← AI-Driven Marketer: Master Practical AI Marketing Skills
AI-Driven Marketer: Master Practical AI Marketing Skills
How to Build a Personal Brand AI Can't Copy
00:33:54
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- [00:05]
A
If there's one thing AI cannot be ever, no matter how smart it gets, no matter how much it can actually do, even when it's a robot and can actually go and clean our houses, for us, there's one thing it can never be, Ken, and that is it can never be a person. It will always, ever be a robot. Which is why I think that's gonna be a competitive advantage for us. It can never be a person, and maybe it's doing better at everything for us, but it can never be a person, and therefore it can never have a personal brand. But when it comes to personal brands, that's kind of a soft and loosey goosey topic. Because honestly, brands are kind of loosey goosey. Like, what is a brand exactly? Is it just reputation? Is it just what you're known for? What is it exactly and how is it a personal brand? There's a few different even pieces of advice out there that, oh, it just makes me cringe. But they're like the kind of prevailing wisdom people just kind of throw around in comments or in books all the time. So in this episode, I thought it'd be good to actually sit down and talk about what a personal brand is so people can actually use it as leverage in this age of AI to actually become an authority. So that the. The kid who mastered ChatGPT at 16 doesn't steal your job as a consultant. Right, because that's what we're working against. We're working against the whiz kids who are good at AI and don't know nothing about nothing. So how do we stand out? Well, personal brand's one of those ways. So welcome back to the AI Driven Marketer in our series here for our podcast. A book. For the book Own the Show. This is. This is chapter shoot. I don't even know what chapter we're on. We're many chapters, and I think it's chapter 11.
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B
Either.
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A
Chapter 11, creation process. It's 13. Dang. We are well on our way. We're almost done three fourths of the way in into our book here, and it's been exciting to talk about the things that are a little bit more on the softer side, the things that we can still lean into with our experience, with our stories, with our values in order to actually stand out as well as mastering the tools. We want to master the tools, but we want to figure out what the tools can't do in order to become the authority out there. So I'm Dan Sanchez and I'm joined by my co host, Ken Freire.
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B
What's up, bro? This is going to be a good.
- [02:19]
A
Convo today and we're going to dive in deep here and hopefully by the time you finish this episode, you will have some practical steps on how to actually start building your own personal brand and continue working on your brand. That's going to be a big part of this conversation, is that it's not a one and done thing. Like this thing continues going and how to actually use it. And I think it's going to become more important and I think you need to know how to build one. So let's get into the bad advice first, right? Because there's essentially two massive lies out there when it comes to branding in general. But of course that pulls into personal brands, Ken. And this one stings a little bit because I used to believe this since I have a background in graphic design. But like a brand essentially was the logo, right? It was the logo. It was the aesthetics, it was the look, it was the feel, the feel, the feel. And I've seen a lot of rebrands, we even call them rebrands. And really they just redesigned the website with fresh colors, new fonts, logo got changed. Hopefully it's not like a cringy logo. Kind of like when Calendly updated their logo. Do you remember that? Yeah, like a toilet. Oh, bro. Do you remember the logo for the 2020, 2034 Olympics in Utah? And you can't even, you're like, what is that? Oh, it says Utah 2030. Oh, no, you can't even read it. Lots of rebrands out there are first brands, like the Olympics logo going on right now. But for a lot of people, that's the brand, right? They say, good, do better branding. That's usually kind of what they mean is the visuals.
- [03:56]
B
And I think when it comes to personal branding, there's a lot of people who struggle. And I was in the same boat where I struggled because I'm not like an artistic person. I was like, I don't know what colors work with my mood and my voice.
- [04:07]
A
What do you think of. Right.
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B
It's like, I'm like, I like the color yellow and orange. Should I add that? Or blue?
- [04:14]
A
Like, yeah.
- [04:15]
B
And that's where a lot of people get stuck on personal branding. And that, that's not it at all.
