<p>In today’s fast-paced, technological society, your personal brand could be the difference between getting the job and earning a promotion or missing an important opportunity. In this two episode series on the power of personal branding at work, co-hosts Erica Young and Kevin Abbed are joined by SHRM Director of Brand Communication, Chris Kenny. They explore how personal branding impacts success in the workplace and you'll hear Chris provide guidance on how to effectively differentiate yourself professionally and standout in the workforce. </p><p><b>EARN SHRM RECERTIFICATION PDCs FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE</b><br /><br />This episode is Part 1 of a two-part series on the power of personal branding at work, and listening to both episodes qualifies for 1 PDC toward SHRM recertification. <b>All you have to do is listen to both episodes to claim your credit: All relevant details, including the Activity ID, are provided during this pair of episodes.</b></p><p>Subscribe to Career Compass on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out <a href="https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/Pages/Podcasts.aspx">SHRM.org/podcasts</a> to listen to all of our episodes and also hear more podcasts from SHRM. And, be sure to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or your podcatcher of choice.<br /><br />Keep up with SHRM by visiting the <a href="https://www.shrm.org/">website</a> and follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/societyforhumanresourcemanagement">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/shrm/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/SHRM">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shrmofficial/?hl=en">Instagram</a>.</p>
In today’s fast-paced, technological society, your personal brand could be the difference between getting the job and earning a promotion or missing an important opportunity. In this two episode series on the power of personal branding at work, co-hosts Erica Young and Kevin Abbed are joined by SHRM Director of Brand Communication, Chris Kenny. They explore how personal branding impacts success in the workplace and you'll hear Chris provide guidance on how to effectively differentiate yourself professionally and standout in the workforce.
EARN SHRM RECERTIFICATION PDCs FOR LISTENING TO THIS EPISODE
This episode is Part 1 of a two-part series on the power of personal branding at work, and listening to both episodes qualifies for 1 PDC toward SHRM recertification. All you have to do is listen to both episodes to claim your credit: All relevant details, including the Activity ID, are provided during this pair of episodes.
Subscribe to Career Compass on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out SHRM.org/podcasts to listen to all of our episodes and also hear more podcasts from SHRM. And, be sure to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or your podcatcher of choice.
Keep up with SHRM by visiting the website and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
Erica Young:
Welcome back to Career Compass, a podcast from SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, and the SHRM Foundation. Career Compass prepares the future leaders today for better workplaces tomorrow.
Kevin Abbott:
As the voice of all things work, SHRM supports students and emerging professionals with advice, information and resources for every step of your career.
Erica Young:
Designed for the student or emerging professional, Career Compass delivers timely, relevant, and critical conversations about work to help you succeed in your career journey. Thank you for joining us for this episode. My name is Erica Young, and I will be your co-host.
Kevin Abbott:
And my name is Kevin Abott, and I will also be your co-host. During this episode, we'll discuss how personal branding impacts your success in the workplace, as well as provide tips on how to use your brand to positively differentiate yourself from others. To help tackle this topic, we will be joined by the director of brand communications here at SHRM, Chris Kenny.
Erica Young:
Also, fun fact, we want you to know that listening to this podcast qualifies for one SHRM PDC toward your SHRM re-certification. We'll have more info on claiming your PDC later in the episode. With that being said, let's get started.
So, Kevin, I think about my personal brand actually quite a lot. And in thinking about this episode, I came across this quote that I think kind of summarizes some of the pressures maybe that I put on the personal brand. It's by Tom Peters in Fast Company. And he said, "all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies, as in Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be the head marketer for the brand called you." And I thought that was really interesting and totally true, because to me, I guess the reason why I think about the brand and my brand all the time is because a brand kind of happens regardless of whether we want to be intentional or not about that brand.
