Jasmin French is a high powered Entrepreneur who founded her own personal branding consulting firm in Chicago, J FRENCH, to assist peak performers in leveraging the value of their accomplishments to get noticed, hired, referred, promoted and be held in a greater regard. Ms. French is a well sought out authority on personal branding and has appeared in Newsweek, The CBA Record, and the American Bar Association Student Lawyer magazines. She has also delivered keynote addresses to lawyers, entrepreneurs, students and professional athletes in Chicago, Atlanta and New York.

Ms. French has worked as a Business Analyst for Kimberly Clark supporting the company’s French speaking businesses in Canada. She also spent time in Supply Chain working for the Kleenex brand. Prior to starting her personal branding firm, she worked as a Corporate Attorney for DLA Piper, the world’s largest law firm.

Ms. French holds a B.A. in Public Policy from Duke University and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School. She is a member of the State Bar of Illinois and active with the American Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association. Ms. French is fluent in French and has lived, worked and traveled in France, Russia and Thailand.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Ms. French to discuss personal branding, which is a must have for all high powered professionals. Our conversation was not only interesting, but an eye opener. My personal favorite part of the discussion – first impressions.

Q: Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to meet with me. Tell me about your firm?

J FRENCH is a personal branding firm. My firm empowers individuals, through workshops and one-on-one consultations, to tell their own story in a way that demonstrates their value. People want to know what you are all about. In this economy, companies hire people that they need and keep people that they need. People really have to be adept at clearly articulating the value that they offer and the need that they fill. And, the best way to fulfill that is through their personal brand. This can include your wardrobe, your online profile, or what you convey in person.

Q: What kind of clients do you typically work with?

I work with peak performers. Students at some of our country’s top professional schools, and peak performing employees who are looking for more than the status quo and are currently in a situation where they’re looking to move ahead or perhaps move out of their organization. I also work with professional athletes – generally athletes who are leaving their dream job and looking to transition to the next stage in their career off of the playing field.

Q: So tell me, why is personal branding so important for professionals?

Professionals right now are faced with a new paradigm. And, this new normal that we’re in means that technical savvy is a given. So, there are a lot of really smart technically proficient people who are out of work and unfortunately now the burden is on them to communicate why that technical skill actually matters to a hiring employer. It’s also important for those looking to maintain their current job or get promoted within their current organization. People want to know that by associating with you that you’re going to be delivering value on a consistent basis. You no longer have this honeymoon period which is, “let me feel my way out and then deliver.” It’s more like, “let me tell you what I’m going to deliver, then I deliver it, and then I’m going to tell you that I delivered it.” So, upwardly mobile professionals who add this trajectory, whether it’s in their same organization or if they love to move around, need to be able to tell others the package that they present.

More importantly, professionals need personal branding because we work in a referral based employment sector. And people do business with people, not with products or services. So, your brand is a quick script that you can give to someone else. And, I have some great tips that I give to my clients. I tell them that they really need to come up with their own twitter headline about themselves that perhaps is catchy, but short and succinct, so that they can communicate to other people who can, in turn, become marketers of their personal brand.

Q: What are the first steps in establishing your brand?

The first thing to know is that a brand is not an aspiration. It’s not what you hope people see you as. It’s actually based on proven history. So, you’ve really got to sit down and define who you are. I always encourage people to collect their performance evaluations over the course of their professional career to determine what words or sentiments are constantly showing up – regardless of the position and regardless of whether they were 22 or 42 (years of age). It’s some of the attributes that a person will consistently say about you 20 days from now, 20 months from now, or 20 years from now. Your brand is about perception. You have to see how others perceive you, and what better way than that objective employee evaluation.

Q: How do you make a great first impression?

There’s a science to first impressions. People really have to remember that. There is a cognitive process going on. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink talks about it, in terms of what the brain sees, how the synapses are moving, and how that really impacts future decisions that people make. So, I remind people that first impressions are generally made up of 3 components and made within 17 – 30 seconds. 55% of your first impression is made up of your body language and your appearance – basically what you say without even opening your mouth. 38% is based on your tone of voice – your accent, whether you speak quickly, how you project, if you are soft spoken, etc. Only 7% of your first impression is based on what you say. And so, oftentimes, people are quick to drop a title and other indicators of success that are commonly accepted while, from a cognitive level, the brain isn’t processing information that way.

Making great first impressions really are about presenting yourself well, overdressing if necessary, and being well groomed. Improving your tone of voice comes with practice. People can control what they say (their verbal introduction) by having a great 30 second pitch. That pitch should always answer 5 questions – 1)Who are you? 2)What do you do? 3)What need do you fill or problem do you solve? 4)Who’s your target market? 5)Your question or request – for example, I’d love to meet you for lunch, can I have your business card, or do you mind if I call you next week?

Learn more about the services offered by J FRENCH by visiting www.jfrenchstyle.com.

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