01:00:00:00 – 01:00:03:13 AJ Vaden executives with strong personal brands are reported. 01:00:03:13 – 01:00:06:01 AJ Vaden to close deals faster, 01:00:06:02 – 01:00:10:16 AJ Vaden attract several times more qualified job candidates. 01:00:10:18 – 01:00:13:10 Rory Vaden Your reputation does not stay with just you. 01:00:13:10 – 01:00:17:19 Rory Vaden It travels through every higher you make, every vision you cast and every story you tell. 01:00:17:21 – 01:00:21:07 Rory Vaden nearly half of a company’s overall reputation 01:00:21:12 – 01:00:22:23 Rory Vaden directly attributable 01:00:23:02 – 01:00:24:20 Rory Vaden the reputation of its CEO. 01:00:24:20 – 01:00:26:03 AJ Vaden if you’re in a leadership position, 01:00:26:04 – 01:00:27:19 AJ Vaden you better heed some, 01:00:27:19 – 01:00:29:21 AJ Vaden advice on if that’s true. 01:00:29:21 – 01:00:32:01 Rory Vaden So what does that actually mean for how you lead? 01:00:32:01 – 01:00:38:10 Rory Vaden It means the way you show up publicly shapes who walks through your door, who stays, and who believes in where you are going. 01:00:38:11 – 01:00:48:00 AJ Vaden I don’t want someone who’s applying for a job. I want someone who is applying to go on a mission. And that is my job as CEO. 01:00:48:01 – 01:00:51:03 AJ Vaden If I’m not dreaming big, no one else is either, 01:00:51:03 – 01:00:52:16 AJ Vaden People need consistency. 01:00:52:20 – 01:01:01:19 Rory Vaden Your personal brand is the most powerful tool you have to protect your culture, attract top talent, and build something that lasts. 01:01:01:23 – 01:01:06:07 Canned Open AI VO Ever wonder what it actually takes to build a reputation that generates revenue? 01:01:06:10 – 01:01:10:22 Canned Open AI VO Rory and AJ Vaden are the powerhouse duo behind Brand Builders Group, 01:01:11:00 – 01:01:12:19 Canned Open AI VO NYT bestselling authors 01:01:12:21 – 01:01:18:14 Canned Open AI VO the personal brand experts who have helped some of the world’s most influential leaders scale their personal brands. 01:01:18:17 – 01:01:19:06 Canned Open AI VO Now 01:01:19:09 – 01:01:20:14 Canned Open AI VO they’re pulling back the curtain 01:01:20:14 – 01:01:21:23 Canned Open AI VO on how to capture attention, 01:01:21:23 – 01:01:23:10 Canned Open AI VO build massive trust, 01:01:23:12 – 01:01:26:07 Canned Open AI VO turn your expertise into a lasting legacy. 01:01:26:08 – 01:01:33:06 Canned Open AI VO Get ready to elevate your influence and your income. This is wealthy and well known. 01:01:33:08 – 01:02:00:06 Rory Vaden A 2026 research study from Deloitte said that nearly half of a company’s reputation is determined by the reputation of the leader. Today, on wealthy and well-known, we’re going to be talking about how the personal brand and the personal reputation of the person in charge shapes the entire company’s future. How does it shape your ability to get your message out, to recruit, to attract, to retain top performing team members? 01:02:00:06 – 01:02:19:00 Rory Vaden And how does all of that tie in to building your personal brand and creating more impact in the world? So it makes sense that I would only interview the person that I’ve got the most direct access to. Who is the leader in the CEO of our company? My co-founder, my business partner, my wife, AJ Vaden. You ready to do this? 01:02:19:01 – 01:02:19:17 AJ Vaden Yeah, 01:02:19:19 – 01:02:27:13 Rory Vaden I think it’s interesting because a lot of people would maybe look at us on the surface and be like, okay, Rory is the face, so to speak. 01:02:27:13 – 01:02:46:04 Rory Vaden I’m speaking, I’m writing books and, you know, doing stuff. But going like one of the reasons we’ve always believed you’ve had a passion a little bit for building your personal brand. But I don’t think you build your personal brand in the way a lot of people think about it of like driving leads. I think you have that is part of it. 01:02:46:04 – 01:03:09:04 Rory Vaden But I do feel like you’ve believed and practiced this for a long time, that your personal brand matters for how we do business around here, how people think of us, our internal team or customers and prospects. I mean, is that fair to say or. Like what? I guess that would be my question is why do you, as the CEO, feel like it’s been important to invest the time and money to build your personal brand? 01:03:09:04 – 01:03:19:14 Rory Vaden Because it is a lot of time and money, and it pulls you away from all the other things we need our CEO to do. But surely you see some value in it for some reason. 01:03:19:15 – 01:03:23:14 AJ Vaden Yeah, that was a very loaded question, and I had like 13 comments. 01:03:23:16 – 01:03:24:03 Rory Vaden Along the. 01:03:24:03 – 01:03:36:09 AJ Vaden Way along the way in my brain. But I’m going to start with one. That’s actually another statistic that I think is fascinating from the executive personal branding playbook, which came out in February of 2026. And it says that 01:03:36:09 – 01:03:50:12 AJ Vaden executives with strong personal brands are reported. Now, this is where I need everyone to like, listen up to close deals faster, attract several times more qualified job candidates. 