(gentle music)
- Hi and welcome to Between The Lines.
I'm your host Lea Woodford and with my today
is Sheila Anderson, author of I.C.U.
Wow, Sheila, let's talk about this book
because I love what you say:
The Comprehensive Guide To Breathing Life
Into Your Personal Brand.
Now that's a very personal story in here.
Can we talk about that?
- Sure.
So, the concept of I.C.U. or Breathing Life Back Into
Your Personal Brand came from me not really loving
who I was and not really feeling self-confident.
I had to figure out a way to dig deep,
to be intentional with who I was,
to figure out what my values are,
what my strengths are and how to bring that out
so people externally can figure out who I am
and so I can present myself more confidently.
And so I kind of became my own art project
and I had to figure out how to breathe life
back into me because I was a point in my life
that I said I didn't love myself and I felt invisible
when I walked into the room and I had figure out
how do I gain that self-confidence,
how can I do that through personal branding,
and how can I do that through creating a new image
of who I am?
- You know, when I heard you speak and you said
I felt invisible, can we talk about that a little bit
because people, I don't think they really understand
what personal branding is, but I loved what you said
when you said I felt invisible and I wanna drill down
on that a little bit.
- Sure.
Being invisible was about not loving who I was,
not having that self-confidence, not holding myself
in a strong position when I interacted with people
or when I walked into the room.
I kinda hid and I just felt really not good about myself
and it was really hard and so being invisible,
I always say people need to know you before they need you.
And so how do I even know who you are
if I haven't interacted in a way with you.
And I always say people
should be the chief experience officer of you.
You have to own that experience others have with you.
And what is that experience people were having with me?
Well, they really weren't having an experience with me
because I was not confident in putting myself out there
and interacting with people and projecting who I was
in a lot of way.
So I had to overcome a lot of self-talk,
a lot of self-love, a lot of body issues
that I had to overcome and I still deal with that.
- I think most women, we are our worst critics.
- We are.
- One of the things that this book really does
is you address those issues.
We not only are hard on ourselves,
but we're hard on each other.
But I was sitting with my sister, sister-in-law,
and you walked in the room and she tells me,
and Karen is not easily impressed,
she goes, I want to meet her.
And I've never had her say something like that to me before
so just your presence got her attention
and you talk so much about that book.
Can we talk about how you created this look and your brand.
What is a personal brand and how can that help you
move forward in not only marketing your book,
but your business?
- Right, so I said before,
it's you are the chief experience officer of you
so you have to think about how do you want other people
to experience you?
What are those words you wanna own in the minds of others
when you think of you?
And that doesn't just pertain to personal branding,
that's exactly how a corporate brand is built as well.
It's like owning that experience others have with you
at every touch point.
And so in my book, the I stands for being intentional,
really figuring out who you are.
Like what are your values, what are your strengths,
what do you bring to the table, what's your uniqueness?
Again, that's not anything different
than it is with a corporate brand.
And then figuring that all out,
and then how do I bring that out with my look
and at every touch point.
There's something I call about popping your brand.
- You pop it.
- How do you pop your brands?
So popping your brands it stands for presenting yourself
personally, is the first P.
And then the O is how do you present yourself online
because we live in an internet-based world
and we are searching people, we are Googling people.
We're trying to figure out who they are before we meet them.
And the last P is how you're presenting yourself in public
through your career or through community events
and how you're volunteering.
And all those different points,
like how you're presenting yourself personally,
how you're presenting yourself online and publicly
all form and come together and build your personal brand
and that experience people have with you.
- Now if you could go back in time
to your 21-year-old self, what would you tell yourself?
- That's a great question.
I think it's just really owning who you are
and I think that sometimes that's cliche,
but it really for me, just to understand that you have
a value and a uniqueness that nobody else in the world has,
that you are put together in a way that nobody else has.
Nobody else has your strengths, your values,
your characteristics, your beliefs, your goals, your body.
Nobody else has that so why not own that
and really embrace who you are.
- What was your favorite chapter in the book.
And I'm putting this book up here because I love this book.
But what was your favorite chapter?
- Being consistent.
- That's so hard, too.
- It is really hard and it's a daily awareness
where you have to be aware of how you're presenting yourself
at all times and, again, through every touch point.
So being consistent, because if you're not consistent
you're gonna show up differently in people,
then lose trust in you.
And so I think being consistent is the lifeblood
of building that brand, that consistent brand.
- What's your favorite part of transforming someone
and helping them find their personal brand?
- For me it's the aesthetic piece, so how things look
and how things appear have mattered to me
from a very early age and so that's my favorite part
of personal branding or helping people
is that what's that aesthetic piece to it?
How do they look?
And I always kind of talk to them about
do you have curb appeal?
Do I want to, do I walk past you or do I look at you
and go, oh, I'm intrigued.
I wanna learn more about that person,
I wanna get to know that inside.
- Well you have that in spades.
(laughing)
You have that in spades.
- Thank you.
It's been a journey.
- What's been your biggest challenge?
- Personally?
- Mm-hmm (affirmative).
With the book, with writing the book
because I know when I wrote my book, it was a job.
- Well, I really don't like to write.
That's the honest truth.
And so I had to become disciplined,
I had to become consistent with this
and I had accountability partners,
but I ended up having to set my alarm on my phone
for 30 minutes and then just write and brain dump.
And whatever came to mind, that's what I did.
I remember the very first couple days
that I was writing my book and those first 30 minutes
I thought, I was typing away and then I'm thinking,
man, it's gotta be close to that 30 minutes
and I'm pretty sure I'm kind of maxed out on all my words.
And I would look down at my phone and I'd be 10 minutes in.
(laughing)
I was like, oh!
But I got better.
- You do get better.
- I got better and I wanted to write it myself
because I needed that personal experience
and I also did it as a personal development thing for myself
because I knew I didn't like writing,
but I made myself write so I got better at it.
- Well, and this is a really personal book.
You talk about some pretty deep things.
Can we talk about that?
- Sure.
It goes back again to the confidence thing
and coming from a place where I didn't love my body
and I didn't love my image and I was a size 2X,
I was a plus size for many, many years.
And I got really frustrated with the fashion industry
on not having choices for that plus size.
Now it's much better than it used to be,
but society gives you false beliefs
on what they think the perfect woman should be.
- So true.
- And it's terrible and as women we do this
and we shouldn't but we compare ourselves to other women
and so then we become disheartened with who we are
because we, I don't look like that, I'm like this.
- I cry when I put on jeans and bathing suits.
It's a really painful experience.
- It is and it's hard.
And again, I've had to learn to embrace my curves and I--
- I'm a work in progress on that.
(laughing)
- And again, it's a daily awareness for me
and it's a constant thing that I work through as well.
I'm not 100% always there, so I'm human.
- I think it's okay not to be 100% all the time,
don't you think?
- Yeah, I think that's relatable
that I am just like every other woman.
There's things I struggle with on my body and it's okay.
- In your book you talk about BP, brand pulse.
What is that?
- That's a way to monitor your brand,
so I kind of did it as a play with check your BPs
and you're kinda thinking your blood pressure,
but it's also checking your brand pulse,
keeping a pulse on your brands and doing a check
and I have people do it quarterly.
Go out and Google yourself and write down what you're
finding and go look at the articles you've written.
Do they make sense and do they tie back to your brand?
And check your wardrobe.
It is congruent to how you wanna present yourself?
Do you need to clean some things out?
What are some things that you need to add to your wardrobe?
So you're checking your brand pulse
and keeping a pulse on how you're presenting yourself
personally, online and in the public.
And there's things that you could be doing,
are there things you could be doing in the public?
Are there upcoming events that you should be attending?
So check out the community events.
I have people do that quarterly and just figure out
where can I go be visible?
- And you also say shop in your closet.
Can you drill down on that one?
I love that.
- That should be your favorite boutique.
Your closet should be your favorite boutique.
You should be able to go into your closet and
love what you have in there
and just really have a place to express yourself
because you're expressing yourself every day
by what you put on.
And so it's really building out who you are every day
in your closet, so I love the closet thing.
So kind of a trick I have people do is turn all your hangers
backwards and then you can check after three months
what you're not wearing.
So after you wear something, you put it back on the hanger
the proper way and then you can just do a scan.
Like what are you wearing, what don't you like,
and why don't you like it?
And I always say you have to put on clothing
that makes you feel amazing.
You should be able to put on something
and look in the mirror and go, yeah, baby,
I look good, I like this.
And there's a confidence about that and you feel that.
You know when you put something on and makes you
just kinda like, because that empowers your brain
all day long.
- Wow.
I love it every time you say I'm shopping in my closet.
I like that about turning the hangers around.
I'm gonna try that.
I find that I tend to wear my favorite things
all the time.
How can I vamp that up a little bit?
- And then my question back to you is why are they
your favorite things?
Why are you always going to those pieces?
What about those pieces do you love
because you probably need more of them.
So you just clean out the things that you don't love.
Everything you should love,
but figure out why do I like these pieces?
Is it the fit, is it the color?
Build your wardrobe, I always say,
around three different colors,
three core colors 'cause then everything goes together
and it's always consistent.
And it's done intentionally.
And make a list.
You kinda check your closet.
So what are your core pieces that you're wearing
and I always say the great way to expand your wardrobe
is to have more tops than bottoms because people
pay attention to more what you have up on top
than they do with your bottom.
So if you're gonna invest in a lot of clothing
or a lot of items, go by tops and go buy jackets
and you can mix and match with that.
- Well, I wear a lot of jackets obviously.
- You do.
- One of the things my grandmother always said was
buy classic pieces that are timeless and invest in those
and then you can also invest in stuff
that's not as expensive, but when you put it together
it looks amazing.
- Yeah, the 80/20 rule very much applies
to your closet as well.
It's like 80% of your pieces should be as high quality
as possible that you can afford and the pieces
that are very classic that can last 10 years or more,
and those basic staples.
The nice trouser, the nice jacket.
Then 20% can be spend on fun trends
or something that's fun that you like
that's coming up this spring and summer
or fall and winter and you can buy
just a cheapy version of it because maybe this
can be for one season and you can fun with that.
So just add those little fun pieces to your wardrobe.
- I love to have fun with this.
The trends don't always stay with me.
I look at some of my '80s pictures and I'm just going,
ooh, what was I thinking?
- And just because it's in style and on trend
doesn't mean that it's right for you.
- Who was your most influential fashionista?
Is there anybody that you just loved their style?
- There's two people.
I love my Grandma Barthel.
She was amazing and every time we would come to her house
or pick her up for anything,
she always through on her fur coat,
she always had a fancy, fussy hat on.
She cared about how she looked and she always wore a dress
and heels and she was kind of proper and so I really admired
that in her and she was actually an entrepreneur
before I think it was a thing.
She bought and sold houses and she was a speaker
so she taught her Polish art and she would go around
and teach her art.
So she really inspired me from a fashion sense
and then also just like a strong woman.
But I do love Princess Diana because of--
- Me too.
- She was branded Shy Di for several years.
Then she really came out of that and to watch her transform
and for her to be really authentic and to live
in that public eye and I think we just embrace her
being so genuine and her struggles were out there
for everybody to see and how she really transformed herself
from this really shy, Shy Di to this really powerful,
classy, very classy woman.
And so I admire her style and I admire grace through it all.
- I have all her books.
And I stayed up and watched the wedding, remember that one.
- Oh, I watched the wedding too.
Like her dress, I just couldn't get over.
- I know.
Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- I loved it. - Enjoyed it.
Thank you.
- This has been Lea Woodford with Between The Lines.
Thanks for watching.