“Everyone has a brand by design or default. Everyone has a reputation - people feel something about us. It’s a skill civilians are using to advance their careers. My job is to bring those same tools to veterans to allow them to excel in their career. ”
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Why Listen:
While not a Veteran herself, Lida is an expert in personal branding and - in addition to her work with top executives, she has been helping countless members of the military and veterans for the past 10 years. In this interview we talk about your brand - what it is, why it’s important, and how to take steps towards improving it. We talk about defining your legacy, and how you can use your personal brand as a filter for what you say yes to and what you say no to. We talk about the strategy and the tactics for helping in your job search, and more.
About Lida:
Lida Citroën, founder of LIDA360, is an expert in personal branding for executives, a corporate brand consultant, a speaker, author and reputation management coach. She is the author of the best-selling transition book, Your Next Mission: A Personal Branding Guide for the Military-to-Civilian Transition, has top-notch video courses on LinkedIn, and has been featured in MSNBC, The UK Guardian, Fortune,Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Hiring America, Forbes.com, Harvard Business Review, CBS MoneyWatch, US News & World Report, and others. She has spent over 20 years in corporate branding and marketing.
Our Sponsor:
StoryBox- People trust each other more than advertising. StoryBox provides the tools and supports businesses need to take the best things customers say about them, and use them to drive more sales and referrals. StoryBox offers a 10% discount to companies employing veterans of the US Armed Forces.
Audible is offering one FREE audio book to Beyond the Uniform listeners. You can claim this offer here, and see a list of books recommended by my guests at BeyondTheUniform.io/books
Selected Resources:
Lida’s book, Your Next Mission
Transcript & Time Stamps:
3:45
Lida Citroën, founder of LIDA360, is an expert in personal branding for executives, a corporate brand consultant, a speaker, author and reputation management coach. She is the author of the best-selling transition book, Your Next Mission: A Personal Branding Guide for the Military-to-Civilian Transition, has top-notch video courses on LinkedIn, and has been featured in MSNBC, The UK Guardian, Fortune,Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Hiring America, Forbes.com, Harvard Business Review, CBS MoneyWatch, US News & World Report, and others. She has spent over 20 years in corporate branding and marketing.
5:15
How would you explain what you do for a living?
I help people tell their story in more meaningful ways. People come to me for one of three reasons - they want to build their brand, they need to pivot in their career, or they are experiencing a problem in which they need to repair their reputation.
I also take these skills and give them to veterans as they transition out of the military. Everyone has a brand by design or default. Everyone has a reputation - people feel something about us. It’s a skill civilians are using to advance their careers. My job is to bring those same tools to veterans to allow them to excel in their careers.
The military is not a culture that encourages self-promotion and independent thinking. So it can definitely be uncomfortable at times for veterans to embrace these ideas. The day when you take your uniform is a huge day. There an emotional shift that happens. You go from being a particular rank to simply being a job seeker. You will need to seek new ways to define yourself.
13:40
Do you think there are commonalities in things veterans struggle with during the job search process?
The first is not understanding the difference in how people talk about themselves. Civilians have no problem talking about themselves. For someone coming out of uniform, that will feel very unnatural. The military culture teaches service before self. That can be a problem when you are in front of a hiring manager needing to sell yourself.
Another challenge is the concept of choice. Every month, I teach part of a TAPS class. We do an exercise that asks transitioning members to list what they are most exciting about after leaning the military and what they are most hesitant about. People often state that they are nervous about not having so much structure in their lives. Choice is more limited in the military than in the civilian sector. This can often lead in which veterans take the first job offered to them instead of waiting for a job that’s actually a good fit.
Finally, veterans need to recognize that things will be different. People think hiring managers are going to be lining up at the door to hire them. You need to understand that you are shifting cultures when you go to work in the civilian sector. You are going to have to go through a training process for your new job. It’s important that veterans have patience with themselves during this process because things will be different.
Veterans should try to find a middle ground between being overly confident and having no confidence. You need to have a strategy in your job search process. Branding can help with thins. You need to put your value in a story or narrative that will fit what a hiring manager is looking for. Resumes are a necessary process of the job search process but a hiring manager only looks at your resume for 6-8 seconds. The onus is on the veteran to deliver a cohesive story in that resume as well as in your LinkedIn profile and other touch points.
26:15
What do you mean by personal brand?
A brand is a feeling or expectation of an experience. We also say brand is reputation. What do other people say about you? It’s not about being fake or even selling yourself. It’s more about telling your story in a way that other people with find compelling.
It’s a simple process. But it’s not an easy process. You need to know who you are. Everyone has a set of values. You use these values to make decisions. You also need to understand what your current reputation is. What is the experience people have when they work with you? We then match that against what you would like your ideal reputation to be. Once you crystallize that, you’ve given yourself more control over your future. You can use that desired personal brand to evaluation decisions in your life. It will guide you.
Awareness is the first step. Knowing what you want your brand and reputation to be ideally will allow you to be aware of what you’re doing now that is keeping you from that ideal reputation.
Be aware of who your target audience and refine your message in a way that will resonate with those people. You should be OK with the idea that not everyone is not your target audience. Apple is very specific in its messaging. It’s not selling its products to everyone. It’s selling its products to a specific kind of customer.
The final part of this idea is putting together a strategy that will allow you to work toward achieving your brand and reputation. This can be things like clothing, daily habits, and classes. All of these will allow you to get closer to your goals.
When I wrote the book Your Next Mission, I structured the book in a way in which, you were answering really hard questions at the beginning of the book and then applying them to a job search or a LinkedIn profile later on. When you do that hard work first, it will help narrow your job search in a way that is really helpful.
40:50
You have LinkedIn video that specifically deals with branding for veterans, is that right?
Yes - it deals with translating military speak into civilian speak. I also have courses on creating a personal brand or repairing a personal brand. I did a course for college grads about successful job hunting. That may be helpful for veterans as well.
41:45
How can veterans build their reputation online?
Nothing online is private. Hiring managers can get past privacy settings quite easily. Assume anything online is public.
You also want to present yourself online in a way that is meaningful. Many times on LinkedIn, people will provide a link or a video that they find helpful. But they don’t add anything. Make sure you are sharing your ideas and why you like that video or link.
All of your posts should give me a consistent message about who you are. I work with both civilians and members of the military so I need to make sure I am engaging in content that is both military themed and corporate themed. This allows me to continue to build me brand in both of these areas.
People’s attention span is short so it’s OK to repeatedly and consistently share your brand. Ask yourself before you post something, think to yourself ‘What do I want people to know, feel, and do from this post?’ Am I changing careers? Am I pursuing new educational opportunities? What call to action do I want from this? You want your posts to take you closer to the brand and reputation you want to project.
51:10
What advice would you give to someone that isn’t happy in their current position?
Ask yourself, ‘Is the reason I want to quit something to do with the situation or did something in me change?’ A lot of times people will take a job and then realize that they don’t like the job. They will then leave the position. This is frustrating to employers because many times these situations can be fixable. They can help find a new role or manager that would improve your situation. Also consider timing because resume optics do matter. If you’ve had a lot of short term job positions, that may not look good to an employer.
If you do quit a job, you need a narrative about why you left your last job before starting to interview for new positions. Be careful about bad mouthing your previous employer. The new potential employer will be concerned that you will do the same thing about their company when you leave that position.
54:35
Is there anything else you’d like to share with listeners?
Your transition is your transition and nobody else’s. It will be a process that is unique to you. Give yourself the tools you need to excel but also be patient with yourself. And don’t be afraid to ask for help. Reach out and talk to people. Create a community around you that will mimic that sense of camaraderie you had in the military.