The One Thing You Need to Sell Yourself Effectively in Any Industry

Welcome to Career Revisionist with Dr. Grace Lee, dedicated to doers, dreamers and realists who want more success and satisfaction in their life. This podcast is about answering one question. How can you build a fulfilling career where it's all about doing work you love and growing your income without sacrificing your values? And here's your host, she gets nervous holding babies in small children. Dr. Grace Lee. Hello and welcome to another episode of Career Revisionist. I have a really special concept I wanted to share with you today and it is a concept that I thought about when I started launching my business. You know that I am a career coach. I'm an executive coach and I have different ways that I work with clients and I help them to accelerate their career and expand that into living a life of fulfillment. But I started to think about this concept at the beginning of my entrepreneurial career and I was so excited that I wanted to put together this special episode with this very special topic I found a way to merge the two together. So what I want to talk to you about today, super exciting, it's about that one thing that you need to have clarity on, that you need to have, that you need to be clear with yourself about to sell yourself effectively in any industry. It doesn't matter whether or not the industry is the same as the industry that you're currently working in or whether or not you want to move to a different industry. It also doesn't matter if you are a veteran in your career path or if you're just starting out, just recently graduated from college or earlier on in your career, it doesn't matter. This is something that you need to be thinking about. Something that you need to achieve and that you need to have clarity and a firm understanding on in order to sell yourself. Because you know, we're all in the business of improvement here. We're in the business of finding and connecting with work that we love, that we find meaningful. We know that we're what we're doing matters and we can get paid for what we're doing. And this is the business that we're in. So in order for you to have all the things that you want in your life, if you think about it, everything that you could possibly want in your career and everything that you could possibly desire in your life, someone else has it. Maybe you know that person, maybe you don't know them, but you've heard of them, but somebody else will have that which you are looking for, that which you desire, that which you truly have a yearning for. Someone else has it. So if you want to get to that next level of your career, however you define that next level for you, it's all about selling yourself effectively. You have to sell someone to give you certain opportunities. You have to sell someone to give you that job function. You have to sell someone to let you in on their team or sell someone to hire you for a position that you desire, whether or not that position is advertised or if it's in the hidden jar market, you are constantly getting yourself out there. You're constantly putting yourself out there. Your professional foot forward, your best foot forward, and you are selling yourself. So that's what I wanted to really talk to you about. I'm super excited as you can tell about this topic because it is extremely important. I'm always talking to the savvy professionals who want to get that next level, who want to grow and accelerate their career, who want to build careers of significance. Right? So when you think about it, and I want to go right back to the beginning, your career journey is going to be a number of years, right? And it doesn't matter maybe you look in the past and you look at where you've been in your career journey for so far. And there are ups and downs. There are times where you felt that you are, you are at the peak of your career. There were times where you felt that you just can't wait till this part of it ends. And maybe there are also times where you feel like, I don't know why I'm doing this and I wonder why I still continue with that. I've definitely had those times before. I mean, I chose, of course, to go through university, I chose to go to get three degrees up to my PhD, but there were moments during my master's degree, during my PhD, well, I didn't know whether I wanted to continue. Right? And it goes back and in those moments, I reflect back on why I did I make this choice in the beginning and what was I hoping to get out of it? And then you were, then I remind myself, oh, yes, this is why I chose this career path, but it doesn't feel like I'm moving along as far as I want to or I'm trying everything. I'm trying to learn. I'm trying to be a good student. I'm trying to develop myself. I'm trying to grow and I'm not moving forward in my career at the pace that I'm expecting to. And I feel quite impatient, right? And so through this experience, through these ups and downs in my own life and my own career path, I have. I've taught a lot of, I've taught enough coached a lot of clients as well. And it really boils down to one thing. This one thing that will help you to move forward. The one thing that will help you catapult your career to that next level, because if you think about it, when you're starting on a career path, okay? So starting meaning that maybe you just recently graduated from college or you just recently started in a new direction. So you're starting out in a new direction or you're starting out your career. To begin at this milestone, the first milestone is one where you have a certain level of obscurity, right? You're obscured because no one knows who you are or what you do. And so at this stage, you are needing to get yourself out there. You need to get known because no one knows that you have this potential. You've taken so much time and so much care into building your knowledge, to learning things to developing yourself. Now it's time for people to take notice of you, right? So you need to find these opportunities or maybe you have your eye on a certain opportunity or position. And now it's time for you to get known. But you're trying to move yourself out of obscurity to say, here I am. I have these potentials. This is the, these are my, these are my credentials or these are my skill sets. These are, this is my work experience I have behind me. And this is my potential. So you're trying to sell someone on that. So the first step is to move out of obscurity. So once you've done that, you started to get your message out there. You started to reach to people. You started to build relationships and you started to add value into your network, right? And you're expanding your network at the same time. So you're moving out of obscurity. The next step is then to be competitive, right? So this is where you're in the game. Right, so you're in this game, but really nothing yet separates you from everyone else. So this is where I know if