How to Create Your Personal Brand in 6 Easy Steps

“Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”

– Tom Peters in Fast Company

You’ve probably heard of the term “personal branding.”

It’s a trendy phrase popular with personal development types that means “how you present yourself to the world.”

The main idea is that whether you like it or not, the world is going to have an opinion about you.  Most people don’t think too much about how they’re seen.  They just live and let the world think of them however they’d like.

 

“Personal branding” is about intentionally influencing how the world sees you.  It’s about purposefully packaging that “brand called You.”

The benefit is obvious. Read the Rest of This Article »

11 Warning Signs That Your Job Owns You (Without You Knowing It)

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You walk into work a couple minutes early and head straight to your desk.  You open your inbox, take a look through your to-do list, and get ready to start the day.  You try to plan your day as quickly as possible to insure you get everything finished early so you can meet friends for drinks after work.

You’re particularly motivated because you have plans, so you knock out your first three tasks in record time.  Then all hell breaks loose.

All of a sudden you’re fielding emergency phone calls with one hand, answering emergency emails with the other, scheduling two hours worth of meetings and just like that you have to cancel your plans. Read the Rest of This Article »

The Case for Being Negative

We’ve all heard it. “Be positive” they say. “Focus on the good in life” they explain.
“Think, you could be in a much worse situation so you should be thankful for what you have” they command. Well, screw that. I say, forget being positive…being negative has its own virtues.

Honestly, I’m not some weirdo who goes out of his way to find things to be negative about.. Nope, I’m not going to tell you that you should be always pessimistic and pissed off with the world. But I am going to tell you that it is absolutely ridiculous to focus 100% on being positive in your life. Being super incredibly uber-positive is detrimental to your health (much like eating lead paint). You see, optimism is a good thing…but blind positivity will keep you from actually changing your life or making a meaningful impact to this world. Read the Rest of This Article »