From Coffee to Career: Building Your Personal Brand for Success

Mmm, that's good.

And welcome to a new episode of Digital Marketing Marketing, or Digital coffee marketing brew, as I should say.

And I'm your host, Brett Dyster.

And as always, just subscribe to this podcast on all your favorite podcasting apps.

But let's get on with it, because this week I'm going to be talking to Brian, and he is an expert in basically, if you're looking for a job and you need to understand your own, I guess, marketing processes within yourself or your personal branding, he is the person to go to as well.

And we're going to be talking about that specifically because I feel like nowadays we just need to have that little pick me up on how to market yourself better for the best job possible.

But welcome to the show, Brian.

Yeah, Brad, thanks so much for being here.

I'm happy to be speaking with you and I'm excited about the show today.

Thank you.

Yes.

And the first question is, all my guests is, are you a coffee or tea drinker?

I am a coffee drinker.

I did bring a cup of coffee with me.

Hawaiian blend.

It's glorious.

And I am ready to rock.

I'm focused, I'm caffeinated.

I even got a cup of water so I can stay hydrated.

Ready to rock.

I mean, coffee is technically the closest thing to water.

Yeah, indeed.

All right, anyways, I gave a brief explanation about your expertise.

Quick, can you summarize it to our audience?

Yeah.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for listening to this podcast.

So my name is Brian, and over the course of my career, I've been really fortunate to work with hundreds of professionals who have been trying to just uplevel and accelerate their careers.

And this is a hard thing to do.

And especially in today's modern job market and market conditions, the economic conditions, now more than ever, people have to stand out.

And so what we do in that process, we've got a nice program and roadmap where we help people not just tell their story and make a proper introduction in a concise and clear and eloquent and articulate way, but we also show them how to turn that into a personal brand on LinkedIn, get all their career assets together, and then get into a job search, interview prep, and then negotiate a higher salary.

Because again, with the conditions that we're in today, it's very competitive, it's ultra competitive, and there's less jobs for more candidates.

So you gotta stand out, you gotta differentiate.

And of course, the cleanest, clearest, and most concise message is always gonna come through.

So for me, As a, as a professional coach and as a professor and an educator, I find no greater joy in, in my profession than being able to help people with that.

Nice.

And then what do people not know about creating their personal brand?

I know we've heard it all the time like, you gotta create this, but it's like, where do you start with that?

That's such a good question, Brett.

The very first thing has to be a reflection, an introspection on who am I?

The way that I think about a personal story is that it's from birth until today.

Why am I here?

What got me into the room today?

And then your vision statement or your future looking statement is from today until the moment of your retirement or even the moment of your death.

So, yeah, that very first thing, to answer your question directly, is looking back at your personal story from birth until today.

Why are we here?

What are we doing?

What's our proposition?

What's our value?

How do we help employers?

What's our core lane of genius, our area of focus, our expertise, our strengths, but also in that process of telling the story, Brett, I think a major mishap or oversight in a lot of what I see on LinkedIn is that people don't share the personality, the spirit, the energy, the joy, the character, where they came from as a person, not as an employee.

Because we are all people.

And once you get to hear people's story, you're much more likely to help them, to support them, to have a better relationship, a deeper, meaningful connection with them.

And so in developing your, your personal story, your introduction story, it really shouldn't be that regurgitation or summarization of a resume.

It should be, here's who I am as a person, here's some of those inputs that I put out there so that maybe you can relate with some of them.

Whether it's a simple two or three sentences, you'd be very surprised how similar people really are.

And once you give them those inputs to latch onto and relate with, that's going to be where trust is built.

It has nothing to do with your biggest achievements being told right off the bat, you can still share those, and you should.

But when you build up the story arc with some personality, first what you're doing is you're getting people to, to root for you, to love you, to relate with you.

And then now that I know you, now I can share some of the accolades and high achievements.

So I think the personal brand, the introduction story, it should be very much personal.

The vibe or spirit or energy of that Conversation that you're having with someone should always be about kind of picturing yourself in a cafe.

We're having some coffee and I say, oh, Brett, I'd love to get to know you better.

That should be the energy when sharing your personal story.

So that's, that's what I like to do is I like to bring the personality in, make sure that people are coming off, not just in a professional way, but also sharing their character.

