by Carol O'Kelly | Uncategorized
Here are 5 ways to be “Extraordinary”
SET AN “EXTRAORDINARY” GOAL.
What if you set your sights on being extraordinary and set an extraordinary goal, dream big, no wait, dream huge… Let this be a true challenge for you. What could you achieve if you didn’t stop to consider what others may think of you? Or whether you had enough courage? Choosing extraordinary goals challenges our root beliefs about ourselves, often disproves them… We become unstoppable.
THINK DIFFERENTLY
When we set an “Extraordinary” goal it forces our minds to think differently about ourselves, our purpose, our ability to achieve. It leads to unconventional thinking, it forces us to challenge our normal believes and behaviours, explore new ideas, and unconventional approaches, to break free of old habits. Focus on who you need to be to achieve that extraordinary goal. Let your mind work in extraordinary ways to get you there.
BE READY TO FEEL NEW EMOTIONS
Chasing an “Extraordinary” goal, brings a storm of emotions. They can be both terrifying and exhilarating. Allow yourself to feel them all. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It is a journey of fear and doubt to get to trust in the enormous potential you hold in your hands. Nothing of value comes easily, and you deserve to let all your value shine.
HAVE EXTRAORDINARY STYLE
You have set an “Extraordinary” goal. We all know it’s a huge reach. We all feel fear and doubt. We feel small, anxious, we feel like an imposter. It’s an uncomfortable journey for everyone. Whatever you need to do to get to that extraordinary goal, do it with Style. Treat yourself and others on this journey with Style. Be polite, be welcoming, be kind. Deal with rejection and naysayers with Style. Have Style in your communications, your reactions, your opinions and in your self-care
HAVE EXTRAORDINARY HABITS
Set yourself up for success in every way. Become the person you need to be in order to achieve this “Extraordinary” goal. Bring habit stacking into your routine. Once you develop one positive, proactive habit, stack another onto it. Sleep well, rise early, eat well, move your body daily, work in a bright, clean space, hydrate, and dress well. Have true pride in yourself. Build, extraordinary habits around your communications, visibility, networking, and around your personal brand.
Choose to step away from your Impostor fear…
Choose to be Extraordinary on Purpose
Feel like you need to work on your Impostor Feelings, on your confidence or on your Personal Brand click HERE for a 30 minute discovery call with Carol.
by Carol O'Kelly | Uncategorized
Today is international #DayOfTheGirl
The day when women and girls the world over celebrate being amazing, remarkable, powerful and impactful. Or it should be.
I believe that women are truly remarkable. I believe that every woman and girl deserves an education, deserves to be able to read, write and stand up for her ideas. Every one of us deserves to be listened to, to be valued, to be heard.
We’ve made enormous steps towards equality for women in leadership, women on boards, women getting equal pay and an equal say. But we must be honest and realise that we still have a long way to go. In some industries more than others.
In my Professional Personal Branding work I choose to work 95% of my time with women. To work on getting those voices strong, bringing clear value and impact into client’s lives, and packaging that value in a highly relevant way aimed at key audiences.
Today on this fabulous day, let’s all stop for a second and fully celebrate the women in our lives and the women we are and the ones we’ll become. Let us all be Brave, Courageous, Remarkable and Kind. Let us reach back and pull up the woman behind us. Let us support each other and celebrate each other.
I wish everyone a wonderful #InternationalDayOfTheGirl
by Carol O'Kelly | Uncategorized
“What really is Professional Personal Branding?” I speak/write on this topic every hour, of every day – it’s Friday evening and a US client who has just signed up to work with me has just asked this question. I’m exhausted after a week of storms both literally and work related but I needed to be really clear for her.
So, I asked her what she felt it was, and why she had already signed up still lacking that clarity. In fairness, she was waaaaaay ahead of the norm in her understanding. “A personal branding strategy is a plan to take your reputation and career from relative obscurity to high visibility. It describes where you stand today and what level of visibility you want to achieve in the future.”
Is that it?
It’s so much better than the usual “Head shots and more colour in your wardrobe” that I usually hear.
BUT is that it?
A very encouraging “NO” from me. Yes, its strategic. Highly, visibly and pointedly strategic. But it’s not just about visibility. Anyone can have that – and for any reason.
Professional Personal Branding is about strategically building Your Self to be your very best, strongest and most brilliant – in the eyes of your specifically designed audience segments – in a voice that is trusted, heard on platforms that are valued.
Imagine this…
When you walk into a boardroom, they already understand clearly the value you bring, the voice you use, the knowledge you have, the way you interact, your connections, your twist, your brilliance, your story. And they want that. It is clear, they can repeat it, they value it above anything else.
Do you have an impactful Professional Personal Brand?
by Carol O'Kelly | Uncategorized
Everything’s so loud, so busy and instantaneous now that it’s getting harder and harder to stand out. The level of competition is fierce, it’s global and it’s critical to be seen, to be heard and to be valued amongst your competitors in the eye of a small number of potential clients or recruiters. Unfortunately, it’s a difficult feat to achieve.
Branding on a business-level is common, but today branding is becoming just as important on a personal level. After all, you might work for a business that works with other businesses, but it’s people working with people that makes business relationships truly valuable. Even if you have your own company, with a great brand, you, yourself need to stand out.
People need to know what they can expect from you before you walk in the door or pop into a Zoom call. They need to understand the value and experience you bring. What are you renowned for? What is your work ethos? How do you communicate with others (those above and below you)? How will you deliver for prospective clients? What’s your personal brand story and is it easy for them to repeat correctly.
Remember: “People Do Business with People”
So, how can you go about building a great Professional Personal Brand that stands out, is authentic, is valuable, relevant and engaging?
IT ALL STARTS WITH YOU:
What are your personal drivers? Your Values? Your Key Descriptors? Stay away from all those wonderfully dull, overused words; Professional, Team Player, Good Communicator. Everyone is all of these things surely? You want to stand out.
Let me correct that – You NEED to stand out!
As a starting point for your Personal Brand, aim to discover words that describe you, drive you and are a bit of a stretch for you. These will be your descriptors and will remind you at every touch point what you want people to get from their interactions with you. Find words that are Emotional rather than Functional. You’ll always bond with someone a lot faster over emotional connections.
TRY OUT DESCRIPTORS/DRIVERS LIKE;
Curious, Exciting, Kind, Welcoming, Empowering. They are all action based emotive descriptors. Before you go into that next Big Deal Meeting – Remind yourself of these words, Be these words and Stretch to Fit these words.
WHO WILL CONNECT WITH YOU?
The next area to really look closely at is who are you dealing with? Who is your Audience? Now, that may seem clearly straight forward. Your Customer – the one you really want to buy from you. But everyone in business (Business Owner, Manager, Entrepreneur, Solopreneur, Blue Chip Sales Director) has numerous audiences, some more critical to the “Yes Decision” than others. But ignore your Influencers, Connectors, Detractors and Advocates at your peril. Build a daily awareness of these groups and their needs and trust points as they relate to you and your value message.
Make the effort to delineate those audiences, clearly. What they value, where they have knowledge gaps, what they worry about, what comes between them and a “Yes Decision”, who they need to impress, what’s relevant for them. Also keep in mind who they know, who they could refer you to or recommend you to.
Use this information to craft your personal brand, ensuring that is engaging, valuable, authentic and relevant. Build a series of messages based on your brand for each of these audiences. Show them that you are of interest and of value to them. Prove to them that you are a giver, a helper, a connector. Be authentic to yourself, your beliefs and values in a way that shows you to be the best match for them. In a way that is energising, engaging and clear. Be clear and concise in your Personal Brand. It must be easily understood by you and by those who meet you. It must be consistent, every time I meet you I know what you’ll be like; Don’t let me down, don’t confuse me or disappoint me. Rather, aim to reassure me, enlighten me and impress me.
