Thank you Aliza Licht for joining me on my podcast!
“It’s never too late to start over. We hear stories all the time of people later in life going back to school for something completely new and different...You get one life, but many chances.”
Both of Aliza’s books train you to be a publicist for YOURSELF! I learned so much from reading them. I changed my social media bios immediately after reading her suggestions. Her actionable steps helped me so much. Remember, no one will care about your book, your project, your job as much as YOU do –so learn to be the best Chief Brand Office of YOU that you can!
Get your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or BookShop
Aliza says: “You are your best PR person.” Keep planting seeds and growing your brand on your carefully crafted social media, your newsletter and perhaps even your own podcast.
Remember: “Don’t wait for someone to shine a light on your. Make your own SPOTlight (strategically).”
FROM OUR INTERVIEW
Lisa Niver:
Good morning. This is Lisa Niver from We Said Go Travel and I am so, so honored and excited to have the amazing, incredible author Aliza Licht here with me today.
Aliza Licht:
Lisa I am so honored to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me on your show.
Lisa Niver:
You are so welcome. I don’t know that everyone knows about both your books! You have so much going on. We want to talk about both books because they’re both incredible, but will you tell people a little bit about the whole history of the DKNY PR Girl and the millions of followers and the red lipstick. Tell us a little bit, in case people don’t know — how did this happen for you, that you were the fashion voice of Twitter for so long?
Aliza Licht:
H everyone. I started my career in the fashion industry in magazine editorial back in the day, but fun fact, I was pre-med in college and thought I would graduate to be a plastic surgeon. I majored in neurobiology and physiology and then gave it all up to work in fashion. I spent a few years in editorial and then moved over to Donna Karan corporate PR in the late ‘90s. And honestly, I did traditional PR for many years. I ultimately spent 17 years with Donna Karan working in communications. On the tail of the career, the last six years, we started doing social media.
And one day we were sitting around having a marketing meeting and we said- we should probably join Twitter. And I was in PR, so my fear was that because the person was named Donna Karan and the brand was Donna Karan, I was scared people would assume she was tweeting and then that complicates what are we going to write? How are we going to respond? Do we need approvals? So,Lisa, you remember this time, it was Gossip Girl original and we were all obsessed with it. And I said to myself, well, why can’t we just make an anonymous character–nobody has to know who she is?
We can call her DKNY PR Girl and she can be the voice of Twitter and share her work doing PR in New York City. And that ranged from working with magazines to celebrity dressing, red carpet, fashion shows. It seemed like a good way to share our story, so we positioned it that way and we pitched it to our legal team. And our general counsel said–this sounds great. Aliza– you’re the only one allowed to tweet. Truly initiation by fire. I started on Twitter in 2009 as an anonymous character. I didn’t think of it as myself. It was represented by a fashion illustration, and I started tweeting.
And what I found was that engaging with people around the world was really exciting and telling a great story is what really got people to engage. So, showing the behind the scenes of my job in PR in an industry that didn’t really show its cards very often. Showing people–what happens in awards season? How do the dresses go from one celebrity to the next? Who’s working with who? What’s really happening behind the scenes? All of that was what I shared, but at the same time I naturally found myself mentoring. So, I started tweeting about how to break into fashion, how to work in PR.
And it became known as career advice mentoring that I would do, which ultimately led to being offered a book deal, which was Leave Your Mark, which is why there is a coffee cup with red lipstick on the cover, which is my signature and what I stare at every day. Because it’s really my way of grabbing coffee with people who wanted to know how to break into the industry.
Lisa Niver:
Thank you that was a great introduction. I personally loved your book about branding and I agree with you the book does feel like you’re having coffee together. Because you’re giving tips and I remember you talked to people about how to work on their resume and what do you say at their interview and make sure you send a thank you note. That book was wonderful and that came out and you gave a lot of professional advice. And now fast-forward to your second book.
Aliza Licht:
On Brand really picks up where Leave Your Mark left off. I do a little refresher course for people who didn’t read Leave Your Mark. I had over 1.5 million followers organically at a time when that was a really big deal for brands. DKNY PR Girl back then was really one of the first examples of a fashion influencer even though we didn’t know that word at the time. So, when I finally revealed myself as the person behind the Twitter handle two years later, imagine keeping a secret for two years, that was not easy, it generated over 230 million media impressions, which was amazing, and now the secret was out, I was known as this person.
But when my book, Leave Your Mark, came out that coincided with a management change at Donna Karan. We got a new CEO. We got new creative directors and ended up leaving the company. On Brand: Shape Your Narrative, Share Your Vision, Shift Their Perception starts with the idea that I had to re-find my identity. Because now I don’t have a lofty title, I don’t work in luxury fashion, I’m not part of LVMH, I don’t have a garment allowance anymore, I’m just saying.
Lisa Niver:
But you’re open to it.
Aliza Licht:
But I’m open to it. If anyone wants to give me one, I’m open to it. I don’t have millions of followers and it was uncomfortable. So, this book starts off with my rebrand and all of the tactics that I employed to transition myself from a corporate PR person to an entrepreneur, author, podcaster, mentor.
Lisa Niver:
I love the book.
Aliza Licht:
Thank you.
Lisa Niver:
You’re welcome. I really took a lot of notes and honestly made a lot of changes for myself. When I was reading your book, I was just starting speaking for the Travel and Adventure Show in four cities. And I read your book and it said, make sure every quarter you look at the bios of your social media. And I looked at the bios of my social media and I’m thought– wow, that stuff is old. So, I made them all match that I was speaking and it was really just because of your book. I think there are really practical tips that people can use, it’s full of action steps!
Aliza Licht:
Thank you and I’m so glad that you took action from that. I structured the book with my story throughout, but then I bring in expert contributors. And one of the things that I always like to start off when I talk about On Brand is this is not about becoming famous unless that’s what you want to do, I can certainly help you do that. But this is about understanding what you want to be known for in any medium and making sure other people see you that way. So, it is part career guide and it is part workbook. I lead you along the way in small, mental gymnastics activities to help you think through what your brand is currently speaking to and how people are actually perceiving what you’re doing.
Lisa Niver:
Right. And I think it’s really important that you even use the term chief brand officer of YOU! All of us are out there on social media and especially for younger people that maybe are new in the job market, they have to understand that everything they’re putting out there can be seen by current employers, future employers. It’s so ubiquitous now all the social media, that people forget that it’s very searchable.
Aliza Licht:
It’s very searchable. And of course I take you through the pitfalls of what can happen if you don’t do it properly, but at the same time, there’s also a whole chapter on how to establish your personal brand at work. Because making sure people understand your value and getting the credit you deserve is an art, right? And we need to be strategic about it and we need to be elegant about it.
Lisa Niver:
Yes, elegant I agree with that. And I liked what you said about planting the seeds that things don’t happen overnight. You didn’t get to millions of views on the DKNY PR Girl instantly. If you want to get somewhere –you have to keep putting in the work. And another thing I loved that you talked about is how to amplify your voice. You started a podcast, I have a podcast, what do you say to people that are thinking could I have a podcast?
Aliza Licht:
Well, I would say that you’re getting on a hamster wheel that you can’t get off, as you know. I always believe that you should start as you mean to go. I committed to a weekly show and I do a weekly show, but you have to think about what is really possible for you to handle. I would say the most underrated asset or the most underrated surprise to doing a podcast is how critical it is to meeting and networking with people that you wouldn’t normally meet. I never thought about that.
I did it because I wanted to extend Leave Your Mark into something more immediate, right? The book had come out in 2015. The podcast started in 2019. It felt like a great way to live out my dream of being a talk show host. But I never thought about it from the perspective of getting clients and networking. Because when you have a podcast people like to come on and talk about what they do and it’s an easier way to get in the room with someone that might be a little bit out of your reach.
Lisa Niver:
Who is an example of a guest you had that you wouldn’t have normally thought you would get to talk to?
Aliza Licht:
Well, I would say Mandy Teefey the producer of 13 Reasons Why, Selena Gomez’s mom, the cofounder of Wondermind mental health media site. Mandy was launching Wondermind and came on Leave Your Mark to talk about her entire career journey, having Selena when she was 16 and having suicidal thoughts. Thirteen Reasons Why is inspired, unfortunately, by her experience and I mean I would never meet Mandy Teefey otherwise.
Lisa Niver:
Amazing. And who’s a bucket list guest you’d like to invite on?
Aliza Licht:
That’s such a good question, Lisa. Shonda Rhimes.
Lisa Niver:
That’s a good one. I hope that she comes on your show !!
Aliza Licht:
We were in touch back in the day. As DKNY PR Girl, I was live tweeting Scandal. Shonda if you ever hear this episode, I’d love you to come on Leave Your Mark. She’s an incredible inspiration as a writer and a creative and that would be a dream.
Lisa Niver:
I’m so excited for you because we’re manifesting it. I think it’s going to happen.
Aliza Licht:
Manifesting it, yes.
Lisa Niver:
It can happen. It’s going to happen, manifest it. I love that idea. I’m going to make a bucket list of people. So, another thing you say in your book is you are your best PR person! Your book talks about knowing who you are, knowing your value, knowing what you want. Can you talk about newsletters? Do you think people are still building newsletters? Is that still valuable?
Aliza Licht:
Yes, newsletters are really important. And when we talk about owning audience the only way to own audience is actually to collect email addresses and cell phones, because for social media we are renting our audiences. If you are putting out free content, like a newsletter, where you’re providing a service to your readers that is a great way, that’s lead generation to actually build your database.
But I also want to go back to what you were asking before about being your own best publicist. And I think that a lot of people assume that people know what they’re doing and that they’re great at what they do or they’re adding value. But if you’re not shaping that narrative, if you’re not positioning yourself so that people really are getting the story from you, you’re missing an opportunity to brand yourself. And that has to be done in a really careful way so that people are not bragging.
Lisa Niver:
One of the ways that you can control the story with your audience is with Linktree in social media. Because I know for myself, one of the things that can be frustrating is people like your post on Instagram, but it doesn’t connect to anything. So, I actually started using Bitly similar to Linktree where it links to multiple places, but what do you like about Linktree?
Aliza Licht:
I use Norby which is like Linktree, but it has many more attributes including email marketing. It’s also live events and connects with Zoom. It’s also SMS marketing. So, it’s a much bigger bucket of things you can do in your marketing mix. You sign up for a monthly charge depending on what aspects of the platform you want to use.
Lisa Niver:
We’re going to all look into that. And a question from people, especially authors, if you have two different books–Are you making a website for every book? Do you have a website just for yourself? Do you think you should have a social media name for your book? What would you recommend to people?
Aliza Licht:
I love this question so much. I only have alizalicht.com and everything is in my name. Because it’s very hard to build multiple, vibrant social handles for each thing that you’re doing. I always gather the social handles to make sure I have them, and I get the URLs to make sure I have them, but everything is on alizalicht.com. There is the book section that has Leave Your Mark and On Brand. There’s nothing that isn’t within the Aliza Licht domain because that is just a way for me to keep everything cohesive and it’s just much easier to navigate.
Lisa Niver:
I have one of the quotes that you wrote that I really liked about, you mentioned this before about that creating a personal brand is not about being famous. But I like what you said that it’s about communicating who you are, what you align with and what you do well. It’s about getting the credit you deserve and everything that comes with that. It’s very impressive.
Can you talk more, you mentioned bragging, and I think that women, in particular, in the United States, but maybe humans all over the planet, sometimes have trouble standing up for their accomplishments.
Aliza Licht:
Thank you for sharing that quote. It’s a really hard thing to do to talk about your accomplishments. And in my book I bring in Meredith Fineman, who wrote Brag Better, as one of the expert contributors in the communication section. Meredith dedicated her book to a group of people that she calls the qualified quiet. People who do a great job and are waiting for people to notice that they do a great job. And that, my friends, is not a strategy. So, one of the ways that I think it’s important to amplify your wins is to make sure that you’re not getting tone-deaf to your own words.
Every time that you’re talking about an accomplishment on email, on social media, in person, make a conscious effort to amplify and promote five other people publicly, so that you’re not just someone talking about yourself. No one wants to listen to someone who talks about themselves all day. Another way to do it, especially in a corporate environment, is to work behind the scenes with a colleague. Maybe you want your boss to know something you accomplished. Why not say to someone you trust, hey, I would love for my manager to know this, maybe at our next meeting you can mention it.
And if there’s something you want amplified tell me and I’ll make sure to amplify it. So, doing that behind-the-scenes whisper network is very effective. Or if you don’t want to talk about anything at all, put a deck together for your manager to give someone an update of what you’ve accomplished. But people need to know or they’re not thinking about you and they’re not thinking about the value-add. It’s just how it is. Everyone’s too busy with their own stuff.
Lisa Niver:
Everyone is really busy and one of the things that I’ve noticed, and I’m sure impacted you and the launch of your first book, is during this time of the COVID coaster there’s been so many traumas and people have lost loved ones and lost jobs and companies have changed. So, one of the things I really liked is you said– it’s never too late to start over. We hear stories all the time of people later in life going back to school for something completely new and different. You get one life, but many chances.
Aliza Licht:
Yes, I still believe that.
Lisa Niver:
I do think that’s really important right now that people know it’s never too late. There’s lots of chances. In my book I talk about, taking lots of small steps. In your book, you talk about planting a seed.
As we look to close our talk about your incredible new book, where can people find it and how can they find you? Are you doing events? What should we do to find more of you?
Aliza Licht:
Well, first of all thank you. My book, On Brand, is about self-reflection and marrying self-reflection to public perception. That, to me, is the definition of a strong personal brand, when how you think about yourself is actually how other people think about you. Because the goal of this, to me, is to have your name dropped in rooms you’re not in, and to be offered opportunities that other people haven’t even heard of yet. So, the book is called On Brand: Shape Your Narrative. Share Your Vision. Shift Their Perception.
It is available anywhere you buy books in the US and Canada right now. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie books, Apple or on alizalicht.com. You can buy signed copies through Porchlight. I’m proud of this work and I think that if people actually put the thought process into it, people will be shocked at what can happen.
Lisa Niver:
That is incredible. So, they can find you on social media, they can listen to your podcast, they can buy your book. And I didn’t know about Porchlight, so they can get a signed copy. That sounds amazing.
Aliza Licht:
On alizalicht.com you have all the options for where to buy and then on Porchlight it says signed copies available.
Lisa Niver:
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I really have loved your books, they’ve really helped me, and I hope everyone else finds them and enjoys them. And congratulations, we look forward to seeing more and more of you and big giant success.
Aliza Licht:
Lisa, thank you so much for always supporting me and reading the books. I appreciate it and I’m so happy to be here.
Get your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or BookShop
See Aliza on Jessica Abo’s podcast on Entrepreneur.com: Shaping The Narrative of Your (Personal) Brand is The Secret to Your Success. Here’s Why.
My article on Thrive Global: Are you ready to PIVOT? Be Your Own Publicist! Ask Aliza Licht
LISTEN on APPLE PODCAST: MAKE YOUR OWN MAP
Lisa’s book: Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty
