Why you need a personal brand, with Richa Bansal

Imagine catapulting your career to new heights by harnessing the transformative power of personal branding. That’s exactly what we're unpacking today with leadership coach Richa Bansal, whose insights into professional presence are nothing short of game-changing. Our conversation delves into the nuances of how you're perceived and the pivotal role of aligning your self-image with external perspectives. And for those just starting out, we lay out a blueprint for building a strong personal brand that paves the way to leadership and innovation.

You’ll Learn

• What personal branding is and why it is important to understand your brand
• How to figure out your brand and use the POWER framework to shift it to advance towards your career goals
• Advice for early professionals on building your personal brand and envisioning where you want to be
• When perceptions can limit progress and tips on starting fresh 
• How having allies in the workplace can help with shaping your personal brand and learning to “box the ask” for help 

Today’s Guest

Richa Bansal is a leadership and job search coach with a decade of experience excelling in the corporate world on her own terms. She previously worked with Amazon, leading large-scale programs to help the company hire the best talent on earth, and with Schlumberger, leading a large engineering team to deliver multi-million dollar projects for global oilfield clients like ExxonMobil, Shell and BP.  

As one of the only women in the room for most of her career, Richa has seen first-hand the struggles of women as they navigate the corporate ladder. In 2019, she founded Pinkcareers to deliver actionable, no-fluff career advice to ambitious professionals and accelerate their career growth. Richa has partnered with over 20 Fortune-500 companies, universities, and the Government of Canada to deliver her leadership programs, and coached 100s of high-potential professionals on how to ditch limiting beliefs and leverage the power of personal branding to 2X their career, compensation and impact.  

Richa earned a Bachelor’s from IIT Delhi in India, a Master’s from Purdue University, and an MBA from Rice University. When she is not working on Pinkcareers, she loves to travel the world with her husband and two little boys

Resources

• Connect with Richa on LinkedIn and read more about the POWER framework  
• Learn more about Pinkcareers 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Lots of people equate personal brand to the skills that you have, the strengths that you have, whether it be technical skills or soft skills. It's really a combination of those hard and soft skills that you have in the workplace. But then also, how are you being perceived with those hard and soft skills? You may think that you are really good at a particular topic, at a particular subject matter. But if others don't think that way about you, then there's a disconnect and you don't really have a solid course for brand.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Welcome to PH Spotlight, a community for you to build your public health career with. Join us weekly right here, and I'll be here too. Your host, sujani Siva from PH Spot. Hey, richard, welcome to the PH Spot podcast. This is a long time coming episode for you and I. We've connected on LinkedIn maybe probably more than a year ago, and we've talked about getting together, recording, collaborating and bringing some excellent value to my community, so I'm very happy you're here. So thank you for joining us.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Thank you for inviting me. I think it's like probably two years, if not more, since we first connected and it's such a fabulous place to not only find your tribe but really make professional relationships, those friendships, strategic finding, strategic partners, collaborations so many, so many different ways.

Speaker 2: 1:25

It is. I think I was telling somebody recently if you needed proof that you can build meaningful relationships on LinkedIn, go see all the people that I'm recording episodes with and the conversations I'm having them, because I'd say 90% of them I've met on LinkedIn, engaged with them, chatted with them, built friendship with them, and then here we are on an episode just talking about the things that we would talk about if we're not recording.

Speaker 1: 1:50

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 1:52

So it's rare that I bring on someone without a public health background on this podcast, so let's mention that first to our listeners. Richard does not come from a public health background, but she does come from a background. I think that's super important for all of us, as we're working in different organizations, building a career, and there are certain things I think that we don't get taught when we're in school especially, I know, in public health we don't get taught a lot of these strategies for how to really show up in the workplace, be our authentic self and use our authentic self as kind of like the strengths for the work that we do. And I know for me personally, I look to other industries when I want to do anything in public health or my community and even the online community that I end up building, the Public Health Career Club. It was inspiration from the ways that other industries or other organizations that weren't in public health were doing things differently, and then kind of like bringing that within the public health world.

