Podcast

#270 - BRAND 'YOU', with Nicole Hatherly

 

Hello and welcome back!

In this episode, I’m thrilled to have a conversation with Nicole Hatherly, an award-winning global brand strategist, international keynote speaker, a leading expert in personal and professional branding - and a lovely friend of mine.

Have you ever wondered what it means to build your personal brand - and why you should?

Well, Nicole is here to guide us through the answers, including how to do it authentically, ensuring you align your personal brand with your dreams, passions, values, and purpose.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Understanding Personal Branding: Learn why your personal brand is crucial and how it differs from your professional brand.
  2. Aligning with Your Purpose: Discover how to align your personal brand with your core values and purpose for a fulfilling life.
  3. Practical Steps to Visibility: Get actionable tips on how to become more visible and articulate your value in any setting.
  4. Overcoming Self-Doubt: Gain insights on overcoming self-doubt and embracing your authentic self.

Enjoy this enlightening episode as Nicole shares her journey, expertise, and practical strategies to help you build your compelling personal brand.

As always, I’d LOVE to hear what resonates with you from this episode and what you plan to implement after listening in. So please share and let’s keep the conversation going in the Dream Life Podcast Facebook Group here.    

Have a wonderful weekend… and remember, it all starts with a dream 💛

Enjoy! 

💛

Dream Life Founder  

SHOW NOTES:

RESOURCES:

TRANSCRIPT:



Kristina: [00:00:00] What would you do with your life? If you knew you couldn't fail, if you had all the money, all the time, all the knowledge, all the resources that you needed, what would you do with your life? If you simply knew that anything was possible for you. My name is Christina Carlson, founder of global Swedish design and inspiration brand dream life and author of the book.

You dream life starts here. And I am. Love exploring these sorts of questions to inspire people like you to chase your own dream life, whatever that means for you. Many years ago, I wrote down a dream on paper that would one day bring Swedish design to the world and create beautiful, inspiring, and meaningful product That would bring sparks of joy into the everyday lives of millions.

Now that I have achieved that dream, I want to leverage everything I've learned to help you dream big and to create a global movement, to inspire 101 million people, [00:01:00] to transform their lives and transform. The world in return, each episode will dive deep into the power of dreaming and share real insights and practical ideas that you can use immediately to build a dream life of your own.

Whatever that means for you.

Hi there, and welcome back to another episode. Today, I have a great guest and a great topic that I'm very passionate about. And that is how we all have a personal brand and what we can do to make sure it aligns with our dreams, passions, values, and purpose. Today's guest is my friend, Nicole Hatherley, who is an award winning global brand strategist, international keynote speaker, and a leading expert in branding humans, both personal brand and professional brands.

And Nicole [00:02:00] is all about helping humans just like you. To align with your vision and articulate your value and amplify your visibility across your brand, business, and leadership. Because she believes your work does not speak for itself. And I could not agree more. I had done some work with Nicole myself on my own personal brand and my own Absolutely loved it.

So I have invited Nicole to be a superstar guest speaker in the dream life coaching program in August, 2024, where she will be holding a workshop to help you create your personal brand. I'm so excited about this because Nicole is just the best. Brilliant. If you want to join us in August, 2024, just head over to dreamlafstatshere.

com. I will link to it in the show notes as well. And if you're listening to this after August, 2024, everything in the dream life coaching program is recorded and you [00:03:00] can access everything we have done. Also, Nicole is one of the other three ladies I am doing the Fiji retreat with. So I will link to that in the show notes as well, or just head over to yourdreamlifestyleshere.

com. This is an episode that you will get so much out of. Make sure you have a pen and a journal ready. So let's get straight into it.

Hello, Nicole, and welcome to my podcast. I am thrilled to have you here. Oh my goodness. Not as thrilled

Nicole: as I am. I woke up this morning. It was like Christmas morning.

We get to talk all the time. And how many times, Christina, have you and I gone, Oh my goodness. I wish we had recorded that. And here we are.

Kristina: Yeah. And you know, that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have a podcast because I feel like I have such an amazing conversation with so many of my friends. And then I'm like, [00:04:00] imagine if we can share it.

And here we are. So I felt the same. And, um, I'm in Sweden at the moment and I had a friend coming by this morning and, uh, and it's morning here. And I, he said, Oh, you poor thing you're working for. And I'm like, I love what I get to do. So it's perfect. So thank you for being here. Before we get started, I would love to just ask one question that I ask all my guests, and that is do you have a dream as a child, something you wanted to do or have or be?

Nicole: Such a good question. I was, I was such an in the moment child and I'm a really in the moment person. And, um. Thinking about the dreams, I had such a wild imagination. So, you know, I had castles with a couple of hundred rooms in them and I could point out everything in the room through my imagination, but I guess if it was a dream forward or what I wanted to do or have, there was two.

that were consistent. The first one was travel. I [00:05:00] think when other kids dived into the Sunday papers back then and went through the comics or went through the game section, I would just dive into the travel section and see these games. wonderful people in Rome and Paris and the Caribbean. And I tell you what, as a kid growing up in Canberra, which is so cold in the middle of winter, watching people on the French Riviera in summer was a whole world away from scraping the ice off the car windscreen with a credit card.

It was just so fascinating. And I tell you, I didn't actually go traveling overseas until I was 20. So it was all that time just dreaming about travel and all of those places and I've ticked most of them off. So that's one. It's always been that dream. If I'm looking forward to anything, it's always, where am I going and what am I discovering?

And the second one in [00:06:00] Australia, when I was growing up, we had, we had a variety show called the Young Talent Time and Young Talent Time had all these kids around our age and actually It launched the career of Danny Minogue and Tina Arena. And, um, I just wanted to be one of those people performing. It was a, it was like the Mickey Mouse Club, but for Australian talent.

And they would sing and they would dance and there were triple threats all over the place. And I danced, um, when I was young. So I couldn't sing to save my soul. But every time it came on the telly, we'd wait and watch it on the weekend. And I would just. It was the performance side of that, Christina. It was, I knew exactly what it was.

It was the being not in the crowd and being somewhere else and creating something and performing something. Just It's just not with my voice.

