A Personal Brand for Leaders is Not Optional, It's a Must!

Whether you know it or not, you have a personal brand. Do you know what that personal brand is? Have you defined a personal brand for you as a leader? Do you understand the value of that personal brand to either your growth or what could be holding you back in your career? Forget about being a social influencer. That's not what this is about. Everything you do and how you show up each and every day at work and at home is establishing for others what your personal brand is. And if it is not what your company or your team needs and wants, then you could be hurting your ability to advance. So we are going to talk all about personal branding. At the same time, I'm going to give you steps you could be taking to define your personal brand that will transform you into a powerhouse leader at work and at home. Stay with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm, along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Follow Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips Advice and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Let's do this. I wanted to have this conversation about personal branding because it was actually a subject and a question that one of my clients brought up to me last week, and I even mentioned to her, oh, what a great reminder, because I've talked about this subject of personal branding before here on Shedding the Corporate Bitch. But it is a great reminder as far as how others perceive you and how others experience and feel you, um, how you are showing up, how you are communicating, how you are performing, how you are partnering and collaborating and relating to others, is all defining what your brand is. Well, how others really kind of label you, or how they might refer to you, or acknowledge you, or when someone is speaking about, about you, then they're immediately kind of creating or conjuring up their idea or their personal brand of you. And so it's really important. And what my client wanted to talk about with me was the fact that they wanted to ensure that how they were showing up and how they were connecting not only with their peers, but also their managers and senior managers, was positively influencing their brand as opposed to negatively hurting it. And I absolutely loved that, you know, she walked into that conversation with me because many executives don't. A lot of entrepreneurs, they understand the value and the importance and the critical nature of having a personal, even a professional brand, because that's what their business is based on. That's how they go and market and promote themselves. Well, quite honestly, it is no different for you as a professional. Corporate professional is whether you work for someone else or for yourself. You need to understand that how you are showing up, how you are messaging who you are and what you do and what value you bring is creating a story, is creating a persona, is creating a brand in other people's mind of how they then think about you. And so you, I would think, and I would hope you would want to be in control of that. You don't want to be oblivious to it, not be aware of how you are projecting yourself onto others that could be hurting you. And at the same time, you want to be able to leverage all kinds of feedback and all kinds of inputs around how others perceive you and feel and experience you to ensure that it is supporting what goals and ambitions you have in your work and in your life. So I want to talk about the personal brand, what it is, why it is. What, what the value of having a personal brand is. I'll talk about some examples of individuals and their personal brand. I'll include myself in that. And at the same time, then give you some steps you could be taking to ensure that you're in control of defining your personal brand as opposed to allowing others to, because you're not aware of just how you are coming across. To other people. So first off, what is a personal brand? Well, personal brand is basically your public image, your reputation. Again, how you make other people feel, the experience other people have of you and with you. Um, it's— it really kind of defines a really quick description. If someone was to say, you know, tell me a little bit about Bernadette, you know, what, what do you feel or what do you think about Bernadette? All of a sudden it will kind of come up in their mind, um, an image, almost like an avatar, a personal brand of who I am that they can then describe. Uh, and that description is, yes, it's words, but it's also then conjuring up some emotional, physical, mental feelings, emotions, images of basically how you are being received by other people. So it's your reputation, it's your, you know, your public image. It is how other people are perceiving you. So you, again, would want to control that. Not that you want to change who you are, except for the fact that if there are things that are not working for you, they're working against you, obviously you want to be— you want to be very aware of those things so then you can make changes. But then ultimately define how you want to show up and how you want to be perceived as a leader each and every day at home and at work. All right, so why is a personal brand important? Well, for a whole slew of reasons. It's important for one, you're in control of how you're kind of showing up and doing your job and presenting yourself and how other people are then walking away and perceiving