293-SYB-Monique-Bryan.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

293-SYB-Monique-Bryan.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Carol Cox:
What is the true value of your personal brand? Even if you think you know a lot about personal branding, you will learn something new in this conversation with my guest, Monique Bryan. On this episode of The Speaking Your Brand podcast. More and more women are making an impact by starting businesses running for office and speaking up for what matters. With my background as a TV political analyst, entrepreneur and speaker. I interview and coach purpose driven women to shape their brands, grow their companies and become recognized as influencers in their field. This is Speaking Your Brand, your place to learn how to persuasively communicate your message to your audience. Hi there and welcome to the Speaking Your Brand podcast. I’m your host, Carol Cox. We’re continuing our podcast theme for this quarter on wealth with this episode on the true value of your personal brand. You’ve most likely heard about the importance of understanding your personal brand and how you’re perceived by others. Your personal brand stays with you no matter if you change jobs, businesses, careers or industries. The power of your personal brand is that you can shape it. My guest is Monique Bryan, who runs a successful personal brand consultancy that helps establish professionals, amplify their industry credibility and use their personal brand and visual online presence to become an in-demand business leader.

Carol Cox:
Even if you think you know a lot about personal branding, you will learn something new in this conversation. I know I did. Monique and I talk about how she got started in the fashion business and the pivot she made her philosophy of build it backwards when thinking about your personal brand, cultivating relationships, assets and legacy. Her advice about cleaning up your digital house. We also have a really great conversation about what happens when someone damages their own brand. And Monique shares publicly for the first time what she would love to do next with her business. If you’re new to the podcast, welcome Speaking Your Brand. We help women entrepreneurs and professionals clarify their message and story, create their signature talks and develop their thought leadership platforms. Our mission is to get more women in positions of influence and power because it’s through women’s stories, voices and visibility that we challenge the status quo and change existing systems to benefit more people. I’m so glad that you’re here. Now let’s get on with the show. Welcome to the podcast, Monique.

Monique Bryan:
Thank you for having me, Carol.

Carol Cox:
I cannot wait to dig in today with you all about the true value of a personal brand. I know that is your area of expertise. That is what lights you up all about personal branding. And there’s so much that we can do when we think about our personal brand, not only in the day to day, but then also what is the end goal? What do we want to do with ourselves as entrepreneurs, as speakers, as thought leaders? And how does our personal brand help us to achieve those goals? So before we dig in to all of this juicy stuff and yes, I did use the word juicy on purpose. Monique, can you tell listeners a bit more about yourself?

Monique Bryan:
Yes, I love it because it shows that whatever I’m doing in branding is is seeping into all of the seams of everybody I touch, which is the goal. So I’m so happy to be here. We both talk about something that I love so much, and that’s just around building that brand, that staying power, you know, letting people know who we are, being unapologetic about who we are. So my background is in fashion design and fashion marketing and I started it’s so interesting. I went into branding later because in when you’re in fashion, you spend so much time on these little these little, I like to say, superficial details. At the same time, the things we put on our body are our self expression in the world. It’s the things that people see first have made a decision about. And they can make us feel like a complete and total rock star. Right? So it’s no mistake that I ended up going into personal branding, but I did work in production and product development. I got to travel the world and work in Asia and build relationships in other cultures that I didn’t I wasn’t familiar. So I learned how to really hone in on my communication skills, which I think is numero uno, as you would know, as someone teaching speakers how to communicate from the stage, you know. So I really focused on building product that when I got tired of product, I was like, you know, I really, you know, we can always do it better than our boss.

Monique Bryan:
That’s who I was. So I was like, You know what? I think I can do this better than my boss who’s making millions and billions of dollars. Of course I can. I know it all. This is what you do when you’re a young person. So I left my six figure job. I was an executive at the time, you know, in my twenties, which was an amazing feat at the time. And I was like, I can do this on my own. And entrepreneurship wasn’t as sexy as it is today and there wasn’t as many resources. So I really learned as I was going around how to build a business and manage inventory and hire team. And while I was doing that, what I didn’t realize I was gaining all of these skills that other people who wanted to start businesses were very interested in. So I had people reaching out to me and asking, How did you know this and how did you know how to go here? And while I was doing that, I realized, you know, there’s a there’s a need. Here. There’s this. There’s a service here around people building business and not knowing the steps to take.

