Category: Podcast Recap

Ep 189: How Entrepreneurs Should Use Their Personal Brand to Launch Their Startup with Claire Diaz Ortiz | Recap Episode

RV (00:02):

Welcome back to the influential personal brand podcast recap edition. Today, I am joined by my cohost of my wife of amazing wonder and beauty and brilliance, AJ Vaden. We’re talking about I think a topic that’s super, super relevant to things that AJ is interested in as a true entrepreneur herself. How do entrepreneurs use their personal brand to launch their startup and the interview that we did with Claire Diaz, Ortiz, who’s a long time Silicon valley influencer, I would say. And, you know anyway, fascinating AJ. And I we met her. Do you remember what was that? What was the event we were at that we met her?

AJV (00:42):

I think it was at that leadership event that we had gone to read like Jesus.

RV (00:49):

So it was Ken Blanchard’s. Yeah, it was a Ken Blanchard.

AJV (00:52):

We’d like Jesus event. I’m recalling correctly. I could have made that up, but that’s okay.

RV (00:57):

Yeah. Yep. Yeah. That’s right. So so anyways, just to dive into it, you know, I think this interview was interesting because I think it was more focused towards kind of the traditional entrepreneur than more of like the, you know, kind of modern influencer

AJV (01:15):

Or business owner, CEO, executives, anyone in that business category.

RV (01:20):

So maybe not your kind of classic author, speaker, coach person, but more of like a, a leader of a business and asking the question, like, why does it matter to have a personal brand? You know,

AJV (01:33):

If you’re not, yeah.

RV (01:35):

Like if you’re not selling a video course or a coaching program, then does this, does this all still matter? And you know, w the first point takeaway for me was where she was talking about how one of the things that she does now is she’s an investor and she gets to go to these investor meetings and they see pitches and yada yada, and she said, well, look, no matter how you think about it as an entrepreneur, as the founder of anything, it’s your job to share the story of your thing with the world, whether it’s a nonprofit, or it’s a whatever, a sports team or a, or a, a SAS company or a widget, it’s the founder’s job to figure out how to share the story with the world. And, and there’s only a couple of ways to do that, right? It’s like either you have a, you build a sales team and they make a bunch of cold calls and they go tell everybody about it. Or you have a huge advertising budget and you spend a bunch of money so that you tell people about it, or you do something more organic, which is basically through personal branding and the, and the things that we talk about. And I guess that was a big light bulb for me to go, gosh, so much of what we teach at brand builders group directly applies to the traditional entrepreneur, just because of that, because of that one point alone. And it wasn’t, it didn’t stick out in my mind so much until she said that, no,

AJV (02:59):

That’s, that’s really good. My first point was although there are great PR people at the end of the day, it’s really up to you. I think there’s so many things in life that we want to outsource to someone else. It’s, you know, there’s oh, I’m drawing a blank on Harry said this Kiyosaki, rich dad, poor dad. Talking about how there is, there’s no such thing as a New York times, best writing author. It is a New York times best selling author. And, you know, it’s so many people throughout our community at brain builders group, this question of, or just assumption, I’ve got a question. It’s an assumption that the publisher sells your books. No, they do not. They publish books. They do not sell books. And, you know, I think there’s so many things where it’s like, well, who’s going to get the story out there and who’s going to get it on TV and who’s going to get on it.

AJV (04:01):

Well, most of the time, it’s you, that doesn’t mean you won’t have help and assistance, but that’s your job, right? It’s like, you want people to learn about your company, your products or services, then go and tell them. And that’s what I love about personal branding is, and I think this is in the wise words and one of our good friends, Jay Baer, it’s like, you have the ability to be your own media company. So go and do it. Don’t rely on other people go be your own media person, right? You have the ability to do that. Like as individuals, we are our own media companies, and I was sharing this with Rory over the weekend. And I don’t know all the details. I didn’t read the whole story. I’m a headline reader in the news. So I don’t know all the details. I know just enough to be dangerous.

AJV (04:50):

Please don’t pass out. This was fascinating. And very much to this point where I saw that the young individual who films, the murder of George Floyd recently was awarded a Pulitzer for investigative journalism. I, this was a young teenager who had the thought, maybe they weren’t a teen or young adult who had the thought of something is going on here. I’m going to film it and look at what it has created across America and the world like that. You are your own media person. Like you are your own media company. Like you have that ability. Now. It’s like, there’s been entire movements. So there’s been black lives matter. But if you years ago, there was the me too movement that all started by people saying, I’m going to take stand. I’m going to share my voice. I’m going to do it in my own way, because I can be my own media company with the power of social media, plenty of bad things about social media, but there’s equal good things too. And I think as, as business people, as entrepreneurs and executives, CEOs, why don’t you think you have the same power to do that? You want people to learn about your products and your company’s mission and your services and how you’re different. Well, get yourself out there and tell people about it. But at the end of the day, it’s a great PR is up to you. Not some PR company.

RV (06:11):

No. Wow. Yeah. That’s that is, that is empowering and challenging at the same time. It was on that note, on that note about PR this was one, my second takeaway was, was Claire said, basically she was talking about reframe PR as moment making as like you know, think of it less as like, oh, there’s a press release of something we’re doing. And more of like, how do you create this special moment for people? And, you know, it made me, it reminded me of a couple of things where like Taylor swift would send, you know, personal video messages or show up to certain people’s birthday parties. You know, that would request and she’d get thousands. But occasionally she would show up at one because it was like, it was this huge moment where everyone couldn’t believe it. And it went viral like, oh my gosh, Taylor swift is at my birthday party.

RV (07:05):

And that’s so genius. And it’s so cool. Like it’s both cool and genius in terms of its effectiveness. And, you know, I I remember lewis saying this when we interviewed him for the influential personal brand summit that by the way, there, there’s a link to that on our website. If you, if you go to brand builders, group.com and then I think it’s resources, there’s a, you know, you can get all these video interviews that we did. And, and on that specific interview, I remember lewis saying that he tries to organize this whole business around one or two big moments every year. And so it’s like they really have like one or two really big things that they do. That’s like gonna push them to the next level. And so just thinking of PR as moment making for your customers versus like press releases about, you know, stuff about you. That was, that was good. I thought that, and

AJV (08:02):

That’s a game changer and this was technically my third point, but I’ll consider this my second point since we’re on the subject of it, because I thought the same thing I thought, you know, reframing PR is moment making versus some announcement or some press release, which quite honestly is tired and old. And really who cares? No offense to all of us doing it. We, we asked, included like Rory and I had a conversation less than two weeks ago about putting some press releases out about our new study and going through this. It’s like, well, that is so boring. Like who wants to read a press release about something that some company is doing that may or may not have any implications to them or their business. And instead it’s like, no, how do we create a moment of this? And here’s the thing that I loved about this. This is what I had really highlighted underneath. This is that you have to come up with a long-term of interesting, wow.

AJV (09:00):

Is the power of moment making it’s. What are you doing? That is interesting. That’s like, you’ve got to have a longterm strategy of interesting, because that is where the moments are made. It’s in the interesting, it’s in the unique it’s in the out of the ordinary. So what kind of strategy do you have as an entrepreneur business owner, executive CEO to go? What are the interesting moments? The interesting things that we’re doing that would be newsworthy or attention grabbing, because that is what we draw our attention to. We all know that media is sensationalized. Why? Because we, they know it works. Like we want to hear the things that are out of the ordinary that are uncommon, that are, you know, wildly unbelievable, good or bad, unfortunately. It’s totally sensationalized because they know that’s what grabs people’s attention. So what are you doing? What is your strategy of being interesting? I love that. I thought that was brilliant.

RV (10:01):

That’s a great one. That’s a great one. I bolded and underlined that [inaudible] quote for the, for the, for the ages. so my third takeaway was just about social media. She said, Claire said this, I think pretty much directly. She said with every passing year, there is more and more pressure to have some type of online presence. That’s true. It’s not the fad thing. Like we’re so far past that it’s just more and more and more. And so now it’s like, you got to get on the, you gotta get on board with this ship. Like it’s sailed, you’re behind. You need to catch up this. Isn’t like, oh, I, you know, it was hot for awhile. This is phew. This is how people do do business. And so stop asking, do I need social media and start asking, how do I use it to grow our business?

RV (10:50):

And I think there’s a lot of people still reluctant to embrace it, you know, and it’s unfamiliar. And it’s, you know, sometimes in some ways it’s like annoying. I have to deal with this thing, but it’s like, there’s a lot of parts of business that are annoying and difficult and that you have to learn. And, you know, most of us don’t know about taxes and financial statements and legal stuff and corporate entity structure and hiring like HR policies. Like there’s a lot of parts with a business that are necessary that, you know, you just have to embrace. And I think this is one of them and just going, okay, how do we use it? How do we use it to grow our business and coupling it with what you just said, AIG, about what is our longterm strategy to be interesting is, is, is super, super powerful and important. So I thought that was simple, but it was a, it was a takeaway for me.

AJV (11:38):

Yes. I agree. My third point is actually also about social media, but a completely different point. This is something Claire said in the interview, but I kind of latched on to because I find it to be true with myself. And I figured if it’s true with me, it may be true with some of you listening. And so she said, everyone needs to be on social media, but you do not need to be everywhere. You do not have to be on every single platform and posting content every single place in order to have a presence. And she said there are three things that you need to think about. This is directly pulled from the interview. This is directly from Claire, not AGA one. I think about what is your story and what are you trying to share to focus on engaging with the audience you already have. That’s more important than trying to get new audience members.

RV (12:27):

So good, good way.

AJV (12:29):

More time, sharing value and providing value to the ones you have because by natural, the natural by-product of things is you’ll get more, but focus on that. And then to spend some focus on outreach, right? That’s engagement, engage with the audience that you have, right? Don’t just post a bunch of things and then disappear into the wild, beyond her. You have to post and then engage you. This is building relationships, right? This is nurturing your audience. It’s just in a new way. And one of the things that I thought about is like, at a so often, you know, it’s like even we, we teach this at frame builder script, and I most definitely believe in it. And it’s the, you know, it’s like, how do we repurpose content in a variety of places, but at the same time it’s going to, what is my place?

AJV (13:11):

Where are my people? Where is my audience? And what does that audience want on each platform? Because I truly have seen in my own social media presence, my LinkedIn, I have the largest following on LinkedIn, right. That’s where I spent most of my previous life. And it’s where most of my contacts are in terms of engagement and content. It’s a more executive entrepreneur community. That’s, that’s my group, that’s my people. Right. and I, I have so much more success when I post business content, personal branding, content on LinkedIn. I can post the exact same thing on LinkedIn and get 10 times the likes engagement and shares than if I posted it on Facebook or Instagram. Here’s, what’s fascinating. I post a picture of me and my kids on Instagram. It will get 100 times more engagement than any other thing I post that week.

AJV (14:03):

Right. It’s like I have different platforms for different needs, right? So I have really committed that. You know, it’s like all of my business content, my strategy, my personal brand, my company, stuff that is going for LinkedIn. And I’m just going to stop posting it on Instagram because it’s not what they want for me on Instagram. Instagram is they want to know about me and my family and my life, my travels, my kids, they want personal connection and personal engagement. That’s not the case for every individual. That’s just my I’m just giving you an example. And quite honestly, I will be very truthful. I don’t ever get on Facebook. Everything is just automatically shared from Instagram. I cannot tell you the last time I logged into Facebook. So I don’t really know what they want because I’m not paying, that’s not my platform. And I think it’s okay to say no, I’ve got my platforms of choice.

AJV (14:48):

And that is where I’m going to spend my time. I think that’s okay. And then you got to ask yourself, what did they want to hear about on this platform? What audience and I trying to reach here. And it’s not that you can’t repurpose and reshare content. You can, but it’s gotta be with intention, but then you also have to pay attention to what the analytics actually show you of knowing, well, what is your platform? Because by natural it’s like, I would just assume Instagram is where I spend most of my time. So that’s what, and it’s like, well, no, not when it comes to business content, that is not my platform. That is a platform for my personal life. And I have a very business audience for my LinkedIn. And I think just knowing that and just going, I need to be on it, but I do not have to be everywhere.

AJV (15:28):

And I don’t have to be doing everything everywhere, which makes it feel almost a manageable. So it’s just like taking those bite sized chunks and going, this is this platform and this is what I’m going to do there. This is the other platform. And here’s what I’m going to do here. And it just it’s maneuvering what really works for you and what you enjoy doing. Because if you don’t enjoy doing it, you’ll never do it. So you have to enjoy it and then you need it to be reciprocated. Right? You want people to find value in it because it makes you want to do more. So I think just latching onto that, it’s like, yes, you need to be on it. No, you don’t need to be on all of them.

RV (16:05):

Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. That’s a good takeaway. Y’all and I liked what you said there about making sure you enjoy it. Cause if you enjoy it, you’ll show up, you’ll engage. You’ll you’ll naturally do all the things you need to do to be successful. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s going to constantly be like this fight and resistance to, to actually do it. And then it doesn’t. Yeah. It’s a burden that doesn’t actually work out. So well go, go check out the interview. Claire is just super influential, very unique perspective, unique blend of this expertise in entrepreneurship and investing in tech and startups as well as building a very huge and successful personal brand herself and also being one of the early people at Twitter. Very unique perspective, very, very sharp woman agent. I both met her personally. So, you know, she’s got our, got our, our endorsement and hope you enjoy it and keep coming back. We’re grateful for you. We’ll see you next time on the influential personal brand. Bye.

