Product vs. Brand
December 8, 2007 | In Making A Diff. Lifestyle |
Table of contents for Personal Branding
If your total public image is your brand, then your individual actions constitute your products. So, are you focusing simply on producing lots of products, or on building a cohesive brand?
Perhaps you contribute to every fund raiser you have the money for. You give a little here and a little there. Not that giving is bad, after all it helps others while making you feel good. However, I think you would agree that this approach can leave you feeling overwhelmed and not really sure that you are doing that much good.
Giving in this way more closely resembles a product way of giving - offering as many individual items as you can - than it does a brand way of giving - concentrating your efforts into a related category, or focusing on making one method of giving stand out from all the others. What makes the brand way of giving different from the product way of giving? Passion - really putting part of yourself into your efforts, whether by doing multiple things toward the same cause, or focusing in on one activity and really doing it the best you can.
In Choosing Our Support Carefully, I spoke of choosing a cause that is personally significant to you. Personal significance is the key to finding the necessary passion for giving and building a personal brand.
Take me for instance - I love the beach, I love dolphins, and I love sailing. I wanted to be a marine biologist, a sail trainer, and some day I want to own a condo or beach house. All of these things center around my love of the ocean. It is no surprise to my friends and family that I do things to help out the oceans. The ocean is my passion and everyone around me knows it.
Passion makes it fun. Passion keeps us going when we feel like giving up. Passion allows for quality when we don’t always have the time or money for quantity. Passion guides us to give because we want to, not because we feel like we have to. Passion is also contagious - we are more likely to get others involved when we are passionately involved ourselves.
If you support something that makes your heart sing, that makes your spirit soar (if that is your belief), then you won’t have to think about building your personal brand, it will build itself. Working with passion is a way to give back that is in line with your deepest values and beliefs. Passion is the all important key to presenting to the world a true version of yourself and a brand you can be proud of.
I am so passionate about the ocean that I would sleep on the beach if I could. I’ve gotten a dolphin tattoo and collect books on sailing. When I am standing on the sand, looking out at the waves the rest of the world can fade away and I am able to forget my problems. How could I not work to keep the oceans beautiful so others can have the same experience?
What makes you feel the same way? What thing in your life moves you so much you want to support it - to make it so great others can only benefit?
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Links to related topics: Giving With Passion, Making a Diff. Lifestyle, Personal Branding, Presenting Ourselves, Selective Giving, Self Expression
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