Product Description

Let bestselling author Stedman Graham show you how building your own "Life Brand" will result in a more successful and fulfilling life.

From traditional corporations to the Internet, from top executives to people striving every day in their communities, "branding" has become one of the most significant marketing practices in pop culture today. We all rely on our favorite brand-name products to provide us with a certain level of quality. Now Stedman Graham shows readers how applying branding strategies to their own lives can help them attain their greatest potential and value.

We all have talents, knowldge, and other gifts to share -- not just at work but with loved ones and everyone we meet. Putting these traits to work for you as part of your Life Brand will enable you to reach your highest goals and enrich the world around you. With entertaining and pointed insights on personal branding styles and step-by-step instructions for developing a brand of your own, Build Your Own Life Brand! will show you how to:

• Discover and develop your individual brand assets, like your talents, knowldege, and personal characteristics

• Build and expand upon those strengths

• Identify "target markets" for key areas of your life -- your work your relationships, and your community

• Create more value in those markets as well as your own life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #423177 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
According to marketing consultant Graham, the most successful individuals are those who understand how to muster their character, personal beliefs and unique abilities to add value to their jobs, their relationships and their communities. By doing so, they create and build upon a distinct and recognizable "Life Brand," similar to the way Coca-Cola, Oprah Winfrey, Microsoft and Martha Stewart evoke clear, consistent images that underscore the value they add to their target audience's lives. Graham acknowledges that brand success is not necessarily measured in dollars, citing Nelson Mandela, for example, as a man whose name holds universal meaning for people worldwide. Like other motivators, he prizes the power of having goals, focus and passion, but his reasoning is tepid in this book that mostly rehashes his popular You Can Make It Happen. With advice limited to determining one's skills, talents and knowledge; bland reminders to follow through on promises and project a positive attitude; and suggestions for increasing one's visibility (e.g., start a nonprofit organization, create a Web site), Graham fails to provide detailed practical instruction to a readership looking for direction. All in all, this work is hollow and appears hastily put together. (May)Forecast: In contrast to Robin Fisher Roffer's Make a Name for Yourself (Forecasts, Nov. 20, 2000), which provides motivation and concrete instruction for a slightly more sophisticated audience, this book's strongest asset is Graham's well-known association with Oprah Winfrey, who is mentioned repeatedly in the book.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Even though Graham runs his own management and marketing consulting firm and founded Athletes Against Drugs, he is best known--rightly or wrongly--as Oprah Winfrey's boyfriend. Furthermore, Graham is a coauthor of The Ultimate Guide to Sport Event Management and Marketing (1995) and has taught sports marketing at Northwestern University's business school. He also co-taught "Dynamics in Leadership" there with Oprah during her much publicized foray into academia. Other books by Graham are the motivational You Can Make It Happen: A Nine-Step Plan for Success (1997) and a heartfelt spin-off called Teens Can Make It Happen: Nine Steps to Success (2000). Graham suggests that this new book complements and expands the ideas he presented in those two earlier titles. He acknowledges that personal branding is no longer a novel tactic, but he applies his own unique perspective. He discusses the concept of branding, explains how it can be applied to one's life, and offers up plenty of examples. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Info
(Fireside) According to marketing consultant Graham, the most successful individuals are those who understand how to muster their character, personal beliefs and unique abilities to add value to their jobs, their relationships and their communities. Graham acknowledges that brand success is not necessarily measured in dollars. Softcover.

Customer Reviews

Community Service
In books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, the author wrote about returning to society what one has reaped. In this book, Mr. Graham attempts to do it the other way round - almost. Build your brand from the community side. Market yourself as trustworthy and let the word of mouth spreads and presumably good things will come to bear.
While the examples were very inspiring, many of them African Americans, the concepts and ideas are not new. One get a sense of deja vu if you have read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the likes.

"A vital part of ones ongoing journey of success"
Stedman Graham does an excellent job writing on a virtually un-noticed aspect of being successful. This book is very reader friendly, and informative. Our life brands should be just as important to us as Coca-Cola is to its makers. It really boils down to standing for what we believe in, and getting ourselves known by as many people as we can. Mr. Graham focuses on public speaking, service work, advertising, etc.. My only qualms about this great book is the authors redundant use of anecdotes. If he would have used less examples and more of his great teaching abilities, I would have surely given this book five stars.

It's OK...but rather simplistic
I am halfway through the book as I type this. This book has a wealth of real-life examples of successful individuals who have branded themselves (e.g. Oprah, Michael Jordan, and others who are not-so famous). It also includes some examples of branding missteps (e.g. Dennis Rodman, the Barbie doll Holiday Edition debacle). All in all, it rehashes the same stuff over and over again without giving less motivated readers a clear cut plan on where to start (most readers with motivation know this stuff already). Examples include: 1. Live your passion (how many times have we heard this) 2. Don't let your circumstances keep you from branding yourself (again...it's been said before) 3. Don't let others influence your choices 4. Make the right choices and things will fall into place (the examples he uses makes it seem as if this will magically take place with no pitfalls) 5. Make the wrong choices and...DOOM! 6. Spend your time on your dreams and goals .....

I have read 100 pages and have yet to read a truly unique piece of advice. Sure this is an OK read for those of us who know these principles and may need a kick in the pants to jump-start ourselves again...however, some people need more tangible advice.

The section on creating success circles is the best part so far...but it took up a total of 10 pages. I am skimming the rest of the book and see more of the same. (e.g. Ways to Expand Your Brand include creating a website...starting a newsletter...create a non-profit organization)

All that I can say is that a typical man or woman in a humdrum existance will not feel any better about their lives after they are fed example after example of celebrities and major companies with successful branding. How about giving us a story about a single mother of four with two jobs who "found her passion."

Reading the vignettes were certainly stimulating, but will do little for those who don't know the ABCs of how to "just do it."

I would definitely give it 5 stars if giving it to a pre-teen or high school student. In fact, I am saving it for my kids.