Excerpt from the Book
Read an excerpt from How YOU™ are like Shampoo.
Introduction
How Are YOU™ Like Shampoo?
I always worry about people who say, “I’m going to do this for ten
years [but] I really don’t like it very well. And then I’ll do this…”
That’s a little like saving up sex for your old age.
—Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
and the “Oracle of Omaha”
Statistics indicate that about 75% of today’s employed people are
unhappy with their jobs. Can you imagine this? We spend an
average of one-third of our lives at work, and 75% of us are
unhappy while we’re there. Since we sleep another one-third of our lives,
that means that a large chunk of our waking lives are spent miserable!
What kind of a life is that?
If you’re one of those people who aren’t as satisfied at work as you’d
like to be, defining your personal brand can help you start to enjoy your
job again. Once you define and clarify your role at work and what you want
to accomplish — which is what personal branding is all about — you can
embrace work with new meaning. Knowing who YOU™ are can help you
eliminate that groan when the alarm goes off in the morning. Yes, you can
be happy, fulfilled, and motivated at work.
When you look at your work as an opportunity to build a personal
brand, you begin to make every minute of your career count. It brings new
energy and purpose to your job. When people ask you what you do, you’ll
be able to answer the question with enthusiasm.
Author and motivational speaker Nido Qubein once said, “Life
doesn’t give you what you want; it gives you what you deserve.” So, what
you focus on is what you will get, right? In other words, if you want a
better career and more satisfied work life, it’s up to you. If you don’t
do something about it, nothing will happen. Your success at work is
in your control, and a large part of the foundation of that control is
learning how to master your personal brand.
Defining your personal brand is only the first step in the process,
however. It would make no sense to define your brand and leave it in
a desk drawer while you continue on the same as always. No, you need
a roadmap to help you communicate your brand to others so that it
serves you well. You need to learn exactly how you can become known
for your personal brand. This is how you achieve your goals. This is
how you change your work life for the better. This is how you take the
steering wheel of your career and drive it to where you want it to be.
Did You Know You Already Have a Personal Brand?
When I speak to individuals or corporate groups about the topic of
personal branding, occasionally someone will say, “Oh, that sounds
interesting, but no thanks. I’m actually not into self-promotion. I don’t
have — or even want — a personal brand.” It’s then that I break the news
to them: Everyone already has a personal brand.
Yes, it’s true. You don’t have to sit down and give your personal brand
any thought to have one. Just by virtue of being you in the workplace,
you have a personal brand. The question is whether you have the
personal brand you want. Are you living up to the potential that YOU™
could achieve if you created your personal brand consciously rather
than leaving it to chance?
The truth is that if you don’t take control of your personal brand
and make a conscious decision about how you want to be known, you
may be leaving an impression that undermines your success.
Many years ago, a very famous man discovered the hard way that
his personal brand wasn’t what he wanted at all. Alfred Nobel was a very
successful and wealthy Swedish industrialist in the late 1800’s. He was
single-handedly credited with inventing two things: dynamite and the
detonator, the apparatus that actually causes dynamite to ignite from a
distance. He had made millions with these inventions, and he was living
a wonderful millionaire’s life.
His brother, Ludwig Nobel, who was also a well-known wealthy
businessman, died in 1888. The obituary that showed up the next day
in the newspaper, however, was switched, and it was Alfred’s obituary
that appeared, not Ludwig’s. So, Alfred Nobel had the rare opportunity
of opening up the morning paper and reading his own life story. Can
you imagine how powerful that would be?
But Alfred must have cringed when he read the headline of his
obituary. It labeled Alfred “The Merchant of Death” because of his work
with dynamite and detonators. He realized in that single moment that
everything he had done would forever associate his personal brand with
death — unless he took control and did something about it.
So, he decided to change his personal brand. He made a plan to
develop the Nobel Prizes for three things he really cared about — peace,
literature, and science. And, when he died in 1895, Alfred Nobel left his
millions to the establishment of those prizes. He didn’t want his name,
“Nobel,” to stand for destruction and death. Look what the name Nobel
stands for today — the highest possible awards in literature, science,
and peace.
You have no doubt heard of the Nobel Prizes, right? But you
probably didn’t know the other work that Nobel had done in his life.
That’s because Alfred Nobel was successful in changing his personal
brand so that his name could stand for what he wanted it to stand for.
As author Carl Bard said, “Though no one can go back and make a
brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new
ending.”
My Personal Branding System
So, here’s the reality: You already have a personal brand. You may just
not know how to manage it yet. This book, How YOU™ Are Like
Shampoo, is a do-it-yourself, no-nonsense guide to achieving success
through personal branding. It’s simple, easy to read, and it works. As
you read these pages, I hope that you will experience that “ah-ha!”
moment that comes from the power of thinking of yourself as a unique
personal brand. I hope you’ll see how you can use personal branding
to make real tangible changes in your career that can lead to increased
income, job satisfaction, and career progress.
I have designed How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo to take the
guesswork out of uncovering your personal brand and making it work
for you. It’s all about practical application. Through an innovative,
proven step-by-step process which utilizes exercises and worksheets,
you will define:
- Your current personal brand — the one you already have at work (think Nobel and dynamite); and
- Your desired personal brand — the one you need to develop in order to achieve your goals (think Nobel and his prizes.)
By comparing both your current and your desired personal brands,
you will be able to see exactly what adjustments you need to make, and
the exercises will help you bridge the gaps between where you are now
and where you want to be.
Most importantly, your desired personal brand won’t just remain a
nice idea in your head. You will learn specific ways to communicate it
to others and apply it to your job. We will work together to:
- Define your existing and future personal brands using a Personal Brand Positioning Statement format modeled off the six core elements used in corporate branding.
- Communicate your desired personal brand through a Personal Brand Marketing Plan that will help you more effectively master the five activities you do every day that most impact your personal brand.
- Avoid damaging your desired personal brand by learning from the mistakes of others. This is one of the most unique and fun parts of the system — our Personal Brand Busters™. These will help you bypass the most common pitfalls in establishing your personal brand. In other words, you’ll know what to watch out for before you even get there!
We’ll use the graphic labeled “The Proven Pathway to Branding
YOU™” on page 20 like a map to explain each step of our personal
branding system. Don’t worry if it doesn’t all make sense to you yet. It
will — I promise!
You will also gain tangible tools to help you check the development
of your desired personal brand three months, six months, and further
down the road. You will discover ways to evaluate your progress and keep
your personal brand on track and evolving as your career progresses.
Input Equals Output
How YOU™ Are Like Shampoo is an interactive, action-oriented
experience, but your personal brand won’t be handed to you on a silver
platter. I can guarantee you one thing for sure: What you put in to
defining and communicating your personal brand is exactly what you
will get out of it. The more time and energy you devote to your personal
brand, the faster and better your results will be.
So, I encourage you to really take the time to think about the
exercises and worksheets in this book. I urge you not to rush through
reading the book, thinking that you’ll go back to the exercises at a later
date. Instead, spend as much time as you need to work through each
section thoroughly before moving on to the next one. In this way, you’ll
truly be ready to take control of your personal brand by the time you
turn that last page.
Get ready to feel empowered as you take charge of your personal
brand and become the Brand Manager of YOU™. Let’s discover how to
make YOU™ work for you!
