In short
Podcast Notes: The Art of Charm - 3 Reasons You Need a Personal Brand Now | Goldie Chan
Overview In this episode, AJ and Johnny converse with Goldie Chan, a Forbes columnist and personal branding expert, about the significance of developing a personal brand in today's digital landscape. Goldie shares her journey from being a shy creator to becoming a prominent figure on LinkedIn, known as "The Oprah of LinkedIn," and discusses the advantages of personal branding for introverts and professionals seeking career advancement.
Key Takeaways
- The Importance of Personal Branding
- Digital Footprint Over Résumé: Goldie emphasizes that in the current digital age, one's online presence often holds more weight than traditional résumés.
- Career Leverage: Establishing a personal brand provides individuals with more career opportunities and enhances job security.
- Building a Personal Brand
- Starting Small: Goldie suggests starting with one post a month for three months to ease into content creation and build comfort.
- Overcoming Cringe Mountain: The initial discomfort of posting online can be daunting, but embracing the learning process is crucial.
- Employee Generated Content (EGC): Companies are now leveraging the personal brands of their employees to enhance their brand image.
- Advantages for Introverts
- Unique Strengths: Introverts possess the ability to think deeply and engage in meaningful one-on-one conversations, which can facilitate deeper connections and engagement in personal branding.
- Control the Narrative: By managing their personal brand, introverts can present themselves positively and share their stories without the fear of being misunderstood.
Discussion Highlights
Goldie Chan’s Journey
- Goldie transitioned from behind-the-scenes work in digital marketing and startups to creating engaging LinkedIn videos, leading to her rise as a personal branding strategist.
- She produced over 800 daily videos, which opened numerous doors and allowed her to establish a strong personal brand.
Personal Branding Framework
- Identifying Audience: Understanding who you want to reach (peers, potential clients, or a general audience) is crucial in tailoring your brand message.
- Keyword Development: Crafting a list of adjectives and nouns that reflect personal strengths and aspirations can help distill your brand essence.
Content Creation Strategies
- Consistency is Key: Goldie recommends maintaining a regular posting schedule to build visibility over time.
- Embrace Authenticity: Being genuine in content creation can resonate more with audiences than overly polished, AI-generated content.
Overcoming Challenges
- Fear vs. Gut Instinct: Differentiating between fear (which can hold you back) and gut feelings (which guide you towards authenticity) is essential for personal growth.
- The Valley of Despair: New creators often experience low engagement initially, but persistence can lead to eventual recognition and success.
Conclusion Goldie Chan’s insights highlight the transformative power of personal branding in the digital age, especially for introverts and professionals looking to enhance their careers. By taking small, consistent steps towards building a personal brand, individuals can increase their visibility, create meaningful connections, and open doors to new opportunities.
Resources Mentioned
- Goldie Chan's LinkedIn: [Goldie Chan on LinkedIn](https://linkedin.com/in/goldiechan)
- Personal Branding for Introverts: [Goldie Builds](https://goldiebuilds.com)
A Word From Our Sponsors
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These notes encapsulate the essence of the podcast episode while emphasizing critical discussions and actionable insights for listeners interested in personal branding.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at GoodToKnowFacts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit GoodToKnowFacts.org. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. listening to this podcast smart move being financially savvy smart move another smart move having state farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling just another way to save with a personal price plan like a good neighbor state farm is there prices are based on rating plans that vary by state coverage options are selected by the customer availability amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state I think it's helpful to be a little bit stupid and a lot brave.
1:05I think so many people talk about you need to be brave, brave and bold. I think we maybe talk about these two terms a lot, but we rarely talk about the pure stupidity that it takes to just go through and post something and know that it will probably flop.
1:32Today, we're talking with Goldie Chan, widely known as the Oprah of LinkedIn, celebrated personal branding strategist, Forbes columnist, and founder of her own creative agency. Goldie built her reputation by creating over 800 daily LinkedIn videos, helping thousands of professionals stand out and control their narratives in a digital first world. And today, she shares her secrets to personal branding. Now, no matter what your industry or personality type, owning your personal brand can transform your visibility, attract new opportunities, and give you control of your own story. Today, we're going to learn why your digital footprint matters more than ever, how you can turn your passions into actual opportunities, the real reason visibility boosts job security, and how introverts can thrive in personal branding.
2:20For a lot of our audience, they're not necessarily creators, influencers, entrepreneurial. Why is a personal brand so helpful in today's age? So I think that in today's age, we are living in this new digital world. So regardless of if you want to have a digital footprint, you likely have one. And that's because you at some point probably created some sort of social media. And once you have social media, I'm not going to say game over, but I'm going to say game begins. Like the little sound starts and you're player one or player two or whichever player you want to be. Your personal brand presence starts with that first social media platform that you join.
3:04And I think about the younger generation where they are so social native and they're joining so young and their personal brands are being crafted before they even turn 18, which is a wild thing to say. It's pretty intimidating when we think about a personal brand, because to your point, joining social media for a lot of us was social. Like the whole point of social media was to connect with our friends, not to put ourselves out there to the world and certainly not brand ourselves in that way. Right. And I think so much of social media now is a blend of here is my personal presence. Here's what I enjoy as a person.
3:41But then also here's my work or here's the projects that I'm working on. And so many people have to balance that really delicate line between, right, sharing, say, this is the trip I took with my family to Catalina Island this weekend. And also, here's this massive project that I just worked on that took me three years to complete. And how am I going to share both of them, say, online and offline? You have to control your narrative. Yes. If you aren't paying attention to your personal brand, it's being built based on how you're interacting with the Internet. even if you have everything private, then your Google search results probably won't be something that you really want people to see.
4:23Yes. Something that I was talking to another person about earlier today is, have you looked up yourself in AI? Have you chat GPT'd yourself? Which I believe is the new version of Google because you show up, for example, I show up oftentimes on the top 10 personal brand expert list in ChatGBT because of my internet and my, I used to be a columnist for Forbes, but it's interesting to see what does, what does AI think of you? And that is weirdly the new version of Googling yourself, right? Because before I'd be like, how do you appear on Google? Do you have that sweet page one result what you want for yourself and for your projects.
