Lizzy and Lissa break down the hidden costs – financial and otherwise – of branding yourself. Personal branding might sound like a career hack, but it comes with its own baggage. We talk about what it really costs to show up online, curate a professional persona, and “market yourself” as a product. Is branding yourself is worth the payoff? Let’s talk about it.
Lizzy and Lissa break down the hidden costs – financial and otherwise – of branding yourself. Personal branding might sound like a career hack, but it comes with its own baggage. We talk about what it really costs to show up online, curate a professional persona, and “market yourself” as a product. Is branding yourself is worth the payoff? Let’s talk about it.
Main Topics
00:00 Introduction
01:20 Running The Numbers Segment
02:33 What is Personal Branding?
04:00 Personal Branding in Career Transitions
07:01 The Costs and Benefits of Personal Branding
09:30 Navigating Personal and Business Branding
22:23 The Rebellious Brand of Rihanna
23:25 Personal Branding Challenges
25:47 Navigating Personal and Professional Identity
27:37 Costs of Being Known for Something
29:46 Balancing Personal Views and Public Persona
35:05 20 Cents Segment
References for Statistics
https://www.entrepreneur.com/leadership/why-personal-branding-is-crucial-for-ceos-in-todays-world/468320
https://www.professionalrecruiterinc.com/the-value-of-a-strong-personal-brand-for-career-success/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/achieving-all-star-status-linkedin-sophie-milliken-fcipd-frsa/
https://capitaloneshopping.com/research/branding-statistics/
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/more-than-half-of-employers-have-found-content-on-social-media-that-caused-them-not-to-hire-a-candidate-according-to-recent-careerbuilder-survey-300694437.html
Lissa: Apparently LinkedIn users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive job opportunities through the platform.
Lizzy: And according to Entrepreneur.com, 82% of people say they're more likely to trust a company when its senior executives are active on social media. So yeah, on the surface, building a personal brand sounds like a no-brainer.
Lissa: Or is it?
Today we're discussing, is branding yourself worth it?
Lizzy: Let's talk about it.
Lissa: Welcome to Net Net with Lizzy and Lissa, where we analyze hidden costs and empower you to make your own damn decisions in life. Each episode covers a different facet of life, and at the end of each episode, we each give our takes on whether we think something is net positive or net negative.
Lizzy: I'm Lizzy, a strategist and consultant with almost 20 years of experience in finance and investing.
Lissa: And I'm Lissa, a personal finance expert and a certified financial planner. We're best friends who talk about money...
Lizzy: And everything else.
Lissa: Is branding yourself worth it?
Lizzy: First up, running the numbers on branding yourself.
Lissa: Capital One shopping research found that 69% of employers use search engines like Google to research job applicants. And 44% have actually hired someone based on positive personal branding content on social media.
Lizzy: And 78% of recruiters say they use social media to increase their chances of finding the right candidate. So yeah, your online presence really is a part of your application.
Lissa: On the flip side, 54% of employers have rejected candidates because of poor personal branding on social media. It's no wonder some people keep their social media handles private.
Lizzy: Yes. According to PR Newswire, nearly 47% of employers say if they can't find a job candidate online, they're less likely to even call them for an interview. About 28% say it's because they want more context up front. And 20% just expect you to have an online presence these days.
Lissa: Well, we know there's more to life than numbers and statistics, so let's talk about it. Is branding yourself worth it?
Lizzy: I've got a lot to say.
Lissa: Okay. Liz is a branding expert. So can you first just define it for people? I didn't know what a personal brand was for many years.
Lizzy: Sure. Yeah. So for some background, because I don't always talk about this part of my background. I got my career start in branding in the financial services, but I've been in the branding space for almost 20 years and have a whole separate business and channel around personal branding and branding small businesses. So this is my wheelhouse. And the way I like to think about it is, a brand is like your reputation. It's what you are known for. And so, you have one whether you like it or not, but the act of branding yourself is taking control of that. So you're putting effort into your online presence, how it appears, the messages you're putting out there, in an attempt to shape how people see you and how you're perceived. So I think that's important to think about because as the example shows, a lot of people have public social media accounts, and so, the messages they're putting out there are representing them to the world, whether they want them to or not.
