Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Dr. Natalia Wiechowski: Elevate Your Personal Brand | Marketing | E11

Episode Date: November 26, 2018

What does your personal brand say about you? In today’s digital world, unless you have no social footprint at all, you have a personal brand— whether you like it or not. With 264 million people on social media, it might seem like an impossible task to stand out from the crowd. However, we can take control of our image by being intentional about everything we do online, and by creating content that represents who we are or the expertise we bring to the table. In this episode, Hala sits with Dr. Natalia Wiechowski, personal branding strategist, LinkedIn unicorn and leading edutainer, to help us take our personal brands to the next level. Learn how to become an influencer online, why being authentic is the new perfect and the importance of storytelling as a content creator. For more on Dr. Natalia Wiechowski visit her website at https://thinknatalia.com/. Young and Profiting podcast is brought to you by audible. Get your FREE audiobook here: www.audibletrial.com/YAP Want to connect with other YAP listeners? Join the YAP Society on Slack: bit.ly/yapsociety Follow YAP on Instagram: www.instagram.com/youngandprofiting Reach out to Hala directly at [e-mail] Follow Hala on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Follow Hala on Instagram: www.instagram.com/yapwithhala Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.youngandprofiting.com

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You're listening to Yap, Young and Profiting Podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and grow. I'm Halitaha, and today we're yapping about building a personal brand, becoming an influencer online, while being authentic is the new perfect and the importance of storytelling as a content creator. For this episode, I've brought on expert Dr. Natalia Vihavsky, otherwise known as Think Natalia. She's absolutely mastered the art of personal branding, both online and offline. Natalia is a LinkedIn influencer, keynote speaker, and personal branding strategist, who's got a doctorate in philosophy and is a leading educator in the Middle East. Hi, Natalia, thanks for joining us all the way from the United Arab Emirates. Thank you for your time and for this opportunity, Hala.

You're a top influencer on LinkedIn and one of the world's leading educators. And so you're the perfect person to talk to us about building a personal brand. So before we get started, I want to pay a little attention to you. You have a very unique background, a wide range of experiences. Can you tell us about your career journey and what you do today? Yes. So I studied social science. And when you do that, the job doesn't exist.

So in comparison to, for example, when you study engineering, you become an engineer, when you study medicine, you become a doctor. But what on earth do you do when you study social science? I started working in the UAE in a city called Alain once I finished my studies, and my first job was being a librarian. So I set up a library from scratch for a vocational training institute for emeritus students. So I did this and after three and a half years I could either go back to Germany or I could also look for another job. And as I lived in Alain and I did not explore Dubai that much, I said, you know what, let's get me a job in Dubai. Which I did. I ended up in the logistics industry and over there in the marketing slash sales department. So I did that for two and a half years and was at the highest level of my young career, as people said, and they were excited for me and they perceived

me as successful, but I realized that omniscient successful, I'm not happy, and my health was a disaster. So this is when I then quit my job, started to unlearn everything that I ever learned, went on a sabbatical, and failed myself up to my dream lifestyle, dream life, and career, which is being a keynote speaker, a LinkedIn unicorn and a personal branding strategist. Very cool. So you took a sabbatical. When do you recommend that people should consider doing that? Ask yourself, why do you want to do that sabbatical? How long will it be?

How much money did you save up and then create an action plan? I think it really makes sense to go on a sabbatical when you need to do some big self-work, when you want to relearn certain things or you want to gain a specific skill or you want to spend more time in nature, you want to figure out who you truly are. But it's not that you just quit your job

and you go and you travel the world and everything is amazing as you think it is and people portray it on Instagram. No, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of commitment. It's a lot about saying no. It's about living a minimalist lifestyle. I mean, at least this is how it was for me,

