Your personal brand isn't just a tagline — it's you. It is the process of discovering and clarifying the qualities that differentiate an individual from the rest. Personal branding is a smart strategy for the ambitious and those seeking to set foot or level up their careers.

Personal Brand 

Personal branding is a smart strategy for ambitious entrepreneurs. 

career

Career

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

business

Business

The 5 Vital Rules of Personal Branding

Instagram is filled with promotions of “loaded teas” — made with tea concentrate and fruit-flavoured drink mixes — often boast cheeky names like Bahama Mama or Mermaid and appear alongside promises of zero sugar, few calories, healthy antioxidants, and perhaps most importantly, a big dose of caffeine: #cleanenergy is a frequent accompanying hashtag, which makes sense considering that many loaded teas boast more than 160 milligrams of caffeine — more than double what’s in a cup of coffee.These drinks are sold by independent distributors from a multi-level marketing company, Herbalife.

Fruit-Flavoured Caffeine Fad

Founded in 1980, Herbalife employed the classic MLM model by signing up independent distributors who have two responsibilities: to sell the company’s protein powders and nutritional supplements, and to recruit others to become Herbalife distributors. Herbalife has been <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/herbalife-faces-fresh-legal-hurdle-51601059300">sued on</a> <a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/south-florida-couple-among-thousands-of-plaintiffs-in-1-billion-lawsuit-against-herbalife/172685/">numerous</a> <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/11/herbalife-pyramid-scheme-lawsuit-15-million-settlement-in-class-action.html">occasions</a> for that business model, resulting in <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2016/07/its-no-longer-business-usual-herbalife-inside-look-200">one $200 million settlement</a> with the Federal Trade Commission in 2016 that required the company to completely revamp its compensation structure.

A Multi-Level Marketing(MLM) Business Of Loaded Teas

It’s easy to see the appeal of loaded teas. They’re low-calorie, look pretty on Instagram, and tap into trendy wellness culture buzzwords like “high in antioxidants” and “immune/energy boosting.” For dieters who are accustomed to the bitter aftertaste of artificial sweeteners and are tired of drinking plain old water, they offer a compelling alternative. Much like Starbucks coffee, too, these beverages are a way to convey status — if you can afford to buy an $8 drink every day, then you’re doing pretty well for yourself.

Buy It, Click It, Instagram It

The way most people make money in an MLM — and why <a href="https://mashable.com/article/multi-level-marketing-mlm-scam-avoid">most experts view the model as a scam for consumers</a> — is when they become an “upline,” or a person who has recruited new distributors. Uplines earn a percentage of all the items sold by and to people beneath them in the hierarchy, called “downlines.” People on the bottom end of the downline are not earning much.

How MLM Works

Increasingly, nutrition clubs are popping up across the country as technicolour tea shops, and almost every single one of them is affiliated with Herbalife. Even as loaded teas and meal replacement shakes grow in popularity, the function of these clubs is ultimately still the same as their predecessors: Instead of only selling the powder mixes and vitamins directly to consumers, they use Herbalife ingredients in their menus of drinks, shakes, and protein coffees. And every new customer that comes in to buy a Mystic Mermaid has the potential of being a new downline.

Colourful Tea Shops

There’s a growing trend of both online content creators and regular folks making their own loaded drinks at home. During the pandemic, <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516589&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etsy.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dloaded%2520tea%2520at%2520home&referrer=eater.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eater.com%2F22958985%2Floaded-teas-herbalife-mlm-silver-lining-lessons-dupes-nutrition-clubs">loaded tea kits</a>, which allow customers to make their own drinks with Herbalife supplements, became popular, but many at-home drinkers like the Stockstills are intentionally bypassing MLM ingredients to avoid supporting companies they see are harmful. Others made a similar decision in an attempt first to save money — who wouldn’t want to spend 65 cents on a good drink instead of $8?

