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The Think Media Podcast
494: How to Build a Personal Brand From Scratch in 2026 (Step-by-Step)
00:50:10
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, before we jump into the show, I just wanted to take a second and say thank you for listening. I know that life is busy and you have a lot of options when it comes to the content you consume. So whether you're new here or you've been listening to the Think Media podcast for years, I just want to say thank you and I appreciate you. Okay, let's jump into the show. What does it really take to start a personal brand? If you are starting from scratch today,
- [00:25]
B
you don't start start with why. Instead, start with who. The moment you get clear on who you can serve, every other downstream decision becomes clear. Here's the misconception everyone has in 2026. Try to go viral. It's terrible advice. You must have a large audience to make money. Multiple streams of income run ads. If you drive traffic to chaos, you're multiplying chaos. If you take AI and you apply it to chaos, all you have done is multiply chaos.
- [00:54]
A
There is almost nothing more powerful than having a strong personal brand. If you want to make more money, have more influence, have more opportunity in your career, or launching out and starting something new. But at the same time, in 2026, competition is fierce. It feels like there's somebody already doing what you want to do. And so I wanted to have a real and raw conversation about what does it really take to start a personal brand if you were starting from scratch to today. And I brought back on the Think Media podcast the expert, Rory Vaden from Brand Builders Group. He's a New York Times bestselling author. He's helped thousands of people go from obscurity to becoming well known and well paid, even with small audiences. But I wanted to challenge Rory today to say, rory, if you had to start over from scratch and start a personal brand in 2026, what would you do? And so, Rory, welcome back to the podcast.
- [01:46]
B
Yeah. Excited to get after this. Lots of misconceptions about how personal branding is changing in the world today.
- [01:53]
A
Well, Rory, let's start there. And so what is the state of personal branding in 2026 when it comes to what it takes to start? Maybe some of the changes in the environment?
- [02:02]
B
Yeah, let's start with what's not changing. Okay. Personal branding isn't just about trends or platforms. It's not about having to keep up with AI or the latest sort of social media environment or whatever. Remember, how we define personal branding is the digitization of your reputation. That is more true today than ever before. And I believe that in a world of AI, which is important, it's not that AI doesn't matter. AI matters a lot. What's. What's not changing, though? And AI is even amplifying the idea of finding your uniqueness so that you can exploit it in the service of others. As Larry Wingett says, which we've talked about on other episodes together, that is still fundamentally true. So the tactics change, the various mediums and forms of expression change, but the core idea that you're finding your uniqueness and you're exploiting it in the service of others and the multiplication of your reputation, the automation of your reputation, the digitization of your reputation, that's the part that is still solid and unchanging.
- [03:19]
A
And so with the premise we'll get into, my question for you is what would you do first, second, third, if you were starting a personal brand from scratch? But let's all get on the same page in terms of, like, the benefits of, like, why even try right now? Or is it too competitive? Or what are some of the things that are holding us back? We want to get out there. We maybe see somebody we admire, we see somebody we respect. We're thinking about getting into social media or YouTube.
- [03:45]
B
We.
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A
We have an ambition to write a book or maybe start working on a side thing to leap off from our career or build our brand inside of our current career. What are some of the things that hold people back? Why they don't even start?
- [03:58]
B
Yeah, I mean, the two things, the reasons to do it, I think, are impact and income. Right. You know, the book, our book is called Wealthy and well Known, hit the New York Times last year. We talk about the principles here, and that hasn't changed for the idea that you can make a difference in the world while making a ton of money that is more available as an actual realistic opportunity than ever before. The hard part is there's so many different ways to do it. It's figuring out which is the right one for you. And because there's so many different ways to do it, there's so many different. For each different way to do it, there's a different person teaching, you know, what they believe is the way to do it. And usually it's our way to do it. And so I think a lot of it is kind of like figuring out what's the combination lock for you to sort of unlock, you know, your. Your biggest opportunity. So I think that's. That's where the conversation begins. Ironically, in a world of digital and artificial, I, if I were starting my personal brand today, I would be doubling down on, offline okay. Not just online. Yeah, and I'm not against online. I'm not saying we don't do online. I'm saying where would I start? I would actually start offline. Why? Because ultimately for you to make money, money is about trust. In a world of artificial online, there's, there's, there's a trust recession. Right. There's a, there's a higher skepticism today of digital content probably than ever before. And as the pendulum swings that way, what happens? We go, we're doubling down, we start to double down on in person experiences, one on one relationships, people that we actually know and can vouch for. And so I think in many ways the fastest way to make money if you're just starting out and you don't have a lot of money, in many ways it's the opposite of what a lot of people are doing where they're going. Most people are trying to go viral with millions of followers selling automated scalable solutions. I would be going analog offline think more offline than online think more one on one than one to many think starting with the small circles, you know, versus accessing all of the strangers. So doesn't mean we're not going to still do other things. But that's got it my mindset.
