The Career Salon

Shop Talk: Brand Yourself like a BOSS

 

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We are so excited to have THEE marketing genius of Julie Huval, President and Director of Strategy for Benchley Design in the salon today for Shop Talk. Julie is a walking brand and a highly sought after speaker on all things marketing, brand, analytics, and other smart people things, so it is our pleasure to make the introduction and have her speak about how to brand yourself like a BOSS!

by Julie Huval

“Word of mouth.”  A lot of times we think of that phrase when it comes to hearing about a new restaurant, the funny outtakes video on YouTube, or that amazing book our friend read on the beach.  But “word of mouth” also applies to individuals.  It is called personal brand.

Personal brand = Someone’s “word of mouth” about you

In the realm of career development, personal branding can be a huge boost.  Your ideal employer may already know a lot about you because of “word of mouth” from your professional network.  Your peers may acclaim you are a creative, able to work through difficult situations, and shocked the pants off your client because you delivered ahead of schedule on that really big project.  That’s an amazing personal brand.

Or your personal brand can be a huge door slam on opportunities.  What if your “word of mouth” sounds something like …

And, thanks to our digital world, there are a lot of people with a personal brand that they would like to fix.  Pronto!  So how do you develop a personal brand?

  1. Develop your legacy.

What do you want to be known for?  At the end of your life your legacy is the culmination of your life’s work: what you stood for, what you fought for, what you educated other people about.  Your legacy may be helping your community get out of poverty or you want to be the best/favorite educator in your district or you want to be a renowned architect.  This step is not “What do you want to be when you grow up?” but a bigger picture idea of how do you want to affect the world.  As you start to develop your legacy start acting on it.  Don’t wait for “the right time” to get started … just start.  Overnight successes took years of practice to get to where they are.

  1. Be authentic.

Don’t try to be something you aren’t.  Instead, be open and honest.  This is the awkward phase.  You will not be applauded by everyone for being authentic because authenticity means different.  But stick to your authentic self.  It is what makes you stand out from the crowd.  Break the mold, discover new stuff, and continue being you.

  1. Promote yourself.

This step can get tricky.  Promoting yourself feels wrong.  This is the pinched nerve part of personal branding.  However, if you don’t start supplying other people with your “word of mouth” messaging then you are leaving it up to them to create it for you.  You can help them craft their words in this step.  But you need to have the first two steps in place in order for your messaging to take hold.

A good personal brand can go a long way in life … not just your career.  More opportunities will open up so you can continue to build your legacy because people are excited about your authentic approach and they found out about all of it through your self-promotion.

Look out for my next post about correcting your dreaded digital personal brand! Get ready to delete some photos and inappropriate posts.

For more information on Julie and Benchley Design visit her website at benchleydesign.com.

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The Interview that Ended Before it Started

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As a point of intro, this website will sometimes discuss simple topics that everyone should know and sometimes not. As an HR/Recruiting professional there are just conversations that I need to facilitate, especially if you’d like to take your career a little higher.  I find that after years of recruiting there are some things candidates should be reminded of, to prevent inadvertently ending the interview before it even starts. One of those things is definitely, not doing research on the company.

It happens numerous times per week to myself and colleagues, that phone screen/interview we’re excited about and then we are quickly let down at the onset of the phone conversation by simply inquiring, “Do you know much about the company?” While this seems simple to some I’ve lost count on a weekly basis of how many candidates haven’t done research on the company they are interviewing with and are totally clueless.  I’ve even interviewed graduates of Ivy League schools that give answers of dumfounded silence. Some candidates have even asked me to tell them about the company…the nerve! We all know that construction companies build buildings and toy companies make toys DUH!  Hence the GIF above from one of my favorite movies. When you get that question we’re looking for more, what you know about the company and where your interests lie. Your answer is a key indicator of things like attention to detail, preparedness, and generally caring about things that are important.

There are so many places you can research a company and I’ve listed just four below:

  1. Company Website
  2. Google
  3. LinkedIn
  4. Glassdoor

These sources are helpful to prepare you for the interview process whether it’s a phone interview with HR or you’re speaking with a hiring manager or team. There are too many resources to be ill-prepared and while conducting researching make sure to get information on the person you are going to be speaking with. I’m always impressed when candidates do their homework and can find commonalities between us, it shows a finesse that I don’t come across often.  I’ve just barely scratched the surface of preparing for an interview and we’ll dive into it a little more soon, but what are some ways you prepare for an interview? Feel free to post in the comments section below.

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