Here's an audio clip of the sound quality direct from my Fender Acoustic Junior amp into my iPhone Voice Memo app. No tweaking of the sound other than how my amp was dialed in.

Ideally, we all have mentors and colleagues we can connect with to learn from, swap stories with, and share information to improve in our roles as customer marketers and advocacy practitioners.

In addition, in between IRL connections, or in lieu of having many of them, industry books and audio books are a useful source of information and inspiration.

While our kids are all getting back to school now, it reminds me that it's time for me to also get "back to school" to expand my knowledge.

I like to read, but also have come to enjoy audio books to be hands free and able to absorb knowledge while doing other things like cleaning the house or working out.

It's no longer a "I'll do it when I get to it" kind of thing to constantly being networking, building relationships and mentorships with others as you build your personal brand and strive to excel at your craft. The world moves quickly these days and we have to make our own luck by being prepared to recognize opportunities when they arise. Staying informed and sharp is a way to do that. Though, I do realize you have to do this in a way that feels somewhat comfortable to you (not too comfortable, slight discomfort is where growth lives 🙂).

The following are some thoughts to help you stay on top of your personal brand, networking and continuous personal and professional development:

1. Understand what you personally value. What are your non-negotiables? Operate from this North star. Even if you don't know exactly what you want in your next phase of life or career, that North star will provide a basic direction.
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2. Be a humble lifelong learner. Stay curious. No one is ever truly an expert, there is always something to learn or some way to improve. However, be confident that you can find answers to be of value. Imposter syndrome is real, but know that everyone else has to also deal with that.
   
   
3. Get social online and off. Learn about the people around you at school, work, in your local community, via social networks. Start to make connections and ask for intro meetings to simply get to know one another. Then continue to stay in touch and always try to be of service before asking for help. This is how you build a network that will help you when you need it.
   
   
4. Be true to yourself. This goes back to number 1, but it's worth stating in another way. Know yourself. Build a solid, ongoing, positive relationship with YOU, and be honest about it. If you lie to yourself, the rest of the world is going to seem like a lie to you. The metaphorical point is, put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.

If you're in the customer advocacy, customer marketing, customer success, customer experience space, check out some of these titles for your professional development: https://amzn.to/3zcFV4j (affiliate)

Build trust with your customers over time via a community mechanism to grow an ever-widening moat of protection around your organization.

Read the following Forbes article to understand what I mean.

In part, this idea has been what every customer advocacy program I’ve been involved with has created as a byproduct of cultivating great customer advocates.

However, we often talk about customer advocacy as an effort that further’s the organization’s offensive strategy [voice-of-the-customer (VoC) sentiment helping attract and close new business, aid product improvement feedback loops, GTM messaging, and peer-to-peer insights that aid adoption] vs. a defensive one (VoC sentiment defending competitive nay sayers, or in crisis communications situations).

The article doesn’t explicitly come out and say that what it’s talking about is an organization’s community being a customer advocacy cultivation system, but that’s what it eludes to — and those approaching community well — are achieving that.