Book Summary, “The Brand You 50” by Tom Peters
The “The Brand You 50” by Tom Peters was a quick read, but the overuse of exclamations!!!!!!, bold type, ALL CAPS, font changes, and h-y-p-h-e-n-s was tedious and kind of juvenile.
Once I got past that, it was a solid read that gave me a few new ideas. I recommend this book for the person that is just realizing that it is not just what you know, but WHO you know and WHAT they know about you. I picked out the most relevant pieces by identifying what I wanted to remember (which I added to my learning journal), and what actions I wanted to take. Both are outlined below.
Why I selected this book:
For the life of me, I cannot figure out where I got the input to read this book, I think I read somewhere that this was a personal branding classic. I do remember I bought it used for.99 cents on Amazon.
Was the “The Brand You 50” helpful?
Yes. It helped me to think about what was most important in the work and I do and try to cut out the non essential items. It also helped me to think about “who I am” and “what I want to be known for.” As this requires quite a bit of introspection, I do not have the results yet, but the mind is working that direction.
What will do as a result of reading “The Brand You 50”
Do a Personal brand equity evaluation:
Define: What 2 to 4 things am I known for?
Define: Next year, I will be known for these 2 to 4 additional things
Start building a personal brand equity statement (brand priorities)
* Start with skills, attitude, and character
* Develop a quarter page advertisement
* Synthesize down to an eight-word positioning statement
* Ensure the calendar reflects 1, 2, or 3 of these priorities each day
* Do an after-action-review (AAR) each night, was the day focused on one of the three brand priorities?
Look at the “to do” list, does it have a off brand topics on it? Can you 1. Kill it, 2. “Wow” it 3, postpone it Ask, is not on-brand, stop it! Focus on 100% on the on-brand work
Develop a contact list and manage the heck out of it! Last contact, next contact, score each contact (in touch, neglect, etc)
Invite the project killer to lunch Develop a visibility plan
Construct a formal word of mouth marketing campaign (see Read: Regis McKenna’s “Relationship Marketing”)
What did I add to my learning journal after reading “The Brand You 50”
Re read Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people”
Read: Brad Blanton’s “Radical Honesty”
Read: Regis McKenna’s “Relationship Marketing”
Try 1 thing really different each month
Go to the bookstore and skim through 20 magazines you typically do not read.
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