Monique Bryan:
So I lost all my savings. I lost my mind. I think I was just like, I’m done. I’m going to go back to a regular job and I’m just the worst employee. I shouldn’t be working for people because it lasted like 5 minutes again. I was like, What is the point of all of this? You know, I could be building something really great and I ended up joining a startup company who was like, you know, we’re looking for people with an entrepreneurial spirit. And while I was doing that, I realized that that wasn’t it either. I like to say I’m a serial entrepreneur because I went and started another business and this is the name of the game, right? Like we keep trying the things until the thing is found. And while I was in the midst of finding it, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 35. And it shook my world, but also it moved me onto my path. Right. So I didn’t think it was possible for somebody who was so on her high horse about health that I could get breast cancer. No one in my world talked about it. It wasn’t a thing like I was a healthy young woman doing what I considered all the right things. But because that happened, it made me really hone in on what am I really doing and what am I really waiting for? So I kind of all that perfectionism that I was trying to put into my life in my business before I came out with the thing, you know, I wasn’t about I wasn’t sure if I wanted to leap and grow my wings on the way down.

Monique Bryan:
Like I, I kind of wanted to know where am I going to be landing? And when this happened, I gave that up and I started sharing online a lot about my journey and what was happening. And I think my like the filter just came off and that actually attracted a lot of my people. I call them, right, like the true fans who are like, I love how you shared your story. I’m going through something similar. I’m not, quote unquote, brave enough to share it so publicly. And there were entrepreneurs, there were moms. There were people who wanted to go out and start something newly but were afraid to do it. And I said, this is it. There’s something here around all of these amazing women I’m meeting, but they’re not able to share their story. Not only are they not able to share their story, even if they did, there’s zero digital footprint out here for anyone to be like, Who are you really? And I just know from my experience of being around fashion individuals and we’re all judging books by its cover that you have to have some kind of online footprint for people to believe anything you say anymore.

Monique Bryan:
So I started my the business I have today out of that need for telling stories and putting you in a position to win by really just mapping it out. So it’s easy for and digestible for people to be like, Hey, I know you, I see you online or I see your website or I heard you talk somewhere and the personal branding piece, you know, really became a natural progression for me without me even knowing at the time what personal branding was. You know, I just became obsessed with your reputation and how when you’re good in one place in your life, and even if you change that job, you change that business, you can go on to build the next thing. And those people will follow you and love you and and sing your praises if you did a good job the first time. So I was like that power. That was everything to me because I like to change it up, you know, I don’t know where I’m going to be in five years and none of us do. But I was like, If your personal brand can give you that kind of longevity, that is something I want to be in all day, every day.

Carol Cox:
Mindy, I’m glad that you mentioned this idea of longevity of a personal brand and that I can change with you. But there’s also elements of it that stay the same because they’re core to who you are as a person, no matter what you’re doing in your career or the type of business that you’re running. We talk a lot with potential clients and with listeners who are in corporate, so they have corporate jobs and we encourage them so much to be building their personal brand while they’re in corporate. Because if they decide to change companies or leave that job and start a business or stay in their job, but have a speaking career and addition to that, their a personal brand is what they can take with them no matter where they go 100%.

Monique Bryan:
And I love that when people realize even at their job that they are a brand, they become like the stars in the company, like everybody wants to be on their team. All the executives want to promote you and work with you and go to lunch with you. People tap into you for all other types of opportunities and awards. So I love that you do that and you and you point to that because people think they have a job so they don’t have a personal brand. They’re just the face of the company. When all the companies before they ever hire you are looking you up.

Carol Cox:
Okay, so before we get too far ahead of ourselves, because I have so many things. I want us to talk about how do you define a personal brand?

Monique Bryan:
I have stolen the definition from Jeff Bezos, who said, you know, your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. And that resonated so much with me because I when people say to me, someone said your name in a room when you weren’t even there by someone you don’t even you’ve probably never even met. That is so like that will put a smile on my face all day because it means all the efforts we’re putting in and we don’t always see an immediate, you know, return on are working. So I was like that’s that’s it right there. It’s like, if people could endorse you when you’re not even there, you could be across the world and someone’s talking about you in a positive light. That is, there’s no amount of money you can put on that.

Carol Cox:
Literally, a story just popped into my mind. I have not thought about this in years, so I started this business Speaking Your Brand in 2015 and then you had work with clients obviously since then, and I think it was in 2017. I had to work with a client back in 2015, 2016. She lives in Orlando where I live. She sent me an email in 2017 and she said to me, Carol, I was just in Mexico on vacation. I was sitting at a restaurant bar, the resort that we were at, and I happened to be talking to a woman who was there. She didn’t know this woman beforehand, just chatting with her at the bar. And the woman, I think was like a professional skier, like like snow skier, race skier or something. But she wanted to do speaking about her experiences. And so my prior client said to this woman, she had just been at the bar, you have to go contact Carol Cox and reach out to her. And the.

Monique Bryan:
Woman did. That is so powerful. Like, you’re just, like, on vacation and people are, like, talking your name like that is gold. Yeah.

Carol Cox:
Okay, so many. So but now here’s the question. I also get a lot. You know, speaking of your brand, obviously, people associate me with Speaking Your Brand and speaking in your brand with me, even though I have other coaches and there’s other team members. But I’m still primarily the face and the voice of the company, at least for the time being. And, you know, for the foreseeable future. How do people distinguish between their personal brand at the individual and their company brand?

Monique Bryan:
Okay. So this is a tough one for me because I’m very much of the opinion that, you know, faceless brands are a thing of the past. People want to know who they’re giving their money to. So, I mean, sometimes it depends. If you’re like a product based company, that’s a bit different. And I still say if you’re a product based company, you still there’s a personality brand versus a face to the brand. So even if people if you have other people on your team, especially when you expand and people want they know you, they hire you. I don’t have it that especially in the beginning, there’s there is this big divide. Right. Because people are going to want to look up who is running this ship, who’s running the show over here. So you start off with your personal brand, and I feel like that helps elevate whatever brand you build next. But it always starts there because a lot of the times people are coming to you for you or the person who’s running it. And then when you establish a really good personal brand, you’ve got brand values in place, you’ve got an aesthetic in place, you’ve got a vibe and an energy and a personality in place that you now trickle down to everything inside of your company.

Monique Bryan:
So whenever anyone comes to your brand, even if they don’t speak to you, they’re getting the same experience as if they were. And that is the key. That is the goal, because then you can go and have multiple locations and multiple coaches. No matter who they’re interacting with, they know they’re going to get a similar experience. So I don’t know if that answers your question exactly, but I’m because I’m I have a couple of clients who I have some psychotherapist clients who are now building a practice, and they’ve got 500 therapists underneath them. And they’re like, you know, think they really want me? And I said, you know, I know they think they do, but there’s things where we can trickle inside of your business where they feel like you’re there, even though you are not there. But it’s establishing those values. So everybody on the team knows these are the standards. This is how we run the show. And every single person who comes in here is going to feel as if I’m sitting there with them.

Carol Cox:
That’s an excellent explanation, Monique. And again, back to the whole premise of this episode around the true value of your personal brand. So for those of you listening, if you are an entrepreneur, a business owner, and you are looking to grow your business, having a really well established personal brand, not only that, other people know that, but you are very solid in what you stand for. What your values are then is going to be able to inform the rest of your team and company.

Monique Bryan:
Yeah, I like to have like a manifesto. Like have a manifesto that every single person who comes into your establishment now knows. This is how we do things. And I find like, especially if you’re when you start to hire creatives and people to build like those. Visual components of your brand. A lot of the times, you know, you get they get lost in the sauce because they don’t actually know who you are and you’re expecting that person to create the brand for you. But you’ve got you’ve got the DNA, but you have to have like the words associated with that DNA. So other people who come on can be like, Oh, I know how to build this website for you because I’m looking through the lens of your values. I’m looking through the lens of your brand personality. So that’s literally why I exist as a business.

Carol Cox:
So important, unique. And for all the website designers and graphic designers out there, they appreciate that so that they don’t have to guess or just kind of pull pull stuff randomly.

Monique Bryan:
Oh, my gosh. It’s so much work for them. Give them a break. Exactly.

Carol Cox:
All right. So, Monique, let’s talk about building the personal brand. And I know that you start in the place where maybe most people wouldn’t think to start. So when you think about building a personal brand, what do we do?

Monique Bryan:
I start with the end in mind. People are always asking me like, Where do I start? Do I even have one? And I’m always like, First of all, everyone has one. Whether you like it or not, people that have just are discussing you and deciding who you are. So just put that to the side. But knowing, starting with the end in mind, has you act differently, have different types of relationships, take different actions, say no to the right things and yes to the other things because you know where you’re actually trying to go. So there are clients who want to they’re big. I always start with the big vision and people are like, you know, I see this five, ten years down the line. I said, I don’t timeline is an important what’s important to me is what’s going to bring you the most joy, what’s going to give you what’s going to speak to your soul. And if they say to me, well, I want to be a three time best selling author. I want a TED Talk. I want one day to be sitting on that Oprah stage. You know, it’s not about the how and none of that. It’s okay. But the person who sits on an Oprah stage, we’re talking about a certain caliber of speaker, of influence, of accomplishment, of community shift. They’ve done something that is now warranted. A call from Oprah. So the things we do on the way there are going to be very different from someone who’s saying, you know, I just want to make more money in my business and there’s nothing wrong. There’s no good or bad or better. Then it’s what do you want? Because we operate different. We show up on social differently. We pick different social channels. To show up on how we speak is different. Maybe how like the types of articles or white papers we may write are different. So I always start at the end, Where is your rock star end? And we and we build all those blocks from that, from that way, from the end.

Carol Cox:
Monique, what is your rock star end for yourself?

Monique Bryan:
Oh, my goodness. That was asking me that in a long time. How dare you, Carol? Definitely. I want to be a published author myself. I want to have a whole resource center of tools on how to build that brand. I have I actually have a secret, not so secret. Now, I also have a I want to do some some like management, like I actually want to manage some people’s careers around their brand like, but I mean, so like intimately that I become your right hand. So there’s, there’s this managerial role that I think I’m dancing around and I get to talk to you. I do get to speak to some people who can say to themselves, celebrities. And I’m always so curious about that world, but also people who are doing just really great, huge things and whether they are celebrity status or not, but they are making such a difference or they are out to make such a difference that I would love to help them be so visible that that that’s no longer an obstacle for them.

Carol Cox:
When it’s going to happen. I see it for you. I love.

Monique Bryan:
It. I haven’t even said that out loud to Eddie. But Carol.

Carol Cox:
That’s what I’m here for. Goodness o talent management. Okay.

Monique Bryan:
It’s happening. I love it. It’s hard just thinking about it.

Carol Cox:
All right. So when we think about our personal brand, start with our rock star goal, whatever that happens to be. And I love that. And then think about where are you supposed to show up? What place are you to show up? What are the assets you need to create? What is it that you need to be doing to start start climbing in that direction? So I love that. Now, Monique, let’s talk about when we talked a little bit about kind of your digital footprint and different marketing channels. And I know that you are a big proponent of making sure that people are intentional about their digital footprint and perhaps cleaning some things up if they need to. Can you tell me more about what needs to get cleaned up? What should we be putting out there about ourselves?

Monique Bryan:
Yes, it’s it’s time to clean up that digital house people. So we all have multiple careers at different times. And what happens is we sometimes forget that all of it’s living somewhere and we never go back to it. So I like to say like number one thing is go Google yourself, Google yourself and see what comes up. Do you show up on the first page and if so, is it the content that you want out there for where you are today? How you want to be perceived today is key. Everything you did before, if it’s no longer relevant to right now, it’s time to remove it. So we’re talking about like taking down old websites, removing yourself, tagged from things, deleting whatever you can, you know, old interviews, old articles, old blog posts. And when you can’t do that, the idea is to push everything to the later pages of Google that nobody ever goes on. And the best way to do that is to create more content. That’s how because no one goes after page one or two of Google, nobody cares. So really looking at anything online that no longer serves your current purpose. It’s time to delete, get rid of it. Then looking at your current footprint and being like, If somebody was to Google me, would I be found favorably on the social media channels of the day? So even if you’re not really active on those platforms, don’t have a dormant, stagnant picture of your cat that you’re now profile picture because you’re like, Nobody ever looks at me on Tik-tok, so I just put a picture up here. Now, if you’re going to be on there, have your best put your best Polish foot forward over there.

Monique Bryan:
Cat, baby, trees, food. Listen, people buy from people and people are deciding who you are in that first meet. No matter where they find you, we never know where people are going to find us. So have a professional headshot, have a really good, clear profile picture, have really clear, concise bios. You know, nobody needs to hear you worked at McDonald’s when you were 17 and that’s what moved you into rock climbing. Och, I want people to really take on that. Our platforms are about us and not for us. They are for our potential clients, our potential partners and opportunities. And keep all your personal stuff on the private button where you can just if you if you really need to be on Instagram for your for your personal reasons, which I’m I’m just a big advocate for our social media is for business. So otherwise I just don’t understand what we’re spending our time there. It’s just like it’s a total hole. We all know it’s a whole right. But put your personal stuff on private so people can’t just go in and dig into your life if you insist on having it there. The rest of it is about how you serve the value you bring. You trickle in. Even this trickling in of your personal life should all be strategic. It’s all strategy, it’s all intentionality. Otherwise, we have other things to do. I assume you have other things to do. Just post for posting sakes. Anyway, I’m very passionate about that specific I.

Carol Cox:
I completely agree with you Monique, on this. And you know, also, I feel like people have different personalities. I’m more I’m an introvert, obviously. I love speaking. I love the stage, but I but I like it for particular reasons. But I’m so an introvert by nature as far as how I get my energy. And for me, scrolling through Instagram or posting a bunch of reels or stories on Instagram does not make me happy. It’s not my happy place. So I don’t use Instagram. I use LinkedIn because I’m a reader and I love that. I like text post, right? So that’s what I do. And I know that once in a while on LinkedIn I’ll post like more of a personal photo versus like whatever the podcast episode is that week. And I know because that gets a lot of comments and things like that, but it’s not, I’m not doing it every day like, Oh look, this is what my cat did today and I’m posting that on LinkedIn.

Monique Bryan:
Well, we’re not we’re not the Kardashians. Like, we don’t need to vlog every minute of our lives. And it comes it comes back to knowing your audience. You know, it depends. It also comes back to whatever industry you’re in. So me being in personal branding, there’s a personal aspect that needs to be shared that people want to be able to relate to me right then. And that’s what makes those. It’s so funny when you post stuff that have nothing to do with your business, they get the highest engagement ever because everyone’s getting so bombarded every single day with Buy this, do this, you need this, you’re doing this wrong. Hire me that. When they see something that’s just entertaining and a little bit of a relief, they can’t wait to hop on it like an anniversary announcements, baby announcements, weddings, birthdays, you know, people love it. It’s crazy, the engagement. So I always say you should piggyback any of your offers off of one of your your big personal juicy announcements.

Carol Cox:
That is an excellent tip, Monique. All right, everyone, go get your calendar. Go find your birthday on the calendar and plan your next launch around that.

Monique Bryan:
Well, love, love, people love, love. If there’s an anniversary, whether it’s your own or your parents or, you know you like, it’s crazy. Like, put your I hate to. I always do. I very. I do a launch on my birthday, you know, because people want to celebrate their wishing happy birthday. Oh, my gosh. And she’s doing a free masterclass. Get out of town.

Carol Cox:
Oh, my God. So good. All right. That’s a great example. So it’s.

Monique Bryan:
All strategy.

Carol Cox:
So many. We talked about this idea of cleaning up your kind of your digital house. We’re moving also up and all of that. Now, what happens if you feel like there’s been damage to your personal brand? So I always tell clients that when you accept a speaking engagement from an event or a conference or a company or a podcast interview, when someone else is podcast, your brand is now tied to their brand because you’re going to show up on their conference website as a speaker on that podcast as a guest. So do your due diligence. Number one, make sure that you want to be associated with that brand because you’re going to be tied together. So say something happens where maybe there’s some some type of like, let’s call it like collateral damage to your personal brand. So like kind of like on the outskirts, it’s not directly at you, but kind of maybe it’s a type of association. What do you do with that case? But then let’s talk about the next case, which is what if something happens where you feel like your personal brand has been damaged by something that you did? So those are my two cases.

Monique Bryan:
Oh, my goodness. And this is such a great question because it’s one of people’s biggest fear and why they don’t come out as themselves because they’re so afraid to make a mistake publicly. What I’ve come to realize is people are very forgiving. When you are honest and admit your wrongdoings, it’s like it’s it’s the defending of the thing you did which pisses people off, right? Like everyone wants they want to be like, you know, I’m right, you know, like I’m right. You were wrong and I was right. Someone has to be wrong and someone has to be right in this scenario and they need to be the one. That’s right. So if you know you’ve done something and it’s something that it does not speak to your values, you made a mistake. Own the mistake, all the mistake, address the mistake, acknowledge maybe what happened. Run it. But don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t try and defend it too much because you’re not going to win that one, especially with people online, because people are very brave behind the behind the texts and the comments. And you may never see their face and in person, they’re just they might be the most docile person. But in a in a in a comment feed, they are vicious, vicious, vicious, vicious. Don’t blame anyone else. Like your PR team made a mistake. That’s the best one, right? I just did what my PR team told me to do. Somebody else was writing it for me. At the end of the day, if you are the CEO of your business and your brand, you should have read that bad boy and known to tell your team what’s going on, not for them to tell you what’s going on. So that happened quite a bit over the last few years where people were just blaming the PR team, come on or doubling down on your mistakes. Don’t do that. Own it, apologize and do better because and tell people how you plan to do better, you know, and people will respect that. I find a lot there’s people who definitely can walk back what they’ve done. So I guess it’s not too bad.

Carol Cox:
No, I mean, really high stakes. Yes.

Monique Bryan:
Like total implosions.

Carol Cox:
Right. Or things that are clearly just not like clearly demonstrate that that person’s values run deep. And those values are ones that you don’t want to be associated with.

Monique Bryan:
Yeah, those are the gotcha. I call those a gotcha. Like you actually got caught. You’re not sorry you got caught in in the thing that good luck with that because I don’t know how you coming back from that I would say go double down then on the communities that actually support the thought process. Yes, rest of it just let it go.

Carol Cox:
And sometimes they do that. So what example popped to mind, Monique? Is Rachel Hollis the kind of right? I don’t know what I would call her.

Monique Bryan:
I call it the Double Down Queen. Yes.

Carol Cox:
So do you want to tell the story of what happened with her?

Monique Bryan:
No, I can’t. I kind of like blocked it out a little bit because I was like, why are you doubling down on your ignorance? Just admit. And the thing is, she’s doubling down because that is that is how deeply rooted her belief system went. So she said a couple of things, though. There were a few different things. So I don’t know if you want to tell what it is, but I was just like, I don’t know how you can. I can’t read any of your books now. I can’t recommend you because you literally are saying you don’t want to be like everybody else. The all the people she basically put down every single person who’s been supporting her and made her the Richie Rich that she is. And it was normal heart again.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, it was classic case study of what not to do. And so this is what I remember. Again, I don’t I didn’t follow it closely, but I saw the headline. So apparently on Instagram, I don’t know if it was last year or the year before she did some post or story about how she I don’t know, she called out her house cleaner for cleaning the toilets. It was totally like not not relevant to anything. There was no need to mention this, but it wasn’t like gratitude that there’s someone who has the role as a housekeeper. It was more like, I’m rich, so this is what I get to have as a housekeeper who cleans my toilets when it was very obnoxious to begin with. So then people called her out on it, very understandably so. And then, to your point, unique. She didn’t apologize and say, Oh, well, I totally did not should not have said it that way, but whatever. She doubled down on it. Well, I do have a lot of money and this is know and then she just it just added more fuel to the fire to that. And to your point, obviously that belief system runs pretty deep.

