.ME Book Club: Non-Branding Books That Can Teach You About Personal Branding
Considering that the Summer is not yet over, and there’s still plenty of sunshine and swimming to be done, we’ve given some thought to the things that you probably do every year on your summer holiday that can also help your personal branding, but you just don’t know it yet.
If you’re not the person that spends 90% of their beach time in the water or getting some kind of ultimate tan, you’re probably reading a book or indulging yourself in some other way. Be it Kindle or a good old comic book that you take with you everywhere you go, it’s really hard to find a person that doesn’t like to read on the beach. It’s one of those things that simply go together, like peanut butter and jelly. So while you’re relaxing on the beach and looking for something to amuse yourself with, why wouldn’t you take some advice from the book you’re reading about your own personal brand? The best thing is, the book doesn’t have to be a marketing one!
Yes, you read that one right. It would really be too easy for us to recommend some marketing books or the ones about branding because hardly anyone wants to go to the beach and read about the things they read about every day at work. So that’s why we’d like to go down a road less travelled, and bring you some books that aren’t strictly marketing books, but can help you grow your personal brand while you’re out there relaxing.
First one up is..
Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way – Richard Branson
Alright, guys, the first one goes straight at it! For those of you who might now know about Richard Branson, we’re going to try to describe him as fast as we can. He’s a billionaire, philanthropist, owner of airlines, music publishing companies, soft drinks manufacturers, and even space travel ventures. They are all joined under his Virgin brand, and that hopefully explains the title of the book for you. Richard has managed to spread his influence in so many industries that we’re having a hard time keeping track of how he manages to do anything else but, well, manage.
This book is, at times, truly outrageous, but also brilliant and unique in his own right. Richard Branson is a man that doesn’t really care that much about what people think and goes his own way to do whatever he thinks will land him the best chance of acquiring currency, but he also tries very hard to do things that he considers as fun, something not many CEO’s are doing today.
The personal brand of Richard Branson is so strong that he is almost universally known as the face of Virgin, in the same way, Bill Gates will always be considered the boss of Microsoft, even if he doesn’t directly run the company anymore. Branson has everything a great leader needs to have: charisma aplenty, sense of humour, and an incredible amount of intellect that helps him land business opportunities others pass as nonprofitable.
But even though that he is truly a man that knows his business, he’s also a person that loves having fun in the most unusual ways. He enjoys kite surfing as much as the next guy, but he does it near his own private island, for example. There’s a lot of stories that show us just how eccentric and quirky Richard can be, but all these things combined make for the person that is extremely well-branded.
Be it seizing opportunities others deem impossible, or surviving being shipwrecked and swimming for miles to safety, Richard Branson is a man whose life-story will definitely inspire you to do something more about your own personal brand, or simply to start a few companies and see where that’ll take you.
Next one up is also a remarkable person and an individual that has an aura of personal branding following him wherever he goes. He is Elon Musk, and the book we’re recommending is called
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future – Ashlee Vance
As far as technology goes, there’s nothing quite like Tesla. Taking the name from a brilliant scientist and making it into one of the fastest growing and most innovative companies in the world is truly no small feat, but Elon Musk is much more than Tesla, and the Tesla brand is just one part of his personality.
The book, written by Ashlee Vance who had exclusive access to Elon Musk, his friends and family isn’t an autobiography but rather an inside look into the life of a remarkable person. Considering that most people see Elon Musk as “that guy that owns Tesla and PayPal”, this book actually goes to show that Elon is a man with far more talents than just making cool cars, even though he does a great job of it.
Ashlee Vance interviewed over 300 people and spent more than 30 hours in conversation with Elon to give us the insight on him, his personality and the way he does things. The information she gathered is available in one place and that’s why this book really goes the extra mile to show us just how exactly is Elon changing the world.
Even though Elon Musk is truly one of the most charismatic and innovative leaders of today, the book compares him with the likes of Edison and Jobs, in the way that he is currently developing technology that will change the world for all of us in the following years. Elon Musk’s personal brand is one that has character, and an aura of mystery around it, considering that he isn’t that keen on making long interviews and handling his personal life to the media, for that matter.
If you’re interested in inventing a better future, or just to see how you could brand yourself in a unique and interesting way, you should definitely give this book a read and see how Elon Musk is doing what he does best, and that is making innovations that are changing the world as we know it.
Oh, and he also has a space travel company that managed to fly a rocket into space and then land it vertically, so that’s pretty cool.
#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness – Gary Vaynerchuk
This one’s a little bit different. Considering that the first two books we’ve told you about were biographies of very well-known people, some of you might have a hard time knowing who Gary Vaynerchuk is. He’s perhaps most known about his YouTube series #Askgaryvee where he answers questions that he receives on social media. The topics are mostly business, social media, marketing, and branding. This last part is the one that interests us the most, right?
Gary is a person that has made a name for himself by writing books, speaking publicly, having his own publishing company and most of all, giving advice to people who need advice. Expanding on the topics covered in his YouTube show, Gary brings the best of the Internet into a book that you don’t need the Internet to access.
Tapping into an enormous market, Gary has used social media and all sorts of new tactics to achieve success where others didn’t, and it’s this devotion to new technologies that actually gave him the popularity he has today. This book is really a go-to advice book for everyone that’s either starting a company or just god hired in a company. A series of valuable advice presented in a great way will surely help you grow your personal brand and be more successful, and will surely help you crush it, the words Gary likes to use very often.
Honourable mentions
Crush it! Why now is the time to cash in on your passion – Gary Vaynerchuk
It’s not that we’re so in love with Gary we had to put two of his books on this list, it’s just that the man is really a genius when it comes to helping people make the best out of what they can of themselves. The book that started the whole Crush it! movement is the one to look out for wherever you’re out searching for something to read. This one’s a little older, but it still helps tremendously to read it, on the beach or at home.
Platform: Get noticed in a noisy world – Michael Hyatt
This book is actually a step by step guide on how to be successful in the world that is dominated by social media and all sorts of technologies you might not even know can boost your brand. By taking the readers behind the scenes of the world that is truly making headlines today, we’re both inspired and taught how to do things better, and how to be more successful of course.
Personal Branding For Dummies – Suzan Chritton
We all know books like this one! The “x for dummies” series can really teach you about everything you could ever hope to know about life and more, so why not read a book like this about personal branding? An excellent, simple book for all who want to get into the personal branding craze but are afraid to ask.
