Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Personal Branding Masterclass (3 questions to get started)

Transcript

Personal Branding Masterclass (3 questions to get started) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:09
  How are you? Hi. Good morning. I'm good. How are you doing?
• 0:14
  I'm good. I'm good. It is the evening. I feel like when did we record our last episode? Was it last week? It's been a long time. Or was it a couple of weeks ago? I can't remember. A couple of weeks ago. A couple of weeks ago. Yeah. It's been a while. Oh my gosh. Time is just flying by. How are we at the end of January? I do not know. I do not know. It's also so funny to see you there in the evening and me in the morning wrapped in a blanket, hot water bottle, huge hoodie. We're just talking about the heat wave in Australia. Yeah.
• 0:43
  So we really have something for everyone here. Really? Yeah, I mean, gosh, I feel like you and I are just on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Me with my broken air conditioning and overheating and just being like, what in the hell? And you over there freezing.
• 1:01
  Exactly. Classic. Classic. But talking about freezing, I don't think we've had a chance to talk about your Vancouver trip on here yet with Thinkerfic. I mean, you came back about a week ago? Yes, I came back about a week ago. Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. We...
• 1:19
  For anyone listening, I went over to speak at an event that was hosted by Thinkific. And yeah, I got to meet a lot of the team, got to do some kind of collab content around our new course and our new program, e-commerce fundamentals. And then we did like a panel, I did a presentation, and then I spent a couple of days working
• 1:43
  with Greg, who's the founder of Thinkific up in Whistler. And that was just amazing. I went to this place called, I bet anyone who's either Canadian or spend time in Whistler will be like, yep, that's amazing. I went to this place called Scandinave Spa. And it's like exactly the kind of place you want to spend all day, every weekend, that kind of thing. It's in the middle of
• 2:09
  like far as the eye can see forest. And because it had just snowed, like this huge dump of snow, there was like white trees everywhere. There was just so much beautiful snow. And basically it's like lots of different saunas and spas and steam rooms and thermal baths and ice plunge. And you kind of just like dot around the,
• 2:34
  you know, all day, just like reading a book and going between hot and cold, I guess, experiences. But it's great because it's no kids. It's totally silent and no phones allowed. You're allowed a physical book or a physical Kindle, but nothing else. And it is just, it was heaven. And I was like, how come these don't exist all over the world? Like, where is this outside of Sydney in nature? I don't understand.
• 3:00
  Also something about being in the heat inside and then seeing all the snow and the trees outside. It's such a weird, weird thing for the mind. It just looked amazing. It looked so good. Oh, it was beautiful. Had the best time. Could you tell me about the standing ovation moment? I don't know if it felt the same when you were doing your talk, but I saw a video come by of you hosting the Talking Thinkerfic. You're wearing your super sparkly pink dress.
• 3:26
  And there was a standing ovation and even just watching it through the screen. I was like, how was that? Oh, my gosh. I honestly didn't even realize at the time because I was still so nervous coming off stage. I still really struggle with my nerves in these moments of public speaking. So I was just like, you know, up there. And I'm not someone that...
• 3:48
  had like notes or anything on the screen. And I didn't realize that you could have notes on the screen. Like I just didn't really know that. So I had my slides and I'm just kind of like, you know, just chatting away per slide. And I just, yeah, I don't know. I didn't really notice until I saw the video and was like, Oh, that was so cool.
• 4:08
  But yeah, it was, it was so much fun before I go up onto those kind of, um, speaking public things. I always do a guided Wim Hof breathing exercise. And I feel like, you know, when people tell you to like meditate or something, and it's for me, I don't ever see like a, you know, pre-state and after-state it's like,
• 4:32
  Just I feel the same basically. And Wim Hof, there is a very clear before and after state. And I feel like every time I do it, I should do it every day. It's so good. But every time I do it, I'm literally so much more calm than what I would be if I didn't do it. Like with my nerves and anxiety. Have you done it before? Have you done any of these exercises? We had a stage of doing it every day.
• 4:57
  after work to kind of close off the work day oh that's nice it makes you kind of kind of dizzy as well it's really yeah the impact is crazy uh what do you use before going on stage i have to be lying down okay do you lie down and then do you use an app or do you use a youtube video or how do you do it
• 5:15
  So I was using the main YouTube video, but actually someone in Canada was telling me to download the app and you can also connect it to like an Apple Watch. And not that I wear an Apple Watch, but yeah, just so good. I'm like, what the heck? This is amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. And it's just funny how it's a very clear feeling and a very clear change in your body and your mind.
