Inside-Out Personal Branding

All right. Thank you so much for that fab introduction. All right, so as fab said, I’m Christine Gritmon, and today is all about what I call inside out personal branding. So when people think personal branding, sometimes they see it as sort of an outside external artificial thing, like they think of what’s essentially the window dressing of it.

They think that means having a logo or having some sort of, you know, catchy name or whatever, and they think of kind of taking it beyond the personal. But that’s not how I work. The way that I work is I help people figure out, I like to say we don’t invent a personal brand. We uncover a personal brand.

If it’s going to really feel right, feel aligned, and be something that you can easily maintain with your business, not as a whole separate job outside it where you’re playing this role, that it really does have to be aligned from the inside out. And I’m going to talk about what that means to me. But first, a little intro on who I am.

I am, of course, Christine Gritmon. A lot of people have seen my gifs in the wild. I have many, many, many gifs every single week. Someone who’s generally someone who’s connected to me personally, not necessarily professionally, will message me and say, did you know there’s a gif of you out there? Yes, yes, I did know that. I actually give workshops on it and I can do it for you.

I also host a podcast called Let’s Talk About brand. Guess what that’s about. I also do speaking. Shocking. And I also work with clients. So let’s dive right into what I mean by inside out personal branding. And I’ve recently come up with this sort of a handy way of viewing it. It just sort of came to me one day and I jotted down on my notes stock, and I’m still sort of formulating the details of how I express it, like I know it, it’s how I’ve been working forever, but you’re sort of the test audience for this particular way of conveying it.

So I’ve sort of five p’s of it, it starts with your purpose, which is deep down inside. It then goes out to your passion. What sort of fills you up from the inside? Then it goes to the person who people actually encounter. And that has to do with your presence as well. Then it goes to your personality.

What comes off of you, the feeling that you give people and finally your personal brand, which exists sort of apart from you. You don’t have to be there for it if you have a strong personal brand. Sort of the version of you that lives in people’s heads, people who haven’t necessarily encountered you might know who you are. It’s all of that stuff.

And I’m trying to get my talented son to draw a better diagram of this for me. But in the meantime, I’ve got my scrappy little doodle here. This will make more sense as the presentation progresses. All right, so let’s get started with part one, which is your passion. Really kind of deep. Sorry. Your personal purpose. Oops I knew that, your purpose deep down inside.

So that can sound a little woo woo to some people and I’m unabashedly a bit woo woo with it, because my own personal experience of getting in touch with my purpose and getting aligned with that actually did happen during a meditation, but it doesn’t have to. And what that was was really looking back throughout my life, through different jobs, through different personal experiences, all of that and seeing the common threads.

And we may think that we know what those common threads are. I mean, we know ourselves, right? We know what we’re into, what we’re not into, but actually going back and writing things down from those experiences, from past jobs, from past, you know, activities and really writing down. Okay, so here’s what lit me up about that. Here’s what felt really good about that.

Here’s the skills that I brought to that, that I really got joy and fulfillment from using versus here’s the things I didn’t love about it. Here’s what made me feel stuck. Here’s what sort of chafed, within that scenario. It was interesting because on the one hand, it was clearer than I ever imagined it could be. It was like, oh, this is staggeringly obvious, but it also wasn’t necessarily the stuff that I would have said.

For example, if you had asked me before I started going through that work with myself, what are some commonalities of the things that you know you enjoy doing and using? I would have thought, well, I’m creative and I really like kind of, you know, creativity and things that do do that. That’s what lights me up. When I did this exercise, I discovered really what does it for me,

and really the common thread in everything that has, you know, really felt right to me has been shining light on other people, which is interesting because that’s a totally different thing. But that really is the common factor. For every time that I’ve felt really aligned, it’s like, yeah, kind of, I sort of, I don’t know how to explain it.

I’ve sort of always attracted a little bit of attention even before I was like owning my personal brand and all that, and it used to make me uncomfortable. And then I realised the way to make it not make me uncomfortable was to sort of take that light and say, well, while I’ve got your attention, let me show you what this other awesome person is doing.

And that sort of made it feel good for me, not because I didn’t feel worthy of attention myself, but because I said, you know what? I want to use this to shine a light on someone else. There’s a great quote that said, I forget who it’s by, I think, I don’t know some author. That said, there’s two ways to spread light, to be the candle or to be the mirror.

And I like to say that I’m the disco ball because the light shines on me and I spew it out all over other people, and you’ll see on my headshot, especially if you grab one of my business cards. Hey, and in some of my gifs, I’ve got a disco ball. I’m kind of pushing the disco ball thing a bit far this year, but I love it.