And that applies to your personal life as well, not just business. But when it does come to business or a career, those things can be helpful or harmful. So tell me, what has been your foray or exposure to this world so far?
Lissa: Well, like I said, I didn't really understand personal branding for a very long time. And from a social perspective, my reputation, my persona, what I share on social media or not, I understand that part of it.
Lizzy: Sure.
Lissa: But when it comes to career and business, I never really thought about it because I was in the same job for over a decade at Google. Thought I had job security, thought I was going to stay there. I thought it was fine. I had that on my resume and that was all I needed to tell my story. Not all, but it was a big chunk of my story, plus other accomplishments that I've had. That outside of LinkedIn, I never really thought about a cohesive brand story of what am I an expert of, what do I... I always struggled with that because even when I worked at Google, I consider myself to be a generalist. I work in so many different business roles and teams: operations, strategy, finance, et cetera. So many different areas that I can't even call myself an operations expert or a strategy expert. I feel like I do it all. So it's not that I'm none of those things, it's that I'm all of those things. And I never really knew how to brand myself.
And the thing that I came to realize is, if you are going to change your career at any point or become an entrepreneur or start your own thing, which is what I had to do, you have no way around thinking about it in some way.
Lizzy: So I absolutely love what you just described because there's two things I want to point out. The first is that, when you're describing your different skill sets, that's actually the reason you want to do this. I'm similar. I have a wide range of skill sets. I'm jack of all trades, master of none. And so, while that could be perceived as a negative, depending on what you're applying for or what you're going out for, personal branding, putting effort into it, is an opportunity to spin that to be a positive. So instead of saying, "Pretty good at 10 things," it's like, "Master of learning a new skill and driving value in any area of a business." So that's an example of how you can position yourself for the move you want to make in the future, if you're aware of this.
And the other thing I wanted to point out is, a lot of people think that if they have a great job or a specific career path they're already in, that there's no value in doing this, and tend to think of it more as a business or entrepreneurial thing. And that has some merit, but the reality is you are a brand regardless. So whether you're going to go up for a promotion or shift careers or just get some more visibility in your space, these are really important things to think about. So my foray into this, obviously I was in the branding space, but it's a lot more common for creative people, graphic designers and web designers, to have a portfolio. That's how you demonstrate your work, not just experience. And so for me, this started, I want to say back in 2012, of realizing, okay, I want to be known for something and I want to control that presence. That has evolved a lot over time.
And I think the landscape has shifted. Because of social media now, there's a lot of value placed on being an influencer, and that can be in a generic lifestyle influencer kind of way, or being a thought leader in your space. And so, that's why I think a lot of employers look for who's going to contribute to the conversation, who's going to inadvertently drive eyeballs to our product because they have a following, and that could be good or bad.
Lissa: Yeah. This is unrelated, but on getting hired and on HR teams and recruiters looking you up, there was one point in life, maybe five, seven years ago, I don't know. It was at some point then I was like, "Oh, man, I need to look back on what I used to tweet." Not that I ever said anything terrible, but still cringe.
Lizzy: Stupid stuff.
Lissa: Yeah, stupid stuff. So I did a whole sweep of my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram to see what was there and to delete things that I was like, "There's no value in this." There were some times where I just tweeted my thoughts during a basketball finals game, like an NBA finals game, and I'm like, "Oh man, Curry, what are you doing?" That kind of stuff, that I just feel like, what? There's nothing wrong with it, but if you're just seeing my stream of consciousness in tweets, what does it say about me?
