Brute Hustle #2, by K. Tighe

I’m smitten on sharing.

So when I decided to return to San Francisco earlier this year, I had one Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) in mind: do my part in moving the Collaborative Consumption movement forward.

This was serendipitously almost the exact moment that TaskRabbit—a company I deeply admire for its role as a pioneer in the Sharing Economy—invited me to work with them. Not a bad start to my #BHAG2012.

In the DIY community, we’ve long been wise to the values of collaboration and co-working. The flagship marketplace Etsy is rooted in peer-to-peer transaction—a cornerstone concept of the CollCons movement. Now, a new crop of companies has emerged in the sharing space, providing an infrastructure to help entrepreneurs and small businesses thrive. These sites lower the barrier for entry for entrepreneurs and float us through the broke times—all while helping move our brands forward.

Hustle Tip #2: Diversify your revenue streams and grow your brand by plugging into the Collaborative Consumption movement.

At Poor Taste, the food news startup I founded, we’re still very much in bootstrap mode. So how could we leverage the Sharing Economy to keep the lights on while pushing our brand forward? Here are the options we’re looking at:

Biz-Dev Idea #1. Pimp out our expertise by leading tours.

Through Vayable, our editors and contributors can set up neighborhood food tours in the cities we cover. We can show tourists and locals alike how to navigate the food scenes in L.A.’s Koreatown, Chicago’s Pilsen or San Francisco’s Mission. This lets us further position ourselves as experts in culinary awesomeness, allows us to meet would-be readers in an offline environment and puts a little coin in the pig.

Biz-Dev Idea #2. Hand down life lessons to other fledgling foodies.

We have mad skills when it comes to intimidating things like shopping at Thai grocery stores, making pie crust from scratch and pairing cheap (but yummy) wines with dinner. Through Skillshare, our editors and contributors can make money by teaching others. Poor Taste’s whole mission to smack the intimidation out of food and drink appreciation, and Skillshare provides another (paying) channel for that.

Biz-Dev Idea #3. Party like it’s our business.

One of the things all Poor Tasters share is an appreciation for the role food can play in gathering people together. There’s a spankin’ new company called LifeCrowd that provides an easy way for Poor Taste to make a little income hosting offline social food events. Events like grilled cheese cook-offs, speakeasy brunches, lowbrow high teas and culinary bookclubs. Lifecrowd already has a recurring Chinese food and Mahjong event—wish we’d thought of that.

Biz-Dev Idea #4. Take food errands off other people’s plates.

We already spend a lot of time at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, what if we could supplement our food budget by picking up other people’s groceries? That’s exactly what TaskRabbit makes possible by connecting busy people with neighbors like us who want to help out and make a little extra money. Since we’re also food experts, we can pick up tasks like selecting beer or wine, cooking dinner party meals in people’s homes and baking holiday cookies. We’d make some dough and probably nab some devoted readers along the way.

Biz-Dev Idea #5. Become a bed and breakfast.

Airbnb lets anyone with a spare room or futon make some extra income. We love the idea of being cultural ambassadors of our city by playing B&B host to food-minded out-of-towners. We’d stock the kitchen with local coffee, beer and baked goods, provide expert culinary guidance to off-the-beaten path eateries, and make sure every guest leaves with a local’s knowledge of our city (and the URL to Poor Taste, naturally).

Are you smitten on sharing now, too? For a crash course, check out Shareable, Rachel Botsman’s What’s Mine is Yours, and (TaskRabbit Founder) Leah Busque’s column on The Huffington Post.

—

K. Tighe is the founder, publisher, editor-in-chief, and Chief Taco Officer of Poor Taste, a collaborative online magazine covering the underbelly of food and drink culture. In addition to basking in the bahn mi and bourbon perks associated with running a food publication, Tighe spends her days getting geeky over micro-entrepreneurship and the collaborative consumption movement as Content Strategist for TaskRabbit. Click here for the Brute Hustle Archive. @k_tighe | tighe.k@gmail.com

Amy Flurry, a media vet with 15 years of experience behind the editor's desk.

By Jenny An

Do you want to get your work noticed by magazine editors?

Master of publicity Amy Flurry offers these four tips from her book, Recipe for Press.

1. Think visually.

Photos sell.

“The first thing editors look at when they read your pitch via email or snail mail is the picture,” says Flurry. “And they know within a few seconds if the product will work for their pages and if they’re going to read on.”

2. Create an attention-grabbing one-liner that shows you know the publication.

“A great picture coupled with a punchy header—for example, ‘Wet-Weather Gear for Under $25′—lands your product into the publication even more quickly,” she says.

The header should make it clear to the editor that you read her pages or section and know the type of story or product the publication tends to run.

3. Make a strong first impression with your web site.

If an editor likes your pitch photo and header, he or she will likely visit your web site and social media to read more about you.

