dispatches from the new world of work

Happy 10th Anniversary, Brand You!

Reading and commenting on Nick's blog of June 29th, I realized that this is the tenth anniversary of the publication of "The Brand Called You" in Fast Company magazine (the actual date was August/September 1997; it seems like yesterday!). This is a good occasion for everyone to revisit that article and take a refresher course in why Brand You is so important. And, for those who've never read it, it's a good time to take a first look. Happy Anniversary to Tom and the Brand Called You!

Cathy Mosca posted this on 07/03/07.

Comments

Perfect timing...was talking about branding issues with a client this morning and they mentioned a couple books about employee and personal branding...I carry a pdf of the FC article on my laptop and said..."here, read this...the boss has been talking this stuff for years"...Once again, the world is catching up :)

Posted by Mike Neiss at July 3, 2007 4:33 PM

Cathy

Dipping into that article again reminds me just how different the world is ten years on.

So much in the article is dated or in the case of Arthur Andersen simply discredited. Fast Company isn't the magnet it was back then - what at the time seemed such a wonderful cover now looks so dated.

WOW! the world really has moved on. We are now internet savvy, we pull information to us rather than push it out from us, we have moved on from brands to lovemarks, we all know (especially 12 year olds strutting their stuff on MySpace, etc) that YOU must be a lovemark or at least have a clear identity, etc.

Tom had a brilliant, and more importantly a very "teachable", idea back then but the technology was not there to really support it. In our digital world with its networked economies and new revenue models everyone on the net knows YOU must become a unique entity or you will sink like a stone.

Richard.

Posted by Richard Lipscombe at July 3, 2007 5:39 PM

I carry the article around, too. It is a mark on how we can think about our real contribution to the workplace and to our own development. By the way, the Personal Brand Strategists at Reach www.reachcc.com are developing a series of events with some of the leading experts in talent and career development in order to share with the world some of the conquests in this past 10 years of Personal Branding. Stay tuned for the TeleSummit infocoming soon, you are all invited.

Best for all. Miguel

Posted by R. Miguel Coelho at July 12, 2007 5:10 PM

The article also had a dedicated website at brandyou.com for many years. It was redesigned several times. Take a trip down memory lane with archive.org:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://brandyou.com

Posted by Michael R. Bernstein at July 25, 2007 8:13 PM

Wow, Michael, we never knew about that. I'll take a look. Thanks.

Posted by cathy mosca at August 31, 2007 4:31 PM