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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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Welcome back to another episode of my show. I'm Jon Michail, your mentor on the journey of authentic personal branding. Today, we're going to dive into the transformative power of mentorship and its profound impact on your personal brand in business, your career, and life. Before we start, I kindly ask you to connect with me on social media. My Twitter is Jon_Michail, LinkedIn is Jon Michail, and you can find me as Image Group International on Facebook. So, let's get this show started. Mentorship is more than just the professional relationship. It's a powerful relationship tool for authentic personal and professional growth, both for mental and also for a mentee. So what we will do today is explore how you can leverage mentorship to strengthen your personal brand, and propel along the way your career and business to new heights. First and foremost, though, let's talk about being a mentor. Let's start off with that. As someone who has achieved success in your field, mentoring others is not only a way to give back, but it's also an opportunity to solidify your personal brand, as a leader and an expert authority in your industry. By sharing your knowledge, your lived experiences, your insights, you can inspire and empower the next generation of leaders while not only enhancing your own reputation and credibility, but also your life purpose. It's a way of paying it forward. However, mentorship isn't just about giveth. It's also about receiving and receive winning ways you might not have thought about, like, you know, new relationships, new power networks, new growth, opportunities for your career, new business deals, and of course, personal life affirming gratification, knowing that you are doing good. And who wouldn't want some of that tonight. As a mentee, finding the right mentor can also be a game changer in your personal and professional development journey. A mentor can provide guidance, supporting valuable feedback, or just the shoulder to sort of know you've got somebody to lean on, you know, helping you navigate challenges, seize opportunities and ultimately elevate your own personal rent to new heights. Because while you're doing that you're inaction and while you're in action, you're building a reputation people get noticing that that's why has an impact on of course, your reputation by your personal brand and how you're seen out in the world. So how do you find the right mentor? Might be a good question to start with? Well, if you're looking for a mentor, first of all, it everything starts with clarity said it's about getting clear defined by your goals, your aspirations in areas where you want to grow or improve. Once you have a clear understanding what you're looking for, reach out to potential mentors who are aligned with your objectives. And it can be mentors in different industries doesn't have to be your industry, although, at times, that might be the appropriate way to go. It could be different gender, of course, just because your man doesn't have to be a man it just because you're a woman doesn't have to be a woman, et cetera, whatever works for you. But these are all options. 

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You got many, many options there. Whether it's through networking events, meeting people, professional organisations, or even social media, of course, professional site like LinkedIn works well. Don't be afraid to put yourself out there and make connections with people who inspire you. And this is the key here Inspire. So if you're not getting inspired, I think most times then that relationship will not work long term. So what also works well of course is to be referred by someone who knows you, that also is a good way to go. Now, let me share with you my own journey in becoming a mentor, and how this helped my professional journey. So I want to set the stage with you. Okay, so growing up as a kid, I looked up to a few people and one of them other than my father was a gentleman who gave me many real life lessons on by giving it your best shot, never give up that I only recognise how powerful that was in my later years. And of course, it's something that I carry on to this day. So this unofficial mentorship you know, helped my confidence increase my courage and of course allowed middle In my life with a bit of chutzpah or quite a lot of hutzpah at times to take on the challenges and solve problems. So the first engagement of this again, it was unofficial, but it was something that was was close and I trusted him was a setting in a cafe. So as a teenager in a cafe, I learning how to play poker. And one exhilarating ride. It was, I loved it. So the I learned many lessons from that experience. But the three key ones I'm going to share with you today, this perseverance, so perseverance, as long as I discovered playing poker, as long as you can outlast anyone on the table, your chances of winning increased dramatically. And yes, that's what happened most of the time. Yes, I was a good poker player. And of course, people from those days that know me till now will attest to that. So a bit of humble brag a bit now, but su Park is not a game of chance. That's what most people would think. However, what is a game of chance is what you would find in a casino, or a poker machine. Poker, on the other hand, is a game of human psychology calculations, understanding the players, watching them folded, moves, you know, body language, bluffing, et cetera. So this is very, very important. And of course, number three, what I also discovered was, it's also a game of abundance, and the mindset, like making money and creating wealth, before you actually sit on the table. So you get to discover that most people lose before they've drawn a card. And why? Why because their scarcity mindset creates fear. And fear creates this aspiration. And desperation mostly creates a need based on scarcity. And that was a valuable time for me, because I learnt, of course, a lot of by observation, you're an action. You know, I've been in the experience, a lot of valuable life lessons as a young person, that also helped me, of course, discover myself more and also deal with any other ongoing challenges that might have come across. But most importantly, I also had a lot of fun, you know, and of course, part of this mentorship at that time, was knowing that I also had a loving family. And that also gave, you know, be a lot of confidence and made the whole experience so much easier, growing up as a young person. So I saw a lot of friends that didn't have that early support, and mentorship and some, of course, did not survive the journey, unfortunately. So that mentorship was certainly is a very important part. Certainly my life and of course, something I'd recommend to anybody. But turning point, a from my home mentee experience was, you know, bottom line, I was respected by my group, I was later involved in cool projects, I was invited to get involved. And ultimately, you know, that led me to pursue a creative career as a designer. My transition to mentorship later happened because of my early experience as a mentee, I saw the value of it and also that I loved helping people, as long as they will willing, of course, to also help themselves. 