And so for me, I feel like it's been really important in my career to start to be more intentional and sort of steer my brand in directions that I want to see it. But there have also been times when I unintentionally see evidence of my brand and I see evidence of my brand reflected in other people. So for example, I'd say my personal brand includes the fact that people know me for having a lot of plants, because I'm a plant lady. And I also love my cat dearly, my cat, Suki, dearly. And so when people see me at work, they'll ask about these two things more often than not. And so those are two things that I had never intentionally sort of put into my brand, but people recognize me for those things and other things as well. And so over the course of my career, I've felt like it's become more important to be more intentional. I don't know. What do you think?
Kevin Abbott:
Yeah. And I completely agree with you. Sometimes it's subtle things like that, just owning plants or having a cat that people pick up on and tend to come back to. For me, when I think of personal branding, the first thing that comes to mind is probably authenticity. I think it's super important to be authentic to your brand. I feel like when celebrities have coaches and publicists, it's real easy to tell when they're on, I'm doing air quotes, and when they're off. If you see a celebrity on the red carpet and they're going to be smiling, happy, yada, yada, yada. But if you catch them in the airport running late for something, you might see a different person. And I think that authenticity and just keeping your personality consistent is something that's super important to identifying a brand and keeping your personal branding high. Now one last question before we introduce our special guest. Erica, I know you've had experience working at places other than SHRM. So when you change jobs, what are some things you consider adjusting as it relates to your personal brand?
Erica Young:
Ooh, tough question. I have. I've worked in several different places. And when I change jobs, I think you kind of nail it with the authenticity bit. I think this is going to sound deep, but it's kind of like a reinvention, but keeping with some of the same trends. For example, if I'm to be my authentic self, I'm always going to be the kind of loud, bubbly person in the room. It's just kind of who I am and I'm going to own that. And that's not something that I can take away job to job. But when I think about switching in careers or just switching jobs and adjusting that personal brand, I think about who I want to be in that future role.
It's kind of like, I kind of talked a little bit about it on our last episode in the last season, but it is true in this context as well. Whenever I have any life change, and especially in a job change, I imagine myself in that job and I think about what are the characteristics that I have? Who am I with? What do I look like in that moment? And kind of visualize those tweaks to who I am in that role or in that place in my life in preparation for that job change.
Kevin Abbott:
Yeah. And I think I do like that a lot, where your brand isn't just set in stone from the beginning of your life. Your brand can change. That's why people switch brands later in life. And I mean, what better time to start something new than at a new job? If you think something didn't work at your last job, changing that to have more success, I mean, it can't hurt.
Erica Young:
Absolutely. It's a great time. It's a great time for reinvention and deciding how it is you want to evolve, and kind of owning that story for yourself, which I think in essence, is owning your brand and moving forward with a new brand. And with that, we're going to bring Chris Kenny in as our guest. Chris Kenny is the director of brand communications at SHRM. As director of brand communications, he provides strategic council on all national advertising campaigns, large market brand stunts, and determines where and how the brand shows up. For more than a decade, he has helped organizations achieve results by creating innovative brand and communication strategies that drive business goals.
Previously, Chris led the public relations function at Digital Signal Corporation, a tech company and world leader in 3D, long range facial recognition software. A politico at heart, Chris has been involved in several local elections and community campaigns, and believes that every voice and every vote counts towards changing the world. He's also a Virginia Beach native and earn his master's degree in strategic public relations from George Washington University, and a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Lee University. We are so excited about today's conversation with him. And with that, Career Compass would like to warmly welcome Chris Kenny.
Chris Kenny:
Erica and Kevin, thank you so much for having me. Excited to join the conversation. And already just listening into the conversation you and Kevin were having earlier, you guys made some great points. Building your brand has to be intentional. And often it's more important for young professionals or those looking to make a career change, but it's also important for those further on in their career journey that are saying, hey, I still have goals that I want to reach and milestones that I'd like to meet. And it's important to be intentional about those things. So I'm excited to join the conversation and looking forward to it.
