Executive Personal Branding

A strong personal brand can help you convey confidence, build your self-esteem, and position you to stand out from others. It’s about getting clarity about your own skill set, your mindset and for some, their life purpose. Intentionally investing in your personal brand, can land you a better paying job or make attracting more profitable clients easier. So it really is a worthwhile investment.

Like a professional brand, your name can be a major part of your personal brand. Since your...

“I’m sorry.” or “I made a mistake.”

What do you think of professionals who admit that they are wrong?

Does it matter if they are being sincere in their apology? Does their mistake or admission alter your views on them or their brand? Should it?

I was having a conversation with my husband about current events and he made the statement “One thing that Trump has taught me is that if you are in the public eye, you should never admit your mistake or apologize for it.”

Honestly, this took me by...

"Social media is more about sociology and psychology, than it is about technology" ~ Brian Solis.

While I agree with the concept of this quote, overall, I disagree. You can spend all your time studying sociology and psychology--have them mastered if you will. This studying will only make you book smart. You’ll have the ability to see trends in case studies and get a feel for what will probably happen in this situation or that.

But what happens when you actually interact with real people? What...

“I know what customer service is.” “I think I know what customer experience is.” “What is brand experience?”

That is usually how a conversation about customers relating to a business goes. Companies are familiar with customer service and usually customer experience, although they sometimes conflate the two. Brand experience, on the other hand often draws a blank, or worse, it is lumped in with customer service. Do you see a pattern developing here? There has been a lot of conversation around...

Do you remember the days of customer service before social media? For many companies, it seemed like they had a goal of breaking down the customer, hoping to frustrate them out of wanting to be helped at all. Their attitude was, “Wow, you sure seem mad. But what are you going to do about it?” And they were right, there wasn’t much a customer could do…then!

Along came social media, and suddenly customers could actually could do something about it. Customers could demand proper service and help....

It feels like this conversation has been going on forever! "Should the C-suite use social media? Do they need a presence? If so, on what tool? How often should they post or interact?"

The two sides seem to argue the same points over and over, as if making their points again will make a difference this time. Perhaps it will, or perhaps it will just continue to fall on deaf ears.

Those in favor say:

• It shows transparency and accountability.
• Millennials will demand it.
• It will put a human face to...

Buzz words here, there, and everywhere! Some think they make us sound smart. Others think they are overused and really mean nothing. Regardless of where you are on that spectrum, buzzwords are a reality that are here to stay though the meaning of them may change over time.

Having worked with businesses from all sectors and nonprofits in developing their brand, re-branding, or expanding their brand, I hear the word "professional" an awful lot! But what does it mean?

It could mean "showing the...

In today’s business landscape real branding has been replaced with slide shows of social media billboards (posts) that are expected to deliver the results of a real brand experience.



I was reading an article titled “The Rules of Engagement: How Social Media has Changed the Landscape” by Sandra Lewis. In it, Lewis makes a similar point stating that companies get caught up in sending out messages and forgetting the importance of real, true engagement.

She feels that social media should play a...

Business structure is changing. Priorities today demand a new way of thinking about business, operations, marketing, and communication as a whole.

I was reading the Accenture report, "The CMO-CIO Disconnect: Bridging the Gap to Seize the Digital Opportunity" (http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/accenture-report-how-cmos-and-cios-can-play-nice-together-022230.php.) According to this report, by 2017 CMOs will spend more time with technology and analytics than CIOs. This trend has been...

Is it the sales department’s fault or the economy’s?

You have probably already formed an opinion, either blame or excuse. No I am not naive as to what is going on in the world. I simply asked a generic question and you most likely have already formed an opinion. Let’s look at some details about the particular situation I have in mind then we can see if your answer is still the same.

I recently met with a company who wants to grow their service department and they have high turnover in their...