How can revealing personal details on LinkedIn profiles, such as hobbies, beliefs, and values, help individuals in the legal and financial advisory fields stand out and connect with potential clients?
In this episode, Kerry is joined by Danielle Hughes from More Than Words Marketing as they dive into the power of personal branding on LinkedIn. They discuss how revealing personal details and sharing stories sets individuals apart and builds trust with clients in the legal and financial advisory fields. The conversation emphasizes the importance of authenticity, consistency, and vulnerability when creating a strong personal brand, and highlights the impact of engaging employees as brand ambassadors.
Join Kerry and Danielle and get ready for an engaging discussion on the art of personal branding and the role of LinkedIn in building thought leadership and connecting with potential clients.
Transcript
Episode 40 Standing Out on LinkedIn Person
Kerry: Welcome to the Carrie Barrett show, the go to podcast for leaders. Are you a founder, executive, or part of a dynamic team? Then you’re in the right place. I’m Carrie Barrett, your on camera confidence, public speaking, and delivery coach. Each week we dive into practical tips, insightful interviews, and engaging stories to help you communicate with confidence and lead with impact.
Kerry: Whether you’re in the boardroom or on the physical or digital stage, this podcast will help you elevate your presence. Let’s get started. Good morning. It’s great to have you here with me on the Carrie Barrett show. This sort of rainy dreary Thursday morning, at least it’s rainy and dreary in that New York, New Jersey tri state area.
Kerry: So you may notice that there is a name up on the bottom of the screen. Two names really. And there’s only one person in the studio. One of my favorite people, Danielle Hughes from more than words marketing is going to be joining us. In just a moment, if you don’t know Danielle and I’ll give you all of her contact information at the end she’ll, after she shares her amazing advice and stories and tips and tactics with us run out and check her out on LinkedIn and on Instagram, because not only is she delightful to connect with, but she also.
Kerry: Also has a great story and she shares a lot of great value and a lot of great insights and I promise you, you will love her. Actually, I can’t even remember how I met her. It’s been a while. We’ve worked together quite a bit. In fact, I’m going to ask her that when she joins us in the show, a little bit of a backstory.
Kerry: Story, so I’m stretching here for a second, and if you are joining us from the New York City area, you’ll be familiar with the story that I’m about to share with you. Danielle is living in a New York City apartment. She’s doing a house share with somebody who is. Pretty much a stranger at this point.
Kerry: They’re in their lobby trying to navigate their way up to her apartment right now, , so we’re keeping her out of the studio because we figured as soon as he brought her in, sure enough, the doorman would call and she would have to run down and get them. So as soon as they’re here. I am going to bring Danielle in and she will share her timely advice and strategy with you.
Kerry: If you do not know Danielle, as I mentioned, she’s the founder of More Than Words Marketing. In fact, she calls herself the chief personality officer and the creator of Her program, the personality brand, she teaches people how to bring basically more of themselves into their messaging. And that means into the video content they create into very specifically the copy that they create for landing pages, for sales pages, for emails, for social media, and how to work a little bit more of yourself.
Kerry: Otherwise known as your personality into that content. So not only are you able to authentically express who you are, and by the way, we’ll get into a little bit of what the word authentic means because I have a lot of questions about that myself, but clients of mine also wonder what authentic means because it has become a little bit maybe bastardized is the right word to use over the past year or so.
Kerry: It seems to have morphed into this catch all phrase. What does authentic actually mean? And anyway, we’re going to answer that question for you and then show you a little bit about how you can use it so that you stand out from the competition in a way that’s important to your client. Not just standing out for the sake of standing out, attract the right audience and repel the wrong one.
Kerry: And she has worked with amazing people, Google, PricewaterhouseCooper Discovery Channel, Gap. TD Bank, the list goes on and on. So as soon as she is here and ready to go, oh wait I see her gesturing wildly in the background. I think I’m going to bring her in now.
Danielle: Oh my God, let’s just go. I don’t know.
Danielle: They’re lost in New York City. Who knows? Where do you think they are? I don’t know if maybe they just dropped their luggage and turned right back around to go to the subway because they have 11 o’clock Center of Liberty tickets and I don’t know where they are near the Center of Liberty.
Danielle: Who knows? I don’t. I feel that way.
Kerry: I haven’t even been to the Statue of Liberty. That’s impressive.
Danielle: Oh, that’s so funny. I went for the first, not the first time to the Statue of Liberty, but the first time to Ellis Island over the summer, my brother and my nieces were in town and they wanted to do that.
Danielle: And I think I’d been to the Statue of Liberty as like a kid, but for some reason we never did Ellis Island probably because of the weather that day.
Kerry: It was awesome.
Danielle: I loved it. Was it
Kerry: awesome?
Danielle: Yeah. But I also think you appreciate everything as an adult that you dreaded as a child.
Danielle: Like I don’t want to learn.
Danielle: I don’t want history. Field trip
Kerry: to Ellis Island, the only thing remotely exciting about that would have been the fact that it’s a field trip.
Danielle: Correct. I
Kerry: understand its significance and what it means. We did the other day, another sort of random New York tourist thing, unless you use it as a commuter, which we didn’t use it as a tourist, tourist type situation.
Kerry: We took the tram over to Roosevelt Island. I thought the tram was going to be the highlight of the trip. It was actually going out and seeing like the smallpox hospital and the memorial that’s out there, right? Have you ever been out there?
Danielle: Yes. I used to play tennis on Roosevelt Island, but I always either took the subway or drove and I did the tram.
Danielle: Yeah. So now I feel let down that the tram won’t be the highlight, but
Kerry: yeah,
Danielle: it won’t be,
Kerry: sorry. I did not know there was a small
Danielle: box hospital there. That’s interesting.
Kerry: It’s all run down. It is just the facade now, but it looks like, it’s not, it’s definitely not a modern hospital. It’s beautiful.
Kerry: It’s all granite. It’s beautiful. Stone and marble and like it’s something to do if you’re in the parks out there are quite nice. Yes. Okay. Also a quick note, if it looks like I’m leaning sideways or I am not centered in my screen, it’s a bit of a different shot right over here, over my shoulder.
Kerry: There’s a bit of an office beatific. It’s not very beautiful right now. I’ll show you. There’s furniture piled up in the middle of my closet. Oh. Are you renovating your room? I think renovation is a bit grand. For what’s going on here.
Danielle: I couldn’t even look it up ’cause I don’t even know the first letter, but I’ve been saying it so much and I ask Siri or Google and they’re both like judges. I’m like, no, Z
Kerry: Sometimes they are both just demon bitches. . Yeah. They don’t listen. , listen. Don’t blame the women. Blame the men that program them.
Kerry: There you go. You know what? That’s a better message for the show. And really most of this was also about picking up those ginormous dust bunnies that had actually begun to sprout like family members underneath my couches and goldfish and crayons and all sorts of good stuff that you find. My goodness.
Kerry: Anyway, let’s jump into what we were actually here to talk about, which is you and what you do. And I was referencing how long ago we met the audience when the show first started. And it was years ago, but I don’t remember how exactly, but I know that when we were introduced, you were introduced to me as the chief personality officer and what was so intriguing about what you did is that you don’t.
Kerry: You teach people, even if they’re talking to a corporate audience, not to talk in that sort of, for lack of a better word, stale, stoic, traditional type of copy or writing or voice that we’re used to hearing. Part of that is about developing a strong, personal brand, but not just for you.
Kerry: It also applies to A corporate environment who may be looking to help their employees grow a personal brand or their lawyers grow a personal brand. But tell us, like from the outset why is this type of messaging important? And why is it important for corporations who may have heard a lot about personal branding, but think if they help their employees grow personal brands, it means they’re immediately going to leave.
