Ditch, Dare, Do: 3D Personal Branding for Executives Paperback – January 14, 2013

The days of relying on our employer to guide our career are long gone. We all know this. Yet, inertia sets in when we begin to ponder the seemingly overwhelming tasks involved with managing our own careers.Not to worry! William Arruda and Deb Dib have come to the rescue with their new book Ditch.Dare.Do! 66 Ways to Become Influential, Indispensable and Incredibly Happy at Work. This deceptively simple and cheeky book is like a progressive dinner hosted by top culinary artists who do not take themselves too seriously.Sample and savor this book! Each of the main sections - Know, Show, Grow, Go - starts with a quick quiz, rather like a tasty appetizer, to whet the appetite for learning more. The sections' chapters are the slim, but filling main course content of key 3D brand nuggets, stories, and examples (called `Snaps') followed by action-oriented `Sparks' that capture your `ditch', `dare', and `do' ideas.The take-home item is the Nine-Minute Action Plan - nine minutes a day to devote to your career management which adds up to 40 hours annually! The Go-Time Grid in the final Go section enables you to seamlessly integrate and prioritize your `Sparks' into your daily Nine-Minute Action Plans. Could proactively managing your career be easier and more fun? Oh, did I mention? It's calorie-free!

Creative, practical and fun! These are three words that describe Ditch. Dare. Do! -- the latest book by William Arruda and Deb Dib.Why do I like this book?First, the book is well organized into a series of key, focused chapters. The text is high energy and high impact and can be read quickly and easily. As the authors mention, it's a "bold and brief real-world instruction manual for continuously managing your career and achieving unstoppable momentum."Second, it includes quizzes and questions and even special areas where you can make notes to follow up on your own brand adventure. I enjoy books that involve the reader with the material. I also like the many examples and stories throughout which drive home key points about one's brand and brand impact.Finally, while this book is written with the executive in mind, I find it useful for anyone -- from college graduates to entrepreneurs! Everyone can apply this timeless information to their own situation and develop a stronger and more compelling brand as a result.If you're a busy entrepreneur like me, you'll enjoy this short but important and informative book. I highly recommend Ditch. Dare. Do! and will definitely recommend it to my clients!

Ditch, Dare, Do is a personal-branding must-read! It has practical advice that can be implemented immediately. Just as the title of the book suggests, the ditch dare do formula will help you free yourself from all that's pulling you down, challenge what you thought were out of reach, and just do the thing you love.

Ditch. Dare. Do! is an executive's trusted handbook for achieving professional and personal success! Personal branding pioneer William Arruda and long-time careers industry innovator Deb Dib will guide you through the process of uncovering your unique, relevant, and authentic personal brand, and will help you to strategically express and exude your brand in all of your communications, social networking, and business relationships.You'll learn that building and managing your personal brand is not only the key to YOUR success - it is also critical to the success of your company. Aligning your personal brand with your company's brand, becoming the organization's authentic "face of the brand," and communicating and supporting your company's values, mission and vision, will make you an invaluable and indispensable asset to your company. Having a strong personal brand is good for you - and good for your company.Ditch. Dare. Do! will transform how you see yourself - and how others see you - in your professional and personal life. As respected author Richard Bolles said in the forward to Ditch. Dare. Do!, personal branding is "the concern of the snowflake and of your fingerprints." No two snowflakes or fingerprints are the same... nor are we, as individuals, the same as anyone else... and this uniqueness which resides in each of us, is our personal brand.

Definitely gave me good ideas for branding but I wish it had given me more instructions and how-to. Many chapters said I should do something but didn't follow up with actionable steps (e.g. Pick a brand color! or Be a better communicator!).

The eminent author of What Color is Your Parachute, the #1 career book of all time, Dick Bolles says it best in the Foreward: "the career development) playgrounds are new since 1996, and that is the value of this book: it enumerates them and discusses how to use them--Facebook, Google+. Twitter, images, video, YouTube, blogs, thought leaders' blogs, professional associations, etc. - in brief, two-page chapters for fast reading and slow digestion."My business background is marketing, and I see Ditch, Dare, Do as the ultimate career marketing manual. Just as marketers brand products to make uniquely valuable for all the other choices in a category, Arruda and Dib show you how to build your own personal brand to stand out in the market and how to make sure the right people know about you.Like marketing, the work of career growth requires a non-stop communications campaign, and the authors give you all the actionable tools you need in just 225 pages.But don't let the short book length fool you, as always, this work is hard and it never stops. All that is different now is you have the guidebook to get you where you want to go in the new "playgrounds."