I’m really enjoying writing this series of posts further explaining the ideas in my latest career success coach book, Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I hope you’re enjoying reading them.  I’m pleased to say that Success Tweets is now in its second printing.  You can pick up a copy at your local book store, or online at Amazon.com.  Better yet, you can download the eBook for free at http://www.successtweets.com.

Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 98…

Don’t worry about getting credit for doing the job.  Worry about getting the job done well – accurately and on time.

Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States, really got it right when he provided this bit of career advice, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

Many years ago I was assigned a joint project with a deadbeat for a partner.  This guy was bad.  He was a triple threat – not so bright, a big ego and lazy.  As the project wore on and we were nearing a deadline, I thought about going to my boss and complaining that he wasn’t carrying his weight.  I decided not to do so. 

I slogged on, got the project done well and on time and submitted it – with his name and mine on the finished product.  I was feeling kind of resentful, because I was worried that even though I did all the work, he was getting half of the credit.

A couple weeks later, our boss called me into his office.  He said that he wanted to compliment me on the fine job I did on the project.  I bit my tongue and said, “Gil and I worked on that project together.”  My boss said, “I know Gil’s work, and I know your work.  I could tell that you did all of the work on that project.”

I said “thanks for noticing.”  He said, “I assigned you that joint project as a bit of a test.  I wanted to see how well you could work with others.  I figured you would get frustrated with Gil because I knew he wasn’t up to doing quality work on this kind of project.  I wanted to see what you would do.  You did the work, and didn’t rat out Gil.  I’m proud of you for that.”

We can debate his leadership style here; I don’t think it’s a good idea to treat the people who work for you as lab rats.  But this story makes an interesting point about the career advice in Success Tweet 98.  Do your job.  Do it well.  Don’t worry about who gets credit.

It’s been my experience that people in positions of authority can identify good work when they see it; and that they can differentiate the work of the people who report to them.  If you consistently produce high quality work and results, you will get your due.

Take it from this career success coach.  Focus on getting the job done – well and on time and you will get the recognition due you in the long run.  And creating life and career success is a long run – a marathon, not a sprint.  As the old saying goes, “The cream rises to the top.” 

Delivering high quality work, consistently and in the long run will get you noticed and help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Stay focused on your work, get creative with your ideas.  Make sure you cross all of your t’s and dot all of your i’s and you’ll succeed.

The common sense success career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people deliver high quality work, consistently and over the long run.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 98 in Success Tweets.  “Don’t worry about getting credit for doing the job.  Worry about getting the job done well – accurately and on time.”  Most leaders recognize the output of the people who work for them.  That’s why it’s important to focus on doing a good job on every job – no matter how small.  You’ll be building your brand and portfolio in your manager’s mind.  In the long run, producing consistently high quality work is the best way to get the recognition due you — and the career success that will come with it.

That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 98.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

I’m in the middle of a long series of career success coach posts based on the ideas in my new book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at your local bookstore or on line at Amazon.com.  Better yet, you can get a free download at www.SuccessTweets.com. 

 Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 66…

Nurture your network.  What your friends, colleagues and customers say about you is how others will think of your brand.

Successful people build strong networks.  Strong networks are a great way to develop your personal brand — or to wreck it.  Here’s a true story about one of my career success coach clients.

James was with his company for close to 30 years and was a very senior executive. He had risen through the ranks and was well regarded by almost everyone who knew him. But, a couple of years ago, he was asked to resign. 

 James became the protégé of a senior manager early in his career.  As the manager moved up, James moved up with him. The manager had great faith in James’ business acumen and his problem solving ability. Whenever a problem arose, James’ manager would ask him to “look into it and fix it.”

 James enjoyed these challenges. He was smart, and had an uncanny ability to zero in on what was going wrong. He was equally adept at coming up with solutions to problems.

 James created issues for himself though. Most of the time, the problems he was asked to fix were not in his area of responsibility. They were problems that his peers, other people at his level who reported to his boss, were experiencing. In pleasing his boss and solving problems, James stepped all over the toes of his peers – sometimes not so gently. They came to resent him for it.  And this hurt his personal brand.

One day, his boss left the company. One of James’ peers was appointed to take his place.  Three months later, James was asked to resign. He was asked to resign not because of his performance. In some ways, it was because he was too competent.

He was asked to resign because he hadn’t built strong relationships with his peers. Often, by doing what his boss wanted, he alienated the people closest to him. 