5:06And now it's how do you show up on ChatGPT or all these other AI search engines and what do they think of you using the aggregate of everything online to inform their opinion of you? And it is wild if you haven't done it before. I would suggest that you do it. They're also, for a large part, weighing the large social media sites to build that picture of you. So most of us don't have a personal website. We might have a few mentions here or there, maybe on our company website, but it is aggregating our social media because it's accessible, our Reddit, and it can start to piece things together. And if you haven't really thought about the way you present yourself digitally, well, you can't control that narrative.
5:49And I think for many of us, when we think about a personal brand, we think just our career. Yes. But it's changed. In dating, what do we do? We Google. Who is this person? We need someone cool socially. We Google them. We want to know more about them. It's just natural to us now. And I think for especially for introverts, the thought of putting more of ourselves out there can be very intimidating. It just feels like why I'm already out there. I already exist. I was talking to an introvert last week and she told me I don't want to be perceived. And that is such an introvert. Period. Don't want to be perceived.
6:23That's all. That's the sentence. I do not want to be perceived, period. And I think there's so many times myself as an introvert with social anxiety, I think, oh, my gosh, I also don't want to be perceived. I don't want to be seen. I don't want to be noticed when I'm at the grocery store. I don't actually want somebody to necessarily come up to me and say, can I help you? I want to find that box of cereal by myself, get in and out. But I think even for introverts, it's so helpful if once again, you control the story. You know, the number one question I get is what is personal branding versus reputation?
7:00Oh, okay. Right. And so I think often how I describe it is reputation is the story others tell about you when you're not in the room and personal branding is the story that you tell when you are in the room. And that room can be digital now. Yeah. I was going to say that room for many of us is digital. And when I talk to a lot of introverts who are intimidated by this, I say, if you think about it, a social event, would you rather be the person who has to go seek out other people or would you rather be the person that draws people to you? And nine times out of 10, they're like, oh, naturally, I just want people to interact with me instead of expending all that social energy to go out there.
7:39And you can do that by crafting a phenomenal personal brand. Right. You become a magnet. And it is so nice to be the magnet that all of the opportunities go towards instead of being the person that is, you know, oftentimes what feels like, especially to others who have social anxiety, you feel a little desperate when you're like, hey, please, can you do this? Please, can you do this? Versus once you have doors opening for you, it becomes so powerful, right? And it's so wonderful. I think about, so between 2017 to 2019, I created over 800 daily consecutive videos on LinkedIn. And that got me the hilarious nickname by Huffington Post, the Oprah of LinkedIn.
8:25And part of that was it opened all of these doors that had not been open to me before. And I know that, especially for you with this amazing podcast and all the work that you do, doors just naturally open when you're more present. For our audience, it might be helpful to share a bit of your background, because I think between the hair, obviously your creation and being a journalist, I think, oh, well, it just comes naturally to you. But this was not where your career started. No. So I spent over a decade in digital marketing and startups. I'm from the Bay Area. So of course I worked in startups.
9:02I worked in tech. I worked in startups, moved to L.A., worked in entertainment. But everything was very much behind the camera, behind the scenes, doing strategy work. And I did that for a very long time. And it was funny because during what I call my one month sabbatical, which is a nice way of saying I was unemployed. I was very unemployed for a month in 2017. I got into the LinkedIn video beta and I started creating these videos. And one video became two. And then, you know, around 10 videos, I said, this is so many videos. I'm going to do this for maybe a couple more. And then I'm going to go start looking for a real job because I need a real job.
9:44I need to be working again. And 10 became 30. And at 30, the then CEO of LinkedIn featured me in a private keynote about interesting creators on the platform, which then, of course, opened a flood of doors. But at 30 videos, I still was like, OK, I'll do this for another month because it seems like it has legs and then I'll stop. and 30 became 100, became 365, became 800 videos. And along the way, Forbes reached out and said first, you know, do you want to become a Forbes mentor? And I said, thank you, yes. And then later they said, great, now that you're a Forbes mentor, do you want to have your own column at Forbes?
10:24And I was like, yes, of course, right? Yes, thank you for all the good things. All these brands reached out. One of the dream brands that I work with right now is Adobe. And I love Adobe. I used Photoshop to design terrible CD covers for these terrible college bands in college, right? And I remember using Photoshop and being such a fan. All of these brands reached out to me. I did not submit myself to these opportunities. These doors opened because I had such a strong personal brand. And yes, at the time I had tennis ball green hair. So also on the social media platform on LinkedIn, people started using the green heart emoji to represent me.
11:08And then that would mean anytime they use the green emoji in my comments, it would represent that they were referring to me in a positive way. Right. And so it was something really interesting where I sort of built my personal brand backwards where I suddenly had a personal brand. And then I had to lean into it. And then honestly, with all the open doors, then I founded my agency because I had to have an agency that housed my consulting work. So I made an agency to house all the work that I was getting. And then I started doing just so much with all these brands. I started doing in-house strategy work really behind the scenes again.
11:48But then I was also in front of the camera for some of these brands where I was helping them with strategy behind the scenes, but also being an onscreen ambassador for them. Wow. Yeah. Quite the journey from being behind the scenes, helping with strategy to then putting yourself on camera, which sounds incredibly intimidating. So I want to say it was very hard for me at first. And those videos I did were really easy because it was never me to a lot of people at first. Right. Then I started doing public speaking and now I do quite a bit of me to many. But at first it was just me and my at the time terrible iPhone that I had.
12:28It was like the oldest iPhone you could have that could still do video. And it was totally unedited videos, shaky videos that I was just like, hey, it's me, you know. And it was very cool. I originated an entirely new format on this platform, the most uncool platform on the face of the earth, LinkedIn. And I was able to start doing these videos, but it wasn't scary because it was just really me to my phone. And I wasn't live streaming. I wasn't seeing comments. So I would just do a video. It was completely unedited. And then I'd upload it. And then, you know, 10 people would like it. So the first five to 10 videos, I thought I was famous because I had like 10 likes.
13:12I was like, look at these 10 strangers. And I was like, oh, my God, I got five likes on this. Like, I can't believe five people like this. Three of them I knew. OK.
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17:10Right. So first of all, I always like to start with one. I think it's helpful to instead of saying I'm going to commit to 100 posts, especially if you've never created before. I think that's so overwhelming. So I always say, why don't you do this? can you create one post a month for three months? Because every single person has 10 to 15 minutes to write a post or to take a picture or to shoot a short video that is now, of course, going to be edited because now we have amazing software that can do that right away. But do you have time once a month to make one piece of content? And every single person out there has that time.
17:52But let's talk about Cringe Mountain. I love that term and overcoming the cringe, you're going to have a little bit of cringe. It's just an uncomfortable feeling to put yourself out there. And I think the best way to do it and to feel less cringy is if you put a little bit of yourself in it. I think a lot about AI these days, as I'm sure we all do. And I think of AI as really becoming the blandification of the internet. Slop. It's slop. We're slopification. It's slop mountain. And there's so much on LinkedIn. I can just scroll through all the posts and I can tell. Yeah, immediately. Immediately what's been also written by AI, but worse than that, what's been written by AI and then never checked.
18:38Never looked at. Never looked at. They just immediately dumped it on social media. And you can tell the posts that look just a little bit too perfect and a little bit too bland. And so I'm personally a big fan of messy mistakes. Yeah. Errors, because all of this makes us so much more human, wouldn't you say? Well, that's what we're talking about. Yeah. Personal brand. Person. The person and personal branding. Exactly. And AI cannot replicate that. No. So with the slopification of the Internet, let's say, I think there's going to be a rise of social media that's human only. That's getting rid of the slop that we're all now encountering.
19:16That's annoying us about LinkedIn, annoying us about you see it and you cringe. but AI can't replicate the personal stories, the personal touch, who you are, how you got to where you are. And I want to ask you this, if you've been seeing this happening, because I've been seeing this trend more that I think is a big trend for 2026, who knows, for personal branding, which is small in-person group events. I've been seeing more and more people hosting small dinners or small meetups. And I think that these are so primed for introverts, especially the very small group ones like a six person dinner is not as overwhelming as a 50 person dinner.
19:59I just went to a gala dinner in York and I thought this is so many people. It was hundreds of people. But then I went to the six person dinner and it was so nice because you're able to talk to every single person. you were able to make that connection. Everyone can share their story in this small space. With a strong personal brand, it's less intimidating to go to that intimate event because everyone knows a little bit more about you. They can ask you about a video you posted or something thoughtful that you added on LinkedIn or on your favorite social media platform. You've shown a bit of yourself before the event, which creates more opportunity for interesting conversation in person.
20:38Right. Well, let's jump into one thing that I think we haven't talked about yet, which is so with a personal brand, right, you have say you're posting online before you even get to that part of posting. It's helpful to know what you want to be known as. Yeah. Right. I also see this. I'll see people post hundreds of pieces of content, but they're all over the place. They're very confusing. And if you asked me what they did for a living, what they want to do for a living, what they hope in the future to do for a living, I wouldn't know because it is unclear versus there's another author I met and they have a great cookie book out there.
21:17And their whole feed is Asian baking. Everything is on baking. It is so narrowly focused. And their latest book is 108 Asian Cookies. So narrowly focused, right? And their feed is people literally making cake versions of her book. which is amazing and wild but I know from an instant it's one note but I think that's great because I look through her feed and I know who she is and I know immediately what she wants to be known for she stands out because it's one note because let's be real all of us humans I'm sure you have 50 million hobbies because I have 50 million hobbies we all have not sure I show them all online.
22:04No, but I'm sure you have so many that you don't even talk about. Yeah. But you have a probably a couple that you feel comfortable talking about. So many of us are multifaceted. But when we get into a situation where we introduce ourselves first time, if you start off by saying like, if I said like, hi, I'm Bob. I don't know. I'm saying Bob, But I'm Bob. I train horses, but also I'm a mid-level product marketer. But also I like to do this, this, this, and I kite surf and I do all this other stuff. It becomes so lost what you want me to take away. And I will remember maybe one of those things about Bob, but not the right thing about Bob.
22:48Okay. Well, let's talk about distilling that down because I think that's also very intimidating. I think it's easier to just start posting whatever comes to mind and hope something sticks versus really defining that personal brand before we commit to posting. So how do we work through all those hobbies, what we think about ourselves, our career, to distill it down into an essence of a personal brand? So I like to start with two steps. So the first step is, who are you talking to? So I worked in marketing for a very long time, and there's things called marketing personas. We're not going to do any of that right now because we don't have 12 hours on this podcast.
23:29Thank you. Of course. But what we are going to do is distill this down to three different categories. OK. Are you speaking to your peers, people who do similar things that you do or are at your level? Or are you speaking to potential clients or your investors if you're an entrepreneur? Or are you speaking to your bosses, et cetera, or potential bosses? Or, and then we're going to go down one level to the very bottom, or are you speaking to a general audience? So that's the amazing listeners of this podcast. Or if you have a newsletter, that's the people who are looking at your newsletter. Different backgrounds.
24:04Different backgrounds, right? These are the first three categories. So first we pick one from three, right? Not too bad. So we just choose one. It is not rocket science. You just pick one first and then move on. So the second thing we do, this is an exercise I do for personal branding with my Fortune 500 clients or rather with their teams. because we're not working with them directly. But this is the exercise that I do that anyone can do. And I say to do this without AI because it forces you to actually think about your personal brand. And the exercise is you write 20 keywords that are soft keywords.
24:43Now, these are adjectives that describe you. So they might be warm, funny, intelligent. I'm using only the positive ones. insightful. And then you also do a column that's 20 nouns. What do you want to be known for? So maybe it's podcast host, maybe it's writer or author, maybe it's product manager, maybe it's actor, whatever noun you want to be known for. And then we do the really sticky, difficult thing. We take two words from our adjective category and we take one word from our noun category. And we put them together and these become our three golden keywords. They become the keywords that we then filter this version of our brand through.
25:33Okay. So we have who we're talking to and then we have the filter through which we're filtering our brand. Now you said something at the start that I want to point out to the audience that I think is really important. Yes. So you're working with Fortune 500 companies, but not the company, the people who work at the companies. Yes. And this is really important because everyone now needs a personal brand, even if you're in a corporate role. Yes. I think it's easy to be like, oh, you're an entrepreneur, you're a podcaster, you have your own business. Right. Of course you want a personal brand. No, if you have a corporate job, you still are expected to have a brand that the company can leverage in a way that highlights the company in the positive.
26:13Because distribution is key in our digital world. Well, there's this new term. I don't know if you've heard about it, but I spend too much time on LinkedIn. I know about it. So I'm going to share it with you right now. And it's called EGC, employee generated content. And it's a new version of UGC, which is user generated content. And so now these companies and corporations are turning inwards and looking at their own employees and saying, hey, can you make a video about this? Right. Yeah. Can you do a podcast about this, like an internal podcast? So if you have a strong and brand safe, I have to throw that in there, personal brand, you also could be tapped to be a person that literally your company values more.
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26:57Right. That your company puts on camera, that your company spotlights. And I like to think that this makes you a little bit more layoff. Durable. Proof and durable. Yes. I mean, if you are the face of the company's webinars, if you are their channel that helps onboard new customers and talk about all the great features, they're probably going to be less likely to let you go than someone who is a little bit more behind the scenes or doesn't speak up in Zoom meetings, etc. Right. And the key here is that if you could develop the skills outside of work by working on your own personal brand, get good on camera, feel comfortable in an interview or just be a really good writer and hone that skill.
27:37Right. That's a skill now that's more valued in the corporate world than ever before. Yes, totally. And can I give a Zoom pro tip for introverts? Yeah. So here's my Zoom pro tip for introverts. I use this myself. OK. Whenever I'm on a Zoom call, especially with clients or in a team meeting, what I like to do is I like to write down either on my phone on Notes app or just write down on a Post-it note. I love Post-its. OK. What I want to say. One thing that I want to say. And I make sure that I say that one thing before the meeting ends. OK. That's all. And that way you make sure that you speak up every single time there's a team call.
28:15Yeah. And you have that opportunity before with a little bit of prep because we know in the Zoom room we can have all these thoughts going on. Oh, who's staring at me? Am I appearing right? You know, all the things that might hurt us from the awkward moment when you do the emojis, the emoji reacts. Was I laughing too hard at the CEO's joke? Right. You can lose sight of, hey, actually, this is that insight that I really wanted to share. Right. That allows you to increase your visibility. Yes. And visibility is really key to being promoted. It's about increasing your visibility. I'm so glad you said that.
28:49I think another thing that I've been starting to do little talks on is about being heard. Okay. Right? I think it's not only important to be visible, but it's so important to be heard. And you need a voice. And you need a voice. To be heard. To be heard. Unfortunately, if we're only hoping to use that voice in meetings or only hoping to use that voice in a work setting, it can get drowned out by louder voices. It can actually be unheard. Allowing yourself some time to really focus on a personal brand practice and work on these things outside of work strengthens it in your career. Right. And there's a reason why some of the most old school recommendations for public speaking still hold true practicing in a mirror.
29:31Right. Then now that version is maybe practicing to your laptop or something camera or practicing to your phone camera. But it's still true. You're still practicing in a mirror, speaking first before you have to say something difficult. And I think all of these tactics to just practice and be prepared are so important. If you're still overpaying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no. That's Mint Mobile's whole thing. Their favorite word is no. No contracts, no monthly bills, no overages, no hidden fees, no BS. And that's why I love Mint Mobile Premium Wireless Service for just 15 bucks a month.
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31:55That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash charm. Free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince dot com slash charm. One thing that I think is also really unique about the current social media landscape that I do want to point out because we hear from so many. AJ, you started a podcast 18 years ago. Of course, you were able to build a massive audience. And there's the thought that, well, I missed the boat. Right. I didn't join LinkedIn video when they first launched. And now I don't have that opportunity. Right. And TikTok really was the first to change that. The algorithm change with TikTok and the TikTokification now of it does not matter how big your following is.
32:34Every piece of content is a lottery ticket that can lead to people following you, finding you and an opportunity for you to build your platform. Right. And that's really unique. It's something that's only really happened in the last few years, handful of years. In the past, you had to start early. You had to really pump out content. You had to have that lock on your side. You had to post 800 times. Right. Oprah of LinkedIn to really build the following. Right. And our co-founder, he just started playing around with Instagram reels and in seven weeks amassed a huge following off a couple of videos.
33:07Now, what comes along with that is what we call the valley of despair, where you're posting a lot of content and playing a lot of lottery tickets, but you're not getting views and you're feeling like, is this working? Is this worth it? Right. Why aren't people engaging with this? I'm pouring so much of myself into creating content and it doesn't seem to be getting the views. So for those who maybe have started to dabble in it but are feeling like, man, no one's watching my stuff or no one's engaging with it. Right. What do you say to them? I think it's helpful to be a little bit stupid. Right.
33:41And a lot brave. I think so many people talk about you need to be brave. Right. Brave is the first term, like brave and bold. I think we maybe talk about these two terms a lot, but we rarely talk about the pure stupidity that it takes to just go through and post something and know that it will probably flop. Right. And I think to keep stupidly posting, keep bravely. Right. That's a better word here. But keep stupidly posting until there's some result. And I also am such a fan of that digital footprint over time. Yes, I remember I spoke with somebody after I'd posted maybe 300 videos and she was like, can we meet up?
34:26I want to talk about my video strategy. And I'm like, of course. Yes, let's do it. And she's like, I posted three videos and no one's calling me for press. Nobody's blah, blah, blah. No book deal. Nobody book deal. You know, she's like, but I posted three videos. And she's like, I'm going to even post two more videos. And I'm just like, OK, so you're posting five videos total. And she's like, yes, but nothing's gone viral. Nothing's taken off. I don't have this like massive brand. And I'm like, you got to keep going. Yeah, that's the thing. Like, you got to keep going. I'm sure you've experienced this, too, with the podcast.
