Personal Branding Portrait Series || Finding your calling in 2020 with Günel

Social Media connects – Günel and I live more than 3000km away, still in the same country, and the internet brought us together. She reached out to me after listening to the podcast “The New to Canada Podcast” where I talked about my story and personal branding. We immediately connected over our connection to Switzerland (learn more in the interview) and our passion for personal development. Today, Günel shares her personal story with us – how her dream of becoming a classical music pianist disciplined her, how she found her passion in the tourism industry, and how 2020 gave her some peace and quiet after figuring out what she would like to do next.

Tell us first a bit about yourself – what’s your professional background? And most importantly, what do you do now? I’m super excited to be here, thanks a lot for including me in this series. Throughout my life, I lived and traveled a lot finding my home in Switzerland, Germany, and finally moving to Canada. My professional background is so diverse, that I don’t even know where to start. I will try to keep it short, I promise. When I was a kid, I went to music school and in my teenage years I decided, that I am going to be a pianist. And to be honest, for the long time that was my dream, I played in youth orchestra as a pianist and soloist, I would have concerts in Europe (my first time I fell in love with Berlin was during the concert tour), and decided to pursue a career of classical music pianist by applying to the music academy in Salzburg. I failed the exam, I went back, and I started thinking about what else I can try and do. I was always interested in Marketing and Event organization but never thought of trying myself in that discipline. So this was an amazing opportunity to study something different. So instead of going too narrow, I went a bit broad and applied to the master’s program at Universita della Svizzera italiana in Switzerland to the “International Tourism” program. And that’s where my professional life/career began officially. I am passionate about tourism, it is so much more than what people think it is, and I love uncovering the unexplored part of it. Right now, tourism is hit hard because of Covid, and I had to change (again) the course of my actions and career. I’m on my journey to pursue a career of a strategist and looking forward to opportunities ahead.

So, 2020 was a year of professional development for you. Could you share a bit more about that? Where did this decision come from? Yes, sure! I think my search for a deep meaning in my life, in general, reflected what I was looking for in my career. For a long time I was mostly working in digital marketing, specifically in social media, and last year while scheduling one of the posts for the company, I started asking questions “why are we posting this content?”, “why we are doing what we are doing?”, and started exploring how it looks like when we dig deeper and find those answers. After quite a research, I figured there is actually a career for it called “strategist“. So I started researching, even more, asking “what does that mean to me?”, “how it fits with what I know, and want to do in my life?”. And for the first time, it clicked! For the first time, I felt at peace and calm about “what I am going to do next in my career”. So I started looking for courses or something that will help me understand the strategy better and found Miami Ad School’s “strategy and planning” Bootcamp. And here I am, diving into the ad world, figuring out where I can be next. Side note: when I was a kid, I LOVED LOVED LOVED watching ads! Especially, back where I am from, we had local ads for venues (usually they were wedding venues), and I would watch each of them, analyzing their offers (all of them were the same), and thinking to myself, “why they can’t be different?”, “why would someone choose this venue over that?”, and I would have so much fun in my head (advantages of being introvert).

“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.” Paulo Coelho

While going through this process, you started working on your portfolio. Do you have some recommendations on setting up your own portfolio? How did you go about it? Before getting into portfolio, try to write down things about yourself, what you are good at, what are your interests, and how those skills/interests can be transferred to show your uniqueness. Often times we see portfolios full of brand names on it, and that’s great, but if you don’t have a lot of experience with brands, especially when you are early in your career, I think you have to show your personality, and how you are eager to make things happen. Once you have raw material for “about you” section more or less ready, try to find how you can make a story out of it. How you can tell your personal story in a way that it will tie everything together (it is hard). After that you add the projects you worked on, and that’s pretty much it. Now, remember that it is never going to be perfect, it is your work in progress, you will always find something to change, to add, delete, and that’s ok, and normal. Just start with something, the rest you will figure out along the way. You already touched the topic of personal branding a bit. How did you develop your personal brand and how do you work on it? What is your focus? I think it is related to how you want to show up in life in general. For me specifically, it is finding yourself, your voice, who you truly are. Throughout my life, I had to do a lot of self-exploration, and understand what is truly mine and what is not. All those experiences, all those even small things make you who you are, and that’s ultimately your branding. Try to dig deep and understand how your experiences changed you, and made you who you are. I can give you an example, and maybe it would be easier to understand too. I used to think that being a classical music pianist helped me to be creative, and I learned to play the instrument. But during my self-exploration, I figured that music disciplined me (I had to practice 5-6 hours a day), it helped me read the room and understand people with non-verbal clues (I was on stages all the time, and during the concerts I had to understand my orchestra colleagues + the conductor without a single word), learning to read musical pieces helped me to find alternative ways of thinking and solving the problem (I had to figure out which finger to use for specific note etc.), and it also made me be very self-critical about my work (probably negative side of it, but a bit of it is actually helpful). So all these aspects we still, as human beings, need in business world or in any other industry. So, when I talk about myself, I bring those points, and since it is more practical, people grasp it better. What are some professional goals for 2021? My main professional goal for this year is to get a strategy role in an ad agency. I would love to get involved in meaningful work, and learn from the best in the industry.

Some final recommendations:

1. Favourite books: I think my all time fav is “Lust for life” by Irving Stone. And if I can pick another one, it is: “Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking” by Susan Cain.

2. Favourite podcast: Mark Pollard “Sweathead”, a strategy podcast

3. Favourite Instagram account: Yours for sure! and I love Nedra Glover Tawwab (@nedratawwab). Nedra’s content is gold! I have more, but will stop here 🙂

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Thank you Günel so much for sharing so many personal thoughts with me and our readers. I think that many people can relate to your story and the developments you went through. I wish you all the best for 2021, dare to dream and chase those opportunities!

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For my new Personal Branding Portraits Series, I’m talking to female entrepreneurs and business owners about their journey, their goals and challenges, and how they built their personal brand.

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