Kerry: That’s not the case. It’s actually beneficial for the company, which is a very broad question, but it’s a good place to start.
Danielle: No, that’s okay. I love it. So yeah, I think that the short answer is that the landscape has evolved so much now. And it used to be that the only people that really needed a brand or a personal brand were entrepreneurs or solopreneurs like you and I, who are trying to stand out for ourselves and get the right types of clients and customers.
Danielle: And then let’s, but what started to happen is that LinkedIn as a platform. Oh, I think I hear luggage.
Kerry: Okay.
Danielle: I’m so sorry. Give me two seconds. Okay. You got it. I’m going to
Kerry: See you in a second. I knew this was going to happen. I knew this was going to happen as soon as I brought Danielle into the studio. That’s okay.
Kerry: She’ll be back in just a second. What I believe that she was about to jump into is that the idea of personal brand has changed over the course of the years. And it’s changed very specifically with the way that LinkedIn has encouraged employees. And business owners to change the way that they talk about themselves or their business or the company they work for online As I work with a lot of lawyers so i’ll use that example in this particular case as a lawyer or a managing partner or a founding partner or you know a CMO at a law firm You have a stable if you will Of brand ambassadors within the four walls of your business or your company or working remotely wherever they are that can create content that is It advances your company initiatives, your vision, your client acquisition, your business development, your message and not incentivizing them to do like not using all of your workforce as a, as brand ambassadors is. inefficient and ineffective. And the reason that I am particularly aware of this particular concept is because of my background in the news industry. And while we didn’t talk about it in terms of personal brand, each reporter, each anchor, each producer was highly encouraged, even though they weren’t saying it, Station on platforms to have a very strong social media following Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, especially for breaking news.
Kerry: But the reason is because each post, whether it’s business or news related or a personal post by a reporter and anchor or a producer, and I say producer because not even necessarily the consumer facing employees, i. e. the reporters and anchors. The news networks knew that a strong personal brand and a lot of personal content would drive investment and interest in the news organization itself.
Kerry: And so creating brand ambassadors, again, they didn’t use that word, but that’s essentially what they were doing through the social media of their employees became a very significant way of driving people towards their to watch their programming in an extremely competitive environment. If you know a little bit about the news industry, or you’ve heard me talk about it perhaps in the past, it is an industry that’s in a state of contraction, meaning that fewer people are watching, especially of a certain age demographic, i.
Kerry: e. younger. Those folks are not watching the news as much. And so getting eyeballs from those younger viewers or potential viewers in social media was a great way to drive them to the news program or whatever it was. Additionally, it also created an investment in that particular anchor. So if that, or reporter or that producer, if that person knew how to share their life story, Experiences in an authentic way with their personality, which by the way, personality is underpinning of any successful on air talent.
Kerry: In the news world and beyond, they knew how to share that effectively. They were going to get buy-in from their viewers. Their viewers were going to trust them more. Their viewers were going to find them credible or relatable. Memorable is certainly something that they were looking for as well. So my experience in the news organization underscores the importance of what Danielle is going to be talking about.
Kerry: Today in terms of how you use messaging, how you use personality to create an authentic brand for yourself, and then also how you leverage your employees and the people working within the four walls of your company to become brand ambassadors and speak about the business about themselves in a way that.
Kerry: Expands visibility, expands reach keeps you top of mind and creates a memorable experience for the viewer. And I think Danielle is back in front of the camera again. So I’m going to bring her a quick reminder. Don’t forget to drip, drop questions or comments in the chat. If I don’t get a chance to answer them or I don’t see them, I’ll make sure that I go back after the live stream and check them out.
Kerry: And so we’ll Danielle and welcome. Welcome back to
Danielle: the show. Listen, after four years of doing LinkedIn lives, Zooms, all the things, this is the first time that I’ve ever really had a hiccup. So I appreciate it. And I know, thank God it’s with someone who was on air talent for several decades, who’s I got this.
