Cultivating Thought Leadership and Digital Presence

Are you keen to kickstart your Personal Brand? Not sure where to start? Andrea shares 5 ways to kickstart your personal brand, including helpful advice on how to introduce yourself, articulating your unique value proposition, establishing thought leadership, optimizing your digital footprint, and building a quality network.

 

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TRANSCRIPT

 

Well hello there!  I’ve got something for you today that I’m so excited to share.  This is a very different episode. You’re going to hear a recording of a LinkedIn Live presentation I did recently. The topic was “5 Ways to Kickstart Your Personal Brand.” 

 

After receiving lots of positive feedback, I decided to turn this into a podcast episode.  If you’re listening in podcast form, you can also watch this presentation on YouTube, where you can see me and my slides and even some people who were in the audience. There’s a link to my YouTube channel in the shownotes. Or just go to youtube.com and type “Talk About Talk.”

 

Whether you’re listening, or you’re watching – Welcome! 

 

Let’s do this!

 

Welcome to Talk about Talk podcast episode #181 – “5 Ways to Kickstart Your Brand.” The idea here is to learn about 5 specific, legitimate ways you can kickstart your personal brand development. This whole personal branding thing can be a bit overwhelming. So my suggestion is to listen to these top 5 Ways to kickstart your brand, then choose 1-2 that you can focus on over the next month.  Then maybe tackle a few more.  And suddenly, you’ve developed a personal brand that you’re really proud of.

 

Before I share the LinkedIn Live, I just want to quickly introduce myself. In case we haven’t met, my name is Dr. Andrea Wojnicki and I’m an executive communication coach at Talk About Talk. Please just call me Andrea. I coach executives like you to improve your communication skills so you can communicate with confidence, establish credibility, and ultimately achieve your career goals. 

 

You can learn more about me and what I do on the talkabouttalk.com website, where you can read about my 1:1 private coaching, small group bootcamps, keynote speeches, and corporate workshops. 

 

On the website you’ll also see several ways to contact me and connect with me. Please connect with me on LinkedIn! After this episode, send me a DM and let me know what you think.  I love hearing from you. 

 

Alright, let’s do this. Let’s TALK ABOUT our personal brands. 

 

LinkedIn LIVE

 

Okay, here is one thing that is crystal clear to me ironically. since I started coaching folks on their personal brand and reading and thinking about it and writing about it and podcasting about it is that personal branding means different things to different people.

 

 Okay. And so I’m not here to tell you what the wrong definition is, or what the right definition is. But I am here to tell you that we need to be really careful about defining it, and if you use the word personal branding, I find that even with some people it can be triggering like, oh, I don’t want to do that. It’s slimy. I don’t want to be selling myself, whatever. So think of your personal brand as being conscious of your professional identity. So we’re here focusing on our professional identity. Okay.

 

I’m going to share with you a couple definitions, one that you you’ve probably heard of, and maybe one that you haven’t the one that you may have heard, because almost every single article and book, and whatever that I everything online that I read about personal branding usually starts with this in the first, st like paragraph or 2, Jeff Bezos famously said, your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. And I think this for for a long time. This was a definition that I really I really focused on. It’s an interesting exercise. I want you to maybe jot this down. Ask yourself. what do people think and say about you when you’re not there? And this is something that I ask my clients, especially if they’re if they’re gunning for a promotion.

 

What is your boss and your boss’s boss saying about you when they’re talking about? Who to promote, and your name comes up in conversation. That is your professional identity, and don’t freak out if it’s not what you know you want it to be. We can obviously build and develop that. That’s why we’re here. But that is what your personal brand is. It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

 

