Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future Hardcover – April 9, 2013

I own both the Audible book and the Kindle edition; however, this book is a personal-branding textbook, so I will need to get a print edition. Why? There are so many tasks! If I follow the steps outlined by Dorie Clark, success will be mine! Or, if not immediate, stellar, success, I will surely know myself, my friends, my mentors, my protégés, and my colleagues a hell of a lot better -- and they will know me better. I will need the print edition so I can hunker down with a pencil, colored pens, a yellow highlighter, and a yellow legal pad and do my best impression of the brilliant student I once was.Don't worry, Dorie Clark does hold your hand. Everything you need exists within the pages of this book. You really don't need any background. You just need to believe in yourself; and, if you're not quite ready to believe in yourself just yet, that you can believe that following Dorie's advice will allow you to fake it 'til you make. Just going through the motions will engender confidence as you see things starting to turn in your direction.Success begets success.Because  Reinventing You  works if you work it -- and if you put the time and energy in and actually do the practical work the book suggests, you don't need to be "already rich" or "already Ivy league" or "already the 1%" to find this book amazingly useful. Some reviewers accuse this book of being maybe too elite; however, I know Dorie personally and there's nothing further from the truth. She's down-to-earth and wants everyone to succeed.In fact, people who have already been trained in the 360-degree feedback process might not get as much out of Dorie's book as someone who is new to all of this. And yes, Dorie does an amazing job of motivating, surely, but this isn't a motivational book, it's a work book and you really must do the work!Do you have a mentor? Get one? Do you know how the people around you perceive you? "Ask, the here's how," writes Dorie in her book. And her advice is not just research analysis, either. She once scheduled a call with me and my business partner; and, when we took the call, she picked our brains about what we did, how we used social media, and about our innovations in communications.And I guarantee she picked many, many, brains. I believe that  Reinventing You  is a synthesis of both her personal experience reinventing her own life mashed up with the experiences of all the people she interviewed for this book. If you are willing to accuse this book of just being a book by an elite for the elite, you've just got cold feet.This book requests that you work through some personal demons, address some personal flaws, and expose yourself to a little critique. It suggests you expose yourself through your writing, through your teaching, and through public speaking -- don't they say that Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, is our number one fear? Above death?Don't worry, even I am dragging my heels when it comes to doing the homework required to extract all the self-improvement juice from this book, but I am unwilling to blame the book, it's all me.I recommend this book highly and have been recommending  Reinventing You  to all my friends.In fact, I recently spent one of my Audible credits on the gift of this book to my friend Aimee, someone who is preparing for the third act of her professional life -- and she's freaked out.And, she needn't be: she's amazing, brilliant, passionate, and now owns the audiobook of Dorie's invaluable book.

Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future by Dorie Clark is worth a read for its useful nuggets of advice and for the perspective she spent years developing and refining. Many of us in the baby boom generation need to be reinventing ourselves to deal with a changing retirement picture and the related need to work long into retirement, both for our economic viability and for social enrichment. Read her book for an insightful perspective that can be useful not only to boomers.I met Dorie Clark at a political workshop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa a few years ago, and found her personal anecdotes about fundraising to be useful and spot on. She was not afraid to tell us to do the hard work, and if one followed her advice, superior results could be attained. I felt similarly when she wrote in Reinventing You about the 360 interview, something that in some businesses has become a stale and mechanical process driven by professional human resource managers. She breathed new life into this long-standing process. While what Clark proposes is often hard work, based on my past experience with her advice, I would be willing to try it and hopeful for positive results after reading Reinventing You.Some of what Clark writes is time-tested advice on things like highlighting our differences for competitive advantage and the role of volunteerism during transition. She adds a layer regarding social media which is important to consider. There was plenty of sound new advice in the book on topics that were already familiar.I found the book engaging and a quick read, offering pragmatic advice as I transition into what's next. You might too.

A very good material to think over if you dream or have to change your professional career. Part of the change is building your new professional brand as all the people who know you, know your past experience. So you need to somehow build consistent message who you are now professionally and build the story around it. I assisted many people n career transitions and saw their struggles and concerns about the change. This book gives good insights about elements you need to consider during career changes. You can build a good plan based on the insights and tools from the book. I didn't like some of the recommendations as I do not think you always need to write a blog or get speaking engagements in your new professional life. But if you treat it as suggestions and possibilities that can support you in reinventing your brand you can find treasures in the book. What I enjoyed about the book is that you can apply many things right away. I finished reading full of energy to reflect on my personal brand. If you dream to change your career, read that book first!

I was transitioning to a new company and an elevated role where it has become necessary to brand myself as an expert in the field of marketing. The book is okay, but not really what I was expecting. There's lots of transformational stories/success stories with happy endings, but the rest is more a 'do it yourself' manual. I'd maybe recommend to an industry professional who is not quite sure he/she is where they want to be and questioning everything regarding their career choices. But unless you have the time to take a step back, it's going to be difficult to follow-through on the tasks mentioned in the book.

I really liked the framework used to describe how to rebuild your brand. Practical tips and book recommendations were awesome

Great concepts, but very beginners level content.

Muchos ejemplos, bastante pragmatico y ayuda a ordenar las ideas y focalizar en los puntos mas importantes.

I had been curious about the author for a while, and selected this particular title from her works as it suited where I was in my career. I wasn't expecting too much from it but was pleasantly surprised at how useful it was to me. The book was well structured, with valuable information and an easy-to-follow process. I took many notes that I've found valuable to keep referencing. I'll likely buy the rest of her books now. Highly recommend.

I’ve bought Dorie Clark’s “STAND OUT” first and loved it. “REINVENTING YOU” is also a great, well-structured manual. Dorie Clark knows—in a motivating, enjoyable fashion—how to make the reader aware of ideas that are important, efficient and constructive. Highly valuable book. Thanks!

If you're about to graduate from University or make a big career change this is your guide to landing your dream job.Packed with step by step advice on everything from conducting informational interviews to combing your online presence for 'smoking guns' that could cause you to not get your dream job, to building the narrative around the new version of YOU, this is a career change bible.From an entrepreneurial perspective, if you are about to start a business, there is a value in following some of the advice, but it's really not an entrepreneurs book. It's best suited for an employee looking to make a career change. For example, if you're currently a lawyer but you really want to become a restaurant manager, or if you are a management consultant but you want to become a talent agent, your current brand and reputation isn't what you need to make a leap. It's not like you can announce to the world you are now x and have everyone wipe their memory of what you were known for before. This book guides you through what to do to make that big change.If you're feeling unsure of how to get where you want to go in your career, this book could be the exact guide you need.