May 31, 2024 • 47 mins
Victoria Pelletier is the author of Influence Unleashed: https://amzn.to/4dWRFHH
Special thanks to Bob Dumouchel, Courtney Coleman, and Blake Beltram for joining me for this lively and informative episode!
By implementing Victoria's framework and tactics, professionals can develop a compelling personal brand that sets them apart, builds trust with their audience, and aligns with their authentic selves, ultimately positioning them for greater success and fulfillment in their careers.
Many professionals struggle to build a strong personal brand that authentically represents who they are and what they stand for. They often focus solely on their subject matter expertise or industry experience, neglecting other crucial elements that make them unique and relatable. Without a well-defined personal brand, they may struggle to connect with their target audience, build trust, and achieve their professional goals.
Tactics:
1. Conduct a personal brand audit: Evaluate your current online presence, content, and messaging to identify areas that need improvement or alignment with your authentic self.
2. Develop your personal brand story: Craft a compelling narrative that weaves together your professional achievements, personal experiences, values, and aspirations. Share this story across various platforms to engage your audience.
3. Create a content strategy: Develop a plan for consistently producing and sharing valuable content that reinforces your personal brand message and resonates with your target audience.
4. Build a trusted circle: Identify a group of trusted individuals who can provide honest feedback on your personal brand and help you identify blind spots or areas for improvement.
5. Embrace evolution: Understand that your personal brand will evolve over time, and be transparent with your audience about pivots or shifts in your brand as they occur.
Key Takeaways:
- A strong personal brand encompasses more than just professional expertise; it should reflect your authentic self, values, and aspirations.
- Crafting an authentic personal brand requires introspection, storytelling, and a willingness to be bold and vulnerable.
- Consistency, relevance, and a commitment to ongoing growth and evolution are essential for maintaining a compelling personal brand.
- Seek external feedback and guidance from trusted individuals to identify blind spots and ensure your personal brand resonates with your target audience.
Resources:
https://victoria-pelletier.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-coleman-63893a12/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakebeltram/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/googleadwordexpert/
#techreads #speaker #branding #influence #lgbtq #sanluisobispo #softec
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Music
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You are listening to Tech Reads, interviews with emerging technology thought leaders.
Our sponsor is SoftTech, the premier technology trade association that has been serving
Northern Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County since 1997.
Our mission is to create SoftTech moments where people connect, explore ideas,
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and create new business opportunities.
Learn more at SOFTEC.org.
Hello everyone, this is Brian Schwartz. I'm the host of TechReads podcast sponsored by SoftTech.
SoftTech is a nonprofit that's been around for over 30 years here on the Central Coast of California.
Here at Bayfowl San Luis Obispo.
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And our mission is to create SoftTech moments where people meet and create new possibilities.
Originally the organization was formed to bring technology awareness and resources and employees to the Central Coast.
They succeeded in that mission.
Blake Bellchamp is with us. He was one of the large tech companies that came to the center.
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He had history in San Luis Obispo, but we did come here and established what became a very large company that sold for over a billion dollars.
And Courtney is joining us.
The other end of the business spacer.
And she is going to, she understands personal branding and you're really good at that side of the world.
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Yeah, well I'm a people person.
And then Bob DeMuchel is also, he's got a long history in marketing so he understands the importance of branding as well.
And we're coming to you live from Office Hours here in San Luis Obispo, which they are always so gracious to provide us with the space to make this happen.
So Victoria, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself like quick two minute bio.
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Yeah, sure. Happy to you. Thanks for having me here today.
So Victoria Peltzay, I am a career long business to business professional services executive stepping into my first executive role at a really young age of 24 and a brand new mother so there was lots going on at that point.
I was in the private sector for the first number of years in that capacity and then I spent the last 15 or so for Fortune 100 companies running large markets business units. I've also built and bought several businesses over the years.
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And I've been a part of including some of those acquisitions and divestitures for myself 40 M&A transactions. So I'm known as a bit of a integration and transformation queen as a result of all of those.
I sit on multiple boards. I am a published author. I'm a professional public speaker and personally I'm a wife, a mother to two beautiful humans, one for baby fitness fanatic foodie and wine lover.
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Awesome. And how did you wind up in Miami Beach?
I'm originally from Canada so I just I've learned how to escape the snow and the cold so I went from Toronto to New York to one of the many New Yorkers who escaped at some point during COVID to down here in South Florida.
So you're a recent fan plant.
Yes, three years now.
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And you like it?
A lot. I like let's not get into the political landscape, but the weather, our friends, the house, all of that is goodness.
Yes, Lord is kind of a hotspot around and we'll only get hotter.
So what inspired you to write the book? You know, because you published it a bit ago, right, but you're still out actively promoting and talking about it. But what really spawned you to kind of go through that and wasn't a difficult process to actually get it done?
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It was the second book I've written, although the first was a co-authored book and so I only had to contribute one chapter to that one. So definitely much more of a challenge and more onerous to work through the end to end process of writing the book and publishing it.
And I decided to write it because I've been focused on personal brand since the moment I stepped into the B2B arena. I got recruited into the world out of B2C at a financial services. And without having the vernacular 20 something years ago, I recognize that I was actually very much focused on the personal branding for myself and my team as we engaged out in the market.
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And I'm fortunate to have been recognized for a lot of those efforts. In fact, when I worked for IBM a number of years ago, LinkedIn had ranked me as the number one social seller worldwide.
And so that's more than your brand. That's how you engage with your network. That is the network itself, the content you share. But as a result of that, IBM had asked me to develop the training for personal branding for its other executives.
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And then more recently with a lot of restructure, particularly in the technology space, there's a lot of people who are out there in the market, and they're now trying to build a brand to help them as they land in their next role.
And so I'm seeing people falling down and really only focused on one of what I believe are the four foundational areas of brand. So I thought if I could share the lessons I've learned with others to help them, whether it's to sell, it's to hire or to be hired, then I would put pen to paper so to speak.
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Well, since you mentioned it, what are the four foundational branding elements or aspects that you need to consider?
Everyone seems to understand but often stops at the first, which is the subject matter expertise or the industry in which you have studied or you have worked in.
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You know, so hey, I'm like a data and analytics expert or AI could be the newest one or I know financial services or some other sector. And that's where they stop.
So but that is foundational plus the elements of expertise and success and outcomes you've delivered. So that's one. The next is what makes you you. So there's some storytelling in this.
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What are the interest, passions and values that you live by that's the hook when you think about people do business with people they like and trust and therefore they want to do business with.
So what's that initial connection, what's maybe some of the shared lived experiences that you can bring to the table that will will bridge you and build you together. So storytelling who you are as a human.
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The next one, although it's very connected to the last is what makes you different, your unique value proposition. So I spent a lot of time and management consulting and one of my unique value propositions and differentiators is unlike many others in the
business, I will tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear that sense of radical candor is one that is uniquely who I am but it's also what really makes me different and stand apart.
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So figure out for your niche audience and you shouldn't be all things to all people. What makes you different. Why do people want to engage with you hire you buy from you.
The fourth is legacy and impact. What do you want to be known for. So you heard in my bio all this like business experience and m&a experience when I die that is not what I want people to be talking about.
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I want it to be the other elements and the things that are connected deeply to who I am I'm passionate around social justice and leaving workplaces communities in the world a better place when I leave it then when I came into it.
So that's part of mine so legacy impact. What do you want to be known for.
Yeah, that's a good point and I think we we figure we're known in our industry, but we're also kind of pigeonhole in that area of expertise which after many, many years of doing the same thing that's kind of right where I'm at 15 years of self publishing but independent publishing.
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Kind of burned out. I don't really, I don't need to prove anything. I'm doing the writers conference now at Cuesta, which is kind of the pinnacle maybe of my role, which is good because that's this is the 40th year so I'm happy about that but I have this for I had a great story of how I went independent 15 years ago when I published my book 15 interviews and I stopped telling that like, I don't know I guess I got it got tired to me.
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And so whenever I meet somebody I didn't tell them but then they sometimes look up and say what is this 15 interviews thing and it's intriguing because of how it kind of kicked me out of the corporate world.
But as far as then my my values, those haven't really changed through the years in fact, for the reason I left corporate America is because it was in conflict with my values.
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I was being forced to do things that were outside the integrity scope of what's so important to me and saying things that weren't always true but that's, you know when I left IBM partner reason was I sat down with my boss and he said, you know, Brian, if you're going to stick around you need to tell me what I want to hear.
And I said, but I'm never going to make those numbers and you shouldn't be telling your boss we're going to make those numbers. He goes, No, you tell me what I want to hear so that I can tell him what you want to hear. So he could tell the boss. So no wonder these corporations missed their numbers if that's the culture.
