Personal Branding

Over the last week, I’ve decided to spend time researching personal branding in great detail. I became curious about the subject initially when I stumbled across Dan Schwabel’s Twitter account. From there, a link to his blog served as an excellent starting point and I frantically searched Austin for a copy of his book Web 2.0. Since it was published very recently, no store in the area received copies yet. A bit disheartened, I managed to obtain a copy from Amazon.

While I was waiting for the book, I saw a few word-of-mouth reviews for similar recommended books. One caught my attention immediately: Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone. I did find a copy of this book at the Barnes & Noble where I tried to find my original target (not to worry Austin locals, I only went there after Bookpeople failed me).

I started reading Ferrazzi’s book first, so I’ll begin there. Ferrazzi emphasizes the importance of networking but manages to clarify his concept of the term and that truly enlightened me. All of my previous encounters with hardcore “networkers” left me with a horrible impression. These were people who met me to try and exploit me, before spitting me back out to the world with no reciprocal help. Ferrazzi believes in a “give first” mentality, where people should really help out their network of contacts before trying to ask for any help. This was something I was already doing, so I was glad to hear I was on the right path.

Where Ferrazzi really began to connect with me was in his next lesson: don’t be afraid to ask for help. Through my parents (who had incredible intentions) and standard media representations of the “American Dream” (work hard enough and you can achieve your goals, often without help and defying the odds), I developed a bit of a stubborn attitude. I thought I could do anything as long as I worked for it enough. While this notion might actually hold true, there should be nothing wrong with asking for a little help every now and then. Many individuals make contact with great opportunities just from knowing the right people. What if I had access to the same opportunities but didn’t know it because I never thought to ask?

There is a whole lot more to learn from Ferrazzi’s book. There is more than I can explain in a brief post. I am only about 20% of the way through, and I would already recommend it to anyone, even those who feel experienced in the subject.

Once I received Schwabel’s book in the mail, I decided to crack it open and see if it lived up to my high expectations. So far, it exceeds them. I feel like a lot of personal branding is common sense to me (I’ve held this domain name for about 3.5 years now), but I never thought to explore the topic in such great detail. The first thing I noticed about Web 2.0 is how passionate Schwabel is about the subject. He updates his blog on a regular basis as well as his Twitter feed, several times a day often. He really cares about conveying the information stored in his book, and he clearly knows more about the subject than I knew existed. Personal branding is a relatively new field, at least in the notion where people mine the topic for information then employ it. Some may have branded themselves for years and not known it.

I’m not very far into the book, but I can tell it has great potential for insight. With my own Twitter account, LinkedIn profile, and personal blog, I’m already headed in the right direction. Now I need to learn how to hone these great opportunities for personal branding. I already planned to put a CV/resume up on my blog, as well as a more in-depth “About Me” section. Now I realize that I should put them as soon as I have a really solid version of both, and that I should put a lot of effort into making those solid versions soon.

Personal branding is a topic that really interests me. I would love to talk about the subject more. For now, I will finish both books, and I will post full reviews then.