So we’re settled in. I always forget how much work it really is to move a person’s stuff from one place to another. I’m often reminded "never say never again", because I want to say "NEVER" right now. Oh well.
We finished late last night and I didn’t have much time to write yesterday or today, so I’m going to be working at it tonight. Thank goodness Comcast was here today and got service set up – decent 6Mb service again! Thanks everyone, I’ll be on Twitter tonight and working on some writing – back at me comfy desk too!
Amy and I are completing our move this weekend, so I probably won’t be posting much today and tomorrow. Of course this has to happen just when I am getting through my bloggers block. Hope it doesn’t boomerang around and meet me on Monday! 😀
Catch you on the flip side folks – have a great weekend!
Has your career reached a plateau, but you believe you have more to offer?
Have you gotten into a repetitive cycle in your career that you think it’s impossible to break out of?
Are you just starting out in the workforce and are uncertain how to present yourself?
Would you like to start down a path to help change all that?
Up until now you may only have thought about your reputation. Taking pride in the work you’ve done, and the ideals you follow. These are important things and core components to help you build your personal brand.
What is Personal Brand?
So you’ve heard about this "personal branding" thing while reading news and the blogs you follow. Obviously, it’s an important component to gen X or Y crowd, but how does it affect you? As much as you want it to! You are a brand, not unlike your favorite soft drink, automobile manufacturer, or candy bar. You have the same potential to create interest and buzz around yourself and what you can do.
Reputation 2.0
I like to call personal branding "reputation 2.0". We all know what our reputation is. Why not bring some social media aspects to the table and formulate a strategy? Personal branding is about reaching out to the community or industry that you are a part of. Interacting with it, and making sure that people know where and how to reach you. This simply leverages your current abilities and makes you more visible to others in your field.
Not an Ego Trip
Personal branding is not about building a "look at me" page. Rather, it is about creating a brand that is recognized for what you are. To leverage your strengths, whether that is technical, people-oriented, or whatever. Building your brand is meant to bring you further into your industry as an authority or expert in an area. It’s meant to help you reach the next level, and grow in your life, not just your career.
2nd Job
One thing to understand, as well, is the amount of work involved in creating your brand is the time commitment. You need to become your own marketer, writer, idea person, and coach. It requires that you reach out to your community and add value. Help people, talk about things that are important or relevant in your industry, come up with innovative ideas. Become a person that people look forward to interacting with. Be the go-to person that makes things happen.
Rewards
There are numerous rewards for this, from additional opportunities in your career, to a new discovery of yourself. Building your personal brand also allows you to dig into your psyche and rediscover lost ideas and dreams that you may have set aside years ago. Your brand is about more than your career, it’s about becoming the best you that you can be.
There is a growing number resources online to help you find ways to build your brand. Many of them are tried and true methods that you can get started on without spending much (if anything). Also, I invite you to contact me directly if you have questions, I’d love to help answer whatever I can on the topic. My email is found in the sidebar under "Contact Me", or leave a comment below!
While Facebook is “growing up”, there are many, many things that are wrong with it. Things like CircleUp will help in that process, but you can’t beat a good blog, Twitter, Plaxo, Outlook, and maybe LinkedIn for business.
It seems Alex Iskold makes my point for me. This reflects one point I was making in my “Blog as a social network” post a week ago or so. And yes, the axiom “less is more” does hold true to social networking.
I’ve been reading and thinking about the iPhone a lot lately. I’m coming up on needing to upgrade my aging, failing, but fantastic T-Mobile MDA. I’ve been fascinated by the features and simplicity of the iPhone that has, of course, been the center of mobile tech hype for months now.
The reasons are simple and have little to do with the iPhone itself. Here they are.
Not T-Mobile This is a big deal for me, I’m not going to change my number over – all my family and friends are on T-Mobile and my calls to them are all out of the unlimited "mobile to mobile" pool that doesn’t cost me a dime extra.
No WMA support. Yep, 18 months ago I converted our entire library of tunes to WMA. I’m not going to do it again. I had to pick and there were upcoming WMA players at the time, my Pocket PCs were my player and new Nokia’s are compatible with the Windows Media Player sync tool.
Software I have literally hundreds of dollars of software that is designed for Windows Mobile. I’m not going to through that away just for because I got a new mobile device. I am glad that I bought only Bluetooth hardware accessories though – that move has paid off big time.
3G Yeah, you who know will point out that T-Mobile doesn’t even have a 3G service for their customers (it’s in deployment/testing yet), so I shouldn’t bring up the lack of 3G in the iPhone. Fine I won’t. But other devices on the market have had long experience with 3G implementation, so I won’t loose sleep over that.
Keyboard I’ve often scoffed at the keyboard on the face of the BlackBerry for a long time, but they are very handy to craft messages. My beloved MDA had a sliding keyboard, which I would buy again, but having one on the front of the device would be nice in several ways.
Control I must have control of the device. From the selection of the firmware to software to the network settings. Traits from being a true techno geek. I know how the devices work and I can create a better configuration for my work/usage habits than anyone else can for me.
Well I can’t think of any other things at this point, and this is not to crap on the iPhone. I really do want one, compared to my initial reaction when it was released. The device is indeed an advance in design, engineering, interface and usability. It’s just not on my list this year when I go shopping for a new device.
What will I be looking for? Probably going to be another Windows Mobile device. Will need to support 3G HSDPA, all the usual wireless support, keyboard, good camera (3MP or better), video capabilities (record and playback), sync with WMP, more memory and a faster processor…
What’s your take – should a person switch carriers just for a hyped (albeit good) device?
