Did you watch the Super Bowl yesterday?  About 100 million people did.  The game was entertaining and fun to watch.  New Orleans won 31 – 17.  Drew Brees, the Saints quarterback was the Most Valuable Player, and he endeared himself to the country by bringing his little boy – who was wearing noise reduction headphones – on to the field and carrying him around after the game.

I bring up the Super Bowl because you can learn a lot about branding from it.  If you notice in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, big box retailers suggest you buy a new, better TV to watch the “big game.”  Super markets and delis promote their party trays for the “big game.”  That’s because the Super Bowl is the crown jewel in the NFL’s brand; so much so that they’ve trademarked it.  If you want to use the words “Super Bowl” in your ads, you have to pay a fee to the NFL.  Coors Light did.  That’s why you saw so many Super Bowl themed Coors Light commercials these past few weeks.  Interestingly, Coors Light didn’t run one ad during the game.  M&Ms paid the royalty fee too.  I loved their ads with the M&M running on the conveyor belt in the super market.

The NFL works hard to protect their Super Bowl brand.  You should work hard to nurture, promote and protect your personal brand too.  Creating positive personal impact is one of the success competencies in my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, I Want YOU…To Succeed, Star Power, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success.  Developing and nurturing your unique personal brand is the first step in creating positive personal impact.

I’m sure you know who I mean when I say Oprah, Michael, Shaq, Madonna and Bono.  These are people who are powerful brands.  However, personal brands aren’t just for athletes and celebrities.  All successful people create and nurture their own unique personal brand.  Your brand is how others think of you.  It is a combination of a lot of things – what you stand for, how you act, how you dress, your on line presence.  Nature abhors a vacuum.  If you don’t consciously create your brand, others will do it for you.

As you go about creating your personal brand, remember that a good brand will not appeal to everyone.  A brand that appeals to everybody is too vanilla.  You want a Cherry Garcia brand, something that is uniquely you.  A good brand will appeal to a lot of people, but it will also turn off a certain portion of the population.

Take my “Common Sense Guy” brand.  It appeals to a lot of people.  However, some people find “common sense” a little too pedestrian and “guy” a little too colloquial.  That’s OK.  Those folks probably aren’t real interested in what I have to say, and how I say it anyway.

There are two simple and common sense steps for creating a strong personal brand.

1. Decide how you want people to think of you.
2. Do whatever it takes to get them to think that way.

Once you choose your brand, stay on brand at all times.  Be consistent and constant.  Do whatever you can to reinforce your brand.  For example, all of my websites have the words “common sense” in them.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that I end every one of my blog posts with a paragraph that begins, “The common sense point here is…”  I avoid lengthy, complicated analyses.  I work hard to simplify the complex and provide simple, easy to implement advice to my coaching clients.  I use humor in my talks – and frequently pepper them with the words – “After all, it’s just common sense, right?” 

I work really hard to consistently and constantly present myself as someone who has common sense answers to everyday career and life success questions.  Later this year I have a book on teams and teamwork coming out.  It’s called Common Sense Ideas for Building a Dream Team.  See what I mean?

William Arruda, my friend and author of Career Distinction says it well.  “Be on brand in all that you do.  People with a strong personal brand ensure that everything they do and all that surrounds them communicates their brand message.” 

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people create positive personal impact.  Developing and nurturing your unique personal brand is the first step in building your brand.  Brand building takes work, but it is simple conceptually.  Do two things.  First, decide how you want people to think of you.  Then do whatever it takes to get them to think of you that way.  Your brand is important and, just like the NFL, you should do everything you can to protect it and build it.

That’s my take on the super Bowl and personal branding.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Commitment to taking personal responsibility for your personal and professional success is one of the keys to career and life success that is part of my Common Sense Success System.  I also discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS, and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success. 

If you want to succeed, you must commit to three things.  First, you must take personal responsibility for your success.  Only you can make you a success.  You need to be willing to do the things necessary to succeed.  Second, you must set high goals — and then do whatever it takes to achieve them.   Third, stuff happens; as you go through life you will encounter many problems and setbacks.  You need to react positively to the negative stuff and move forward toward your goals.

Tomorrow is December 1.  There is one more month left in 2009.  I’m a big believer in finishing strong.  December is a month to finish strong.  Finishing strong will help you complete your 2009 goals and give you some momentum as you enter 2010.  I work hard all year; but I always work the hardest in December and January.  I work hard in December to finish strong and in January to start fast.

Over the weekend, I came across two quotes that go to the heart of taking personal responsibility for finishing strong and starting fast.  The first quote comes from Jerry Rice, an NFL Hall of Fame player and the man who scored more touchdowns than any other player in the history of the league.

“Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.”

The second quote comes from Orison Swett Marden, the founder of the original version of SUCCESS Magazine. 

“A strong, successful man is not the victim of his environment.  He creates favorable conditions.  His own inherent force and energy compel things to turn out as he desires.”

I really like this quote.  And, if you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I am a big fan of the current incarnation of SUCCESS Magazine.  I read it cover to cover every month as soon as I receive it.  Cathy really likes it too.  If you’re not a subscriber, give yourself a holiday present and subscribe.  In his Publisher’s Letter this month, Darren Hardy makes another great point about taking personal responsibility for your success…

“Make sure your calendar represents the priorities you claim to be most important in life.”

Let’s go back and look at these three quotes; Jerry Rice first. 

