Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 143: Valuable & Visible with Vanessa Errecarte

Transcript

Episode 143: Valuable & Visible with Vanessa Errecarte · What is Business Development?

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast, brought to you by
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  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello BD Pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Association podcast called what is Business Development?
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Folks, let me ask you this question. Are you tired?
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Have you done everything right? And everything else keeps getting
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: chosen and everybody else keeps getting chosen. But you if
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: you feel overlooked and don't know where to begin, well,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: this book and the author we're going to talk with today.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: The book is called Valuable and Visible, and it gives
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: you a clear, simple way to change that. Now, before
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: we get into that book, let me tell you about
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a book I always like to talk about in the show,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: and that's the Business Development Body of Knowledge. This is
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: the universal guide to the profession of business development. We
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: cover the full customer journey in this book so that
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: you have the competency as a business developer to start
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: you in the profession.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Or to.
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  Speaker 2: Also advance your profession in business development. We've had a
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  Speaker 2: lot of highly experienced folks that have read this book
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: and they found it was a huge contribution to advancing
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: their existing current business development and then once you're done
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: reading the book, go to the GBDA website at Gbdassociation
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: dot org to learn how you can get your Business
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Development Professional certification. Okay, now let's move on to our
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  Speaker 2: guest author and her book. It's called Valuable and Visible
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  Speaker 2: Redefining Personal Branding by Leading with Impact over Image. Now
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  Speaker 2: our guest is Vanessa Eric Carte and she's an award
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  Speaker 2: winning lecturer and marketing consultant who created and teaches one
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  Speaker 2: of the nation's only for credit NBA courses in personal
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  Speaker 2: Branding at UC Davis Graduate School of Management, along with
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  Speaker 2: an array of other popular marketing courses, and she has
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  Speaker 2: been twice named Teacher of the Year. And in her book,
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  Speaker 2: she teaches a different approach, a serviced first personal brand,
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  Speaker 2: where your ideas make you memorable, your clarity builds credibility,
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  Speaker 2: and your ideas get you noticed and chosen before you
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  Speaker 2: ever have to chase them. This is where most advice
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  Speaker 2: gets it wrong. The real problem isn't a lack of
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  Speaker 2: talent or ability. It's that you aren't memorable yet. And
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  Speaker 2: in today's AI driven digital world, where everything sounds polished
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  Speaker 2: in the same distinction, distinction is what drives memorability. No
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  Speaker 2: algorithm hacking, no performance, no self promotion required. Everyone says
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  Speaker 2: personal branding is about you. Well everyone is wrong, and
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  Speaker 2: here to teach us how we can all get this
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  Speaker 2: right is Vanessa Eric Harty. Welcome to the show. Vanessa.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to
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  Speaker 4: be here. I love your work and I am quite
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  Speaker 4: impressed you. Really that synopsis was one of the best
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  Speaker 4: that I have heard, so thank you very much. Well.
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  Speaker 2: I always try to do my best for my fellow
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  Speaker 2: BD authors, and thank you for bringing this book to
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  Speaker 2: the marketplace and to audiences that really could advance their
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  Speaker 2: profession and advance their wins in the business development profession
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  Speaker 2: by building a really strong brand. So tell everybody, how
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  Speaker 2: did you start in marketing and why did you write
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  Speaker 2: the book?
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  Speaker 3: Sure, so I started in marketing. I love it.
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  Speaker 4: I really always have wanted to do it, I guess
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  Speaker 4: I will tell you a funny story. I was in
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  Speaker 4: the marching band in high school and we were at
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  Speaker 4: a festival selling cookbooks to raise money for instruments I
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  Speaker 4: think or uniforms. I forget which one, and I set
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  Speaker 4: the record and cookbooks sold and I became addicted.
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  Speaker 3: It just felt easy for me.
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  Speaker 4: And my dad actually has his own sales rep company
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  Speaker 4: with high voltage connectors actually, and so I'd always seen
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  Speaker 4: him kind of out there being very entrepreneurial and you know,
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  Speaker 4: really using knowledge because he was trained as an engineer
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  Speaker 4: and so he really had this sales personnellity, but he
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  Speaker 4: used this knowledge to get his wins. And I started
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  Speaker 4: realizing that, you know, as I got older, when i'd like,
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  Speaker 4: you know, go along to trade shows or something like that,
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  Speaker 4: I started realizing like how knowledge based and impactful his
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  Speaker 4: selling was. Like once actually he got a patent based
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  Speaker 4: on something he drew on a napkin to make a deal, right,
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  Speaker 4: And it's I just really have always been fascinated by
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  Speaker 4: the different ways to sell. And I think that kind
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  Speaker 4: of hard sell that we're all used to, and now
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  Speaker 4: it's so prolific with influencers on the Internet and whatnot,
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  Speaker 4: it can get so exhausting, but I think there's so
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  Speaker 4: many other ways.
