Episode 5: Building a personal brand to increase diversity, inclusion & equity in corporations with Sugandha Bhargava Chapman
Welcome to episode #5 of The Thought Leader Show, hosted by Bec Sands and Andrés López-Varela. This ep is available on Spotify, Stitcher and Apple Podcasts, and if you enjoy it, we would love it if you could please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your friends.
In today’s episode, we interview Sugandha Chapman, an expert in navigating challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. With almost 20 years of experience in consulting, non-profit, start-up, and tech industries, currently as a senior manager of client delivery at Inkling Group, Sugandha has worked with leaders of global and national firms to drive systemic change towards a more inclusive culture. Passionate about gender and racial equity, especially in the tech and STEM sector, she also serves as a sought-after public speaker on topics related to DEI, leadership, gender equity, wellbeing, and neurodiversity.
Show Notes
4:00 How Sugandha describes her personal brand in a nutshell in relation to the work she does, her unique background and experience, and her personal life
7:23 An overview of Sugandha’s career, some of the deliberate steps she has taken to grow her personal brand, and why building relationships and connections has been a big part of this
10:30 The service-based mindset Sugandha has developed to contribute rather than being the ‘expert’ in everything
12:40 Coaching vs consulting mindset and how she leverages both in her thought leadership content to build her personal brand
14:10 How creating a conversation when building your personal brand is where the gold is to create opportunities
15:16 Some of the outcomes Sugandha has achieved by building her personal brand and creating connections, including paid speaking opportunities, leads for freelancing work and working on really interesting projects
18:40 What thought leadership means for Sugandha and how she defines this. Contribution vs expertise.
21:28 How contribution and visibility leads to influence and impact, and how YOU as an individual have to own your own unique voice – no one can give you that
23:23 The confidence / competence loop – how it works and how we can get stuck here, as well as what we can do to move through it and develop an entrepreneurial mindset
25:34 How Sugandha has moved through the confidence / competence loop and been able to evolve to build her personal brand – and how being authentic and vulnerable has helped her
27.22 How Sugandha’s late diagnosis of ADHD has influenced her personal brand journey and how she has incorporated this into her content to share her story authentically and vulnerably
31:00 How sharing her unique, human stories have created the most engagement and conversations on social media that are getting the most traction, leading to genuine connections
35:44 Rapid-fire questions with Sugandha, including her favourite podcast, how she relaxes, and final words of inspiration
Connect:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sugandhachapman/
Further resources:
Books
Inclusion on Purpose – Ruchika Tulshyan
DEI Deconstructed - Lily Zhang
Podcasts
Coaching Real Leaders – Harvard Business Review
