personal branding Archives - Claxon Communication

Personal Branding & Cute Little Cows

January 9, 2017 by Erica Barnhart

Moooooooooooooooo.

That’s what I hear in my mind when I hear the word “branding”. Cows. Wandering around the pasture. Chewing their cud. Staring off into middle distance.

They’re cute, aren’t they?

But branding isn’t about cows at all. (Yes, cows are branded, poor little things. But we’re not talking about that. Ouch!)

Personal branding is about putting your unique stamp on the world. It’s about figuring out who you are at your core. What your values are. What your personality is. What you stand for. And then infusing that throughout your personal and professional lives.

Personal branding isn’t particularly complicated. But if you’re someone driven by mission–someone like you–it’s a liiiiiiiiitle more complicated because of the whole aligning your personal values with those of the organizations for which you work.

Just like an organization or a company, you already have a brand. But are you managing it well? That’s the question. And that’s what we’re going to tackle in this month’s free webinar.

Specifically, we’ll cover:

Why you should actively care about your personal brand (Hint: It has to do with being happier and more successful.)
A super practical way to define your personal brand.
What your words say about your personal brand.
How the narrative, visual, and experiential aspects of your brand work together… and what bad things happen when they don’t.
How to be true to your personal brand in different contexts, including at work.

Here are the details. Hope you’ll join me! (If you can’t join live but are interested in the topic, register anyway and you’ll auto-magically get the recording.)

January 25, 2017
1-2pm Pacific

Announcing: Personal Branding, The Non-profit Edition [Webinar]

December 22, 2016 by Erica Barnhart

While we’re running around making sure our non-profit’s image stays in check, it’s easy to forget about something a bit more personal. I’ll give you a hint. It’s something Kim Kardashian has mastered, and arguably, made millions of $$ from doing so well.

I’m talking about creating a solid personal brand, and whether you know it or not, you have one. You may scoff: I’m not even 100% sure what a “personal brand” is, how can I have one?

Do a google search of your name (with your organization/ location, if you have a Jenn Jones-type of name.) What comes up? This is part of your personal brand. What does your cover photo look like on Twitter? What expression are you donning in your LinkedIn profile photo? These are also part of your personal brand.

It applies offline, too. What do your coworkers think when they think of [insert your name here]?

The good news? You’re not powerless when it comes to defining your personal brand. With just a little care, your personal brand can help you achieve your goals and be your happiest, most fulfilled self. If you’re in a public-facing role at your non-profit, it can also help you achieve your non-profit’s goals.

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve got your back here at Claxon. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to find the inner rock star we both know is inside of you. That’s why we’re offering a free webinar all about personal branding. And we’re doing it exclusively for non-profit professionals such as yourself.

When: January 25, 2017, 1-2 p.m PT/ 4-5 p.m. ET/ 3-4 p.m CT

Presented by: Erica Mills, Claxon’s CEO

Who Should Attend: Non-profit executive directors, communications staff, and other non-profit professionals who are either new to personal branding, or want to improve their personal brand.

What You’ll Learn:

Why you should actively care about your personal brand.
A super practical way to define your personal brand.
What your words say about your personal brand.
How the narrative, visual, and experiential aspects of your brand work together…and what bad things happen when they don’t.
How to be true to your personal brand in different contexts, including at work.

If you want 2017 to be a ridiculously successful year for you, join us for this webinar. By the end, Kim Kardashian will have nothing on you!

Disclaimer: We’re not necessarily huge fans of Kim Kardashian. In fact, we have some issues with her, to be honest. But the girl has nailed the personal branding thing. Plus, for better or worse, you likely know who she is. So we can reference her and most everyone will get the reference, which is harder to do than you might think.

I want to register!

When personal brand meets organizational message

September 13, 2012 by Erica Barnhart

There’s a lot of buzz about personal brand(ing) these days. Rightfully so. The tools available make it possible for you to build your very own Personal Brand Empire. There are loads of articles on how to do this (like this one from SocialBrite).

There isn’t a lot on how the advent of personal branding impacts organizational messaging. Your message is only as effective as the people who use it. If the organizational message conflicts with enough people’s personal brands, you’ve got yourself a problem.

You have an HR problem that is rearing its head as a messaging problem.

Attract people who care passionately about your cause and your mission, and this problem will resolve itself to a large extent.

Once you have the right people on the bus, make sure they have the right words. Words that support your organization’s brand, words that are easy to infuse with one’s personal passion for the work. With this in place, personal branding can support organizational messaging. And that’s good for everyone.