James and I began working together.  My career advice to him was to build his brand by working on his interpersonal skills.  I helped James understand that it was important not only to do a great job, but to do so in a way that did not alienate those around him.

I’m happy to say that James landed a job as President of a small company in his industry.  We still speak.  He tells me that the secret to his newfound success comes from both his willingness to work hard and to build and maintain relationships with people at all levels of his company.

James’ story illustrates an important point about career success.  Successful realize that relationships are the key to building a winning personal brand.  No one can go it alone and succeed.  You have to build and nurture a strong network of colleagues and peers. 

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people’s personal brands identify them as being interpersonally competent.  Interpersonally competent people build and maintain strong relationships with the people close to them.  They also resolve conflict in a manner that enhances, not detracts, from these relationships.  If you want to build a brand that identifies you as being interpersonally competent follow the career advice in Tweet 66 in Success Tweets.  “Nurture your network.  What your friends, colleagues and customers say about you is how others will think of your brand.”  Put as much effort into building strong relationships with your colleagues as you do in producing good results.  Remember, success depends not only on what you do, but how you do it. 

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 66 in Success Tweets – the importance of relationships to your success.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

This is another in my series of posts further explaining the career advice in my new book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets on line at Amazon.com, or in your local bookstore.  Better yet, get it for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.  You can see an interview I did about Success Tweets on the Selling Books.com website.

Today’s career success coach advice comes from Success Tweet 65…

A good personal brand highlights your uniqueness.  Be unconventional.  Break rules.

I love the movies.  Lst year, I was really pleased when I was asked to review a book called The Big Picture: Essential Lessons for the Movies.  Authors Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo do a great job of discussing the life and career success ideas in over 200 movies.  This is a very thoughtful book. 

Kevin and Michael make some great points about success that pop up in some unlikely movies.  For example, they use the movie Babe to make the point that it’s important to be different – and break some rules — if you want to get recognized and succeed.  That’s great personal branding and career advice.  Creating and nourishing your unique personal brand is the first step in creating positive personal impact. 

Here’s some of what Kevin and Michael have to say about Babe…

“Babe is a simple story, but it contains an important lesson.    Think of how many businesses have stuck to the way things always are and completely missed the opportunity to become something entirely new, bigger and better.

“MTV didn’t invent video or records, but pulled them together in an entirely new cable channel.  CBS, in contrast, owned a television network and a record company, but missed the chance.”

I experienced a rule breaking moment the other day.  I was in a local bookstore looking for a book on fitness.  As you can imagine, there was no shortage.  As I opened various books to check them out, I found Tamba Mbawa’s business card in every one of them.  I purchased a book and took it home.  When I got there, I went to Tamba’s website to see what he is about.  Not surprisingly, Tamba is a personal trainer and fitness coach. 

I thought this was a great example of breaking the rules and personal brand building.  Tamba spent the time to go to a local Barnes and Noble and place his card in every one of the fitness books they have on the shelf.  He was getting his name in front of a very targeted audience; people who purchase books on fitness.  Pretty cool idea in my book.  And one that is a perfect manifestation of what Kevin and Michael have to say about breaking the rules to get recognized for your uniqueness.

When I first started blogging, my dad read a few of my posts and said, “You’re giving away some of your best ideas.  You shouldn’t do that.  You need to be selling your advice, not giving it away.”  At the time, content rich blogs ran counter to the rule of jealously guarding your proprietary information. 

I told my dad, that I’m happy when people read my blog and find ideas they can put to use.  More power to them.  I also told him that people who find my ideas helpful are more likely to look to me for career advice when they run up against a problem they can’t solve on their own.  I was breaking a rule to build my brand.

Interestingly, giving away solid useful information is the new rule.  Ask any internet marketer or marketing guru.  They will all tell you to build a relationship and establish credibility with your target audience by providing them with useful information at no cost.  Funny how things change.

George Bernard Shaw is my favorite playwright.  There is nothing so good as a well performed Bernard Shaw play.  He also had something to say about breaking rules…

“All great truths start out as blasphemies.”

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

So go ahead, break a few rules.  Be a little unreasonable.  Be unconventional, make your brand uniquely you.

One last story.  Tim McKernan had one of the most unique personal brands, I have come across.  He was The Barrel Man, a superrfan of the Denver Broncos. For 30 years and in all kinds of weather, he attended every Bronco home game wearing nothing but an orange barrel with a Bronco’s logo and a cowboy hat and boots.

