How To Promote Your Personal Brand Online
What is your personal brand and how do you promote your personal brand online?
In this episode, we're joined by Mary Agbesanwa who is a Strategy and Operations Management Consultant currently leading her firm’s Fintech Accelerator Programme.
We discuss why it's important to promote your personal brand online and the opportunities it can bring to you and your career. We share tips on how to build your personal brand online and how to create a strategy that works for you.
Mary has an excellent personal brand that has won many awards. She was selected as a McKinsey Next Generation Women Leader 2020 and is No.1 on EMpower and Yahoo Finance’s Future Leader List 2020.
Mary blogs on her Medium blog A Millennial's Diary about careers and personal development for millennials, and co-runs a female millennial self-development and entrepreneurial community called Now You’re Talking.
Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram to join the community and continue the conversation.
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Transcript
Aisha S 0:00
Hello and welcome to the world in her words where we inspire black women and women of colour to take control of their careers through sharing strategies, advice and inspirational stories. I'm your host Aisha Suleiman. And to check out more of our content, sign up to our mailing list or to say hello, go to our website theworldinherwords.com. Today's guest is Mary Agbesanwa and she is passionate about the future of financial services and supporting millennials to achieve their full potential. She is a strategy and Operations Management Consultant currently leading her firm's FinTech accelerator programme. She also co leads her friends multicultural Business Network, which is a large employee resource group with over 1000 members outside of work. She blogs on her blog a millennials diary about careers and personal development for millennials and she also co runs a female millennial self development and entrepreneurial community called now you're talking. She was selected as McKinsey's next generation women leader in 2020. And she is number one on empower and Yahoo. finance's future leaders list. So Mary, tell me about the FinTech programme that you lead.
Mary Agbesanwa 1:06
So the reason why I took up this Well, firstly, is because I'm really passionate about FinTech, financial technology and how technology is being used to democratise access to financial services. But overall, I've always felt that the financial services industry has been quite opaque and intentionally so. And I think technology in so many ways is demystifying and democratising who has access to financial services products. So I just really wanted to be at the heart of that. And this was a great opportunity that I was kind of offered and was keen to take. So in terms of the FinTech programme that we run, it's an annual programme where we pick 10 to 12 FinTech startups from around the world, to join our cohort. And I guess the kind of specifications that we look for - their kind of at the growth stage, so they're post, like MVP, revenue generating probably have a few clients already, and they're all kind of b2b fintechs that have enterprise solutions to sell to financial services institution. So the reason we're involved in this is probably twofold. Firstly, want to increase our brand in the FinTech space, and secondly, to find interesting, innovative b2b fintechs that we can introduce our corporate clients to with the idea that at the end of this programme, we both know each other's management teams really well understand the kind of the startups the use cases as well, so that we can eventually kind of form some kind of joint business relationship. So it's a really exciting programme gets me in chapter FinTech founders all day, which is really, really good. And yeah, outside of work as well, instead of work, I'm always learning and building communities, I get to utilise my strengths in that area as well. I guess the kind of the startups we look at our b2b or b2b to see FinTech space in the UK, or based all around the world with a keen ambition to expand into the UK in the short to medium term. They're kind of late seed series A, all the way to kind of maybe Series B Series c revenue generating as I mentioned, and kind of having that validated products already.
Aisha S 2:58
That's perfect. And you know what, Mary, I think that role is perfect for you. Because like one of our first conversations, you were talking about FinTech and how passionate you are about it. So I think you're the perfect woman for the job. Thank you. And speaking of your passions, tell me a little bit about now you're talking because I was doing some digging on you before we caught up today. And I saw that that's something that you're leading. So tell us a little bit about that.
