EP 13 The Power of Personal Branding for Administrative Professionals with David Coslett

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In this episode hosts Craig Bryson and Jodie Mears dive into the power of personal branding for administrative professionals. They discuss the importance of assistants developing a strong personal brand, provide guidelines on how to do so effectively and share compelling reasons why it matters for career growth and success.

The conversation covers how personal branding reflects your online reputation, helps you stand out and showcase your unique skills, builds credibility and trust, and enables you to connect with others by sharing your authentic experiences. Craig and Jodie also touch on how a well-crafted personal brand can position you as an influencer at work, aid in networking, and give you a competitive edge in the job market.

They offer practical tips such as choosing the right social media platform for your goals and audience, sharing valuable content reflecting your distinct voice, and engaging with others' content to inspire your creativity.

The episode also features a listener question on where to begin with personal branding, with guest expert David Coslett providing insightful advice on platform selection, authenticity, and delivering value to your target audience.

Our listener question "Where should you begin with personal branding"? is expertly answered by David Coslett- Marketing Director of Hello Social


Value Bombs

"Your personal branding is connecting with others through your lived experience. It adds credibility to the things we share on LinkedIn" - Jodie Mears

"If you think and feel it's wrong, do it. It's you that's stopping you. It's what you've been programmed, that it's wrong. If it feels uncomfortable, then it's the right thing to do." - Craig Bryson

Chapters

• 0:00 The Power of Personal Branding
• 12:05 Empowerment Through Personal Branding
• 27:20 Leveraging Learning for Career Advancements

Transcript

Craig: 0:00

This episode was brought to you by Autograph Events, our sponsor.

Jodie: 0:23

Thank you for tuning in to the Crowdy Files. I'm Craig Bryson and I'm Jodie Mears and together we are the Crowdy Files. Welcome to our next episode the Power of Personal Branding for Administrative Professionals. In this episode we will be discussing the importance, the guidelines that we suggest and why it is important to work on your personal branding as an assistant. So you know I love this topic already.

Jodie: 1:03

Craig Me too, but I haven't always been a fan until I've come to understand it a bit more about personal branding. What's your take on it and how do you feel about it when someone says, Craig, you need to work on your personal branding?

Craig: 1:16

I started looking into personal branding back in 2008. I started going onto LinkedIn and created an account. I wanted to get out there and try and find more male EAs that I could actually work with. That's when the personal branding came in, and the information that I'm trying to get out there is it pick me or look at me or you're the best. That, for me, was really uncomfortable. What does that mean? Personal branding?

Jodie: 1:43

Was you even aware that it was personal branding?

Craig: 1:46

back in 2008? No, I didn't.

Jodie: 1:48

No, if we're talking about LinkedIn, because personal branding for me is it displays and it reflects your reputation online.

Speaker 3: 1:58

Yeah.

Jodie: 2:00

That's what personal branding is for me and you can't get away from it. Online social media you are giving off a persona. At the time when I joined LinkedIn because, again, that's what I associate personal branding with the social media of choice but, depending on what business you're in, all social media platform can be utilized for personal branding right and for your business or products or services. Yeah, when I think I joined LinkedIn around 2010 and I was always told oh, it's just a place where you put your online CV. If you're looking for a role, If you're looking for a job, you need to join LinkedIn. Yeah, a job, you need to join LinkedIn. And how far it has come since then.

Jodie: 2:49

Yet so many people still that have that opinion of platforms like LinkedIn for personal branding. When we think about what is personal branding and why we need it, I think, first and foremost, we need to. Well, I certainly think about what is your platform of choice based on your goal, what do you want to be doing and why do you want to use that platform? I now know it's definitely not the only thing LinkedIn provides. It's not just a recruitment pool, but once I started utilizing it properly and learning more about it, I've just come to love it and get into it and open up more and let my guard down and understand what my drivers are for sharing knowledge and working on my personal branding.

Craig: 3:37

Personal branding for me is showing people who I am, where I am coming from, my ethics, what skills I have and how I increase that. It's almost like having Coca-Cola. Coca-cola is around the world. That's exactly what you're going to be doing for yourself. You want to be able to be acknowledged as a trustworthy, great communicator and broadcasting, somebody who is looking for a person that could help them, and they look up to you as a mentor. That's what personal branding is, especially when you're going to networking environments and people go oh, there's Craig. Oh, I know who Craig is and it's easier to have that icebreaker. When you go into a meeting and go oh, craig's here, I feel more comfortable because I know what he's like.

