Package Your Genius Personal Branding Podcast

PYG 120: Someone needs to hear it from YOU

Do you remember your favorite teacher from when you were in school? Or a teacher who could make a subject you usually didn't like come alive? Or better yet, a teacher who could break down a subject in a way that could make you understand even when others couldn't?
 
And they may have been saying the exact same thing or reading from the exact same textbook as all the other teachers who taught that subject, but for whatever reason you could just hear it better from them?
 
Well someone out there is thinking the exact same thing about you.
 
Someone out there needs to hear your area of expertise, but they need to hear it from you.
 
Even though there are already people who are saying some version of what you're saying, or doing some version of what you're doing, there are still people out there who still need to get the goods from you.
 
Why is that?
 
I can't explain it. Just like you can't explain how two cooks can follow the same recipe but turn out completely different dishes. Even though both taste good, one is crispier and you like it that way. But then if you ask someone else, they prefer it less crispy. It's all a matter of preference.
 
But my point is, you are someone's preference.
 
Someone prefers YOU.
 
That's a part of why you have to package your genius - aside from the fact that it will call you until you answer it as I've said before.
 
But if you're one of those people who gets so caught up in what other people are doing, or the fact that the market is saturated, or there are so many coaches in this space, or there's already five other books out on my topic there's no point in me even getting in the game - you're hurting yourself because you're not expressing what you need to express, and you're hurting the people who need to hear it from you.
 
Now. There may be thousands of people who claim to do what you do, serve how you serve, support others how you support others.
 
But they aren't you.
 
They don't have your spirit. They don't have your story. They don't have your energy. They don't have your humor. They don't have your journey. They aren't from your hometown. They don't have whatever it is that gives you the power to connect with someone who may find themself on a similar path.
 
They aren't going to say it the way you'd say it.
 
They won't write it the way you'd write it.
 
They won't use the same analogies and metaphors.
 
And because they aren't you, your people may SEE the others in your field, but they won't be able to HEAR them.
 
It's about connection. It's about bringing your you-ness to the table so others can connect with what they need in you, and you can connect with what you need in them.
 
When you can truly understand this, you can stop wasting your time getting frustrated with why you can't land corporate clients but he seems to attract all the corporate clients. Or why the same people who read her book aren't flocking to read yours.
 
And another thing, I'll leave you with: you have to understand that some people have "mass appeal". Others are for a more discerning palate.
 
Both are great, both are necessary. Neither is better than the other. They're just different. Remember - it's a matter of preference.
 
So whether you find yourself in the category of being for the masses or being for the more discerning - it doesn't matter. Either way, you're for who you're for. Don't discount a smaller audience that may have a deeper connection to your work if you like to go deep.
 
Don't get discouraged when the masses seem to respond to someone who is saying a version of what you said six months ago, but they didn't want to hear it from you. You have to understand, they couldn't hear it from you. Who needed to hear it from you heard it, but those that couldn't hear it aren't your people. Your people caught it, digested it, and are waiting on your next insight, your next big idea, your next aha moment.
 
We have to learn to trust - and release comparison which I know is difficult to do in the age of social media - but we have to learn to trust that what we have to share is of value and can set someone else free if we give ourselves permission to give ourselves away.
 
Will you give yourself permission to give yourself away?
 
I sure hope so. It's so much more fun when you do, trust me.
 
If you're new to the podcast, I welcome you for coming on this journey with me. Don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you listen so we can reach more people like us.
 
I'm super excited to be hosting an opinion page editor for the New York Times for our Maximum Exposure PR mastermind this week. In addition to meeting with the mastermind students in our closed session, she's also agreed to answer a few questions for the podcast. I'm so excited.
 
If you have ever wanted to know what it takes to get your ideas published by a major outlet like the New York Times, email me your questions so I can ask her on the podcast. You can email your questions about op ed publishing to support (at) packageyourgeniusacademy (dot) com and I'll be sure to cover those when we do our interview.
 
