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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international, 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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Hello, everyone, and thank you for being here. Before we start our chat today, I kindly ask you to connect with me on social media. What's up is Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail. And you can find me as Image Group International on Facebook. So let's get started. Today we'll talk about why a master coach makes a real difference for leaders and entrepreneurs. There are numerous aspects, and some not so secret in ingredients that go into establishing a successful entrepreneur or business. And coaching, make no mistakes is no different. More importantly, it's identifying the hard work versus the smart work. This is a key, otherwise, you'll be working very hard. And of course, missing opportunities because you have no more energy. It's about having resilience, and consistency, patience and genuine care factor, that alongside with instinct, makes the people and says we are on your corner. And with that, of course, the chutzpah to elevate your clients and grow their careers and business. 

1:38
Now I want to make this a real real mention here. Never accept advice from somebody that's never done it theoretical nonsense is good at universities in the real world, you will not survive. And you can put my name to that that's the real world. Basically, what you want to do is if you're gonna take theory, you better practice it. And what happens in the coaching world is you've got a lot of, especially online, people that have never done it before, but claim that you can do this, this and that. And of course, haven't got the lived experience to share that. And what I mean by that? Well, you know, from a coaching point of view, you can pinch a book right now, read all the stuff from it, and pretend that you're a coach. But you've got no embodied experience to get really into the depth of what is truly means, especially when a client really needs help from the perspective of business, or sales, or leveraging and growing their personal and business brain. Of course, if given him with done that before, again, that the evidence to support that, how are you going to actually do that? Other than yep, yep, yep. So I suppose the trick here is to whatever you do from a coaching perspective, and the reason I mentioned is coaching is booming all over the planet right now is make sure you find people that walk the talk. So imagine what will happen. 

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For instance, if a business leader, instead of leading is lost themselves, and not focused on the organization's needs, okay, this is about getting yourself together. And from the point of view of being integrated as a coach, because if you're not integrating yourself, I don't know how you're going to help clients. So if you don't get that together, what will happen is, of course, you know, and a coach also is in a similar situation, and they fail miserably. And they will their business, no different to any other business in the business world. In the entrepreneur versus corporate world, this scenario also can lead to a vast disaster. What's very clear is this if you're running a big corporation, or listed corporation, or a very, very large organization that is totally different to an entrepreneurial setup, why? Because as a big organization, you have resources, you have systems, you have all sorts of other stuff that gets you to really fake it at times when we see that every day. And of course, a lot of those big corporations are our clients. But with a small organization, you haven't got that you haven't got the luxury of buying time, okay, you've only got limited and at times, if you're talking about cash flow, no, potentially you go ship a limited time that you know, you need to get your act together quickly. So theory is not going to work there. What's going to work is action as soon as possible. And of course, you can only do that with somebody that's actually walked down the road prior to you. Years of research have proven that employer employee relationships, find business relationships, they call the management strategies, etc. help determine a business's growth and ultimate worth. And what I mean by that is, and this is very important. 

4:44
Whatever experience you're bringing onto the table to help somebody in this case, a coaching relationship, okay. It will come from all your past experiences before but most importantly, it's not just the experiences it's also met the results. You know, you could have had a lot of experiences in life and if everything's been a failure, okay, that's not going to help much, okay? Unless by the way, you know, you position yourself and reinvent yourself as the greatest failure coach on the planet. And I can see that as a as a perfect brand positioning for somebody out there. And the key here is to really constantly, constantly go out there and learn new things, including what you've already learned, because the greatest thing you can do is actually operate from the point of view that I don't know anything. And that really gives you an opportunity to pick up new information, new knowledge, new wisdom, that at times, because our egos stop us from attaining that information will actually change will change the whole direction, particularly Korea, business, and of course life. Like athlete, athletes, leaders and entrepreneurs know the value of a master coach to help steer them in the right direction. Look, it's lonely at the top, and leaders and entrepreneurs gain significant growth in their business and sales with the help. In this case, of course, in what we do a personal branding coach with demonstrated results to prove it. So it's not about yep, yep, yeah, it's about also show me the evidence. Coaching helps entrepreneurs and leaders to unlock the true potential in a short period. And this is very important, because we all know now, we know this clearly, of course, I've been coaching now for 30 years. But we know clearly that you can't do it by yourself, it starts from you, your inspiration comes from you. 

