Branding Room Only with Paula T. Edgar

Getting booked to speak can feel like a measure of success, especially when the opportunities start getting bigger and the audiences more impressive. Yet the size of the room doesn't always reflect the impact you make, and a prestigious opportunity isn't necessarily the right one for your career. Building a speaking career that lasts means learning to recognize the difference and being intentional about the opportunities you pursue.

When I started speaking more intentionally, I wanted to get on bigger stages as quickly as possible. Bigger audiences, bigger names, bigger platforms. Those things still matter to me...

Dr. Camille T.C. Hammond is a physician, public health advocate, and co-founder and CEO of the Tinina Q. Cade Foundation. Her work grew from a deeply personal experience with infertility, including six unsuccessful rounds of IVF before her mother offered to carry and ultimately gave birth to her triplets. That journey gave Camille an understanding of infertility that extended beyond her medical training and eventually reshaped both her career and her personal brand.

Camille shares how she moved beyond defining her impact solely through practicing clinical medicine and embraced the work she felt called to do...

Your LinkedIn profile should reflect the expertise and value you bring to your work. Does yours? In this solo episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar explores the gap between doing strong work and making your value visible to the people who could hire, refer, or recommend you.

Your LinkedIn profile is working for you long after you update it. Paula walks through how to make that profile reflect what you want to be known for, from a current, recognizable headshot and a headline that goes beyond your job title to a Featured section that showcases...

When people think of you, what stories come to mind? Make a Scene author and keynote director Mike Ganino sees those associations as a central part of your personal brand. In this episode of Branding Room Only, he and Paula talk about how to make your message clear enough for people to remember and connect with it.

Mike shares why a list of events or accomplishments isn’t yet a compelling story. Listeners need to understand what an experience meant to you and how it changed the way you show up. He explains how specific details help pe...

What comes to mind when people hear your name? For award-winning author Deesha Philyaw, it’s stories about Black women seeking freedom, told with humor, desire, and honesty. It’s also the way she supports other writers. Deesha sees her personal brand in both the work she chooses to create and how she shows up in her community, while recognizing that she cannot control how everyone receives it.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Deesha shares how the women who raised her in Jacksonville shaped The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and her commitment to writing Blac...

I am a big proponent of authenticity, and I describe authenticity as a scale. Vulnerability is different. I can decide whether I’m vulnerable or not, and while I share a lot with people, I don’t think many people get underneath the layers of Paula unless we are close or unless I’m being strategic about it. Giving the most personal talk of my career meant deciding I was going to let people underneath some of those layers.

I knew I wanted to do something that was going to stretch me, and this absolutely did. I went a...

For 25 years, much of the conversation about my mother, Joan Donna Griffith, has focused on how she died. But the greatest leadership lessons I carry did not come from losing my mother on September 11, 2001. They came from how she lived, what she taught me, and how she prepared me for moments neither of us could have imagined.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, I’m sharing one of the most personal talks I have ever given, originally delivered as a PDC Talk at the Professional Development Consortium (PDC) Annual Summer Conference.

In this short ta...

What people say about you when you’re not in the room matters. Raymond Sanchez Jr. has seen that play out throughout a career shaped by relationships, mentorship, and people willing to put his name forward because they trusted how he would show up. It is also a lesson he learned early from his father, Raymond Sanchez Sr., who taught him to have a plan, think ahead, and understand that what you know matters, but so does who you know.

Ray was only 22 when his father, a union carpenter working at the World Trade Center, was killed on...

This year marks 25 years since September 11, 2001. For Paula and her family, the anniversary brings an intensely personal loss into focus, along with the many milestones and ordinary moments they wish her mother, Joan Donna Griffith, had been here to experience.

Joan was brilliant, funny, stylish, loving, an avid reader, a dedicated professional, a mentor, a wife, and the mother who raised Paula. She shaped how Paula shows up in the world, what she values, how she cares for others, and so much of the personal brand she has built.

In this special rerelease of Branding...

Excellence without intentional follow-up has a very short shelf life. You can deliver a great presentation, have people tell you how much they enjoyed it, and still leave entirely too much value on the table if you don’t have a strategy for what happens next. There’s a window after you speak when people still remember your message, your stories, and how you made them feel. 

What happened during the engagement can also give you clues about what comes next. A question that keeps coming up, a conversation with someone in the audience, or feedback from the o...

Have you ever had something happen and thought, “I should post about that,” and then life moved on before you did? By the time you came back to it, a few days or weeks had passed and suddenly you were telling yourself that the moment was gone and nobody wanted to hear about it anymore.

My friends, it is not too late. Your experiences are evergreen. If you lived it, learned from it, laughed about it, struggled through it, or are still thinking about it, there is value in going back to that experience and asking what it m...

What happens when your title changes? Does your confidence change with it?

Too many professionals tie their value to a position, an organization, or someone else's validation. But your personal brand should be rooted in something much stronger: your personal power.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar sits down with Demetrius Thornton to explore the difference between positional power and personal power. They discuss his SCOPE Personal Power Framework, the inspiration behind his book American Trickery, and why understanding your value beyond your title is essential for long-term career success.

Getting a yes for a speaking opportunity can feel like the finish line. You pitched yourself, made the case for why you belong in the room, and someone agreed to bring you in. In reality, that yes marks the beginning of your responsibility as a speaker, because what happens between getting booked and taking the stage can determine whether you are invited back.

Speaking is a relationship business long before it’s a stage business. That relationship is still being built as you ask questions, learn what the audience is navigating, and prepare for the experience the or...

By the time I reached Luxor, I thought this trip had already given me everything it was going to give me. Kenya reminded me to slow down and rediscover wonder. Cairo made me think about legacy and the importance of telling our own stories. Hurghada reminded me that joy is not a luxury. Then Luxor connected all of it in a way that settled into my spirit.

Standing in the Valley of the Kings, surrounded by stories that had survived for thousands of years, I couldn't stop thinking about how intentional it all was. Every image, every...

Hurghada became one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. Between standing in the Red Sea, saying yes to a flying dress photo shoot, and dancing in the middle of an Eid al-Adha celebration, I was reminded how joyful life can be when you stop trying to optimize every moment and simply allow yourself to experience it.

As high achievers, we are often quick to postpone joy until after the next promotion, project, or busy season. We make plenty of room in our personal brands for expertise and accomplishment, while forgetting that people also remember our...

Ancient Egypt isn’t just something you read about in a school history book or see in an old Elizabeth Taylor movie. It was a real, thriving civilization filled with people who lived, loved, worked, governed, worshipped, and left behind evidence that they had been there. Millennia later, we still know their stories because someone took the time to document, preserve, and pass them on.

Standing in a papyrus gallery in modern-day Egypt and learning how ancient writings survived for thousands of years made me think differently about personal branding. Your personal brand helps preserve your ideas, yo...

For years, I had wanted to visit the African continent, especially Egypt, but when the opportunity came to travel to both Kenya and Egypt with the National Bar Association, something in me immediately said, "Paula, you have to go." I had no idea just how much that decision would change me.

In Part 1 of my Paula Out of Africa series, I'm taking you along on my journey through Kenya. What started as a long-awaited trip became a powerful reminder of the importance of wonder, curiosity, community, and making room for experiences that expand who we are. Along...

Your brand is your first audition.

When someone hears you speak and starts imagining you at their conference, retreat, leadership program, or client event, the next thing they are going to do is look you up. Long before you speak with an event organizer, your LinkedIn profile, website, bio, content, and digital presence are helping people decide whether you are someone they can trust with their audience.

Too many aspiring speakers leave that process to chance. An outdated LinkedIn profile, a website that never mentions speaking, a vague bio, or a lack of clear positioning...

What happens when the very things that make you different become your greatest strengths?

For Fitzann “Fitz” Reid, showing up fully, taking calculated risks, and creating opportunities where none existed before have been defining themes throughout her career.

A lawyer, investor, entrepreneur, sports owner, and leader, Fitz has built a career that defies traditional expectations. From growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, as the daughter of Jamaican immigrants to serving at the highest levels of the SEC, helping launch Hunterbrook, and investing in professional sports, she has consistently chosen growth over comfort and possibility over conv...

We don’t know the faces or names of many enslaved Black people in American history. Some left a small mark of their existence in the very bricks of the buildings their hands built, yet they remain voiceless because their story has been hidden away.

Historians like Annette Gordon-Reed know that through sharing the stories of enslaved people, we remember their humanity and preserve historical truth in the process. She’s a Harvard University professor and the award-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello and On Juneteenth. With her lawyer-like approach, she’s brought light to stories once e...