Kristina: I love that because you know, in, in some ways you're [00:07:00] doing that, perhaps not the way you, you intended to, but you are traveling the world speaking and you are on stage just in a, what's in a different format.

Absolutely. And I don't have to sing to anyone. Which I'm not sure is a good, good or a bad thing, but I'm sure, um, we are missing out. So let's talk about, let's talk a little bit about your journey. So, um, maybe we have listeners from all over the world and not everyone will know about you yet. So I'd love for you just to share a little bit of your journey and then we'll get into your expertise, um, after that.

Nicole: Yeah, my journey isn't as squiggly a line as, as many people. I think what I've had is this beautiful golden thread through my career. Uh, when I left school, I deferred university to travel. And in that traveling, I opened, it opened up my world to this thing called [00:08:00] advertising and marketing. And where everything was Creating stories about something and seeing value in something.

It was those two things I have always had since I was a kid. Two superpowers I've got is telling a bloody good story. Always been able to tell a story that engages any audience and, uh, wraps the facts in that story. And the other thing I've always been able to do is articulate value. So to be able to, uh, share the value of something or how, uh, what I wanted to say to a friend, even in the birthday card, when I was just a little kid, I always had the words, the right words to articulate the value of anything I wanted.

And I took pride in that. And I, from a very young age, or even when I. could first start understanding words, I had an absolute fascination with etymology, like the root of [00:09:00] the words. What did the words mean? And people are like, what do you mean? Like, but who was the first to use it? And I had this just crazy obsession with the energy of words.

And. what they meant from so many different angles. So when I traveled the world and, uh, looked for my profession, I dived into the world of advertising and marketing. And so I've been in that world now for over 30 years. And that has been the golden thread. So from advertising agencies, I was with Leo Burnett in the heyday in the mid nineties, when everything was quite crazy.

But all we had was advertising. It was either above the line advertising or what we called below the line, which was digital advertising and direct marketing, which I actually specialized in. And so I would flip between brand and in Australia, we just And it came about direct marketing and digital marketing [00:10:00] when I was at Leo Burnett.

So we carved that out in Australia and the path forward, which was super exciting. And then from there, I flipped and went to the client side. And so after looking after many, many, many brands in a portfolio, it was this beautiful fascination of just honing in. And just being able to align its vision and articulate the value of that brand in all different essences and then raise the visibility of that brand.

So I was, um, head of brand, direct marketing in a couple of organizations. And seven years ago, seven and a half years ago, I went out on my own. So I became a global brand strategist and, uh, an expert in what we call branding humans. Humanely and, uh, and took up the stage a lot more across the globe as a professional keynote speaker as well, speaking about the power of brand, the [00:11:00] value, um, of brand and everything to do around brand and leadership.

Kristina: Yeah, I love that. And I'm not surprised that you were obsessed with words because you are the word queen when we work together. It's, um, I always leave that to you. So that's really, um, not a surprise at all. I love for you to share a little bit. How did you get in? What inspired you to get into, um, to personal branding and, uh, you know, the passion of, of people having a purpose.

Cause both of us are just so aligned

Nicole: with that. So aligned. I can tell you. Exactly what inspired me. I remember the day that Personal Brand was born. Literally remember. So here I was, I was, uh, 27. I'd just turned 27. I was in Leo Burnett, this young gun. I was an account manager, a senior account manager then at a portfolio.

And I wanted to learn everything. Um, [00:12:00] like you, I'm insatiably curious and learn everything. But the way we learned back then was through magazine subscriptions. So you'd have your magazines. that you'd read from cover to cover every month. And we had one back then. I think it was only about two years old back then.

And it was this magazine called Fast Company. So we all know Fast Company now as the internet publication. But back then it was a monthly magazine. And I remember where I was sitting when the male guy came around and thumped that edition on my desk because I'll never forget the cover. It was like, um, it was like a sun radiating out.

So it was red and orange and yellow and it caught my eye because right in the middle, Well, these words and the words said, the brand called you and it was a writer called Tom Peters. Actually, we'll, um, we'll link the article, the original article in the show notes because everyone needs to be fascinated [00:13:00] about where Personal Brand was born.

This is 1997. Everyone's doing the math now. 54. So 1997 and it was Tom Peters classic report on basically it was on how regardless of your age, your job title, your industry, what you were doing, all of us needed to develop this thing called a personal brand. You are the brand of you, Inc. And I sat there and I'm a brand strategist at this stage, um, a planner.

We do this day in, day out. And I was perplexed and I was like, what does it mean to be a brand? How do we become a brand? How? And it blew my mind. And it was at that stage, um, and not too, I think it was only about two weeks later, When I was going for a promotion in the organization at Leo Bonaire, and I was quite self conscious talking about myself, like most people are.

And I [00:14:00] remember I was going into this panel interview and they said, you'd just be yourself and talk about yourself and why are you good for this role? And it hit me. I was like, I do this for a living. I look at the features and benefits of anything, and I can turn that into these beautiful, um, customer facing benefits that really take people on a journey and tell a story about how it's going to add to their life.

And I tell it in a way that's so super compelling. I just need to do that about myself. And in that moment, I got out of my own way and I saw myself as a product. I productized myself and I looked at the top five, um, features and top five benefits of myself. And I did a feature led campaign on myself and I got the job.

So that was the inspiration and just, it's just, I never looked back.

Kristina: That is so amazing. And so, so why do you think it's so important or maybe, maybe explain what, for our listeners who might not see themselves as a personal brand yet, [00:15:00] um, why do you think it's so important for people to have that? And also lining that personal brand with your purpose, because I think that's, you know, Without our purpose, we don't really know where we're going.

Nicole: Totally. Now we get into the juicy stuff. Before we go, actually, let's do this. Let's go this way. Before we dive into explaining what a personal brand is, because, and that's not a silly thing to ask. Personal brand is bandied around and it's so overused now. We've lost the understanding of what personal brand actually is.

And especially through COVID, when our personal life, our professional life. And our mortality all mushed in together. And we suddenly were seeing everyone's family behind, cat's bums going across the virtual cameras, everything mushed in. And we kind of now have to work out what is personal brand? What is professional brand?

