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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 everyone and Happy New Year. Welcome back to my master class. I am John, Michael. I'm thrilled you've joined me today. And of course, I wish you all again, happy New Year with clarity, purpose and prosperity for yourself, for your career, and, of course, for all your families. Before we jump into the episode, let's connect. My Twitter, or X, is Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail, and you can find me as Image Group International on Facebook.  Also feel free to explore more resources on our website, at image group.com.au, now in that previous episode, at the end of last year, we took a deep dive into auditing your personal brand, focusing on a year in review approach. So I want to thank you for all the emails that we received from you and sharing your results and some of your insights. If you've been with us for a while, I hope you have found value in reflecting on where you are on your personal brand journey. By now, you should have a clear picture of your strengths and those areas that could use a bit of refinement. Today, we're taking things a step further. Reflection is essential, but action is where the magic happens. So in this episode, we're shifting from introspection to execution, action, action, action. So I focus today setting intentional and impactful goals to elevate your personal brand for the new year, and we'll discuss what goal setting for personal branding is important. Look, we've all been told about the importance of setting goals all our lives. Yeah, whether it's hitting the gym, growing a business or achieving personal milestones, goal setting is a familiar exercise that we all practice one way or the other daily. But here's my view, setting goals for your personal brand isn't just about ticking off boxes or achieving superficial milestones, because personal growth cannot be superficial. Okay? Otherwise, next time you're going to be doing the same thing again, how many times you've heard people put the goal that I'm going to lose weight, well, I'm going to go to the gym, and very rarely did they execute that till the end? So it's about creating a road map that really aligns with your core values. Okay? Because if it doesn't, you will not follow it through. This is very, very important. Most goal setting out there in the market is very, very superficial. That's why it doesn't work. You gotta go and get it to align with your core values and your belief system. And it's about creating a roadmap that aligns who you truly are and what you want to stand for, not just on the outside, but, of course, on the inside. And this is a true holistic approach. And if you don't believe me, go out there and check it out. Go and speak to coaches, go and speak to advisors, and you'll see that most on the planet are not holistic. It's either one or the other. My approach here is a total yin and yang approach. It's looking in and out at the same time as Peter Drucker, the famous the father of modern management, once said, The best way to predict the future is to create it. And here we are at the start of the year, what a great time to create new possibilities for the year ahead. Your personal brand, remember is no different. You have the power to shape it with deliberate, thoughtful actions. It's going to be up to you.

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So let's start with step number one for today, define what success looks like for you, not for somebody else, but for you. This is essential. So remember, we're all conditioned from the past, and at times we're carrying concepts about what success looks like, normally, by people, organizations, etc, that we've been influenced by. It starts, obviously with parents. Could be the education system, society, religious institutions, etc, but now it's time to define what it looks like for you. This is very, very important. Now before setting those new goals, let's pause and reflect on what success truly means for you again. What is it I mean? Is it going to be your career? Is it going to be your business? Is it going to be your family? These are all important things to consider, and whatever they are for you, they are for you. It's your choice. So here's the thing, success. The word success is totally subjective. It means one thing to one person, and. Totally different to somebody else. For some example, you might mean positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Obviously, with the work that we do, this is an important part of one of the most important parts, in reference to getting your brand out there, recognized and known for others, it's about deepening meaningful connections, or finally launching that passion project that's been on the back burner that could also be a career executive that's been doing what they've been doing for, you know, 1520, 25, years, and it's time they've made a decision right now to go and do their own thing. This is also common, of course, in Reinventing Your personal brand. For others, it might be to get closer to their family relationships, also essential component of personal brand. By the way, even family rates us. That's the reality of the world. But of course, the difference with family is you will be given second, third, fourth, fifth, potential chances at times. So a little bit different to the corporate world, business world, because, of course, after a few fumbles, you might be out on your backside. So did you know also that, according to a Gallup survey, 70% of professionals feel disconnected from their company goals. This is a common one. So how many times that we heard the company's mission state, and it's to go and do good. And of course, they just got caught up with a scandal that did the opposite doing bad. So this is very common, and employees know that you can't hide all of this. But why do they hang around? Of course, generally for a paycheck, because the system has conditioned people to stay for the paycheck, because, obviously they got bills to pay. So the takeaway here is this personal alignment matters. It does matter for long term. If your values are not congruent with where you're working, of course that's going to be a problem long term. So if you're not clear on what success looks like for you, it's easy to end up chasing someone else's definition of success, and if you really consider that, it's a sad story in the making. All right, let's get to step two.

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Break down your goals into manageable actions. We've heard again before in the past, how to do that smart goals. The system is actually fairly good with that, but let's get practical. Setting big, lofty goals can often feel overwhelming and paralyzing, although, of course, that doesn't mean you can't do that. The key is to break them down, though, chunk them down into smaller, actionable steps. Think of this as a building, a house, one brick at a time, and I'll share some experiences on what that looks like in a moment. So if your goal is to build a more powerful online presence, commit to one well thought out LinkedIn post each week. So what that means is, if you're a professional, don't worry right now about Facebook, Link, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc, focus on LinkedIn for now. Okay, so start off with one chunk. Make it about authoritative value, not just visibility. Now, the key word is authoritative. A lot of so called Value online. Everyone says value. Just provide more value. What the hell does that mean value for one person means no value for somebody else. So it's about really your target market. And of course, LinkedIn, most likely will have most of that target market if you in the business or the executive career world, if public speaking is something you're aiming to improve, set a target to attend one webinar, podcast interview or networking event every month where you can get practical speaking experience. Of course, you can also get training on that, and if you are interested in that, you can certainly call us regarding our speaker coach training. So research from the American Society of training and development shows that people are 65% more likely to meet their goals if they commit to someone else and share updates on their progress. This is our experience with coaching. And of course, we call it our policing system. Of course, very friendly policing system that really keeps people accountable, because people definitely most people on the planet require accountability with somebody else, and that's where buddies and so on come into play, as opposed to just doing it all yourself. There is those that just do it all themselves, but in my experience, they are the rare ones in our coaching programs, it's exactly what we tell our clients to do as well. So accountability is crucial, and of course, finding buddy of some description is very, very powerful. 