you. Uh, you definitely want to influence them. You can't necessarily control totally their thoughts and their feelings and their emotions, but you can certainly control how you are, um, positioning yourself to where when they walk away, there's a chance, a higher chance of them having good perceptions of you versus negative. So that's what you can control. And then after that, you really can't control whether or not they like you or not, even if you're the sweetest, kindest, most efficient, effective leader in the company. They're still going to, you know, kind of have control over whether or not they want to accept that of you, or they're going to create their own story, their own brand of you that may or may not be true. You can control what you can control. After that, uh, you can't. All right, so you want to control your brand as much as possible is a value. It builds trust when you are really grounded in who you are and what your beliefs are, what's important to you, and how you want to lead, and how you want to be perceived as a leader, how you want to relate to other people— all, all elements of being a human, let alone a leader. Well, it builds trust. People can depend on You know, the fact that, okay, I know Bernadette, and I'll talk about my personal brand in a minute, but I know Bernadette to be X, Y, and Z, so I can always depend on that. Now, that's for the good and for the ugly. If someone's personal brand is one of being nasty, a bully, being loud, uh, being curt, being demeaning, being unmotivating, well, that's the personal brand that you've created, that, that person's created, and now that others have a perception of you. And yet at the same time, if you've created a, a brand of kind and compassionate and engaging and motivating and inspiring and supportive, and they allow you to, you know, take risks, effective leader, all those things, well then when someone asks about that individual, that's what's going to come up as someone's personal brand in the mind of that individual. So it creates, um, allows you to have some, some control of how you're perceived. It creates trust, it creates dependability, predictability. You know, they know based on the brand that you've established for yourself, they know what they're getting. And so if it's a good thing, awesome. If it's not such a good thing,, based on maybe feedback you've received, then you have the control to then make changes. All right. Um, it really does. Um, it's almost like your calling card, uh, your communication card of your style and the expectations that you have, um, from others as a result of your style. So again, based on how you've defined your brand of what type of leader, in this case, you want to be, others then have an expectation. So if you're someone who's very organized and your brand is centered around being organized, being consistent, being persistent, having— always having goals, always tracking and reporting on those goals, always results-oriented, always, you know, checking the, uh, you know, dotting the i and crossing the t. Then others— you're communicating that style to others who then know, again, they know, they now know what the expectations are that you're setting for them as a result of your style. And so communication of your style is a huge reason why having a personal brand is so beneficial. Because if you do have certain expectations for others, you don't always have to just verbalize what those expectations are. Your behavior, how you show up, the words that you use, the actions that you take, uh, your behavior, your attitude will all communicate that even non-verbally. And so you're establishing that brand and others are, are experiencing that, and therefore they know what the expectations are. They know again, you know, the— how they can depend on you for one thing or the other, a certain behavior, a certain action, certain words, so forth and so on. Um, and at the same time, it really does help and elevates a person's visibility when they are really grounded in their personal brand, good, bad, or ugly, mind you. So Um, if someone has really, um, well-defined their personal brand and they're living it and they're performing it and they're showing up in it very consistently each and every day, well, that's also in, in most cases providing them visibility that others aren't receiving because they're really unsure of themselves. They haven't established who they truly are, especially as a leader, especially as a major contributor to the business. And therefore, they kind of, you know, are a wallflower as far as other people really considering them, thinking about them, advocating for them, as opposed to the person who is really grounded in who they are and what, what they want to— they want others to perceive and feel and experience around them. And therefore, Again, good or bad, they're very visible. You could have a really strong, positive, uplifting brand, or you can have a really negative bully type of brand. And trust me, both of those are going to be very visible to individuals, um, that, you know, especially those individuals that have decision-making power and are influencers. Uh, it will, you know, elevate your visibility around your brand, uh, and that could either work for you or work against you. So you also, again, going back to the all, you really want to be aware and be managing what that brand is and how other people are receiving it. And if you are ambitious and have goals and want to advance, and you want to be a really positive, constructive, motivating leader, you definitely want to ensure that you get your hands around that and make the changes necessary in order to have that positive type of personal brand as opposed to a negative. And leaning on that, making you more visible, having a personal brand and really being grounded in it is also a competitive advantage. Because once you know your personal brand, what your core values, your core beliefs, your core goals and expectations are, what it is your, you know, your mission, your vision for what it is that you know, you're living for, working for, so forth and so on. Well, that makes you a lot more confident and secure in being able to communicate that brand. And therefore you're setting, you know, yourself apart from others, almost like what we talked about earlier with visibility. You have a competitive advantage over others who aren't really quite sure you know, who they are as a leader, who they are as a manager, as a contributor, as a member of the leadership team, whatever the case might be. And trust me when I say more professionals than not are unsure. They're, they're not quite grounded in why and what their— what I'll call their unique value proposition is. Around what they bring to the table. And if I were to ask them, so what do you bring to the table? You know, why are you a member of this leadership team? And why should you be? There'll be a lot of hemming and hawing. There'll be a lot of like, you know, needing to really think about it and really dig deep into trying to figure that out. And it can be very haphazard in them being able to communicate that. But someone with a personal brand who intentionally and purposely and thoughtfully defined their personal brand and they're now living it, it's, it's very clear and they can say it and clarify it and explain it and storytell it very easily, which again sets them majorly apart from others around them. So it's a huge competitive advantage. And lastly, it builds credibility. When someone is confident in who they are and what they stand for and what they believe in and what's important to them, not only does it help them really make decisions much more effectively and take the actions that are appropriate, uh, set boundaries, you know, toward what it is that they, you know, will accept or not accept. I mean, that's confidence, and confidence immediately has others looking at that individual as being very credible, you know. And if they're positioning themselves— and take it one step further— to where they're positioning themselves as a thought leader, they're leaning into their expertise and their experience and their knowledge base, and they're, you know, speaking out and, and inserting themselves appropriately, um, you know. And that is their personal brand, maybe, that they've established themselves, that they want to be a thought leader. So they're going to interject, they're going to provide ideas, they're going to look for solutions, they're gonna share their expertise freely, you know, and not be one that wants to hoard it, uh, then again, that all breeds and builds credibility in that individual. So there's a lot of reasons, and I can continue going on, but there's a lot of reasons why having a personal brand is so vital. So as you can see, there's a lot of value and a lot of benefit. To really owning your personal brand. And yet you have to define it and you have to create it and you have to then live by it. Um, but by the time we're done, I'll make sure that you have some steps that you could be taking, um, around personal branding. All right, but let's talk about— before we get there, let's talk about some examples of personal brands of individuals who have established themselves with strong personal brands, good or bad. And I say that because I'm going to start with me. So I would say, you know, up until I went out on my own in 2008 and was an entrepreneur, I didn't really think about, you know, having a personal brand, like purposely, intentionally creating, defining a personal brand and then living by it. I just wasn't in that mindset at all. However, as I did get to, to understand what that, that concept means and the value of it, as I started my entrepreneurial journey, I would say between 2008 and 2011, I really did work on, you know, really understanding what I wanted to stand for, what I, what I stood for. And what my core beliefs were and what my core values are and so forth and so on. But I also had a look in my past when I was in corporate and asked myself, okay, how would someone define my personal brand through those years? And hence the name of the show. I certainly had a brand, and that was around being, you know, the ultimate corporate tyrant, the bitch. The bully boss, you name it. And it was one reason why, when I had that realization that that was a brand that was attached to me, that I knew I had to change. I knew I did not want that brand anywhere near me, and therefore I had to kind of move on. But that was my personal brand. If someone was to say, tell me about Bernadette, tell me about her as a leader, tell me about her as a colleague and someone you're working with, and a boss, you know, how would you describe her? That would kind of be the, the, you know, foundation of what my personal brand was at the time. And so obviously over the last 14, 15 years, you know, I've worked to totally transform that. And I had an experience around my personal brand that I didn't