I’ve worked hard over the past two years to change my image. I used to dumb myself down, play my looks up. It was easier that way. I didn’t have to buy any drinks in college, for instance. That was my brand, an image that wasn’t who I was or wanted to be. But it worked, so I kept on.

Until my boyfriend told me I wasn’t interesting enough. Until I came home from a meeting one day, furious for not speaking my mind. Until I had one scary frickin’ visit to the ER. Yeah, those life-threatening events, they’ll get you every time.

I sat down to think about who I really was, proceeded to have a quarter-life crisis, and made some tough decisions. They weren’t decisions that were visible. I didn’t quit my job, or become celibate, or move across the country to pursue reality television. But I did slowly, painfully, change and start to brand myself differently.

Personal branding is your personality, who you are as an individual and “the sum of other brands that you either own, work for or touch in some distinct way.” It’s about being you, and marketing the heck out of it.

You, who is reliably manipulative, can’t make a commitment if your life depended on it, and won’t go to bed until you clear the next level in your video game. You, who is only working until you have a baby, hopefully two, so you can stay at home and take care of your family. You, who works eighty hours a week and must separate your jelly beans into color-respective piles before eating.

Branding is marketing those very gems of your personality. That’s not hard to do. Just be yourself. If you’re acting like someone you’re not, then it will come back to haunt you, like when the infatuation wears off in a relationship, and it is at that moment your girlfriend finds your box of hair-regeneration pills in your underwear drawer. Whoever you are, it’s really hard to change, so you win by just being you from the start.

And sometimes, inevitably, you lose. Like this guy.

Branding is inextricably linked to accountability. If you do a good enough job of marketing yourself a certain way, people will start to believe you. So much so that when you mess up, or step out of your brand, it will make others uncomfortable.

I wouldn’t worry too much about this. Instead, focus on how you define accountability and your own comfort level with your actions.

Our lives are out in the open for all to see. Who you are at your job is who you are at the bar is who you are at the gym is who you are during sex is who you are at the company picnic is who you are at, well, you get the idea. Politicians do cheat on their wives. CEOs are bad parents. Artists are erratic friends. So, what? They’re good at their passions, and at the end of the day, we’re all doing the best we can in the circumstances given.

Your image reflects on your company, friends, and family. You, however, need to be accountable to yourself first. If you’re dancing on the tables at the bar, and worried about getting caught, either you have something personally wrong, or you need to find a different job that accepts your lack of inhibition. If your Facebook photos might get you in trouble, take them down, or decide you want to work at a place where they don’t care about that sort of thing.

The lines between work and play are increasingly blurring, and if you’re one person during the day and a different one at night you have to be proud enough to market the heck out of it. If you’re not comfortable, you need to learn more about who you are. You are in control of your brand.

My mother used to tell me, “Remember who you are,” whenever I left the house. People with integrity and confidence don’t worry about “getting caught,” because they know who they are. They know that dancing on tables is acceptable to them, or that their Facebook pictures show another layer of their onion. And if it’s not okay to them, they act accordingly.

In summary, to rock the branding/accountability boat:

1. Know yourself.
2. Be yourself.
3. Love it.
4. Repeat.

By the way, I still enjoy receiving free drinks, because I’ve realized I’m okay with using my looks… Sometimes.

Be yourself, or perish, yo.

Below is a recent post I wrote for Brand Yourself about building and maintaining a professional online image.

Go to BrandYourself.com to check out great blog posts about personal branding.

8 Tips to Building and Maintaining a Professional Online Image

Maintaining a professional online image is a very important aspect of your career. Through a simple online search, an employer or client can find out what you like to do, how you blog and tweet and see the overall professional online image you portray of yourself.

Here’s advice and eight tips on maintaining your image as a professional online:

First of all, how often do you update your Facebook status? More importantly, how do your updates reflect your professional online image? The status “At the bar getting trashed tonight” does not sounds professional. Neither does the wall post from your friend talking about that last party.

Tip No. 1: Don’t use your status updates to share information about the actions an employer doesn’t need to know about, censor your wall posts and patrol the posts written by others on your own wall.

The photos you post also can impact how people perceive your online professional image. Although it won’t hurt your image if you have photos showing you outside of the professional setting, it will hurt you if your photos display you in a way an employer may see as inappropriate. Even if you don’t post unprofessional photos of yourself, your friends could still tag you in photos without considering how it could affect your image. Depending on your career goals, the type of photos considered appropriate will vary.

