What's your personal brand?

0:04 This is Crappita Happy, and I am your host, Cas Done. I'm a clinical and coaching psychologist. I'm mindfulness meditation teacher and of course author of the Crappita Happy books. In this show, I bring you conversations with interesting, inspiring, intelligent people who are experts in their field and who have something of value to share that will help you feel less crappy and more happy. Welcome to another solo episode of Crappita Happy. So glad that you're here joining me today. I want to talk to you about something that came up in a workshop that I was co facilitating last week, and it's something that I have an exercise I guess that I have done myself in my own business as somebody who works for myself and has an online presence and a public profile. But I think it's something that can be really really useful for us all to do at some point, really helpful, both personally and professionally, and that is to ask ourselves, what is our personal brand?

1:14 What is your personal brand? How much effort, how much thought have you put into cultivating your own personal brand? Now, if you think this is not relevant to you, just stay with me, because I am here to show you that it really really is and it can be a really helpful thing to do to think about. Definitely for career and for your working life, but I think also even in your personal life. So let me explain to you what I mean by your personal brand and how you go about cultivating your own kind of branding story. I guess so, like I said, this came up at a workshop that I was at last week. I wasn't actually facilitating this section, but this other facilitator was talking to the group about this idea of their personal brand, and there are a few kind of puzzled looks in the room because most of us when we think of a brand, we think of a company. You know, we think about company brands. We think about Apple or Starbucks or General Electric, I don't know, we think about oh, Quantus.

2:17 Now there's a company whose brand is in the toilet right now. And this is why it's so important, right Like a brand, your brand reputation can really make or break you. But brands aren't just for companies and organizations. But thinking about it in the context of companies can help you to get a sense of what the point is I guess of a personal brand, because if you think about what a brand does for a company or for a product, it helps them to differentiate themselves from you know, in a very competitive market. Oftentimes it helps them to create a sense of trust, of consistency, so people know what to expect. If a company has done a very good job of creating their brand, then when people interact with that brand, they should have a feeling of consistency so that they get the same thing every time they come to know that product or that organization, for its service, for its values, just the feeling that they get. And I'll go into this in a little bit more detail in a minute, but I think the big mistake that people make, especially people who go into their own business and they start thinking about branding, is they think it's all about the logo and the fonts and the website. And as I have been told many, many many times over the years by branding experts, that

3:48 is not your brand. That's the very very very last thing you need to worry about. The first thing you need to think about is what do you represent? What do you as a personal brand or what does your company or your business, what kind of values does it represent? Who are you talking to what do you want people to think about when they think of you? What kind of feeling do you want people to get when they think of you? And this all goes for you and your personal and your professional life as well. It helps you to clarify what does set you apart, how do you stand out from a crowd. What do you want to be known for in your personal life and your professional life? What kind of feelings do you want people to have when they think about you and they think about interacting with you, if your name comes up in conversation, what do you want people to say about you? So this is kind of values, it's kind of strength. It's kind of like it's your reputation really, but it's more than that. It's the whole experience of you and how you show up consistently in your interactions so that people learn to know what they're getting when they deal with you.

5:00 They know what your strengths are, they know what your point of difference is compared to other people. It's key. There's no vanilla here. There's no kind of blending into the wallpaper. There is Oh, Cass, yeah, yeah, No, you don't need to talk to Cass about this or you know, she'd be really into that. Or Oh, Tiff, Tiff, the tif's the fitness professional. You know. Have a look at Tiff. She's not only a fitness professional. Look at how she presents herself. Look at how she dresses. She turns up for meetings in half active where like with a jacket over the top. She is. She is fitness professional through and through, like in every aspect of her life. How she dresses, how she you know, everything that she does, her whole lifestyle and her personality. That's that's what she's known for. Every time I go to an airport, and I've been to several airports lately, there is always a line a mile long out of the Starbucks, and there are any number of places you can get a coffee in the airport. And I'm definitely not convinced that Starbucks is the best coffee. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's probably not. Why do people queue up forever to buy Starbucks, It's because people have come to know and expect what they can get at Starbucks. There is a level of trust there, there's a level of security there, of certainty in knowing what they're going to get when they go to Starbucks. My daughter loves to go to Starbucks to do her school work. So it's not just about the coffee.

6:24 It's about the vibe of the place. She likes to just sit there with her laptop, where there's other people sitting with their laptops and they're all working and they're having their coffee and the people connecting. So it's more than just coffee. Because the coffee is not that great. Sorry to any Starbucks fans out there, but there is something that Starbucks is known for that brings people back. You could say the same thing about McDonald's. I mean, you know, the food is not great, but it's consistent anywhere around the world you go, you know you're going to get the same thing when you go to McDonald's. And again, it's not just that you're going to get the same kind of flavor burger. You're going to get it fast, You're going to get axe to probably some Wi Fi, clean toilets somewhere to sit down. That's what you come to expect when you go to McDonald's anywhere in the world. So enough about companies and products, let's get onto talking about your personal branding. So, like I said, it is, it's essentially like the image, it's your reputation.

7:19 It's the perception that people have of you and the reasons that it is important. Similar to company brands, it is how you differentiate yourself from other people. You might be one of ten account managers in your organization. You might be one of seven ADMIN officers, or salespeople or account executives, whatever it is. How do you differentiate yourself from other people doing the same thing in the same industry, even in different companies in the same industry. If you're applying for a job, what sets you apart from anybody else? You might have a very similar kind of CV. What do people get when they interact with you? What are you known for that wishes you from other people? And, like I said, it's that trust and it's that credibility.

8:04 People come to know what to expect. They know that you're going to answer your emails on time. They know that they can go to you and they'll get an answer or can they do. People email you and think, oh god, well, I might get a response today, I might get one in three weeks. That's if she responds to me at all. Like, is that what you're known for? This is where it's really important to start thinking about this kind of thing and like, how how do you want to shape your brand, how do you want to present to people? What do you want to be known for? And are the things that you might need to change if you need to kind of improve your personal brand. I mean, Cornus has got a long, long, long way to go to recover their brand reputation after what has happened over the last few years, and that is that there's a long way and a lot of work to go to get back to where they were before. They were known, trusted, they were safe, they were reliable, friendly, competitive, and now most people I know, if they've got any choice, they will not choose Quantus. A lot of Australians over here in the UK are choosing who they want to fly with to go home for holidays. Not a single one would choose Quantus right now, and I think, you know, we all know why, and we all know what's happened.

9:14 But that's what I mean, Like recovering your brand's reputation, if it's in the toilet is that's a long, slow, expensive exercise. So it's not just cultivating a good, positive quality brand, it's then about maintaining it with the consistency of your actions and your follow through and really thinking about all of the way that you behave and the way you engage with people and the way you present yourself. And I don't mean I don't want anybody to think this is like in an inauthentic way that you're just trying to manipulate people into thinking about you in a particular way. You want to be consistent, you want to be authentic, and we'll get to that in a second.

9:54 But you know, this shouldn't be about faking something, but it is about, you know, thinking about, well, how do you want to be known? And are your actions at the moment contributing to you being known, you know, in the way that you would like the reputation that you would like to cultivate, or are you kind of not doing yourself any favors by being inconsistent or a bit unreliable or a bit sloppy in how you deal with people or how you show up personally or professionally in your life. In terms of networking, and we've all heard that networking is really key to success professionally and personally, Like you can meet some great people through your networking activities and most people cringe, Oh God, I don't want to do that. I don't like I hate going to these networking events and handing out business cards. Like it doesn't have to be like that. When you cultivate authentic relationships with people, and you really genuinely connect with people, and people really genuinely get to know you and what you're about and what your qualities are, your personality, your strengths, what you're really good at, what your skills are, what your values are, then they're more likely to recommend you if they meet somebody they hear that somebody is looking for somebody with your particular values or skill sets, they're going to be putting your name for it. They're going to be making the connections. You don't have to go cold calling people or you know, cold messaging people on LinkedIn or any of that kind of thing. People will be doing that for you. When you have a strong brand, like a strong personal brand, people just you will immediately be the person that comes to mind when somebody is

