Brand U by Wendy Marx by Wendy Marx
April 10, 2007
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Regardless of one’s position on the Don Imus controversy, there’s no disputing that the veteran broadcaster crossed the line with his notorious comment about the Rutgers women's basketball team.
Over the years Imus has branded himself as outrageous almost to the point of caricature. Pushing the envelope is his trademark. It’s also exactly what’s gotten him in trouble.
What does all this have to do with personal branding?
The fact is that there are limits to branding and where Imus is the extreme example it’s nevertheless true that there are implicit dangers in going too far. By not policing our brand, we run the the risk of being seen as arrogant, insensitive, bigoted -- you name it. For example, while we all pride ourselves in doing a good job, no one wants to hear about someone coming off as the greatest show on earth. And, while it’s fine to be competitive, there’s no honor in getting ahead by telling egregious lies about someone else.
As self-promoters, we need to know where to draw the line when it comes to our behavior. Rather than spouting self-glorifying adjectives about ourselves or badmouthing competitors, it’s far better to focus on our accomplishments. Think what you’ve done for clients, customers or your company that has made a difference. Have you created new business? Solved a major problem? Prevented a crisis from spiraling out of control? These acts are what solidify your brand. Your brand is then anchored in hard reality that has made a positive difference. You're the person who makes a valuable contribution. And you don’t have to fear that you’ve crossed the line.
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com •
www. marxcommunications.com
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April 3, 2007
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Ninety nine percent of success is being prepared.
I was reminded of that fact recently when I was in a client meeting about a survey and the client suddenly switched gears wanting to know what else we could do for them. Fortunately, I was able to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and talk about other initiatives. The result was that the client decided to retain us to do additional work.
The fact is that our working, as well as our personal life, is paved with opportunities. But unless we’re prepared to recognize and jump on those opportunities they’re as good as gone. A wise sales manager I know named George likes to tell a story about a sales call he was on with one of his salesmen when a customer asked to see some clothing samples. The salesman didn’t have the samples with him and told George after the meeting that he’d return in a few days with them. Only problem was that by the time he came back he was too late. A competitor beat him out of the sale.
As George puts it, “Never leave home without your tools.” Just as a carpenter doesn’t go anywhere out without his hammer, personal branders never attend a meeting without their game plan.
It’s not enough that we have certain skills that we pride ourselves on. Our attributes and our past actions mean nothing in the fact of an opportunity that’s staring us in the face and we don’t pounce. Bottom line is that we also need to be strategists. Before we do anything, we need to put ourselves in the client or prospect’s shoes. What are they likely to be stewing about? What problems are they confronting? How can we help?
The next time you attend a meeting bring your game plan: Here are a few tips to help make you a better player:
• Think ahead. What is your client likely to ask you? What will he or she want to know?
• Bring alternatives. Don’t be a “One Note Charlie.” Instead, think about a number of ways to help your client or prospect and be prepared to present another scenario if one gets shot down…or two…or three gets shot down.
• Be flexible. If your client or prospect isn’t responsive, don’t keep repeating the same failing message. Be bold and try something different.
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com
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March 27, 2007
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You realize you don’t know the first thing about networking after you talk with Networker Extraordinare, Laura Levitan.
Laura is the sort of person who has 16,000…yes you heard it right…16,000 contacts in her Microsoft Outlook and keeps in regular touch with almost everyone. A “Top Networker in the World” on business networking site, Linkedin, Levitan until recently had 13,000 Linkedin connections but recently weaned it down to a mere 5,000 qualified contacts. Her own personal genie, Linkedin is always open on Levitan’s desk and she wields it like an artisan.
A 21st century force of networking, Levitan is to the Internet Age what Lois Weisberg, a “connector” memorialized in Malcom Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point was to the non-electronic age. Like Weisberg, Levitan sees the world differently from most of us -- as one of endless possibility. Calling herself a “contingency thinker,” Levitan says she is “constantly thinking of whom to introduce to whom.”
Over the last three-and-a-half years, she has found jobs for 100 people and helped hundreds more in their careers. In any given month, she has some 25 people lucky enough to be taken under her wing that she’s helping search for jobs when she’s not bucking them up.
Let’s be clear. Levitan’s personal networking is what she does outside of her day job. A former marketing VP for Revlon, who had her own marketing consulting business for a number of years, Levitan now works as a SVP in business development for Word of Mouth market research firm Keller Fay Group. Talk about a perfect job fit for a master networker. In fact, Levitan says it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between her business and personal friends.
She says her boss Ed Keller, CEO of Keller Fay, teases her, “Now you get to meet all your Linkedin friends in person.”