Okay, so passion is really, sorry, purpose. Purpose is really the thing that’s in there that fuels it all. And that when it’s what’s fueling the thing that you’re doing is going to make it feel all aligned. So it’s really Simon Sinek says start with why this is almost beyond the why. This is sort of really what’s what’s at the root of all of it.

And the best part of this is you can apply it to so many different situations. So if you have a career pivot going on, as long as your sense of purpose is the same, you can apply to so many different things and it’ll still feel aligned and authentic. So, there’s a few questions I like to talk to myself that’s what a lot of this work is and I encourage my clients to do this as well, asking yourself some really key questions to really get to the root of this.

And again, I work through this with my clients, but you can also work through it with yourself. So one of them is what tasks have lit you up in past jobs and situations. That’s a really obvious one. Again, I recommend not assuming you know the answer. Actually go through that with yourself. Fab. I know that

you didn’t come right out of the gate running Alt Marketing School. You know you’ve done a whole bunch of things in the past. What are some commonalities or the things that have lit you up in the past? I think has been the teaching element. Obviously, I run a school, so I teach a lot of what we do, and I love to help other people teaching.

And I realised that actually this is not a job, but I’ll give you one example, when I was ten years old, I would get all my stuffed toys in front of me and I will teach them something I learnt that’s cool, they couldn’t run, they couldn’t hide. So they would stay there, and I will do that for 10-15 minutes to, exactly, to myself.

And I realised that was just the beginning of how much I love to spread the knowledge and teaching people. See, that’s purpose right there. Well done. All right. Also, what skills did you use to perform those tasks? Because this is something I also really want to clarify. A lot of people think of their skills in terms of the tasks to which they apply them.

So my skill is teaching, for example, that is a task. Your skill is what’s under that that enables you to perform that task well. And the great thing about getting getting in touch with the skills underneath the tasks is how many other tasks you can apply those skills to. Does that make sense? The difference between tasks and skills. So Fab, the task is teaching.

What’s the skill under that that makes you good at it, or that makes it feel good to you? Two, neither shocking, facilitation, I think that’s one of the big things, which can apply to so many things. And the Labrador energy that probably some of you already have seen and experienced. Labrador energy. You know, they are related but related to so many other things and they definitely make it better for me and our students.

And that Labrador energy is a superpower. You could apply to so many things. All right. And then another one is what talents have you possibly diminished when looking at yourself and evaluating yourself because they come so naturally to you? So many of us do this. It’s related to imposter syndrome, but not exactly the same thing, which is realising that a lot of times we don’t count something within our self assessed skill set because we think, oh, that’s easy, or everyone can do that.

And, you know, it’s not easy. It seems easy to you because you’re good at it and not everyone can do it. And recognising those things, recognising that what comes easily to us is not necessarily easy. It does mean, it does not mean that it’s without value is another thing. A lot of times we devalue things that we think are easy, and we associate value with difficulty.

And that’s not true. You have gifts, and if something comes easily to you, it might be just because you’re good at it. I say that to my daughter all the time, I say, you know, how was the math test today? She says, it was easy. I said, it’s not necessarily that it was easy. It’s that you were good at it.

So it came easily to you. And she’s like, yes, she’s ten. But I’m really trying to build this sense in her of don’t devalue the things that come easily to you because they matter. So, Fab what comes easily to you, that you maybe haven’t considered or labeled as a skill or talent in the past because you’re like, well, I think is that and bringing people together and that empathetic feel, like understanding what people are in the room and whether they need their space, whether they need to be left in their own space or whatever they need to be supported

more, comes natural to me to try and help people feeling comfortable, and I realise how important it is, especially when you’re working with strangers and you’re teaching them, or you’re bringing them into a situation that can feel uncomfortable for them. And by the way, I want to say, and then I’ll shut up. But that’s probably my favorite question out of all three, I think, to really nail things down.

So I love that question. I think it’s great. Awesome. And it makes perfect sense that you are now hosting Cowork Crew events because you are so good at that sort of thing. All right. So number two, next level. And as I kept accidentally saying when I was talking about purpose, passion, this is what really fills you up.

What lights you up. It’s a bit different from purpose, because purpose is a little more kind of the formless stuff that can be applied to anything. Passion is out a level. It is a little more directed. It’s about where you enjoy or gravitate to directing your gifts. If that makes sense. So, that also, you know, you might think, as many of us think that passion is just kind of, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Or what would you do if you didn’t have to work or anything like that? But it doesn’t have to be. I mean, a lot of us wouldn’t work if we didn’t have to work, quite frankly. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have a passion that we incorporate into our career and into what we do. And it’s about identifying what those sort of common threads of passion tend to be for us.

That can really help us be more aligned in whatever we’re doing and whatever we choose to direct our gifts to. So again, start to talk to yourself about. Really basic thing that I ask every client I work with. Why did you start doing this? And I will say right now, I have had clients who have said, well, I was out of work and I needed to do something.

Those are the clients who have not been, the ones who were still doing what they were doing when they signed up with me. Not necessarily because I had anything to do with it, but because they didn’t last long in what they were doing because they didn’t have passion for it. And sometimes you do wind up in something and you end up falling in love with it.

You discover a passion for it. But the fact is, if why you started doing what you’re doing was just because you kind of landed there out of your own control, you might want to consider other directions you could sort of move with in. I know you went back to to school. You mentioned I’m very intrigued to talk to you later about what path didn’t work out, but I applaud you for for realising, you know what?

My passion isn’t flowing in this direction. What direction can I let it lead me to? Because the thing about that is, it’s not just the highly privileged situation of, you want to make sure you’re doing something that you love. It is also genuinely, a. you’ll do a better job at something that you have some level of passion for.

You’re just going to do better. It’s going to bring your best self to it and, b. you’re going to have more control over the direction of what you’re doing. But also, c. it’s going to be less exhausting on the physical and spiritual level. You’re going to have so much more left for your life if what you’re doing professionally doesn’t feel like a break from your life.

So let’s see, why did you start doing what you do? Because I realised that marketing can and should be better for clients, companies, and marketers as well. Sounds to me a lot like what you said in the last section about how you enjoy understanding what people need. All right. Another thing is why are you still doing it? That’s a huge thing.

Maybe you started doing it because, okay, it was an opportunity or you know, it’s what my family business was. And I joined the family business. Something. But why are you still doing what you’re doing? Hopefully the answer is because you feel stuck or unqualified to do anything else. But sometimes that is the answer and you may want to look at that.

But generally speaking, why are you still doing what you’re doing? What keeps you there? And lucky you, if you are in a position where you are feeling challenged and inspired and like you’re growing in what you do, why? What keeps you there? What keeps you running Alt Marketing School? Because marketers need marketers. No matter how many years of experience we have, we constantly want to grow.

We’re curious and constantly need each other and you can feel quite lonely sometimes when you’re speaking at everybody and you don’t have the support. So that keeps me going because I see the impact that it has. Yeah. And that seems very connected to your passion as well. Damn. You’re a good. Yeah. Good, good guinea pig for this. My goodness.

And then what fulfills you about this work? That seems very related, to all of this. And, yeah, it is all very interrelated, but what fulfills you about it and that can be as specific or unspecific as you want. For example, what fulfills me about working with a client is when there’s something that they had a blockage to like, for example, my client, Paula, she was like, I, she’s an event planner.

She was like, I don’t feel comfortable putting stuff out there at all, really. And people find me anyway, like, she had a good reputation. She had won a bunch of awards. She was in magazines. So she was like, people find me anyway. And, you know, I don’t even know what to put out there. And it feels like a whole separate thing I have to do.

And I hate Facebook and all of this, and she has since fallen in love with Instagram. She’s on Instagram all the time. We set up her Facebook so that it’s technically there, but it redirects you to her Instagram or to her website and she has started sending out emails also. But the fact that she fell in love with Instagram.

Every time I see her posts pop up on my feed, I’m like, oh my God, we found something. We found something that you can get into and not hate. And it does get her work. And it just got me really excited. So for me, what fulfils me about this work is helping someone, connect with something that maybe they would have held themselves back from connecting with before, but connecting with something that helps them express themselves and put themselves out there in a way where people who need them can find them.

So that’s what does it for me. What does it for you? What fulfills you about running Alt Marketing School? Through our scholarships, we’re able to provide training to new marketers that wouldn’t be able to find that type of training accessible for them for plenty of reasons. And it taps as you see a lot of the things you say, they’re all connected.

It kind of feels all these boxes, and it’s just nice to be able to see that as well and to have that impact. Love that. All right. Now we’re starting to get to sort of the barrier between the internal and the external (oh, sorry) what doesn’t fulfill you about this work that’s also really important to know because again, that’s where those blockages are, that kind of make things feel like a chore or a grind, or that make you feel like you don’t know what to do next, what doesn’t fulfill you about that work.

So, for example, what doesn’t fulfil me is just, giving people just a plan. I don’t want to just give people a plan. I want to work with them to come up with their own plan. And a lot of times, what people want or what they think they want is just a plan. They’re like, just tell me what to post on social media.

It’s like, oh, that’s, I’ll do it. But it’s not. I’m moving away from that. It is. It does come as part of my work with clients. I do give them a content strategy. But, yeah, I’d really rather come up with it with them. I’d really rather, have them try things, see what feels good to them or not before really, you know, call it the plan.

