So Jackie, welcome to the Get Hired Up podcast.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Hi, Maureen. Thanks for having me. It's such a pleasure to be here.

Maureen Farmer

It's my pleasure. And it's been a little while we met each other in Philadelphia a little over a year ago.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yes, time flies!

Maureen Farmer

Too fast! And I'm excited to have you on the show today, because I have a huge respect for what you do. And I know that a lot of people listening here will be really interested to learn what it is you do. So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

I am a New Yorker. And I work with clients in the technology field to help them identify their unique value and leverage it throughout their career. So I always want to work with them and let them know that it's not about your job title. It's about who you are your core, and your unique attributes so that you can leverage that throughout your career. So having a technology backgrounds coming from, I was a product marketing, and branding person, I now work with people and their brands. So I primarily work with clients from the tech space, because that's where I'm from. That's what I know best. And I do work with men and women, and primarily on the earlier side. So young professionals, early careerists, and my goal really is to help them manage or mitigate their career missteps, right. So if I can get them at a younger point in their career, then we can identify those things that they potentially might need to work on, to get them to that next level. So it's really to help them mitigate those career missteps.

Maureen Farmer

So Jackie, can you give us a sense of what some of those missteps might be?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

So my client base, they tend to not understand how to navigate the corporate world, I help them to identify those areas, or individuals in the organization that can be potentially a mentor to them to help them learn a little quicker. And also, we develop communication strategies on how to really position yourself for that next level.

Maureen Farmer

Oh, I love that.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yeah, we do a lot of work on the communication piece, because it's ranked as one of the number one skills employers look for, not only to hire, but to also advance that person. So communication skills, to me, are a number one skill, and I work with my clients primarily on building out that communication strategy.

Maureen Farmer

And what does that look like? What are the components of the communication strategy? If you're able to tell me.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Sure, it's everything from how they communicate in the office, right? So communication skills, you've got 7% is the spoken word. And then you have about 39%, which is your tone, your speed of voice, and then 58-59% are those nonverbals. So, hand gestures, you know, how how you maintain your posture, things of that nature, facial expressions. So it doesn't entail just crafting a communication strategy, like a piece of paper. It's about all of that, and how you present yourself visually, it's also wardrobe. And so we go into every aspect of the verbal and nonverbal cues, and how they can leverage that for future career success.

Maureen Farmer

I spoke to someone yesterday who is a young executive, she's very young. And her challenge is quite interesting. Because she is so young, she feels as though the more senior level executives and decision makers don't take her seriously. And that comes down, you know, right down to salary negotiations and in such things, and her superpower is the ability just to get things done. And I certainly shouldn't say just but her her ability to get things done well. And so we had a brief conversation, I actually thought of you when we were having the conversation. And let's see if I'm on the right track here. So I suggested that she really understand her audience very well, and that she may want to tailor her communications depending on the generation that she's speaking with, and the particular group, not just the verbal communications, but also I suggested in terms of wardrobe, maybe dressing a little bit differently to help enhance her maturity and her perception, I guess the perception that she may be younger than she really is.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yeah. So you know, wardrobe is an incredible way to visually tell your brand story. So you have to understand what story do you want to tell. And if you want to tell a story of professionalism, and have that executive presence than your wardrobe needs to mirror that. And it's interesting because Maureen, I had a client a few years back, and they worked in the technology space, they came to New York, but they were originally from Seattle, in the Seattle tech space is a lot more casual New York is a little New York City is a little different. It's a little bit more cosmopolitan. And so was walking into an office in New York City in the tech space, your wardrobes a little bit more elevated than, say Seattle, in that in that area. And she felt that she was getting overlooked for promotions, or just not getting the visibility she thought she deserved. extremely intelligent, offered a lot of value in meetings and things of that nature. But when we went through her closet, and I helped her to understand what let's see what it looks like, it was not a wardrobe that reflected her brand and where she wanted to take it. So we did some tweaks, we had her dress a little bit more upscale, a little bit more modern. And she walked into the office that first week, and everyone commented on it, the executives, her manager. So your wardrobe tells a story. And you have to understand what that story is, what do you want it to say about you? So I think you're right on with your client.

Maureen Farmer

I had a young man in well, he was young man to me, is probably in his late 30s in in London, and he was in the financial services sector. And when I saw his photo, because we this was before we were doing the zoom, had seen his photo on LinkedIn, he's Asian, and he looks very, very young. You know, he looked very like he looked like he was in his early 20s. And he was managing a multi billion dollar portfolio, he was doing very, very well, but not getting the attention of the executive team. And when he got feedback from his direct manager, he said, The manager said you need to work on your executive presence, but didn't tell the client what he meant by that. executive presence is different, I think for everyone has their own idea or their own perception of what that is. I recommend it that again, he looked at his wardrobe, I actually recommended that he hire a stylist to help him with that endeavor. And the same with his hairstyle, very young looking hairstyle. So I really appreciate the visual story that you are educating us on here today. Because it's not just the branded story, you know, on a LinkedIn profile or in a CV, it's actually your wardrobe, your style, how you show up.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

I mean, if you think about brands, in general, corporate brands, they spend a lot of money to understand their target audience, right? They do that research. And they spend time and effort and budget to select a color palette that they feel reinforces that brand. And so when you look at your wardrobe, you're a brand, what do you want to say about yourself so good. It's everything about to your point, your hairstyle, do you want to project a more modern brand, or maybe your more traditional, and so your wardrobe has to represent that. And so in also executives, typically, you know, they serve as the face of the organization's representing their company's values, the culture and vision. So it's important that you understand what that vision is for that company and, and dress accordingly.

Maureen Farmer

Absolutely. I received some feedback three different times over the past six weeks, Jackie, and I'm very interested on your perspective. And just for the listener here, we have not pre recorded this and this is not, we didn't rehearse this. So this is just on the fly. And in the moment, but when you talk about branding and personal branding, my perspective on personal branding, is telling a story that's authentic to you and aligns with your values. It's about your story. It's about you personally. And I've had people suggest that personal branding is only packaging. It's not from their point of view was not a valuable investment.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

It's interesting to hear that...

Maureen Farmer

Three times actually three to times in the past, I was actually having this conversation with a client on Tuesday morning about this very topic. And the person that I spoke with was a gentleman in Australia who worked in the legal world. And he was retired. And he took great exception to the personal branding, what I do is part of my programming is I interview the centers of influence for my clients to get their perspective on my client's brand. And I had a very surprising conversation with this gentleman, because he felt that it was a contrived process. And this, this person actually came from a very highly highly regulated environment where branding is not as as as much of an asset as it would be otherwise, I think there always is a place for personal branding, we always want to be able to differentiate, regardless of where we are. But I think in his particular world, he was not familiar with personal branding, he and two others provided the very similar feedback. And you know, the way I look at it is that if we can't be authentic to who we are, there is no brand.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Correct. I agree. 100%. It's hard to hear that. But I think there's a lot of misconceptions about personal branding, I think it has become incredibly popular. And I think it's become popular because people don't understand the value it truly brings to an individual. And so I look at branding, as a process to go through. So there, I've seen many workshops and webinars on find out what your brand is, in these two easy steps, it'll take you two hours, and you'll find out what your brand is. And that is not the case. There's a lot of introspection that goes into personal branding, because you want to identify what your values are, how can you align your values with your career, your profession, once you have a clear understanding of all that, it helps to make decisions about your career much easier, because you're aligning your values, your operating principles with an organization.

Maureen Farmer

Look, this is transformational for me, because this is how I communicate personal branding and the value of personal branding to my clients and people in my world. And being able to identify an organization, a company or a client, if you have a business that aligns with your values is going to do what for you, it's going to save you time, it's going to bring joy to your life, if you can work with an organization that aligns with your your core values. That's personal branding. I mean, there's there's many facets of it. But at the core, you know, we just had a conversation a few minutes ago, during the the pre call about, you know, high school students, university students who choose careers based on family input, or based on you know, what's popular today? What if we could give our students and our young professionals a tool that could help them identify the right path to move forward?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yes, and that is personal branding. That is personal branding. But you know, it's interesting, worrying, you just brought me back to a year ago when I did a workshop for some tech entrepreneurs, and they were from all over the world. And at the end of this workshop, which was about four and a half hours, five hours, a number of the attendees said to me when I asked them, Okay, what are some key takeaways from from today for you? And a number of them said, I looked at personal branding, something that seems superficial to me, right. And what you've presented here is the complete opposite. And I also had this one attendee, she sort of cried at the end, because she, we were going around asking about, we were doing your purpose statement, and she was struggling with it. And so I didn't want to have her be that vulnerable in front of an entire group. So we sort of moved on. After the workshop. I connected with the two women that hired me, and I, you know, ask them for their feedback. And I said, How is that one woman doing? And I felt terrible that she was brought to tears and they said, You'd understand it was a breakthrough for her. She was from Russia and Never felt worthy to talk about her accomplishments. And I always tell my clients, it's not bragging if it's based on fashion.