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And so we're going to have a mass of this because they're not in touch with reality. And then I also saw people spending more time on their PowerPoints for internal pre internal presentations they did on customer proposals I'm like, there's something wrong with this picture so you know that's, it was always
a good fit. I realized that that also might be why somebody would want to hire me is because you know that's, and when you're aligned right you find a better fit I'm sure that you've been through places that weren't always such a good fit.
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I definitely have I have and misalignment is a reason why I've left some places there's one I remember as I left. I told them there was no money after they offered me a bunch of money to stay in different roles I said there's no money, nor role you could offer me that would solve for the current
culture and leadership crisis. And if I stayed for that, I'd be a hypocrite.
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So, and tying to what you just shared with us, then there's three ways that you engage there's three acts of engagement as you call them right.
Talk a little bit about that.
Well, it's really more to do with sitting sitting down to craft your brand identity and foundation is for some it can be quite challenging so you need to be bold, and you need to be courageous and this word is abused but there's no other way to do it.
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My word to say it is then authentic.
And so those are the, you know, the acts you must take me to sit down and particularly it and it depends on I also think what generation you come from or culture background.
You know, the command and control type of environment I stepped into in the workforce is not what employees want today. They're looking for what I refer to as whole human leaders and a big part of that is those acts of engagement of being authentic of building connection with people through, you know, trust,
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transparency and the way in which we communicate.
And when I talk about those foundational elements, particularly those middle two of storytelling and sharing of yourself personally is not comfortable for many.
So that's why I say you need to be bold and you need to be courageous and telling that authentic story to be really effective at building your brand and ultimately the relationships he built from there.
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When Brian said that he left the corporate world with a misalignment of values and that he just couldn't do it anymore that was enough for me to feel like he's a hero in certain ways.
And that's your current story. So even doing this a lot of decades but like what's most current and relevant and that has a ton of integrity.
Just right there. So I think that's your new story.
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Yeah, and in the corporate world I talked to people. I don't think it's as bad as it was back in 2008 when I left. I mean that was like, I think one of the worst times to be in corporate America.
It was just a bloodbath and everybody was, it was just cut road. And I was in sales. So it was like, there was this leaderboard that our president sent out every week of sales numbers and each person's name associated with it.
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And this was apparently, I found out this actually is a philosophy that I think came from Chrysler or something where they posted a leaderboard every week just to basically light a fire into the sales guys.
Because if you're at the bottom of that list, you knew that you were one step away from being out the door. And the worst was people walking around the company when they're having layoffs.
It was like, well, it's your fault that we're losing people because you're not out there selling, but I was, nobody was buying back in 2008 and 2009. This was the worst environment meant to be in.
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So I don't think that it's as bad. And Victor, I'm glad you're finding corporations that have better values and have longer sustainability long term.
I think that that's a jaded, your corporate America. I would hope that if I stepped in it today, no, it's much different. And I mean, there's still companies, there's no question that are dysfunctional and toxic.
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And that's, I was in a very toxic environment. And I was, I was having a really hard time. And I just, I was pushed out like it was the pain of going back to that environment was stronger than the pain of failing at my own endeavor.
And I think that's the reason why I'm so, for me, the motivation is it's sort of to be pushed out the plane as opposed to volunteer to jump out the plane. I guess that's some of it. You have to be finding motivation.
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Bob, you've got a comment question.
Oh, Bob, you're muted.
I'll do that every time.
I tried hitting the space bar. Didn't work. I have a great interest in the personal brand area, but I have a big question about how you advise people to keep their personal brand separate from their business brand at the time they're associated with it.
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And what to do with the conflicts in style between the personal brand and the corporate brand.
So I'm a believer, Bob, that there shouldn't be different brands and versions of oneself. So this is Victoria, you will meet in to quote my youngest 19 year old IRL in real life is the same as what you're going to see digitally online.
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And so I, that isn't my question. My question is, is that your personal brand is not a perfect match to, to who your employer is at that point in time.
And so I'm wondering how you, how you advise dealing with those.
Yeah, so I was going to bridge to that first statement into, you know, your direct question on that. And I think you are more than your brand is more than the company you work for and the role that you hold for them.
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And, you know, who you are, if we're going to go back to authentically should not change.
Now, there's ways in which you show up online that might not be aligned to a corporate brand, and I would often be cautious around, but I would also challenge people to ask themselves if the brands are so misaligned should you be working there.
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And you might go back to some of the values pieces, purpose or impact that you personally want to have. And so I think there's, you know, a way to think about your brand is bigger than the company.
So I work, I recall, I actually even, even though I've been doing this for a very long time, I asked a friend of mine, a chief marketing officer for one company to audit my brand.
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And it happened to be working for IBM at the time. And so it was because I was getting a lot of publicity. I'm like, Rosa, tell me what do you think. It's just like you need IBM directly in your tagline, right under your name on LinkedIn.
And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I am not IBM.
I'm more than that. And so this is, I happen to work there and support a lot of clients. And so that's how I choose to think about it. But again, it's more around the context in the content you create, and whether that creates alignment, or a bit of a s storm for your company in terms of how you might be showing up as it would reflect on them.
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So there's mindfulness in both ways, I think.
And speaking of mindfulness, Blake has a very interesting story he can chat to or chime in on, but he was the brand for my bike for many years.
Like you were out there, you were intended to be the face and it was, I'm aligned with who you were.
Yeah.
You know, he basically, from what I understand, you traveled around the country, going to Yoke Studios, and getting them enrolled. You were a sales guy, but you were really an ambassador.
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And it was, well, there was two different phases of that at the very beginning, when the company was just me, I was the brand, right, it was indiscernible. And there were people that invested in me at the beginning because they believed in me.
They wrote me checks because they trusted and believed that I was going to deliver the things that I was saying that I was going to deliver. And then later on, once we were at scale, I became known kind of as the client whisperer a little bit, and I traveled across the country and visited clients.
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Yeah, because I genuinely loved them and connected with them. I always felt a little bit more connected to the clients.
Then to your own company?
My own company, yeah, because they were a bunch of software business geeks at the company, you know, like me. But I struggled with this personal brand thing quite a bit.
Part of it is because I'm still trying to figure out who I really am. But where, you know, where does somebody go to get, other than hiring you, which it sounds like you might be a great person to say, give it to me straight.
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But where do you go for those subtle cues and signs that you're missing it with the way you're putting yourself out there in the world?
I tend to just be, I think I probably overshare sometimes on social media and on other things, because I just can't help but tell the truth.
And I'm not sure that that always really helps me in terms of a personal brand.
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Hard on a sleeve guy, right?
Hard on a sleeve.
And I just tell it like it is. And sometimes it's unpopular.
You have a podcast for that, like Joe Rogan.
Yeah.
And I want to do that. And there's an audience for that. So you have your niche, your niche.
Do you talk about Victoria kind of reflecting and discovering who you are?
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I do. And I also talk about finding that trusted group of people who will help you with that audit, who will identify the blind spots that you don't see.
And as you describe who your target audience is and how you want to be known, test that with them.
And I don't think you should be ashamed of Hard on the Slave or the radical candor that you have. That's what makes you you.
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And so I find the people who are going to be honest with you and also get comfortable that it's going to evolve and change over time.
You know, I talked to my older son who's 24 and as he was coming out of college around developing his own brand. And I'm, you know, he doesn't have any thought about what legacy right now.
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And that's okay. I want to plant the seed, but it's going to change for me. You know, my definition of success and my brand in my 20s was very different than now as I sit in my late 40s.
So get comfortable with the evolution of that. There should still be a common through line, but there's going to be some changes and pivots.
If you come from, you know, much like you, Brian, you come from corporate and you leave. Well, there's a big pivots. You're going to, but there's an opportunity to tell a great story.
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Well, and I would tell you the first seven years of my business, I learned more about who I was than the prior 15 years I spent in corporate America, like my personal growth of discovering who I was.
Because I think in corporate America, you try to fit into the mold, right? You're the cog in the wheel. And in a lot of ways you don't have an identity coming out of college, especially being hired right out of college.
I hated my first job. I at least figured that out after nine months. I'm like, this is not who I want to be. So I got out of that.
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But then I probably had a strong identity with being a sales guy and I did that for a long time. But then I was being pushed into this uncomfortable.
And it was just, you know, in sales, you're basically only as good as your left quarter, no matter how good you did. You always have kind of this anxiety and I didn't play the politics.
I just didn't. Again, I don't know, I just had a little bit, a little bit too righteous for that. And speaking up, it's not appropriate to do in a lot of corporate settings when you want to speak the truth.
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No, you are actually silenced in because if it rocks the boat too much, it comes back to bite you.
