I remember being  a teenager and hearing my parents talk about their friends having a "midlife crisis." It seems these days that yes, having a personal meltdown in response to circumstances can certainly happen at any age.  A lot of friend's are going to grad school in their 30’s or traveling the world before marriage and kids, amongst many other journeys, and seem to be chasing something. Similarly to my parents’ friends who were chasing something in their 40’s and 50s. 

At the root of that thought process, I believe the principle is the same:  People at some point in their lives will crave something different, something new, something unknown. But is that really what they’re after? Could it be that what is really happening is people reach a point in their life where they just need more? More juicy flavor to life that they are not finding in their day job or current relationships, more fulfillment out of their everyday lives.  It seems like the description is “I know I am capable of more, I want more out of life, I want to feel excited to wake up in the morning.” Any of this sound familiar? 

It did to me, for sure! But I don’t think becoming an entrepreneur or traveling the world is always necessarily the answer. My experience is that wherever I go, there I am. So if I want to have new experiences- I have to do something differently, not just change my surroundings or temporary circumstances. 

In order to really know what it is that you want to do to make your life feel less like a “Crisis” or a slow-motion-to-nowhere train ride, you have to know yourself and who you really are in order to know what you want, regardless of how old you are.  A fantastic starting place is self awareness. 
Oxford defines self awareness as “Conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.” Gary Vaynerchuk talks about Self Awareness as knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and letting that knowledge inform your decision making. I love the narrative he puts it in. Watch the video here.

What do you think? Is self awareness it? Or is there more to it? 

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Lindsey Rainwater, also known as Lindsey RainH2O, is a sought-after business consultant, leadership coach, writer and presenter to the fitness and wellness industry. For more information about Rainwater, follow her on Twitter @LindseyRainH2O

Personal branding is about managing your name
- even if you don't own a business -
in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records.
Going on a date? Chances are that your "blind" date has Googled your name.
Going to a job interview? Ditto.
-Tim Ferriss

I remember years ago reading the book Four Hour Work-Week by Tim Ferriss and after having read it, being in an alternative universe where anything is possible and everything goes.  Fortunately for me, the idea that anything is possible has grown exponentially and I still believe that you create the world you live in.

Tim’s quote is about the importance of caring tremendously about your digital footprint and your online image.  Where I left off a few weeks ago (you can check it out here if you missed that post) was that there are a handful of foundational points that need to be taken care of before you can carry on with streamlining your message and beginning to create content online.  Once you have the details in place to create your online presence, it is important to take a break, step back, and reflect upon your lifestyle design and goals before moving forward with your brand. 

After you have a beautiful headshot, brand continuity across platforms, and a general idea of what you want to be known for, the next step is to discover what you want the most in life and why. 

One of Stephen Covey’s famous quotes is “begin with the end in mind.” When applying that to your personal brand, the magic to a solid beginning is knowing where you are going.  When you know where you want to end up and why, your writing, personal brand, and daily actions begin to fall in line very quickly.  

Once you have laid the framework for your brand and online presence, the next two steps are for the purpose of syncing up your personal brand and the beginning stages of creating your lifestyle design; I found these two points to be very important in my own journey. 

• Find a role model and online presence to watch and take notes. 
• Create your end goal.

While marinating on those two action items, reading Four Hour Work Week and 7 Habits of Highly effective people to begin to create and focus on the type of lifestyle you want and how that plays a huge contributing role in your personal brand.  Lifestyle design is covered in great detail in Tim's book and I will be focusing on it intentionally in my next post, covering how my own lifestyle design led me to where I am today. 

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o, all content posted at www.lindseyrainh2o.com 

My Experience on Personal Branding and Where to Get Started.

Just like a house that is built without a solid foundation can not be expected to last, the same rule applies to creating a digital presence and your personal brand’s voice.

When thinking about how I wanted to follow up from my last post “Building a Personal Brand while Kicking Ass at your day job,” (check it out if you did not get the chance to!) it dawned on me that before we can talk about the “what” we must first discuss the “how.” When I spoke about my experience on personal branding being the best decision I had ever made, I made a crucial first step, I created a foundation. Most people nowadays have at least a profile on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, so the basic profiles are there to begin building upon.
In an effort to create a launching pad, here are three things you must do in order to begin establishing yourself as an authority in your space while become an asset to your organization and your future.

