One of the lessons that I received over the weekend, had to do with keeping your faith young. In most cases when we reach maturity in things we do, we are at our best. However being young in something doesn’t always have to be a direct correlation with immaturity.

I recently came a across a slide show that I put together for a really good friend’s wedding. On the soundtrack is a great song, called Forever Young, by Rod Stewart. Although the lyrics seem to be targeted towards a relationship with a son or daughter, I felt the song generally inspires us to stay young.

I strongly feel this is how we should approach our personal brand. Staying young in heart and mind allows you to stay invigorated, passionate, and most important – teachable. As we mature in life, some of the ways to maintain youth is to continue to learn different things that allow you to sharpen your skills and your knowledge base. Here are a few more things to consider:

Pay Attention to Accidental Inspiration
Although I think it is necessary to be purposeful in everything we do,inspiration and creativity many times is accidental. For instance a combination of experiences allowed for me to be inspired to write this post as explained above.  I think it is always good to keep the juices flowing by mixing up the monotony and allowing yourself to be inspired by your experiences. Allowing yourself to be open to different genres and creating new relationships are good ways to mix things up. Just like a fruit smoothie, if you don’t mix it up you will find that all the good stuff is at the bottom.

Be Prepared for a Pivot
Good entrepreneurs are always ready for a potential pivot. Sometimes you start a business or initiative going in a specific direction. However things in the market could change or your customer evolves and you find that you have to take your idea in a different direction. To be prepared for a pivot you have your hand on the pulse of the market and be prepared to make a pivot in another profitable direction. Changing directions sometimes requires energy; it helps to stay young in the mind and be able to learn new things. This can apply to career’s and passion projects as well.

Maintain Momentum
Sometimes it is natural for us to get comfortable and on auto-pilot with our day-to-day responsibilities. Keeping our batteries charged through rest and recuperation, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and constantly staying in practice allows us to keep up with the pace of our purpose in life.

These are things that can edify your day-to-day duties on-the-job or business, relationships with your spouse and kids, and in our friendships. Stay Invigorated and Forever Young.

I reached out to fellow job seekers and career experts for effective personal branding tips that could help you distinguish yourself to your chosen and targeted audience of employers, and here are some top tips that I compiled to share with you today:

Learn or Master a Skill

Focus on your area of expertise that you want to be known for. Stick to what you’re good at, and then make it even better it. How? For starters, don’t do what everyone else is doing. Don’t go to the local non-profit organization and volunteer your time, joining its marketing team to end up doing whatever task comes your way. Take control of the direction of your marketing project. Go online, research, and commit to learning one new focused skill; pick a skill that increases your value in your expertise. This is your new job for now. Really commit to it, and spend the time it takes to learn it. Master it. Then, go to someone in your target audience, and offer that skill to them to solve a problem. Show them how you can help them; offer them your solution. Make it the best. Wow them with it. - Maren Finzer, www.marenfinzer.com

Write a Book

I’ve been lecturing and writing about careers for quite a while now and the best branding advice I can give is this: write a book. Or, an e-book at least. Choose a unique title to enhance your branding efforts. Include the e-book when job-applying online. Ideally, you can afford to have an actual book printed and can include it with your resume when you’re being interviewed in person.  Don’t let the idea a writing a book deter you–books nowadays don’t fit the traditional definition. They can be a collection of blog articles. Or, short manuscripts. (I’ve been some that have fewer than 30 pages, some of which contain a simple quotation.) You could even outline the knowledge/expertise that brands you and hire a ghostwriter. - Marlene Caroselli, www.caroselli.biz

Plan an Event

Plan a local event for your industry. Sounds crazy, right? With the popularity of “un-conferences” growing, it’s possible for anyone to plan an event for their industry.  Local project manager Jason Brett planned ProductCamp Atlanta. He recruited sponsors to pay for the food and facility. He invited everyone he knows in the industry. 200 people RSVPed for the free event and 185 people attended. It was held on the Georgia tech campus, which provided ample parking and free wireless access. Jason used consistent branding for himself and for the event – so that his name became well-known throughout the community. Jason received a job offer within 30 days of the event. - Brandy Nagel

Use Video

Because personal branding is just that –personal– one of the most effective tools we teach our clients is to allow potential employers (or customers) that “VIP-Access to get to know you” via use of video.  We encourage our clients, for example, to produce a 6-part series of 60 second videos sharing relevant information to not only show their expertise, but also to allow others the chance to understand their personality and build a following.  Potential employers start to like you before you’ve even met face to face.  Suddenly, you are walking into an interview where everyone has already watched your carefully built You Tube channel and vlog posts (they watched it while you slept) and they feel like they know you.  You are a friend on their doorstep, while the other candidates are strangers they’ve never met.  And you know the rule about that.  Never talk to strangers. - Aly & Andrea, www.AlyandAndrea.com

Special thanks to everyone who contributed to this wealth of personal branding insight!

Chris Perry is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.

Great Minds, originally uploaded by bobsd46.

Influencers, thought leaders, and creatives see the world 180 degrees from everyone else.  There is an old clique that states ‘Great Minds think a like’ which I happen to disagree with. Great minds despise good and become great.  Great minds not only don’t think alike they are not equal they challenge lesser minds, status quo, the fear of failure, and mediocrity. It is the great minds give us creative and innovate products that we didn’t realize we wanted until we saw them.

Revolutionary Ideas from Great Minds
o    Netbooks – They made laptops lighter, smaller and more cost effiencient.  (Netbooks will account 20% of laptops globally sales in 2009)
o    Twitter – Builds brands in 140 characters or less. (Twitter has gone mainstream and has a growth rate of 1,382%)
o    ESPN – 24-hour sports station started by Bill Rasmussen in 1979 with $9,000. (This was before CNN and MTV)

What if Apple focused on owning the MP3 market?

This blog post was birth from my recent purchase of the iPhone.  I begin to think about Apple and how they owned 75% of the mp3 market.  Why didn’t Apple focus their energy on continuing its dominance of the mp3 market?  Apple realized there was a greater opportunity with mobile devices and were not afraid to shift.

“Great minds don’t worry about owning markets
they focus on owning ideas.” -  Hajj E. Flemings ]]> http://www.brandcampu.com/2009/07/great-minds-don%e2%80%99t-think-alike/feed/ 0