Maureen Farmer

I say the same thing, exactly the same thing. It's not braggadocious, if it's factual. Is that cultural as well? Or...?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yeah, I think it was cultural for her particularly. But it was interesting, because majority of the individuals, or the attendees were from overseas, and they had this preconceived notion of personal branding. But I had them go through various exercises, to understand their purpose to understand their positioning, pitch, to understand their values, you know, their operating principles, they didn't realize so much of that went into building your personal brand. And I think, for them, it was such an eye opener. And they had a different view of personal branding. And they felt a lot more confident going into their business when they went back to their respective countries.

Maureen Farmer

So fascinating to me.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yeah, but you know, it kind of talks to this Australian client that didn't really see the value.

Maureen Farmer

Mhmm. I have to say that, you know, I've been doing this for 12 years, that particular exercise, we call it the network seven, and I interview seven people in my clients network, to get that perspective on them. And I would have to say that that particular call was the most challenging call I think I've ever had, because it was not what I was expecting. And the feedback was difficult to hear not about the client, the clients feedback was glowing, it was really the process, he felt that it was unnecessary to be doing this exercise. And I thought, Well, imagine when you can go to work each day, go to your business each day, and not having to adapt your behavior. Because you know, adapting your behavior to an extreme causes burnout. And we don't want to be adapting our behavior, we want to be able to show up as we are, and I see the personal branding process is uncovering that uncovering the authentic person.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yes, and I feel that you become more confident in your decisions moving forward, because you know, that it's aligned with your belief system and your values. And that's the important part that I think personal branding today and how it's defined. People miss,

Maureen Farmer

Right! 'Oh, that's all PR, that's PR, that's advertising.' And maybe the name is just unfortunate, I don't know. But if we could, you know, if we could help others understand that when you can do work, life work that aligns with your values, everyone wins, in my opinion,

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

100%. And I've been through the personal branding process. And it's a process that I use with my clients and this methodology. And I've been through it a few times, and I came from the tech space. And it wasn't until I went through the personally personal branding process, where I decided what I was doing no longer served me. And then I pivoted into building my own business, based on what I was able to learn during this process. And once I learned who I am at my core, and who I can serve best, then my decisions on who I aligned with, say, client wise or volunteer opportunity.

Maureen Farmer

It impacts your entire life doesn't it tracking impacts everything, it impacts everything you do every decision making every decision that you make. It is a tool, and I call it an optimization tool. Because you can write you can optimize your life and optimize your business by being clear about who whom you're meant to serve. And this is the work that we do as well, you and I do it very differently. But I think the outcome is very similar and that we are able to show up in a way that is authentic and serves in identifying and being able to discern who we are meant to serve whom we are meant to serve.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Correct. In for me, it just I gained such color, Career Clarity, and that's one of the things that I really stress with my clients going through this process, you gain Career Clarity. And I want to do that early on, which is why I work with young professionals so that they understand their path clearer, they can make decisions better, sooner.

Maureen Farmer

Oh, yes, I agree. So I hear a lot of, and I read a lot about soft skills and how they are, you know, so important for career trajectory, and so forth. And I agree with that. What I am uncomfortable with is the term soft skills, and it feels as though they are unimportant. And I work with a lot of technology leaders, primarily who are men, and you kind of work with mostly women. And some of the men, you know, indicate that, you know, what are some of the Quick Tips for, you know, interviewing at the executive level? Or what are the the tricks and in things, and I think there's no trick. There's no trick. It's called relationship building, not tricks, I hear it a lot. And then after we have the conversation, there's they say, oh, that's what it means, or that's what it's referring to. And it really, really surprises me. So on your side, and the work that you're doing, and even in your own experience in the technology world. When you hear soft skills, what comes to mind for you?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Soft skills to me are particularly in tech, right, I think, are the most important skills to have to identify and to have, and to showcase them, which is why communication skills are one of the things that I work on with my clients, and communication skills in the tech I came from the tech space. So these are really important, right? Because you have to be able to work with many different groups in a very fast paced settings. And so when I think of soft skills, it's really about having good communication skills. Also, self awareness, I think is one that people overlook all the time.

Maureen Farmer

It's one of the predictors for success is self awareness. And one of the things that I in terms of if you want to get really granular in terms of communication skills, is simply respond. So when there's a lack of response in a communication cycle, it destroys trust 100%. And I have a nephew, a wonderful, wonderful nephew, who's in the technology world. And he's a software programmer. And, you know, I am constantly after him for responding. And, you know, advising him respond promptly. Even if you don't have an answer to the query, respond, I've received your message, I'll get back to you as soon as possible. And I've been in industry, I was an industry for 25 plus years before I started this business 12 years ago, and it's the responsiveness if I could say nothing else, in terms of communication responsiveness would be one of the key communication skills. Would you agree?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Oh, my goodness, thankful you brought that up. Yes. I think the young professionals, because they grew up the keyboard, everything is short responses, if they even do respond to your point. And I talk to a lot of HR recruiters in the tech space. And it's one of the issues that they have with the candidates that they don't respond. Are you interested not interested? They don't. They don't. They're not proactive in their communications. And, you know, I just had a young client, he asked me to look at his resume as a favor. And it was separate. I don't usually work on resumes. And he asked me to look at it, it wasn't and I did. I looked at it in the evening, I made some very specific comments. And I didn't hear back from him for about a week to just say, you know, thank you. I got all of your comments. I really appreciate it. It wasn't until a week and a half later. If that was me, I would have responded saying oh my gosh, thank you so much. I appreciate this. I'm going to take a look at all of your comments. I tell all of my clients responsiveness is key because you gain more visibility to your audience.

Maureen Farmer

Right. Visibility, and you're building trust and rapport with that person.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yeah. 100%. So, I say even if you make a connection on LinkedIn, respond, immediately keep a dialogue with that contact, because you want to build your network. You want to build that rapport, keep the lines of communication open. And so I do think responsiveness is one key thing that is missing with some young professionals. And again, I think it's one of the reasons I spend a lot of time on communication, building communication strategies with my clients, because I feel that they need it. And they are used to these acronyms and you know, these very small text type communications that don't translate in a professional world.

Maureen Farmer

I agree. So Jackie, did you say that you had some type of tool or something we can share with the listeners?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yes, it is Yoodli.ai, it is a currently a free app that you can download. And it's a communication tool that provides its AI base, but it provides this platform where you can record yourself, and then that gives you feedback. And the feedback is based on the pace of your communication, the tone, and it rates you and it really helps to set you up for success when you do that interview.

Maureen Farmer

Interesting. We had someone on the podcast about a year and a half ago. She has a tool called mirro.ai and it is video and audio. So fascinating. Well, that's a great tool, I mean, any type of feedback that you can get relating to your communication skills, especially when so many job interviews, and board interviews and other types of interviews are going initially on video as well. And having a tool like that, to prepare for a video interview, my nephew, in fact, is in a job search right now. And he had to do a video a one way video response interview. So the questions were posed, and then he recorded himself with the answers.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yes. And it's interesting, because those types of interviews are becoming extremely popular, because it saves time for the organization. And so what they do is they have these very sophisticated AI tools that measure your tone of voice, the speed, are you smiling, you can always tell when someone's smiling or not smiling. Yes. And so it helps them to understand how well this person did on the interview, and helps to, you know, vet the candidates. So it's becoming a very popular way in which to interview candidates. This is such a great tool for you to practice for a candidate to practice on. Because we all know, the more you practice, the better you feel. And the more confident you become.

Maureen Farmer

And the better that delivery, correct. Yes. Well, that is excellent. We'll make sure that we have that link in the show notes for sure. So Jackie, what are their top one or two things would you recommend people to think about as they're developing their career and uncovering their brand, earlier on in their career? And even later on? Because those principles still apply.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

I think really being first and foremost is being honest with yourself, what is it that you see yourself doing for the next few years? I don't like to say five or six years, because things change so quickly, particularly for the younger, professional, but really understand what are your superpowers? What are your values? What are your operating principles? Where do you see yourself fitting in culturally in an organization, once you gain that clarity? Again, as we talked earlier, all of those decisions become easier and clearer. So I think making sure that you understand who you are at your core and understanding what those superpowers are. Because I think one of the challenges I know some of my clients have, they can't articulate what makes them unique. So in a very competitive job marketplace that we are in right now, you have to be able to articulate that very early on. Because if you're on a zoom interview, you have as we know that popular statistic about seven seconds to project a positive impression. So you have to be able to articulate what value you're going to bring to that organization. What's the value what value is different than 10 Other people interviewing for that position? So once you have an understanding of that, again, those decisions, the way you communicate all of that becomes easier.

Maureen Farmer

Absolutely. So, Jackie, this has been a fascinating conversation. And I've really enjoyed it.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Me too. And you know, before we end this, the other thing I think we should talk about just for two minutes, is making sure when you get on that interview, when you go on the interview, whether it's in person or on video, dress, the part I can't emphasize that anymore is really important to project a professional look when you're on that interview.

