Sophie Milliken, CEO of Moja, on how to raise your personal profile

Tell us about the personal benefits you’ve seen in your own career from taking this approach?

My own story best illustrates the success that can be achieved by raising your profile. I started being proactive on social media and built up a solid following across LinkedIn and Twitter in particular. I started speaking at conferences and events and being a podcast guest. I won a load of relevant business awards, both for me and my first business. Being on the boards of charities I care about gave me the chance to volunteer my time to important causes and also gave me access to a wider network, which led to being introduced to interesting people.

Writing my first book brought an invitation to deliver a TEDx talk which, when released, created a whole new range of opportunities, including a column in an industry magazine, further podcasts, radio and TV appearances – all seriously good fun!

The benefit of increasing your profile is that it makes people feel they know you before you even meet them, which then makes it easier to do business. As well as higher sales, there is also an increase in fun opportunities that come your way.

Can anybody work with you, or do you have to meet certain criteria to qualify for Moja? 

As long as you want to raise your profile, Moja is for you.

Whether you’re just getting started with building your profile, or you’re already relatively established, at Moja we will ensure you hit all the right targets to get known.

The service is entirely bespoke – what process does a new client go through?

We take time to develop client relationships and know that no two clients are the same.

As a new client, you will complete our quiz to ‘Measure Your Moja’, which evaluates your current profile. Your results show where your profile is currently performing and which areas there are for development. After evaluating your profile, you get expert tips and advice from us to help you get started.

At Moja, we then use the results to craft an individual package for you. We use research (including your profile evaluation results, SEO performance and Google rankings) to determine which areas you could develop. We then pull everything together to show what we can do for you.

The next step in the journey is a discussion to share our findings and understand where you want to grow your profile. We work with you to develop a bespoke monthly plan, determining which areas to focus on over the year. There are regular touchpoints to evaluate and measure progress. You then see the results!

And what kind of results can clients expect to see?

With the service being so individual, results will very much vary depending on what each client is focusing on.

Overall, clients can expect to gain award recognition, grow their following on social media platforms, get more coverage in local and national press, get their voice heard in podcasts, and get on the board of organisations or charities. They can expect to get known in the areas they want to be known.

By growing their profiles, clients will see greater business growth. What I think is just as important is that they will be presented with more exciting opportunities, expand their networks, and form connections with like-minded people.

Do you think women in particular, especially here in the North East, need to learn to essentially ‘blow their own trumpet’ a little more in the workplace? 

Absolutely! As women, we often get an attack of the imposter syndrome. Men get it too, but I think it’s more pronounced in women. I feel the thought of blowing your own trumpet is worse than actually doing it. We worry what people might think or that we will get a bad reaction, but in my experience the opposite tends to happen. The North East in particular has such a welcoming community of women, and spotting someone you know winning an award or being featured in the press tends to result in a high five rather than anything mean.

What would you say to encourage the more reticent of our readers to give Moja a go? 

Think about what your profile is missing now and what it would require for it to grow. Consider the time this needs and how amazing it would be to have a team supporting you to do all of that. I can emphasise that I’ve done all this myself and it has led to some seriously cool opportunities that I wouldn’t have had unless I’d been focused on getting known.

How much does the service cost? 

We work with clients in different ways. We offer online and in-person workshops across our full offer at £150. Our in-person workshops take place at our Newcastle city centre office, which is definitely worth a visit. To get the best results, clients should join us on a retainer package, which starts at £1,000 per month.

What’s your ultimate ambition for Moja?

We want to be the UK market leader in raising the profiles of interesting and cool people. We’ve just launched in Newcastle and have planned launches for Manchester and London too. Location isn’t a barrier and we are expecting to pick up some clients from further afield.

I’d like to see us working with a healthy mix of entrepreneurs and corporates. Ultimately, seeing the increase in sales and the fun opportunities that our clients get will be seriously rewarding.

Moja have devised a simple profile evaluator to show where your profile is already performing and any areas that they can help you grow. Simply choose the answers that best reflect your current profile; Moja then send your results straight to your inbox.  

Ready to measure your moja? Follow this link to get started: https://profile-scorecard.thisismoja.com/

Find out more about Moja and how they can help raise your professional profile by visiting their website and stay up to date with Sophie’s progress by following Moja on Instagram