Jennifer McClure`

Helping Leaders Leverage Influence & Create Maximum Impact.

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Written by Jennifer McClure

Balancing a Strong Personal Brand With a High Profile Corporate Career With Amber Naslund

photo of Amber Naslund

If you’re a regular listener of the podcast, you’ve heard me talk with several previous guests that I first connected with back in the somewhat golden days of blogging, and the beginnings of social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Although I’m not sure how I originally came across my guest on this episode, I know that I was a regular reader of her very popular blog called Brass Tack Thinking during that time frame.

Through great writing and a relatable voice, she shared experiences, practical advice, and marketing expertise, that was extremely helpful to me, and thousands of others, in building a personal brand, and in building a business that connected with those that I wanted to serve.

Then, one day in January 2010, she wrote a blog post that was titled – “The Equestrian’s Guide to Reaching Your Goals” – and as a fellow adult amateur equestrian, I loved how she linked lessons she had learned from horseback riding to setting foundational goals for the next year.

That was it. We were destined to be the best of friends. Or, at least virtual horse buddies. 🙂

To this day, we love sharing, commenting and liking pictures of our horsey adventures online, and I hope we’ll actually get to meet at a horse show or an industry conference or event sometime in the future.

But, since that doesn’t look like it will be able to happen any time soon, I thought that asking her to join me on the podcast would be fun, but also really valuable for both me and you. She’s still doing great work, and continues to share her thoughts and ideas freely in order to help others.

Amber Naslund is a 20-year veteran marketer, and in that time she’s worked with some of the biggest companies, the freshest startups, and everything in between.

In her current role as a senior consultant at LinkedIn, she advises top global clients on their digital content marketing strategies, and their overall approach to using LinkedIn, while on a mission to prove that companies can build compelling, authoritative B2B brands without being dull.

Amber is also the co-author of the best-selling social media handbook The Now Revolution, and when she’s not working on her next book, article, or industry talk, she’s restoring her brain cells on horseback, or spending time with her kid (who’s also an accomplished equestrian already), and her rescue dogs.

In this episode, Amber and I chat about what it was like for her to go from industry darling, to best selling author, to failed entrepreneur, and what she discovered about herself in that journey that helped her to rebuild her confidence, and fuel her success today.

We also talk about what it takes to build a strong and authentic personal brand and platform in today’s noisy world, as well as what to consider when balancing a strong personal brand with a high profile corporate career.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:​​

  • What an entrepreneurial failure taught Amber about herself, and how it set her up for future success.
  • What it’s like being a woman out front in the tech industry sharing your ideas.
  • Advice for someone who asks how they can build a loyal following online.
  • Amber’s thoughts on whether it’s necessary to be on all of the online platforms if you’re trying to build your personal brand.
  • The difference between being authentic and being genuine, and why it’s important for personal brands.
  • Why Amber is comfortable talking online about sensitive topics like mental health, imposter syndrome, and failures in business.
  • Amber’s journey toward understanding imposter syndrome, and how she’s come to view it as a normal, and real, part of the process.
  • How sharing your own vulnerabilities can be helpful with addressing imposter syndrome, and foster trust with your community.
  • 3 tips for those who are interesting becoming thought leaders.

IMPACT MAKERS PODCAST – EPISODE 50

(Email subscribers – click HERE to listen to the podcast.)

Key Quotes From This Episode:

“Being a thought leader isn’t the goal, it’s the result. So, every “thought leader” started as a nobody that no one had ever heard of, that didn’t have an audience. That stuff comes with your willingness to show up first, and put more into the community than you’re asking to take out. So make all of the deposits up front, share the knowledge, be generous, be effusive with how much you’re willing to put in, and the results come. But it has to go in that order.” ~ Amber Naslund

“When we feel seen, and we feel that sense of belonging to something that is bigger than us, but still imperfect, it’s okay for us to be imperfect. That’s an incredibly relieving, reenforcing and validating feeling as humans, and we could all use a little bit more of that right now.” ~ Amber Naslund

“The world doesn’t have your point of view, so there’s really no harm in seeing what you can add that’s unique, even if the conversation itself is not.” ~ Amber Naslund

People & Resources Mentioned In This episode:

Amber Naslund

Amber Naslund LinkedIn

Amber Naslund Twitter

The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund

Laurie Ruettiman

Tim Sackett

William Tincup

Brené Brown

Impact Makers Podcast Episode 049 – Discovering the Hidden Forces That Drive You to Do Your Best Work With Todd Henry

Connect with Jennifer:

Send her a message [https://jennifermcclure.net/contact/]

On LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermcclure

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/JenniferMcClure

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifer_mcclure/

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JenniferMcClureSpeaker

Categories: Blog, Personal Branding, Podcast
Posted on November 12, 2020

Written by Jennifer McClure

Developing a Strong Personal Brand That Enables You to Lead From Where You Are

photo of Jennifer McClure

Sometimes, I have the honor of being a guest on other podcasts or webinars, where I’m typically asked to share about one or more of the topics that I’m passionate about, including leadership, speaking, and personal branding, and I wanted to share one of those recent conversations with you.

