At the awards dinner presentation, we heard each recipient's brief biography. It was mind boggling to think of the impact made on the profession by the people in that room. My companion at dinner Donny Shimamoto said, "Wow, all of these people have a personal brand. "

Donny's words were like a bolt of lightening. The reason any of us were in that room was absolutely due to that personal brand. It's  how I found myself there. We had all invested a great deal of time and energy in building our brand, sharing our perspectives and trying to move the accounting profession forward. This was a room full of speakers, writers, bloggers and Tweeters. 

We had each spent countless hours (often at no pay) just to share our thoughts with the world. 

We all shared a passion that moved us forward: 

From applied technology, to practice management, to planning for the future, to marketing, messaging, trashing time sheets, to firm automation, to providing value-added services, to mastering accounting software, to QuickBooks expertise, to leading firms of the future, to cloud infrastructure, to gadgets, devices, and techniques, to leadership coaching, to mentoring, we all had a unique view of the accounting profession. 

And none of us were afraid to share it.  (You can pity the poor presenter who tried to keep us quiet.) 

While we didn't always agree on the approach, we are all united in our passion for the accounting profession and the opportunities that lie ahead. 

Imagine where you could go if you invested time and energy in building your personal brand. Today's unknown blogger is tomorrow's thought leader.