He wore his costume for the first time in 1977.  He had a $10 bet with his brother.  He bet that the costume would get him on TV.  He won that one, and was on TV every time the Broncos were for the next 30 years.  John Madden always mentioned him when he was doing a game in Denver.

Tim’s unique brand got him inducted into the Visa Hall of Fans at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  He passed away in 2009.  He was in the stands for both of the Bronco’s Super Bowl victories.

You don’t have to go to the lengths Tim McKernan did when building your brand.  But I encourage you to think like Tim.  Being a little outrageous, like wearing only a barrel to football games in December in Denver, can help you stand out from the crowd and get recognized.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people build personal brands that are unique.  Breaking a few rules is one way of building a unique brand.  By breaking the rules, I don’t mean doing something illegal or unethical.  I mean thinking outside of the box and not being constrained by conventional wisdom.  In the movie Babe, Babe the pig succeeds because he doesn’t act like a pig.  He is friendly and mannerly – characteristics not usually associated with pigs.  What rules are holding you back from building a great personal brand?  How can you break them to demonstrate your uniqueness?  Follow the career advice in Tweet 65 in Success Tweets.  “A good personal brand highlights your uniqueness.  Be unconventional.  Break rules.”  Don’t do anything that will land you in jail, or get you fired.  But think outside the box, find ways to create a Cherry Garcia brand, not one which is plain vanilla.  Think of new ways to combine ideas.  An iPod after all, is nothing more than a hard drive with a set of headphones.  Figure out how you can become the iPod in your work team.  Create a brand that shows how unique and fascinating you really are.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 65 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment.  Share the most unique personal brand you’ve come across.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

I’m still writing about the common sense career success coach advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets on Amazon.com, or at your local book store.  Better yet, you can download a free copy of the eBook version at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 64…

Build your personal brand.  Do whatever it takes to make sure that people think of you in the way you want them to.

Abraham Lincoln once said something that applies here.  “Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.”  The idea of constantly striving “to be worthy of recognition” captures the essence of creating positive personal impact and is the basis of a strong personal brand.

As I point out in Success Tweets, I have found in my career success coach work that people who create positive personal impact have three things in common:

• People with positive personal impact develop and nurture their unique personal brands.
• People with positive personal impact are impeccable in their presentation of self.
• People with positive personal impact know and follow the basic rules of etiquette.

If you develop and nurture your unique personal brand, present yourself well and use the basic rules of etiquette consistently, you will become recognized as a person with positive personal impact. 

There are two keys here.  First, work constantly and continually at creating positive personal impact and on building your personal brand.  Second, realize that this won’t come overnight.  You have to work at it.  That’s the idea behind the first part of Mr. Lincoln’s quote – “don’t worry when you are not recognized.”

I’ll use myself as an example.  I have been working on my personal brand, The Common Sense Guy, for over ten years.  I never miss an opportunity to reinforce it.  My business card says, “Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy.”  As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I tend to end most of my blog posts by saying something like, “The common sense point here is simple…”  When I speak, I always make sure that my audiences know the career advice I am dispensing is based in common sense.  When I complete on line forms, I always enter “The Common Sense Guy” for both my company name and my job title.

It’s the same when it comes to attire.  When I pack for business trips, I pull out two or three pairs pair of dark charcoal gray slacks, a black or blue blazer, several white shirts and striped ties.  I always wear white shirts and striped ties when I visit my clients.  Often, they tell me that I don’t need to dress up as they are a business casual office.  I always reply by saying, “I put on my tie today, because I knew I would be seeing an important person – you.”  This comment always gets a smile – and from what I can tell, people are flattered by it.  It helps me create positive personal impact and build my brand.

My white shirt and striped tie look has become so well known among people who I see regularly, that they are surprised when I deviate from it.  A couple of months ago, I was getting dressed and noticed a favorite foulard patterned tie on my tie rack.  I decided to be a little wild and crazy and wear it.  Sure enough, one of my clients asked if I were changing my look – from striped to patterned ties. 

This little story illustrates the power of consistency.  I had never discussed my preference for striped ties with this woman.  However, at some level, she noticed my white shirt and striped tie presentation.  It must have registered, or she would not have mentioned it when I deviated from my normal tie selection.  That’s the power of consistency and constancy when it comes to personal branding.

