How to evolve your Personal Brand for future Career success

When I first gave this newsletter the title 'No-one puts Baby in a Corner' and shared my thoughts on why Dirty Dancing is a film about female empowerment I was thinking of the heroine Baby Houseman and her journey of self-discovery

But there is a sub-plot to Dirty Dancing, Penny's decision to terminate her pregnancy by 'Robbie the creep'. When the film was set in 1963, abortion was illegal in the US so Penny had to resort to a backstreet quack and barely survived the procedure

Roe vs Wade prevented the necessity for women to undergo dangerous abortions. And in the light of the overturn I was going to use this month's newsletter to talk about women's rights, a subject very close to my heart. But given what I read on LinkedIn last week, I decided against pouring fuel on the fire. That being the case, it was such a monumental decision I can't totally ignore it.

On the 30th anniversary of the film in 2017, Dirty Dancing screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein was quoted as saying "When I made the movie in 1987, about 1963, I put in the illegal abortion and everyone said, 'Why? [Because by then, there was?Roe v. Wade]?What are you doing this for?' I said, 'Well, I don't know that we will always have?Roe v. Wade'.................

Some credit the film with starting the conversation about women's reproductive rights, I don't know about that, but it certainly serves as a reminder of the impact this decision will have on many women

OK moving on

Developing your Future Brand

Baby undergoes her own Personal Brand transformation from dumbstruck, shy, school girl to foxy, dancing queen. In doing so she found a strength and talent she didn't know she had

For us mortal women who are challenged with spinning plates as oppose to mastering the Mambo, keeping a step ahead of the curve (see what I did there ??) is essential if we are to achieve our career goals

So your Personal Brand should evolve with you as your career progresses and if used wisely it can set the direction you take, help you achieve your goals and realise your true potential. I call the process developing your?Future Brand Ambition. It's inspired by a quote from?Dan Shawbel, "Brand yourself for the career you want, not the job you have"

You can use your Future Brand Ambition to create a set of SMART goals to keep you on track. Along the way it will help you make decisions as to which projects and opportunities to take advantage of and feel sufficiently confident to dismiss the 'non-promotional' tasks. It will inform the content you share and the audience you share it with

The process is intentional, purposeful and it gets results. I know because as the video explains, it's exactly the process I followed to get me to where I am today

If you want to start developing your Future Brand Ambition please feel free to download this PDF ?? Let me know if the link fails and I'll email it to you

Women Supporting Women

On Tuesday I shared a LinkedIn?post?about we can find ways to better support each other. It garnered quite alot of attention but more importantly included in the thread are listed various networks and groups (on LinkedIn and Facebook) which support women in professions and disciplines. If you have any more you know of, please add them to the thread

Finally. I'm in the middle of the July Personal Brand Masterclass. The timing didn't suit everyone so I am running another in October, dates to be agreed. There are already 4 women who couldn't make it this time but have expressed an interest for October and as now, places will be limited to 10. If you want to find out more about this or have a chat about your Personal Brand development (current and/or future) you can pop 20 mins in my diary?here

I won't be publishing another newsletter until the end of August so have a wonderful, relaxing summer ??

PS - If you have already received this newsletter from my FirstWoman page, please feel free to unsubscribe from this version