Episode 13

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Published on:

7th Feb 2025

Episode 13 How to develop your personal brand authentically

In this episode Sarah dives deep into a critical yet often challenging topic: personal branding. She explores why personal branding matters, how to create one authentically, and ways to navigate challenges such as the “likability conundrum.” If you’re ready to take control of your narrative and elevate your career, this episode is for you.

Key Takeaways

  • Why personal branding is essential for career advancement.
  • Strategies to develop your personal brand authentically.
  • Overcoming gender norms and societal expectations.
  • Practical tips on visibility, networking, and storytelling.

Show Notes

[00:00:00] - Introduction to the podcast and host, Sarah Archer.

[00:01:00] - Why personal branding is vital and often overlooked.

[00:02:30] - The benefits of having a strong personal brand.

[00:03:30] - Challenges women face, including the likability conundrum.

[00:05:00] - Strategies to overcome societal biases authentically.

[00:06:00] - Controlling your narrative and crafting your brand story.

[00:08:00] - Identifying your brand elements: value, skills, and impact.

[00:10:00] - Opportunities to enhance visibility internally and externally.

[00:11:00] - Networking strategies that work for introverts and extroverts.

[00:12:30] - The importance of authenticity in leadership and self-promotion.

[00:13:30] - Recap and actionable tips for developing your personal brand.

Useful Links

Watch this episode on LinkedIn Live

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Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Join The Love What You Do Facebook Group

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

Remember, you are capable of more than you know. Shine brightly, lead boldly, and unlock the extraordinary potential within you. Be unstoppable.

Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

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leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

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I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 13 of the

unstuck and unstoppable podcast.

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I am so glad you're here.

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And today we're talking

all about developing your

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personal brand authentically.

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. When I'm working with clients,

this is often something we we work

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on together and a lot of women

find this a really tricky area.

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We're going to explore that a little bit

more . Because it can feel quite exposing

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and it can also feel like a non essential.

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But actually, there's lots

of great reasons why you

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should have a personal brand.

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Do you feel like you've got one?

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Can you articulate it?

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Are you actively promoting it?

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And yeah, I'd love to know what you feel

about the thought of developing your

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personal brand and actually using it.

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And it can feel like, you have time

for developing a personal brand.

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My job is full on, but it is important

to spend time thinking about it because

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whether you like it or not, you have one.

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What we're putting out

there it gets, seen.

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You will have a personal brand, even

if you haven't actively created it.

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And , if you are actively working on your

personal brand, it's going to be great

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having a strong reputation that people can

see, that people can recognize, because

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it's going to lead to more opportunities

both internally and externally.

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Whether that's getting a secondment,

whether it's getting the opportunity

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to lead a project that you're really

interested in, getting an offer to speak

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somewhere, or write something, or get

that promotion, it is definitely going

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to contribute to Accelerating those

opportunities for you and, it enables

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you to have a consistent message about

your talents, which is really important

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because that helps you stand out.

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It is a crowded market.

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There are going to be lots of

other people who've got similar

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skills and experiences to you.

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Having a personal brand that

you're actively engaging with.

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Managing will help you to stand out and

the research shows that if you do have a

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really strong personal brand, you're more

likely to attract an internal sponsor.

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And having an internal sponsor is useful

because that means you've got a champion.

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You've got somebody in your corner who

is probably, talking about you selling

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your value into the organization.

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And the research also shows that if

you have a sponsor, you are 23 percent

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more likely to get a promotion.

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That's definitely something

worth thinking about.

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But I have to say oh, and the other

thing, actually, that it's useful for

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is it helps you stand out in your field.

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So then if you're facing redundancy

at any point in your career, you're

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more likely to get snapped up

because people can recognize you

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have a strong personal branding.

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They can see how you can add value.

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But the thing I was going to say

is it can be really challenging

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for women, particularly to actively

promote their personal brand.

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for different reasons, but one of the

reasons is this thing called a likability

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conundrum, if you've heard of that, , we

have gender norms, which unfortunately

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are still out there, and the gender

norm around women is that we are nice,

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that we're warm, that we're nurturing.

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And we all hold these

kind of gender norms.

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It's not just, men seeing it that

way, other women see it that way too.

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And if those gender norms are breached,

and the breach can be through stepping

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up, making tough decisions, having strong

opinions, self promoting, then what

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can happen is that we can be penalized

in a way that Men aren't penalized.

