[00:00:02] Welcome to the Business Miracles Podcast. I'm Heather Dominick, founder of BusinessMiracles.com and author of the book Different, How to Reduce Overwhelm and Increase Income as a Self Employed Highly Sensitive person found at DifferentTheBook.com. Since 2010, I've been training HSPs in business and leadership from around the globe to work less while making more impact and income by doing things differently. I'm so glad you joined me. Listen in and get ready. Get ready for a shift in the way you view yourself, your work, your life, a business miracle.
[00:00:52] This is A Course in Business Miracles podcast episode 215 Personal Branding Part 1, Core Value Offer. In this very powerful episode, I break down the difference between branding as an 80 percenter, a non HSP, and branding as a highly sensitive leader. I discuss why the old transactional model of personal branding simply doesn't work for us HSPs and what works instead. You'll learn how to define your personal brand in a way that captures the essence of your energy and serves as the foundation for how you show up in everything you do. I also share how when embodying the energy of your personal brand, you create a deeper connection and engagement with people in all areas of your life - prospects, clients, the team you lead, your social media followers, and even your spouse and children. So whether you're an HSP entrepreneur or working in a corporate environment or school setting, your personal brand matters. And now more than ever, it is time to lead with it. So let's dive in.
[00:02:12] The secret to personal branding as a highly sensitive leader.
So first of all, what is a personal brand? Well, years ago I taught personal branding under a different name. And when I taught this approach to personal branding, I came to realize that it was a bit ahead of its time. So some of the members that I taught this approach to really got it, and some are here in the community and still use this approach today. And others were kind of like, what language are you talking? And, I don't understand you. So I put that aside, but now it's time to bring it back, we are ready.
So the way I used to teach personal branding was under a concept that I refer to as core value offer. And you can write that down. Core value offer. So lovingly referred to at the time in the community as CVO. Your core value offer. So your core value offer is an energy that you embody first and foremost. It's an energy that you bring to everything that you do. And that includes marketing. But the core value offer isn't just for highly sensitive entrepreneurs, it's for all highly sensitive leaders. Personal branding is something that if you are embodying as a CVO, it's with you all the time. Write that down.
Now what's so key about this is that if you're approaching branding from the 80% perspective, then there's a compartmentalization. As if the branding is separate from you. But as highly sensitives, everything we do is holistic. Especially when our highly sensitive strength of empathy is really at work. So your business is not something that's separate from you, it is you.
And if you're a highly sensitive leader who's not in business, you still have a personal brand. And a lot of the colleagues that I work with, and my own masterminds and training, who are not entrepreneurs, who actually work in corporate and who work in kind of like what would might be considered like really rigid corporate structures, such as technology, such as the medical industry, they also, as individuals, focus on their personal brand. Who it is and how it is that they want to be showing up in their role within a corporation, within a company.
So what is the energy that you are meant to, or want to communicate, in all that you do? What is the energy that you are meant to embody at the dinner table? What is the energy that you're meant to embody in the grocery store? What is the energy that you are meant to embody in your marketing? While leading or speaking to a board room, giving a presentation, to your children, to your spouse, to your partner, to your friends.
To expect your business branding or your career to be separate as a highly sensitive, is setting you up for that dynamic of feeling like a fraud. Especially if you're still approaching branding from the 80% perspective, with the perception of, what do I need to put out there as a brand so I can get people to buy what I have?
How would that ever actually work for you and your essential self as a highly sensitive? Most likely it wouldn't. And it's going to have you at war with yourself, and it's going to have your marketing and your leadership falling short. So difference between branding, personal branding as a highly sensitive entrepreneur and leader, and branding as an 80 percenter. It's a give versus a get mentality. Write that down. A give versus a get mentality.
We can also put this in the frame as transactional versus transformational. Write that down. Transactional versus transformational.
It was first described by Max Weber in 1947, and then by Bernard Fass in 1981. In short, transactional leaders focus on the role of supervision, organization and group performance. They are concerned about the status quo and the day-to-day progress towards goals only. Transformational leaders work to enhance the motivation and engagement of followers by directing their behavior toward a shared vision.
So what would happen with your personal branding if you consistently shared your branding through the transformational leader lens? If the energy that you chose to embody as your CVO was always about, how does the energy that I bring to this action, to this moment, to this exchange, to this experience, how does that enhance the motivation and engagement of others by supporting them and directing their behavior toward a shared vision? What would happen as you lead a team? What would happen as you post on social media? What would happen as you interact with your spouse, parent your children?
So again, your personal branding isn't something that you do, it's not something that you find, or hire somebody else to create for you, it's not a logo, it's not the colors on your website, it's who you are. It's how you're choosing to show up in the world as a highly sensitive leader. And then you create your logo from there. You choose the colors on your website from there.
So how do you create a CVO? How do you create a personal brand? My high recommendation is that you will allow the CVO to be one word. So write that down, one word. And two, that you begin to open up to ways that you can help remind yourself of that CVO. Whether you start to post that word, places where you can see it before you go on social media, before you create something new, before you head to work for the day, whatever it might be, and possibly a tangible object.
Like a talisman that helps remind you that when you touch it you connect back into that CVO. Your CVO is a representation of your essential self. That is who you're meant to be bringing to the world. And that is your personal brand.
So now more than ever, where we are in the world as a global community, the last thing that this world needs right now is a highly sensitive, trying to pretend to be an 80 percenter, and find the right branding that will get people to give them what they want. Instead, my invitation for you is you shift from get to give, and you shift from transactional to transformational leadership. And that, my dear ones, is the secret to personal branding as a highly sensitive leader.
Let's all take a breath in, and let it out.
[00:11:43] Thank you for being a part of this Business Miracles podcast episode and for beginning to dip your toe into the journey of highly sensitive leadership training. If you are ready to truly use your sensitivities as strengths in all parts of your work and life. I invite you to connect for a one on one chat. You will experience being deeply listened to and together we'll get a sense of of whether the highly sensitive leadership training programs are the best next step for you and your highly sensitive journey. At this time, just go to www.ClarityCall.com to schedule a conversation. We so look forward to connecting with you. Talk to you.
