022 Make Your Virtual First Impression Count
We’re tackling the art of making a stellar first impression in virtual spaces with a simple yet powerful tool: the virtual calling card.
Quirky Quiz Time 🥳
What is the main benefit of a virtual calling card?
A) It replaces the need for social media profiles
B) It helps you quickly share your information in virtual settings
C) It automates all your networking interactions
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Answer: B – It helps you quickly share your information in virtual settings. Plus it saves you from typing everything out by hand again, and again 😉
022 Make Your Virtual First Impression Count
Navigating virtual networking events, webinars, and online meetings can feel like a scramble when it’s time to drop your details in the chat. This week, we explore how to create and use a virtual calling card—your one-stop, copy-paste solution to making a strong, consistent first impression online.
Crafting a powerful first impression in virtual spaces isn’t about typing out your details on the fly—it’s about being prepared. A virtual calling card ensures you present yourself consistently and professionally, whether you’re in a networking event, webinar, or Zoom meeting. By including your name, business, elevator pitch, and key contact details in one easily accessible format, you remove the stress of introductions and focus on meaningful connections.
Beyond just sharing details, this tool reinforces your personal brand. A strong, clear elevator pitch and consistent branding across your platforms help you stand out in a sea of digital noise. This episode also dives into why authenticity and storytelling play a crucial role in networking, ensuring that your message sticks with the right people.
If you’re serious about making a lasting virtual impression, it’s time to implement your own virtual calling card. Need guidance on refining your personal brand and video marketing strategy? Work with Zoë Wood at Video Confidence Coach to elevate your online presence and make your brand unforgettable.
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⏱ 00:00 – Welcome to Video Confidence Connect & why virtual first impressions matter
⏱ 06:00 – What is a virtual calling card & why you need one
⏱ 12:00 – The history of calling cards & their modern digital evolution
⏱ 18:00 – What to include in your virtual calling card (name, business, elevator pitch, contact info & social media)
⏱ 24:00 – How to store and access your virtual calling card for easy use
⏱ 30:00 – How a virtual calling card saves you time, effort, and helps you stand out
⏱ 36:00 – Personal branding & storytelling: how to craft a message that resonates
⏱ 42:00 – Handling emotions in video content & making your brand memorable
⏱ 48:00 – Why consistency is key in personal branding & refining your core message
⏱ 54:00 – Audience Q&A on video marketing, personal branding, and standing out online
⏱ 60:00 – Wrapping up: Final thoughts & next steps for implementing your virtual calling card
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Zoë Wood 5:00
Zo G'day and welcome to this week's video confidence connect with your host, Zoe wood, the video confidence coach a weekly live stream where smashing your video marketing mayhem and killing your
Unknown Speaker 5:13
killing. Kill of
Zoë Wood 5:18
my sincere apologies. Let me try that again. Running, start smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies. Oh, welcome everyone to this weekly live stream that we hold every week from 10am to 11am Australian at Easter, standard time every Friday, where I get the chance to answer some of your questions that I've received during the week via either via email, DM, just conversations I have with potential clients, but also just in general, with people that I want to chat with. So if you are interested in watching or listening to this live stream today, you can check us out on LinkedIn or on YouTube, or if you're part of the hashtag replay squad, you can feel free to comment, ask your questions, maybe ideas for podcast episodes, and we'll get into that in a sec. So either during or after the live stream, I do my best to answer every single question that people ask regarding personal branding, video marketing and marketing strategy. So if you have any of those questions, I am here for you. You can find out more with the show notes of this live stream, as well as our podcasts and other projects and services we provide at the video, confidence coach. You can check it out on our website, BCC, dot training, and speaking of which, you can see our website as we are constantly updating every day. And hopefully, if you are running a personal brand or a business, you should be doing the same before we begin in coming over the past weeks, I would like to acknowledge a country. I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I conduct my business today. I pay my respects to their elders. Past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands and working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand with them in their fight and guest injustice always was, always will be Aboriginal land, and I thank you for everyone joining us today. It's on the hashtag, replay squad or in the live usually like what I like to do is I like to because I run these every week, and I did notice that my captions aren't working, that is fun. I will do my best to turn those off. Turn those back on again. Are you working now? You make me, you make me. Make my time very fun, don't you? Well, while I do that and while I do my best to did you? Okay, that's fine. There we go. Got that working again, so I'm able to have some captions on the screen for you, so you're able to understand and hear everything that I present to you here on the live stream. So over this past week, what we've accomplished at the video confidence coach, we are still focusing on our glow and grow branding session, which is just a one hour session, $350 and you get a full marketing strategy that is able to glow and grow your brand or your business in 2025 even though we are just about to hit March, it is still the start of the year, and you still have the rest of the year to glow and grow. So check it out if you are interested in that. Everything is on the website. For those of the for those of you who are probably seeing me about this week, I have been at the one roof events. So we've had the one roof welcome call. So I thank you, Fiona and all the guests who joined me there earlier this week. And I also saw everyone at the virtual events. So if I'm not seeing you there in person, because there's a good chance that I'm running some stuff in the background, I'll always do my best just to be there in the background asking some questions. And if not, you've probably seen me either in person, running about Melbourne. So for those who may be unaware, Melbourne is the biggest city or our capital in the state of Victoria, where I live and I run. I was running around Melbourne earlier this week for various clients, talks and a couple of other projects that we have in the work for the rest of this year. So keep an eye out for those as they come along over this next coming week. So today is currently the 28th of February. So from the 28th to the seventh of March, 28 of March. 28 of February to the seventh of March. 