And again, I don't know. I get taste of it here because I'm in a co-working environment, so I'm more exposed to the corporate world than I have been in like 15 years.
And I'm like, oh, God, I have no, I don't want to ever go back to that. That's enough for me, just being on the fringe of that. But at the same time, I think there's great companies and I'm missing out on the opportunity.
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I think part of the challenge is that the current corporate structure in America rewards certain flavors of mental illness.
I mean, people with narcissists of borderline personality.
I mean, it's all that all that matters. It doesn't matter how you get on. I mean, I'm talking to just talking to a friend on the way in who is like suffering over a battle with somebody who I said whether or not the person has narcissistic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder.
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I'm comfortable putting them in that category because of all of their actions and behaviors that the line with that. This is maybe off track of personal branding, but I, but I have a can I segue a little bit and that's what it's like.
And Bob is not okay. You can hold off on your question. You still got your hand.
Oh, sorry.
Oh, he's an unraising. Okay, go ahead.
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So, with AI, I just this is top of mind for me because I just launched an AI business just like a week and a half ago. And it's creating digital versions of human beings.
That's powered underneath by AI. So I wonder, I mean, this is bleeding edge stuff, but have you given any thought to where AI intersects with one's personal brand and you know, we could now put I could there's a digital version of me that's actually out in the chat GTV marketplace right now.
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And you can ask questions about about based on your source of truth.
It's actually the book that I wrote that I have a publisher for you. So I uploaded a book that's like 180,000 work memoir. Yes, my memoir. So you can literally go in there right now and say what inspired you to start mind body and get like a lot of interesting stuff.
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I don't know if that's smart or wise or not in terms of a personal brand. I just was intrigued by it. So I threw it out there.
Well, there is tech out there right now that will help you with that. Now a lot of it's been more about content. But now there are some that will take the what you feed it what it learns about you and who you are and the tone and the voice.
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And it will actually create like responses to tweets for example or other social media to you know operate as you in the way in which you teach it. I, because I so strictly like manage my own brand.
I'm a I don't think the technologies there yet for me to unleash that kind of technology I do not yet trust it to be responding on my behalf now I've played around with it to see.
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Do you actually have the ability to let it completely loose or review and edit it before it goes out. So it's been interesting but I don't think it's there yet, but it's very much I think in a you know change the way in which we engage with our networks, and therefore connected to our brands.
If I were trying to digitally capture who you are. You know what are the most important aspects of who you are in terms of your personal brand that I would be trying to capture.
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I'm incredibly values and integrity driven one. I'm exceptionally transparent and very much like you like sort of hard on my sleeve although I wasn't always I had a nickname as the Iron Maiden in my 20s because I wouldn't show the emotions.
I was a pivot I needed to do. And it would talk a lot about beyond what I do for business how I use that platform to try and make. As I said earlier workplaces communities in the world, like, better place whether it's by sharing my stories, or otherwise being the voice and raising, you know for others particularly
(25:30):
from like diverse communities.
I'm a big fan of the Enneagram if you ever studied that Victoria. I mean, it's amazing to me because I did a lot of years and years of self work.
And it seemed like that was a shortcut because all of a sudden it showed me who I was in with extreme accuracy and it wasn't like every Enneagram sounds the same.
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And I was very distinctive the way I see the world. And even my wife she took the test and she's a type one and and she will even look at it and see that's me. Like, if she met a type one she would immediately connect with them.
If I need to type five, we totally connect and understand the struggles that we go through.
And it's, it's to me those are some of the things like I'll send you that but I would say I would be Enneagram because there's the traits and the sort of the behaviors and the motivations behind our activities and why we do what we do because we don't always know why we don't want to do something like
(26:28):
but we power through it and we're miserable we wonder why it's not a good fit for who we are.
And we're looking at those pieces right now, even right now you can tell chat GPT respond as an Aries or respond as a as a cap report.
It'll give you a different answer.
Yeah, well and then there's a strengths finder where you it's a very short book that you figure out what strengths you have in business so you know where to delegate and not waste your energy.
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And you're heading against a wall like I've done with tech. So, Victoria, what are the biggest mistakes you see people making in their personal brand.
And as I said earlier I see they only focus on that one foundational element and that's it. Then I see them trying to show up online without having crafted that story and so I see them posting content and I'm like, I'm really confused in terms of why because I have no other context around who they are.
(27:27):
But again, a company and a job title and that's it. And so they're recognizing they need to be out them much more publicly now again for lots of whom are in transition or like you Brian there, they were in sales or are in sales.
And so they don't have that full sort of connected tissue in terms of the entire brand identity, and then how you translate that into how you show up.
(27:52):
That that's probably one of the biggest mistakes that I found, or I find people who sort of put all that effort in and then set it and forget it. Like, you need to be relevant you need to be consistent with how you're, you know, showing up and of all to the point of evolve, you know, and pivot, you know, as social the world stuff goes on like how do you react and how do you respond to some of those things.
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Bob you raised your hand.
I guess since this is an IBM recovery group.
I'll ask the question in that context. I worked with not for IBM for eight years and so I fully understand that but but they have a very precise brand.
(28:38):
And I'm very regimented. I mean, when I worked with them in the 80s and 90s, they got down to what brand of suit you bought, and what type of shirt you wore the top. I mean, all the way down the line.
I'm curious, when you when you're in that highly regimented brand apples and Microsoft's and IBM's, you know, the Goliath. How do you reconcile the differences of your personal brand, which is okay.
(29:09):
But it's outside the lines of the corporate brand. It's this division between personal and professional that has me confused when I look at brand.
Yeah, it's really interesting, Bob and I. So what I will say is, I mean, sounds like I left or stopped working with IBM.
Most recently, so I will tell you they've evolved. I've heard the stories that you've talked about, and I'm seeing more and more companies who are evolving towards.
(29:40):
Maybe it was because there's been such a focus on, you know, inclusion and belonging. And with that comes recognizing the differences we all bring so not trying to find that great cookie cutter.
But it is a very fine line in balance. So, I even saw two very different reactions and or responses from IBM.
When I first joined IBM, I was still living in, I've been between Toronto and New York for much of my career, but I was in Toronto and I was on the national news regularly for a weekend business segment while they're marketing and communications team in Canada freaked over that and
(30:14):
you know, I needed to get approved what news topics they were going to ask me about. I need to at one point we just agreed I'm going to take I'm like do you want the benefit of IBM under my name on showing up on national TV or not.
So they were uncomfortable with it but then in the US when I moved, you know, to New York with them, you know, they were very happy to leverage that because I am an extension of them.
(30:36):
Mind you, they made me go through extra media training to ensure I was saying somewhat of the things that they approved.
But then when I went to Accenture after IBM, it was a complete opposite they wanted only Julie sweet and her direct reports to kind of be that face not recognizing that you know I run a really large business unit for you think you'd actually want me out there.
And so what we did have to do were things like and I still have it in my LinkedIn profile like opinions or mine do not reflect those of my company etc.
(31:05):
And so I'd be very cautious to put personal opinions out there, you can infer because I talk about abortion access or equal rights for all who I might vote for but I'm never actually going to put that out on the platform.
So that's that's kind of the lens which when I'm talking with people in terms of once they foundationally built the brand how do they go forward, that kind of delicate balance between representing the company brand and who uniquely and authentically you are.
(31:33):
Well, and you saw Sam Alton and right suffer this consequences because he was not in line with the board granted he wound up winning in the end but you know easily could have gone the other way with them.
But these people who are in super high profile positions and he admitted that that's the thing he didn't prepare for like he didn't realize that he was going to become like the voice of AI and all that.
(31:55):
And so everything he said was being criticized and looked at, and then you have people like Elon Musk and Trump who just want to say things to get a ride out of the public and you know any publicity is good policy wasn't that Michael Jackson's thing when he held the baby over the.
Remember that. But I think that if you if someone else is paying giving you a paycheck that you have to honor them and even with soft tech is a good example of I'm going to speak.
(32:28):
I'm in a line with enough of the organization that I volunteer for that.
I feel confident in what I'm saying and doing, but I also don't get a paycheck for them so it's not like I'm going to lose my job if I say something that, but I'm not going to get myself in trouble either.
I go ahead like yeah I have a question about I was just going to ask about that. What you think about politics in terms of personal brand, and also if you have an opinion on that in terms of corporate branding.
(32:54):
I personally am at a point now or I used to, you know back when I was at my body and I was glad that we got on board with certain issues. I was comfortable with that.
I'm no longer comfortable with that.
From a corporate perspective, I would like to see politics just taken out of the corporate world, because it's just so.
(33:15):
It's just so charged and so polarizing and I feel like it's detrimental. So, but then there's the personal politics as well right like Jennifer say, who was the vice president of Levi's was famously run out of Levi's, because she was posting things on social media where she thought the schools should remain open during coded, and that
was an honor to their internal politics that they ran her out of Levi's. So, do you have any thoughts on politics and whether or not you put a Ukrainian flag or a Palestinian flag in your profile or you take issues on the, you know you take a perspective on these things personally, and as a company in
(33:54):
the future. I think it's incredibly difficult for a corporate brand to be taking more political stances for the reasons you've just said they're still polarizing and you've got customers across the gamut.
And so, where I would state I think you do need to put, you know, the, you know, the flag down is on things that are connected deeply to the corporate values. And so if you talk about wanting to have a workplace that is diverse and inclusive for all, then you need to be standing
(34:29):
up for things that don't honor inclusive, you know, you know, environment, whether that be in community or more broadly so that's so I think you can do it without being, you know, as direct as putting a flag, a country's flag out there but rather talk about the
values that you have to the values you stand for purpose and the impact that you want to have. And then at the personal brand standpoint, that that is, I would actually take almost the same line so again I will never post I might talk around where I would vote politically
(35:06):
and I would go back to this on again sort of values who, who, who am I what do I stand for what's the platform I choose. So again, I'm really I will I will tend to steer away from that kind of much more direct political conversation connected to my brand and again more around, you
know, the values and belief system. I don't post on social media a lot but when coven happened and I realized I was on one side of the fence, I knew that I didn't want to label myself and cut off half of my potential clients, but now I find that spiritual
(35:43):
background is like universal and saying you know this whole two headed beast thing that like we haven't had real change and peace ever.
People are like reading 1984 and brand new world now. It's so inspiring that a lot of people are waking up to the charade of it all and the media and how manipulated they've been, and they're dropping out and it's inspiring and exciting and I just keep falling back on
(36:14):
spiritual. Not that I'm even sending out newsletters right now or posting on social media but I know that's coming up and like changing my SEO on my website and getting more of my keywords in there and studying about metabolism.
So I'm like in this reworking phase, but I know that everybody wants peace and we all enjoy the comments.
(36:37):
And this perennial philosophy is true for all of us. No one trusts politicians we can all agree on one.
Let's create a different culture.
Well and on that Bob did you have another question or you just raised your hand from the floor.
Oh, I'm sorry.
So the reality is the scary numbers of the fact that 90% of all the content we're going to see online is going to be generated and the deep bass and the manipulation that we've seen with social media and influencing and basically spreading fake news.
(37:10):
So I think that ultimately we're just not going to trust anything we see come across the internet unless if we're here from a close friend and they have a personal experience and they can tell a story about maybe backing up their beliefs because I've sit next to people with the polar opposite view and you could get in a fighting match
and a fist fight.
(37:32):
And then we both agree. Hey, you're entitled to your opinion. I'm entitled to my opinion we're never going to agree. And it's if I was sitting in your shoes I probably have your opinion if you're in my shoes, you would see the world that I do and just understand that we all are going to have our own opinions and, you
know, complacency there's a little bit of a fear that you know people aren't speaking up at all which isn't good for the world because you see something and you don't say anything it's it's not the right way to address the problem.
(38:06):
And if you're not true to your to yourself, you can't be authentic and you violate the basic rule of that personal branding. So to some degree, you know, some degree you have to embrace that I'm going to, I'm going to offend some people because I'm me, and I'm going to offend them.
(38:28):
I have been called a lot of things over the years, not all of them pleasant. And, and, you know, the people that like me call me brutally honest. Other people use more colorful adjectives.
I think that's what's interesting about your topic, Victoria is the personal branding of, you know, how do you, how do you regulate that and, and how does it evolve over the course of the evolution of your personal brand.
(38:58):
I mean, my personal brand, when I was when I was 40 would be quite different than it is today in even more radically when I was 20.
And so it evolves over time as we do. And so it, it's interesting, because now AI is going to have all the things that were said about me 20 years ago.
(39:20):
And now, you know, it's regurgitating it. The AI has become bias. We, we as humans can't tell real stuff and fake stuff. So how do we expect technology to be able to do it.
And, and I guess just to come back to the question for Victoria is that, you know, from a branding standpoint, you know, how do you, how do you cope with the fact that you're constantly evolving and not in little, not little tiny pieces all the time and sometimes in big steps.
(39:51):
So I think we need to get, need to get very comfortable with the fact that we are going to evolve. There are going to be big shifts and pivots, but be bold around coming out with the, you know, talking about it when it changes.
Like don't expect that the audience is going to figure that out. It particularly if it's one of these seismic shifts come out, tell the story and where and why the shift, you know, has come about.
(40:16):
And I do think I love how, you know, with, you know, age and maturity and comfort and confidence in our own skin.
You know, I think of maybe a little bit Courtney's like, so I'm queer. I came out at 14 as bisexual. I was married to a win for 11 years. I happen to now be with my husband for almost 11 years.
But I'm still very openly queer in my 20s, although I openly brought my wife to events. I was cautious and played the pronoun game because I was worried about clients. I didn't all my colleagues were going to know but I was like, Oh, but what if my client who's like paying the bills like how or he or she going to feel and so I did the
(40:54):
other half my better half like all the kind of stuff. Now I am unapologetic about the fact that I was married to a woman I have a trans male son. This is who I am and this is what I stand for.
That is come with confidence and who I am and being more entrenched to you know values and the things I'm committed to. That actually wasn't an ever an evolution is just my ability to speak it in a very different platform.
(41:19):
But I have made other shifts in terms of how I showed up as a leader and needed to be conscious around being very different. That was an actual, you know, internal need to change as well as how I, I showed up much more broadly and so I think lean into the discomfort, lean into the
growth and the change, but be really transparent with your audience when that that change takes place.
(41:43):
Yeah, and you made the point just don't assume they understand who you are. You need to reiterate it and see how you're coming across and probably do a regular audit of your own personal brand right maybe ask some other people and you know, don't forget that you had certain
things that worked.
Victoria, is it a good idea for you to do the audit of yourself or to look for your look for outside for that audit because you can't see what you can't see.
(42:13):
I think you absolutely need external help, although I do think you need to reframe sometimes some elements of your brand and then how like, hey when I'm writing that with it does this content really talk about who I am or what how I want to be known or is it just me at selling
something a product or a service for my company so I think there's some pieces you can and should do for yourself around reframing consistently and updating and making sure that it's aligned but you absolutely need people like you Bob I don't know what colorful
(42:43):
adjectives they're using but around being brutally honest with me to say, are you sure like did you think about before you posted this is this how you want to be known, find those trusted people.
And I heard that people want to clients want to know your real your vulnerabilities your real story like, I don't know childhood traumas maybe things that make you things that make you human but that you wouldn't think to share as a business front.
(43:15):
When you humanize yourself.
It makes them feel safe with you.
Yeah, it builds trust.
And then you you know every you never know what someone's going through like that's the thing that shocked, you know, I forget sometimes like what's going on like what happened that you have no clue that they'll never reveal.
Right, but that low level cortisol you experienced in the corporate world you said that anxiety, they could be going through that in a bad dynamic in a relationship behind closed doors for two thirds of the day.
(43:47):
And that people go through we don't know like, I've heard spiritually everybody's waging a great battle like no doubt, every one of our souls is great waging a great battle.
Your past lives influence who you showed up that time maybe and yeah it's it's it's cool so we're coming up on an hour of Victoria what else.
What else do you where are you planning to take this so you're in your 40 you still got another good 20 years maybe working world yet. You're not retired yet in Florida.
(44:16):
What do you what do you want to do like in the next five 10 years where's your focus these days.
So I made a decision to leave my last employer because it wasn't a fit I don't do things that don't bring me personal or professional joy or value.
And so I've been in transition.
I've been fortunate to have had a number of offers come in since I left but I want to find the right one so I'm doing lots of strategic advisory. So I built a portfolio that's the other thing I give a lot of advice more to like leaders and as they're thinking about their careers I built the portfolio
(44:48):
career now I choose not to make that full time for me, but it's there for me that if I ever retire and my husband jokes he does not think I will ever retire.
So I think it's a good thing to do. It's already well established and that's that mix of advisory board speaking, you know, authorship.
I am looking my goal would be to retire as the CEO of a publicly traded company.
(45:12):
So my next hop is actually probably taking all the M&A experience and operating experience into the private equity world running a portfolio company, but that'll be the hop to take me to that final destination.
I did a look to stand on bigger and bigger stages. I was invited to speak at Ted here, Ted X here in Miami last week so I'll share with you the, you know, the link once it's made public on the Ted website.
(45:33):
That was great very different format that I'm used to but I loved it. And so I want to, you know, hope to reach more and more, you know, bigger stages as well with the various talks that I do.
