Virtual Mentors, originally uploaded by Hajj Flemings.

How many people do you currently mentor? Is that number 1, 2 or 10? Whatever number you identify you have underestimated the impact of your mentorship program. As a personal brand you are a virtual mentor for many whether you realize it or not. You are inspiring, challenging, and helping those less experienced than you to develop by indirectly speaking into their life.

Wikipedia defines Mentorship as a developmental relationship in which a more experienced person helps a less experienced person, referred to as a protégé, apprentice, mentee, or (person) being mentored, develop in a specified capacity.

When was the last time you read a blog post or followed someone on Twitter and the light went on for you? When was the last time you saw a video that someone loaded into YouTube, or read a book and the light went on for you? When was the last time you received a DM from someone, or read a link that someone posted on Twitter and the light went on for you? These brief points of interaction can be as impactful as spending 3 or 4 hours with a person in a face-to-face mentoring session.

My Virtual Mentors

With the expansion of social networks, blogs, podcasting, teleseminars it is possible to mentor virtually millions without having a personal relationship with each mentee. As a personal brand strategist I am a virtual mentor with the goal of impacting the lives of 1 million people. So I thought it would be interesting to share with you some of my personal virtual mentors. Most of whom I have never met face-to-face, don’t have an in-depth business relationship with, or DM them 10-times a day, but have been impacted tremendously by their work.

o Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki): Author of Reality Check (and eight other books)/Founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures and Co-Founder of Alltop.com
o Seth Godin: Marketing Guru/Author of Tribes (and eleven other books)
o Hill Harper (@HillHarper): Actor on CSI/Author of Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest your Destiny
o Chris Brogan (@ChrisBrogan): Social Media Guru/President of New Marketing Labs/Author of ‘Trust Agents’ (Due in Fall 2009)
o Rohit Bhargava (@RohitBhargava): Author of Personality Not Included
o Kevin Carroll: Author of Rules of the Red Rubber Ball & The Red Rubber Ball at Work.
o Malcolm Gladwell: Author of Blink/Tipping Point & Outliners
o Vincent Hunt (@Vincent Hunt): Creative Guru
o Nancy Duarte (@Nancy Duarte): Author of Slideology
o Wayne Sutton (@Wayne Sutton): Social Media Strategist

Basic Elements of a Virtual Mentor

o Have a product/service within their Niche: A book, audio content, workshops, or seminars that centers around your specific message.
o Blog/Social Network Presence: It allows people the opportunity to connect with you, get to know you, and humanizes your brand.
o Be Authentic: Be who you are. Be authentic. People follow interesting people.
o Have the right Associations: Following or friending the right people can create mutually benefital business relationships. Leaders attract leaders.

I want to thank my virtual mentors for the REALITY CHECK, that assisted be in developing my TRIBE, to MANifest my DESTINY, while being a TRUST AGENT, with my PERSONALITY INCLUDED, while playing with my RED RUBBER BALL @ WORK, presenting my brand with SLIDE:OLOGY, while BLINKing, in 140 or Less, and being SOCIAL like WAYNE.

Who do you mentor? And what do your mentee say about you?

Speaks volumes about you, originally uploaded by chilcott.

We live in a digital world where we text, IM, DM, blog, and email, but at some point you will have to come from behind the laptop, cell phone, or monitor and face the real world. Technology is nothing more than a tool it doesn’t solve problems by itself it takes the human interaction of your personal brand to communicate and connect real people and great ideas.

As wonderful as you are you are you are not the first person to think about the idea you have. Trust me. Branding is about packaging an idea in a way that is digestible and engaging. Everyone wants their audience to consume their thoughts and ideas and leave them clamoring for more while passionately spreading them to others.

At the end of the day you have the responsibility of bringing your idea to light and communicating it in the real world. Becoming comfortable speaking in front of people is something that I recommend all personal brands, but he only way to get better is practice, sorry you can’t outsource this function.

Growing up I stuttered. I could hardly talk, but one day I made a decision that I wanted to be a better speaker so I took every opportunity to get in front of people speaking for free to improve my speaking ability. At first I had to type out 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper and memorize every word, then I converted to note cards, and now key ideas on a screen. It has been a long journey but has paid great benefits. Simply put you will have to turn up the volume of your brand and speak there is a world waiting to hear you.

“All brands speak it is not an option but a responsibility.”
Hajj E. Flemings

Keys to Presenting your Personal Brand

o Be Creative. Add visuals, stories, case studies, and interesting points.
o Study other great speakers or presenters.
o Be a Story Teller. People are more engaged when you are telling a story versus reading bullet points. (Hint: Most people can read the worlds on the screen.)
o Be You. Your personality is crucial in bringing your idea to life.
o Be Visual. Whenever it is appropriate or feasible work to incorporate and communicate your thoughts visually.
o Think like a Tweeter. Less is more, keep it simple.
o Be interesting. There are too many copies, please be an original.
o Be Accurate. Your credibility is at state.