even know was really around branding. But what happened was I left corporate and I was, you know, 25 years in corporate. I was a very polished, formal, rigid type of, you know, professional, even executive in the suit and the, you know, high heels and even pantyhose for those years. I'm aging myself. And so when I left corporate, I immediately wanted to maintain that persona, that brand. Not the bitch part, but the, you know, polished, formal, corporate. And so I spent a great deal of money and time on building my business around the Boas Group. That was the first name of my business, was the Boas Group. And the whole brand was around, you know, having corporate structure, corporate formality, corporate polish. Yet for the entrepreneur. And so I spent probably close to $20,000-$25,000, you know, establishing a website and folders and business cards and leaflets and you name it, all around this brand of, you know, formality and polish and so forth and so on. But yet, from 2008 to roughly 2010, I would go out and I was very busy. I was very active. I had a whole roster of clients all around and stemming from the Boas Group, but I never felt like I fit it. Like, I never felt that it was who I truly was. It just— I always had an uncomfortable time explaining, you know, what the Boas Group stand for, what the personal brand was, both of me, Bernadette Boas, but also me, the the owner of the Boas Group. And then I was at a speaking engagement that I was, I was the main speaker, and the host of the event was a friend of mine or a colleague of mine. And I had given her my very formal, polished resume bio for her to read off as my intro. And so I'm sitting there on the side stage, and she is about to introduce me, and she has the piece of paper in her hand, and you know, the hundreds of people out in front of her. And she looks at this piece of paper and she actually, you know, kind of crumbles it up and throws it to the side of the stage. And she says, look, all you need to know about this woman is she's a ball of fire. That's all you need to know. And she basically then, you know, invited me onto the stage and she left. And every hair on my body stood up. Every hair on my body stood up. I was so excited. I found my personal brand, what I really stood for, what I really wanted others to feel and experience as a result of my behavior, my actions, my words. I wanted them to experience what I feel within myself, and that is as a ball of fire, just someone who is energetic and optimistic and positive and uplifting and inspiring and so different than my previous personal brand. And so keep that in mind that, you know, just because your brand is one thing one day doesn't have to be this, you know, what it is today and going forward. At the same time, keep in mind, personal brands, you're establishing it whether you know it or not, very much like I did. And it could be a good brand or it could be a detrimental brand. And therefore you want to be very self-aware and, you know, assess how others are perceiving you and how you are going out into the world in order to ensure that the brand that you're establishing is working for you as opposed to against you. And I'm just thrilled because now everything I do is around Ball of Fire. So, uh, and it does— the minute I show up, the minute people listen to my voicemail The minute someone meets me, you know, they confirm regularly, oh yeah, she's a ball of fire. So that's one example. The other example would be Oprah. How would you define Oprah's brand? Well, for me, Oprah's brand is around kindness. It's around honesty. It's around being relatable. It's around connecting and really wanting to, um, you you know, be with others and support and serve others. It's also around humility. I mean, she has shared her story, ups and downs, and especially the downs, you know, for years, for decades, and she's been very transparent and humble about it. Um, so that's how Oprah's brand would be described. Then you could have, you know, folks like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk um, or, you know, Jeff Bezos. Uh, I'll take Jeff Bezos out of those for a second, but like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, they're known for creativity, for innovation, for changing the world, right? Um, and you could say for, you know, Elon Musk, you know, uh, separately, I mean, he really pushes the boundaries of what we could do. So he's just stellar in his mindset, in his creativity. Uh, not to say that Steve Jobs is not, uh, he certainly was, and he's transformed the world as well. Uh, so that's what they stand for. And then I mentioned Jeff Bezos because I would say Jeff, uh, with Amazon, you know, he's all about— if I think about Jeff Bezos and Amazon, the first thing that comes up for me is kind of reliability, dependability, service, trust. Not to say customer service, because, you know, we could have challenges there enough to alter that, you know, that brand that we perceive. But Jeff Bezos is also one of efficiency, productivity. I think of him as an overall operational guru. Uh, so that, you know, that's the brand that he is creating for himself in the eyes of other people. Uh, so, you know, you could just continue to think about, um, who, you know, you regard and revere, um, you know, as a leader at home or at work, in your own company or outside your company, and really kind of say to yourself, what's their personal brand? And I ask that of others, not as frequently as I used