Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
S2E18: Employee Branding with Cher Jones
191 Plays1 year ago
"The branded wheel gets the grease."
This week, we had the privilege of speaking with Cher Jones - a powerhouse of personal branding with an impressive 30,000 LinkedIn followers.
Cher isn't just a social media influencer. She's the founder of "Your Brand at Work" and has collaborated with industry giants like BNY Mellon, Lockheed Martin, Fannie Mae, and Hewlett Packard.
Her mission: empower employees to cultivate and communicate their unique personal brands, both online and off.
What does personal branding mean to Cher? It's all about unearthing and expressing individual talent and value.
One of my favorite takeaways from our chat was Cher's five non-traditional KPIs for personal branding:
- Do people want to work with you?
- Do people want to work for you?
- Would they refer you?
- Will they champion you?
- Can they learn from you?
Powerful, right?
Our conversation was so much fun, and I learned a lot.
Cher, thank you so much.
LINKS
Content People Newsletter
https://meredithfarley.substack.com/
Content People on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/contentpeoplepod/?hl=en
Follow Meredith on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-farley/
Follow Cher on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/itscherjones/
Follow Cher on Insta
https://www.instagram.com/itscherjones/?hl=en
Cher's personal branding quiz:
https://mrqz.to/63d1c02dcab7fb00279e0fe9
Cher's website
https://trainwithsociallyactive.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Host
00:00:04
Speaker
Hi and welcome to Content People. I'm your host Meredith Farley. I'm a former chief product officer turned chief operating officer turned CEO and founder. My agency is called Medbury. At Medbury we work with founders, execs, and companies who want to tell their stories and grow.
Focus on Creative Leaders and Insights
00:00:21
Speaker
But Content People is not about me or Medbury, it's about the creative leaders and professionals that we interview every week.
00:00:28
Speaker
We'll delve into their journeys, unpack their insights, and ask them for practical advice. If you like it, please rate and subscribe. Let's get started.
Introduction to Cher Jones and Her Expertise
00:00:37
Speaker
Hello. I am so excited to get to chat with you. I'm so thrilled to have you on Content People. Thank you so much for joining. You know what? I've been looking forward to this all week. I'm so glad it's here, so today is a good day. It is. For folks who don't know you, could you share a little bit about who you are and what you do?
00:00:57
Speaker
Okay, so as you guys know, my name is Cher Jones and I am your brand at work expert. So basically what that means is I help leaders and their teams develop a personal brand at work for work. So it supports them in the job they do now. It helps them build their career and also makes the company brand look good too.
00:01:18
Speaker
So that's what I do through training, corporate training and coaching. And also I create a lot of contents, specifically on LinkedIn, a little bit on YouTube as well. And that's how I help people just stand out and show up and be opportunity ready.
Cher's Journey to Social Media Training
00:01:35
Speaker
So your company is called Socially Active Training. Thank you for reminding me that as well. Yes, absolutely. My company is definitely called Socially Active Training. And that is the banner in which we do everything around helping people build their brands at work. I want to ask you to tell the origin story of Socially Active Training. How did you see the need for this? How, when and why did you start it?
00:02:00
Speaker
It was really interesting because it's one of those things where you iterate to innovate. And it actually started working full time in a PR and communications position where I was responsible for an entire division's social media. And one of the things that I noticed while working at the city is that
00:02:20
Speaker
There is a dawn of a new age where social is important, even at governments, and this is a large government, 37,000 employees at the time, 25 people had access to social media. And at that point, they were talking about policies and what are we going to do to make sure everybody who does have access to social media is doing the right way? What are the communication strategies out there? And so,
00:02:48
Speaker
I looked at the people who were already in this room, having this discussion around social media policies and what is it going to be? And I, and I looked at all of them and I surveyed them. I was like, none of them really have any social media experience. They're very senior executive, senior level communicators or their executive senior level web people.
00:03:10
Speaker
But, and I thought to myself, okay, this is the time to develop a training program. So I took some training courses on adult learning, how to develop training programs. And so I developed the City of Toronto's first social media training program for communicators.
Transition to Entrepreneurship
00:03:31
Speaker
And I delivered it to, there's about 135 communicators at the time and I delivered it and I co-opted in someone else to help me, but I led that initiative and I pretty much did it off the side of my desk. So you're working for the city of Toronto and social media is like coming into everyone's consciousness as a more legitimate, powerful tool. You're sitting in a room full of.
00:03:59
Speaker
Directors, execs.
00:04:01
Speaker
who are trying to think of what are our policies and how do we train our teams to utilize this? And you're like, none of them know what social media is or how to use it. The interesting thing was once I started doing that, and once I started developing a reputation within the organization itself, my internal clients started referring me to external organizations. Hey, can you speak to newcomer professionals who are highly degreed, highly experienced,
00:04:31
Speaker
about building their personal brands because they're having a hard time getting jobs because they needed certain local or federal certifications so they can't apply for the jobs and also how do they stand out as newcomers, as new immigrants to the country as well. The other thing was, can you talk to youth and tell them how not to destroy their lives on Twitter and Facebook? Because those are the only two options at the time.
00:04:56
Speaker
And then that was actually the first assignment. And I always thought to myself, and it's actually how I've always done my programs is instead of teaching them how not to destroy their lives, they've already been hearing these messages from everybody. Anybody who has a mouth at this point is trying to speak truth and power into their lives. Why not show them how they can use it?
00:05:19
Speaker
to create opportunities for themselves to excel. And that was really my first foray into personal branding and using your personal brand to get what you want. So you are, you're in the role and you're working for the City of Toronto? Yes, I'm still there at this point.
00:05:37
Speaker
And then like colleagues with connections to other departments or other organizations outside the government even are like, share, can you help with XYZ? And just started to get a vision for
00:05:51
Speaker
some impactful positive messaging and also, and imagine just the need kept coming up. People wanted your experts. And so you at that point were like, I might have something really big here.
Finding Your Niche by Saying Yes
00:06:02
Speaker
I'm guessing. Oh, a hundred percent. And this is like 2013 now when I made the jump.
00:06:08
Speaker
So from 2009 to 2013, that's what I was doing. And one of the reasons why I made the jump, I wasn't completely, even though I come from an entrepreneurial family, my, both my parents are entrepreneurs. They used to turn me off of the idea of being an entrepreneur because you work for yourself. You don't get benefits. You don't get vacation, blah, blah, blah. I was like, okay. And then I felt two years into my role at the city, I felt that they were moving, even though we're doing some great work here.
00:06:38
Speaker
it's still government, large government, they're moving at a snail's pace in comparison to where I think they should be. So at that point, as I was exploring and having more control and having people come to me for advice and direction, and then my brand naturally, and this is a time when the concept of brand wasn't a thing, it was reputation. And I was just seeing how that was growing.
00:07:02
Speaker
And then so again, my internal clients started referring me externally and my reputation just grew to the point where I had all these, it was really, it was a lot cause I was probably working 70 hour weeks, 40 for the city and 34, all these clients coming at me. And eventually I made the pivot and I started social media training. It was originally a social media training company.
00:07:30
Speaker
And then basically over the years, I just kept on narrowing my focus and by saying yes to a lot of things so I could learn what to say no to. And that was key to get to where I am today.
00:07:46
Speaker
I think that's so wise. I remember when we first talked, you said something akin to that to me and I wrote it down after. I think there's so much messaging out there right now, especially on LinkedIn a bit that is maybe to folks like entrepreneurs just starting out and the messaging is niche down, niche down, niche down, ASAP, or
00:08:06
Speaker
Nothing's ever going to work for you. But I feel like at first you got to give yourself a little space to your point to say yes to things and be inspired by things or notice needs you wouldn't have noticed otherwise, and then more thoughtfully narrowed down what you're doing. I really liked that aspect of your advice.
Employee Advocacy and Personal Branding
00:08:22
Speaker
Thank you. And it was, honestly, it was absolutely necessary for me to be able to follow that advice because I heard all the advice too around niching.
00:08:31
Speaker
And I just felt, I was like, I can't yet. And I realized that if you can't niche, it's because you don't know. You haven't said yes enough to be very clear on what you don't like. And so my advice to follow through on that is the minute you know it's a no, say no to any more of that. You've got to get out. Don't do it anymore. And through a series of yeses to nos,
00:09:00
Speaker
you will find your hell yeses and those are your niches. Oh, sound bite right there. Exactly. So now with socially active training, what kind of clients are you working with? I suppose 10 years later, and I really want to invite you to name drop here because I know you work with some pretty big organization.
00:09:24
Speaker
my sweet spot, my zone is in the corporate space and helping companies like BNY Mellon or Lockheed Martin or Fannie Mae or HP. Yes, you gave me permission to name drop, so I'm name drop it, okay? And those are most recent ones. And it's an incredible opportunity for these companies, especially more traditional companies like that.