Lizzy: Yeah. It's not necessarily the way you want to be represented.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: Yeah. I've done that before as well. And I think back to MySpace, which I deleted long, long, long ago, but thank God that I had the presence of mind to delete that. Just being 16 years old and putting stupid stuff on the internet, because that was the beginning and we didn't really know. So this is actually very, very top of mind for me right now because in my current business, I'm a regulated person. And so, our fund is regulated and I'm a part owner, so I have a different level of compliance and scrutiny. So literally just this morning I had to submit my personal social media to our compliance platform for monitoring. And so, it's interesting having been a person that was trying to actively build a personal brand for so many years, and now having the awareness that something that I could have said with no consequence, not even a personal thing, a business related comment, I could have made a year ago with no consequence, now I can't or now it might hurt me. And so that's shifting my perspective for me in my life right now.
That said, I still have this awareness of building my own reputation as a thought leader in the space that I'm in and the value of that. Network value, media value, there's tremendous value to being known for something.
Lissa: Yeah. Well, I think there's a lot of overlap with building your personal brand and being a thought leader in a space. You don't have to be a thought leader. Not everyone has to be a public figure sharing opinions. But there is a lot of overlap. And it made me think of, I have a group of friends who they're corporate. I don't know if they're lifers, they'll always be in corporate, maybe. But they often laugh at or not look down on, but they're just like, "Oh my God, so-and-so is posting again on LinkedIn, more thoughts, more thoughts." And me, I'm seated in the middle because I understand that sentiment of like, "Man, this person's too much on my feed. I need to mute them." But also, well, I know what they're doing. They're building their brand. They're establishing-
Lizzy: Yeah, they're being very effective right now.
Lissa: Yeah. They're establishing themselves as a thought leader and whether they know it or not, or whether it's intentional or not, and I'm pretty sure a lot of times it's intentional, they are going to open themselves up for more opportunities in the future, be it a new job, a business venture, meeting someone and getting free tickets to the Super Bowl. There's just so many things that you can get out of being a thought leader or just having a strong personal brand.
Lizzy: Yeah. And I'm glad you brought that up because that is actually one of the costs of building a personal brand. So I navigated this-
Lissa: Annoying people.
Lizzy: Yeah. Annoying people. So when I started my own business, it was under my name Liz Marie Strategy, so it was an entity, but I wanted to be the face of the brand. And you and I have had these conversations a hundred times going back and forth on the pros and cons of that. But I felt like I had personal assets that I could bring to it being I'm very comfortable on camera. I benefit from some level of being attractive to people, just frankly. I'm a younger woman. There are things that you can leverage to get attention. And so, I thought, "Okay, that's better than being a faceless entity." So anyway, at the time, I had my personal social media, like Instagram, that had professional contacts as well. And so, I decided to just shift that and I just changed that to my business one. And I had to mentally prepare myself for there are people who follow me because they're a friend, or I've met them socially that are going to be annoyed and unfollow, and so be it. This is my life. This is my livelihood. This is something I'm trying to do.
And it wasn't always easy, but that is a reality of it.
Lissa: Yeah. Well, that's the very reason... Oh my God, I've come full circle. You probably remember. When I first started Wealth for Women of Color, I was deciding should I post personal finance content under Wealth for Women of Color or under Lissa Prudencio, which was my old name. And I ended up going with Wealth for Women of Color, and a big reason was my personal Instagram, which is where all my friends and family are, was named Lissa Prudencio at the time. It was my full name. And I was like, "Oh, then I got to change it, or I got to start posting on there and they're not going to like it, and it's a whole different audience, then I'm going to have to start a..." Or I should start a new Instagram, what am I going to-
Lizzy: Start from scratch, so it's more targeted. Yeah.
Lissa: So then I just went with the brand name. So I went with this brand name Wealth for Women of Color, built it up over the last few years. I'm tied to it in so many ways because I'm the founder and all the content on it that has a video-
Lizzy: Features you.
