Global Marketing, Six Sigma, and The Donald: An Interview with 23-Year-Old Personal Branding Expert Daniel Schawbel

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Dan Schawbel is a marketing consultant, entrepreneur, and personal branding spokesman. He is a strong self-marketer who has made a name for himself first by writing the Personal Branding Blog, then administering the Personal Brand Awards and publishing Personal Branding Magazine, and was recently featured in an article for the Fast Company Expert Blogs called “The Young Turks of Personal Branding.” At age 23, has already accumulated six years of varied experience and led a high performance Six Sigma team to transform the marketing process for Global Services Marketing at EMC², a Fortune 500 company. Today he’ll give us some of his experience and a few lessons about personal branding.

What is EMC² Corporation, and what do you do for them?

EMC is the leading information company in the world, selling hardware, software and services globally. We also provide solutions that take both products and services together to solve specific IT or business related needs for customers. My role at EMC has evolved since I started here last July. My previous role was to generate marketing collateral for the launch of new services and solution offerings for the midsize market segment. I already created a series of business plans for the various practices here at EMC to grow their business for 2007. Then I shifted roles to eServices marketing, where I was in charge of our online support offerings, along with training customers, partners and employees on a global scale. At the same time I led a six sigma high performing team to create the new marketing process within my organization. My role has shifted again to eServices, Education Services, and I’ve been tightly aligned with our social media strategy, where I’m able to spread my knowledge [of web 2.0 technologies] across my organization.

What challenges have you faced because of your age?

Leading a team, where others have 7 – 25 years of experience can be difficult as a 23 year old in a Fortune 500 company, but the key is to not let that get to you. You need to show leadership and no matter what obstacles occur; you need to drive the project to completion. The challenges I’ve faced are related to credibility, experience and length of time spent at EMC. As one of the youngest members it can be difficult to sell your ideas and to showcase new ideas like social media to those who have continuously performed tasks in the same way through their lifecycle at the company.

Tell us about the businesses you’ve started.

I had my own website consulting business during college, where I helped companies take their ideas and materialize them into creative web pieces. I also [gained a] strong foundation in the core of marketing [through internships] at Reebok, Lycos, LoJack, TechTarget and smaller firms. I have done marketing plan consulting where I developed complete marketing communication plans that not only uncovered new opportunities but explained how to communicate it to the target audience. Currently, I consider the magazine that I publish my own business, as I gathered multiple authors globally together to collaborate through this medium, while raising money for charity and building a community around the topic of Personal Branding.

What can you share with us about Personal Branding Magazine?

You can subscribe to the magazine through the website at personalbrandingmag.com. There is a lot to look forward to in the next issue, which is due out in November. [Guy Kawasaki contributed an interview with Donald Trump for the first issue!] I say this because I’ve pooled around 40 authors together and now there will be columns targeted at specific ideas around personal branding. My goal with this magazine was to show others how valuable blog posts were and the content they write can be used in new and exciting ways.

What does personal branding mean to you?

I define Personal Branding as an individual’s total perceived value relative to competitors, as viewed by their audience. It’s composed of four main elements: 1) personality, 2) appearance, 3) competencies, and 4) differentiation. As a marketer, I feel that every individual needs to know how to use the principles of marketing and apply them to their own individual career. Personal Branding is the way by which I live, including how I dress, the words that come out of my mouth and my skill set. My philosophy is that it’s what you do that makes you who you are and how you project that to others that makes you memorable.

Can you give us a few of your favorite examples of strong personal branding?

I featured Donald Trump in the recent issue of my magazine because he is a world renowned brand. His brand gives off attributes like high quality and craftsmanship, which are built into his business as well. There are a lot of bloggers out there, such as yourself, that take a niche and have a slogan that really stand out. The idea here is to get noticed for your expertise in a specific field and then to be recognized by others by communicating that message. I think Oprah and Madonna have great brands as well, and the special part of Madonna’s is that she has evolved it over time to match the latest generation of people.

You recently wrote an AWESOME post on the “Beginner’s Toolkit” for establishing a great online brand. What are the most important steps in building a strong complimentary brand offline?

Your brand online and offline should be the same. There are tangible and intangible aspects to Personal Branding, but at the core is your overarching message that you want to convey to your audience. That message should be wrapped around the four elements of Personal Branding and be consistent across all media, both online and offline.Use your brand to network with other individuals who share your passion. Do for them first and then let them do for you later. Personal Branding is all about that mutual relationship or bond that you share through similar brand characteristics or tastes. Anyone can become a star if they have the drive and network to support them.

What’s in your personal press kit?

The Personal Branding Kit I created was my way of showing everyone that we are our own publicists. It captures most of what you see on DanSchawbel.com, but in a way that the media can consume and report on. You will see many quotes, the media I’ve created, my work experience, my speaking engagements and other information that will give you a firm understanding of my brand.

That’s a great idea, to package your resume as a marketing kit! I know you’ve been involved with the American Marketing Association (AMA) and several student organizations. What sorts of activities do you recommend to college students to increase the effectiveness of their personal branding and career building?

Life is about networking, so as you progress through your career you will always want that mentality. You need to keep meeting people and expanding your network, especially because you never know when you might need someone’s help. Getting involved in communities is not only good to connect with others, but it’s fun and can help you learn more about specific areas that you would not normally consider.

What can we look forward to seeing when you launch your new site DanSchawbel.com?

DanSchawbel.com is going to be a revolutionary site, which exposes all aspects of my brand in a format that I preach on a reoccurring basis. The special part of it is that it is written in such as way that it not only showcases my achievements, but serves as a training course on how to build your brand by using the site as an example. I think that most people will be shocked when they see it because I’ve done quite a lot in the past six months to build my brand. The idea is that as you build your brand, your site must adapt to that growth by growing at the same rate.

I want to thank Daniel so much for contributing time to answering my many questions and follow-up questions. He shares a very unique perspective, and serves as a great role model for young professionals everywhere! Here are a few of his great articles that elaborate on the necessity for personal branding:

• “Personal Branding — Changing the Game” on Success.com
• “Online Reputation Management through Personal Branding” on Marketing Chat
• “Gain a Competitive Edge by Establishing a Personal Brand” on About.com
• “Personal Branding – The Future of Recruitment” on MarketingPower.com

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