I.AM A Brand by Aftiam Ramli

[Music] for being here my name is afam and you guys signed up or are here to be a part of I am a brand and the reason I named it that is because my name is aft I am and you'll see a theme of I am throughout the entire um presentation and so you know there'll be time for questions but if something just really stands out to you I'm all about a little bit of crowd work so let's get started so today's agenda we're going to go through a little bit of who I am why I'm talking to you guys about branding I'll also discuss Discovery so when we go through this it's going to be kind of

like a sales process so we'll do a quick question how many people have taken sales training okay so for those who haven't we'll spend some time there that's where we spend majority of our time in sales and really what I want you guys to walk away with is how do I sell myself so doing the discovery and then how do you present that is that like what you want to put out what people are perceiving so in person and online since we work in such a virtual world and then we'll do quick summary make sure everybody has all their questions answered and so let's get going oop wrong way so my name is afan like I mentioned I am

a child of immigrants my parents moved over here from Libya and so just going through that transition of two different cultures love to share that because I had to Define who I am as a Libyan American and I have always lived in Georgia but I moved to Tampa a couple years ago and when I came down here it's really tough to break into the tech scene when you're not a tech e so when I found the Tampa Bay devs and we love love Vincent he took me in with open arms it was amazing situation where I was like I don't feel like an outsider so I love this group love this community felt the same way when I came to bsides

I was like wow these people are fantastic I think I'll stay and the reason why I want to Cha or be able to chat about this in a sales Tech um type of yeah um technique is that I have been awarded several um 100% up of above your quotas and things of that nature been really successful to the point where they sent me overseas to train people so that's me with my London German and Amsterdam counterparts doing sales development training and we used to make a hundred dials a day so when you're on the phone with people constantly prospecting trying to get something from them you learn a little bit of how to present yourself in five seconds because

people will hang up on you they will say something to you and that feedback is important and how to take that and grow and be better and make yourself the person that you see yourself to be so using those I am statements and so why is personal branding important first and foremost it's because when you build your personal identity you can get your foot in the door majority of the jobs that I've had I've been referred into by a friend somebody that I did group projects with in my school and then it's from there ref curls so getting your foot in the door increased visibility so when people start to see you online see you see you

in these uh events in person they're like who is this person we know who what they're about what they're trying to do I've always found the more I talk about what I'm trying to do the more I find people who can help me so when you're talking hey I'm trying to get into cyber security I'm trying to go into a different role finding people to connect you with those resources is perfect and you can do that both on online and in person so we'll discuss that further and then building your network so when you've been in the industry forever perhaps you've met a bunch of people but when you're first starting out and we'll do a little question for

everybody who's in their zero so if you haven't gotten a job in cyber security to two years raise your hand okay two to five years okay 5 to 10 anybody 15 plus all right so hopefully we'll be able to go through for if you guys want to come sit there are plenty of chairs yep don't be shy it'll be much more fun um so hopefully everybody will be able to take away something that they can go learn about themselves and hopefully help your career we're going to keep it real focused on Career professional life so first thing I like to do is put you in the center what who are you when you start using oh

no when you start using I am statements I am a cyber security professional I am G to fix this problem let's see interesting oh I think it just

restarted Perfect Look at that maybe think so Cable's pretty secure okay perfect so as I mentioned we'll spend a lot of time in Discovery using those statements I am a cyber security analyst I am a scuba diver I am a sales professional I am successful sales professional so then you can start to understand okay if I am a cyber security analyst I'm looking for cyber security in those positions and you can find yourself with other people or I see myself as a Chief security officer you can start talking to people about that how do I get to that role What's the progress because you're not going from you know zero to 100 so walking through

that and having people help you along the way so oh man it really doesn't like me today it's gr okay um so taking all of that knowledge about who you are and then what you find acceptable in culture I personally prefer a hybrid type position I've worked both where I've worked in person and I've worked fully remote love a good hybrid I'm fully remote right now but I get to go out and see my clients so it fits me and then once you figure that out and you start applying for those jobs you start asking those questions throughout interviews to figure it out and we'll talk a little bit about how adding context is super important to