Oh, and I will say on the personal front, my kids are 24 and soon to be 20 and I've told them one, if not both will make me a grandmother but I was a young mother by choice.
(45:54):
Don't make me a young grandmother by accident. But I do want to be a grandmother at some point.
That's wonderful.
Any other questions for Victoria.
That was great. Thank you. So our listeners want to get a copy of the book, right? Head over to Amazon and then your website.
(46:15):
We'll put a link to it because your last name is a large spell.
Yeah, blame the French, French Canadian husband for that. But yes, my website, they can link out wherever they can see what's going on from there.
Thank you for your time.
(46:48):
We'll see you next time.
(47:18):
Thank you.
Music
(00:06):
You are listening to Tech Reads, interviews with emerging technology thought leaders.
Our sponsor is SoftTech, the premier technology trade association that has been serving
Northern Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo County since 1997.
Our mission is to create SoftTech moments where people connect, explore ideas,
(00:28):
and create new business opportunities.
Learn more at SOFTEC.org.
Hello everyone, this is Brian Schwartz. I'm the host of TechReads podcast sponsored by SoftTech.
SoftTech is a nonprofit that's been around for over 30 years here on the Central Coast of California.
Here at Bayfowl San Luis Obispo.
(00:50):
And our mission is to create SoftTech moments where people meet and create new possibilities.
Originally the organization was formed to bring technology awareness and resources and employees to the Central Coast.
They succeeded in that mission.
Blake Bellchamp is with us. He was one of the large tech companies that came to the center.
(01:14):
He had history in San Luis Obispo, but we did come here and established what became a very large company that sold for over a billion dollars.
And Courtney is joining us.
The other end of the business spacer.
And she is going to, she understands personal branding and you're really good at that side of the world.
(01:35):
Yeah, well I'm a people person.
And then Bob DeMuchel is also, he's got a long history in marketing so he understands the importance of branding as well.
And we're coming to you live from Office Hours here in San Luis Obispo, which they are always so gracious to provide us with the space to make this happen.
So Victoria, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself like quick two minute bio.
(01:56):
Yeah, sure. Happy to you. Thanks for having me here today.
So Victoria Peltzay, I am a career long business to business professional services executive stepping into my first executive role at a really young age of 24 and a brand new mother so there was lots going on at that point.
I was in the private sector for the first number of years in that capacity and then I spent the last 15 or so for Fortune 100 companies running large markets business units. I've also built and bought several businesses over the years.
(02:31):
And I've been a part of including some of those acquisitions and divestitures for myself 40 M&A transactions. So I'm known as a bit of a integration and transformation queen as a result of all of those.
I sit on multiple boards. I am a published author. I'm a professional public speaker and personally I'm a wife, a mother to two beautiful humans, one for baby fitness fanatic foodie and wine lover.
(02:59):
Awesome. And how did you wind up in Miami Beach?
I'm originally from Canada so I just I've learned how to escape the snow and the cold so I went from Toronto to New York to one of the many New Yorkers who escaped at some point during COVID to down here in South Florida.
So you're a recent fan plant.
Yes, three years now.
(03:20):
And you like it?
A lot. I like let's not get into the political landscape, but the weather, our friends, the house, all of that is goodness.
Yes, Lord is kind of a hotspot around and we'll only get hotter.
So what inspired you to write the book? You know, because you published it a bit ago, right, but you're still out actively promoting and talking about it. But what really spawned you to kind of go through that and wasn't a difficult process to actually get it done?
(03:52):
It was the second book I've written, although the first was a co-authored book and so I only had to contribute one chapter to that one. So definitely much more of a challenge and more onerous to work through the end to end process of writing the book and publishing it.
And I decided to write it because I've been focused on personal brand since the moment I stepped into the B2B arena. I got recruited into the world out of B2C at a financial services. And without having the vernacular 20 something years ago, I recognize that I was actually very much focused on the personal branding for myself and my team as we engaged out in the market.
(04:33):
And I'm fortunate to have been recognized for a lot of those efforts. In fact, when I worked for IBM a number of years ago, LinkedIn had ranked me as the number one social seller worldwide.
And so that's more than your brand. That's how you engage with your network. That is the network itself, the content you share. But as a result of that, IBM had asked me to develop the training for personal branding for its other executives.
(04:57):
And then more recently with a lot of restructure, particularly in the technology space, there's a lot of people who are out there in the market, and they're now trying to build a brand to help them as they land in their next role.
And so I'm seeing people falling down and really only focused on one of what I believe are the four foundational areas of brand. So I thought if I could share the lessons I've learned with others to help them, whether it's to sell, it's to hire or to be hired, then I would put pen to paper so to speak.
(05:32):
Well, since you mentioned it, what are the four foundational branding elements or aspects that you need to consider?
Everyone seems to understand but often stops at the first, which is the subject matter expertise or the industry in which you have studied or you have worked in.
(05:53):
You know, so hey, I'm like a data and analytics expert or AI could be the newest one or I know financial services or some other sector. And that's where they stop.
So but that is foundational plus the elements of expertise and success and outcomes you've delivered. So that's one. The next is what makes you you. So there's some storytelling in this.
(06:14):
What are the interest, passions and values that you live by that's the hook when you think about people do business with people they like and trust and therefore they want to do business with.
So what's that initial connection, what's maybe some of the shared lived experiences that you can bring to the table that will will bridge you and build you together. So storytelling who you are as a human.
(06:37):
The next one, although it's very connected to the last is what makes you different, your unique value proposition. So I spent a lot of time and management consulting and one of my unique value propositions and differentiators is unlike many others in the
business, I will tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear that sense of radical candor is one that is uniquely who I am but it's also what really makes me different and stand apart.
(07:07):
So figure out for your niche audience and you shouldn't be all things to all people. What makes you different. Why do people want to engage with you hire you buy from you.
The fourth is legacy and impact. What do you want to be known for. So you heard in my bio all this like business experience and m&a experience when I die that is not what I want people to be talking about.
(07:31):
I want it to be the other elements and the things that are connected deeply to who I am I'm passionate around social justice and leaving workplaces communities in the world a better place when I leave it then when I came into it.
So that's part of mine so legacy impact. What do you want to be known for.
Yeah, that's a good point and I think we we figure we're known in our industry, but we're also kind of pigeonhole in that area of expertise which after many, many years of doing the same thing that's kind of right where I'm at 15 years of self publishing but independent publishing.
(08:04):
Kind of burned out. I don't really, I don't need to prove anything. I'm doing the writers conference now at Cuesta, which is kind of the pinnacle maybe of my role, which is good because that's this is the 40th year so I'm happy about that but I have this for I had a great story of how I went independent 15 years ago when I published my book 15 interviews and I stopped telling that like, I don't know I guess I got it got tired to me.
(08:29):
And so whenever I meet somebody I didn't tell them but then they sometimes look up and say what is this 15 interviews thing and it's intriguing because of how it kind of kicked me out of the corporate world.
But as far as then my my values, those haven't really changed through the years in fact, for the reason I left corporate America is because it was in conflict with my values.
(08:50):
I was being forced to do things that were outside the integrity scope of what's so important to me and saying things that weren't always true but that's, you know when I left IBM partner reason was I sat down with my boss and he said, you know, Brian, if you're going to stick around you need to tell me what I want to hear.
And I said, but I'm never going to make those numbers and you shouldn't be telling your boss we're going to make those numbers. He goes, No, you tell me what I want to hear so that I can tell him what you want to hear. So he could tell the boss. So no wonder these corporations missed their numbers if that's the culture.
(09:22):
And so we're going to have a mass of this because they're not in touch with reality. And then I also saw people spending more time on their PowerPoints for internal pre internal presentations they did on customer proposals I'm like, there's something wrong with this picture so you know that's, it was always
a good fit. I realized that that also might be why somebody would want to hire me is because you know that's, and when you're aligned right you find a better fit I'm sure that you've been through places that weren't always such a good fit.
(09:55):
I definitely have I have and misalignment is a reason why I've left some places there's one I remember as I left. I told them there was no money after they offered me a bunch of money to stay in different roles I said there's no money, nor role you could offer me that would solve for the current
culture and leadership crisis. And if I stayed for that, I'd be a hypocrite.
(10:19):
So, and tying to what you just shared with us, then there's three ways that you engage there's three acts of engagement as you call them right.
Talk a little bit about that.
Well, it's really more to do with sitting sitting down to craft your brand identity and foundation is for some it can be quite challenging so you need to be bold, and you need to be courageous and this word is abused but there's no other way to do it.
(10:47):
My word to say it is then authentic.
And so those are the, you know, the acts you must take me to sit down and particularly it and it depends on I also think what generation you come from or culture background.
