Strategy Talks _ Personal Branding Strategies _ with Valentina
Dorien: [00:00:00] Are you struggling to stand out in a crowd right here on social media? Maybe you're tired of feeling like your personal brand doesn't truly reflect your unique talents. In today's episode of Strategy Talks, learn how to harness your magical power and create an authentic brand that resonates with your audience and propels you and your career into new heights.
This is Strategy Talks. Stay tuned.
Let's strategize together. Let's hear it from an expert. Join the conversation, it's informative and free. You and me, let's talk some strategy. [00:01:00] Now
here's your host, Dorien Morin-van Dam.
Dorien: And we are back with another episode of strategy talks. I'm so glad you're here. If you're here with us live, let us know in the comments, whether you're watching us on Facebook, on LinkedIn or on YouTube. If you watch us on the replay, we would love to know that too. Put that in the comments. And of course, as always a shout out to those of you who listen to strategy talks.
As a podcast. Thank you so much for being here with us today. And without much further ado, I'm going to bring under the stage with me today's guest, Valentina. How are you today? Valentina? Maureen, I am so blessed to be here with you today. I'm just, can't wait to jump into this conversation. I know me too.
And I'm just realizing that our names are not underneath. So I'm going to go see if I can [00:02:00] fix that while, we say hello to each other. We're going to talk about personal branding. I can't find it. Nevermind. We know who we are, right? Doreen and Valentina. All right. We're good. This is what happens when you're live and you're recording.
So personal branding strategies. Let's dive right in. You're a personal branding expert. Valentina, what are the key elements of a strong personal brand and how can individuals Identify that magical power to stand out in their industry. And because it's just really hard. We know that, there might be 20 LinkedIn experts and there might be 30 video editors.
And how can somebody stand out and build a personal brand that really converts your visibility into
Valentina: customers? It's funny, I wanna get started with the story of how we met. So for years I've known about you and talk about a strong personal brand. You with your glasses and they're orange and I don't know if it's 'cause you're Dutch, but it's it's one of those things that just stands out.
So when I met you in real life at [00:03:00] in Boston for a conference, out of hundreds of people, there's hundreds of people in this conference. I bonded with you more than anyone else, and I was so grateful for that experience to have that one on one time with you and to just riff off ideas off of each other, and it was so important.
And when you talk about a personal brand, that's your story. How do you stand out from other people? Whether you speak differently from a different country, maybe it's your heritage, maybe it's your background, maybe it's the stuff that you went through, maybe it's the schooling or lack of education like you, that you just got into this, maybe 12, 13 years ago.
So that is a good brand. It's the consistency and like yourself, you always wear the cool glasses. And I think about a strong brand. It's your accent. It's how you talk is how you present yourself on a consistent basis.
Dorien: So it's everything, it's the words you speak, it's how you look, how you sound, it's everything.
Now does a, now I'm going to go off script here, but the [00:04:00] personal brand, how do you, so how do you find it? So I, this is where. And I can tell this story and I, you probably have not heard this, but the orange glasses, and this is a secret for everybody.
Valentina: Okay.
Dorien: Yeah. Orange glasses used to be not real orange glasses.
They used to have just. It's fake lenses in them. Now they're real because now I'm quite a bit older. And, but for about 10 years, those glasses were not for anything other than my branding, right? They were there to help people recognize me online and offline. And it works.
Valentina: Yeah, I'm shocked.
And it's funny. You were going to tell me about a story. So I think about the story and I've said this so many times. I would, I was at Mark Schaeffer's uprising conference and I was speaking in front of everyone. And I told him, this is my story on branding. It was in the middle of COVID and you know how everyone was going to the home repair store.
What was Lowe's, Home Depot, whatever. [00:05:00] I was there and I'm from Florida, but I live in Tennessee and I was wearing a big sun hats and I was wearing my big glasses, my sunglasses and my mask and my gloves. And I was not taking the gloves off. I was not taking the mask off because we were in that phase where everyone was so paranoid.
So I was going to the paint section of the store and I'm just talking to my family. Like it's all good. Hey, I don't like that paint. I want this paint. And I'm talking and people and someone turn around and mind you again, I'm wearing the glasses. I'm wearing the mask. I'm wearing everything. And they're like, Valentina, is that you?
And I'm like, yes, that's me. And she's I'm so glad I ran into you because I need you to do a speaking engagement, a paid speaking engagement in the prime of COVID. I was like, this is incredible. And it was all because of the accent. It was all because of how I talk. And it's funny because here we are thinking we have an accent.
We're from a different, we're from a different place. A lot of us that are tuning in maybe are moving to a new location and, you have a different accident. I've been [00:06:00] told in the past 12, 13 years, since I've lived here, that I have an accent, I was actually told this week and I'm like, you know what, I've learned to embrace that accent because it's led me to speaking engagements and to stand out with that personal brand.
Dorien: Absolutely. I would say lean into it and lead with it. So how has personal branding evolved from before the internet to now, right? Particularly with the rise of social media platforms where Instagram, where we can do live and Tik TOK and LinkedIn, how has it changed from a personal brand? Say.
pre digital marketing. If there was even a personal, if there was even a thing as a personal brand before then,
Valentina: you didn't have the leverage back then. So you either had to pay someone to show up on tv. Now anyone can be, have a presence, have a personal brand and you can also not have a personal brand.
You're not intentional, you're not working it. And that is your brand as well. So now with social media, you can have a conversation with your clients and prospects and audiences [00:07:00] using Instagram, using LinkedIn, using Tik TOK, and there's different avenues, depending if you're B2B or B2C.
Dorien: That's really great.
So before before the internet, we would, like you said, through radio personalities, TV and movies, right? That's how people got a personal brand, especially. Say you're an actor and you're always cast as a cowboy, you become that actor, right? Or you're a female and you're always cast as a, female as a love interest of, say, a James Bond, right?