Soul Searching
My experience was that I became a writer as I wrote more, but in the beginning I needed to have a little bit of knowledge to start. Do some soul searching to find out how you plan to represent yourself online. Give it some thought as to what part of who you are you would like to put in the spotlight. Whatever you do, make sure you pick a topic or way of being that is TRULY who you are and honestly what you care about. You will quickly run out of things to talk about if you try to be something you are not.

Photo Shoot
I am not suggesting you run out and spend a couple thousand dollars on a professional photoshoot. What I am suggesting is for you to get a nice photo taken of yourself to use across platforms professionally. This could be taken in your backyard and with your friends phone. The point is to have a photo that you like, that others can start to know you by so that when they meet you in person they already feel more connected to you.

Platform Continuity
It is absolutely critical that when someone does google you, they come upon the same look and feel across platforms. This is not meant to remove your personality from your instagram or twitter accounts, but to generate a sense of familiarity for your audience. This also enhances your professionalism and online presence as being consistent. If you do consider yourself a professional, I would highly suggest adding a community page on facebook as opposed to a friend page to separate your work a bit.

The most important point to glean is to really start with the basics. When you are ready to begin branding yourself online and create a social presence, you might feel you are totally ready to get going with the content creation! You might be, but I would suggest going through your online presence and objectively looking at it through the lens of someone that does not know you first. Once you establish your message, look, and continuity, then progress towards creating meaningful content. Stay tuned, I will be progressing this topic over the coming weeks and sharing more about how I was able to create my voice!

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o, all content posted at www.lindseyrainh2o.com 

It’s important to build a personal brand because it’s the only thing you’re going to have.Your reputation online, and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so you’ve got to be a good person. You can’t hide anything, and more importantly, you’ve got to be out there at some level. – Gary Vaynerchuk

In the Spring of 2011, an exciting opportunity came to me in the form of a brand new job that allowed me to consult to the fitness industry via group fitness education. What I did not realize at the time was that not only would I love my "job" but the opportunity would also allow me to flourish in new ways I did not even know existed! 

In short order, our organization leadership coached me to begin developing a social presence.  I started to use twitter, LinkedIn and created a community page on Facebook.  I also created this website and began posting industry updates for daily conversations and engagement. Sharing industry magazine articles and writing about my experiences when I went to visit customers became part of my daily routine.  

I quickly begun to create a following, sharing and conversing on each platform about industry trends. In discussing what was current, I was becoming a resource for more than what I was consulting on specifically; I was becoming a resource for the industry at large! I was not only expanding my personal capacity, but was also becoming an asset for my company by representing them well. 

The result has been that I have a full breadth of knowledge to share above and beyond the vertical that is my “job.”  When you put energy into developing your voice, alongside doing good work for your company, you double the asset for business.  Your personal voice can stand alone to say what you are about and what you know, all while you hone a niche in the market to speak to your prospects. This allows you to create more business opportunities for your company while simultaneously creating your voice. 

In today’s business climate, this type of action is no longer optional. Five years ago I started and today I can speak to the benefits of doing so! Today, it’s imperative in order to be relevant to the buyer as well as be an above-and-beyond resource. Having a personal branded website and social presence that articulates who you are and complements the organization you are a part of is a must! Without this platform to establish yourself as a leader, you lose out on potential relationships and prospects.

The Customer Buying Journey involves being educated and engaged with in a way that is consistent and complementary of their long term goals.  This takes time and does not happen overnight; it is all about the relationship. The more of an asset you can be to their process the more long-term relationships you have the chance of creating. 

In my experiences, social authority and engagement is not a popularity contest surrounding twitter followers and likes. Instead, it’s a catalyst for creating leadership trends that deliver results.  I am a part of the team that has delivered on being the number-one distributor of my product in the world.  Those results are not a coincidence; the behavior I am describing is the smartest business decision I have ever been led to make and the mutually beneficial results have a ripple effect that will last for many years to come. 

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o, all content posted at www.lindseyrainh2o.com