And it is challenging, but it can be the most powerful and profound and beautiful thing that you can give yourself with. Yeah, definitely. So tell us, how did you come to develop your own personal brand? And how did you find out what you exactly wanted to do? I literally read everything that I find about personal branding. And I found a handful of people that I identified as my role models back then, I had a look at how they market themselves and how they create content and with whom they meet and what their warning habits are. And I understood very quickly that what all of these motivational speakers and all of these performance coaches out there say is the truth. But 99% of people do not want to hear it and will not apply it. And that's the difference between 99% of people

out there and those people who made it or will make it. So I understood that now I have all of the theory. So now it's all about applying. So starting from April 2015 until today, I posted almost every day. Sometimes I posted up to three times per day on certain social media platforms. And this is the magic or the hot souls or secret souls or how you want to call it. It's all about consistency and experimenting and making mistakes and create content go out there and network. And network. work and see where this takes you. I came across one of your blogs on LinkedIn and found the way that you break down personal branding very helpful. You said there are four elements to it, inside, outside, offline and online. Can you talk us through each one? How much time do I have? So I can talk about it

for 45 minutes, but I can't enjoy. So let's start on the inside. I think that you will only be able to design a great life, a great lifestyle and an outstanding career when you know your basics, when you understand who you are and what you do. Not from the spiritual point of view. Let's be a little bit more hands-on pragmatic. So what are your values? What's important to you? How do you want to be perceived? What are your personal targets? Where are your career targets? How do you want to make people feel, et cetera, et cetera? That is a lot of insight work that needs to be done in the beginning. You also need to work on the way you think because the way you think then manifests in the way how you speak and your words then manifest into actions. And this, in the end, all of these

actions are your life. So you need to change the way you think if you want to be successful. So sometimes I refer my clients to performance or life coaches when I realize that the words that they say and the way how they speak about themselves or others is still full of hate or fear or anxiety because I'm not trained in this. I've done that on myself. I healed myself. I worked on this, but I worked with other coaches and mentors and shamans and healers and Buddhist monks and everything. And it was a process of three years. So don't expect me to help you with that because it's really a tough cookie, but it's doable with the specific expert. Then we have the outside thing. I believe that the societies that we've created have a tendency to be shallow.

and judgmental and obsessed with things like beauty and success and achievements. And to be also very honest, we judge book by its cover. So we also care about the way how we look. And the first thing, what we do when we see a new person as we scan him or her. So it makes sense to have a look at things like your body language, the way how you move, what you wear. If you are very, very young, then we might work with things that will make you a little bit older, at least in the perception of other people. If you are old in quotation marks and you work in an industry that is really horribly judgmental and you have to fight with ageism,

there are a few factors that we can work on to make you look and move and speak and be perceived younger. So these are factors in the outside box. then we have the online work because I think that people Google you, I mean, it doesn't matter if you go for a date or a job interview, people will always take your name, put it into the Google search box, hit enter and you are what Google says about you. So it makes sense to have a clean online image or a clean online reputation. That is also manageable.

These are things that you can work on and with the right content and right pictures. You can definitely portray yourself in a way that is aligned with your values and with your long-term targets. Yeah, then offline is for me more the PR world. So have a look at your network because the world is full of human beings and it's all about connection. Have a look at the awards that you have or don't have. How do you show people that you do not only talk but walk to talk? I mean, are you really an expert?

How can we show people that there's really substance behind what you do? And if there's not, then you better start learning and you better start investing in courses and reading books and improving your speeches, et cetera, et cetera. So you get to that expert level. You need to continuously invest not only in yourself, but also in your expertise to stay on top of the game. So these are some factors on the offline area where you could also work on. I've heard people say before that personal branding is gimmicky or fake. What's your response to that?

I don't understand how something can be fake that is based on your own values. Because personal branding, if done correctly, really asks you, how do you want to live? How do you want to help other people? How do you want to change this world? What's your bigger picture? I mean, when you die one day, what do you want people to say about you? And that is very individual. So that cannot be fake.

I mean, you can be, please excuse my language, an asshole. and you can have really shift through values and not care about human beings, but that still is not fake. So I think fake is a word that absolutely makes zero sense in the personal branding process, because personal branding really starts with the real human being you are. Yeah, I totally agree. And to be honest, I think that you really have no choice. For the most part these days, unless you have no social footprint at all,

you have a personal brand, whether you like it or not. If people Google you, they'll find something and associate you with that content. So you need to be very intentional. You need to be very aware. And everything you do either strengthens or weakens the personal brand that you're trying to create. Speaking of that, can you talk about the ways that people hurt their brand without even realizing it? Well, there are a few factors. Some people, they portray this fantastic and shiny and outstanding brand online.