Shortly after the world changed for us all as a result of a global pandemic, my friend,  Erich Kurschat – who is the owner of Harmony Insights LLC, as well as the founder of an inclusive mastermind community called HRHotSeat – started scheduling half hour conversations over the lunch hour with people in his network to be intentional about connecting, and also to stay inspired in order to do his best work.

Back in June of 2020, I joined Erich for one of these lunch date conversations, where we chatted about the importance of personal branding for leaders at all levels, why introverts do not get a pass when it comes to personal branding, and how you can grow and develop your personal brand without having to be a speaker, a blogger, or an online Influencer.

I asked Erich if I could share the conversation with you, and he graciously agreed. So I hope that you enjoy it, and get a few takeaways from it that you can apply to your career.

Topics Discussed In This Episode:​​

  • The importance of having a personal brand and being known for something / your expertise / doing great work.
  • The need to embrace your position as a leader – regardless of your position in an organization.
  • Why introverts do not get a pass when it comes to networking and Personal Branding.
  • Why you shouldn’t get hung up on the term “Personal branding”. Yes, it’s marketing, but truly it’s about becoming known, so you can be discovered for opportunities.
  • Growth and impact comes from challenging yourself and doing hard things
  • Does personal branding extend outside of your professional life?
  • Ways to develop and build a strong Personal Brand beyond becoming a speaker or having your own blog.
  • How my journey to become a professional speaker began with teaching what I knew – even if it wasn’t something that I was passionate about.

IMPACT MAKERS PODCAST – EPISODE 42

(Email subscribers – click HERE to listen to the podcast.)

Key Quotes From This Episode:

“You’re in a leadership role in your organization, whether you have a leadership title or not. By being in the people profession, people are looking to you for leadership.  So you have stepped into the light. There will be heat.” ~ Jennifer McClure

“An HR leader’s Personal Brand is so synonymous with the company that they work for – in both the quality of the people that work there, as well as the culture – that HR leaders who are still taking a back seat, and not taking active steps to develop their Personal Brand are not only hurting their careers, they’re also hurting their companies.” ~ Jennifer McClure

People & Resources Mentioned In This episode:

HRHotSeat Mastermind Community

Harmony Insights

Harmony Insights Lunch Dates

Erich Kurschat LinkedIn

Steve Browne

HR On Purpose !! Developing Deliberate People Passion – by Steve Browne 

HR Rising !! From Ownership to Leadership – by Steve Browne 

Kary Oberbrunner

Impact Makers Podcast Episode 9 — Prison to Plan to Payoff: Becoming an Entrepreneur with Kary Oberbrunner

Storybrand – Clarify Your Message

Donald Miller

DisruptHR

—–

Connect with Jennifer:

Send her a message [https://jennifermcclure.net/contact/]

On LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermcclure

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/JenniferMcClure

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifer_mcclure/

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JenniferMcClureSpeaker

Categories: Blog, Personal Branding, Podcast
Posted on September 25, 2020

Written by Jennifer McClure

My Fascination Advantage® Is The Veiled Strength – What’s Yours? [free assessment]

Do you know what makes you fascinating? What draws people to you and differentiates you from others in your profession or industry?

How To Fascinate Graphic

[Want to know how you “fascinate” the world? Read to the bottom of this post and get your code to take a free assessment!]

As a self-proclaimed “Assessment Junkie”, I love the idea of answering a few questions, and within just a few minutes, being presented with a multi-page report that gives me all of the answers I’ve ever wanted to know about myself.

Well, not exactly.

But I do enjoy taking assessments to find new and different ways to understand how I best communicate with the world and where I can add the most value.

That’s why I was intrigued when I first heard Sally Hogshead talk about her new book and the research behind How the World Sees You: Discover Your Highest Value Through the Science of Fascination on a recent podcast with Brian Kelly called What The Speak.

Since I’m currently doing some work to clarify my brand and product/service offerings, I bought Sally’s book and read it over the July 4th holiday weekend. I also took the related Fascination Advantage® Assessment, which is billed as the first personality assessment developed based upon the science of branding, rather than psychology. Unlike traditional tests (Meyers-Briggs or StrengthsFinder) this assessment doesn’t measure how you see the world, it measures how the world sees you.

Interesting.

So I took the assessment and was intrigued by the results. I like the detail in the 16-page report, the information shared about all 49 Archetypes, and the explanatory videos that were included as part of the assessment results.

By the way, my Archetype is called “The Veiled Strength” and below is a snapshot of my primary, secondary and dormant advantages, as well as 3 words that others might use to describe me.

Pretty interesting stuff.

At A Glance Fascination Advantage

 

Want to understand more about how others see you and how you can discover your highest value?

Great!

I’ve got a free code for the 5-minute assessment (normally $37) for the first 100 (update: now 500) people that use it. Just go to HowToFascinate.com/YOU and enter [BL-jmcclure] minus the brackets in the Book Code box.

After you’ve had a chance to review your report and take it all in, please take a moment to briefly share your Archetype and what you think about your results with me in the Comments section. I’d love to hear from at least one person for each Archetype!

If you’re interested in learning more about the Fascination Advantage® and how you can create your own Anthem using the information, share it with your clients and colleagues and even use it to improve the work of your team, be sure to get Sally Hogshead’s new book How the World Sees You: Discover Your Highest Value Through the Science of Fascination.

I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too!

Categories: Blog, Book Reviews, Career Development, Personal Branding
Posted on July 9, 2014

Written by Jennifer McClure

Creating a Value-Based Positioning Statement

As a speaker, consultant or business owner, have you struggled with how to position yourself in the marketplace in order to create demand and eliminate the need to compete based upon price?

To solve these common problems, you have to begin by answering some fundamental questions.

Last week, the National Speakers Association (NSA) held its annual convention in San Diego, California, and although I was unable to attend in person, they did provide some of the sessions via live stream, which was a great opportunity to learn from some of the industry’s best speakers, authors and consultants.

One of my favorite sessions was from Hall of Fame Speaker and The Million Dollar Consultant® – Alan Weiss. I’ve long been a Fan of Mr. Weiss’ advice and approach. His Million Dollar Speaking: The Professional’s Guide to Building Your Platform book was one of the first that I read after starting my business in 2010. It’s full of great advice, examples and tips not only related to the business of speaking, but how to become an in-demand expert through effective positioning in the marketplace.

In his 75-minute talk at #NSA14 – “Million Dollar Positioning: How to Position Yourself as the Expert” – Mr. Weiss shared the basics of creating a Positioning Statement/Value Statement to convey expertise, value delivery and ultimately price in a crowded and noisy marketplace.

Figure out what you love – and what you’re best at. Take everything else away.

When you’re working at your best and highest value, you’re creating a great piece of art. And to create the great work of your life, you have to find what you love to do – and what you’re great at – and then carve away everything else.

It’s rumored that when asked how he carved out the amazingly beautiful and intricate David from a big square block of marble, Michelangelo replied, “I just took away everything that wasn’t David.”

Creating an effective and artful Positioning Statement is no different. Cull away things that aren’t really you or that you aren’t enthusiastic about so you can create your masterpiece.

Tell people how they’ll be better off after working with you.

Your Positioning Statement needs to answer these questions for your potential buyer:

How will you improve them?

What is the real value that you bring?

Ideally, you’re approach will be a bit edgy and provocative, and show that you think a bit differently. That way, your audience will want more – and because what you offer is unique, they’ll be willing to pay more to get it.

Position yourself as an Expert – not as a Speaker, Author, Consultant

There are hundreds and thousands of speakers, authors, consultants, etc. in the world, which means there is plenty of choice.

Buyers don’t want to hire just anyone, they want to hire experts. And if you’re not considered “The Expert”, you’re just a commodity – and you’ll always be treated as such in terms of price and opportunity.

Don’t just be a “delivery alternative” in your industry or profession. Be The Expert – which means you’ll need to create new and unique ideas, products and services that separate you from the rest.

Tip: Once you determine your area of expertise, you can then determine how to deliver it, but don’t mix in methodology in your Positioning Statement.

For example, don’t say: “Through coaching and consulting I create change that impacts strategic objectives.”

That kind of statement isn’t unique or compelling, and it doesn’t answer the most important question: “After I walk away from you, how will I be better off because I met you?”

Effective Position Statements: Examples

“I help small business owners accelerate their business and lead a fabulous life.”

“I help you to reduce stress so you can make rational and powerful decisions about your life.”

—–

Always opinionated and full of great one-liners, Mr. Weiss (@BentleyGTCSpeed on Twitter) also reeled off some great quotes during his presentation – and all of which just happened to be less than 140 characters. (Check them out below, and if you like one or more, just click the link to tweet it out!)

“Wealth isn’t money. Wealth is discretionary time. You can always make another dollar, but you cannot make another minute.” @BentleyGTCSpeed

“The greatest damage to excellence is from the pursuit of perfection.” @BentleyGTCSpeed

“Self-esteem is an action that creates self-confidence. You have to work on it everyday. Tell yourself what you do well.” @BentleyGTCSpeed

“Confidence is the belief you can help other people. Arrogance is the belief that you have nothing to learn yourself.” @BentleyGTCSpeed

I really enjoyed the session and took plenty of notes to take action and implement in my own expertise branding journey. And I appreciate the National Speakers Association for making this session available. I’d love to attend the event in-person next year!

