Overcoming Fear and Building a Personal Brand for Professional Growth

Ever hesitated to press 'post' on the content you've crafted? Felt that familiar knot of fear in your stomach? Allow me to share my journey of overcoming this fear, building a personal brand, and its profound impact on my professional growth. What started as a leap of faith opened doors I'd never imagined, leading me to my first paid speaking opportunity. 

It's not all smooth sailing, though. We'll navigate the choppy waters of organic reach, brutal competition, and fleeting attention spans together. Despite these challenges, persisting is key. I'll share the strategies that helped me resonate with my audience and land job opportunities. For those of you needing that extra push, I offer insights into my services - leadership, career, content creation, and strategy coaching to get those quick wins and bring your goals within reach. Don't miss out on this episode, it could be the catalyst for your professional journey!

For more information about Chris Hanna, visit https://chrishanna.ca

If you want to batch-record video content and have our team schedule them on social media, remember that one day of working with us will set you up for months of consistent content. Visit https://allincontent.ca today to get started. Let's go all in together.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Chris Hanna Show, where the show we're talking about how to live life on your terms, how to bet on yourself and ultimately, go all in. I am your host, chris Hanna. Just post it. You see, at the end of the day, that is the thing that more people need to remember, especially those who are building businesses, whether they are solar printers, entrepreneurs. They've got a team around them. Is you gotta post it? You gotta stop overthinking things. So in today's episode of the Chris Hanna Show, I'm gonna be talking just about that the importance of just posting your idea, creating content and putting it out there. You see, far too many people are scared. They're overwhelmed by the idea of creating content. They know that they need to have a presence online, but they don't do so. Most people are lurkers. They don't post, they don't create content, they don't put themselves out there. Maybe they'll like the odd post here and there, maybe they'll share a post, but more often than not, they're not creating content. You see, you never know what happens when you create content, when you put yourself out there, when you share an idea or you share some value or some insights or a lesson that you've learned, maybe the hard way and where it can take you.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Early on in my career, where I started feeling like I needed to do something different, I started to feel like I was unfulfilled. When I reached that point, it became clear to me that I needed to start to build my own personal brand. Who's gonna do business with me if I don't have some sort of credibility, if I don't have some sort of way to say that I have some social proof? Because I hadn't been posting online. I had linked in as an account, for example, but I didn't post anything. I had people who were already part of my network with the different jobs that I worked at, but that was it. In order for me to grow whether it was additional businesses or income streams or to do at the time, what I wanted was to speak. I had to come up with ways to create content and to post content and put myself out there.

Speaker 1: 2:14

So in 2018, when I was feeling really kind of down in my career and I didn't feel like I was happy or excited or really that fulfilled, I started to post content and I started to post the odd video. I started to post the odd blog post, the odd social post. I came across Canva at the time and I realized I could batch, create some of this stuff and it could make my life easier. And I would watch people on LinkedIn and I would see the video content that they would put out and I realized it's not that hard to create a video. Gotta come up with a topic, couple bullet points, what you wanna talk about Ultimately, record it, edit, caption it, get it out there, build a thumbnail, et cetera, and you're good to go. So I would do that and I wouldn't know really who was looking at it or what was gonna come from it, but I knew that people were seeing it because there was things called impressions. And, yeah, you might only get a few impressions here and there, and sometimes you get a couple hundred, maybe a couple thousand maybe when you first start out, but that's amazing because now you're reaching more people. You're reaching more people than you have in your network. You have to put yourself out there in order to be seen, because eyeballs are a form of currency. Without getting attention, without getting eyeballs on you, it is hard for you to grow, it is hard for you to develop a business that is sustainable, that, ultimately, is top of mind when somebody needs your solution, because just building a website as an example is not going to get you people there. It's not gonna bring in the leads, the business, the revenue, the profitability at some point that you ultimately want.

