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

What if the behavior you think is making people like you is the exact thing preventing them from respecting you, considering you for new opportunities, and taking you seriously as a leader?

People-pleasing rarely feels like a problem when you're doing it. It feels like kindness, generosity, and being a good teammate. In this episode, Lida gets personal about a moment she said yes to something she never should have, spent three weekends resenting it, and realized she had been quietly teaching people that her “no" wasn't a real option. Sound familiar?

Using research from Brené Brown and Adam Grant, her own values framework, and the direct connection to self-talk and imposter syndrome she unpacked in Episodes 21 and 25, Lida breaks down what people-pleasing actually costs you, and the practical tools to stop it starting today.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why people-pleasing is a personal branding problem. How chronic accommodation creates a reputation that's likable but not influential, and what that costs your career
• How to tell the difference between real generosity and people-pleasing. The three distinctions (generosity, collaboration, kindness) and how to identify which one is actually driving your behavior
• The self-talk underneath the automatic yes. The internal tape that runs before every yes that should have been a no, and how to interrupt it
• Why boundaries free you instead of limit you. The playground study that reframes everything you thought you knew about setting limits
• The values filter. Three questions to run every future yes or no through, starting with your next high-stakes decision
• Liked vs. trusted. Why these aren't the same thing, and which one actually builds influence

If you've ever felt quiet resentment after saying yes, or wondered why people describe you as agreeable but never as decisive, this episode will name what's happening, and give you a way forward. Links from this episode

The Human Advantage: Elevating Executive Presence & Influence in the Age of AI

Episode #21 and #25

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What if the biggest threat to your reputation isn't what you say out loud, but the story you're telling yourself before you even open your mouth?

In this episode, Lida Citroën shares a personal moment that spiraled into a fully imagined situation, and uses it to unpack one of the most overlooked drivers of leadership presence: your self-talk! Lida breaks down the three-step narrative formula that shapes how you're perceived, and why the conversation happening in your head matters just as much as the one happening in the room.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How self-talk shapes your reputation. The three-part chain from what you tell yourself, to what you tell others, to what others tell others about you
• Why your mind treats your own words as fact, and how negative self-talk leaks out even when you think you're hiding it
• The line between reframing and faking, and why "fake it till you make it" deserves a closer look
• How to use physiological cues to your advantage. The exact reframe Lida uses before every stage appearance to turn nervous energy into confident presence
• Why overconfidence backfires. The nuance between owning your value and tipping into arrogance

Whether you're prepping for a high-stakes conversation, walking into a networking event, or just trying to quiet a critical inner voice, this episode gives you a practical way to make sure your internal narrative is working for you, not against you. Links from this episode Executive Coaching with Lida Control The Narrative Stay Connected LinkedIn YouTube Instagram Facebook

What happens to your personal brand when you run multiple businesses, wear multiple hats, and show up in completely different spaces, all at the same time? In this episode, Lida Citroën sits down with Rani Alfers, entrepreneur, insurance agency owner, skincare brand owner, and host of the Working Women Mentor Podcast, to explore one of the most common challenges professionals with multiple businesses, or that manage several teams face: how to build a personal brand that’s clear, credible, and authentically yours, even when your ventures look nothing alike. Rani brings a refreshing and deeply human perspective on what it really means to show up as yourself across industries, roles, and responsibilities, without losing your voice, your values, or your sense of self in the process. In this episode, you will learn: • How to find the single through line that connects all your ventures to one clear personal brand • Why the "professional voice" trap is costing you connection and credibility • How AI is reshaping personal branding and why your authentic voice matters more than ever Whether you are juggling multiple businesses, navigating different professional roles, or simply trying to figure out how to show up consistently as yourself, this conversation is for you! Links from this episode

The New Rules of Influence

Executive Coaching Stay Connected LinkedIn

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Every leader thinks it won't happen to them, until it does… What do you do when your reputation, the one you've spent years building, is suddenly on the line?

In this episode, Lida Citroën tackles one of the most emotionally charged and professionally complex challenges a leader can face: a reputation crisis. Whether you made a mistake, were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or became the target of a smear campaign, everything you stand for is now in question, and how you respond next matters greatly.

Drawing from 20+ years of reputation repair work and her book, Control the Narrative, Lida walks you through the real emotional and professional impact of a reputation crisis, on you and on those around you, and shares the step-by-step framework she uses with her executive coaching clients to navigate it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why isolating and removing your social media can make things worse

• How to separate emotion from fact when everything feels catastrophic

• What an "apology tour" looks like, and when you need one

• When to consider legal action (and when not to)

• How to rebuild your presence and protect your reputation going forward

Whether you're in crisis right now, know someone who is, or want to be prepared in case it ever happens, this episode is for you. Links from this episode Reputation Repair Coaching Control The Narrative Stay connected LinkedIn YouTube Instagram Facebook