Balancing Personal & Professional Branding

[00:00:18] Hello everybody. I am one of your hosts, Scott, recording again in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[00:00:25] Hello Scott, you're very lucky to have all this wonderful travel and sunshine.

[00:00:30] I'm coming to you from the United Kingdom where we are lacking both of those things.

[00:00:34] It comes around. I'm very happy to be here. Good to see you again, Andy. Welcome back everybody

[00:00:41] to the Tea and Timbits podcast, Global Perspectives on Business Development to help

[00:00:46] you prosper. Today we are going to get into a conversation about balancing personal and

[00:00:54] professional branding. It came out of the conversation that we had from our last episode

[00:01:00] in Andy's new venture for himself, but it has broader consideration. We'll get into that in a

[00:01:06] minute. Before we do, Andy, do you have a story for us?

[00:01:11] I certainly do. I'm very pleased to have been exposed to some experiences with sales copy.

[00:01:22] I know that's not something that we would normally talk about, and writing sales messages

[00:01:28] is something that I suppose is more of a marketing expectation. But I think perhaps it's

[00:01:36] important for salespeople to see and experience too. The story I want to share is one that I did

[00:01:43] experience before my transition, but I made a note of it and I wanted to maybe share it when

[00:01:48] I got the opportunity. I was with this sales team and this particular sales person. What he'd

[00:01:57] done is he had very cleverly, for every presentation that he was going to be making,

[00:02:04] he'd written a key overview thing that described the ideal customer or the target that he was working on.

[00:02:20] When he opened his presentation in the meeting, the customer felt, yes, you understand our problem,

[00:02:28] you understand our challenges, you understand what it is that we're dealing with.

[00:02:32] And I thought it was really clever that just keep it really simple and get it out there.

[00:02:38] So what he'd done is he basically said, customers of us who are experiencing this thing

[00:02:45] and suffering this because of it will benefit from our product because of this.

[00:02:52] Yes, there's definitely a way of making it better, but I just loved the way that he had thought

[00:02:57] about how I can get my message across. Just have it on in the background while

[00:03:01] I'm introducing myself, while I'm talking but just having it up on the screen so that they can feel,

[00:03:07] okay, actually these guys probably do understand what we're going through. Let's listen a bit more

[00:03:12] to what he has to say. I like that. Yeah, I mean, I always talk about establishing context at the

[00:03:18] beginning of every single meeting and I know I've said that here before too, but that sounds

[00:03:21] like a really effective way to start things off, set the tone, establish context and relevance.

[00:03:29] Love it. Thank you for sharing. So we're going to talk about balancing personal and professional

[00:03:35] of branding. Do you want to sort of comment first on how you think that that is a challenge

[00:03:43] to a lot of people and why we thought it would be a useful thing to talk about?

[00:03:48] For sure. I think one of the things that a lot of people struggle with and it is something

[00:03:54] that you and I have spoken about before is that we've both got a little bit of an infamy

[00:04:00] because we're working within our own businesses, but a lot of people who we work with are not.

[00:04:04] And so they will experience a situation where they're expected by their company to put out

[00:04:10] LinkedIn posts or Facebook posts or depending on the type of company that they have, they

[00:04:15] will be expected to represent the company in a certain way. And that's fine so long as

[00:04:20] you're working at that particular company, but what happens when you change jobs or you get fired

[00:04:26] or something because you've spoken to your entire audience about a certain thing in a certain way

[00:04:32] and then all of a sudden you're going to start talking about something else in a certain way.

[00:04:36] Well, yeah, that thing I was telling you about last week that was really great. Well, actually

[00:04:40] that's not so great anymore because this new thing that is actually a competitor to the

[00:04:44] thing I was telling you about is actually even potentially right. And it undermines your own

[00:04:51] personal brand because then you suddenly killing all of your own credibility.

[00:04:56] And so I think salespeople see that and they know that that's a danger when they go into this.

[00:05:01] And so they worry about should they be actually going into it like that? Should they be

[00:05:06] thinking about these things in this way and communicating to represent the company

[00:05:11] in such a distinct way? So how do they then introduce their personal brand into that

[00:05:17] and keep a consistent message going across regardless of which company they're working at?

