People Strategies: Book teaches how to build your own personal brand

Linda Bower is a speaker, executive coach and human performance improvement consultant in Rogersville.

There are two reasons to read "Be Your Own Brand: A Breakthrough Formula for Standing Out from the Crowd." First, you will get closer to being your own brand just from the thought-provoking nature of this book.

Second, David McNally, co-author with Karl Speak, is an important voice for our times.

This is how McNally and Speak perceive "Brand Basics."

"In business, the concept of brand has a well-defined meaning: A brand is a perception or emotion, maintained by a buyer or a prospective buyer, describing the experience related to doing business with an organization or consuming its products or services.

"To put the idea of brand in a personal context, think of it this way: Your brand is a perception or emotion, maintained by somebody other than you, that describes the total experience of having a relationship with you."

McNally and Speak continue to make comparisons between business and personal branding. The net result is that "Be Your Own Brand" is filled with as much opportunity to understand corporate branding as personal branding. For example, they apply three standard components to a strong corporate brand in a personal context.

"A strong brand, corporate or personal, needs to be so clearly defined that its intended audience can quickly grasp what it stands for. For a business, the audience is its customers. For a personal brand, it is those with whom we have relationships.

"Three key components combine to determine the strength of a brand. Strong brands are:

"Distinctive: They stand for something. They have a point of view.

"Relevant: What they stand for connects to what someone else considers to be important.

"Consistent: People come to believe in a relationship based on the consistency of behaviors they experience or observe."

The Personal Brand Dimensions Model is described as a way "to show you what you look like to someone else what specific attributes go into the image of your brand they carry around with them in their mind." There are three distinct, but interrelated areas to consider:

"Competencies: our role with others. This refers to the things you need to do capably just to meet someone's basic expectations. Think in terms of the role you play for another person: friend or neighbor, parent or boss, mechanic or physiciansometimes a combination of roles.

"Standards: how we do it. (Standards) start to make your brand image much more specific by focusing on the way you deliver competencies. Our brand standards are the level of performance that we are willing to adhere to consistently.

"Style: how we relate to others. The manner in which we communicate and interact with others. This is how we personalize our competencies within the context of our performance standards."

Up to now, "Be Your Own Brand" delivers a creative spin on time-tested business fundamentals. Then the book takes flight midway with the introduction of "Authenticity: Time to Step Up." This is pure McNally. How do I know? McNally has his own brand.

I don't know Speak, but I met McNally 15 years ago. He was presenting "The Power of Purpose" to AT&T on behalf of Wilson Learning Worldwide. Without a doubt, that day changed my life.

The book cover to "Be Your Own Brand" describes McNally as "a best-selling author, an internationally acclaimed speaker and award-winning film producer." He is the author of the best-selling books, "Even Eagles Need a Push" and "The Eagle's Secret."

McNally's messsage is worth heeding. McNally has developed a central and consistent message that we all need to hear. "When you summon the courage to be authentic, the effect is powerful. Trust is built faster and maintained longer when people believe you are being real, not putting on a false front to cover up what's really going on inside of you. Authenticity doesn't come easily, however. For courage is not in abundant supply in our world."

I'm not going to steal the thunder of this book. So here's just a taste of what's to come.

"Signposts," are described in detail as guides to establishing a brand and living it with authenticity:

"Purpose What is Your Life About?

"Vision What Do I Want to Create?

"Values What Do I Hold to Be True?"

McNally was one of the first to speak out about the importance of purpose, vision and values in our daily lives, at work or not.

My recommendation: Listen to him.