The one about branding.

 Branding, which began as a way to tell one person's livestock from another by means of hot-iron-stamp, is an idea that has spread through many industries in recent times. In days long past the idea of branding was reserved for companies that needed to offer a hard sale. In today's society the idea of branding has expanded to include lifestyle branding, which markets a way of living as opposed to products.

The idea of branding has also found it's way into Higher Education as both an industry and also an idea that we teach our students. In one of my courses this semester I was tasked with finding two articles related to a topic of my choice affecting Higher Education today. For this I found an editorial from The Chronicle of Higher Education which focused on the importance of embracing the idea of branding within the college environment. The second article was from the Harvard Business Review and focused on the development of a personal leadership brand.

The main takeaways from the articles were the importance of knowing yourself, delivering your idea of you, and effectively communicating that vision through branding. Its with this in mind that I begin the process of branding myself as I begin building my portfolio and tool kit. I will use these items over the next year as I make connections, network, and begin job searching.

The three elements I'm currently focusing on developing are my resume, website, and business cards. For the most part these are the items that I will be sharing and using to expose people to me for what might be the first time, with that in mind I focused on three ideas central to me in the development of these materials. Striking, Innovative, and Out of the Box are the three ideas I want to share about myself initially.

Over the next few weeks I will explain more about why I feel these words are relevant to me, my work, and my experience. I will also begin sharing some of the materials I have been producing over the past year.

Until then I'd like to share the two articles I used in my assignment as I feel they are both very good reads and would highly recommend you take a few minutes to check them out.

Branding Isn't a Dirty Word - The Chronicle

Building a Leadership Brand - Havard Business Review