Dismiss the Myths: Be Your Best Promoter

Ask a group of successful, savvy, college students to begin the process of identifying their own distinctive brand by listing their accomplishments and you can feel the air getting sucked out of the room. Eager faces suddenly turn apprehensive. A couple of people will make self-deprecating jokes. Then, dead silence.

Why is it that world-beating college students struggle so mightily with branding themselves? The answer? They believe in myths – myths that need busting.

Myth #1: If I Am Good, They Will Come. Being good is not enough. Being all of the things you are and have accomplished is not enough. Toiling away when everyone else has gone home will not leapfrog you to the front of the pack. Creating the greatest widget will not by itself drive sales.

You must find a way to tell your story to people who will listen. And your story must be the answer to a question that prospective employers need the answer to. This is the biggest hurdle that most people must overcome.

If a tree falls in the forest, and there's no one to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer, in an increasingly competitive, dog-eat-dog 21st century world is a resounding, "NO.??

Myth #2: Marketing Myself Is a Dirty Business. Successful personal branding means taking a 50,000 foot view of yourself and your aspirations, looking down on yourself from a remote-enough planet that your "buts?? and "not reallys?? and every other self-qualifier you can come up with cease to exist.

Learn how to look at what's left of the former you as just another product on a very crowded shelf, where every other can of soup is jockeying for position and trying to knock you off in the process.
Successful personal branding means creating a brand identity that is authentic, consistent and memorable, one that you own and are proud of.

Myth #3: I Can't Control What Other People Think. You must learn to be the marketing manager of your own brand campaign. Why do people associate Volvo with safety or FedEx with overnight delivery? Because millions of dollars were spent to create that association.

Here are several simple steps you can take right now to bottle and market YOU.

1. Figure out who you are, what you stand for, and why you are different than anyone or anything else.

2. Create a story that communicates your value and your market differentiation.

3. Pull the key words that you have used to create that story and weave them into everything that you say, do and publish about yourself and your business.

4. Tell your story relentlessly, passionately and unapologetically to anyone who will listen. You will refine and improve it as you go along, figuring out which parts work and which don't.

Don't be afraid to begin your exploration of your personal brand identity. Claim your rightful role as chief flag-waver for for yourself.

Being Good Is Not Enough

This post is a wake-up call to all current and just-graduated students. And the message is simple: Being good is no longer enough. Your 3.9 GPA, varsity soccer, three-language proficiency, year in South America, work-study in the campus bookstore, volunteering at the homeless shelter, bylines in the school paper, interning every summer since you stopped going to camp are simply not going to haul the water no matter what your parents, your advisor or the career service administrator tells you. From this moment on, it's all up to you. What you will do with the rest of your life, in particular the next year or two, depends on how well you package yourself, how well you present that package to prospective employers, and how well you make the case for why yours is the resume that will set the standard for everyone else.

For all of the how-to-get-a-job, write a resume, conduct a job search books and online information that is proliferating the how-to market, nothing will be as important to you now (and throughout your working life, for that matter) as how you brand yourself. Standing out from an increasingly competitive and glittering crowd of your peers depends upon how effectively you are able to sell your talents, abilities, passions, and vision.

Can you let go of obsessing over the format of your resume for the moment, and focus instead on the 150,000 foot view of who you are, how you will articulate it, and who should be listening?

Are you ready to conduct a hearts and minds campaign relentlessly focused on your value, your differentiation from the thousands of others just like you, and shape a tactical plan to execute this strategy?