that because you don't want to come into a job interview and be like hey I got to go scuba diving like three times a year so what's my time off schedule it's just like H how about asking them in a different way like hey you know are you guys a team that likes to travel uh what does that look like for you know taking time off what's the process is it easy is it not let them share with you and figuring that out and then and that's kind of where you'll be able to pit yourself so okay well that's really great that you guys have that culture I enjoy traveling because we love to bring

in a little bit of Personality into a job interview or even um networking with folks a lot of people are like how do I even meet people what do you do for work what are you excited to see at this conference asking those questions getting them to open up what do you guys like to do outside of work you can build up and get to know people and find people that have similar interests and then after youve pitch yourself the company makes the uh offer send you a contract you start negotiating reviewing the proposals and then you land the job whether that's a promotion getting your first job transitioning into something else and oop wrong way all the along the

way people are going to give you feedback hey we love to have you but you're asking for too much money okay maybe you're in a market or you just went to a company that doesn't have that money to give we don't all have Porsche budgets sometimes we got to buy the Kia it's fine you know it gets you from point A to point B but taking that adjusting where you're searching how you're searching and how you network with people so let's dive in further when it comes to Discovery I'm all about intention that's why I keep using those I am statements I am going to speak at bides today I'm going to meet a lot of

really wonderful people I'm GNA have a good time I'll be tired by this but trying to figure out okay I'm in cyber security where do I want to be in when you meet these folks they're going to be either looking for one of two companies they're going to be sellers of technology so think about Splunk Orca things that actually produce technology that people consume that's that second part so do you want to be a consumer of Technology because you can do jobs in both and the first one you might have a job like Consulting sales engineer the second you're going to be a security analyst things of that nature not to say the first don't have those but you're

going to be considered a part of their sales team and when we talk about inperson branding it's a very different side over there with versus perhaps if you're just an in-house team that works in a sock never sees the light of day doesn't talk to anybody so um and then when we also like think about what do we want to be known for I love to ask people feedback from like oh what did they say about me what did they think about that interview um even people who are close friends what do you think about how I was presenting myself at that networking event how did I do and letting them give you feedback it sucks to receive negative feedback

but I would take all of it all of the good and the bad so we'll talk more about that and then let's see you don't have to experience everything firsthand so when I think about insourcing Outsourcing if you see somebody doing something really cool and you love to be a part of that maybe that's something you add to it see somebody else fall or go through a job position that you don't think you you would like maybe that's not the position you go for so insourcing and Outsourcing those experiences to see because sometimes I'll tell people about my scuba diving adventures and they're like oh my God that is so scary I couldn't imagine being that deep underwater in a big

ocean and then other people are like wow that's cool tell me more so figure out what that is for you in jobs even experiences travel-wise great way to find out what people are doing and then something that I like to think about is I got this advice one time from my mom's friend she said you and my daughter work very hard in school and very hard to get your jobs but this was relation to dating she goes but I don't see you put that same type of level of effort to understanding what you wanted a partner so we'll just remove that and say what do you want in yourself write it out what does good look like what kind of

Life do you want to live maybe you don't have to create a vision board but that was pretty popular since we're doing nostalgia we'll go back to the vision boards and how do we get there take out a magazine put it out there see what you want to do it's crazy what like you know putting out what you can get put back in and how people will help you to get there so write it out treat it like a complex math problem there is this philosophy called iy guy by the Japanese where you go through this discovery of how you can have purpose in the world I'm not here to talk talk about religion I'm not here

to talk about anything like that this is just for you know more of the vocation side piece of it so what jobs have you done in the past what have you liked about them what have you not who do you aspire to be like and how can you get there and so yeah we want to figure out what we can bait for it's the only reason we take jobs and to help people out and then figuring out what you're good at what do people constantly compliment you about you know hey you're really great at fine finding these hidden bugs super keep that let me see what else I'm good at and just asking people hey what do you think I'm I'm

good at it's a weird question to ask but when you have people mentors uh leaders your managers it's a little bit easier because they have to tell you but um finding that asking your friends where do you think I struggle or could be better at and understanding that way and then you know bringing all of that in together to understanding who you are what you can provide to this universe and then you figure out your job and your brand and how you can then present yourself if don't understand it you won't be able to sell it the wrong way I'll keep doing that so let's talk about in-person branding when you meet somebody you get

four out of the five senses you're going to see them you're going to smell them you're going to hear them and um yeah four out of the five no anyways we'll keep it going um so make sure that when people see you it's how you want to be presented how do you look are your clothes um a representation of where you're trying to be I think it's super important to go and try things on I have a couple of outfits that I know for interviews and for sales position where I'm just comfortable I never wear anything new to an interview because you don't know how you're going to sweat in it you don't know how you're going to um

feel in it sitting so moving doing things of that nature and then when you also um want to sound confident I always say put your chest out you know put your head on straight and when you look good you feel good we used to do this thing in business school where it's dressed for Success so on test days you would dress up and get extra credit but then when you get to your senior year A lot of people are just like I just feel like dressing up I look good I do well so doing that and then most people are not good at something the first time they do it just plain and simple so if it's your first

time giving this speech or introducing yourself to somebody or telling a story there's so many variabilities so practicing it practice with your friends practice with your co-workers anytime I had a big important meeting I would grab somebody like this is importance of finding some work friends somebody a manager hey can I just go through this meeting is very important to me I want to make sure I do well can you listen to me and give me feedback being receptive to that feedback again even if it's negative okay I didn't like that I didn't think I did that but if that's how they're perceiving it somebody else might feel the same way so I practice out my stories I've told that story

about my friend's mom a million times as to you know how to focus and try to think of yourself as a complex math problem writing it out putting that vision board figuring out where you want to go and then after you've practiced your stories and what you want to share because professionally sharing versus personal sharing I like to have a very good line and what stories I share with people what I do um so you know some people share more than others that's for you to figure out what your comfort level is but after you've practiced it and gone and told people you go to these networking events and you start meeting folks like I know who I can talk to

about traveling who I can talk to about concerts who would be good about restaurants and just having these different people and then they're like oh I think you told me that you wanted to do this type of job so and so is just telling me about one connected boom so when it comes to those events I'm just bringing that energy if you're not in the mood to go people will know so just don't go like if you don't have to um but if you're going to go bring that energy bring that passion when you find out what you really love and hopefully you guys are getting this too about scuba diving I love it love to travel

you can talk to me about it I won't say no um and then one thing that's interesting we'll get to a little bit on the next slide is how to get um how to dress yourself properly and how to make sure that you look good so you feel good is that you can ask chat GPT it can upload a photo you can ask it hey I um have this color skin tone you have to pay for the extra one but there are other things I have this skin tone what colors look great with me I have this type of body shape what type of clothes should I wear and it will tell you I used to have to go to Macy's and ask the

lady do you think this looks good no do you think this looks good yes we should wear this we shouldn't wear that and I'll tell you one thing too is a lot of people won't tell you when something's bad like or if you're and this isn't meant to upset anybody nobody will tell you you're fat but when you've lost a lot of weight they will let you know they will let you know so it's the same way when you look good a lot of people will let you know when you look good and so here are the examples of different types of body shapes uh for both male female not it non-gender binary this is just a graph of what

everybody grabb their pictures what um you can ask chat GPT and even just the internet as to hey I have a triangle shape my husband has an inverted triangle shape what kind of clothes should we buy what shapes and then you can do research I'm all about about though going to the stores cuz I grew up when people went to the mall when we were in school and had fun and you know different fashion montages or the thing for us to do so you know if you can't do all of that or don't feel comfortable with it figure it out try it at home I'm all about just like you know sit in the clothes wear it for an afternoon do

