Definition

Portable Personal Brand: It is the ability to take your online personal brand assets with you when you move from company-to-company, change careers, change positions, or transition to being an entrepreneur.  Essentially the digital characteristics and assets of your personal brand move wherever you go.

Why is this important?  The number of times a person changes careers is about 5-7 from the research that I have done.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn’t provide data on career changes but on the number of jobs a person holds in his/her lifetime (which is 10.8 jobs from ages 18 to 42.) So it is not a matter of if but when you are going to change careers and/or change companies. It is critical that you keep your personal brand portable.

Tips for Portability of your Personal Brand

• Personal Branded Social URLs: Always maintain separate personal branded accounts.  Your personal social network account URLs should not be tied to the company accounts as the only accounts you have or manage.  When you leave a company your accounts should come with you no questions asked, but this can only happen if you own the accounts.  In an ideal world you want to bring your pre-existing accounts with you to your place of employment if they are relevant.

• Own Your Network: If the contacts in your network are housed only in the social network there is an inherent risk if your account gets comprised or the terms of service changes.  Your network will become more of an asset in the workplace, not necessarily because of numbers but become of influence.  Create your own personal database from your social network contacts, you need to own your contact list.  Download and import your contacts into a personal list that you own and manage (Note:  If you are tweeting from company accounts legally you don’t own the contact list. Everyone knows there is a difference between contact names and relationships.)

• Set-up Linkedin Profiles Properly: Set up your Linkedin accounts with your own personal email address (i.e. Gmail account).  There have been situations where people have been locked out of their accounts because the account was set-up with a corporate email address.

• Own Your Hub (Don’t just rent): Every professional should own the online hub of their personal brand (the online destination/dotcom.)  Make sure your dot com isn’t linked to your current job (i.e. www.HajjFlemingsNike.com.)

Case Study:  Frank Eliason v. Comcast Cares

The new poster child of portable personal branding is Frank Elisaon who most of us have known online as @Comcastcares.  Frank recently changed companies and is no longer the Comcast Cares guy, like LeBron he has decided to take his talents elsewhere (Note:  There was no TV special and Frank left on good terms with Comcast from what I can tell).

Franks former Twitter handle @ComcastCares is obviously not portable and will be maintained by Comcast. Let’s be clear both Comcast and Frank have mutually benefited from the work that was done.  Has Frank lost the total value of his personal brand or the work he has done?  Absolutely not!  There are something’s he will have to start from scratch on and build awareness of his new portable personal brand. If you look at the web location on his Twitter account it is linked to: www.frankeliason.com. Also you can follow Frank on Twitter at @FrankEliason to date he has about 1,700 followers.

@ComcastCares

@FrankEliason

Benefits

One of the major benefits of having a portable personal brand that it can create a unique opportunity for a portable career.  What do I mean by a portable career?  Portable careers are job situations that don’t depend on location with flexible work environments that allow you to do your job remotely for the most part.  With the development of technology:  Skype, WI-FI, and other technologies that allow you to work remotely these types of opportunities are starting to increase.  Portable careers will grow in popularity in the future as work changes.  The forerunner to this is alternative work arrangements which companies have become more comfortable with as a way to provide a benefit to the company and cut cost when they can’t pay an employee more money.

When is this critical?  Portability of your personal brand will come into play the most when you are executing a career change or moving to a new employer.

How Portable is your Personal Brand?

Builders (Intrapreneurs) – A builder is a worker that is wired to work in an existing corporate or company structure. Organized working structures typically have regular pay periods, access to company resources, and systems/processes in place that allows people to work in a structured environment. This type of individual enjoys working for someone else and building someone else’s dreams while developing themselves and their personal brand. Most universities and colleges teach students to auto-follow this mentality regardless of how a person is wired because it has been the safe option historically. The biggest benefits of this category are the halo effect and company resources.

Benefits of Builders

• Halo Effect – Working for a large corporation can position you for great opportunities that are a direct result of your association with the company you work for.

• Company Resources – The resources that are available at a large corporation can be very beneficial to your career: experience using enterprise software, databases, cool projects and access to priority data.

