 So, to say this past year has been a bit of a roller coaster is a bit of an understatement. Changes at home, changes to my travel schedule, and of course, changes to my work as COVID-19 wiped out the business meetings and events industry. But nothing really holds a candle to all the changes that I've made to my personal brand over the last year. So, today I'm sharing why I changed up my personal brand and maybe a few signs that you could look to to see if you're ready to change up yours as well. Stick around. Hey everyone, it's Leanne and 2020 and now into 2021 has been a bit of a blur for me. So much has changed and so many things have been done and undone over this past year. When COVID wiped out my meetings and events industry business, it really caused me to pause and start to relook at how I wanted to finish out my career in the hospitality industry. If you're in this industry, I think you can relate. It was a lot of change and a lot of decisions that we had to make. So, today I wanted to highlight some of the decisions I made, especially around my personal brand and how I got to this decision. So, if you're also looking and maybe thinking about what it is you're going to do with either your brand or your career, perhaps consider the questions I asked myself and I'll be sharing them at the end of this video. So I've been in the meetings and events industry for well over 20 years now, but it was really about 5, 6, 7 years ago that I became intentional about creating a personal brand as part and parcel of my meetings and events business. You see, I didn't really believe in the hard sell concept of trying to find clients through cold calling. It didn't resonate with my working style and it didn't resonate with my communication style either. So I launched a blog. The blog was meant for my ideal client at the time and the blogs were to help them with their days, their careers and their lives as meeting professionals. Many of those resources still exist and I'm happy to share with any meetings industry professional that looks for them. Over time my brand started to shift a little bit and I saw that all of the inbound marketing messages I was creating for meeting professionals, I wasn't seeing those messages coming from other partners. It definitely became my differentiator in the meetings and events industry, but more importantly I felt a calling to maybe help others create an inbound marketing strategy as well. So my blog shifted and my brand shifted about 5 years ago and I started creating resources for meetings industry partners looking to attract more meeting planner attention. I wanted to show them how I would respond to a marketing message if they were to have prospected my business. So when my blog pivoted again 5 years ago, that's exactly what I did. Now fast forward to March 2020 and the hospitality industry was decimated. For us here in Canada, it doesn't look to be coming back online anytime soon. In fact, my business might not be fully online ever again. It will come back in bits and pieces, but I certainly won't see the business that I had once built up and was very, very proud. I had some hard decisions to make. What was I going to do with my skill set in the meetings and events industry? And then I started thinking about all the things that I had created outside of my paying hours to help the industry and its professionals. I started looking back at my entire career in the meetings and events industry and identifying moments and events and highlights for me that really stood out and were pivotal changes in in my professional development. One of those changes is I was asked to be on what was called the social media guru team at MPI's World Education Congress in 2010. That was over 11 years ago. One of the reasons I was on that team is in the industry, I was one of the early adopters of Twitter. The reason I look back on that event now is it kind of signified the beginning of my career as a personal branding coach. I started learning best practices about social media. I started testing and retesting theories about amplifying your brand through different platforms such as video and blogging. And so it brought me to a place last summer where I decided to stake my ground and start a new brand as a personal branding coach for the hospitality industry. It was a very meta thing to do to build a personal brand about helping people build their personal brands. But that's where I found I had my most strengths, my most trials and errors and the things that I wanted to continue to learn about moving forward. So this brings me to the four questions that challenged me to reconsider what my personal brand was. And I'm hoping that these four questions may provide some insight to you as well if you're thinking about changing up your personal brand. Number one, you find new passions that take up your attention. And this was certainly the case for me. I've been very blessed as I love my work as a site selection professional for conference direct, but I also love personal branding. And when the great pause hit last March, it allowed me to expand and explore the personal branding side of things, and I really do enjoy it. So that's one of the reasons I've decided to make personal branding such a huge part of what it is that I do. Number two, your business has changed. And again, it has changed drastically for my industry. But maybe look at your own industry as well. And again, if you're in the hospitality industry, I feel you, my friend. I'm watching meeting planners having to pivot and learn about virtual and hybrid meetings. It's a massive learning curve for these skill sets, but it's what the business is demanding right now. So perhaps our brands have to adapt and change. Reason number three, you long for learning. I certainly was there a year ago. I still am there now. I love learning new tips and tricks when it comes to branding. And I'm doing this so that my community doesn't have to learn at all. I'm there to support them in what I've learned and what I've tested and retested and trial and errored over and over again. I love the learning process, and that's why I need to stay now in this space for a while, because there's so much still I want to learn and pass along to my community. And reason number four, you long for different opportunities. It's certainly where I am right now. I'm longing for different opportunities to amplify my brand. I have a blog and I have a video, but I'm looking for different ways to showcase what it is that I can do and how I can help people in the industry. You might feel the same, my friend. You may have looked at that corporate ladder in the past and it was that attractive shiny object, but perhaps that object has lost its appeal and you're looking to try something new. Or maybe you're just even looking to try a completely different career, but still within our industry. Perhaps then it's time to re-look at your brand as well. My friends, if you're considering a personal brand change this year and you have some questions about how to get started, please reach out to me. Either direct message me or drop your questions in the comments below this video. I would love to help you out, point you in the right direction and provide you with some resources that will help you get started. And for a quick and dirty list of personal branding tips in 2021 for the hospitality industry, I recorded this video not too long ago. I encourage you to look at it. A lot has changed my friend and I've captured those changes in my recent post. And final resource for you, I created a quiz to help those who want to build a personal brand find out exactly where it is along the journey they are. You can find the quiz over at liankholderwood.com forward slash quiz. And the results come along with some resources that you can use to take that next logical step in building your brand. My friend, thank you for listening to my story today. I am excited to hear your stories well. Please stay in touch. Thanks for watching. Bye for now.