381: Crafting Your Personality Brand for Success- with Danielle Hughes

[00:00:00] Announcer: We've all heard it before. It's who you know. Welcome to Social Capital, a weekly podcast that dives into social relationships and why the investment you put into them is so important. Your host, Lori Highby, will connect with industry leading professionals and dive into their networking experiences and expert advice.

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The topic of relationships ties very closely with marketing. That's why I'm bringing on marketing experts with a variety of backgrounds for you to learn and grow from. Today's guest is Danielle Hughes. Danielle is the creator of the Personality Brand. She teaches clients how to bring more of themselves into their message so they can feel comfortable expressing it and can convey what makes them different from their competition, attracting the right audience and repelling the wrong one. Often referred to as a magician with words, while she can't pull a rabbit out of her hat, she can hone your brand message and deadlift you or your employees, but not at the same time. That's just irresponsible. Side note, Danielle is available for office party tricks and accepts payment in bottles of Bordeaux. Danielle, welcome to the show.

[00:01:55] Danielle Hughes: Thank you so much. That was like the most high energy intro.

I love it.

[00:02:01] Lori Highby: Well, it was very well written. I mean, obviously, as the word magician here.

[00:02:05] Danielle Hughes: Thank you. Thank you. I feel like, you know, when you call yourself whatever you want, right? It's like, sure, I'm a word magician. Sure, I'm this. Who's gonna say I'm not?

[00:02:15] Lori Highby: I know. It's always interesting when someone reads your bio. You're like, oh, that is me. Okay.

But hey, let's dive into this a little bit. So what is a personality brand and why does someone need one?

[00:02:30] Danielle Hughes: So, yes, so to me, right, we try everyone talks about personal brand. Personal branding, personal brand is everywhere. And the word personal means private. So why are we sharing our private thoughts, habits, behaviors with people that we don't know, but our personality is who we are.

It's always on display and we dial it up and we dial it down, depending on who we're interacting with. So people that we have just met might get a small glimmer of our personality. Our friends and family get too much of our personality. And so to me, when you cultivate a personality brand, in business, it puts you in control of what you want to share with the people that you're meeting or the people that you're interacting with, or even your clients or customers, and allows you to say, this is what I want you to know about me in order to form the necessary connections that we need to do business.

But it also creates a line in the sand of things that you're not going to share because they're no one's business and they will remain private.

[00:03:38] Lori Highby: Yeah. Wow. I mean, that's very concise and definitely makes sense. So you know, a lot of times you hear about personal branding as you talked about, but it's more for that entrepreneur. What is your positioning on employees? Do you feel that they need to brand themselves as well?

[00:03:56] Danielle Hughes: Yes, everyone. And why this matters is because in order to be visible inside of your organization, you have to be known for something and you have to be able to showcase who you are and you have to be able to showcase your value.

And I think so many people, you know, adopt the title of their job or the description of their job as themselves, but your job title or even your job description most likely wasn't written specifically for you, right? It was written to fill that role and to do a bunch of tasks, but how you embody it and what you bring to the table are going to be very different from maybe the person before you or the person after you.

So figuring out how to put your own stamp on things and showcase your own differentiators, it's what is what's going to help you cultivate those relationships in the workplace and get noticed for all of the right reasons.

[00:05:00] Lori Highby: Yeah, I agree 100 percent with the way you position that and it isn't just for entrepreneurs. It's for everyone. Everyone should really invest in their personal brand and make it easy to, to have, to get referrals or recognized in the areas that you want to be recognized and focused on.

[00:05:18] Danielle Hughes: And it makes you more comfortable and more confident, right? If you can be yourself. And you're not constantly thinking about, you know, what you can reveal or what you can't reveal. You're going to be able to do your best work. But if you're always spending time in the workplace thinking like, Oh, I can't show this to people or I can't say this. It's gonna impact the quality of work and the way that you're able to show up and bring the most value.

[00:05:44] Lori Highby: All right. Let's dive into kind of that, how people are positioning themselves. I would say maybe online. I mean, we talked a little bit about your exciting bio here. If someone's bio is super boring and generic, boring is probably not the right word to use,. But if it's generic, where would someone start with that?

[00:06:03] Danielle Hughes: I mean, there's a bunch of things that you can do. I talk about, you know, we want to ace our personality brand. So A) for authenticity. So thinking about how you can bring more of your authentic self to your bio, clarity is probably the most important. Like, how do you get clear on who you are, who you're talking to? What makes you different? And the, and the benefit that they're going to get from working with you.

And then that E is like that little something extra, right? Your hobbies or your passions, something that's going to resonate with the right people and help you stand out. And the, you know, the trick is we don't want to ever open up our bio with seasoned executive with X number of years experience. You know, I like to say that seasoning is for chicken cutlets.

You know, it's, it's too expected. It's too, like you said, generic, right? Everybody can say that. So you look at your bio with a critical eye. And if it sounds like somebody else can put their name in your bio, it's not enough you. So think about how do you bring again more of your own personality, but also more of how you think more of what makes you makes you different.

Can you open up your bio with a story instead and talk about, you know, ever since I was a child, I've wanted to do X, Y and Z. Or can you make it really customer focused and, you know, say something like, you know, you know, organizations today are looking for X, you know one, two and three.. I am, you know, uniquely qualified to help you get to these things because. So you're trying to just kind of jar someone I say out of their stupor. And get them to pay attention. And it's anything that's different is going to get someone to want to read more. How do you start this conversation? How do you get them interested? How do you get them engaged in what you have to say?

[00:08:00] Lori Highby: Yeah. One of the things that I'm a big advocate of is and, and I mean, speaking specifically to like LinkedIn, I see a lot of people just using that, that space, which you have a huge character count to tell an amazing story, but they're using it just to say, basically, here's my resume, which to some extent it's already doing that in your experience section.

And so that's not a good use of that section, but it, it's a storytelling place and it's really, to put that unique, authentic positioning and self and voice I actually throw a couple personal nuggets in my bio and I am somewhat shocked and surprised at how many people actually comment to me on that, which tells me one they're reading the bio.

They're not just skimming it. So because it's not at the top. It's kind of in the middle . But they're intrigued by it. You know, I say I play hockey. I say I have a Batman collection, you know. These are like weird obscure things that not everyone talks about. But it's a conversation starter. It kind of lightens the tone a little bit and gives people a feel for who I am. So I agree. You don't want something that, you know, you could just place someone else's name on and it's the exact same story that's being told.

[00:09:09] Danielle Hughes: Exactly. And it makes you more memorable, right? Like they might talk to a lot of people that maybe have digital agencies or do similar things, but they're going to be like, oh, she's the Batman girl or right.

Or, oh, she's the hockey, you know, the hockey chick.

[00:09:23] Lori Highby: I would say I get the hockey thing more times. Okay. I'll be like at a networking event or something and someone will be introducing me. Oh, I want to introduce you to this person. She plays hockey. Like she, she owns a very successful digital marketing agency. It's she plays hockey, right?

[00:09:39] Danielle Hughes: Cause nobody cares, right? Cause no one cares about what we do, right? That's why I like the wine thing for me or the weightlifting. Those are the most interesting things and the things people comment on. Yeah. And to your point, you know, every one of my clients, whenever they put anything, you know, their hobby or something they love in their LinkedIn profile, It's the most commented thing about them because it's, you know, it's human and that's what we relate to.

It's hard to relate to like impressions and engagement and metrics, but you can relate to, you know, something that somebody loves to do on the weekends. And that really is something that lights them up.

[00:10:15] Lori Highby: Yeah. I love that. I think that's great. So this is all amazing advice here, but what if someone's an introvert?

[00:10:24] Danielle Hughes: So that's the beauty of personality brand is that it, you are in control. So just because you're introverted doesn't mean you're not interesting. Doesn't mean you don't have hobbies. And I always say, think about if you were stuck in an elevator for someone, which I know is a nightmare for an introvert, what is the one thing that you could talk about with this person for an hour and it would not freak you out. And what is that thing that you would love to talk to them about if you found out that they shared that hobby or that passion with you? And we're just starting there. We're just putting that little thing, even if it's at the end of your title your LinkedIn title. And it just says like triathlete or knitter or, you know, lover of pugs.

It, it's gotta be a little something and that's enough. And you can just start there and then you can baby step it to more if you feel comfortable with more. But I always tell people, I don't, just because you're introverted or just because you're shy, you have things that you love to do that I'm sure help you connect to other people.

So what are those things that are going to help you connect in the professional space and not just with your friends and family?

[00:11:32] Lori Highby: Yeah, I love that. Let's make, make them uncomfortable by saying you're stuck in an elevator. What are you going to talk about?

[00:11:39] Danielle Hughes: I mean, it's gotta be something.

[00:11:41] Lori Highby: No, I, no, the pressure's on. I mean, I guess it is something seriously to, what is something obscure that you would be comfortable talking about to a stranger and that's a really good starting place. I love it.

[00:11:52] Danielle Hughes: And it doesn't even need to be obscure, Lori, right? It can be like not obscure. And I think a lot of people, what I find is what I see is that they think that they are not interesting and we all just think that we're the same as everybody else and we're not. And so the more you can just kind of embrace and own the fact that there are unique qualities to all of us, that we all have something interesting about us, that makes it easier. But I think so many people are just either afraid or they really don't think that they have anything to share.

And then they find that they really do have something to share and they've just not maybe thought about it in that way, or they've just never thought that, you know, this aspect of their life could be something that's shared.

[00:12:37] Lori Highby: Yeah, I think that's great.

All right, let's change the conversation to something a little bit more fun. If you could go back to your 20 year old self, what would you tell yourself to do more of, less of, or differently with regards to your professional career?

[00:12:49] Danielle Hughes: Oh, God. I think I would tell myself to do more advocating for myself. I definitely was not, I did not know how to stand up for myself in the workplace and advocate for myself.

Less, I think I would have told myself to put less pressure. And actually take some time after college to travel before I jumped right in, like I was at a school and right into a job and not realizing that I would be working for the rest of my life. You know and then what was the third thing, more or less and...

[00:13:23] Lori Highby: Differently.

[00:13:24] Danielle Hughes: Differently. I mean so much. Differently... I mean, I feel like the more and the lesser kind of part of the differently, but I don't, I think I would have taken differently would have been like taking more risks. I very much played it safe and I went into things that felt very safe and comfortable and I didn't stick with things that felt risky.

So I think I would have told myself at that point, because I was young enough that I should have just, I could have done things in a more risky manner and just seeing what stuck to the wall.

[00:13:55] Lori Highby: Yeah. I agree. A hundred percent. We've definitely, I started out super conservative and, and to some extent there you still are and I still am, but definitely more open to just seeing if something will work because you don't know until you try, right?

[00:14:10] Danielle Hughes: Exactly. Exactly.

[00:14:13] Lori Highby: All right, Danielle, I'm going to give you the opportunity to interview me. What is something you'd like to ask me?

[00:14:19] Danielle Hughes: Ooh. So I would love to know how you got into hockey.

[00:14:23] Lori Highby: My dad, actually, he was playing hockey since he was seven years old. He coached and he reffed and that was his hockey was basically his entire life.

So being his, his first born, I was on skates when I was two years old. And I played a little bit when I was really, really young. And then my mom said that I should be in dance and I didn't like that. But when I was in high school and was able to drive, I joined an adult league and I've been playing ever since.

[00:14:57] Danielle Hughes: Good for you. Can I ask a follow up question?

[00:14:59] Lori Highby: Sure. Yeah.

[00:15:00] Danielle Hughes: What about playing hockey is relatable to the way you approach your business?

