Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence,  changed my life.

In a 1997 Fast Company cover story entitled “A Brand Called You,” he wrote

“Regardless of age, position, or the business you’re in, you must understand the importance of branding. You are the CEO of your own company and your most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You. It’s this simple: You are a brand. You are in charge of your brand. There is no single path to success and there is no one right way to create the brand called You. Except this: Start today. Or else.”

I read this article after having had several jobs and was both excited and relieved to discover a novel way of looking at my seemingly disparate experiences and recasting them to my advantage.

This article taught me how to rethink my career and build a powerful brand narrative that strategically connected the chapters of my journey in a manner that made me far more confident and successful than I had previously been.

I can now succinctly explain how, over a 35-year career, I learned about branding, positioning, and story-telling first on Madison Avenue working on high-end consumer brands, then as a contemporary art gallery owner, later as Marketing VP contributing to the growth and sale of three tech companies, next as a Wall Street Journal “Marketing Strategies” columnist, then as the founder of a brand strategy firm catapulting leading finance, technology, professional service firms and others to new heights and today as personal brand coach.

Using a variation on the methodology I use to brand global companies, I discovered that my superpower is in devising brand strategies that make both companies and people as captivating as possible.

And even though I am personally long-winded, my expertise is in making a long story short. In fact, I can get your personal brand narrative down to a hashtag.

Really, I can.

This is important because these days people often don’t have the patience to listen beyond the soundbite or read beyond the headline.

Ready to be more effective in both work and play?

I’m here to help.