- [06:30]
A
So let's run through a case study together and give me a recap of like your career. But let's assume some of the early stuff you did. Give us a recap and in sales and as a professional and then you find yourself in 2026 and then the first couple moves you would make. So let's just assume that instead of starting back before you built two eight figure companies and wrote, wrote the books, give us the early days and use yourself as an example. And now you're like, okay, it's 2026 and I want to get into the personal brand game. And so this is what I do now. You still have the knowledge you have now. Okay, but so somebody can maybe see themselves in their story. They're coming out of a job or some kind of experience, they want to turn that into their personal brand. So tell us a little bit of your backstory but then give us the first few steps you do this year.
- [07:17]
B
Yeah, so you know, I started out in sales. I was raised by a single mom. My mom sold Mary Kay cosmetics. So I grew up around sales and direct sales. And then when I was in college I had to pay my own expenses and so I got a job going door to door in the summer and I made like $250,000 over five years doing that. So I really learned sales. Started our first company, which was a sales training company, and we went out and we did speaking and that's how we got leads and we grew that to eight figures. We exited that business in 2018 and we started Brand Builders Group. Lewis Howes was our first client. And in Brand Builders Group, we now have 50 employees. Teaching, you know, how to monetize your personal brand.
- [07:56]
A
Yeah.
- [07:57]
B
Right. So my background, you know, you go, it's, there's speaking, it's a lot of revenue generation. It's, it's speaking, it's sales and then it's online and it's marketing. So it's, it's kind of a blend of an online marketing and online selling with a very like old school sort of like offline selling and speaking. So if I were going to start today, the very first thing that I would be doing is referrals and presentations. So it doesn't matter what I'm selling. I believe that trust must take place before there's a transaction. Because of that, I believe the fastest path to cash, because the fastest path to trust is through real relationships. You have the, that referrals still today are the fastest way to make money now. So I would focus on going like, all right, how do I get referrals? Referrals for what? Referrals for people to talk to, referrals for podcasts to be on, referrals for people to do collaborations with, referrals of places to go speak. Now what about presentations? I mean, offline presentations. I would be trying to go speak at local places. I would be hosting events where people could come, come, and I would be doing virtual presentations. Right. So even though virtual is online, I would be doing live human, not pre recorded. And then, you know, I would, I. The way I would use YouTube if I were just starting out is I would focus on recording quality YouTube content and manually pushing it to each person that I meet in the real world, you know, in live environments. And that my, my drip marketing or sales sequence is prerecorded videos that I did. And I use YouTube as like a sales mechanism, but not as much as a prospecting mechanism in the, in the beginning, while, while I build it up, that's kind of how I would think about it.
- [10:02]
A
So if that's step one for you, I still would love to go before we go forward to like step zero.
- [10:07]
B
Okay.
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A
Because. And then maybe you could put yourself in the shoes of a diverse audience listening where, okay, one type of person,
- [10:16]
B
I mean, like, what am I going to teach and talk about in the beginning.
- [10:19]
A
Yeah. And I think two things you mentioned is one, you're like, you know, after I built an eight figure company, then what I would do is I would start. Well, that's like a level of, of, of credibility and experience. I think some people you could, you could bring it down to they've built, they've done seven figures or they've done six figures in their career and they want to step out and start a personal brand. But you also might be able to put on the shoes. I really see this world of, you know, I want to talk to moms. I'm passionate about homeschool. I'd love to write a book about that, maybe productize what I know and coach, but this is all new to me. So just maybe a little checklist of step zero, which is maybe kind of. You're saying I'd start doing a presentation. Well, how am I going to structure what I learn? Yeah, yeah, some of that. So a little bit before we move on.
- [11:06]
B
Okay, so you don't, where do you start? Okay, you don't start with why. You don't start with why. I love Simon Sinek. I'm a huge Simon Sinek fan. I believe in what he teaches for corporations. But for personal brands, my recommendation is not to start with why. Instead, start with who. When personal brands ask like, what's your why? They get super like obscure and nebulous and like, I'm gonna change the world. And there's no structure. When you start with who, you say, who can I serve in the deepest way? The moment you get clear on who you can serve, every other downstream decision becomes clear, which is, what can I teach them? Where do they hang out? What do they need? What need? What can I, how do I package it? What should it cost? How do I deliver it? What technology do I need? Like, everything becomes pragmatically clear.
- [12:11]
A
Got it.
- [12:12]
B
If you start with who first. Now the shortcut to find your. Your who. Okay, so, you know, we take people through a whole two day experience that when we first start working with them called finding your brand DNA. The shortcut is the pattern that we discovered is that you're most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were. So even if you've never been an entrepreneur, if you've never been a personal brand, if you've never been a YouTuber, if you've never been on camera or a presenter of any type, you ask yourself the question, what challenges have I conquered? What obstacles have I overcome? What tactical skills Can I teach people that would improve their life? I also, if I were starting. Here's a. You know, this. This was not true a few years ago, but I think it's very True today in 2026. If you're building a personal brand, my recommendation would be to start with hard teaching, hard skills more than soft skills. Right. Like, you're going to run into a lot more competition if you're like, I, you know, I'm teaching, like, you know, leadership mindset or resilience or something like that. And if you're going to do those things, my strong encouragement would be that you codify it with unique frameworks to te as if it were a hard skill. Right.
