[MUSIC] Hi everyone, welcome back. So in this lesson we'll explore the concept of human brands, and why that concept is important to your career. As we think about it broadly. So let's first start with the definition of a brand. It's probably pretty intuitive, but just to kind of remind us. Zidar and Naric define brand as a unique sign, a symbol, or word, or combination of these employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from it's competitor's which is certainly the piece for all of you. So let's think for a second about how powerful brands can be. Another story about a search engine, so the search engine Google is globally recognized and it actually even made it into the dictionary. The Oxford English dictionary which is considered the most authoritative dictionary of the English language for several years now, contains the verb Google. And I was surprised to read how long it's actually been in the dictionary as a verb. So many of us simply say Google it when we want to look something up on the internet. Now that's a brand. Actually made it into our everyday language. So most disciplines have discussed the translation of a brand. Like an object to a human brand or a personal brand. The human being having a brand, it's sort of the personification of the brand if you will. So for example, again to give you a little background, the sociologist Erving Goffman had this sort of seminal book and he talked about the presentation of self in every day life, that's the title of the book. And he has suggested that Interactions between individuals are a bit like theater. We remember Shakespeare saying all the world is a play, right? So in that we are, we're all actors. We're putting our best faces forward, we're trying to guide an impression of our performances by changing our manner, our appearance, and so forth. And we adjust what and how and what and how we present ourselves based on the audience, the context and so forth. And that all probably makes intuitive sense and then another research managerial researcher named Tom Peters wrote an article titled the brand called you and it was again sort of seminal work and in it he introduced the concept of a personal brand and he suggests in that article that each one of you, me, our colleagues, etc. We all have a unique brand and we have the ability to develop it. That brand, he argues is a very distinctive persona one that's recognizable and unique. So, Peter's premise is that every one of you has the power to create your own brand and to market it. The concepts have really gained a great deal of popularity, a great deal of momentum in many disciplines, which is interesting. That the concept has sort of traversed a lof of disciplines, and that includes psychology, organizational psychology, you can hear the concept in self help books, and they all use this phrase of personal brand. But remember where we began with the ideas of reflection and learning. Peter's would no doubt argue that both of those are sort of critical components to creating and maintaining that brand. We constantly have to learn and reflect on, the brand that we're creating. So in the creation of your human personal brand, details matter. So the details surrounding your brand be consistent with the message you're trying to send. So again by the way of illustration in the world of product brands some colors are associated with different emotions. For example you might know that blue is a more relaxing hue whereas red is more fiery and passionate each of these colors says something unique perhaps about the object behind the brand. That same level of detail should be considered when you are developing your human personal brand. By the way, speaking of details and choices, do you know how Google came up with their logo color scheme? Google it. What have we learned? We've learned the definition of a brand and how it relates to a human personal brand. We also discussed that when creating and maintaining your brand, details matter. Up next, now that we've reviewed what a human brand is, let's look at the art of personal branding. See you then.