• Expanded Network – Great network building opportunities: attending conferences, company networking events, and the visibility to higher-level executives.

Examples: Jeremiah Owyang

Grustlers (Hybrids) – GRUSTLE is the combination of a daily Grind (job) and a Hustle (your passion). In my book ‘The Brand YU Life’ the first degree (or principle) is ‘Identify Your Passion’ which is the cornerstone of Grustlin’.

Definitions

Grind: A grind is a job; employment; typically your primary source of income.

Hustle: A hustle is your passion, what you would love to do full-time and what gives you the most satisfaction. It is what you typically do after you work your daily grind.

Your career/job is the primary source of income that you use to seed your passion. This is a minimal risk option that allows you to develop and grow your ideas without the pressure or financial weight of doing it full-time. This personal brand type tends to operate as more of a transitional phase for people shifting from being a builder to a leaper. There are various forms of Grustle: (1) Being a college student and establishing a blog or having a 9-to-5 job and starting a business on the side are two examples.

Benefits of Grustlers

• Future Job Security – Operating in a grustle is a new form of job security. Depending upon a single employer or a single career to be your financial source for your entire career is more risky than ever before.

• Additional Financial Stream – Grustling allows you to add an additional financial revenue stream in your area of passion.

• Career Transition – It is a career strategy to enable you to transition into a new career that doesn’t mesh with your past work history or educational background.

• Practice over Theory – It allows you to demonstrate your capabilities in the real world versus claiming expertise in theory. It goes beyond what you learned in the classroom.

Examples: Gary Vaynerchuk

Leapers (Entrepreneurs) – Pure entrepreneurship doesn’t appear typically to be innate because it is talked out of us as a child by parents and teachers. In college we are brainwashed to think of ourselves as builders only. It is only after years of making someone else rich, being downsized, outsourced, or fired that we are forced to follow our passion. Some do arrive here after working for someone else and having a great work experience.

Benefits of Leapers

• You own the results – The risk and reward is greater but you own the results the fruits of your labor.

• Lifestyle Management – Leapers have the most impact on their work environment whether it is a home office, co-working, coffee shops, or cubicles.

• Leaders of Innovation – Small enterprises with less bureaucracy are typically the innovative companies which are lead by visionary leapers.

Examples: Kevin Carroll, Mark Zuckerberg

Note: It is possible to be a hybrid of each type as you transition from one phase to another.

People will tell you that you need to work on your own. That is not necessarily true. You have to identify how you are wired. The pressure of being financially responsible for a company is a hugh undertaking your timing and developing must be right. Being true to where you are is the key. There are great success stories in each category.

How you manage your online personal brand should be dictated by the type of personal brand that you are and the stage of your career that you are in.

Demographics

• Baby boomers (1946-1964) – This group was born during the automotive manufacturing age in the United States and they worked for someone else. If they went to college they were taught to be loyal to their employer. Category: Builders
  

• Gen Y (1965-1976) – This group started our careers in the end of the automotive manufacturing boom but were still taught to go to school and work and be loyal to your employer. Category: Builders
  

• Millennials (1977-1994) – Economy tanks. They are born grustlers. This hyperconnected group is blogging, multi-tasking and developing online businesses. Category: Grustlers
  

Identify your personal branding type: Builder, Grustler, or Leaper. The Leaper lifestyle is glorified because it can be a great rag to riches story, or one that changes the world like Microsoft (Bill Gates) or Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg). It can be a recipe of disaster if you are not wired for it.

LeBron has been a prodigy before he stepped on the world stage as a sophomore at St.Vincent – St. Mary’s High School in Arkon, Ohio.  As fans we could not get enough of ‘King James’ we purchased his jerseys, watched his games, wore his shoes and drank his water (Vitamin Water.)  We watched in amazement as he has grown from an 18-year old young man into a businessman with aspirations of being the first billion-dollar athlete.

Sports is a Business, Period.

Sports is a business, period.  It is a dog eat dog world.  I don’t see any NBA owners running to the aid of Antoine Walker who is in debt after earning over $110M and supporting 75-people.  Why because it is business?

