Build Your Personal Brand

Learn how to create a powerful personal brand with our step-by-step system. From defining your superpowers to building a content strategy around five brand pillars, this session shows how to leverage your strengths and showcase them online for meaningful connections and opportunities.

Build Your Personal Brand

Building a personal brand isn’t just about a logo or a polished LinkedIn profile; it’s a carefully structured system designed to highlight your unique strengths, values, and goals. In this session, “Build Your Personal Brand,” we unpack the core elements of an effective personal brand that helps you stand out and create lasting impact. Here are the main takeaways:

1. System-Driven Approach

A well-defined system is the foundation of a successful personal brand. This system starts with clarity on what your brand represents and ensures consistency across every interaction and piece of content you create. By following a systematic approach, you’ll build a brand that evolves with you, continually driving engagement and credibility.

2. Identify Your Superpowers

Your “superpowers” are the unique abilities and strengths that set you apart. These are the activities that feel effortless and energizing to you. Reflect on the tasks you excel at and identify at least three core superpowers. Knowing these strengths enables you to approach your personal brand from an authentic, confident position.

3. Define Your Mission and Purpose

A clear mission and purpose give your brand direction. By understanding why you do what you do, you connect more meaningfully with your audience and provide a consistent message. This clarity is invaluable when making decisions about your brand’s tone, content, and goals.

4. Establish Five Brand Pillars

Your brand pillars are the key areas or themes that your content and messaging revolve around. These pillars provide structure, guiding the topics you share and the ways you express your values. The five-pillar system helps your audience understand your brand from multiple angles, creating a more comprehensive and relatable image.

5. Build a Personal Hub

A personal website is more than just an online resume—it’s the hub of your brand. By centralizing content on your site, you enhance online discoverability, positioning yourself for search engines and even large language models. This digital “home” allows you to redirect traffic from social media and other platforms back to your brand, where visitors can explore your full range of content and expertise.

6. Leverage Consistent Look and Feel

Finally, how you present yourself visually and verbally impacts the people you attract. Your style, from casual to formal, along with your tone and visual brand elements, shapes how others perceive you. Consistency in appearance and communication strengthens your brand’s identity and aligns with the type of audience you aim to reach.

In a world of constant information, a memorable personal brand is built on thoughtful strategy and authentic expression. By aligning your brand’s system, superpowers, mission, pillars, and online presence, you create a sustainable brand that resonates with people over time.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction to Personal Branding

01:18 Understanding the System

03:09 Identifying Your Superpowers

07:10 Exploring Your Why, How, and What

10:15 Building Your Brand Pillars

13:48 The Look and Feel of Your Brand

17:20 The Importance of Your Name

23:09 Embracing Your Unique Style

24:10 The Five Pillars Approach

26:44 Integrating Personal Brand with Business

29:44 Effective Content Strategies

33:30 Community Interaction and Q&A

37:11 Closing Remarks and Future Plans

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Built your brand is today. We had already in the past built your brand, but I thought it's a good reminder for people. And I bring it a little bit differently than the first time. So we have things to discuss. But the goal of today's masterclass is really like looking into the brand building aspect of personal branding, not, not business branding, really personal.

Um, and we dive into a couple of things. So first I always go into the system because the system is the magic of, of everything. Then we look a little bit into superpowers. mission and purpose, five brand pillars, and then the look and feel in the end. And we can, we're a small group, we can have questions in between.

So if there's anything, just drop something in the chat, just put the chat on my side here as well that I see, and or just speak. That's always, always [00:01:00] good as well. I mean, most of you have been here before, except Guran. So, you know, how that works. Christian, you can be the good, bad example if needed.

Probably the bad one. Okay. Yeah. System. The system. This is the system that rules everything. We start with the personal brand, which is the star, which is the start of the whole system. And we will dive into that today. So I will not go further into that. It ends into the personal hub. So the personal hub is the personal website, which in my system is the host hosting your personal brand.

So everything that is encompassing Your personal brand, everything that is content is stored in your personal hub, which then allows you to be [00:02:00] found on the internet through large language models. And of course, through the normal search engines. And then we have a content system and the content system is a specific way of how you are producing content so that it is valuable.

Um, or people that want to explore you and your personal brand, but it's also helping people to understand your credibility and making you visible. And that goes then into the distribution system. So content goes into the hub and then from your hub into the distribution. And that's then all social media.

Um, systems are all social media platforms that are out there, um, using that in a specific way that your omnipresence everywhere, every time. And we do all of that with the purpose of driving business. So strategies and tactics that generate business and leads. for your business, at least the ones that are into business.

