Talent acquisition professional, HR podcaster and blogger Wendy Dailey (she/her) joins host Rhonda Taylor to chat about developing your ‘personal brand’ and how you can manage it. They delve into using social media to build an authentic personal brand that represents you and your voice. A lover of the power of social media (especially Twitter) Wendy also shares her views for job seekers around having an online presence and using your virtual networks to help when making big career changes.
With almost 20 years of experience in human resources, Wendy is also an advocate of responsible social media engagement and interaction as a HR blogger and co-host of the #HRSocialHour twitter chat and podcast. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Twitter @wyndall93 or on her website https://mydaileyjourney.com.
For more insightful conversations, visit www.talentexperiencepodcast.com. We hope you enjoy this episode of the Talent Experience podcast!
Talent acquisition professional, HR podcaster and blogger Wendy Dailey (she/her) joins host Rhonda Taylor to chat about developing your ‘personal brand’ and how you can manage it. They delve into using social media to build an authentic personal brand that represents you and your voice. A lover of the power of social media (especially Twitter) Wendy also shares her views for job seekers around having an online presence and using your virtual networks to help when making big career changes.
With almost 20 years of experience in human resources, Wendy is also an advocate of responsible social media engagement and interaction as a HR blogger and co-host of the #HRSocialHour twitter chat and podcast. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Twitter @wyndall93 or on her website https://mydaileyjourney.com.
For more insightful conversations, visit www.talentexperiencepodcast.com. We hope you enjoy this episode of the Talent Experience podcast!
Rhonda Taylor 00:25
Hey all its Rhonda Taylor here with TalentX. Another episode talking about the talent experience and today's another challenge to keep putting one foot in front of the other. With us today, we have Wendy Dailey. Wendy is an HR professional who I have known for quite a while. I think most of you would probably know her as the co-host of HR Social Hour. So Wendy, welcome.
Wendy Dailey 00:55
Thank you, Rhonda. I'm excited to be here.
Rhonda Taylor 01:00
Wendy gives us a little bit more background on yourself.
Wendy Dailey 01:05
Oh, so we'll do the short version since this is a short podcast. I have been in talent acquisition for right around 20 years in a wide variety of industries and all across the US and in a number of different states. I am now a talent acquisition strategist for a large healthcare organization and we are headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which is where I live with my family. We've been back in South Dakota for about the seven years now.
Rhonda Taylor 01:38
Hey, Wendy, let's talk about what are your pronouns?
Wendy Dailey 01:42
Sure, so my pronouns are she, her and hers and then I always like to share how I identify as well, because I think it's important for people to know how I see the world and how I think the world sees me. So I am white, straight, cisgender, Christian and non disabled.
Rhonda Taylor 02:08
Right, and I asked you earlier about the non disabled, that's the description side of it all. You mentioned that you're comfortable with providing that insight, because so many times people aren't comfortable asking you those questions.
Wendy Dailey 02:30
And we're not supposed to ask, you know.
Rhonda Taylor 02:34
I know, you're right. You're not supposed to ask, but we tell - why?
Wendy Dailey 02:43
Well to make people comfortable to ask, I think that's the main thing. And it's too, we've talked so long in the working world, or not so long but lately the big thing is bring your authentic self to work, which really isn't true. We don't want your authentic self we want who we want you to be. But if we're gonna bring our authentic self to work we need to be able to share with people how we want you to see us and how I want to be seen by by people. And so by sharing how I identify, sharing my pronouns, if I share it, it makes it comfortable for other people to share it. And then there's no question, because we were just joking about how you're not supposed to ask, it's rude to ask somebody what their pronouns are. And we actually should get more comfortable with asking those questions so that we don't miss identify somebody unintentionally.
Rhonda Taylor 03:43
Absolutely.
Wendy Dailey 03:45
How much worse is that than not being rude? It's right up there with continuing to mispronounce somebody's name. Misidentifying them, that's more rude in my mind. And so we need to be comfortable sharing it and asking those questions from the very beginning.
Rhonda Taylor 04:07
And it's like how many times have you seen in a parking lot and you've seen a car pull in with the handicap sticker and they walk into the store. They walk into the store quite normal, and you're saying 'what's going on here?' But like if all of a sudden you had an insight that that person has a heart condition, or it's somebody like me that once I carry 10pounds it puts a strain on my spinal system that I'm okay walking into the store, I'm just not okay walking out of the store.