“Make sure your site is ready for that kind of scrutiny,” Flurry says. “If your site is still ‘under construction’ or in the middle of a facelift, then put the kibosh on pitching until after the unveiling.”

4. Contact the right person.

“All your hard work is for nothing if you don’t put your pitch in the hands—or inbox—of the right editor,” Flurry says.

Take time to double-check who actually edits the pages you want to be a part of. Read magazine mastheads to find out who’s-who, editorially speaking.

—

Read more about Amy Flurry and her book, Recipe for Press, in our “DIY Business of the Week” feature about her.

15 Minutes of Dame #4, By Dixie Laite

“Give the people what they want.”—Everyone from Red Skelton to the Kinks 

“Don’t give people what they want. Give them what they need.”—Joss Whedon

People are so cute.

Lately I’ve had the pleasure to help several people use the 20-10-4 Personal Brand Words Exercise, and I was struck by a common misstep.

People would say something like, “I’m really good at surfing, love horror movies, play guitar and have amazing penmanship—so, what’s my personal brand?”

Your unique selling proposition (your good ol’ USP) is not meant to be a personal ad for a dating site. Your personal brand is your pithy way of capturing what you uniquely, reliably and engagingly bring to the table with your service or product.

Your USP is a way of expressing what you offer, what you value and what people can expect. It should be consistent, engaging and something people want. (And if they don’t want it now, you can persuasively tell them why they should.)

Think about your customers, what they might want, what they might need, and especially what it is about you that answers the question, “What’s in it for them?”

Don’t get me wrong, though. You don’t need hordes of people to want your USP—just enough people.

While it’s great to have something scalable that will draw the multitudes, to operate a successful business, you need a certain number of people who really want what you have (but more on the long tail in another column).

As you think about your personal brand, think about what you have to offer in terms of what people do or might want or need. Let’s say you’re a surfing horror-movie aficionado who can rock out and dash off a legible letter, and you want to start your own party-planning service. I should hire you because…?

Tell me why you’re a good—no, great—party planner. Based on what you’ve told me about yourself so far, I might imagine you’d say that you’re full of ideas on lots of ways people can have a good time; you make the whole planning process fun; you can improvise to make everything look seamless; and as fun-loving as you are, you’re also detail-oriented and nothing’s ever sloppy. I’d totally hire you!

Your brand needs to tell a story

And that story’s happy ending must include you getting hired (or selling something, or being booked, etc.).

Look for how your brand/story makes you special and how it makes what you do appealing. The fictional party planner that I want to hire might decide to go with a werewolf hanging ten as his logo, or he may just decide to find a phrase, title or tagline that expresses his brand promise of perfection powered by imagination and fun. (As you know, perfection isn’t always so lighthearted, so knowing you can get class without anal obsessiveness can be mighty attractive.)

The point is, as you explore your personal brand, don’t just think about you. Think about your customers, what they might want, what they might need and especially what it is about you that answers the question, “What’s in it for them?”

As you work on crafting your personal brand’s message, explore how your personal qualities might make you attractive to potential clients. Also, as I encouraged Liz Gold to do in my last column (“Are You a Talented Self-Starter Who Needs a Kick in the Brand?”), think about how your personal qualities, interests and experience might make you uniquely well-suited to serving (and uniquely appealing to) a particular niche market.

Remember, in business and in life, when you think about giving people what they want or need, you are much more likely to get what you want and need as well.

In my next column (on May 9, 2012), we’ll talk about not falling into the trap of only thinking about what people currently want or need. (Not pitfalling into the trap?) Anyway, until then, dolls, please feel free to let know how you’re doing and if there’s anything I might be able to do to help.

Mmmmwah!

This is the fourth episode of “15 Minutes of Dame,” a column to help you create, develop and promote the living crap out of your personal brand. Dixie Laite has been putting the “broad” in broadcasting for over 20 years, working in television, online, print and marketing for a variety of household name brands. She’s currently Senior Editorial Director for TeenNick and also freelances as a writer, speaker and digital content strategist. Dixie’s column is published every other Wednesday on diybusinessassociation.com. Follow Dixie @DameStyle, email her at diydamedixie@gmail.com and post your suggestions in Comments below.

Click here to read more 15 Minutes of Dame

Brute Hustle #1, by K. Tighe

What if you could get the people you admire most to advise you on your career and business decisions?

Don Draper could help spin your marketing strategy into poetic gold, Sheryl Sandberg could consult on building a bridge from hipness to monetized ubiquity and Henry David Thoreau could dish out inspiration while sharing some pond-side beers.

If only that pesky “reality” thing didn’t get in the way.

Since this spankin’ new column is all about sidestepping the status quo and hustling your way to a better business, we’re gonna bend the rules on reality with our very first Hustle Hint:

HUSTLE HINT #1: Assemble a Panel of Enablers

Be they living, dead or fictional, assemble a Panel of Enablers that inspire and motivate you. Distill the most important takeaways into a dossier on each of your Enablers, like I’ll do below for Henry David Thoreau.