Was LeBron wrong for ‘The Decision’?  The decision to leave, no he was a free agent.  The decision to blast his hometown on global TV, yes.  There was nothing good that could possibly come out of the event even if he raised $2.5M for charity.  Brand building is a very violate undertaking.  Every decision, every relationship, every move, every word can grow, jeopardize, and/or destroy everything you have ever worked your entire personal and professional life.

Historic Basketball Note: Michael Jordan was essentially forced out of Chicago after being loyal to the Bulls and delivering 6-NBA championships.  Michael Jordan was given the door by the Wizards once he stopped playing basketball.  How loyal should an athlete or an employee be to an employer?

Financial Impact of LeBron

For anyone who thinks the decision was not about finance is living under a rock. For LeBron it wasn’t about maximizing his earning potential with his NBA contract but let’s take a look at the numbers.

• The City of Cleveland generated $3.7M per Cleveland Cavalier home game .
• Cavaliers were 2^nd in home attendance with near 100% capacity (2010-11).
• Cavaliers team valuation in Forbes dropped from $476M to $390M.
• Heat road attendance was 93% it will exceed 100% in 2010-11
• He will save an estimated $25M in state taxes signing with Miami.
• LeBron leaves $15M on the table (Sign & Trade)
• Stock prices of the publicly traded Madison Square Garden dropped.
• Each playoff game in NYC or New Jersey would deliver a $3.6M financial impact to the region.
• ‘The Decision’ raises $2.5M for the Boys & Girls Club.
• ‘The Decision’ was the third-most-watched program on cable television 2010 (9.95M watched).
• Rating as a viable endorser only fell from 69.9% to 67.6% (This may change)
• Jersey sells for LeBron is #2 behind Kobe.

LeBron’s Personal Brand – A Typical Millennial

LeBron is a typical Millennial and his behavior aligns with the characteristics of that demographic.

Characteristics of a Millennial (A few of the traits LeBron exhibited)

• They are becoming empowered personal brands in the workplace and are impacting their employers and the way they communicate.
• Blended work life that allows them to work when, how and where they want to.
• They want to work with their friends.
• They share their lives online (in this case TV)

What drove his decision?

What decision would have been best for LeBron depends on what was most important to him?

• Basketball Legacy: The best move for basketball legacy would have been:  Cleveland or Chicago
• Financial: New York.  Hugh media market and increased endorsement opportunities.
• Championships: Miami or Chicago.  Miami provides that option while playing with his friends.
• Personal Brand: Cleveland.  Great story hometown hero impacts the local economy economically.  If he would have won a championship his legacy would have locked.
• Personal Satisfaction: Miami.  I believe he wanted to be happy and felt that playing in Miami with D.Wade was going to provide that.

What is the true impact?  It depends on the metrics you are measuring. Legacy, financial, strength of personal brand, value to marketers, and/or online sentiment. Financially I believe there will be little impact.  Unless there is a major character issue or another PR stunts like ‘The Decision’.  His contract with the Heat is guaranteed.  His major sponsors like Nike aren’t going anywhere.  (He probably won’t sell too many shoes in Cleveland.)

My Personal Opinion:  The strategy LeBron and his team used to communicate ‘The Decision’ was ill conceived and  over the top knowing he was leaving Cleveland. You don’t diss your hometown on TV.  LRMR and LeBron have a PR, social media and trust nightmare on their hands and whatever other word you want to use.  I also believed he should have personally called Dan Gilbert prior to the special.  Since LeBron didn’t return a call or text to Dan Gilbert since the season ended there is probably more to this story beneath the surface that we may never know.  At the end of the day it is business.

However, I commend LeBron for making a business decision not driven by emotions.  As a personal brand you need to do what is going to help you live the most fulfilled life, also understanding that you have to be able to live with the results of your decision.  At the end of the day the final chapter of his personal brand is not written I believe it is going to boil down to what he does on the court.  As we all know winning has a way of changing things.

Let me know your thoughts.

What inspires you in life? This Pantene commercial is about a deaf and mute girl that learns to play the violin against all odds. What challenges do you face in life that you complain about? If she can overcome the odds in her life what is stopping you?

