For this week’s blog post we have guest blogger Chris Muzii ’14 filling us in on last weekend’s COES Professional Programs workshop…
My name is Christopher Muzii, and I am a sophomore. This past Saturday, I attended the Building Your Brand Workshop hosted by Mimi Doherty ’02, President and Founder of Future Steps, LLC. After my wonderful experience participating in the Summer Business Program, I was interested in taking advantage of the many opportunities available to students through the Ciocca Office of Entrepreneurial Studies. In addition, one of my good friends had participated in the Building Your Brand Workshop last year and highly recommended that I attend. The workshop proved to be a truly rewarding experience.
The first activity involved looking at what defined and individual’s brand. We used Jay-Z and Steve Jobs as examples of individuals whose personal brands have had a tremendous impact on society. Individually, my group discussed the factors that helped shape the personal brand of Jay-Z. Mimi asked us to consider not only the attributes of the individual, but also how these attributes are portrayed to the general public. How are we able to characterize Jay-Z as musically innovative without having ever met him? What does Jay-Z do or what impact does he create that allows us to identify his personal brand? We discussed with Mimi why we attributed certain traits to these individuals. Through thoughtful collaboration, Mimi helped us to redefine certain words that we were using to describe Jay-Z and Steve Jobs.
After the conclusion of the first exercise, Mimi asked us to consider our own personal brand. What attributes or skills do we possess that help define who we are as individuals? Through a similar process, we came to understand how to better distinguish ourselves individually by examining our own attributes and skills. We then edited our personal résumés, at this point having a better understanding of our personal brand and how to portray this brand to potential employers.
I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in this workshop. The advice and questions that Mimi presented us with were both informative and valuable. The exercises that we completed throughout the day allowed us to gain a better understanding of what constitutes a personal brand. Having this knowledge, I feel that I will be able to relate my attributes to the past experiences that I have had appropriately in a professional setting.
Thanks Chris! We’re glad everyone found the workshop beneficial and hope to see many of you at the information session for the Executive Leadership Workshop on Monday, September 30 at 5P.
As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK, follow us on Twitter and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN.
Helene
Helene Horan ‘06
Associate Director, Entrepreneurial Studies
