In the latest episode of the Recruiting Insider podcast, I had the pleasure of hosting Jessica Winder, an HR executive and personal branding expert.
Jessica shared her insights on the power of storytelling in building a personal brand on LinkedIn, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and vulnerability.
Her practical advice and examples highlighted how effective personal branding can open doors to numerous opportunities.
Authenticity and Vulnerability: Key Elements of a Great Story
Jessica emphasized that authenticity and vulnerability are the cornerstones of compelling storytelling. When you share genuine experiences and emotions, it creates a connection with your audience. This connection builds trust, which is crucial for establishing a strong personal brand. Jessica pointed out that people are drawn to stories they can relate to, making authenticity and vulnerability indispensable in your narrative.
Starting Small: Developing Your Narrative and Voice
One of the practical tips Jessica shared was to start small by commenting on other people’s posts. This approach helps you develop your narrative and voice in a less intimidating environment. As you become more comfortable and confident, you can gradually transition to creating your own content. This step-by-step method ensures that your voice remains genuine and consistent, which is vital for effective personal branding.
Diversifying Content: Videos and Images
To enhance your personal brand, Jessica suggested utilizing different content formats such as videos and images. Visual content tends to attract more engagement and can effectively convey your message. Videos, in particular, allow you to showcase your personality and communicate more dynamically. By mixing up your content formats, you can keep your audience engaged and interested in your story.
Leveraging Personal Branding for Opportunities
Personal branding on LinkedIn is not just about gaining followers or likes; it can lead to tangible opportunities. Jessica highlighted how a strong personal brand can attract partnerships, media coverage, and speaking engagements. These opportunities can significantly boost your professional visibility and open doors to new career advancements. By consistently sharing valuable content, you can position yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
Crafting Engaging Content: The First Hook
Jessica also discussed the importance of crafting engaging content. The first hook in your post should be compelling enough to grab your audience’s attention. Whether it’s a surprising fact, a thought-provoking question, or an emotional statement, the initial sentence should entice readers to continue. This technique is crucial for ensuring your content reaches and resonates with a broader audience.
Balancing Real and Professional in Branding
Finding the sweet spot between being real and maintaining professionalism is a common challenge in personal branding. Jessica advised that while it’s important to be authentic, you should also be mindful of the professional image you want to project. Striking this balance can enhance your credibility and make your personal brand more relatable and trustworthy.
First Steps to Building a Personal Brand on LinkedIn
For those just starting out, Jessica recommended taking small, consistent steps. Begin by engaging with other people’s content through thoughtful comments. As you gain confidence, start sharing your own posts, leveraging different formats to keep your audience engaged. Over time, your narrative will develop, and your personal brand will strengthen, leading to greater professional opportunities.
Conclusion
In summary, Jessica Winder’s insights on personal branding through storytelling on LinkedIn are invaluable for anyone looking to enhance their professional presence. By being authentic and vulnerable, starting small, diversifying content, and balancing real with professional, you can build a powerful personal brand. The opportunities that arise from a strong personal brand—partnerships, media coverage, and speaking engagements—make the effort worthwhile.
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Transcript:
Mary (00:00.928)
Jessica Winder, welcome to Recruiting Insider.
Jessica D. Winder (00:03.79)
Hello, I’m so excited to talk with you.
Mary (00:06.239)
I’m so excited to have you here. So today we have a guest who’s really more than just an HR executive. She’s a force of nature in the people operations world, truly. She’s an entrepreneur in a powerhouse with more than 70 ,000 followers on LinkedIn. And she’s truly a breath of fresh air, known for shaking things up and fiercely advocating for what she believes in. And don’t let her no nonsense approach fool you. She’s got a heart of gold and a passion.
for driving positive change, whether it’s through her expertise in leadership development, her insightful book, The Hidden Gym Within, or her work as a sought after keynote speaker and startup advisor. Jessica’s really all about creating a real impact. So today she’s here with us to talk about the power of storytelling and how to really leverage it to build a personal brand that both gets you noticed and also helps drive positive change.
So Jessica, did you always know that you were a great storyteller? Or was it a journey of self discovery?
