The Personal Branding Bible #76

After all, all art is experience. Hello and welcome to The Company Doctor, where this week we are once again hitting you with a brand new format which is going to equip you with everything you need to know about personal brands. Now, we've touched on the topic in various episodes over the years, and this episode will be a roundup, or a highlight reel if you will, of all the choices, soundbites, and best pieces of advice that Gary and our guests have imparted since episode 1. And speaking of Gary and episode 1, we can Kicking off with Gary in episode 1, talking about why personal brand matters, how it can make a difference to your networking, and how it's linked to your lasting reputation.

Okay. The reason I'm mentioning personal brand is that if you eventually get out there and you network, then it's really important to work on your personal brand. Otherwise, people don't really care. So you can be doing all the effort, putting up all the effort to meet people and to build relationships. But if your personal brand isn't being worked on and it's, you know, you've got to be like Madonna, you've got to kind of keep reinventing yourself. Then it will have less impact. That's really what I'm saying. So personal brand is about getting on the radar, I guess. If you work for a big company, everyone knows the company. You work for Amazon, people will know the company and they will relate you to that. But if you don't work for a funky brand, you work for yourself or a smaller business, you've got to work on your own reputation. And that's really what I mean when I'm talking about personal brand.

And is that a tricky thing to do? I mean, I suppose getting to know yourself is something that you just do throughout your life anyway. How do you sort of figure out what best to put forward to the world?

It's a good question. You're asking good questions, Jules. I like it. Again, it's a big topic on its own, but just as a bit of practical thoughts for people to think about, the first thing is what you stand for. So those people that know me know I'm a good family man. I like to socialize. My wife and I, we like to go out and party a little bit. So we like to drink, we like to eat, like to travel. And I'm a family man and my close family and close friends. So that's me as a person. And then the second thing is what I stand for. Well, my habits are all about being on time and doing what I say. If people ask you about Gary, they'll say he's always on time. Sometimes people think I park around the corner just to be there on time. I think I do, actually. I remember I went out with this girl once and I always turned up at 8:00 and she said, do you park around the corner? And I went, no, of course I don't. Of course I do. But being on time is an important part of my personal brand that people know they can rely on me.

Yeah.

And doing what I say. I'm the first person to turn up if you invite me to a party and the last one to leave. You know, you know when you're here with me and that's my brand.

Some insight there into Gary's personal brand, which I'm sure many of you listening will be very familiar with. But as we go on to discuss in episode 1969, you can't just decide what your personal brand is and expect people to pick up on it. If that were true, my personal brand would be charismatic millionaire with a winning personality and impeccable work ethic, and everyone would just have to accept it. No, having a personal brand is all about taking action and then reinforcing the relevant behaviors to make them part of your DNA and subsequently your personal brand.

Do people know where you're going? You know, what's your, what's your purpose? Where are you going in life? What's your vision? What's your goal? What is it? Where are you heading? And what do you expect? And what I mean by that is, what are your values, standards, and behaviors? So for me, here's my example: do what you say is my mantra. Everyone who knows me knows that I do what I say. Yep. And I say what I do.

Yes, indeed. But have you cultivated that personal brand for yourself, or is that just how you are naturally?

Well, that's a very good question. I, I think this is the, this is the challenge for people listening. It's all very well having some ideas about what your personal brand to be, but if you don't reinforce them with behaviors, they're pointless. So I don't know what came first. I think over time I realized that's what's important to me. But the more important thing is that I reinforce those behaviors. For example, if being on time is really important but I'm always late, it's kind of laughable. And if doing what I say isn't really what happens with me, then my personal brand's killed. And although we're being, being flippant about it, Most people think what their personal brand would— they'd like it to be, but they don't reinforce it, and therefore it's pointless.

Clearly, Gary and I could talk ad infinitum about personal brands, but luckily we're also joined regularly by excellent guests who can share their own perspectives on the topic. Graham Alcott is one such guest and a great example of someone who lives their personal brand, and he's obviously doing something right because it's a brand which is trusted by the likes of Disney, British Airways, Google, and eBay.

Back to your question of like what makes Graham Graham, I think the answer sort of personally in terms of personality and stuff is like curiosity and thinking about how to have the best systems, processes, approaches that just makes work really easy. That's kind of what I've been about for a long time. So it starts with curiosity. I build some systems around it and then I tend to write about it and build courses around it. And all of that. And also just bringing in my own business experience. I started my business Think Productive in 2009. And we've just kind of grown exponentially since then. So I kind of tend to apply a lot of the sort of learning obviously to walking the talk within my own business and then bringing that back to teach to everyone from, you know, Google to eBay to British Airways and Disney and everyone in between.

How you're perceived counts for a hell of a lot when it comes to personal brand. Graham was clearly perceived to be a trusted pair of hands by those major companies. So how do you change your mindset so that people see you in the right light? As Gary explains, it's all about thinking like an owner and acting like an apprentice, which is a deliberately intriguing lead into this section of Episode 6.

I want to talk to you about you being an owner, thinking like an owner, and being an apprentice. They're the two ends of the scale for me. Because if you act like an owner, you'll be a bit more grown up about the things you do and why you do them, and you'll think slightly differently and be more driven about them and maybe make more sense of the things that you do and why you do them and where you spend your time and prioritize. And if you think like an apprentice, you're open-minded to learn and you don't think you know everything. I mean, you do obviously know everything, but you don't think you know everything. And again, the balance between those two things, I think, makes you increases your personal value.

