 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.
 I know when I’m spending too much time online. It’s when my eyes bug out and feel like they’re going to fall out of my head. Everything I see past three feet is blurry.
Intense work, nose to monitor, reviewing thousands of photographs looking for the perfect image, kerning the type for a perfect fit, aligning elements to the grid, creating color palettes, sliding a graphic element over so it “kisses” a hairline rule… the hours fly by.
While this happens, and well aware of the dangers of multitasking, I check emails and respond promptly. I may look at the news and see what the market is doing. Now throw in some Facebook updates and a lively Twitter chat or two: those never-ending updates and flickering streams of information. Scanning multiple columns in HootSuite — reading from bottom to top, left to right, up down, right left — Grand Blurry Station! I’m sure many of you can relate.
 The antidote? My chair
That’s right, my chair — that beautiful, big leather recliner out there in the family room. That’s where the really great things happen.
It’s where my online self ends and my offline one begins. It’s where I think things through, without the “help” of Google. No alerts vie for my attention when I’m in my chair, telling me I’ve received another email or a new mention on Twitter or Facebook. No links are being pushed at me by well-meaning friends portending to have the answers for this or that (as long as I leave my iPhone behind, that is!). It’s when I get away from those things that the real answers come — the deeper answers to things I may be struggling with.
My best concepts and design ideas always seem to come from the chair. Admittedly, there are distractions there too: someone may switch on the television, a magazine beckons, sometimes I doze off… I know I eat far too many meals there and the mini-fridge is within arm’s reach. But that’s fine — it’s all good. It’s still where great things happen.
Clout vs. Klout
There’s a social media metric called Klout that aims to measure our online influence. It can be a helpful gauge for one’s online activities, as long as it’s taken in context with all of one’s other endeavors. Although flawed at measuring true influence on many levels, it scores one’s online stature with a number. Being flawed beings ourselves, it plays to our weaknesses and egos — even those who acknowledge its various shortcomings get caught up in the gaming aspect and become obsessed with their Klout scores. Mine stands at a respectable 62 (just checked it this morning!).
Now, as I sit in my chair (okay… lie in my chair), the ideas keep coming. The cat strolls by and meows. My youngest child jumps on my lap. I can practically hear my Klout score dropping… but so what? Everything is starting to make sense again. Clarity.
Klout be damned.
Below are links to other wonderful points of view about online vs. offline influence. All bloggers are part of an online Twitter community called #UsGuys. Check it out and if you like what you see, you may also want to follow them on Twitter.
 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.
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