01:03:50:17 – 01:03:51:01 AJ Vaden 01:03:51:02 – 01:04:07:08 AJ Vaden And and that so I think it’s it’s a combination of what you said. And I think that’s where you have to look at what is the CEO’s job. And I think the first question in there is, well, interestingly enough, a CEO can look different and every single company. 01:04:07:09 – 01:04:08:06 Rory Vaden Yeah, right. 01:04:08:07 – 01:04:30:16 AJ Vaden And I think that is where I have been caught up. And I shared this on a previous episode that we did a few weeks back about my realization through my entrepreneurs group with EOE of the difference between what you think as CEO is versus what you want it to be. And how does that compare to right? Are you the CEO or the founder? 01:04:30:17 – 01:04:44:05 AJ Vaden Right. And it’s like, I’ve been spending a lot of time this particular season of life of defining what is the CEO role for me at Brand Builders Group in this season of business? 01:04:44:06 – 01:04:44:19 Rory Vaden Great. 01:04:44:20 – 01:05:15:08 AJ Vaden And that’s kind of one of the best parts. And one of the trickiest parts of being the CEO is that no one else can tell tell you what it is. That’s the tricky part. It’s like there’s it could be whatever you want, right? That is both the tricky part and the fun part, but discerning and distilling down what is my role of CEO in each iteration of the company has been something that I haven’t given nearly enough time and focus to, because that’s strategy, right? 01:05:15:09 – 01:05:23:07 AJ Vaden That’s working on the business, not in the business. But I have spent a significant amount of time over the last few weeks really going know 01:05:23:09 – 01:05:32:21 AJ Vaden where do I provide the most value as the leader, the founder, the owner, i.e. the CEO? 01:05:32:23 – 01:05:42:19 AJ Vaden And where do I have gaps that I need to fill? Because that is not my best use. And I have come up with four categories. 01:05:42:19 – 01:05:48:20 Rory Vaden So what are the four things that you think you have to do as a CEO in this season for where we’re at. 01:05:48:21 – 01:06:08:05 AJ Vaden Right now? I would say I really have come to the belief of, like, once your business is stable and you’re not in startup mode, and I don’t think there is necessarily a timeframe on when you exit startup mode. I think it’s when you reach stability, you exit startup mode when there is some level of stability, right. And position people process finances. 01:06:08:11 – 01:06:18:17 AJ Vaden So these are the four categories that I have recently defined for myself. And maybe for someone who’s listening, this will resonate with you of shifting. What are your priorities? 01:06:18:17 – 01:06:45:20 AJ Vaden What are your executive functions as CEO? As you reach stability in your business? Number one is talent acquisition. And one of the things that I, I do believe strongly is as CEO is the financial fiduciary, but they are also the protector of the culture. And the number one way that you protect culture is that you make sure that no stragglers make their way in. 01:06:45:21 – 01:07:21:01 AJ Vaden If you want a strong culture, then you have to have aligned individuals, because then you don’t have to force it upon people. It naturally exists within the organization. And I think that’s really important of going at a stable business. A stabilized company has hopefully right. A clear vision, mission, purpose and core values. And so when I go out for talent acquisition and I go out for interviews, I am literally interviewing for the core values. 01:07:21:05 – 01:07:24:04 AJ Vaden here has been the best part of why the personal brand matters. 01:07:24:04 – 01:07:47:19 AJ Vaden So many people, when I bring this up, they’re like, oh no, I already know I follow you. I listen to your podcast, I hear you talk about this all the time. Boom! And I’m like, oh yeah, tell me more about that. How long have you been following me? How did you find me? And sometimes they were like, no, I just started following you when I started the interview process or when I came across the posting and I wanted to check out the company. 