Jennifer Russo, Brand Building Specialist

#161: How to Bring Clarity and Energy to Your Personal Brand Story

#161: How to Bring Clarity and Energy to Your Personal Brand Story

As I’ve learned from my associates at Anecdote, character trumps credentials every time when you are trying to connect with people. But when looking for a job or reinventing a career, we often make the mistake of leading with our resumes rather than our personalities.

After 15 years as a communications executive with a multi-national mining firm and ready to make a change, Jennifer Russo realized that her powerful resume is just the cost of entry into being considered for the high-level job she was seeking.  If she’s going to be successful landing the position that will help define her legacy, she needed to clarify her own brand story.

In this week’s show, Jennifer, brand building specialist and former General Manager of Communications and Communities globally for Rio Tinto, reveals how you can define your personal brand story.

Growing up in Long Island, Jennifer was influenced by her educator father. She shares how he instilled in her a relentless passion for learning and strong justice, which led her to pursue journalism. While at Rio Tinto, Jennifer got the opportunity to work on complex projects involving a multitude of stakeholders.

In 2005, when Rio Tinto was still unknown in the United States, Park helped Jennifer structure Rio Tinto’s brand story to showcase their CSR efforts. You’ll hear Jennifer dispel the notion that mining companies can do only harm. She will give you a peek into the many opportunities and challenges that come with a MNC-beneficiary relationship.

Jennifer’s views on diversity and inclusion storytelling reframe the typical approach to human resources in large companies. Diversity is not just cultural, but also that of beliefs. Learn how diversity within an organization can help achieve actionable insights that can help fast-track a company’s growth.  You will also receive some great tips on how to cultivate an abundant mindset for partnering with skeptical and unwilling stakeholders.

It’s ironic that Jennifer, who was so successful at building up the Rio Tinto brand, was at a loss on how to design her own personal brand story. But Park used the proprietary Story Cycle System™ to capture Jennifer’s strengths, and used Success Stories to effectively convey them.

Tune in to discover how you can achieve clarity for building a congruent brand story that effectively showcases your strengths.

In This Episode, You Will Learn

• How to craft an authentic personal brand story
• The advantages of incorporating diversity & inclusion into your organization’s DNA
• The challenges that MNC’s face while carrying out CSR activities

Key Quotes

“A personal brand story clarifies who you are, what you are about, and aligns you with your beliefs to find the career that expresses the BEST you.” –Park Howell

“It is built on a stream of energy that I am truly the kinetic communicator that can catalyze the untapped energy and untapped diversity in a team to help them outperform.”–Jennifer Russo

“We have to learn from our collective mistakes.” –Jennifer Russo

“Everyone deserves to be their best self. That is the same philosophy that I bring to parenting, leadership and to everyday life.” –Jennifer Russo

Mentioned In This Episode

• Rio Tinto
• Jennifer Russo’s Website
• Jennifer Russo LinkedIn
• Story Cycle System

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