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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, everybody, and welcome to the 2023 season on my podcast, I trust you've had a great break. And it's great to be back and having you here. Before I start the show, I have some exciting news for you. On February the 20th. Coming up, I will host a free online summit among with other experts about today's topic. And today's topic, of course is about elevating your authority. This free online summit will provide the knowledge tools, and of course inspiration to empower you to become an authority in your field. You'll get expert guidance from global industry leaders who will speak at the seminar and show you how to build a solid personal and business brand that moves you faster to your goals. You'll also learn how to build your brand network effectively and become an authority in your field. To know more about this free online event, access the link in the episodes description. So let's get into today's podcast. 

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So when I talk to you about authority, I am not just talking to you about authority in the workplace, I'm also referring about authority in your life that goes beyond your career and business. And people ask me, but John, why do I need to elevate my authority? Well, first of all, it's hard to stand out in today's world and generally grow your career business and revenues without having what I would call is the unfair advantage. And the unfair advantage of them explain to you with these questions. First of all, what do you need in theory? Okay, so question is, do you? Do you want to be heard and respected? Are you struggling to get recognized that could be in the workplace in your career? Promotions, exciting work? And are you willing to own your personal power. And the thing about this is your personal power, you're either growing your personal power, because it's actually what I would call is your God given birthright. Or you're devaluing your personal power. So you can't be serious. Or you can have serious success in your Korean business. 

2:46
Actually, you can't have live success, in my opinion, unless you have the ability to influence people. And we call it your persuasive powers. And the best thing is that you can learn these gateway, of course, taken on board the concept that you have got power, and at times, you haven't recognized that. And of course, all of that equals authority. Now, I will share some things that, you know, I discovered early in my career when building my authority. First of all, it's about taking responsibility, that you're a self leader. If you don't take that responsibility that you actually are the leader of self, you're always going to be at the mercy of somebody else. And that's great. If you want to do that. Good luck to you keep on doing that. 

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But of course, if you're listening to my podcasts, and you're a follower of the work that we do, it's about, you know, taking responsibility, it's about your word. And of course, basically, it's about self leadership. And that's what personal branding, in my opinion, is all about, as opposed to the fluff stuff that you see on social media. So first of all, be yourself leader. And that means get your mindset, right, haven't dare to fail attitude, because in life, there is no such thing as mistakes. You know, they're all learning lessons in disguise. And if you don't have a go, you will never know. So make yourself visible, you know, will not be discovered if you're living under a rock fact of life. My next tip is to own your ambition. You know, a lot of people ambitious, but they're too afraid to even admit that stopping coverts about it. There's nothing wrong with you being ambitious, it's again your natural God given birthright, you deserve it. Life is too short to be a plod along type of person as a listener to my podcast, I know you want more. So what I would call is and say to you is on your ambitious streak. It's okay, just own it and just get on with it. My third tip is to make your voice heard. 

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And how do you do that? Well, if you want your voice heard positively, is to keep your word in a world full of misinformation, disinformation and low trust levels. Your word, your promise becomes a radical act. That gives you an unfair advantage. Interesting concept, an unfair advantage. Yes, and I'm into the game of unfair advantages, because if this was an advantage that everyone had, by the way they have, they just have an access, but then you're gonna be hard on the same ocean of people. So the unfair advantage here is because we know most people will not do this, including what I'm sharing with you today is if you do it, this is going to give you an unfair advantage. So this is very important to keep that in mind, because most people will not do it, they are conditioned to just keep on plodding along. My next tip is to work on your confidence if you feel that your confidence at times is lacking, but I can tell you, I have not met one person on the planet that doesn't want to be more confident, even the most confident. 

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But what is confidence? Well, let's talk about authentic confidence as opposed to bravado and brouhaha. And all the pretend type of confidence authentic confidence is really underpinned by your word. And your word, of course, builds that, and specifically your word is integrated, and then supported by a foundation called integrity. Okay, that's what confidence ultimately is. So if you look at that, you know, that could also be the confidence of a subject matter, okay. So if you are feeling nervous about a particular subject matter, you want to communicate about, well, you gotta go back to of course, the foundation of integrity, and it's so if you don't know this subject matter, well, you might not come across as really confident. So this is the key here. 

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So basically, as an example, go out there, you know, and really make these mistakes in building your confidence. It's okay, especially in safe places, where potentially, you know, it's not going to cost you a lot, and at least you're practicing, you know, how to present this to the world. Because, of course, we know, in reference to presentations, and when it comes to presentations, you know, everything from speaking to the media, to podcast, social media, and so on, a lot of people have a lot of nervousness historically, from the way, you know, they would communicate and of course, face that camera. So confidence is important. 

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Of course, we know that we all want to, and it's an essential part of keeping us solid. And what I would call is persuadable. Because if you're not confident people will not listen to you long term, because the trust element is missing, because that's what confidence does unconfident people at times are not trusted, for whatever reason, you know, in reference to doing their job getting the project over the line. And of course, in this case, let's talk about you know, revenues or sales. If you haven't got the confidence, you're not going to actually be very successful in doing that. And my last tip, is to make sure you have an authentic image. And I'm talking about just the visual aspect right now that represents you. And what does that mean, and we've covered this stuff before, but we will be covering a lot more of this in the summit. 

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And it's about being congruent, inside and out. You know, like a book cover. It's about looking the part that you're playing, that is congruent, you know, like an actor in Hollywood that wears clothes to suit the role, you are the same. It's just that some people have never thought about it that way. We're all playing roles. Example, in our success has a certain look, even in today's tech world, where you see the hoodie example as part of the problem. By the way, no issue with hoodies, but only wear the hoodie, you know, in in the in the position of power, if that's what you're hoping to achieve. If you're, you know, if you have the power of a Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, otherwise, present yourself with who you are authentically. And if it's the hoodie, then you better do the right job with that hoodie and have the backup of a personal and business brand of Zuckerberg to get away with it. A powerful leader does not give away the personal power, they know that their personal power is all that they have.

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And of course, that is all about influence, persuasion, impact, etc. And of course, that all equals authority. So a final reminder, it's hard to stand out in today's world and genuinely grow your career business and revenues without having this unfair advantage that I mentioned at the outset. And remember, we will cover all of these tips and so much more join us summit on February the 28th. The link on the summit is in the episodes Description. Well folks, that's it for today. As normal if you need help to elevate your authority, you can send me an email and I'll certainly be in touch with you. You can find the email address in the description of the episode. You can also contact me on my social media. My Twitter is Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail. And you can find me as Image Group International on Facebook. Till next time, wishing you all in the abundant life 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.