Welcome to another episode of the Enneagram MBA Podcast. This is a show for aspiring and growing entrepreneurs and company leaders who are ready to get to know themselves, who are ready to get to know and really understand their clients and their teams, and who are ready to learn how to get known as they package and promote their expertise and services in a way that truly aligns with their personality, motives, and goals. So grab your notebook or open your notes app, and I will see you in class. This episode is specifically for anybody who is just getting started with building their personal brand online, or for somebody who is thinking about building a brand around their expertise and experience, or even for somebody who has already built a brand, has been showing up regularly, but are looking to pivot, or maybe even in the middle of a pivot. And this is something that I personally can relate to as I, you know, have pivoted and continue to learn and to grow as an Enneagram coach, right? So I'm right there with you if you fit into any of those categories. And what I wanted to do today was share is offer two additional styles for building authority, for building up your personal brand that maybe don't get recognized or talked about as much or used as much as the first one that I'll share with you. So there's three types of styles to be able to share content as. But when you're first getting started, I know sometimes that voice in your head is whispering, who are you to share this? Who are you to talk about this? You're just learning about this. Why wouldn't somebody just learn from, you know, fill in the blank of the guru that's in your industry or the person that's been doing this for two, three, five years ahead of you? Um, what am I gonna share that they're not already sharing? So I'm not gonna project on you, but I've heard I have heard those voices and I know from working with some of my clients, they get similar voices. And so I thought I would share this to help you quiet those voices a little bit and just give you a couple of other options for how to show up that feel maybe more aligned in the beginning, or that you can just add in as part of your rotation for sharing content. Um, there's really three styles of content when you are kind of showing up and building that that personal brand. And the one that I'm gonna share right now is probably the the most used one. It's that leader slash expert style where you are positioning yourself as a leader, as an expert in that category. You're sharing your knowledge and your experiences from that expert role. And that's fine. And I'm gonna tell you right now, you are more of an expert than you probably are giving yourself credit for. So you by all means can continue to use that style if that's working for you or rotate it, like I said, through your content strategy. Um, but if that's just not feeling great or that's keeping you from even showing up in the first place because you're not ready to take on that role yet, I have two other authority-building styles of content, um, of way to share content that might that might feel a little bit better. And by no means is this, you know, broken down into like specific Enneagram types, but I am gonna share some thoughts on what Enneagram types these two styles might work best for, but regardless of your type, um, you can use any of these, right? So the first, so we have the first one, the leader, the expert one that is most commonly used. The second one I'm calling the star student method. And this is where you are simply reporting back on your experience being a student, um, learning, learning yourself, and then we're coming back to your audience to share what you've learned, and then any additional examples that you want to share with that, any additional experiences that you can relate to what you're learning. And here are just a couple of examples. So, one example of this style might be, you know, here are my top five courses that I have taken in my in my journey in sales, marketing, you know, health, whatever it might be. Um, and then just share, you know, what you got from it. Um, you could do a little, you know, mini summary, mini review on your top five, top ten. Um, or the other option for this is to pick one and do a full-blown review on it, you know, get into detail about what you loved about the program, what you would have liked to have seen differently and who it's for. And that could be a great blog, that might be a great podcast episode, that could be a great social media post, it could even be a great um Instagram live, Facebook Live topic. Um, and the benefit for your audience, for your community, is that you know, we're all looking at courses constantly to invest in to continue to build up our own knowledge. And you have just brought top the top favorites of yours and given a really great summary so that we don't have to go out and do that ourselves. And that shows that you are investing in yourself, so you're building authority and credibility by that. It's not like you have to go out and create a course right now, you can just report back as that star student and what you learned from each of those courses. So that's one idea. Another idea that I have done in the past is um I actually took this from a Forbes magazine article. I think theirs was around books, but I changed it to podcasts. And so my title for this was 23 podcasts worth more than an NBA. So I made a list of podcasts and I categorized them between marketing, sales podcasts, career changing, finding your purpose, um, money mindset. And then I listed, you know, three, four, five podcasts in each category that I really like. And I did this on Instagram, and so I tagged as many of the podcasts that I could. So that was a great way to also get engagement. Again, the readers, listeners, um love this type of thing. I always get a lot of rec um engagement on these type of posts because you know, we we want to learn, we wanna, we wanna grow. And by you bringing, again, some of your favorite podcasts to the table, you've just made it easier for your audience to go find some new podcasts in particular areas that they're interested in learning more from. And you're exposing them to potentially new information that new resources that they didn't know before. Again, you