This is part 3 out of 4 posts regarding how I work with my personal brand. Follow this blog for the following Wednesdays to read all four posts.
Part 1: How I Work With My Personal Branding – Who I Am
Part 2: How I Work With My Personal Branding - How I Communicate Who I Am
What I Do
What I Do is very important to me as it says a lot about who I am and what I stand for. For that same reason, my actions have to be aligned with my values, no matter what area I am engaged in. When meeting other people my actions will determine what impression they will take with them, and this will also be the image of me that they will pass on to the next person.
What I Do While Working
A lot of people will (sadly) define you by the title on your business card, because they do not invest the time in getting to know what you do. You have to accept this if you are employed, and you should consider rethinking your business card title if you run your own company. I am my business’s brand and hence my actions reflect on my business.
I am quite picky with my clients and do not engage with projects that I do not believe in or can’t stand for. I do, however, engage quite a lot in pro bono projects in which I feel my unique knowledge and experience will make a difference for the society. It is not always what you do that matters, but who you do it for or with whom you are doing it.
What I Do While Networking
To be remembered, you have to stand out in the crowd and be memorable. To achieve this, I normally listen actively to the people I interact with, treating every engagement as if the other person is a client and it is my mission to make sure that I tap into that person’s situation. As soon as I can (often the next day), I reconnect with the person via e-mail or phone with an article or some other related piece of information. That way I show that 1) I care about the other person and actually remembered the conversation, 2) I am a man of actions, 3) I am someone that delivers value and hence am a memorable person. There are very few people that actually reconnect if they do not see the immediate potential for a business relation or other gain. In doing so they miss the fundamental idea of networking: givers gain.
What I Do Away From Work
In my earlier posts I have been talking a lot about passion and how important it is for me to take good care of my family and friends. I intentionally do not draw a clear line between work and free time. I love to work, to network, to do business. I also love my family and friends, but quite a lot of my friends are business-related contacts as well. For me, balance is staying true to myself and to my peers and it works really well for me. I spend quite some time keeping connected with my friends in different parts of the world, I like to support entrepreneurs in developing countries by making micro loans through Kiva.org and I also support SOS Children’s Villages work with helping childen shaping their own future.
I hope this has given you a brief view on what I think is important regarding what I do and I would love to hear what you do to work with “What You Do”. Please share thoughts and ideas by posting comments below!
Next week
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Ola Rynge is an entrepreneur with a passion for the personal development side of personal branding (covered in this blog) as well as the application of personal branding and social media for entrepreneurs and small businesses (covered in The Rynge Blog).His company, The Rynge Group specializes in market oriented small business and idea development, including social media strategies and implementations.
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