So I was going with this definition for a while, but I’ve I’ve done some interviewing and some thinking about this. As I said, I interviewed Seth Godin for a recent podcast, episode, and I asked him, I said, Seth. do you think about your brand? I mean, this guy has a pretty strong brand, right? Do you think about your brand? And he said, you know I kind of think about it, and not really. But I know I have one. And then I said, Well, what’s the definition of a brand? And he said, Your brand is what people think you’re going to do next. And I was like, Oh, stop for a second! That is gold. Your brand is what people think you’re going to do next. So I immediately after I interviewed him, took out a sheet of paper, and I said. What do I want to do? Let’s start with what I want to do. What do I want to do next? What are my big aspirations? And then in the next column I said, what do people think is conceivable or possible that I’m going to do next, or even likely that I’m going to do next right. And then, is there a disconnect between any of the things that I want to do, and what people would assume. And then, is there a way that I can address that? I think this is a beautiful exercise. Again, it’s more of a mental exercise than it is really a definition. Right? So the interesting thing about these 2 definitions from Jeff Bezos and Seth Godin is is that they’re both looking at you. you as a brand from other people’s perspective, which is fair right. If you were a brand manager, as I once was in my before I went to Harvard I was working at Kraft foods in marketing as a brand manager, and the brands that I was managing. It was about what consumers. What are other people external? You know, bodies? What did they think about the brand? So this is how I think this is how Jeff Bezos and Seth Godin think about it. But now I’m working on the other side with folks helping them build and manage their personal brand. So this is about assuming some agency, right, some ownership, some influence on what other people are saying. So here’s my definition. Personal branding is about being yourself on purpose. So there’s 2 parts of this, if you want to pull it apart, there’s the being yourself, and there’s the on purpose, and both of them are very important. Probably the on purpose is more important. That’s why it’s in caps. But the being yourself I want to be really clear. This is not false in any way. This is your true authentic self. Of course it’s aspirational. You’re not looking to reinforce your areas for development, as we call them, right, your weaknesses. It’s it’s about being your true best self, your true, best authentic self, that’s part of it. And then the other part of it is on purpose. So here’s where I have an issue when people say, Oh, well, I don’t want to sell myself. I don’t want to be a brand. I don’t want to be salesy, and I’m like, well, here’s the thing. You have a brand, whether you choose to consciously manage and develop it or not.

 

So why don’t you just talk about yourself in a way that reinforces your positive attributes. Why don’t you take some time to think about the things that are going to help you, and sharing the stories that are going to help you instead of not thinking about it, or maybe even sharing the things that are going to hurt you. So the on purpose, is unapologetically, in a disciplined and strategic way. thinking about and acting on how to optimize, build, and develop your ideal personal brand. And again, it is authentic and true to you. Okay, I want to get that definition and and sort of these mental exercises out of the way before we jump into the 5 ways to kickstart your personal brand.

 

All right. the 1st one for those of you who follow me on linkedin, or you listen to the podcast on a regular basis is probably not going to surprise you. My 1st recommendation is that you learn to introduce yourself with confidence. I know from years of coaching folks that the self-introduction is an anxiety-laden context that is very frequent. We’re often asked to introduce ourselves whether it’s 1 on one, whether it’s online, whether it’s in person whether it’s in a group. Let’s go around the table or around the screen and introduce ourselves. And I. Still, when that happens, my mind still goes to the oh, what do I say? Should I say something personal? How long do I talk right immediately? Now that I’ve developed this framework, I stop that vicious cycle of anxiety. And I say, calm down, Andrea, you have a framework for this, and you know it works every time.

 

So I created this framework, and I wrote it up. I wrote it up and and submitted it to Harvard Business School. This was in August 2022, and it was immediately accepted, and I got lots of accolades or impressions on it. And then in 2023. So a year ago, Harvard Business Review announced that it was one of the top 3 most downloaded articles@hbr.org, and I attribute that to a couple things. I attribute that to the fact that what I just said is a very common experience. It’s also high anxiety experience for most of us. In fact, I would say almost, I’ve never met someone who doesn’t say that. Yeah, they feel anxious when they’re introducing themselves. And also this framework is so easy to learn. You don’t even need to take notes, and I’m going to teach it to you right now, really, quickly, for those of you who already know it. This is just a review step. One is present as in present tense, so a lot of people make the mistake of starting their self introduction with the past. It’s like they’re sharing their autobiography. No, no, no, you’re doing a self introduction. Think about your brand right? That’s why we’re here. You want to start with who you are and what you do so start with the present tense. As you do more work on your personal brand. You can elaborate right? So my name is Dr. Andrea Voynitsky. Please call me Andrea. I’m an executive communication coach. I talk about talk. You can stop with your name, your title, and where you work once you’ve done the work. You can say what differentiates me compared to other executive communication coaches, or what differentiates me compared to other Hr managers, or what differentiates me compared to other Podcasters. Right? So that’s when you can really knock it out of the park in terms of nailing your introduction and reinforcing your personal brand that you want to reinforce. But for now, if this is your 1st time, seeing this, just your name, what you do and where you do it is great, that’s present tense. Think present. Okay. then, you go back into the past. In a professional context, this is where you establish credibility. So in the past I taught at the University of Toronto. Right? I know at least one artist here you could say in the past I taught at this art school, or I earned you could share your degrees, you could share your credentials, you could share awards that you’ve won, you could share publications right? Depending on the context. So again, this is the beauty of this framework, depending on who you’re talking to, and the context, and even taking the cue from other people in terms of how long they’re talking, you can decide. Am I going to share one or 2 or 3 things? But in a professional context, this step, 2 past focus on establishing credibility. Okay, so what? 3 things are most relevant to that context.