So let's go the other way and [00:16:00] let's look at what personal brand is. And this will blow your mind. So personal brand, first and foremost, personal brand is a verb. It's not a noun. It's what we do. So it's the verb, it's the action of being visible and being consistent with a message. It's personal brand. So personal brand is all around the shape of who you are as a person.

So everyone has a personal brand. It has your personality, it has your attributes, it has your behaviours, um, things that are inherent. It's personal brand. to you as a person. So that's where personal brand is also your personal experiences. It's the way that you see the world through your lens. So personal brand is really important to understand.

It's not a noun, it's an active verb, but it also encompasses your whole personal self. So when we talk about personal brand and when we talk [00:17:00] about purpose, we can go into personal brand is who you are. Your professional brand is what you do and how you do it. And your purpose brand is why you do it. So if you go back and everyone just take a pen out or write on or scratch or close your eyes and take this in.

So your personal brand is your identity, your ID. And it's what makes you, you. And it's hardly going to really shift over time. Your professional brand is your reputation. It's what you do and how you do it. But you need your personal brand to bring your professional brand to life because you are the person doing that.

You can't have one without the other. Your personal brand intertwines with your professional brand to bring your personal experience and your personal storytelling and your very personal attributes and personality to what you do and how you do it. There's only [00:18:00] one person on the planet that does what you do, the way you do it.

And it's not about your professional brand, it's about the person. So that pulls it apart, but also means that we need to have them working together. They're totally different, and so many people, quite rightly so, use them interjectedly or interlocked, or use them, reference them where they, others, should be.

So your personal brand and professional brand need to both be there, but you can't have a professional brand. without doing the action of your personal brand, being visible and being consistent, because you'll be the best kept secret in your industry. The other fascinating bit about your personal brand, and this is a mic drop moment, is that your personal brand doesn't actually exist.

So Christina, your brand is only how I feel about you. You start the narrative. You [00:19:00] behave a certain way for me to then respond, but I own what I feel about your brand. So what's fascinating is Christina as a brand, you've got my interpretation of you, and then you could have another 1200 to 500, 000 people's understanding of your brand.

And this is why it's so, so crucial that we own and drive the narratives around our own brand. Because if we don't. And we don't want to be visible, and we want to shrink back, or we don't know what to say, which is the most common, is that if we don't own that narrative, we will have thousands of everyone else's narratives around there, and we become more and more ingrained in this, in this fragmented world through other people's lenses.

Yeah.

Kristina: Yeah. And I love that because I think that really, um, sums it up in terms of, we all have a personal brand if we like it or not, uh, [00:20:00] it's not really just about a personal brand. Uh, it's just not, you know, I think most people who think about a personal brand think that they have to show everything and be on social media 24 seven, but it's really, um, personal brand is applicable.

In every aspect

Nicole: of life. Absolutely. And the most common myth and what I'm myth busting now as I brand, um, humans through personal brand and thought leadership is I don't need it. I don't need a personal brand because I don't want to show people what I have for breakfast. And I don't want to let them into my personal life.

And when I first heard this, literally a couple of years ago, I was like, you what? What? And I was like, Oh my goodness. I live in this, this personal brand bubble where, where I understand it. And I work with it. It's my craft. It's my trade. And then understanding it because the word personal is there. It doesn't mean that you're sharing things about your personal life.

This is your [00:21:00] identity as a human being. So it's your brand, which brand comes from branding cattle. It's your unique mark. It's your signature. And so what's really interesting is when people say, I don't need a personal brand. Well, we do, because if we look at personal brand and we look at purpose, there's questions to open that up.

But when we look at personal brand, we have that personal brand. That personal brand is made up. First of core values, your unique strengths and skills and talents, what makes you unique and what you're naturally passionate or what you kind of float towards doing. These are, and what your attributes are.

So this is nothing to do with what you had for breakfast or sharing anything on social media. This is actually knowing yourself to your core so that there's no different. Narratives or communications out there because people are [00:22:00] seeing that as well. So once you know it, that's what you bring out. You behave in that way.

So it's know thyself is personal brand.

Kristina: Yeah, and you know, I, it's so in line with the way I look at living your dream life. So, because I'm all about, you know, let's just dream big and see what's possible for us. But they, the dreams needs to be aligned with our values. Like, so you know what to say yes and no to, you know, you need to know what your purpose is because that's what will get you out of bed in the morning.

And I really truly believe you need to do something you're really passionate about. passionate about because when things get tough and that's business and life, uh, it's so important to do something you love because, and that's why I think like passions, purpose, values, they should and dreams should all be aligned.

And if that then extends into your personal brand, then, um, then you're really living your dream life.

Nicole: You're absolutely right. And in that, in that same vein, what really helps my clients really [00:23:00] understand what we're talking about when it comes to personal brand, uh, professional brand of purpose, those three, the trio, uh, which is my golden trio is, um, it's very akin to life and work.

So when people talk about work life balance, it's, it, it, it cannot be that at all, because what you were saying and this idea is that we have a life. So every single human on the planet, whatever that life is looking like, we have a physical moment of time, which is our life. And then we have work, which is a subset of our life.

And ideally, if we can work at that way, our work should sustain our life. It's not the other way around. We don't have this thing called a work. And then as a subset of our work, we don't have this thing called a life. And our life doesn't sustain our work. It needs to be the other way around. So in personal brand, we have a personal brand.

Our professional brand is a [00:24:00] subset of that personal brand. And our purpose brand is the foundation that that, that all sits on. It's the why. Yeah. Yeah.

Kristina: I absolutely love that. Couldn't, couldn't agree more. So what are some practical steps to our listeners, uh, that they can, um, that they can start with in terms of personal brand?

And I, I want to let, let everyone know on the podcast that's listening that Nicole will be our superstar speaker in August, which I'm really, really excited about because when I did the work with you, There were so many coins that fell down or pieces fell into place for me, um, having moved on from my first brand, which was kind of my professional brand into very much focusing on, on dream life and, and me as a person and, um, a little bit different.

So, and you were so helpful. So I'm really excited to have you. Have you coming into the coaching program, but I know that not everyone will be [00:25:00] joining it. So let's give everyone,

Nicole: no, everyone's got to join because everyone gets a whale. You get a whale and you get a whale and you know, we're actually getting shit done.

