Let's Talk About Brand

Today's guest is The Queen Bee herself, Ms. Dani Wallace! Dani is a speaking coach who runs the I Am The Queen Bee community and The Big Festoon event. She delivers confidence. She delivers encouragement. She delivers badassery. But what she truly delivers, at the root of all she does, is to deliver the message that success can feel safe.Her event, The Big Festoon, certainly does that. Her community does that. She's even got a documentary film, “The Festoon Effect,”  about what she does and the message she's spreading.Dani definitely comes across as someone who is fully confident in the value of her own message and in her own authority to do what she's doing out here–but, as you'll hear, she's just like the rest of us deep down. She experiences self-doubt and energetic crashes. But she also recognizes the importance of the message she’s here on this earth to deliver, and the empowerment the sense of community she creates brings to others.In this episode:The council estates of PrestonTraveling the world as a performerCall center trainingDomestic abuse and homelessness with two children under the age of two “Life is either going to continue happening to me or I'm going to happen to life.“Gigging singer to early live-streamer (and mascara seller!)“Show up, wise up, rise up”Safety in successSharing her learningsAn “overnight success” 10 years in the makingOvercoming daily self-doubtCreating what she needed most via The Big Festoon“I’m really famous…”Fly Anyway FoundationCollaborationsReleasing her own filmSmashing the patriarchyTelling your story while bringing actual value to the worldCreating that “joy space” that helps cement actual learningOwning her origin story without leaning on itThe one thing about Dani’s energy you’d never guess!Find Dani:Instagram“The Festoon Effect” documentary❤️Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrandSubscribe to the Let's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

I started the season back in September with a solo episode⏤and I realized I didn't really give you as much of the goods as I really should have. I did tell my professional story, I went through all of that history, and I even answered my own “searching” personal branding questions about my “why.” What I didn't do is really get into the nitty-gritty of how I built my professional presence. So we're going to take a walk down memory lane as to how I grew my own personal brand visibility, and hopefully some of these tactics can help you build yours  as well.In this episode:The beginning of Christine Gritmon Inc. in May 2016“Be visible doing the thing that you want to be known for doing”“Say yes to opportunities!”How I pivoted my personal brand “People who knew, liked and trusted me were up for coming along on this new journey because I focused on transferable skills and transferable values.”Deciding who I was going to learn fromNetworking before, during, and after events“Don't think that speakers are these untouchable people who are on this whole other plane of existence from yourself. Go talk to them!”“A slightly outdated tactic: I live-Tweeted events…”Becoming a conduit to information. Put yourself in the conversation and connect with others who are also part of that conversationRebranding (again!) to personal branding“Take a look periodically at making sure everything is aligned” the things that you're offering, the audience you're offering it to, the audience you have, the things that you are doing. Make sure that it's all pointing in the same direction.” “What worked in the US isn't going to work here…”“Don't be afraid to realign, but make sure that you have something built on the fundamentals, the foundations that people have come to know you and trust you for, those transferable skills.”“Don't be afraid to show up.”Find Me:WebsiteLinkedInInstagramFacebookYouTube❤️Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrandSubscribe to the Let's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

The word “empowerment” comes up a lot in this interview with online business-building coach Teresa Heath-Wareing! Teresa is all about empowering people, including herself, to live the lives they want to lead via building their online businesses.I've known Teresa for a long time, and her messaging has been remarkably consistent over the years. We discuss how she built her business up to the level of reputation and success she enjoys now, how she chooses where to place her energy, and her constant commitment to bringing excellence to everyone she encounters. We also discuss her decision to release a more personal podcast earlier this year and how she decides what she does and doesn’t share as part of both her personal and business lives.In this episode:Teresa’s first personal brand as an employee “I basically started from fear and having my back up against the wall and knowing I need to make money…”“They sort of borderline stalked you!”What made people buy in to Teresa in the early daysLearning from the expertsGetting clients from speaking…then not getting clients from speakingSaying yes to opportunities“...doing the small stuff and working your way up to it”The Hustle: gift bags, selfies, and flying 5,000 miles for coffeeChoosing what opportunities to say yes or no toWhy marketing?Delivering empowermentHer sobriety journey and “Losing Parts Of Myself” podcastWhat she will and won’t shareFind Teresa:InstagramLinkedInteresaheathwareing.com Your Dream Business podcast❤️Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrandSubscribe to the Let's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