So, I mean, even the story, could it be like, similar to, like what Joseph Campbell has done with the Hero's Journey, except for your hero.

People's hero's journey is finding the best job for them.

Is that kind of like a way to, like, look at it for people?

Because, I mean, we all know the hero's journey of like, you start here, you actually have some adversities to actually overcome and then eventually, happily ever after, maybe?

Yeah, that's exactly correct.

So Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey is a bit more of a complex, complex storytelling arc.

We use one that's very similar when we're helping clients.

It's called Freytag's Framework.

It comes from Gustav Freytag.

It's a five part story arc which is context, tension, climax, resolution or support, and then a call to action at the end or a final statement.

So it's just a more simplified version of that.

And Gustav Freytag, he had adapted that from Aristotle's three act play.

So it's still a little more complex than the three act play, but it still does have those essential elements.

And also Freitag's framework is a triangle.

So you go in those five parts, the context, rising, action, climax, supporting evidence, final statement, you are going up and then down.

It is a really critical element that the structure is kept because the content isn't actually as important when you're trying to build trust with your story.

And the reason for that is because when you share in that tension section, some of the challenges that you've been through, that's where people are going to say, wow, I like that.

I really can feel for and empathize for this person's challenges that they've overcome.

So that's why we include that.

Of course.

Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey is absolutely amazing.

And a lot of the favorite movies that we all love and like and those big franchises, you can get into the complex stories, but we keep it pretty simple with just five parts.

And we found that that's very effective.

Yeah, gotcha.

And then, I mean, people have like understanding about Cancel Culture and You said sharing about yourself.

I mean, I feel like people have this like, should I, should I not mentality and almost to a certain extent, like not wanting to share too much because it may be, some people may consider it offensive or whatever.

So how do you like, deal with that dynamics now?

Because you don't know if someone's going to blow up on you or something goes, I guess, quote, unquote, viral, that you didn't really want it to go viral in the wrong type of a way?

Well, a couple things on that, Brett, and it's good that you brought that up.

I think that the fact is that we should be totally unapologetic about who we are and what our past has been.

And now there's some circumstances where maybe we don't choose to share certain things during a job interview because some people don't need to know about all the things in our history.

But what I do think is that people should adapt their story based on the audience.

So even though I have my five part story arc and I have all those major elements in my own story that I tell, if I'm talking to a parent, I might include more about my family.

If I'm talking to someone who's been in construction management as I have, I might include more of that background.

Or if I know that they've played certain sports, I might highlight some of those things.

So even though this story can have some of those real challenges that are included just for the sake of being transparent and genuine, we should also know that our story can adapt based on the audience and focus on the things that we believe can relate with people.

And that's not manipulative.

What it, what it is is just looking for connections.

I want to make a good connection with the people that I speak with.

And for that reason, I'm not going to tell the same story every time.

So it's basically like knowing your audience to tailoring your story.

Yeah.

So am I going to include the part about getting drunk in San Clemente as we went out surfing?

I mean, that, that probably.

Or getting caught with alcohol when I was 20 at a campsite.

Those are the things I probably wouldn't include in my professional introduction if it's an interview.

But hey, those things did happen to me.

And so long as you come out of the challenge talking about, here's what happened next.

Here was the big turning point as a result of that, and I think it's okay.

And even in my own personal story, one of the things that I talk about is going through a really scary diagnosis with my health.

I was diagnosed with a rare bone disease in my spine.

I've had five spine surgeries.

And as a result of that, I actually developed the confidence and courage to leave my job and start a business.

And also, even starting a business is really tough.

So when I'm speaking to an entrepreneur, I tell them about some of that courage that came from that was like, if I can get through that, I can get through starting a business.

And so, yeah, just finding those pieces that can relate to someone is really the, the silver lining.

And not everyone that we share our story with is going to relate with it.

Exactly.

But that's why we still want to share the elements through that tension, some of those big challenges.

Because no matter what's happened to anyone, I think we, we all want to root for people.

We all want the best for people.

Generally speaking, people are very good intentioned and they want to see you succeed.

And if you, if I told my story and I was talking to you about, oh, I've taught it this university and this university, I've done TED talks and I wrote Forbes articles, all these great achievements, I finished my PhD, blah, blah, blah.