11:24 looking for somebody like you. So that's really helpful. And like I said, it's about controlling your own narrative, you know, like taking some control over your own reputation, your image, your personal and professional image, and that does go all the way down to like if you think about a business having a logo on a particular colors and a fond like, how do you dress, how do you show up? What do people come to expect of you? Just in terms of your physical presentation. So let's just break this down and have a think about all of the things that you might need to reflect on to help you to cultivate your own personal brand. So obviously it starts with well, who are you, what are you about? What are your particular skills, what's your background, what's your experience, what do you enjoy doing? You know, there's all of that kind of standard stuff, value strengths, expertise, qualities. But then I think, you know obviously thinking about what parts of your work or what parts of your your personal life, like what really matters to you? What do you really enjoy doing, what are you really great at doing? And it's not just job skills. It might be like relationships and networking. It might be you know, knowing how to cut through red tape and get stuff done, get things over the line. It might be about getting people on board with a vision. It might be that you've got you know, you might be the organizer, either in your personal group or at work. You might be the person who's really great at planning and projects and deadlines and making sure things are done on time, whereas somebody else

12:56 might be or you it could be more of the ideas person, like you're the creative. You can come up with different creative ideas and then always something new and interesting to think about, a different way to approach a problem. So that could be kind of what you're known for. That's kind of your little superpower. And oftentimes when you have a strength or or a skill or something that comes easily to you, you don't think of it as a skill or a strength because it comes so naturally to you. So this is why it can be really useful to reflect on this stuff, Like, really give some thought to what does come easily to you? What do people comment on that you're good at that they that don't like doing but comes really easily to you, Like, these are the things that differentiate you from other people.

13:44 Are you really financi person? Do you like spreadsheets and numbers or do you love to be the social organizer? Are you organizing the team drinks at work or the next social outing or the Christmas party. When my podcast was with the network in the very early days, it got to the point where they would just automatically remit fees. If I had sponsorship revenue that had to come to me, they would just pay it straight to me. But in the early days, I used to have to send in an invoice and then wait for it to be paid. And you know, they're a big company, they got a lot of money, but oh good Lord, getting them to pay an invoice, it would be you know, weeks and weeks and weeks and months would pass and I would chase up and I would send reminders and I could not get invoices paid. Then one day I was having a conversation with my producer Dave, and Dave heard that I was still waiting for my invoice to be paid. Now, Dave's on a full time salary, obviously, like whereas I'm just being paid advertising revenue. And so when Dave heard that I was still waiting for some invoice to be paid, he just went, oh, like he was not having a bar of this, and he said, leave it with mecass.

14:48 I know a guy The next day that invoice was paid because Dave knew. A guy like Dave was the kind of person who just knew. He just knew the person in finance that he had to go to to get that invoice paid. And like Dave knew somebody everywhere, Dave could just cut through. He had the networks and he could just go to the person who could get the thing done and it would get done, whereas no amount of me sending emails and following up was getting anywhere. So you see what I mean, Like that's a superpower. It's not in anybody's job description, but it is just something that he was good at, he was known for. And outside of work, like what are you into? What are you really passionate about? What are your hobbies? These are the other things that kind of build your your profile and your presence and your image and your reputation.

15:33 Are you the person that's running marathons. Are you the person that's going to yoga or playing guitar, or you're in a band on the weekends. These are just different interesting things about you that make up the whole of who you are, and these are the things that people remember about you. So when people meet you and you have conversations with them. These are the kinds of things that can become a point of commonality that can form links again to help with that kind of networking stuff, when you find a point of interest or something you have in common with somebody who might have a completely different professional background to you, that can help build those bridges. They're just the things that stick in people's minds that people remember about you. Be interesting, like what are the things that you're really into? And it could be that you're into you know, you might be a social activist.

16:20 You might be a really great baker and you're bringing the cupcakes in for morning tea. It doesn't have to be like something amazing and special. It is just about having facets of your personality and aspects of your life outside of work that create the whole of who you are. You know, you might paint watercolors. You might have a book club that you love going to. You're always reading a novel. People see you with your novel and what are you reading now? They just help you to stay in people's minds when there is something about you that people are going to remember and think about. How do you present? I like shopping for clothes, I've always liked shopping for clothes, dressing nicely. I am not the person who is out there buying super expensive designer clothes. My tastes are more middle of the range kind of budget.

17:15 I'm not out there buying some eight hundred dollar dress, but you know, I'll be at witchery picking up a one hundred and twenty dollar dress and wearing it for a couple of years. One day I went into work. I was in a private practice at the time, and my client met me in the foyer and she was coming in and she commented that she really liked what I was wearing that day. She loved the outfit, and I said, oh, thank you. And I said, oh, to be honest, I just feel like I spend too much money on clothes. I really should cut back. It's not great for the environment too much clothes shopping. Or should be happy with what I've got, you know, something like that. And she said, oh, but no, Cats, you're such a clothes person. I love coming in and seeing what you're wearing.

17:57 I always love your outfits. And I thought, you know what, I am really a clothes person. And yeah, I know that there's you know, impacts on the environment. Too much fast fashion and all of that. But it is something that I really enjoy. It's something that I like to put an outfit together. I like to shop for clothes and I like how it feels to be wearing nice clothes, and I'm a clothes person. And I thought that was really interesting that she reflected that back to me, that that's something that she had noticed about me and that she appreciated about me. This is a fact about me that had stuck in her mind, which in her mind kind of was part of what made me me. And that's what I mean about this personal brand stuff. It's like, what is it about you that makes you you? That sticks in people's mind so that they're going to remember you.

18:44 I recently met somebody over here in London, a young woman, young couple actually, who have also moved over here, and she's in a professional role. She's much younger than me. She's in her early thirties, I would say, got a young baby. And she was wearing a pair of jeans. She said, oh, these genes cost me three hundred and fifty pounds. And this is just a personal choice, I know, like in terms of what people are comfortable with spending on certain things. Again, that's just part of who you are and certainly how much disposable income you have. But in her mind, she said, I buy classic pieces of clothing and I have them forever. I will spend like she spends a lot of money on really high and really design a kind of clothing. And then you know, people comment, she said, when I wear things, people comment on the suit jacket or whatever it is that she's wearing.

19:33 And she said, look, I buy most of them. I pick them up on sale, I get them at DFO or I don't necessarily pay full price. But I like to wear really classic, really kind of high end designer fashion, but limited number classic pieces that I can I will have forever. So again, so when she shows up, that's part of her brand. She wears the really classic designer, high end pieces and she's known for that, like people just people notice that about her. So we all know somebody who is you know, they're the vintage shopper, They're the thrift shopper, and that's all part of their brand. They're environmentally focused, they're eco conscious, they're thrifty, and they're upcycling.

20:14 And it's not just what they wear, it's how they live their life because that's what their values are, that's what they represent, and that is consistent through all aspects of their life. There's the people who are really into everything natural and organic and non toxic and you know, healthy and health and well being, and that is consistent through how they present themselves, the products they use, their interests, what they do on the weekends. This is all part of their personal brand and it's got nothing to do necessarily with their work. But there are aspects of that person that make them who they are. So you know, have you reflected on that? Have you reflected on what are the things that make you you? What are the things that people notice about you? And how you pre zant and how you dress, and what you enjoy doing and what your interests are. These are the things that people will remember you by. These are the things that differentiate you, and these can be the points of commonality when you meet new people and you make connections. What about how you behave in the workplace? Are you the person who responds to emails in a timely manner? If you say you're going to get something done, you get it done. Are you the person who meets deadlines or are you the person who never meets a deadline. Are you the person who always needs to be chased up because the deadline's pasted or the deadline's due. Are you the person who is always on time? Are you consistently running late? Now I'm not saying any of this is good or bad, although you know, probably meeting deadlines and being on time is helpful for our career progress and

