RV (00:02): Welcome back to the influential personal brand podcast. This is the recap edition of the interview that you probably just heard recently with Stephen Scoggins, who is very unique. He is one of our clients. He then became a certified strategist, and now he is one of our implementation partners. And you got to hear his story and his own personal brand journey. And then we got into talking about visual identity and also doing an overview of, of what he provides. So AJ is here with me. Hi, AJ we’re going to do just our three biggest takeaways. And from, from the episode, obviously the episode was a little bit of an introduction, especially towards the end of what brand amplifiers is. But before we got to that point, when Stephen was telling the story about why he built a personal brand, this despite already having many successful entrepreneurial ventures, and he was telling the story about how he actually didn’t want to build a personal brand, or he wasn’t sure. And his friend asked him this question or, or made this observation. He said, what you’re really struggling with Stephen is not whether or not you should build a personal brand. What you’re really struggling with is an internal battle, an internal battle of answering the question. Am I worthy enough to have a voice? And that, I mean, I got goosies w when, when he said that, and I think, I think everyone struggles with that. I still feel that I still feel that from time to time. And so that was my first takeaway. AJV (01:50): No, I think that’s a really good point. And just knowing Stephen, and also probably so similar for all of you, it’s you question like, well, there’s already someone else who talks about this in my space, or there’s already a company that does this well, you know, it’s, Bernay brown talks about shame. So I can’t talk about that. And it’s like, millions of people talk about it, but it really does come down to that inner level of clarity of am. I meant to do this. Like, it’s like, why am I doing this? And I think that’s really important. And just knowing Stephen it’s like building his personal brand has so nothing to do with money. I he’s like all his financial endeavors and successes have paid him well enough. And this really is an impact thing for him. And it really is. I was like, no, I want, I want to be a beacon for people who’ve been where I’ve been and know that there’s another way there. AJV (02:45): And so for all of us, it’s going, when we have those feelings of, am I worthy enough? Am I good enough? Or is someone else better than me? And it’s, you know, this comparison battle that we’re all in going well, am I doing what I feel like I was called to do hi, is this like the calling on my life to talk about this, to speak about this, to share about this. And I think not always, but in many ways, it’s, it really does help subside some of those feelings of inadequacy or comparison of just knowing it’s like, I may not be the best, but this is what I was called to do at this time for these people at this place. So I love that. I think that was really significant. I think one of the things for me, this kind of like 0.1 and 0.2 is a lot of what he talked about was like, what is the most frustrating part about building a personal brand? AJV (03:33): All right. It’s just like, we all start with this. Like, I want to talk about this and I want to share this and I have this message and this calling, and I want to help people. And it gets clouded by the monstrosity of complexities that potentially can be there. Okay. We’ll have to figure out what I’m doing and who I’m doing it for and where I’m going to do it. And then what is my offer? And then how do I actually collect the money? And then what different platforms do I need? And it’s like, okay, well now I need a designer. Now I need a website developer. And, oh my gosh, now I need this technology. And it’s like, our mission gets clouded by the complexities that we add to it. And one of the things that I love about this is he said, do what you can with what you have. AJV (04:16): You don’t have to do all the things right now, but do what you can with what you have. And he talked a lot about how he’s a, he’s a bootstrapping counting guy and it’s like, it’s like, you do what you can with what you have. It’s like, we still, one of our primary funnels was shot within a 24 hour time span, changing outfits in our backyard using our iPhone and a ring light. That’s it? Like we launched our whole company brand builders group without a website. In fact, we didn’t have any website for the first six months. And it was like, so it was like, do what you can with what you have knowing it doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be pristine, but do what you can with what you have. And, you know, as it leads into why I think this is so relevant and why I love him so much is a huge part of him becoming a client and then a certified strategist. AJV (05:11): And now one of our primary implementation partners, like our preferred implementation partner is he knows how to bootleg Leggett, but do it in a high class way where it’s like, it does not look bootlegged. And that’s because he’s been through the process of doing it on his own and then hiring people and finding what works and creating the packages that, you know, you’ll hear about in the interview. And we’ll talk a little bit about here. It really is built to help the person who’s going, oh, why is this so frustrating? Why is this so difficult? All I want to do is get my message out there. Really figuring out a way to have these consolidated vendors and a consolidated process to get things done is a huge part of making this not only less frustrating, but also making it more successful in the process. So I just, I love this whole concept. Do, do what you can with what you have. RV (06:07): Yeah. And just dovetailing off that. I think my, so my second point was, you know, he talked, we were talking about how people have to be able to sample you. They have to be able to see what you do. And that’s why video is just, is so important. And you know, there’s