***
 
Enrollment is open for the second cohort and we're getting excited. For our first cohort, we've landed media mentions in the Washington Post, WJLA, ABC, NBC, Fast Company, Washington Post Express, Fox, News Channel 8 in Washington, DC and more.
 
If you want to learn more about the ME program and how we help our students brainstorm story ideas, craft timely pitches and contact the media each month, visit the website and learn more and apply.
 
In closing, I hope what you've heard here today will set you free. I hope I've inspired you to stop over thinking it and finally package your genius.
 
Because someone needs to hear it from you.

PYG 119: Change your personal culture

I recently attended an organizational effectiveness training retreat for an organization I'm a member of. One of the most powerful things I learned was how easily an organization's culture can get off track, and how possible it is to get things BACK on track.
 
So think about an organization you're a part of, or even a relationship you have with someone to make it easier to imagine. If you have one bad interaction with someone, you may say "Oh we had a tiff," or "we didn't see eye to eye..." and you chalk it up to a misunderstanding, but the relationship isn't over.
 
If you have two or three bad encounters, internally you go on alert. You may start to rethink the relationship and even say "We're not in a good place..." But once you get into the four-five range with negative encounters, you're in the red zone. In the training, our facilitator said that 5x is a DECISION that this is how we will deal with each other. This is our culture.
 
But what I find fascinating is the same way you can make a decision to not check an organization's culture, and just let it be toxic, you can also make a decision to be positive.
 
You can make a decision to fix things.
 
You can make a decision to change.
 
And if you can make five steps in a positive direction, you can start the process of reversing the negativity. You can decide the culture will be good.
 
Your relationship with yourself is the same way. You can make a decide with your actions to change your personal culture.
 
So if you haven't been prioritizing your calling, or making time to package your genius, let's change your personal culture.
 
To make this practical, I want to know what's on your calendar this week? If you're ready to prioritize your goals, where are you fitting that on your upcoming agenda? Where are you making space?
 
What step can you make this week to change your personal culture?
 
For me, I'm really to bring some intention to my new morning drop-off routine. My kids' new school is near some of my favorite hiking trails, so I'm excited to build some hiking, thinking and writing time into my weekday agenda.
 
As I've mentioned before, daily thinking and writing time really helps me feel centered and pays off in every area of my life from my business, to my creative writing, to my marriage, to my parenting. So it's silly to not do what I know works for me.
 
I'm changing my personal culture. I'm making what I know works for me a priority. This way I'm being intentional. I'm not letting my life happen to me by default. I'm not wondering why I'm no closer to my goals than I was last time I checked.
 
 
***
If you know you have valuable gifts inside you, but you are unclear on all of the how - how do I figure out what to focus on, how do I describe it to people, what do I charge - you NEED to get yourself into our visibility academy where we can work on it together.
 
If you've been doing great work and getting results in your industry, but you want to expand your exposure, learn more about our PR mastermind and apply.
 
Enrollment is open now for the academy and our PR mastermind. Visit www.packageyourgeniusacademy.com to learn more and apply.
 

PYG 118: Your martyrdom is no excuse

Harlem
BY LANGSTON HUGHES
 
 
What happens to a dream deferred?
 
      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?
      Or fester like a sore—
      And then run?
      Does it stink like rotten meat?
      Or crust and sugar over—
      like a syrupy sweet?
 
      Maybe it just sags
      like a heavy load.
 
      Or does it explode?
 
 

PYG 117: How you show up when you want to WIN

How do you show up when you come to win?
 
For some reason, we all know how to prioritize our work assignments, our money, our kids, even our health - but when we think of our gifts we go blank.
 
We get ourselves out of bed and out of the house every day, but suddenly can't figure out how to motivate ourselves to get started.
 
We multitask, manage multiple calendars and juggle conflicting schedules for our teams and families, but we can't figure out how to find the time to make our dreams happen.
 
We put together scrum boards and complex project flowcharts, but when it comes to our gifts, we can't figure out the first step to take.
 
But we need to attack our gifts with the same energy we bring to the places we already excel.
 
