It’s been a decade since I published my first book ‘Creative Personal Branding’ which provides the tools needed to cultivate creative thinking, personal development and branding in order to position yourself and answer what’s next. It offers a structured method to explore what you have to offer the world and how you could position yourself in it through ‘knowledge and imagination’, as well as communicating your personal ‘substance, style, conviction and grace’ to better connect with and contribute to the wider world.
Since then, my journey through life has been blessed with wonderful encounters with many people from diverse backgrounds…
The impact of understanding our core self, our mental models
and world view, is immense. It gives us the chance to align our decision-making process with our purpose. The ‘Hierarchy of Competence’ model explains the four stages we all go through as we learn a new skill, framework, language or concept.
Understanding this model and being able to place ourselves within it as we learn offers an insightful perspective. As a facilitator, I know where to place the learner in their journey and understand the emotions attached to help them grow.
The first stage, where most learners start, is called…
Listening to learn or learning to listen?
Now you also get the method to explore what you have to offer the world in an AUDIOBOOK! Creative Personal Branding book now available to listen in Apple and Google stores!
In this innovative book Jürgen Salenbacher shares his unique personal coaching method designed to develop creative thinking and innovation. The method, which originated as a career management tool, can be used by anyone who wishes to explore what they have to offer the world.
In five succinct chapters Salenbacher reveals how to use brand positioning methodology to discover where to go next…
Next, think about the fashion industry. I expect you are already aware of how H&M, or Hennes & Mauritz (hm.com), founded in 1947, Zara (zara.com) and Mango (mango.com) changed the industry just a decade ago by increasing ‘speed to market’ so rapidly that most competitors just could not keep up. What’s next in the fast fashion business? Yoox (yoox.com), founded in 2000, just a few weeks after the demise of boo.com, the mother of all online fashion retailers, spotted a gap in the fashion market where the norm is an abundance of product, and speed and the trends are must-dos…
The impact of technology-based change on our lives since Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1990 has been tremendous. I sometimes tell my students that the impact of the technological revolution on our society seems to me much greater than that of the French Revolution. That revolution was of huge importance in shaping modern western democracy. Today’s digital revolution will be of enormous importance in shaping a future democracy with a global scope.
Whenever and wherever, choice rules.
Dave Evans, Cisco (cisco.com) futurologist — an amazing job title, by the way — has talked about an exponential growth of technology and information, which according to him will lead to an accelerated rate of innovation. He sees it as a technology avalanche – or you could see it as a wave. You either surf it or you get crushed under it. Evans says that nowadays the volume of information doubles every 11 hours, but less than ten years from now it will double every 11 seconds.5 …
Most of us don’t like change. Why? Because it means making an effort to move out of our perceived comfort zones. Very often change also brings uncertainty with it. Few see opportunities. Many are paralysed, disorientated or confused by lack of stability or too many options. Life today is like a hypermarket with about an average of 70,000 products stocked on the shelves. You enter a shop because you want to buy an apple, and you end up buying a banana. Who knows why?
Of course your reaction to change depends on where you are in life. You may be…
As collaboration is an absolutely key skill it makes sense to treat it with the appropriate respect. It is about how people can connect to you, find you on different platforms and get information about you. More than 60% of all jobs are found through networking, and word of mouth is one of the best marketing tools ever.
Remember that the first thing people will do is to Google you. Then they will go to social network sites to get more information about you. As I mentioned before, this new connectivity links everyone with everyone. It is the basic idea…
How can you communicate who you are to the people relevant to you? How can you express it even if you are not talking to them in person? This section wants to suggest your visual identity can do much of that for you.
Your visual identity comprises all visible elements of your work identity: name or logo, fonts and colours applied to your stationery (business card and email signature, letterhead, etc.), presentation templates (for PowerPoint or Keynote), blog and/or website and profiles on social network sites. Your office, its design and architecture, should also be part of your visual identity…
Branding is the management of differences in the minds of people.
Branding is even more important in the new economy where choices have multiplied and total competition is the norm. Branding has gained new importance in the age of connectivity. But the rules are the same. The secret is to create trust and confidence. It is complicated, but the aim is to get into people’s hearts and minds. Why not in the hearts and minds of those people relevant to you? The ones who decide if you get the job, or not. Or those who are close to the ones…