What is your personal brand?  What do you do every day to reinforce it?  What else can you do?  If you want to learn more about personal branding, Dan Schawbel and William Arruda are the two best sources I know.  Check out Dan’s personal branding blog, and William’s site.  William was featured in the August 2010 issue of Money Magazine.

Knowing and using proper business etiquette can help build you brand too.  You’ll come off as polished and professional. 

When it comes to etiquette, I have one simple piece of advice – do whatever it takes to make the people around you feel comfortable.  I have an acquaintance who is an etiquette nut.  She can quote you chapter and verse from Emily Post.  Unfortunately, she is so correct in her behavior and her expectations of others, that dining with her is an unpleasant experience.  I am pretty well versed in dining etiquette; yet when I dine with this woman I spend way too much time worrying about the more esoteric dining etiquette rules. 

I spend so much time worrying about the rules that I never enjoy my meal.  This is probably more my fault than hers, but she contributes to a general feeling of discomfort in these situations because she is such a stickler for the rules. 

Polite, well mannered people never call attention to other’s social faux pas.  In fact, they do just the opposite; they do whatever they can to avoid making other people feel uncomfortable.  A few years ago, my niece graduated from college.  Cathy and I were at a dinner in her honor.  The man sitting to my left used my bread plate.  Like a lot of guys, he didn’t know that his water glass was on the right, and his bread plate on the left.  I said nothing and placed my roll on the edge of my plate.  Cathy noticed, and whispered that I should be using my bread plate.  I whispered back, “I would but Joe is using it and I didn’t want to embarrass him.” 

While knowing the rules is helpful, not embarrassing other people is the true measure of a gracious person.  And being gracious is a great way to build and reinforce your personal brand.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Follow the common sense career advice in Tweet 64 in Success Tweets.  “Build your personal brand.  Do whatever it takes to make sure that people think of you in the way you want them to.”  Heed Abraham Lincoln’s advice — strive to be worthy of recognition.  I love this career advice.  If you strive to be worthy of recognition, you’ll be doing the right things.  If you strive merely to be recognized, you may take some short cuts and do damage to your personal brand.  Be worthy of being recognized by developing and nurturing your personal brand; being impeccable in your appearance; and helping the people around you to feel comfortable in social situations.  If you do just three things, you’ll create powerful positive personal impact based on your unique personal brand.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 64 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment.  Share your personal brand with us.  Tell us what you do daily to build it.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

I’m still blogging about the career success coach advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bit of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  You can get a free copy of Success Tweets at www.SuccessTweets.com.  I’m writing about creating positive personal impact in this group of posts.

Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 63…

Be visible.  Volunteer for tough jobs.  Brand yourself as a person who can and does make significant contributions.

Being visible is a great way to create positive personal impact.  Volunteering for tough jobs is the best way to become visible.  Tough jobs usually come in two flavors – 1) things no one else wants to do, and 2) tasks in which success is not guaranteed.  Volunteering for both types of jobs will get you noticed in a positive way.  Trust me here.  This is good career advice.

Let me give you an example.  Several years ago, I was working for a very large company.  This company was committed to supporting the United Way.  Every year, they conducted a huge campaign encouraging all employees to contribute.  Running the campaign was a job no one wanted to do.  Who wants to ask their coworkers for money?

One year I volunteered to run the headquarters United Way campaign.  Actually, my boss suggested that I volunteer, so I did.  I ran a successful campaign, bringing in a higher percentage of donors and a higher absolute dollar amount than the previous year.  It was a lot of painstaking, detail work.  I also had to manage a group of other volunteers who were canvassing their departments.

What started out as something I felt I had to do turned into a great experience.  I met several senior executives in the company.  I met several influential people in New York City.  And I demonstrated my ability to manage a large, complex project and bring it to a successful conclusion.  And, I felt good about myself when I visited a couple of the agencies who were receiving funds from my company’s contributions.

I ended up getting a promotion as a direct result of running the United Way campaign.  One of the executives I met during the campaign liked what he saw in me, and offered me a position in his business unit.  I created positive personal impact (with her at least) by taking on a job no one wanted and doing a good job with it.

Taking on a job in which success is not guaranteed is also a great way to create positive personal impact  and build your personal brand.  I have a friend who took on a very difficult job when he was a Sales Manager. 

His company’s CEO had a son who was a slacker.  He had a couple of jobs within the company and had failed miserably in all of them.  My friend was asked if he would fill one of his open sales positions with the CEO’s son.  Several of his friends advised him against this – telling him that the son was not a good performer, and never would be.

