By Karen Post, on April 30, 2012

When I was in Newport, RI last week visiting the Tennis Hall of Fame, I had the pleasure of meeting a new friend named Lauren. Lauren coaches tennis and helped me decide on a couple of new tennis outfits.  She also mentioned she was coming to Tampa next week and asked me if I’d be up for a match of tennis. Absolutely!

So we played Thursday and had a blast. We played 11 games before our court time expired. I was down 5,6. Lauren brought Linda, a friend of her mom’s, with her too. After tennis we watched the beautiful sunset in Tampa Bay and all had a drink at Jackson’s, a local restaurant.

I asked Lauren where her mom was? She explained her mom, her grandmother and 111 people were killed in the United Flight #232 plane crash 23 years ago. I had never met anyone who lost friends or family in a commercial plane crash, so I was curious and inquired more. Lauren, where were you? She replied, “I was there too. I was one of the survivors. I was thrown from the plane and ended up in a corn field”.

Lauren was 6 at the time. After being in a coma for nearly a month she was given a second chance to live. Wow, I thought, she was so lucky; dodged the death bullet and I was so fortunate to have crossed paths with her. Today Lauren is a 29 year old beautiful person with a bright future.

Throughout life you meet people in very random ways and they imprint something on your soul. My time with Lauren was really special, even though she was about to kick my butt in the tennis match, her glow and spirit for life was contagious. This won’t be the last time I see Lauren.

I’ve been thinking about Lauren’s brush with death and how we all never know when our number is up and when our journey on earth will end.

Most of us will only get one chance. The dress rehearsals are over. Don’t take things for granted, not even tomorrow.

So if you’ve been parked in some ho-hum job, dreaming about your next career, maybe as a happy entrepreneur or doing something you are truly passionate about. Or maybe it’s not a career thing at all, but you are miserable in a bad relationship that is holding you hostage to a less than fulfilling life—what are you waiting for? The horn from the big bus around the corner, before it runs you over?

Why not live like today is your last one. Make your move!

Don’t forget to check out Signs of the times – 5 tips to make them meaningful.

By Karen Post, on April 23, 2012

Confidence is a condition you manifest when you do things with competence. Self-esteem is a belief level you buy into about yourself, when you’re not doing anything at all. To enjoy a great life and a rich business or career, they are both needed to be mastered.

I consider myself an emotionally healthy person. I also know that I can always improve myself. I’m interested in learning things that can make me more effective with my business, my personal relationships and things that provide me with a more fulfilled life.

Back in January Alan Weiss, a coach and mentor of mine for the past decade, offered a one-day workshop on self-esteem. Alan is known as the million dollar consultant. He’s authored over 40 books, works all over the world and has guided me on many business projects. His Self-Esteem Workshop was $2,500 and limited to 6 people in every workshop, it was sold out until April.

There’s no debate here, lower than peak self-esteem is bad for business. If you are a start-up, it can make the difference in you raising needed funds. If you are a growing business it can cost you new clients. If you are employed it can stump your advancement. In all cases, low self-esteem enables price, valuation, compensation discounting and costly over-giving of goods and services too.

I attended Alan’s workshop this past week in Warwick, RI to help take my business to a higher level. It was an excellent investment in time and money.

Consistent with Alan’s tough-love style of coaching, the workshop wasn’t hoo-rah-rah at all. There was no flood of compliments or achievement praised. There were a lot of open and candid discussions about where human doubt and questionable self-worth comes from and how to dump the debris that brings down anyone’s esteem level.

Before the workshop, I knew the root of many of my green monster issues, but after spending the day with Alan and a great group of other highly-accomplished consultants, I better understood how to re-frame the past, dump the garage and power forward with a stronger direction and intent. I also learned a lot about how to sustain high self-worth in the most challenging of situations.

The three biggest take-a-ways for me were:
1) The perfect self-esteem cocktail is 1-part listen to others (that you request, unsolicited feedback is useless) and 3-parts listen to yourself.
This means accept feedback from qualified givers, not others who have some axe to grind or bigger issues than yourself.

2) Having an accurate feedback grading system is key.
Many of the most damaging and negative beliefs that imprint adult self-doubt comes from our parents because as children, they were our primary authoritative figures. This dominating influence can apply to professional settings too. This does not make either of them right. Use realistic measures to evaluate criticism.

