Crystal's Notes - 29th October 2023

Do's & don'ts of building your personal brand?

Author

Crystal Lim-Lange
October 28, 2023

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Dear Community

How would you describe yourself in seven words? 

My guest for my podcast this week, brilliant academic, scientist, entrepreneur, mother and founder and CEO of Wildtype Media Group, Juliana Chan, posed me the question, and it hit the nail on the head. Many of us don’t know how to distil whatever we stand for into one simple, succinct concept, or know what or who we are.  

Juliana (in her seven words) is a “serious scientist turned very cool media entrepreneur”, and she was instrumental in inspiring me to grow my business. Like every conversation I’ve had with Juliana, there was so much to take away, and judging by the messages and feedback I got after the pod dropped, many of you felt the same as well. 

Raise Your Hand & Speak Up

So many things she said really struck me, and the first was the need for us to raise our hands and be ready to speak up. Many of us have the substance, but perhaps lack the confidence for style. The many DMs I get day in and out asking for help on speaking up attests to this. In our culture, we are not encouraged to speak. Juliana shared about a popular YouTube class by Patrick Henry Winston, a MIT professor. He said that the three things we need to teach our children are how to speak, how to write and then knowledge – in that order. In Singapore and many Asian cultures, this is done in the reverse.

What Works On LinkedIn

One huge thing covered was what works on LinkedIn. One important thing to remember is to be of value. Send DMs, leave a comment, write posts that will make you the clients’ top pick. Don’t wait till you need a job or new clients before you start doing so. The best time to find a job is when you have one, and you don’t need it. Doing this is maintaining your networking fitness, and that muscle tone of socialising. If you are authentic about this, you will be generous and will want to contribute. This is like what Daniel Priestley wrote in his book Oversubscribed (and who will hopefully join us on the podcast soon!). 

What works is also knowing your pillars of content. What are you known for? What do you want to amplify? Also, always seek to inspire, and share an insider’s perspective. If you want to learn more about this, you have to check out Juliana’s new e-book and video course. 

What Doesn’t Work: Don’t Be A Humble-Gagger

Humblebragging (or humble-gagging, as Juliana’s autocorrect rightly pointed out) is a big no-no. It is so easy to fall into this, isn’t it? Afterall, isn’t LinkedIn for us to talk about our promotions, awards and accolades? 

Juliana shared how in David Meister’s trust equation, it is stated that trustworthiness is a combination of credibility, reliability, and intimacy divided by self-orientation. Simply put, the more self-oriented you are, the less people trust you. 

So instead of saying that you were delighted to be invited to be on a panel, you can change the orientation around and say you were delighted to be on a panel with your fellow panellists, and this was what they said. 

If you got promoted, instead of congratulating yourself (unless you are Snoop Dogg), thank your mentor, boss and supervisor.

Don’t make yourself the hero of the story. Move from ego into ecosystem. 

Juliana’s Daily Routine

I love learning about what successful people do to set up their day. 

Juliana shared how sleep was important for her, as is her cup of latte that she makes using her espresso machine. She also uses giant post-it pads to plan her priorities. This helps her to not have to be reactive. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, she meets her fully remote team on Zoom. They play a game, and then set their goals. They talk about their wins too, and share good news. At 6pm, the company does a check-out exercise, where team members tell their team leaders they’re knocking off. This is about consciously checking out from work. She then has dinner, plays with her kids, and puts them to bed. When she can, she also meets her children when they are dropped from the school bus, and then has dates with them at cafes and libraries. 

Exercising is a non-negotiable for her, and she enjoys repetitive, calm exercises like rowing, or running on a treadmill. She listens to a podcast while doing so, and other than feeling calmer, more relaxed and happier after exercising, she gets ideas and learns from the podcasts that she listens to as well. (I will link all the podcasts, books and people we mentioned in a section below!)

Whenever possible, she will go with her husband on his overseas conferences, and make a holiday out of it. 

Juliana’s New E-Book & Video Course

Juliana’s newly launched e-book and video course, The LinkedIn Success Mindset is about three laws – the law of abundance, the law of attraction and the law of reciprocity – and how they can be applied to LinkedIn. The abundance mindset is when one believes there is an infinite number of resources for you and me, and that no one needs to lose, in order for someone else to win. You can be competitive and competent, and still be ready to enlarge the pie for everyone. She writes too about creating a solid editorial content framework and shares evergreen storytelling formats, and helps you to understand what LinkedIn really is all about. 

You have to check out her e-book and course. It comes endorsed by Prof Kishore Mahbubani and me!

From now until 31 Oct 2023, all members of the community will receive a 30% discount code on Juliana’s LinkedIn course, with the code CRYSTAL30OFF at https://www.julianachan.org/courses . 

People/ Books/ Podcasts We Mentioned 

You can also watch Snoop Dogg thanking himself here!

Community, we are a work-in-progress. All of us are. And as your work-bestie, I am here with you every step of the way. And yes, we heard you! Juliana and I will work on a Part 2 for you soon, and I can’t wait to share what I have learnt with you.