And for [00:03:00] those that are not into business, they can use it for career development. So today we go and focus on the star, which is the brand itself. Superpowers. One of the things when I talk about personal branding, when I do personal branding exercises with someone on a one on one level, we always start with superpowers.

What are your superpowers that are the things that you're extremely good at and I always say that the superpowers that are The activities that don't burn calories. That's maybe an easy way to say it and I have a simple exercise Which is also inside of the classroom just different colors, but it's there where where I always ask people We're we're in today And if you look backwards, what are different activities you have experienced over your lifetime or used that We're super easy for you, but hard for others.

So I gave in in the master class. I gave the [00:04:00] example like me organizing the Kids going out for football or meeting each other on a football field playing soccer. I was always the Coordinator of this I have been coordinating things Later on in businesses. So I was always the person that is kind of bringing people together and moving things along and that's one of the Key activities what I found out for myself and I named I call this connecting or connecting people Which is my superpower and then I, I linked this activities then back to behavior.

So what did you do to connect people in my case? So when you go backwards, you just look at what are different activities that are recurring activities you have seen over your lifetime where you're extremely good at and it, it's super natural to you and for others it's not natural. And then you look into what are the behaviors that [00:05:00] Help you to do this activities and through that you can then go deeper into Understanding what are your superpowers and the easiest way is always starting with yourself Like you do this on your own and then the next level is which which I talked to Sarah today on this one Because she's just visiting her her grandma I say talk to your grandma talk to your parents and ask them what the superpower would be So if you would be a superhero, what, what would be your superhero costume and what would be the things that help you to stand out?

And it's so simple that I sometimes see this as a given, but when I ask people, what is your superpower? A lot of people can't tell. what their superpowers is. So it's a super easy exercise. And there's a long video of me explaining that, but it's just a starting point to understand when you go into personal branding, it's all about exposing the things you're extremely good at [00:06:00] and utilizing that to brand yourself in a way that helps you to be credible and visible with what you're doing.

So it's utilizing the things you're extremely good at and the behaviors that help you to get there. And then I always say at least three, like come up with three superpowers that help you to get there. Um, for me, it's, it's just, just to reflect on myself, the one that is strongest is the connecting thing.

And that's why we are, for example, here, that's why I'm creating this communities because I'm naturally doing this every, every time. Then I'm introducing people to each other, which is also part of that connections. So it's not organizing things like I'm doing with this one is also connecting people. And another aspect of what I'm doing, if we take my three is education.

I really love to help people and educate them in a way that they grow. And utilize their superpowers going forward. So [00:07:00] when you then know this, then you can use that to the next level, which, um, it's also another simple one. It's just doing that consciously sometimes helps you to, to go deeper. I use the, the, um, Three circles or the why, how, what circles from Simon Sinek, which I like very much.

And these are just trigger questions that help you like, why do I get out of bed in the morning? These are questions we sometimes don't ask ourselves. So most of the time don't ask ourselves, um, what impact do I want to make in the world? Uh, what am I most passionate about in my life and my career? And if you go into this with the superpowers, then you can connect this things to each other.

And you look at that in a, in a more deeper way. Um, when I did this last Monday evening with, with, with one of my clients, he came out with things that he was not thinking about it, but they're somewhere under the hood or under the surface. So it's, it's always good to, you know, [00:08:00] Go deeper and asking yourself these questions and find more questions.

Use chat GDP if you don't have anyone around you to poke you a little bit. And then from the why we go into the how. It's like how, how, how do I live out my purpose daily? Like what are the things that I'm doing to, to organize myself to do these things? What are my core values that shape the way I work and live?

And what strengths or skills do I consistently use to achieve my goals? And of course that's connected again to the first exercise, which is the superpower part, because as more, you can connect all of the three things, which is how, uh, why, how, and what. You do to each other as easier it is to be very, very clear on what you're doing and why you're doing the things and that you, you can then express this going forward.

And it's not that you always talk about your why, how and what. It's more about that you are aware and very, [00:09:00] very clear of what it is. And we all understand that when we talk about the business, but we don't do this for ourselves. Like when you're working with strategies, when you work with companies, um, then you do these things because you know, it's going to work, but for ourselves, we often don't do that.

So if we go into the, what, what do I do? What are the specifics that are doing, that I'm doing? What are the tangible results? That I create through my work and what impact do I have on the people around me and or industries I work with. So it's really going deeper into specifics for yourself and then you can use all of that to build your brand purpose and build your brand understanding for yourself so that you can then based on this build the next level.

