CEO Call - Personal Hub
Learn how to build a powerful personal hub with a website designed to capture attention, tell your story, and drive engagement. Discover the importance of structured content, sections, and SEO to create a standout online presence.
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CEO Call - Building Your Personal Hub
Your personal website is more than a digital business card; it’s a powerful hub for telling your story, showcasing your expertise, and connecting with your audience. This session highlights how to structure a personal website to maximize its impact.
1. Your Website: A Collection of Pages and Sections
Every website comprises pages (like “Home” and “Speaking”) and sections within these pages. Each section serves a purpose:
Upper Section: Captures attention immediately with a strong statement about your mission or value.
Middle Sections: Dive into your story and the services you offer.
Bottom Section: Highlights additional content such as blogs, podcasts, or projects, encouraging deeper engagement.
2. Make the First Impression Count
The upper section of your homepage is critical. This is where visitors learn who you are and why they should care. Include:
A clear mission statement (e.g., “I connect innovative leaders to their dreams”).
Easy navigation links for your main offerings.
A call-to-action such as joining a community or subscribing to a newsletter.
3. Use Your Story to Build Connection
The middle sections are an opportunity to tell your story. Showcase your unique journey, expertise, and what drives your work. This narrative is a gateway for visitors to connect with your purpose.
4. Showcase Services and Content
Highlight your business, key services, or other areas of expertise. Use visuals like photos, videos, or examples of your work (e.g., keynote speaking engagements).
Example: Include sections on past speaking engagements, keynotes, and client testimonials.
Link to your blog or podcast to provide more value and foster ongoing engagement.
5. Optimize for SEO and Engagement
Your website is also a tool for increasing visibility:
Use blog categories and tags to organize content effectively.
Provide transcripts for podcasts or videos to boost search engine indexing.
Incorporate internal links to guide visitors through your ecosystem.
6. Prioritize a Clear Contact Path
A straightforward contact page ensures visitors can easily reach you. Use forms or direct links to connect effortlessly.
Your personal website is a dynamic platform to express who you are, share your expertise, and grow your network. By structuring it thoughtfully and focusing on your unique value, you can create a powerful hub that sets you apart. Start simple, evolve over time, and let your website become the cornerstone of your personal brand.
Highlights:
00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:16 Structuring Your Personal Website
01:18 Capturing Visitor Attention
02:53 Storytelling and Personal Branding
03:45 Highlighting Your Business and Content
06:14 Creating a Blog Page
08:01 Building a Speaking Page
12:20 Setting Up a Contact Page
13:39 Utilizing a Links Page
17:50 Choosing a Domain Name
24:42 Building Your Website Together
30:39 Daily Video Challenge
32:20 Conclusion and Next Steps
Transcript:
[00:00:00] No questions? Good. I will show this on the example of my personal website, because that's the easiest to explain it. Can you see my screen? Yeah. So that the personal hub is the personal website and the personal hub is based, uh, or is divided into different sections.
So we have pages like the landing page or the home of, of your, of your website is, is, is a page. Then, for example, the links up here, these are independent pages. So you have, speaking in my case is, a page, should it go up
or not?
So speaking is, is, is a subpage of the total webpage. So a, a website is built into pages and into sections. We'll go back to home. We start with home. So the home [00:01:00] page of your personal web page is built into sections. So I will just put on edit so we see the different sections. So we have, this is a section, the upper part is a section.
Then we have This part is also a section and then we have further sections below. So what is important to understand when we talk about the personal website or as well business websites, it's always starting with the upper section. So the upper section is the section where you draw the attention into what you're about.
So in my case, I have obviously my logo, I have a couple of links visible that I want people to, to understand what it is, and then I get them into my world with a statement, which is I connect innovative leaders to their dreams. That can be different, um, topics for yourself. And that's something we will figure out for all of you.
