Personal Brand: A Guide for People in Tech : simplebooklet.com

You're Doing This for You.Let's be clear, personal branding starts with you. It's about showingothers who you are and what you stand for to ultimately inspireothers. This reminds me of an incredible story Marjorie Abdelkrimetold me when she first decided to wear a head scarf to work and herrealization that shaped her entire perspective on personal brand:"I went to the office and we were moving to a new location. I realizedthat move was a chance to introduce the new me. I called my bossand gave him the heads up. This was around the Afghanistan war in2004, so I told him I knew there would be strong reactions and Iwould need his support. Truth is, I had people call me an extremist and post nasty pictures. Ialso had people support me. And many in between. I learned at thatpoint that I’m doing this for myself, not them. If I’m doing this foranyone else, or if I’m worried what other people think, then I’mdoing the wrong things."NAVIGATING YOURBRANDInterview by Sabrina Shafer with Marjorie Abdelkrime,Engineering Leader at Amazon Web ServicesMarjorie Abdelkrime

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First, there's no doubt some people will question parts of yourbrand (either publicly or privately). What other people think ofyou is none of your business. Read that again. Of course, thegoal is not to offend, but that does not mean you can have abrand without anyone commenting or disagreement. Know thatit's normal for people to talk but your brand is just that: Yours.Second, navigating your brand starts with knowingfundamentally who you are and what you want to be. Marjorie'sstory yet again shines such a bright light on this point. That is,you have to be firmly rooted in who you are. No doubt opinionschange and people grow-- those are critical pieces of life. Yourbrand evolves. But each evolution should be based on who youare, and nothing else. That is how you bring your true self towork. Third, doing personal branding right is scary, especially forthose of you who are people pleasers. It requires us to lean intofears of rejection, self-worth, reflection, comparison, and allkinds of scary things. Fortunately, this "grit" accelerates ourgrowth while inspiring others. Last, branding has a way of weeding out the people you want inyour life from those you don't. The people you want in your lifewant to know the real you and be part of your journey.Marjorie's story teaches us many lessons about the power ofbranding and fundamentals, to navigating your personal brand,even beyond these lessons above. Ultimately, she teaches usthat navigating your brand can be a fun, growth-filled, andexciting adventure.It's time to start your own adventure. B E Y O U . A L W A Y S .P E R S O N A L B R A N D |  0 4

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WHY BRANDING MATTERS 82%of customers trust a company whentheir senior management membersare active on social media.DID YOU KNOW?85%of US recruiters & HR pros saythat an employee’s onlinereputation influences theirhiring decisions to some extent.92%of people trust recommendationsfrom individuals (even if theydon’t know them) over brands.64%of people say that shared valueshelp them create a trustedrelationship with a brand.78%of Sales reps who use socialmedia as part of their salestechniques outsell 78% of theirpeers.* Data based on a study conducted by Cross-Tab Marketing Services (commissioned from Microsoft) and can be accessed for free here:bit.ly/PersonalBrandStudy_Microsoft

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Invest in Yourself.It's something we instinctually know, yet often donot do. Narrow down one thing you can do this weekto get closer to your overall goal. Now, block out an"Investment Block" in your calendar and do notmove the time. You have an appointment withyourself to start the personal branding process. Be The Most Authentic You.The people you want in your life want to know thereal you. That's the value in branding yourself as themost authentic version of yourself. It's important toremember that this will be scary and you'll be morecomfortable with being your authentic self the moreyou do it. But, if you're going to do personalbranding right, the first fundamental to master is tobrand who you truly are, not who you think youshould be.Know Your Value.Sure, easier said than done, but hear us out. It's easy(well, in the short-term) to let someone else defineour value. But the reality is, it's very rare that otherscan fully see all that we have to offer. So, we getundercut and unvalued. If you don't fully realize andown your value, no one else will. F U N D A M E N T A L ST O U N D E R S T A N D I N G Y O U R B R A N DP E R S O N A L B R A N D |  0 6