Speaker 2: 2:57

And Richa, you work with like incredible women in various different organizations and you yourself you know you don't come from public health. You come from, kind of like the corporate world of business and tech and you built a career on helping other women kind of build their careers right, and the topic that we wanted to talk about is going to be personal branding in the workplace. But before we jump into that, I wanted everyone to kind of hear from you about who you are and what it is that you do.

Speaker 1: 3:25

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that.

Speaker 1: 3:27

As you rightly said, I don't come from public health background but I'm hoping that by sharing my journey and as we get deeper into the topic of conversation today, we'll be able to bring some some tactical, tangible strategies that I've seen work in the domains that are I work then, and really apply that to your listeners in the public health space as well. So I spend a majority of my career working for the energy industry and then I worked for in the tech industry as well. I've worked 10 years of experience working for two of the largest Fortune 500 companies Shlombajay and Amazon and really rising the ranks all the way from when I started my career as a field engineer so, as I used to work on offshore oil rates at the time and from there stepped into engineering management. I have had a very sort of nonlinear career where for some time I moved into supply chain, then I moved into manufacturing, then I moved into management, then corporate strategy, then at Amazon I did recruiting programs and now here I am.

Speaker 1: 4:24

I'm a career and leadership coach and, more specifically, I focus on helping women advance leadership. My mission is to close the gender gap in the C-suite. A lot of it is inspired by my own journey, being one of the only women around the leadership table for most of my career in oil and gas and in energy space and I so often see women being held back by many color sabotaging things that happen. Some of it is in our control, some may not be, but many of it is, and my goal is to bring awareness to that and give really practical strategies to women so they can start to command the career and compensation they truly deserve.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Awesome. We were kind of prepping for this episode. You had lots of great topics, but the one that kind of popped out for me because I think I've never covered it on the podcast or it's something that I know personally has benefited me, but I think I haven't found a way to bring that experience of that knowledge to my audience in my community. So I'm really happy to have you here to talk to us about it, and it's about personal branding in the workplace, and I think it's a term we've all probably heard. You need to build a personal brand. What is it essentially when we hear the word personal branding? Let's start there, with the basics, and then we'll get into some of those practical tips that we talked about.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Such a great question and one of the most common questions that I get that I know. Everybody say that it's important to have a personal brand but really, what is it and how?

Speaker 1: 5:56

to go about one creating a personal brand and maybe shifting it as we go and get some professional maturity. There is time in our career that we also need to shift it. So let's start with what really is personal brand, and personal brand is really what others are saying about you when you are not in the room. Lots of people equate personal brand to the skills that you have, the strengths that you have, whether it be technical skills and soft skills. But it's not just these skills that you have. It's really a combination of those hard and soft skills that you have in the workplace. But then also, how are you being perceived with those hard and soft skills? So it's really like a combination. You may think that you are really good at a particular topic and a particular subject subject matter but if others don't think that way about you, then there's a disconnect and you don't really have a solid course of brand.

Speaker 1: 6:44

If you think that you are ready for a leadership position, but others don't think that way others don't think that you are strategic, you're ready, you don't embody some of those characteristics that leaders have, then there is a disconnect in your personal brand. Others are not thinking or saying the things that you think about yourself.

Speaker 2: 7:02

And why is that important for someone to figure out their personal branding?

Speaker 1: 7:09

Yeah, because you get in the workplace what you sell. Selling is really about having the right product, which is you right, and others perceiving the value of that product. And that's why it's so important for others to perceive the value that you bring, like be aware of, to be aware of the values that you bring into the table.

Speaker 2: 7:28

So here's a question. I think sometimes learning that theory is one thing, and then hearing some personal examples might be easier to kind of understand this concept. What would you say was your personal brand when you were in the workplace, like, what was that for you?

Speaker 1: 7:43

Yeah, I'll share my own personal example, right. And so back in 2014, 16 period, I want to say, I was a mechanical engineer at the time working for Slumjet, and it had been over two and a half, three years and I had been. I was feeling ready for the promotion. I had asked for promotion a couple of times with my manager, kind of made everybody acutely aware that I am ready for a promotion and I was promised like it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, but it never did.