Bypassing The Expensive MLM Overhead

Thanks to social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, a DIY version of the loaded tea craze is becoming increasingly popular — these sites are replete with recipes for loaded teas and other “health drinks” like collagen-infused “beauty teas” that only require a trip to the grocery store, not an initial investment of nearly $100 in Herbalife products. But nutrition clubs are still opening across the country at a rapid clip, and there’s an obvious demand for loaded teas and meal replacement shakes, whether they’re made with Herbalife products in a store or by yourself at home.

The Bottom Line

Notorious multi-level marketing (MLM) company Herbalife is selling a dream to its health-focused beverage distributors, who are opening tea-slinging "nutrition clubs" at an alarming rate

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

health

Health

The Truth About Herbalife, the Company Behind America’s Latest Tea Obsession

Rarely does a company sustain its global industry leadership for more than a few decades, and most that do so are very well-known global brands.Organizational longevity relates to how well a firm succeeds across different markets over time, irrespective of its original objectives and founders.

Being A Leading Company For Decades Isn't Easy

YKK stands for the Japanese zipper manufacturer Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, which roughly translates to Yoshida Company Limited. YKK, founded in 1934, manufactures and produces approximately 10 billion zippers a year.It has impressively, and quietly, remained the market leader for zipper sales for many decades, begging the question: What contributes to its success and longevity?

The YKK Mystery

Zippers are a specialty item that is not marketed directly to consumers yet make up an integral part of the piece of clothing, bags, luggage, or similar items.While the zipper industry is relatively obscure, it is also large, with annual sales in between $7 and 13 billion (U.S.), with a CAGR between 5.4% and 7.6%.

Making An Obscure Speciality Item

<ul><li>Do not fear failure; experience builds success/creates opportunities for employees.</li><li>Insist of quality in everything.</li><li>Build trust, transparency, and respect.</li><li>Failure is a good thing, and YKK believes that if the goals are set high, failure is inevitable.</li></ul>

Company Values

YKK goes to great lengths to connect with stakeholders on a local, community, and global level.A key part of stakeholder engagement is giving back to the community and operating in a sustainable fashion.By virtue of its corporate values, YKK is further ahead than most in integrating sustainability into all aspects of its business.

Commitment to Stakeholders

<ul><li class="ql-indent-1">YKK's financial statements reveal slow but steady growth through the years.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Dating back 20 years, the operating profits of the fastening business fluctuated between 11% and 16%.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">All of its employees participate in the ownership of the company as stockholders and receive dividends.</li></ul>

Private Ownership

<ul><li>One of YKK's core values is "insist on quality in everything," and, according to the company's own website, all of its business activities revolve around the assurance of quality.</li><li>Each YKK production site conducts various quality tests and regularly reports these to the headquarters in Japan.</li></ul>

Focus On Quality

Adopting new cultural customs, norms, and traditions means acquiring new cultural knowledge and experiences, and learning and using new languages.Focusing on local even manifests itself in different operations within one country. YKK successfully integrated its traditional Japanese values with those of the local southern U.S. culture at its plant in Macon, Georgia.

Being Global And Local

<ul><li>The YKK case illustrates that diversification may be a good business move but it can come with downsides and other risks.</li><li>Building a highly visible brand is conducive to staying on top or is it better to keep a low profile? The YKK story shows us that being visible to the public and garnering unwanted attention can be a risky thing. It also forces companies to take active political stances.</li></ul>

Diverse And Low Profile

How the Japanese manufacturer YKK has stayed at the top of its industry.

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Lessons in Longevity from an 88-Year-Old Zipper Company

Boxed cake mixes before 1933 required only water. But when Duncan Hines' cake mix forced the consumer to add fresh eggs as well, sales soared.Adding friction is a counterintuitive strategy that makes something slightly more challenging, increasing its appeal.

Adding Friction

Whether you're running a Slack, Discord, Circle, or in-person meetups, it's crucial to connect one-on-one with members.Schedule calls with new members to get a sense of their needs and to learn about their interests and expertise. Not everything needs to be scalable.

