I don’t write about personal brand here on COTJ too often, mainly because I believe building a brand is simply about being yourself. If building your brand isn’t fun, then my guess is it’s because you’re faking who you are. Shame on you.

Know what you stand for, both on the business side and the personal side. Once that’s ironed out (should be easy), look for ways to build on both sides. Today I’ll mainly focus on my personal side, and how I’ve used it in a creative, and in what I think is a funny way to build my brand.

My business side is pretty simple, right? We’ve got this blog here, #JobHuntChat, guest posts, a couple other websites I’m working on, and then a few other items. I enjoy working on all of these. Done!

My personal side may be harder to figure out, because not all of my personal hobbies and interests can be reflected through my brand. You see, I really enjoy hockey. Not only do I coach, but I’m nutty over the Philadelphia Flyers. That’s not something I can always tie into COTJ. Oh, and I’m a gym rat. Again, not sure my love for NO Xplode and Zero Impact Bars will appear on COTJ often.

So, what about my personal side can I use?  Well, maybe I’m a little weird, and I have my quirky side.  I enjoy engaging with people on Twitter.  I love making people laugh, and in trying to do so, I’m usually the first one laughing.  These listed items led to last nights first edition of #LateNightCorn, and it was magical.

#LateNightCorn

It’s amazing what can be found when searching a random word on Twitter.  Now, let’s just say that word is “corn”.  Think of the possibilities.  Is your head filling up with ideas?  Well, last night I DID run this “corn” search, and I sure did find some incredibly ridiculous tweets from folks.  I RT’d a bunch, and put my “corny” twist on each.  Here are some of my favorites from last night.

I’m not sure how long it lasted, but there were many more tweets like these sent out last night.  When it was all said and done, I had created a nice little following of people who were up late, and laughing with me on Twitter.  Oh, I also somehow gained around 10  new followers after this insanity.  I was simply having fun, and I really didn’t care what people thought.  People like that.

How does this help my brand?

I just happen to have a job search blog that is branded with corn.  People call me Mr. Corn, Corns, Corn, and even King Corn.  I’ve heard them all, and people enjoy making that association with me.  It keeps people smiling, and it gives me something that they can hold on to and identify with my name and my blog.

My blog isn’t an intense serious job search blog, you know that by now.  In fact, I like COTJ to be a bit more on the fun & games side, and last nights #LateNightCorn was definitely fun & games.  This won’t work for everyone, but it surely works for me.  It’s who I am, and I KNOW that people enjoy that about me and this blog.

If you enjoyed the above #LateNightCorn tweets, check out the rest @CornOnTheJob (check tweets from 12:12 AM on 5/19).

Which Tweets above were your favorite?

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Confession.  I know jack balls about personal branding.  

I could research some popular top authors on branding like Dan Schawbel or Jacob Share but I’m doing just fine, no offense fellers. You see, in a relatively short period of time, I’ve gone from being personally bland, to having myself an increasingly growing personal brand.  The best part about saying that is I’ve made it happen simply by being me.

Nine months ago I was gearing up for a shit ton of unemployed experiences, something I’ve coined FUNemployment.  It began with a few trips to tropical islands, and then on July 11th, 2009, Corn On The Job was born.  One of the first things I noticed about blogging was an abundance of buzzwords, including personal branding.  Thank god I was directed to Penelope Trunk’s blog, she advised me to ignore those buzzwords and come back to them later. Thanks, Penelope!

What have I done right?

Blog Name – I’m quirky, kinda nerdy, maybe humorous, and my blog and blog name match that.  I wanted my blogs name to make people smile, laugh, but mostly be something they couldn’t forget.  I really don’t toot my own horn often, but c’mon, how cool of a name is Corn On The Job?  People can easily assume that my blog presents the lighter side of career advice.  I feel like they aren’t disappointed in their assumptions once they find themselves drifting through my posts.

I write what I know – I have heavy experience in recruiting, both in agency and corporate settings.  I’ve worked in corporate HR, just about completed a Masters in Human Resources Development, and have felt the sting of an acquisition.  Why write about anything else?  Gary Vaynerchuk speaks a lot about how your passion should drive what you do, and this is my passion.  

I make connections – For two years I worked in agency recruiting, selling people to clients on a daily basis.  You must really love people and making connections to survive that business, and I certainly do have that passion.  Whether people comment on the blog, reach out via social media, email, or meet me face to face, I always do my best to engage.  Life is about connections.  Life is about helping one another.  Life is about learning and improving on previous experiences.  I incorporate those things into my blog whenever possible, and it’s mostly done through connecting and engaging with people.  Matt Cheuvront responds to each of his 500,000 commenters on his blog posts, and that is something that I try to emulate on Corn On The Job.

I’m very confident in saying that 99.9% of the people I interact with on Corn On The Job, My Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, and Brazen Careerist had no idea who I was just five months ago.  Flash forward to present time, and via computer screen, you’ve welcome me into your office, family room, kitchen, local starbucks, and even your bed room.    The connections I’ve made with all of you have been incredible, and it’s continuously the most rewarding benefit of running my blog.  

Conclusions

 Don’t try to create a personal brand.  Lately, more than a couple people have mentioned that my personal brand is increasing.  I’ll say it again, the best part about hearing that is I’ve done it all on my own, without research, and without changing who I am.  I’ve taken who I am, what I know, and what I’m passionate about, and used that to create a name for myself.  It’s been a lot of hard work, but work that I love doing.  It all starts with passion.

What are you passionate about?