Kevin Abbott:
Yeah. Thanks so much, Chris. I guess I'll get us started. How would you describe personal branding and why do you think it's so important?
Chris Kenny:
Well, that's a really good question. You have to start with the basics. I guess the way that I would describe personal branding in a nutshell is it's who you are and how you promote yourself. You want to be intentional, particularly in the workplace with how you come across. Reputation matters, perception matters. But you also want to be yourself, you want to be authentic. It becomes very difficult to maintain a brand that's not in alignment with who you are, how you think, what you believe, because soon enough you're not going to be able to hold up that wall. Soon enough, everyone's going to be themselves and then you're not going to be true to your brand or your quote unquote in brand speak, your brand promise. So it's best to start off with kind of identifying those things that are important to you and that are core to who you are. And I think that when you identify those things internally and present them and project them outward, that actually becomes your personal brand.
Erica Young:
That's a really good point. And if I could follow up, Chris, just out of curiosity, when you say sort of those things, you want to pick out those things that define your personal brand, do you kind of narrow down a certain number of things? When you're thinking about branding, is there kind of a target number of items that you want to have or can it be really just whatever you want it to be?
Chris Kenny:
Oh, no. That's a great question. So I often look at brand building in terms of, and this might sound a little bit analytical, but just go with me here for a second, I often think of brand building in terms of goals, strategies and objectives. So those key things would wind up being those objectives. What are those things that you want to achieve? And these would be measurable things that you can lean into so you can see your own progress. Is it that you want to get your degree so that you can move forward in your career? Are you aiming for a promotion? Do you want to be a CEO of a Fortune 500? Depending on how long term your goals are, but once you identify what your goal is, you can set a strategy for how to get there, and then those objectives are those measurable milestones along the way.
So do I think that maybe the line of objectives should be shorter rather than longer? Absolutely, because they can change as you meet certain goals or as you hit certain milestones. I wouldn't say to start off with a list of 20, because most people aren't going to make it. It's going to feel a little bit like a New Year's resolution where you're good for the month of January, and then by February 4th you're back to not going to the gym or you're no longer running every morning at 6:00 AM because it's worn off.
Erica Young:
That's a great point. And honestly, I think the analytical approach is really helpful in this case and kind of figuring out where to start. And so with that, I'm curious, what tools can we use to help brand ourselves? Is there anything else you would add in addition to the kind of layout you've started with?
Chris Kenny:
Sure. Sure. Some of the tools are, I think kind of easy to start with. If you're beginning to consider your brand, I think a couple of things are, how are you presenting yourself? How are you showing up to work and to people? Are you ready, and dressed and prepared for the job that you want or the next job that you'd like? I think that's something that a lot of people can pay attention to when they're talking about building their personal brand is their presentation, their own professionalism. Be very critical of yourself in that way and make sure that you're presenting in the way that you intend to present. I think that's one important tool. In the same way that folks practice for job interviews and the way that they prep, you might practice with a friend or all those kinds of things.
I think that's something that people can do when they're focused on their presentation and trying to make sure that they're coming across in a very intentional way, in a very professional and polished way so that becomes part of their brand or reputation. Other tools that we can use, we see it all the time, but I will go ahead and caveat this one, as it can be a help and it can hurt you, but as social media. Everyone is all over social media, and once it's public, it's public. So that can be very, very helpful for you in terms of building your brand. And if you're intentional about the things that you post, and the things that you interact with, and the things that you say publicly and the pictures and things that you share, that can be very helpful in building your brand.
Now on the other side of that, that tool can also harm you. If you kind of get a little bit out there with the things that you post or maybe post some things that you might not want your colleagues or potential employers to be able to pull up very easily, being mindful of that. But social media is certainly a tool when used, I guess correctly and with this goal in mind can definitely help you to build your personal brand, specifically when it comes to platforms like LinkedIn. It's a great place for you to network. I know people who have found mentors and things like that over LinkedIn.
Erica Young:
So Chris, what are some other tools you can use to develop your personal brand?