Unscalable Organic Interactions

<ul><li>In a time when there's more competition than ever, sometimes the only way to stand out is to lead with value.</li><li>Trust that the investment will come back to you.</li><li>Over time, people will get to know you for your high-quality work.</li></ul>

Give Value And Quality To Paying Customers

<ul><li>Master one channel, then scale.</li><li>Create a flywheel that gets both repeat content and allows you to scale with decreasing friction.</li><li>Anything worth doing takes time, but once you start to see momentum, it becomes easier to expand your efforts and get a greater return on your investment.</li></ul>

Narrow Your Focus to Sustain Healthier Growth

<ul><li>Tap into underleveraged marketing channels and you can reap the benefits before these channels go mainstream.</li><li>Niche or smaller email lists tend to have high open rates and click-through rates, which means they're ripe for sponsorships.</li><li>Not everything can be low-hanging fruit.</li></ul>

Get Greater ROI from Smaller Channels

Instead of hiding the cancel subscription button, create trust with the customer by sending reminders that their recurring charge is about to be debited. They should have the 'skip' option ready in case they don't want the services anymore. This is counterintuitive to the hilt but helps build word of mouth and loyalty.

Remind Customers of Recurring Charges to Foster Loyalty

<ul><li>Encouraging your email subscribers to opt out so that they stay in is counterintuitive.</li><li>Check who hasn't opened your emails in the past 90 days and delete those who don't click.</li><li>Hitting that delete button will hurt your gross numbers, but your open rates and clickthroughs will thank you.</li></ul>

Delete subscribers to improve your email program

<ul><li>Give free press to brands who share your similar audience, ethos, or approach.</li><li>Align yourself with other brands by promoting them in your work.</li><li>You'll earn goodwill, potential reciprocation, and unlock doors for future collaboration.</li></ul>

Give free PR to others to enhance your credibility

Cold outreach is typically seen as a numbers game: hit as many inboxes as you can, assuming 5% or fewer will convert. But I’ve never agreed with that

8 Counterintuitive Marketing Strategies That Actually Work - SparkToro

In 2010, Photoshop was commonly used for everything design from editing a photo, making a poster or designing a website. Today, Adobe still seems very strong, they have great stock performance and their transitions to SaaS has been seamless. Yet, they are no longer the market leader in a few segments of design. Companies like Figma, Sketch, and Canva are examples of products that have become top products in the market.

Figma and Canva are taking on Adobe

Companies like Figma and Canva are able to thrive against a strong incumbent like Adobe because they have a distinct atomic concept. Their products are built around a different strategy than Adobe's product lineup.  These different fundamental atomic concepts turn Adobe's advantage of an established product and existing userbase into a weakness that handicaps them to compete against these startups. It is worth understanding the phases of market transition that drives these companies.

Why young companies are able to thrive

Startups can take advantage of market entropy. Changing customer needs are the biggest source of entropy in markets. When the customer needs change quickly, legacy companies are left with all the overhead and product that no longer serves the market. There are many causes of changing customer needs.<ul><li>There are new and growing segments of customers with different use cases. However, companies may resist changing the core parts of their product.</li><li>The scale or dynamics of a market shift enough to make a product obsolete.</li><li>The type of user change. These new types of customers care about different things.</li></ul>

New use cases: designing for digital

The best products map to how customers think about their workflow. They choose the right atomic concepts around which the entire product is built. They align with how customers think of their workflow and crystalise how they ought to. Great atomic concepts are refined and built upon in more complex compounds. When similar companies have slightly different atomic concepts, they become meaningfully distinct. A company can rarely change its core atomic concepts. Startups thrive because they can find asymmetric angles on incumbents.

Tapping into the right level of abstraction

When Figma started, it was a direct Photoshop competitor. But, over the next two years, they shifted their focus to designers working on the UI and UX of digital products. The key for designers was a product that enabled collaboration. Building for collaboration led Figma to rethink almost everything about the company, leading to new pricing models, distribution models, and sharing form factors.

