Nicole Pence Becker speaks to a room full of women on the importance of personal branding at the Chamber’s Women in Business luncheon Wednesday afternoon.
Erika Malone | The Tribune
Fayeann Hauer, left and Bridget Molinari share a conversation at the Women in Business luncheon Wednesday afternoon.
Erika Malone | The Tribune
Nicole Pence Becker talks to a group of women at a table during the Women in Business luncheon Wednesday afternoon.
Erika Malone | The Tribune
Jackson County Chamber Executive Director Dan Robison welcomes over 190 women to the Women in Business luncheon Wednesday afternoon.
Erika Malone | The Tribune
Everyone has their own personal brand that is a unique culmination of their experiences, skills and values.
Identifying and building upon that brand was a challenge more than 190 women were given Wednesday at the Jackson County Chamber’s Women in Business Luncheon at the Pines Evergreen Room in Seymour. The event serves as a way to empower women and provide them with opportunities to network with each other.
Fayeann Hauer, a physician recruiter with Schneck Medical Center, said this was her first time attending the event.
“This is a great opportunity to meet people and connect with other women,” she said. “I am excited to hear the speaker.”
While carefully recruiting physicians to join the team, it’s not the only role she carries.
“My role is very rewarding,” she said. “I am also a new mom and that role takes on a whole new meaning.”
Hauer said it’s often more males are recruited than females, but when a female doctor is hired it’s something special.
“The first female doctor I recruited was an OBGYN who later on ended up delivering my baby,” she said. “It was a full circle moment.”
This year’s guest speaker, Nicole Pence Becker — owner and operator of Pence Media Group — spoke about the importance of personal branding and the evolution of her own brand.
With more than 15 years of experience as a journalist, communications, media production, social media and public relations expert, she founded Pence Media Group in 2017 to bring together experts to build brands and tell stories.
Pence Becker has won four Emmy awards as a broadcast journalist, three Telly awards as an executive producer, six MUSE awards as a creative director and three PRSA Pinnacle awards as a public relations and marketing expert.
Pence Media Group is a full-service public relations, media and marketing consultancy working with startups to Fortune 500s.
Pence Becker said when people think of branding it’s often associated with imagery or a logo such as Nike or Coca-Cola. Over the years, brands have stuck to their classic foundations, but have evolved their content to attract different audiences.
“Personal branding is really important and can be really fun, but it can also evolve just like corporate branding,” she said. “I am going to show you how my personal branding has evolved over the years to align with my goals.”
Displaying various pictures of her years as a news anchor, with her family and the 12 women she has employed through her business, Pence Becker used Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, the highest grossing tour ever, as an example of how someone can evolve their personal brand.
“She basically said to everybody, ‘here is who I was at this time in my life and at this time in my life and so on,’” she said. “You see the evolution of who she was and how she presented herself visually during each of those eras.”
Pence Becker talked about her “TV Girl Era” starting out at Columbus North High School when the only broadcast experience at the time was begging the principal to let her read the morning announcements. For a senior project, she started the “Stall Street Journal” and would come to school every Wednesday morning to tape her writings to the back of every bathroom stall.
“I thought I was a real journalist,” she said. “But it was a way of giving myself an outlet to be creative. To write journalistically, get information out there and talk about things happening at the school.”
After graduating from DePauw University, Pence Becker would serve as an anchor for several different new stations including Fox59/CBS4, WTHR, WLEX and Indiana’s NewsCenter.
Being a journalist became her identity, then after having twins and another child shortly after she changed her brand out of necessity.
“I was now in my mommy era,” she said. “Sometimes you are forced into a new era and personal branding is about embracing those changes and making them positive.”
During this era, she also became the communications director for her father Greg Pence during his successful run for the Indiana’s Sixth Congressional District seat in 2018.
“I had a chance to learn what it was truly like to be a marketing communications professional,” she said. “I put all the skills I learned in TV that I didn’t really know I learned and applied them.”
Leaving the politics behind, Pence Becker wanted to bring herself back into the community. She first started a bog called Skin Babe, where she brought women together to talk about self-love and care. Now, she’s back in her “Boss Girl Era” with Pence Media Group.
Pence Becker said a personal brand is often confused with reputation. First impressions, relationships and communication all impact how someone is perceived, but a personal brand is more intentional.
“Your personal brand is how you want people to see you,” she said. “It should be authentically aligned with who you are and make sure you are doing it because it is a reflection of your interests and your abilities.”
Pence Becker said it’s important to have a good mindset as not every day will be a good day, but there can be moments of positivity every day.
“You can impact someone in a positive way and also motivate yourself to grow,” she said. “You have no idea who you are impacting on the other end of your communication.”
Pence Becker gave the women three steps to follow when creating their personal brand Get Inspired, Brainstorm and Create.
“Your brand is unique to you,” she said.
Arann Banks, executive director of the Jackson County Visitor Center, said the chamber always has a great turn-out for events like this one.
“Women just want to be with other women and connect,” she said. “The chamber does a great job of giving us the opportunity to let that happen.”
Tonja Couch, financial advisor for Edward Jones in Seymour, said she really enjoyed what Pence Becker had to say.
“Oftentimes women see each other as competition, but if we look at our authentic skills and abilities, we can lift each other up in a positive way to help each other grow,” she said.