In the world of personal branding, you know who has a big advantage?
College students.
Sure, they need to take down pictures of themselves drunk at parties, but aside from that, they have a blank canvas.
They can start identifying their passions and building out a 3-dimensional story that demonstrates their expertise.
They don’t have the baggage of a legacy of work product from a partially analog or non-networked world.
And they have time to build the network out.
It may take 7 years to get to the NY Times and when you are in college with a long career in front of you, you’ve got that time.
This dawned on me as I presented to 45 undergraduates at Stevenson University on Building Your Personal Brand.
(BTW, here’s my whitepaper on building your personal brand so you can start)
Stevenson has a fantastic art and design program and I could see the minds at work in how they would marry the practical realities of a need for consistent, left-brain execution with a right-brain need to present themselves in a “remarkable” way.
[In fact, I may get an intern to help bring the brand identity of Never Stop Marketing to life…if you want an intern, you can reach out to Amanda Hostalka (she’d love to hear from you)]
Lesson: While you may not have a tabula rasa like the young people at Stevenson, it’s never too late to start building your personal brand story, so that others come to you with opportunities instead of the other way around.
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Comments
Adam said on 5.04.2009 at 12:29 PM
Jeremy: Being a tabula rasa is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you don't have to worry about adhering to your previous image. On the other hand, you're a friggin blank slate. You don't have much to say and haven't achieved much.
Every situation has its pros and cons. I'm not sure I'm hungering to go back to being 21.
I think folks should listen to the words of the great Ralph Waldo Emerson: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Stop worrying about what you said yesterday. Say what you mean today! Feel it in your heart and say it with passion. Those who need consistency to get by in life are not going to get you. Emerson had words for this as well: "To be great is to be misunderstood." Some people out there will get you. They will be inspired by your passion. You probably will enjoy hanging out and working with them much more than you will constantly trying to please the consistency seekers.