Are You Sitting Around on Your Brand?

I once heard a story about William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States. He was trying to fill a position on his staff and was struggling to decide between two candidates whose qualifications were pretty much equal. That was, however, until something happened that changed his perception of one of them.

One dreary, rainy night McKinley boarded a crowded streetcar. Also aboard the streetcar was one of the candidates under McKinley’s consideration, but the candidate didn’t know McKinley was there. At one of the stops an elderly woman laboriously made her way onto the car, wrestling with a large basket full of laundry, and obviously cold and tired. The candidate kept his seat and pretended not to notice the woman. McKinley noticed, however! He gave his seat to the woman and gave the job to the other candidate!

We never know who is watching, and we may never know how what we do for others will help us, or how what we don’t do could permanently damage our brand in the eyes of others. As mentioned in our ECHO Marketing workshops and in The Great Game of Networking, EVERYTHING IS BRANDING! Let’s make our brands the kind people tell GOOD stories about!