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.

A Bad Economy Is the Perfect Time to Start Over

My first six months in Wisconsin were interesting to say the least. Ryan Paugh and I lived on $1,000 a month in a beat up old house on the East Side of Madison. We worked from home, we rarely went out, we fought with each other, we fought with Penelope, and we watched the snow pile up on the cold Wisconsin ground month after month.

By all accounts, it was pretty terrible. I was used to having lots of friends, going out all the time, and counting on a good paycheck to come in every other week.

But then we raised some money. We took bonuses, we got regular paychecks, we hired people, we rented an office, and I moved in to a nice place with my brother and bought a flat screen TV. It was great. It was comfortable.

It was boring.

Any true entrepreneur will tell you that the best time in the life of a start up is the beginning. You work tons of hours and you can't wait until you're funded because that's when you'll be able to do the things you really want to do.

But once you get funded, the headaches just begin, and it starts to feel like a "real job." It's easy to get comfortable, to forget about all the hard work you put in before there was cash in the bank. And strangely enough, you end up wishing you could go back to the beginning or sell your company and start a new one.

Rather than being completely focused on the company, I found myself walking down the street, sometimes nostalgic about the little apartment Ryan and I lived in and sometimes dreaming about our big exit and all the money that would come with it.

Then, before we even realized what was happening, the market crashed, investors pulled back, and we didn't have salaries anymore. The whole company had gotten too comfortable; we weren't prepared to handle the downturn.

But oddly enough, three months later, things are going really well. We made a decision to switch up our business model and bring in revenue any way possible. Every dollar we make is treated like gold, we've managed to cut our burn rate by nearly 50% without losing any productivity, and we've realized just how many ways there are to make money, without begging someone for a multimillion dollar investment

I'm confident that we're going to make it through, and I'm convinced that when Brazen Careerist does end up a success, we will have George Bush to thank (Did I really say that?). The recession allowed us, or some might say forced us, to reevaluate and start over.

In a way, I did get my wish, Brazen is like a brand new start up, except we have a site that's already built, we have founders who have all done this part before, and we have a whole army of people that want us to succeed.

I've learned a lot from this whole experience, both personally and professionally. Difficult situations are the best learning opportunities; when things are good it's very difficult to see how you can improve. But when times are tough you have the opportunity to make difficult, life-altering decisions. Great businesses and great leaders embrace difficult situations and thrive when times are tough.

The question is, when adversity is staring you in the face, will you get comfortable, or will you embrace the adversity and emerge stronger than ever?

Want to Get a Job in this Market? Control Your Google Rank

If you have a name like Photis Patriotis, Brazen's Software Engineer, showing up at the top of a Google search is a cakewalk. He can buy his personal domain name, start blogging, and hit the front page every time someone searches for him. By pure chance, because his parents gave him a unique name, Photis can take control of his online identity with relative ease.

But for those of us with a name like John Smith, or Ryan Healy, it's not so easy. Even after two years of blogging, and building a relatively strong online brand I'm still outranked by a copywriter in Seattle (or maybe its Denver now). He bought the domain www.ryanhealy.com, so I don't see myself outranking him anytime soon.

But after a lot of work, I have managed to claim a few spots on the front page of a Google search, despite competing with the highly active copywriter and an ultimate fighter who's nicknamed Ryan "The Irish Assassin" Healy. Hopefully people don't mistake me for him!

The point is, unless you're lucky enough to have a one in a billion name, you cannot completely control your online identity. But with a little hard work and strategy, anyone can hit the front page of a Google search.

Personalities like Dan Schawbel are evangelizing personal branding and controlling ones online identity for career purposes and the savviest of us are beginning to listen. Steven Moody, a member of Brazen Careerist recently wrote Penelope Trunk an email, he said,

"I am trying to get to the top of Google searches for my name, but competing with a Death Row inmate in TX and a con artist in Utah is proving difficult. So imagine my surprise when my Brazen Careerist profile is #6-8 on searches! I am indebted to you for the motivation this created."

Steven knows that controlling his Google rank is critical for a number of reasons. It's especially critical when you're looking for a new job because what employers find about you online is an extension of your resume. According to a Vault.com survey, 56% of employers have looked up potential hires on social networks to learn more about them, and 82% said that a negative profile will affect their hiring decisions.

Online career sites like Linkedin, Brazen and VisualCV are not going to replace paper resumes, because despite what some may believe; traditional resumes aren't going away anytime soon. But having a presence on these kinds of career sites can do wonders for building an online presence that will act as an extension of your resume.

If you're cool with Facebook being the first thing people see when they search for you, then this stuff probably doesn't matter, but if you're serious about your career, start a blog, check out the career sites I mentioned, and control what people see when they Google your name.

Job Security Is a Dumb Goal (And a Survey with Some Cool Prizes)

A couple of weeks ago I attended a "future of work" retreat. Many people presented their research, but one specific trend consistently showed up, and truthfully I'm amazed by it — Generation Y values job security more than anything else.

At first glance, this seems crazy because Gen Y is job hopping every couple of years and employers can't figure out how to get us to stick around. But as I thought about it a little more and I discussed the topic with other retreat attendees, it made total sense. We grew up watching our parents get laid off, then we went to college and saw the collapse of Enron, Arthur Andersen and others, and even now, we're watching Wall Street completely screw up the economy. Couple that with the rapid pace of change we've seen throughout our lives, and a little security sounds pretty comforting.

