Why Personal Branding Is Your Career Insurance Policy with Jennifer Dalton

If people can’t read your value, they can’t reward it. We sit down with brand strategist Jen Dalton to turn personal branding from a fuzzy idea into a practical plan you can execute, one small step at a time. Our conversation starts with a simple truth—telepathy isn’t a strategy—and builds toward a reputation roadmap that helps you define your strengths, choose the right words, and create monthly evidence that moves you closer to the work you want.

We break down the crucial difference between business branding and personal branding, then focus on what actually builds trust: authenticity, vulnerability, and stories with real lessons. Jen shares how to stop confusing personal branding with bragging and start sharing useful insights, mistakes, and wins that help your audience. We talk about finding your niche, making your reputation visible on LinkedIn and video, and why Gen Z rewards leaders who are genuine and clear. You’ll hear practical tools—DiSC, StrengthsFinder, Enneagram—for surfacing blind spots, plus a simple exercise to pick three strengths, write a mission statement, and align your language so people perceive you the way you intend.

From there, we get tactical. Learn how to build a 12–24 month reputation roadmap, create one proof point each month, and use platforms strategically to show your value without shouting. We discuss leadership branding, aligning actions with words, and building four networks—peers, prospects, giving back, and fun—to stay relevant and resilient. Grant shares his AI Business Accelerator as a live example of building evidence for a future-focused brand, and we explore creative ways to upskill, serve, and stand out without trying to be “an influencer.”

Ready to own your story and make your value visible? Listen, take notes, and then pick one action to ship this week. If this conversation helped you, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s ready for a pivot, and leave a quick review so more builders can find us.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates, visit 5starbdm.com
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And don’t miss Grant McGaugh’s new book, First Light — a powerful guide to igniting your purpose and building a BRAVE brand that stands out in a changing world. - https://5starbdm.com/brave-masterclass/

See you next time on Follow The Brand!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Set The Stage
• 0:28 Personal Branding Vs Business Branding
• 1:38 Defining Personal Brand And Core Values
• 3:03 The BRAVE Framework And Preparation
• 4:22 Jen’s Origin Story And Georgetown Pivot
• 6:04 Audience, Niche, And Value Focus
• 7:16 Visibility, Credibility, And Digital Presence
• 8:31 Authenticity, Vulnerability, And Trust
• 10:20 Story As Differentiator Beyond Credentials
• 12:02 Don’t Brand Alone: Feedback And Tools
• 13:46 Purpose, Strengths, And Mission Statements
• 15:12 Reputation Roadmaps And Long Game
• 17:04 Candid Feedback And The Value Of Coaches
• 19:10 Grit, Skills Gaps, And Evidence Building
• 21:01 Assessments: DiSC, StrengthsFinder, Enneagram
• 22:31 Listening, Hard Conversations, And Growth
• 24:05 Words Matter: Label Your Strategy
• 25:24 Breadcrumb Trail To Reposition Your Brand
• 26:20 Influence, Passion Projects, And Career Bridges
• 27:24 Personal Board Of Advisors And Networking
• 28:25 Learning Agenda, AI Upskilling, And Platforms
• 29:45 Leadership Branding And Consistent Actions
• 31:06 Host’s Plan: AI Business Accelerator
• 32:30 Think Like An Entrepreneur At Work
• 33:49 Build Your Brand Before You Need It
• 35:03 Four Networks To Reassess Annually
• 36:23 Practical Ways To Increase Visibility
• 37:24 Closing, Resources, And How To Connect

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Father Brand Podcast. This is Grant McGall. I am in the wintry world of Omaha, Nebraska. Today, you know, I'm a Florida boy, and but I've come back home. It's been 30 some of my years, and I learned how to drive in the snow. Again, it's just like swimming. It's just riding the bike. It just comes back to you naturally. So I'm getting back to this wintry world. Yes, I will be in St. Croix pretty soon as well. And I'll be in Miami as always. But today we're going to talk about one of my favorite subjects that is personal branding. And I couldn't think of anyone else to really have this discussion with. As we begin to transition out of 2025 into 2026, people start thinking about what am I going to do different? What's going on in my career? What's going on in my business? What's going on with me personally? We're going to talk about personal branding with Jen Dalton. So, Jen, would you like to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_01: 0:53

Thank you so much for that introduction. I was actually born in Tampa, Florida. So I am a Floridian up in DC. So I went north. So I like the whole St. Crumplan you have. I am thrilled to be here. I think you're spot on. The timing is such a great opportunity for people to step back and think about who were they this year? How do they want to adjust or evolve that going into next year? So I'm excited to talk about it with you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:17

Yeah, let's unpack that. A lot of people there personal branding. So a lot of times they get confused a little bit with business branding, how to brand your business. But then personal branding is a little bit different. I want to get from you. How do you define personal branding from your perspective and your core value around that?