Lissa: ... has me. There's Instagram posts where there's no face. And so it's nice, I can give financial tips and it doesn't have to come specifically from me. But in the last month or two, I've decided full circle. Now that I've actually, we have a name... Do we have a name changing episode?
Lizzy: We do. Yeah.
Lissa: Okay. So check out our name changing episode on Is Changing Your Name Worth It? Because I got married, changed my name. Not even Lissa Prudencio anymore. But I've decided moving forward, I'm going to build my personal brand as Lissa Lumetanga, which means a whole bunch of changes on the backend of what accounts are posting what. I changed my YouTube, TikTok, Instagram to be Lissa Lumetanga instead of Wealth for Women of Color. But now I'm trying to establish me as a personal brand and Wealth for Women of Color as a standalone entity that I'm still part of it, my face is still on it, but I want to slowly make a separation there.
Lizzy: Yeah. For sure.
Lissa: And it's a lot of work to do.
Lizzy: And it is complicated and can be confusing. I actually think on my old channel, I have an episode or a video about this, because there are a lot of considerations. So for example, if you're positioning yourself as a faceless business, that can help you appear larger, it can maybe be more scalable so that eventually you could sell the business because it's not dependent on you and your personality, it makes it easier to build out a team so that you don't have to be the only person that's representing it. And so there are a lot of advantages to that. There are more than that. The flip side is that if you're building a personal brand, sometimes it's easier to get noticed, to stand out, because people remember people more than a random unassociated brand, or even if you are representing it like Wealth for Women of Color, you are the one they identify with.
Lissa: Yeah. But they'll forget your name. They will know the name of the brand but not your name.
Lizzy: And so for example, you were saying in the personal finance space, more people are known just by who they are.
Lissa: It's a mix. But I think some of the biggest personal finance creators that I like and follow, they have names where they can say, "I am blank. I am your rich BFF."
Lizzy: It's like a proper noun. Yeah.
Lissa: It's a proper noun. And I can't be like, "I am Wealth for Women of Color," Because that's not a person. It's not like I represent all women of color and all wealth for it.
Lizzy: Of course.
Lissa: And so, it's always been a struggle for me on the branding side of how to approach it. But after a few years of building this brand, I think I have some clarity now on why I'm doing it this way. But I will say it still has some of those costs socially where, so I created my new Instagram, Lissa Lumetanga, so that I could start posting separately from Wealth for Women of Color. I haven't posted a thing, but I guess the way Instagram works is-
Lizzy: Recommend you?
Lissa: It's recommending me to all my friends, which was not the point because I don't think they care about my financial content. I haven't posted a thing, but there's friends on there. And it's great. They want to support.
Lizzy: Yeah, it's fine, but-
Lissa: But they're probably confused as to, "Okay-
Lizzy: Yeah. Is this is a new one?
Lissa: "How many Instagrams do you have?" I have like eight Instagrams now. It's crazy.
Lizzy: Well, I also think we've talked about this. You are so aware of what you are doing that sometimes we overestimate how much people are even paying attention or how confused they might be. So there's that too, of like you were saying, if you start posting as Lissa versus the brand, are people going to be confused? And maybe they're not even going to notice.
Lissa: Yeah. Maybe they don't care.
Lizzy: So that's a thing. The other thing you've mentioned in the past when we've discussed this is, the personal branding approach can feel like it's pigeonholing you. So if you want to be known for one thing, that's a great thing. But then what if you do things outside of that or if you have other brands? So for example, you have Wealth for Women of Color, we have this podcast together. You're starting a variety show. So you're going to have a lot of different disparate brands or products. So how are they connected, are they not? And that can be one of the things that people weigh.
Lissa: Yeah. I've had that struggle because this is the personal branding. I started my career and my education all wanting to work in entertainment and media. I live in Los Angeles for that reason. And then I ended up in the tech world and became this person in tech.
Lizzy: Sure.