It's a tricky balance to get, isn't it, that having the confidence to sort of, you know, well, having the confidence to have confidence, I guess, in these sorts of situations, but also not getting to a stage where you think, listen, I've done this all before, I know it, I know it inside out, you know, there's nothing else you can teach me about whatever it may be.

Well, yeah, it's very interesting, and I'll give you an example of what you've just said, really. So if you think about In business, most people think in order to get promoted, you need to get results. Would you agree? Yeah. So if I asked 10 people, 20 people, and I say, how important is getting results? I think most people would say it's kind of up there. But then think, on the other hand, have you ever seen someone that got promoted that didn't get results and maybe wasn't even that great, was a bit of an idiot? Oh, sorry, I shouldn't say that, should I? So people do get promoted who don't deserve it. Would you agree? Yeah, absolutely. All the time. And they're not even getting results. Not suggesting you don't get results. So do a really rubbish job.

You're terrible. And you'll get promoted.

And yeah, be a jerk. Yeah, yeah. Without being a jerk, be a jerk, you'll get promoted. Fantastic. No, I want to delve into it. So by getting results isn't always the ticket, but it is important to get results. I think in addition to getting results, companies like people that want to develop themselves and want to get better, and that's the apprentice part. So companies get off on the fact that someone cares about their development, they want to be better, and they want to learn.

You've had the musings and you've had the theory, but you might be wondering, how do I put all this into practice? But don't worry, we thought you might wonder that, which is why we're including this little piece of Gary Gamp gold from episode 33, where Gary provides some ironclad techniques for implementing and monitoring the effects of your newly cultivated personal brand.

Here's some practical tips for doing what you say that will build instant credibility. First of all, next week, so if people listening, that if you bought into my idea, hopefully you have, next week when you speak to any customer, either internal or external, so I call customers internal or external, I want you to offer, just think about just for next week, 3 things that you can do and deliver so you can meet expectations. I want you to do this for 30 days. So every week for the next 30 days, just do 3 things for either internal or external customer or both. And I'd like you to write it down. So keep a track of the things that you did. And then at the end of 30 days, just review what you did and how you feel about it. And then if you think it was worthwhile, do it for the next 30 days. And after 90 days, it becomes a habit. And then ask some people that you're close to if they notice any difference in what you're doing, in how you're behaving. If you're vulnerable enough to do that, and you'll be absolutely surprised, it will be standout. Yeah. Because in order to do this, you've already done the PIE thing. So you've already hopefully networking a little bit more. You're increasing your exposure and your personal brand, but you're reinforcing it with your actions. Because I think if you don't have behaviors that emanate your personal brand, your personal brand will never go anywhere. Yeah. So you've got to bring it to life, and I think that's a great way to bring it to life.

Continuing down the path of action and implementation, we're bringing it on home with Michael Burrell from episode 48, who gives us some further actionable steps to improving your personal brand and visibility. And how being held accountable by a friend can work wonders for maintaining progress.

The real world is busy, right? How do I keep momentum and keep it a priority? How do you do it? Maybe that will help us.

I was thinking about this the other day, actually. I mean, you can always hook up with a buddy and kind of help each other in doing that. I mean, if you do it, if you do it often enough, it creates a habit, which always helps as well. Habit forming will keep that momentum going. And seek feedback as well, you know, seek, you know, what do you think of my, my activity, my personal brand? Has it changed?

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, am I doing, am I being annoying or am I doing it the right way?

I mean, that could come into, yeah, it could be. I mean, you can come into the, yeah, the personal brand can, can, can be threaded into your, into your mentoring sessions if you have one, or your coaching sessions, you know, or, or just, or just speaking to a buddy or speaking to a friend. That's the thing about inner critic, isn't it? I always say that You know, you're an inner critic. If your inner critic was your best friend, what would you tell it? And you'd be telling it a completely different story to what it tells you. And, um, I, I, yeah, I'd keep momentum. It's easy to say keep posting, but, um, or keep self-promoting, but it, it, it's hard sometimes. So I'd share it.

If you could only do 3 things to improve, improve your personal brand and visibility, what would they be?

Get a very polished LinkedIn profile going. Okay, say yes to the next event that pops up. Nice. And talk about it to your colleagues, right? So I said, if you create yourself a plan and share it, share what you're going to do. It's very easy to create a plan, not tell anyone, and then not do anything about the inaction part. When you tell someone else, it puts the accountability on you to deliver.

Great. So you're creating a commitment.

Yeah, you're creating a commitment, and who knows, they might reciprocate. Can you help me out on that? Let's go on that journey together.

So there you have it, a time-hopping multi-episode guide to cultivating and maintaining your personal brand. I can't say I'm entirely happy with my own personal brand, so this has been a timely crash course. And if you have any ideas on how I should reinvent myself for 2025, do comment or send me a nice email. We hope you've enjoyed the episode, and if you're keen to dig further into the episodes that these soundbites were lifted from, do visit thecompanydoctor.com, where you'll find all previous episodes along with show notes, blog posts, and more. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.