The # 1 tool to start figuring out your personal brand.

3 steps to start figuring out your personal brand

Hi reader. I’m sure you’ve heard about 360-degree employee evaluations. Or maybe you have experienced the joys and pains of 360-degree evaluations. While 360-degree evaluations are popular tools for employee evaluations, these evaluation tools are also useful for figuring out your personal brand. In fact, I’ll say that a 360-degree evaluation is the # 1 to start figuring out your personal brand.

picture that implies importance why a 360-degree evaluation is the # 1 to start figuring out your personal brand.

Image courtesy Pixabay

I became familiar with the power of 360-degree evaluations for discovering your personal brand about 3 three years ago when I attended a self-development workshop hosted by Paul C. Brunson. During the workshop, Paul referred to a quote by Jeff Bezos, the CE0 and founder of Amazon. Jeff’s quote piqued my interest. According to Jeff:

 

picture that implies importance why a 360-degree evaluation is the # 1 to start figuring out your personal brand.

Let’s analyze Jeff’s quote a bit further. Jeff’s quote implies that, your brand is based on what people say about you. Your brand isn’t entirely based on the way you think about yourself. Most importantly, your brand is based on how people see you – or perceive you to be.

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room” Jeff Bezos

Hmm..interesting quote Jeff. I see the relevance. A lot of often say that we don’t care what other people think about us. However, if we want to start building our personal brand, introduce a new perspective, product or service, it’s worthwhile to consider your users’ or readers’ or customers’ perspectives and thoughts. Furthermore, they are the ones that are taking their time, attention and money to listen to us, or to use our service.

How can I start my own 360-degree personal branding analysis?

Excellent question reader! I’m happy to share the steps I used to start my personal branding analysis. (Shout out to Paul C Brunson for some the suggestions!)

1. Reflect on your past job evaluations, reference letters, LinkedIn endorsements and your close family and friends’ comments about you.

Self-reflection questions:

  • How did your supervisors, bosses and colleagues describe you?
  • How did your references describe you?
  • What kind of LinkedIn endorsements have you received?
  • What kind of skill endorsements have you received on LinkedIn?

2. Determine your observational consensus

Self-reflection question:

Did more than 1 person describe you in a certain way? (Example, did 5 people describe you as someone who is creative, ambitious, innovative, etc.?)

3. Google yourself

Self-reflection questions:

  • When you google yourself, what images, videos, articles, etc. come up?
  • Can you see similarities or recurring themes from the content?

In conclusion, 360-degree evaluations aren’t only suitable for employee evaluations. If you are ready to discover your personal brand, 360-degree evaluations are excellent self-evaluation tools. Are you eager to begin your entrepreneurial journey?  I highly recommend using the 3 steps I outlined in this blog to start your personal branding and entrepreneurial journey.

Question: Have you done a 360 degree analysis of yourself? Comment below. Your comments will inspire me and others!

Thanks for your time,

Naomi

Read my other two blogs below where I share some more of my self reflection insights.

https://naomilambrose.com/2017/02/14/reflections-fb/

https://naomilambrose.com/2017/05/17/reflections-of-a-novice-pianist-composer/

 

My top 3 content creation tools, start creating today!

3 cost effective ways to start creating content

I believe that there are many people out there who want to create content but may not have the money or the fancy graphic designing programs or software to create the content. Or, maybe you want to create content but you think that you need fancy, smanshee programs. I’m here to tell you that you can create content in cost-effective ways. There are tools available to create content in cost-effective ways.

image to show blog is about content creation cost effective ways

Image courtesy of Pixabay

When I made the decision to create content frequently, I was happy to discover that I could create content with the tools and programs that I had access to. Here are my top 3 cost effective content creation tools.

1. Microsoft’s PowerPoint “Save as. MP4” option

This feature is useful if you have audio that you want to upload as a YouTube video. In my case, I upload the cover art/image for my video and then I inserted the audio. This is the method that I used to create the videos for my Favourite books YouTube video series.

2. Zoom H1 Handy Portable Digital Recorder

Zoom recorder image, cost effective  content creation tool

This recorder is definitely one of my favourite products. I use this recorder to record my songs, my song ideas, my thoughts about my song progression, and for many other uses. I wish I’d thought about using my recorder to record my favourite books podcast. That discovery would’ve saved me time– when I recorded the podcast in my phone and had to wait for the recordings to upload to my Google drive. That knowledge could have saved me money – when the upload process consumed a lot of my allotted data – and getting charged for additional data usage! ☹

P.S If you’re planning to use the recorder to record your podcasts, thoughts, etc, I’d suggest keeping the recorder a few feet away from your mouth. This will help to reduce the amount of static and breathy sounds that often occurs when we speak closely into mics. You can check out the recorder here.

3. Canva

Image of Canva's site appearance, create content in cost-effective ways.

I’ve used Canva to create designs and quotes for a lot of my social media and blog posts. Canva is very popular among small business owners and entrepreneurs. It’s a very popular graphic designing tool that provides a wide range of graphic templates. You can also create customizable images and social media posts. These are just two examples. Canva has many templates for many other purposes. Please feel free to check out Canva. I highly recommend it.

“Start creating your content today with the tools you have access to.”

There are so many cost-effective ways to create content. No more excuses about not having access to fancy, smanshee content creation programs to prevent you from creating your content. Start creating your content today with the tools you have access to.

Question: Do you have any additonal tools that you use to create your content? Have you heard of any other tools that people use to create content? Comment below!

Why you should try something new

I read an article about the director of the hugely successful Wonder Woman film. The article indicated that the director didn’t have a lot of experience directing big-budget films like Wonder Woman. I also got a sense from the article that the author was surprised that the movie studio hired the director .

After I read the article, I began to wonder to myself, “if a big movie studio can hire a director who didn’t have a lot of experience directing big films, why shouldn’t I attempt to do something new? Why shouldn’t I take on a challenge that I don’t have a lot of experience in? Read More

3 insights I gained from Lewis Howe’s interview with Wyclef Jean

The record is not over yet. The record is not over yet – that’s one of my favourite lines from Wyclef Jean’s Anything Can Happen from his amazing Carnival album. Oops I digress! J I just wanted to throw that line in this blog! On the other hand, I’m sure you’ll figure out the connection with “the record isn’t over yet lyric” and the rest of this blog. Anyway, back to the essence of this blog! 🙂 Read More

Saturday night, May 27 is going to be an amazing night. Here’s why

If you’re looking for a new TV show this Saturday May 27 that’s transformational, heart-warming and inspirational, then you should definitely check out, Help, I Need Love, hosted by Paul Carrick Brunson. 

 

I_Need_Love_Post

Hosted by Award Winning Matchmaker Paul C. Brunson “Help! I Need Love” will change the way you look at love and tv. Get ready for an amazing ride as we watch 3 single moms go on the journey of their lives to obtain something they didn’t think they could have: a good man and a lasting relationship. You’ll laugh, cry, be mad and maybe even say a few “Oh no she didn’ts before the night ends. But one thing is for sure, it is transformational.

I’m happy that Paul’s show focuses on single mothers – as the happiness and well-being of single mothers are topics that seem to be often forgotten in TV land. As someone who was raised by a hard-working, generous and amazing single mother, I will always be an advocate for single mothers who work hard and try their best to raise good children. I will always be happy to promote a TV show that provides single mothers with an opportunity to experience real, true love.

Help! I Need Love. Will be a series to remember. Tune in to find out Saturday, May 27, 2017 at 10 PM ET on ABC.

Share this post with your family, friends and anyone you know who’s a single mother! #Spreadlove  #Sharelove #Spreadpositivity

Reflections of a novice pianist composer

I recently created my first ever piano composition YAY! 🙂 If you’ve ever made something new, or you’re currently working on a new endeavour, you’ll probably know the joy that emerges with the feeling of creating something fresh or new. If you’re currently creating something or planning to soon – hopefully the insights I gained from creating my recent piano composition could help you with your creations. Read More

Story behind my cover song artwork

If you’ve listened to my renditions of WHAM’s Club Tropicana and Shirley Bassey’s Diamonds are forever on my YouTube Channel, you’ve probably noticed the graphic designs and font styles that I used for the videos. If you’re looking for ideas for your creative and artistic endeavours, here are the steps that I used to generate artistic and graphic design ideas for my cover song artwork. Read More

7 books that enlightened me, click here to find out more!

