Why Personal Brands Are Stronger than Corporate Thought Leadership with Adam Witty

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:08.700 welcome back to be to be growth. I'm Dan Sanchez with Sweet Fish Media. And 2 00:00:08.700 --> 00:00:13.070 today I'm joined by Adam Woody, who is the founder and CEO of the Advantage 3 00:00:13.070 --> 00:00:16.950 family, as well as the author of Authority Marketing and to kick the 4 00:00:16.950 --> 00:00:20.460 meeting off today. Adam, I'd love to ask you a quick, easy and kind of fun 5 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:26.660 personal question, and that is what is your favorite season and why my 6 00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:32.330 favorite season hands down this spring. I'm an entrepreneur, so I'm very much a 7 00:00:32.330 --> 00:00:38.520 glass half full kind of guy une eternal optimist and spring is blossoming 8 00:00:38.520 --> 00:00:45.740 flowers, warmer weather, longer days, mawr sunshine to come and as a guy that 9 00:00:45.740 --> 00:00:50.430 prefers warm weather to cold weather. It's also, you know, this idea that, 10 00:00:50.430 --> 00:00:55.880 like hey, warmth and sunshine and abundance and prosperity are on the way. 11 00:00:55.880 --> 00:01:00.260 So I'm a spring guy alway, That's so much fun. I'm also a spring guy. I 12 00:01:00.260 --> 00:01:03.480 think there's something about spring that's the anticipation of what's to 13 00:01:03.480 --> 00:01:06.890 come. So it's like Wake. It's almost like Christmas, like it's always that 14 00:01:06.890 --> 00:01:10.560 anticipation that drives the energy for it. Same with fall like falls like this 15 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:13.050 transition where you're anticipating and then you get there. You're like, uh, 16 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:18.110 but Spring is fun for that reason. So thank you so much for joining me on the 17 00:01:18.110 --> 00:01:22.070 show today as part of a Siris on how to become a thought leader. I wanted to 18 00:01:22.070 --> 00:01:28.520 invite Adam to discuss with us about why a personal brand stands above 19 00:01:28.520 --> 00:01:33.360 corporate brands and thought leadership and what we can do to even elevate 20 00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:36.860 corporate thought leadership with personal brands. But before we dive 21 00:01:36.860 --> 00:01:41.300 into that specific nuance of the conversation, Adam, how do you define 22 00:01:41.310 --> 00:01:46.240 thought leadership? For starters, yes, so so thought leadership. You know, we 23 00:01:46.240 --> 00:01:49.720 tend to call it authority marketing, but but very much the same thing. 24 00:01:49.720 --> 00:01:52.640 Authority, marketing, thought, leadership, marketing, e mean, really, 25 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:58.200 at the end of the day, what it is, it's a It's a person who has expertise on 26 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:03.220 some topic that is sharing that expertise with others. And they're 27 00:02:03.220 --> 00:02:09.949 using that, that sharing of knowledge and education to create a platform for 28 00:02:09.949 --> 00:02:16.360 themselves to really pull themselves from the pack. It's all about really 29 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:22.300 creating, you know, differentiation for yourself. It's about being seen as a 30 00:02:22.310 --> 00:02:28.080 category of one, and at the end of the day, you know, people don't want to be 31 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:34.050 sold anything, but they sure like to buy. And when you lead with education, 32 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:38.940 when you share your expertise with others, if what you have to share 33 00:02:38.940 --> 00:02:42.150 resonates with that person, they're going to say, You know what I want to 34 00:02:42.150 --> 00:02:46.670 buy from that person I wanna buy from that person's company? So So at the end 35 00:02:46.670 --> 00:02:50.500 of the day, thought leadership. I mean, it's marketing, but it doesn't look, 36 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:56.210 feel or sound like marketing in any way whatsoever. So it makes me think like 37 00:02:56.210 --> 00:03:00.130 it's not is you think it's enough just to be an expert, Or do you have tow 38 00:03:00.140 --> 00:03:06.060 carve out a new like to be an expert? You kind of have to know most, if not 39 00:03:06.070 --> 00:03:09.970 everything kind of like on your topic, right? It's what expertise is like, You 40 00:03:09.970 --> 00:03:13.010 know everything there is. That's why you would earn a master's degree, right? 