- [04:20]
A
It's funny because those things, the graphic designers will argue with me, but I find the visuals don't. They don't mean anything. They're just visuals. They might have meaning behind them. But like, what, what are they. It's like makeup, but you don't have a person to apply it to. It's like, okay, cool, we got some tools, and you can apply some makeup. But what are we actually trying to come across as? Designers think about that a lot, but it's not actually the essence of what's in a personal brand. So it doesn't actually help us figure out how to build a strong personal brand, just maybe helps us look cool. That's. I guess that's something. It's valuable a little bit. But the other piece is kind of the opposite of this. It's not necessarily. But it's my. One of my favorite sayings that you see online is just be yourself. Just be you, Boo, boo. And I'm always like, how confusing is that? Like, which part of myself? Like, the past self, my current, like, as I am self, which is always kind of moving? Or the future self that I want to become, the aspirational self, the self that people actually see me as, or the self that I identify with? Because there's a lot of different me's out there, and that's. I don't know. Did you ever get any clarity from that statement? Or you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, stop being fake.
- [05:35]
B
Yeah, no, yeah, I wrestled with it because it's like, more from a vulnerability standpoint. If most people who get to know me, I'm a really transparent individual about a lot of stuff. So it's like, who do I be myself with and how transparent do I go? Is it an appropriate time to be vulnerable and transparent Every single scenario that I'm in? So, like, just being yourself can mean a lot of things, and even, like, just be yourself when it comes to how you dress.
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A
Right.
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B
Like, I would, hands down, all the time, would rather just wear a hoodie and shorts, and that's being myself. But I would never wear that to a funeral. Yeah, right. Or a wedding.
- [06:15]
A
So are you being fake showing up to a funeral in nice clothes and black clothes when you usually wear colorful clothes? You don't usually wear colorful clothes, actually. But say if you did, you're like, no. And is it weird to, like, be someone else around different people or to behave a little differently in different contexts? You know, if I, like. If I go to youth group, but I'm like. Like a little bit more boisterous because junior hires can be. Is that inauthentic? I don't think so. So what does it mean to be inauthentic? Because we're here talking about, like, becoming a thought leader, an Authentic thought leader. So it's got to mean something. And that's where I'm going to try to stack. I think we're going to try to simplify it a little bit. There's a lot of components to good branding and all that kind of stuff, but I'm going to try to boil it down into three things and none of them have anything to do with your logo. Literally think you could, you could have no visual aesthetic. Of course it's, you're always going to have visual aesthetics. People are going to see you, you have a look, you have a face, right? You're going to be wearing clothes of some kind. Even if you're doing your whole website in Google Docs. Well, I guess that's a look. It's the most non look look. But you know, you and I have seen websites that are literally just like pretty boring websites. It's just lots of copy, just rows of copy, document looking copy. It's not even organized, you know, and somehow they win yet they have a brand. So what is it? I'm going to break it down into three things and then we're going to break each one apart. A personal brand is built on your values and beliefs. This is the foundation, your stories and experiences and then the future self that you're growing towards. That last one is a unique take. The other two are less so. Like other people have said this, and I'll tell you where I've heard it from, but this last one's a little bit unique that I think is a missing puzzle piece for the whole personal brand equation that we're going to talk about. So let's actually talk about the values and beliefs first. I actually heard this from a book, a guy named Patrick Hanlon, who wrote the book Primal Branding and he didn't even phrase it quite this way. He's like, all good brands have these 10 things essentially and he kind of weighted them all the same. He's like, all good brands have a manifesto, they have a, a leader, they have pagans, you know, people who stand against the brand. You know, these are good, strong brands. But when as I looked through his list, the thing that he had is like, I think he had as a creed. I'm like a creed. What is that? That's actually beliefs, things that you believe to be true about your world. Even ones that might make you a little strange, you know, if you're all in on one thing, uncompromising, they're like really hardcore beliefs. Not the ones of like integrity, you know, which is like A permission to play. I think Patrick Lencioni calls integrity. It's like, of course, you have to have some level integrity to do business. Of course you value integrity. But do you value integrity like 10x farther than everybody else? Right. That's. That's. Those are core beliefs, and I think those are like the foundation for a reason on that. Everything else can be built on there. You can actually build out from your beliefs that make you a little strange. You can build out messaging, and from that messaging, you can build out all the visual stuff, which is really just representations of the beliefs. Kind of like you think of the Christian cross. It's just two lines. But those two simple lines have gotten people killed, you know, or. Or have caused people to change their whole lives or a lot of people to change their whole lives. Right? Just those two little lines. Because those two little lines. Well, they're not just two little lines. They represent something that's much bigger. Stories that represent values. Right? So to me, that's like the essence of a personal brand is those values and beliefs. And we've talked about this a lot in the series, the own to show series in the book so far. But now that you're starting to hear me talk about it, do you find you have a personal brand, Ken?
- [10:17]
B
Yeah. You know, what I find most people will struggle with when it comes to values and beliefs is that in their mind, they're trying to organize them or prioritize which ones should be at the forefront and which one should be lesser. You know, and you say this all over the place, that there. There's certain things that matter more and certain things that don't, but absolutely. I think when I think about personal brands as value, like, what are our values and beliefs? It makes me say, hey, I want to bring all of myself to the interactions with people. And that's gonna look slightly different, right? With who I'm hanging out with. Like, if I'm hanging out with you or my wife. Like, you guys know me so well, right? It's just like I could be thinking something and you guys will point it out. But that's the beauty of personal brand, right? Like, you know, if you say something, Ken is going to react a certain way.
- [11:15]
A
I mean, I could put you in a chokehold, and I know you'll react in a certain way.
- [11:22]
B
You know, it's funny, even as you were, I was talking, the thought that came to my mind was, remember that one time me, you and Travis were playing Settlers of Catan.
- [11:31]
A
Yeah. And he dumped water all over your socks. On Christmas Eve. Yes. Yes. It's funny. You didn't even have to say what it was. We'd hung out. The three of us have been together many times and have played that game many times, and I know exactly what moment you're talking about. I just talked to Amy about that a couple days ago. Oh, my gosh.
- [11:50]
B
Now, for those of you who are listening, you might be like, what's the deal? Like, one of my biggest pet peeves is wet socks, and we're super competitive in that game. But they know me. They know my style. They know, like, what would get to me. And. And Travis, he's a co host of this podcast, too. He decided to mess with me before the game, and he's trying to throw.
- [12:08]
A
Me off his game.
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B
But that's all. That's all branding. That's who you are. That's who I am. Like, I can't get away from that.
- [12:17]
A
I think there's a couple different sets of values and beliefs, too, that I think are really important. There are your core values and beliefs. I mean, like, the root, like, problems. The answer to your worldview. Like, how did we all get here? What went wrong with the world? What do we need to do to fix it? Like, everyone's got. Generally, if you've done any thinking about those big things, like, you got general senses about those, and maybe you've decided, like, maybe your belief is, like, who could know? No one can know. And that's your belief, you know, so you have some stake in that. Those are big life things, but those are good. Those are foundational. Those are. Those are important. But even so, like, narrow it in a little bit on your industry. What are the core things you believe about your industry? And I find a good. A few good questions can actually reveal a lot. Like, as a somebody who's done hundreds and hundreds of podcasts, one of my favorite questions that I learned at Sweetfish actually was, what's something? That's. What's a commonly held belief in your industry that you passionately disagree with? Ooh, that's starting to pour out. Some of those core beliefs that are actually pokey, that are things that a lot of people are agreeing on in a totally different angle, and you're like, no, it's this way. Huh? There might be some core beliefs there. What do you believe about your industry that's different than everybody else? And they're probably based in the next thing, right? There's a reason why you believe it, which is why we have to unpack this. The values and beliefs are the foundation. But those values and beliefs come from somewhere. Right. Which gets us to number two. So we talked about, number one, values and beliefs, but number two is stories and experiences. There's a reason why you believe those beliefs is because something happened to you. Maybe something did something to you, maybe something happened, or maybe you had to work through some stuff and then you discovered a different way, a better way of approaching some of your industry's problems. And that's why you believe what you believe. Those stories and experiences, those are unique to you. Someone can rip off your font or your logo, but they can't steal your stories. Those end up becoming way more powerful. And I think that's why Simon Sinek's thing. Start with why they don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Like, that phrase resonated with so many people. And I think that's still, like, powerful. I don't think it's the only thing, because I think underneath the why you do it is. Is the. Is the. Is the values that drive why you do it and how you do it. You know, But I still think that's a very powerful part. And you don't need any logo or fancy design, but it starts to spell out a little bit of who you are and why you're here and how you're different from everybody else. When you start to share your stories and experiences, and that's starting to build a powerful brand.
- [14:51]
B
Yeah. And, you know, one question I love to. To ask myself when, when I'm trying to figure out what are those stories or experiences that really shape me? I would either ask my friends or just look at my post or whatever, and I asked a simple question. When was the last time I got in my soapbox where I just started going off and ranting about whatever the thing is within my industry, it just reveals, you know, the story or this experience. And then once I know that experience, I can start asking myself, like, why does that experience affect me so much?
- [15:24]
A
That's a great question. I should do that more often every time I get on the soapbox. Why am I on the soapbox? Yeah, multiple times a week. And I usually, like, interact with somebody else's post or engage in the comments. And I realize I'm more passionate about it than I think. So I turn that comment into a post. I should probably be like, there's a story here that I should be sharing with this. Oh, well.
- [15:44]
B
But that happens to us all the time. I mean, you catch me all the time when I get in. I think you and I both get into soapboxes quite often, but I do it. And you're like, ken, it's not that big of a deal. And I'm like, it is a big of a deal. Like, we gotta go this way. And you're like, I think what you really matter is this. I'm like, oh, you're right. Like, you're helping me see why this thing is important or not important. And that's what asking those questions help do is reveal the stories and experiences and clearly articulate the value of them within the industry.
- [16:16]
A
So if you can identify a few things that you believe that are different about what everybody else believes about your industry, maybe is core to what you provide as a. A service provider, a coach, a consultant, or whatever product you have. But if you're here and you listen to this, we've emphasized over and over that these principles are best for those who kind of sell with their expertise. But many companies sell with expertise and educate, right? That's very common even in B2B play. I mean, some B2C even. So think about those things and think about the why behind why you believe it. What's the origin behind that? Every belief probably has a story behind it. And you'll find that one or two, maybe even just one, is like the core one. Like, this is your main approach. This is your main thing that you believe, and that's the whole thing about your service that you provide or your product. This is the main thing. But you need to identify what's the origin story about what got you to think that. And then. So there's essentially three stories that I think everybody needs. There's the origin story of how you came to that conclusion. Then there's the story of what you had to do to persevere, to prove it. So everyone's get. There's the epiphany moment of like, oh, maybe we should try it this way. There's something that happened that led to that epiphany. There was a moment, and then it's the journey of figuring out and testing it and bringing it to life. That's a story in and of itself. And then there's one more story that I find that everybody needs. And it's like, what would the industry look like if everybody adopted it and saw it the way you saw it? What would change in the industry, big picture wise? That's the vision you're casting. That's where you're taking the whole tribe of your industry to go to. That's the big picture reason that's the why everyone's getting behind, but they want to know why you. Why where you came from, too. So those are kind of like three succinct stories that I think everybody could start with. And you can build out many more that reflect all the different parts of your. Your stories and your values. I think of even, like Gary V. Right. He tells stories about his mom a lot because this is like a part of his origin story of how he came to be. Like, how he is because of good parenting. And he talks about the stories of his mom. Mom and praising him even though he was a C student. Right. And just lighting him up over being kind or different things like that. And then you think of, like, him buying the jets and winning the super bowl is kind of like where he's going. I don't know why it's compelling, but it is. You just, like, want to see him win, to buy the jets and win the Super Bowl. But he's got quite a few stories he shares.
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B
And I think the reason that those stories are compelling, like, even Gary Vee, the way he talks about getting the jets, is that. That those are stories of transformation that lead to a result. And it's like, we want him to win that because it's like the culmination of his transform transformation story that we've been. That. If you've been following Gary Vee, you've been watching him for years. Like, look how I'm growing. Look how I'm developing, and this is what I'm going after. You enjoy the process, right? Like, he's enjoyed the process. We've all benefited from his. His process, but you still want the result. And for him, it's that. And we're kind of like, let's go get after it, you know?
- [19:14]
A
Yeah. Like, I remember now why I was like, he was talking about the fact that he got a knitted jersey and it was like a homemade jets jersey. And he was just like, this is my thing. And he's like, from an immigrant family where they were so poor they had to split the toilet paper and two into, you know, two. Two piles and kind of getting there. Trying to dream of, like, buying his dream company, his dream team, which is a sucky team. So, like, buying it and then flipping that into a Super bowl team is going to be a journey in and of itself. But the big part is he just likes the grind and the journey of getting there, which is why he's not in a hurry to get there. He's going to take his time, be patient, and Go after it. So it's, it's exciting. It's exciting to watch him enjoy it, do it. And like, I, I've, I've never been to a professional football game, but you better believe I'd probably come to that Super Bowl. I don't care how much it costs. I'm probably going to be at that super bowl when the jets are playing and Gary Vee's in the box.
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B
Yeah.
- [20:11]
A
That whole stadium would be packed with nothing but Gary Vee fans. It'll be fun.
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B
Oh, for sure. Well, and the one thing I'll just add to that is that like, if you think about that story, the origin story, right, he's bringing an underdog story. Like he was the underdog. And there's something about us as humans that we love the underdog story. We want to achieve something greater. We want to beat the thing that's holding us down. And that's the stuff that you want to find in your personal story that you want others to relate to constantly. And that's what makes part of your brand.
- [20:43]
A
I even related to a story even back it was a story I heard from Jocko Willink, which is why I bought the product as a pre workout. He sold and I told that whole story to earlier chapter. But like it was that story that I heard. And then when it came time to buy something, his name was on the package and I trusted him because his values that were reflected in the stories he shared. And I remember the stories because stories I remember stories are so much more powerful than we give them credit for because it's easier to remember. So if you can pack the message and the values in the story, it's like shorthand for the strategy. Your positioning, your value prop can all get packaged nicely in a story. Easy to share, easy to remember. It's like you ingrained the message in the hearts of your audience and your buyers and your customers, your employees. That's why it's so powerful and why it's like. Honestly, I think the big, the biggest part of a personal brand is the story. Not the logo, not the writing even. You look back into every major religion, there's a story. There's always a story there, right? Usually a collection of stories that share the beliefs. So in the last one, the future self is a big part of the brand. Because I don't think any brand is done. Some people would say I have a strong personal brand. But it didn't start this way. It got built a little piece at a time. Gary Vee, a little piece at A time, Ken. You're building it a little piece at a time, and it just takes time. And I think part of it is because you're building yourself a little piece at a time. So your brand is a reflection of that. Like, there's things you don't even know about yourself that will be, like, a big part of who you are 10 years from now. You don't even know what they are yet. You haven't discovered it. It might be an inner part of yourself. You realize you really enjoy encouraging people more than you. You thought, and you write a book on it, and then you just started doing it. And everybody, like, knows that about you ten years from now. I find that people change, personalities change. A lot of things happen. Hopefully the diff. I think the thing that we have to keep in mind is that you don't change. Your values change very slowly, if at all. But who you are is always changing because we're always pursuing some ideal version of yourself or to become that. And I think that's kind of gets wrapped up in your personal brand, too. So I think that's the missing piece is people want to solidify it into, like, this is. This is my brand. But I'm like, no, just start with where you're at right now. And if you're learning in the light and you're publishing, it just kind of grows over time. What do you think? Is it a good missing piece? You see yourself growing? Oh, for sure.
- [23:21]
B
Because I've always felt like I had to arrive, and I think this is where imposter syndrome kicks in for a lot of people. They feel like they have to arrive somewhere, and it's like, we've never arrived. None of us are perfect. So when you give yourself that freedom to just be like, oh, I'm in this journey and I'm growing somewhere, it's going to be super helpful. I'll give a great example. This just happened to me two weeks ago, or last week, depending on. I don't remember now, but I was on a podcast. I was a guest on a podcast, and I was sharing my personal story with the host, and we're going deep into it, and he's asking a lot of questions. And the podcast. Cause the Nothing is Wasted podcast. And essentially he talks. He tries to find stories of pain, and how do you go from pain to purpose? So then, you know, he's like, well, what's your purpose now? What are you doing now these days? And I'm telling them and I'm sharing them, and I'm getting Really excited about the things are really in my heart. And he said something to me that was so profound that, like, all weekend, it resonated. And I texted you at some point in that time, right? I'm like, dude, I was on this podcast, and this guy said this thing to me. He's like, you really love to amplify people's purpose. And I was like, I've never used those words, but absolutely, that's exactly what I love doing. And it's part of the reason why we're doing on the show, like, the whole podcasting thing. I'm like, I love getting excited finding someone who I believe in, I trust in. And I'm like, I would follow you. Let's amplify you. Let's get you out there. Let's. Let's grow your influence. Let's grow your impact. That was part of, like, my branding that I've never had words to till just recently. So for those of you who are listening to this, I just. I'm sharing that because I want you to know you're always growing. You're always evolving in that way that you could find and be joyful, be excited about that, that, like, you're in this process, and it's gonna be a good thing. It is a good thing that you're still growing, because if you're not growing, you're probably dying or dead.
- [25:21]
A
So personal brands, they are both discovered and created because you're always growing into it. You're always figuring out new things, and there's a tension in that because you're trying to discover, like, what's unique to you, what's true to you. But that's kind of hard to discern, too, as long as it aligns with your values. And it's like a general interest of yours. And it's like, is that unique to you? I think so, but it's also being created, and there's a tension in there because you're generally. If you want to have influence, it means you're a creator. You're putting out content, and, you know, you're getting content out there onto the feed, and you're trying to get reach, which means you're trying to please the algorithm and the people. And this is where it can get hazy. Sometimes it's really helpful because you can put things out there and to be like, hey, like A or B to your audience, and your audience will be like, b, B. And then some of their comments might even give you insight into little things that become your personal brand, like the whole Dances thing for me that. That you were like one of the few people calling me that as a friend. But you also had a different bunch of different nicknames because you're big into nicknames. I am, but I was trying to make a personal hashtag back when that was kind of a thing in LinkedIn for a hot second. And I was like, vote on my personal hatch tag. And I had dances. I had. Sanchez says, I had a bunch of different things. And a couple of key people were like, oh, that dances thing. You should do that. That. That needs to be your thing. And I was like, okay. So I started using it, and then it became a pillar of my personal brand is now dances, which is good because there's probably like 3,000. Dan Sanchez is out there in the world. And I don't own dan Sanchez.com danielsanchez.com was as close as I could get, but I freaking own dances.com so I own that name. It's memorable. It's simple. But that became like a branding thing for me. It was kind of influenced by other people, but it was also still something that I could grab and run with. And there's a bunch of little decisions like that along the process that some people will influence. But you have to also be careful because sometimes the algo or people might lead you astray too. When do you think some scenarios will run up where it's like you shouldn't actually stray after the attention, but actually pull back?
- [27:40]
B
I mean, I think if the attention doesn't, obviously if it contradicts with your values, for sure. Right? That's going to happen. I think a subtle one is when the attention actually pivots you away from either the business model or. Or away from your family that you want. You know, because there's a lot of things that you and I, we've talked about from a business standpoint. We're like, we could do 15 different things to grow this business, but then we realize we don't want to work 60 hours a week. We don't want to work. You know, I have five kids. Well, I have a fifth kid here. Pretty soon you have four kids. Like, we want to spend more time with our family, not away from our family. So we have to make sure that the attention doesn't drive us away from that.
- [28:25]
A
That's a big piece. I think the values one is the thing, and I think that's where most people who get called out for being fake, they're fake because they're actually changing their values from one group of people. To a different group of people.