Mary Agbesanwa 3:20
Sure thing. So the now you're talking network is a community I've been wanting for just over three years, I say it's the kind of go to place for female millennials to level up personally and professionally, the network really didn't start off in a pretty grand way. When I came back to London to start working, I started going to events, particularly around kind of financial services or technology after work, and I just was going through all these events. And I realised like, I was usually the only black woman, but usually just the only young woman generally. And I was just like, this is really strange. Like Where are all the female millennials that might be interested in like technology or financial services, and I got to have the conversation with a couple of friends and they were like, just like those spaces aren't really for us then like what would I have to contribute at those kind of events and I thought that's really sad. Like we should still have a space to kind of grow and learn together so I basically created a whatsapp group added 50 of my friends that I knew worked in and around the city was like, Hey, guys, we're just going to share events and articles and resources. And they were like, what the hell is this farm? Like, why are we doing this? Now that's grown into like four more WhatsApp groups with like, roughly 250 people in them and yeah, it doesn't well, communities have kind of women and technology female founders and female side hustlers, women looking for jobs and event women who have started companies together women who Yeah, literally found job opportunities for each other. And now we have community of over 700 women mainly based in the UK, but some members all around the world. And to me, that's just so exciting. Like it was something that was more painful to see that didn't exist and me really thinking I wanted to start something kind of radical. So yeah, absolutely love it. Absolutely love meeting new People and providing a safe space for us to have conversations D stigmatising talking about careers and just levelling up generally, that we run regular online workshops and events and just really engage with people around that it's how did you get your first promotion, salary negotiation? All the things that people love to talk about behind closed doors? Yeah, we're willing to have a chat about
Aisha S 5:20
That's amazing. And I think it's really cool that you've been able to grow that to 700 women, that's massive. And you're so right. I feel like, you know, having those discussions is really important, especially, you know, getting a promotion, you know, salary negotiation, because, yeah, there is still a lot of hush hush around that. And, you know, not really talking about that. So it's so cool that you've created that space. Thank you. That's great. And speaking of that, you have an excellent online profile, by the way. So I was looking at your LinkedIn, just before we got up, and I really like your LinkedIn background photo, by the way. Thank you. But I think you have a great online profile. So I think in your opinion, you know, what is a personal brand? And why is that important? Because I feel like you have a really strong personal brand.
Mary Agbesanwa 6:03
Thank you so much. I so so I think for me, personal branding. I try not overcomplicate it, I think now people are using all this kind of terminology and stuff. I would just say it's what would someone say about you, when you're not in the womb? How would they not physically or your appearance, but how would they describe you? What words would they use? And I think that is your personal brand. Essentially, I guess you could extrapolate that for an online presence and say, literally, what is on Google when you search your name? I think that's really what personal branding is about is about what impression what perception Are you giving people do they know what you're interested in? Do they know where you work, where you want to work, those kinds of things. So personally, I think a personal brand is absolutely imperative is a really great way to give people an idea of who you are and what you believe in, I am strongly of the opinion and whether you think you have one or you don't you do yeah, you you can either curate what people perceive you to be, or you can either leave it to chance. And I'd rather not leave that job. I'd rather just tell people all the good work and other things that I'm doing so that they don't have to second guess. And I always say people tend to believe you, when you share what you can do, like people will just take that as a given. So even if you aren't where you want to be. Now, if you say I'm an aspiring, I don't know investment banker, people will just remember that, like, generally people want to support you want to help you want to connect you to others. So why not help them do that, rather than just they actually, one day when I make it and I'm CEO 15 years later, I will start to build a personal brand is way more powerful to tell people on the journey.
Aisha S 7:32
Absolutely. Absolutely. I agree with that. Especially your point about making it easy for them as well. I remember someone said, you know, with your personal brand, you want people to be able to put you into a neat little bucks and hand it over to someone else when they need to. So if you're looking for someone who let's say, I don't know, bakes cakes, and also blogs about FinTech, you know, then you can say hey, you know, if you're looking for someone who bakes cakes and knows a lot about FinTech, I should see a girl so yeah, excellent point. It's not making it easy. Yeah, what would you say then are some of the advantages of having a personal brand?
Mary Agbesanwa 8:05
Great question. I think that Firstly, just building your network, not only in your organisation, but outside of it, I think it comes back to what you literally just mentioned, how you making it easy for people to be like, would they how would they remember what you're associated with and what you do make it easy for them, don't make it hard, don't make them have to Google your name have to search you on the company, I don't know if that's possible, make it easy for them to have seen you a couple of times, I will say think in terms of personal branding, LinkedIn is really great. I mean, I'm not even being paid by them say that. All on LinkedIn, the reach is actually really high, you can post something and not only does it appear on your timeline, but it appears on the timeline of the person who liked that post as well. So within a day on LinkedIn, you can easily reach 10,000 people, which actually on other social media platforms is actually quite hard to do if you don't have a large following. Yeah, it's really important to do that. What really drove me to care a lot about personal branding is coming across the methodology, the PI methodology by Harvey Coleman, which is basically a book and it just talks about the importance of personal branding. And the PI methodology is that idea that for career success, you need three things performance, image, and exposure, performance accounts for 10% of your career success image is 30%. And exposure is actually 60%. And I think that's, especially as women or ethnic minorities, we're often thinking that one day, we're just gonna, we're just gonna keep working hard, and someone's gonna help us in the shoulder one day and say, Oh, you've been working so hard. Here's that promotion. But actually, if you're actually trying to get that promotion, he needs to spend half of your time campaigning and telling people you want it because there's some people out there that don't want promotions. And if you don't tell people you want it, they're gonna think that you don't want it. So I think that when I came across that methodology, I just found it so powerful. And that actually we've all got that a bit skewed. Sometimes we're thinking our work will speak for itself, but you look around you in your workplace actually, performance is pretty given like everyone works. Like Anwar, actually is about working hard vocalising, that you're working hard showcasing the work you're doing shouting about it, telling people that they know remembering your name, knowing what's associate you with so that you can get your next opportunity. And I think overall, like I work in a consulting firm, like a lot of those things starts to come not quite naturally. But when I talk to my friends that work, other organisations, kind of awareness raising internally and externally about what you do is actually quite hard. And a lot of people think is not a priority. I think for me, the PI methodology just shows it's just absolutely paramount. It's not optional, you have to do it. Yeah. So you have to recognise that your performance has given that your image is all about how people perceive you and what you do and what what words resonate with about what you do. And then your exposure is spending time actually showcasing what you're about and sharing things on LinkedIn and engaging with other people's content. And it's just very, very important.
