Personal Branding with Thought Leadership | William Arruda

Creating a personal brand with thought leadership

An interview with William Arruda about the origins of personal branding, creating frameworks, and deploying your thought leadership.

Today’s guest is William Arruda, a personal branding pioneer, speaker, and coach.  William is the author of Digital You and Career Distinction. He is the creator of 360 Reach, a web-based personal branding survey that has helped more than 1.8 million people!

William tells us how in 2001 he went from a comfortable job at IBM to having no income for 18 months after reading Tom Peter’s The Brand Called You.  The hard 18 months helped him develop this thought leadership and a methodology that he uses to this day!

Next, Peter and William discuss the importance of constructing methodologies and frameworks. These can be repeated and explained in meaningful ways, which allow you to stand out from the competition. In addition, frameworks build a foundation you can used to spread your thought leadership in endless ways.

William shares the three C’s for branding: Clarity, Consistency, and Constancy.  Then, he explains how to properly deploy them and the importance of each for building a brand that has meaning and is unforgettable.

Finally, we wrap up our conversation with William giving advice to anyone looking to establish or expand their brand.

Three Key Takeaways from the Interview

• Your thought leadership needs to have solid processes and frameworks to ensure it is repeatable with the same outcome each time.
• Thought leaders should consider the external view of their personal brand. Seek external feedback to verify how your brand is held in the hearts and minds of your clients.
• Every day we are overwhelmed with information. You need to be consistent and constant with delivering thought leadership to your audience.

If you need a strategy to bring your thought leadership to market, Thought Leadership Leverage can assist you! Contact us for more information. We can help you implement marketing, research, sales and other aspects so you can devote yourself to what you do best.