Navigating 2024 Market Changes: The Power of a Strong Personal Brand

Karen Yankovich 0:10
Hello, hello, and welcome to the good girls get rich podcast. My name is Karen Yankovich. I am the host of the show. And I am really passionate about today’s topic. So it may go into a little Jersey go rant here, we’ll see how we’ll see how this goes. You know, as I’m recording this, it’s the middle of 2024. And it’s been a year. It’s been a year, I’ve never seen a year. And I’ve been probably doing this digital marketing stuff since, like 2010, maybe. And so it’s 14 years, right. And I’ve been doing marketing for way more than, you know, obviously, way more than that. So I say that to say that, you know, things shift, things change, algorithms change markets change, right, every one thing we can count on in marketing is that there’s going to be change. But in my life, I’ve never seen the bottom drop out or a change the way I’ve seen a change in the last 12 months, and certainly in the last six months. And I think I think we’re seeing it more in the last six months, because but I think it started like 12 months ago. And you may remember, I don’t know if you do or don’t. But a couple of maybe a year and a half ago, it was probably like last December ish. So December 2022, I actually did a panel, Kelly O’Neil ran the panel, if I can find it, I’ll drop it in the show notes. And we were it was it was all a bunch of you know, business owners that were running highly successful businesses. And one thing that we all agreed on, there were things everybody had different opinions on things. And one thing that we all agreed on, was that marketing needed to be more intimate marketing needed to be more personal. And that absolutely came to be true. Because what was working before you know, you could create and and listen, do not listen to this podcast, if you’re looking for tips on how to create your low ticket funnels. I’m not saying they don’t work, I think they work phenomenally it as a matter of fact, it’s, you know, it’s things I’m getting some help with, because I’ve kind of ignored that for a long time. And I say that because that’s not my area of expertise. But I can tell you that what I’ve done be in the past, just to generate, you know, to throw out a $70 offer a $90 offer or $250 offer a $25 offer, it doesn’t it just work. I mean, like the things that I could count on. Like, if I sent out an email to 10,000 people, I knew that some percentage of them are going to buy this $250 thing. Nobody’s buying it. Now we’re doing it the way we the way I used to do it. Right. And I’m not what I’m hearing from so many of my colleagues is that they’re all finding the same thing. And they are, there’s more people than I’ve ever seen before in my life, that have been online marketers moving to back to corporate and good for do what you got to do. Right? Good for you. Like, I’m not no judgment on anything. But I’m here to say if you’re experiencing this, there are some things you can do. And I can tell you what I’m doing, and I can tell you what is working. And that’s what we’re talking about today, which is why I feel like this is gonna get real passionate, right? So and really what it comes down to is the best investment you can ever make is in your personal brand, right the brand of you because as you get stronger and smarter and and more savvy around the things that you love to talk about, and you love to do with your job and your business, whatever the better that’s going to be for your personal success, whatever that looks like for you. And we’re going to talk a lot about that in today’s show. Because I want to, I want you to have these tools. So whatever your next chapter looks like, you’re going into the next chapter, building a thought leader brand, building a strong brand, have you right? Thinking really putting some attention to your personal brand. Okay, so that’s what we’re diving into today. Let’s talk a little bit about what I mean by personal brand, right? So. So if you and I might have told us kind of excuses example on the show before but if you’re going out to buy a car, right, and you were looking at different dealers, and you meet different salespeople at different dealers, and every, you know, you you’re just looking for a deal or whatever, you’re looking at different brands, models, whatever. If you’re like most people, you’re probably coming home with the business card, and, you know, apply this, whatever it is you’re buying, and throwing your name in a Google search, because you want to know a little bit about the people we do business with, right? If you’re on a zoom call, we’re throwing their names in a Google search, we’re going to know a little bit more about the people that we’re interacting with, right? What comes up, when you do that is often your personal brand, right? It’s your digital brand. It’s your digital footprint, whatever, however you want to describe it. And not enough people understand that they can control this. So go back going back to my example of a car, you know, if you if there’s like, five different cards you have, let’s just say right, and you throw in the names of the different people that you’ve dealt with, and one of them has paid attention to their personal brand. One of them has created a LinkedIn profile that showcases the awards that they’ve won, how long they’ve been in the industry. By the way, even if they’ve been in the industry for five minutes, what they’re doing is they’re painting a story of their journey to make sure that we know how qualified they are to be doing what they’re doing now. So it doesn’t mean if you haven’t been doing what you’re doing now for a million years, it doesn’t work for you. No, no, no, that’s a complete opposite is true. If you take control of your personal brand, what you’re doing is you’re kind of talking about your journey, telling the story of you that brought you to where you are today. And that gives you credibility, and that adds to your personal brand, right? So, again, I’m not saying that, that you’re gonna get the best deal, or the best car or that person is the best person to buy a car from, but that person did their job, they made you comfortable investing with them, you’re comfortable going to them and investing with them. And more than ever, as we move through 2024, we need to be doing this for ourselves, we need to be taking control of our of our personal brands, because we are living in truly living in times of uncertainty, the entire world is living in times of uncertainty, who would have ever thought 10 years ago, that the entrepreneurs have more job security than corporate, right? Like we are living in times of uncertainty. And what we can do when the world is uncertain, is invest in ourselves, invest in our skills, invest in our brand, so that we show up as the word telling the world I am the most qualified person for you to invest in, whether they’re gonna hire you as an employee, whether they’re gonna hire you as a consultant, or a coach, or a doctor or lawyer or buy your book, whatever it is, right? You it’s up to us to create that brand. And that’s, that is how we adapt to these kind of uncertain times, to changing circumstances to new market demands. Right? You know, I mentioned to you that, you know, I spent a lot of years building an audience, right, building an audience of people to listen to this podcast, building an audience of people that, that know me and know my brand and know the work that I do. So so that, you know, I want to make sure that that there’s value in that, right, there’s a ton of value in that. So but but over these years that I’ve been doing that things change, right? Like what what we what I used to do to say grow my email list. I’m not saying you can’t do those things anymore. But I feel like I want to do something differently, I am looking for ways to adapt to changing circumstances to changing markets to new market demands, right? And, and what this market right now is requiring, is for me to show up as a thought leader is for you to show up as a thought leader, and whether or not you’ve ever saw yourself as a thought leader. And by the way, this is true. This is true, whether you’re looking for a client, or a paycheck, right or job, you when you show up as a thought leader, you’re positioning yourself way above everyone else. And in this crazy, noisy online world, you’re standing out from the crowd, right? You’re standing up for the crowd, when you take time to create this person and to position yourself as a thought leader. So so when you know, because because there’s some uncertainty and that Not to mention, okay, not to mention, when we’re looking to hire somebody, we are looking at things differently in 2024, than we did five or 10 years ago, we’re looking to, to understand what people’s personal values are. Right? It’s important to me, when I bring people to my team, or when I introduce somebody to you to my network, to my audience, that I am confidently bringing somebody in front of them whose values I respect. Okay, and it’s not, I’m not here to tell you how to think or what to do what to do right and wrong. I believe that with visibility comes responsibility. And I feel responsible, I take that responsibility seriously. And I want to bring you people that I believe their values are aligned to my values. And it doesn’t mean that I have never made mistakes on that I’ve surely Yeah, right. But I think that it’s important that, that you’re sharing what your values are, so that people know that. Let me give you an example. We’re going to talk a little bit about PR as we move into this the rest of this episode. And you know, think about it, you’re a journalist, and you come across somebody, you’re looking for source for a story. And you come across somebody that you’re like, oh, wow, this person is really knowledgeable about this topic, that you want to make sure that their values align with yours. And if you don’t know, you might pass on them you might pass on. So the days I’m not ever talking about politics or religion, I think that’s over. I think that’s over. I think we need to show up.