I don’t want to just give people plans, I want to I want to work with them. So. So that. What what, What do you not love? What doesn’t fulfill you? That maybe is party work. It sounds bad, but knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Like if we teach stuff and people don’t get to apply it, everything we do has got practical applications, projects and submissions and feedback because it needs to get to work, without action

knowledge is, takes you that far. Now can I be cheeky everybody? Can I ask a question now? Is there a right follow up question on this? Because I’m interested like if you realise some, some of this, what will be one way that you can use this specific knowledge of understanding what does not fulfill you? And when it comes to taking that reflection to an extent, because I’m thinking about I realise this.

And now what do I do with this specific thing? Yeah. Well, two things that I’d say. One of them is immediately and one thing that I, there’s someone I’m working with now where we’re having a lot of talks about getting her out of what she’s been doing and moving her to a different direction because she keeps saying, oh, God, I so don’t want to work on this today.

I’m like, let’s get you away from working on that. You have to work on it today. But like, what can we do moving forward? So the first thing is I encourage her to post about it. Quite frankly, I’m like, you know what? It’s relatable. You know, who only wants to see the highlight reel success stories versus the stuff where it shows that someone else is struggling with the same things that you’re struggling with, it makes someone so much more relatable.

It makes you feel understood. So I told her, I’m like, you know what, talk about it. And that can be a risky proposition because she’s talking about not wanting to do as much of something that people pay her to do. But here’s the thing she’s not going to stop doing it. She’s going to do the next part of what I recommend, which is figuring out if you can delegate, automate, or eliminate those things.

In her case, she’s delegating, and that’s part of what she’s talking about, too. She’s like, you know what? I’m trying to get to a place where I’m the strategic leader and the person who’s actually fulfilling it is one of my trusted associates. You know, she’s trying to ultimately build out a small agency instead of just doing everything herself, which is fine.

And that doesn’t cut her off from future work doing it. It’s just people know that they’re hiring her to have the strategy and, you know, yeah, maybe someone else is literally going to be clipping things together. So yeah, figure out what you can automate, delegate, or eliminate of those things that don’t feel good. And it might not be immediate, but move things in that direction.

Don’t necessarily take on new things. You don’t have to dump the clients who are already who you’re already doing those things for. But maybe moving forward and as you put yourself out there for new work, take that part out of the description, whatever it may be. Try to move yourself forward. Anything new you take on away from the stuff that you don’t enjoy as much?

Love that thank you. Yeah. Oh, and oh geez, I had more on this slide than I realised. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? Notice, I’m not saying what would you do if you didn’t have to work? And I’m not saying it, pie in the sky like, what would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Well, I’d quit working and move to Hawaii. No. In the actual reality that we live in, in the parameters of your life and your needs, what direction would you move things in if you knew it would work? So in my case, I would love to do more group work. A lot of people are in that place where they want to go from 1 to 1, to 1 to many.

So that’s what I would do if I, if I couldn’t fail. And it’s actually leading me to put some, group programs together this year and, some group gatherings. That’s going to be cool. I can’t wait to show you that. But, but I’m realising I’d really like to do more of that. So what sort of.

And if I knew that those programs would sell, and I knew that people would come to the events, definitely what I would do. So I’m trying to make that a reality. People can’t sign up for the programs or come to the events if I don’t make them exist. So working together with your dreams and your reality to figure out how to move them closer together. What would you do?

Probably bring more coaches in, like more people in to actually kind of build more of that accountability, I know we’re still really tiny, and I think thats, it’s not our wildest and biggest dream. But then it goes back to your delegate, automate, eliminate, it will simplify a lot of things and allow me to do other things at the same time. All right.

So now, as I preemptively said, a little prematurely, the person is sort of where the inside and the outside meet. It’s who people encounter. It’s first impressions. It’s, you know, what it says on the tin, basically. And, so let’s go into what we need to do there. The biggest thing is what are the similarities between how someone in your personal and professional lives would describe you?

That’s something to consider, because that has to do also with the impression that you’re giving people, what would the impression of someone who knows you personally, and the impression of someone who knows you professionally be. Furthermore, one thing that I really like to, do when I’m doing a personal brand audit of someone I don’t like to do hours of research and then present them with a report.

I like to get on and be like, you know what? It sounds very lazy, but I’m like, first impressions are all most people are going to get. So I’m going to go on with you now and tell you my first impression. And I think that’s really important because the fact is, if you don’t make a first impression that make people want to dig in and know more, they’re not going to, it’s kind of like you want to have something really good at the top of your posts, because otherwise people won’t scroll down and see more.

Though this isn’t just social media. You want to make sure people know why you’re here and what you do. Like Fab had us all do at the beginning, because otherwise I’m not going to just, you know, randomly talk to someone just because, well, I might randomly talk to someone just because they’re there, because I do that. But. So, you know, understanding those impressions and the whole variety of them, people who know you well and people who don’t know you well, people who know you personally, people who know you professionally.

