This week I had the honor of talking to an inspirational, creative and empowering leader on his personal brand, life coaching, and how to survive that thing called the quarter-life crisis.  Anthony Fisher helps individuals discover and understand the power of their personal brand by helping them identify their strengths, values and passions so they can capture their life’s purpose with confidence and become a leader of great influence.  Anthony is a man of purpose who speaks with wisdom, knowledge, passion and conviction.  Here’s a sampling of what we discussed.

What do you do and what kind of clients do you usually work with?

As a personal brand coach and life purpose coach, I have attracted and inspired an audience of professionals and executives. I work with doctors, CEO’s, Vice Presidents, seasoned speakers, and individuals who already have a level of leadership influence in their life.

As a personal brand and life purpose coach, my responsibility is to listen, assess the clients’ needs, communicate effectively, motivate excellently, transfer knowledge efficiently and inspire my clients to embrace the process for attaining personal growth and change. I give each of them a MAP (Massive Action Plan) for creating practical and creative marketing avenues to enhance their personal brand.

Lastly, as a skilled graphic designer and web designer, I personally assist in the design brand process by providing clients professional marketing design tools that are attractive and produce amazing results. I create logos, design websites, create business systems, design book covers, CD/DVD packaging, brochures, newsletters, PowerPoints and just about anything related to creative production or marketing design.

How do you use the web to help build your brand?

My personal brand website (www.anthonyfisher.com) is the primary marketing tool that has helped me build my brand. Long before social media ever existed, my website served as the point of reference that people could always visit to find information about me and what I do. Today, it’s pretty much the same. I use social media sparingly and only get involved when I have something important to share or when there is a wonderful article or blog that piques my interest.

I am a twenty-something young professional, trying to fight this thing called a “quarter-life-crisis.”  I’m trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life, where I want to be, and who I want to share all of those things with.  What advice could you give me and other young 20-somethings who are battling the same thing?

Hmmm! Sounds familiar. I’ve been there before.

First of all, they need to come to the realization that they do have a purpose for their life. They need to be aware of what I call “Hints of Greatness”.  Once these are acknowledge and understood, it’s amazing how everything else falls into place. In my FREE downloadable book/workbook “Hints of Greatness” Personal Brand Discovery Guide and Purpose Workbook, I give exactly 10 keys that each twenty-something young professional or 50-something year seasoned professional needs to have in their hand in order to figure out what they want to do for the rest of their life. I believe our life gives us actual hints to what we should be doing and how we can be most effective.

In the search of defining one’s personal brand or life purpose, I often make the statement to my clients or when I speak to groups that “Nothing is yours until you understand it”. Each individual must find his or her answers.  No person can tell you exactly what you should be doing with your life, but as a coach and someone who has had to deal with his own journey and personal transition, my responsibility is to guide, ask challenging questions and be a support along the process.

How did you get started in personal branding and life coaching?

I got started in personal branding in 2006. I actually had an epiphany.  My family and I were on vacation in the state of Oregon visiting my wife’s family and I remember a rush of thoughts coming to mind. The overriding theme of these thoughts had to do with living my life as a model that would influence others to do the same. I want people to experience excellence in their personal life, their relationships, their marriages, their businesses and their kids. With much thought, meditation, prayer and reading, I finally came to the realization that I was purposed and called to coach and teach.

So what brought it all together for you to realize that personal branding and life coaching was your calling?

I began to think about my life experiences, opportunities presented me, and listened with a keen ear as to what people were saying about me and directly to me. These three things were the qualifiable and undeniable Hints of Greatness that led me to the path to embrace coaching as a personal brand coach and life purpose coach.

What does someone need to know or learn about if they want to get into personal branding and life coaching?

I believe that personal brand coaching and life purpose coaching should not be taken lightly. Coaches are leaders and very influential.  They must recognize their influence and treat their position of influence with total respect and humility.  A coach must also be honest with him/herself with their own personal shortcomings and be willing to address their issues just as we encourage our clients to do. There is no perfect coach.

From my perspective, a personal brand coach or life coach needs to have a passion for other people. It’s also important for them to decipher their reason for wanting to be a coach. Coaching is not for everyone; they should possess certain personality characteristics that are welcoming and thoughtful, but also honest and tactful. A coach is a lifelong learner. They read books, listen to audio, do research on the Internet and constantly have personal growth and improvement on the mind. Lastly, a coach should make efforts to receive some level of training in their particular field of coaching study.

Closing Thoughts

As you can see, Anthony has a passion for life coaching and personal branding, and he truly believes that anyone can benefit from it.  He provides some great insight – especially for those fighting that quarter-life or mid-life crisis – on how to be most successful and follow the hints to the path that life takes you.  Everyone has a purpose in life – the key is how to discover it without losing yourself through the process.

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Our new online reputation management system has been live for about a month and the response has been overwhelming. We surpassed our expectations in signups, the system has been getting great reviews and we’re already getting set to release a whole new slew of upgrades and features.

We could not have done it without our loyal readers and followers. As a token of our appreciation and in honor of my favorite holiday, St. Patrick’s Day (I’m 100% Irish), we are running a special promotion.

For the first 5 people to sign up and upgrade from here, we will offer:

• 1 Free hour of consulting ($50 value) on how to best use our system
• We will build your website. Our personal branding experts will work with you to create a site that represents who you are, showcases your personality and shows up high in Google.