something that makes you nervous if you're going to wear that to an interview so you know how you're sweating in it and then also you know lift your arms go down bend over you don't want to have a a plumber situation where people are like oh that shirt does not fit that person and so figuring out what shape trying different clothes on making sure you look good and present yourself the way that you want others to see you and oftentimes you know there are technical skill sets but people can be taught that if you don't have personality look where they want you to be in front of leadership they want you to be in front of the clients or they

want you to be in front of these other teams doing your administrative stuff sometimes you lose out to somebody who just put in 1% more effort that morning another great thing that chat ch2 can do can tell you what colors may look best on you these are just some examples I tried to get a good variety of folks and different skin tones do you wear darker clothes and then if you're not willing to do all of this when somebody tells you that color looks great on you that's my color perfect what colors can I wear that are similar to that or we can learn some color theory opposite end of the color spectrum that looks really

great so you can do it as technology savy as you may want to or just by Word of Mouth what people are saying because people will stop you to let you know that you look good and then please please please please do not forget the business and business casual the amount of times where I will go to an event where it is marked business casual and people it it's very professional to um you know to show up and looking great and they're wearing t-shirts or you know cargo pants or ripped jeans or something of that nature so I'm all on the fan of dressing up more than less but what I can say is basic Florida business casual we got

Chino shorts golf shorts Polo khakis Polo and if you're going to wear a t-shirt please make sure it's clean if it has been on the floor and you have cats I promise you I will be able to smell it I promise you I'll be able to smell it and other people will too so let's not have that be our brand I love my cat she does not go on my clothes um and then for women similar skirts pants polos button-ups um you know scoop necks things of that nature and I always say if you don't know just wear a solid color type of shirt if you want to wear a graphic shirt like you know here at

bsides we're wearing our graphic te's it's less casual but if you're going to go to something a business function your company is hosting plain T-shirt clean clean let's emphasize on that and if it needs to be Iron take that extra step I promise you people can tell so just making sure you look great and having some of those Staples I always say have either khakis black pants black shorts Navy pants navy shorts or skirts we'll just say SL short skirts and um let's see black Navy khaki and then some polos or some T-shirts button up something where you look professional and for the job that you want to you know I'll just say a lot of people get

that extra Edge just by looking the part you do want to be able to speak the technology but here we're talking about branding and how you look right in person and then shoes I think it really depends on where this event is taking place if it is a restaurant sneakers or clean something of that nature loafers are always good so if you're trying to impress people and you want to get to that level super heels and things of that nature as long as you're comfortable if you're not going to be able to walk it may be best that you'd wear something that you can walk in all right let's keep this train going so how

do you sound confident since the first thing is going to be is people are going to see you and then the second thing is they're going to hear you and this goes for virtually as well as in person the easiest way to break the ice is with a smile just smiling at folks having a good time when you're having a good time they'll have a good time and it just the energy flows and then even on a zoom or over the phone especially if you have to deliver some difficult news smile through it they may not be able to see you but if you're smiling it'll feel less intense like I'm not saying you're fired smiled but it's just

like hey we had this happen it was a you know ticket didn't get taken care of we missed a deadline you're still smiling but you're like we're going to get there and finding that solution and then when we think about fillers things like um like so H sometimes being able to just pause provides more power than it would be to fill that extra silence and when you pause a lot of times it invites somebody else to speak and if you're trying to get that person to be your referral be your friend instead of having to ask them they're just going to start to fill that silence maybe they've been waiting for you to pause you don't have to talk

through the whole thing and then um yeah I said it earlier shoulders out you'd be so surprised how much more oxygen you can can get to speak and sound confident when you do that people think about your posture it's like okay that person looks like they're meant to be here and they know what they're doing and then yeah practicing and then if you need additional tips I highly suggest and I'm not sponsored by anybody but um YouTube Charisma on demand also um how to make friend or Win Friends and Influence People great books to understand okay what is the psychology behind it how can I present myself make these friends and then online branding so

similar to what I mentioned about how you dress and what's appropriate for a work call you're just from the half up unless you do standing in your um Zoom meetings polos clean t-shirt I might not be able to smell your cat but if I can see the hair of your cat you know again just that one extra edge of being put together and one thing that I'll say is whenever I'm presenting I'm looking at the the camera rather than the zoom to see the people when other people are talking I do want to see the reactions but it makes you look like you're looking at them when you look directly into the camera versus off to the side

or if you're um you know looking at the people on the zoom call and then I highly suggest Googling yourself as one of my favorite things to go find information about people that I will be associating with my co-work workers if I can find a picture of you from 1998 or you know early 2000s gold but you guys should know what's out there about yourself I have a unique name so I have Google Alerts anytime my first name or my last name gets used and if they both get used together some people that may not be uh possible but you can try to bring it in and you know at least do a quick Google

search and then you can also look to see if you want to get any data removed because we have the right to delete and then when we think about online branding it's also what are we posting on LinkedIn Facebook Instagram who you also commenting on because if it's associated with your name or your profile and you are hazing somebody in a very negative way I can find it somebody else will be able to find it and again if they have a good team that goes and looks up their folks that they're hiring it could be between you and somebody who didn't do that so just be mindful of who that is who you're interacting with and how um

you can keep that etiquette while you're online we'll do a quick example on like how to create an email and then we'll also talk a little bit more about the um talked about Zoom um so let's keep it going so when I was developing this I have two mentors through the executive women's Forum they asked me I don't know really how to lead a meeting how to participate in a meeting or how to send an email so we're going to start with this email first always want to put a subject line what are you talking about quick sentence think if you were going to post it to Twitter boom that's what it would be greeting I know you want to

get to the point but people like a hello they like a little personal it makes you more likable what do you want from them why would they want to give you this information because you know they're busy just because it's your number one project does not mean it's their number one project and then always um put your contact information sometimes things are easier done over the phone let them call you so you can figure it out and then please don't reply all and all company emails unless that's your company culture but um and then make sure you're timing so Mondays are typically when support tickets are getting taken care of so maybe asking somebody for something

that's not high priority let them come back from the weekend and then your follow-ups again your number one priority may not be their number one priority follow up make sure you get what you need in a professional manner so when leading a meeting we don't want anybody being like falling asleep in here so I always do introductions little Icebreaker who am I who's in the room making sure that what we're going to talk about is important for everybody that's in that room so if this is just advice if that person doesn't need to be there they probably have better things to do so limiting the number amount of people will keep it interesting keep the conversation where

it needs to go and leaving time for questions so that they can add their input if you're asking for feedback let them give you feedback and then I always I start with the intention and then I wrap it up with the summary so people know and then when participating in a meeting please don't be that the people in the bottom left you know be engaged don't or limit your um multitasking so that you don't have to make that person be like okay do they really need to be in there I don't like that about that person this is my time I want you to be paying attention so you know when you do participate as well make sure it's on

topic there is nothing worse than having somebody derail just because you know we're talking about project a but all you can think about is Project B you're gonna have to hold you're going to have to wait do not derail just because it's your number one priority people don't like that people promote people that they like so you know focusing on what's the task at hand the intention the purpose of that meeting and then let's see your non-verbal cues are super important if you see somebody falling asleep if you see somebody who's not engaged and just eyes rolling into the back of their head they're so pissed about the subject they don't agree with it it's just like again it could be that