And then when you meet them in person, you think, wait. well, I actually wanted to meet Zones, or who are you? So that does make sense to create two different personas, who you are online and offline needs to the same person. So that's one way, how you harm your personal brand. Then another thing that I've just mentioned about the trolls is, no matter what you comment on, on social media, can be read by everybody in your social network

and in the social network of the person who posted it. So any comment or any post that you also share, and it might be on Facebook, can either add value and help you portraying a certain image that you have or can ruin you. Another thing is that I just recently read about which I found super interesting. It comes from Germany's number one sales coach. His name is Doge Hoiter. So he said, you're not losing against a competition.

You're losing against the fact that people do not know you. So if you do not speak about yourself, if you do not go to network, events. If you do not create content, you are losing out on thousands of opportunities in business and in your private life, which is said, and I guess you're losing out not only on opportunities, but also money. So it's also a way how you indirectly harden your personal brand, but just not saying anything and hoping for miracles to happen. So let's dig into that a little bit. You started getting into the benefits of personal branding. Our listeners are, you know, young professionals and one of the benefits of good personal branding for us would be being an attractive job candidate.

According to a job bite survey of recruiters, 95% of recruiters view a competitive personal brand as an essential differentiator when searching for applicants. But with 264 million people out there on social media, it might seem like an impossible task to stand out from the crowd. Well, first of all, definitely polish your LinkedIn profile. Because a lot of people, they either still don't have a LinkedIn profile or it looks ridiculously boring or not attractive at all. So first thing, once you decided on having an up-to-date LinkedIn profile is go to a photographer and invest in a professional position. I do not want to see pictures of you and your dog or your best friend or you from a party or a passport picture. That's not how you create a first positive impression. And it's Christmas very soon.

So that might be an amazing gift that you can actually tell your friends, your bestie, your parents, your partner, whatever. I want a photo shoot because I'm looking for a job or I'm looking for better business opportunities. So that is definitely something worth doing. Another thing, which might be a good idea, is creating a very simple webpage. It doesn't cost a fortune anymore. This is how you already stand up in three different ways. First of all, you have a LinkedIn profile. second of all, you updated it and you have a great picture.

Third of all, you have a webpage. So from this number, how many of them have a webpage, have a great picture, have a great LinkedIn profile? And if this number is still too big for you, then start creating content. And if that number is still too big for you and you really want to be seen, create video content on LinkedIn. And now we're talking. Yeah, that will really help you stand out because not many people are doing that at all.

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Again, that's framer.com slash profiting for 30% off. Framer.com slash profiting. Rules and restrictions apply. I think, as always, there are quite a few factors. So people with a great personal brand come from a mindset of self-development and growth. So they will continuously invest in themselves, which means that they have the knowledge and they also have the experience, which is exactly what every employer wants to see. because if you go into social or economic theories, this is human capital. This is the juicy stuff that will make you, you know, more productive.

And that's what companies want to see. Then somebody who is a great personal brand also invest in the way how he or she moves and speaks and is as a human being. So that person knows how to listen to people. And that person most probably starts and stay in a way. that he or she is positive. So the co-workers of that person will like that individual. That means this person also has positive vibes. And through that, the whole atmosphere around that person is also so much better.

So not only does that person have the hard skills, but also then soft skills to be an amazing individual. And in the end, companies are just a bunch of people and people who want to work with awesome people. And when you have that and then you go out there, and you deliver what you actually portray, of course, you should be paid in a higher and better way, at least if that company is somehow reasonable, and if not, if you have all of these boxes, you can tick off all of these boxes that I've just mentioned, then you should really start looking

for a new job because somebody out there will appreciate what your current boss on employer doesn't see. As far as content goes, is it possible to have a brand without any content, or do you kind of need both in order to succeed. If you fully focus on the offline world, so if you fully focus on networking, on delivering speeches, on shaking hands, writing books,

and you do that in such an amazing way, and you also tell people, oh, by the way, if you like it, you know, share it on social media, then theoretically, you could allow your whole network and the people that you know to do that work for you.