 

The 3rd step is the step that most people forget. So if we just, you know informally went around. Before I taught you this framework, most people would start with past, and then they’d go to present. And then that’s it right. The future tense is the icing on the cake.

 

Here’s why research shows that when you demonstrate enthusiasm, things will turn out your way. I learned this from a negotiations expert that I interviewed for my podcast named Dr. Tatiana astray. And she told me that in negotiations, contexts, and her research showed this, and there’s a whole body of literature here that shows this, that things are more likely to turn out your way. She actually had a specific insight that people are more likely to want to negotiate with you in the future. If you demonstrate enthusiasm, positive enthusiasm during the negotiation. And I was like. you know, life is basically a series of negotiations. So if I just up to my enthusiasm, things are going to go my way. Right people are going to want to talk to me, whatever whatever it is that my, that my goal is so in this step 3 of your self-introduction and this didn’t end up in the Harvard Business review article, but I’m going to add it to you. Here. End your self introduction with a positive statement of enthusiasm about the future, specifically with the person or people that you’re introducing yourself to. So you may have noticed when I introduced myself at the beginning of this session, I said, and I’m really in my happy place, and I’m really excited to share with you 5 ways to kickstart your personal brand in 2025, right? So it could be as simple as that. If you’re in a job interview, you finish your your present past, and then you say I’m really excited to learn more about this position, because I think I might be a great fit. Or if you’re in a meeting where you’re meeting a new team or you’re working on a new project together, you could say I’m really looking forward to getting to know all of you better, and knocking this project out of the park right? And then what you’ve done is you’ve demonstrated enthusiasm yourself. You’re also elegantly handing it on to the next person, because then they’ll know your introduction is done. Okay, so the 1st way to kickstart your personal brand in 2025 is to start introducing yourself with confidence in any context. professional, even personal. You can introduce yourself to a new neighbor. Hi! My name is Andrea. I live right next door, and then you could go into past. My family has lived here for so many years this child was born here. Blah blah! They used to play soccer at the Park over there. Right? You go past and then future. You could say we’d love to have you over in the backyard for a Barbecue sometime. Right? So you see how easy it is.

 

Customize this three-point framework with your self introduction, and and think in each of the 3 steps how you can reinforce the things about you that you want to reinforce, which leads me to the second way to kickstart your personal brand. It’s articulating your unique personal brand statement. So I want to go back to my brand management days when I used to work at Kraft Foods, right? We used to talk a lot about the unique selling proposition of whatever the product was. So why did someone choose a certain coffee brand. It’s about identifying that unique thing right? Otherwise you wouldn’t be a brand. It’d be no name, in which case I guess your brand is that it’s cheap but cheaper. But what is the unique thing about the coffee brand, just like tide versus other laundry detergents right? Or whatever the brand is what is the unique thing. The brands are all seeking their unique selling proposition in the same way that you should. I really encourage you to do this. In fact, when I’m coaching folks on, when I do workshops, and even when I do boot camps, I say, if there’s 1 thing, if there is one thing I want you to take away. It’s actually this, I want you to focus on what makes you unique.

 

You know, I’ve met plenty of people who aren’t, who haven’t spent the time thinking about what their unique selling proposition is, and I feel like they are struggling to be a B plus and maybe an a minus, if they’re a really hard worker, right? And then it’s like, it’s like something opens up when they take the time in a disciplined and strategic way to identify what their unique strengths are, their unique strengths and passions. And then it’s like, it’s like. Suddenly they are happier and more successful than they ever were, because they’re being true to themselves. And it’s so easy. By the way, if you’re true to your unique self, right? So how do you do this. I mean there, there’s definitely a whole process. But we’re starters.