Speaker 1: 4:07

I thought that, though I initially did, I thought that if I could build a website and I spent many months with trying to come with what a proper name would be what I wanted the website to be all about and I came up with the website name, and the website still exists to this day. It's called EvolvingManagementcom. I was gonna help people re-think and evolve their approach to how they're managing. I wanted to focus on leadership coaching. So I put this website together and I thought this is great. I've done all the work myself. I've built this website from scratch. Spend whatever number of money to do it, the customers are gonna roll in.

Speaker 1: 4:43

But I didn't realize that I needed to start to post content, that I needed to share my message. I was nervous to do so, so I put this website out there and no traffic, no customers, no leads, no, nothing. No one asked me about it. No one started to ask me about it until I started to realize that I had to post about it. I started posting blog posts. I started sharing videos about leadership tips and tricks Before I knew it. I started to feel like there's some momentum happening. I could look at the Google analytics and I could see that, oh, there seems to be a correlation from when I post a blog as an example, to an uptick in traffic, because I've now posted it and I've shared it online, and now that day or the day after, people see it and then they go and read it. So the more you post, the more attention you start to get and the more you start to grow.

Speaker 1: 5:48

So I'm going through this journey and then eventually I get somebody reaching out and it's a cold email message that comes out saying someone wants to talk to me about speaking at an event because they read one of my blog posts. And I hop on the call and I talk through the solution and ask me what am I worth and how much does it cost them to ultimately have me speak? I threw it a random number there, probably too low, but ultimately it was my first opportunity to actually paid to speak because somebody saw some content that turned into something. So for $500, that's what I quoted myself at the time I got $500 for one hour speaking gig where of course you think about the prep, the time that goes into it, after the fact, attending the entire event. I should have charged much more than that, but ultimately it was the first paid gig. I'd done other free ones before, but the first paid one came because someone saw my content who initially was not part of my network.

Speaker 1: 6:51

That's the amazing part is, when you have people who see your content because someone else has either saw it or liked it or commented on it or shared it in some way. That's what it's all about. That's why you wanna put yourself out there and put out content, because you never know what was gonna come from it, who's gonna see it, who's gonna hear that message on that particular day that can make all the difference for them. That's going to resonate with them. That's what it's about. That's why you gotta put content out there, because you don't know sometimes who's going to see it or who's gonna come across and resonate with it. But you gotta stop overthinking it and you gotta put yourself out there.

Speaker 1: 7:32

So as time went on, I started to realize that the more that I could put content out there, the more opportunities to grow. That would happen as well because I would learn new things. I would have new skills whether it could be new skills as working with certain types of software, maybe some of the research that would go behind the scenes in terms of coming up with ideas of what to create. In terms of the content, I became really good at really starting to build and design stuff in Canva, which then sparked a lot more that I could create for myself and our companies that I worked with at the time as well. What really helped is, as you start to share your content is more people start to see it and your network starts to change. In time, my network started to evolve where it wasn't just the people that I had that I worked with. It would be people who in other industries or related industries or recruiters, would see me, or other people who were just not even like relevant at all would start to connect with me just to understand and learn more. And it's because I started to put myself out there.

Speaker 1: 8:42

And, yes, sometimes content works out and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it can be really an uphill battle where you put something out there and you think it's going to resonate and it doesn't, but you never know who that one person or two person people could be. That could make all the difference to change things for you. So I'm going through and I'm putting together content, but I'm still skeptical of being really out there because I don't want to put myself in a bad situation with employers. I didn't want to say the wrong thing.