Wendy Dailey 04:48
Right. We just don't know. And for so many years we've just made assumptions. And for some reason we've gone to we're assuming ill intent with people and we need to start we need to switch that up and we need to be okay asking. And we need to start assuming good intent when people are using a handicapped parking spot and they might not look a certain way, they might not look like they need to. We don't know what's going on inside someone else and so we need to stop making those assumptions.
Rhonda Taylor 05:18
Oh exactly. And I think where this discussion is going is both of us have a very strong marketing background. I think we're marketers at heart. I wanted to talk about personal brand. Because that's almost where you start off with, what are your pronouns? What's the information we need to know about you? Well, in today's world, we all have a brand. And some of us would say, No, I don't have a brand. But we do.
Wendy Dailey 05:57
Because you want to or not.
Rhonda Taylor 05:59
Exactly, exactly, whether you want it or not. Let's take a look at what are some of the things that people put in and do to create a personal brand.
Wendy Dailey 06:19
You know, I think beyond creating one, because you've got one. So it's more around managing who you are. And I think that really kind of goes back to like, into recruitment and talent acquisition, because you have your resume, which tells people about you, tells them what you want to know about them. When you fill out an application you tell the employer what you want them to know about you and so you can go back to what are you putting in your resume? What are you putting out on your LinkedIn profile? And what does that say about who you are as a potential employee and potential connection? And what do you bring to the equation? So we don't have to think about it as, I think some people think brands and they go oh, so much work and I've got to do all this stuff and do I need a logo? All of these different things when you think about branding and it's really just telling your story and in a way that is true to who you are, and using your own voice.
07:22
I love, and so many people don't like social media, I love social media because people are able to be themselves or the brand that they want to be out there. And you get to know who's authentic with their brand and who has a persona, who has here's this other... It's something on on my podcast Anne Tomkinson and I have talked about a couple of times too, because we'll talk about you know Serena Williams or Beyonce come up in conversation and it's like we need to be sure when we talk about those people that it is a persona that they're putting out. We don't know them in person, we don't know who they really are at home, but we know who their what the brand they are, what brand they're putting out there and who we would be interacting with if we got to, you know, I got to meet Serena Williams.
Rhonda Taylor 08:14
Exactly. I love Serena Williams, because she said it will be a cold day in hell when my daughter's paid less than the man she's working beside. I love that mentality. And the daughter is what one year old.
Wendy Dailey 08:29
I think so.
Rhonda Taylor 08:32
I think you've touched on it a bit is social media. You know you have your LinkedIn profile and it's very structured and it's almost like sterile. Like the resume. If I really want to know a person, I start diving into their social media activity, I start taking a look at articles that they have authored. Because as you said earlier, it's their authentic self. Do you check social media at all?
Wendy Dailey 09:18
I will, I'll usually look for someone on Twitter first. You know, and that's, I mean, that's my social media.
Rhonda Taylor 09:29
You're dating yourself.
Wendy Dailey 09:30
Apparently so. My kids are on TikTok and stuff. But I think you know too, I think it's I'll go out to look for people and people I've connected with either on LinkedIn or Twitter, that's usually where I'm connecting with strangers. But you can tell who's real and who's not because there are people who have different personas based on what social media they're on and oh my god, would that be exhausting.
Rhonda Taylor 10:03
I know.
Wendy Dailey 10:04
Who am I, where am I? So for people that I want to connect with and people that maybe we want to invite to be a part of the Twitter chats or the larger HR community, making sure that we know who they are and who we're inviting in. I like to say we're very open, we're very welcoming but we're also very particular. I'm never gonna stop somebody from coming in, but I might not extend you an invitation based on what you've been sharing. If it doesn't coincide, if you're not showing who you really are, if you're saying one thing and sharing different articles that say something completely different we're gonna wonder who are we really inviting into the fold.
10:50
And not that I wouldn't want someone with differing opinions, that's not the thing, because we definitely want that we want to have that discussion, that's how we grow and learn new things. But if you don't know what your opinion is, and you're saying one thing or sharing different things, I might wonder who I'm actually hanging out with here.
Rhonda Taylor 11:17
Do you think, and I'm not an advocate, you're seeing some of these young ones of today they had their own website. They're going out getting their domain and they have their website. As an HR Pro, you don't have to go that direction, it's important for you to have a brand but that's going a little overboard.
Wendy Dailey 11:44
Depends on what you want to do.