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So the chance waiting a long time ago, you know, and it was close to 30 years ago, suddenly, 2730 years ago, in a chance meeting at the Melbourne awards. We were nominated for obviously Business of the Year, was set on the same table as a group of others that were also nominated. And I met a guy called Mark White from white line, what line was very early, emerging a charity in the youth space looking after disenfranchised youth, we were on the same table, we were aiming for the same award and guess what we lost, they beat us for this award. And that stole the friendship and also, of course, more understanding of the whole concept of mentorship. Get I worked with an organisation and what that happened was, of course, we decided to meet and run some mentoring programmes for the organisation. My only training to mentor those days was from lived experiences and certainly nothing formal. It was about giving back and influencing. So it was about paying it forward even at times when I couldn't afford it. It led to us to conduct a 12 week pro bono entrepreneurial spirited mentoring programme for youth at the Parkville youth detention centre. And that particular programme that I think was one of the best I've ever done in my life was, as you know, working with youth that was locked up, essentially, you know, some of the goals were to achieve self respect in the past is an or in any form of environment like that when you're locked up, self respect is a key, otherwise you will be mistreated, confidence. And of course, learning that a smile, a friendly smile and a hug, opens more doors in life than a knife or a gun that was part of their messaging. And what I shared with them was that they were all entrepreneurs, just putting the entrepreneurial energy in the wrong direction that didn't contribute to society. So that was like a big success. From the early days. Now I have many, many other success stories to share, including many successful people, adults, doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc, that got lost. And I use the word loss loosely here for different reasons, example of family breakup, a business collapse, and then personal bankruptcy, or chronic health issues. You know, these are among the many, many different challenges that people have had, and certainly have, have come to see me either from a mentoring point of view or a coaching perspective as a professional. So my challenges, also, my personal challenges the mentor, of course, in all of this, you know, and this is important for any mentor out there is to also stay above the noise of someone's challenges. And what that I mean, do not make that personal for you does, if you do it can have a serious impact on you. And I can talk and experience from that. Somewhere ongoing journey in mentoring is continuous improvement, growth, and improvement in mentoring others to be mentoring. That's my mission today. And also in my role as chair of the Leadership Council, we support Big Brother Big Sister, this is a, you know, a great youth charity, again, that Mark was involved with in the mentorship programmes. With our thought leadership, we are there to advise for the organisation to grow, and of course, help mentor more numbers of youth. Because the societal challenges they face in today, like loneliness, mental health and suicide are critical. So reflecting on my mentee and mentoring journey, it's been an opportunity for personal career growth that lights me up daily. And I'm not joking when I say that continues to inspire me. And of course, I intend to contribute to these type of causes. For the rest of my life.

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The impact on my personal professional life has been life affirming, knowing, you know, I am helping someone worse off than myself. And of course, this is how my life and Korea it's not a mistake that I've been in the business advisory and leadership coaching game for 35 years. So you know, my advice to you is, if you're interested is to check it out for yourself, especially if you've never considered it before. And I'd like to leave with this comment on mentoring by Justin, a business owner from Sydney. He called me years ago, one Sunday evening, and said he was gonna jump off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, because his business was struggling. By the way, his business wasn't struggling, it was doing very well. But that was his mindset. And he had enough well, without labour in a better chat. And the details. Yes, our chat was a successful intervention. Days led a call me crying, and said if you did not pick up the phone that night, it was all over. Thank you The point of this call, and this is going back quite a while now. But I will never forget if the rest of my left and the point of this call was was to serve in life is one of the greatest callings available. And it can be challenging at times. And trust me when I say I lead billionaires today with challenges, because we are all humans, trying to work it all out. And when you think it's all worked out, and you get told the image out there, right and it's looking packaged. Well, in my experience, a lot of the times it's not actually what's going on in reality, so that Stein, your friend calls you up, pick up the phone, or even better, why don't you call him yourself and check in once in a while. And finally remember, in a mentorship is a two way street. As a mentee, it's important to be proactive, engaged and receptive to feedback or well what I call is feed forward and you must be measurable, you know, you must be measurable. This is very, very important. At the same time, show gratitude for your mentors time and expertise. And you know, and be open to learning and growing from their insights and experiences. By embracing mentorship both as a mentor as a mentee, you can not only strengthen your personal brand reputation but also contribute to the growth and success of others in your industry support networks, groups, etc. I trust you enjoyed today's podcast. I want to thank you for tuning in. As always remember to rate us on Apple podcasts and subscribe for more valuable content. If you're keen to know More about mentorship and authentic personal branding please contact patricia.bosa@imagegroup.com.au - Until next time, cheerio 

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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.