3) Positive reinforcing environments and relationships are critical, not optional.
Birds of a feather flock together. A scrappy nest is not where you want to be. Hang with other highly-esteemed people and make sure your work space is empowering and inspirational. If it’s not, change it.

Alan Weiss is not for everyone. He’s not inexpensive, his content is not sappy and sugar-coated. If you are serious about taking your business to the next level, I’d look at some of his offerings. If nothing else, sign up for his weekly newsletter, it’s free and one of the best things I read and enjoy every week.

In closing, here’s another good article on the subject on of self-worth. It’s written by one of my favorite tweeters @yourpocketguru, follow him and me @brandingdiva on Twitter for some short gems of insight on a all kinds of topics.

By Karen Post, on April 16, 2012

This weekend a friend of mine shared an article about how Tampa Bay is trying to figure out their brand message as they near the city’s hosting of the Republican National Convention in August. The event will attract millions of eye balls, thousands of delegates and at least 15,000 members of the media.

Reading the article not only wore me out, but it brought back memories of projects I’ve worked on that had the same odor—branding by committee.

Sure consensus is important, doing collaborative research is key and hearing out many perspectives, that’s part of the process, but winning brands are created when one leader steps up, makes hard decisions and champions the movement. This is why we never see statues of committees in our parks or public spaces.

The problems with branding by committee are rampant. There are usually tons of the non productive meetings that suck days out of the resources that could be used for actually building the brand. It’s inevitable that the committee will include people adverse to risk. Great branding is risky. To stand out, bold thinking is required. Committees are notorious for watering down breakthrough ideas. And there are so many diverse agendas, brands by committee become a hair splitting activity, instead of picking a lane and charging forward.

3 tips for brand building.
1) Trust one leader and give them the power to make decisions.
2) Pick the single most important message/promise. Deliver these with extreme intensity, frequency and consistent execution.
3) Accept and embrace that bold, breakthrough and brilliant brands will include a degree of risk.

I wish Tampa the best in finding their brand to take to the world. Whatever they decide on, which I hope is pretty fast, since August is right around the corner- they need to know, it won’t be perfect and it won’t be loved by everyone and that’s OK.

As Nike said so well— Just do it!

For more branding tips, check out:
5 personal branding tips that have instant impact

By Karen Post, on March 17, 2012

Last week I had drinks with a retired colonel from MacDill Air Force Base. This guy had been to 2 wars zones, Iraq and Afghanistan, three times. He had been inches away from grenades exploding and been literally shot at from 10 feet away. Fortunately, the bullets missed him. Many in his platoon were not that lucky.

He knew I was an entrepreneur. He’d been to my websites. This is what he said to me.

“Karen, you are so brave and courageous. I admire that so much. I don’t know that I could do that, be a front line entrepreneur like you. You’ve got to hustle business every day, be such a self-starter and operate with so much uncertainty”.

WOW, here’s a soldier who risked his life for our country, thinking I’m the tough one. At first I thought he was just flirting, but then I thought about it, and I suppose to many being an entrepreneur is pretty darn scary.

I’ve never seen it that way. Because of the way I’m wired and because of the values I formed from my life experiences.

The fact is we are both warriors, the military and the troops of entrepreneurs all across the world.

This was the theme of my program I presented today to Southeastern Entrepreneurship Conference. It was my second year to participate and like last year the energy I got from the young entrepreneurs was amazing and inspirational.

My message to the audience was direct. There is no place like entrepreneur land. Owning your own business and being your own boss. Sure it’s tough, risky and uncertain, but then again so is walking down the street.

My bigger point to the group was, it’s not what hits you, but what you do next that counts.

My life as an entrepreneur has been an exciting and scary as hell roller coaster ride for nearly 30 years. Would I trade those experiences in for a 9-5 gig? No way. Cause at the end of the day, I’m driving the car. To me that’s the best way to go through life.

Bad and challenging stuff happens to the best of us. And if you’ve got your eye on a big prize, I guarantee you, your share will not be small. Most highly successful people actually encounter more bumps than those who achieve average results. There is a correlation between the volume of failure and magnitude of success.

And then comes my favorite saying: “What does not kill you, makes you stronger”.

Now for any of you who think I just write about this stuff and maybe have not had actual bouts with big boy challenges, here are just a few of my most memorable high stress, danger zones I’ve experienced first hand.

