Congratulations! You have been appointed a manager of the world’s most important brand. You need not to go far to find this brand—you can find it in the mirror. Yes, you are a brand, and no one else has more at stake for your brand’s success than you. Personal branding is an ongoing process; it requires a continuous improvement mindset.
You have a great incentive to embrace personal branding as it will help you get noticed for your achievements and abilities.
You will learn to relish the privilege of managing the world’s most important brand. It can be a daunting responsibility, but the 3Ms framework you will learn provides a course of action you can implement to create a brand that brings value to others and is rewarding to you.
Donald P. (Don) Roy is professor of marketing at Middle Tennessee State University. He has enjoyed a marketing career spanning more than 30 years, even longer if you count his newspaper routein middle school.
After graduating from Mississippi State University with a degree in marketing, Don spent the first 10 years years of his career in department store management and consumer packaged goods sales. It was during this time that hebecame inspired for the next stage of his marketing career. While completing an MBA at Mississippi College, Don decided to follow in the footsteps of professors that influenced him during his graduate program and become a college professor. Hegraduated with a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Memphis. He has been a faculty member in the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University since 2000.
Preparing the next generation of marketing professionals motivated Don to become a professor, and he has relished the chance to train future marketers over the past two decades. He has received teaching awards from the Marketing Management Association and Middle Tennessee State University.
Don has merged two of his professional passions—branding and mentoring— in his research. He has written two books on personal branding including Me: How to Sell Who You Are, What You Do, and Why You Matter to the World and Brand New Year: 52 Ways to Create a Distinctive Personal Brand. Don also published Solved: How to Get More from Your LinkedIn Experience. A long-time focus of Don’s academic research has been sports marketing. He is co-author of a sports marketing textbook and has published research in several academic journals including Journal of Advertising, Psychology and Marketing, and Sport Marketing Quarterly.