Common Sense Ideas for Becoming the Career Star You Are Meant to Be

Your personal brand is a great way to create positive personal impact.  A good personal brand defines you to the world.  I work hard every day at building my “Common Sense Guy” brand.  This blog is one of my brand building tools.  Do you have a personal brand?  What do you do to build and reinforce it?

William Arrruda, my friend and author of “Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand” talks about the “Three C’s” of personal branding: Clarity, Consistency, Constancy.  I hope these come through in my writing on this blog.  Keep them in mind as you go about creating your personal brand.

Here’s another important point for you to remember about your personal brand.  A good brand will attract a lot of people to you.  It will also repel others who do not share your way of thinking.  A personal brand that appeals to everybody is too vanilla.  It doesn’t define you sharply enough.  What’s your take on this?

I got a good lesson in this the other day.  I post this blog on a number of social networking sites where I am a member.  Last week, I did a post on interpersonal competence in which I highlighted Senator Barack Obama’s very gracious victory speech after he became the presumptive Democratic party nominee for US President.  Four people commented on that post on one of the social networking sites.  One person said:

“would you please shut up with your santomonious (sic) blogs. thank you.”

At first, I felt bad and a little angry, as I don’t think of myself as a sanctimonious person.  Then I just smiled to myself because this comment indicated that I’m making some progress with my personal brand.  Someone was so irritated by what I said, he or she took the time to tell me to “shut up”.  I guess my personal brand repels him or her.

I don’t want this to happen frequently.  I want my personal brand to resonate with people.  However, this comment indicates that my personal brand is not too vanilla.  I'm interested in hearing your opinion on this.

The common sense point here is clear.  You need to create a strong, unique personal brand to help you create positive personal impact.  A good personal brand is not all things to all people.  Your personal brand should be something that sets you apart from the crowd – not something that identifies you as a member of the crowd.  Remember, a good personal brand is bound to repel some people, while it attracts others.

As always, I’m interested in your perspective on these thoughts.  I welcome and appreciate your comments.  Thanks for reading -- and for commenting.

Bud