A 4 month tax audit, an investment in a venture that crashed and burned, an employee with a drinking problem, loss of a big client, three key employees quitting at once, a big company filed a trademark infringement that cost over $50,000 and me filing a time and money sucking law suit against an international celebrity to collect owed money. This is the short list. My point is any of these situations could have sent me to the 9-5 world, but they did not and I won the battle.

Here are 5 moves that keep me and my entrepreneurial dream alive.

1) Work from a plan. Even if it’s one page long.
I support this move by writing daily goals before I go to sleep at night for the next day.
I also track my time. This puts light on my waste so I can focus on result producing tasks..
I do daily rituals, every single day.

2) Master mental resiliency.
This is a work in progress, but I have gotten thicker skin through all of my life experiences.
Don’t hang on to screw ups, disappointments and failures. I shake things off like my black lab used to do when she got wet.
Learn the art of re-framing yucky situations into the good stepping stones that get you closer to what you want.
Know how to reboot and create your own momentum.
Be fit, mentally and physically.

3) Network up.
Hang out with people that are challenging you, not saying what you want to hear and sucking up to your mediocre bar.
Be a lifetime learner with folks that are smarter-than you.
Cut the dead wood off your growing dream. This means sometimes you’ll grow out of relationships.

5) Brand you and your business
They are both important and can contribute to your success.
Pick a lane. Decide what you are, do it well and in a unique fashion.
Resonate your identity on all of your touch points to your market (how you dress, act and communicate).

And in closing, I reminded the audience of the number one, most important thing an entrepreneur needs to succeed.

Full body confidence.
Stand tall, shoulders back and believe in yourself. You are your number one and most important fan! Breakthrough business stories have leveraged this powerful weapon for centuries. It is such a game changer.

Without a positive self image you may as well be burnt toast. So work on this daily. For me, I go for stuff that seems impossible. Walking on fire was a real booster for me. I also read my affirmations daily (you must write these before you can read them). I keep a victory folder (containing things that make me feel good, from notes, to press clips, to deposit receipts) and I monitor and read about people who inspire me and remind myself how human they are too.

You got the gear and the intelligence. Man up, even if you are a female.

My military friend may have had a valid point when he said that being an entrepreneur was such an admirable feat for the brave and courageous few.

I reminded him and the SEEC attendees that it’s all about the angle that you choose to look at the enemy and the prize.

Risk scares many, but to an entrepreneur it is the needed fuel for the greatest rewards.
Most think danger should be avoided, but to an entrepreneur it is a welcome and exciting adventure.
Being on your own appears to be such hard work and so difficult, not for an entrepreneur who chooses something they love to do.

As free Americans who live in a capitalist society the power to transform uncertainty into clarity is in our reach.

Entrepreneurs make your move.

By Karen Post, on February 14, 2012

In the spirit of love and affection as many celebrate Valentine’s Day, the day of awesome relationships, frisky friendships, risky affairs and just plain gushy lust, I thought it would be appropriate to mention the everyday occurrence of unavailable brands. You know the kind, the not so healthy, lots of issues, not worth the time and certainly not worth the loyalty—when company brands get so chilly, so unconnected and just straight up are not available to their paying customers who truly want to love them.

The sad fact is there are many brands who behave like this and then wonder why their customers cheat and defect to a younger or more loving competitor.

Here are the red flags to know when it may be time to start dating- I mean shopping around:

• You’ve got a problem and there is no phone number on their website.
• Or it takes way too long and way too much work to find it.
• Or a “contact us” form with no reply or at best a form reply that says: “we are very busy, we’ll try to get to you some day”.
• Or you call them and after 20 minutes in the phone tree jungle, you speak with a customer service rep by the name of Carol, who you can’t understand, and you know darn well no Carols’ live in that country.

It’s unfortunate there are not horse-mounted brand police that would issue costly citations when companies play like this. But then again, unhappy customers now have a voice with social media, word of mouth and on high traffic blogs, just ask Dell, Bank of America and Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Tonight at tennis I asked my buds who they thought were some of the worst offenders, the not available brands, here’s what I heard. Tazo Tea, the Starbuck’s company, Sam’s club, the Walmart Company, Skype and the Microsoft Company. I’m sure you’ve got your list too. It is a shame that these big brands would be so clueless to the basic concept that open communication is essential to keep a relationship red hot.

Smart brands who value relationships with their customers make it easy for them to talk and they listen.

A big kiss and hug to Apple, American Express and Southwest airlines.

How easy is it for your brand to be loved?

To learn about more brand bumps and how the got back on the saddle, view: Brand Turnaround.

By Karen Post, on February 12, 2012

This past week one of my favorite guys and myself celebrated a birthday. I’m happy to report that I’m the younger one. In fact, Abe Lincoln is 203.

For those of you who know me well know I’m not a holiday girl. Don’t get me wrong, I love to celebrate, I just believe that everyday you are above ground is a celebration and special, instead of making a big deal about the traditional Hallmark days.

As I added another year to my timeline this week, I reflected on some of the most meaningful threads that make up my fabric. I put together 52, and yes there is a reason for that number, I hope you enjoy.

These are not in order of priority.

1.) I used to think the number one factor in success was cash flow, this is a myth, it is self-confidence.

2.) Guilt, regret and worry are by far the most unproductive mind trips.

3.) More self-responsibility by everyone will improve the world. The government, your boss, your partner, your job, your clients and the next moron you encounter at the gas station can suck and impact a nice day. OK, what part of that situation can you control?

4.) Life is short. Live like it was your last day.

5.) I have over 10-deceased friend’s contact info in my iphone.

6.) Nobody or no thing can really make you happy.

7.) Peoples’ behavior, cash flow and things can definitely alter your mood.

8.) I can’t tolerate whiners, racists or people who don’t wear deodorant.

9.) Patience is not one of my virtues.

10.) Listening to music, playing tennis and winning are three of my top favorite past times.

11.) My all time favorite book is “ The Pocket Pema Chodrom”. 2nd favorite Brand Turnaround and a close tie StraightForward: Ways to live and lead.

12.) Hair color is by far one of the most important inventions in history.

13.) Unless you buy lottery tickets and win, delegation is a critical skill for success.

14.) If you give crappy instructions, you will get disappointing results.

15.) Awards are exciting, but the journey is where the riches are.

16.) Friends and relationships should add to your life. If they don’t, they are useless weights that should be dismissed.

17.) Design is really important. The elements of beauty, emotion and ease of experience make life better.

18.) If you don’t have a strong sense of humor, you won’t be strong in personal relationships.

19.) Spelling is important to many people. I’m not one of them.

20.) I wish dogs and other animals could talk.

21.) I wish some people would talk less.

22.) I hate mushrooms, phone trees (when you call for help hit #1 for this, hit #2 for that) and bureaucrats.

23.) Three of the biggest fashion crimes: men wearing too much jewelry, women wearing panty hose with sandals and long fingernails on both.

24.) There are way too many unproductive meetings held everyday.

25.) Thoughtful agendas and a meeting marshall can fix this.

26.) “Play up” in everything you do. This means hang with people and companies that are more accomplished than you and play sports with athletes who are better than you.

27.) Invest in you. Attend workshops, hire expert coaches and treat yourself often.

28.) Don’t always believe your mind. Sometimes it thinks up really stupid and damaging thoughts.

29.) Do follow your gut. It knows a lot more than you might expect.

30.) Appearance matters. Youthfulness, fitness, grooming, your teeth and wardrobe make a difference in business.

31.) Exercise is the best medication going. It sharpens your brain, provides more mental bandwidth and wards off evil stress.

32.) Self-promotion is not a bad thing. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is likely not too successful.

33.) The art of leverage is among the most important skills a successful person should master.

34.) No risk. No reward. Period.

35.) Bad fruit never gets better. You can fire clients, friends, spouses and brands. If they do not add to your happiness, get rid of them. NOW!

36.) Casting blame is often an action of a loser. Even train wrecks require willful passengers to pick the car, track and place it’s headed.

37.) Optimism is a virtue. I am an eternal optimist.

38.) The only person you can control or change is yourself.

39.) Don’t trust too soon. Don’t trust everybody and don’t harbor the past. But do file away any deceptive players in your experience cabinet.

40.) Market research has its place. However, it is not a crystal ball. Just ask Coke-Cola.

41.) You don’t have to like everyone. But you do need to respect everyone and their unique beliefs.

42.) When drinking wine or other adult libations cell phones, ipads and computers should not be present. In other words, communicating while under the influence of mind altering substances can come with risks.

43.) The past only matters if you choose to live there.

44.) Pole-vaulting to conclusions and writing the future can cause physical and mental anguish. Let life happen. Live in the present.

45.) Failure is the fastest way to success. And Failure is a temporary event.

