Two problems:
1) I need new business cards.
2) Someone has ‘indefinitely borrowed’ my copy of Arden’s ‘IT’S NOT HOW GOOD YOU ARE, IT’S HOW GOOD YOU WANT TO BE’
Anyone familiar with that book knows that there is a section on business cards and the importance of how good you say you are.
For me the ‘correct’ job titles would be ‘paid blogger’ (boring, geeky), ‘marketing and business development consultant’ (only just, and how many of those are there?) or ‘student’ (not worth putting on a card).
I really don’t want to put any of those on my business card.
Business cards are all at once the most and least important parts of networking.
On one hand, if you’re a brilliant networker who knows exactly how to play the game, having a strategically designed card is immaterial. They will contact you regardless. It’s said that only the most junior and most senior people don’t have cards – the juniors haven’t got them yet and the high-rankers don’t need them.
On the other hand, an interesting card can be the differentiator that gets a sale or new relationship. I know of a company which took the strategy of having very unconventional business cards – it made them memorable and secured several deals.
Personal branding is arguably one of the most difficult types of branding.
On the upside, you have full control of the product.
On the downside, the market is highly competitive.
It’s interesting to see how people describe themselves in blog headers or twitter, where (like business cards) their description has limited space.
Seth Godin, king of the concise, describes himself as ‘Author, Agent of Change’.
Gavin Heaton (aka Servant of Chaos) is ‘using stories to bring brands and consumers together’.
Best blog title would be ‘Don’t tell my mum I’m in advertising – she thinks I play piano in a brothel‘.
None of these state exactly what they do, but you still understand.
My own description? ‘Like Ogilvy, believes in long copy.’
Time for something new, though. Any suggestions?
If you could go anywhere, do anything, be anyone…what would you do?
This is just one of the phrases which has, after deliberation, been scribbled on the cover of the book. Not so long ago it was blank; an empty cover, pages and pages of white. It was carte blanche, so to speak, a little like life. But pencil scribblings like this one are starting to appear on its cover. And so this phrase is a rough sketching on the edges that defines, gives direction and shape, tells you a little of what to expect. […anything.]
Who is katherineliew?
1 part marketing student with a drive. 1 part citizen of the world. 1 part idealist who thinks– nay, knows that the world could be better. 1 part eternal learner. 1 part ‘why not’/’let’s just have fun’. 1 billion parts undefined. Wants the whole picture (and so refuses to create blog categories, because to allow you to select which parts you want to hear would just be misleading). Is sick of cliches (Do you think outside the box? Is the world your oyster?) and grows towards the light instead.
So who do you want to be? What do you want to do? And how are you going to get there?
[“It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.” -Paul Arden, advertising industry denizen and mass inspirer du jour.]
the grass is greener on the internet 