(soft music)
- Hi, and welcome to Between the Lines.
I'm your host, Lea Woodford, and with me 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 in your personal brand
came from me not really loving who I was
and not really feeling self-confident
and 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 at 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 to 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 want to drill down on that a little bit.
- Sure, so 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,
and I just 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, right?
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 ways.
And 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 everybody does. - I think most women,
we are our worst critics. - We are.
- And one of the things that this book really does
is you address those issues. - Right.
- I mean, we not only are hard on ourselves,
but we're hard on each other.
But I was sitting with my 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 like I said before,
is 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 want to 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 touchpoint.
And so in my book, the I stands for being intentional,
really figuring out who you are.
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 touchpoint?
And there's something I call about popping your brand.
- You're poppin'.
(laughing)
- I mean, how do you pop your brands?
And so popping your brands, it stands for
presenting yourself personally is the first P
and 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 then 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.
You have to be aware of how you're presenting yourself
at all times, and again, through every touchpoint.
So being consistent, because if you're not consistent,
you're gonna show up differently
and people then lose trust in you.
And so I think being consistent is, it's 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 I have, 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,
you know, do you have curb appeal?
Do I walk past you or do I look at you
and go oh, I'm intrigued?
I want to learn more about that person.
I want to get to know that inside.
- Well, you have that in spades.
(laughing)
- Thank you. - You have that in spades.
- It's been a journey.
- What's been your biggest challenge?
- Personally?
- 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 zone
and whatever came to mind, that's what I did.
And 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 think,
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 I don't look like that, I look 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.
- 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 mean, I'm not 100% always there, so I'm human.
- And I think it's okay not to be 100% all the time,
don't you think?
- Yeah, I think that and that's relatable.
I am just like every other woman.
There's things I struggle with on my body.
- We all do.
- 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 kind of thinking your blood pressure,
but it's also checking your brand pulse,
keeping a pulse on your brand 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.
Is it congruent to how you want to present yourself?
Do you need to clean some things out?
What are some things that you need to add to your wardrobe?
So just 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,
there's things you could be doing in the public.
Are there upcoming events that you should be attending?
So check out the community events.
So I just 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.
- So 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 and so kind of the trick
that I have people do is you turn all your hangers backwards
and then you can check after three months
and what you're not wearing,
so if you wear something, you put it back on the hanger
the proper way and then you can just really 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.
I mean, 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
and you know when you put something on
and it makes you just kind of like,
because that empowers your brain all day long.
- Wow, so 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 just kind of 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?
It's 'cause you probably need more of them,
so you just clean out all the things that you don't.
(laughing)
So everything you should love,
but figure out, why do I like these pieces?
Is it the fit?
Is it the color?
And build your wardrobe, I always say,
around three different colors, you get three core colors
'cause then everything goes together
and it's always consistent.
(laughing)
And it's done intentionally.
But yeah, and make a list.
I mean, you're gonna check your closet,
what are your core pieces that you're wearing
and I always say the old 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 buy tops and go buy jackets
and you can mix and match that.
- I wear a lot of jackets, obviously.
- You do, 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.
And then 20% can be spent on fun trends.
If there's something that's fun that you like
that's coming up in spring or summer, fall and winter,
and you can buy just a cheapy version of it
because it's maybe just gonna be for one season
and you can have fun with that.
But you can just add
those little fun pieces to your wardrobe.
- I love to have fun with that.
The trends don't always stay with me.
I look at some of my '80s pictures
and I'm just going, oh, what was I thinking?
- Yeah, and just because it's in style and on trend
doesn't mean it's right for you.
- Who was your most influential fashionista?
Is there anybody that you just love their style?
- So there's two people.
I love my Grandma Berthel.
She was amazing, and every time we would come to her house
or pick her up for anything,
she always threw 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 also just a strong woman.
But I do love Princess Diana because of--
- Me too.
- She was branded Shy Di for several years
and 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 embraced 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 powerful, classy, very classy woman.
And so I admired her style and I admired her grace.
- I have all of her books
and I stayed up and watched the wedding.
Remember that?
- I watched the wedding, too.
Like her dress, I just couldn't get over.
(laughing) - I know.
And Princess Kate really emulates her in a lot of ways.
- Yes, she does.
- This has been so fun.
Sheila, how can our viewing audience
get a copy of this amazing book?
- Well, they can go to my website, imagepowerplay.com,
or you can buy the book on Amazon.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
- I loved it.
- Thank you.
- This has been Lea Woodford with Between the Lines.
Thanks for watching.