[00:00:00] Dave Polykoff: Welcome back to another episode of Brand Science. I am pleased and happy today to have an awesome guest Annika Jackson of your brand Amplified. Annika, welcome to the show.
[00:00:11] Anika Jackson: Thank you so much. I was really looking forward to this and I'm happy you were here.
[00:00:14] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. Yeah, no, me too. I know. Cause this is going to be a critical topic we're talking about today, which is finding clarity in your message. I think a lot of what us personal branders go through is we come in thinking we have the experience and we've seen signs of success with our clients. And so we just dive right into the content creation and then we kind of fumble over the right words to use and we don't really know where we should actually be.
[00:00:43] Dave Polykoff: Uh, in terms of what channel we should be on. Um, and so there's a lot of on, on clarity, if you will in what we should be doing. So I think today what we are going to be focusing on is the process for finding that clarity. And by the end of today, our audience will understand what our messaging should be, who we [00:01:00] should be talking to and where we should be talking to them.
[00:01:02] Dave Polykoff: So before we get into all that though, I want to learn a little bit more about you. How did you get into branding? I know you have your own podcast, so you have a lot of experience in branding and marketing. What's kind of like the quick 30 second highlight reel of all that.
[00:01:18] Anika Jackson: Well, yeah, I, it is hard to fit that into 30 seconds, but essentially lived a few different places. So I grew up in Kansas, worked in Kansas city, then Chicago. This is my third time in Los Angeles. I worked in San Francisco and I lived in Houston for eight years. So one thing that's carried me through all of those places is the relationships I've built and showing up as my authentic self. And I didn't necessarily realize I was building a personal brand, but that's really what I was doing. And I think that's a lot of the work that people have to do is look back at your life and see who do, who are you still connected with? How do they interact with you? What do they respect you and know you for, even if that's not exactly what [00:02:00] you did wherever, you know, in that time and for life. So I started out in experiential marketing. Then I started working at an agency in Chicago, um, really cut my teeth on. Um, just events, branding, putting together collaborations, connecting people, uh, working in magazines, connecting. audience members and consumers and customers with our advertisers and creating custom programs. So that was all brand building. I just didn't even know it at the time. And out of that, then that's been the, really the essence of my career is everything I do has been about helping create those connections and collaboration points, helping people figure out who they are. And how to show up as their full selves in every area of their life, because that is the most authentic thing you can do in your personal brand. And I would say that particularly younger generations demand that of us. The
[00:02:58] Dave Polykoff: That's a, we've [00:03:00] kind of similar backgrounds in that sense, but, um, so that's kind of cool to learn, but yeah, the, uh, the authenticity side of things seems to be the through line across all personal branding. And yeah, as you're, as you're stating is kind of the contingency nowadays.
[00:03:13] Dave Polykoff: Uh, cause everyone can kind of sniff out the BS, you know, um, great. Well, let's start with then what you have is kind of the brand blueprint, which is helping us understand exactly how to kind of map out our brand when it comes to wallet. You describe it kind of, what is your definition of this brand blueprint?
[00:03:33] Dave Polykoff: Right.
[00:03:34] Anika Jackson: brand blueprint has multiple components and this works on a personal level. It also works well in business. It also works well. I've done workshops for companies like Red Bull, helping their employees see their connection to the brand. Obviously, Red Bull is a huge, has a huge brand identity, and everybody who works there is very intentional about wanting to work there, but making sure that they're connecting that to all of their interactions with retailers, [00:04:00] with consumers, anybody that, you know, depending on what department they are interacting with everybody. So, the start of the blueprint, and what I argue is the foundation of everything you should do when you're starting to build. A podcast, a brand, whatever you're going to do in life, even I'm a college professor. So even that role, uh, is, you know, first of all, what is your purpose? And so I've realized my purpose really is to amplify other people to help them figure out how to make the connection with who they are and then how to show that to the world. And collaborate with people. So you start with your purpose and then you move to your vision. What is the vision you want to happen when people work with you? Like what is the ultimate. And then think about, you know, there can be many layers. So there'll be an outward facing vision statement that could be about being strategic. You know, creating strategic branding approaches for people to push their message out to [00:05:00] the right audiences and achieve success, whatever that means for them, you could have other goals under that, that are just your goals. You know that by doing this, you're going to make X amount of money or you're going to touch this many people or whatever that case may be. So you have your vision and then your mission is actually the tactical strategy that you're putting into play for how you achieve your vision. That's your purpose. Um, so, you know, it could be, I'm going, this is, these are the actions I'm going to take. So for me, it could be PR coaching. In consultation, building out podcast programs, being a professor, building out new curriculum, teaching at workshops, because it's the best way to get information out.
[00:05:39] Anika Jackson: And so that's how I'm going. That's my mission is to do as many of those things as possible so that more people are really excited about leaning into who they are and can achieve their purpose. Then you also want to look at your values and pick. You know, maybe you have a list of 10 to 20 values.
[00:05:56] Anika Jackson: There's some really great resources on the internet. And I also have worksheets, um, [00:06:00] that I'd be happy to like give you links to for your audience. Um, but thinking about your values come down to like, what are five core values and how do they reflect who you are? And you want to use those values as a jumping off point for your mission statement, your purpose statement, your key messaging in your branding, how you're going to connect to the right audiences. And also when to say yes or no to opportunities. I was saying this a little bit before we got on. So many of us can go down rabbit holes of, Oh, but they have money and I need to bring in more revenue. So I don't really do the service, but now I'm going to add it in because it's something that somebody is asking for and trying to be a one stop shop.
[00:06:41] Anika Jackson: But sometimes it's better to say, I don't do that, but I can refer some really great people for you to work with. And that way I can stay core to what my. Lane is to work in with you. Um, I know I've fallen down that rabbit hole. I know nonprofits do it all the time. And businesses, if somebody is an investor and it's coming [00:07:00] at you with a certain amount of money, but they want, they have their own idea of what they want your technology or your, you know, your brand to do for them. If it doesn't, if it's not congruent, then stay away from it, honestly, because you're going to learn some hard lessons and you're probably not going to be very happy with the outcome, whether it's that. They eventually realize you can't do all these things, or you're just not happy in your work. And building your brand, it should equal like every day you wake up so excited to do what you're doing, right? Uh, so that, those are the five or six really key constructs of brand building, building that solid foundation that then lead into everything else that you do, how you tell your story, how you tell it to the right messages, how you figure out what platforms to be on, uh, and everything else.
[00:07:45] Dave Polykoff: Sure. So this is literally the blueprint for clarity for kind of the seed in which you then can grow your personal brand. It, it, it drives, it's the North star that can help you kind of direct you to everything. So let's go through [00:08:00] these one at a time, because I think these are all critical, right? You have purpose, vision, mission, and values.
[00:08:05] Dave Polykoff: And I think the values part of it, there's a lot of like sub sub points there we can dive into as well. So like purpose, that seems, that's like the. That's our goal for, for, for every human, right. It's defined purpose to understand, you know, why are we here on this earth? How are you defining purpose? How have you, you know, and found your own and then how are you kind of helping guide other people to finding their purpose?
[00:08:30] Anika Jackson: That's such a big question, but like you said, so important. Um, I'll start with how I found my own. It was actually really, when I was starting to teach this, that I had to distill the essence of my purpose, um, and shout it out to the world. So what I realized is that from my entire life, like when I was in elementary school, I was the kid who invited everybody to my birthday parties. I wasn't going to leave anybody out in seventh grade. I [00:09:00] had flyers littering the halls of my, what we call junior high at that time, aging myself a little bit, but, um, you know, I invited everybody in seventh grade to a party at my house and it was not like a huge, you know, a crazy thing. It was. I was the DJ.
[00:09:16] Anika Jackson: I had actual turntables and I wasn't mixing, you know, but, um, that was the music we had. Like we didn't have alcohol or anything like that. It was just a really purely innocent. People were playing volleyball, soccer in the backyard. Um, but I just wanted to bring people together later on that morphed into being a club promoter and promoting DJs starting when I was a teenager in high school and building out club nights and then saying, how can I keep enriching the community? So it became zines. That we would make one copy and take to photocopy because that was the technology we had at the time. And then I'd put together dinner parties, um, with different people who didn't know each other so that they could get to know each other in our music community. So then that grew to [00:10:00] online chat room, music chat rooms, things like that. I've realized everywhere I go, it's always been really important to me. And one of my core goals To bring people together, to help them figure out who they are, how to reach the right people in Houston that presented, I'm fast forwarding a little bit, but that presented as having a social club, it wasn't a drinking club, it was a social club of people who wanted to get connections in the city, maybe they wanted to get more involved in philanthropy. Maybe they wanted to start their own business, but they didn't have the resources. They didn't know who to go to. And when I moved to Houston, I was very lucky that I had a couple of people who knew people who lived there. So and those people were really connected and got me very connected in the city.
[00:10:42] Anika Jackson: And I did a whole bunch of stuff. I had a radio show, a a Facebook live show. I MC'd a lot of events. I started my own charities, got really involved in the community and. I realized like, but it's because I know people and I have that personality also, but there are a lot of people who aren't, [00:11:00] they're scared to go outside of their comfort zone.
