Reinvention and Evolution of your Career Image

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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of Image Group International and an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies, and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques, and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image, and reputation.

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Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of my podcast. Today, we will continue our chat around the subject of image because this is, of course, image month after all. Last week we discuss personal limits, and how it is necessary to take a good look at your personal image and see what you can do to change as per your needs and wants. Following this logic, you know, if you will take an honest look at your image, as per our last chat, you probably reflected also on how your personal image has an impact on your career image. And of course, that's going to be the subject of our conversation today, the more specific I can be will be to discuss tonight, why your career image should also keep up with the times and how you can reinvent it if you choose what's essential is your congruent. Because if you're living in the year 2022. And looking like 1978, you know, there's a bit of an incongruency in reference to presentation. But that also means language and the way you present yourself in all aspects of communication. So it's about keeping up with the times that you know, and that's essential to keep you relevant. Now, first, let's make something clear, even if you're on a career path that you love, what got you where you are today isn't always what will get you to the next level tomorrow. And I'll explain that, see what got you into this position initially, but have been totally different reasons that were very applicable then. But I no longer apply today. And what happens is, as human beings, we get really comfortable and complacent after a while, especially if we're in a position where there's not a lot of change. And certainly, you know, it becomes what I would call is comfortable to the point where it's actually not good for you. You know, and we see this in many, many organizations, and including, of course, you know, government, NGOs, and so on, were times because the competition is not there, it's too comfortable. And things become really stale. Now, that's fine, maybe for, you know, organizations like government and NGOs. But in the entrepreneurial world, in the business world, you can't do that. Because if you become too stale or too comfortable to comply, without, you know, shaking the tree up once in a while, you're gonna basically potentially go out of business. So we all need to reinvent ourselves multiple times throughout our careers, to remain valuable. And this is a keyword valuable. And for many people, that also means employable. A clear example of this was the pandemic. Now, in the last two and a half years, what we've experienced is people that have been in very comfortable positions. And by the way, I'm not talking about the people that lost their jobs, because they gave it their best shot. And it was totally out of their control. I'm talking about people that took it a little bit too comfortably, did not do any personal development work on themselves, or Korean development work for that matter along the way. And basically, the crisis comes, you know, the pandemic hits, and specifically, businesses are laying people off, you know, the competition is changing dramatically. And a lot of people are becoming irrelevant. And of course, you know, part of the great resignation, I think there are elements of that in there as well, where people specifically have been laid off, not so much because the company didn't really want them anymore, but a lot of it got a lot of companies that also it was the perfect time to get rid of what we would call his deadwood. So this is important because, since the Industrial Revolution, people have had to reinvent themselves professionally, constantly to stay relevant, you know, things change. And of course, we need to change with them if we're going to stay relevant. But before It was necessary to change because of technology, right. But these days, we have technology as a great benefit. But also the technology has created what we would call massive competition.