Ep 187: Success in Publishing and Humility in Life with Tom Rath | Recap Episode

RV (00:02):
Welcome back to the influential personal brand recap edition with myself. I’m joined by AJ Vaden, our CEO and my wonderful wife and amazing business partner. What an awesome episode, you know, I didn’t realize that Tom Rath has sold 10 million books, that Strengthfinders, that book has sold more books than like any other book, except like the Bible and you know, like a couple, a couple others. Uwhat a fantastic conversation. UI’m always amazed, I’ll say this real quick about Tom, before we jump into the three points and,uagent I’ll go, go back and forth, but I’m always amazed at his humility. It blows me away that someone that has sold 10 million books and yada yada, yada, he, you would not know it. You would not even know it in the conversation. And,ubut anyways, super practical, you know, just a goldmine of knowledge and, and a lot of things we could have interviewed him before.
RV (01:04):
Well, we actually interviewed him before on other shows that we’ve done, but this one was very focused on selling books. And how do you sell 10 million books? And the first thing that my first takeaway, which to me was, again, it’s just, it’s, it’s so simple, but so profound was, he said, make sure your book gives people something to do. It gives them an action. It gives them a behavior because it’s like when people do a behavior in their life, it is, it is evidence of the fact that this book has changed their life. It becomes a talking point to all the people around them. And it’s like a manifestation of your ideas showing up in a pragmatic way. And that is just such a simple idea that it doesn’t seem like that could be a secret of selling 10 million books, but that was the number one thing. He was super clear on it. And he’s like, look, the books that sell a bunch of copies, the five love languages, books like that. It’s like they infiltrate our everyday lives as behaviors. So I know that’s super simple AJ, but like that, that hit me hard.
AJV (02:14):
Yeah. You know, simple as powerful, simple also isn’t always easy. I think one of the things that is really important and, and all of this for us all to remember, and it’s like, you know, Tom said it in this interview and we’ve, we’ve had other individuals come over to the podcast and said very simple very simply like the key to having a best-selling book is to become a daily part of your routine. Right. you know, Hal Elrod talked about this with miracle, it’s about, you have to be a part of your daily routine. And it’s the same thing. It’s like, you have to create this way that it becomes infiltrated in your life. And so I think with, you know, StrengthsFinders, it’s like how many people just go like base interviews off of this? Big, this is a part of their interviewing and recruiting profile.
AJV (03:00):
This is a part of how they find coaches. This is how they view themselves. Or these are my strengths. And then all of a sudden you’re told something that you live into. And I think that it’s not just give them something to do, but it’s also give them something that’s based in data has I think, and perhaps it’s, I have a natural fascination with data like I do, but it’s give them something that’s founded and real data, not just opinions, but this is it’s researched and it’s founded and it’s valid. And it’s not just an opinion. That’s like, well, maybe, but maybe not. It’s like, no, it’s like, I got asked these questions. I answered these questions. It ran a little formula. There was an algorithm and bam boom, people love that. They love to know that there’s the solidity and that there’s some sort of data founded in these opinions and it doesn’t have to be huge.
AJV (03:52):
It doesn’t have to be an assessment or a test or a quiz, you know, as we’re talking about StrengthsFinder, but you find the people that thing that just fascinates them. And one it’s learning about themselves, right. Who doesn’t want to learn more about themselves too, it’s being a part of their daily life. Right. So giving them something to do, it’s being a part of the routine, but then three it’s something that’s actually founded in more opinions than just one. And I think that’s a huge part of, you know, also being a reader of, you know, Tom Rath’s work and a user of it. It’s like, there’s a lot of power and not just giving them something to do and being a part of the routine that it’s not just one person’s opinion, right. It creates this credibility factor that allows you to buy more into it because it’s somehow more credible or more valid. And I think those are all things that we can do. Right. We’ve had researcher, Jason Dorsey on our show before who’s also a good friend. Uwe recently did our own huge research study because we believe in this so much, but I think there’s a lot of power and going give people real data.
RV (05:03):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s so that’s so good. You know, as you were talking, I was thinking about the books in, in our life or in my life specifically that that have literally like changed my life. There are things that have infiltrated behavior. Do you know Dave Ramsey, total money makeover clearly the Bible, the you know, a lot of people talk about how Hal Elrods miracle morning, that’s a routine T Harv Eker secret of the millionaire mind. I still read my millionaire, mind affirmations from his book, which was like 15 years ago. I read that book. I read those affirmations regularly. So, so, so profound. A second, a second. My second takeaway, which I think is kind of closely connected to the first is give them a reason to share. So like give them a reason to do, it’s like, okay, that’s what am I going to change in my life?
RV (05:54):
But then give them a reason to share. And like you were saying, AJ so many people use StrengthsFinders, like it’s baked into their interviewing process. Whereas like every single candidate, they interview every single leader that gets promoted. They all go through this training because it’s, they, it’s just, the book is designed in that way. And they end to hear Tom say, oh yeah, that that’s part of the plan. Like you, you, you make it shareable and you, you don’t just think about what is a great idea you think about how could I package this idea to where it’s more like transmittable and again, super simple. And I, I almost feel a little silly that like, I haven’t had that thought myself before, but what so powerful, so powerful.
AJV (06:41):
Yeah. I would just add on to a couple of these things since they’re very similar, but I think one of the things that makes things shareable and my personal opinion is anything related to human discovery. It’s where one fascinated about learning about ourselves. And then we’re fascinated about learning about others. Like what makes them tick? Or why does this person annoy me? Why do I like this person? How was this person so successful? How did this person ever get in this situation as a, as a human being, we’re fascinated with discovering things about ourselves, how we tick, how we think, how we act, how we react, why some people act and think one way why others are good at other things, why others aren’t. And I think that that’s a part of what makes something sharable is this the human connectivity part. And it’s something that not just StrengthsFinders does really well, but clearly does very well.
AJV (07:34):
But you mentioned this earlier, the five love languages, right? Like we all want to know like, well, what, what is my love? How do I receive love? And what’s my natural way of giving it. It’s very fascinating. And then you’ve got programs like fascinate and disk and the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs, and you know, there’s, there’s dozens you, something we use in our company called the culture index culture index just become shareable. Why is because it’s about the human experience. It’s about human connection, the human psyche, and who isn’t fascinated about learning about the way you tick and others tick. And again, I said this earlier, but I really mean it, like, there is a way for any topic, every book, any product to incorporate the share-ability factor by connecting it to the human experience, what other than potentially fiction, which also plays at our emotions, which is a part of the human experience that doesn’t allow us to learn more about ourselves and each other. We just don’t market it that way.
RV (08:40):
Yeah. That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s super insightful. Like cause yeah, all of those books, I mean, if I have one more person asks me what my Enneagram number is, I’m gonna to, flip out
AJV (08:50):
Don’t you just tell us, put it on the record? What are,
RV (08:53):
I don’t know what it is like I actually forgot. I think I’m a three, I’m either a three or an eight I an eight. You’re not a eight.
AJV (09:03):
I’m an eight, but I think your secondary or your third was an eight, but I’m an eight. Yeah.
RV (09:08):
Well I know that, I, I know that I’m a C in disc, I’m a C D, but anyways, that’s, that’s just like, how can we educate our audience about the human experience? I mean, that’s really good that people are absolutely fascinated with it. Yeah. So love that. My last takeaway, which was very tactical, again, something I would, I did not expect him to say all, all, all three of these big themes were so simple that it’s kinda like what I thought it would be much more advanced with split test everything. I mean, split test everything. And we just live in a world where you know, I saw Donald Miller post this on Instagram, like yesterday or the day before. He’s like, Hey, I’m working on a subtitle for my next book. Here’s three options. What do you think? Then you get feedback. You can run ads.
RV (09:57):
You can cert you can send a survey, like be an email. You can do all of these different things, but you’re just split testing and letting the data I know AIG is like, yes, I I’ve been harping on this, like use data-driven data-driven decisions. It, it reveals the path. Like it just, it takes a lot of the, the risks. The other thing that makes me th whenever, whenever we think of data, I think of oh goodness, what is Adam Grant’s book originals. And, and his whole book is, is that, you know, basically the premise of the book is it’s not that the most successful people in the world just take risks. They’re not all just gamblers or risk takers. It’s that they take calculated risk. So you have to take risks, but it’s calculated risks. And, you know, to, to your conversation about the data and the study that we’ve done. And, and to hear Tom say that is like, gosh, we, we, I want to be more data-driven
AJV (10:59):
I love that. And my third one is ever so slightly different, which is a, it’s a question. That’s a question for all of you who are listening. It’s what are you doing? What are you talking about? What does your content do to start a conversation? And I thought that was so brilliant in this interview, as he just said, it’s like, if it starts a conversation, then it has value. So what are you doing that lends itself to someone going, Hey, I’ve got a question for the group I’ve recently been reading or listening to, or doing a course. What do you think about, or have you done this? It’s like what to Roy said, it’s like, if I get asked what might Enneagram it, and it’s just, it starts a conversation. So what, what is it that you’re doing that starts a conversation? Because it will go viral again, it says lead in point to this human connection, human experience of interesting things that are applicable to all of us, right?
AJV (12:03):
It’s not for one group of people. It’s for just the group of people and who we are and humanity. It’s like, what are you doing that starts a conversation, such a powerful question. And one that we should all take some time, you know, just sit sitting with and actually delving in and going, okay, what is it that I’m doing, but actually starts the conversation. And what conversation do I want to start? And how does that connect with my personal brand? And to me, I thought that was one of the most powerful things. That whole interview,
RV (12:35):
Love it. Go listen to the interview. I mean, where else can you talk to someone about how they sold 10 million books? Not a lot of people have that and are willing to share as openly and generously as Tom did. So we hope you get value out of the episode and this one and everyone. So keep coming back here, we’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand.

Ep 185: 4 Keys to Reinventing Your Career and Your Personal Brand with Pete Wilson | Recap Episode

RV (00:02):

Hey, welcome to the special recap edition of the influential personal brand podcast. Although I guess it’s not necessarily a special recap. We do a recap after every episode, but one thing that is special is that my co-host and wife and our CEO brand builders group, AJ Vaden, is here with us today. She’s, she’s been out for a couple of these. And so she’s here, we’re breaking down the interview with Pete Wilson. Long-Time personal friend of ours. You know, as you probably listened to the episode, he was our pastor for several years. And I mean, for a decade. Yeah. I mean, and what a powerful episode age at like it was, it was it, I was blown away. So I’ll kick it over to you to sh to share you know, some of your highlights. Yeah.

AJV (00:50):

Honestly, there are so many good nuggets and one-liners, and it’s hard not to just brag on the whole episode because of how much I really love Pete, but I will narrow it down to the three biggest ones. I think that are really important. And so much of the whole episode is about reinvention. It’s about where are you going next? And I just love that because I know so many of the people listening to this podcast are in some version of reinvention right now, right? It’s, you’re leaving a previous career to start a new one, or you’re doing this whole new thing. That’s really a passion or a calling on your heart, this mission and it’s new. And for others, you’ve been doing it for a long time, but now you want to talk about a new subject. And I just kind of feel like this is relevant because it touches every single person, no matter where you are, maybe you’re reinventing and your personal life, right? All of these different stages of life that we go through just by the nature of growing as humans, we are always reinventing. And so he said something earlier on in the interview that I just thought was so, so important. And he said, and I won’t get it right. So I won’t, I’m not going to try to quote this, but this is my paraphrase version.

AJV (02:09):

Is that the things that you think are blocking your path are not, those are the things that create your path. That is your path. And I think so often, at least in my life I think so often you see these huge barriers as the things that are preventing you from going to the next level or from doing the next thing. Or in many times, they’re just excuses of why you, can’t, why there’s not enough time or resources. He’s going no, no no, these are your path, the challenges and the, what you consider the blockades that no, that is your path. That is your journey. And so it’s not to try to avoid them. It’s to no, it’s actually to lean into them because that is the path and whoever you’re going to be on the other side is, is a part of this reinvention and this journey altogether.

AJV (03:02):

And I just, I love that because so often I think, at least for me, you want to avoid the pain. You want to try to sidestep it as much as possible. And all you want to see is progress, progress, progress. When in truth. So much of Pete’s interview is like, no, it’s not always forward motion. A lot of times it’s backpedaling to figure out what direction you need to go in. And it’s not always forward motion, but that doesn’t mean you’re not moving forward. It just means you’re not feeling like you’re not moving forward. But in, in truth, that is the process of reinvention to begin with. So I just, I loved it. I thought it was just a cornerstone of the whole interview.

RV (03:39):

Yeah. I wrote that down too. And I actually put the same note. I’m not exactly sure how he said this, but something about that, you know, the things that you think are blocking your path, they aren’t blocking your path. They are the path. And like when I look at our life, you know, me and you, and whether it’s in business or personal, everything that has felt like, you know, a challenge that’s like, oh, this thing’s in the way, like I got to get out of the way. It’s like, that’s the actual thing that grows you and develops you and builds you into the person you need to become for the next level. And I definitely like that was so profound for me personally, in this interview that I think my approach to problems has been more of like, how can I get them out of my way versus how can I go through this? What am I supposed to learn from this? Who am I supposed to become by this? And I mean, just like you said, it’s one reason that we’ve, we both love Pete so much is he’s just got such a profound wisdom and ability to like, create those little distinctions. So, so that was my first takeaway too. So I, I actually don’t, I don’t really have any, anything else to add. So what was your second

AJV (04:56):

One? Yeah, for my second takeaway, actually didn’t happen in the interview and these are in no order. So this could have been my first takeaway, but it wasn’t about anything that happened in the interview. So this is more of a behind the scenes of how the interview came to me. And I follow Pete on Instagram and social media and just like his little one-liners and to get his perspective on things. And, and I reached out to him randomly, what, I don’t know, couple months ago. And I said, Hey I love this new brand that you’re building. And a lot of it is with his wife and so resonate with that being in business with my partner or my husband. And I said, I really love this new take on all these things that you’re talking about. And would you ever be interested in being a guest on our podcast, the influential brand podcast and his very first responses? Well, I don’t know if I have anything to share with your audience. What are you thinking? What do you mean it’s? You are a, like literally a professional presenter presenting brand new speeches every single week for almost 20 years. He did that on a weekly. It’s like you’ve got successful books. You’ve been on huge tours. You’ve been a part of these enormous conferences, and you’ve got this following and you are reinventing, didn’t

RV (06:17):

He speak at woman of faith conference? Wasn’t he one of the, like, that’s a

AJV (06:21):

Monster. He’s now got this podcast and he’s doing this whole personal brand thing. And he’s got this coaching program. I kind of thought to myself, what are you talking about? And that’s why I gave him like 10. I was like, well, you could talk about this or this or this. I said, what I’d really love is to talk about reinvention. And during that whole process, what I wanted to do is take a step back and be like, do you not realize the breadth of knowledge and wisdom that you already possess in this field? Like you have had multi book publishing deals, you have spoken thousands, thousands of times to huge audiences. Do you, you know, all these things. And then it made me think about how often for all of us, it’s so easy to see the beauty and others, but not see our own power and our own strengths.

AJV (07:15):

Because we don’t view ourselves the same way. Wow. I thought this was such a great reminder to myself and to everyone. It’s we, we de-value our own accomplishments and forget that. No, truly through this process of reinventing it’s like you already have these skillsets, you already have the skillsets to produce great content to interview people, to share a message, to do whatever it is you want to do. We just have to realign how we view the skills that we’ve accumulated over the years and apply them in a new way. That doesn’t mean you don’t have them. It just means they’re being applied in new and different ways. And it got me thinking if some of our other clients who have said similar things of like, well, I’m, you know, here I am, you know, 30 years later in my career and I’m mid fifties and I’m starting over.

