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Lessons From Discover Your Personal Brand Conference – The All Star Panel

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This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak again at the Discover Your Personal Brand Conference.  DYPB 2016 was different from 2014 in a number of ways.

The focus was more toward small business and the caliber of speaker, panels and attendees was awesome. There were many inspiring young Canadians in attendance that really gave me a lift about the future of our country. All held within the back drop of Telus’ state of the art office in downtown Toronto, an environmental LEED building, bursting with technology and balanced with space and light.

The opportunity to attend conferences is always a big investment, even if its local so it was great to get such a rich experience. 

After introductions from the motivating conference organizer and founder Bobby Umar and keynotes from the always excellent Mark Bowden and inspiring Real Food for Real Kids founder Lulu Cohen-Farnell the highlight of the first evening for me was the Personal Brand Leadership All Star Panel. They were;

Cameron Gordon, Head of Communications, Twitter – Moderator
Erin Bury, Managing Director at 88 Creative
Jennifer Ettinger, Founder & President at Fit Your Style
Jagmeet Singh, MPP, ONDP Deputy Leader
Bobby Umar, Founder, Raeallan & DYPB

Full bios and more details on the schedule http://www.dypb.ca/schedule/ and other speakers can be found here http://www.dypb.ca/speakers/ 

Here is a Summary of the questions and panel answers;

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Get Noticed And Appreciated By Your Boss With These 7 Personal Brand Exercises

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It is critical to your success that others know about your personal brand and what it stands for, here are 7 ways to help you do that.

Jane was a Senior VP at one of the banks. She had been there for 15 years with regular career moves and promotions.  Now she was frustrated because  her last performance review made her realize that her desired promotion to the C-suite was blocked.

She came to me for coaching and we soon determined the reason why she was not being considered for this key move. She was invisible. Not to her colleagues or boss in the local office but to the people making the C-level decisions in New York.  The solution was clear. We had to raise her profile in New York even though she was not based there.

We put in place an action plan to raise her credibility and visibility with the decision makers.  Within 9 months she was promoted to the CFO role.

This was a classic case of the right people not knowing about Jane and her personal brand. This may be the very reason that you too are not progressing in your career or getting invited to join the latest project or team. More of the ‘right’ people need to know about your personal brand.

Here are 7 key things about your personal brand that you need to ensure everyone (who matters) knows about you;

Read More »Get Noticed And Appreciated By Your Boss With These 7 Personal Brand Exercises

Lead, Be Free, Find Success at Work

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If you feel like a square peg in a round hole at the office, like the person who believes collaboration will lead to more success than competition, like people and passion come before transactions, and that your experience at the office can be different, then keep reading.

I’ve been invited to join an amazing lineup of experts who have come together to share their knowledge and strategies for how work can be done differently – both for you as an individual and for your company.

The Corporate Rebel Series is free interview training series for professionals who want to lead, be free, and find success at work – all at the same time.

It all kicks off tomorrow (June 15th) And guess what? (This is the awesome part!)

It’s free to join. Grab your spot here. 

This training series is for you if…..

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10 Personal Brand Tactics to Ensure That Next Promotion

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30 years ago you were told to expect to work for one employer for life,
20 years ago you were told to plan for extra leisure time because of automation, 10 years ago one quarter of the new jobs being created had never existed previously.

Now graduates are told to expect to be back at school every decade to retrain.

NEWSFLASH: The world of work is changing. Forever. Always.

We have been hearing human resource, organizational development and career guru’s telling us that for years. Gone are the days when ‘Personnel’ came and tapped you on the shoulder and told you about your next career move.

“You can no longer rely on anyone for your career, except YOU” 
Paul Copcutt

Once you make it to the next promotion, there are on-boarding programs, online courses and books, like “The First 90 Days” to help.

But what about before all that happens?

Read More »10 Personal Brand Tactics to Ensure That Next Promotion

7 Steps to Making Your Personal Brand Irresistible

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My Dad had a huge love of genealogy and, tracked down distant family members, wrote letters and, visited local churches for old records of births, baptism’s marriages and deaths. He did it all the old fashioned way without the internet. His legacy is that I have his handwritten, 42 foot long , family tree.

He loved nothing more than to welcome a visitor to his home village and, take them to meet all the relatives – in the local graveyard!  Then he would invite the visitor back for a strong cup of English tea, pulling out the family tree and recall stories of Aunt Edith’s love of a shot of gin or the size of Uncle Bert’s nose, which I swore got bigger every time the story was told!

He was telling their stories, who they were, what they did and what they stood for. If someone were to do the same about you, what would they say?

Your challenge is that you may not be the best person to tell your personal brand story.

If I were to ask you right now to tell me what your personal brand is, how confident would you be of doing yourself justice?

7 Steps to Building Your Personal Brand Story

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6 Surefire Strategies to Survive in Your Career – and MAKE IT!

Today, October 21st 2015, is the actual date that Marty McFly arrived in ‘Back to the Future II’. A number of predictions in the films have come to fruition – such as wearable technology, video calls, hands free gaming, tablets and fingerprint recognition. Of course a few have not. We can never guess it all. Although we know little about Marty McFly’s career aspirations 30 years in the future, we do… Read More »6 Surefire Strategies to Survive in Your Career – and MAKE IT!

10 Ways To Display Your Talents At Work Without Feeling Sleazy, or Brash!

In a conversation with a senior management client it was interesting to observe that even with their list of impressive and significant accomplishments they were very reluctant to talk about them, even admit them and certainly not willing to put them down on paper or share them as a way of promoting themselves at work. And this was even though they were looking for that next project or promotion. Working… Read More »10 Ways To Display Your Talents At Work Without Feeling Sleazy, or Brash!

Finally building your personal brand through great recommendations. Problem solved

“92% of respondents reported that a positive recommendation from a friend, family member, or someone they trust is the biggest influence on whether they buy a product or service.”  Paul Rand Online reviews are becoming the default place for us to check up on a hotel, airline or new restaurant. When we travel, we first check to see what others have experienced .  Several surveys identify that almost 9 out of 10 of… Read More »Finally building your personal brand through great recommendations. Problem solved

Top 5 Steps to Review If Your Personal Brand Needs to Go Back to School

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school” Albert Einstein This week sees the return to school for children here in Canada. I am especially grateful as my two have returned to education here after a year in Bermuda. For many there is a mix of excitement, trepidation and relief – and that is just the parents! It used to be all about learning… Read More »Top 5 Steps to Review If Your Personal Brand Needs to Go Back to School

Why Do Women Underestimate Themselves?

As the year unfolds and my focus on women clients increases my reticular activating system (RAS) is kicking in. And the subject of ‘underestimation’ keeps coming up.   I am not sure I am able to answer this. Even Sheryl Sandberg in her book Lean In admits on many occasions that she was ‘guilty’ of this. And that is coming from a woman once voted the 5th most influential woman… Read More »Why Do Women Underestimate Themselves?