From Z to A-Lister: How To Build Your Personal Brand

By Jen Su and Gareth Cliff

Jen Su was told that she would 'never make it as a Chinese-American in the South African broadcasting industry'. Today, this TV and radio presenter is one of the most celebrated personalities on the social landscape with an incredibly strong personal brand built on reputation, trust, strength of character, and social networking. From Z to A-Lister - How To Build Your Personal Brand is an essential guide to developing and cultivating your unique persona by playing on your strengths and singular qualities. Jen Su takes you through the South African social scene, and shares the secrets that saw her go from Z to A in six different countries around the world. Her tips on Asian graces, social networking and finding the style that is best for you, mixed in with anecdotes of the twists and turns in her personal life, will be an inspiration to anyone who is aspiring to build and cultivate their personal brand and reputation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tracey McDonald Publishers
• Release date: Oct 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9780620658584

Book preview

JSCover.jpgFromZtoA-Lister_title.jpg

First published by Tracey McDonald Publishers, 2015

Office: 5 Quelea Street, Fourways, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2191

www.traceymcdonaldpublishers.com

Text © Jen Su, 2015

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-620-65857-7

e-ISBN (ePUB) 978-0-620-65858-4

e-ISBN (PDF) 978-0-620-65859-1

Text design and typesetting by Reneé Naudé

Cover photograph by Robert Miller/Panascape

Cover design by Apple Pie Graphics

Back cover photograph by Anton Van Straaten/AVS Photography

Jen Su wardrobe on front and back cover courtesy of Stuttafords -

www.stuttafords.co.za

Printed and bound by Pinetown Printers (Pty) Ltd

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

acknowledgements

To anyone who is pursuing their dreams, carving a name for themselves in the social scene, starting over, building their personal brand and social network – this is for you.

I hope that through my personal tale of hardship and challenges, and by sharing my secrets to the way I built my personal brand, I can help inspire you to make it happen for yourself in your own unique way.

I thank my family, friends, colleagues, fans, and the many sponsors and supporters who have encouraged me to write this book – it’s been many years and many countries in the making.

In each country I lived in, I was approached to write on this topic, but I was always too insecure or scared of failure to do so. It was in South Africa where I had the immense support of so many of you, that I have finally gathered the courage to make this book come to life.

Thank you to the many people in the industry who took the time to share with me their insights on personal branding, events, social networking, and how to dress with style.

Special thanks to Tracey McDonald, my publisher, and to Pam Thornley, my editor, for your belief in me and your patience through my many long commutes between China and South Africa while I was writing this book.

Always remember that you are not alone in your quest for making yourself into the most amazing brand you can be, and I thank each and every one of you who has crossed my path and helped me in my challenging journey to making it happen.

For My Skunks

contents

foreword ix

introduction 1

making the list 7

events – where the rubber hits the road 10

getting your stilettos in the door 13

look the part 16

beyond the way you dress 22

my paparazzi mates 27

the movers and shakers 32

the long climb up 35

smartphone etiquette 38

asian graces 42

humility and respect 45

keep calm and forgive 52

work ethic 56

invitations and the rsvp 62

the gatecrashers 67

your signature look 70

looking good on a shoestring budget 76

your angles and accessories 79

how to look at the camera 82

your voice 84

the interview 88

arrival time, grooming, spot check 95

self-confidence and focus 99

temptation 102

road to recovery 107

plastic surgery 109

gifting and gratitude 112

asia to africa time 118

visualise 121

make it happen for yourself 126

be resourceful, be persistent 129

the hollywood report 133

gaining traction 136

think of yourself as a brand 139

one too many 143

your personal brand in social media 146

blogging 148

vlogging 150

editing photos 155

facebook 157

twitter 164

instagram 167

linkedin and pinterest 170

youtube and other apps 174

handling criticism 177

reputation management 183

it can all be gone in an instant 188

remain mysterious 195

being a mom in the biz 199

diary of a crazy person 206

fame 212

the a-list 215

reinventing 226

meditation and feng shui 229

handling fame 231

back to z 239

overcoming obstacles 244

what lies ahead 250

foreword

When Jen Su came to our offices for an interview eight years ago I knew immediately that this Chinese-American petite dynamo was going to make a huge impact on the South African social scene. Jen arrived, not knowing anyone in South Africa, impeccably dressed, with portfolio and showreel in hand. She was confident, talented, experienced, and prepared.

I asked Jen to come into the SABC and do a demo of The Hollywood Report – a week later she was on the show and became an important part of 5FM Mornings for seven years with The Hollywood Report. Whether she was in LA reporting from Michael Jackson’s funeral, the Cannes Film Festival in France, New York Fashion Week, the MTV European Music Awards in Scotland – you name it – Jen was everywhere in the world and on the local social landscape. She brought a whole new dimension to entertainment reporting in this country, and many others have followed suit and look up to Jen as an example in the industry.

