The U.S. used to stand for “no one else matters but US.” Then came Bollywood, and its 1.2 billion audience members, including pretty much the best engineers in the world.
And then came Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and its audience of 1.3 billion consumers of concrete and Hong Kong. Oh, and Kate Beckinsale was crowned the sexiest woman in the world, per Esquire. ScarJo and Megan, you have your place, but audiences around the world, heck even here, find celebrities more desirable if their personal brands are born outside the US.
U.S. Citizens:
Your earning power and net worth are dependent on seeing yourself as employable by anyone, anywhere. Your personal brand must embrace that you are a world citizen, not because it’s the polite thing to be or because global warming is melting another continent’s ice caps and you’ll miss out on seeing polar bears.
Right now, your best job may be with a multinational not based in the US, a US company that is globally oriented or any business where you’re not just serving the locals. Unless your personal brand is to intentionally cater to the locals, like running a neighborhood diner, which is incredibly cool and could totally rock a gentrifying couple of blocks. Of course, if your personal brand is entrepreneurial then you might be thinking about franchising your concept, so remember Subway has more overseas stores than domestic.
Global thinking isn’t just for brands like Coke, Nike and Disneyland anymore. Increasingly, it’s for your personal brand and mine. My cousin Allan started out running a classic Mustang parts business in Long Beach. His personal brand was big with the membership of a few local Mustang car clubs and the classic car geeks at swap meets. Five years later, he makes most of his money shipping cars overseas. He’s built his personal brand by being a rock solid supplier of cherry condition cars to big money bidders in Australia, New Zealand, the EU, the UAE and of course, Asia.
So citizens of the US, make your personal brand global friendly. Read a business etiquette book that tells you the rules in the places where you won’t find familiar faces. Like how you should show up on time to German meetings but stay calm when you’re the only one in the conference room in Rio and it’s two hours later than, oh let’s just say you anticipated. If you had the oil, fresh water and Olympics that Brazil has, you might be more casual than concerned when the US pays you a call.
Here’s what you do now
1. Pick a daily newspaper website from 5 nations – only one of them from your home country. Read at least the headlines. Yes – most of them are translated into English (we still are the language of air traffic control).
2. Look for your passport, and if it’s time to renew it, take a photo that makes you look like a trustworthy business person, and not like you at 19, needing a haircut and living on Ramen noodles.
3. Pick 3 multinational companies to follow online, so you can see what it’s like to be part of the whole world – and not think you are the whole world.
Author:
Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen.
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Going global is now easy thing, it starts with strategy . Position yourself, be prepared for opportunities and be ready to grab them when they show up
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Nance – some good suggestions. However I would suggest that this runs a little deeper than a personal brand – to basic US culture. Going by most surveys around 80% of the US population does not own a passport and now that we in Canada require one to visit a large percentage of those people have likely never left the US – ever.
My 3 point plan for thinking and acting global:
1. One of the great things about the US, like Canada, is that there is such a rich diverse population you can likely get to know someone from any country in the world. Spend some time with them, ask them about their country, work etc. After all they have lived in both cultures and will give you a much more realistic and useful insight than perceptions of news feeds and corporate web sites.
2. Then identify some countries you would like to visit and take some trips. Avoid the sterile package tours and look to immerse yourself in the country. My best travel experiences to the likes of India have been when I ate, slept and travelled as the locals did – and you get much better understanding of how the country works.
3. Leverage online networks, professional associations etc to make contact with those that have gone before you. Ask them the lessons, what they would do differently, recommended connections, places to live etc. And experience the country in its extremes – I spent some winter time in Canada before I made a move here and certainly recommend that to anyone else that askes me – minus 40 is cold!
Then if the opportunity fits to your personal brand go for it – it is a great adventure and home is always there for you.
Interesting article. I enjoyed the notion of the “world citizen” and the three things to “do now”. But I think that simply being “aware” of non-local news, trends, or best practice is not enough. To build a global brand also takes intent, it takes a scalable plan of attack, and it takes action. Awareness is a good starting point, but it is just the tip of the iceberg.
You are all so right! Admitting a problem is only the first step to solving it. BTW, I’m glad we still have the tip of the iceberg to talk about – that may wind up an old adage that no one recalls the origin of: like “falling off the wagon.”
I know people who travelled the world over, but they only saw what they wanted to see. It’s the heurstic that matters.
With all the recent denigration of higher education, I think it is important to point out that getting work visas in foreign countries will almost always require a degree.
Many people are dissing the value of a university degree, but it is still essential in most countries around the world.
Yes, thanks for expanding the dialogue! Understanding perception and decision-making, and valuing both education and experience are all integral to forming our personal brands – and becoming part of a community where we are authentically engaged.
[...] notes in “Your Personal Brand is Nothing if Not Global” that what may start as a small, local business has the potential to become an exporter of goods [...]