Why you need to build a personal brand
AI-Generated Transcript below. There may be errors.
Claire Davis 0:12
Hey everybody, welcome back to the today's medical sales leader podcast. I am Claire Davis, your hostess, and I cannot wait to introduce you to the person I have here sitting with me today, virtually, it's none other than Kevin Turner. And let me tell you something when I say that personal branding is a proactive game in your career, this is somebody who truly gets it. And we were just laughing at backstage. Because was it? Did we all come into business thinking that we had to have a personal brand and then magically knowing what that was going to be? Or even look like? No. Today, we're going to demystify some of these topics up and talk through what it takes to create an incredible personal brand. That's not that hard to do. But so, so important for your career. So Kevin, thank you so much for being with me today. And welcome to the show, despite lots of technical difficulties,
Kevin Turner 21:19
their tests right, to see how good we are. And we're here and we made it. Yeah, I love being here. I have such great respect for everything that you do on LinkedIn, and you got your brand together. And it isn't evolution, right. It didn't just happen. It didn't. One day, you didn't just turn it on, and it was all there and you knew exactly what to do you, you kind of build upon, right? And you see how people react and you see what makes sense. And there's things you learn over the time. Not everybody has the time to do that. Right. And so hopefully, today, we can give people some, some shortcuts into realizing, you know, what their brand really is and what it should be, and maybe even what it is today, you know, and part of it is realizing where we're not quite making it right. Before we can fix it and make it right. So very
Claire Davis 2:09
glad to have you here. You know, before we move on, Kevin, can you tell everybody just a little bit about what your business is and what you do for other people?
Kevin Turner 2:18
Absolutely. And basically, my focus is organizational and personal branding. So helping organizations and people figuring out what your message is? And how do you get that across where your target audience is going to remember you and see you as the solution. When the time comes when their need is there. They think of Claire, right. That's what we want to do. And that's what we do with organizations and people.
Claire Davis 2:45
I love that, by the way in it right? So I might have to if the need is there, we'll come up with we'll come up with one for you by the end of the show. There we go. But you know, what's interesting is I find that many people jumped on LinkedIn, you know, in its inception, 1015 and a mouthful, almost 20 years ago. And it was this placeholder for a resume. And certainly in medical sales, which is, you know, most people who are listening to this podcast today are in some way in or related to the medical sales industry. And I'm sure at the time that you started your LinkedIn account, it was a friend told you about the social network where you could put your resume up, and you could find out about jobs, right? I mean, that's kind of how we all started before. And that's how
Kevin Turner 3:31
LinkedIn started. Exactly. LinkedIn was just that it was a place to put your profile. They call it a profile, but it's really a resume, right. And then they had places you could find jobs. And you know, that was LinkedIn. It was very, very simple. And that's when people always say, LinkedIn is the professional network for when you're looking for a job. Yeah, because that's where it started. But that's not where it is today. It's evolved. That's still going on. But that's only a small piece of it, man. So that's what's kind of exciting.
Claire Davis 4:01
Oh, totally. And, you know, it brings to mind what you said, you know, LinkedIn is the place you go when you're looking for a job, and something that I learned early in my career, which was fraught with layoffs. So if anybody listening hasn't met me yet, I am now a medical sales career coach. But the reason I do this is because I had to start over after four layoffs. So proofs in the pudding, you know, it layoffs are not the end right there. They're in fact that very much. They're the beginning. But what I learned was, if you just start looking for a job, when you need one, you're already going to be sitting on your heels. So I think what's really neat about LinkedIn is if you really start getting into the ideas that Kevin and I are going to start talking about today, you'll realize that your career is always fine. There's never really a time where you should sit back on your heels and just say, Oh, I'm good. I'm good until you know, I'll check in five years from now. And then I'll get engaged again with my network. So can you share with us a little bit about your take, and maybe what advice you would give somebody, when they are looking at and making this trend, this mental transition from this is where I go to post my resume every five years to this is where I actively continually curate my career. What do you think about that?