[00:05:22] Right, right. And how can you also make sure that you're not that you're feeling genuine

[00:05:27] and that when you show up and you're representing a corporate brand and yeah,

[00:05:31] maybe you're even switching products or services within your role. But you still are

[00:05:39] you and people in your network who have gotten to know you don't want to sort of see this imposter

[00:05:46] on the screen or in social channels and whatnot. They want to still recognize the person they know

[00:05:54] that they personally establish a relationship with. A lot of us have other side hobbies,

[00:06:00] ventures be it fill-in-trop pursuits whatnot. And that's very much about who we are as

[00:06:08] individuals and people. Do you think there's a role to blend that or do you think what's your

[00:06:13] perspective on how you need to separate or allow those things to merge?

[00:06:18] No, I think it's essential. I think it's really important because people buy into the person

[00:06:23] and they build relationships with people. They don't buy, build into relationships with

[00:06:27] products or brands. Well, they do to some extent but those brands are then in some way

[00:06:32] integrated into their life and have a level of importance. But I think the key thing is when

[00:06:41] you are communicating your message that you're consistent, that you're clear. So if you're

[00:06:46] into fly fishing in your free time but you work for a steel manufacturing company,

[00:06:57] those two things are very, very different and trying to mix those two together is going to be

[00:07:04] very challenging. So I think a key for people is to go, okay, I'm going to dedicate my

[00:07:11] Instagram to fly fishing and I'm not going to communicate any work related items on there.

[00:07:16] I am just going to do fly fishing on my Instagram. However, on my LinkedIn,

[00:07:20] I will talk about the impact of this particular industry that I'm in but not necessarily talking

[00:07:27] about the product, talking about some of the challenges that you see in the industry

[00:07:32] but not talking about the solution. I think when people start to try and sell on social media,

[00:07:37] when people start to try and use social to promote a product or a company in such a way

[00:07:46] that it becomes so disconnected from reality, people are no longer interested in your profile

[00:07:51] and what you're saying anyway. So leave all that stuff to the company pages and the company marketing

[00:07:57] department and as you're presenting yourself as a salesperson, talk about the challenges in

[00:08:02] the industry, talk about how you're solving those challenges in the industry, talk about how

[00:08:06] people could solve those challenges in the industry, tell stories but don't promote the

[00:08:11] product, don't be salesy in your personal branding. Now I think that everybody probably who heard you

[00:08:18] say you do personal thing on Instagram and your professional thing on LinkedIn, I think that's

[00:08:24] something we would all expect but I don't think it needs to be entirely separate. I think that

[00:08:31] actually when you can weave them together, you'll get more traction. You'll suddenly

[00:08:41] have a better capacity to open up new conversations, identify with other people, get more engagement.

[00:08:48] I'm not saying do it all the time but some of the most engaging content that I post

[00:08:55] is got a personal element to it or I might put the whole photo catalog on, I mean I'll actually post

[00:09:05] very much on anything other than LinkedIn but if and when I did it would be a broader,

[00:09:12] very detailed social personal moment but if it trickles into LinkedIn there will be a

[00:09:21] professional anecdote or relatable story based on that and when that happens it's not trying to look

[00:09:29] for the story but sometimes it'll come forward because I'm like in a scenario, out on the water,

[00:09:35] out fishing, something like that with the kids that has a little bit of a relevant

[00:09:42] business tone to it as well and I feel it's worth sharing and those posts get more traction

[00:09:48] than anything I do from a purely corporate perspective. Absolutely, absolutely and that's

[00:09:54] the key. In that scenario if there was a way, the example that I gave, steel manufacturing

[00:10:00] industry, if they receive even such a thing and fly fishing, if you could go, customers in the

[00:10:06] steel manufacturing industry struggle with this and that reminds me of a situation in fly fishing

[00:10:15] that I deal with in this way. Those type of stories where you can link the two together

[00:10:21] is incredible and those things are really engaging and those are the most successful but

[00:10:24] most people can't do that, it's really difficult, it is challenging. I mean coming back to what I

[00:10:29] was saying earlier about the copywriting, I mean copywriting is a skill and there's a lot

[00:10:34] of copywriters out there who make a lot of money from coming up with these very clever

[00:10:38] connections but we can't all afford that and we can't all do that

[00:10:43] but if there is a way that you can figure out a way of linking those two in a relatively okay

[00:10:48] and genuine way then those things are typically as you say very engaging and people are much

[00:10:55] more interested in the personal side of things than they are just the professional side.

