Should you have a personal brand as a leader? | Elisabetta Torretti

0:00Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:What drove you to go, I'm going to go to London at 25, not being able to speak the language, why? Very good question. That's the question everyone was asking first. Do you think people need to have a personal brand now these days? What is your view on what people need to be doing? I believe everyone should have a personal brand. You have it by default. If you want to take care of it or not, that is your choice. When did you know that there was a problem? How did you become aware that there was a disorder? I think I googled my symptoms, which I know is the worst thing you can do in general, and I figured out I had an issue.

0:34But remember, if I went through all of this and I came out of it, then I can do anything.

0:41Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:Hello and welcome back to the Courageous Leaders podcast. Today's guest is Elisabetta Toiletti, the founder and CEO of Mint & Lemon, who helps founders and teams show up online with clarity and confidence. If you're sitting there right now knowing that you need to do a personal brand, this episode is for you. If you also are thinking inside of you there's maybe a business opportunity for you, but you're not sure how to get there, Elisabetta talks about the challenges she faced and how she has now set up a very, very successful business, helping people show up online with confidence. So let's get started.

1:17Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:Elisabetta, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Thank you so much again for inviting me. I can't wait for this conversation. But as you know, I start with what has been a courageous moment for you? So thanks for asking. I know this is the main topic, actually, of the podcast. And it's a beautiful question. So I think the most courageous moment for me was moving from a little town where I'm from in Italy to London, especially when I didn't speak the language, when I didn't know anyone. And that was when I was 25, fresh off university, long university with double master and everything. So it's been long years studying.

1:55And yeah, I decided one day to pack my luggages and come here for a very unpaid internship. And I moved here. It's been quite an interesting moment because I felt like I changed as a person, not just... I discovered like a new self, which has been very interesting, you know, when you go through like a journey of self-discovery. But I also changed somehow physically or looks or like my friends, I remember they were telling me like, you feel like there is a butterfly that came out of you, like there is such a big change that you can actually see it physically. So, yeah, that's been a very, very interesting moment.

