Stand Out, Lead Strong: Nicholette Hemingway on Building Your Brand| EP174

According to recent workforce studies, over 70% of professionals feel invisible at work and unsure how to stand out in their organizations. If you’ve ever wondered how to elevate your presence, strengthen your leadership brand, or pivot with confidence, this episode is for you. 

In this conversation, career coach and speaker Nicholette Hemingway breaks down practical strategies to help professionals show up confident, competent, and ready for their next level. We explore how to distinguish yourself inside your organization, what it really means to build a leadership brand, and the steps to take when you’re ready to pivot your career with clarity and courage. 

Tune in and learn how to build a brand that opens doors no matter where you are in your career journey.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholetteh/

Website: https://nikehspeaks.com/

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Transcript

Nicholette Hemingway 0:00

Be credible, be visible, be consistent, and get to know people within the organization. Whether you're starting out, believe me, that's where your leadership brand starts when you first come into work and you just build on it by doing different things.

Kelly Leonard 0:17

That was Nicolette Hemingway. Nicolette is a speaker, author, and the owner of Nike H Speaks LLC, where she provides career coaching, resume writing, and interview preparation to help professionals show up confident and competent. In today's episode, she shares practical strategies to build your brand. I'm Kelly Leonard, and this is the Boost Podcast.

Announcer 0:50

Welcome to the Boost Podcast, the podcast created to ignite your business and career potential. In each episode, host Kelly Leonard and her guests dive into one aspect of Kelly's signature boost framework, ensuring you get practical, actionable insights, tips, and takeaways to build your brand, optimize relationships, obtain more leads, secure thought leadership space, and tap into new markets. And now, here's Kelly Leonard.

Kelly Leonard 1:21

Hey there, Nicolette. Welcome to the Boost Podcast. Thank you so much, Kelly, for the invitation. I'm excited about today. Excellent. And so for folks hearing your name for the very first time, tell us a bit about yourself.

Nicholette Hemingway 1:34

Sure. I'm Nicolette Hemingway. I am the owner of NikeH Speaks, which is a career coaching business. I have many years of experience being on different interview panels from the city, county, state, and federal government levels. So I used all that experience to create my own business. And my aim is to coach middle to upper level managers so they can show their best selves to others. Awesome.

Kelly Leonard 2:04

Thank you for that background and context. And I'd imagine now, more than ever, there's so much going on in terms of folks in transition and all that good stuff. And so many professionals want to stand out, but really aren't sure where to start. And so, what's the most effective way to distinguish yourself inside of an organization?

Nicholette Hemingway 2:24

Sure. One thing I suggest to my clients is distinguish yourself in terms of your credibility. And by that, I'm talking about being credible where you definitely deliver on your promises. If you say you're going to call somebody by close a business today, make sure you do that and don't call at 459 and try to leave a real quick message and then hang up and you're gone. So that's one thing, credibility. The other thing is visibility. Make sure you're known throughout the organization for doing something specific. For me, I'm called the interviewologist. My friends and family, they're like, oh, Nike, we can ask you any question and you can give us an answer like this. So be known for something specific in that organization. And then the last thing I would suggest is consistency. You show up the same way across different settings. So whether you're in a meeting with your team, you're in the meeting with VPs, or even in a meeting with the CEO, be the same. And so those are some tips that I'd give for having, you know, your leadership brand there.

Kelly Leonard 3:37

So when you talk about visibility, is there any particular way, like what's one thing that someone could do in order to increase their visibility? Because I think that's one of those areas where maybe it's easier said than done for some people. So what would you suggest could be something that someone does like starting immediately to increase their visibility?

Nicholette Hemingway 3:58

Oh, that's a great question, Kelly. One thing I would suggest is if there's a committee you can get on that is cross-functional, not just your department, but dealing with other departments, that's a great way to get visibility. People will know your name and then your work ethic. So, you know, your reputation will follow you. You want to make sure you're visible in terms of that. And a lot of organizations now are going through re-orgs or they're starting some initiative. Volunteer to be on that because that'll give you great visibility across so many different divisions within the organization.

Kelly Leonard 4:37

And so, and I think I feel like visibility is a great segue into my next question as it pertains to just sort of building a leadership brand. And so, what does it actually mean to build a leadership brand? And then what are a few simple ways that someone can begin shaping theirs?

Nicholette Hemingway 4:55

Sure. For me, a leadership brand is pretty much your set of unique values, your strengths, your behaviors, and those shape you. And in fact, they will have others how they perceive you. So if you have those values of strengths and those behaviors, people will perceive you based on that.

Kelly Leonard 5:17

And so are there some ways that someone can shape those values, even or their leadership brand?

Nicholette Hemingway 5:24

Sure. One thing I suggest is be intentional. Every day when you get up before you go to work, be intentional of what you're going to accomplish. I know many of us professionals, we have that long to-do list, but be intentional about completing at least one thing on that list. That's one way. And then also you can amplify your brand by mentoring others. That's such a great way of giving back. I know throughout my career I've been mentored, I've mentored other people. And then also you want to network. Those are so important. I tell people, let your network work for you. And those will open up opportunities, maybe to get on that new initiative to see about or hear about another promotion within the organization that you normally wouldn't hear about. So those are some things you can do in terms of leadership brand.

Kelly Leonard 6:22

And so I'd be curious to know because oftentimes, um, and we've got such a diverse listening audience from you know, sort of early career professionals to more senior level C-suite leaders. How would your guidance, I guess, shift or would it shift at all when you're advising an early career professional on how to build their leadership brand? Because I think it's easy to think, oh, I'm, you know, I'm a new kid on the block. I'm not really a quote unquote leader. Like, but I feel like leadership, isn't that also sort of a state of mind? And so what would you suggest to someone who's early in their career how they might also go about building their leadership brand?

Nicholette Hemingway 7:03

That's a great question, Kelly. And the things that I said beforehand, you know, be credible, be visible, be consistent, and get to know people within the organization. Whether you're starting out, believe me, that's where your leadership brand starts when you first come into work and you just build on it by doing different things. As you grow in terms of skills, professionalism, knowledge, then your leadership brand will expand as well. Say today, Kelly, you're known as, you know, a motivational leader. Five years from now, you've acquired different skills, you've done some different things, and so you can be known as a servant leader. So your leadership brand should evolve as you evolve within your career.

Kelly Leonard 7:51

Wow. Thank you for that. And so a lot of folks are also in career pivots, right? Because the market, the workplace is just changing, lightning fast. And so, what are a few practical steps that folks who are in a career pivot can take in order to make the transition with greater confidence?

Nicholette Hemingway 8:09

Sure. I've coached several clients who were military, transitioning from the military into the real world. And some of the things we did was do research. Research that particular career you're interested in. Know about advancement opportunities, know about the pay, know about the qualifications you need for that job, the benefits. A lot of times it's not always money, but it's the benefits. So, for instance, I don't need your health insurance. I'm retired military. So, can you give me some more money and pay? Or can you give me more vacation time? So those are things that you can think about. And then also look at what you're passionate about doing. Will you wake up every day passionate about being an underwater basket weaver? Or does your heart really beat for being a dog sitter? So look at that, you know, align your passion and your skills and see if that can pivot you into a career. That'll be satisfying.

Kelly Leonard 9:12

Yeah, and that's good. So I appreciate what you were saying about folks moving from military into sort of the civilian workforce. Um, and I also appreciate what you said about sort of aligning work with passion and less real talk. Some some work you're gonna need to do and you're not gonna be passionate about it. And so because it's just the way, okay, the marketplace, like when you think about a lot of the open roles are, for example, in the tech space. And so so many people may not have that that you know that interest, much less that skill set. And so, what would you say to folks who are perhaps in a transition and they're just trying to find their way to towards what's next? Because, you know, the the fact of the matter is, is that you know, your bill collectors and other folks like that could care less if you're passionate about the work that you do. They just want to know, can you pay the bills? Yes. And so, like, what like real talk, like what guidance, what advice would you give to someone who's in a transition and sort of maybe they're feeling a little bit frustrated because they can't, because they want to work in their passion. But the truth of the matter is that their passion simply isn't what's going to pay right now. So, do you have any guidance that you would share with someone who is perhaps in that type of scenario?

Nicholette Hemingway 10:33

Sure. Look at, I call it, you know, the lesser of three evils. Pick out three careers that you would like to do. You may not be passionate about it, but can you go in there, give 100%, and feel satisfied that, okay, I gave it all I got. Of course, if you're looking for a chair and a check, you want to be realistic in terms of not letting that employer know that. Because oftentimes employers can sense if you're desperate or if you just want a chair and a check. And they're not going to invest money into you for training, et cetera, if they know you're going to be here temporary. So look at what you would like to do and see how you can get in that particular area and get some experience. You're still getting experience and skills. So you're still building on your leadership brand. And then if you have to take extra classes, take those classes while you're working there. Because, like you said, we all got to pay bills. Those don't stop until we die. So, you know, look at something that you can really do that you'll at least enjoy. Awesome. That's great advice. And look, I've never heard chair and a check. That's good. I love that. I've had a mentor when I was in the military, a mentor, he was great. He was like, you know, Nicholette, we're retired now. We want to get us a job where we're going to push the L button on the computer on the keyboard all day. And then in two weeks, we got our chair and we get our check. That's he was like, chair and a check, Nicholette. That's all we're looking at. I was like, oh, that sounds so good. A chair and a check. So that's because a mentor of mine, yes.

Kelly Leonard 12:10

And look, those roles are few and far between in this case. You have to work nowadays. I mean, really work. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So, yeah, Nicholette, if folks are, you know, want to tap into your genius, what's the best way for them to get back in touch with you following the podcast?

Nicholette Hemingway 12:27

Sure. They can reach out to me on my website, Nike Hspeaks.com, or they can email me info@ nikehspeaks.com.

Kelly Leonard 12:36

Awesome. Thank you again for your contributions to the conversation today.

Nicholette Hemingway 12:40

Thank you, Kelly, for the invitation. I really enjoyed this.

Announcer 12:45

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