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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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Hi everyone, and it's so good to have you. Back Today we're exploring a deeply personal and transformative topic, the inner brand self reflection and personal growth subjects that ideally love and have loved virtually forever. So let's get started. First of all, why self reflection and personal growth important? Because it builds your self esteem, it builds your self leadership, and it gives you the courage and confidence to present yourself to the world that's authentic. We live in times where there is a trust deficiency, depression, anxiety and suicide have all become a serious issue for many, many people around the world, including Australia, and taking control of your well being is essential to excel. Self reflection is the foundation of personal growth and authentic personal branding. Like Socrates said a long time ago, know thyself. What he actually said was to know thyself is the beginning of wisdom. It involves taking a step back to evaluate your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, actions, and, of course, experiences. By understanding yourself better, you can align your personal brand with your true self and values. That's what we call is being authentic in and now a holistic approach. I have a few insights to help you today to practice self reflection, and they really come from my experiences, what they start with meditation and followed by my Qigong exercises. Meditation allows me to quiet my mind and connect with my inner self. It helps me reduce stress and enhances a self awareness because it grounds me, even five minutes of daily meditation can make a significant difference in your start to productive day. I followed up with Qigong, which supports my inner health with deep breathing and stretching, giving me greater flexibility Once I've completed these exercises, I then next start to do my journaling. I write down my thoughts and experiences from the day prior and my expectations for the new day ahead. Reflecting on your achievements, challenges and lessons learned is essential if you are to grow because your KPIs become a motivator for your journey, this is important. These practices have been life changing for me, the trick here, of course, is to do whatever will deliver the outcomes you're looking for. So you can also do other things, like mindfulness, tai chi, or active meditation, like a client of mine did, and that was fencing. So what does that all mean? Well, first of all, you know you gotta be open, and by being open, you're going to be open to feed forward from people that you definitely trust and respect, and that could be friends, mentors or colleagues. And I say trust and respect and feed forward is a powerful way to channel your mind for the future, as opposed to all the things from the past that you really can't change and can only create problems from a thinking perspective, as long as you've learned from them. That's the key there. Feed forward is a constructive approach, because it comes from a space that provides an external perspective on your strengths and of course, areas for improvement, I encourage you, though again, to be open to receiving and acting on the speed forward when it's certainly from people you trust and respect. And that's very important, because if you don't, then you're not going to take it seriously, and most likely, you will not action it if you're not convinced, also listen to your gut. Your intuition matters big time, and is at least 50% right most of the times, as long as you're grounded, if not more. So you can link in your gut, of course, your emotional aspect with your logic, and get a balance there. 

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But your intuition matters, and don't you ever forget that. And you know certainly don't believe what people will tell you that it doesn't matter. There's nothing airy fairy about trusting your God. Now, let's discuss how to embrace personal growth. Remember, this is an ongoing lifetime journey. Certainly has been for me and will be to you know, the end of my days, okay? I remind you embrace it, though, with an open mind and a willingness to learn. You know, I. Okay, if you've got triple degrees and a PhD, if you're not open for learning, okay, once you receive your papers, you're not open to learning further. You know, other than just academic stuff, you don't understand Wisdom, what you're into is just knowledge, knowledge, knowledge, okay, as opposed to wisdom. That's going to really have a big impact from a holistic perspective. So I have a few insights to share with you. It's important, and I know a lot of people that like doing this, but one of it is setting goals. What are setting goals mean? Well, it's like, you know, you're creating a roadmap, like, it's like that target that you're aiming for, where you go for fencing as an example, setting goals is important because you've got something to aim for, defining them as clear as possible. Achievable goals for your personal professional growth is certainly what we would recommend, and achievable is essential here, as opposed to something that's already unachievable. So example, if you wanted to make, for instance, a million dollars this year, let's say is your income, but you're currently unemployed and earning, never earn more than $50,000 a year. Maybe that's not achievable unless, of course, you do some sort of creative magic there, or have really strong mentorship with investments or whatever. That's a different story. I'm talking about actually you creating that. So you got to get achievable. You know, what might be more achievable would be maybe 200,000 or even half a meal from that perspective, you know, if you really want to go for the moon there, but the perspective there is be realistic here, small steps are better to start with, as opposed to no steps. So breaking them down into smaller, actionable steps is what we recommend. So regularly read you and adjust your goals as needed. Treat your goals as a fabulous destination you are heading to, and make them inspiring. 

