Write your own Manifesto: Letting your passion kick up your Personal Brand

If I asked you if you’re doing work that you’re passionate about every day, what would you say?

Would you ask me why it mattered?

There are jobs, and then there are callings. There’s a career, and there’s a natural path. And they feel very different.

A job: You show up, you do what’s expected of you, you head home. You have good days and bad days. Sometimes you win, sometimes not.

A calling: You’re excited to get to it. You think about work a lot when you’re not there — not because you’re stressed, but because you have new ideas. You excel at the core parts of your job almost without trying, because it comes naturally to you.

See the difference?

When your work is your calling, you will naturally excel. You will deliver great results, and be happy while you’re doing.

So I ask you… is there anything else that could be as good for your personal brand?

Sure, it may seem unrealistic to think that you can choose to bring passion into your work. But if you make it a priority to actively seek out roles that play to your natural talents and motivators, you’re far more likely to find yourself in a job that aligns with your passion.

Wanna get started? Write a manifesto.

manifesto ( \ˌma-nə-ˈfes-(ˌ)tō\) – a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer

The definition is a beautiful thing, because it spells out two incredibly simple but key techniques for bringing passion into your life.

1. A manifesto is written

The process of writing can help you clarify your thoughts, brainstorm concepts you hadn’t thought of before, and serve as an ongoing remonder. So take some time to write down what motivates you, what you’re best at, and what you want from your future employment.

2. A manifesto is publicly declared

This is where your manifesto links to your personal brand — in the communication. As you develop your manifesto — your statement of purpose, mission, values, etc. — you can start effectively communicating it, in your resume, cover letters, online profiles, elevator pitches and more.

So go out and write your manifesto

Get really clear on what makes you tick and what would make the world work. Write enough for a tweet or a treatise. And find one person or a hundred to tell about it.

What’s your manifesto? Who have you shared it with? What has it given you?

Kristi Daeda is a career coach and writer who blogs on creating an inspiring career, job search, leadership and more at Career Adventure. Be sure to check out her free report on 51 Places to Find a Job.

photo via flickr - credit: altemark

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Personal Branding: The New Celebrity Built Online

What we all love about celebrities is that we believe they live a lifestyle that mere morals only dreamed of? People desire the allure of fame and notoriety neither of which means satisfaction or fulfillment in what you do, but carries with it a lot responsibility. In the age of the social web quote unquote celebrities are popping up everyday. As a personal brand strategist, I am a strong believer in substance and value and that personal brands should be built authentically that package and expose your true DNA.

The New Celebrities

Case Studies, Gary Vaynerchuk (@GaryVee) and Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) are a growing example of the new celebrity. They are larger than life personalities that have cut their teeth online and through shear sweat equity, passion, free social media tools, and a loyal online following have created incredible opportunities for themselves. Thought leaders, Techies, and creatives are the new black and provide regular people with a ray of hope of creating a message for the world that leaves them wanting more.

Basics of The New Celebrities

  • Exposing your Genius – Your genius is what you makes you special. It is the intersection between your passion, the problem you solve, and the process (business model) you use. With all the noise and information flowing online it will be important to expose your Genius.
  • Tell your Personal Brand Story – You need to know who you are and be prepared to tell your face-to-face and online. A personal brand story is not a resume or a list of bullets but a short story that is digestible without chocking people with useless ego chatter.
  • Create Hubs and Use Amplifiers – Social media is an amplifier it doesn’t solve world peace or cure world hunger, it amplifies who and what you are. A hub is a centralized, online digital destination that aggregates your content (i.e. Facebook Fan Page or a Blog.) These public domains are brand building mechanism that empowers your community (fan base) to share and consume your content.
  • Be your own Paparazzi: Establish a social presence with some of the popular social network, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitter to name a few.
  • Create Scarcity – The goal of Celebritism is to create scarcity. Social Networks are great platforms or funnels to offer free shareable content that will allow you to take people up your funnel. The great thing about celebrities is that people are willing to pay more for a different level of exposure or experience. For example I love Malcolm Gladwell books and his other written work, I would be willing to pay more to hear him speak because there are limited opportunities.
  • Follow the Leaders - Look at what the real life celebrities are doing and take a page out of their book: Vin Diesel has 6.7 millions friends on his Facebook fan page, MCHammer has 1.6 million followers on Twitter, and Shaq has 2.4 million followers on Twitter.

The power has shifted to any person with a laptop, iPhone, and an internet connection to connect their passion to the world. The true celebrities have found away to authentically connect people to who they are their passion. I believe the goal is to create scarcity.

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Personal Branding Interview: Hill Harper and Hajj E. Flemings – The Conversation

Hill Harper who most notably portrays Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on CSI: New York, he recently released his third book, “The Conversation” which is number two on the New York Best Seller list. In his latest book he discusses the topic of conversations between men and women which has created a lot of buzz online.

