When I attended Trish Rubin's Thought Leader session on marketing, I expected to hear best practices related to business. It was refreshing to have a focus on BrandED and to truly unpack our thinking about the story we tell about ourselves.

Trish encourages the “Power of 3.”  Keep it simple, yet powerful. For example:

We own the story. We teach the story. We are the story.

Brand your image. Brand your promise. Brand your results.

She asked us to think about three words to describe ourselves:  I ___, ____ and ____. We can solicit help in identifying those three words from students, teachers, or colleagues. She encouraged us to turn to English teachers to make those words even more powerful.

Wow, so now I really have to start THINKING about my personal brand and how to ensure I provide opportunities for people to experience it again and again – that is how the “brand” develops value.

She encouraged us to develop our own hashtag as part of our personal leadership brand. “A hashtag is like a campfire – it encourages people to come around it.”

So now, I have lots of things to ponder on that six-hour flight back to Maryland!