35:02You've outcompeted other people who maybe had this big spark, this big wow moment. Right. Because you now have that beautiful thing we like to call SEO. You have that beautiful history over time and that matters. People look for that. So even if I was still getting 10 to 100 views, but I did 800 videos of 10 to 100 views, well, that becomes 80 ,000, 800 ,000. That becomes so many more people who have seen each of those flop videos. Right. So it's important to keep going. And sometimes I think it's important to stupidly keep going. And you should be going for, I would say, at least three months.
35:52Like you should be giving a project at least three months to just breathe. If you start a project and three days later, you're like, this didn't work. It's gotten a lot easier. So when we started the podcast, I didn't know anything about audio. I was researching the right cables and all these different things to even get started. And it felt like a mountain to climb just to get good enough. Right. It was very technical. We all have phones. We all have access now to hit record, type something out, and hit a platform and start building even the smallest audience. Because those people can become friends.
36:31Yes. Can become partners. Yes. They could become clients. They could be your next boss. Right. And we had a client who, very analytical job engineering, but was really fascinated with AI. And it's like, man, I want to do more with AI. His company is not adopting it. He has been playing around with it on the side. He's like, you know what? I'm just going to start talking about what I'm building and share a little bit. And AI became part of his personal brand. Yes. And one of his bosses happened across his video and said, hey, why don't you share a little bit about what you're working on that had started completely separate to work with the team?
37:10And now he became the AI guy at work. Now, if you had said, go to the Zoom meeting and say, I want to be the AI guy. No. That's not going to happen. Yeah. But by working on this outside. Then we're in Cringe Valley, not Cringe Mountain. We're getting crickets, basically. Everyone's staring at you. Why do you want to be the AI guy? It feels braggadocious. It feels like you're taking. But instead, he started on the side, sharing what he was working on, some fun projects, and started to build a bit of an audience. And what do you know? He got seen because of it. So I think so often we find ourselves maybe unhappy with our career, want to make a change, don't see those opportunities internally.
37:51Don't think about what a personal brand can unlock in finding those opportunities for you. And I think part of what you described is somebody who is passionate about something and then they decided to do something about that passion. Now, maybe you are an engineer and your passion is fly fishing. That is a little bit harder to mesh together. But if you're an engineer and your passion is, say, AI or product management, these become two things that you can mesh together that you can start talking about. And I think that's really powerful is taking things that you care about and putting that into your personal brand because that, once again, is the person in your personal brand.
38:30That's the warmth that we want to see. That's the humanizing part of your personal brand. That's so powerful because, once again, you could ask AI to make you a personal brand and say, like, okay, what's the next 30 posts I need to do? But the problem with AI in that case is AI can only tell you based off what you've done in the past. Right. Or what other people who are not you have done. Who are not you have done in the past, right? So it's not always a great future predictor, but it's a great historical document. Yes. Right. And sometimes if you want to be ahead of the game, if somebody told you, OK, well, you can start a podcast, but you can only do what everyone else has done before, you wouldn't have this amazing successful podcast because you'd always be looking backwards.
39:18And I had so many people, especially when I was making LinkedIn videos in 2017, that were saying, why aren't you doing this on YouTube? This is so dumb. This is, you should be making on a platform where videos exist like Facebook. I think it's so funny how many people told me to make, which now it's honestly a little laughable to do Facebook video. because at the time Facebook was really prioritizing video in a specific way. And I think that I would not have the brand I have now if I was like, okay, shucks, like, because I'm going to go make Facebook video. I don't think I would have been the Oprah of Facebook video.
39:56I don't know that I would have gotten that title. But I think doing the, I'm a big fan of doing the uncool thing that you really care about. Okay. Well, let's talk about the platforms because there are unique differences to the platform and some have more power for a personal brand than others. So how do you think about the platforms that are available right now? And what is your recommendation now that I've figured out what I want my personal brand to be? Okay. So it depends on who your audience is. For example, I'll start with one we haven't talked about at all, Pinterest. So if you are in the fashion and lifestyle business and you already probably, let's be real, have an Instagram, it would behoove you to think about Pinterest because they're doing all sorts of new and interesting formats and they're focusing on video.
40:45It's a platform that makes sense if you are very image focused. creative and you're creative. But say you love groups, say you love being part of groups. Now that matters what age demographic you're talking about, because maybe you're thinking about discord or if you're thinking about an older demographic, then you're thinking about Slack or Facebook. Right. So it really depends also age demographics. Now I have to shout out LinkedIn because I have to. So maybe you're thinking about I just want an overall business profile. I want to appear to people who are decision makers who have budgets. Well, there's only one platform that they majority exist on, and that's LinkedIn.
41:27LinkedIn is such a powerful platform for that. But maybe you think, I want to make a big splash, right? And for you, that might be then TikTok. Because at any point in time, I could have 100 followers, but I could have a video and you know this exactly what I'm talking about. I could have a video that gets 5 million views out of nowhere. I could have my big viral hit without having a ton of followers and that's so big and because I love uncool. So I'm going to talk about one other thing that's uncool. I really love threads right now. Threads is a really interesting place that Meta is investing a lot of resources into because they want it to be the new text platform.
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44:00encryption. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. Learn more at whatsapp.com. So looking at who the target demographic is, then you want to pick the platform that's going to have the widest appeal to that demographic. So if you're really business focused, maybe it's career, you want to be known for something in your career, pick platforms where that is the focus. Maybe if it is baking, it might be Reels or TikTok. Right. It might be real. And I know for a fact that this particular author is big on Reels and TikTok as well. Yeah. I think about one of my friends. He's massive, you know, like millions of followers for specifically career advice.
44:42And he lives on two platforms. Right. And they are TikTok and LinkedIn. So he has TikTok for virality and then he has LinkedIn for people that want to hire him to do brand deals. What I think is also interesting about that TikTok algorithm is that you can test ideas. And if they work on TikTok, odds are they'll start to work on the other platforms. So if you are a little shy about Cringe Mountain and your co-workers seeing what you want to do, you can test to see, hey, is this actually get some traction on TikTok? The best stuff we can now do a remix or a version of for LinkedIn that's proved, hey, the hook works.
