Master Your Brand
How Personal Is Your
Professional Network?
The finest brand you can build for
yourself is one that combines elements
from your professional and personal
life. In fact, your professional brand is
your personal brand more and more
these days, and your personal brand is
your professional brand. They’re one
and the same, and will continue to be
as people find greater opportunities to
balance life and work.
The days of working 9 to 5 and
living a closed-off, private life afterhours are finished. Social media marketing has allowed us all to share more
of ourselves than ever before. Most
people choose to leave some things
unshared—there are still topics that
won’t reach the outside world.
I believe, however, that the future
world-changers are those who have
learned to leverage all life events—
from workplace successes to family
challenges, and even health issues.
Filling in the gray areas with vibrant
colors or truths for the world to see
is what creates lasting, likable impressions, and it is what will keep your
brand top-of-mind.
I inadvertently put this concept to
the test in my own life. A longtime
colleague and friend, Mary Silva,
reached out to me because she was
going to be in the Washington, D.C.,
area and wanted to connect while in
town. Mary lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and has a 27-year background in
the printing industry and as a business
development and territory manager
for major and national accounts. We
met when I was working as a marketing coordinator for the Smithsonian
Institution, and she called on me as a
client. We’ve been friends for a long
time, and I’ve grown quite fond of the
time we share together.
During her trip, she had many
clients to call on, which made it challenging for us to connect. Mary finally
found some time in her schedule, but
I had a personal commitment—Bible
study at my church.
Once I saw Mary, however, I knew
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May/June 2013
MBE
we’d end up talking for hours. On
impulse, I asked her if she would like
to have an authentic worship experience with Virginia’s oldest AfricanAmerican Baptist congregat [ۋ