Kevin Turner 5:21
I think it's, it's direct on, I mean, there's no doubt, I always, there's two terms I like, and one is brand land, right. And that's where you're really going to, you're going to shape the image of what people see of you to land, but land doesn't mean land, the next job, it may mean land, the next opportunity, it may mean land, the next relationship, you know, so you want to brand the land, you know, and part of that is what, not just what you're going to present on LinkedIn, but how you're going to interact on LinkedIn. And then the other component, and this is the beauty of LinkedIn. It's a networking site. And I believe fully that networking always beats not working. If you constantly network, you never have to go find a job, the jobs find you and you're already branded, right to take that job on. It all fits together. So to me, those are critical components of really working LinkedIn. So it works for you. And it doesn't take a lot of time every day to do that. I mean, I'm on LinkedIn all the time. But that's my business, right? And you're on there a lot, that's your business. But if you're just there to kind of bring in and kind of expose your authority, right, your thought leadership, and kind of develop that reputation, that doesn't take that much time on LinkedIn. And that's one of the greatest things about LinkedIn, there's a lot of opportunity to do that. It doesn't take a lot of time and effort. But you've got to be focused, if you're not focused in what values you bring to the table that they're looking for. And you're not then making sure that's out there in a memorable way, then you won't get the results from LinkedIn that it can provide you. Yeah,
Claire Davis 7:07
you know, something interesting today. So I like to go back to where you're talking about branding for your authority. Because when I was doing a LinkedIn room, today, we're talking about LinkedIn and resumes with Virginia Franco and Canada plane, if you guys have, you know, anybody listening here, definitely go follow those people as well as setting yourself right. And they were receiving questions from the audience, and one was about the presence she should develop on LinkedIn. Well, I would argue that if you are on social media, right now, you have a brand, whether or not you have gotten out in front of that message, and been intentional about what you put out there in the world. If someone comes to your profile, they're going to see what they see. And that is your current brand. So can you walk us through, say, say you've got a medical sales rep. And they have had their resume up there for a while they haven't updated things. But they're looking to get more active on LinkedIn and develop this personal brand. What would you say to them? Who is just starting? What's the personal what's the first step they should take when they're overhauling their LinkedIn profile? And what steps they should take toward a grant.
Kevin Turner 8:21
And I think, you know, the big piece of this is, and in some way, LinkedIn created this problem, right? Because they made it so easy to create a profile. When you first start out, you can actually load your resume, and it will write your profile for you. Right, it'll put it together parse it like an ATS does, when you apply online, it puts it together and says, Here is your profile. Yes, well, that's kind of a chronological dump of everything you've done. It doesn't tell the story of where you're going, and what you can bring to the table. And so that's the first mistake. And I look at LinkedIn. And, you know, most of the branding that's out there, because you have a brand, as you said, no matter whether you've crafted it and focused it or not, you have one. And I think right now, most people have what I call a personal bland. And basically, they have again, thrown everything in the soup, right? Because they thought, oh, they need to know this, they need to know that they need to, I'm gonna throw this in, I'm gonna put that there. And they throw it all together. And they think that's my brand, because that's everything I've done. Well, people can't digest that not in the speed of digital, right? They look at that and they go, this is a mess. I don't know where this individual is or where they're going or what the potential is. And so you really got to go back before you do anything on LinkedIn and look at that and say, What do I do well, right, that companies are have high demand for that I can also prove that In the process, and then that's how you're going to start building. What is that brand? Now, there's an old adage out there that they say, your personal brand or your reputation is what people say, when you're not in the room. Right? Well, you can leave that up to chance. That's personal branding, right? They can take whatever they want, because they know me, that's not good. You want again, crafted presented, make sure it's out there. So that when you're not there, it's working for you. And that's what LinkedIn is. Because you're not on LinkedIn. 24/7 365 days, right? You're there pieces of time. But LinkedIn is either working for you're working against you.
Claire Davis 10:43
So such a good point there, whether or not you are present. And that's what
Kevin Turner 10:48
people don't realize, and you know, you you go out there and you find people on LinkedIn, they might be asleep, right? There may be at work. They're not magically right there. But you're getting an impression of them from what they've left for you to say. Now, look, profiles a piece of that, right. The other piece of that is, is their engagement on LinkedIn. And LinkedIn looks at a profile is almost like a website, right? Like, if you think of Google Google, if a website stays the same, Google moves it down in the rankings. If a website changes and adds value, Google moves it up in the rankings, right. So your profile, you don't really want to have to change the profile all the time, how you change it is how you engage on the platform. That is the change that LinkedIn says, Hey, Claire's, got something going on here, we better make sure everybody else knows. And so the engagement isn't as important, I usually suggest, find companies to follow and make sure you're actually following them. Because believe it or not, if a recruiters using talent solutions, and they bring candidates up, the ones that are following the companies are at the top of the list, ah, you're already interested, right? So at the top of the list, the other component of that, make contact within those companies, doesn't matter if it's the receptionist all the way up to the CEO, make as many contacts as you can within that organization. Because when you do things on LinkedIn, they're gonna get a little notice of that of that process, right? You'll get a notice when they do things, and you can, you can jump in and engage in that process. But again, the recruiters see that, you know, out of the five candidates, Claire's the only one with 25 connections within our company, right? So she's going to be easy to get in here. And she's going to want to stay and she's going to be a good hire. They make that assumption by your connectivity. Yes. So true. As you're you're building out that engagement. You want to keep it professional, and focused on where you want to go. But some people forget that right? They get out there and they braid instead of debate. There is a difference. You can debate. You don't break, right? Yes. And you can often agree if it's not going anywhere, you can agree, right? That, hey, we just see things a little differently. And that's okay. I still like everything else you talk about, you can do that. That's fine. People don't realize they can do that. And social media. Instead, they get into what I call pig wrestling. I don't know if you've ever heard that. Ever wrestle with a pig, right? Because the pigs enjoy it. Everybody gets dirty. I think it's a I think it's a Mark Twain, but it's so true. Don't get in there and start mucking up your brand by arguing with people or calling them names or saying you're absolutely crazy, you don't know what you're talking about. That's not going to build a positive brand for you go in and add value. Now, that's
Claire Davis 13:57
such an excellent point. And I want to stop you there for a second because now
Kevin Turner 14:01
you know that's hard to do.
Claire Davis 14:05
I'll jump in. But the reason why is because I don't want people to miss the finer points of what Kevin what you're sharing here. So number one, you got to get out in front of your message. So the first step is probably getting your profile to a place where it's representing not just what you do, but what you're going after. So can you break that apart a little bit to share, you know, when you're saying that to somebody say you've got somebody who Like recently I had a client, one of my absolute favorites, and he is a brilliant salesperson and manager in biotech sales. But he also is really excited about counseling startups through company through organizations like White House industries that are just emerging and are looking for advice on how to carry their product. to commercialization. So, in his case, once you say that he should focus more on his past experience, or the experience, he wants to go and grow next, which would be more of the VC and the counseling?
Kevin Turner
15:16
And again, it's really depends on on that person's goal, right? What is the ultimate goal? And at the same time, if you are employed by an employer, you have to keep a balance. Right? Yeah, can't look like you're spending all your time over here promoting this other component, it's got to look like it's just, you know, a bit of your time. So when you post, you know, don't do it during business hours, you know, if they can't find you for two hours, and then they realize on LinkedIn, you just had a really great post go viral, you know, right.
Claire Davis 15:51
So be careful.
Kevin Turner 15:53
Careful with it, if you want to do let's say you want to host an audio event, you might ask the boss, you know, if I did this during the week, because that's the best time at this time, could I take, you know, an hour off and host this event? And hey, by the way, would you like to be there too, because you've got great things to say, right? Yes. Makes sure it's not going to conflict with your current job. Because too many people get involved in social media and doing it at times where they think they get away with it. It's so traceable, everything you do on the internet, right? Never goes away. Somebody can see it, and somebody can start making assumptions. And you don't want to be there. So planted off business hours, do a lot of this stuff, believe it or not, weekends are hot on LinkedIn. weekends off, you can get a lot of this branding out there. There's thought leadership, you can do it on the weekends.