Oh, am I allowed to say, so, um, a lot of what we did, um, together is some of the activities we're doing. I'll, I'll share a little bit later, um, what we're actually doing cause it might bring to life. Some of these, what can, what can we do? What are some of those practical things? So where do I start with my clients is an exercise that everyone can do probably right now, or probably after this.

And it's an exercise that comes from one of the core tenants of brand strategy. And I've recreated it, uh, into an exercise called shift habits. Cause shift happens. And what the premise of that is, is, um, brand is very deep in psychology. And so it's brand psychology. Um, is the same as human psychology, which is if we would like to take away or change a behavior, whether it's a [00:26:00] habit or we want to drop a habit, it's very hard for us to stop doing something.

And it's also very hard for us as humans to stop doing something. And this is why habits for 21 days. And as you know, um, being the habit master, but it doesn't work like that. We actually need to shift from where we are now to where we want to be. And that is single handedly, the biggest aha moment that I have with clients when I first start with them.

So what that means is what are the top three things that you want to shift in your personal brand? So it could be as simple as, Oh, I want to shift from being unknown relatively invisible. To visible that's probably the best place to start knowing that you want to be a little bit more visible for everything You've already worked hard for shoot.

The thing is you've done the hard yards You you you are a master at one or two or three things. There are things that your Friends and family bash down your door to [00:27:00] get you to do it Christmas or it's first or whatever because you're the best But if you're the best kept secret, then we're sitting in humility.

And so, um, another two could be something like, I'm not sure about social media. How about I just choose one platform and show up once a week? Just see what that does. And so it can be as practical as that with personal brand. Probably one of those, if you haven't got it, is people often mistake their personal brand as an elevator pitch.

Your personal brand is not your elevator pitch. And I get that. that people go, I don't really have a personal brand. I don't really know what to say when someone asks that dreaded question. So what do you do? I think everyone has a stomach drop and go. Um, so actually in the, um, August coaching, we're going to perfect that pitch.

It's actually your value statement. And I've done all the heavy lifting for everyone in that session. I've actually written. The value statement out for everyone. [00:28:00] So I'll share with you a little later, but if you're doing it on your own, don't mistake your personal brand with your value, with your value statement.

If you don't have a value statement or you don't know, or don't have a certain way of expressing your value in someone asks to share a little bit about yourself. So what do you do if you don't have that? That's where we start shifting from. Having a jumble, a mix up of words where I stumble to being really clear about what my value is, whatever situation I'm in, there are probably three good ones.

Then you do the same for your professional brand and then you do the same for your purpose brand. That's a good way to start. Another thing I get, I'm, this is really, really mean. It's not mean, it's tough though. How's this? I get my clients to do this when they don't want to do the work. I've done this, so I've done the work and it's really hard.

It's the most simple thing, but it's not easy. Every day for seven days, and if you start [00:29:00] tomorrow, um, count obviously, you know, the seven days, don't take a weekend off. Every day for seven days, I would like you to sit alone in a meditation for 20 minutes. You will have an alarm for the first 10 minutes, and then obviously.

You turn it off and you'll have an alarm for the second 10 minutes, but 20 minutes all up. In the first 10 minutes of these 7 days, so all up 70 minutes, you are going to meditate on one question and that's going to be your personal brand. And that one question for 10 minutes is simply, who am I? No, none of us sit with a question, who am I?

That's all your personal brand is. What comes up are your core values, what we're passionate about. You actually have flashbacks to times in your life, um, to what's really important. But keep as a mantra, Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Keep asking yourself over and over. If you drift, [00:30:00] come back. The second question in this 20 minutes, and you always do this um, back to back, is your purpose question.

We never sit in this. And the question simply is, why am I here? Who am I? Why am I here? I can guarantee you after 140 minutes of asking those questions of yourself over and over, then coming out and journaling, of course, You will be closer to your personal brand and your purpose.

Kristina: I love that. And a lot of listeners and a lot of people in my coaching program are doing their morning pages.

So basically writing. So that could, those questions would be a really good, uh, added bonus. So you meditate first from those questions and then you write about it because you will get so much. Coming up from that. So,

Nicole: so much, but let me, let me, let me also give you some practical steps because they're two quite esoteric ones.

Or if you can kind of sit on a mountain quietly, well, they're not too esoteric. Uh, one [00:31:00] is shift happens. Do that. The next one is try and sit with yourself with those two questions. But if you're looking for practical steps, I think my first five, um, And these are, I've honed these over 15 years when branding humans.

So the first is, is really the first place to go is define that brand narrative. What's the story that you want to tell about yourself, who you are and what you stand for? And so don't start with anything else, not even your values, anything. What's the story you want to tell? What is that story of you? And that's really, it's not easy to do.

But it comes up quite quickly when you go, Oh, what is my story? You ask me, tell me a bit about your journey. I've got probably four or five stories about my journey. I know the one that we wanted to dig into was the story around my golden thread, how everything threads together and how my superpowers are expressed in the work that I do today.

So if I look at my brand [00:32:00] narrative, I've got that core brand narrative of the story I want to tell is I've always inherently loved the work I do since I was a little girl and how that golden thread has been through every step of my career. So what is your story? The next one is to really ensure in this digital world, your digital footprint is clean.

So what's your online presence? What is that one social media profile or your website that reflects this narrative consistently? So what is your narrative and how is it reflected? You cannot have a narrative and then do something else and be fragmented in social media, but your online presence is everything now.

That's the second thing. The third thing is then start creating content that showcases your expertise and passions. And what I'm so excited about is that in the session in August, we're actually going to deep dive into this storytelling. And I'm actually going to share with everyone, um, professional [00:33:00] storytelling for their personal brand.

I've got 12 stories to sell your vision, your value, and your visibility. So everyone gets to choose which one they're going to bring to life out of those 12. And they come under, I'll share with everyone here, they come under six that I've honed as well when it comes to human brand storytelling, the first is around those core values of yours.

Um, so how those core values or they're called, called values in action, how people can see those values, it's sharing your origin story or your journey where you've come from. There's a couple of versions in that. Highlighting your commitments, and I'm not talking about what you have to make for dinner.

