Branding yourself for Success - Book Review

Branding Yourself for Success
How to attract clients that say YES!
Ramona Lever

Book Review

Branding Yourself for Success is a 2014 book written and self published by Ramona Lever and illustrated by Shakira Lever. This book is available from the link below for a price of $18.95, plus $5 postage and handling.


Electronic copies of this book are available for $3.76 on Amazon.com at the following website:

As a brief bio, this is what Ms Lever states about herself in her website: 

"Ramona Lever is an Author, an Internationally Accredited Behavioural Profiler and an expert in Personal Branding. Her extensive experience in Sales and Marketing coupled with her background in Coaching and Counselling have given her the passion and understanding to empower others to achieve outstanding results.  Ramona is also an established photographer with a successful studio specialising in Branding Headshots". 

The back matter of her book states that by the end of the reading you will discover the secrets to:

* Attract amazing new clients
* Strengthen your professional credibility
* Learn to Network successfully
* Increase your online visibility
* Live authentically, and 
* Build long term success

I was intrigued by Ramona's work because of the state of my own emerging business as a writer. I have owned this current blog for just over a year now and have developed a modicum of experience in the fields of personal networking, blogging, marketing and developing an online profile, but I have been searching for a good product that answers the often asked questions about these fields and ties them together in a cogent whole- there are many websites which provide expertise in various fields, but fail to tie things together for the reader. Ramona's work, thankfully, does just that!

Ramona, as noted above, is a professional Headshot Photographer, with a history as a Behavioural Profiler, and a Personal branding Expert. Her current work as a Headshot Photographer artfully expresses the skills gained in her previous work to successfully showcase the heart and soul of her client's businesses and assists them to find the unique selling point within their own characters; and therein lies the heart of her book- finding the unique personal brand that markets you as a person- asking and providing the answers to the question: Why should I hire you as an individual over the myriad of others in your sphere of work?

At 133 pages, it could be argued that there is not much content, but really, this depends on what the reader wants. As Ramona herself mentions, If you want a "how-to" book, with clearly defined step-by-step increments to success- or if you want jargon-rich figures, facts statistics and formulas, this book is not for you. This book reads more like partly personal experience, part tried-and-true business management protocols, and partly excellent conference-quality notes on personal branding. I have read a few books on business before and usually notice business imagery on the front cover, so I was intrigued by her photo, yet having read the ideas in her book I could see how a well captured picture clearly does paint a thousand words, especially in her line of work!

Ramona indeed does give the keys to discovering the secrets she outlines in the back material of the book and gives insight into a lot of other good philosophical points, like:

* Seeing your profession as an extension of your personality and perceiving 'success' with maturity.
* Defining 'what you do'.
* Attracting the 'right' type of clients.
* Connecting personal values and spirituality to your business. 
* Knowing when and what to delegate.
* The value of visualisation, goal setting and aspiration. 

Ramona "walks what she talks", especially in regards to maintaining a consistent online presence. You can find her online materials here:


In case you didn't catch it, I would definately recommend this warmly written book- especially to emerging business owners, or those bewildered by where to start in the process of marketing themselves; summing it up with a quote Ramona herself uses by Ralph Waldo Emerson: 

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you into something else is the greatest accomplishment"

Ben Mathewson. 

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