2025 I will be in multiple like I have a lot of meetings, both virtual and in person throughout Geelong and Melbourne. So you will definitely see me around. So if you see me say hi, don't be afraid to say hi, especially when I'm wearing blue. That means I'm in work mode. So you'll definitely say hi. And you'll also see me if you are part of my online course. So hello, my fellow online course people, I'm I am doing the homework. I promise we do some projects together so we can definitely get it done. And also, you'll be seeing me with more social media content as part of the video confidence coach and a VIC podcasters, which is a project I run, as you can imagine, for Victorian podcast. Is. So that is a group that we run, both on Facebook, LinkedIn and an email newsletter. You'll be seeing more of those come out as we progress on, because now we've got some material to work with, and I have scoped out the podcast and all of the supporting material for the next year. Speaking of which, I've got my two podcasts that I run. So I run the one that is for the video confidence coach is called the UN boring, your brand podcast. And last week, also on Sunday, we released episode 48 stop letting templates ruin your videos. And I did get a lot of feedback from those, from a lot of feedback on that episode. So I thank you. Everyone who's been able to listen or watch that episode on all of your podcast catches your Spotify Apple podcasts, wherever you find the podcast, and also you watch the video version on YouTube. And this week we have episode 49 fighting business copycats. So that is covering a story that I talked about here on the live stream, as well as talked about for the podcast episode where I talked about someone stealing my business name and not exactly pretending to be me, but using my name, and to the point where I was getting a lot of her clientele coming to me because I was a pre established business with that same business name, and for someone who had 25 years of business experience, didn't really show a lot. Did you love you? So we'll go through that in the podcast. That in the podcast that is releasing this Sunday. So if you are interested, make sure you join our email newsletter on my website, Vcc dot training, because that's where I give all the scoops and all the back behind the scenes stuff as well. So if you are interested, check that out there. And for Vic podcasters, a group and community for Victorian podcasters, we have episode that was released on Sunday, Episode 23 of getting back on the mic the smart way. We're currently in a series where we are helping people get back into podcasting and some useful tips and tricks on how to ease yourself back in to the process of starting a podcast or of restarting a podcast after a break, and on this Sunday, episode 24 we have winning back your listeners without begging. I know isn't that fun, so I look forward to everyone's thoughts and insights this coming week. I did have a question, though, for someone asking, why I release my podcast on a Sunday, or why I release my email newsletter and my podcast on a Sunday, and the reason being is so that a it will be ready on Monday morning, when, when most people in both Australia and the US and the UK? Most of the time, most people are in Australia, high but most of the time when people are about to when people are automatically downloading and looking for content. Usually it is a Monday morning because it starts your week. Starts your week and you get going. And also it may give me both the person who's creating the content, but also it gives you a leg up as the person listening and consuming the content, that you can start off your week well with something that is going to positively motivate you, if you are one of those people that likes to listen to podcasts on the weekend, but also it covers the people who are listening it listen to the podcast on their commute, and in personally, in my analytics. So the insights that have shown me from moving from, I think I did like a Friday release and I moved to a Sunday release that has almost, I'd say, off the top of my head, about 10x my downloads just from moving the date around. So of course, it's all about consistency, but what I did was I was able to move it to that Sunday, and it is also moved pretty well into my schedule as well. So on the days like this, where I run and say hello on the live stream, I also edit my podcast episodes, usually in batches, so about two to three weeks in advance, but I always I also have the time to work on the marketing of it. Yes, Your girl is a marketer, and I'm not very good at marketing my own stuff. That's why you work with me, because I have that objectivity that I am separate from you. Here we are. But speaking of podcast, today, we are going to be recording a podcast episode one that actually a lot of people have been asking for specifically about a virtual calling card. So that is specifically about how I have, essentially, it's a wall or a paragraph of text that I like to use in virtual events or in opportunities where people are either in a zoom call or in some sort of webinar where people ask, Hey, drop your details in the chat, and a lot of people type those out. Just type those out. Well, have something in a area that you can always find it, you can copy and paste, and it has all of your contact details, your entire elevator pitch, everything that you possibly need, and people have been raving about it ever since. So I'll get into that podcast episode in a second before while I make sure that the camera is aligned, there we go. I am. I have been told I've been living a bit too much headroom above my head. I can't help it. My hair is huge. I need to give it enough space to breathe. Um. That will also give me enough chance to put on this air conditioner during the break during the ads, to give you a chance to breathe, but also give me a chance to turn on the air conditioner and cool down a little bit, and we'll get ready for our podcast episode today. Being confident in your product service skill and would definitely be a help, despite
nerves and stage fright. I completely agree. Because once say, for example, if you are new in your business, I completely understand you have both the nerves of, I'm new at this, I can make, like there's so many mistakes I'm going to make, as well as being nervous of getting yourself out there in front of the camera or behind the camera to show your business to the world, there is a different special type of fear involved in that. But once you have a bit more confident in your own skills to be able to produce the product or service that you actually do in your business, then you can rest a little bit more on your laurels and give a little bit give yourself a little bit more of a hug going, Okay, this will be okay. I can do this. I can do this because you will have a bit more confidence in the work that you can produce and the clients that you can help. And hopefully, if those clients that you've worked with or customers that you sold to are able to give you good feedback, that'll even give you even more robustness to be able to be like, Okay, I know what I'm doing. I'm okay with this, giving me that good feedback loop to be able to start producing videos or reaching out on Social media to people like your past clients.
