Following the official launch of her first book, My Brand Compass, on Saturday (May 28), media personality Dr Terri-Karelle Reid has added ‘published author’ to her growing repertoire.

Speaking at the book’s launch, held at the Toyota Jamaica Coffee House on 93 Old Hope Road, Reid shared with members of her TK Tribe how the book came into being.

“This was never supposed to be a book, funny enough,” said Reid.

She informed that, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a number of her scheduled events disappeared, leaving her with a lot of extra time on her hands.

During the period, she decided she would begin to answer some of the questions her community members had asked over the years as it relates to personal branding.

“This was just supposed to be a cheat sheet,” stated Reid.

“I was gonna drop this one-pager on my website so whenever people asked about branding or whatever I would just send them the link.”

She noted, however, that the more she attempted to provide answers to the questions her Insta Fam posed, was the longer her one-page document became.

The book, which Reid has dedicated to her grandmother, affectionately called ‘Jeanie Baby’, is a result of the many lessons she has learned about branding over the years, which have been summarised into 13 ‘C’s.

Seeking to address the elephant in the room, as it surrounded the book’s title, the author explained why she “pivoted” from the initially advertised title, Brand You, to My Brand Compass.

“‘Brand You’ you is a lingo, it’s a part of any conversation when you speak about personal branding and, so, over the years, I have been invited as a keynote speaker for a ‘Brand You’ topic… . When persons come into my DMs or they are asking questions, they say ‘how can I build brand me’, so I typically say ‘okay, you can build brand you’ … . It is not uncommon for it to be like that so, when I started the book, I started with the name ‘Brand You’,” shared Reid.

As a result of this, she explained that, on April 19, when she did the soft launch of the book, the title was Brand You.

She noted that two days after the book’s soft launch, it was brought to her attention that a book with the same name by a Jamaican author already existed within the personal branding space.

Following consultations with her publishing consultant, it was found that there was no copyright on the phrase ‘Brand You’.

Notwithstanding this, however, in light of the brewing controversy surrounding the book’s title, having taken the issue to the Lord in prayer, she received clarity on the matter which inspired the book’s name change.

She explained: “I mentioned the word compass early in the book where I stated this is my guide and I even structured the book based on the compass… . (I went back to my ‘why’) which was to share my compass, my navigation system with my community…”.

Not wanting to have her integrity questioned, Reid shared that no response was ever given to the derogatory statements being made about her and her book, deciding instead that “silence was the best response”.

Providing a sneak peek into what readers can expect from her book, Reid informed that three of the ‘C’s mentioned within the book on the road to personal branding are communication, character and competition.

For those interested in purchasing the book, it is now available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions and will be made available locally at the Kingston Bookshop during the course of this week.

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