Episode Summary
Although ‘personal brand’ has become a buzzword, individuals and organizations have started to recognize the benefits of personal brands. Still, many companies avoid or are openly against their employees building a personal brand as they think it is a conflict of interest and might hurt the business.
Therefore, it’s up to companies that acknowledge the value of their employees’ personal brands to spread the word about this practice and encourage other business owners to support their employees in building a personal brand.
In this episode of Rep Your Brand, our host Nick Bennett welcomes Parry Headrick, the founder of Crackle PR. Parry shares what it was like building a company in the middle of the pandemic and how building a community on Linkedin was a game changer for his career. He also shares valuable advice for employers and organizations and explains how encouraging employees to work on their personal brand benefits companies in the long term.
Guest Profile
- Name: Parry Headrick
- What he does: Parry is the founder of Crackle PR.
- Company: Crackle PR
- Noteworthy: In less than two years, and with 15 employees, Crackle PR crossed $2 million in annual recurring revenue, ''It's all on the back of the relationships that I've built within the community on LinkedIn. It's a hundred percent that,'' says Parry.
Key Insights
- Taking relationships on LinkedIn to the next level is about creating demand. Almost two years after starting the business, Parry has a team of 15. Even though finding, attracting, and retaining top talent is a challenging endeavor in today's business world, with the right tools and channels, you can find the right people to partner with. LinkedIn is Parry's number one choice, and his social media presence is built on his content. ''I don't do any outreach. I don't do any prospecting or reach out to people to try to hire them. It's a hundred percent inbound. The people that I hire have come to me, the people that are my clients have come to me, and it's all based on the body of work that I've put out there over a period of time. And so when you ask, ‘How do I take it to the next level?’ It's not me taking it anywhere. It's the people I employ. It's the partners that come in, and it's the clients that come in and take that step. And that, to me, is the essence of building demand.''
- To create a community, you must provide value. The great thing about LinkedIn is that there is an audience for almost anything, as Parry explains. However, if you want to attract people and make them engage with your content and keep them coming for more, you must give them something they care about. ''You can't be out there posting because your goal is to make money on the followers you generate. The goal is to provide value to people who are like-minded and wanna learn and share knowledge. And it's that whole rising-tide-that-raises-all-ships idea. It's like, 'I'm making you guys smarter.' I wanna follow people who make me smarter, and together we're introducing each other to a huge cascading bunch of folks who are smart, who help us punch above our weight class.''
- Encourage your employees to build a personal brand. Many companies think spending time on social media is a waste of time, and employees are not encouraged to be on it, at least while at work. Also, some companies fear if their employees work on a personal brand, they'll leave as soon as they receive an exciting job offer. Although these concerns are justified, employers will benefit more if they encourage their team members to pursue their own idea of success and growth. ''What I always tell my people is, 'Listen, I'm under no illusions that you're gonna retire at Crackle. You're probably gonna have 2, 3, or 5 more jobs before you're done, but while you're here, you might as well work on your brand, which will benefit me. And it will also arm you for future success.'''
Episode Highlights
A Personal Brand From Parry’s Perspective
”A personal brand means your reputation precedes you. I don’t care whether that’s looking for a job or to potentially partner with somebody — […] it means that people have seen enough about how you think, whether on LinkedIn, TikTok, or other platforms. They feel they know you before they have that first contact. […]
By the time a CMO reaches out to me for B2B tech PR, they typically say, ‘Your posts resonate with me; I feel like I know you.’ And then, from my standpoint, I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Well, that sounds like our deal’s almost 70% of the way done.’ All the hard work has already been done because they’ve seen the ethos of what I bring to the table.”
There’s an Audience for Almost Everyone on LinkedIn
”I think there are 82 million or so people on LinkedIn. There is an audience for almost everything. If I was a breeder of exotic canaries, I’m sure I could find a couple of thousand people who care about the breeding of exotic canaries.
The content of your brain is valuable to someone. So you’ve gotta start laying it out there and having an opinion on things you care about, if that’s going to be your professional direction. And if you start doing that a little over time, it’s called doing the spade work that produces a harvest over time.
It’s like going to the gym. People go to the gym for a week or two, not losing 20 pounds and not having ripped abs, and they’re like, ‘This didn’t work.’ It’s the same thing with LinkedIn. You can’t just put two or three posts up and expect that you’re gonna go viral. It doesn’t work that way.”
Revealing Things That Others Know but Are Afraid to Say Out Loud
“So when working for other people, I was a little limited in terms of what I could say.
But now that I have started my own agency, I can share, warts and all, about what’s going on within the PR industry. And I think that touched a big nerve for a lot of these folks.
There are some things that aren’t so great in PR. Some agencies are like sweat shops where they have 15 clients, and you can’t do anything well. There’s a lot of dark underbelly stuff in the PR industry.
So I started being honest about the stuff no one ever talked about. And it was then that I felt like, ‘Oh, I’m tapping into a vein here.’
People are hungry for people giving the straight dope about things, rather than just being like, ‘I’m pleased to announce an award that we won.’ There’s only so much mileage that’s gonna get you; but, if you have a truth-teller in your midst, people tend to gravitate towards that. “