Lissa: Now I'm this person in personal finance who wants to be known as an expert. And it was tough on me before because I'm like, "Well, do I want people to know that I used to work in tech? Does that help my story, hurt my story?" I don't know. It took me at least a year or two in doing this before I could even start saying... Like what I say in the intro, "I am a personal finance expert." To even feel comfortable saying that and making that my brand and just owning it-
Lizzy: Yeah. It took a long time.
Lissa: ... and being confident in what I mean. And I feel like I've come a long way because now I'm like, well, the personal branding is the spin. It doesn't change who I am from my identity standpoint or my capabilities. It's how I'm spinning it right now. And if I got to spin it differently tomorrow for some crazy opportunity, I'll do that again.
Lizzy: Yeah. Exactly. And I think of it as a way to connect the dots. So for example, let's say you start a dog grooming business or something, or a bar, you have other entrepreneurial ventures. Maybe the next iteration is around the entrepreneurialism behind them, not just the financial aspect, or using different avenues or using business to generate wealth. So it's like if you get stuck here, go a level higher. What is the common thread between these different skills or businesses or things that you want to represent and how can you tie them together in a sentence or two so that, "Oh, she's the person that I go to for anything financial related," or "She's the person I go to for anything business related." And it just simplifies how you want to put yourself out there. Usually you can connect most of the things.
Lissa: Yeah. This is probably... I don't know if this is even a good example, but I think of it as Rihanna came up as a singer, as an artist, as a performer. She has a brand voice. It's edgy, it's cool, it's I'm going to-
Lizzy: Rebel her. Yeah.
Lissa: Yeah. "I'm going to be a rebel." And then, besides this new Smurfs song, she's not made music in a while, and everyone's waiting for more music, but she is making tons of money.
Lizzy: She's a billionaire.
Lissa: Yeah. She's a billionaire because she's gone into other ventures like Fenty, her makeup company. But she's probably dipping her toes in so many other things because she wants to do other things. And I think she doesn't have to work on a personal brand because she is already up there. There's a tier that you reach where you just do whatever you want to do, and then the people will follow. But I do think there are some people who can't grasp that. She is multidimensional. She has so many skills. And she doesn't have to do that. And what if she's not passionate about that anymore? And it's part of her identity. But her story now is that she's a billionaire who's a businesswoman, less of she's just a singer.
Lizzy: Right. And I think that's a great example too. And there are common threads. So how you do anything, is how you do everything. So Rihanna's persona as a music artist was around being rebellious, being bad girl really, doing whatever she wants. And she's taken that same approach in business and very like, "I don't give a fuck." And even built that into her products. So approaching them differently with her foundation of having so many colors, being so inclusive with her lingerie line. So shirking traditional standards. That's what I would say is her brand, being rebellious. And it's what she's known for. But it also represents who she is personally. So you don't want this to be something that you try on. It should be representative of your actual personality and how you move in the world and just laid over your businesses. So I think that's a really good example of how this thing works. It's her personal brand is bigger than the thing she does. It's how she presents herself in the world.
Lissa: Yeah. Well, I don't know if this is even a cost, but it's just a feeling I have. So I used to struggle because with Wealth for Women of Color, again, even though it's the company that I started, I never felt like it was me. And so when I post content, I have a list of pillars, I have what I want the brand voice to be, which is partially how I am as the person, Lissa, but there are aspects missing. Because Liz helped me with the initial brand and we made the brand a little edgy, sexy-
Lizzy: It was pretty bold.
Lissa: ... which is bold and that's part of who I am, but I also have a very goofy side-
Lizzy: 100%
Lissa: ... that I like to crack jokes, take improv classes and things like that. And I just couldn't find a way to weave it into the brand. Now I feel with my brand as me, I can just be more authentically me. Still teach finance, but I can just act myself, and that becomes the brand.
