 Welcome to another episode of Think Tech Hawaii. My name is John Strandberg. I'm your host for your business in Hawaii. And thank you for tuning in today. For those of you who would like to turn in live, visit www.thinktechhawaii.com and you can view live or you can find us on YouTube stations later. So today I have Kathleen Lee who is rejoining me from a different show to talk about branding and how it affects your career. So I want to welcome Kathleen. Hi John and Think Tech Hawaii. Thank you for having me here today. I'm doing well. Thank you. Yeah, so thank you again. I know Think Tech studios were changing our format a little bit. We're able to, instead of being in studio, work from our offices, wherever we are. I'm at my office and you're obviously at your office. So I hope everyone enjoys this new format. This is my first time doing it and looking forward to continuing on with this. So Kathleen, tell me about yourself and what made you come up with this idea about branding? Sure. So I am again, my name is Kathleen Lee and I am a consultant with Kathleen Lee Consulting, which is my career coaching and resume writing company. I came up with the concept of my company based on my experiences professionally. So along with that, I'm also a PR consultant and a video journalist for the Filipino channel. So you consultant PR and you're a journalist. So you kind of see everything in the world. So let's dive right into it because everyone that tunes in usually is a career person or professional in Hawaii and hopefully around the world that sees this. So how do you present yourself? Okay, so what's important to be mindful of? Right. So I, you know, today we're going to talk about the importance of branding for the advancement of your career. So branding is essentially how you would like, how you carry yourself and how you would like people to perceive you accurately. And that, and then we're going to cover three points like how you present yourself in social media, how you can maximize networking opportunities, and how you can really bring out the best of who you are in order to advance towards a career that works for both your interests, your passions and what you're good at. We can start with a social media divide. Let's go and start social media because I'm, I'm thinking my ego and LinkedIn could use an update. Right. Okay. So because we are shifting towards getting our sources through technology these days, a lot of recruiters actually go through social media networks to do a little bit of a background on potential candidates or people that they want to join their companies. And that's through LinkedIn, Facebook, or even, you know, Instagram or Twitter. And if you do like a quick Google search, you'll, you'll see that about 90% of recruiters are actually going that route, you know, a lot of them still go through LinkedIn, of course, to get an idea of a candidate's profile, especially the ones that have their profile publicly exposed or available. But people do go through Facebook, the casual social networking avenues that, you know, we post our, you know, photos of our friends and things that we do on the weekends, people go through that as well. And so on our end, if we, we can use those particular mediums to advance ourselves. So for Facebook, for instance, employers will look at, you know, what type of things you volunteer for the people that you associate with, even like the way you spell words. So I always advise people to be very mindful of what they post. And one guideline that I personally use is post things on any post anything that you feel you would be comfortable with talking about publicly or in an interview. So basically anyone walking on the street, if they came up and asked you a question, you'd be okay answering. So, so if you're like me, I avoid politics as much as possible on social media, because it's just, it's very divisive and I don't like to be divisive. I like to think you like me versus that. It is a team. Like you can, you can do that. You know, they do say that the general guideline is to for mindfulness and tactfulness is to avoid talking about politics, religion, sex, or money. But it depends on your branding. If you would like to be someone that wants to be involved in politics, you know, post things that you believe in. And those particular things could open you up to other opportunities. People might be looking for someone that could be a government affairs representative for that particular, or a particular nonprofit might be looking for someone to represent them. So it really depends on how you would like to brand yourself. Okay. So as we're talking which social media platforms, I know we talked about Facebook and LinkedIn as now, which other platforms should we be concerned with in terms of branding ourselves? I think we should be concerned with all of it, especially if, because everything nowadays, even if we believe that something that we post is private or blocked, we have friends or friends of friends that, that may be able to, that have the access to share that with other people and possibly potential employers. And this is why I always tell people to be careful. It's not prioritizing one particular social media medium over the other. We really have to be mindful of everything that we use out there because whatever we post is published. And it's so easy to take a screenshot these days and have, you know, your particular post be distributed rapidly. You know, we see a lot of that in the media now where someone said something and they can't retract it because there's a screenshot. Right. Yeah, I tell my kids, whatever's on the internet is forever, no matter if they can delete it or not. And I believe someone discovered a repository of old Snapchat somewhere online. So because Snapchat will so disappear after a little bit, it's forever. Don't, don't, don't count that online. Anything online, anything online that you post can be easily retrieved and used for you for your advantage or against you. It depends on whatever you post. So yeah, coming from an old IT world, I would say emails count in that as well. For my experience, you definitely want to control your words and emails. Spelling is huge. I'm a proponent of grammar, spelling and grammar. So yeah, I see where social media can be. So when you talk about branding, let's go back to our primary target, branding yourself. We talk about social media. What is the next evolution after social media that you want to talk about in terms of how do I brand myself to find that perfect job or to get that job? When it comes to using your social media accounts and outlets, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. So only because if I'm looking for a nonprofit job, do I want to show off to have been volunteering all these years, even though it's not for that nonprofit? Or, yes. I think that's a, you bring up a great question, John. So I would say yes to that, especially if you're looking for, let's take that particular example. If you are looking for a job in a nonprofit, you want to give them the accurate idea that volunteering for certain things is something that you have done naturally. So if you'd like to post certain photos of you doing these things, go ahead. Some people might feel uncomfortable doing that. I know a lot of times people who volunteer don't necessarily want to take credit for what they've done for that particular day. But you can do both ways. You don't necessarily have to take credit for it, but you can just have it presented in a way that makes it so that you're appreciative of the opportunity for you to volunteer for these certain things. And so when a potential employer looks through it, they can say, oh, that's really cool that this person has gone out and done this. And while your experience or like your volunteer experience may not necessarily be directly connected to the company that you work for, isn't that how we get a lot of a good amount of our positions anyway? The reason we show them what we have experience in is to let them know that we have skills that are transferable to whatever they're looking for. Skills and interests, because we were talking about volunteer opportunities. Okay. How about instead of volunteerism, let's call it, I want, I need a new job in an accounting world. Okay. Give me an example, how would I? Yeah, sure. So if that is something, if you are going to pursue something in the accounting world and you would like to give, if you want to leave the imprint or impression that that's the position that you're particularly looking for, look through articles online and post the ones that you feel have helped you out. Make it intentional in a way where you can say something like, oh, like since I'm in this field or this is what I've studied, I found this article to be helpful to me and maybe it could be helpful to you too. So be intentional in what you post and what you share online and have it be reflective of your interests, whether it's, you know, your academic interests, your professional interests, or your personal interests. Oh, very good. So we're going to move on. What's to the next topic? I guess you said, we're going to discuss three of them. Just move on to number two. What do you suggest on number two? Sure. So our number two was how to maximize networking situations so it could help you one with your branding and two, again, keep going back to the theme with the advancement of your career. If anyone should know anything about networking, it's you, of course. And we know that networking, that's how we met. That's how you and I met was through a networking opportunity. And I told people that opportunities like that aren't necessarily a race for you to get as many business cards as you want. So whenever you find yourself in situations where you can meet people within your industry or towards industries that you want to move towards, make a genuine connection by building rapport with them. Have a target two to three people that you would like to meet. You can definitely still distribute your business cards to, you know, a lot of people, but focus on making genuine connections for the day after or the week after and relate back to whatever you had connected on during that networking event. So again, let me reiterate, networking events are not a race to give your business cards to as many people as possible, but to make genuine connections with people so you could, so those connections could be mutually beneficial for the parties involved. You know, it's funny you said get business cards. I just took a phone call a few months before this interview of an old friend says I came across your business card in a colleague's business card box I left. And she gave me the name. I don't recall meeting that person. And I jokingly said, I think I gave him my card as a get out of town three, like, thank you very much for your time go away. So it was one of those where you just hand off a card to get rid of that person. Because that's what they're there. They weren't there to make a genuine connection. And obviously, because I don't recall meeting this person and I'm like, no, I don't remember the person, but I do remember the company. So that's at least something there. Well, there you go. And I'm going back to the line. Make yourself, how should I say this? Present yourself in a way where you're comfortable enough, dressed comfortably enough to be memorable. You don't have to have like, you don't have to wear like a bassinator on your head or, you know, wear super bright colors. But, you know, some people have like distinctive