7 of my favourite books

7 books

Hi reader. My name is Naomi and I’m a K.L.E. I’m a Knowledge.Learning.Enthusiast. I’m always on a quest to seek knowledge and enlightenment. Are you are currently seeking knowledge and enlightenment? Do plan to do so soon? Or perhaps you are looking for some books to read? If you answered yes to any of the previous, here are 7 books that increased my understanding about business, life, success, failure, wealth and growth. These books are 7 books that enlightened me.

  1. Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes

I’m sure most of us know about Shonda Rhimes – the creator and executive producer of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. I appreciated Rhimes’ willingness to share her vulnerabilities and insecurities. Rhimes also provided an opportunity for readers to understand her rationale for creating the stories and characters that most of us have grown to love, admire or despise.

Rhimes also suggested that it’s ok for us to want to reach to the mountain top, to tell ourselves that we can be the best in our chosen field, and that that it’s ok to look at ourselves and to be comfortable with being seen and wanting to be seen.

“the very act of saying yes is not just life-changing, it is lifesaving” – Shonda Rhimes

2. Pharrell: Places and Spaces I’ve Been by Pharrell Williams

In his book,  the highly sought-after singer-songwriter, rapper,music and film producer, Pharrell Williams reified the importance of collaborations. He includes conversations he had with several influential personalities such as Jay-Z, Anna Wintour, Kanye West and Buzz Aldrin.

I also relearned about the importance of collaborating to generate new ideas, to learn from others, as well as to learn more about people you admire for their contributions toward making the world ever-more interesting and spectacular.

Other key takeaways I took from the book connected to the view that suggests that our passions, interests and “calling” often starts in our childhood and that we should be willing to do things that no-one else has done.

The book is also beautifully and uniquely designed with lots of colour, dazzle and pictures.

3. The Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin

In his book Seth Godin, the influential marketing guru underscores the importance of knowing about the different types of customers, as well as the importance of marketing to people who want change. Godin also emphasizes the importance of finding a niche that has not been dominated, as well being different and standing out (example, having a unique business card.)

4. All Marketers are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works–and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All by Seth Godin

Godin emphasizes the importance of knowing who you are and knowing your audience (for example, Godin suggests that we should ask ourselves: “do I know who needs to hear my story?”). Godin also underscores the significance of asking yourself whether people will believe your story and whether your product or service will help people with satisfying their wants.

I also appreciated Godin’s inclusion of examples of marketing techniques that some well known, niche specific brands and small businesses used. Godin also highlights the importance of “owning” uncharted business territory.

5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

I appreciated Coelho’s mystical storytelling abilities. In his book Coelho writes about a young man who’s on a personal soul-searching journey and eventually discovers his “personal legend.” Coelho also emphasizes the importance of paying attention to signs, as well as understanding that you will encounter obstacles along your path to greatness or along your route toward achieving your goals.

Coelho also underscores the significance and remembering tasks that we did during our childhood that we loved and enjoyed. Coelho also highlights the importance of taking time to explore the world.

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho

6. The Wealth Choice by Denis Kimbro

Denis Kimbro, lecturer and researcher in the field of management, entrepreneurship and human potential introduced me to African American entrepreneurs that I didn’t know about such as Lillian Lincoln Lambert, Nathaniel Goldston and Colleen Payne-Nabors.

I also learned about the entrepreneurs’ perception and understanding of wealth. Kimbro also underscores the importance of understanding money and how it “works”. Kimbro also emphasizes the significance of reading and setting clear goals.

7. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

In their book, Steven D. Levitt, an award-winning author and Stephen J. Dubner, a journalist emphasizes the importance of analyzing data that deviates from general trends or results. In other words, the next time we conduct a survey, we should pay attention to the one person or the two people who give a different answer.

I agree 501% with Levitt’s and Dubner’s point as we can learn so much from analyzing people and even animals that deviate. I think we spend a lot of time analyzing general trends but quite often, it’s the different person, the different results that help us to understand what’s really going on in life.

Have you read any books that enlightened you? I’d love to hear about them!

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4 lessons I learned from my recent public performance

April 23, 2017. I’ll never forget that date. It was the day that I had the wonderful opportunity to perform as a singer at the 2017 Vancouver Sun Run.  You can watch a clip from my performance here. Could you imagine the excitement and nervousness that bubbled in my soul? Read More