#26: Dan Go—The Fitness Coach Who Built a Mega Brand by Niching Down

Summary

Podcast Summary: Why That Worked – Episode #26: Dan Go—The Fitness Coach Who Built a Mega Brand by Niching Down

Introduction

In Episode #26 of Why That Worked, presented by StoryBrand.ai, hosts Donald Miller and Kyle Reed delve into the success story of Dan Go, a fitness coach who has built a mega brand by strategically niching down. Released on June 30, 2025, this episode offers valuable insights into the power of focused branding, clear messaging, and effective content strategy. Through an in-depth conversation, listeners learn how Dan Go's approach can be applied to their own personal and business branding efforts.

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1. The Power of Niching Down

Dan Go emphasizes the critical importance of niching down to build a successful personal brand. He introduces the concept by highlighting common challenges listeners face when trying to create a personal brand without a clear starting point.

Dan Go [00:24]: "One of the most common questions we get from listeners is they want to build a personal brand, but they don't know where to start."

Donald Miller and Dan Go discuss Dan's Twitter account, FIT Founder, which exemplifies effective niching down. By targeting fitness advice specifically for founders, Dan has carved out a unique space in a crowded market.

Donald Miller [01:31]: "He actually has fitness advice, longevity advice, feel-good advice, workout advice, supplement advice. Specifically for founders of companies."

Dan Go [01:44]: "Correct? That's exactly it."

This focused approach demonstrates that even within a broad industry like fitness, narrowing down to a specific audience can lead to significant success.

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2. Crafting Clear and Effective Messaging

A key takeaway from the discussion is the necessity of clear messaging. Donald Miller underscores that effective branding ensures that potential customers immediately understand what you offer without confusion.

Donald Miller [03:31]: "He's not making anybody think about what he offers. He's not. And that's the number one mistake. And it's the reason that people are ignoring you."

To illustrate this point, Donald shares an example from his own experience with a member of the Small Business Flight School. The confusion around the name MedicalTravelOptions.com exemplifies how unclear messaging can lead to misunderstandings about a business's actual offerings.

Donald Miller [05:26]: "You help me find pharmaceuticals that are ocean."

Dan Go praises DIT Founder for hitting the "bullseye" with his branding, where the name and bio clearly communicate his service to the target audience.

Dan Go [05:57]: "What's your offering and who you're interested in. And I think there's two ways people can go about this. They can go about this on their own and they can work on this."

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3. Building Authority and Trust Through Content

Dan Go's content strategy is another focal point of the episode. By consistently delivering high-value content tailored to his niche, he establishes himself as an authority in the fitness for entrepreneurs space.

Dan Go [08:45]: "His estimated follower and subscription just across all social platforms right now is 2.5 million followers."

Donald Miller highlights Dan's ability to create engaging hooks that resonate with his audience's behaviors and concerns.

Donald Miller [09:32]: "If you buy supplements off Amazon, you need to read this."

This approach not only attracts attention but also builds trust, as followers perceive Dan as a knowledgeable and reliable source of information.

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4. The Role of Authenticity and Practice in Creativity

The hosts discuss Donald Miller's creative process, attributing his ability to generate engaging content to years of writing and practice. This segment emphasizes that creativity can be developed through consistent effort and by honing one's skills.

Donald Miller [17:16]: "Quite honestly, it comes from having written, you know, what, 15 books now and having practiced."

Dan Go encourages listeners to adopt similar habits, utilizing tools like StoryBrand AI to streamline and enhance their content generation process.

Dan Go [18:16]: "What problem do people feel? And then just answer that."

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5. Leveraging Social Media Algorithms for Brand Growth

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to understanding how social media algorithms favor well-niched content. Dan Go explains that by niching down and addressing specific problems, content is more likely to be promoted by platforms' algorithms, facilitating organic growth.

Dan Go [21:06]: "And I think what people hear is that it's like, oh, niche down. I'm stuck here. I got to talk about, you know, how to burn fat on my love handles every day. It's like, that's not true."

This strategy highlights the advantage of having a focused content strategy, which not only attracts a dedicated audience but also enhances visibility across social platforms.

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6. Practical Steps for Building a Personal Brand

The hosts provide actionable advice for listeners aiming to build their own personal brands. The steps include:

• Niching Down: Identifying a specific target audience and area of expertise.