My friend took on the task.  He welcomed the CEO’s son to his sales team.  He worked with him extensively.  By the time he was finished, the CEO’s son was a good performer – not a great performer, but a good one.  My friend took on a tough job, one in which success was far from guaranteed, and succeeded in it.

He created such powerful positive impact with the CEO that his career success moved rapidly.  He went from District Sales Manager, to Regional Sales Manager to VP of Sales, to the President of his business unit in the space of six or seven years. 

Some people said he was just in the right place at the right time. I think he took advantage of an opportunity that many people told him to avoid.  He created his own career success by taking on, and succeeding in, a tough job where success wasn’t guarnateed.

Stephen Covey suggests thinking of jobs in one of four ways.

• Not Important and Not Urgent
• Not Important and Urgent
• Important and Not Urgent
• Important and Urgent

Volunteering for tough jobs that no one else wants to do falls into the Important but Not Urgent bucket.  Important but not urgent tasks will give you the most payback.  We all tend to get trapped by urgency.  However, non urgent tasks that are very important to your career success, can slip through the cracks if you don’t force yourself to spend time with them.

You don’t have to volunteer for every tough job that comes along.  However, by doing so on occasion, you will be creating positive personal impact and building your personal brand. 

Creating positive personal impact is an important, but not urgent task.  You don’t have to be taking on tough jobs to build your reputation every day.  However, if you never take on a job that will help you build your brand and reutation, you won’t achieve the kind of life and career success you want and deserve.

While it’s important to volunteer for difficult jobs, it’s also important to do them with enthusiasm.

A while back, I read an article on enthusiasm by Judy Williamson, Director of the Napoleon Hill World Learning Center, at Purdue University Calumet.  Here’s some of what she had to say.  I think it is great career advice…

“Enthusiasm is a powerful motivator when it is sincere and heartfelt. It is a spirit that inspires us to move forward positively in a direction of our own choosing…Only the results of enthusiasm can be seen, not enthusiasm itself because it is an abstract concept. Love, faith, honor, loyalty, and beauty are also abstract concepts. They cannot be perceived directly with the naked eye, but can be seen indirectly in the results that they cause to happen…

“A certain charisma develops within the enthusiastic person. Crowds respond to the ‘electricity’ that this person generates when they walk into a room, address a crowd, deliver a speech, or just work for their cause. Enthusiasm becomes a catalyst for change when it is sincere. People jump on the bandwagon of an enthusiastic person because they want to feel the energy for themselves. Greatness demands enthusiasm. 

“To be enthusiastic, act enthusiastically. Allow yourself to feel the energy and lightness of being that develops when you embrace the higher vibrations of your spirit.”

The “charisma” that Judy describes is what I call creating positive personal impact.  When you create positive personal impact, you are build your life and career success because others will notice you, want to associate with you, help you and follow you. 

Enthusiasm will help you create positive personal impact and build your personal brand.  People respond to enthusiastic people.  When you’re enthusiastic about what you’re doing, you — and other people – feel that you can overcome great obstacles.  It seems as if the entire universe in lining up to help you achieve whatever you have your heart set on achieving. 

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people create positive personal impact.  Visibility is a key to creating positive personal impact.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 63 in Success Tweets.  “Be visible.  Volunteer for tough jobs.  Brand yourself as a person who can and does make significant contributions.”  Taking on tough jobs is an important, but not urgent task.  You don’t need to take on one after the other, but you do need to find places where you can shine.  Volunteer for those jobs.  If you never volunteer for tough jobs you will be losing  opportunities to create positive personal impact.  When you volunteer for tough jobs, do them with enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm will help you create positive personal impact and build your career success brand.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 63 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Have you even volunteered for a tough job and pulled it off successfully?  If so, please share your story with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

I’ve been blogging about the career success coach advice in my new book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  Success Tweets is divided into four sections. Each section corresponds to one of the 4Cs of Success that I have identified: clarity, commitment, confidence, competence. 

All successful people…

• Have clarified their purpose and direction in their life and career.
• Have committed to taking personal responsibility for their life and career success.
• Are self confident.
• Are competent in four areas: creating positive personal impact; performing in an outstanding manner, dynamic communication; and relationship building.

The first 20 tweets in this series focused on clarity.  Tweets 21 – 40 focused on commitment.  Tweets 41 – 60 focused on confidence.  Tweet 61 – 140 focus on competence.  Tweets 61 – 80 will focus on the competency of creating positive personal impact. 