don't have to have your own podcast to do this. You're just being the star student, sharing what you're learning, sharing your favorites in um in a post like this. And again, it's showing that you're investing time into your own um growth journey. Another idea for this is to share trends that are happening in your niche. So, an example that I have shared in the past is um when Instagram was hiding their likes. I had shared a post on here's why Instagram is going to hide your likes. And then I just said, you know, this was just announced. What are your thoughts on it? So again, you don't even have to have any strong opinions on the trend. If you want to share those, by all means. But it could just be, hey, I'm reporting. I'm not, I'm, I'm not necessarily saying this is right or wrong or good or bad. I'm just reporting on what's happening. Would love to know what you're thinking. So I know that there's all kinds of trends happening, whether you're in self-care, it could be around, you know, the amount of sleep that we get, um, you know, all kinds of things. Um, you know, what diet is the best, what trends are happening in um, you know, the money, financial world, all kinds of things. Um, another idea for this star student style is to give a book review. Um, I used to do this a lot on a previous podcast that I had where each week I would give an overview of a book that I was reading um in the self-development marketing categories. And so you could do the same, um, whether it's fiction, nonfiction, and just give the highlights. So one um kind of fun way that I did this was I um drew out, and this is me, um, I I just enjoyed creating this at one point. I drew, um, I got some colored pencils, white pieces of paper, and in four pages, I just did some drawings and some colored text around key takeaways from that book. And then I made a little IGTV video from that where the camera was on the notebook and I would just flip the pages, but then I had like my voice in the background as a voiceover sharing some additional insight. So if they didn't listen with the sound on, that's okay. They still got something. Um, so that's another way to come and be kind of position yourself as you're learning, you're growing, and just report back on a book that you're reading. Um, you could also do this with a book list. I've been doing this right now with specific categories. So each week I'm sharing um, you know, five books on personal branding, on money mindset, on the Enneagram. And so um, that's also uh really fun and helpful for your audience. So that's that star student, you're just reporting, you don't have to necessarily be the expert on any of this. There's no pressure. And I wrote, you know, this could be great for fives, our type fives, who love to learn, who are, you know, constantly hungry for for knowledge to be able to consume all of this and then take it back to your community and share. Um, sixes, this might be really fun for because again, they you know they enjoy um learning new things as well and kind of seeing the world in different ways, and they have the superpower to kind of draw connections and um share information in a really digestible way. And so that might be great for you, type sixes. It might also be great for you type ones who are always looking for ways to improve. So if you have a podcast list or a book review or a trend, you might add in your own take on how it could have been better or how they're making things better or what you would do instead um as an additional way to you know add value for your audience and and let them know a little bit more about what you believe. And then I also had this being a potential strategy for type fours, because as type fours, I know there's like there's um there's a want to create something completely new, completely original, very unique. And at this point in time, you know, it's there's really nothing that is completely never been done before. It's just remixes, re um renditions of different concepts, sayings, theories that that have been around for for a long time. Um, so what you could do is take these things that have already been done before, but then infuse it with your creative spin, right? Your creative twist, whether that's creating really fun graphics to explain something, um, whether it's just a creative way to share the information, maybe some creative examples that nobody else is really using. So that could be great for you too. So that's that's the second style, that star student style. The third style is what I called the the interviewer, um the journalist. And this is where you are going out and interviewing other experts um about topics that you think would be really helpful for your community. And this could be maybe you're starting a podcast where you just interview people. Um, maybe it's where you host a regular Instagram live show or a regular Facebook live show. Um if you're not into video or audio, you could also connect with um experts in your field and send them questions and they could respond back, or you could interview them over the phone and then turn it into a blog for your website. Um, and then from there you can pull different um quotes or um best practices from those interviews from other people and turn those into graphics for social media. And then, you know, you're tagging the person, they're probably gonna reshare it so you're able to kind of cross-promote and get in front of relevant audiences as well. Um, but again, it doesn't have to be the pressure for you to be an expert in the situation isn't there. You don't have to share your own opinion necessarily because you're interviewing somebody else. Um, I had this as a potential strategy for type nines who sometimes are um, you know, still working out what their opinions are. And sometimes it's it can be scary to share your opinion because you don't want somebody to to disagree with you or you don't want to offend somebody. And so as you kind of gain confidence, this could be a great style to share um where it's not your opinion, it's somebody else's. And again, you're just reporting, you're just being the journalist and sharing the interview. Um, and then I also have this as a potential strategy for a type two because they tend to be really um relational and and really good um with people, and