When we launched CliffCentral.com over a year ago, Jen moved over with us, and to this day is still a part of our CliffCentral family. She is a master at networking, a loyal friend, and brilliant at building her reputation in a natural, effortless way. She also loves to take photos of everything – and we can count on Jen to document everything that’s been going on.

When Paris Hilton visited South Africa, Jen was right there at the front of the receiving line taking pictures. The next morning, Jen and Paris had a huge photo together on the cover of the Sunday Times. That was just one of the many, many celebrities that Jen would encounter during her time here in South Africa.

In 2014, a couple of months after Madiba’s death, I hosted the Nelson Mandela International Tribute Concert in New York and, despite a major snowstorm which shut down most of the Big Apple, our main guests of honour, former US President Bill Clinton, actor Morgan Freeman and former New York Mayor David Dinkins were fortunately still able to attend the event. Jen made the long trip from Johannesburg and braved the snowstorm to cover the event for us. She always went that extra mile (or thousands of miles) to show her support and be on the cutting edge.

On the surface Jen might seem to be just a hat-loving socialite, but if you’ve ever seen Jen anchor the financial news on Sky, emcee a corporate gala, or sing solo with the Soweto Gospel Choir you will be impressed by the depth of her intellect and talent.

And now, in her book, Jen gives a fresh, unique perspective and shares her secrets to success.

Enjoy and be inspired!

G

Gareth Cliff, President and Founder, CliffCentral.com

introduction

Building your personal brand today is no longer an option – it’s a necessity. It used to be all about corporate branding or institutional branding. That’s all changed. Nowadays, life as we know it is all about YOUR name, your image, your digital footprint, and being the CEO of your personal brand. Fortunately, with today’s technology and social media, creating your brand is easier than ever before – and it’s crucial that you take control and manage the direction of your brand before someone else does.

According to an AVG Technologies study, 92 per cent of children under the age of two already have a digital footprint, and perhaps by the time this book comes out a significant proportion of babies will have profiles online as well.

Perhaps if I had had a website from birth, my journey in building my personal brand might have been a lot easier! My life has been a long, hard-fought journey – taking a series of extreme moves from one continent to another, from America to Asia, Asia to Africa, and then from Africa back to Asia again. I worked tirelessly to build my personal brand across different countries and different cultures, only to have to start all over from ground zero in a new country and build my way up again. In the process I have experienced a lot of changes. I went from a childhood without cellphones, through stardom in my teenage years on TV and radio, into my adulthood with smartphones and social networking.

People who live in the spotlight are often asked by intrigued fans and onlookers how they got where they are. I suppose it’s a natural inclination to be curious about, or even jealous of, darlings of the media. There’s not a day that goes by on Facebook without someone messaging me and asking me how I got into the business – and if that person could be my personal assistant! Now it’s possible that I’ve had this question more than most performers and artists simply because what I do has perhaps seemed so within reach. After all, how hard could it be to talk for five minutes on the radio about breaking celebrity gossip, or read a teleprompter on the evening news? Surely, any sensible, attractive go-getter could make this happen for him or herself.

I would be the first to admit that there is a bit of truth in this notion, but it would be naive to assume that looks, smarts and a few connections are all you need. Like any profession or skill, there’s a finer art to succeeding in the media and building your brand – and it must be cultivated over years of trial and error, success and failure and, most of all, commitment.

In other words, what I do may be relatively simple, but how I got here, how I built my brand, has been a long story over many countries and cultures. It is a story of ambition and balance, of achievement and disappointment, of untimely disruption and spontaneous opportunity, of happiness and tears. It is also a story of great satisfaction that comes only from truly enjoying what you do, giving to the ones you love, and believing in your dreams.

So who exactly is Jen Su? News presenter, DJ, actress, singer, Hollywood reporter, corporate MC, entertainment commentator, model, author, or all of the above? The easy answer to this question is that Jen Su is a carefully conceived personal brand. It’s a brand that has been cultivated through years of hard work and learning. The brand has evolved, like all brands, occasionally adjusting the packaging (hairstyles, hat styles, clothing styles – and, oh yes, shoes!), but always staying true to its core – stylish, hard working, gracious, smiling, and professional.

The Jen Su brand is accessible and familiar, yet glamorous at the same time. It’s been a household name that’s perhaps popped into your life at some point in words or pictures – but only when you’re in a mood to relax and curl up next to the TV or read the latest edition of People Magazine with your morning cappuccino and croissant at Belle’s Patisserie. It provides you with a bit of juicy gossip to laugh or talk about, or a stylish pose at an event when you are updating yourself on the latest comings and goings of the Jozi social scene. It also manifests itself on the corporate scene, when Jen Su is the master of ceremonies for a prestigious gala event.

It might sweeten your morning café latte with a sprinkle of the African markets and currencies while watching Business Day TV or Sky News, or get you laughing and thinking while listening to The Buzz on CliffCentral or with Gareth Cliff on his breakfast show. Whatever the interaction, it’s brief and, well, hopefully unobtrusive. It does not shock or offend. Although it laughs and has a bit of fun with the celeb drama, the brand never directly insults or states offensive opinions – and never suffers a wardrobe malfunction!

So, back to the question, how did I get here? How did I go from a nerdy daughter of Chinese immigrants in a quiet American suburb to media personality and fashionista in six different countries, with the journey still continuing? Now there’s a question worth answering that just might inspire a few ‘wows’ and laughs along the way. To tell it chronologically, however, would be selfish of me. It would be my story, amusing to hear, but purely vicarious in its appeal. And let’s face it, the Jen Su brand has a wonderful story behind it, but it’s not the stuff of legends.

What is worth sharing, I passionately believe, is not the path I travelled, but the ‘wheels’ that got me here, the ‘how’ – not the ‘where’ – of the journey. So, although I do draw on personal references, this book is about how to go from nothing to something, and how to establish your personal brand within your own parameters, in your own way. It’s about how I have lived in six countries since birth, and had to start from nowhere to climb my way up to fame and notoriety. How, in each instance, I took a slightly different route and built and leveraged the skills I accumulated as a musician, recording artist, DJ, news presenter, master of ceremonies, actress, brand ambassador, and voice-over artist.

I’ll share the difficult obstacles and emotional pain that I have suffered, but all in the hope that my experiences and what I’ve learned will provide inspiration and motivation to people in any field, beyond the entertainment or television industry. I will also share with you my disciplined approach to networking and the softer skills that underpin it. I will talk about developing my brand and how I harness the power of social media and networking to reinforce it.

I will share with you a glimpse of my past, not so much as a point of interest but rather as the source of valuable lessons and principles that have shaped me as a person, my values and my approach, my weaknesses, and the challenges that I have overcome. I will share with you my Chinese and Thai side – and some of those ‘Asian graces’ that I have adopted and shaped to sharpen my approach. I will also talk about how I manage my time and my work/life balance, and the critical role that the happiness of my family plays in keeping me whole.

At its core, I offer you a guide to ‘making it’ and building your brand. I, for one, wish I had had access to this kind of advice when I was starting out. It certainly would have helped to straighten some very twisted learning curves that I’ve had to navigate through the years. I sincerely hope that the advice I give is not so much about how to get noticed at a party or what to say when interviewing Oprah, as about how to build your own brand and treat people with respect, so that you can afford yourself every opportunity for the success that you deserve as a professional, regardless of your career path or calling.

At the same time, it is definitely not my intention to teach or lecture. It would be presumptuous of me, or my readers, to assume that following the advice in these pages would automatically lead you or others to similar success. There’s so much more that cannot be captured, because it comes from the heart and desire of the person who is trying to succeed.

What I do hope is that, by reading these pages, a few people will come to appreciate the examples that one person has set about things like humility, respect, professionalism and discipline . . . with a sprinkling of practical tricks . . . and hopefully use these examples as inspiration to tailor their own approach as professionals.

I’m proud of what I’ve been able to achieve in my life and my career, but in some ways I’m more grateful for what I’ve learned through it all. I hope that by sharing this you’ll understand more about the ‘method behind my madness’ and be inspired and encouraged by a few simple pointers that can help you work your way onto the A-List for your own set of aspirations.

making the list

Over the course of my life I’ve gone from Z to A-List so many times I’ve lost count. In each instance I was new, usually to an entire country and language, with virtually no contacts. It would be almost impossible for many people to conceive of the immensity of this task, and the resilience it took. I can’t tell you the number of times I wanted to throw in the towel and call it quits.

But, somehow, each time I persisted, and with each step I climbed up that long and twisting ladder I found myself reliving the thrill of making new contacts and turning them into new opportunities. Each time I relived that uplifting sense of momentum, when you start to know the people in the room and your name is being tossed around as social currency. And each time, as my status grew, I found my way to new, even bigger opportunities than before. Still, one can’t help but ask . . . why? Why would anyone in their right mind toss away fame and fortune only to pursue it all over again from scratch six times in a row? It’s a reasonable question, and it probably deserves to be answered before I get into the more important details of how I did it, and what I learned.

Many people have not realised that I’m the wife of an international expatriate. My husband Del has worked for the same multinational company for over twenty years as a global marketing director. He travelled from country to country building brands and marketing departments, and I diligently followed behind, kids in hand, getting houses and schools in order, and making sure every transition was smooth. The expat life certainly had its good points – a plush estate with a stunning home, drivers, maids, golf club memberships and first-class home leave were some of the perks. Unfortunately, that life didn’t come nearly as easily as it appeared on the surface.

It has been a life filled with disruption and despair as corporate warriors like Del were expected to move suddenly – and anywhere in the world – when duty called. With each move came the challenge of finding and settling in a new home, inventories, bills, red tape, starting new schools, finding new friends and adjusting to entirely new environments, languages and cultures. It was definitely not a life for everyone, but with the hardships came many unique experiences