Lizzy: Yeah. And I think that's really important. And sometimes it's threading a needle of how much of your personality, especially in a professional space, you don't want to be impersonal and cold and inauthentic because then you're not differentiating yourself whatsoever. But you also don't want to put in too much. And so I think that's something that I'm navigating of, historically, I've been very, very open as a person. And I don't have anything in my life I feel like I need to be embarrassed about, so I'm pretty transparent with my experiences, as you've seen, if you've watched the show. And I don't think there's anything that I would look back and be like, "Oh, I shouldn't have said that." However, that served me for certain purposes and the shift in the space I'm operating now is a lot more buttoned up, and I'm starting to contemplate or feeling the, "I just want to be private. I don't want people to know so much about me." And so that's an interesting thing. I've never in my life felt that way before, and reconciling that with stuff I've already shared online.
So different industries and different times in your life are going to have different balances of how much of yourself you put into it.
Lissa: Yeah. Well, I think that directly relates, I was going to go into what are the costs of branding yourself. And one of them is that if you brand yourself and then you change your mind, you have to undo it or change it. Yeah. You actually have to proactively change it. The easiest examples I have are when it comes to career. If you brand yourself as a marketing expert, "I am an expert at helping brands market themselves and blah, blah, blah, raise revenue," whatever. And then you want to become an engineer or you want to do something else in life, and that first few jobs you apply for, and they're like, "Well, you've only done marketing and you're established as a marketing thought leader. What makes us think you're going to be good at engineering?"
Lizzy: Right. Yeah. It can pigeonhole you.
Lissa: Yeah. But again, there's ways out of that. There's ways to change it. But I do think it's a cost, because it is a lot of time and effort to change people's perception of you or to present the story yourself. Like I said, it was hard for me to call myself a personal finance expert when I had just been in the tech world a year ago.
Lizzy: Yeah. Well, and that's one of the, I guess, costs or the things it requires, depending on the lengths you're going to go, to build this brand. You can have a personal website that has your resume. That's one thing. But if you're really proactively trying to build this brand, you have to be brave. You have to make definitive statements and put yourself out there in a certain way. And then if you do make a shift, you have to own it, which is brave. And so, I think people don't think about it that way. You did remind me of another very small cost, which is there's a downside to being known for something, in that people knew I did branding, websites, marketing, so I would get the most random referrals from just random people I knew in my real life that were so far from the right client, or they were so cheap. But then you kind of feel obligated, because it's someone who really knows you. It can put you in a weird spot.
And then when you shift, like I did, you still get those. And so it's like, "Oh, no, actually I don't do this anymore." It can just be a little awkward.
Lissa: I don't think that's a small cost. I think that's a big one. So I guess I didn't proactively create my brand for many years, but one way to explain my personal brand was that I worked in tech, that I was at Google. I'm this smart tech person. No one knew what I did. They just knew that. I don't know how many times friends or family or friends of friends would hit me up asking me, "How do I get this off Google Search?" Or something like that. I'm like, "I don't know, Google it. Because I'm not the person. It doesn't mean I know." And I get that today with personal finance. I've just become a financial planner. I don't have a financial planning firm, nor am I licensed yet. I'm a financial coach and educator. But I get questions from people about like, "Oh, so what about this investment?" Or some random commodities or overseas investment. I'm like, "I don't know. I understand what you're asking, but I'm not the person for that."
Lizzy: I got that too. I just got that this week. Like, "Hey, can you look at my portfolios?" I'm like, "No, I'm not an advisor. I know a lot about these things, but I cannot tell you what to do with your money." So that is a cost-
Lissa: There's a cost. There's a cost.
Lizzy: ... of being known for something, but most people aren't going to know the details of what you want to be known for. So you have to field a lot of inquiries.
Lissa: Yeah. So I know you're in this transition phase now where you're considering being a little more private and buttoned up because you're regulated and maybe for other personal reasons as well, but in the past, have you ever held yourself back from posting something, like you've actually thought about it because it would go against your brand, it would make you appear different?