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  Speaker 3: So anyway, from a young age, I've.
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  Speaker 4: Just been surrounded by marketing and sales and it just
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  Speaker 4: my personality. I am an extrovert, you know. Plus I
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  Speaker 4: always said.
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  Speaker 3: During the pandemic please check on your extrovert of friends.
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  Speaker 3: We're not okay.
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  Speaker 4: So it just always was something I wanted to go into.
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  Speaker 4: So here I am, and I've been in marketing now
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  Speaker 4: for over twenty years.
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  Speaker 3: And then kind of midway through is.
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  Speaker 4: Called by the UC Datas Graduate School Management to see
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  Speaker 4: if I would teach classes in corporate branding and digital
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  Speaker 4: marketing because my consulting work, my business is concentrated kind
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  Speaker 4: of in those areas.
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  Speaker 2: Well. That's great, well, you know, and it really helps
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  Speaker 2: to have those role models as you're growing up and
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  Speaker 2: understand business development and you learn as you watch these things.
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  Speaker 2: But it's great to have somebody like you here who's
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  Speaker 2: been doing it for a lifetime now to show us
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  Speaker 2: how we could all advance our personal brand. So I
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  Speaker 2: can't wait to get into the contents of the book.
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  Speaker 2: So let's start off with key tactic number one or
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  Speaker 2: key takeaway number one from your book.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So, you.
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  Speaker 4: Know, I really got to this point where I when
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  Speaker 4: I explain this tactic, I really want to touch on
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  Speaker 4: this thing that I think a lot of people struggle with,
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  Speaker 4: which is what you said, this kind of invisibility in
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  Speaker 4: this polished AI world. And so what I realized right
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  Speaker 4: away is that when we put the word personal in
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  Speaker 4: front of branding, we get it all wrong.
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  Speaker 3: We forget what marketing is really about.
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  Speaker 4: That's why I actually said, you know, several years ago
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  Speaker 4: to my dean, like, can I make a class on
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  Speaker 4: personal branding? But base it on the things we know
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  Speaker 4: work the best in corporate branding and digital marketing? Right?
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  Speaker 4: And what we know about that is that we speak
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  Speaker 4: to the customer's desire, right. We speak to the offer,
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  Speaker 4: not the product, right. And so if I am the
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  Speaker 4: product as my own brand, I can tell you all
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  Speaker 4: of the accolades and awards I've gotten. I can tell
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  Speaker 4: you about all of my degrees I can. I can
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  Speaker 4: go and tell you. You know, I can talk about myself
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  Speaker 4: as long as you want me to. But you don't
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  Speaker 4: care that much, right, I mean, conversations interesting, small talks interesting.
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  Speaker 3: But what you really care about is what I can
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  Speaker 3: do to help you.
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  Speaker 4: And we know that in corporate branding, right, we all
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  Speaker 4: have that favorite thing that we need something for me
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  Speaker 4: it's running shoes. I have this one brand, this one model,
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  Speaker 4: and I think that at forty four years old, those
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  Speaker 4: shoes are going to keep me running for a very
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  Speaker 4: long time. They keep me comfortable. I don't get shin splints.
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  Speaker 4: I even think they make me a little bit faster. Right,
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  Speaker 4: so when I'm when I when they're worn out, I
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  Speaker 4: know exactly where I'm.
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  Speaker 2: Going to go.
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  Speaker 4: That's poll marketing. We know this, so we need to
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  Speaker 4: create that for ourselves, right. But I don't know the
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  Speaker 4: material in those shoes. I don't know what makes me
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  Speaker 4: feel like I'm running on pillows. I don't know, right,
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  Speaker 4: I don't care. I just care that they work for me,
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  Speaker 4: and I think they're going to add longevity to my running.
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  Speaker 3: So let's flip that to ourselves. Right.