46.) It’s never too late to start something, change something or be a better person.

47.) I like and enjoy breaking rules and I get annoyed by people who can’t go there.

48.) Often, I love acting my shoe size instead of my age. Playfulness, being spontaneous, independent and free to choose everything are a few of my driving values.

49.) I still don’t understand why our creators created cellulite, any moles or facial hair on women.

50.) My single greatest achievement: being a happy entrepreneur and controlling my destiny.

51.) You do not need to master everything. But what you do love doing—make it a masterpiece.

52.) Be the joy you want to experience everyday and life will never disappoint you.

By Karen Post, on February 1, 2012

Signs are everywhere, unless you live on a zone-restricted island or in a cave, and even then there are signs. Maybe not the kind you order from Kinko’s, but there had to have been some sort of communication that was erected, posted or hung by someone with an intention to cause an action or a reaction.

I find signs interesting, sometimes confusing and often very enlightening. This week I was doing some cleaning in my office when I stumbled across some signs I saw this past year and shot photos of. Some made me laugh, some made me think, and others reminded me of the experience I had when I first encountered the sign.  In any case, I thought they were worth a blog post and decided to share some ideas on smart signing.

This one was shot in New York City. I like it because it’s direct and the shop owner’s loose and random art direction earned him quite a bit of publicity. It was even featured on CNN.

Another shot in New York City. This one looks as if it has the same budget range as the previous sign… maybe it’s the same sign designer .  A few good things here, resting areas are always a welcoming touch, plus they nicely integrated their website and Facebook page, a great way to stretch one’s marketing dollars or twenty five cents.

I bet I don’t even have to tell you where this one was shot. It’s a sad statement on how a bunch of criminal thugs can negatively brand a destination like Lagos, Nigeria. I do wonder how effective this sign was. Do bad guys read signs?

This sign was shot in Lewiston, New York just a few weeks a go. The interesting thing is it’s not a pet shop, but a gift shop. So are dogs behaving and people not so much?

I call this one a sign of retail friendship. How nice is it when the store Kohls helps a customer stay organized and make decisions.

I may be spending too much time in fitting rooms. Victoria’s Secret provides a gentle dose of Instant Self-esteem with their “I don’t care how much you weigh, you look hot in that thong anyway” dressing room message.

This last great sign I found while surfing the net. I really like it, because its simple and to the point.

All joking aside, signs connected to businesses are darn, critical touch points. Not only can they help direct buyers, or attract new customers, they are a reflection of your brand. If you are folksy and lighthearted, hand written, homemade signs can be ideal. But if you are upscale and elegant, don’t be using a crayon to scribble your message and wonder why your clients don’t think you are as chic as you do.

If your message is important, here are 5 tips for creating on brand and effective signage.

1) Use relevant type faces that are consistent with your positioning. A comic type face is not the best choice for a French fashion boutique, just like fancy wedding scrip doesn’t make a Western shop seem all that macho.

2) If you invest in a lit sign, maintain it. If the bulbs are out for 6 months, what kind of message does that send to your market. Not one of a well run operation.

3) The scale and kerning of letters (space between letters), and white space on the canvas are key design elements in conveying a professional image. Investing in some professional design help may be worth it.

4) What is your brand personality? If it’s silly, humor is great route to take to get people talking about your brand. If it’s hip and progressive consider materials that are as cool.

5) Audit your signs in the daytime and evening. Often prospects learn about businesses after hours.

For more on effective signage, view:
Outdoor advertising – effective tool? dangerous distraction?

By Karen Post, on December 6, 2011

In the past few years, personal branding has become a hot business topic. News anchors and journalists refer to individual brands when they cover business leadership superstars and business losers too. Executive recruiters consider a candidate’s brand when they are on a search for the best professional for a position and most entrepreneurs’ success depends on their strong, personal brand to attract employees, get funding and be an ambassador of their company.

Last month Daytime, a nationally broadcasted TV show that airs in over 35 markets, invited me to help out with a special segment called “Getting back to work”. The goal was to take two professionals who had lost their jobs and with an improved personal branding program, help them find the ideal career or opportunity.

Even though the segment focused on getting people back to work as employees, these lessons can apply to entrepreneurs as well.

Here’s the first segment that aired before Thanksgiving and a special shout out to Kendra York who owns Kendra & Company in Tampa for providing the hair, make up and style updates for our two makeover participants.

