Personal branding dialogue, the #BrandingWeekRD's preview

My colleague Paula Fernández-Ochoa and I offered a dialogue about personal branding that we titled “You stand out or go extinct“. It was within the framework of a webinar organized by Quifer Consultants (Dominican Republic) As warm up or warming up the events that will take place in the #BrandingWeekRD early February 2019 in Santo Domingo.

We leave you the webinar video, and if you have little time, we've left you a summary of the dialogue in text format that you'll find behind the video.

You stand out or go extinct (dialogue on personal branding)

 

Paula: Guillem, we started the dialogue on personal branding. What's the title You distinguish yourself to or go extinct?

Guillem: Our parents' generation opted for discretion. Today discretion equals disappearance. Paula Where was the discretion of the lawyers?

Paula: I know that well... I'm a lawyer and I've seen the evolution: confidentiality of the profession, advertising ban… Many don't see the need to become visible, a mistake.

Guillem: Returning to the title "You distinguish yourself or go extinct", Paula, why do you think it's important to do things differently?

Paula: In today's market there is an oversupply and demand, we are saturated with professionals and information, so you need to differentiate yourself, have a proposal that makes you unique and really adds value

Guillem: One factor that makes sense of difference is the relevance. In other words, difference alone is not a choice factor. Whatever you do, besides being different, must bring value.

Paula: It's what we know as La Value Proposal,… But let's go in parts.

 

The Iceberg Method of The Personal Brand

Paula: Where do we start our personal brand management or personal branding plan? The Iceberg of the personal brand

Guillem: I like to think of the simile of home - Iceberg, you don't start with the roof. The parts of the Iceberg are Self. Strategy. Visibility

Self, diagnosing our personal brand

Paula: Self-information is a diagnostic phase to know what brand we project

Guillem: There are different tools to get to know her: DISC, Crystal, How to Fascinate, Ie, 90th test…

Paula: The final exercise in self-awareness is a synthesis we know as FODA, Swot, Swot...

Personal strategy, where we're going and how we got there

Guillem: The next phase to our diagnosis is knowing where we want to go, what we want to do and how we can do it. It's what we know as a personal strategy. Paula, where would a strategy start?

Paula: By defining a Objective. Without that we won't be able to value the process, success or failure.

Guillem: The advantage is that at Personal Branding we focus on a goal: Being a reference in something, with a definite specialty, in a specific geographical area and with a differential value proposition.

Paula: It doesn't seem easy., even if it's one, but it's true that this marks everything we'll do next, so you have to give it top priority.

Guillem: It's important not to confuse the goal, which refers to us, with the purpose or purpose, which refers to our contribution to the world.

Paula: Said Nietzsche that if we find our why we'll find out how, And he was right. After Nietzsche, leadership specialist Simon Sinek (Theory Golden Circle) invited us to generate our speech starting with why, following by how and ending up why (Product, Service), and not the other way around like it's been done forever.

Guillem: Define the Purpose it's not easy, but there's an exercise, that we may not like, that can help. What would you like me to put in your epitaph?. Well, if you know., change the "I did" shape to "I'll do" and you already have your purpose.

Paula: Others use that formula that combines 1. What you're passionate about 2. What you know how to do 3. That what they pay you (Market + Passion + Talent)

Guillem: In any case, the purpose we might consider it as the Vision. Everything we put in place for that purpose will be our Mission.

Paula: Important to consider the values. Guillem calls them "Superpowers" and we have them as an emotional and educational heritage from a very young.

Guillem: Surely when working the feedback to reach the FODA have emerged some of them, but one formula for identifying them is to look for a list of values (there are up to 200), pre-select 10 values that are important to us and then stick with 3 Or 4, those are our superpowers.

Paula: Defined the goal, vision, mission and values, comes the moment of truth, define our value proposition and our business model. We are at the height of the strategy. David Barreda says that a value proposition is the one that makes a certain customer or company decant for you.

Guillem: Very much agree. I actually define it with a sentence: Why the hell should they choose you? If you don't contribute, you don't care...

Paula: And that's what it's all about., to contribute. The value proposition focuses on your client, not in you. And your client can be your boss, don't forget.

Guillem: That's right, it's not talking about yourself, but how we can improve the situation of the one who hires us. Whether it's easiing a problem (pain) or detecting an opportunity (gain).