• 5:42
  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And so it's amazing to just build up this toolbox of things that you can dip into for moments like this, that you have that in your pocket and you don't need anything. Yeah. Just, you know, that video and the floor to lie on and you can tune into that feeling. It's so nice to learn these things. Yeah, honestly, it's so good. I highly recommend everyone try it. Like that and a daily cold shower is just bliss. Yeah.
• 6:14
  That's the key. That is the key. For our session today, we are going to structure it a little bit differently. I'm excited for this. We basically wanted it to come across like a bit of a one-on-one coaching session. So I am a early stage business founder coming to you with a couple of questions on a certain topic and that you come back to me as the coach or someone giving me advice.
• 6:40
  I'm excited. Yeah, I think it's going to be good. We thought for the first session, it could be cool to talk about personal branding just because I'm reading about it a lot at the moment. And I feel like, especially in the wake of AI and everything happening and the noise around that, it keeps coming up for me as the thing that will not be able to be copied. Yeah.
• 7:05
  kind of leaning into your personality, leaning into your personal brand is something that, you know, AI isn't necessarily going to be able to copy in the future. And the more that we lean into that, the more we can differentiate your brand and the more people will want to buy from you. And yeah, that concept in itself. So yeah.
• 7:25
  If you think about some of the biggest brands that we know today and the brands that are most successful, we think about the Kardashian brands. We think about Hailey Bieber with Rode, Selena Gomez with Rare Beauty. A huge part of that puzzle is obviously their personal brand. And the fact that we want to buy from that celebrity that just happens to also have a great product line out.
• 7:49
  Um, yeah, but I think it's important to remember that personal branding isn't just for celebrities and it comes up a lot in magic about the importance of getting your personal brand out there, the importance of having a face of your brand there and something for people to connect to because I think at the end of the day, consumers, we all want that authenticity and connection. And if we know we're buying directly from a person and impacting their life directly, that gives us a good feeling.
• 8:19
  And rather than this being something scary and kind of another list of on the things that you have to do in order to be a founder today, I think it could actually be framed as a really cool, good thing. People want to buy from you. That's great news. Now it's just about getting yourself out there and letting them get to know you instead of hiding in the shadows, which can be tempting. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It can. So yeah, actually.
• 8:48
  Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm excited. But you know what's really funny? Just on the topic of this AI thing, the other day I was playing around with my husband, PA, and we were using this tool where we basically uploaded all of the podcast episodes that I've done so that it created me as an AI voice and then we put in a script and then we put in a script.
• 9:09
  pretty good. Like it's pretty good. I was like, this is wild. It was a little bit American sounding. Like I think it kind of missed that I'm Australian somehow, even though I feel like I do have an Aussie accent, but we uploaded a couple and we were like, this is crazy for what it is with such a limited batch. But imagine if we uploaded all the episodes because I'm
• 9:33
  the intonations were a little funny and like there were just certain nuances to things that I would say that it didn't kind of catch on to. But I was like, this is so wild that this pretty much sounds like me. I mean, it is my voice. It's learning it off my voice. So weird.
• 9:51
  Wow. Anyway. That's incredible. It's kind of scary, right? To hear that coming back to you. Oh my God. It's so scary. Yeah. Well, not really because I think it's a particularly valuable one to ask you because you do have such a good personal branding yourself alongside Female Startup Club. And I think it's always been a conversation for us, kind of what will be on your personal page and what will be in your brand page. And I think,
• 10:14
  that's a good position to come from because you have Doom Machine and you also have Female Startup Club and a very clear connection between the two. So I think we will have some very valuable tidbits here for people that are listening. Are you all right to jump in? Yes, let's jump in. Where do you want to start? Yeah.
• 10:33
  So first question from me, I kind of want to come at it as someone who's pretty camera shy, just starting to get into business and starting to build my personal brand from really from zero. So at the moment, I barely use social media. I'm not comfortable in front of the camera. Are you sure I'm not just better off skipping this part and building my brand in the shadows where I'm a bit more comfortable considering I don't even have...
• 11:02
  a stage to start from.
• 11:05
  Yeah, I think, I mean, having a personal brand is really so powerful and it will continue to serve you, you know, throughout your career, throughout all the different kinds of things that you do. And so if you're able to find a way to get comfortable in kind of being more public or putting your opinion out there and like adding your voice into the mix, then it's definitely something that is going to be a powerful tool throughout your career. But I also think like,
• 11:34
  There's two trains of thought that I'm thinking right now. Like one, yes, there's definitely like the video side of social media when it comes to like TikTok and Reels and this kind of thing. But also I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn and LinkedIn is not the video front facing. It is just...
