I've always been keenly aware that as an individual within a large organization I had to develop and nurture my own personal brand. When leaving a meeting with senior management in which I made a positive impact, I would always say, "think Clausnitzer." -Cheesy as hell, I know it.. but when it came time to give out new territory or even excess bonus money, they thought Clausnitzer and it equated to more $ in my pocket. I was recently at a training seminar and one of the SVP's of our company was there. He took me aside and said, "you're an ideas guy, what do you think of...." -It made my day. My personal brand had made an impact on him despite me never having worked directly with him.

I think that we can too often assume that "brand" means "logo" or even your formal business. Brand can mean "you" too.

By the way, the idea I pitched him on is called "Archives". :)