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In the past month, I have thought a lot about my brand — my resume, my biography — every place that I talk about me. I listened to recordings and articles by trusted advisors, fellow speakers, and branding experts. I even went back and re-read that classic article “The Brand Called You” by Tom Peters. I read that article in Fast Company magazine back in 1997, and it inspired me to think about “my brand” in the first place.

I figured out something very important to me. My brand is about “a”, not “THE”. I figured something else out, which is even more important.

A good brand can be about “a” not “THE”. My brand is better with “a”, not “THE”.

A Little Background

I called myself “The Strategic Project Manager” a few years ago. I thought the title was a clever, unique way to brand myself. I had listened to branding experts who said, “Find your niche, then become THE leading expert in that niche. Whether it is a particular audience or a particular subject, become THE person in that niche.”

I looked at speakers and other experts that I knew and trusted. They were all “THE” something:

“The Million Dollar Consultant” (Alan Weiss)

“The Master Negotiator” (Greg Williams)

“The InfoGuru” (Robert Middleton)

“The Nametag Guy” (Scott Ginsberg)

Ironically, I have a “branding problem” now, because “Strategic Project Manager” does not really make sense with “THE” in front of it any more. It is a job title, and people are now recruiting for “Strategic Project Managers”. Some helpful people told me that I could still reclaim the title, “The Strategic Project Manager” — I just needed to write the book with that title.

I realize now, though, that I cringe a little whenever I think of myself as “THE” anything. I know I am special and unique, but let’s face it — there are a lot of people in this world who know something about strategy and something about project management. “The Strategic Project Manager” always felt like a boast, not a statement of fact.

“A” Brand, not “THE” Brand

When I re-read Tom Peters’ classic article on personal branding, I stopped at the first sentence of the last paragraph:

“It’s this simple: You are a brand.”

I realized something equally simple:

“You are ‘a’ brand. You are not ‘THE’ brand.”

Peters article on personal branding is full of humility and grace. He did talk about becoming “the expert”, but he tempered those statements with down-to-earth examples — an employee who volunteers to write the agenda for a business meeting or someone writing an opinion piece for their local paper. Peters was not just talking to “THE leading expert in the world”, but to all of us, even those of us who are just “an expert”, along with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other people like us.

Great Marketers Value What The Customer Values, Even If It Is NOT Unique

Think about the great brands, the brands you associate with quality, the brands you trust, the brands you love.

Are any of them “THE only one” at what they do?

Nike is a shoe company. Coke is a soft drink. Coke may claim to be “The Real Thing”, but some of its most powerful branding messages were about what you could do with the whole world. Start the sentence, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke…” and millions of people in the world will say with you, “…and keep it company.”

That sentence is not about a unique selling proposition. You could “buy the world” any product and keep it company. That sentence is about a feeling of community and togetherness, and The Coca Cola Company successfully attached that feeling to their product’s name.

Happy To Be “A Project Leader” — Maybe Even “A Strategic Project Leader”

From now on, I will not call myself “The Strategic Project [...]

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Communication is widely recognized as a critical skill for project managers. Our work depends on accurate, clear communication.

Project managers tend to be practical, fact-oriented people. When we speak, write, read, and listen, we focus on facts.

Every communication has an emotional context, though. Are you aware of that context? Are you intentionally using that context to create an emotional response in your audience?

Emotion changes people’s outlook on an facts. Changing our emotional state can have huge impact on our work and our lives. A person who is sad tends to see the problems and risks in the world. A person who is happy sees opportunities.

Often we see our emotions in terms of “good” or “bad” emotions. “The power of positive thinking” is an often-used phrase, and it implies that thinking positively will help you achieve results in your life. Thinking in a “negative” way will somehow hurt you or eliminate options.

What if we look at our emotions not as “good” or “bad”, but as another communication channel?

The factual channel is very important to project work. We make sure that our thoughts, ideas, and ideals are understood accurately, and that we understand the thoughts, ideas, and ideals of the people on our team.

Communication has an emotional channel, too. Look at movies, television, books, stories, and almost any form of fiction. Why do people consume media that they know is untrue? If people only wanted facts, there would be no place for fiction in our society. Instead, fiction is a huge industry in every nation of the world. We create stories in a dizzying array of formats, and we spend significant parts of our lives consuming those stories.