Speaker 1: 9:15

There was many times where I would post something and I'd be worried about oh, maybe this doesn't sound good and instead of editing it, I would just delete it and take it down and never repost it again. The amount of times that I wasted great posts because maybe there was a bad comment or a questionable thing, that someone asked me behind the scenes that I would take down content because I was worried about others, is just remarkable. It held me back, I think, from growing. I could have grown so much faster if, in that period of 2018 to 2020, I was more willing to accept criticism and to be okay with the fact that not everyone's going to align with my ideas or my approach. The first time I remember someone pushed back on a post of mine, I was talking about the four-day work week and how much I believed in it and how I had implemented it in different places before my career and how I had found some success with it and somebody had criticized me and while I wanted to respond, I didn't know how to respond. I was worried about the backlash and being called out publicly, so it made me less likely to put anything more out there that could be considered.

Speaker 1: 10:25

What I thought wasn't controversial maybe to some felt controversial because it challenged the norms. So it's about getting over yourself. It's about getting past the worry of maybe how you're going to be perceived by others or what others are going to think about you, because it took a long time for me to realize is that everyone has a different opinion and it doesn't matter if everyone agrees with you or not. The people who want to do business with you, who want to be aligned with you or hire you or work with you, are the ones who are going to come through the top. And yeah, you're going to have some haters out there, but in a way you've got to either ignore the haters or engage in that healthy debate, because sometimes the people who can be controversial, who can say something negative on a post, are the ones who can help them make that post go viral to a degree or in the sense that it can start to get more traction, because when someone's commenting on your post and it's negative, it's actually a positive for you because it's actually getting engagement and engagement then leads to more people starting to see your post when someone comments negatively. So don't be afraid of the negative people that are out there saying comments, because that actually they don't know it but it's actually helping you.

Speaker 1: 11:39

So go back to this message of just trying to post content. I've seen it so many times now over the last number of years where I talked to a business owner with the importance of posting content and being more consistent, and they share that. They're scared to do so, but when they do it eventually they start to realize, oh, getting more traffic to our website, more impressions, more people starting to ask conversations in book meetings, they start to see the benefit from organic reach. Now you can't just rely only on organic. I know I've done that way too many times throughout my career where I've thought that, well, I'll just keep posting and the more I post, the more it'll work. There does become this fine line and balance where it can't just be quantity all the time. You do have to make sure that there is quality in your posts because there's now more people posting than ever before. There's more competition out there with the different platforms that exist as well, and attention spans continue to shrink. More and more people have a smaller attention span, so you need to hook them in. You need to find a way to get something that actually is going to want them to stick on your post, to read the caption, to go through everything and actually engage with it. But again, if you don't learn some of these lessons, you're never going to have the success you want, and then sometimes you're going to be discouraged and just want to give up because it's just not working. Don't give up. Don't give up because you are meant to share your message.

Speaker 1: 13:23

I was working with a client recently where I was talking about, basically, they're trying to find a new job. They've been looking for a job for a while and I said look, I think that you need to maybe start to develop a bit of a personal brand around yourself, because at this point, you're just a name on a page. That's it. You're a name on a resume. You've got some experience and while the experience is good, it doesn't jump off the page when someone researches a candidate to see if they want to hire them, they'll look them up on social media. But this person had no social media presence whatsoever and I said that's a disservice to you and the fact that you want to go for some high paying jobs. You need to find a way to stand out, and so I suggested putting yourself out there and recording content and creating content, and I'm looking forward to seeing the work that she does, because this happened really recently.

Speaker 1: 14:18

But putting yourself out there can lead to more opportunities, whether you're looking for a job. It could give you more recruiters who might want to reach out to you. It could give you other companies who might just want to poach you on their own as well, or it could give you the confidence to go all in and become your own entrepreneur, solopreneur, whatever you want to call it, because sometimes the creation process is also a confidence building process, because you can refine your message, you can say things in different ways, in different formats, and you can see what works for you. Some people really like text posts, some people are more visual, some people want to do videos, some people are wanting to do audios, like in, maybe focusing on a podcast. Whatever it is, you get an opportunity to create content and then also try and tweak that content to see if what you can create can it resonate. That's the important thing. I think that's so important to remember is that it can help you grow in so many more different ways than just growing your business. It helps you grow personally, professionally, and also help change your mindset and your outlook as well.

