What Would @Kanter Do?

 This post is dedicated to Stephen Covey.  He died shortly after I began writing it and was a paragon of “Personal Branding.”

She would curate, that’s what! Beth is the queen of content curation. I, on the other hand, am more at the handmaiden level. So, given my status, I’ll do the next best practice and “re-purpose”. Last week I wrote a piece for the Volunteer Maryland newsletter on transitioning into the future. There are only two weeks left of our AmeriCorps service year. In the interest of leaving my co-contributors, Joy and Laura, room to say a few words, I left a chunk I really liked on the cutting room floor. A rabid recycler, I am repurposing it for today’s post lest it wind up in the rubbish.

Last spring the Destination AmeriCorps committee gathered resources to be shared with attendees of the event. One that Joy contributed caught my eye, “How to Create Your Personal Brand in 6 Easy Steps,” by Joey Weber. According to Weber, “Personal Branding” means intentionally influencing how the rest of the world perceives you. This includes colleagues, future employers, social circles etc. Weber quotes Tom Peters’ adage, “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc.”

I am not sure that I would say practicing the steps outlined is “easy.” They are practical and several of them resonated with me, so I am going to invest some time and energy in developing my “personal brand” as soon as I complete my end-of-year responsibilities. I’ll paraphrase them for you:

1) Choose 4-5 qualities you want to be known for
2) Rank these qualities in order of importance to you
3) Condense those elements into a “personal elevator pitch”
4) Adjust your online identity to reflect your personal pitch
5) Create a personal website
6) Intentionally live your “personal brand”

The first time I read the article, I choked at number 5; then I read number 6!

How do you brand yourself?