Ep 157 - Building Authentic Connections through Personal Branding Especially for Introverts with Leanne Calderwood

Are you tired of feeling like you have to change who you are to succeed in the world of networking and professional relationships? Do you know how to harness your introverted strengths in a noisy, extroverted world? In this episode of The Quiet And Strong Podcast, join host David Hall and guest Leanne Calderwood as they dive into the power of personal branding for introverts. Discover how to authentically connect, influence, and lead, all while staying true to your introverted nature.

You'll learn how to leverage tools like LinkedIn and storytelling to showcase your credibility, build trust, and make a significant impact without conforming to extroverted norms. You'll also gain practical insights to navigate professional settings with confidence. Tune in to uncover the strengths of introversion, bust myths, and empower yourself to shine quietly and authentically. Join us on this journey of self-discovery, resilience, and quiet strength – and be strong.

Episode Link: QuietandStrong.com/157

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Leanne Calderwood is a trainer and speaker and one of Canada’s top voices in the meetings and events industry. A self-professed raging introvert and tea drinker, Leanne’s content helps professionals “shine quietly”, harness their strengths and create impact and influence in a noisy world. As a veteran meeting broker Leanne has a unique perspective into both sides of a sale’s transaction. She shines a light on these best practices and helps professionals break through the clutter and stand out from their competition through her blog posts, LinkedIn content and digital courses. Leanne is a regular columnist for the Canadian Meetings + Events Expo, and has been featured in numerous publications and podcasts. She was welcomed into the Canadian Meetings + Events Hall of Fame in 2023.

Contact Leanne:

Website: LeanneCalderwood.com
Socials: Linked Ink

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Contact the Host of the Quiet and Strong Podcast:

David Hall

Author, Speaker, Educator, Podcaster

quietandstrong.com
Gobio.link/quietandstrong
david [at] quietandstrong.com

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Transcript

Leanne Calderwood [00:00:00]:
Yeah. Well, I started my personal brand, I guess about 16, 17 years ago when, or my job in the industry took a slight pivot. And, for the 1st time I was, kind of forced to have to do some sales. And I'll save, Save your audience's story of how stressful learning how to do sales was. But it was really in those moments that I figured I have to do sales differently. I cannot do sales the way that you see those car salesman and those other big successful salespeople do it.

David Hall [00:00:44]:
Hello, and welcome to episode 157 of the Quietest Strong podcast, especially for introverts. I'm your host, David Hall and the creator of quiet and strong.com. This is a weekly podcast dedicated to understanding the strengths and needs of introverts. Introversion is not something to fix, but to be embraced. Normally, while there are each episode on a Monday, be sure to subscribe on your favorite platform. Leave a review, that would mean a lot to me. Tell a friend about the podcast, and help get the word out there that introversion is a beautiful thing. Leanne Calderwood is a trainer and speaker and one of Canada's top voices in the meetings and events industry.

David Hall [00:01:23]:
A self professed raging introvert and tea drinker, Leanne's content helps professionals shine quietly, harness their strengths and create impact and influence in a noisy world. As a veteran meeting broker, Leanne has a unique perspective Into both sides of a sales transaction. She shines a light on these best practices and helps professionals break through the clutter And stand out from their competition through her blog posts, LinkedIn content and digital courses. Leanne is a regular columnist For the Canadian Meetings and Events Expo and has been featured in numerous publications and podcasts. She was welcomed into the Canadian Meetings at events hall of fame in 2023. Alright. Well, welcome to the Quiet and Strong podcast, Leanne. It's so nice to have you on today.

Leanne Calderwood [00:02:14]:
It's great to be here. Thanks for the opportunity, David.

David Hall [00:02:18]:
Alright. We're gonna get into the great work you do, especially with branding and LinkedIn. But first, let's just hear a little bit more about you, your journey as an introvert to doing the work you do now and working with introverts too.

Leanne Calderwood [00:02:30]:
Yeah, sure. Well, I've been, hanging my hat actually in the meetings and events industry for 25 years. And it was about 20 years ago that my career took a slight pivot where I needed to do a bit more sales and actually finding clients. And I think it was really in that moment that I realized that one of these things is not like the other. My boss and mentor at the time, he was putting me through some cold call exercises, is right. Those role plays that all sales people do when they enter the industry. And it not only did I cry, I literally cried right there in my boss's office. But the idea of doing that activity was so uncomfortable, but yet every one of my colleagues, it was the easiest thing in the world for them to do.

Leanne Calderwood [00:03:21]:
And David, I don't know about you, but I like in myself as an intelligent person and yet I couldn't crack that nut as to why it was so uncomfortable for me to do that outward reach out. And that was kind of really where I knew so I knew I was different, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. And then learning that the way I did sales had to be done differently too. And that of course that started, you know, my whole LinkedIn and personal branding journey, but it also brought awareness that Introverts do do things differently. We do sales differently. But I think the first step that I took was just saying to myself, yeah, I guess I am different. I am doing things differently in a very extroverted industry. And and I'm okay with that.