• 11:50
  you know, writing your thoughts. And I think LinkedIn has actually served me really well from the perspective of speaking engagements and that kind of thing. So I actually think if you're coming from a place of feeling really shy, you can even just start warming up by posting on LinkedIn and doing text-based content and developing your thoughts and opinions and the things that you want to talk about there as a starting point. But
• 12:15
  But when it comes to, you know, being camera shy, there are definitely tips that you can kind of, I guess, use or steal to help you get more comfy on camera.
• 12:30
  It's really important to remember that I was someone that was extremely shy on camera. I hated seeing myself on video. I hated hearing my voice. That to me was just an absolute disaster. And my mom was actually telling me the other day, I do not remember this, but she was saying that
• 12:50
  She was kind of like, I can't believe that you can get up on stage and talk in front of all these people. Because when I was little, she said she remembers I was learning German at school or something. And it was like pre-grade seven because we stopped learning in grade seven or something like that. And she was like, my German was actually good in a kind of setting with a teacher, like one-to-one. So I got selected to go to this other school to do some kind of like training.
• 13:13
  not a presentation, but something in front of the class where I had to stand in front of the class and do it. And she was like, you just, you couldn't do it. Like basically you ended up getting so flustered. You couldn't talk and you had to like sit down. She's like, you were always so shy and just so, even if it was a group of three people, like I wouldn't be able to stand in front of someone and try and like articulate something. Cause I was just so scared of public speaking. And so with that in mind,
• 13:38
  something that you can do and like what I did at the very beginning, two very practical tips. Number one is, I mean, first of all, you've got to decide if it is for you. You've got to actually want to strengthen that skill set because it is just like a muscle. You've got to flex and kind of continually be consistent with growing and kind of just go on the learning journey. Because if you don't want to do that, then of course it's going to be even harder. And you probably should focus your efforts on something that you want to be kind of
• 14:07
  Good at, but keeping kind of on the track that that's what you want, you want to be able to show up and post videos and tell your story and talk about the topics that matter to you. What I was doing in the very beginning was, because I hated hearing my voice, like with such a passion, I started listening.
• 14:25
  like WhatsApp voice noting all my friends instead of texting so that I would like send something in the voice note for like 20 seconds or a minute or whatever. And then I would listen to it back and be like, oh my God. But by the time you do that, like 30 times, then you're actually like, oh, okay, well now I'm more comfortable hearing my voice. It's not such a shock to like hear how I speak every time. So that got me a little bit more comfortable. And that was, you know, specifically for the podcast side of things. Cause I was, I really struggled to listen to
• 14:55
  And the second thing that I recommend people, and I can't remember who said it on the show, but someone recommended this on the show. And I think it's such a great tip. And I now tell everyone to do this. If you want to be like on camera and you want to do the TikTok thing or the Instagram reels thing,
• 15:11
  You can start just by taking the pressure off and saying, okay, I'm going to set myself a goal of doing 30 videos or 50 videos or however many it is. And I'm not ever going to post these. They're never going to see the light of day. I'm just going to get really, really comfortable with seeing my face on camera and kind of trying out new styles and seeing what works for me and how I can get into a groove. Yeah.
• 15:34
  when I'm doing these kind of like video content pieces, but the pressure isn't there. You save them to your drafts. And, you know, who knows? Maybe you might be like, these are great. I'm absolutely going to post them. Or you might just be like, cool, yep, it took me 30 goes to get into a place where I feel comfortable now to post these. But eventually you get there. And I think even for me, like if you scroll back to my original videos,
• 15:59
  on TikTok. First of all, they were terrible. Second of all, I was never speaking. I was only ever kind of like smiling and I would put a voiceover on because I wasn't able to like, I just didn't have the confidence to kind of talk to the camera as well as kind of like be on the camera. It was all too much. And you can also see the evolution of my content. Like it's really, really bad. It's really, really bad. And there's like hundreds of videos that literally just suck. And then you see the switching point where I'm,
• 16:25
  Like you can see that my videos don't look very good. The lighting's not great. You can see why they're not entertaining. And then when I switched my style, but of course it was just like consistently being like, I am going to show up and I'm going to figure it out. And I think the reality is like most people aren't born just being like, yeah, amazing. I'm going to nail being on camera and, you know, getting good at this. It just takes practice. And if it's something that you really want to do and you want to have that kind of
• 16:53
  toolbox for yourself over the course of your career. It's just, it's literally being like practice consistently showing up and trying.