That whole amalgamated situation of the impression that you give. And for most of us, the people who know us personally and the people who know us professionally might not have the same impressions. So what are the differences and why? Because that also can indicate maybe that we are sort of playing a role in our professional lives that isn’t as authentic to who we are as a person.

And while it’s okay to have boundaries and hold some of our personal self back if we choose to, it’s generally going to feel more fulfilling if we can bring more of our whole self to what we’re doing. And that’s a lot of what I work on with people, too. One of the things that I like to say is the things that you maybe hide in order to fit in are the exact things that you need to put out there to stand out or to resonate with other people is another thing, because most of us don’t resonate with people who just have a perfect veneer.

So, why are those two things different? Are they a matter of boundaries you’ve deliberately put in place that you are comfortable with, or are they a matter of boundaries that you have maybe not deliberately put in place and that are fear based? So looking at the difference is not saying there can’t be differences, but consider what they might be and why.

I feel like you are pretty aligned, but honestly, what are some differences that people who know you personally versus people who know you only professionally might see? I should ask someone who knows me personally, but I’m not gonna put them on the spot, it’s a bit evil. It’s kind of funny, actually, when you mentioned that one of the best compliments I got, especially for my book, but in general, is I, somebody said, it literally sounds like you.

It’s like when I read your book, it’s like you are talking to me and people say, when I see you in real life, when I say hi to you, you are the same person. I love that too. And I think it’s the boundaries pieces maybe one of the biggest differences, to be very frank. And I’m really conscious about that.

But as I said, when I stepped into the laborador energy, which is not for everybody, I get it like, I totally get I can be too much for some people. And then the people that need that energy, it’s so much easier for me to deliver and to be myself. And honestly, one more thing is you’re a professional as well.

If you are 15, 10, 15, whatever years of experience, it can be harder as well because you think people are not going to take me seriously, but it’s about what you deliver it’s about how you deliver things. It’s about how you stand out and how you stand yourself in. So I don’t know if I’m answering the question, but I would say there’s more boundary based than anything else or really stripped back and try to keep it very similar, because that’s what makes me, me. Yes, same, I, I can’t hold this back, you shouldn’t, but the fact is some people do and that’s okay.

But know that it’s deliberate. And what’s the choice and what’s not. Yeah, I just a have a quick question about the similarities. Would you recommend asking people what if you don’t know what impression you’re giving? Asking people is a great tip. Are you supposed to just imagine what people? No I’d ask people. You might be surprised. Yeah. Because you’re you’re viewing yourself from the inside out and they’re viewing you from the outside in.

And it’s good to see sort of how translucent or opaque or transparent that barrier is. I’ve got a question about eliciting feedback from other people, how do you get them comfortable with feeding back to you, because they might be like, you’re mental,

so how do you elicit like honest feedback. Well hopefully people in your life like you better than that if they don’t maybe that’s something I’d exam. But the fact is also you could do it anonymously. You could set up, you know, a free quiz online or something, or a Google form that doesn’t collect, you know, emails or whatever. And you could collect anonymous feedback.

But I think at this point, I know I’ve had loads of people approach me and be like, I’m doing this program or I’m evaluating my marketing or whatever. Can you please just take a sec and tell me, you know, a few ways that you’d describe me. You could even give them choices. You could say, which of these words would you associate with me or wouldn’t you?

And if you’re willing to expand out, why, that would be great. Make it quick. Make it easy. Be deliberate with who you ask. And if you’re worried about that element and about that honesty element, feel free to make it anonymous. It’s still good information. I saw some other hands. Yeah. I kind of struggle with the opposite. I feel like when I’m put in a professional setting, I feel like I’m always telling myself to hold myself back.

And be more professional. Don’t. Do you think that I’m in the wrong room? Because I’m starting to think I would. Because there’s also a couple of people who I look up to who don’t do that, but they’re very few and far between. I feel like a lot of the other people in those rooms are very like they they hold it back and I’m like, oh, am I allowed to say that?

Should I say that? Whereas I just want to walk into the room, I want to swear. I want to tell them what I’ve done, I want to, you know, I find that really difficult. So you just think I shouldn’t at all. And I should just go in and just. You’re not going to get me in trouble. Don’t worry.

I could see you, wait a minute what’s he going to say. I think you phrased it really well, which is, look at what room you’re in. Yeah. What makes you feel uncomfortable? Do you actually feel like you’re going to receive censure for it, or is it yourself telling yourself. I think is myself telling myself, yeah, I think probably then when you do hold that back, that person is way less likely to to open up as well.

