Personal Branding Training

PERSONAL BRANDING TRAINING FOR ENTREPRENEURS, LEADERS AND PROFESSIONALS

Knowing how to represent yourself, your values, and your expertise and communicate this to your target audience succinctly is key to success. This is personal branding.

Having a strong personal brand will help you stand out, build connections and improve job opportunities such as landing that coveted new client, career advancement within your organisation and being highly sought after for your skills and service.

Discovering your personal brand is transformational because it forms the basis for connection with others, and this connection is what inspires us and the people we lead, and the people we do business with.

Those with a strong and distinct personal brand more easily cultivate and manage their reputation, credibility and profile. It’s the key to becoming an influencer and gaining trust with the people that matter to you within the organisation (including your team and your stakeholders).

When you uncover your personal brand, you become aware of what you stand for, why people should know you and follow you.

In this highly interactive, hands-on training, you’ll explore and develop your personal brand, the crucial skill of storytelling, and how amplify your profile across your industry and organisation.

Personal Branding Training outcomes

Personal branding – marketing yourself for success

Facilitated by Catriona Pollard, an experienced personal branding coach, this interactive and practical workshop will enable participants to identify their own personal brand and implement practical steps on how to convey their personal brand both online and offline effectively.

As a result of participating in this training you will:

Gain an understanding of the importance and relevance of a personal brand. Identify and develop your own personal brand which you can use professionally.
Develop your authentic personal brand statement which can be used verbally and in writing.
Uncover your stories including your “why” story and influencer/leader story and know how to use them.
Identify opportunities to increase the visibility of your personal brand.
Have developed the skills to amplify your personal profiles across your organisation, industry and social media.

About your Personal Branding Trainer, Catriona Pollard

Catriona Pollard is one of Australia’s most dynamic and inspiring trainers and speakers. Her insights into personal branding and communications never fail to enlighten, entertain and inspire audiences. With over 20 years of experience in communications and branding, she is an international speaker, TEDx presenter, popular media commentator and leader of a highly successful public relations agency.

Catriona is author of acclaimed book, From Unknown To Expert, which has helped thousands of people across the globe to build their personal brand, use PR and social media to grow their careers and businesses, and inspire them to take action.

Catriona has shared her dynamic and practical expertise with leaders both in Australia and around the world and has run training programs for organisations including DELL, CeBIT, Women on Boards, CEO Institute, Commonwealth Bank, Brita, Outdoor Media Association, Australian Institute of Company Directors, Macquarie University and University of Sydney.

She is renowned for being an inspiring presenter who shares her personal insights and experience to help others, whether it’s with practical advice or shared wisdom. With every presentation Catriona aims to ensure her audience takes away useful insights, specific skills and knowledge that will help them succeed in business and life. S

She has a reputation for being professional, easy to work with, inspiring and a provider of practical skills that participants feel confident to implement straight away.

CONTACT US TO BOOK TRAINING OR MENTORING.

Personal Branding

Are you listening?

The other day I caught up with someone who described himself as a great listener. Considering 20 minutes into the ‘conversation’ I hadn’t said a word, his idea about talking and listening was a little screwed up.

It made me think about listening. I believe it’s everything. It can be the difference between getting the sale or not, getting a journalist interested in you, or let’s face it….getting a second date.

When I started exploring my personal brand I realised that as an introvert I listen a lot. In a conversation I’ll ask questions, rather than talk. In a meeting I’ll do the same.

But it’s more than just listening. It’s being present. You know when you’re talking to someone and they just don’t seem to be paying attention or they talk over the top of you. That’s annoying and makes you want to ditch the conversation.

Becoming a better listener can improve productivity as well as your ability to influence and negotiate. And who doesn’t want that!? So how can you become a better listener? Here are some thoughts.

Be in the conversation
Don’t think about what you’re going to cook for dinner that night, stare over their shoulder or think about the next thing you want to say. Pay attention and actively hear what they are saying so you can understand, respond and remember the conversation.

