Brand Yourself Like A Champion

Personal Branding Workbook Guide

A case-study based guide which showcases the individuals within organizations who nurture and sustain brands and bring them to life through their everyday performance. Critical enough to remain credible yet overwhelmingly positive, it is a charismatic illustration of how to achieve true brand engagement.

I took personal pride in composing this book on personal branding with a purpose of reaching entrepreneurs who are interested in enhancing their personal self image in parallel with the image of their businesses, for working professionals who are on the fast track up the corporate ladder and may wish to gain an edge on the competition, and for college students who are preparing for a professional life after their academic journey. Personal branding is not new, but has become increasingly important for many professionals in recent years who seek a competitive advantage over their counterparts to stand out and be noticed among a plethora of talented candidates. This is even more imperative now than a few years ago as we are faced with 10% national unemployment, with over 7 million workers laid off since the recession began back in December 2007. In some U.S. cities, unemployment is over 50%, with the unemployment rate in some states exceeding the national rate. With so many professionals out of work fighting to get re-employed in a job and career commensurate with their skills and education, the task has become increasingly challenging, leaving many unemployed individuals hopeless while confronted with life changing decisions. Trying to stand out and be recognized in a dense pool of qualified candidates is not as easy as it may have been in the past, with companies directing millions of candidates to their websites on which to post resumes and create lengthy and time intensive profiles. The job search has become a faceless and mundane process with very little success, and with increased frustration to many who continue to sink into an abyss of debt and personal despair. With this situation looming, those out-of-work professionals will have to think outside the box on how to get noticed, be recognized, and make a positive impression on recruiters and hiring managers constantly searching for suitable talent. Candidates will have to market and promote themselves as a BRAND, a successful personal image that translates quality, success, integrity, impressiveness, reliability, and bringing value to the company of their interest. Personal branding will ensure that companies identify you with the strength and true worth in what they look for when considering candidates. For those who are fortunate to still be employed, personal branding is just as important to achieving success in the work place. Companies are constantly looking for ways to “trim the fat” and become lean in their operations. Hence, operational efficiency is their ultimate goal. Akin to this effort of process improvement is doing more with less, which often influences the elimination of human labor. This occurs when companies experience a reduction in profits, have less retained earnings to expand operations and invest in growing the business, and realizing diminishing returned value to their shareholders. Oftentimes, workers must be let go, if they are determined to be part of non-producing or non-revenue generating functions of the organization, or if they themselves are perceived to be adding little value to the organization. If a company believes it can do without you, it will let you go in a layoff or downsizing. It is not a personal matter, but a business decision that companies, large or small, are confronted with on a constant basis. It is all about the bottom line and keeping the doors open. Working professionals have to determine how they are identified by their companies. How strong is your personal BRAND, and how valuable are you to your employer? What differentiates you from your peers that make you stand out? What type of impression are you making on your company? Are there any weaknesses that you have to strengthen? These are some of the questions that you must honestly ask yourself and answer. Performing an honest assessment on your personal BRAND will capture the things that make you valuable to your employer, while at the

“The Journey To An Undefeated Mind” is a book inspired by myself, the author's personal battle against mental health. It is about all the lessons and blessings I learnt along my journey. I wanted to share this with other's so that they can get through their own journey. My book "The Journey To An Undefeated Mind" is all about the reader, it is a direct conversation or speech from the author to the reader. Guiding them through this journey, advising them, encouraging them, speaking life into them when they feel low. Something I didn’t have around me, as often as I would have liked it when I was going through my journey, my battles against mental health. I believe my book, could be a big help to many people facing mental health, whether you are facing it alone or not. It's like having a pocket size friend travel along with you. Ok maybe slightly bigger than pocket size. But you get what I mean. How often have you had to face something, and you wished you had that extra bit of help guiding you through. Enough support to help you on the right path. But not too much, so you can learn to do it yourself. This is what my book is there for. That extra bit of support. That motivator, friend that shows you your worth. Shows you that you can, and always could do it. You just had to start believing in yourself. This is what “The Journey To An Undefeated Mind” is there for. To get you to start believing in yourself again. To get you to understand, that in life, you are bound to fall, bound to fail a couple times. But you will only be defeated, if you choose to stay down, if you choose to stay defeated. Having an “Undefeated Mind” means yes in life, we may fail, we may take some L’s, but we won’t be defeated in life.