Look at what you're doing well, where you're winning, what you're getting right.
 
What are your typical patterns?
 
How do you show up when you're ready to win?
 
For example, one of the things I feel like I am getting right is cultivating my children. So when I look at how I move and the energy I bring to cultivating my kids, I notice I do a few things every single year.
 
I do a few things:
 
1. Challenge the kids and raise the bar and keep standards high. So often we limit ourselves so I try to push them further than they think they can go so they can understand their own capabilities and learn not to limit themselves.
 
2. I cultivate them regularly. I try to find seasonal activities - classes, camps, lessons for them to take and try. I want them to get used to doing and trying new things. I want them to get accustomed to being engaged individuals who are connected to their personal talents and their larger society.
 
3. I personally keep learning -  I seek out books, articles, podcasts and other ways to learn how to be a better parent and guide.
 
4. I find partners who can help me take them to the next level. I know I don't know everything, so I look for teachers and instructors who can inspire them and mentor them generally or around a specific focus area.
 
This is how I show up when I come to win. And because these are my kids and I only get one shot at raising them, showing up to win is non-negotiable. And as such, it's become second nature to me. And because it's second nature to me, I see it as proof that I can build a success strategy for any domain of my life.
 
As can you.
 
If you are successful in any area of your life, which I know you are as a high achiever who listens to this podcast, you have the power to dissect your own personal recipe for success.
 
When you show up to win, how do you move?
When you show up to win, what is your formula to get results? When you show up to win, how do you motivate yourself to get things done?
When you show up to win, how do you organize your time?
When you show up to win, how do you find the money to invest when you need more resources?
 
So with that solutions-oriented, strategic mind, I want you to think through how you can approach your gifts, your calling.
 
Don't just use your organizational skills, your strategic mind, your resourcefulness and creativity to accomplish your tasks at work - use those skills to get your own stuff done, too!
 
You've got to figure out how to show up FOR YOU the same way you show up for your job or your clients.
 
When it comes to you, you've got to figure out how to show up to win.

PYG 116: Callings call

Why does it even matter whether or not you package your genius?
 
Who cares if you explore what you're meant to do?
 
What difference does it make if you don't share your genius with others?
 
Those are the questions I want to explore with you today. Because before I can make the case that you should package your genius, you should first understand what's at stake if you don't.
 
I believe the mandate of being human - what's written in our genetic code or whatever makes us homo sapiens vs some other species - is to find what we were put on this Earth to do. Your mandate as a human is to fulfill the assignment and complete the mission for your specific journey, your specific life.
 
That is what I whole-heartedly believe.
 
But if we're honest with ourselves, our life missions have likely been evident since childhood or adolescence. We've heard the call. But how many of us answered and chose to walk down the path our calling was leading us to?
 
I can remember being a student in middle school and then again in high school. I loved my English classes. My classmates and teachers were all convinced that one day I'd be a famous, important writer whose words would touch millions of people.
 
Somewhere along the way, I bought into the idea of "the starving artist" and decided I couldn't be a successful writer without starving first. So while I always knew that I was sent here to write, for years I didn't do it.
 
Can I tell you, that despite my successes as a PR person and a coach, until I finally sat down and wrote Package Your Genius I didn't feel at home in my success? There was always this lingering static - I can't quite describe it - but it was like a cloud hanging over me. And it was as if the cloud was saying "I mean, this is nice and everything...but when are you going to write your book????" As if nothing else I'd done mattered for real.
 
And then once I got that book out there, just like that, the dissonance cleared. The cloud passed.
 
Now, I will be honest. The dissonance is definitely back. But this time I'm crystal clear on why. I know I have more books to write. I know I have more messages to leave this planet while I still have an Earthly vessel that can help me accomplish what I'm here to do in this realm.
 
Callings call.
 
So expect it to feel a little uncomfortable when you're not picking up the phone.
 
It's like that feeling that you forgot to do something important, but you can't quite put your finger on what that something is. Or when you make out your list for the store, and you go and you shop, but you know there's something you forgot - even though you got every single thing on the list - something is still missing?
 
It's like that.
 
And answering the call is the opposite. Instead, it's the feeling of a stocked pantry, or of all the bills being paid, or all the doctor's appointments scheduled - the feeling that nothing is falling through the cracks.
 
But when you willingly deny yourself the opportunity to answer the call or, to use my term, "package your genius" you create an internal sense of restlessness that will haunt you.
 
And that restlessness will continue to haunt you until you honor - in some way - what you were put here to do.
 
Restless.
Unsettled.
Uneasy.
 
Until you pick up, you may not be able to put your finger on it, but you'll always get the sense that SOMETHING is missing.
 
 
***
 
Got dissonance? I would love to help you clear it.
Check out Package Your Genius if you haven't read it yet.
Pick up the companion workbook - a tool I made to help you think through the questions that can help you get closer.
 
If you need help remembering how to answer the call, I'd be honored to support you this fall in Package Your Genius Academy. Visit the site to learn more and apply.
 
 

PYG 115: Don't waste your raw materials

If I handed you the deed to the land that contained a diamond mine, how would you feel? Maybe you'd feel excited thinking about your good fortune and your riches, but after you thought about it, would you know what to do with it? Would not knowing overwhelm you? Would it make you walk away?
 
No way.
 
You'd do some research, call an expert, and figure out what one does with a valuable diamond mine. You'd figure out who has the equipment to extract the diamond, which people had the expertise to get it out, what the process is to get it up to commercial standards, and who the best buyers are for your specific type of diamond.
 
You wouldn't throw up your hands and walk away just because you don't have the technical know-how to get these diamonds out of the ground, when you know they're valuable and people want them.
 
But that's exactly what most of us are doing with our gifts.
 
We've all got raw materials, but the problem is we don't know how to refine what we have, we don't have the equipment to extract it, and we're unfamiliar with the process of bringing our raw materials to market.
 
So we make excuses for not taking the first step.
We proclaim to be too busy, but when we find ourselves with extra time, we don't do it.
We say we don't know how to get started, as if that's a good excuse.
We console ourselves with stories - we're not business-minded, we're not great with computers, we're terrible salespeople, we're bad with software.
 
But no one who is business minded, great with computers, great at sales or software was as good as they are today on the first day they tried it. And most people figure out what they need to know - just enough of what they need to know - in order to get the train moving.
 
Which is what you need to do.
 
It's what I need to do, because I'm guilty too.
 
The days keep passing. The weeks, months, and years are all adding up, and it's not getting any easier to be a beginner.
 
So today's as good a day as any to start. Think of a small way to get started - a small way to tackle what mentally feels like a bigger task than it likely is.
 
For me, it's the book about how parents and teachers can use my work to support the talents of kids. I've had this book concept on my mind and heart for over a year, so practically, how can I make it happen?
 
First, I can make a top level outline of my chapters, which I've done.
Next, I can outline my subtopics for each chapter which I've yet to do.
Then I can write a subtopic each week until they're all done.
 
Easy.
 
Notice that I didn't get into the weeds of how I'll manage structuring the book, getting it edited, published and marketed yet because all of that is irrelevant right now. I need to create some momentum first so I can feel what it's like to be moving in this direction. I need to get some small personal wins first and prove to myself that I can finish it before I even need to clutter my mind with more to dos.
 
But this is what most of us do. We get so overwhelmed thinking about the book marketing that we don't even take the time to get still and write. Or we think about where we'll find office space before we have a stable block of customers. We're worrying about things too far in the distance instead of doing what we can do now.
 
So do what you can do.
 
If you've been saying you're writing a book, make an outline and write a few chapters.
 
If you've been saying you want to start a business, land yourself a handful of clients and get into a rhythm to see how you like it. Business may not even be for you. But you'll never know until you have a taste of it.
 
If you've been talking about starting a podcast, record three episodes then figure out the rest. Trust me, all of it is a mere google search away.
 
