0:01 
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.

0:30
Hi, everybody, and thanks for being here with me today. Before we chat, I kindly asked you to connect with me on social media. You can find me on Twitter/X  as Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail. And you can find his image Group International on Facebook.  Today's session is about another form of communication. And before I get into that, I want to just mentioned from the outset that there are five types of communication, verbal, nonverbal, visual, written and off the tree. Today we're going to be sharing on writing the written version, a powerful tool for personal branding. However, there is a distinction between writing as an author and writing as a thought leader. Writing as an author is about focus on the craft and artistry. The primary goal is to create a well crafted compelling narrative or a piece of literature. These, of course involves dig focus on storytelling, depending what sort of project you're on. Definitely character development, and then stylistic elements. Authors typically engage readers through immersive stories, rich descriptions and intricate plots. Imagine a Hollywood movie, the emphasis is on the quality of writing, and the ability to transport readers into another world. Success is often measured by the DRI acclaim, awards and critical reviews. The author's reputation is built on the strength and uniqueness of the literary work. Writing as an author is solitary, reflective process that requires significant time and dedication to perfect revisions and edits meticulous to ensure the highest level of touristic integrity. Now, writing as a thought leader is a bit different. It's about influence, impact, and people finding out about you but in a different way, I suppose or you know, there is similarities to writers. But there is aspects of this that a little bit different than I'm going to go into that. So the main goal is to establish authority, influence opinions and drive change within a specific industry, or community thought leaders right to share insights, provide solutions, and inspire action. Thought Leaders engage their audience through clear, concise and impactful quality content. The focus is on delivering value, addressing relevant issues, and coming up obviously with solutions and fostering a connection with the audience. Success is measured by the ability to shape discussions garner a following and make tangible impact the thought leaders reputation is built on their expertise, their credibility and ability to inspire and influence others. So writing as a thought leader involves understanding the audience's needs and presenting ideas in an accessible and engaging manner. It's often a collaborative process involving feed forward that word again that we've mentioned in previous episodes and interaction with the audience to stay relevant and influential. However, either way, your written words can shape perceptions, convey your expertise and leave a lasting impact on your audience. So whether you're crafting blog posts, social media updates, or professional emails, the tone style impact of your writing plays a crucial role in defining your authentic personal brand. Some aspects to consider, let's start with Tone.

4:13
Tone is the the personality of your ID. And it should reflect your brand values and voice. Think about how you want your audience to perceive you. Ie trustworthy, authoritative, approachable, innovate, et cetera. Use language that aligns with the perception for instance, if you aim to appear approachable, use a friendly and conversational tone. If you want to be seen as an expert, for more formal and authoritative Oh, now of course I'm only joking you can use the tones that actually suit your personality in the actually you but at the same time, just gotta be aware of the audience. as I've noted, consistency in tone across all your writing reinforces your personal brand, and makes you more recognisable to your audience. However, It's also fine to have an eclectic tone is what I would call it, just know that it might take a lot more effort, because you're communicating with different messaging. And sometimes a particular audience might, you know, need a little bit of time to get used to it. So to illustrate, consider the words of Maya Angelou, people forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. So your tone is key in making your audience feel understood, and by strengthening your brand's emotional connection with them. Next, let's consider your style. Your writing style is how you express your ideas and the unique way you present information. It encompasses your choice of words, sentence structure, and overall presentation. To develop a distinctive style, start by identifying your strengths and preferences. For instance, do you enjoy storytelling? Or are you more inclined towards data driven insights incorporate elements that reflect your personality and expertise, especially since we're talking about thought leadership, and that's what we specialise in. So as expertise has to come into play there. For example, if you have a knack for storytelling with anecdotes, and real life, examples into your writing, if you're data orientated, use statistics and case studies to support your points. But remember, always bring a little bit of emotion into that as well. Because if you start, you know, studying the word emotion, what does it actually say ie motion, so you got to get motion happening in the in, you know, in your communication style. And of course, what I would suggest, in your way of being, your style should be an extension of who you are. So making your ID more engaging and memorable is the goal here. So we thought William Zinsser, once said, writing is an act of ego. And you might as well admit that now the key there is, you know, and I love that because the moment you admit that you're acting from ego, you become free, you don't have to pretend with a mask that you're not. So your style is your fingerprint would say on the page, so make it authentic and let your personality shine through. Impact is the final piece of the puzzle. 

