Paul Copcutt - Just My Toonies Worth

What is holding you back from your personal brand?

Through my wife's business I have had the opportunity to be connected to Keith Kochner at Mentorfish.com for the last few months and have found his teaching exactly what we need in the 21st century. Lots of great content, he is prolific with new insights and learnings - even for someone like me who tends to explore and read a lot! 

Keith is coming to Toronto next week to hold a live evening event so you can get a full experience of what he has to offer. Cost is just covering running costs of the event, but I know you will get way more value - hope to see you there. 

Personal Brand Book Review - One Piece of Paper

One Piece of Paper – The simple approach to powerful, personal leadership.

© 2011 by Mike Figliuolo, 237 pages, Hardback

5R Score: 30/35

The Leadership Maxims Approach

1. Leading Yourself
2. Leading the Thinking
3. Leading Your People
4. Leading a Balanced Life
5. Making it Real

On a scale of 1-7   

Relevance - is it right for personal branding? - 6

Resonance - does it make sense to the reader? - 6

Relation - is there a connection for everyone? - 6  

Remarkability - does it stand out, will it get noticed? - 6

Real - does the personal brand come through? - 6

Would you pick it up?

This book is one of the early runners for me as my book of the year for 2012 and carries one of my highest ever ratings. It’s both that good and I believe a must for anyone looking to do work and define more clearly their personal leadership brand.

I actually chanced on picking it up, the sub-title ‘personal leadership’ was what had caught my eye as this is a hot topic at the moment in terms of requests for my speaking services from Fortune 500 companies. I am glad I did pick it up. Once I had I could not put it down or stop recommending to anyone prepared to listen!

Relevance

This book is all about your personal leadership, which ultimately is your leadership brand. The author does not make any direct reference to personal branding, but the book is liberally sprinkled with many of the approaches, exercises and discussions personal brand strategists have with leadership clients.

Certainly going forward for any client wanting to communicate their leadership brand to their team etc., I am going to be adding this to the ‘must read and implement’ list.

Resonance

For those not familiar with the personal branding term or approach they do not have to worry. This book and the approaches that are recommended are intuitively evident. In fact it is likely that a lot of your leadership maxims are already in place, it is more of a case of being consciously aware of them

Once you have your maxims then sharing those with others becomes the easy part and communication flows after that. It really is a simple but highly effective approach.

Relation

Regardless of it you are in a people management position or not you can still be a leader. So that makes this book even more useful and relevant. You do not have to wait for that role that actually has people reporting to you to define now what your leadership style is and will be.

This book might be especially useful for those aspiring to be leaders but feel it is a few years away. With your maxims defined you can be ahead of the game and even start to be trying them out in less risky environments away from work in volunteering for example.

Also for the many of you who are in solopreneur type roles the one piece of paper could prove in=valuable in helping you get clear on your thought leadership and ensuring you stay true to it regularly.

Remarkability

I really loved the simplicity of the book and approach. Like an over blown business plan your leadership does not have to be described in impersonal, lengthy and ultimately boring documents that end up on the shelf and never used.

The one piece of paper concept makes it easy to share, post, reach for and refer to all the time. You could even reduce it down in size and make a pocket version of it if you like. I love the simplicity and quick ease of use and relevance.

Real

Mike shares his own leadership mantras at the end of the book. Also throughout the book he gives many personal and client examples to make the points and share the value in the approach

But as he points out there are not like the 10 commandments, they are not set in stone forever. They can and will change depending on many factors. That for me really makes this book realistic and the process workable and actionable.

 

 

Why are you still sending your resume?

According to recent Ladders.com research, the average time spent by a recruiter reading your resume is now just 6 seconds! Hopefully if the recruiting person is internal or a hiring manager the time is longer, but realistically it still might only be a few more seconds.

The article shows images of two different resumes and the heat spots where eyes were tending to focus on in the short time they spent scanning the documents. Having information properly formatted and well laid out and clear is obvious.

BUT isn't the more pressing point why are even we still bothering with a resume?

If you are in mid-career with at least 10 years of professional experience you are easily capable of supplying enough information to write a 3-6 page resume - not the accepted format - rather than a 1-2 page targeted resume. The trouble is that if a company is hiring for a number of positions and is accepting referrals, or the position is internal, you, based on your experience might be suitable for more than one role, but that generic resume is a potential barrier to being considered.