Your personal brand is not limited to your LinkedIn profile, your networking skills, or how you show up at work. It is how people experience you in every room you enter, including your relationships, your dating life, your confidence, your boundaries, and the stories you tell yourself about your own worth.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar sits down with love educator, coach, author, and two-time TED speaker Francesca Hogi for a candid conversation about the connection between personal branding, self-worth, dating, and authenticity. From her unconventional path from corporate law to matchmaking...

Wanting the stage and being ready to serve an audience from it are two very different things. Speaking can be a visibility strategy, a business development tool, or a business in its own right, but each lane requires a different strategy. When you treat every speaking opportunity the same, you miss the chance to make intentional decisions about your time, your preparation, your pricing, and your follow-up. And all of it starts with clarity: knowing what you have to say, who needs to hear it, and the value you want people to walk away with.

In this...

Sometimes, the best career and life advice you receive comes from your family. My guest can certainly relate since she has received pivotal advice from her dad that has helped her throughout her career!

From Zabrina’s upbringing to her love for sports and spontaneity, we explore how her personal interests and family values have shaped her approach to leadership and personal branding. Zabrina’s fundamental belief is that your personal brand should echo your core values, a philosophy that has guided her own career and life decisions.

In this episode of the Branding Room Only...

The fight to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion has deep historical roots, marked by significant milestones and challenges, from the Civil Rights era to present-day initiatives, including the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action. Robert J. Grey Jr., President of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) and former President of the American Bar Association, has witnessed several pivotal moments in this ongoing battle. His experiences growing up during these transformative times have profoundly influenced his career and dedication to both leadership and advancing diversity in the legal profession.

In this episode of the Branding Room...

J. Kelly Hoey was the very first guest on Branding Room Only, and more than 100 episodes later, she's back. This time she's bringing a new book, a rabbit hole's worth of research, and a framework that challenges what most women have been told about how to build the relationships and the personal brand that move their careers forward.

Kelly is a lawyer turned entrepreneur, networking expert, and bestselling author whose career has spanned big law, venture capital, and leading global communities. In her new book, The Social Billionaire, she draws on years of research showing that the...

There’s a narrative among some that when you become a mother, your ambition should get quieter, your goals should get smaller, and you move to the background of your own life. That was not my experience.

Motherhood didn’t replace my purpose. It expanded it. Becoming a mother in the middle of law school meant navigating two major transformations at once. What came out of that season was a sharper, more intentional, and more focused version of who I am and what I’m building.

Motherhood made me more accountable to my own potential, not le...

Confidence that shows up after a win or in a familiar room is real. But when something shifts, a new role, a new team, a new challenge, that confidence can feel a lot less stable.

The professionals who sustain confidence over time are not waiting on motivation. They have built systems around it. Self-awareness, reinforcement, visibility, and environment. And they have connected those systems to something that travels with them everywhere. Their personal brand.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula Edgar closes out the Confidence Factor series by walking through these four systems...

Doing excellent work is not enough. You can put your head down, deliver quality, and still be overlooked. That approach may feel comfortable, but it is not a strategy for growth. Capability alone does not create momentum. Visibility does.

And what often gets framed as humility, caution, or professionalism is sometimes just hiding. That choice has consequences. It weakens your confidence, limits your access, and shrinks your opportunities over time.

Being visible means being findable, understandable, and referable. These are three distinct things, and most professionals are falling short on at least one of them...

We often treat confidence like a purely internal project, something we must manufacture from scratch, alone. But while confidence is deeply personal, it's also profoundly relational. It's shaped by the rooms you enter, the voices you prioritize, and the way others reflect your value back to you long before you've claimed it yourself.

This is what Paula calls borrowed confidence. Whether it's a mentor naming a capability you haven't yet articulated or a colleague introducing you in a way that makes you sit up straighter, these moments aren't just nice gestures. They're how confidence actually grows.

If you care about your personal brand, you should care about what happens after you’re gone.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, I sit down with Carl Forbes Jr., founder of CFJ Law and a leader in estate planning, to talk about something too many professionals avoid. If your personal brand is about how people experience you and what you leave behind, then estate planning is not optional. It is part of the strategy.

We get into the real implications of not having a plan, the mistakes even lawyers make, and why legacy is...