From here the plan was for me to give one-on-one coaching along with some branding tools provided by Staples that includes printing of business cards from their print and copy centers, Schtickers that provided a branded laptop skin and my design team that updated their brand identity.

These are some highlights from the coaching sessions.
Personal branding is no different than product or business branding which we all experience everyday. When a company has a strong brand, we as buyers have positive opinions about them, which in turn prompts us to select that brand over another choice. Product brands are competing to be the brand of choice.

The same concept applies for people and their personal brand.

A personal brand is what people think, feel and expect from you as an individual.

A personal brand is derived from the sum of what a person does, how they act, how they look and how they keep their promises.

In branding we call these brand opportunities, touch points.

Consistent brand touch points help a person manage their brand and peoples opinions of them.

A personal brand is one’s image, reputation and the impression they leave when they show up for a job interview, a business networking event or even after a phone call.

We all have brands even without thinking about them or consciously working on them, because people, our friends, colleagues, clients and employers are judging us and these opinions are stored in their heads, which become our brands.

The key to successful personal branding is making sure everything you do is lined up with your goals and that you consistently send out the accurate message that reflects the true you.

So when people find themselves in a down state, like being without a job or career they love, it’s time for action.

They need to follow these three brand-building steps to make sure they are projecting the right image that gets them closer to their goals.

1) Assessment and goal setting
2) Create an action plan
3) Work on it, with consistency and passion

I call the process, personal brain tattooing.  Like a regular tattoo, a brand sticks to the minds of the market and it’s put there by choice.

Getting hired is often about risk and if your brand ensures the employer or client you are not a risk, but a good investment that can add value to their organization, that’s the ticket.

Step 1 – Assessment of what is.
What skills, persuasive assets and traits does the person have to build on and leverage?

When I’m working with an individual on their personal brand, I ask these questions.

• Can you tell me about yourself in a 60 second window? Please do.
• Why are you jobless?
• What do you enjoy doing?
• Describe your ideal job or next career?
• What are your 2-3 most important life goals?
• Have you experienced rejection and “No’s” in your job hunting?
• Did they give you reasons? What were they?
• Why do you think you were passed up?
• What tangible branding tools do you have? And what do you need to work on?

I also ask people to do a Google search on their name and see what comes up.

If it’s bad stuff that can tarnish your reputation, see what you can do to change it. Many times you can.

If it’s bad stuff that’s out of your control, like a criminal record, it’s good to know about it and sometimes you need to share this with a potential employer or client.

Next, I ask “What tangible branding tools do you have that reflect your desired personal brand?”

They can include:

• Your resume
• A strong cover letter of introduction
• A personal business card, laptop skin, brochures
• The appropriate wardrobe for interviews and meetings
• An appropriate web presence and social media footprint

I always recommend people buy their name URL, if it’s just a landing page with your contact information of social media links. If your name is not available, get something close, like with your middle initial in it.

As an example: I own www.Karenpost.com

Step 2- Next, one must develop a personal brand action plan to help get them from where they are “unemployed” to where they want to be, “in a great job or opportunity they love”.
A personal brand plan addresses:

• Goals
• Brand essence
• Target audience
• Strategies (behavioral changes)
• Tactics (specific things to do)

I always start with the end in mind. What are your goals?

Strong personal brands are visible, memorable, distinct and relevant.

To “brand up” you, one needs to have:

Your personal essence defined.
A personal brand essence is the foundation around whom you are authentically.

Purpose - Why are you here? What do you do? How can you contribute to a company’s success?

Points of distinction- What is unique about you?
Your name
Your background
How you look
Your skill set
Who you have worked with

Personality – What are 3-4 adjectives that best describe you?
When building a personal brand, one’s personality attributes should be aligned with your desired job, career. Like in my case, being creative, having a sense of humor and being confident. Work well with my career choice being a consultant and speaker.

Promise – one’s promise is what they commit to delivering on.
For example – if you are in sales, you’ve got to be able to successfully sell. If you are in Healthcare administration, your attention to detail and problem solving must be mastered etc.  One must be able to deliver on commitments and promises. Walk the talk.

After your brand essence is complete, then you must weave this platform into all of your touch points.

Who are your target audiences?
Who are the key company decision makers? Who are the other influential people in your network, who can make  recommendations and introductions? Friends, former employers, people you do business with etc.

Touch points fall into three categories and need to be aligned with one’s goals.