Rhonda Taylor 11:46
Yeah, that's right. If you're in graphics or marketing or at a very high level. Yeah, you're right. Absolutely. You're right there. But are there social media channels that, I know you said Twitter. Oh my gosh, I am a big Twitter fan, too. But I also am on tik tok and Instagram, I don't dance on it, don't worry people. But what are the social media channels that employers sort of take a boo at when they're checking people out?
Wendy Dailey 12:32
Obviously, I know they go to LinkedIn, there are probably some that just do the Google search and search for somebody's name. Which is why I'm kind of glad I have a not a totally unique name. It can be a little bit hard to find me. But I think every employer is going to do it a little bit differently. And from an employer standpoint, one, you want to be consistent in what you're looking at and who's doing the looking. I would never recommend having your hiring managers just go out willy nilly looking for people. Because you don't know what they're going to find and what they're not going to share. What they're not going to tell you they found so you want to make sure that you kind of control who's doing the searching. There are a lot of people out there, it's less now, but all be careful what you share, be careful what you share. I'm not gonna say that because you want to be authentic to yourself. So you share what you want to share but understand there's consequences to what you share.
Rhonda Taylor 13:40
Exactly.
Wendy Dailey 13:41
I live in a very, very conservative town and there's very few of the larger companies here in this town that would bring me on in their HR because they just they don't want any of their HR people on social media at all. I was cautioned once because I was on Twitter. And I'm like, did you see something that does or was there something I posted that was inappropriate, because Gosh, I'm just racking my brain? No, your feed was fine, but you just want to be careful. Okay well, I'm a 45 year old woman I think I'm okay with what I'm putting out there. But I mean you do need to understand that whatever you put out there it is public anyone can find it, whether they should or not, anyone can find it. So you need to know that you're putting yourself out there can be consequences.
Rhonda Taylor 14:38
And it costs big money to get it taken down.
Wendy Dailey 14:42
Oh, yeah just because you delete something, it's not gone. Somebody screenshotted that you know they did. It's enough worry that an employer is going to say they don't want to hire you or they're going to fire you for it. I don't want to be on the other side of the table from someone like Kate Bischoff telling me that I shouldn't have posted that thing on my Twitter.
Rhonda Taylor 15:08
Exactly, exactly. And what you see sometimes with young groups, the 25-35 groups, they have a great weekend out and there's five cases of empty cases of beer on the dock. You know, that's a one time event. It's great if you take the picture, and you make it known that it's a one time event. But if that's a lifestyle, then be careful.
Wendy Dailey 15:41
Unless you're working for Budweiser, really it does, it comes down to where you're working and that sort of thing, too. And I think some of that where we're going with drug screens and that sort of thing is putting the onus on to people to say, when you're coming into the office are you ready and prepared to work? If you're not, then maybe we should send you home. I mean so yay, South Dakota just legalized recreational marijuana, shocked me that we would do that, but people are like, Oh, my gosh, what do we do now as employers, blah, blah, blah. I'm like the same thing you always did you don't have to allow people to come to work high. Alcohol is legal and you don't need to allow people to work when they're drunk. So you don't need to allow people to work when they're high.
16:33
So you need to train your hiring managers to recognize the signs of someone who is impaired, because they could be impaired for all sorts of reasons, not just because they smoked marijuana last night or whatever. So it's more are your employees ready to work and they understand they need to be ready to work when they come in the door. So understanding that. If you want to fire somebody because they party every night but if they can come in and work the next day and they're not impaired. Think about the consequences of from an employer standpoint too what does it say about you for terminating somebody because of what they did on social media? Now, there might be a really good reason to do it I'm not saying that, but have your ducks in a row as well.
Rhonda Taylor 17:25
Exactly. Sometimes your personal brand is dynamic. It's always changing. And people need to be on top of it. You've got to show that you're dynamic, that things are changing. I think a great example would be now we're re-skilling and upskilling. What would your recommendation be to individuals in how to get that message across?
Wendy Dailey 18:17
Oh, golly. I guess there's a couple of things I'm thinking here. So 1. if you are looking for that opportunity. So you know, you've been laid off. This is, honestly, in the United States, this is and I think Canada too this is a great time to be in a position where you're going to switch careers. There's a lot of grant money out there in the US for someone who can't go back to the business you were in before. So if your business goes down because of COVID, or whatever, there's money out there to help you go back to school and create a new career.
18:56
So I think part of it is making sure people know that you're open to that so that they can share those opportunities with you. I know of a ton. So hey, DM me on Twitter and I'll send you links. But I think letting people know that you're open to that and then sharing that good news when you get that opportunity to reskill that you're taking your career in a new direction. I'd be lying if I didn't say there's been times that I've thought about that. I was like, Oh do I need to take my career in a different direction? If I do, what are some of the steps that I'm going to take to get there and the first thing is looking into what did other people do? Who is someone that I know that switched careers, that reskilled or rebranded themselves and did something new?
19:51
I love Laurie Ruettimann. She's done that a couple of times with her podcast and renamed it and we're gonna go it's gone this route and I've decided we're going to go this other way now. Sometimes it's okay to do it abruptly and sometimes you want to step back and think about it in how do you make that adjustment and get that word out based on what you're doing now? It's just I don't know that she did it abruptly, I'm sure she thought it through long before she shared anything publicly, but helping people to take that journey with you. And you can do that on any social media platform, to adjust your brand and change your brand and help people see where you're headed. Because I mean, I'm not the same person I was five years ago and even a year ago, we've all aged 50 years in this last year, I think, but I think there's a lot of that going on. And so I think one, you need to be open to it and be okay asking for help.
Rhonda Taylor 20:59
Yeah, that's right. Ask for help. And people, whether it's a skill help or mental help, now's the time, as Wendy said, there's so many programs out there, don't sit back and suffer and question yourself, ask for help. Wendy you're in the talent acquisition space, we're seeing resumes, when I was young, a resume was the total reflection of my personal brand. Is it now?
Wendy Dailey 21:39
Yeah, it should be. It should be a reflection of your personal brand, it should bring all of those different pieces and parts of yourself together to share it in one short, short page. And I'm not going to say it doesn't have to be one page, but it should be concise and to the point of who you are. Because there are other places to share the details, there are other places to share some of those longer, more in depth. I think that's the beauty of LinkedIn is that you can get into more depth and you can share here's a deep details of a project I did, here's an article that I wrote that you don't necessarily want to have on a resume. Unless you're doing the CV, which is the 27 pages of everything you've ever done, professionally. But I think the more concise you can be in that brand, that's your short brand and then send them to LinkedIn, send them to a blog, send them to your webpage, if you have a web page, send them to these places where you have, and you're keeping track of those things so that you can continually you can shape your resume to where you want to go.
Rhonda Taylor 22:59
Right, right. Wendy, we could go on all day. And it's so important, it's something that sort of just evolved through time and all of a sudden just one day we all woke up and realized that we had an individual personal brand.
Wendy Dailey 23:19
Or a reputation.
Rhonda Taylor 23:22
Used to be called the reputation. But now we have all kinds of other means and ways of getting our messaging out and Gen Z are doing it in so many other innovative ways, than the way that we did.
Wendy Dailey 23:42
It's so much fun to watch what they're doing and how they're putting it out there and I think we can't be fuddy duddy about it.
Rhonda Taylor 23:52
Exactly. As we're getting ready to wrap up here we always ask our guests and I want to thank you so much for being a guest. You really enjoy what you're doing, you're passionate about the HR Social Hour, you're passionate about your job, you always have a smile on your face. How does Wendy do it?
Wendy Dailey 24:18
Um, lots of alcohol. No. You know it's taken me a long time to find joy in what I'm doing and I don't believe the phrase of you know, do something that you love and you'll never work a day in your life. I don't believe that phrase. But I believe that you can find some joy in what you're doing. And you can't be afraid to just kind of step out and say this is what I'm going to do. The podcast and stuff kind of started because I wasn't happy in my day job and it was something to give a little new life to me and human resources. And I've been able, with John and I working together on that, and the chat and HR WonderWoman and everything else has just been able to give me that, bring some meaning into the day to day work. And I've been able to flood it over into my day to day, I'm starting an internal podcast and so I've been able to make that journey. And so it's never too late to find that joy.
Rhonda Taylor 25:41
Our generation is now just finding that joy. I truly believe that the future generations will enjoy their work. They will work, because they enjoy it. Because they will have more choices and options. And you know what, longevity is not going to be an issue for them. They may go work there for a couple of months or a couple of years and move on. It will be a different life for them. But at TalentX we're all about people enjoying what they're doing and you definitely do enjoy.
Wendy Dailey 26:25
I do.
Rhonda Taylor 26:26
You know, people I have to share with you I just burst out laughing as we started because Wendy does this to me. She's such an incredible vibratious character and I love speaking with her because she always makes it so enjoyable. So Wendy, I thank you for being a guest on TalentX.
Wendy Dailey 26:43
Thank you, Rhonda. Thanks for having me. It's been great.