45:24Hey, the structure seems to be interesting. What I'm sharing in this post or video seems to be impactful. And I will put a gentle caveat on that, which is sometimes what is appropriate for TikTok is not always appropriate for LinkedIn. Yes. Because LinkedIn is where people who are potentially your bosses are. So if it's really wild, inappropriate, rated R content that might do really well on TikTok, it may not always do as well on LinkedIn or be appropriate for LinkedIn. But if it's just cool and weird and interesting ideas, absolutely sandbox across a lot of different platforms. Well, the way I think about that is would you do it in a group meeting?
46:06Like if you were in a meeting at work, would you do that? Yeah. If not, then you probably don't want to be posting on LinkedIn. Right. As part of your digital footprint. Right. We've figured out at the start what we want our personal brand to be. Yes. We've started thinking about platforms and playing to a skill set. So if you know naturally that you enjoy writing. Yes. If you know naturally that you enjoy speaking, maybe it's podcasting. If you feel really excited about video and you want to be more creative, maybe it's video. Let's talk about actually like developing out a game plan here. because three months sounds pretty intimidating if we've never hit record and publish.
46:45Right. So this is why I, if I'm not doing a big overarching plan with someone who has their own content team, right? It's just you. You are a human solo and it is just you. You don't have a personal assistant. You are working on this all by yourself. That's why I say, okay, can you do one piece of content for me for three months. And then after three months, we're going to do once a week. But in that first three months, if you love video, you're going to make one mediocre, right? It doesn't even have to be good. Just a video once a month. And if it makes it easier, you'll do it on the 15th, right?
47:29So Jess, I'll give you the day of the month to even do it So every 15th, you're going to post about one video. Or if you love to write, maybe you go on Substack and you write one beautiful, thoughtful, long form post a month. Also on the 15th. I don't know why I'm saying the 15th. It's just a good day. Or if you love text, maybe you go on threads and that's the day that you engage with a lot of people. You respond to conversations you post on that platform. or maybe you're on Instagram and that's today you're going to post like a beautiful carousel of a few things that happened to you over the course of a month.
48:03I know another creator and she does something really interesting. She does Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 wrap ups. So she will wrap up what happened to her in that quarter, like all the brand deals she's gotten, all of the places she's spoken at, all these things. And what it does is it also, it does double duty. It's content, but it also shows that she's been busy working. Yeah. So it does two things that are really powerful for her. And then people see this and they see her Q2 wrap up and they think, I'd love to hire you for Q3, Q4, right? Right. And it is so powerful to do that. So if you also feel like, I don't want to put myself out there with new content, that's also an idea you could do, which is what happened for you that was positive in the last quarter or like last month?
48:53what was a good thing that happened to you in your career that you want to share? Okay. Right? Or what was a good project that you worked on in your career? Or what was an interesting new connection that you made? Or maybe you got a mentor. Can you talk about that mentor? Or maybe you're like me and you got a new mentee. Maybe you want to talk about that. Or an insight even. Or an insight. Something you learned, a lesson, a takeaway, a skill that was acquired. I mean, I think it's pretty intimidating when we look at other creators that maybe we follow and engage with and we think they're just so much further up the mountain.
49:26They've posted thousands of videos. They have all these experiences that we don't. You can be sitting there with the little blinking cursor going, what do I write? What do I script? Like what is this first piece of content going to be? And I think it's important to recognize, one, everyone starts somewhere. Everyone starts somewhere. And two, the act of just getting it out and starting to post is the genesis of building the momentum that creates the personal brand. Yeah. And I think this is the moment to put aside your cringe mountain or not look at it directly in the face and just create something.
50:05And that, once again, might be I love learning. So and I love teaching. So I think any kind of educational or they call it edutainment, right? Educational and entertaining. Any kind of interesting content that is a learning lesson that you had yourself, that's going to be helpful for someone else. Say you're a product manager and you have a really good learning lesson that you had from the past year about a product that you worked on. That broken down into here are the five learning lessons. That's so helpful. That's such a good piece of content to be sharing. And especially if you're an introvert, bring it back to them.
50:47That feels less scary than saying, hi, it's me. This is like my personal life story. These are all the personal struggles I've gone through. Take yourself out of it, maybe for the first piece of content, and instead say, here's what I learned. Here is part of my career story, my career journey that I'm sharing with you. It actually hits two different types of audiences. So your peers will get value out of that. Maybe they're struggling with the same exact thing. Maybe they found themselves in the same predicament. But also your boss or your potential future boss could see that and go, hey, you know, we want someone on our team who's having these insights, who's willing to share, who's creating this EGC.
51:30This person is a problem solver. This person is thinking analytically. And no matter what job industry you work in, I think it's always good to be a person that people see and they're like, this person thinks analytically. This person uses their brain. Solves things and is willing to share, which is also what posting is. Right. Because if you're posting that insight, you are a team player. You're not keeping it to yourself. You're not being selfish. Right. I always think the most important part of a personal brand is being in conversation with other people like we are right now. Yeah. I think if you're not in conversation with someone else, you don't have a personal brand.
52:13Both of our personal brands got us here. Yes. Right. I think that's an important part for those who are thinking about this is it creates opportunities to go on podcasts. It creates book opportunities. It creates career opportunities. is I've made a lot of great friends from the podcast. And it's funny now to come a bit full circle. When I started podcasting, it wasn't even a hobby. It was nothing. No one was doing it. And now companies are paying people to start podcasts because they're recognizing the importance of EGC, creating content. And we have joked internally that the younger generation, their most popular career of choice now is a creator.
52:55right but i didn't grow up with other creators i didn't know that was even an opportunity to right i think that wasn't even a term especially when i was starting just doing in 2017 i think it started to become more of that but i think even back then prior to 2020 which is a wild thing to say right it's less than you know 10 years ago that wasn't necessarily your full-time job that was something you did on the side it was a hobby it was a hobby but between 2020 to now it's become really full-time work for so many people that you can obviously become a full-time podcaster I think companies are going to pay to bring creators yes because paid media has become so expensive to dip into the marketing world you know customer acquisition costs have gone through the roof and if you can have some distribution of your own where you're not paying a platform to get those eyeballs becomes incredibly valuable so if you have a little podcast about you know closing deals or about negotiation that some company can hire you and brand right you've put your resume to the top of that list you've jumped everyone else interviewing for that role so this personal brand now I think carries more weight than ever in your career whereas in the past we thought of a personal brand as well I want to be an author I want to be a speaker I want to be known for something online.