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  Speaker 4: We always say, you know, elevator pitch and get in
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  Speaker 4: there and you know start you have thirty seconds. What
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  Speaker 4: are you going to make people know? And I'm just
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  Speaker 4: like Geez, I would press door open and want to
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  Speaker 4: get out of that elevator.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 4: Contrast that with something like, hey, you know, so when
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  Speaker 4: you lead your project management team, like, I just have
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  Speaker 4: a question about step too, because you know, when I've
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  Speaker 4: gone through step two before, I do all these things
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  Speaker 4: that product managers do, right, but I do step two
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  Speaker 4: a little differently. And what I notice about that is
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  Speaker 4: then it makes step four go smoother in a way
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  Speaker 4: that actually saves so much time and efficiency for the team,
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  Speaker 4: and I'm so passionate about bringing that to as many
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  Speaker 4: organizations as I can. And then the person's like, wait,
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  Speaker 4: what was your name again? Don't get off the elevator yet, right,
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  Speaker 4: But we're now speaking to the desire of that person
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  Speaker 4: that you know needs someone to figure out a different
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  Speaker 4: way of doing things. Right, So if your offer is
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  Speaker 4: on the other end and it's enticing that person to
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  Speaker 4: come toward you, you have to signal right away you
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  Speaker 4: know what you can teach or do for them, versus
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  Speaker 4: just introducing yourself for thirty seconds.
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  Speaker 3: And that's where we.
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  Speaker 4: Get things a little bit wrong, and that's where we
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  Speaker 4: become forgettable. On the feed and we all look the same.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, open LinkedIn right now, and you're going to
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  Speaker 4: get a lot of updates, a lot of milestones, a
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  Speaker 4: lot of day in the life. And that's forgettable when
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  Speaker 4: you get off the feed. But those shoes I just
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  Speaker 4: told you about, I remember them because they make me
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  Speaker 4: more comfortable. So then off the feed, I'm going to
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  Speaker 4: remember refer and again repeat.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so I really like how you're putting the
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  Speaker 2: audience first, your prospect first, and really dispensing with this
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  Speaker 2: whole notion of you have to hit them with your
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  Speaker 2: your pitch about what you can do or what your
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  Speaker 2: capabilities are, or my pet peeve when I meet people
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  Speaker 2: and I call them resume reciters, and that's all they do.
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  Speaker 2: And then there are some that just that's all they do.
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  Speaker 2: They just keep repeating and repeating their resumes to you.
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  Speaker 2: It's like, Okay, that's wonderful for you, but how can
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: we exchange value? And so I like how you're really
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  Speaker 2: volunteering that value right up front. I like how you
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  Speaker 2: start with the question and then what you're you're not
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  Speaker 2: necessarily asking the open end question for putting them on
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  Speaker 2: the spot and giving you an answer. It's to peak
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  Speaker 2: their curiosity about what special about Step two? Oh all right,
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  Speaker 2: so you do something in step two that's different than
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the folks that can probably save me
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  Speaker 2: a lot of time, effort, and misery. And step four.
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  Speaker 2: And so I really like how you're preempting this with
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  Speaker 2: the positioning of putting the audience first, the prospect first.
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  Speaker 2: Now let's move on to tactic number two if we could.
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  Speaker 4: M hm, sure, So you know audience first, and then
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  Speaker 4: how do we how do we build on that? Right,
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  Speaker 4: So if we if we picture that person, we can help.
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  Speaker 4: And you're putting the audience first, you want to create
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  Speaker 4: a signal, right, So Tony Robbins once said.
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  Speaker 3: Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is potential power. Action is power.
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  Speaker 4: And so he's taking this common thing that we all
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  Speaker 4: know and he's saying, I have a different approach. So
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  Speaker 4: we need to create that counterintuitive signal kind of like
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  Speaker 4: the step two, step foward thing. And that's kind of
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  Speaker 4: a theme, right, like, here's something I do differently. And
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  Speaker 4: once we have that signal, kind of like I say,
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  Speaker 4: everyone says personal branding is about you, everyone's wrong. A
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  Speaker 4: lot of what I say falls under that signal, right,
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  Speaker 4: But that signal is the scroll stopping thing. And once
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  Speaker 4: we have that theme, there's there's a plethora of things
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  Speaker 4: we can say under there. On social media. But that's
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  Speaker 4: also another problem because in twenty twenty six, we are
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  Speaker 4: under the false impression that social media takes care of
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  Speaker 4: it when it comes to personal branding, and social.
