IAM1119- Personal Brand Specialist Enables CEOs and Executives to Define Their Brands

As a personal brand specialist with entrepreneurship in her DNA, Jen Dalton helps business owners and executives define how they show up as leaders, make the most of their strengths, and tend to their legacy, growth, and visibility. She's passionate about enabling individuals and companies to define their brands and differentiate themselves in authentic, credible, and relevant ways to the market. She is the author of The Intentional Entrepreneur (2016) and Listen: How to Embrace the Difficult Conversations Life Throws at You (December 7, 2020). An international speaker and reputation coach, she collaborates with CEOs, executives, and startups to live their purpose authentically and intentionally. Jen has been featured in Inc., Forbes, Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, The Washington Post, and HLN.

• CEO Hack: (i) Creating by writing or sketching (ii) Tools- Otter and Rev.com
• CEO Nugget: Know your why, who you are and learn other stuff
• CEO Defined: Chief Empathy Officer

Website: http://www.brandmirror.com/

http://www.thenoisebreaker.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandmirror

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifervdalton/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/brandmirror/

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/BrandMirror

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandmirror77

New Book Listen: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1636765661
The Intentional Entrepreneur: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08GF5QWRQ

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Transcription

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00:22 – Intro 

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:50 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jen Dalton, a brand mirror. Jen, it's great to have you on the show.

00:59 – Jen Dalton

Thank you so much for having me.

01:00 – Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on and before we jump into the interview I wanted to read a little bit more about Jen so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. As a personal brand specialist with entrepreneurship in her DNA, Jen helps business owners and executives define how they show up as leaders make the most of their strengths, and tend to their legacy, growth, and visibility. She is passionate about enabling individuals and companies to define their brands and differentiate themselves in authentic, credible, and relevant ways to the market. She is the author of the Intentional Entrepreneur in 2016 and listens to how to embrace the difficult conversations life throws at you from December 7, 2020.

As an international speaker and reputation coach, she collaborates with CEOs, executives, and startups to live their purpose authentically and intentionally. She's been featured at Inc, Forbes, Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, the Washington Post, and HLN. And Jen is a mover and shaker, always doing phenomenal things in the community and the DMV area. So super excited to have her on the show and hear about how she makes all these business entrepreneurs and executives be able to communicate all the awesome things they're doing. So Jen, great to have you on the show. You're ready to speak to the I AM CEO community.

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02:15 – Jen Dalton

I am so excited to be here. I can't wait.

02:18 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely. Well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started when I called your CEO story.

02:27 – Jen Dalton

Well, it all started when I was 5. Now I'm kidding a little bit, but my parents were entrepreneurs and my grandparents were entrepreneurs. And although there might have been some child labor involved as a child of entrepreneurs, I always knew I wanted to have my own business. But I also knew I really wanted to go into the corporate world and learn a lot, you know, make mistakes, get to know bright people, and get exposure to how big companies work. And so on my 10th anniversary, I actually had my second son. And I thought, you know, I wanna be able to tell my kids about the next decade. And I wanna really love it being about, me choosing to go live my why and my purpose.

And so that's where it started. And, you know, in sort of parallel, I had gone back to get my executive MBA at Georgetown, knowing I wanted to do branding and strategy work, which is what I had done in my corporate career, but not really knowing what that meant. And my Classmates who were fantastic humans had no idea how to talk about themselves. And so as we were going through this expensive but worth it program, they were trying to figure out how to transition from the role I'm into a CEO or to starting a business.

As we worked through that, I really started to think about personal brand what that means, and how we define it. I read Start With Why by Simon Sinek and then I pursued personal brand certifications the weekend before I graduated, so on April 27th, which is my first son's birthday, I launched Brain Mirror and that's been 9 years. So that's where it all started. I didn't fall into it. I sort of meander down a path along the way.

04:24 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that. And I'm definitely obligated to say hoia saccida to you as a fellow grad as well too. I'm definitely excited to hear you, you know, doing so many phenomenal things. But I love how you talked about me entering through that journey, because I think so many times when you see people doing really phenomenal and awesome things, you don't take into account how every single part of their life kind of builds up to that moment. So I love that you mentioned that and that you are able to go through that journey and learn so much, make connections I imagine too, and be able to do all the awesome things you've been able to do.

04:57 – Jen Dalton

Absolutely. I went to Georgetown's undergrad business school and really enjoyed it. But I have to say, going back to my executive MBA, when you're older and you appreciate learning and education, it really helped me and you also appreciate the value of networking. It really helped me expand my entrepreneurial network because there were amazing entrepreneurs that I met through Georgetown as well, which really opened my thinking about it. That's where I had my first entrepreneur Mastermind through 1 of the programs there and with Jeff Reed, who works on their entrepreneurship initiative. So Georgetown has played a huge role in me launching my business.

05:42 – Gresham Harkless

I know you landed on brand marrying, doing really phenomenal things. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more here, how you're working with your clients and how that process goes.

05:50 – Jen Dalton

So I love what you said a moment ago. And I think of it the same way. People need to build their brand before they need it. You know, and we all have a brand, whether we manage it or not is totally different. But what I found when I was working and meeting a lot of entrepreneurs, and when I started my own business, was you don't have a business brand, you only have your personal brand and your reputation to get it growing and to launch it. And so it's abundantly clear when you make that transition how important your personal brand and your reputation are. Then if you sort of fast forward to CEOs who've had companies for a few years, or a company, they are the face of the business.