Jessica D. Winder (01:12.76)
Absolutely a journey of self discovery. If you would have asked me this like years ago, I think for me this whole journey quote unquote started around 2020. And so I think it has morphed into like, I like to journal, I like to write. And I always like to do those things, but I wasn’t doing it in a very like storytelling format. It was always just like my thoughts. And honestly, back in the day, I’d be like, well, who wants to read this? And then I found out like people actually do want to read what I have to say.
Mary (01:38.723)
Mm -hmm.
Hehehehe
Jessica D. Winder (01:42.528)
So it absolutely has been like a morphous into like telling my story and telling my lived experience and what it’s like to work in the corporate workspace. And I see that in a lot of different people. I really, my favorite right now is corporate Natalie on TikTok. Like I absolutely love her and her story is kind of the same. She started in 2020 just like making fun of working in corporate.
Mary (02:02.714)
Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (02:05.166)
I wanna do that from the lens of like, things in HR should change because, you know, the way that you work is so important to your overall life and your quality of life. And so I think of it as like, let me tell the story of what it’s like behind the scenes, because a lot of people don’t know what it’s like to work in HR, to have to be the, you know, you’re doing the layoffs, but you’re also doing promotions and you’re like, you’re doing all these things in the background. So it feels very much like, let’s look behind the curtain and humanize HR also, because a lot of times it’s like, you’re the evil witch of the West.
Mary (02:33.367)
Heheheheh
Jessica D. Winder (02:34.958)
like I’m nice and I don’t like doing these things sometimes but this is what like I’m doing this for the business so I think it’s just humanizing the whole experience so storytelling has been part of that because people understand you better if they feel connected to your story.
Mary (02:50.038)
Absolutely. And I think people have a lot of issues or they really struggle, I should say, with telling their story. Like you said, you know, many of us, we may have a journal or maybe we don’t even have a journal. We just have these thoughts and this narrative in our head and we’re really afraid to say it out loud. Right. But like you said, especially in the world of human resources where it’s like there’s the wicked witch of the East, you know, it’s it’s humanizing that person. Right. So.
I mean, really being able to relate to them on a completely different level can make you feel like your best friends, right? I mean, I’ve only been following you for a short amount of time. I mean, maybe it’s been, you know, six months now and I already feel like I know you because you have such a great way of, you know, telling stories and really relating with those people that follow you and that you communicate with, you know, on LinkedIn specifically.
And so just kind of high level, I’m really curious to know, in your opinion, what do you think is the most important element of a great story?
Jessica D. Winder (03:54.946)
the truth.
So I would say like it’s fundamental that you have to be willing to tell the whole truth so for instance part of my story when I first started writing was I was getting sober and I was very at the time I was very ashamed of some of the things that I had done and things that I’d been through and So I was only telling like part of the truth like I would tell like a little bit of my story But I really didn’t tell that like the sobriety side of it And when I finally did it really unlocked so much and so much empathy and so much vulnerability
And that was the key like you must be vulnerable and to be vulnerable you have to tell the truth and if you’re not willing to tell the whole truth It’s gonna show one and two you’re not it’s not going to feel as therapeutic as it might feel if you could tell your whole truth So the first time I wrote on LinkedIn about like me being sober now. I’m like four years into being sober It was like crazy the response that I got like the post went viral because people are like, you’re telling Something that like most people would not never tell anybody
So the ability to be vulnerable and you have to tell the truth.
Mary (05:01.071)
I mean, that’s great. I mean, there are things in my own life where I’m like, I would probably never share on social media, but it does make me think, well, I mean, maybe I should because it opens up the door to different types of relationships. But then it’s also giving a voice to those people who maybe aren’t comfortable with sharing that. And it builds that community because it’s, you know, a community of people who…
Jessica D. Winder (05:22.349)
Yes.
Mary (05:28.207)
have gone through that same thing or something very similar and they can really relate to you on a level that they couldn’t before. So I think, yeah, my gosh, yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (05:36.418)
Mm -hmm.
