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This is the Branding Room Only podcast with Paula T. Edgar where we share career stories, strategies, and lessons learned on how industry leaders and influencers have built their personal brands.
136 Episodes
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Are you leaving your personal brand up to luck? Some professionals do, and they'll insist that the great opportunity or recommendation that appeared at the right moment proves it. But while luck certainly plays a role in life and careers, there's a clear distinction between welcoming luck and relying on it as a strategy. In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar walks through seven areas where people often leave their personal brand up to luck and why that is a mistake. From how y...
After years of hard work, many professionals finally reach a point where things feel stable. The role fits. The team works. The urgency slows down. But that sense of comfort can quietly turn into complacency if you stop investing in your personal brand simply because things feel “fine.” In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar explores the difference between comfort and complacency and why personal branding requires ongoing maintenance—even in seasons of stability. Through real e...
Wanting to be on a board and being ready for board service are not the same thing. Some people spend years building relationships, understanding governance, and positioning themselves as trusted advisors. Others rush the process and undermine their credibility before a real conversation even begins. Sonya Olds Som, Global Managing Partner and leader of the Legal, Risk, and Compliance Practice at DSG Global, conducts executive and board searches across industries. In this episode of Branding R...
Your inner voice can either talk you into your greatness or talk you out of it. That little voice shows up when you're about to take a risk, ask for something you want, or step into a room where you're not sure you belong. Most people either ignore it completely or let it run the show. Neither works. The real question is whether you know how to catch it, redirect it, and make it work for you instead of against you. Amber Lee Forrester built Quartz Wellness Collective on the idea that your inn...
In Part Two of this conversation on Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar and Rhonda Joy McLean move from formation to practice, exploring what it means to live your personal brand once leadership responsibilities deepen and visibility increases. Rhonda Joy reflects on how her leadership style evolved over time, particularly as she navigated being “the only,” managing teams, and carrying significant responsibility for others. She shares why listening is a critical leadership discipline, how rela...
In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar is joined by Rhonda Joy McLean for a thoughtful and deeply personal conversation about where leadership and personal brand truly begin. Long before titles, platforms, or visibility, Rhonda Joy reflects on the experiences, values, and identity work that shaped how she shows up as a leader. Rhonda Joy shares stories from her upbringing in the Jim Crow South, integrating schools as a teenager, and learning early lessons about resilience, coll...
Think about the lessons that shaped you early, the voices that influenced how you see the world, and what it would mean to have those reflections preserved over time. Walter Pryor brings warmth, humor, and thoughtful vulnerability to every interaction. A public service leader, corporate executive, community advocate, and author of This Leaves Me Okay, his career reflects not just professional milestones, but a lineage shaped by nearly 30 years of handwritten letters from his grandmother, Mama...
Your face is part of your personal brand whether you acknowledge it or not. People experience you visually before you say a word. Some dismiss makeup and skincare as vanity or assume it has nothing to do with their work. Others do it themselves without realizing how small missteps can distract from the impression they want to make. Either way, an important part of your brand is being left to chance. Osha Hinds has spent over a decade helping people show up with intention. She works with every...
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t just a leader—he was a master of personal branding. In honor of his birthday (January 15), we’re reflecting on his life and legacy and what they can teach us about building a meaningful and impactful personal brand. In this episode of Branding Room Only, I share eight powerful lessons inspired by Dr. King’s life and offer actionable tips to help you build your brand with purpose, authenticity, and a lasting impact. 1:17 - The foundation of every strong brand ...
What happens when the version of you that’s always holding it together finally can’t anymore? In You Are Before the World, Tara Jaye Frank writes with radical honesty about depletion, overgiving, and the moment she realized that putting everyone else first was costing her herself. In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula sits down with Tara to talk about the internal reckoning that shaped the book and the deeper truth beneath it: that worth is not earned through sacrifice, helpfulness, or...
Reflection gets skipped over in a culture that rewards speed, productivity, and visible wins. Most people want to jump straight to the next goal list without pausing to tell the truth about what they actually lived through. But reflection isn't some soft year-end ritual. It's a leadership skill and a requirement for building a strong personal brand. We live in a culture that often rewards movement, not meaning. Speed, productivity, and visible wins are celebrated, while reflection is frequent...
Setting a big, exciting goal can feel amazing at the start—the motivation is high, and the journey feels full of possibility. But what happens when the excitement fades or the path gets bumpy? That’s when the power of intention can make all the difference. In this episode of Branding Room Only, I’m diving into the difference between intentions and goals and how combining the two can create a winning strategy. We’ll explore why intentions are key to building a personal brand that feels authent...
Vision boards can be so much more than just a collage of pretty pictures and inspirational words—they can be a game-changer for designing your life, if you use them intentionally. Every year, I kick off with an intention and goal-setting session, and vision boards are one of my favorite tools to turn big dreams into real plans. In this episode of The Branding Room Only podcast, I’m sharing how to make vision boards work for you. We’ll talk about why vision boards are worth your time, how to c...
Unexpected demands, curveballs, and complexity can show up in our year whether we plan for them or not. Life rarely follows neat outlines, even when we begin with vision boards and bold declarations about growth, visibility, or reset. In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula Edgar explores the space between the year you thought you’d have and the year you actually lived—and why that gap matters to your personal brand. This episode introduces a personal branding reset grounded in alignment...
If you’ve ever pulled a price out of thin air, matched a competitor without context, or quietly dipped into your savings to sustain your business, you’re not alone. Many entrepreneurs struggle not with numbers, but with the stories and habits they’ve learned about money. Financial behaviorist, coach, and creator of Pricing Made Human®, Jacquette M. Timmons, understands this deeply—and built her work around helping people see the emotional and behavioral patterns tied to their financial choice...
Your personal brand isn’t just about what you deliver. It’s how you show up. If you’re exhausted, stressed to the point of breaking, or gripping your way through the week, that comes through too. No amount of polish can hide what’s happening underneath when you’re not actually taking care of yourself. Jessie Spressart gets this. As founder and managing director of Optia Consulting, she helps law firms build cultures where people can do excellent work and be well at the same time. Her core bel...
As the year winds down, most of us focus on thanking the people around us—mentors, colleagues, friends, and communities. What often gets left out is acknowledging ourselves. And when it comes to personal branding, that omission matters. In this episode of Branding Room Only, I break down why recognizing your own growth, resilience, and impact is one of the most strategic things you can do for your brand. I share the milestones and challenges that defined my year, the quieter wins that never m...
Trust is the backbone of every personal brand, whether you name it or not. It shows up in how you communicate, how consistently you follow through, how you handle hybrid work, and how you show sensitivity—or don’t—when people need it most. In a workplace culture filled with mixed signals, missed expectations, and performative “niceness,” trust has become the true measure of credibility. It determines whether people feel grounded with you or guarded around you, whether they choose to follow yo...
Bar associations and professional organizations aren’t just networking groups or résumé boosters. Leadership in these spaces is a strategic brand decision. These roles have shaped my visibility, credibility, and relationships in the legal profession, and so many of my opportunities came directly from these spaces. In this episode of Branding Room Only, I’m taking you behind the scenes of my civic journey—from volunteer to officer, from member to president—and showing how these roles became th...
Brian Ellis learned what leadership looks like long before he had a title. His father modeled it first, and it shaped how he moved through every room. As the former Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Danaher Corporation, he built his career on integrity, accountability, and a deep sense of responsibility to those coming behind him. Power, to Brian, is something you use to make space and create access. In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula and Brian break down inclusive leader...
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