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Operating in your Genius: The Method of Identifying your Passion

GENIUS (SIMON), 1980, originally uploaded by galessa’s plastics.

There is a genius inside of everyone. Operating in your genius has nothing to do with scoring 140 on your IQ test. It is tapping into your God given talents and abilities and developing them to their fullest.

Data shows us that we only use about 10% of our brain capacity and I am a strong believer that this is due largely because we have no interest in the work that we do. So why on earth would you ever challenge yourself to tap into your hidden potential and unlock your inner genius? The golden handcuffs of the American dream have handicapped most people’s thinking and locked them into a passionless existence.

When you love what you do you think creativity to solve problems. The premise of personal branding is: Unlocking your inner genius and connecting it to your passion and addressing a specific problem that can lead to profitability - emotionally, mentally, psychological, spiritually, and economically.

Geniuses

Personal Brands Inner Genius Accomplishments
Michael Jackson Musician King of Pop
Tiger Woods Golfer Defines Golf
Seth Godin Marketer Marketing Guru
J.K.Rowing Author First Billionaire Author

Are these individuals smarter than you or me? What if Michael never became a musician? What if Thriller was never made? What if Tiger never played Golf? What if Seth never wrote his best selling books? What if J.K. Rowing decided to act on her suicidal thoughts never wrote Harry Potter? Their success is connected to them finding out what their good at and out working their competition.

Personal Branding Note: Personal Branding Should help you identify, package, and build awareness of your inner Genius.

What if your job has nothing to do with your inner Genius? Could you transition? Are you stuck between a genius and a job?

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Visual Resume 2.0: The New Story Teller

Hajj Flemings - Visual Resume (Resume 2.0)

How do you capture the scope and depth of your life in an 8.5 x 11 white paper? One dimensional thinkers in times past (pre social networks) could be captured in a white box, but the transformation of networks to social networks, face-to-face to online conversations have changed the rules of engagement.

Traditional resumes or resume 1.0 are dead and it is not because of the Green movement.
As a personal brand you engage your community, perspective employers, customers, and future business partners through a series of brand impressions that can be leveraged through your online community. With social networks like Twitter, Linkedin, VisualCV and Slideshare and other free tools a person can more effectively communicate their personal brand and what makes them different?

Definition of Visual Resumes – Is a visual communicator of your personal brand that creatively tells your story through a brief series of images, ideas, and experiences that are in a sharable and searchable format.

Examples of Visual Resumes
o Dustin Sommer – A student from my Personal Branding Class (@Dustin Sommer)
o Saranyan Vigraham - Employee at Qualcomm (@Saranyan)

Goal of Visual Resumes: Extend the engagement of your personal brand (Employers spent 20-30 seconds viewing resumes)

Visual Resume Elements
o Brief - Recommend 15-20 pages
o Story Telling Format
o Avatar- Global ID
o Spreadable – Embed into your blog, Linkedin, and Twitter
o Searchable – The use of tags for searchability in the social network and in Google
o Images – Sources: Flickr and istock photo

Why Create a Visual Resume?
o Shows your creativity
o Optimize your elevator pitch.
o Think in soundbites
o Practice story telling
o Extends the engagement.

A Note to GRUSTLERS: (Grind-to-Hustle)
Especially if you are a GRUSTLER, the traditional resume doesn’t work. Your resume is probably loaded with experience that is not directly related with your passion and doesn’t do you justice. You need away to communicate the varying dimensions of your life.

Share a link to your visual resume.

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2009 Brand Camp Conference Updates: Coming Soon!!!

The planning for the 2009 Brand Camp University - Personal Branding 2.0 Conference is being finalized. Updates for the conference will be posted to the site soon. SAVE the Date: Saturday, October 10, 2009. Looking forward to seeing you in Detroit.

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Brandcamp Video #3: Marcie Brogan and the business pitfalls of a personal brand

Marcie Brogan, a veteran of the Detroit advertising market, shares her experiences on how hard it’s been to divorce her “personal brand” from the company she loves and co-founded, Brogan Partners.

www.Brogan.com

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Personal Branding: Your Avatar is your Global ID.

Today, we live in a world that is skin deep. Magazine covers, movies, and product commercials are littered with models, celebrities, movie stars and the moving target of what society says is in and is beautiful. Packaging is an important part of personal branding and must be addressed. People are visual and make decisions based upon images, first impressions, and yes your avatar. It is cliché, but true, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

One of the most critical elements of your personal brand is your avatar or as I call it your global ID. It is typically the first visual online impression that people will have with your personal brand.

What is an Avatar?
It is the online visual representation of your personal brand.

Managing your Avatar
o Standardization: Avatar should be branded consistently all of your social networks.
o Professional Looking Image: A professional photo shoot is not required, but a clear crisp headshot is idea.
o Social Network Specs: Follow the specs of the social network your uploading your avatar into.

Benefits of a Great Avatar
o Communicates Trust: Your image can communicate trust and impact perception (enhances or diminishes)
o Branding Consistency: Visual impressions of your personal brand is consistent across the web increasing brand recognition.
o Connectivity: Digital relationships should help build off-line relationships.
o Brand Humanization: It humanizes your brand and helps people connect with you as a person.

Where should your Personal Branded Avatar Exist?
o Wherever you Exist: Press Kit, Blog, etc.
o Social Networks: Consistent across all of your social networks: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc.
o Business Cards (Web 2.0 Cards): I am an advocate for avatars on business cards. Your business cards should extend the online and off-line relationship. I recommend www.BrandCardz.com
o Blog Post Comments: Create a profile on Gravatar and it will automatically populate your avatar into any WordPress (other platforms are being researched) blog comment that you post. As people begin to read your well thought out comments on other blogs the recognition of your personal brand will continue to spread.
o Slideshare Resume: Create a creative version of your resume in a slide presentation formation should include your avatar.
o Mybloglog: Add the Mybloglog widget to your blog and it will allow you to see who is visually coming to your blog.

There are many schools of thought on creating an avatar such as the usage of cartoons, logos, or cool designs. I recognize there are many successful examples of cartoons (@chrispirillo) or logos (@BarackObama) so the chose is yours. I recommend that you use an image of yourself as your avatar because one of the goals is to turn digital relationships into off-line relationships and it helps the visual recognition of your personal brand.

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