Then that becomes your personal brand. And the one thing that I want to give to people, and we're going to dive into this in a minute, but Valentina, we know this. You steer your personal brand, right? You Are at the steering wheel of it. You get to decide where it goes. Now, sometimes, and this is again off script, but sometimes things happen and your personal brand gets a little push in a direction you don't want what happens and what do we do when that happens?
Valentina: I think you're going to have to find something to [00:08:00] make you bounce back, whether it's volunteering or doing something good for someone else and posting that. And there's, they say that there's about 2 percent of people that are negative Nancy's and I'm doing the air quotation marks here. These, those people that no matter what you do, they're always gonna be negative towards what you do.
And I think it's not letting it get to you, of course, get dwell on it for five minutes or maybe five hours, but learn to bounce back from that and doing, putting those values, those missions, those things that you always do on a consistent basis out there.
Dorien: All right.
Valentina: So
Dorien: how do we say, somebody's working on the personal brand and they used to be a founder of a SAS company and now they want to be known as a nurse, Nancy.
I'm just making it up. Yeah. How does, how do you make a. Switch from what you're known for because of how other people perceive you to, you have a career change and you want to build this new personal brand because now we [00:09:00] know, the search engines remember you forever. There's no AI out there who's scouring is, or what are some actions that somebody can do and say, I Googled myself and I'm not really liking what I see on my personal brand.
How are there any practical things that you can give us that can help us get found for what we actually want to be found
Valentina: for? That's a great question because I just worked with someone she's actually my mentor and she's known for business development, small business development and anything related.
small business, but she also has this passion for photography. And I was working with her recently. I'm like, look, why don't you do this post on LinkedIn? And of course, LinkedIn is great because if someone were to Google you, your LinkedIn profile, if you have it complete and set up, it's probably going to be the second or third thing that people see when they do Google you.
So I told her, why don't you do a post saying, hello, let me allow myself to re introduce myself. I'm also, I do this and this. But I'm also a photographer. I'm also doing this. I'm doing headshots and explain. Okay. I'm still doing that other stuff. But [00:10:00] now I want you guys to know me for this and you have a great picture yourself and you post it on LinkedIn because that's where your audience is.
I think LinkedIn is a great tool for thought leadership to get yourself out there specifically with the personal brand. I also think you can utilize Instagram to your advantage when you want to do a little change or pivot to your career.
Dorien: That's excellent. So putting out the information that you want and then putting everything in place so that the search engines and AI picks up on the additional keywords that you want to be known for.
Correct. So let's move that conversation then to you just said thought leadership. Let's go into C suite, right? So we've got, company founders, we've got, a C-Suite, A-C-M-O-A-C-F-O-A-C-O-O-A-C-E-O, and they've outsourced their marketing to their team over there in the corner, and they're working really hard and they have LinkedIn pages and Facebook, and maybe they day ago [00:11:00] on TikTok, especially if they're B2B brand, they probably have been put in a box and said, this is all you can do.
Exactly. Yeah. Would you say to the C-suites. About personal branding, about how it can, and if it can enhance everything else that their team is doing for the brand.
Valentina: Yeah, so that's a great question. With LinkedIn, I would the first step would be posting and sharing stuff from the company pages. But again, thinking about that thought leadership.
Is there something that you've read? Maybe all these folks, anyone that ends with an O usually reads a lot of books. And so that's the plan. Maybe reading a book about marketing, me reading a book about business, giving some ideas. background saying, Hey, this was the takeaway that I got from this book. Or I went to this conference.
Here are the three things that I learned, or here are the six tips that my mom probably wouldn't be able to share with you about having a business. So adding those thought leadership, adding those type of posts, because when you think about LinkedIn for the five people, they are decision [00:12:00] makers. So this is, it has two times the buying power.
So that's the place that where you can just put your brain dump of your ideas and put it out there.
Dorien: All right. I want you to repeat those numbers. I love this. Four out of
Valentina: five people on LinkedIn are decision makers? And they have two times the buying power. So that is where your audience is. When you're posting something on LinkedIn, this is just basic strategy, very quick tips, but when you're posting on LinkedIn in that one hour, it's pushing to 10 percent of your audience.
So when you're thinking, okay, should I just be posting every single day? Another thing to think about with linkedin is not so much the posts when you post something it gets one tenth the reach What gets a lot of traction and gets one third the reach is the commenting so you and I release you from thinking that you have to post every single day What I want to emphasize is when you do go on linkedin Try to comment on people's posts, and that's going to push you to new audiences, specifically if you've just connected with someone in the past two weeks, it pushes, and [00:13:00] this is what I read somewhere, it pushes 100 percent of your content to those new contacts you've had within those first two weeks.
And then when you think about posting, you're like Valentina, I don't like to be on pictures. I don't like to do videos when it comes to LinkedIn. You don't always want to do videos or you always don't want to do pictures or you don't always want to do carousel posts. Actually, if you do the same three things in a row, it reduces reach by 30 percent with the exception of text.
Okay. That was a big mouthful.
Dorien: Okay. That's a lot. That's a lot. Now that's incredible. Insight I've been doing a lot of video and in 2025, my reach on video has really diminished
Valentina: my ears right now,
Dorien: but yeah, it did. No, it, it has, but I also think that usually that happens because behind the scenes.
LinkedIn is doing something from July 24 until December 24. I was posting one video a day, Monday through Friday. I actually tried [00:14:00] weekends. They didn't, nothing worked on the weekend, but Monday through Friday. Got huge reach and I felt like every second or third video was going into that video feed.
It was being pushed out. That was one week. I had over 2 million impressions, like lots of crazy. That deserves
Valentina: a slow pause. Hold on. 2 million. That's a lot.
Dorien: Yes. In one week. So that was happening. And then as of January, not a single one of my videos has gone into that newsfeed has been pushed out by LinkedIn.
And I heard somebody say, yeah, LinkedIn stop. Pushing that kind of content out. It's still worthy. They're still saying, year over year, 36 percent growth on video. People are doing more video. So my thought is that some new things are coming out with video on LinkedIn. Yeah. I see stuff going on LinkedIn.