That's where the use of personal branding can come in, being used to create different career marketing documents as the door openers, giving you time and hopefully greater knowledge to follow up with a targeted resume once specifics of a position or openings are known.

Some of the key elements of personal branding are to understand yourself from both an internal and external perspective. Being able to identify and communicate key strengths and differentiating attributes can really be used to your advantage in creating powerful career documents that make people take notice, but do not give away all the information in one go.

The Brand Skills Sheet. In personal branding work and through the use of specific personal branding assessments you are able to identify what your peers and colleagues, managers and even friends and clients perceive as your key brand skills. Then you can take the time to create your brand stories around how you have used those brand skills in specific job situations with measurable results. This becomes a sort of 'brag sheet' that gives the reader a real flavor for who you are, what you might bring to the position or company and how you have been successful in the past. One of the best predictors of future success is past accomplishments

The Branded Bio.  Now using the feedback about differentiating attributes and strengths and merging that with a high level view of your work experience you can craft a one page branded biography that again gives the reader a good sense of who you are, where you have been and what you have done. This helps eliminate pre-conceptions of how long you were at company XYZ or why you took a drop in job title after leaving company ABC etc.

Brand Testimonials. An added bonus to the equation is that with the personal branding assessment feedback come comments from the people who you have chosen to respond. The assessment itself is anonymous to allow for honest and objective feedback, but the comments are still un-attributable testimonials and the positive ones can be used to inject in to the Brand Skills Sheet to highlight specific experiences of the skill in action and a third party's reaction. Also any other positive feedback, performance review comments or LinkedIn recommendations can be used in a similar way.

In Summary.  The Skills Sheet and Bio can prove to be very useful documents that allow you to still be proactive and responsive to a request for more information but still give you control over information specifics that can be saved for the tailored and targeted resume at the next stage of the conversation or process.

The content created in the skills and bio sheets can also be used as copy or structure for on line profiles on networking sites, even in the resume posting sections of job boards and certainly in any other type of web presence such as portfolios or blogs. Also for those internal uses such as talent files they have equal benefit.

PRE-PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT  If you found this information useful then you might find my soon to be published book a valuable addition to your library.  "STOP Sending Your Resume" is a how to guide on creating your Branded Bio and Brand Skills Sheet and will help you stand out in a crowded job market or head and shoulders above your peers for that next great role before the promotion race has even started.

Prior to publication I am offering this book at the face value price and I will pay the taxes and shipping costs if you order before it is printed. This offer is limited and ends on April 30th 2012. To pre-order just CLICK HERE

Oh the places your personal brand will go!

Congratulations!

Today is your day.

Theodore Seuss Geisel !

It's your 107th birthday!

 

You have attributes that stand out. 

Skills that show you've paid your dues.

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose. 

You're on your own. And you know what you know. 

And YOU is your brand, you decide where to go.

 

You won't fall behind, you'll find those with a need.

You'll pass by the others, because you're so branded to lead.

Wherever you work, you'll be the best of the best.

Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.  

 

Oh the places you'll go. Following your passions is fun. 

Being true to yourself, means that we all feel we've won. 

And with values aligned and purpose all set.

Achieving your goals is one sure fire bet. 

Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be. 

But it's all been authentic, because you said "It's all me!"

 

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will indeed!

(98 and three-quarter percent guaranteed)

KID YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS

 

So....

buy your web site domain 

Before someone else does it

Because owning your name

Certainly matters a bit. 

But the critical part is developing your brand foundation.

Owning the definition of YOU makes you live with elation. 

You're off to great places!

Today is your day!

Your brand consultant is waiting. 

So get on the phone right away! 

 

With poetic apologies on his 107th birthday to Theodore Seuss Geisel - Happy Birthday! Looking forward to seeing The Lorax on its film release this week.  

 

 

 

Personal Brand Book Review - 18 Minutes

18 Minutes – Find Your focus, Master Distraction and Get the Right Things Done

© 2011 by Peter Bregman, 263 pages, Hardback

5R Score: 28/35

The 18 Minutes  

Part One – Pause

Part Two – What is This Year About?