Choose to be different and live your dreams. Don’t live your life to just be like others.

Jason Falls is a thought leader in the new media space and I had an opportunity to talk with him recently about social media strategy.

Social Media Explorer is the online home and blog of Social Media Explorer LLC, which is my consulting company. I’ve been called all sorts of things by folks around the social media, public relations, marketing and communications industries. I shy away from self-aggrandizement.

I see myself as a social media educator, a social media strategist and a public relations professional. I help companies understand the social web and show them how engaging consumers online can help their business. I’m also a writer, both of blogs and other materials, and try to spend much of my spare time doing that.

If I have a unique perspective it would be the result of having lead a national advertising agency’s Interactive and social media efforts, working with Fortune 100 brands as a social media strategist and serving as an independent consultant in the social media industry. I have advised major, regional and niche brands including Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek bourbons, NASCAR driver Robby Gordon, Humana, Gary C. Johnson Law Offices, Purely Products, SHPS, Sun Tan City, Mighty Dog, Louisville Slugger, Bionic Gloves, The National Center for Family Literacy and WeSeed.com.

SocialMediaExplorer.com, the blog, gets a fair amount of recognition, of which I’m very grateful. The most notable of which is probably listing in the top 20 or so (it changes daily sometimes) of the Advertising Age Power 150 Blogs. For a few weeks in 2009, I was actually ranked No. 1. (Not sure why.)

Nuggets from our Interview

• Social Media strategy:  Start with the end in mind.
• Social Media strategy is about setting measurable goals.
• Make your social media goals singular.
• After the goals are established then you can focus on tactics of how to get their.

How to Follow Jason

Twitter:  @JasonFalls

Blog:  www.SocialMediaExplorer.com

This post focuses on numerical or data consistency.  Consistency of voice, tone, personality, behavior, culture, image and message are the constants that have to be established and delivered on for all successful brands.  The sample group I have selected has been basis to consist of people delivering quality content in a targeted area.

Personal Brands with Numerical Consistency

My sample group consist of Brian Solis, Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk, PR Sarah Evans, MC Hammer and Kobe Bryant. I took a swag at some very high level data: quantity of tweets and number of blog posts. Let me lay down the ground rules I am not stating by any means because someone tweets a lot they will have a loyal committed following that is organically grown. I am also not saying that because you post regularly that you will become a rock star.

I am focusing on the behavior and patterns of people who are successful in the new media space and adding in the best active basketball player (Kobe Bryant) in the known world based upon results (winning and championships.) There is something that happens when a person goes to work every single day and produces quality stuff. Your reputation begins to spread, your colleagues begin to take notice, promotions begin to surface, and new career opportunities begin to open up. Your network begins to expand because there is something that is inspiring about being around people that produce, being around change agents, and people who are not only passionate but committed to execute on their ideas.

Kobe Bryant is the gold standard for active NBA players by which everyone is being judged against.

(Note:  The average number of tweets per day is an average over the life of active Twitter account and is not weighted for current activity.)

Result of Consist Behavior

According to John Jantusch Author of The Referral Engine and Duct Tape Marketing blog he states that it 17 brand impressions of a company before a typical buyer will consider doing businesses.  There is a threshold for personal brands as well before customers, career opportunities, and business opportunities will be generated.

What is the result of consistent output of relevant content to a target audience?  Consistency creates loyalty, impacts behavior, and connects people emotionally.  The business opportunities that can come from consistency are: endorsements, additional financial streams, expanded network, book deals, speaking gigs, and delivering championships to name a few.

The Michigan Technological University’s School of Business and Economics – Tech MBA Online has developed a Career Re-Tool Workshop to help you Re-Tool, Re-Wire and Re-Think your career and future.

This FREE event is designed to enable you to evaluate your career planning strategy and position you to grow personally and professionally.  This is a must attend event for job seekers, those in career transitions and people who want to re-tool themselves for promotion in a challenging job market.

Register Today!!!!  Seats are limited!!!!

