Personal Brand from Scratch – How I Got Voted 9th Most Influential SharePoint Influencer Globally

Up to 2006, I was in Project Administrator, Secretary roles my whole career till I was introduced to SharePoint. The bug bit and the platform became my whole life. I started my business (Lets Collaborate) with basic skills in the bigger scheme of things and learnt as I went along.

Within 2 years I had one my first award. By the end of the decade, I had won 21 more, spoken at 23 conferences in 6 countries, got 3 certifications, authored a book, written hundreds of blogs, consulted to Billion Rand a year clients, and command Boardrooms.

SharePoint was great for my career.

But how did I get that right? I was just a PA from the suburbs. What made me so special?

Here’s my journey.

1) I had a fanatical passion for SharePoint

Something just clicked in me when I was introduced to SharePoint in 2006. When it became my responsibility, I leapt in with both feet and worked harder than I ever have in my life to learn something. I wanted to be “the SharePoint person” at the company – a huge 43 000 people strong bank.

My boss in his wisdom told me I would need to work for that brand. He told me about one of the developers on the floor who specialised in just one thing. He earned a fortune, and any time the tech word came up, his name was next to it. So my boss said to me, “if you want people to say SharePoint-Veronique, you will have to build a brand to change their perception of you are a PA”.

It was honestly some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten.

2) I had zero idea what to do next, so I provided a service

But I had no idea how to build a brand. I didn’t even know what a brand was! So I figured I’d start with what I already knew - how to be the quickest, most helpful PA that ever lived using SharePoint. I was part of a larger SharePoint team and I took off!

Noone could respond to queries as fast as I could. Noone could build sites as fast as I could, nor as nicely. People started coming to me instead of the heads of the SharePoint project. Within a year, I knew this is what I wanted to do fulltime.

But I was hired as a PA, not a SharePoint Specialist. So I did what any self-respecting PA would do, I nagged – and my saying of “he who nags the most, wins”, was born. Another year later, that same boss gave in and created a position for me and hired someone else to take the job I originally had.

I didn’t stop there. I was snowed under work! So I told him I now needed an assistant. He rolled his eyes but got me one. She and I tore through the business like a whirlwind. We were unstoppable! I taught her all my tricks and we were a well-oiled machine!

My name was now synonymous with SharePoint. Success!

I built an entire new competency centre in the business. My goal was to win the hearts and minds of the people, and an award that was seldom given to consultants. I worked myself to death to earn that having 2 nervous breakdowns in the process.

Year 3, and by now I had attracted the attention of Microsoft and was invited to attend a SharePoint user group. I was the only businessperson, and only woman, surrounded by hardcore developers. I was terrified and have never felt so stupid in my life.

For months, I never said a word at those monthly meetings. One day I plucked up the courage to ask a question – and to my surprise, none of them knew the answer! It completely freed me and they couldn’t shut me up after that. I took over the group in a short space of time and turned into the event of the month in the industry that grew to 3 regions.

Back at work, award nomination time came around. My second boss nominated me. I was ecstatic! All my hard work was about to pay off. But come award day, and they gave to my assistant instead of me because she was a permanent employee and I was a consultant.

I resigned on the spot.

Key Takeaways :

• Things that other people build can be your success too.

• Getting involved in a local user group was the trigger to change it all.

• Figuring I had nothing to lose made me brave.

• I did the thing that terrified me the most, and I didn’t die. I thrived.

• Take no sh1t!

3) So I started my own business

I had no plan, no clients, R30 000 in my account. But because of my involvement in the user group, the CEO of one of the companies who came to my user group, offered to buy my company on the spot. I had been operating 8 hours. I turned him down and was hired for some jobs by the people from the user group. My bookings started streaming in.

Key Takeaways :

• You must be crazy passionate about something to want to put the work into making it succeed.

• It is up to you to change people’s perceptions of you.

• If you have a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) that you are obsessed about, you will be singularly focused and achieve it.

• Your past is no reflection on what you are capable of in your future.

4) Started social media accounts, awards start rolling in

I started a Twitter account and tweeted relentlessly about SharePoint. I posted incessantly on LinkedIn. I had a Facebook page, but it wasn’t as active as my Twitter account. I was on every single online forum I could find about SharePoint and contacted every single global SharePoint rockstar at the time. I stalked them and followed them around like a puppy absorbing everything they said. I answered every single question I could online, and my international reputation started to grow.

Then, I submitted a business plan to a competition from British Airways and won! Ten business class tickets to anywhere in the world, valid for a year! What a score! I packed my bags and went to every single conference I could overseas. I applied to speak at all of them and was accepted to all of them. I was everywhere – at user groups, conferences, online forums, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I also started a blog around then. I met all my SharePoint heroes, then joined their ranks as someone to be reckoned with.

The motherload of awards in our industry, is MVP. Microsoft Most Valued Professional. It took me 3 years of blood, sweat and tears; but I became the first women in Africa to ever win it – SharePoint MVP was mine! I put South Africa on the global SharePoint map! I have never been so proud of myself!

Key Takeaways :

• Find out who the industry leaders are in your field, start following them, and talking to them.

• If you don’t enter a competition, you can’t win a competition.

• Sometimes something completely unrelated to what you are doing, can launch your success. The British Airways competition was to write a business plan, nothing to do with SharePoint.

• Feed the thing that feeds you. I used those tickets to extend my global reputation.

5) More awards and more hard work

Between all this jet-setting and online activity, I built a client base. I built my business. I built a portfolio. I built social proof. It all paid off and won 18 more awards.

I tweeted and posted daily, blogged weekly, went to user groups monthly, hosted conferences and disrupted the landscape in every way I could. It made me some bitter, vicious enemies, but many more people celebrated me for it.

The peak of my award streak was winning 9^th place in the Harmonie Gold Top 25 SharePoint Influencers. It’s a peer-reviewed, voted for by the people award that took me a decade to achieve! I held my breath when I was nominated, just delighted to even be on the list – and then came in 9^th ! My business partner phoned me at 5 in the morning shouting with glee! That one, SharePoint MVP and the Top 20 Small Business Award were honestly some of the proudest moments in my life. The Top 20 award had 6500 entries!

Of course, the world went crazy after that and nothing has been the same since.

Key Takeaways :

• I used free social media tools to share my knowledge.

• I used free online forums in my industry to establish myself as a specialist in my field.

• I wrote blogs to establish myself as a thought leader in my industry.

• I hosted events and brought in international events to throw my brand into the spotlight.

• I did not give up when I was bullied relentlessly for years by veterans in the industry because of my success.

• None of these things make me special. I just believed in what I did with such heated passion that I everything I touched turned to gold.

6) 15 years in

My company turns 15 this year.

To this day, I have less than 10 000 followers on all my social media accounts but get thousands of views on my content. I have zero SharePoint videos on a YouTube channel.

I built a brand in the company, in my province, in my country and around the world in my industry.

I designed a lifestyle that suits me. I get to work with the people I want to work with. We are fully booked all the time with work constantly coming in. I can do my job with my eyes closed. I designed a methodology that works every time.

So many are aiming to be influencers, me included. But there are many ways to achieve your goals. It just takes time. I made a huge success of my life purely because I liked a piece of software and got involved in the community.