Oct 13, 2024

Brand Building

The Secret to Building a Personal Brand—Reduce Your Market Size & Create Clear Messaging

Summary

Critical Thinking and Messaging

Assume clients haven't fully thought through their ideas and use critical thinking to help them unravel their own thinking, avoiding generic messaging.

Identify your target market and challenge yourself to provide proof for your claims, as most people lack evidence when pressed.

Personal Branding and Differentiation

Focus on leaning into your strengths and what you feel most guilty about, even if it's shameful or unoriginal, to stand out and attract like-minded people.

Instead of pursuing pure originality, concentrate on transforming familiar concepts using technology to create new applications of old ideas.

Personal Growth

Surround yourself with people who raise your game, as the law of averages suggests you will rise or sink to the level of those you spend the most time with.

Timestamps

00:00 To become a better teacher, question assumptions and seek evidence, as the people you spend time with can influence your abilities.

00:57 It's okay to think critically and make decisions that may offend others, without trying to please everyone.

01:34 Targeting specific audience is crucial for effective messaging.

02:12 SpaceX successfully launches and lands Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites.

03:01 A stranger offered to pay me to teach him how to be stylish, leading to a discussion about vertical integration and embracing uniqueness.

03:44 Innovation comes from technology and new applications of old ideas, not from trying to be completely original.

04:18 Choose your company wisely, as you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

04:54 Build your personal brand by learning, coaching, and staying true to your own voice.

Transcript

00:00 You golf with someone who's terrible your golf game will go down you golf with Tiger Woods. Your golf game will go up you just rise or sink to whoever you spend the most time with spend a lot of time teaching study pedagogical models. I've been trained by people who train teachers and I like geek out with teachers and coaches and facilitators. So if you all want to learn how to teach better I will work on that with you. One of the things I always do whenever I'm coaching someone whatever they say I automatically assume they don't know what they're talking about. They haven't spent enough time thinking about it and those are probably not the words they would choose to say it and if you operate like that with your clients but without the attitude that I bring you'll do really well so John's like blah blah blah. The first thing you should ask yourself is how do you know this is true and if you ask anybody this most of the times because you have no proof whatsoever they'll start to unravel their own thinking. So this is a sales negotiation thing too like this should be cheaper well. What evidence do you have that that's true they got nothing because they just just pulled it out.

00:57 That's what people do all the time. And I think we're all like raised in a certain way in our culture to like to blend in. We talked about that so the the Instinct that you have inside is just to blend in all the time to be like everyone to say things that will not offend anybody because you're afraid to think. Critically I don't try to be offensive. But I want to think critically and sometimes that is offensive and it's okay because I'm not trying to be here for everybody. The number one theme I heard from yesterday and the little conversations that I've had. People are afraid to make a decision to reduce the market size and they resist and they resist and they resist. I would ask somebody.

01:34 I think it was Ernesto or somebody. I'm forgetting the name sorry. I'm like do you want to serve men or women. He's like both that wasn't one of the two options I gave you want to serve men or women right and then eventually someone would say women uh. You want to serve older women or younger older. You want to serve married single mom what do you and when you start to get to that all of a sudden. The messaging becomes so clear. It becomes really clear so one of the things that you're all going to have to do and you'll fight me and you'll fight me for a really long time until you start to figure out who you're speaking to none of your messaging will work. It'll be super generic so what do you do.

02:12 Instead you get templates and you get scripts and then everybody in this room follows the exact same template in scripts and you're like how do we be different well you're not templates are helpful but you gotta do it your way so usually in the process of learning. What we want to do is follow the template exactly as it was given to us. Don't deviate don't change don't modify learn the martial art first and then as soon as you feel like you put in enough. Reps start to improvise start to add your formula. Now most of the things that I do today are a product of accident and just being willing enough to try it just to try stuff like to wear the hat. It was to solve a shiny head problem picking certain colors because I just I need to stand out and eventually I was at the Grove with video conference and Neil was there and somebody cornered.

03:01 Me. I wasn't even speaking like Chris love your style. I could see you from like 20 feet away. I know it's you I just know I'm like how do you know he goes and he was super aggressive. He's like you you will teach me how to be more stylish. I'm like I don't even do that. I don't even do client work. I promise you you will teach me. I will pay you we'll figure it out and so I think it was was it. Jeff. We talked about like vertical integration like different businesses come out. I'm like okay well teach. You personal style don't be your stylist. I guess with enough money. I will I can help you right so. It's just about leaning into the stuff that you feel and this is going to be weird. Maybe shameful of that. You feel guilty for that you're afraid to show with the world and as soon as you do that you start to stand out right away.

03:44 I had this conversation with someone that's like there isn't original content. I know you want to be original. The pursuit of originality is just a Fool's errand. The only things that are original usually happen through technology and like if you're writing a technological wave. You're you can do something that might feel original like. For example I saw somebody it was an exhibition. I think it was for like Magritte or somebody. Like that. I think it was Magritte. They took the painting and made a real life three-dimensional sculpture out of it. So they use technology to transform an old idea. It's not even a new idea. It's just a new application of an old idea right. So here it is.

04:18 Jim Rohn says what you're the average of The Five People. You spend the most time with right The Godfather the philosopher the business Guru Gary. Vaynerchuk says get rid of one loser friend same idea different voice because Gary knows who he is and Gary's the master at doing sound bites that are going to drive people. Insane right are you saying. My friends are losers and you're not about people. No he's just saying you spend enough time with people you become like this. It's a law of averages. It's going to be that way right you golf with someone who's terrible your golf game will go down. You go off with Tiger Woods. Your golf game will go up you just rise or sink to whoever you spend the most time with.

04:54 So these are not new ideas. So what you want to do is you want to read you want to take courses. You want to do group coaching you want to filter it through your voice and who you are the weird thing is. It's the most natural thing to do. It's just you resist it because you know why like when you were like four and somebody walked by and you're like Mom that person's weird like don't say that don't Point don't say those things we don't do that in polite company enough of that would then change who you are so that you're suppressed that there's like if you do like inner work like Psychotherapy you'll know that there's this inner voice inside your head that sounds a lot like you that you think is you. It is not you. It's the voice of one or both of your most dominant parent whoever uh parented you you know so that's kind of what the stuff that we have to work through. I'm sorry. We got a little deep there. If you want to learn more about building a personal brand check out this video. Next foreign.