360 DPI

What if you decided to write your own philosophy and give it a visual rendering? This was the challenge put to me by Karen Davis of Karen Davis Design in Houston. Karen actually directed me to a video she liked on YouTube about one of her contemporaries, Eric Cohler. I watched his promotional video and became inspired. I could create something very similar. My mind started going into creative overdrive as soon as this idea became tangible. Watch the video I created for Karen, and then watch the video that inspired me.

This past week, Tiger Woods made a public statement about how he compromised his core values. It made me think about my core values…I know I live by some, but I hadn’t defined them in quite a while. What are your core values, and do you live by them?

Reflecting back over my year has reminded me of something I learned in one of my own workshops. What’s the “One Thing” that makes you different?

Recently, my colleague Karen McCullough and I gave a workshop on how to market yourself as a public speaker.  It was a day of giving away all the things that worked for Karen in her career as a public speaker, some of which I helped her with, and all the things that did not. The workshop ended up being very interactive, with most of the participants adding extremely valuable information and experiences to the mix.

One of the most notable people there was Julie Haralson, the Marketing Director at Texas Children’s Hospital and a marketing consultant.  She shared a piece of information that has helped me immensely in the area of Personal Branding.  It was the concept of “The One Thing”.   Julie posed that very question to us, and it really clarified the crux of personal branding.  In a world where we’re all trying to stand out and be noticed, very few of us can easily identify that One Thing that defines us.  Julie reminded us of the movie City Slickers and this important scene where Curly learns about the secret to success and happiness.

Take a moment to think about that one thing that makes you different?  It’s not an easy question to answer.  I’m still working on it.

I’ve been trying my hand at these “walk on” web videos. I had to film my subject in front of a green background. We wanted him to appear to be to walking onto the page, so I had to make sure his entire body was in the shot. I also had to be sure the background was evenly lit, as well as my subject. Notice how he looks a bit fuzzy around the edges. Getting the edges to stop glowing is a big challenge. But this is my first attempt at filming in front of a green screen. I know it’s not perfect, so I’ll be heading back to the studio to try again. I know I can get this if I keep trying.

One of the great things about the web is that I can find dozens of video tutorials on how to do this.

Kylie Minogue was just voted as Austrailia’s most marketable personal brand in a recent study conducted by Talent Inc! , a serveying company in Sydney.  She ranked higher than the Prime Minister, sports personalities, Hugh Jackman or Nicole Kidman.