Professional Presence: A Four-Part Program for Building Your Personal BrandBuilding Program News]
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Building Your Personal Brand Made Easy,
At the end of each section in this book, you will find a Scenario on the skills you just read. It then tests you by asking ‘what should, or shouldn’t have been done?’ You are able to look up the correct answers online to see how the “situation” should have been handled, which helps give you a reassuring boost to building your personal brand.
So whether you are first starting out, wanting to move up the ladder, or just wanting to improve yourself in general, Professional Presence: A Four-Part Guide to Building Your Personal Brand is a key tool that will help you achieve those goals you have created for yourself.
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Personal Brand Matters,
Stevens’ makes the point that you are a representative of your employer even when you are not at work. Coupled with PLA’s “Turning the Page” advocacy program, this will reinforce that our employees are a great access, reflective of the library at all times, and can be a public library’s biggest advocates.
Our personal brands matter to ourselves and our success, but also matter to our employers success.
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Branding: The Neglected Business Skill,
We all do it, though. Brand. When we wake up, comb the rats out of our hair, and choose a suit for an interview, we’re branding. When we choose a caftan for a patio party instead of beads or a worsted suit, we’re branding. In fact, Stevens even covers that part of branding in Part II of this book titled “Personal.”
She manages to give those who must sell anything (yes, even creative things that people don’t really want to believe they’re “selling!”) the tools–all while keeping a light tone and sprinkling her points with anecdotes for the unitiated.
This will be of special help to:
Those who have no product to sell.
Those who think their product isn’t a product or refuse to consider it one.
Those who are looking for a job–even those who have never been out in the scary world of business.
Those who are opening a business of their own.
That’s because this is a common sense book devoted to helping the unitiated understand branding–or think of it differently. As something that can make a difference–a BIG difference–in their personal and professional lives.
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Very good book, but neither for beginners nor those seeking mass gains,
SUMMARY
This is an overall very good book with a misleading title. It however contains some major flaws that you should, in my opinion, be aware of before buying it.
CONTEXT
(or “skip it if you’re in a hurry”)
While I was training for years with bodyweight movements and routines, recent family events called for huge personal organization changes. That’s why I decided to hit the gym and give barbells and dumbbells a real try. Whereas I’ve always trained for health and performance first, I’ve also considered experimenting a more aesthetic-oriented program without sacrificing the two other goals.
At this point, a “bodybuilding bible” appeared like a good starting place, especially since this one is aimed at ordinary and drug-free people. In effect, a lot of trainers and magazines are paid by or financially dependent upon supplements/equipments companies. Consequently, many bodybuilding programs are a waste of time, energy, and sometimes even health and muscle (because of over-training and its consequences) when you’re not a steroid user or blessed by genetic. Indeed, I only listen to authors that acknowledge such a fact and Tyler English seems to be one of them since he emphasizes “natural bodybuilding”.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
(or “everything I liked about the book”)
1) The first thing that struck me was the layout. I found it beautiful, clear and well thought, and I think it really helps the reader to get into reading the book.
2) Along the same lines, I found M. English recommendations to be extremely precise, clear, and straight to the point. This is very refreshing because too many training authors fall into both “I’ve got the truth” and “too much bro-talk” traps, which I personally find very annoying.
3) The nutrition part is especially good. The author helps us determining how many macronutrients of each type we do need depending on multiple factors like body type and lean body mass. Then he describes the best sources of each one of them, along with interesting advices and nutritional theories. M. English is a firm advocate of whole food which, from both health and financial perspectives, seems to me like the very best choice. Finally come the advanced strategies, and here we learn about hormones, meal planing, dieting phases… Everything is clearly explained and well summarized. All things considered, the nutrition part isn’t that long, but it’s really comprehensive and I will personally use it often as a diet quick reference.
4) Regarding the workout part, I really liked the flexibility of the proposed plans: we get to choose between 3, 4 and 5 days splits, and the author explains the advantages and disadvantages of each one. This allows us to go with what’s best for us and our schedule. Moreover, the program is 6-months long, which seems like a perfect length to me: long enough to make tremendous progress, short and varied enough to prevent boredom. I’m really eager to try the program in a few months after the completion of my current one.
5) Coming from a bodyweight and martial arts-oriented training background, I’m always thinking “functional strength” when exercising. Well, the good news is that free weights have not only proven useful for that, but also for sculpting great physiques. And since the book’s exercises are all about free and even body weights, I’m a happy man.
6) I don’t fall into the “bodybuilding competitor” category, but it seems to me that there are very valuable pages for them in the book: bodybuilding history, tanning and posing recommendations, etc.
7) M. English is also the model illustrating the book. While being a good athlete doesn’t, by any means, imply being a good trainer, it still gives the author a certain credibility.
8) For those of you who have ordered or will order the book from Amazon, there are free bonuses to grab from the author’s blog (see his post of June 4, 2013). The most noticeable, in my opinion, are the videos of all the book exercises, an additional 8-weeks of bodybuilding programs, and a cardio program. I really thank M. English for such a giveaway: it’s not vital, but it reinforces the overall impression of great professionalism conveyed by the book.
ON THE DARK SIDE
(or “what I found really annoying about the book”)
1) You have to be warned: this book is all about the “cutting” (or dieting for fat loss and muscle preservation) phase of bodybuilding. There isn’t a single word about its necessary counterpart: “bulking” (or mass building). I can’t emphasize that enough because that was a huge disappointment for me. I just really don’t get that a so-called “bodybuilding bible” doesn’t include a chapter or at the very least some recommendations about gaining muscle. I don’t even know if the given training program can serve that purpose (assuming relevant changes to diet). This is a…
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Feel the burn!,
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Great for my husband,
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