this is you know what's important to them and maybe your feedback has been tried before so finding a professional manner to deliver negative feedback something we'll go through in just a moment but yeah not interrupting allow your people to talk give them the space and the respect that you would want when you're doing your meeting so similar to Leading a meeting it's also participating and be positive you know just because you think that they're not doing well yeah it may not be your problem I hate to say it like that or it may become later your problem just find a way because you can deliver any message just figuring out the right way where it'll be taken and perceived

well so gratitude is the best attitude I appreciate all of you guys for being here you all got notes on your chairs that are thanking you for being here because it's amazing and impactful for me that you're here and then also when you're giving feedback being able to start on the positive helps brace the blow for when you want to talk about rooms of or places for improvement because hey I don't want to be like at a work meeting and have somebody tell me you did this bad you did this I was so terrible it was negative just like well dang I really suck at this and said hey you did this really well we could you

know focus a little bit more on not interrupting people during meetings or providing space for people to share what they need to and not cutting them off and I would love for you to continue providing feedback because your Val or your valued employee and what you have to say matters but if you could not do it when you interrupt people it's much better than saying stop interrupting people and then the power of a thank you note when you go to interviews I think it's so impactful to come prepared with a thank you note for your recruiter for the people you talk to if you can do do it I sometimes carry blank uh thank you

notes just in case somebody does something wonderful for me or a client anything like that thank you because you could be anywhere else there's so many other amazing talks going on right now but you're here so you know take that same thing with people in um like in meetings and I'll get to your question just one moment we're about there so I put some bonus tips so in sales we try to Target for Tuesdays and Thursdays because on Mondays you got I guess the tickets that came in from over the weekend want to be able to finish them out support if you don't have somebody that works over the weekend maybe you're tired maybe the big game happened and it

doesn't have to be just football it could be somebody's D and D game that happens on Sunday nights so Monday is just a little bit of a drag and then coming into Tuesday people have gotten whatever cleared out of their inbox a little bit more perceptive so even when you're applying for jobs it's the same type of way everybody kind of feels that Monday and then um pace yourself a lot of people want to be in these amazing girls like the chief security officer that's awesome or you think you want to be a director but if you're just starting off your career or maybe you have some more growing to do before you can do that allow for it give yourself

some Grace you may not be ready for that job as much as you think or that team may not be ready for you as well because they don't want to have to train everybody up so keep that in mind and then in these networking events you can meet so many folks who can provide referrals and connect you with other people you just have to tell people though what are you looking for what are you trying to do hey I'm trying to get the certification oh I actually know somebody who just took that you should connect with them and then they can also get you a referral and be that person too if you have a job share it so you

can bring in your friends it's so much easier working with friends and then you can apply through Linkedin you can apply through indeed but I will say is that just like there's fishing emails there are fish job posts my rule is if it's not on their website it might not be real it might it's a risk so going and getting it directly and then just you know you don't want to go on a job board and like spray and pray either like if you go to Raymond James they have a bunch of jobs posting on there and if you're going from tier one all the way to you know tier five or however ever far up they go they're just going to see

a bunch of resumes this person doesn't know what they're trying to do move on so find one job you can apply to maybe another one and I try to do a six- week period but you know it's different for everybody and with that we'll wrap it up so starting with the intention what are you trying to get out of today's conference is it to meet one more person that's a completely reasonable goal is it to meet somebody who has perhaps a job opening for you understand where maybe you want to go am I red teamer am I blue teamer am I sales am I consultant I don't know figuring that out and then you know figure out how to dress for

success it's whatever makes you feel comfortable keep the business and business casual look good feel good be good and then know what you're talking about so again through practicing you can sit in front of a mirror you can write it down say it to nobody I used to talk to my cat and tell her things I used to teach my mom about the cloud because I had no idea what I was doing and she didn't know it either so I was like if I can get you to understand it I can sell it and um yeah just stay consistent with meeting these people you can't go like one event and then a year later show up expect people to know who

you are and make those friends it's much easier when you have people who like the same things as you and are working with you to help you be better so I know you had a question so now is the best time [Music]

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