We enjoy those stories because of the emotional impact they have on us. These stories have a logical meaning as well, and they can help us learn or gain insight into a fact or idea. Often the best works of fiction will not only communicate an idea or fact, but they also make us feel a certain way about it.

Becoming Aware of the Emotional Channel

Our project communications also have an emotional impact. There is an emotional channel to all our communications, from the simple Gantt chart and status report to the most elaborate executive presentation.

Are you thinking about the emotional channel of your communications? If you believe that people’s emotions influence how they look at the factual information presented to them, you should be very concerned about the emotional impact of your communications. If your sponsor is upset, he or she will read your status report in a very different way than if he or she is happy.

When speaking or writing about your project, think about the emotions that you feel. We all experience different emotions at different times. It is natural for human beings to share that emotional information, especially in face-to-face meetings. Our tone of voice, body language, and word choice all communicate subtle cues about how we are feeling.

I have been in many status meetings where a project manager reads a list of accomplishment after accomplishment, but in a dull, bored tone. Inevitably the conversation in that meeting turns to a question, “What’s wrong?” The question might not come until the formal part of the meeting has ended, but someone will ask the project manager that question. Consciously or not, the project manager was sharing his emotional state during that status meeting. Along with the factual list of accomplishments, he was sharing a feeling of boredom.

People in the room reacted. They wanted to know, “Why is he bored? These facts are something to feel joy and a sense of accomplishment about. Why doesn’t he project those feelings along with the facts?” As caring human beings, we want to know why he feels this way.

People will ask, “What is wrong?” for many different [...]

The latest articles on this site will now be offered in three formats: audio, video, and text. I discovered that doing this is almost unheard of on the Internet. Other sites provide video and audio, but they do not provide the full content of their articles in these formats.

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I started to record my latest articles, thinking that I was just following common practices for modern speakers. After all, I have heard time and time again how popular podcasts and audio books are. Some people do not have time to read, but they can listen to your content. It is important to make your material available in many formats.

I made my recording, and then went to insert the audio and video into the article. I was not sure where to best place it, so I went out looking for other sites as examples and inspiration.

I was surprised to find out that none of my role models have audio and video versions of their articles or blogs.

They publish every one of their books as an audio book. They ALWAYS read the complete and unabridged version of their book.

They publish video and audio blogs or podcasts. They NEVER use their articles or blog entries as the script for the audio or video.

They treat their audio or video entries as new, separate articles. Their print articles are more frequent. Their video and audio articles are less frequent. They are on a different topic than any of their print articles. Some people keep the material on separate sites, and many embed the audio or video in their blog.

Scott Ginsberg, the Nametag Guy and his Nametag TV site are good examples of this approach. Notice that his articles are great and his video segments are great, but they never cover the exact same topic.

I am not sure why experts do that. After creating a great message and putting it in print, I want to use that same message in an audio or a video segment. I know that some people prefer print, while others prefer audio or video. Different adults with different learning styles prefer one format over the other. Why not let all adults with any learning style get the same content in the format that they prefer?

I did not plan to do something innovative. I thought I was just following my friends’ good advice. In the end, I wound up doing something unique and different. I thought I was following the rules and I wound up making new ones.

You can see the first article available in all three formats: A Sad, Sad, Day for Project Managers. If you like the audio and video, let me know. I will keep producing my future articles this way so long as people are using and enjoying all the formats.

Note: The “video” format is not a full-motion video of me talking. Instead, it shows slides and images that match the audio message. In my opinion, typical “talking head” video is boring and expensive to produce. I might add full-motion video in the future.

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Some people will remember 2008 for the US Presidential election. Others will remember the 2008 economy. I will remember 2008 for a different reason.

For me, 2008 will be the year of project management spam.

Unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (spam) is a huge annoyance and economic force. Its impact has been growing for years. Men, women, and businesses get constant offers in their in-box:

Physical enhancements

Get-rich-quick schemes

Appeals from “lonely strangers”

Commercial services of all kinds

Ironically, one of the most common types of spam are offers to sell you e-mail lists and services, so that you too can promote your product or service using spam.

