Colloquial Thursday - Take charge of Your Self-Brand - 15.4

My executive summary of Chapter One - Take Charge of Your Self-Brand, from the book You are a Brand! starts as follows. First the author points out that brands are about 'soft' things. For companies today, it is not about the hard things like bricks, mortar, equipment and inventories; it's the soft things, . . . "the brands and company reputation, the ideas and intellectual capital, the consumer relationships and business alliances - that have the most value." Think about companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft or even companies that sell hard products, like Coca Cola, Nike, Patagonia, etc.

"The same is true for people. It isn't the hard, quantifiable things, like educational credentials, experience, and job titles, that contribute the most to success. The real power lies in harnessing soft power - strategy and tactics, image and visual identity, words and verbal identity, visibility and reputation, and other branding ideas - all things that help attract people to you."

This book is about helping you develop an effective self-branding strategy that works in achieving professional and life goals but also is true to you - that brings more of you into the equation. Have you ever met someone and just asked them, "So what are YOU all about?" "What makes you, you?" "What makes you tick?" "Come on, give me something unique?" These are important questions.

Kaputa says, "This could be made up of your point of view, your style, even your mystique - the X Factor that makes you special and relevant." I hope you are thinking about these things as you walk around campus and meet people; and as you consider your field / fields of study. If you can start to develop the 'Sally' brand at your age, the world will open up in ways that you can not imagine! Or, to use a line from Shakespeare, "The world's mine oyster."