But here's the thing. We shouldn't be looking for job security. And companies shouldn't promise it. Promising job security means promising employment. And when everything changes at the blink of an eye, no company can promise employment. But what they should be able to promise is employability.

Promising employability means that a company is promising to provide you with the right mix of training, skills, experience, and mentoring, which will ultimately leave you employable no matter what happens with your current job. The best security you can have is the security of having the skills that employers need—the skills that make you employable.

So, when you go on your next job interview or when you talk to your boss about your career plans, ask him what the company is doing to make you employable. If he can quickly give you a list of five things, congratulations, you're secure. If he's stumped, it's time to rethink the job you're in.

Many companies have no idea how to provide Generation Y with the skills we need to be employable. So, they need our help. Jeanne Meister is researching and writing a book to help companies understand what Gen Y really wants. She has the ear of corporate America, but she's asking for a little help and insight from us – Gen Y.

CLICK HERE to take the Four Generations @ Work survey and do your part in helping Corporate America understand what changes they need to make. And hey, if for no other reason, there are some pretty cool prizes you could win if you take the survey by October 15.

The Prizes:
1. Ipod Touch
2. Flip Camera
3. $50 gift certificate to Amazon

What My Frat-Guy Years Taught Me About Building Community

Most of you don't know the Ryan Paugh that people knew in college. Most of you know Ryan Paugh "the BC community manager." But back in college I was Ryan Paugh "the frat guy."

And at first, saying that leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Frat guys get a bad rap, because a lot of us flat-out suck. But many of us are actually pretty good guys … promise.

But here's the deal. I learned a lot from my years as a greek. Sure, I partied hard, got up late and skipped a bunch of classes. But I spent a lot of that time building community right outside my door, in my frat.

Here are few things I took away from the fuzzy, fun-filled days and nights I spent with my fraternity in college.

You can get a lot by doing a little.

The worst part about joining a fraternity is the pledge process. But after it's all over, the rewards you'll reap over the next four years (and beyond) are immeasurable.

I try to think about blogging the same way. During the first few months of your blog, you're pretty much at the bottom of the food chain. Hardly anyone wants to talk to you and you're putting a lot of time into something when time is pretty scarce.

Some days you want to quit—and lots of people do—but for those who stay, you get to enjoy a community experience that other people miss out on.

Just like pledging, once you're initiated, the blogosphere becomes your playground. It's effortless to make connections. And if that's all you're looking for, you're in great shape.

But going above and beyond is better.

A lot of people pledge frats, "pay their dues" and coast their way through college with all the perks of fraternity life. But others take a leadership role. They strive to make a difference within their community. These people gain the most out of fraternity life.

Being a part of the blogosphere is very similar. The more you put in, the more you get out.

The Brazen Careerist community has leaders in every niche. They're not just blogging; they're making their niche better or even the entire sphere better.

A telltale sign of a community leader is someone who takes it beyond the blog. They connect via email, on the phone or in person. They're finding ways for bloggers to work together and they're actually creating a movement for change in some cases.

I like to think about it in terms of the people in the frat who would stay in their rooms during a party versus the ones who left that sanctity to be more social. Sure, you can lure people back to your room to party, but you're a lot more likely to experience something fun if you throw yourself amongst the masses and let loose.

Mixing it up is a good thing.

My favorite thing about frat life was our diversity. We weren't the homogeneous crew of greeks you see in movies. We had lots of differences. And it's what made our house so distinctive.

And what would any good community be without a little diversity? What I love most about being Brazen is all the perspectives and passions we share. We are all quite different, but at the same time, united by the common desire to build relationships with fascinating people.

And sure, you may think frat guys are far from fascinating. But the good frats aim to be. Mine was. We had the meatheads, but we also had philosophers and some-day corporate execs. We were far from dull, and that's what most communities should strive to be.

There are tons of different people with different agendas in the blogosphere. Some are writing, some are commenting and some are just reading with little-to-no visibility at all. But they're all fulfilling a role that's important to any community's existence.

Inter-fraternal relations are vital.

It only takes a moment for a good party to go bad. One second you're drinking a beer, the next, you're getting jostled around in the midst of a frat-on-frat brawl. Lame.

Community leaders try so hard to build relationships with similar organizations. Then, out of nowhere, beer muscles get the best of someone and all goes sour.

It's understandable. Everyone wants to be at the best. And in a way, you are, of course, competitors. But like anyone who understands community knows, it's better to have an alliance with the competition than a vendetta against one another.

When building online community, establish good relations with your competition and try not to talk trash too much. The party is a lot more fun when you don't have to worry about bad blood over spilt beer

Because in the end, it's all about throwing a great party.

That's the biggest similarity between my frat-guy years and my new adventure building an online community. Every day Brazen is working to bring the most thought-provoking mix of readers and writers together.

Our goal: To be the most stellar group of thought-provoking young professionals online. The community everyone wants to party with—the big name on campus.

And maybe that sounds too greek for you … and if that's the case, don't get turned off. I'm far beyond those years (for the most part). I'm just happy to (right now) have my dream job. A job that bonds my party-boy years with the (quasi)-professional I've become today. And I'm loving it.