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Personal Branding for Authors & Bloggers A book is generally considered a symbol of expertise in the subject, and in case of fiction writers, expertise at storytelling. A book is a powerful tool for personal branding and authors have an edge in that sense. For a passionate blogger, it is easy to become an author, as many bloggers collate their blog posts and convert them into their first book. The Power of Storytelling Storytelling is the easiest way to build a personal brand. Building a personal brand can be easy for fiction authors because they are already good at the art of storytelling. Even non-fiction writers tend to be passionate about writing and their subject areas. Using Storytelling as a Personal Branding Tool Conveying Expertise, Passion and Thought Leadership Social Media is a great tool for authors to convey their expertise, passion and thought leadership. Book writing is a time consuming job and requires patience too. Only those who are passionat...

Two Perspectives on Personal Transformation Two Perspectives’ is a monthly column with two different perspectives from two different continents, genders and cultures on the same topic viz. Janet Smith Warfield (based in Florida, USA) and  Dr Amit Nagpal (based in New Delhi, India). Janet Smith Warfield's Perspective Background: Meditation is a mind-body-spirit practice originating in ancient Eastern spiritual traditions and used throughout the world for thousands of years. It calms the conditioned mind, relaxes the body, and allows the practitioner to connect to a much larger, more encompassing energy, variously labeled “God”, “The Tao”, “Higher Power”, “Allah”, “Jehovah”, “Universal Consciousness”, “YHWH”, “intuition”, “creativity”, Cosmic Energy. The practitioner learns to trust this power because of the amazing growth, freedom, and spiritual strength it provides. Benefits of Meditation: Relaxed awareness Stress release Letting go o...

Hug and Nudge-Two Answers to One Question (Vol IV) Sometimes a warm hug is the answer to our question  and sometimes a gentle nudge is the answer. 'Hug and Nudge' is a fortnightly column with two different perspectives from two different continents and cultures on the same question in personal development area viz.  Jennifer Sertl (based in New York, USA) and Dr Amit Nagpal (based in New Delhi, India). Question-How do we align personal development with organizational development? A great question asked by Syed Mohd Qasim,  http://syedmohammadqasim.blogspot.in/ Jennifer Sertl's Answer I think everyone was born with a question to chew on in a lifetime that keeps you up at night and the quest for which gives you meaning. This is my question and why I wrote Strategy, Leadership and the Soul with my friend and colleague Koby Huberman http://stls.co.il/. (sample chapter http://www.agility3r.com/book-section/chapter-1-pdf.html ) Your competiti...

Personal Branding is a time taking process and the sooner you start the better it is. Students of professional courses can benefit a lot by learning- how to use social media to build their online brand, increase their job opportunities and international/cross-cultural exposure and how to grow as a person too in the entire process. What to do for Personal Branding? (Focus Areas) The main areas which students need to learn are:- What is personal branding and how to use social media to build their brand? How to use Linkedin (and optimize the profile) to get job offers? How to constructively use Facebook for motivation and learning? How to inspire trust in online relationships and bring them offline? How to network internationally and learn best practices in the industry? How to add value to the community and create win-win situations? How to tell your story (storytelling skills) without sounding self-promotional? What are the good manners required on social media? ...

Dedicated to NASSCOM What is an organization after all? It is only a group of people and hence an organizational brand is the sum total of the personal brands of its people. If an organisation helps its employees bring out and express their peak potential, the organisation also realizes its peak potential in the process. Indian IT industry sets an example Interestingly IT (Information Technology) industry has taken a lead in India, in many areas from employee welfare to regular training to excellent perks and assisting employees to bring out their best. I had written a blog post on how IT professionals are becoming the rolemodels for personal branding some time back. IT industry is such a dynamic industry that thought leadership among employees is highly treasured because thought leaders only build and lead teams that make innovative products. NASSCOM-Playing a key role NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) being a body of IT organisat...

Personal Branding' through social media requires deep passion as it takes time and energy. So how does one motivate oneself, to carry on the journey during difficult times. In my personal branding journey of 2 years, Klout has been one of the major motivation tools. The consistent growth of my score from 50s to mid 70s has given me the energy to keep working hard online (and eventually taking it offline). Personal branding (through social media) in any case is a new and tough industry to get into. Had it not been for the daily doses of motivation I had created for myself through Klout , Google and Twitter Favourites , I would have accepted defeat long back. Klout is supposed to be a metric for measuring your online influence but it can also be used as a motivation tool. Let me demonstrate how:- 1) Measure the change in your score on weekly basis In the initial days, my score grew 3-5 points every month. Once you cross 70, it grows very slowly. The increasing score ...

Two Opinions on Uncovering Our Greatness This is a monthly column on becoming a great human being and has two opinions on the subject from western and eastern part of the world namely Michael Thallium from Spain and Dr Amit Nagpal from India. Michael Thallium, Spain I would say my dear Indian counterpart Dr Amit Nagpal is quite generous, that is what I feel since we started collaborating and writing this series of articles on how to become a great human being. However, my award for generosity goes to my parents. I think all of us have someone in our lives who has been generous to us, and experiencing that can lead you to being generous towards other people. So, generosity is something you can learn the same way you can learn the opposite, too. The Latin word generosus means “of noble birth, noble, excellent in kind, of superior quality.” Generosus was related to the verb genero, which means, “to beget, produce, bring to life, generate. So, generosity is the quality of...