A great authentic Personal Brand is the best calling card you can possibly have. Now all you have to do is get it out there!
by Carol O'Kelly | Uncategorized
“The most comprehensive professional personal branding service suite on the market today.”
We’ve been working incredibly hard to expand and target our services suite over the past few months. I have personally been working with the most incredible women in leadership positions. I have asked and listened to exactly what it is they need around their personal branding, leadership voice, communications services, advisory and positioning strategies. And we have delivered.
We have delivered over and over again in a wide variety of markets from International Advisory to Pharma, Intellectual Property, STEM, Law, Banking and Fintech.
It is an honour to work with women at this level, to service their career trajectories and to fine tune our next generation of service suite to fulfil their leadership dreams.
The quote above came from a client I have been working with for about 4 months, she is a leading director of a private bank in NYC. But I didn’t hear it from her, I heard it from a woman I was speaking at a conference with who recognised my name, as they sit together on an advisory board. She too, is now working with me.
If you are interested in learning more about this service suite and how it can transform your leadership journey or that of your leadership team feel free to give me a call and we can chat through this very strategic and fully comprehensive range of services.
#leadership #career #womeninbusiness #empowerment #womeninbanking #womeninfinance #communications #intellectualproperty #personalbranding #learning #fintech #femaleleadership #femaleleaders #womeninETFs
by Carol O'Kelly | Branding, Marketing, Strategy & Planning, Uncategorized
Not only what are your Personal Brand Descriptors but do they drive you day to day?
When I ask people what their Personal Brand descriptors are I always, always, always get someone who says “Professional” or “Team Player” or “Multi Tasker”. Now clearly these attributes are incredibly important in a work environment but seriously, do you wake up and leap out of bed at 6am shouting “Yeay! I’m Professional”?
Really, does that drive you to challenge your self? To strive to be better? To stretch yourself? Are you proud when you meet someone new through business and the one take away they have from you is that you are “Professional”? Really?
Personal Brand Descriptors take a bit of effort. They must be authentic to you. They must be active, not passive. They should stretch you a bit. They need to be positive. Ideally they should be Emotional rather then Functional. They should be really obvious to people who meet you. They should come across at every touch point with your audiences; spoken, written, social media, video…
They are clear drivers for you every day. That’s why it’s so worth while taking the time to really work on them. Ask people who know you what words they would use to describe you. What elements of “You” do they value and why. What elements do they know are in there somewhere but they can see you keep under wraps.
Think about going to a Networking Event (Oh the Horrors!). I’m naturally quite a shy person so I abhor these events. So, without my Personal Brand Descriptors I go in to a conference and at the Networking break I’d firstly head straight to the loo for 5 minutes, then to the tea station, oh and then the iPhone calls – I look busy, unapproachable and in demand; but wont have to talk to anyone – then I head off wondering why I put myself through this because it was all a bit rubbish and I didn’t make any valuable contacts.
Now, consider I attend the “Horrors” of a networking evening armed with my own Personal Brand Descriptors; Curious, Engaging, Brave. I will go out of my way to embody these words because I know my brand and I know these are an integral part of this brand. It is not me actively going up to a stranger and asking “What encouraged you to attend tonight” it’s my brand (which I’m really proud of) because I’m being “Curious”, even if, initially, I need to force myself to do it. Then I find myself introducing someone I have just met at the tea station to someone I know through a sports club – because I am “Engaging” and I’m doing it all because despite myself I am “BRAVE”.
Don’t forget you tailor these Personal Brand Descriptors to your own authentic self so if you’re very quite and internal choose words that are authentically you but that stretch you a bit. “Listener”, “Interested” “Brave” (for a bit of Scary Spice!).
Know your story, know who you are, know your audience. Be passionate about it and let your descriptors drive you.