These are your commitments. This is your true purpose. What is your give back? What are your commitments? What will you never walk past and what do you stand for? Engaging with all of your audience with empathy and how we actually do that so you have a human connection. So they know, like, and trust you.

Then the fifth one is envisage the impact that you want to make. [00:34:00] And how does that then create followers for whatever you're doing, especially when you're an executive as well. And the last is what's your call to a collective action? What do you want people to get? Here's a golden nugget if you want to write this down.

What do you want people to think, feel, then say, and then do after you share with them? this call to collective action. So they're the beautiful, um, thematics for those 12 stories to sell your vision, value and visibility. So it's your professional storytelling, but through the personal warm brand of yours, it's how we match everything up.

So that's pretty much the next thing that you do in your personal brand. And then networking, engaging with the community, online and off, you've got to get in there. You've actually got to talk to other humans and network your value and your worth. And then lastly, any rich way you can. Find the opportunity to come out in the [00:35:00] crowd and be yourself.

somewhere on a stage, and that could be just in a meeting room with two other people. Um, a stage could be anything. I'm not talking about a physical stage, but seek out the speaking opportunities where you are sharing thought, leadership and wisdom, whether it's industry events, podcasts, anything so people can hear your voice.

It's a very human element of your personal brain.

Kristina: I absolutely love that. I'm so excited to redo my work in all this. Cause I feel like as you evolve as your best version of yourself, like you, it's just work that never ends because things change and you get, you get the more experiences and, you know, it's funny how I started a new career.

Startup. And it took me a little while to kind of work out how that was going to, that's why, you know, we started to work together because it was really hard to. There's so many options for a lot of us. So it's really good to have that guidance. So I just want to say for anyone listening, if they're listening after August, uh, all our sessions will be [00:36:00] recorded in the actual coaching program.

So you can, um, you can still do it in case you're listening a little bit later, but I'm sorry, you can put Nicole on repeat. And that's why we're going to do it over a month. It's, um, the theme is just brand new because I fear like, Everyone in the coaching program are, are chasing their dreams and want to create their dream life.

And that is different for everyone. And a personal brand is applicable as we now know to all of us. Uh, not, not just for those people who wants to share what they had for breakfast. Absolutely. So one of the things Um, that I quite often hear, and I love your thoughts on this, is that people sometimes feel that they can't be themselves because they have this specific persona in maybe in the corporate world.

And, uh, and I see this specifically with people who are coming from a specific career. So maybe a lawyer or a doctor, [00:37:00] and then that personal branding and being authentically themselves. It's very different in a kind of a corporate world. That they perhaps have a specific persona, but then they want to change and maybe start a side hassle or a business.

Or often I see people who wants to share their things. It's something challenging they've gone through in terms of, you know, now I'm sharing my journey now is a lot about sharing how I'm built and started a global brand and then how I lost, how I lost it and how I coped with that. That became kind of one of my superpowers now, cause I feel like I can do absolutely anything now.

That's me. So what kind of advice do you have to our listeners when it comes to be authentic and, and staying true to yourself while you then have a lot of opinions out there and, uh, and maybe feel a bit, you know, at a place where they came from?

Nicole: Yeah, it's such a, um, fantastic question coming from two sides of, uh, life [00:38:00] in modern day life at the moment, the side of social media, where you do have.

a lot of judgment and eyeballs. And the other side from we are just really coming out of, uh, as you were saying, these personas that we needed to uphold in certain areas of professions. And you can see people just needing to bust out and they don't have the permission to do that in the workplaces because they would be the outliers.

And you, you, you don't want people to be outliers and not be comfortable. in their workplace or feeling safe. So it's really interesting when you see them come out. I work with a lot of transitioning, um, corporate people into, into their own. And, um, I see this, I guess their face light up and their whole demeanor change when they understand that they can be unapologetically them.

There's a flip side that they don't know who that is yet. So being authentically you comes back to. The best way that I put it, um, for [00:39:00] my clients who are trying to work out what is their authentic self and how do they hold themselves, literally, how do they start again? And it's like this, it's um, in your friend group, everyone knows how to be a good friend, everyone knows how to be an authentic friend, everyone knows when you're not being yourself, right?

And everyone knows when there's probably a, a new person, um, on the block or in the neighborhood or in the community. And they come in and you just can't seem to crack their veneer if that makes sense. They're not totally Um, they're a bit guarded and probably rightly so. They're just kind of testing the waters.

But then they keep that up and, um, people can't really get in. People can't really see their authentic self. And so they move away and they never really get to know that person. This is your authentic self and your personal brand is exactly the same. So human crap radars are very, very rife. So we are created as humans, um, from a very young age to understand transcripts when people are feeling a certain way.

So [00:40:00] babies know when you're upset with them, etc. And so we don't lose that human trait. So we actually know what's going on. We actually know what's sitting underneath people. And we actually know the authentic person. But if you've got a veneer over, over the front, it's really hard to connect with other humans.

And you can feel much more isolated. And so authenticity, It comes into our reinvent you, the work that we get to do together with Sarah and Shana. But that authenticity comes from staying true to your core values. So come back to your true north. If you're not understanding what that authentic self is, we need to find the top five core values.

And then being honest about your journey, including all the successes and challenges. It's doing some shadow work. Um, if anyone's done the dark side of themselves and inviting in shadow work, We are the sum of all of our parts, but, um, just like the dark side of the moon, we tend to put our shadow self away.

So I actually work with people to bring out those shadow selves as well, [00:41:00] um, which is really a great piece of work. And then as you grow and evolve, continuously revisit and reflect on those values, your goals, and make sure that foundational elements as well. But as you come in, just be as natural as you would, if you were wanting to.

Uh, just be a chill self at a party and impress people rather than be that person trying to, um, either overcompensate or sit in the corner. So human, uh, when we need to be authentic and come back to that authentic self, uh, decent kind of that level human, the way that human nature, uh, interacts with other human nature, that's the way that our personal brands need to interact with each other.

So being as unguarded as possible. And just feeling into yourself. You can't go wrong when you're exploring your authentic self. The other thing I would say is I work with a lot of people, and you heard me probably bring up the concept of humility. [00:42:00] I work with, I work across the globe, and I work with a lot of different, um, ethnicities and backgrounds and, um, areas around the world, and In Australia, we've got tall poppy syndrome.