01:07:47:19 – 01:07:59:15 AJ Vaden And then I went to your website and, you know, they comment on, hey, I’m also from the South, or I’m also from a family of entrepreneurs, or I also love chips and salsa, whatever else they find. 01:07:59:15 – 01:08:10:15 AJ Vaden But it’s amazing to me how many people are like, oh no. I’ve been listening to the podcast since I started the interview process, or hey, I actually started listening to the audiobook and we couldn’t be more aligned if you paid me. 01:08:10:20 – 01:08:33:18 AJ Vaden And I’m like, well, that’s good because I’m going to pay you if I offer you the job. But it’s been so powerful that I don’t have to do so much vetting and back and forth, and it’s like it goes from interview to conversation so much faster when they already know. Like, I actually have an email correspondence here recently because we’re in a hiring mode right now. 01:08:33:20 – 01:08:49:08 AJ Vaden And for this particular, you know, job posting is for an inside salesperson at Brain Builders Group. And hey, by the way, if you’re listening, we are hiring. So maybe we’ll put the link to that in the show notes and you can check it out. But this was amazing because I sent out. 01:08:49:08 – 01:08:53:13 Rory Vaden She liked chips and salsa. If you want to know how to get the job, just pay you like chips and salsa. 01:08:53:18 – 01:08:56:16 AJ Vaden How you can get the job is you. You’re an amazing closer. 01:08:56:17 – 01:08:57:05 Rory Vaden There it is. 01:08:57:05 – 01:09:12:06 AJ Vaden How can get the job? Just to be clear, but I think this was really important is as we started posting these new job postings, me as the CEO actually wrote sales letters. Recruitment letters attached the beginning of all our new job descriptions. 01:09:12:06 – 01:09:19:02 Rory Vaden I love this. Explain to me what the difference is between a sales recruitment letter versus a job posting. 01:09:19:02 – 01:09:26:19 AJ Vaden So a job posting is here’s the job right? Here’s a one paragraph summary of the company. This is what we do. This is who we are. 01:09:26:21 – 01:09:28:20 AJ Vaden Right. It’s the reverse of your resume, right? 01:09:28:21 – 01:09:52:08 AJ Vaden It’s finding a match. But what I had found is that if my job is chief talent acquisition officer, which it is, then it’s like, no, I have to be selling a vision of who we are as a company, the culture I have to be establishing in writing before you apply. This is who we are representative of my voice as CEO, my personal brand. 01:09:52:08 – 01:10:22:11 AJ Vaden And so I started writing these page long recruitment letters, these sales letters for every job. And this is in my brand voice. So to what you’re saying, like, hey, 50% of the reputation of the company, I can say, at least in recruiting, that is true because they are filtering their first impression through my words on paper of this is where we’re at, this is where we’ve been, and this is where we’re going, which is why I’m looking for this role. 01:10:22:12 – 01:10:31:04 AJ Vaden Here’s how you know if you should continue to the job posting. And I sell the vision, not the job. 01:10:31:06 – 01:10:40:19 AJ Vaden I don’t want someone who’s applying for a job. I want someone who is applying to go on a mission. And that is my job as CEO. 01:10:40:19 – 01:10:43:19 AJ Vaden It is. And that kind of leads to the second category. 01:10:43:19 – 01:10:46:18 Rory Vaden Don’t go to the second category yet, because I want to talk about this a little bit. 01:10:46:19 – 01:10:59:22 AJ Vaden But I think it’s so important. So when I think about talent acquisition, I’m not talking about just interviews. I am the cultural representative for the company, on social media, on my website, in podcast interviews, 01:11:00:00 – 01:11:06:05 AJ Vaden that matters because I need someone to be able to opt in or opt out before they get on a phone call with me. 01:11:06:05 – 01:11:23:03 AJ Vaden I don’t have time to waste with people who are like, oh, I didn’t know that about you. Why not? Why didn’t you know that? Like, there’s there’s mediums all over. Like you didn’t do your research before you got on the call with the CEO. This conversation is now over. Thank you so much. 01:11:23:06 – 01:11:23:19 AJ Vaden 01:11:23:21 – 01:11:52:01 Rory Vaden See, I love this so much because I think so many entrepreneurs in so many executives that are struggling, the reason their company is struggling is because they don’t place a high enough priority on recruiting. And we were having this conversation not that long ago with some people on our team is that, you know, we actually have one of our courses, is called Influential Leader, and we talk about the six behaviors that every leader must have. 01:11:52:02 – 01:12:18:11 Rory Vaden And the first one is recruiting. Yeah. If you’re going to be a great leader, you have to be a great recruiter and think of sports teams, right? Like if someone is going to build a national championship team or a world. Where they recruit constantly and the top colleges, they’re recruiting kids in eighth grade, they start tracking these kids and their families, and they are following them sometimes earlier. 01:12:18:11 – 01:12:37:02 Rory Vaden And it’s going, you don’t get to be a leader if you don’t have anyone to lead. So you got to recruit. And the other thing is recruiting is a sales job. You don’t just wait until someone fills out your application and says, I’d like to work there. You find top talent and you hunt them down. You go get them. 01:12:37:02 – 01:12:43:18 Rory Vaden You have to. If to build the greatest team, you need the greatest players. To get the greatest players, you have to go find them. 01:12:43:23 – 01:13:13:10 Rory Vaden Recruiting is a sales job. And I just think, you know, you’re talking about the CEO, but all leaders like you have to recruit. And I think because so many executives under prioritize the importance of recruiting, they under prioritize the importance of building a personal brand. I am shocked, I am shocked that companies are still so far behind on getting their executives out in front of people, particularly their recruiting executives. 01:13:13:10 – 01:13:31:19 Rory Vaden They’re they’re sea level executives because it’s like, I’m not coming to work for a company. I’m coming to work for people. And you do such a great job of it. And you know what what, what, what prospects and leads are to sales is what recruits are to CEOs and the whole company. 01:13:31:20 – 01:13:49:19 AJ Vaden Well, I just firmly believe if the executive founder CEO, I’m just going to use the word or the letter CEO for the rest of this segment. So I stop saying that if they’re doing it, if they’re doing a really good job of that, they actually make the recruiting job of all of their leaders so much easier. Heck yeah. 01:13:49:20 – 01:14:11:06 AJ Vaden If they’re out there leading the charge and creating space, top talent is finding you. They’re searching you. They’re coming to you of like, what do you have? Open what’s available. I’ve been following you. I’ve been reading your book. I’ve been listening to your podcast. They’re finding you because you’ve set the tone and the pace of the culture and the organization and also making it known, 01:14:11:06 – 01:14:19:18 AJ Vaden And that makes it easier for all of your department leaders and teams to actually go and have better, faster conversations. 01:14:19:19 – 01:14:40:15 Rory Vaden Faster conversations. And even if they didn’t find us through your personal brand, to your point, they find us after they apply or after they start researching. It closes. It shortens the the recruiting cycle, just like a personal brand shortens the sales cycle. And recruiting is a sales job. So it’s the it’s the same dynamic. So I love that. 01:14:40:15 – 01:14:53:11 Rory Vaden I’m so grateful that you embrace that as our CEO. And you believe that and you do it. I don’t know what your four things are, so I’m dying to know what these are. Okay. So what is your second? The second, you know, most important thing. 01:14:53:11 – 01:15:11:14 AJ Vaden You. Do the transition of when I started writing these vision letters, these sales letters to these job postings. Right. Because this is really a letter to a unique individual. The person who reads these, who applies for this job, whether we found them or they found us, it doesn’t matter. It’s like they should be like, oh my gosh, that’s what I’ve been looking for. 01:15:11:14 – 01:15:31:05 AJ Vaden And if it doesn’t resonate, they should move on, right? But it should appeal to them because I’m selling a vision. Like I said, I don’t want to hire someone who’s looking for a job. I want to hire someone who’s like, I’m ready to go on a mission, right? I want to join a movement, which is the second part of my role as CEO is I am the chief vision officer. 01:15:31:07 – 01:15:31:18 AJ Vaden Right. 01:15:31:19 – 01:15:34:21 AJ Vaden If I’m not dreaming big, no one else is either, 01:15:34:21 – 01:15:57:16 AJ Vaden right. And I have never become more aware of that than this year, thanks to Doctor Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson, who co-wrote the book The Science of Scaling. And I attribute so much of my own mental transformation this year to that particular book. And if you have not read it and you’re listening, go buy it 01:15:57:16 – 01:16:03:13 AJ Vaden but it’s like, your people will do half of what you do, right and twice of what you do wrong. 01:16:03:13 – 01:16:26:16 AJ Vaden And if you’re dreaming real small dreams, then everyone else’s are even half that size. And it’s like, I have to dream twice as big as everyone else in the company just to get them to be on any sort of pace of what’s possible. And I hadn’t been dreaming that way the last few years. I had been doing like, hey, this is a well balanced path. 01:16:26:17 – 01:16:46:10 AJ Vaden This is moderate growth, this is sustainable, this is what’s tracking. And how boring is that? Like, it even felt boring to me while doing it. And I’m like, well, but this is what the trends say. And this is pretty factual. And that kind of lines up. And then it hit me this year of like, well, who grows a. 01:16:46:10 – 01:16:48:07 AJ Vaden Huge company doing that? 01:16:48:08 – 01:16:55:07 AJ Vaden Like who makes a massive impact with moderate scheduled growth based on I’m like, oh. 01:16:55:07 – 01:16:56:03 Rory Vaden My gosh. 01:16:56:04 – 01:17:01:16 Rory Vaden Sally hogshead has this great quote where she says, the world has not changed by people who sort of care. 01:17:01:17 – 