But at a certain stage, people will be dying. They will be craving to hear something from you. And when you don't create content, you're missing out on tons of opportunities, leads, sales opportunities, meeting fantastic people, friends, mentors, just to let the world know about you. I think it's a little bit as if you just say no to a huge pot of opportunities. So I would always, always, always encourage people to create content because it's fun. And yeah, you just at least double the amount of greatness that can enter your life. And I mentioned this earlier.

You have a very popular LinkedIn page. What's your advice on growing an online community? How many channels should we start out with? How do we define our target audience? I would start with one because everything else is just overwhelming. and chaotic. And if you want to master one social media platform, that takes time and experimenting, et cetera, et cetera, especially when you do that on your own. I highly assume that your audience is not in a position where that person can hire a personal assistant or a virtual

assistant or a social media assistant. So I assume that you do that on your own. So I would literally start with one platform. And if it is your professional career, it's definitely LinkedIn. So that's the first thing to do. When it comes to the online community, I think a lot of people put that term on a pedestal and we need to go once again deeper and say, what is a community? And then we realize, okay, a community, it's a bunch of people. And if we reduce the bunch, we just have people. And people, you're a person as well. So once again, put yourself into shoes of these individuals and ask yourself, what could I do to add value, to help others, to make them think, laugh, smile, and ask them and give them exactly that and ask them to give you some feedback

and share their thoughts. And when they do that, get back to them. Show them that you've read that and start a conversation, start a dialogue. Start or create content that is a platform or a place where people go to think, to talk, where people meet each other so that you're basically a networking place and a place of inspiration. I think that's important. And when it comes to your third question about the target audience, that really depends on your long-term targets. So if you are a public speaker and a coach, who are the clients that you want to work with? Sit down and identify that person and then write and speak in a way on social media that these people resonate with. Yeah, that's great advice. As I was prepping for this show, I was scanning articles about personal branding on the

internet. And I saw that many people are saying that millennials naturally excel at personal branding. But I'm not sure I entirely buy that because I personally know a lot of millennials who are struggling in this area. Some of them are introverts. Some of them just don't have the marketing skills to develop videos or write well. Do you have any advice for those type of people? what do you do if you're not naturally a person who likes to put themselves out there or if you don't think you're great at creating content? I think first of all, you need to get clear on your why, as cheesy as this sounds, and as often as you most probably read it somewhere, ask yourself why it's so important

that you get yourself out of this comfort zone. What do you want to achieve with that? So when you create content or when you get yourself out there, why do you do that? to get a job, to get a better job, to find friends who really respect and love you and will get you to the next level. If you create content or if you do everything we just talked about because others do it, you're not going to succeed because your reason is not deep enough. And you know, you have a bad day or you feel sick or whatever and you will stop doing it. So you first of all, you need something that will really motivate you and pull you towards achieving this goal. That's the first thing.

And everything else is just very basic training. So, for example, if you want to do videos, then I guess the problem lies in two areas. The first thing is that you don't know how to technically do it. So go into the internet and read three, four, five articles on how do I film my own videos using a smartphone or watch for YouTube tutorials. And the second thing is train your public speaking skills. And for that, I have started with Toastmasters International, the world's biggest non-profit organization when it comes to public speaking. So go there twice per month and force yourself to write down your thoughts, to become a better speaker, to use body language, to use more

interesting stories, how to become a better storyteller, et cetera, et cetera. So I think these would be the first elements that you could start investing in when you want to become a better content creator or get yourself out there. There's two things I want to touch upon that you've mentioned so far. So one of them is the importance of authenticity and being genuine. And the second one is the importance of storytelling. Can you talk through why those items are important to consider when developing your personal brand? I think authenticity is something that more and more people are craving for. because if you flip through your Instagram, I don't know how yours looks like, but mine is full of overly photoshopped and overly staged scenarios or people who I know borrowed that car or borrowed

that dress. So the way social media evolved over the last years, unfortunately, there's a lot of bragging and a lot of staging going on in a way that people compare each other's. lifestyle all the time and it's all about, oh, look at me, look up what I've achieved. So we know that this is staged because life has ups and downs. And very often we also see that person on Instagram, we meet him or her in person and we know that that's BS. That's absolutely not possible. So when you come from a place of authenticity and say, I'm going to show you what I really am and what I'm really working on and you decide how far you go, that makes it interesting. it makes it so much more relatable and it makes you so much more human.