Figma bet on collaborative product design

Photoshop can do many things, but it is too low level. Photoshop's atomic concepts are images and pixels. But Canva operates at a higher abstraction level and one that users care about. Canva designs start with their purposes in mind, such as designing a pitch deck, an Instagram post, or a wedding invitation. Canva has templates and layouts for that purpose and makes it easy for users to add their own creativity, such as adding their own photos or using graphics and components made by the community.

Canva bet on marketing design by non-designers

As Canva grew, it expanded its ecosystem by creating marketplaces and communities around templates, layouts, fonts, and more. Users prefer not to build from scratch, and instead support free and paid Canva marketplaces of pre-built components. The add-ons are very powerful. They allow Canva to address the huge scale and varied needs of all its customers, enabling each customer to use Canva in a personalised way.

Defensibility through becoming a platform

Design is not unique. The same factors that drive demand for new and large use cases are arriving in most fields, especially in all forms of digital content. The most active area undergoing this market transition now is the broader productivity space. Companies like Airtable, Notion, Coda, Roam, Retool, Webflow, and Loom have seen huge early traction, but it's tricky to describe the exact spaces within productivity and collaboration. Many companies have lots of product roadmap overlap. They still need to define the atomic concepts they're betting on before they can position themselves.

Extending this playbook to other spaces

Companies with early success have yet to define what atomic concepts they focus on. Who are their competitors? Who are their customers, and which use cases should they build their workflows around? Companies have difficulty navigating these questions because customers don't know what they really want. These companies have the opportunity to change how customers think. Strong enough products will have ecosystems around them. The best companies build the platforms to enable and direct these ecosystems to empower the customer more.

Opportunity knocks

product

Product & Design

How to Eat an Elephant, One Atomic Concept at a Time - kwokchain

I just want to aware u guys for one thing that is our law !!!!Law is soo difficult because our or other country thinks that language should be use hard. If we use big words or a sentence which makes the speech heavier they think it will make us look soo good and they feel they are educated but i feel noo...they are wrong!!

Law 

I feel they are wrong because if we think about education....so we should also know that as we r getting opportunities of education some people are not getting i think ....so there is a language barrier in it and i feel communication should be easy instead of being hard .

Continue 

To show there education?They give because they want to share something, they want to aware us related something etc. So why they can't do this in a simple language.So everyone around the world can understand what politicians want. There are some law which is not known by anyone.....when we tell them that this kind of law exists.Communication is the act of giving, receiving, and sharing information -- in other words, talking or writing, and listening or reading. Good communicators listen carefully, speak or write clearly, and respect different opinions.

Y People Give Speech

The key to successful, rewarding practice is good communication skills. In the legal world, one needs to communicate well with the lawyers, the staff, the partners, the associates, the clients and the vendors. A good communication skill not only boosts confidence in oneself but also helps the clients and other people to understand the language of law in a better manner. The more one master’s good communication skills the more the practice becomes enjoyable because if the communication is understandable the client or other people are likely to trust more.

Introduction 

The term convention is something which people use nowadays to refer to punctuations, spelling and grammar. Sometimes conventions can also be referred to as a handwriting and computer formatting. Earlier “conventions” were also called “mechanics” but this is not the case anymore because communicating correctly involves a lot of human thought and it is hardly a “mechanical” process. There are actually no rules of writing, instead, there are agreements between different people in society regarding how to interpret the written communication when it is read.

Meaning of convention

These so -called rules were officially accepted in the 18th and 19th -century era and they are still evolving today. There can be an endless debate on the topic if a piece of article is correctly written or not. Even if a person thinks that a piece of something, he or she has written, is correct, there could be possible chances of mistakes that another may find in the same. So the question, if something is correct or incorrect, depends on who is doing the considering and the correcting.

Contin

1. One should think about tools, not rules.2. How many sentences must be in a paragraph.3. Correctness.4. Conventional wisdom.