- [28:35]
B
Yeah.
- [28:36]
A
It's not just in the way they behave. Like I remember it was Kamala Harris was getting called out for the campaign trail for changing her like accent and like a word usage. I was like, who cares? Like all good marketers do this. All good salespeople probably do this too. It's not a big deal. I think it's actually considerate that she's doing that. She's communicating in a way that can be heard by her audience in different contexts. Fantastic. Nothing wrong with that. It's when you go and you have a totally set of values and you're like, hey, if she were like promising one thing to one group of people and then doing a completely contradictory promise, that's where it's like, okay, obviously that's an extreme case, but it's when it was even really obvious to me in like that movie, what was it called? Do you see Inside out too? There's like a movie where the 13 year old girls, she's like with the, she's with the older girls and she's like her, her old friends who are younger come by and she's trying to be all sarcastic and play it off like, oh, no, I'm not, I didn't watch that band. I don't listen to those people. No, that's dumb. Oh yeah, I loved him so much. Right. I'm like, that's the best example of being fake because it's overdramatic and you can see what's going inside, going on inside her head. Right. Because what makes her fake is not help how she's behaving. It's that she changed her values. She became, she essentially started lying about something that she was all for before. So that's the thing, what people are saying when they're saying be you, don't be fake, don't change your values just to get views hold to them. But I also think one last rant, one last soapbox that I have to get on when it comes to personal brands is a lot of people take just be you as permission to be them, to be whatever their emotions tell them to be. Yeah. And I'm always like, no, please. That is not the just be you. Just be you means you have strong values and you act according to those values. And hopefully your values are I'm only, I'm only out for number one, me. So that's going to be a brand everyone doesn't like.
- [30:40]
B
Yeah. You won't grow influence with that brand. And ultimately what we're pushing, if you've been following this whole process is like, we want you to grow your influence so that you can have a greater impact, a better impact on people. If it ultimately comes down to you and just what you selfishly want, man, it's going to crumble. You know, pride comes before the fall, and that's our mindset on this. It's like, how do you actually come fully yourself, thinking about others at the same time for the. For the betterment of society? And the more you could think about that, your brand is going to be contagious. I'll say this one, one person that I. I've lately been following, I've known about him, but I haven't been following is Tim Tebow. I've always kind of like, he's cool. Like, he's on our team. I'm like, yeah, that's awesome. But he's so huge into ending human sex trafficking and the drive and all the stuff that he's doing. And I've been listening to some interviews that he's in. I was so enthralled that he was just being really authentic about who he is and the troubles and the struggles he's had about being in the limelight and how he's managed it. I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, I resonate with him. And then the passion he had of just like, I'm going to be myself. And he's like, on all these other podcasts that are not Christian podcasts, he's like, but I'm going to share the problem I see out there. And he was sharing about ending human sex trafficking in these stories. And I'm like, I'm at Walmart literally crying, like. Like, trying to wipe my tears just because, like, he's sharing it with such zeal that I'm like, I want to follow this guy. I want to. I want to give to this. This cause because we resonated together and that that's what's so important about just truly being yourself. Walking within your values, not hiding them, right? But being who you are, knowing your audience and all that, and sharing it and communicating in such a way that they would resonate with it.
- [32:39]
A
And to finish with one very tactical piece of advice for personal brands, one of the forcing functions that I find makes for a good personal brand is setting a stake, going after it, and then just talking about what you're learning, what you're experiencing, and who you're becoming along the way. You end up forming all those things, all three things that we talked about, whether it's the values, the stories and experiences, and the future self that you're aiming to become if you just set a stake and then start working towards it. It also, like, simplifies everything, because it's the one thing you're kind of posting about and becoming known for is this one thing that you're trying to accomplish. And if you set out a goal in your industry, maybe you take that story of what you'd like to see happen in your industry, and you have a way of measuring it and pursuing it and getting towards it, then people will know you for that. And as you share your stories towards it, they start to get to know why you're into it and maybe the epiphany reason why you are going towards it. So it's a very easy way to clarify everything is just set a stake and start going towards it. Documented on the way.