Tip No. 2: Never post pictures of yourself at a bar, party or other situation that may be inappropriate and inform your friends to ask for permission before tagging you in a photo.

Facebook users concerned with maintaining a professional online image also should be cautious about joining groups and fan pages. Groups such as “Party Girls” do not portray professionalism. The various applications on Facebook, such as quizzes and games, also can affect your image.

Tip No. 3: Try to avoid joining groups, fan pages and applications that are not relevant to your field. If you decide to join an irrelevant group, be sure it is about a topic you would be willing to discuss with a company CEO and your grandmother.

Setting your profile to private is one way to avoid professional online image issues. But, people often accept friends who they do not know well. Additionally, a potential employer may go through a mutual friend to see your profile.

Tip No. 4: Even with strict privacy settings, it is still possible for other people to get access to your Facebook account. Always be insistent on maintaining a professional online image,  even if your profile is set to private.

Your tweets and the conversations you join are a reflection of your professional online image. If you do not have your tweets set to private, watch what you tweet.

Tip No. 5: Build a professional online image by sharing ideas and information and adding knowledge to the community. Write relevant and useful tweets.

One of the social networks used less often by young professionals is LinkedIn. But, LinkedIn can help build credibility in a person’s professional online image. You should go beyond simply filling out a profile and take full advantage of the site’s features.

Tip No. 6: Request recommendations, join groups and answer questions of other users after creating your LinkedIn profile.

Participating in the blogosphere also can help build a professional online image. Blogging displays leadership and knowledge in your given field. As a blogger, you also should contribute to the community by commenting on other blogs. If you wish to be seen as a professional, you should not write about personal matters on your blog.

Tip No. 7: Strategically write blog posts that will showcase your skills and knowledge and comment on other industry-related blogs.

A personal Web site or online portfolio is a great tool to help build a professional online image. Not only does it show that you are serious about your career, but you also can include materials to promote your personal brand, such as recommendations and work examples.

Tip. No. 8: Create a clean, well-designed Web site focused on promoting your personal brand in your field to help build your image.

Professional online images take time to create and build. By following these eight tips, you can help build a positive and credible online image that can help advance your career.

Rachel M. Esterline works as an account executive for Central Michigan Life, the nationally award-winning school newspaper at Central Michigan University. She is as an account executive for PR Central, CMU’s student-run public relations firm and as a public relations executive with the Student Government Association. Additionally, Rachel serves on the executive board of the Public Relations Student Society of America at CMU and has completed a seven-month internship with her university’s public relations and marketing department. Rachel will graduate in May 2010 with a degree in public relations with minors in journalism and communication.

Guest Post by Barbara Lopez – ” The Elevator Pitch Coach”

When was the last time someone asked you, “What do you do?”, and you promptly…drew a blank.  You KNOW what you do, but the challenge is taking everything that’s great about you and what you have to offer and condensing it down to a quick answer, wouldn’t you agree?

Many people avoid networking with people because of this very reason. Professionals often tell me that they don’t actively attend networking functions because they feel like they “don’t get anything out of them”. The biggest reason they may feel this way is because they don’t have an effective 30-second elevator pitch or verbal commercial.

This can be solved with one piece of action: being prepared with a clear, concise 30-second elevator pitch. Putting in even just a little bit of preparation before hitting your next networking function or opportunity does wonders for how effective your elevator pitch will be. This is especially crucial when you’re giving your elevator pitch in a “round robin” situation, introducing yourself to an entire room at once, like at a group function (Chamber or leads group function).

The very first thing you want to do is determine what your goals are for your elevator pitch. But what should those goals be? Allow me to share with you the four most important goals of an effective elevator pitch:

Make a good impression. If you’re attending a networking function to promote your business and make new contacts, you are investing not only your time, but sometimes your money (if there is a cost involved). The quickest way to make sure your investment works for you is to make a good impression. If you’re doing this in a “round robin” situation, and it’s your turn to give your elevator pitch, all eyes and ears are on you. This your chance to show that you are professional, approachable, and most of all an expert at what you do. Although sometimes it feels like an eternity, 30-seconds really does go by in a blink, so you really want to wow the room, and leave them with a great impression of you and your business.

The same can be said if you’re talking to someone in an individual one to one greeting, or even by introducing yourself over the phone.