And especially with video, what if we could leave video comments, right? What if we could, make playlists. Videos that we save or there's all kinds of things. So I'm hoping, and what if we could go [00:15:00] live just from our phone without a third party app? That would be amazing. So if my thought is that's what's happening and making it make it a better, but I love what you said.
So if you have three videos in a row, that's when it diminishes by 30%. That's what I heard you say. So what you're saying is
Valentina: variety. Exactly. And so maybe you don't want to do video. And the thing with video is that what happens with the video? I've heard this discussion with Richard Bliss, and he talks about how if you watch a video, what's the action step?
So then another video starts out of populating. So what? That's the thing with videos. You do a video. If unless there's an action item. Okay, I need to stop what I'm doing. Click on something. The person's not going to take that action item. They're just be okay. That's great. And then another video auto plays.
So maybe you want to think about those contribution posts or those articles where it says you've been selected to add your input on this collaborative article. That's maybe a good way to be a thought leader without having to think about my goodness, what am I going to post? Do I have to get my hair done?
[00:16:00] Get my little blazer on and look cute? No, maybe you just spent your time. Doing those collaborative articles where you're just, giving your insights and that gets so much reach. Or maybe you're very good at designing these beautiful images. So maybe you're going to do a collage or those type of catalogs where people are just swiping and looking at your PDFs.
Maybe you're really good on words, but you're not really good on video.
Dorien: That's really great advice. Okay, so that's the c suite and of course tap into your team if you want to do video if you want to do thought leadership and if you are reading books you can say to your team, hey I have some thoughts can you record me and have them record you on a video or as you know an audio and have them record you.
Use your content and your thoughts and words into content that they use for the brand as well. And of course, post it on your LinkedIn personal profile. So how about, are there any strategies that we need to be aware of for maintaining authenticity while building that strong personal [00:17:00] brand? Especially those who might feel uncomfortable.
With self promotion, how can we stay authentic, but still make sure that people know we're for hire. You can come to our agency. We can help you. How do
Valentina: we do that? And I wanted to jump in just one more thing with the last one. The another thing that's gotten a lot of traction is those LinkedIn newsletters.
So keeping people within LinkedIn. So this is what I currently do every week. I blog once a week and I blog. It takes me a couple of days to come up with something. Then I posted on my blog. Then I put in on my email newsletter. On a Friday and it blasts out to my email subscribers. And then that Sunday I do it this every two weeks.
I'm very mindful of what I'm going to post on LinkedIn. I have repurposed that blog post that was on my website and I posted on my LinkedIn and that has gotten so much traction to tell you for the small business owners this tip is for you. This is dedicated to you for the small business owners that [00:18:00] are listening to me right now.
When I posted my first blog article on the LinkedIn newsletter, a professor of mine that I had not spoken to in 13 years from my MBA program reached out to me the next day. And I'm like, this is the power of that blog, that newsletter in within LinkedIn, having people to subscribe to your newsletter. So when you think about what I just said, I takes me a couple of days to blog.
So I usually have my blog post by Wednesday, Thursday, I put it on my blog Friday and I put it on my email newsletter. And then on Sunday, depending on if it's, I do it every two weeks on Sunday, I push it out right where at the time, like Monday, Sunday morning, when people are having their brunch church hour, what have you.
I post it then and then it gets all this traction. So think about how can you become consistent? And what I'm blogging about is not that exciting. I'm basically recapping. Don't say that. Don't say that. Doreen, this is huge. The one of my first, so what I did is, [00:19:00] I do a recap of the marketing props B2B forum.
So you were one of the first people that I blogged about. I'm like, this is the takeaway from her session about spying on competitors. And I referenced the tools that you mentioned in that, in my blog posts, and then I post it on my newsletter. And then, like I said, and so think about that sequence.
Think about the day of the week, think about how. You can be consistent. Maybe Friday's is your down day. Maybe it's your virtual day or admin day. That's the day you can do some brain dump, a lot of content that you want to do. And maybe that's the day that you get all dolled up and get ready to do videos.
Find the day of the week that works best for you. Another thing that I heard from Dana Malstaff She said something about how using A. I. Has been very good for her because you could just plug in all your information. Say, Okay, this is my website. This is the tone of how I talk. This is how I speak. And maybe you're not ready.
This week we're going through a full moon. Maybe you're not in the right state of mind. So you use your A. I. To keep you consistent. So no matter what you post, it sounds like you, no matter if there's a full moon or not.
Dorien: No, I and I [00:20:00] totally agree with that. I definitely has a whole conversations with A.
I. Loaded my strategy talks, my podcast. I've said, this is my tone of voice. This is how I interview. It helps me come up with interview questions for for my next guests. So that makes sense. But what I love, what I just heard you say is if you want to build a personal brand. It takes consistent effort and all the stuff that you just said, that's what you said.
You have to make yourself. And if, and this is for those of you who freelance or have an agency, and I've heard my friend Malou says this all the time, be your own. Best client, right? And so if your best client has a package of eight hours a week, you should spend eight hours a week on your own personal brand and your own marketing for your agency as well.
Be your own best client, be [00:21:00] on the platforms, be visible, do the blogging, do the video. And I just heard you say that in a very, Personal way, but if you take anything away from this and what Valentina just said is be consistent, start putting information out there, sharing your view, your unique view of the world and what's going on within your industry.
And that's how you get known. I absolutely love it. So you alluded to small business owners. So we went from C suite let's go to small business owners, right? How can they balance that personal brand? With our company brand. And if there, is there ever a time that they should prioritize one over the other, because they have so little time.
And by the way, if your excuse for everything is you're too busy, you have a systems problem. You don't have, you have a time management problem. Don't use busy as a reason to not work on your personal brand. Give up something else. That is not going to help you be more visible, right? Give up something that is not going [00:22:00] to bring money in, make sure that you prioritize this, but how can small business owners do that and how, do they.