  Donald Miller [28:04]: "Niche down, niche down. Hit the arrow, Hit the bullseye on what it's called so that nobody has to think about what you're offering and who you're interested."

• Clear Messaging: Creating a tagline and bio that clearly communicate what you offer and to whom.

  Dan Go [28:13]: "Nail that tagline, Nail that bio, that first line of your bio. This is exactly what I do."

• Content Strategy: Developing hooks that address the audience's problems and provide valuable solutions.

  Donald Miller [28:18]: "Learn to create hooks in your post."

• Utilizing Tools and Resources: Leveraging AI tools like StoryBrand AI to refine messaging and generate content ideas.

  Donald Miller [28:51]: "If you want to take a step further, go check out a story brand coach."

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7. Expanding the Brand: Opportunities Beyond Content

Towards the end of the episode, Donald Miller explores potential avenues for Dan Go to further capitalize on his personal brand. Suggestions include:

• Launching a Mastermind Group: Providing exclusive coaching and community for entrepreneurs.

• Creating Subscription Services: Offering digital content, workout platforms, or supplement boxes tailored to his audience.

• Licensing Name and Products: Partnering with reputable manufacturers to create branded supplements, ensuring quality control and leveraging his authority to boost sales.

Donald Miller [26:08]: "But I think where he's going, he's probably like 50% to the point where he could stick his name on a bottle of vitamin D with K2 and make some money."

These strategies illustrate how a well-niched brand can diversify its offerings and create multiple revenue streams while maintaining brand integrity and trust.

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Conclusion

Episode #26 of Why That Worked provides a comprehensive analysis of how Dan Go successfully built a mega brand by niching down and maintaining clear, focused messaging. Donald Miller and Dan Go offer actionable insights into personal branding, emphasizing the importance of specificity, consistency, and value-driven content. Listeners are encouraged to apply these strategies to their own endeavors, leveraging tools like StoryBrand AI and focusing on addressing their audience's specific problems to achieve similar success.

Dan Go [27:04]: "If you're listening to this and you're thinking about a personal brand, you're developing a personal brand. There's a couple of things I think that you can take away from this. First is most important. Niche down."

For those aspiring to build a powerful personal brand, this episode serves as a valuable guide, illustrating that success lies in the ability to stand out through clarity, focus, and unwavering dedication to serving a well-defined audience.

Transcript

[Donald Miller]

Foreign.

[Kyle Reed]

You're listening to the why that Work podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends, or cultural phenomena find success while others don't, you're in the right place. Every week, we unpack why something worked, then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life. Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.

[Dan Go]

Don. One of the most common questions we get from listeners is they want to build a personal brand, but they don't know where to start. This is a topic we talk about a lot. Important to me. Important to you. I know you've. You've built a great personal brand online. And so today I thought it'd be an interesting conversation to bring someone who I found on Twitter or X whatever you want to call it. It's a guy who's built a personal brand, and I think he's gone about it the right way. So what I'd love to do is bring up his account and kind of talk to you.

[Donald Miller]

Let's do it.

[Dan Go]

You as a messaging expert, kind of break it down.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Dan Go]

So the guy we're talking about today.

[Donald Miller]

And I don't know this guy.

[Dan Go]

You don't know this guy? I don't think you follow him. And I have to say his name slow because it can sound like Van Gogh. It's not Van Gogh. His name is Dan Go. Dan Go. On Twitter, he is at FIT Founder. Now, the reason why he jumped out to me is I see him in my algorithm a lot. I think I follow him. I think he does a really great job of breaking down. He has a really strong bio, but then his content drives his kind of theme and focus in business and life.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, let me just guess, though.

[Dan Go]

FIT Founder, FIT Founder is his.

[Donald Miller]

I mean, here's where my mind went. You tell me whether I'm accurate.

[Dan Go]

Yeah, Come on.

[Donald Miller]

He actually has, like, fitness advice, longevity advice, feel good advice, workout advice, supplement advice. Specifically for founders of companies.

[Dan Go]

Correct? That's exactly it.

[Donald Miller]

Wow.