Do you like feeling on edge? Do you enjoy in those moments of when you're on a zoom call or a virtual networking event, or even a webinar where they say, Hey, drop your details in the chat so we can all catch up later, or drop your details in the chat. Want to know more about you, and you're there going, Oh God, I have to copy everything. I have to type everything out. Oh my
Unknown Speaker 17:08
god. Well,
Zoë Wood 17:12
let me have an answer for that specific issue. And then the intro happened for everyone in the life. Hi. So yes, for that specific issue regarding about giving all your details in a virtual format or in a digital format, as I like to call, I like to have what is called a virtual calling card. So let's scroll our minds back to give you some history, because I love giving some history. So essentially, a calling card was used during the essentially Edwardian era. So that's after the Victorian era, usually in the UK, but it's throughout the world. And this has been a practice has actually been going on for a very long time, but the name calling card came from when in the Edwardian era people would obviously upper class people would go to houses, and when they weren't able to talk to the Important Person of the house, or whoever they went to see, and they missed them for whatever reason, because, remember, phones didn't exist, the internet didn't exist. So if you missed someone, which happened a lot, you left, usually, like a business card, type, you know, card that you were able to leave at the presidents or leave with the staff to remind people of who you were. So this calling card usually had very much like, what a business card, what a business card has now, which it has your name has details on how to contact you. And of course, in those days, was mainly where to find you, so where your offices were, or a postal address if necessary, and it also just had, like, a bit of a brief summary, or a brief like almost elevator pitch, in one or two sentences that gave people an idea of who you were and what you stood for, and maybe some of the charities you supported and all that, like, you know, accent type stuff, but You can imagine those type of calling cards, and the reason that it's still ubiquitous in our language, even though we don't really use calling cards as much in our digital age, is because they were useful. And they were useful back then, and I'm going to bring them back now for use in your virtual both networking, because obviously you girl likes networking, but also just in instances where you have to give people information, usually in a very short time frame, and they just say, Oh, just send me a message with your details. Now, a lot of people that I work with kind of just go or feel like they've been put on the back foot because they have to go, all right, I have to type everything out again. What if I tell you you don't have to do it again. So what I propose to you is a virtual calling card so you can use this at networking events, so on Zoom or on webinars, or on any place that you're interacting with other people in a business or personal branding capacity, and you're able to provide your details. Essentially, what this is, it's usually about a fair chunk of paragraph information. And what it is is this, these following things in a nice paragraph that you can keep in somewhere close by virtually. So for example, I have a lot of clients who use their G Drive, their Google Drive, or their OneDrive, as they're like, where they keep and store all their information. So when they need to access anything on any of their devices, they can go, boom, I'm into OneDrive. Boom, them into the file. Boom, I'm into the thing. Loads up. Here's the information, copy, paste, done. That's what works for them. What way, what may work for you might be slightly different. Maybe it might be something to keep in use, in maybe your email signatures, or somewhere that you can relatively access it easily. For me, I like to use a online wiki called notion. Essentially, think of it as Wikipedia, but for my own thoughts, and I have a little block that goes across almost all of my pages that have to do with business, where I keep this information handy. My Virtual calling card handy. Now, what is in your virtual calling card menu asks Zo, because you've been going on and on and about this, let's focus, shall we? So what's on it? So first there is your name, of course, now obviously your full name, or whatever name you are using online or way to people to find you say, for example, there's a lot of people that I work with who use more of a stage name, or they use their middle name, whichever one is the one that people are going to find you on LinkedIn or other places, that's the name that you use, followed up by your business, followed up by your business or branding name. So what again? How are people going to find you online? Because the information that you're providing here is not necessarily just links, because sometimes in zoom calls or webinars, they kind of strip all the links out for making sure that you're not spamming anything reasons. But you provide this so then people can search and research you afterwards. You then follow it up by your elevator pitch. So we can definitely go into a podcast episode, or you can check out the show notes for more details on your elevator pitch. But essentially, an elevator pitch is a one to two sentence, a bunch of words that tell people who you help and why you help them. So usually, this is maybe about usually for an elevator pitch, it's like 30 seconds long when you speak it out loud, but in this instance, you probably want something to round about a sentence long that enables you to get a crux to these people who you probably have only either just met or maybe even had a chance to speak to just yet, about who you are and why you do the work that you do, being able to focus on the type of customer that you work with, and Having a really clear idea on why you help them is going to be helpful, not just for this instance here, but also just in your marketing in general. Yes, you can serve anyone. You could welcome anyone, anyone can buy from you, sure. But when it comes to your efforts, you want to be able to focus and also not waste your money. So I digress. Zocus, so you have your elevator pitch usually around about a sentence long for this application. So again, who and why in that one sentence, and also this elevator pitch allows you to show a bit of your personality and a little bit of your prose, or maybe some of the words that you use, this sentence is then followed up by your website. So again, a really basic, simple place where people can find out more information about you, that you control a Facebook page and a LinkedIn page you do not control, that the meta gods or any of those social media platforms could die in an instant. Or they could take you down for whatever infraction they feel like. It is rented land, send them to your website, even if you're not proud of it. You can work on it in the future. You can make it a priority, and then you would add either a location, if that helps, so say, for example, maybe you only work in certain suburbs or areas, or maybe you have either an office space that is useful to keep in this virtual calling card. This also helps people when they need to say physically attend your services. Then they know where to go you, then you then follow up with your email address so that people can email you and contact you. Follow it up by your phone number, if that is relevant for you. If you don't want people calling you or texting you, that is okay. Personally, I have my phone number probably everywhere on the internet, but because I have both a personal and a professional phone, I turn my professional phone as soon as it hits 5pm done. Phone off. Do not bother me. So that helps me. But in cases, for most of us who maybe only have one phone, might help, maybe not to spread your number around, if that is not helpful to you at this moment. And the last thing that I want to touch on is providing a your best social media platform handle. So what I mean is not go a full like list of you know, Instagrams this, Facebook's this, Pinterest, this, like the. Hopefully, and one thing I will stress is hopefully you don't have the say like different names on all different platform because that might makes it harder for people to find you and keep your branding consistent. And that is a different podcast episode altogether. But for this application, which one is either your best social media platform, as in the one where you spend the most time, or you post the most frequently. Which social media platform looks the best for you, or is it the one that has the most followers? If that matters to you. And the reason I put that caveat out there is because followers, when it comes to social media, don't exactly mean what they used to when in the olden days, five years ago or more, when it came to the amount of followers you had on social media was reflected with reflect the amount of followers you had on social media reflected the amount of reach and engagement that you had. Now, it's all moved to a Tiktok algorithm mindset, where most people come across someone's content, like maybe one piece of content or two pieces of content, and maybe follow them, but then they never see them again. So your follower is not necessarily any more indicative of your reach as much as it used to be.