Speaker 1: 8:10

And then I really didn't think deeply about like what's going on and I asked a few people around me like you know, what do you see are my core strengths? How do you perceive me? I got a lot of. You know you're a hard worker, you get stuff done, your results are oriented and all of these terms that are, you know, most often used for the workforce the person who is the steady in the team, who would get stuff done.

Speaker 1: 8:33

The primary feedback was getting was that you get stuff done and to move to that next level, to that leadership role, you have to change that personal brand and how people perceive you as this is the person who is customer focused, not messaged results focus, but they are customer focused, they are a problem solver, they are a leader, they are a visionary, they are a blue-side thinker. They will be able to understand the different problems that we are having and connect the dots to how the work that we are doing with the organizational goals Right. So there's a shift between how an individual contributor is often perceived and the type of personal brand they would have to. What a personal brand and leader would have.

Speaker 2: 9:13

And so how did you end up changing the way people thought about you? Because you probably believed in yourself that you could be that person who had the strategic vision and the ability to lead a team and saw how the day-to-day functions of individuals then accumulated into moving some sort of larger goal ahead. So how did you then change that?

Speaker 1: 9:37

The very first thing I would say is I started speaking up more in meetings about the things that are not just the problems that I was solving in the meeting that I was invited for, but also speaking more about how this potential solution or what I'm observing here, how can that be applied to solving other problems that I may have seen in other teams or other projects or whatnot, and, by Seversa, how I've seen something work, let's say, in one of my previous roles where I worked as a field engineer.

Speaker 1: 10:08

How does that apply to problem solving here? And so, like that cross and be able to show that I, like you, know I am understanding how these different moving pieces work together. How can I bring solutions from some of the work that I may have done in the past or something that I'm seeing happen in other teams, and how can I apply it here? I started asking to be invited to more leadership meetings where they talk about these are organizational goals. I started asking my manager like what are some of the goals that are important to you?

Speaker 1: 10:38

Can I have a copy of not just my own goals, but can you do you have the goals document, the KPI document, to share with us? Because in that KPI document, which was set at the leadership level, not only you get to see your own goals, but you get to see your manager's goals as well. You get to see your Scripps goals as well. That gives you a better sense of where the organization is going, so that you can then start to learn how to connect the work that you're doing to how I'm meeting the goals of the organization.

Speaker 2: 11:08

So it sounds like understanding where you are with your personal brand comes from asking the people around you and maybe doing some internal reflection, and it sounded like you were somebody who got things done. That was kind of the brand that you had built for yourself at that time. And then is it accurate to say then that the brand you were trying to build was of a leader, a visionary, somebody who could manage a team, or were there other words that you were working towards, because it's often important to know where you are and where you want to go? And then how would you put that personal brand into words if you could?

Speaker 1: 11:48

Yeah, absolutely. So. Really, the personal brand should be forward-looking. So, as you said, there is first the awareness of understanding where am I right now, how am I being perceived at work right now, what do people think are my core skills right now, and who knows about some of the results that I'm creating right now? And then the next step is where do I want to go and how do people want to perceive somebody who is at that next level where I want to go?

Speaker 1: 12:13

And now, knowing what I know now, through the journey that I've gone through, as well as hundreds of women that I've supported through coaching, I'm going to distill this personal branding into what I call my power framework. So I'm happy to share what that power framework looks like, and it's really a tool to give structure to understanding what your personal brand should be. So this is kind of like what the power framework stands for. So it helps you understand what your core purpose is as an individual, but as a leader as well. What are your core values? So, when things get far, when the answers are not so obvious, what are some of these core values you're not starting that you default to for making decisions? It allows you to think about your winning skills. So what are your top key skills? And not just the skills that you have now, but in this one you want to think about what are some of the skills that your manager has, or the position that you aspire for? What kind of skills are demonstrated at that level? Then the E in the power stands for what I call embody.

Speaker 1: 13:13

Are you embodying the leadership styles? Are you showing up as a leader in the way you think, the way you act, the way you speak in meetings, the way you dress up? You know one of the things I started to do when, you know, just in an effort to shift my personal brand, I would dress up to work. Whenever I was not going to the workshop, I would put on a dress and put on heels and put this little like makeup that I do, and people would tell me it looks like we're going for an interview and I would tell them I am dressing up for where I want to be Right. So are you embodying how your leaders show up?

Speaker 1: 13:45

And finally, the results. You know, so, your quantitative business results. So what are some of the big business results you're driving and who knows about your business results? Take a stock of all of that, to really kind of break down what you're all about. What are some of the skills you have? Is there a gap between where you stand right now and where do you want to go? So, like, where's how you perceive right now how you want to be perceived?

Speaker 2: 14:08

I'm curious if you remember any examples or stories from the individuals that you've worked with kind of using this framework and how they've gone from having a personal brand that was ex to you know how you worked with them and then brought them through this framework. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 14:26

I'm kind of thinking about this one client I'm working with right now and, without obviously naming any names, she works for a very large tech consulting firm. So she originally comes from this small startup that was acquired by this very large tech consulting firm and she is generally a very like technical person in nature, but then she's also done a lot of sort of consulting work which is business focused. In particular, one of the things that we were working through is she does a lot of demos, like client demos, so that why a client should buy a certain ERB system. So there's the technical part of it. So we need to really start technically, but at the same time you need to understand where the customer is coming from and then also be able to demonstrate what's the business kind of case here. So one of the things that we worked through was the power of framework and helping her realize that her core strength is not just technical skills that she is really really strong at, and she had a lot of pastoral syndrome around that too maybe a conversation for another day.

Speaker 1: 15:19

She's really strong technically but really where she wanted to go next in her career, she wanted to level up in her career to a leadership role that she has to demonstrate also coming into this new team. That she was what. After that position was complete, that she's not only a technical person, but she also understands business fully. Our technology applies to business. So the shift that we are working through, that she had to work through, was how the shift from being known as the technical expert, because that's how she was introduced the first time her manager introduced her to the team.

Speaker 1: 15:51

To that. No, she's not only the technical residing technical expert, but then she is the solutions architect.

Speaker 2: 15:58

So I think it's becoming a little bit more clear to me at least, kind of understanding the framework and how somebody could go from, and I think that's probably a lot of people's examples, right. They spend five to 10 years in a technical role. They get really good at that and then they start kind of reflecting about the next steps in their career and then they want to kind of shift towards being known as a leader within their organization and now they need to kind of shift a few things. I'm curious how or what sort of personal branding things people in early in their careers should focus on, especially if they're like graduating or just graduated and it's their first kind of full-time job in this career that they're building. How do they approach personal branding in the workplace?

Speaker 1: 16:48

Yeah, I think, one of my best tips for anybody who's just starting out in their career, so this is a tip that I would have shared with my 20-something poll. But keep your ears and eyes open to how your leaders are thinking, behaving, acting what's important to them and how they're going out.

Speaker 1: 17:07

Very often when we are first coming into the workplace, or even when you're first coming into a new role, new company, we want to obviously make a good impression, so we emphasize on doing the hard work like doing the work, and don't pay so much attention to reading the room. The skill of reading the room can start as early as when you first entered the workforce. So, as you said, in meetings don't just take notes. Instead, keep your ears and eyes open and start learning the skill of reading the room. Who is speaking up? How are people listening when somebody is speaking? How are they speaking? What are some of the skills that others are proceeding as being important? What makes this person particularly powerful? Why are others in the room compliant to or requested by a certain person, even if they don't have authority, direct authority over somebody? These kind of questions asking right from the beginning. It takes time to build that skill set.

Speaker 2: 18:05

And I think what I heard you say in the beginning is that personal branding should be forward-looking, and so I think it's a really good opportunity when you are very new in an organization, regardless of if it's your first day on the job or fifth year in the job kind of sitting and looking at people who inspire you and looking at individuals who you'd one day want to become. Five years from today, I want to become very similar to that senior epidemiologist at the table or that senior advisor and I'd like to be like them. So kind of understanding the way they do their work and kind of getting yourself set up to be like them could be a very good strategy, especially early on in your career.

Speaker 1: 18:51

Absolutely Early on your career, just really looking up to the folks who inspire you and motivate you and, as you get that professional maturity, doing deep self-reflection on how do I take what I see and combine that with who I am authentically, because at the end of the day, its inspiration is one thing and then but you also need to be authenticated. I really do think that comes a little bit with that professional maturity, because we have done the work We've been trying for a little bit.

Speaker 2: 19:20

Yeah, like talking through this is reminding me of the first few years of my career and I'd been part of a team for about five years and then was ready to move into a different team within the same kind of like larger organization.

Speaker 2: 19:35

But I was going to go to a different department and one of the kind of senior individuals on my team said you know, this is a good opportunity for you to become the person that you were shy to become here, because I think times you can be so stuck in the way people have perceived you and you feel the pressure to want to continue like just keeping up with that you know person that they think you are, but then when you join a new team, it's a really good opportunity for you to, you know, put that person to rest and maybe actually step into the person that you wanted to.

Speaker 2: 20:10

I'm curious if you have any tips or advice on how you can break out of that within the organization that you're part of, because you know it's not always that you're going to get a new job and move into a different organization and you can start fresh and be somebody new. I think, if I think back to kind of the five years I spent in that team. I was someone who was very quiet, I didn't speak up, and so those were the things that I decided I needed to change when I moved into the new team. So I'm curious if you have any advice on like how can you make those changes when you feel compelled to kind of keep that like old identity of yourself?

Speaker 1: 20:49

It's such a great question because it can be very unnerving to change and change drastically if you would want to do that, because people will always try to pull you back, knowingly or unknowingly. They may say I hope it. You used, I thought you were the quiet one in the team and now suddenly look at Sujani, she's speaking up and you may feel the pressure to just conform and go back old ways of working. I think that's why it's so critical to get some outside perspective, to have a sounding board. Okay, and for that I'm going to work. Like having a mentor it's a great place to start, but then eventually to finding your community and finding perhaps even a coach who can give you this real, raw feedback that in these ways you are limiting your growth when you're staying at the team and, as you said, not always do an opportunity to choose our manager or choose our team, okay, and so for somebody to have your back and keep telling you no, it is going to be hard and challenging in the beginning, but you keep at it.

Speaker 1: 21:46

Okay, so like I think that is very powerful, the on the same lines, the other thing that could be very powerful is to have allies, to enlist allies in the workplace. So let's say you're trying to make a change. Let's write this example where you're generally a shy, quiet, reserved person in the workplace and now you're trying to be a little bit more vocal let's say meetings you enlist a friend or a colleague or even your manager and you let them know hey, this is this one change I'm trying to make. I've noticed for myself that I'm usually more reserved than meetings and quiet meetings, but I have many ideas and in this upcoming meeting I would like to share this one or two ideas. You know, if you find me hesitating, call me out or pull me up. Okay, and just enlist allies that way so that they can say hey. So, johnny, you know, do you want to share that idea we spoke about this morning, and that would be very powerful as well.

Speaker 1: 22:37

It's really whenever you start something new, do something different for the very first time. It can be very unnerving, but the more you practice that, the faster you will be able to get comfortable with making that change.

Speaker 2: 22:47

Yeah, Even when you stay in that currently, yeah, and I think what I heard from all the examples that you gave is not to do it alone, right, Like whether it's a mentor, an ally or a coach. I think having somebody to help you out with this journey of figuring out your personal brand and then helping you work towards that Like new personal brand that you're working towards, I think is super important and I think, with just growing in your career, I think we have this. I don't know what it is. I think you know maybe it's the way society has portrayed it, but sometimes we feel like we need to do it all alone and it's like a journey that we need to do by ourselves. But I think bringing people along and telling people the changes you want to make or the places you want to go, the goals that you have, people are going to be very, very willing to help you out with that.

Speaker 1: 23:33

Yeah, yeah. There's a saying that I often like to say that quiet ambition kills careers. So it goes on for asking for help but then also just being quiet about where you want to go, what you want to do. You don't tell anybody. Nobody can help us. That's why quiet ambition kills careers. So if you want to go places, you enlist support, you enlist sponsorship, you enlist mentorship, you enlist a coach, you enlist your allies so they can take you and you share with them what your aspirations are. Yeah, and what are you doing to get towards that? And then they will all support you. People want to support. I remember reading the stat and I may be miscoding the stat a bit, but in HBR there was an article about 90% help in the workplace is given when it's asked Right, and so people want to help. It feels good to help others right, Like we personally feel good to help others.

Speaker 2: 24:27

I think people want to help. You just have to break out of whatever it is. I don't know if it's like shyness. I remember being very shy early in my career to tell people kind of my career goals are like the places I want to go or the skills I wanted to build, and I think something was holding me back. But I realize now that you know the more I do it, the more help I get and the more I progress in my career and you don't need to be shy about it.

Speaker 1: 24:53

Yeah, absolutely. I think the right question to ask is why am I hesitating? To speak about what my goals are, what my ambition is. Why am I hesitating to ask for help? And it could be maybe because I don't know how to ask for help, but there's a strategy bit that's missing, or maybe it could be the included mindset issue for that case. Especially women of color have been taught to just do it all by themselves and put their head down and work hard, and that's what pays. So why should I?

Speaker 1: 25:20

even talk about what I do, because my heart works, should pay. Sometimes there is these deep rooted beliefs that we need to learn and sometimes as well as a strategy issue, where we can define them. Okay, this is exactly how you ask for help. This is how you frame your ass.

Speaker 1: 25:34

And I'll give you an example. I often hear people hesitating when they want to reach out for international chat on LinkedIn. I support a lot of people with job search as well and they would say I don't know how to even reach out to my network, let alone whole networking. I don't even know how to reach out to my network for support and ask for help, and oftentimes there's a strategy issue there. But they're not themselves clear on what they want to ask. So when they are not clear on what they want to ask, they feel like the other person is wasting their time and they wouldn't be able to help. So how can you make it easy for them to help?

Speaker 1: 26:08

You box your ask, what I call it. Box your ask, where you define exactly what you want. So this is the type of role that I want at this level. These are my core skillset. This is the industry I'm looking for roles in and these are the results I've created. And, just as an example, I'm looking for people management roles in technical program management. I have experience in tech industries and energy industry and my core skillsets are actually enterprise-wide transformations. If you know of any roles that are coming up in your organization or on your LinkedIn, keep me in mind.

Speaker 2: 26:43

And see how you box your ask now.

Speaker 1: 26:45

So your ask is so much clearer, so the other person. So you know now how to help me. You can look out for any technical program management roles that are on a leadership level and suddenly you will think about oh, this would be a good fit for Richa. And then you can think it through.

Speaker 2: 26:58

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 26:59

Make it easy for the other person to help you, and that's how they can help.

Speaker 2: 27:04

Yeah, and I think when we like take this back to that personal branding and getting people in your organizations to help you get to where you want to get to, and I think that this is a great way to approach it too. Right, Like box, the ask to say you know, in three years from now I'd like to manage a team of two to three people and I would like to work on skill one, skill two, skill three. If there are any opportunities for me to like practice those skills, could you keep me in mind? Right, and I think that's a really good way to frame it for this topic as well.

Speaker 1: 27:39

Yeah, and you can extend that to. You know, support that you didn't get from your manager. So not only keep me in mind for any skills that should be working towards. So that. I can go to my goal of being at this particular role in two to three years. You can also, you know, box your asking terms up. I saw this person is at this level. I saw you are connected with this person. Can you help me make an introduction?

Speaker 2: 28:00

Yeah, that's a really good one too, yeah, and kind of like seeking out mentors, going out and asking them for the same thing, right, like I'm here in my career. This is where I'd like to be. I see that you've done X, y and Z. I'd love it if I could ask you a few questions, right, and the ask is purely just a 30 minute Zoom chat with them. I think whenever you can make it very easy for the person to say yes and you do all the research and everything that needs to be done before you go out and message the person, I think it makes it so much easier for them to help you out, absolutely so.

Speaker 2: 28:35

I know personal branding is a huge topic, richa, and you know our 30 minute conversation barely kind of scratches the surface. Maybe I will start by asking you if there's anything else that you'd like to mention about it. I love the framework that you provided, the Power Framework, and I know you're gonna share this resource with all of our listeners so they can download it and kind of learn a little bit more. We'll definitely put all of your social media handles so then people can learn more through all the great teaching that you do, especially on LinkedIn, because that's where I follow you. But is there anything that people maybe should keep in mind to just even get started with thinking about their personal brand?

Speaker 1: 29:16

Everybody should get started with taking a stock of what their personal brand looks like. And so use the PowerFavor that I shared with you all and think about putting it in a statement that goes as I do X to get Y results. Oftentimes people stop at I do X. Okay, so if I ask you what do you do, people will say I'm a mechanical engineering, what do you know? Defined by your company only.

Speaker 1: 29:40

So the PowerFavor gives you more vocabulary in terms of what are the some of the things that you value, what are some of your big skills, what are some of the big results? And so take that that statement extended to I'm a mechanical engineer and I create great products so that we can really go in more efficiently, going back to more pulling gas days. So just really kind of take that I do X to create Y impact and start there. And then, in terms of, yes, where people can find me, as you said, I'm very active on LinkedIn. I post daily on LinkedIn. There's a lot of strategies that I post regularly that you can pick up essentially the day you read them and implement them. I try to make them small and tangible.

Speaker 1: 30:20

So that people can actually take action, because you can listen all you want, but we don't take any action. Nothing's going to change. So yeah, absolutely, I would love to have you reach out to me on LinkedIn and I would connect back there.

Speaker 2: 30:35

And I know you were doing a bit of work with women in public service as well and I don't know if you're continuing that as well, but I know that's kind of another place that I found you, yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:45

I am we're actually super proud of the work that we're doing there we do women's leadership development program that is on across the public sector in Canada. So this particular program, we're now doing it for the work 30 departments including, you know, IRCC and FinTrack and DND and RCMP, CSC like over 30 departments, 150 women, so it's a six months leadership program that is specifically tailored for the women in the federal sector, the public sector, in Canada.

Speaker 1: 31:17

So we're still doing that, and then I also have my private coach and private practice for anybody who is interested to have a chat.

Speaker 2: 31:24

That's amazing. Thank you so much, richa, and I think there's just a list of other topics that you and I need to come on again and talk about, everything from overcoming imposter syndrome to how not to you know, set ourselves short in the workplace, and I'm sure we'll find other opportunities to talk through this. But thank you so much and looking forward to having you on again.

Speaker 1: 31:47

Thank you so much for inviting me on your platform and I really enjoyed the conversation today, thank you.

Speaker 2: 31:56

Hey, I hope you enjoyed that episode and if you want to get the links or information mentioned in today's episode, you can head over to phspotorg slash podcast and we'll have everything there for you.

Speaker 2: 32:09

And before you go, I want to tell you about the Public Health Career Club.

Speaker 2: 32:13

So if you've been looking for a place to connect and build meaningful relationships with other public health professionals from all around the world, you should join us in the Public Health Career Club.

Speaker 2: 32:25

We launched the club with the vision of becoming the number one hangout spot dedicated to building and growing your dream public health career.

Speaker 2: 32:34

And in addition to being able to connect and build those meaningful relationships with other public health professionals, the club also offers other great resources for your career growth and success, like mindset coaching, job preparation clinics and career growth strategy sessions in the form of trainings and talks, all delivered by experts and inspiring individuals in these areas. So if you want to learn more or want to join the club, you can visit our page at phspotorg slash club and we'll have all the information there. And you know, as a space that's being intentionally curated to bring together like minded public health professionals who are not only there to push themselves to become the best versions of themselves, but also each other. And with that I can't wait to see how this is going to have a ripple effect in the world, as we all work together to better the health of our populations and just have immense impact in the world. And I hope you'll be joining us in the Public Health Career Club.