Jodie: 4:29

You're getting yourself out there for people to understand who you're about and what you do and where you're coming from. Yeah, and I think as assistants, we run from personal branding because it's that word that has so many negative attachments to it or assumptions made by it that assistants are not seeing the need. Maybe. For why do I need to work on my personal branding? I have a job, I'm okay, I'm good, thanks, don't need to do anything like that. I don't need to show or tell a story, I don't want my public life out there, which I've heard a few times times or there thereabouts. But my reply to that is two things. You've been working on your personal branding, which kind of coincides with networking in a way, doesn't it? Because your networking brings it to life. You've been working on that probably since you were young and you never realized it. Like were you ever a member of Boy Scouts?

Craig: 5:24

Boy Scouts yeah.

Jodie: 5:25

Back in the day it was Girls.

Craig: 5:27

Brigade.

Jodie: 5:27

Boys, brigade, brownies, and you think of that's a networking situation, isn't it? And maybe Pen Pal.

Craig: 5:34

Yeah, I remember Pen Pal.

Jodie: 5:36

You had a friend that you would keep in contact with and you would make conversation with them. You're still giving off an element of personal branding in those situations. You're building connections, you're telling your lived experience through storytelling or letter sharing in pen situation. We have been doing it all this time anyway, why is it important for the assistants when assistants on, on the whole, the generalization is yes, all right. Yeah, we're the whole. The generalization is yes, all right. Yeah, we're the backbone of the office or the organization. We keep everyone together, we elevate and we're enablers, but we often at the back.

Speaker 3: 6:14

Yeah.

Jodie: 6:14

We can be leaders, but we often, if you do lead, you might lead from the back. Why do you think it is important that assistants in general should be or not so much need? You don't have to, but why do? Assistants should be aware of personal branding?

Craig: 6:35

I feel that the EAs tend to be behind the scenes, making the CEO or the exec look great. They never get the limelight. We need to be seen or heard. This is the reason why personal branding is really important. We're always supporting and trying to fix problems with the exec. It's about time that we start stepping forward and showing who we are. This is what we're about, this is my skills and this is what I can do. I think that's when we will be taken seriously and get a seat at the table to help us better the company as well. Execs tend to come to us to help solve problems. We always give them our advice and then they go on and do what we have suggested. I think it's about time that we should be able to use our own voice and step up.

Jodie: 7:26

Yeah, for me, from what you've just said, I can see the path where that personal branding will link to and if you are an assistant who wants to become more of that strategic assistant and find that pathway into other roles, working on your personal branding internally and externally is very much key. How are you presenting yourself? Personal branding, what's your executive presence like? That's your personal branding. How you carry yourself, how you speak, how you communicate that's all part of personal branding, isn't?

Craig: 8:05

it.

Jodie: 8:05

You're making a conscious decision to present yourself in a certain way that aligns with your goals or the organization goals. So it is important for me to work on my personal branding because it adds credibility to the things we share on LinkedIn. It adds credibility to the knowledge and validity really, so it builds trust If people can see and connect with your storytelling and experience. Sharing personal branding is connecting with others through your lived experience.

Craig: 8:47

I've become, within my working environment, more of an influencer. I find that the reception or the office manager would always come to me and say we were setting up this meeting system. Can I have you take a look at it and see how, from your perspective, how it would work? Take a look at it and see how, from your perspective, how it would work. Or catering has come and asked me for my advice and we're going to be serving food to these clients. What do you think? They all know me from my personal branding. I've become more of an influencer and people want my advice because they know that I'm trustworthy. They know that I speak my mind and I say it as it is and trust what I said. Look, take that and use that to help them achieve what they need to achieve. That's also another part of personal branding.

Jodie: 9:35

Definitely, and your power to network internally and externally on the same level.

Craig: 9:42

Yes.

Jodie: 9:42

With similar information and the ethos of just share the knowledge. Yeah, people will connect with you, naturally. Anyway, we mentioned, going back to the start, that joining linkedin back in the day was seen. Stand out and join linkedin. You must be looking for a new role, but personal branding does help with job searching and career progression as well.

Craig: 10:06

Yeah.

Jodie: 10:06

Because, as we know the hiring process, hr can delve into your online presence and check to see what's this person like outside of an office environment. That's where personal branding comes into play, professionally and personally your reputation.

Craig: 10:25

Definitely.

