Let’s Begin with the Basics: You can be Extraordinary!

You Can Be Extraordinary — The Basics of Personal Branding (Lehetsz kivételes — Az énmárkaépítés alapjai in Hungarian) written by Móni László was released in October 2015. Móni, who is a personal branding specialist, guides the readers through the essential steps of efficient verbal, non-verbal and visual communication. The readership might be comprised of a great variety of individuals, and they all can become successful. They only have to seize the opportunity!

Móni László has been working as a personal communication consultant for ten years. In addition to that, since 2011 she has been posting regularly on her blog Personal Branding to give advice to her readers on how to build their personal brand. Her book is actually a combination of these two activities. She systematises and presents various personal branding tools in an easily understandable and logical way. Although the title might limit the target audience and suggests that the book is only for those who are planning to learn about personal branding but haven’t started yet, don’t let this keep you away from reading it.

First and foremost, I wrote this book for motivated and ambitious women, but the feedback shows that men read it with pleasure as well.

More people, more personalities… Of course, the author takes this as an axiom. The direct style and the light tone of the book make the readers sure that they are in good hands. Regardless of their occupation, anyone can follow Móni’s guidance. After all, everyone has some kind of personal brand, they just need to find it when they decide they want to ‘build theirs consciously’ from now on. The visuality of the publication designed by János Gräfl also supports diversity.

When writing, I had to think not only in letters but also in images in order to create something interesting. Such a book that one happily takes down from the shelf, in which images are not only illustrative elements but texts and images complete each other and form a unit. It was János Gräfl who had to realise the concept and do the editorial job. It was exciting to work with him. I learnt a lot during the process.

The book was, indeed, edited with great awareness. The creative arrangement of the table of content at the very beginning of it demonstrates that right away. The readers are taken on a journey that starts with the preface and ends with a brief summary written on the last page. First, they acquire knowledge of the notion of personal branding and learn about themselves. Then they continue their journey and read about examples of best practice presented with the help of case studies. At the end of their travel, they become acquainted with useful offline and online tools.

The reader cannot do anything but absorb knowledge, even if sometimes the pieces of advice might seem evident. Nevertheless, it cannot be repeated enough that ‘[p]ersonal branding is nothing else but those expectations that others have in mind about us’. It is essential because one tends to forget that after its construction is finished, they actually have to prove themselves to others. ‘The goal is to make others aware of why they should choose us to solve a problem related to a certain kind of task.’

Besides assisting the readers step by step in the development of their personal brand, the author also shares interesting information with them. But, taking solely the subtitle as a starting point, more detailed explanations and deeper analyses would have been included in the book. Tom Peters is certainly the founding father of personal branding, but the context does not tell so much about what he does and why he is such a significant figure when it comes to personal branding. (Of course, we have Google.)

This, however, does not have any impact on the quality. This exciting piece of writing can evoke the interest of a broad public, including both professionals and non-professionals. Móni László is still keen on posting on her blog and she might write a book for intermediate and advanced learners in the future as well. I’m looking forward to it.