Part Three – What is This Day About?

Part Four – What is This Moment About?

 

On a scale of 1-7   

Relevance - is it right for personal branding? - 6

Resonance does it make sense to the reader? - 6

Relation is there a connection for everyone? - 6  

Remarkability - does it stand out, will it get noticed? - 5

Real - does the personal brand come through? - 5

Would you pick it up? 

For me there is always one book each year that has the most impact on the way that I think, act or say. At the end of last year this was the one. People regularly identify a strength in me, organizing and I have been consistent in a related area to this – making some kind of daily planning system work for me – NOT!   

There are far too many books out there that espouse the very latest ways, ideas and ‘simple’ systems to implement and make your life easier. I have tried many of them and found that most of them require a Phd to understand or operate and ultimately get frustrating and unworkable. 

 
What I like about ’18 Minutes; is that it boils things down to the core basics of what is most important to you and ‘forget’ the rest. 
As you slip out of all the good intentions you had at the start of the year, this book can get you back on track fast. 

Relevance

Perhaps not immediately evident that this is a book about your personal brand. But once you have clearly identified what your personal brand is and who needs to know about it, then you have to get on with living and communicating that brand. The challenge is remaining focused and not getting distracted. This book and its easy to follow 18 Minutes a day looking at the 5 most important areas of focus for the year make staying on brand much more effective. It also means at the end of the year you are going to be much further forward.

Resonance

I found the 18 Minute approach quick to grasp, easy to initially implement and in most cases stick to regularly (a failing in many of the more complicated systems – one I have followed has almost 20 pages to act on - weekly!).

For me though the most compelling part of the whole system is that when I have not followed it for a day or I find my day got away from me, I can check back in and identify right away where I was falling down AND find a quick solution to getting back on track.

Relation

In today’s world of multiple demands on seemingly less and less time we can all relate to the desire to want to not just get back control of our lives and simplify them too. But deep down we also want to know we are making a difference (whatever we define that to be), 18 Minutes gives us the approach to focus just on what is most important.

Remarkability

Because the approach is so simple there is a danger that people do not see this as remarkable. That would be a shame. We do not have to complicate or over think things to have them make us more effective or successful.

Just the simple suggestion of setting a one hour alarm to do focused and concentrated work has made a huge difference to my productivity. This book review and one other article were effectively completed in one of those 60 minute bursts.

Real

The author is constantly using personal and real life work and client examples to get his points across. His blog posts do the same. The book is broken down in to very bite size 2-4 page chapters that get one key point across. This makes for easy reference and pick up again stickiness. But once ingrained it’s certainly one to keep on the bookshelf. 

 

 

100 Toonies Worth

With consistency and progression comes change. As you spend more time consistently delivering on what you say your brand is and find your career progressing in the right direction, you are going to reach a point where new challenges and opportunities arise. New skills are developed and new ways to communicate your uniqueness present themselves. 

This week see's the 100th edition of the Tuesday Toonie weekly e-tip, which I feel is quite a milestone. Thank you for reading, commenting and recommending to others for the last 2 years. 

It is also a great time to announce some small changes to the format and delivery of this weekly resource. When we started the Tuesday Toonie the rise of Facebook and Twitter was really starting to gain traction and people subscribing to news and blog feeds was rising. Now this weekly Tuesday Toonie is only being read 10-20% of the time by people via the e-zine delivery method - the rest of the time you are reading it or getting to it via social media or directly at the blog. 

This does not make the content any less valuable but with our inundated in boxes and busy lives it does beg the question about sending it out in full format in an e-zine rather than a quick mailing, linking to the blog for the full content. So going forward the Tuesday Toonie is going to be a 21 second or less read. Enough for you to maybe stop and think for a moment about your career and if you want to understand more then go to the blog to get more on that weeks topic.  

We will be continuing with the monthly Inukshuk e-zine that delves deeper in to the subject of career management and personal leadership branding and provide in there links to all the previous months weekly Tuesday Toonies for anyone you might have missed. We also continue to blog and post other very latest links and resources via social media - especially our Facebook page and my LinkedIn updates, or you may just prefer to be made aware of the Tuesday Toonie via one of these methods - so if you have not done so please connect with us at;

www.facebook.com/personalbrand and http://ca.linkedin.com/in/paulcopcutt 

Thank you again for reading and we look forward to continuing to serve you. 

