 Hi, welcome all of you to a session by Pritiksa Ravi. She's going to talk about building the brand Agileway today. Thanks a lot Pritiksa for joining us today. So without much further delay, what do you Pritiksa? Thank you so much. I'm going to start sharing my screen because that's where my script starts. Thank you Manjina for the lovely introduction. So like you mentioned, I'm going to be talking about building your brand the Agileway. So quickly introducing myself. Hello, like the slide says, I'm Pritiksa. I'm sharp. No, ever call Pritiksa. Only when I'm in trouble, I'm called Pritiksa by my mom. I'm going to share the context why I'm here. All right, so I'm here because I love to talk. Of course I do. I have two young kids who are bilingual, who can talk nonstop just because of me. Thanks to me. However, I'm not here to present that. Or I'm here because I love to give presentations. I used to hear confessions. What do you think? I love making presentations, talking through that and boring people. But that's again not the reason why I'm here for. I'm here to help people just talking about their personal brand. I'm really passionate about that. If you've earlier spoken to me, you would know that I will not stop talking about one's own personal brand and how that is important to oneself. However, I'm here truly because I just want to simply share my own story. So the whole building your personal brand is very close to me because I feel that has helped me sort of grow in my career. So now I've spoken enough about why I'm here. I think I should have started the other way around. I'm quickly going to introduce myself. As you can see on the slide, I'm Shukra Osha. Transformation and strategy lead for natural growth. I work in the retail banking technology team. So in other words, I work for the retail banking technology team to drive the shift the dial on the transformation agenda, the transformation to be anything from the way we have adopted the dial, how do we sort of teach it, develop the options, skills, transformation, what skills, what skills you need, cloud strategy, people side of transformation, how to make them engage, how do you create an engineering community sort of thing. I'm sort of a year and a half into this job and I'm really loving it. So while I move to the topic at hand, just quickly posting the question here. So how do I size in my job? How do I advance my career with one question that was matching me for a very long time? I'm sure in whichever stage you are in your career, you are also thinking about this a little or too much depending on how good or how bad your job is. Before I go on to talking more about that, I want to tell you a sponsor. So I used to live and work in London a few years ago and in London I worked for a startup and there everything was very competitive. I was a product owner there but I struggled to sort of find my place. I was given responsibility I was working on some stuff but I wanted to do bigger stuff and I felt people were reluctant in giving me more responsibilities, reluctant to bring me, pulling me into the leadership table and I found it really depressing because I thought hey come on I have all these skills you know what not you interviewed me but then why are you sort of hesitant to believe that I can do it. So I reached out to another friend in one of the coffee workshops and she mentioned something she mentioned that sort of stuck with me. So what she mentioned was very important to tell you a story why I think it's who are the ones who need to take that extra effort to be there. So she said and it's sort of stuck with me and I've been talking about it ever since and I've been telling that to myself ever since. So I was one of these people who knew about this whole concept of building personal brand exist but I don't need it is what I thought to myself but however this connotation with my friend really sort of turned the perspective for me and she sort of emphasized so much on building my own personal brand. So the first aspect there about your personal brand is you need to first find it you know you people are passionate about a lot of things it's important to land your brand so you understand what you want to be known for yeah let's find it build it when I say build it this wherever and what point of career you are or whatever how much ever experience you have now that has made you into a person all your life experiences all your professional experiences until now makes you what you are. So all that sort of reflects on your brand so look at it and see how you can use those experiences those lessons those projects that you've worked on to your favor to add that to your brand value and keep working on your brand so brand is not something okay I just covered my bad I'm going to be known as a product owner I want to be known to be an effective product more owner from today and then then you don't nothing about it so you need to keep working on it to tell say how do I effectively elevate the bitch myself how do I grab opportunities how do I ensure that people understand what I'm good at so you need to keep working on your brand also keep talking about it so I'm one person being bragging is one advice I give for a lot of people I mentor I think very important you talk about your decision who else will you know your resume you have achieved so you need to talk about this is important similarly you have to talk about your brand so that you can make a lasting impact so now that we've spoken about brand and re-established I know lots of you already know it just from my perspective I'm giving my story that personal band is important you've established that this is another bit to it so building a personal band is a project in itself and it's not like I do it on a weekend and then my brand is settled then I sort of that it's that out there for everyone see it's not like that it's a huge project you need to understand what's your strategy how