Maureen Farmer

Well, I'm glad you brought that up. I have had a number of conversations over the last probably four or five months, I think it's been since the pandemic has has, we're sort of you know, slowly moving away from a lot of zoom calls and, and more in person meetings and interviews. And I had a it was actually a technology No, no technology was actually a finance CFO candidate. And he asked me what he should wear to a zoom interview or pre interview for a CFO role. And, you know, I said, Look, this is not my area of expertise, but I would always dress the part regardless of whether it zoom or in person. And I also recommended that he may want to consult with a stylist. So is this something that you do? Or do people come to you for that type of advice?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yes. So for me, I used to teach a course at the Fashion Institute of Technology, all about image management. And so wardrobe was always a huge component of that. And so in my business as a personal brand, strategist, wardrobe is a way to tell your story visually. So I do that it's part of my process. Because it is incredibly important, particularly in today's age, where, you know, as you said earlier, the pandemic, we were moving into a very casual society prior to that, the pandemic kind of threw us into this, where what you will, you know, when you're on Zoom, we're moving away from that. But organizations now, because we're in this hybrid mode, some people are back full time in person. But a lot of companies are in this hybrid mode, when you show up virtually, the expectation is that you're representing the company during that time. And so they want you to reflect that, and you have to understand their dress code. And you have to make sure that you're aligned with that dress code. So I work a lot with clients on making sure they're presenting themselves in a professional way. But there's also a lot of confusion on what business casual means. There's this huge umbrella of what that means and how people interpret it. So part of personal branding is uncovering who you are at your core wardrobe as part of that. So once somebody understands who they are their core, then I work with them on how their wardrobe can reflect that. So that they feel confident, and they feel that they can show up as themselves.

Maureen Farmer

So the wardrobe is really an outcome of that. Correct? Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Sort of like the resume is the outcome of a process as well. It's first thing, right?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yeah, exactly. Because you want to feel confident. If I'm wearing an outfit on an interview that I'm not comfortable in. It will show!

Maureen Farmer

Oh, it will show on your face, it will show but it will show in your voice because you won't be confident you'll be uncomfortable. And second guessing yourself and no one wants to feel that way.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Exactly, exactly. And wardrobe is a way in which people form impressions of us, right? They make assumptions based on what how we present ourselves with our wardrobe. So you want to make sure that you're presenting who you are.

Maureen Farmer

Being congruent with your brilliance as I say!

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Oh, I love that! 

Maureen Farmer

Jackie, how can people get in touch with you?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

You can head over to my website, which is JMPbranding.com. And all of my information is there.

Maureen Farmer

That's wonderful. And I have a couple of questions before I let you go. I always have lots of questions. But these are the two I like to ask and in the podcast. What has surprised you most in your career so far?

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

The path that I ended up taking! Originally I thought I was going to be a school teacher. And although I think there's part of what I'm doing is probably that Sure. Yeah. But I think going through the process, the personal branding process, took me into this beautiful direction that I'm in right now that I love. 

Maureen Farmer

It's such a unique skill. It's a guiding, you're a guide!

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Yeah. And it just fits into everything that I love. Like I love interior design. I have this little talent where I've done many renovations of my home. And I've, you know, people have asked me, oh, who did you hire? And it's all about the creativity. And I feel personal branding just is that huge umbrella and all of these skills that I have underneath it just fit really well into it. And I wouldn't, I don't know that I would have tapped into it if I didn't go through the process.

Maureen Farmer

Wonderful. The next question I have is, what is your favorite restaurant, and it can be anywhere, it doesn't have to be in your hometown. So Maddie who's the Podcast Producer and me, Maureen farmer, we put together an annual restaurant list and we share it during the holidays. And we'd love to get your top one or two restaurants that you like to frequent so we can include it on the list.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

So I'm going to give you two in New York City. I always get asked about my favorite restaurants in New York City. The first one is called the Mermaid Inn who and they have the best fish tacos, who and it's just a really good vibe. It's reasonably priced. And it's just a fun atmosphere.

The second it tricky. The food is not fabulous. But the ambiance is really beautiful. And it's just a staple in New York City: Tavern on the Green.

Maureen Farmer

Oh I have been there!

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

It just sits in Central Park and it's just a beautiful atmosphere. So I just love it. My first one is Mermaid Inn and the second would be (for ambiance) Tavern on the Green.

Maureen Farmer

Well, that's great to know. It'll make sure we'll make sure it gets on the list. Jackie, thank you so much for joining us for the Get Hired Up podcast.

Jacqueline Connolly-Peros

Thank you, Maureen for having me. It was a pleasure and a lot of fun!