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presence

personal brand - men's hair cut and style

Erik Tyler | September 10, 2015 | 8 Comments

Maximizing Your Personal Brand Part 2: Hair – Erik Tyler

 

Welcome to Part 2 in the current Thursday series, “Maximizing Your Personal Brand.” Last week, I laid the groundwork with two important ideas. I’d recommend reading that post first, if you haven’t already; but I’ll summarize those two important points here:

  1. Nonverbal communication includes more than expressions and hand gestures.

Some facets of what can only qualify as nonverbal communication are choices we make before we ever even leave the house; yet once we do encounter people, they will be summing us up and making decisions about us based on those choices. And, right or wrong, fair or unfair, the judgments people form will affect the impact of our spoken message.

  1. You are your own personal brand.

Just as any company or organization must carefully develop a strong, clear, positive, unique and memorable branding identity, so must individuals if we are to stand out and be successful in an all too “samey” world. Likewise, we as individuals must treat our personal brand as an investment, devoting adequate time and resources to making sure it remains strong and relevant.

We must treat our personal brand as an investment, making sure it remains strong and relevant. Click To Tweet

In last week’s post, we talked about the impact that the right clothing and eyewear have on what our personal brand is communicating to the world. Today, we’ll add another.

[Read more…] about Maximizing Your Personal Brand Part 2: Hair – Erik Tyler

personal brand - fashionable young man in bow tie, sweater and glasses

Erik Tyler | September 3, 2015 | 4 Comments

Maximizing Your Personal Brand Part 1: Attire – Erik Tyler

 

A friend treated me to a birthday dinner the week before last. I was enjoying a three-week vacation in Naples, Florida, at the time, and with his being from three-and-a-half hours north in Clearwater, we were both in unfamiliar territory. So we decided on Italian and then just asked Siri to present us with nearby options.

Upon arriving at our destination, we entered the rather posh dining area of the restaurant we’d chosen. The maître d’ was dressed to the nines as were all of the wait staff, and each spoke with an undeniably Italian accent. From the lighting to the wall art, this place was authentic. We knew we had chosen well before we were ever seated. And though our dishes bore names one could have ordered at any Italian chain restaurant, the quality of the food was far from franchise fare.

As our main courses arrived, I noticed what appeared to be a tipsy patron annoying the kitchen crew. He was dressed in a garish Hawaiian-print shirt with four buttons undone. The lower buttons strained as they did their best to hold back an ample gut. Draped unevenly across the surfeit of chest hair was the expected cliché: a large gold chain. His bald pate was encircled by a too-long horseshoe of badly-dyed hair. It was hard to make out exactly what he was saying, but he was definitely harassing the cooks, who, I noted, were handling it pretty graciously (though I did wonder why no senior staff were making an attempt to intervene).

A few moments after we were into our meals, the blustering bald man approached our table. He smiled broadly, placing one hand casually on my shoulder and one on the low dividing wall to my right. Not much causes me to feel awkward in life, but I’ll admit that my adrenaline surged a bit as I prepared for how best to mitigate the situation.

“How you guys doing?” the man asked. “Everything good? Anything you need?”

It was then that the realization hit me: this was no patron. I don’t even think he was a manager. No, only one person could have gotten away with his appearance and approach with the staff – the owner himself.

We raved about the food and service, which was met with much nodding of head and replies of “Good, good”; and soon, the owner was off to another table, continuing his rounds.

This man was clearly successful to some degree. He owned at least the restaurant where we were eating, if not other restaurants or properties. The ambiance was just right. The staff were excellent. And the food was outstanding. I couldn’t help but wonder how, then, this man internally reconciled his own appearance with the overarching goals for his establishment.

One thing is certain: he believed he was putting forth a positive persona. We do very little in life without a perceived gain. But this man’s perceived gain did not appear to be aligning with reality; therefore, it does not appear it was helping him reach the goal he intended.  He seemed like a genuinely nice guy with good intentions; but the image he was portraying was a deterrent to our finding that out.

In a previous post, I talked about the power of nonverbal communication – the ability to speak clearly without using words at all. The items covered in that post were choices we make in the moment, after communication has begun. However, some very important facets of nonverbal communication (for lack of a better category) must be decided well in advance of communication encounters. And these decisions speak volumes about us within the first five seconds of being in the presence of others. Assessments will be made. Judgments will be passed. And based on these, our verbal message will either be more readily received – or potentially hindered altogether.

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Adam Smith | December 19, 2010 | 14 Comments

halfway websites

Don’t do something halfway.

Most people seem to get that. But, when looking at the online world, some folks obviously disregard that great advice. Even though there are different organizations that fall in the “bad website” category, I want look at what the church looks like online.

Before I get started I just want to say I’m not wanting to pick on anyone here. Look at this as more of a favor… 😉

Ok. I will say that some churches get it. There are definitely some great church websites out there. But, there are also some terrible looking ones. I really can’t say it any other way. I mean, you can obviously see what I’m talking about here. Click on that link and view those sites. It ain’t pretty.

I have some notions on why this happens.

Churches first decide that they want a hip website to stay relevant so they can let all those hipsters know what’s up. After this decision is made, they lack one or some of these necessary components…

Someone who actually knows how to put together a site.
Time.
Focus.
Resources.

Maybe you can add something else to the list

Your website shows who you are a lot more than you think. If your website looks like junk, then people automatically assume that your church looks like… well, junk. Last week we talked about how a church building can sometimes change a person’s perspective on the church, even before setting foot in the church building itself. And I don’t think that a website is any different.

If you think that you, your church or your business may need to go in a different online direction, I would challenge you to take a close look at your site. It is sometimes hard to look at things through a reader’s eyes when we become so accustomed to the way things look. You may even find that you need to change the theme, take some unnecessary items off of your site, find a professional that may know more about building sites or maybe even take the site down while you and your team reevaluate where you stand. It can only help, right?

Where do you think a website fits in on the representation of a church/company/organization? How much does it matter?
Also, what are some church websites that are doing it right? Why do you like those websites so much?

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