In this episode of the Lead With Your Brand! podcast, Jayzen Patria wraps up his five-step framework by breaking down Step 5: Be Your Own Chief Marketing Officer. If the earlier steps focused on defining and shaping your brand, this final step is all about visibility and making sure your value is seen, heard, and recognized.

Jayzen explains that great work alone isn’t enough. If no one knows about it, it doesn’t move your career forward! Drawing from classic marketing principles, he outlines the three key ways to promote your brand: advertising (what you say about yourself), influencers (what others say about you), and word of mouth (what’s said when you’re not in the room). He introduces concepts to emphasize the importance of repetition and consistency, and challenges listeners to take ownership of how they show up, especially on platforms like LinkedIn and in everyday professional interactions.

Tune in to learn how to step into the role of your own CMO, build visibility with intention, and ensure your brand is consistently communicated across every touchpoint in your career.

Key Takeaways:

• You are the chief marketing officer of your career. No one will promote you better than you.
• Visibility matters. Great work without exposure limits your opportunities.
• The “rule of seven” shows that repetition is required before people even notice your brand.
• LinkedIn is your digital billboard. Optimize it or risk being invisible.
• A clear elevator pitch helps you communicate your value quickly and effectively.
• Consistency in how you show up builds recognition and trust over time.

The episode then transitions into a compelling conversation with Matt Brooks, Vice President of Enterprise Data Tech and Solutions at Nationwide. With over two decades of experience across GE, Bank of America, and Nationwide, Matt shares how he built a career at the intersection of data, technology, and human impact. He offers a fresh perspective on AI, not as a replacement for thinking, but as a thought partner, and explains how using real data, curiosity, and intentional questioning can unlock better insights and outcomes. From leading high-performing teams to redefining how technology serves people, Matt’s story highlights the power of aligning your career with purpose, staying adaptable, and raising your hand when opportunity calls.

Guest Bio

Matt Brooks

VP and Head of Enterprise Data and Technology Solutions

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company

With over 20 years of experience in leading data and analytics teams, Matt is a trailblazing Technology Executive at Nationwide, where he drives digital transformation across the enterprise.

Matt has led teams across technology, learning and development and audit in three different mega corporations spanning the energy, aerospace, digital, financial services, and insurance industries. Matt is highly adaptable and can make strategic connections across domains in a way that inspires and motivates his business and tech partners. His personal mission is to build technology solutions powered by data to better the lives of clients, especially in their times of greatest need.

Matt is a technical trailblazer and talent maximizer. He brings the best out in teams and colleagues using his dynamic energy and infectious, problem-solving mindset. He’s strategic, but also a maverick, ready to try new solutions that nobody has successfully tried before.

In his free time, he loves experiencing new cultures, creative writing, and learning new languages...while he’s not building new GPT agents.

Links

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop, visit Jayzenpatria.com

Check out Matt’s substack : daitapoints.brooksny.net

In this episode of the Lead With Your Brand! podcast, Jayzen Patria continues his five-step framework by breaking down Step 4: Keeping Up Your Image and Shaping Your Signature Style. If earlier steps focused on defining your brand DNA, this installment challenges listeners to operationalize it and turn who you are into a consistent, recognizable experience across everything you do.

Shaping Your Signature Style. Jayzen explains that powerful personal brands are not just defined, they are designed. Your signature style is your “formula” or “recipe card”: a set of repeatable behaviors, visual cues, and execution patterns that make your work unmistakably yours. Drawing on examples from Hollywood storytelling and media brands like Bravo, he shows how the most successful brands apply a clear filter to everything they create, ensuring consistency, clarity, and connection with their audience.

Tune in to hear how defining your personal “secret sauce” can eliminate inconsistency, strengthen your presence, and ensure that no matter where you show up—or what role you’re in—you are always delivering work that feels distinctly and memorably you.

Key Takeaways:

• Your signature style is your brand in action—a repeatable formula, not a one-time statement
• Consistency across your work is what makes your brand recognizable and trusted
• You can succeed in any role or industry if you apply your unique brand filter to everything you do
• Your visual presence (appearance, environment, presentation) must align with your brand—or risk creating a disconnect
• Your best past projects hold clues to your “secret sauce”—study them to define your formula
• Strong brands rely on repeatable actions and behaviors that can be applied across any project
• You are not meant to blend in—you are meant to build a signature that stands out

The episode then transitions into a dynamic conversation with Melinda Sanna, CEO and Founder of LookLook, a global consumer insights platform serving luxury brands. With a career spanning Coca-Cola, top advertising agencies, and entrepreneurship, Melinda shares how she built a seven-figure business by identifying gaps in traditional market research and creating a more human, high-touch approach. From her “white-glove” philosophy to building curated communities like the Luxuryverse and Beautyverse, she offers powerful insights on brand as a belief system, the importance of curiosity and authenticity in leadership, and how solving real problems can become the foundation for long-term success.

Guest Bio

Malinda Sanna

Founder and CEO

LookLook

Malinda Sanna is the founder and CEO of LookLook, a 7-figure proprietary consumer insights platform she's built over 15 years with a team of 16, specializing in luxury market research through what she calls "Cultivated Communities", recruiting participants one relationship at a time rather than relying on third-party panels. She created the Beautyverse (1,000+ high-net-worth women focused on luxury beauty) and Luxuryverse, two proprietary communities for luxury studies. With a global team of executives in New York, Paris, Dubai, São Paulo, Beijing, and Shanghai, she's conducted over 900 studies with 30,000+ research participants, serving clients including Shiseido, BMW, LVMH, Google, Mondelez, and Nestlé, while also running a Substack newsletter with ~600 subscribers including major luxury brand executives from around the world.

As a bootstrapper who built profitable software without venture capital and a former singer who studied classical music and English literature at Goshen College, Malinda has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, CNBC, HuffPost, Forbes, Bloomberg, Business Insider, The Washington Post, AdWeek, and Inc.

Links

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop, visit Jayzenpatria.com