Glen Plake and Personal Brand

I first saw Glen Plake in the Greg Stump Film, Blizzard of Ahhs. That experience showed many skiers the world of skiing steep, big mountains, which cracked open my reality and inspired me to turn skiing into a vocation as well as a passion. Glen provides a great example of personal branding with his signature mohawk, trademark american flag on his jacket and skis as he plays ambassador for the sport of skiing and K2 skis around the world. now he is the most recognizable figure in the sport.

As for branding, this has been my ongoing project since quitting my previous job at Mountain Madness and trying to separate myself from MM.My Twitter ID is serial skier, a play on words. While a serial killer repeatedly commits his or her crime, the serial skier commits to his or her passion as frequently as possible, hopefully with friends. I believe this works because it is the only thing outside the bedroom that gives me pleasure rain or shine.

For my blog, I chose Sustainable Skier meets...., recognizing my current direction life while alluding to the idea of a future fork in the road, not sure what that outcome would be.

For my company, BC Adventure Guides, the name took me a very long time to figure out. I played with my initials, different words for snow, travel, alpine and found the letters BC meant more than one thing. This was important to me as the connotation for most people's first impression was British Columbia, which I found useful since that was a positive image and a place most people I work and play with want to go. The denotation is back country, which is the destination for almost all the activities I sell my services for. The letters BCA also come from a popular brand of snow safety and travel gear which I haved used for many years and felt that alignment would help me with name recognition for a quality product.

Youtube now makes everyone a film-maker and twenty years later Glen and legendary Chamonix guide, Remy Lecluse, ski the peaks of Peru, my heroes! Am I creating the right identity? I feel comfortable with it so does Youtube fit in with this branding exercies? What about audio clips?


Enjoy the footage!