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Step three is next, and that is investing in personal development alongside professional goals. So here's the truth, many overlook your personal development fuels your professional brand. You. If you're not growing personally, and I've spoken about this many, many times, your brand will eventually stagnate. You become complacent, and you become what we would call is just conditioned to do the same thing every day. So your brand is an extension of who you are. So nurturing your own growth is non negotiable. Some ideas for personal growth may include, for instance, consider learning a new skill that aligns with your brand, whether, again, it's public speaking, digital storytelling, or a foreign language. And a foreign language also could be a foreign language, like learning how to understand finance from wealthy entrepreneurs, by the way, not college professors. Okay, this is very, very important from people that have actually done it and make money. Okay, along the way, I guess. So. This is very important, and it's really an interesting one, because if you use this as example, you know how to make money, and most people do, by the way, even the ones that pretend otherwise. You better speak to people that have actually done it, not the ones that advise on how to do it, but the ones I've actually done it, the applied version here, as opposed to the theoretical. So pick up practical books, though, that also challenge your current world view or deepen your industry knowledge, if you ask me specifically, and I suggest this to my clients, I read a lot of books, a lot of articles, a lot of trends that, at times, would not fit in even with my values, but I read it to try to create a dialectic balance, okay, in looking at both sides, and this is important, and I'm not saying it's easy to Do that, by the way, because it can create cognitive dissonance, okay, but it's important if you want to stay impartial. And as a coach, you have to be impartial, because your views don't necessarily mean they're going to be what you should be putting onto everyone else that you come in contact with. So remember, Leaders are readers, and as Warren Buffett famously said, and you've heard me say a lot of things about Warren Buffett in the past, of course, I think he's one of the greatest he said, the best investment you can make is in yourself. I think I've noted that quote previously, and it's something that I've believed in all my life. It's the best investment. There's no point buying another good if I can use that term, from the point of view of, alright, it's something might be in a bit of fun, etc. And I'm not saying don't do that, but I'm saying the greatest investment is how to basically develop internally. Get wiser. How you going to do that? And that's a question I'll leave for everyone to consider today and ponder on. 

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The next step is four, and four is a big one for 2025 and beyond. And if you're not agile, you're going to be in trouble. I promise you this. So agility is going to be a key trait that you're going to need moving forward, so be ready to pivot when necessary. But here's the contrarian perspective, your goals are not set in stone. Okay, life is unpredictable, and so is the landscape of personal branding. So don't be afraid to pivot. If something isn't working as expected, the most resilient brands are adaptable. I'm going to be pivoting on numerous things just this week. Okay? Why? Because, after reflection on them, I can't see him working. Okay, so we're going to recreate particular products and so on that. I believe it's time to reinvent them, and that's also could mean the same thing as an individual. So for example, and remember, this is very important. Netflix started as a DVD rental company, but when the market shifted, so did they today, they dominate streaming content. And the lesson here is this, be willing to change course when it serves your greater vision. A report map McKinsey shows that organizations that are agile are at least 30% more profitable than their non agile counterparts. I'd say that's that is dramatically more for individuals in my experience. So this principle applies also to personal branding. Adaptability breeds relevance and relevance, of course, keeps you basically valuable in the current markets, marketplace, or from a career perspective, because if you're not relevant, I mean, there's no value there, right? Okay, so in the next step for today's session is Step five, and that is the importance of reflection and continuous improvement. And reflection is very important. So reflection means when you've activated something, you've gone into action, do you then reflect on the result, or do you just go in action again and in action again? Well, that's something for you to consider. I can certainly tell you what I do. I certainly reflect on all results, and I think it's important. It has been for me. And certainly my business, because then moving forward, you're not going to, you're going to, you're going to be a lot clearer and more stable in making decisions based on, of course, the experience of reflection. So as I noted in the final podcast last year, auditing your brand isn't a once in a year exercise, it's an ongoing process. Use what you've learned from your reflection to set one or two focused areas for the coming year. Maybe it's doubling down on thought leadership content, or it could be proven how you show up in client meetings, whatever it is, stay in line with your core values. I'm going to do that again. The Japanese have a concept called KZN, which means continuous improvement. I've known that previously, so apply that philosophy to your personal brand. Small, consistent tweaks can lead to exponential growth over time. So concluding, I want to thank you again for joining me for the first episode for the year. I trust this episode inspired you to set intentional goals that align with your authentic self. Remember your personal brand is a living, breathing entity. It evolves as you do. If you found value in today's discussion, please subscribe, share and leave a review, and if you're serious about your personal brand and taking it to the next authentic level. Reach out to Patricia at patricia.bossa@imagegroup.com.au, for a tailored consultation until next time, stay intentional. Stay authentic and keep on evolving. 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.