SPEAKER_01: 1:38

That's a great question. I always tell my clients two things. I tell them one, telepathy is not a strategy, right? If we want people to know who we are, we have to communicate it. And number two is that personal branding is not personal bragging. So I'm a big believer that we have to be very clear on how do we bring value to whether it's friends, family, the workplace, what are our values, what's our why, and really digging deep into that. And so my tagline for my company, Brand Mirror, is reflect, stand out. And it is this idea of self-reflection to know who you are, and that can help you stand out to the right audiences.

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

I love that. I love that. You're right in time, or I would say aligned in how I look at personal branding. I've developed it into a framework I call the brave framework. I think you got to be brave, you gotta step out. It's almost like you know, people think about public speaking. You're like, oh my god. Oh, yes. You know, no one likes to a lot of people don't like to put you know speak publicly. And I think a lot of that is because you're just not prepared. You know, if you know what you're talking about, you can talk at any point in time. Like, oh, I love talking about this stuff. I can't believe you're talking about this. I want to talk about it, right? But if you start talking about something you don't know that much about, you get uncomfortable. That's that uncomfortable feeling that you get. I think when you think about personal branding, this is my perspective, is that when you understand, and I put into a framework called Brave, which is your identity, brand identity, right? You gotta get into and do some research around what you're talking about. Are you authentic in your brand? Can you make it visible? And can you execute on that, you know, repeatedly, whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, and you know, along and it has to be a goal, right? What is your purpose? There's gotta be a purpose when you're putting it out there, especially in the in the digital world as well as uh uh even in person. So, from your perspective, I want to know this because I always say, What's your origin story? What got Jen interested in personal branding?

SPEAKER_01: 3:50

So I grew up in an entrepreneurial household. My parents were entrepreneurs, my grandparents were entrepreneurs, and so although I spent 10 years in the corporate space working on branding, marketing, product development, I really wanted on my 10th anniversary, I also had my second son. And I was like, this is a moment where I need to pause and think about what do I want to do next for the next 10 years. And so for me, I was thinking that through for myself. And uh when I went back to Georgetown to get my executive MBA, I went back with the sole purpose of I know I want to start my own venture. I know I wanted to be branding because I love storytelling. I love the blend of business strategy with brand strategy. And what I discovered is that my classmates were so amazing, and yet we had all just spent a lot of money to go back to grad school. We needed to be able to tell our story. And so for a lot of us, we were working together on well, what is our reputation? How do we monetize that in a way that feels right, is aligned with purpose. Uh, 15% of my class was coming out of the military, going into either public or private sector. And so they had to figure out how to tell their story. So that's really that moment where I started to meet not only my amazing classmates, but other entrepreneurs who were starting businesses and trying to figure out how do they leverage their personal brand and reputation to launch a new venture and to pivot. And so for me, that was sort of the culmination. But I've always been a fan of, you know, if we're watching TV, I want to watch the ads. I want to see what's their messaging, what are they saying? Who are the influencers? I mean, Thanksgiving, I went to the mall to see where are people shopping, what are they buying, what are consumers' interests? And so for me, a personal brand is all about knowing your why and then knowing who's that specific audience that really needs to know you exist. Because it's not everybody in the world. It is where's the next opportunity for you to make a big difference in the way that that is meaningful for you.

SPEAKER_00: 6:02

I I'm glad you brought that up. Most people, when you think about, I think, because I had this my even my own daughter even talking about personal branding, so are you trying to be a social media uh influencer? It's like, no, nothing like that. I am looking to influence the audience that I can truly bring value to, right? What is the skill set that I have that someone else actually needs to get them, whether it's career development, business development? So I'm looking to influence a very small niche, more or less, uh, around that and and and to help them. As I spoke about earlier, you know, public speaking, things like that. They're like, well, how do you but in our world, really what it is? How do I how do I present myself on the digital platform? Absolutely. That's a big thing now, because searching social. If you're gonna hire somebody, Jen, right? You're gonna hire somebody. Typically, the first thing you're gonna do is look them up. I'm gonna do a search in socials, kind of see like when you're gonna get on the podcast. Wow, absolutely. Let's look this guy up, Grant. See what oh, okay. Oh, wow. You know what? That's an alignment. I want to get in touch with him, right? That's how that works. But if you don't put yourself out there, I love how you said about visibility. If you're not visible to that right audience, how are you gonna get hired? Who's going to to do business with you if you can't tell your narrative and your story? You feel that?