Where most of us would see a closed door, Levitan sees opportunity. A few years ago she was turned down for a marketing job. No matter. Levitan quickly made the person who rejected her a part of her network. When several years later, the man we’ll call Jim, was out of work, Levitan helped him in his job search, providing names of people from her vast network for him to talk to. Recently, she saw on Jim’s Linkedin profile that he had landed a new position and sent him a congratulatory note. Nothing unusual about that except that Jim had just changed his profile a few minutes ago and didn’t even have his new contact information. “You’re unbelievable,” he told Levitan.
For Levitan, networking is a passion.. “While other people have their charities, churches and synagogues, this is my way of giving back, my little gift to humanity,” she says.
While Levitan is a power unto herself, there are some things we mere mortal networkers and personal branders can learn from her. To wit:
• Always offer to help someone even it you don’t know how to do it. Levitan never turns someone in need down, and if she can’t help, will find someone who can.
• Give selflessly. “When you help someone,” says Levitan, “don’t expect you’ll get something back. While some people will return the favor and others won’t, the important thing is that you’ll feel good making a difference in someone’s life. And I guarantee over time you will see it returned in spades.”
• Don’t forget people. Levitan is always finding ways to help people in her vast network and finding reasons to stay in touch.
• Be clear when you ask for help. “Don’t be frivolous when you reach out to meet people,” advises Levitan. "Give people a valid reason why you want to connect with them."
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com
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March 20, 2007
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How do you leverage the things you’ve done in the past for what you want to do in the future?
A friend and world class entrepreneur, Michael Drapkin, raised that question to me recently when we were talking about reinventing yourself.
Drapkin, over his 30-plus-year career, has been a classical musician, programmer, program manager, academic, technology consultant, CEO and business strategist. You know the sort: A polymath that’s good at so many things.
More than that, though, Michael knows the secret to career change and self-reinvention. It’s that reinventing ourselves is not a fairy tale where the ugly duckling suddenly molts into a swan. We don’t shed our old selves as we change career paths. What we do is evolve.
It’s important to realize that when you change careers, you’re not suddenly person Y when before you were person X. Don’t think simple addition but a synergistic melding of all your selves that ideally reinvigorates your personal brand.
In Michael’s case, while he no longer plays clarinet with a symphony orchestra as he did early in his career, he has never forsaken his musical roots. Over the years, he’s published several books on the classical clarinet and recently founded the Brevard Conference on Music Entrepreneurship to teach musicians to become entrepreneurs.
Michael says his serial career path has added depth, complexity and creativity to his character, allowing him to approach problem solving with a multidimensional view.
An integral part of who he is, Michael’s musical talents are woven into his personal brand. “Rather than hide my musical skills,” he says, “I turn them into strengths.”
Which brings us back to our original question. What have you done in the past that can enhance your personal brand? Remember, you’re more than the sum of your parts. You’re an evolving person who in the act of change has an edge over the other guy who doesn’t have your background. As the adage goes, you’re not getting older, just better.
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com
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March 13, 2007
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Money is said to be the root of all evil but when it comes to personal branding, it can be the root to success.
I realized that the other day when I had a money epiphany. I was having lunch with a prospect when I started speaking about one of my clients that doesn’t pay me a lot of money but then again I work very few hours for the client. Call it a fair arrangement. The prospect, let’s refer to him as Joe, asked what this particular client paid me and I quoted him a small figure.
Talk about air going out of a balloon. Suddenly, my net value went from a sizeable amount to zilch in Joe's eyes. The check came and when I went to grab it, Joe suggested we split it since we’re both “struggling entrepreneurs.”
Only trouble is that’s not reality in my case. The client is an anomaly.
The fact is that money – whether we like it or not – is a report card. People who are paid more – or charge higher rates -- are typically seen as more competent and are rated higher.
It’s a similar story with physical appearance. A recent Elle/MSNBC Work & Power Survey reported that “good-looking bosses were found to be more competent, collaborative and better delegators than their less attractive counterparts.”
When it comes to how we talk about our work and present ourselves, we need to act with self-confidence and from a position of pride. People are all too ready to typecast or pigeon hole us into something we’re not. It’s up to us to stand up for ourselves and set them straight.
Next time I talk with Joe, I certainly plan to do that. In fact, I’m looking forward to it.
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com •
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March 6, 2007
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“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
- Abraham Lincoln
“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”
- Benjamin Franklin
I ran across these two quotes recently in an article about corporate branding in the February 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review and thought they shed a lot of light on personal branding.
The fact is that our reputation is a key part of our personal brand. Our ticket to fame or blame, our reputation is how we’re perceived. And just as a reputation can make or break a company, it can make or break a career. The HBR article refers to a “reputation-reality gap,” or what we might call a perception problem. It’s where our reputation doesn’t match reality. On the corporate side, think Enron and WorldCom, both of whom once had excellent reputations but then got into trouble when they fraudulently tried to maintain those reputations.