So it's. For me, it's very, very simple, but I've done it thousands of times, especially with companies, but just [00:10:00] take the time and look for yourself into this three levels and go deeper. Any questions so far? Doesn't make sense.

Okay. So next level, when you understand what your superpowers are, your why, how and what, then I always build brand pillars. Brand pillars help you to express yourself. So starting with the foundation that are your values, like what are the values you express or what you believe in, um, your, your values and from that values that you then go into five pillars.

I use five pillars because we use this five pillars. Again, when it comes to content creation, um, and you can use different pillars, but in, in, in the end, it goes back to how do you build different ways to express yourself in different contexts and in different [00:11:00] situations with different topics so that people always get back to your brand.

So the brand is literally the overarching thing of everything, but you can do specific things. So I give you my five pillars that I'm using, um, lately. Now, number one is, um, leadership and it, I mean, it doesn't matter which number, but one of my pillars is leadership. I talk a lot about leadership, human centered.

Um, then I have a pillar that is, um, innovation obviously to my connected to my past. Um, and that innovation is, um, It's connected to strategies and tactics. So how do I do things in an innovative way? How do I do things, uh, in a way that you, um, jump the system that you're using things in a different way?

Then I have one that is mindset. That is connected to, to what I'm talking about, then obviously personal branding is a strong one. I think I have already five, four. So [00:12:00] it's, it's, it's just, if you, if you're very, very clear with what that is, then, then you understand how you can communicate your personal branding.

Topics in your personal brand throughout. So if we just take an example for me, leadership is just one pillar and I can talk about leadership only, or I can talk about leadership in a, in a business context, I can talk about leadership for myself. I can talk about leadership in a sports perspective. So you have a lot of flavors that you can talk about just one pillar and even one pillar could be.

Um, divided again into further pillars. So if my personal brand overarching theme would be leadership, then I could go deeper into leadership. So the five pillars would be leadership. But I've just found for myself that leadership is for me just one pillar and one expression I want to express. Use in this world and then mindset is another thing.

Personal branding is another thing, but in the end it goes back to my values, who I am, who I want to be. And then what do I want to represent [00:13:00] in this world? That's then my, my personal brand. And if you, if you have looked at my website, then, then you see this human innovation, human connection is, is, is my key brand.

And it's not that you talk about your. overarching brand all the, all the time when you are on social media, as an example, it's more about the pillars itself so that you attract people from a different perspective into your ecosystem. And obviously if you have a business like I have, I'm linking that as well to topics that I do from a business standpoint.

So I can use that as lead generators for my business, which I guess is logic questions. To that.

Okay. Then the last part, which, um, is, is important to understand that's more the look and feel. So how you show up and how you want to [00:14:00] brand yourself. And that really depends. And I just give like this example, because that's the easiest way to understand it's like formal something in the middle or casual.

It really depends how you want to show up and whom do you want to attract. So you can, I could sit here in the suit with a tie and. I mean, this would not be me, but at least I would attract certain people with that. I could be using casual dress and would attract certain people with that. And that is then as well mixed to how you are going to talk.

So you can be looking extremely formal, but you're talking extremely casual, or you can look very, very formal, casual and talk very, very formal. It's more finding out what is the right mix for yourself and what represents you personally the best. And then of course, attracting the people that are connected to you.

And then the last thing [00:15:00] is that's more a color thing. That was a difficult one with me. And I know it's way too much text, but I, I just thought I will copy it in here. Different colors are, uh, evoking different, um, emotions, so just being aware of that, which I was not at all, but working with designers, um, helped me to understand that a little bit in finding out what are my colors and what does represent, um, which color and how can I use them to do certain things.

And I'm not overdoing that. It's, it's, it's just for me. So I've selected five colors that I'm reusing in a different way and just built, for example, in Canva, which is the design tool platform I'm using for social media pictures and so on. I just use the same colors all, all, all over again. And then I don't need to think I just programmed it in so that I use them.

And you can of course do that then with your dress. You can do this with everything, um, throughout. And, and the [00:16:00] most important is. For me, what I have understood over the last five years is making, making their, uh, through line a red thread through all of that. So the things you stand for need to fit to how you dress and how you want, want to express yourself.

And that then will help you to be authentic you because there's nothing worse than not being authentic. And people will see that over time if you're not authentic and that's, that's a critical part for you and see it more as an exploration and don't need to be perfect from day one. It's just helpful to, to go into this and very, be being very, very clear what your brand is, what are your five pillars, and then starting to use that to build the machinery, which is the system with it, because then you can change it over time.

