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#AMA Milwaukee Luncheon 03/16: @HajjFlemings – Speaks on ‘Personal Branding in a Digital World.’

Original Blog Post:  AMA Milwaukee Blog

As the world around us continues to change, people-powered brands are impacting the world of business. How important is your personal brand? If you would like to find out and learn steps you can take to manage it, make plans to attend the March16 AMA luncheon.

The interactive program will focus on the importance of developing a strong personal brand that matters in a noisy digital world. Participants will walk away with practical information and learn how to become a voice people trust. Many of us are listening, engaging, connecting, and participating online through social media channels. But are you processing the information gained and using it to develop real-world relationships?

Join the Milwaukee Chapter of the American Marketing Association and Hajj E. Flemings, founder of Brand Camp University, and get tips to help define your personal brand and leverage your off-line relationships. In addition to a great lunch and opportunity to network, you will gain insight from a noted author and educator and learn how to…

  • INTEGRATE your passion into your personal brand
  • POSITION and balance your brand in corporate culture
  • RE-THINK your corporate job as a proving ground
  • MANAGE your online brand reputation and build equity
  • LEARN to project your personal brand off-line
  • BUILD a strong personal network before you need it

A strong personal brand can help ignite the growth of your business and inspire your personal life. Register now to ensure you are armed with tactics to grow your personal and professional identity and help ensure you stand out from the crowd.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Hajj E. Flemings is the founder of Brand Camp University and author of The Brand YU Life: Re-thinking Who You Are through Personal Brand Management, one of Fast Company Magazine’s 2008 Readers’ Choice Business Books of the year. He is also one of the authors featured in Age of Conversation 3, a collaborative book that brought together over 200 of the world’s best marketing, social media and brand thinkers. Flemings is a former collegiate athlete turned adjunct lecturer at his alma mater, Michigan Technological University, where he wrote the personal branding curriculum. He has been featured on ESPN.com, BusinessWeek.com, BlackEnterprise.com, various blogs and speaks across the nation. His clients include NFL athletes, Walt Disney, Ford Motor Company, Skechers Footwear, U.S. Department of Defense (Telecom Division) and numerous U.S. colleges and universities.

You can learn more about Flemings by visiting his blog, following him on Twitter or reviewing his information on LinkedIn.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
The luncheon is open to AMA-Milwaukee members and interested individuals and is designed to benefit marketers of all levels – from seasoned professionals to students – and is ideal for job seekers and those interested in strengthening their networks.

WHEN: Tuesday, March 16, 2010          11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

WHERE: Crowne Plaza Hotel, 10499 Innovation Drive, Wauwatosa

PARKING: Complimentary parking is available in a private, surface lot.

FEE: $25 for AMA members
$45 for non-members
$20 for students or individuals in transition

RSVP: Register no later than Thursday, March 11, 2010.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE
 CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A REGISTRATION FORM A

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Side Projects are Bigger than Resumes



Are you focused on building a better resume?  Then my first question is why?

This is a rhetorical question and your answer probably goes something like this. To get my dream job I was taught to go to college, get an education and work that job for 30 plus years.

Part of that process is to put your experience and education on a 8.5 x 11 inch rectangle and tell the world how great you are.  What if I told you not to forget about your resume, but to change your focus and focus on creating something that matters?  i.e. A Project

Evan Williams talk at TED centered around side projects, which is how Twitter was birthed.

The Building a Better Mousetrap Mentality

We have all heard the saying, “Build a Better Mousetrap.”  William C. Hooker invented the spring-loaded mousetrap in 1894.  Since its creation there have many different versions:  electric, live-catching, glue, inert gas and the list goes on.  What has the outcome been of these upgraded mousetraps?  Better materials??  Bragging rights??  You feel cooler about using them??

How do you build a better resume? The same way you build a better mousetrap right?  You create an online resume with links right?  You use social channels right?  As a practitioner in the personal branding it is easy to force-feed this mindset down peoples throats.  (Note:  I am not saying go drink the Kool-Aid and throw away your resume, but re-think what you are focused on.)

Game Changers and their Projects

Listed below are four people who are working on some cool personal projects who won’t need a resume to get their next gig.  Guaranteed. These projects are creating major opportunities for these individuals and I guarantee you they are not tweaking their resume to death.  They are working on projects that people care about that they have a passion for.

•    Noah Brier – Creator of BrandTags.net – Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business (2009)
•    Evan Williams -  Founder of Twitter (Enough said)
•    Gina McCauley – Founder of Blogging While Brown – Essence Magazine 25 Most Influential African- Americans (2007)
•    Noah Everett –  Founder of Twitpics – Twitter’s most popular photo sharing site.  Valued at $10 Million?

What is your side project?

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Hunger 2.0: How Hungry are you to Live your Dreams?

Today is December 23rd and it is my birthday and I wanted to share a message with my community about living their dreams.  As 2009 comes to a close I want you to think about your life goals and living your dreams.  So I leave you with this question. 

How Hungry are you? 

How hungry are you to live your dreams?  There are 1 billion people on the planet that are hungry for food, but how many people on the planet are have a hunger to achieve their dreams?

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Can your Personal Brand Write its own Terms of Service?

 fineprint

 What are the Terms and Service of your personal brand?  According to Wikipedia, Terms of Service (TOS) is defined as rules by which one must agree to abide by in order to use a service. Usually, such terms are legally binding.  The average person is typically not in a position to write there own TOS.

As I have been listening online recently there is a very interesting theme occurring with high profile people leaving companies, organizations and changing industries.  This has me thinking about the power and ability to leave on your own terms. 

High Profile People who are Changing

  • Oprah Winfrey announces, The Oprah Winfrey Show ends September 2011 and she will focus on her cable network, OWN  = Oprah Winfrey Network.
  • Allen Iverson announces he is leaving the Memphis Grizzlies for personal reasons (basically because he isn’t starting) and later signs with the Philadelphia 76ers.
  • Fritz Henderson former CEO of GM is forced to resigned after 8-months
  • Alec Baldwin announces that he is not interested in acting anymore after 30-years in the profession.
  • Bobby Bowen built the Florida State University Football program over 34-years and at the end of his tenure is basically asked to step down, but we still want you to help raise funds for the University.

Why are these events significant?  This is significant because the world of work is changing and dependence on companies is fleeting.  One of the greatest benefits of developing a strong personal brand is to be in a position to write your own Terms of Service.  Whether you like Allen Iverson or not he is a first ballot Hall of Famer basketball player and he has decided he is either going to start or not play.  That means he has limited his opportunities but has decided to live on his own terms.  Oprah Winfrey has decided to develop her own network and be on TV on her own schedule.   

The Elite Personal Brands Rewrite the Rules

Elite personal brands rewrite all the rules that we are instructed to follow in college.  The ability to do this comes from paying the piper and spending the 10,000 hours that Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his book Outliers.  As a personal brand I am working to get to the Steve Jobs, Russell Simmons, Oprah level where I can rewrite the rules and live by my own Terms of Service:  corporate dress consisting of blue jeans, sneakers, and maybe a baseball cap and start my own television network.

Are you operating on your own Terms of Service (TOS)?

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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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