Claire Davis 16:46
Yes. And let's talk a little bit about the dark side of what can happen on social media as far as the trackable nature of things. So I had a client once long time ago. And the reason she came to work with me was because she had made some comments on a post. And her manager had seen those comments, didn't appreciate them. And then things sort of went south for her from there. So can we talk a little bit about maybe kind of the P's and Q's you want to mind? Or the kind of things you want to share in the comments? And also the kinds of things you'd want to avoid?
Kevin Turner 17:21
I use something I call the grandmother clause, right? Okay. If you would say it in front of your grandmother, when she's within slapping distance, right? Don't say it on LinkedIn. So she would offend your grandmother, I would say avoid it, you know, and that's in general mean, some grandmothers are different than others. But I would say in general, it's a good rule. If you don't have that, that grandmother like that, find that individual that you want to be like, and then do the same thing. Would they be offended if I said this? The other thing is, there's always that extra piece is, you know, is the squeeze worth the juice. Right? Have you ever heard that term? So you can go out there and you can make statements? And maybe you know, the statements are really strong statement, but you're not going to get much from it? Why do it? Well, especially if it hurts anybody or offends anybody, there's no reason for that, right? Because all that stuff collectively becomes the part of the brand that you can't control. You know, if you don't get it in control, so be real careful in that area.
Claire Davis 18:24
It's just like how so in this case, so for all, for all of you. Medical sales, department reps listening to this right now, or watching this live right now. It's just the same way that you wouldn't sit in a doctor's office and you know, get chatty about the doctor in front of the patient. Right? You really do still have to have nice etiquette on LinkedIn. And here's the beauty of it. Of all the social platforms that I've ever been on, Kevin and tell me if this resonates with you to the one that has the most uplifting, inspirational supportive content is LinkedIn truly. And I mean, that goes for that goes for Twitter, that goes for Facebook, I mean, for as much over there that you can find great groups. LinkedIn tends to have this vibe of business. Still a little bit, but that right, very supportive.
Kevin Turner 19:19
And he found that absolutely now it's getting a little more comfortable. A little more personality even, but it's still very businesslike, and it's still very positive in its focus. So you know, there are other platforms where you can write a lot of negative stuff, and it goes really well. It falls flat on LinkedIn. Yeah, you know, it'll have a small group. And I always say, you know, if that's the group you want, and you just want to share your own misery, that's fine. They'll find you right, and you can there and sit there and share misery. It's not going to get someone to go, Hey, that person be a great fit within our team, you know, and so Do you want to be careful? Absolutely. It's, you know, stay positive. But LinkedIn overall is, it's got to be the most positive platform out there. And it is a social platform, no matter what people call it. It is social media. It's maybe business social media.
Claire Davis 20:16
Yeah. So if somebody is just starting on to the posting part, so they've got their profile together, they have now become comfortable engaging on other's content, right, which is, that's a great place to start. So don't think you're alone. If you're uncomfortable posting content, yet, you're not alone, especially in medical sales, there are very few professionals who are leveraging this platform by being content creators. So it's a great opportunity. But if you're not quite there yet, let's say, then start commenting, but say you are and you're ready to start posting content. How do you, what would you say to somebody who's maybe new to creating content, that can create content, that is one going to go somewhere gotta get seen, and two is going to support their personal brand.