For example, my business is more in media. I don't talk about more in media all the time. I talk about my personal brand, Doreen, people hire me. Yes. It's under more in media, but I don't prioritize the name of my agency. Because is what you get. You get me, right? Yes. I have some VAs, but all the conversations are with me.
So how about somebody who has a small business? How do they navigate that?
Valentina: Yeah, that's a great question. So it's like what you just said right now. No one knows me as beyond engagement. They know me as Valentina, like you, we don't have like sharing Madonna. We don't have the whole last name, but you just go by that first name.
So that's the thing. So when I post something, it's me as beyond engagement. So maybe once in a while I'll post on my business page, my actual business page, but I'm sharing some stuff to my personal, but I try to post. All the time there, especially if I'm doing an interview with someone and especially if I'm behind the picture itself, I try to [00:23:00] post it there.
But again, it's a delicate balance. A lot of people say they have separate accounts like on instagram. Some people have just their personal or their business. I don't have time to manage to. So I'm posting As Valentina at beyond engagement. So when I think about what I'm posting, is it going to benefit my three different personas that I catered to?
Is it going to tap into those two industries? So I try to keep it simple. And I just have one, one thing on Instagram, on LinkedIn, I have my personal and then I have my company page. If my company, if I'm doing a workshop somewhere, I will post it on my business page, but if I'm saying something that's coming out of my mind thought leadership is coming out as Valentina.
Dorien: All right. That makes a lot of sense. Okay, so we're nearing the end, but I've got one more question before we get into how people can connect with you. So looking ahead and looking at what's coming up in 2025. Are there any specific platforms or features or content formats shaping the future of personal branding that you see that [00:24:00] really people need to think about?
Say they want to take personal branding to the next level. Is it a book? Is it a podcast? Is it a show? What can you say about what's coming up for 2025 and beyond?
Valentina: Someone had asked me that question and it was earlier this week. She's Valentina, I feel for the small business owners that say, Hey, what social media platform, what tools, what should I be doing no matter what here?
And the problem is. It doesn't matter what platform you're using, what tool you're using. What matters is that you put yourself out there. I know this is a very like cookie cutter answer, but it's the consistency. Things change, the algorithm change, the platforms change. But what matters is that you are putting yourself out there and think of it as a way that maybe 80 percent of the stuff that I'm gonna post is fluffy stuff.
And then I have supposed that are called to actions like sign up for my webinars, sign up for my workshop. But I think no matter what changes It's what you post out there and then being relevant to your [00:25:00] audience. We know we talk about LinkedIn. I can talk the whole day about LinkedIn and how that's really good for thought leadership, for SEO, for all that good stuff.
But there's also Instagram to build that relationship with your audiences.
Dorien: Yeah, excellent. So Valentina, somebody is listening to you and loves everything you say, needs a thought leader, needs some help with thought leadership on LinkedIn, wants to reach out to you. How can they where can they meet you?
Where can they find you? How can they connect with you?
Valentina: That's a great question. First of all, I want to do a plug for the most amazing marketing book ever. This book, I wrote a chapter on Instagram. There's 36 authors from 10 countries. So if you're not a book reader, I'm going to tell you, you're going to get a kick.
Out of the audible version. Cause you got everyone with all the cool accents from different countries. So definitely check out that book and see if you, you identify with what I'm saying with Instagram. And then if you want to learn more, you can always go to my website beyond hyphen engagement. com. And I do one on one.
I love [00:26:00] working with people one on one and I also do group workshops or webinars, but that's the best way to connect with me and what separates me from other people is that I push my clients. And they didn't know they needed that push. Maybe they just need hand holding. I make them do things that makes them very uncomfortable.
So if you don't want to be, if you want to be with someone that just takes it easy on you, then don't work with me. I work with people that want to believe in themselves and that love education, that love to get ahead.
Dorien: I can feel that just talking to you that you have that energy and you have all these ideas and you're very supportive.
So that makes a lot of sense. And I love, I think you're the first one in your season four of Strategy Talks that has not only been able to express what they do and offer, but very clearly, I am not for you if. I love that. That is, you're basically. You are so in tune to your personal brand that you know exactly, not just what is, but what isn't.
I absolutely [00:27:00] love this Valentina. This is so perfect for a person.
Valentina: I just want anyone, if anyone ever sees you in real life to put yourself out of your comfort zone and just talk to you because you like, I don't want to get emotional, but just meeting you in Boston in real life, you are such a good person with a good heart.
And I wish people knew that about you. If you're very shy to go up to the rock stars in the social media industry, don't be scared of her because she has a great story to tell. And you would do yourself a favor. you.
Dorien: I so appreciate that. And I feel the same about you because I've been following you for a while and I know you had gone to Mark Schaefer's uprising.
Mark and I are friends. We traveled together to Suriname. So it was one of those, I really need to meet Valentina and it was like, You know what? This is the true testament to personal branding. You saw me and you knew who I was. [00:28:00] I saw you and I knew who you were. That is the power of personal branding, right?
Years ago, when I first had those fake orange glasses, I went to social media marketing world and 20. 15 2015. So 10 years ago, I was wearing these orange glasses. My first big major event. I was on Twitter. I was in a couple of different places. And this woman comes up to me. Her name is Steph. She's still my friend.
She actually was a guest last year and she starts talking to me as we're best buds. And she finally, I'm looking at her name tag and finally like it started clicking. But She had no qualms about coming up to me because she saw what she had seen online. And I think that if you can have that connection, online and offline, that you're that same person, that's really Then you're doing a good job with your personal branding guys.
So Valentina, thank you so much for your sweet and kind words. I can't wait to see you again, maybe 2025 somewhere at [00:29:00] another conference. For those of you who stayed all the way to the end, I want to say thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your, input.
If you have questions, make sure you go to the comments. If you haven't asked them yet. We'll be monitoring those and really appreciate those of you who listened to the podcast and made it all the way to the end too. I'll be back next week with another episode of strategy talks by everybody.