21:47 for relationships, but these are all part of your brand. If you are the person who is never on time and you develop that reputation, is that the reputation you want to have. If you're the person who ignores the emails that you just don't want to answer because you want to put them in the two hard basket, is that the reputation that you want to have? Or do you want to be known as the person who gets back to people in a timely manner When people come to you and want to talk to you about something. Are you irritated and snappy and frustrated because they're interrupting you when you're in the middle of something. Or do you always have time for people? Are you always kind and compassionate in your dealings with people? Are you always friendly? Do you have a smile, or are you a little bit grumpy? What are you known for? What's your brand?

22:33 If people If there's a group of people at your work standing around and some of them you know well, and some of you you don't know well, and your name comes up and somebody says, oh that I'm not sure I know that person. What do you want them to say about you? Or do you already have such a strong personal brand that people immediately know who you are? Oh? Yeah, like Katie from sales or Jackie from account It's like she's the one who really did that great job on that she was a really key part of that project. Or she's the one she always answers my emails on time, but she's always got a friendly story to tell. Or she's the one who organized the last social thing, or you know, do people know you? Do people already know who you are? They know what to expect from you.

23:18 So I guess consistency is key and being consistently reliable, trustworthy, kind these are the kinds of qualities that you probably want to be known for. These are the kinds of things you want to be consistent. And we all have bad days, you know, it's not about being perfect all the time. But this is the thing, right, if a company has a strong brand and they're known to be consistent and reliable and high quality, and they resolve customer issues, you know, in a really timely manner, then they if something goes wrong, if they put out a bad product, or something breaks down, or they have a bad day, it's a glitch. It's an anomaly. It's not the norm, and so people quickly forget that because you know, they get back on track and overall the brand reputation remains intact.

24:06 It's about the consistency. If you have an experience with the company and you look at the Google reviews and they are consistently bad, they don't answer emails, they don't resolve issues. I've tried and tried. They're unfriendly. There was a delivery company up on the Sunshine Coast. Whenever I had something shipped from Interstate and I knew it was coming, with this delivery company, I just despaired. It would take weeks and weeks. It would take like one day to get from Melbourne to the warehouse, literally ten minutes from where I lived, and then it could take another three weeks to get from that warehouse to my house. They were hopeless and if you tried to look up the website of the contact details or anything online, all you got was Google reviews saying how bad they were. So that is really not a very good brand reputation. And I keep using companies and products as examples. But I want you to think about that. You know, tran that to you your personal life and your personal brand amongst your social group. Are you the person who's the organizer who's always up for something you know, always happy to contribute, always happy to chip in and helping you the person who always cancels at the last minute. Are you the person who shows up sometimes not really that reliable? Are you the person who can keep people's confidence. People know that they can come to you and they can tell you anything. They can confide in you and they'll get no judgment, or they not talk to you because they know you're a bit of a gossip and they can't trust that it's going to stay with you. How do you show up for people? How do you consistently show up for people? What are the qualities the personal qualities

