In the new world of work, you’ll need to carefully consider your positioning – your differentiator – the unique power you bring to a business situation and why it matters.
And now, for a limited time through April 30, you’ll be able to get the e-book, The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work, for just $1.99.
Here’s what you’ll get out of the book:
You’ll learn the top ten positioning strategies used by big brands and how to apply them to the most important brand you’ll ever market, Brand You.
You can access the book’s online Personal Brand Finder assessment test.
You’ll learn the importance of visibility in the new world of work and how to be top of mind when you work remotely.
You’ll be able to draft your differentiator and a game plan for success.
“In short, “The New Brand You” will show you how to take on the world with your power brand.
Category: Branding
The Fall of Sam Bookman Fried
I can’t stop reading the unfolding story of Sam Bankman Fried (or SBF as he goes by). The former CEO of FTX’s meteoric rise and crash takes the breath away.
SBF casts himself as the boy genius in his cargo shorts, stretched out t-shirts and wild hair, a getup that, according to the New York Times “telegraphs to the world somebody who doesn’t have the time to worry about what they are wearing because they are thinking big, world-changing thoughts.”
Rarely has there been as educational example of the power of visual identity, a concept that I discuss in my new book, “The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work.” 
His personal branding screams crypto nerd. How many of us could figure out that underlying value in crypto anyway? It was a new arena that few understood. But he did (we thought).
Sandman Fried aligned himself with “effective altruism,” a new concept in philanthropy in which you aim to make a lot of money with the intent of giving it all to charity.
What a storyline! What a visual identity!
How Can More Women Brand Themselves for the Corner Office?
Women, who hold about 25 percent of leadership roles in Fortune 100 companies, still rarely break into the top three jobs: CEO, president or chief operating officer. Only about six percent of women hold these top three titles, a number that has been flat for two decades.
Women in top jobs tend to congregate in support roles like legal, finance, marketing and human resources.
How can more women break into the top echelon? Here are five moves ambitious women should make to break into the top three jobs from my new book, “The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work.”
1. Make personal branding a priority: Realize that personal branding is not optional in the new world of work with hybrid, remote and in-office working. It wasn’t easy to be recognized when everyone came to the office in person every day. It’s even more challenging now.
2. Actively seek a role with P&L responsibilities: General managers and positions in operations have profit-and-loss responsibility. It’s the yellow brick road to the corner office and you must take that path if you want one of the top three jobs in the company.
3. Seek out projects in the sight line of the CEO: You must get your work and talents recognized by the right people beginning with the top honcho. Don’t wait to be tapped. Volunteer.
4. Speak up in meetings: It’s not easy when you are in meetings with Alpha. males, but figuring out ways to break through the noise with your point of view is critical.
5. Dress like a CEO in waiting: It may seem superficial, but looking the part is important. Clothes are silent ambassadors who convey power messages about you. Women are scrutinized more than men in terms of visual identity, clothes and hair styles, so let it work in your favor.
Taking these five steps can help women break through the strongest glass ceiling of all?—?the one protecting the top three executive jobs in corporations.
#DUTY
Marketers often think in terms of “owning a word” like Google and “search,” Amazon and “e-commerce” and Volvo and “safety.”
Owning a word helps a brand dominate a category, so when you think of the word, you think of the brand, and when you think of the brand, you think of the word.
Who do you think of with the word, “duty.”
Queen Elizabeth II, of course.
Queen Elizabeth II achieved something rare for a person. She came to be recognized as an icon in her lifetime – a personal brand dedicated to duty her entire life
She stood out as a symbol of duty for over seventy years in a changing world. But that’s not to say that she was all duty and no fun. She parachuted into the Olympic Stadium in London in 2012 with James Bond (Daniel Craig) and launched her Platinum Jubilee Celebration with a video with Paddington Bear.
Queen Elizabeth II understood the importance of humanizing her role as a queen with humor.
Will the new world of work be like an Edward Hopper painting?
During the pandemic and the rise of remote and virtual working, I started talking to clients, colleagues, and friends about how all of these changes would affect us in the long term. In many ways, the pandemic accelerated trends already happening – the shift to a more remote, digital and virtual workplace, a less hierarchical organizational structure, and a realignment of industries fueled by new technologies.
As I talked to more people, I started working on a book, The New Brand You: How to Wow in the New World of Work that will come out in the fall. You can preorder here.
So far the office wars are continuing over remote vs hybrid vs in-office. Many workers are digging in their heels about remote working and they have the upper hand due to the job shortage. Many corporate bosses are hoping the old way of working together in an office comes back in full force in the fall.
Wall Street Journal columnist, Peggy Noonan, makes a compelling argument about the importance of working together for both organizational and national culture. “I don’t want America to look like an Edward Hopper painting,” in an article titled, “The Lonely Office is Bad for America”
No one knows for sure how the office wars will end. But one thing, I believe is certain, you will have to be an adept marketer of Brand You in the new world of work.
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Want to Increase Your Sales Success? Grow a Beard!
