“You don't grow for the stimuli you've already survived, you grow for the circumstances you have yet to encounter.", emphasizes Mike Phillips, an expert marketer and content creator, and professional weightlifter. In this episode, Mike talks all about growth mindset and #musclemarketing, and the three layers to achieve and apply a growth mindset, not just in marketing or business, but in any aspect of life.

December 2020, during the lockdown, was when it all started for Mike in the marketing and content-creating space, and then it just grew rapidly from there. He started by posting content on his LinkedIn feed daily, observed what works and does not work, and worked his way to be an expert in growth mindset and marketing from the sales and engineering field of work.

Tune into this week’s episode on why marketing isn’t something you do for the present but as an investment for the future.

Quotes:

• “Trying to grow as individuals, as personal growth or professional growth, I think it's wise to always look to teachers that do it better than us. Now that could be the creators out there that are absolutely crushing it, but it can also be anything in the world around us. There are plenty of examples in the natural world and in society that engage with these different types of growth, linear, compound, or exponential growth.” (9:01:32-9:23:83)
•  “The first thing you want to train is to train yourself to observe these functions of growth in the world around you” (11:45:16-11:51:55)
•  "So now that's another aspect of growth. We think about the removal of things that are part of the process to encourage growth and things that do matter." (12:17:40-12:42:61)
•  “It's just that growth has seasons. And that we as individuals will also have times of faster and slower growth, but we are still growing.” (13:09:16-13:17:30)
• “You can learn more from exploring that realm between perceived safe failure and actual maximum ability." (25:17:96-25:26:98)
• “What do we do to embrace a relationship with failure that will help us accelerate growth?" (27:34:33-27:40:20)
• “You don't market yourself for something you need today because marketing is a process that takes time. You market yourself for the opportunities you don't know you'll need in the future. You wind up investing and making those deposits in your brand today so that if you do ever need to make a withdrawal, you've already had that down the road.” (34:41:32-34:58:31)
• “You should

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“To me, social selling is a way that you can network, position yourself as an expert, and actually enjoy the process of selling,” explains Dan Mott, a LinkedIn Social Selling Strategist. Dan started his business to prove to entrepreneurs that selling doesn’t have to be a painful part of running a company. With his extensive knowledge of LinkedIn, Dan teaches people a sales process that they can feel good about and actually enjoy. 

Many entrepreneurs hold themselves back during the sales process out of fear of seeming sleazy to potential clients. However, Dan understands that if you actively listen to the needs and wants of your customer base, you will be able to attract the leads you want. By having a genuine conversation with others, you can increase your sales in a strategically non-salesy way.

Tune into this week’s episode about social selling and the difference between outbound and inbound sales, the importance of understanding your customer base, and how to nurture your network to create results.

Quotes

• “Social selling to me is a way that you can connect with people, network, position yourself as an expert, and actually enjoy the process of selling.” (2:49 - 2:59)

• “​​Knowing what your customer base cares about, or what will drive them to make a purchase, is critical to increasing those conversions and moving people from followers to leads, from leads to phone conversations, and from phone conversations into paying customers.” (9:13 - 9:33)

• “I actually track my lead metrics, which I highly recommend everyone do. Because when you know where the bulk of your leads are coming from, you stop wasting your time on efforts that don't convert.” (30:59 - 31:12)

• “Selling doesn't have to suck. Get rid of the notion that sales is this icky thing that you have to do. Don't even call it sales. Call it networking. Just go out, build relationships, and start conversations.” (37:48 - 38:01)

• “The most important thing is you need to have fun. You need to enjoy the sales process because if you don't, you will fail.” (38:51 - 38:56)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“I think that personal branding has given me an avenue to spread the word and create awareness for what I'm doing,” explains Stacey Danheiser, founder of Shake Marketing Group.  In today’s episode, Michelle and Stacey talk about how to go from being a successful corporate leader to building a successful personal brand based on your expertise. 

Stacey spent years working in marketing for both B2C and B2B companies for years before making the transition to entrepreneurship. Realizing her extensive experience in marketing, Stacey decided to build her personal brand based on her expertise. Shifting into the personal branding space has increased opportunities for Stacey she never would have imagined. Since starting her brand, Stacey has had the opportunity to expand her network, appear on podcasts, and speak at events. By promoting her business and her personal brand separately, Stacey has been able to double her marketing reach.

Tune into this week’s episode for a conversation with host Michelle Griffin and special guest Stacey Danheiser about the transition from the corporate world to entrepreneurship. Learn more about how to capitalize on your expertise to build a profitable personal brand business. 

Quotes with Stacey Danheiser: 

• “I got to the point where I questioned what I was doing. I realized that I was selling every single day. And I decided that since I was selling this much internally, I might as well just start my own thing. And that's what I did. That was the impetus for starting my thing.” (4:16-4:32)

• “What I realized on this journey is that I needed a company brand and I needed a personal brand.” (6:17-6:30)

• “I know that that's really the next stage. For me, that's really the breakthrough piece of the business you have, how do you start talking about your internal struggles, and your external struggles, and that's what connects people because they're like, ``Oh, they're human, they go through all this stuff.” (14:11-14:26)

• “My mantra is to always be open to learning. When I think of learning, it's not just consuming information and knowledge, but being able to act on that and experiment. The only way we continue to grow is to realize learning does not stop when school ends. It is a lifelong journey.” (33:32-33:55)

• “I think personal branding has given me an avenue to spread the word and create awareness for what I'm doing.” (20:26-20:32)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“LinkedIn has created all of these amazing things that I would never have thought would have been possible,” shares Nick Bennett, Director of Evangelism & Customer Marketing @ Alyce In today’s episode Michelle and Nick talk about how to build your personal and employee brand through LinkedIn. 

Nick unexpectedly began his LinkedIn journey after being given a challenge by his boss. Each employee was instructed to post relevant content on LinkedIn regarding something they were passionate about. Even though many of his co-workers quickly dropped out, Nick stuck with it and posted consistently on a daily basis. For the challenge, Nick chose to dive into the topic of field marketing for two reasons. One, it was his passion, and two, it wasn’t being talked about. His persistence unknowingly opened the doors to several opportunities for Nick to build his personal brand and business that he would have never done otherwise. 

Tune into this week’s episode for a conversation with host Michelle Griffin and special guest Nick Bennett about how to use LinkedIn to build your personal and employee brand. Learn more about how to leverage your passion to become an expert in your field. 

Quotes

• “I’m going to put out a challenge to my team of just creating and posting content on LinkedIn. Find something that you're passionate about, and just go for it. And so there were a few of us that actually did it for a couple of months. And then people just kind of fell off. And I just kind of stayed with it.” (5:18-5:35)

• “I didn't have any traction for the first six months, it was literally crickets. I thought maybe I should quit. And then I decided to stick with it because it's fun.” (5:59-6:08)

• “Once six months hit, all of a sudden, I felt like things flip-flopped. I was getting a little bit of engagement and people were starting to see. Then I was starting to get invited to some podcasts and talk about field marketing. And in 2021, it just started to blow up and I never looked back from there.” (6:24-6:48)

• “LinkedIn created all of these amazing things that I would never have thought would have been possible. But if I quit, I would never have realized the full potential.” (6:48-7:05)

• “I would much rather not focus on making a perfect piece of content but engaging with the community that I've built to be able to form relationships. Because in reality, relationships run everything.” (11:25-11:40)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“After 20 some years of not finding myself, I learned how to find myself again,” shares Lisa Richer, founder of Journey2Bloom. In today’s episode, Michelle and Lisa talk about the necessary components needed to successfully launch a personal brand business.

After years of struggling to ask for help, Lisa experienced career-ending burnout. Being the matriarch of her family, Lisa always felt obligated to remain strong for her family and friends, no matter how it affected her. It wasn’t until she gave herself the necessary space, that Lisa was able to gain the clarity she needed to make better decisions for herself. By listening to her intuition, Lisa decided to take the leap and change her career path. Today, Lisa has been able to launch a successful personal brand centered around her passion for helping neurodivergent children. 

Tune into this week’s episode for a conversation with host Michelle Griffin and special guest Lisa Richer to learn how to leverage your passion to find clarity, confidence, and courage so you can build the personal brand of your dreams. 

Quotes 

• “I came to realize that your mindset drives your energy. Your energy drives your clarity. And your clarity drives your focus, your progress, and your success.” (2:51-3:03)

• “I burnt out first and then I woke up and realized I have to follow my heart. So when I transitioned into career coaching, it wasn't just about the journey for the clients, it was about a journey for me.” (6:09-6:36)

• “Trust your gut and trust your heart. If something is screaming at you, stop and reflect on it, acknowledge it, and then give yourself permission to move through it. Don’t push it away because if you push it away, it's just going to come back.” (18:05-18:22)

• “My biggest guidance is go as fast or as slow as you feel like you can to get to where you want and deserve to be. Don't ever think that because you have a really busy job you can't take one hour a day to focus on getting clarity because that is the most crucial piece of this.” (33:45-34:21)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“The more you build relationships within your network, the more great things can happen,” says Wendy Maynard, online business and marketing strategist. In today’s episode, Michelle and Wendy sit down to discuss how to efficiently leverage a small following on LinkedIn. 