you've been to some of these traditional networking events, sometimes you go to networking and more often you meet a stranger, shake their hand and the first thing you say else, my name is this, my name is this. So and so. And then the first question that usually comes out of most people's mouths is, what do you do? Right? Or even if you're not. So then that training, after many years of that question, that's kind of like the culture of people ask you, what do you do? What's your name? What do you do? Right? So after that much, that many years of training, we're trained to introduce ourselves by a certain title. So you might say, like, my name is Grace Lee. I am a career coach or I am an executive coach, right? And so this is where when you introduce yourself by your title, that's where nothing truly is separating yourself from everyone else. Right? So this is your competitive because now you've built up a name for yourself. You have a title. You've had some successes. You've built up your knowledge in a certain area and you have that expertise and you know you do. So that's how you were able to have this title. But so you're competitive. You're in the game and you're out of obscurity. But now to get to sell yourself effectively in any industry, you need to move to the next stage. Right? So the next stage from being competitive, then is to be branded. When you're branded, this stage is what is mission critical. It's the key turning point. This is where, because when you're branded, this is, and of course, I'm not talking about being an entrepreneur or having your own small business, of course, that's very important for a business. But even as an individual, as a savvy professional, as an employee, you have to have your own personal brand. Your personal brand is what is mission critical. And I'm not talking about your resume. I'm not talking about your job title or the clothes that you wear. Those are all factored into your personal brand. But what's really important about the brand, the one that I'm trying to, trying to talk about here, is where you start to get momentum because your name gets attached to something. Your name gets attached to something and people start to know you for a certain thing. And of course, you're guiding them on this. You're not letting it happen by accident. This is intentional. The way in you started this right from the beginning, you know for yourself and you have clarity for yourself on what you want to be known for. So you are designing this personal brand right from the beginning, right from this first stage of obscurity, you already have a vision of where you want to be. You already have a vision of what you want to be known for. Right. And so that is how you are designing your personal brand. You have to do it with intent. You have to be completely intentional about it and everything that you do, every message that you talk about, all the experiences that you give to someone, every relationship that you build and every person that you connect with, it all has to be aligned with the personal brand that you want, that you envision for yourself. So this stage is mission critical. When you're name, when you start to have momentum and your name gets attached to something, what happens is that people start to remember you by something unique that you gave them and they attach your name to it. Right. So there's three places. I've identified three places where people can start to attach your name to something. So when you reflect upon these three things, you start to see that you can set an intention to guide people and train them really on how they are to attach your name to it and why your name is attached to that thing. So your name can attach to the first thing that your name can attach to are your outcomes, the fruit that you produce in your career. So in other words, the results that you provide. So you're working for a company, you're working for an organization, you have an employer that you respond to and maybe a direct supervisor, you are producing results. They hired you for a certain reason or they see potential in you for a certain reason and you are working in that industry. So you have yourself, your own unique skill sets, your own unique knowledge and that is why you got brought down to the team. So then they brought you under the team with the expectation already that you have the knowledge that you have the proper training and that you have the skill sets that they need. That's the minimum, that's already the expectation. So now what they are, what they want, what they're looking for is okay now how can you provide value? What are you going to give back to this? What are you going to give back after we brought you in? So your name gets attached to the result, the result that they're looking for, that is how you can brand yourself. Your name gets attached to the results that you provide. So I mean, how many of you, do you know someone that you work with who's extremely, who's so well known for that one thing that they do so well in that company? They're like a superstar in that company. It doesn't mean that they, it doesn't mean that they necessarily get awards for it, but they're just known for it. If there's a new person coming in or if there's someone who has a certain challenge at the facing in the company and then they're kind of new to this, to the environment and they're saying, I don't know who to turn to. Everybody refers to that person and they go, oh so and so, go and talk to so and so, that's the perfect person for you. So as you see, their name is attached to that result and they're known for it. So that is, that's the first thing. The second thing that your name could get attached to is the experience, the experience that they have of you. So each time that you are moving forward with your career, this is a relationship economy. You cannot get further forward if you don't grow your network and if you don't add value to your network, right? Because your network is your net worth. Right. So you are constantly wanting to meet people, especially those who you've identified have a real influence on your professional future and you've identified these people, you're building relationships with them. You are adding value to them. You are helping them. You are giving them an experience of who you are and that experience goes a long way to build and solidify your personal brand. Right. So if you are that team player, doesn't mean you have to be a yes man or a yes woman, but it means that you are supportive, right? It means that you understand where, understand them and their needs. You understand problems that they might be going through and you are able to provide solutions or you're able to suggest solutions based on your expertise. So every time that you are building your personal brand, you are touching, touching people's lives, you're touching, right? And people may not remember the things that you do or they may not remember the things