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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 everybody, and welcome to my personal branding master class. Today we're exploring a fascinating topic, and that is how to stay original in the age of AI, certainly 2025. Is going to be the year of AI like nothing before, and certainly more in the news than it was last year. So with the rapid rise of AI tools, it's never been easier to streamline content creation and branding efforts. But here's the big question, how do you maintain authenticity and originality in an era where AI can mimic almost anything? After all, artificial intelligence is actually reshaping all industries and personal branding, of course, is no exception. Tools like chat, GPT, Dall, E and countless others can generate content. Of course, we know design logos and even draft business strategies in the fraction of the time it used to take. In my experience, this is a game changer, but it also comes with challenges, the ease of AI, tools, temps, many people and businesses, of course, to cut corners, and in the process, damage their brands and reputations. That's already happened, and of course, we're going to see more of an explosion of that. So if you're not careful, your personal brand risks becoming generic, blending into a sea of AI generated sameness, similar to, I suppose, what many workplaces look like today. And of course, that's danger, because the moment that happens, you start to become really, you know, risky from that perspective, and potentially extinct. So saying this might work for some okay, it certainly does not work in the entrepreneurial world doing the innovation world, and certainly from an SME point of view, and even for a large corporation, sameness is not really the way to grow, because obviously that just indicates keeping things like the status quo. Now, some departments in government might, for instance, might want to stay sane for whatever reason, but I'm talking specifically about the innovative entrepreneurial world or intrapreneur. So sameness works for some but if you want to play it safe and staying visible, and I've said before many times, that's fine, that's your choice, but it's not the audience I generally speak to my interest is to inspire excellence in you so you can give it your best shot not to live a mediocre life hiding behind the rock. And of course, you would know many people in your life that at times do that your life. And in my case, I look at this holistically, career and business is more wonderful than you've ever imagined, and since you have to be, you know, part, you want to be part of this on a daily basis, because that's business career would be.

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Then the key here is to thrive in this new era, not by just using AI, but using AI while staying true to your unique voice and identity, because remember, everyone else can do the same thing as you. So if you haven't got your unique voice in this, you're gonna also then, before you know, it, become very, very same. So your authentic self, in original form, in all its aspects, is what we're talking about here. And that's a holistic approach. And I always talk about linking your voice, but I got a little bit deeper, from that point of view, your spirit bringing out your authentic self. And of course, spirit and authentic self actually lives together. It's the same, you know, it's it's integrated together. So when I use that language I'm talking about giving you the courage they're in, the courage to really bring out yourself to a point where people actually see you for who you are and listen. So let's talk about authenticity, while it's the cornerstone of a strong personal brand, people don't connect with robots. They connect with humans because humans have hearts, they have emotions. So authenticity builds trust, and trust is non negotiable when it comes to personal branding. So how do you stay authentic while leveraging AI? Okay, good question. Start by recognizing what makes you.
You. And this is, of course, your your so specific, the DNA that can't be really replaced by anything. So AI, though, can assist you in your very practical world with tasks, of course, but it can't replicate your lived experiences, your perspectives or your story, because it is your story. So your audience wants to hear your journey, your challenges and your times. That's something no machine can create and assume they do. In the future, you'll still be a machine. So here's an example. If you're using AI to write a blog post, for instance, infuse it with your personal anecdotes. What makes this different Okay, from any other sameness that you're going to find online? AI, though, can certainly provides you the structure. And I think that's a good thing, okay, because you get sequential storytelling from that, but the emotion authenticity, where you're going to get that from, okay? And that is really all you. So the courage to speak your voice is very important here. Of course, over the years, I've met a lot of clients that had been frightened to speak, their voice, to bring out, you know, their inner spirit. And of course, that's accelerated in the last 10 odd years through cancel culture, people have been afraid to speak, so even. And I'm not talking about anything political here. I'm just talking about saying what they truly believe, and, of course, bringing out their authority with whatever they believe or whatever they specialize in. At times, they've had to sort of cushion their opinions, and we could argue we've all been in that boat once or twice in recent times. However, remember, we are all persuaded through emotion, and we're justified by logic, and heart to heart connection is what builds trust. And if you have a look at the recent American election, it was all emotion driven. If you start analyzing the logic, well, there's there's a lot of question marks that would certainly come up from a Critical Thinking point of view. And I'm not talking about any particular party, I'm talking about all the campaigns. So we know that emotion works. And of course, humans are emotional animals. So let's get into the practical side of this. How can you use AI effectively? Was staying original? 