[00:11:02] Anika Jackson: So I'm going to help them. And so we created that. And then we ended up having a clubhouse that became an incubator for small businesses to launch products because a lot of them had day jobs, but they wanted to be an artist and haven't have a gallery or. Sell a makeup line or, you know, shoe line, handbags, perfume, you name it. So we built that. And the reason I'm going to so much detail about this is because that is what I realized was the essence of everything I've ever done. And then I realized, you know, I can look back at like what my family instilled in me and see how that shaped this, but also my brother and my sister, same parents, same life. But they do very different things. They're not on the same path. So it really is inherently who you are. Um, and once you can like look back and discover that it really helps shape everything [00:12:00] else you do. And that's why I've realized, Oh, my passion is to teach people. My passion is to help people. Not just in, because not just in the world of like charity, right. When I was going to university, I couldn't decide if I wanted to be a business person or a social worker. So now I kind of see my service as a little bit of both. I'm going to help mentor people and help them find their purpose and get through, figure out their brand and then be really well equipped even from an earlier age than I am to be able to make the right decisions for their lives and, and maybe not do some of the life lessons that they had to go through.
[00:12:37] Anika Jackson: Some of those of course are important, but not all of them.
[00:12:40] Anika Jackson: So I don't know if that's quite the direction you wanted me to go.
[00:12:43] Dave Polykoff: No, I think what's important here is it sounds like, so you walk us through kind Your journey in your career that then sounds like you kind of had a reflective moment and looked back at that to then say, what is the through [00:13:00] line that occurred or is, is, is, had occurred through all of that, that I can then label as my purpose.
[00:13:08] Dave Polykoff: So, What, what was kind of like the process for you to then review all of that, review your journey, and then how do you translate that into kind of like a purpose statement or something that you can kind of put on your fridge to call your purpose?
[00:13:25] Anika Jackson: Yeah, well, I'm going to read you my LinkedIn. Because I think this is a perfect place to tell a lot of times people are not sure what to put for their headline for LinkedIn. Mine says top 1 percent podcaster, listen notes, top 10 podcasts, good pods, podcast coach, and professor. Brand and comp strategists focused on helping brands and entrepreneurs empower, celebrate, and amplify their impact to the world. So to me, that is my purpose, but that also feeds into my vision statement. And then it talks also feeds into my mission because it talks about [00:14:00] how I'm going, trying to achieve that a little bit, not fully. I don't outline like every single program that I do. Right. But I really want, that's where you can really tell people who you are so that they have a very clear expectation of what they can expect or who they're working with.
[00:14:15] Anika Jackson: And that's, that leads back to what we were talking about with authenticity. And so what really happened is I had built a PR firm during the pandemic. And I had so many brands, small business entrepreneurs coming to me saying, I'm ready for PR. I have a website. I have a logo. Let's go. And I say, okay, but do you know what exactly you do?
[00:14:38] Anika Jackson: Do you know who you're trying to reach? So I developed with my team that this construct and created an entire You know, brand amplifier program to walk people through each step, um, of not just starting with brand, you know, the brand blueprint, and then creating messages, creating a [00:15:00] strategic marketing plan, understanding digital landscape, understanding some of the things we talked about before, like the peso model, um, and understanding how to really reflect yourself and your brand in each component of your marketing and sales strategy, a hundred
[00:15:14] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. So I i love this concept of kind of the self reflection. And then translating that into your purpose. And then you made a key point here about the idea of then publicizing that, that purpose, uh, in the most public, uh, billboard that you can, which is these days, like your LinkedIn headline. Um, So, you know, it's, it's, it's not enough to just have a purpose, but one, it sounds like you have to live through your purpose, but two, you have to be kind of public about it too, so that you can attract your, your ideal client.
[00:15:47] Dave Polykoff: Is that.
[00:15:49] Anika Jackson: percent.
[00:15:49] Dave Polykoff: the takeaway? Is it to, to actually express that purpose places?
[00:15:54] Anika Jackson: Yeah, a hundred percent. And that I think is where people get most scared and feel most [00:16:00] vulnerable because there are so many people who don't want to talk about themselves. And that's where I say, get over your own ego. It's not, you're not, it's not really about you. It's about, I mean, your purpose is something very different to me.
[00:16:14] Anika Jackson: It is who you are. It's not what you look like. It's not, it's not ego driven. Your purpose is something you put out because it's not really about you. It's about what you offer to the world. And so, yes, these other things being a, you know, podcaster, a university professor, they add to my credibility and thought leadership in that area, but they aren't the sole thing.
[00:16:39] Anika Jackson: They're not the reason I'm here. And so, you know, it's a push pull because I think a lot of people get scared. They're like, Oh, but I don't want to talk about myself. It's not really, it's just not about you. It's about what you're doing and what you bring, how you help people.
[00:16:52]
[00:16:52] Hey, Dave here... obviously, but I want to just pause this episode real quick and say, thank you so much for tuning in to this [00:17:00] episode of Brand Science. I hope that you're getting as much value as a viewer or listener as I've gotten as a host.
[00:17:07] And if you are getting value from this episode, It must mean that you enjoy nerding out on all things personal branding, content creation, and strategy, which means you're my type of person. So I want to connect. Once you're done this episode, go down to the show notes where you'll find my LinkedIn profile. Click on that link, head over to my profile and send me a request. When you send the request, there'll be that little pop-up that comes up, that you can add a note in the request.
[00:17:35] Just tell me that you found me from a brand science episode so I know that you are one of those loyal, awesome listeners of mine. And let's connect and learn together. Anyway, just want to say, love you. Thanks for listening. Let's connect on LinkedIn and a yeah. Back to the episode.
[00:17:51] Dave Polykoff: Um, all right. So we have our purpose now next is vision. And can you kind of define what vision is?[00:18:00]
[00:18:00] Anika Jackson: Yeah. Vision is, um, like you said, the North star, you know, the blue sky, like what would exist in a perfect world if you're really enacting your purpose. Um, and that can be, that can look very different for people. Um, and I of course don't have mine pulled up, so I'm going to pull that up right now in the moment live. Um, So that I can just share, you know, mine and hopefully that can help people get a lot of clarity on how to construct these. Um, like when I did, and it's an interesting, um, process to go through and it can, I feel like your purpose is going to stay consistent. The vision, the mission might change over time, depending on where you are in your life. Are you spending more time investing in your kids and your family. And maybe not in the workforce at this time, you know, and then what do you, what can you pour [00:19:00] into? So for me, part of that time was being more involved as a volunteer for nonprofits. Um, and not as much in the world of work. Now it's very much both, but primarily in the world of work and with my students. So. You know, it does change, but this is how people find their first impressions of you. It is the credibility. Um, so vision really is what do you aim to achieve? I
[00:19:26] Dave Polykoff: It's an interesting point you made there about your vision can, can change. Uh, I do. I it's, it's interesting because I think as we mature, And get older, we take in new information. We see, we see the world a little bit differently. We travel a little bit more. And so I think we change, we evolve a little bit more.
[00:19:47] Dave Polykoff: So the vision of what we want to see in the world can, can change. While you mentioned purpose in the beginning is a little, it sounded like you were kind of saying it's almost over [00:20:00] nurture, like it's something you're almost born with, would you agree?
[00:20:03] Anika Jackson: would a hundred percent agree. I, I, mean, I can go off on some tangents, but, uh, I really believe that we are, you know, I mean, they've, they've shown that whether you have generational trauma or generational wins, that that does live in your DNA. And I had dreams about my daughter who's now 16 before she was born. And she is a hundred percent that person. And I think that's always the thing also, when you have kids and they have very different personalities, it's because that's who they are. They were always that way when they were in the womb, they're not, and even maybe before when they were just like a little thought, right.
[00:20:42] Anika Jackson: Um, and then there is, uh, some nurture. Seen the examples of my parents. My mom was a school social worker. My dad was a college professor. Um, there's a long lineage of education, social work, and entrepreneurship on both sides of my family. So seeing them and seeing how [00:21:00] they brought people together did show me. Ways that I could do it when I started out and then I've grown it exponentially from there. So now when I think about my vision as stated, it's, I create a world in which impact makers voices are heard, listened to celebrated and invested in. So that could be a nonprofit. It could be somebody starting a podcast on mental health. Or, you know, anything else. Um, it also could be a startup company that has something infused. It does. They don't have to be B Corp. Right. But, um, I worked for a long time with a Fin and Ed and finance tech company called Kitty Credit, which was an app for kids from an early age to work with their parents and understand. Finance, like through, there was a little like mimic of the fight of the FICO model, but all about how much they did their chores or how much, um, did they get their homework done on time? How well did they do things? And so to me, they were having a huge impact [00:22:00] on, because we all should get financial education in the early stages of our lives.
[00:22:03] Anika Jackson: And most of us don't because parents have their own generational drama and they don't want to talk about. Their financial situations, you know, so, um, so that vision that I see, it can mean a lot of different things, but then when I distilled to my mission is I elevate brands and entrepreneurs through collaboration, community and communication. So that can be, I introduced them. I love introducing people to other people. Like I've somehow I'm in this world of AI now, and I've had access to some really great people through my podcast. Um, and so that has helped me like make introductions to people. They should know. Or I got invited to go to AI for, you know, um, conference in Vegas, which I probably wouldn't have, unless I had some of those words in my profile, but that's another way for me to help. Like my college students understand how they need to use AI, how they need to know it now, because otherwise they won't have jobs in the future, [00:23:00] um, community. So that would be a lot of the nonprofit stuff that I do. And then communication. That's because I am a brand strategist PR, I'm a publicist. I do a lot with digital media. Um, so I have like this intersection of all of these different tools and I want to help people understand where to best utilize them. How to utilize them and find the right people for them to talk to.
[00:23:20] Dave Polykoff: So how would you create your vision statement? How do you conceptualize it?
[00:23:25] Anika Jackson: Um, I conceptualize it as something that's big, right? The biggest, um, impact. So by leaving it really open and broad for myself, I'm creating this vision of the world I want to see. That I'm not, it's not just about me working with people, but it's about everybody else that I know. Then hopefully getting some inspiration from something they've read or a podcast they've listened to with one of my guests, or I've worked on with them one on one. And then they're able to take that and help teach the next person, right? So it's a continuous [00:24:00] flow
[00:24:01] Anika Jackson: and that is how you create the world. It's not going to be me on my own. Um, and that is all the different methods. So like I said, if I'm working with them one on one or I'm just encouraging them as a student or giving podcast content that really resonates and helps them figure out something that's not necessarily great things for me, but great things for my guests. Um, so I, I try to get content out in as many ways as possible so that I can help that along. And then if they want to contact me. Like for my students, I have office hours, nearly half hours, anytime, whether they are one of my actual students or they're in the program or a student from another university that just wants to talk to me. Um, I try to give 30 minute intro sessions where I'll just talk to anybody about anything. If they don't have to be working with me, be a client, they can just have heard me on a podcast. And then I'll make a list of like, okay. You want to talk about PR or you want to talk about branding or marketing or podcasting or AI or any of these [00:25:00] different topics or just your life, right? I'm happy to do that and give that as a service. And then I can tell them, these are some people you should meet. And I don't care about getting paid for that. Um, I don't have a PR agency right now because I don't want to have. Um, the same things that I had before where maybe you have a lot of clients, but sometimes they don't pay on time.
[00:25:21] Anika Jackson: And then that puts you behind with payroll. So I have a smaller team and now I'm doing really low cost PR coaching, like 597. They got one on one sessions. I help create all the materials, but I want to teach people how to do their own PR
[00:25:37] Anika Jackson: or how to train their team member. Right? So I'm trying to find all these different ways that I can enact my vision to my mission. And then my, that leads to my, how. So my, how I'm doing this is by being a brand strategist, a publicist, a journalist, because I also write for publications, being a podcaster, being a professor and being a content creator and figuring out how else [00:26:00] I can continue relating content to people. And just yesterday, somebody gave me a new idea and I was like, okay, I have to figure out when I have the time, but to do this, but maybe I can use some AI tools to help.
[00:26:12] Dave Polykoff: So the, so the vision is kind of like, um, what, what it made me kind of think of is, you know, the Gandhi quote, like be the change you want to see in the world, right? Like you kind of, you, you look towards the future of the world that you want, and then you kind of work backwards to see, all right, who do I have to be in order to support that?
[00:26:33] Dave Polykoff: And then you talk about the, how is, okay, I have a vision for a future that I want. Now, what are the hows that I need to implement to help support it? And what are the versions of me that I need to be in order to support it? And you have like your channels that you take towards your vision, I guess. And is that how you are mapping this out?
[00:26:56] Anika Jackson: a hundred percent. And I will tell you that I didn't start [00:27:00] out as, you know, going to podcasting. It was more of a hobby and side to my business. Well, actually starting clients wanting me to do their podcasts, but they didn't really have sustainable budgets. And then, um, I was like, I should just start my own.
[00:27:13] Anika Jackson: And then it's evolved very much over the past four years, but I didn't realize that was part of my, how. Until I got really serious about it, right? I wasn't, I was only started being a professor two years ago. I only started podcasting four years ago. Um, so the tactics that help you achieve your mission, vision, and purpose can change over time also, but being able to see how they relate and really share who you are. And again, go back to being, um, really intentional, but also living your values. And then that's how you then create a positioning statement too. Um, so here's a place if you don't mind me sharing my values. Um, my values are integrity. [00:28:00] So I always want to live with the highest integrity I can. That isn't always possible. Um, sometimes we make mistakes. So one of my values is also imperfection. I don't know everything. I'm not perfect. Um, I will learn. I'm learning along the way as I do things as well. And that helps me create more, you know, more that I'm good at, or more than I know about to help share with other people. I also know that this is an opportunity for me to reach out to people who are experts in different things that can help my clients or my community. Um, I'm very enthusiastic. I have a big passion for what I do. So enthusiasm is another value. Uh, and then authenticity and transparency. I'm probably overly transparent with people. Uh, like when I get cold reach outs on LinkedIn, I'll be like, it's your, what you're doing is really interesting, but let me tell you where I'm at right now with my budget and I'll go through all this stuff and they probably didn't want that, but I want people to really understand. Don't come at me with a hard sell first. Let's build a relationship. And also. I'm a single [00:29:00] mom who's getting an MBA and, you know, is a part time college professor and this and that and the other, and this is not something I can fit in right now. And then social impact. So I do want to work with people who are trying to make impact, whether that's small or large, whether it's local, regional, national, global. Um, I want to help them get their voice out to the world.
[00:29:22] Dave Polykoff: So these are your values that are, I guess you mentioned purpose, vision, mission values, what's kind of the importance of having these values defined?
[00:29:38] Anika Jackson: To me, it's how I show up. Whether I am wearing any of my hats, right? So to clients, to people I work with as vendors on my podcast, on other podcasts, when I'm a guest, if I'm writing something to my students. I am very transparent with what's going on with me, [00:30:00] like my students, I'm very clear that I'm getting a master's because even though I teach grad students, I can't get the full time position as a professor until I have that. So I understand what they're going through with all of their coursework and how hard that is on top of being having a family and having a day job and all the other things. I'm very transparent about what I expect from them. Right. I just really believe that it's important for me to show up authentically all the time. And I think that actually helps people resonate because people need it. And that also, we don't just want to show the shiny, happy success parts of our lives. We want people to know the hardships we've been through to get to where we are because it's shaped who we are. But also, It helps them connect better and understand you can do this too. If I could do this, you can absolutely win. And you know, you can get out from whatever situation you're in right now. And then it created a positioning statement for me. So that is [00:31:00] the culmination of all of these, which is. I provide those around me with the opportunity to amplify with Annika, which is also my social, one of my social media handles, whether for their livelihoods or those they seek to support by extending my vast network and creating opportunities for collaborative community building. So you'll see a lot of the same words that I use in all of these other statements. So that's how I want to position everything I do in the world of work and in my life. So that could mean turning down opportunities because they don't fit with that. It could mean saying yes to other opportunities or creating other opportunities for myself and others.
[00:31:38] Dave Polykoff: Sure. Yeah. I think that's the key here. Cause I mean, going back to the kind of the, the keystone of today around clarity is I think it sounds like your values are really, again, being that North star of knowing where the boundaries are of what you should be talking about. Not what you, who do you want to collaborate with?
[00:31:59] Dave Polykoff: What type [00:32:00] of. Channel, do you want to be on, you know, it kind of helped kind of pave the road in the direction of what your North star is in terms of like your purpose and vision here. Um, these are, these are kind of the roads towards that. It sounds like it's, it's providing you that clarity.
[00:32:16] Anika Jackson: exactly.
[00:32:18] Dave Polykoff: Um, what, What's kind of the practice that you went through to define what those value points were.
[00:32:26] Anika Jackson: I literally have, I mean, there are different lists. There's one that I found that I like most. I would say, um, I don't know the link off the top of my head, but I can share it with you later. Um, but I literally went through this whole list and said, okay, what is really important to me and where do I show up the best? And that's how I did it. So you have to like circle a bunch of things and then put them in order of hierarchy and then realize like what's, where do [00:33:00] you want to live? How do you want to show up to everything you do? Whether it's with my daughter, my family, my, you know, partner or, um, students or clients, or even my vendors, like, I'm super clear when, if I'm like, okay, this, I had a podcast sponsor, but they've decided to cancel all their programs.
[00:33:19] Anika Jackson: So I don't have the money that I usually have to pay you today, but here's what I'm doing to work towards that. So I just need to know where you're at. If you want to, you know, if you need to pause services for a month to let me catch up, or if you want to continue helping me build, You know, build this plane, um, while we're flying,
[00:33:39] Dave Polykoff: Right. Right. Build and flight. Love that. So sounds like these are kind of the necessities, the little blueprint that we should all go through prior to starting either content creation or just kind of like publicizing who we are. Cause I think a lot of times. We [00:34:00] have, sometimes we'll have confidence in ourselves.
[00:34:02] Dave Polykoff: We know what we can accomplish. We know what we can do for our clients, but if we don't have the clarity in these things, and then, as you were saying, to publicize those things so that people actually know what they are, they know if they can align with them and that they would want to work with you because of them.
[00:34:19] Dave Polykoff: Um, that takes a little bit of courage there. Uh, then, you know, you're not, you shouldn't be focused on kind of the execution of content creation and all that kind of stuff, because. That's where the ambiguity all comes into play.
[00:34:35] Anika Jackson: that's, we see so many examples of that with all the trends on social media and somebody's like, I'm going to jump on this trend because it's really hot right now, but is it a trend that actually maps back to who you are? Are you attracting the wrong kind of customer because they're seeing this, but that's not how you really show up. Uh, and so I, that's a mistake. A lot of people make to your point. Is they jump right into the content creation. They think about [00:35:00] the brand identity, which is your logo, your brand colors, how you're making people feel before they do the who, the how, and the why of their brand. And if you, you know, you can have success doing that, but I think it's so much cleaner if you start with the brand blueprint, then everything just, it flows. Out of you so much easier. It's every decision becomes much faster.
[00:35:27] Dave Polykoff: Yeah, totally. I see this a lot too, is a lot of people start with the, the visual side of their brand. Like you're saying either logo or they want the shiny template, um, to put on Instagram or LinkedIn because they equate looking with professional being professional. And. Really people can see through that over time where they might consume your content because it looks professional, but if there's no substance there, if it doesn't say who you are, [00:36:00] you're going to lose followers over time, or you're going to lose people's interests at least, uh, at minimum over time.
[00:36:06] Dave Polykoff: Because there's, there's, there's no actual substance there. You're not telling us who you are, what you believe in, you know, adding value to our lives. It just looks pretty it's art, you know, and not necessarily like, uh, information.
[00:36:18] Anika Jackson: Yeah. And I mean, there are, you know, you want to have three or four pillars to your brand. So you might have one that's a little more fun, but that, and that shows who you are like outside of work, but you also want to have the educational pillar, the call to actions, the results, right. So, and it could be a little different for everybody, depending on what your goals are. But yeah,
[00:36:43] Dave Polykoff: Awesome. So I want to end with kind of a bonus round here of some questions. Um, so you, you've walked us through a great history in marketing. Branding, you have your hand in a lot of different jars. What [00:37:00] has been the number one benefit or unforeseen outcome of investing into your personal brand?
[00:37:09] Anika Jackson: Oh my gosh, that has led to everything, every opportunity I have, um, being able to show up and know my limits. Like I was in a, you know, very well paid full time job last year on top of also teaching, having my podcast. And then I realized I love the work I do there, but the company's better served if I do this piece of it and go part time and I pour into these other things that I'm much more passionate about. Because they reach bigger audiences and they really shape the future of work when I'm able to talk to students about what tools to use, how to show up ethically, you know, um, all these different constructs. So by doing that, it created a beautiful situation where now, most of the work I do for that agency is [00:38:00] creating curriculum, uh, creating work.
[00:38:02] Anika Jackson: I do workshops at, you know, national conferences for them. Um, and now we've built out some different. A four part series on AI and marketing for workforce development agencies. That's going to launch in September, but I'm able to do these things that pour like every other aspect of my life into the work with them. And that's a perfect scenario, having the podcast and becoming a thought leader in the space a little bit has led me to be able to speak on national stages at conferences for podcasters, but also helped shore up the work I do. At USC Annenberg as a professor, because I have a different subject matter expertise that a lot of the other professors don't have in that area. Going back to get my MBA with a specialty in AI and having access to a ton of AI experts through my podcast. That's another thing that everybody needs to know about. But two years ago, we weren't even talking about, you know, unless you are an engineer and you're in that world of, of computer [00:39:00] science as marketers, as people who have businesses, we weren't really Thinking about these processes. So, so by living with who I am and being able to show my enthusiasm, that has led to great relationship building with people who are excited about what they're doing. Happy to share with my audience. Then there are connection that I can say, Hey, I'm building this out. What do you think about it? Or I can say, are you going to this conference?
[00:39:24] Anika Jackson: Let's meet up. Um, and it's just, it's, it's enriched my life in a way I never would have thought possible.
[00:39:30] Dave Polykoff: Sure. And you have your hand, as I said, in a lot of jars here, content creation, and even education, podcasting. One of the key things when it comes to personal branding and staying consistent with content creation is just to be able to organize all of this and stay on top of all the projects that you have going on balancing content creation.
[00:39:57] Dave Polykoff: And the full time job of [00:40:00] being the coach, consultant, educator, what's kind of the key secret here that you have to be able to maintain consistency in your content creation and just overall kind of business production.
[00:40:13] Anika Jackson: Yeah, well, I will say that's an area where the, um, cobbler has no shoes or, you know, half finished shoes. There's always more I want to do, but I also know what my budget is. And I also know that the time I have. Like right now, I'm about to launch another curriculum in a couple weeks, um, but I'm also going to be on vacation with my daughter for three weeks, which I don't usually do.
[00:40:41] Anika Jackson: And I'm going to be teaching at three in the morning from where we are for my, my students, because that matters to me to show up. Um, so I have, I do use AI driven tools. One thing I really love is Simplified. And if anybody goes to it, it's like five AI apps in [00:41:00] one. So I can upload, well, my, or my team member can upload the video of all of my episodes and it'll immediately create transcript, blog posts, captions, um, and up to 30 reels from every single episode.
[00:41:16] Anika Jackson: And then, you know, we play with the captions, so not a hundred percent perfect, but it's a fast way to get more content out. That also shows off my guest. It's also then stuff I can share with my guests so that they can promote it, um, in a much faster scale. Now, do I still want to perfect these things? A hundred percent. Another use case in simplified is the voice AI tool. So I'm starting to test that and doesn't get every word. Correct. If it's not, uh, if it's a word from a different country, for instance, but, um, it sounds exactly like you, it does. It's not robotic at all. And it's ethical because it's within a small. You know, it's, it's within their system and very limited people have access to my [00:42:00] voice. So it's not like anybody could just do a deep fake or all the other use cases that we see that are bad. Um, and it's a great system that you can try out for free, or if you, if you don't mind me giving a little plug, you can also, if you decide to go with a model, I think it's like less than 30 per month to use all of their tools. And by the way, it also then pushes them to social media. So you could go in and you could schedule your content for the month in one day. Like super easy using their, their tools, using your own content, putting it in. Um, and then, you know, it'll schedule it. But I, and I use the voice AI tool. Like I said, I have a discount of.
[00:42:38] Anika Jackson: Anika 30 a N I K a 30. So if you decide to do a purchase plan, you can get 30 percent off. And so then you'd be paying 20 a month for access to all these tools. Um, so I always like want to offer resources that I think are fantastic that I use. I want to test out everything before I share it with people.
[00:42:57] Anika Jackson: So I know if it's a real deal or [00:43:00] not. Um, but that's one way that it's really helped streamline the process of getting content out.
[00:43:05] Dave Polykoff: I'm going to have to check that out. Actually. I have my own AI tools and content workflows, but
[00:43:09] Anika Jackson: You're gonna have to
[00:43:09] Dave Polykoff: always open to new ones. Yeah. We'll,
[00:43:11] Anika Jackson: Yeah. And then having those systems, right. So I have, um, I have SOPs for each episode. I have an admin that helps with them.
[00:43:21] Anika Jackson: Make sure I have everything I need from the guests. Make sure that they've, um, we have a folder for them, their assets for after each episode. I approve all of the verbiage, but then she uploads it to Simplecast and, you know, does all that side for me. So that has helped me be able to think more and be more of the creative execution part.
[00:43:44] Dave Polykoff: put systems and resources in place. Allow yourself to work on your business instead of in your business.
[00:43:50] Anika Jackson: Yes.
[00:43:52] Dave Polykoff: go. Well, we'll end on that note. Annika, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for being on today.
[00:43:56] Anika Jackson: Thank you so much for inviting me. It's been wonderful. I love talking to people about [00:44:00] brand.
[00:44:01] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. Nerding out. Love it. Thanks.
[00:44:04] Hey, Dave here, obviously, but I just want to pause this episode and say, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of brand science. Um,
[00:44:17] Hey, Dave here, obviously, but I want to just pause this episode real quick and say, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of brand science. I hope that you're getting as much value as a viewer or listener as I've gotten as a host.
[00:44:32] And if you are getting value from this episode, It must mean that you enjoy nerding out on all things, personal branding and content creation and strategy, which means you're my type of person. So I want to connect. Uh, so once you're done this episode, go down to the show notes where you'll find my LinkedIn profile. click on that link, head over to my profile and send me a request. When you send the request, there'll be that little pop-up that comes up, that you can [00:45:00] add a note in the request.
[00:45:01] Just tell me that you found me from a brand science episode. So I know that you are one of those loyal, awesome listeners of mine. And let's connect and learn together. So anyway, just want to say, love you. Thanks for listening. Let's connect on LinkedIn and a yeah. Back to the episode.
[00:45:19] Hey, Dave here, obviously, but I just want to pause this episode and say, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of brand science. Um,
[00:45:32] Hey, Dave here, obviously, but I want to just pause this episode real quick and say, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of brand science. I hope that you're getting as much value as a viewer or listener as I've gotten as a host.
[00:45:47] And if you are getting value from this episode, It must mean that you enjoy nerding out on all things, personal branding and content creation and strategy, which means you're my type of person. So I want to connect. [00:46:00] Uh, so once you're done this episode, go down to the show notes where you'll find my LinkedIn profile. click on that link, head over to my profile and send me a request. When you send the request, there'll be that little pop-up that comes up, that you can add a note in the request.
[00:46:16] Just tell me that you found me from a brand science episode. So I know that you are one of those loyal, awesome listeners of mine. And let's connect and learn together. So anyway, just want to say, love you. Thanks for listening. Let's connect on LinkedIn and a yeah. Back to the episode.