00:09:50
Speaker
insurance companies or insurance tech companies like Crawford and Co. They often have an employee advocacy program that's tracking or helping or feeding ideas, feeding stories that their employees can share. But the problem is for many companies is that
00:10:10
Speaker
Employees just hit share and unfortunately no one cares when you just share something that's from your company and you didn't write anything. You don't even know why you carry yourself. You just got points for sharing what these things aren't working. So what I do is I reframe how we use LinkedIn or also internal.
00:10:33
Speaker
networks as well and other areas where we show up professionally. Because the thing is, no one wants to know what you've done until they know what you can do for them now.
00:10:44
Speaker
So I help people do and frame them in the right way so that they become these magnets of opportunity. So they get seen, heard and respected at work. And oftentimes as leaders, you have to attract the right talent. You want to make that talent want to work with you, work for you. If you want to be championed.
00:11:05
Speaker
You've got to give your champion language to advocate for you. So all these things matter so much more. And plus, of course, that visual brand representation and experience for the company brand. All these things matter more than ever before. It's really powerful. So I want to say back a few things to make sure I totally have it right and then correct me wherever I'm wrong. So organizations like Lockheed
00:11:35
Speaker
For example, they bring you in and you help their employees reframe branding in their mind. So it's not professional or personal branding if and when you need a job in the future. It's professional and personal branding for kind of two audiences. The first audience is people who don't work at the company, but who are going to look at them. They'll look at their LinkedIn, they'll look at their social media.
00:12:02
Speaker
And the other bit is how they're branding themselves internally to their colleagues, their stakeholders, anyone else they might interact with in their role, even vendors, to crystallize and communicate who they are, what they can do, their ability to get things done. The benefit for the company there is like twofold. It's for the folks, it's for someone looking at an employee's profile. They can see how powerful everyone who works there is, how impactful
00:12:30
Speaker
And if that person is promoting the company, amazing. And then second is that internally it's like excavating and polishing skill sets, helping bring everyone's abilities and experience to the surface. Do I have that right? You nailed it. So many companies or brands would have the mindset. Why should I pay for my employees to have stronger personal brands? They're just going to get poached.
00:12:57
Speaker
I think that's not helpful thinking. I really believe in the work you do, but what would you say to those folks if someone said that to you, if they're like, why would I pay you to help my people look good for new jobs? And there's no denying it. They will look good.
00:13:15
Speaker
but they're also in the meantime representing your company looking good to your clients, your other stakeholders, investors, the media, people who are thinking about working at your company. That's a bigger list than companies that are thinking about poaching them. And then the other argument, which is more of a, I'm not trying to call your baby ugly or anything, but if they're going to leave,
00:13:42
Speaker
Oftentimes you have to wonder why are they willing to leave so quick? So it's really from the growth mindset because you grow a lot more when your employees have developed their personal brands. Because the other thing that has gone unsaid so far, which I'm glad I have this opportunity to bring it up, is that when you co-create content with your employees, when they feel recognized, when they feel rewarded,
00:14:09
Speaker
The interesting thing happens is they actually want to stay where they are, their job satisfaction goes up. When you co-create with them, they are now building into the brand. But let me tell you something,
Steps in Personal Branding Process
00:14:21
Speaker
the applicant tracking systems, the recruiters that are on LinkedIn, they can find who they're looking for, whether they're branded or not. So they'll find your people.
00:14:31
Speaker
But the service based positioning that I focus on is completely different than the employment based positioning. I think that's really powerful. And when at the beginning, when you mentioned. Yeah, they're going to look good. They could look appealing to other people, but they're going to look great for you right now. So often people talk about talent as an asset, but if you really believe that, why wouldn't you?
00:14:58
Speaker
help them invest in and be the best that they could be. Got a lot more questions, but before we move on specifically, could you get into the nitty gritty of the exact kind of work that you might do with a company and the services that you offer? Like how are you helping people to look better on LinkedIn, identify their strengths, communicate their strengths through official and unofficial channels in the business?
00:15:23
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. So one of the things usually I'm brought in to do a keynote or some sort of 90 minute session that kind of opens people's eyes to the possibility of branding themselves and what it really means. So basically everything that we've just talked about and.
00:15:38
Speaker
the reframe around building your brand at work for work and what that looks like and why it can help you. Once we've done that in my training programs, they all get exposed in one way or another to seven steps. The first step is really identifying how personal branding works at work, what that means, and then how you're establishing your goals for that.