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So people can then think about us as being

too aggressive, too pushy, too ballsy,

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too cold, maybe even, calling us the B

word and, that can then put women off

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stepping up and taking on that personal

brand that is about being assertive.

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That's being a leader that's

actually, being able to take those

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decisions or voice those views.

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But what I'm going to hopefully share

with you today is some ways that you

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can navigate that likability conundrum

in a way that feels authentic to you.

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And also that you can give yourself

confidence to, to manage your personal

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brand successfully without fearing

that you're going to fall into

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those penalizing views about you.

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The first thing to think about

is, controlling your narrative.

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Because often we tend to think, okay,

I don't need a pestle brand, I'm just

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going to work really hard, and people

will notice that I'm great at what I do.

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Or if I've made some career choices,

I've taken a career break or

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I've made a shift or a switch in

some way, people will understand

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why I maybe have had to do that.

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But the reality is that we're all too

busy to really think deeply about other

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people in our orbit, and often we

might make assumptions about people.

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about the choices they've

made or what they do.

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So if you don't talk about the complexity

of your job and the challenges that you

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face, then your manager might just assume

that actually, okay, you have it easy.

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You don't have to deal with all of

these difficult things that maybe,

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a counterpart is dealing with that's

actually telling their manager

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I've had to navigate all these

challenges to get to this end result.

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You might just be beavering away

and getting to that end result,

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still facing those challenges,

but not telling anybody about it.

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So there's assumptions made that

maybe you've got an easy ride.

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You do need to think about how can

I let people know about the value

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that I bring in terms of managing the

complexity, managing challenge, managing

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difficulty, and sharing successes.

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Or, if you've made a career switch you

don't want people making assumptions

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when you switched because you couldn't

hack that previous career, it's having a

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narrative that allows you to tell people

in a way that you feel comfortable with

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the value that you might bring from that

previous shift or that previous role and

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how it adds value to what you do now.

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Often I talk to clients about it's not

just about moving up in your career.

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It might be about making choices that

allow you to have more creativity or more

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challenge or stimulation or, staying in a

specialism rather than becoming a manager.

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But being able to articulate why

that is enables people to see.

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, you're really committed to this

and you're bringing all of this

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great creativity or whatever it is.

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Being able to control your narrative.

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And I think one way to do that

is to think about, okay, what

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do I want to be known for?

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What are my brand elements?

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You can think about this in three ways.

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How do I add value?

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What are the skills and capabilities

and talents that I bring?

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That I demonstrate that add value, that

make a difference, that make change,

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that leads to things having impact.

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And then what am I like

to work with or for?

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What's my brand in terms of

how I want to be at work?

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And how do I make people feel?

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Because there's that old adage,

people don't remember what you

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did or what you said, but they

remember how you made them feel.

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Thinking about those brand elements

and weaving them together into a

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narrative that you feel comfortable

with, that you can then be explicit

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about in terms of how you add value.

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Maybe you're great at problem solving.

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But because you're great at it, you feel,

Oh, I don't need to tell people that

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this is something that I'm good at.

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I just get on with it.

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But actually thinking about

how can I really demonstrate

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that problem solving ability is

a real advantage to the business.

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And then, being ready to talk about that.

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And this is all going to take practice.

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It's not going to be something you're

going to feel comfortable doing overnight.

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But thinking about, OK, when I'm having

an interaction with my boss or my boss's

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boss, how am I telling them about

what I do and the difference I make?

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When I'm talking to my team,

how am I making my team feel?

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What are they experiencing as a

result of my leadership style?

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And maybe being explicit about the

culture that you want to create and making

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your team aware of your leadership style.

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the second thing is then to look

for opportunities to be visible.

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Once you've created this brand and

you're really comfortable with it

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and you're comfortable talking about

it, you've got to think about how

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do you want to get that out there.

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And it's looking for opportunities

both internally and externally in

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ways that you feel comfortable with.

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It might be about looking for writing

or speaking opportunities, might

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be thinking, okay, how can I go

and do maybe a lunch and learn

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if your organization runs those?

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Or how could I write something

that contributes to the intranet

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or the website or writing a piece

for a trade organization or trade

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press or something like that?

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And how can I demonstrate my

expertise beyond my immediate

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team and my immediate boss?

