 What is a personal brand? It is you. Your story. This intimate story is portrayed via an overall message that weaves throughout your communications and social media platforms. Just as major consumer brands have well-known, universally recognized images, individuals can have them too. But more than just a mere surface image, it is important to have a deeper story too. This serves as the backbone for all you are about, who you are and why you do what you do. How successful you are in telling your story will determine how deeply it resonates with your audience and will ultimately determine the success of your brand. When you are first learning about social media, you are usually unaware that you are creating an online persona for yourself with each post, status update and tweet. It is all experimental at this point as you learn how to navigate the various mediums. The essential element in creating your personal brand is to be authentic. ee cummings said, “it takes courage to grow up and be who you are.” Don’t copy someone else’s style: be yourself! Being an imitation of the most fabulous thing imaginable is still just an imitation, and people catch on to this behavior very quickly. Consider your avatar to be your logo: keep it fresh and real. Be outstandingEach person has unique qualities and gifts that make them special. Find yours and amplify them. If you are hesitant about what image you are projecting, find interesting blogs or links to share that fit within your strategy and build up your confidence as you go. Pay attention to what people “like” or retweet; figure out where you are connecting with your followers and build on that. Above all, please be interesting! You may start with a little kindling and end up with a big bonfire if you create the proper base. Consistency is keyIf your goal is to be viewed as a professional, this needs to be seen across the board throughout all of your social media efforts. The language that you use is the currency and relevancy to your message. Make wise choices and remember that the internet is permanent. Linking your social media channels together makes it seamless for a follower to travel from your Twitter bio or other social media page over to your blog. This does not mean that you should show all your tweets on LinkedIn and tweet your Facebook statuses. A separate, similar message is fine — no need to be redundant. Your personal brand will evolve over time but you start projecting your brand from your very first tweet or post. You might not think you have a personal brand yet, but you do. Consider what this might be and polish it up if necessary. It is not just your avatar but all your interactions woven together to create a personal story: your personal brand. Make it a good one!
I also discussed this topic on Bruce Sallan’s #DadChat on Twitter > 9:00–10:00 pm EST / Thursday, February 16, 2012, co-hosting the show Sparking Creativity in Our Kids along with my partner, Peggy Fitzpatrick. We also appeared on The Bruce Sallan Show—A Dad’s Point-of-View, broadcast on KZSB AM 1290 in Santa Barbara and via live stream. Listen below…  So many kids these days seem to look elsewhere for fun and excitement. You know what I’m talking about: all those Xbox’s, PlayStations, movies and so many other things, not to mention all the false heroes. Alone time is considered “boring.” It seems kids just aren’t comfortable in their own skins these days, constantly looking outward for stimulation and gratification. Little time is spent with only themselves, creating the quietness conducive for introspection and true creativity. When my children were young, I took advantage of the time I had with them before they would be old enough to protest. I knew those days wouldn’t last forever… when they were a lot more open to my way of doing things, instead of everything being “me, me, me.” I thought if I “brainwashed” them young, they’d be good to go when the teen years hit. Well…The teenage years hit… and I only met that hunch with limited success. But my wife and I did do a few things right and I think our kids are the better for it. One of the things I always made sure of, was that we look at things together — I mean, really LOOK! I exposed them to beautiful design, wonderful storybooks and “adventure” drives where we would make our fun as we went, being open to serendipity and continuously pointing out everything along the way. It is also important to nurture dreaming and the imagination — we would make up your own stories together, especially at bedtime beneath the glow-in-the-dark stars covering their bedroom ceilings. Holidays are another great opportunity to dream. For Halloween, we would invent costume ideas and do sketches to plan the pumpkins we would carve later. Everything should be part of the creative/learning process. Even a breakfast with Cheerios was turned into a game. There are so many ways to nurture creativity in kids and a dozen of them are discussed in this other post I contributed to, 12 Most Loving Ways to Spark Creativity in your Child.