01:17:20:14 AJ Vaden Yeah. And it’s like, but it’s like also like you don’t do big, amazing things by planting really small. Exactly. You don’t. And if if I do believe this saying of like your team does half of what you do right and twice of what you do wrong, well then my right has to be double right, double big right. It’s like the things that I can do. 01:17:20:14 – 01:17:42:20 AJ Vaden Well, I better do them really well because my team is going to do half of that. They’re going to dream half of the way I dream, think half the way I’m going to think. And so it’s it is creating a vision that almost does feel impossible because I think dreaming the impossible, the seemingly impossible, and I should put seemingly because everything feels impossible until it becomes possible. 01:17:42:22 – 01:18:12:06 AJ Vaden But the reason that’s become such a huge part of this, like this Chief Vision officer, is realizing it actually helps you weed out the non culture fits. And so talent acquisition number one. But I would say protector of the culture and the vision right. Caster would be a close second because they’re somewhere in there. Helps you understand if there is anyone who doesn’t believe or you’re going they’re not going to help you get there. 01:18:12:07 – 01:18:21:05 Rory Vaden And those two are so closely connected because of that. It’s like you only recruit top talent for people who are the top talent, is attracted to the big mission. Yeah, right. 01:18:21:06 – 01:18:22:11 AJ Vaden And they want to do something. 01:18:22:13 – 01:18:24:13 Rory Vaden They want to do something big. Yes. 01:18:24:14 – 01:18:26:22 AJ Vaden They’re not looking for the safe zone. 01:18:26:23 – 01:18:31:06 Rory Vaden And in order to achieve the big mission, you need to have the top talent. So like those two things go. 01:18:31:10 – 01:18:48:15 AJ Vaden So they go. So it’s like what I have found is that the bigger I dream, the bigger I communicate, the bigger the plan. I have just noticed on my team, our team, but specifically my direct reports, there are some people who have come alive and they’re coming up with new ideas that I didn’t even know they could do. 01:18:48:18 – 01:19:18:17 AJ Vaden They have initiative that I haven’t seen activated, and then I have others who all they do is question. And I’m not saying that’s wrong, I just noticing it of like, there’s a difference here, but and it’s all stemmed from doing something seemingly impossible big vision thinking. And I think the power of that for a CEO is that even if you only do half of it, that’s so much more than what you’re doing right now. 01:19:18:21 – 01:19:42:18 AJ Vaden And it forces you, in the words of Doctor Ben Hardy, to think differently. You don’t set hugely impossible goals to hit them. You set them because it forces you to think in a way that would allow you to hit them. And it forces a change of thinking that every great visionary leader has to do to create leaders behind them. 01:19:42:19 – 01:20:05:20 Rory Vaden Yeah, and I got to share one of my all time favorite quotes. And I don’t even know how to pronounce the guy’s name, but I think it’s Panthers jolly, who’s like ancient philosopher. And he says, when you’re inspired by some great vision, some extraordinary purpose, dormant forces and faculties come alive inside of you, and you find yourself to be a far greater person than you ever dreamed you could be. 01:20:05:22 – 01:20:10:01 Rory Vaden And that’s like what this is all about. It’s just like it activates you. 01:20:10:02 – 01:20:28:12 AJ Vaden But it activates you and then as a byproduct to your team. But to that point, there have been so many new ideas that have come alive in me where I’m like, oh, is this been underneath our nose the whole time? How did I miss this? This is just a repackaging. It’s a repositioning. And it’s it’s light bulb, light bulb, light bulb. 01:20:28:12 – 01:20:38:13 AJ Vaden When you allow yourself to sit in the seemingly impossible. So number one, chief talent acquisition officer. Love it. Number one, chief vision. 01:20:38:14 – 01:20:40:08 Rory Vaden Number two, chief vision officer. 01:20:40:09 – 01:20:41:21 AJ Vaden Then third. And I’ve mentioned this. 01:20:41:22 – 01:20:42:06 Rory Vaden Number. 01:20:42:06 – 01:21:02:16 AJ Vaden Three a couple of times already, but it’s chief culture protector right. And so part of that is the acquisition part. But then the other part is protecting the existing team and the culture. So it’s like a huge part of my job is to make sure that the right players are in the right seats. And, you know, I, I personally love working with people. 