Thoughts from the Experts:
o Nancy Duarte (@nancyduarte): “Creating great ideas is what we were born to do: getting people to feel like they have a stake in what we believe is the hard part.”
o Chip & Dan Heath: Six Principles of SUCCESs: Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories. (The SUCCESs checklist, is a tool for dealing with communication problems.)
o Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki): 10/20/30 Rule (10- Slides/20- Minutes/30- Point Font)
Tips for Creativity:

o Istock Photo
o Flickr
o Slideshare.net: Great resource for ideas

Resources
o Great Speakers:

•TED (Technology Entertainment Design) www.TED.com
•Kevin Carroll
•Mitch Joel
•Seth Godin

Brand Gap

My Favorite Tools

• Keynotes Software
• Apple Laptop
• Kensington Wireless Presenter

Must Reads

Slideology: Nancy Durate has created a masterpiece on slide presentation.
Reality Check: Guy Kawasaki has some great incite on presenting.

I was on my laptop at Caribou Coffee in Royal Oak and I saw a friend
Eddie Lee (Detroit Young Professionals) and we talked for a minute and he mentioned the phase, ‘Thought Leader’ and this blog post was born. Thanks Eddie!

Are you a thought leader? We all have the potential to be one.

Thought leader is defined in Wikipedia as a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights (thinklets).

The term was first coined in 1994, by Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of the magazine, Strategy & Business.

But now I ask you a question, what things matter to you? Does anybody care about your thoughts? What is important in your life? What are your interest and what do you truly care about? It is time to wrap your thoughts around something that matters and leverage the power of the new media, blogging, social networks, and microblogging- twitter to name a few. The voice of user-generated content is increasing and becoming more relevant. For me it is simple, my thoughts are wrapped around branding. Branding is an inexhaustible subject so there is never a shortage of content or things to talk about.

I believe a lot people focus on things they think other people want to hear versus creating relevant content that matters. Being a thought leader is not a title that you can anoint yourself with, so please don’t try.

What I believe thought leaders have!
o Vision. They see what others don’t see (and before others see it.)
o Innovate. They think outside the box.
o Focus. The concentrate on something that matters.
o Make the complex simple. Anybody can add steps to a process, can you remove steps and make the process better.
o Swagger. They have that something that draws you to them and makes you want to consume their thoughts and their content.

Thought leaders communicate passion when sharing their ideas. As a personal brand strategist I fight the ills of the branding world and unoriginally with my Apple laptop (I would say pen, but that is so 20th century) my blog, and my book. I am the world’s next superhero, just call me ‘Brand Man’. LOL

Are you a thought leader? Let me know your thoughts.

Two of the though leaders (social media/marketing) I follow in twitter:

@chrisbrogan
@SethGodin

Two of my personal favorites:
Kevin Carroll- www.kevincarrollkatalyst.com

TED(Technology, Entertainment, Design)- www.TED.com (Inspired talks by the worlds greatest thinkers and doers)

thoughtleader_tagcloud, originally uploaded by Hajj Flemings.

Did ‘The Brand YU Life’ book cover inspire the new NBA commercial (‘There Can Only Be One’) or the new Time magazine cover design with Hillary and Barack. Who knows? Nevertheless, all three are great designs.

After researching the design direction of the commercial I found the following statement from the NBA:
“There Can Only Be One” is designed to bring to life the dedication, desire, and sacrifice that create the intense emotions and drama of one of sport’s premier postseason events: the NBA Playoffs & The Finals.

When I saw the ads the first thing I thought about was the dedication, desire, and sacrifice required to operate in your purpose as a personal brand. The split faces represented to me the split personalities that most people have: one of a person trying to get a particular job and not being fulfilled and the other operating in their purpose and loving what they do.

My reason for being a personal brand strategist is that I was tired of just working a job and wanted to live my passion and operate in my purpose. Operating in your purpose is the highest calling of personal branding opposed to just getting a job. Positions can be filled, people can be replaced, but ‘There is only one’ who can fill your purpose.

There Can Only Be One, originally uploaded by Hajj Flemings.

‘The Brand YU Life’ is about creatively branding your life and re-thinking who you are though personal branding. It is a paradigm shift and a tool to help you create, define, and manage who you are, to eliminate the separation between you and your personal brand.

The above except is from a special online interview conducted by Catur PW because of his interest on the topic of personal branding development. To view the full-version of the article ‘The Brand YU Life = Personal Branding’ go to http:blog.caturpw.com.

The Brand YU Life Cover Originally uploaded by h_flemings