 

When you’re introducing yourself, introduce yourself as I am a whatever your title is, whatever your industry is, whatever your function is, who and fill in that blank? Who? What? What differentiates you relative to others? So I’m not a big fan of scripts, but I do provide my clients with prompts, so the prompt would be what differentiates me relative to other finance leaders is my ability to blah blah, right? Or here’s another one. People tell me I call it the 3 magic words. People tell me that something that stands out about my work, my art. My, the way that I lead people is whatever. So I encourage you to double down on your unique personal brand statement, because here’s the thing unique is better than better. What do I mean by that? As I said, so many of us. the B pluses and the A minuses. Many of us here spend a lot of time, including myself looking around at what other people are doing and emulating and copying them, because I want to get better. And I’m thinking about. What do people think I should do? That’s going to be better instead of thinking about what are my strengths? By the way? And this is getting a little bit into nuance if you’re junior in your career. I say this, I don’t coach a lot of really junior folks, but when there’s junior folks in an audience. I will say this. and maybe some of you have teenagers or twenty-somethings, or 30 something kids, and you can share this with them early in your career. It’s a fantastic idea to copy other people, because you don’t know what your style is. Yet right? So you emulate, you copy, you experiment right? But once you hit mid-career, you kind of know what makes you special, what your unique strengths and passions are, and that’s when, if you really want to knock it out of the park. You focus on what makes you unique. All right.

 

If there’s 1 screen I want you to. I want you to screen capture. It’s this one. Okay, unique is better than better. All right. Number 3 is establishing thought leadership.

 

You know, when a lot of people think about personal branding, their mind, depending on what industry you’re in their mind goes to thought leadership right? So so in this industry that I’m in, am I considered a thought leader. If you go online and you Google, like personal branding courses or whatever a lot of it focuses on on establishing thought leadership. So last year I had the privilege of interviewing Roger Martin. He’s my past boss actually at when I used to be on the faculty at the University of Toronto, and he is a prolific thought leader like very prolific like he’s lost count of how many books and Harvard business review articles he’s written, and he has a lot of interesting things to say so, if you’re interested in developing your thought leadership, I strongly recommend that you listen to talk about talk, podcast episode number 150. He started out by saying something when I asked him. I think the 1st I can’t remember. I think the 1st question that I asked him in the episode was to be a leader. Do you have to be a thought leader? And he was like.

 

Yeah, you do. Andrea. But and this is where he got me thinking. But you need to consider this continuum of private thought leadership to public thought leadership. So the people who report to you the people who you work with, even if you don’t have direct reports. they need to know the people, even the people that you’re selling to right. So whoever your key stakeholders are, they need to know, as he says, what you stand for, what you care about what you know, what your expertise is, they need to know that. So that’s like your private thought leadership. And then there’s this continuum to public thought leadership. And he said, in fact, a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they need to become public thought leaders like, I am like he is right where we’re sharing things on Linkedin, and in articles, and I also have an Inc. Magazine column where I have 2 articles a month. So that’s public thought leadership. If you’re not as interested in being a thought leader. He talks about how this is a lot of work, and it takes a certain personality.

 

Still, if you want to be a leader. Think about being a private thought leader. So, as I said before, with the stakeholders who are relevant for you. what is the area that you are going to be an expert on. So there’s really when I coach people on this, there’s really 2 things. One is defining what the topic is. So ask yourself these kinds of questions. If I was going to write a book. what would the book be about? You don’t need to know everything right, but it’s a topic that you’re so interested in, that you have something to say, and you’re probably keen to do more research. If I was going to give a Ted Talk. What would it be about? That’s a great thought leadership topic for you. Right? It could be your industry, it could be your function. It could be something about people leadership. It could be something that’s going on in our culture. My husband and I have a friend who is a Phd. In engineering at Procter and Gamble, and he has been working in their manufacturing department for decades, and his thought leadership in the organization is around sustainability and he, independent in his job and outside of his job he does a ton of research on improving sustainability and the environmental factors, right? He’s even gone to Washington to do lobbying and everything. So it doesn’t have to be necessarily your function or your industry. It could be some specific element. And the other thing about the topic is, it can change over time, so don’t don’t freak out like I don’t know what my topic is. Just care about. Right? What are you interested in start creating thought leadership around that. So that’s step one is deciding what the topic is. Step 2 is considering the media. So on. What media are you going to be communicating your thought leadership the obvious one for me, and and with all of you here, who probably connected here through Linkedin, is just to go to Linkedin. So how do you do this on Linkedin? Let’s do this in baby steps 1st when you go through your feed, and you see something interesting, especially if you have an opinion on it, instead of just liking it or putting the little idea light bulb. Why not make a comment like, I agree with this because or I agree with this. And I would add right, or even asking a question that is sharing thought leadership. Okay, it doesn’t have to mean writing a white paper, or, as I said, creating a Ted Talk, it could be commenting on Linkedin. It could be. You want to go to the next level. reposting someone else’s post. So that same post where you commented. Why don’t you repost it for the people that follow you and say interesting post here. I would add that they listed 5 ways to kickstart your personal brand. My favorite one was Number 3, establishing thought leadership. Right? You see what I did there, so you can repost someone else’s post with an opinion. Don’t repost without an opinion. Please repost with some comments. You can also, if you read an article, start subscribing to Inc. Magazine where I’m an author. or to fast Company, or Harvard Business Review, or Forbes, or whatever it is, and when an article comes up that intrigues you, that you have an opinion about, post it and say, this is a great article, because or you know, this article about 5 ways to kickstart your personal brand is great, and my favorite one is this one. You see what I’m doing that’s like. It doesn’t have to be you creating something from a blank page.