 Once kids truly show an interest in something, I think it’s extremely important to go with their passions. Rather than dictating what they should like, or pushing certain talents we think they possess but they show no interest in, it is much better to nurture what they naturally gravitate towards instead. And then feed those interests by always having the supplies they need at the ready, from simply having enough drawing paper available to buying the right creative software that fulfills their needs. Fight the good fightAlthough we can’t determine what it is exactly our kids will show an affinity for, we can still influence them. And while it may be a thankless job many times, I believe our kids are better off in the long run for the encouragement we provide, enabling them to follow their passions. It is the way to a rich, enjoyable life and offers a myriad of alternatives to the ready-made ways of having fun that are always so prevalent. Forming this foundation for creative thinking is important to establish early on, so children grow up with a creative outlook where possibilities are endless. It can even alter the brain itself as the post, Pondering: Brain Overload, discusses so nicely. There is plenty of time for the world to try and put its own restrictions on things. Most schools do little to encourage individualism and place limits on it by a one-size-fits-all mentality that does little to foster creativity in our children. Companies do the same, where toting the corporate line and appeasing one’s bosses largely keeps the boat from being rocked and provides the best chance for a good review. But our leaders of tomorrow will be those who see things differently, for innovation never comes from the status quo. Successful companies will depend on them. So will whole societies and the world at large. Bigger populations fighting for a smaller piece of turf will naturally increase competition substantially — successfully navigating this and coming out on top will require even more crafty ways of doing things a little differently and a notch above everybody else. Likewise, the many challenges we face in the world will increasingly require inspired thinking to get us out of trouble. It all begins by raising creative children. Why is nurturing the creative spirit important to you? I’d love to see what you have to say in the comments section below!
Artworks by Wyatt Biedermann with photography by his father, Paul.
Part 1 of a 3 Part Series on Branding by Paul Biedermann and Peggy Fitzpatrick.  Stuck. This is the caterpillar — slow, fuzzy and… stuck! As in a crawling-around-a-branch-all-day kind of stuck. Let’s face it… being a caterpillar is not very exciting. It also won’t create the awareness you need for your brand or business. So, how does one get unstuck and evolve past this sorry state? First, stop for a second. Listen and focus. All the answers are there. You may think you are just another typical business owner with just another product or service to offer just like everybody else, but that will never bring the attention you crave. Why would it? You are thinking just like everybody else! Think: what is it you are really offering people? Is it financial security so that people can buy that vacation home or start that pipe dream of a business? Is it beauty so that people can feel secure and be who they really are, allowing them to be the best they can be? Or is it a series of seminars, thereby imparting knowledge and maybe even inspiring others to achieve new things they didn’t know how to do before they met you? Discovering who you truly are and the wonderful impact you have on the world, will give you all you need to craft a message that resonates and gets you out of the caterpillar stage. This will take time, effort and careful planning but everything worthwhile in life does. This is not the place to rush and go with something half-baked — don’t fall into the trap of doing something “good enough”, thinking that you will just change it down the road. That never works, because you will soon have so many materials and online pages that it will be a major inconvenience (and expense!) to change it all later. And you will be stuck with a brand image you can’t stand. Do it right the first time! By the way, this is exciting! Don’t rush the process. This is the heart of your new brand and is where you lay the groundwork for all that comes later. Your powerful, new brand will focus all your business efforts like a laser beam exactly where they should be — on the target and with the clarity of message you need. Before there is a brand, there is a spark; an idea; a twinkle in an eye somewhere. Capture and harness this, so your brand can zip out of the caterpillar stage and metamorphosis into a full-blown butterfly!
This post first appeared in Business 2 Community. Image courtesy of jimmyweee licensed via Creative Commons.
 Striving for success. A worthy mission. But isn’t this just a nice spin on what we’re really trying to do — not achieving failure? Or at least avoiding mediocrity? Be honest — we’d simply rather talk about kicking ass than not having our ass kicked. It shows better form. Charlie Sheen says it’s about “winning” but I’ll bet his true ambition is far more modest: not self-destructing.
If we’re honest with ourselves, I think the true motivation for many of us is not falling short. It’s the reason most of us get out of bed in the morning. Sure, we say we’re ready to “face the day”, but isn’t it more about what we’ll face if we don’t? C’mon, be honest! Our need to “be positive” is so ingrained that it’s uncomfortable to consider that it could be anything else. It’s scary to think that fear of failure could be the true driving force.