41 00:03:13.010 --> 00:03:16.220 You know everything on the topic. But then almost considered thought 42 00:03:16.220 --> 00:03:19.170 leadership to be like, You have to have a little bit more. You have to have a 43 00:03:19.170 --> 00:03:23.940 unique addition. Would you agree with that? Well, I do agree with that, and I 44 00:03:23.940 --> 00:03:29.180 wanna put a nasty trick, though next to that. And the aspect is this. It's 45 00:03:29.180 --> 00:03:35.990 amazing to me. The number of experts that I talked to that don't think they 46 00:03:35.990 --> 00:03:40.340 are worthy of being seen as a thought leader in an expert. I'll give you a 47 00:03:40.340 --> 00:03:46.930 great example. I was on the phone last week with a doctor. In this case, this 48 00:03:46.930 --> 00:03:51.750 individual was a dentist. Their specialty is in periodontist, and 49 00:03:51.750 --> 00:03:56.580 they've been in the field for 25 years. They have every degree, every 50 00:03:56.580 --> 00:04:00.640 certification, every initial after their name that you could possibly 51 00:04:00.640 --> 00:04:05.190 think of in this individual was was really kind of giving me the song and 52 00:04:05.190 --> 00:04:11.080 dance that they just didn't think that they felt worthy to write a book. And 53 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:13.990 they said, Well, you know, you know, there's so much out there and what do I 54 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:19.589 really know? And I said, Doctor, you've been doing this for 25 years. You have 55 00:04:19.589 --> 00:04:23.450 every certification you have every degree you have published numerous 56 00:04:23.450 --> 00:04:28.970 white papers clinically in your industry, you know, so much more than 57 00:04:28.970 --> 00:04:34.410 you give yourself credit for. And I think a lot of that Dan is, you know, 58 00:04:34.410 --> 00:04:39.400 is kids. You know, our mothers and fathers taught us not to be boastful. 59 00:04:39.470 --> 00:04:45.120 In many cases, it was not good to be considered the class clown or the show 60 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:50.520 off with attention focusing on you. And in many ways, our our schooling in our 61 00:04:50.520 --> 00:04:57.720 society has taught us to kind of stand behind and not call attention to 62 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:03.240 ourselves. And because of that, a lot of people you know, they almost feel 63 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:06.940 guilty about this idea, that I'm going to write a book or they feel guilty 64 00:05:06.940 --> 00:05:10.560 that they're going to be interviewed on radio or television or they're gonna 65 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:16.320 have the spotlight shone upon them. And so expertise and thought leadership. 66 00:05:16.330 --> 00:05:21.590 You've got to know your stuff. Hands down. This isn't about faking it until 67 00:05:21.590 --> 00:05:28.380 you make it. But a lot of it is having the confidence within yourself to plant 68 00:05:28.380 --> 00:05:33.290 the flag and say, You know what? I've been in my business, my industry for 10, 69 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:40.440 15, 20 years and hot Damn! I know more about this topic than 99.9% of all 70 00:05:40.440 --> 00:05:45.500 people. It's okay for me to share what I know with others through a book 71 00:05:45.510 --> 00:05:49.730 through a podcast through an article through Media. It's really being 72 00:05:49.730 --> 00:05:55.000 comfortable. I think in many ways stand. Having that spotlight, you know, shone 73 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.000 upon yourself. I mean, it makes a lot of sense by the time you are a true 74 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:03.160 expert and not just, you know, someone who's like trying to blitz to becoming 75 00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:07.050 a thought leader and actually isn't one right. By the time you're a real expert, 76 00:06:07.050 --> 00:06:10.740 you probably do have some unique opinions and have done some things that 77 00:06:10.740 --> 00:06:15.020 are that are unique, right? 