I just learned through Twitter than Jeremiah Owyang is leaving Forrester research. I have admired his tweets and posts over the past several months so I am very interested to learn what he will be up to next. More importantly though, Mr. Owyang is an valuable role model for building your own personal brand even while working at a very well known company in a high profile position.

My favorite quote from the article “Why Jeremiah Oywang Left Forrester Research” is his response about how he works, why he blogs and how he has built his online brand:

“My use of social media and my career advancement are intrinsically tied,” Owyang told us by phone today. “I started my blog as a practitioner at Hitachi. I budget time every morning to read and blog. I do that before I check my personal email or work email. I believe you have to pay yourself first. When you open your email you pay someone else, because it’s usually people reaching out to ask you for something. Taking the time to read blogs, synthesize and add value, that builds your community. That’s paying yourself first.”

Clearly, Jeremiah was making a conscious effort to build his own brand on Twitter and through his Web Strategist blog and Forrester is losing a superstar. He says he is excited to be practicing more about what he knows than analyzing it, so I’m particularly curious to see where he’s going.

The only constant (especially on the web,) is change. This one should be particularly interesting.