Jodie: 10:26

Is your personal brand but you still want to carry that through to your personal life. Because you still have that good reputation outside of an organization, it can really help stand out, especially in the competitive job market we're seeing at the moment, and it does increase your chances of getting hired, in my opinion, because there are absolute millions, gazillions amount of assistants out there how are you standing out?

Jodie: 10:57

are you keeping up with what's required and the pace at which things are moving within our industry, especially with all the the tech and tools available? I think it's becoming easier to get acquainted with personal branding than maybe what it used to be and just standing out. I think working on personal branding to stand out isn't a negative thing. It doesn't mean I'm showing off. It doesn't mean I'm bragging. Hi, look at me, me me.

Jodie: 11:28

We've had some high-cody questions and feedback about personal branding and we covered so much at the PA show where we had our amazing live episode.

Craig: 11:40

That was great.

Jodie: 11:40

All about oh my gosh, personal branding and the use of AI elevate and automate my gosh, personal branding and the use of AI, elevate and automate. So if you go back and listen to that episode, you will hear firsthand from our guests Amy Lester and Amelia Sordell, who just contributed amazingly to putting things into perspective and connecting the dots, for the why it all connects with assistance as well. Definitely.

Craig: 12:05

Another thing I wanted to share is how I got involved in the personal branding. I was asked to be a part of an association board of the association and one of the ideas was we were working on hashtag not just a girl's job and that went out quite a bit through social media. Through that my name kept on popping up because I'm not just a girl's job.

Craig: 12:29

I was approached by the Financial Times and also the Daily Mail to do an article about men doing women's position jobs like being a nurse, a male nurse or being a florist, and I fell under the category of being an executive assistant. That was really exciting. I was nervous. I thought, well, do I really want to be associated with that? My boss said to me you will regret it if you don't do it. And I had to get out of my comfort zone to be able to go to the studio, do the photo shoot, have the cameras, and it's overwhelming because you're normally behind the scenes.

Craig: 13:10

So, now you're in front of the scene and the camera. That was fun. I took it as it came. After that, I was approached by agencies. Oh, we think you'll be great with this company.

Jodie: 13:20

It does help a lot and that's how I am in the job now, from agencies approaching me by me being sort of out there and standing out from the crowd and backing up what you believe in as well. You believe in advocating for that cause, not just a girl's job, and highlighting to others that there are roles and industries that you can go into that don't necessarily align with bygone eras. That are okay. It's okay to want to be male and be an assistant, I agree, and you highlighting that only increased your visibility and your credibility. To be a self advocate yeah, and if you think to why that is important, if you're not willing to advocate for yourself, who else is going to wave the flag for you? Yeah, my mom would. Yeah, yeah, well, my dad still thinks I answer the phone and put people through on a switchboard so.

Speaker 3: 14:23

I'm not sure if I want my dad advocating for me.

Jodie: 14:26

But if not you, then who's going to do it?

Craig: 14:28

I agree.

Jodie: 14:29

Taking that leap. I mean it must have been uncomfortable. I remember just tiptoeing on LinkedIn a long time ago, thinking someone's actually going to see what I'm posting. It's really nerve wracking and you take on that split second decision to decide am I going to post what people want to see or am I going to post things that I truly believe in.

Craig: 14:53

Yeah, it's a big decision to make.

Jodie: 14:55

And you have that again split second decision, where you must have been in the studio thinking this doesn't feel right. I just want to get back to my emails. Can we just stop the whole thing? Yeah, I don't want to be a model on a superstar, I just want to go back to my emails. Can we just stop the whole thing? Yeah, I don't want to be a model on a superstar, I just want to go back to the office.

Craig: 15:09

Yeah, I've got so many emails building up in my inbox.

Jodie: 15:11

But then can you see, like the hamster wheel of continuous cycle that would have put you in and your boss is right, if you didn't do it you would have regretted it.

Craig: 15:21

Yeah.

Jodie: 15:21

And only talking then about the chances that you had and didn't take.

Craig: 15:27

I agree. I think you need to take that confidence and just get out there and just do it. What really made me or touched my heart was people would come to me and say oh, you're an inspiration. I wouldn't have been able to do that. I saw your article. I remember my boss coming back from a meeting is could you reschedule that please? I was like well, what happened? Well, all we talked about is you and the article she read the article on the train and how impressive it is.

Craig: 15:56

And why can't all EAs be like that? Oh, I'm sorry, it's like no, don't be sorry. Now we've got the pitch. And that was so inspirational because he was like really excited.

