Dr Terri-Karelle Reid’s Brand Compass Book

Let me set the stage with words from the author, Dr Terri-Karelle Reid.

“All the people you’ve ever interacted with in life are sitting together in one room discussing you. They’re talking about what kind of person you are, how you behave, what their experiences working with you are like, the level and quality of you do and whether they would ever willingly work with you again.

"That room of people – that set of opinions and beliefs about the kind of person you are and how you work – that’s your reputation.”

Your reputation is the basis of your personal brand, and it is the combination of values, interactions, attitudes, experiences, and competencies seen, felt or heard by others over a consistent period of time.

Your personal brand may very well be a result of conscious and intentional effort, or it may be unintentional.

One certain thing is that it influences the impression you leave on people and how they perceive you.

Dr Reid sets the stage to get you thinking about just how important your brand and reputation are in the digital world that we live in, and whether you are intentionally or unintentionally working on it, your personal brand is being built.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Your reputation precedes you?”

Well, now we are in a world where you are pretty much who Google says you are. People can search for your name and do their homework on you without ever having to use anything more than just their smartphone.

This has big pros and cons, because now we know that potential jobs, clients, society, and everybody is looking to see just who you are when they do a Google search. This can either put you ten steps ahead or set you back 20 steps.

Dr Reid has been one of the best examples I’ve seen personally in years who has built a brand that has transcended the Caribbean and made a global impact.

From hosting one of Jamaica’s top shows, Digicel Rising Stars, to the International News Media Association Awards (INMA), which is the most prestigious award for media houses across the globe, to becoming a TEDx speaker for TEDxAstonUniversity in Birmingham, UK, to partnerships with Movado and MasterCard – she is the prime example of how to build a personal brand.

We have watched how she has elevated her brand over the years and admire how she has raised the bar with each passing year.

Paul Carrick Brunson, who is best known as Oprah’s relationship expert, has personally dubbed Dr Reid the next coming of Oprah.

So naturally, the question “How did you do it? How did you build your brand?” comes up frequently, and in 2020, she began taking a list of all the questions she has been asked about building a brand and started working on a “little” cheat sheet to help people get started.

It’s only as she started writing what she thought would be a free, downloadable cheat sheet that she realised the number of questions, the depth and context needed to answer the questions and that this would need to turn into a full book.

Two years later, we have My Brand Compass: The 13 C’s Of Personal Branding.

Who is this book for?

I believe it's made for a wide range of people, from those getting started in the workforce to the CEO. It’s for business owners, people with a message to spread, folks in sales and marketing and overall, anybody who is looking for a great book coming out of the Caribbean region.

One thing I would recommend is that when you are reading it, do all the exercises she has laid out in each chapter.

Also, take a step back and give a good hard look at Dr Reid herself, from her website, YouTube, social media content, the brands she aligns with, and events she hosts or speaks at…look at everything.

There are more lessons to learn by watching her and how she moves. Then, when you look at all the lessons in the book, you are going to see someone who has taken everything they are actively doing and has broken it down into a blueprint for us to get guidance from.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with her and she walks the walk. She pays attention to the details, and she executes.

You will not be reading or consuming content from someone who is fluff or only talks a big game, you will be learning from someone who lives and breathes what the Brand Compass is all about.

Check out the book on Amazon to order your paperback or Kindle.

Keron Rose is a digital strategist who works with Caribbean entrepreneurs to build their digital presence and monetise their platforms.