01:21:02:19 – 01:21:17:23 AJ Vaden I think it’s a decision that a lot of entrepreneurs have to make. Am I building a team or am I building a lifestyle business? Right? Do I want employees or do I not? Mike McCallum. It’s always says the two most important decisions you can ever make when you’re starting a business. Am I building it to keep or building it to sell? 01:21:18:00 – 01:21:39:20 AJ Vaden And do I want employees or not? You have to know the answer to those two things before you begin, because those are two very different paths. I personally love having team members, I really do, and as anyone would say about me, people are complicated and challenging. Mo people mo problems, right? That is a part of how this works. 01:21:39:22 – 01:21:54:17 AJ Vaden A part of that, though, in the culture protection, is making sure that there is a a shared aligned group of individuals as you grow. And Marshall Goldsmith wrote an amazing book, Pop Quiz. What is it? 01:21:54:17 – 01:21:58:15 Rory Vaden What got you here won’t get you there as the one. He’s written several, but I assume that’s the one. 01:21:58:17 – 01:21:59:07 AJ Vaden This is the one. 01:21:59:08 – 01:22:00:05 Rory Vaden Yeah, yeah. 01:22:00:09 – 01:22:21:02 AJ Vaden And we had our entire team read it, because I think a part of protecting the culture is realizing when you outgrow members on your team, or sometimes when they are no longer aligned where the company is going, there are shifts that happen where they were the right fit for a time for a season, but it’s rather a role shift. 01:22:21:02 – 01:22:50:06 AJ Vaden It’s a life situation shift, and those don’t have to be bad, but you do have to recognize them when they arise. And that’s a part of protecting the culture of the organization. Because just as we change, grow and evolve as individuals, so do companies. They change, grow and evolve of what’s needed and what season. As technology evolves, as the market shifts, there’s this whole, you know, AI conversation that’s making everyone take a look at how are we doing things. 01:22:50:07 – 01:23:00:04 AJ Vaden And a lot of that is in the culture protection of, hey, if they were a fit for a season and they’re not now, how is that infiltrating our culture and an unhealthy or negative way? 01:23:00:05 – 01:23:12:06 Rory Vaden Okay, so I want to ask you about this because in the in the topic of personal brand, everybody we talk about, you know, everybody wants to be liked and we talk about building trust. But 01:23:12:07 – 01:23:24:01 Rory Vaden when you say the topic of personal branding as a leader requires you to make tough decisions that not everybody likes, and you have to coach people, you give feedback. 01:23:24:01 – 01:23:45:05 Rory Vaden Sometimes you fire people, sometimes you have to say no to things. How do you reconcile building a personal brand that is, you know, hopefully appealing and magnetic while also balancing the like? I got to make the tough decisions as a CEO. Do you see those as competing somehow? 01:23:45:07 – 01:24:05:06 AJ Vaden No, I think those are 100% aligned, because shouldn’t your team know exactly who you are and where you stand? Would you rather have a whole bunch of strangers out on the internet getting to know the intimacies of your values, beliefs, convictions, and leadership style? Or would you rather have your team know that? And I think the more that you can be honest with this is where I stand. 01:24:05:06 – 01:24:19:09 AJ Vaden It helps people opt in or opt out. If you’re going to do something great, you better have people who are prepared for the mission. And I think the more that you invest in your personal brand, it helps your team get to know the inner workings of, oh, that. 01:24:19:09 – 01:24:22:16 AJ Vaden Makes sense, right? Like, I can’t I can’t imagine. 01:24:22:16 – 01:24:24:13 AJ Vaden How many times our team in the past has been. 01:24:24:13 – 01:24:25:01 AJ Vaden Like. 01:24:25:02 – 01:24:45:11 AJ Vaden I have no idea why they’re making this decision, and it’s because I didn’t spend near enough time talking about my leadership philosophies or cultural philosophies or pay philosophies or sales philosophies. And I don’t hold back now, like I want to be very clear, sales is king. Let me be clear. Right. And I think that was foreign to a lot of people. 01:24:45:11 – 01:25:01:18 AJ Vaden And they some of my actions maybe weren’t alluding to that. And I’m like, no revenue, no nothing else. Right. And it’s like, I think that is now a filter that people understand. If they’re going to have a conversation with me, they know the first thing I’m going to come up is like, tell me, what’s the ROI ROI on that? 01:25:01:18 – 01:25:06:00 AJ Vaden How is that going to generate revenue? How are you going to track it? How are you going to report on it? Prove it to me. 01:25:06:03 – 01:25:16:22 AJ Vaden And so it is creating a new level of culture. The more that I can just actually talk about, promote and stand firm to the values beliefs that I have as a personal brand. 01:25:17:03 – 01:25:20:16 AJ Vaden So it is helping build trust within the organization 01:25:20:17 – 01:25:37:09 AJ Vaden or or or not. And I have to be okay with that too. If somebody goes, wow, I didn’t know that’s what you really thought, then I’m like, but now you do, and you have a decision to make, and I have to be okay with that because I am the culture protector. 