One study of TED talks found that the most viewed TED talks featured speakers who use animated and active hand gestures.

I was at a speed networking event last month where each person had two minutes to give their elevator speech. The crowd ranged from new grads and MBAs to seasoned executives who were interested in moving up the ladder at their companies or in transition.

Most everyone bombed.

One after another recited a laundry list of what they had done – schools, job titles, dates of employment, how many people they managed, what the company was about.

There’s no story in a laundry list.

Most didn’t even get to their punch lines before their short time in the spotlight was up.

Use the Elevator Speech to Create an Impression

 Your elevator speech is important because it is something that you will use throughout your life to communicate your personal identity. You’ll use it in meeting new people, pitching new business, trying to make a move internally at your company and, of course, in job interviews.

But in reality, every encounter is a potential interview. Yet, most of us are unprepared and we botch the opportunity to make a strong first impression. Or even worse, we don’t make a meaningful connection so that the person becomes part of our network.

The power of threes is an important thing to remember when putting together a talk or story for any type a presentation or speech.

Stories usually have a three-act structure. Classic stories and fables have three obstacles that must be overcome, three wishes that are granted, or three main characters. There are “The Three Little Pigs,” “Three Blind Mice,” “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “We Three Kings,” The Three Musketeers, and, in more contemporary times, The Three Stooges.

Even today, how many stories have you heard about the rabbi, the priest, and the minister?

We Think Brands Are Better Than Generic Products

Any way you slice it, brands win over products hands down.

A branded item is viewed as better than its generic counterpart. Brands are perceived as

higher in quality.

Brands are in demand.

Brands sell for a premium price.

Generic products compete only on price, by offering a very low price. (And if you’re

reading this blog I doubt that you want to compete that way.)

Personal Branding is Good for You and Good for Your Company

Branding also gives you a template for developing a marketing program directed at your

key target markets. You will learn how to develop specific brand messages, tactics and

a “media plan” for maximizing success with your target market as well as methods of

measuring your success.

Self-branding is not just good for you personally, it is good for the company, too.

Branding teaches you how to be more strategic by staying relevant to the market and the

latest thinking.

It teaches you how to use advertising techniques to build a powerful verbal identity to

express your ideas through signature words and expressions. Branding teaches you how

to package your ideas for a strong visual identity, too, so they will break through and be

remembered. And it teaches you how to use other branding techniques to build consensus

and lead in today’s competitive global marketplace.

What Reaction Do You Want to Get?

Branding shows you how to attract a market. Don’t think in terms of what you want to

Think in terms of the reaction you want from your target market.

And what you have to do to get that reaction.

Who’s Your Market?

Branding also requires that you target a market. A market is any group of people that you

need to engage with in order to reach your goals. Clients or customers are a target market,

as are the prospects you are pursuing.

If you work at a company, you should view your colleagues and direct reports as target

markets. Don’t overlook your boss. In any company, your boss is probably your most

After all, other than yourself, your boss has the most control over Brand You. Recruiters,

industry leaders, and even competitors are also markets for your self-brand.

LEVERAGE BRAND POWER

Looking at yourself as a brand has enormous advantages.

The truth is that being good, by itself, doesn’t guarantee success. We all know talented

people who are underemployed, underpaid, or even unemployed. With branding, you

learn how to look at yourself as a product in a competitive framework.

Branding is the process of differentiating that product—you—from the competition and

taking action steps to get where you want to go.

What’s Your Career Plan?

Branding also means developing a marketing plan for reaching your goals, tactics to get

from A to B (and through all the other letters of the alphabet, depending on your goals).

And it means engaging your target audience (your “customers”) without seeming self-
promotional and obnoxious and getting your work in front of the right people.

You have to know who you are, what you have to offer and how to communicate that to

Remember, a person is a skill set that is interchangeable with the skill sets of other

A personal brand is a special promise of value that sets you apart.

Business success, like brand success, depends on what other people think about you.

If people think you are a dynamic business leader, you are. If people think you’re

a B player, you are (until you change their perceptions). It doesn’t matter what is

“objectively” true. Perception is reality.

Creating positive impressions in the minds of other people is the work of self-branding.

It used to be about “Can you do the job?” Now, many people can do what you do. So it

has to be about something more.

Above all, branding is a strategic process. The goal is to provide that something more that

will help you succeed in a changing, highly competitive business environment (and to be

authentic and even to enjoy yourself in the process). This book is about how you can tap

into soft power—your self-branding power—and harness it for career and life success.

June 6

Who Are YOU?

You are your most important asset. In a sense, you are your only asset. And your ability