Good-bye to the superiority of the clean-shaven face. Beards have the advantage according to a study by behavioral psychologist Sarah Mittal published in the WSJ on July 29, 2022: https://www.wsj.com/articles/beards-sales-marketing-research-11658425250?mod=hp_jr_pos2 The study was originally published in The Journal of Business Research, August 2021
Men with beards scored 10.6% higher in “expertise” and 11.6% higher for “trustworthiness” compared to a clean-shaven salesperson.
It’s the power of visual identity, which I discuss in my new book, The New Brand You, coming out in the fall of 2022. (You can preorder at: https://www.amazon.com/New-Brand-You-World-Work/dp/1399804065/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MPQ50IVIOI4K&keywords=9781399804066&qid=1653313554&sprefix=9781399804066%2Caps%2C52&sr=8-1 
Visual identity is particularly potent in first impressions. Surprisingly it only takes a person only a few seconds to assess you based on how you look. As Dr. Mittal who conducted the beard study pointed out, “we immediately use visual cues to assess whether we think they know what they are doing…and if we should trust them.”
Will you be penalized if you choose to work from home?
During Covid, you were forced to work from home.
Now, if you choose to work from home, you’re choosing to not be in the office. And that doesn’t sit well with many bosses.
Bosses often assume you’re doing less when you opt for hybrid or remote work.
The reality is the opposite.
A January Gartner survey of 4,258 employees found that 43% of remote workers and 49% of hybrid workers were highly engaged, compared with 35% of on-site workers.
Bosses favoring office workers could stall career growth for working-from-home employees, particularly parents and especially mothers, who choose to work from home as the better choice to juggle their workload. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-uneven-odds-for-promotions-with-hybrid-work-11626062462?page=1
Free Britney: A Powerful and Memorable Battle Cry
For years, Britney Spears quietly lobbied for her freedom to manage her own life and be free from the restrictive conservatorship that shackled her.
Britney is one of the most famous people in the world, a personal brand who we all know. Yet speaking privately and softly for her rights year after year got her nowhere according to reporting by the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/arts/music/britney-spears-conservatorship.html
Now, she’s speaking out publicly. She’s speaking loudly, emotionally and specifically about all the freedoms denied to her. Alas, she’s taken back her power.
Britney’s plight and shocking revelations she made in court have captured the attention of the world. It spawned a movement and united people around the battle cry, #Free Britney.
The unfairness of her predicament has galvanized her followers and the public at large. https://www.newyorker.com/news/american-chronicles/britney-spears-conservatorship-nightmare
But Britney’s cause could have impact far beyond her personal story. It could change how conservatorships and guardianships are handled legally in the United States according to media sources.
Based on what we’ve learned from Britney’s situation, it’s time.
Tap into the Power of Video on YouTube
The United States is becoming a nation of viewers not readers. And it’s not all bad.
According to one study, people remember 95% of a video message but only 10% of a text message.
The best place to tap into the power of video is on YouTube. It is the second largest search engine after Google with two billion active viewers. By 2022, online videos are predicted to be more than 82% of consumer traffic.
Plus, YouTube is a trusted link, so people are comfortable clicking on it.
Best of all, creating a YouTube Channel that reflects your brand is free.
It’s versatile, so you can have a consistent brand look across channels: website, blog, email, social media, YouTube channel.
If you have a small business or side hussle, don’t think you need to have high production values. Videos on a smart phone have the same potential to be effective, maybe even more so if you’re authentic and reveal your personality.
How to Pitch Your Business in a Pandemic
In 2020, we’ve seen a “storm” of disasters: the Covid19 pandemic and a shaky economy with many businesses shut down or partially shut down. As yet there is no word on whether there will be a second stimulus or another round of the PPP loan program. We’ve also been rocked by a contentious presidential election, and protests on the streets.
What’s a small business owner to do?
You don’t want to be seen as taking advantage of a crisis, but you don’t want to be invisible either. You have to figure out when to comfort customers and when to sell them.
Here are four phases from the Madison Avenue playbook on how to market during challenging times.
Phase 1: Launch with inspirational messages
In the early days of the Covid19 pandemic, many big brands ran inspirational, feel good TV spots like McDonald’s ads showing McDonald’s arches lighting up across the country at daybreak and Apple commercials featuring a montage of people staying creative with Apple products.
Phase 2: Tap into the new normal and changing habits
With consumer habits and lifestyle changing so rapidly during the pandemic, businesses needed to respond with something targeted to the new reality. Domino’s Pizza launched TV spots that featured contactless delivery. Anheiser Busch’s research showed how people’s lifestyle was changing and developed a digital campaign with professional athletes playing Call of Duty while drinking Bud Light Selzer. With people cooking and baking at home more, spice maker McCormick introduced cooking videos like “Easy Quarantine recipes.”
Phase 3: Drill down with useful tools and targeted advice
Many small businesses are using social media to provide useful tools, guides and workbooks that target specific customer needs. Many have set up virtual Zoom events that are educational such as the health food company that hosted a webinar with a panel of medical experts on what you can do to strengthen your immune system during the pandemic.
Phase 4: Humor comes back along with more inspirational messages
The pandemic is not over and no one knows when it will end. But there is a need to laugh again, like Progressive insurance company’s campaign with Flo and her coworkers working for home and struggling with the wifi. Because we don’t have an end date, there still is a need for inspirational themes that make us feel better.