• 17:04
  Yeah, and I suppose it's good transferable skills as well. When you get comfortable with that, that will transfer into other areas of your career, like talking at events or talking at a panel or anything like that. And I guess there's a reason that TikTok has its little archive button that you can create the videos and not kind of actively post them and show them to everyone. Exactly. Exactly.
• 17:28
  And they also say, kind of last note on that one, that if your first version of something that you put out isn't awful, at least on hindsight, then you started way too late. And I love that idea. 100%. Yeah. Yeah.
• 17:43
  I also think like when you take someone on a journey and like, I'll give you an example for the podcast and you might even remember this too, but in the beginning I was so shy and so nervous. You can hear it in my voice, like in the early episodes, I'm just like not very confident interviewing because I didn't have that skillset yet. I still needed to develop that. And it wasn't until around episode 70 that I started feeling more confident in my ability to have...
• 18:10
  interesting conversation and kind of more back and forth and like being able to dig into certain topics with the people who are coming on the show. And then I also started getting that feedback in my DMs. People were starting to be like, Hey, I've listened from the beginning. It's really amazing to hear kind of your confidence come in and how you've kind of just basically improved over time because I didn't give up. And, you know, that's just
• 18:37
  it's just, it's important to remember that you've just got to keep on going and like stick with it. And over time there's a journey and people, I think that builds like trust with people and people appreciate the authenticity of being like, yeah, like, cool. I'm nervous, but like, I'm here because, you know, I want to use my voice and I have something to say. And, you know, there's a lot of respect in being part of that journey with someone else as well.
• 19:05
  Yeah, I think on that point of I have something to say, I think for a lot of kind of early stage business owners, and if I would think about myself in that position, I think that
• 19:16
  it can maybe be difficult to feel like you do have something to say or like you have an authority, especially when you're first starting up and you know that there's the importance to get your message out there and to build this personal brand. At the same time, you're very early stages of the business and maybe you feel like, you know, who wants to hear this or who's waiting for this or...
• 19:37
  you know, what's the purpose of this idea? Do you have any tips for that, for kind of building that confidence to get out there or how you can build maybe a bit of an expertise or whether that's just a fake it until you make it kind of thing? It feels very daunting, that first step.
• 19:54
  Yeah, gosh, I don't know if I have a specific tip. For me, I just didn't look at the numbers. I wasn't like someone who was being like, oh, you know, did this work or not work or things like that. I was just kind of like, well, I'm just going to try and, you know, put things out there. And I think when you are building a business, you're obviously an expert in the kind of subject matter and the niche and the category that you're building in. And you certainly know a million times more than, you know,
• 20:22
  someone else who has no idea about that industry. So I think it's like easy to have this feeling of like, oh, I don't know and I'm not the expert. And even today I still have those feelings about certain things and I'm like, oh, yeah. But you've just got to remind yourself that that's like an inner dialogue that's like working against you and you just have to –
• 20:42
  force yourself to consistently show up and be like, I do know, like, and maybe it's a mantra that you repeat to yourself or stick it on a post-it note on your mirror or something and be like, I do know this. Like I am the fucking expert. This is amazing. I'm going to get out there and like say what I have to say. So yeah, I don't know where I was going to wrap that up, but yeah. Yeah. The idea that, that no one has a story is obviously,
• 21:07
  Yeah, of course that's intrusive thoughts because there's a reason that you're starting a company. Yeah. There's a why behind that. There's a force behind that. So everyone has a story to tell. Exactly. Everyone has a story to tell and everyone has subject matter expertise. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And we forget how interesting some of these behind the scenes moments are. Things that we do every day or that a business owner might do every day and you think,
• 21:33
  oh, no one's going to find this interesting, la-di-la-di-da, to like your average person scrolling on TikTok. That's exactly what they want to see. That's super interesting to just get a peek into someone else's life and it's this thing that you've never seen before. It's all about perspective, really. A hundred percent.