Be clear and concise. The fastest way to making a good impression is making sure people understand who you are and what you do. Your language should be simple and easy to understand. You should be right to the point, and not leave anyone scratching their heads with confusion. Sticking to 30-seconds is extremely important as well, and will naturally show people you are able to explain what you do concisely. A typical 30-second introduction is usually only between 50 – 75 words. Take a look at your elevator pitch – is it within that timeframe, and is it easy to understand what you do?

Attract the audience/person to want to know more about what you have to offer. Again, you only have 30-seconds to pique interest, so you want to review the content of your elevator pitch and make sure that you’ve given them enough to want to know more. You can do this by simply having a call to action towards the end of your elevator pitch. A call to action simply means giving the audience/person something to do to get more information.

When giving your pitch “round robin style”, maybe you want people to come speak with you, or see a sample of your work following the meeting? Your goal should be to encourage conversation with people after the function. Will it happen every single time? Probably not, but if you have a great reason for people to approach you, your chances are higher of making a connection.

When giving your pitch in a one-to-one conversation, you want your elevator pitch to encourage the person whom you’re speaking to to want to know more. Their next question should be, “How do you do that?”. This opens up the conversation further, and allows you more time to explain the various services/products you have to offer.

Stand apart from your competition. If you’re attending a networking function, chances are there will be other people in the room who offer similar products or services as you, which is why it is critical to stand apart from your competition. There are many ways to do that, but the biggest one is just showing up with a professional elevator pitch (chances are, your competition won’t)! Think about who your competition might be, determine what the focus of their potential elevator pitch might be, and then make sure your elevator pitch rises above anything else.

The same can be said about a one-to-one introduction. When you introduce yourself, the other person will automatically think of someone else who does what you do – we can’t help it, it just happens. That’s why it’s even more important to be sure you don’t even give them the chance to do that. Instead, you need to immediately state why you’re different from your competition within that 30-second elevator pitch.

Whether you’re actively attending networking functions where you’re speaking to a group or just mixing individually with professionals, it’s important to go in with an effective elevator pitch. Using these four goals to focus on while working on your elevator pitch will set you on a focused course, and your time and effort for attending the function will be much more rewarded by filling your database with new contacts.

Don’t allow yourself to draw a blank when someone asks you what you do. Show up prepared, make a good impression, introduce yourself with a clear and concise 30-second elevator pitch, attract the audience to want to know more, and stand apart from your competition. You can do it! Now, go out there and knock their socks off!

Barbara Lopez, “The Elevator Pitch Coach” with Brightfarm Introductions, helps business professionals introduce themselves with high impact. Everything in business STARTS with an introduction. If you’re ready to learn how to introduce yourself and your business professionally and comfortably, visit Barbara at www.brightfarm.com. Be sure to sign up for free weekly tips on how to keep your introduction fresh.

Like this article? Barbara will be a guest on the From Bright to Brilliant Radio Show this Sunday, July12th @ 9PM EST.

Listen live @ www.blogtalkradio.com/taigoodwin

Register here for a reminder and replay link.

As “The Career Makeover Coach”, Tai Goodwin is on a mission to help ambitious individuals reinvent their professional lives by centering on their passion and purpose. Holding as a core belief that we are all called to divine purpose and gifted with a unique passion, Tai uses a results driven, spiritually grounded approach to help clients create career paths to support the lifestyle they desire. Whether it’s helping people go from embittered to empowered professionals or making the transition from employee to entrepreneur, Tai is committed to helping clients tap into their own potential for brilliance. Tai has been empowering others through teaching and coaching for over 14 years. A gifted and insightful communicator, Tai holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Drexel University and a Master of Science in Education from Capella University. She has completed ASTD’s (American Society for Training and Development) Coaching Certificate program and is pursuing professional coaching certification through the International Coach Academy. Originally from Philadelphia, Tai currently lives in Delaware with her daughter. She is currently working on her first book: Reclaiming Your Brilliance: Seven Ways to Take Your Life from Bright to Brilliant.

Web site: http://www.careermakeovercoach.com

by Tai Goodwin on July 7, 2009

I’ve worked hard over the past two years to change my image. I used to dumb myself down, play my looks up. It was easier that way. I didn’t have to buy any drinks in college, for instance. That was my brand, an image that wasn’t who I was or wanted to be. But it worked, so I kept on.

Until my boyfriend told me I wasn’t interesting enough. Until I came home from a meeting one day, furious for not speaking my mind. Until I had one scary frickin’ visit to the ER. Yeah, those life-threatening events, they’ll get you every time.