They are. Then it becomes a very superficial relationship. And it depends on the rooms you’re in. Again, if you’re, you know, a corporate lawyer or something, you maybe want to give an impression of being a little more of a blank slate, quite frankly. But, you know, it depends. Maybe you don’t, I think also, think about who you look up to.

And are they the people who you feel like you aren’t seeing, or are they the people who feel like you are seeing, because you could be that for someone else. And that’s another thing. Like, you can’t be someone who’s looked up to if you don’t show yourself. And if you don’t put yourself there. I’ve told, I’ve been told that I am, but I don’t see it, you know.

Oh, but other people do. You need to start seeing it too. Maybe ask them what they see, ask them what they’re seeing. Also, you can be surprised sometimes, you might have more of your personality peeking out than you realise. I remember in my 20s when I was not like this, I was very guarded and very scared and in a very corporate environment.

There was this this program that I went to that was about, communicating with different personality types or whatever. And as part of that, I needed to do a self-evaluation, and I needed to give an evaluation of me for someone on my team to fill out and someone on a different team who I worked closely with to fill out.

And I was thinking, well, these people don’t really know me at all because I wasn’t bringing myself to the office, really. I was like, these people don’t know me at all. So I kind of wonder how accurate they’re going to be about me. And I felt in advance like they would misjudge me. And my goodness, were they accurate.

I was like, oh, they totally, they get me more than I would have realised because I guess I was, they could see things in me that I didn’t realise that I was showing to them, if that makes sense. So that could be eye opening as well. But generally, I’d say people aren’t can be able to see you if they aren’t able to see you.

I feel like there was another hand. All right. How are you showing up in your career and life? This this is highly related to that. And I don’t just mean what version of you are you presenting to the world. I also mean, like, literally step back from that. How are people getting to see you? Are you going to events like this?

Are you maintaining your LinkedIn? Are you appearing on podcasts? are you, you know, how are you showing up so that you can be seen? And that’s an important thing to be aware of as well because again, people can’t see you if you don’t show yourself. You show up a lot of places, which is great.

But what has been one of the game changers for you and how you show up? I think I was saying earlier as well, just actually being consistent, you know, sounds like trite, but being consistent online and just kind of like being able to talk because you never know what you say. Just to give one simple example, I talked about email marketing because I was having a moment about something that kind of was relaxing in some way, and an old person that I had, an old lead, so to speak.

She messaged me and was like, oh, I work for this new company. Have you got capacity to help out with an email marketing project? Just because I was talking about it 2 days later she was like, I saw that post that you did, can you help me? And it was just like a little click of like, people are not going to remember that we exist, sadly, because we’re busy and there’s a lot of content, a lot of conversations.

So whichever way you’re more comfortable with, for me it was surprising to be like just showing up consistently in a place that is LinkedIn, but people are looking for opportunities really helped me, and it continues to help me in little ways. And you never know how people are going to find you. I had two clients who found me via random business cards.

One of them, I was at this business retreat, and there were a bunch of us around a table. And this woman, who I’d been sitting next to all morning, came up to me at the break and pulled, my business cards always have my picture on them. My face is my brand. Really. She pulled my business card out of her purse, and she said, I’ve been carrying this around for a year.

I picked it up at an event. This is for a business group we’re both part of, she said. I picked it up at an event. And before coming to this event, it happened to, you know, I found it in my purse, and I saw that you knew and were connected to the person who was facilitating this retreat we’re both at.

So I was going to ask her about you. But here you are. And she wound up becoming a client. And then another person. Similar situation, but even more random. I went to a distillery and in the ladies room there was a bulletin board with, you know, push pins with notices and business cards. And I said, you know what the heck?

And I put my business card up there. Again a while later, like a few years later, actually, someone emailed me and she said, this is going to sound so weird, but I saw your business card at the women’s room of this distillery and I looked you up and you seem like what I need right now, and I feel like this is fate.

And yes, she didn’t become a client, so you really don’t know. Also, any moment, any impression could be someone’s first impression. You really don’t know. A couple of you in this room knew me before today. I think a few people in this room, probably when they heard my name and that I would be speaking today, looked me up.

So this is not your first impression of me because you’ve already looked me up. And then I’m sure there are people where this is literally the very first time they’ve ever heard of me in their lives. Those are different levels of first impression. So keep in mind any moment could be someone’s first impression of you. So what is that impression?

And not necessarily that you want to make sure it’s good, you do. But the fact is, you know, you’re right for the people you’re right for. Just make sure it’s accurate and make sure it is an impression. All right. And then personality. This is what radiates off of you. This is really about how you make people feel.