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  Speaker 3: Media is only part of it.
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  Speaker 4: So for a corporation, we have a whole funnel, and
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  Speaker 4: social media is usually where we discover new customers, then
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  Speaker 4: we want to funnel them to owned space online and
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  Speaker 4: that's usually the website. And as humans, we actually spend
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  Speaker 4: more than eight hours a day online on average in
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  Speaker 4: the US. Eight hours and three minutes is I think
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  Speaker 4: the exact average. And so yeah, and so if you're
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  Speaker 4: going to the bathroom, eating and sleeping, you know you're
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  Speaker 4: online more than you are in person.
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  Speaker 3: And in person.
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  Speaker 4: If I've enjoyed our conversation so far, immensely. But if
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: right now I got a text message from the police
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: department that said, come down to the police department. Your
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: identity has been stolen, I'd be like, Tony, I'm so sorry,
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: but I have to go right now. That's my most
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  Speaker 4: important thing to me. But online we don't care, right,
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  Speaker 4: We don't knit these things together.
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  Speaker 3: Most of us don't own our first and last name
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  Speaker 3: as a URL, you know.
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  Speaker 4: And if your name's common middle life, So then you
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  Speaker 4: need to build that website because then you want people
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  Speaker 4: to go discover more about you. And websites can be
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: very simple, you know, too much information actually delays conversion.
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  Speaker 3: The website is just your tool to.
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  Speaker 4: Get your own audience. Like here's a free guide if
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: you opt into this. We've all done this before, right,
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  Speaker 4: and it works.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 4: We get those emails, we get those phone numbers, and
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: then all of a sudden mark Zuckerberg and do whatever
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: he wants.
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  Speaker 3: With this algorithm, we have our own audience that we control,
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: and it's an intimate space.
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  Speaker 4: When someone sends you an email, for example, and you
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: leave your computer open and someone walks behind it, you're
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: going to feel more violated that they may have seen
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: a personal email compared to if you left a social
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  Speaker 4: media feed open. So also the closeness of the relationship
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  Speaker 4: in different digital spaces is important. And so that's the
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: second tactic really is create that online funnel. Because if
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  Speaker 4: you're I always say create thought leadership pieces on social media. Okay,
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  Speaker 4: post them on social media, and then take those same
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  Speaker 4: thought leadership posts like today, I'm going to teach you
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  Speaker 4: three steps how to do this.
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  Speaker 3: Right your signal, put.
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  Speaker 4: It on a blog section of your website, you know
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  Speaker 4: eventually and you can recycle this. Right, make a video
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  Speaker 4: lead in now you have something passively on YouTube, because
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: you have to have that to put on your website.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: Right as you start knitting all of these things together,
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  Speaker 4: you're covered online in a very simple funneled way, you know,
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  Speaker 4: So you want to make sure that you don't stop
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: at social media. You want to cover that whole funnel,
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: just like a corporation would do. Because in twenty twenty six,
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: with AI shrinking, so many jobs, so many things are
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: becoming product based.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I tell my students all the time, you want to
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  Speaker 3: be your own mini ceo out the gate, you know,
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  Speaker 3: knit together.
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  Speaker 4: Those few opportunities sooner, because maybe you won't get that
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: full time job, that traditional full time job. Maybe that's
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: the rare thing now, and these littler opportunities are the
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: common thing for business development. We're used to this, right,
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: We're used to this whole funnel, but the algorithms go
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  Speaker 4: a lot further personally, and so I think a lot
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  Speaker 4: of organizations with business development teams they also need to
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: be focused on how do I amplify my people, how
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: do I even give my people a section of the
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: website of our company to be thought leaders, right, because
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: this is very important.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: In April, end of April, I believe, did you see
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: that New York Times article where that Tim Cook's retiring
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: from Apple and they were saying that John Turnas is
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: favored as the next CEO.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Did you see that article?
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: Okay, yep, okay, And there is this one line in
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: it and it said John Turnas, Apple now has the
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: decide if they want another deft manager or an innovator,
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: and deft managers are great. They were actually kind of
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: tacitly implying that that's who Tim Cook was, right. Deft managers.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: We know they keep the profits going, they keep the
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: people happy. The engine runs really well with deft managers.