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A
Like, I'm starting a motivation channel.
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B
Right. Just. You're competing with. Yeah, I mean, good luck. Right? So, but it's like, you could make a great business, you know, teaching. Teaching people how to use, you know, how to incorporate AI with your spreadsheets. Just like, if you've been an accountant your whole life, never been on camera, but you understand Excel, you learn a little bit about AI, and it's just like, you could crush just being, like, how to maximize AI with your spreadsheets. And every business in America would be, like, super interested in that. Right. So I would lean towards the tactical in the beginning. It's also easier for people to pay for something that is clear and concrete that they can understand. And so that's why I would. I would skew towards the. Towards the tactical early on. But just ask yourself, what skill can I teach people?
- [14:25]
A
Yep.
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B
And it's. It could be baking, it could be parenting, it could be gardening, it could be woodworking, it could be podcasting. It could be like, but what skill do you possess?
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A
Yeah.
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B
Because the good news is the world is so big but so connected that the fastest way to get momentum is to find the narrowest audience and serve a narrow audience in a really deep way.
- [14:52]
A
Very clear now. So that's kind of the foundational layer, which just, I think, was an epiphany for everybody listening. It's like, okay, man, start with who? And if I'm transitioning out of my career or the kids are a little bit older right now, and I want to start kind of starting a podcast or starting something. Okay, so then who is the person that I'm going to be talking to? It answers all these other questions, and the clearest answer is who. The person I'm most powerfully positioned to serve is who I was yesterday. So being clear in that, now I start to structure My things you say. Then step one, go analog, go smaller.
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B
Skew analog.
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A
Skew analog, smaller. Who can you already start talking to in person? Do some workshops and I mean, if you made that practical. Are you talking about, like, bring people into your living room? Rent a local Hampton Inn meeting room?
- [15:43]
B
Yes. And, you know, here's. Here's the misconception everyone has in 2026.
- [15:50]
A
Hey, really quick, if this conversation with Rory Vaden and I is resonating with you, then I think you'll love his book, wealthy and well known. And the cool thing is, he's giving away the audiobook for free. The book actually just hit the New York Times bestsellers list, and I can see why. I've read a lot of books on the topic. But Rory has really put together the most updated modern guide on how to monetize and build a personal brand and turn your reputation into. Into revenue. Especially if you're a business owner, consultant, speaker, or really anybody that wants to figure out how to make money building your presence online and building a personal brand. So if you want to grab the audiobook for free, just go to freebrandtraining.com think. Or you can click the link in the description to download it instantly and start listening while you're doing chores, doing errands, or whatever you're up to when you're on the go. All right, let's dive back into the conversation.
- [16:46]
B
Here's the misconception everyone has in 2026. You must have an audience to make money. Like, you must have a large audience to make money. That is a lie. In fact, the only way you make money, like, real money from having an audience is if you have a massive freaking audience. Yeah, I mean, you get, what, $30 per 1,000 downloads on a podcast?
- [17:12]
A
I mean, I mean, maybe CPMs could be $30 on podcasts, but it's three to five dollars on YouTube.
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B
Okay, so I didn't even know that. So there. So there you go. Right?
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A
Yeah.
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B
Now, it doesn't mean that YouTube doesn't work. YouTube does work.
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A
Right.
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B
And, and, and, and that can be the one day future is the. You know, you got a million subscribers and it's all moms. Like, that can be the one day thing, but you're. You got to make money in the meantime to. To survive long enough for the YouTube channel to take off that way. The more practical thing is, again, I would record on YouTube and it's like, I don't care how many views it is. I care that my video is valuable because I'm going To feed it to one person at a time that I'm. Who's. Who I met in real life, who's considering doing business with me. So I'm going, yeah, I'm hosting stuff at a coffee shop. I am meeting with people one on one and sitting down with them. I am, you know, inviting people to my home and hosting stuff. I'm going into companies and speaking for free. And most of all, I'm asking for referrals from my friends. And one of the ways that we do this is we use something called a trust soldier. Right. So what's a trust soldier? A trust soldier is something that I can give to my friend that's valuable that they could give to somebody else. And you go, you know, think of it as a lead magnet. And you go, what should my first lead magnet be? Well, a great answer would be an unlisted YouTube video. And you go, record your freaking secrets. Give your secrets away for free. Make it unlisted, because you're not going to go viral with enough to make any money off of it. Make it unlisted and then tell your. Send a text message to all your friends and family and say, hey, you know, I'm launching my new career. My mom is doing this right now. My mom is, you know, she's a single mom. She's done lots of stuff. She was my speaker's bureau agent for many years. She's now launched a counseling practice for women who are like, teenage pregnancy or like, you know, that kind of situation. And you go, you know, mom sends a text message out to everyone saying, hey, here's a video. If there's anyone you ever meet that you know, has someone who knows someone in teen pregnancy, can you just send them this video?
