ZachAry is a University of Florida student and sandwich shop employee. ZachEry is wanted for murder in the state of Florida. You can read the story in its entirety here:

http://www.switched.com/2010/11/30/zachary-garcia-google-himself-wanted-murder/?ncid=webmail

Turns out that local law enforcement circulated the photos of the wrong Zach and that includes the wrong spelling of Zachery. Sandwich shop Zach discovered his name sake after Googling himself.

Why You Should Google YOU
Every now and again you should Google yourself to see what appears on pages 1 through 3 about you. Most people do not navigate beyond page 1 but up to 3 is a safe bet.

Just like you check your credit score – your Google score is becoming increasingly important to keep tabs on as well. More and more people turn to the web before interviewing, meeting, or even accepting a date with someone.

What Next?
Have you Googled yourself lately? Have you found out something new about yourself?

On Thursday, October 21 Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project (#1 New York Times bestseller) will be the guest speaker on the Reach Personal Branding Interview Series (its free). She’ll be speaking about her own story of pursuing happiness and building your online identity as an author. You can learn more by clicking here and registering for the event.

Do you focus on Happiness?
Gretchen focused on a different aspect of her life each month for one year. Areas of her life included parenting, marriage and leisure activites to name just a few. She took a scientific approach by researching each area and then a practical approach by applying new tactics in her day to day life.

I loved Gretchen’s book and her website offers lots of tips on starting your own happiness project. As we approach December 31, a day many of us are making New Year’s resolutions I’m thinking about my own happiness project for 2011.

What are you thinking about? How are you going to create more happiness in your life?

photo credit: www.DIGIbux.de

I will only endorse products that I actually use myself and find useful. One thing that you should know about me is that I’m a great consumer. I research items to find the very best quality at the very best price point. Love to find a good sale on high quality items.

I’m often boasting to my husband about how cheap I find some amazing products. When I point out the savings he always says, “not buying it at all would have been the biggest savings!”

That being said a few products I highly endorse as a result of thorough research and that pertain to brandiD my personal branding and online ID building company are:
1. Web hosting via Blue Host. One of the best resources for hosting your WordPress site with excellent customer service. If you would like to host your site on Blue Host click here.

2. Domain purchasing via MyDomain.com.
Click here to buy your domain via MyDomain.com

3. Last but not least is where I learned the ins and outs of affiliate marketing and much, much more, Third Tribe Marketing. It’s an amazing site started by Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, Sonia Simone and Darren Rowse. A few thousand people have joined Third Tribe Marketing and they are truly some of the best and brightest involved in blogging, marketing, SEO, design, and development. So many people are really generous sharing their knowledge and expertise. It’s a safe place to ask questions and test new concepts out. Chris, Brian, Sonia and Darren host frequent Q & A calls for us. I have learned a great deal and met some amazing people.

In just a few days (June 1) the price to join Third Tribe will be going up to $97/month. But if you act before that it costs $47/month. If you’re interested in joining please click here. You can try it out for 30 days and get your money back if you don’t think it’s worth the cost.

I’ve shared what I’ve learned about affiliate marketing, what do you know? Would love to hear your thoughts and teachings.

My blog got SPAMMED in a major way approximately 12,448 pieces of information about cyalis, phentermine, acai berry, supreme headquarters, allis, herbs and many, many other products I’ve never heard of as well as various sexual things one can only find at a low-key Adult Store off of a highway rest stop.

Because these comments somehow got past the SPAM filter in WordPress they are actually located in my Comments section and also got approved as a result of the settings I had chosen on the back end of my blog. Bad move on my part.

I’ve asked around but there doesn’t seem to be a bulk delete option for Approved Comments only for SPAM. The greatest amount of bulk deleting you can do is 20 per page which means I have 619 pages of comments to delete. I’m estimating that would take about 11 hours of computer time.

At this point the only other option is to rebuild the blog from scratch which is also time consuming but will likely take less than 11 hours. I hope.

One major result of this problem is that I’ve stopped blogging because in order to rebuild the site each existing blog post will need to be individually downloaded and reentered on the new site with a backdate – more time consuming work.

How can blog SPAM impact your personal brand?
- Once you start blogging you shouldn’t stop if it’s an effective communications tool. Being consistent in your communications is necessary when building your personal brand.
- If the comments are visible it can attract unwanted attention.
- Since most people who read your blog don’t know you on a personal level they have no idea that comments on your postings that include profanity or information about products you don’t use are SPAM. People may assume some things about you based on the SPAM comments.

To avoid blog SPAM download a plugin called Akismet. A friend and YOUnique newsletter colleague Kristen Jacoway recommended the Akismet plugin after I told her of my dilemma. Ever since adding Akismet to my blog I’ve had no SPAM.

My glass half full interpretation is that every blog site I build will definitely have an Akismet plugin. Live and learn.

A good friend and colleague created this excellent video to give many struggling job searchers some career inspiration. Her name is Kristen Jacoway and she is a soon to be published author. Her upcoming book is called I’m in a Job Search; Now What???; To learn more about Kristen visit www.CareerDesignCoach.com.

Have a great weekend. More to come from me soon.

Here are some tips to help get your creative juices flowing and help inspire you:

-What’s going on in the world? Take a brief break and listen or watch the news. Is there anything going on that you can comment on and relate it to your personal brand?