So, for example, my calling card. So again, this is just a bunch of words and text that I copy in all of my places, so I can copy and paste this and edit and update this as I see fit, but allows me to have what I need. So you can see an example in the show notes just down below, up to the side, depending on where we are, and you'll see that my virtual calling card is Zoe wood. Video confidence coach involves women and non binary superstars with killer video marketing strategies, empowering them to show up, stand out, and smash their goals. I like to, in my personal view, I like to use the long I forgot what it's technically called, but on your keyboard, it's under the backspace. It labels on, on like a physical keyboard on a digital one, who knows, but it's the long line that enables, for me, I find it very useful to be able to separate things, to be able to separate points. So it goes from my name, and then it goes into my elevator pitch. So then it enables people to find me. I didn't use my name in that example at the start, because I'm already starting off my elevator pitch with the video confidence coach. And people are going to use that, they're going to be smart enough to figure out that, okay, the brand that chooses called the video confidence coach, yes. And then after that, I provide the types of services I provide. So say, for example, I have marketing, coaching and mentoring, speaking and marketing direction. My email is good day at Vcc dot training, and then my website is Vcc dot training. And then my where my mobile is 0430473204 and I like to put the caveat of at video confidence. And then I put in brackets afterwards on all social platforms, so people find me. They usually find me as the video confidence coach. I have put myself on a lot of platforms. Do I work on all of them? Nope, but I still am usually present on a lot of different platforms. So as I mentioned before, where would you save this information? Now, this information may seem like a lot when you look at it all in text form, but it is going to save you so much time and energy and effort when you come across these situations, when you start, either when you start or as you already are virtually networking in these spaces, to take this opportunity just to just have the information there, even if you don't have a reason or a use for it, now, you will definitely find reasons in the future. So say, for example, you can keep it in your second brain. So for me, I like to keep it in my notion, but you may have an Evernote or a to do list or a task or whatever platform you're using that is a good place to keep it. You can also keep it in a document or a Word document that you're always constantly referring to. You can keep it in your diary or a calendar that is maybe a constant event, that is always accessible wherever you are in your day's work. Have it be ready there so you can copy and paste it whenever you need it. And if say, for example, you are still figuring yourself out, still figuring out your brand or things are changing for you, feel free to update yourself, update this virtual calling card about one to every two months. I don't recommend doing it any. Can more consistently than that, mainly just because it's a long, long burn of a marketing endeavour and consistency works better long term than just changing yourself around every couple of months. So what you can also do is utilise any feedback or any questions that people have for you. So say, for example, you use this virtual calling card in say an email that someone wants to say, Hey, can you send me your details? And you go, Okay, open, Copy, Paste. Send the email out and then say, for example, they ask a question. And you thought, Oh, I thought I answered this in the virtual calling card, but maybe I don't Okay. I'll update my virtual calling card to make sure that I cover that answer, either in my elevator pitch or maybe in my services or in maybe even in the like direction, area, whatever it is, because sometimes we need to spell things out for people, and that's okay, but don't update your virtual calling card every single time you get certain feedback, because most of the time people are just, hey, you've sent me your details. Awesome. Happy. That's what's happening. And I'm going to tell you now that I have received a lot of leads this way, that I have appeared in a virtual networking event, I've appeared in a webinar, or I have just been present, helping or supporting people, or just, you know, being there wanting to learn for myself. I provided those details in the chat, and I don't think about it. It's just there. And then a week, two weeks a month,
Unknown Speaker 31:04
a year later, I have
Zoë Wood 31:06
people coming back to me going, Hey, Zo I met you at this I don't think you'll remember me, but I met you at this event. And I go through my list, I go through my my notes, and I go, Oh, yes, we did meet. It was it's great to see you. And then they either ask me a question or they prompt and say, hey, I want to work with you, or I've been thinking about working with you for a long time, and that is what it takes when it comes to networking your brand or your business. You need to be there. If you need to be present, you need to be consistent. And I'm not saying that you need to be everywhere at once, because that is exhausting. Be where your audience is, be where your customers are. That's where you should put your focus. Get the leads, get the money first, then worrying about doing fancy things later. Thank you so much for listening to this episode on virtual calling cards. And of course, I did not completely come up with this myself. This is just something that I've used from many, many years of both virtual and other areas where it's just useful to have this information on hand. This is just from my own personal experience. If you call this something else, please let me know, either in a DM or in comments or throughout the world wide web, or you can even email me at g'day at Vcc dot training, where I'd be interested to know what you would call this or anything that you would like to add to your virtual calling card, or what I should add to the list, to make sure that I help people out. Make sure that if you've enjoyed today's podcast episode, that you rate us five stars on Apple podcasts and Spotify podcast, because we would love to get the message out there and get more people un boring their brand. So look forward to seeing you around and bye. When, when I work with clients, my goal is to get them to their desired outcome. Yes, if I need to be a little bit harsh and a little bit mean, which is probably me just messaging them and just being like, hi, you said we were going to do this, let's do this like that's my main face. But when it comes to helping people achieve what they need to achieve, that's what I'm here for. That's what you've hired me for, to get to where you need to go, to use the expertise, and hopefully to use the knowledge that you have as an expert in your field. Because ultimately, if you are running a small business, if you are working with clients and helping them achieve what they want to achieve, you are an expert. You don't need a degree for that. You don't need some fancy piece of paper. If you are helping people and you're doing it right, you're an expert. If you're constantly growing and involving your education on your particular subject, you're an expert if you're growing your knowledge and can admit, more importantly, you can admit when you're wrong about something, you're an expert. You're a thought leader in your space. If and
thank you for everyone joining us on the live and watching that recording of my podcast episode. So now we're going to move into some community questions. So these are questions that I have received either this week, because I like to get on top of them early, where I like to just answer the question, cut out the section of the live stream, send it to people, and there you go, your question answered. Or these are longer questions that I have received over time, where like for this upcoming one. I couldn't have forgotten who asked me this, so we're just gonna answer it and we're gonna put it on the YouTube and love you. I promise I'm not forgetting so I will have these as also as podcast episodes in the future, but that is probably a long way away. So what I will be doing is putting these into YouTube videos to make the. Easy for maybe either easy to answer for you. So we're going to jump around a little bit. But trust me, you've got this. Do you've heard that the algorithm on many socials favours faces? And yes, that is definitely true. Because humans like to connect with faces. We like to see other faces, and we like to see what they look like, what they're about, and on social media that, and especially the algorithm, is based on our actions and the actions, or whatever the social media or the Lord wants us to do. But I digress. So if you are able to get your face onto camera and you're confident about having your face out there, then do it practice a couple of times, maybe even film a different couple of videos before you put anything out there. And then once you put that video out there, make sure that you share it with the community, like us here, or you share the video to other groups that you're a part of, maybe just to get some feedback on what you can improve on in a nice way, of course, because people are willing to support other people, and the algorithm favours a lot of things at any different time, I highly recommend that you don't dictate your actions of creating content or videos based entirely on what the algorithm is going to do because, unfortunately, it's a beast all in itself, and nobody knows what it's doing at any given time.