Paula: What's interesting, and the hard part, is that that proposal, In addition, be unique. If your proposal says the same thing as the neighbor's, won't be differential, and the choice factor stays in the air.

Guillem: Let me give you an example. Marta. He defined himself as Senior Manager and after working with her placed on his Linkedin profile “Auditor specializing in real environment. Auditing with a smile”

Paula: And another example: the lawyer who wrote a schoolgirl after his specialty “I never give up”. That can be the difference.

Guillem: We see that in both cases, Marta's and the lawyer's, the proposal is addressed to the customer, creates value and is unique- In Marta's case, solves a problem, but more pleasantly than the rest...

Paula: in the other case, opens up an opportunity to explore new revenue streams thanks to a resilience value.

Guillem: It's important that we don't just look at our rational attributes. Attitudes count, and the values also. Something like a smile, like a "I never give up", can be a differentiating factor. Paula, Why don't you explain your own case, a lawyer's, personal brander and sports and health ambassador?

Paula: The case LivingCoQuer > (Take a look at Instagram)

Guillem: Big case! We have the hardest way to start with our business model, the value proposition. Now we need to complete our customer segment ...

Paula: Define who they are and -very important- who can grow our value proposition

Guillem: Define relationships with our customers...

Paula: If we're problem solvers, whether we're creative or innovative, Consultants, Trainers, Researchers...

Guillem: List what our channels are...

Paula: our channels are the ones that help us bring the value proposition to our customers... which ones should we add or delete?

Guillem: Define our activities…

Paula: activities would be what appears on our business card, is our catalog of services or products.

Guillem: Detailing our key resources…

Paula: In a nutshell, what we need to do our job: Office, Languages, Awards, Certificates, human team...

Guillem: Very important, define our key partners...

Paula: And here it doesn't refer to legal partners, but people who can validate our value proposition against our potential customers

Guillem: And to finish the model, income and expenses

Paula: Without that calculation it wouldn't be a business model.

Guillem: This model, and the instructions to complete it, it's called Business Model Canvas and you can find it on the web Strategyzer.com

Visibility. How we present ourselves

Paula: With the business model, we have defined a strategy: you have to keep what works and create an action plan for what we don't have yet. And with this we move on to the next level: Visibility.

Guillem: the tip of the Iceberg, our communication and networking plan. Like every plan, here we need goals, focused on accurate audience indicators, people we reach... isn't it, Paula?

Paula: That's right, Guillem. We know them as SMART targets, whose acronyms tell us that they should be specific, Measurable, Attainable, relevant and time-related.

Guillem: For example, let's imagine this SMART goal: We're going to increase the activity and frequency of posting on Twitter and Facebook to get a 500% followers (of the 100 To 600) during the following 12 Months, in order to increase our online reputation and have a community of active followers.

Paula: Here specifics are our followers on Twitter and Facebook. The measurable thing is to move from 100 To 600. Achievable is to increase activity and frequency. What's relevant is to increase our online reputation and have a community of active followers. And the weather thing is as follows 12 Months.

Guillem: I agree, we define our SMART goals as accurately as possible, only then can we measure the evolution of results. The next step is to define our target audiences.

Paula: The advantage is that if we have worked well the business model, we already know the customer segments.

Guillem: Yes, but here we need to better define their demographic and behavioral profiles and then fine-tune the media and supports to vehicular our messages towards them.

Paula: With a profile neard we wouldn't talk on the phone, and with a senior lawyer we wouldn't use snapchat. That's why it's key to define our target audience well.

Guillem: Defined our target audience, it's time for messages and keywords. How do we want to be found? Today the marketing that works well is the attraction marketing, better than the disruption-based classic. Defining specific messages and keywords is paramount

Paula: To work the message we will use the basis of the value proposition, but adapted to our audiences and the different channel formats we use.

Guillem: There is. The coldness of a chance encounter in an elevator is not the same as the warmth of a lunch or a one-hour video conference.

Paula: The elevator pitch asks for a very strong first impact to get attention, Type Do you know that your company would retain a 50% more to their professionals with an in-house health and sport program?

Guillem: That's a custom-made message from a customer segment. However, when we show up on social media we have to write a more generic speech, and there we can build on the basis of the value proposition. For example, in Paula's case it could be > "I help improve health and motivation conditions in organizations", or better "Boost healthy organizations through sport and personal branding"

Paula: It could be, Could. Notice that without a value proposition it is very difficult to get to the message. And a message like this could top our social media profiles. Where does the most emotional part of the message come in?