Kevin Turner 21:12
And there's a perfect kind of poll full togethers. A couple of things, you know, there are always methods, right of making content popular, you know, in that sense, you know, much like there is for writing articles in a newspaper headline, you know, if the headline doesn't grab anybody, nobody's going to read below, right? Often, I'll even write my own components. And sometimes the last line, I look at that and say, that's the best part, and I'll take it to the top and bring it back in. So you always want to look at that you want, you want to capture the interest of that audience, you want to speak to them in that sense. And that's whether you're writing it, or you're shooting a video, all of that's there. So, you know, you definitely you've got to make it exciting, that first second of any content is going to determine whether anybody, you know, reads more, click See More, and then interacts with you. Now, as you're doing this, any kind of content you're developing, you do want engagement, right, you want them to join the conversation. So you want to bring in questions, you know, does this work in your industry? You know, I've heard of so and so was doing this? Have you heard that that works, right? Ask questions, and your content in that, you know, ability to, you know, bring people in or say, hey, share what you're seeing. Right? We're interested in, what are you seeing, tell us about it, and you're bringing those people in? At that point, when they comment, you want to nurture that conversation, right? You don't want to do what people do. And that's kind of post and ghost, right? You throw a post out there, you get 20 people commenting, and you don't get back to it till the next day? Well, you have just taken what could have been a, a really good piece of content, and you have basically chopped off its reach. Because what is going to do is when you post something, no matter what it is, the responses that you get, and how you cultivate those responses, is going to tell LinkedIn, whether that's quality content or not. Yeah. And then they're going to expose it to few more people. So they start with about 2% of your network. If that 2%, it's always your most active 2%. It's up 2% likes it, they'll give it out to him like another 5% that 5% likes to give it up to 10%. If you just posted and ghosted, you wasted, that first group. And people go through an effort if they're if they're adding value to your content, you've got to return that appreciation, and make sure that you're building on that. And that's also where you're going to find a lot of people that maybe you're not connected with, that you're going to build that relationship with and you want to see, hey, you know, they were pretty smart. Clary, I have this great comment, maybe I'll start following Claire Now, add to her content. So this bit of reciprocity, when you're developing out and you're nurturing, you want to spread that beyond your own content into their content, it helps them remember, you come back, and that kind of momentum built. And that's really how things are done on LinkedIn, other platforms, really don't have those kind of gateways that you have to pass to move forward. LinkedIn does. And if you do it right, you'll have a really strong, focused audience that will come back all the time for your content.
Claire Davis 24:53
I mean, I feel like the old adage is true. People like to work with people they like, give some things don't change, right. So just The act of investing the time to leave a well thought comment on a creators post that you're interested in, people are going to notice that one, the creator is going to read every single one of those comments. I mean, until maybe they had like a million followers, and they've got a whole team behind them. But I don't know. Remember every single person who comments on my posts you better believe it, Kevin, I grateful for them. time they took one question I have for you is, how do you structure a thoughtful comment? There are three people on LinkedIn right now you are among the three that always that have a very specific way that you structure your content and your comments, rather, that I know you do strategically. So can you talk a little bit about the strategy behind what you have in every one of your comments? Because it's consistent every time you comment?
Kevin Turner 25:56
Well, there are a few things, I guess, you know, one of the things you want, you want to absolutely thank them for adding value, right? Yeah, I always sign off with keep rocking LinkedIn, you know, that's a hashtag. I sign off with that people do follow the hashtag because of the sign off. But it also helps it stand out visually, right. But you definitely want to address what they've added into the conversation. And if you can you build upon it, you complement it, you might even add some more to it. Especially if they have questions, because often I'll get questions in mind. And so you want to give them really a robust answer, not a yay or nay. Maybe you know, you give them what they want. Yeah. And often you'll find you'll, you'll be saying sometimes the same thing quite often. So you can copy that, put it in a document, right? have it available. So oh, they asked that, let me go and pull that out. Here's the answer. You put it in there. And then you write it with a little bit of personality to that individual. And it becomes their, you know, answer, right, even though we're using reusing some components. But that's really important. And I do you believe in getting those done as quickly as you can, right? respond to them as quickly as you can. You can you know, I also always mention when when I say mentioned, all the other social media sites call that tagging, right? I also mentioned their name. So what that does is a couple of things. People like to see their own name. It's like, what they said the sweetest sound is the sound of your own name, right? Yes. One of the sweetest sights, right is your name. People love it. And they go, Yeah, cool. It helps them it notifies them. But it also says, Hey, I respect what you're doing for me, and what you're doing in the community. And I'm going to, you know, put that in there. And I'm going to hotlink it right back to you. There's just something really nice about it. And people do respond. People ask me, Why do you do that all the time. And let's take a lot of extra work. It's a microsecond to put that app sign in front of the name and, you know, click it and move it forward. And then it's hyperlinked. To me that it's a big piece of honoring.
Claire Davis 28:08
I mean, how many LinkedIn messages would you ballpark that you get every day?
Kevin Turner 28:14
As far as comments?
Claire Davis 28:17
Like messages and notifications? Probably?
Kevin Turner 28:20
Oh, yeah. Easy peasy. Yeah, in messaging, at least, hundreds in messaging, hundreds and notifications, yet really fast at getting through a lot of it, because a lot of it isn't all that important. You know, but the people are important. So to me, you know, when when it's a person really need something, then you want to get to those really quickly, if it's just, you know, random notifications. And LinkedIn seems to do a great job of filling your box up with those.
Claire Davis 28:50
So and so like to post that you flip right on by I get this anonymous person looked at your profile? Yes. I know that. I know. It's so funny. But you know, honestly, I have to say, one thing that's changed for me this year, and my husband, if they were standing here with us during this interview, is that, you know, a few years ago, if I would have said oh yeah, my friend from LinkedIn, he would have looked at me really sideways like a friend from LinkedIn, what do you like they work at LinkedIn. But in I mean, very honestly, I have met some of the most wonderful people and the fact that we are chatting like you and I are chatting three, four times just this last never met in person. Right? But truly, relationships are real on this platform. And so take that time to invest in those people. I mean, it's it's that you do become friends.
Kevin Turner 29:51
And we have friends all over the world. It's amazing and and you know what if you showed up on their doorstep and said I need a place to stay, they'd say sure. You gotta sit on the couch. But good, good point where they you know, it is it is a real relationship. Yeah, if you cultivate it that way, right, and you respect it that way. And that, to me is just amazing that that can be done on LinkedIn. And it can be turned into opportunity into business. And people don't realize that that they think, oh, that's just you know, that's a loose, you've never met that person before. It's like, I've been on LinkedIn since 2005. I've had people who come back to me 10 years later, and say, I've been reading, you know, your, your posts, and this and that, and the other, and I want to do business with you, or I've got this opportunity, or I've got a friend that I'm going to refer to you. It's like, how do you refer anybody to me? If we've never done anything? Like, I already know you? And so it really is there it does exist? And I think that's one of the the greatest, shall we say features of LinkedIn, as you can build those relationships? And, you know, they do add value?
Claire Davis 31:06
Yes. And you know, what, I think, at least for those watching and listening to this podcast, if you're in medical sales, pitch, I know, I sound like a broken record. But I want you to know how, how very seriously, this does actually apply to this particular industry. If you think about it, this is the first generation of physicians, decision makers, providers who grew up with this in their hand. Okay, so it's, they are there, your clients are on LinkedIn. And just like Kevin saying, I mean, if you have some, if your presence is there, if your brand is not bland, and it's on LinkedIn, you've gotten ahead of your message, and at least put your stake in. So here I am, here's what I'm all about. People will find you. And people still want to work with people that they like. And so it's an it's incredible to me how solid relationships can be built on LinkedIn, and how many people are already checking you out before you even realize it. Just yesterday, I spoke with a woman who has been following me for two years. And we've never spoken. I don't even think she's ever commented on a post of mine. But she felt like she knew me through my personal branding. And I think that everybody has access to that. And it's not magic. It's stuff that you can learn every day for myself and Kevin, for all kinds of people on LinkedIn who share so openly. So let me ask you this. And before we wrap up here, Kevin, did you think you were going to go into business as a LinkedIn trainer? Or did it find you for one reason or another?