11 of our favorite questions in this podcast is 78 00:06:15.020 --> 00:06:18.910 what commonly held belief in your industry. Do you just passionately 79 00:06:18.910 --> 00:06:23.380 disagree with, and why usually reveals some of their unique perspectives that 80 00:06:23.390 --> 00:06:29.440 if they want to, could back up with riel. Case studies data past experience 81 00:06:29.440 --> 00:06:32.170 that does make it credible enough that they could write a whole book about it, 82 00:06:32.170 --> 00:06:35.520 right? So I think that's a really good point. It's usually hidden within their 83 00:06:35.530 --> 00:06:39.650 on. I'd love to circle back around that in a bit about what some ways you use 84 00:06:39.650 --> 00:06:44.240 to bring some of those unique opinions out yourself. But before we do that, 85 00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:47.650 there's, as I've gone through this Siri's and of Red multiple books. Now I 86 00:06:47.650 --> 00:06:52.170 noticed there's a difference between personal thought leadership and 87 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:56.030 corporate thought leadership. How do you weigh those? Two and two usually 88 00:06:56.030 --> 00:07:00.570 try to do both. And if so, how do you How do you go about it? Well, so you 89 00:07:00.570 --> 00:07:06.530 know, two things to start with first and foremost for for all of time. You 90 00:07:06.530 --> 00:07:12.130 know, people you know, you and me were people were consumers. We buy we buy 91 00:07:12.130 --> 00:07:17.820 from B to C brands we buy from B to B. Business is as a business owner myself. 92 00:07:17.820 --> 00:07:22.500 I make personal consumption decisions for myself and my family, and I make 93 00:07:22.500 --> 00:07:28.140 business consumption decisions for my organization. And at the end of the day, 94 00:07:28.150 --> 00:07:34.270 I am buying people not typically accompany right. In many cases, I will 95 00:07:34.270 --> 00:07:39.610 specifically work with a company or a vendor because of a relationship. Ah, 96 00:07:39.610 --> 00:07:44.650 belief. A trust that I have in the representative of that company versus 97 00:07:44.660 --> 00:07:49.610 you know, the company itself. And so I don't want anybody to forget this, that 98 00:07:49.620 --> 00:07:54.460 people by people, they don't buy companies, they don't buy businesses. 99 00:07:54.550 --> 00:08:01.420 And for that very reason, I fall on the side of building. Your personal brand 100 00:08:01.430 --> 00:08:06.920 is more productive than trying to buy a corporate brand. Now let me back that 101 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:11.180 up with another point. One of our authors. A few years ago, they wrote a 102 00:08:11.180 --> 00:08:18.810 book, and it was titled How to Build Trust in an Understandably Untrusting 103 00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:23.630 World. Okay, and the premise of the book was that at that time I think it 104 00:08:23.630 --> 00:08:28.380 was like 2017 when the book was published. At that time, trust levels 105 00:08:28.380 --> 00:08:34.620 that people had in business both big and small in government, in religious 106 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:40.020 institutions, in everything that you can imagine, these trust levels were at 107 00:08:40.020 --> 00:08:44.820 an all time level. In fact, you know, people had low trust in their own 108 00:08:44.820 --> 00:08:48.680 neighbor. You know, I would commonly asked the question. How many people 109 00:08:48.690 --> 00:08:53.510 locked their front door at night? You know, 99 out of 100 people raise their 110 00:08:53.510 --> 00:08:57.860 hand. I locked my front door. How many people locked the car in the driveway? 111 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:03.940 We almost all dio. And if we trusted everybody, why would we feel a need to 112 00:09:03.940 --> 00:09:10.520 do that? So trust levels that are an all time low, and because of that, you 113 00:09:10.520 --> 00:09:16.060 have to build trust through authentic person to person, people to people 114 00:09:16.060 --> 00:09:21.780 connections, right? It's relationship. It's report, and it happens usually not 115 00:09:21.780 --> 00:09:28.070 instantly but over time. And so for that reason, people by people. And 116 00:09:28.040 --> 00:09:33.500 there's this high barrier of trust that you have to get over in any business. 117 00:09:33.530 --> 00:09:38.500 We really believe that building the person's authority, building the 118 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:46.450 person's brand is mawr productive and actually produces a higher are oi than 119 00:09:46.460 --> 00:09:50.770 trying to build a corporate brand. Now, that's not to say that building a 120 00:09:50.770 --> 00:09:54.490 corporate brand is wrong and you shouldn't do it. The point that I want 121 00:09:54.490 --> 00:10:00.180 to make, though, is it's a lot easier to translate Ah, personal brand and 122 00:10:00.180 --> 00:10:06.570 have it shine on that company or business brand, then it is vice versa. 123 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:11.130 Yeah, it makes me think a lot as you're talking about building like almost 1 to 124 00:10:11.130 --> 00:10:14.630 1 relationship. Of course, that's the strongest. If we can actually have 125 00:10:14.630 --> 00:10:18.360 interactions like you and I are having now we're having a 1 to 1 interaction. 126 00:10:18.370 --> 00:10:20.790 But a lot of times when you want to scale your thought leadership you're 127 00:10:20.790 --> 00:10:25.450 trying to do, I mean 1 to 1 as much as you can, but it's gonna be one too many. 128 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:27.940 But there's still gonna be something different there between a personal 129 00:10:27.940 --> 00:10:30.200 brand and a corporate brand. Even though there's not that 1 to 1 130 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:34.130 interaction. I almost wonder if it's just because ah, person is almost 131 00:10:34.130 --> 00:10:39.130 always gonna be more relatable, which increases trust faster. Anything you 132 00:10:39.130 --> 00:10:42.330 can relate to in a company you can certainly relate to Ah person, whether 133 00:10:42.330 --> 00:10:47.930 it's mission or values or, ah, maybe outlook or way of doing things a 134 00:10:47.940 --> 00:10:50.800 corporate can have that you can have that in common. But the person you 135 00:10:50.800 --> 00:10:54.290 could have just infinitely more right, like I'm sure a lot of people share 136 00:10:54.290 --> 00:10:58.630 with Gary Vander checks a big, big name. A lot of people watch and follow the 137 00:10:58.630 --> 00:11:03.670 fact that he likes football. The fact that he likes wine and going garage 138 00:11:03.670 --> 00:11:07.260 sailing. And there's just so many hook points into a personality than it is 139 00:11:07.270 --> 00:11:11.970 his corporation, right? Are there more things than I guess? The word I'm 140 00:11:11.970 --> 00:11:16.130 looking for is like they're more personable because they're person. It's 141 00:11:16.130 --> 00:11:19.800 easier to get more hook points to trust. You think that's the reason why 142 00:11:19.800 --> 00:11:25.040 personal brands it can build farther faster? Yeah, look, I mean, people have 143 00:11:25.050 --> 00:11:32.450 idiosyncrasies. People have weaknesses. People have challenges that they have 144 00:11:32.450 --> 00:11:39.350 to overcome that you and I relate to his consumers right? And we, as people 145 00:11:39.350 --> 00:11:45.510 have affinities that people relate to, right? So here's one thing I'll tell 146 00:11:45.510 --> 00:11:52.820 you and your listeners about myself. I'm an Eagle Scout. I'm a pilot and I 147 00:11:52.820 --> 00:11:58.750 went to Clemson University. Okay, if there's anybody that's listening to 148 00:11:58.750 --> 00:12:04.290 your podcast right now, that is an Eagle Scout that went to Clemson or is 149 00:12:04.290 --> 00:12:11.480 a private pilot. They instantly like me more, right? So we all have affinities, 150 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:16.340 right? And corporations and businesses. They're inanimate objects, so they 151 00:12:16.340 --> 00:12:23.500 don't. So what makes the authority marketing for a person, in my view, 152 00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:27.110 much more effective than for a corporate brand is you can take 153 00:12:27.110 --> 00:12:31.770 advantage of those affinities. You can take advantage of those vulnerabilities. 