2:38Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:so I'm really curious what drove you to go I'm going to go to London at 25 not being able to speak the language for a very un we say low paid job what was in what why very good question that's the question everyone was asking me first especially my parents because at the same time I actually got two very good job opportunities in Milan very well paid very big international companies but I was like oh my heart is telling me to go to London for this unpaid job and my my parents are like why um so I think there's there's been a few things when I was a teenager so three things actually mainly I used to um I used to love Harry Potter uh being like a fan for like so many years and I always wanted to read the book as soon as it would come out but of course you know it comes out in English and then there's the Italian translation needed and it takes time months I think like up to six months to actually get the new version and I one day I remember like okay I'll try it you know the English version I'll buy it I'll pre-buy it like ordering months in advance and everything and I'll try to see with my like you know uh dictionary or something like what I can translate or something I didn't go past the first page it was it was horrible so I was like okay this is a big barrier like I cannot not speak English somehow but unfortunately the Italian schooling system is amazing for many other things but when it comes to foreign language let's say it's not the best um the second thing is that I always loved like music I played many instruments um played opera as well and one thing I always I was always like so interesting in like foreign you know English speaking like singers especially Queen I was such a big fan and I was like wow these songs are so amazing but I just don't understand anything so I started translating them somehow and going and looking online for the translation but I was like this is not working for me and the third thing is that um I always felt like how can you know that your soulmate can speak only that language that is your language I always felt like my soulmate needs to be like beyond my I don't know like 50 kilometers type of like radio type of thing like and I always felt like there's so much more to that and what about if I'm meeting someone but only because they don't speak my language then I cannot connect with them and those three things always made me think and I always loved London the first time I came to London was when I was 18 and it was the first time I came out of the country and I came not not the first time I came out of the country but the first time I really felt like I was going somewhere but I really felt like I can stay here I can actually live here and that's a feeling that you don't usually get in general especially for somebody like me I was like very I was not shy but I was very I think insecure I was very like attached to my family attached to my my town and really not willing to actually live that easy and all these things I thought about it I thought about it then I went to uni and like was not possible at that time but I always it was always on the back of my mind somehow and and then when the opportunity came I was like yeah maybe yeah I should I should grab it so where do you think for you I think a bit of a journey with self-belief where's that kind of so if you were you know with your parents a bit insecure where how was that journey to then starting to really believe in yourself I think there's been a lot of different things um so I was um yeah I think I always had like maybe uh imposter syndrome issues and everything I always thought like I was not good enough which unfortunately happens a lot of like um teenage girls um not because my parents or my family did never I don't know praise me or anything they were my biggest supporter like I'm and I'm so so grateful to them for everything they've done for me um I feel like I always felt like I never I was never fitting in somehow I always felt like I don't know like you know when when you're a kid and they ask you like what do you want to be when you're an adult like you know and people like start shooting things that I was like I had no clue because I just could not imagine myself in that environment um so I think that environment made me molded me maybe in this way like that there was something there was something wrong with me type of thing you know because I was not this stereotypical I don't know like uh Italian girl maybe I wasn't I had a very different mindset so that that's the base um then um I went through so two other things then I went through um my eating disorders um which that was a symptom of something that was not there uh you know when you have eating disorder it's not just a symptoms of uh you know you're not lacking yourself that's that goes beyond that and that is where maybe I started really working on myself little by little with my therapies and really going through like two years complete of therapy and that's self-discovery which is painful which is expensive really expensive that really helped me like kind of channeling my energy towards the right direction but also because at some point I remember I had this really good friend of mine and she came here to London and she stayed here for two weeks and she also didn't speak any word of English and I was like wow if she did it why I cannot do it like what is like you know we're the same like like she has nothing more she's a very good friend of mine like really really good person but I was like we're similar like we're similar like what what can I not do that she did not you know what else you know so these few things helped me then taking that I think that step uh and yeah and jumping yeah that's the whole thing isn't it sometimes you just have to jump and trust that the net will appear and I think it's really nice when you said like you'd seen someone done it you could go hang on a minute there's evidence here that this could be possible and to give you that confidence to do it are you comfortable talking a little bit more about the eating disorder 100 so I'm just really curious um in terms of how did you when did you know that there was a problem how did you become aware that there is was a disorder uh it's a very good question um I think I googled my symptoms and I which I know is the worst thing you can do in general and I figured out I had an issue um i knew there was something i had a very bad relationship with food but i could not pinpoint what was actually the problem because you know you have the normal they did not the normal they the more common anorexia bulimia um but mine was slightly different so i thought okay i don't fit into these like categories so i don't have an eating disorder um then i started seeing some therapies so then the therapist didn't even know what I had because again you come from a place in Italy where it's very you know it's not a city so people are also not really trained when it comes to that those specific eating disorders but thank god my sister is a clinical psychologist she specializes in eating disorder very interesting and she actually then referred me to really good doctor that she knew and then I started therapy with this person and this person saved my life because then I started therapy for like very intense therapy two years every Monday 4 p.m no matter what like you sign a contract and you have to be there I remember I was in uni I was like there there no no unless it's Christmas or unless it's like August maybe you get one Monday off you know go send one Monday off in Christmas that's it yeah um and uh but I remember I googled my symptoms and I was like there is a problem so if anyone listening on terms of you say you didn't fall into the the typical eating disorders did you actually find out what it was yeah yeah yeah it was binge eating disorder so I would starve myself I would starve myself for like like I don't know like weeks and then at some point I was so hungry that I would yeah that i would eat like then i would like eat which is the normal eating actually but for me it was overeating because i if you starve yourself your stomach is not doesn't have that dimension you know uh so i remember it was just like feeling 100 % like sick all the time but it's not that you purge it's not that you you know it's very different um i would suggest not to google your symptoms in general maybe that's not a good idea not to gpd no nothing but just go to a specialist and just look for help because eating disorder i think they're actually now the number one killer of mental health disease um and mental illness um and yeah it's horrible because people go on with it for so many years and the consequences that you have throughout the years of the malnutrition it's bad and I think I got I mean you never know you can figure out things later I hope I won't but so many people then figured out like other things that come out of that like I think one of them might be I don't know osteoporosis or like issues with your teeth as well like dental like a lot of different things for a lot of different of course in disorders but if you catch it on time like you can really save your life.

12:43Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:Just a quick reminder if you haven't already to please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel it's a small action that makes a big difference you'll be the first to know when new episodes drop and your support helps us create meaningful content for leaders like you. I'd also love to hear from you so if you have any thoughts questions or ideas pop them into the comments and if you're curious about how my leadership coaching or training could support you or your team just drop me a dm and we'll set up a call thanks so much now let's get back to the episode thank you for sharing that i know that's a big part of your life when you you know completed the therapy when you look back on it now what do you think it was that kind of really helped you then or what you found within you to overcome it did you learn about yourself i think i learned i was stronger and i could do more than what I thought I think you like I always had that insecurity somehow you know even if like I was always like top of my class always like like really good with a lot of different things but I always felt like that's not enough like you know I should be better I should do better but I think with therapy really doing like a deep work on myself I started little by later realizing like no I actually like like I can I can own it like you know I'm doing a lot I can do a lot and I can do much more so then your confidence start building of course it's a long process like my eating disorder went in like a span of like 10 years it's not something that you okay you finish therapy you're like out of it you know like it's something that you can have a lot of different relapses but I think eventually you come out of it you're always conscious of food I feel like maybe at some point I don't know that's my personal vision you always maybe be a bit conscious of food compared to other people but something of course you can absolutely come out of it but it takes time And I think having that patience and that be kind to yourself in these situations, because it's something that is an addiction, but it's a very different addiction because you can be addicted to alcohol and you can quit alcohol, but you cannot quit food.

15:06Any addiction, if you think about, it's something that you somehow can quit, but you cannot quit food. So you need to somehow manage that relationship. it's like you're in a toxic relationship with your partner and but you know you cannot leave that person because somehow you need to live with it I don't know it's a bad example maybe but

15:25Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:I've never thought of it that way you know just maybe realize that yeah what a hard addiction to change um and in terms of how do you think that shaped because is it fair to say do you feel you've come through that now yeah it is yeah so how do you think that experience that 10 years has shaped your choices today what you're now doing and how you show up as a person I always think that was my lowest point um and I I remember waking up in the morning being obsessed with calories being like that is something that it takes your mind it it takes your all-day energy that you cannot focus on something else but at the same time you need to be functional whatever is in your job or whatever uni or whatever life but I remember if I went through all of this and I came out of it then I can do anything like it really made me feel so powerful in a way that really sometimes our um we have a lot of mental limits um and if you think about like it's not just me there are people that overcome like major things and your mind is so powerful if you have somehow not control over your mind but if you know how to have a good relationship with your thoughts yeah I call it management like if you can manage it befriend it yes yes yes because then your thoughts I mean your mind can be your friend or can be your enemy can be you're also your biggest saboteur you know and I remember working on that actually with my coach about like how sometimes you just need to shut up that saboteur and just rephrase and say okay thank you is your how do you say protective type of like mechanism thank you for being here yeah thank you for being here for taking care of me but I don't need you type of thing you know yeah um and if you can control that if you can rewire your whole life like I would have never imagined to be sitting here 10 years ago or 12 years ago 20 years ago you know um so that made me flip the whole script so it sounds like that was quite an empowering moment for you to take back like this is what I what I do with my life and then what was that led you to because you know it's phenomenal I know you put a post up on LinkedIn and it just got this phenomenal success how did what you're doing now all come about so interesting story um so maybe like long story short about my journey um so moved to the UK eventually somehow landed an eventually like a corporate job start working incorporate then moved to barcelona because i just got a job opportunity moved there and then eventually moved back to the uk in 2019 and in the whole span of the last like 12 years i started my career in corporate working in product then eventually moving into sales i always wanted to be in sales and i was like okay and people were very skeptical it's like no but you have like a product background how can you then move into sales i'm like give me anything i'll do cold calls like I don't care like I don't have to start from like you know whatever like give me the most basic position sales position you have but I want to start them and so I started and then I started working primarily for like startup and scale-ups but as you know when you work for startup and scale-ups there's no budget there's never budget for sales for marketing for nothing which was also budget nothing nothing so I was like okay I need to be creative and what can I use as a tool that this free tool and somehow I can connect with my prospects, with my clients and I can just build those meaningful relationships.