 

If you do want to create something from a blank page, you could write an article. You could write an article in Linkedin and publish it as an article. By the way, apparently Linkedin is pushing these. So you’re probably going to get a lot of traction. You could write an article for one of the other publications or some other publication that’s relevant for your industry. But beyond Linkedin, sharing thought, leadership can even be mentoring formally and informally. It could be doing formal training for folks. And of course it could include things like keynote speeches. So I want you to think about your thought leadership in 3 ways. One is the continuum of private to public. One is choosing a topic, knowing that you can and probably should change it over time. And the 3rd thing is deciding what media you’re going to communicate your thought leadership through. Okay, we’re over halfway through here.

 

The 4th way to kickstart your personal brand in 2025 is to optimize your digital footprint. You know what I’m going to say here, you’ve got to Google yourself.

 

Other people are, and yes, it’s frightening. I force myself to do it every now and then. You want to open an incognito window. If you don’t know how to do that. You can search, how to do that. But you want to open an incognito window, or even try this on someone else’s phone or device. Ask your kid or your spouse, or whoever someone at work for their phone and Google yourself, and see what comes up, especially on the 1st page. But go through it. You need to. You need to know what is out there. So you want to optimize your digital footprint. We talked about identifying your unique selling proposition are the things that are out there consistent with your unique selling proposition. The number one easiest way to optimize your digital footprint in a professional context is Linkedin. They make it. They hand it to you on a silver platter. So think about it. Your profile page on Linkedin is free online real estate that you control these people that keep their their linkedin profiles private, I’m like, why, why would you keep it private? You are controlling what’s on your profile? Right? So make sure you’ve got a great headshot. We’ll talk about that in a second. You want to make sure that people recognize you. You want to have a great headshot. You want to have a nice banner image. Your headline should be more than just your title and your and your employer. Right? List, your industry list, your function list, your superpowers list, your unique selling proposition right? And make sure that everything’s optimized. And like I said, they hand it to you on a silver platter. If you go to Linkedin when we’re done here, they have suggestions like, here are the top 5 suggestions for things that you should fill in. So start with Linkedin. And the thing is, the more you’re on Linkedin, the higher up. If you search yourself hopefully. This page that you’ve created. That you control is what’s going to show up when you Google yourself make sure you have updated headshots. I know a lot of people stress out about this because I hear it from my clients all the time. You don’t need to have a professional photo shoot.

 

It does help. I have a photographer that’s actually become a great friend of mine. I’ve had 2 photo shoots with just me and one with my entire family, which was great fun. But if you can find a professional photographer that you really trust, that can help you a lot. But regardless, you know, you just need to stand in front of a neutral background, wearing, I say, for Linkedin, you want to wear what you would wear to an important day at work. You don’t have to wear a suit and tie. In fact, I think most people don’t wear a suit and tie anymore. But you can. You can look around at what other people are wearing in their headshots that are at similar industries and functions, or maybe a level up from what you’re looking for, right? And you can take. Take some advice from that. Make sure that there that wherever there are headshots or images of you online. that they do look like you and your best, you. And if there’s a way that you can update something, even if another organization created the post, is there a way that you can update the image. And then the other thing is, remember what I said before. where the websites that are getting the most traffic like hopefully Linkedin, you’re going to move up when people Google, you, that’ll be one of the 1st things that show up. Okay, so that’s just incentive for you to start using Linkedin a little bit more. The last thing I want to say here is, I guess, really, from my days as a brand manager you really want to be consistent. If there’s 1 shot of you that looks like you that looks like your best, you that exemplifies your personal brand. You know what there’s nothing wrong with using it everywhere. I, even myself, I get caught up in the oh, people! People have already seen that, or they’re going to get bored. You know what, Andrea. People don’t think about you that much so being consistent is really key. So you can. Probably this reminds me. This consistent theme reminds me of also, you may have an element of your style that you want to reinforce. So for me, it’s the color turquoise I wear turquoise. I paint with turquoise. I have turquoise on my website. I have turquoise on my on everywhere. I have turquoise everywhere. I have turquoise in my house, as you can see, I have turquoise on my Powerpoint slides. So being consistent is the name of the game, a lot of folks. As I said, if you Google, how to develop my personal brand thought leadership is one thing that comes up. Another thing that comes up is, what is your visual identity? Okay? And this is what I’m talking about here in terms of being consistent. You want to. You want people to go. Oh, that’s that same person who did that right? So it’s not like you want people to meet you again like freshly every single time they see you online, you want them to recognize you. So whatever you can do to cue them that it’s the same person is going to help you. All right.