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWDISCLAIMER: Please make sure you follow the rules of engagement for your employer's social mediabrand including but not limited to tags, hashtags and posting requirements. GETTING STARTEDMost of us are not brand expertsbut for professionals, LinkedIn(and other social platforms) havebecome a landing spot for peopleto find out more beyond just ourresume. This sounds simple but you needto start. Put a line in the sand andmake a decision to build yourbrand. It is normal for only your co-workers (or your Mom) tocomment and like when you firststart out.We all started that way. One simplething you can do is to start toengage with others. Take 5 minutesa day and follow, comment and likepeople's posts. This will help yoursocial visibility but also grow yournetwork. Simple Engagement Method A simple method to help you if youlike checklists is the 5-3-1 method,which is something that ChaleneJohnson uses specifically forInstagram but it can be used for anyplatform. Building Your Online BrandTHE ART OF

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Follow 1 person Leave 3 comments on variouspostsLike 5 of their postsEducate Entertain Inspire Basically: It's a great way to start to engagewith people so that they engagewith you back. Think of it asrelationship building online. Everyone is a Sales Person Even if you are not in sales, you area sales person. Every. Single.Person. People buy from peoplethey know, like and trust. You wantto be one of those people. Buildinga social media presence can helpget you there. Every single post you make shoulddo one of three things: Your posts should evoke anemotion or else it creates 'noise' onsocial media.You want to ensure you stand out,and if your posts consistently doone of these things, you will leaveyour audience wanting more. If your audience is coming to youlooking for more content, youknow that you are engaging. Putting It All TogetherIt is extremely important to sharewhat your company is doing aswell as what you are doing. Mostimportantly, share about them ina genuine way. Self-promotion is hard for manypeople but it's important to putyourself out there because if youdon't do it, who will? Share about company news butalso share about your own news.Maybe you worked really hard atan event - share about it. Ormaybe you are doing somepersonal development - shareabout it. Or maybe you attended acool seminar - share about it.Share things that show that youare a human being.It may be shocking, but you maynot work at your current jobforever, and by growing yourbrand, your network will growwith it. P E R S O N A L B R A N D | 0 8

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QUESTIONS TO ASKFinding Your Brand:What top 3 words would people use to describe you?What are things people say about youwhen talking about you? Are you funny?Kind? Techy? Figuring this out will helpyou find your voice. What do you want to share about?Posting will come much easier if it'sauthentic. When you are trying to narrowdown your topic focus, it's important tothink about what you enjoy - not what youthink your audience will enjoy. Werecommend finding 3-5 things you want toshare about most and make an effort to focuson those. What do you want to be known for?Is there a topic on which you want me tosee you as a SME? Understanding this willhelp you narrow your focus even furtherwhen you think about things you want toshare about. P E R S O N A L B R A N D | 1 0

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Different Types of PostsTo create your own post, choose a topic thatinterests you. It can be anything from fashion andbeauty to travel and the news. Once you have youroverall theme, you can start brainstorming thecontent. Just starting? Design a memorablemasthead with an equally memorable name. Thisgoes on the cover and sets up the branding foryour entire magazine. What style are you goingfor? Is it playful? Classic? Bold? A good mastheadcaptures the essence of your magazine, so it needsto be flexible, meaningful, and consistent enoughfor future issues.PERSONAL POSTNext, think of a compelling feature for your coverstory. This will be what draws your audience in.Make sure that you have accompanying visualcontent that immediately catches the eye. Includephotos, illustrations, and other graphics to match.Appeal to your audience, choose the right fontsand images, and you'll have a magazine thatpeople will remember for years to come.ENGAGEMENT POSTWhen you've decided on your cover story, come upwith a list of topics for your feature articles. Thiscan range from interviews, product reviews,human interest pieces, and even lists. Think aboutwhat your audience would be interested in and getwriting! Again, choose engaging photos andgraphics to accompany your words, as these alsohelp catch your audience's eye.WORK POSTPERSONAL ENGAGEMENTWORK 0 6

