0:01
Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international and 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.

0:31
Hello, today, we will have a frank chat about your career life plan. Before we start the show, I kindly ask you to subscribe to the podcast on the platform you're listening to. So every time we have a new episode, you will be notified. Cheers.

0:50
Now let's talk about how to know if you need a new Korea plan. Let's talk about facts. Career Planning is an activity that you should do at least once a year. So several years ago, before COVID We conduct independent research in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Management on the concept of personal branding, and how it affects people's careers. And what that research showed was that low self-confidence is hurting managers. And it seems that this particular survey has been the largest ever personal branding survey in Australian history. So as business people face increased work pressures, and of course, since COVID That's actually exhilarated a survey discovered that we conducted that managers and leaders lacked confidence in their personal brand, and rated that their personal brand average was 38% Worse than they expected. And also personal branding, definitely in 90% of the participants that replied to this particular research found that important for career advancement. So what is a good career plan? Well, first of all, it's designed to get you out of your learned behaviours that are no longer serving you. And what that means also is getting you out of learned helplessness. If you're in a comfort zone right now, I can tell you, it's not a good place to be. Because your comfort zone only makes you conditioned to expectations of the past. And as we've discovered, especially in the last two years, through COVID, don't expect anything specifically to go out there and create. The bottom line is to succeed in a constantly changing workplace requires a smart career management plan. There have never been more distractions in living memory, including clutter, toxicity that you have to deal with, on a daily basis. So what we're proposing here, what I'm proposing is to create your own path, do whatever you can to decentralize yourself from your master. And what does that mean? Well, it means this. And this is an example. For instance, if your boss is your so-called mentor, that cannot work most of the time, why? Because it rises many conflicts of interest. So a good example there will be to get independent mentorship from someone that you respect and trust, create a clear path, or what inspires and drives you, including no day, what really pisses you off, because being very clear on the negatives, including the positives, is actually a powerful way to look at this because sometimes the negatives reveal so much more than the positives on things that you don't want to put up with.

8:39
You know, and it's time because I've already explained to you a lot of the challenges facing society, and by the way, every challenge that I mentioned, there's an equal opportunity. It's a mindset. So what I'm saying is, if you are serious about your next steps, and I would hope that you are, I would start first of all by learning how to elevate your personal brand. And what that means is by doing personal branding, okay, and you know, and in this master masterclass that we run, obviously, you know, there's many more episodes you can check on. But basically, without branding, that means there's no action. So the brand is just passive, and passive will not get you anywhere, especially in the ever-changing world. So a couple of the tips there is actually I'll give you three. If you are not learning every day, you're stagnating, I guess it's essential you get into the zone of learning. Number two, get a clearer understanding of your perception of self versus the organization or team members perception of you, and the two are not always equal. And of course, number three on this is don't allow the COVID Excuse You know, from anybody, including your leadership, to get in the way of your career growth, listen to your inner power. And I also have an extra tip for you get a career coach, somebody with real rungs on the board, not one of those that's approved by some careers Association, and really hasn't got the evidence to prove that because in my experience, and I've been doing this for 30 years, that's what normally happens. Because for you to be authentic with a client, you need to have the courage, you need to have the vulnerability, you need to have had the scars on your back to communicate that way, without all the politically correct nonsense, that is times stop human beings from really, you know, getting what they are looking for because the person advising them is playing games, I guess. So I get really passionate about this, because a lot of our clients come from, you know, having tried that for numerous years, and with numerous different organizations and individuals. So it's essential you get somebody that you trust that you like, that you sort of connecting with, that can actually help you with this new plan moving forward. And I've given you some of my reasons there. Okay, this is essential, because it's it I get so passionate about this is because you don't need a person, that's going to be another tick the box exercise, you know, and I say this to my clients as well, if you want to run, you know, a run of the mill type of coach, buy my book, it's 30 bucks, so much cheaper. Before I finish, let me tell you, how I've changed one client's life by helping them with a new career plan. You see in my work, I deal with leaders, their teams, and of course entrepreneurs. In this particular case, I read coached and an executive from a technology company. Now, there were many, many reasons. While there were numerous reasons why this particular person, okay, was having challenges. 

12:23
One of them was they had an identity issue by being an ethnic, and specifically coming from a background with a parent's historically, well, you know, we're what I would call is labourers, okay, factory workers, and certainly did not sort of endearing  with the mentality to go out there and basically maximize his personal value, or her personal value. So don't give the person away. Okay, because they had bought a story. That was, of course, you know, part of their upbringing, but did not serve them anymore. So we had to do numerous work around that. Okay, so the identity stuff, you know, is conversations around what you think is true about yourself. And, of course, what we discovered that most of the stuff that we ravelled was really just stories that this particular individual kept on telling themselves, of course, very little of it was true. From that, you know, and that's also related with, obviously, cognitive behaviour therapy, and as part of the work that we do from a cognitive behaviour coaching perspective. 

15:02
Okay, folks, I believe we are near the end of the show. If you'd like to show I kindly ask you to write it on Apple Podcasts. For this, you just need to click on the link on the episodes description. Also, you can share this episode with friends, family and colleagues. You can also share it on your social media. You can follow me on Twitter Jon_Michail on LinkedIn as Jon Michail and on the Facebook group as image Group International. If you have a specific question on how to start a new career dash life plan please email me and I will help you. The email is on the description of the episode. I hope you've enjoyed this episode and that we have given you some practical insights. Remember to always exercise your ego and keep it in a well-balanced shape. Without self-respect and self-belief. It is hard to effectively help others let alone yourself. Thank you for listening and I look forward to chatting with you next time. Cheers.

16:10
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.