What parts of your story resonate most with your audience. This is a question that I received in a longer question, so I had a 15 minute chat. So if you're interested in working out any of your marketing woes for a free obligation, chat for 15 minutes. Feel free to check that out at my website, VCC, dot training. But this was part of a longer question that someone asked me, apologies, I don't remember your name about essentially, it was the importance of storytelling for their personal brand and wanting to grow their personal brand. And what tips could I give to better craft a story that feels genuine, because they have moved from a corporate situation where their personal brand was very much dictated by who they were working under or who they were working for at the time, and now that they've moved to a more, let's say, independent way of working, their story became a lot more important to both their why, their message of why they're actually doing what they're doing, but also allows them to connect with who they're working with, because they were in the exact same situation that a lot of the people that they're helping are. I know I'm being very broad, but that's Trust Me, I'm being broad because NDAs exist, but let's talk storytelling in general, and not just about yourself or the stories that you tell yourself, but about your personal brand, because the stories that you tell others and especially those potential customers, are not necessarily lies. We'll stress that it is you and reflecting out. But it's not all the bad stuff and good stuff. It's mainly a lot of, how can my story serve you? How can my mistake serve you? We're not talking one upon the time. We're not talking about once upon a time fairy tale stories. We're talking about this is why people actually care about you and why you should listen to me, kind of stories. Personal Branding is not just about looking good online, even though that's me, how that is, how it may come across, especially with very polished personal brands or influences. And I have another story about that, but your personal brand, even though it may be you and you may be the one representing it, is about making people feel something when they hear your name, hopefully, something along the lines of comfort, relaxation or like something that gets them going to be able to achieve that the goals that they want to achieve. And what is the best way to do that is to give them a story that means something to both you as the person telling the story, and also to them the ones who are listening and hopefully actioning from it. So why does storytelling matter in your personal branding? People, and no matter who you are connecting with, no matter which niche, your niche, niche demographic, or your biggest audience out there, people don't connect with logos, even though we put a lot of precedence and a lot of effort into them, and usually a lot of time, money and energy, people don't connect with with logos. They connect with stories. People connect with the experiences that you've had, the mistakes that were made, or the trials and tribulation. Conversations that you faced, hopefully, as someone who is building a personal brand, you are helping people who are in your situation or people who are in the situation that you are in in the past. And if that's not the case for either of those two examples, then having your personal branding story resonate with the reason that they are coming to you in the first place is a great way of linking those two things together, because a good story makes you memorable, way more than any list of achievements, awards or any sort of kudos on LinkedIn. I love you. Thank you for everyone who has given me recommendations on LinkedIn, LinkedIn, what? But in the grand scheme, it doesn't really mean anything. What makes you memorable is the stories that you tell. But with a very big caveat, it's the stories that put your listener into the focus. It's not just about how you're so great or how you've been able to come all overcome all these issues. It's not about how you've done this and that and that, it's about how what you've been able to achieve with your with your mindset, with your intuition, with the work that you have already done, both on yourself and in the work that you've done. Building a personal brand can help those people, especially those people who are willing to give you money. But let's work with what we've got, telling a good story and also building a good story, especially ones that interconnect with your each other and your experience builds trust. People ultimately see you as a real person and someone who is more likely to stick around now, if your story changes, depending on what project that you're currently pushing at the time, or if it was clear that, say, five years ago, you were telling a specific story about your past, and now you're telling the same story, but it's wildly different in perspective, people are not going to really trust you, and they're going To be more likely see you as a scammer or someone who runs a multi level marketing scheme. And when it comes to building a personal brand, and getting people to that trust, and that reputation of that trustworthiness is really important to sustaining your personal brand long term, so crafting a good story now, Zo you've been speaking very generalised. Let's get down to some brass tacks. So let's starting off with a story that resonates with you and them, if the story about your past. So this could be as something as simple as an experience you had recently, or maybe something from your childhood that has maybe cemented the way that your mindset is, or the way that you look into the world, or the way you look at the world. And if that story is not something that brings out a feeling or any emotions to you, and it doesn't move you, why should it move anyone else? And when I say move, I don't mean physically, I mean emotionally, move people. I worked with someone in the past who was very good at crafting these stories, but unfortunately, a lot of her focus was on Woe is me. You know, you should trust me, because I've been through all these trials and tribulations in my life. And of course, that is all kudos to her, but it didn't inspire or move people. It just made people feel pity for her. More than anything. When it comes to the stories that you're building for your personal brand, you want to forget perfection. You don't want to make yourself seem like the God of all gods, because the best story is about having struggle. Is about having mistakes, and ultimately the lessons learned and how you are going to help people who are either in that situation, about to get in that situation, or have recently been in that situation, overcome that so they can have their own wins. You are the guide. You're not the hero of the story. You are the guide. You are the mentor. You are the wizard purse selling, you