Thought Leaders Guide to Building a Magnetic Personal Brand with Robin Farmanfarmaian

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:04.340 accelerating value by proof analytics is the podcast for marketing, 2 00:00:04.350 --> 00:00:08.220 communications sales and operations leaders who want to see their business 3 00:00:08.220 --> 00:00:12.740 value clearly and succeed, learn how leaders are closing the gap between 4 00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:16.800 creative work and business impact through raw conversations. Don't 5 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:22.360 believe me. Check out the show for yourself from the CFO perspective it's 6 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:29.800 value is what type of revenue generation earnings cash flow that is 7 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:33.590 only adding to the growth of the, of the enterprise. You know, another 8 00:00:33.590 --> 00:00:37.230 dimension would be how our margins performing are we, you know, we're 9 00:00:37.230 --> 00:00:42.330 getting the right value by seeing margin expansion by creating products, 10 00:00:42.330 --> 00:00:47.120 services that are generating, you know, that incremental value to the 11 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:53.060 organization. And I think from my lens, you know that it's monetary in many 12 00:00:53.060 --> 00:00:57.700 dimensions, right? It's not, you know, thinking about, okay, what say from an 13 00:00:57.700 --> 00:01:01.410 employee perspective, other perspectives, but as a leader, as the 14 00:01:01.410 --> 00:01:07.940 finance leader, as you're looking to grow the revenue earnings and cash flow 15 00:01:07.940 --> 00:01:13.600 of an organization, it will only create more opportunities for your employees, 16 00:01:13.610 --> 00:01:18.150 for your suppliers, for your customers based on those services that you're 17 00:01:18.160 --> 00:01:23.740 creating. So to me that's how I view to be value for more. Subscribe to the 18 00:01:23.740 --> 00:01:27.450 show wherever you listen to podcasts. 19 00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:38.260 Welcome in to be to be growth. I'm benji block one of the hosts here and 20 00:01:38.270 --> 00:01:43.090 glad you're tuned in today. We're in the middle of throwing it back. We've 21 00:01:43.100 --> 00:01:47.170 spent a few episodes just looking back at some past episodes when you have 22 00:01:47.170 --> 00:01:52.970 2000 plus in the archive, there's so much content that can easily be glossed 23 00:01:52.970 --> 00:02:00.200 over or maybe lost in the feed, right? We thought we'd bring some back that uh 24 00:02:00.210 --> 00:02:05.160 could be great for you to, to take a look at here as we wind down 2021 ramp 25 00:02:05.160 --> 00:02:10.900 up for 2022 highlighting an episode here, an interview that dan Sanchez did 26 00:02:10.900 --> 00:02:15.920 with Robin Farman Farman Ian and uh talking about personal branding for 27 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:20.300 thought leadership. So she gives away some practical steps to building a 28 00:02:20.300 --> 00:02:25.040 magnetic personal brand, how to find and leverage your personal story. And 29 00:02:25.040 --> 00:02:30.160 then also talks about why authoring a book is a really crucial kind of key to 30 00:02:30.160 --> 00:02:34.440 thought leadership as well. I think you'll find this insightful. Let's jump 31 00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:41.830 in to this interview, our conversation with Robin check this out. Welcome back 32 00:02:41.830 --> 00:02:45.770 to be to be growth. I'm dan Sanchez, my friends call me dan says and I'm here 33 00:02:45.770 --> 00:02:50.780 with Robin Farm UNb Armenian, who is the author of Thought Leader. Formula 34 00:02:50.790 --> 00:02:55.400 Robin, Welcome to the show. I have been so excited to talk to you today. Thanks 35 00:02:55.400 --> 00:02:59.770 for having me. Fantastic as the audience knows. I've been on a deep 36 00:02:59.770 --> 00:03:03.980 dive in this month of june to talk about thought leadership, marketing and 37 00:03:03.980 --> 00:03:07.260 all things related to thought leadership, how to create thought 38 00:03:07.260 --> 00:03:11.200 leadership content. What does it mean to be a thought leader and what path 39 00:03:11.200 --> 00:03:15.460 does one have to take in order to become a competent and actually well 40 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:19.260 respected Thought leader. None of those fakers that make all of us cringe when 41 00:03:19.260 --> 00:03:22.800 they, you know, are you drop in declaring that there a thought leader 42 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:26.400 out there on linkedin, right? How do you actually become an authentic 43 00:03:26.410 --> 00:03:29.580 thought leader? And those are the questions we're exploring in this deep 44 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:33.650 dive. I was excited to talk to Robin because she wrote a fantastic book I 45 00:03:33.650 --> 00:03:38.040 have here with me now and there was a number of interesting insights I had 46 00:03:38.040 --> 00:03:41.300 from the book though there was none more interesting than I think her take 47 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:44.960 on personal branding within thought leadership. So while I want to head 48 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:50.120 into that topic first, I wanted to get your back story for the audience. Robin, 49 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:53.030 if you could elaborate like how did you get into thought leadership, how did 50 00:03:53.030 --> 00:03:58.420 that become a thing for you? So what I did is I used to work in both events 51 00:03:58.420 --> 00:04:01.850 but also business development and sales and this is all around health care 52 00:04:01.850 --> 00:04:05.820 technology companies And when I first got to Silicon Valley the first few 53 00:04:05.820 --> 00:04:11.580 years it was kind of tough. I am a high energy, very petite blonde and uh in 54 00:04:11.580 --> 00:04:16.870 Silicon Valley which is mostly men and I found myself being sexually harassed, 55 00:04:16.880 --> 00:04:21.990 sabotaged at work. I mean it was crazy people stealing my work. And I realized 56 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:26.690 early on you can't fight that directly through something like HR HR is not 57 00:04:26.690 --> 00:04:30.350 there to protect the woman, right? And the employee, it's there to protect the 58 00:04:30.350 --> 00:04:35.390 company. And so as soon as I realized that I decided to change the game, I 59 00:04:35.390 --> 00:04:39.480 went home one weekend and I created a five year project plan for myself on 60 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:44.140 how to become a professional speaker and author in order to have a stronger 61 00:04:44.140 --> 00:04:48.020 name and presence than the men that were pushing me down. And let me tell 62 00:04:48.020 --> 00:04:54.200 you. It worked beautifully the day my first book published the patient as ceo 63 00:04:54.210 --> 00:04:58.750 it was like flipping a light switch on on the sexual harassment and sabotage 64 00:04:58.750 --> 00:05:03.010 in the workplace. In fact, it changed the power dynamic so much that I felt 65 00:05:03.010 --> 00:05:09.580 like I was in a tank and the men were on horseback. And so when the me too 66 00:05:09.580 --> 00:05:15.750 movement happened fast forward to 2016, I realized, wait a second. It's this is 67 00:05:15.750 --> 00:05:18.980 happening to other women, like that's that was a big thing. Like we didn't 68 00:05:18.980 --> 00:05:22.720 realize it was happening so many other places. So I said, you know what? I 69 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:26.780 have a solution for this instead of trying to fight people directly on this, 70 00:05:26.790 --> 00:05:31.980 why don't we raise up the women right and do what I did for myself, but for, 71 00:05:31.990 --> 00:05:35.600 you know, millions of women out there. And so I took my five year project plan 72 00:05:35.610 --> 00:05:40.210 turned it into a system for anyone to use regardless of industry. And that's 73 00:05:40.210 --> 00:05:45.250 my solution now for the Me Too movement. That's fantastic. That's so interesting 74 00:05:45.250 --> 00:05:49.020 that it like positioning yourself as a thought leader and having people like 75 00:05:49.030 --> 00:05:52.950 believe it and it's not like it was fake that it's real and it's something 76 00:05:52.950 --> 00:05:58.100 substantive to believe like repositioned in people's minds and it 77 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:02.370 just had them behave differently for you. It was cause it was for some very 78 00:06:02.370 --> 00:06:06.560 practical reasons but obviously it came with a lot more benefits than just 79 00:06:07.140 --> 00:06:12.070 keeping men from being jerks. What were some of the other benefits you saw from 80 00:06:12.070 --> 00:06:17.690 being becoming a thought leader and establishing that sense of trust and 81 00:06:17.700 --> 00:06:23.050 confidence that other people put into you. So really it comes down to when 82 00:06:23.050 --> 00:06:26.880 you're going to do something like this and I put a lot of time and money into 83 00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:30.500 building myself into an author and professional speaker. You need a 84 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:34.250 multitude of reasons. So I always think of myself, okay so what are those top 85 00:06:34.250 --> 00:06:39.260 three reasons. First of all I can, you know, battle against these men don't 86 00:06:39.540 --> 00:06:43.160 Right. Second of all I do business development and a lot of the times 87 00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:47.340 sales, which means now that I'm an author and professional speaker, I get 88 00:06:47.350 --> 00:06:52.000 access to events that people don't even know are going on like internally at 89 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.320 some of the big insurance companies or the big device or pharmaceutical 90 00:06:56.320 --> 00:07:01.100 companies and I get to meet the ceos of like Fortune 500 companies all the time 91 00:07:01.110 --> 00:07:05.240 by being able to be an invited speaker there and so that really helped with 92 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:09.500 the business development and then I also understand that technology is 93 00:07:09.500 --> 00:07:14.790 really disrupting a lot of the way we work and so I believe in multiple 94 00:07:14.790 --> 00:07:19.560 revenue streams, you cannot rely on anymore. Just one salary from one 95 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:25.880 company over, you know, your career and expect to be able to survive. And so if 96 00:07:25.880 --> 00:07:30.140 you have multiple revenue streams you'll be able to turn to one in the 97 00:07:30.140 --> 00:07:34.740 case of something like a pandemic or of course artificial intelligence or 98 00:07:34.740 --> 00:07:40.510 robotics taking over or displacing your job in some way. And so we saw this 99 00:07:40.510 --> 00:07:44.270 this past year because I have so many revenue streams that I was able to set 100 00:07:44.270 --> 00:07:48.090 up because I'm an author and professional speaker means I could lean 101 00:07:48.090 --> 00:07:52.260 on a lot of them when my professional speaking went away like ma'am overnight, 102 00:07:52.260 --> 00:07:57.960 I lost most of my paid talks and I was able to very quickly just rely on one 103 00:07:57.960 --> 00:08:01.930 of my other revenue streams. It's fantastic. I've spent a lot of time 104 00:08:01.930 --> 00:08:04.240 thinking about it. And I've also, I mean reading a lot of thought 105 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:07.840 leadership books, a lot of thought leadership books are more geared 106 00:08:07.840 --> 00:08:12.460 towards the person who wants to become a thought leader than the marketers who 107 00:08:12.460 --> 00:08:15.340 want to position the company as a thought leader, which is kind of two 108 00:08:15.340 --> 00:08:17.770 different things. But they obviously overlap because a lot of times the 109 00:08:17.770 --> 00:08:21.020 amount of position the company as a thought leader usually taking maybe the 110 00:08:21.020 --> 00:08:24.940 ceo of founder, internal subject matter expert and turning them into the the 111 00:08:24.940 --> 00:08:28.800 face of the company or faces. Right? So lots of overlap between those two 112 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:32.860 things. But I've certainly thought about how, I don't know, I think this 113 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:37.030 is going to become a bigger part of the future for many people, especially as 114 00:08:37.030 --> 00:08:40.789 you know, taxes go up for companies, you can't hire as many people, people 115 00:08:40.789 --> 00:08:44.120 are going to be leaning on contractors more that a lot of people will 116 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:49.710 essentially become a mix of contractor, thought leader freelancer with probably 117 00:08:49.710 --> 00:08:53.080 there are side hustles and businesses going on. Well, I think a lot of people 118 00:08:53.080 --> 00:08:56.440 are going to have to diversify income in the future and they're probably more 119 00:08:56.440 --> 00:09:01.760 people reading your book and others like it to do so, so it's fun to be on 120 00:09:01.760 --> 00:09:05.620 the forefront of what I think is going to be even a more, a larger tidal wave 121 00:09:05.620 --> 00:09:10.440 coming in the future. One of the things you dive into in your book is around 122 00:09:10.450 --> 00:09:14.730 personal branding. And one of the things that I want to dive into before 123 00:09:14.730 --> 00:09:18.500 we even cover, like the things you go into and being, how to build a personal 124 00:09:18.500 --> 00:09:23.710 branch, very practical is why personal branding is actually a really important 125 00:09:23.710 --> 00:09:28.220 part of building out your thought leadership. You gotta look at it as if 126 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:32.780 you were a company and in fact I call myself Robin ink because I look at it 127 00:09:32.780 --> 00:09:36.650 like a company and so you've got to build that personal brand the same way 128 00:09:36.650 --> 00:09:41.330 you would build a company brand, what is the voice and I mean by voice, not 129 00:09:41.330 --> 00:09:46.210 just the way your voice sounds, but how do you communicate? Is it with, you 130 00:09:46.210 --> 00:09:49.870 know, long science words or you communicating to more of a general 131 00:09:49.870 --> 00:09:54.210 audience. So really everything that goes into a brand, what you look like 132 00:09:54.220 --> 00:10:00.880 right? So for instance, I'm recognized by complete strangers from behind. Like 133 00:10:00.880 --> 00:10:04.740 that is kind of crazy. I have people come up to me all the time high you 134 00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:09.070 Robin firm information and it is, it's hilarious. So I have so many different 135 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:14.480 aspects of what I look like that are very signature and very, very obvious. 136 00:10:14.640 --> 00:10:19.310 So like imagine if you are a guy and a lot of guys in my world are, you know, 137 00:10:19.310 --> 00:10:23.140 physicians or they work in pharma or med device and so you know, a lot of 138 00:10:23.140 --> 00:10:26.330 the time they'll still dress up to go to conferences and they're like, oh I'm 139 00:10:26.330 --> 00:10:30.070 gonna wear a pocket square to differentiate like how is anyone going 140 00:10:30.070 --> 00:10:34.670 to see that? Right? Like you want your signature look and I call it a 141 00:10:34.670 --> 00:10:39.600 signature look to really be something that's in all the photos. And so that's 142 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:45.010 really anything from your chest up and it's not going to always include a, 143 00:10:45.020 --> 00:10:49.860 something like a pocket square. The other thing is, is it visual from stage, 144 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:54.050 right? Like a lot of the times something as small, like a pocket 145 00:10:54.050 --> 00:10:58.450 square or even just like maybe the way you do your makeup isn't visible from 146 00:10:58.450 --> 00:11:03.490 stage. And so things like your hair, your eye glasses, if you wear glasses, 147 00:11:03.490 --> 00:11:07.990 that is a fantastic opportunity because you can do the funny rims or a certain 148 00:11:07.990 --> 00:11:12.550 color, right? We were talking earlier that you remember one of the speakers 149 00:11:12.550 --> 00:11:17.080 because he wears these bright yellow glasses, yep, all those little things 150 00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:21.710 and I find personal brands can be powerful because they're essentially a 151 00:11:21.710 --> 00:11:26.330 representation of you, but they're not necessarily the full you, right? And I 152 00:11:26.330 --> 00:11:29.810 think I've often often heard advice when it comes to building a personal 153 00:11:29.810 --> 00:11:34.220 brand of just be you right, Which I've always kind of felt rings true and at 154 00:11:34.220 --> 00:11:36.720 the same time it's kind of frustrating because you're like, well what do I do 155 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:40.870 with that? That's like just be me. I'm a lot of things, it's like, which part 156 00:11:40.870 --> 00:11:44.510 of me, like the past me currently or like the me, I'd rather be out in the 157 00:11:44.510 --> 00:11:48.340 future somewhere. So it's not, I don't find that it's the best advice when it 158 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:52.080 comes to personal branding. So like one of the things you talk about is being 159 00:11:52.090 --> 00:11:57.040 