Leanne Calderwood [00:04:12]:
It's everyone else who kinda looked at me that it wasn't okay, but I was okay with kinda that new direction in my life, knowing that I now kinda had this label that I was the introvert. I was the quieter one in the room.

David Hall [00:04:27]:
Yeah. That's great. And it's that's what this show is all about. It's we do things differently. We succeed differently. And for so many people that still not Understood. Whether you are an introvert or you are extrovert, it's and it but it's great. And that's how we find the most success is when we embrace who we are And we do things differently.

David Hall [00:04:44]:
I love how you put that.

Leanne Calderwood [00:04:46]:
Mhmm. Yeah. I would agree. I think you're right. I think introverts more than extroverts are pressured to be something that they're not, because that's what society said that you should be, you know, you should be outgoing and you should be, you know, dancing on barroom tables was and such. And I'm not sure why we should be doing that, but we don't have to. And we can find success and we can find community in our own way. And so I found community now both with introverts and extroverts, and that community and friendship is even different between the two two different kinds of individuals.

David Hall [00:05:22]:
Yeah. And you know, I don't, I've never really thought about this, an introvert extrovert, but I don't like role playing. I don't like to do pretend stuff and I don't I don't know. Other introverts might be fine with it, but, you know, I'd rather just kinda prepare mentally and and I don't really wanna practice On an imaginary situation.

Leanne Calderwood [00:05:41]:
Well, and I think, and that's the thing with sales is you see a lot of these sales, trainings, they're doing improvisation and they're doing all this drama. And to your point, I think there's some introverts who are quite fine with those activities. But if you had to look at how many people are gonna be comfortable with doing that improv and doing that, you know, those cold call scenarios, the extroverts are just gonna thrive. They're gonna think faster on their feet. And that's definitely one of their strengths is they can do things super, super quickly and they go with their gut instinct, etcetera. But as you know, David, us introverts, we need to kinda sit with something and almost let it simmer like a, you know, a good, a good pot of stew and kind of, we just got to get the most out of it by just letting it sit and ruminate with us for a while, and then we're able to formulate those responses. So improv, I think for me at least is quite difficult because it doesn't allow me that time to kind of think things through before I formulate my response.

David Hall [00:06:44]:
Yeah. And that's that's I think that's one of the big realizations I came to is sometimes it depends on the topic. I may be good at thinking No, my feet. If I've thought about something a lot, but in general, I'm going to do so much better in different situations where I've done some preparation and, you know, and I could be jealous of my extroverted friend that they don't have to do that, but I've just learned, hey, you know what? This is the way you're gonna be brilliant By thinking ahead, preparing, whether it's that speech or presentation, whatever it is.

Leanne Calderwood [00:07:16]:
Mhmm. Mhmm. Agreed. Agreed.

David Hall [00:07:19]:
You know. So how did you put a how did you get to the I'm an introvert? Like, was there any resources or how did you come to that?

Leanne Calderwood [00:07:27]:
Well, and I think, a lot of us have taken those Myers Briggs assessments where, if you're familiar with Myers Briggs, there's kind of 4 different pillars. And that 1st pillar is, are you an introvert or an extrovert? And so every time I did Myers Briggs, it always came back as the I, INTJ is my assessment. And so that was kind of the first label that, okay, here it is. I just took the test and I consistently try and take this test to get a different result. And it's continually I, I, I introvert, introvert, introvert. But I think the, one of the things that we failed to do after we learned that we are that I, that introvert is then dive into, you know, why are we an introvert and how does that manifest in our lives? And so that's really what I started doing in my thirties is okay, now I've got the label, But what does that mean to me in practical terms? What does that mean for me when I step into a career role? And now fast forward another 20 years, What does that mean for me as, as a mom, as, as all of these other roles that I have to play in my life? So seeing how that manifests in your life is I think the one thing we don't do enough of. We're good with the label, but what does that mean in our day to day relationships with others.

David Hall [00:08:49]:
Yeah. And I'm a fellow INTJ, so that's probably why we're having such a great conversation. Yeah. Yeah. And it's so important. I talk about this often. It's like you have to get behind. What what is behind this label? And Myers Briggs was key for me too and just realizing, oh, there's certain things.

David Hall [00:09:04]:
But it also goes over some other ways where we differ, not just introversion, extroversion. And so that's really helpful to know. We're not all exactly the same. You know, as we get to know each other, we're definitely gonna have some things in common, some differences. You know, we're probably gonna have more things in common, both, you know, being the I n t j s, you know, with Also being intuitive and being a thinking and analytical person and kinda organized, those kinds of things. And there's gonna be some differences along those lines too.

Leanne Calderwood [00:09:34]:
Yeah. Well, and I think the one thing about the Myers Briggs, and this is because it was created decades ago and we've learned a lot now about introversion and extroversion is introversion and extroversion isn't really a personality characteristic. It really is that energy temperament. And it's, it's something that we had since we were born. Now, the other personality characteristics, those are things that can change throughout our life. Right, I remember being a shy teenager. Well, I'm not shy anymore. So that's something that has changed in my life.

Leanne Calderwood [00:10:08]:
But the introversion, that's something that's always been with me, even though it's only been the last 20 years where I've really dived into what it is, I've been at since the beginning. And I think we're, when people start to look at it as this isn't something that you can change about yourself because it's not a personality characteristic. It's something that you were innately born with and now we're just learning maybe how it manifests and how we deal with it.

David Hall [00:10:36]:
Yeah. We naturally turn inward and we're deep, we're deep thinkers. Yeah. That's not, this is not something that I chose. I have chosen to embrace it, but we're deep thinkers and extroverts naturally turn outward. And there's a lot that Strengths, gifts, needs that come with that. And you brought up shyness. Introverts can be shy.

David Hall [00:10:58]:
Extroverts can be shy. For me, when I was shy, the key was understanding my introversion. Like, Oh, I'm going to think Before I speak in most often, I'm going to need some time to process my thoughts. So once I embraced all of those things, I realized, Hey, this is how you are and it's good. And so that's where my confidence really soared is embracing those things and, you know, you can overcome shyness, but like you said, Introversion is is with you to to this day.

Leanne Calderwood [00:11:28]:
It is. And it's a good thing. It's a good thing. Yeah.

David Hall [00:11:31]:
Yeah. So how about you? So what's a strength or two you have because you're an introvert?

Leanne Calderwood [00:11:37]:
Well, I think to your point, a lot of introverts do take that time to kind of ruminate on ideas. And and I I think that's one of my biggest strengths in my career is, you know, I'm able to kind of sit with an idea until the answer that I am ready to provide is fairly well thought out. And I, you know, and I'm behind the scenes putting stuff on whiteboards and trying figure it out and almost puzzle putting the pieces of the puzzle together. And I think introverts really thrive in that environment is that problem solving that, you know, again, the rumination of ideas and then presenting something that I think looks a little bit more holistic than maybe some of our extroverted friends. I think the other strength that, that, that I have is that attention to kind of detail and things that I notice that other people don't notice. And I didn't even realize that this was a very popular characteristic amongst introverts, but introverts actually notice things in the wild. Right? So if my friend gets a new haircut or a hair color, I typically am the 1st one to notice it and comment on it. And, and, and I didn't even know that that was part of the introvert wheelhouse, but apparently that is our thing, David.

Leanne Calderwood [00:12:54]:
So, so I've kind of used that as my strength as well, to create connections with people. Because I will create connections by noticing something about them, which puts them at ease. It makes them feel seen and heard and acknowledged. So I think that's one of the strengths I bring into both new and existing relationships is the person on the other side of me feels seen and heard. And that's all because I'm an introvert.

David Hall [00:13:24]:
Yeah. And I definitely notice things cause in one of the ways I think why we're noticing things is cause we're always thinking, you know? And so I'm always, I noticed like I pick up on maybe a different way of doing things that other people aren't talking about. And I'm noticing in that way, like, Hey, this doesn't look like it's working. Maybe here's a better way of doing

Leanne Calderwood [00:13:46]:
that. Yeah. I love that strength about us. I mean, that's, I think as a career professional now would give me that's one of our biggest strengths that we bring to our organizations is that filter.

David Hall [00:13:56]:
Yeah. So on the show, we talk about strengths and needs, some strategies for success, which we're going to get into. But Before we do that, we also bust myths. Is there a myth or two about introversions you want to bust today?

Leanne Calderwood [00:14:11]:
Oh, yeah. Well, my favorite one has to be that, introverts are afraid of public speaking. Public speaking is one of the biggest fears in the world of everybody, introverts and extroverts alike. But yet we as introverts get labeled as people who are not good at public speaking. We're extremely nervous when we have to be a public speaker. I actually adore public speaking. And I do not get nervous. For whatever reason, I just didn't get that gene that said you gotta have sweaty palms and buckling knees when you get up on a stage.

Leanne Calderwood [00:14:46]:
I'm so completely natural on a stage. So that's a myth I like to bust because I think it holds per introverts back from actually doing it. I think introverts actually use that as a crutched to say, I'm not gonna do presentations and I'm not going to, you know, even speak in front of my colleagues at work, you know, because I'm an introvert. Well, let's get rid of that. It isn't about that moment that you're in presentation. It's what you do with yourself after that presentation is over. So I, I get, I'm not nervous public speaking, David with, if you have a podcast, you most certainly are not nervous, you know, public speaking as well. So I'm hopeful that other introverts will hear that message and kind of, rethink how they position putting themselves out there.

Leanne Calderwood [00:15:35]:
Because introverts can do it just as well as extroverts.

David Hall [00:15:38]:
Yeah. So was that always the case? You were never nervous?

Leanne Calderwood [00:15:42]:
Never. I don't even know why. I was shy, but I could do public speaking. No problem. I don't know why.

David Hall [00:15:50]:
Just Okay. Because you're right. Now I'm not. I'm not nervous and I still talk with people that do a lot of public speaking. They say they still get nervous, but that's not the case for me. A part of all that was overcoming my shyness. Like I mentioned before, understanding my introversion and just really understanding how I need to prepare, you know, that I'm going to need to really, you know, put together my initial thoughts. Here's what I'm going to speak about my outline and then let it roll around in my head Long before the speech comes.

David Hall [00:16:20]:
That's, that's gonna be my best preparation.

Leanne Calderwood [00:16:23]:
I agree. I've been called to do some moderation work, which is a lot more mentally taxing on me than doing a presentation. Because has in presentation mode, we have time to prepare. You've prepared for this podcast. So you're already kind of reducing that brainpower that you need to, to, to do this podcast. You've prepared me for this podcast. So this is quite an easy activity. But if you were to throw a curve ball question at me, I think my brain would have to work really hard to get an intelligent answer.

Leanne Calderwood [00:16:57]:
And I know when I have to do moderation for some panels or whatever that is, I find I'm a lot more exhausted after those interactions than doing, let's say a keynote or a breakout presentation.

David Hall [00:17:10]:
Yeah. Okay. That's for sure. Preparation is definitely key. It is. You've done public speaking. You probably hired a lot of public speakers, and I I've heard quite often that many are introverts. Is that true?

Leanne Calderwood [00:17:23]:
Absolutely true. In fact, the 1st time I heard of a public speaker being an introvert and we're going back a couple decades, is the 1st time I heard Marcus Buckingham speak. Are you familiar with Marcus? He was

David Hall [00:17:35]:
I love him. I'm a big fan of his and, and, and we talked about the Myers Briggs. The other thing he started strikes quest about your strengths. That was that those 2 things were pivotal for me. So I yeah. I'm a big fan And, you know, I've never heard him say he's introvert, but I I know I can tell.

Leanne Calderwood [00:17:53]:
Yeah. Well, and he said it on the stage that I saw him at, he said that he was an introvert And I was like, oh, because he's so well spoken, as you know, he's very successful as we know, you know, successful authors, successful stage presence. And that's when I started to dive into like, who else is introverted? And, and I know we all throw out these, you know, grand grandiose names, but the one that's really sticking with me as of late is Michelle Obama is an introvert. Meryl Streep is an introvert. So I'm now on the hunt for all of these incredible women who are introverted, but can command a room at the drop of a hat. And, and so when I learned that Michelle Obama was an introvert as is her husband, Barack Obama. But that was really, powerful for me because she commands such a presence in whatever room that she's in. And she doesn't have to do it by being the loudest person in the room.

Leanne Calderwood [00:18:55]:
And that's that's the takeaway I take from people like Michelle Obama or Marcus Buckingham is you don't have to be loud to be heard.

David Hall [00:19:03]:
Yeah. And Again, half of us are introverts. And just a lot of times people don't believe that number because they see some of the people that are even just You know, people in their lives that are very confident, outspoken, but deep thinkers, which really is a strength, You know, being able to be strategic and make some plans. And if you understand your your introversion, you can be very confident. My wife and I are very similar. And it's nice because I wasn't confident. As I've gone through this journey, it's been really nice to see her as an introvert And she's always been confident. It's never been a struggle.

David Hall [00:19:42]:
And it was just really nice to see that comparison. And that's the case. A lot of people are Just deep thinkers, you know, they need to often think before they speak, they need to prepare, they need some quiet time to get some work done. All of these things are are strengths of introverts and it was just nice to see, oh, okay. Not everybody struggles. Some people that struggle Given the right information and some, some good ideas, they can get better and have that confidence that they may be lacking.

Leanne Calderwood [00:20:12]:
Well, and it's interesting that you're, you're married to an introvert, David. I'm also married to an introvert, But I'm curious if you don't mind me asking a question of you, how are your kids? Are they introverts or extroverts or a bit of both?

David Hall [00:20:25]:
Yeah. So that was also one of my epiphanies. You know? Again, Marcus Buckingham, In the instrument he designed, he doesn't talk about introversion, extroversion, although there's some elements in there, but that they're natural. About the same time I'm I'm doing this, you know, I have 3 kids. They're younger, and I have 2 extroverts, 1 introvert. We raised them the same. Right? And I'm just realizing they come as their own person. They come naturally.

David Hall [00:20:53]:
This isn't because of me and my introverted wife, you know, And, and they all have their own gifts. They're all brilliant, but they're, they all have their own different brilliant gifts. So that was one of my big epiphanies too, that this is Natural, and it's not going to change, but again, you can definitely embrace it.

Leanne Calderwood [00:21:10]:
Mhmm. Agreed. Agreed. Well, I have, 2 introverted sons. And you talk about that epiphany, watching my introverted sons navigate the world is how I kind of figure my mom watched me try to navigate the world. You know, both of my sons play competitive sports they're on team sport teams with all these extroverts, they're the quieter ones. Right? And it doesn't mean that they're less or more skilled at that sport than the person standing right next to them. But they're not the ones that are hooping and hollering and they're the ones that are kind of looking at the sport a bit differently.

Leanne Calderwood [00:21:49]:
And so I, I look at them now as, and I have the conversations with them, which is something that I think our parents never really had with us and, you know, call it lack of information or lack of even research around introversion and extroversion. But I'm actually now able to have conversations because they're teenagers and my, actually my oldest is 20 now. I'm actually able to have conversations with them and hopefully having these conversations, they're not gonna feel that weird wonky awkwardness that I felt, you know, I want them to feel empowered being quiet. I want them to feel empowered that at the end of the school day, they just want to go to their room and read or play a video game or whatever it is that they want to do after the practice is over. So I'm hopeful that we're now raising a generation of people who feel so comfortable in their skin, whether it's an introverted skin or an extroverted skin.

David Hall [00:22:49]:
Yeah. That's the hope. And, yeah, when we were kids, there was no talk about introversion, extroversion. My parents had no idea. And, you know, that was part of it too. It's like, Here's the way everybody's supposed to be, you know, and definitely, you know, there was some harm, harm there, but now Things are better. I had a guest on recently, David Burrows, and, you know, he's an introvert. He does a lot, puts a lot out there on LinkedIn and he's written a book.

David Hall [00:23:14]:
And then With his son, Joshua, introverted son, they wrote a book together, which I just thought was amazing, you know? And I'm just like, yeah, that's what that's what needs to happen is the awareness needs to come much, much earlier and not much later in life. You know? I've, I've heard all kinds of stories where, you know, we talked about being in our thirties, but I've heard of people being in their forties, fifties, all the way up to eighties, figuring out, oh, I'm an introvert, you know? So yeah, the early awareness, that's definitely something I'm very passionate about.

Leanne Calderwood [00:23:47]:
Yeah. And you're right. I talk a lot on stages now about introversion, especially in the meetings and events industry. And I continually have people come up to me after to say, I didn't even realize I was an introvert. And these are people my age, right? Like in their forties and fifties. But no one has really spelled it out. What is an introvert? How does it manifest in your life? Before our generation, it was simply a label. And now I think we have the opportunity to kind of break down that label and put some context around it.

David Hall [00:24:22]:
Yeah. Well, let's talk about that a minute, you're, you know, you've been in the meeting and events industry for a long time. And I we're I just gonna ask you 1 question because I know we could probably do a whole show on this, but How can we make meetings, events, conferences more introvert friendly?

Leanne Calderwood [00:24:37]:
Yes. Thank you. And, and that is kind of one of my missions is to help planners, whether they're introverted or extroverted, create space for us. But, conferences, I guess, you know, historically have just been these, this this buzz. And you go from, you know, the keynote session and you go right into a breakout room. And then as soon as that breakout is over, you're in the coffee break foyer, and all of a sudden it is 10 PM at night and you haven't even had time to breathe or refill your teacup. I would love to see meeting planners just build more white space in their programming. So that when an introvert does attend a breakout session, there's this blank block of time in the program where that we can just sit and digest what's happening.

Leanne Calderwood [00:25:27]:
Now during that block of programming, you can create other things for the extroverts that want to keep networking and do what it is that they do best. But as introverts finding that space and that time to just kind of, again, that deep thinking and finding the biggest takeaways from these conferences is going to be key. You know, adult learning, it's, it's hard to learn as adults. It is more difficult to retain information. And so building those white spaces and building those white places where people can sit alone or in a small group with a cup of coffee, and kind of digest what just happened, I think will pull more ROI out of those individuals when the conference event is over, when the meeting is over. The other big thing that I, that stresses me to know when, David, is a lot of these conferences and events have these large networking receptions, you know, whether it's 100, 200 or 2,000 people, we're all crammed into this room. The music is loud. And I don't know about you, but I completely collapsed.

Leanne Calderwood [00:26:39]:
It's so loud. I can't have conversation. So redesigning those large networking events to have quieter corners or to create seating for 2 to 3 people so that people like us can kind of escape the big boom of the room and have those deep 1 on 1 conversations that we crave versus trying to shout in, in amongst, you know, the 2,000 people at a rock concert.

David Hall [00:27:10]:
Yeah. So that's definitely a couple of really good points is We do like deep conversations. And so I want deep conversations. I love loud music, But not at the same time. I can't. If I'm talking to someone, especially someone I've never met and I'm Trying to connect to get to know them and there's loud mute. It's so hard for me.

Leanne Calderwood [00:27:36]:
Yeah. Yeah. And sadly, that's kind of the, I suppose the format that we've had for meetings and events, at least when I started my career, not much has changed. And that was 25 years ago. And I am starting to see some meeting planners take steps to create more inclusive environments for those that of us that are introverted, those of us that have other neurodivergencies. So we are seeing the industry change. I would love to see more conversation in the meetings and events industry around enter energy temperaments. But the fact that conversation has started around neurodivergency is very encouraging because we're finally starting to recognize that we are not all caught with the same cookie cutter, that we all are different.

Leanne Calderwood [00:28:23]:
We learn differently, we network differently and we form professional relationships differently.

David Hall [00:28:31]:
Yeah, absolutely. And it's all very natural and not one introvert extrovert, All the other ways we differ. It's not none of them are good or bad. It's just they're different and we have to embrace them. And yeah, it's not a cookie cutter approach. That's for sure. Yeah. So when did you get into personal branding, especially for introverts and how is that different For introverts.

David Hall [00:28:56]:
I've read a lot of your LinkedIn posts and posts on your blog and you've got some great content out there. So tell us a little bit about when did you start doing that and why did you specialize in Introverts.

Leanne Calderwood [00:29:07]:
Yeah, well I started my personal brand, I guess about 16, 17 years ago when my job in the industry took a slight pivot. And, for the 1st time I was, kind of forced to have to do some sales. And, and I'll, and I'll save, save your audience the story of how stressful do learning how to do sales was. But it was really in those moments that I figured I have to do sales differently. I cannot do sales the way that you see those car salesman and those other big successful salespeople do it. You know, always be closing, get on the phone, do one more phone call. Man, that made me sick to my stomach. So I decided, okay, you know what? I'm gonna try and build my business a little bit differently.

Leanne Calderwood [00:29:56]:
Instead of pushing out sales message is, I'm gonna try and attract them to me. And the best way I can do that is just by being authentic and maybe amplifying some things about my personal brand. So that's where my personal brand started. And then as I saw my business grow, my career started to grow, I realized, you know what? There's something to be said about this method of doing sales. And of course I did it as an introvert and what I then when, when I really put 2 and 2 together was really only in the past 5 years where I realized personal branding and introversion is like peanut butter and jam. That is kind of one of the best ways for an introvert to create community without having to outwardly network and create community. Because that's one thing that we're always going to struggle with is that small talk. Right? We love those deep conversations, David, But in order to get to a deep conversation, there's a crap ton of small talk that has to take place.

Leanne Calderwood [00:31:03]:
But when an introvert has a personal brand, that ice is broken. And so I often now can go into a networking room and strangers will come up to me already knowing about me. And that breaks that small talk. And now maybe we can just skip a couple of those steps and get to a bigger conversation. And so that's what I've really loved about my brand is it's actually given me confidence to go into a networking room and the conversations are just a bit more natural because they already know a little bit about me. It's better if I can already know a little bit about them. And That's where LinkedIn comes in. And I know we're gonna talk about LinkedIn here, but for us introverts, tools like LinkedIn and tools like having a personal brand just gets us to that deep conversation so much quicker.

Leanne Calderwood [00:31:57]:
And wow, does it, has it ever helped my energy level in those networking environments?

David Hall [00:32:05]:
Yeah. That's sounds great. Because even when you're just talking about doing the cold sales calls, I was like, I'm not doing that, but it it's making me sick too.

Leanne Calderwood [00:32:14]:
I know. Right?

David Hall [00:32:15]:
So I've gotta do it differently. So Yeah. Just, how what what all goes into making a personal brand?

Leanne Calderwood [00:32:22]:
Mhmm. Well, I've, I've created a framework now. Fast forward 17 years, I have created a framework and the framework really has 5 steps in it. And the first one is really to define the goals. So why is it that you want to create a personal brand? For me, for creating a personal brand, my goal was to attract clients. That's all I wanted to do was I wanted to do sales differently and I wanted to attract clients. Once you define your goals, then you're actually going to design your brand. And what that means, it's not about logos and fonts and colors, but it is about what is it that I want the world to know about me on a professional level? Because there's a lot of things that it can know about me, but I can't tell every story.

Leanne Calderwood [00:33:10]:
I have to narrow down the stories. And so the stories I tell now and the things about my brand I share now are actually quite different than the things I shared about my brand when it first started. So now you're right, David, a lot about my brand is the fact that I'm an introvert, but I haven't always been a personal brand about introverts. I've been a personal brand about my company, personal brand about creating connection in other ways. So designing your brand is the 2nd thing you wanna do. Then the 3rd thing you wanna do is determine where you're gonna hang out, determine your platforms. And for me, LinkedIn was the logical fit. For other professionals, it could be Instagram.

Leanne Calderwood [00:33:51]:
It could be Facebook. For the type of brand that I wanna build, LinkedIn is the best place for me. So that's my platform. I also have a blog, not a podcast. So the blog is my platform. David, your platform is a podcast. Once you determine where you're going to hang out, now you got to start creating the content. So obviously I create a lot of content for LinkedIn.

Leanne Calderwood [00:34:13]:
I do a lot of writing for my blog. David, your content is what we're doing right now, this back and forth, this conversation. And then the final step of personal branding, it's, it's probably in my opinion, the most important staff. But after you've gone through those 4 decisions, you need to take care of your community and you need to discover who is in your community. And you do that through your podcast. You're attracting community members all the time, David, but we can't forget that at the end of the day, everything we're doing about our brand, it's about another person. So let's make sure that we're taking care of them in the end. So that's it.

Leanne Calderwood [00:34:52]:
Those are the 5 decisions I think every brand should go through, to get to a robust and holistic brand.

David Hall [00:34:58]:
Alright. And elaborate a little bit more, like what, how is LinkedIn different from some of the other social media platforms?

Leanne Calderwood [00:35:05]:
Well, yeah. Great question. So obviously LinkedIn is still considered that the top professional social media platform. So for B2B business people, it's probably the best way to hang out. And, and, and that is the thing with LinkedIn is it's moved from being a job search platform into that thought leadership platform. And thought leadership is really just a fancy Jumancy way of saying personal brands. So it has moved from being a place we only go when we have to either find a job or post a job to a place where we can build professional community all day, every day using our brands, using our thought leadership. And for those of us who are in professions, which is probably most of us, LinkedIn is a great place to kind of break that proverbial professional ice.

Leanne Calderwood [00:35:59]:
Where you can learn more about the person that you're working with or working for, or want to work with or for, and you can have conversations even before the conversation starts. So LinkedIn, while all social media has given us access to people that we never had access before social media. We're able to make those connections with influencers with decision makers, with people we never can get through the gatekeeper to reach when it was all just done by the telephone. So that's what I really love about LinkedIn. Again, it's for me, it's the most comfortable wheelhouse, but there's other platforms that LinkedIn's can or that introverts can thrive on as well. But yeah, LinkedIn's is my jam.

David Hall [00:36:45]:
Yeah. Do Do you have any general guidelines about posting? Like how often? I guess it'll probably vary by your purpose and things.

Leanne Calderwood [00:36:53]:
Yeah, well you're right. And, and you're right. This could be a completely new episode, David, cause there's a lot about LinkedIn, like the algorithm and how it works that we could dive deep into. But really the algorithm on LinkedIn loves it if you post once a day or even a little bit less. If you post more than once a day, the algorithm really struggles to figure out what it is you want to be, showcased to your community and put on the home feed. So once a day or less is the best way to kind of thrive on LinkedIn.

David Hall [00:37:27]:
And then how do you use it to network with other people? Maybe is there some do's and don'ts that you have for that?

Leanne Calderwood [00:37:33]:
Yeah. Well, again, you know, Going back to how we kinda conduct sales, a lot of people are using LinkedIn to try and do their sales, which is sadly a missed opportunity because people want to be treated as people, not as potential sales targets. So it really is the platform where you can build relationships, build trust, showcase your credibility, no doubt, but it's not the place to do sales. As soon as the conversation starts to move towards sales, which is a goal for a lot of people, myself included. But when that conversation starts to move towards sales, that's actually when you should take the conversation off of LinkedIn. That's when you should go back to the email, to the telephone, to the Zoom meetings, to actually talk about sales. LinkedIn is where you wanna build the relationship. And you want to nurture your community and learn more about them and talk less about ourselves.

Leanne Calderwood [00:38:37]:
And again, I think that's where or why introverts can really thrive on LinkedIn is because a lot of times introverts more so than our extroverted, friends, we don't like talking about ourselves. So we can pick up on those cues on LinkedIn and then creates some really powerful connections because we actually took the time to listen in on the conversations that are happening on the platform. Does that help David?

David Hall [00:39:04]:
Yeah, absolutely. I know if someone asks to connect with me and immediately I get, you know, message in my inbox that, Hey, you know, Do you need help with this? It's it's definitely, I'm probably not gonna respond to that, you know? Exactly. I wanna connect with them on similar interests, things like that.

Leanne Calderwood [00:39:22]:
It's so true. Exactly. And that's, and that's what I love about LinkedIn is most people get the unspoken role. And for those people that are still learning learning the ins and outs of the platform. It's our responsibility to kind of say to them, hey, you know what? That's this isn't the platform for you to to sell me on your product or service, but tell me what you did on the weekend or what kind of content you like to see.

David Hall [00:39:46]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you, you mentioned this briefly today and, and you write about, you know, How just important it is to be your authentic self. So whether it's LinkedIn or elsewhere, how do you show up authentically as an introvert?

Leanne Calderwood [00:39:59]:
Yeah. Well, and I think the first step is realizing that you are an introvert. Right? And we're not trying to be or pretend to be someone that we're not. But authenticity really comes down to the stories that we tell. And again, whether you use LinkedIn or another social media platform, relaying a story that's kind of rooted in the, the learning implications and how that story is going to help the listener or the reader, I think is a great way to be authentic. And I use this example all the time as a story rooted in authenticity. And one that we can all relate to is when we were learning how to ride a bike as a kid. And we went through all of those emotions, not wanting to disappoint our parents and wanting to succeed, but we kept on, you know, stumbling and falling and tripping and over and over again until we finally mastered the skill.

Leanne Calderwood [00:40:54]:
And that now as an adult is a lesson in resilience and overcoming failure and all of those, you know, beautiful things bottled up into that story. But this, the, the, the root of it is I had to go through that story to get to all of these lessons at the end. And those are the kinds of authentic stories that we're looking for on really any social media platform is we're trying to see ourselves in the other person's story as well. We're trying to become one of the characters in the story. So I don't know if that helps with that authenticity piece, but it surely it's certainly, if you can create, if you can tell a story that you know, other people are relating too, they're gonna begin to trust you. They're gonna be able to see themselves in the story and that creates an incredible connection.

David Hall [00:41:45]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So, one of the things that you're working on now is the brand tell us about the BrandPlan Academy.

Leanne Calderwood [00:41:53]:
Yes. So while being in the meetings and events industry, our industry got hit quite hard with the pandemic, which was now almost 4 years ago now. So it was kind of that opportunity where I could take a pause from being in the meetings and events industry and work on another project. And it became crystal clear that the project I wanted to work on was to create a resource for people on how to build their personal brands. So I created Brand Plan Academy. It's a digital course, takes you through those 5 decisions that I talked about earlier. And it really is meant to be a resource to help someone who's never built a brand before or someone who wants to hone in a bit on their messaging and help them get there. I know when I started my brand, I made a lot of decisions that weren't the right decision, but I was at least in motion.

Leanne Calderwood [00:42:43]:
And now I'm trying to help people kind of avoid some of the mistakes that I made when I created my brand, and, and kind of show the power of a brand. Even though my industry was completely wiped out with the pandemic, my brand grew and the opportunities outside of my industry started to grow. Simple things like this, David, I've done a lot of podcasts and video shows. That's all cause I had a brand. And so kind of showing the power of the brand and putting people on the right path to create their own brand. That's what I do with BrandPlan Academy.

David Hall [00:43:19]:
Awesome. That sounds great. So Leanne, we've talked about a lot of things. We've had a great conversation. It's gone by pretty quickly. Is there anything else you wanna share?

Leanne Calderwood [00:43:28]:
Yeah. I think for introverts, I think my biggest, I, what I want to leave with them to kind of encourage them with is even though you're an introvert, it doesn't mean you don't have anything to say and don't have a story to tell. And so I want to encourage everyone, anyone who identifies as an introvert to step out and start to tell that story. That's kind of the 1st step in building your brand. It's that 1st step in breaking that networking ice. And you might be a bit tired after telling that story, But I think it saves our energy when we've done that, especially in a networking session or a networking situation. So, you can create a lot of impact without creating a lot of noise as an introvert. And I think that's our superpower.

David Hall [00:44:18]:
Yeah. I love that. What's, what's your phrase? It's

Leanne Calderwood [00:44:22]:
creating a tech not noise.

David Hall [00:44:24]:
Yeah. I saw that on LinkedIn. I just, I love that. Okay. So Leanne, where can people find out more about your great work or, or get in touch with you?

Leanne Calderwood [00:44:34]:
Yeah, sure. So obviously I hang out a lot on LinkedIn, come and connect with me on the platform. I also have a website over at leannecalderwood.com and there you can learn more about obviously personal branding and LinkedIn. And there's a few free resources that people can download to learn a little bit more about their personal branding style and to get them back on the LinkedIn platform.

David Hall [00:44:56]:
All right. I will add things to the show notes. So again, thank you, Leigh Ann. This has been a great conversation.

Leanne Calderwood [00:45:00]:
Thank you, David, and I appreciate the opportunity.

David Hall [00:45:03]:
Thank you so much for joining me today. I look forward to further connecting with you. Reach out at david@quietandstrong.com Or check out the quietandstrong.com website, which includes blog posts and links to social media channels. Send me topics or guests you would like to see on the show. If you're interested in getting to know yourself better, there's now a free type finder personality assessment on the Quiet and Strong website. This free assessment will give you a brief report, including the four letter Myers Briggs code, and you can also have the option of purchasing the full report if you'd like to learn more. I'll add a link to the show notes. So many great things about being an introvert, and we need those to be understood.

David Hall [00:45:42]:
Get to know your introverted strengths And needs, and be strong.