You know, the command and control type of environment I stepped into in the workforce is not what employees want today. They're looking for what I refer to as whole human leaders and a big part of that is those acts of engagement of being authentic of building connection with people through, you know, trust,
(11:21):
transparency and the way in which we communicate.
And when I talk about those foundational elements, particularly those middle two of storytelling and sharing of yourself personally is not comfortable for many.
So that's why I say you need to be bold and you need to be courageous and telling that authentic story to be really effective at building your brand and ultimately the relationships he built from there.
(11:49):
When Brian said that he left the corporate world with a misalignment of values and that he just couldn't do it anymore that was enough for me to feel like he's a hero in certain ways.
And that's your current story. So even doing this a lot of decades but like what's most current and relevant and that has a ton of integrity.
Just right there. So I think that's your new story.
(12:13):
Yeah, and in the corporate world I talked to people. I don't think it's as bad as it was back in 2008 when I left. I mean that was like, I think one of the worst times to be in corporate America.
It was just a bloodbath and everybody was, it was just cut road. And I was in sales. So it was like, there was this leaderboard that our president sent out every week of sales numbers and each person's name associated with it.
(12:35):
And this was apparently, I found out this actually is a philosophy that I think came from Chrysler or something where they posted a leaderboard every week just to basically light a fire into the sales guys.
Because if you're at the bottom of that list, you knew that you were one step away from being out the door. And the worst was people walking around the company when they're having layoffs.
It was like, well, it's your fault that we're losing people because you're not out there selling, but I was, nobody was buying back in 2008 and 2009. This was the worst environment meant to be in.
(13:07):
So I don't think that it's as bad. And Victor, I'm glad you're finding corporations that have better values and have longer sustainability long term.
I think that that's a jaded, your corporate America. I would hope that if I stepped in it today, no, it's much different. And I mean, there's still companies, there's no question that are dysfunctional and toxic.
(13:29):
And that's, I was in a very toxic environment. And I was, I was having a really hard time. And I just, I was pushed out like it was the pain of going back to that environment was stronger than the pain of failing at my own endeavor.
And I think that's the reason why I'm so, for me, the motivation is it's sort of to be pushed out the plane as opposed to volunteer to jump out the plane. I guess that's some of it. You have to be finding motivation.
(13:56):
Bob, you've got a comment question.
Oh, Bob, you're muted.
I'll do that every time.
I tried hitting the space bar. Didn't work. I have a great interest in the personal brand area, but I have a big question about how you advise people to keep their personal brand separate from their business brand at the time they're associated with it.
(14:27):
And what to do with the conflicts in style between the personal brand and the corporate brand.
So I'm a believer, Bob, that there shouldn't be different brands and versions of oneself. So this is Victoria, you will meet in to quote my youngest 19 year old IRL in real life is the same as what you're going to see digitally online.
(14:54):
And so I, that isn't my question. My question is, is that your personal brand is not a perfect match to, to who your employer is at that point in time.
And so I'm wondering how you, how you advise dealing with those.
Yeah, so I was going to bridge to that first statement into, you know, your direct question on that. And I think you are more than your brand is more than the company you work for and the role that you hold for them.
(15:26):
And, you know, who you are, if we're going to go back to authentically should not change.
Now, there's ways in which you show up online that might not be aligned to a corporate brand, and I would often be cautious around, but I would also challenge people to ask themselves if the brands are so misaligned should you be working there.
(15:50):
And you might go back to some of the values pieces, purpose or impact that you personally want to have. And so I think there's, you know, a way to think about your brand is bigger than the company.
So I work, I recall, I actually even, even though I've been doing this for a very long time, I asked a friend of mine, a chief marketing officer for one company to audit my brand.
(16:13):
And it happened to be working for IBM at the time. And so it was because I was getting a lot of publicity. I'm like, Rosa, tell me what do you think. It's just like you need IBM directly in your tagline, right under your name on LinkedIn.
And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I am not IBM.
I'm more than that. And so this is, I happen to work there and support a lot of clients. And so that's how I choose to think about it. But again, it's more around the context in the content you create, and whether that creates alignment, or a bit of a s storm for your company in terms of how you might be showing up as it would reflect on them.
(16:50):
So there's mindfulness in both ways, I think.
And speaking of mindfulness, Blake has a very interesting story he can chat to or chime in on, but he was the brand for my bike for many years.
Like you were out there, you were intended to be the face and it was, I'm aligned with who you were.
Yeah.
You know, he basically, from what I understand, you traveled around the country, going to Yoke Studios, and getting them enrolled. You were a sales guy, but you were really an ambassador.
(17:19):
And it was, well, there was two different phases of that at the very beginning, when the company was just me, I was the brand, right, it was indiscernible. And there were people that invested in me at the beginning because they believed in me.
They wrote me checks because they trusted and believed that I was going to deliver the things that I was saying that I was going to deliver. And then later on, once we were at scale, I became known kind of as the client whisperer a little bit, and I traveled across the country and visited clients.
(17:46):
Yeah, because I genuinely loved them and connected with them. I always felt a little bit more connected to the clients.
Then to your own company?
My own company, yeah, because they were a bunch of software business geeks at the company, you know, like me. But I struggled with this personal brand thing quite a bit.
Part of it is because I'm still trying to figure out who I really am. But where, you know, where does somebody go to get, other than hiring you, which it sounds like you might be a great person to say, give it to me straight.
(18:19):
But where do you go for those subtle cues and signs that you're missing it with the way you're putting yourself out there in the world?
I tend to just be, I think I probably overshare sometimes on social media and on other things, because I just can't help but tell the truth.
And I'm not sure that that always really helps me in terms of a personal brand.
(18:44):
Hard on a sleeve guy, right?
Hard on a sleeve.
And I just tell it like it is. And sometimes it's unpopular.
You have a podcast for that, like Joe Rogan.
Yeah.
And I want to do that. And there's an audience for that. So you have your niche, your niche.
Do you talk about Victoria kind of reflecting and discovering who you are?
(19:06):
I do. And I also talk about finding that trusted group of people who will help you with that audit, who will identify the blind spots that you don't see.
And as you describe who your target audience is and how you want to be known, test that with them.
And I don't think you should be ashamed of Hard on the Slave or the radical candor that you have. That's what makes you you.
(19:31):
And so I find the people who are going to be honest with you and also get comfortable that it's going to evolve and change over time.
You know, I talked to my older son who's 24 and as he was coming out of college around developing his own brand. And I'm, you know, he doesn't have any thought about what legacy right now.
(19:53):
And that's okay. I want to plant the seed, but it's going to change for me. You know, my definition of success and my brand in my 20s was very different than now as I sit in my late 40s.
So get comfortable with the evolution of that. There should still be a common through line, but there's going to be some changes and pivots.
If you come from, you know, much like you, Brian, you come from corporate and you leave. Well, there's a big pivots. You're going to, but there's an opportunity to tell a great story.
(20:20):
Well, and I would tell you the first seven years of my business, I learned more about who I was than the prior 15 years I spent in corporate America, like my personal growth of discovering who I was.
Because I think in corporate America, you try to fit into the mold, right? You're the cog in the wheel. And in a lot of ways you don't have an identity coming out of college, especially being hired right out of college.
I hated my first job. I at least figured that out after nine months. I'm like, this is not who I want to be. So I got out of that.
(20:47):
But then I probably had a strong identity with being a sales guy and I did that for a long time. But then I was being pushed into this uncomfortable.
And it was just, you know, in sales, you're basically only as good as your left quarter, no matter how good you did. You always have kind of this anxiety and I didn't play the politics.
I just didn't. Again, I don't know, I just had a little bit, a little bit too righteous for that. And speaking up, it's not appropriate to do in a lot of corporate settings when you want to speak the truth.
(21:16):
No, you are actually silenced in because if it rocks the boat too much, it comes back to bite you.
And again, I don't know. I get taste of it here because I'm in a co-working environment, so I'm more exposed to the corporate world than I have been in like 15 years.
And I'm like, oh, God, I have no, I don't want to ever go back to that. That's enough for me, just being on the fringe of that. But at the same time, I think there's great companies and I'm missing out on the opportunity.
(21:45):
I think part of the challenge is that the current corporate structure in America rewards certain flavors of mental illness.
I mean, people with narcissists of borderline personality.
I mean, it's all that all that matters. It doesn't matter how you get on. I mean, I'm talking to just talking to a friend on the way in who is like suffering over a battle with somebody who I said whether or not the person has narcissistic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder.
(22:16):
I'm comfortable putting them in that category because of all of their actions and behaviors that the line with that. This is maybe off track of personal branding, but I, but I have a can I segue a little bit and that's what it's like.
