SHORTS | Why Leaders Need Their Own Brand with Ky Furneaux

You're essentially what people are now calling a solopreneur brand. Right. So your business is you. You are. You are your business. And I think personal branding is quite interesting. There will probably be some people who are listening to this show who hear the phrase personal branding and sort of, they let out an audible sigh and their eyes roll like, oh, my God, what is that? Labels can sometimes be unhelpful. Right. For me, brand. Brand is really just what people say about you kind of when. When you're not there. So whether we're actively thinking about it or not, we all. We all have a brand. But I wonder, what advice would you give to leaders, people aspiring to senior leadership positions around how you can sort of position and really sort of build the brand and reputation that. That you would like?

Yeah, I mean, I. I think I've been really, really fortunate. Like, I've made my career in fields of passion. So I did do a Bachelor of Business Management, majoring in tourism, which was very, very handy. But towards the end of that, I broke my back in a car accident and I ended up never wanting to be indoors again. So I went from aspiring to be a marketing manager of a international hotel chain so I could travel and work in luxury locations to being like, I just don't think I can be indoors. But I used the marketing aspect and the sales aspect and most definitely the branding aspect. And we today, in this moment, live in this really awkward society where everyone's trying to be an influencer. So the idea of branding has this connotation of, like, I'm just trying to be an influencer. Like, and then I roll my eyes. Starting out in a career and trying to work in a field that you're passionate about is sitting down and going, well, what am I passionate about? And that is a really big question. Like, the amount of people that I meet that probably couldn't even answer that question, like, what am I passionate about? You know? Well, I don't know. I like to fish. I'm like, okay, you could be a fishing guide. You know, like, imagine that. And people just don't understand that they can create careers out of passions. That's where that branding comes in. So my brand has always been Aussie in Action. That's my email address when I go to post on Instagram. Instagram, I'm like, is it showing an Aussie in Action? So it really does give it a broad spectrum because it's just me moving, really. But the focus is physicality and the outdoors. The way I look at it, to enable Myself to remain passionate about things. When opportunities come my way, I just ask myself, does it fit in this line of Aussie in action for me? Does it bring me happiness, money, and I call it love, but that sort of just. Does it ignite my soul, you know? And those sort of things are the questions I ask myself before I decide whether I'm going to go down that path or not. And then you have these things called dream funders as well. So naive enough to think that you can just leap straight into a field that you're passionate about sometimes it does take a lot of work. I chopped wood for 20 bucks an hour to pay for fight lessons, to be able to get into stunts, you know, that's a dream funder. But the opposite side of that is retaining this focus on what lights you up. And that is part of your branding, you know, like the brand for me, outdoors in action. So I just follow that in my business motto as well.

Yeah, we've had a nice little exchange of ideas there, because I'm going to steal dream funders. I really like. I really like.

I really like that you're on.

Yeah, that's a nice way back to your point around sort of looking for the positive in any situation. If you've got a bit of a job to do. Well, actually, you can think of it that way. This is a. This is a dream funder and it's the reality as well. Right. In our work in life, we all have to do things that are less energized and inspiring for us. But if you can make a. A way to link a not so great aspect of work or life, how it's helping you do the stuff that you've really passionate about, that's. That's really powerful. Right. I love that.

Yeah. And I mean, my dream fund is, you know, loosely linked in with things like, I mean, I did extra work on set and it wasn't what I wanted to be doing, but it also showed me how to be on set and gave me connections and gave me experience. And so, like, you know, you can. Those dream funders, even though they might not be the ideal end game, they can certainly be in a similar field as well.