Aisha S 10:53
Yeah. So for me, for example, I totally agree with what you said, when I would think about sharing what I'm doing and like promoting that I always thought, Oh, it's like I'm bragging. And you know, of course, my work should speak for itself. Like, why should I have to tell people what I'm doing. But someone said something to me. And I think it stuck with me. She said, you know, when you're sharing your achievements, don't look at it as bragging. Think of it as you're sharing something that could actually help someone else. Because they can take ideas from it. They take inspiration from it. And it's something that you can say, Oh, you know what, actually, I'm going to go implement this because she shared it. But if you've done something amazing, and you haven't shared it, then people can't learn from you. And I think when I started seeing it as Oh, actually, I'm sharing it to sort of help people learn, then it got a lot easier.
Mary Agbesanwa 11:34
Yes. I love that and kind of distancing yourself from it. Yeah, I think a lot of people have that they feel like, is this arrogant? Is this like bragging? Actually, no, it's recognising that that achievement in itself has value. And you would want other people to talk about that, if they had done that as well.
Aisha S 11:49
And then in terms of, you know, where you promote your brand, you know, we've talked about LinkedIn. And your point about having getting that exposure and the views compared to the other social networks is so true. The other thing is, I also feel like with LinkedIn, you know, you can get some really, really, you know, senior people, leaders, you know, yeah, the platform as well. So I think LinkedIn is a really good one to promote your brand on.
Mary Agbesanwa 12:11
I completely agree. And I think I always say on like social media, social media has actually changed the game of how we network like before networking was actually quite a privilege game, but you had to get your business card, go through all these events, meet people now actually, it's quite democratised, like, everyone has the same space on the LinkedIn page, everyone has the same number of characters on Twitter. So who is actually good? Turns out regardless of grade, so I think that's what I'm really excited about, like now, it's not just about the most senior person all the time is actually that intern in your company and be important on social media, because they're sharing what is important to them. I think that's also exciting as well.
Aisha S 12:48
And where else do you think that people can promote their personal brand online? Aside from LinkedIn?
Mary Agbesanwa 12:54
Firstly, one area that I've seen massive benefit or promoting my personal brand is having a personal website. Yeah, so I created a personal website probably about just over a year ago. And for me, it was more about gratitude and reflection. And actually, I took two weeks of annual leave to just document everything I wanted to be on there and created. And it was just such a reflexive process to be like, Oh, these are the words that I want, oh, this is how my journey is planning out so far, and actually just really a great way to be grateful for everything that I've achieved. But actually, now that I published it, I get loads of messages a week from students from people who want me to speak at events. And it's just sort of depository of stuff that I've done. In my own words, again, curating that image of how I want people to be me. So I would say, for anyone who's really serious about kind of increasing their personal brand, I would suggest you create your own personal website, it doesn't cost too much. And it's a great kind of fun project to do as well. I always say like, it can be other things like just even your LinkedIn page, making sure you update it. I'm always surprised by the number of people who have like a photo that they like, was clearly 10 years ago, it's not really clear, like, okay, so you just joined and now you'll see, like, I just why don't you tell me what happened in between like, or they just are not engaging with it? Like I I think you do have to engage with the social media to keep it current. And I think also, I would also say nominating yourself and others for awards is a great way to increase your personal brand as well. Yeah. Firstly, don't always wait for other people to nominate you. But if you know you've worked hard on something, nominate yourself, but also nominate others as well. Because again, those awards will be promoted by kind of large organisations and things like that. And that can really showcase what we've done.
Aisha S 14:29
And that's amazing. I like this idea of nominating yourself. Yes. Don't wait for others don't always wait. You know, take the bull by the horns. Yeah. So you've talked a bit about you know, how you took some weeks off to work on your personal website. And it sounds like that was sort of your discovery mode of what you wanted your personal brand to be right?
Mary Agbesanwa 14:46
Yes, I think so. It took a lot of thought work.
Aisha S 14:49
What kind of questions Did you ask yourself when you were doing that?
