Sep 3rd
“There’s no I in team.” This famous quote hangs in just about every sports team’s locker room you might step into.
I was reminded of this yesterday after I finished up a talk with Ohio Web Leaders in Columbus. (If you attended, thank you so much!) Here’s a link to the deck, if you would like to go over it or share it with others. The video of the presentation will be online soon. Promise. You were engaged, and your questions and thoughts made it a good learning experience. I learn from you, and I take what you teach me seriously. Like I said, I’m still in BETA.
Synergy
The presentation slides that helped make the case were the work of my partner, Bryan Huber. He’s a design guru, and was up way past his normal bedtime, working his craft to make the visual stuff look better and make more sense. His wife, Leigh, (who also runs a good majority of our office operations) held down the fort at home, so he could crank it out.
Dave Culbertson was a voice of reason who helped to redirect the thinking behind the presentation. At one point, we were all over the board. Dave also came up with the “Always be in BETA” idea that drove home the point that we always need to be thinking in terms of incremental improvements for our personal brands.
Andy Brush was behind the camera shooting the video of the presentation, so we could make it available to you online. He even shared his own ideas and stories in the form of a video interview. His partner, Paul Milligan, was up late helping us boost audio when the mic on my Flip was acting up.
Some of you who are runners may have heard some buzz about TweetMyTime. This is a side project we are working on at huber+co that could change the way that thousands of marathoners track their time and pace when racing. That idea came from Matt Hornsby, one of our gurus behind the coding of our social media applications. I get to use my Brand YOU to share his idea with my friends in the running community. That’s badass, and it gets me excited.
We are all teammates.
The sum of the whole is always greater than the contribution of each individual part; and as we discussed yesterday, your Brand YOU is effected by symbiotic relationships. My best advice on your personal brand is this: whether it’s on the web, at the office, or even over a cup of coffee, stay focused on relationships.
With time your relationships will help your brand attributes emerge and become much more powerful.
Anything to add?
I’m hearing that coach in my head – “The Team. The Team. The Team.”
Way to stay focused on your team and give them their props. Very nice!
Comment by Jim Brochowski — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:57:55 +0000 @ 12:57 pm
I really enjoyed the presentation, Nate. What I took away, along with 2 pages of notes, was that honesty and transparency is what we all need to strive for to be really effective in our digital AND in-person interactions. Not because it’s a nice idea, but because it accelerates and strengthens our relationships, business and interpersonal.
By advancing the brand from just the logo to the GBU (summary of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) we all become responsible for clear, consistent communications.
Great stuff. Thanks to you and your team for a great presentation.
Comment by Randy Murray — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:39:10 +0000 @ 3:39 pm