Question: What’s your Value Statement? Share it with me in the Comments section. I’d love to learn from you and help others find your expertise!

Categories: Blog, Career Development, Personal Branding, Personal Development
Posted on July 7, 2014

Written by Jennifer McClure

The HOW and WHY of LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook For Business [Webinar Series]

I get to do many cool things in my job at Unbridled Talent, but one of the best things about my job is the opportunity to travel around and meet professionals who are interested in learning more about how to grow their professional careers or how to implement best practices to improve their company’s performance.

In addition to working with business leaders to define and implement people strategies required to achieve business objectives, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at over 150 conference events, corporate workshops, association meetings and webinars – often about how to utilize social media for career development, why social media matters for business and how to utilize social media tools and resources in Human Resources and Recruiting.

LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

I love my job.

But even though LinkedIn recently reached it’s 10th anniversary, Facebook has turned 9 and Twitter has crossed the 7 year mark, many people are still confused about or unaware of how to best utilize social media tools as business and professional resources. It’s not uncommon for me to talk with someone after an event where the person relates something similar to, “I was skeptical that using social media was something that I (or my organization) needed to do and I didn’t understand it, but now, I believe that it is – and I can!” Best. Feedback. Ever.

And it’s ok.

That’s one of the reasons why Laurie Ruettimann* and I are teaming up to offer a series of upcoming webinars to help business professionals, human resources pros and talent acquisition geeks understand the HOW and WHY of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – and we’d love for you to join us!

We realize that many of you may not be inclined to attend a conference to learn more about how to use LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook and you also may not have the time or budget resources to do so. So we’re coming to you – in your offices, your cubicles or out on your back deck – via a series of 90 minute webinars to share what we’ve learned about using social media to cultivate awareness, develop your brand/your employer brand and effective ways to nurture both consumer and employment leads in the marketplace.

So here’s the scoop (click on the links for full session descriptions and for registration):

  • Developing a Strategic and Effective Presence on LinkedIn (May 21, 2013 at 2pm ET/11am PT )
  • Essential Elements for a Successful Twitter Presence (May 28, 2013 at 2pm ET/11am PT)
  • Strategies to Establish and Amplify Your Presence on Facebook (June 4, 2013 at 2pm ET/11am PT)

After doing webinars for other companies for years, many of whom charged quite a bit of money, we’d like to offer these webinars at an affordable price ($37 each or $99 for all three) and we’ll also provide everyone who registers with a free toolkit after each webinar that includes a copy of the slide deck, a recording of the webinar and a resource sheet with links to learn more from leading social media resources.

Not available during the specific dates or times? No worries. The webinars will be recorded for access at any time and you’ll still receive the toolkit!

Why are we doing this now? Because we want to help you and we want to share what we’ve learned from years of working as entrepreneurs, recruiters and human resources professionals along with our experience working in a variety of industries – both within corporate America and as external consultants working with some of the best leaders and companies in the world.

Have a question about the webinars or what’s in it for you? Let me know in the comments or you can find both Laurie and I on the interwebs via

LinkedIn – Laurie Ruettimann / LinkedIn – Jennifer McClure

Twitter – Laurie Ruettimann / Twitter – Jennifer McClure

Facebook – Laurie Ruettimann / Facebook – Jennifer McClure

Or just go old school and send me an email!

If you know someone who could benefit from one, two or all three of these webinars, please share this information with your colleagues or clients!

*True story. Laurie is my favorite Cynical Girl, Pixie of the Apocalypse, cat lover and thinker/agitator in the world of work. We “met online” years ago when I found her Punk Rock HR blog, so when we actually met for the first time in person at the 2009 SHRM Annual Conference, we were already BFF’s. Ultimately, Laurie has been one of the most helpful people to me in developing my business and my speaking career and is firmly ensconced in the Unbridled Talent President’s Club. See? Using social media to build real relationships and to grow your business can definitely work!

—–

Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of recruiting & human resources strategy, employment branding and leadership/career development. We offer keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

Categories: Blog, Employment Branding, Facebook, LinkedIn, Personal Branding, Social Recruiting, Twitter
Posted on May 8, 2013

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Recent Posts

  • How to Live Hard, Embrace the Future, and Create Success With Dr. Todd Dewett
  • Helping Leaders Succeed in Relationships, Work, Community, and Life With Mike Sipple, Jr.
  • Redefining HR: Embracing Modern People Practices To Fuel Business Success With Lars Schmidt
  • Turning Passion Into Purpose: From Career Coach to Recruiting Tech Company Founder With Ariel Lopez
  • Putting Yourself First and Finally Taking Control of Your Career With Laurie Ruettimann

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