things that that they know can can work for them. Like, I know some professionals that style their hair a certain way that make people remember them, or wear a particular like piece of clothing that seems to be consistent. And a lot of times people will be like, hey, you're the person that, you know, that wears florals every time I go to the event, like things like that. But make sure it's comfortable enough and not too gimmicky, but comfortable enough for you to feel confident enough to, you know, know that you are going to be memorable when you make these connections. I'm a dark blue kind of guy myself, obviously. But when you say something memorable, for me, I find that most of the events I attend, I'm usually the tallest person in the room. Welcome to Hawaii. And that's how they remember. I feel horrible when I'm meeting people again. And they go, oh, we met the last time and I forgot because they weren't memorable. And it bothers me. But at the same time, it's like, help me help you by doing something memorable, or at least reaching out after we are meeting. Right. Which I do like to do. Well, don't don't feel too bad about that because because if you've made an impression and you don't remember the individual, and if they approach you again, it just gives you a second chance to reinforce that connection. So don't feel too bad. Well, I do. It's part of my job to grow business. And it's like, if I forgot someone's name, I'm not growing the business. So you said first impressions count a lot in networking events. That's something I've always believed in. And you mentioned attire wearing something memorable. I mean, how important is it to fit in quickly with dress? Very important. I say that because I, you know, as much as, you know, we believe that, okay, let me go back to my personal beliefs. I think that it's always good to get to know people on a deeper level aside from the first impression that they make. But we have to admit that first impressions are, you know, are impactful enough for us to make these connections. I say dress for the part. If you would like to meet certain, or if you're in a particular crowd, you know, kind of read the room. If you're going to an event, pay attention to, you know, what the nature of the event is, if like here in Hawaii, if it says, hey, Aloha where you're requested, you know, go with that theme out of respect for the particular event and the people that are throwing it together. But going back to first impressions, because these events are targeted towards inviting a lot of people, it's always good to dress. I like to say dress sharp. It's the safest way to go, you know, dress sharp, dress comfortably, and dress in a way that if someone said, hey, you know, like, what if I took you for an interview today, you would be comfortable enough and doing it. And those particular networking events anyway. Okay, so we talked about dressing for success or dressing for potential interview at a networking event. How do you pick the networking events? Because I think that's just as important as going to one is which one's the right one to go to. That's kind of the next one I ran too. Okay, and I think that's a great question, especially since there are particular months where there are a lot of things going on. For instance, this month we had the opening day of the Hawaii State Legislature, so a lot of networking events in town are geared towards, you know, meeting our local legislators. So it really depends on your interest. In order for you to figure out which best fits your needs and where you would like to go in your career, look up certain events that you feel may have the people that you would like to connect with. For example, if you would like to be involved in a nonprofit that focuses on the advancement of women, there are a lot of events and a lot of nonprofits that put together fundraisers and just mixers catered towards those particular causes and that demographic. If you are into, let's say just meeting people or entrepreneurial endeavors, there's also a lot of that. Because I searched that out, what happens when I look through my social media accounts and the invites that I get is that they're geared towards what people think that I may be interested in. And this is why I say, again, it's important to deliver what you are genuinely interested in, because then the world and the people around you respond accordingly. If I know that you are not going to be interested in like a running gig or a race and I'm not going to forward that to you, but I've had people say, hey, Kat, I noticed that you hosted a running photo, would you be interested in meeting this individual who also runs and I make a connection that way. And sometimes that connection turns out to be like a business transaction or a business partnership. And that's why I think it is always important to go back and define what you are interested in and where you want to go, just so that that's the brand that you are genuinely putting out there. Did you want to join a running group, John? Yeah, no, my knees are preventing me from running. We talk about networking, we talk about social media. Let's go on to the third. I mean, we're rolling along. I don't want to leave this train of thought. So what else can you help enhance? I know every one of us has good and bad. So let's talk about how do we enhance the good? The bad always shows up quickly. We know that, but let's talk about good. How much better can we be? How do we enhance the good? So we can always do a deep dive of again, and I've said this numerous times, of what we are interested in and what we feel that what we do would make a difference. I like to think that people have a general idea of what they like, whether it's like a sports activity, a volunteer opportunity. And if it's