• 21:50
  And I think as well, what can happen is because you're in a certain industry or something like that, you're kind of in an echo chamber where you're like, oh, like everyone's already doing this or, you know, this is just, I'm constantly seeing people who are doing the same thing as me. But what you forget is there are the millions and millions and millions and billions of people who also are not part of, you know, that industry. Like if you're a beauty founder, you're probably seeing a lot of other beauty founders and a lot of other beauty content, but
• 22:15
  You know, the person who is over there and in a totally different industry, but just is interested in beauty, who still loves your story and still would love to see behind the scenes and know kind of your why and why you're doing what you're doing, because they're not necessarily the expert and they're not saturated in all of that kind of content. So you've got to just kind of think outside of your bubble and what you're surrounded in. Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 22:41
  That kind of brings me to my last question, actually, which is all around how you make this personal brand stand out. And we touched on it just now that some of these markets are very saturated. I think the idea of, you know, a founder being a founder forward brand, that's also becoming quite a busy space now. And is there something you think you can do in particular that makes you stand out in that market or that makes you...
• 23:09
  kind of, yeah, have a stronger hook or stand out from the rest or what can be a compelling story when that's just the way that it's going? I think the compelling story is like, and this sounds so cheesy and so cliche, but it is really all about you as a person. It's your personality. It's your quirks. It's just like showing up as a,
• 23:31
  just the real you because no one else can replicate the real you. And so whatever your lived experiences are, whatever the weird things that you can weave in, the obscurity or the interesting kind of things that you've done or whatever it might be, all of those things,
• 23:48
  quirks and stories. They shape who you are as a creator or as someone building a profile online. And that's what you should lean into. You should lean into the stories that you feel vulnerable sharing. I used to be so embarrassed talking about my childhood, whereas finally, years into Female Saddle Club, I was like, well, wait a second, maybe that story is actually what shapes who I am. And it's...
• 24:11
  helps an audience understand me better. And so if I can share those stories about my childhood and my upbringing, then people will be able to connect with me on that deeper level. And I think that
• 24:23
  Of course, it can feel daunting putting something out there that you're, yeah, you know, you might feel insecure about or vulnerable. But then when you kind of add all these things together, that's what shapes your personality online and who you are online with your personal brand. So kind of thinking through what's your weird and wonderful things that you can add or what's a fresh perspective? What's the contrarian view that you have against, you know, all these other people who have a totally different worldviews?
• 24:50
  And I think, yeah, that's, it's kind of cliche saying that you should just be yourself, but I think you really should just be yourself. And yeah.
• 25:00
  put all of that out there because eventually you're going to find someone else who kind of either believes in your mission or believes in you or has a similar worldview and is like then connected to you from that perspective of what your worldview is or what your kind of messages that you're putting out there online. And then from a practical point of view, I think like the reality with social media is you've just got to try things. You've got to test different ideas,
• 25:30
  get yourself out there and basically just try. And like, I think, I think it was Monica Groney in her episode on the show where she was talking about, she couldn't afford to work with influencers or whatever it was. So she decided to celebritize herself on Instagram and basically build a personal brand. And of course it's just because she started trying, she started trying different content styles and different content series and like found something that worked and just ran with it. And yeah,
• 25:56
  Yeah, that's a really powerful example of how, you know, she started the year at 3,000 followers on her personal Instagram and ended the same year 2023 with like 180,000 followers or whatever it is, because she just was like, you know what, I'm going to go for it. And you've got to kind of.
• 26:13
  get into the groove of what works for you. And it might not be face to camera, kind of like talking to the screen. It might be, you know, what she did, which was just recording everything that she did in a day. And then at the end of the day, sitting on the couch, stitching it all together and doing a voiceover. So trying different types of content and finding that kind of message that resonates with an audience about what you want to put out there.
• 26:35
  Oh, I love that. Yeah, and what way to differentiate because there is literally only you out there that can create that story. So if you stay true to that, you're automatically also completely differentiating your personal brand and your brand along with that. Absolutely. And I think you also said, you mentioned something about becoming like an authority or maybe not feeling like you are the authority yet. And I guess it is that, it is kind of that, not fake it till you make it. I don't really love that saying, but it's kind of like,
• 27:05
  be the authority, just like step into this role that you want to be. And, you know, from day one, talk about these things because you, you are the authority. You do know, you know, more than I would know on X, Y, Z topic. So like, just step into that role and just be who you want to be basically.
• 27:23
  Oh, I love that. Absolutely. Yeah. To make anyone else believe that you first have to believe that yourself. It's a bit like the idea of acting like your promotion before getting the promotion itself. You know what I mean? And dress for like the person that you want to be. Yeah.
• 27:41
  Exactly. Oh, I love that. Thank you so much. I mean, you've inspired me to go out there and start and start building my personal brand. Yes, you should. Yeah. And I think that's super valuable stuff. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that's the pod. That's the pod. Love this. Catch you next week. Catch you next week.
• 28:05
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 28:30
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• 28:52
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