Get visible: your personal brand opportunity

Hello and a very warm welcome to Cultural Communication Confidence with me, Victoria Rennoldson. And, it’s great to be back with some solo episodes for you. In fact, today is the first in a three part series that I have for you about how to accelerate your leadership this year in 2025. 

Now, at the time of recording it, it is early January, and I know this is a time when people are really thinking about their big goals. They’re thinking about how do they go for their ambitious goals this year. And for many of the people that I speak with, that’s really about how do I go for that promotion this year and finally get it, how do I step up and get my organisation to take me seriously? How do I make that career move or move into a new industry or even finally leave the corporate world and move into setting up my own business? This mini series is for you if you are one of those ambitious people who’ve set themselves a big goal for this year and know and are committed to making it happen. 

So today is the first episode where we’re going to talk about: Get Visible – your personal brand opportunity. The next two episodes are going to focus on understanding how you project your leader identity. And, the third episode we’re really going to think about how do you influence like a thought leader. Now, the way I’ve designed this mini series within the podcast is to really give the thought value across the three episodes. So make a note now, listen to this one now and come back over the next two weeks to hear the full training and the full insights here. 

The other thing that I’m going to do today at the beginning of this miniseries is I’m going to right at the end of today’s episode, share an exclusive invitation and the great news is you are the very first people to hear this incredible opportunity. So make sure you stay until the end. You are hearing it before anybody else. This is the first time I’m sharing it here on the podcast, so make sure you listen to the full episode here today. But let’s come back to today’s topic, which is all about Getting Visible your personal brand opportunity. Now, I know that for many of you, you see that opportunity to go for your goals and you know in your heart that part of the reason it’s not happening is that you’re not being seen by the right people. You’re not necessarily putting yourself out there as much as you could. But before we even get to that point of putting ourselves forward, we need to start with how people think about us. And, perceive us today. 

So let me ask you a question. If I was going to walk into your organisation today and I, was going to ask them, what do you think of this person? What do you think about you? I think it would be really interesting to see what they say. What if I asked your clients or your customers, or if you’re not working directly in that way with your suppliers or internal customers, what do they think of you? What would they say? No, really, I’m being genuine in this question. And the reason I’m asking this question is that I want you to really consider how your perceptions of your, your work and your reputation are today. And this is something that people don’t often stop to think about. They’re very focused on kind of what they’re doing, but not kind of the, the step back, how they’re showing up. And this, for me, is your personal brand. And it’s a really key ingredient in understanding how you project yourself as a leader. So this is why we have to step, start here before we move into the visibility. So the point about personal branding is that everybody has one, whether you like it or not. So if you’re kind of sitting here, or maybe you’re walking or driving the car or whatever you’re doing, going to work and listening to this podcast and thinking, ‘well, I don’t think I really have a personal brand’. I think you have to realise that everyone has one. And this quote which I found from Marc Eckō, who I believe is a Designer, he came up with this quote which I think really sums it up very well. He said, “you too are a brand, whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not”. So your reputation goes before you. Whether you are actively working on your reputation, actively cultivating it or not, people will always have a perception of you. 

So why do we need a personal brand? Why do we need to even bother with this? Well, I have a really strong point of view that branding matters. And it matters because I know this because I worked in branding myself. So for those of you who maybe don’t know me so well, my background is that my first career was in brand marketing, and I worked in healthcare, in the food industry, in FMCG, and I worked in very large international organisations on lots of different brands. And I know that brands can’t be visible, can’t be seen, and can’t be bought unless they have a true understanding of what they are about. It’s the same for people. This is why your personal brand matters. Because if you want to change something, like going for a promotion, going for that career move, that upward trajectory on your career, then you need to be known for something. So having a personal brand, actively cultivating it, means people will notice you. People will recognise what you’re good at and what you bring. They’ll understand how you’re different from other people, how you are special and unique, and what you bring to the organisation, to the team. And it’s really about opening up, those doors, opening up those opportunities. 

