So if you’re already on board with personal branding, you SHOULD read this book.
But, if you’re a denier, a critic, and a cynic of personal branding and/or leafy green superfoods, this is a book you absolutely must read.
The Road to Recognition is not a sermon, treatise, manifesto, or proclamation. The authors are not trying to convince you personal branding is important and then sell you expensive coaching services. They have no skin in the game other than a couple bucks’ worth of book royalties and knowing they told the truth and helped some people.
They wrote this book for the right reason: because they’ve experienced the thesis first-hand and want to share what they’ve learned with an audience wider than a core group of social media and online marketing fetishists.
They wrote this book because their own lives have been changed for the better (for real, that’s not puffery) by personal branding (as has my own).
I’m not suggesting that everyone who reads The Road to Recognition will become the best-known expert in their chosen field. For some of you, even after reading this terrific book, you’ll think, “I totally get why this is important, but it’s not for me. I’m just not comfortable with the whole idea of putting myself out there.” And I get that. My wife would rather eat broken glass than think about her personal brand, and even with this scintillating foreword by her betrothed, she wouldn’t read this book at the point of a bayonet.
But you will, and I don’t even need a sharp, metal object.
And even if you decide to pass when you get to the letter Z, you’ll still know exactly why personal branding is as powerful as kale, capable of changing the trajectory of what you’re doing day to day, and why the authors and I are so passionate about the topic.
Whether you’re a personal branding pro or a personal branding pup, you’ll be glad you read The Road to Recognition. So get started right now.
Jay Baer Author of Youtility and Hug Your Haters President of Convince & Convert
Preface 1
I’m Barry Feldman. And you are?
It’s fitting to begin this book with a letter. The Road to Recognition uses the alphabet as a narrative device. A is the first point on the roadmap. Z is the last. Simple. Now, back to my letter….
I’m going to give myself a letter grade in personal branding: F.
F is for failure. Yeah, if I’m to look back on my career from a personal branding point of view, I deserve the harsh grade. Why?
I was a laggard. I failed to get serious about developing my personal brand until I was in my 40s. Ironically, I’ve been writing marketing copy for thousands of brands since I was in my 20s. In the early going, I wrote for chiropractors, contractors, and all sorts of personal brands.
But I neglected mine. I was simply trying to make a living as an advertising copywriter, satisfied with the anonymity of the vocation. There was rarely a day (okay, there was never a day) when I woke up and said, “Today’s a great day to develop my personal brand.”
Guess what, my friend?
Today is the best day to develop your personal brand. Not tomorrow. Today.
I suppose I didn’t realize I was lagging in the ways of personal branding. The term might have been tossed around a bit, but it wasn’t a course offered in school, the subject of books, or anything more than an idea slightly ahead of its time muttered by the likes of author Tom Peters and echoed occasionally by eclectic business writers.
Even when personal branding began to gain some traction, I came around slowly. I had a website for fifteen years before I began blogging. I reluctantly joined LinkedIn so as to not be left out. I got going in social media just a few years ago. Podcasting’s a new pursuit.
I’m mostly pleased with what I’ve been able to accomplish in a short time. When I search my name on Google, I like what I see. I’ve created a sizable digital footprint. I’ve established a reputation. I’m recognized in the field of digital media and marketing.
Still, I wish I started much earlier. The truth is, publishers don’t throw book deals at me. There’s no line outside my door of event organizers waiting to pay me to keynote big conferences. And even though I now write for many high-profile websites and blogs, get interviewed often, and land a few spots at the podium, these gigs seldom fall in my lap.
I make them happen. I make connections and ask for opportunities that help build my brand and forward my career. Sometimes I’m rejected; sometimes I’m welcomed. It’s not the steep climb it once was, but it’s far from an easy ride on cruise control. It’s work.
Personal branding is an ongoing class in the school of continued professional education. It’s a learning experience, which we’re about to share with you.
This book began (unknowingly) about two years ago when I had the idea to create an infographic called The Complete A to Z Guide to Personal Branding.
Seth, whom I had collaborated with before, agreed to work on it with me. Seth guided the design and is the reason the graphic went viral. He promoted the hell out of it, pitching it to publishers relentlessly. He repurposed it as a SlideShare and gave it a wider set of wings.
While I did the occasional interview or talk on personal branding, the A to Z Guide was in my rear view mirror. But not Seth’s. Sharing personal branding lessons had become a bit of an obsession for my co-author. He created an amazing website entirely focused on personal branding. He made some big plans.
Then he called to tell me about them. Seth declared these lessons shall become a book. He said (or was it threatened?) he’d create it with or without me. So we did this thing together—me with the “I’ll get to it when I can” attitude, Seth with the whip.
I wrote the copy for that infographic in a few hours. I simply tossed my ideas down following my instincts, drawing from experience, and sharing ideas I had picked up from Michael Hyatt, Dan Schawbel, William Arruda, and Karen Kang (all authors of inspired personal branding books).
This book was no high-speed affair. We’ve been bouncing ideas around, writing chapters, collaborating on the design, changing and making up our minds, and scheming launch and promotional plans for nearly two years.
The Road to Recognition could be 26 books. Each chapter covers a big and important topic. And each topic actually is the focus of business books. Our aim is to give you the skinny on each—the need-to-know stuff that’ll rev your engine.
I want this book to have a profound affect on your career (and thousands more). I want you to learn from my mistakes, gain from my experience, and above all, I want you to get to work.
How about it? Ready to rally? Ready to rock? Awesome.
Let’s roll.
Barry Feldman
Preface 2
I’m Seth Price. Can I help you?
The Road to Recognition could be the story of a personal journey to take control of one’s destiny. In many ways it is. But it’s more than that. It’s a modern-day toolkit, one that I’ve used to navigate the digital world, build the career of my dreams, and help countless others to do the same.
My upbringing was hardly storybook. I grew up the latchkey son of a young divorced father. I started working at eight years old. I dropped out of high school to go to college, dropped out of college to start a business, became a chef, entrepreneur, executive, and at times, a leader. I’m telling you this because