According to Wendy, you do not need a massive following on LinkedIn to start selling. In fact, as long as you believe in yourself and the value of your service or product, there is no limit to how much you can sell. At the end of the day, the key to success is to be your own cheerleader. 

Tune into this week’s episode for a conversation on how to attract clients through LinkedIn...no matter the size of your following!

Quotes

• “You can actually sell anything at any price as long as you have enough belief in it.” (20:28-20:33) 

• “I learned business through falling and scraping my face against the pavement. I learned things the hard way but I just had to figure it out.” (21:27-21:37)

• “You’ve gotta believe in yourself and your offer first or no one else will.” (23:31-23:35)

• “You’re not coming to the table as an order taker. You’re coming to the table as a problem solver.” (24:55-25:02)

• “The more you build your network and the more you build relationships within the network, the more great things can happen.” (31:25-31:31)

• “Figure out how you can increase your belief in yourself. Tell yourself good job because we have a tendency to beat ourselves up.” (35:20-35:35)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“Personal brands should have podcasts because it’s one of the easiest ways to grow your brand,” explains Ash Borland, Podcaster, Content Creator, and Consultant. In today’s episode, Ash discusses the steps required to start a podcast for your personal brand business. 

Now is the perfect time to get into podcasting. It is a rapidly growing medium that can help you to become an authority in your industry, grow your network, and build your business. Before starting your podcast, nail down your concept and format. Don’t worry about equipment right away, but instead focus on your goal for your show and what you want to gain from your intended audience. Once you’ve settled on a concept and format, then build up a batch of episodes so that you can maintain consistency even when life throws you a curveball. 

Tune into this week’s episode for a conversation about the best steps to take when starting a podcast for your personal brand business.  

Quotes

• “Personal brands should have podcasts because it’s one of the easiest ways to grow your brand, grow your network. It’s got the least friction. It’s got the least amount of saturation.” (9:05-9:17) 

• “The very first thing that podcasters should do is look at their format and their concept. The concept is the idea. What do you actually want to do? What is the goal of this show?” (15:38-16:05)

• “If you’re gonna do it, batch 5 to 8 weeks before you launch. A little bit of extra time upfront will save you a world of time later on. Just be smart with your time.” (37:15-38:00)

• “Make sure that you have enough runway to be able to if busy life comes up or you get sick or something happens. Consistency is very important. If you drop out or you go away for a month, bear in mind that podcasts are, we’re habitual creatures. If your show doesn’t turn up that week, they’ll go and look for another show and if that show is better than yours, they won’t come back.” (39:21-40:06) 

• “It only comes by you actually going after it and doing it.” (45:12-45:16)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“There’s no real competition when you’re being your true self. There’s no one else like you in the world or in your industry,” shares Scarlette Acevedo, an executive stress coach specializing in burnout prevention and high performance. In today’s episode, Scarlette discusses how to prioritize your mental health and lower your stress levels while growing your personal brand.

Social media has changed how humans interact with each other. It’s important to remember that we are all still humans and not machines. By setting boundaries and putting your mental health first, you can make a positive impact on your work environment. Instead of aiming for unachievable perfection, be yourself and embrace what makes you unique. 

Tune into this week’s episode for a conversation about how to embrace your true self, set healthy boundaries, and prioritize your mental well-being. 

Quotes 

• “I call myself The Good Rebel because I go against the status quo. The status quo in the self-destructive conditioning that we’ve received in our respective industries is about mental health, about showing any vulnerability, and about working hard. That conditioning has actually fostered a very toxic, unhealthy environment for us to work in which has affected us at all levels in our lives.” (2:49-3:22) 

• “There might be a lot of leaders with the same title in the same industry. But there is no one like you. There’s no one who feels things like you. That’s what makes you unique. You build your own mindset in life and your own mindset is what drives what you do.” (4:52-5:15)

• “We really need to remember that we’re humans. We’re not machines, we’re humans. And we need to communicate and relate as humans and not machines or phones.” (13:55-14:04)

• “You don’t need to justify yourself with anyone. It’s your mental health and you have every right to actually prioritize it. If you don’t, no one else will.” (14:23-14:32)