Personal Brand Book Review - Standout

StandOut – The groundbreaking new strengths assessment.

© 2011 by One Thing Productions Inc, 227 pages, Paperback

5R Score: 25/35

The Three Strengths Principles

1. Your Genius is Precise
2. You Can’t Respect What You Don’t Remember
3. You Must Reach Beyond Your Roles

On a scale of 1-7   

Relevance - is it right for personal branding? - 7

Resonance does it make sense to the reader? - 6

Relation is there a connection for everyone? - 5   

Remarkability - does it stand out, will it get noticed? - 5

Real - does the personal brand come through? - 2

Would you pick it up?

Since getting involved in the whole personal branding area, one of the core pieces of work that I use and refer to on a regular basis has been “Now Discover Your Strengths” by Buckingham and Clifton and other updated versions of the work.  That is until now.

I have always enjoyed the work of Marcus Buckingam and he has been personally branded as the “Leader of the Strengths Revolution”. He is a joy to watch and listen to as a speaker (I would kill for a fraction of his speaker fees!). But what I really like is his continued efforts to make understanding your unique strengths, simple. With this book he has taken it all a stage further.

Now you just need to know your top two strengths, (mine were Equalizer and Influencer) and there are only 9 strengths in total, so it’s also easier to understand others as well.

Relevance

One of the core foundation pieces of personal branding is to understand your strengths. If you cannot immediately identify what those are then you need to invest in a book like ‘StandOut’. Each book comes with a unique code to take an online assessment and Buckingham has obviously spent a lot of time and resources in getting this working optimally set to give best results.

Resonance

Strengths are just one part of your personal branding puzzle, but a key one, so not underestimate the need to do this. The book is mostly made up of chapter explanations of each of the 9 strengths, so on first read you might skip a lot. But if you go further with this, start to know others strengths it’s the type of book that should almost be on your desk versus a bookshelf.

What is really excellent about this book is that it helps you understand how you can maximise your strength in various situations;

-      You are at your most powerful

-      How to describe yourself (in interviews and performance reviews)

-      How to make an immediate impact

-      How to take your performance to the next level

-      What to watch out for.

-      How to win as a leader.

-      How to win as a manager.

-      How to win in sales.

-      How to win in client services.

There is also a team strengths version which is very neat.

Relation

I firmly believe that if you are going to live any type of life you love then understanding and playing to your strengths is key, so this book and its approach and principles applies to anyone at any level.  In fact it is a good leveler – it does not matter where you are, strengths are strengths.

Remarkability

In much of my work with personal brands I would say the most underplayed element of most peoples personal brands are their strengths. It is what you do naturally and so well that it’s almost a sub-conscious action. Many people might look at this work and think it rudimentary, but I will bet most of them are not leveraging their strengths anywhere at the level they could be, so there are many lessons from this.

Real

Marcus Buckingham has one of the most amazing strengths based stories about his personal brand, but apart from a few anecdotal personal pieces you are going to have to go somewhere else to find that one out. As most of the book is specific to understanding the strengths you would hope there were more examples, but it lacks that level and is the most disappointing part of the book.

Having said that this is a must for all my future personal branding work.   

 

 

You Inc - The Art of Selling Yourself

You, Inc. The Art of Selling Yourself.

© 2007 Harry Beckwith and Christine Clifford Beckwith – 316 Pages Hardback

5R Score: 21/35

The ‘Steps’

1. What people buy
2. Planning and preparing
3. Communicating
4. Listening and speaking
5. Relating
6. Attitude and beliefs
7. Tactics and habits
8. Successes and delightful failures

On a scale of 1-7   

Relevance - is it right for personal branding? - 5

Resonance does it make sense to the reader? - 5

Relation is there a connection for everyone? - 4   

Remarkability - does it stand out, will it get noticed? - 4

Real - does the personal brand come through? - 3

Would you pick it up?