On the personal branding side, we have only to look at any politician who promises straight talk and morality and then is found lying or cheating or consorting with folks he or she shouldn’t.
On the other side of the equation are companies and people who once had a sullied reputation but then change and nothing happens. They are still seen through the old, dirty lens. Think US auto companies that have closed the quality gap between their vehicles and Japanese cars but are still viewed as inferior. On the personal branding side, think John Kerry. What will it take for him not to be perceived as a flip flopper? All are good reminders that once a reputation is stained, it is a tough job to scrub it clean.
What can we do as personal branders to insure that we don’t have a reputation-reality gap?
• For one we need to regularly take stock of our reputation. What do people truly think of us? If we have our own business, we can ask our clients or customers for feedback through surveys and word of mouth. If we work for someone, we need to cultivate a loyal mentor or peer who can give us feedback along with asking our boss for his or her assessment, if we’re not being given regular reviews.
• Second, we need to see how our reputation stands up to reality. Are we perceived as a slacker when we’re working very hard but no one seems to know? Are we seen as difficult to get along with when we’re really just shy loners?
Are we in fact just not working up to snuff?
• Third, we need to do damage control. Once we know how we’re perceived , what can we do differently to insure a positive reputation? Do we need to work harder, smarter, differently?
• Lastly, we need to do all of this regularly. Don’t wait till your reputation is so far gone that it would take an act of God to change it.
.
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications
www. marxcommunications.com, wendy@marxcommunications.com
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February 27, 2007
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I recently heard one of those “What is this world coming to?” stories. A friend’s husband commutes to work in NYC by train and has trouble finding a place to stand, and forget about sitting. Turns out that commuters on his rush hour train mark their territory by reserving their little patch of floor to stand on. And God help anyone who takes their space.
It all makes sense in a peculiar way. Everyone wants to carve out their own little space. Unfortunately, when done at the expense of others, it’s simply rude, not just territorial.
All of which has application for personal branding. How do we put our stamp of individuality on what we do and carve out our own territory without putting barriers around ourselves?
As personal branders we need to clearly define what sets us apart. It can be a flair for numbers or efficiency or teamwork or sociability to name just a handful of characteristics. Ultimately, it’s anything that makes us special and gives us an edge so we’re not just clones of one another trying frantically to keep up with our colleagues.
Our brand is our personal signature. However, if we’re going to move beyond being “train territory marketers,” we need not only to define ourselves but also determine how we relate to others. Our personal brand is only powerful if it has the ability to engage others and add value for other people. It can’t be so different that it ropes us off.
Barak Obama, regardless of what you think of his politics, understands the need for inclusion by talking about his supporters’ “taking a journey to take our country back and change the fundamental nature of our politics.” He’s inviting everyone to be part of his public journey.
Obviously, we in our workaday lives don’t need to engage a nation, just the people we touch -- or want to touch.
Is your personal brand implicitly or explicitly inviting people to engage you? Are you making yourself available to people? Do others know they can count on you?
.Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. wendy@marxcommunications.com
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February 20, 2007
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What can lousy customer service teach us about personal branding?
Quite a bit it turns out.
The recent catastrophe at Jet Blue where some customers were left stranded on runways for up to 10 hours is just the most glaring example of egregious customer service turning into a colossal branding disaster. Many companies large and small have their own mini Jet Blues all the time.
Recently, I’ve spent a seemingly gazillion hours battling customer service nightmares from the likes of Verizon Wireless and Hello Direct. In fairness, both telephone companies, once you escalate your complaints to supervisors and managers, try to help. Of course, why you should have to do that is another matter.
Both businesses, like so many others, put their reps on a treadmill so they repeat the same action over and over. Hello Direct kept sending me replacement phones – I must have six now – none of which work. Finally, a manager had the light bulb idea that someone actually test a phone before sending it. Hello, Direct!
Meanwhile, Verizon has the audacity now to charge for a copy of a bill. Here is part of an email I received from one of their reps:
I can send a copy of your current billing statement to the address on your account. There is a fee of $6.00 that will apply for each statement requested. Customers are entitled to a free billing statement once every six months.
Hello, Verizon!
These companies are forgetting an essential rule of corporate – and personal – branding: Any time you touch a customer, you have an opportunity to turn it into a positive branding experience. How differently I would have felt about both companies if I didn’t have to spend hours trying to correct problems that could have been solved at the get go -- or wasn’t initially charged for a service that should be free. Just ask the recent customers of Jet Blue what bad customer service can do to a brand.