These are:
1) One’s visual package
Research shows that visual elements are the #1 influencer in impressions people draw from others. This means your wardrobe, hairstyle and grooming all matter. Depending on the job and position you are seeking will determine the best look for a person.

Additionally, your tools like resume, business cards and thank you cards also impact the judgment you may earn.

2) One’s communication skills and style.
Next to the visual items, people are judged by their communication skills and style.

Communication style has three equally important areas.

Verbal
How do you sound? Is your choice of words the best they can be and aligned to your goals? And the confidence and attitude you exude, is it consistent with your goals and does it lower the risk of the potential employer?

Written
How do you write? From your resume, to a thank you note and your social media footprint, do these items communicate an impression that aligns with your goals?

Body language
What is your body language communicating? This includes your posture, handshake and eye contact. Are you poised and confident or unsure and down and out?

3) One’s substance and behavior.
The objective in personal branding is to be authentic, but based on your job goals; one must consciously increase the volume and clarity of their brand, offering potential contributions to a company’s success.

And finally, one must have substance and behave in a way that validates their position and image and supports all other touch points.

You must demonstrate evidence that you walk the talk, and are what your packaging communicates?

This means be really good at your craft and your job. The most skilled and competent people get the jobs first. And that’s where you want to be.

This may mean taking classes, accepting an unpaid internship or doing volunteer work with another job just to pay the bills.

And you must work the plan with passion and consistency everyday.
Think before you move. Stay in tune to the ideal brand you want people to have in their heads about you.

As a wrap up, here are five small things that have big instant impact on your personal brand.

1) Have a strategic online footprint that depicts you as you want your buyers to view you
This means have a LinkedIn account, a Twitter account and if you have business appropriate videos then a YouTube account too.

A landing page about you is a good idea, one that is hosted with your name.com. And if you’ve got something to say, a blog is extra icing on your brand cake.

2) Keep your promises
This means do what you say, say what you mean and walk your brand talk everyday.

3) Associate with people that are consistent with your brand
This means birds of a feather flock together. Don’t be hanging with bunch of crows if you are an elegant, sophisticated swan.

4) Look your brand
This means put the costume on when you are in public. Whatever your image is, support it with the right wardrobe, car and office.

5) Be consistent
This means frequency of a message, makes the message stick. Look at all your touch points, web, business communications, email, phone message, thank you notes, resume etc.

Need a little help with your personal brand? Check out some of my ebooks that can help you brand up your image and reputation.

Below is the second half of the Daytime segment that aired on 12/15/11

By Karen Post, on October 24, 2011

Being a successful entrepreneur is no candy-coated, sweet-cake walk.  It’s often more like a grueling marathon. If it were an easy ride the unemployment rate would be less, fewer people would be upset about capitalism and they wouldn’t occupy streets in America being the 99% frustrated over the economy. Instead they’d be focused on finding 99 solutions to grow their business. Nothing against the protest, that’s a great American freedom, it just seems like no mission, no message, no plan.

We all make choices and if you’ve made the choice to be a successful entrepreneur and love life with all its ups and downs, do read on.

Entrepreneurship is a highly challenging game. To win you’ve got to be fit and possess a sustainable, sharp, entrepreneurial competitive edge to thrive.

Here are 5 tips that have made a difference in my journey.

1) Confidence and positive attitude are 95% of the drill.
Anyone who says you are too confident or too positive is either jealous, fearful of you beating them out or fearful of you succeeding and then leaving them behind. If I look back at my life and greatest achievements, these attributes were game changers.

I’m sure you’ve read this tip in many entrepreneur blogs and magazines, so to make sure you get hard meaningful value from this post, I’m sharing a real world example of how this works for me.

(Actual event) Recently, a client asked me for my fee to re-brand their company. With extreme confidence, I proposed double my historic fee, absolutely believing I would exceed his company’s expectations and deliver solid value to their event. The client agreed to the fee and I did hit a home run.

2) Go out on a limb, stick your neck out and take risks.
It is a heck of a lot riskier to do nothing or consistently play it safe. Often the key here is to re-frame a situation. Change your story from scary and dangerous to intentional, certain and positive outcome.

(Actual event) I often invest in business expenses, like: research, expert insight, staff and coaches before my compensation comes in from the project. By doing so, this extra expense actually adds pressure on me to perform at a higher level and 90% of the time,  I do. On my last book deal, I had over $2500 in hard costs and over $5,000 in my time just on my proposal creation, way before I was insured a contract and an advance.