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And of course, the best example of that is, you know, what Amazon has done to retail stores around the world, there's one very simple example, you know, or what Netflix has done, specifically video, and blockbuster, and all the others, you know, stores were all alive once upon a time. So you know, you got to keep up with it, as I mentioned, otherwise, you go the business, it's the same thing with human beings. But of course, it doesn't get communicated to us in that way. So what I say is, don't stress, okay, this is the big one. It's about really embracing reinvention for yourself. And we know it can be challenging, but that's why we're here. And I have a few tips today, obviously, to get you started. The first thing you need to do is definitely be open to learn to build new skills. And what I mean by that is very simple. Your formal education is only going to get you so far, have you noticed that you know, in your current position, everyone else has got similar qualifications to you. Meaning when there are similarities across the board, your leverage from the point of your differentiation goes down dramatically. So it's like, you know, that piece of paper, what got you into the interview, but it's not going to build your career, okay, so that you're going to look at other forms of the education building and, and part of that would be definitely online courses, you know, mentors, essential people that really know people who've been there before you people that have got the rungs on the board. And not people that just talk, right, because you get a lot of that we're talking about formal evidence that shows you know that they know what they're talking about. They know what they're doing. And they've actually got the lived experience to, I suppose, advise, and possibly help you along the way. This is essential. My second tip is obvious for the ones who will always listen to this podcast, invest in your personal brand. And I noted before around be different. Yes, it's essential. Today online, especially online. And by the way, everyone is online today. And what if you're not online, you're going to be online if you like it or not, basically, you are compared. You will compare online, you are checked out? You are You know, you're seeing what makes you so different from your next-door neighbour, why should I come and hire you? In this case? You got why what makes you different? And also your opinions? Are they at times a little bit different from your next-door neighbour? Or are they all complicit in the same language, and specifically what I would call his meat to bore, okay? If you want to step out from that you can do that. And we do that with our clients every day of the week because the first thing you got to do to step out and be different is that some courage, and in a world where, you know, we've got wimping us out of control. Courage, obviously, is something that stands out, you know, and courage is actually linked, as we've noted in previous episodes to integrity, okay, it's a conference, it's there, you know, they're all interlinked. So be courageous. And of course, by being courageous, you're us have been different, because it's not so common out there in the marketplace today. The third tip is to reinvent your networking. And what I mean by that. Well, definitely, it's about learning specifically how to, you know, up, network yourself to a quality that is congruent with who you want to be. And by that, I mean, who you want to be not necessarily who you are at this moment. And what that means is about attracting energy around you, and energy, you know, that gives you an uplift in introductions in of course, potentially advice. It could even be mentoring, right? So networking plays a big part, but I'm not talking about networking from the perspective of the boring passe. And what I would call is at times an effective Facebook perspective, I'm talking about all world connections that actually matter. I'm talking about reaching out, you don't need, you know, 1000 friends, you only need five like my grandmother used to say, you know, your friends are always on one hand. So it's about you know, re I suppose, repurposing some of your thinking around that because of course, connected networks are the trickier, not just networks, what does that mean? Networks, you know, so what, if you're not connected with people that are going to basically vouch for you and open doors for you, you're gonna be in trouble and of course, as the Chinese would say, one sheet right? The launch is all about the right connections. Okay, and then who also is doing the Introduction for you, this is essential, I can't stress enough about this. And of course, from an international perspective, you know, Australians and a lot of Westerners don't know how to do this effectively, for instance, compared to mentioned the Chinese before and Asians in general. So connections are essential. And of course, if you study you know, the old world, even, you know, old-world money and the concept from a Western perspective, of course, connections and connected networking is everything that opens doors, you know, the clubs, the societies, all the other stuff there, this is part of networking, there's a reason why they exist. And the reason for that is because they work and my last tip is don't be afraid to make mistakes, you know, to have a goal during your career imagery invention, if you don't have a go you will never know so basically give it a shot. You know, work out where you want to go with this. What is your end game? You know, what is the position that you want? You know, what is the new position you might want in another company? If that's the case, what is it what do they require? Do your research okay? And give it a shot meet people network, have a chat with people go out there and hustle, okay, this is these are all skills that are essential. schmooze, chutzpah, do everything possible to build your career, if that's important for you, because it is for most people on the planet, of course, their career is part of the part of their identity. So the last thing you want to do is be in a career that you actually despise and dread from a daily perspective that you got to get up and go to work. That's not a great way to live.

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That's it for today. You know, like always, I thank you for listening. I hope this episode was useful for you. And I hope you can put some of this advice, let's say into good use. Look, if you liked this episode, like always, please rate the show on the Apple podcast. It helps us and it helps others like you to join and come on board. Once you've done that, please send us an email confirmation, and we will send you our free ebook the real world guide to authentic personal branding. The email is on the description of the episode and you can find me on all social media. You can follow me on Twitter at Jon_Michail on LinkedIn as Jon Michail, and on Facebook as Image Group International. Remember, if you need any of my help on your personal brand journey, please email me and I'll be happy to work with you if we're a good fit. Thank you all and I look forward to chatting again next week. Cheers. 

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists, based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world.   To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.