Danielle: I’ll just talk. The
Kerry: craziest story that I ever experienced with that. And then let’s hop back into what you’re talking about if I remember one time I was recording. I was not in the studio. I was out on scene and frankly, I don’t even remember what the story was. It wasn’t anything serious.
Kerry: It was more of a feature show than a morning show and there was a fire alarm in the station and everybody had to leave. And basically they just said in my ear, Carrie, we’re going to need you to stretch probably for at least 10 minutes because we all have to leave the building. So this, yeah, this, except I couldn’t see them because I was out in the studio.
Kerry: I just could hear them and I’m like, all right, I got it. Talk for 10 minutes straight. I have zero idea what I’m going to say. Oh my God. I was talking about the story, the weather. I grabbed people off the street that were walking by and started interviewing them randomly. Thank goodness for your willingness.
Kerry: I think what’s so
Danielle: funny is I think, it used to be when they told you that you couldn’t let the audience know, but I feel like in the, the past, like five, 10 years, I’ve seen people on air and be like, all right, I’ve been told we have to like, we’re not going to commercial just yet.
Danielle: Yeah, to be honest I’m going to try to fill this in, but yeah, great.
Kerry: It’s like process writing, right? Which is we’re going to let the view, it’s like breaking the fourth wall. If you hear that sometimes when you talk about entertainment content, it’s like, we’re not going to talk to the characters anymore.
Kerry: We’re going to talk to the audience and share some sort of behind the scenes thought bubble or something that normally would have gone unsaid. So anyway.
Danielle: Okay. So I remember exactly where I left off. It’s amazing. Okay. So it’s evolved, right? So the idea is like personal branding. evolved to corporate because LinkedIn is now a thought leadership platform.
Danielle: It’s not just or really is a job search platform at all. And so now you’ve got executives, senior leaders, people who haven’t been ignoring their LinkedIn because they’re not job searching and they don’t need another job. And I realize, wow, like I want to be posting. I want to be sharing thought leadership.
Danielle: I want to be commenting. I want to be active on behalf of myself and my organization. But I don’t want to do that because I don’t want anyone going to my profile because I’ve never really done anything with it. Yes. So now we have people who are saying, okay, this is a place for me to take ownership of my career history and my story and share what I want to share as opposed to a resume, which is just your laundry list of jobs and accomplishments.
Danielle: With your LinkedIn bio, I feel like this is the only place where you get to say, this is what’s important to me, about me for you and put that out there in the world. And to your point earlier, it’s not just helping them showcase their expertise. It does create a halo effect for the organization because when your Employees have strong bios.
Danielle: You’re attracting talent because everybody goes to LinkedIn now and they’re looking for a job and they want to see who’s working there. And if people have half assed unfilled out bios, it sends a signal that they don’t like their job or they don’t want to work there. And so you need people to create this ecosystem of showing up for themselves, but showing up on behalf of the company and talking about their accomplishments and what they do.
Danielle: And it definitely. Drives engagement inside the organization as well, because you feel like you can show up as yourself and you are valued and you are appreciated and you are seen and all of the things that we are all looking for right now.
Kerry: So it’s like it’s, and I, in doing some of the pre interview research, and I appreciate you sending me over some some of the data and statistics and we’ll get into that in just a second, but I know that you talk about a strong personal brand being a form of career insurance for the individual, but also.
Kerry: Creating strong personal brands in your employees and in the people that are around you is also a sort of a company type of brand insurance because you’re using based, I don’t like that word, but you’re leveraging or perhaps you’re getting
Danielle: ambassadors, your employees are your ambassadors.
Danielle: Yes, and I just want to give credit where credit is due. The strong personal brand is a form of career insurance from a HBR article. I did not make that up. I believe it’s Dori Clark. So just to give her credit, but it is a hundred percent true. And, if you Google personal brand now, it’s.