SPEAKER_01: 7:31

Absolutely. And I think when I said earlier, personal branding is not personal bragging. I think that's what gets people stuck is they're like, no, I'm not trying to be famous, or I'm not trying to brag about myself. And the reality is we've all learned things, we've all made mistakes. And I think of personal branding as the more you share about what you've learned, that can help people, right? When I work with nonprofit leaders about personal branding, for example, they're like, oh no, no, I need to talk about the nonprofit. And I'm like, no, you're leading a business that happens to be a nonprofit. And if you're not talking about it and building trust with your audience and with your donors, that's actually hurting the organization. So don't think about it as I'm, you know, beating my chest in the drums of like, come come support this nonprofit. Share the stories of how you help, share the stories of where donor dollars go, right? And I think the same is true for CEOs. 40% of millennials look at a CEO's online presence, specifically LinkedIn, but also then it goes to their website, et cetera, to get a sense of who is this leader that I now am going to be following. That is very different than, you know, whatever generation I am. When we were growing up, I'm a proud Gen Xer, actually. Oh, all right. Um, that's very different from before, where it'd be like, oh my gosh, I got a job. I like this company, let's go work there. Now it's also much more about the personal brand of the leader. And I love what you said about your daughter, right? I think Gen Z, I'm gonna presume she's in Gen Z or later millennial. Yeah. Um, because I have a 19-year-old, and and I hear about his perspectives on brands all the time. Personal brands, company brands, and 92% of Gen Z care about authenticity and care about really care about people saying what something's really about. They have a 42% distrust of company brand messaging.

SPEAKER_02: 9:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:39

So when you think about to your point, that personal brand versus company brand, we're in a place where although we have five generations, more or less, online, the generation a lot of people are trying to crack or to get in front of are Gen Z. And that's really tricky because they're video first. They're not in the normal, you know, marketing platforms that people have used. They're looking at influencers, they're not necessarily looking at celebrities because again, they want genuine, real people. And so to me, a personal brand is always about who are you really? Tell your story. I mean, even Brene Brown, right? The reason her vulnerability video went viral for TEDx is because she didn't deliver the talk she was going to deliver. She delivered the talk and then became vulnerable and shared her story, right? And so I think the more we can just share what's going on, how we're walking through it, and it helps others, and you're building that know, like, and trust factor. To me, I think that's the secret sauce, whatever age you are for building a presence online. You do want to plan it and you want to think about it, and you want to go execute.

SPEAKER_00: 10:53

That's it. That's it. How do you build a process, get the program together when you're intentional about building that brand, but you said some things that I want the artist to really lean in on. First, the authenticity uh level of what that brand really is and their vulnerability. People want to hear, if you would have been on Earth more than probably two hours, you'd probably come across some resistance, you go across some things, right? We come to this world, uh crying, kicking, screaming, that type of thing, and we kind of continue that in different ways.

SPEAKER_01: 11:27

I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00: 11:30

Exactly. So, reality, if it's too perfect, people like, ah, I don't know. It's absolutely perfect if we get into the struggle. Like, what's your struggle? You you know, you had struggle, and that's why like good stories. Yes, whether the leaders is no, I didn't just jump out of bed and became the CEO of XYZ company. I went through my trials, my tribulations, I learned something, I made mistakes, and and but I learned from a mistake, but then I got to where I'm at now, and now I want to share that story because everybody is in a different level, they're at different points of the road. Like, oh, I was off track, and I find out I actually am not on track. I'm actually kind of on track. I'm just going through this bend in the road. Um, but I I need to go off. So those authentic stories that you talk about, like you said, you love narrative, you love the story, but then you digitize it, you make it visible, and you make that reputation visible. So if I can get a sense of who you are by looking at your digital presence, your true reality, then I'm gonna like you because I I talk to MBA students, you talk about MBA, right? And I and I had I always get in front of um uh different college students, you know, so at Palm Beats College, or I'm a FIU or Florida Atlantic, they bring me in and we talk about this because I think it's it's very important to understand that if you only lead with your, let's say your education, I have an MBA. So, well, yeah, but you're competing with six million other people with an MBA, right? Well, I'm I I've got this guy that said, Yeah, but you're competing with all those other people that have similar skill sets to you. What differentiates you? No one has your story, no one has your exact story. So you need to tell your story and intertwine it with all those other aspects of it makes you different when you get in front of someone that might hire you, right?

SPEAKER_01: 13:34

Absolutely. When I I have students and clients who are like, but I'm results-oriented and I'm a problem solver, and I'm like, I hope you are. Otherwise, you're parading problems and you're not getting results. So let's come up with real words that tell your real story. And I think one thing I also recommend to people, and I'd be curious your thoughts too. Don't do personal branding by yourself, right? Personal branding is something where we want to go ask, even if it's our closest friends or sometimes people we don't get along with, ask them to describe you in five words, right? Start small. Like, don't wait for your performance management review to get feedback. Go ask people, be self-aware, and think about hey, how am I showing up? Am I exceeding expectations? Really? Am I not? Like, where can I be more of service or of value? And I think for a lot of us, that's hard, right? Being self-reflective, acknowledging where we might have weak spots, that's challenging. Um, I wrote a book in 2016. Can't believe that it's gonna be 10 years next year, called The Intentional Entrepreneur. And so I love the word intentional. I feel like I've been using it forever. Everybody else is caught on, but um, it's all about how do you take your personal brand and launch a business. And it it's a very like it's my first book. I love it. However, my second book that I wrote came out of a political disagreement I was having with my husband, and um my mom passed away. And so there were lots of difficult conversations that I had to navigate that, although I think I'm pretty good at communicating, really hard, stressful conversations like that, whether you're taking care of your parents, whether you're going through really hard things, which life is messy, like you said earlier. It is not, it is not meant to be happy every second. That would not be a true statement. And so I wrote this book called Listen. And I went out and interviewed all these people on what's the hardest conversation you've ever had. Right. And that book um really captures one that we do need to listen first before anything, but it's much more of a reflection of who I am and the experience as I went through than say my first book, where I did real business case examples. But for me, and people are like Jen, why do you write that book? There's lots of books on difficult conversations. And I said, Yeah, and I wanted to write my experience, my perspective, my framework for how to navigate that. And if it helps 20 people or a thousand people, I'm happy, right? Everybody can add value to a unique audience. So I think sometimes people also think that there's nothing unique about them, there's somebody just like them, right? And that's not true. Based on your experiences, like you said earlier, we all bring our own expertise, knowledge, and value. And so I asked my clients when I work with them, and this may be abuse to listeners, I asked them to pick three areas of expertise, strengths, different ways you want to describe it, and write those down, right? Because we cannot be good at everything. And it's just as good and important to know what you're not good at. Like I don't want to be behind a desk 24-7. That is not, especially if you make me work in Excel, right? I like collaborating with people, I like uh being creative and innovative, I love strategy. And so for people to really think about when are they at their best, what are those strengths that they bring to bear? What do people come to them for advice on that really seems to work well? And couple that with I actually have clients do a personal mission statement and we work through what's your purpose statement. Right? What kind of leader are you? I'm a gutsy leader. Uh, what's the change you're trying to drive? And what are the strengths you're going to use to do that? Which are those first three I was talking about. And so a lot of people don't sit down and think about why am I on this earth? What's my why? And really ponder that. And I think it can be really helpful when you're thinking about even if I could do 10% of that more than I am today, or 20%, that's on the right path. So for me, I also think personal branding, it's a long game.

SPEAKER_02: 18:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 18:07

It's not a one and done post on LinkedIn, right? So if people are trying to change their personal brand or evolve it, I tend to think of it as sort of a what I call a reputation roadmap. Look out 12 to 24 months at a minimum and think about where do I want to be 12 months from now, 24 months from now? And even if you just did one thing differently each month, what would that be? Maybe the first month, maybe this month in December before you end the year, it's hey, I'm gonna go ask three people. What do you think about me? Where could I be better? What do you think? Where what am I good at? Right. But I think having that map and just keeping small baby steps, because you'll get there.

unknown: 18:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 18:51

Personal brand and building a personal brand feels overwhelming because the people who do it well, they look like they're doing it great and they just got there like in one day. And it's like, no, no, they've been building that brand for months and years. So I think it's important for people to give themselves some grace and to have that plan and just start, even if it's you know what, I need to recognize people or thank them because that's how I want to end the year. That's a great way to start building your personal brand, right? Write recommendations on LinkedIn, write thank you cards. So I would just say start small, have a plan, but it's okay to take baby steps and celebrate those wins. That's how it all starts.

SPEAKER_00: 19:33

It's everything you said there. I want again the audience, you need to lean in, you need to rewind, go back, start over and replay that. Because listen, really, literally listen to what Jen just said, and you'll come to a point in a row where certain things you can do yourself. There's a DIY approach to certain things, right? But then you'll get to that point like, you know what, I need help, and that's when you need A professional. You're going to need somebody that to truly guide you to where you want to go. That's what Jen does. That's what I do. And this is important to understand when you need that. Because yes, you can ask your friends and peer group to evaluate or at least give you some feedback, but they're not going to tell you. Usually they're not going to give you the raw truth. Some people might. They might. They might. They might. It may be a contentious situation. Maybe not. Maybe you said something too important. You know, political views, right? This is your husband, right? But they were different. So the truth, like, wow, how do how do we so you got to how do we get to the raw truth? So when you work with someone else that's not emotionally connected to you, you might get some candid feedback. Another thing to your point, you have to do some analysis and some assessment. And what are you trying to get to? And what are the skills that you need to get to? I always do, I do a skills gap analysis with people and I compare it to people that have already attained the goal that they want to get to. And then that's a great thing. Like, all right, you want to uh go out, you want to be like in my book, you can see behind me first line. In the first line, the the um see there's there's two people. So there's the guide and the client. So the client has said, hey, I want to be president, I want to be uh the uh section president in the in this organization. That's great, that's a great goal. But how are you gonna get there, right? Let's take a look at that. And let's take a look at the path forward of attaining that goal. And you understand, yeah, I can do certain things myself, but you can't do everything yourself. And you're gonna find out, well, I need better, I need maybe it's situation awareness, maybe it's emotional intelligence, uh, that you're showing that you have some deficiencies when compared to someone else that has already done that. Maybe it's educational-wise, maybe there's more experience. But then it's not so much I don't have these, but how do I go out and attain these things, right? Right? It's just like in in real life, if you're gonna climb that mountain and you realize, hey, I need mountain climbing boots. Well, now you have to go out and acquire those, you know, get to that next level. Otherwise, you're gonna be stuck up there, right? So, but you need a professional. Getting back to why I'm talking like this, you're gonna need a professional to show you so before you start to climb, I don't want to get you up and find out, hey, where are your boots? You're like, what? You know, I'm gonna be able to tell you up front that you're gonna need some mountain climbing boots. So you need to understand the skills you need to acquire and the skills that you already have. One thing that I've learned, and I love this about um when I work with people, they begin to realize some um skill set that they have that they didn't realize that was valuable to someone else.