Like I have changed things over time as well. I've swapped out pillars. Because it didn't fit anymore. But in the end, my why and the things I'm doing and I'm expressing with my personal brand, [00:17:00] they're still there. Exactly the same, like, five years ago. Questions?

No questions. Um, I would have one. Yes. I'm not sure if it's too early because, like, that's the biggest issue I have. You know, you see, you see my name here. I'm German as well. People already have an issue in German to pronounce the name. Internationally, it is, like, much harder. Even though my whole personality speaks for building a personal brand, I always stumble with that name.

What would be your advice? It's amazing to have a name that nobody can pronounce. Yeah. Because I would use it that change it around and use it as a strength because everybody asks like, how do pronounce? Yeah, that's amazing. It's a cliffhanger. But it started with a domain. I mean even like, [00:18:00] like ensure, like I have this Han De but uh, then people, even like Germans don't believe there's umla domains, you know?

Yeah, yeah. True. So, because even with the domain, it starts with O, is it with OE, like I know passport controls like deliver me often a lot of pain because then you put your name with an O, but it's missing this, or then you put an extra E, or it's a different name than in your passport. You know, like there's a little bit of a challenge sometimes.

I mean, in the end, domain is the easy one. You just have both. Yeah, of course. Because if you just take myself, if you Google my name, you don't care about what domain it is. in the end. You're just interested in me as a person. And even if you write my name wrong, like a lot of Americans do as well, like they, they write Jens with Z in the end.

I have seen everything, um, they still end [00:19:00] up because in the end they will, there's only one. Even if they just use the last name, like I'm so dominant now that nobody, nobody else has shown. Uh, what would you say like about like a phonetic translation of that? I mean, I could use it like with like more English phonetics, like go run, he'll share.

That's how you can explain it. Yeah. It works. Always. No, yeah, I, I just stick to, I would just stick to the name like it is. Seriously, I would just go with Ö. If you ask me, I would just go with the, the, like how it's written properly, because then people will get used to that. If you look into there, there was like, I've had this discussion once with like famous names.

Like first, nobody knows them and nobody can, can pronounce them. And in [00:20:00] the end people get used to. The names it's just around here with, uh, Colute or right. Or like Andre, Kostin, Yoneshko, like this, like also like sometimes it can be hard in life. Yeah, it is. You pronounce my name like very wrongly, you know, I don't mind, but it's, it's always in an international context.

Yeah. Yeah. I would, I would really go with her and make even a fuss about it. Okay. I'm, I'm Y because in, in, in Sweden it's Joran with J and it's written in the same way, but pronounced Y. Yeah. And Germany, everybody ask me if I'm Turkish

that I would not have said that. Yeah. But that comes with international background knowledge. Yeah, no, I would just [00:21:00] go with it. Okay, okay. Yeah, I don't want to like, like, like use too much time on it. It's just like I was curious about your opinion. No, it's important. And that's why we're here. The name is a door opener.

I did not put my last name there, right? Because nobody can pronounce it properly.

Now you just, now you just put it there. It's Wastlhöfer. It's Bavarian. It's very long. It's very distinct. And everybody knows that the person with the weird last name is me. And that helps. It literally helps. People still can't pronounce it, but they explain it to me. actually know who I am and what I'm doing just because of that weird name, um, which is super, uh, super helpful.

And well, I grew up with it and I know how to spell it and almost everybody non Bavarian will misspell it initially, uh, [00:22:00] get used to it. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a normal Is your head already branded with your name, Christian?

It's that's actually rebranded. I have another one.

And it's, I have the company somewhere on the side. So I have the company and my name, um, which is smart. Exactly how it should be. It's better than a business card, right? It's better than a business card. Oh, who are you wearing? Myself, I'm wearing myself. Thank you. And actually, the thing that I had helped me meet a person I've never seen before in, at a conference, um, I was sitting there, we actually decided on a later, um, time to meet, and I was kind of listening to the presentation, uh, and she just dropped by and said, Ah, hey, you must be Christian, because [00:23:00] I'm always wearing this cap, uh, on photos, on video calls.

I was the only person in the whole area wearing a cap. Um, so it was super easy to find me and it's helpful. Use it. That's the only thing I can say, right? Use it and just be who you are and I can't. imagine myself without the cap and I will wear it on Thursday for sure. Um, probably I will be the only one unless Jens is wearing his for the presentation.

Um, so yeah. No, not this time. I did last time because I, they, they do so amazing photos for the keynote speakers. That's why I need to wear something else. Okay. If not, then they look the same. Okay. Got it. You guys can exchange hats right before the keynote. So , you know, like, like captains of football teams before the match?

Yeah. Have my have my flag. I have your flag. Good. I have at least like five or six different ones. But I mean the [00:24:00] logo is always the same, but different colors. Yeah. I'm not there yet. I only have one. I have, so is enough. Yeah, a question. Yes. So why do you, what if we don't get to five pillars? Can we stop at one or two?

I do five because Monday to Friday. Okay. I'm just just German simplicity. Yeah In the end I have seven, but I just use this five. Oh always It's just easier. So you don't start with the, with the brand, the big picture, you start at the first pillar. That's okay. You can start with the first pillar and then build on it.

Like when I started, I did it, I just did what I wanted to do. So I was just having fun. It's just now that, let's say over the last [00:25:00] two years where I've fine tuned all of this to a level that I know exactly how it works and what are the things that are best converting. Because if you talk Too much about exactly the same thing every day, then it's boring for people.

So you need to have a variety in what you're talking in the end, if it goes back to like who you are as a person. Fair enough. Thanks. And the good thing is like, you, you can talk about private things. You can talk about business things. You can talk about technology in your case, and then it's more like you decide what it is.

And because nobody knows what your pillars are. Except you share them.

I do.

Maybe just to add to that, what helped me [00:26:00] Finding those pillars is, is really what are my passions as well. Like what are the things I'm reading? What are the things I'm listening to on podcasts? Because then I'm always inspired from different topics. And in the end, I bring everything back to the human, which is like my personal brand stuff, um, which is the human innovation thing.

I don't talk too much about the, the brand itself or the human innovation part, but everyone gets it that is working with me, that somehow there's human stuff involved.

Any more questions? I have a question, but it's not the topic today. It doesn't matter. Um, so for me, the big question is how do you transport your personal brand into your own company? Like, I'm building my brand now, but I still also have a company that [00:27:00] doesn't have my name because it's, it's a company, uh, I'm running with a, uh, with a partner and how do you manage them to make sure that at a certain point in time, potentially clients also see, um, it's the English people I have trust.

Uh, and whenever I kind of work with them, I know they will do a perfect project for me, not only me as a person, but the company as. subsidiary of me or kind of substitute for me. So how do I manage that? Because I'm still struggling to kind of bridge that, that gap. Yeah. So content wise, you can mention it in between.

Like I do this a little bit more because I did the soft launch of the, of the business over the last weeks. I pushed that a little bit more, but in the end, I always, if you remember last week, When we talked last week about your LinkedIn profile, when you go into the, the [00:28:00] links that like we did with, with Sarah, you can have like your business as one of the links.

So that drags people, at least when we are talking about LinkedIn strategy, you can drag them in. Obviously you can have it in your title, which helps. Then you can link your current business to your profile inside of LinkedIn so that it is visible. You can see like, which logo do you want to show, um, content wise, you can just mention it in between.

I, I do, I, I slip this sometimes in like you, you just in, in your daily videos or in your, I don't even know if you daily videos, but in your videos, you just slip it in. So the other day we worked with the client and this, this, this. So then they understand it's not just like, you're not a one, one, one person showed that it's a team or you talk, instead of you talk, I, you talk, we in between, [00:29:00] so people will understand that.

And what I see quite a lot because what people do is they, they, they are triggered by content that I'm creating and then they look at my profile and then I have no idea what they looking at my profile. If they're on LinkedIn, at least I just see that they're looking. But most probably like people look like, who is that?

What is he doing? And if you then have your, your company very present, there's this, that's, that's often enough. Okay. Yeah.

But in the end, your goal is Because you do your personal brand. One thing is to be seen as a thought leader in your case. And through the thought leadership, you will attract leads to your business because I have exactly the same. Like I'm attracting people that are into leadership topics to the leadership part, which is that leadership assessments, which [00:30:00] is my, my startup.

So I'm funneling them that way. And then if we talk about personal branding, I'm funneling people towards personal branding

and as more conscious, you are doing production. So if you, if you do your videos based on the avatar, you're targeting from your business, it's even easier. So let's say you are targeting, just an example, CEOs in tech companies or CEOs from public, whatever. Then you just talk the language they are attracted to.

And through that you're automatically attracting more of them into your ecosystem and then can link them through.

That means I have to think about what I'm saying, not just. That helps. Yeah. Ah, thinking is not good. Yeah, got it. Thank you, Jens. [00:31:00] Have you been in the video masterclass? I'm not sure, I don't think so. No, that was last week. Maybe watch the recording of that one because what, what, what I do is very, very simple.

So I have a brainstorming document with the five pillars and I showed that on screen. And then I just use the, my, my brainstorming topic. As, as a starting point and then I'm scripting the video. Now I was there, I remember. Yeah, that's, we talked about it. That's the way I do it as well. So I have some thinking involved, right?

And, but then I still need to kind of find the connection to the English people every now and then. Because I just mentioned it at the very end. Um, Every time I do a video that is connected, uh, to, to the English people, um, if it's too personal, I actually don't do it, um, to not kind of attract people to, to the company.

Um, so yeah, but probably I need to kind of [00:32:00] let it slip in every now and then in the, uh, in the video itself. Yeah. Just test that it's like, just test what works. And the interesting thing in the end, they're attracted to you as a starting point because people love people and through that, then they're, they're saying, Oh, what is he doing?

Oh, he's even having a company that is working in this field. That's interesting. Then they go to your company. That's the whole strategy. And then, of course, when you have your personal website, then you build your company in there as well. So that you trigger people to your business. which is the key point.

If you, as more people you have on your personal website, the hub as more people, you can funnel them actively to where you want them. Like I I'm changing my, my homepage of my personal web page in the way that I trigger the business that I want to have people run. Like this week, for [00:33:00] example, it is personal branding, the uh, like executive version, the personal branding as a service.

I'm just triggering people. Okay. Like when they come into my personal website, that's the first thing they see after the upper part or after my story. And when I want to boost the other business, then I changed them.

Cool. Thank you. You're welcome. We have Thursday in person. We can dive into deeper topics.

Not sure how much I can remember the next day, but at least we can speak about it. That's good. We need to record it.

Okay, any more questions? Can I share, um, an awkward, uh, situation regarding names? [00:34:00] Um, I was working with one of the corporates and they usually use the first, um, or the initial letter from the first name and the initial for the last name and the office that you are working from. So my first name is Kholoud and it starts with K and the last name is Fayek, it starts with F and I was working from the Cairo office.

So , you can imagine I was KFC, so

this is very awkward. I'm just commenting on the, that, that matter of names. So that's amazing. It was funny. It was funny. Seriously, that's, that's proper branding. The CO wants emailed me saying, do you have Happy Meal in the Cairo office? I was like, yeah,

that's.

So, yeah.

Good. Any [00:35:00] more questions,

Ben? I even dunno what we do next week. What shall we do next week? I have a huge list now. Big list. So we can choose something. You can what's in the menu? Um, yeah, I'm just checking. Ah, hub creation breakdown. My story breakdown. Professional photo shooting. DIY. Video scripting. Video shooting. DIY. Podcast set up, structuring blog pages, speaking on stage, building credibility and omnipresence that are like the bullet points I have in the moment.

Anyone a wish? I like omnipresence in, in regards of, uh, like the, I also like want to set up a professional blog and write more and [00:36:00] speak also more. And then I just want to put one button and then appear everywhere. That's how we do it. That's the magic now. Okay, so we do omnipresence next Monday if the others agree It's chosen Now, it's just I just heard from other like storytelling experts like, you know, the German one like he'll feel like It does much helps much so like in this regards I trust it and I see it as well like people with a lot of volume online have a lot of volume online, right?

That's how it is And it's, it's just doing that in the most efficient way. That's, that's what a lot of people don't know how to like, you can spend 20 hours per week doing it, or you can spend two hours or less. Let's make the two hours with the 20 fold output. Exactly. That, that's what we're doing. And then, and then you have amazing team members [00:37:00] that can take care of other things.

Yeah. Sounds great. That, that's the best of it, but that's next level still like that's what this whole system is about. But let's, okay. Next week, Omnipresence. That's going to be fun. I like it. I mean, it's the first time here. So thank you also for you know, giving like some attention and focus. Meanwhile, I'm preparing dinner.

That's fine. Now, in, in the end, this whole community is community based. So I'm, I'm doing the topics that are most interesting for, for you. Um, and that helped you to succeed with what you do. I would love to share some of my salad now, if it would be possible. You can come over. Where are you right now? I'm in the Netherlands.

The Hague. Oh, the Hague. All right. And you have a lot of people around.

You mean here on the call or what? Yeah. Hello, [00:38:00] where are you? Hello from the other side. I'm located in Cairo, Egypt. So, yeah. And Christian, you? Munich. Munich. I just have been last week. Nice. Yeah. And Andre is in, I think Bucharest. Go close to it. I've been in may Where where are you now in berlin berlin?

Yeah, nothing special about it anymore But frank who is normally in this calls? He's also in berlin Yeah, he's he's normally in every call, but he is somewhere in In a meeting this this week. That's why he's not he texted me even. Yes. I can't join this time Yes, he he's the the one that like he's the leaderboard leader Everywhere right now, the most active member.

Yeah. [00:39:00] Amazing. Good. Super. Let's take a screenshot for Frank. Oh, yeah. Sorry. He's gonna kill us if we don't have a screenshot. You have no idea. Where's the screenshot?

Okay. One, two, three. Thank you. I'll post it later. Good. Thank you very much. See you next week or in between. Yeah. Because you just agreed to my like Fathom note taker, um, I would provide that to the group as you agreed. Uh, it makes fantastic sum ups and protocols of each meeting. Yeah. Just have it since yesterday, but it works like amazing.

Yeah. I've, I've heard it or I've seen it already a couple of times. It's quite perfect. Okay. Thank you so much. Ciao.

 

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Transcript:

Personal development masterclass. One of the topics that's dear to my heart, because of what I have seen over the last 15 years is that personal development is quite seldom in organizations. It's not really taken, uh, in a proper way, at least in my eyes. So that's why I'm really keen on sharing this today.

So we have two. main perspectives. One or two topics for today. One is personal development talk versus performance evaluation. And then we do a deep dive into how I'm doing personal development talks. And then we do questions in the end. Personal development. So we have one part, which is the personal development talk, and then we have the performance evaluation.

And a lot of organizations, focus on performance evaluation. And the difference between those two is that the performance evaluation, the main part they are focusing on, or the main source of that is the company. So the company is on the top. And from there, it goes into, the individuals and the different tasks that need to be done to accomplish what's happening in the company, what is required to do to be done in the company.

And the individual that is doing the task is the last point. And then inside of the performance evaluation, you're looking backward. So you look, how did this person perform in the past? The development talk is the opposite. So the most important part of the. Development talk is the future. Where does the person want to be in the future?

And it has nothing to do with the outcome of the company or where the company wants to be. The goal of this is, and why, why do this personal development talk? I believe that if we are developing people in organizations beyond what the organization needs, they will contribute more to the company. They will contribute better.

So the goal of what I'm doing with development talks is finding out what the people desire and going deeper into that. And we will have a look at that in the next couple of slides. And then look, what are the different tasks of the organizations that fit the person and what the person wants to be. And then you marry these two things.

And then it works as well from a performance evaluation perspective. So that's my perspective on development talk and performance evaluation. Let's go into personal development talk a couple of, I think it's almost two years ago or something. I've developed this in as, as a worksheet. So if anyone is interested in getting this worksheet as a PDF.

Happy to share that. So, the starting point of a development talk is really a setup of the atmosphere and the place. So you are going to do a development talk with another person. So you are the manager and the, the other person is like reporting to you and then you're meeting up. So what you need to make sure of is that you have, an appropriate place.

The best case is always doing this outside of the office environment in a. In a place where people feel well, the atmosphere is super important. The time of the day is important, not doing it on Friday afternoon, for example, when people want to go on the weekend, of course, you need to be aware of your relationship with the other person, depending on how deep your relationship is.

You of course have then a perspective on how deep you can go. And how much that is. And then what is important as well is that you put the note-taking responsibility to the person that is inside the room or is working with you. So me as a leader, I always give the note taking responsibility for the other person because then you see what they understand and what they get out of that.

And then I always do as well. A version in front of us so that people understand this. So printing out this worksheet as an example, if you do that in a physical space, then you print it out and then you go into the development talk. And the starting point of the development talk goes really wide.

Looking into what's the personal vision like. I always ask these as open questions without showing them the worksheet in the beginning. Who do you want to be? And that's very, very, very wide. Like, who do you want to be? What does it mean? Some people who have never had a conversation like this, struggle with this.

So they start with, yeah, I want to be a manager. I want to be something specific. So they go very, very, very specific and they don't really look into the future. So the first round of this, I just, Help them to find out who they want to be and they write down, they write down a manager. I want to be a good father.

I want to be whatever they come up with. And then I go to the next question and I show them the next question, not before. So why do you want to be that person? So then they're reflecting on the answers they have given and then they go back and refine who they want to go to be. And that's an interesting process because what.

You as the manager that is holding this development talk are doing, you're literally shutting up and just asking open questions to tell me more. How, how does that feel? What does that look like? What would that look like in the future? So you only ask open ended question when that gets the person talking and reflecting.

So if you're saying this, what does it mean? So, and then they're explaining, explaining, and they go in a loop between who am I going to be? And why do I want to be that person? So until they have clarity, and the first loop is always. The starting point where they don't know what's going to come, then who am I going to be?

They come up with high-level topics and then they go, Why do I want to be that person? Then they go back to Who am I going to be? And then they go deeper. And I always then give them a perspective. Okay, think about five years, 10 years from now, who do you want to be? And then they go more particular in all of these things.

And then we go, we don't close this, we keep it, we put it aside. And then we go to the next sheet, which is a personal development map. So I want them again to reflect on certain questions. And it doesn't matter in the order, I just take them clockwise right now. But it's really going and answering the specific questions.

What do I want to learn? So you're asking this, the person that is in front of you. So what do you want to learn to be that person? So linking it back to that person of the future. And then you're asking, what do you want to improve? And then they come up with things. So it's, it's like writing down the, all the different topics and then what do I want to leave behind?

And then they come back with topics that they want to leave behind. Another question is what excites you? Yeah. And then going deeper into this, who is important to them? And then what is important to them? And when you have done this circle, you go around it and they were deeper in this topic.

What quite often happens then if you ask them, so how, if we go back to the other one, is that still the same thing you want to be? Because they have now clarified what they want to be. and answer the question, they go back to this one and then clarify, no, no, no, I want to be this, I want to be this. What I always ask them, in this part is to paint a picture.

So when, when we have finished with this one, I go back to this one. And say, from a personal vision perspective, imagine a picture and describe the picture that you see on the wall. And then they describe to me who they want to be and who they are going to strive to be inside of a picture and explain everything that is around them.

I've had, for example, a person that told me where they are going to live, what, how it feels, um, in this picture, where the kids in this picture, where the wife or husband and, and going really into details and then linking this to. A job perspective as well, because in the end, we are at least this part is in a job environment.

So they are linking that to the job environment of who they're going to be working with as well. So these two are super powerful. And then you go into the next step, which is a goal perspective. So it starts with the staircase. So in the top right corner, we have what is the goal. And the starting point is really, um, defining that goal.

So if you want to be this person in five years, what is the goal for the next year for you to be very specific? And of course, you can do smart goal setting and all of that, but it's in the end, What does feel right for that person? What is the development goal they want to reach in one year from now?

And then they formulate that goal. And then you go to the bottom of this page where you look into where do you stand today on a scale from one to 10. So they're rating themselves on how close are they to that goal. If they're close, then they're at 10 or 9. If they're far away, then they're at 1. And what always happens is they're somewhere in between, obviously.

So when they have rated that, then you look into what are the things that get you closer to that goal, meaning moving your scale from 5 to 10. And that's what they are writing down above the stairs. So, above the stairs are the things that are getting them closer to their goal. And then they're defining this in bullet points and formulating that out.

And [you do that obviously all in a conversation. You ask the person who is doing the development talk, you are asking them questions to get them moving. You're asking them clarifying questions about the topics that are put, into the sheet. And then the next part is, what are the things that getting you further away from that goal?

So downstairs, if you think at it from a staircase perspective, and then they're writing these things down and then they have a clear picture of a goal staircase where they, they know they want, where they want to be linking that to the vision that's five years from now and the goal picture, and then they rate themselves.

And have then clear understanding of that are the things I need to do to get to my goal and that are the things I should not be doing. And then the last step of the development talk is getting specific. So now we zoom into one year and actionable goals that help them or tasks that get them towards the one-year perspective.

So what are the things they're going to do? When are they going to do this? What do they need to make happen to be able to do this? What are the things they need help with and how I'm, how they going to measure them? So it's a very, very simple setup where they write down literally the different steps that help them to get there.

And they're putting measurable goals towards the goal. And this is roughly. I would say one and a half hours, even if we go through this right now in a theoretical setting in, let's say 15 minutes in a real conversation, in a coaching style, where you ask the manager or coach the other person to find out what they are desiring and where they want to be.

It takes roughly one and a half hours if you do that well, sometimes it's faster depending on the relationship as well. The fascinating thing with this is it has zero to do with the company you work in and one hundred percent to do with who they want to be. And as well as zero to do with you as their manager, if you're their manager, like your perspective, your opinion on anything of that.

Um, just to give you a couple of examples, I've had people that told me that they want to be. building their own company in the next five years and they worked in the company and I was their manager they told me because they trusted me that they wanted to build their own company and we built a plan for how they were going to build their own company and I've had situations where people told me that they want to get married in the next five years and then we built a plan to get them towards marriage getting married and looked into how that does that work with the career perspective same with kids and all the other things so this is a development tool you That I use with everyone that is working with me over time because I believe that as further we as managers and organizations help people to develop as better it is.

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