I was browsing through my advance copy of the next issue of Personal Branding Magazine, and found an interesting interview with MC Hammer. Hammer, as you probably know, is a hip hop artist who had his fifteen minutes of fame back in the 1980’s, and after many years under the media radar has now resurfaced as a social media celebrity. He has been blogging since 2006 and now boasts more than 1.6 million Twitter followers.

The lesson MC Hammer’s story teaches us is that we can start with whatever assets we have today, and leverage them to take us closer to our goals. In his case, he took what was left of an old and fading asset (his 1980’s fame) and found a catalyst (social media) to breath new life into it. Instead of complaining and dwelling on fame and fortune gone by, Hammer reinvented himself.

All of us have legacy assets of which we are not taking full advantage, like a passion we’ve been supressing, an old acquaintance we haven’t contacted in a long time, or a skill we haven’t practiced in years.

Like Hammer, you can bring those neglected assets back to life.

For example: That book that you always wanted to publish but couldn’t move it through traditional publishing houses? You now have many self publishing options at your disposal. That long lost high school buddie that you found through LinkedIn? Contacting him may lead not only to a rekindled friendship, but also to a promising new business opportunity. The presentation skills you learned at your teaching job? You can leverage them in a new career in sales.

This process is called re-branding, and it is not that hard. Start by taking inventory of all your skills, passions, relationships, values, points of view and personal preferences. Then, take a look at your environment. Most likely it has changed in your favor since the last time you were paying attention. Social media is just one example of that change, but it’s a good place to start, as an old school rapper already knows.

Copyright Shoestring Branding – Rediscovering Your Personal Brand Assets