Get Clarity with Your Brand Statement

What if you could navigate through every opportunity with absolute clarity and say goodbye to distractions forever? Join Dr. Sheena Howard on this transformative episode of Power Your Research, where she shares her invaluable insights on aligning opportunities with your personal brand statement. Dr. Howard elaborates on the significance of creating your North Star—a guiding brand statement that encapsulates who you are, what you do, and why you do it—to serve as a touchstone for evaluating every opportunity that comes your way.

Follow Dr. Sheena Howards' socials:
@drsheenahoward | Power Your Research

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When an opportunity comes across my desk, I ask myself one question Does this opportunity that I'm being presented with align with my brand statement? I don't want my work to be stuck behind an academic paywall. I want to leave a legacy. I want to reach my potential and I want to change lives. This podcast, power your Research, is my attempt to help the smartest people in the world do that very thing. My hope is that you use the lessons I share to make more money than what your higher ed job can ever pay you. I've done it, my clients have done it, and so can you. My hope is that you'll apply what you learn here and one In the Power your Research program. I work with tons and tons of academics, and one of the first things I teach them when we start getting into our work together is how to tell the difference between an opportunity and a distraction, because if you don't have the clarity that you need, a distraction will look like an opportunity and it's actually preventing you from reaching the goals and the life that you want to live and it's preventing you from being in alignment and in integrity with yourself. So there's lots of ways that we navigate getting the clarity that you need which looks like mindset stuff, which looks like vision stuff, which looks like brand asset stuff. But one thing that I want to share with you is creating your North Star, and your North Star is going to be your brand statement. It's going to be the thing that crystallizes who you are, what you do and why you do it. In five seconds Now, in order to come up with your brand statement, you need help. It is really hard to get a brand statement that feels like it is you on your own, so my brand statement is I create experiences for free thinkers to feel empowered when they're challenging the status quo. When an opportunity comes across my desk, I ask myself one question Does this opportunity that I'm being presented with align with my brand statement? Hey, everyone, real quick. I don't run any ads on this podcast, so I have to rely on word of mouth. If this podcast has helped you in any way, please share it with a friend and follow me, dr Sheena Howard, on LinkedIn, where I give more free content on building your brand as an academic. If you tell me you came to my LinkedIn from the podcast, I'll make sure I accept your request. Is it helping me achieve the vision that I have for my life based on this brand statement.

Speaker 1: 3:05

If the answer is no, that's a distraction for me, but here's a beautiful thing, because I turn down money all the time. I say no to offers all the time because it's not in alignment, but here's the beautiful thing. I can easily say to the person you know what this doesn't look like the right opportunity for me, but there's someone in my network that this would be amazing for. The great thing about me is I have lots of people with master's degrees and PhDs in the Power, your Research program that I can introduce to opportunities that don't work for me. I love sharing opportunities with my network, even outside of Power, your Research. That brings me great satisfaction.

Speaker 1: 3:43

So even when you turn down an amazing opportunity, that actually is a distraction for you, it's an opportunity for someone else and you get to feel good that you pass that thing on to someone else. So the key is stop saying yes to everything. Get the clarity that you need so that you're making decisions and taking opportunities that are going to lead you to the thing that you want, the life that you want to live. So again, if you're new here, my name is Dr Sheena Howard. I'm the founder of Power your Research, an academic branding company where I help academics and educators increase their visibility, authority and income without the expense of a publicist.