Successful Brands Provide an Experience

One of the key characteristics of successful brands is that they provide customers with an experience. I recently interviewed Hill Harper after a book signing in Royal Oak, MI. Hill is a very grounded person with a magnetic personality, who makes every person in the room feel like they are the only one there.

After the book signing I saw how each person walked away with a personal experience after interacting with Mr. Harper, his command of the room is second to none. I walked away thinking about the experience I provide those I interact with and what do they walk away with. It was a moment of sobering reflection as I began to evaluate myself.

Hill Harper on Twitter

Hill is very active on Twitter, to follow him on the set of CSI: New York or to find out when he is coming to your town for a book signing or to extend the ‘”The Conversation” about his book follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/HillHarper.

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Personal Branding Interview: So You Want to be like Chris Brogan!

I recently interviewed Chris Brogan at the Detroit Zoo in Michigan and we discussed the topic, ‘So you want to be like Chris Brogan?’ I thought this would create a lively conversation with all the discussion on defining EXPERTS and fabricated followership (people gaming the system to inorganically add followership in Twitter and other social networks.)

Anybody with access to a high-speed internet connection has heard of social media guru Chris Brogan, author of the New York Times Best-Seller “Trust Agents.” After talking with Chris there were four big ideas that surfaced that I wanted to share with you that I think will impact your personal brand.

Four Big Ideas to Remember in Developing Your Personal Brand

• There is no Race – Most people focus on racing or competing against others to measure or define success in life, professionally, and in their career. Personal branding is first personal you have to personally and internally assess who you are and your objectives. Professionals always compete against themselves versus competing against others. People who occupy the same space that you want to compete in should be used as potential benchmarks. Only amateurs look externally to define who they are internally.

• Trademark Yourself – A trademark authorizes you as legal owner of the mark/signature that represents your idea which can be renewed as long as it is being used in commerce. Most people focus on being a cheap copy and try to duplicate someone else’s brand/signature versus being original. Trying to be someone else is costly. Focus on being the best you.

• Decide Where do you put your Juice - Everybody has the same amount of time in their day 24 hours, @GaryVee, Oprah, Bill Gates, etc.. The goal becomes to be more effective in the usage of your time and energy. You increase the value of your minute and your personal brand by deciding on the right place to put your juice (time and energy).

• Overnight Success – This is a misnomer, but the saying is true there is a such thing as an overnight success. The problem is that most people interpret it to mean that it is instant and it is not. Overnight success is typically years of overnights and then people who didn’t know you were practicing and preparing all of a sudden see the result of your practice.

In the world of online brand identity it is very easy to rip other people’s ideas, copy content, and artificially add followers, but remember influence can’t be bought. Be the best you that you can be.

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Brand Camp ’09: Personal Branding 2.0 Conference Wrap-Up

What happens when you get a collection of true thought leaders, entrepreneurs, storytellers, tweeters, visionaries and a world-class athlete in a single room? You get the Brand Camp ’09 experience: engaging conversations with like-minded people that inspire change and transform gray matter with each spoken word and each character of every tweet.

Why Detroit? Detroit is a blue collar, manufacturing town that was built on the back of the automotive industry which was the Silicon Valley of its day. The cheese has moved and Detroit is currently going through a brand crisis. It is the perfect location to discuss how social media, personal branding and passion is changing the way we work and live.

Super Heroes/Professors

The list of Rock stars that rocked Lawrence Tech University providing nutrious content for attendees to consume for 7-hours and shared in short 140 character burst of information.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manoian/4009145335/in/set-72157622580068302/

Mitch Joel, Ken Brown, Scott Monty, Rohit Bhargava, Hajj E. Flemings , Valeria Maltoni, April Holmes, and Robert (Bob) Fish (Not Pictured)

What others are saying about Brand Camp ‘09

  • Mitch Joel (@MitchJoel) - SPOS #175 - Personality And Authenticity With Rohit Bhargava
  • Mitch Joel (@MitchJoel) - The Key to Your Personal Brand
  • Nikki Stephan (@EstrellaBella10) - Personal Branding + Social Media = Brand Camp University
  • Brian Ambrozy (@icrontic) - BrandCamp University 2009
  • Mike McClure (@Mike KMcClure) - 10 Things I learned at Brand Camp `09
  • Andrea Freile - Marketable Myself Through Social Media
  • Chris Reed (@darealchrisreed) - Personal Branding, Live from Brand Camp University

Is Brand Camp a conference, an experience, or a movement? Only time will tell, but for now it is a passionate community of early adopters who are growing their personal brands and businesses with social media.

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