What do you wish you'd known when you started your career? Did you understand the role personal branding, relationship-building, and authenticity would play in it? In this episode, we help you find direction, meaning, and the tools for a successful career.

Professionals often enter the workforce without much knowledge about personal branding, networking, and social media management. In this episode, Lida shares what she wishes she had known when she first started out.

Joining her is Beau Saltz, Director of Workforce Solutions at PEG Colorado, who built his career on authenticity, relationship-building, and a constant commitment to learning. His story is a real-world case study in personal branding and reputation management principles in action.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The three questions to ask about your career: what direction you want it to take, how you want to be known, and the mark you want to leave
• Why perception matters, and how others' perceptions of you shape decisions about your future
• The difference between authenticity and transparency (especially online), and why you can be real without telling people everything
• How your online presence can work for or against you, and how consistency across platforms signals what you care about to employers, clients, and colleagues
• How to build a network before you need one, and why maintaining relationships matters more than making them
• How to conduct an informational interview the right way, and its benefits for your career

Whether you're starting out, starting over, or striving for the next level, this episode gives you the foundation to move forward with clarity and confidence. Links from this episode LinkedIn Learning Courses Stay connected LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook

Courage and vulnerability aren't soft skills. They're key pieces of the foundation of a strong personal brand that builds long-lasting influence.

In this episode, Lida draws from The New Rules of Influence to make the case that showing up with courage and vulnerability isn't a weakness or a liability, but it's the key to building a leadership brand and influence that connects with your teams and stakeholders, and establishes trust and credibility.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why courage is not the absence of fear and what it actually means to take action before you feel ready
• That courage isn't an end state, it's a muscle built through small, consistent acts of showing up even when it's uncomfortable
• The difference between being real and being transparent and why you don't have to share everything to build deep, lasting trust
• Why vulnerability is the engine of influence and how it creates the psychological safety that makes people follow you, believe you, and bring their best
• Why AI makes this more urgent than ever. AI creates sameness, and your willingness to be real is something that can't be replicated

This episode will give you a courage framework and empower you to start showing up with realness today. _______________________ Links from this episode The New Rules of Influence Executive Coaching with Lida _______________________ Stay connected LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook

Many leaders say they want a high-performance team, but few have a clear philosophy for how to build one.

In this episode, Lida sits down with Paul Barwick-Copeland, Director of Business Consulting and Value Realization Services at NiCE, one of the world's leading AI and customer experience technology companies. Paul leads global high-performing teams across EMEA and APAC, spanning multiple cultures, time zones, and languages. What makes him stand out isn't his title or results, but the way he leads.

Paul's leadership philosophy is rare. Built on authenticity, empowerment, and a willingness to grow people even when it means letting them go.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The difference between managing and leading, and how knowing the distinction changes every decision you make about your team
• How to lead with consistency across cultures. Why authentic leadership transcends time zones, languages, and cultural differences, and what that means for global leaders
• How to hire for positive disruption. Why Paul actively recruits people who will challenge him, and what he looks for beyond credentials
• How to build a brilliant team, not just a collection of strong individuals. The philosophy of collective over ego, and how to create psychological safety for people to thrive
• How to see potential in people before they see it in themselves. The conversations Paul has with his team that go far beyond the standard performance review
• Why letting people go is an act of leadership, not failure. How supporting someone's growth, even out of your team, is one of the most powerful things you can do as a leader
• How to stay authentic as a leader in an AI-driven world. What it looks like to lead authentically inside one of the most AI-forward companies in the world

If you lead a team, or want to, this episode will give you the philosophy for authentic leadership that you can start applying immediately. Links from this episode Executive Coaching with Lida Stay Connected LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook