August 18, 2025 • 31 mins
What makes a leader truly memorable? According to Bobby Umar, one of Inc Magazine's top 100 leadership speakers globally, it's the courage to tell authentic stories that showcase vulnerability and build genuine human connections.
Bobby joins the HRchat Show to share his expertise on storytelling as a leadership superpower that transforms personal brands and organizational cultures. Drawing from his experience delivering thousands of keynotes across four continents and as a five-times TEDx speaker, Bobby reveals why so many leaders remain trapped in outdated communication approaches that limit their impact.
"There are lost, stuck or unfulfilled leaders everywhere," Bobby explains, highlighting his mission to help professionals escape career stagnation. The conversation explores the striking disconnect between what we know about effective communication and what leaders actually practice – while LinkedIn boasts over a billion users, only 7-8% actively create content, with an even smaller fraction sharing vulnerable stories that truly connect.
The episode dives deep into practical strategies for optimizing your digital presence, from crafting a compelling LinkedIn profile to navigating content creation across multiple platforms. Bobby offers his 80/20 rule for balancing professional expertise with personal authenticity, while providing tactical advice for handling online trolls and leveraging feedback to continuously improve your messaging.
Perhaps most valuable is Bobby's insider perspective on why TEDx talks represent the ultimate thought leadership opportunity. With just 20-30 hours of preparation spanning 3-6 months, a well-crafted TEDx talk can amplify your professional brand more effectively than strategies requiring significantly more time and resources.
Whether you're an HR professional looking to elevate your personal brand, a leader seeking to communicate more authentically, or simply someone who wants to create more meaningful connections in your professional life, this conversation offers invaluable insights into the transformative power of storytelling. Follow Bobby on LinkedIn to learn more about his speaking engagements, TEDx coaching, and personal branding support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom and visithrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, Bill Badham, and
joining me back on the showafter far too long is the
amazing, superb Bobby Umar.
Bobby is an inspirationalspeaker and storyteller who has
delivered 1,000 plus maybe 2,000plus keynotes and workshops
(00:48):
across four continents over thepast couple of decades.
Inc Magazine has previouslynamed Bobby one of the top 100
leadership speakers, alongsidesuch noteworthy giants as Sir
Dickie Branson, Breen Brown andJohn Maxwell.
Bobby is also a five-times TEDxspeaker and one of the top
(01:09):
digital influencers in the world, with hundreds of thousands of
global followers.
I've known Bobby now for quitea while.
He's a good man and it's mypleasure, Bobby, to welcome you
back to the show.
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Good, thank you.
And I didn't know you'd callhim Dickie Branson.
That's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I met him one time.
Very cool, did you really?
Oh, wow, I did.
I did At a wellness conferencein New Orleans, of all places.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Okay, so that's a story for another time.
Instead, why don't you did agood job, Bobby Omar?
Speaker, TEDx coach, helpingentrepreneurs, small business
owners.
But you know most of the stuffI talk about leadership,
development, thought leadership,personal branding, culture,
(01:56):
community connection.
These are the storytelling.
These are things that I careabout, but also I'm really big
with the social media piecebecause I'm a LinkedIn top voice
and I was originally a blueverified Twitter checkmark guy
and I content create all thetime, so that's a big part of
what I do too.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Why do you do what you do, Bobby?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, I mean, I think that my why statement is there
are lost, stuck or unfulfilledleaders everywhere.
What that means is, everywhereI go, I meet people who feel
lost in their jobs, stuck intheir careers or unfulfilled at
their work.
And so why is that?
And so, doing the work to tryto help people figure that out,
get clarity in their brand, tohelp them elevate where they're
trying to go whether they're inindividuals or whether it's
teams or organizations to me,helping them become better,
(02:40):
because become better, you know,because a better you is a
better everything else.
So for me, that you know thatto me is an absolute win-win.
And also, having been in thecorporate space, I remember what
it was like for me feeling lost, stuck and unfulfilled, and so
I don't want anyone to feel thatway anymore, and so I want to
help people get out of that andcreate that life story and
legacy of impact that theyreally want.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
Podcast.
If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
articles on the HR Gazette.
Learn more at hrgazettecom.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What role does storytelling play in building a
personal corporate brand and, aspart of the answer, how can
leaders get better at it?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
yeah, I think storytelling is obviously
something we've been doing forthousands of years, right, and
it's a way to communicate ourvalues, our beliefs.
It's a way to persuade people totake action.
It's a way for people tobelieve in a cause or idea,
whether it's personal or workrelated, and so, for me, that's
an important piece.
It creates more specificconnection and humanity and
relatability and trust.
It's a way to break through theclutter of all that stuff out
(03:48):
there of people you knowthrowing all these messages at
you, and so I think that youknow, whether you're an
individual or an organization,you know being able to tell
stories about your employees,about the people you serve, your
customers, about the teams,about the products, about
everything.
This is a way for you to showthe human side and make, build
(04:08):
that connection and then,further to storytelling,
vulnerable.
Storytelling is a way forleaders to be more authentic, to
be more genuine, to be moreaccessible, and that's the stuff
that really drives trust andmemorability and impact, and so
if you're able to do that, itcan be a really powerful way for
you to stand out, be memorableand have the impact you want for
(04:29):
you and your organization.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Do you see that a lot then, bobby?
So you'll get successfulleaders and they get up to a
certain level within anorganization, but they're just
not very good communicators.
And if they're not very goodcommunicators they can't then
express the company culture,they can't express the direction
uh, leadership is trying totake the company.
Do you see that?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
quite a lot well, I see two.
I see two levels.
One is the people who, let'ssay, are struggling to be
effective communicators right,and so, with them, obviously,
learning to be bettercommunicators, to be better
active listeners to you know, beable to start telling stories.
I think that that's important.
And then you have other peoplewho are very good communicators
like they're very good, but theyhaven't adopted the strategy of
(05:11):
either storytelling or beingvulnerable.
Uh, because they want to be theauthority, they don't want to
show weakness, they don't wantto talk about failure, and so I
think they also you this, youknow need or need to like,
really connect with people toshow look, I'm a normal person,
I'm a human, I have issues, Ihave challenges, and so being
able to do that will go a longway to separating myself and
(05:35):
connect with my employees.
So, for me, those are the twodifferent levels of people that
I'm seeing.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
But surely that's the thing of the past, isn't it?
Surely the pandemic taughteveryone that it's okay to be
vulnerable, it's okay to beauthentic?
Are you saying that there arestill a lot of leaders who are
stuck in their ways, that theyfind it very hard to put
themselves out there to showvulnerability?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Absolutely.
I mean the number of people inthe, let's say, the corporate
space and even the entrepreneurspace, you know, the number of
people who tell stories is low.
I mean, look, let's look atsome certain stats here, like on
LinkedIn, there are a billionplus users right, and how many
people are active contentcreators right and sharing stuff
(06:18):
?
It's seven to 8% Of thosepeople.
How many people are actuallysharing stories?
Much, much lower percent Ofthose people.
How many people are actuallysharing stories?
Much, much lower percent Ofthose people.
How many people are sharingvulnerable stories?
Much, much lower percent.
So you know, that reflects justthe professional workspace,
online in the workplace.
I mean, how many times you seepeople do that?
It's very rare.
So I think that for the mostpart, I think storytelling is a
(06:39):
rare thing that is not done.
That's also why people bring mein to you know, teach
storytelling, because even salesteams, you know, need
storytelling tactics to helpthem with that.
And then you know.
So I think that I think forsure, and then you know it's
this thing you have to educatepeople.
I've been educating companies,organizations for decades on
personal branding.
I've been educating people fordecades on storytelling right,
(07:02):
because in the old days, youknow, they understood
storytelling, understoodpersonal branding.
But you know, now it's evolvedto oh well, how do I do it?
And it's hard to implement,it's hard to be consistent, it
takes time to do it.
So, yeah, I would say there's,I would say the majority of
people are still not doing iteffectively or properly.
But you know, that's somethingwe're all learning, whether
we're content creators, whetherwe're, you know, organizational
(07:23):
leads or even part of a team.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
How does one tailor content across different
platforms to maintain a sense ofbeing authentic while
maximizing impact?
What are some of your tipsthere?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So content?
Well, I mean at the end of theday, like the question becomes
what's your objective forputting content out there right?
Where's your target audience?
Who are you trying to talk to?
And then after that then comeup with the strategy.
Most people they just startshooting stuff out there, which
I'm not saying is a bad thing.
You should definitely start, butthen listen to what people are
saying and evolving kind of yourstrategy.
(07:59):
But having a clear brand interms of and target of what
you're trying to do, I thinkgoes a long way and I think for
most people I would suggest, ifyou're trying to put content out
there, like the objectiveusually primarily the objective
of social media content is tobuild awareness, right, and then
after that it's aboutshowcasing our expertize, it's
about starting conversations,it's about building
relationships and trust, and sowhen you have those objectives
(08:21):
right, then you figure outwhat's your primary platform.
Let's say, for argument's sake,is LinkedIn.
So for me, linkedin is myprimary platform and then I take
the content and then Irepurpose that across other
platforms where I also havepresence Twitter, instagram,
youtube, tiktok, whatever thatmight be.
But not everybody can do allthose things.
I say start with three, youknow, have one primary build
work on the other two as wellfrom a repurpose perspective,
(08:50):
and that's kind of how you do itin terms of being authentic.
I mean to me, being authenticis having a genuine desire to
help people.
Uh, and about being honestabout who you are and what
you're trying to do, and uh andand being open to feedback, like
asking for feedback, doingpolls and getting people trying
to start those really honestconversations.
I think that goes a long way.
People really appreciate that.
They appreciate the honesty ifyou put it out there, especially
in an age of disinformation,misinformation and just toxicity
(09:15):
out there on social media.
If you're able to be morehonest about stuff, it
definitely breaks through.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So I've attended a bunch of your events.
You and I have done eventstogether.
You and I have done interviewstogether in the past as well.
How do you collect feedback?
What are your mechanisms?
So in-person events throughdigital means, or what do you do
to collect feedback and thenhow do you act upon it
afterwards?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I'm very good at so whenever I do a speech, a
keynote or a training orworkshop, the first thing I ask
is is there a feedback mechanismin place?
And if there isn't, even before, I'll ask the organizer hey,
what's the feedback mechanism?
Let's get that feedback formset up.
So that's the first thing whenI do a speech and people come up
.
Bob, that was amazing, great.
Thank you so much.
What did you like about it andwhat would you like to improve?
(10:01):
Like what was missing for you?
I've been doing that for a long, long time.
I think that's reallyincredibly important and from a
social media perspective, youknow, starting conversations,
asking for feedback, doing polls.
Polls are a great thing, youknow, like I did a poll the
other day although it was anApril Fool's joke I did a poll
where I said, hey, I'm lookingfor new speaker topics and I
came up with three ridiculoustopics and some people were
(10:23):
voting that nicely, that, oh,that's interesting, I'd like to
see that.
And I was like, well, they'retotal jokes.
But you know, people respondedNow I can do the same thing for
you know, tedx talk, titles fornew speeches, new keynotes, new
workshops, new topics, andpeople will, you know, will tell
me.
So you know, one of the thingsthat happened for me this year
is that now two new topics I'mtalking about is learning to
(10:44):
love LinkedIn and alsovulnerable storytelling.
Those are two things that camethrough the feedback process by
asking people.
And then I do it on calls.
When I get on calls with people, I'll say, hey, what do you
think of this, what do you thinkof this, what do you think of
this?
But you have to be reallyactively searching for this
stuff.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
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Speaker 2 (11:41):
What mistakes, Bobby, do you often see when companies
try to position theirexecutives or their brand as
thought leaders?
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Well, I think the biggest thing that I see that
they often do is they just makeannouncements.
So, you know, philip, here isnow the new vice president,
congrats to him.
Or hey, you know Joanne isspeaking at this conference.
Great Congrats to her.
They make these announcementsabout the things they're doing,
which is fine, but to me, theway to build a credibility and
(12:13):
thought leadership on who youare is have them share the
insight, share the story, shareyou know what's that thing that
they're trying to teach people?
Because, look, all of us haveso many insights and knowledge,
and so are they sharing thatinsight and knowledge to their
followers or their network.
To me, that's where it reallystands out.
So there's a storytelling piece, which is one thing, but the
(12:34):
other one is, you know, thevalue added, insight or learning
that comes from them personally.
That's where it makes moreinteresting.
So, for example, if we'retalking about Phyllis at the
conference, I would say, hey,Phyllis spoke at this conference
.
Here's a picture of her.
Here are the three things shesaid.
What do you think about that?
And now we start a conversation.
That makes it a little bit moreinteresting to me.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Do you think that's harder in a workplace
environment?
So imagine that you've beentraining a C-suite leader, so
you're working internally with acompany, and then there's a
feedback process and theemployees are supposed to offer
feedback.
Is that a bit more tricky?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
because they don't want to say the wrong things
yeah, I think a lot of employeesare fearful of retribution and
things like that, but that'salso why you should have some
sort of anonymous way of givingfeedback.
I think that that's incrediblyimportant.
And then you ask them ifthey're you know, if they're
open to you know, and and thenprovide both provide a place
(13:30):
where they can give their nameif they want, or provide an
anonymity.
I think that that would go along way to get really honest
feedback, because and you know,here's the thing most leaders
are chicken to get the uh, thehonest feedback.
But that's what you want, like,you want to have a little bit
of that.
And look, I mean, look, we allhave haters, we all have people
who troll us.
Like, I remember I had one ofthose rate my professor, things
(13:51):
right, and there was one guy whojust didn't like me and said
all this stuff about me.
Oh, he's okay, he's a nice guy,but you know, whatever Everyone
else you know, and it lookslike a taint on my great rate my
professor rating.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
But, look, I mean, that's fine and I'm glad he did
it and you know you can learnfrom even the people who give
you the really negative feedback.
How do you handle trolls?
Okay, so imagine it's onlinkedin and you've shared a
post and you've got a couple oftrolls and they're saying mean
things about you.
Um, what, what is the best wayto approach that?
Is it to ignore the comment?
Is it to delete that comment?
Is it to reply to that comment?
Is, and then, if they get intosome sort of uh back and forth
with you, do you keep that?
(14:28):
Do you keep that commentarygoing?
What do you recommend?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
well, it depends on what they say and you know how
what they're doing.
So but I mean, the general ideais to ignore the comment, right
.
But the truth is, if they saysomething detrimental to you or
your brand, your company, youneed to address it.
The most common way is todelete it.
The most common way is to blockit, report it, do all those
things.
That's fine.
Sometimes you reply right andthat's fine.
(14:53):
Usually the common reply wouldbe an all-encompassing statement
to say, hey, this type ofcomment is inappropriate and
unprofessional and not reallyapplicable to this platform.
I suggest you, I kind ofsuggest you, delete that comment
, and Particularly well, that'sreally important when it comes
to being an ally for otherpeople.
(15:13):
So if you're like, if you're anorganization and someone you
know says something sexist toone of your women leaders, you
should, you should comment,reply.
Don't expect her to do it.
You go do it and say, hey, thisis inappropriate, because that
has far more Impact than thatperson needing to respond to it
and deal with the emotionalweight of that kind of stuff.
But I'm more of a replier, tobe honest, and it also depends
(15:34):
on the topic.
Like you know, I did a postthat was more what's called
social cause, social justice.
But I specifically said youknow, I'm going to take the
emotional weight and I'm goingto respond to something.
Now, some I deleted right awaybecause they were absolutely
either offensive or there's noway I'm going to be able to do
something.
And then other times Iresponded with my categorical
(15:55):
statement.
Other ones I left alone.
And then other ones I said hey,may I ask you a question?
You know?
So go with curiosity.
And what's great about that is,you know, I got people to
respond back, say you know what,I appreciate what you said and
you treated me with respect andyou're right, I was wrong about
what I said.
I'm going to delete that post.
(16:15):
And that happened.
I mean, listen, I'm not, I'mnot changing the world, but
honestly, when two people dothat, it's something.
So that's something I would do.
But again, you have to be ableto have the time and the
emotional energy to deal withthat kind of stuff.
Most people just delete blockreport, and that's fine too if
you want to do that.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You mentioned earlier , you're strongest and most
active on LinkedIn, althoughyou're doing lots of things on
lots of other channels.
You also mentioned in yourprevious answer that it's not
okay to be unprofessional is theword you used on LinkedIn.
So the best performing postthat I had last year on my
LinkedIn was when I shared apicture of me and my newborn or
they couldn't really see herface.
That's the kind of thing that Iusually try and avoid doing on
(16:57):
LinkedIn because I tried tofocus on business stuff,
professional stuff.
My question for you is is itokay to share your personal life
photos of your family, whateverit might be, on linkedin, or
are there better places to dothat?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
no, you totally can.
I mean, look, there's a couplereasons.
One, when you think of resumes,uh, you know, when I had, when
I had my resume, I had all myyou know professional work
experience, voluntary experience.
But then at the bottom, there'sinterests and I say things like
, you know, social dancing,board games, movies, like it's a
way to create a personalconnection, and people like that
.
I remember one time I had a jobinterview and she went to the
(17:32):
the bottom of the second pageand said, oh my god, tell me
more about the jive dancing, therock and roll.
Oh, okay, like you know, it gother attention at the bottom of
the second page.
So, similar with linkedin.
I mean, look, theeditor-in-chief of LinkedIn,
daniel Ross, said we're lookingalso for more personal stories
and the general of personalstories do better because we're
all human.
(17:53):
So you know, when I went towork and you know I talked about
infertility problems and myboss, my manager, said I have
infertility problems too andwe're talking about this in his
office.
That's powerful stuff, right,we go to work, we talk about
that restaurant, we talk aboutthat movie oh my God, severance.
You know it's a Severancefinale.
Like we're talking aboutpersonal things.
And so you know I think to me,personal things is a way to
(18:13):
connect with folks.
So for me, you know, my generalrule is like 80, 20,.
8% of your content should bedirect on target, to provide the
value and all that kind of whatyou're trying to do, but 20%
should be experimental orpersonal and just share updates
of your life.
I certainly will share myparents' anniversaries in a
couple of weeks.
Will I talk about them?
Of course I will.
I mean, one thing you can do isturn it into a post about
(18:36):
something professional, right.
Having a newborn.
What does that mean To me?
Having a kid is leadership.
Parenting is leadership.
Having parents right, gratitudefor my parents, the values they
taught me, and how do I applythat to my work?
There's tons of ways to takeany sort of personal post and
turn it into something that is,you know, professional.
(18:57):
For that platform, this ideathat you know and look every
single platform out there, youknow has personal content and
storytelling, because it doesbreak through the clutter and it
does create trust andrelatability.
So you know you definitelyshould use it, but do it in a
way that makes sense for you.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
So, being a now two times dad, it's the best job in
the world, by none.
It's by far the best they'reteenagers best.
Uh, teenagers probably not sureabout this, but mine is four
(19:34):
and uh and only eight months, soI've got all this to come um.
Another word to use around beinga parent, maybe in addition to
leadership, is servitudesometimes yeah, yeah, leadership
um, just on the linkedin piecefor a bit, if you don't mind me
continuing on that for a moment.
For those HR pros, for thoseleaders listening to the show,
and they're grappling with waysto optimize their LinkedIn
(19:54):
profiles, to maximize theirreach, to maximize their
connections there.
Maybe they're current HRDs butthey're looking maybe to become
consultants in the next fewyears, for example.
Any tangible takeaways, any toptips that you can offer them to
help them optimize theirLinkedIn profiles?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Position yourself as a thought leader, an expert in
your field, around the stuffyou're passionate about.
Because, even though you workfor an organization, someday you
may not, someday you have to goto another organization or
someday you may go on your own.
So you need to be building thethought that there's a brand of
you.
The person right your companyorganization are part of is part
of your brand, but it's not allyou.
So that's the first thing Iwould say.
(20:33):
Uh.
Number two you know, mostpeople don't optimize the
biggest things they have ontheir platform, which is the
banner on their linkedin, whichhas so much real estate, the
headline, which has way morewords than you realize.
Don't just tell us yourposition.
Tell us what you're passionateabout, tell us which problems
you solve.
So, for me, mine says I helpyou land a tech stock guaranteed
to elevate your personal brandand build up leadership.
That's what I say, and it saysthat on my banner, it says on my
(20:56):
header.
So use that stuff, make surethe photo is really good, and
then you have the featuredsection, the about section, that
really tells your story.
This is, to me, the big five ofthe things you need to do to
make sure your profile reallystands out.
And so, even though you workfor an organization, you're
coming with HR solutions oryou're working on certain things
you're passionate about sharethose things and make sure it's
(21:18):
clear on your profile tooptimize that.
And as you're getting out there, you got to build your network,
you got to put content outthere.
All these things are buildingthe brand of you so that if you
leave the organization in fiveor 10 years you have this entire
database of people who followyou and love what you're doing.
Or when you switch companies,same thing because they're
(21:39):
following you.
They're not following thecompany, although you know it's
obviously they're interrelated,but so your brand out there is
good for the company too.
So have a good.
You know it's obviously they'reinterrelated, but so your brand
out there is good for thecompany too.
So have a good brand becauseit's good for the company.
But if you do leave or if youdo shift, then they're going to
follow you I like that.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
It's a little bit like, uh, having a pension fund
you got to keep chipping intothat so it pays off later on,
okay.
So, uh, you mentioned a littlewhile ago that you help folks uh
gigs for speaking at TED events, tedx events specifically.
Why is that brand so powerful?
There's so many differentconference brands out there.
Why is TED or TEDx?
(22:16):
Why is that the gold standard?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
So most people I talk to, whether they're in
corporate or whether they're not, they want to elevate their
thought leadership.
They want to build their brand,they want to be known,
memorable, get promotions, getopportunities, get business,
whatever it might be.
There are seven ways to buildthought leadership right.
The most common way is buildingyour network right, so having a
Rolodex or your CRM, yourdatabase, online or in-person
(22:40):
connections.
You know that's one way.
The other way is contentstrategy to share knowledge.
Another way is to you know, runa program right and get clients
and get testimonials.
Another way is to launch, likea book, a book or an e-book or
whatever that might be.
You know write journals, writearticles.
A book or an e-book or whateverthat might be.
You know write journals, writearticles.
Another way is to do paidadvertising, right?
Hey, you know, buy Coca-Cola,buy Pepsi, whatever that might
(23:01):
be.
And then one of the best waysis speaking.
So if you speak on media, like,let's say, on a TV show, or if
you speak on, let's say, at aconference, on a panel or do a
keynote, speaking is the bestway to get noticed.
They see your personality, theyyou know, and it's it's far
more convincing than anythingelse you would do.
(23:21):
And that's also why people arespeaking, you know, on their
phones, and they're doing videocontent and they're putting out
there and they're doing verbalstorytelling and all that.
So that and so for me, tedx isthe best one because it
culminates speaking,storytelling, content strategy,
personal branding, thoughtleadership and, from what I've
(23:42):
seen, experience, if you thinkabout a book or you think about
a content strategy, you'replaying a long game.
Tedx has the least amount oftime invested about 20 to 30
hours of time and the shortesttimeline three to six months for
the greatest amplification ofyour thought leadership.
And that's why, to me, tedx isthe best flagship to build your
(24:02):
thought leadership and the workyou do to do.
A TEDx talk will actually helpyou with your content strategy,
will help you with launching abook later, will help you with
doing more paid speaking, if youwant.
So for me.
That's why I've been investingin helping people, tedxtalks as
the primary flagship to elevatethe brand quickly.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
So powerful brand that reinforces any other
opportunities people arepursuing in the future.
What about website traffic?
Any ideas what the websitetraffic is for the TED website?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Well, I mean TEDxTalks again usually
typically go more viral thananything else because whether
you share a small snippet orwhether you share the TEDx talk,
as soon as you mention itpeople get excited.
They're going to go check itout wherever it is, versus go to
this thing and buy my book for$30.
It's much harder to do that.
(24:50):
Go to this program and buy mycourse and then give me a
testimonial.
That's a lot right.
Tedx way more amplificationbecause people are excited about
it.
They know.
Tedx oh, you just sure I'lltake a look at it.
Yeah, like it's way way easierand that's why it amplifies
better, including websitetraffic so I'm guessing what
that looks like.
Hundreds of thousands, millionsof visitors per month well, it
(25:12):
depends how you do it I meanlook, I mean, there's people who
launch books and launch tedxtalks and launch programs and
they don't put any fanfarebehind.
They don't take them along thejourney.
The best thing you can do.
Like you know, I'm meeting witha client tonight and she has a
tedx talk in may, at like nextmonth, and I'm like look, um,
you need to start talking aboutthis thing and take people on
the journey.
Get people to vote on your title, vote on a slide.
(25:33):
Uh, get them share a snippet.
Same with a book launch, samewith any sort of launch.
Take them along the journey sothat when it finally comes,
people are like, oh my God, yeah, you've been talking about this
for months, I can't wait.
Oh my God.
So if you amplify it right,it's going to do much better
than if you just oh, by the way,I do the that's not good enough
.
So, yeah, you can amplify itand get, yes, thousands and
(25:56):
thousands of impressions if youdo a good job of it.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Okay, just playing devil's advocate here before we
wrap up with our final questionwhat if it goes wrong?
What if you've built it all up?
You're getting feedback frompeople who are helping you shape
a slide, helping you shape yourtitle.
You're telling people about itfor months and then you get up
on stage and you freeze, or itjust flounders in some way or
(26:19):
other, and then that's beingrecorded.
I'm guessing you don't get anopportunity to have that edited
or prove it before it goes live.
Have you ever worked withsomeone and that's happened to
them and what have they done totackle the fact that what they
hoped would be an amazing talkactually was a disaster?
Speaker 3 (26:38):
so this happens all the time to us and I'll tell you
a little story.
On my fifth tedx talk, I cameout on stage and I was very
excited about this one becauseit was a topic I really want to
get into.
I've been playing it for yearsand I was ready.
I got on stage and the slidesweren't working and I just I
just stood there and I was waslike slides please.
And a minute went by, nothinghappened and I stopped, I
(27:01):
stopped the text, I said I'msorry, we need to stop, and I
stopped it.
And they had a lot of techissues and what was interesting
about that was, you know, I waslike, look, I came all this way
and I prepared this thing and Iwant to go well, and your slides
aren't working.
Like, I can't deliver thisthing without the slides.
And what ended up happening wasbecause I'm a professional
speaker.
You know, several people wentbefore me with the technical
(27:22):
difficulty and they're likeBobby, I'm glad you did this,
because I I was like well, ofcourse I did.
I'm a speaker, I wanna, I'mhere because side, but I still
decided to go for it, because Istill wanted to do it, and I
made the adjustment.
And then, of course, how do younavigate that?
(27:42):
You own it.
You talk about it right.
So I talked about the tech fail,what happens when this happens,
and I told the story.
I got vulnerable, I shared whathappened and that's what you
would do.
You would talk about thatbecause that's going to.
People will get it.
They understand vulnerablestorytelling.
They understand when somethinggoes wrong and shift happens
(28:04):
right.
So talk about that, own it anddo it several times.
That's probably what I wouldadvise you to do.
I did the exact same thing andyou know what?
The end result was that thatBiff TEDx talk finally got on
the TEDcom site, which isexactly what I wanted.
So you know, yeah, I think thatyou can own it and you can
position a way where it stillsupports you and is a great
(28:28):
insight or value for everybodyelse.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I love that answer.
That's great.
The Disrupt HR events that I'minvolved with, mainly in the UK,
also one in the US.
We always preface those talksby saying you know, this is a
unique challenge.
It's five minutes, 20 slides,15 seconds per slide.
Uh, it ain't about getting itperfect, it's about stepping up
to the plate.
It's about, it's about thechallenge, you know, um, and
it's about giving people onstage the love that they deserve
(28:51):
for, for being vulnerable, fortaking that risk.
Anyway, before we wrap thingsup for today, sir, how can our
listeners connect with you?
So LinkedIn and all the othersocial medias you might want to
share, and anything else youwant to share with our audience
today, yeah, so I mean, look,you can follow me on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You can follow me on all my other platforms Twitter,
instagram, TikTok, youtube, alldifferent platforms.
I'm everywhere.
And you can go to my website,rayallencom.
And if you are looking to hirea speaker to help transform your
organization or your teams forwith normal storytelling or
learning to love LinkedIn andland leads and leverage it, or
if you want to learn aboutpersonal branding, thought
leadership and all that kind ofstuff or culture community, send
(29:32):
me a message and go to mywebsite.
Or if you want to learn AtlantaTEDxx talk, you can check out
all my free materials as astarting point, like webinars
and all that kind of stuff, andthen I can you can book a call
with me.
But that's basically what I doand how I do it, and I'm happy
to support anybody that wants myway.
In terms of last words, likelook the way your, your brand is
something you have to ownbecause it's based on the, the
(29:54):
memorability and expectation ofpeople, how they experience you.
So either they experience youin a good way or a bad way.
You want to know what that is.
You want to manage that in thebest way possible and the best
way to do a good job of it is toown that brand.
Make sure you're clear on whatyou're trying to do and start
speaking.
Put in conduct, buildrelationships, start
conversations.
Being a thought leader drivesconversations and doesn't follow
(30:16):
conversations, and so that'skind of how you stand out.
And I tell you, if you do thatwork, it's going to benefit you,
it's going to benefit yourorganization, it's going to
benefit everybody.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Love it.
Well, that just leaves me tosay for today, bobby, it's been
great having you back on theshow.
When I'm back in Tirana, I willtap you up and we'll go for a
coffee, sir, but for now, thankyou very much for being my guest
.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Thank you so much and listeners as always, until next
time happy working.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show.
If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work.
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom.
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
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For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, Bill Badham, and
joining me back on the showafter far too long is the
amazing, superb Bobby Umar.
Bobby is an inspirationalspeaker and storyteller who has
delivered 1,000 plus maybe 2,000plus keynotes and workshops
(00:48):
across four continents over thepast couple of decades.
Inc Magazine has previouslynamed Bobby one of the top 100
leadership speakers, alongsidesuch noteworthy giants as Sir
Dickie Branson, Breen Brown andJohn Maxwell.
Bobby is also a five-times TEDxspeaker and one of the top
(01:09):
digital influencers in the world, with hundreds of thousands of
global followers.
I've known Bobby now for quitea while.
He's a good man and it's mypleasure, Bobby, to welcome you
back to the show.
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Good, thank you.
And I didn't know you'd callhim Dickie Branson.
That's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I met him one time.
Very cool, did you really?
Oh, wow, I did.
I did At a wellness conferencein New Orleans, of all places.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Okay, so that's a story for another time.
Instead, why don't you did agood job, Bobby Omar?
Speaker, TEDx coach, helpingentrepreneurs, small business
owners.
But you know most of the stuffI talk about leadership,
development, thought leadership,personal branding, culture,
(01:56):
community connection.
These are the storytelling.
These are things that I careabout, but also I'm really big
with the social media piecebecause I'm a LinkedIn top voice
and I was originally a blueverified Twitter checkmark guy
and I content create all thetime, so that's a big part of
what I do too.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Why do you do what you do, Bobby?
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, I mean, I think that my why statement is there
are lost, stuck or unfulfilledleaders everywhere.
What that means is, everywhereI go, I meet people who feel
lost in their jobs, stuck intheir careers or unfulfilled at
their work.
And so why is that?
And so, doing the work to tryto help people figure that out,
get clarity in their brand, tohelp them elevate where they're
trying to go whether they're inindividuals or whether it's
teams or organizations to me,helping them become better,
(02:40):
because become better, you know,because a better you is a
better everything else.
So for me, that you know thatto me is an absolute win-win.
And also, having been in thecorporate space, I remember what
it was like for me feeling lost, stuck and unfulfilled, and so
I don't want anyone to feel thatway anymore, and so I want to
help people get out of that andcreate that life story and
legacy of impact that theyreally want.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
Podcast.
If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
articles on the HR Gazette.
Learn more at hrgazettecom.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What role does storytelling play in building a
personal corporate brand and, aspart of the answer, how can
leaders get better at it?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
yeah, I think storytelling is obviously
something we've been doing forthousands of years, right, and
it's a way to communicate ourvalues, our beliefs.
It's a way to persuade people totake action.
It's a way for people tobelieve in a cause or idea,
whether it's personal or workrelated, and so, for me, that's
an important piece.
It creates more specificconnection and humanity and
relatability and trust.
It's a way to break through theclutter of all that stuff out
(03:48):
there of people you knowthrowing all these messages at
you, and so I think that youknow, whether you're an
individual or an organization,you know being able to tell
stories about your employees,about the people you serve, your
customers, about the teams,about the products, about
everything.
This is a way for you to showthe human side and make, build
(04:08):
that connection and then,further to storytelling,
vulnerable.
Storytelling is a way forleaders to be more authentic, to
be more genuine, to be moreaccessible, and that's the stuff
that really drives trust andmemorability and impact, and so
if you're able to do that, itcan be a really powerful way for
you to stand out, be memorableand have the impact you want for
(04:29):
you and your organization.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Do you see that a lot then, bobby?
So you'll get successfulleaders and they get up to a
certain level within anorganization, but they're just
not very good communicators.
And if they're not very goodcommunicators they can't then
express the company culture,they can't express the direction
uh, leadership is trying totake the company.
Do you see that?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
quite a lot well, I see two.
I see two levels.
One is the people who, let'ssay, are struggling to be
effective communicators right,and so, with them, obviously,
learning to be bettercommunicators, to be better
active listeners to you know, beable to start telling stories.
I think that that's important.
And then you have other peoplewho are very good communicators
like they're very good, but theyhaven't adopted the strategy of
(05:11):
either storytelling or beingvulnerable.
Uh, because they want to be theauthority, they don't want to
show weakness, they don't wantto talk about failure, and so I
think they also you this, youknow need or need to like,
really connect with people toshow look, I'm a normal person,
I'm a human, I have issues, Ihave challenges, and so being
able to do that will go a longway to separating myself and
(05:35):
connect with my employees.
So, for me, those are the twodifferent levels of people that
I'm seeing.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
But surely that's the thing of the past, isn't it?
Surely the pandemic taughteveryone that it's okay to be
vulnerable, it's okay to beauthentic?
Are you saying that there arestill a lot of leaders who are
stuck in their ways, that theyfind it very hard to put
themselves out there to showvulnerability?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Absolutely.
I mean the number of people inthe, let's say, the corporate
space and even the entrepreneurspace, you know, the number of
people who tell stories is low.
I mean, look, let's look atsome certain stats here, like on
LinkedIn, there are a billionplus users right, and how many
people are active contentcreators right and sharing stuff
(06:18):
?
It's seven to 8% Of thosepeople.
How many people are actuallysharing stories?
Much, much lower percent Ofthose people.
How many people are actuallysharing stories?
Much, much lower percent Ofthose people.
How many people are sharingvulnerable stories?
Much, much lower percent.
So you know, that reflects justthe professional workspace,
online in the workplace.
I mean, how many times you seepeople do that?
It's very rare.
So I think that for the mostpart, I think storytelling is a
(06:39):
rare thing that is not done.
That's also why people bring mein to you know, teach
storytelling, because even salesteams, you know, need
storytelling tactics to helpthem with that.
And then you know.
So I think that I think forsure, and then you know it's
this thing you have to educatepeople.
I've been educating companies,organizations for decades on
personal branding.
I've been educating people fordecades on storytelling right,
(07:02):
because in the old days, youknow, they understood
storytelling, understoodpersonal branding.
But you know, now it's evolvedto oh well, how do I do it?
And it's hard to implement,it's hard to be consistent, it
takes time to do it.
So, yeah, I would say there's,I would say the majority of
people are still not doing iteffectively or properly.
But you know, that's somethingwe're all learning, whether
we're content creators, whetherwe're, you know, organizational
(07:23):
leads or even part of a team.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
How does one tailor content across different
platforms to maintain a sense ofbeing authentic while
maximizing impact?
What are some of your tipsthere?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So content?
Well, I mean at the end of theday, like the question becomes
what's your objective forputting content out there right?
Where's your target audience?
Who are you trying to talk to?
And then after that then comeup with the strategy.
Most people they just startshooting stuff out there, which
I'm not saying is a bad thing.
You should definitely start, butthen listen to what people are
saying and evolving kind of yourstrategy.
(07:59):
But having a clear brand interms of and target of what
you're trying to do, I thinkgoes a long way and I think for
most people I would suggest, ifyou're trying to put content out
there, like the objectiveusually primarily the objective
of social media content is tobuild awareness, right, and then
after that it's aboutshowcasing our expertize, it's
about starting conversations,it's about building
relationships and trust, and sowhen you have those objectives
(08:21):
right, then you figure outwhat's your primary platform.
Let's say, for argument's sake,is LinkedIn.
So for me, linkedin is myprimary platform and then I take
the content and then Irepurpose that across other
platforms where I also havepresence Twitter, instagram,
youtube, tiktok, whatever thatmight be.
But not everybody can do allthose things.
I say start with three, youknow, have one primary build
work on the other two as wellfrom a repurpose perspective,
(08:50):
and that's kind of how you do itin terms of being authentic.
I mean to me, being authenticis having a genuine desire to
help people.
Uh, and about being honestabout who you are and what
you're trying to do, and uh andand being open to feedback, like
asking for feedback, doingpolls and getting people trying
to start those really honestconversations.
I think that goes a long way.
People really appreciate that.
They appreciate the honesty ifyou put it out there, especially
in an age of disinformation,misinformation and just toxicity
(09:15):
out there on social media.
If you're able to be morehonest about stuff, it
definitely breaks through.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So I've attended a bunch of your events.
You and I have done eventstogether.
You and I have done interviewstogether in the past as well.
How do you collect feedback?
What are your mechanisms?
So in-person events throughdigital means, or what do you do
to collect feedback and thenhow do you act upon it
afterwards?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I'm very good at so whenever I do a speech, a
keynote or a training orworkshop, the first thing I ask
is is there a feedback mechanismin place?
And if there isn't, even before, I'll ask the organizer hey,
what's the feedback mechanism?
Let's get that feedback formset up.
So that's the first thing whenI do a speech and people come up
.
Bob, that was amazing, great.
Thank you so much.
What did you like about it andwhat would you like to improve?
(10:01):
Like what was missing for you?
I've been doing that for a long, long time.
I think that's reallyincredibly important and from a
social media perspective, youknow, starting conversations,
asking for feedback, doing polls.
Polls are a great thing, youknow, like I did a poll the
other day although it was anApril Fool's joke I did a poll
where I said, hey, I'm lookingfor new speaker topics and I
came up with three ridiculoustopics and some people were
(10:23):
voting that nicely, that, oh,that's interesting, I'd like to
see that.
And I was like, well, they'retotal jokes.
But you know, people respondedNow I can do the same thing for
you know, tedx talk, titles fornew speeches, new keynotes, new
workshops, new topics, andpeople will, you know, will tell
me.
So you know, one of the thingsthat happened for me this year
is that now two new topics I'mtalking about is learning to
(10:44):
love LinkedIn and alsovulnerable storytelling.
Those are two things that camethrough the feedback process by
asking people.
And then I do it on calls.
When I get on calls with people, I'll say, hey, what do you
think of this, what do you thinkof this, what do you think of
this?
But you have to be reallyactively searching for this
stuff.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
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Speaker 2 (11:41):
What mistakes, Bobby, do you often see when companies
try to position theirexecutives or their brand as
thought leaders?
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Well, I think the biggest thing that I see that
they often do is they just makeannouncements.
So, you know, philip, here isnow the new vice president,
congrats to him.
Or hey, you know Joanne isspeaking at this conference.
Great Congrats to her.
They make these announcementsabout the things they're doing,
which is fine, but to me, theway to build a credibility and
(12:13):
thought leadership on who youare is have them share the
insight, share the story, shareyou know what's that thing that
they're trying to teach people?
Because, look, all of us haveso many insights and knowledge,
and so are they sharing thatinsight and knowledge to their
followers or their network.
To me, that's where it reallystands out.
So there's a storytelling piece, which is one thing, but the
(12:34):
other one is, you know, thevalue added, insight or learning
that comes from them personally.
That's where it makes moreinteresting.
So, for example, if we'retalking about Phyllis at the
conference, I would say, hey,Phyllis spoke at this conference
.
Here's a picture of her.
Here are the three things shesaid.
What do you think about that?
And now we start a conversation.
That makes it a little bit moreinteresting to me.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Do you think that's harder in a workplace
environment?
So imagine that you've beentraining a C-suite leader, so
you're working internally with acompany, and then there's a
feedback process and theemployees are supposed to offer
feedback.
Is that a bit more tricky?
Speaker 3 (13:10):
because they don't want to say the wrong things
yeah, I think a lot of employeesare fearful of retribution and
things like that, but that'salso why you should have some
sort of anonymous way of givingfeedback.
I think that that's incrediblyimportant.
And then you ask them ifthey're you know, if they're
open to you know, and and thenprovide both provide a place
(13:30):
where they can give their nameif they want, or provide an
anonymity.
I think that that would go along way to get really honest
feedback, because and you know,here's the thing most leaders
are chicken to get the uh, thehonest feedback.
But that's what you want, like,you want to have a little bit
of that.
And look, I mean, look, we allhave haters, we all have people
who troll us.
Like, I remember I had one ofthose rate my professor, things
(13:51):
right, and there was one guy whojust didn't like me and said
all this stuff about me.
Oh, he's okay, he's a nice guy,but you know, whatever Everyone
else you know, and it lookslike a taint on my great rate my
professor rating.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
But, look, I mean, that's fine and I'm glad he did
it and you know you can learnfrom even the people who give
you the really negative feedback.
How do you handle trolls?
Okay, so imagine it's onlinkedin and you've shared a
post and you've got a couple oftrolls and they're saying mean
things about you.
Um, what, what is the best wayto approach that?
Is it to ignore the comment?
Is it to delete that comment?
Is it to reply to that comment?
Is, and then, if they get intosome sort of uh back and forth
with you, do you keep that?
(14:28):
Do you keep that commentarygoing?
What do you recommend?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
well, it depends on what they say and you know how
what they're doing.
So but I mean, the general ideais to ignore the comment, right
.
But the truth is, if they saysomething detrimental to you or
your brand, your company, youneed to address it.
The most common way is todelete it.
The most common way is to blockit, report it, do all those
things.
That's fine.
Sometimes you reply right andthat's fine.
(14:53):
Usually the common reply wouldbe an all-encompassing statement
to say, hey, this type ofcomment is inappropriate and
unprofessional and not reallyapplicable to this platform.
I suggest you, I kind ofsuggest you, delete that comment
, and Particularly well, that'sreally important when it comes
to being an ally for otherpeople.
(15:13):
So if you're like, if you're anorganization and someone you
know says something sexist toone of your women leaders, you
should, you should comment,reply.
Don't expect her to do it.
You go do it and say, hey, thisis inappropriate, because that
has far more Impact than thatperson needing to respond to it
and deal with the emotionalweight of that kind of stuff.
But I'm more of a replier, tobe honest, and it also depends
(15:34):
on the topic.
Like you know, I did a postthat was more what's called
social cause, social justice.
But I specifically said youknow, I'm going to take the
emotional weight and I'm goingto respond to something.
Now, some I deleted right awaybecause they were absolutely
either offensive or there's noway I'm going to be able to do
something.
And then other times Iresponded with my categorical
(15:55):
statement.
Other ones I left alone.
And then other ones I said hey,may I ask you a question?
You know?
So go with curiosity.
And what's great about that is,you know, I got people to
respond back, say you know what,I appreciate what you said and
you treated me with respect andyou're right, I was wrong about
what I said.
I'm going to delete that post.
(16:15):
And that happened.
I mean, listen, I'm not, I'mnot changing the world, but
honestly, when two people dothat, it's something.
So that's something I would do.
But again, you have to be ableto have the time and the
emotional energy to deal withthat kind of stuff.
Most people just delete blockreport, and that's fine too if
you want to do that.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You mentioned earlier , you're strongest and most
active on LinkedIn, althoughyou're doing lots of things on
lots of other channels.
You also mentioned in yourprevious answer that it's not
okay to be unprofessional is theword you used on LinkedIn.
So the best performing postthat I had last year on my
LinkedIn was when I shared apicture of me and my newborn or
they couldn't really see herface.
That's the kind of thing that Iusually try and avoid doing on
(16:57):
LinkedIn because I tried tofocus on business stuff,
professional stuff.
My question for you is is itokay to share your personal life
photos of your family, whateverit might be, on linkedin, or
are there better places to dothat?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
no, you totally can.
I mean, look, there's a couplereasons.
One, when you think of resumes,uh, you know, when I had, when
I had my resume, I had all myyou know professional work
experience, voluntary experience.
But then at the bottom, there'sinterests and I say things like
, you know, social dancing,board games, movies, like it's a
way to create a personalconnection, and people like that
.
I remember one time I had a jobinterview and she went to the
(17:32):
the bottom of the second pageand said, oh my god, tell me
more about the jive dancing, therock and roll.
Oh, okay, like you know, it gother attention at the bottom of
the second page.
So, similar with linkedin.
I mean, look, theeditor-in-chief of LinkedIn,
daniel Ross, said we're lookingalso for more personal stories
and the general of personalstories do better because we're
all human.
(17:53):
So you know, when I went towork and you know I talked about
infertility problems and myboss, my manager, said I have
infertility problems too andwe're talking about this in his
office.
That's powerful stuff, right,we go to work, we talk about
that restaurant, we talk aboutthat movie oh my God, severance.
You know it's a Severancefinale.
Like we're talking aboutpersonal things.
And so you know I think to me,personal things is a way to
(18:13):
connect with folks.
So for me, you know, my generalrule is like 80, 20,.
8% of your content should bedirect on target, to provide the
value and all that kind of whatyou're trying to do, but 20%
should be experimental orpersonal and just share updates
of your life.
I certainly will share myparents' anniversaries in a
couple of weeks.
Will I talk about them?
Of course I will.
I mean, one thing you can do isturn it into a post about
(18:36):
something professional, right.
Having a newborn.
What does that mean To me?
Having a kid is leadership.
Parenting is leadership.
Having parents right, gratitudefor my parents, the values they
taught me, and how do I applythat to my work?
There's tons of ways to takeany sort of personal post and
turn it into something that is,you know, professional.
(18:57):
For that platform, this ideathat you know and look every
single platform out there, youknow has personal content and
storytelling, because it doesbreak through the clutter and it
does create trust andrelatability.
So you know you definitelyshould use it, but do it in a
way that makes sense for you.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
So, being a now two times dad, it's the best job in
the world, by none.
It's by far the best they'reteenagers best.
Uh, teenagers probably not sureabout this, but mine is four
(19:34):
and uh and only eight months, soI've got all this to come um.
Another word to use around beinga parent, maybe in addition to
leadership, is servitudesometimes yeah, yeah, leadership
um, just on the linkedin piecefor a bit, if you don't mind me
continuing on that for a moment.
For those HR pros, for thoseleaders listening to the show,
and they're grappling with waysto optimize their LinkedIn
(19:54):
profiles, to maximize theirreach, to maximize their
connections there.
Maybe they're current HRDs butthey're looking maybe to become
consultants in the next fewyears, for example.
Any tangible takeaways, any toptips that you can offer them to
help them optimize theirLinkedIn profiles?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Position yourself as a thought leader, an expert in
your field, around the stuffyou're passionate about.
Because, even though you workfor an organization, someday you
may not, someday you have to goto another organization or
someday you may go on your own.
So you need to be building thethought that there's a brand of
you.
The person right your companyorganization are part of is part
of your brand, but it's not allyou.
So that's the first thing Iwould say.
(20:33):
Uh.
Number two you know, mostpeople don't optimize the
biggest things they have ontheir platform, which is the
banner on their linkedin, whichhas so much real estate, the
headline, which has way morewords than you realize.
Don't just tell us yourposition.
Tell us what you're passionateabout, tell us which problems
you solve.
So, for me, mine says I helpyou land a tech stock guaranteed
to elevate your personal brandand build up leadership.
That's what I say, and it saysthat on my banner, it says on my
(20:56):
header.
So use that stuff, make surethe photo is really good, and
then you have the featuredsection, the about section, that
really tells your story.
This is, to me, the big five ofthe things you need to do to
make sure your profile reallystands out.
And so, even though you workfor an organization, you're
coming with HR solutions oryou're working on certain things
you're passionate about sharethose things and make sure it's
(21:18):
clear on your profile tooptimize that.
And as you're getting out there, you got to build your network,
you got to put content outthere.
All these things are buildingthe brand of you so that if you
leave the organization in fiveor 10 years you have this entire
database of people who followyou and love what you're doing.
Or when you switch companies,same thing because they're
(21:39):
following you.
They're not following thecompany, although you know it's
obviously they're interrelated,but so your brand out there is
good for the company too.
So have a good.
You know it's obviously they'reinterrelated, but so your brand
out there is good for thecompany too.
So have a good brand becauseit's good for the company.
But if you do leave or if youdo shift, then they're going to
follow you I like that.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
It's a little bit like, uh, having a pension fund
you got to keep chipping intothat so it pays off later on,
okay.
So, uh, you mentioned a littlewhile ago that you help folks uh
gigs for speaking at TED events, tedx events specifically.
Why is that brand so powerful?
There's so many differentconference brands out there.
Why is TED or TEDx?
(22:16):
Why is that the gold standard?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
So most people I talk to, whether they're in
corporate or whether they're not, they want to elevate their
thought leadership.
They want to build their brand,they want to be known,
memorable, get promotions, getopportunities, get business,
whatever it might be.
There are seven ways to buildthought leadership right.
The most common way is buildingyour network right, so having a
Rolodex or your CRM, yourdatabase, online or in-person
(22:40):
connections.
You know that's one way.
The other way is contentstrategy to share knowledge.
Another way is to you know, runa program right and get clients
and get testimonials.
Another way is to launch, likea book, a book or an e-book or
whatever that might be.
You know write journals, writearticles.
A book or an e-book or whateverthat might be.
You know write journals, writearticles.
Another way is to do paidadvertising, right?
Hey, you know, buy Coca-Cola,buy Pepsi, whatever that might
(23:01):
be.
And then one of the best waysis speaking.
So if you speak on media, like,let's say, on a TV show, or if
you speak on, let's say, at aconference, on a panel or do a
keynote, speaking is the bestway to get noticed.