Speaker 1: 15:30

The creation process for content isn't hard. You don't have to think that it's going to be something that's going to be really difficult to do. You just have to ultimately just put yourself out there and then you test and you check out the analytics. You see how performed. Don't get discouraged on it because it's a long game. It is what I like to call a slow build. You're slowly building things over time. The important part is that you got to have the right audience, the right audience with the right message to ultimately get it out there. But more importantly, 늑 Fal gamma night you also need to make sure that you're focusing on helping develop the right network by helping support other people. That's the thing that I definitely not only did struggle with and continue to have times where I do struggle with.

Speaker 1: 16:18

It is that social media and creating content is about reciprocity. Reciprocity is the whole give and take between everything. If you want somebody to give you a like, well, maybe you should start to like their posts, even try it for a couple of days. Start to like certain people's posts, make a list of 10 people that you want to follow and it could be people in your network, people outside of your network, people that you're interested in but start to like, comment and engage on their posts and soon enough you will see, over a series of a couple of days, they start to do the same for you. Because it's a hey, this person supported me, I'm going to support them.

Speaker 1: 16:58

I've gone through stretches where I have been really, really active in terms of comments and likes and really supporting other people, and therefore I got the same in return. I'm going through a period now where, I'll be honest, I have not been as active on social media as I normally am and therefore I haven't been liking you know other people's posts as often. Therefore, I'm not getting as much engagement on my social content either. Now, I'm not saying that's what it's all about, but I'm saying it is very important to remember that reciprocity matters. Now, that's why some people they will hire a VA to go through and auto. You know, like some posts that maybe you give them some instructions on, or to engage and make comments on other people's posts, because that starts to drive traffic to you and maybe that's a strategy you need to do.

Speaker 1: 17:47

I myself haven't gone down that path. I've been trying to do it, obviously truly all on my own, but I struggle with it. It is hard to continue to be reciprocal and to post as much as you can, but also supporting other people on social media as well. You got to find a way to make it a priority and it is hard. I'll tell you again, it is hard, I've been struggling with it, but it is the thing that matters. So again, message here is simple create content. It's an opportunity for you to stand out. It's an opportunity for you to build your network, to meet new people, to gain new skills, ultimately become more confident and then, through that process, be reciprocal with other people and support them, and they will support you. At the end of the day, it's a win-win for everybody and you all grow All right. Until next time, everyone, I hope you have a good rest of your day.

Speaker 1: 18:41

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of the Chris Hannah Show and whatever you do remember, go all in. Thanks for listening to the Chris Hanna Show. It would mean the world to me if you could like, share and subscribe to this. Wherever you listen to your podcasts, feel free to share this on social media and tag myself. I'm on LinkedIn, twitter, instagram, facebook, tiktok.

Speaker 1: 19:07

If you're looking for support in some of the businesses that I run, again, I am the All-In Solar Priner. I'm betting on myself and I'm going all in with creating one-person businesses that help entrepreneurs gain time back and stop being overwhelmed. I offer support in a variety of areas that some of my businesses include a video batch creation process, where I've mastered my process of how to create 143 videos in one day for myself. I now do this for clients averaging potentially between 40 and 50 videos per session that we create in one single day. I also have a company called Hire For Me, where I literally hire four business owners who don't want to be the chief everyone officer, who want to drop the hats that they're carrying and they want to ultimately grow and scale, and they don't want to hire until I do it for them.

Speaker 1: 19:59

As part of my offering, I also have consulting services called my All-In Deep Dive, where I literally go all in together with you as the business owner. You find quick wins, long-term strategic opportunities to take your business to the next level. As part of my deep dive service, I also offer leadership coaching, career coaching and content creation, strategy coaching and development to help people really take it to the next level. You want that one-on-one in-person or virtual support. If you want help in your business, visit chrishannaca today.