And there’s power in that. I want to say that there is absolute power in that. And I take it as like, I know that in my level, I was a senior vice president. So there was privilege in that I could talk about these things. And like, I didn’t feel in any way like it was a threat to my reputation or it was a threat to my job. And some people don’t have that. And so me speaking up, and I had so many people send me private messages, like I am also going through this or something’s going on, similar with somebody in my family, but I can’t.
not talk about it because I’m afraid for my job or I’m afraid for this or that and so there’s also power in the even the ability to speak up.
Mary (06:14.411)
Yeah, yeah. There’s some privilege in that, right? Because not everybody can speak up depending on the situation that they’re in. Personal branding is, it’s so important in today’s tough market. And I think we’ve already kind of touched the surface of that. So how can our listeners really make their personal brand pop with their own unique flair while still keeping it relatable to their audience?
Jessica D. Winder (06:16.558)
Yes.
Jessica D. Winder (06:40.094)
Yeah, so this is one that is so hard. Like I’d gone back and looked at some of my like I actually went back and found the first post I ever did on LinkedIn. And it was like not even a complete sentence. Like I don’t know what I was doing. It was very much just like a photo of me at like a company event. Like, hey, we’re at this event. And that was like the extent of the post. And so yeah, like that was literally that was it.
Mary (06:48.041)
Yeah.
Mary (06:53.468)
Yeah.
Mary (07:01.162)
Hey, at least you had a picture, right? That’s a good start.
Jessica D. Winder (07:05.87)
And so I definitely think the personal branding comes with time. And some people like look at, like me for instance, I post now, I post every day. I tell a story about my lived experience, all these things. And it’s very much like, once you see several of my posts, my voice is consistent, my tone, the style I write in, it’s all there. But that came over a long time. So my suggestion always to people is to start with just understanding your comments.
It’s like, where do you want to be commenting? That’s the first place I tell people if you want to do personal branding but you’re like a little nervous to make posts, then go comment. Just go comment on other people’s posts. And then you’re kind of building up your narrative of like, what are you commenting on? What’s of interest to you as a certain topic? And then that can morph itself into like, what do you want your voice to be? What do you want to talk about? For me, I talk a lot about like burn HR to the ground and a modern way of thinking about the corporate workspace. I talk about my lived experience as a sober person.
as a mom and like, so these are like narratives that are part of my story, but you have to decide what you want those narratives to be and you get to decide. I think that’s a great thing. Like you can decide, do you, you know, if you work in marketing, do you want to talk about marketing or do you want to completely take it left and talk about your life outside of work and like work life balance and wellness? Like you can do anything. And also you can change. So you don’t, you can start something and say, I don’t like this. I’m going to change and pivot. So a lot of people feel like, I’ve, I’ve,
already started to speak about this so I have to continue. You don’t. I promise you don’t. You can change your mind.
Mary (08:41.188)
Yeah, you know, I love that. And I think a lot of people fall into the trap of thinking, okay, well, this is my one area, right? Mark, I’m the expert in marketing, so marketing is all that I should talk about, but your entire personal brand, your entire livelihood is not marketing. There’s all of these different pieces that make you who you are. So like you said, I think that it’s perfectly fine to kind of branch out, you know, maybe marketing is your thing, but, you know, you want to talk about.
something that’s completely different, something that has to do with maybe a hobby or something that you’ve done in your past or like you said, something that you’ve gone through with your sobriety or some challenges that you’ve really faced to really build and expand on that personal brand. And I think that it’s great advice that you said, you don’t necessarily need to start posting all of these super personal things right away and posting every single day. It’s perfectly fine to…
Jessica D. Winder (09:15.854)
Thank you.
Mary (09:37.986)
jump on and start interacting with other people’s content and seeing what they’re posting, seeing what people respond to and then really trying to figure out, okay, what do I want to talk about? What makes me me? And how can I really start establishing that personal brand? That’s wonderful. Yeah, yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (09:40.814)
Yes.
Jessica D. Winder (09:54.99)
Yeah, even just 30 minutes a day. That’s what I tell people when you’re starting. I say set aside 30 minutes a day and just go on LinkedIn and comment on the stuff that is interesting to you. Don’t feel like you have to comment on stuff you don’t care about. Like find the stuff that’s interesting to you. And that’s an amazing start.