19:00Then I started using LinkedIn. So LinkedIn has been my top of the funnel, but also somehow my middle of the funnel and my bottom of the funnel as well for the past, I don't know how many years. Especially in my previous company where I was at Plum, I was in play number four, I had to build the sales department and eventually also had the customer success department and I had to be really really creative so I started thinking okay not only you know connecting with people not only maybe I don't know dming people and everything but how can I actually be that subliminal ad for my prosperous and for my clients and basically being always bombarding them in my content and be always out of their mind and then when the time is right when they're ready to buy then that's where they will think about ah I remember Elisabetta and that's what happened then it did magic it did magic in my previous company and then eventually after like being four years in my previous company I was like okay maybe it's time for me to build my own company if I don't do it now I probably won't do it anymore in the future so again that thing that really jump into the unknown and then eventually I'm like okay the same way I build my profile I create opportunities especially like sales opportunities for my company I can do the same I can help other people creating the same and creating and leveraging that profile.

20:19And then eventually, of course, last year, my account showed up a bit. Just a bit. Just a bit.

20:24Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:So you know, it's like 100, was it 110 ,000? So I grew 100 ,000 followers in one year. Amazing. Congratulations. Thank you. And all on the back of like, keep posting, keep posting, keep giving value and keep like, keep showing up. So I actually didn't do anything special if you think about it. is just I was very persistent um I thought about what my prospect would want to hear about um how can I really engage with people like not just only on LinkedIn but also meet them in real life that's something I think a lot of creators don't don't really do and I think it's a shame because the whole purpose why I've always been in sales or why I like to be on LinkedIn is because I want to connect with people like I want to meet people that's the whole beauty of it that's why also I'm here in London there is this melting pot of culture of like beauty of differences and everything and I want to experience it I want to like absorb it like completely and that's why I love LinkedIn because I feel it's not like any other like social media platform where you're just like judged for your I don't know for your picture for your looks and everything but it's a place where you can really create meaningful connections that goes beyond the um beyond the picture or beyond that video but really like content is king compared to any other platforms out there um so so that's how then I created the business out of it it's amazing isn't it I do love the stories where a business just sort of organically happens just because of a behavior you're already doing and did your mind just blow a little bit when you suddenly went 100 ,000 in one year because that's not many people get that that's kind of if I got that I think I'd be like oh my god how would that happen was it a bit strange to suddenly feel oh I don't know like you are now an influencer it's very weird to hear that to be honest with you I can't think of a different label for that but famous very weird to hear that I think it freaked me out a bit especially because when I had that like post going viral it got like I think 20 million views um and then suddenly i grew 100 000 in like a year but in two months i grew 50 000 followers so and so it was very like i remember i would grow like every day like something was happening something was happening like and i was like what is then at some point i was like i was really feeling over overwhelmed like honestly um because also i never liked like i never liked visibility which is very weird but you know I never liked visibility I never liked to be on Instagram or on Facebook and I always been very even when I was there I'm not there anymore but when I was there I was very private with my own life and everything but then I learned how to somehow expose myself but in a safe space in a way that there are things that I will never share on LinkedIn there are things that I will never talk about and that's my that's my boundaries I think there is a very blurred line on so many platforms between oversharing and undersharing.

23:33So there are so many people that just don't share anything. Zero. And I'm like, well, you don't give yourself, you don't do yourself justice, you know, that way. But there are some people that just share way too much, way too much. And that's, I think it's inappropriate, not in terms of picture, in terms of like topics is inappropriate, you know. um because we still need to remember okay like linkedin is like um um it's a professional platform so some things yeah it's not really maybe the right place to talk about um but yeah then i found it like i'm like you know if i'm making a business out of it if i'm actually like making a really good business out of it okay i i can suck it up and basically and i can i'm sorry and I can like you know learn visibility is actually good for your business yeah uh and so many opportunities unfolded on the back of that even this podcast unfolded on the back of that so I'm like why would I reject like what the universe is offering me why would I block it only because I'm scared okay and doesn't make any sense you know and especially it's like scared of