Mary Agbesanwa 14:52
The main question I would ask myself is just what three words that I want my brand to incumbents and why and I recognise that Those, we're always going to be evolving and literally maybe month by month or year by year, but at least always just thinking generally, what are the kind of words that I want to associate with my band? And every time I post something, I'm like, does it associate with one of those words, and probably right now, for me, those words are like FinTech community and careers. And if something isn't aligned on one of those, then probably don't need to post it. And it's probably confusing to the people that follow with me, follow me or engage with my content. So I would encourage people to ask that question, but also link it into your goals, right? So where do you want to be my long term aspiration is like start my own FinTech company. So it makes sense for me to be talking about that right now. And kind of sharing the stuff that I'm reading, and I guess my journey, and I am always quite fond of this whole idea of kind of learning in public, and you don't need to wait or you know, everything, because that's ever going to happen. She just kind of learning and sharing what you're learning as you go along the way. I think the best people on social media, the people that share with others. So that can be really powerful as well.
Aisha S 16:05
Yeah. And I really like what you said about sort of narrowing it down to three, because with your personal brand, right, you don't want to represent too many different things. Because then again, you're not really making it easy for people to sort of put you in that box and hand you over to someone. Right. So I really like the fact that you've talked about narrowing it down to three things, what kinds of things would you advise someone? So someone who wants to sort of build their personal brand? What sorts of things could you say to them? Okay, post about this online? Because sometimes people think, okay, I want to post more online, but what do I actually post about? Again, I
Mary Agbesanwa 16:34
would say, have the areas or themes that you are interested in very clear, but I would say there's different levels to it, right? So there's level one, which is just actually you're too nervous to actually create any of your own content. So just engage with the stuff that's out there already. So whether it's your friends or colleagues or thought leaders in your space, commenting on their articles, and their what they're showing and just supporting them reach we tweeting, are we sharing their posts, like you actually haven't created any content, but you're showing that you're active. So I do want to encourage people who are maybe just like, Oh, I'm too nervous to share content, actually, you don't need to create anything yourself, you can just share what other people have created. I do that quite often. And there may be if you're feeling a bit more bold, then you can start using features such as like the blogging and wasting your own content, and then creating your own voice. But I would always say, as a society, we need to get more comfortable with bad job. No one remembers the worst tweet they've ever read, or the worst blog post I've ever read. They just kind of stopped reading it and just move on. But people always remember the greatest thing they've ever read, or the best thing they've read that week. And they're like, oh, share that with someone. And I think they get to the greatest, you don't do that by just kind of waiting. So this one day and your perfect rider, you actually just have to keep publishing and sharing and writing and society and people will help you tailor what resonates. And what doesn't, though, I think I would say on the whole brand building is quite an iterative process. And it is a bit of kind of trial and error a be testing and seeing what works for you as well. Yeah, I would also say on top of all of that, don't be too stressed by it, like social media, by its very designers. And then every day is all the time, but do what works for you. If you can only log on to LinkedIn once a week for half an hour. That's cool. Just make sure you do it. And that works for you. I think it's more just when people are like, Oh, I really want to do it. But a year goes by and yet your LinkedIn page looks the same.
Aisha S 18:22
Yeah, it's all about taking those baby steps, isn't it? And exactly, as you said, finding what works for you. Some people can post like every day, and that's great. But even if it's you posting once a week, or like as you said, logging in 30 minutes, and then sort of taking it from there taking those baby steps because it's making you consistent, right? It's almost like you're trying to build a habit.
Mary Agbesanwa 18:40
Exactly, exactly. And that the best way to do it is by kind of progressive small steps. And I use kind of time blocking calendar blocking a lot to make sure I absolutely love time boxing fight. Thank you, Mary,
Aisha S 18:52
do you have any other top tips for sort of building your network online,
Mary Agbesanwa 18:57
I would just really encourage people to see the value in building a personal brand. Understand which platforms they want to have a presence on and dedicate the time required to update them and keep them updated and relevant. Otherwise, it starts to be a bit pointless. But understand what good looks like for you definitely pick the three words that identify and summarise your personal brand and why. And yeah, those would be the main things kind of just know what works for you and stick to that and not feel pressurised by what other people are doing because they aren't new and that they're not maybe even speaking about the same topics or three words.
Aisha S 19:30
Absolutely. being patient with ourselves is so key. I feel like someone needs to just yeah, wake us up every day and be like, be patient. Be kind to yourself. Honestly. All right. Great. Thank you so much, Mary, it was great to have you on the show. Loved it. Thank you so much. If you want to join our community of Black women and women of colour to talk more about this topic then follow our LinkedIn or Instagram page, I'd love to hear from you. To read the show notes for this episode, go to theworldinherwords.com. Take good care of yourself
Transcribed by https://otter.ai