Personal Branding is Not a Fad, and Why You Need to Read This Book

Tom Peters first wrote about The Brand Called You in a 1997 issue of Fast Company. Slowly but surely, in the 12 years since, Personal Branding has gone mainstream. Nearly everyone in the social media/web 2.0 world is aware that what we do, both online and off, defines our personal brands. College students get it too. At a University of Wisconsin panel last week, we polled the audience and more than 75% people had heard of personal branding.

Despite this, many college students and young professionals aren't exactly sure how to effectively build a brand. Lucky for them, my buddy Dan Schawbel's new book, "Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand To Achieve Career Success" will teach you exactly how to do it. Anyone who wants to give themselves the best chance to succeed in this new, hyper-connected world, needs to check it out.

If you're still not convinced, here are a couple reasons why I know that personal branding is not a fad, and why you should buy Dan's book, or at least read his blog

Everyone's an entrepreneur
The average stay at a job for Generation Y is about 18 months. Job hopping is the norm these days, and even the recession isn't going to change this fact. So, if you're changing jobs every couple of years, you need to think of yourself like an entrepreneur. Reid Hoffman, the CEO of Linkedin says, "Every individual is now an entrepreneur, whether they recognize it or not. Because it used to be that you got a job at one company and you were there 20, 30, 40, years. That's been dead for decades. That's even dying in Japan. The salary man no longer even exists in Japan."

Entrepreneurs start companies, and the smart ones spend a lot of time branding those companies and branding themselves. If every individual is an entrepreneur then it makes sense that you start managing your personal brand too.

Google is Branding You Right Now
It's true. You have a personal brand and someone can find it on Google. If it takes hours of searching to find some information about you online, then you're probably doing a poor job of creating your personal brand. If the first thing someone finds is your Facebook page with pictures of you beer bonging in college, then you're doing a poor job of managing your personal brand. Regardless, Google is branding you as a party animal, or a music lover, or a blogger or completely out of touch. First impressions are important, and increasingly first impressions are happening on Google. You may as well make a good one.

Personal branding lets you learn about you
I have to admit, when I first heard the term personal branding, I thought it was kind of lame. But as I've progressed in my career and in my life, I see the importance of defining who I am to the world and more importantly, I see the importance in defining who I am to me. Entrepreneurs deal with this all the time. I often find myself in meeting asking the question, "What is Brazen Careerist? What are our values? What's our mission?" When you figure out those questions, you can accurately define your company's brand. Well, it seems pretty important to ask the same questions of an individual. What do you stand for? What are your goals? Where do you want to end up in life?

Creating a personal brand allows you to look at where you are right now, and think about where you want to be and then you get to project that self knowledge to the world. That's pretty powerful stuff.

So, what are you waiting for? Buy the book. Build your brand.

Self Motivation – The Key to Productivity

Whether its athletes, musicians or high powered executives, from the outside it seems that the most successful people appear to have an inhuman ability to stay self motivated.

Douglas Walker and Steven Sorkin wrote a great book called "A-Ha! Performance, Building and Managing a Self-Motivated Workforce." The authors claim that building and maintaining a self-motivated workforce is the single best way to improve company performance. They outline the eight Intrinsic Motivation Points (IMPs) that drive human performance and they show managers how they can use these IMPs to get their employees to increase motivation and productivity.

Managers can learn a lot from the book, but we entry-level folks can learn something too. We can learn that being self motivated, without any external help from our bosses and managers, will give us a big leg up on the competition. Here are a few things that help me stay motivated on a daily basis.

Create a schedule, but don't get too comfortable

I usually start work at 8 a.m., break for lunch around 12, head to the gym at 4 p.m. and get back to work until dinner. This schedule is great, but some days it just doesn't work.

Today I couldn't concentrate. I attempted to fix some of our financials with no luck, then I tried to write a post but nothing came to mind. From experience I know that trying to work when I'm not all there is just a waste of time. My productivity and quality of work drop dramatically. So I closed my computer at 1 p.m. and headed to the gym to sweat out the weekend. Now it's 8 p.m. and I'm sitting at a coffee shop making up for my lost work time.

Get some exercise

I love what I do, and I've admitted to being a workaholic, but if I didn't run on a daily basis my motivation and productivity would take a serious hit.

Studies show that aerobic exercise provides benefits including mood enhancements through the release of endorphins, and neruogenesis, the creation of new neurons in the brain. I'll admit, I'm not totally sure what this means, but I do know that during and immediately following a run, my creative juices are in high gear.

I've come up with the topic for almost every one of my posts while jogging, and my highest productivity point everyday is right after a good run. Whether it's running, lifting, basketball or tae bo, get some exercise everyday and your motivation to work is bound to increase.

