okay, so “personal branding” has become a bit of a buzzphrase these days (hey, that rhymed).  with the economy doing what it’s doing, and jobs becoming more and more scarce, it seems as though “personal branding” has suddenly become this all-important thing.

yes, “thing”.  half the folks that are throwing this little buzzphrase around don’t even know what it is.  a brand is not a logo, it’s not packaging, it’s not a cool nickname – it’s simply a representation (both visual and emotional) of what and who you are.

i’ve been doing a lot of thinking on this topic, as i’m headed to atlanta, ga tomorrow to present to a ton of akpsi students about personal branding and its importance.  for me, branding myself was always a given… a “duh”.  i knew that right out of the gate (gate = graduation) getting a great job would be tough… after all, i was just one of the tens of thousands (and more) of grads nationwide. and i’d be fighting each and every one of them in a battle to the death (or maybe not) for the same jobs.

face it. there are more people in this world than there are desireable jobs. and what is it that everyone says about my generation? damn kids, they want to have their cake and eat it too.

damn right we do.   you raised us that way, baby boomers and generation x.

my personal brand is an integral part of my every day life (though it may not seem as such, considering i’ve neglected my blog for three weeks – my apologies, by the way).

my name is nicole endres… but i go by woley.  people both online and off know me as such.  my quest in my own personal branding saga (is anyone else thinking of dragons and knights and maidens? because i am.) has been to make “nicole endres” synonomous with “woley”. i’d like to think that i’ve succeeded in that endeavor.

my presentation for this weekend focuses around the fact that students (well, anyone, really) have already been branded. from that starbucks cup they’re carrying on the way to class to the greek letters they roll out of bed and throw on, to that coach purse on her arm at a party, to thatiphone pressed to his ear - while most kids think they own their persona, they’ve got no idea.  they’re owned. they’ve been branded… and they didn’t even know it.

hell, that degree they’re about to get in a year (or a few) brands them.

“i graduated from harvard” is going to yield a much different response than “i graduated from christopher newport university“… face it, we’ve been conforming to everyone elses standards our entire lives and now it’s time to regain control of who we are and take the world by storm.

the gist of my presentation is that these kids need to hop aboard now, while they’re still in school, and network, network, network.  they need to create for themselves a well-rounded personal brand so that when their sweet, sweet time in college comes to an end (tear), they’re ready and rearing to go.

when it comes to a “personal brand” i came up with my own 5 R’s -
1. repetition
2. resilience
3. response
4. reputation
5. recognition

all important, yes?  i’m going to try to encourage these kids to keep their brand uniform across all media (both on and offline), not be afraid to bounce back, respond and contribute to conversation, build a solid reputation for themselves and ultimately, their brand, and establish recognition for themselves.

when you hear “woley” what do you think?

my hopes are that you think about me (unless you’re some random joe who managed to stumble upon my blog and you’ve never so much as heard of me, etc).

either way, there’s obviously more to my presentation than that, and i’m quite proud of it (we’ll see how it goes when i get there), but i figured i’d drop my two cents onto my blog and see what happens.

watch my twitter (@woley) – i’ll be tweeting from atlanta all weekend!

au revoir, readers!