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A
Wow.
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B
Value add. No sales pitch, no pressure. Impacting lives, changing the world. One video, she records, one time. Trust soldier. Why is it a trust soldier? Because if anyone watches, if it's the right person who watches that video. And then at the end of the video, it says, hey, if you want to have someone to talk to, here's my email address. Email here, and I'll do the first call free. And then if you want to keep talking, I'll share with you how to do that. Boom.
- [19:58]
A
This is kind of a grassroots mindset. You know, I think I even saw the book on your shelf, which is an older book called Guerrilla Marketing. It's kind of a guerrilla marketing mindset. So in 2026, you're. You're like saying, don't be trying to think so big you can get big later, but start small.
- [20:16]
B
Yeah, and exactly. Don't, don't. I mean, you start small because it's way easier to make a lot of money from a few people than it is to make a little bit of money from a lot of people.
- [20:33]
A
Now, if we skid into some of these first principles again, is the assumption, if you were going to do it, would you have an offer first? Because the assumption here is if I go to rent out a hotel, I might think I have risk. If I'm just going to rent out a hotel, you know, meeting room and just talk to people and maybe make a few connections, am I making a. Am I pitching in that room? And thus that would mean I need an offer. Would you craft that first?
- [21:00]
B
Okay, so also very unpopular opinion today. But how we would do it is we would not have an offer.
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A
Okay.
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B
We would not sell from stage. Here's what our offer would be. In fact, it's the same offer we're going to make to everybody today. You're going to get to watch this entire interview for free. And at the end, my sales pitch is going to say, go to freebrandcall.com think. And if you liked what you heard and you want to learn more, request a call. The offer is just a call in the beginning. Don't try to be doing webinar funnels. Don't try to be doing, like automated stuff. Don't try to be doing fancy bots and like all this crazy stuff. Talk to people. Just talk to them about what you do. Because ironically, I think the world is so digital and so artificial, I think where the underserved market is like a human conversations and what people are showing up for, live experiences, if possible, in person experiences. That's one of the reasons we bought a building last year. Like, clearly we know we could be doing virtual events and we do a bunch of virtual events. But for our members, what they're telling us is they want to spend time together. They want to, like, be in a room with other people, post Covid world and in an artificial booming world. So we're skewing that direction and we're skewing. We're skewing live, not, not prerecorded. We're skewing in person more than virtual. We're. We're skewing deep with a small audience, more than shallow with a big audience. Those are all the directions that I would be. I would be heading.
- [22:41]
A
Interesting. And so, man, this is like the best personal branding content on the Internet right now. And it. Because it's very counterintuitive to what most people are saying and most people are like.
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B
And what most people are thinking.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Because they, they think it must be huge, massive digital. Because they're looking at Mel Robbins, they're looking at Jay Shetty and they're looking at Gary Vaynerchuk going, oh, that, that's what this has to be. Because that's what they see. They're not seeing the people who make millions of dollars with small followings. Because we have small followings.
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A
Yeah.
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B
But it's way easier to replicate what we're doing, which is making a lot of money from a few people, than it is to replicate what Mel Robbins is doing. Like, Mel Robbins is in a different universe.
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A
And part of our thesis here is your expertise is you're not just helping people build personal brand. Personal brands for personal brand's sake, you're helping people become wealthy and well known. Meaning that we are going into this with impact first, but also to make an income. So I still want to answer the question. You're, you're saying you're not going to make an offer in your living room or in your, in a room you rent out or even necessarily on a webinar, but you're going to send people to a call. But would you. And now back to your story. You're shifting from your career. You've been in sales, you've done a couple things, you've built a business or sold a business. You're finding yourself in a new season of life and you're like, now I kind of want to launch this new season. You're going to pack as an offer first.
- [24:13]
B
Yeah. I mean, you're saying like what would I sell on the free call you would have to have in mind.
- [24:18]
A
Yeah. And, and again, that would be the assumption that really from day one you're launching a personal brand. You're going kind of grassroots, you're going small, but you're also selling from day one.
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B
Yes.
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A
At the presentation. But if anybody gets in a call is right fit. So you're crafted. You would craft an offer.
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B
Yes and no.
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A
Okay.
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B
Okay. So the value of talking to people is they're going to tell you what they need. So when I have a one on one conversation, I could craft an offer and say, here's my new business. This is my program. It's six weeks and it includes. I could do that. But what I'm actually saying is you talk to people and you ask them what do you need related to this thing. Right. You watched my presentation. Someone Sent you my video or whatever and we talk and it's like, what do you, what do you need right now related to this area? What do you need related to AI and Excel spreadsheets? What would be most helpful for you? So they're going to tell you, they're going to tell you what your offer should be.
- [25:19]
A
So you're saying day one, how to start a personal brand from scratch. 2026 is actually not just do some free one to one and one to small groups content, but also then do free calls to have even deeper and intimate conversations. If at the end of it you go, well thanks so much, it's been awesome talking. How can I answer your questions and serve you? Have a good one, you know, I'll reach out later or something. But you wouldn't. The call might end and it was adding value to that person and it was research for you. But you wouldn't even make a pitch.
- [25:48]
B
No, but I would just ask them what, what, what do you need? Right? I would, I would, I would, I would try to make an offer. But what I'm, I'm just saying you don't have to have it figured out. Like my offer is a six week program and it's $300 and it includes this and it's going to be on this platform. Da da da da. It could actually just be, hey, I'm a retired bookkeeper, I've been working in Excel for 20 years and I've learned a few tips around AI or how to train young bookkeepers on this and this and that. I'll talk to all your accounting team and share a few stuff virtually or in person. And then we do a call afterwards and you tell me what you thought and then tell me what you need and they're going to say, you know what would be awesome is if you could come and train my team every, every month. You know, it'd be awesome if you could, if you could take my, my, all my new people and, and you coach them for six weeks. You know what would be awesome is if I could just pay you to have you on retainer so I can text you whenever I need something. Like that's what I'm saying. The irony of the world of 2026 is every free training you watch is going to be like create an offer. It's going to have these, these components and this total retail value and must have these bonuses stuff that we teach, right? We teach how to do that. But I'm saying like if I were starting from scratch, that's eventually that's eventually. Yeah, you can start from scratch by talking to people and saying what, what would be most helpful for you. This is how Brand Builders Group started. We never had a business plan. Lewis Howes called me and said, I'm really struggling to create a clear strategy for how to scale my company. And I. And I was like, yeah, I'd be happy to talk to you about what would be most helpful. And he said, I think if I could just come and spend like two days with you, we could get through it. That was how Brand Builders Group began. Yeah, it wasn't. We're going to start a personal brand strategy firm and we're going to do two day sessions and we're going to cover like all of this stuff. It's like, and this is the other thing about 2026 is right. Like, you can be so human centric and win. You can be so like service centric and people will just like, how can I be helpful? Not how do I get famous? How do I get, how do I get more subscribers? How do I make more money? How do I get more followers? How do I grow my email list? How do I. There's nothing wrong with those things. But I'm saying if you're starting from scratch, you can actually succeed by just being more human centric. Like, what do you need? How can I be useful?
- [28:24]
A
Hey, quick pause before we get back into the podcast. If you're posting on YouTube but not getting the views or subscribers you want, this will help. Go to mycreatorquiz.com It's a free two minute assessment that reveals what type of creator you are, where you're stuck and what to do next to grow. You'll get instant clarity, a simple plan, and it's totally free. So just go to mycreatorquiz.com to take the free 2 minute assessment or click the link in the show notes. All right, let's jump back into the episode. I think this is very refreshing. I think that also, it's kind of the counter trend. I think also one, it's, it's not that it's a new thing, but it's almost more powerful than ever before because of AI. It's the, the counter reaction to AI is people are craving this, they're craving connection, they're craving community. You said there's an increase in live. Okay, so give us a final few steps here because I think a big question becomes. All right, well, when I think personal branding, it is what do I do on Instagram or what platform do I choose or when do I choose a platform?
- [29:28]
B
Okay, great.
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A
Or do I go on LinkedIn and do I need to build an email list? And so for how long or what kind of process? Rory now has started these things. You're doing some workshops, you're having some phone calls. Maybe you have, you have a couple like organic things happening. You had somebody call you, you did a two thing here, two day thing here. The bookkeeper, you know, is on retainer, but maybe that's not sustainable. There's now they're trying to think about scaling or what do I do next in terms of my personal brand? The homeschool mom has started to call other homeschool moms and is helping them. Oh, can you help me with actually curriculum? I want to figure out some of this. But then there's also thinking, when I think personal branding, I'm thinking about getting into social media or I'm thinking about getting into digital. What would your next few moves be?
- [30:11]
B
Yeah, so it's funny as you ask the question, so when I, when I would start you go, okay, if I'm skewing analog, I'm skewing live, I'm skewing in person to make money and to create real connections and build real trust. Then you go, then, then what is my social media strategy or why would I do social media at all? And the answer is, because you're all of business is doing two things at the same time. Seed planting and firefighting. Right. The firefighting is what we got to do to make money today. That's offline, that's real, that's referrals and relationships and trust. When you're first start starting out, the seed planting is all the social media stuff, right? That's the YouTube, that's the podcast and it's doing. So what would I do there? I would make a list of every single question your perfect prospect has and answer them one at a time. And I would give away everything, you know, completely for free. So when I'm first starting out, I would teach at scale the best of what I know completely for free. That's also going to be by the way the fastest way to get on momentum. And then what I would sell is like my one on one time. And that's going to be the fastest way to make money as, because I have now as I sell some, I'm going to have less supply of time and I'm getting more and more demand. And so now I need to start ramping up some of the scalable things. But now I have money. So I start raising my prices on the premium offline stuff and now I can start to sell at a low price some of the more online scalable things. And this, it goes like this. I then start to focus more on selling more of the online stuff and then the free content kind of like over time I probably take down some of my original content, right. Like, or I make it unlisted would be in YouTube, it'd be that, right? It's like in the beginning I go, I have a five hour course teaching you everything I know and it's completely free because I'm not making money off the information, I'm making money on the application. But there's going to be a day in time where I'm probably transitioning to more scalable thing and I just go, no problem. I unlist the video.
- [32:31]
A
This is so encouraging because you're giving us tools to start, to start right where we are and then a path to see how it could scale later. Because once you also test your ideas and make those connections and get those referrals and get some money in the door to your point now you could start investing in these things that have hard costs. You're like, well, now I'm building a CRM. Now I'm also thinking about getting help because I don't even know if I want to be the one to manage the CRM and. Or maybe I'm going to hire a small agency or something fractional to help me multiply things. Maybe a videographer or somebody editing. What would your thinking be around your practical implementation of things getting more complex when that all feels overwhelming for the person that's like, I know I want to like talk or I want to teach or I want to help, but the a million things feels really overwhelming.
- [33:20]
B
Yeah. So what, what you, you start out in the beginning, you have to do whatever has you have to do and then you start hiring out the things you hate. Yeah, right. And you hire out the things that take your time and you hire out the things that you hate and that's how you start. And you, you, you, you start, you make money. But see the difference is when you start offline like that, you have money, you make money and so now you have money, you can get stuff done and you can hire people, by the way, you can hire people to start doing more of the online stuff that is not going to return an immediate roi, but it will over time it be, it's a seed that plants that grows and one day you live underneath the shade of that tree.
- [33:59]
A
Yeah.
- [34:01]
B
And One day you kind of, you know, stop fighting fires because you've got so many just trees that are just, you know, kind of like you're living off of. But I think that is a. Is how I would do it in 2026. It's, it's a way that I think is going to be more available than ever before. Now the other way that I would do it would be, and that I think is the go. If I were the complete offline person, if I were gonna go, Rory, what if you weren't allowed to do offline? Okay, what if you were only allowed to build a personal brand online? I would do what the best creators are doing, Right. They're using AI to analyze all the top performing content, to spot the trends. Then you use AI to apply those trends to your specific expertise. Then that creates your script, and then you produce content based on that. Right. So you use AI to identify the patterns. You use AI plus your brain to create your own version, and then you put your version out there. Right? So that's the formula of what everybody is doing online in our world. At Brand Builders Group, we build bots to help people do that stuff for them. So I, I do think it's possible to scale online, but I also, I'm seeing a lot of accounts spring up that are completely like AI, avatar generated. So now you're not only competing with every human in the world, like now you're going to be competing with infinitely perfect drones. And I go, how do you compete in that world? Ironically, our humanness becomes our uniqueness.
- [35:42]
A
Yeah. So I want to land the plane in just a second with maybe some of the most powerful stuff, which would be, in your opinion, what some of the worst advice is out there on personal branding, as well as what some of the biggest mistakes are that keep people stuck or waste their time. But if anyone's listening to this and actually wants help and they want to go faster, you do have a. They can talk to your team@freebrandcall.com forward slash, think. And of course they can work with you by the end of that call. But even if they don't, and it's not the right fit, you lay out your whole process. So you guys actually have a proprietary process that people could follow in 2026, step by step. You've got frameworks, you've got tools, you've got resources. So no matter what, they could jump on a call and get incredible value. But then if they want to work with you, you help them go faster. So some people are just like, you know, I want personal brand automated for me. I want to work with the experts and I want those tools and AI and everything else so we can talk about that at the end. But if people want to check that out, Freebrand, call.com forward/think that'll be linked up in the show notes as well.
- [36:46]
B
And by the way, because we have scale, we have team, and we have team and we can invest in building tools and we give them to the community. So that's why it's not. It's not that I don't believe in AI or online. It's like I do. It's just, it's the slowest way to make money. But I would love to talk about the stupid advice. Advice on the Internet.
- [37:04]
A
I'm excited.
- [37:05]
B
All right.
- [37:06]
A
This is the worst personal branding advice on the Internet. What are some of the things that you're hearing?
- [37:12]
B
Stupid piece of. Number one, worst piece of advice on the Internet for personal branding, Multiple streams of income. That's so stupid. Why? Because to market anything, okay. One of the things that we take people through is this exercise. It's called the team model matrix. And if I were to list a grid, like a column, which was revenue stream number one. Okay. There are eight core functions that every business must have. Doesn't matter if it's a one person company or 1000 people. Marketing. Okay? So you have. Someone has to market the product, the revenue stream. That job of marketing is just to drive leads. Once a lead comes in, number two is sales. Someone has to sell the lead. Number three is delivery. Someone has to fulfill on that thing. Number four is customer service. Someone has to handle the questions or issues of that thing. Number five is operations. Someone has to build the IT infrastructure to support the delivery of that thing for all of those people. Okay, Number six is hr. Someone has to staff and hire and train the people to do all of those things. Okay. Number seven is administration. Someone has to deal with the legal and strategic elements, the contracts and stuff like that. And then number eight is finance and accounting. Someone has to count those activities for every revenue stream. Those eight things need to happen. Every time you add a revenue stream, the thought is, oh, I can just add more money. What we don't realize is you actually have to add marketing for that thing. Sales for that thing, delivery for that thing, customer service for that thing. And so we actually do this exercise where we go list out all of your revenue streams as verticals. And then you have these eight functions down the side and it creates a grid. And what you have to do is you have to put one person's name in every box, because one person has to own marketing for every product. One person has to own sales and wake up and think about selling that every day. And here's the thing. If you don't have a team member's name to put in that box, guess whose name goes in that box?
- [39:25]
A
Your name.
- [39:26]
B
Your name goes in that box. So when entrepreneurs have five different revenue streams and they're like, God, it feels like I'm doing all this stuff. Yes, you are. And the reason why you suck is not because you suck. It's because your model sucks, and it's because you got crappy advice. The truth is, if you have diluted focus, you get diluted results. If you just shrink the revenue streams and do one really well, you can get traction and you can go, so that's the worst piece of advice on the Internet.
- [39:54]
A
Wow. And that's. I mean, that adds a level of complexity, too. Everything's getting more complex.
- [39:59]
B
Number one, exponential complexity.
- [40:01]
A
I mean, you just blew up the solo preneur, Solo creators world, which. That's an interesting debate, solopreneur versus entrepreneur. Because the grid you just wrote, the solopreneur's name is in every single box. And they are trying to run 7 affiliate.
- [40:20]
B
I mean, they can hire contractors. They don't have to be employees. But like, yeah, a name has to be in every box. There is a name in every box. Or it's a disaster.
- [40:28]
A
Or it's your name.
- [40:29]
B
Yeah. Yeah. And if you don't. If you don't know how to do it, like, guess what? It. You're. It's going to catch up with you.
- [40:34]
A
Yeah. Okay, so that's one of the worst pieces of advice. What else? Worst piece of personal branding.
- [40:40]
B
Another. Another terrible piece of branding advice. Run ads. Run ads is a. Paying money for ads is a very advanced thing. It's not that ads are wrong. It's that ads is terrible advice. When you're first starting out, if you drive traffic to chaos, you're multiplying chaos. Right. And this is the other thing people like, oh, you need everything. AI. If you take AI and you apply it to chaos, all you have done is multiply chaos. You have to get your crap organized and structured and clean. Otherwise you're just wasting. You're just literally wasting time and money.
- [41:19]
A
Yes.
- [41:20]
B
So there's such a fascination with, like, scale and automation and AI and it's like, hmm, clean your freaking room and make sure your stuff is organized. And then let's talk about multiplying it. Yeah, Right. So ads is very advanced. You should not be spending money on ads until you have a way to capture all of the leads of the people who are not gonna buy from you. And you have a rock solid system to follow up with those people repeatedly and nurture those leads. Because in every good funnel, even a great funnel is only gonna convert at 3 or 5%. So the real game is, what do you do with the 95% of people who don't buy? But if you're just throwing ads to a sales page, you're not even capturing the leads. But if you are capturing the leads and you're only paying attention to the people are buying, you're missing the whole iceberg underneath the water of like, it's, what do you do with the 95% that don't buy? And if you don't have systems for that, why are you wasting money on ads?
- [42:21]
A
Shots fired. We're just everybody, just taking everybody down on the Internet. This is some hot content. One or two.
- [42:28]
B
Another, can I give you, Please. Okay, another stupid piece of advice. On the Internet, try to go viral. It's terrible advice for personal brands that need to make money. You go, why? What would be wrong about going viral? Okay, let me explain what viral means. Viral means you created a piece of content that applies to a lot of people. And because it applies to a lot of people, a lot of people watch it and so a lot of people share it, and so the algorithms push it out to all the people. The content that applies to a lot of people is universal or ubiquitous content. It tends to be the most general of topics, right? Sports, music, entertainment, like, you know, money, relationships, like those general topics. So basically, here's a way of saying it. To be viral in some ways is to be a generalist, right? In many ways, that's what you're doing. But to be paid well is to be a specialist, not a generalist. So again, it's not that I'm against going viral. I'm just going orienting the scoreboard towards the most views is pulling you towards being a generalist. If you need to make money, you need to orient towards being a specialist. And you're just not going to hear that on the Internet. Like, and you're not going to observe it yourself because you're only going to see people who focus on going viral and reach a lot of people.
- [44:02]
A
I need to hear your take on this one. A lot of people that are personal brand experts start by saying, we need to get you a photo Shoot. We need to pick out your colors, we need to make sure you have a logo. We need to. What do you think when it comes to personal branding about starting the conversation there?
- [44:19]
B
Yeah. Okay. Personal branding is the digitization of your reputation. Does your, do your clothes determine how trusted you are? Do your photos determine if someone trusts you enough to buy from you? I'm not saying they don't matter.
- [44:37]
A
Sure.
- [44:38]
B
And the answer to that question is yes, to some extent they do. But you go, who are you going to buy from? A stranger who has a pretty picture or someone who you know in real life has gotten a result. Right. So. So all of the, all of the echo chamber of online is like this self perpetuating facade of like doing online things that online people do.
- [45:06]
A
Yep.
- [45:07]
B
Here's the truth. Most people who do online business are frickin broke.
- [45:12]
A
Yeah.
- [45:13]
B
Broke, broke, broke, broke, broke even. Huge podcasters.
- [45:17]
A
Yeah.
- [45:17]
B
You know, even huge YouTubers. Like, they don't. I cannot tell you how many clients we have that have millions of followers and cannot pay their bills. I'm not hating on them. It's not easy to make money from in any regard. I'm saying people are orienting towards this scoreboard of like more virtual, scalable, and it's actually leading to less actual income and substance in their pocket and less trust. So to the extent that you can get great photos. Yeah, I get great photos. I do think photography matters, but it's not where I would spend my first dollars.
- [45:56]
A
Right.
- [45:57]
B
And you know, there's so many good cameras. It's like, yeah, get a good picture, but you can get it with an iPhone. You don't have to spend $15,000. Now when I do a photo shoot, I hire the best photographers in the world because it matters. We pay a lot of money for our designers because it matters at scale, but particularly when you're starting out right. It's like everyone goes and spends all their money on a website. Which by the way, nobody even goes to websites anymore. Like all that you really need is funnels and landing pages and lead captures. It's like, but I gotta have a website and a business card and a logo and colors. And it's like no one, no one is buying in the beginning because of that. Reputation, trust, referrals, relationships.
- [46:37]
A
Rory Vaden, Powerful episode. Now there's a couple resources.
- [46:40]
B
We've probably made some enemy. I've made some enemies, probably.
- [46:44]
A
Yeah. All of the personal brand experts that are selling websites and selling, you know, just image without substance. But that's why I love you. And that's why, I mean, this might be like episode eight on the Think Media podcast or something. So I do have some resources for people. And the first one is if you would say, hey, I do want to start or grow a personal brand in 2026. Working with Rory's team is one of the smartest things you could do. The cool thing is you could do a free call. We'll link to it in the description down below and if it fits, cool. If not, no big deal. One of my best friends, actually, Anthony Langdon, we go to the Banya almost weekly. He's been working with you guys, I think, for two years. And he was just this last time we were there, we're in the sauna, it's 210 degrees and we were talking. He goes, man, Rory is just one of the best. Because I said I was coming out to visit you. He goes, man, he's one of the best guys. His team has been priceless. Getting to work with them. He's brought me so much clarity. He's going to be at your speak off in a couple months. And he's. He's also said, I've realized for who I'm going to help. He's built a successful roofing company, but now he's moving into coaching other service providers. You've helped him narrow his audience.
- [47:51]
B
Cool.
- [47:52]
A
Because he realizes he can help guys that are stuck at high six or seven figures losing their minds, losing their health, you know, very profitable. Well, high revenue business, low profit, stressed, burnt out, figured out his people. All that to say, just raving about brand builders, shout out so much. And so if you are interested in talking to Rory's team, worst thing that happens is you get your whole process.
- [48:21]
B
Yeah, we'll give you. We'll tell you our whole process, walk you through it. And most people are not a fit, but we'll talk to them and tell you if we can work with you and if we can't, we'll point you in a direction we think can be helpful.
- [48:33]
A
Yeah, that's awesome. And then of course, if you are a good fit, this would be the shortcut. Right? Go faster. Some done for you stuff. So you can check that out at freebrandcall.com forward/think we'll link that up in the description and then also a couple other episodes to save for later or to check out on the audio or the video podcast. The first was we just did the ultimate breakdown of seven steps, that of the exact script that needs to be included in a video that actually can be converts. So when you're sales videos, sales videos or just a YouTube video or a presentation video, if you're missing these elements, sales are going to stay at zero or they're going to go down and that's totally free. So that's on the Think Media podcast as well as a few of our other past episodes. We'll put the playlist up. This is now like the the Book of Rory. We have our own playlist, the Vaden Victory playlist. The Vaden I don't know. I'm popping into ChatGPT trying to freestyle something. So check out the show notes and resources for some of that and also make sure you're subscribed and like and share or rate and review the podcast wherever you watch or listen. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel. Thank you, Rory for coming back on the podcast and I can't wait to connect with y' all in a future episode.