Danielle: It’s everywhere, right? It’s become a talking point. And, I like to call it a personality brand because I think personal means private. And I don’t feel like anybody should be sharing anything private if they don’t want to.
Danielle: But personality is how you connect with other people and that’s all the things about you.
Danielle: So I like to think of it in that terminology because it gives people boundaries of what they can share and what they don’t have to share.
Kerry: So when you’re working with some sort of corporate entity, whether it’s a law firm or, Columbia University or PricewaterhouseCooper, what sorts of mistakes, and I don’t mean Those organizations individually, but when they bring you in, what are some of the things that you almost always see that they’re doing incorrectly?
Kerry: And what are they bringing you in for? We realize we’re not our employees, aren’t brand ambassadors for the company or their bios are all messed. What is the impetus for the, what is the problem they bring you in to solve?
Danielle: I think it’s, I think it’s twofold. I think it’s The employees have never really been able to take the time to work on themselves or think about themselves in this way.
Danielle: And the organization wants to show that they are in support of that. But I think that the number one mistake most people make is all they do is they just share their title in the company. And they’ll give you like a one paragraph thing that sounds like it was pulled from their resume that talks about themselves in the third person that uses all the jargon and essentially doesn’t do anything to really help them stand out from anybody else.
Danielle: And it just sounds like most people just, and it’s not. It’s not most people’s fault. It is very hard to write about yourself, to talk about yourself. It’s, if I just had a nickel for every time someone’s I, why can’t I do this for everybody else, but I can’t do this for myself.
Danielle: I wouldn’t need to do this because it’s literally every single person. We have a hard time just stepping back and seeing what we do well. Talking about it in a way that doesn’t make us feel icky. Positioning it in a way that seems unique and even like just connecting the dots, for so many people it’s I did this and then I did this and then I did this and then I did this and it’s like sequential and, but nobody’s career story or life story is sequential.
Danielle: It’s what is the, really the through line? What, how do we connect the dots and how do we make it feel like you and not just The you that you think other people want you to be
Kerry: right. 100%. I know I’ll see somebody’s name and then underneath it, it will say, and I keep harping on lawyers.
Kerry: If you’re a lawyer watching, I know they’re going hard on you right now, but it’ll say, attorney that doesn’t. really tell the person who might have found you, or maybe needs an attorney what kind of law you do, or specifically why they would hire you. It’s an opportunity for them to move on.
Kerry: So instead of saying, lawyer or attorney, or, partner at so and In that specific area, let’s use as your LinkedIn profile, people should dive a little bit deeper into their own personality experience, how they help people. Is that essentially what you’re saying?
Danielle: It’s a combination of, we want to have specific keywords in there for your industry.
Danielle: So What type of law? What do you specialize in? What are the things people are going to be looking for if they are trying to find you, but you get 220 characters under your name, which is a lot. So it’s not only can you put, the type of law, your firm, specific keywords, give me something.
Danielle: What do you do on the weekends? Give me a fun hobby. Do you have a specific thing that you believe in? Are you a champion of leadership? Do you fight for the little person? Are you really into M and A and, or corporate mergers or, it’s okay to express. a little bit more of who you are especially with lawyers.
Danielle: If you’re working with people directly and not just organizations, because it’s such a relationship, it’s such a trust based model
Kerry: that I mean,
Danielle: you’re just coming off like everybody else. There’s no way for somebody to connect with you. There’s no trust built. You’re not connecting. And I think the same thing with like financial advisors or planners to anytime you’re going out or insurance brokers, you’re in the relationship business.
Danielle: And if you are portraying yourself like everybody else, it is really hard to build a relationship and connect with your potential customers. You’re not revealing some part of yourself. Yeah. So it doesn’t need to be a ton. Just give me a little nugget. Just tell me like. You know that you are a rock climber or, you love to read books or whatever it is, just give me something to start the conversation other than here’s my, all my credentials, which is great, but that doesn’t give me an inroad to start the conversation.