Mary (10:10.399)
Yeah. And I would say try, try not to be generic when you’re commenting too, because with AI and we weren’t, we’re not even going to dig too much into that. But I mean, I’ve just seen so many generic comments lately where it’s like, that doesn’t really provide any value to anyone. You know, if you’re trying to create a personal brand, it needs to be a little bit personal. Right? So, you know, if you’re going, if you’re going to take that 30 minutes to jump on LinkedIn.
Jessica D. Winder (10:18.254)
Hahaha!
Jessica D. Winder (10:33.294)
Yes.
Mary (10:39.582)
Make sure that you’re thinking about what you’re posting. Try to provide value to somebody else, even if you’re just responding on somebody else’s post. You know, and I think that the best thing that you can do in your job search right now is really to start creating a personal brand. Like literally the best thing, you know, because it can enhance your visibility, your credibility, you know, it makes you more memorable, right, to recruiting and hiring managers. And I think people ask me all the time, you know, how can I stand out?
Jessica D. Winder (10:48.142)
Absolutely.
Mary (11:08.967)
This is it, literally. This is the best way to do it or it’s the best start for you. You know, a personal brand that’s authentic and authentic to you really can have a huge advantage, especially in a job market like today where it’s just so tough. You know, and I think the other part of that is when your visibility really takes off, so do the number of job opportunities, right? It can just open up so many different doors to opportunities.
Jessica D. Winder (11:28.364)
Mm -hmm.
Mary (11:36.283)
And this is because you’ve expanded your network, right? I mean, I’m telling you, if you want employers to find you instead of the other way around, build that personal brand up. You know, and I think storytelling is also a powerful tool for engagement. How can it be adapted, you know, specifically for the format of LinkedIn? Are there any specific types of stories that resonate best with a professional audience on this platform?
Jessica D. Winder (11:46.062)
Yes.
Jessica D. Winder (12:02.286)
Absolutely. People love to hear stories of how you overcame something. So a lot of my posts are about in the world of work, how I started in my career versus where I am now, how I got to where I am. And I want to be clear, you don’t have to be in a leadership role to talk about how you got to where you are. Because for someone, you’re ahead of them. So you’re still telling someone a story about how you got the role that you got. Because a lot of times people that are experts and not people leaders feel a little bit left out. And so I was like,
to clarify that like being an expert is something is like you still have to go through something to get to be an expert. So speaking about that is very very important.
And people, to your point, they want to hear personal stories. So they really truly want to understand what did you do and how and the steps. So the step, quote unquote, model of explaining this is what happened and here are the steps that I took and this is the result is key on LinkedIn. And you don’t have to do that for every post, but those are the posts that get a lot of engagement because you’re explaining something to someone. And people love free advice. So yeah, that’s a golden nugget right there.
Mary (13:05.151)
Right.
Yeah, I love that step -by -step. I’ve noticed that a lot on LinkedIn too, and it’s very helpful. And if you also incorporate that storytelling element into it, it makes you want to keep scrolling down, right? If you draw that reader in and then you give them that actionable advice, it’s really going to be engaging. You know, and again, like I’ve mentioned, I find it incredibly taxing to write content on LinkedIn. I mean, it really takes a lot of brain power. Do you think it’s okay for us to post
Jessica D. Winder (13:35.694)
Hahaha!
Mary (13:40.541)
super personal stories on there? I mean, like I said, I get a little nervous and embarrassed before I post something super personal. And could you tell us one of your top performing posts? I’m curious about that. And why do you think it performed so well?
Jessica D. Winder (13:55.182)
So I had a post, there’s two posts that come to mind. So there’s one post that went viral and for two different reasons. So one post that recently went viral was me saying HR is not your friend. And that went viral because it pissed some people off. But it’s true. I stand by what I said. Yeah, I was like, whatever, it piss people off, it’ll go viral.
Mary (14:05.524)
Yeah. Sure. Okay, piss people off. Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (14:16.558)
So that’s one avenue. The other avenue is I wrote a post, I actually wrote a post about my sobriety that went viral and where I talked about, you know, mental health in the workspace. So I do think it’s okay to post personal stories. There’s a little bit of cringeworthiness on LinkedIn where I recently saw a post where this person’s like, I proposed and this is what it taught me about beauty sales. Don’t do that. That is cringe. Do not do that. But if you want to tie it to like something at work, that makes sense for LinkedIn.