I sat down to think about who I really was, proceeded to have a quarter-life crisis, and made some tough decisions. They weren’t decisions that were visible. I didn’t quit my job, or become celibate, or move across the country to pursue reality television. But I did slowly, painfully, change and start to brand myself differently.

Personal branding is your personality, who you are as an individual and “the sum of other brands that you either own, work for or touch in some distinct way.” It’s about being you, and marketing the heck out of it.

You, who is reliably manipulative, can’t make a commitment if your life depended on it, and won’t go to bed until you clear the next level in your video game. You, who is only working until you have a baby, hopefully two, so you can stay at home and take care of your family. You, who works eighty hours a week and must separate your jelly beans into color-respective piles before eating.

Branding is marketing those very gems of your personality. That’s not hard to do. Just be yourself. If you’re acting like someone you’re not, then it will come back to haunt you, like when the infatuation wears off in a relationship, and it is at that moment your girlfriend finds your box of hair-regeneration pills in your underwear drawer. Whoever you are, it’s really hard to change, so you win by just being you from the start.

And sometimes, inevitably, you lose. Like this guy.

Branding is inextricably linked to accountability. If you do a good enough job of marketing yourself a certain way, people will start to believe you. So much so that when you mess up, or step out of your brand, it will make others uncomfortable.

I wouldn’t worry too much about this. Instead, focus on how you define accountability and your own comfort level with your actions.

Our lives are out in the open for all to see. Who you are at your job is who you are at the bar is who you are at the gym is who you are during sex is who you are at the company picnic is who you are at, well, you get the idea. Politicians do cheat on their wives. CEOs are bad parents. Artists are erratic friends. So, what? They’re good at their passions, and at the end of the day, we’re all doing the best we can in the circumstances given.

Your image reflects on your company, friends, and family. You, however, need to be accountable to yourself first. If you’re dancing on the tables at the bar, and worried about getting caught, either you have something personally wrong, or you need to find a different job that accepts your lack of inhibition. If your Facebook photos might get you in trouble, take them down, or decide you want to work at a place where they don’t care about that sort of thing.

The lines between work and play are increasingly blurring, and if you’re one person during the day and a different one at night you have to be proud enough to market the heck out of it. If you’re not comfortable, you need to learn more about who you are. You are in control of your brand.

My mother used to tell me, “Remember who you are,” whenever I left the house. People with integrity and confidence don’t worry about “getting caught,” because they know who they are. They know that dancing on tables is acceptable to them, or that their Facebook pictures show another layer of their onion. And if it’s not okay to them, they act accordingly.

In summary, to rock the branding/accountability boat:

1. Know yourself.
2. Be yourself.
3. Love it.
4. Repeat.

By the way, I still enjoy receiving free drinks, because I’ve realized I’m okay with using my looks… Sometimes.

Be yourself, or perish, yo.

With personal branding all the rage, Bizzywomen.com is helping readers sort through all the content out there to focus on 3 blogs that are worth the time to read.

Personal PR - Tiffany Monhollon has a great blog that deals with these issues. In a recent post she talks about the pros and cons of how to do personal branding for married women. Should they keep their maiden name or new name. “When I started blogging and stumbled into the world of personal branding, I never dreamed all of this would make much difference to me whatsoever, much less impact my real life decision of whether or not to keep my maiden name when I got married nearly a year later. Then, I was struggling with whether or not just to blog under my full name.”

Judy Martin’s WorkLife Nation is another blog with quality content. In a recent postshe writes on the importance of personal branding for women, in today’s job market. “The theme of personal branding has been a consistent thread of discussion here at WorkLife Nation. In a time when many are struggling to keep their jobs, are looking for one, or are starting their own businesses, some career experts are touting the benefit of boosting one’s personal brand to stay competitive. Personal branding is not a new concept, but the Internet has changed the landscape. For women in particular, perhaps the web and social media in general have leveled the playing field. “

Chandlee Bryan’s The Emerging Professional is another blog where you can find on how to stay ahead in today’s job market. Bryan, is a former recruiter, and she gives great tips on how to land that sought after job. In a recent guest post we learn how to use Twitter to get a job. ” Once that decision (not to attend law school) was made, I kept tweeting about articles that interested me, and that were relevant to my job search. Sherry and I also kept in touch, tweeting and e-mailing occasionally, and one of those tweets was the introduction that landed me this job.”

Happy reading!