24:42Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:what yeah we can be scared and fearful but we don't really know what people will take a picture on the street i'm not that level don't worry but like like yes it's like you know i do i understand there's a bit though when you suddenly got these big followers like i'm nowhere near you but i see other people i can imagine a sense of a bit of vulnerability that there's more people looking at you or more expectations on you and and you've got to keep showing up because that's the standard you've now set so i'm guessing there's yeah a bit of vulnerability feeling a bit more exposed and pressure now to keep delivering is that fair yeah there is a lot of pressure on that side I think um yours I mean I was personally scared of being judged a lot because then I had people like criticizing me on this criticizing me on that um or like having unwanted attention yeah um and that was like really uncomfortable for me uh but then I started calling people out and now I get way less from unwanted attention to criticism like I'm owning it I don't care I'm sorry like this is my thoughts I am not being disrespectful to anyone I'm not being rude to anyone as long as you know I keep it in that in that space I can share whatever I want so when you say the calling out because I'm now thinking of people at home who sit there going oh I really want to do this but it just freaks me out the idea of posting every day or putting posts up is it because I know a lot of it is that fear of being trolled or criticized when you say call them out do you actually respond to their comments or you've just decided you just let it be and you're okay with that yeah so it depends so first of all that's a very common situation so I had a lot of people that were like no I had this post and then I started having a lot of visibility and then some people were like maybe criticizing it so I deleted it and I'm like no like don't do that because first of all having trolls is a symptom of success so welcome all the trolls they give you more visibility it's okay uh so that works um and second thing is that um there are a lot of people that will want to go against them maybe and reply but they don't have the courage to reply so you need to be that person that will speak up in that uh in that in that conversation i had people saying uh oh women need to just be home and have babies or like yeah like misogynist comments i'm like i'm not getting it so i start commenting commenting commenting anything and then I saw screenshotting that same message hiding the person name because I don't want to then make a post and make him public but on the comment I can anyway on the other thread I can comment whatever I want but and and mentioning how this is not okay so I actually then use it also to like um amplify my own voice on these things that I really care about and speaking out for people that maybe they don't have that courage then but then they will get that courage eventually so I took a lot for example a lot a lot about some like old bosses that I had that weren't the best for me and everything and then on this post sometimes especially like women harassment these type of things I would get huge impressions but very low interactions because a lot of people are very scared of speaking up and showing maybe to their own boss right now or I like this post actually.

27:56So then I would have a lot of people DMing me saying, oh my God, I'm going through the same situation. This person is doing this and this to me. How would you handle it and all these things? All of them on DMs. Because there's so much fear.

28:08Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:I get it because I put one up about senior workplace bullying. The DMs I got from that was like, basically, yeah, I'm experiencing this. This is happening for me right now. This is awful. So yeah, the DM power actually sometimes is more powerful than what people put in the comments because then you get the real truth that's coming through, the real person sharing. Yeah. When, because it's so hot topic now, building your personal brand. You know, I hear lots of people saying, now you've got to be visible or your business won't be successful. And as a, I'd say I'm a learned extrovert, I'm a natural introvert.

28:41Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:And so I've learned how to do all of this and I've found the courage to do it. But for some, it is really, really difficult. What is, do you think people need to have a personal brand now these days? how what's your view on what people need to be doing i believe everyone should have a personal brand you have it by default true you have it by default and if you want to take care of it or not that is your choice you know um why everyone should have a personal brand uh it's because like in it is the i always envision as that's your core company you're building whatever one day you want to build a company or not and i don't think everyone should be entrepreneur or anything like you can be an employee, you can build your own company, you can be freelance, whatever you want, but that's your main company.

29:25That's you, you're building yourself. And that eventually will give you opportunity for the future. Whatever, again, you're building your own company in the future, whatever you want to get, maybe speaking opportunities, other revenue streams or whatever, you want to get a new job, that gives you visibility. But you need to build it in a way that you will attract also the right visibility. So it doesn't mean that everyone should build a personal brand like you build it or like I'm building it. Everyone is in a different industry, different geography, different personality. So you need to build it as your own because again, it's personal.