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Well, here are my top three tips for today, use AI as a tool, not a crutch. I like to think about it like a hammer. I use it only as a tool whenever I need it to make my life easier, but only when I need it, so I don't depend on on a daily basis, okay, for my survival. So AI should also enhance your creativity, not replace it. I know it's a simple example, but think about that from the perspective of
if you use a tool or overuse a tool, what will happen eventually is you start to lose a lot of your human skills. You know, no different to the early days of calculators, when people started using calculators, when they first came out, years ago, of course, before my people could not then be creative in their own minds, in counting figures and numbers. Okay, so of course, if you overuse something, you then start to lose skills in other areas, and I believe, also cognitive, I guess, think about that do not become dependent on anything. The concept here is depend on yourself or your creativity, imagination and innovation. And of course, use the tools to make your life even better, greater and, of course, easier. So AI should enhance your creativity, not replace it. AI will not replace an artist, but certainly could help them along the way. You know, function more effectively in certain areas. As an example, another example is use AI to brainstorm ideas for outline or content creation. Okay, aviation is very important here, but make sure that final product reflects your personality, your values, who you really are, all that make up your personal brand, because if it doesn't, people will start to see what the final message is, is as inauthentic. And I don't have to tell you more about that I don't have to tell you about. You know, if inauthenticity is a serious problem out there, because it breaks real trust, and it actually also affects trust and on people that are authentic, okay, because people's minds are questioning, is this authentic? Is this inauthentic? So when you do see something inauthentic, you really got to.
Call it out, otherwise you're propagating a problem that will down the track, affect you as well. Number two is maintain in iterial oversight.

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So what that means is, in reference to content, it's always review and edit AI generated content. And there is a lot of contradictions here. For instance, Google might say, Oh, we want original content, and then they're offering you to do AI as well. You know, magazines and media might also say, We want original content, but then accept some that's AI generated. So it is a little bit confusing. This is a separate subject in itself that I might deal with somewhere down the track, but it's not as simple as it looks or what they tell you, because you can actually create a lot of AI stuff that could actually damage you, also from an algorithm point of view, but you just don't know about it right now, so just be really careful about in other words, you got to know what you're doing here, especially from an SEO perspective, So always review edits and, of course, add your unique tone and just ensuring that it aligns with your brand's messaging. Remember, you're the authority, okay? You're the person with the voice. AI is just the assistant. That's it. Next. Number three, I'd say, is infuse your story, of course, with concepts that have actually been part of your lived experience. So whether you're crafting a LinkedIn post or a YouTube script and incorporate your personal insights, AI, can replicate the authenticity of your lived experiences. And this is very, very important, because your lived experiences is what really hot is the highlight where people are going to listen, and, of course, with your lived experience, and you want to incorporate and show the results of those lived experiences, and sometimes, if they have been not as effective, that can also be part of your storytelling. So this is very, very important, because this is where you know from the point of view of authority, especially online, what will happen is that people will listen to you before anyone else, because you can't copy authenticity. And you get all these DMS. For instance, LinkedIn is a perfect example of that. You get all these DMS from people pretending they are experts. And if you know specifically, and you bring your critical thinking to the focus, you'll be able to pick very quickly. They've got no idea what they're talking about. You know, they've just taken a script, everyone's using the same script, and before you know it, they're trying to be experts or authorities in the subject they got no idea about, especially especially in the whole marketing digital world. So as we move forward, the integration of AI in personal branding will only deepen that will also create the trust issues along the way, because everyone is doing the same thing, no different to if everyone's using chat GBT and everyone's using Canva for design and so on, you know, everyone's using the same tools as you, right? So this is where your creativity, your imagination, your personal, authentic spirit, comes into play here. 

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And please do not forget that really, really listen to that message. Your authentic spirit is the key here. Don't just hear my message, but really listen to it, because this is actually one of your major currency builders moving forward now, and the good news, okay, AI will also give you more time, of course, to focus what truly matters, building authentic intentional relationships. So intention, I'm not some random relationship on Facebook that's a waste of time, or on LinkedIn, for that matter. Okay, hone in your expertise and delivering added value to your audience, but remember, the true essence of personal branding lies in connection your brand in the sum of how people perceive trust and relate to you. Ai can't create human connection, only you can, and I tell you, and we've been involved in all sorts of AI programs, especially with clients as well. But of course, and they're great tools to leverage opportunities, but they can't replace you, the authentic human being. So as you navigate this tech driven world that's only going to get more and more demanding. Remember to stay authentic. This is for your soul, for you embrace AI as a tool, but never lose sight of your unique story and the value you provide and reinforce the excellence and difference you make in people's lives. Because if you don't do that, people sometimes forget that lives are very, very busy, and before you know, people forget very, very quickly. So sometimes you have to remind people, and there's nothing wrong with doing that. So I want to again, thank you for joining me on this episode today. I Asked you found today's insights valuable, and remember to subscribe, share and leave a review. So let's keep this conversation going. Connect with me on social media. My X is Jon_Michail. My LinkedIn is Jon Michail, and of course, you can find me as Image Group International on Facebook. Remember to reach out to Patricia at patricia.bosa@imagegroup.com.au , if you need any assistance in your personal branding journey until next time, stay authentic, stay original, and keep building the brand that only you can create. See you in the next episode. 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.