And this is where the connection comes between you and the other person. This is the first element of this that actually kind of exists outside of you. So personality isn’t just literally your personality. Are you nice? Are you funny? Are you serious? Are you whatever. It’s also about how you make people feel in your presence. You know, you had mentioned that you’re really attuned to making people feel comfortable.

That’s very important to you. Some people, that’s something that they care about a lot and pride themselves on. Some people want to, make people feel seen. That’s a huge part of what I care a lot about is make making people feel seen in my presence. Some people want to make people feel like they’re in good hands, to make people feel safe, like they can trust in their expertise.

Especially if you’re, you know, a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor or something like that, where people come to you in an extremely vulnerable state and they need to feel like they’re in good hands. That may be how you want to make people feel. Maybe you want to make people feel intimidated and scared. Hopefully you don’t.

But, you know, there are people like that where they want to make people feel like I’ve got the upper hand. That’s not, I don’t jive with those people. But the fact is, how do people feel in your presence? And you know what, if the way people feel in your presence is that they feel intimidated and scared and silenced, and that’s not what you want people to feel,

it’s good to look at that and be aware of that. How do people tend to react to you? Do people tend to want to come up and talk to you after stuff, or do people go like uuuoooh, you know, try to get the vibe of people’s reaction to you and think about, that’s not entirely your problem, like other people’s reactions.

But on some level, think about how you can impact it to be more the way you want them to react to you, because that’s how you’re going to live inside them, if you do it all, if you leave no impression on people whatsoever, that’s a whole other ball game. But I’m talking about personal branding here.

So hopefully you are leaving an impression, and emotional impressions last the longest. What lingers with them after they’ve met you? It’s that feeling that they have when they’re with you. But also, are there thoughts that you’ve put in their heads that continue rattling around in there, are there, you know, action items that you inspire in them?

That’s always really satisfying. You know, what lingers with them after they’ve been in your presence? If someone gravitates to you, why? Like what sort of people do you find gravitating to you? In what sort of circumstances? We all know some people where messes tend to gravitate towards them, and that’s fine. I can think of a particular friend of mine where I feel like she’s just like a collector of the broken, but the fact is she has like, she signed up for that.

Like she feels like that’s connected to her purpose, and she’s cool with that. I feel like the people who gravitate to me are people who, have something really freaking special inside that they’re a little scared of. But they tend to be awesome people and I’m really grateful for that. But think about what makes people gravitate to you and why.

And you might even ask them, not literally like, hey, what made you come up and talk to me? Because that may be a little weird, but maybe after you know someone for a little while, you could say, or if you have a client, say, just curious, what made you want to work with me? Because even though, you know, we may think, well, they needed my service and my price was right.

No, no, no, there’s more to it than that. What made you want to work with me? That’s good to know and understand. I actually just sent out a bunch of those emails this morning because I tell people to do it, and then I don’t do it. I never solicit feedback and testimonials, and I am getting over my own bs right now.

But that’s good to know, too. What made you gravitate towards me? How did I, like, what made this work? So that’s important to know. And then also, why do people choose to work with you, again to that end? Because it is not just that you offer the right service. It’s not just that you’ve won an award or that they found you in this place.

There’s more to it than that. I cannot get through a single interview or presentation or conversation without paraphrasing Bob Burg, who said in his book, The Go-Giver, all things being equal, meaning you do have to have the goods, people will choose to do business with and refer business to those who they know, like and trust. And that’s true.

Other people do what you do no matter what it is. Other people do what you do. The only true competitive advantage you have is you. And that’s where this comes in, it’s how you make people feel, and it’s the impression that they get of you, and it’s what lingers about you in their heads. And then finally we get to personal brand.

So we don’t start with this. We get to this. At least if you work with me, you get to this, some people just do this bit. This is not just the window dressing as I dismissively referred to it before. It really is about making sure that your impression doesn’t rely on you, that it’s bigger than you. Penni was posting this morning about how it was interesting to be waking up on a Cowork Crew morning and, not be going to it, but how she needs to kind of let it live beyond her.

And that’s very true. And you kind of want anything you build, even if it is just you, you don’t want to have to literally meet every single person in order for them to know you exist. So your personal brand is what goes beyond you. And it’s not just literally what you put out there. If you can hopefully get to, well not

hopefully, you can definitely if you do it, get to a point where you don’t have to be involved at all because someone else’s impression of you then passes on to other people as well. And you can do this, of course, you know, one of the obvious ways is by doing things like creating content. But the fact is, it’s also developing your reputation.

It’s meeting people. It’s creating an impression in other people because then that can have ripple effects and, kind of go out there, but you want to have some control over what that is. You don’t want people just going out there willy nilly. So some things to check is, are there people you don’t know who know who you are.

And think about that for a second. Are there people there who you’ve never met and you don’t know them, but they know who you are? Sometimes those people pop into our inboxes or our DMs and they have a comment on something, or they heard about you from someone. And so think about that. Are there people who you don’t know who know who you are?