And Bob is not okay. You can hold off on your question. You still got your hand.
Oh, sorry.
Oh, he's an unraising. Okay, go ahead.
(22:38):
So, with AI, I just this is top of mind for me because I just launched an AI business just like a week and a half ago. And it's creating digital versions of human beings.
That's powered underneath by AI. So I wonder, I mean, this is bleeding edge stuff, but have you given any thought to where AI intersects with one's personal brand and you know, we could now put I could there's a digital version of me that's actually out in the chat GTV marketplace right now.
(23:09):
And you can ask questions about about based on your source of truth.
It's actually the book that I wrote that I have a publisher for you. So I uploaded a book that's like 180,000 work memoir. Yes, my memoir. So you can literally go in there right now and say what inspired you to start mind body and get like a lot of interesting stuff.
(23:32):
I don't know if that's smart or wise or not in terms of a personal brand. I just was intrigued by it. So I threw it out there.
Well, there is tech out there right now that will help you with that. Now a lot of it's been more about content. But now there are some that will take the what you feed it what it learns about you and who you are and the tone and the voice.
(23:54):
And it will actually create like responses to tweets for example or other social media to you know operate as you in the way in which you teach it. I, because I so strictly like manage my own brand.
I'm a I don't think the technologies there yet for me to unleash that kind of technology I do not yet trust it to be responding on my behalf now I've played around with it to see.
(24:20):
Do you actually have the ability to let it completely loose or review and edit it before it goes out. So it's been interesting but I don't think it's there yet, but it's very much I think in a you know change the way in which we engage with our networks, and therefore connected to our brands.
If I were trying to digitally capture who you are. You know what are the most important aspects of who you are in terms of your personal brand that I would be trying to capture.
(24:51):
I'm incredibly values and integrity driven one. I'm exceptionally transparent and very much like you like sort of hard on my sleeve although I wasn't always I had a nickname as the Iron Maiden in my 20s because I wouldn't show the emotions.
I was a pivot I needed to do. And it would talk a lot about beyond what I do for business how I use that platform to try and make. As I said earlier workplaces communities in the world, like, better place whether it's by sharing my stories, or otherwise being the voice and raising, you know for others particularly
(25:30):
from like diverse communities.
I'm a big fan of the Enneagram if you ever studied that Victoria. I mean, it's amazing to me because I did a lot of years and years of self work.
And it seemed like that was a shortcut because all of a sudden it showed me who I was in with extreme accuracy and it wasn't like every Enneagram sounds the same.
(25:52):
And I was very distinctive the way I see the world. And even my wife she took the test and she's a type one and and she will even look at it and see that's me. Like, if she met a type one she would immediately connect with them.
If I need to type five, we totally connect and understand the struggles that we go through.
And it's, it's to me those are some of the things like I'll send you that but I would say I would be Enneagram because there's the traits and the sort of the behaviors and the motivations behind our activities and why we do what we do because we don't always know why we don't want to do something like
(26:28):
but we power through it and we're miserable we wonder why it's not a good fit for who we are.
And we're looking at those pieces right now, even right now you can tell chat GPT respond as an Aries or respond as a as a cap report.
It'll give you a different answer.
Yeah, well and then there's a strengths finder where you it's a very short book that you figure out what strengths you have in business so you know where to delegate and not waste your energy.
(26:58):
And you're heading against a wall like I've done with tech. So, Victoria, what are the biggest mistakes you see people making in their personal brand.
And as I said earlier I see they only focus on that one foundational element and that's it. Then I see them trying to show up online without having crafted that story and so I see them posting content and I'm like, I'm really confused in terms of why because I have no other context around who they are.
(27:27):
But again, a company and a job title and that's it. And so they're recognizing they need to be out them much more publicly now again for lots of whom are in transition or like you Brian there, they were in sales or are in sales.
And so they don't have that full sort of connected tissue in terms of the entire brand identity, and then how you translate that into how you show up.
(27:52):
That that's probably one of the biggest mistakes that I found, or I find people who sort of put all that effort in and then set it and forget it. Like, you need to be relevant you need to be consistent with how you're, you know, showing up and of all to the point of evolve, you know, and pivot, you know, as social the world stuff goes on like how do you react and how do you respond to some of those things.
(28:16):
Bob you raised your hand.
I guess since this is an IBM recovery group.
I'll ask the question in that context. I worked with not for IBM for eight years and so I fully understand that but but they have a very precise brand.
(28:38):
And I'm very regimented. I mean, when I worked with them in the 80s and 90s, they got down to what brand of suit you bought, and what type of shirt you wore the top. I mean, all the way down the line.
I'm curious, when you when you're in that highly regimented brand apples and Microsoft's and IBM's, you know, the Goliath. How do you reconcile the differences of your personal brand, which is okay.
(29:09):
But it's outside the lines of the corporate brand. It's this division between personal and professional that has me confused when I look at brand.
Yeah, it's really interesting, Bob and I. So what I will say is, I mean, sounds like I left or stopped working with IBM.
Most recently, so I will tell you they've evolved. I've heard the stories that you've talked about, and I'm seeing more and more companies who are evolving towards.
(29:40):
Maybe it was because there's been such a focus on, you know, inclusion and belonging. And with that comes recognizing the differences we all bring so not trying to find that great cookie cutter.
But it is a very fine line in balance. So, I even saw two very different reactions and or responses from IBM.
When I first joined IBM, I was still living in, I've been between Toronto and New York for much of my career, but I was in Toronto and I was on the national news regularly for a weekend business segment while they're marketing and communications team in Canada freaked over that and
(30:14):
you know, I needed to get approved what news topics they were going to ask me about. I need to at one point we just agreed I'm going to take I'm like do you want the benefit of IBM under my name on showing up on national TV or not.
So they were uncomfortable with it but then in the US when I moved, you know, to New York with them, you know, they were very happy to leverage that because I am an extension of them.
(30:36):
Mind you, they made me go through extra media training to ensure I was saying somewhat of the things that they approved.
But then when I went to Accenture after IBM, it was a complete opposite they wanted only Julie sweet and her direct reports to kind of be that face not recognizing that you know I run a really large business unit for you think you'd actually want me out there.
And so what we did have to do were things like and I still have it in my LinkedIn profile like opinions or mine do not reflect those of my company etc.
(31:05):
And so I'd be very cautious to put personal opinions out there, you can infer because I talk about abortion access or equal rights for all who I might vote for but I'm never actually going to put that out on the platform.
So that's that's kind of the lens which when I'm talking with people in terms of once they foundationally built the brand how do they go forward, that kind of delicate balance between representing the company brand and who uniquely and authentically you are.
(31:33):
Well, and you saw Sam Alton and right suffer this consequences because he was not in line with the board granted he wound up winning in the end but you know easily could have gone the other way with them.
But these people who are in super high profile positions and he admitted that that's the thing he didn't prepare for like he didn't realize that he was going to become like the voice of AI and all that.
(31:55):
And so everything he said was being criticized and looked at, and then you have people like Elon Musk and Trump who just want to say things to get a ride out of the public and you know any publicity is good policy wasn't that Michael Jackson's thing when he held the baby over the.
Remember that. But I think that if you if someone else is paying giving you a paycheck that you have to honor them and even with soft tech is a good example of I'm going to speak.
(32:28):
I'm in a line with enough of the organization that I volunteer for that.
I feel confident in what I'm saying and doing, but I also don't get a paycheck for them so it's not like I'm going to lose my job if I say something that, but I'm not going to get myself in trouble either.
I go ahead like yeah I have a question about I was just going to ask about that. What you think about politics in terms of personal brand, and also if you have an opinion on that in terms of corporate branding.
(32:54):
I personally am at a point now or I used to, you know back when I was at my body and I was glad that we got on board with certain issues. I was comfortable with that.
I'm no longer comfortable with that.
From a corporate perspective, I would like to see politics just taken out of the corporate world, because it's just so.
(33:15):
It's just so charged and so polarizing and I feel like it's detrimental. So, but then there's the personal politics as well right like Jennifer say, who was the vice president of Levi's was famously run out of Levi's, because she was posting things on social media where she thought the schools should remain open during coded, and that
was an honor to their internal politics that they ran her out of Levi's. So, do you have any thoughts on politics and whether or not you put a Ukrainian flag or a Palestinian flag in your profile or you take issues on the, you know you take a perspective on these things personally, and as a company in
(33:54):
the future. I think it's incredibly difficult for a corporate brand to be taking more political stances for the reasons you've just said they're still polarizing and you've got customers across the gamut.