a lot of people that shoot video, but being able to go and knock out a video for your sales page and video funnel for your lead magnet and your demo video in your full link keynote video all at once is that you can really be proud of it. And, and like you said, it’s just, it’s hard to find quality vendors. It’s hard to find quality employees. Like it’s hard to hire good, to, good to help. It’s really hard. And so AJV (06:55): I was so baffled, like why it’s so hard to give people money, how are you making it so hard for me to give you my money? But to your point, yes, it’s challenging. RV (07:06): And that’s why we put this together. So, you know, we mentioned that link brand builders, group.com forward slash brand amplifiers. You know, and there’s, they customize the package for each person, depending on what you need, but just go there and check it out. And if it feels like a thing that might be good for you request a call, but yeah. Do what you can with what you have and then level up level up when you can so that people can sample you and they can, they can get a level of production value that matches your level of expertise. That’s obviously why we put this together. I think people should, should go check that out. AJV (07:39): Absolutely. okay. I’ll get my, my third point, my third point, my third point was I thought this was interesting and he kind of talked about it in a side note, but just being in the industry and in the business, it’s such a problem as, you know, what comes first, the chicken or the egg. And when he talks about that getting a speaker reel for his demo video to get booked as a speaker, I immediately thought, oh my gosh, this is something that everyone is really challenged with because it’s like in order to get booked to speak, you really need a good demo. Cause people need to see you speak. But if you’ve never really gotten booked to speak before, how do you get a demo? Then RV (08:21): I AJV (08:21): Need to get a demo video. But in order to get a quality demo video, I need to be on stage speaking. And in order to get booked to be on stage, I need this demo video. And it’s like, wait, what, what and I, and it’s, it’s a challenge for so many of our clients. And just top of mind for me, cause at brain builders group, we recently had one of our two day events called full keynote calendar. When we talk about what are the four assets you need to get booked as a speaker. And one of them is a quality demo video. And it’s not just a clip of seeing you speak like that’s old school. That’s like, no people actually need to be your demo. Video is not just a clip of you speaking. It is a selling of who you are, what you bring to the audience, what problem you solve, how you’re going to enthrall the audience, why you’re different than other speakers and it seeing you speak. AJV (09:08): So there is production value. That’s really important in demo videos. And that means you gotta have not just a great stage. You need to have multiple great stages and voiceover and B roll and you, and that takes a great videographer and then a great video editor. And I can’t tell you how many speaking engagements that Rory you and I both have been at separately where we spent thousands of dollars bringing in a high professional film crew. And then I get the video back and it’s a camera in the middle of the room, looking at me, waist up the whole time, no stage, no audience, no movement. And you cannot use any of the footage at all. If you were in this boat, you know how hard it is sometimes to get a big audience on a high production space stage with great audio. Like those don’t happen all the time. AJV (10:02): And most everyday people’s lives who are trying to build a speaking business. And so I know not to like harp on this, but I, one of the things that I love so much about what Stephen is doing is like, he’s like, I’m going to fix that problem for myself and for everyone else. I love that he built a huge warehouse and a huge stage for this huge led like 50 foot screen and Milton audience. It’s beautiful. And he goes like F that I’m not waiting around on this stuff anymore. It’s like, I’m going to build my own high, get my own film crew, my own cameras. And it’s like a five camera set up on this huge stage with this huge led screen, with a built in audience. RV (10:47): You can’t get that anywhere. You cannot cannot like you can’t get it. AJV (10:52): You can’t even get it from a client, much less on demand. And I think, you know, one of the things that I loved about that is like, if you can’t find it, then it’s like, how do you go and build it? Right? And then how do you find the resources to get what you need when you need it? And to me, that just so resonated because we work with so many people who are speakers are speaking as a part of their career, a part of their business, but you need a fit, you need video. And it’s hard to find really good video. So I just, I just loved the whole concept of, well, I couldn’t find it. So I built it. RV (11:23): Yeah. That’s that’s that’s bootstrapping again. That URL. One more time is brand builders, group.com forward slash brand amplifiers. My last little takeaway, you know, I highlighted it in the interview because when he said it, I thought it was so powerful. He said, I realized that in my striving to be like other, the more I strive to be like other people, the more I diluted myself and the more disconnected I became with my audience. And so it’s like find your uniqueness and center in that. Don’t worry about what other people are doing be you, and then capture that on video, like so that people can see you. Like you don’t have to pretend you don’t have to be something you’re not like just center in and be you and the right people will find you and fall in love with you. And so anyways, thank you for listening. We’re always so grateful for you. Hopefully you found that inspiring instructional and maybe you even get a great vendor partner out of it. We certainly recommend them keep coming back here every week on the influential personal brand. We’ll see you next time. Bye. Bye