Chris Kenny:
So another great tool for building your personal brand, I would have to say is volunteering. I know a lot of people don't think of volunteering as a way to build your personal brand, but when you align your volunteer activities with career goals and you make sure that what you're doing is bringing value to yourself, and it's also in alignment with where you want to go, volunteering can be a great way to network with other like-minded individuals looking to build their brands while giving back in their communities and such and opportunity for you to maybe learn a new skill perhaps.
A couple more that I can think of off the top of my head would be continued education opportunities. Anytime you look at building your knowledge base, particularly in the direction of the career that you want to pursue, any additional certifications, things like that. And then of course, internships also provide a lot of experience and networking opportunities for someone who's interested in building their personal brand in that way, developing new skill sets, and also maybe meeting some people who are more established in the field that might be able to help you along the way.
Kevin Abbott:
Yeah. Chris, I love what you said about volunteering. I mean, I never really thought of volunteering like that, but it is a great way to meet people that are either in the same place as you, have the same likes and maybe might be a little farther along in their career that you could learn from.
Chris Kenny:
Yeah. I mean, I know of a few people that actually started out with different organizations as volunteers and found out that it really aligned with their passion and decided to make that career move. So I think that there are a lot of opportunities there. To help speak to that kind of sense of self, that sense of purpose that we talked about initially when we said, what is your brand, so to speak, and how do you define that? And sometimes that's a little bit of a path of discovery. Brands aren't built overnight, so they're always a process. And so I think that some of our experiences can also help us to refine those things that we want out of our personal brand.
Erica Young:
Absolutely. I'm really glad you brought that up too, because not only are there's such a variety of volunteer opportunities out there, but there's also this whole class of skills based volunteering. And so if folks really want to work with a certain organization, I think it's actually really worthwhile to follow up with that organization and say, hey, I saw you have volunteer opportunities, but I didn't see filmmaking, let's just say, I didn't see a filmmaking volunteer opportunity, but that's what I love to do and that's where my skill set aligns. So I wanted to see if that's an opportunity that you'd be interested in utilizing? And I've seen that work for a lot of both organizations and people looking for that kind of experience. So I'm really glad you mentioned that.
Chris Kenny:
Yeah, no. And I think you're absolutely right, because a lot of people look at brand building as putting yourself out there in a way that is selling you with the expectation of monetary gain. There are things that you can do to build your brand that is more about investing in you, where you might actually be spending money to build yourself, or things like volunteering, for instance, that we were talking about where you're giving back to the community or a cause that you might believe in, but the payoff or in exchanges you are being developed and it's opening the door to some additional opportunities and networks and things like that. So it's not necessarily a sales strategy approach, I think in the way that a lot of people do consider brand building.
Kevin Abbott:
So Chris, when we think about brand building, I know I mentioned earlier in the podcast about some celebrities that really work on their brands and some that really don't really care about their brands. So big picture, who are some celebrities in your mind that you think are doing a great job when it comes to their own personal brand?
Chris Kenny:
Oh, wow. That is a great question. And they are all over the board. I mean, there are so many celebrities out there that are doing it right. And quite frankly, that's probably one of the reasons why they are a celebrity, because either they themselves or a team that works with them, and advises them and things like that has been working behind the scenes to help them to build their brand. But a couple really come to mind for me. And I'm sure most people even listening would agree folks like Oprah Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey has built this massive, massive brand for herself that started out maybe as a talk show or as an actress, and it has just become a network, a magazine, talk shows, book clubs, all of these different kinds of things and it's just expanded.
I think at one point she had a church of some sort and things like that she was invested in. I mean, it's just, her brand is so big and has all kinds of tentacles, if you will, into all of the things that seemingly interest her, which I think is really important. She's built it out in a way where she is getting gratification from being able to pursue all of her various interests. Another person that I would highlight that I don't know if a lot of people would, but I remember being in grad school and we actually did a little bit of a study on her, but Kylie Jenner. It's kind of remarkable what she's been able to accomplish. I think she was labeled one of the youngest billionaires in history. And I mean, granted came from a famous family, but much of her brand building is attributed to her work on social media.
