Blake: [00:00:00] today on the podcast I have and we're going to talk a little bit about building your personal brand, which I know is going to be huge for a lot of people listening in. So Basant, how are you doing today?

[00:00:16] Basant: [00:00:16] I'm good. How are you doing?

[00:00:18] Blake: [00:00:18] I am fantastic. Where? I mean, you're in, you're in Berlin, right? So it's completely different time than, than where I'm at.

[00:00:24] It's early

[00:00:25] Basant: [00:00:25] the afternoon.

[00:00:26] Blake: [00:00:26] Yeah. Yeah. So, I just, just woke up, rolled out of bed and, excited to do this. Yeah. cool. Well, let's dive right into it. Usually I, I want to get more context about you first so that people can come to know who you are, why, why they should trust you, where this advice is coming from, and then we can get into actual tips that people can implement for their own brands.

[00:00:49] But just some quick context on you. First and foremost, what's, what's the story of your career so far? How you got started until where you are now.

[00:00:58] Basant: [00:00:58] Right? So I grew up in Saudi Arabia and I'm originally from Egypt, and about five years ago I moved to Germany to pursue my education. And I think that kind of established me as someone who's a bit more resourceful and constantly trying to get out of her comfort zone. And I think that's why I'm always trying to find ways to really.

[00:01:22] Like be out there and like spotlight myself. And since then, a few, like two years ago, I started posting on LinkedIn about my journey, into finding a job specifically. But essentially it's turned into more of me sharing everything I'm learning. And how, How I've gotten so far in my career and since then I was able to get a job at LinkedIn through doing this.

[00:01:49] So I'm going to be starting as a sales associate this summer, and also because of the thought leadership that I've put out as content. I'm recently launched my. career consulting, like side hustle, called Basant blast. And because I put myself out there and established myself and spotlighted myself, I was able to create my career and also like start e-school projects, get to help people every day.

[00:02:18] So I'm really happy with that.

[00:02:20] Blake: [00:02:20] Awesome. Yeah, that's an interesting twist as well on it because usually when we hear about people posting content on LinkedIn, it's, you know, whether it's to build their own business or their personal brand, but you've actually leveraged it to do both of those things, but also get a job at LinkedIn. So that's really cool.

[00:02:35] And we'll dive into that a little bit more, that kind of the process that you took to get there. But I'm curious if, if I were to ask you what you think your professional super power is, what would you say.

[00:02:46] Basant: [00:02:46] Ooh, that's a good question. I think story telling that's so generic, but I think in general, I'm really good at telling stories and really using my story in a way that will help other people. and I think that's why I love sales so much, is that's essentially helping people through telling stories and also recruitments like that.

[00:03:09] I think so many, so much of business is telling stories, to help others. and I think that's my professional superpower.

[00:03:17] Blake: [00:03:17] well, that that's certainly very relevant to building a brand, and we'll talk about that. I guess let's, let's just start in with that because there are a lot of things that we could cover with building a brand, but first and foremost, stories may be at the forefront of, of doing that. How, how have you, and I guess, how can other people use stories to effectively grow a personal brand.

[00:03:38]Basant: [00:03:38] I would say it's really about. Hmm. It's about using your experiences in a way that will help others. I think that's like the best story you can tell. So when I was looking for a job, that's the kind of story