It s a shame I've been sitting on this book for about two years now. A friend of mine gave me Never Eat Alone , by Keith Ferrazzi a couple years ago (thanks Rey), and it s been on my bookcase ever since. It was resting there not because I didn't want to read it, but because I already had so many others in the pipeline. I finally got around to reading it last month and I definitely recommend it. In very simple terms, Ferrazzi explains why networking is important and how to do it. From how to make call lists to planning dinners to personal branding to goal setting, it s all here. He also maintains a valuable blog .
Inevitably there will be times when you have setbacks or things don t go your way. Maybe you didn't get a job you thought you were sure to get. Maybe you lost a job unexpectedly, didn't win a contract, or lost a major client. Your car always seems to break down right after you've had some other unexpected expense. These kinds of situations immediately place us in crisis. They don t feel good, but sometimes they re what we need in order to grow. The beautiful thing about crises is that they force us to take a step back and reevaluate what s going on in our lives and rediscover what we truly want and need. When we get over that initial shock and feeling of disappointment, we might realize that maybe that job wasn't really the best for us anyway. Maybe, just maybe, that wasn't what you really wanted to spend your life doing. Maybe that friend was holding you back instead of pushing you forward. The way I deal with crises of these sorts is simple: If something doesn't go my way professionally, I try to create a situation that would be more rewarding than the situation originally planned. A while ago, I was offered a job that looked very promising. After I accepted the offer, they pushed the start date back three times, later informing me (via e-mail) that they wanted to bring me on in the near future but I should feel free to explore other options. I was extremely disappointed. I felt disrespected and angry, but decided to make the best of the situation and follow my dream of working internationally. I then flew to Santiago, Chile and had great professional and personal experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise. Later, reflecting back on the original opportunity, I realized that working for a company that avoids a start date three times and then can t pick up the phone to explain the situation is probably not where I need to spend my time. Use setbacks as an opportunity to put your goals in order and act on them. In the moment, it s difficult to look at a setback as temporary, but they are. They happen to everybody. It s how you respond to them that will determine how they affect you.
Question:
Michael, what makes you the personal branding Guru?
Response:
After I opened up to questions about personal branding, one of the first ones I received was one I was hoping to get: “Michael, why are you the personal branding guru?” Good question. Honestly, I don’t think I am a personal branding guru. If you do a search on personal branding, you most likely will not find me among the top results. You might not even find me in the first few pages. However, what I’ve noticed is that most people who rank among the top focus more on what I’d call self-promotion, not personal branding. Most of the articles and advice I see focus on how to get more of something. The titles are, Ten Ways To Grow Your Number of Twitter Followers or Top Ways To Get Noticed In Your Organization. There tends to be a focus on providing information on the tools and techniques you can use to increase your popularity. Indeed, it’s important for people to know about you and what you do. However, I feel there is a lack of discussion (in this arena anyway) that focuses on how to identify your strengths and how to first truly know yourself. What’s your value proposition?
I’m hoping to help fill that void. Yes, it’s important to understand how to make effective use of the Internet, social media, events, and networking. But the image you promote needs to be real. It needs to represent your authentic self. Before anybody else can understand who you are and what you do, you must have a complete and clear understanding of who you are and what you do. The first thing I do with clients, regardless of the size of their organization, is coach them through an extensive exercise where we hone in on exactly that. Until they can succinctly and clearly describe who they are, what they do, and why it matters, there’s no reason to expect we can effectively communicate that message.
About a year ago, I read two important books recommended to me by @VoxLive while I was interviewing for a job with Apple, Strengths Finder 2.0 and Strengths Based Leadership, both by Tom Rath. These books come with a code you can use to take the Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment (so make sure if you buy these, buy at least one of them new). By the way, if you haven’t taken this assessment, I’d definitely recommend you do so. What I found when I took these tests is that one of my salient traits is that of the maximizer, which means one of my core strengths is identifying the strengths in others. Basically, I’m good at helping people do what they do better. If you’re interested in the complete results of that assessment, you can check it in this previous blog post where I shared them.
So, to answer the question, the thing that probably makes me most qualified to talk and write about personal branding is that I care. I truly want to help people get to where they want to be. I may not be a guru in anything, but I understand people and I understand branding. Until next time…peace.
I’ll be speaking in a facilitated panel discussion at the screening of YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip) this Friday. Come check it out. Details are as follows:
FILM: “YERT… YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL ROAD TRIP” (113 min, Mark Dixon & Ben Evans, 2011)
JOIN US AFTER THE SCREENING FOR A FACILITATED DISCUSSION WITH:
- MARK DIXON, Filmmaker/Producer of the film
- MICHAEL MAINE, With the Bainbridge Graduate Institute,
- SUSAN GLEASON, With YES! MAGAZINE, and others!
YERT: 50 States, …1 Year, …Zero Garbage?
With video camera in hand & tongue in cheek, and called to action by a planet in peril, three friends hit the road -traveling with hope, humor, and all of their garbage -to explore every state in America (the good, the bad…and the weird) in search of the extraordinary innovators and citizens who are tackling humanity’s greatest environmental crises. Americans want to do the right thing -they just don’t want to look strange doing it!
As the YERT team layers outlandish eco-challenges onto their yearlong quest, an unexpected turn of events pushes them to the brink in this award-winning docu-comedy. The film features Bill McKibben, Wes Jackson, Will Allen, Janine Benyus, Joel Salatin, David Orr, and others.
“The Fellini trio of the climate justice movement, the YERT film crew has managed to pull off the impossible in the world of cinema–a deeply absorbing and often hilarious road trip that confronts the badlands of our nation’s spiraling descent into dirty energy darkness, only to emerge along the solar roadways and wind-swept plains into the myriad possibilities for new power and sustainable living. By the dramatic end of Your Environmental Road Trip, audiences will not only cheer, but feel compelled to spring to their feet to join an inspiring movement for change. If only our nation’s policymakers will watch this important film and do the same.” – Jeff Biggers, author, Huffington Post
For trailer and much more, go to: www.yert.com
Download the flyer COLOR or B&W
(Event is FREE and open to the public! …but Donations are kindly accepted).
**BTW, if you’re on Bainbridge or you can’t make our Friday’s screening, there’s also a screening of YERT, with filmmaker Mark Dixon, on Thursday March 1st, 7:00 PM, at the Historic Lynnwood Theater, 4569 Lynwood Center Road Northeast, Bainbridge Isle, WA 98110 - Sponsored by “Matinees That Matter” and the Bainbridge Graduate Institute!