Fun Business Fun Money Podcast
EP 086 – Create a new professional brand with fun and play
What does ‘professional’ mean to you?
If it conjures up images of stuffy suits and boring meetings, you’re not alone!
There’s a time and place for that, and its a fairly safe bet that YOUR business is not that place!
Freedom to have fun and play in your work, make money with no college degree, work your own schedule, all of that makes up your new and exciting ‘professional’ brand.
In this quick tip episode we’re redefining what professional means in a modern, online world where feminine leadership is kicking butt and taking names.
Let’s play!
KEY MENTIONS
Episode 65, The NEW rules for leadership
Contact Deirdre via email, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn
TRANSCRIPT
Hey there, and welcome back to the Fun Business Fun Money podcast!
I’m your host, Deirdre Amies.
This is a quick tip, tool or tactic episode, I don’t know which one it’ll be just yet, lets see how it plays out!
But think of it like a snack-sized bite for your business that you can implement without too much fuss.
Expand your perspective and find inspiration
I was actually wondering what on earth I was going to share on this episode, I wasn’t feeling inspired by any of the themes or topics I’ve got in my big list of ideas.
Thats always a reminder for myself to expand my perspective, get outside of my own head and see what other people are talking about. So theres a great tip for you right there.
Sometimes a simple scroll through social media can highlight something I can adapt or refer to.
Sometimes its listening to someone else’s podcast that inspires me, or a YouTube video, or countless other sources.
And what do you know! I found something out there in the big wide online world. There was a comment on LinkedIn that sparked a whole bunch of thoughts and ideas that I can utilise in a LOT of different ways.
What IS ‘professional’ anyway?
This comment was around what is ‘professional’ – and I’m using air quotes here. Or more to the point, what ISN’T professional. Because we all know people love to express their opinions about what they think is NOT acceptable!
If you’re a LinkedIn user you’re probably familiar with the ‘LinkedIn Police’, the self-appointed ones who seem to spend their time telling everyone else what is or isn’t appropriate for a ‘professional networking platform’.
As they like to say, “This isn’t Facebook!” Its not LinkedIn doing that. No one said thats how it is.
What professional is NOT…
The reality is you can share pretty much whatever you want on any social media platform, as long as it doesn’t go against community guidelines or human decency. And even that one is up for debate, given the type of opinions and views some think is acceptable to broadcast to the world! Its not!
I love redefining what professional actually means.
Its not this long-held image of a white man in a suit with a big line up of letters after his name from all the degrees and qualifications he has.
Its not about a style of dress. Its not even a way of behaving.
Professional is whatever YOU say it is for your own business and life.
That comes down to how you express yourself through your personal brand.
Aren’t your brand and business one and the same? 🤔
One important distinction that needs to be made here around your personal brand – your business is not your brand.
Your business is your product, service or offer. Its the work you do with clients, the thing you sell.
Your brand, on the other hand, is the personality behind what you sell. Its the way you make your clients and customers FEEL when they see, hear or come into contact with you, your content, your offers or your business in any way. Your brand is the personality behind it.
THAT is why my own business is called “Powered By Personality”. The focus is always on the people, energy and experiences that make up a business.
Your brand will outlast your business, through all of the iterations and pivots you make, whether you’re an employee or self-employed.
MY brand of professional is very different to that traditional concept of what a business owner should or shouldn’t look or sound like.
For one, I’m not a man, and according to the stats, most of the listeners of this podcast don’t identify as male either. Shout out to all my powerful women and non-binary listeners, you ROCK!
I’ve talked about this a little back in episode 65, the new rules for leadership. Old rules are out, new rules are in.
And lets face it, there are no actual ‘rules’ either, more like guidelines for a new way of thinking about leadership. Which in turn redefines professionalism.
My brand is playful, fun and simple. If you’re someone who likes complex ideas that challenge you to figure it out for yourself, I’m not your person.
The playful, fun aspect is something that was also heavily suppressed during my corporate career. It was a way of reducing negative vibes being thrown my way, apparently its disruptive for the serious people to have to deal with a not-so-serious person.
But being playful, fun and simple should never be interpreted as lacking expertise or knowledge. As Vivian said in Pretty Woman, “Big mistake. Big. Huge.”
The FUN assumption…
It always amuses me the assumptions people make about the word FUN.
There’s this perception that its all about high energy, adrenaline-pumping, extrovert-style situations and engagements.
And yes, thats absolutely one form of fun.
But depending on your personality and how you restore your energy, that could be the complete opposite of fun for you!
Not everyone loves being in the spotlight.
Not everyone is a thrill seeker.
Not everyone is talker.
Not everyone is an extrovert.
Introvert fun can look completely boring to others
Especially if it involves working on your laptop! There you are just tapping away all day, boring! But you’re in your zone of genius and loving every second of it.
You get to the end of the day and feel SO satisfied with how you spent your time, it was FUN!
What actually matters is your brand, the personality and energy you show to the world.
THAT is what will attract or repel people.
We should never be afraid to repel the wrong people, through their interpretation of professional or anything else. They’re the ones that turn out to be nightmare clients. It doesn’t mean they’re bad people or they’re doing anything wrong AT ALL.
They’re simply wrong FOR YOU. They’re perfect for someone else, but not for you.
Working with the RIGHT people is always fun. Those people are effortless to work with, communication is easy and the whole experience is enjoyable. You look forward to your next session with them, or to see their name come up in your inbox. Or on your phone, if you give them your phone number!
The brand archetypes quiz
One of the tools I use to help people bring more of your fun personality into your business to attract the right people is with my Brand Archetypes quiz.
An archetype is essentially a collection of traits and ways of being that can be summarised as a personality type. Its not about putting you in a box or anything like that, but it does help us self-identify things about ourselves that we might not otherwise see.
My brand archetypes are Alchemist and Innocent. I laughed so hard when I read the descriptions for both, the combination of them is SO ME. Tick tick tick, yes to everything!
It felt like validation of everything I’d suppressed through my corporate career as I was trying to fit into THAT version of a professional box.
If you want to know YOUR brand archetypes, head on over to http://deirdreamies.com/brand-quiz , answer the questions and you’ll get an email with your results.
That’ll give you a quick overview of your top brand archetype, along with the results of all the others.
Book a Virtual Brand VIP day (aka brand party!)
But theres so much more to it as well. Thats the kind of stuff we do a DEEP dive into during my virtual Brand VIP days. We define the experience both you and your clients have with your business, through your personality.
Its a whole lotta fun, in fact SO much fun that one client kept referring to it as her brand PARTY! That could have been because she is ALSO an Alchemist Innocent and we were so aligned, it literally felt like a party.
You can find out more and book your own virtual Brand VIP day with me at http://deirdreamies.com/product/VIPday
You’ll find the link to that and to the brand quiz in the show notes and in the description of this episode.
Thats what I’ve got for you today! Go take the brand quiz and redefine what professional looks like for you.
Break free of ‘boring professionalism’!
Break out of whatever box you’re currently in – especially if it feels stale, boring, old and bleurgh!
Unleash the full power of your personality across your business. No more holding back, ok?!
Take care, have fun being your awesome self in everything you do, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.
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