Marketing experts teach Black MBA crowd how to brand themselves

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Without really trying to, a pair of distinguished marketing connoisseurs electrified the Atlanta chapter of the National Black MBA Association by dispensing invaluable strategies to self market and brand themselves and take their businesses to higher plains of success.
The “Brand YOU — Managing Your Personal Brand” interactive informational session was paneled by Liquid Soul Principal and CMO Nick Nelson and Brandi Mitchell, the owner of and president of KORIS Publishing.
Nelson regaled the packed auditorium at Georgia Power building as he waxed poetic about his navigation around the recesses of his own soul while at Florida A&M University, wanting to become a music teacher before he became enthralled by Eddie Murphy’s famous character Marcus, the genius marketing guy in Boomerang, birthing the desire to enter the genre.
IMG_3413Nelson advised the crowd that most of the marketing in the new millennium takes place online, particularly via social media, and people have to become better masters and practitioners of this ever-evolving and expanding — and powerful — medium.
Nelson said that in order manifest success in their personal branding campaigns online, they have to do several things:

  • No. 1, social media, don’t be afraid of it. It is how people recognize you;
  • When you are doing your own branding, I would encourage you to get your own website, because it’s always good to have a place to direct people;
  • Before you do all of that, you have to define what your brand it; you have to have a filter. It helps put the right people in front of you;
  • Developing rewarding partnerships: Those individuals that have the same goals and objectives as you do, you can help elevate them and they can help elevate you;
  • Leadership: Being a leader is putting yourself into position. And you have to put yourself into position to get the role. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. And you being your own personal brand helps you do that.

Mitchell is a visual brand strategist who has taken the best of someone’s brand (themselves) and polished it for them, helping them to monetize their brand “and help them live a live that is congruent with the family, their beliefs, etc.” She also helped style many of the stars you see walking the red carpet.
As Mitchell pursued her degree in psychology, she discovered that she not only had a “natural proclivity” for beauty and didn’t know it, but that stood out in the crowd like neon lights and people were drawn to her light. Subsequently, when other students asked her how she style her hair and clothes and wanted them to have Mitchell make them up — and pay her to boot— that was the embryonic stage of what eventually became her current business as a personal and business consultant, speaker and author.
Mitchell admonished the crowd to be prepared and aware of themselves before they even walk out of the house.
“Everyday we are auditioning,” Mitchell said, a slight reference to her book and and workshop of the same name, Look the Part to Get the Role. “We are saying something (about ourselves) every day when we walk out of the house. We have some type of intention. Actors, when they go on auditions, their goal is to get the role. Their thinking that role my chance the trajectory of their lives.
“What I like to teach people that, everyday when we walk out of the house, opportunities are waiting. You need to decide every single day whether you are going to get ‘the role’ or not. it’s your choice. So if you walk into the room, like, ‘this is what I deserve, this is what I want,’ and the opportunities are there, and you show up, 50 percent of the time if you look the part and have the posture, people are going to want to know what it is that you do.”
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Before you can take your personal and professional game to the next level, the two panelists said, you must complete the following about yourself:

  • What do you need most? Nelson said, for him, it’s most important to have peace. “My personality is better, my household is better, my business operates better … So I strive to have peace.”
  • Values: what things are most important to you?
  • Interesting and passons: what really gets you going?
  • Mission: What is it that you are here to accomplish in life?
  • Your strengths: The things that you do well
  • Uniqueness: What things make you different? What is different about your personality
  • Personality attributes: If you could project a face to the outside world, what would that face look like?
  • Your work experience: This gets to what you can and cannot do. What are you good at?
  • Feedback: How do others see you?
  • Goals: What are you seeking to achieve?

The crowd was requested to fill out this mission statement while they were there, with some sharing the results with the rest of the audience before entering a question-and-answer session. This amplified the impact of the words from the marketing experts.
For more information on future events, or to join the Atlanta chapter of the National Black MBA Association, log onto www.atlbmba.org.
 
 
 
 
 

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