25:36 that you bring that people know you for? Do people know you as the mature and the sensible one who will give some wise counsel or do they know that you as the fun party one? Like neither is good or bad. It's just about recognizing and understanding who you are, how you are, what you bring, what you contribute, and being consistent with that. So you can make the decision about is this what I want to be known for? Would I like to change this? Because then you can take control and you can start to shape your own brand narrative. You can start to shape your own story. You can change it, you can reshape this anytime. That's the beauty of it. You're crafting this all of the time. So you can choose to take control and actually start to build a different kind of a brand. If you're not happy with what you're known for, if you don't like the thing that people have come to expect of you, maybe you don't want to be the party person all the time. Maybe you don't want to be the organizer every time. So maybe you can start to, you know, re reshape how you present and kind of cultivate a different kind of a self image of public perception amongst the people who who know you well. So then there is the case of like if you are thinking about your career development, your professional development, if you're thinking about your business, if you're an entrepreneur, then how do you start communicating that message? So remember that a brand is also like what's your vibe? Like? Are you fun and friendly and young and hip? Are you mature and stable and wise and sensible? Are you bright and colorful and energetic?

27:09 Are you come and relaxing and gentle? Like when people think of you? What's the vibe? How do you want to make people feel when they think about you or your presence, or when they engage with you, or when they engage with your business if you are a business, and how do you start to communicate that? How do you start bringing that consistency to all of your interactions with people? If you're online, if you're on social media, if you're on LinkedIn, if you're in that sort of that work kind of world. I'm not much of a LinkedIn person myself, and I know that I probably should be, because I know that that's where people say that they make lots of connections and they get introduced to really important business contacts and they get offered jobs, And I probably should get onto LinkedIn. But to now I'm not that much of a LinkedIn person, but let's say you are. Then, how do you present yourself? How do you position yourself?

28:05 How do you start expressing some of those qualities, and you know, cultivating an image of yourself, a public image of yourself through what you put out there online. How do you engage and interact with other people? Like, what's the sense that people get when they see you, when they if they stumble upon you, Like, how can they immediately kind of get a sense of who you are and what you're about one that can expect from you? Now, I will say again that this is about authenticity. This is about you being the most genuine version of yourself. Really tapping in to who you are, what makes you tick, what matters to you, the qualities that you want to bring to your interactions, to your working life, to your personal life. Really thinking about what are your strengths and your skills, but really about those personal qualities and characteristics.

28:52 You know, your personality so that you can be your truth, authentic, fullest self wherever you show up. You don't have to try to fit in and be something that you're not to impress somebody or to fit into some role. The more that you cultivate this brand and you express who you are authentically, then the more people know what to expect when they deal with you. They know what they're getting. They're choosing you for that reason because your brand is strong, like your brand reputation is strong. People understand like who you are and what you're about and the energy you bring your personal qualities and characteristics, and they have come to trust that you are consistently that person, And so then you can be free to continue being your best, most authentic self because you've taken the time and been really intentional about what you put out there and how you show up, and you've made it a point to consistently show up in that way. It's not like one week you know you're a hippie vegan wearing recycle to tied eyed dresses, and the next minute you're in a corporate suit and you know, going down the path of getting some sort of sales job, and then a week later you're off selling tupwaar or some multi level marketing thing.

30:08 And this you know, switching and flitting and changing your mind every other week, and nobody really knows who you are or what you're about. People don't know what to do with that, So it's worth taking the time to reflect on who you are, what is true for you, who you are at your core, so that you can then start to be really intentional about cultivating that sort of presence within all of your interactions. I think it's just a really really useful exercise to start thinking about, like, what's your brand, what do you want to be known for, what do you want them to say when you're not in the room about you, and about how you make them feel and what they've come to reliably expect from you when they engage with you. I hope you enjoy that.

30:53 I think it's really useful. Like I said, I think it can be really fun, and any amount of self reflection self aware is always going to be helpful to help you be the most happy, fulfilled version of you, so that you can truly truly thrive in any environment that you find yourself in or no, immediately if an environment is not a good fit for you, so that you're not molding yourself to fit the environment, you are bringing your fullest self and knowing that there is a there is alignment there. Get in touch if you want some help cultivating your own personal brand. I have coaching spaces available at the moment. Got a great interview next week. Cannot wait to bring you that. Have a great week. I can't wait to catch you on the next episode of Crabby to Happy