Kerry: Oh, absolutely. It’s like when you see a post that says, Here’s our latest blog and that’s the extent of the post. And it’s a stock image that doesn’t have anything. There’s nobody from the firm or the corporation or a client. And it’s those sorts of posts while there is some importance in sharing, whether it’s a case study or some particular nugget, it’s.
Kerry: It’s such a sort of tired formulaic way to do it. Get in there and write something that engages the audience that has your personality, that has a story. Somebody was talking to me the other day about why stories are so important. And the way that she phrased it was because when you’re telling a story, and in this case, using What you teach, which is infusing the story with your voice and your personality.
Kerry: It’s really the only time that our brain disengages from all of the other crap that’s going on around us and is able to listen and pay attention. Unencumbered. Yes. Would you agree with that?
Danielle: Yes.
Kerry: Yeah.
Danielle: And I think, like I always tell people, it’s like, how do you jar someone out of their stupor, right?
Danielle: . Because we’re so used to seeing things in a certain way or hearing things in a certain way, right? And I think about a networking meeting where everybody gets up and says, I’m so and and I do this. Yeah. And by the fourth person, nobody’s paying attention because your brain is like, this is repetitive and we’re just hardwired to tune it out.
Danielle: But if somebody stands up and it was like, how many times have you blah, blah, blah, all of a sudden your brain’s waiting, something different is happening. Yes. And you pay attention. And so I think that a lot of when I talk about personality branding, personal branding, it’s like, Yeah. What is that opener?
Danielle: What is that differentiator that’s just gonna get someone to be like, hold on a second. This is a little bit different. I need to learn more. It’s just a conversation starter. We’re not saying this is not your life story. This is not your full anything. How do you give someone enough information to be like me? I need to learn more.
Danielle: This person is compelling, interesting, etc.
Kerry: And one of the reasons it’s so important, I know that we’re coming up on time here and I give
Danielle: you a few extra minutes in my delay. I do have a car coming in like half an hour, but we’re fine. I know. Racing down the tarmac.
Kerry: Okay. Anyway, One of the things that you talk about, and I’ll run through some of the data and statistics that you that you sent over in your sort of pre-interview stuff, which is that businesses that have engaged employees report more than 40 percent less absenteeism, almost 20 percent increase in productivity.
Kerry: I think it’s 80 some odd percent of employers say that sourcing and retaining employees is their top priority. All of those things, creating engaged employees, worker productivity, retaining and sourcing employees, many of them, there is a piece of the puzzle that fits into those goals that has to do with messaging, social media, and LinkedIn.
Kerry: And so Tell if you can connect some of those dots for us. And in the interest of time, share with us how somebody in HR or somebody who is a managing partner can perhaps at least start the conversation with their employees or other managing partners about. leveraging their workforce as brand ambassadors through social media and using their own voice.
Kerry: Sure.
Danielle: And I think this goes back to, if people feel like they are valued, they’re going to do better work and be more invested in their work. So of course, if you tell people, we want you to show who you are, your thoughts are welcome, your diverse ways of thinking are welcome, who you are is welcome.
Danielle: It’s going to lead you to be happier where you work and more engaged with the work. And I also think this is about cultural fit. And I know that’s also a term that gets thrown around a lot. But the more that somebody can showcase who they are, the more likely they are to end up in the right environment for them.
Danielle: And, I think if you are. forcing everyone to fit in a box, they’re just Some people are going to flounder, right? Some people are going to do well because they might work well in that box and other people might say, I need more collaboration, or I prefer to work autonomously, or I need to like chit chat in the morning before I get started.
Danielle: And someone else is I just want to get down to work.
Kerry: Yeah, there’s
Danielle: The more somebody can be comfortable saying and taking ownership of these are the ways or the environments that I will work best in and thrive in, the more likely that company is going to have success because they are either creating the environment to support that or finding the people to fit the environment that they already have.
