Find your passion, stay true to your story, and accelerate your career.
In Brand With Purpose , Ivan Estrada shares critical lessons about personal growth and self-discovery―from his early precocious entrepreneurial endeavors as a seven-year-old selling his drawings door to door for $2 to his rise as an inspirational business leader and highly ranked real estate broker. A book for young entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, and ambitious dreamers, Brand With Purpose is filled with tools and expert advice on growing your career and business, with enlightening case studies and inspirational wisdom from successful entrepreneurs and trailblazers. Reflecting on his personal journey of growing up Latino, LGBTQ, and working middle class, Ivan is a prime example that hard work and perseverance on a foundation of self-confidence is the way to success.
Through guided self-reflection, you’ll discover the very essence of you and your brand , and then learn how to communicate that to build a sense of trust with your audience. Just as Ivan learned to embrace his true self and build a career as a world-class entrepreneur, you too will discover how your own experiences, challenges, and obstacles hold the key to creating a timeless brand that builds loyalty, influence, and trust―a brand with purpose.
I thought this was a well written book about branding whether you are the well seasoned person or someone just starting out on your branding journey. I really liked that each section had a real life example, quote, story, etc. I also enjoyed the authors personal story woven throughout the book. Each chapter also ended with a series of questions to direct your purpose and understanding of yourself. Brand With Purpose is no doubt a book that will continue to help me in my journey as an singing artist. If you need a clearer connection to your why, Brand With Purpose will give you that clarity. Not only will it help you understand your passion and go after it, it will direct you to stay true to your story.
First off, if you're someone who's intimidated by needing to get through a whole book in order to glean any value whatsoever, this book was written to facilitate jumping from chapter to chapter in no particular order. You would get your money's worth if you just scanned the book for the "insights" and "exercises" alone.
This book is written so holistically and with a "big picture" attitude, which is right up my alley. Estrada covers the pillars of having a business today (including video production and social media), while not shying away from how they all intersect of business and the greater scheme of our lives. Estrada displays great vulnerability in discussing how deep-rooted fears and shame, as well as substance abuse, affect not only Estrada, but their business as well.
About 60% of the text originates directly from Estrada and Estrada's direct life experience, while the other 40% is made up by brief blurbs from public figures and business people (from Janelle Monae and Lizzo to GT Dave of the kombucha brand), business tools, research, and other resources (such as TED Talks) that Estrada has gathered over the years. This curated 40% opens up so many other roads you can take to keep exploring, well beyond completion of this book. I expect it will be a text I come back to reference.
With that said, the "guest" or "case study" portions of the book, at times, can feel like a late-night host has way too many guests booked, so none of them quite have time to get comfortable in the chair. At the end of the day, I think this feature is ultimately a positive--the book is packed with information and invitations to connect with other people and resources outside of the book. You just need to remember to breathe a little and soak in the information.
All in all, I'm glad I came across the book. It really has so much to offer no matter your industry or the size or age of your business.
What an amazing read! On a personal level, I feel this book landed on my lap at a crucial time in my life when I’m starting a new chapter as an artist and human-being. As the world is trying to transition out of this pandemic into a new future, so many of us are asking what is next? This book answered this question by reminding me to look within and begin to embrace my authentic self as a start off point. Figuring out what my brand is has always been such a daunting task. Even thinking about my “brand” felt superficial and self-indulging. The way this book guides you towards finding your brand is genuine and honest. It asks you to look at who you are, to accept it and own it with humility and bravery. And it is through this discovery and acceptance of the self that we can discover our brand in a way that is human, relatable, and real. The reading is filled with golden nugget advice that is truly enlightened and wise. For example, it asks the reader to think about what their passion is and how their passion can be used to serve others. Reminding us that true success and fulfillment comes from benefiting others too. It gives the readers tools to figure their purpose, and to find layers in their purpose as well. Asking how else can one express our purpose in this planet? The author empowers the readers by reminding us of the importance of taking risks and facing our fears with courage. It emboldens its audience, daring us to face our shame and rid ourselves of it, that way we can figure out what we stand for, hence figuring our brand and purpose. I will be using these tools offered by this book without question, and probably come back to it repeatedly for inspiration.
“Don’t worry, son. One day, you’re gonna have a lot of pairs of shoes.” — Ivan's Mom
What a beautiful quote by Ivan's Mom. Similarly, the book is also another beautiful piece to read. This book is a journey of Ivan, the author, himself. The book is filled with his real-life stories and useful insights through which the author is trying to teach valuable lessons about life, entrepreneurship, personal branding.
Personally, I loved that section where Ivan suggest maintaining time for creativity in your schedule. I never thought about it before, so will be implementing it for sure.
Along with his stories, Ivan has also included wise words and quotations from many well-known celebs such as GT Dave (founder of GT's Living Foods), Greg Berlanti (American writer, producer, and film director), David Beebe (storyteller and producer), and many other.
I'd like to recommend this book to almost all aspiring entrepreneurs because it will not just simply motivate you to take action but also gonna guide you on how you can make your personal brand stronger.
LAWAN KEKURANGAN AGAR BISA MENJADI PERSONAL BRANDING
Saya membeli buku ini di Periplus ketika sedang perjalanan dinas di Jakarta dua bulan lalu. Buku ini ditulis oleh seorang pebisnis real estate yang juga personal branding expert.
Jika di dalam buku 'Storytelling For Brand'-nya Donald Miller, saya belajar menyusun storytelling dan Copywriting, maka di buku ini saya belajar membentuk avatar personal branding. Avatar untuk target market ditentukan setelah kita mengetahui apa kelebihan dan kekurangan.
Ivan Estrada menyusun bukunya dengan gaya bahasa yang mudah dipahami dan kisah inspiratif dari pengalaman pribadi, serta orang lain. Ia menjelaskan bahwa kekurangan dapat dipoles menjadi identitas branding. Belajarlah untuk mengatasi rasa takut agar branding bisa terbentuk dengan baik. Saya juga suka part membentuk tim dan tips membuat tim mengerti branding organisasi yang mereka jalankan. Buku ini membuat saya mencatat banyak hal. Good reading for every entrepreneur. #BacaanReffi #gerakanoneweekonebook #Bookstagram #bookrecommendations #shortbookreviews
“Brand with Purpose” had been a beautiful reminder that your brand should be authentically you, and that our story, our experiences, our passions should come through our brand. I love not only Ivan Estrada’s perspectives throughout each chapter (because they are totally relatable), but I love that he introduces so many different people throughout the book to add an additional layer of knowledge to that particular topic. This book has been enlightening, and even more so, encouraging. It’s a great read and I am presented with something to think about after each chapter. Thanks, Ivan, for such an inspiring book!
I read this book for a career development class. The reason I chose this book was because the instructors options were all written by white men and two white women. I felt very frustrated that there was representation in my book choices. I rushed to my nearest Barnes & Noble and scoured the shelves for a book until I found this one. I was so excited to hear a voice from the LGBTQ+ community on top of a Latino male. I wanted to know how those stories have effected a career choice and branding choice. In finishing I’m glad that I chose this book and it makes me excited to brand myself!
This book has guided questions, insights, and inspirational quotes drawing you to look inward and examine certain areas of your life while reading. This book is a personal experience, as it will provoke and encourage each reader to really look inward while also lending a helpful hand and guide to living a more authentic and aligned life! This book is uniquely written and cant wait to use it as a toolbox and reference guide throughout my career and mindset moving forward.
Not quite what I expected based on the cover and premise. While a good book with great advice, I wish the book would have gone deeper into the fundamentals of personal (and entrepreneurial) branding. The 'anthology' style of writing where the stories and inspiration were collected from other entrepreneurs made this book end up being a lot more surface level than would have been helpful. Overall, great to see stories of successful entrepreneurs nonetheless!
Near the end of Ivan Estrada’s Brand With Purpose, we get this lovely quote from his mom: “Don’t worry, son. One day, you’re gonna have a lot of pairs of shoes.” This book is a collection of stories and insights that start with the author’s own life and then branch out to encapsulate a range of perspectives from entrepreneurs and branding experts representing a diversity of life not frequently seen in business books, from first-generation Latino city builders to queer DJ’s. It’s a book that broadens what it can look like to be successful while at the same time giving a series of practical steps to how to get there, and an introduction to business leaders of color.
A book for all entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, dreamers, and achievers! This book is packed with advice, insights, exercises, and tools to help you succeed. Hard Work, Perseverance, and Self Confidence are all you need to find your way to success, and @ivanestradaproperties stories prove that! A well-designed, crafted, and created book.
When you read Bran With Purpose, you will end up with a newfound understanding of who you are as an individual and as a business, if those are two different things to you. Ivan Estrada serves you expert status advice about how to elevate and do things with a notion of goodness and positivity. The case studies, quotes, exercises, are so diverse, you can learn and apply this purposefully driven self as you read. You also learn about the author and see how the work that is shared was applied, which is encouraging because you can see that it works.
A useful resource for people in organisations or start ups seeking to build their brand and be authentic. A good read, with lots of tips and examples. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
"Brand with Purpose" is a quick read. The book communicates its ideas extremely clearly. However, I felt that the ideas were surface-level, vague, and at its worst cliché. While I appreciated the reminders to be thoroughly authentic with myself, I don't that I learned anything new.
My lower star rating is related to the book’s fit for me. The book has a lot of valuable insights, the layout was just something that did not flow with my particular reading style.