Mary (14:36.722)
Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (14:46.464)
So also knowing your audience, like this is a professional space, so it’s very much like how does this incorporate into work or into education or something like that versus like on TikTok, you know, you’re not doing dance moves. So, just like knowing the audience that you’re, you know, you’re trying to talk to, but yeah, two different posts. One was it made people upset and it made people think about like, well, why? And then the second post was more like personal, but I talked about.
Mary (14:59.824)
gosh. Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (15:14.894)
how my sobriety impacted my job in all of those things.
Mary (15:19.919)
This is great. I mean, I’m already getting some ideas on, okay, this is what I’m doing wrong. I’ve always had personally had a hard time letting people inside of my inner bubble. You know, that’s kind of a fault on my own, on my side of things, I guess. So I guess there are a lot of things that I could be doing to really interact and engage more personally and really post more personally on LinkedIn.
Jessica D. Winder (15:41.742)
Yeah.
Well, one of the things I would say, Mary, is if you, if that’s something that you want to do, but it makes you a little uncomfortable, what I do is I have, I can’t even tell you how many posts I have a Google Doc that’s literally just like, I just brain dump stuff in there. So if I hear something, I see something, something’s on my heart, I want to write about it. It’s all in there. I have stuff that’s been in there for months. I have not posted yet, but it’s there and I wrote it out and when I feel comfortable, I’ll post it. So that’s a start. Like just get a blank document and start writing down stories or things that you want to talk about. They don’t even.
Mary (15:51.702)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (16:12.24)
have to be complete but it gets it out there and then when you’re ready you can post it.
Mary (16:17.133)
That’s amazing. Yeah, that’s great advice because there are things that’ll pop in my head when I’m laying in bed at night or going on a walk and I don’t write them down and chances are I’m going to forget them. So yeah, that’s good. Have a document where there’s just a brain dump. I’m going to start a Word doc today. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yep.
Jessica D. Winder (16:32.398)
a Word doc and then I even have notes in my phone. Like literally when I think I hear a podcast or I hear something, I’m walking, I’m talking, I literally just put whatever I need to make myself remember in a note in my phone and then I put it in the Google Doc.
Mary (16:45.516)
Yeah. And I’m a very visual person. So if I don’t write it down, I’m probably going to forget it. And I definitely won’t be able to articulate it. Yeah, it’s gone. It’s out. And I listen to podcasts all the time too. And I’m like, that’s a gym. I should remember that. And then I don’t. So storytelling, back to storytelling. It sounds super cool, right? But how exactly does it amp up someone’s personal brand? Are there any examples of this magic in action?
Jessica D. Winder (16:49.742)
yeah, it’s gone. Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (17:13.614)
Yeah, I think there are so many great storytellers on LinkedIn and not just in like the HR space. There’s a lot of great people that I’ve been following. I am personally not a finance person, but there are actually some really good people on LinkedIn right now that are in the finance space that are talking about like compensation and equity and like what that actually means. And another key thing that I think when it comes to storytelling is like talking about either the impact to you or the impact to the business. So did you do some
something that impacted the business results or did you do something that impacted you personally? So that’s kind of the end of the story is like what is the impact? Did you fail? Like, you know, that’s a story too. Like, did you fail and now you have a lesson to learn or did it impact the business and it made you more money? Another post for me that went viral was when I talked about a previous organization when we had to do layoffs. Like, I talked about like this is what happens behind the curtain with layoffs and this is why and this is the impact and I did not make it about
me because I wasn’t laid off. I was the one doing the layoffs, but I was talking about it from that standpoint. And that post was…
you know, went viral because most people don’t know what it’s like to be in HR and do the layoffs. They just know how to be on the receiving end. And so I was giving light to something that people just normally don’t know about. So that’s another thing. Is it something that you know about because you’re in your field, but nobody else knows about? Because if you ask my parents what I do for a living, they’d be like, she works in HR, you know, but they don’t know what I’m doing. And I take that most people don’t. They just have this like, you know, this is what HR is like a way in Never Never Land. But you don’t know what it actually is like to work in that role.