Different Aspects Of Convention

1. Verbal communication 2. Good listening 3. Sound counsel 4. Openess5. curiosity 6. Value7. Persuasion

Skills required for great communication

Writing is said to be good if the piece of writing accomplishes the writer’s purpose behind writing the document.Good writing must be clearIt must be conciseIt must be engaging.Apart from the above basic principles that apply even to the known legal right things, there are some important guidelines for legal writing specifically:1. The importance of grammar .2. Acknowledging source.3. Basic rule.4. Abbreviations ..5. Legal terminologies .6. Power of language.

Importance of convention in legal writing?what Is Legal Writing?

Communication should be easy to understand!!!

Know: Meaning of convention, Different aspects of convention, Skills required for great communication and Importance of convention in legal writing.

writing

Reading & Writing

communication

Communication

teamwork

Teamwork

How conventions are used in legal communication of information - iPleaders

1. The most efficient way of learning is to build a product and speak to experts in the field.2 . You should at least have a basic capital to start a venture. At the same time, this should not be the only barrier to your startup.3. You don't want to do anything out of the box. Basic business sense and getting the fundamentals right will keep you in the business for long run.

Top lessons from Indian Entrepreneurial Pioneers

4. Running a startup or a company will always be a constant battle in thoughts, whether to wait out patiently or invest in new technologies. But the thing is you should do both in an appropriate manner. 5. Too much diversification leads to loss of competitive advantage. "Jack of all and Master of None" is the major contributor in blowing things off. 6. Whenever there is an emotional bias or massive setback, you step back and be objective and put your critical thinking in play. It's a difficult thing to do but you have to believe in and do it.

7. "Being objective during Euphoria" is equally challenging to "Being objective during a Setback"8. Going global is extremely relevant to the context of business. It doesn't work for everyone9. You never know what is coming. Always have a buffer fund.

Important things to keep in mind while starting or running a business

startup

Startups

books

Books

Sidharth Rao

How I Almost Blew it

<ul><li>Much of what we come to call "luck" is actually the macro result of 1,000s of micro actions. Your daily habits put you in a position where “luck” is more likely to strike.</li><li>In order to get lucky, you have to remove the “black holes” (anti-luck) from your existence. You have to take actions to expand your personal luck surface area.</li></ul>

Luck Is Made Up Of Micro Actions

“Luck has nothing to do with it, because I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come.” - Serena Williams

In the movie Interstellar (slight spoiler if you haven’t seen it!), there’s a scene in which the main characters discuss the habitability of a planet on the edge of a large black hole.The protagonists realize that the proximity to the black hole makes life unlikely to exist on the planet—the black hole absorbed all of the “lucky” events that might have been the spark for life. The asteroids carrying the seeds of life were minusculeIn order to get lucky, you have to remove the “black holes” from your existence. You have to take actions to expand your personal luck surface area.

The Interstellar Impact

There's no luck on the sidelines—the arena is where it strikes. It's lonely and vulnerable, but it's the only path that bears real fruit. When faced with two paths, choose the path that puts you in the arena—where collisions happen, where luck can strike.

Get In The Arena

The idea that free time is bad is one of the greatest lies you’ve been told. In investing, it’s often said that cash is a call option on future interesting investments. Well, in life, I believe that free time is a call option on future interesting opportunities. When you have free time, you have the headspace to pursue new ideas and go down rabbit holes. Plan for more of it.

Schedule Free Time 

Everyone has a few negative people in their circle. They tell you to be realistic. They laugh at your ambition. They argue. Eliminate this negativity from your life. It's a boat anchor—a major black hole—cut the damn line and run away from it as fast as you can. Negative people are quite literally the anti-luck.

Ruthlessly Cut Negativity 

You should spend your 20s saying yes to almost everything. Saying yes puts you into uncomfortable situations that lead to new relationships, opportunities, and growth. These unexpected moments are luck-rich. Embracing them is how you capitalize.

Embrace The Unexpected 

We really need to normalize boredom. Some of your most creative moments come during periods of boredom. On a walk, in the shower, at a dinner by yourself. You’re bored, your mind wanders, your thoughts mingle. Bam! Insight strikes. Boredom creates luck. Go for more walks (sans technology), go for more drives, sit quietly and think. You’ll never regret it.

