Categories: Articles

Holiday Cheer – Be Young@Heart Defines Personal Branding

Developing a personal brand is all about how the little stuff adds up to the greater reality of who you truly are. The sum of all the parts (if you will). In those nuances is your uniqueness. Your beauty. Your “you.” Your personal brand.
As a music lover and someone who spent the better part of my career watching (and writing about) people rise to fame (and others that didn’t), I began to realize that sometimes it is not the artist at all, but simply their intonation. Again, those little flections in words, moves and visuals that grab someone’s attention. I often reflect on the many bands that would debut their latest video in my presence and talk about “the money shot” – that one instant that binds the whole concept together, and it was always something as simple as the way the camera was angled when the artist looked into the lens or when something (usually unplanned) took place and they captured it.
Music is a powerful tool for connecting and for building your personal brand. It truly is the soundtrack of your life. I’m sure you’ve heard the song ‘Fix You‘ by Coldplay. Imagine the music, think about the lyrics. You might even recall that this song was used in many chick-flicks or during the commercial for the movie, World Trade Center.
Now, I’d like you to watch the video below. It’s by a chorus called Young@Heart. They are comprised of people between the ages of 73 – 92. Here’s how the Young@Heart website describes the group: “There are some with prior professional theater or music experience, others who have performed extensively on the amateur level, and some who never stepped onto a stage before turning eighty.”
Personal brand. Same words, same music you’ve heard and seen before (watch the original Coldplay video here: Fix You). Completely different spirit and brand when done by Young@Heart. It has a whole new meaning. Enjoy, share and pass it along. It’s an amazing moment:

(thanks to Shardy)

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.