And we all know how much stress we go through an anxiety and sometimes jealousy and brainwash through social media, through advertising, through movies, through newspapers and all of this, that's just exhausting. So when somebody says no to all of that and says, I'll give my best to really show you who I am and what I do, I think that makes you stand out. And that is a great foundation for true genuine connections and relationships. Yeah. And I think it takes a certain amount of confidence to be able to just let yourself

have your natural style and let yourself not worry about being totally perfect or not stumbling or not looking totally amazing that day. That's something I personally struggle with because I always want to be like perfect online. It takes time and the older you get the less you give it. That's just, that's fun. So this is when when everybody out there is like, oh my God, I don't want to get old. I don't want to grow up. It's so much better. Like with every year, with every profound experience you have, the less you really care about other people and the more you care about doing what excites you, making a difference and helping those ones who are willing to listen or who want to your health and this is what really letters. Not the opinion of somebody who lives 3,000

kilometers away who doesn't get his own shit or life sorted out. Who are they to judge you? So be patient with yourself and daily work on yourself and eventually you're going to get there. It's not that I was the way how I am today since, I don't know, day one. I mean, I also had a lot of insecurities and of course I still have some insecurities. I mean, if I didn't have insecurities, I wouldn't be living how I live right now. I think we live life how we do it because there are certain fears and securities that we are not willing to let go yet.

And life will give you a lot of opportunities to face them. And you will only grow and evolve to the next level when you actually say yes to growth and yes to facing that fear. You often talk about the importance of storytelling. You mentioned it in a lot of your videos and things like that. I was hoping that you could explain what you exactly mean by that to our listeners. Storytelling is for me an elegant way of packaging a message.

So there are people out there who post content on LinkedIn that is literally a one-liner and that is just a message. So a message could be you or another message could be never give up. or another message could be personal branding can help you living a better life. So these are the messages. So when I post stuff like this, I would not expect anybody to like that or comment or engage with that because that's, I mean, everywhere can do that. Like you can open a newspaper or book or just open any social media page, copy and paste.

Like, what's the idea behind it? I heard that before. It's boring. It's lame. So if you want to share your lessons learned or your message and you want to do that in a compelling way and you want people's attention, you need to make it interesting somehow. And this is then when you tell stories around your message. Happy New Year, Yap, gang. I just love the unique energy of the new year.

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Services not available in all areas. So I give you an example. There was one post that I had two years ago. So basically the message was every day has the opportunity to become. the best day are of your life, right? So that was the idea. But if I would have posted that, that would be just a motivational post that you have read a squibillion times. So what I did instead is I told a small story around it. And this story is actually true. Like not all of the stories that you tell me to be true. You always decide how far you go, et cetera, but the one that I shared was true.

So my story was at the end of the year, I was very busy. I was in rush. And I wanted to leave my flat, but I realized, oh, I'm not wearing perfume. So I grabbed my perfume. And, my stomach crammed in the second when I grabbed that perfume because I have two perfumes and I have a normal one and one for special occasions. Accidentally, I grabbed the one for special occasions, but it was not a special day. And I realized, wow, something is really wrong here. And it was as if somebody slapped me in the face because I finally understood, wow, it's at the end of the year.

This is my special occasion perfume. I have never ever used it for the last 3505 days or so. That means my whole year is average. Nothing was special. Who says that something is special? And that's just like, I don't want to live like this. So I throw away my everyday perfume and I just use one perfume nowadays, which is the special occasion perfume because I make the active decision every day

that today is going to be a special day. So that's an example of powerful storytelling, that people will love, resonate with, repost, and ask for telephone calls, emails, etc. And that goes back to being genuine and being authentic. It's just tell people the real you, real things that happen to you, let them emotionally connect. I think that makes total sense. So something that I've realized over the years as I've expanded on different entrepreneurial

adventures is that when you're launching something like your own personal brand or your own content. I find that it's mostly strangers that support you. So online strangers, coworkers that you're not that flows with. These are the people that are most likely to support you in the beginning. Even with my podcast, I get thousands of listeners, but I have best friends who still haven't listened to the show. And it can make you feel bad. So can you talk about why is it that it's strangers that are most likely to support you in these type of endeavors and how you cannot take it so personally if your friends and family aren't really the ones who are supporting you the hardest. That's an interesting observation. So I would assume that the content that you create

