What Belly Dancing Taught Lisa Barone about Personal Branding

Here is a lengthier excerpt than I usually provide but well worth your attention, from an article written by Lisa Barone and recently posted at copybogger.com. You can check out the complete article as well as all the other resources, and sign up by visiting http://www.copyblogger.com/belly-dancing-personal-branding/.

I’m learning to belly dance.

Okay, that’s totally overstating it. I’m wiggling to music in what is labeled a belly dancing class.

I’ve found that I enjoy the constant movement, manipulating my limbs and taking any excuse I can to be silly. But more fun than the belly dancing is the instructor.

She loves this stuff. Her eyes light up when she enters the room, her voice changes pitch, and she hops around throwing out euphemisms that make even the bravest people blush. She’s a complete fruit loop. And she’s loved for it. It’s her schtick.

Or, in marketing terms, it’s her personal brand.

Oh no, not another post about personal branding

We’ve been hearing about personal brands ad nauseum for the past year. Even if you’re not sure why you need one, you’re certain that you do. It’s like a 401k. Or a spouse.

The trouble is, most personal brands make everybody else want to jab forks straight into their eyes. They’re based on egos, false promises, and personalities so obnoxious that you’d never be friends with this person in real life.

But as my belly dancing instructor has taught me, you don’t have to build a personal brand on being an egomaniac. You can build your brand on simply being human. Or better yet, you can build your brand on being your favorite version of yourself.

How do you create a personal brand that will garner attention instead of hate? Here are some tips I’ve picked up from my experience on the Web.

And belly dancing.

[Here’s one.]

Claim your niche

My belly dancing instructor doesn’t teach the hip hop class that takes place after her session. Nor does she teach the weekend kickboxing class. She’s limited herself to belly dancing because she knows that’s where she can offer the greatest value.

Trying to teach everything would undermine what she’s about and the tribe she’s looking to attract. She sticks to what she does better than anyone else.

Think niche. You can’t be known for everything. Pick what’s most important to what you do, break it down to its simplest core, and be it.

While Copyblogger has established itself as one of the Web’s top resources on content, Brian Clark has branded himself the master of headlines. It’s a tiny microcosm of the whole content creation space that he owns. It’s where he’s untouchable.

About the Author: Lisa Barone has the totally pompous title of Chief Branding Officer at SEO consulting firm Outspoken Media. She tries to make up for the title by blogging Important Stuff on the Outspoken Media blog and being amusing on Twitter at @lisabarone.

Buckle your seat belts!

For those who have always wanted to be engaged intellectually with someone whose insights create white caps on gray matter, check out these Godin connections:

http://thereadingedge.com/2010/02/24/tre-11-seth-godin-2/

http://startuppodcast.wordpress.com/

http://two.sentenc.es/

If you have not as yet read Linchpin, I urge you to do so ASAP. In my opinion, it is the most entertaining and most thought-provoking as well as the most valuable book that Godin has written…thus far.

Meetings, meetings, everywhere, everyday… –- President Obama may provide a good model

A well respected management consultant and writer right here from the Dallas area, Bette Price, was quoted in The Daily Caller about President Obama’s role in the health care summit.  From the article Chief Executive Obama runs a good meeting — even if it does run past schedule by Aleksandra Kulczuga, here are the opening paragraphs:

In one of President Obama’s highest-profile days as America’s chief executive, all eyes were on how well he managed what was at times an acrimonious debate on health care. The Daily Caller talked to business and management experts about how he did as the man at the head of the table during his marathon public meeting.
“He’s very much what we could call in academic circles a transformative leader,” said Drumm McNaughton, chairman and chief executive of the Washington-based Institute of Management Consultants. “When you have a political environment like ours that has become so difficult because of polarization, you can see he’s the right leader for the right time.”
“And that’s coming from a lifelong Republican.”
Many experts pointed out the president’s tactfulness today.
“I’m sure he has his own agenda, but he doesn’t express it heartily,” said Bette Price, chief executive of Price Group and a management consultant in the leadership development area for 25 years. “He’s very conciliatory and engaging, and tends to be open to other people.”
“The interesting thing that the president does is that he’s very paced in his delivery, and that tends to give off more of a calming effect,” Price said.
“With these kinds of meetings in Washington it’s difficult because people need to leave their egos at the door. What you see Obama doing by cutting his remarks short, he’s looking at the outcomes and not grandstanding,” McNaughton said.

So, here are a few takeaways:

1)  Keep meetings moving.

2)  As leader, be open to other people.

3)  As leader, facilitate, don’t dominate.

The article had dissenting views on President Obama’s role, but this sounds like pretty wise counsel from Bette Price and Drumm McNaughton for anyone who has a meeting to run.

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(Note:  Bette Price has been a long-time participant and friend of the First Friday Book Synopsis).

I’m sitting down while I write this; You’re probably sitting down while you read this — We’re all Doomed

I’m trying to lose weight (again).  I’m trying to get back into exercising (again).  I am liking the challenge of blogging regularly.  And now I read… this:  Stand Up While You Read This! by Olivia Judson.

Here’s the intro:

Your chair is your enemy.
It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.

Here’s the picture of the ideal working environment for a “knowledge worker” in the article:

 

Wrong: Sitting at your cubicle. Better: Walking while clicking and talking. (from the N Y Times blog)

 

Don’t even ask me about sitting down to watch the Olympics…

Like I said.  I’m sitting down while I write this.  You’re probably sitting down while you read this…  We’re all doomed.

(I’ll be back later – I’ve got to go walk around a few minutes)

Timothy Ferriss on “The Secret to Working Smarter”

Here’s a brief Q&A from the current issue of Inc. magazine (March 2010).

How do you define work?
Work is an activity that is financially driven or one that you’d like to do less of. But it’s important not to take the title of my book literally. The objective of the book is to help people regain control of time.

Your book [The 4-Hour Work Week] has been praised by Netscape founder Marc Andreesen and venture capitalist Tim Draper. Why do you think it has resonated with these hard chargers?
I think they like the idea of eliminating the non-essentials and reestablishing barriers. Many successful people, despite having made hundreds of millions of dollars, are still driven by guilt.

Guilt?
Yes, guilt that you’re not working hard enough. Guilt that you’re being lazy. Guilt that you’re not paying your dues. I’m all for hard work when it’s applied to the right things. But only when it’s applied to the right things.

So how do you get over your guilt?
You need to emotionally condition yourself to the point where you’re comfortable declining almost everything. That can involve media fasts or silence retreats, where you don’t talk for 24 hours.

What can an overworked entrepreneur do right now in order to work less?
Do an 80/20 analysis. Identify the 20 percent of activities and clients that produce 80 percent of your revenue, and then the 20 percent of activities and clients that consume 80 percent of your time. Then, set a reminder to pop up on your computer three times per day that asks, “Am I being productive or am I just being busy?”

* * *

To read an extended version of this interview, please go to: www.inc.com/keyword/mar10.