154 00:12:31.780 --> 00:12:36.420 You can take advantage of those personal stories that people resonate 155 00:12:36.420 --> 00:12:40.280 with. So if you think for a minute we'll look, I'm trying to build a 156 00:12:40.280 --> 00:12:44.990 really big company. I can't do this personal branding. Well, I'm gonna give 157 00:12:44.990 --> 00:12:48.870 you a couple of quick companies to think about that air pretty big, and 158 00:12:48.870 --> 00:12:57.310 they're world class Disney, Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney World, Right. That 159 00:12:57.310 --> 00:13:03.800 company was built and still even to this day trades on the power of this 160 00:13:03.800 --> 00:13:10.370 personal brand, although Walt Disney has been deceased for 65 years. Okay, 161 00:13:10.740 --> 00:13:15.890 Apple. There are just a many people that resonate with Apple because of 162 00:13:15.890 --> 00:13:21.760 Steve Jobs. And what's the story that we all remember? The story was, he was 163 00:13:21.760 --> 00:13:29.030 kicked out of his own company that he started, and he came back, revived it 164 00:13:29.030 --> 00:13:33.090 from the dead and made it the world's largest company by market 165 00:13:33.090 --> 00:13:40.110 capitalization, right? That's a hero's journey that people resonate with right. 166 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:45.400 The most popular, the highest market value airline in the world of Southwest 167 00:13:45.400 --> 00:13:51.630 Airlines, Herb Kelleher was the famous founder of Southwest that drank wild 168 00:13:51.630 --> 00:13:56.610 Turkey whiskey. He smoked Marlboro Red cigarettes, and he would arm wrestle a 169 00:13:56.610 --> 00:14:02.450 competitors er, to settle a score or to settle a bet. I think about Truett 170 00:14:02.450 --> 00:14:08.570 Cathy, the famous founder of Chick fil A, which does more sales per square 171 00:14:08.570 --> 00:14:13.300 foot than any other quick service restaurant in the world, right and 172 00:14:13.300 --> 00:14:18.380 their legendary for the world class service and hospitality. So whether 173 00:14:18.380 --> 00:14:21.860 it's Apple, whether it's Disney, whether it's Southwest, whether it's 174 00:14:21.860 --> 00:14:27.670 Chick fil A, what you'll find is that there was a powerful personal brand 175 00:14:28.040 --> 00:14:32.340 that it started with now those corporations have huge brands that the 176 00:14:32.340 --> 00:14:36.610 corporate logos alone are worth billions of dollars. But my point is, 177 00:14:36.610 --> 00:14:41.470 there's a common thread where there was authority, marketing, a personal story 178 00:14:41.470 --> 00:14:47.870 and a personal brand that helped drive that corporate brand alongside it. One 179 00:14:47.870 --> 00:14:52.170 thing I was just talking to another thought leader of thought leaders and 180 00:14:52.170 --> 00:14:56.600 one of the things he was mentioning. Waas. The fact that you can build 181 00:14:56.600 --> 00:14:59.350 thought leadership corporately by having many thought leaders within the 182 00:14:59.350 --> 00:15:02.710 company not just one or two but like trying to spread it across the whole 183 00:15:02.710 --> 00:15:05.830 company, which I feel like is an interesting concept. But I wonder. It's 184 00:15:05.830 --> 00:15:09.470 like Is it better to pick out a few or just take? I mean, it's obvious if it's 185 00:15:09.470 --> 00:15:13.550 like a prismatic founding person who's driving the company, liken Elon Musk or 186 00:15:13.550 --> 00:15:16.580 something, and then it's like just stacking all against him. What do you 187 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:20.400 find? You like to spread it over lots of people within a company, or pick one 188 00:15:20.400 --> 00:15:25.970 or a few? Yes. So when it comes to picking one, there's pros and their 189 00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:32.090 cons. The pro is that there's focus and focus is very, very good when it comes 190 00:15:32.090 --> 00:15:37.870 to marketing the con is if it's not the founder and the chance of that person 191 00:15:37.870 --> 00:15:42.720 that sometime could leave or vanish, that's a real risk. And even as the 192 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:47.760 founders we know from stories like Adam Newman, we Work or Travis Kalanick and 193 00:15:47.760 --> 00:15:52.290 uber, even founders can leave Thio. So there is some risk when you put it all 194 00:15:52.290 --> 00:15:58.220 on one person. I am a believer, Dan, that is. A company gets bigger. You can 195 00:15:58.220 --> 00:16:03.350 and should spread authority amongst your leaders in your executives. And 196 00:16:03.350 --> 00:16:09.300 the reason why is this? You know, it's really difficult to be a true authority 197 00:16:09.300 --> 00:16:16.340 on lots of different things. And so as a business, if there's different 198 00:16:16.340 --> 00:16:21.530 product lines that you have different brands, that the company might have 199 00:16:21.540 --> 