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When taking on a new project, every student should ask themselves why they are dedicating their time to said project, and what do they hope to benefit from the experience. As a student, if your answer to the benefits is made up of dollars and cents, you are probably not off to a good start.
“Brand yourself, or Google will” is wise advice from branding expert Dan Schawbel. Scumbag Steve is a case study of what happens if you don’t.
For those unfamiliar with him, Scumbag Steve is a meme gone viral. Entire websites have been created to showcase the best memes – customized captions on a photograph. The crazy part is that the guy in the photograph (his real name is Blake Boston) didn’t even know this was going on. His entire “brand” was created by total strangers without his knowledge.
It started simply enough. Blake’s mother was taking a photography class and took a lot of photos of her children including the iconic one of Blake. Only 16 at the time, Blake wanted to be a rapper, and used the photo for an album cover, some marketing materials and on a MySpace page. There it languished until someone copied it and added a caption, picking up the name “Scumbag Steve” along the way.
While Scumbag Steve had a huge presence on the Internet, Blake was virtually invisible. It was only after friends told him that Blake became aware of his alter ego. Eventually, Blake became Scumbag Steve – attempting to channel his notoriety into a music career. So far, he’s been unsuccessful – people seem to like Scumbag Steve a lot more than they like Blake Boston.
Can this happen to you? Sadly, yes.
You should not only create your distinctive brand and make sure your online presence is positive; you should also regularly Google yourself (web and images), and take immediate action if you see anything negative.
Take control of your online presence and position yourself for career success, not as the next Scumbag Steve.
Author
Marilyn is the Assistant Director of Graduate and Alumni Career Services at Bentley University. She brings an uncanny ability quickly discern strengths and differentiators and turn this knowledge into strategic career plans. She is passionate about equipping graduate students and alumni with cutting edge skills. Marilyn has a great deal of corporate experience, primarily in the technology, biotech and healthcare industries. She is a long-time user of social media (she was mentioned in Fast Company’s “Most Influential People Online 2010”). She holds degrees in Psychology and Public Administration from The Florida State University. Marilyn immigrated from Cuba as a child and is bilingual. She is active in Boston’s Hispanic business community.
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The desire to avoid pain is greater than the desire to attain pleasure. This is why most people give into their fears and never do what it takes to make it big. The perceived pain of leaving their comfort zone is greater than the pleasure of being wealthy. Excuses are then produced and the mind will find a way to justify them with logic.
Have you ever wondered if there was a way to build your business almost effortlessly? Actually use your brand to attract leads and prospects to you, credit card in hand, ready to join?
One thing that we’ve learned here at Brand You Inc is that people don’t join business opportunities, they join you as the business leader.
We just found a great free video series that will help you do just that and we’d like to share with you and know what you think. In this video series Mike Dillard explains how you can actually become the brand leader that others want to join.
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Brand You Inc
Are you tired of the old school network marketing techniques? You know the 3 foot rule, hanging flyers, bugging your family and friends, and holding hotel meetings.
I know that when I first joined my first network marketing company, I was told to use these same techniques. I was told to make a list of 100 people that I knew and basically call every one of them to ask and see if they would be interested in making some extra money.
I was only faced with questions I wasn’t able to answer, getting hung up on, and faced with nothing but rejection.
When I was officially shunned by everyone that I knew, all my upline told me to do was to go out and buy some opportunity leads.
This only led me to some more rejection and spending a bunch of money.
Now I was out of money, and had nothing to show for it.
Then just as I was going to give up, I found what I consider to be the “life saver” for my business.
This life saver I speak of was Mike Dillard’s 7 Day Free Video Boot Camp.
In these 7 free videos Mike explained how I could attract an endless stream of prospects to me ready to join and actually get paid to prospect.
These videos have really changed the way I do my business, and I think they can help you too.
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Enjoy,
Brand You Inc
Without Spending A Single Penny.
These tactics are perfect for network marketers on a tight advertising budget.
They are so powerful (and simple) even brand new Brand Builders with no money or special computer skills are using it to generate more interest and customers for their brand in a single day (for free) than most veteran Brand Builders get in a year with paid advertising.
All of these methods are based on three basic “rules” about making money online:
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Sometimes we find ourselves running in place, struggling to get ahead simply because we forget to address some of the basic success principles that govern our potential to make progress. So here’s a quick reminder:
1. You are the only person responsible for your success. The best part of your life will start on the day you decide your life is your own – no one to lean on, rely on, or blame. You are in full control of your future. Believe with all your heart that you will do what you were made to do. It may be tough at times, but refuse to follow some preordained path. Make your own rules and have your own game plan. There is no happiness and success to be found by playing it safe and settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Read The 4-Hour Workweek.
2. You don’t have to invent the wheel. Actually, to be successful you don’t have to invent anything at all. Coming up with a new invention or idea is one way to achieve massive success, but it isn’t necessary. And it can be the most challenging roads to success there is. You see many people have found lots of success just by taking something that already existed and simply putting their own twist on it (their unique selling proposition). Think about Apple for instance. As Steve Jobs once said, “Good artists copy, great artist steal. Creativity is connecting things.” Connecting things means seeking inspiration from great ideas that already exist and adding your own useful twist. Read The Millionaire Messenger.