 

That’s 4 out of 5.

 

The 5th way to kickstart your personal brand in 2025 is developing your quality network. I want to reinforce here that I’m talking about quality, not quantity. I put that word in there for a reason. I know that a lot of people think about developing your network as like getting more followers on Linkedin. By the way, we are talking about online and in person. Here, in terms of your network, both are extremely important, but for both it’s about quality, not quantity, your goal in terms of networking, especially if you choose to double down on this 1 1st is to establish quality relationships. Okay, quality relationships.

 

How do you do that? I’ve got 3 surprise surprise, 3 pieces of advice for you here, 1st and foremost. be generous. Now I think I knew this, but I really learned this. It was really reinforced by my friend Sharon Majin, who’s an executive recruiter, who I work with quite a bit, and she said, she says, and I know this is true. A lot of people feel icky about networking because they think it’s selling. And she said, If that’s you, you need to stop being selfish and thinking about selling and start thinking about what you can do for other people all of a sudden. If you’re thinking about being generous, providing value for other people, it doesn’t feel icky at all right.

 

People are benefiting from their relationship and their interactions with you. So what does this mean? This means showing up at the dreaded cocktail, networking event. and generously listening to other people generously introducing people to other people, right generously providing them with information. So just think, how can I provide value, whether it’s online, whether you’re reconnecting with someone, you find an article that someone would find helpful. You think about 2 people that would probably find value in interacting, making that introduction. There’s many ways that you can be generous. So be generous and provide value. And I put stars. And I put it in capitals because I really want it. This is a game changer for a lot of people when it comes to networking. even as an extrovert myself, I know that when I’m invited to networking events, I kind of go. Oh, but then, I remind myself, Andrea, you’re going to be generous. It’s not going to feel icky right. You’re going to be generous. You’re going to help people. You’re going to direct them to articles. You’re going to introduce people you’re going to provide value. You’re going to be a great listener. You’re going to be generous. Okay, that’s the 1st thing the second thing is. and this one is one that I have been experimenting with, and it is gold always follow up. So what do I mean by this?

 

It means, when you go to that event. follow up with every single person that you met, and just say great to meet, great, to have met you, and by the and then you can be generous. Right? Here’s the article I was talking about, or I’m going to separately send you an email and introduce you to that person. Right? Follow up with the people that you met after meetings. I did this. I had a meeting Friday, and I knew there were going to be 2 people there and then 2 people that I hadn’t expected to be there were also there, and I thought, this is an example of when I should follow up, I should follow up and say it was great to meet you. I didn’t know you were going to be there. Wonderful to meet you for the 1st time. Blah blah! I’m looking forward to working together. Right? So follow up if you’re in a in a job interview. Obviously, you’re sending a thank you. Note. Sharon says that a thank you note whether it’s for after an interview, or maybe a coffee meeting that you’re having with someone thanking someone for meeting you is your opportunity to reinforce your personal brand. So think about what you want to say to them and what you want to reinforce.

 

The 3rd thing that I’m going to share with you to develop your quality network is very tactical, but I know from the response that I get from people that they really like this one. It’s approach odd numbers. So what do I mean by that?

 

You see this picture on the right here of the 4 folks that are awkwardly sitting with their holding their their little whatever appetizer plates and their drinks. We’ve all. We’ve all been in the situation right where you you go and get your your glass of wine or your cup of coffee, whatever it is, and your little snack, and you turn around and you see the sea of strangers. And you’re like, okay, who do I talk? Who do I talk to? I don’t know. This is gold approach odd numbers. So you want to go up to either a Singleton or a threesome. Do not walk over to 2 people that are talking to each other. Why? Because by definition, you’re a 3rd wheel. Okay? You are interrupting a dialogue. You don’t want to interrupt a dialogue. So in this, in this stage photo, probably of 4 people, there were probably 3 people talking, and then the 4th person comes over.