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  Speaker 4: But something that John Turnas did that that same article
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  Speaker 4: cited was, you know this three dot camera that is
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: fancy that we have on most of our phones. He
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: created the one dot camera on some of the phones. Right,
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: So now all of a sudden there's this product suite
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: because of one engineering innovation, and that kind of amongst
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: parents like me who have school age kids, one going
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: into junior high that needs a phone, we call it
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: the kid phone. Right.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: It's a little cheaper.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: You know, they know that they still have more of
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: a special phone coming in the future if they're very responsible, right,
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: And so to me, that's innovative.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: And to me, that sentence about.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: John Turnis shouldn't have said deft manager or innovator, it
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: should have said, and Apple's elevated if it says, and
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: and so is John Turnas.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: And so again, we need to create our repute. We
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: need to.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Control our reputation online because we don't know when those
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: moments come up, not only on social media, but that
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: whole ecosystem. So tactic number one teach give that value.
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  Speaker 4: Tactic number two, funnel that value everywhere so that you
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: can teach the internet who you are.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, a lot to unpack in tactic number two,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: And I like how you summarized one in two and Wow,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: so many different ways we could go with regard to
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: tactic number two. Let's start off with what you said
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: though about employee generated content and how it's really so
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: important for business developers. You know, back in the day,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: the real value that a business developer had that was
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: proprietary was your rolodex.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: It was your list of.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Contacts that you had and you built up over years
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: in the industry. And that's real value because these are
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: your partners, these are your prospects that you can leverage
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: when you move into a new role or even in
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: your existing role, and so cultivating those relationships was extremely
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: important and Now we've advanced into an environment where companies
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: now know that a company page does not get a
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: lot of impressions, it doesn't get a lot of engagements
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: in social media. But what does is employees, the personal profiles,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: particularly on LinkedIn, get a lot more impressions and engagement
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: than the company pages do. And companies are starting to
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: realize that they need to empower their employees to be
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: out there on social media and not just hitting the
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: like button or the comment button on the company post,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: but actually creating valuable training oriented contest. Now here's the
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: problem with some social media platforms. But let's just stick
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: with LinkedIn, which is the most prominent for B to
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: B and the folks that are probably listening to this
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: show the most. And LinkedIn is wonderful. I've used it
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: for a long time now, I think over twenty years.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: And the challenge is you only get one profile. It's
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: not like some of the other social media platforms where
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: you could set up multiple profiles and then that way
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: you can cultivate a brand around that individual profile. It's
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: still you. You just have different audiences that you can
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: cultivate around that brand. LinkedIn you can't. You can't just
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: say I'm going to do a post and it's just
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: going to be for business developers in my industry, and
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: then I'll do another one and it's just for people
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: that are maybe the economic buyer persona in my target market.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: You can't do that. So let's say a business developer
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: is working at a tech company. They want to build
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: their own personal brand. Should they be posting about business
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: development or should they be posting about their vertical? Because
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: they don't want to confuse their audience. And it seems
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: to me that the most important audience is not necessarily
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: other business developers, it's the vertical. What are your thoughts?
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I always say you want to think of your
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: primary audience as the people you want to help the most.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: So in this case, I would agree with you, because that's.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: Going to be the generating thing for them, right, unless
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: they're like looking for a promotion and then showing those
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: business development skills from time to time is going to
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: get a secondary audience of that, you know, recruit recruiter
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: on the in the organization to notice them and move
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: them up, right, But we can infuse those things into
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: that primary vertical. And so I always tell people, you know,
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: start with the one theme and then you can expand.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: And that's the beauty of the brand because when we
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: think about a corporate brand, if you had a brand
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: that's stuck to one thing and remain stagnant, we.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Would be very worried about that balance sheet.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Disney started with a mouse and an idea and a
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: few stories, right.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: If they had stopped there, we'd be worried about.
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: That balance sheet. The brand would not be around today.
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: Coca Cola started as a tonic right with you know,
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: now we have Coke zero, grows and changes. I always
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: use Joanna Gaines as a personal example. She you know,
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: flipped houses with her husband, right, and then all of
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: a sudden she said, I'm going to open a bakery.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: Make that make sense? And she did because she used
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: the esthetic.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: And so, you know, here's.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: Something that I think we struggle with because I'm on
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: the cusp of millennial and Gen X, and I think
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: millennials and above we were taught in school because I
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: teach this whole range in the NBA program from like
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: you know, entry level to executives, right, And I noticed
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: this is so prolific when you get millennials and older.