know, gifts of wisdom. You're not there as the god on the tower being like, Woe is me. I win. I'm so great because people don't connect with that. Honestly, you're more likely to drive people away from both being perceived as a god but also being perceived as weak, someone who can't even help themselves. So when you're in a situation where you're building a brand again, this can be a personal brand, or this can be a business. You want to be there to serve when it comes to building your business or your personal brand, you want to be there to serve people and to serve people. You need to keep that story straight. You need to keep it simple, something that you can remember. So I want to stress. Yes, you don't want to give people your entire life story, especially if they did not ask for it, or if you've just been asked to introduce yourself. You can mention some light things, but then get straight into the serving mentality. Maybe think about some key moments in your life that got you to where you were and how it shaped you as a person. But then go straight into here are the experiences that will resonate with the people that you want to work with. Here are the stories of, I was just like you in a less scary way. I must say, I was just like you. That exact tagline of turn of phrase is very much utilised in some more shadier parts of the internet, I must say, but that unfortunately, that story still resonates true about having to make sure that you focus and keep people online. I'm sorry, not online. It allows you to keep focus, especially when there is your entire life and all of the changes and struggles and mistakes that you've made to keep something relevant to their needs and relevant to the audience that you're speaking to. Your audience is here to see how they can get from you, how they can be helped and they can be served. It's not a therapy session. You go to therapy for that. You go to counselling for that you don't need to make the entire internet your therapist connect your story with why it matters for them, and that's it. Yes, your experience, your mistakes, your struggles, and the lessons that you've learned are important, but how does it help them? What is in it for them,
ultimately? So when it comes to crafting your story, let's let's give you a quick challenge here. Think of Alright, so challenge is think of one defining moment in your journey. So be it in your life, in your childhood, or maybe in your recent history, something that changed how you see yourself or your work. That's your story starter. That's the thing that gets you going. Now start telling it. Now you can tell it in a video or in a simple, you know, hold your phone up, start talking. Or if you want, you can put it in a blog post. Whichever is your more most preferred method of communication. Of course, I am the video confidence coach, so video kind of comes to front of mind, but whatever you're most comfortable with, use that little spark as the start to tell people on that little experience for yourself. And then, like I said, Make it about them. Make it about yes, you can serve them and help them, but what can they achieve? Learn from me? Do better.
Unknown Speaker 47:46
There you go, and we're
Zoë Wood 47:51
going to finish off there, and I'm going to take another break for everyone on the live stream, and I'm going to put on the air conditioning. Apologies if my sweaty face is getting a bit much for everyone. It is hot. We're in Australia. It is summer. It's not going to be summer for long, but work with me here. Terry says, I'm not a camera person. I like voiceovers, and that's alright, and that's okay too. You've still got your energy, and your voice is still a personality of you, and when people are calling you are messaging. You are reaching out to you to work with you. They're going to hear your voice. So a voiceover is usually okay for most instances, especially for example, like cherry, who works in graphic design, where most of her services of graphic design, which is the output, usually speaks for itself. Most of the time you
what does your core message say about who you are and the value you bring in your personal brand. So let's get started on today's thank you so much to Kelsey for asking this question. So the context of this one is she started, she was starting to build a personality. Kelsey was starting to build her personal brand, but consciously now, of course, we all have a personal brand. We all have reputation within our community, within our experience and but when you're consciously doing it is very different to when you're just kind of letting it happen to you by obviously building a personal brand and share the more context that she was asking was, how do I decide on the main message of my personal brand and what steps would I suggest to keep that message clear over time? So of course. My go to answer for that is usually about who is your customer. Why do they care? Like what it's all about them at the end of the day, yes, it is your personal brand and your face and your message, but at the end of the day, they are the ones that are benefiting from it. So it helps to have them really clear in your mind about who exactly you work for and why you work for them. But when it comes to your message, of course, that can need a little bit of help, and especially a little bit of introspection. And let's be real. Building a personal brand isn't just a fancy tagline or branding or a colour scheme. It's a message that people remember when they think of you, when they think about what you stand for. That message needs to be clear. So let's work on yours today, and we'll give you a bit of a challenge at the end. So how do you decide on your core message? So a core message, as you can imagine, is the thing that sparks off everything that you do. Yes, this will require a little bit of refining and probably a little bit of trial and error to see what people understand and resonate with and what words you should be using. But in the meantime, let's just focus on what we can do with ourselves and with our own brains at the moment. And if you need any help with any of this, feel free to reach out for a free obligation 15 minute chat with me at Vcc dot training, getting back into it. Zo. You can ask yourself, what do you actually stand for? And I'm not talking just about like what sounds trendy, or what is like you stand for a cause, what exactly is true for you? What values do you hold dear? So what do you stand for? What do you what do you value? For example, I value respect. Everyone deserves for their message to be heard and to be respected. So video, confidence coach is the best way to do that. Think about what people come to you for. So when you they go to you, do they want a motivator? Do they want a problem solver? Do they want someone who's not going to tell them bullshit and just be a truth teller? What is the clue that