authentic or a B a always be authentic, which I find is really important. It's 160 00:11:57.040 --> 00:12:00.510 like, of course it's not like when I say just be used bad, I don't mean to 161 00:12:00.510 --> 00:12:06.960 be someone else, but there's something more to it than just being who you are 162 00:12:06.970 --> 00:12:11.330 all the time. So when you say always be authentic, how do I actually go about 163 00:12:11.330 --> 00:12:17.140 doing that practically. So first of all don't tell like white lies. So I when 164 00:12:17.140 --> 00:12:20.720 networking, I use this kind of an example when you go up to someone, I 165 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:24.560 like to compliment them on something that I like about them. But I will 166 00:12:24.560 --> 00:12:29.380 never compliment on someone on something I don't like. Right? And 167 00:12:29.390 --> 00:12:34.250 that's just one very simple example of showing you where people will 168 00:12:34.260 --> 00:12:38.160 understand that you are either telling the truth or you're lying. You say, oh, 169 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:42.800 I love those shoes on you. It's really obvious when you're lying, right? And 170 00:12:42.800 --> 00:12:48.440 so take that kind of situation, but put yourself on stage, if you are trying to 171 00:12:48.440 --> 00:12:52.820 tell people something that you yourself don't believe in or if you're wearing 172 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:57.200 something that makes you feel uncomfortable or you're not used to or 173 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:01.390 you've taken someone else's advice on a brand new haircut. Hey, you're not 174 00:13:01.390 --> 00:13:05.730 going to be coming across as someone who isn't isn't lying, right? You're 175 00:13:05.730 --> 00:13:09.080 not going to come across as if you were telling the truth, you're going to come 176 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:14.260 across as feeling uncomfortable. That is so obvious when someone is wearing 177 00:13:14.260 --> 00:13:18.240 something, they don't like, it is incredibly obvious to everybody else 178 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:22.570 that they're uncomfortable, right? And so if you are always authentic, always 179 00:13:22.580 --> 00:13:27.460 exactly who you are, you're never put in that position of being that impostor 180 00:13:27.470 --> 00:13:30.750 and no one's going to notice that. So there's a little bit more to it than 181 00:13:30.750 --> 00:13:34.310 that, I think is even like when you dress up and you're taking photos and 182 00:13:34.310 --> 00:13:37.730 you're on stage, you're wearing the same things, but I'm like, even in this 183 00:13:37.730 --> 00:13:41.060 book cover, your brain like a red dress and I've seen you another book covers, 184 00:13:41.060 --> 00:13:44.780 you're wearing similar type dresses um in different colors depending on the 185 00:13:44.780 --> 00:13:47.300 audience, Right? Something you mentioned the book, but you're probably 186 00:13:47.300 --> 00:13:51.090 not always wearing that dress. Maybe when you're behind the scenes or it's 187 00:13:51.090 --> 00:13:54.890 like a cozy work saturday or something like that, or you just off at the mall, 188 00:13:54.900 --> 00:13:59.360 you're probably not always wearing those things, but when you're on brand 189 00:13:59.370 --> 00:14:02.100 or you're picking something, you're probably really comfortable in this 190 00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:06.410 dress for starters, so it's not inauthentic, but when you're getting in 191 00:14:06.410 --> 00:14:10.860 building your brand, you're essentially highlighting certain aspects to you and 192 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:15.630 kind of leaving the rest off the table, is that right? Exactly? To give you an 193 00:14:15.630 --> 00:14:20.070 example? I gave this talk in Germany and it was at this giant sports 194 00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:24.410 conference and I mean like full on like fitness studios, were there giant 195 00:14:24.410 --> 00:14:29.360 pieces of fitness equipment and for my main talk, I went in my normal dress 196 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:33.660 and high heels and then the next day I was doing a kind of more of an informal 197 00:14:33.670 --> 00:14:38.530 sit down interview. And so I decided to grab some workout equipment, like 198 00:14:38.540 --> 00:14:42.990 everyone else is wearing workout gear. I threw on sneakers, yoga pants, and 199 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:47.160 one of these energy harvesting shirts, it was, you know, hi tech workout shirt, 200 00:14:47.740 --> 00:14:53.000 nobody recognized me, like the people who, who were waiting for me and they 201 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.660 had never met me in person? But they were watching for someone with a dress 202 00:14:56.660 --> 00:14:59.890 and high heels on? And they're like, where, where is she, where is Robin? 203 00:14:59.890 --> 00:15:05.670 She's late? And I'm like, hi, I'm right in front of you. It was hilarious 204 00:15:05.670 --> 00:15:10.350 because I was just not even recognized because I was in that sporting uniform. 205 00:15:10.840 --> 00:15:13.850 So you feel like building a personal brand is really like just highlighting 206 00:15:13.850 --> 00:15:17.840 the parts that you want to highlight in order to essentially, I mean, it's kind 207 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:21.210 of a marketing play, you're, you're highlighting your finding out what the 208 00:15:21.210 --> 00:15:24.950 audience expects to some degree and you're bringing the right elements that 209 00:15:24.950 --> 00:15:27.960 are true to you, but you're kind of mixing and matching, you're trying to 210 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:31.130 bring the right things so that you're leaving the right impression that you 211 00:15:31.130 --> 00:15:36.440 want to leave its designing based on what's already true about you and it's 212 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:40.990 a lot more than clothes, but be from anything from the way you talk to the 213 00:15:40.990 --> 00:15:45.350 way you write to, the way you'll take photos to the way you talk on camera, 214 00:15:45.350 --> 00:15:48.640 to the way you do a podcast interview, right? It all has to be authentically 215 00:15:48.640 --> 00:15:51.900 you, but obviously it is designed a little bit and that you're being 216 00:15:51.900 --> 00:15:57.090 specific in the way you're coming across, yep, and consistent. So it's 217 00:15:57.090 --> 00:16:02.050 consistency is key. So how do you go about choosing those things? Like how 218 00:16:02.050 --> 00:16:05.860 do you work backwards? Like for example, how did you choose the dress as the 219 00:16:05.860 --> 00:16:10.100 signature item? Did you think backwards? It's like, no, like what do I want to 220 00:16:10.100 --> 00:16:14.620 look like? How do I see myself? Or is it something like, what would they 221 00:16:14.620 --> 00:16:18.870 expect? Or is it kind of like a blend of the two? It was nothing to do with 222 00:16:18.870 --> 00:16:23.710 what the audience would expect. It was 100%. What am I comfortable in and what 223 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:28.860 is someone of my job would normally wear? Right, So first of all, I'm just 224 00:16:28.860 --> 00:16:32.920 really comfortable and sheath dresses, like it's almost like wearing pajamas 225 00:16:32.920 --> 00:16:36.950 but they are nicely fitted and tailored but it's just so soft and easy to move 226 00:16:36.950 --> 00:16:41.080 in and so it's much more comfortable for me than say, a pair of jeans or 227 00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:44.440 something like that. And then I'm in sales and biz dev, you know, I meet 228 00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:49.460 with sea levels, you know, executives, I meet with investors and so people 229 00:16:49.460 --> 00:16:53.020 don't always show up into those kinds of things with like jeans and sneakers 230 00:16:53.020 --> 00:16:58.360 on to begin with. So that's first off, and a lot of my paid keynotes are 231 00:16:58.540 --> 00:17:02.490 consider business attire, which means again, you shouldn't be wearing like 232 00:17:02.490 --> 00:17:05.960 jeans and sneakers. So that was already off the table and it's just something 233 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:11.000 that I was already comfortable in and I can buy repetitive lee. So I literally 234 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:15.849 do have the exact same dress in like 20 to 25 different colors, patterns and, 235 00:17:15.849 --> 00:17:20.750 and fabrics, but it's essentially the exact same dress. Yeah. And that just 236 00:17:20.750 --> 00:17:24.910 helps people remember, helps give you a distinct style and your new thing, like 237 00:17:24.910 --> 