3) Network and play up.
This means don’t be hanging out with peers that are your equals all the time, but you must put yourself in situations where there are people much smarter and more successful than you. The trick here is in order to pull this off, you must master tip #1. This move may take some sacrifice (skipping another expense) because to play in this league, many times it costs a lot more. That’s why you often won’t see your medium competitors at these  (more expensive) situations and events.

(Actual event) When I travel I never stay at medium hotels. Why? Because if I did the chances of me meeting a new quality business prospect are statistically beyond low.  Same goes for buying tickets to seminars, like when I went to see Tony Robins, if they have premium seats, that’s where you will find me, not within the section of  “wannabes”.

For more on how to become an entrepreneur, view:
The ageless entrepreneur.

By Karen Post, on October 5, 2011

Like I mentioned the other day, I have aged a bit since jumping into the world of being an entrepreneur. In fact, almost thirty years have whipped by me. Many things remain the same, but some things have changed.

My entrepreneurial traits that remain:

• I’m still very fearless in business.
• I still fear a few things like: being struck by lightning, being hit by a flying baseball, hockey puck or golf ball and I still hope I never meet a snake.
• I still have a strong sense of humor, love comedy and gravitate toward people who make me laugh.
• I still believe personal responsibility is a big deal. And when people don’t take responsibility for their actions and blame others for their fate, that’s not a laughing matter, it’s a character flaw.
• I still love my work, in fact so much that most of the time it doesn’t feel like work, but extremely satisfying play.

Some new human conditions that recently have shown up:
While my mind and passion for business and entrepreneurship remain high and are still on the “GO track”, my body has been signally some new trends. Most of which I’ve managed to fix, like gray hair – there’s hair color for that, some new facial geometry – there’s Botox® for that and even my true age – you can lie about that. But the next one I’m still working on and can’t say I’ve found the fix yet. But as an optimist, I’m confident a solution is near.

I’ve been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis. Just hearing the name creeps me out because it sounds like a very old person’s disease. Well, it turns out it’s not. Osteoarthritis can affect young people and active athletes too and most people will get some form of this condition as their bodies’ age – or we can say ‘mature’.

My case makes me feel like I’ve been hit by a Mac truck every morning. Throughout the day I get very shifty and my neck stays pretty pumped with pain. This started about a year ago. I went to a doctor just recently and she told me after reviewing my x-rays that I’ve likely had this bad boy, Osteoarthritis, for over five years.

Well, I’m not going to let some lame disease slow me down, even though there is no cure, there are things one can do to minimize the pain and I’m all about that. So this past month I embarked on a full throttle, super-sized, manage-this program.

Yes it was extreme and expensive, but I need my body in sync with my mind and saying GO! Not NO! After all, I may be aging a little but I’m not turning in my serial entrepreneur card and I have many big goals that I’m determined to reach.

So for any you that may share my pain, here’s what I did and what I believe is working.

• I hired a stretching coach for three days a week.
• I got regular acupuncture treatments and took a bunch of Chinese herbs that tasted like what I can imagine eating incense tastes like. If you are in Tampa, I highly recommend Dr Jiang.
• I got a massage every week.
• I started taking a non-addictive muscle relaxer at bedtime.
• I started taking Advil daily.

I can’t say all the pain is gone. But my neck is more flexible and less sore. My body is still pretty tight and hurts in the morning. I play tennis 2-3 times a week and for some reason when I’m in the tennis zone and playing well my pain is completely gone.

So my move forward plan is:
I ended the stretching coach. Once I learned the stretching moves, I wanted that hour back for myself. With any coach, small talk is required and that stressed me out, especially when my work plate is really full. I need that time to think and fix stuff. The stretching coach investment was worth it because not only do I now know the exercises, but my coach also introduced me to a couple of stretching tools like my big fitness ball.

and a Real-Ease Neck and Shoulder Relaxer.
Real-Ease Neck and Shoulder Relaxer (See all Massage & Relaxation Products)

So from here, I will continue to stretch throughout the day. This means: no more 6-hour long writing sessions, remain disciplined and keep moving around whenever possible. I’m also going to maintain the massages, acupuncture, muscle relaxer and Advil.

The big message to my fellow aging entrepreneurs–stay loose, keep moving forward, have fun and take care of what hurts.