When we think of the word brand, usually we think of a brand we have an affinity for. Possibly a vehicle manufacturer, sports team, phone or soda. You know the things that you’ll pay extra for because you know what you are getting. The consistent quality, experience, fan experience or product you invest in.

In the marketing world we work with brands on the back side of that equation. We think about what impression we want customers to feel when they experience our brand, what we want to them remember about our brand, why we want them to buy into our brand. Have you ever though about your own brand? What emotions you put out into the world, how people feel after knowing or working with you.

In the second episode of Connect, Change & Challenge podcast, my guest is Deron Johnson, FLM Harvest Executive Vice President, Chief Brand Officer. Deron is not only an expert marketer and brand builder, but I also had the privilege of him being my first boss out of college. Fun fact, Deron and I met at National AgriMarketing Association, NAMA. After I interviewed with Deron, I got up and competed with my team in the collegiate competition. No pressure, but good news our team won, and I got the gig! Find out about our personal connection at 1:08.

Deron was the first person to challenge me at my initial annual review to think about my personal brand. I was a year into my career and still wasn’t sure what I wanted to be when I grew up. Deron’s challenge was to think about my personal brand, who I was and how I wanted to grow. In this episode we talk about this starting at 4:00.

Things change. We then go on to talk about the bold line that formerly separated our personal and professional lives is thin if even evident these days. Think about how your personal brand is viewed in your personal life and your professional life. Are they consistent? Do you have work to do on one side of the equation? How has the era of social media changed the separation of personal and private? We discuss this at 16:10.

Finally, we move into the final segment of the podcast discussion, the challenge. Each week on the segment I’ll leave you with a challenge to consider for your personal and professional development growth. The challenge for the Personal Brand podcast is to conduct a review of your personal brand, find both personal and professional contacts you can trust to do an evaluation. Part two, after you identify an evaluation of your brand, identify if there are areas for improvement and then create regular check ins with an accountability team. This group can be the same individuals that gave you the feedback at the beginning of the process or others that can give you helpful feedback but do so in a productive way. We discuss this at 25:42 in more detail.

For more episodes or discussion visit https://stacymayomartinez.com/insights/personalbrand