Visual cues
Think about the last conversation you were in when the person didn’t show they were listening. I’m sure it impacted how you felt about them. Have eye contact and nod to show you’re listening, as well as verbally with words such as yes and uh huh. You might want to also mirror their body language.

Don’t interrupt
This is one of my pet hates. Don’t interrupt or speak over the person. It frustrates the speaker and makes them feel that their words are not important. We all think and speak at different rates, so allow the other person to speak at their own pace.

I feel that genuine listening is beautiful. You are gifting the person your time and attention and showing them you care. It builds relationships, rapport with colleagues and makes the world a better place.

Tweetable: Why listening is everything @catrionapollard http://bit.ly/2nG1cZ2

By Catriona Pollard, Personal Branding

Ever get stuck when asked what you do?

Recently I had a journalist email us to let us know that an interview we had set up for him was a disaster. He said the interviewee couldn’t articulately describe what his company did.

The journalist had to interpret the responses, and it resulted in incorrect information about the company being published. Luckily it was an online publication so we got it changed. But it wasn’t the journalist’s fault, it was the interviewee’s.

Whether you’re trying to gain the interest of a potential customer, trying to get the attention of a journalist or simply explaining what you do, having a strong elevator statement is essential.

An elevator statement is a quick summary you use in any situation where you need to explain your business or what you do in a clear and concise manner.

It’s perfect to use when you need to explain to someone with limited knowledge of your industry what you do, how you do it and who you do it for. It should be simple, short, concise and easy to understand.

3 quick tips:

Write down what you do. Get a pen and paper out and write what you do in different ways. Don’t be too particular at this stage as this first step is for generating ideas and getting a feel for descriptive words.
Get another opinion. Once you have made necessary edits and perfected your statement to fit into a 30-60 second time frame, run it by as many people as you can. It helps to do this practice with people you trust that already have some understanding of what you do so they can best provide feedback.
Practice, practice, practice. Now you have your final statement. Write it down and memorise it so you are comfortable delivering it in any situation.

Tweetable: Ever get stuck when asked what you do? Here are 3 tips for rocking your elevator statement @CatrionaPollard bit.ly/2gfISX7

Personal Branding, Public Relations, Public Speaking

Random acts of kindness

I’ve been thinking about kindness lately. How it relates to our lives and how we can actively use it in business.

I was listening to Linda Burney speak the other day at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards. If you don’t know her, she is the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives and if you haven’t heard her maiden speech to Parliament you should watch it.

At the event one of the things Linda talked about was kindness. She said she wanted to bring kindness and grace to Parliament. Hang on…did I hear that right? Kindness in Parliament? A place where so much mistrust and back stabbing occurs, is that even possible?

She also spoke about love: “I want to bring the aspirations and the wishes and the love of the people of Barton to Parliament”. What politician talks about love?

She said she actively decided to focus on kindness in her life, even if it’s the smallest of things, such as helping a neighbour or smiling at a stranger.

Don’t you just love that! I certainly do. So if anyone is going to bring kindness to Parliament, I think it’s going to be Linda.

Sending love ahead

This week I was speaking to a hugely successful business woman, Lorraine Wood, who runs the only hospital of its kind in Australia – South Pacific Private – that treats addiction and mental health. One of the things she does every day is send her love ahead of her. How great is that!

When she goes into the office, she consciously sends her love to the hospital. (An amazing woman, she is 78 and recently fought to get a loan to expand the hospital.) So she thinks about love and kindness every day.

Random acts of kindness

For me, kindness is like the beauty of nature. You don’t notice unless you actively seek it out. We probably all consider ourselves kind. But do we perform acts of kindness every day? Maybe not.

While kindness is a part of my life already, I’m going to make it a priority to act on it every day both in my personal life and business. What about you? Even the smallest of things count.

Tweetable: What is the one kind thing you have done today? I want to hear about it @CatrionaPollard http://bit.ly/2e5Lx0V