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But you need also other eyes and ears around you. If we're going to go to the next part of the journey. Coaching opens up the leader and entrepreneur to envision other missions, by calibrating all the passions, you know, the values personality, and of course, purpose. And what that means is the great coach will have the courage to provoke to the point of transformation. Now, a lot of clients might not want that they might just want superficial stuff, that's fine as well. That's not the work that we do, because we know long term that's going to be very expensive for you. And of course most important is going to be very, very expensive for your life, because superficiality you can only keep on doing that for so long before it actually starts hitting you back. I should know I've been an image maker all my life. You don't think superficiality was part of my job. Of course it was okay. That's what the image will pull up. But the problem you've got right. And this is a key distinction. The tech world the online world has, has created that by times 100. So the superficiality you see out there is extraordinary from anything I've seen before in my life. And of course, it's promoted because the big tech companies love all that fakeness, including fake news, because their business model is based on that. Okay, but what I say right now to you is what's your business model? Because that's not your business model. Your business model is about what if you're one of our followers, it's about authenticity. 

8:04
And it's about bringing out your message, bringing out your mission to the world, and of course, actioning the results and that's going to give you exactly you know what you're looking for. So what is personal brand coaching? Exactly? Well, here at image Group International, our personal and business branding, coaching, the approach unlocks the hidden and unexplored potential in you, of course, your business and assist in leading you and your business to thrive in an ever changing world, and, of course, highly dynamic business environment. And given the recent economic turmoil, fragile growth prospects, post COVID, we currently have the ideal time to consider coaching while finding new ways to grow, reinvent and create new solutions for people and their problems, make no mistakes, there is a reset going on. So it's up to us to adapt and adapt for good. But these qualities are not only limited to people that want to basically create new solutions. We all can utilize our qualities and attributes by fully becoming aware of ourselves. Being aware, assertive and empathetic towards oneself is the first step to enriching the lives of others protective solutions and of course, your life along the way. 

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And what I mean by that is, awareness is the key here we have spoken in different episodes around awareness, awareness is about waking up. Awareness is about really getting a sense that you're born an eagle and not a chicken. Okay? And what that means is you've got wings that expand that you potentially can create, we'll call them small or big miracles, as long as you open up to the possibility that you don't know what you don't know. And this is important and that's what awareness is all about. And this is the key, even when you think you do You know, the greatest response you can have back to your service? I know nothing. And of course, it's very, you know, wise from the ancients, and specifically works to this day because what the reason you do that is because it deals with the ego, again, we all need ego, but what we need is a healthy ego, not a toxic one, you might ask me, John, why do I need this personal brand coaching? Well, guess what you don't, it's a choice. It's a choice, it's a choice of ambition, it's a choice of what do you want to be known for in this lifetime. So for me, and of course, our clients, but from the perspective of myself, personal branding, you know, has been a major catalyst in positioning a lot of the great things that I designed to do in this lifetime to the point where, of course, I made it my profession. That's how much I was inspired by. So personal branding has many benefits, okay, but getting the guidance from a master coach will help you achieve your ideas more quickly. And why that of course, we've spoken about this before. It's all about you know, that, that obviously runs on the board, you've got evidence to prove it. And of course, the greatest way to do that is actually do your research, in reference to myself and image Group International very easy. Just go to my LinkedIn profile, you'll see all the live testimonials, well over 80 live ones there. 

11:27
Okay, we all have blind spots, there are many shadow sides to a personality that we fail to see in ourselves, these shadows hide in plain sight, but we are blind sighted to see them. A master personal branding coach helps you identify and focus on the most important things, your strengths, your strengths is really the key here, what you're really, really good at, is what you want to focus on. There's no point trying to create a mastery in something that you just dislike. And it's never going to be one of your, your major attributes. So what you're going to do there is if you need that as part of your plan, you find somebody to help you in reference to that role, you know, you hire somebody, etc. A master coach will also help you spot your weaknesses, okay. And that's essential, essential in his crazy Kancil. Culture world. Okay, what that means is also if they've been around and understand the real world, from that lived experience perspective, and actually have their finger on the pulse of what's going on, including political and cultural changes that are happening, will actually support your so to become more street smart. But how can you teach somebody be street smart, when you've never been street smart yourself, this is the key. book smarts, by the way, will only get you so far. Okay, the moment, you know, the moment you step out of that, that building, you know, the university in this case, etc, the world is totally different to what you get in it. And at times, I don't want to sound like I'm attacking academia. I love academic pursuits. But the key here is we're living in times where specifically at times, academia is actually bringing out young people that are really, really skewered into particular directions that, in my opinion, is not going to help their lives, it helps physicians out there, it helps how advices but it doesn't actually help the individual. So that's why I mentioned the crazy Kancil culture that we're all living in today, it's very important to be aware of that. And by the way, if your coach also is a crazy, canceled culture type of individual, in my opinion, run away from a can run away from it. 