00:17:27.720 if you picture Simon cowell's in your head, I guarantee you, you're going to 238 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:30.460 think about him in a particular shirt. You're thinking about it right now. 239 00:17:30.470 --> 00:17:35.160 It's a black v neck, that's what he wears. Either he decided that or a 240 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:39.030 brand specialist who specialized in like brand identity told them. Hey, 241 00:17:39.030 --> 00:17:42.670 this is your thing, right? Some, some people like steve jobs just decided 242 00:17:42.670 --> 00:17:47.000 they like black turtlenecks, but oftentimes celebrities are being told 243 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:51.820 by highly paid individuals what their look should be and how to be memorable 244 00:17:51.830 --> 00:17:54.580 because that's a big part of the game. Things, you need to think about it as a 245 00:17:54.580 --> 00:17:57.430 thought leader. I know we're spending a lot of time on dress, but this plays 246 00:17:57.430 --> 00:18:01.930 into like, I think most areas of branding, right? Finding that thing 247 00:18:01.930 --> 00:18:06.220 that's true to yourself, that's appropriate within the space or maybe 248 00:18:06.220 --> 00:18:10.590 strategically inappropriate. Right? Exactly. And then trying to be 249 00:18:10.590 --> 00:18:13.060 consistent in it. So let's walk through some of those other elements that 250 00:18:13.060 --> 00:18:16.130 you've spelled out, including enhancing your name. Tell me a little bit more 251 00:18:16.130 --> 00:18:21.210 about that. Sure. So I'm lucky in that I'm the only Robin Farm in for me in, 252 00:18:21.210 --> 00:18:25.830 in the entire universe, but when I google other people's names, sometimes 253 00:18:25.830 --> 00:18:29.070 they're not the only name in the universe and it can be really hard to 254 00:18:29.070 --> 00:18:34.050 differentiate. So if you have, you know, a first name like Michael or David, 255 00:18:34.050 --> 00:18:38.140 which is very, very popular and then you also have a last name that is also 256 00:18:38.140 --> 00:18:42.590 a popular last name. You might want to tweak your name some way right. And 257 00:18:42.590 --> 00:18:47.150 that might be adding the doctor to the beginning, that if you're, you know, if 258 00:18:47.150 --> 00:18:51.960 you are a doctor or it could be adding a middle initial or it could be, you 259 00:18:51.960 --> 00:18:56.610 know, using a nickname, but something that will literally differentiate your 260 00:18:56.610 --> 00:19:00.800 name and if you can't think of anything and your name is something you know, 261 00:19:00.800 --> 00:19:05.030 popular like Michael scott, like just or Michael smith or something like that. 262 00:19:05.040 --> 00:19:11.020 You could say Michael smith, technology entrepreneur and like have those two 263 00:19:11.020 --> 00:19:15.550 words always appear with your name. So you're essentially branding yourself in 264 00:19:15.550 --> 00:19:19.070 a name and that way you can differentiate yourself because let me 265 00:19:19.070 --> 00:19:22.760 tell you, there are a lot of speakers and authors where I've tried googling 266 00:19:22.760 --> 00:19:26.730 them and I couldn't find them right away. If you're not those first few 267 00:19:26.730 --> 00:19:33.150 results for your, not only your subject but your actual name, you've got to 268 00:19:33.150 --> 00:19:40.820 differentiate from the people who are the first results for your name. Hey 269 00:19:40.820 --> 00:19:44.990 everybody Logan with sweet fish here. If you're a regular listener of GDP 270 00:19:44.990 --> 00:19:48.990 growth, you know that I'm one of the co host of the show, but you may not know 271 00:19:48.990 --> 00:19:53.120 that I also head up the sales team here at sweet fish. So for those of you in 272 00:19:53.120 --> 00:19:57.080 sales or sales ops, I wanted to take a second to share something that's made 273 00:19:57.080 --> 00:20:01.660 us insanely more efficient lately. Our team has been using lead I. Q. For the 274 00:20:01.660 --> 00:20:06.070 past few months. And what used to take us four hours gathering contact data 275 00:20:06.080 --> 00:20:11.370 now takes us only one where 75% more efficient. We're able to move faster 276 00:20:11.370 --> 00:20:15.370 with outbound prospecting and organizing our campaigns is so much 277 00:20:15.370 --> 00:20:19.640 easier than before. I'd highly suggest you guys check out lead I. Q. As well, 278 00:20:19.650 --> 00:20:26.510 you can check them out at lead I. Q dot com. That's L E A D I Q dot com. 279 00:20:26.520 --> 00:20:33.530 Alright, let's get back to the show. Hey, that's fantastic. I was just 280 00:20:33.530 --> 00:20:36.310 thinking I'm like you know what, I kind of stumbled into that on accident, 281 00:20:36.320 --> 00:20:40.560 hence calling myself dan chess and just said to just dan Sanchez which became, 282 00:20:40.940 --> 00:20:45.140 it was it was like a hashtag like even eight months ago I just started doing 283 00:20:45.140 --> 00:20:49.120 it on linkedin and people are stuck because there's honestly about, I think 284 00:20:49.120 --> 00:20:53.430 there's about 2000 of dan Sanchez is out there, it's a common name so I mix 285 00:20:53.430 --> 00:20:56.500 it together and I'm pretty much the only one that goes by dan says now and 286 00:20:56.500 --> 00:21:01.010 it's awesome, it's cute, it's funny, it's interesting and it's still, I can 287 00:21:01.010 --> 00:21:05.590 still go by dan Sanchez and people know but it's still just a different naming 288 00:21:05.590 --> 00:21:09.830 thing in a way, we know Gary Vaynerchuk. Uh he's got such a long name, he just 289 00:21:09.830 --> 00:21:14.760 started going by Gary V because less syllables is usually more memorable. 290 00:21:14.770 --> 00:21:17.980 That kind of depends right? So I know he had shortened it and a lot of I've 291 00:21:17.980 --> 00:21:20.820 seen a lot of people play with the name, what would you say to people who have 292 00:21:20.820 --> 00:21:25.680 like just really harsh sounding names or like they're just names is kind of 293 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.610 like, you know, they just don't have a great name. What would you say to 294 00:21:29.610 --> 00:21:32.070 people like that? Have you ever worked with customers whose names are just 295 00:21:32.070 --> 00:21:36.120 sound not funny, but like they're hard to really hard to say, they're 296 00:21:36.120 --> 00:21:38.950 impossible to spell. I could think of like a friend whose last name is like 297 00:21:38.950 --> 00:21:43.110 seven check and it's it's literally impossible to spell right and even the 298 00:21:43.110 --> 00:21:46.710 way I said it, you would never guess the spelling of it. So I would say make 299 00:21:46.710 --> 00:21:51.650 sure your first name is easy, right? And so I do have some clients that I've 300 00:21:51.650 --> 00:21:55.550 worked with and some entrepreneurs I've worked with from china right? And their 301 00:21:55.550 --> 00:22:00.140 names started with an X and for an american, anything that starts with the 302 00:22:00.140 --> 00:22:05.490 letter X, you say x, x ray, right or something like that. And it's so rare 303 00:22:05.490 --> 00:22:09.100 in the english language, I'm like no one can remember how to spell your name 304 00:22:09.100 --> 00:22:13.170 and no one knows how to say it. So you need one of your names, like your first 305 00:22:13.170 --> 00:22:16.990 name or your last name, but hopefully your first name be something that the 306 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:22.220 audience you are trying to target and reach will be able to remember and 307 00:22:22.220 --> 00:22:27.610 spell and remember a lot of Hollywood actors and even authors change their 308 00:22:27.610 --> 00:22:32.380 name all the time. Some of them changed their name to be completely brand new 309 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:36.210 and nothing like their old name and some just tweak their names. But really, 310 00:22:36.210 --> 00:22:39.750 I mean if you want to go ahead and tweak your name, you're welcome to do 311 00:22:39.750 --> 00:22:42.880 that. There's no reason you even have to go through anything legal. You can 312 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:46.600 have that stage name, that name that everyone on social media calls you by 313 00:22:46.600 --> 00:22:50.690 and everyone on your email list, but then you know when you pay your taxes, 314 00:22:50.690 --> 00:22:55.550 you pay under your normal name, so many different ways to mix and match it 315 00:22:55.550 --> 00:22:59.240 could literally be a nickname, it could be, you probably name tied to the 316 00:22:59.250 --> 00:23:03.500 industry if you can find some fancy alliteration to make it work or and 317 00:23:03.500 --> 00:23:06.990 find the domain name and then everybody kind of knows you is that thing. Think 318 00:23:06.990 --> 00:23:12.150 about e patient Dave, right? E patient Dave. I don't, most people don't know 319 00:23:12.150 --> 00:23:15.450 his last name is D Bronk something I can't even remember it because it's 320 00:23:15.450 --> 00:23:20.020 hard, but I remember e patient Dave right and he's a very famous E patient 321 00:23:20.020 --> 00:23:24.460 now just by that name, yep, that works. I think the one scary thing about is 322 00:23:24.460 --> 00:23:28.130 you get locked into that one thing and it's hard to pivot later, right? But 323 00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:32.810 I'm sure people have done it. One thing you talk about is having a fundamental 324 00:23:32.810 --> 00:23:36.970 truth. Tell me a little bit more about that. It's not necessarily a mission of 325 00:23:36.970 --> 00:23:40.610 a kind. But what do you mean by fundamental truth? So what I'm talking 326 00:23:40.610 --> 00:23:46.320 about your thought leader formula itself, it is a combination of your y 327 00:23:46.330 --> 00:23:50.340 and your fundamental truth and that's really the beginning of your thought 328 00:23:50.340 --> 00:23:54.180 leader platform. And so your fundamental truth is something that you 329 00:23:54.180 --> 00:23:57.960 believe that either the rest of the world doesn't even know about yet or 330 00:23:57.960 --> 00:24:02.570 don't actually agree with you. For instance, my first book and how I 331 00:24:02.570 --> 00:24:07.940 launched myself was the patient as Ceo right? And that is a concept that when 332 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:12.780 you go to places like Germany and Japan, their mouths drop open because it's a 333 00:24:12.780 --> 00:24:16.280 very paternalistic healthcare system. And so when the patient goes in to see 334 00:24:16.280 --> 00:24:20.590 a doctor, they're not even supposed to ask questions, they say yes, thank you. 335 00:24:20.600 --> 00:24:23.840 And then you're supposed to go do what the doctor tells you to do right? And 336 00:24:23.840 --> 00:24:30.220 by saying the patient is the ceo that is a dramatic shift in how people view 337 00:24:30.220 --> 00:24:35.330 patients. And so that's my fundamental truth. But it also is something that I 338 00:24:35.330 --> 00:24:40.490 truly believe right? Always make sure you walk your talk. I am the 339 00:24:40.500 --> 00:24:45.050 essentially ceo of my own healthcare team and I demonstrate that over and 340 00:24:45.050 --> 00:24:49.360 over and over again with real life scenarios and I talk about it on stage. 341 00:24:49.740 --> 00:24:53.830 So it makes sense. You're essentially like taking what is a long explanation 342 00:24:53.830 --> 00:24:57.680 for what could be in finding a very short and distinct way to summarize it 343 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:03.450 into one. A one liner kind of like um Toyota has always better never best 344 00:25:03.460 --> 00:25:06.910 right to summarize kind of the lean manufacturing which has a whole book 345 00:25:06.920 --> 00:25:10.300 behind it, but you can kind of get the sense of it and always better never 346 00:25:10.300 --> 00:25:15.530 best right your summarizing your truce. And would you say these truths are like 347 00:25:15.540 --> 00:25:18.980 the unique things you're doing to expand the industry? Because I'd say 348 00:25:18.980 --> 00:25:22.710 thought leadership is making unique, it's not just being an expert, it's 349 00:25:22.710 --> 00:25:26.940 making unique contributions. Right? And these these truths are your unique 350 00:25:26.940 --> 00:25:31.830 contributions as a thought leader. Your pillars as a thought leader. Exactly. 351 00:25:31.840 --> 00:25:35.630 So thinking about the fact that also many of us have more than one 352 00:25:35.630 --> 00:25:40.190 fundamental truth. So it's really targeting it down to that one concept 353 00:25:40.190 --> 00:25:46.060 that you can build a brand off of a platform, remember anything you do now 354 00:25:46.070 --> 00:25:50.400 doesn't mean you can't do other things next year or the year after, right? 355 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:53.480 You're not gonna pigeon your whole yourself necessarily. I mean if you 356 00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:57.480 call yourself e patient dave maybe you don't go into agriculture with that 357 00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:02.990 name, but in general like with the patient as Ceo I've done now the 358 00:26:02.990 --> 00:26:07.380 healthcare stuff. I've done the thought leadership stuff and I've also done 359 00:26:07.380 --> 00:26:11.750 facilitating virtual events. So I've put out a book in the event world right? 360 00:26:11.750 --> 00:26:15.520 And now I'm about ready to put out 1/4 book and that's on a I democratizing 361 00:26:15.520 --> 00:26:20.690 healthcare. And so really I I decided not to let anything pigeonholed me, but 362 00:26:20.700 --> 00:26:24.700 everything just keeps building absolutely. I have noticed that thought 363 00:26:24.700 --> 00:26:30.360 leaders who are professional thought leaders often have a specific beachhead 364 00:26:30.360 --> 00:26:33.380 that they come in on with one idea, but then afterwards, once you kind of have 365 00:26:33.380 --> 00:26:37.630 that established, you can do one after another after another. Hence Gary V 366 00:26:37.630 --> 00:26:40.920 started with the wine guy, he was the wine guy and then he became the social 367 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:45.170 media guy and now lately he's been the crypto N. F. T. Guy, like he keeps 368 00:26:45.180 --> 00:26:48.910 adding these feathers to his hat, but ultimately it's becoming a truer 369 00:26:48.910 --> 00:26:52.560 expression to him and you can continue to add those things. Of course he would 370 00:26:52.560 --> 00:26:56.410 say that you only know 5% of who I actually am because I've crafted this 371 00:26:56.410 --> 00:27:01.010 brand, but you can do one thing after another though, I'd say usually 372 00:27:01.010 --> 00:27:04.300 probably have to pick one thing and stick with it for a while. Yes, and I 373 00:27:04.300 --> 00:27:08.260 mean that's that's something from Silicon Valley entrepreneurship, right? 374 00:27:08.270 --> 00:27:12.300 When you are first launching a company, you need to be able to do one thing 375 00:27:12.300 --> 00:27:16.780 incredibly well with a very well defined vertical, right? And so for 376 00:27:16.780 --> 00:27:20.820 instance, I worked at health tap back in 2010 and this is data and 377 00:27:20.820 --> 00:27:25.280 telemedicine type platform and when we first initially launched in order to 378 00:27:25.280 --> 00:27:29.280 get feedback and really kind of look at the product, we did it just for 379 00:27:29.280 --> 00:27:33.770 pregnant women and new moms, even though we were not even remotely going 380 00:27:33.770 --> 00:27:37.690 to focus on that later on. Right later on, we were planning on going across 381 00:27:37.690 --> 00:27:41.970 all the major diseases from diabetes to cardiovascular health, but we really 382 00:27:41.970 --> 00:27:47.390 just launched in that one well defined market so we could get traction and 383 00:27:47.390 --> 00:27:51.610 then once we were able to get traction and understand what was going on, then 384 00:27:51.620 --> 00:27:57.800 we expanded across diseases makes sense. So just like it's you incorporated, 385 00:27:57.800 --> 00:28:01.030 right? You really do have to do to build a personal brand and I thought 386 00:28:01.030 --> 00:28:03.510 leadership, you really do have to think about all the things that normal 387 00:28:03.510 --> 00:28:06.040 business would have to think about? Just like if you were starting up, you 388 00:28:06.040 --> 00:28:09.170 do have to think about who's your market, who is your audience? What's 389 00:28:09.170 --> 00:28:12.590 the solution generally that you as a brand bring to the table like all that 390 00:28:12.590 --> 00:28:17.030 kind of like um like steve blank's four steps to the epiphany, the lean startup 391 00:28:17.070 --> 00:28:20.100 methodology, you really have to bring yourself, which is probably why a lot 392 00:28:20.100 --> 00:28:22.920 of people don't get into it because it's be honest, like those steps and 393 00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:26.960 entrepreneurship are kind of hard, let's say they do find it though. How 394 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:29.820 long do you think you should stick to it? Or when do you know, you were able 395 00:28:29.820 --> 00:28:33.270 to break away from the first thing you got established and can established 396 00:28:33.270 --> 00:28:37.560 another thing. Well, first of all has it fed your revenue stream enough 397 00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:40.970 because you shouldn't be launching yourself just as a thought leader and 398 00:28:40.970 --> 00:28:44.540 expect money to fall in your lap because it's not going to happen. Right? 