RV (00:07): Hey brand builder, Rory Vaden here. Thank you so much for taking the time to check out this interview as always it’s our honor to provide it to you for free and wanted to let you know the there’s no big sales pitch or anything coming at the end. However, if you are someone who is looking to build and monetize your personal brand, we would love to talk to you and get to know you a little bit and hear about some of your dreams and visions and share with you a little bit about what we’re up to to see if we might be a fit. So if you’re interested in a free strategy call with someone from Martin team, we would love to hear from you. You can do that at brand builders, group.com/pod call brand builders, group.com/pod call. We hope to talk to you soon. AJV (00:53): Hey, welcome to another recap episode of the influential personal brand. This is the cliff notes version of my conversation with Molly Marco, Sam, who is the L PGA commissioner. She is a collegiate athlete in herself. She was like named a sportswoman of the year while she was at Princeton. She was also named one of the sports teams of the deck for high hockey Princeton. She has done so many incredible things for the world of sports and hyper specifically for women’s sports. And I just, I love my conversation with her and I’ll keep this short and sweet. I’m gonna try to keep this. I got five minutes if humanly possible. But there are three things right here are my three big takeaways. And this will was kind of like towards the end of our conversation, but I loved this and I think it’s applicable and no matter what your role is, right? AJV (01:50): So many of you listening are not professional athletes. Maybe you are, but most of you probably are not. But I love what she said is that every single person is a part of a team, right? It’s like your family unit, that’s a team. You’ve got your colleagues that work. That’s a team. You’ve got community groups, you have friend groups, you’ve got nonprofit groups, you have church groups, you’ve got social groups. It’s like, you have teams in your life. And sometimes you’re the star player. And sometimes you’re a utility player. And sometimes you’re a backup player, right. But we all play a part and that’s just a such a great, great reminder. Cause I know in the journey of building your personal brand you’re not always gonna get to be the star surprise, sorry. Don’t wanna have to burst your bubble there, but you’re not always gonna be the star. AJV (02:36): There’s gonna be a lot of work. Building your personal brand is a business like this is a business that needs to be treated like one, which means sometimes like what you’re gonna be doing is behind the scenes. And you’re not gonna feel like it’s making a PA an impact or a difference, but it is there are, there are different roles that you’re gonna fill on every team that you’re in and every season that you’re in. And I just, I loved that analogy of like you’re, you’re on teams. Right. and, and you play different roles in each of the teams and those, those roles change at different seasons. It’s just such a good reminder for me. It’s like, I need to remember that I am not always the star player. Right. And it’s like, I gotta let other people shine. And I have to take a backseat sometimes and sometimes I get to come forward regardless. AJV (03:19): I’m a part of a team and my role matters. And I, I love that thought. That was so good. The second thing that I thought was really significant is this shift that the LPGA is taking on the importance of making sure the stories of the players are known. Right. and I, you know, if you list into this podcast, of like singing, like my tune, like soon as she said that my ears were just like on fire. And I’m like, yes, it’s like, it is, it is about learning about who people are in addition to what they do. It’s like the more that we get to know you as a human, the more we fall in love with you, the more we know your story, the more we remember you or we wanna cheer for you. Right. And I love what she said. AJV (04:02): She goes, I mean, what other, what other time in life are other humans literally jumping out of their seat, screaming and yelling for the successes of another person. Right. And it’s like, I’ve got my jerseys. Like, you know, I live in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s like me and my boys, like, we’ve got like our Derek Henry jerseys. We’ve got our eight EJ brown jerseys. We’re Tennessee Titans fans. And it’s like, we are cheering for these people. Like we’re taking their numbers and their names and we’re wearing them. Right. It’s like, it’s this community aspect of being a part of something. And that happens when you know the story. It’s like, yes, they’re amazing on the field. But it’s like, the more we get to know the story, the more I’m in it, in the team and in the game itself. So how is that true to you and your company, right? AJV (04:46): Like what if people were screaming up and down for the success of your sales team or your executive team or your customer service team, right. It’s like, that would be incredible. Right. But it’s like, we gotta help share the stories of the people on our teams. Right. And that includes companies, our leaders, our frontline employees, the executive, whoever it is, it’s like help us fall in love with you. And we can only do that when we get to see you and know you learn from you thus trust you. So, oh man. She was just, you know, speaking my language. And then the last thing that I thought she was said that was really impactful is love what you do get at it all the time. Like if you’re in the middle of something, stay present, be focused at being really good at what you’re doing, not focused on trying to get goods, you can do something else. AJV (05:31): And I, I so admire what she said. It’s like, I’ve never gone out looking for another job. I just focused really on the job that I have. I care deeply. I do a really good job. I wanna, I wanna see my team succeed and I’m focused on the here and now. So I, and I even like, I was like, you know, bring it up like three or four times. So what do you see next? She’s like, Nope, I am here. And now I need that in my life. I need to be more here and now, right. Not looking one year, five year, 10 years ahead. It’s like, no, I am focused on the team that I have right now. The business that I have right now, the audience that I have right now, it’s like, I am focused on you. I care deeply. I wanna be known for caring deeply. AJV (06:11): I wanna go, like, I wanna go and focus on what’s right in front of me, not just like what I wanna do in the future. It’s like, no, it’s like, it’s all about the here and now. And I think that’s a really great message for all of us. It’s like the work you’re doing right now matters, however, big or small your audience is, however, big or small your company is the work you’re doing right now for the team that you employ. And for the clients that you’re serving it matters right now. Say, stay focused on the here and now y’all go listen to this episode, Molly, me Simon. So amazing commissioner of the L PGA tour. Like it’s about to blow up. I’m so excited. So happy that I get to be a part of interviewing her at the beginning stages of this part of her journey. So go check out the whole episode and come back next time at the influential personal brand.