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BUILDING YOUR BRANDThere’s a ton of books onbranding, but there is as much artas there is science to personalbranding. Not everyone wants tocreate a public brand and that'sfine because this is as much aboutyour internal company brand as itis about you public brand.People know you a lot less thanyou think they do, but most peoplewant to get to know you. So how personal should you get? The perfect storm is beingpersonable about professionaltopics. It’s your comfort level, butremember this is a professionalbrand and everything is searchablenow. Since the pandemic, peopleare sharing much more on social.There are some days whenLinkedIn looks like Facebook butremember that the vast majorityof people are there forprofessional connections. People buy from people they knowand trust. Yes, it's your personal socialhandle but whatever you postreflects on the company as well. Itdoesn’t matter how many timesyou write “views are my own."In short, it's up to you. Justremember that wherever youpost, searchability means it willfollow you forever. Should You Get?HOW PERSONAL P E R S O N A L B R A N D |  1 3

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An Interview with Dell Technologies' Chief Transformation Officer,Federal Customer Success Sunanda PepallaQ: Sunanda, you have one of the most powerfulstories and such an enormous amount of impactand wisdom. You're an immigrant turnedHarvard graduate, Chief TechnologyTransformation Officer for Dell Technologies, amother, and so much more. For those who don'tknow you, tell us a bit about you.Right now I lead organizational transformationsto scale, and accelerate business impact andcustomer success at Dell Technologies. I stronglybelieve that it's the culmination of all theexperience that I had from right after college withbeing in customer success, then moving toproduct validation, then going to Harvard andgetting my business degree. From there, I movedto program management and operationalexcellence and finally to the office of the CTO.I feel like I've prepared myself for this role as IAn important piece of your brand is the brand internal to your organization and across yournetwork. One of the greatest indicators of someone's success is their ability to learn from others.This is part of why the Leadership Live series was started- to learn and unpack complicated, new,and difficult topics with the greatest leaders and thinkers I can find. In a recent Live with Dell Technologies' Chief Transformation Officer for Federal Customer Success, Sunanda Pepalla, the topic of preparing yourself for leadership and branding yourself came up. Check out Sunanda's powerful story and guidance in this interview with Sabrina Shafer. P E R S O N A L B R A N D |  1 5understood more about myself as well as theexperience that I had in my 20 plus years journey. In some ways, the thread of transformation runsthrough my professional career, through mypersonal life as well. Yeah, I was the first female inmy family back in India to go to engineeringschool, which was a little bit uncommon to sendthem out of the city and do a different job. So Iwent from the city and to a different place to gostudy engineering, not the norm at the time.I was the first in my family ever to come to the US LeadP R E P A R E D T OSunanda Pepalla