01:25:37:09 – 01:25:54:19 Rory Vaden I think it’s so interesting. It’s we’re talking about in the context of your team and kind of internal, but it’s I feel like a lot of the biggest personal brands in the world do that externally to they’re like, feel free to unfollow. Feel free to unsubscribe. Like you don’t like what I’m saying. You’re not. No one is forcing you to sit here and listen to me. 01:25:55:00 – 01:26:14:09 Rory Vaden And there is a level of assertiveness and confidence and being unapologetic. And this is who I am. This is what I believe. You’re welcome to come along for the ride. If not, you know, by all means, like and and I think that is a is a really deep it’s being convicted in your convictions. Yeah. It’s really powerful. 01:26:14:10 – 01:26:22:20 AJ Vaden And I think the other thing is like I think it’s only fair to your team like on this culture protection topic, for them to know exactly who you are. 01:26:22:22 – 01:26:23:10 Rory Vaden Yeah. 01:26:23:11 – 01:26:29:19 AJ Vaden That’s only fair to them so that they understand, like, this is what I’ve signed up for and who I signed up with. 01:26:29:20 – 01:26:30:04 Rory Vaden Yeah. 01:26:30:04 – 01:26:47:04 Rory Vaden So can you say chief culture officer and that you you have to talk about the vision and do these things. I recently became friends with a gentleman named Craig, who was a former, you know, CEO for many years of Home Depot. And he said, you know, one of my most important roles was I was the chief repeating officer everywhere I go. 01:26:47:05 – 01:26:59:09 Rory Vaden I just had to constantly repeat the vision, constantly repeat the values. And he’s like, because that like, no one else does that. Like I have to be the ambassador of that. So I love that. So that’s number three. Yeah. 01:26:59:10 – 01:27:15:09 AJ Vaden You got to say on that note, it’s like your team, at least your direct reports as a CEO, they should be able to fill in the blanks with what you’re going to say because you hear it so much. They’re like, I know AJ. And it’s like, yeah, you better know because I’ve said it enough that you do know. 01:27:15:13 – 01:27:23:02 AJ Vaden Don’t leave anything to ambiguity. Don’t leave anything to their own version of the translation. That’s not being clear. Clear is kind. 01:27:23:02 – 01:27:39:01 Rory Vaden Yeah, I love that. One of my favorite things with our community, not talking about our team, but our clients. Clients will come up to me and they will be like, I have a question for you and I know what you’re going to say. Before I ask, you’re going to say diluted focus, diluted results, but I’m going to ask you anyways. 01:27:39:01 – 01:27:48:14 Rory Vaden And then they’ll ask me the question. I’m like, what do you think I’m going to say? And they’re like, dang it. And I’m like, yes, you are getting it because it’s just like you’re just hammering it over and over. 01:27:48:16 – 01:27:50:05 AJ Vaden People need consistency. 01:27:50:08 – 01:27:57:05 AJ Vaden Yes. It’s like, what if my team, because I’m through the lens of the CEO, came to me and I gave a different answer every time. 01:27:57:06 – 01:27:59:21 Rory Vaden This makes me think of miss Heather. Yeah. So when we. 01:27:59:21 – 01:28:00:16 AJ Vaden Were our homeschool. 01:28:00:16 – 01:28:08:02 Rory Vaden Team, our home school teacher who just retired and moved back to Australia, but she was raising our boys and she. 01:28:08:02 – 01:28:09:12 AJ Vaden Was raising them. 01:28:09:14 – 01:28:33:07 Rory Vaden Raising our boys, she was teaching our boys and she was teaching us how to raise them. She was really a parenting coach more than and and you know, she would she would coach us on like, you don’t negotiate with children. You don’t, you know, have flexible boundaries. And, you know, miss Heather is blind. And she was talking about how, like, I need to know where the walls are. 01:28:33:08 – 01:28:50:19 Rory Vaden That’s how I survive is I. It’s like I know where the walls are. Kids need the same thing. They need to know this is the boundary. This is not allowed. You do not have gradients of boundary. You have a clear solid wall. Like this is the boundary that never moves. And then people know how to navigate without it. 01:28:50:19 – 01:29:05:17 Rory Vaden But if you’re inconsistent in your character, if you’re inconsistent in your expectations, if you’re inconsistent in your consequences, nobody knows who they’re going to get. They don’t know how to navigate around the around the landscape. They’re just constantly like, you know what? 01:29:05:23 – 01:29:25:00 AJ Vaden What are you going to get today? Yeah. And I think that that is a benefit of building a personal brand as a CEO, as your team creates expectations and it creates consistency so that they can be more autonomous because they know what I’m going to do. They know what I’m going to say because I’ve been consistent in what I say and what I do. 01:29:25:01 – 01:29:41:20 Rory Vaden Yeah, and I love how you’re talking about all this, because you can clearly see our definition, and specifically your definition of personal branding is not like your social media followers, your logos. It’s just it’s what you believe. It’s who you are. And that’s why it matters as a leader. Okay, so number four, before we before we. 01:29:41:20 – 01:29:43:16 AJ Vaden Go, storytelling officer. 