this I'm stereotyping, I know, um, but they tend to be really intuitive as well, and so they might make great interviewers. So this could be a style that really plays on their strengths potentially, and then again, the pressure to be the expert, to like stand out on their own isn't there, it's just they're providing helpful resources, information for their community via these interviews. So there you there's two additional ways outside of just feeling like you have to be the leader that still give you authority, that still allow you to provide really valuable, helpful content to your community, um, but the pressure is not there, especially as you grow. And then as you grow, you may, you know, take on more of these like leadership expert styles of communicating and sharing content, um, or you may always kind of want to rotate among the three. I I like doing that a lot. Um obviously, I'm doing the interview one, you know, with this podcast. And then when I first got started, um, I used to have a blog where I would interview other female entrepreneurs about their own journey getting started with their business. And I interviewed um what was cool about that is that I got to learn myself, um, and then I got to share experiences and expertise that I just did not have. Like there was an interview I used as an example um when I did this training on Instagram of how to build a multi-million dollar business. Well, I have not done that yet, but I interviewed somebody who had and they shared their story. It was very inspiring. She shared practical tips, things to think about, and so that was so great for me to get to learn that, and then it was great um to get to share that with my audience. And it at that time I was doing the um, I was doing both a weekly Friday live interview, and then I also was doing a spotlight that I did in writing, and I would just send questions to somebody that I wanted to know more about that I thought would be really interesting for my audience, they would send the answers back, and then I would just type it up into a blog format. And so there's all kinds of ways to do that, but I I love the interview um style for myself personally, and even you know, for me, I I again I I'm just really getting started in this Enneagram world when you think of how many people um have been doing this for decades. Um, I got to interview an author who is a certified Enneagram coach. She has been practicing, I think she said for 30 years, hosting workshops and coaching and teaching. And, you know, how could I, you know, if I waited to become an expert like she was before I started sharing content, oh my gosh, I would be waiting decades to be able to do that. Um, so instead, I got to bring her wisdom and knowledge to you in a future episode. Um, sex in the Enneagram in this case, so stay tuned, that's gonna be a really fun episode. Um, but she's written all kinds of books, and so again, I didn't feel any pressure to be an Enneagram expert other than to make sure that I understood um, you know, which I do understand the basics so that I can ask her good questions so that she can give good answers for you. Um, helpful answers, not necessarily good, but valuable, helpful answers to you. So I don't know. I hope I hope that inspires you to try out a new style, throw in it, throw it in the mix, or inspires you to get started sharing content um in one of these two ways without feeling like you have to wait. Even if you're going through and getting a certification, you can still start sharing in these types of styles on Instagram, in your email, um, and and start to build up that personal brand, start to build up that authority, becoming kind of the go-to resource for your audience. So, with that, I would love to hear from you if you end up trying any of these. If you have any additional examples of how to use one of these two methods, let me know. I'll share that in the in a future episode. I always love hearing your thoughts, ideas, your questions. Um, so connect with me on Instagram at Enneagram MBA or as always email me and let me know. Let me know what ideas you have, let me know what questions you have. Um, with that, I will see you back here for an interview episode with um an upcoming guest that I think you're going to love. So stay tuned for that coming up Thursday. And as a reminder, I wanted to let you know that the wealth building series with my money mentor Elizabeth Ralph, who was on the podcast last week as our first type 5 guest and spiritual investor, her training kicks off today, September 7th. And it is a three-part wealth building series. Today, the topic is the difference that makes the difference. The second video in the series is going to be around how to keep your money safe, and it's not what you think, what we typically think of how to keep our money safe. And then the last video, she's gonna share a simple wealth building strategy. So you're going to get a mixture of mindset shifts plus specific strategies around building wealth. And as I have said in the previous episode, if you hadn't had a chance to listen, I'll recap that as entrepreneurs, we focus a lot on business building, on bringing in new sales, on our marketing strategy, which all is important. But as Elizabeth had shared in that last podcast episode around money blocks and our Enneagram type, um there the wealth building needs to be the priority because otherwise we are really chained. We're not as free as we think we are when it comes to the freedom, the financial freedom, the time freedom that we want in our business. And so she talks more about how to think about wealth, why it should be should take priority over business building, and um how to actually get started with that in this series. So I think that this is such a great complement to an entrepreneur as we, you know, shift to move from just a content creator, you know, a lot of us are excellent marketers in our business, but this really helps us put on that CEO hat and see big picture, not just for our business, but for our whole life. So I hope that you will join me in video one or whatever you're listening to it this week. Um, it will just be open for a week. So don't wait to get registered. That link is in the show notes here, and we kick off today. So I hope to see you in that training.