You probably think this blog is about me.

Watch out for this space.

In an exercise of vanity clarity, and just in the name of making the most of what’s been established and what can be established further in the interwebs, I’ve decided to devote more focus and concentration on personal branding.

Why? Well, first and foremost, this internet thing isn’t going to go away. It’s not like pagers, or MD’s (Mini-Discs. Yeah, I’m pretty sure you haven’t heard of them); the Internet is here to stay.

And while Captain Obvious certainly has a stake on that last statement, check out this next observation, brought to my attention just recently by the good folks over at Sprout: whether you like it or not, you already have a personal brand set up for you. In their words, ‘you already have a personal brand. It’s based on aggregated data of your purchasing habits, browsing history and all of your social media posts. It’s established with or without your control. But is it what you want it to be?’

I intend to answer that question for myself. If I’m to be spending any more time in this world, and if I am the slightest bit serious about having Christ making a solid impact in this reality, through others, through me, the answer to that question HAS to have some sort of ownership on my part.

Personally, it was important for me to come up with the Anomaly series, simply because it gives me a significant chunk of my personal perspective of anything and everything while being both comprehensive (with all dem words!) and portable (in the blog!) at the same time. That, to me, is a good start.

 

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If you want to know where to start overhauling the ‘defaults‘ about you, open an Incognito browser and search your name.

Now in my case, I searched the following: ‘JB Lardizabal’, ‘Joseph Brent Lardizabal’, ‘Brent Lardizabal’, and ‘JBLardizabal’. It showed up with Facebook (duh), this site (yay!), LinkedIn, and, surprise surprise, Flickr (That tells me two things – I should get back to posting on Flickr, and that the folks in where I chose to post, 500px… well, let’s just say I may be ending my business with them come next year)

(I also tried searching ‘jibee’, by the way. Absolute Zilch. Maybe this tells me it’s not too late to come up with another brand?)

For a person in my age group, this may all come out as vain. But seriously, who IS in my age group anyway? Starting school at an early age, with brothers 5 and 7 years older than me, having most of my friends actually older than me, being entrusted to minister to people in there teens to their twenties, all while I take the role of ‘dakilang bunso’ to take care of my Mom while being the cool Tito (naks) to my brothers’ children, meaning dealing with kids 10 years and below.

PERSONAL NOTE: After writing that last bit I just have to also express and confess how I do have trouble being patient with these kids when their demands are unreasonable. Obviously I still have my bouts of intolerance, especially in a world where kids – KIDS! – are being taught at an early age to think of themselves as smarter and geared towards having one over everyone else (including parents, grandparents and good-looking uncles) when they would rather have the sense of wonder.

It’s these times when I learn (1) how I was a snotty brat myself, and (2) another perspective of how ridiculously PATIENT our God is with us, as we grow in maturity in Him.

So I may work that in somewhere – now, while I pictured myself as a Villain in the sense that I was an enemy to the norm (blame it on my parents who have this uncanny sense of smelling micro-amounts of bullshit before anyone and everyone else does [well, there’s also their parental intentions of believing anything if it means getting us somewhere better in life no matter how gullible they may be <And really, thank GOD for BOTH of these aspects which I have observed in them – I am THIS thankful to Caption-ception it all!>]), apparently, my good friend Michelle was right to call me a Chameleon so many years ago in college – back then, she meant it in a derogatory way, to call me out as a two-faced fake. Rightly so – I was operating from fear.

That was JB, B.C. (Before Christ); Now with JB A.D. (Anno Domini, or, as I Googled, in the Year of our Lord),  I see it now as an asset, not to actually be a ‘chameleon’ for personal gain, but to gain the hearts and minds of people I interact with, driven by Christ who loved me to love them and at the very least encourage them in the same way.

I’ve learned to adjust, and to adapt, all in the name of ensuring that the people I am intentional with are comfortable. Now, this may sound selfless, but honestly, it’s pretty personal for me. One thing I know about myself is that I won’t be happy in most situations unless everyone around me is happy. That’s something that never seemed to leave me. Even as a kid I remember just whispering prayers under my breath for beggars as we drove by them, and holding back the reins to one too many plans just to make sure that the folks around me are game.

See, even right now, the whole prospect of writing for clarity is truly reaping its rewards. I mean, if there’s anything that you’re learning from this so far, it’s that if you have any sort of long-term dealing here in the Interwebs (which, I repeat, will never go away), then you would do well to at least do something to ensure that your personal branding is intentional, something that isn’t defined according to search engine algorithms and (in my case) old, defunct accounts.

Second, and this is as much for me as it is for you, dear reader, it’s to WRITE. Write, write, and even when you are tired, write a little more still, because I’ve learned contrary to speaking, you write some of your best work when you are angry, hungry, tired, and/or sleepy. I just heard Charles Stanley (who I am amazed and thankful is still alive – Note to self: Tweet him a thank you!) say that our best qualities just come out when the worst happens.

Writing is going to be very integral as I go further down this road. I am thankful to Christ for helping me out with this at an early age. I’ve certainly gone a long way from grade 4 when I wrote that poem about those 3 stars in the sky visible from Baguio, which I eventually learned was actually Orion’s Belt (Thank you, Men In Black).

What’s next is to actually gather what I already have, and to see what can be done with them. I may think twice about letting go of them – Flickr comes to mind – and perhaps revive them.

Oh, and for the record, when I thought photography was a passion, it was actually an extension of Christ, who Himself is passionately in love with me, and from this drives me to take good pictures of peace.

That’s personal branding, at least from my point of view – expressing how amazed we are with who Christ is and what He does in us, for us, with us, and through us – through prose, through pictures, through pull-ups and push-ups, and on and on it goes. Even in this, the absolute beauty of Christ and the greatness of God’s everlasting love puts my camera, my laptop, my intentions of making others billionaires who are better than me… God puts all things in their place, further driving the point to me and through me that Christ… is… enough.

Onward and upward!

Onward and upward… to some technical thoughts.

1. Right now, it seems as if what’s happening is that I go ahead and live life, and just leave my thoughts, as a log as it was always meant to be, right here. It’s for my own benefit, and apparently for the consumption of others as well. JBLardizabal.com looks to be my hub, my headquarters, where my ideas for world domination are born.
2. I have an Instagram account I’ve had since Dad’s funeral. It’s had everything from casual mobile shots to my efforts into making photography my one thing (thank God I was saved from that)… @_jibee seems to be my serious-shot Instagram account, while everything else, as I imply, goes to my other recently-made ‘stupid’ account.
3. Logging into Facebook once a week is a great thing! And, I am just so thankful that it’s possible to post through Instagram without needing to log in to Facebook. Just to know that my dependency on this Social Media giant… well, it’s a start. I have yet to come up with a more defined function for this ‘channel’.
4. Youtube’s up. Honestly, I don’t like speaking in front of the camera. But this profile is challenging me to think of the best ways to maximize what mobile hardware I have… and I suppose we’re getting to re-creating CreationScapes, DayStar Reflections… using just my iPhone X. (Now THERE’S an idea. Thank God for writing, indeed!)
5. LinkedIn for my fitness posts? Haha! Point is, LinkedIn and my interest in diet/exercise/supplementation are assets on their own.

Wait, you’re still reading?

Well, you see where you can go with this as well – quick, go Google yourself, and work on your personal brand… before someone/something else defines you online!