Creative Boredom Is The Key

20’s has been lot of conversation about luck and getting stuck in this hurricane of post pandemic chaos, this article really put me at peace. I hope it does for you too. 

20 ways to expand your luck surface area & create more luck

problemsolving

Problem Solving

How to Get Lucky? 

Remote work has been one of the rare benefits of the pandemic, and now nomadic workers are extending their stays for weeks, sometimes months at a time. According to Airbnb, the company saw an increase of 16% in stays over 28 days or longer (February/March 2022) compared to the same period in 2019.A staggering statistic shows that one in every five nights booked on the Airbnb platform during Q3 was for a stay of 28 nights or longer.This scenario helped Airbnb make over 55 million dollars in profit last quarter, suggesting the travel industry is finally bouncing back after two years of upheaval.

Huge Demand From Nomadic Workers

There is an opportunity for homeowners to make extra income by signing up to be an Airbnb Host.The typical US Host earned more than $8,000 from January through September 2021, which represents nearly an extra month and a half of pay for the median US household. New Airbnb Hosts have earned $6 billion since the pandemic began, and for listings that were first activated and booked in Q3 2021, 50 percent received a booking within three days of activation, and 75 percent received a booking within eight days.

Side Hustle As An Airbnb Host

With the rise of remote work, people can work and live anywhere in the world. <ul><li>To meet the demands of this new travel revolution, Airbnb updated their onboarding process to offer a ten-step process and their new AirCover protection plan.</li><li>Airbnb has also waived the $100 hosting fee for new hosts who complete their ten-step onboarding process.</li></ul>The company understands that this is an excellent opportunity to expand its host base and is doing everything it can to make it as easy as possible for people to sign up.

New Host Signup Technology

Airbnb has put together an excellent marketing effort to entice new hosts to sign up. Their sign-up page estimates your projected monthly earning potential based on booking data for the last 12 months from your specific area.While this estimated income amount is just that, an estimation, it provides a baseline or starting point for those looking to start a side hustle as an Airbnb host.For areas with specific laws to prevent nightly rentals, hosts can capitalize on the popularity of working remotely and skirt those laws by renting for a minimum of 30 days.

Become A New Airbnb Host

The pandemic has had a profound effect on the way people travel and work. More and more people are now choosing to rent out their homes through Airbnb to fight...

remotework

Remote Work

travel

Travel

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

The Airbnb Effect: How The Pandemic Is Driving This Travel Side Hustle

It would motivate me for work I have done by clicking on it and algorithms in <a href="https://medium.com/@hackedongrowth/5-ways-to-prevent-business-failure-2022-7467ae903613">Medium</a>

Follow Me

Can you determine what the core of the problem is now that you’ve completed all of the most crucial phases of analysis? You now know what decisions to make if you know what expenses to cut, for example. These are the decisions that will eventually rescue your company, no matter how difficult they are.

3. Return to the Conceptual Stage

After evaluating whether or not your firm has a future, you may investigate how much it will cost to reorganize. Money is running out. Do you have a copy of your profit and loss statement? Are you aware of the revenues, expenditures, and expenses incurred at various phases of your company’s development? If you aren’t completely familiar with your profit and loss statements, now is an excellent opportunity to go over them carefully and examine them. Do you see any areas for improvement? Selling, sources of revenue, seasonality, net earnings, and cost of goods are all key factors to consider.

2. Renovated budgeting

What is the fundamental cause of your company’s problems? Take the time to fully examine your company. What may be the source of your difficulties? There are certain frequent reasons why businesses fail,

1. Find out The Reasons

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

What’s up, it’s @hackedongrowth here, Nobody begins a company to lose it. However, for many people, business failure is a reality. The most difficult step is confronting this fact and saying to yourself, "My company is failing." But failure is more often than we believe, and you may feel horrible about the waste of time, effort, a

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

5 Ways to Prevent Business Failure (2022)

Find 100+ Business Facts, Ideas & Insights - Curated from inspiring sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!