7:22
The impact of your writing is determined by how effectively resonates with your audience, and inspires them to take some form of action. To enhance the impact of your writing focus on clarity, and relevance. Start with a clear message or objective and ensure your content is structured logically to guide your reader through your ideas. And ask yourself what action do I want my reader to take and tailor your writing to achieve that outcome. For instance, the famous George Orwell emphasise good writing is like a windowpane. Your writing should offer, you know transparency and insert making it easy for your audience to grasp your message and be motivated to act upon it. Otherwise, if people don't act upon a message, then it's like, blah, blah, blah. So now let me share a story about how I improved my own writing skills over time with the support of a mentor. Early in my career, I struggled to find my voice in writing because I was not truly focused, or even to be honest, interested. My content was informative, but lacked the personal touch that resonated with readers. And other times it had too many ideas thrown in it, and sort of lacked what I would call clarity. So I started seeking some feed forward, letting to refine what tone, style and structure over time, I developed, the more engaging and impactful writing style, which you could say is congruent with my speaking style as well. And it significantly boosted my personal brand authority allowed me to connect more deeply with my audience. The result is, today, I am a published author of two best selling books, and over 15, coaching workbooks that translate to really 15 books only during the coaching world or training, executives and so on. So basically, that's the end result, when you do put some interest and focus into your writing. And that's about it. If you want to do it as a fiction, nonfiction author, or even specifically just thought leadership, as I mentioned, from a perspective of getting the message out there of your great works, this is writing is definitely one great way to help you do that. But my question for you today, recapping from my earlier commentary, is this. Do you want to be the best writer or do you want to be the best selling author and the key there is up to you to consider that. So to be the best writer, you have to prioritise the After writing, so in other words, you're going to be a serious writer, focusing on creating high quality literary work, aiming for critical acclaim and literary recognition. So to be the best selling thought leadership author, though, is a little bit different. So what we say there is you got to prioritise your audience engagement in the market trends, you have to focus on creating quality writing content that resonates with a wide, get niche audience, and you got to aim for your niches reach, where you're gonna get influence, and certainly commercial success. 

10:34
So there is distinctions here, and it's serious distinctions, because most authors that are just doing it for authorship, don't worry about the big names out there that are superstars. Most authors struggle to make a living, because that is a hard guy, unless you bring some commercial spotlight on to that whole aspect of you know, you've published your book now how you're going to get the world to find out about it. So there is ways to do that. And of course, if you're not thinking about the commercial success, that's okay, as well if you're not interested in that, but it's certainly you want to start off at least thinking that how am I going to do this and be successful. So remember, that distinction lies in the intent and approach. Writing as an author is about perfecting the art and craft of storytelling, while writing as a thought leader is about leveraging your expertise, to influence and inspire, of course storytelling and the craft of perfecting that all come into play. Both paths, though, require dedication skill, but the measures of success and the strategies employed differ significantly. So decide whether you want to be known for your literary prowess or your ability to lead and influence and then tailor your writing journey accordingly. So to wrap up, mastering personal branding through writing involves finding the right tone, developing a unique style and creating impactful content by aligning your writing with your brand values, and audience expectations you can effectively enhance your personal brand and connect more deeply with your audience. Hopefully, I trust that today's episode was valuable to you, and also that you enjoyed our chats. And if you did, please rate us on Apple podcasts and subscribe for more valuable content. If you need my help on your thought leadership journey including writing your bestseller, please contact patricia.bosa@imagegroup.com.au. I thank you again for tuning in. Remember your words have the power to shape your personal brand and inspire others. And until next time. Cheerio 

12:41
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 personal coaching, seminars, and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.