When I work, I work a couple of months in America and in Canada, they have got no problem with, um, you know, talking about themselves and having that personal brand. But lots of other cultures, lots of other people, introverts, different types of people will want to sit in humility because they don't want to be that person.

So what they've learned is that humility is the opposite of loud confidence. And no one wants to be that person. But I'm here to tell you that that is absolutely not the truth. Here's the truth. The opposite of humility is authenticity. So if we stay humble, if we stay under the radar, if we don't talk about ourselves or let people understand what our [00:43:00] talents, what our skills are, what we like, what we don't like, what our experiences are, who we are as people, when we keep that under wraps, then.

People can't see the authentic self. They can't put their finger on it, but they won't be able to pinpoint it, but they just won't feel the same about you. And so, staying in our humility robs everyone else of understanding our authenticity, and for us to be moving forward on our merit and these wonderful, um, skills and talents that we have.

So don't shrink back, because when you're authentic, it doesn't mean you're loud confident. You're just stating the truth and fact, and you get to explore how other people then meet you. Meet those, um, skills. Meet that mastery that you have. So, humility is at one side of the scale. And authenticity is the other.

And when we talk about people coming out of these [00:44:00] persona laden, um, I guess experiences that they've had, they're staying safe. They're not in humility. They're playing a role and that role suited them at the time. And it's now time to crack that persona. And more and more, like it was five, it was probably 10 years ago that we were all invited to bring our whole selves to work.

Remember that, which I don't recommend anyone bring their whole selves to work. I think you can bring your best self to work. I don't think anyone wants my whole self image in their workplace. But, um, we were asked to bring that personal branding to our professional life. That's all that was. And we've got that.

We've got full permission to do this now, whatever our job, whatever our value is, um, from that professional brand. Let's also overlay it with our personal brand, no matter what that persona is. We're always safe to put a personal brand over it.

Kristina: Yeah, I absolutely love that because I [00:45:00] think this is also, It's really important to remember when it comes to self doubt because that's the, um, that's the number one thing that I see when people want to create their dream life.

They are worried at first if they can do it, but they are mainly worried about what other people think. And I think if you are authentically you, like there is, there's just like, who is to say that you are not that person if you are, you know, you're. Your true self. And I think, um, doing a bit of work and being really clear on what, what that is, including your values.

I think that will also really remove that, um, self doubt. Have you, I'm sure you also have that coming through your work

Nicole: as well. We do. We do. I work a lot with imposter syndrome and inner critic, two different things. Um, they're used interchangeably too, but that's a whole other podcast episode. But when we look at, so the inner critic, basically your inner critic is the voice that you hear in your mind that tries to keep you safe.

[00:46:00] Then imposter syndrome are all the symptoms of that voice when it comes into our behavior, into our thoughts, and into our fear. Sorry, into our behavior, our feelings, and our reality. So the inner critic will spin off. And so when we're, when I do that work and when we talk about, um, people being judged, the good news and the bad news is everyone will judge you.

It's okay. But as long as we're, if we're chasing our dreams, if we're going for the role of whatever we're doing, as long as we are not hurting or harming other humans in the pursuit of that, then the only reason they'll be talking about us is because they would want to be doing it and they haven't given themselves permission or they're looking at our autonomy and freedom and wanting to have that as well.

So not many people are going to be watching what you're doing and judging you going, she shouldn't be doing that because X, Y, Zed, are really deep down there's an autonomy and a [00:47:00] freedom in choice. And all we're doing is displaying that we're taking that autonomy and freedom and making a choice for ourselves.

It's very little to do with what we're actually doing and a lot to do with other people judging who are we to take up space, to take up freedom and freedom of choice and to actually go with our own flow and against the mainstream. Yeah.

Kristina: I love that we talk about that because I think once you are around other people, I see this in the coaching program often that when people see, Oh, that's what she's doing and she's going for it, even she's, you know, she's struggling or she's having self doubt, she's doing it anyway.

That's so inspiring. And I think just being around like minded people that, you know, and when I started to be really focusing on becoming a coach. a keynote speaker, you know, we have our accountability on Mondays and it's so good to be around like minded people. And I think that really helps when, when it comes to self doubt, because when, when I [00:48:00] hear people saying, I really worry about what people think it's what other people think is always about their own fears.

It's never about your fears. They always put it back to themselves. And that was a really good reinforcement to remember that for anyone who are thinking. That, um, you know, they can't create their dream life or their personal brand. You can have it all. Yes. I love that. I love it. So, um, I'm going to shift gear a little bit.

Now I wanted to ask you, um, have you bought a morning ritual and if yes, what's that? Cause I want. With your fitness levels and your health levels and you really, it's talking about, um, being you, I love how you incorporate your, your health and wellness into your personal brands. And the way I see you is very much, you know, strong, You know, strong physically as well as mentally and, uh, inspiring that way.

It's loved for you to share your morning ritual. [00:49:00]

Nicole: Isn't that interesting? It's something that I don't share. I don't think I've spoken outside of our, um, group about this, but my physicality has everything, uh, it has a lot to do with my personal brand. It's one, It's a physical attribute of my brand. And exactly for that, it is the strength, it's the vitality, and it's the energy that I come to everything with.

And that's personified or embodied. And I'm blessed to be able to have the ability to walk, run, play. Um, do all of those things. And with that, from a very young age, um, growing up with a few people at our school who didn't have that ability, I've always, um, understood it's almost my responsibility to use that ability as well.

So that's a really interesting, um, thing. I've always been active as a kid in wanting to use my physicality. Growing up with three older brothers, we were four of us in five years. So there was a lot of, um, going out and running and learning how to surf, et cetera, in my childhood. But what my morning routine is, is [00:50:00] I am a morning person.

Um, you're either a lark or an owl or in between. I am definitely the lark. I get grumpy at night. So I'm up at five 30. I train every morning. It's something, um, different every morning. I interchange weights. With high impact with boxing twice a week. And I do yoga twice a week as well. And four sessions of strength.