to, but I'll ask others of that, you know, on occasion, just to ensure that I'm still delivering on what I, you know, defined as my, you know, commitment to those around me socially and professionally, because I don't want to stray away from it, let alone go back to where I was. And so you just want to be able to do the same, which we'll talk about when we get, you know, talk about steps you could be taking for you to be able to create and define your own personal brand. Uh, so let's do that, shall we? Let's define your personal brand and the steps you could take to really get your hands around what that is. So first off, what I would say is the first step would be really consider— like, sit down and really define for yourself what's important to you. What are your values? What are your core beliefs? Um, what are your expectations? What are your goals? How do you want others to see you and feel you and experience you at work and at home? Like, what are all of those characteristics? What are all those descriptors, those traits, those qualities, those beliefs, those values that you really stand firm in? And trust me when I say, as we talked about the benefits, once you really are grounded and being very conscious and thoughtful, uh, about what they are, it helps you tremendously with your decision-making, your prioritization, your— the way you allow and accept other people to treat you, or even you treat yourself. It provides you such confidence and certainty, um, in just how you want to operate and how you want to go about life. And so The first step of defining your personal brand would really be to sit down, get a journal. Don't just sit there and think about it. Actually intentionally put some work toward it and just write out what are your core beliefs, your core values, your core expectations, goals, experiences. How do you want to be treated? How do you want others to treat you? How do you want to treat other people? Um, so forth and so on. All right, and then I had mentioned a little earlier, we all have our unique value proposition, um, and people will call it UVP. There's also unique selling proposition, USP. But your unique value proposition is really think about what value do you bring to others, whether that's, you know, your social life, whether that's your work life, whether that's your team, uh, employees, whether that's your peers, your managers, your big bosses, the company as a whole. What is the value that you bring? How do you contribute? And if it's not today, how do you want to contribute? How do you want to be seen as valuable? Um, you know, how are you showing up? What are those skills and experiences and expertise and knowledge and talent and passions that you have that makes you unique, sets you apart from others. Uh, really get grounded in what that is, and then take all those individual things and kind of, you know, uh, start threading them together. And we're going to talk about the, the step you could take around, you know, telling this story around all that. But start thinking about how do your values, beliefs, expectations, goals, ambitions— how does that then tie into your unique value, those skills, talents, passions, uh, experiences, expertise that you have? How do they all work together? And then assess where you are currently against all of that. So what I've done in the past and what I would recommend you to do is kind of create an inventory, like a laundry list of all these things. And then, you know, right next to each one of them, assess yourself. Put it on a scale of 1 to 10. Where are you from weak to master, uh, as far as, you know, where you really are confident and firm and stable and secure in believing in yourself that these are, you know, what makes your personal brand. But more importantly, assess it so you have an idea of how others might be perceiving you. And you know, where you're definitely showing up and performing in, in a way that's really, really strong and consistent in these areas. But at the same time, you're kind of, you know, weaker and needs improvement in other areas. And get an idea of what that is. So then you could be putting together a plan for yourself that really works on honing in and upleveling yourself, not only as a leader but also as an individual. All right. And then, as I mentioned, looking over, you know, 1, 2, and 3, what you're learning in those steps 1, 2, and 3— your core values and beliefs, your skills, talents, and passions your current assessment, where you are today, and craft a story around it. So when someone does ask you, so tell me about yourself. Well, I can't tell you how many times, even here on Shedding the Corporate Bitch, I even prepare my guests with the fact that I'm going to ask them to tell us about themselves. And I'll even emphasize, do not get into your resume. Do not get into telling me about your business because we're going to talk about that, you know, for 25 minutes. Tell us about you, who you are and what you do, what your hobbies are, what your passions are, you know, so we can relate to you as a person. And that's what I want you to do here in this fourth step is I want you to kind of craft a story so that when someone says to you, all right, tell us, tell us about yourself, this could be you know, a customer might ask you, your— a new employee might ask you, a peer might ask you when you're going for an advancement or a new job. They might ask you in the interviewing process, say you're even now needing to meet