Beyond the Inverted Pyramid

Take Steps Now to Build Your Personal Brand

Companies spend millions of dollars and a lot of effort to build their brands.  Why? A good brand brings its bearer instant name recognition and automatic credibility as well as a perception of reliability and trustworthiness in the market place.  A good brand is worth its weight in gold, literally and figuratively. 

 

According to an article in Business Week, the world's most valuable brand, Coca- Cola, is worth $6.7 billion.  (Read more at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/toc/06_32/B399606globalbrands.htm.)

 

Brands are evaluated based upon how much they are likely to earn in the future.  As employees, we are similarly evaluated based on how much value we are likely to bring to an organization.

 

We could all benefit from taking some tips from the brand leader when it comes to building our own personal brand.  Here are some best practices from Coke.

 

First, anticipate the needs of your clients.  For example, knowing that the annual benefits enrollment period is approaching, my team suggested an online contest to stimulate readership of the enrollment materials.  The number of contest participants was used a way to measure awareness of the program. 

 

Retool.  When I discovered what all my teenage nephew could do with his IPOD, I used a gift certificate to purchase one and the whole world of podcasting has got me thinking about all sorts of application for reaching various publics.

 

Engage partners. When I had the opportunity to hire three new staff members, I involved my two peer managers in the interview process.  Since they would be regularly working with the new team members, it made a lot of sense that they have an input into the hiring decision.  Involving them gained their additional support in integrating the new staffers into the company. 

 

Don't fear failure. I was recently the only woman over 40 in a step aerobics class.  I knew nothing about step, and was afraid I may fail miserably among the younger, more lithe, class members, but they coached and helped me.  Thanks to their support and facing my fear, I'm ready to sign up for pilates.

 

Take a page out of Coke's book.  Build your own brand.  Anticipate needs.  Retool yourself. Engage your partners and don't fear failure.  Your brand, too, can be worth its weight in gold.

 

 

The Writing Muse--Brain, Pen, Paper

 

There's an odd connection between a pen and my brain.

I'm a fairly good speller. But, when I'm cogitating on the spelling of a word, it seems like it comes to me much more readily when I'm holding a pen in my hand.  If I don't have one, I seek one out and then the word comes more easily. It's hard to explain the way words flow down my arm, through my fingers and out of my pen in a constant torrent, fluidly like water in a swift running stream.  I'm not consciously aware of their existence.  And then I pick up a pen and they are released from where ever they've been pent up. 

I imagine this is the way it happens for naturally gifted musicians. They pick up an instrument and the melodies just flow. My grandfather, who was never formally schooled in music, could play any instrument he picked up--banjo, accordion, harmonica, piano.  I can play guitar, but I lack his gift. My playing, like most other things I do, requires hard work and practice.  Maybe I've inherited my grandpap's natural ability to express himself through the written word rather than through melody.

Carl Dixon on the Accordion

In any case, it is the one truly "natural" gift I have and I'm fortunate to have been able to both harness it as a vocation and put it to use as a form of personal expression.  Here's to you, Pap.

Live from the Nation's Capitol

Live from the Nation's Capitol. Here I am, live at the nation's capitol. I'm bleary-eyed from the red-eye trip here and then back again, but the sights and sounds of this place are unique to Washington, D.C.

A voice is blaring over the public address system, "US Airways is proud to host Honor Flight, a non-profit organization bringing World War II veterans from across the country in to Washington for the day to see their Memorial. Come wish them well at Gate 35." And I think, not for the first time, I'm not in Kansas anymore.

As we were landing at the Ronald Reagan National Airport, the Arlington National Cemetery passes  beneath me. Row after row after row of white markers standing in perfect symmetry, now and through the ages a silent tribute to all of those soldiers who rest there in perpetuity.

As I take a taxi through picturesque Alexandria with its brick sidewalks and colonial houses, I am reminded of just how long ago people settled here and have been making history. These homes haven't been swept away by tornadoes ripping across the flatlands. No, they've withstood storms of a different type. Urban flight, urban blight and urban renewal. $600,000 for a condo.

As I eat lunch at an otherwise ubiquitous TGIFridays, I look out across the airport tarmac, littered by luggage carts, to see the Rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial in the distance. This is it. This is the heart of our country. What happens here definitely does not stay here. It is heard across the world.

In Kansas the airport shops sell tee shirts saying "Will work for shoes" and sport Dorothy's ruby slippers. Here, the shops are predictably full of election memorabilia including tee shirts that say everything from "Thank his mama for O'Bama" to "Vote for Bill Clinton for First Lady."

And, once again, here comes the public address announcement. This time, in a manner representative of the melting pot this is, a man with an Oriental accent continues to promote the vets, "Help us cheer our heroes, our World War II vets, returning home to Atlanta, Georgia. Remember, freedom isn't free."

Here, in our nation's capitol, that is something that's impossible to forget.

Redescovering a Long-Lost Friend

I paid a long overdue visit to an old friend recently.

I walked into our local public library and I signed up for the first library card I've had in 10 years. Access to a home computer and the Internet had kept me away from my old friend for too long. While technology has eliminated the card catalog, and hottest seat in the house for many is in front of a computer screen, there are many things that have not changed.

The library is an equalizer, where the only cost for access to books, research, and now the cyberworld, is the desire for knowledge.

The library offers the thrill of adventure. Trolling through the library stacks is like sniffing out a good bargain at the local department store. You never know what you might uncover--an old book you read in childhood or a new book from a favorite writer.

At the library, retail renting is encouraged. You can try books that you may not invest the money to buy and return them if they don't fit, or get more of the same if they are a match. It's not the kind of thing you are encouraged to do at Macy's or Wal-Mart.

So, while I love my new friend, the Internet, there is a place for old friends, also, where you can revisit old adventures, but go on new ones there as well.