Quote de jour
"The wise man reads both books and life itself. "
~Lin Yutang
This week has been all about reading, observing and assimilating branding concepts. The book I read last week, Crush It! starting me thinking about how we are all influenced by corporate brands, but also personal branding.

Personal branding according to Dan Schwabel, describes the process by which individuals and entrepreneurs differentiate themselves and stand out from a crowd by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition, whether professional or personal, and then leveraging it across platforms with a consistent message and image to achieve a specific goal. In this way, individuals can enhance their recognition as experts in their field, establish reputation and credibility, advance their careers, and build self-confidence.

The term personal brand is believed to have first appeared in the August 1997 issue of Fast Company Magazine, in an article by management guru and author Tom Peters, who wrote, "We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You."

Whew! No wonder my head is spinning. So, besides the stack of branding books(most not shown here), there's some good 'ol escapism from a Jay McInerney novel Brightness Falls. Thanks Jennifer!

James P. Othmer is enjoying huge success with his memoir Adland about being an advertising golden boy. Since my first job was working in an ad agency (don't ask), I'm enjoying his spin about that crazy world.

This week's magazines are continuing with jolts of yellow, the spate of usual red, white and blue, and of course lots of holiday season red. The more I read, the eclectic melange, the more I'm convinced the world is going to hell in the proverbial hand basket, but that's a thought for another blog post.




I love this cover of The Royal Nonesuch and the author's name: Glasgow Phillips, but the contents not so much. Too snappy clever for me, or maybe my brain is about to have a Pamela Anderson moment from sensory overload. I now understand when she said, "My brain hurts from too much reading." The best cure is to go look outside the window. I thought my "room with a view" series ended with bare branches, but I've learned to expect the unexpected. Over the past few days, a cherry picker lopped off branches, sleet fell in icy sheets and yay, our first snow.