I mean, there is no doubt in anybody’s mind. I hope right I hope And if there is, let me just be really clear, I am so committed to helping more women make more money because more women with more money have more choices. We’re living in a world right now where women don’t have enough choice, right? So I want and the more money you have, the more ability you have to have to make, to make the kind of choices you need to make to live the kind of life you want to live, those are my values, okay. And if your values are our opposite, that you need to bring somebody else to talk to, on your show, you need to be somebody else to do that. And and if your values are that you want to, you want to, to give women less freedom and less valid, less, less of a voice, I don’t want you on my show, right. So the only way we know who these people are is if we are talking about this stuff. And this is what I mean about about showcasing this, and this is what I mean about creating your thought leader brand. I am not saying that you have to preach to your audience, even though I feel like I’m doing a little preaching right now. What I am saying is that people want to know what your values are in this world that we’re living in. And that’s part of your personal brand. It’s part of your thought leader brand. I mean, think about what happened in the last 10 years, thank goodness, right? With the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion movement. 10 years ago, it didn’t occur to me when I was looking to hire somebody that I wanted to have a diverse workforce, it just didn’t occur to me, I was like, I just want the best person for the job. I didn’t understand that that was not benefiting my business, by bringing people to my business that had different skin colors, different life experiences than I have it, you know, it makes a big difference. Now I understand that know better do better, right? So there’s, I always I still have more to learn on that I’m sure I will always be learning. But that’s kind of what I mean by that bye under, like wanting to make sure that as I bring people to you, that they you can be confident that I’ve at least made the attempt to bring people to you that align with those values. Does that make sense? So you so as we’re navigating this uncertain world, this is all part of your personal brand, okay? And this is how we stand out from the crowd. I don’t want to go work for somebody, I don’t want clients that don’t align with my values. I’m happy to listen, I want you to I don’t I’m not telling you how to think I’m not telling you how to vote. I really am not. I, I. But if you asked me, Can you help me promote? Something that I feel is against my values? I’m probably going to say no, right? If you don’t ask me, and I don’t know that I’m not going to, you know, I’m not going to ask you. Well, first, before I hire, you hired me, I need to know like, I don’t I’m not saying that. But if you come to me, and you specifically asked me, if I can help promote something that I feel I don’t want to promote? I’m gonna say no, I think it’s okay to do that. In these times. We’re living in these uncertain times. So my personal brand, my thought leader brand sits in this exact place. And that’s where I want to, that’s the lane I want to stay in. Right. So you got to build a little resilience around this right? You got to be ready to say no, to some, I mean, sometimes these people have a big their credit card in their hands, right? So so you sometimes you have to be ready to say no. But here’s the thing, when you’ve got this strong personal brand, not only are you attracting all of the exact right people to you, you’re kind of dispelling the people that are not a fit, because they’re probably not following you if they’re not aligned with that, right. So so this is how you stay focused and motivated, despite all the crazy stuff that’s happening in the world. And despite all the things that are happening, and you’re not going to go to my LinkedIn profile and see, you know, how I vote or what I believe in, you’re not going to see that at all, but in my content, if you’re listening to this show, you know, right, if you are following me and in my brand, I talk a lot about how how committed I am to helping more women build more wealth, right? And I want you know, it doesn’t mean I don’t care what your body parts are how you identify, I this is not about I’m not trying to to disk in you know, to, to not include men. I want women to feel more included in this, right? So I’m happy to work with you, wherever, whatever your body parts are how you identify, I just wanna get my message to more of these women, right? Because women are still not making enough money dollar for dollar as men are in the world. It’s just absolutely the truth. Right? It’s absolutely true. And quick, funny story. I hope this is okay with my family that I share this, but I have a six year old granddaughter and she was being her Brownie troop or Daisy troop, whatever went to the town hall and one of the towns here in New Jersey, and they went to the town hall and they were the mayor and the deputy mayor, both women and they went for the tour. They sat this little group down and they said you know, do you have any questions for us? My granddaughter, of course stands up and says I want to know if something along the lines up I want to know if you that you mayor’s hear that our girls make as much money as the boys that are mayor’s because I hear girls make 25 cents for every dollar that boys make. This is my six year old granddaughter is hearing this, okay, my six year old granddaughter, and she’s not really hearing it from me because I promise you we’re not having these conversations over the Thanksgiving dinner table. Right? But it’s it’s, it’s, it’s the message is out there. Right? So we need to support the we need to make sure that when my six year old granddaughter is getting is has a job, and it’s building her career, that we’re evening scales a little bit, right. And that’s my personal brand stands for that. Right? It stands for that. And that’s and that’s all part of my brand, right? This is this is make sense. So how can you do this? How can you do this? Well, first of all, you need to be authentic, you need to be authentic, you need to stay true to yourself and staying true to your values. Because authenticity resonates even more during uncertain times. And especially in this world where AI is getting crazy, right like AI. You know, I have such a love hate relationship with it. I love it. I love diving deep into the rabbit hole chat GPT. But I also feel like we need to be authentic. So people know, we’re real people for one thing, right? You can create complete fake people now with us that are believable and that people don’t even know they’re fake. So your authenticity is a big part of your personal brand. And you know what you want to create content so, so whether again, whether you’re looking for a paycheck, or a client, you can still be creating content, you can still have a YouTube channel or an Instagram channel or Tik Tok channel or LinkedIn page with content on it, that showcases what your expert in what you’re saying showing up as a leader for even if you’re not, I mean, I think you should create it because then it comes from you. But even if you’re just sharing other people’s content, but But putting your name on it and saying I just read this article by and I love where she talks about this, this and this, right? This is how you’re starting to strengthen and tighten up and elevate your brand as a thought leader, okay, and then you want to you want to network, right? You want to network, you want to build more connections, and nurture relationships. Remember going back to the very beginning of the show where I said that, you know, I talked about what’s not working now. And what is working on what’s working now is deeper relationships, thank goodness, because that’s what I teach, right? So like, Go me that I pick the right that I pick the thing that you know that that’s working right now. But it’s it’s people want deeper relationships. You know, we are as I’m recording this, we are running a free training that we completely reimagined. And depending on how this goes, we’ll get it we’ll get we’ll do another one. We’ve completely reimagined this to go deeper, we’re doing like everybody’s getting a personal client concierge or a concierge to help them do the training that is connected with them on LinkedIn is there to chat with them to have conversations with them, not looking for volumes of people to come to this. As a matter of fact, the tighter the better. Because the other thing that we’re doing with this is we’re running free. I’m gonna say in person in person in New Jersey, if you’re local, for sure. But in person via zoom, if you’re not masterminds free for the people that did this, you went through the training, mastermind, your strategy, and I’m going to, I’m going to head up each of those masterminds, I would rather put my time and resources into going deeper into that than creating a bunch of crazy content in Facebook groups that nobody’s really watching anyway, right? So so we’re reimagining this to go deeper. And as we’re building our network, and as we’re building connections, I want them to understand that we’re going deeper. Another example of this is people ask me all the time, like, Well, how do I build my network on LinkedIn? Who should I connect with? Well, that’s another podcast, I’ve probably done six of them already. But one example could be if you’ve got a lead magnet, right? So you’re building an email list. When somebody subscribes to your email list, do you go on over to LinkedIn, and connect with them? How about that, right? Because yours, because now they’ve expressed interest in who you are and what you do, right? Just by getting your lead magnet, whatever that is top 10 tips, whatever. If you then go on over to LinkedIn and say, Hey, I, you know, you know more about me than I know about you, you’ve just I thank you so much for allowing me into your inbox. I you know, I value every single person that that allows me to hang out with them in their inbox. But I want to know more about you as well, right? deeper connection leads to these higher ticket sales. I’m like, again, not the person to tell you to how to get 27 $7 sales. If you want a $5,000 sale or a $10,000 sale or $25,000 sale. This is what you do deeper connection, and it builds your thought leader brand, right? Because you’re showing up as a leader and going deeper with your connections. And you know, this is one of the reasons why I in few years ago I infused PR into the

strategies that I teach. Because I I understood. You know, many of the people that come to me are in some kind of transition. So if you’re listening to this and you’re Incorporated, you’re like it’s time to leave. It’s time to build my own thing. I want to be a consultant. I want to be a coach. I want to be an author, I want to be a speaker, whatever, whatever it is, you are coming to this probably with many, many years of expertise, right? But not a lot of references and experience because you have never actually done this work with the title coach or the title consultant, right. So the PR gives you that credibility when you’re interviewing on podcast recorded in newspapers or magazines are interviewed on TV, right? That gives you that credibility. And by the way, going back to our, our car salesmen. If you put their name in a Google search, not only you’re going to see their LinkedIn profile, but you can see that they’ve been interviewed on TVs and magazines and podcasts. Who are you going to call? Right? You’re gonna call them? They did that work? Right? They did that work. And I promise you journalists need us more than we need them. So there’s tons and tons of opportunity for this. And these are the kinds of things we teach, because I believe that that all builds your personal brand, it adds to your credibility, you want to make sure your LinkedIn profiles positioning you as if you’re worthy, right? Because remember, those journalists I’ve mentioned, they want to make sure that your values are aligned, right? And that you’re not going to come out there and start talking about something that is completely off or out of alignment with with their message, right? So you want to you want to take care of that. And your LinkedIn profile, you want to take the time to create that. And then you want to, you know, you want to, you know, so funny because people ask me all the time, like, how much content do I have to post like, only, you don’t really have to post a lot of content. But I do want you to post some content, right? I mean, I do want you to post something on your LinkedIn wall. But if you are engaging with your network, that all pops up on your wall. And that’s a part of your personal brand, right? You’re this thought leader, you’ve positioned yourself on LinkedIn, you’ve got building relationships with not only people that can sign a contract with you, whatever that looks like, but but journalists and meet the media and podcast hosts. And all of those conversations are on your wall that builds your personal brand, all of which you can take control of all of which are so important. And the more uncertain the times the more important that is, because it gives people an opportunity to see the kinds of things you talk about the kinds of expertise you have, the way you talk about it, right. And it also shows it gives them a sense of how relevant your messages are. Right, it gives you a little bit more of that know, like and trust, which is why I love video. And even these podcasts, like many of the people that I many of the clients that I have are starting podcasts because it gives you, it gives your audience a chance to know like and trust you, which leads to faster signing of contracts, right, which is what we’re looking to do. So the PR piece is a part of your personal brand that you want to take advantage of. So that you are creating a strong, a strong presence for yourself and you’re creating that thought leader brand. So I just want to kind of just touch on something that may be the elephant in the room. And that is imposter syndrome. As I say I want you interviewed on newspapers and magazines and until on television and stuff, right? I know I can hear it across the ethers that in New Jersey’s range is rebounding with all of the Karen, like who wants to interview me or what do I know about this stuff? Right? They’re gonna reach out to my competitor, or this person who’s got a bigger following than me No, no. Imposter syndrome is is rampant. And by the way, it’s never gonna go away. Like I was doing some work with somebody recently on copy for my stuff. And she was like, Can you help people overcome impostor syndrome? I’m like, I help people recognize impostor syndrome. I help them manage impostor syndrome. But you know what, here’s the deal. If they come to me, they’re making $10,000 a month. And then they get to a place where they’re making 25,000 a month or 50,000 a month or 100k a month. There’s new levels. And there’s new impostor syndrome at every level, right? And I’m asking them, like, they’ve talked to their local chamber, and I’m telling him, I want them to speak at a national contract conference. That’s more impostor syndrome. So there’s always going to be more there’s, I guess the point here is, is there’s always going to be impostor syndrome. So as you’re creating your personal brand, and as you hit that new level of, can I really do that? Just recognize it, acknowledge it, if you need a little push, listen to this again, or reach out to me on LinkedIn. And we’ll have a little chat. But I want you to understand that it’s a thing and when times are uncertain. For example, if you’ve been doing something for five or 10 years, and all of a sudden, the marketing audit isn’t working anymore. You’re gonna what’s gonna happen, you’re gonna get impostor syndrome, you’re gonna be like, Oh, maybe they don’t want me anymore. Maybe they don’t like me anymore. You know, maybe this isn’t for me anymore. Maybe no, like, it just means you have to shift something, right? It just means you have to shift something so so as things change, it’s okay to feel a little uncomfortable but know that it’s, you know, it’s up to you. It’s up to you to create this personal brand. It’s up to you to create this thought leader