is not relevant to your friends and your family, etc. I mean, in the end, all the things that we create on social media, the podcast that we have, the blog that we have, it's a nice hobby, if that's a hobby for you. But in the majority of cases, the people that I work with, It is elite magnet, which means it's just directly connected to your business. And business and family and friends are two different worlds, depending on, of course, in which society you live in, I know that in the US, it's a little bit more intermixed or intertwined. While in Germany, there's a very strict way, like it's A and B, and you give your best to not mix it. So that could be one reason.

Another reason could also be that your friends might be jealous or your friends, might wish that they had the courage to do that as well, but they don't. So yeah, I know of many cases in which people just didn't say anything to their friends or their families and they just did it. And then once they had their first million, you know, they showed up around. Exactly. By the way, that's me in my real car, you know, just show up in front of your parents' house with this brand new car or you invite your parents and your best friends to a one week trip to somewhere and say, by the way, that's made for my first million. So then you don't have this whole conversation drama at the beginning.

It's totally up to you. And in general, taking things personally won't get you far in life anyway. So meditation and mindfulness are two very, very great practices that I would recommend everybody to do. And this is nothing religious and it's nothing airy, fairy. And you don't need to have a beard or long hair. need your armpits to do that. You can be a cool, awesome human being and meditate. And there are a lot of outstanding great minds and singers and actors and business people out there who practice

mindfulness every day, who practice meditation every day. And through that, get more things done, live a more balanced life, are less sick and live longer. So these are things that I think are pretty powerful to consider. Personally, I've just chosen to accept that friends and family are not going to be my target audience and that I'm going to go ahead and find people who are interested in the type of content that I provide and focus on that. And I think that accepting that and not feeling like anybody owes you anything in any regard as far as supporting you, they'll come along on their own. And it's just a matter of proving yourself to the world. And some people just can't imagine that you've grown so much or they only remember you in a

past light. And so I just think it's important to know yourself, know what you want, and kind of zone out everything else that goes against your goals. So let's end the show with a popular American game called Would You Rather? Have you ever heard of that game before? Just the name. Is it like, would you choose A or B? Yeah, something similar to that. It's something that like young girls in America play at sleepovers. Would you rather have no online presence at all or an embarrassing online presence. So having no online presence means no relevant results come up when you're Googled. And an embarrassing online presence could be your Facebook page popping up with highlights of your wildest college nights. I would go for A, not having an online presence at all, because it's so much

easier, at least for me, to start from scratch and do something awesome instead of going in there and cleaning up all of the mess and asking people to delete creatures. and then contact web pages. And, you know, it's like a mirror. Once it's broken, you can still glue it together, but you'll still see where it's cracked. So, no, not for me. So before we go,

I'd like you to take an opportunity to tell our listeners where they can go to find out more about you, Think Natalia, and everything else that you do. Yes, sure. So if you like reading, then check out my blog, think natalia.com. If you want to know how Dubai looks like, how I live my life, then have a look at my Instagram, which is at Think Natalia. If you're interested in daily posts or videos around personal branding, business hacks and

stories out of my more business environment, then LinkedIn is definitely a good option. And if you want to improve your personal brand, because you're either looking for a job or you're looking for more leads. I have recently launched two really awesome and fun online courses. You will find more information about that also on my webpage and blog, think natalia.com. Awesome. Well, this was so helpful, and I'm so thankful that you were able to come on the show with us today. I'm really glad to hear that.

It was a lot of fun. Thank you for giving me this space and an opportunity and great questions. Thanks. Thanks for listening to Young and Profiting Podcast. follow Yap on Instagram at Young and Profiting and check us out at young and profiting.com. And now you can chat live with us every single day on our new Slack channel. Check out our show notes or young and profiting.com for the link. You can find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn.

Just search for my name, Hala, Taha. Big thanks to the Yap team, Tim, Danny, Steeds, Christian, Stephanie, Kayla, and Brian. And an extra special shout out to our newest team member, Nicholas Robles. Until next time, this is Hala, signing off. Thank you.