Before my wife, Nancy, and I got married, I took her to my hometown of Enid, Oklahoma, to help her get a little better acquainted with…wait for it…here it comes…my “personal brand.” Trust me, personal brand factors into all facets of your life.
While there, we drove by my old high school. Remarkably, I had forgotten that my old high school was the only one in Oklahoma with an astronomical observatory. We posed for a selfie below the observatory’s roof-top dome, and I thought, “How cool! I saw the stars through that telescope when I was in high school, and my wife-to-be has flown among the stars as a NASA astronaut.”
She was a four-time Mission Specialist on the Space Shuttle.
After we got married, I decided I wanted to celebrate my wife’s life work. I did so by having that observatory at my old high school named in her honor. The next time you’re in Enid, I encourage you to find the Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg Observatory at Enid High School. You can also look for it on the National Register of Historic Places, and learn a little more about it from this photo of the historical marker outside the school, or by visiting the website I created for the fundraising project my wife and I spearheaded to renovate the observatory: www.wewillfindstars.space
Even inanimate objects can have their own personal brand.
Your Homework Assignments
Your Chapter 1
I would encourage you to take a chapter out of Matthew McConaughey’s life: To write a book, you gotta start with Chapter 1. Alright, alright, alright!
The opening chapter of McConaughey’s book, Greenlights, has the most insanely absurd description of dysfunctional family dynamics ever to appear in print. I listened to the audiobook version of the bestseller, so I was able to hear McConaughey “perform” a reading of his life story. I highly recommend giving his book a listen.
If MM can do it–writing a Chapter 1–you can do it, too! Try it. You don’t have to go into details about your personal or family life, but in composing your effort keep your personal brand in mind and sell your readers on that. Be a good storyteller!
If you want to give this a go, try to write about a thousand words (that’s not that many when you’re on a roll), save your effort as a PDF file with your name on it, and send it to me at tim@timgregg.com. I promise to read, comment and encourage your effort. No deadline. I’ll be around whenever your ready to share your work with me.
Your Elevator Pitch
One of the keys to business communications is brevity. That’s also critical to employing your elevator pitch when it comes time to sell someone on your product, your idea, or yourself. A good elevator pitch is less than 40 seconds. Compose yours, keep it to around 100 words and then send it to me at tim@timgregg.com. I’ll let you know what I think. Deadline is one week from today (whenever “today” is as you read this.)
Let’s Make A Movie!
I’ve been interested in helping college-aged students prepare for their professional lives for a number of years. That’s why I think understanding and building a personal brand is so important.
Several years ago, while I was still living and working in Houston, I had a chance to donate my video production services to an organization called Da Camera. The group’s mission, according to their website, is to "inspire individuals and enrich communities through diverse and inventive musical experiences.”
One facet of the organization’s work was what they called their “Young Artist Program.” Here’s the video I produced to support that endeavor:
At eight minutes in length, the Da Camera video is almost a short film. To be honest, that was my goal.
Back then you could get away with an eight-minute video on the Internet. Today, as you know, you can’t.
Thus, I’m interested in creating a new video, one to promote the importance and power of developing and fine-tuning one’s personal brand. And I’m looking for a few dedicated individuals who might be willing to: a) craft their personal brand, and b) tell me–on camera (as opposed to “dacamera,” which in Italian translates to “chamber” as in “chamber music”)–about their challenges and successes in building their brand.
Never been on camera? Piece of cake!
This new video, tentatively entitled “Building Brand at Blinn,” will be about three-minutes long. Lots of loose ends to tie up still, but I think the idea is intriguing enough to suggest it here.
Interested? Contact me at tim@timgregg.com.
And be sure and include in the subject line of your message whether you’re submitting a chapter, a pitch, or your desire to help with the video project.
Thank you for reaching the end of this presentation. For questions or comments send an email to: tim@timgregg.com. (Put “Question or Comment” in the subject line of your message…if you’re submitting a question or a comment.)
Looking forward to seeing you soon!
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