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and go to grad school here for engineering andthen later on to Harvard. So as part of thatjourney, there were a lot of norms that I had tobreak-- some of them cultural, some of themglass ceilings where I was the only woman in theroom sometimes or one of the few. Q: A question ringing through so many people'sminds when it comes to diversity, equity andinclusion (DEI) is how relevant is it to business?Is it a nice to have or a necessity for businesstransformation?The culture part is critical. It starts with people,it starts with building the team. Communicationis extremely important, but what works best iscommunicating with vulnerability. It's very hardto put yourself out there and be vulnerable, butthat's really the key. That's when people connectwith you. Once a connection is established, thenyou can take them through any journey. When we build the right culture, we make surethat our teams feel seen, heard, recognized, andrewarded. Then, it doesn't matter what comesalong the way because you set up the rightculture. In my experience, about 12 to 18 monthsis what it takes to build that culture. But then youcan throw any curveball and it's amazing howyour team will come through.Q: So given the organization and mission youlead, how are you and your team solvingproblems today?After establishing culture, the second thing is awell-defined but aligned strategy. This goeshand-in-hand with culture because you candefine the best strategy but if your teams are notaligned with it, your results will fall short. Sohaving a very well-defined but aligned strategy isvery key so that you have a vision and a missionand how you're going to execute to that. And the third thing? You could have the bestculture, you could have the best strategy, but itultimately comes down to execution. Thatoperational excellence, the programmanagement frameworks, the processes, the besttools to do your job-- this is the critical last stepto truly successful transformation.Q: We need to understand transformation from apersonal side too. You've broken several glassceilings and are the OG of "Fear Forward." Howdo you take transformation into your personallife? I look at my journey back and I say, "you know, Ihave this very distinct story about when I landedhere at UT Arlington in Texas for my grad school.I had two weeks, no scholarship, was verydetermined to get some kind of scholarship,right?" I remember going nine to five to everydepartment on the campus and talking to anyprofessor that was available, which there weren'ta lot because it was still vacation. Within twoweeks, I had a scholarship. I always looked for different ways to solve aproblem. I had grit and determination too.Sometimes it's called desperation. You know,some of the best things happen when you aredesperate but it's also the attitude that you have. Sabrina, you've started this "Fear Forward"movement. I couldn't agree with the premise more:never be afraid to try new things.Q: Let's drill into "Fear Forward." Tell us moreabout your experience with that. How youprepared yourself to lean into your fears as away of learning bigger lessons.P R E P A R I N G T O L E A DP E R S O N A L B R A N D I 1 6

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How did I want to be perceived? What was my value proposition?The beautiful thing with doing things that scareyou (on purpose) is once you start tasting successa couple of times, then you become even morebold. That's how my journey started. My first jobwas six years and the next job was four years.Then I was changing jobs and trying to broadenmy skillset every three or four years. So, I think it's kind of not addictive. It's like afeedback loop. Q: How encouraging! Are there any personalbrand considerations we should keep in mindwhen deciding what fears or challenges to takeon?Yes, personal brand is extremely important andshould be at the forefront as you decide whatareas you want (and need) to stretch. What Ithought about was:I realized that I was not going to emulate men. Idecided I was going to be vulnerable,transparent, and entirely me.There are weeks you feel like you're not makingprogress. Remember, it'll take time to sticksometimes, especially when you're trying entirelynew skills or are in a brand new role. Giveyourself grace and focus on making baby steps. Ipromise, you'll start to see the appeal and eventhe thrill of leaning into your fears.Q: This is so good! In closing, do you have anyresources or recommendations for thoselooking to prepare themselves to lead?Absolutely, and what an honor to be sitting downwith you Sabrina. One resource I highlyrecommend is reading the book, "What Got YouHere Won't Get You There." This is somethingyou need to be so conscious about. Second, have a board of mentors because everyseason will be different in your career. And thechallenges will be very different. I have to say,because I took longer in my career and I wasmore mindful, I had people that felt so passionateabout my success that when I moved from roles,they told me, "I'm going to meet you everyquarter. I'm going to make sure you get this role. Iknow you will, but just want to be there for you."That's what mentors and sponsors can do for you.Every level you go, you need to understand whoare those people that can open the doors for you?Third, branding. Your brand should speak foryou. You should never be afraid to speak up, andthat includes your brand. After all, you do all thework right? But if you're not representing whatyou've done, how will anyone know? I am very passionate about this because I see a lotof women who do phenomenal work and then notrepresenting their work. This is a major miss. Getto understand your brand and shine!A special thank you to Sunanda for sharing herstory and lessons learned along the way! P R E P A R I N G T O L E A DP E R S O N A L B R A N D I 1 7WANT MORE?Check out Sabrina Shafer and Sunanda Pepalla's Live,as well as Lives with other industry leaders:bit.ly/ContinuumLives

Personal Brand: A Guide for People in Tech

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