You know I love having a chance to speak with non-marketers!(Then again, is there truly such a thing in the world of personal branding?)Ophira Edut has held many titles: teenage streetwear creator, artist, writer, graphic designer, web developer, magazine editor, feminist anthologist, author, and globally-acclaimed astrologer, just to name a few. We discuss her organic journey between all of these worlds, her motivations, key moments of recognition, and of course the companionship of her identical twin sister, Tali, with whom Ophira shared almost all of these adventures.The biggest message of Ophira's story is: do what you do, put your creativity out there into the world–and if opportunities arise from it, say YES to them!Hear about:Growing up an identical twin in a Middle Eastern family in the MidwestWinning allllllllll the contestsDenim Rebellion and Double Vision(and Urban Outfitters and Raven-Symoné)Getting “Sassy” in NYCHues MagazineBack to NY & getting onlineAstrology as personal insight……and personal brand……and science.Gloria Steinem!Ms. Magazine“Adios, Barbie”Teen Vogue and the birth of the AstroTwins brand“Astro Style”Astrology as a conduit for connectionAstroStyle.comSyndicationElle MagazineWhy Beyonce and Jay Z are still together (it was in the stars!)Bringing individual skills to a joint brandTapping into commonalitiesProviding hope and guidanceFind Ophira:Astrostyle.com “The Astrology Advantage”InstagramTikTok❤️Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrandSubscribe to the Let's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

Fab Giovanetti bounds onto any stage she’s invited to “excited and excitable as a Labrador every single day”⏤and it’s highly contagious!On this episode we discuss how Fab transitioned from hiding behind a community she’d built for health and wellness professionals (and being one herself!), to stepping into more of a general marketing and small business leadership spotlight: first as a podcast host, then as the founder of the Alt Marketing School online learning academy. Now she’s taking it a step further as a fractional CMO.Fab’s had several touch points over the years where she’s had to rebalance the boundaries and overlaps of her different positions: as a marketer, as a community leader, as an educator, and as her own vibrant self. Through it all, she’s forged a career all about helping people via stronger systems, more effective marketing, and, above all, a sense of fun!Listen for:“Big Labrador energy”Fab’s start as a business and marketing coach for health and wellness entrepreneurs at Health Bloggers Community (later Creative Impact)Becoming known via community events“I was kind of hiding behind the company because it was more about community, about others…”Alt Marketing School Podcast“I'm going to say the P word: ‘pandemic’”Sharing her journey as a founder and learning in publicBecoming the go-to for marketing business support  “Helping making marketing better for marketers”Working out the Fab, the person, and the personal brand, and the expert would play within Creative Impact? And how did you work out the differences and or similarities of how Fab, the person, would factor into Alt Marketing School? “I'm clear about my mission I'm clear about what I want to do and I'm clear about what I enjoy doing within that as well”“The energy that I bring in is so essential to the school…I embody it by being an absolute doofhead.”Why systems are so essentialShowing upThe boundaries and overlaps between Fab and Alt Marketing SchoolBecoming a fractional Chief Marketing Officer, and adding that to the mixThe drive to help othersWhat Fab truly delivers to people via Alt Marketing SchoolHow long ago were the 80s?Her husband’s fansFind Fab:LinkedInInstagramfabgiovanetti.comaltmarketingschool.com Fab's Books!❤️Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrandSubscribe to the Let's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

When people in the know hear the word “community,” they think of Christina Garnett.But Christina didn't always start out specifically working in community; her turning point in her personal branding journey was a specific tweet in December 2020:"If you have less than a 1,000 followers and work in marketing in some capacity, introduce yourself to Marketing Twitter.Say hi, tell us about yourself, and what you like to tweet about. Make friends." You'll hear us talk about that tweet a lot in this week’s episode, and how it wound up changing her life and impacting her professional career in great ways. We also discuss what she was doing leading up to the fateful tweet, what she did with it, and how she has weighed her options since–including starting her own business as a fractional CCO (Chief Community Officer/Chief Care Officer) and advisor, helping companies foster better communication with their communities in all sorts of ways. Listen and learn:Community as a response to COVID-era isolationThe TweetWhy it hitNot overthinking itContinuing to keep it realHaters gonna hatePre-Tweet careerPandemic Medium articleBurnout, vulnerability, reaching out and getting knownWhy people wanted herBeing a connectorData driven strategyThe voice of the communityParasocial relationships with brands, and how personal brands come into play with solidifying that relationshipDeciding not to become an influencerCreating her own job titleWhat drives ChristinaWhy companies need communityWhat Christina specifically brings to the tableThe personal and the professionalFind Christina:TwitterLinkedInPre-order her book!❤️Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrandSubscribe to the Let's Talk About Brand Newsletter