Everyone is Amazing! Does Your PR Biz Need Personal Branding?

You make sure your clients are developing and working on their personal and corporate brands but when it comes to you and your solo practice, well, do as we say, not as we do. Does this sound like you? In today’s episode we dig in on personal branding and its value.

Let us know what you think at soloprpro.com.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:02):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters and my ever steady co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. We're all the savvy smarties gather. Hi Karen, how are you?

Karen Swim, APR (00:23):

Hey, Michelle. I'm doing great. How are you doing?

Michelle Kane (00:26):

I’m doing well. Can't complain. Can't complain. Here we are. By the time this episode airs, we will be in December. Oh my gosh.

Karen Swim, APR (00:34):

Yeah, that's a little scary. It's that time of year. It is that time of year.

Michelle Kane (00:39):

Yes. All the dates kind of cascaded upon each other and oh my goodness. We all have just an extra layer of things on our minds as we're trying to wrap up work and make sure we don't miss any holidays. And there's always family members and people with birthdays in December too. I don't know how they allow that, but

Karen Swim, APR (01:00):

I know

Michelle Kane (01:01):

It's okay

Karen Swim, APR (01:02):

Not to mention the layers of extra clothing and extra tasks for those of us who live where it rudely snows. So yeah, there's all the things and it's all happening so fast, and I just want to make like a bear and hibernate.

Michelle Kane (01:21):

So while December is being all extra, we're going to talk a little bit about the extra of personal branding today. How's that for a segue way? It's important. I was just skimming an article from Forbes saying that yes, you needed to stand out, and I think it's the Gen Xer in me, or I don't know, the introvert, whatever. It's like, oh, do I have to? And the answer is, yeah, you kind of have to.

Karen Swim, APR (01:48):

Yeah, we've all, for many of us, we obviously we're in public relations, and so we believe in personal branding as well as corporate branding. We have probably helped many executive in our careers to ensure that their executive brand was as polished and as thorough as the corporate brand. And we build thought leadership programs to support and amplify that. But when it comes to us and looking at our colleagues and our peers, I know for me it's easy sometimes to become jaded when you've been doing this job for a long time. It's like the way that we feel about email marketing. We know that it works, we know the right way to do it, but we don't want to do it ourselves because we struggle with inboxes that are constantly overflowing because we have to, as per our job, we have to have a lot of information coming at us.

So sometimes when I look at personal brands, I do, I'm like, “Ugh, everybody's perfect. Everybody's smart, everybody's winning, and you feel a little exhausted.” So I guess what we want to look at today is looking past our own fatigue at what's really working in personal branding, and is it really effective anymore? It seems like everybody has a brand. I mean, 10 year olds have a brand, they're adhering to their own brand guidelines and everybody's got perfectly polished Instagram worthy photos, and everybody seems to have a platform and they've all got their stuff. And in a world where personal branding is super accessible in terms of the visual look and feel, and even with content these days, which used to be the differentiator, everyone has access to be able to create content that aligns with their personal brand, is it all worth it? How do we stand out? Do we want to stand out? Do we care?

Michelle Kane (04:03):

No, I know what you mean. And I think it's especially difficult for us because we work in branding people and places and things that we can see it a mile away. We can see it when it's so shiny. And not that there's anything wrong with that necessarily, but I almost feel like we are all craving, audiences are craving a lot more authenticity. And I know that buzzword’s been around for a while, but I mean real, keep it real, because we've all seen the templates and we all know sure have the photo shoot, that's great, but I feel like we're at poised on this next layer of personal branding of, no, I really want to know what you're about. I want to know what truly makes you different. Not just, oh, well, oh, she's lit really well. Oh, okay. Everything's saying all the right things. And I think the additional differentiator is going to be letting more of yourself show, if that makes sense. I want to know what makes you tick what you're about. If it's a situation where I'm looking to work with someone, show me the warts, I don't necessarily need to see the sheen.

Karen Swim, APR (05:30):

Yeah, I think we've always talked about this in public relations and in marketing. We've talked about transparency, and we understand that you're never fully transparent because that's not a smart move to make. But we've talked about authenticity a lot over the years, and I think I agree with you that being the personal branding today, in a lot of ways, it's missing personality. So it's shiny and it's bright and it's happy and it's beautiful and it's visually appealing, and the aesthetics are amazing, but sometimes a little grit, a little of you really does help to stand out because at the end of the day, we know that today more than ever, people want to connect with people. They connect with corporations often even because of the people side of it, because of how that company shows up in the world and what they stand for. And that doesn't always have to mean social values or political viewpoints.

It can sometimes mean a brand that's true to being funny and they bring humor, they're light or a brand that cares about issues. It can be issues driven, but that they're true to who they are, and that you see something that says, yeah, that's that brand. And we talk about Patagonia a lot. That's a great example. Even Apple's a great example of a tech company that's really true to who they are. They are who they are. They make no apologies for it. With the personal branding, sometimes it does feel like everybody's interchangeable. It's like, okay, you're great. You're smart, you're winning another award. Good for you. Yay. You. What a beautiful picture. And you, sometimes I want to know, I want to see the grit. I want to see behind that shine. I want to know, how did you really get there? I want to hear some of the reality, because we know that your story, what you're sharing, your expertise didn't come without some bumps along the road. And you don't have to bear awe, but it's nice when people are honest about what it really takes.

Michelle Kane (07:59):

Yeah, I can think of people that I follow on Instagram both professionally and just for fun, and yeah, they have their polished brand, but they'll also just pop on. They'll just shoot a quick video, whether it's sitting at their desk or in their car and just talk about something quickly and just be relatable. It's not like, oh, I have my ring. Like, oh, wait, oh, oh, oh. And they're like, okay, now they just say, Hey, you know what? This crossed my path today and I'm dealing with feeling like an imposter, and sometimes I feel like that, blah, blah, blah. And it's just these little moments of relatability. And I think, yes, thank you. Exactly. And that doesn't take away from the professional expertise that they offer, not one bit. So I think, and I'm not saying that that's a new thing, it's not, but I think that's a way to go a little deeper with your personal branding.

Karen Swim, APR (09:07):

And I think you hit on something that's really key. It's not really all the shiny aesthetics. That's great because I look at those and I'm learning because I do videos and I am a hot mess. I don't have it all together. I don't have all the tools and all the shiny stuff. So I'm an example of somebody that's like, if you want to see a hot mess, but I am who I am, and probably still to a degree going to be kind of a hot mess. It's not that. I think what you said as communicators, we really know this and we drive this into the companies that we work with. Far too often people hide behind their playbook, and executives do this all the time. It's corporate jargon and sometimes it feels like pulling teeth to just get them to communicate. Talk to me like I'm a human being.

So I think what you said is really key. It's focusing more on connecting with your audience in a real way, by using words that are relatable and understandable and not defaulting to your industry playbook, whatever industry you might be in. And being so concerned with sounding smart to your audience that you lose them because you're not relatable. That to me is one way to stand out and understanding the reality. And it's interesting. I feel like companies have really had to grasp this with the tension between work, from home, return to office. They finally figured out, look, we got multi-generations and the workforce. We have a diverse group of people that we're working with, with diverse opinions, with diverse preferences. We ain't going to satisfy everybody, so we got to just do what we got to do. And some people are going to be unhappy, and we just have to live with that. And I feel like more of us need to adopt that attitude, realizing we are never going to be able to satisfy all of the people all of the time, and that should never be our goal. So be yourself. It's funny because I even feel like sometimes that when we think we're sharing a bit of ourselves with people, that too just becomes so sanitized. It's like, oh, I am the yoga wearing meditating PR professional, and it's so pretty and perfect. So now you're just incorporated fitness influencer into your brand, and it's annoying. I don't look that good in my yoga pants. I'm sorry. No,

Michelle Kane (11:49):

No, no.

Karen Swim, APR (11:51):

Five minutes to meditate. So it just, it's not, but that's okay. That person probably is not for me, and I'm being a little facetious. I'm not attacking people. Please don't take that away. I really am being a little facetious. But the point is, we should be relatable. Just communicate down a notch. You're still winning. You're still beautiful, wonderful, smart and shiny, but just make sure that you talk to people in a way that's real. Be your true self as a communicator.

Michelle Kane (12:26):

Yeah. Well, and it's important what you said, because not everybody is going to be for everybody, and that's okay. And to your point about those that stick to their playbook and the jargon, and flip that around, because if that's all you're doing and it's like you have a really difficult time being relatable, that's almost going to make me question your credibility. Because if it feels like you're just being stilted all the time and reciting the right things, I'm thinking, gosh, is if I don't have any other evidence of it, or is this all just a bit of a show? So that's something to think about. Don't be afraid to be yourself. I'm not saying be Rodney Dangerfield and Caddy Shack, although there's people for that persona too.

Karen Swim, APR (13:23):

But I mean, it's funny that you could lose people even when you're being creative. I read this funny Buzzfeed article, it actually, it was kind of funny, but a Buzzfeed article that was asking people, what movie did you see? And you thought, what the heck did I just watch? So we all can name a movie that we watch. Movies are entertainment, therefore, your enjoyment, your pleasure. And sometimes the writers, the people behind the movie are so busy being clever and different that they lose you. And you do, you sit through the movie and you go, what was that?

Michelle Kane (14:08):

What just happened?

Karen Swim, APR (14:12):

I can't get that two hours of my life back. And so don't be that. Don't be the movie The Circle, which was horrid. I promise you. I sort of got what they were trying to say and do. But that was one of the recent movies in history where I was like, what did I just watch? Because that was pretty bad.

Michelle Kane (14:35):

Oh man. Yeah. I'm trying to think. Nothing's coming to mind super quickly. Of what?

Karen Swim, APR (14:42):

Yeah.

Michelle Kane (14:44):

Well, and it's harder when you can see it, right? You can see them trying so hard and it's almost painful, and you think, no, no. Yes.

Karen Swim, APR (14:54):

So even if you're funny comedian, you're entertaining. That's part of your personal brand. Make sure that you're not too clever for your audience or it won't land, right?

Michelle Kane (15:06):

Right. So what we're really saying is what, keep it as natural as you can be yourself. Don't be afraid to show parts of your personality and your branding. Honestly, at the end of it all, it's really a way to let people get to know you. And there's that know, like, and trust factor of people wanting those three items fulfilled to do business with you. So we hope this chat today has been helpful as we enter what some call the silly season. We hope you're keeping your wits about you, and if you did get value from this, please do share it around. We would really appreciate that. That would be the best gift you could give us this year. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.