Kerry: And
Danielle: So from a leadership perspective, it has to start at the top, right? And the leaders have to say, okay, how do we show up authentically? And I know you’ve talked about that earlier too but it’s true. How do we show up authentically as ourselves?
Kerry: And then
Danielle: How do we allow the people under us to do the same thing?
Danielle: And it is about, we want to showcase our own thought leadership as The runners of this organization as leaders of this organization. We have a lot to say. We’re proud of the work we do here. And of course we want the people that support us to feel the same way. And it is like a trickle down snowball effect for sure.
Kerry: What would you say, because I did tease this and I’m glad you reminded me because I would have totally forgotten. Okay. What would you say is the, what does it mean to be authentic? I was giving a talk a couple of weeks back, but we started to broach into authenticity and what it means. And it doesn’t mean that you have to share every crying moment or every horrible mistake that you’ve made, but I’ll share what I shared as that, as what authenticity means in my mind in a moment, but and the way that you talk it means to your clients work with?
Kerry: What does it m
Danielle: I think for me and the pe How, what, how can I show up as myself in a way that allows me to not constantly think about what I am showing or hiding from the people that I’m interacting with? So in other words, like what is going to allow me to feel comfortable in my skin and in my role that I can share with other people, that is, Again, like not going to distract me because I’m constantly thinking like, Oh, I can’t tell them this.
Danielle: Or I, no one can know this about me. Finding the things for you that are important for you to let people know. And it could be like, you’re neurodiverse and in order for you to thrive in an environment, you need a certain environment to do that. It could be anything, but I think it’s, being very clear and candid with yourself on what people need to know about me so that I can feel comfortable and again, be able to do my best work.
Danielle: Cause I’m not constantly thinking about pretending to be something or putting on a show or hiding an aspect of my personality.
Kerry: Yeah, I 100 percent agree. And being having continuity of who you are across whatever platform it is that you’re on, whether it’s social media or it’s at a speaking engagement or it’s that an email or it’s the way you handle yourself.
Kerry: At a team meeting, if you’re Saccharin suite on LinkedIn and Instagram, but you’re a raging a hole in when you’re at the boardroom or the conference room with your team. One of those is inauthentic. There’s a disconnect. It’s a nice one. Yes. Yeah. And
Danielle: That’s a great way to put it. It’s and you have to like it, but you have to know who you are first.
Danielle: Show up as yourself in one location and then that can, right? There are so many people that will, Oh, thank you, Michael. There are so many people that will be like, I’m just going to start posting on LinkedIn, but I’m like, but you don’t know who you are yet. What are you posting about? Like, how do you want to show up?
Danielle: What do you want people to know? What’s important to you? Like you have to start with your own brand first.
Danielle: Then you can move on and then start. Posting because you’re clearer on what you want people to know what’s important to you, your values, right? We knew we had that so we could do a whole part two.
Kerry: I do think it’s interesting and I’ll mention this one last thing and then I’d love to share some information about where people can get ahold of you and learn a little bit more about you. But if I was watching a program the other day that said it was a woman who’s It has a course that I’m currently taking and she was talking about how when she first started her social media journey as a business owner, she would do quote cards and she’s these aren’t things that I say, but it seemed to be what everybody was doing.
Kerry: And so I did it and they’re not my own unique thoughts. They’re, take action before you, whatever, like the generic tripe that we see everywhere. And she’s not working for me, even though it seems to be working for everybody else. So one day I just leaned into what I thought was authentically me, which she’s I’m pregnant with my third kid.
Kerry: I’m in this tiny cramped apartment. It’s COVID like it’s a complete shit show. And then I don’t know which end is up. And. You, the posts were like a week apart because she’s being super vulnerable, right? Because that was authentic for her when the cold card was just like, I’m trying to mimic somebody else and it’s not working for me because it’s not authentic.