Until 2008, though, I had not seen any project-management based spam. I had gotten an occasional unsolicited promotional e-mail, but never a repeated, relentless campaign. I had never seen any company using spam as a regular tactic in their business.

I had hoped that project managers had more respect and integrity.

I had hoped that project management businesses understood that the use of spam would hurt their good name.

I had hoped that project managers would understand that nothing is more important than their good name in a high-trust business like project management.

I had hoped to never see an instance of project management spam.

Fortunately, most businesses seem to understand respect and integrity. Unfortunately, at least one does not.

It Does Not Matter Who Did It

I am not trying to single out a particular company here. If you want to see who is doing this, look at the sample images I have attached. I am not linking to the company here or mentioning their name, because their name is not important.

The important issue is stopping other project management spam.

I went back to my e-mail archives and found the earliest evidence of a continuous, determined spam campaign starting in February 2008. If anyone is aware of an earlier spam campaign in the project management area, please let me know. I would be happy to post additional samples here.

What Is Spam? Why Is It Bad?

People interested in legal or authoritative definitions of spam can read extensive lists of articles on the topic. It is a huge issue for Internet marketers, governments, and legislators.

Personally, I consider “spam” or “unsolicited bulk e-mail” to be anything

Advertising a product or service

Where I never signed up to get e-mail from that company

Where I am not a customer of that company

Others have different definitions, but this is my personal test. Typical techniques of modern spammers include

Hiding who is sending the e-mail

Sending unwelcome commercial posts to distribution lists

Leaving out appropriate contact information (name, address, and phone)

Embedding key information in an image, to avoid spam filters

Including false “unsubscribe” offers

Spam is bad. It

Annoys the person who receives it

Wastes valuable bandwidth and computing resources on the Internet

Is illegal in many jurisdictions

Worst of all, it hurts the company sending it. It diminishes the reputation of the sender. It makes their product and service into a commodity. It cheapens their name and product. Often, spam is associated with criminal activities.

Spam is just a bad idea, especially for the company sending it.

Some Sample Spam

I attached some sample spam messages:

The first one I still have, from 14 February 2008

Others, from a mailing list I moderate: 1, 2, 3

Some features they all have in common:

Sent from an e-mail address that is probably false (abc123 and so on)

Sent from an e-mail address NOT affiliated with the company (gmail and manage.com)

No company address or phone number in the message

The entire solicitation in an image, not in text

The “unsubscribe” link in the image

The same message sent to multiple addresses, including mailing lists where they [...]

It is hard to get an independent consultant to be frank and forthcoming about their business. During this one-hour recording, you will get an insider’s view of what it is like to go from being an employee to an independent consultant. The audience had hard-hitting, personal questions, and they got full, open answers.

Audio-only broadcast: http://www.alexsbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/consultant/consultant-pmi-nyc-2009.mp3Download the audio file

Thinking of Becoming a Consultant?

If you want to know more about becoming a consultant and the techniques I talked about in the speech, take a look at:

The Project Charters LIVE! DVD

How to get well known by becoming a speaker or a writer

Personal advice for you about becoming an independent consultant

Press “play” to begin. The speech will start after the introduction. If you want to hear the introduction, click on the first chapter, on the far left.

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About the Speech

The speech was given before the PMI New York City Chapter on 5 January 2009. Over 100 people gathered for business networking and to hear the speech in Manhattan.

I came prepared with slides and talking points. Each attendee got a copy of a handout to help guide the discussion.

As expected, I did not get to use any of my prepared material.

After a loosely-prepared introduction (about 12 minutes), the audience began asking questions. After an hour we had to end to keep to the schedule, but one-on-one discussion continued long after the recording ended.

If you are looking for a more tightly organized, written overview about what it is like to be a consultant, see the paper co-authored with Jennifer Russell Tharp, “So You Want to Be an Independent Consultant.”

About the Recording and Performance

When watching the video or listening to the audio, please keep in mind that almost all of the presentation was unscripted. The first 12 minutes about my own experiences were prepared, but involved real events that happened only shortly before the speech itself.

The video contains slides and some supporting photos and graphics. All of these were added after the event. We had a slide projector, but we only used it to show an opening welcome message. I stood before the group and answered questions with the screen blank. It was more like a conversation than a formal presentation.