See you later.
Dorien: [00:00:00] Are you struggling to stand out in a crowd right here on social media? Maybe you're tired of feeling like your personal brand doesn't truly reflect your unique talents. In today's episode of Strategy Talks, learn how to harness your magical power and create an authentic brand that resonates with your audience and propels you and your career into new heights.
This is Strategy Talks. Stay tuned.
Let's strategize together. Let's hear it from an expert. Join the conversation, it's informative and free. You and me, let's talk some strategy. [00:01:00] Now
here's your host, Dorien Morin-van Dam.
Dorien: And we are back with another episode of strategy talks. I'm so glad you're here. If you're here with us live, let us know in the comments, whether you're watching us on Facebook, on LinkedIn or on YouTube. If you watch us on the replay, we would love to know that too. Put that in the comments. And of course, as always a shout out to those of you who listen to strategy talks.
As a podcast. Thank you so much for being here with us today. And without much further ado, I'm going to bring under the stage with me today's guest, Valentina. How are you today? Valentina? Maureen, I am so blessed to be here with you today. I'm just, can't wait to jump into this conversation. I know me too.
And I'm just realizing that our names are not underneath. So I'm going to go see if I can [00:02:00] fix that while, we say hello to each other. We're going to talk about personal branding. I can't find it. Nevermind. We know who we are, right? Doreen and Valentina. All right. We're good. This is what happens when you're live and you're recording.
So personal branding strategies. Let's dive right in. You're a personal branding expert. Valentina, what are the key elements of a strong personal brand and how can individuals Identify that magical power to stand out in their industry. And because it's just really hard. We know that, there might be 20 LinkedIn experts and there might be 30 video editors.
And how can somebody stand out and build a personal brand that really converts your visibility into
Valentina: customers? It's funny, I wanna get started with the story of how we met. So for years I've known about you and talk about a strong personal brand. You with your glasses and they're orange and I don't know if it's 'cause you're Dutch, but it's it's one of those things that just stands out.
So when I met you in real life at [00:03:00] in Boston for a conference, out of hundreds of people, there's hundreds of people in this conference. I bonded with you more than anyone else, and I was so grateful for that experience to have that one on one time with you and to just riff off ideas off of each other, and it was so important.
And when you talk about a personal brand, that's your story. How do you stand out from other people? Whether you speak differently from a different country, maybe it's your heritage, maybe it's your background, maybe it's the stuff that you went through, maybe it's the schooling or lack of education like you, that you just got into this, maybe 12, 13 years ago.
So that is a good brand. It's the consistency and like yourself, you always wear the cool glasses. And I think about a strong brand. It's your accent. It's how you talk is how you present yourself on a consistent basis.
Dorien: So it's everything, it's the words you speak, it's how you look, how you sound, it's everything.
Now does a, now I'm going to go off script here, but the [00:04:00] personal brand, how do you, so how do you find it? So I, this is where. And I can tell this story and I, you probably have not heard this, but the orange glasses, and this is a secret for everybody.
Valentina: Okay.
Dorien: Yeah. Orange glasses used to be not real orange glasses.
They used to have just. It's fake lenses in them. Now they're real because now I'm quite a bit older. And, but for about 10 years, those glasses were not for anything other than my branding, right? They were there to help people recognize me online and offline. And it works.
Valentina: Yeah, I'm shocked.
And it's funny. You were going to tell me about a story. So I think about the story and I've said this so many times. I would, I was at Mark Schaeffer's uprising conference and I was speaking in front of everyone. And I told him, this is my story on branding. It was in the middle of COVID and you know how everyone was going to the home repair store.
What was Lowe's, Home Depot, whatever. [00:05:00] I was there and I'm from Florida, but I live in Tennessee and I was wearing a big sun hats and I was wearing my big glasses, my sunglasses and my mask and my gloves. And I was not taking the gloves off. I was not taking the mask off because we were in that phase where everyone was so paranoid.
So I was going to the paint section of the store and I'm just talking to my family. Like it's all good. Hey, I don't like that paint. I want this paint. And I'm talking and people and someone turn around and mind you again, I'm wearing the glasses. I'm wearing the mask. I'm wearing everything. And they're like, Valentina, is that you?
And I'm like, yes, that's me. And she's I'm so glad I ran into you because I need you to do a speaking engagement, a paid speaking engagement in the prime of COVID. I was like, this is incredible. And it was all because of the accent. It was all because of how I talk. And it's funny because here we are thinking we have an accent.
We're from a different, we're from a different place. A lot of us that are tuning in maybe are moving to a new location and, you have a different accident. I've been [00:06:00] told in the past 12, 13 years, since I've lived here, that I have an accent, I was actually told this week and I'm like, you know what, I've learned to embrace that accent because it's led me to speaking engagements and to stand out with that personal brand.
Dorien: Absolutely. I would say lean into it and lead with it. So how has personal branding evolved from before the internet to now, right? Particularly with the rise of social media platforms where Instagram, where we can do live and Tik TOK and LinkedIn, how has it changed from a personal brand? Say.
pre digital marketing. If there was even a personal, if there was even a thing as a personal brand before then,
Valentina: you didn't have the leverage back then. So you either had to pay someone to show up on tv. Now anyone can be, have a presence, have a personal brand and you can also not have a personal brand.
You're not intentional, you're not working it. And that is your brand as well. So now with social media, you can have a conversation with your clients and prospects and audiences [00:07:00] using Instagram, using LinkedIn, using Tik TOK, and there's different avenues, depending if you're B2B or B2C.
Dorien: That's really great.
So before before the internet, we would, like you said, through radio personalities, TV and movies, right? That's how people got a personal brand, especially. Say you're an actor and you're always cast as a cowboy, you become that actor, right? Or you're a female and you're always cast as a, female as a love interest of, say, a James Bond, right?