Danielle: And that’s why I also like Bach when a lot of people are like what’s the, like, how do you, what’s the formula or what’s the prescription? And I’m like, I don’t. For me, a personality brand is not cookie cutter, like I’m going to give you tools. We’re going to talk through it. I’m going to give you components, but this is a choose your own adventure because everybody needs to be comfortable expressing what they want to express.
Danielle: And we’re all going to come at it differently. And it’s I’m going to give you things to think about and ways to consider it, but I’m not going to tell you to start here, go here. Cause then it will, again, everyone will sound the same and that’s the purpose.
Kerry: 100%. Before we get into how people can get in touch with you, I’m starting a new little segment really on the show, a micro segment.
Kerry: Any good books you’re reading, personal or professional related, any courses you’re taking that you think would be great for people to take a jump into?
Danielle: Yeah. I’m not a course person. I know you, you’re always, every time I talk to you, you’re like, I’m taking this course. Like you love a course.
Danielle: And I love that.
Kerry: I also have a graveyard of them that I’ve never touched.
Danielle: I am more, I learned more of my podcast listening than my courses. I think I just finished a personal book, but I just, I’m just always reading. So I have 900 books on my bed stand. So I just finished American dirt, which some people might be like, Oh, that book’s five years old.
Danielle: Maybe it is. I don’t know. It was so great. And it’s essentially about a mother and son having to flee Mexico and cross the border. And just, it’s all about the cartels, the migrant experience, where we stop people from crossing, where we don’t, the encounter. And it’s all fiction, but there’s so much research behind it.
Danielle: And it was so Just interesting and heartbreaking and bureaucracy and all of the things that are involved in all the brokenness of the system from the get go, but the writing is so good and I just, it’s tough to read, but I really enjoyed it. So
Kerry: I’m adding that to my list. Cause even if it is five years old, I haven’t read it either.
Kerry: So I’m writing a
Danielle: woman author. I forgot her name. But American dirt and it was like a bestseller and it’s on all the things.
Kerry: I’ll put a link to it. And speaking of links, if people are interested in learning a little bit more about you, if there’s any free resources you’d like to point them to, where should they go?
Kerry: And if you’re listening live, I’ll put it in the comments. If you’re listening to the podcast, I’ll make sure it goes in the show notes.
Danielle: I always tell people, please connect with me on LinkedIn. And so just Danielle Hughes on LinkedIn, even though there’s a ton of us. I am. Yes, they’re failing.
Danielle: They’re amazing. And then, of course, you can come to my website, which is more than words. Copy. com. I know my company is marketing, but the website is a copy. I have a newsletter that goes out every 2 weeks. And yes, I see my free checklist. So I have a little kind of, I always joke that I’ll never do three things, five ways or whatever.
Danielle: But I do have a 10 point like checklist of very small micro steps that you can do to infuse some personality into your existing bio just to get you started. But yeah, if you come to my website, you’ll find a way to email me if you want to reach out and ask about corporate workshops, presentations.
Danielle: I speak to a lot of women’s networks and ERGs. I will work with teams. And then I work with individuals as well on their executive bios, corporate bios. So awesome.
Kerry: You are absolutely the best. And I know it’s been a crazy busy morning for you. And I appreciate you literally
Danielle: like running with it. You’re like, I got this.
Danielle: Don’t worry about it.
Kerry: I’m going to take you out of the studio. I’m going to unceremoniously kick your ass out when you’re ready to come back in. It’s so
Danielle: authentic this whole show. We’re not pretending that anything was. Done correctly.
Kerry: The only thing that we didn’t do is actually leave in the middle to go use the restroom.
Kerry: You may have. I just, you don’t have to share that. I do not.
Danielle: No. I will do that right now.
Kerry: Danielle, you’re the best. Safe travels and thanks for being a guest.
Danielle: Thank you. Thanks everybody!
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