Lizzy: That's a good question. Nothing is coming to mind. I think the opposite of where I've been nervous about posting something, but did it anyway because it was aligned with my brand values. One of my big brand values or my personal values, but brand values was around equity and equality. And so, I posted a lot of politically charged points of view, this was around the period of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, and I was very vocal about those kinds of things. And it was taking a point of view and being able to accept that a lot of people wouldn't like that, and maybe those aren't my people for my business. And not every business I don't think has to do that. I completely understand there are businesses that don't want to alienate people, and it's not important for them to, and they want to be inclusive of everyone, and that's great. Some people feel strongly about that, and I actually don't. But in my business, that was a value for me.
Lissa: Well, that's just-
Lizzy: And I've gotten a lot of hate for it before.
Lissa: Yeah. I was asking you that question, but I didn't even think about it for me. When you brought up the Black Lives Matter things... I'm very vocal too, and at times in my personal brand have referred to myself as an activist. I don't know if I'm allowed to call myself that. I fight for causes I care about, and I'll be vocal about them. But then there's other things that I don't take a stance on or don't take a public stance on. For example, I'm not going to take a stance on this episode, but stuff that's going on in the Middle East, because I'm still trying to educate myself. And it's multilayered, it's so complex. And I see other content creators and people who have a personal brand pressuring others to take a stance. And I just think it's complicated. I think it's tough. But that's one of the downsides of having a persona, having a brand, the people who look to you as a leader, whether or not you intended that, they want to hear your thoughts.
Lizzy: Yeah. That's absolutely a cost, in my opinion. It's a lot of responsibility, and with great power comes great responsibility. But I firmly believe not everyone has to be an expert in everything, and not everyone has to have an opinion on everything. And so while yes, you may have a platform, that doesn't mean that that's the responsible thing to do if you don't feel confident or comfortable or if you can recognize that there are shades gray and there's not always a right answer or whatever the situation may be. But that, I think, is one of the things I'm starting to reconcile for myself of, I used to really feel up to that task of navigating those waters and feel confident putting myself out there, even if there could be backlash about things. And I feel less inclined to do that now. I think more just from a personal level of I don't have to, and I can have peace kind of thing.
But that's a real cost. You're putting yourself out there to be canceled or to have your own views held against you when you've evolved later. Or it's like feeding people ammo for God knows what, and that just feels like a risk sometimes.
Lissa: I know. So I'm conflating personal brand with being a thought leader, with having an online presence.
Lizzy: And they're all intertwined.
Lissa: They're all interrelated. But I will say that even in a few years of doing content creation, I've built a small audience on TikTok and on YouTube, and I'm hoping to build my Instagram soon. I still with each post, like you mentioned earlier getting nervous, thinking about it, overthinking it. And I want to get away from that. Because I think that comes from a place where I care too much about what other people are going to think of my personal brand, as opposed to just telling my story of my personal brand and being confident about it. It's too very-
Lizzy: Can be a big mental cost to it. Absolutely.
Lissa: Yeah. So that's a cost that I struggle with. But I do think there's ways to actively move away from that. Because like we said, there's a lot of benefits to having a personal brand if you can get over those pumps and those costs around it.
Lizzy: Yeah. For sure. And there's not a right answer. And I want to reiterate, we talked about thought leader and influencer or personal brand. These are all interconnected. Having a personal brand can mean anything from being thoughtful about what you put on your LinkedIn or your resume or your social media profiles, to having a logo and having a website, to having really dedicated content creation platforms or a media presence. It all applies. It's a total spectrum.
Lissa: Yeah. All right. 20 cents?
Lizzy: 20 cents.
Lissa: I don't know where this is going to go. 20 cents is the segment of the show where both Lizzy and myself, Lissa, each get 60 seconds to give our 2 cents on today's topic, whether it's a net positive or a net negative for branding yourself. Where does 20 cents come from?
