Partnering with personal branding expert johnathan Maltby

As a small business we tend to focus on building and marketing our company brand. However, did you know that it is just as important to promote your own personal brand and this is even more crucial for small businesses, entrepreneurs and those who are in-between kick starting a side hustle.

So, on this topic of personal brand, Little Steps Digital is excited to announce a partnership with Johnathan Maltby, Personal Branding and Career Consultant. As part of our partnership, Johnathan will be providing valuable insights on personal brand strategy, he is also offering some great personal branding services including one-on-one and business consulting also workshops. We look forward to collaborating and hosting some webinars for you.

Hello, Johnathan Maltby

Let's go back to the start. What made you choose the career path as a Career Coach specialising in Personal Brand Strategy and Management?
I have been a coach for many years, just not in this form. I started out as a High School teacher, which I loved doing. I moved into adult education which I did for a bit. I then decided to try something new and went into sales and marketing. That eventually led to a role in IT recruitment.
As a recruitment consultant, I saw a lot of amazing people miss out on their dream role because they struggled to ‘sell’ themselves in their CV and in interviews. I also realised that there was little support out there to help people achieve their career goals.

I realised that many people undersold themselves and lacked professional self-awareness. They hadn’t realised just how much expertise and experience they already had. I started studying the mindset, behaviours and strategies that successful candidates used and created a coaching program to help others be just as successful. That was 7 years ago now. My coaching now centres around professional identity and Personal Brand management.
 
What are the best resources that have helped you along the way?
I have read a lot of books on the subject of Personal Branding. The ones that really stuck out were:

• ‘Known’ by Mark W. Schaefer
• ‘Building a Brand Story’ by Donald Miller
• ‘Brand New You’ – Simon Middleton

I am passionate about Personal Branding for Gen-X (my generation) so there is a great podcast called Gen X Amplified with Adrion Porter
 
My clients have also been a great resource too as I get so many amazing insights from their experiences and how they have navigated their careers. I am able to use their learnings and share it with my wider client community. 
 
What are 2 common myths about Personal Branding you want to debunk?
Myth 1: Personal Branding is about what you wear. Nope! Whilst your wardrobe can be an expression of your brand, it is only a very small aspect of it. Personal Branding is really about strategically creating a personal identity around your leading attributes and managing the perceptions of your audience to influence the way they think and feel about you.

Myth 2: A Personal Brand is about being famous on Social Media, like ‘insta-famous’. Ummm NO! A credible Personal Brand is one that takes years to cultivate. Using Social Media is a great way to get visible and amplify your brand but it’s not all about followers and likes. It’s about what makes you valuable to others and also being genuine and authentic to yourself and your audience.  
 
What advice would you give to those considering venturing out to build their own personal brand?
We all have a Personal Brand, whether we realise it or not. Raising your professional self-awareness and being more conscious of who and what you are as a professional is one of the key aspects to building your brand. But before you decide to go out and ‘brand yourself’, you need to figure out what it is you are actually branding.

Your professional identity is the foundation for your brand. Figuring this out should be your first step. Your professional identity captures who and what you are, what you do exactly, your areas of expertise and most important, what makes you valuable to a business or client.
 
What’s the biggest area (related to personal brand strategy and management) you are curious about and why? Or, what are some of the things you’re researching the most right now?
I am passionate about helping mid-career professionals (Gen-X) get noticed and recognised as valuable assets to the workforce. They are an often overlooked and forgotten generation sandwiched between the Boomers and Millennials.

Gen-x are the modest, quiet ones working away in the background and don’t always feel comfortable being in the limelight. But they are also in the perfect position to come into the power phase of their careers and I love helping these folks re-energise their professional lives and really propel themselves forward.
 
What’s your go-to personal branding advice?
No one is going to drive your career for you. Only you can do this. Taking control of your career and strategically and consciously designing it the way you want to it be, is best way to enjoy one that gives you purpose and real fulfilment. Defining your professional Identity, the foundation for your brand, is that first step to taking control.
 
What is one thing that your program did for your client that you didn’t expect?
A huge boost to their self-confidence.

I was once working with an HR manager who wanted to gain a greater understanding of who and what she was as a professional and her value. Her career had become stagnant and she wanted to give it a shot in the arm. Once we had completed the program, I asked her how she was feeling and for feedback. She said she had greater clarity in her professional identity and she knew exactly which direction she wanted to take her career in next. These were all the objectives covered by the program so no surprises there. But then she told me that her confidence and self-belief in her capability had grown so much that she decided to follow hear dream and start her own business.
 
What’s a mistake you made early on in your career, and what did you learn from it?
Doing what I thought I was supposed to do in my career to please others, as opposed to what I really wanted to do. I started off as an engineer but realised that I hated it. It was a big decision to quit and go back to uni and study to be a teacher. I learnt that many people make career decisions based on what is logical, but they neglect to listen to what their heart is telling them.
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My advice is to also listen to what your gut is telling you when it comes to making career decisions. It is rarely wrong.
 
How do you build your personal brand? And should you be building your personal brand above and beyond your business brand?
There are 3 key ingredients when it comes to building your brand

1. A solid understanding of yourself
2. A compelling and specific brand message
3. A visibility strategy to help you get known

• If you are a solopreneur or freelancer, your actual business brand is an extension of your Personal Brand.
• You and your business are closely entwined. As they say, people do business with people, not businesses at the end of the day.
• If you’re working on building your Personal Brand, you are actually building your business brand at the same time. 

 
What are you working on right now?
I have just started running a video podcast right now called The Career Lab. I have partnered up with another coach, Olga Barret, where we take key career challenges that people experience, put them under the microscope and share strategies to help people overcome them. 

Register your details here to be the first to know when webinar dates are announced around personal branding and marketing strategies.