I mean that by itself, it can feel arrogant and cocky if that's the whole headline, but if I tell you some of the other stuff that's happened in my life leading up to that, by the time I share those things with you, I do believe that there is more likelihood of not just sharing a better, a deeper, more transparent story, but it's, it's also more effective as a way to connect.

And so I mean, even with that, sharing your story, sharing your accomplishments and everything, the content part about it is like, how should they use content for this?

Because not everybody is a podcaster, not everybody's a video editor.

So how should they tailor that to help them with finding a job or help them finding new clients within the content wise?

Because content is kind of bread and butter for social media.

Say that a story that you're sharing with someone, and if you're not a content creator or you don't have a podcast and you're not used to public speaking, I think one of the great ways to practice that is to go through the exercises of a club like Toastmasters or a networking group or a networking event where you can get into that introduction.

I was in this one professional networking group for a few years here in Los Angeles and they've got, they've got groups all over the nation.

It was a big networking group.

I think they have 10,000 members or something like that.

And over the course of that time, like the first five or six times I introduced myself in these meetings with 45 people there, my introduction, it wasn't perfect.

It wasn't something that also I could tailor to every person in the room.

So it was a more generic introduction.

And I still shared some of my personal story.

But the only way to get better at storytelling is to practice it.

And so over the course of the two years, after doing my introduction so many times, after the course of doing Toastmasters for five years and doing my introduction so many times, you start to learn the things that resonate.

You build some muscle memory around telling your story.

And no matter who you are, podcaster, content creator or not, I think the practice is really critical there.

I encourage all of our clients to actually record themselves on their phone doing their personal story by video and by audio, so that not only can you self evaluate, but then you have that opportunity to see what the message is looking like being received.

Nice.

I mean, yeah, it does help, I think, with the US and ums and some of the crutch words or the words.

We use the filler words for that as well.

I mean, I remember early when I was podcasting, I thought I was great at the filler words and not using them too much.

And then I was heard myself on a.

As a guest on a podcast, and I was like, oh, I use it way too often.

And was cognizant of like, I need to stop using it so often.

It's fine if you use every once in a while, but sometimes it can be obsessive where you need to just have your, I guess, your mind or your mouth, like pause and then go on to the next sentence.

That's what I've figured out a lot of times with the filler words.

So, I mean, I agree with you on that, especially with just public speaking or just speaking in general, because we don't know how many times we use the filler words.

Actually, yeah, the filler words are one that I would totally agree with you.

It's okay to use filler words.

Sometimes the most polished speaker can feel very scripted.

But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't prepare.

If some of this stuff happens organically as you're speaking, as you're sharing, maybe a new iteration of your story, there could be some thoughts and some ums and some sos or likes or whatever it is that comes out as you're speaking.

But a prepared speech is a great speech.

The more you do it, the more you can adapt it.

The more you can polish it, the more you can make impact with it.

Even my friends, I've shared my personal story with my friends to get their input and feedback.

And the way that they see me is totally different from the way I see myself.

And they've actually helped me to hone and shape and change my story and adapt it into its newest forms.

Because they would say, oh, Brian, you left out this.

What about this?

What about this?

And I say, oh yeah, I totally forgot about that.

So sharing the story is great.

Asking for feedback is great.

Knowing that it's always a draft is great.

And it really doesn't have to be perfect.

No, no one's story is going to be perfect.

But we should keep trying because I do believe still that as hard as it is to get in front of people and share your story, the benefit on the other side is always going to be worth it.

And then for like the social network side, is LinkedIn probably the best to share or use the personal story or, or does it not really matter?

Just find the one specific for what you like to share your personal story or personal brand as well.

LinkedIn's funny because it's not a cool platform.

It's not TikTok or Instagram.

And so the thing about LinkedIn that's actually quite nice is that it is a professional networking site.

And so people are generally a little bit nicer and more friendly.

You don't see a lot of trolling or negativity on that platform because people don't want that to come back to them.

And for people to look up your past comments or posts and say, oh, that guy's really mean.

So for that reason, I think it's a little bit more flexible and open to be sharing some things because people are kind of on their best behavior now.

That being said, I still think you can share your story on all the platforms.

Just know that on some of the other platforms you might be getting a different kind of response.

I've even posted videos on YouTube and people have made negative comments, even on my TEDx talks, which there are years and years ago.

And hey, if I could do it again, would I do some things different?

Possibly.

I don't know.

But I've had some mean comments about my TED talks and some positive comments about my TED talks.

And you just have to understand for whatever the platform is, you're going to get a different type of response from people.

And I do think that LinkedIn tends to be a very positive place.

I mean, yeah, I've I've had some bad comments.

I think someone told me my podcast was terrible and I actually dedicated my next episode of the podcast to them as a joke.

And they're like, oh, I'm just always on your mind.

And I was like, that took me five minutes to figure out if I wanted to do that or not.

But I find a funny way of actually like utilizing bad stuff.

But yeah, YouTube, Twitter and all them.

You have to have thick skin is what I usually say.

You have to like, not take it too personally because people don't really know you.

That's always where I take it is like, no one really knows me on Twitter.

No one really knows me on YouTube except for what they see as a video.

So don't take it too personally because it's random people that you don't know.

But I mean, there could be some valid criticisms.

But like I said, take it with a grain of salt as always when you're going to be posting that stuff.

And don't be too personal on, I say too personal on those because they will try to come after you even if you get a little too personal at the same time.

Yeah, LinkedIn's interesting in that I find it's.

There is great organic reach on that platform.

Yeah.

But it's also difficult to grow the following past a certain level because there's a lot of verification involved.

And the fake profiles on LinkedIn, I find much less of that than places like Instagram.

But nonetheless, I would just encourage everyone to start sharing your story.

If LinkedIn is a platform that you use, that is a great place for it.

And then when sharing your story, I know a lot of times for like when you're starting a business or a podcast, you're supposed to start small and niche yourself.

Is that like the same kind of way of doing it with your personal brand?

Starting small, Maybe start with like a niche that you actually really like and then growing out from there.

Can you think of, is that the best way of doing it?

Well, certainly on LinkedIn, the content strategy that I use is 50% general content.

Stuff that anyone on LinkedIn could enjoy or get some type of a value you from.

Maybe it's a conversation, maybe it's a something about leadership or business or trust.

Some things that just are helpful for careers or relationships.

Then 30% of the content is niche.

So focused in on my area and that just lets those other people know who've seen some of my more general content.

Oh, here's what this guy actually does.

And then 20% of the content is personal.

And the reason that I do a lot of personal content is really because I do want to polarize the people who are seeing my stuff.

If someone doesn't like my personality or my vibe, my energy, the fact that I sometimes wear a backwards hat during my videos, whatever, if that's not okay with them, then I kind of want to push them away a bit.

They're probably never going to work with me and we probably wouldn't be a good fit.

But then for the people who like my personality or my style or my vibe, whatever my content, then I'm going to pull them closer.

So I think the starting small, to me, I find that more of like general content.

So if you're in supply chain management, maybe before you go into your specific area of food and beverage, global distribution or something like this, maybe first you have some of that more general content about supply chain management on a whole, and then you can niche down into some of that more focused content for the people that would like that.

LinkedIn is very friendly in that they reward people who post content and who engage in other people's content.

For myself, I only got started on LinkedIn really in March of 2020 when Covid hit and my business model was really in trouble because the way that I was getting business before wasn't going to work anymore.

So in only the three years since March of 2020, posting once or twice a week has helped me to generate the 30,000 followers.

And all the business that we've done is nearly 100% from LinkedIn purely just because I'm consistent and I have a strategy with the content that's very simple and easy to follow and people like it.

Nice.

And then moving on to AI.

Since AI is the biggest thing right now, everybody's talking about AI.

Can you actually use this to help you with crafting your story to do it?

I mean, not to fully rely on it, but at least help you tweak things and do things with it, like creating a story, cover letter, resume, even content.

Could you see that using GDP or Bard or Jasper, I think is the other one.

There's three of them right now.

But could you see people using that for their personal brand at the same time now?

Probably not with the personal story.

I've tried that with some, some terrible success there.

It just doesn't come out the way that I would really hope that it comes out for myself with storytelling.

I still don't consider myself an expert at it.

I think that I'm still a practitioner of it.

I do teach a class to executive MBAs called storytelling for Leaders and I've been helping thousands of students and hundreds of clients with it.