Monique Bryan:
Yeah. And it was it was this she had built a career saying, I’m just like, you, look what I’ve done. I’m just like you. And if I can do it, you can do it too. Then when someone called her out on that and she was like, I thought you were you were one. She was like, I don’t want to be like everybody else. How could I have all of this and be like anybody else? No, I want to be better. Then I want to be at the top. I wanted and everyone just lost. They were like, Oh, we’ve spent money at your conferences, your books, we followed your podcast, and you, you are better than us. Is that the case? Oh, okay. People get real angry when they’re duped like that for years with your products sitting on their shelves where they’ve cosigned you in other rooms. Like that’s the stuff you can’t come back from because now you’ve made them look stupid and nobody wants to look stupid. Now I’m all amped.

Carol Cox:
Oh, I know. Well, you know, so for those of you listening, this is the thing. Like, I know because I know you. I know many of you listening are our clients. We’ve worked with you. I hear from you. You are good people. Like you are your value driven, your purpose driven. You want to do good in the world. And we that’s why we need you out there even more so to lend your voice and your message in your story. Because there are lots of people out there doing it and a lot of people just they have the gumption. But we need to like drown out those voices and have our voices out there instead.

Monique Bryan:
Yeah, because the loudest person shouldn’t be the one who, I should say, gets it all. You know what I mean? Like, it’s not about being the loudest. It’s. I really love that. Just like we need everyone’s voice because you have something unique to bring to the table, and if not you, who? It’s never going to be heard. So the loudest is just going to get all of the fans or not even just that, but they’re going to be the ones who that’s the message that’s going to be left. And that may not be the message that needs to be out here in the world. You know, so if you have that message, if you have something that’s going to create change, that’s going to move the culture forward, that’s going to make people’s lives better, there’s a solve out there that you are the one to bring it no matter what you’ve seen other people bring. And I think it may be something similar. No one can bring what you were meant to bring because no one has had your own lived unique experience. It’s not possible. Only that person is meant to hear. Your voice will only hear your voice. That’s how it was designed. That’s why I love it so much.

Carol Cox:
And Monique, I know because we’ve chatted prior to this interview that you had a speaking engagement you did a few years ago where you shared a very personal story. Can you want to tell us a little bit about that and. Why you decided to share it?

Monique Bryan:
Yes, I was speaking in Newport Beach, California. It was probably it was a conference, probably about 500 women. And I was sharing the story. It was all about building your building your community, building your squad of people who can support you. And I was talking about the squad that I built around me when I was going through my cancer journey. And, you know, I was rehearsing the talk beforehand. Like, I didn’t have this talk finished. I had like probably a month and a half to prepare. I finished this talk probably 48 to 24 hours before I got on a plane, because every time I would recite it to my best, closest friends who knew me and some who were going to be there, they were like, Yeah, it’s really good. And it didn’t hit me in the heart the way I know you like to hit people in the heart. And I, you know, they said, you know, one of my friend’s friends asked me, she was like, what made the biggest difference for you in your journey? And I was like, Oh, well, that was Audrey, who was a leadership coach at the time. And as soon as I said her name, like, tears came to my eyes, right? And she was like I said, I can’t do this.

Monique Bryan:
I can’t talk about her on a stage full of women with my full makeup done under hot lights. You are crazy. I am doing this quaffed and perfect. I have a photographer hired makeup artist stylist. How dare you make me go up there and be messy? Because messy is not what Monique does. Right? And she said, but that’s the thing that the women need to hear the real piece about what made a difference for you, because the surface is the surface and they’ve heard it all before. So that shifted everything for me and it was a reminder of who I said I was going to be for other people. I’m saying you’re vulnerable pieces, some of those pieces. And I say, you know, don’t. I’m a big believer to not share anything you’re not healed from because that’s a whole nother ball of worms. But this was something that had happened. I was so grateful to this person. She’s still in my life today, and it was one of my most vulnerable times, but it was also one of my biggest lessons, you know. And I was at one of the darkest parts in my journey. And when I had called this person in the middle of the night and really having this defeatist like this, like I’m just done attitude, she didn’t say what all the other people were saying when they say, talk to cancer patients, it’s going to be fine.

