Julia is a life and career coach skilled in facilitating foundational shifts in her clients’ lives and work.
All in Thoughts
When I say I have never been so emotionally exposed in front of one other human, let alone a group of 8-15 other humans, I mean it. The sharing that we did was always safe, we never needed to share more than we were ready to, and yet the liberation that came from speaking my truth honestly, without filter, was enough that I knew I had to go there.
The “fear of missing out”, otherwise known as FOMO, started trending around 2004, when social media really started to take off and we gained a window into the lives (or at least the highly edited, curated lives) of friends, family members and far-off acquaintances.
All you need a personal brand to do is to leave an impression on your audience, so that when they return to a subject, conversation, or opportunity that you may have a place in, they will REMEMBER you and be able to reach out.
Your personal brand IS a story, and an exciting one at that.
The “professional development” world, and musty career services conference room where you first heard the words “personal brand”, did us a disservice when they put personal brand onto a bullet pointed powerpoint.
It’s undeniable that first impressions matter, and that they have a strong influence over our relationships and outcomes… but I wanted to investigate how much they matter.. And how we can be conscious of them, without feeling like utter failures if we somehow blow our opportunity to make a shiny sparkly first impression on someone we really hoped to!
Fear is why asking yourself the question, “What would I do if I knew I couldn't fail?” is so dang powerful. Because SO MANY OF US are terrified of failing, so we sit in inaction, or inauthentic action.