with, you know, the senior leadership team or the board. They may ask you, tell us about yourself. Well, you don't want to just, you know, list off a whole, you know, laundry list of tactical things. You want to tell a story. You want to give them, you know, the essence of who you really are, that you want to establish in their mind what your personal brand is. So I might say, you know, when someone asks me, well, for, for many people that engage with me, they consider me to be a ball of fire. And the reason why that is, is X, Y, and Z. And I am so passionate about 1, 2, and 3. And where I, you know, have found myself excel is in, you know, J, K, and L. And yet at the same time, I continue to always want to learn and grow, and therefore really focus on 9, 10, and 11. See where that, you know, see how that goes. So they're learning so much about you personally, professionally, your, your strengths, your, your weaknesses, your, you know, it's telling them how, um how self-aware you are and how humble you are, but it's sharing with them more than just a resume list of things. Does that make sense? Because your resume is so vastly different than how you're showing up each and every day and how you're actually performing, behaving, communicating, relating, collaborating. You know, your resume doesn't tell anyone how you make others feel, how you make others, um, what the experiences others have with you. It doesn't share any of that, but your story does, let alone, you know, your behavior, your actions, and your words. So you want to get kind of get around, you know, your arms around that so you understand what your story is. All right, and then like I said Once you have, you know, you're now the, the brand is coming into, you know, view. You now also have this assessment of where you should continue and, you know, because you're strong and you're, you're a master, areas where you need to work on and improve on. And now you can start developing a plan for living that personal brand. I didn't have much difficulty, um, beginning to live being a ball of fire because it just resonated and just seeped into every cell of my body. Yet I did have a laundry list of leadership traits that I needed to improve upon based on, you know, my own assessment of my past, let alone where I was at that very moment in time and where I wanted to be. And so, you know, it's not all rosy. There's always things that can be worked on and improved on and enriched and enhanced. Uh, and you, you want to continue doing that until, you know, you don't have any breath left. Uh, so your story helps you do that, and a plan ensures that you are working toward that. And then what you might do, and I'm really big on this, is you reassess yourself. So, you know, you could be doing this at the beginning of the year, you could do it in March or June, and then pick like 6 months from that date to where then you go back and you assess. All right, so this is where I was. This is the areas that I felt I was really strong and mastered at, and these were areas where I was weak and need improvement. Where am I today, and what progress have I made? And then you want to, whoo-hoo, you know, celebrate. Um, or, and you want to just say, okay, I have some work I need to continue doing, or, okay, now there's more things I want to work on to further enhance and enrich myself. All right, so that would be how you can define your personal brand. Basically, define your core values and beliefs. Uh, secondly would be to really understand your skills, talents, experiences, and expertise, your unique value proposition. And then you want to assess where you are today. You're creating a baseline, and then you want to craft all that into a story of your personal brand. Of which then you create a plan to enrich it and enhance it, and then you reassess yourself, um, as you go forward to make sure that you're living that brand. All right, so personal brands, they're not just a nicety, especially for anyone who has any form of ambitions to grow as a corporate professional. It is an absolute must. And the higher level you are in the organization, which means you're more visible, you have more influence, uh, the more critical it is that you really have a grasp around your personal brand. Because remember, whether you are conscious of it or not, and you controlled what that brand is or not, other people have the brand, your brand. Emblazoned in their mind from the experience they have with you, from the feelings that you give them, from, you know, the actions, words, and behavior that you show up each and every day with. So I would suggest, as your coach, to take control and really master and become the master of your personal brand. And of course, if you are challenged with what your personal brand is and/or you want to assess and even create your personal brand and your plan, then be sure to book a call with me. You can just reach out to me directly at Bernadette Boas at ball of fire, inc.com, and let's have a 30-minute conversation and we can walk right through the steps that you need to take. The steps we talked about start helping you to craft it. Then you can kind of go on your own, or we can continue to partner together on that.. But be sure that you are controlling and being the leader of your own personal brand. All right, and I am so thrilled that you are here with us, uh, this week, and I look forward to having you with us for another episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Bye!