3. There is no progress without action. What is not started today is never finished tomorrow. Some of the greatest ideas never made it. Why? Because the genius behind the idea failed to take action. Just remember, no action always results in a 100% failure rate. So get into action now, and begin to move in the right direction. Once you get started every step afterwards gets easier and easier. Until eventually, what had once been invisible, starts to become visible, and what once felt unattainable, starts to become a reality.
4. Persistence always wins. As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” It may take more than one swing to compose an efficient hit, so make sure not to give up on strike #1. And remember, a river cuts through rocks not because of its power at a given moment, but because of its persistence over time.
5. Focus is everything. When you are too busy looking behind and around you, people are passing you. If you never focus clearly on something, you will never be 100% efficient at anything. Multi-tasking might seem to make you efficient at getting multiple tasks done at once, but it usually reduces your efficiency in dealing with each individual task.
6. Failure is necessary. Don’t wake up at seventy-five years of age sighing over what you should have tried, but didn’t because you were afraid to fail. Just do it, and be willing to fail and learn along the way. Very few people get it right the first time. In fact, most people fail to get it right the first 5 times. If what you did today didn’t turn out as you hoped, tomorrow is a new opportunity to do it differently. Interpret each failure as a lesson on the road to success.
7. Positivity fuels productivity. Thoughts are like the steering wheel that moves our life in the right direction. Success comes from positive energy. You can choose to get caught up in the negativity surrounding you, or you can decide to do something positive about your situation. You always have a choice. Remember, happiness is an element of success, and the happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they use positive energy to make the best of what they have.
8. You must believe you can. You must find the place inside yourself where anything is possible. It starts with a dream. Add confidence, and it becomes a belief. Add commitment, and it becomes a goal in sight. Add action, and it becomes a part of your life. Add determination and time, and your dream becomes a reality.
9. Helping others is a big part of being successful. Successful people constantly come up with new ideas, new projects, and new and innovative ways of helping others. This means that your aims and objectives just benefit you, but also help benefit others as well. Bottom line: Your long-term success is directly tied to how well you serve your community. Read Maximum Achievement.
10. Success is a journey of countless baby steps. It’s a constant process of growth. If you want to be successful, you must continue to hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else, and strive to improve. Oftentimes a person or organization will be successful, but then drop off. A person may become lazy, and an organization may succumb to weaknesses or competition. Sustained success means continually improving even if others may not see a need for it. Remember, the great thing in the world is not so much where we stand at any given time, as in what direction we are moving.
Do you need more subscribers or sign-ups? Can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong? Maybe it’s your sign up forms. Think about it. Would you wear disco boots to your next party? Times have changed. The Internet is abuzz with social media networks, tweets, blogs, personal websites, fan pages, and so on – with no end in sight. But how many of you have your sign up forms where the action is? And if you do, are they interesting enough to attract this savvy online crowd? If your forms aren’t there, it’s like you’ve “closed up shop” and gone home! Can you afford to do that? I sure can’t! If you’re wondering how a plain old web form could boost sales and sign ups, I’ve got great news for you! You’ve heard of GetResponse email marketing, right? The industry leader in easy, affordable rich media email marketing for SMB and affiliate marketers like you and me. Well, they just came out with a new version of an old standard that blows the competition away. It’s easy, hip, and made for today’s “social” online crowd. Best of all there’s no special skills or training required! Check this out: GetResponse Form Builder Highlights: – 500+ designer templates – Save time and money by using one of over gorgeous 500 predefined templates – or customize to meet the needs of your brand and business. – Creative drag and drop editor – Drag and drop as many fields as you want to get the information you need. Changing colors, fonts, size and shape is a snap! – Easy customization – Custom fields and pull-down menu options help you get the segmentation data you need. Add or change links and labels to deliver even more ROI! – Dynamic or custom rich media Thank-You pages – You’ll make a great first impression with dynamically generated Thank-You pages. Add the personal touch with video or audio-video to engage new sign ups right from the start! – Web form analytics – Form Builder lets you track how many times each sign-up form was viewed or completed, so you know how well your forms are working for you. Now’s the perfect time to create some cool-looking sign up forms and place them where the action is with GetResponse Form Builder. And it’s easy to stay on top of the latest sites and trends – you can update your forms in seconds. Tell the world you’re open for business! I did, and it was the most profitable 10 minutes I’ve spent on my business in a while! I wholeheartedly recommend you give it a shot, too! Now’s the perfect time to create some cool-looking sign up forms and place them center stage with Form Builder – by GetResponse of course. I did, and it was the most profitable 10 minutes I’ve spent on my business in a while! I wholeheartedly recommend you give it a shot, too! It’s worked great for me and it will work for you too! Give it a try today and start increasing your sign-ups by tomorrow. You’ll be glad you did – it’s the best sign up tool ever for your business!
The biggest mistake brand builders make with Twitter is in their lack of understanding its full potential as a way to bring in more revenue to increase brand awareness.
Indeed, Twitter is one of the primarily tools to engage with your customers; it’s also a platform to generate more customers and drive new sales for your brand.
Our FREE TWITTER TRAINING unveils how a Guys that make $50,000 per month Automate Twitter to create endless floods of customers for his brand.
“There is absolutely no way to increase your income
quicker than reading 30 minutes a day”
~John C Maxwell
Brand You, Inc. 