Because that’s the first time that you do have some level of personal brand out there that is bigger than what you can touch with the green. It’s in the purple, why? Why? What do they know you for? You’re just a person, and I don’t mean like they know you because they’ve seen you in the grocery store, but they don’t know who the heck you are.

I mean, I mean, we’re talking professional here. Why? They have they have this little, like, tag for you in their head of this is Fab Giovanetti, who runs Alt Marketing School. You know it’s good to make sure that they have a little description for you in their head and they know what the heck that is.

And make sure that you are clear when putting yourself out there so everyone knows what to attach that. How did they come to know you? That’s also good to know, because that lets you know what’s actually working to develop your presence. You can be doing all sorts of things out there. You could be churning out content, you could be guesting on podcasts, you could be speaking on stages, and you could be going to networking activities.

And it could turn out that the networking activities are the only ways that you’re actually expanding your stuff, even though you’re putting all these, all this other stuff out into a much broader space in the world or could go the opposite way. It could be you’re going in networking activities and not connecting with anybody or nobody relevant, is there.

And all your leads are coming from speaking at big stages of conferences, who knows. But think about what’s actually expanding your presence in the right directions. And look at that. That too is something like the stuff we said with our purpose before. A lot of times we may think we know the answer, but if we really look at it and actually analyse it, we may be surprised.

So, as people who you don’t know approach you, it can be good to say, how did you hear about me? It can be good to, say, you know what inspired you to reach out? This is good information to have. And sometimes it might be obvious, but sometimes it’s not.

So it’s good to actually look at it instead of assuming that we know what the answer is. And then what topic will make your name come up in a room? I would love to hear some people who have just like a word or two. What topic makes your name come up in a room? Anybody? Hey, Squarespace. Squarespace. I use Squarespace, so I should talk to you later.

So you’re the Squarespace gal. That’s good to know, say your whole name. Krishna Solanki Designs is the business but my name is Krishna Solanki. Alright Krishna Solanki is the person for Squarespace. So if anyone wants to put that in their brain, she’s the person to know for Squarespace. Anyone else have their word or phrase? Can be a phrase as well. Okay.

Short though. Okay. Y’all know? Yeah. Making marketing fun. Making marketing fun. Love it. It’s fun. Like, the word I’d associate with the school is fun. So they’re kind of like, that’s that. I love it. Yeah. Animations. Animations. And your name? Dominic. Dominic what? Noble or Noval. Noble. Dominic Noble. Animations Interiors Copyrighting.

And your name? Lucy Banwell. Lucy Banwell Interiors Copywriting. Interesting. That’s a very unique set there. So that’ll help people certainly niche you down. But think about what you want to be known for. Like some people are too much of a, it’s okay to be a generalist too, as long as you have defined what you are a generalist in.

So, for example, before I decided personal branding was going to be the phrase that I wanted, before that, it was social media for small businesses and people told me that was too generic. But you know what? I got work. Because when people thought of social media for small businesses, they thought of me. And it didn’t matter that I wasn’t the Instagram girl or the LinkedIn girl, you know what?

To the people who needed me, that was enough and I got my name really associated with it. Now it’s personal branding. Kind of do a bit of both. So think about that. What topic will make you come up in a room? This, will take you for free to a Google form where you can work through some questions yourself.

The ones in this, this presentation and other similar ones. I customise the questions I really dive into with my clients. But the fact is, this is sort of a simplified version that’s a bit more generic that I think could help just about anybody. So you can do this with yourself and hopefully will help give you more direction on your own.

And then if you do want to take it further, I’m very easy to find, very, very easy to find. Alright. Cheers. There’s another one of my lovely gifs. And, Yeah, connect with me everywhere. I will be very happy to connect. I’m very annoyed, Instagram limits how many accounts you can follow, which really annoys me.

How many did you follow to know that? 7500. So 7500. Oh. It’s limited there no matter how many followers you have, it’s limited, you can only follow, so I’m constantly having to go like delete people I’m following who maybe aren’t as relevant anymore because I want to connect with people after things like this. But it’s hard.

The content at that point is sad as well because it’s hard to keep up with them, I know, but I do, know like when I when I try to look through my list, I’m like, but I actually want to follow these people I followed them for a reason. So, but LinkedIn is the best place for me right now. And I just, it was a big step for me, I just took Twitter off. X.

Yeah, yeah. Good when you have mutual connections already isn’t it? Of course. you’re like ahh, makes sense. I have mutual connections to so many people I reach out to and I love it. It’s a nice little in and it lets me know people are relevant, so. Alright, Q&A my favorite part always. Thank you. First of all okay.