Episode Summary
In this episode of the Rep Your Brand podcast, MK Getler, Head of Marketing at Alyce, joins host, Nick Bennett, to discuss the importance of building a personal brand. According to MK, a personal brand is your point of view. It is a point of view at this particular moment in time. It can change and grow as you grow on a personal and professional level.
MK is an outdoorsy type. She is passionate about snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing. She enjoys spending time in nature and taking long walks with her fiance and their dog. Our guest believes time we spend outside of the workplace gives a new dimension to our personality.
Nick and MK discuss social media. Our guest reveals she doesn’t spend much time on online platforms except on LinkedIn. MK also talks about the importance of being part of a community and explains how it helped her build a personal brand.
Guest Profile
- Name: MK Getler
- What MK does: MK is a Head of Marketing at Alyce, a company helping sales and marketing teams to create personal bonds with their prospects, customers, and partners through corporate one-to-one gifts.
- Company: Alyce
- Key Quote: "Challenge yourself. Try to find people who challenge your thought process. Don't be afraid of a little bit of challenge, a little bit of pushback, and be open to learning."
Key Insights
- A personal brand is such a buzzword now. Although it sometimes sounds bad, MK says a personal brand is a thing people should think about. A personal brand is your point of view, and anyone who wants to grow an audience first needs to have a defined point of view. Building a community on social media, especially on Linkedin, is a tricky task, but some people see other people's success on social media as something that happened overnight. ''People underestimate how much it took for those folks to be out there refining and defining what their point of view is on something.''
- The best learning happens outside of our workplace. MK encourages people to have side projects. She also believes everything you do in your free time helps you be more creative and successful at your day-to-day job. ''I distance myself from work by getting outdoors, by spending some time not sitting at my desk, not thinking about solving the problems. At Alyce, I do my best thinking when I'm not in the trenches of the work, of the problems I'm trying to solve.''
- You have to tap into communities. People need to be part of the community; connect with other people; share the same interests and help each other to evolve. As MK explains, being part of the community helped her shape her skills. ''I prefer to lean into communities where we can uplift one another where it's not about me; it's about us and how we can learn from each other and use that as a means for evolving at a much larger scale.''
“The companies that are winning. The brands that are winning. The marketing leaders that are winning…are leaders that are relatable. That are accessible.”
MK Getler
Head of Marketing
Alyce
Episode Highlights
Your Personal Brand Is What You Stand for in This Moment
People often think a personal brand is expressing a point of view that never changes. However, as MK explains, your point of view should grow and change. ”Your personal brand is what you stand for at this moment. What are the things you use to educate yourself and educate your market, educate your customers, educate your team? And how do you use that as your superpower to help those around you elevate themselves and bring themselves to a new, higher understanding of whatever that point of view is.”
The Five to Nine Concept
We all know what nine to five means, but what is five to nine? ”You can find out what I do in my nine to five, but my five to nine is what brings dimension. It’s what brings clarity to who I am and what I stand for on a personal level, not just a professional level. If you’re thinking about the modern consumer today, most folks are attracted to brands where they see themselves most closely aligned to the messaging.”
I’m All for People Working on a Side Hustle
One of the essential lessons MK has learned over time is the importance of being authentic and staying true to yourself no matter what. That’s why people should have side projects and build their personal brand outside of work. ”I’m all for people working on a side hustle. As long as what you’re saying out there matches what you’re doing and the impact you’re driving within the workplace.”
A Piece of Advice for New Marketers: Start With a Point of View
”It’s like most marketers, you want to start with your buyer persona, your audience, what are their pain points, what are their challenges? But you have to start internally first if you ever want to start developing an ecosystem around you. Most folks are using this personal brand to build a community to draw and attract people.
The key is starting with the WHY and what that point of view is. And then build concentric circles outside of it, start exploring the depths and breadths of all the things related to that point of view.”
I Focus All My Resources on Building Community Through LinkedIn
MK is not so active on social media. She’d rather spend time outdoors or with her loved ones than on online platforms. The network she uses is LinkedIn. ”I’ll spend time curating community through LinkedIn and working through my personal brand and expressing that on LinkedIn because that’s where I have time and where I can dedicate my best sources of energy too.”