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The mind loves that. And of course, we love to be inspired. Because if you really think about it, what I suppose, what are human beings supposed to be doing on a daily basis is be as joyful as possible. And of course, anything that inspires them helps bring that joy to fruition. The next one is continuous learning. Stay curious and committed to learning, read books, take courses and attend workshops related to your interests and field, be discriminant in your time and resources, though, because how you invest these resources really matter. So expanding your knowledge, okay, and skills, of course, part of enhancing your wisdom. And of course, what you're doing is also creating your personal brand, and that becomes a reflection what you're on about. However, knowledge, without the wisdom to action, is all blah, blah, blah. That's like buying a book, reading it and thinking you're an expert at something. No, you gotta, you know, you gotta put this into action. And of course, this is where wisdom comes into play. And then you know what wisdom does is get you to discern which things to put into play, as opposed to what you've just read. That's why grounding yourself first is so important, because it creates a stable platform to launch yourself from. The next one is resilience. So resilience is embracing challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth as an entrepreneur. Of course, resilience comes part and parcel of the territory. It's something that you know is in growing you as an entrepreneur. Haven't been in this type of field for over 35 years, so resilience helps you bounce back stronger and wiser. And this is very important, and I'd like to help specifically, there is younger people today. Because what happens is clearly, because this is what they share with me. You know, I did a seminar 200 young people just yesterday. Resilience is one area that they need a lot of support with because, for whatever reason, and I will say this definitely conditioning, their resilience has gone down dramatically. It's like things fail, and before you know it, they freak out over things that really a wise head would say, hey, hey, this is part of life, you know, just, you gotta just get on with it. So learning from experiences and using them to improve yourself, also, in my opinion, yourself, first, of course, and then also using it to empower others is just for me, the gold standard of personal development next. Now you might ask me, you know, John, thank you for all these insights, but how can I integrate self reflection and growth in my personal brand? Well, this involves, first of all, being authentic, and authentic means at times you're going to be vulnerable. At times, you're going to have to be more courageous with your with yourself, and of course, even with your audience, you know you might want to share and express things that maybe they're afraid to hear. As a coach, if I did not have that in myself, how could. Like Ember, help others break through that. And this is important. So this is where you know the lived experience, the embedded experience, is what comes into play here. And you cannot do that just by reading books or getting degrees and sticking them on your wall. Okay, great if you've got that, but if you haven't got the lived experience, it's going to show up very quickly, because it shows up with you, because people will not believe you. I'll see the mask. And certainly, if you're there consulting your clients or coaching your clients, or being a mentor to your clients, they see through that, because they don't just believe it. They, you know, they they see that it's all part of what I would call is a mask covering business, and you don't want to be doing that. So share your journey, including your successes and challenges. If you're constantly looking for perfection, this is a big, big warning.

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Don't do that, okay. And of course, a lot of people go through this for whatever reason. So I say to my clients, look at yourself as a perfect imperfection? Okay? Because life as a human being is ongoing journey. So there is no such thing as a perfect human being, even al McPherson, the body she was not perfect, and she will tell you that herself, she never saw herself as perfect in any parts of her imagination. That's why she also had her ups and downs from a self esteem perspective. So this authenticity, you know, follows a deeper connection with yourself, but also fosters a greater connection with your audience. So by sharing your journey, including your successes and challenges, you build trust and reliability. By sharing your index story. Also, you know, showing your vulnerabilities, you humanize your brand, and, of course, you inspire others. So use your personal growth experiences and pay it forward, offering great insights. And of course, encouragement, fostering a deeper connection with your audience is essential here, because of trust and modern motivating them on their own journey, I think is, you know, a great thing to do. Self reflection of personal growth are essential for building an authentic, impactful personal brand. And this is very important. I'm not talking about influencers there online, okay, on Instagram that put out all these curated images that really it's not what I'm talking about here. You can create beautiful images, but you better be living that in your true life, because if you don't, it's going to show up somewhere down the track. I promise you that, because you can't escape it forever. So it's just encouraging you to, you know, look in the mirror a little bit more and start getting authentic around that for your sake. By understanding yourself better, we know that, of course, you start to feel a lot more stronger, and of course, by embracing continuous growth, you create a brand that truly reflects who you are. So we have come to the end of today's show, I want to thank you for tuning in today. If you found this episode helpful, though, please rate us on Apple podcast and subscribe for more valuable content, including come to our website and subscribe to our newsletter for confidential advice on your journey. Contact Patricia at patricia.bosa@imagegroup.com.au, and connect with me on x at Jon_Michail, or a LinkedIn or Facebook as image Group International. Until next time, stay true to yourself and keep growing. 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 personal coaching, seminars, and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.