The best brands evoke the emotions of their customers by tapping into their hearts and minds. Individuals connect with brands the same way they connect with people. As a marketer, it's your responsibility to cultivate that relationship with your consumers. In this book, marketing and brand strategist Lydia Michael breaks down the process of building culturally inclusive, long-lasting consumer-brand relationships. Brand Love describes how brands appeal to the emotions of their consumers and why everybody benefits when brands earn the love of their customers. The author explains what marketers need to do to make consumers fall for their brands. The book builds on in-depth brand interviews and insights from companies such as Huda Beauty, LEGO and Toyota. She also shares what she has learned through client work and her observations in multicultural settings. Offering insight into the use of emotional and rational drivers, she introduces a "brand love" model designed to inspire brand loyalty and advocacy. With emotional elements such as humanization, personalization and trust alongside rational elements like relevance, differentiation and innovation, the author highlights the best ways to create or reinforce brand love to help your organization remain profitable and a source of inspiration, even during challenging times. Whether you're a marketer for a big or small brand, Brand Love will show you how to capture the hearts of your customers.

Meet the twelve people that can accelerate your success – in business and in life It's Who You Know is the long-awaited handbook to effective, productive and influential networking. Having the right relationships is more important than ever before, but digital connectivity and social media has changed the landscape. Social media has made networking easy, but has it made it better? In an age of digital disconnect, having the right relationships is more important than ever before with more and more of us reporting we feel disconnected from social media. Networking is no longer about collecting business cards and meeting thousands of people online or offline; it's about knowing the right people, and nurturing those relationships. You only need 12 – or even just four. Approached strategically, this comparatively small network will provide the strength, diversity and opportunities to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. This book shows you who you need to know, how to get to know them and how to make value a two-way street. Action plans, checklists and an online diagnostic tool help you start taking steps right away, and the emphasis on "doing" over endless planning gives you the motivation you need to get up and go. The old adage "It's not what you know; it's who you know" has never been more applicable than it is today. The problem is that many of us "know" thousands of people across social networks, but how many of those people truly know you and how many of them are truly connected to you? It's time to clear out the network clutter and identify those who actually add value to your professional and personal development. Master the art of real and influential strategic networking in a noisy and disconnected online world Learn who you need in your circle, and how to find them Nurture and maintain your professional relationships Leverage your power network to accelerate your career Today, jobs are filled before they're advertised and previously unthought-of collaborations appear out of nowhere. Networking has become a critical factor for success. It's Who You Know brings networking into the modern era, and shows you a strategic approach to making it work for you.

Championship is the key differentiator between women who achieve leadership roles and those who don't. This book examines the reasons why championing works and why it is so important for female executive development in particular, and provides a user-friendly guide to develop workplace champions for female leaders in any organization

Reducing the carbon footprint, setting up a sustainable, circular, and responsible supply chain or transforming to a sustainable business model. The demand for change is clear, but the way forward leaves room to maneuver. Organizations struggle with uncertainties what to do and how to go about it. They miss a clear sustainability roadmap. That is where the Sustainability Chessboard® comes into play: The book is aimed at clarifying gaps in today's practice and pointing out future needs. It shows you how to realize your organization's overall sustainability potential. Our sustainability framework propels you in three steps from the drawing table to the implementation phase. A universal approach, a different book on sustainability, that steps back, avoids jargon, and is intuitive and easy to use – as indicator, guideline and handbook alike. The Sustainability Chessboard works for businesses of all kinds—whatever their size, sector, or organizational maturity. Ambition levels and organizational enablers may differ, but the stepwise approach can be applied to all types of organizations: just identify your playground and start your discovery based on your goals and available resources. It's your sustainability action plan.