Mary (18:40.773)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mary (18:53.125)
Is there some kind of a hook? Like, do you think that first sentence of a post really matters? And how do you approach? Yeah, tell them it. Talk to me.
Jessica D. Winder (18:58.232)
yeah, yes, it absolutely does.
Yes, so what I normally do when I write out the post is I write the whole post and then at the end I go back and write what the first hook should be because that first sentence is what’s going to get people to read it. Some people take the tone of, you know, depending on what you want your tone to be, their first sentence is normally controversial or like makes people want to know what like what you’re writing and why. But that is my way to write it is write the whole post and then why should someone want to read this? And then you go back and write the top sentence.
Mary (19:30.467)
Yep, love it.
So standing out in a sea of faces can be really tough. So how can weaving stories into your brand help you be really that sparkling fish in the pond?
Jessica D. Winder (19:37.23)
Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (19:44.27)
Mm -hmm. I did not start out my journey with the burn HR to the ground. In fact, I was very much like, you know, like give HR a chance and da da da da da. And my tone started to change when I realized that like things needed to change. So that’s kind of how my narrative changed from like, everything is fine. Like love your HR person to let’s burn it down. There’s a lot of things that need to change. So.
The moral of the story, I think, is you have to decide what is your voice. So having a personal brand means you also like what’s your tone of your voice. So if you go look at my post, I’m either being very playful or very serious and a little bit of satire in there as well, thrown in there. If you go look, for example, at my husband’s post, his post, he’s a lawyer, his posts are very dry. No, no, no.
Mary (20:35.742)
Yeah, that’s what I would have guessed. That’s what I would have stereotyped. Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (20:38.414)
Yeah, but you know what I mean? Very much with a legal focus, this is what you do if this happens. And ever so often, he’ll throw in some humor, but that’s not his tone. His voice is very wanting to be an authority in the legal field. You know what I mean? So you have to decide what your voice is, because that’s going to matter in how you write your stories.
Mary (20:58.143)
Yeah. And you mentioned that one aspect of your personal brand or something that you’re really passionate about is the burn HR to the ground idea. And I know this is a little bit off topic. Could you talk to us a little bit about that and what you mean by that?
Jessica D. Winder (21:13.262)
Yeah.
Yeah, so this one I think is super important. I think the ways of old school HR of being like risk management, legal and compliance are hurting employees and absolutely hurting, you know, the HR in general. And so my stance on HR is very much like it’s a creative space, especially for me. I’ve worked at a lot of startups where I’ve been the first HR person I hired. So I had creative liberty to be like, what is the culture here? Like, how are we making employees feel welcomed? What are we doing around employer branding?
So I want to think about HR as a creative space that is different than I’m here telling you when you need to be at work or you know, very much treat adults like adults. Like I’m not your mom. I have kids. I have my own kids. I don’t need to be anybody else’s mom, you know. So very much a line in the sand. This is how it used to be, but this is not how we have to continue to do it.
Mary (21:59.836)
Yeah.
Mary (22:06.651)
Yeah. Thank you for that. That’s amazing. So back to storytelling. I was really curious when you said burn HR down. That’s, you know, something that I had to ask about. Beyond just simply writing stories, can people use other storytelling formats like, you know, videos or images or anything like that to really enhance that personal brand and the narrative on LinkedIn? And if so, what are some creative ways that you can use these formats?
Jessica D. Winder (22:34.894)
Absolutely, so I personally don’t do a lot of videos It’s just not really my thing unless I’m like recording like podcasts and stuff like that where we will record the video But there are several other people that are content creators on LinkedIn that do a lot of video content where they Speak to the camera and then their caption is very short and it works. It absolutely works So if you’re more comfortable verbally talking rather than writing it out, I would say go that route There’s also people that would prefer
to do like a build a graphic so you know get on canva build a graphic and do like a carousel versus writing it all out most of my posts are just plain text my thought i’m just writing it out i’ve been you know every so often i’ll throw a photo in there but in general i’m not doing video content but it absolutely does work so if you are more comfortable speaking or if you are more like you want to do graphics and you know visual representations of what you’re doing absolutely go that route.