AJV (08:10):

And you know, Pete said this too is like, you’re never starting over. Hey man, like you have spent 30 years growing into who you are that allows you to be exactly where you are. And it’s like, no, we’re not starting over. You may be starting a new thing, but you are not starting over. You can do this, you already have the skills to do it. And so often we don’t see that in ourselves, but it’s so easy to see it in the people around us. And it’s like, you know, sometimes I just wish if we could see ourselves the way that others see us, how much further along we would be and all of our dreams and all of our passions and all of our goals. And I think so much of that came out and not just this interview, but even in my approach of getting him to be on this show was well, there’s at least 10 things I can think of immediately. That would be so genuinely helpful for our audience. And just again, at this thought to myself, how many of us live in that seat where it’s like, I mean, I’m starting over. I don’t know what to do. And it’s like, no, no, you do. You just have to learn to apply those skills in a new way, but you know what to do and you can do it. Or you just got to get a different perspective on how to use the talents you already have.

RV (09:29):

That’s such a great perspective. I mean, that’s the, that’s the word and thanks for sharing that. Cause I know you, you reached out to him. I wasn’t even in the conversation and it was like on the calendar. I was like, oh, we’re talking to Pete. That’s so great. And that’s so, so powerful for me. My second takeaway actually I have to say was a mix from both Pete and you a day, like it’s, I’m going to call this. The beauty of the blank slate was, was really my big takeaway. And I think what, what Pete said was basically I want to do some things that I did before, but do them in a healthier way. And that really spoke to me because of our personal situation. I mean, to what you were just saying, it’s like brand builders group has come really far in three years.

RV (10:21):

And part of the reason is because it’s not been three years, we, we had, even though we started over, we had a lot of relationships and knowledge and et cetera that we, that we were building from. And then something that you said, you know, it’s kind of in this context of like just appreciating the beauty of the blank slate versus being scared by it or intimidated or frustrated by it where you said, I didn’t want the life I had before, so why do I miss it now that really hit me hard because I think a lot of people do that, where we go, we think about the old days, like they were the good old days, but it’s like, there was a lot of pain back then. Like there was a lot of hardship that, you know, when you, when you’re, re-inventing, there’s this beauty that you can create it to become whatever you want it to become. And I think one of the most important decisions that we have made in this phase of our life personally, was when we started BBG, we very deliberately said, if we can’t build it between nine and five, we’re not going to build it. Like we have to be able to build this business between the hours of nine and five, you know, and God gave us a couple of kids to help hold us accountable to that. So that has helped. And for the most part, yeah,

AJV (11:36):

I have been held also accountable to that. I mean a lot better. Yes. Much better. It’s definitely a more concerted effort.

RV (11:45):

Yeah. We, we’ve not been perfect about it. No doubt about it. But, but anyway, it’s just that, that concept of a chance to go, what do I, my life to be right now? What do I want most right now that’s the beauty of a blank slate. And I think a lot of times we look at it as like this massive setback and in reality, it’s this beautiful kind of blue ocean. And so anyways, that was a nod to both you and P cause that that really hit me hard. Yeah.

AJV (12:11):

Well, mine is my third point is somewhat similar to that, but I’m just a little bit just slightly different. And one of the things that I thought was really important that he said that both, you know, I think struck a chord with me, which is why it was my third point was something along the lines of, I did so many things wrong before and was working 70 and 80 hour weeks and not getting enough quality family time and, you know, putting work first and just all these different things. And it just stuck with me around like how often we do that and how all of a sudden our, our, our job becomes the number one thing in our life ahead of all others. And, but what if our job was really more of our calling, that was the mission that we were built for.

AJV (13:03):

It was a passion that we felt within us, where there was no real line between, you know, personal and professional because they were the same. And how would that change the way that we saw things and the way that we did, you know, quote unquote work and the way that we talked about things and would that create more stress or less stress, more overwhelm or less overwhelmed, or would it create more energy, more happiness? Because we were actually living out the thing that we were put on this earth to do versus a thing that we are doing to make money, to then get to do things that we think we want to do. And it just something around when he said about the miss prioritization of time and money and resources, and we we’ve all been there, we’ve all done it. In some regards, I spent 12 years of my life doing that.

AJV (13:57):

But if you really say, no, it’s like, this is my calling. This is what I felt like I was born to do in this world. Then what it really feels like work anymore. And it’s like, how much more dedicated and relentless would we be to fulfilling that calling if that’s how we really viewed it. Versus I have this passion that I’m working on, part-time on the side after hours, what would it look like if that was actually what you did all day, every day and this just removing this line between work and all other things, because it really isn’t work. It’s your calling, it’s what you were meant to do. And, you know, he talked a little bit about the process of finding that. So I’m not going to get all the secrets away from the interviews. I really think you should go listen to it. But I thought it was just a very good introspective question, but then also a take on how we do things versus how we’ve done things. And if you just shift that what a difference that it will make in, in your work.

RV (15:02):

Yeah, that’s good. Like the, the, the, the less sharp that line is probably the less stress you feel, even though you might be spending more hours on it, it’s like you’re doing, it’s not work. It makes me think of this happened to AJ. And I recently, like this last week, we were on vacation and this email came through at literally 10:00 PM at night. It was a media request and it said, Hey, you know, yada, yada, we heard about your personal branding study. We’re running a story. We’d like you to comment on it. It’s for T it’s for it’s for tomorrow. I think it said for TV for, for tomorrow morning. And my first response was, well, I was actually going, well, no, this is family time vacation. Like, we can’t do it. And I, you know, AJ was like, what are you reading? And I said this, and she’s like, oh yeah, we should do this. And so there was something in the way it was worded that it must’ve felt like to you. It was like, no, this is more of like a calling this isn’t like working in and we did it. So we took the time we did this at like 11 at night. They ran,

AJV (16:09):

He did it because I looked similar to right now. I know many of you listening can’t see me, but I didn’t have a makeup. Didn’t I had my hair done, had to spend 12 hours traveling with two toddlers. And I was like, yeah, I’m going to go ahead and have you do that. You go do that. I’m going to get ready for bed. It’s more of what happened,

RV (16:27):

But, well, yeah, so, you know, but it was your decision to do it. Like you said, Hey, we should do this. And you, and, and, and it was like, Hey, go ahead and do this. And so we did the interview and y’all, they, they aired it and then it got picked up by good morning, America. And the next morning we didn’t even know someone texts us back and was like, Hey, did you see this on good morning America? We had no idea. And, you know, just anyways to that blend of like, if something feels like a calling versus just like, you know, it’s this corporate thing, I’m all a job. That’s super powerful. And, and, you know, so anyways, my third, my third point is super quick, but it was, so this was really important. And I, I’m pretty sure this is a verbatim quote from Pete.

RV (17:09):

He said, when you change your mission, change your metric. And that was huge because it was like, how often do we go? You know what, I’m going to take this job because I want less stress and I want more passion, but then we go, oh, but I’m not making as much money. And then we let stress creep in. Cause it’s like, we’re not making as much money. And it’s like, you changed your mission. Like your mission used to be money, or it used to be followers, or it used to me promotions or job titles, or it used to be all these things. And then we change it. And then we, we strap ourselves. We kind of like imprison ourselves to the metric of success of the old versus being able to freely pursue and, and, and live in the metric of, of the new thing, which is, which is the blank slate in the reinvention. So that’s just a quick one that I wanted to mention. That’s good. That’s good. So anything else you want to add AJ?

AJV (18:08):

It’s good. It’s really good. Not just because it’s on our podcast because we’re biased, but because I truly believe that at some level, every single person at every single phase of their life is in the process of re-invention. And he really talks about these three steps, these three phases that are just naturally occurring when you’re reinventing and they appeal to you right now today. So highly encouraged. It’s worth a, a 40 minute. Listen,

RV (18:38):

Do that, go listen and keep coming back. We’re so grateful for you. We’ll see you next time on the influential personal brand.

Ep 183: How to Develop Stronger Social Justice Sensitivity with Kim Scott | Recap Episode

Speaker 1 (00:00):

RV (00:07):
Hey, welcome to this special recap edition of the influential personal brand podcast is Rory Vaden breaking down this interview, filling in for AJ going solo today. But, but this incredible interview with Kim Scott, which kinda caught me a little bit by surprise at how powerful it was. And, you know, Kim is really known for radical candor. I mean, at least in my circles, she’s, she’s known it was a very successful book. And so her new book here I hadn’t heard much about. And, and so just getting into this, it was, it was meaningful for me. And it’s funny because one of the things I love
RV (00:53):
About this show and doing this show, you know, for, for you and with you is how often these tactical kind of personal brand strategy conversations end up applying to just our everyday real life. Right? Like and this was one of those where it was like, okay, this, this affects my personal brand, but this also, you know, maybe even more so I see this one going, geez, this, this, this effect, some things going on for me personally, that I need to, you know, just do better, do better with and be more mindful of. And so anyways, yeah, there’s, there’s, there’s a couple of key takeaways here. And, and they, they apply, I think in both personal to both personally and, and then professionally or with the personal brand. So the first thing that she talked about that really stuck with me was this, this concept of the three levels of bias.
RV (01:59):
And, you know, I like to think my I like to think of myself as a thing most of us probably do as not being prejudiced and, and, you know, not being discriminatory and being, you know, kind of like open minded and, you know, for the most part, pretty welcoming and receptive of, of different, different people from different, you know, places in life and different belief systems and things. But it was powerful for me to think of that. Not as like a yes, no, as like a, okay, it’s this, or it isn’t this like you either are, or you aren’t, and it really is more of a continuum. And so her three levels, I think her lowest level she said was, was biased. Meaning, you know, it’s kind of like UFM somebody, or you say something that’s unfair and you didn’t really mean to, it’s just kind of like, you’re not even like aware of it.
RV (02:54):
And then there’s prejudice, which is like, oh no, I know exactly what I’m saying. I know why I’m saying it. And I actually do believe this, and I do believe whatever. There’s a difference here between two classes of people or however you want to call it. And then there’s bullying, which is like, kind of felt to me, she didn’t say it quite like this, but the way that I processed it was it’s basically like prejudice plus anger, right? It’s, it’s like prejudice plus emotion where you’re, you’re deliberately trying to harm someone or to, you know, maybe put them, put them down or whatever, however you want to, however you want to say it. So I think the first part was just, it hit me just thinking about this as a continuum and going, oh yeah. Well, I, I, I, I almost, I most definitely probably have some biases I’m not even aware of and even just having the conversation was powerful because it made me think about okay.
RV (03:52):
I wonder what those are. And I wonder how much they’re showing up in my life that I don’t even, I don’t even realize it. And specifically in with your personal brand, right. Is, is going okay, where are there things that I’m doing in my writing and my speaking in my content or my curriculum that I may be either, you know, just, just oblivious to the idea that I’m, I’m potentially either offending someone or excluding somebody or leaving something out. And you know, I think, I think that’s a good, that’s a good thought. I mean, it’s a, it’s, it’s, it’s good to be mindful of that, especially in today’s day and age. Right. and you certainly don’t want to step into the waters of the cancel culture. I don’t think by like, you know, accidentally a bunch of people off and having it come back at us and, and, you know, I guess every personal brand is different in these regards, but for most of us, we’re, we’re probably not deliberately trying to offend other people.
RV (04:58):
And so, you know, we want to be, just be be aware of that. So I think it’s kind of like, okay, where on this continuum am I in? You know, just how I think about people, how I talk about people, how exclude certain groups in both my personal life and then also with my personal brand and my professional life. I think that’s powerful. And I think that’s a, I think it’s a mature, I think that’s just a maturity. I’m not saying you have to please everyone. I think there is wisdom in the self-awareness of you just going, okay, where am I on this? And are there, are there places on doing it? If it’s, if you, you know, if you want to do it on purpose, then that’s your choice. And I think that’s fine. And that’s part of your, part of your brand and your, your strategy and your choice.
RV (05:43):
But I think being aware of it is, is the point here. And, and that was really good. Another thing that she said is she, she talked about, don’t a size, the criticism don’t criticize the criticism, and this is the one that I need to do better. I mean, it’s kind of embarrassing to admit this, but even as she was saying it, I was like, oh crap, this is me. I criticize the criticism. And, and so here’s, what’s happened. It’s like, you know, I say that I want feedback. And I do. I like to be aware. I I’m, you know, because of my experience with Toastmasters in the world championship, I received so much feedback for years and years and years of just people critiquing me and my presentation and all that stuff. And, you know, I’ve, I’ve had a decent bit of coaching over the years and different mentors and stuff, like give me quite a lot of feedback, but I think it’s more in my personal life.
RV (06:48):
If somebody says something to me, you know, where they’ll say, okay, Rory, you’re doing this and this and this. And I’m like, okay. Yeah, but you’re doing this right. So it’s kind of like, they’ll share something with me, which I don’t, I don’t it’s not like I disagree with them, but I kind of like a sidestep it right. Where I’m like oh the E I, you know, maybe it’s like, I, I kind of sidestep because I don’t, it’s like I don’t fully receive it. I just immediately kind of like judo move and like go, come back and like, well, I might do that, but you do this. And I think it’s, you know, I think it’s just, that’s probably my defense mechanism. That’s the way that, that, that my brain reacts to being, you know, re, re being told it’s not perfect.
RV (07:42):
Which of course it isn’t, but I, I still do that. And, and I hate that. I do that. I, I need the feedback. I want the feedback. I mean, feedback is, is like the instruction that makes you better feedback, changes your life. I mean, without feedback, you don’t know what’s working and what isn’t and, and feedback is, is like the world revealing to you, the world, giving you instruction about how to make your life better. And, and yet there’s some defensiveness part of that that still lives in my heart that doesn’t want, you know, that, that this kind of responds reactively to it and says well, yeah, but you, and I really need to work on that. I’m going to work on that and I’m going to get better at that because I just, I just thought that was super powerful.
RV (08:33):
Don’t criticize the criticism. I think it’s really easy to do that. And I also think the other thing that she didn’t really say, I don’t think, but it, it made me think of this. This is another, you know, while we’re on the topic of Rory Vaden weaknesses in his life I think another thing that I do is I’ll respond to criticism with criticism, or I’ll respond to feedback with feedback. So not only will I kind of like, yeah, like criticize their criticism. It’s like, well, that’s not fair. That’s not honest. That’s not right. You know, that’s kind of, I guess, criticizing the criticism. I’ll say, well, I might be this way, but you do this and this and this, or let me tell you about you. And it’s like the worst time to give feedback to someone else’s probably when they’re giving feedback to you, it’s like you’re doing it defensively and emotionally.
RV (09:20):
And in response to what they’re doing, which really is probably trying to help you. I mean, sometimes you have haters online and that kind of stuff. And you know, don’t, don’t pay attention to those people where they’re just, they’re just spit and hate for no reason. That’s completely irrational. But when you know, it’s people that are close to you and matter to you, it’s like, I, I w I want to be a person who is easy to talk to. I want to be a person that is easy for people to tell me when they think I’m doing, like, I have opportunity for improvement, because then a lot of people will tell me, which means I won’t have a lot of blind spot spots, which means I’ll be able to make a lot of adaptations, which means I’ll be, I’ll become better. But in that moment, it’s just like, oh, I hate, you know, there’s just some automatic, like knee-jerk response to, well, I guess, you know, just like I guess this humility of acknowledging and, and receiving the idea that you’re not perfect.
RV (10:23):
You are screwing stuff up. Like you have lots of room for improvement. And even though we kind of say, we want to be open to those things, I don’t think any of us like to hear it, at least I, I don’t. So anyways, I need to I need to work. I need to work on that in a, and I’m going to work on that. The, the, and then the third thing, which was huge, this, this, this was big. And I’ve thought about this concept before, but it was so eloquent. I thought the way that Kim expressed it and packaged it where, and here’s what she said. She said, my intentions don’t matter. My impact does, or that’s how I processed it. My intentions don’t matter. My impact does. And it’s like this, one’s a little bit of a balance, right. Because I see the, and there’s two sides of this.
RV (11:17):
And it also, I think, applies both personally and professionally, right? So one, one side of this is to say, well, I said something and it’s your choice to be offended. There is a part of that that I think is very true. I mean, I actually, I do believe that is true, but there’s kind of an attitude. There’s a piece of that attitude that I think is healthy right. As to is that I can’t, I can’t live my life or communicate my personal brand and everything I say and believe constantly through the lens of trying to make everyone happy because you can’t. And so I think there’s a bit of health healthiness to that, but I think there’s, there’s an unhealthy part of that, which is an automatic dissolving of any response, personal responsibility. That part is not good. It has to go well, you know, it’s not my fault.
RV (12:06):
You’re offended. That’s your problem. Like, I think that is an immature and, and a little bit of an arrogant expression of not being open to the idea that most feedback has at least a kernel of truth in it. I mean, even, even from trolls sometimes, which is, it makes it even harder is you know, there’s, sometimes there’s a bit, there’s a bit of truth in it, right? I mean, like, if you look for example on in my you know, my books, like if you look at my Amazon reviews on the books, I’ve written, the most common criticism I’ll get is people will say, oh, you know, he talks so much about God and the Bible. I could even pay attention, which I don’t agree with. I mean, I don’t agree with, I kind of feel like, well, I don’t talk about it that much, but it is true, right?
RV (12:56):
Like I’ve mentioned Bible verses, this is, this is, you know, there’s, there’s, that’s a part of my life that I believe in. And, and I cannot communicate. I mean, I cannot share my full self without sharing some of that, but, but, you know, so, but I do think it’s like, oh, okay, it’s good for me to know that for some people that, you know, affects them and not just to kind of be like, oh, well, screw you. Cause that’s not, that’s not how it is. So, so anyways, I think there’s a healthy part of this that you’re, you’re always in consideration with your personal brand of going okay, well, I can’t make everyone happy. I’m not going to try to, like, I can’t make that. I can’t expend a ton of energy on that. I’ll never have energy to do anything else, but I think there is some wisdom, a lot of wisdom here to what she’s saying is, is going, even if it wasn’t your intention, it’s what happened.
RV (13:41):
Like, even if it’s not what I said, it’s what they heard. Even if it’s not what I did, it’s how they felt, even if it was not what I was trying to do, it’s how they took it. And that is something that is is, is an issue. And I have some part of that. They have some part of it too, but so do I, and, and I, and I think in your personal life, you kind of have to make a choice of just going, yeah, I don’t care, or I do care, but, you know, I would say, I don’t feel like you can care that you should care too much constantly cause that’s the that’ll consume you. But with that, with my personal brand, I do really care about the concept of is what, I’m, what I am transmitting, what other people are receiving.
RV (14:32):
That’s a worthwhile question is what I’m transmitting, what other people are receiving. If there’s a breakdown for whatever thing, it doesn’t have to be like a political thing or a racial thing, or any of that, just the concept that I intended to communicate. One thing, what was received was something different. That is a weakness in my communication. That means there’s an area for growth in that is my responsibility. That even if I don’t accept your political view or your feedback, or I disagree with your assessment, the fact that what I’m intending to communicate is not what is being received. That is my problem. That is my issue. And as a mission-driven messenger, that’s something that I should care about. I should at least be aware of it because that’s the art of communication. I think the art of communication is having alignment between what you intended and, and the impact you actually created.
RV (15:30):
You know, so if you’re intending to people off and you’re them off fine, but, but she saying the problem is when there’s this breakdown between your intention and your actual impact. And so anyways, I, I know I’m, you know, just kind of touching on this. This is a very kind of abstract concept, but I think it’s super powerful, especially in like our closest, you know, our marriages, our relationships with our kids, our best friends. But even with our personal brand, that is the, the art of communication is creating alignment and congruence between what I intended to communicate, what I transmitted and what actually was received, what was actually heard. And I’m trying to always shorten the gap of those two things. That’s what makes an excellent communicator. And so, even though I may not agree with their assessment, I need to at least be open to the idea that, that my intentions don’t matter. My impact does, and I should be aware of the impact I am creating, not just the intentions that I have. So that was super powerful and interesting and fascinating. And
RV (16:40):
I think nuanced
RV (16:42):
And both in its application to our personal brand
RV (16:45):
And our personal life. And so hopefully you get some of that encouragement every time you come, things that you can apply to your business, but also apply it to other parts of your life. It’s our great honor to be able to speak into your life and into your business. We love it. Our team is so grateful for you. Please keep coming back and share this with a friend. You know, when you get one of these episodes that you love share it, that helps us so much Akita share it directly from our blog, or just take a screenshot posted on Instagram or something, tag us. But just, you know, a lot of people need encouragement. And if you know, someone who does, we would love for you to be sharing our stuff with them. And most of all, we’re grateful for you being here. So that’s it for today on this recap edition, we’ll catch you next time on the influential personal right.

