Home » Blog » Monthly Archives: July 2009

Great Minds Don’t Think Alike

Great Minds, originally uploaded by bobsd46.

Influencers, thought leaders, and creatives see the world 180 degrees from everyone else.  There is an old clique that states ‘Great Minds think a like’ which I happen to disagree with. Great minds despise good and become great.  Great minds not only don’t think alike they are not equal they challenge lesser minds, status quo, the fear of failure, and mediocrity. It is the great minds give us creative and innovate products that we didn’t realize we wanted until we saw them.

Revolutionary Ideas from Great Minds
o    Netbooks – They made laptops lighter, smaller and more cost effiencient.  (Netbooks will account 20% of laptops globally sales in 2009)
o    Twitter – Builds brands in 140 characters or less. (Twitter has gone mainstream and has a growth rate of 1,382%)
o    ESPN – 24-hour sports station started by Bill Rasmussen in 1979 with $9,000. (This was before CNN and MTV)

What if Apple focused on owning the MP3 market?

This blog post was birth from my recent purchase of the iPhone.  I begin to think about Apple and how they owned 75% of the mp3 market.  Why didn’t Apple focus their energy on continuing its dominance of the mp3 market?  Apple realized there was a greater opportunity with mobile devices and were not afraid to shift.

“Great minds don’t worry about owning markets
they focus on owning ideas.” -  Hajj E. Flemings

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What is your Personal Branding OS (Operating System)?

Macintosh System 7.5.5, originally uploaded by mczolton.

What is your Personal Branding OS (Operating System)?

Every person has an operating system (OS) and is wired and socialized into the person they are today.  Success in life and work is based upon your level of understanding of how you are wired.

What is an operating system?

Definition of Personal Brand Operating System (OS): An operating system (OS) is an interface between your personal brand and you; an OS is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of resources of your personal brand.  This relieves application like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin from the responsibility of managing the details of your life which they were never intended to do.  These applications are merely tools that help you communicate, package, and connect your personal brand to opportunities.

The Three Personal Branding OS:

o    Builder – A person who works for someone other than themselves and builds their personal resume while they build someone else’s dreams.
o    Grustler – A person who work a daily grind and a side hustle at the same time.  (This is traditionally a transition state.)
o    Leaper – Is a pure entrepreneur, someone who works for themselves.

Our educational system teaches us all to be builders.  What if I am wired to be a leaper?  How do I learn to leap?  Can entrepreneurship be taught?  Do I grustle?  Or do I continue to build someone else’s dream.  Each personal brand OS can lead to success economically but total profitability and fulfillment requires ID’ing your OS.

What are the benefits of upgrading your OS
o    Operating in your Genius
o    Develop your business model
o    Develop a unique user experience
o    Configuring your life for complete profitability (economically, spiritually, psychologically, mentally, and physically)
o    Utilize the social web that maximizes your OS

The personal branding industry is creating a uniformed army shortly we will all look the same, we will have a blog, Facebook page, and we will all tweet.  It is time for you to create a unique user experience that separates you from your competition.  Break the mold, do something unique.

Remember “Great minds don’t think alike, they think differently.”

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Introducing The Fresh Peel Marketing – Chris Wilson: Brand Camp U. Adjunct Lecturer

Chris Wilson_HeadshotBrand Camp University (BCU)  has actively recruited top-notch thinkers and practitioners to enrich its content on personal branding, social media, and life.  BCU is proud to add Chris Wilson as an adjunct Lecturer who is a fanatic of all things marketing and branding.

Chris is a Digital Brand Strategist at Hester Designs, where through creative problem solving, strategy and design, he develops brand strategies and then finds relevant ways to bring those strategies online. He makes sure that experiences online and offline are consistent with the brand.

He is also the Social Media Marketing Adviser to uVizz Media. An innovative thought leader in the industry, Chris is an active contributor in the social media space and shares his thoughts at his blog, The Marketing Fresh Peel.

Follow Chris Wilson on Twitter: @Freshpeel

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Keep Polishing Your Personal Brand

polish away, originally uploaded by Darwin Bell.

Personal branding has always been out there, but it has become a better defined and an increasingly popular concept over the past decade.

It is the essential first step in your career search process, helping you identify your own unique and differentiating value and communicate it memorably and consistently online and offline to employers and recruiters. Today’s economic recession and job market have opened many professionals’ eyes to the importance and effectiveness of personal branding throughout their whole career as an ongoing part of their continuous professional development.

Just like with interviews, when you’re seeking job opportunities, you begin to get increasingly better at presenting yourself and effectively answering questions posed to you by the interviewers; however, upon employment, your stop practicing and your interview skills become rusty.  This is why career experts suggest that you schedule periodic informational interviews with fellow professionals both within and outside of your organization as part of your career development in order to stay prepared for future interview opportunities should they arise. Maintaining and updating your personal brand online and offline are not only healthy and necessary for effective self-understanding and self-presentation, but also set you up well whether you are seeking employment or you are positioning yourself for promotions or other opportunities within your organization.

So how do you stay on top of your brand and keep it polished?

1.    Develop or redevelop your own one-or-two-word personal brand and supporting personal brand pitch and practice saying it as the answer to questions like “Why should we pick you?” so that it is flows naturally and confidently and effectively presents yourself.

2.    Update all of your online profiles/websites and career outputs, including your resume, cover letter, email signature etc. with recent professional experience, education and achievements and most importantly your personal brand.

3.    Make sure that your actions and achievements are consistent and support your personal brand claim both inside and outside of work.

4.    Seek formal and informal feedback from fellow co-workers, family members and friends on how you and your actions are being perceived by others.  Compare that to your own perception of your performance, as well as your personal branding goals and make adjustments or updates as necessary.

5.    Stay alert and aware of new technological changes with respect to how you present yourself, how you engage in networking and how you search for and pursue new career opportunities and set time aside to learn about and take advantage of new professional networks, platforms and tools.

By periodically polishing your personal brand, you will come across more confident, more professional and more memorable to those with whom you interact and work on a consistent basis.  More importantly, you and your personal brand will be ready to “shine” when the need or opportunity present itself to pursue another job or more responsibility.

Chris Perry (@CareerRocketeer) is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.

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Introducing CareerRocketeer – Chris Perry: Brand Camp U. Adjunct Lecturer

CAP

I am excited to introduce the newest voice to Brand Camp University, Chris Perry he will function as a contributing blogger/adjunct lecturer.

“Chris Perry is a recent MBA graduate from the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia with concentrations in marketing and entrepreneurship.  He is now an Assistant Brand Manager for Lysol at Reckitt Benckiser in Parsippany, New Jersey.

In addition to his full-time work, Chris is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.  He has launched this and a number of other career services and networks as an entrepreneurial effort to address and better serve the growing unmet needs of career seekers, both students and professionals, during these technologically dynamic and tough economic times. Chris also offers career search and personal branding workshops and presentations to audiences of students and professionals.

Chris is honored to contribute and share his advice and insight on personal branding and related topics to Brand Camp University and looks forward to serve you all in your career search and development.”

Chris Perry (@CareerRocketeer)

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