experiences. That's what gave them the authenticy of leadership. A lof of the inauthentic leaders got pulled off by trying to be something different than they were."

Or as George quoting GE CEO Jeff Immelt, says, "Leadership is a long journey into your own soul."

The same qualities apply to personal branding. The best personal branders become leaders in their field. While we don't need to write our memoirs, we all on some level need to undergo the personal excavation Alexandra Styron did. Only by data mining our lives will we have the "right stuff" to be personal branding exemplars.

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Public Relations, Marx Communications

Posted by Wendy Marx at 8:29 AM | Add Comment

November 29, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding and Work-Life Balance Part 2

I appreciate all the great responses to my post a few weeks ago on work-life balance. Here is the link to the Terrie Williams article I wrote about.

Since a lot of us struggle with work-life balance, living the antithesis of the "four hour work week," I thought it would be great if we collectively create a list of our ways of copying. Thanks toCarlos Hernandez, of The Fearless Entrepreneur, for sharing his, which I'm reposting right below:

Two of my favorites...going to a San Francisco Giants baseball game...getting up early for a morning walk, followed by respite at the local cafe to sip my morning coffee while reading the newspaper.

And here's one from Christopher Day, of Evergreen Advisers:

My strategy for making up lost life (doesn't always work): Visit "tourista-ville" Mystic, Connecticut, walk around, have a cocktail and then go to a casino. That 6 hours and then stay-over can work wonders.

My own is hitting balls on a tennis court or skiing hard down a mountain on a windless, crisp day where you're so into the moment the day-to-day worries suddenly aren't there.

I'd love to hear your strategies for coping in our 24/7 culture.

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Public Relations, Marx Communications

Posted by Wendy Marx at 8:35 AM | 3 Comments

November 23, 2007

Careers: Thank You, Readers

I've been busy celebrating Thanksgiving with my family but wanted to say "thanks" to everyone for reading my blog. I've met some terrific people through this blog and appreciate everyone who has commented and reached out to me.

My fellow FC blogger and leadership expert, Ruth Sherman, has a terrific post on the value of hand-written thank you notes that I urge you to check out. Because of some bug in the FC site, I couldn't link directly to her post today but if you scroll down you'll see it under "Leadership: Getting Noticed by Giving Thanks."

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Public Relations, Marx Communications

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:01 AM | Add Comment

November 15, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding and Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance. It’s one of those throwaway phrases that everyone salutes but a lot of us, including myself, often forget to practice. I just read a moving article written by PR superstar, Terrie M. Williams, who for years suffered from depression and eventually had a major breakdown. Recovered now and an evangelist for work-life balance and mental health, she attributes a lot of her problems to a life gone out of whack. As she writes,

"I’ve habitually spent my days immersed in projects, pouring over details and running from one engagement to another without a break – and it’s suffocating. I’ve even gone so far as to hold my urge to use the bathroom all day so I could make one more phone call, one more meeting, or one more something."

While Williams was an extreme case of work overload, many of us in this crazy 24/7 work culture know what she means. While it’s important to work hard, all work and no play is a recipe for diminishing returns not to mention dysfunction. Our personal brands and our sense of self need nurturing. Williams has a seven point strategy for balancing work and life that’s worth repeating:

1. Connect with a higher power for spiritual strength and give thanks for your blessings
through prayer and meditation.
2. Take the focus off you by volunteering to help others in need.
3. Indulge in “me time” through joyful activities.
4. Work your stress out through exercise or a favorite pastime.
5. Reach out to an understanding loved one for support.
6. Take a few deep breaths to relax.
7. Consider talk therapy (should your life be so out of balance).

Are you keeping your life in balance? I'd love to hear from you.

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:08 AM | 16 Comments

November 8, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding Apology and Change

First off an apology to readers/posters:

A number of people were kind enough to post their elevator pitches last week. Unfortunately, some bug in Fast Company’s software inadvertently removed them from the post. Fortunately, I had copies of the comments and have asked Fast Company to repost them. That has not yet been done and I have requested a second time. I’m sure they will eventually be reposted.

Second a quick reminder:

Today in honor of the 10th year of Personal branding, (a tribute to the Fast Company article by Tom Peters that launched personal branding), is a personal branding summit with 24 free teleseminars on the topic and a terrific line up of speakers, including William Arruda, Kirsten Dixon and Jason Alba.

Meanwhile, talk of anniversaries got me thinking about the importance of change and personal branding. As a serial career changer myself, I’ve had to reestablish my own brand multiple times. In the rabble-rousing ‘70s, I was a professional “do gooder,” also known as social worker. In the Watergate-inflamed ‘80s, I was a journalist. And in the business-oriented late 80s and 90s, I was a marketing executive. And today, I’m a personal branding and public relations expert. Whew! I get dizzy writing this. And in sequentially listing my life this way, it makes me come across as a drifter and zig zagger without focus.

The fact is that our brands are far more than “what” we’ve done and in crafting a personal brand we need to tightly weave “what" we’ve done with “who” we are to create a consistent image. And sometimes that means throwing out some of the “what.” For example, my social work experience is normally not relevant to what I do so it’s not part of my personal brand.

The point is that our personal brands are evolving and we need to be open to opportunities to change the “what” while remaining true to “who we are.

Blogger Jane Genova writes movingly about how she transformed herself from a speech writer to blogger and social media expert when her off-web business dried up.

Or to take a company example, consider how McDonald’s is gradually trying to transform its brand from a symbol of unadulterated fast-food gluttony to a place to also get salads and other more healthy fare.

What are you doing to update your brand? I’d love to hear about your transformational stories.

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Public Relations, Marx Communications

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:09 AM | 2 Comments

November 1, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding Bores

Why is the typically elevator pitch as boring and meaningless as sliced bread?

You know what I’m talking about. How many meetings have you attended when the chair person asks everyone in the room to deliver his/her elevator pitch? A one or two sentence description of your business that can be delivered in the span of an elevator ride. And then it happens. There’s a drone of similarity, a monotony of ordinariness that makes each pitch indistinguishable from the next.

I’m of course as guilty as the next person. My pitch too could use a once-over.

William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson, in their book Career Distinction, have a useful exercise to help you craft an elevator speech. They suggest that you make a list of what makes you the same from your competitors and what makes you different. It’s the difference piece that you want to get across in your elevator speech since that’s what will make you stand out.

I like to think as the elevator speech as containing three parts. In addition to what makes you different – be it your style, your experience, your passion or any other quality – it needs to also include a “what”

It’s the “what” that often trips someone up. Instead of explaining the results that are delivered, a lot of people will simply say that they work for X company in sales or run a Y-type business. Frankly, who cares? The “what” needs to include some measure of excitement and value. Here are two example of a “what” courtesy of Arruda and Dixson:

“To help high achievers take control of their own career success”

“To deliver the powerful, breakthrough advertising campaigns that yield revenue and brand value for consumer products companies.”

Let’s see if we can compile our own list of best and worst elevator speeches. Let’s have some fun with this. I’d love to hear from you.

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Public Relations, Marx Communications, Inc.

Continue reading "Careers: Personal Branding Bores"

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:02 AM | 4 Comments

October 25, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding Times Two

How do you instantly double the power of personal branding?

This isn’t a trick question, just a way to try to start thinking unconventionally. All of which got me reflecting on marriage -- not the romantic concept but a synergy of two souls that packs twice the wallop. Applied to personal branding, it means strategic alliances, partnerships and associations.

At the most basic level, it comes down to the company you keep. Think about it for a second. Your personal brand can move up a notch in respect, stature and credibility if you ally yourself with the right people. It’s, if you pardon the expression, sort of the idea of marrying up -- akin to nobodies marrying somebodies and becoming better known in the process. Even if you don’t marry up to continue the analogy, you can combine forces with someone of equal stature, if you’re running a business, and suddenly you have twice the firing power. If you’re working for a company, not to worry; you can chose your mentors and associates wisely so that you are viewed as part of the “A” team, not the Schlump team. If you own your own business, you also might think about formalizing relationships. That means developing strategic alliances and partnerships with other companies that will enhance your brand, along with helping you grow your business.

The best way to determine whom to ally with is to start with a self-and goals-assessment. Here’s a brief framework to get you started:

• One: What are you doing well? What are you known for? And on the other side of the ledger, what are you lacking? What’s holding you back?
• Two: Where do you want to go? What are your objectives?
• Three: What do you need to do to reach your goals and objectives?
• Four: Who can help you reach your desired end point faster? Which of these people/companies can be the most helpful?

Once you’ve done that, you’re headed in the right direction and the rest is tactical – figuring out how to connect with the people or companies you’ve identified.

How are you doubling the power of your personal brand? What connections are you forging? I’d love to hear your story.

Wendy Marx, Personal and Corporate Public Relations, Marx Communications

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:14 AM | 1 Comment

October 18, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding and Energy

In today’s 24-7 culture, most of us are rushing around so furiously we don’t take the time to take stock of ourselves.

There is a terrific article in the October 2007 Harvard Business Review by Tony Schwarz called “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time.” If you haven’t seen it, grab it now. It could change your life. And I don’t say that lightly.

The article makes the point that “most people are living at such a furious pace that they rarely stop to ask themselves what they stand for and who they want to be. As a consequence they let external demands dictate their actions.”

Sure, we may have a perfect elevator pitch and are making great strides at work, but ultimately true personal success comes from deep within. The idea is to create more meaning and focus in our lives and align what we’re doing with whom we want to be. Putting it like that may sound a bit new agey but the author makes it all very real. Here are some questions he suggests you ask yourself:

Are you not spending enough time at work doing what you do best and enjoy the most?

Are there significant gaps between what you say is most important to you in your life and how you actually allocate your time and energy?

Are your decisions at work more influenced by external demands than by a strong, clear sense of your own purpose?

Are you not investing enough time and energy in making a positive difference to others in the world?

Do you spend much of your day reacting to immediate crises and demands rather than focusing on activities with longer-term value and high leverage?

If you answered “yes” to those questions, you may be headed for what Schwartz terms an “energy crisis,” where you’re not managing your energy effectively.

What does all this have to do with personal branding?

Your personal brand is ultimately a reflection of your character. If your life is out of synch, you’re working too many hours to be healthy and not taking time to recharge yourself, your personal brand will suffer – not to mention your life. Schwartz’s studies have shown that "personal renewal leads to more sustainable performance.” Simple things like taking time to eat better, exercise, reframing negative emotions and developing healthy rituals to replace negative ones can result in more energy and productivity. Feeling renewed can’t help but recharge how you articulate and translate your personal brand into action.

What are you doing to boost your energy and productivity and put your life in balance? How has that helped you improve your personal brand? I’d love to hear from you.

Wendy Marx • Public Relations and Personal Branding • President, Marx Communications, Inc.

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:08 AM | 4 Comments

October 11, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding Steps

How do you create a brand for yourself and your business online if you’re in a non-techy field like real estate?

Just ask Richard Nacht, CEO of Blogging Systems Group who in a matter of months after founding his company in 2005, got it cited in a major real estate report as a Top 10 Trendsetter alongside Google and other household names. Nacht’s company initially provided blog technology to real estate firms but has since evolved to service other industries as well, including automotive and financial services, and is currently successfully providing social networking platforms to Fortune 500 companies like Wachovia and Toyota, which sponsor social networking career sites for prospective employees.. Since starting his company, Nacht, an Inc. 500 honoree, co-wrote a book on blogging for realtors titled Realty Blogging founded Nacht Social Media Consulting, became a Senior Fellow and Chairman of the Education Committee for the Society for New Communications Research…and on and on. Not bad for an over-achiever who has law and business degrees and is currently studying for his doctorate.

A maestro at using Web 2.0 tools, he has successfully used email blasts, online video and blogging tools, podcasts, webinars, IM and social networking to talk about his work or discuss an industry topic.. He has also shrewdly partnered with JWT, TMP, Luxury Portfolio and others to sell his products to their clients and members. And he has employed LinkedIn, Facebook and XING for networking with peers, prospects and clients.

Behind Nacht’s success is a key realization shared by other successful personal branders: Building his own brand goes hand and hand with building his company’s brand.

“Understanding the need to be recognized as an industry expert, I went to great lengths early on to build a knowledge base that would establish myself as the foremost thought leader in the industry on effective blog marketing,” says Nacht. Recognizing that you don’t get very far simply by tooting your own horn, Nacht says, “I understood that if you are perceived as someone willing to openly share information and enjoy educating your market you gain credibility and trust. The result: When someone needs your skill set, people will come back to you to buy products and services.”

Here is some advice from Nacht on creating your personal brand:

Don’t brag. Don’t just promote yourself but develop credibility and showcase your knowledge as an industry expert. The key is to develop social capital that will have extraordinary value in the long run.

Be passionate about your topic.

Know what you don’t know and educate yourself in those areas so you don’t become a dinosaur.

Keep learning. Nacht hasn’t stopped since getting his law degree and MBA. Currently studying in the doctoral program at the International School of Management in Paris, he’s writing his dissertation on the topic of online social media and networking. “I’m not looking to change careers but rather how to improve and expand on what I’m doing now.” Nacht says he “learns by participating and challenging himself.” By taking a Chair position or becoming a contributor to a publication like Personal Branding Magazine, he puts himself in a position where he is required to stay on top of emerging trends.

Don’t be over-protective of your own business knowledge. You don’t have to worry about a scarcity of opportunity. There is so much business available in the online space that no one can service the entire market. Be a willing participant in the business community.

Be prepared for resistance. You may be so far ahead of the curve that people don’t quite get what you’re saying. Continue to communicate, educate and share and, provided your services are useful, over time valid concepts will resonate with those who have been paying attention. And, if someone doesn’t “get it,” just move on.

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Public Relations, Marx Communications, Inc.

Posted by Wendy Marx at 2:29 PM | 3 Comments

October 3, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding and The New Rules

Can a book change your life?

Just ask David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasts, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Your Buyers Directly, which is now in its fourth printing after being out just four months. Google his name and you’ll get more than 100,000 hits.

Previously, one of many online marketing consultants, Scott is now a certified mega star earning $10,000 plus expenses for a keynote and running full day seminars at a higher price than the keynotes. Better yet, he now has “the freedom to make my own lifestyle,” he says.

Calling himself a "poster child for personal branding,” Scott at age 46 has carved out a name for himself online that has now spread offline. You can read his blog here.

It all began around 2001 when he changed his name from David Scott to David Meerman Scott. Meerman is his middle name. Prescient about recognizing the power of search engines, he realized that as David Scott he wasn’t unique online. There are other David Scotts but just one David Meerman Scott. Voila. With the addition of Meerman to his business name, he was reborn on the Internet as one of a kind. “Changing my name was the most important personal branding decision I made,” says Scott.

In early 2006, Scott self-published his New Rules book as a 22-page ebook focused exclusively on PR and called The New Rules of PR. Practicing what he preached, he defied the traditional PR rules of pushing releases to journalists. Instead he sent a release announcing his book over an online service and wrote a brief email note to about a dozen online folks he knew, including uber blogger, Seth Godin. Godin, among others, blogged about Scott’s ebook and within a few days, several thousand folks had downloaded it and in less than a year a quarter of a million had.

With all the online buzz, Scott was approached by publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. to expand his ebook into a hardcover book covering both PR and marketing.

Practicing what he preaches in his book, Scott sent out some 50 press releases before and shortly after the book’s publication in June. Unlike a traditional PR campaign announcing a book, Scott wrote news releases about different topics covered in his book along with releases about upcoming speaking gigs. The idea was to get his name and the book title all over the search engines. Type in the book title in Google and you’ll get over 50,000 hits. It also led to some 400 bloggers writing about him (make that 401 with this blog) and oodles of offline journalists publicizing him.

At the end of the day, of course, you can have the best marketing plan in the world and still fail if you don’t have content that resonates with an audience, Scott says. Not to mention, he says, “the right alignment of the sun, moon and stars.” Add to that the smarts and chutzpah to carry it off.

How are you using a book to build your personal brand?

Wendy Marx, Personal Branding and Visibility Campaigns, Marx Communications, Inc.,

Posted by Wendy Marx at 6:30 PM | 1 Comment

September 26, 2007

Careers: Personal Branding Stories

Tell me a story.

You may not think story telling and business have a lot in common until you talk to Joe Raasch.

This master story teller and senior organizational development consultant at Carlson, owner of Radisson Hotels & Resorts and T.G.I.Friday’s ® among numerous other hospitality brands, figured out that story telling is just the ticket business people need to stand out from the crowd.

By story telling I’m not talking about weaving fiction but succinctly presenting your information in the simple arc of a story with a beginning, middle and end. “The reason this works is that you’re turning a hodgepodge of data into information,” says Raasch.

Don’t worry that you need the writing talents of an Ernest Hemmingway to make this effective. You just need to put on your storyteller hat and pretend you’re talking to a friend.

It all started for Raasch when he realized that some of the managers at Carlson weren’t getting the information they needed. They were either inundated with too much data or not getting enough. To get their teams to appropriately manage up, Raasch got them thinking in terms of mission statements and stories. For example, Carlson’s computer service folks realized that their mission could be summarized in just one word, “up.” It then became easy for them to tell their story around the concept of “up.” That meant communicating things like “How many outages are there in the system?" "How long was it down?" "What are upcoming planned outages?" "How are those outages being communicated?" All centered around the idea of keeping the system…I bet you can complete the sentence…up.

All of which can be a great way of thinking about your personal brand. Another way to get your arms around this is to reframe it as a problem, solution and results. Here is a particular problem, this is what you did to solve it and as a result a company saved X amount of money or time or made X amount more money. You can fill in the blanks.

So stop thinking about how you did this job or that piece of work. Instead start presenting your accomplishments as a story and see how much more interest you generate. How do you present your personal brand in terms of a story? I’d love to hear from you.

Wendy Marx, PR and Marketing Communications, Marx Communications, Inc.

Posted by Wendy Marx at 8:38 AM | 2 Comments

September 19, 2007

Careers: Taking Personal Branding to the Road

Someone was complaining to me the other day about his boss, a high level apparel executive, who never takes time to visit a customer. The boss' world has become his desk and computer.

Which made me think that while everyone talks today about how the Internet has expanded our world, in some ways ironically it has made it smaller.

Given the ease of emailing, text messaging, webinaring, teleseminaring and ecommercing, we’re taking less and less time to hit the road and viscerally connect with customers and prospects.

If you’re like me you believe in the dictum of “listening to the customer.” But are we truly listening from the confines of our offices? There’s an excellent article with the wonderful title, “See for Yourself,” in the fall issue of Strategy and Business, that makes the point for firsthand observation with this pithy quote:

“What exercise is to weight loss, firsthand observation is to corporate success.”

The article argues that executives and companies that have a culture of face-to-face interactions have a superior mindset. The authors Tim Laseter and Larry Laseter write:

“Embracing firsthand observation as an integral part of your personal management style and embedding it in a company’s culture can break the fad cycle…and produce enduring results rather than just temporary improvement.”

You need to continually refreshen your personal brand by staying on the frontlines of your customers and prospects. Otherwise your brand will develop a musty, academic smell that has as much value as yesterday’s leftovers.

What are doing to keep your brand fresh?

Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com

Posted by Wendy Marx at 9:27 AM | 3 Comments

September 12, 2007

Careers: Emulating the Best for Your Personal Brand

My dad would always tell me what Abe Lincoln or some other sage would have said or done in a situation and I would laugh it off. I’m sure your folks had their own favorite paragons of behavior.

I was thinking of this recently when I came across an article in Fast Company by David Teten and Scott Allen on making yourself into an expert. Their advice is so blindingly simple it is brilliant:

“If you want to be perceived as an expert, act like a true expert."

The authors raise the question: “Are [experts] necessarily the most knowledgeable on the topic? No. But they have the best reputations and are generally far more financially successful than the wanna-bes.”

I’ve written before about the Young Turks of the Internet blazing a path where older folks have held back. And it struck me that a lot of what they do is assume the mantle of expert without having spent years in the trenches trying to prove themselves.

Part of acting like an expert is creating an allure about what you do. It’s no good being an expert if only your mother appreciates – or knows – what you do. Sort of like the cachet of donning expensive duds, expert behavior signals that you have the smarts and goods to carry off a task nobly.

While the Fast Company article pertains to establishing your reputation online, it’s more than relevant to the offline world as well. So how do experts act? Here are a few thoughts courtesy of Teten and Allen:

• They’re extremely careful about what they say: They know that people are paying attention to them, and that has two consequences. First of all, they know that their reputation is on the line every time they open their mouth -- that everything they say will be subject to scrutiny. Secondly, they also know that people will put a lot of weight into what they say and probably act upon it, so they feel a strong sense of responsibility to provide good information.
• Experts substantiate what they say: Experts are researchers. Sure, they have opinions, but most of them didn’t earn their reputations based purely on their opinions. So when they make statements in these groups, they often back these up by citing sources, whether it’s something they’ve written themselves or that someone else wrote. It’s especially helpful if you link to the sources you’re citing. And if it’s yourself, that’s a great promotional tool at the same time.
• Experts don't "act" smart -- they are smart: True experts don't talk down to people, but they also don't use jargon or complex language in order to sound impressive. In fact, they are generally more able than most to put the concepts into plain, simple language that everyone can understand, and are patient and willing to do so.

The authors’ closing thought might be something you want to burn into your memory:

"Act like a real expert, not a wanna-be, and you will attract more business."

How do you act like an expert? And how has it made a difference in your business?

Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com