You can be talented, prepared, and experienced and still feel uncertain. That does not mean you need more credentials or more time.

Sometimes the issue is not building confidence. It is that your confidence is leaking.

Most people try to fix confidence without first diagnosing where it is breaking down. When you apply the wrong solution to the wrong issue, you stay stuck.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar breaks down the four confidence leaks: comparison, invisibility, perfectionism, and environment. Each one impacts how you show up, how you...

Knowing AI exists is one thing. Knowing how to use it in a way that sounds like you, supports how you lead, and strengthens your personal brand is something else entirely. That gap is where a lot of professionals are stuck.

Gabrielle Kohlmeier has spent years helping people move through that gap with more clarity and confidence. As a lawyer, tech leader, and transformation executive who led global legal AI adoption at one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, she brings a practical, strategic, and dignity-centered perspective to the conversation. Her approach is rooted in grit, gr...

Are you leaving your personal brand up to luck? Some professionals do, and they'll insist that the great opportunity or recommendation that appeared at the right moment proves it. But while luck certainly plays a role in life and careers, there's a clear distinction between welcoming luck and relying on it as a strategy.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar walks through seven areas where people often leave their personal brand up to luck and why that is a mistake. From how you prepare your references to how you show up at conferences...

After years of hard work, many professionals finally reach a point where things feel stable. The role fits. The team works. The urgency slows down. But that sense of comfort can quietly turn into complacency if you stop investing in your personal brand simply because things feel “fine.”

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar explores the difference between comfort and complacency and why personal branding requires ongoing maintenance—even in seasons of stability. Through real examples from her work with clients, Paula explains why visibility, relationships, and clarity about your value should be built...

Wanting to be on a board and being ready for board service are not the same thing. Some people spend years building relationships, understanding governance, and positioning themselves as trusted advisors. Others rush the process and undermine their credibility before a real conversation even begins. Sonya Olds Som, Global Managing Partner and leader of the Legal, Risk, and Compliance Practice at DSG Global, conducts executive and board searches across industries. In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar and Sonya break down what truly signals board readiness, why mindset matters as much as experience, and how your...

Your inner voice can either talk you into your greatness or talk you out of it. That little voice shows up when you're about to take a risk, ask for something you want, or step into a room where you're not sure you belong. Most people either ignore it completely or let it run the show. Neither works. The real question is whether you know how to catch it, redirect it, and make it work for you instead of against you.

Amber Lee Forrester built Quartz Wellness Collective on the idea that your inner voice shapes everything...

In Part Two of this conversation on Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar and Rhonda Joy McLean move from formation to practice, exploring what it means to live your personal brand once leadership responsibilities deepen and visibility increases.

Rhonda Joy reflects on how her leadership style evolved over time, particularly as she navigated being “the only,” managing teams, and carrying significant responsibility for others. She shares why listening is a critical leadership discipline, how relationships and sisterhood can sustain leaders, and what she learned the hard way about burnout, boundaries, and self-care.

Paula and Rhonda also...

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar is joined by Rhonda Joy McLean for a thoughtful and deeply personal conversation about where leadership and personal brand truly begin. Long before titles, platforms, or visibility, Rhonda Joy reflects on the experiences, values, and identity work that shaped how she shows up as a leader.

Rhonda Joy shares stories from her upbringing in the Jim Crow South, integrating schools as a teenager, and learning early lessons about resilience, collaboration, and self-trust. She explores how faith, culture, and intergenerational legacy informed not only her career path, but...

Think about the lessons that shaped you early, the voices that influenced how you see the world, and what it would mean to have those reflections preserved over time.

Walter Pryor brings warmth, humor, and thoughtful vulnerability to every interaction. A public service leader, corporate executive, community advocate, and author of This Leaves Me Okay, his career reflects not just professional milestones, but a lineage shaped by nearly 30 years of handwritten letters from his grandmother, Mama Ceal, written with care, consistency, and intention.

In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula sits down with Walter...

Your face is part of your personal brand whether you acknowledge it or not. People experience you visually before you say a word. Some dismiss makeup and skincare as vanity or assume it has nothing to do with their work. Others do it themselves without realizing how small missteps can distract from the impression they want to make. Either way, an important part of your brand is being left to chance.

Osha Hinds has spent over a decade helping people show up with intention. She works with everyone from corporate professionals to brides and understands that makeup...