• “There has to be a balance between visibility and privacy. As long as visibility is truthful and meaningful, that’s what matters.” (20:31-20:42) 

• “There’s no real competition when you’re being your true self. There’s no one else like you in the world or in your industry. They might be sharing your same clients, your same audience, but they’re not you. When you are your true self, you’re actually unique.” (26:12-26:33)

• “When you know what your uniqueness is, you’ll find the right balance between visibility and privacy. Being visible means that you’re sharing things that are meaning

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“Being able to craft content so it resonates with people and the frustrations they have is actually the starting point,” shares Richard Moore, sales expert with over 18 years of experience and Founder of LinkedIn Client Accelerator. In today’s episode, Richard discusses how to create content that doesn’t feel like a sales pitch to generate leads. 

Nowadays, people are hyper-aware of when they are being sold to. If you design content that feels too much like an ad, people will just scroll past it. Richard shares tips for creating LinkedIn content that turns into genuine leads such as building community through engagement and adding gentle, low-pressure call to action to posts.

Tune into this week’s episode on how to generate leads on LinkedIn without coming across like a salesperson. 

Quotes

• “Being able to craft content so it resonates with people and the frustrations they have is actually the starting point. What we really need to be able to do is not just stop a crowd of people and make them read, but make them rethink.” (5:19-5:31)

• “Leads aren’t people who show up, who I then chase. Leads are people who step forward because they feel like there’s something there that might change something in their world and they’re self-selecting.” (7:48-8:01)

• “To start conversations to be helpful and hope that in time, people just think fondly of you enough that they will end up setting themselves. Yes, you will close deals, but how can you predict when the next one is? And those people will get one. Six weeks later, they might get another one possibly. And they can't decide that they're going to generate leads.” (12:32-13:00) “You’re always competing with the option of just ignoring it and moving on.” (15:09-15:14)

• “My advice to the audience here is to ask yourself, are you genuinely using real empathy and real awareness now? Is your language reflecting your agenda more than theirs?” (20:30-20:52) 

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn

“If we could truly understand that the human algorithm, the one algorithm that really matters, is something that doesn’t change,” explains Joshua B. Lee, founder of StandOut Authority. In today’s episode, Joshua shares how to humanize the LinkedIn experience for more authentic engagement. 

All businesses are run by people. When we remove the human component from marketing, we end up less successful. All people are the same in that we have been conditioned to seek out dopamine from engagement. By understanding the human algorithm, we can bypass the platform algorithms and receive authentic engagement.

Tune into this week’s episode bout how to humanize your interactions on LinkedIn to enhance your marketing strategy. 

Quotes

• “The biggest thing that I learned was there is a huge difference between traffic and actually true engagement.” (4:09-4:14)

• “I don’t care who you are, we’ve all been conditioned to look for one thing above all else when you post online. We all look for those little hits of dopamine we get when someone likes or comments on our post.” (16:46-17:05)

• “Conversations turn into relationships. Relationships turn into opportunity.” (18:04-18:07) 

• “Businesses are run by another human being. Most marketers have just forgotten that. And if you have a way to be able to connect, no matter how it is, there's a way to be able to do it.” (27:44-27:59)

• “And we're all human and it's okay. Don't be scared to post, put something out there and just allow yourself to shine.” (27:59-28:05)

• “Engage with people that engage with you. Don’t miss that opportunity. It starts with your personal brand. If you do not have your personal profile rocked out, that needs to shine. It needs to be a career journey. Tell that journey, tell that story, because there are ways to be able to communicate and connect with people.” (28:49-29:25) 

• “Be 100% you 100% of the time on and offline.” (32:31-32:34)

Michelle B. Griffin is a keynote speaker, personal brand and PR strategist, author, podcaster and LinkedIn® visibility expert who helps high-achieving professionals elevate their visibility and influence for business growth.

As the founder of Brand Leaders® Executive Branding and creator of the Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap, she helps B2B founders, leaders and industry experts position their personal brands and leverage LinkedIn + PR to grow influence, increase demand, and become top-of-mind authorities to accelerate business growth.

Book a chat with Michelle to discuss speaking, advising or workshops to scale visibility, influence, and business growth. MichelleBGriffin.com/chat

WEBSITE: MichelleBGriffin.com
EXECUTIVE BRANDING ADVISORY: Brand Leaders
READ: My Personal Branding Books
LISTEN: The LinkedIn Branding Show
CONNECT: With Me on LinkedIn