 

Either all 3 people are going to turn to you, or 2 people are going to continue talking, and the 3rd person is going to talk to you. Right? So I love this. I use this all the time. It’s actually magic. Part of what helps us build our confidence is just having frameworks instead of being like. Oh, who should I talk to? Who’s the victim going to be looking around? Kind of doing the cringe instead? Think, where are the 3 people? Boom over there? Go. So your brain doesn’t even have time to feel the social anxiety. Okay, so that’s the 5th way to start your personal brand in 2025, develop your quality network number one. Most important thing is provide value and be generous. Always follow up and approach odd numbers.

 

Okay? So now I’m going to summarize here the 5 ways to kickstart your personal brand. This woman is feeling a little overwhelmed, as you can see she’s got things she’s thinking about, and everybody wants a piece of her. You probably know the feeling. There’s a lot to think about with your personal brand. I hope that you, if you don’t already use the self-interaction framework that you’re going to practice introducing yourself with confidence, present, past, future. articulating your unique personal brand statement. So thinking, taking the time to think about 1, 2, or 3 things that differentiate you compared to other people that have your same job establishing thought leadership. Remember about the private to public continuum and also thinking about the topic and the media through which you’re going to be communicating your thought leadership, optimizing your digital footprint. Yes, Googling yourself. And yes, optimizing your Linkedin profile and making it public, please. And then, as we just said, developing your quality network again. It’s not about quantity, it’s about developing meaningful relationships. This is really going to help you. not just establish your brand, but but to achieve whatever goals you have.

 

So if if I were you and I was looking at this, I’d be like, Okay, so these are 5 things. That’s a lot my challenge, as I said to you, is to identify one or 2 that you’re going to knock off your to-do list in January. Just just write them down and think about them, and maybe make a plan. and I think that is it. I’m happy to answer any questions that you have about the 5 strategies or tactics that I shared with you to kickstart your personal brand and also anything related to communication skills, but especially personal branding. And I’m going to stop sharing now, and I’m going to look in the in the chat. But does anyone have any questions that they want to ask before I go into the chat I would love to hear from a human.

 

Come on, some brave soul practice establishing your professional identity.

 

It’s Celine. How are you? I’m great. This this was really really informative. The one thing that probably I would love if we could just spend a minute and talk about is when you talked about Jeff Bezos, and what he talked about. People talking about the brand when you leave the room just feels like such an established thing versus what you’re saying, which is more present and future. I’m just wondering, like it just feels like one has the intention of what you want to do versus how you’re already perceived. And it’s like how we’re bridging that, you know. So if you could just spend a minute and talk about it because I felt like. It was quite the difference between how it’s been done with what Bezos is, you know, sort of famous saying and what we’re now looking at it in terms of going forward. Yeah, you know, Celine, I am so glad that you said that I’m going to admit something here literally was just thinking about this this morning how? And I’m I’m writing a book about all this stuff. And and I was like, Oh, that needs to go in the book, how these definitions are actually about the past. right?

 

Even Seth Godin’s definition, what people think you’re gonna do next is based on your past. So you’re predicting the future based on past behavior. That’s what happens in behavior, description interviews they ask you like, give us an example of when you demonstrated your people skills blah blah. And then they’re like, okay. So in the future they’ll probably do that as well. So my take on it is, I’m using this word agency. I love. The idea of the fact that we can control other people’s perceptions of us, based on the signals that we’re sending out into the universe, based on the words that we use, based on the stories that we tell, based on the tone of our voice, based on what we’re wearing, based on the, you know I’m putting behind me my bookshelf, my painting, my microphone. All these things are signals that are constantly updating. So if we, if we decide, as I hope we all do. That’s why you’re here that we have this agency. We have this control. We have this power over what, like nobody else, has more power than ourselves over how we are perceived right now and in the future. So it’s about taking the time and in a disciplined and strategic way. identifying what those really positive, unique, and relevant things are about us. This is this is one of the things that comes up in the boot camp. Positive, unique, and relevant. Pure is the thing that we’re talking about. Is it relevant for your goals? Is it positive we’re not talking about your weaknesses? I said. That, and most importantly, is it unique?

 

And if the criteria that you’re defining yourself and your brand on gets checkmarks on all 3 of those things, it’s probably worth worth reinforcing. And then you start to think about, how can I reinforce that?