This recording was made from a single, omni directional microphone. The lapel microphone, which would usually give a very crisp recording of the speaker, did not record properly. Although the recording is a little noisy, it is a great example of how you can get a clear recording of audience question and answer sessions with a single microphone.

Introducing project management to an organization is hard work. By appealing to the strategists and the senior executives in your organization, it is possible to make project management grow and flourish.

The main speech:

Audio-only broadcast: http://www.alexsbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/intro-pm/intro-pm-in-your-org-2008-11-17.mp3Download the audio file

Follow-up discussion the following day:

Audio-only broadcast: http://www.alexsbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/intro-pm/intro-pm-in-your-org-2008-11-18.mp3Download the audio file

Video of the whole speech, including discussion the following day:

Press “play” to begin. The speech will start after the introduction. If you want to hear the introduction, click on the first chapter, on the far left.

Having trouble using the built-in player? Download the full speech from 17 November in any of these formats:

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Download the follow-up discussion from 18 November in these formats:

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About the Speech

This speech was delivered before the PMI Tampa Bay Chapter on 17 and 18 November 2008. The speech was featured in the dinner meeting event, and then was repeated the following day for a lunchtime speech for a smaller group.

Thanks so much to the volunteers and chapter officers for the event. They were wonderful hosts. I brought all my recording equipment to demonstrate how to create a speech recording and podcast. Perhaps the chapter will be producing recordings soon!

Hear one of my first speeches to put together strategic planning and project management. Hear the story of how a real company was able to implement its strategy through projects, and the unexpected benefits the company gained.

Audio-only broadcast: http://www.alexsbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/strat-pm/strat-pm.mp3Download the audio file

Press “play” to begin. The speech will start after the introduction. If you want to hear the introduction, click on the first chapter, on the far left.

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“Strategic Project Management” was presented to a packed lecture hall on October 24, 2006 at the PMI North America Congress. The presentation was selected as one of the top presentations of the Congress, and an encore presentation was made the following day.

A two-minute joke about a project manager and his team. The classic joke is not very nice to project managers, so this joke has a different ending.

Audio-only broadcast: http://www.alexsbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/genie-joke/genie-joke.mp3Download the audio file

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This speech was delivered and recorded live for the PMI North America Congress on September 12, 2005. The entire 54-minute speech will play below, with slides synchronized to the audio, and it is also available as an audio or video podcast from this site.

Available as a four-contact hour, four PDU on-line class through Real-Life Projects, Inc..

Audio-only broadcast: http://www.alexsbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/the-charter/the-charter-selling.mp3Download the audio file

Press “play” to begin. The speech will start after the introduction. If you want to hear the introduction, click on the first chapter, on the far left.

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Related Materials

The presentation included a paper that was provided to everyone attending the Congress. This paper is available this site. Project charters are an important topic, and I continued writing about them after the speech. There is now a charter template available for your use, and some sample charters.

Learn how project charters successfully bridged cultural gaps when making decisions among a community of Japanese and U.S. executives. Establishing a clear chartering process was the key to project management’s success at the company. The presentation will include templates and overviews of the processes established.

This speech was delivered and recorded live for the PMI New Jersey chapter on International Project Management Day, November 2, 2006. You can hear the speech and see the slides using the player below, or download the speech in various formats.

Bio from the Event

Alex S. Brown, PMP, is the Manager of the Strategic Planning Office at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, USA. He also helps other firms solve their real-life project problems as President of his own company, Real-Life Projects, Inc. He has spoken at the last three PMI North America Congresses and the 2002 PMI Symposium, in addition to several regional and specific-interest project management events. This year will be his third presentation at a PMI NJ event. His articles have appeared in several newsletters, and he provides advice to peers internationally through his web site, http://www.alexsbrown.com. He has been a project manager for software development and financial services projects since 1993.

Audio-only broadcast: http://www.alexsbrown.com/wp-content/uploads/charter-culture/charter-culture.mp3Download the audio file

Available as a four-contact hour, four PDU on-line class through Real-Life Projects, Inc..

Press “play” to begin. The speech will start after the introduction. If you want to hear the introduction, click on the first chapter, on the far left.

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