Personal Branding with David Lees

Meet our new Instructor, David Lees!

He will be teaching SXN 122: Packaging Your Personal Brand for Success, on January 14, 2017!

david-lees

Welcome to FIT!
Tell us a little about yourself…

I’ve always been very creative and have been able to put things together in an unexpected way to create some kind of excitement and interest. I began doing this as a young boy growing up in the San Francisco Peninsula by constantly moving around the furniture in my room.

I continued moving things around to create an impact, by creating parties and events in high school and then college. After studying design, advertising, packaging and exhibit design at Carnegie Mellon University and The Arts Center College of Design in Los Angeles, I moved to New York City.

There, I was first hired by advertising agencies such as Young and Rubicam, N.W. Ayer and Chiat/Day to create packaging solutions for leading brands. I decided to go out on my own doing the same and created David Lees Design. I was then given an offer I could not refuse and became in-house designer for “Studio 54,” the legendary night club, where I created the look of the club and its special events for three years. After that, I established my own event production company, David Lees Productions – to help companies better market their products and services through product launches, press announcements, and over the top events.

Why did you decide to become a career coach?

After 30 years of running around the country, Europe, and the Pacific Rim – quite frankly, I was burned out and thought it was time to start something new. I went to see a career coach to help me. I was so impressed by the process she took me through to create a new understanding of myself and what I could do with the next step of my life. We came to the conclusion that the missing piece was the opportunity to closely work with “people” to help them better position, package and market their talents! That’s why I’m a career coach today. I get to do what I’ve always loved which is moving things around – now, to help my clients get attention and succeed.  I do this by helping them see new career possibilities by better connecting them to who they are at their core.

What’s the most common thing people need to work on?

Recognizing their intrinsic strengths and capitalizing on them.

Can you give our students a quick tip about networking?

Be authentic, have a strong and unique value proposition, and realize that your efforts must be about helping others succeed with your guidance and not all about you and your amazing talent.

David meets fellow Instructors and gets welcomed to the FIT family at our annual FIT Continuing & Professional Studies Instructor Meeting in the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre.
David meets fellow Instructors and gets welcomed to the FIT family at our annual FIT Continuing & Professional Studies Instructor Meeting in the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre.

Thank you and we look forward to your class!
To register for this class, please visit fitnyc.edu/noncreditregister