The Person to See

A Breath Of Fresh Air Amidst The Dirty Game Of Politics

A client of mine recently gave me Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off The Record Conversations With Gerald R. Ford.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants an inside glimpse of how to conduct yourself as a gentleman no matter the circumstances.

Write It When I'm Gone is a wonderful study of personal brand management in action. President Ford never lost perspective on manners, honesty and most importantly who he was even as he rose from a fairly modest Congressman to the highest office in the land.

Money Can't Buy You Love

If you think personal brand appeal boils down to money, power or title how about these apples...

Mayor Giuliani spent more than $60 million dollars campaigning in the Republican primaries and won a whopping one delegate.

While this may have shocked many it didn't me.  Every time I attended a Giuliani event it was always the same story: he came in really late, made a few brief remarks and than out the door.  The guy completely lacked any ability to develop any meaningful one-on-one rapport with the voters.

The lesson here is don't take your audience for granted.  They are who matter. Not you.

The Man With No Brand Finds His Brands In Defeat

For many in America Governor Mitt Romney's personal brand remained elusive.  The Las Vegas Review Journal even ran a poll asking people" What top three words come to mind when you think of the leading presidential candidates?"

While Hillary Clinton registered as a Feminist, John McCain a Military Hero and Barack Obama Hope believe it or not the phrase that came to mind with Mitt Romney was "I don't know."  No doubt Romney has struggled mightily with this issue throughout his campaign but I think he finally found his footing.  Ironically, it happened when he bowed out of the race yesterday.

In Romney's own words "I joined this race because I love my country and it is because I love my country that I now withdraw from the race" (Not an exact quote but close enough).

My wife summed up Romney's personal brand best, A True Gentleman.

Now if only Mike Huckabee would get a clue.  Talk about a guy loving the sound of his own voice. 

Romney's Personal Brand Falls Flat

I'm watching Governor Mitt Romney give his concession speech in New Hampshire and I'm thinking to myself, how can this guy not be President...

• He looks the part
• He's a proven success (multi-millionaire businessman)
• He's obviously very smart (JD/MBA Harvard)
• Great character and family man

Yet he could never get traction.  Why?  Because he could not sell his personal brand to America no matter how much money he poured into the race. 

While McCain, Huckabee and Giuliani have very human personalities (whether you like them or not) Romney came across as a technocrat.  Almost like the Stepford Candidate.

I'm telling you everything hinges on a candidate's ability to make the people feel. Look at Barack Obama.

By the way, I predicted many months ago in my blog that Romney would be the nominee and Huckabee his VP.  Shows you what I know!

New Study Shows Your Fate IS Decided In Split Seconds

In my new book The Power Of Personal Branding I go to great lengths to let people know that their personal brand message is often more important than their professional capabilities (e.g. lawyering, accounting, brokerage skills).  A recent study backs up the credibility of my theory.

A new study done by Princeton psychologist, Alexander Todorov found the following:

• "people had no trouble telling the researchers who they thought was more competent" after looking at the pictures of two unknown gubernatorial candidates for just one quarter of one second
• sixty-four percent of the time voters make their choices on how to vote based on how candidates look rather than their policy positions, their experience or any other factor