29:58So trying to think about what are the things that you want to share about maybe, what are the things that can be educational to other people, like you think that people can get value and sometimes don't overthink it because sometimes what you think that is something that, oh my God, do you think there's value in this? Actually, there is a lot of value because it's your personal experience and then no one can take it away from you. So start like with these little nuggets of like content, then test it out. But if you never post, if you never really like are out there, then you can never actually like do anything.

30:31Then you're just going to be the behind the scene and never trying to do anything. So I think start with little things, like give yourself little goals and then little by little build on top of that. But again, based on what you want to achieve, what you want to achieve, what is it for now? I have a lot of employees like reaching out to me because they want to get maybe like again like a new job in the next six months or so. And again with all the layoffs coming in and with all this disruption it's harder to get a job. It's not easy. And again AI and coming in and yeah I mean it's efficiencies.

31:02So you need like a very different type of skill set nowadays actually to be like a very employable person. So you need to also differentiate yourself in the public space.

31:13Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:Yeah. I mean I got a lot of job offers actually through just my personal branding and I'm like no I'm not employable right now but I got a lot of advisory opportunities as well a lot of other different things investment opportunities for my company so you never know where life takes you and you might not need it now but something might happen in the next year in the next six months and then you're like wow I should have started like actually building it like long ago yeah I hear you loud and clear it's something I am so grateful I started I think I started doing mine seven years ago it took me a year to post on LinkedIn I felt that sick to put it up and then I eventually did it and then it was interesting you realized it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and I've actually changed my frame on it a little bit now because initially I was seeing it as right you need to do this it's like marketing drive leads for my business when I changed it to and even like with networking events actually know I'm going to make friends I'm just on this platform to make connection make friends it's not about selling it's just connecting because I remember that period seems to have stopped a little bit now that period of time and I did as well we had those awful automated emails to connect people and it's like oh now you can get my lead magnet and now you can get this and I was just like oh I'm like the shame of knowing I did that because again you get influenced by what people tell you you should do I think if anyone's like sitting listening to this if you say just start going on not oh my god I need a personal brand or I need a job maybe just start building a network I think all of us need a network I know I wouldn't be sitting here now if I hadn't made new connections the last seven years just and they're not all leads but friends who are also entrepreneurs and connect you to someone I don't know in terms of what you advise people in terms of to start but I think sometimes we make it too big in our heads I think you're completely right but by the way I also wanted to mention something so every one of us messed up with something like i made so many mistakes and it's not something to be ashamed of or anything it's like you know it's happening okay at that time you thought that that was the right thing to do okay now you learned it's not good that's it like but don't overthink also these mistakes just like you know move fast from that and just change like faster like your strategy um and i think you're right like you don't have to overthink and think like again is networking but in a very different way I go for coffee dates I meet a lot of people offline I just sometimes like either I get asked or either sometimes maybe if I get connected through somebody I'm like okay let's meet for a coffee if they're based in London or something I even did it like when I was traveling maybe if I was trying to the US or something uh or to Europe I met a lot of people just randomly through LinkedIn um which they like then a lot of different things came out of it then they introduce me to some other people then some other people introduce me to some other people and then I introduce them to like it's a whole ripple effect you know uh but of positivity and positive connections um has any been bad though because you do there are so many dms you get go let's meet for coffee and I do sit there sometimes going who do how do I pick where do I go so my inbox is not very well managed I must say like badly badly managed because I get tons tons of DMs um and I try to like skin I cannot reply to everyone because otherwise I would need to just hire one person just be there and reply um sometimes I try to skim through to reply some to unfortunately not reply some um and you just go with whatever your gut says like you know uh it is what it is like you can you can have it all like you can't uh do what you can yeah you can like whatever whatever but you know like again like this connection are so valuable like i'm it's essential now isn't it it is i mean in the all uh i had one client actually like the other day that was telling me like his uh um his ethos is in the all ai world and he worked for like huge uh tech companies like amazing companies uh and in this all AI world he wants to bring back the human connection and that's his ethos and that his mission and I'm like well that's beautiful and a lot of people say that but actually they don't really practice this while he's really making us his own mission uh and yeah I mean let's let's I mean let's use AI of course as uh you know in the best way possible but let's bring it back to actually