Amanda LittleJohn: Package Your Genius

Everyday I speak to women and men who sell themselves and their gifts short. We’re often hardworking and talented, but for some reason we still develop a need to over complicate the path to offering and profiting from our gifts.  We think we have to be exhaustively perfect and over prepare our gifts to justify them, but that’s not true. Instead, all we really need to do is show up and get out of our own way.  In today’s episode, Amanda Miller Littlejohn and I will dive deeper into the topic of personal branding and visibility. We’ll cover everything from Amanda’s personal story to finding your purpose and packaging your genius. Join us as Amanda reveals the importance of your message and how your visibility isn’t about you, but about the difference it makes to someone else. This episode is brought to you by my free LIVE Master Class training, How to Chase Purpose: 5 Shifts to Help You Acknowledge Your God-Given Gifts, Align with Your Passion and Powerfully Answer the Call on Your Life. To REGISTER, become a  Purpose Chaser at iamaPurposeChaser.com  About Amanda Miller Littlejohn Amanda Miller Littlejohn is a nationally-recognized top expert in personal branding. The author of her personal branding playbook, Package Your Genius, she is an idea maven, brand problem solver and creative powerhouse working at the intersection of public relations, journalism, marketing and social media. As a former print journalist, along with her training and passion as a writer,  Amanda uses her unique storytelling lens and reporting skills to help her clients uncover and subsequently share better brand stories.   A highly sought-after speaker, trainer and writer, Amanda regularly speaks to groups of business owners, students and women on personal branding, public relations and social media. She regularly shares her expertise with media outlets like the Washington Post, Forbes, Huffington Post and Sirius XM. She can be reached at http://www.amandamillerlittlejohn.com/. A Pivot from Journalism to Entrepreneurship Amanda and I found ourselves in a similar place during the Great Recession. We were both unemployed with newborns. I asked her to share about her experience and how it led to her pivoting from a career in journalism to starting her own business. She’d been thinking about transitioning from the journalism space into something else and at the time and knew writing was her gift and strength, as well as, something people needed and something that they’d pay for. She started out with writing by approaching small public relations firms and small businesses she thought might need help with writing proposals or with client work, but that didn’t need a full-time, in-house writer. Essentially, she cold called to the top by contacting everyone she knew to see if they needed a writer or if they knew someone who did.  And I did the same to jumpstart my speaking career years ago. “Your purpose found you as you were in action.”  So many people think there’s a magic formula, but Amanda I agree there’s not. It takes knocking on doors, making phone calls and sending emails that get no response. Package Your Genius In Amanda’s book, Package Your Genius, there’s a place where she says her dad was the smartest person she’d ever met and the smartest person you’d never heard of. That is what planted the seed for Amanda to do this work called personal branding or visibility. She didn’t think it was fair that someone who had so many gifts and talents wasn’t able to flip those gifts and talents when he needed to flip them. In other words, he had a job and that job got plenty out of him, but when it came time for him to take the next step and leverage all he knew and had learned through decades of work, he didn’t understand how to put himself out there.  “When you work for years to become good at something, the inability to market yourself shouldn’t be the thing between you and success.”  Amanda found her gift in helping people like her dad who were really great at what they did, but not great at putting it into words. She’s dedicated her life to giving them the marketing tools and confidence they needed to get out there.  “Your gift is not about you; it’s about how you will be used to change the lives of other people.”  Think about it like this: If just one person needs to hear what you have to say and your message could potentially plant a seed that could change their life, who are you to focus on your nerves or anxiety?  This is much bigger than how you feel. When I think about it like this, it helps me get over myself and my fears very quickly. The Effortless State of Being is Purpose In Package Your Genius, Amanda says, “The effortless state of being is purpose and you don’t have to dress it up to sell it. You don’t have to dilute the gift by overcomplicating it. You don’t have to make yourself anxious perfecting and preparing yourself to justify it. You just have to show up, get out of the way and allow yourself to be the channel that you are.” Amanda believes that problems arise when we mistake our talent and skills with purpose. So just because we’re good at something doesn’t mean that’s what we’re supposed to be doing with our time.  If you’re naturally gifted and talented, and if you work hard at everything you do, then after a while you’ll probably get pretty good at it, right? We see a lot of people who have several things they can do well. And we also see other people – parents, family members, bosses – say you have a talent and push you in a certain direction because you’re good at doing something. But it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s what you’re meant to be doing. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s your purpose. You’re the only one who can dial into the purpose piece and you can do that by asking and looking at where you’ve been energized in the past. What work lights you up? What people light you up? What audiences do you enjoy serving? Who do you want to connect with? Who do you like being around? What do you want to build your life around and be known for? These are all questions you need to ask yourself. We unpack a LOT in this episode and know you’ll get value whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to build your empire or an executive looking to climb that corporate ladder. What are your thoughts on personal branding and visibility? Do you agree with all that Amanda has said? What were you biggest takeaways and how will you use these things to shift your brand and business? Visit http://www.amandamillerlittlejohn.com/ to find out more about Amanda and Package Your Genius. Redefining Wealth Rapid Wisdom Questions And with that, let’s dig into Amanda’s responses to our Redefining Wealth Rapid Wisdom Questions. Define Success: “Success is doing what’s inside of me and impacting the people and audiences I care about the most.” Define Wealth in 3 Words or Less: “To die, empty.” One Book that Has Redefined How You See Wealth: You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero Fill-in the Blanks … “My name is ___ and the truth about wealth is ___”: “My name is Amanda and the truth about wealth is it’s available to everyone and it’s available to you at any time.” LINKS: To advertise on the podcast: http://www.patricewashington.com/podcastads Become an Official Purpose Chaser: http://www.iamapurposechaser.com  Join Patrice’s Pod Club: http://www.patricespodclub.com  To check out ALL of our past guests + episodes: http://www.patricewashington.com/Listen If you have questions about booking Patrice or sponsoring the podcast, email us at [email protected].  Find me in Social Media:  Our podcast hashtag is #RedefiningWealth  Instagram: @SeekWisdomPCW  Twitter: @SeekWisdomPCW  Facebook: @SeekWisdomPCW  YouTube: @SeekWisdomPCW