[Dan Go]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

Okay. That's amazing that you can actually build a thought leader brand on a niche that small. I mean, it's not necessarily small, but there's a thousand fitness. There's a. No, I'm sorry. There's a million fitness folks out there, million nutrition folks out there. That alone speaks to the power of niching down. Can we just start there? Absolutely. I cannot believe that I was right on that. I assumed you were gonna go close, but because I thought that's too niche of a niche. So there you go. Okay, so we've already got lesson number one. Niche the Frick down.

[Dan Go]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Fitness Frick.

[Dan Go]

Copyright that. Niche the frick down.

[Donald Miller]

Nich the frickdown.com. somebody grab that.

[Dan Go]

It's probably available co.com nich the frick. Yeah. Niche.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. For those who don't cuss.

[Dan Go]

PC version. Yeah. You nailed it. That's crazy.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Dan Go]

Off that. Just his name.

[Donald Miller]

Well, it's. Well, also fit Founder. I mean, he got it. The other thing let's just say about that is he niched down, but the actual name Fit Founder is an aspirational identity.

[Dan Go]

Yes. That's good. That's really good.

[Donald Miller]

Let's just say that's another thing he got right. He niched down and then he called it what it is, rather than some elusive title, you know, like the great founder or the strong founder or whatever that people would have got confused about. No, it's a fit.

[Dan Go]

Well, he takes it a step further. I think the reason it caught my attention, his bio on X. Let me read it to you. Is health performance coach to entrepreneurs. Tweets on fat loss, optimizing the body, and he's on a mission to transform a billion lives through health and fitness. But I think that's.

[Donald Miller]

That's pretty strong.

[Dan Go]

I think that first line is great. He's a health performance coach to entrepreneurs.

[Donald Miller]

There you go. And you know what he's. You know what he's not doing? He's not making anybody think about what he offers.

[Dan Go]

That's right.

[Donald Miller]

He's not. And that's the number one mistake. And it's the reason that people are ignoring you. If you're trying to be a thought leader, they can't figure out in less than a second what you offer. And I mean that. Less than a second. You cannot make people go, well, what does that mean? As soon as they say, what does that mean? Or what do you do? Or what do you. Whatever. Let me just give you an example. I was just on a call with. With the small business flight school members. We have a thing called small business Flight school helps you grow your small business. And once a quarter, I get on and I do a zoom call, and they ask me questions. One lady was medicaltraveloptions.com, i think medical travel options, something like that. What do you think she does?

[Dan Go]

She helps you prepare to travel. And if you get hurt, she knows where to go. To a hospital.

[Donald Miller]

Close. She sells foreign pharmaceuticals.

[Dan Go]

Medical trap.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, it started out, but this is how this stuff happens.

[Dan Go]

Yeah, yeah.

[Donald Miller]

This is how she got off target. It started out that she would help you get procedures overseas. Okay, like, so if you need a knee replacement, it's $50,000 cheaper in Sweden. You know, she can get you over there. It's a grade A in the hospital, but it turned into 90 plus percent foreign pharmaceuticals. So let's say metformin was 1000 bucks a month. But I can get in Sweden for 200 bucks a month. And it's a Metformin. It's the same stuff. She's the one who helps you find that deal and then gets it for you. So now you're getting foreign prices. I recommended that she buy foreignpharmaceuticals.com?

[Dan Go]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Cause if I say, hey, if I said to you, I just talked to a woman, she has a company called foreignpharmaceuticals.com now, what are you assuming she does?

[Dan Go]

She helps me find pharmaceuticals that are ocean.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. I mean, you might have the curse of knowledge on, because I actually told you what she does, but you're gonna be a lot closer. And so that's what this Dan Go guy has done. He's got. You're right inside the bullseye. You're right inside the bullseye. And if the bullseye is the name of what you do or the name of your company or the name of your service or the name of your product is when you say it to somebody, they actually, and you actually say, what do you think that is? And they tell you what it is. You've hit the bullseye.

[Dan Go]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

And I would say 95 plus percent of people are off the bullseye. And if you want to grow your business, get the frick in the bullseye. There's the frick again. For homeschool non customers. Get in the bullseye. And that's your domain name. That's your tagline, that's your bio on X or Instagram or whatever you. You want to get in there. So that's the. We've already identified three things that he's done really well. He niched down. Well, two things he niched down, and then what he called his service is in the bullseye.