54:19It doesn't have to be about that at all. It can just be that stepping stone to that next great career opportunity for you. And I love that you keep bringing up people who are in corporate jobs or people who are at the workplace because so many people that I've met, they're like, do I need a personal brand? And I just keep hearing about so many layoffs and I keep hearing about job instability. And there's a new term, another new term that I think is really funny. It's called job hugging. Yeah. Yeah. Because people are hugging their jobs for dear life. Yeah. Well, it's a scary time right now. It's a scary time right now.
54:49And I think if you have a personal brand, you are going to get rehired faster. Right. You're going to stand out. You're going to stand out. And I remember I was at one role when I was still working in-house and I was just starting to develop a personal brand, not like I have right now, but just a little bit. I think I had maybe 300 people on LinkedIn. So, you know, quite a bit. That's the following. In the hundreds, you know. And now I have over 100 ,000, but it's just hilarious. But at the time, I was like 300. Woo. And I was even then, I remember being at a role here in LA and then having like one of the big, I'm not going to name them, but one of the big companies that everybody knows in LA, entertainment companies reach out to me because they had discovered me based off my 300 followers on LinkedIn.
55:39And because I had posted, not regularly, I'm terrible at that at the time, but I'd posted a couple of times about community management. Yeah. Because that was what I was doing at the time. And they had seen these posts and they didn't go viral. They just got a few hundred views. But one of those few hundred views was a recruiter. And that's all it takes. And I think it's so powerful. Also, if you talk about what you know, instead of, I see so many people being like, well, this is popular and trending, so I'm going to talk about this. I'm going to talk about that. And then I think it's always helpful.
56:13Feed it through the lens of what you do know, what your expertise is. And everyone is an expert in something because most of us have worked for, if not a year, then we work for multiple years or a decade or multiple decades in different fields. That makes you an expert in what you do. I'm thinking about we hit the three months. We got our three pieces of content. Right. How do we know that we're on to something with a personal brand versus pivot or need to make some changes? Because I think it's still pretty intimidating to then decide and define a personal brand that sticks with us. Right. When do we know maybe pivot, try a different adjective, maybe try something else in terms of the type of or the content that we're putting out there?
57:00Right. So I like to move probably what other people would say is glacially slowly. So I like to do three months just really for the cadence. I love the word cadence. It reminds me of horses. And I think having a cadence that we can stick with, right? I think of a horse's gallop. Having those three pieces of content once a month, once a month, once a month. Because when we hit that fourth month, it's going to be so easy to be like, got it. on the 15th, I'm going to do this other piece of content. But then we can say, maybe we're going to do two, three, four pieces of content this month. So suddenly we're doing four instead of one.
57:42But now that we've kind of kept up that cadence for three months, now we can just keep up this cadence for the next three months. And I think it's important to actually give it that full six months to breathe using those keywords that you already picked. Now, I also am a big fan of your gut. So I think people often mistake their gut in fear. So to me, fear is that loud voice that screams at you, you're not good enough. Don't do this. Don't bother trying. Versus gut is, I don't think I like that person. Or like, I don't think I like this project. Or I'm not sure about it, right? It's that quiet, whispering voice that we have.
58:26And if your gut says after three months, oh, this doesn't feel right. Like, I don't feel like I want to be known as this kind of engineer. Then that's a great time to reassess after the first three months. Now, if it's fear, though, saying you're not good enough to be known as this kind of engineer, that is an emotion you need to push through. Fear is the one we push through and gut is the one that we listen to. A lot of that fear also comes from comparison. Yes, of course. So you pick your keywords, you pick your audience. And of course, because all of the metrics and numbers are published on every platform, we can see and have visibility and how many views people are getting likes and comments.
59:15It's very easy to compare. And then that fear to overwhelm, and be like, well, I posted three to that lovely lady who reached out to you and I don't have a book deal. Okay. I got to stop versus no, actually this, you know, in creating this, going through the process, I realized maybe I'm not as passionate about that as I thought, or maybe that's not as important to me to keep going another three months. Right. And I think it's really assessing internally. And it was funny because that lady I met, she wanted me to externally assess for her. And I said, well, it's your personal brand though. I don't know if this is who you want to be known for.
59:51Only you can tell yourself what you want to be known for. And I think it's so helpful to do that gut check at three months and to do that gut check again at six months. And at six months, you will really know. If you've done a half year, and you know this, having done so many podcast episodes, I'm sure at the half year mark, some interesting things happened, right? And either it's going to be interesting good, interesting bad, or interesting both, which is actually even better, I think. At that point, you have enough data to actually work with and assess and feel like, okay, I'm on to something and this is really important and meaningful to me.
1:00:29Or, you know, let's make a pivot into something else. Maybe it wasn't generative AI. Maybe it's actually project management and productivity. Right. Exactly. So I think after six months, you will just have more data points and you will be able to better tell if this resonates with yourself because at the end of the day it's your personal brand you should enjoy it it should help you in your career and i hope i hope that people are feeling more brave about putting themselves a little bit more out there i would love every one of our audience members to submit publish something because just going through the act of that and allowing that creativity that might be bottled up in your career or maybe you don't feel like you can really lean into as much.
1:01:18It's just such a powerful opportunity. And I can speak for myself. It's brought me so many amazing opportunities outside of just career in terms of relationships, in terms of events and things that I never would have been invited to. All because I hit record on a podcast. I got to meet llamas in Dallas. the first I think the first trip I ever took out there they're like how would you like to go to the llama farm and I was like I would love to go to the llama farm and that had nothing to do with my career that was not like and this was a great keynote opportunity it was just me and this really ornery llama in Dallas Texas and it was so adorable and I wouldn't have gotten that opportunity to meet that particular llama had I not done such a huge personal brand that people in Dallas, Texas knew who I was and they were inviting me out just to visit the city, which is so cool.
