Brand Camp University | Personal Branding 2.0 - Hajj Flemings

I came across an old work ID that inspired this blog post. I looked at the picture and thought how much I had changed over the past 14-years since the picture was taken. I interned with New Balance Athletic Shoe in Lawrence, MA, which is just outside of Boston. I enjoyed my days at New Balance I was the first out of state intern they had in their intern program. I owe a lot to Edith Harmon-Wiess who was the person that took a chance on me. She still works at New Balance as the VP of Advanced Products. Enough reminiscing. It is time to learn something.

Re-Brand yourself. Every brand has a life cycle and goes through the following phases: development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Over time every brand hits a plateau where the brand matures and faces the reality of decline. This forces every brand to make some hard decisions to re-think strategies, channels of communication and their end game. If a corporate brands need to create a personality and take online human characteristics to be relevant to the connected customer, then how much more do we as human brands have to evolve? (For example: Corporate brands go through re-branding phases like Dunkin’ Donuts did in 2006.)

Have you Changed?

As a personal brand you continue to change: your worldview, the online channels you use to communicate, your career goals change, your work style (the way your dress) and the way you look. Anyone who is growing is changing. Over time we are developing, learning, and growing into the person we want to be and working in the career that we have a passion for.

• How do people experience you? Is it different today than it was 3-5 years ago? When I started online about 4-years ago I connected with people via MySpace. Over time that has evolved and people experience my brand through different channels.
• Online Presence – Your online content should be updated frequently. For example your Linkedin profile should evolve as your career goals, work experience, and the content you curate changes.
• WorkStyle – Does your dress style reflect your brand? I have moved from being a company man to an entrepreneur and my work style reflects that. As you evolve as a person your style should reflect the stage you are at in life.
• Visuals – Your profile Photos should be updated every 3+ years at the latest. Think about how much you have changed over the past 3-5 years.

If you are doing the same things you did five years ago you are probably not relevant. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Food for Thought: We are constantly in a re-tweaking phase.