[Dan Go]

Yep. And then emphasizing that for the example you gave from the small business call, flight school call you had today, she could then overemphasize that with a quick line of just, I hope you find the pharmaceutical drugs for cheaper.

[Donald Miller]

Well, you could actually. She could actually say foreignpharmaceuticals.com and the header on that website might say, buy the drugs you're already taking cheaper from overseas.

[Dan Go]

Yep.

[Donald Miller]

So now it's, now it's their fda. She even said they're FDA approved.

[Dan Go]

That does a lot of lifting.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, they're, they're, you know, it's all legal, but she's helping you get it cheaper.

[Dan Go]

What I think Dan Go does a great job as well is. So he nails the name. Yeah, he nails his bio very quickly, like right away. I know he also. There's something aspirational about that too. I have a little bit more trust.

[Donald Miller]

Because that was the third thing, by the way. Yeah, it's an aspirational idea.

[Dan Go]

He's working with entrepreneurs, so I go, oh, that's a high level class. So clearly there's some kind of trust. He's an expert in this. What I love what he does is then it drives all of his content strategy.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, it's a filter.

[Dan Go]

It's 100%. And so if you go look at his account, it's not that everything is health and fitness, but 95% of it is he might throw a little bit of aspiration.

[Donald Miller]

And that is a disciplined guy because there's probably so much that he could talk about that is, that is off bullseye topic. And it takes a lot of discipline to just not talk about it and actually say. I say this about Dr. Becky. Dr. Becky is probably my favorite parenting coach. She's helped me so well with my relationship with my little girl. And she is a psychologist who could probably give really, really terrific marriage advice, but she doesn't. And it's really, really smart for her not to do that now. She might be able to do that in the future when she's just got her own television show or whatever. But the way you get that television show is you niche down and you own parenting well.

[Dan Go]

And he easily could start saying like, here's lessons I've learned from founders about leadership. That would pull.

[Donald Miller]

That's a good example of he could.

[Dan Go]

Do it and it might be good. It's working though, for him, let me tell you. His estimated follower and subscription just across all social platforms right now is 2.5 million followers.

[Donald Miller]

He whiz man.

[Dan Go]

So he's got over a million Followers on Instagram, 764,000 on x 433,000 on LinkedIn.

[Donald Miller]

Why do you like him? Why did you bring him up so.

[Dan Go]

I liked him because I, because I love content marketing so much. When I see it done well, I immediately gravitate towards it. But then his content also delivers. So it's not just that he is playing the game correctly. He's actually delivering Great value. So one of the things he has is his latest pin post. So depending on when someone's listening to this, it might not be there. It's simple. It's. If you buy supplements off Amazon, you need to read this. And then it is a long thread talking why there are real ones and fake ones. And so I immediately am like, oh.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, let's talk about that. If you buy supplements off Amazon. Stop. What he identified was something that people can. What he spoke was something that people can identify with or not identify with. If you do this behavior. Now, if you were to say to me, if you shop for double RL clothes on eBay, you need to read this. Double RL is a brand that a friend of mine started 30 years ago, and I do because he makes limited runs of everything. So I go, I shouldn't even say this because now I'm gonna have competition buying double RL pants on eBay. He makes limited runs of those things, so you can't get them off of his website after a period of time. So I check ebay probably more often than I should to see if they are there. That's something that I would feel like somebody's reading my mail, right. Somebody's reading my journal. They're saying, if you do this, you better believe I'm gonna read whatever he says. But if you said something like, if you like vintage clothes, I've got some helpful advice. It's not quite niched down to the point where I'm gonna go, that guy's talking to me, right? He's talking to kind of us, but I wouldn't even identify with that. Vintage clothes is like hipster kids. That's not me. But the more specific you get. So if you buy supplements. If you buy supplements off of Amazon, you should read this. I think is. Is a great hook, but let's actually unpack why it's a great hook because it's something that people can identify in terms of their behavior and say yes or no, too.

[Dan Go]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Don't trust what's in. What's in the supplements you take. I don't know that. That. I don't even know that that gets the response that if you buy supplements on Amazon because I, I kind of. I kind of go, well, come on, you know this. There's going to be a theory here. And, you know, I don't even think of these as supplements anymore. It's just vitamin D. Yeah. You know what I mean? That sort of thing. Yeah.