brand and it’s up to you what the next chapter of your life in your business is going to look like. And and regardless of what’s happening around you, the more you invest in yourself in the training in the and the more you put yourself out there. The quick occur, you’re going to overcome impostor syndrome and break through to that next level. By the way, as I say this as the words were in my head, the more you do training, but also don’t use this as an excuse to only do training. One of my clients, Carol calls it and progressed to training, no procrastinate training, you got to get out there and do it. You got to make the offers, right? You’re gonna have these conversations for people but but make it easy for them to say yes, by creating that thought leader brand, and nothing is more important in this crazy world that we’re living in right now. So here’s the deal. Like, I just want you to kind of take some steps right now, to strengthen your personal brand today. Connect with me on LinkedIn, I would love that and tell me that you’re listening to this episode? I would, because that way, that way, if you have any questions about all these things, I’m here for you, I can answer your questions, right, I would love for you to subscribe to the show, so that you get the future episodes so we can continue to support you, I continue to want to, I want there to be more things, more wealthy women in the world. I simply that is simply my goal for my business and for my career is to help there be more women with more money. So if that’s you, then we need to be connected. Okay, if anything I’ve talked about here has been relevant, as has resound. You know, if you’re feeling it, I can’t come up with the word. If you’re feeling it, then I would love for you to take a quick screenshot of this episode, share it on social media tag me because if I get tagged, I can recent share it with my audience, and then they’ll get they get to know you, right. So it’s how we get to lift each other up how we get to support each other. That’s how we do this. By the way, we don’t do this alone, we don’t create this world of wealthy women alone, we do it when we band together, right? And we grew up and we need to do it for my six year old granddaughter and her friends, right? Because they need to be, we need to be providing a better world from that for them. Right. And that’s, I’m I’m so committed to that. And it starts with us having the confidence to do it. Okay, having the confidence to do it. So if you want to know what it looks like to get some help with this, I’d love to see your name on our calendar, just go to Karen yankovich.com/call, you will get an opportunity to book a call with me or somebody on my team. And we’ll get a chance to chat with you. And, you know, just talk about, do we think that we can support you with this, we’ve got lots of new ways to do this. As I said earlier, we are reimagining everything we do. Because I want to dive deeper with the people that I work with. And I want to teach them to do the same things. And they are having amazing results. Even in this crazy, uncertain, crazy 2024 marketing world that we’re living in, right, our students are having crazy results, getting those higher ticket sales, they’re still landing 5010 $1,000 clients or $2,000 clients, because they know how to deepen the relationships. And that happens by strengthening your personal brand. And then no one had to get these people on your calendar and creating that PR strategy that just adds rocket fuel to this whole process. Okay, so if you’ve listened before, or if you love what you hear today, you know, I love to hear from you. So make sure that you’re following good girls get rich, wherever you’re listening to the show. I’d love your reviews, I would love for you to tell me what you thought of this episode, I would love that. Tell me what you thought of this episode, use the hashtag good girls get rich, if you’re sharing it, tag me because I want to share your posts with my audience. In the show notes for this, there’s a link for SpeakPipe I love when people leave me messages on SpeakPipe. Because I can respond. Like I feel like this is me talking at you. And I was when you message me on SpeakPipe I can actually speak with you. Right and we did it on LinkedIn as well. Let’s get real, we can do it on LinkedIn messages as well. So hopefully we’re connected on LinkedIn by now. If not, my links are below make sure that we’re connected on LinkedIn, I love a message on SpeakPipe. And at the end of the day, the next the one thing that you should do at this moment in time and it’s completely free, is to book a call. Let’s talk You and me Are you would you know if you want somebody on my team, we are going to just brainstorm and see how we can make this work for you. And if we think we can help you with that, of course, we will tell you what that looks like. Right? But you know, either way, I make sure that every single person that has a call with anybody on my team walks away from that call with a ton of value, right? deeper connection, deeper connection. So thank you so much for listening to my jersey rant today. I hope it was helpful. I hope you know that this is the time to invest in yourself. And I stand for you showing up in a bigger way for the rest of your life, not just the rest of this year. Right. So thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you back here again next week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai