AJV (00:03): All right. This is the debrief from my interview that we just had with Tia Graham, who is a brand builders group client. She’s a long time client. She’s been with us for over two years. And over, over the last two years, she’s been through the somewhat grueling process of writing and publishing and launching her book that comes out this, this month, January, 2022. So I wanna give you a couple of the quick highlights of some things that she said that I think are really important and really good. So this is your cliff notes version of this podcast interview with myself and Tia. Here’s the first thing when we were talking about social media, I loved what she said, because I hear it so many times right now it’s create content that’s unique for the platform that you’re putting it on. AJV (00:50): Right. And I think there’s, there’s a time and a place for duplicating content so you can maximize the use of every piece of content in a variety of different ways. And you can still do that. I just think addition to that, there’s a lot of power in going, I know the audience that I’m trying to reach on X platform and in her case she’s got a huge B2B audience. And so LinkedIn right. Is a huge platform for her. But actually going, it’s like, okay, what is the mindset of someone who is on LinkedIn? Right? So they’re in the work mindset, it’s career oriented, it’s business oriented and being really intentional about the type of person and the mindset that the person on this platform is in while you’re creating content for that platform is so good. It’s like, it’s so common sense, but it’s so good because we don’t do that all that often. AJV (01:47): It’s like, what would it mean for your social media following or engagements to actually go, no, I’m gonna curate content that is really unique for the people who spend time on this platform. So I know if they’re on this platform, this is what they’re looking for. So I’m gonna give it to ’em on this platform. I love that. I thought that was awesome. And I love to hear what she said about all the growth she she’s had on LinkedIn. And I could just say for me personally, in the last three months, I’ve made some huge shifts and how I produce my content actually producing. It was one. So back in the saddle for me after like a three year hiatus but it’s it’s being so super intentional about what platforms you’re creating for. And one of the things that I’ve been doing, and I, I learned this from several different interviews that were on this podcast. AJV (02:35): So yeah, I listen to our own podcast. It’s really good. I encourage you to go back and listen to some episodes too, is really telling your audience what platforms go to for what? So, like, for example, like if you want to learn about me as a person, like a human being, like you wanna learn about my awesome husband, Rory Vaden, you wanna learn about my awesome two little munchkins Liam and Jasper you wanna learn about what I like to do on the weekend or what I like to eat or where I like to go me as a believer. It’s like all these different things go to Instagram. It’s just about me. It’s like, it’s me as a human being. But if you wanna learn from me, you wanna learn about personal branding, entrepreneurship, leadership. You want my content, you want educational value go to LinkedIn, cause you’re not gonna get a ton of that on Instagram. AJV (03:23): And you’re not gonna get a ton of the personal side on LinkedIn because I’ve gotten really clear on how I build and create my content and for what platform and what people like. And I, I love Tia’s comments on that. And I think those are great takeaways for all of us of taking a deep hard look at how am I creating content for each platform. So that would be my first big takeaway. And I love that. I thought that was awesome. So that’ll be my first one. The second one that I think is so awesome is around the book. And I think this is a great reminder. So my second and third are both around writing book. So if you’re out there and you wanna write a book or you wanna write another book, right? Or maybe you’ve done a self-published book, and now you wanna do do a traditional published book or vice versa. AJV (04:10): It doesn’t matter. It applies all the same as one is be prepared to do the work. I think we live and time of, I want it and I want it right now. And if it takes longer than three months, then something isn’t working or if it doesn’t make me an immediate return on investment, this was a waste of my time and my money. And that’s just not true. You guys, weren’t privy to this conversation that I got to have with Tia after I stopped hitting record, I should have hit it again. But I thought this was like a great reminder of, you know, what it has been two years of learning and hiring experts and working with coaches and a lot of accountability of like, no Tia, don’t do this other thing, stay focused. This is what you’re doing. This is what you’re doing. AJV (04:59): Don’t, don’t get distracted by all the shiny things that we see happening out there, stay the path. And I think it’s really easy to just go and this and this and this when we don’t see the results that we want immediately. And one of the things that Tia said in our debrief discussion is she goes, I know I’m not gonna see an immediate return on all the investment I’ve made or over the last two years. But I know that the investment that I have made is going to keep going for years. So maybe I won’t recoup all of it in the first six months or even in the first 12 months, but I already see the amount of sales that are coming in and the consulting opportunities and the speaking opportunities that this is going to pay for itself and a whole bunch more. AJV (05:43): And I think we all have to have the perspective of that. Our investment is going to be worth so much more if you just stay at it, don’t give up and keep going. And don’t think because it didn’t hit the New York times and opening week that it’s not gonna be a huge raging success. That does not mean that it’s just keep going consistency over, you know, the flash is always better. So I just love that, just that re that reminder of like, it takes time, but if you put in the time and you do the work, it will come back and, you know, it’s like I can use our books as examples, you know, you’ve got take the stairs and procrastinate on purpose. It’s like we still get steady royalty checks for those every quarter, or I guess really twice a year now. AJV (06:32): But you know, officially in 2022, which seems so crazy, take the stairs launched 10 years ago, this year, it’s out for 10 years. And so when we think back about those original investments of time and money and resources of going, man, is it worth it? It’s like, man, we’re still getting good, healthy royalty checks 10 years later. And the amount of consulting and businesses and speaking engagements I’ve come from that is extraordinary. Now it did all happen in the first two months or three months, but it will continue to go. And that’s a beautiful thing about writing a book is it’s got a very long shelf life. So just be patient, that would be my takeaway is be patient. And then my third takeaway was I also connected to the book, but was something about the actual content of the book itself, which I just think is such a good title. AJV (07:26): And it’s so relevant and makes me wanna like go read it the whole thing tonight be a happy leader. And I love one of the things that she said in the interview about what is one thing that every single person should read that’s in this book and it’s about the importance of owning and sitting with your emotions. And I think that’s really important because so often it’s like, you know, we hear, we literally hear the phrases. Don’t be emotional, don’t get emotional. And Tia is saying, no, get emotional, be emotional, feel, accept, and deal with all of the emotions. That’s a part of what makes you happy. It’s like if it’s anger, figure out where it’s coming from if it’s sadness figure out where that’s coming from, whatever it is, it’s like, you’ve got to accept and actually interpret and sit with those emotions. AJV (08:13): That’s a part of being a human being. So pushing ’em down, isn’t gonna make you happy, but actually explore them and discovering them and figuring out where they come from makes us happy. And ultimately when we’re a happier human, we’re a happier leader. So I just, I love that around happiness, doesn’t come from having hardcore deadlines and lots of stress and overwhelm. Like that’s not happiness. Happiness comes from, there are things that bring excitement and we experience all of the emotions. And so it’s like, how do you become more happy? Right. Happy at work, happy at home, but how do we create more happiness, more joy, more fun, more excitement just more peace and what we do, because when we’re happier people, we will be happier leaders. And I think a lot of that has to do with falling in love with what you do. So how do you do that? Right. I don’t have the answers for you. Those are, those are in Tia’s book. be happy leader. So go to happy leader, book.com as a reminder to pick up that book such a great interview. So excited to have Tia on the show. That’s. Those are my three highlights from the interview with Tia Graham stay tuned, we’ll see you on the influential personal brand podcast.