Jodie: 16:04

Yes, that's my EA got the pitch and that was so inspirational because he was like really excited. Yes, that's my ear, and you see how, initially, the fear of branching out and stepping outside of your comfort zone could have prevented you from that situation yeah you could have been your own worst enemy, definitely, and your own blocker. It's really a light bulb moment when you can identify that actually it's you. That's the problem.

Craig: 16:27

It is. It is your fault. You're overthinking.

Jodie: 16:30

It's your fault and that's okay, because it's very scary coming out of your comfort zone and doing something completely different. I couldn't have imagined me sitting here doing this with you today, even 18 months ago, I think. When we spoke about it, I said I'm not doing a podcast no way, absolute cringe right the way down my spine. But look at us now.

Craig: 16:54

Yeah, and the excitement that we get downloads. We will add 5,000 now. It's been great to have people listening to us and getting together with us.

Jodie: 17:04

It is, yeah, it's having that end goal of just sharing the knowledge, helping keep our profession alive, and talking about the sticking points, but also the achievements that are made and are seen and how to be visible with your story. Just then, your executive clung on to that moment of yeah, that's my EA, how your personal branding actually influenced a meeting in that moment and brought in a new conversation. Not only did you elevate yourself, your confidence, your validity, backing up what you're saying, but you also had a knock-on effect to him and his ego and helped the situation. So don't be scared of it, don't be scared of the word personal branding. It isn't showing off, it's definitely not bragging, it's self-advocacy. And if you're not going to do that for yourself, then who is? How are you going to stand out from a huge sea of people? Call it competition, if you want to, because in the job market it is competition.

Craig: 18:14

It comes down to who stands out, yeah, who is going above and beyond yeah, the people that see you want to get to know you and they want to ask for your advice and sharing those skills that you have. And how did you get there and how did you do this? I really enjoy inspiring other people the way I was inspired by other people that I saw. It's just passing on that confidence and trying to get other people to come out of their comfort zone.

Jodie: 18:47

What would be the best piece of advice that could even get someone out of the starting blocks who's an assistant, who currently thinks, oh gosh, no to personal branding, I can't be bothered with it. I don't have the time to be on LinkedIn every five minutes of the day. That's another one. What would be your top tip to get them out of the starting blocks?

Craig: 19:11

If you think and feel it's wrong, do it. It's you that's stopping you. It's what you've been programmed, that it's wrong. If it feels uncomfortable, then it's right thing to do.

Jodie: 19:25

So you feel the fear and do it anyway, like that book, definitely. And going back to what I was saying about, we have questions and conversations, even at networking events, that people ask us assistants namely, obviously ask us how do you do it all, how do you have time for it all? I really don't have the time to be sitting on LinkedIn or TikTok or whatever else you might use. What I've been thinking recently is the lack of knowledge and understanding that you don't need to be on the social media platforms that will elevate your personal brand every minute of the day. If you're noticing I'm on there every minute of the day, well, that means you're. I'm on there every minute of the day, well, that means you're on there as well, notice it, you're on there the same amount of time.

Jodie: 20:10

So you are there, you're lurking. So the lurkers, the ghost followers, they're curious, they're there, they're in the background, they're not engaging, they're not finding the time in inverted commas to engage with you or even give you a double tap to acknowledge your post. But let's circle back to I don't time.

Craig: 20:31

I understand when you have to write blogs and write newsletters and they don't have time for that, but I think baby steps and by making baby steps, if you see a post that you like and you're passionate about that, don't just do a thumbs up or make comments respond would start with a thumbs up start with a thumbs up yeah.

Craig: 20:50

And then I always like to make a comment saying I really agree, definitely, I would follow this. You need to start opening a communication channel. Engage, yeah, engage with it. Don't just go. Oh thumbs up, I think it's the engagement that will get you noticed as well.

Jodie: 21:08

And fuel your creativity. Everyone gets ideas from someone else. There's seldom very little people who will just come up with something out of the blue without having previously seen it or heard it or felt it previously from someone else. That's how we gain our knowledge, isn't it? Just through sharing it? Story reading, absorbing it will help you get creative. If you see posts you like, make sure you engage and take something away from those pieces of information, whatever they are, on any platform, and repurpose that Not saying copy or paste, and make your own post but think, oh, that was a good subject. Maybe I can then repurpose what Craig is saying in my way, in my style, in my voice, and turn it into something that's also worthwhile sharing. It has to be worthy of sharing.