Register at:  http://bit.ly/2010retool

Speakers

Hajj E. Flemings – Personal Brand Strategist/Founder of Brand Camp University

Brenda Rudiger – Director of Alumni Relations at Michigan Technological University

Paul J. Hindelang – President at Results Systems Corporation

Agenda

Networking

Re-Tooling yourself with Education

We will explore the value of education as a career strategy to help you stay globally competitive in a challenging job market. This session will focus on the benefits of an MBA and higher education to empower you to reinvent and re-think your future.

Re-Wiring your Career with Social Networks and Online Tools

Come and learn how to rewire yourself through social networks and online channels to connect with companies and identify new career opportunities.  Become a person that understands how to translate their network into value.

Re-Thinking your Financial Strategy

Has your 401K got you down?  It is time to re-think your financial strategy and prepare financially for your career transition?  Come and get fresh new ideas for investing, financial planning, insurance and social security.

Topic: The Art of a Start-Up
Recently there was an article posted on Michigan Tech MBA Online blog about ‘Thinking Like a Startup‘ that promoted the discussion for this MBA Chat. What drives the thinking of Seth Godin, Jason Fried, Guy Kawasaki, Evan Williams, Paul Graham and others in the Startup world?

Bio

Vincent Hunt is the creator of Beyond Pretty Things; a blog about design, innovation and rocket ships and the founder of the Vincent Hunt Company, a Design Thinking Company, tactical in conceptualizing and developing breakthrough ideas for new products, services and brands. An intuitive design thinker, Vincent is sought after for his keen ability to generate disruptive ideas and insight on emerging creative economy trends.

How to Follow and Participate
To participate you can use http://search.twitter.com or http://tweetgrid.com/. Watch for tweets with the hashtag #mbachat and follow the conversation on the @TechMBAOnline Twitter account.

This chat is sponsored by Michigan Tech MBA Online program: www.mbaonline.mtu.edu.

Brian Solis is one of my virtual mentors.  I follow his work online in the new web and I think he is one of the smartest in the space.  I had the pleasure of interviewing him and to talk briefly about his latest book, “Engage”

Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media marketing and branding agency in Silicon Valley. Solis is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media. Considered one of the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media and PR 2.0, Solis is co-founder of the Social Media Club and is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup.

Nuggets from our Interview

• Engage was written to help companies build, cultivate, and measure success in the new web.
• Engage is a book designed to scale with you as you grow whether you are a small business, non-profit or being a part of an enterprise organization.”
• Champions effect change.
• Being an expert doesn’t engender change being a champion does

Quote

“Who I am today and who I want to be tomorrow are separated by the things I do today.” – Brian Solis

How to Follow Brian

Twitter:  @BrianSolis

Blog:  www.BrianSolis.com

It has been over 20-years since Marvin Gaye’s sang the national anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star game in Los Angles, and it is chronicled as one of the greatest renditions ever. What lessons can be learned from watching the national anthem?

The 5-Personal Branding lessons

• Integrate your Personal DNA – Personal Branding is about exposing people to what makes you special. Your image, your style, and your presence are centric to what draws your fans, your community, or your tribe to you as Seth Godin would say.  Be who you are!  You can set-up Fan pages, tweet all day, and have a million dollar website but if you don’t bring your personal DNA to the table you are wasting time and money.
• Take Everything to the Next Level: No matter what it is that you do it can always be taken to the next level even it if is the national anthem which is a poem originally written by a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key in 1814.
• Mastery – Success is about mastery.  Malcolm Gladwell calls it ‘10,000 hours’ and Jim Collins says, ‘Good is the Enemy of Great’ but personal branding is about consist delivery of excellence in a focused area.
• Social Media isn’t about technology –  Social Media as we call it today is not about the technology.  The technology will change as it has from radio, to TV, to the Internet. Social media is another medium to communicate your compelling story.
• Be Original – If you compare the greatest national anthems of all-time each artist brought something unique and original to the table.  Be original and always bring your worldview to your art.

As a personal brand what impact will you make?  Will people continue to talk about the legacy, the impact, and the mark you made 20-years after you are gone?

I was inspired to write this after reading a Facebook post from Marjora Carter.

Thanks Majora!!!

From ‘The Brand Man’

Leave your Mark!!!!