They see your personality, theyyou know, and it's it's far
more convincing than anythingelse you would do.
(23:21):
And that's also why people arespeaking, you know, on their
phones, and they're doing videocontent and they're putting out
there and they're doing verbalstorytelling and all that.
So that and so for me, tedx isthe best one because it
culminates speaking,storytelling, content strategy,
personal branding, thoughtleadership and, from what I've
(23:42):
seen, experience, if you thinkabout a book or you think about
a content strategy, you'replaying a long game.
Tedx has the least amount oftime invested about 20 to 30
hours of time and the shortesttimeline three to six months for
the greatest amplification ofyour thought leadership.
And that's why, to me, tedx isthe best flagship to build your
(24:02):
thought leadership and the workyou do to do.
A TEDx talk will actually helpyou with your content strategy,
will help you with launching abook later, will help you with
doing more paid speaking, if youwant.
So for me.
That's why I've been investingin helping people, tedxtalks as
the primary flagship to elevatethe brand quickly.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
So powerful brand that reinforces any other
opportunities people arepursuing in the future.
What about website traffic?
Any ideas what the websitetraffic is for the TED website?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Well, I mean TEDxTalks again usually
typically go more viral thananything else because whether
you share a small snippet orwhether you share the TEDx talk,
as soon as you mention itpeople get excited.
They're going to go check itout wherever it is, versus go to
this thing and buy my book for$30.
It's much harder to do that.
(24:50):
Go to this program and buy mycourse and then give me a
testimonial.
That's a lot right.
Tedx way more amplificationbecause people are excited about
it.
They know.
Tedx oh, you just sure I'lltake a look at it.
Yeah, like it's way way easierand that's why it amplifies
better, including websitetraffic so I'm guessing what
that looks like.
Hundreds of thousands, millionsof visitors per month well, it
(25:12):
depends how you do it I meanlook, I mean, there's people who
launch books and launch tedxtalks and launch programs and
they don't put any fanfarebehind.
They don't take them along thejourney.
The best thing you can do.
Like you know, I'm meeting witha client tonight and she has a
tedx talk in may, at like nextmonth, and I'm like look, um,
you need to start talking aboutthis thing and take people on
the journey.
Get people to vote on your title, vote on a slide.
(25:33):
Uh, get them share a snippet.
Same with a book launch, samewith any sort of launch.
Take them along the journey sothat when it finally comes,
people are like, oh my God, yeah, you've been talking about this
for months, I can't wait.
Oh my God.
So if you amplify it right,it's going to do much better
than if you just oh, by the way,I do the that's not good enough
.
So, yeah, you can amplify itand get, yes, thousands and
(25:56):
thousands of impressions if youdo a good job of it.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Okay, just playing devil's advocate here before we
wrap up with our final questionwhat if it goes wrong?
What if you've built it all up?
You're getting feedback frompeople who are helping you shape
a slide, helping you shape yourtitle.
You're telling people about itfor months and then you get up
on stage and you freeze, or itjust flounders in some way or
(26:19):
other, and then that's beingrecorded.
I'm guessing you don't get anopportunity to have that edited
or prove it before it goes live.
Have you ever worked withsomeone and that's happened to
them and what have they done totackle the fact that what they
hoped would be an amazing talkactually was a disaster?
Speaker 3 (26:38):
so this happens all the time to us and I'll tell you
a little story.
On my fifth tedx talk, I cameout on stage and I was very
excited about this one becauseit was a topic I really want to
get into.
I've been playing it for yearsand I was ready.
I got on stage and the slidesweren't working and I just I
just stood there and I was waslike slides please.
And a minute went by, nothinghappened and I stopped, I
(27:01):
stopped the text, I said I'msorry, we need to stop, and I
stopped it.
And they had a lot of techissues and what was interesting
about that was, you know, I waslike, look, I came all this way
and I prepared this thing and Iwant to go well, and your slides
aren't working.
Like, I can't deliver thisthing without the slides.
And what ended up happening wasbecause I'm a professional
speaker.
You know, several people wentbefore me with the technical
(27:22):
difficulty and they're likeBobby, I'm glad you did this,
because I I was like well, ofcourse I did.
I'm a speaker, I wanna, I'mhere because side, but I still
decided to go for it, because Istill wanted to do it, and I
made the adjustment.
And then, of course, how do younavigate that?
(27:42):
You own it.
You talk about it right.
So I talked about the tech fail,what happens when this happens,
and I told the story.
I got vulnerable, I shared whathappened and that's what you
would do.
You would talk about thatbecause that's going to.
People will get it.
They understand vulnerablestorytelling.
They understand when somethinggoes wrong and shift happens
(28:04):
right.
So talk about that, own it anddo it several times.
That's probably what I wouldadvise you to do.
I did the exact same thing andyou know what?
The end result was that thatBiff TEDx talk finally got on
the TEDcom site, which isexactly what I wanted.
So you know, yeah, I think thatyou can own it and you can
position a way where it stillsupports you and is a great
(28:28):
insight or value for everybodyelse.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I love that answer.
That's great.
The Disrupt HR events that I'minvolved with, mainly in the UK,
also one in the US.
We always preface those talksby saying you know, this is a
unique challenge.
It's five minutes, 20 slides,15 seconds per slide.
Uh, it ain't about getting itperfect, it's about stepping up
to the plate.
It's about, it's about thechallenge, you know, um, and
it's about giving people onstage the love that they deserve
(28:51):
for, for being vulnerable, fortaking that risk.
Anyway, before we wrap thingsup for today, sir, how can our
listeners connect with you?
So LinkedIn and all the othersocial medias you might want to
share, and anything else youwant to share with our audience
today, yeah, so I mean, look,you can follow me on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You can follow me on all my other platforms Twitter,
instagram, TikTok, youtube, alldifferent platforms.
I'm everywhere.
And you can go to my website,rayallencom.
And if you are looking to hirea speaker to help transform your
organization or your teams forwith normal storytelling or
learning to love LinkedIn andland leads and leverage it, or
if you want to learn aboutpersonal branding, thought
leadership and all that kind ofstuff or culture community, send
(29:32):
me a message and go to mywebsite.
Or if you want to learn AtlantaTEDxx talk, you can check out
all my free materials as astarting point, like webinars
and all that kind of stuff, andthen I can you can book a call
with me.
But that's basically what I doand how I do it, and I'm happy
to support anybody that wants myway.
In terms of last words, likelook the way your, your brand is
something you have to ownbecause it's based on the, the
(29:54):
memorability and expectation ofpeople, how they experience you.
So either they experience youin a good way or a bad way.
You want to know what that is.
You want to manage that in thebest way possible and the best
way to do a good job of it is toown that brand.
Make sure you're clear on whatyou're trying to do and start
speaking.
Put in conduct, buildrelationships, start
conversations.
Being a thought leader drivesconversations and doesn't follow
(30:16):
conversations, and so that'skind of how you stand out.
And I tell you, if you do thatwork, it's going to benefit you,
it's going to benefit yourorganization, it's going to
benefit everybody.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Love it.
Well, that just leaves me tosay for today, bobby, it's been
great having you back on theshow.
When I'm back in Tirana, I willtap you up and we'll go for a
coffee, sir, but for now, thankyou very much for being my guest
.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Thank you so much and listeners as always, until next
time happy working.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show.
If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work.
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
hrgazettecom.
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