My learnings from this year’s Personal Branding Weekend
By: Marija Stanic
Tags: Branding, Personal Growth, Events, Personal Branding, Personal Development

Daniel Bruzual from Eficode, Elisabet Vasiliki Miheludaki from Amplaffy, Aimal (the photographer) and Sharbel Dahlan from Holvi

The event was held on the 11th and 12th of August in the new Holvi’s office in Hämeentie. Even though people from Holvi were apologetic about work in progress with the new office space, old looking building (from year 1928) and incredible interior made a positive atmosphere. This altogether inspired people to talk and share about their experiences which made the event quite successful.

There were people from different backgrounds: software developers, software engineers, business consultants, life coaches, startup founders and many others. In just within two days we heard from this diverse group of people and their experiences and knowledge in their field of expertise. They were sharing advice and suggestions on many topics including how to define your skills, how to find people with similar skills, how to find people that are in need for the skills you have, and how you can sell yourself to them.

Workshops and much more

Our hosts were two great guys from Holvi and Eficode, Sharbel Dahlan and Daniel Bruzual, that were keeping the flow of the event cheerful and fun.

On the first day we learned how to go from dreamer to a doer. We heard about five elements of wellbeing CV and how failure and success wellbeing CV could help us reflect on the next steps to take. There was an interesting workshop with the title “What do I want?”. We got some information about startups in Finland and what skills they are looking for. There were sessions about how to polish your Github/Linkedin profiles and how to make a successful video profile.

The second day started with an amazing session and workshop where we had a chance to learn more about mock interviews, Porter’s Five Forces Framework, SPIN and did some really good exercises that would help us get prepared for a job interview. After lunch, we had a workshop that was teaching us how to get ready for networking. There was also a coaching session on how to deal with rejection and keep motivated. Day ended with a few more presentations and networking.

My takeaways from the event

In the first session held by Jukka Niittymaa, one of the first steps in going from a dreamer to a doer, was “Find your why”. For some people this comes quite easy, for me — not so much. Jukka suggested a book from Simon Sinek “Start with why”. I listened to his TED Talk: Start with why — how great leaders inspire action; and decided to read the book. Another thing was Jukka’s advice — dive in and start doing it NOW. So I started. I am writing a blog about this event. I have kept a blog before but for some reason I haven’t published most of it. So here I am.

I liked the idea behind five elements of wellbeing CV from the co-founder of Creativity Squads, Vesa-Matti. The short exercise we did was made for people to share their successes and failures with others, which really helped me reflect on my thoughts and moments from my history, ending with making a promise to myself, a goal, that should be achieved this week.

Joppe Quaedvileg held two workshops during this two-day event. They included exercises in order to find out what people really want for themselves and how does defining your skills help you with networking. I liked the sharing part in the first workshop and a question that was asked: “are my opinions that I have really mine or I adopted them from someone?”. It was an interesting subject to think about. In the second workshop the exercise of defining my skills was quite helpful for me. We have done this by dividing them in three categories and from there we analysed them a bit closer, for example, we thought about which of the skills we like, etc.

During the event days I also attended workshops held by Maria Fodor. She gave us suggestions on improving our LinkedIn profiles and told us how it will help branding our names. I liked her enthusiastic approach to life and recommendations on how to deal with rejection and emotions that we have. Also, the questions we should ask ourselves in the morning, in the evening before bed and when we want to find a solution to some of our problems were nice to think about. As for “how to create success in life”, I thought it was important for me. What I have learned from it was how to know what I want and why do I want it, and to be aware of what am I getting from my actions.

From a session and a workshop with Tomasz Mucha, I learned how to really put some effort and work into research before approaching a company. The exercises we did with Porter’s Five Forces Framework and SPIN were eye openers for me. I will definitely work on those in order to learn how to use them more efficiently.

I went to this event as a part of Catalyst Program within The Schortcut. The main reason to attend was to get some inspiration and that I did. Along with the inspiration also came an insight and realisation of how many things I didn’t know and how much homework I should do. I have learned that I am not doing enough to brand myself and I could do better, starting NOW.

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