who we are and let's let's try to meet meet proper in person you just give each other a bit of time if I was talking to someone earlier about the spirit of generosity you know and I think people have helped you people have helped me and it's now going right how can I help pay that forward and just keep passing that generosity between us I think and tools like LinkedIn are a great way to connect and meet people it's brilliant and I think time is also the most precious thing you have if you think about that so if you give that to another person and if I get that from another person for me wow like that person made an effort to come and see me I'm very impressed yeah I'm really grateful just a quick reminder if you haven't already to please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel it's a small action that makes a big difference you'll be the first to know when new episodes drop and your support helps us create meaningful content for leaders like you I'd also love to hear from you so if you have any thoughts questions or ideas pop them into the comments and if you're curious about how my leadership coaching or training could support you or your team just drop me a dm and we'll set up a call thanks so much now let's get back to the episode so that one piece of advice someone's listening now going and they've been procrastinating like i was for about a year they still haven't put a post up it just feels awful for them to feel out there and being judged what's the just the one piece of advice you would give them that's really practical that maybe they could do today or tomorrow i mean the most obvious it would be like just start now so don't wait until you perfectionate something until you you get the right content and the right idea or something just start with whatever you think it's okay because the good thing is at the beginning you have very low impressions which means not everyone will see that so even if you mess up it's fine but just start now and just start with something that you think okay this could be shareable then tomorrow try something different the day after try something different and just don't give up because a lot of people like the we're always getting used to these like very uh short time type of rewards of like instagram gratification you know with the instagram and everything uh linkedin is a long game it's long so don't think that oh in three months i'm gonna be scaling my account i'm gonna get any leads and everything it just doesn't work like that it's a very long term game and also another things that I can add um I always say that like LinkedIn is neither marketing neither sales I never sell my posts if you think I never sell and my business runs completely on inbound so I just try to give value to to to put content that people will resonate with and sometimes it's high value sometimes it's lower value but it's something that is me it's personal so you cannot be too marketing to market here you cannot be too salesy you need to be in that like very thin line of having that sort of marketing brain but also sort of that sales understanding that will make you think okay what are the people my audience can you know resonate with what are what are they getting value what are the pain points and then if you really are on that thin line then you can uh you can be successful there that's good advice very good advice and I think sometimes just the very first post one that worked really well for me is just to introduce yourself yes exactly hi i'm joe so i'll tell you a bit about myself been lovely lovely to connect with you that got loads that did so well for me but saying oh hi haven't seen you for ages it's lovely just intro yourself it's just a little picture exactly yeah and put a picture and also put like a profile picture a lot of people don't have a profile picture and i'm like i don't see you but you see me and i just don't feel comfortable why why are you hiding yeah i mean just a nice approachable picture it's it's just like start from the basic basic so for you you know you've got massive amount of followers you've done really really well in business you know you've overcome quite a lot in your life where would you want to be more courageous that's a very good question um i think courageous in believing in myself because sometimes you see everything happen but you still sometimes you still have that saboteur like sometimes talking to you and everything and just owning it more um and just believe in the in in the journey like what is happening for you and what is happening for all of us you know I think that's where I want to maybe change and improve a bit I think I need to do some work on this so more belief yeah because if you felt if you had more belief in yourself what do you think you would then be able to do i think i would have more less mind stress less mind stress yeah yeah although i think it's normal to have stress you know it's very normal especially when you you you i mean you're a founder you don't have really like a you know a salary that you can rely on type of thing um you always have that type of stress that you never switch off but like sometimes you know you don't want that excessive stress you want that right balance yeah so you think maybe a bit lower self-belief can create that excessive yeah stress unless you believe in ourselves more 100 % yeah you're actually does make you probably make more calmer choices more conscious choices and be how good are you saying no to things how good i am i'm very bad i knew you'd say that it's like yeah as soon as i know someone's got mind stress it's like i can't say no to everything over committing myself and i know exactly how that feels especially being a business owner it's so difficult to say no because you're like well what if it that doesn't happen and what if there's not a job next week and stuff so i think yeah any business owner listening to this will completely relate but i think that self-belief and the one i use is trust the process yeah and trust the process I started to trust the process and knew, as you said, I'm posting every day.