But in, in the end is something that, that gets people understand of what you're doing [00:02:00] in a wider sense, like your, why it can be part of that as well. And then a way to capture the people that are going onto your website. So in my case, I'm using the. Um, the rising stars community, the free rising stars community where we have now over 400 members as a capturing mechanism to be able to connect to the people that are signing up, you can as well do the exact same thing with the newsletter.
Important is just to get the permission of the people that are connecting with you or want to connect with you to contact them. So that you have a possibility to interact with people on your website. Like in social media, you can text people on your website. You, in this case, at least you can't. So this is a way to capture people that come into my world.
And then the next part, which is important.
So the, the story part is a key part. And that's why everyone who has done already a [00:03:00] one on one with me, we looked into your story and go. When further into your story, so the story part is that, that drags people into your world. So the upper section is an interest based where people see what you're about.
And then it's really people dig deeper into yourself because what we talk about is personal branding. So we get people hooked with a story. And in this case, I use a specific story, which I have tested over and over again, that is converting people to clicking on this. And that's then going into the deeper version of my story, which is on a separate page.
So we, we, in section two, we go into the story and then section three is, um, something you want to emphasize. So that can be your business. That can be anything that you want to get people to understand what you do. In this case, I do personal branding as a service last week, it was something different. And then what I, what I, I then add in the [00:04:00] bottom, in the last section of the landing page.
is content. So I want people to go deeper into my content. So I've, in my case, I have at least here two podcasts that I'm, I'm promoting. One is my interview podcast, and one is the daily podcast. And with this, I allow people that come to my homepage to dive deeper into what I'm about, starting with the upper section, then going into my story.
And then going into either my business or like further content. So with, with this is, it's kind of, you give them a menu to understand who you are, and then dive deeper into, into yourself. And the interesting part of that is I have fine tuned this over the last years. I have embedded the business piece between this two.
my story and the podcast or whatever content you have on your webpage. Because what I found out is that you're not overwhelming them with the sales message [00:05:00] straight away. You just go into your personality with the story. And then the people that are interested then go into the business topic because you don't want to have a two sales trip in the beginning.
So that's the homepage. Any question on, on, on this?
What did you mean with these two things? That the people don't want to go to, to, to, to teach? What, what did you mean exactly? What do you mean with business or? No, you, you, you mentioned that, uh, uh, so the website go, so your website goes to the, into your personality and business. And, but you're, you, so the focus is.
Yeah, the focus is on the business. Yes. No, the focus is you, your personal website is all about you Uhhuh , so you don't talk too much about the business. You, you make a link to your business, which is the, the middle section here, Uhhuh , that's the business link. The rest is really all about you and [00:06:00] what you're about and the stories you're telling, the content you're producing.
Yeah. That's the difference with the business website. Yeah, because the business website is all about the business. Yeah. Okay. So with this, this is a starting point. Then obviously we have a couple of other important pages, which I recommend everyone to do. One part is a blog page. I just give you an example on my daily podcast.
So the daily podcast is a blog and inside of a blog page, you have obviously a blog sub blog pages. So like this is, is, is one of the episodes. I will just go further down here. This is now inside of the blog and one blog blog post. So inside of the blog post, you have one thing is a category. Then you have the blog post name.
You have different possibilities of showing your content. You can provide different links when you do a podcast. You can show a video and then [00:07:00] you can as well have the text version. Which then if you remember back from last week is the indexing and the SEO part. Um, again, more context to it than different links where people can engage with and then the transcript.
So, a block area inside of your personal website is a storage, a folder structure you could say, where you, yeah, where you can put in all of the content that, that you want to share on, in, in the internet. And that brings. people back to you and enable people to discover what you're about. And some of you have most probably seen either or listened to any of my podcasts in the past.
And that's, that's a way that I drag people into my ecosystem. And of course, I'm already extreme because I have a lot of content structured, but in the beginning is really the homepage, the podcast page and important as well, the speaking page, which is the [00:08:00] next one. So inside of the speaking page, because I believe every one of you should be speaking on stage going forward is first, it always starts with the picture of yourself and then a call to action, which is like book, book me to for a keynote.
And then there's a way how they can do that. The next part I recommend to do as, as, as soon as you have that show a couple of videos so that people can discover on how are you on stage. So I used this once because it was a panel discussion and we clipped them a little bit so that we can use them to trigger response.
Then another section in this case. is previous speaking engagements. So what I did is I was just listing all the different speaking engagements, including countries and cities so that people get an understanding of where did I speak in the past. And that just gives people an impression in this case, like, [00:09:00] okay, he is an international speaker.
In my case, like I spoke in London, I spoke in Amsterdam, I spoke in the US, I spoke in Spain, I spoke in Berlin, I spoke in Tokyo, uh, in Belgium, in Zurich. Like, with you guys, so this are, this is just, um, a credibility booster as more you build over time, as more you have here as well. And for that, uh, so for the list of, um, uh, that, so does that, do you, did you include then what, anything you did in your time at Ikea?
Or, um, no, only stuff you've done since you can, if, if you have spoken somewhere, the only thing that I did in Ikea was this one, the rest was after Ikea. So if you have spoken somewhere ever in your whole career, you can add that in the beginning, obviously. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. Even if it's not paid, it don't need to be always paid.
It's, it's more showing that you have [00:10:00] been speaking in different, on different stages. And then what I have here is the next section is example keynotes. What is always interesting then when events or bigger companies are looking for keynote speakers, they look first of all, what is the person about? And then of course, what is the person talking about?
So in my case, leading with impact. Human innovation, data driven leadership, innovation on the edge of the organization, innovate with technology, and collaborate to innovate. So these are different keynotes that I have given over the past, and everything is around these topics when I'm speaking on stage.
And, and then one thing that is super helpful, having pictures. I mean, pictures of keynotes or workshops that, that you did. Like this was in an Airbus a couple of years ago. This was in London last, no, this year, even, um, this was in Spain, this was in Moscow. So I just have gathered a different, different pictures, including the one we, we had [00:11:00] had here in, in, in Switzerland.
So I'm adding, as soon as I did the keynote, I'm adding interesting pictures. Um, here I spoke about sustainable design. Just giving person that goes to your website, that is looking at your speakers page, a perspective of, okay. Like, yeah, Jens has been speaking on different stages in different, um, in different cities around the world.
And yeah, let's, let's figure out if he's the right person. Then the last piece I, where I drag people into, because it's a very long video. It's like 45 minutes long. Uh, I have one of my keynotes recorded and it's as more as better when it comes to keynotes. And, and this is as well, the whole panel discussion.
And I have this two only in the moment because they're the highest quality versions I have. I have crappy, um, quality versions, but I just want to. use the highest quality that I have on Keynotes. So I'm, I'm trying to get, for example, the video from Zurich as well, [00:12:00] so that I can use it if they have a quality video.
So speaking page, again, different sections inside of the speaking page, and you can just use my Um, page as an example. Then another one that is very important is the contact page. I even dunno where I have it like this one. It, it's literally just an easy form how people can contact you. Every, every website builder has that in, is like having a different form so that people can send you emails inside of, of your website.
Sounds simple, but some people don't have it. So how should people reach out to you? And I always get them back to this page so that they can send me an email. So contact page is another key page for your website. And then the [00:13:00] last page is one that I haven't had for a long time. Just checking where it is.
But it's a game changer. Because that's the page you get to when you click anywhere inside of the internet. Let me just find it here.
Could you please mute your, uh, your microphone, interior concierge. Felix. Felix. So, um, links page, I call this, um, it's, it's jensheitland. com slash links. Thanks. It's again, different sections. What I have built here is, um, there are a couple of link distribution pages or like some, um, websites and so on where you can add [00:14:00] your different links and then they're sending you to the different, uh, pages.
What I have rebuilt here, and I found that out through a common friend that you can replicate this link distribution pages on your own home homepage, like on your own website, on your own server, so that you drag people directly into your ecosystem. So it's as easy as having the upper section, like my face and, and something about me.
And then the top two links are the ones that are most clicked. For everyone to understand. So this two links are the ones that are most clicked, but then I have specials, like different topics where I want to get people towards. Then I have all my social media links, all my YouTube channels, and as all my podcasts.
And on top of that, all my businesses, I move the businesses to the bottom because I don't want to have it sales. So when you, [00:15:00] for example, go into, I'm just opening Instagram.
We go to my Instagram, and we look into Sorry, you have so many pages, how are you able to make so many contents? What do you mean? How can you manage the time? Okay, it's interesting. You mean websites or pages? You have, you have both. You have many, uh, many, uh, I mean social medias, and also you have YouTube, many YouTube channels.
But that's me, that's, that's me, I, I'm already like advanced when it comes to these things. Now I've tested different persons. So what I'm after is this, can you see my Instagram profile? [00:16:00] So this is where I send people towards. www.insight.com/links. That's, that's, that's the landing page of all the links because then I can promote things on Instagram as an example, like my podcast and say, go to my link, and then they end up at my link distribution page, which is my own distribution page.
So they're ending up at this page, and then they can either follow what I asked them to do. which is like join the community and they can click join the community or they can say, ah, I'm interested in whatever he's doing, like work with Jens or whatever. And then they can go to all the other topics.
So again, if we now go into my life page, so that's, that's my life home homepage. We have the homepage, which is critical. We have blog, and [00:17:00] that can be in my case, I'm now using the example of my, my podcast as the blog page. Then we have contact and we have speaking. So it's, it's, this are the key pages for everyone building their personal website.
As a starting point, everything else is on top and can be extra, but it's not required when I'm building websites right now for, for the, the clients I have, we always start with this as a base and then we take it from there.
Okay. Quick question before we get to, okay, this sounds all sensible. I don't know. Um, I know it was a square space a bit and it's quite easy to set all this stuff up. It's really, it's, it's really a simple, um, problem with me is okay. How do I get a decent, uh, URL? Yeah, because if I'm going to set up a square space, then getting a useful [00:18:00] URL is probably quite useful.
And, um, with some names, that's probably, it's easy with others, less so. Mine, definitely less so. So you, that means your, your URL, like first name dot last name is already taken in. Oh God. Yeah. There's like, um, there's, well, there's a, there's a song called Nathan Jones. There was a, there's a, I think there was a, um, there was a wrestler WWF wrestler called Nathan Jones.
There was a, um, uh, there's a guitarist. It's like, there's so many different things that have my name. So it's, um, Yeah, you have a slightly bigger challenge than everyone else that, that, but probably, yeah, key part is. Because the, the, the value of that is in the end is you, you, you need to find one that, that still has your name in, because then it's indexing over time.
If you can use like, even if it's [00:19:00] like nascent minus Jones, try, try all the different versions that you can find. And even if it is your, I mean, Switzerland, right? CH. ch. I don't know if that's existing. Um, it's all it in the end, it sounds bad, but it doesn't matter as long as it's your name, because what we're building isn't an engine.
If let's give you the example, I will, I'm just sharing my screen again. Go to, if we go to Google, uh, let's use this
just using Google as a base. If we, if we put in my name,
Google does not care what my website is, right? Like my, my URL is what I've managed over, over the last year is that my website [00:20:00] is the number one when you put in my name, and that is because I call it the inside line. So what, what we, what for you, Nathan, is, is really that you have then Nathan minus or whatever it's your name needs to, to be part of that URL.
Yeah. But in the end, as you see, it's LinkedIn, it's Instagram, it's X, it's my website, all of that. Quickly search mine and you can see my challenge. No, I know, I've seen it. Well, maybe you'll find like there's new endings like info or person or space or o. So what is interesting, their websites are not indexed.
Look at this. So it's been Wikipedia, Wikipedia, it's images, it's Instagram, it's movie stuff. It's Facebook, it's Instagram, it's [00:21:00] transfer mark. It's whatever it is. So as more we build your website and as more content you're producing on your website, this will grow up because nobody of them is kind of at least not using with an SEO strategy, their website, BBC, Premier League, YouTube.
That's a, that's, thank you. Thank you. That's good insight. Because even maybe they own their, the website, That you would love to have, but they're not utilizing it, which is even more powerful you, as more you do, as better it is, it's definitely harder when you have a name, like, like a public figure.
Definitely. I get that. And then buying, buying, uh, things, um, URLs, is that easy? Super easy. I can show you. I can buy [00:22:00] yours. No, I'm joking. Yeah, and then sell it to me. Damn. Acid, um, use some acid stacking. I mean, of course you can buy it on every, if we just go back to Squarespace. So if you go to Squarespace, is it easier to just buy it through Squarespace?
Yeah, I mean if you want to it's that I just go out I have bought all my in on Squarespace and no Affiliation to that you can just
you just put in your name and then you will examples of okay That doesn't work nation James photography Nathan James author Okay, I could get Nathan Jones or live or Nathan Jones or online or something. It's James. No Jones. No Jones Yeah,
yeah, Nathan Jones dot [00:23:00] space example. work. club. online. So, I mean, they're 18 euros per year. Hello, guys. One question. Wouldn't you prioritize the local factor? It doesn't matter. I wouldn't. You mean ch? Yeah, for example, yeah, I could easily take com if I take my middle name, or if I want just to have my nickname, I would use the Swiss one, for example.
Like a lot of people know me as Jejo, and Jejo is, uh, ch is available, but Jejo. com is not available. Yeah, I, the tricky thing is if you use a name that people don't know you, like your friends know you as Jejo, if nobody else, like I would never use, like, I would never search you for Jejo. That's the tricky thing.
And maybe J. Joe, maybe in [00:24:00] 10 years, you don't like J. Joe anymore, but you still have your own name. And also SEO technical, it's almost probably impossible to rank there on the first. Exactly. So the, the name is always the easiest. So going, going back to buying your domain is as easy as going to Squarespace or any other website builder and say, I want to buy a domain.
And then you just say, okay, I want to buy whatever Jason Jones club. And then you put it into the basket and go to checkout and done. As easy as that building in the website is more complicated, but even that is fairly easy. And we, I mean, if, if what we could do for those who are, who are, who are interested, we could do like a two hour session, let's build our websites together.
And then I do, I, I built a website together with you based on the, on, on the structure. [00:25:00] Happy, happy to do that if that helps.
It's, it's, it's really super easy. It's about understanding that these pages matter most and then building the sections in. And it's in the beginning, just replicating my, my sections. So that we built then your business is in your photos and everything. And it's, I would say, if I do this for you right now, it will take me less than two hours.
If we have proper content, because it's, it's not designed, like you don't need to make a artist website. It's just having a couple of design, um, or it's called, uh, slides is almost, I don't know what it's called the design for luck. I can speak German. Um, then you just choose. I like this color. I like that font.
And then you, you, you take the templates exactly. And then you use that.[00:26:00]
Yeah, but the content is very important. I mean, that's the most important. Yeah, exactly. The picture, which pictures, which videos, which text. Yeah. And that's, that's the key of it. And that's, that's what we do in the, in the individual sessions, because it's going to be different for everyone. We go into what is your personal brand, what should be the upper part and how do we build your story and so on so that we integrate that into the webpage as soon as, as you want to publish it.
Questions.
But how would you start it? Would you just make a draft of website and with the contents and then develop it by a time by time? Or would you just, uh, make it, make it rough on paper? [00:27:00] I would just, I mean, I'm, I'm not so scientific when it comes to that. I just do it. Okay. So, the easy, because Squarespace is, if we use Squarespace, it doesn't matter which website builder.
The, the ones that where you can drag and drop, they're all the same. Um, it's, it's super easy because you just start with the homepage and, and like I said, I happy to do a two hour session on a Saturday, but we just, let's build our websites altogether and we do it next to each other. And I, I show you how, how I do that.
Happy to do that if that helps. What I found when I was doing my business website was having a nice structure really helped. But I think, I think if you're basically going to copy your structure then that's pretty simple as well, right? Exactly. Like you don't need to make any design decisions you're just going, okay I'm going to have something there I'm going to write something and then I can write online and it just goes.
Do this, do that, do that, and it's just copying. So, [00:28:00] that should be, uh, quite, uh, that should be doable. Exactly. And, I mean, of course, going forward, you can one day hire someone who makes it extremely sexy, whatever. But, I, what I would recommend just getting started.
Yeah, I'm just buying Nathan Jones. I'm buying nathanjones. online. There we go. Nice. And we can promote it.
Good. So any questions on the hub, the website?
Nothing. Any other questions?
We time wise, we are on track still. We, we're, we're, we need to build everyone [00:29:00] building the hub over the next two weeks. So if anyone has challenges and anyone has questions, please reach out to me. Happy. We can schedule more calls, whatever, because for some people it might not be that comfortable just seeing that they're okay.
Joan is saying you would love to build that together. Yeah, I would say, uh, I would like to, to build together. I have my, uh, domain, uh, for hashmi.com by, by and, but. It's the same. No idea. What do you mean? It's the same. It's the same like OpenSQL. Yeah. Most of the new website builders are all like that. Yeah.
And if you still use a website builder where you need to program, then I'm the wrong person to help. It's not needed to change it to, uh, to [00:30:00] OpenSQL. Squarespace? No. If you have a website builder where you can drag and drop, they're all similar. You have sections, you have pages, and then you can drag and drop things.
Okay, so Jay, Joanne are interested in building together. I will figure out how we get us together
in building it. It's not difficult. Worst case, I can create a loom video, um, but maybe it's easier if we just jump on a call together.
Then, daily videos. Not everyone is doing daily videos. I want to challenge everyone. I know it's hard, and I know it sucks, and, but, no, not but, why is it important? Um, and you see it with the people that have started the daily videos [00:31:00] inside of the community. As more you do, as more comfortable you get.
Everything, what we are building in the future and the podcast and everything will be video. It will help you. You don't need to send it in the community as long as you do it. You can, you can send it to yourself or just keep it on your phone. Doing recording a video where you talk into a camera is super helpful in getting you into a rhythm.
And that's why I did the 30 day challenge because I know it sucks in the beginning. And if it sucks for everyone, then it's easier to help each other.
And by the way, we are tracking in the background. That's my, my German brain. Now we are, we are looking who is, who is, who is doing the videos and, um, who is in which day, just, [00:32:00] just for fun,
no negative consequences,
any other questions?
Nothing good. I will send out potential dates for the building the website. So run, run through. Um, we will meet next week on Monday again, same time for everyone that has not booked a one on one. I think now everyone has not sure I should be. I have not yet. Okay. Then please do so because then we can get you up to speed with, with your like personal branding topics and so on as well.
It's very important.
Other than that, if [00:33:00] anyone has questions, let me know, post in the community and next week we will talk about as well, um, physical meeting. So that's, that's the topic next week. I want to get that into our calendars as early as possible because I need to buy flights. I want to get Andre, uh, who is in our community over as well.
He lives in Canada. I might get, um, one or two investors over as well. Let's see. So it would be fun to not just ask, but I, because the meetings that we're going to do in person will be open for everyone that wants to join. So it might be fun to have a couple of investors if they're interested. Let's see.
And we are building proper agenda so that we not just meet up. We, we do some, some things properly. Most probably in the first version, we can do a professional photo shooting. So we organize a professional photographer that helps us [00:34:00] building really cool photos. Good. Thank you everyone. Talk to you next week or in between and or later today as well.
Thank you. 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.