Probably one of the more instantly recognised books on personal branding, this book left me a little disappointed or rather confused. In the Introduction the former husband and wife team comment that this is really a fusion of three books that they were working on at the time – hence I suspect the con-fusion. 

Having said that, there are a wealth of nuggets to be gleaned that can be applied to personal branding. What is really missing is a true process, there are steps but the content just seems to be haphazard. Harry Beckwith’s other books seem to have better structure. 

Relevance

This is a personal branding book that has more sales emphasis than most. In part caused by one of the authors being very sales focused, in the instances that this area is covered it almost seems disconnected from the rest of the book.  

Resonance

If you are looking for a personal branding book with structure and step by step instructions and actions this is not the one. There are a number of others published that are much clearer and simpler.

This book reminded me strongly of Tom Peters original personal branding book The Brand You 50. The ideas and tips are in short 2-3 page format. So punchy and quick. This makes it a good book to pick up and put down numerous times in the week, or to dip in to when you need something specific.

Relation

There are many references to the world or product/service marketing and branding, naturally given the authors line of business and backgrounds. Much of the advice is very applicable for the company employee, perhaps less so for the small business owner – although the sales aspects may be more appealing to that group.

Remarkability

I liked the fact that I could pick up and put down this book, especially as I normally have two or three books on the go at the same time! The whole tactics and habits section is the best part of the book, with lots of common sense ideas and good etiquette reminders too!

Real

The personal brands of the writers do not really come through at all, although there are some good final examples of delights and failures of other personal brands at the end of the book.  

 

 

A Decade (and more) of Personal Brand Book Publishing

My whole interest in the subject of personal branding started with reading Tom Peters book The Brand You 50 in 1999, since then I have avidly collected and read many others – some great, some good and some questionable!

I dipped in to my collection and picked one book printed in each year since Tom Peters book and give a quick viewpoint. No doubt going forward my collection may well include a few Kindle versions, but in the meantime I loved picking these ones up and skimming back through them, some for the umpteenth time.

Branding Yourself – Erik Deckers & Kyle Lacy – 2011 – The latest book with a strong emphasis in the area of building the personal brand by leveraging technology and social media, with a few final chapters on offline activity.

Shift – Peter Arnell – 2010 – An ad man that had to make significant personal shifts to literally survive making this much more of a personal journey focus.

Me 2.0 – Dan Schwabel – 2009 – As the title suggests the emphasis here is communicating the personal brand online and looking  at personal branding very much from the perspective of the younger ‘wired’ generations.

Managing Brand You – Jerry S Wilson & Ira Blumenthal – 2008 – Another Fortune 500 executive is one of the authors, the other a brand consultant so the book transposes many product brand approaches to the personal brand.

Career Distinction – William Arruda & Kirsten Dixson – 2007 – The culmination of the first half a decade of his work with Reach, in collaboration with another early personal brand adopter and coupled with many examples from the Reach community.

Soaring on Your Strengths – Robin Ryan – 2006 – Written from the career coaches perspective this book has some good suggestions and actual examples of its use with career marketing documents.

UR A Brand – Catherine Kaputa – 2005 – Some good tie ins between corporate/product branding and personal brand. Some good exercises to complete and part of the author’s personal brand comes through in the use of Shakespere quotes throughout the book.

Career Warfare – David D’Alessandro – 2004 – there is a very shortlist of books on personal branding written for the corporate market, this is the best there currently is and written by someone who made it all the way to the top of a Fortune 500.

The Brand Called You – Peter Montoya with Tim Vandehey – 2003 – One of the better books on personal branding for service based businesses. Written with the small business owner in mind, comprehensive steps and ideas.

Be Your Own Brand – David McNally & Karl D Speak – 2002 – One of the first books to make the connection between personal brand and employer brand. Some interesting templates to help form the basic foundation of your brand.

Build Your Own Life Brand – Stedman Graham – 2001 – Most famous for being Oprah’s partner, this is a good basic read that connects the dots between personal brand at work and elsewhere, after all it’s not just about work.

Make A Name For Yourself – Robin Fisher Roffer – 2000 - Probably one I would continue to place in my top 10 of personal branding books and one of the few directly aimed at women. A good read with a well thought out process.   