In your own business or career, what can you do to insure that every time you touch a customer or employee, you are leaving the person more satisfied? Here are a few ideas:
• Provide extras. If you make a mistake, don’t just own up to it and fix it. Offer an additional helpful service, free product or at the least a “can do” attitude that shows you value the person you hurt.
• Guarantee satisfaction. Make a personal pledge that every customer or person you do business with is satisfied within reason. Every satisfied customer is a potential source of new business; while any dissatisfied customer can cost your business. Which type of customers do you want to create?
• Learn from your mistakes. Don’t be a robot repeating the same worthless action over and over. Instead ask yourself what you can do differently to prevent the same mistake. And make the necessary changes immediately.
Hello, Smart Personal Brander!
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications
President, Marx Communications, Inc. • wendy@marxcommunications.com
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February 13, 2007
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I recently attended a meeting where the Rule Number One of personal branding was violated: Never say anything negative about a person or company.
At the meeting, a woman we’ll call Sue, was asked where she hailed from. A simple question requiring a simple answer. Instead, Sue, had what I sometimes think of as a “reversion to high school” moment, those graceless moments where what should be hidden gets exposed. Sue, in answering the question, threw in the gratuitous information of the name of a former employer and added a dash of negativity about the company. Not only is this totally unnecessary but that type of behavior can put you in a bad light. It’s important to remember that in the end people want to know that they can trust you to say positive things about them and their company.
All of this hit especially home when I read Ken Auletta’s excellent profile of the PR maven extraordinaire Howard Rubenstein in the current issue of The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com.
As Auletta writes, “To get Rubenstein to say a bad word about a public figure, you’d have to torture him.”
Now, I am not suggesting that we all need to walk around spouting Polyannish statements. Instead, it comes down to discretion and knowing when to express your opinion and when to keep your mouth shut. Yes, you can be passionate and have strong opinions about issues, people and institutions. It’s just not in your best interest to say anything that can be construed negatively about other people or companies, especially when this pertains to people in your work life. Obviously, if a corporate culture encourages railing against a competitor it is OK to follow suit. The key, however, is to exercise discretion.
Which brings us back to Rubenstein, who has the rare ability to “effortlessly glide” from representing disparate forces like Democrats to Republications and “still remains friends with everybody.”
His secret?
Auletta concludes that Rubinstein is much more than a slippery politician since he is so believable and trustworthy. As Eliot Spitzer is quoted saying in the piece, “His [Rubenstein’s] business is to be sufficiently close and trusted such that when he wants to be an intermediary and wants to say something that is not for public consumption, you will know that he is reliable. It’s because his self-interest is in protecting that credibility, which is his greatest asset, that I can trust him.”
Remember that credibility is your greatest asset as well. No one wants to associate or do business with someone they don’t trust. So the next time you want to say something negative about someone, it’s in your own self interest to kindly shut your mouth.
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications
President, Marx Communications, Inc. • http://www.marxcommunications.com
wendy@marxcommunications.com • www. marxcommunications.com
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February 6, 2007
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An article in the current issue of The Harvard Business Review validates a nasty little secret: the best products aren’t necessarily the most successful. The piece, which discusses a Columbia University study, concludes that a product’s success is determined more by social influence than its inherent qualities. Simply put, the more people who are enthusiastic about a product, the more others will want it, even if there may be other equally good products. Of course, we didn’t need a Columbia University study to tell us what any group of teenagers knows intrinsically: certain products are cool (‘cause everyone wants one) and others don’t deserve a glance.
As someone who helps entrepreneurs and companies increase their visibility in the marketplace, I’ve often believed that nothing helps grow one’s reputation as much as testimonials. What can be better than satisfied customers saying how terrific you are. Endorsements let you toot your own horn through the more credible voice of others. Yet, it never fails to surprise me how many websites, particularly of small businesses, neglect to include testimonials or case studies validating their success.
If you don’t own your own business, that’s all the more reason to work at creating your own “walking testimonials.” These are people within your organization (superior, peers and subordinates) who will talk up your accomplishments and let others know that you’re a valuable member of the team.
Without endorsements, all the hard work you’re doing is not going to put you on the fast track. The most successful people typically have a fan club of people creating positive “buzz” about them. Yes, it means being political and self-promotional. But show me a successful person who doesn’t do that, and I’ll bet you’ll come up nearly empty-handed.
At the end of the day, who is going to get ahead? The person quietly doing his job or the person whose job performance is no better but is excelling at getting others to talk him or her up? I think you know the answer. And, you probably didn’t need a Columbia University study to tell you that.
Wendy Marx • Public Relations/Marketing Communications • President, Marx Communications, Inc. wendy@marxcommunications.com • www. marxcommunications.com
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