Kevin Turner 32:45
You know, I've I've been doing LinkedIn training since 2005. Oh, wow. Okay, I started originally as a giveback. Right, I would go to groups that were meeting churches, all sorts of places that, you know, they would have groups of four or 500 people. And I would teach them about LinkedIn, and why it was important to have a LinkedIn profile, and how do you make that work for you? You know, and there's all sorts of little extra little people call them hacks. I don't know what you want to call them. But there's all these little extra angles that you can work that have great benefits. So I would do that. And what would normally happen is you get this group of couple 100 people. And about three days later, somebody would call you and say, Hey, Kevin, this is so and so I was at, you know, blah, blah, blah, the meeting and you said this, what did you mean by that? And I'm be like, tell me a little more, because I'm not so sure you got the notes, right. Basically, hey, could you help me do this? And I'd say, Yeah, okay, you know, let's do it. And, you know, sometimes we're charged sometimes I wouldn't, depending on the situation they were in, right. And ultimately, I started to do that as kind of like a weekend thing and afternoon, you know, kind of thing. You know, it was like a side gig. And there was a time in my life. I was running my life. I was running the American Heart Association's international emergency cardiovascular care unit. And I actually took them into 150 countries built the offices in, in Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates, and Belgium, in Puerto Rico, to Latin mirror hired older people. I was traveling 80% of my month, I was home one weekend, a month and I was on the wrong side of the clock, because I'd been two weeks or whatever that was. And I said, you know, we've got to stop. I gotta slow down. Life is moving too fast. I'm missing too much of what's going on with the kids and my wife and I, we said, you know, let's do something together and let's build a business together. And you're doing all this stuff on LinkedIn, and she's been a writer for many Many years, and we said, let's, let's pull it all together and create a business. And so we did and haven't looked back. So it's been about a little over 10 years. It's fantastic, you know, the opportunities that it has afforded me and the flexibility and some of the time I was able to gain back and a little less travel at a time when travel was getting a little dangerous. That was appreciated as well. But that's how it kind of evolved, I didn't know it was going to happen, you know, it started as a give back became a little side gig. And then we decided, this is so much, we're gonna go ahead and do this. And you know, throughout my career, I've probably had six pivots, in my career, where I decided I don't want to do this anymore, I want to do something else. I was, you know, fortune 50 with Sony for many, many years. And then into Sony Qualcomm, left that to go to venture capital and was a VP and venture capital, you know, went into turnarounds, corporate turnarounds, you know, as a thing and beauty of a turnaround, there are a lot of fun, they're like a startup. But there's an end to it, like a lot of startups do. So you ramp up, you spend a lot of time and then you got to find the next one. So I said, You know what, I'm gonna go into this kind of fortune 50 nonprofit, which was American Heart Association to turn around that division. And then I just said, I'm going to do it for myself. And so life is like that. But every pivot, in my process, I've always been able to make the change, because of the way I branded myself was to understand the values I had, what I could bring to the table with solutions, and then focus that marketing. And so if anybody wants to make that change, that's how you do it. And, you know, I've been able to prove it in my own career. I'm not just saying it works. Right, we're able to actually make it work. And you know, that's different, I think. So that's, that's, I guess what? I don't know. That's the essence of it. Right?
Claire Davis 37:03
Yes. Yeah, you did it, you leveraged it, you know, and, and I completely resonate when I was in the field and moving between companies, my clients would still call me, even if I wasn't still at the company where I originally was serving. And we call it going beyond the name tag. Because that's truly what your personal brand is all about. It's all about who you are as a professional and the value you bring whatever that through lime is, despite whatever name tag you're wearing, that's your personal brand. And then once you learn to leverage that the sky's the limit. And just like you have you developed your business on it, you could pivot it where you needed to, to let the right people know, hey, I'm open for business. And here's the kind of solution that I am ready to deliver you right now. So I love that you use this in your own life. And I love that you started a business with your wife. That's wonderful.
Kevin Turner 37:56
Not easy, it can be done.
Claire Davis 38:00
Okay, I cannot thank you enough for being here with us today. Thank you so much. And for everyone who is not already obsessed with your content and all the value you deliver like I am, where can they find you today?
Kevin Turner 38:15
You can always find me on LinkedIn, my LinkedIn URL is fairly easy like everybody else. It's linkedin.com/in, right slash president. And I set that up many years ago. And now every time they search for who's the president of LinkedIn, I'm in the search results. I'm thinking someday they're gonna take it away. But that's where you'll find me. Seven D and I put the D in there Turner because there's a lot of other famous Kevin DS and I don't want to get confused. So you know, that's the other way to find me. And TNT brand strategist is the company so I'm loving it.
Claire Davis 38:54
Well, thank you so much, you guys. You want to tap into turning your personal land into a personal brand and really harnessing the authority that you have in your career and how you can better serve people and connect with people socially because of it. Follow Kevin here, he will not steer you wrong. So thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you everybody for listening to another episode of today's medical sales theater and we will see you next time.
. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