[00:15:06] Lori Highby: Ooh, great question. I actually made a commercial about my marketing agency using hockey as like the NLG song. Maybe include that in the show notes here. Yeah. But number one is team. I mean, it's a team sport without any doubt and marketing and business and is very much a team sport. It's not a it's not a solo activity. And I would say number two is thinking ahead and being being strategic. So, you know, there's a great quote by Wayne Gretzky to skate to where the puck is going, not to where it's been.

And I think that's a very true statement, especially in the ever changing digital marketing world. You know, you want to, you want to always kind of be thinking about what's happening next, not necessarily what's happening yesterday or today. So I would say those are probably the two biggest analogies.

I I'd say the third one is, is practice, you know, I mean you can't just jump in, and I think that's a big challenge that I know I face is that the digital marketing space, you probably experience this too, is very low barrier to entry because a lot of people can say they're social media experts or, or whatnot, because all they really need is, you know, some sort of device and access to the Internet.

But putting a lot of time and energy and understanding the strategic play and the tactics that are, you know, part of that play. The more that you practice and put those into motion, the, the better the outcome's going to be at the end of the day. So I think that ties into hockey very well is, you know, you gotta, you gotta practice what you're doing and you have to understand kind of the thinking and the reasoning why behind the move to really get into a, a mode of it's going to work for me because I've been doing it so often and I'm confident in it.

[00:16:50] Danielle Hughes: I love that. That's great. And I think that's a great point. Exactly the point about when I talk about personality branding, right? It's everything that we do that we're passionate about for fun can somehow relate to how we approach business or our business. And we don't even realize it.

[00:17:06] Lori Highby: Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. I mean worlds collide in so many different ways and you don't have to silo your work life from your you know, your hobbies and your your personal and family I mean, there's there's definitely crossovers and and things that it is what makes you uniquely you.

[00:17:24] Danielle Hughes: Yeah. Exactly, a hundred percent.

[00:17:27] Lori Highby: Well, so you've got an offer for our listeners, don't you?

[00:17:31] Danielle Hughes: I do, I do. I have I would joke that, you know, I have a newsletter that goes out like every other week, and I joke that you'll never see anything in there about like five things or three ways or whatnot, but I do happen to have a Personality Brand checklist, and it is like 10 small things you can do to infuse more of your personality into your bio, whether that's your resume, whether it's your LinkedIn profile, whether it's on your about page, if you have your own business,. And they are very small steps that kind of all build onto each other to just make your bio much more you. And I just know that people get very overwhelmed and it feels very daunting. So these are true baby steps to just start somewhere and give you a place to start.

[00:18:25] Lori Highby: Great. And I know there's a link for that information and we will include that in our show notes. All right, Danielle, any final words of wisdom that you want to leave with our listeners?

[00:18:34] Danielle Hughes: Just that you, you have much more to bring to the table than you probably think. You have much more that you are passionate about. That is a connection point. And the more that you can show up in the world as yourself, the better you will perform and the more likely you are to find the right people that you can work with.

[00:18:58] Lori Highby: Love that. All right. So if anyone was interested in getting in contact with you, what's the best way that they can reach you?

[00:19:04] Danielle Hughes: The best way to reach me is my website, which is more than words copy. com. And from there, you can find my, you know, my link to LinkedIn and Instagram, which are the two places that I hang out the most when I'm not on my website.

[00:19:22] Lori Highby: All right. Well, include that in the show notes as well. Thank you so much for being on the show today. Great conversation.

[00:19:28] Danielle Hughes: Thank you so much, Lori. This was really fun.

[00:19:30] Lori Highby: It sure was. All right. This wraps up our episode of Social Capital. A huge thank you to Danielle for taking the time to connect with us.

If you have a burning marketing or relationship question, just reach out. I'd love to answer it on the show. And as mentioned before, let's connect on LinkedIn. I'm looking forward to hearing from you and I hope you have enjoyed today's show. Today, go out there and get noticed.

[00:19:51] Announcer: It's all for this episode of the Social Capital podcast. Visit social capital podcast. com for show notes, more episodes, and to see who will be on the show next. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next episode.