Guillem: You're talking about the personal story or personal storytelling. Today we know that what connects us has more to do with our values, our story, our purpose, that about our professional position.

Paula: And that trick has to know how to take advantage of it. The story wants to generate empathy, try to put ourselves in the shoes of the one who tells it, experience and live what you've lived. In the field of personal branding, a story can be a 1-hour video, one of the 10 Minutes, or a simple Tweet. My partner Guillem is defined on Twitter like "Version S. XXI shoeshine, I like to work for others to shine". That's a story in itself., it's a purpose transferred to a presentation story.

Guillem: And another short story is the one referred to above "Living Running", an evolution of Paula's first "Living Laughing" adapted to her new sporting environment. As you can see, you don't need 20 folios to explain a small story that defines us, what we need is the foundation, and both in Paula's case and mine, behind it is the purpose.

Paula: I agree, in our personal communication plan we have the objectives, target audience and message What are we missing?

Guillem: Something important, the medium and the measurement of it. As the brander tells Andy Stalman, today the world is OFF and ON, symbiosis, And he's right.

Paula: They say there's not one thing without the other today.. The real world needs the virtual and vice versa. Here, if we've worked our business model well, we already know what channels we need to move our value proposition to our customers.

Guillem: There are "mirror" fused media like radio, analogue and also digital, TV, the press, magazines. These media work great, as they turn an ephemeral interview into a diary into an almost eternal digital link.

Paula: And then there are means needed OFF for networking, like a business card. There are also pure digital media, like social media and blogs. Guillem, Do you recommend a blog on a personal brand plan?

Guillem: Of course. If published regularly, will be the first thing they find of us on Google. Not just looking for our name, but looking for keywords. A challenge > Search for "Personal Branding Company" on your PC or smartphone. If I go out, is that something I'll have done well, it's a keyword important to me. And that, a blog makes it easier. As you say Alfonso Alcántara, “without blog we are digital syncs”. Paula What social network would you stay with?

Paula: Out of self-interest with Instagram, No doubt, although each network reaches a type of audience and allows a message format. Instagram likes it because it's so visual, very immediate (stories). But for business B2B works great Linkedin, for B2C Facebook, and to meet people Twitter. To search for Pinterest images. And I leave the N1, the most complete what network am I talking about?

Guillem: I was already surprised that It took YouTube a while to appear.. From the personal brand, YouTube is the network that best allows us to communicate, with verbal and nonverbal language.

Paula: Other means to consider would be to publish or co-publish a book, use the webinar like this, the podcast, conferences, Workshops, Wikipedia. I listen to Stalman and mix it all up..

Guillem: Paula, And how do we measure the success of all this?

Paula: Fortunately there are many indicators. The first is to meet the objectives. But then we have very powerful tools to measure the results of our network and our social networks.

Guillem: To measure results, even sales conversion, from our website or blog, there's nothing like the Free Google Analytics tool. Also Semrush and others help us to follow the effectiveness of SEO, our online positioning.

Paula: For social media, there are many tools, each network's own, very powerful. On Linkedin the Social Selling Index, on Twitter, Twitter Analytics, on YouTube, YouTube Analytics. On Instagram and Facebook we need a professional page to measure effectively, but we can always count likes and followers.

Guillem: I always say that no matter how many follow us but who. But for mass sale, we need large communities or strategic alliances or advertising campaigns, from AdWords to social media's own promotional tools.

#BrandingWeekRD

Here we will refer to post about the event #BrandingWeekRD that will take place between the 4 And 8 February 2019 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Hotel in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). Organized by the Quifer Consultants and with the presence of Eva Collado Durán, of one's own Paula Fernández-Ochoa, of the Nancy Vazquez (from Mexico) and who he writes to you about, Guillem Recolons.

Workshops and conferences will be discussed:

• Employee Advocacy (external brand ambassadors)
• Personal Political Branding
• Healthy Organizations
• Digital transformation for HR departments. Hh
• And much more

Connect with Anabel Ferreiras QUIFER Consultants to reserve a place or to sponsor the event.

We hope you liked this dialogue on personal branding, I hope you encourage yourself to participate in Santo Domingo to deepen and value yourself.