399 00:28:44.550 --> 00:28:49.620 What is your business model? So looking at your business model, have you been 400 00:28:49.620 --> 00:28:54.180 able to feed it correctly? Is it working? And once it started working 401 00:28:54.180 --> 00:28:59.520 and really got new traction then, is it time to launch a second brand or 402 00:28:59.530 --> 00:29:03.850 vertical? And what is the business model for? That? That makes sense. But 403 00:29:03.850 --> 00:29:06.320 you might have to pivot on the way there in case the first one didn't 404 00:29:06.320 --> 00:29:09.760 quite, I don't know if I'm ready for whatever reason, just didn't connect 405 00:29:09.760 --> 00:29:13.860 the way you wanted it to. So it might be interesting. Moving on. One of the 406 00:29:13.860 --> 00:29:16.760 other things you talk about for a personal brand is catchphrases and I 407 00:29:16.760 --> 00:29:20.620 loved this. I recently read about even at a different thing, a book called 408 00:29:20.620 --> 00:29:25.720 primal branding, I think they caught words or like sacred words, but I'm 409 00:29:25.720 --> 00:29:29.330 like, it's kind of the same thing, like what do you mean by catchphrases 410 00:29:29.340 --> 00:29:32.610 specifically? And then I'd like to kind of go back and forth on different 411 00:29:32.620 --> 00:29:38.550 iterations of it. Sure, so thinking about what are those 3 to 5 phrases and 412 00:29:38.550 --> 00:29:42.870 I mean just to start that you repeat over and over again. Right? So one of 413 00:29:42.870 --> 00:29:47.280 mine would be the patient as ceo, right? That's both fundamental truth a book 414 00:29:47.290 --> 00:29:52.850 name as well as a catchphrase, right, Another catchphrase could be back when 415 00:29:52.850 --> 00:29:57.390 I first launched that book Doctors as medical engineers, Right? So I could 416 00:29:57.390 --> 00:30:01.700 just say that concept over and over again and all of my interviews and put 417 00:30:01.700 --> 00:30:06.780 it in my books and put it up on stage so that these are concepts and phrases 418 00:30:06.780 --> 00:30:10.580 that get associated with your brand. What would you think about coming up 419 00:30:10.580 --> 00:30:16.290 with phrases that are not necessarily tied to your thought leadership, but 420 00:30:16.290 --> 00:30:20.580 tied to just you and your personality or tied to something that's specific 421 00:30:20.580 --> 00:30:24.290 about your brand? Have you played with those at all with yourself or with 422 00:30:24.290 --> 00:30:29.470 customers? So it kind of blends for me because I do have enough catchphrases 423 00:30:29.470 --> 00:30:33.260 now and enough things that I can go into like fundamental truth and your 424 00:30:33.260 --> 00:30:38.730 why, Right? That's another one of my essentially catchphrases, so it's just, 425 00:30:38.740 --> 00:30:42.220 I mean you can really have as many as you want and they can be related to 426 00:30:42.220 --> 00:30:46.290 either just your personal brand or to your business model, but they're really 427 00:30:46.290 --> 00:30:49.550 just things that you're going to say over and over again, concepts that 428 00:30:49.940 --> 00:30:54.620 Essentially getting your concepts down 3-5 boards, 3-5 words, that's a good 429 00:30:54.620 --> 00:30:59.140 rule and it's funny because we can all think of different catchphrases from 430 00:30:59.140 --> 00:31:02.690 all popular brands, like Nike is most famous, just do it, right is a 431 00:31:02.690 --> 00:31:06.090 catchphrase from their brand and ways to sink your teeth into something, and 432 00:31:06.090 --> 00:31:09.370 they could probably be more thought driven or maybe concept driven, 433 00:31:09.380 --> 00:31:13.350 certainly more emotionally driven, like just do, it could probably be all over 434 00:31:13.350 --> 00:31:16.800 the place. In fact there might be, I'd imagine would be powerful if you can 435 00:31:16.800 --> 00:31:19.620 work emotion to it, I don't know how thought leaders would work more emotion 436 00:31:19.620 --> 00:31:23.410 into a specific phrase, but I imagine it's possible, the last thing you kind 437 00:31:23.410 --> 00:31:28.280 of have in your steps to building a great brand is building your bio or 438 00:31:28.280 --> 00:31:32.970 story. So, tell me a little bit more about that. Well, if you haven't had a 439 00:31:32.970 --> 00:31:37.260 professional bio done right, and like, when you're launching yourself as a 440 00:31:37.260 --> 00:31:40.880 thought leader, I'd say, have someone come help you with it, because 441 00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:45.480 sometimes you are so close to it that it's difficult for you to really take 442 00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:49.370 out the things that are most important, and so what I did now, I'm an expert of 443 00:31:49.370 --> 00:31:53.050 course at writing bios and I can write my own or or anybody else is in a 444 00:31:53.050 --> 00:31:56.860 matter of minutes, but when I first started out, what, eight years ago, I 445 00:31:56.860 --> 00:32:00.930 was like, I don't know how to do this, and so I brought on a pr company who 446 00:32:00.930 --> 00:32:05.490 went and went through and created like a small bio, a medium length and then a 447 00:32:05.490 --> 00:32:10.380 super long bio for me and then I just took those and I built off of them, so 448 00:32:10.380 --> 00:32:13.060 you kind of build a different backstories for different people 449 00:32:13.060 --> 00:32:18.270 depending on their fundamental truths and their audience, I imagine because 450 00:32:18.270 --> 00:32:20.920 everybody's everybody's got a really long backstory. If you tell someone to 451 00:32:20.920 --> 00:32:24.020 tell you a minute and 20 stories, they can ramble for 20 minutes, but most of 452 00:32:24.020 --> 00:32:27.200 it's not really relevant to the audience. So what kind of things are 453 00:32:27.200 --> 00:32:32.110 you looking for when you're looking at a story, let's say there, there want to 454 00:32:32.110 --> 00:32:37.120 become a thought leader. They sell to SAAS companies, right? And they want to 455 00:32:37.120 --> 00:32:39.750 be positioned as a thought leader. They have a new way of running SAAS 456 00:32:39.750 --> 00:32:43.420 companies are helping them enhance reoccurring revenue or something like 457 00:32:43.420 --> 00:32:46.510 that. Maybe they discovered a methodology that really helps them do 458 00:32:46.510 --> 00:32:49.470 it. And they've been pioneering that in the space. Like what kind of things are 459 00:32:49.470 --> 00:32:53.680 you looking for in that kind of person's backstory. So something that 460 00:32:53.690 --> 00:32:58.190 is personal that can give that emotional response, right? And tie you 461 00:32:58.190 --> 00:33:02.460 to that. When we started this interview, we talked about why I decided to become 462 00:33:02.460 --> 00:33:05.660 a thought leader, right? Why I became a professional speaker. It's because I 463 00:33:05.660 --> 00:33:09.730 was so pushed down in Silicon Valley and how that much, you know how that 464 00:33:09.730 --> 00:33:13.490 changed the equation. And so there's that story where you can have the 465 00:33:13.490 --> 00:33:18.030 emotional reaction and take them onto that success thing. So that's always a 466 00:33:18.030 --> 00:33:22.770 good one or maybe some kind of an epiphany, right? So that one works well 467 00:33:22.770 --> 00:33:28.220 too. Like you were watching a baseball game one day, you were at work and you 468 00:33:28.220 --> 00:33:31.610 know your I. T. Guys said this and then all of a sudden bam the light bulb went 469 00:33:31.610 --> 00:33:35.490 off and you had an epiphany and that's why you want to do this. So it could 470 00:33:35.490 --> 00:33:39.690 really just be anything that gives that emotional response. It sounds like 471 00:33:39.690 --> 00:33:42.200 there's a couple different templates are ways of going about it. Like you 472 00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:48.230 just said because you had you had an obstacle that you were facing. You had 473 00:33:48.230 --> 00:33:51.780 an epiphany, right? That hey this should be a thing. Like you maybe you 474 00:33:51.780 --> 00:33:54.960 connect to different ideas together and you're like what the I wonder what some 475 00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:59.730 other common stories are kind of like I guess they this this might be the 476 00:33:59.730 --> 00:34:04.490 epiphany but of common origin story for most companies is uh I had this problem 477 00:34:04.490 --> 00:34:07.950 myself and I was like, huh? How come nobody else does this? Right? Like Uber, 478 00:34:07.950 --> 00:34:13.429 that's the story. They were stuck in a I think a snowstorm and Harris and they 479 00:34:13.429 --> 00:34:16.440 couldn't hail a cab and had ways to go and they're like, man, wouldn't it be 480 00:34:16.440 --> 00:34:18.870 nice if there was an apple, I could just summon the cabin, they would come 481 00:34:18.870 --> 00:34:22.400 to me right, Uber was born. And I actually think the real story was a lot 482 00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:25.130 more longer complicated but it's certainly a nice sound bite that 483 00:34:25.130 --> 00:34:28.860 they've essentially crafted into a story. Can you think of any other like 484 00:34:29.040 --> 00:34:33.170 takeaways or tactics for trying to find the story? One thing that I find 485 00:34:33.170 --> 00:34:36.420 happens a lot is like the story behind the company is like, well, it seemed 486 00:34:36.420 --> 00:34:39.070 like it was a profitable market that was kind of interesting to me and 487 00:34:39.070 --> 00:34:42.570 therefore I developed a product around it and happened to have the right idea. 488 00:34:42.570 --> 00:34:45.389 Now the product is pretty good, but I don't have a really compelling story. 489 00:34:45.400 --> 00:34:50.000 It's because they didn't bring on an expert to help them. Right? So you've 490 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.060 got to understand that in the world of marketing, you've got experts who have 491 00:34:54.060 --> 00:34:57.610 done this for years and maybe have a lot of education and then you've got 492 00:34:57.610 --> 00:35:01.180 people who are starting companies who might be an engineer or might be a 493 00:35:01.180 --> 00:35:05.720 biologist or you know, might have studied finance, but not necessarily 494 00:35:05.720 --> 00:35:09.520 marketing. And then, you know, they try to come up with their own personal 495 00:35:09.520 --> 00:35:13.080 story and it looks like it's a mess because they've never tried to do that 496 00:35:13.090 --> 00:35:17.190 before. They're not an expert. So I tell people hire a coach for one 497 00:35:17.190 --> 00:35:21.750 session, even just one session to really break it down. Because like I 498 00:35:21.750 --> 00:35:24.860 could hear someone's personal story. You know, you could spend three or five 499 00:35:24.860 --> 00:35:28.850 minutes telling me and I'll get that down to like three sentences in seconds, 500 00:35:29.040 --> 00:35:33.770 right? Because I'm used to being able to do that that is a skill that needs 501 00:35:33.770 --> 00:35:38.490 to be learned and actually used not just suddenly come up with at the spur 502 00:35:38.490 --> 00:35:41.800 of the moment when you want to become a thought leader, but if you want to try 503 00:35:41.800 --> 00:35:45.680 to do your own first thing I tell people is no more than three major 504 00:35:45.680 --> 00:35:50.590 details, right? So yeah, because a lot of the time someone will tell a story 505 00:35:50.590 --> 00:35:54.150 and they go on like have you heard of an eight year old ever telling a story? 506 00:35:54.160 --> 00:35:58.170 Like on this favorite cartoon, have an eight year old living with me right now. 507 00:35:58.180 --> 00:36:02.430 So everywhere it takes them 15 minutes to tell you something, that should have 508 00:36:02.430 --> 00:36:05.710 been one sentence. Yeah, and that's what a lot of people think our 509 00:36:05.710 --> 00:36:10.020 storytelling is. So instead think about what are the three main points you need 510 00:36:10.020 --> 00:36:14.840 to get across in the shortest length of time. You want to write it on the back 511 00:36:14.840 --> 00:36:19.050 of a napkin or the back of the envelope? It's your elevator pitch. So three main 512 00:36:19.050 --> 00:36:22.950 points. And is it almost is usually along the lines of like the world was 513 00:36:22.950 --> 00:36:27.610 like this, there was a problem and then this Yeah, it's kind of those things, 514 00:36:27.620 --> 00:36:31.180 if somebody who actually wanted to hire somebody like what kind of job titles 515 00:36:31.180 --> 00:36:33.930 are they're usually looking for in their headline, of course they can 516 00:36:33.930 --> 00:36:37.410 contact you. But if they were looking for that one hour, like okay, I want to 517 00:36:37.410 --> 00:36:39.980 just be able to tell my story for 30 minutes and they pull out the three 518 00:36:39.980 --> 00:36:43.390 sentences that are just going to work. What kind of person am I looking for 519 00:36:43.390 --> 00:36:47.360 that helps with that marketing team, marketing. Yeah, so like there are 520 00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:51.020 marketing companies, there are marketing coaches, there are companies 521 00:36:51.020 --> 00:36:54.840 that just literally work on personal branding a lot of the time, these 522 00:36:54.840 --> 00:36:59.290 companies are 2 to 5 people or even just a solo consultant, like I'm a solo 523 00:36:59.290 --> 00:37:03.810 consultant and you just reach out to me and then you hire me for an hour, a lot 524 00:37:03.810 --> 00:37:06.880 of friends who do that kind of thing. So literally just start googling 525 00:37:06.880 --> 00:37:12.160 marketing marketing people on linkedin, Fantastic. And the last major part you 526 00:37:12.160 --> 00:37:17.290 do a huge push with your book on the power of writing a book. Now this isn't 527 00:37:17.300 --> 00:37:20.120 super uncommon. I've talked to a couple of the thought leaders have pushed that 528 00:37:20.120 --> 00:37:23.590 but I want to revisit it again because the more I've read about it, the more I 529 00:37:23.590 --> 00:37:28.520 find that this this is the thing, a lot of people agree that the almighty book, 530 00:37:28.530 --> 00:37:32.560 despite social media being so popular is still the number one way you become 531 00:37:32.560 --> 00:37:38.410 a thought leader why it is better than a degree and let me tell you why. So 532 00:37:38.410 --> 00:37:42.780 I'm a chronic disease patient and my whole patient as ceo book is based on 533 00:37:42.790 --> 00:37:47.700 that and the fact that I'm a technology entrepreneur, I am called Dr furman for 534 00:37:47.700 --> 00:37:52.440 me in more frequently sometimes that I'm called Robin like thanks guys but I 535 00:37:52.440 --> 00:37:58.360 have a Bs and management and finance, that's like my education, I am far from 536 00:37:58.360 --> 00:38:03.460 being a physician yet. People just assume I am and this is a big deal in 537 00:38:03.460 --> 00:38:09.000 the world of medicine because most women who spend that 15 years studying 538 00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:13.000 medicine, doing residency and fellowship and all of that most of the 539 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:16.960 time are not called doctor, which is kind of interesting that people will 540 00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:20.540 just assume like they cannot get people to call them doctor and people just 541 00:38:20.540 --> 00:38:25.860 assume I am right. That's the power of a book. Just people seem to think that 542 00:38:25.870 --> 00:38:29.840 if you can write a book then you must be the world's expert. It's probably 543 00:38:29.840 --> 00:38:33.670 going to go on like this for the next five or six years. If you're trying to 544 00:38:33.670 --> 00:38:37.690 speak to generation Z. This is probably not the way. But if you're trying to 545 00:38:37.690 --> 00:38:42.350 speak to millennials gen X. Or anyone older than that. Absolutely. A book is 546 00:38:42.350 --> 00:38:46.500 the equivalent of getting a graduate degree. Yeah, I mean well even write a 547 00:38:46.500 --> 00:38:50.540 book, even if it's an okay book, you still had to do a lot of work. You 548 00:38:50.540 --> 00:38:53.760 still have to do a lot of study and you still had to articulate all the things 549 00:38:53.760 --> 00:38:56.790 you learned, right. Which is why college has you write papers? But 550 00:38:56.790 --> 00:39:00.200 generally you write nonsense of called papers because I have great, I've 551 00:39:00.200 --> 00:39:03.870 worked, I've had my M. B. A. And I've totted colleges before and reading 552 00:39:03.870 --> 00:39:07.730 papers like worse than writing them right? If you write a book, you 553 00:39:07.730 --> 00:39:11.100 actually have to write coherent something in there. Even if it's like 554 00:39:11.110 --> 00:39:14.330 not breakthrough, what if people feel like they're not ready to write a book, 555 00:39:14.720 --> 00:39:17.630 like they have their an expert, they have some unique ideas, but they 556 00:39:17.630 --> 00:39:21.440 haven't like fleshed out their unique ideas, they haven't been practicing 557 00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:23.880 their unique ideas, they don't have a lot of evidence that show that you're, 558 00:39:23.880 --> 00:39:28.730 their unique ideas are like bulletproof yet and they're afraid that the real 559 00:39:28.730 --> 00:39:32.960 experts will come for them. What about those people? So there's two things 560 00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:38.240 First to think about, First of all, single digit, hundreds, maybe thousands 561 00:39:38.240 --> 00:39:42.420 of people are going to read your book seriously, like oh no, there are very 562 00:39:42.420 --> 00:39:46.320 few people are actually going to read your book instead they are going to 563 00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:50.530 hopefully be feeding your revenue streams like my revenue streams. I 564 00:39:50.530 --> 00:39:54.320 fundraise for startup companies and healthcare and I'm hired by big 565 00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:58.580 companies to come in and give keynotes, right? So those are two of my big 566 00:39:58.590 --> 00:40:02.380 revenue strings. And so everything I do kind of wants to feed one of those. So 567 00:40:02.380 --> 00:40:07.550 first of all thinking about that, but second of all this is a company, you 568 00:40:07.550 --> 00:40:11.470 have to get that into your brain being a thought leader is not an individual 569 00:40:11.470 --> 00:40:15.850 side project, you do for fun, you've got to think of this as a company and 570 00:40:15.850 --> 00:40:21.090 you bring on experts Because writing in general, but then specifically writing 571 00:40:21.090 --> 00:40:27.510 a book, this is a big deal, it is a skill set and it takes a lot of back 572 00:40:27.510 --> 00:40:32.690 knowledge on even how the process works, right? And so if you have never written 573 00:40:32.690 --> 00:40:38.030 something more than 20 pages before, you might need to bring on extra help. 574 00:40:38.040 --> 00:40:43.070 And there are many ways to do that from I I refer people to a bunch of my 575 00:40:43.070 --> 00:40:47.730 different friends who will ghost off there for them or they will be that 576 00:40:47.730 --> 00:40:51.570 person who helps bring them through the process like a coach that stands with 577 00:40:51.570 --> 00:40:56.250 them and and does a lot of the editing or helps them with their outline. You 578 00:40:56.250 --> 00:40:59.960 can also use companies like Scribd Media who I used for my first book 579 00:40:59.970 --> 00:41:03.950 which is amazing. They spend about 14 hours with you, they talked to you on 580 00:41:03.950 --> 00:41:08.110 the phone, they help you outline your book Then they spend 10 hours just 581 00:41:08.110 --> 00:41:11.820 sitting there talking you through your outlined and everything is recorded, 582 00:41:11.830 --> 00:41:16.110 transcribed, edited and then sent to you in a perfect book, write those 583 00:41:16.110 --> 00:41:19.500 kinds of things are very, very pricey obviously. But then there are other 584 00:41:19.500 --> 00:41:24.330 ways you can hack it, go to something like scripted.com and order. That's uh 585 00:41:24.510 --> 00:41:28.560 It's essentially articles on demand from just writers who can do like 800 586 00:41:28.560 --> 00:41:33.840 word articles or something ordered seven or 8 800 word articles put that 587 00:41:33.840 --> 00:41:38.270 together as a book, write an intro and write a conclusion, smash it together 588 00:41:38.270 --> 00:41:42.760 and there's your book, write a book, is a marketing tool, it is not a revenue 589 00:41:42.760 --> 00:41:47.440 stream. It's a way, I imagine if you package all your ideas in one book, one, 590 00:41:47.450 --> 00:41:51.140 you have a really nice little package to give people your thought leadership 591 00:41:51.140 --> 00:41:54.690 ideas two, they may be paid you a little bit of money for it. So it sets 592 00:41:54.690 --> 00:41:57.710 them up for maybe a bigger spend because the relationship has changed at 593 00:41:57.710 --> 00:42:00.990 some point. You can, you obviously just splinter out all the different content 594 00:42:00.990 --> 00:42:04.080 in the book and all your social media post for who knows how long. So it 595 00:42:04.080 --> 00:42:08.690 plays a lot of different roles. But why, I guess, I guess the big part about a 596 00:42:08.690 --> 00:42:14.280 book more than a podcast, more than maybe a Youtube channel or social media 597 00:42:14.280 --> 00:42:17.990 of some kind is just the credibility that comes with the book, that's what 598 00:42:17.990 --> 00:42:22.090 it is, it's the packaging, it's just the packaging, you could, you could 599 00:42:22.090 --> 00:42:26.180 literally, you know, say your entire book out loud and it's not going to 600 00:42:26.180 --> 00:42:30.460 have that same credibility as a physical book, even if it's just an e 601 00:42:30.460 --> 00:42:34.720 book and that's really just the psychological conditioning we have here 602 00:42:34.720 --> 00:42:39.350 in the United States around books. Up until now, no one realizes just how 603 00:42:39.360 --> 00:42:43.820 easy it is to get it done. I don't know, I mean, it is hard to write a well 604 00:42:43.820 --> 00:42:48.470 formulated book. Would you say it's better to write it earlier or later? So, 605 00:42:48.470 --> 00:42:53.550 start now. Right. I I published my book, I think about a year, year and a half 606 00:42:53.550 --> 00:42:57.360 into my thought Leader journey and that was on my actual project plan. So I 607 00:42:57.360 --> 00:43:01.740 came out with first a bunch of different articles that I had, I hired 608 00:43:01.740 --> 00:43:05.770 a PR company to place in high end magazines. So I had that kind of 609 00:43:05.780 --> 00:43:10.030 content catalog out there. Then I did a bunch of key notes and I hired someone 610 00:43:10.030 --> 00:43:14.830 to do like high end slides for me. And then I hired a team to come on and help 611 00:43:14.830 --> 00:43:18.650 me with my book. This is a company you are building a brand. If you're trying 612 00:43:18.650 --> 00:43:23.330 to do it so low, you are probably not going to be as successful or it takes 613 00:43:23.330 --> 00:43:27.180 longer or maybe you just never get it done. I could see the point in hiring 614 00:43:27.180 --> 00:43:30.670 someone to help and some people have enough drive to push it all the way 615 00:43:30.670 --> 00:43:33.510 through and knock it out in a month or six months or whatever, whatever it 616 00:43:33.510 --> 00:43:38.090 might be. So, this has been fascinating. There's so many other elements elements 617 00:43:38.090 --> 00:43:40.900 of this book that we could have dived into. But if you want to, you're gonna 618 00:43:40.900 --> 00:43:44.220 have to go and read the whole book. I think we flushed out one chapter pretty 619 00:43:44.220 --> 00:43:48.360 well, but that's just one of many chapters in this book. Um, so again, 620 00:43:48.360 --> 00:43:53.020 the book is a thought Leader Formula. There's a lot of books with the title 621 00:43:53.020 --> 00:43:57.050 Thought Thought Leader. This is the one with the word formula in it and you'll 622 00:43:57.050 --> 00:44:00.880 see Robin right on the cover, Robin, it's been a delight to have you on the 623 00:44:00.880 --> 00:44:03.810 show. Thank you so much. If people want to learn more from you, where can they 624 00:44:03.810 --> 00:44:07.120 find you online? What's the best social network and then what's your website? 625 00:44:07.170 --> 00:44:11.700 Sure. So as I mentioned, I'm the only Robin Farm and Farm Ian in the entire 626 00:44:11.700 --> 00:44:15.830 universe. So you can reach me on linkedin facebook and twitter are the 627 00:44:15.840 --> 00:44:20.110 three that I'm on most frequently and my website is Robin Fs dot com. 628 00:44:20.490 --> 00:44:23.810 Fantastic again. Thanks for joining me on the show. Thank you. 629 00:44:26.390 --> 00:44:31.850 What a helpful conversation, loved so much of what Robin said. One thing that 630 00:44:31.860 --> 00:44:37.750 I'm walking away from this conversation with was her bit about storytelling and 631 00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:40.680 when you think of an eight year old telling a story and how they ramble on 632 00:44:40.680 --> 00:44:44.790 for 15 minutes, that's not the type of stories we wanna tell. So to just think 633 00:44:44.790 --> 00:44:48.770 of three specific Details that you're going to highlight and just stick to 634 00:44:48.770 --> 00:44:52.300 those three and let that be the story that you tell, it's going to help your 635 00:44:52.300 --> 00:44:57.380 branding, it's gonna help keeping things concise and it'll make you 636 00:44:57.390 --> 00:45:00.820 effective in your communication. If you have thoughts on this episode, feel 637 00:45:00.820 --> 00:45:04.070 free to connect with me over on linkedin. Just search Benji Block would 638 00:45:04.070 --> 00:45:10.460 love to discuss your thoughts, business, marketing, life and as always, make 639 00:45:10.460 --> 00:45:13.390 sure if you're not already subscribed subscribe to the show on whatever 640 00:45:13.390 --> 00:45:17.890 platform you're listening that way. You just never miss an episode, continue to 641 00:45:17.890 --> 00:45:20.710 do the work that matters and we'll talk again soon. 642 00:45:22.990 --> 00:45:26.800 One of the things we've learned about podcast audience growth is that word of 643 00:45:26.800 --> 00:45:31.480 mouth works. It works really, really well actually. So if you love this show, 644 00:45:31.480 --> 00:45:35.400 it would be awesome if you texted a friend to tell them about it. And if 645 00:45:35.400 --> 00:45:39.720 you send me a text with a screenshot of the text you sent to your friend meta, 646 00:45:39.730 --> 00:45:43.370 I know I'll send you a copy of my book, content based networking, how to 647 00:45:43.380 --> 00:45:46.820 instantly connect with anyone you want to know. My cell phone number is 648 00:45:46.820 --> 00:45:52.720 40749033 to 8. Happy texting. Mhm.