Monique Bryan:
I think positive you can do it, you know, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t know what to say to someone without cancer. Trust me, you really don’t. There’s no rule book on it. But what she did say was, you know, Monique, I know this is going to be hard. This is the hardest. This may be the hardest thing you ever do. And I promise you, when it is done, you will go on to live a juicy, delicious life. And she said it was so much conviction that it’s like snapped me out of this whole. I was like, What are you talking about? How do you even talk like that? I’m telling you, I have no hair, no eyebrows, and no will to live. And you’re talking about this juicy, delicious life. And it just I felt it in my bones when she said it. And that’s where Juicy came to be inside of my brand, because it was it became my compass. It became the is this juicy enough for me to keep going? Is this juicy enough for me to be pursuing? You know, if I’m not feeling the juice, what am I really doing? Because, Monique, you know what it’s like to not be there.

Monique Bryan:
You know, life is short, you know, not your next healthy day is not promised. How dare you do something less than? And that’s what I shared on stage. And I cried. I was like, right. Like it was I kept it more or less together, thank God. But I look back and I’m like, That is the piece that people talk to me about. I don’t know if they even remember the rest of it. Right. And I was like, that’s what I want people to tap into when they think about making a difference. Your personal brand can be so many things on so many levels. I don’t believe it’s you wearing a mask. I do believe it’s you curating your reputation out here online. I do think there’s lots of pieces you can share and still keep very private. But for those who are looking to make a difference in people’s lives, in order to do that, I believe there are pieces of yourself that you show kind of like a brave, kind of a brave place that they haven’t gone to yet, that they’re like, If she can do it, I can do it.

Carol Cox:
So I’ll said, Monique, even just you describing a little bit about that, the friendship that you had with Audrey and what she did for you, and then the word juicy came from like I felt that just as you were describing.

Monique Bryan:
That and she’s such a phenomenal person. I always want and I and I think for myself, like, I want to be that for somebody else, like to have that kind of impact like that never leaves a person. Imagine never leaving a person because they always remember that thing you did or that thing you said. That for me is personal brand like that is legacy worthy, personal branding legacy. I got to rename my whole company now.

Carol Cox:
Well, you know, in the word brand, it comes from you think about branding a cow, right? I mean, I don’t like that. I don’t like to think about the, you know, hurting the cow. But if we think about what a brand is, it’s permanent and you are leaving something, it’s like you’re what your idea of like leaving a piece of you with someone that they remember.

Monique Bryan:
Oh, that is very visual and perfect for me for for everyone to remember. Yes, it’s permanent. It can’t be erased.

Carol Cox:
So good. All right, Monique. Well, speaking of juicy, can you let everyone know a bit more about your podcast and where they can connect with you?

Monique Bryan:
Yes, the Juicy CEO podcast, we drop a new episode episode every Wednesday. And this is all about sharing the tips and tricks around building out your personal brand, but also bringing on amazing women like yourself. Your episode drop suit over on the Juicy CEO podcast episode 90 showing you the journey of some of these women, letting them show their expertise. But what did it take for them to what was what was the building blocks like? You know, showing everyone that I always say, you know, juicy brands are made, not born. They take they take time, they take some pivoting, they take some maneuvering. And I feel it’s important to share that with everybody, to be like no matter where you’re at right now, you’re not your circumstance tomorrow. It could be very different. It takes work. It takes resilience. It sometimes it just takes that perfect relationship, but it takes you being out here, right? Hiding is not an option zero option hiding is hurting your.

Carol Cox:
Business even to that money. Brian, thank you so much for coming on to speak in your brand podcast.

Monique Bryan:
Thank you for having me. This was awesome.

Carol Cox:
Wasn’t that a great conversation? Thank you again to Mindy for coming on the podcast. Speaking of personal branding, if you haven’t yet taken our Speaker Archetype Quiz to identify what kind of speaker you are, you’re definitely going to want to do this. It’s entirely free and just takes a few minutes to answer the ten multiple choice questions. You can do that as Speaking Your Brand slash quiz and then Speaking Your Brand slash quiz until next time. Thanks for listening.

Sonix is the world’s most advanced automated transcription, translation, and subtitling platform. Fast, accurate, and affordable.

Automatically convert your mp3 files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.

Sonix has many features that you’d love including world-class support, powerful integrations and APIs, collaboration tools, enterprise-grade admin tools, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.