Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Person inside Personal Branding

I have had this concept of personal branding on my mind over the last few days, I want to give some concrete steps to take to help you and me take advantage of this personal marketing possibility. However, I keep asking myself if personal branding is really a humane activity. It's taking a utilitarian perspective to telling your story. And we define ourselves by the stories we tell.

British author E. M. Forster wrote, "we don't know what we think until we hear what we say." I think if he were to express this today, he might put it, "we don't know what we think until we read what we post".

The technology and message explosion, together with our here today, gone tomorrow mobility puts pressure on each of us to tell our stories in a compressed manner. We have a few minutes or less to explain our selves to perspective employers, potential customers, or possible friends.

Seth Godin says a brand is a promise. What do you promise? I think a first stab at personal branding can be less intimidating: what do you like to talk about? What do you like to read about?

Mixonian is focused on living the good life, which does not mean shopping at Neiman Marcus. Mixonian is about close personal relationships, short commutes, homemade food, good music, and interesting books. Mixonian wants to talk about cutting out extraneous activities and expenses that drain us, rather than lead us to the good life.