Ep 181: How Personal Brands Can Create an Unbeatable Mind with Mark Divine | Recap Episode

RV (00:07):
Welcome to this Navy seal recap edition of the influential personal brand podcast. Whoa. Talking about how personal brands can create an unbeatable mind with long time Navy seal commander, mark divine. I mean this guy. Oh, holy moly. Like hoof. I mean, I don’t know what to say like this, th th th this interview, it blew my mind and I’ve interviewed mark before. We’ve, we’ve known each other for years and every time I interface with him, I am just amazed at like, I mean, the thing that jumps out to me is just like the concept of mental toughness of literally just preparing your mind for battle. I mean, but not just, you know, not just battle in terms of war, which of course he’s got a lot of experience with, but, but, but more than that leadership and, and problem solving and challenges and vision, and just like, you know, there’s so many things that, that you can learn you, you know, like there’s knowledge that you can learn.
RV (01:17):
But when I think of mark Devine, my, my brain goes, my brain goes to basically going, how do you prepare your brain as a tool as your, as your most important tool and your number one asset in everything that you do. And, you know, I just, I love the brand unbeatable mind. I love him. I mean, obviously he’s extraordinary pedigree and you know, just track record and, you know, does it get much more of a practitioner than what he’s doing? And so I love this and if you haven’t listened to the interview, you need to go listen to it because this is, this is it’s about strengths. It’s, it’s about having a strong mind. It’s about being able to overcome your circumstances. And how do you, how do you, how do you rise above the, the negative thing that’s happened, the negative things that happened to you, and how do you overcome and get around the difficulties that are every part of life and, you know, learning the tactics that mark talks about are super practical and just powerful, right?
RV (02:23):
Just because of the intensity of the situations that, that he’s been in. And, and if you haven’t listened to the interview yet, or even if you have one of the things that’s amazing to me is, you know, you hear Navy seal, like the mind kind of goes to like war hero, but mark has this, this really elegant, beautiful balance of, of, you know, like Eastern meditation and, and you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a higher level than just, you know, I am strong and I’m going to destroy, like, it’s not that at all. In fact, so let’s just run through, I’ll run through the, my top three takeaways here for personal brands. This truly is an episode that, you know, would apply to anybody though. I mean, a lot of our episodes are very tailored to like, okay, here’s a skill that somebody has mastered and how to build your personal brand.
RV (03:11):
This is two, but this conversation applies to like everybody and everything that you, you ever do. And so the, my very first takeaway is funny because this was my takeaway years ago when I interviewed him. And it was probably six years ago when I interviewed mark, maybe not that long, maybe four or five years ago, but it was long time ago. And this stuck with me, which is using box breathing as a way of centering yourself. Before, you know, like in his case, he calls it reducing arousal response. That’s what, what Navy seals call it and refer to, which is basically like controlling your emotions to not instantly react, which is what the, the indulgence of the human mind and the human body is just to instantly react. And what I learned in martial arts, which is aligned with what he’s saying here is, you know, you have mind, mind, like water, they call it mind like water, which is like, you know, if you drop a drop of water into a puddle, there are ripples.
RV (04:13):
The ripples are exactly directly proportionate to the size and velocity, which the drop fall in. So it’s like, it is the perfect, the exact perfect response to the stimulus. Not more or not less. What most of us do is we tend to over respond. We tend to overreact. We tend to overanalyze. We tend to over amp ourself up, we get overly anxious, overly nervous, even overly excited, even overly enthusiastic. And, you know, listening to mark talk about this was both taking me back to last time we talked, but even taking me back to when I was a kid studying martial arts about mind like water, which is just basically receiving the stimulus and reflecting back the exact perfect and proportional response. So box breathing is a technique. This is what I love about him, right? As he makes it. So practical is going okay, here is how you center yourself before going into battle, which is that you breathe in. And so you just do four, four counts of whatever number. Let’s just say four counts of four. So you breathe in for four seconds, one, two, three, four. Then you hold for four seconds.
RV (05:27):
Then you breathe out for four seconds. Then you hold for four seconds and the breath, and this is so huge. I mean, this is, this is mind blowing to hear Navy seal at his level, talking about how this, this is a technique that he uses in life and death situations. And yet it’s like, it is our breath. It’s how strong are you? It’s not how fast are you? It’s not, how tough are you? How much pain can you endure? It’s going, can you control your breathing, breathing? As he said, I love this. He said, breathing is, is basically the, the glue between mind, body, and soul and breath is something that you can control. And so you learn to control your breath and by learning to control your breath, you learn to control your emotional response, which controls your body, which controls your brain, which allows you to think clearly, which allows you to react appropriately and swiftly and decisively and sharply.
RV (06:29):
Amazing, amazing. And so, you know, that that certainly applies to a battle, but as a personal brand, when does that show up? It shows up before any presentation, right? It shows up before a keynote before a webinar before you make your offer, right? Like before you get on a big podcast or media interview before, before you turn a video on, right. And you just go, don’t forget to breathe. Like air allows you to think clearly you’re hyperventilating. When it’s time to record your like weekly video blog, like don’t forget to breathe for a second before you hit record and like center yourself. So it’s not so frantic. I think that’s really, really powerful. All right. So that was my first takeaway, which has stuck with me and will continue to stick with me. The second takeaway though, I’ve never heard him say, I’ve actually never heard anybody say, and he said it like very quickly, almost as if like it’s a, you know, it’s like a cliche or it’s like something that is like you know, just kind of a platitude that’s out there in the world.
RV (07:30):
But I had never heard this before. And it really stuck with me as he said, no plan survives contact with an enemy, no plan survives contact with an enemy that is so good and so important. Like for two reasons, one is to go, don’t spend all day planning. It’s not going to work out according to plan anyways. Right? I’m not saying don’t plan, but I’m saying don’t overplay it. All right? Like at some point you just gotta get out there because it’s gonna adapt, like no plan, survives contact with an enemy. The other thing is you have to be flexible. Like you have to be willing to adapt. Like, and, and the word he uses survive, right? This is a very matter of survival. If you can’t adapt, if it drives you nuts, when people don’t follow the plan, if you overreact to people like deviating from the system, like it’s going to eat you alive.
RV (08:33):
And I think as an entrepreneur, right? It’s like, we want to create processes and streamlined and checklist. This is how we multiply time and all that sort of stuff. But it’s like, people are not going to do it the way that you do it. And even when you create a launch plan and you think this is how it’s going to go, like, it’s not, it doesn’t work out perfectly. You have to be in order to survive, you have to be able to adapt and not just adapt, create a new plan. I think there’s a deeper part of this is to go, it’s not just create a new plan. It’s to be emotionally prepared for volatility. It’s to be emotionally prepared for imperfection. It is to be emotionally resilient to the idea that, yeah, I got a plan, but I’ll, I’ll adapt accordingly. I never know what the enemy is going to do.
RV (09:18):
Right. I never know how the project’s going to turn out. I never know what’s going to be thrown at. And so you trust in your, your preparation, but you allow yourself to adapt on the fly. And I think this is really hard. I think this is really hard specifically for entrepreneurs who are, do gooders and checklists and task masters. They like to create the plan, execute the plan. And entrepreneurship is a mess, right? Like success is messy. Success is never perfect. It’s always like, you know, Donald Trump would say, it’s a total disaster. Like it is it. Every time we try to accomplish something, it never works out. There’s always something that shows up that we didn’t expect. No plan survives contact with the enemy, by the way, it reminds me of another, this it’s another one of my favorite quotes, which is kind of like on this subject you know, Mike Tyson said it this way. He said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
RV (10:11):
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. I mean, this is a big deal, right? So a plan is not going to just be the thing that is your shield that causes you to survive like a plan as a starting point. A plan should give you confidence, but it’s like, you can’t hide behind the plan. You can’t expect the plan to go perfectly. You gotta be able to adapt. You gotta be flexible. You gotta be nimble. Because that’s just the way that battle is. And most of us that’s what we’re doing. And so that was super powerful to hear him talk about that. The third takeaway for me, which I’ve I have heard before, maybe not quite in this way, I’ve, you know, we talk about it a lot. You know, this very much points back to the creation principle of integrity in our first book take the stairs, which was, he said an observer or a witness to your own life as a way of help helping yourself better manage your own thoughts.
RV (11:11):
Right. So that I think is so powerful. It’s so true. And that’s a skill set that I learned, you know, I think of all the way back in college, you know, going door to door and dealing with rejection of just like, you know, you’re you, the real battle is in your own mind. And it’s, what are you telling yourself about yourself? And that’s really, it can be a really discouraging space to be in. And what he’s saying is going, okay, just step out of it for a second and observe what you are saying about yourself, about the situation. And he used this phrase, he said, you know, you have the power change your relationship with the past one when you do this. And I think that’s so true is like, once you step back here and you go, okay, those thoughts that I’m having, that’s not me. Those are just thoughts that I’m having. And it’s like separating your thoughts from yourself, which I know feels a little weird, right? You go, wait a minute. How do I separate my thoughts from myself? Like, isn’t my thoughts who I am, but, but I would say, well, no, it definitely isn’t right. Because I mean, think about it this way. Like your thoughts are your thoughts, because if your thoughts are you then who the hell are you talking to? Right?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Like you’re, you’re the
RV (12:34):
One hearing your thoughts and, and evaluating your thoughts. But I think a lot of us don’t observe, we just kind of allow ourselves to be absorbed and, and assimilated and amalgamated with our thoughts as if they are us not realizing, oh, we have control over our thoughts. And, and even the first step to controlling our thoughts is to observe our thoughts. And, and, and even the, I guess the prerequisite to that is that what you’re doing right now, you’re learning right here that, oh, those thoughts are not you. And you can observe them. So you learn, you know, you realize that then you start to observe them. Then you kind of take note of what you’re saying, and then you naturally go, oh, I don’t like that thought that thought doesn’t serve me. That saw that, that thought, you know, doesn’t give life to me.
RV (13:23):
That thought drains my energy. And this is what amazing is. If your thoughts aren’t serving you, then throw your thoughts out seriously. Like if your thoughts aren’t serving, you throw your thoughts out, but realize the first step is to be an observer of your own thoughts, be a witness to what your thinking about yourself, to what you are telling yourself about yourself. This is super empowering. And what you’ll find when you do this, you’ll be shocked at how many, any of your thoughts don’t even come from you. So many of your thoughts came from a teacher, a parent, a bully, you know, something that somebody said casually to you. They came from a movie, they came from some other books that you read or some line in a song that you heard you know, or some quote that somebody shared with you that you never even stopped to question like, is this real?
RV (14:17):
And you go, whoa, like, or the other thing is a huge number of our thoughts come from immediate responses to stimuli. They come from something happened. We immediately responded and we immediately created a story and said, oh, that happened because I’m not smart. Or that happened because I’m not attractive. Or that happened because I’m not good at blank, or I’m not good enough to blank. And this thought it wasn’t even specifically or deliberately or intentionally crafted. We allowed this thought it happened in an overreaction in moment of over response. And that thought entered our mind. We never questioned it. We never scrutinized it. And now we’ve allowed that thought to build a house and set up its home to define our life about what is possible and what is possible. And the first step to breaking free of that is to become an observer of your thoughts and realize your thoughts are not you, your thoughts are your thoughts. You are hearing your thoughts and you are the author and creator of your own thoughts.
RV (15:28):
This stuff might sound like hooey, phooey. This is one of the other reasons that I love. This is like this kind of stuff, like box breathing and visualization and, you know, be adaptable. And self-talk, these things all sort of feel fluffy, right? Like on their own, they feel you know, they feel decidedly soft and, and kind of like impractical. And maybe even like, you know, I don’t know who he phooey motivationally until you hear commander mark divine, who is an Ivy league graduate has multiple degrees, is best-selling author and has been in the, the most elite of special forces units on the planet and been in war time saying, no, no, no, this is the key. These are the secrets to an unbeatable mind. And if you want to master anything in your life, whether it’s building a personal brand, building a business, making a difference or surviving war, these things are the things that you must do. You must prepare your mind. You must strengthen it, condition it, shape it over and over and over again, because it is the asset that you will have with you for the rest of your life, which is a good reason to keep coming back here to the influential personal brand podcast. We’re so glad that you’re here. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand.