So yeah, do it on the weekend as well. And it's this beautiful rhythm. I don't even have to think about it anymore. It's kind of on autopilot, but that keeps me physically and also. Emotionally and spiritually up for all the travel that we do, all of the creativity I need to, uh, muster and being there for people when I'm working with someone, as you know, I am intensely with them and I hold that space and I've got like, it's like you walk in with me and I've thrown open the door.

whole airport hang up and I've turned on the light and I can see everything for you right away. That's how my neuro spice of brain works. I'm [00:51:00] like rain woman on a whiteboard. If you've ever seen me on a whiteboard, it is just like magic. Um, but I can see it. I have these downloads. I have a wonderful way that my brain works, but then I have to stop and take people as we say on that journey.

I've got to meet them where they are, but I've kind of like, okay, I know what we're going to do with what you have. And so, um, I need to be able to be really aware of that, hold my space. So after training, I come home and I have my time before I get caffeinated, medicated and, uh, and into my day. So I can actually focus.

Um, because if I didn't have those things in my life, it's fun.

Kristina: Yeah, I love that. And I think it's so important to realize to make the most of our life. We need to, we need to exercise. We need to look after ourself and we need to have that space for ourselves so we can be. Uh, for the rest of the day, but starting well is just makes such a difference.

I'm such a morning person as well. I would love to ask, do you have a favorite book, nonfiction [00:52:00] book, or do you have a book that, uh, has had a big

Nicole: impact on your life? Wow. I'm not a great reader. Um, as much as I love words, I'm not good or fast at reading. So audio books, but I would say, um, yes, one historically was the power of now.

Yeah. Completely changed my understanding of what I was capable of and also being, be here now. It also is the way I am. I'm a very, very, and very type B personality. So you couldn't get any further from type A personality. Pay me if you try it. So I'm totally type B personality. I'm in flow. I'm very in time.

I do things, um, now I have trouble accessing the future and dreaming. I'm time blind, which is very interesting to live with. Um, so I work my brain quite differently, but it gives me these wonderful containers of [00:53:00] creativity, but everything happens in my now. So I'm an in time person, not a through time person.

So that's, that's really interesting. So the power of now was fundamental in changing what I, what was possible in my life. And then, um, more modern day is 10X is easier than 2X. I 10X the truck out of everything. Yeah. Yeah.

Kristina: Yeah. I love that book. We haven't been reading that book in grow mobile club and all of us just got really excited about 10 X thing.

So I have two 10 X dreams this year, 10 X in my health and 10 X in my business. And I'm really excited because when we 10 X things in terms of. That to me is just other words for dreaming big. And, uh, when we dream big, we just think differently. So I often get questioned why I always have such a big dreams.

It's not always the dream to actually achieve it because I, I often don't really care so much about the end result. If you dream big, even if you reach half, it's [00:54:00] much bigger than you normally would anyway. It just makes you think in a completely different way. And, um, it really helped me Thinking that anything is possible.

And, um, that's when you 10X your life or dreaming big, you come up with ideas that you wouldn't have done if you're just setting goals in terms of starting them from that. So love how you, how you embrace that as well. And when we have our Monday morning accountability together, it's always so inspiring to see what you are doing.

with your life. So thank you for sharing that.

Nicole: Oh, thank you. Yeah. It's always the question of, is that enough? Is that, and I'm not saying enough, do I get enough or I don't push my, push myself, but it's like, Oh, actually it's like going into the movies and going, Oh, I'll just have a, uh, popcorn. Do you want a bigger size?

It's only 50, it's only 50 percent more. It's like 50 cents, 50 cents more. And you get triple. It's like, why wouldn't you? That's how I take 10 X is easier than two X. I'm just throwing [00:55:00] 50 cents, 50 cents more in and I'm getting 10 times the amount. Absolutely.

Kristina: And it just

Nicole: opens

Kristina: up a whole new world. And I think this is what makes it so exciting and why I'm so excited to have you as our superstar speaker, because I think if everyone were focusing on their, um, their dreams and their values and their purpose and who they truly are, you are really living your dream life.

And that's, that's what I'm all about. And I think, um, you know, we, we get to the end of our lives. Way too quicker than, than we like, because even if we do get to live a long life, um, I feel like life is short. So, um, I think I'm so excited to have you, uh, uh, in, uh, the Superstars speaking, uh, uh, session, because I know everyone will first love you.

And secondly, they will all, uh, So much out of it because I did when I did my work. So

Nicole: thank you. And we've literally, I've literally done the work when, when we talk about the value statement and people who can't access this, you can do this [00:56:00] as well. So I do a very different value statement to an elevator pitch.

So my value statements are 4P. And those four P is, first of all, we do a bit of a professional positioning for context. And you can drop that in or out, depending on whether, uh, where you are. The second one is your point of difference in life and, and at work. But really with the value statement, uh, in our session, we'll focus on the professional sense.

Then we, and so these are four sentences, and I've actually written the sentences out for you. I've done the Blankety Blanks, another TV show that's showing my age. All you have to do is insert. Your particular skill. Your particular words in there. And then the third part is all around your personal human brand.

So what makes you, you, and this is, this is where people usually stop. They do professional positioning and a bit of what sets them apart. But then we go down into the personal human brand and it's a beautiful sentence that will just spark joy. And we'll just be, you'll feel like, what am I going to say?

And when you see the sentence, [00:57:00] everyone goes, I know how to fill this out. I know what that is for me, and people feel like they're home. Then the last one is, that is your purpose and impact. And I have a sentence that will lead you to your purpose and impact. So that's the four P value statement. If everyone can do at home, a sentence that, um, encapsulates their professional positioning.

A sentence about their point of difference, what makes them unique. Um, a sentence around your personal human brand, personal brand, and a sentence around your purpose, your purpose and impact.

Kristina: I love, love that. I'm so excited. I'm going to do the work with everyone. So I'm really excited because I feel like you can never, never stop evolving.

And it's, it was really interesting actually, because I was coaching last night and someone in, The coaching program. She said, uh, I feel like what I wanted to do, uh, has already been done. There's lots of people doing this. And I said, I said, no, no one does it as you will. And, uh, it's a really good way of doing this work because then you [00:58:00] realize.

You can have, you can sit next to people. And I feel like what makes us as speakers makes it so exciting. Cause we all are speakers, but we're all unique and we all are helping each other. And I think that's what makes it so exciting. So even if you feel like you have a competitor, you are unique to that competitor anyway.

