Speaker 1Welcome to Fear and Greed Q&A, where we ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics, and more. I'm Michael Thompson, and good morning, Natalie MacDonald. Good morning, Michael. Today, do we need a personal brand? You hear about it a lot these days that really you need to be networking, you need to build up your own personal brand. If you're going to get a new job, if you're going to get a promotion, all of this, it is not just about doing the job anymore. It is about establishing yourself as an expert and building that brand. So today, I'm going to be asking you how to do that because you are a business journalist. You've been working with us for a few weeks now on Fear and Greed, but you've also had seven years working at LinkedIn. So you have seen this kind of from the inside and from the outside now. You are working obviously with us here at Fear and Greed, but you've also just launched your new business, Working At It. You can head along to workingatit.com.au. We talked a couple of weeks ago about the importance of businesses being engaged on LinkedIn. But if you are an individual, do you actually need to build a personal brand? Isn't it enough just to get in and do your job and do your job well?
Speaker 2Yes, if you're looking at right now, but you want to be investing in yourself for future and also needing to look at the fact that businesses and organizations, see this. I mean, just for CEOs alone, there are more and more potential consumers, more and more partners that are now looking to CEOs and leaders for that executive thought leadership. So to be positioning themselves as a leader of choice, an individual of choice. And to bring it back to a solo professional, so perhaps someone who's not in an executive position. I'm actually going to use myself as an example here because there is nothing more I love than talking about myself. But no, you pointed it out correctly. I was part of LinkedIn, so part of this huge, big social media machine for seven years. I did a lot of work that was very public facing. So supporting small business, talking about DEI and gender and working parents on platform. And so by the time I exited LinkedIn, I was part of a round of redundancies. I had a newsletter that had 120,000 subscribers. I had 34,000 followers on LinkedIn, which is a significant number because I had grown my platform, because people knew that I was a trusted voice in certain spaces. Which meant that when I was a trusted voice in certain spaces, I was able to grow my platform. So I was unfortunately made redundant just six weeks after returning to work for my second parental leave. My comments and my inbox were full of beautiful people wanting to sit down and have coffee or have advice or, I mean, Michael, that's how I've ended up being here.
Speaker 1Yeah. And I suppose, so the personal brand, it doesn't need to be, and in fact, it shouldn't be anything fake, right? It should be authentic. To use one of the kind of the social media buzzwords. You know I love that word. Yeah, indeed. But it should just be about you becoming an expert or demonstrating your expertise in something that you know. It is not about trying to make yourself out to be something you're not. Absolutely.
Speaker 2So I really like to look at it in four content buckets, as it were. Yes. When you're planning out your content, when you're thinking, how do I, how do I go about this? So you look at educational. Here is something I can teach you. And that is, that's positioning you as an expert in your field. It's saying, I have lots of knowledge here and I'm willing to share it. Two, you're looking at professional. So it might be a take on a news story or a current trend within your industry. You're also looking at personal. And I'm not saying, you know, to be cutting yourself open for the sake of likes and engagement. But there is community in that authenticity and in sharing of your experience. So whether that be about a challenge that you've faced, something that you've overcome. I myself talk a lot about being a working parent. I've also spoken about pregnancy loss and mental health on the platform as well, because there is that community and sharing those stories. And then the last little bucket is the promotional. But frankly, if you've done the first three, then the promotional comes pretty easy because you've been doing that all along. But it is still scary. I recognize that. So something as where to start is just spend 15 minutes. A couple of times a week on social media, just have a scroll in the same way that you doom scroll Instagram at night and just get comfortable. Like something, inbox someone, you know, share something with your own personal take on it and just get comfortable.
Speaker 1And it doesn't need to be LinkedIn, does it? I mean, especially when we see a lot of people build significant followings on say Instagram or on Facebook or on other platforms, TikTok as well.
Speaker 2And you just apply those same principles, those exact same principles.
Speaker 1Personal. And then finally, the smallest one is promotional. That is where it is the hard sell. It is, I am, I'm going on this podcast or I'm doing this or follow this, follow me for this.
Speaker 2And you can still make that action-based. You can still make that sharing, but it's also got that little sideline of, oh, well, I have shared this advice with you, but actually I could share plenty more advice if you want to sit down and have a meeting or if you want to employ me.
Speaker 1Yeah. So why, why, why do we do this? What is the end goal? What's the benefit of it, of building this essentially, because it's not just accumulating followers for the sake of having people follow you. What's the benefit of doing this and doing it right?
Speaker 2You're investing in yourself. So often we are so focused on simply the nine to five and it's really, really difficult to stand back, look up and actually look at what your career perspectives are. And that might be looking at exploring an industry change. That might be wanting a promotion. That might be looking to build a side hustle, but it is future proofing yourself for in periods of economic tightness or downturn, you know, things happen that we don't anticipate and you want to make sure that you have options. And I will just particularly add that this is, this is even more prudent for women and for caregivers, because we are the last people to be investing in ourselves. And unfortunately, in periods of economic tightness, it is women and caregivers, that are disproportionately impacted.
Speaker 1Okay. And so if you are building that platform, building that following, building that profile, it gives you options then for your future, depending on what you want to do. And especially that we are seeing kind of the rise of the gig economy and side hustles and things. It makes sense to have a platform that you can actually use to help launch something and help kind of secure your own financial future.
Speaker 2Exactly, exactly that.
Speaker 1All right, Natalie, thank you very much.
Speaker 2Thank you so much, Michael.
Speaker 1That was Natalie McDonald, a co-host here on Fear and Greed, but also the owner of Working At It, head along to workingatit.com.au, which basically helps people do exactly what we've just talked about. If you've got something that you'd like to know, then please send through your question on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or at fearandgreed.com.au. I'm Michael Thompson, and this is Fear and Greed Q&A.
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