I am so excited as my book, Branding & Marketing YOU is launching soon. I have always wanted to write book and especially as I tell people who if you want to position yourself as an ‘expert’ in your area of specialisation, write a book. As I set out on this new journey, my starting point was to look at my talents and strengths. I have always loved case studies and stories. When I was at university, I received a medal for excellence in social work (based on my case writing abilities). Having read a number of books in my area of interest, I realised that case studies was not a common way of looking at the subject and when case studies are used, the people spoken about were celebrities. To make the subject of Branding & Marketing YOU accessible to all people, I decided to focus my book on nine in-depth case studies of successful South Africans in a range of fields who had successfully built and marketed their personal brands. The reason I chose people over a number of sectors was to highlight that personal brand building and marketing is applicable for everyone, no matter what your field of specialisation.

The people I selected to interview for my book were mostly people I had admired throughout my career. All were highly successful in their areas of expertise and I was intrigued about how they had built and marketed their personal brands.

I gave a lot of thought to what I wanted to get out of the interviews to make sure that the time I spent with the people I chose was impactful and value adding. To ensure I was accurate in capturing the stories and insights from the nine selected people, I video recorded each interview and developed transcripts from the interviews.

Having the transcripts, I was able to apply my case study skills and ability. I focused extrapolating where the people I interviewed had demonstrated the key principles I knew were vital to building and marketing a personal brand.