helps you figure out, okay, why do people come to me and then it'll help it. What do you stand for? And ultimately, with this core message, making it simple, you don't need a PowerPoint, you don't need a blog post, you don't need a full transcription or a dissertation to be able to describe what your core message is. Yes, you can do that later on. You can go real deep into this stuff, but for now, avoid making it too complicated and just stick to a simple message. And the last and the next part I want to get into along the lines of keeping it simple and keeping your message clear over time. So that was the other part of the question, was repeating your core message. So for me, as you can imagine, and I look over onto my right so I can make sure I get it right. For everyone, my core message is smashing your marketing apologies. So my prompt, my message is smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video marketing strategies. It covers, it's a fairly simple so it's less than one line. It is a bit more of a showy type of line or a cool message. Then it doesn't exactly show what I stand for, but it shows that I am not exactly aggressive, but I like to use very flowery language, that I quell your marketing mayhem that I take away that mayhem for you, untangle it, if you will. And I do this via video marketing strategies. That is what I do. That is what I enjoy doing. And I repeat this over and over and over again. Repeat it in the mirror. I've got it all over my office, all over my house. This helps me repeat it and make sure that it's something that I'm comfortable saying, but also something that I can repeat over and over and over again. So it's actually going to stick. Whenever anyone asks me what I stand for or what I do, making sure that over time, that I check in with myself, making sure that the message still feels true and I haven't outgrown it, because your personal brand is a reflection, or a professional, professional reflection of you, and you're not always going to be the same person that you were two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, so that message will change over time. Personally, I like to check in every six months. Now, of course, you're doing this fairly often in between with reciting and repeating your core message. But in that meantime, I like to be able to just spend that time going, Okay, do all of these things still matter? Do these core values? Is my audience still the same? That will definitely dictate more about what your core message is, is, is your audience still the same? Now, of course, they can shift and grow like any one can, but is that message still true? And the last thing that you can do, especially over time, is to keep consistent, making sure that you use this tagline or this core message on every video, on every post, on every email on let's say it on your website to reflect your message. It's not. When you remember to do it that is important, it needs to be everywhere, so everyone remembers what your core message and motivation is for your personal brand. So a quick challenge I have for you in one sentence, describe what people know about you and your work. If it's a paragraph, trim it down. And if you need to, in my personal experience, coming up with a paragraph first is great. Give it, you know, walk away, go for a walk, come back, or maybe work on it with either a friend or a business partner or someone in your life that you trust. And then you can trim it down to a sentence, because then if you fill it into a paragraph, you've got a bit more space to remove. And then you can refine it, refine, refine it, and then from there, then, then use it everywhere. Use it everywhere. Lisa asked the question, one thing I struggle with is keeping my emotions in check. On video, I work in animal welfare, and often end up crying. Any tips for controlling the rush of emotion when I speak about what I do and why I do it. Stepping out of the shot and focusing on filming the cat sounds like one way, and that is definitely true. Lisa, being able to just have the focus be on the cats is probably a good way to go about it. And if you do need to be in front of the camera, because again, most of the time, especially when it comes to animal welfare, people are going to be focused on the animals, but if you are, say, for example, going to be like I mentioned before, you are going to be the one that is going to be picking up the phone, answering the messages, answering the texts, then people feel a lot more comfortable interacting with you, because they know that you are going to be the One who they see ultimately, when it comes to humans and doing the humans interactions. So when it comes to emotions, especially emotions as gut wrenching as ones that are involved in animal welfare and the care of animals, I definitely recommend not going with live streams to go probably going with pre recorded videos and giving yourself that opportunity to take those breaks, as I mentioned before about filming when you have the highest energy in the day, that's always a good chance to be able to keep your emotions in check. You'll have more energy, say, for example, if you are someone who has more energy at the side of the day, film your videos either in a location that is more comfortable to you. So be it at home in, say, at home office or a lounge room or somewhere where there's a nice, you know, nice soft furnishings that you can sit down and you can be comfortable in because there's less chance of your and again, I hate to use the term negative emotions, because there's no such thing as negative emotions, but to be able to feel comfortable in yourself enough that you're able to get the message through and get the message clear enough without the need to say, when do you feel the most confidence in your uniqueness? This is a question I received at a networking event face to face, and I'm going to take it as the positive that you were trying to imply it to be, you're a little bit snarky, but that's okay. I love you anyway. So the main context of the conversation we were having is they were saying, how do you suggest to someone to handle the challenge of standing out with a personal brand when there are so many voices online and just in the marketing space, wherever you whatever niche you're trying to get into, there was always just so much around you. This was particularly asked by someone who didn't really believe personal branding was a thing and wasn't exactly a necessary thing. I would like to tip my hat off to you and say, best of luck dealing with your personal brand, because the personal brands are a thing. They are definitely a thing. I love you. But in answering your question, yes, I do agree that the internet is loud. There are so many people talking, posting, uh, selling, and somehow, in all of that, you are supposed to stand out. You're supposed to be unique. No pressure, right?