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: You're taught in school that business and personal are separate, right, and.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: You keep them separate and you're more successful.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: In fact, when my son was born, I was two
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: years into my business and things were going really well
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: and I didn't want to start over, so I never
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: took a maternity leave. And on day five of my
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: son's life, I went to this ADM meeting with a
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: client and the CEO is like, how are you doing?
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: And I'm like great, let's you know, looking at the agenda.
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: Let's get started, right, And he goes, has jack and
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: I'm like fine, and he goes, okay, is.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: He eating well?
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: I'm like yeah, is he sleeping? Well, yeah, he's great.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: All right, what's the first item? And the CEO stopped me.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: He goes, do you like your son? And I'm like, god,
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: I love him, And actually he didn't sleep well night
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: and I am worried he's not eating well.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: Blah blah blah blah blah.
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: Right, and he goes and I said, but I want
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: you to know I'm very prepared for this meeting. I'm
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: ready for what's ahead, so let's dive in. And he goes,
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: I just want you to know that I actually think that,
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: you know, I think higher of you that you're doing
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: this right, Like I think you're going to do a
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: better job for me because you're handling all of this right.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: But we weren't taught that way.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: Now, contrast that with gen Z and they grew up
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: on screens and.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: In person, okay, and so they.
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: Don't differentiate, and they're using LinkedIn in a different way.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: They are bringing in more of the personal, right. And
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: so well, your primary focus may be that vertical, and
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: that's great, don't be afraid to bring in a little
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: bit of.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: The other stuff.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: And I always say, don't be afraid of the story
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: leading just a couple of sentences, like for me, it
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: could be I'll never forget the day that a client
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: asked me if I actually liked my son, you know,
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: because then.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: It's like, ooh, that signals a.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: Human connection, you know, like Geico they make a lizard
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: do this work for them, but we're humans, so we
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: get the relatability off the bat, right.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: And so again, yes, focus on.
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: That vertical, knit that theme together under your signal, right,
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: but don't be afraid to go and expand a bit
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: because we expect.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: That of brands. Okay.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: So to summarize tactic number two. Then it's really weaving
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: your personal day to day perspectives into your personal brand
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: that reflects the needs of your audience, your target audience,
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: the vertical that you support.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: Okay, yes, and if you're ever confused, picture take yourself
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: away from it. And this is where we get it
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: wrong because we put personal in front of it, right.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: I'm like, what else can we call this. Put that
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: person that you're going to help, your your main target audience,
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: your avatar, put them in front of your face, picture them, right.
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: So let's go back to my running shoes. Okay, let's
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: say that I that you know, I'm in front of
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: Nike Space, right, and they do some really cool relatability
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: stuff with some of their athletes and spokespeople that make
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: me feel like, you know, I can be empowered to
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: do this too, right, And so what does that person
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: need to feel who you're helping that might be struggling,
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: and how can you add your relatability to make them
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: feel that? Because again, that's the offer, right, Like when
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: we go to buy a car, we're keeping our family safe,
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: we're showing that we've made it somewhere in life, and
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: we can afford something special we're helping the environment, whatever
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: it is. That's a big part of what we want
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: to show. And so what do you need to from
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: that relatability perspective show your audience too, And if you
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: think about it that way, you're just using corporate branding
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: tactics that we've used for years that just happen tocome
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: natural to the human. You know, a lot of people uncomfortable,
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: like in our generation and above, because they think it's
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: like too personal, but it's not.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: It is what has worked for years in corporate branding.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, great, well, in the last few minutes of the show,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: let's cover a tactic number three.
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: Sure, so then tactic number three is natural growth. So
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: you know, we are doing all this work to achieve something.
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: We're trying to achieve the sale, We're trying to achieve
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: the bottom line. And so what I always say is
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: we have a lab now when we think about social
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: media and the website and this whole internet funnel, and
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: most often as.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Individuals we ignore that lab.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: But in corporate branding, we look at how many clicks
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: is this getting compared to the other thing, and then
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: how many people follow through and actually click on a
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: deeper link. Right, and then we start thinking about our
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: engagement rate. For example, so if we were to line
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: up all our social media posts, a lot of people
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: think like, oh, I put my puppy in this post
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: and I got a lot of views. But that might
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: not have a lot of engagement because you know, I
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: didn't teach people about marketing. I just showed people my puppy, right,
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: And so I like to say, line up everything you've done,
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: start with social media, get LinkedIn premium, which most of
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: your audience probably has, and line up your posts and
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: it'll line them up based on views. Okay if you
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: have LinkedIn premium, But then you want to take the
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: actions like people who liked, shared, or commented, and you
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: want to add those up and just do simple math.