To make sure we award this to our readers, follow these steps:

1. Sign up for an account here

2. Click the upgrade button

3. Choose a Premium Full Access Account

4. Enter the Promo Code: stpatrick

Important: Do NOT enter the promo code when you sign up for a free trial. Sign in, click the upgrade button on the top of your dashboard, choose premium access account and then enter it

If you already have an account, simply log in and click upgrade.

Thanks again for all of your support and we look forward to working with five of you

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We are pleased to present you our first official eBook: From Tweet To Hired.

We worked very hard to put together an easy to follow, easy to read, extremely informative guide to leverage twitter and advance your career. We collaborated with leading experts all over the board, from executive recruiters to personal branding authors.

Some of our contributors include:

• Dan Schawbel: Leading personal branding expert and author of bestselling book ME 2.0
• Gary Vaynerchuk: Social Media celebrity & author of bestselling CrushIt
• Ryan Stephens: A recognized  Gen Y thought leader/blogger and founder of RSM Marketing

• Monica O’Brien: Author of acclaimed Social Pollination and leading Gen Y Blogger
• Matt Wilson: Founder of Under30Ceo
• Chris Perry: Author of Career Launchpad and founder of CareerRocketeer
• Jacob Share: Founder of award winning career blog, JobMob
• Ryan Paugh: Co-founder of Brazen Careerist Inc. one of the largest career networks on the web

• Patrick Ambron (me)- CMO of Brand-Yourself & co-developer of new media curriculum at Syracuse University
• Pete Kistler: CEO of Brand-Yourself, a leading Online Rep expert , a top 5 finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2009, and co-author of Career Launchpad (Perry, 2009)

Above all else, these individuals understand the real value of social media as a means to put your best foot forward and build meaningful connections with like-minded people and careers you love.

This eBook will help you

1. Build Credibility: Create a professional profile that illustrates your key qualifications and aligns with your career goals and add value to your industry community
2. Career Network: Build a relevant network that can advance your career rather than just following your college buddies and Paris Hilton. Catch the attention of key players in your industry and cultivate these relationships into meaningful connections that help you down the line.
3. Generate Job Leads: Use Twitter to tap the hidden job market and identify opportunities that aren’t publicized elsewhere.

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Conan O’Brien marches to the beat of his own drummer.  No really, he does. When it comes to social media participation, the comedian blazes his own unique trail there too.  Let’s take a look at Conan’s new Twitter account, what he does “right” and “wrong”, and how you can benefit from breaking the rules once in a while too.

For those that don’t know, I’ll briefly sum up Conan O’Brien’s recent history.  He worked for years to become host of the most coveted talk show in America, got the job, and was essentially given the boot very shortly thereafter (unjustly in the eyes of many).  In the process, he gained a fiercely loyal fan base, known as Team Coco.

During his NBC tenure, Conan didn’t officially have his own social media presence.  In fact, he instead poked fun at celebrity social media usage via the recurring “Twitter Tracker” skit.  Fast forward to today, and the @ConanObrien Twitter account has nearly 700,000 followers.  How did he get here?  By breaking three standard “rules of social media”.

Rule #1:  Everyone else is already involved; you need to join social media networks immediately.

Common sentiment says that social networking is so hot right now that it simply can’t be ignored, and I agree.  But, this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to dive headfirst into the social media deep-end.  I suspect Conan initially took a hands-off stance on Twitter and other social media outlets because he didn’t fully understand their full power, or how the systems truly work.  But, the recent outpouring of emotion from loyal fans likely erased any doubt – now was the time to join in.

So, on February 24^th, @ConanObrien’s profile read: “I had a show. Then I had a different show. Now I have a Twitter account.”

Lesson #1:  You can gain great amounts of knowledge and understanding from social networks just by watching and listening.  Start participating only when you truly feel ready.

Rule #2:  To succeed in social media, you must engage in widespread conversation.

In the first 24 hours on Twitter, Conan gained 300,000 followers.  Let’s be realistic – how could he possibly engage all these people in conversation?  How could he sort through these users to follow back a number of accounts?  It just isn’t possible.  So, how did Conan prove he cared about his fans?  He followed one of them back.  Just one.

In a brilliant move to prove he was listening to the “average” fan (without actually listening to all of them) Conan followed random user @LovelyButton.  What made her so special?  Nothing!  Or everything, depending on how you view it.

Lesson #2:  Social media is a zoo, and you’ll never connect with everyone.  So instead, focus on forming a smaller number of true, meaningful relationships.

Rule #3:  Put others first – share the work of others more than you share your own.

I am a huge advocate of sharing within Twitter – retweets, posting links, #FollowFriday, you name it.  So far, Conan is a one man show, tweeting only his own quips and barbs.  And you know what?  It works for him.  People follow Conan because they miss his TV show, and because they miss him. 

I don’t advocate you eliminate social sharing from your repertoire, but there is one lesson to be learned here.

Lesson #3:  Sharing is awesome, but remember this – people connect with you because of your unique voice.  Make sure your distinctive point of view shines through at all times.

What do you think – were rules were meant to be broken?  Are there any social media rules you love to break regularly?

Ryan Rancatore can be found discussing other crazy subjects and how they affect you at Personal Branding 101.  Connect with Ryan on Twitter at @RyanRancatore, or on Linkedin, Facebook, or Brazen Careerist.

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