But nonetheless, I think that there's still an art and a science to it that hasn't quite been grasped there.

In the chat GPTs, however, I think with the content, absolutely.

So if you need to get some ideas kickstarted, let's say we're going back to that supply chain manager person.

They can go on ChatGPT and say five ways to optimize a Global Supply chain and it will spit out five beautiful tips that then maybe you don't post it as is, but that's a starting place to go write a blog post or something like that.

And it just catalyzed or ignited some ideas that you already had and you say, oh yeah, that is a good point, I'm going to expand on that.

So I think for the content, absolutely.

I think for the story, certainly good for editing, for getting that, that AI lens on what's in the story, if you're trying to have it a bit more theatrical or heavy hitting with some of the adjectives or the verbs.

ChatGPT, I've certainly tried that and it's worked out pretty well.

But the story itself, I would just start real simple with that five part story arc free tax framework and just start jotting down some notes because that one is no chat GP is going to be able to tell you what parts of your life are meaningful.

So really interesting stuff though and I'm using that for myself, the Chat GPT tool and Bard actually.

And so far so good.

You just got to pick what you're using it for.

Is it good to tell your clients like, hey, you should actually understand how to use this because eventually this may have to be like a part of your job description of using AI to do this.

Could this be part of like almost like for personal branding, like learning new skills at the same time so you can be better prepared to find the better job that you're looking for?

Yeah, absolutely.

So I don't pretend to be on the cutting edge of AI, but what I do is I have seen some pretty prominent names on Instagram and LinkedIn that that's what they're doing day in and day out.

So I do check out their podcasts, their materials, the PDFs, the documents that they post, I sign up for their newsletters and at least it gives me a glimpse into that.

So I'm not totally blind with it.

Depending on the type of job, I think that for some it's Going to be really critical.

And for, for others, maybe not so much.

I do dream of a Renaissance where we're all painters and poets once again.

But for today at least, we still do have to gain some expertise in our given respective crafts and most of them have some overlap into that world.

So we should know something about it.

Yeah.

And so what can help?

Just generally, prospective people looking for jobs, like, how should they go about looking for them?

How should they go about learning new skills?

Should it be just like posting stuff and trying new different content and maybe being a Renaissance person in their own perspective ways?

Should it be crafting their stories at the same time?

But also like, what new things should they be learning?

Because I mean, it's always about, I mean, everybody says you're a lifelong learner, regardless if you're in school or not, you're always a lifelong learner or you should always try to be.

So should it be like always learning new skills because of the changing, I guess, dynamics of jobs and how things are changing quickly and how skills are become new skills are coming up?

Should it be like that?

Like how, how should prospective people, like, look when they're finding new jobs?

Number one would be to get a mentor and a coach.

I think the, the greatest way to determine what you should be looking at is ask someone who's 10 or 15 years further along down their path, the path that you want to be in.

So if I'm a director of operations and I eventually want to be a Chief Operating officer or coo, then I should have a couple of COO mentors that are giving me that benefit of hindsight, that advantage of hindsight.

They can tell me what conferences, what training, what certifications, what courses, what books, what articles, what people they follow, what networking events to go to.

All of these things can help you to get some targeted growth so you're not just out there looking at everything.

And I do think that the mentor should be external to your organization.

So if you're currently working and you have a mentor that's within your company, that's fine.

Add one that's outside of the organization, they're going to be less biased.

Not that, not that your boss isn't a good mentor, but they have their own subconscious agenda that could impact you in some way.

And so, yeah, get an external mentor, get a coach.

I think a coach is totally different than a mentor in that the mentor is in your space, in your expert, your lane of genius, your lane of focus, your industry, your vertical, your function, whereas a coach is just helping you to get somewhere faster for other and more effectively.

And so a lot of my clients, if they work in, let's say product management, well, I'm not a product manager, so there's going to be a level of expertise that I cannot give them that a chief product officer could.

So you got to balance out that sort of board of advisors for yourself to have a few people that can give you some diversity in where you're going to go.

And I think also with the, with the growth, you should have a targeted plan.

We call it an individual development plan.

It's essentially a 12 month plan for where you're going to get your growth.

And you never, ever, ever want to look back 12 months from now and say, wow, I didn't do anything.

