Archive for 'Personal Branding'
Is your brand perfect? Let’s hope not!
Posted on 08. Jan, 2011 by Kelly Hobkirk.
I often wonder what the man was thinking in the moment his eyes rolled up. I seriously doubt it had anything at all to do with, ‘I could have done it better.’
Is any brand perfect? I hope not. Perfection is the end of aspiration, and luckily, perfection is entirely subjective. I might question the lack of symbolism in your company’s logo, but you love that logo. It’s part of your identity that you interact …
Continue Reading
4 Simple steps to refining your personal brand
Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
It occurred to me after getting some comments about my last post that I hadn’t clearly stated how you can apply my experience to refining your own personal brand, which was really kind of the point! So here is the exercise in four sort of simple steps.
This exercise will provide you with a powerful statement of who you are that is backed up by your own real life revelations, trials, tribulations and joys. If …
Continue Reading
Exercise for rediscovering and redefining your personal brand
Posted on 01. Oct, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
[Heads up: This post is three times as long as a normal post, but I promise it will be worth the read. If you skip to the end, you will be completely lacking context and it won't make any sense at all, so give yourself a good five minutes to take it all in. If it wasn't worth it, send me a rock in the mail.]
This is a great exercise to do …
Continue Reading
Branding and social media, Part 2: Brand experience, the stronger animal
Posted on 29. May, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Brands are designed to connect with people in direct and meaningful ways. The experience of connecting is among the most powerful ways your business can start a long-term relationship with people. Social media, on the other hand, is made to create indirect experiences.
Why rely on the weaker animal? Try as you might, you cannot dictate which social media tools your audience will use. Sure, you can guess that facebook and twitter might be among …
Continue Reading
Branding and social media, Part 1: Set it and forget it
Posted on 12. May, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Unless you’ve lived under a heavy rock for the last few years, you probably know that social media is now considered an essential part of a marketing plan. You may have a thorough understanding of social media, or you may be a little confused by how to incorporate it into your marketing without wasting enormous amounts of time. After all, you already have a full-time job and managing several social media profiles can feel like …
Continue Reading
On believing in yourself
Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
If you’re an entrepreneur, at some point you have no doubt had people tell you that your idea was crazy, you wouldn’t make it, or you should do something else. Plenty of über-successful people have heard this kind of thing. Think if Steve Jobs had listened to naysayers who called the Mac a toy. iPod and iPhone were also “supposed” to fail. Good thing someone believed in them.
Sometimes in brand strategy meetings, I encounter …
Continue Reading
Objectivity, the key to examining your personal brand
Posted on 02. Apr, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
You are asking your prospects and clients to have the exact same type of close daily relationship with you and your brand.
Continue Reading
3.5 Steps to discovering your personal brand
Posted on 31. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
What does your personal brand look like?
The short answer: It looks like you. You are the most clear picture of your personal brand.
Now for the longer answer that I can’t give in an elevator: A personal brand is much like a corporate brand except, well, more personal. It’s a combination of your visual and verbal dialog, combined with your actions, but when a brand is taken to a personal level, the elements that …
Continue Reading
Eat your brand: Recognizing your brand’s influence on you
Posted on 21. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Your brand is kind of like breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Your brand is the motivational fuel that gets your business through each day.
Take it in, each and every morning, just like the eggs and toast, protein shake or coffee you crave at the start of each day. Each of us interacts with our brand every single day, whether it’s Monday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
Monday-Friday, you have a relationship with …
Continue Reading
You have a personal brand, even if you don’t know it
Posted on 07. Mar, 2010 by Kelly Hobkirk.
Everyone has a personal brand, whether they know it or not. If you change or define yourself in profound ways you can change how people perceive you. You can also change your own self-perception, which can be an empowering experience.
When you reinvent yourself, you could say that you are rebranding yourself. Your body language, identity materials, behavior, compassion, humor, expressions, contributions, the way you dress, the service you provide – all of these characteristics …
Continue Reading