Ep 179: Accessing Your Creativity with Todd Henry | Recap Episode

RV: (00:06)

Welcome back to the influential personal brand podcast recap. It’s your man, Rory Vaden breaking down the interview with my time friend, Todd Henry. I’m all about accessing your creativity, which I think is just super relevant. Right. And, and I guess it’s funny, cause I’ve known about Todd’s work for years, but now more than any other time, I think in my career, how do I feel like we’re playing in this space of creativity on a regular basis? And, and I would say even feeling like creativity is a core component of succeeding in the workplace today. And I would say probably my first biggest takeaway from the interview with Todd was even just kind of reframing what is creativity and what, what should we think about and what does he think about, or as someone who’s spent spent a lifetime studying this which is that creativity is just problem solving.

RV: (01:09)

That’s it? Creativity is problem solving and there’s constant problems. I mean, this is the story of being an entrepreneur. It’s the story of being a leader? It’s the story of being a parent? It’s the story of building a personal brand or building an empire it’s like life is basically just a series of one problem after the next, after the next, after the next and the problems just get bigger and different and more complex, the more successful you get and a lot of the most fundamental problems, you never, you never resolve completely, right? Like what are we eating for dinner and how do we keep the house clean? And you know, what are we wearing? And like, there’s just this, this rhythm of life that is a steady stream of problems. And so if you don’t have creativity or if you’re not developing that, then I think you’re going to really struggle.

RV: (01:59)

And I’m realizing that, oh my gosh, this is, this is an essential skill that isn’t just relevant to artists, but relevant to all of us. And you know, so I think this first takeaway there’s two big definitions that are in this. So one is what is the definition of creativity? I think Todd defines it as problem solving, which will, will stick with me. The other was what’s the definition of art. And I think the way that Todd said it was, he said that art is an expression of values, right? So it is your values, the things that you care most about the things that you believe in the things that you buy into, the ideals that you hold, the, the principles that you know, to be true, it is those things codified, manifested, extrapolated transformed into some expression, whether it’s, you know, a painting, a song a movie a, a book, a speech, a course like a business.

RV: (03:20)

I mean, I think business is art. Like creating a business is, is nothing other than expression of values. I think it’s like, I love that definition because if you go, okay, well, core values are to a business. What personal philosophies are to an artist. So your personal viewpoints and philosophies come out as the expression of art. Well, if you’re an entrepreneur, your business basically is that, I mean, it is that, that an entrepreneur being an entrepreneur is our chance to create a reflection in the world of the things that we believe, the things that we hold value to the things that we, we most trust and we believe to be true and that we want to see more of in the world. And so I think that is a really fascinating way of seeing it is that art is this expression of values, businesses and expression of values.

RV: (04:16)

You know, and, and I think when you, you know, that it’s art, when it moves people emotionally, we talk about that in world-class presentation craft which is, you know, our course, our, our course on teaching people how to speak from stage and the mastery level, stage mechanics of what, what set mechanically, what separates the greatest speakers in the world from everyone else. And it is all about, can you move the audience emotionally? Do they have some type of visceral response in their body to the things that you are saying? And you know, some of those are techniques, but that you can do, you know, there’s, there’s things that you can practice and we teach a lot of those, but a lot of it is more of it is aligning your art, your presentation, your, your masterpiece, your creation, being in alignment with your uniqueness, the things that you believe.

RV: (05:11)

So that was really beautiful. And I, I really loved that. And, and I loved the practical application of that also with kind of like this artistic juxtaposition was, was really good. Now, the second big takeaway that I want to highlight is w w w how do you find, like what art you should create? I mean, a brand builders group, right? We would call this finding your uniqueness. It is always the first thing that we do with every client as we help them identify their uniqueness. It’s the thing that so many people struggle with. It’s, it’s almost a thing where it’s like, it’s, it’s kind of impossible to like, figure it out yourself. You need help doing it. It’s really, really difficult to nail this, but if you nail this, I mean, it changes everything. It changes everything because you’re being the person that only you can be.

RV: (05:57)

And I love what Todd said here, which is another way, or I would say a hint or a clue or a suggestion. You could say, I guess a shortcut, probably not a shortcut, but, but maybe corroborating evidence for you to find your uniqueness. Here’s what he said. This is my second takeaway. The thing that you’re most equipped to put into the world is the thing that feels most obvious to you. The thing that you’re most equipped to put into the world is the thing that feels most obvious to you. It’s, it’s parallels kind of what we say a lot, which is that your most powerfully positioned to serve the person that you once were. And that’s because, you know, in full integrated detail, what it’s like to be that person. So it is obvious. Yes. Do you, because that’s what you have done.

RV: (06:52)

It’s what you have lived and not just what you have learned about. And I think the way that he comes at it here in, in the way he says it is, is kind of like you know, a different presentation of the same core concept, which is what’s most to you. What is the thing that you do without, you know, trying, what is the thing that you do naturally? What is the thing that you’re gifted at? What is the, what are you like? What have you become? What super powers do you have you naturally developed over the course of your life. These things that you don’t think are special, there’s a huge need out in the world because other people have not gone through what you’ve gone through. They haven’t walked the path that you have walked down. And so you’re super equipped to help those people, which is amazing.

RV: (07:37)

It’s amazing when you tap into this, because this is a gift like this is, this is such a great blessing that your personal brand is built, not on having to create something out of scratch, not on, not on having to manufacture ideas out of thin air, but rather to express things you already are to, to convey things that you’ve already been doing to, to translate the very persona in history and experience that you have lived, the more that we can access that the faster and the shorter, the distance to you breaking through with your personal brand. And it’s in a lot of times, it is the thing that’s, it’s so obvious to you that you don’t even notice it. I would say that a lot, like a lot of our clients, like it’s it’s, so it’s such an ingrained part of them. Like their uniqueness is such an ingrained part of them that they can’t see it.

RV: (08:39)

Cause they’re so close to it that they’re, it’s almost like they questioned like, well, why would this have any value in the world? Like surely no one would care about that. They have the curse of knowledge, right? They, they automatically, we assume and believe that everyone else out there in the world knows the same things that they know. And they don’t because they haven’t studied. They haven’t researched to use the, the brain DNA helix term. They haven’t researched the same things that you have researched. They don’t have results doing the same things that you’re doing. They don’t have the same passions. They haven’t tried to solve the same problem. And and so it’s like, it’s hard to see. So that’s really, really important. And even though it’s hard to see, it’s a place to start with is, you know, what is most obvious to you?

RV: (09:22)

Like, what is the problem you have most overcome? What is the path that you have walked down? Or as Todd said, it you’re most equipped to put into the world. The thing that feels most obvious to you, which by way of the curse of knowledge, you probably think has no value in the world because you assume that everybody knows it just because you do. And they do not. My third takeaway. And I would say this one was my, my favorite part of that entire conversation is the difference of pursuing a craft Haft versus pursuing stardom. This is the difference between pursuing a craft versus personal, doing the stardom. And it actually reminds me you know, so one of our, one of our longtime pals is John ACOF and we saw John at church a few weeks ago, and we were just having this conversation.

RV: (10:16)

We hadn’t seen each other in a while. And, you know, he said something, something about how far we’ve come over all these years. And, you know, I told him, I said, yeah, honestly, I think it, it has more to do with the fact that you and I have just stuck around than anything else. Like we have weathered so many storms. Like we’ve just been, we’ve been in this space now for 15 years. I mean, I met John AIG and I met John 12 years ago now. And so it’s, it’s like, we’ve known him for 12. He was already, you know, just like us. He had been around in awhile and it’s like, I think what we’ve both been doing is, is like we’re pursuing a craft, right? We want to get really good at what we do, which is we want to get really good at helping people.

RV: (11:01)

We want to get really good at providing solutions, really good at providing answers. And when you do that, you have true staying power. I mean, it’s, it’s so powerful because you’re not constantly tied to the results of your last post, right? Like you’re not constantly consumed with how many video views did I get, how many podcast downloads or even your last book. Right. It’s it’s like, yeah. If the book sells or not, I mean, it’s, it’s one part of this lifelong journey that is the, your craft. But you’ll see a lot of times when people are like, oh, I just, you know, like, I feel like I need to just like, do this one, one thing. Or if they’re just pursuing stardom, like they just want to have a lot of followers, like you’re going to burn out, you’re going to burn out, or you’re going to look for shortcuts, or you’re just, you’re going to make a lot of sacrifices because you’re ultimately serving something that isn’t that significant in terms of its, its staying power.

RV: (11:58)

And it’s, it’s, it’s lasting power. And it’s trick, it’s a little bit of a trick because look at like at brand builders group, right, we win when our clients win. Like we love when our clients get hundreds of thousands of followers or millions of Ted talk views, are they, you know, hit the New York times bestseller list or they land, you know, six figure consulting, deals, all, all things that happen, you know? And, and recently they’ve been on a pretty regular basis. But even those things, it’s like, we want those things to happen for our clients, but they’re not what we measure success by because it’s like, first of all, certain parts of those things can kind of be like manufactured, right. And the, the, the reality is going, but, but it’s not these external achievements or these vanity metrics that change anyone else’s life, nor do they provide side the kind of meaning and deep satisfaction that a true mission driven a true mission driven messenger seeks in their own life.

RV: (13:03)

They’re certainly not bad. They’re great things. We want them to happen. It’s just not how we measure success at brand builders group. Because, you know, we focus on, on reputation, over revenue. We want revenue, we want wins. We want money. We want likes, we want followers. We want views. We want all that stuff. But at the end of the day, we’re more focused on helping people figure out what are you called to do, do that. Nobody else can do. Like what problem were you put here on this earth to solve, solve that nobody else can solve. And, you know, focusing and, and standing your identity, grounding your identity more in that is much more significant and long lasting. And it’s going to be a greater source of fulfillment and satisfaction. Even if for some reason it wasn’t going to bring more money. And over the long term, we are convinced that it absolutely does.

RV: (14:04)

But there are certain things that do create more results. Short-Term I mean, there are certain topics and there’s certain things you can do. Like, I mean, anything sexual, anything outrageous anything to do with money like there are certain topics that just naturally draw more attention, anything that’s based on celebrities, there’s things that you can do to kind of manufacture short-term attention. But if that’s, if, if that topic or that thing, isn’t what you want to spend your life doing. It’s like you can’t chase that because you’ll, you’ll eventually be running from an empty tank. So pursue mastery of craft laughs don’t pursue stardom, pursue figuring out how can I help versus how can I known? And if you do that, you likely will grow your influence and you will have all of these amazing things happen to you. And that really, really was powerful to hear Todd talk about that.