SPEAKER_01: 22:49

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 22:50

Right? Right? And they go through that and it's really eye-opening for them, like, wow. Or they realize, oh, I'm not that far off from you know this other individual, or it may be that they attained their goal. Maybe I just need to apply more time to your point where you were saying, like, hey, it wasn't overnight, it was six months, a year, a year and a half, two years. But are you willing to put in the work? You know, that's one thing I have found in our society because everything is it's it's self-gratification, immediate uh um you know, uh attainment, like driving up to the fast food restaurant, right? Give me a number one, I just give them my my money, and there I've got it. Well, it's a lot more than that. You're gonna have to put in the tough grind, you've got to put in some grit. I I asked my kids, so where's your grit? Like, what did you leave that at home?

SPEAKER_01: 23:41

Because absolutely. Well, and I think to your point, it is it is a climb, right? And I wouldn't go around a marathon or climb a mountain without the right tools and resources. Um, and I do think, you know, the some of the tools that I use, and and listeners might be familiar with these. I use the the disk with my clients, I'll use strengths finders, and I'll also use Enneagram. And between those three, if I see someone's different profiles, I can pretty much tell you how they will operate and what might be their blind spots. And so I do think um asking for that feedback is important. I will share, this is probably 11 years ago, when I was going through the personal brand process for myself. Uh, I was driving in my car with my eight-year-old at the time. And I asked him, I said, so hey. And I'm like patting myself on the shoulder in my mind, like, you're such a good personal brand strategist. I'm like, so hey, can you tell me three things that you like about me and three things you want me to work on? And I'm like looking in the rearview mirror at his face, and he goes, Mom, do you want me to alternate my answers? And I was like, What? I'm like in my head, I'm like, oh my God, can I unwind asking that question? And I was like, he just offered me a feedback sandwich and he's eight. And maybe I should have thought about this before I asked these questions. But I said, No, no, I would love it. Right? And so he told me, he said, Mom, I love that you're an entrepreneur. I said, Oh, cool. He said, and you're stressed all the time. I said, Oh he said, You're really nice and a sweet person. And when you're stressed, you get angry sometimes and you yell. And I said, Oh, okay. Good to know. He said, You're a really good driver. Because I talk about driving instead of yelling at people. Um, and he said, and I wish I could spend more time with you if you're not home enough. And I was like, Okay, so super helpful, definitely holy smokes moment, right? And that led me to change a lot of things, taking more time, not being so stressed, having quality time if I couldn't do the quantity time. And so, although at that moment I was like, wow, um, that hurt, and that was helpful. And you know, adults were all learning how to parent as we go. So, you know, good job asking for feedback. So, yes, it can be a bit scary. However, the sooner you get the feedback, the sooner you can make improvements. And I do think, you know, to your point, if you find something really easy, don't assume that that everybody finds it easy, right? I think chase your curiosity. So if you're curious about something, go dig into that. Because if you're curious, that worth ethic or that grid will kick in. And acknowledge the things that come really easily to you that you can do differently or better than others. Um, and I think in today's world, you have a lot of people upskilling, trying to figure out how do I leverage AI, what does this mean for me? And so the more you can show that you're investing in your knowledge, that you're sharing that insight, that builds a reputation in and of itself on platforms like LinkedIn, or if you decide you want to do video on TikTok or Instagram. Um, but I do think know your audience, be really clear on what do they need to hear, and how do you speak to them in their words. I think oftentimes as storytellers or in branding, we we use words that we think the audience needs. That's not always the words they actually would use or want to hear. So I do think it's a lot of understanding yourself, understanding your audience, and then really defining what I can bring to bear. Um, lately I've been talking a lot about leadership branding. Because sometimes people, I think, say, oh, well, I don't need a personal brand. You have one.