00:15:58
Speaker
And then the next thing that we're doing is we're talking about their brand experience. So my definition of personal branding is a story other people tell themselves about you and the expectations they have the next time they interact with you. So knowing that
00:16:17
Speaker
You then have this incredible opportunity to influence that story, influence those expectations. And so you take a look at what kind of brand experience do you want to have and do you need to have considering what you do?
00:16:33
Speaker
And so they take a moment and they take the time to design that experience or be very aware of the emotions and also the assets that they need to put out there to create that, whether it's an experience of confidence, an aha moment, wow, they can do all this or whatever the case may be. Like we're creating that experience. And then what we do from there is we master their message.
00:17:00
Speaker
We look at how do you introduce yourself in a call, face-to-face and online. The messaging at its root, at its core is the same. It's just a different application and it's modified. So we build out your general elevator pitch, so to speak, and then we optimize our digital presence. These are get-er-done style.
00:17:22
Speaker
personal branding experiences that you'll actually work on your brand in real time with me helping you. So you're like in the room with everyone, but you're like, all right guys, we're writing our LinkedIn about sections right now. And then the interesting thing is the way that, so I like, so what I'm doing those one day and two days.
00:17:40
Speaker
I actually prefer training virtually for these because people get their time to, whether they need to turn off the camera, whether they need to just focus, they're on their own computers in their own space and they're building their brands.
Non-Digital Branding Strategies
00:17:52
Speaker
It just makes sense. I love training a person. I love speaking in person, but I had to take the L on that and be like, this is a better learning experience. And most people who come into these classes have never really, they're lurkers on LinkedIn or other forums or whatnot. They've never written anything.
00:18:09
Speaker
But they all come out like rock stars because the interactivity is designed to get things done. So I'll do something where, okay, we worked on our, we worked on our introductions, including our elevator pitch. So the next day I'll put them in breakout groups, just almost like it's speed dating and they introduce themselves and then they get connected on LinkedIn. And then later on, I have them send a voice note to each other so that they can.
00:18:34
Speaker
give them one piece of feedback based off of the changes they made on their LinkedIn profile. So what you can see, I'm strategically adding these get-or-done sort of elements in there. So you're seeing the knowledge turn into action. So they get it done in real time. Yeah. I love a working meeting. That sounds great. And it's intense. Yeah. It's intense.
00:19:00
Speaker
But nice too, because to your point, sometimes those long sessions can be so draining, but if you also got some stuff done, you feel accomplished as opposed to just tired. Absolutely. A good experience for them too. When people think or hear personal branding, they often think LinkedIn and maybe Instagram posts, but it is so much more than that. And I'm curious about how you would define personal branding in the workplace.
00:19:29
Speaker
in offline or non-digital ways? What are some basically IRL ways that people can be mindful and intentional in how they show up for each other?
00:19:41
Speaker
Okay, so I'm going to give it like an online offline because it's more traditional online. Your email address has a brand attached to it. Meaning sometimes there are certain email addresses that end up in your box that you're like, I don't even want to look at that right now. I don't even want to deal with that person. So we think about the experiences, whether face to face, whether it's digitally and we're not talking about like the social platform aspect of it, which is where we usually default to.
00:20:10
Speaker
Those things matter, but right now we are in such a space where what you think might be good online content, I would say that most content that you could create has nothing to do with the internet.
00:20:28
Speaker
And you can create content that can augment a report that can just be something. So let's say, for example, you were supposed to do a presentation and your mentor or champion wasn't able to be there.
00:20:43
Speaker
You could rerecord that presentation with a voiceover and send it to them. That's content for one, but that could change the game because that person could share it. They're developing that confidence. So we look at just the many things that we can do personally to build confidence in your ability to do something. Because at the end of the day, if you think about work, we just want to trust that it's going to get done.
00:21:10
Speaker
Either that's trusting you to do it, or trusting the person you're giving the work to do it. We want to make sure that people are showing up and really building that communication, that rapport, and even that respect. So where we see these opportunities is even how we introduce ourselves. There's so many great ways, so many little things. For example, when you introduce yourself,
00:21:38
Speaker
you can introduce yourself in such a way that's contextual to the conversation that's about to happen and really set the bar high and have people look at you in a different way. So the thing that I would say is don't drop the ball on that introduction. And most people just, Hey, I'm Cher Jones. I'm a trainer.
00:21:58
Speaker
Right? And that doesn't mean nothing. So you remain not important to me yet. So it's all about relevancy and your ability to communicate your solution or how you solve people's problems is a goldmine literally no matter where you are because problems are dog whistles.