And personal branding really helps with that knowing that there's just no one who does exactly what I'm doing.

Nicole: Absolutely. And it's all about coopetition now. So if you've got a competitor and they're doing something that you'd like to do, You know, the competitive landscape is less and less now. Um, I'm all for co opetition.

The amount of personal brand strategists and brand strategists that I hang out with, and create things with, and do things with, and share things with, oh my goodness, it just makes our craft stronger and better. Um, it's the same as speaking. I would put people forward in a heartbeat, there's just co opetition is just this beautiful collaboration where competition used to be.

So embrace um, co [00:59:00] opetition. But that's right, there will always, always, always be someone better than you, more masterful than you at what you do, but no one is better than being you than you. So that's where personal brand is inheritive. Yeah, for sure.

Kristina: I love that. So I've got one quick question. Knowing what you know now, what kind of advice would you give yourself?

So, say you're younger, a teen, like your younger self, your teens or early twenties.

Nicole: Don't date that particular boy. No. Um, Oh, I know what it is. Here's, Oh my goodness. Um, I think people will relate. I, yeah, it just came to me. This was the thought in my sight for a long time. Um, I accidentally moved out of Canberra when I was 17, just turned 18.

I accidentally moved to Sydney. I was only meant to be in Sydney for two weeks and accidentally stayed. That's a whole other podcast episode. And then about 18 months later, I accidentally moved to the other side of the world to Paris first. [01:00:00] Um, I was only meant to go for two weeks and I ended up coming home three years later.

Why that becomes this, um, what I would say back to my younger self is I deferred uni. And so I didn't go to uni. Uh, I didn't ever get a uni degree. And the dizzy heights that I really worked hard to get to in branding and marketing. So head of brand and marketing in certain areas. Within our financial services within Australia, you need a university degree now, but you didn't need that when I was coming in.

Um, so I was very lucky to learn my craft and, and just be really good, but I, I never felt I was good enough. I never felt that I was like the people who went to, um, university and got Marcom's, um, their graduates. I always felt that I wasn't as good. So I always worked extra hard, and I always felt that the gap was really big.

I would turn back to my younger self now and say that that was probably the best choice. Living the life [01:01:00] of Riley, um, for three years in Europe before I came back and settled down was brilliant. And then I Got the jobs that I needed to get on my own merit and worked my way out. And now I'm a global leader in the brand strategy space.

And, and I can be quietly confident about that because of the impact that I've had made on people and I didn't need the degree in hindsight. It would have been a positive, absolutely, but it was okay without it. And that gave me a lot of grace for many, many years.

Kristina: I love that because I think so many people can relate to this one because I think a lot of people, and I hear this, many, many guests shares this, that they, you know, you're enough.

And I think we always look at other people thinking that they are more or better and, um, and they probably do the same to us. So I think it's a good one to remember that all of us are enough and it's up to us in the end too. So, um, you know, like you did, you worked really hard. So that really [01:02:00] helped you getting to where you wanted to without the formal education.

And I

Nicole: didn't even know it back then, Kiki, but I was 10X ing my ass off. I was like, who, who, what, who said I couldn't do that? Let me just do that. And people go, cause I tell people, um, the chosen few, I'll, I'll share with everyone, um, in your podcast. But I. Don't see myself. I'm not driven and I'm not ambitious as much as it seems that I do a lot.

And I do these amazing, crazy, wonderful, big things. Um, and I'm on big stages everywhere and I and I accomplished big things, but it's not out of drive and ambition. It's about this, um, Belief that I could add value in that space. Um, and I find the words to work my way through that. And it's this really interesting piece about I've been 10 X in my way through life in the moment.

I don't have these big trajectory dreams, but I'm like, Yeah, I can do that. And I've got this innate self belief that I don't worry about what anyone else thinks. [01:03:00] Um, and I'll just go for the highest and the biggest, but I'm not driven. It's not an ambition. It's a, how might I, I wonder if I can, I'd like to see if I can do that just for the experience.

And when I'm there, everyone goes, Of course you can. We never doubted you for a moment. I'm like, what?

Kristina: I know. I love, I love that. Oh, that was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. And thank you again for coming in, uh, into our coaching program in August. I'm so excited. So for anyone who are interested doing a session in August with Nicole and also with the whole month is around.

Branding you. So I'm really, really excited. So thank you so much.

Nicole: Oh, you're so welcome. And I'm so, I mean, we talk all the time, which is fantastic. We never run out of anything to talk about. And I, I believe that after so long being together every week, working together and reinvent you being so close traveling with each other [01:04:00] that a lot of this we haven't talked about before.

Exactly,

Kristina: exactly. And you know, and that's, and that's what I, I just, I always say to everyone, everyone should have their own podcast because, because you just basically just talk about things you're interested in with people and it's just so amazing. I hope everyone

Nicole: else was interested in what we talked about.

There was a, there was a, everyone got a whale. But, um, thank you for the space and time. I never take it for granted that, um, these are stages. These are stages that, uh, we have. The advantage of being on and the responsibility then. I never take it for granted that everyone, most people here listening, we're very intimate in their ears, in their space.

So thanks for letting us into the space. I cannot wait, um, until August. If you can't, uh, make August, then there's recordings. But, uh, you can find me on nicolehatherley.com. You can find me on Instagram. You can find me in LinkedIn. You know, Kiki, how accessible I am. Anyone can find me. Anyone can ask me anything if you need any help, any guidance.

[01:05:00] That is exactly why I do the work I do.

Kristina: Yeah. Thank you so much. And obviously we'll, we'll link to everything that you do in the show notes as well. So for anyone listening, you could just head over there and hopefully we'll see you live in August, but thank you so much. And yeah, let's have you back. We have lots and lots to talk about.

Nicole: Thanks so much, everyone. Thank you.

Kristina: Wow. So inspiring. I just can't wait to do her workshop in the Dream Life coaching program in August, 2024. If you are inspired as well, and you want to join us, just head over to yourdreamlifestartshere.com I will also link to it in the show notes. As always, I will be back on Monday with a new Monday morning motivation episode.

I will see you then.

 

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