And so, where I would state I think you do need to put, you know, the, you know, the flag down is on things that are connected deeply to the corporate values. And so if you talk about wanting to have a workplace that is diverse and inclusive for all, then you need to be standing
(34:29):
up for things that don't honor inclusive, you know, you know, environment, whether that be in community or more broadly so that's so I think you can do it without being, you know, as direct as putting a flag, a country's flag out there but rather talk about the
values that you have to the values you stand for purpose and the impact that you want to have. And then at the personal brand standpoint, that that is, I would actually take almost the same line so again I will never post I might talk around where I would vote politically
(35:06):
and I would go back to this on again sort of values who, who, who am I what do I stand for what's the platform I choose. So again, I'm really I will I will tend to steer away from that kind of much more direct political conversation connected to my brand and again more around, you
know, the values and belief system. I don't post on social media a lot but when coven happened and I realized I was on one side of the fence, I knew that I didn't want to label myself and cut off half of my potential clients, but now I find that spiritual
(35:43):
background is like universal and saying you know this whole two headed beast thing that like we haven't had real change and peace ever.
People are like reading 1984 and brand new world now. It's so inspiring that a lot of people are waking up to the charade of it all and the media and how manipulated they've been, and they're dropping out and it's inspiring and exciting and I just keep falling back on
(36:14):
spiritual. Not that I'm even sending out newsletters right now or posting on social media but I know that's coming up and like changing my SEO on my website and getting more of my keywords in there and studying about metabolism.
So I'm like in this reworking phase, but I know that everybody wants peace and we all enjoy the comments.
(36:37):
And this perennial philosophy is true for all of us. No one trusts politicians we can all agree on one.
Let's create a different culture.
Well and on that Bob did you have another question or you just raised your hand from the floor.
Oh, I'm sorry.
So the reality is the scary numbers of the fact that 90% of all the content we're going to see online is going to be generated and the deep bass and the manipulation that we've seen with social media and influencing and basically spreading fake news.
(37:10):
So I think that ultimately we're just not going to trust anything we see come across the internet unless if we're here from a close friend and they have a personal experience and they can tell a story about maybe backing up their beliefs because I've sit next to people with the polar opposite view and you could get in a fighting match
and a fist fight.
(37:32):
And then we both agree. Hey, you're entitled to your opinion. I'm entitled to my opinion we're never going to agree. And it's if I was sitting in your shoes I probably have your opinion if you're in my shoes, you would see the world that I do and just understand that we all are going to have our own opinions and, you
know, complacency there's a little bit of a fear that you know people aren't speaking up at all which isn't good for the world because you see something and you don't say anything it's it's not the right way to address the problem.
(38:06):
And if you're not true to your to yourself, you can't be authentic and you violate the basic rule of that personal branding. So to some degree, you know, some degree you have to embrace that I'm going to, I'm going to offend some people because I'm me, and I'm going to offend them.
(38:28):
I have been called a lot of things over the years, not all of them pleasant. And, and, you know, the people that like me call me brutally honest. Other people use more colorful adjectives.
I think that's what's interesting about your topic, Victoria is the personal branding of, you know, how do you, how do you regulate that and, and how does it evolve over the course of the evolution of your personal brand.
(38:58):
I mean, my personal brand, when I was when I was 40 would be quite different than it is today in even more radically when I was 20.
And so it evolves over time as we do. And so it, it's interesting, because now AI is going to have all the things that were said about me 20 years ago.
(39:20):
And now, you know, it's regurgitating it. The AI has become bias. We, we as humans can't tell real stuff and fake stuff. So how do we expect technology to be able to do it.
And, and I guess just to come back to the question for Victoria is that, you know, from a branding standpoint, you know, how do you, how do you cope with the fact that you're constantly evolving and not in little, not little tiny pieces all the time and sometimes in big steps.
(39:51):
So I think we need to get, need to get very comfortable with the fact that we are going to evolve. There are going to be big shifts and pivots, but be bold around coming out with the, you know, talking about it when it changes.
Like don't expect that the audience is going to figure that out. It particularly if it's one of these seismic shifts come out, tell the story and where and why the shift, you know, has come about.
(40:16):
And I do think I love how, you know, with, you know, age and maturity and comfort and confidence in our own skin.
You know, I think of maybe a little bit Courtney's like, so I'm queer. I came out at 14 as bisexual. I was married to a win for 11 years. I happen to now be with my husband for almost 11 years.
But I'm still very openly queer in my 20s, although I openly brought my wife to events. I was cautious and played the pronoun game because I was worried about clients. I didn't all my colleagues were going to know but I was like, Oh, but what if my client who's like paying the bills like how or he or she going to feel and so I did the
(40:54):
other half my better half like all the kind of stuff. Now I am unapologetic about the fact that I was married to a woman I have a trans male son. This is who I am and this is what I stand for.
That is come with confidence and who I am and being more entrenched to you know values and the things I'm committed to. That actually wasn't an ever an evolution is just my ability to speak it in a very different platform.
(41:19):
But I have made other shifts in terms of how I showed up as a leader and needed to be conscious around being very different. That was an actual, you know, internal need to change as well as how I, I showed up much more broadly and so I think lean into the discomfort, lean into the
growth and the change, but be really transparent with your audience when that that change takes place.
(41:43):
Yeah, and you made the point just don't assume they understand who you are. You need to reiterate it and see how you're coming across and probably do a regular audit of your own personal brand right maybe ask some other people and you know, don't forget that you had certain
things that worked.
Victoria, is it a good idea for you to do the audit of yourself or to look for your look for outside for that audit because you can't see what you can't see.
(42:13):
I think you absolutely need external help, although I do think you need to reframe sometimes some elements of your brand and then how like, hey when I'm writing that with it does this content really talk about who I am or what how I want to be known or is it just me at selling
something a product or a service for my company so I think there's some pieces you can and should do for yourself around reframing consistently and updating and making sure that it's aligned but you absolutely need people like you Bob I don't know what colorful
(42:43):
adjectives they're using but around being brutally honest with me to say, are you sure like did you think about before you posted this is this how you want to be known, find those trusted people.
And I heard that people want to clients want to know your real your vulnerabilities your real story like, I don't know childhood traumas maybe things that make you things that make you human but that you wouldn't think to share as a business front.
(43:15):
When you humanize yourself.
It makes them feel safe with you.
Yeah, it builds trust.
And then you you know every you never know what someone's going through like that's the thing that shocked, you know, I forget sometimes like what's going on like what happened that you have no clue that they'll never reveal.
Right, but that low level cortisol you experienced in the corporate world you said that anxiety, they could be going through that in a bad dynamic in a relationship behind closed doors for two thirds of the day.
(43:47):
And that people go through we don't know like, I've heard spiritually everybody's waging a great battle like no doubt, every one of our souls is great waging a great battle.
Your past lives influence who you showed up that time maybe and yeah it's it's it's cool so we're coming up on an hour of Victoria what else.
What else do you where are you planning to take this so you're in your 40 you still got another good 20 years maybe working world yet. You're not retired yet in Florida.
(44:16):
What do you what do you want to do like in the next five 10 years where's your focus these days.
So I made a decision to leave my last employer because it wasn't a fit I don't do things that don't bring me personal or professional joy or value.
And so I've been in transition.
I've been fortunate to have had a number of offers come in since I left but I want to find the right one so I'm doing lots of strategic advisory. So I built a portfolio that's the other thing I give a lot of advice more to like leaders and as they're thinking about their careers I built the portfolio
(44:48):
career now I choose not to make that full time for me, but it's there for me that if I ever retire and my husband jokes he does not think I will ever retire.
So I think it's a good thing to do. It's already well established and that's that mix of advisory board speaking, you know, authorship.
I am looking my goal would be to retire as the CEO of a publicly traded company.
(45:12):
So my next hop is actually probably taking all the M&A experience and operating experience into the private equity world running a portfolio company, but that'll be the hop to take me to that final destination.
I did a look to stand on bigger and bigger stages. I was invited to speak at Ted here, Ted X here in Miami last week so I'll share with you the, you know, the link once it's made public on the Ted website.
(45:33):
That was great very different format that I'm used to but I loved it. And so I want to, you know, hope to reach more and more, you know, bigger stages as well with the various talks that I do.
Oh, and I will say on the personal front, my kids are 24 and soon to be 20 and I've told them one, if not both will make me a grandmother but I was a young mother by choice.
(45:54):
Don't make me a young grandmother by accident. But I do want to be a grandmother at some point.
That's wonderful.
Any other questions for Victoria.
That was great. Thank you. So our listeners want to get a copy of the book, right? Head over to Amazon and then your website.
(46:15):
We'll put a link to it because your last name is a large spell.
Yeah, blame the French, French Canadian husband for that. But yes, my website, they can link out wherever they can see what's going on from there.
Thank you for your time.
(46:48):
We'll see you next time.
(47:18):
Thank you.
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