1220: 4 Keys to Building a Personal Brand w/ Ben Baker

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:10.470 Wouldn't it be nice to have several thought leaders in your industry know and Love 2 00:00:10.669 --> 00:00:15.910 Your brand? Start a podcast, invite your industries thought leaders to be guests 3 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:21.109 on your show and start reaping the benefits of having a network full of industry 4 00:00:21.109 --> 00:00:31.379 influencers? Learn more at sweet fish Mediacom. You're listening to be tob growth, 5 00:00:31.780 --> 00:00:36.170 a daily podcast for B TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard 6 00:00:36.170 --> 00:00:40.049 before, like Gary vanner truck and Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard 7 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:44.409 from the majority of our guests. That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't 8 00:00:44.450 --> 00:00:48.969 with professional speakers and authors. Most of our guests are in the trenches leading 9 00:00:49.009 --> 00:00:53.840 sales and marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're 10 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:58.399 building the fastest growing BTB companies in the world. My name is James Carberry. 11 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:02.000 I'm the founder of sweet fish media, a podcast agency for BB brands, 12 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:04.310 and I'm also one of the cohosts of this show. When we're not 13 00:01:04.390 --> 00:01:08.269 interviewing sales and marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our 14 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:12.269 own business. Will share the ups and downs of our journey as we attempt 15 00:01:12.269 --> 00:01:18.269 to take over the world. Just getting well? Maybe let's get into the 16 00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:23.980 show. Hey, everybody, before we get rolling, we wanted to tell 17 00:01:23.980 --> 00:01:29.099 you about another podcast you should probably check out, the sales experience podcast hosted 18 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:33.890 by our friend Jason Cutter. On the sales experience podcast, Jason shares tips 19 00:01:33.930 --> 00:01:38.810 and lessons to help you create a seals experience that will turn more prospects into 20 00:01:38.849 --> 00:01:42.689 customers. Whether you're a new to sales, a veteran or lead to sales 21 00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:46.209 team, if your goal is to impact the lives of your customers, then 22 00:01:46.290 --> 00:01:49.519 this podcast is likely for you. Our favorite episode is number ninety seven. 23 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:56.840 Professionals don't ask for the sale. Now let's get into the show. Welcome 24 00:01:56.920 --> 00:01:59.719 back to be to be growth. I'm Logan lyles with sweet fish media. 25 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:02.950 Today I'm joined by Ben Baker. He is the president of your brand marketing 26 00:02:04.230 --> 00:02:07.989 and author of powerful personal brands. been welcome to the show. How's it 27 00:02:07.030 --> 00:02:10.069 going today? Man Logan, it is great being on the show today. 28 00:02:10.189 --> 00:02:15.310 Thanks for inviting me. Yeah, absolutely. You and I connected on Linkedin 29 00:02:15.469 --> 00:02:19.379 a few weeks back and I could just tell that we are of the same 30 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:23.939 mind in a lot of things, especially after just chatting with you a little 31 00:02:23.939 --> 00:02:29.620 bit offline before we jump into today's topic about building a personal brand and doing 32 00:02:29.659 --> 00:02:34.009 it very systematically. I think some people have kind of this fuzzy notion about 33 00:02:34.009 --> 00:02:37.810 it, but we're going to give them some practical how to use which obviously 34 00:02:37.889 --> 00:02:39.449 have a great deal to say on. Before we jump into that, give 35 00:02:39.490 --> 00:02:43.370 us a little bit of your background and tell us a little bit about what 36 00:02:43.449 --> 00:02:45.719 you and your team are up to, and and the book as well. 37 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:50.960 Been Yeah, I've been in communications for about twenty five years. I've been 38 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:53.919 in the sales for well over thirty. You know, I came to the 39 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:59.830 realization about two thousand and twenty five years ago that Kelly, an effective storey, 40 00:02:59.870 --> 00:03:02.110 or being able to communicate value, being able to get people to know, 41 00:03:02.270 --> 00:03:08.030 like and trust me, was the only way to be able to make 42 00:03:08.110 --> 00:03:10.830 friends and influence people, to you know, to take take a phrase right 43 00:03:10.870 --> 00:03:15.340 out of a book, and what I've realized this is that, you know, 44 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:20.939 we all need to have people understand who we are, what we do 45 00:03:21.139 --> 00:03:24.099 and why we do it, you know, and by doing that, by 46 00:03:24.219 --> 00:03:30.569 getting people to understand that, also non trust us, because once we can 47 00:03:30.650 --> 00:03:32.409 build a rapport once we can buil that level of trust. Once we can 48 00:03:32.530 --> 00:03:38.250 get that, you know, that symbiotic relationship. It's amazing the things that 49 00:03:38.330 --> 00:03:42.360 go on. So over the last twenty five years I've done direct mail, 50 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:46.000 I've done promotional marketing, I've done trade show consulting, I've done branding and 51 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:53.719 and brand strategy for customers, and what I've always realized is the challenges is 52 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:58.430 we spent so much time focus outside of a company, where the problem is 53 00:03:58.949 --> 00:04:01.590 most of our employees don't understand what our brands all about, they don't understand 54 00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:05.750 our value, they don't understand why they should care about the company they work 55 00:04:05.830 --> 00:04:10.900 for, what, how they matter to that company, what their individual efforts 56 00:04:11.020 --> 00:04:14.539 met, you know, do to be able to get the company moving from 57 00:04:14.580 --> 00:04:16.899 A to B, to c to D toe. And that's where we've spent 58 00:04:17.019 --> 00:04:20.300 the last five or ten years. We've spent it on engagement, retention and 59 00:04:20.459 --> 00:04:26.290 Growth. We build leadership teams, we build sales teams, we build operations 60 00:04:26.449 --> 00:04:31.129 management teams to be able to get people to understand and you'll why they should 61 00:04:31.129 --> 00:04:34.329 do what they do. And that's that's a key thing, because when people 62 00:04:34.329 --> 00:04:39.879 are engaged, they tend to work harder, they tend to be better advocates 63 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:43.720 for the brand. They provide better customer experience and customers, on the other 64 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:46.959 hand, become our loyal and you know what prices go up, you know, 65 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:50.480 because you're not all of a sudden the commodity. Your brandworth loving. 66 00:04:51.079 --> 00:04:56.189 Yep, absolutely. I mean just so many things there that are synonymous with 67 00:04:56.310 --> 00:04:59.629 the things we're talking about. James and I, fresh off of our annual 68 00:04:59.670 --> 00:05:03.589 sweetfish leadership team retreat, spoke on our behind the curtain series here recently about 69 00:05:03.829 --> 00:05:08.819 how we crafted our mission and vision statement and how we renamed them, how 70 00:05:08.860 --> 00:05:11.459 we put some thought into that, and part of it was you know what 71 00:05:11.660 --> 00:05:15.899 you just said. They're been a lot of teams don't really understand the the 72 00:05:15.259 --> 00:05:18.740 brand, the vision and the direction of the brand that they work for. 73 00:05:18.740 --> 00:05:23.209 Let's transition a little bit to personal brands, because we're going to be talking 74 00:05:23.250 --> 00:05:26.569 about you know how to do that effectively. What were some of the things 75 00:05:26.610 --> 00:05:30.050 that you saw missing out there in this conversation that led you to write the 76 00:05:30.089 --> 00:05:34.290 book powerful personal brands? Well, the impetus to ride the brand book was 77 00:05:34.490 --> 00:05:38.959 was quite interesting. I do a lot of work with the universities, I 78 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:42.519 do a lot of work with their sales and marketing schools, I guess, 79 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:47.240 the business schools, and we run the third year and fourth year students through 80 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:53.430 networking drills, interview skills, personal branding skills, at all that kind of 81 00:05:53.430 --> 00:05:57.910 stuff, and what we realize is that these kids are really smart and they 82 00:05:57.910 --> 00:06:00.990 are their kids are young enough to be my kids. I just hearned fifty. 83 00:06:00.589 --> 00:06:05.420 They're really smart, they're passionate, they're you know, they want to 84 00:06:05.459 --> 00:06:10.660 do well, but they have no idea how to articulate their own value to 85 00:06:10.779 --> 00:06:14.100 others. They just don't. You know, it's is whether it's life experience, 86 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:16.740 whether the fact the schools just don't teach these sort of things. You 87 00:06:16.779 --> 00:06:19.689 know, they don't have the experience do it, they're not surrounded by people 88 00:06:19.810 --> 00:06:23.889 that teach them how to do it. Whatever, they don't know how to 89 00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:27.410 articulate their own value and why other people should care about them. And I 90 00:06:27.449 --> 00:06:30.129 went looking for a book to help people because I'm still they're going you have 91 00:06:30.209 --> 00:06:33.000 a whole generation of people, you know, the genesis and the money, 92 00:06:33.079 --> 00:06:36.920 those that are sitting there going, okay, how do I help them articulate 93 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:42.600 their value of staying better? Couldn't find it, so I wrote it and 94 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:46.079 what this book is really designed to do is help you understand who you are, 95 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:49.430 what you do, why you do it and why other people should care. 96 00:06:49.949 --> 00:06:55.629 It's about understanding, codify communicating your value to others. So it's out. 97 00:06:55.709 --> 00:06:58.790 It's a workbook. It really truly is. It's about two hundred pages. 98 00:06:59.430 --> 00:07:02.939 It's full of stories from my life. It's, you know, lessons 99 00:07:02.980 --> 00:07:08.220 that I've learned and at the end of most chapters I pose the question and 100 00:07:08.300 --> 00:07:11.860 I leave two or three pages of blank lines and I'll sit there and say, 101 00:07:11.899 --> 00:07:14.579 so, what do you think about this? So it's things like what 102 00:07:14.699 --> 00:07:18.129 are you passionate about and why are you passionate about it? Who are the 103 00:07:18.290 --> 00:07:24.050 three people that influenced you growing up and what were the lessons you learned from 104 00:07:24.129 --> 00:07:29.290 them? It's things like that. It's getting people to understand what makes them 105 00:07:29.329 --> 00:07:33.839 who they are, because we are all a come culmination of the experiences that 106 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:38.439 we've had to that date, the people that we've engaged with, in the 107 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:42.240 lessons that we've learned. But not a lot of people actually take the time 108 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:45.790 to figure that out. And if they do figure it out and they're more 109 00:07:45.910 --> 00:07:50.750 comfortable with their own sense of self, they're able to communicate and be more 110 00:07:50.829 --> 00:07:57.230 effective in communicating with others, whether it's leaders or salespeople or whoever. You 111 00:07:57.350 --> 00:08:01.579 know, we all are. Once we understand ourselves better, we're far better 112 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:05.259 able to show our value that other people and have them no like and trust 113 00:08:05.339 --> 00:08:09.100 us. Yeah, absolutely so. Been I know that there were at least 114 00:08:09.100 --> 00:08:13.050 four different aspects of building a personal brand that you wanted to touch on today 115 00:08:13.089 --> 00:08:18.449 to give people some tactical things that they can do to make this more concrete 116 00:08:18.449 --> 00:08:20.689 and a little bit less fuzzy, and you touched on the first one. 117 00:08:20.730 --> 00:08:24.290 They're understanding yourself, and the way that I hear you say it kind of 118 00:08:24.329 --> 00:08:28.519 reminds me of a story that I tell sometimes. Early on in my career, 119 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:33.279 I was a college graduate in two thousand and eight. Great time to 120 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:35.519 hit the job market, right and when I started to companies. So why 121 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:41.120 not? And and and doubly, they're graduate with a journalism degree when the 122 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:46.830 journalism industry was going through so much contraction and convergence and and disruption. To 123 00:08:46.990 --> 00:08:50.230 throw three big buzz words out there, but really all three were absolutely true, 124 00:08:50.549 --> 00:08:54.779 and I remember applying for my first sales job and selling my way into 125 00:08:54.779 --> 00:08:58.220 it, saying, Hey, I was trained as a journalist. I'm used 126 00:08:58.220 --> 00:09:03.220 to go going up to strangers, starting a conversation. Sometimes people don't want 127 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:05.940 to talk to journalist, just like they don't want to talk to salespeople. 128 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:09.009 Maybe I could do this and that was just a connection that I made and, 129 00:09:09.330 --> 00:09:13.649 to your point, trying to communicate the value of my experience and how 130 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:16.809 that could translate to somewhere else. Is is that the sort of thing that 131 00:09:16.889 --> 00:09:18.169 you're talking about, then, yeah, I mean, and that's it. 132 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:22.730 That's a really key point. is to sit there and say, what are 133 00:09:22.809 --> 00:09:24.360 my skills? What are the things that I do well with? For you, 134 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:28.559 it's it's not being afraid to go out there and talk to other people, 135 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:31.039 and a whole variety of other people, because a lot of people want 136 