And if you are one of those people with ambitious goals for this year, then this should matter to you. How do we do it? What exactly is a personal brand? And how do we actually analyse and, think about it? Well, I like to think about it like your DNA. It’s like the ingredients of you. And there are three simple areas that we can think about when it comes to your personal brand. So the first one is ‘purpose’. Why do you do what you do? Why does it matter to you? So whether you’re a business owner and you’re listening to this, you probably have a strong sense of why you started your business and why it matters to you. That’s often part of the founder story. But even if you’re working in a very large corporation, you have to ask yourself, why is it you’re doing what you’re doing? Why do you get up each day and are motivated to do the job that you do? Why is it you love it? And, by the way, if you find it hard to answer this question, it might be a clue you’re in the wrong job. Just a little bit of a hint there! But purpose is really important. You need to understand your motivation, your drive, what, why it is you want to do this and connected to your big goals. Why is it you want to get promoted? Why is it that you want to make it to that senior leadership role? You have to have that clarity in your mind. 

So that’s purpose. The next area is your mission. So what are you here to do? How is it you add value? Now, that could be because of your expertise. Maybe you have, a certain level of experience or length of experience or expertise in a specific area. And that could be to do with your qualifications, your training, the experiences that you’ve had, the different organisations that you have worked for. But really think about how, how, what it is that you do specifically rather than generically. So do you have particular, insights or knowledge areas that others might not have? Are you particularly interested or passionate about particular topics? And that, again, is your mission. So really consider that so if I think back to my days when I was in brand marketing, you know what my mission was? It wasn’t necessarily to be a marketeer, but it was about passion for helping people’s lives, for helping consumers through the products and services that we were offering. And then finally, the final area of this is to consider your values. These are the unique elements to you, your kind of unique formula of who you are. And this could be about personality, it could be about how you communicate, how you interact and approach others. And if again, you’ve been following me for a while, you might have heard me talk about cultural intelligence and that within that understanding your cultural values, your behavioural preferences, which are shaped by the cultural contexts that you’re in and have been in. So this is really about how do you show up, what are your values, how is it you like to communicate and interact with others? And normally these values are short words that really describe you. So that is the personal brand, the DNA, the simple approach. 

Understanding your purpose, why is it you’re motivated and why is it you do what you do; understanding your mission, what is it you’re here to do? How do you add value and your values, what makes you unique and special? How do you stand out from other people? And that really is it. That is a very simple approach to understanding how you get visible by getting into the personal brand opportunity to start with. Now I mentioned this is only part one, and I really encourage you to come back next time to listen to part two where we start talking about projecting your leader identity and part three where we talk about influencing like a thought leader. But before you come back next time, I have some activation questions for you, some questions for you to think about, to consider and to take away and do some work on because I want to make this very easy, interactive and practical for you. But before we do, I promised you that I would share an exclusive invitation here and now before you hear see it anywhere else. 

So well done to staying to the end and I’m going to share that with you right now. So I am incredibly excited to share with you that because it was so popular last time, I’m bringing back my live training: Become a Global Leader. This is a three day event, so actually only one hour per day, and we’re doing it virtually, so you can join me from anywhere around the world, but it will be live so you can bring your questions, you can interact with me and get my feedback. Now this three day training, we’re going to focus on three topics which are connected to accelerating towards your leadership goals this year. The first one will be elevating your personal brand. We’ll then talk about amplifying your leadership presence and finally speaking like the leader articulately and persuasively. The brilliant news is this live training is completely free to you. All you have to do is to claim your free ticket to come and join us for an hour a day across three days in mid February, the 11th, 12th and 13th of February 2025. So to get your free ticket all you have to do is go to www.culturecuppa.com/become-leader. And of course, I will put that link in the show notes. But also you’re really welcome if you prefer just to reach out to me on LinkedIn on my personal profile, Victoria Rennoldson, and I will send you the details and the link. So do go get your tickets. But in the meantime, let’s come back to those activation questions which I promised. So we have today talked about get visible your personal brand opportunity. 

So the first question is what do people think about you today? Do you know? If not, you might want to seek out some feedback or really think about who you can trust to ask to give you perspective on how you are perceived in the organisation today, how your reputation is. Then the second activation question is how do you develop your personal brand? I want you to take away the formula, purpose, mission and values and write this down for yourself so that you have a really clear view on your personal brand DNA. And finally, don’t forget to collect your free ticket for the live training. Join me virtually so you can be anywhere in the world on the 11th, 12th and 13th of February at 12 o’clock London time. I’m very much looking forward to being back for this training. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening. It’s always great to have you join me and I really appreciate you supporting the show, listening to these episodes and I very much look forward to seeing you next time for part two of this miniseries. And I will see you next time.