Then that becomes your personal brand. And the one thing that I want to give to people, and we're going to dive into this in a minute, but Valentina, we know this. You steer your personal brand, right? You Are at the steering wheel of it. You get to decide where it goes. Now, sometimes, and this is again off script, but sometimes things happen and your personal brand gets a little push in a direction you don't want what happens and what do we do when that happens?
Valentina: I think you're going to have to find something to [00:08:00] make you bounce back, whether it's volunteering or doing something good for someone else and posting that. And there's, they say that there's about 2 percent of people that are negative Nancy's and I'm doing the air quotation marks here. These, those people that no matter what you do, they're always gonna be negative towards what you do.
And I think it's not letting it get to you, of course, get dwell on it for five minutes or maybe five hours, but learn to bounce back from that and doing, putting those values, those missions, those things that you always do on a consistent basis out there.
Dorien: All right.
Valentina: So
Dorien: how do we say, somebody's working on the personal brand and they used to be a founder of a SAS company and now they want to be known as a nurse, Nancy.
I'm just making it up. Yeah. How does, how do you make a. Switch from what you're known for because of how other people perceive you to, you have a career change and you want to build this new personal brand because now we [00:09:00] know, the search engines remember you forever. There's no AI out there who's scouring is, or what are some actions that somebody can do and say, I Googled myself and I'm not really liking what I see on my personal brand.
How are there any practical things that you can give us that can help us get found for what we actually want to be found
Valentina: for? That's a great question because I just worked with someone she's actually my mentor and she's known for business development, small business development and anything related.
small business, but she also has this passion for photography. And I was working with her recently. I'm like, look, why don't you do this post on LinkedIn? And of course, LinkedIn is great because if someone were to Google you, your LinkedIn profile, if you have it complete and set up, it's probably going to be the second or third thing that people see when they do Google you.
So I told her, why don't you do a post saying, hello, let me allow myself to re introduce myself. I'm also, I do this and this. But I'm also a photographer. I'm also doing this. I'm doing headshots and explain. Okay. I'm still doing that other stuff. But [00:10:00] now I want you guys to know me for this and you have a great picture yourself and you post it on LinkedIn because that's where your audience is.
I think LinkedIn is a great tool for thought leadership to get yourself out there specifically with the personal brand. I also think you can utilize Instagram to your advantage when you want to do a little change or pivot to your career.
Dorien: That's excellent. So putting out the information that you want and then putting everything in place so that the search engines and AI picks up on the additional keywords that you want to be known for.
Correct. So let's move that conversation then to you just said thought leadership. Let's go into C suite, right? So we've got, company founders, we've got, a C-Suite, A-C-M-O-A-C-F-O-A-C-O-O-A-C-E-O, and they've outsourced their marketing to their team over there in the corner, and they're working really hard and they have LinkedIn pages and Facebook, and maybe they day ago [00:11:00] on TikTok, especially if they're B2B brand, they probably have been put in a box and said, this is all you can do.
Exactly. Yeah. Would you say to the C-suites. About personal branding, about how it can, and if it can enhance everything else that their team is doing for the brand.
Valentina: Yeah, so that's a great question. With LinkedIn, I would the first step would be posting and sharing stuff from the company pages. But again, thinking about that thought leadership.
Is there something that you've read? Maybe all these folks, anyone that ends with an O usually reads a lot of books. And so that's the plan. Maybe reading a book about marketing, me reading a book about business, giving some ideas. background saying, Hey, this was the takeaway that I got from this book. Or I went to this conference.
Here are the three things that I learned, or here are the six tips that my mom probably wouldn't be able to share with you about having a business. So adding those thought leadership, adding those type of posts, because when you think about LinkedIn for the five people, they are decision [00:12:00] makers. So this is, it has two times the buying power.
So that's the place that where you can just put your brain dump of your ideas and put it out there.
Dorien: All right. I want you to repeat those numbers. I love this. Four out of
Valentina: five people on LinkedIn are decision makers? And they have two times the buying power. So that is where your audience is. When you're posting something on LinkedIn, this is just basic strategy, very quick tips, but when you're posting on LinkedIn in that one hour, it's pushing to 10 percent of your audience.
So when you're thinking, okay, should I just be posting every single day? Another thing to think about with linkedin is not so much the posts when you post something it gets one tenth the reach What gets a lot of traction and gets one third the reach is the commenting so you and I release you from thinking that you have to post every single day What I want to emphasize is when you do go on linkedin Try to comment on people's posts, and that's going to push you to new audiences, specifically if you've just connected with someone in the past two weeks, it pushes, and [00:13:00] this is what I read somewhere, it pushes 100 percent of your content to those new contacts you've had within those first two weeks.
And then when you think about posting, you're like Valentina, I don't like to be on pictures. I don't like to do videos when it comes to LinkedIn. You don't always want to do videos or you always don't want to do pictures or you don't always want to do carousel posts. Actually, if you do the same three things in a row, it reduces reach by 30 percent with the exception of text.
Okay. That was a big mouthful.
Dorien: Okay. That's a lot. That's a lot. Now that's incredible. Insight I've been doing a lot of video and in 2025, my reach on video has really diminished
Valentina: my ears right now,
Dorien: but yeah, it did. No, it, it has, but I also think that usually that happens because behind the scenes.
LinkedIn is doing something from July 24 until December 24. I was posting one video a day, Monday through Friday. I actually tried [00:14:00] weekends. They didn't, nothing worked on the weekend, but Monday through Friday. Got huge reach and I felt like every second or third video was going into that video feed.
It was being pushed out. That was one week. I had over 2 million impressions, like lots of crazy. That deserves
Valentina: a slow pause. Hold on. 2 million. That's a lot.
Dorien: Yes. In one week. So that was happening. And then as of January, not a single one of my videos has gone into that newsfeed has been pushed out by LinkedIn.
And I heard somebody say, yeah, LinkedIn stop. Pushing that kind of content out. It's still worthy. They're still saying, year over year, 36 percent growth on video. People are doing more video. So my thought is that some new things are coming out with video on LinkedIn. Yeah. I see stuff going on LinkedIn.
And especially with video, what if we could leave video comments, right? What if we could, make playlists. Videos that we save or there's all kinds of things. So I'm hoping, and what if we could go [00:15:00] live just from our phone without a third party app? That would be amazing. So if my thought is that's what's happening and making it make it a better, but I love what you said.
So if you have three videos in a row, that's when it diminishes by 30%. That's what I heard you say. So what you're saying is
Valentina: variety. Exactly. And so maybe you don't want to do video. And the thing with video is that what happens with the video? I've heard this discussion with Richard Bliss, and he talks about how if you watch a video, what's the action step?
So then another video starts out of populating. So what? That's the thing with videos. You do a video. If unless there's an action item. Okay, I need to stop what I'm doing. Click on something. The person's not going to take that action item. They're just be okay. That's great. And then another video auto plays.
So maybe you want to think about those contribution posts or those articles where it says you've been selected to add your input on this collaborative article. That's maybe a good way to be a thought leader without having to think about my goodness, what am I going to post? Do I have to get my hair done?
[00:16:00] Get my little blazer on and look cute? No, maybe you just spent your time. Doing those collaborative articles where you're just, giving your insights and that gets so much reach. Or maybe you're very good at designing these beautiful images. So maybe you're going to do a collage or those type of catalogs where people are just swiping and looking at your PDFs.
Maybe you're really good on words, but you're not really good on video.
Dorien: That's really great advice. Okay, so that's the c suite and of course tap into your team if you want to do video if you want to do thought leadership and if you are reading books you can say to your team, hey I have some thoughts can you record me and have them record you on a video or as you know an audio and have them record you.
Use your content and your thoughts and words into content that they use for the brand as well. And of course, post it on your LinkedIn personal profile. So how about, are there any strategies that we need to be aware of for maintaining authenticity while building that strong personal [00:17:00] brand? Especially those who might feel uncomfortable.
With self promotion, how can we stay authentic, but still make sure that people know we're for hire. You can come to our agency. We can help you. How do
Valentina: we do that? And I wanted to jump in just one more thing with the last one. The another thing that's gotten a lot of traction is those LinkedIn newsletters.
So keeping people within LinkedIn. So this is what I currently do every week. I blog once a week and I blog. It takes me a couple of days to come up with something. Then I posted on my blog. Then I put in on my email newsletter. On a Friday and it blasts out to my email subscribers. And then that Sunday I do it this every two weeks.
I'm very mindful of what I'm going to post on LinkedIn. I have repurposed that blog post that was on my website and I posted on my LinkedIn and that has gotten so much traction to tell you for the small business owners this tip is for you. This is dedicated to you for the small business owners that [00:18:00] are listening to me right now.
When I posted my first blog article on the LinkedIn newsletter, a professor of mine that I had not spoken to in 13 years from my MBA program reached out to me the next day. And I'm like, this is the power of that blog, that newsletter in within LinkedIn, having people to subscribe to your newsletter. So when you think about what I just said, I takes me a couple of days to blog.
So I usually have my blog post by Wednesday, Thursday, I put it on my blog Friday and I put it on my email newsletter. And then on Sunday, depending on if it's, I do it every two weeks on Sunday, I push it out right where at the time, like Monday, Sunday morning, when people are having their brunch church hour, what have you.
I post it then and then it gets all this traction. So think about how can you become consistent? And what I'm blogging about is not that exciting. I'm basically recapping. Don't say that. Don't say that. Doreen, this is huge. The one of my first, so what I did is, [00:19:00] I do a recap of the marketing props B2B forum.
So you were one of the first people that I blogged about. I'm like, this is the takeaway from her session about spying on competitors. And I referenced the tools that you mentioned in that, in my blog posts, and then I post it on my newsletter. And then, like I said, and so think about that sequence.
Think about the day of the week, think about how. You can be consistent. Maybe Friday's is your down day. Maybe it's your virtual day or admin day. That's the day you can do some brain dump, a lot of content that you want to do. And maybe that's the day that you get all dolled up and get ready to do videos.
Find the day of the week that works best for you. Another thing that I heard from Dana Malstaff She said something about how using A. I. Has been very good for her because you could just plug in all your information. Say, Okay, this is my website. This is the tone of how I talk. This is how I speak. And maybe you're not ready.
This week we're going through a full moon. Maybe you're not in the right state of mind. So you use your A. I. To keep you consistent. So no matter what you post, it sounds like you, no matter if there's a full moon or not.
Dorien: No, I and I [00:20:00] totally agree with that. I definitely has a whole conversations with A.
I. Loaded my strategy talks, my podcast. I've said, this is my tone of voice. This is how I interview. It helps me come up with interview questions for for my next guests. So that makes sense. But what I love, what I just heard you say is if you want to build a personal brand. It takes consistent effort and all the stuff that you just said, that's what you said.
You have to make yourself. And if, and this is for those of you who freelance or have an agency, and I've heard my friend Malou says this all the time, be your own. Best client, right? And so if your best client has a package of eight hours a week, you should spend eight hours a week on your own personal brand and your own marketing for your agency as well.
Be your own best client, be [00:21:00] on the platforms, be visible, do the blogging, do the video. And I just heard you say that in a very, Personal way, but if you take anything away from this and what Valentina just said is be consistent, start putting information out there, sharing your view, your unique view of the world and what's going on within your industry.
And that's how you get known. I absolutely love it. So you alluded to small business owners. So we went from C suite let's go to small business owners, right? How can they balance that personal brand? With our company brand. And if there, is there ever a time that they should prioritize one over the other, because they have so little time.
And by the way, if your excuse for everything is you're too busy, you have a systems problem. You don't have, you have a time management problem. Don't use busy as a reason to not work on your personal brand. Give up something else. That is not going to help you be more visible, right? Give up something that is not going [00:22:00] to bring money in, make sure that you prioritize this, but how can small business owners do that and how, do they.
For example, my business is more in media. I don't talk about more in media all the time. I talk about my personal brand, Doreen, people hire me. Yes. It's under more in media, but I don't prioritize the name of my agency. Because is what you get. You get me, right? Yes. I have some VAs, but all the conversations are with me.
So how about somebody who has a small business? How do they navigate that?
Valentina: Yeah, that's a great question. So it's like what you just said right now. No one knows me as beyond engagement. They know me as Valentina, like you, we don't have like sharing Madonna. We don't have the whole last name, but you just go by that first name.
So that's the thing. So when I post something, it's me as beyond engagement. So maybe once in a while I'll post on my business page, my actual business page, but I'm sharing some stuff to my personal, but I try to post. All the time there, especially if I'm doing an interview with someone and especially if I'm behind the picture itself, I try to [00:23:00] post it there.
But again, it's a delicate balance. A lot of people say they have separate accounts like on instagram. Some people have just their personal or their business. I don't have time to manage to. So I'm posting As Valentina at beyond engagement. So when I think about what I'm posting, is it going to benefit my three different personas that I catered to?
Is it going to tap into those two industries? So I try to keep it simple. And I just have one, one thing on Instagram, on LinkedIn, I have my personal and then I have my company page. If my company, if I'm doing a workshop somewhere, I will post it on my business page, but if I'm saying something that's coming out of my mind thought leadership is coming out as Valentina.
Dorien: All right. That makes a lot of sense. Okay, so we're nearing the end, but I've got one more question before we get into how people can connect with you. So looking ahead and looking at what's coming up in 2025. Are there any specific platforms or features or content formats shaping the future of personal branding that you see that [00:24:00] really people need to think about?
Say they want to take personal branding to the next level. Is it a book? Is it a podcast? Is it a show? What can you say about what's coming up for 2025 and beyond?
Valentina: Someone had asked me that question and it was earlier this week. She's Valentina, I feel for the small business owners that say, Hey, what social media platform, what tools, what should I be doing no matter what here?
And the problem is. It doesn't matter what platform you're using, what tool you're using. What matters is that you put yourself out there. I know this is a very like cookie cutter answer, but it's the consistency. Things change, the algorithm change, the platforms change. But what matters is that you are putting yourself out there and think of it as a way that maybe 80 percent of the stuff that I'm gonna post is fluffy stuff.
And then I have supposed that are called to actions like sign up for my webinars, sign up for my workshop. But I think no matter what changes It's what you post out there and then being relevant to your [00:25:00] audience. We know we talk about LinkedIn. I can talk the whole day about LinkedIn and how that's really good for thought leadership, for SEO, for all that good stuff.
But there's also Instagram to build that relationship with your audiences.
Dorien: Yeah, excellent. So Valentina, somebody is listening to you and loves everything you say, needs a thought leader, needs some help with thought leadership on LinkedIn, wants to reach out to you. How can they where can they meet you?
Where can they find you? How can they connect with you?
Valentina: That's a great question. First of all, I want to do a plug for the most amazing marketing book ever. This book, I wrote a chapter on Instagram. There's 36 authors from 10 countries. So if you're not a book reader, I'm going to tell you, you're going to get a kick.
Out of the audible version. Cause you got everyone with all the cool accents from different countries. So definitely check out that book and see if you, you identify with what I'm saying with Instagram. And then if you want to learn more, you can always go to my website beyond hyphen engagement. com. And I do one on one.
I love [00:26:00] working with people one on one and I also do group workshops or webinars, but that's the best way to connect with me and what separates me from other people is that I push my clients. And they didn't know they needed that push. Maybe they just need hand holding. I make them do things that makes them very uncomfortable.
So if you don't want to be, if you want to be with someone that just takes it easy on you, then don't work with me. I work with people that want to believe in themselves and that love education, that love to get ahead.
Dorien: I can feel that just talking to you that you have that energy and you have all these ideas and you're very supportive.
So that makes a lot of sense. And I love, I think you're the first one in your season four of Strategy Talks that has not only been able to express what they do and offer, but very clearly, I am not for you if. I love that. That is, you're basically. You are so in tune to your personal brand that you know exactly, not just what is, but what isn't.
I absolutely [00:27:00] love this Valentina. This is so perfect for a person.
Valentina: I just want anyone, if anyone ever sees you in real life to put yourself out of your comfort zone and just talk to you because you like, I don't want to get emotional, but just meeting you in Boston in real life, you are such a good person with a good heart.
And I wish people knew that about you. If you're very shy to go up to the rock stars in the social media industry, don't be scared of her because she has a great story to tell. And you would do yourself a favor. you.
Dorien: I so appreciate that. And I feel the same about you because I've been following you for a while and I know you had gone to Mark Schaefer's uprising.
Mark and I are friends. We traveled together to Suriname. So it was one of those, I really need to meet Valentina and it was like, You know what? This is the true testament to personal branding. You saw me and you knew who I was. [00:28:00] I saw you and I knew who you were. That is the power of personal branding, right?
Years ago, when I first had those fake orange glasses, I went to social media marketing world and 20. 15 2015. So 10 years ago, I was wearing these orange glasses. My first big major event. I was on Twitter. I was in a couple of different places. And this woman comes up to me. Her name is Steph. She's still my friend.
She actually was a guest last year and she starts talking to me as we're best buds. And she finally, I'm looking at her name tag and finally like it started clicking. But She had no qualms about coming up to me because she saw what she had seen online. And I think that if you can have that connection, online and offline, that you're that same person, that's really Then you're doing a good job with your personal branding guys.
So Valentina, thank you so much for your sweet and kind words. I can't wait to see you again, maybe 2025 somewhere at [00:29:00] another conference. For those of you who stayed all the way to the end, I want to say thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your, input.
If you have questions, make sure you go to the comments. If you haven't asked them yet. We'll be monitoring those and really appreciate those of you who listened to the podcast and made it all the way to the end too. I'll be back next week with another episode of strategy talks by everybody.
See you later.
