It wasn't as easy as it sounds, Schwabel admits. His first blog, Driven to Succeed, was launched in October, 2006 and failed to make much of a ripple. About six months later, he encountered the writing of Tim Ferriss, switched his focus to personal branding, and the rest, as they say, is history in the making.
"I was trying to find my own brand for years but only uncovered a few interests and skills, such as mentoring, marketing, graphic design and web development," he says. "I realized that personal branding was exactly what I had been talking about all along, without ever mentioning the term."
For example, he says, he had eight different jobs in college, as well as his own consulting company, and also held seven leadership positions in organizations. For each interview he would market himself with a resume, cover letter, cd portfolio, website, and more.
"I never realized exactly what I was doing and when I discovered that my brand was "personal branding" that changed everything," he says. "Since everything I loved matched the topic, it was quite easy to be an evangelist. My passion activates everything I do, no matter how much work I take on."
During his meteoric rise, Schwabel has somehow found time to be everywhere on the web, launch a Personal Branding magazine with--who else--Donald Trump on the first cover, host a podcast show, hand out personal brand awards, do some freelance writing, work on a book and serve on the board of advisors for a startup--all while holding down a full-time marketing job at EMC where he is resident social media expert and helps executives blog.
"There is so much more I want to get involved with," he says. "The key to success these days is to create as much value as possible and give before you receive. That is how I've been networking and it's helped change my life."
As we say here in New York, we should all have such problems.