Building your own image branding

Did you know that people do actually subconciously portray their own image branding? Take Jay Chow for example, what would you think of him when you think of him as a "brand"? Creative, quiet, playboy maybe... so you see that's the image branding that are subconciously in you.

I learnt about this image branding just last week when I attended a workshop session organised in conjunction with the International Women's Day on 8th March. There are many ways how people interpret "brand", ie. image, recognition, popular, unique, identity etc.

Just like what marketing people will do a for product or service, they would put in effort to build the branding for it. This is exactly how you would apply the same concept in building your own "brand" to stand out from your peers in an organisation on the way to the top.

So what's the key elements in building a brand?
1. Who's your target?
2. What's the offer?
3. Reasons to believe (RTB) in your offer ?
4. What's the personality associated with this brand?

By incorporating these 4 elements, your brand would be more relevant and convincing. By the way, a brand can be summed up with the following description: all tangible and intangible elements, which together make it unique.

Have you identified what's your brand?

Am I ever going to be a good first aider?

I had minimal knowledge/experience in first aid during primary school's extracurricular activities. But no actual first aid experience. And I've forgotten all what I've learnt, save for the endless marching under the hot sun. I couldn't understand what marching has to do with first aid. Even now.

Once upon a time, I was eager to acquire first aid skill. Then I threw the notion out of the window long ago. I thought it was interesting and useful to learn that then. It still does now.

This time I caught it in the wind, and volunteered for the first aid training offered that was being offered. This was weird, exciting, anxious...what if I don't know how to save a person? What if I faint at the sight of blood? And most important of all, do I really want to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a foul-mouthed "ah pek"? Eueekk... :S

I counted with my ten fingers and ten toes, and it seemed to me chances of those happening are quite slim. So I threw caution into the wind, and asked to be nominated. So, the timid me is erm..going to be the FEARLESS & HELPFUL first aider! :P Emails were circulated to introduce the nominated first aiders, and suddenly I feel ... "POWERFUL" and "FAMOUS"...

But first will need to come the 2 days training. No worries, I won't faint at the sight of blood. Needles? No problem...maybe injecting into others may pose a teeny weeny problem. And lots of bandages, medicines, first aid kit...Oh, of course, there should be a dummy. For the infamous mouth-to-mouth resuscitation practice of course! What else did you think it was for?

Fo Guang Shan DongZen Temple

The Fo Guang Shan DongZen Temple at Jenjarom, Selangor was abuzed with activities and people thronging the place during the CNY. And this year, the it was the venue for Selangor State Open House.

From KL, you could take the KESAS highway and exit of at Banting/Nilai, and drive straight until you reach the traffice lights junction with the police station on your right. Turn right at the junction. It's fairly easy to find the place, as there are signboards once you reached Jenjarom. See the map here.

I visited it on the 3rd day of CNY, which coincided with the Open House celebration. Of course there were free vegetarian food, but those people were so kiasu, they literally pushed their way to hog the food. Scary... :S

There were stamps, flowers, books, calligraphy exhibitions etc. And of course dance performances and lion dance. The whole place was lightly lit with colourful lights and lanterns. Took some pics to share... planning to visit it again on this year's Lantern's Festival.

Pagoda
Lotus Buddha
	the 12 animal zodiacs lanterns

Do you smell the whiff of CNY?

Went CNY shopping at Tesco with my family yesterday. Mom and lil sis have been telling me the place is packed like sardines last weekend, the cars were parked all over the place, and spilling over to the roadside. This time around, dad chose to go in the late afternoon, when the sun was blazing on the skin, and you could feel the heat the moment you step outdoors. He said that would be the time when the crowd was lesser.

I don't know how true was his statement though, as the place was crowded as usual. You would think the place was full of free goods, with people pushing big shopping carts and dumping stuffs into it.

Seeing is believing. I can't describe how true that statement is. Commuting only to the office and burying my head deep in the work pile, I felt left out of the CNY festive mood. I didn't even realise it was just a week away, and I haven't even submit my leave request (*oh, I've promptly done so the first thing this morning). But joining the crowd in shopping for CNY stuffs, I could smell CNY. Yup, it's near, and it's very, very near. I could almost touch it. You hear people talking about CNY, red and gold decorations everywhere, and TV stations have started airing CNY ads...oh, it does feel like CNY already.

Now, I should just aim to finish my work before end of the week, and I shall be off enjoying the CNY! yay~

The books have arrived!

Yay~ A big parcel arrived yesterday, and it's for me! :D Actually that parcel is from Lydia, she has promised to mail the books that I've won in her blog contest. That's 4 books, including one of her recent work, Honk! If You're Malaysian. I'm so excited, and she even autographed the book with a personal message to me. Cool! I've never had an autographed book before. I'm so excited that I dig my head into her book straight away.

The first story itself has made me giggle. How she described the china man in Pagoda singlet...haha.. the fact that it rings so true, that I can imagine the "apek" kissing her in front of before my eyes... yuccck!! :P I'm going to indulge in the book again tonight...can't wait to read the rest... Oh, and thanks Lydia!