RV: (15:07)

Especially since he’s spent a life around. So many creatives is, is, is to just really pursue that, that craft. And don’t get caught up, resist the temptation to be caught up in the fame and the vanity metrics and the stardom and you know, whatever word you want to call it. Cause it’s not ultimately what changes lives and it’s not, what’s going to bring you satisfaction, but find what’s the message you could spend your life sharing. What’s the problem you could dedicate your life to solving who is the audience and you can dedicate your life to survey

Ep 177: Lessons in Personal Branding from the Ziglar Family with Tom Ziglar | Recap Episode

Welcome back to the influential personal brand podcast. Special recap edition joined today by AJ and we are breaking down an important family to us, the Ziglar family. If we got a chance, if you didn’t get a chance to make sure you listen to the interview that we did with Tom Ziglar, of course, Zig Ziglar, son, and Zig had a massive impact on our life and our early career. And so it was an honor to reconnect with Tom and see what they are up to. AJ and I are going to share with you some of our biggest takeaways from the episode. So why don’t you kick us off?

I think, I think one of my biggest takeaways was just really interesting quotes that Tom shared that was one of zigs old quotes. And I think he even said it was from the seventies or eighties, an older quote, but I thought it was really relevant for the, the time and space that we live in right now. And the quote was if you pursue standard of living, you will likely, never have a better quality of life. But if you pursue a better quality of life, the standard of living will always go up. And I thought that was really good and timely. Just in the, the season that so many of us are in and our businesses are in, and there’s been a lot of economic change and family change and business change and virtual and just all the things. And I just I was listening to radio station a couple of days ago and they were sharing that HR department’s number one concern right now are there people’s mental health and wellbeing.

It’s not retention, it’s not recruiting it’s, it’s actually employee mental health and wellness. And it was timely because I had heard that on a radio interview. And then this interview with Tom was almost back to back and I kind of just thought, Oh, that’s the universe going? Ding, ding, ding, connect the dots here of what are you in pursuit of? What are you in pursuit of? And I just thought it was really good to kind of like take a step back. And as we get into this recap to settle in of like, Whoa, what I am I in pursuit of and where does my own quality of life fit when it comes to what I’m working forwards working towards and why am I working towards it? So it was a little bit off interview topic, but for whatever reason, I kind of just even pause the interview and kind of sat with that for a moment of going, I know the rest of the interview, isn’t going to be talking about this, but this really simple quote really stuck out to me of just taking a moment of going, am I in pursuit of something for the wrong reasons?

And where does the quality, where does my quality of life come into the equation of what I’m working towards? Or is that even a factor? So I kind of off script there, but that was my very first and probably most important takeaway, not from just the interview, but probably my whole week.

I mean, that, that it was for me too. That was, that was one of my big, my big takeaways. And just this idea that the quality of your life directly influences also the quality of your work. And I think it’s like, you know, that that idea in school, that companies I think are waking up to that. I mean, that’s, I think one of, one of the good things that have come out of the recent time is going, it’s not only the right thing to just care about the quality of life of the people who are working in the business. It also is a good thing for the health of the business. Like the financial health of the success is when you have happier people, they do better work. So if you can’t get yourself to come around to it, you know, if you’re an employer just because you’re good natured is, is to make that connection.

And, and I think it, it hit me even more personally as going like, Oh, wow, where is the quality of my life? And am I focused on that? As much as the quality of work. And if I allow myself to really create the quality of life and focus on that, that the quality of work will increase as, as a by-product and the standard of living and just everything. And, and I think, I feel like there is this trend in the world right now, where people are in some ways, in some ways, letting go a little bit of like the money in the hustle and the, you know, the achievement and starting to wake up more to just like happiness and joy and fulfillment. Although there’s plenty of that other stuff that we’re all, we’re all hanging on to, it’s hard wired into our brains, but, and it was, that was my first takeaway too.

That was really good. So my second thing that kind of stuck out to me as I love this, and he was talking about his own identity. Tom was talking about his own identity and correlation to such a publicly and widely positively known reputation there. You need to get your own points. These are my points. And he said, he said something I had to realize is that, although I was speaking through and for my father’s legacy on principles and values, that my dad Zig was a one of a kind and I’m not him. And he’s not me. And I don’t speak like him and think like him, I don’t motivate like him, I don’t inspire him, but that’s okay. Is that people still wanted zigs principles and values and ideas, but they wanted them in the own way that Tom could deliver them.

Right. And I think that was really kind of an aha moment for so many of us is what are we trying to be like? That is not who we are just because we think that’s what other people want. Not because that’s what they told us they want. It’s just because that’s what we think they want. And so, as Tom was going through this story of how he really had to learn that the gift of his was not his own, but he had his own gifts and that people still wanted to learn from him and his own way. And he didn’t have to be Zig or be like Zig in order to complete that, you know, cycle there. And it just made me think of how often so many of the clients that we work with and people that we talk to, and even us, right, our own family, friends, our own team that we live in this idea of a I’m going to be this way, because I think that’s what my audience would like.

Like Rory actually heard this again on the radio, in the car lot here lately. Apparently the other thing I was going to say but one third of Americans actually decide where they’re going to vacation based on how that location will look on social media as they take pictures and kind of shared that. And I was like, well, that’s funny, wait, that’s not funny. Funny, not funny because it’s, it’s a, it’s really unfortunate that we do things. We live our life thinking that this is what other people want from us without ever living into our own uniqueness and originality. And quite honestly forget that, like, we don’t even do things for ourselves anymore just to impress, please show others on what we’re doing versus is that really what we want. And so anyways, it was a great part of the interview. It was short and sweet, but also very poignant in the fact of man, how many of us are living in the shadow of other people’s expectations?

When indeed no one, they didn’t, they don’t even want that from you. They want what, you’re not giving them, but you’re not giving it to them because you don’t think that’s what they want. So I just thought it was very I don’t know, humbling in a way of going, wow, have you ever even thought, are you trying to be someone that you’re not to impress people that actually want the real you, not the fake you? And it was a, I think it was just a really good part of the interview of this aha moment that so many of us relate to.

Yeah, I was pro that was profound. I mean, I I’ve I wrote, I wrote down when he said, dad always told us that his gift is not our gift and that like, I mean, that gave me chills because I was going what an important lesson for Zig to pass on. And also for everyone to know, like the way he said it too is so true is like Zig had plenty of weaknesses, just like anyone else does that are Tom’s strengths. And who are we trying to be like, that is not us. That is preventing us or disallowing us from, from being us. And I think that happens all the time. Right? We’re trying to emulate somebody or something, some set of people versus what you said, just settling in and receiving the idea that what want from us is to just be us. I, I love Sally Hogshead kind of talks about this, where she says, you don’t have to become more fascinating. You have to just become more of who you already are. And as a by-product of that, you’ll be fascinating. But when we try to become like everyone else, then we, you know, we, we become bland and and we’re not living in our, in our gifts. And that, that was powerful, powerful moment. That was really cool.

Yeah. So apparently we have the exact same takeaways. Maybe the third one will be different. We’ll say that the third one, I thought wasn’t necessarily a point in the interview. It was the interview as a whole. And we talk a lot about this and we’ve had several guests on the show over the last several months that have also talked about how do you take one existing piece of content and build an empire? And it’s not just a book or just a course or just us speaking or justice, but it’s like, how do you take a piece of content or in the Ziglar, Ziglar family, lots of pieces and pieces of content. But you don’t have to have thousands of pieces of content to build a very large production engine of business. You can build a big business off of one set of curriculum. And, you know, I could give you dozens of people who have done this, but one piece of content can be a book and a speech, and a course and shared on a podcast and turned into a coaching program and then a training program and then a consulting program, and then a certification program or a train the trainer program.

It’s like, the list goes on and on and on off of one set of content, it’s like, you don’t need 35 different pieces of content to build a very big business that’s multifaceted. And I think so often people get consumed with, in order to do a new thing. I have to have new content and what Zig the kind of Zig vault of content and what Tom is doing with that is a great example of no, we’re not necessarily trying to create brand new content. We’re repurposing content that has been loved and adored around the world and giving it to people in new ways. Smart and really good. So again, it was just the whole interview as a whole of reminding all of us. You don’t have to have lots of pieces of content to have lots of different business models.

Yeah, that’s a really good reminder. It’s another example of like, when we talk about she hands wall, where if you have diluted focus, you get diluted results. And I think people are always like off chasing the next content. And sometimes I think in a lot of cases, you’re more likely to make more money by serving your existing audience in a deeper way versus creating a new thing for a new audience. And so that’s a good reminder. For me, my third takeaway that I wrote down was, was just again, it wasn’t so much related to personal branding except for like being an entrepreneur. When Tom said, you know, a great leader is more focused on the growth of their people than the results from their people. It’s kind of tied back into that quality of life thing that it was just like, if you really can invest in people and care about people and build them and provide for them and coach them that, you know, that is, that is how you get the most out of them, not by just coming at them and pressuring them to get the most out of them and, you know, just building those relationships and investing in people and, and, and believing in them.

And I think that’s part of their shared legacy. Definitely, as I say, that’s very Ziglar, Ziglar, Ziglar philosophies. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So well, there you go, a great chance to sit down with legendary family and Tom is such a great guy. We’re excited to see how that brand is doing and the new era and it’s transitioning and it’s it’s really, really cool. And anyways, it’s honor for us to get, to bring conversations like that to you and an honor to us that you would keep coming back to listen to them. So thanks for being here. We’ll catch you next time.

Ep 175: How to Write a Great Book with Allison Fallon | Recap Episode

Welcome back to the influential personal brand recap. I am joined today by my wife and CEO. AJ Vaden she’s back back with us. She’s been, she’s been gone for a couple of weeks, but great to have her back. We’re talking about Alison Fallon and breaking down the interview that we had, and we’re just going to share our kind of top three and three. So since you’ve been gone awhile, I’ll, I’ll extend you the floor for.

Okay, good. So my first, my first kind of recap, takeaway or highlight that I jotted down was this a comment that she made very early in the interview and it kind of set the tone for the rest of the interview, in my opinion, which is great writing comes from great thinking. And I thought it was really good cause she was like, great writing is not about great grammatical structure and commas and periods. And she goes, that’s what editors are for great writing is about great thinking. And I love that because it really tied in to a couple of other things that popped up that I’m sure we’ll discuss later. She said, but the challenge is, is that most great thinking never turns into great published books because of our own writer’s block. And I thought that was really well connected because I think so often we don’t think, well, we’re not good writers.

And we think about being a good writer is in the grammatical sense, not in the thinking sense. And so we go, well, I’m just not a great writer. I, you know, I don’t know where all the commas go or I don’t know how to get my thoughts on paper. And I just love it. It’s like, well, it’s not about any of that. It’s that great writing comes down to great thinking. And then you work with editors to take care of the rest and what an amazing relief of going. Oh, there is a way for me to get my thoughts into a book and create this established thought pattern that I so believe in and get it out into the world, but it doesn’t require me being such a writer and the, in the, I dunno, traditional sense. So I just thought that was pretty revolutionary in my opinion. Yeah.

I had never heard anyone say that. That was my first takeaway too. I thought that was so profound. I wasn’t even copying off your paper. I came up with that legitimately as it may take away. And there were, there’s a couple things that stuck out to me cause you know, people ask us all the time to say, Hey, this brand builders group helped people write books. And the answer is yes. And they’ll say, well, do you publish books? And it’s like, no. And we do edit them. No, I think what we help with the thinking we help with the organization.

That’s why I like it so much. Cause it’s, it’s related to what our skill are. Right.

We actually farm out the editing and the publishing to our implementation

Partners. Yeah. And

We also are not the pros on how to design the book and how to get it distributed and warehouse and all that stuff. We’re good at. We’re good at the, and then we’re good at the selling, but all the actors outsource the production part. We have to outsource the rest of the rest of it. But yeah, that’s super powerful. The other thing that I think is, is a worthwhile you know, lesson here that I’ve learned over the years is there’s a lot of different types of writers, writing and writers and editors. There are content editors, which like, you know, I think of Marianne who is via my content editor, our content editor for the books.

There’s a lot of hands going around right now.

Yeah. Hands, but they’re just listening. So they can’t, they can’t, they can’t all, not everybody can see, see that. But you’ve got content editing, which is really about the thinking and the organization. And then you’ve got more of like copy editing, which is like the commas and the periods. And then, then you have copywriting, which is different. That’s more of like the marketing and sales copy that would go on the jacket. And those are a couple of different types of skillsets and different types of people. If you’re thinking about launching a book or doing a book that, you know, just to kind of think about that. So we both have the same first one. What was your second?

My second one I’m kind of connected to that was around this writer’s block kind of concept and idea. And I’ll kind of say this again, but I wrote it down and the way that I translated what Allie said Alison, this year that Allie or Alison goes by Allie, Allie, I’ve got her in my mind is Allie. So Alison alley, but most great ideas never get published due to your own inability to get your great thoughts onto paper and most great ideas. Never turn into great books because of your own writer’s block. So in order to get past that, it’s really somewhat simple is that great content comes from trying to simply provide value to the end reader. So instead of thinking about yourself all the time of, well, what if no one likes this? Or what if it, no one buys this? Or what if me, me, me, you just stop that and you go, what would provide value to the person I’m trying to reach?

What lesson have I learned that could, that could provide impact for someone else? What is something that I have done that I hope no one else ever does? So if I can share this and save you some time, heartache, trouble money, or this is something that I did do. So instead of just thinking about, well, what if it doesn’t hit the list? Or what if no one buys it? Or what if it’s not any good? What if no one likes it? What if people hate it, stop all that nonsense and just go, how do I provide great value? And one of the ways that you can start providing great value is just to start answering valuable questions that your audience has just go through. What are the questions that you wish you would have had the answers to back when, and start answering those and develop your content from there. And she goes just a simple way of getting out of writer’s block as you start answering questions. Thought that was brilliant. We talk a lot about that. But, and the context of a book about it was so helpful and simple, which is so important to all of you who are listening.

You know, it’s funny, cause I think of myself more as a writer today, but so many people don’t think of themselves as a writer. And I never thought of myself as a writer and I was worried like, are they going to like my writing style into what you’re saying? The best writing style is just something that’s valuable to the reader, like who they don’t really care about the others. So I think that’s so good. My second takeaway was this a super quick little nugget that she said, which was, she said, think about what’s your favorite book and then who published it? And none of us would actually know the name

Unless you’re a publisher, unless you’re a publisher. But even though I bet a lot of publishers yeah.

They didn’t publish. And so I think, you know, we get caught up a lot of times and like who’s the publisher and you know that, and it’s like at the end of the day, it’s just what you’re saying. It’s how do I create a valuable book? I mean, the there’s there’s value. Each publisher has different values and there’s, you know, there’s pros and cons of, of different things. But at the end of the day, as, as the author, it’s your ideas that matter. And don’t get so hung up on whether it was self published, traditionally published, you know, vanity publishers, just like in between just create an awesome book and help help some people. So that was a great reminder.

Yeah. Well that actually has a really good transition into my third and last point, which is when it comes to asking yourself, should I try to go the traditional route and try to get a traditional publisher to publish my book? Should I self publish it? Should I do this hybrid model? Like what’s more important, right. But which one should I really go for? And I loved what she said. She goes, well, it’s a really simple question. And remember to ask yourself this, what’s your favorite book. Okay. Now who published it? And if you don’t know, there’s your answer because it doesn’t really matter. And I think that’s really just kind of so awesome. I think we do get so hung up on that. And she said, the truth is, is that most great books. You never know who the publisher was because it doesn’t matter.

It’s about the great content and truly what’s way more important than the type of publisher you have is your own ability to distribute the book. It’s your own personal distribution plan, which comes down to your platform, which is, well, how many people can you get it in front of, on your own without, depending on a publisher, because publishers don’t sell books, let’s just call that what it is. They’re publishers, they’re not marketers and they’re not sellers per se. They’re publishers. It’s going to be up to you anyways. So why not focus on that in the first place of going, how am I reaching people on my email list? Who am I speaking in front of? Who’s like, who subscribed to my podcast? Or how many podcasts am I on what’s my social media reach, but what, what platform do I have? What distribution do I have with that platform? And that’s the much more important question to ask versus who’s going to publish them.

That’s such a, such a good reminder. Cause you think about it. You know, when you start on the journey, you think that the quality of the book determines the sales success of the book. And it’s not really that it, I mean, that’s a part of it, but it’s like the quality of the book is directly and in proportion to the number of people, the audience, the author can get in front of. Yeah. So that’s really good. But the, for me, the third takeaway was, was just kind of a different way of thinking about it. And she said, if you’ve got an idea that’s been gifted to you, you feel this prompting on your heart, this calling, the word that she used really stuck with me. She said, you are the steward of that idea. Like if you’ve been gifted, this, it now means that you are the steward of it.

You, it is your responsibility. It’s your obligation. It’s your, it’s your duty, it’s your privilege to carry this idea and sort of, you know, birth it into the world. And that was just really powerful for me to go, okay, you know, you want to be a, a big author and you want to impact lives. But just the idea itself is something that you’re, you’re stewarding. And that, that means that somebody else out there needs that idea and you gotta be accountable for delivering that. So I love that beautiful stuff. Make sure that you’re listening, go back and listen to the episode. If you haven’t. Allie drops a lot of little nuggets and tidbits. And we really love her and recommend her for a couple of different things that we introduced clients to. But that’s all we’ve got for this recap edition of the influential personal brand podcast. Keep coming back. We’re here for you, cheering you on, see you next time.

Ep 173: Leveling Up Your Paid Traffic Acquisition Strategy with Eric Siu | Recap Episode

One of the things that I just love so much about podcasting is how much you learn as the host. It’s like, it’s one of the coolest things ever. I mean, the networking value of podcasts they get by itself is, is just incredible. But then it’s like, you get to talk to some of the smartest people in the world for free, right? I mean, it’s, you know, you’re, there’s an exchange. You’re helping promote them and stuff, but it’s like, I am blown away at how much I just constantly learn from our guests. And this episode was certainly one of those I’m breaking down. The, this is the recap of the Eric Siu episode. I’m going solo for now and covering for AJ on this recap, a special recap edition of the influential personal brand podcast. But man it’s just wild. And one of the things I love about personal branding, right?

And this whole space is this is such an emerging space. It’s like, it’s fun, it’s new, it’s exciting. Things are changing. It’s also difficult and frustrating because there’s, there’s so much to learn. And you know, my, my top three takeaways from this episode are really important because they tie in to something that has happened since I recorded this interview originally with Eric. Okay. So make sure you listen to the interview. Of course, if you can, if you haven’t, you know, we were talking about basically leveraging up your leveling up your paid traffic acquisition strategy. So in brand builders group speak, this is what we would typically call phase three, which is where we really create a lot of like scalable growth for a personal brand and, and there’s advantages and disadvantages to all different types of traffic. But with paid traffic, this is so important because here’s, what’s great about paid traffic, paid traffic is predictable.

You know, we divide traffic into three categories, there’s free traffic, you know, SEO, email, social media, et cetera, et cetera. Then there is paid traffic, which is a lot of what we’re talking about here, like buying, buying ads and things like that. And then there’s get paid traffic, which is our favorite type of traffic. Cause that’s when you get paid to be put in front of an audience and then you get to expose that audience to more people, which is like, you know, kind of the best of both worlds, but even in get paid traffic or free traffic, the bummer is they’re not predictable. Right? And so this is my first big point is you want predictable traffic, predictable traffic. And this, this is something that, you know, I think when people hear about traffic, we, we think of you know, we think of like, you know, it’s a lot of people wear it as a badge of honor.

Like I’ve never you know, all my traffic is organic or I’ve built my entire following without paid ads, which is, which is cool. I mean, that’s, that’s cool. It’s like, it’s cool thing to be proud of, but what I, and, and, and that’s the category that I have. That’s the camp that I come from and was raised in and have had to operate by, frankly for much of my career. And then realize, well, wait a minute, you know, I’m wearing that as a badge of honor, but is that holding me back because I’m not willing to invest in paid traffic because the only guaranteed type of traffic is paid traffic and it is guaranteed. Like I can guarantee that I can get you more traffic now, whatever organic strategy I teach you, I’m not sure I can guarantee that brings you more traffic.

And, and even though we know a lot about get paid traffic, I think it’s get paid traffic as some brand builders group is some of the best in the world at, at helping you not only get in front of large audiences, but get, get paid to also be in front of them and assess, especially over the long haul over the course of time, if you follow the things that we teach are going to build your reputation, and that’s going to be an upward spiral, that’s going to get you in front of more things, but it’s not guaranteed. There’s not a, there’s not a guarantee as to how fast or when and paid traffic. It gives that to you in the form of a guarantee. And this is a big mindset shift that needs to happen for maturing personal brands. That’s why we, we cover it in our high traffic strategies event, which is our advanced like mail marketing sales event digital marketing event, which we, we put in our phase three group of courses and curriculum.

But and this is the big, the big change is going okay. Well, even though it costs money, it is a, it’s a lever that I can pull every day to force growth, to ensure awareness, to intentionally accelerate my business forward. And so that’s why paid traffic is a good thing. And it’s something that a lot of us don’t think of it in that way. And maybe that’s a mindset shift for you. And I would say again for maturing brands, this is not something that we teach new brands. It’s not something we would encourage for new brands, because we definitely wouldn’t want you to do paid traffic until you’ve got all your other ducks in a row. And all of your, your funnel streamlined and your dashboards set up in your brand positioning clear in a, an unwell optimized website. And you’ve got keyword targeting going on on your, and you’ve got a content marketing strategy that is on, you know, running on autopilot.

Like those are all the fundamentals that have to be in place first and then paid traffic. Boom is fuel on the fire, but to get the most out of your paid traffic, you’ve got to have all that stuff set up first. But once you get there, then it’s like, yeah, we need to, we need to, we needed to pull the trigger on this. So predictable forms of traffic are super valuable and paid traffic is one of the best, if not the best form of predictable traffic, if you put money in the machine, it will send you more traffic, right? So that’s, that is the mindset of predictable traffic, which is related very much to paid traffic and listening to Eric talk, I think was just edifying and validating for, you know, I think an area of growth for me personally, and for our, our team company and where we’re at brand builders group.

And we’re, we’re really getting to this point now, right? Like the, our company has been around for a few years. It’s like, we’re, we’re getting stuff underneath us. And it’s like, let’s grow. Let let’s go. Let’s grow paid traffic. Here we come. All right. The second big debrief, which I think is the core of this interview is the, the importance and some of the tools around influencers marketing specifically. Okay. So the debrief, the reason this is in the debrief is because Eric shared two tools that you know, we have not used. Okay. So don’t consider them vetted and officially recommended yet by brand builders group, but we’re looking into them. Both because, I mean, because Eric said it and, and because they involve paid traffic. Okay. So here’s the tools he said, mighty scout mighty scout.com, which is for influencer marketing research.

And then, but sift tube, SIF like YouTube, but just to sift S I F T tube sift.com for YouTube advertising research. So why am I pulling these out now? Well, this is because of a massive change that has happened recently with the newest iOS update. And this is going to sound a little bit tactical. It is a little bit technical, and frankly, I, I, I don’t fully do geek speak, but this is from what our team is telling us and what our clients are saying. And the people we know that do, you know, speak geek, speak. There’s a massive thing that just happened that is going to affect the future of digital marketing, you know, in a big, big way in the immediate short-term future and potentially long-term. And that is this, that with the iOS update, they are now making people opt in to being tracked.

So if you’re on a mobile device, specifically iOS, okay, if you are using that operating system, right? So everybody with an iPhone all generations that when you’re on a site, whether it’s Facebook or it’s YouTube or wherever else, w you know, any other place that people run advertising and the past there’s been, you know, this kind of invisible tracking going on behind the scenes that was basically reported in the, I dunno, whatever, probably in the terms and conditions. And so by, by way of using this, these various tools, you’re consenting to have it in this happened well, for whatever reason that has changed and IO and, and the iOS update is doing away with that, which means that now people have to opt in manually to allow themselves to be tracked. Well, the, the, the, the data point that I heard this morning, again, I don’t, I don’t have the sources came from my, our internal team, right.

But these are really smart people that we work with. They’re, they’re saying that the, that up to as many, as 60% of people here, these are the people who have already had this change, rolled out to them on iOS are disallowing themselves to be tracked, which makes sense, right? These are like, when you go to the websites and it says, Hey, a pop-up comes up and Hey, we use cookies. Can we track you? Do you care? You know, and some numbers say, sure, I don’t care. I don’t even read it. Yes. But a number of people are waking up to this and going, no, I don’t want to be tracked. Well, the, when that happens, it dramatically affects and radically breaks down the ad tracking that we’re allowed to do using like cookies and UTMs and pixels. And these, these advanced terms that you hear of like passing through which all point back to going, okay, when I’m spending advertising dollars, I’m tracking to where, where are these buyers coming from?

Exactly. And, you know, letting letting like Facebook, as an example, run an algorithm to optimize, to optimize my advertising, spend to go find other people like the people who have bought. But if, if that, if the people who are buying are disallowing me from tracking them, then that disallows the informing to the Facebook algorithm that says, go find me more people like this person, which is, this is potentially huge. And you need to be aware of this, right? So, you know, consider yourself in the know of, for, you know, listen to this podcast and nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen, but from what I’m hearing and gathering, this is a really big deal and potentially a scary deal. For people who depend a lot on paid trafficking on, on, on paid paid traffic. So w w what, what does this have to do with influencer marketing?

Well, good question. Well, the reason that this matters is because as it becomes less easy to track the effectiveness at a granular level of, let’s say like a Facebook, yeah. Add it increases the value of, of spending money and advertising through an influencer, a specific person. Why? Because we know we can track every single thing that comes through that one link. Like I give one link to an influencer, I pay them, they post it. And everything that comes from that is trackable. It’s measurable. We know it came from that person. Well, we may not know about that, the end user data, but we know that all of the traffic came to that link. Well, that is really it interesting because it allows us to determine more, more naturally and more clearly the ROI versus some of these other tools like dumping money into Facebook or into you know, like YouTube or Google ads that it’s, it’s going to be harder and harder to track exactly where they saw the ad and who, and, and you know, how effective it is.

So that places up premium value on running ads through an influencer, because I can track for sure how well that is performing. I paid someone to promote this link. They shared this link, and either it worked or it didn’t which is just interesting because it kind of means that advertising dollars may flow in that direction. This is a, this is a potential trend that’s coming. It’s not here yet, but this is the kind of thing. And it’s good that you’re listening to the podcast. Right. And it’s one of the reasons I host the podcast is I’m interviewing people like Eric, who are very out there in the front of like the technical, you know, in the tactical world, seeing all these things coming and going, Whoa, how do we prepare ourselves? Cause this potentially alters the strategy. And the big thing you need to know now is going, Hmm, I need to really start looking at influencer marketing and going I need to find people that I can pay to just do a post for me.

There’s a lot less red tape. It’s a lot, you know, straight, more straight forward, but you got to find the people. How do you find the people while you could spend all day searching around online for them? Of course. And you’re going to go after the, all the big ones that everybody else sees, or you can, and, or you can use these tools like mighty scout and, and tube sifts. So we’ll, we’ll see how that plays out. But I guess just to share with you, this is on my radar. This is something that as the interim CMO for brand builders group, this is something that we’re watching closely, we’re paying attention and we’re going, you know what I think we need to wake up to, to influencer marketing and start looking at going. We may end up spending our advertising budget influencers rather than just dumping money into Facebook here in the near future.

And we’re going to be possibly looking at tools like, you know, these ones, mighty scout, et cetera, that have been mentioned to help us find those people. So that’s important. And then the last takeaway, you know, just real quick was the, the, what he said, the F he shared the four forms of leverage by novel Rob con two is like a world renowned early investor into several, you know, big companies and things. Uber four square, Twitter Postmates, things like that. So he’s, he’s kind of, you know, recognizes a very, very one of the smartest people in the world, I guess you would say. And he talks about the four types of leverage, labor, capital code and media. So labor is hiring people to do stuff for us. Capital is investing your money. Code is, you know, writing a code for a process.

And then, and then media, well, it reminded me very much of the focus funnel that we talked about all the way back in 2015, right? So if you look at the focus funnel from procrastinated, a purpose, or from the how to multiply time, my Ted talk it’s eliminate automate delegate, well, automate is basically code anything. You can create a process for today, multiplies your time in the future because the process is doing it tomorrow. Code is one example of automation. There are other examples there can be manual processes and, and, and checklists and workbooks and training manuals. Those, we would all consider those forms of automate, even though they’re not code or technology, but it’s really powerful to hear somebody like, Neval talk about this and go, wow. If he’s thinking that way, we’re really on the right track with the concept of multiplying time.

And then with labor, which we call delegate, right? Which is that it’s 80% done right by someone else is always better than a hundred percent done right by you. Why? Because it multiplies your time. It means they’re doing it instead of you doing it, which gives you margin to do something else without compromising the thing, getting done. That is a form of leverage. He calls it labor. We call it delegate capital money is one that we’ve all been aware of, right? It’s just, you know, compounding interest, let your money work for you when your money starts making money while you sleep. That is a form of leverage. And then I think the new one, which I hadn’t woken up to. So clearly until Eric said this even though he’s quoting and I hope, I hope I’m saying that name right. And of all, I don’t actually follow him.