[00:10:59] Right, yeah so I guess what we're saying here and I think it's just a good reminder for

[00:11:05] everybody is you do not need to completely separate the personal brand from the professional brand.

[00:11:13] I think that there is a place and a channel that you can more naturally emphasize

[00:11:21] you know sharing personal information and sharing your corporate information but they don't need

[00:11:27] to be independent siloed personas and you're one person over here and you're one person

[00:11:33] over there and I think that unfortunately a lot of businesses don't realize that so I think that

[00:11:44] the individuals sort of would feel like they feel unnatural I think that's part of why it's

[00:11:51] difficult for a lot of people to show up and have a personal brand that they put forward

[00:11:57] because they feel like they're not it's not them and they're having to wear a suit that doesn't fit

[00:12:03] because they're trying to you know adopt the corporate brand so hopefully you're in a scenario where

[00:12:11] you have a little bit more autonomy to post authentic personal content for your professional

[00:12:20] endeavors and I think it's just so tragic when I hear that oh my business has a policy about what

[00:12:29] I can publish or they have to send it to them before I can you know publish something and I think

[00:12:39] you know perhaps there are some you know there are some regulated industries we have clients and

[00:12:44] financial services and insurance and things like that and if they get if they say the

[00:12:49] wrong thing the wrong way that you know liability issues and all that kind of stuff but I still

[00:12:56] believe there's got to be a way to just do it in a trustworthy professional way that that allows

[00:13:03] the individual freedom to just completely avoid any any of those kinds of topics but I think

[00:13:08] some companies think it's too risky but I really challenge you to find a way to

[00:13:13] I guess clearly to find those scenarios so that there can be more

[00:13:20] individual autonomy in those in those moments. I think as well I mean companies that have those

[00:13:26] sort of policies it must be very challenging for them to draw the line of what things on

[00:13:32] someone's personal social media that they're allowed to or not allowed to post. Yeah, yeah

[00:13:38] that's very difficult as I went to this place with my kids oh well that could be associated

[00:13:43] with a competitor's brand you can't post that. Oh hang on it's very strange I think.

[00:13:49] So anyway I guess you know that's a message directly directed specifically at those kind of

[00:13:54] communications leaders. I think if you're listening and you are sort of more the individual

[00:14:00] contributor if you're stuck in that situation you know your hands might be tied but

[00:14:06] but for everybody else it is I think absolutely critical to give yourself the flexibility to

[00:14:14] blend these two things together and so then I think you end up in a hesitation also Andy

[00:14:20] that comes back to where you started which is well wait a minute what if I show up and I'm

[00:14:26] you know representing one brand for a long time and then it shifts I better just sort of

[00:14:32] not do it at all and there's a big hesitation there so is it a problem in your opinion

[00:14:41] to switch brands or switch content in your account? I don't think so I don't think it's a

[00:14:50] problem at all I just think the key is to give it context yeah to explain at some point I mean

[00:14:56] and of course the problem is that the algorithms don't show it in a linear timeline fashion most

[00:15:01] of the time anyway but nonetheless so long as you've got something out there that you

[00:15:06] clearly communicate you know I was doing this now I'm doing this and that's because of this

[00:15:12] right that's fine that's the key and then you just start showing up as the new personal brand

[00:15:16] you start you know being consistent you start being clear there's no problem that's absolutely

[00:15:21] you know the right way of doing things but just just get on with it and I also think

[00:15:26] there's a scenario that applies to a lot of people who do have other

[00:15:34] sort of pursuits and they want to advocate for them or share them or whatnot and it's the same channel

[00:15:41] same audience but today I'm talking about you know what I do on the weekends and

[00:15:45] and you know perhaps it is a philanthropic endeavor something like that and this is my

[00:15:49] you know professional corporate contribution I think that shows more just how dynamic

[00:15:57] you are and adds you know just that much more

[00:16:02] relatability and approachability that we're all looking for when we do that so

[00:16:08] I get asked this question all the time so I thought it would be a good conversation

[00:16:12] and obviously my advice is to worry a lot less about it than people who ask the question

[00:16:20] very good thanks again for the conversation Andy appreciate your time thanks everybody

[00:16:27] if you want to get in touch you can go to tntimbits.com we'll see on the next episode

[00:16:35] thanks again Andy thanks how much go all right