Brace Yourself!
Almost everyone will tell you that you have got to Brand Yourself!
But ain’t nobody’s telling about HOW TO actually brand yourself. Or why, for that matter. :)
In the past 2 years I have started feeling very strongly the impact of wearing anyone’s brand (any company).
Its about the way people treat you, talk to you and ultimately think of you.
I have grown tired of getting to know people and receiving comentaries, such as – Oh you work for company X, or you attended event Y, or “you must be one of those programmers who put any stickers on their laptops, right?” – the last one is a real phrase I have heard just last week.
Here is my extremely unpopular opinion:
If you have certification, title or award name as a part of your name (Looking at tradition of some certain European country), if on the social networks you are not just John Doe but Dr. Certified Braindump Nobel Nominated John Doe, then my honest advice is to spend some time thinking – what you are actually doing and how do you brand yourself.
Think about the long term, think about the future generations. Think about how you want to get known. Think about who do you work for!
I strongly believe in the brands (well, the real brands – the ones that try to improve the world, not the ones that just market, present and resell acquired products, instead of producing themselves), but there will be virtually no person working for their whole life for the very same company. And I hope that there will not be a single person who will agree with every single thing that their employer company is doing.
That’s one of my core’s beliefs.
And that’s why, I decided to give away almost every branded material away (there are always so many people who need it and who will appreciate it), and introduce my own brand. Over the course of the last couple of months I have spend enough time thinking and here is my own brand, that I have created for myself – Niko Neugebauer:
It is rather simple with 2 letters “N” and while the lower one is shifting forward as in “adjusting to the change”, it forms a lightning bolt between the N letters. Since the childhood I was always fascinated with the lightnings and always painted one as my personal symbol, as a signature. Now it is a part of my brand, the one that I can wear because the only person responsible for it is myself.
This is hopefully the only brand that will be accompanying me in the future, or at least I will strive very hardly for it to be the only one, and while during the events I will wear your event’s identification, that is the line that I am not intending to cross once I am not a presenter at your event anymore.
I honestly wish everyone to have and use their own brand, representing & being responsible for themselves in the first place. Well, like an adult person is supposed to behave ;)