that you say, right? But they certainly will remember what you've done for them. So when you do that, that's one powerful way that you can give people an experience of you that is long lasting and that reputation that you build will precede you. And that is how you also, as in the second way that you can attach your name to something, experiences it, you give to other people. And that is how you build momentum in that direction. So the third thing, so number three, the third thing. So the first one, and then we review here, the first one is the results, right? The outcomes, the fruits that you provide in your career, in your life and in that organization. The second thing is the experience, like how people experience you when they interact with you, when they work with you or when they build a relationship with you. And the third thing are your expert insights. You have expertise. And you're in your career path, it doesn't matter how early or if you're a veteran or not, you have spent a lot of time building your knowledge, developing yourself, building certain skills. And you've chosen skills based on the best of your knowledge, which you're interested in and what you can build a lucrative career on. So you've chosen these skills and maybe you went to college as well and throughout the jobs that you've had, various jobs you've had that you've had throughout your career path, and those jobs you've learned very specific skillsets as well. So all of that combined when taken together, you will have insights. And those are your expert insights. More formally, maybe sometimes there's opportunities that you've had where you've built some sort of intellectual property. Maybe you have a trademark, maybe you have a proprietary system that you've developed that is your own and that is your copyrighted material. So intellectual property is also an expert insight, but it's more formalized right on paper. So this is something that is also, that you can use also to build your personal brand and to get momentum because your name can get attached to your expert insight. And whenever other people or other businesses or other colleagues and peers face problems, your name comes up right because of your insight, because of your particular knowledge in this field or how you've been able, or maybe you're known for that person who is so well developed, who is so well-rounded that you're able to take one knowledge in one discipline and apply it to another and you have this creativity and innovation around you. That is also an insight as well. It's also a gift. And so being intentional about building that personal brand, that's why it's so mission critical. It's when you're allowing people opportunities, you're programming them to think of you and to think of your name when certain events or situations come up and that's how you can get referrals, that's how you can get, that's how selling yourself in any industry can be so easy because they'll do the selling for you. They'll become your advocates because they've experienced you. They see what you can do. They see the fruit in your life and they know that you have expert insights or certain intellectual property. And so once you have set that up for yourself, you moved out of obscurity, you are now competitive, you're in the game and you have figured out what separates you from everyone else. You are branded. This is the one thing to sell yourself is that when you have a value proposition. So what is your value proposition? Your value proposition is what makes you the one. When you provide results, when you provide people with an experience and expert insights, you can move your reputation to this value proposition, which is the one. You are the one that the people want to refer and they can't think of anyone else better for the job than you because in the minds of your people, in the minds of your audience, whoever you want to appeal to, you're the only logical choice. And they realize that they need what you do because you presented them with something that they didn't previously, they haven't previously heard of before or they haven't previously heard of said in a particular way. So that's why it's so important to set your message up in a very unique way and find for yourself what is unique about you, what sets you apart from everybody else and that is your value proposition. And to make it stronger, to make it for more fulfilling, if your value proposition is also aligned with your highest value and it's also aligned with your reason for being your why you do what you do, then not only will you be the one, the logical choice, it will also be a lifelong fulfillment for you. You will always have fulfillment in everything that you do and it's not just, it's not just going to be just a career, it is going to be your, you're going to be living with purpose and on purpose. So that is the one thing that you need to sell yourself effectively in any industry. It is to figure out what is your value proposition. And so there's so much more that I could tell you about this and there's so much more I would love to tell you about this, but it would take me days, it would take me even, even many hours or many days to share with you everything. So if you enjoyed this content, if you're searching for your value proposition and you're listening to this episode and you're thinking to yourself, yes, I need a value proposition, I need to figure it out, then allow me to spend just the next five minutes to share with you what I have for you. So what I've done is I've created this training program. It makes a really short training program and it will help you to figure out what is my value proposition, what is my reason, my why in terms of why I do what I do and how can I get connected with my purpose. If that's something I've interested for you and you're trying to figure this out for yourself, I invite you to check this link and to see if it is the right fit for you. And the link is career revisionist.com/intensive. So it's in the show notes as well, just visit that link and see if it's the right fit for And if so if this was value to you, I invite you to please also give me your honest feedback on Apple iTunes. If you are iTunes user, go there, leave your honest feedback. I also invite you to ask any questions that you will. I read every question and your comments and your honest feedback is always so important to me. If you don't use Apple, I don't use Apple and I don't subscribe to iTunes as well. I prefer the Android platforms. Then choose your favorite platform. I have a wide selection. Just go to career revisionist.com and choose your favorite platform. Spotify, Google podcasts, whatever that you prefer and leave your honest feedback or your questions for me there too. So thank you for listening to another episode of my podcast. I look forward to hanging out with you and chatting with you and maybe answering some of your questions too in the next episode. (dramatic music)