Lizzy: Y'all get the opinion of two dimes.
Lissa: Two dimes. All right. Liz, you're up first. 60 seconds on the clock. Is branding yourself worth it? You, right now.
Lizzy: Yeah. For me, not for others. Oh, I don't know what I'm going to say. This is hard. I think my gut feeling at this moment is I'm more in the space of like, "Am I going to have to undo the stuff that I spent years doing Just from a risk standpoint?" And again, I don't think I've said anything bad, it just may not be the message I want to put out today. And so, I'm definitely more in a hibernation mode. I've deactivated all of my social media except my TikTok, which I don't post on often, and my LinkedIn. I think I'm more in a no personal branding right now, with the caveat that that could change tomorrow. It would just look different than it has looked for me historically. So it's not a priority for me right now. I'm definitely de-emphasizing it and potentially even undoing some of the things I've done, but it's very possible I will make that shift and it'll just be a different iteration.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: Interesting.
Lizzy: So I think negative, I guess.
Lissa: Oh. Net negative. I did not expect that from a branding expert.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: Real quick, before I do mine. I consider it that you're branding yourself even in your intro to our show to Net Net-
Lizzy: For sure.
Lissa: ... where you say you're an investing strategist because that's your brand now.
Lizzy: Except, funny you say that. I was reading that in this episode and I'm like, "That's not accurate anymore. I need to change that." Because I have been a strategist and I have been a consultant, but now I'm a fund executive. I have a very different role. I don't do consulting anymore.
Lissa: All right. So you're going to change the opening line?
Lizzy: I have to. Yeah.
Lissa: All right. Interesting.
Lizzy: But you're right. Whether I'm trying to or not, I'm-
Lissa: Yeah. But I guess your-
Lizzy: Everyone has a personal brand.
Lissa: ... net negative comes with that you're not proactively trying to do it.
Lizzy: Exactly. Yeah.
Lissa: Okay. Got it.
Lizzy: All right. What about you, Lissa? We know your answer.
Lissa: All right. My answer is obvious, net positive. In fact, this is my new-
Lizzy: Lissa Lumetanga.
Lissa: This is my new logo. I rebranded not only my personal finance brand Wealth for Women of Color to Lissa Lumetanga, but I changed my name legally, which to me is like I'm in this weird transition phase of even just feeling like myself in my own skin. But that said, I think it's going to bring me so much more clarity when I post content about finance or finance adjacent things, like more about me. It's going to feel so much easier to do that on my platform. And I'm still going to post content on Wealth for Women of Color, more content and tips-
Lizzy: Educational.
Lissa: ... and educational stuff for women of color specifically. Whereas for me, it's still going to end up being a lot of women of color following me because I am who I am.
Lizzy: Yeah. And what you represent.
Lissa: Yeah. But all together, net positive for personal branding because I need it in my business and for what I'm doing right now in life.
Lizzy: Yeah.
Lissa: Yeah.
Lizzy: I like it.
Lissa: Cool. Well, Liz is a net negative. I'm a net positive.
Lizzy: Never [inaudible 00:38:41].
Lissa: I know. But this is what we think at this moment in time. It might change. No one can make that decision but you. So what do you think, is branding yourself worth it?
Lizzy: Hit us up. Let us know what you think. DM us on Instagram @netnetpodcast or email us at hi@netnetpodcast.com. And if you want to follow us individually, here's where you can find us.
Lissa: I'm @lissalumetenga on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
Lizzy: New socials.
Lissa: I know.
Lizzy: And I am @live_well_lizzy on TikTok.
Lissa: In TikTok, and that's it for now.
Lizzy: In TikTok. That's about it for right now.
Lissa: All references, statistics and resources mentioned can be found in our show notes. This podcast is for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, and should not be constituted as financial advice. Remember to always do your own research, consult a professional as needed, and feel empowered to make your own damn decisions.