She is one of the highest followings ever on Instagram, to the point that other brands actually pay her to place ads on her Instagram. And I mean, it's kind of crazy. But there were some good decisions made there and some good ones made at a young age to have been so young to have achieved all that she has in terms of building her brand. Now agnostic of, if you agree with the things that she stands for or anything like that, she has been successful in building a personal brand that's rather iconic when people think about it. Martha Stewart is another great one. I like her. She spoke at SHRM's annual conference a couple years ago. But the interesting thing about her was another person who was able to build a brand, then really take some hits to that brand, and then reinvent because she didn't rebuild in the same way.
And that is challenging, interesting and kind of inspiring at the same time, because one of the things to remember about working on your personal brand is it's not always going to be a success. Sometimes you're going to mess up. Whether it's on a small scale and you don't do so well on a work project, or you get some negative feedback that should be looked at as an opportunity for growth. But don't get nervous that everything just doesn't work the first time you try. Some of it is a little bit of guess and test when you are building your brand, particularly when you're starting at the beginning. And the last one that I'll say obviously is Barack Obama. I think he is a great one who worked really hard at building his brand initially. And wow, did that pay off? A lot of people didn't really know who he was when he was a Senator, until there were some very strategic moments and he wound up on the national stage, so to speak.
And that really catapulted his career in the spotlight. And he made some really great decisions before he became president. And then while he was president, making some of those decisions that still allowed him to build his brand in a way that he would still have this other brand when he wasn't president, whether it was writing books, or establishing his own foundation and things like that. I mean, he really kind of built his in a masterful way. So that's just a couple of examples, I think of a few celebrities who have done a really good job of doing that. And most of them have been able to accomplish it without too much scandal along the way, so the falls didn't come too hard.
Kevin Abbott:
One thing I like mentioning Martha Stewart is that really is the exact definition of a rebrand. She started with this whole home EC conglomerate, and then obviously she was incarcerated for a bit. And when she came back out, she almost used that as a launching pad for her second act, if you will. I mean, she had a bunch of shows. She really leaned into the fact that she had made a mistake, and she came out and she went on a bunch of talk shows. And she was on The Tonight Show just making jokes about it and everything. And she kind of turned that into her brand.
Chris Kenny:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And everyone does not recover from some of the hits that a personal brand can take, particularly when you're in kind of the celebrity limelight because everything is amplified, so the good and the bad. One example, if I may, of when someone did take a hit, I don't know if you guys remember a couple of years ago, it was actually maybe about five years ago now, there was a woman who was over corporate communications for a large company. And it was all over the internet how she had left to go on a trip, a trip overseas, and based on some personal social media that she posted while she was traveling, when she finally landed, she actually received an email from her employers terminating her employment because some of her personal social media posts were extremely offensive to different people groups.
I mean, it went viral. Everyone was talking about it. No one knew her name before that. She was definitely not a celebrity, but she became one. And she built a brand, not in the way that she would like to. She built a brand. And that will be the type of thing that is very difficult to recover from. So I say all that to say, really have to be careful and intentional as well about building a brand, because they're not all success stories.
Erica Young:
Yeah. I think that's a really good point, especially with social media making all of our information so instantaneous. Terrific comments on personal branding, Chris. On that note, we're going to close part one of the discussion of the Power of Personal Branding.
The first three characters for the PDC are 22-M. That is the number two, two dash M, as in Mike. And please stay tuned for part two of the discussion with Chris Kenny to learn more on personal branding and to receive the remainder of the PDC code for your full credit. The opportunity to submit for your PDC is March 1st, 2022. With that said, we'll connect back with you for part two of the Power of Personal Branding with Chris Kenny.