You want to know how to build your personal brand on social media?
Tune in to this delightful conversation with the unabashed connector Deb Krier.
As a Linkedin Strategist for C-Suite, marketing professional, social media adviser, professional speaker and trainer she helps people become more successful in business and in life.
We specifically touch upon:
💡Dos and Don’ts on Social Media
💡What is or makes the best authentic brand online, on social media, and specifically on LinkedIn
💡Brand building advice for shifters from corporate to owning a business
💡Deb’s podcast, The Business Power Hour®, she has hosted since 2011, which is part of the C-Suite Network
Deb absolutely loves talking with her guests about a variety of business topics. Deb is president of Wise Women Communications, LLC, a full-service marketing and public relations firm. She has an MS in Communications Management and an MBA in Business Management.
Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7Kw6KMyuzak
Get in touch with Deb Krier:
www.debkrier.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahkrier/
www.linkedinforcsuite.com
www.thebusinesspowerhour.com
Get in touch with Brigitte Bojkowszky:
Get in touch with Brigitte Bojkowszky:
👉 Download Your Entrepreneurial Branding Starter Checklist: https://courses.bridgetbrands.com/f/entrepreneurial-branding-starter-checklist
You want to know how to build your personal brand on social media?
Tune in to this delightful conversation with the unabashed connector Deb Krier.
As a Linkedin Strategist for C-Suite, marketing professional, social media adviser, professional speaker and trainer she helps people become more successful in business and in life.
We specifically touch upon:
💡Dos and Don’ts on Social Media
💡What is or makes the best authentic brand online, on social media, and specifically on LinkedIn
💡Brand building advice for shifters from corporate to owning a business
💡Deb’s podcast, The Business Power Hour®, she has hosted since 2011, which is part of the C-Suite Network
Deb absolutely loves talking with her guests about a variety of business topics. Deb is president of Wise Women Communications, LLC, a full-service marketing and public relations firm. She has an MS in Communications Management and an MBA in Business Management.
Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7Kw6KMyuzak
Get in touch with Deb Krier:
www.debkrier.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahkrier/
www.linkedinforcsuite.com
www.thebusinesspowerhour.com
Get in touch with Brigitte Bojkowszky:
Get in touch with Brigitte Bojkowszky:
👉 Download Your Entrepreneurial Branding Starter Checklist: https://courses.bridgetbrands.com/f/entrepreneurial-branding-starter-checklist
Ready for brand tories get inspired and learn rom thought leaders, CEOs, usiness owners, and managers ho tell their brand stories who hare their valuable insights rom their own experience. elcome to brandstalk. I'm your h st Brigitte. For print lovers t is show is to help you develop a d grow your brand in a more s rategic and sustainable way. W lk the Talk. Let's get started a d dive with me into the world o brands. Today, I'm excited to have Deb rier as my guest. Deb is an nabashed connector with nformation, knowledge and esources to help people become ore successful in business and n life. She is a LinkedIn trategist, marketing rofessional, social media dvisor, professional speaker nd trainer. Since 2011, Deb has osted their business Power our, and she absolutely loves alking with our guests about a ariety of business topics. That s the president of wise women ommunications, LLC, at full ervice marketing and public elations firm. She has an MSc n communications management, nd an MBA in business anagement. I warmly welcome eb Krier. Welcome to brandstalk Hello, hello. Thank you so much for having me as a guest. It's always fun to be on the other side of the microphone. Right? So luckily, we already have the pleasure with each other. Yes, you were on my programme. And we had such a great conversation so loudly that our passed by so quickly. And yeah, today I have you on my show. I'm really excited about that. So that before we go all about social media and in specific LinkedIn for C suite executives, that could you tell us a little bit about your background, where you're coming from about your personal journey, then broadly, right there where you're right now? Great. Well, you know, it's kind of one of those routes that do you just kind of fell into right? After I got out of college and my my original degree, my bachelor's degree is in social science, there is nothing that you do with that degree. And so I went to work in in offices and and thought that was great, and a bit but knew that it was not what I wanted to be doing my entire life. And so someone, you I read the book, I think that was when what colour is Your Parachute first came out? And I talked with several people and they said, you know, you do Public Relations and Marketing for organisations for free. You know, I volunteered to do newsletters and things like that. And then they said, Is there a reason you don't want to get paid for it. And I kind of went. And so that was what started my career in public relations. And I absolutely loved it. You know, I love working with the media. I loved being able to communicate the messages. I've worked with one of the largest nonprofits in the world, I worked for the American Cancer Society. And I worked for a small boutique agency, where we had a variety of clients. I mean, I love that because when one minute I'd be working on, you know, one thing and then 10 minutes later, something totally different than 10 minutes later, something totally different. And a yo I love doing all of that. And then I went back into corporate America, and was a communications coordinator for at that point, the company was called ing. And now it's called Voya. It was a Dutch based company and it is spun off to just its its US counterpart, but I was the the communications coordinator for four business units. And, you know, and by a business unit, I mean a company. So, you know, there were four companies that I reported to, and it was the same thing as it's like working with agencies, you know, you one minute you'd be doing something 10 minutes later, something else something else. It was very different working with a budget that was basically unlimited. You know, and, and doing corporate messaging. I also did crisis communications while I was there, and was there during September 11. I mean, that was a very scary time, especially because we were the seventh largest company in the world. And and next to American Express, we were the largest financial company. And so you know, it was not the it was definitely a very scary time, but You know, I kind of thrived on that I thought that was was very interesting. And but they went through some acquisitions, as big companies do, and eventually had too many people doing the same type of job. And so I asked to be put on the sevens list, you know, it would it had been stressful, I was ready to go out on my own all sorts of things. And so I did, I received a wonderful benefit package from them, I went to work as a lobbyist for a while. And now that was an interesting job to have, it was it was very strange working in the government like that. But it was also very interesting, it seems like everything I have done, I've really enjoyed what it was. But during that time, I thought, you know, it's time to start my own company. And so I started wise women communications. And the goal of it was to go into companies, and do the one time or the short, short term type of projects. So not your typical agency retainer, where they pay you month after month, and you do two press releases, and that's it. With wise women, we go in, we do one thing, and then we're done. But for the most part, you know, there are some that that we have longer term relationships with. But, you know, the concept was formed because they actually had me come back to ing and, and do things for them, because they hadn't replaced me, but they still needed those tasks done. And so I went back and did those things. And, you know, it's, it's been great. It was, you know, it's been almost 25 years since I started wise women. And along the way, of course, with any company, it has evolved and changed and, and about 10 years ago, or so, we started really focusing on social media as a business tool. Because that was the point where, you know, Facebook was really starting to gain traction, and businesses would say, you know, I don't want to be on Facebook, should I be on Facebook? Do what what do I need to do, you know, and and all these things. And so for me, it is just another marketing tool, just like your website, just like a brochure just like anything. And and so we really work with companies on how to use it as a marketing tool. Somewhere along in there, I started the podcast, which has been a tonne of fun, I love meeting and talking with my guests. And then I've kind of migrated even a little bit further to, as you said, focusing on LinkedIn for senior executives, on how they can build their personal brand by using LinkedIn. So that's me in a nutshell. So we go a little backwards, I ould like to know what made you eave the safety net of being a orporate in the first place? hat made you want to become our own boss? Why did you want o become the face of your own ompany? What was the driver ere? What was your big why? hat did you go for a year? Oh, you, you and I have known each other for a while. And so you probably pick this up, I like to be in charge. You know, and more importantly, I like to be able to pick and choose what I was working on. As opposed to somebody saying, you're going to do this, you're going to do this, you're going to do this. And I know that there are people that absolutely thrive on that, you know, they they love to have that structure and things like that, and I just didn't like that. I wanted to go off on my own. I'll be very honest, my husband is the primary breadwinner, and I have excellent benefits through him. And so I did not have that worry that many business owners have, um, you know, and so it has has, you know, that has has enabled me to do some things, that for other people, it might not be possible, you know, and but it's, you know, it's been a wild journey. You know, it's it really has been something that has, has, like I said, evolved through the years. So to help someone who is the breadwinner is really taking off a lot of pressure. Because you can do that in a very less easy peasy going way. Basically coming from a perspective that is if it works, it works. And if you have this, this easiness this lightness in the way of how you're doing things, then it will work. Yeah. So it's always hard when you're under such pressure to be really good and productive, and then to be successful, because you're really committed to that and you want to make this happen no matter what. Right. All right. Good. So, um, I also have seen that you're putting a lot of focus on women who why is that? You know, I think especially in senior leadership roles, women still lag behind, you know, and that's worldwide. You know, and and there's a variety of reasons for it. I think, you know, one of the reasons is a very important very critical reason, I think Women are, you know, they're at home, they're taking care of their kids, they're raising their families. And that is obviously, you know, incredibly important. But it means that then they're behind on the career track. You know, they they do, maybe they are out of work for 1015 years, or they're doing part time jobs or things like that. And then when they try and go back into, especially a corporate setting, they're kind of behind, you know, and and they, they, you know, even if they've been keeping up on what's going on in their industry, in their chosen field, you know, all of those various things, they're just behind in, in doing in having that experience that someone who has been working that entire time has, you know, and I think we definitely saw that, especially here in the States when COVID hit, and then, you know, companies shut down. So many women just completely quit their jobs, because they had to take care of their kids. Now, sometimes, I mean, I know that was because the, you know, the men were the primary breadwinners in their families. And so they had to make that choice. But, you know, even now, trying to go back into those roles, it's very different. You know, and I think we need to do whatever we can to help women be successful. And maybe that is that they're only working part time, or they're only working from home, you know, all of these various things. Part of it, I think, is redefining what the roles can be. And you know, that is one thing with the pandemic, the whole work from home and network remotely. And all of those various things has been such a great benefit to, you know, especially I think, to women, because, you know, they can accomplish more by and not have to do the nine to five in a business in yo egg getting in the car driving off, and you know, all of those things. Yeah, it's a lot of women that also leave their corporate job because of that, yeah, they figured it's, it's so much easier, I mean, easier. It's also I mean, you have to accomplish everything in the day still has 24 hours. But it's, it's an easier task to be at home. And if you are disciplined that you can say, Okay, I dedicate now this four hours or two hours to my job, and the rest is the kids or whatever. So it's easier to combine all of it right. So that you really, I think a lot of people appreciate that way or the workstyle. Now to going back and commute to an office and coming back and maybe go to the office once a week only. So that is a completely different way of living to write more quality to it now. All right, so let's talk about LinkedIn, because you are the LinkedIn strategist for C suite. So what do we understand by that? Exactly? So how is that different in supporting C level executives to become more successful in business and in life, compared to non C level executives? Can you please go a little bit into that? And what is it exactly that you offer? Well, for many people be a when LinkedIn first started, it was how we got our jobs, you know, we that was how we kind of built a network, we cut and pasted our resume pretty much in EEO and, and, you know, we didn't really do anything more, you know, back when, when we first started on LinkedIn, it really wasn't encouraged to do posting, you know, it was just, it was almost an online resume service. And it still, in many, many ways, is a great place and, and a fantastic place for people to get jobs and for them to connect. There are many companies now that don't advertise their jobs at all, anywhere except on LinkedIn. And you know, especially if they're looking for more corporate level type of people, things like that. And it also at the same time kind of evolved into this place where it truly is an online network. And so that's where it's important for a senior level executive for business owner, to really have a good presence there and have a good strong personal brand. Because so many times when we're busy running our own business, you know, or we're senior level at another business, we forget that we have our own personal brand. And you know and that's so important and and I know that you talk with with a lot of your guests about how important a personal brand is. And we don't want that to get lost in the shuffle. And LinkedIn is a great place to have that. Because you can have that personal profile you can be posting you can be connecting with other executives, you can be mentoring people, all sorts of things. And so that's where it's, it's where LinkedIn is a really great tool for that. So where do you see the major pain points in your clients as A LinkedIn strategist or a marketing strategist? And how do you help them to turn these pain points around? Yeah, I think so many still think it's just for getting jobs, you know, and and so they're, you know, and because they own their own business, or they're a senior level executive, that's not what they're interested in. The other is that, you know, there's kind of a lack of knowledge about it, you know, what do I do? How do I, you know, how do I use it effectively. And more importantly, I don't have time, you know, I am running my own business, I am the CFO of a company, you know, I manage this big department, all these various things. And so part of what we show them is, this is not something, you know, that takes a lot of time. And I think that they get that impression, because they see people spending hours on Facebook, or Tik Tok, or, you know, all of the various other truly social media platforms. And on LinkedIn, I tell people, you know, 1015 minutes a day, pretty much is it, you know, you come in, you're drinking your first cup of coffee, you go through LinkedIn, you're done for the day, not really a big time current meal, unless there's specific reasons why you're going on to it, if you're just gonna check it every you know, every morning, that's, that's what you need to do. Um, so you're, once you've got your profile truly optimised, so that it's really showing you off and highlighting your skills and knowledge, doesn't take an awful lot of time to be able to keep up on LinkedIn. So since you are a podcaster, we come to that a little bit later. And your LinkedIn strategist, you have had your company for almost 25 years. So you said, you are a professional speaker, and a trainer. So you are a thought leader. And you are also a personal brand, and very strong personal right now, I would like to know from you what is or makes the best authentic brand personal brand, especially online on social media, and LinkedIn, as a social media platform. So what makes that I think, I think the thing to remember is that you are always, you need to always be aware of what other people are thinking of you. You know, I've talked to people who are incredibly professional on LinkedIn, and you go to say, Twitter, or Facebook, and you're like, oh, my gosh, you know, I wouldn't work with this person, I wouldn't hire this person. You know, and, and I, we, you know, we talk we have the word authentic in, you know, and we talk about it a lot. And we don't want anybody to be fake. You know, that's, that's not the point of this, either. Because if they meet you in person, and you don't match up, you know, or even if they talk to you online, things like that. So you it is important that you're still authentic to yourself, if you're kind of this comedian type of person, then it's okay to still be that comedian, online, even on LinkedIn. But just remember that anybody who is reading it, looking at it, all those various things, might be the next person who's going to hire you or refer to you. So it is very important to you, and I don't care if you're 18 years old, or, you know, 65, you have to be aware of what other people are thinking about you. And that's basically what a personal brand is, is what do other people think about you. And so if they see, you know, say on on Facebook, that, you know, you're always posting the, the negative, nasty things, you know, this is what's going on, oh, this is horrible. This is awful. I hate this, you know, why do you want to know somebody like that? I mean, sometimes their posts are interesting. But yeah, you don't want to you don't want to associate with toxic people. You know, and now, again, if it's something that's important to you, you know, I'm not saying not to talk about it, but think about how you're going to talk about it so that it doesn't come across as this horrible, awful person. You know, and we've all heard that the line you think about every time you post, that you're your minister, your rabbi, your spouse, your mother, that your client is going to read it and you really should, you know, and, and the weird thing is it all ties in you I interviewed somebody earlier for my my radio programme, we were talking about crisis communications, and even the littlest thing anymore can be amplified so much. There was a country western singer here in the United States. And this was a week or so ago, and I don't remember who it was. I'm not even gonna guess her name. But she clicked like, on a video from kind of a controversial source. And so many people latched on to that and said, Oh my gosh, she supports them she loves she clicks like she might not have even meant to click like, and more importantly, it might not even be her you she probably has somebody who manages her accounts for But, you know, simple little things like that get scrutinised so much, you know, the trolls of the world come out. And so you do have to pay attention. You know, again, you have to be authentic. You know, I talked with someone here in Atlanta, who very, very political. And he, you know, we're very, and he posted a lot about it on Facebook. And some of his posts were very controversial. And he told me one time, he said, I know, I probably lose business because of that. And I said, Yeah, I mean, you know, when you're, when you're posting something like that, I mean, especially here in the States, you know, it's, it's about 5050, al 50, or one party 50, or the other party, and you know, and so if you're being very controversial, on one political party, you're alienating 50% of people you could be reaching. And he said, You know, I know, I'm probably losing clients, he said, but it's just important to me that I am being authentic to who I am. And I said, you as long as you recognise that, then that's fine. It's when we see people who accidentally click like, or share an article or you know, things like that. And even just, you know, when you take pictures, you know, I've I've, I know somebody who lost out on a job interview, because she posted a picture on Facebook, getting together with my friends. Sounds easy, right? Well, you know, she was in a bar, it looked really pretty nasty, pretty seedy, and the company's reputation. They know, that was not somebody they wanted working for them. And just that simple picture basically cost her that interview, you know, and so we always have to be aware of what impression we are giving on social media, you know, and sure, we can have our websites, I mean, I have my own branded website, it's Deb career.com. You know, you've got your own branded website. And so that's where we're the true professional people, but social media very much can can damage or enhance your personal brand. Yeah. So we have to be really aware of what we are communicating, and also when it comes to controversial posts, whether we are going to engage with that or not. And then what I also heard is, at the beginning, you mentioned okay, what I show on LinkedIn, and what do I show on Facebook, so that there is a certain consistency of how I show up to the world, across different platforms and channels, right? So are there any, let's say, tips and tricks or do's and don'ts that you want to specifically highlight in, in addition to what you have already mentioned, when it comes to LinkedIn, or social media in general, so on LinkedIn, and your own, and we can talk a lot about this? I do I always tell people more is good. You know, when I look at somebody's profile, and they just have one or two sentences, you know, it really doesn't tell me too much about them. Now, I'm not saying that it's war and peace, you know, we don't write these novels with everything. But there's a reason LinkedIn gives you a fairly large character count. And you don't have to use every single one. But, you know, like, say your your professional headline, if you just say on LinkedIn founder president, okay. Yeah, right. Okay, what B, but like mine says unabashed connector, and all those other things that that you said, it's a headline. The reason for a headline is a true newspaper, or magazine article, where you have the headline, and you read it, you think I have to read more. And so that's really what you want to think about when you're writing your headline, when you're writing your about statement, you know, again, so many people, so many people skip it. It's one of the top things that people see. And you know, to me, it's kind of like the executive summary of something, you know, you want them to read enough in that to then want to read further and, and know more about you. So you want to I tell people, it's the place to tell your professional story. And it's a great way to be able to do that. You know, I go back and forth. Do you write it first person? Do you write it third person? I like first person because it should be like I'm talking to you. So I'm not going to say Deb career does that just you know, talk about sounding pretentious. Alright. And so what it does, it tells it so and say for someone who's looking for a new job, that's a great place to be able to say, I will, you know, I'm open to relocation, you know, my career aspirations are so that way you can kind of, you know, somebody reading it goes, Oh, okay with this, you know, this, this is a great fit for our company. And then fill out every other section that you can, you know, put your experience that pertains, you know, I you don't need to tell people what you did in high school, unless it really directly pertains to what you do now. And, you know, all of those other various things keywords are obviously very important. LinkedIn is searchable by keywords. So just like when you're writing a website, you want to think SEO. And that's important in your, your headline, also your when people are searching there and, and it also ties into Google because if you go and you do a search in Google, Google looks at keywords in LinkedIn profiles. So that's where you will see people's LinkedIn profiles come up. But yeah, just more is better, more is better. You know, don't bore people with it. But you want to be able to provide enough so that they think, hey, I want to talk to this person more. Okay. So meaningful content and also interesting, relevant content, and content that you also touch people's heart, and that you also connect on a visceral level with with the people, right. And it's okay to be kind of a human on LinkedIn, I think we get so caught up when I have to be this professional person. It's, you know, it's perfectly fine to put fun stuff on there. Like in my professional headline, it says college sports lover. Yeah. And I've had more than one person say, I wanted to connect with you just because of that. You know, and, you know, and so in, you bet. There's a reason why LinkedIn included, being able to list volunteer activities, it shows more of the rounded person, as opposed to just here's the business person. So you, you, you can have fun with that. And even in your posts, you know, you can you can be posting articles. Now, again, it is the professional platform. So you know, many things that you would post on the the other sites, you're not going to post on LinkedIn, but you can still have a sense of humour, if that matches your personality in your posts. Yeah. So yes, still human beings behind? Right know the handful. Exactly, exactly. And he also connect with people on your own podcast, then business Power Hour, it runs twice a week. And then he had minor programme on the C suite radio, which is part of the C suite network. We have learned you started your podcast in 2011. Is this true? Oh my gosh. And it actually was a live broadcast, I trotted my little self down to an internet based radio station, and I sat in the studio, and it was so much fun because my guests came into. So we really could have some very good interaction by by doing that, and it was, it was a tonne of fun to be able to do that. And so why did you start it in the first place? And yeah, why did you continue it and he was still doing it twice a week. So once the attention? Well, and it is unusual to have podcasts that run this long, you know, it's it's people burn out it is, it's a lot of work, as you know, I mean, you know, it takes quite a bit of time to research your guests to set up the schedules to do the editing, I mean, all those various things. I started because I was a guest on somebody else's podcast, and I went, ooh, this was fun. And so I approached the station, and I and at that point, that was, you know, like I said, 10 years ago, so social media was just really starting. And so I said, I would like to do a podcast that focuses on social media in business. And so we called it this social light. And you know, and so of course, the graphics were fine. I had, you know, this boa, cuz, you know, feather bow, I must have boa constrictor. That's the wrong boa, feather bow and a fancy hat, you know, and, and all sorts of things because I was the socialite. And, and we talked about social media, and I interviewed a variety of people on net, and it was so much fun. And then it evolved into the business podcast, because there really is only so many times you can talk about social media. And I moved from, from my Ohio radio, which was where we were originally to C suite network, because it focuses more on business. And, you know, and and it just was a perfect fit for me to be able to do that. You know, and, and, you know, clearly one of the reasons why I do a podcast is I like to talk to people. But more importantly, I like talking to people who have important information for my listeners, and for my viewers. And, you know, it's just, it's so much fun. I interviewed somebody yesterday for the for the podcast that will go live next week, in Rome. I've interviewed you, I've interviewed people from around the world. And so it really allows me to do a lot of different subjects. I also tell people, I can talk, you know, I can interview whoever I want, because it's my programme. You know, so I've interviewed people about nutrition about mental health. I've interviewed several Hypnotherapist. And part of that though, is because I believe that if we're not healthy, both mentally and physically, it's not going to matter what we do with our business. So we need to be taking those steps. You know, and but yeah, do I tell me it's my programme, I can interview who I want. It's all in compositing, right, it's the same with personal branding. Got it. In my show, I have someone who is in a traditionalist. And it's so important that you are, I mean, you are, what you are. And nutrition is part of feeling good and is part of making you powerful and stronger. So this is a prerequisite of being a strong personal brain drain. So, it's also fun to have people from all around the world because of all the cultural differences and the ways of doing things and get a better understanding of each other. Right, right. Yeah, because it's an and we were trending toward this, obviously, but I think the pandemic has really amplified the fact that, that in many cases, we are working with people around the world. So we need to know, okay, this is how things operate in, you know, in in other places. And, you know, even if it's just simple things, like, you know, colours, you know, I taught a class at at, in Denver at a university. And we talked about how different colours are perceived differently in different countries. You know, here in the United States Green is is a symbol of, it's funny, it's an environmental colour, and it's the colour of money. You know, but in other countries green is is not that black and white. You know, here in the States, its purity. Black is a colour of death. In other countries, that's totally different. You know, and, and things like that. And so it's fun to learn about, what what can be expected if we're going to be working with people in other countries, because we do get very self centred, and I don't care what country it is. And we forget that, you know, other people have different views and different ways of working. Yeah, we are always relying and referring to our own value systems that we have grown up with what we have learned. But in other countries, there are different belief systems and different cultural understandings. And that and number four in China has a completely different meaning than here. And you have to be careful when you are pricing something number four, it might backfire people might not buy because it's associated with death. So the same goes for colours. Yeah. So we have to be very, very careful. And also with a meaning of yes, it's not necessarily a yes, say, Yes, it can also, I don't know, I have heard you, but I have not understood. So there's all these different layers, you have to really, really be. Yeah, pay attention to we have to be careful about right. Alright, so that I would like to know, if there is any experience in your life that was a major learning for you. A setback that yeah, also helped you to grow from it going forward in your life that shaped you. Is there anything that you would like to share with us? Because always these setbacks and and you know, that are failures in life, or whatever is usually your leap from it, because that's an integral part of your of your life and of your future thereby. Right? Well, for me, it was I went to a doctor, and this was six years ago, and came out of it, you know, and they went, huh, golly, gee, you have cancer. And, and I tell people, I know, just enough to be dangerous, because I worked for the American Cancer Society, and I worked for an oncologist. So, you know, I know a lot of those words, I know, you know, a lot of the terminology. And so initially, they told me stage zero, which is, that's it, that's what the dream diagnosis, right? And, and they said, you know, this is going to be very easy to treat, we're probably not even going to do chemo or radiation. You know, this is going to be very easy. We did some some basic tests, again, everything came back as as you know, looking very rosy, very happy. You're still just absolutely terrified. You know, you say the word cancer and you know, your heart stops and your head goes 900 miles an hour. And, but then it turned out it was not stage zero. It was stage four. And stage four metastatic breast cancer is not something that that you want, um, no, cancer is what you want. But stage four meant that it had travelled to other parts of my body. Um, and so, you know, it was like, okay, and but I still remember thinking this was not on my schedule. I was like, Well, how rude. And so, you know, and but then I approached it with, Okay, we're gonna deal with this and then we're gonna move on. Well, whatever decided that was not going to be what happened. And I had What my doctor fondly calls a catastrophic reaction to my very first chemo treatment, and I ended up in, in the hospital for seven weeks, I had septic shock, which is, you know, not, you know, they were actually arguing over how fast I was going to die. And so I had all sorts of complications and things like that, and, and, you know, six years later, I'm actually still in treatment, but clearly doing very well. You know, and I tell people, you know, the alternative was not acceptable, you know, and so you just keep going, but from, from, you know, all those perspectives, it taught me that we absolutely, positively have to focus on now, you know, what can we do right now, to make things better for ourselves, because you know, what, we have to be selfish, and I don't care if you ever get a diagnosis like this or not, we do have to focus on ourselves. But by focusing on ourselves, then we can help other people. You know, and I love this analogy, and I can't, I can't take credit for it, somebody else said it first. And, but they said, you know, there's, there's a reason when you're on an aeroplane, and they tell you, the oxygen mask drops down, put yours on first, before you help someone else. And that's very important to take care of yourself. So part of what I learned was, you know, to as much as possible, get rid of the toxic people in my life, you know, and, and really focus on you know, on going forward positively, do I have bad days? Sure. You know, there are days where I just had great big pity parties for myself, but then, you know, you get up and you dust yourself off, and you go on, you know, and but it's it's certainly not anything that I would ever want anybody else to have to go through even, you know, a mild diagnosis is funny, I was diagnosed earlier this this year, with skin cancer on my arm, and I was like, Oh, whatever. And I was like, I again, I know enough about it to know this, you know, you cut it off, it's done. That's it. And you and the doctor was very cute, because he put on his concerned voice. And he was telling me now, this is not something you need to worry about. And I went, Yeah, your whatever. You need to understand this is no big deal. Um, but anytime you hear something like that, you do think oh, my gosh, you know, and but I think for anybody who is is listening and watching this, it was definitely the wake up call, you know, and so, you know, but but it did show me, you know, there, there are certainly far more important things in life, you'll pick your battles, nail disease, does this really matter? You know, and, but, but because, you know, also, again, like I was saying, Take care of yourself, you know, I was real big on volunteering. Anytime somebody needed something, my hand went up, and my hand went up, and my and no, you know, I just can't do that anymore. Because physically, I can't do that. But, you know, now you pick and you choose, this is what's important to me, as opposed to, I'm just gonna volunteer because nobody else volunteered, you know, find out what's important to you. And one of the things that that I have discovered is, it's, this is how I met you is the power of building those tribes of supporters around you. You know, and, and it's funny that I never really networked, specifically with women's groups, for several reasons, you know, it just didn't never seem to click. And after all of this, I have discovered that where I get the most out of are the women's groups, you know, and maybe that's because of the empathy because of the nurturing because of the support all of those things. I still network with men, I mean, you know, that's, that's, but it is very different. And that's been very interesting as to kind of how that's evolved. And I don't know, maybe that would have just happened because of age. But, you know, you we get wiser hopefully, as we get older, but But yeah, I mean, it was it was definitely an interesting time. Yeah. I mean, you know, what, it's self care to surround yourself with people that are like minded, that support you and you can give support that lift each other. And I think that is also something that helps you tremendously grow. Because you, you, you you have you get this confidence, there is people that understand you. So it's also kind of being in an accountability group. I think that is something that also helps you turn that drastically to move forward. Yeah. And also, yeah, I think you are a wonderful and strong woman and I wonder woman mug here. Yeah, one drastic experience that you went through, I mean, and you see you you got out of that so much stronger and You have this? Yeah, you are full of energy and power. And it's unbelievable what you're bringing to the world. I love that. Well, and you know, it's anything that I can do to help others. Now, I mean, it's funny, I say, you know, don't volunteer, but at the same point is how can you help people? I was doing a one on one networking call yesterday with a young woman just starting out. And, you know, she was starting her business. And she, she was in Belgium. And she actually lives in the UK, but she was visiting friends in Belgium while she was there, and, and did her chat with me. And, you know, we get partway through and I said, Now, I need you to tell me how I can help you. And it brought her up short. She said, nobody's ever asked me that. And she said, I honestly don't know how to respond. And I said, That's okay. I said, just just keep in mind that there are people who want to help you and not expect anything in return. That's beautiful. Yeah. It's to help without expecting anything in return. And that's right. You don't get things in return. No, there do. It's but but yeah, you know, when you're not expecting it, that I think is the key. That's the key. Absolutely. Yeah. So I would like to know one more thing from you. Do you have any advice for corporates who are shifting to solopreneur ship, who want to become their own boss, and they're their face of their own company? Are there any branding, let's say pieces of advice that you can give the audience, I think you really need to sit down and think about what it is that you want to be known for both as a company and as personal, especially if it's your company, because they're very intricately tied together. You know, and so you're What do you want to be known for? And, you know, don't get so caught up in? Well, I have to do this colour on the website, because it's trendy. And I have to be on Snapchat, because that's where my audience is, you need the basics first. So you know, what is it that you stand for? What you know, and it can be a part of it, too, is some marketing things, you know, who are you trying to reach? I think one of the worst things that people do starting out, and you know, even years later, is you they don't know who their market is. So I always love it. When I ask people know, who is your target market? And they look at me, and they smile sweetly. And they say, everyone? No, no, nobody's market is everyone. And so you'll think about who that is. And that's very limiting, it's very scary, because you're thinking, but there's all that money that's out there, then, but they're not going to buy from you anyway. So figure all of those basics out before going. But then I think probably one of the most important things is to just do it, you know, we get so caught up in the it has to be perfect. Before we do it, that we don't do it. You know, and, you know, I had somebody tell me when I was starting my business that I had jumped off the diving board, but then I reached back up and grabbed it. And, and was hanging on by my fingernails. And what that meant was I still had my other full time job. And she said until I had to do it, I wasn't really going to do it. And now you know, that's, that's not always possible. Sometimes you need to start as a side job, some things like that. But until you think of it as a real job, a real career as opposed to maybe a hobby, nobody else is going to take you seriously either. And so that is part of your brand. I mean, are you the person who kind of sorta is doing this, or the person who is a professional who is doing this as their their career as their life's work? You know, and, and, and it doesn't matter, you you can be a landscaper, you can be you know, whatever, you have to kind of have that passion because we pick up on that right? You know, when when we're working with somebody and we know, they don't want to be there. Yeah, you'll feel that it's the attitude that comes across how you say it and how you do it. Right? Yeah, yeah, I heard somebody just on the radio this morning, he went into Starbucks, and you know, got his his coffee and, and he said, you know, he could tell the person didn't really want to be working now. It's early, all those various things. And and he said I wasn't in a good mood either. And, and you know that they gave him coffee, and he said, thank you. And they didn't respond. They just still and he said and I told him, this is where you say you're welcome. And but it was, you know, his point was, it was so clear. They didn't want to be there. Then why should they be there now? You know, they have bills to pay, they have to be there. Um, but you know, I live in the world of Chick fil A, where they are taught that when you serve somebody you say thank you. It's been my pleasure to serve have you? And you know that they actually mean it, you know? Yeah, it's just an hourly job where they're actually making pretty good money. But you know, is it their pleasure to serve? But you know, when they say it's really my pleasure to serve you, you're like, Oh, well, thank you. And then you smile at them. And maybe you made their day. Absolutely. Yeah. It's just a little smile at the end. That just makes a difference. It could completely change somebody's day. I mean, maybe they were having a horrible awful day and you smile at them. They're like, okay, maybe the world's not as bad places. I thought it was. Yeah, right. Okay, dab. Um, I would like to do a quick word wrap before we finish it up. Are you ready to give me quick and short answers? I can do quick import. Yes, Sophie do women empowered. LinkedIn? Critical. beagles. Love Bugs. We didn't even talk about that. That's why I brought it up. Leadership, not managers. And powering. Important. And last but not least, brands. Critical. Super great. I did short and sweet. What do you do? So dad, for listeners who would like to find more about you? How do they get in touch with you? Well, the easiest way is Deb career.com. And that's dB, k, r i e r.com. And all my social links are there. But the best social site to reach me on is LinkedIn. I'm there. I'm Debra career. So it's a little more professional. But you know, I think there's only three dev careers in the world. So it's pretty easy to find me. I think I'm the only redhead and so it's pretty easy to find me on social media but everything is it Deb career.com There you gotta find you, Deb, thank you so much for being my guest today. Right stock. I have enjoyed this so much. I love it. And thank you so much was so calm. It was really a pleasure having you on and talking about social media and in specific LinkedIn. Yeah. And how you help C level executives. Thank you so much that it was wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And that was my conversation with Deb Krier. If you liked m show, head over to bridgetbr nds.com and sign up for my ne sletter to never miss an ep sode. I look forward to we coming you in my community. Al o, don't forget to subscribe to my brandstalk podcast on you preferred app. share it on soc al media and if you find a min te or two, leave a quick rat ng or review. Thank you so muc. I hope you will stay tuned in he next episode. When we div into the world of brands.