 

Does that help, Celine? It does. And this is probably not. I want to jump right in and say all these things sort of like, you know, as a consumer packaged goods person. It’s like I can say certain things, but it’s how am I actually perceived? Right? So the things I say, if they don’t match also how I’m felt about when I leave the room. Then there’s a disconnect, and there’s a certain level of self-awareness here where, like, you’re hoping that the person is authentic and connecting all of this. But I look forward to reading the book that you write. You just said one of my favorite words. I just want to riff on that for a second. You said self-awareness. So self-awareness is also one of my favorite topics. It’s related to personal branding. A lot of people think they’ll say to me, I’m very self-aware. and I’m like not sure when most of us maybe not. Most of us. When many of us think about self-awareness, we think about like I’m thinking about what I’m going to say. I am conscious I’m aware of myself, right? I’m conscious of what I’m thinking. I’m conscious of how I’m feeling.

 

There really are depending on what literature you’re reading. 2, I think, 2 most important types of self-awareness. There’s internal and external. So when most people say, I’m self-aware, they mean internally, they’re like, I’m conscious of being conscious. I’m conscious of how I look. I’m conscious of what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling. External self-awareness is actually at least as important right, external self-awareness is, are you aware of what’s going on around you? And, more importantly, are you aware of your influence on other people, and even how they perceive you. So that’s how it relates to personal branding. Right? So it’s like looking at body language. It’s asking questions that are important, getting clarity on what other people are perceiving, not just about your message, but actually about you.

 

Tanya has a question patiently. Have your hand raised there. you’re on mute, or did you just unraise your hand? Hi, Andrea, thanks for taking my question. I have a question about strategically developing your quality network, like, I understand the concept. And I think it’s very important, absolutely. And building authentic relationship is important But how do you go about it? For example, I’m in a job now, and I want to look at other opportunities. And I do want to develop a network outside the realm of where I’m working. Help me get ideas here.

 

So 1st of all, almost no matter what, even if you’re not on the job market you want to make. Yes, your default. In other words, if you’re ever invited to an event, or even something like this, where you’re going to see other names and people just make. Yes, your default. In other words, there has to be a really good reason why you wouldn’t say yes. I’m guessing you’re already doing that, Tanya. But actually, even as an extrovert, I can tell you it takes energy to get dressed up and go to the event and whatever. And sometimes I’d rather just sit at home and read my book, whatever. So make yes, your default. That’s 1 thing in terms of strategically developing your network. It is. It is about getting out there. But it’s also thinking about who’s in your network. And who are you going to go after? So a couple of years ago, not a couple years ago, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I realized personally and professionally, of course, I mean, I have a book club that I’m friends with, and women that I work out with, and whatever. But outside of that, my network was really consumer, packaged goods, marketers, and academics and coaches. It was like 3 buckets, and outside of that there was really nobody in my network, right? And so I was like, Oh, that’s not good. So the second thing I would say to you, Tanya is, go for diversity and go for diversity across every criteria you can think of so young and old, right in your city and outside of your city, in your industry and outside of your industry, in your function, and outside of your function, maybe the same gender as you, the other gender whatever like, think about any criteria and just go for diversity. There’s tons of research that shows a quality network is not just the quality relationships, right? It’s the diversity of who’s in your network. So if you’re an artist and you’re only hanging out with artists, I don’t know how you’re going to sell, or if you’re a Podcaster, and you’re, I mean Podcasters. Do listen to podcasts. But you want you want to network with other people as well as my point. Okay, so get out strategically, like, go to events and meet people outside of your area and seek diversity across all of those criteria and more. And if you are in an organization, just this is the other part of strategic networking, especially if you’re working in a big company. you want to make sure that you have mentors. I say that with an S in brackets at least one mentor inside or outside of your organization, that you can be really open and honest with you also want to make sure that you have ideally, you have a sponsor. There’s tons of research that shows that the people that are being pulled up in their organization. Have someone who’s a level or 2 or 3 ahead of them, who they share their best work with. You’re providing them with evidence. Who’s going to help you get promoted. I love talking about strategic networking, as you can probably tell.

 

I hope that helps Tanya.

 

All right, if that’s it, I want to say thank you so much. I hope that you are inspired with at least one of the 5 ways to kickstart your personal brand in 2025. If you have any questions. I’m happy to answer them. You can email me. I’m at andrea@talkabouttalk.com again super easy to remember, 

 

I hope to see all of you on Linkedin. And like, I said, if you have any questions you can email me, or you can also DM, me on Linkedin.

 

Talk soon, bye.

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