Dr. Whitney sits down with personal brand coach and work-life integration expert, Mallory Dittmer, to explain what a personal brand is and how you can use it to set your life on trajectory for YOUR best life as you define it. She's a personal brand coach and a work-life integration expert with her career spent in brand management, specifically in fashion and lifestyle branding.

Key takeaways:

Dr. Whitney: What is a personal brand?

Mallory: In the traditional sense, it’s about reputation management. Things like building your LinkedIn profile to make yourself look more attractive to employers and growing your following count. My background is in fashion and lifestyle branding and in those industries, when you have a strong foundation in your brand, every decision you make, every strategy you follow, everything that goes on your calendar, it all comes back to being “on brand.” It makes the decision making process so much easier because you just have to stay on course in order to grow.

When you’re applying that to a personal brand, you still start with who you are at that foundational level. The life you want to lead, the type of work and career you want. And then you take all of that mixed with personal and professional development and the bow that ties it all together is your personal brand. It’s how your personal life and your work life are intertwined.

Dr. Whitney: Your story sounds really similar to mine. You were this high powered corporate woman and then had kids and had to figure out how that works together. Tell us a little bit about your story of how this became a passion in your life.

Mallory: I was always career driven. I knew I was gonna break some ceilings and get that C-suite. I didn’t even know if I wanted to have kids because I was so focused on my career. But after I became an aunt, things changed for me. Once I had kids, my world was rocked because my entire identity up that point was completely career driven: it was my title. It was how fast I was being promoted. It was all wrapped up in my performance. And then all of a sudden I’m holding this baby and realized there was more to me and my values changed overnight. So I had to figure out how those two things worked together.

I actually tortured myself for a long time thinking that there was some miracle answer where I could find a way to be a CEO and also greet my kids as they came off the bus each day. And in most of corporate America, that’s a virtual impossibility. So after years of burnout and the emotional toll of having that friction and tension in my life, I ultimately decided to leave corporate America. And it was one of the biggest disappointments of my life that corporate America wasn’t ready for me. But I wasn’t ready to sacrifice what was most important to me in order to grow my career in that way.

Dr. Whitney: So you decided to make this change and make work-life integration your expertise and building personal brands. If someone wanted to do that for themselves, what are the steps you would take to begin creating and building a personal brand?

Mallory: Basically, it starts with a discovery session where we strip away all the conditioning and expectation and really look at who you are at the deepest level and what you really want, without limiting yourself by your current circumstances. We go really deep to see what it is that you want in your life, your relationships, your work, your goals. And from there we define your brand values, brand promise, and the standards that you will live your life. We also come up with brand guardrails to show what your brand is and what it is not, so everything is clearly defined. And then all the details and decisions you make every day can fall within this.

And then, from there, we create the brand strategy. How are you going to get to that ultimate dream for your work and personal life? We plan and strategize the steps that we need to take to get there, asking things like. “Who do you need to be to accomplish this?”

And then the last thing that we do is just all about accountability. Checking in to make sure that you’re doing your quarterly and monthly reviews and to make sure that you’re still aligned with the goals that you’ve created, because we are all ever evolving.

Dr. Whitney: It seems like this discovery phase would take a long time to work through all of the conditioning and expectations we’ve had hoisted upon us our entire lives. How long does that discovery phase usually last and what sorts of common themes or misconceptions do you see women working through?

Mallory: Well when you have the right person asking you the right questions, it won’t take the years that it did me. But it’s different for every person. Could be weeks or months. The most common theme is self-image. It pops up all the time. How we view ourselves, how we speak to ourselves. That conditioning of who we think we’re supposed to be versus loving ourselves for who we actually are–it’s absolutely critical to leading that life you’re made for.

Dr. Whitney: I would guess there’s a lot of shame and guilt around the expectations that we think we’re supposed to be and how we feel when we can’t live up to them. Is that accurate?

Mallory: Absolutely. Let’s look at the pandemic. Millions of women left the workforce because we are not set up to succeed in the workforce. There are systems that have been in place for years that work against us. So the work we do is to help place the blame where it belongs. And part of that is looking at the reality that we want and taking an honest look at what roadblocks do exist and are keeping us from getting there. And ultimately, we have to define for ourselves what “best” means for us given the circumstances around us. Same with “success” and “happiness.” We get to view those without anyone else's expectations around us.

Dr. Whitney: As I went on a similar journey in my career as a pediatrician, I had to realize that I was worthy to go on the journey in the first place! I would bet that women that work with you have to do that as well: find themselves worthy of the success that actually means something to them.

Mallory: Literally step one is all about self-worth and identity. My ultimate mission is to see more women, especially working moms, at the top of industry, at all levels of influence. But the trick is that we can’t just get them there the way things are. We have to get them there to a place where they feel whole, fulfilled, free, and that their values are being honored. Otherwise the work just loses so much impact.

Dr. Whitney: Do you feel like the women that go through your program come out feeling less busy? Like they have less to rush around and do?

Mallory: Absolutely. Because the need for busyness comes from a lack of purpose in the things we are doing. They can actually sleep well knowing that what they’re doing is valuable and that they are capable and worthy of doing it. And they’ve cleared out all the things that they’ve been unnecessarily doing.

Dr. Whitney: I have seen this in my own life. I’m the least busy I’ve ever been and that’s because I’ve really been able to listen to my body when things come up. I know that when my chest tightens, it’s probably something that doesn’t align with my goals or values. And that’s one of the most powerful tools we, as women, can give ourselves. Your body knows when there’s junk you’re doing that you don’t need to put on yourselves. 

Mallory: Yes! Listening to and trusting your instincts. They’re there to tell you what you need and what you don’t need. Honing that voice so we can really listen to it and trust it, that’s what sets us free.

Dr. Whitney: Lots of women listening, I’m sure, are thinking that working through their personal brand will bring them a lot of fulfillment and joy. How can they get in touch with you about your offerings?

Mallory: Mallorydittmer.com is where they can find me and I’m also on Instagram and LinkedIn and I have my podcast, The Work Life Leadership Podcast. Thanks so much for having me!

Hey mama!

We'd love to hear from you, Mama! Do you listen each week? Leave a review or share a screenshot of your favorite episode(s) on social. Be sure to tag @modernmommydoc so we can see how much you're loving the podcast!