Be a Brand Name
I just love those holiday cups. Truly. They warm my cold, black heart like few other things. I was flummoxed a few years ago when the debate started to rise about Starbucks’ notable “red cup,” but I’m now accustomed to the variety that came about. It’s not actually about the red cup, you see. It’s that Siren. I see her and gravitate. Many of us do.
She is a brand.
She’s fictional, of course, but recognizable and desirable.
Just what I want to be in my job. If I could coin my own motto in that regard, I would dash up: “I want to be recognizable and desirable.”
On the path to being both, I recently submitted a proposal to an industry-centric conference (I am a technical writer by trade), but the talk wan’t about tech writing specifically. It was about building your brand in the field. I geared my talk toward women, although the principles are nearly universal.
We all want to, in our professional spheres, be “recognizable and desirable.” (Come to think of it, I believe we want that in our personal lives as well, but this is rated G, and so I’ll save that little piece of writing for another day.)
I reminded the attendees, mostly women but a couple of guys as well, that the “big thing” is showing others your worth. Building that brand is intentional. It doesn’t happen TO you, it happens…