[Dan Go]

Yeah. I think you're. He has a way of Going about. There's two things I think he's doing, which also comes back to the niching downside is he's also living out what he's teaching. Okay, so he's an incredibly in shape guy. He started as a gym owner. That's where he got started, and then pivoted into kind of this coaching side. But there's also like this authority there. So, like, when I read stuff like that, to your point, I have bought supplements on Amazon and I've heard this in the murmurings that, you know, don't do this because they could be fake. So that catches my attention immediately because it's a yes or no question. You know, it's kind of like what you said. He also tweets these little, like, you know, you're asking why I like him. He tweets these little things that kind of make you think, but gives a little bit of, like, motivation. All right, this was one he did not too long ago. A fit body is the ultimate status symbol because it can't be bought. It must be earned.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, so good.

[Dan Go]

That's so good, right?

[Donald Miller]

It's so good. I think it sounds like Dan Martell.

[Dan Go]

Yeah, well, exactly.

[Donald Miller]

And I think Dan Martell kind of has that same idea.

[Dan Go]

The other thing, he's doing well because I think people could hear this and go, okay, so I niche down. I. I have a good bio. You know, I've used storybrand AI to write that for me. I've got kind of a. I'm an expert on this.

[Donald Miller]

And let's talk about what he did there. He said a fit body is the ultimate symbol of status because it's something that you can't buy. It has to be earned. And by the way, what does he help you do? He helps you create a fit body.

[Dan Go]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

So what he did there was. He included a little bit of negative stakes and the negative stake. Well, positive and negative. The positive stakes are if you have a fit body, people are going to respect you and admire you and you're gonna earn that respect. And if you don't, they won't. So that is the positive and negative stakes based on whether or not you take his advice. And that's an important part of the story brand framework. Right. You've got to have those positive and negative stakes. And that Soundbite delivers on that.

[Dan Go]

There's also something we said about. He's actually talking to an audience that are of entrepreneurs who can kind of get what they like, especially successful ones can kind of get whatever they want. The one thing they can't buy is a fit body. So how do you get that? You go work with him. Yeah, there's something. There's something subtle there, too.

[Kyle Reed]

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[Dan Go]

There's a couple of things I like about him. He also does these threads where it's like, here's one. Fat loss hacks I know at 45 that I wish I knew at 25. And then it's just this long thread of content. There's another one where, listen, I'm like.

[Donald Miller]

And what are they?

[Dan Go]

Yeah, exactly. And what are they? Things I know at 44 that I wish I knew at 24. Yeah, so it's like little things like that.

[Donald Miller]

I think the thing, the only thing there is, you know, I like the things I know about fat loss at 44. I think you just want to get a little bit more specific on that. Like. Like things that I know about investing at 44 that I didn't know at 24. Things that I know about productivity at 44 that I didn't know At 24. I did it. You know, one of the posts that I did on Instagram that went viral? I mean, like, John Mayer liked it and Dwyane Wade liked it. It was weird.

[Dan Go]

You're famous.

[Donald Miller]

Was. I thought 50. I wish I would have known that turning 40 wasn't getting old, because at 50, I'm realizing at 40, are you kidding me? I was. I was so fricking young and I thought I was old. And even at 50, I feel like I'm 30. And I wish I would have known when I was younger that 40 actually just isn't very old. You can still run marathons and have kids and build companies and do all sorts of things that I thought 40 was old. And that took off online. And I never really understood why, but I think it's because people, you know who it took off with? 40 year olds.

[Dan Go]

40 year olds, yeah, exactly.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Took off with 40 year olds because they're feeling old. And I'm sitting there going, you're not.

[Dan Go]

Yeah, a 20 year old is skipping over that.

[Donald Miller]

Right.

[Dan Go]

Okay, so let's actually, I want to dive in on that a little bit. Talk to me, your creative process. How did you come up with that idea?

[Donald Miller]

I think, well, my whole process on social media is Kate shows up. Kate's my friend who's been running my social media for years, for about four years. Went from 72,000 followers to half a million since Kate came on.

[Dan Go]

She's really good.

[Donald Miller]

She's very good. She shows up once a week and she just prompts me. She just says, will you talk about this? People have questions about this. Would you talk about this? Half the time I say yes, and half the time I say I won't talk about that. But that makes me think of this. And that was one of the ones where I think I said, I don't have anything on that, but I do have something on how I wish I would have realized how young I was at 40. And she goes, oh, that's interesting. And then she turns the camera on.

[Dan Go]

Is that a. Are you. Where is that coming from, though, for you? That creative? Like, are you thinking about that? Is that.

[Donald Miller]

Quite honestly, it comes from having written, you know, what, 15 books now and having practiced. I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if it's been north of like 250,000 times that I've sat in front of a computer and tried to figure out what to say next. And by the way you're doing that, that's 250,000 times of actually writing. When you're writing, you're doing it 80 times before that writing session is done. So the ability to come up with a thought and articulate that thought has been rehearsed in my practice for decades. So that's where that's coming from. And I used to think it was a gift, but I just think it's come from the writing life. And it's one of the sort of ancillary benefits of having to think on your feet.

[Dan Go]

Yeah, I think one of the things I'm trying to find here for people listening to this is that creative process has to start somewhere for people.

[Donald Miller]

Well, the way it starts is. And the way you can skip the decades of that practice is get in the habit of. Of Asking yourself before you start talking, what problem do people feel? Yeah, that's really what angst do people feel? What frustration do they feel?

[Dan Go]

Great place to start.

[Donald Miller]

What fear do they feel? What anxiety do they feel? What's causing them stress in the particular area that I'm about to talk about. So for me, that would have been identifying in very fast succession that 40 year olds think they're old and I'm about to tell them they're not. And that was it. So if you turn something about turning 30 that was kind of like you feel like you're heading, you're getting older. 40 is like, oh my word. And looking back, I'm just going, are you kidding me? 40 is not old at all. You haven't lost any capacities whatsoever. Why in the world do you think you're old and so to speak, that kind of peace and encouragement to folks. It makes sense when you reverse engineer it, why it went viral.

[Dan Go]

So if we step back, the first thing I think people can do is the niche down part.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. You want to alleviate a pain.

[Dan Go]

Yes. And then whenever you start asking that, start alleviating pain. That's good. Yeah. And then I think the thing that people miss is once you ask that question, there's a process that you can do to come up with what I call endless ideas.

[Donald Miller]

Okay.

[Dan Go]

And that is starting to just prompt yourself with exactly what you and Kate go through.

[Donald Miller]

Oh, okay.

[Dan Go]

I think that is A.

[Donald Miller]

And AI, by the way, AI is so good at that. Like, give me 25 prompts based on the, the, the. If you go to AI and you say, you know, look, I'm a real estate agent, will you give me 25 social media prompts based on 25 areas of pain, frustration or fear that people have about buying a home.

[Dan Go]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

And ask me questions and then give me bullet points on how you think I should answer those questions in order to provide the most value for people, you're going to get, you know, really, really good ideas that, that hopefully will stimulate better ideas.

[Dan Go]

And that's the key. I think it's the stimulation of you putting in. And you can even take a step further for luxury home buyers, for first.

[Donald Miller]

Time buyers in, in Nassau and.

[Dan Go]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I think that's a big part of that niching down because then it drives all your content strategy versus just.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. If you said, look, problem with finding your dream home in Nashville is. There you go.

[Dan Go]

Got it. That's exactly right.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Dan Go]

So I love that.

[Donald Miller]

The reason people pay twice what they should for a dream home in Nashville is X. I mean, I'm literally just spitting them out. Right. And that, that's, that's where that's how you want to do.

[Dan Go]

So what problem do people feel start there? I think that's so powerful.

[Donald Miller]

Negative things right now. Everybody's afraid of tariffs, everybody's afraid of AI. Everybody's afraid of a, of an unstable kind of economic. Actually, it's an extremely stable economic environment. But, but consumer confidence is really low. So you might, if you're a business, to business, just say, everybody knows consumer confidence is really low. It shouldn't be, but it is, and here's what you can do about it. That sort of thing.

[Dan Go]

Yep. Or it's like, hey, why is 2025 better than, you know, there you go, 1980 or whatever. You know, you could play off that. Okay, so one of the things I've been thinking about too is that social media, specifically the algorithm is actually prone and made perfect for anyone starting or wanting to build their brand. And the reason is, is because when you niche down, when you ask the problem that I solve for my customer or for people following me, the algorithm does everything it can to get that in front of people. And now more than ever, there's an opportunity for anyone to grow by having a focus. What doesn't work is if you just show up with your name and you just randomly post stuff.

[Donald Miller]

Yep.

[Dan Go]

With no direction.

[Donald Miller]

Yep.

[Dan Go]

And I think what people hear is that it's like, oh, niche down. I'm stuck here. I got to talk about, you know, how to burn fat on my love handles every day. It's like, that's not true. There's a path forward here. But you can start there with direction and start to grow that and build that.

[Donald Miller]

There's a brand right there. There's a brand. You just said it. There's a brand for just love handles.

[Dan Go]

Just love handles. Just, just love handles @justlove handles 5.

[Donald Miller]

Million [e-mail].

[Dan Go]

I think Dan Go works.

[Donald Miller]

Because I think what's great about him is it's not like Alex Hormozi or some of those guys I obviously admire a great deal or Gary Vaynerchuk. Those are personality driven brands. Now they make a lot of smart decisions in terms of their messaging. But Gary Vaynerchuk and Alex Hormozi have very, very charismatic, dynamic personalities that they are very good at getting attention. And most people listening to me are just not including me. I'm not great at getting attention, but I built a good brand on just niching down. Business owners and messaging, and you can do it too.

[Dan Go]

And I think what we can also, I would highly encourage people actually go look at Dan Go's account and copy. Like, just look what he's doing and see where you can fit into that and kind of follow his roadmap. I think there's another thing he's done really well and that's he's picked one lane to kind of start in. And. And then once he started to build that up, he started to push that out everywhere else. So he didn't try.

[Donald Miller]

You mean like he started on X and now he started.

[Dan Go]

Yeah, he didn't try to go, okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna launch everything today. I'm gonna have a TikTok account, Instagram, YouTube newsletter, LinkedIn account X. Like, that is overwhelming to most people starting a personal brand. He started in one spot. He wrote and he wrote for the platform, which I think is also super important, and then let it build from there. And he's been. He's been become very successful. I'm gonna put you on the spot, though, Don. Okay, so Dan, go strong brand, working with a lot of clients, has built a online presence. If you are advising him what to do next in a business standpoint, what should he do with this personal brand?

[Donald Miller]

I don't know what he's doing now.

[Dan Go]

Okay.

[Donald Miller]

But there's several things that he could do. I mean, obviously he could launch sort of a mastermind that teaches people to kind of do what he's doing. He could launch a. So that is. How do you become a thought leader? He could do that. He could do an entrepreneur fitness sort of subscription service, either digital content, workout platforms, if he used to own a gym, stuff like that, or supplements in a box or something like that. One of my favorite things, once he's getting there, I don't know if he's quite right there yet, but I know my friend Josh Axe did this. He began licensing his name. You know, he began going into, like, supplement companies, approving the way they're creating and manufacturing things and what they're including and all that kind of stuff. And he just white labeled ancient nutrition. He sold it for hundreds of millions of dollars. You know, I don't know what it was, but it was a lot. And, you know, once you become the thought leader, the area of expertise, the guru that people go to, you begin looking for the products that you recommend, and then you go to those products and you say, hey, if I put my name on this thing, you're going to double your sales. So why don't you give me a 20% equity in that? So he could actually. That's an option. That's a direction that he could go, you know, and he could also do affiliates. I don't love that, but he could do affiliates where I recommend this and you get affiliates on that. You know, there's a few different directions. I think where he's going, he's probably like 50% to the point where he could stick his name on a bottle of vitamin D with K2 and make some money. Like, I think It's Eric Berg, Dr. Eric Berg on YouTube. I listen to him and he talks about the importance of vitamin D, but he says, you've got to have it with K2. It's got to have K2. I don't even know what I'm talking about right now, by the way. I don't know what K2 is.

[Dan Go]

But you trust them. But there's a trust there.

[Donald Miller]

Well, but listen, I get my blood tested about every three months and every time they say you're deficient in vitamin D, Deficient in vitamin D. Deficient. I'm like, but I take a vitamin D and I hear Eric Berg say this and I'm like, well, it's probably, honestly, it's probably a joke, but I'm going to buy his orange bottle that says Dr. Berg, vitamin D with K2. And the next blood test, like two blood tests later, I should say, they said, hey, you might want to go to one every other day. And in the summer when you start getting sun, start, stop taking it because your vitamin D is off the charts.

[Dan Go]

Wow. Because of the K2.

[Donald Miller]

And I'm like, there you go.

[Dan Go]

And there's a great post for him. There's.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, he could actually take what I just said.

[Dan Go]

Your doctor saying you're low on vitamin D but you take it every day.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, that's a, that's an option for you. If you're a thought leader, start sticking your name on things.

[Dan Go]

Gary Bruck has done that really well too.

[Donald Miller]

You know who did that? Donald Trump.

[Dan Go]

Yeah, yeah.

[Donald Miller]

People think he owns these buildings.

[Dan Go]

Yeah. Just put his name on the side of him.

[Donald Miller]

Put his name on side. He licensed his name and probably did some sort of quality control on whatever. And I think there's different. There's variations of that. Like to some he licenses his name on some. The guy doesn't drink and he's got a wine. You kidding me? He was just licensed his name and then. And ties and all that kind of stuff. But that's what a lot of people don't understand is it looks like he's in the manufacturing and real estate business and he's really in the name licensing business because he's good at bringing attention to himself. But that said, he probably actually has some large equity stake and some control over the french fries they serve at whatever golf club too.

[Dan Go]

Definitely.

[Donald Miller]

I don't mean to diminish that, but he made a lot of money licensing his name.

[Dan Go]

Well, if you're listening to this and you're thinking about a personal brand, you're developing a personal brand. There's a couple things I think that you can take away from this. First is most important. Niche down.

[Donald Miller]

Niche down, niche down. Hit the arrow, Hit the. I'm sorry, hit the bullseye on what it's called so that nobody has to think about what you're offering and who you're interested.

[Dan Go]

Nail that tagline, Nail that bio, that first line of your bio. This is exactly what I do. And then I think it's back to that question.

[Donald Miller]

Learn to create hooks in your post.

[Dan Go]

Yes. What problem do people feel? And then just answer that. And I think there's two ways people can go about this. They can go about this on their own and they can work on this. There's some other options we've created storybrand AI. I am a high proponent in I don't think you need to outsource everything, but if there's one thing you can pick to outsource, it's get this beginning correct. You talk about this a lot with a tagline sound bites. To me, those do so much work for you outside of the content. You can hire someone who's social media. It's worked great for you.

[Donald Miller]

For a lot of businesses that I talk to, what's missing are what I call curiosity sound bites.

[Dan Go]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

And curiosity sound bites are sound bites that you can read that make people curious about your brand. That's what they're missing. I call it the front steps of a business. It's like you. The porch is where you enlighten people as to how your products can change their life. The house is where they go to buy the products and you don't have any steps. So people can't even get to your front porch because you don't have curiosity sound bites. I write the curiosity sound bites for you at storybrand AI.

[Dan Go]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

How's that for a second?

[Dan Go]

That's really strong. And you can try to build those steps yourself. If you're like me, they won't hold up.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Dan Go]

So check out storybrand AI. Also, if you want to take a step further, go check out a story brand coach. That is another great option where they're going to help you write a great tagline, write a great brand story.

[Donald Miller]

They'll help you come up with an entire story brand messaging campaign and that's it. Marketingmadesimple.com there's so much, there's so much.

[Dan Go]

Value there for people. So hope this episode was helpful. Go check out Dan, go on Twitter.

[Donald Miller]

Or wherever you and Dan, thanks for letting us talk about your brand. Congrats on your success.

[Kyle Reed]

Thanks for listening to the why that Worked podcast Presented by Stories StoryBrand AI. If you like the show, follow wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're Enjoying this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you think and what you want the guys to talk about in a future episode. Curious about how StoryBrand AI can help you create clear, effective messaging? Well, you can try it out right now and create a free customized tagline for your business. Just go to storybrand AI. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.