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:35.840 to sit behind their computer all day long and, you know, and type 137 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:39.669 in the social media and they think that they're communicating. You know, and 138 00:09:39.070 --> 00:09:43.070 you know it's the high how are you used the pithy stuff, the the 139 00:09:43.190 --> 00:09:46.750 very you know, as I say, it's very surface conversation, but you 140 00:09:46.830 --> 00:09:50.350 know, the people that could actually get in front of somebody else, pick 141 00:09:50.350 --> 00:09:54.580 up a phone, stand in front of somebody else, actually have a conversation 142 00:09:54.539 --> 00:10:00.460 relate to the other person and be curious about the other person. The better 143 00:10:00.500 --> 00:10:03.940 off they are because you'll whether it's sales, whether it's leadership, whether it's 144 00:10:03.980 --> 00:10:09.529 anything out there, the more you can be curious about other people and sit 145 00:10:09.570 --> 00:10:11.809 there and say get up every morning and say, okay, how can I 146 00:10:11.850 --> 00:10:18.850 make somebody else's lives better? Hey, everybody, logan with sweet fish year. 147 00:10:18.210 --> 00:10:22.840 You probably already know that we think you should start a podcast if you 148 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:26.840 haven't already. But what if you have and you're asking these kinds of questions? 149 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:31.000 How much has our podcast impacted the new this year? How is our 150 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:35.950 sales team actually leveraging the PODCAST content? If you can't answer these questions, 151 00:10:35.029 --> 00:10:39.350 you're actually not alone. This is why I cast it created the very first 152 00:10:39.470 --> 00:10:46.269 content marketing platform made specifically for be tob podcasting. Now you can more easily 153 00:10:46.509 --> 00:10:52.100 search and share your audio content while getting greater visibility into the impact of your 154 00:10:52.139 --> 00:10:56.580 podcast. The marketing teams at drift terminus and here at sweet fish have started 155 00:10:56.620 --> 00:11:01.059 using casted to get more value out of our podcasts, and you probably can 156 00:11:01.220 --> 00:11:07.490 to. You can check out the product in action and casted dot US growth. 157 00:11:07.929 --> 00:11:13.450 That's sea steed dot US growth. All right, let's get back to 158 00:11:13.529 --> 00:11:20.879 the show. Yeah, I'll go the way you made that transition. There 159 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:24.320 been because you know, of the kind of the four things that you wanted 160 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:26.480 to share. We talk about understanding yourself, right, so that you can 161 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:31.600 see what are your unique skills or experience that could translate to a new experience 162 00:11:31.639 --> 00:11:35.389 or just add value in the same way and and communicating that. But then 163 00:11:35.429 --> 00:11:39.429 the next step is, you know, there's kind of this, I think, 164 00:11:39.509 --> 00:11:43.750 Miss Perception about building a personal brand that you have to be this extroverted, 165 00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:46.580 arrogant person to do it well. And you know, I've said number 166 00:11:46.580 --> 00:11:50.580 of times in this podcast I'm an introvert who, two years into sales, 167 00:11:50.659 --> 00:11:54.299 thought that maybe this isn't for me and I found my way. But the 168 00:11:54.460 --> 00:12:01.059 difference is from kind of that arrogant view of personal brand is that it's not 169 00:12:01.100 --> 00:12:07.529 about just communicating about yourself, about pitching yourself and your services in your products. 170 00:12:07.570 --> 00:12:11.970 It's about connecting that to adding value and then creating content that connects those 171 00:12:13.090 --> 00:12:18.320 thoughts. Right. Yeah, I mean here's the thing. Most people, 172 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:22.799 when they've never met you, when they've never you know, they've never been 173 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:26.960 around you, they don't know anything you're the last person in the world they 174 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:28.559 want to hear about, and especially if you're trying to pitch them. You 175 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:31.669 know it's a hard pitch. It's that you know. Here's my part, 176 00:12:31.789 --> 00:12:35.909 here's my service, it's features, benefit speachers, benefits closed. Features, 177 00:12:35.950 --> 00:12:39.029 benefit speeches, benefits close. You know. It just it's this wall that 178 00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:45.220 goes up amongst people. People don't want to be sold anymore. People want 179 00:12:45.220 --> 00:12:48.340 to build relationships, people want trust, people want to know, to understand 180 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:52.379 that there's something in between you and that you could help them solve a problem 181 00:12:52.419 --> 00:12:58.809 that they have. If you are not looking at them first and understanding them 182 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:03.409 first, they're never going to want to buy what you have to say. 183 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:07.570 And whether that's in a meeting at the office, whether it's leading a team, 184 00:13:07.649 --> 00:13:13.120 whether it's in sales, it doesn't matter, because if you make it 185 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:16.559 all about you all the time or your company all the time, people are 186 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:20.279 just going to say, Oh God, here comes another salesperson. Oh God, 187 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:22.000 yeah, okay, you know, we already have a vendor that does 188 00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:26.879 it. It doesn't matter that you might be able to solve every problem that 189 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:31.950 they have, but if you all all you're doing is pitching instead of listening 190 00:13:33.830 --> 00:13:39.629 and trying to understand, they're not going to care. Yeah, absolutely. 191 00:13:39.669 --> 00:13:43.019 It goes back to that that old truth that we all know. People don't 192 00:13:43.059 --> 00:13:46.100 care how much you know until they know how much you care, and part 193 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:50.580 of building your brand should be showing that care, showing it in practical ways, 194 00:13:50.620 --> 00:13:54.100 offering to make connections, those sorts of things, adding value with your 195 00:13:54.179 --> 00:13:58.049 content. So some of the things to recap so far been that you recommend 196 00:13:58.049 --> 00:14:00.809 to folks, because I know that you you consult with folks and you do 197 00:14:01.009 --> 00:14:05.289 some training on personal brand for CEOS, for leaders, for sales people. 198 00:14:05.330 --> 00:14:09.330 Specifically understand yourself so that you can connect those dots in the value that you 199 00:14:09.450 --> 00:14:11.679 bring. Don't make it all about yourself, though, which seems a little 200 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:15.720 bit counterintuitive, but not in the way that you've kind of mapped it out 201 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.080 for us. The other thing that I know you recommend a lot is that 202 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:22.360 to think about this idea that you have one brand, both your company and 203 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:26.990 your personal brand, across all channels, online and offline. So if you 204 00:14:28.110 --> 00:14:33.629 are trying to exude this type of personality on Linkedin, but then people get 205 00:14:33.669 --> 00:14:37.470 together with you at this at an event or a conference or something like that, 206 00:14:37.909 --> 00:14:41.899 and there's this huge disconnect, then it's all going to be for not 207 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:48.019 right. Yeah, I called being off the having ofthenticity in yourself or being 208 00:14:48.019 --> 00:14:52.139 authentically you. You know, you have to be authentically you. I'll never 209 00:14:52.179 --> 00:14:54.730 be Gary vader chuck, I'll never be for Richard Brandson, I'm never going 210 00:14:54.730 --> 00:14:58.409 to be build gates. I'm going to be me. What I made do 211 00:14:58.690 --> 00:15:03.090 is I may take parts of their personality, I may take things that they 212 00:15:03.129 --> 00:15:07.120 do and I may incorporate them into my own psyche. If they make sense, 213 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:11.080 if they resonate with WHO I am, what I do and why I 214 00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:13.799 do it, then it makes sense to bring those parts of the personality. 215 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:16.879 But you have to make it your own. Yeah, you is here an 216 00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:20.919 example that you can maybe share with us. been on where you've kind of 217 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:24.669 seen someone building a brand and a I could kind of assimilate made either that 218 00:15:24.789 --> 00:15:28.590 mentality or that approach into the way that I do things, but still, 219 00:15:30.029 --> 00:15:33.269 you know, still being yourself. Yeah, I mean I look at I 220 00:15:33.350 --> 00:15:37.220 mean think Bill Gates for an example, especially the older Bill Gates. The 221 00:15:37.379 --> 00:15:43.419 older Bill Gates is very quiet and contemplated but very forceful. He truly it 222 00:15:43.539 --> 00:15:46.899 absolutely is. The know that is his personality. You know, he's made 223 00:15:46.940 --> 00:15:52.889 as billions and now he's wants to give it away and his raisin dtre is 224 00:15:52.970 --> 00:15:56.210 to make the world a better place and I love that about him. I 225 00:15:56.409 --> 00:16:00.129 truly love that about him. You know, I don't have the billions of 226 