Blog Posts by Personal Branding Blog

At Pegasus Media World, I publish an author who deals with the silent killer of success: FEAR. It's the stealth nature of fear that makes it so dangerous. You don't typically recognize the majority of times when the deadliest emotion you can have in business is exactly what's behind the self-sabotaging actions (or lack of actions) you take.

Fear is often hard to recognize, because you think fear should feel like quaking in your boots - like how most people feel about public speaking. People who fear speaking to groups, feel this hair-raising, gut wrenching, dry mouth, heart pounding set of symptoms that are undeniable. By the way, I earn a great portion of my living by public speaking, so if it helps: public speaking is fun and empowering once you get over yourself.

What fear feels like

But most of your fears aren't the cartoon version - your knees probably aren't shaking. It's not heart pounding most of the time.

Sometimes fear is what makes you sleep in and be late

If you haven't caused some kind of outrage, you haven't got a really big BANG kind of brand. That might work for you. Maybe you're not in the really-need-to-be memorable kind of place in your career.

Maybe Twitter has so few of whatever you are or do that just by being …. you, you stand out. Maybe your Facebook friends are really friendly. It could be that you believe you really are connected to 6.3 million people on LinkedIn. Maybe you think we're terrifically pinterested, and we have the G+ circle hots for you.

That is the way most of us seem to think personal branding works, given the volume of posts and the paucity of memorable ones. Or, the endlessly promotional ones. Or, the creepy feeling that 87% of people are "just listening" on social networks and media.

Is that what you're doing?

Are you waiting to be discovered?

Are you waiting for a personal invitation to comment on every blog you visit?

Are you waiting for the really big opportunity to have a

Sandler Success Principles: 11 Insights that will change the way you Think and Sell makes you SMARTER. Why the capital letters? Because SMARTER is an acrostic - a word with letters that when taken in order spell out an easy-to-remember phrase.

SMARTER turns out to be, a smarter way to set and reach goals in your career and business. What's does SMARTER stand for? A goal that is:

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Attainable

R = Relevant

T = Time-bound

E = Enjoyable

R = Rewarding

See how easy it is to remember Sandler's method of goal-setting? And, that's not even one of the 11 major insights in Sandler Success Principles. Personally I love Reach Back and After Burn (more about those next week).

But, SMARTER is super sticky - easy to remember.

In a world with too many choices, being the obvious one in your category really isn't that hard. You just have to stand out from the pack. In a good way.

There are lots of people with your skill set, no doubt. But, there's no one who has your combination of personality, abilities, qualities and look: your personal brand. Even identical twins aren't identical in every way.

The fundamental qualities that form you, drive you, and make you attractive to us are extraordinary. In other words, there is no ordinary you. There is just you.

You are an advertisement

You are almost always advertising the assets that form your brand. Now, you might not think you are advertising - after all, you're not buying ad-words or those mean little Facebook ads.

But you ARE advertising, all the time. Just by showing up. The way you look - by photo, skype, and in-person - showcases your stuff.

So visually speaking, are you telegraphing what you want us to take in and judge?

Yes,

LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and social networking sites have given you a platform for creating and managing your reputation: your personal brand.

Perhaps that's not working for your family.

Perhaps they don't care to read your wonky blog about the political war being waged on contraception, or don't know why you want them to know you "like" Troy Lee Designs (unless it's a signal for birthday gift-giving time) or might even feel they raised you wrong if you won a Porky badge for eating more BBQ than anyone else checking in on Foursquare today.

Perhaps your family knows you TOO well to learn all about you again, or as you are doling out information in the context of 2,000 or so so-called friends. Not that they don't love you. They just know you. Really know you.

Love, actually, may be the point and the problem of social networking sites. Some of us have widened our networks to virtual strangers who are now virtual friends or at least friendly looky-loos.

Just go to my website. I'll text you. I posted it on my FB page. I tweeted it. I found it on LinkedIn. He sent me a Branchout request. It's on my Pinterest. I saw your 4square check-in at the gym. Did you get my email?

Noooooooo.

I may have hit the wall this week. It could be the pace or magnitude of my work for the last few weeks. It could be that the sunshine blazed in Los Angeles. Maybe it was walking the dogs on the beach.

Sunday was my first day where I dreaded turning on a device. Any device: laptop, iPad, iPhone, and so on. I would have cut the cord but I believe in the "battery up" rule (always be charging) so cords were superfluous.

Typically I have a digital reflex when I read something interesting (the Sunday NY Times newspaper is a treasure trove), go somewhere inspiring or have any experience worth sharing (good or bad). I also have a digital reflex when too much time has passed (about 20 minutes) and I haven't gotten real time information from friends,

You can't say personal brands don't matter everywhere to everyone. In fact, the three largest broadcast networks are betting on nothing but a battle of three personal brands to win bragging rights - and big ad dollars - early in the AM this week.

Who is facing off, where and why?

Katie Couric

On television, which we've all been told doesn't matter anymore because real-time TV is just so last decade, personal brands will compete this week for the way in which tens of millions of people kick off their day: watching network TV morning shows.

Here are the three contenders:

Katie Couric on Good Morning America. Oprah on CBS Morning News Monday. Sarah Palin on Today. And who said you had to dance, sing, lose weight or try to spear a snake with an arrow to get a crowd?

It's a bit shocking to learn that personal brands pack an enormous wallop on one big old media form that, by the way, still dwarfs the importance of those spartan little Facebook ads, and the ever

The business of football got uglier when information about the bounty for pain scandal surfaced. This scandal is currently decimating the management, income, and personal brands of the New Orleans Saints. The ironically named Saints are not the only team of people to pool money and put people in the cross-hairs, in hopes of destroying opponents' bodies. By destroying their opponents' bodies, they also are destroying their careers, and future ability to take care of their families.

Why would someone agree to pay-for-pain?

Competitiveness, fear, jealousy, greed, and a general belief that any way to win puts a win on the board all tumble together. This soup of malevolence often creates not just one bad