When major decisions or doubts creep up, consult the dossiers and ask yourself, “What Would My Enablers Do?”

As for Thoreau, not only does his Walden experience resemble stepping into the great unknowns of starting a business, freelancing or working for a startup, his words reaffirm that we’re doing the right thing by bucking the status quo.

Professor Tighe with a Ph.D in kicking ass.

Henry’s Rules:

1. Sing Your Song

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

Henry was hip to the fact that people spend most of their lives putting off the things they really want to do. They let their perceived limitations enslave them, tell themselves they don’t have enough time or education or experience and never make that leap into living a life true to themselves.

Those of us who’ve entered into self-employment or the startup life are bravely starting to sing, sometimes out of tune without knowing the words, but always our own songs.

And First Mate Thoreau.

2. Kill the Status Quo

“Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.”

Working for yourself or a startup is a lifestyle decision. It means walking away from society’s definition of success, at least for a while. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that you have more control over your life than the cogs still riding the cubicles.

Whenever I start to panic about the riskiness of startup life, I think of how much more agile not having these expectations has made me.

3. Opportunity Cost Matters

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”

Trading 40 hours a week to a company you don’t like much directly translates into 40 hours you didn’t spend building your business or developing new skills. As easy as it is to wallow in the “woulda-coulda-shoulda” triangle, let’s not.

Let’s just be honest with ourselves about the way labor is structured: You trade units of your life for money. Figure out what those units are really worth to you, and shift your actions accordingly.

Hack your way to success. The corporate ladder is so over.

4. Generalists Eat Specialists for Brunch

“Author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian and leading transcendentalist,” one look at his Wikipedia entry tells us that Thoreau was a generalist with an arsenal of skills he could transfer to any situation.

Since he was (among many things) a naturalist, let’s break this down biologically: Generalist species are able to adapt and thrive in all kinds of environments, and specialists kick serious ass under the exact right set of conditions. When those conditions change—which, let’s face it, they inevitably will—specialists face extinction while the generalists of the world adjust and keep right on hustlin’.

5. Suck the Marrow

“Suck the marrow out of life.”

If Thoreau intended to drive only one point home, it was this one. Figure out what you care about and do it.

Right now.

Consume every second of life as fully as you can. The happier you are, the more you notice positive things in your environment. The more engaged you are, the more you engage others. Cultivate optimism and you’ll see opportunities everywhere.

—

K. Tighe is the founder, publisher, editor-in-chief, and Chief Taco Officer of Poor Taste, a collaborative online magazine covering the underbelly of food and drink culture. In addition to basking in the bahn mi and bourbon perks associated with running a food publication, Tighe spends her days getting geeky over micro-entrepreneurship and the collaborative consumption movement as Content Strategist for TaskRabbit. Click here for the Brute Hustle Archive. @k_tighe | tighe.k@gmail.com

By Amy Cuevas Schroeder

Author of, The Smarter Upstarter

Founder & CEO, DIY Business Association and DIY Together

Entrepreneurs and creative visionaries have no shortage of ideas, but they often need help creating a master plan for accomplishing their biggest goals.

As a serial entrepreneur who started her first business at 19 and majored in liberal arts (no MBA here!), I’m an example of someone who has enough energy, ambition and ideas to create businesses for the rest of my life. But I need a system to help me get the work done in a timely fashion. Without this system, I have a hard time staying focused and saying “no” to projects that take me off track.

Note: The Get Stuff Done System for DIY Businesses is not a business plan template, but it serves as a great component of your business plan and will help you actualize your business plan. In short, a business plan is just a stack of paper until you do the work, and this system is designed for people who are managing themselves.

Are you ready to thrive in the Entrepreneurial Age? Take a deep breath, and start where you are, one chunk of work at a time. (Photo of Amy Cuevas Schroeder at DIY Together Speed Connecting NYC on March 28, 2012. Photo by Eleanor Templeton)

Advice:

• The first step is taking the first step. Start where you are. Many DIY businesses (myself included) revise their BHAG and Major Milestones over time, which is totally fine. As a DIY business, you are a living, breathing entrepreneurial machine who rolls with the punches and needs to edit and pivot in, some cases, a moment’s notice. The point is to keep your happiness in check, do the work, keep moving and be flexible.

• After writing your BHAG, Milestones and NAAS, post them in a visible place and talk about your NAAS with people you trust. Otherwise, your creative genius has a funny way of forgetting where you want to go.

• Connect with people who can help you. Share your ideas and questions. Join a DIY Together group. Build from the ground up.

Amber J. Adams, on the left, inspired me to develop the Get Stuff Done System for DIY Businesses. (Photo taken at DIY Together Speed Connecting NYC on March 28, 2012, by Eleanor Templeton)

1. Create your BHAG

Thinking Big & Visionary

A Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) embodies what you really want to do in life—professionally speaking. A BHAG is not a to-do list. It’s the vision for your personal big picture. Developing your BHAG is challenging but fun. Think big—if you do the work, your BHAG will likely come true.

For some people, a BHAG will take a year to accomplish. For others, five years or more, or even a lifetime. The timeframe of your BHAG comes down to the scope of your BHAG. Your BHAG is yours to design and to edit and revise—so own it. You can set BHAGs throughout life or continue to work on your BHAG when it’s most convenient for you. You can even start over midway through if you realize you don’t like your BHAG. In short, your BHAG is your baby, and you should treat it as an evolving animal.

Pronounced “bee-hag,” the term BHAG was coined by Jerry Porras and James Collins in their book Built to Last, which examines the qualities of successful visionary companies. They found that one factor that distinguished successful efforts from unsuccessful ones was the use of ambitious—even outrageous—goals to motivate people and focus them toward concrete accomplishments.

In Built to Last, the authors write: “A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so that you and other team players know when they’ve achieved the goal.”

Example of a personal BHAG for an individual:

Amber J. Adams: The Gen Y Journalist (member of DIY Together Beta Group)

Thefablifeproject.com

amberjadams.com • @amberjadams

“My Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal for 2012 is to promote Gen Y happiness in work and life, and become a thought leader for the unstoppable Generation Innovation movement.”

Example of a BHAG for companies:

Twitter: To become the pulse of the planet.

Amazon: Every book, ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds. Also: Earth’s most customer-centric company.

2. Set Major Milestones

Laying the groundwork for accomplishing your BHAG

Congratulations—you’ve created your Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal to change the world in your own way. So how are you going to get there?

To lay the groundwork for your BHAG, setting Major Milestones are the next critical steps for getting the work done. Major Milestones are the significant points in development. Again, Major Milestones aren’t really a “to-do” list. Major Milestones are the significant achievements that you accomplish along the way to the finish line of your BHAG. I recommend developing a map of Major Milestones—a map could be over a six- or 12-month span or up to several years. Again, it depends on the scope of your BHAG.

Before setting Major Milestones, we recommend that you visualize your success. As in, picture yourself having accomplished your BHAG. Whether your BHAG is to become a leader in the New York Food Truck World or the Most Creative Web Developer for Indie Fashion Designers, picture yourself at the finish line. Now, take a look back at all the triumphs, accomplishments and hurdles that you jumped to get there. Can you see them? Great. Write them down immediately!

Example of my Major Milestones

My BHAG: To become a leading voice in the art of collaborative entrepreneurship.

Amy Cuevas Schroeder’s Major Milestones for a three-year plan:

• Take stock of my “former life’s work” as the founder/editor of Venus Zine. Create an online portfolio.
• Publish an article about collaborative entrepreneurship in a major publication or web site.
• Explore ways to grow DIY Business Association with the help of other leaders in the DIY business community.
• Figure out the best way to stay actively involved in the self-employed/DIY business community, as a writer and activist.

3. Next Attainable Action Steps (NAAS)

Chunking out the work, one month at a time

NAAS is an ambitious, realistic to-do list of chewable, bite-size tasks or to-do list to attain Major Milestones. We recommend that you set NAAS one month at a time. Once you accomplish a month’s worth of NAAS, you’ll create the following month’s NAAS. 

NAAS criteria:

• Based on the amount of time and energy you have (not wish you had), set a month’s worth of clear and attainable steps toward accomplishing your BHAG. Once you accomplish your first set of NAAS, you’ll set NAAS for the next month.

• Be specific about numbers and quantities.

• Edit yourself (or ask someone to help you). After writing your list of attainable next steps, briefly visualize yourself doing the tasks, and “calculate” the estimated hours to accomplish them. Add up the hours of all your NAAS. If the task hours exceed your available hours, trim the fat, and place leftovers on your NAAS list for the following month.

Remember: If you announce your next steps, you’re about 100% more likely to actually accomplish them.

Examples:

Read the DIY Together Beta Group’s very first NAAS here:

15 Minutes of Dame #3, By Dixie Laite

Identifying and refining your personal brand is important work that can be revelatory and even fun. But as one of my readers put it, it can also be “gut-wrenching.” (Ouch.)

In the interest of keeping your guts wrench-free, I thought I’d share one reader’s process as we worked together to help her figure out her personal unique selling proposition, or USP.

Here’s part of what Liz Gold wrote me:

“I’ve been a journalist for most of my adult life but have deviated to work as a telephone operator, in an arts recycling center, a day camp, a sushi restaurant, a diner and a retail clothing store.”

First thing, don’t get distracted by all the jobs you’ve had. Or the lack of jobs you’ve had. They may end up in your memoir one day, but they’re not important to your brand. What matters is who you are, what you can do well, and what people need. She went on to say she’s “always on the hunt for clothing swaps, loves dancing, especially old-school hip-hop beats,” and that she’s a “chameleon” who tends “to fit in among different types of crowds easily.”

She sounds awesome, right?

Are you a multi-talent like Liz Gold here?

Still, don’t get too distracted by what you like to do on a Saturday. Unless it’s a passion or avocation that you intend to weave into a service or product, it may not be relevant to your brand (on weekdays at least). Liz also wrote:

“I’ve been in business as a freelance writer for over a year. I write marketing materials for professional service firms (most of whom came from my last corporate job) and write a couple of columns for websites. Mainly, I do content for whitepapers, blogs, bios, case studies, sales letters, etc. But I don’t feel in alignment with what I’m doing, and I’m not getting enough work. I want to work with entrepreneurs, artists, start-ups, creative types who need writers—and corporate types who want outside-the-box thinking and are progressive on social issues. In other words, hip.”

She wrote that she really wants a mission statement and had an idea for a tagline: “Conscious content with attitude.” She’d already done the 20-10-4 word exercise and shared her final four words: raw, aware, connected and transformative.

I didn’t go through the exercise with her, so I called Liz to see if we could go beyond her traits, her hobbies, and résumé to get to some special, unique strengths she could plausibly market and monetize.

I asked her to think about the following basic but all-important questions (and you should too). In my ideal work:

• WHO are my customers*?

• WHAT do they need, and HOW am I uniquely well-suited to solving their problems?

Then I grilled her on her four words. They were fine words, but somewhat vague and hard to weave into a USP as-is. What did she mean by “raw”? (This is seldom a selling point, unless one is a stand-up comedian or a piece of sushi.) She explained that by “raw” she meant straightforward, authentic, edgy and funky, and that by “aware,” she meant “perceptive.”

When I asked her to tell me more about what she meant by “connected” and “transformative,” Liz told me about her connections to and interest in the LGBT, queer, transgender, sex-positive communities. It was clear she was passionate about alternative relationship issues. This was missing from her personal branding exercise, because she felt it might be limiting at best and scary at worst.

I told Liz I think we’d hit upon something. Here was an area where her four words—her authenticity, her perceptiveness, her connectedness and her ability to fit in in myriad contexts—and her professional expertise could be blended to compose a compelling, income-generating, and soul-satisfying USP.

There are lots of groups, businesses and individuals who need help crafting content to help them promote, market, publicize and communicate their message with savvy and sensitivity. Here’s where Liz comes in! She can brand herself as THE go-to person for helping businesses, organizations, non-profits and anyone needing solid content related to LGBT, queer, transgender, sex-positive, erotic and alternative relationship issues. She offers a unique combination of editorial expertise plus knowledge, connections, and understanding in these often-misunderstood areas.

While this doesn’t have to be the limit of what Liz does, she seemed excited about the prospect of applying her professional and personal experience to this market. She’s not restricted to only working on this, but as a mission statement and brand, she might think about marketing herself and what she has to offer to those whose problems she’s uniquely qualified to address.

In a world where you can’t swing a cat without hitting a freelance writer (please don’t swing cats), her passion and skill set make her special and attractive to clients she’d be excited to serve.

Liz: I’d be interested to know if you decide to pursue this, and how. Please keep in touch, and let us know how you’re doing. (And anyone out there needing someone like Liz write in and we’ll hook you up!)

Next time, we’ll talk about some surefire ways to improve your content (website, blog, flyers, Twitter feed, sandwich boards) to effectively get your brand out there.

* Make sure that the answer(s) to this question is not too narrow, and that the “who” or “whos” in question can supply you with the, how you say, “money.”

—

This is the third episode of “15 Minutes of Dame,” a column to help you create, develop and promote the living crap out of your own personal brand. Dixie Laite has been putting the “broad” in broadcasting for over 20 years, working in television, online, print and marketing for a variety of household name brands. She is currently Senior Editorial Director for TeenNick and also freelances as a writer, speaker and digital content strategist. Dixie’s column is published every other Wednesday on diybusinessassociation.com. Follow Dixie @DameStyle, email her at diydamedixie@gmail.com and post your suggestions in Comments below.

Click here to read more 15 Minutes of Dame

15 Minutes of Dame #2 By Dixie Laite

“She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot.” —Mark Twain

(You may not think that quote makes a whole lotta sense, but as a woman who has four parrots, I can say Mr. Clemens is pretty on the money. But more about my unplanned parrothood in a later column.)

In my last column, “Who the Hell Are You?,” I suggested you do an exercise of choosing words to describe yourself—your values, strengths and attributes. First you were to choose 20 words (with this list to use as a resource), then 10 words, then narrow the list to four. I thought it might be helpful to follow someone else going through the process, so here I am reporting for duty.

I’ll tell ya, it was hard choosing my first 20. So many words seemed to apply. Besides, which me was I describing? After all, there’s a tough me and a vulnerable me, a stylish me and a nerdy me, and so on.

But, ah, there’s the rub. We’re all complex people with many facets to our personalities. We’ve got lots of interests and values and often they contradict each other. We also evolve, so that what was seemed an essential component to who we are at 25 may have faded by 30.

This exercise is about getting to the nitty gritty of who you are today—and want to aim to be tomorrow.

It’s like my closet. I have a lot of clothes. If you were to look inside my closet, you wouldn’t know if this wardrobe belonged to Marlene Dietrich, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Annie Oakley or Little Bo Beep. But as I get savvier about who I am, who I want to be, about what’s comfortable and what suits me, I seem to gravitate toward the same pieces over and over. (I’m delighted to say there’s more Charlotte Gainsbourg, less Little Bo Peep now.)

My 20 Words

I initially scribbled these words:

Those of you playing along at home realize this is not 20 words. It’s 35 words, to be exact. So, here’s how I made the first cuts…

To pare down the list, I look at the synonyms and choose the words that best got at what I wanted. I eliminate laugh, funny and humor, keeping wit. (Besides, who doesn’t like to laugh? Sheesh.) I eliminate compassion, keeping kind. I remove love (too generic), keeping affectionate and friendly.

I eliminate serenity and grace—things to which I aspire, but who am I kidding?

I keep playful, articulate and sassy, qualities to which I can more realistically attest. I decide to keep glamour, style, teach, entertain, guide and mentor. I choose vintage lover since collecting “femorabilia” is a big part of who I am and how people see me. (It also lets me lose collector.) I crossed off persuade and choose inspire instead. Uplift is close to inspire and little underwire-y; I keep evangelize instead.

Energy and strength were qualities I’d really like to embody. But I since I have to weed some out (sigh), I decide strong represents a kind of energy, and a big part of the person I’d like to become. Recognizing wise, smart and savvy are somewhat synonymous; I go with savvy since it has the least gravitas. I keep influential, because, well, I’d really like to be. I keep animal lover, because, well, have you ever met me?

So my 20 words, in no particular order, are:

But I can’t relax just yet; now comes round two where I need to turn this list of 20 into 10.

Maybe it gets easier?

10 Words

Picking 20 was hard, but now it’s no longer a matter of weeding out sort-of-synonyms. In this stage, it’s not really word play; now I have to really think about priorities. What do I care about, what do I uniquely have to offer, and what do I want to represent?

First, I’ll prune some more synonyms. Between teach, guide and mentor, I’ll select guide (less pedantic), and style over glamour (less labor-intensive). My first long list included smart, humor, funny, playful, articulate and entertain, so I decide wit might sum these up best. But I feel I do need another qualifier. I think my personal style might be best described as playful. Wit is an outcome while playful is an attitude, and attitudes are under our control while outcomes—not so much. I’d gotten rid of smart and wise, but I feel like I need to include savvy, it being a “sassier” type of wisdom.

Five words down, five to go!

I think about some of my most fundamental qualities. I’m an affectionate person; I’m a relentless hugger and call everyone “sweetie pie,” “dollface” or worse. Being kind is also very important to me. But all that is largely about about being warm and accessible, so though they are fundamental descriptors, I cross off affectionate and kind, keeping friendly in my top 10.

I’ve long celebrated and studied vintage movies, music and clothes, and it’s such a big part of “my brand” that I include vintage maven in my new list. I keep animal lover, too. (Ask anyone on Facebook to describe me, and I’m fairly certain “crazy animal lady” will come up.)

Of the remaining words, which fundamentally express what I want to do, to be? I decide guide, inspire and entertain give the clearest picture.

I feel ambivalent but I finally prune my list to:

The Final Four (Finally!)

Ugh. After all that I have to pare down the list to a measly four. Now it’s even less about words cancelling one another out and even more about honing a message. It’s also time to think about other people as well as yourself. How do you want clients, customers, potential customers, and potential partners to think when they encounter your brand?

While all the qualities on my “top ten list” are important, I decide to define my brand with specific qualities that:

1) make me uniquely me, and

2) could plausibly attract people to my brand, my products and services. (This is called a unique selling proposition or a USP. More on that in an upcoming column.)

Once we’re down to four words, our embryonic USP, I think it can be helpful to turn the words into a phrase or label of some sort.

And my four words? Hmmm, let’s try:

Inspire                  Vintage Maven                 Playful                  Savvy 

In other words my personal brand is a savvy, inspiring and playful vintage maven.

This doesn’t necessarily mean I’m limited to talking about, knowing about, or doing work related to vintage stuff. But as a writer, pundit, speaker and as a brand, these four words can help distinguish, differentiate and define what I’m about. For example, even if I’m talking about global warming or Estonian Frisbee Championships, I can be expected to discuss it in a lively, intelligent, down-to-earth and good-humored manner. And I might have a vaguely Claudette Colbert-ish vibe while doing it.

Now, I could have easily picked four different words. I picked the four I did because I felt they’d be best for a particular service/product I have in mind. But alternatively I could also go with:

It all depends on what service or product I want to pursue, and to whom I want to market what I offer.

Anyway, we’ll explore my lil’ ol’ USP in a later column. Meanwhile, if you haven’t already, do the exercise and let me know where you end up. And if you get stuck, email me at diydamedixie@gmail.com—that’s what I’m here for!

For the next episode of 15 Minutes of Dame…

On April 4, we’ll look at some of your own 20/10/4 lists and how they can evolve into branding lenses for your own businesses.

Until then, Godspeed my sweet DIYers!

—

This is the second episode of “15 Minutes of Dame,” a column to help you create, develop and promote the living crap out of your own personal brand. Dixie Laite has been putting the “broad” in broadcasting for over 20 years, working in television, online, print and marketing for a variety of household name brands. She is currently Senior Editorial Director for TeenNick and also freelances as a writer, speaker and digital content strategist. Dixie’s column is published every other Wednesday on diybusinessassociation.com. Follow Dixie @DameStyle, email her at diydamedixie@gmail.com and post your suggestions in Comments below.

Click here to read more 15 Minutes of Dame

Getting to the core of your personal brand

15 Minutes of Dame #1 By Dixie Laite

“Know thyself.” —Socrates*

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. You’ve heard it before.

But there’s a good reason people are always yammering away about knowing yourself. After “be kind,” it’s about the most important job you have, a job that should precede any talk about paying jobs. It may sound corny, it may be corny, but it’s still true: You can’t begin to follow your bliss, build your brand, or even be truly happy until you figure out who you are—and who you aim to be.

Easier said than done, I know. Let’s start with me.

Who am I, and how does this affect my personal brand and overall well-being?

There are some incontrovertible facts I know about myself:

• I love animals.

• I have an encyclopedic knowledge of ’30s and ’40s movies.

• I like scouring flea markets for cool vintage femorabilia.

• I shop online waaay too much.

• I’m physically and emotionally incapable of eating only one Pop-Tart.

In terms of my work life, I’ve been a teacher, writer, editor, public speaker and personal trainer. I take some things very seriously, but not many and certainly not myself.

This is a start, but we need to take this (seemingly) disparate information and explore how this adds up to who uniquely I am and what I uniquely have to offer.

But enough about me, let’s talk about you. (Not for too long, though…then we’ll get back to me.)

Step 1: Describe Thyself

Now you try it.

If you were to describe yourself to a total stranger, what are the three or four things you’d say? (It’s important that you have no agenda with this stranger; I admit if I were, say, trying to date this stranger, I’d probably skew the data quite a bit, but that won’t help you in this exercise, and it won’t help me down the line with that stranger either.)

For now, ignore your appearance unless that’s an integral part of who you are (covered in tattoos, purple Mohawk, etc.) and focus on the qualities, passions, experience and skills that make you uniquely you. Write at least two sentences, but no more than four. Jot it down on a cocktail napkin if you have to. And now…

Step 2: What Matters to You?

Play Q&A with yourself. Think about the following questions, and write a sentence or three to answer:

• What are your values?

• What do you really care about?

• For what do you stand?

• What qualities are important to you in a friend, in a co-worker?

• What virtues do you consistently maintain, and which, in your humble opinion, are totally let slide-able?

• What gets you bent out of shape?

• How do you insist upon dealing with other people, where are you the most helpful, and whom is it you’d most like to serve?

The answers to these questions represent your core values—a huge component of your personal brand.

For me, kindness is big in my book, and I’m always trying to be helpful and affectionate, just short of being a little creepy. I like inspiring and celebrating others, especially women.

Step 3: The Fun Part

So now you know you’re a detail-oriented and unfailingly honest perfectionist who wants to help the underserved become more “green”-aware.

For this next exercise, your challenge is to create a list of 20 words that describe you. Need help? Click here to get your juices flowing. Think about who you truly are, who you strive to be and how you’d like to be perceived—and write down your 20 words. I’ll wait.

Now that you’ve got your list of 20 descriptors, I want you to narrow down that list to 10 words. I’ll wait.

Tough, but now that you’ve refined your list, you’re getting closer to the core of who you are and how you operate in the world.

Now we’re ready to hone your brand even further. If you could only choose four of these 10 words to describe yourself, which would you choose? You’re on a serious word budget now, so we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty of what makes you you.

It wasn’t easy, but you’ve selected your four precious “you” words—words that will help you define your personal brand. You’ve also given some thought to what you care about and have to offer and even how you might want to offer it. Now what?

For next time:

In my next column (to be published Wednesday, March 21), I’ll show you how I created my own personal list, and we’ll compare notes. Then, we’re going to take what you’ve done and turn it into a personal brand description and mission statement to guide you on to the next stages of building a brand identity and eventually a brand experience.

Please email me (at diydamedixie@gmail.com) your own descriptor, defining words and what kind of business you’re in/starting/thinking about, and I’ll help as many of you as possible to take what you’ve got and fashion it into clear, actionable brand and mission statements.

*Or maybe it was Charlene Tilton—it’s a little fuzzy.

This is the first episode of “15 Minutes of Dame,” a column to help you create, develop and promote the living crap out of your own personal brand. Dixie Laite has been putting the “broad” in broadcasting for over 20 years, working in television, online, print and marketing for a variety of household name brands. She is currently Senior Editorial Director for TeenNick and also freelances as a writer, speaker and digital content strategist. Dixie’s column is published every other Wednesday on diybusinessassociation.com. Follow Dixie @DameStyle, email her at diydamedixie@gmail.com and post your suggestions in Comments below.

Best of #diychat 4: Highlights & Feed from March 1, 2012

By Amy Cuevas Schroeder

If you missed the fourth #diychat on March 1, you missed an incredible opportunity to chat with a crew of creative visionaries.

Titled Where Do Awesome Ideas Come From, and How Do You Actualize Them?, the one-hour Twitter conversation was hosted by ModCloth Co-Founder Susan Gregg Koger, Krrb.com Director Andrew Wagner and app developer Donald DeSantis.

Click here to download the #diychat transcript.

Best of #diychat:

“I think everyone has met someone who reorganizes the world around them, who inspires and delivers, unselfconscious. That = badass.” —Donald DeSantis (@donalddesantis)

“What is life without risks? Less disappointment maybe, but surely much more banal.”—Golzar Naghshineh (@FeministGolzar)

“I repeat this quote to myself daily: ‘The secret to life is to have no fear.’”—Andrew Wagner

“Find someone to help run the business side of things, even if only on a revenue share. Or find a biz mentor in your space.”—Donald DeSantis

“No risks = well-traveled path. That’s less fun. The ‘big’ things are outside convention. Conventional is a crowded marketplace.”—Donald DeSantis

“I’d rather fail at a risk that I’m passionate about than be successful doing the same old boring thing.”— @urdirtylaundry

QUESTION: How do you develop a community to grow your business and ideas?

“Our mission @ModCloth is to democratize fashion by empowering indie designers and our community.”—Susan Gregg Koger

“My ideas come from the gaps that I find in life. Usually the stuff I wish for—dots that need connecting.”—Lesley Ware (@creativecookie)

“If you really love something and truly believe in it, you will attract a community.” —Andrew Wagner

“Being yourself, knowing (or finding) your cause, serving a small group of people. Focusing on high relevancy to small numbers.”—Donald DeSantis

QUESTION: Do you know when you’re experiencing a flash of brilliance, or does that awareness develop over time?

“Questioning everything is what has got me anywhere that I’ve ever gotten. I’ve always been a bit a pain in the ass. I’ve never wanted to do what everyone else is doing. I’ve always wanted to put my own stamp on things.”—Andrew Wagner

“I don’t know that I ever really know if I’m experiencing brilliance. It’s usually someone else that points it out.—Lightbox SF (@lightboxsf)

“I write everything down and revisit the next day. If I’m still as excited, it has a good chance of actually being brilliant. But sometimes you just KNOW.”—Susan Gregg Koger

“It’s always great to keep a stash of ideas that maybe never came to fruition. Sometimes revisiting makes them even better.” —Jessie Williams, Founder of Edge of Urge (@jessieEOU)

“You know when lightning strikes. But prepare for non-viability/feasibility. Modify idea, but focus on what made it special.”—Donald DeSantis

“And ideas are like any craft. The more you create, the higher the quality. Repetition sets the stage for mastery, quality, magic.”—Donald DeSantis

Put this in your calendar right now; otherwise, you’ll forget. The next #diychat is on April 5; the topic is Startup Success Stories. 

1. Brooklyn DIY Business Association Conference 2011

Are you a photographer, writer, editor, designer, artist, musician, promoter, crafter, or Etsy seller who wants to grow your business or get more work?

2. How to write a business plan (for creative types)

Snap Food Truckers share tips for getting your plan down tight. “Add a slush fund,” “prepare an elevator pitch,” and “don’t freak out” rank high on the list.

3. 5 of IndieGoGo’s most successful campaigns

By IndieGoGo CEO and Co-Founder Slava Rubin

4.  How to attract, develop and maintain strong business relationships

New York graphic designers Raven + Crow share tips for attracting likeminded clients for long-term partnerships

 5. #diychat: The coolest monthly Twitter chat for entrepreneurs everywhere