1:02:15And I'm sure you've had so many of these wild and fun experiences too. And that all comes from a personal brand. And I hate to add this word, but likability. I think personal brand that has a certain element of likability and not everybody's personal brand will have that. But if you have even a tiny bit of likability, it will make your personal brand so much easier to, you know, be consumed by, I think, your general audience. Naturally, it crafts likability the longer you are posting and publishing. You not only get the feedback, but you get a better hang of how to edit and put together what you are putting out there.
1:02:59And over time, you're going to find from the signal, the comments, the people connecting with you, the people reaching out, that reinforcement that I think we need as introverts of like, hey, I'm on the right path. And like, this is meaningful. And as we wrap here, I would love to hear why you think introversion is a superpower with a personal brand? Because I know for a lot of our introverts in the audience, they might be really intimidated by the thought of a personal brand. Right. So I think introversion is super powerful for two reasons. One, I think introverts are beautiful deep thinkers.
1:03:30I think that introverts are able to take a step back because they're usually hiding in the corner. Just kidding. But they're able to physically take a step back. But they're able to think deeply and think clearly. And this helps with analyzing, say, data or this helps with analyzing a sticky situation at work. So that to me is number one, one of the biggest introvert superpowers that I think is so often overlooked. And number two is the ability for an introvert to do one-on-one conversations with depth. I think so many introverts struggle with small talk. This is actually why I called my book tour the no small talk book tour.
1:04:11But I think so many introverts struggle with small talk. And I think that's actually okay. I think if you are having really beautiful, meaningful conversations with people, people will remember you. And that's what we want to be. We want to be memorable to our potential clients, to our potential bosses, to our peers, to our maybe our new llama friends. We want to be really memorable for everyone. And I think that is such an introvert superpower that you can go deep really fast and be really thoughtful about what you're talking about. With a strong personal brand, you can skip the small talk. Yes.
1:04:48And that's great for introverts who have to go to events, maybe for work or put themselves out there. That strong personal brand, that digital footprint allows you to go deep on topics, skipping the weather and skipping sports and things maybe as an introvert don't really care about. Right, right. And I think it's so beautiful when you're able to connect with other people. And I know that's maybe the third part is introverts love that real and deep and true connection with another human being. And I think that's where introverts also really shine. And that's why you have extroverts always have an introvert friend, right?
1:05:25Yeah. Yeah. Because they always have someone that's just going to listen to them talk. The other superpower for introverts that is so powerful in online creation is speaking to one person. One to many might be hard. Getting on stage for an introvert might be pretty challenging. Going to an overwhelming networking event with a lot of voices, a lot of conversations. But speaking to one person that you feel comfortable with usually is very easy for the introvert. And you need that skill on video, on LinkedIn. If you're trying to speak to the masses and you're trying to win everyone over, you're not going to be able to create a strong personal brand.
1:06:03But if you can speak to one person and help that one person with their challenge, with what they're facing, with your own experience, that actually creates the virality of an amazing personal brand. And I love that you said that you're speaking to one on LinkedIn and on these social media platforms. because I think right now what is the most powerful kind of content is not like, hey, general audience, right? Like, oh, those videos are so cringy, right? But not in a good way. But it's so helpful when you say, hey, friend, or like when it's you talking with one other person, that that message is intended for one other person.
1:06:40I like to say that if video scares you, that you look into that little camera, especially if you're filming on your phone or something like that, that you look into the little camera lens and you think, I'm looking at a good friend. But not the friend that maybe gives you, you know, guff, but like the friend that likes you and is going to be very supportive. That's who you're always looking at whenever you are looking into that camera. So it should never be a scary thing. And where can our audience find out more about the work you do in the book? Absolutely. So they can always find me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com slash and slash Goldie or at my personal website, goldiechan.com.
1:07:17Well, thank you for joining us. Thanks so much for having me.
1:07:30And now comes part of the show where we showcase one of our X Factor Accelerator members. Take it away, Jack. Hi, my name is Jack from Colorado. I decided to join X Factor Accelerator when I was stuck in a rut and was seeking accountability I needed to reach my potential and consistently pursue my values. I found like-minded, similarly ambitious people, and each week we drive each other to be better. If you are on the fence about joining, I encourage you to count to three and just do it because no life-changing decisions are made on the fence. Thank you, Jack It was a pleasure and an honor working with you two And good luck to you in all of your future endeavors
1:08:36Yeah, but I remember you Oh yeah, I remember you
1:08:48Next up is a little song from CarMax about selling a car your way. You wanna sell those wheels? You wanna get a CarMax instant offer? So fast. Wanna take a sec to think about it? Or like a month?
1:09:14So, want to drive? CarMax. Pickup not available everywhere. Restrictions and fee may apply.
From the publisher
What if the fastest way to future-proof your career isn’t networking — it’s owning your story? In this episode, AJ and Johnny sit down with Goldie Chan, Forbes columnist and founder of Goldie Builds, to unpack how personal branding creates opportunities long before résumés do.
Goldie shares how she went from shy creator to “The Oprah of LinkedIn,” why introverts have a unique advantage in today’s attention economy, and how anyone can build a personal brand without dancing on camera or posting every day. This conversation breaks down the simple, repeatable steps to make your digital footprint work for you.
Whether you want to get noticed by recruiters, stand out in your field, or create more leverage in your career, this episode gives you the framework to build visibility and credibility on your own terms.
What to Listen For
[00:00:00] Goldie’s unexpected journey from introvert to LinkedIn icon
[00:02:15] Why your digital footprint matters more than your résumé
[00:04:42] How 800 daily videos built a global brand
[00:08:30] Overcoming “Cringe Mountain” and posting your first piece of content
[00:13:20] Why personal branding gives you career leverage
[00:18:45] How to start with just one post a month
[00:24:30] The secret power of Employee Generated Content (EGC)
[00:31:05] Why introverts can thrive in personal branding
[00:36:42] Goldie’s three steps to showing up authentically online
[00:42:18] How to build visibility without burning out
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Episode resources:
Goldie Chan's LinkedIn
Personal Branding for Introverts
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