The Brand You 50 – Tom Peters – 1999 - This book still has plenty of relevant ideas and tips, particularly for those caught up in doing too much online. THE book that started it all, following on from his Fast Company magazine article, the inspiration for the forming of Reach!

Looking forward to the next decade of personal brand books and seeing where the whole subject develops. 

 

Personal Brand Leadership Book Review - Paul Allen - Idea Man

Paul Allen - Idea Man - a memoir by the co-founder of Microsoft. 

© 2011 MIE Services LLC - 358 pages hardback  $- US 27.95  / Cdn $35

PERSONAL BRAND LEADERSHIP POINTERS

From this book you will learn:

• The importance of having several avenues of interest to round out your brand.
• How you can enjoy your passions AND make it part of who you are.
• Remain true to your core beliefs and not wavering. 
• Understand the power of doing what you're uniquely good at. 

Paul Allen is certainly best known by many as the co-founder of Microsoft, who left in the early 1980's but still wound up a multi-billionaire. Many might also choose to pick up this book to find out the insider scoop on what really happened in his 'fall out' with Bill Gates. Certainly the publishers have positioned this book to portray these very two renowned key points. 

However there is much more to this autobiography than just dishing the dirt and making billions from Microsoft. It could be argued that Allen has had more influence across a wider spectrum with his various successes and failures since, than an ever lasting impact with what remains of his legacy inside Microsoft. After all how much of Allen's work or influence even is in what the company is now - over 35 years later? 

What was more insightful was Allen's ability to think ahead of the technology curve (and beyond tech.) in a number of ways. This is more where the title "Idea Man" comes in to play - he invested, in some cases more closely gambled, on technology such as streaming content, wireless technology, consumer space travel. Some proved successful, others failed, but likely more from being too soon than completely wrong. 

The book can appear in places dry (read - too much technical information that may not have been needed) and although you learn of the trappings that wealth brings - yachts, sports teams, playing guitar with Bono - you certainly also understand Paul Allen to be a very private man, close to his immediate family but you learn little of his own personal life - something in an autobiography is lacking. 

Overall an interesting insight in the personal brand leadership of a technology titan, a community leader and philanthropist and some interesting lessons about business. 

Personal Brand Leadership Rating - 3.5 stars

About the Personal Brand that is Paul Allen; Paul Allen is the billionaire technologist and philanthropist who started Microsoft with Bill Gates. He is founder and chairman of Vulcan Inc., the company that oversees his business and philanthropic activities. 

Allen started Microsoft with Gates, a childhood friend, in Albuquerque in 1975. He was the company's chief technologist until he left in 1983. 

Since then, Allen has become one of the nation's leading philanthropists and continues the search for knowledge that led to the creation of Microsoft. Allen's multibillion dollar investment portfolio includes a major real estate redevelopment in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood and holdings in dozens of technology, media and other companies. 

He also owns the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League, the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association, and is part of the primary ownership group for the Seattle Sounders FC, the city's Major League Soccer team. 

In 2004 Allen funded SpaceShipOne, the first privately-backed effort to successfully put a civilian in suborbital space, winning him and designer Burt Rutan the Ansari X-Prize. 

His independent film company, Vulcan Productions, has won numerous awards for feature films and documentaries, including the Emmy-award winning Rx for Survival–A Global Health Challenge; and the Peabody award-winning Judgment Day: Intelligent Design. 

With lifetime giving of more than $1 billion, Allen has also pledged to leave a majority of his estate to philanthropy. He gives back to the community through the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, whose goal is to transform individual lives and strengthen communities by supporting arts and culture, youth engagement, community development and social change, and scientific and technological innovation. 

In 2003, the Allen Institute for Brain Science was created with a $100 million commitment from Allen. The Seattle-based Institute is an independent, nonprofit medical research organization dedicated to accelerating our understanding of how the brain works. The Institute takes on projects at the leading edge of science—far-reaching projects at the intersection of biology and technology. The resulting data is available, for free, to researchers worldwide. 

Allen is also founder of Experience Music Project, Seattle's critically-acclaimed interactive music museum; the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame; and the Flying Heritage Collection, an assemblage of rare World War II aircraft restored to flying condition and shared with the public.