But when it comes to your personal brand, you already do stand out because you are unique. You are bringing yourself out for public consumption, as it were, through your personal brand to help and serve others. You are already standing out by putting in the work to help grow your reputation, to be at events, to appear to help to serve others. So in those moments, I want you to take this opportunity to step back and think about the actual act of standing out in a crowded marketplace. As you can imagine, it can feel overwhelming, and even though it may feel overwhelming, because maybe you're not getting a lot of feedback from this busy community, or it just feels like you're being left out. So in those moments, to be able to handle the challenge of standing out, I want you to step back and think about owning what makes you different, your quirks, your weird obsessions. The way that you explain things all counts towards both your personal brand, but also standing out. People build communities, both online and in person, from a cult of personality. People enjoy interacting and engaging with people because of that personality, they're able to share with their audience or share with people through an art, even their target demographic. But they're going to recommend them anyway, because I think, oh, this test, this type of person. Your jam here is, here's the details. One thing that I find, especially a lot with the people that I work with, which are usually women and non binary folk, they had a tendency of being seeking perfection, of being the best representation of insert whatever their core message or whatever their focus is in their personal brand. I'm going to ask you, with my hand on my heart, big sister zo here, I'm going to ask you to stop trying to be the best, to stand out online. You don't need to be the top of the heap. I was about to say trash heap. To be the best online, you don't need to be on top of the trash heap. You instead need to be the most you people don't follow perfect people, follow personality, and your personality is ever growing, ever evolving, and is messy. You're never going to say the words perfectly each time, and you're always going to say something real if your content. So usually your content is the best way that you are going to communicate with your audience or with your fans, or just with people who need to know about you, if your content sounds and looks like everyone else, why would anyone remember it? We are bombarded with so many ads every day, and nothing really stands out to a lot of people, unless it is unique with the rise of what I like to call slack AI, so these are people who are would never probably invest in an artist or graphic designer or a marketing team or an agency or someone who is in marketing strategy, and they just kind of cobble stuff together and just kind of throw it at the wall. Now I'm not talking a minimum viable product, which is a quick, cheap, dirty way of just testing out an idea. No, these are people who are using AI to just it looks really poor, both on their personal brand, but also just on the message that they're trying to achieve. And in this rise of AI, using a whole bunch of stuff together and just kind of mushing it down into this gross little patty, you are going to stand out by being unique, by being human, but also by being unique, and the way that you can actually feel this in yourself, to be able to present this to the world is not to overthink it, to speak naturally, to not put on a character. Now some people who are actors who really enjoy putting on a character for the audience or their target group, awesome, beautiful. Do your thing if you like doing that. Awesome. For the rest of us, speaking naturally, will help, because you won't drop the persona. Won't Drop the act, because there is no act to drop. When you lean into what makes you unique, you are actually passionate about it, and you will have the drive to be consistent long term. Because why it is about what you're passionate about, is your neatness that's coming through. And if you are not doing what you're passionate about, you will not follow through. And of course, it won't perform well, especially when again, ring it back up to it. We're trying to stand out in our niches, in our communities and in on the in the online space, when you stop comparing yourself to every other single person online, I'm going to tell you now that's impossible, by the way, you can feel more content about your place, both online and in the world, but also gives you that chance to actually focus on what you're really there for, which is your audience, your fans, the people that you're serving. Your personal brand is not about you. I will scream that from the rooftops. Your personal brand is not about you. You may be the face, you may be the voice, but it's not there to serve you. There to serve the people you are there to serve. Quick challenge for you is think of a time that you felt 100% yourself. You were in your zone, you were in your flow, and your passions were rising, whether it was in like a conversation that you were having virtually or face to face, maybe. A video or in a blog post or in any sort of way that you're communicating with the audience. What made that moment feel so easy for you? Can you go back to if it was a conversation? Can you go back and talk to that person if it's a video or a post? Can you go back and look at it again with maybe fresher eyes? Because especially when it comes to uniqueness and standing out online,
Speaker 1 1:05:23
why don't you share it again? Why don't you
Zoë Wood 1:05:27
use that thing that was you were in your flow and in your message to share again? Because that is the energy that you want to be able to bring every time you show up, which may be impossible, depending on the energy that we're using. You were using at the time, but your passion will still be there. And if you are growing your personal brands, if you're growing a personal brand to serve the community that you're in, well, I'm going to tell you now you're doing this to be better, to serve those people. So in turn, the passion will show through. And if you're a liar, we'll find out I'm Kidding, kidding. We love you. Being confident in your product service skill and would definitely be a help. Despite nerves and stage fright, I completely agree, because once say, for example, if you are new in your business, I completely understand you have both the nerves of I'm new at this I can make, like there's so many mistakes I'm going to make, as well as being nervous of getting yourself out there in front of the camera or behind the camera to show your business to the world, there is a different special type of fear involving that. But once you have a bit more confident in your own skills to be able to produce the product or service that you actually do in your business, then you can rest a little bit more on your laurels and give a little bit give yourself a little bit more of a hug. Going, Okay, this will be okay. I can do this. I can do this because you will have a bit more confidence in the work that you can produce and the clients that you can help. And hopefully, if those clients that you've worked with, or customers that you've sold to, are able to give you good feedback that'll even give you even more robustness to be able to be like, Okay, I know what I'm doing. I'm okay with this. Giving me that good feedback loop to be able to start producing videos or reaching out on social media to people like your past clients
thank you for joining us for this week's video confidence connect, where we recorded one podcast episode and three community questions. So if you have any questions or comments or any thoughts or any ideas for podcast episodes, please comment below or above wherever it is, and make sure you check out the entire live stream in the RE watch on either LinkedIn or YouTube. We are looking to expand to other platforms. I just need to sit down and do it so I thank you everyone for your patience during this time and hashtag replay squad, if you are catching after this goes live, you can find the show notes. So these are really detailed things that I put out after every live stream that dictates exactly what we talked about, plus a transcript and a little quiz that a lot of people love to have a crack at. You can check it out at VCC, dot training slash video. Dash, confidence, dash connect, where you can find out all the live streams from all our past live streams. All right here ready for you to smash your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies. I want to thank everyone for dealing with this heat, and when I say everyone, I just mean me at this point, but I thank everyone for sitting by and asking your questions, I do my best to make sure to answer everyone's questions, and dealing with this heat as everything kind of slips off. There's a reason why I put a lot of makeup in my eyes, because that kind of sits but even if I'm sweating, it kind of just stays there. Everything else just slides off my face, because we are summer in Australia. Eat hot, and this room is hot. So thank you everyone for joining us. We will see you next week. I don't have a topic in mind just yet, but knowing me, I will probably devise one after we finish going live today. But keep an eye out for the next one. You can check out the events, both on YouTube and on LinkedIn, and I look forward to seeing you next week on the video. Confidence. Connect. Bye. Bye.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
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Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
Smashing Your Marketing Mayhem With Killer Video Strategies 🧡
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