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: Divide the engagement actions, buy your views. That's going to
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: change the order of some of your posts. The puppy
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: posts are going to be normalized out of the equation.
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: And then you'll start to realize what are the things
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: that people respond to the best when I talk about them?
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: And that makes you better not only online but in
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: person too. It's like, ooh, people like this pitch. You know,
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: I focus a lot on the top line the tofu
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: the top of the funnel. I focus in my content
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: a lot of what you said in the introduction. If
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: you feel overlooked, it's because you're not memorable. It's because
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: you're not teaching people something that they remember, repeat and refer.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: That's something I found that geez. When I talk about that,
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: people perk up because they're like, oh, okay, I am
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: just giving updates online.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: I am just doing what everyone else is doing. Right.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: You don't even have to define that for yourself.
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: In twenty twenty six, I always tell my students if
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: you make a guess, you're missing something in the data, right,
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: And we have that personally too. So once we know
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: what people respond to the most, we do more of that.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: And then all of a sudden, let's say, you know,
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: and this is where the personal brand can grow into
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: the business. And for business development, it's a little different
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: because it's already nested within the business, right, But this
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: is where you see people that develop, you know, intellectual property,
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: like this is the topic of your book someday, this
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: is the topic of a paid workshop someday, you know,
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: and you can start really having the analytics to show
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: you where to go next. Should you want to monetize,
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: but I always say that third step, that part that's aspirational.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: So that's up to you.
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: But even if you don't monetize, this lab that I
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: told you about can be very useful to how you
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: speak to people day in and day out because you
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: can hone in on what you.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Know they like to hear.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: That's great, that's great. All right, So let me summarize
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: the top three takeaways. And again, folks, we're talking about
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Vanessa's book. It's called Valuable and Visible. Redefine personal Branding
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: by leading with impact over image. Okay, so Vanessa, let
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: me take a shot at the top three in summarizing them.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Tactic number one is address the audience from a position
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: of teaching, give them value and orient that towards the
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: signals or the trigger events that will cause them to
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: really associate who you are, your brand with the value
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: you bring and that pain point, that event that will
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: automatically trigger them to think of you. Tactic number two
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: show up with your best self on social media. Continue
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: that teaching, show the personal side, the human side, because
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: ultimately that's something that AI can't copy. And oriented towards
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: value in your vertical and teach, and then most importantly,
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: move those audience members off of social media onto your
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: own proprietary email list where then you can cultivate that
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: audience off of social media where you can control the brand.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: And then finally, look at your metrics. Look at those
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: engagement metrics, not so much the impressions, but look at
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: the engagement that you're getting from your audience, the questions
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: they're asking, the comments that they're making, and looking at
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: those key metrics so you can really understand what's working
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: and you don't have to guess on what to write next. Well, Vanessa,
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: we thank you for everything you've done to write this
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: book so we don't have to guess about what's next
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: in our personal brand. Vanessa, how can folks connect with you?
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Follow you and get a copy of your book? And again, folks,
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: the book is called Valueble Invisible.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, well, I practice what I preached.
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: So, Vanessa Ericardi dot com is my website spelled exactly
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: how my name is you know on the screen in
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: the show notes, and I have you know where.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Books are sold?
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: Is where this book is sold, so all those links
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: can be found. And it was it's interesting from a
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: business development perspective, because in the first two weeks after
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: it launched, it was a bestseller.
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: In business entrepreneurship.
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: And you know, Amazon decides what you're a bestseller in
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: right based on purchase patterns and what other people are doing.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: So I was pleased to see that because, like I said,
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: the entrepreneurial growth is very possible, you know with this.
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: So yeah, that's that's where you can find it. And
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: I'm so appreciative of you noticing it and you know, having.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: This discussion with me. You do such wonderful work.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Oh well, Vanessa, thank you for that, and thank you
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: for everything you're doing to teach the next generation of
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: business the developers at you see Davis and really sharing
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: your knowledge, your wisdom with the business development community. And
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: we can't wait to have you back again sometime soon
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: on the show. Thank you, Vanessa, Thank.
• 32:12
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• 32:20
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• 32:24
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• 32:28
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