-Take a look at your personal life – is there anything going on that you can write about that connects to your personal brand? An example: you’re a botanist and your blog helps people master the science of botany at home or work. You want to Aunt Matilda’s for a BBQ this weekend and noticed her tomato plants had turned black. Write about it.

-Take a walk through a good museum, listen to some music – what are the artists painting, drawing or singing about? Is it something you can tie into your brand and write a blog post about?

-Go to the gym or the local coffee shop. What are people talking about? Does it give you some ideas?

-Browse the aisles and shelves at your local bookstore. Whether Barnes and Noble, Borders or something else you’re sure to find some content you can make relevant in your own blog.

-A very quick fix is to use the search tool on Twitter and type in http you’ll find lots of links with a few words of intro copy to let you know what the link is about. Skim until you find something relevant to your personal brand then add your own spin to it.

Hope this post inspired you. Have a great day.

This blog post also appears in the latest issue of YOUNique Personal Branding

The next step will be to develop tools to help you convey and exude your personal brand. One of the most popular tools is the blog site or website. The only difference between the two is that a blog site is a website and blog in one. If you’re going to be a blogger definitely build the “all in one.”

If you haven’t already done so you should purchase your own URL (preferably your name) ex: www.rachelgogos.com. If your name doesn’t exist because it may be more popular ex: www.MarySmith.com you can purchase www.MarySmithDentist.com or something like that to describe your profession or expertise. Many sites exist where you can acquire domain names. The one I use is called www.mydomain.com. It will cost $9.75 to own the domain for one year.

Your brand attributes and other results from your Reach360 http://www.reachcc.com/360reach will help you and your personal brand strategist determine the color palette for your site. William Arruda developed an excellent video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDohoPavchc on YouTube to let you know what personal attribute is associated with a specific color.

Developing the navigation, content and logo for your site are the next most important steps. The navigation will be determined by the purpose of your site, the content and your target audience. Your content is completely driven by who your ideal target audience is. Content you should include on your site are a bio, photo of yourself and your contact information. Your logo or signature look can be developed with the help of a graphic designer and your brand strategist.

The site itself should be developed by a programmer or a very talented graphic designer who can do both. The most popular tools to build blog sites in these days are WordPress and TypePad. One final VERY important element is search engine optimization or SEO. This too is something your programmer should help you with. It involves meta-tags and adwords if you want to pay for them. If your site is built with SEO and it should be it will help it get recognized on Google and other popular search engines. This is a lengthy topic so I will write more in about it in a future issue.

This is the super simplified version of building a site for yourself that is developed, branded and exuding your characteristics. It’s a big step towards establishing your presence on the web. It’s a time consuming project but will fill you with great happiness once it’s done.

This post was also featured in YOUnique @ www.reachpersonalbranding.com/newsletter

As many of you may have already figured out I live in Pittsburgh, PA the upcoming host to this year’s G-20 summit, attracting political leaders that comprise 85% of the world’s economy. The White House announced its venue locations for various aspects of the Summit. The venues chosen by the White House are “on brand” for Barack and Michelle Obama since they tie into their values, initiatives and political goals.

Michelle Obama, for example, is hosting a luncheon at the Andy Warhol museum near downtown Pittsburgh. According to the Pittsburgh Business Times, they chose the venue because of the worldwide popularity of Warhol art and due to the museum’s reputation as a hub for community dialogue. It also continues to exude Michelle’s “hip and cool” persona.

Michelle is also leading a tour of world leaders through the Creative and Performing Arts School to exemplify her commitment to arts education.

President Obama is hosting a working dinner at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The Pittsburgh Business Times reports that the White House chose this venue, in part because of the green-friendly features of the facility that include an earth-sheltered welcome center and a Tropical Forest Conservatory described as the world’s most energy efficient.

The Obama’s and White House officials do an incredible job of keeping this administration on brand. It’s all in the details – see what else you notice.

Multitasking – If you can have a phone conversation while breastfeeding and typing an email with relative ease and perfection then you will be a force to reckon with at the office where you will be able to multitask with more focus because your little ones won’t be hanging on you.

Leadership – Mentoring is one thing but raising little people to be amazing big people is no easy task. Modeling positive behavior is the key at home and at the office. Be authentic in every situation and you will be a role model in the office before you know it.

Problem solving – The phrase says it all

Negotiating – Anyone who has a 3 or 4 year old knows that you can probably handle mergers and acquisitions with more skill than ever.

Working under tight deadlines and pressure – A balanced meal in less than 10 minutes that was not ordered from the local restaurant.

Team work – Getting people of varying skill sets, ages and temperament to work together towards an end goal (they can all be under 6 years of age or under 60) it still takes the same dexterity.

Creativity – A rainy day at home not only unleashes your inner Picasso it helps you tap into your creative soul. Stay connected with that part of yourself once you re-enter the professional world.

Enjoy your reentry into the out-of-home work world. Believe it or not it can be easier than being home with the kids all day!

Over the next several months look for posts pertaining to entrepreneurship, strategically growing a business, leadership, personal branding, social media marketing, building websites, networking, juggling work and family, and quick, healthy food recipes among other topics.

Mostly, this blog will be full of nuggets, discoveries, intriguing insights and a holistic approach to life because I firmly believe that you can’t separate your life into two buckets – work and everything else that isn’t work. This blog will combine both buckets because, after all, part of my personal brand is being authentic, sincere and honest. Everybody’s personal brand should reflect who they really are.

Enjoy.