SPEAKER_02: 28:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 28:09

You have a personal brand already. People already have thoughts about you, whether they're good, bad, and different, doesn't matter. But I think an elevated version of personal brand is leadership brand. We all have the opportunity to lead by example, whether you're a CEO or fresh out of college, new hire. So, what I challenge folks to think about is what's your leadership brand? How are you leading into 2026, yourself, others? But just how do you set a good example? Because I think that also builds your personal brand in ways that you may not realize. But what are people seeing you do? Do your words meet your actions? And even if you just started there, that's a great place to start thinking about am I showing up authentically and adding value.

SPEAKER_00: 28:57

Wow. Wow. I I and it brought me back to what you just said, especially about reputation and that you have a personal brand, but are you intentional about building it and understanding how people see it? I work with clients all the time. And what I found, especially when they're looking to either pivot or they're in their current career, I said, Well, they're not utilizing all my resources, you know. It's almost like you get in a car, get this new car, but you only you know utilize 30% of what the car can actually do, you know, because you just you just you don't realize it. But certain people, it's the same type of thing. If you're only utilizing 30% of my capabilities, that other 70 set 70% is still there, but maybe you're just not aware of it. Your your peers, your co-workers, the companies, you're not aware of it. So you're limiting your value. And I always look at the analogy, and everybody loves this one because it makes sense. And I'm gonna date uh date myself because I'm a little older. But some some of the gen X of my name, you ever watch the movie or Shelley's come on called Gilligan's Island, right? Gilligan, Gilligan's Island were come on, they were on this visitor island and they got stranded. So John Denver plays Gilligan. Everybody remembers Gilligan, he was so silly, he was a lovable character. However, when he tried to get other roles in Hollywood, he found himself to be right, yeah, right. And all they could see was Gilligan, they couldn't see John Denver, and it it really uh held him back. Think about your own self. If someone only sees you or an organization or even your own resume only says one thing about you, and yet you have all these other things that you're good at or you're interested in, then that's when you start saying, Hey, my personal brand is really not representing who I am and what I am about. You know, I spent 30 years, 30 years business development and information technology. So my all my whole resume says, hey, you look at Grant McGov, he's gonna sell you some kind of enterprise. However, as I started building my personal brand and I started to understand more about myself as well, people said, No, I really like the way you communicate, I like the way you you speak. You have this great voice, you have this or oration about you, and and then it started to go in another world. But I had to get intentional about building that out. So now people think about oh, Grant McGall, like, oh yeah, that's that guy. He has this follow brand podcast, he's really big in the media, he knows healthcare, technology, he knows about finance, and it just expanded my whole scope. And why I say this is because now my when it comes to how I am successful from as far as a monetization standpoint, I have many other revenue that I had because I was just stuck in that one world.

