Category: Personal Branding

March 2020: #AndrewCuomo – A New Leadership Brand is Born

Posted March 31, 2020 by Catherine Kaputa in Leadership, Personal Branding / 0 Comments

What a difference a crisis makes!

Governor Cuomo’s daily disaster briefings on Covid19 are now must-see TV not only in New York but around the country. His live presentations have catapulted his personal brand in a matter of weeks from a governor who was respected but had a likeability problem according to polls into the leader of the moment. Now he has a passionate fan base rooting for him to become the Democratic nominee for president #PresidentCuomo

His detailed slide-show briefings are like chicken soup for the soul in a world caught up in this horrible new reality of the moment.

Here’s the Governor’s winning recipe:

Big on facts – Light on bluster

Straight talk – Not wishes and hunches

Empathy for the sick – And their caregivers

Focus on strategy – Not helter-skelter changes in direction

Intense – Yet calming

I feel better knowing he’s in charge and plan my day to make sure I can tune into his updates live. He mixes the cruel reality of what’s going in in New York portrayed in his slides with words of wisdom like “Find ways to create some JOY,” and gives us an example of how he’s creating joy with his daughters.

His presentations seem to speak to every listener personally as I imagine Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fireside chats did over the radio during the bleakest days of World War II.

Thank you for your leadership. It gives us hope.

 

Make fun of Donald Trump’s hair all you want, but it’s a key part of his branding

Posted April 24, 2016 by Catherine Kaputa in Famous People, Personal Branding / 0 Comments

Make fun of Donald Trump’s comb-over all you want, but his hair is an important part of his brand and gives him a distinctive visual identity like Hillary Clinton’s colorful pants suits.

Developing a signature item or style as a trademark of your visual style is a great tactic for personal branding. You’re creating a branding element that identifies you, like the logo on a product.

You can also build your career identity around particular accomplishments and experience like Clinton does with her political experience or Trump does with his business success.

It’s also smart to think in terms of creating intellectual property, ideas that people associate with you like Bernie Sanders has done around the issue of income equality.