Don't forget to sleep

The average American gets six hours of sleep per night. For most of us, that's just not sufficient. Strangely enough, you often hear successful people like Donald Trump and Condoleeza Rice being praised for surviving on next to no sleep. But don't be fooled, not all highly successful people forfeit sleep for success. According to Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief campaign advisor, Bill Clinton was famous for his afternoon naps. And Ronald Reagan was too.

When I worked at IBM I would typically get six hours of sleep. I figured after getting home from work I needed at least another six or seven hours to run errands, work out, read, and watch TV, so I went to sleep around 1 a.m. every night. These days I make it a priority to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep, and if possible, I get eight hours.

Needless to say, my productivity at IBM wasn't even close to what it is now. I often crashed after lunch and Monday mornings were especially difficult. Everyone's body is different when it comes to sleeping patterns, so figure out what works for you and be sure to get the necessary amount of sleep, you'll be amazed at the increase in energy level.

Managers should certainly take the advice from Walker and Sorkin's book and do everything they can to build and sustain a self motivated workforce, but in the mean time, us workers should do everything in our power to build and sustain our own self motivation.

The Best of Employee Evolution 2007

To say the least, 2007 has been an interesting ride for Ryan and I. Our year started on the East Coast, each of us working as entry level employees in Fortune 500 companies, itching to find something bigger and better. Today, the year is ending in the frozen tundra of Madison, Wisconsin, where we're working as entrepreneurs in a three person startup.

We launched Employee Evolution nine months ago as a fun little side project where we could spew our thoughts about the good and the bad of entry level work to a few dozen people. Now we have over 1,000 subscribers, and we can't say anything the least bit controversial without someone questioning our characters!

Regardless, the community that has come together around this blog is absolutely amazing. We truly appreciate everyone who has continued to read, subscribe, comment and submit guest posts. I fully expect 2008 be as fun and exciting as 2007 has been and I hope everyone will join us for the journey.

So, without further ado, here is a list of our favorite posts from this past year.

Gen-Y Articles

The Most Self Centered Generation Ever?

Where should a Millennial draw the line?

Young workers are important, with good reason

How Gen-Y is decentralizing corporate america

What Gen-Y wants from work

Why I don't have health insurance

Millennials are strategically political

At the Office

Suits all week for a day in my boxers

Getting beyond cubicle hell

Why don't you cry about it? Seriously.

Best Buy gets it. And stop watching the clock

Boomers are reinventing retirement, I'm going to bartending school

It's all about selling yourself (out)

Multitasking vs. time management

Blogging

Blogging is the new graduate school

Learning to run a business: get a blog, not a job

Why I started blogging

Start up life

BIG news: we're starting a company

Working with Penelope Trunk – Tales from a start up soap opera

Working with Penelope Trunk – A reality show in the making

Books

Leaderless organizations make sense, read the starfish and the spider

My Start Up Life

Getting from college to career

Recruit or die

If you're still looking for more, be sure to check out our archives, and our top articles on the right sidebar.

Happy New Year to all!

Getting "Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck"

High school teaches us basic algebra, geometry and calculus. It teaches us how to appropriately research papers and cite sources. We learn U.S. and world history. But, most school systems fail to give us a basic financial education.

In his notorious book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki points out this fatal flaw in our school system and proceeds to give us a financial education. Of course, he then released a handful of other books that more or less say the exact same thing, but that's not the point. In the grand scheme of things, being financially literate is one of the most important skills anyone can have.

This is the number one reason I majored in Accounting and Finance. It wasn't because I love crunching numbers and valuing stocks. It was because I knew that learning the basics of money and finance is an invaluable weapon to have in my arsenal. I don't regret this decision for a minute, but I recognize that you don't need to study the topic for four years to learn the basics. All you need to do is read the right books.

Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck, by Michael Rubin, is certainly one of the "right" books. The book is "a conversation about income, wealth and the steps in between." And it's a conversation we all need to have.

So what financial advice does Michael give to young adults seeking to better manage their money? He was kind enough to let me pick his brain on the topic. Below is the Q&A that ensued:

What is the best way for underpaid entry level workers to save some cash?

It seems like every financial expert is all over young people for spending too much on coffee. Look, there is a savings opportunity there for some folks, but most entry level workers aren't going to come up with an extra ten grand a year by pinching pennies at Starbucks. Instead, you've got to put major focus on major expenses, like your choice of housing and car. If you're an underpaid entry-level worker, you can't live in the neighborhood of a fairly paid middle-manager or drive the car your boss drives. Not yet. Once you commit to high housing or car expenses, you pay them for a long time.

What is the biggest financial mistake young people make after college?

Overly aggressive spending on housing or a car—but we just talked about that. Another common financial mistake by new graduates is not signing up for their 401(k) plan, especially if they are fortunate enough to work for a company that provides them with an employer match. Although money is often tight for young people, they will still likely experience the largest increase in pay they'll ever get – from virtually nothing as a senior in college to perhaps $30,000 or so at a new first job. If a new grad making $30,000 can immediately become accustomed to living on $27,000 – still a $27,000 raise – he or she will be saving 10 percent from the get-go. With a 50 percent match, that's $4,500 saved for retirement – and it will grow from there.

Why should I be worried about retirement already?

Actually, no twentysomething should be worried about retirement. You've got all the time in the world. It's only if you haven't done anything about your retirement and are now a fortysomething that you should be worried. The key for twentysomethings is to just get started. By starting to save for retirement while you are still in your twenties, you remove one of the key sources of potential worry later-on: procrastination during your youth. Thanks to the miracle of compounding interest, the amount you have to save when you are young is quite minimal compared to what you'd have to save if you wait just a few years.

Author's Note: You can get a free basic motivational summary showing you your personalized numbers by clicking here.

What do you mean when you say, "connect with your money emotionally?"

That's first on the list of the Top Ten Saving Strategies. When you are emotionally separated from your money—from your cash—you spend more. It's just human nature. When I speak to audiences, hardly anyone raises their hands when I ask "How many of you are paid in cash?" In fact, few people even get a real paycheck anymore—it's all direct deposit. Our spending is the same way: no cash, almost all credit cards. Most people have no idea how much cash they have in their wallets until they find themselves at a place that has the audacity to not accept credit cards.

Why does that matter?

Because when you're not connected to your money emotionally, you spend more. Spending cash hurts—right away. Credit cards are painless—until you get the bill.

Is the solution to get rid of your credit cards?

Absolutely not. There are plenty of positives about credit cards—but that's another discussion for another day. For now, simply recognize that an emotional separation from your money means you will spend more. (Doubt me? Think about casinos.) So try this: next time you go to the mall, leave the credit cards at home. Take some cash with you and see how your spending habits change. You'll find that when there are two options for something you need, one at $59 which is "good enough" and another at $79 that is "better," being forced to spend cash means you'll likely take the one for $59.

You say constant budgeting isn't required, what do you recommend instead?

The beauty of following the first nine of the Top Ten Saving Strategies is that you'll be saving so much that you don't need to micromanage your finances. Budgeting can limit your desire for spontaneity, making it hard to keep at it. But you can get away without budgeting at all if you simply commit to saving. After all, if you're saving 15 percent of your income, what's the difference how you spend the other 85 percent?

What should you do with the money in your 401(k) account when changing jobs? What if you are leaving to pursue your own business?

The big advantage of rolling your 401(k) account into a regular IRA upon changing jobs or going into your own business is that you don't wind up with 401(k) accounts all over the place after you—like most of us—job hop a few times. Simple is better because simple gets done. Roll each 401(k) account into an IRA and you'll never have more than one 401(k) plan to keep track of. Plus, you'll benefit from the virtually unlimited investment choices available to you in your IRA.

The BIG Transition — Getting from College to Career

"What good is a book if you can't make time to read it?" It's the query I used to ask myself when walking into my college dorm and seeing the pile of career advice books glazed with dust. "C'est la vie," I thought. "At least they make me seem smarter."

If you're like me, you don't have the time or patience to read everything cover-to-cover. You hover over the bold text hoping to get the gist. Then it's back to the grind.

If this screams YOU, then at last, there's a career advice book that's right up your alley – Getting from College to Career by Lindsey Pollak.

"You can read every page or skip the tips that don't feel applicable to your situation," says Pollak. "This book does not contain a step-by-step, all inclusive guide to getting a job. Rather, it offers the very best tips I've gathered on a wide variety of topics to help you stand out from the crowd."

One of the biggest qualms I hear from peers seeking career advice is the corporate-centric tone of most publications. If you don't want to be a cubicle jockey, what are they even good for?

College to Career skips the corporate jargon and gets straight to the point. Sick of hearing about nothing but business scenarios? This book is the universal roadmap to being a solid individual, regardless of your ambitions.

To prove my point, I had my friend Laura read the book and see if the advice suited her passion, nursing. She didn't want to give it back.

"It emphasizes little things that affect us all," Laura said. "It doesn't matter what career you're in."

One of the most valuable features of College to Career is the "Make this work for you" checklists. After making key recommendations, Pollak encourages her readers to apply it to their own lives giving a step-by-step plan on how to achieve. There's even a check-box you can pencil in after you're finished. I'm a sucker for checking things off.

All-and-all, this is the book I wish I had transitioning into adulthood (interestingly enough, Amazon.com reviewers say the exact same thing). But I guess it's not too late. If you're already part of the real world (like me), you can still take advantage of Pollak's millennial-friendly guide to fitting in with the rest of the working world.

Gaining respect in an atmosphere of Gen-Y scrutiny is no easy task. Especially without adjusting yourself to some of the working world's in-place standards. Luckily, Pollak's youth-oriented charisma in College to Career makes the transition a lot easier than it seems.