you're going to talk about it what you want how do I what are the different nuances to it etc so it's a project in big initiative in itself and that's well uh two the topics I'm passionate about marry all right so we have first building a personal brand I love talk about it and agile leads to a western fashion so now we have topic in hand agile maries build your personal brand so that's what I'm going to talk about so um most importantly like I said it's a huge project so it's important that you are it's fair to say we'll start building your personal brand first of all I assume you have a big brand strategy for example you want to become this whole big speaker you want to talk to people about your experiences you want to establish yourself as a keynote speaker so uh that's your brand strategy so then you sort of derive that is a sprint how do I start where do I start so in a few months time that's where I want to get to or a year time that's what I want to get to you to suck that you will probably not understand how you're going to achieve go get to that goal it's important to sort of break it down into sprint if that will help you so that there's small chunks of work you can do every day or every week or however you think that you want to work on it so that you can achieve your brand growth that will help you do it number one I'm sort of person I love to see progress sometimes I write out to do list like I I sort of break things into minuscule do it then so that I'm able to take it off yeah just because I can pick up more items on the list I make a very extensive view list but you're like me if you you know divide it in the small chance of work you'll be able to see progress and you like it and also if there is um you'll be able to sort of uh be nimble and turn around if there's a problem uh for example it is you have to change your strategy or how to repurpose how it's working etc so dividing it in small chance for work the next bit is be value driven so like I said so you want to become this whole keynote speaker person so you if you want you've been applying for a lot of uh conferences to become one I like to take lots of time and energy because you record videos blah blah and whatnot so instead of that why don't you think about starting small so always start with the simplest of things so that yes it's the values are bigger sometimes sometimes when you do when you take a huge first step you feel see a amount of effort and the values yet are not what it's all about so start small so that you're able to focus your energy and you're able to see some value and also you're able to um see some progress which gives you a positive feel to be value driven can you can you work on your plan next let's be consistent just like exercise the main problem with me and exercise is I exercise like for five six days I think I'm very consistent on exercise zumba and whatnot and then I give up again I feel oh no I need a not fit at all and I after five months again I do exercise for four days I give up and it's not helping my cause similarly uh building your personal plan like I said it's it's a big project in itself it's important to be consistent it's not every day some people can at least look at what you can do about your brand once in why don't you have a quiet day on a weekend uh if you have if you want to or why don't I usually pick Wednesdays for all my important stuff because Monday Tuesdays are still like your you have the hangover from the weekend Thursdays and Fridays are your leading to the weekend so Wednesdays I usually do my big rock so that because I am also energized and I'm I'm not looking forward to the weekend so I'm so motivated to work so when I usually pick Wednesdays but if Saturdays work any other day work to go for it look at your brand and see where you are at what you want to be working on just do a small thing every week so that you keep you see progress and you don't forget about it it's very important to be consistent when you are building your brand or you want to talk about it because otherwise you'll give up otherwise you'll be like I just see one more thing I need to do maybe is not very important maybe I will do something else I will or I'll come back to it after three months I'm not gonna change but then it's very important to be consistent so that you can see the results you can work on it and you know you don't give up totally on working on your personal brand the next bit very important yes value-driven is important networking is a big part of your passion there so it's very important that you like it says in the slides we live in a world of co-creation none of this you're not alone you're always with these so all the brands and all the whatever efforts you put in are are shaped by conversation are shaped by network it's important to invite collaboration into your brand and network is also important to propagate your brand take it forward so it's so when you you know connect up with people and make sure you talk about yourself make sure you tell them what you're working on and ask for feedback ask them you know what are you doing how do you think this works sort of thing it's it's very important that we help each other and like you are building your brand that should be another person who you're talking to in the same boat and you can work together and share notes or something like that I think because we live in we live in a world of relationship it's very important to network well and network is golden I mean it's very important to have this network and also utilize it and like I said it's very important to get feedback so for example you work on a brand you have this whole nice elevator pitch you have sort of linked all your life happenings into how it makes up you and how it makes up your brand and everything and you type it out and save it in a drive somewhere or not to sit or not show it to anyone it's not going to work it's important to talk about your brand to people you go and ask for feedback a lot of people wait for feedback to come to them so it's important you go and ask for people please give what I think this is what my career journey looks like here's what I think I'm will be my next step or I want to get into what do you think what's your feedback on this etc so it's important you share your feedback as well when people do a similar exercise that's about feedback the last bit very important bit I think three years ago if you'd asked me what's the best tool brand I would have said I'm this awesome product manager who's very good with the adult concept who's very good in running road shows and you know managing the road maps and backwalks and stakeholders and what not now we are seeing a brand this I'm all about transformation and all about implementing stages I'm all about looking at how you how to deal with people when you're implementing these changes and what are these people transformation side of things this is this is my brand now and I changed my brand and I'm I'm happy about it so it's important that while people are passionate about a lot of things your brand will change depending on the market depending on the situation depending on the opportunity is important to look that look at it and change quickly yes it's important to be it's simple to read but also it's very important to grab the opportunity when you get it you always have to learn and change I'm strong I'm a strong believer so if I if you put it out there if you make it visible that say you are this people's transformation all your trusty and transformation person and just show you my guidance there when you make it a pattern opportunities and if someone wants something to be done some changes to be made they're just having a difficult situation with their team or something you will come to their mind but if they have to problem solve problem so it's very important that you put your brand out there and opportunity and people will come to you once they realize what you do that just to summarize what I'm not too sure how long they have taken to do this for them just to summarize so what we need to do while doing the brand relationship be creative and be present like I said start small embrace the power of social media I too I think I abuse links but then it's very important to use social media and links in profile and online community to your advantage and like I said networking is very important and use your network wisely it's there is no harm in asking for help or support so even if you're seeking a job teach out to your network and ask for one if you want support in figuring out where you want to go to your network you want to build a network it's important that you use them a lot of people have lots of friends and connects on links in for them using that is also equally important the next bit it's know the value delivered and showcases one story here you're often told even me to keep uh you know to keep your head down and work hard and let's work speak for itself I was like that so I I thought okay hard work and sort of work really hard and the world will talk about you but then making yourself visible goes the really long way just remember that for some people it's hard for some people some easy but then that's what here we are here for that's what you yourself it's important you make your yourself visible be brave talk about your achievement find the platform find the group of friends who you can share with and also appreciate them when they share their achievements it's important that we help each other and there is no harm in sharing your achievement or talking about the last bit is being adaptive so I want to quote something which was very helpful to me so I feel I used to volunteer a lot and not share more for them it helped me a lot because it helped me develop a lot of skills that I earlier didn't have for example I used to sit with the UK I was a semi-matheter I used to sit with school kids to give them sort of interview and feedback things so that's what I learned to give better feedback so volunteering sometimes it's not free it's women it's free it makes you feel good it's healthy other person or of the other entities where you're volunteering for also helps to develop something say on the other bit if you want to grow yourself technically there's no harm talk up to your employer or your manager and ask to be trained so if you think okay I'm here I want to get here in my brand this is the game these are the skills I want so when you realize what skills you want what training that's required just walk up to your manager and ask for it yeah just don't be shy as most of people it's a good business you can get with that finally spend time on reflection so take time for yourself look at your brand look at what you achieve look at what you want where you want to go and self-reflection is very very important thing in us self in your special brand yes networking is important bragging about is important talking about it is adapting training all that is important but only when you self-reflect you'll understand if that's what you want to be known for is just the correct brand for me do I am I shining in what I'm doing so all these are very important to to get your personal brand out there so finally I often end with a slice it's very important for you to understand no one is going to help you in your career no one is going to take it forward they are there to support but then you are the hero of your own life you're going to build it you're like your own personal brand you're going to build it you're going to keep working on it and you're going to keep talking about that thank you so much thank you all for listening to me if you want to keep talking these are the different handles but then I think I will be in the hangout area if anyone has a weaker can we leave that back for a minute yes yes sure yeah thanks thanks for the wonderful session very motivating words