Recently, I stumbled across Tom Peters’ article The Brand Called You – I pulled out some of my favorite points for this week’s post. If you have not read this article yet, it is an non-negotiable, absolute, must-read! If you have read it, it won’t hurt to read it again — I learn something new everytime I do.

Here are my favorite quotes:

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.

The real action is at the other end: the main chance is becoming a free agent in an economy of free agents, looking to have the best season you can imagine in your field, looking to do your best work and chalk up a remarkable track record, and looking to establish your own micro equivalent of the Mike swoosh. Because if you do, you’ll not only reach out toward every opportunity within arm’s (or laptop’s) length, you’ll not only make a noteworthy contribution to your team’s success — you’ll also put yourself in a great bargaining position for next season’s ...

Earlier this week, I heard about an acquaintance who had misrepresented himself on LinkedIn.  He changed his profile to only show partial information about his work history.  Plus, he added a company profile for his new consulting business and grossly lied about his 2009 revenue and the number of employees he had.  All those changes were made because he desperately wants to find consulting clients to make money while looking for his next job and wanted to look established and successful.

But a simple Google search reveals that he’s lying on LinkedIn.  His own website proves that his LinkedIn profile is false!

Shocked by this discovery, I decided to probe a little deeper and find what else Google could tell me about him.  And I struck gold.  On the first page of Google blog search for his name, a blog comment appeared.  Not just any comment either; he’d written on a marriage counseling post saying that while he was still thin, his wife had gained a lot of weight and it has ruined their physical relationship.  And, just in case a casual Google searcher might be tempted to dismiss the comment as written by someone else ... read more >>

Today, I spoke to Pete Mortensen, who is the communications lead for Jump Associates and author of Wired to Care.  In this interview, Pete talks to us about how important empathy is, especially in a time of economic crisis and uncertainty.  He also mentions the benefits of empathy at a company, how companies can brand themselves as empathetic, and how you yourself can use empathy as a competitive advantage in your career.

Why is empathy something companies should be focusing on today, in the midst of an economic crisis?

Because in tough times, there’s no time to waste on slow, bad decision-making. They need to act quickly, and they need to be right. The punishment for failure is that much greater than in good times. Empathy can provide the answer. If companies had a widespread sense of empathy within their walls, they wouldn’t spend time arguing about issues that should be intuitively obvious – they would just know how to create value for the people who matter most – the folks who visit their stores, use their products, and ultimately pay everyone’s salaries.

We’re in a fundamental reset of the economy right now, and companies need to reinvent their business, both in terms of the ...

My friend, Dan Schawbel, has published his first book. And I say first because my guess is that there will be many more because he’s only 26 years old! Somehow he has found the insight that has taken me 40 years to find which included raising a family.

Dan truly walks the talk of personal branding. He crossed my path in July of 2007 by commenting on my post on branding on DigiScrapInfo.com. This blog didn’t exist back then. He added some ideas & we started a conversation. Two years later finds us having mutually mentored each other & celebrating each other’s successes.

Me 2.0 appears to be intended for those just beginning their careers. But it really is a roadmap for anyone interested in building an online brand no matter their age. I did it at the age of 40. This book is also for all of you that are interested in working in social media & community jobs.

Reading the book made me smile because there are so many parallels to community building. Dan, have you been reading my blog? He has a section on identifying & working with evangelists too! He provides four steps to establishing your brand and building community around it. It’s the same concepts that are use... read more >>