Why your personal brand is everything

In an age of change, the one thing that remains solid is your reputation. Well, if your reputation is solid... If it's not you're in deep trouble...

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the Social Media A-listers.
He's a star. An offbeat, in your face and absolutely authentic star.
He's his own man and that's what I love.
His keynote style is not one to copy literally. But, please do copy his 'be yourself' attitude. I guess that means, don't copy anything. Just be yourself.

One of my favourite Gary videos is his keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo New York (Feb 2009).
It's the third vid from the top on this page.
Or, here's a direct You Tube link.
Either way, check it out.

Keep your eyes peeled for these three standouts:

1. Legacy Versus Currency. Your legacy is way more important.
2. You only get to play this game once - one life!
3. And, self-brand equity. The real power of social media.
   

How you can apply this to you?

Book Rapper's Hot Books for 2009

Here’s the Book Rapper Hot Books for 2009. Here’s my Top Ten list of the books I want to be reading that reflect the biggest issues of our time…

Authenticity
The Book: Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore, Authenticity
The Hot Idea: As consumers crave experiences fake ones don’t count. If your product and service is not the real thing then you’ll be found out. The same idea applies to individuals, being ‘real’ is your future career. Great website to look around and play on…
Book Website: http://authenticitybook.com/

Hot, Flat and Crowded
The Book: Thomas Friedman; Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why we need a Green Revolution – and How it Can Renew America.
The Hot Idea: From the author of the best seller The World is Flat, comes a volume that links America’s loss of focus since 9/11 and the global environmental crisis. He describes the way forward as ‘the biggest innovation project in America’.
Author’s Website: http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded

The Psychology of Time
The Book 1: Steve Taylor; Making Time: Why Time Seems to Pass at Different Speeds and How to Control It
The Book 2: Stefan Klein; The Secret Pulse of Time: Making sense of life's scarcest commodity
The Hot Idea: Traditional time management presumes we all experience time in the same way all the time. A number of books are now exploring the psychology of time and how it passes at different speeds. This change in worldview presents new ways to manage yourself and how to get things done.

Groundswell
The Book: Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff; Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies
The Hot Idea: The shift to social technologies is a transfer of media from the few to the many. Customers are now forming direct connections to each other and creating new communities.
Book Website: http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/index.html

Happiness
The Book: Stefan Klein; The Science of Happiness
The Hot Idea: There’s a bunch of books out there on Happiness. Klein’s was picked because it cuts to the heart of the issue: science has quantified the impact of being happy on our health and wellbeing. Happiness is no longer just a feel good issue. It is now a quantifiable business issue and one for governments too. There’s no excuse now… be happy!

We-Think
The Book: Charles Leadbetter, We-think: mass innovation, not mass production.
The Hot Idea: The web revolution through the lense of innovation and creativity. The internet is not a place of production, it’s a place of collaboration, sharing and fostering ideas. From one of the leading management thinkers of our times, we get an update on Wikinomics and user driven innovation.
Author’s Website: http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/home.aspx
Book website: http://www.wethinkthebook.net/home.aspx

Post-America
The Book: Fareed Zakaria; The Post-American World
The Hot Idea: America has peaked in its global influence. That doesn’t mean it’s now in decline, just that others are growing in importance. The days of the dominant empire are changing and the emergence of China, India, Russia, Brazil and others is reshaping the globe.
Author’s Website: http://fareedzakaria.com/books/index.html

Here Comes Everybody
The Book: Clay Shirky; Here Comes Everybody: Organizing without Organizations
The Hot Idea: Another view of the impact of social media. This one is from a web guru who projects the rise of grassroots activism and the demise of traditional corporate hierarchies and print journalism. It’s not just about the web, it’s a guide to the future of human interaction.
Book Website: http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/

Tribe
The Book: Seth Godin; Tribe: We Need You To Lead Us
The Hot Idea: Social networking sites are making it easier to connect and new tribes are forming everyday. I love Seth’s work: he takes a contemporary challenge and puts a simple spin on it. In this one, Seth’s big question is: Who’s leading? The web can do amazing things and leadership is not one of them.
Author’s Blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Talent is Overrated
The Book: Geoff Colvin, Talent is Overrated: What really separates World-Class Performers from everybody else.
The Hot Idea: This book grew out a magazine article that questioned the role of ‘natural talent’. Instead, Colvin presumes effort is required for success and then suggests what works best. He suggests how you practice, how you analyse the results you get and learn from your mistakes are the seeds to greatness. It’s not a miracle cure and it is a clear path for us aspiring mortals.

Which one of these books would you like to see RAPPED? Let me know through your comments.