Volume 12
Building a personal brand, #shein and influencer marketing, good takes on negative self-talk, a different perspective on imposter syndrome and more.
Hi and Welcome to Volume 12 of Content People! Thanks for reading. Liking it? Consider sharing it with a friend, on your socials, or slide into my LinkedIn DMs to say hi.
I hope everyone stateside had their fill of hot dogs and fireworks. Let’s get into it:
The Content People Episode
This one was a hit. 📈 Jess Cook (the LinkedIn famous, Head of Content at Lasso Jess Cook) joined Content People for a chat. She shared exceptional tips on personal branding, the life-changing impact of growing her LinkedIn presence, and the one piece of copywriting advice that’s stuck with her for decades.
And tune into this week’s episode: 25 mins with Liv Albert, host of the 10-million-listeners a year podcast, Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby. This is an edited down version of a longer convo I had with Liv back in S1. A great listen for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes work of running such a successful show.
Check them both out on Spotify, Apple, and Google.
Reading
📚 Aliza Licht’s Harvard Business Review article Building Social Capital When You Work Remotely. So many morsels of wisdom.
Stay tuned, because Aliza joins us for an ep of the Content People podcast later this season. We talked about her best-selling new book, On Brand: Shape Your Narrative. Share Your Vision. Shift Their Perception.
In the meantime, check her out on Good Morning America for quick, impactful tips on building a personal brand.
Listening
🎧 The Ten Percent Happier Podcast episode on Imposter Syndrome (here).
A great listen - whether you’re a self-diagnosed imposter or not. 🧑🏼⚕️🎭
In this special episode, host Dan Harris is joined by his wife, Dr. Bianca Harris. Together they interview imposter syndrome expert Dr. Valerie Young, who wrote the best-selling book The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It.
The Quote
“If you know what you want to do and you do it, that’s the work of a craftsman. If you begin with a question and use it to guide an adventure of discovery, that’s the work of an artist.” - Rick Rubin, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘤𝘵: 𝘈 𝘞𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨.
I don’t think Rick was shading craftsmen here. He was just articulating the distinction.
Embodying the spirit of a craftsman - and being purely in service of the task - can be very useful in creative commercial work. Especially when we hit inevitable snags like multiple rounds of edits or conflicting feedback from different stakeholders. Craftsmen don’t get angry. They accept the circumstances, integrate the actionable information, and get even more focused on doing excellent work.
The Comments
Last week I posted on LinkedIn about letting go of negative self-talk and got a lot of comments - some of which were so thoughtful and insightful I wanted to share them here:
Jennifer Locke said: “When I fall into thinking that being hard on myself is ‘good’ for me, it's easy to reframe by asking myself: ‘Is it good for my daughters? Is it what I want for them?’ That's such a glaring, obvious NO. It snaps me out of my self-critical rut!”
Cassie Cichocki recommended the book No Bad Parts and said: “If I say to myself ‘I'm so dumb’, then it's likely coming from me...but if I hear ‘You're so dramatic’, then it's likely a story someone else handed to me. Both have to be worked through, but in very different ways.”
Check out the whole post here if you’d like.
Following
Isabel Sterne.
I hate cringe comedy. But I love Isabel’s cringe-focused LinkedIn content. Part LinkedIn performance art, part reality check, and part sneaky personal-branding education, her posts always make me laugh. Isabel - keep it up. We’re all feeling you.
#Shein influencer trip backlash.
Good Forbes primer here. Between Bud Light, Shein and Tarte - could influencer campaigns be falling from grace? There’s a lot of upside to these partnerships when they go well. But risk-averse brands might be especially wary moving forward.
A thought on Shein’s misstep: What amplifies also magnifies. Influencer campaigns are not a band aid or an effective misdirect. Don’t go near them until your brand’s proverbial house (or factory) is in order. (LMK your thoughts, too.)
Medbury
My agency Medbury officially launches later this month.
One of our offerings is helping female leaders and executives build up their LinkedIn presence to attract job offers and new opportunities.
Check out the texts below* from one of our first clients - and reply back to this email or book time on my calendly if you want to chat. We’re taking on new clients and would love to meet you.
PS: Know someone who needs support with their personal or business branding? Enjoy a 10% referral fee for any clients you send our way.
And, yeah. One of my toxic traits is that my battery is always below 20%.
Your Turn
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