But I, I, I might now his media, which is interesting, right? Because you know, I’ve described and I’ve heard, I’ve heard this described with money that when you invest a dollar, it’s like basically hiring an employee and then that is working if, when they’re invested to make you more money, right. So that person’s out there working well, media is the same thing. If I post a video on YouTube or I create a podcast episode that is now an asset that is out there working, it’s a form of multiplication. You multiply time by spending time on things today that give you more time tomorrow. So I’m building an asset right in this very moment, recording this, that somebody could be listening to years down the road drawing value from. And they’re just meeting me for the first time, but I’m leveraging an asset that I created, you know, today infinitely into the future indefinitely in the future.

That is super duper powerful. And then I would say, you know, another one that it made me think of is relationships. Relationships are multipliers. Why? Because as I develop relationships with people, okay, so this is like a new form of, of multiplication, not in the focus funnel and not something that Nepal talks about. But as I started thinking about this more relationships are a multiplier. Why? Because if I have a relationship with somebody and that person starts to multiply, that person’s influence grows. Now, all of a sudden as that person’s influence grows, mine grows too because of my connection to them. So this is where it’s like, you have to pour into relationships, you have to serve people and help people, which you should be doing anyways. But if you, if you can’t do it for like, you know just being a good person, you should also realize wow, that there is actual, amazing, exponential value in these relationships. So keep pouring into people, keep serving them, keep coming back here. We’re, we’re doing our very best to create consolidated ideas, tactics, strategies, and wisdom to help you multiply your message. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal

Ep 171: Chatbot Automation and Conversational Marketing with Natasha Takahashi | Recap Episode

Whoa. My first thought on that interview is Whoa. It’s Rory Vaden. Welcome to the influential personal brand recap edition and breaking down this conversation that I had with Natasha Takahashi on chatbot automation and conversational marketing. What like this was crazy there were some really great takeaways for me, but like, of all the, of all the interviews that we have done of all the guests that we’ve had on this show, that one was probably the most unfamiliar to me. In other words, it was like a whole new world opened up that like, we’re not doing, we’ve never done. I I’ve been aware of, but not you know, that’s why I wanted to have her on. I thought she did a great job, really excited about her. And I think we’re going to be working together on, on some different things. And so I want to give you, the, my top three takeaways, but, but you know, the first thing I want to say, just make sure this is out there is that if you’re a beginner, this conversation, this topic to me is not where I would start.

This is like, if you, if, if, if you are, you know, baking a cake, this to me, chat bot automation is like the last it’s like one of the last things you do. It’s the sprinkles on the cake. It’s like, even after the frosting and the decorating and, and it’s certainly like long after the cake is baked. And, and I think that sometimes there’s this, this excitement over, how do I say nifty or advanced or fancy, or like cool, cool emerging spaces and technologies like this that people get really drawn to. Cause they’re exciting and they’re fun. And it’s like, Whoa, what is this? And, and yet I would go, yeah, this to me, these, aren’t the things that you do to make or break your career, right? You make your break, your career based on substance and uniqueness and positioning and expertise and a series of systems that are always working to grow your community and advance your message of which to me, I think this one is a great one and there’s a big opportunity, and this is an exciting one and an emerging one.

But you know, if this has happened to be the first episode you’re listening to, I would say that most episodes are not so much this, this tactical and technical, and this would be very advanced strategy. In fact, we would dump this into phase three, it brand builders. We, we take our clients through something called the brand builder journey, which is that we have one curriculum that is divided into four phases and each phase has three separate courses. And so we take people from like the very beginning of finding their uniqueness and their differentiation, their positioning and their business model strategy, all the way to growing an eight figure personal brand. This one would sit in phase three for us, which are our more of the like sophisticated tactics, tactical, technical, like really advanced technical things. But I love that stuff. Like I love to nerd out on this stuff.

And like I said, this was a new area for me. So conversational marketing anyways, I just want to give that one little disclaimer to you. And then, you know, just to dive into my top three takeaways, I think the, the, the first one was as much of a realization for me through Natasha’s coaching, which is that I have a bit of reluctance of moving into this, this automated, conversational marketing. I think conversational marketing is a really interesting term because like conversational selling, you know, in many ways is what selling is. Although not one to many, but one to one it’s very conversational. And so the idea of conversational marketing is, is fascinating because it’s kind of a new thing, but it’s really, you know, just human conversation. But anyways, perhaps you like me, or at least speaking for myself here, I’m resistant to the idea of trying to automate a conversation.

And I think what she helped me realize is that going well, it’s not really any different than watching a pre-recorded video of you, right? It’s it’s not it’s still me. It’s my brain. It’s my thoughts. It’s what I would be saying to the person. If I were there live very similar to how a video is, right? Like if somebody watches a video, I may have recorded the video months earlier. But if somebody were to ask me that question, I would say the same thing as I did then. And so a lot of times that’s what we do actually is people will write in and they’ll ask questions and they will take those questions and we’ll turn them into videos. And then it’s like, well, now we’ve answered it for everybody. Well, so I think if you’ve got a little bit of that, that roadblock, that’s at least how I’m thinking about this and going, okay, well, as long as I’m really writing this in my voice, and this is the process that I would take somebody through, if I were there, then it, it feels, it feels okay to me, like this is how I would actually engage in conversation where I think it could get risky is if I outsourced a script to somebody else and, and particularly didn’t have close oversight over it, because in that regard, I’m outsourcing my personality, right?

I’m, I’m trying to have someone else like completely peg this, this very difficult when you know, conversations are, are very personalized and they’re very much, you know, integrated with who you are. And so the idea of, you know, it’s even harder than like a ghost writer who you would hire to just write something, but then you would edit it. And it’s a one way form of communication. Whereas this conversational marketing is a two way. So you’re really like, you know, even outsourcing your personality in your brain, so to speak. So I think that’s where it would get risky. I think that’s where I would, I would send up a yellow flag of like, you know, Hey, some take some serious caution here is that you don’t, you don’t want to compromise longterm reputation for short-term revenue. That’s one of our values at brand builders group.

It’s in our mantra that we read at all of our team meetings is you don’t want to compromise longterm reputation for short-term revenue. And this is a place where I could see that people would, you know, kind of go down the slippery slope of doing that, but you can do both. And I think you can do them both right. And I’ve been able to rep many ways. That’s what I’ve been wrestling with and part of how I’ve been able to wrap my mind around going, yeah, I think we could deploy this. I think we could use this because we already do a lot of this. I mean, a lot of the scripts that we use, a lot of the content that we teach, even at our events are, you know, things that are being said by other people who were once said by someone else that we just scripted out and then operationalized it.

And so, you know, this is like a step, a step further down the path. But I would encourage you map it out, right? Like map out, or maybe do a couple conversations live, like actually do some live chats. See what the questions people are asking, write your own talk tracks, and then build it into a system. So that was the first thing, the second big takeaway. And this is a highlight that I just, you know, edified for me is much as any, anything and hope fully. You know, this is that the dollars are in the DMS, the dollars are in the DMS. Like when you think about how to monetize social media, people’s brain goes towards like, Ooh, I’m going to get famous, have millions of followers and get a brand deal, like a sponsorship deal, or someone’s going to pay me, do promotional posts.

Cause we see that a lot, right. Or we go, Ooh, I’m going to have lots of followers and I’m going to drive these followers to a webinar and then they’re going to buy on the webinar. And because they see that a lot, both of those are great things. We, we, we have clients that do both of those really, really well. We do a lot of that too, but I think when you’re first starting out, when you go, how do I monetize social media? How do I actually make money from any of this social media stuff? When, especially when you’re first starting out or if you’re servicing a niche and you just, you’re just not, you’re not playing content to the main stream where you’re going to have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of followers where you go, how do you actually monetize social media? You do it in the DMS.

The dollars are in the DMS. The way you make money is by in human conversations with the people who are engaging with you, specifically comments and DMS. Now, the reasons why I would say the dollars are in the DMS is because the goal here, not the goal, but, but I would say I’m not going to have a sales conversation typically in the comments section. So if somebody comments, I’ll probably comment back and then say, Hey, check your DMS. Or I just sent you a DM because now we can have private conversation, which I think has got to lend itself more naturally to a sales process. We actually have a process that we teach for this at pressure-free persuasion. It’s called the four F’s about how do you convert these comments into customers? Well, the very first thing we’re going to do it was moved that conversation out of the comments, into the DM.

So it can be private so they can share with you, you know, private information that you probably need in order to, you know, to persuade them to, to ethically persuade them and help them and serve them. So but, but what’s wild is people, especially newer people, ironically will spend some amount of time and energy trying to put together stuff for social media, which is like, it is a lot, right? It’s, it’s a lot of work to do it, especially if you’re running the content diamond and you know, the processes that we teach, that it’s a lot of work. And then it’s like, well, you’re not getting millions of views when you start out. Yeah. But you don’t need millions of views. You only need a couple of comments. And what you want to do is pay attention to the people who are commenting and move it into your DMS, pay attention to the people who are sending you DMS.

And people say, well, I already don’t have time for social media. I definitely don’t have time to deal with DMS too. It’s I would kind of say, well, then don’t expect to monetize your social media. Like if that’s what it’s about, maybe you shouldn’t do it at all. I mean, I think long-term there’s reasons to do it still, but it’s like, don’t complain about not monetizing your social media early. If you want to monetize your social media early, the fastest, best, most economical way to turn social media and followers into real money and dollars in your bank account is through DMS one-on-one conversation. So door not too busy for DMS. That’s like saying I’m too busy to stop and pick up a $20 bill that’s on the sidewalk. Like I don’t care if you’re bill Gates, you still probably would stop and pick up a $20 bill.

So that, that is how it is. And it’s a mindset thing. And for me, I used to always go, I’m just too busy for this. Like I don’t have time to like deal with all the social media stuff and comment on everything. Well, what you’re doing is you’re building a relationship and that’s what selling is. It is a relationship it’s based on trust. It’s based on service. So you’re going okay. If I’m going to convert this into dollars, it’s probably going to happen privately. And it’s, and, and especially if you have a high dollar offer, right? Like if you sell anything North of a thousand bucks in your new to social media, you don’t have a huge following or you don’t have a lot of trust or credibility online. It doesn’t mean you can’t make money doing it. It means it’s going to happen privately.

It’s not going to happen. Like, you know, here’s a link, everyone click and go to my store and buy, and I’m going a millionaire. It’s going to happen through human communication, which is how it has always happened. Social media is just a new Avenue. So the dollars are in the DMS. You’re not too busy for one-on-one conversations with people who are interested in you. Like if you’re too busy for one-on-one conversations with people, we’re interested in you, like, what are you doing like that, that they’re raising their hand. When somebody comments, when somebody engages, when somebody DMS they’re going, I like you. I’m interested in you. I think you’re cool. Like, I think you can help me. You you’re putting something here that is of enough interest and value to me that I’m not only willing to consume it. I’m willing to engage with you.

Hello. That is like a flashing bright light, like sales opportunity, referral partner opportunity like this, this is someone pay attention to. So, so, so I think this is really powerful because this conversational marketing is going okay. Maybe we can automate some of that. Particularly for those of you that do have large followings. Right. And I know some of you do have hundreds of thousands, millions of followers, and you’re going, okay. It really is a full-time job to keep up with this and go, okay, can we, can we, can we write some decision trees? And can we create some decision trees? Because I think that’s super powerful. So I think that’s one of the reasons why this episode is important is it helps you realize the dollars in the DMS. It gives you a way to do it manageably, but also a main, this helps you integrate with marketing automation.

You know, so you can, you can use chats to encourage people at based on where they’re at in your funnel. That’s amazing. Like talk about a hyper customized experience. We do something very similar with email, but it’s really cool to be chatting. The other thing, which was huge was this idea about being able to communicate across platforms, multiple platforms, even websites, and in the future, probably SMS to where you’re like centralizing one conversation with the person to where it’s not just like, if I send you emails, those are emails. If I send you Facebook messages or Facebook messages, if I engage with you on WhatsApp, that’s on WhatsApp. But like, if I forget, or I don’t have a good way of staying organized, or if multiple people are interfacing with you and we don’t all have context of what conversation is happening on the other platform, that’s really risky.

You can damage trust, right? That’s happened to me before, like we’ve created some automated responses and then, you know, this happened to me recently and I just feel terrible. Like one of our clients, we have a client who’s been a client for two years, but we weren’t connected personally on LinkedIn. And we had some automated LinkedIn messages going out. And so this person fit a search criteria that we were targeting. And I, anyways, they get into it, end up getting into what is more or less as an automated search with an automated conversation with me. And it’s like, they’ve been a customer for two years. That’s not good. That’s terrible. Right? Like, that’s the last thing I want to do. So but the cool thing is if you were able to have all the platforms, you know, this, this cross platform communication was super-duper powerful.

And so I think, you know, adding AI on top of this, it’s going to be a part of the future, the data that you can collect, connect from this and just the, you know, the cross platform communication, these are reasons why it matters. It matters. And there’s some risks, there’s some risks, but I think, you know, this is, this is really solid. And then my third takeaway, which Natasha said directly, which I think is so useful, is it, it can be very easy to get overwhelmed with the power of something like this. This happens very similarly when we teach marketing automation in general and you go, well, how granular do you want to be? You can get super, super granular and just go, just choose one use case to get started. Go. We’re just going to use this for customer service or just for marketing or, or just to talk to people who are already active in our sales pipeline or sales process.

And so try not to get overwhelmed, just choose one specific use case and go, let me try to master this one thing, get my feet wet, see how it goes, you know, try it out, watch the data, optimize, manage, optimize, and then go from there. But this is, this is pushing you, right? And it’s pushing me and this is pushing the future. And I think that’s one thing we want this podcast and everything we do at brand builders group to be is just to always be evolving and keeping up with the trends and not just going, Hey, this, this worked 20 years ago. It’s a balance of both principles, which are time tested, but also modern day practices, which sometimes are evolving. And so we’re honored that this is one of your sources of, of educating for those and, and vetting those two things out. And we’re just glad you’re here. So thank you for being here. That’s a little bit on automation, chat, bot automation and conversational marketing. One of the emerging areas for personal brands. Keep coming back. We’ll keep pushing the envelope. You keep showing up. We’ll keep delivering the goods. Thanks for being here. We’ll see you next time.

Bye-Bye.