something that you are interested in, but you haven't delved into it, research that and see how you can get involved. Again, let me take a personal example. So I like volunteering for campaigns, for instance, people who are running for office. And in doing so, I've learned that when I go to particular events, I meet people with the same interests. And then that kind of connects to, hey, I'm part of this organization, or I'm with this company, would you be interested in this? So in order for us to be headed towards where we want to, we really have to know who we are and what we are good at and where we think we can make a difference. I know it's daunting for some people to do that kind of deep dive, I think, but it's helpful in the long run. So if you know where your interests lie, you can start anywhere is what I say all the time. If you don't have to volunteer right away, go to a meeting. Because a lot of times, like-minded people meet together in the same places. So that's one way to kind of enhance the best of what you can offer to the world. So how would I enhance my best qualities to make it easier for others to realize, hey, I might be the best choice for that promotion, or that job, or to get a job? Well, how do we enhance our best qualities to make it known that, hey, I am the right person to get that promotion? In truth, in many of my jobs over my career, people sought me out, not so much as me applying for a job. So how do I get that out to the community to understand that this is who I am? And these are my best qualities. Sure. Let's go back to something that I said earlier is start anywhere. If you feel like, like you mentioned, if you feel like you are a good accountant, see if you can volunteer for certain companies or nonprofits that are, you know, that may need help in assisting individuals with certain things. It really goes back to doing your research and starting anyway, like it doesn't matter where just start anywhere. Like I know volunteer opportunities have actually opened so many doors for me professionally. For like one example is that I, you know, I've been writing for the Phyllian career since 2014 as a volunteer writer and through that particular opportunity because I love writing and that's why everything that I currently do in my career involves writing. But through that volunteer opportunity, I was able to, someone had offered the video journalist position as an option for me to further my career, to further my interest. So start anywhere. I really mean that start anywhere, start today, don't procrastinate, start anywhere. Okay. So let's go back to enhancing my best qualities. What should I make sure is a stand out on my resume? Because websites like LinkedIn, I could actually post my resume and reside there. How do I get my best qualities on a resume without, it's a Hawaii thing to be humble so you don't promote yourself. But you need to do it somewhere. Hey, I think I want you to be my next assistant, my next VP, whatever position or title you're looking for. So the resume is important. I'm just trying to figure out how to do that without patting myself on the back. Well, I genuinely thank you for tying it back to that with the whole representing yourself through your resume. So I feel like a good amount of times people have a need to regurgitate certain job descriptions when it comes to representing themselves on your resume, which is, I don't think it's the way to go at all. People already know what the job entails. What I recommend for people to do is to highlight what was it about what they did in particular positions that made them stand out or that made them excel in that particular or the particular positions that they have posted on your resumes. Again, we already know the job descriptions and you can use that as a guideline to figure out how to tailor your resume towards a particular position. But you mentioned that we struggle with dealing with this happy medium between humility and letting people know what we're good at. And that is definitely a line that everyone, even I myself, straddle daily. But if we are not going to be the ones that say, Hey, by the way, we did this, then who's going to do it? And that's why I tell people, you work hard for whatever it is that you did in whatever position that you were in. Put that on there because not a lot of people were able to accomplish what you did. And if you were the best at it, write that on there. If you were the only person or you were the first person that initiated a program in your particular company, put that in there because the point for people and employers is to hire who they think is the best person for the job. And if you don't have experience, right, if you don't have experience in that particular position, you show them why you were the best in these particular jobs you held before and how that motivation and drive is transferable to any job that you can tackle on next. Well, you know, we've been talking now for a whole 28 minutes. Right. We do have the shows only up in our long. But I do want to thank you for coming onto the show and sharing. I can hear the passion and I definitely want to continue with this conversation. So maybe a future show we can continue on. But thank you again for being on the show today. Viewers out there on Think Tech Hawaii to come back every Thursday for your business in Hawaii, whether it's myself on or one of the other hosts. But check us out at www.thinktechhawaii.com To come on the show or suggest show episodes, email it in and we will take a look at it. And at the same time, if you're there, you want to contribute because we're trying out this new online type of interview process, be more than happy to have you come on and join us. Until next time, this is John Strandberg from Think Tech Hawaii.