Ting-Li Lin 林挺立

Since more than a year ago I posted The Year of Change, not surprisingly, a lot of things have changed in my life. As you may know, change is the only constant in life. So for sure more things will change this year, yet I’d like to call this year “The Year of Rebranding” for myself.

Last year, I tried to start a YouTube Channel but didn’t have a clear vision about what to do. Also last year, I made my first film. And also last year, I rejoined Frontier Science Foundation as a research scientist. Of course, I did not forget the Sapporo Asian Winter Games, absolutely a lifetime experience for me. And then, I started a handful of websites, each of which was dedicated to one of my endeavors. A year later, however, I realized it wasn’t working, or I didn’t have enough resources to make it work, or I simply did it the wrong way.

Anyway, all the above seemed like some random events that popped up here and there. The lack of cohesiveness among them somehow bothers me and leads me to the fundamental question: “Who am I?”

Who am I?

By skimming through my website, you probably know that I take photos, I shoot videos, I know something about statistics, I love music, and I play curling. I’m married and have two young kids. I grew up in Taiwan and now live in the United States. While these are related to who I am, they do not necessarily define it. So I started to think more about it, and my first step was to write down words that describe who I am in the hope that I can find the answer to the question.

I believe that, by answering the question or by attempting to answer it, I shall be able to build some cohesiveness across all my endeavors and thus be able to clearly define my personal brand. This process may be called personal rebranding as the “old brand” doesn’t seem to reflect who I am very well.

Rebranding

Earlier this year I started to think more about personal rebranding, which is not only about myself but also involves my photography/video production studio and my curling career. What I have been doing with my personal brand is based on what I do, not who I am. I’m a photographer, but there is always another photographer. I’m a statistician, but there is always another statistician. However, there is no other Ting-Li Lin. (Well, you can argue there is always another person named Ting-Li Lin, but that’s not the point.) So I really need to change that mindset and focus on who I am as a person more than what I do as a professional.

As the process of rebranding never happen overnight, hopefully I can make it a successful one later this year.

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Photo: Messe Basel, Switzerland – Designed by Herzog & de Meuron