41:36Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:I'm showing up. Not every post does well. One goes mad. One doesn't. Some people DM, some people don't. You just go, no, just keep trusting the process, the compound effect. I don't need to say yes to everything. Because also I get, if I say yes to something and then something amazing comes in, you're like, oh, I can't do that. A hundred percent. but I feel it's also um I don't know like yeah I think it's we're so like we want to catch everything we want to get everything but like sometimes like saying no it's actually like doing good to yourself like um be gentle be kind to yourself and I think we miss that part so many times I miss it so many times and I think sometimes when we go for everything we don't really get everything because we're only doing it then it's we're not doing it fully yeah yeah it's only getting like that's getting 20 % of me that's getting 10 % of me versus just going I want to just really enjoy this moment and that should be really fully present and there and I think it goes back to I think you said at the beginning that feeling of not enough no that we're always craving like trying to prove ourselves or get more and I think that moment of contentment where you just go oh that's nice let me just sit with what I've got for a minute and we own it and I actually think it doesn't sound courageous but I actually think it's a very courageous thing to do and you just say like right now I'm good I have enough right now doesn't mean in a month I'm gonna want more but right now this feels good I think being more grateful as well like you know with the again that goes back to that like like when you think like you know we we have it good we're doing also I mean we're doing things with good intention as well so why would something bad happen you know like eventually I know the universe will will somehow support if you have good intention if you want to do good um and why not and on that note I would love to know if you imagine your future self I don't know how far into the future you want to go picture that future self for you what advice is she giving you right now don't stress too much it goes back to that I think it goes back to that um I think yeah actually yeah it goes back to the the same topic of no don't trust too much don't overthink things uh and trust the process and that really things will uh will unfold and you know you know but sometimes you don't know you need a reminder and that's sometimes also that's why maybe I have my coach as well yeah I'm like hey let's get on a call I need that reminder please help me just really curious if you're happy to share what is the big goal you're aiming for uh if you can share don't worry I think it's a bit still work in progress.

44:19Yeah. And I still need to figure myself out first. And then I think I can share it. Let's say I have a lot of different plans for the future. But I'm kind of unfolding it now and kind of figuring out what I enjoy the most. and how can I be in different actually spaces and create even more. I think I love the creative process when it comes to awards, but also when it comes to new businesses. I really enjoyed actually the whole messiness.

45:00Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:The startup bit. Yeah. So I have a few things in mind, but first I need to... work on you first yes and then we'll see well again i think that's lovely being vulnerable like that is actually yeah you can have all these big goals but if you don't have you first yeah they can't happen and if you don't enjoy you first you don't want to be i don't know you know everyone is like oh i want to be a tech founder okay but would you actually enjoy it or would you not like you also need to think about things that is not just good for the fame but actually what is good for you what is what is good what what makes you happy so I'm figuring out that's nice and then eventually I'll I'll keep you posted I look forward to hearing it thank you so much that's such a fascinating conversation I hope lots of people got lots of tips and if people want to get more from you is they just linked in with you yeah connecting me and just to make people clear listening you you can help people who want to start doing more of a personal brand yeah so So we help people like from, like doesn't have to be, primarily we work with founders and entrepreneurs, but not only.

46:07They want to just work and leverage their personal brand for a lot of different opportunities. We work with very international also founders, entrepreneurs and yeah, very lucky to have a really good relationship with our partners. No, it's brilliant. Thank you so much.

46:22Courageous Leaders Podcast Host:Thank you so much. And thank you for everyone who's watching or listening and we'll see you next week. if you've been enjoying the courageous leaders podcast we'd love it if you'd subscribe to our youtube channel your support helps us keep creating quality content and reaching more leaders like you who are ready to grow and make a real impact we fund this podcast ourselves so every subscription truly makes a difference and allows us to support courageous leaders like you thank you for being part of the journey