00:16:00.169 --> 00:16:06.279 dollars to give away, but I do love his philanthropic mentality and I do 227 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:11.200 love the fact that his attitude is how can I help other people, how 228 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:15.279 can I make other people's lives better? So what I do is I incorporate 229 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:19.230 that into my personality, you know, and make that part of me. 230 00:16:19.830 --> 00:16:22.830 You know, I can't do things at the level that he can. I 231 00:16:22.870 --> 00:16:26.389 can't write the checks that he can. I don't, you know, I 232 00:16:26.429 --> 00:16:29.870 don't get invited to Davos, I don't get, you'll, all those wonderful 233 00:16:30.309 --> 00:16:33.500 perks that comes with Being Bill Gates. But what I can do is I 234 00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:37.700 can be the best Ben I can be at my level, you know, 235 00:16:37.779 --> 00:16:41.740 and I can write the checks that I can write at my level and be 236 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:45.779 able to give back to, you know, my community, to my neighborhood, 237 00:16:45.899 --> 00:16:49.049 to, you know, to care causes that I care about, to 238 00:16:49.169 --> 00:16:52.610 be able to make other people's lives better and that's that's what I try to 239 00:16:52.769 --> 00:16:57.049 build into my personality, you know, but I'm not trying to be Bill 240 00:16:57.090 --> 00:17:00.970 Gates. Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great example. That really 241 00:17:00.009 --> 00:17:04.200 brings at home, Ben so we've talked about understanding yourself, communicating that value, 242 00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:10.200 making it more about giving and the other person as you build relationships through 243 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:15.000 everything that you're trying to do around building your personal brand, being authentic and 244 00:17:15.079 --> 00:17:18.670 being consistent across all channels and online and offline. The fourth thing I know 245 00:17:18.750 --> 00:17:22.470 that you talk about is helping people, especially, you know, young salespeople, 246 00:17:22.470 --> 00:17:26.390 are young executives that are just starting to think about building their personal brand, 247 00:17:26.470 --> 00:17:30.220 is that they need to have this mental shift that your brand is not 248 00:17:30.339 --> 00:17:34.380 your perception of yourself, it is what others perceive you to be. Right, 249 00:17:34.420 --> 00:17:40.779 yeah, and that's important. As you know, Jeff Bezos from Amazon 250 00:17:40.859 --> 00:17:44.930 has a great quote. He says your brand is how people perceive you when 251 00:17:44.930 --> 00:17:48.210 you're not in the room. You know, I don't I'm paraphrasing here. 252 00:17:48.210 --> 00:17:52.369 I don't remember the exact quote, but you know, it's how people perceive 253 00:17:52.529 --> 00:17:56.250 you when you're not in the room. You can influence your brand. You 254 00:17:56.329 --> 00:17:59.599 know, how you present yourself how you talk, how how you know, 255 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:02.160 the things that you do, how you do it. You know, how 256 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:03.960 you shake a hand, how you look somebody in the eye, the promises 257 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:10.440 that you make and you keep it are all influencing your brand. There's no 258 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:15.470 question about it. But if somebody doesn't like you for whatever reason, that's 259 00:18:15.549 --> 00:18:19.430 their perception of you and that's pretty you're their perception your brand. It may 260 00:18:19.470 --> 00:18:25.349 be wrong, but that's their perception and you have to allow people to have 261 00:18:25.549 --> 00:18:29.220 their perceptions. And the question is, why? What have I done? 262 00:18:29.339 --> 00:18:32.700 What you'll what are some things that I can do and sometimes you can't fix 263 00:18:32.779 --> 00:18:37.500 it. There are billions of people out there, billions of people out there 264 00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:41.009 that will never get to know Ben Baker. So you know that could care 265 00:18:41.049 --> 00:18:45.450 less about Ben Baker. Don't even know who I am, don't even know 266 00:18:45.569 --> 00:18:48.410 that I ever will exist and I will die without even be a blip on 267 00:18:48.490 --> 00:18:53.250 their radar. But that's okay. I can't influence everybody, I can't help 268 00:18:53.369 --> 00:18:57.079 everybody. I need to understand who are the people that I can help, 269 00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:02.279 who are the people that I can influence? Who are the people that I 270 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:04.440 can make their lives better? And those are the people that I talk to 271 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:08.799 in those are the people that I communicate with and you know and you know 272 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:15.869 be around. So it's a matter of being comfortable of understanding that we all 273 00:19:15.150 --> 00:19:18.789 have our own tribe, to use the seth going term. You know, 274 00:19:18.910 --> 00:19:23.029 we all have the people that are with there are a thousand people. You 275 00:19:23.109 --> 00:19:26.460 know that. You know if we all have a thousand people are life or 276 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:29.700 a hundred people in our lives, those people will turn around out and tell 277 00:19:29.740 --> 00:19:33.099 your story to other people and the story will spread. So we need to 278 00:19:33.220 --> 00:19:37.769 be able to embrace that and not be worried that not every single person loves 279 00:19:37.809 --> 00:19:41.490 us, because, guess what, they won't. And that's okay. Yep, 280 00:19:41.650 --> 00:19:45.970 absolutely. I mean a Simon SENNEC talks about it. When you lead 281 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:48.009 with why, you are going to repel some people, but you are going 282 00:19:48.049 --> 00:19:52.119 to attract those who believe what you believe that much more readily. And you 283 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:56.240 know, it reminds me of what Dave Karen's recently just shared in a previous 284 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:02.000 episode on the show about building your network as a sales professional, finding that 285 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:07.470 tribe and instead of just trying to go far and wide, finding that tribe 286 00:20:07.509 --> 00:20:11.670 that makes sense and going deep there in building those relationships, and I think 287 00:20:11.869 --> 00:20:17.349 the the similar point here is, as you're building your personal brand, recognize 288 00:20:17.390 --> 00:20:22.019 that tribe, recognize what they need, recognize what content that they're searching for, 289 00:20:22.619 --> 00:20:25.859 figure out the problems that they are trying to solve. It's part of 290 00:20:25.900 --> 00:20:29.660 the reason we have this podcast and we we host so many be tob sales 291 00:20:29.740 --> 00:20:32.859 and marketing leaders so that we can hear from them in the trenches and have 292 00:20:33.059 --> 00:20:37.450 these conversations so that we can serve them better. Again, going back to 293 00:20:37.569 --> 00:20:40.369 the point I made at the very top of this episode, been I think 294 00:20:40.369 --> 00:20:44.170 we're so likeminded and and telling a lot of the same things. there. 295 00:20:44.170 --> 00:20:48.130 I'm glad that our paths have crossed recently and I really appreciate you being on 296 00:20:48.210 --> 00:20:52.079 the show today. If anybody else listening to this would like to stay connected 297 00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:55.160 with you, Ben Baker has not been a blip on their radar yet, 298 00:20:55.200 --> 00:20:57.839 but now is and they want to stay connected find the book or any other 299 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:03.440 sources on this topic of personal branding that they might want to consume. What's 300 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:06.549 the best way for them to take action on that? Yeah, everything is 301 00:21:06.710 --> 00:21:11.990 available on my website, which is your brand marketingcom there's links to my Amazon 302 00:21:12.109 --> 00:21:18.269 page, there. They're my speaking page, my my workshops, my online 303 00:21:18.349 --> 00:21:22.059 workshops, everything, everything is available through your brand Marketingcom and if you just 304 00:21:22.140 --> 00:21:26.059 want to have a conversation, reach out to me. Six O four, 305 00:21:26.339 --> 00:21:29.940 five, one two seven, one seven four. Most people won't, but 306 00:21:30.099 --> 00:21:32.930 you know what, if there's ways that I can help you and your teams 307 00:21:32.970 --> 00:21:34.970 get better, if there's ways that I can help you, as a senior 308 00:21:36.009 --> 00:21:41.490 executive, understand the value of your personal brand and how that brand helps you 309 00:21:41.650 --> 00:21:45.690 be more influential both inside the company outside the company and a better leader, 310 00:21:45.289 --> 00:21:51.119 love to have the conversation. I love it, Ben I appreciate the transparency, 311 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:53.119 the openness, the willing to connect there. I just love it so 312 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:56.200 much. Well then, thank you so much for a great conversation and being 313 00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:03.190 on the show today. Thanks for having me. We totally get it. 314 00:22:03.589 --> 00:22:07.230 We publish a ton of content on this podcast and it can be a lot 315 00:22:07.349 --> 00:22:11.109 to keep up with. That's why we've started the BB growth big three, 316 00:22:11.549 --> 00:22:15.059 a no fluff email that boils down our three biggest takeaways from an entire week 317 00:22:15.099 --> 00:22:21.779 of episodes. Sign up today at Sweet Fish Mediacom big three. That sweet 318 00:22:21.779 --> 00:22:23.619 PHISH MEDIACOM Big Three