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Because in the end, in the end, what canceled culture does is get you to cancel yourself, okay? Because your message, your inner expression needs to be expressed. If you suppress that for too long, eventually, you'll get anxiety, potentially stress, depression, and worse, again, because this inner pressure that needs to be expressed, if it doesn't come out, it's gonna go in, okay, so you can imagine what that means. The more stress you keep inside of course, the more you'll get potentially explode and of course, get sick, etcetera. So I don't support any of that. Now, if you want to do that privately, that's okay. as well. I'm not talking about you have to express everything on Facebook, right? That's not what I mean. And finally, a master coach will help you become an influential figure personality in your community. And what that means is you're gonna get discovered from that perspective, you know, it's, it's essential if you've got a song that you need to sing, if you don't sing it, people will not ever know that it existed. So the metaphor there is you got to get it out. And why is this important because of the reason I just Skype without it, you'll have a little capacity to make a difference. In other words, you'll be one of the greatest brands never known, okay, one of the greatest artists never known one of the greatest entrepreneurs never known etcetera. So the key here is to be known, okay be known does not mean be showy does not mean, you know, mean superficial or particularly an Instagram influencer. Okay, that's not what I'm talking about. It's about getting known out there. And in that case, obviously, the work we do is about the respect and the status that you're actually designed to achieve. Behind if you don't get heard, you know, there's your voice, I mean, your communication is not heard, you have no influence. And of course, with all of that, it's about getting value, you're getting valued from the point of view that you know, your value as a human being. And value is, of course, part of value. And I'm not talking about just money here, right? Although that comes into it as well. I'm talking about how you're around, respected, respected for who you are. 

16:01
Because we're living in again, times with disrespect is everywhere, manners are out of control, canceled, culture has gone insane, et cetera, et cetera, that's not going to, as I said, I'm going to remind you, you, you got to ask yourself, whatever agendas go on, in our society, you got to ask yourself this, how does that agenda fitting with my life? Okay, how does that fit in with my life? And what suits certain people out there, including politicians? But how does this serve my life? And this is important part of building awareness? Sometimes, though, you might find a little bit difficult to work that out all by yourself, or of course, not unknown early, you don't know? No. So do you understand the difference? A master personal brand coach can make, I will share a success story of one of our clients. His name is you're the wrong pop. Okay. And the story goes like this. And by the way, and you can find him specifically on LinkedIn. There are some clients who fall in love with your was that type of guy. When I first met him, he was in his mid 20s, an engineer, struggling to grow in his role discriminated at times due to his race, okay, and he was treated like a true victim. So this wasn't, you know, you're complaining that he was a victim. The facts was out there that he was actually disrespected from the perspective of things that are just insane, but you're kept on fighting along. He also has what I call is not a lie down type of attitude, and over time, and numerous coaching interventions. You're receiving this first of many promotions, that then into his current role as a senior engineer, and of course manager for a large corporation. 

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Now, in that time, with, you know, a lot of different work that we did together, we covered aspects of personal branding, of course, that includes intentional leadership, powerful public speaking. And of course, one of the secret sauces, street smartness and chutzpah. So this is the LinkedIn testimonial that I wrote for y'all. I write for y'all. Okay. After the experiences with him. The things that impresses me, the most about your face is professionalism, his high integrity, and his outstanding work ethic, a high achiever, you're just constantly looking for new challenges. His quest for knowledge has enabled him to be a creative outside the box thinker, with an entrepreneurial spirit to boot. The beautiful aspects of this story, of course, including York meeting, his life partner, that became his wife, having two beautiful, healthy children. Well, that's the story for tonight. I have many, many stories, and hopefully trustworthy, I will share more of them with you next year, when I see you, of course, again. 

19:08
But what I'd like to do with this last episode for the year is to really thank you for being here with me today. It's been an absolute blast doing these podcasts. I want to thank our producer, Carol as well, for all the support, I really appreciate that. And of course, thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen to my 10, 15, 20 minutes of wisdom. If I can use that term, that's what my clients say. So I'd like you to basically reflect on a lot of the podcast episodes that you've listened to this year, similar growth your time from and I'd love to get a message from you specifically on you know how this has have actually helped you or helped others. So take this opportunity to wish you a healthy number one prosperous and of course joyful New Year. and I look forward to seeing you back in February. So stay tuned and until then stay aware and of course they are alive. Please remember to contact me by email if you need help developing your personal and business brand. The email address is on the description of the episode. Also, I kindly ask you to write the show on Apple podcast. Once you do, please send us an email confirmation and we will send you a book the real world authentic personal branding. I want to thank you all again and see you next time. 

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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.