Don't be afraid of being a beginner. But don't you dare walk away from a diamond mine because you don't know how to extract the gems out of the ground.
 
Don't be afraid to do a little on how to make your dream happen. Think of the payoff.
 
***
 
Mining and refining raw materials is what I do. It's my passion to help you extract the gleaming gems that I know are inside of you and help get them ready for the marketplace.
 
If you know you have valuable gifts inside you, but you are unclear on all of the how - how do I figure out what to focus on, how do I describe it to people, what do I charge - you NEED to get yourself into our visibility academy where we can work on it together.
 
Enrollment is open now for the academy and our PR mastermind. Visit www.packageyourgeniusacademy.com to learn more and apply.
 
 

PYG 114: Alternate Routes

Sometimes you have to take a different route to get where you're trying to go.
And while you may not like the idea of alternate routes - especially if you're a recovering perfectionist like me - you must admit, the route doesn't matter all that much.
Because if you end up still reaching your destination, who cares how you got there? 
I had to learn (still learning!) to give myself grace when the journey doesn't look picture perfect.
At the end of the day, all that should matter is that I end up where I originally wanted to go - or someplace even better.
 

PYG 113: What is it your season to do?

No season lasts forever, but in every ending there's a chance for some new beginning - if you keep your eye out for it.
Whether you're watching something come to an end, or you're ready to start a new chapter, what is it your season to do?
Meico Whitlock who I interviewed on Episode 41 - (How to harness your focus and set priorities) and Episode 63 - (How to Create a Vision for Your Life) taught me about the importance of being intentional with your time and setting finite priorities for each season.
As Meico teaches in his Mindful Techie courses and programs, once you identify your life vision and mission and set your specific goals, it's important to set no more than two priorities for any given season. 
I'm excited about the intentional energy I'm putting behind my writing in this season, and I can't wait to see where that will lead. But I'm clear that it's truly time to prioritize writing after seeing a significant opening in my calendar related to my kids' school. 
Again, as one season ends, another begins.
I hope that was whatever season is ending for you, in the clearing you'll see the opportunity to finally pursue the purpose that's been pursuing you. 
Keep me posted...
 
***
Speaking of seasons, it's ENROLLMENT SEASON for Package Your Genius Academy!!! We're enrolling for both of our group programs - the Personal Brand Visibility Academy that focuses on building a purposeful personal brand, and the Maximum Exposure PR Mastermind. 
If you're interested in putting some intentional energy behind your personal brand, apply for the visibility academy.
If it's your season to build momentum and land media exposure apply for the PR mastermind. 
 

PYG 112: Your genius deserves a break

Sometimes your genius needs a break. 
And you shouldn't feel bad about it.
In fact, you'll likely move further ahead, instead of falling behind as you may imagine. Rest helps you work smarter not harder - and I'm with that!
I learned this summer not to beat myself up for needing and taking rest - but to celebrate what happens to my mind, body and relationships when I take a step back and nurture myself in the way that I need.
How often do you take the break that you need to rejuvenate yourself? What's your favorite way to rest?
 
 

PYG 111: What's keeping you from making a change?

Change is hard, especially if you like tradition, routine, or growing accustomed to the way things are.
Change can also be hard when it's public-facing. You have all those prying eyes to consider. What will people think? How will this change their perception of me?
But what I've learned from experience is this: when you make a big change - say your hair color, or even your job - it may register briefly to outside world, but after that, humans do what humans do.
Adapt.
While you're fretting on and on about that big change you're afraid of making, once you make it, most people will barely notice. And if they do notice, the decision you lost sleep over will likely only register for an instant.
The new you will become the current you.
And the past you will be all but forgotten.
So if the changes we're stressing ourselves out over only register for a brief moment in time, why are we putting our lives on hold, failing to make the changes that could add more fulfillment and happiness to our days?
Is there something big you're ready to change? A relationship? A job? A service?
Your life is not set in stone. You can change all of it, with one swift decision.
The world will go on.
What's keeping you from moving forward?