SPEAKER_01: 31:54

I love everything you just said. Uh, it reminds me of two examples. One of my friends who's a senior executive, um, actually at Capital One, she said one day, she's like, and she reported into the C-suite. She's like, you know, I'm going in for my performance review. And I got the feedback that I wasn't strategic enough. And she's like, Jen, literally, all I do is breathe strategy. Like I am very good at strategy. And I said, Well, what did you do to change people's minds? She says, You're not gonna believe it. I said, let's let's try it. She goes, I started using the word strategy in everything I said. Because here's what would happen in meetings, because she got the strategy, she would talk about the tactical implications of changing the strategy. So people around her only heard her talk about tactical things. So she would say, Well, hey, let's step back and think about what's the strategic implication of this. Hey, let's make sure does this project align with our strategy? And so to me, when I think about creating a personal brand, one is words matter. People may not have the words you want them to have because they're using their own words in their head. And so, just like she had to use strategy to be perceived as strategic, do an inventory and think about what words am I using. Your example about you is great because you're building a breadcrumb trail to bring people along your personal brand journey where you started with technology and then you start adding in other breadcrumbs of personal brand and leadership and blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah. And all of a sudden, you end up at a place known as a personal brand thinker, right? And so and speaker, etc. But if we don't give people the words we want them to use or to think about us in, then we definitely will have a challenge. So as people are thinking about heading into the new year, kind of do a reflection and audit of well, what am I speaking up about in meetings? What am I asking about? What am I offering ideas on? Does that pigeonhole me like the Gilligan Island example? The other thing I would say, you know, one of my clients right now, uh, Madeline James, is is launched, is launched in early November. It's going up against big competitors. So they have to use one influencer strategy because that is a big part of their target market. Um, and I think something like 62% of marketing efforts in 2026 will be influencer-based. Like moving from traditional marketing to bringing in personal brand thought leaders. So people could even think about what's something I'm passionate about that maybe is outside of my job? That I can parlay into a future career. So don't discount this idea that you can create a personal brand around something you're passionate about that lays that bridge or the foundation to go to your next opportunity. If you're in a role that you're like, no, Jen, I really don't want to stay here, that's okay. Then think about how do we build that evidence of here are my skills, here's my knowledge, and here's where I'm gonna go next. Because a lot of times when it comes to building our personal brand, we have to create the evidence to get us where we want to go. It is nobody else's job to build your personal brand but you. And that that's painful because you're like, but wait, but that's where you can get like a little personal board of advisors. You guys can go have wine and yummy cheeses once a month and talk about, hey, here's what I'm thinking. Do you think that would work? Right. Or if for me, I was working in a role at Capital One early in my career as a product and project manager. We weren't really allowed to play on the money side, on the finance side. So I went and joined a nonprofit board and then got on the finance committee so I could learn about finance, right? So, to your point, what's your learning agenda for next year? What's that skill assessment and come up with creative ways to fill that learning gap? It may not always be at the company you're at. It might be through having a mentor, it might be through taking certificate programs uh versus going back for a full degree. It might be, you know, uh joining a board or doing volunteer work. So I think we have to get creative. And sometimes if we feel like our personal brand is holding us back or we're not there, we can be stressed. And when we're stressed, your brain actually cannot innovate. It is a different part of the brain or collaborate. Um, and so for each of us, I think carve out some time where you can step back, take a deep breath, and think about what would creating evidence look like? What's missing? What do I need to create? And again, it's just one thing a month, one thing a week, whatever you have bandwidth for. Because I don't know about you. At the beginning of the year, I'll be like, I'm gonna lose 40 pounds. And at the end of the year, I'm like, I still need to lose the 40 pounds. So we want to set goals that are manageable for a personal brand. Do one thing a week, one thing a month, be real with yourself, but just start. And I think if you have a close friend or a mentor that can help you along the way and be a sounding board, they can talk with you, they can talk with me. I'm happy to chat with anybody. Um, but I think think about how much individually we know, and if we shared the mistakes we've made or shared what we've learned, how much we can help other people. So at the end of the day, and there's always people are like, What? I'm like, 90% of your personal brand has nothing to do with you. It has to do with what are you providing to people that is helpful to them.

SPEAKER_00: 37:56

So, anyways, no, no, all of that what you said is so true, and it got me to thinking right now, I'm gonna make a change in how my process of doing my podcast right now, right now, right as we record this. Meaning, I want to instead of me asking you the question, you've gone through my process, you've gone, you've looked at some of my content, you've not gone through the Follow the Brand Podcast interview, the whole, you know, like you were we're at the end of our show right now. What question would you like to ask me?

SPEAKER_01: 38:29

I would love to know what's the one thing you want to develop or learn evidence-wise for you going into 2026? Like, what's on your learning agenda for you to stay relevant, to continue to add value, and to elevate your own personal brand?

SPEAKER_00: 38:45

That's a thank you for asking that. Because I do got a lot of things, and people ask me that because you asked me that earlier, where are you at, Greg? Where are you in Omaha? Wow, you know, the Midwest. And then you're doing these things in St. Croix, you do these things. How do you how do you tie all that together? And because I'm now in enterprise, right? I have an ecosystem. So in Miami, I built my personal brand, I built the follow-the-brand podcast ecosystem, right? It's a lot of the that there. And then in St. Croix, I built out a financial marketplace, right? And that's where like I have a show called The Big Picture. And in the big picture, we talk about finance and that type of thing, and we're developing a lot of different opportunities in St. Croix. Then in Omaha, it's like, well, what can I do? I haven't been there in 30 years. I've got to be able to do something. I'm gonna be more or less headquartered there. What is that going to look like? And what what I noticed was because I have such uh expertise in artificial intelligence, but how do you apply it? I'm into applied knowledge. So I how do I apply AI in business development? How do I apply AI in person development, personal branding? So I built out. A AI business accelerator. It's going to be a business accelerator program. It's going to be launched as a cohort. And I was able to get it integrated with the city of Omaha. They want to roll this out to all their business because this is still new, right? New herb, meaning there's an acquired skill set around it, but people are kind of like doing their own thing, they're at different levels. Well, how do we really apply this to first of all develop our sales programs, our marketing programs, especially a small business? You're an entrepreneur. And I want to say one thing because I answered your question. I want to say because you said something. I want people to understand this. You really need to get on top of this. All of us are entrepreneurs. You have a business contract with your company, your enterprise. That's a business contract. Ask any HR professional to tell you, like, yeah, you have a contract with us. Meaning, and when you are an entrepreneur, you had contracts with your clients. It's a contract. So you have a contract of service. So who in an entrepreneurial world is responsible for promoting your brand? Well, you are. You're absolutely responsible for promoting your brand, whether you're going through career development, business development, you aren't the brand, right? No matter how you look at it. But if you if you sit on that brand, you don't develop it, and you don't take it to the next level. What happens is especially now tell people, I'm at the other side. I'm like 62 years old now, right? If I didn't start developing my brand at the end of the day, where I'm no longer that valuable as in business development, in technology, I start taking more of a back seat, but still I have I have expenses, I have bills, I have other things. Like, well, I've got to now develop this new new revenue stream. I can't just sit back and expect things to just be be how they were. So you're developing these new revenue streams, you've got to start thinking, and I think it's a mind shift takes place that you are in the business of developing your brand, developing your business at all times. You are an entrepreneur, whether you think about it or not, or a business owner, you own your career, right? Any point in time, when they tell you when you you sign that contract, this this is an at what do they call that at risk? At will, at will at any point in time, I can say your service is no longer needed. You gotta think about that, right? Right?