Mary (23:33.6)
Do you think it’s okay to mix things up and do just a little bit of everything? So you have a little video content, some plain text, some photos, some infographics and things like that? Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (23:43.15)
I think actually LinkedIn likes that better. I think it absolutely does better with the algorithm to do a little bit of both or do all three if you want to. But most people like kind of decide they like whatever like for example, I decided like I just like to free -for -all and like the text out. And so that’s what I do. But I’ve absolutely gotten feedback that people are like, why don’t you do videos? And I’m like, yeah, I want to.
Mary (23:56.053)
Yeah. Yeah.
Mary (24:04.053)
I’m the same. I’m like, man, I can write my thoughts down a lot easier than I can communicate them. Sometimes it’s really tough for me to communicate something that’s rattling around up there in my head. It’s like I’m trying to grab it and I just can’t quite say it in the way that I can write it. So I agree. Yeah. And I think that the other part about creating that personal brand, kind of going back to that, it really…
Jessica D. Winder (24:20.654)
Yes.
Mary (24:31.123)
To me, it seems like it forces you to identify what your strengths are, right? And what your talents are, which I think is really cool. You know, it’s also a way to let the hiring manager. So, you know, if anybody’s in the job seeker seat right now, letting the hiring manager know why you’re the best fit for the job, right? So you don’t have to create a personal brand just because you have a business. I think as a job seeker, it’s also really important, you know, because if you look at it, you know, in this way,
Jessica D. Winder (24:53.998)
Yeah.
Mary (25:00.306)
really, you’re the product, right? And the employer is the buyer. So why should they interview you, right? Instead of like hundreds of other candidates who are equally as qualified for the job. Well, because you’ve created this amazing personal brand on LinkedIn, right? You’ve already started to narrate that value proposition and what you bring to the position. And I think another piece of it is that it can really also position you as a thought leader.
Jessica D. Winder (25:14.804)
Thank you.
Jessica D. Winder (25:26.476)
Yes.
Mary (25:26.49)
in your space, right? It can elevate your, literally elevate the status in your field. So I think that it’s also a great way to just build that initial trust and credibility. And then, you know, not only that, and I’m sure this has happened for you as well, it can also lead to different partnerships or media coverage, speaking engagements, everything like that. So there’s tons of opportunity.
Jessica D. Winder (25:42.062)
Absolutely.
Yes. A ton of, I can tell you right now when I started on LinkedIn, I had no clue the opportunities that would come my way from people that have just found me on LinkedIn. Like I, this week signed a new like corporate partnership deal from somebody that has been following my content for years. That was like, Hey, like, would you be open to this? And I’m like, absolutely. So LinkedIn also opens doors. So there is so much opportunity in having a personal brand.
Mary (26:02.541)
Wow.
Mary (26:13.069)
Yeah. And I mean, I’m kicking myself because I’ve been on LinkedIn since 2008, but I didn’t really start to post consistently or I mean, really at all. And I mean, maybe six months ago, maybe even not even six months ago, the beginning of this year, five months ago, I started posting consistently and I’ve already started to build really cool relationships, you know, and I’m interacting with content and I’m learning a lot from other people. Just like you said, different opportunities have.
kind of knocked on my door already, you know, and it’s only been just a few months since I’ve been really consistent at both posting and engaging because I just kind of didn’t think of LinkedIn. I’m like, yeah, it’s in that working platform. But you know, if you really put the work in to start building up that personal brand and actually interacting and creating value, there is so much opportunity.
Jessica D. Winder (26:51.47)
Thank you.
Jessica D. Winder (27:04.846)
Possibly.
Mary (27:06.892)
So going back to that personal branding, sharing personal stuff is scary, right? So how do you find that sweet spot between keeping it real and keeping it professional in your branding?
Jessica D. Winder (27:19.886)
Mm -hmm.
I definitely think there is a line and you have to decide whoever, you you have to decide what that line is. So I know for, I even have friends that post on LinkedIn that have been like, you’re a brave. I don’t know that I would have ever talked about what you just talked about. And that’s okay because sometimes they talk about things that I’m like, I don’t know if I would talk about those things, you know? So it is very much you decide where you decide where the line in the sand is. And you can also always move that line and say, you know what? I take that back. I don’t want to do that.
Mary (27:33.972)
Eh.
Jessica D. Winder (27:51.16)
So a perfect example of this that I’ve noticed since I I have nine -month -old twins So since I’ve had my twins I’ve noticed the like talking about motherhood and parenting and like there are certain moms like me I’m like I’ve posted photos of my twins and all that there are other people that do not post photos of their family at all And that’s a personal decision just like any other social media like you decide how you want to do that I don’t think they’re shame and posting I don’t think they’re shame and not posting So you really have to decide what are you most comfortable with and you can all?
scale it back. However, my stance is sometimes that vulnerability is a sign that you’re on the right track. So I will say that. There have been times where I’m like, I don’t know, and that had those posts have resulted in the most amazing connections.
Mary (28:37.959)
I love that. So what’s the first step that someone could take today to start building their brand on LinkedIn?
Jessica D. Winder (28:46.766)
say two things. One, create that Google Doc and just start writing. And you don’t even have to give yourself a time frame of like in a month I’m going to start posting these things. No. No pressure. Just start writing. And then two, go start commenting and pick the comments that you or the people that you like or that you really want to follow and comment. And then also maybe start doing their LinkedIn lives all the time. So just go to a couple of LinkedIn lives and see like how you like it. And if you want to
engage because during the LinkedIn lives you can engage like in the comments and those also show up on LinkedIn. So that’s another way to kind of build a sense of community and that’s part of the whole point of the personal brand is like you’re building your community you’re letting people know who you are and your people will find you and they’ll come to you. That’s one thing that I’ve learned the people that find me and reach out to me.
I definitely have the personality where either you love me or you absolutely think I’m not sure. And I’m okay with that. I’m okay with that. So the people that like reach out to me and want to engage with me are my people. And so I built this sense of community. So that is very, very important. But if you do nothing else following this conversation, just start the Google Doc. No pressure, just start a Google Doc and you will be so much happier. Months from now when you start posting, you will have so much content.
Mary (29:41.346)
Heheheheh
Mary (30:01.922)
Yep. I’m, that’s my mental note right now. Start, starting that Google doc. I’m like, dang it. That’s another thing I should have done, you know, 10 years ago, six months ago, whatever. Start today. Yes. Start with me. So Jessica, if there’s one key takeaway that you want listeners to remember from this conversation, what would it be?
Jessica D. Winder (30:04.794)
I’m sorry.
Jessica D. Winder (30:09.994)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jessica D. Winder (30:22.03)
The key takeaway I would say is you can absolutely do this. Like it is not some crazy science. I know people look at my profile and like the 70 ,000 followers are like, my God, like it’s intimidating. But I started with nothing. You know what mean? Like I started with, you know, minimal followers. So know that to get to 70 ,000, I had to start with two, three, four. You know, you have to go through the steps and you grow as the more you do it, the more you learn and the more you grow. So, yeah.
Take a chance on yourself. Who better to bet on you than you?
Mary (30:54.559)
Heck yeah. So what’s next for you? What are you up to right now? And where can we find you on social media?
Jessica D. Winder (31:00.686)
Yeah. So right now I’m actually building a course for interview prep because there are so many people right now, unfortunately, that have gone through all the mass layoffs. And so I’m building a course that like gives insight into the HR perspective of like how to get your foot in the door. What do you need to be doing and all of these things. And it’s going to come with a couple of great how to documents and all of that. So that’s what I’m building in the background. And then, yeah, I post on LinkedIn literally every day. I have a lot to say, as you could have well, if you’ve listened to this whole thing. So you can find me on LinkedIn at Jessica.
Mary (31:25.631)
Hehehehe. Hehehehe.
Jessica D. Winder (31:30.64)
D winder and then my book is sold on Amazon the hidden gem within.
Mary (31:35.551)
Awesome. Thanks for coming on today.
Jessica D. Winder (31:37.71)
Absolutely, this was so much fun.