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How can I go and present at a different

team or in a different department, or

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go to senior leadership team and talk

about something that I'm working on.

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Looking for opportunities, and it

might even also be pushing yourself

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forward in those opportunities

as well, creating them for you.

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Which kind of leads me on to my

next point, my third one, which

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is about networking internally and

externally and networking people

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go, I don't want to do that.

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But it's about doing it.

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And again, in a way that

feels right for you.

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for you.

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It might be one more on a one to

one basis than on a group basis.

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It might be more about writing than

speaking, finding ways that you can

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build your network And also focus

on what they call bridging capital.

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That's about looking for people or groups that you can develop networks

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in that are different to you.

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Cause when we tend to network,

we tend to network in with

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people that are similar to us.

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So within our function or our specialism

or our department or our team.

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And actually we want to take it broader

because the more people that know you and

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know what you do and can talk about you

and see your value, then the more your

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personal brand is going to be boosted.

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It is then going and looking for

opportunities to talk to a different

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team or get to know a counterpart in

a different organization or, just ways

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to broaden, your network so that you're

not just reliant on your immediate

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network to to sell your product.

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praise it.

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You've got more champions

in the organization.

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And then my fourth area in terms

of the strategy to navigate the

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likability conundrum is to be authentic.

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Often if we've got to make a tough

decision or we've got a voice, a strong

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opinion, or, if the culture is quite

say male if you don't want to be seen

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as that nice, warm, nurturing person,

you might feel you've got to go to the

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opposite end, if you like, of that.

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But actually, what I would

say is to be really authentic.

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So if you've got to take a

tough decision, you can still

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do that in a compassionate way.

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If you've got to voice a strong

opinion, you can still be collaborative

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in how you voice that opinion.

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And if you're promoting yourself, you

can do it in a way that's helpful.

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You can link your skills and previous

experience to something that's going to

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be useful to your boss or whoever it is

you're talking to about what you're doing.

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It is about bringing

that authenticity into it.

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And that's why doing that piece about

what your brand elements are, so if

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you want to be known for compassionate

leadership, then that is what's

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going to be underpinning the brand.

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The decisions that you're going to

make and how you operate as a leader

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or as a specialist so that you don't

feel that you're going to be penalized,

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and if you are, authentically, I made

that decision in the best way and I

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put things in place to support people

who are affected by that decision.

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I know that's a lot to think about,

but just to recap, if you are

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thinking about wanting to actively

promote your personal brand in an

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authentic way, it is having a strategy.

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It's thinking about

controlling your narrative.

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that means developing what you want to

be known for and then thinking about

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how you want to communicate that.

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And then looking for opportunities

to get that visibility and

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then networking internally and

externally, but in a diverse way.

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So not just sticking

within your known group.

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Plus being authentic in terms of

how you operate and how you want

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to promote yourself and your brand.

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It's not following a cookie

cutter approach to it.

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It's really thinking about this is

me, , how I want to live my brand.

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It has got to be, coherent.

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With my actual brand.

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I know that's been a

bit of a whistle stop.

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tour through developing a personal brand.

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And obviously, there's a

lot that goes into that.

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So if you want any support or

any help with developing your own

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personal brand, then do get in touch.

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It's something that I do with my clients.

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It is part of taking

yourself to that next level.

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and being really proactive.

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This episode is also available to

watch on LinkedIn live and I'll pop

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a link in the show notes for you.

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And while you're over on LinkedIn,

if we're not already connected.

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Please do send me a connection request.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.

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About the Podcast

Unstuck & Unstoppable
Career Talk For Ambitious Women
Unstuck & Unstoppable is the go-to podcast for ambitious female leaders ready to amplify their impact, boost their income, and achieve career success on their own terms—without burning out or compromising their values. Hosted by Sarah Archer, a leadership coach and career strategist dedicated to empowering women in leadership, this show provides the tools, strategies, and inspiration you need to thrive in your career.
Whether you’re looking to overcome imposter syndrome, enhance your leadership skills, or create a sustainable path to success, each episode will offer actionable insights, expert interviews, and real-life stories to help you take your career to the next level.
It’s time to stop playing small, unlock your full potential, and create the impact you’re destined for. Tune in weekly to discover how you can lead boldly, live fully, and succeed with confidence and integrity.

About your host

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Sarah Archer