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LEADING YOU Brand Makeover Caroline Nyamwaya Mwazi C oca Cola, Pepsi, Adidas, Nike, Microsoft, Apple, Mercedes, Porsche are all strong, highly recognizable global brands. According to businessdictionary.com a brand is a unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors. Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumers’ mind. Just as companies have brands, people are brands, too. Professor Wangari Maathai, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Lupita Nyong’o, Usain Bolt, David Rudisha, and it does not just apply to celebrities only; think about your colleagues, family and friends. All of us can name people in our circles who are well collected, consistent and reliable. Conversely, we can also name people who are disorganized, loaded with excuses and extremely unreliable. As Rachel Miller, author of A Beginner’s Guide to Personal Branding, puts it, your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”. I first heard about personal branding the same time the organization I worked for was re-branding. Fully understanding organizational branding, I found it fascinating that Tom Peters insisted that individuals should brand themselves like companies. The year was 2005, and the book was Re-Imagine! Written after Tom Peters first introduced the idea of personal bran