Speaker 1: Good evening, I'm going to talk to you this evening about personal branding, but I think we should probably first start with what personal branding is not. Personal branding is not what you post on Facebook, how you respond on Twitter, that's a whole other conversation. What we're going to talk about tonight is personal branding, the perception that you have of yourself and that others have of you and when that convenes. We're going to spend some time talking about that because along the way working with corporate brands I picked up a tip or two that I want you to think about. I would not be so bold to say that I'm going to give you advice because I know better, but I'll give you a few things to think about. At this point you have charged full force through elementary school to middle school, from middle school to high school, lots of successes, the fastest, the most academically acclaimed. Now you're readying yourself for the big launch of your brand. I'm going to tell you the first thing that I want you to do, I'm going to drop the F bomb on you, don't worry, I'm going to keep it PG. I want you to fail, I want you to fail so spectacularly, the kind of failure that like punches you in the gut, takes you to your knees and you wallow around in how horrible it is. Because how you react to that failure will be the sustainability of your personal brand. For were it not for failure we wouldn't have the Hershey Kiss, my beloved iPhone, nor would we have Walt Disney World. Steve Jobs was ousted from his own company, Milton Hershey closed down two chocolate factories before, well they were candy companies, before he founded Hershey. And Walt Disney was told countless times that he lacked creativity, but they survived because of how they reacted to failure. You're also going to be told along the way to follow your dreams, I'm going to ask you not to do that. Dreams have limits, dreams can be walked away from, but if you find something that you feel passionately about, be it your career path, how you volunteer your time, or what you do behind closed doors, if you feel passionately about it, parameters will not exist, you will forge forward when you hit that failure and your personal brand will be stronger on the other side. Because the final thing I want you to consider when you're launching your personal brand is that it's ubiquitous. As you move to your 20s, your 30s, heaven forbid your 40s, I know that's hard to imagine at this point, outwardly you'll look the same, outwardly, no you won't, outwardly you'll look differently, inwardly you'll be the same, and what I want you to consider is the self awareness that you've gained along the way. Because the true value of your personal brand is when you value yourself and others have valued you, and you're able to take criticism not as a tearing down, but as a point for reflection and to make yourself better. So as you move into the future and you launch your personal brand, I want you to do so passionately, I want you to fail spectacularly, fail so passionately that you don't care that you failed and then be self aware enough to make it better and know the value that you bring to others. Thank you.