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 61…

Create and nurture your unique personal brand.  Stand and be known for something.  Make sure that everything you do is on brand.

What products come to mind when you think of great brands? Coca Cola?  Levis? The New York Times?  Apple?  Scotch Tape? All of these come to my mind when I hear the word brand. 

People can be brands too: LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, Tiger Woods are all strong brands – although Tiger’s brand has taken a hit in recent months.  These persoanl brands are so strong that they are all readily recognizable by their first names.

If you want to create the life and career success you want and deserve, you need to brand yourself too.  Your personal brand differentiates you from everyone else in the world.  My brand is “The Common Sense Guy.” 

Because of my brand, people know that they can rely on me to provide them with common sense advice that will help them reach their life and career success goals.  They also know that they will get this advice in a straightforward, easy to understand and apply manner, because after all, I’m just a guy.

You need to spend time crafting your brand.  Your brand is the two or three words you want people to associate with you.  Decide what you want these words to be, and then go about making sure that all of the people with whom you come into contact think of you that way. 

When my name comes up, I want people to think of two things – “common sense,” and “guy.”  I do everything I can to get people to think of me this way.  My writing is simple, straightforward and to the point.  The career advice I provide my career success coach clients is always based on ideas they can put to use immediately — never filled with a lot of theory, even though it is based on the latest life and career success literature and thinking.

You need to brand yourself because nature abhors a vacuum.  If you don’t brand yourself, others will.  It’s better to be in control of your personal brand by creating it yourself, than it is to let others create it for you. 

Here’s a real life example.  I have a very successful friend.  He owns a high profile and growing
advertising agency.  We met when we were both working for a very large Fortune 500 company.  My friend is a fun guy, a big sports fan and very witty.  Somehow his fun personality got him tagged as “immature.”  This is ironic because he is one of the most mature and hard working people I know. 

No matter, his immature brand cost him several promotions at the company where we worked.  Whenever his name came up in promotion discussions, the dreaded “immature” tag came up too.  He finally had to leave that company and begin someplace anew where he could establish a more positive brand.  It worked out well for him, as he is entrepreneurial by nature and is much happier running his own company, than he would be working in a very large corporation.

Let this story be a lesson to you.  If you don’t brand yourself, others will – and sometimes the brand with which your stuck may not be the brand you want.  Pay attention here.  This is important career advice.

Creating a strong personal brand is simple conceptually.  Ask and answer these simple questions: 

• How do I want people to think of me?
• What words do I want to people to use to describe me?” 

Think about these questions.  Take your time.  Don’t settle for the first answer.  Work to come up with the answer that truly describes how you want to brand yourself.  Then – and this is very important career advice – do whatever it takes to make sure that other people think of you that way.  In other words act in a manner that consistently and constantly promotes the brand you’ve chosen for yourself.

For example, if you decide that “hard working” is a term with which you would like others to associate with you, then work hard.  Do your assignments well and on time.  When you finish one task, ask for another.  Come early, stay late.  Ask questions to help you understand the business.  Pretty soon, people will begin thinking of you as a hard worker – “someone who does everything we ask, and then asks for more.”  Once this happens, you’ll know that you’re on your way to creating your own special and unique personal brand as a hard worker.

The important thing is to choose your brand, then consistently and constantly do the things that will build the brand that is uniquely you.  That’s why I blog.  That’s why I write books.  My books are short.  They are not filled with a lot of fluff – in my opinion fluff and common sense don’t work together.  That’s why Success Tweets is written as a series of tweets – common sense information, presented in a down to earth, easily readable manner.  That’s also why I am writing this series of blog posts.  Common sense says that some people will want more than 140 characters on some of the advice in Success Tweets.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are clear on their purpose and direction in life; commit to taking personal responsibility for their success; are confident and are competent.  The ability to create positive personal impact is the first of four key competencies that all successful people have mastered.  Developing and nurturing your unique personal brand is the first step in creating positive personal impact.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 61 in Success Tweets.  “Create and nurture your unique personal brand.  Stand and be known for something.  Make sure that everything you do is on brand.”  There are two steps to building your personal brand.  1) Figure out how you want others to think of you.  2) Consistently and constantly act in a manner that will get them to think this way.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 61 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  What is your personal brand?  What to you do to promote it?  Please take a minute to share your brand with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.  I really appreciate your support.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at your local bookstore or get a free download at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Bud