01:29:43:17 – 01:29:44:22 Rory Vaden Oh, okay. 01:29:45:01 – 01:29:54:04 AJ Vaden I’ve got talent acquisition. We have chief vision, chief culture. Protector and chief storytelling. And this is where. 01:29:54:08 – 01:30:01:12 Rory Vaden Tell me the story about how you arrived at that. Chief storytelling officer is one of your for most important jobs. 01:30:01:14 – 01:30:21:00 AJ Vaden I think this is really, really important when it comes to a personal brand. And I would say this is probably the one out of all the things that I’ve come to believe about my role as CEO actually came from our trends and personal branding research study. It just didn’t come alive. It didn’t activate for me until the last couple of years. 01:30:21:02 – 01:31:00:20 AJ Vaden Of all the statistics around, you know, people are more likely to buy from companies who have established personal brands. They’re willing to pay more from companies who their values align with executives they’re more likely to work for you, vote for you, promote you. If you have an established personal brand. And I just believe more than anything else in today, in this world of AI, that there are very few things that AI is not going to be able to do in the future, there’s very few, and that can be scary or that can be super encouraging. 01:31:01:02 – 01:31:27:05 AJ Vaden I think that it’s rather a problem or an opportunity, and I think it can be both right. I think it can be both. I think there’s going to be problems, as with anything, and I think there’s going to be great opportunities. And what I’m paying attention to is, well, what’s it not going to be able to do? As much as I’m paying attention to what it can do, what it will be able to do, I’m also really watching intently of what’s it not going to be able to do, because I think they’re in lies. 01:31:27:05 – 01:31:47:11 AJ Vaden Much of the opportunity, like AI, is not going to be able to do my hair. I’ve been thinking a lot about my hairstylist like, she’s secure, we’re good, right? Her job is secure, right? It’s not gonna be able to do my nails right. It’s like there’s like these things. But then I think about it as my job. I use it for many things, and it’s super helpful. 01:31:47:11 – 01:32:10:19 AJ Vaden And I’m like, but what can I will? I refuse it to let it do for me because it can’t and it cannot tell my story. It does not possess my memory. It it cannot recount the way I felt when my mom died. It cannot recount the memories I have of our car accident as a child. It does not remember my wedding day. 01:32:10:19 – 01:32:35:02 AJ Vaden It does not remember the day that I had my children. It cannot relive those moments, which means it cannot tell that story. It cannot talk about the devastation of being fired. And then the miracle of starting Brain Builders group and the call from Louis like it wasn’t there. It can’t do it. It cannot tell your story. And that’s my job. 01:32:35:04 – 01:33:00:02 AJ Vaden So Chief storytelling officer is it’s the human connection. It’s the emotional component. It is what we desire at our core as human beings, which is connection and belonging and purpose and the desire and the need to be more than of ourself. And that is something that no one else can do. For, for the company, for your team, than you. 01:33:00:03 – 01:33:03:06 AJ Vaden So Chief Storytelling Officer is the fourth one. 01:33:03:10 – 01:33:30:14 Rory Vaden Holy moly. That’s good. We need to cut that clip for sure. If you’ve been listening to this and you go, you’ve had an experience like I just had, which is that AJ just redefined what a personal brand means to someone who’s the CEO and an executive who do you know that is an executive or a CEO that needs to realize how important their story is to the success of their company? 01:33:30:16 – 01:33:50:23 Rory Vaden Who do you know that is running an organization? We used to share this episode with them, and if you are someone who needs help telling your story and you’re not sure how to craft your story and you’re not sure how to, you know, carry that vision and and codify all that, go to free brand, call free brand call podcast. 01:33:50:23 – 01:34:08:00 Rory Vaden Request a call with our team. We’ll want to hear your story. We’ll capture some of that. And then if it’s if it makes sense, we’ll talk to you about how we might partner with you to tell a better story and create a better company. That’s it for now. Until next time, we’re signing off for the wealthy, Well-known podcast.