00:22:21
Speaker
The right people will hear them if they've got that problem and they will lean in. So your ability within your brand to communicate how you solve problems, how you help will immediately attract attention. Another way internally is showcasing the talent of your team.
00:22:41
Speaker
Whether that's creating content around them, giving them opportunities, and then also make sure that's being reported to the right people.
Personal Branding KPIs
00:22:50
Speaker
And I have five KPIs around personal branding and they have nothing to do with metrics, social media metrics. Your brand is working well when it motivates and inspires people to work with you, work for you, refer you, champion you, and learn from you.
00:23:10
Speaker
Oh my gosh. One more time. That's gotta be a sound bite. Let me see if I can remember. Work with you. Work for you. Champion you. Refer you. Learn from you. You got it. So powerful. I love that.
00:23:30
Speaker
Thank you. And it really is because when people start to use those as their key performance indicators, they're like, my brand is working. People do want to be on my team. People are asking me to be on that project. People are interested in my opinion and what I have to say about this issue. There are people who are championing me. They're advocating for me. And I've given them enough that they can advocate for me. And they're comfortable in doing that. So all those things, you add that all in there?
00:23:59
Speaker
And you know, your brand is working. It's not about the likes you got on your last post. No one cares. And recognizing that personal branding really is, it's this ecosystem of all these different things, but at the end of the day, it's credibility and trust.
00:24:17
Speaker
Do I trust that you're going to do what you said you're going to do or what you said you can do or what you've said you've done in the past, right? It is so powerful and it's something that too, I think it can be complex. I think people can be nervous to do it because people are petrified of coming off as
00:24:40
Speaker
like they're bragging, like statistical or narcissistic. Of course that's not what personal branding is, personal brandings. I think of it as just professional self-care, but- I love that. Thanks, thank you. But it is when one learns or is trained to do it right, it's so powerful, I think, because it can remove some of the inhibitions and blocks that hold people back from
00:25:07
Speaker
promoting themselves in a way that's useful to them and useful to their organizations and colleagues too. Absolutely. And it's all one. You're like a guide that's helping them excavate what's unique, what's powerful. Yeah. I would imagine that a lot of folks listening might be like, how can I get more share in my life?
Connecting with Cher Jones and Final Thoughts
00:25:28
Speaker
So if someone is listening and they might want to find you or work with you, where can they follow you or get in touch?
00:25:36
Speaker
The best place of course is LinkedIn. That's where I hang out. I love LinkedIn. I create a lot of content on there. So that would be the first place to hang out with me. You can also reach out on my website, which is sociallyactivetraining.com. Or you know what? If you want to shoot your shot on Instagram, I'm there too. So It's Share Jones is on all my socials, whether it's on X, Twitter.
00:26:00
Speaker
and all the other places, it's share Jones. And if you want it to know what you should be doing next with your personal brand, I created this incredible quiz. It's all about your personal brand network. And it's really one of those like quizzes that are asking really good questions, not
00:26:17
Speaker
Who do you think you're more like, Beyonce or Taylor Swift? I don't care about that. I'm asking you stuff about work. And so if you go to personalbrandingquiz.com, you will be able to take an eight short questions. I will give you a new perspective on what you can do with your brand next. So that's where I'd suggest you head over to. Look, we will put that in the show notes. Thank you. I take that myself, Cher. I'm curious. That's awesome.
00:26:44
Speaker
Anything that I forgot to ask or didn't ask that you'd want to say? No, I think I talked your ear off because I just love this stuff. And what I do want to remind everybody is the branded wheel gets the grease. So, oh my God, I just dropped that right there by my drop. Right. But it is absolutely true.
00:27:06
Speaker
The branded wheel gets the grease. There were like 10 great soundbites in this convo. Editing it is going to be fun. Thank you. That is awesome. That is awesome. They're all going in the book. So I'm writing a book right now called And You Are. And because it's such a question that everybody's asking when they look you up, right?
00:27:26
Speaker
All those different, this journey and some advice and examples and all that good stuff is going in the book about building your brand at work. And basically it's like how to build a brand that no one's ever asking you that question again, because they already know. So anyways, yeah, I'm really excited about that. And I'm actively working on it because it's got to get out there. So. Sign me up to read it. All right. Thank you so much, Cher.
00:27:56
Speaker
All right, folks, I hope that you enjoyed that episode. Thank you so much for listening. If you liked it, please subscribe or review us. And if you want to check out our newsletter, Content People, it is in the show notes. See you next time. Bye.