Jodie: 22:09

it needs to add value yeah I don't like posts that I see that are just maybe like one sentence and you think, is that helping me in any shape or form or giving me any like extra knowledge? It's just creating more questions. That might be the reason why they did it. But choosing your platform is really important and how you use that platform right. The way I use Instagram is completely different to the way I use LinkedIn. Instagram, for me, is personal. I don't mix my professional journey with personal and vice versa. I wouldn't post anything too personal. I don't mix my professional journey with personal and vice versa. I wouldn't post anything too personal on LinkedIn. However, there needs to be elements of the real me on my posts, because that is part of me, that's part of my personal branding. But what I'm trying to say is, among all of the choices of the platforms that you have for social media, each one has their own purpose Pinterest, linkedin.

Craig: 23:10

TikTok.

Jodie: 23:11

Instagram, snapchat. They all have that kind of niche idea and way of using it. Pick your platform of choice, see how others are using it, put your voice, your tone, mixed in with your end goal. Wrap it up into really valuable, useful information and post that.

Craig: 23:34

Yeah, you want to post something that will inspire others to do the same, but be very careful of what you post, because once it's out there, you can never give it back, so be careful of that. We're going to have a quick break to have one of our contributors answer a HiCrodi question. We'll be right back, hi Crodi.

Jodie: 24:01

I've got a question With personal branding. Where should you begin? Hi Cody, I've got a question With personal branding where should you begin?

Speaker 3: 24:07

Hi Cody, thanks so much for asking me to help you answer this listener question. My name is David Coslett and most people I speak to struggle with marketing. They find it confusing. They don't know where to start. So we give you a plan that you can track that grows your revenue. We're based in the heart of Chesterfield.

Speaker 3: 24:23

So, to answer the question with personal branding, where should I begin? I think, really, it just comes from yourself, right, starting with a platform that works for you. Maybe LinkedIn, wherever your audience is based, could be Instagram for you, could be LinkedIn, could be something else. So choose a platform and then focus on that and just be really authentic. Your personal brand is you as an individual. It's your competitive advantage and you really want to share content. That's helpful. That's value add. I always talk about adding value with my content. So think about how can this help someone else. So if you're an admin assistant looking to be seen do more and stand out, you really want to provide value to those owners, the leaders that you're going to be helping, right, why is working with you helping them? Yeah, what can you do to make their life easier, faster, quicker, you know? Basically, to get more stuff done. That's really where you can help them. You know be super high achievers. So that would be my thoughts. Hopefully this is helpful, and if I can do anything else, let me know.

Jodie: 25:34

We're now going to get back into discussing this episode. Your personal branding is your unique skills, your way of telling it, your way of showing it, and it doesn't matter that we're executive assistants. Your posts are nothing like my posts and vice versa, and nothing like your posts.

Jodie: 25:53

Who's listening at the moment? Because it's my lived experience we're talking about the same thing. Yes, in the same way. No, which means there is room for all assistants to start their personal branding journey, because you are going to add value in your own unique way I totally agree so that was a good chat. I like that conversation because it can go on and on and again, circling back to our live episode. At the pa show, I learned so much. I am still learning every day. Are you about personal branding?

Craig: 26:26

It's so powerful. We met so many amazing, wonderful people as well.

Jodie: 26:30

We did so. Do keep in touch, let us know what strategies you implemented as a result of hearing either the live episode Elevate and Automate or this episode. Let us know what resonated with you, what you implemented and what changes you saw, because personal branding is a powerful tool for administrative professionals. Don't rule it out based on your own preconceived ideas or negative connotations to the word. Have a go, see where it leads you and by following tips, tricks and strategies, not only just discussed by us but by other influential people, particularly on LinkedIn, will only give you positive results.

Craig: 27:18

Thank you for listening. In our next episode we'll be talking about administrative assistance, leveraging learning for career advancements. Don't forget we do enjoy your high-crowdy questions coming in. You can check us out on craigandjodiecom all our socials so you know where to like, subscribe and get in touch.

Jodie: 27:40

That's right. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on your platform of choice. That's right. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on your platform of choice. Leave a five-star review where you can. It really helps us stay visible to you, our listener, and we'd love to hear your feedback, so just send us that email or HiCrowdy question today. I'm Craig Bryson and I'm Jodie Mears.

Craig: 27:58

And together we are the Crowdy Files. This episode was brought to you by Autograph Events, our sponsor.