So you should have one or just as simple as one or two things that you're doing each quarter to amplify those skills and keep you relevant, keep you knowledgeable.

And a lot of the ways that a mentor can be helpful in that is they can review that individual development plan and give you some benefit of their hindsight and say, oh no, don't do that.

You don't need that.

Maybe you should look at this.

So that's what I would recommend.

Gotcha.

And then, fun question for you.

What's your biggest pet peeve in personal branding.

In 2020?

March of 2020, when I started on LinkedIn and for the subsequent 12 months that followed there, I interviewed 150 people and I was posting those videos, thought leaders in their space.

I'd asked them some intriguing questions about leadership and about trust and about career growth.

And they gave me some really cool answers.

The opportunities that have come to me as a result of that have really changed my life.

Not just friendships, but also business opportunities, speaking opportunities, co writing articles with people who are at the top of their field.

And I think in the thing that I learned most about that is when you interview people that have that level of wisdom in their area, it really opens your mind a bit.

And so the, the thing that I would say is my pet peeve is like when people claim to be experts, that word expert.

I'm an expert in leadership.

I'm not, I have a PhD in leadership.

I'm not an expert in leadership.

My expertise is a sniper's bullet, the laser focus of how to use humor to build trust in the workplace.

That doesn't give me expertise about leadership or leadership psychology or behavioral science.

And the more, even when I went out and interviewed people who are 10 years further along in the field of trust in the workplace, they would blow my mind with all these great new ideas and even the fundamental stuff about trust that I didn't have mastered and I have a PhD in it.

So, yeah, pet peeve is don't call yourself an expert, even if you are an expert.

Because I think that the word itself, there's always going to be someone that's further along than you.

No one's an expert, really.

And there's no reason to self proclaim that.

If someone else calls me an expert at something, I immediately rebuke that point because it's just simply not true.

So how should we frame that?

Because I think people go to expert because the English language, I mean, it's easy to understand when you go, I'm an expert in this, People go, okay, you have some experience or knowledge in this.

So how should we frame that?

Instead of just saying expertise, because I get what you're saying, but sometimes when you're like trying to tell people or trying to convince people that you have, have a great knowledge in it, expert just comes out because it's this easy thing for people to understand.

Yeah.

So I would just simply take a humble approach and say, this is what I've been working on for the last five, ten years.

And so if the, the Ph.D.

to some people mean expert, I would correct them and say, I'm a, I'm a practitioner of leadership development.

I do coach on leadership in a specific area.

And if people are struggling to build trust in their relationships at work, I can definitely help.

But, but I'm not, I'm not a leadership expert.

You could claim expertise on some given tools, some parts of the career, of course, like there's back in my corporate career when I was doing strategic sourcing, I had developed some level of expertise around that, but I wouldn't call myself the expert.

So that, that's all I would, I would say is just, just kind of.

You can use the word expertise, you can use the word strength, you can use the word practice, but that word expert for some reason was still, still bugs me.

Yeah.

Fair enough.

And where can people find you online?

Yeah.

So really the major place Brett is going to be LinkedIn.

I do post once or twice a week.

If you care about your career, if you care about making a genuinely positive impact on the people around you as a leader, if you want to move forwards in your career, LinkedIn would be the greatest place to find me.

It's Dr.

Brian Harmon.

We're also on YouTube and Instagram and TikTok and Facebook and everywhere else.

But yeah, LinkedIn is really the main place.

All right, any final thoughts for listeners?

This will, this will sound cliche or overly magnificent, but I do want to get back to your original point about tell your story, change the world.

The story, once you start sharing it with people, you'll develop more meaningful relationships, deeper relationships, stronger connections with your colleagues, with new people.

And just having the articulated story written down is a powerful place to start.

So if you want to Google search the write down some bullet points, that's a great starting place.

But I, I do believe that the way to happiness is relationships.

And the story is a great place to start.

It is.

And thank you, Brian, for joining Digital Coffee Marketing Brew and sharing your knowledge on personal branding and everything else within that.

My pleasure.

Thank you, Brett, and thank you as always.

Please subscribe to Digital Coffee Marketing Brew on all your favorite podcasting apps.

And guys, join us next month as we talk to another great value in the PR marketing world.

All right, guys, stay safe, get to understanding your personal story and your knowledge in any specific industry and see you next month.

Later.