When I originally published this article, there was a picture next to it of three well-known name brand products. There was Tide laundry Heinz ketchup, and Pepsi cola. Even though the pictures of the ketchup and cola bottles were small, you could still easily determine their brands from the colors of the packaging and the shapes of the bottles.

The managers who manage those brands at their respective companies have worked very hard over many years to make certain that you (in the U.S. and certain parts of the world) recognize these brands and, hopefully, purchase them. Even though they appear as tiny little pictures on your screen, it’s likely that you were able to identify them very quickly because their managers have focused on getting their images into your mind for years.

Companies brand products all the time. So why not brand people?

In fact, famous people become brands: actors, professional athletes, and others define themselves using branding techniques, and then market their brand for success.

The fact is, if you don’t brand yourself, someone else will, and it probably won’t be the brand you want for yourself.

I’ve been studying personal branding for business for a while and I’m putting together a series of talks and a coaching program based on this topic.

Branding yourself is for executives, entrepreneurs, and those who aspire to be either. It will help you re-think where you have been, where you want to be, who you really are, how that fits into the marketplace, and how to market yourself for the rest of your career.<

Branding yourself helps you think of more (and better) possibilities for yourself in your career or business, while remaining true to who you really are. This is not about creating a “fake you.” It’s about digging deeper to find more business possibilities that ring true to your authenticity.

This self-branding thing can get really involved: there are a lot of steps to discovering, creating, and marketing yourself as a brand successfully. To help you out, I've created a "Brand Yourself! Coaching Program". It is a self-paced coaching program you can purchase directly from Borgeson Consulting. I'm very excited about this program! Since it is self-paced, it is very affordable - less expensive than traditional coaching by telephone, and you complete it at your own pace.