Jerry Rice was famous for his devotion to physical fitness.  His workouts were legendary.  Every day he did what others wouldn’t so he was able to beat them on the field on Sunday.  What are you willing to do that others won’t?  The answer to this question is your slight edge in business and in life.

Orison Marden suggests that we triumph over our environment by choosing to how we respond to the things that happen to us.  As I’ve pointed out many times, stuff happens; good stuff, bad stuff, frustrating stuff, hopeful stuff.  And, the stuff that happens isn’t important.  How we respond to it is.  You create your own “favorable conditions” by choosing to react positively to the negative stuff that happens to you. 

Finally, Darren Hardy provides concrete advice on how to commit to taking personal responsibility for your life and career – get the important stuff on your calendar.  This is great advice.  Things are difficult to ignore when they’re on your calendar.  I enter “publish blog” on my calendar every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  Each of these days the first thing I see when I log on to Outlook is a message that says “publish blog.”  This helps me focus on one of my most important tasks – publishing this blog.  It helps me do something that others won’t and helps me control my environment by doing something positive first thing every day.

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for their lives and careers.  You demonstrate your commitment to taking personal responsibility when you do three things.  1) You do the little things that others won’t.  2) You choose to respond positively to the people and events in your life.  3) You make sure your calendar reflects your career and life priorities.  If you do these three things, you’ll not only be taking personal responsibility for your life and career, you’ll finish strong in 2009 and start fast in 2010.

That’s my take on finishing strong in 2009 and starting fast in 2010.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to comment on this post, sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Self confidence is one of the keys to personal and professional success that is part of my Common Sense Success System.  I discuss it in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success, Your Success GPS and 42 Rules to Jumpstart your Professional Success. 

You can become self confident by doing three things.  First, choose optimism.  Believe in your heart of hearts that today will be better than yesterday, and that tomorrow will be better than today.  Second, face your fears and act.  Procrastination and inaction feed fear and rob you of self confidence.  Action cures fear.  Third, surround yourself with positive people.  Don’t let the naysayers into your life.  Hang around with people who are positive about themselves, their careers and life in general.

Yesterday I blogged about a book called The Help.  The Help is a lot of things, but above all, it is a story about hope and self confidence.  This past weekend, I saw two movies that are also about hope and confidence.  Hope is a powerful component of self confidence.  Self confident people are hopeful.  They look forward to the future with great expectations, knowing that if they work hard enough, good things are likely to happen.

Precious is a tough movie to watch.  It is the story of a 350-pound illiterate teenage girl.  She is pregnant for the second time.  But as she says at one point in the film, “I never even had a boyfriend.”  Her father abused her sexually and is the father of her children.  She is verbally and physically abused by her mother.  Nobody likes Precious.  She is obese and has little or no self confidence.  But a couple of people give her hope.

When he school Principal learns that Precious is pregnant, she helps her get into a special school.  There, one of the teachers helps her learn, and a social worker helps her deal with her home situation.  With their help, she blossoms.  This is a hopeful movie.  It shows how a teacher and social worker help build Precious’ self esteem and give her the courage to live life on her own.  At the end of the movie, Precious is walking down the street with her two children, determined to get her GED and go on to college. 

Precious received a 15-minute standing ovation when it was shown at Cannes.   I wanted to clap when it was over too.

The Blind Side is another movie about hope.  It is the true life story of Michael Oher, a professional football player for the Baltimore Ravens.  He was a very large black teenager living on the streets when he was welcomed into the home of a white conservative suburban family.  Sandra Bullock plays the mother – and she is great in the role. 

Michael and the family both grow over the course of the film.  He eventually gets a football scholarship to the University of Mississippi where he becomes and All-American player and a first round draft choice in the NFL.  It too, is a hopeful story.  It shows how one person, or one family, can make all the difference in another person’s life.  Michael Oher had great athletic talent that would have been wasted were it not for someone showing him some compassion and giving him some hope.

As these two movies show us, hope is powerful.  In The Audacity of Hope, President Obama (written before he became president) says…

“The audacity of hope.  That was the best of the American spirit, I thought – having the audacity to believe despite all evidence to the contrary that we could restore a sense of community to a nation torn by conflict; the gall to believe that despite personal setbacks, the loss of a job or an illness in the family or a childhood mired in poverty, we had some control – and therefore responsibility – over our own fate.  It was that audacity, I thought, that joined us as one people.”

This Thanksgiving I choose hope.  I am thankful for many things, but I am most thankful for my powerful self confidence.  It gave me the hope to start a consulting business 21 years ago and the hope to expand my business via the internet.  I choose hope.  I choose to be audacious, moving to a new business model when many people my age are retiring.  I urge you to be audacious and choose hope.  Hope begins with being aware of and thankful for all you have.  It helps you move forward by building on those things for which you are thankful.

I also urge you to do whatever you can to give hope to others – your family, your friends, your co-workers, people at your place of worship, strangers.  Hopeful and kind words can make a difference in the lives of people around you. 

The common sense point here is simple.  Successful people are self confident.  Self confident people are optimistic; they face their fears and act; they surround themselves with positive people.  Self confident people are hopeful.  They look to the future realizing that they have control over their destiny and choose to accept the responsibility for creating the successful life and career that they want and deserve.  Choose hope for yourself this Thanksgiving.  Give hope to as many people as you can.

That’s my take on the importance of hope.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud