Joining me this week is Andrea Wojnicki.
Andrea is a communication coach. She’s an expert in Consumer Psychology, and word of mouth. In her own words, she has an insatiable obsession with understanding “why you said what you just said.” This obsession has driven her career, having worked in marketing at Kraft Foods to eventually doing a Doctorate of Business Administration in Marketing at Harvard Business School. Her dissertation was on Consumer Psychology and word of mouth, fueled by deliberate practice and her insatiable desire to understand.
Andrea created Talk about Talk, which is a learning platform to help others boost their confidence and improve their communication skills. In our conversation, we specifically unpack the topic of personal brands. This is something I’ve discussed with many of my previous guests, but I’ve never had an expert on the topic, and Andrea brought so much new insight to this conversation.
Some of my key takeaways are:
- Why a personal brand is so important and how it’s not just entrepreneurs who need them.
- How it all starts with focusing on what makes you unique, and how to make that aspirational.
- How to consistently integrate the attributes and elements of your personal brand.
- How personal brands evolve over time, and how to stay current and relevant with your own.
Whether you are running your own business or you’re working in a job, hoping for a promotion, many decisions that impact your success are made without your presence in the room. Having a personal brand means owning the narrative of what others say about you when you’re not physically present – and my conversation with Andrea unpacks how to go about owning yours.
Please sit back and enjoy my conversation with Andrea Wojnicki.
Full Episode
Guest Links
- Talk About Talk
- Andrea’s artworks
- Andrea’s Newsletters
- Andrea’s Podcasts
- Prompts for Developing Your Own Personal Brand
Show Notes
- Where it all began – Andrea talks about how she became interested in Consumer Psychology, and her obsession with – “why people said what they said.” (00:02:52-00:04:35)
- What is word of mouth? Andrea shares her perspective. (00:04:36-00:05:45)
- We discuss the idea of the customer as the hero and how to leverage the insight of positive experiences. (00:05:46-00:07:42)
- Benefits vs features: What resonates more with people? (00:07:43-00:09:10)
- Andrea shares the remarkable things she learned from her time at Harvard, as well as insights from the research she was doing. (00:09:11-00:10:29)
- Andrea talks about the similarities between brands that she worked with, as well as their respective brand strategies. (00:10:30-00:13:08)
- Professional vs student. Andrea compares her experience as a student, with being a working professional at Kraft. (00:13:09-00:17:12)
- Personal branding and its importance. (00:17:13-00:21:19)
- Focusing on what makes you unique. We discuss the first step in Andrea’s principles of personal branding. (00:21:20-00:26:52)
- Prompts to find your own superpower. (00:26:57-00:27:53)
- We talk about our key elements when developing your own personal brand: Positivity, rarity, purity, and relevance. (00:27:54-00:33:40)
- How to consistently integrate the attributes and elements of your personal brand. (00:33:41-00:38:45)
- Owning your narrative. We discuss how having a personal brand means owning the narrative of what others say about you. (00:38:46-00:43:01)
- Personal brands evolve over time. Andrea shares tips on how to stay current and relevant. (00:43:02-00:45:46)
- Maintaining the balance between what interests you and what the audience wants. (00:45:47-00:48:12)
- Where to find Andrea and get in touch with her on social media. (00:48:13-00:49:30)
- Andrea’s final message to everyone listening. (00:49:31-00:50:33)
Selected Links from the Episode
👉 Continue the conversation with me: https://twitter.com/Bazzaruto
💌 Get my 2-week email course on creating your own online course: http://coursecreator.studio/email