SPEAKER_01: 42:22

Absolutely. I mean, I'm in the DC market, I have people reach out to me often who were federal government employees, seniors in the federal government, senior levels. And you know, my answer is always of course I'll help. And we need to build our brand before we need it. Right? Even if you're coming out of college, interview people at your company, learn about the culture, write about what it's like to start in a new company, write about what's exciting, don't write about the bad stuff because that will get you in trouble. Write about here's what I'm learning, here's what's super cool and exciting. Because you can build a brand at any point, and you should. I mean, in my corporate career for 10 years, the one thing I really didn't do was build my brand outside of the company because I was working, you know, 60 to 80 hours a week, being a great employee, getting great results for the company, and yet I did not have a personal brand outside of the company. So when I started my business, I leveraged my brand within the company, but then I had to go build my brand. I had to network and be a part of groups. So one other sort of easy task that I might that makes it sound mean. One idea for 2026 is to look at your networks. I I love that you like frameworks. I have so many that I could have shared, but I'm like, no, no, let's not overwhelm people. I have four networks, and every year I reassess them. I have a network of my peers who are peers like me that I want to build relationships with. I have networks where I could find my clients, CEOs, startups, etc. I have a network for giving back. So I'm part of a women's giving circle, which is a great way to meet a lot of people that aren't in the typical networks I would find because it's a very diverse group of people. And then I have a network for fun. Right. And the reason I say that is because it's good to have fun. For me, giving back is important. And it might be for people listening, right? We can all figure out how we want to do that. But I think uh a network of your peers and of your future clients or prospects is important. So you can stay in touch with what's the most forward thinking happening in my space and what do my people need? What do my clients need or prospects need? And so if you haven't ever thought about networking so far, and now you're thinking about 2026, how do I increase visibility? Go visit different groups, right? Go check it out, try it out, see what feels like a good fit. And then I invest in it for the year, and then next year I'll see are these still the right networks for me. But I think you don't want to be out of sight, out of mind. And you absolutely want to start building your brand. Even if it's just known as someone who um is kind, does recognition, that's a great start. But you also want to share, even if it's hey, I grew, I read this great article on AI and blah, blah, blah, because you want to transition at some point into using AI. Great, put that on LinkedIn, share it in a team meeting, right? Like find the places where you can use your words to define your brand.

SPEAKER_00: 45:42

Man, well said, well stated. I want to thank you again, Jen, for being on the show. You're gonna end 2025 in such a great way and begin 2026 with a plan, which is always good, and how you're gonna implement that plan, but stick to it because at the end of the day, just like anything else, uh, I think nature teaches this that when you make that you plant your seed, then you nurture it over time, but then you see it grow, it breaks crumb, and then you have a harvest. So that's that's a process uh that we all have to go through so you can harvest your personal brand and make it very, very good. I want to thank you again for being a show, the brand mirror. I want you to tell us how to contact you, right? And make sure we get in touch with you, especially in that DC world.

SPEAKER_01: 46:34

I would love for people to visit my website, brand mirror.com. Feel free, please, connect with me on LinkedIn. Practice reaching out and connecting with someone. If that's new to you, I will accept. I'm happy to do complimentary consults. If you just want to hop on a call and brainstorm some stuff, please reach out. That is a genuine offer. People ask me, like, really? I'm like, yeah, because this is what I love to do. So if you feel like you're stuck or you need some help, please reach out. Otherwise, you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook and all of that good stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 47:04

Excellent, excellent. Thank you again for being on the show. I would encourage your entire audience to see all the episodes of Follow Brand at Five Star BDM. That is the number five. That is Star, STR, B for brand, D for Development, and for Masters.com. You are going to be able, especially if you're interested in personal branding. There's 50 episodes right there, so you can learn about these things, get a good feel for it. So when you engage with Jen, you're gonna already be at a higher level and you can really take off. So thank you again for being on the show.

SPEAKER_01: 47:34

Thank you so much. This is so lovely. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00: 47:37

You're welcome.