And so I find myself working with startup CEOs trying to leverage their reputation to launch and figuring out their why and embedding it in their business from the beginning. For CEOs who are in more mature companies, it's about how are you the face of the business. How are you attracting talent? How are you growing revenue and being visible? Because it's not about the CEO. It's not about that person in the sense that it's really their job to communicate with confidence. Here's the value that our company and our people bring. I think from a personal brand standpoint, that ends up being knowing your why, and knowing how you bring value to an organization.

For CEOs, though, it also means if you're building a business to sell it, how does your personal brand play a role in that? Because it's very different than if it's a family business or a legacy business that you want to hold on to. So it's also a strategic choice. And I think a lot of times leaders are busy leading and they don't have time or they don't create time to step back and think about those things. So those end up being the questions that really help people figure out, who are they in the beginning? How does their personal brand help their business over time? And then when they want to pivot or do the next thing, what brand do they need to have built along the way that will help them do that?

08:17 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And as an English major as well, I also love words. So I definitely love that and not only how it sounds, but also what it means as well too, and how that manifests itself. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself individually your business or a combination of both. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart or makes you unique?

08:39 – Jen Dalton

So I'm a very structured person. My areas of expertise, and I make my clients go through this as part of a process as well I love structure, I love strategy, and I love clarity. And so when I work with clients, I take them through very specific, unique, I think, and differentiated exercises that really help them, no kidding, think about what's your why. And then also really think big picture, what's the impact you were put on this earth to make?

09:17 – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:29 – Jen Dalton

I love paper and writing on paper. So I've been working really hard to transition out of being paper and move to more digital and make everything accessible for my clients, whether it's my handwritten notes, Remarkable, or iPad. But I think it's important to find the tools that meet you where they are and also move you forward. Because I don't like typing. I'm actually a very good typer, but that's not how I create. I create by writing stitching and drawing. And so, my recommendation would be to find those tools that work best for you. I'll use tools like Otter to record stuff if I'm speaking or Rev.com if I do a video so I can easily create more content by getting transcriptions and things like that.

10:25 – Gresham Harkless

I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client around branding, or it could be something if you were to happen to a time machine you might tell your younger business.

10:39 – Jen Dalton

I was just talking about this the other day. When I think about what I would tell my younger self, I think it's important to remember that from an imposter syndrome standpoint, and interestingly enough, there's research that shows 70% of people have imposter syndrome. There's a difference between knowing who you are and knowing what your job entails or information about a company. I think it's very important. I don't like the phrase, fake it till you make it. I think in order to be authentic, you have to know who you are show up, and decide what signals you give that show your authenticity. So do you sit down with people regularly and talk with them and listen?

Or do you send thank you notes or do you do a phone call every once in a while? That has nothing to do with if you move and switch companies and go to a new role. Yes, you're going to have to learn that business and learn that role, but that is not about faking it till you make it. You can still be a very authentic leader and show up and still have to learn some more about a business but you're not faking it. You know because you will need to show up and say who do I need to meet in the first hundred days? What should I know?

And that's okay that's being vulnerable that's learning. So I think that's probably one of the biggest things that I've always had a pet peeve around that phrase and only recently did I really think it through all the way to the end and come to my own opinion about well what what would I say instead? And so that's my golden nugget for entrepreneurs or people starting out. It's not about faking it till you make it. It's about knowing your why, knowing who you are, and then learning other stuff. But you're not faking who you are.

12:29 – Gresham Harkless

Wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Jen, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:40 – Jen Dalton

We were just talking about empathy and I was thinking about the chief empathy officer.

12:44 – Gresham Harkless

I like that.

12:46 – Jen Dalton

I know. Most people, you know, empathy may not seem as sexy as like chief executive officer, chief experience officer, or, but I think a CEO is a leader who is there for their people and leads from the heart because the company is only made up of its people. Like the logo and the brand and the building are not people, they don't have souls, they don't have hearts. So I think a leader, their job is to leave a company better off the people better off than when they started. And hopefully, that's in really powerful ways. I think their job is to evolve and constantly challenge the status quo and not get comfortable.

13:32 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely appreciate that, Jen. And I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get a hold of you, get a copy of the books, and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

13:47 – Jen Dalton

I just want to say thank you for the work you're doing and for giving people a platform to share their thoughts. It's important to share what they've learned. I can be reached at brandmirror.com or then noisepreaker.com. And I have a lot of different content and thought leadership that is available. Lots of free downloadables around, where do you start with your brand strategy? How are you showing up on LinkedIn and building a digital presence? But mainly just thank you to you. I appreciate the time today and I appreciate the opportunity. We had some great discussions. We could keep talking, but I know it's a holiday weekend.

14:24 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. Well, we definitely have more and more spots on. So we'll definitely have to have you back on and drill down even more. But we will have the links and information in the show notes. And I love the work that you do because I think just like, you know, I try to do is try to hear people's stories, you help bring that out so that they're able to kind of talk about that and talk about the ramifications of that and their business and organizations and probably on a deeper level their lives. So I appreciate you so much for the work that you do. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

14:50 – Outro