Explore Successful Personal Brands

December 12, 2007

What are other people doing to build their Personal Brand?

Review each of the following people’s personal brands and see if you can answer these questions:

  • What does each person strongly believe in?
  • How does each person make a living?
  •  What things do they have that invite me to get to know them better?
  • What catches your eye on their websites in the first 5 seconds?
  • What non-business topics do they care about?
  • On a scale of 1 – 10, which people do you want to get to know better? 8 or higher, why?

My goal with this list is to give you some big and obvious ones, as well as up and coming personal brands that you may not know.  Consider this a tour of personal brands - and if you want to post this article on your blog and add some other examples, you have my permission.  The only thing I ask is not to add someone JUST because they have their picture on a blog.  They have to really be working on branding themselves.  Also, please reference this orgional post if you copy and modify this.

You may look through this list and decide that they are mostly very successful people, and that is why they have the money to build a great brand. But they started someplace and continue building their brand even today.  It is a life long effort and pays off in the future.  What things did you notice on these sites that you can start developing for yourself?

- Thank You!

Posted by Ron McDaniel | Filed Under Blog, Branding 

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Comments

13 Responses to “Explore Successful Personal Brands”

  1. Patrick Greer on December 12th, 2007 11:33 am

    I’d like to add one more personal brand to the list –

    http://www.spinningsilkmultimedia.com/linkerjpatrick-my-personal-brand/

    ;)

  2. HELLO, my name is Scott on December 12th, 2007 11:33 am

    Sweet, sandwiched between Rachel Ray and Donald Trump. What an honor!

    great book, btw, loved reading it after womma!

  3. Ron McDaniel on December 12th, 2007 12:11 pm

    Scott: I see you as a love child between those two, so your placement was intentional.

    Patrick: Thanks for adding yours in, that is excellent. You do a great job of connecting and I am not surprised you have “accidently” built a great personal brand.

    Everyone: If you have a great personal brand and want to include it in the comments - feel free. The more the merrier.

  4. Ron McDaniel on December 12th, 2007 10:06 pm

    Jill Konrath told a bit more about her story at http://sellingtobigcompanies.blogs.com/selling/2007/12/creating-a-pers.html

    People are rarely going to say it was easy, but I bet they all say it is worth it.

  5. Liz Handlin on December 13th, 2007 11:57 am

    Great post. Very interesting list. Tim Ferriss, in particular, has a great blog.

  6. Shama Hyder on December 13th, 2007 1:29 pm

    Great list! Can one be a mix of Seth Godin and Rachel Ray?….because I have a confession to make-I am a marketer trapped in a really happy soul. = )

  7. Ron McDaniel on December 13th, 2007 2:35 pm

    Liz - I look forward to every post by Tim. He has an excellent blog.

    Shama - Sorry, you must chose to be a miserable marketer or a happy cook. Sorry.

  8. Phil Gerbyshak on December 14th, 2007 1:23 am

    Quite a list here Ron, and I’m flattered to be amongst these great ones.

    I’ll have to poke around and see about your rating system for all blogs. Perhaps you could create a spot where we could “rate the brands” of various sites, and post the results here? I’d bet that 10 minute overview would be invaluable. Maybe even change the way folks think about branding?

  9. End of the Week Gratitude Theme #7 on December 14th, 2007 8:26 am

    [...] McDaniel, the creator of popular? Buzzoodle? for listing Adversity University in Explore Successful Personal Brands.? Among those on the list are famous brand name personalities? like Donald Trump, Tim Ferriss, Jack [...]

  10. Stephen Hopson/Adversity University on December 14th, 2007 8:36 am

    Ron:

    Thanks for the honor of being listed among well known brand names - you made my day!

  11. Bob Roberts on December 14th, 2007 11:27 am

    Great list and article, Ron.

    As Wired Magazine said a number of years ago, we are quickly moving toward a world of personal rather than corporate brands - especially as our global economy becomes more service oriented.

  12. Raza Imam on December 16th, 2007 1:25 am

    A blog is just an extension of your personality. It’s a daily peek into your thoughts. It’s a way to break down barriers and show people who you really are.

    My industry is NOT sexy and my website and logo are even worse. I started a blog a few months ago. I wanted to make it funny, relevant, and insightful. It’s been my main lead generation tool. It shows that we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we’re dead seriously about what we do.

    Mentioning my blog to people helps break the ice because it’s funny. I printed buttons with my logo and wear it to events. When I make cold calls, I tell people to visit my blog. I tell them that I’m making fun of my own industry. It differentiates me and has been the main reason for my growth.

    This was a really interesting post because it showed how ordinary people were able to build a stellar personal brand. Blogs are the PERFECT way to launch a brand because they show the world who you really are. People can evaluate your thinking before they actually risk money on your product or service.

    My main form of marketing has been publicizing my blog at events (by wearing a button) and leaving comments on other blogs. I’ve gotten my foot in the door with so many prospects it’s unbelievable. I’m even had a guy from Belgium contact me to do business with us.

    Look at my company website (www.adaptivesolutionsinc.com) and compare it to my blog (BoycottSoftwareSweatshops.com) You’ll see why my business is picking up so much

    http://BoycottSoftwareSweatshops.com

  13. End of the Week Gratitude Theme #9 on December 29th, 2007 12:36 pm

    [...] overcoming adversity and claim a higher perceived value as a motivational speaker.? ? The fact that Buzzoodle recently listed me among those who have successfully managed to brand themselves is testimony to [...]

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