We all know that our time here is limited, but we also know that having a deadline is a great motivator! We go to school, study, learn and work hard in our careers to make the most of the time we are given. When I stop to think about it, it’s why I try to make every design better than the last and why I played so hard during my tennis match this morning. It’s why I’m not just dashing off this post, but rewriting it several times to tighten it up and make sure it says what I want. I don’t want to suck! And I don’t want others to think I suck! That’s really what it’s about — I’m driven to do what it takes to ensure the opposite result of failure. Or just mediocrity, for that matter.
Aside from the things that are simply out of our control, we are the masters of our own destinies. Life is what you make of it. In life, in work, in business, this blog — you’re only as good as what you’ve done last.
In fact, I’m so afraid of sucking that I don’t suck. Or do I have this all ass-backwards?
 Businesses will need to stir up their creative juices if they’re going to succeed in the coming decades. Innovation. The word is everywhere and is the necessary ingredient for businesses to stay vibrant. The status quo just won’t do it anymore, and actually hasn’t been working for quite some time now.
In order to ensure innovation, the best leaders will be creative thinkers who know how to inspire teams to produce the best new ideas. A new mindset will be required, where people are encouraged to take risks and aren’t afraid to fail in pursuit of something special. This will be the only hope for busting the doors open to capitalize on new opportunities in an increasingly competitive world.
For far too long, companies have played it safe, enabling a culture of mediocrity. Annual reviews, the way they’ve been done, have proven nothing. New leaders will take calculated risks, because playing it safe won’t cut it. That’s not the way the game is played anymore.
Increasingly, 21st Century leaders will be those who can build teams of diverse people that brainstorm and grow ideas together, recognizing which ideas to capture and which to discard. Then, they will make the best ideas happen.
Companies must now foster creativity up and down the entire organization. Nothing great, I mean truly great, has ever been produced without risk. It’s time to either put up or shut up.
Throughout history and now again, even with the most amazing technologies readily available at our fingertips, one thing remains consistent: the best ideas still start on a napkin.
An art director friend and I used to joke that people who demand the ordinary are “Beige Brains” — about as much fun as the color itself. They're the ones who always do what’s safe, never reaching for something new and innovative. Let’s face it, more people are simply comfortable with beige than iridescent fuchsia.
Corporations are hotbeds of beige thinking, especially in times of insecurity. Sure, they aspire to compete with the smaller companies that are truly cutting-edge and they pay lip-service to “innovative thinking” and “the entrepreneurial mindset”, but in the end the lipstick is beige.
Those who try to do what’s different or present something other than what has already been done a million times had better watch out — they’re likely in for a tough battle; navigating the hierarchies and balancing the politics — trying to get the necessary buy-in and holding onto some degree of ownership in case it actually goes somewhere and becomes a success. Usually, the life is sucked out of the idea and watered down to a point that rarely has any semblance to the original proposal. Just more of the same ol’, same ol’.
Such is the nature of being a team player and incorporating everybody else’s “great” ideas. Another good evaluation is on the way, but the work has suffered. And shouldn’t it really be about the work? In the end, it’s the company that has paid the price, but nobody notices. Everything is beige. Everyone is happy.
Robots and wallflowers need not apply
But times have changed and the old ways aren’t working anymore. Big companies know this and are desperately trying to figure it all out. Social media is forcing companies to put on a more human face as they seek to join the “conversation”, but I can see them tweeting by committee as I write this. After all, a lot is at stake when the barriers start coming down.
Creative people, by their very nature, are square pegs in round holes (or rather, ROUND pegs in square holes). Let’s face it, that’s what they’re paid to do. If the work they do always feels comfortable, they probably aren’t doing a good job. The worst kind of “Beige Brains” are the ones who are supposed to be creative, but really aren’t. They do the tried and true; copying trends rather than leading them.
Creative people are the ones charged with pushing the envelope, seeking to do good work that stands out. And that’s what businesses need to do, today more than ever: STAND OUT and be themselves. If done correctly, success will follow.
It never feels comfortable. Good creative work rarely does. It’s risky.
Or is it riskier being lost in the crowd with everyone else?
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