00:16:26.310 building expertise that ultimately drive down to those different products 200 00:16:26.310 --> 00:16:30.190 or brands, it's probably gonna require different person, right? I'm an 201 00:16:30.190 --> 00:16:34.750 authority on authority marketing. I've spent the last 15 years of my career 202 00:16:34.760 --> 00:16:40.980 studying and working on that intensely, but that's about it, you know. Yeah, I 203 00:16:40.980 --> 00:16:44.020 know a lot about business growth, and I know a lot about entrepreneurship, and 204 00:16:44.020 --> 00:16:47.500 I know a lot about marketing. But there are so many topics that I don't know 205 00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:52.940 Jack squat about. And so as a company gets bigger and tries to use thought, 206 00:16:52.940 --> 00:16:57.940 leadership marketing to market and broadcast their message to their 207 00:16:57.940 --> 00:17:03.800 audience than it is my belief that you need to go niche deep on lots of 208 00:17:03.800 --> 00:17:09.970 different topics which will probably require lots of different people. Josh, 209 00:17:09.970 --> 00:17:13.540 what do you think is the most irritating thing for B two B buyers 210 00:17:13.540 --> 00:17:17.040 right now, an Logan. I love talking to you about this. You know that the 211 00:17:17.040 --> 00:17:21.630 number one challenge right now is that many customer facing teams in the B two 212 00:17:21.630 --> 00:17:26.240 B space right now are forcing their potential buyers, too, by the way that 213 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:29.990 they want to sell. Buyers don't wanna buy that way right now. They wanna, by 214 00:17:29.990 --> 00:17:34.640 the way they want to buy. We need to enable those buyers. We call this buyer 215 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:38.440 enablement at sales reach. We need to enable those buyers to make better 216 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:42.950 decisions quicker in a comfortable environment that's more personalized 217 00:17:42.950 --> 00:17:46.020 for them to move forward with that process. Dude, that's awesome. I 218 00:17:46.020 --> 00:17:49.490 couldn't agree more. Since I've been using sales reach in my own sales 219 00:17:49.490 --> 00:17:53.990 process, it's allowed me to really enable the buyer to move more quickly 220 00:17:53.990 --> 00:17:57.590 in really two ways. One, they don't have to download a bunch of attachments. 221 00:17:57.590 --> 00:18:01.820 Aiken send them toe one page with the proposal. Case studies Different 222 00:18:01.820 --> 00:18:05.570 resource is because, let's face it, the proposal is just one part of the sales 223 00:18:05.570 --> 00:18:09.710 conversation and probably on Lee one sales enablement piece of content that 224 00:18:09.710 --> 00:18:13.750 you're sending so it makes it easier on them. And then the other thing is, you 225 00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:17.210 know, we're selling to our champions, and then we're making them have to re 226 00:18:17.210 --> 00:18:20.810 give our pitch to the entire buying committee. So one thing I do is put a 227 00:18:20.810 --> 00:18:25.100 custom 2 to 3 minute video on the top of my sales reach page. This says, Hey, 228 00:18:25.100 --> 00:18:28.170 here's all the resource is tie it back to the conversation. Here's the 229 00:18:28.170 --> 00:18:31.610 proposal. Let me know if you have any questions, and it allows me to give a 230 00:18:31.610 --> 00:18:34.950 little bit of kind of a mini pitch to the rest of the buying committee, 231 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:38.850 introduce myself, which helps me build trust and credibility and helps the 232 00:18:38.850 --> 00:18:43.690 buyer not have to repeat the entire pitch from scratch. So if anybody is 233 00:18:43.690 --> 00:18:46.930 looking to do the same thing in their own sales process. I'd highly suggest 234 00:18:46.930 --> 00:18:50.170 they reach out to you and the team over at sales. Reach for anybody listening. 235 00:18:50.170 --> 00:18:56.770 Just go to sales reach dot io to talk to Josh and the team. E makes sense if 236 00:18:56.770 --> 00:19:00.990 it's not the founder. What I'm hearing is it's good to diversify once, once 237 00:19:00.990 --> 00:19:04.160 you kind of are big enough. You know, you're you're kind of beyond the I 238 00:19:04.170 --> 00:19:07.810 don't know 5 10 person startup and you're you've got a sizable leadership 239 00:19:07.810 --> 00:19:13.080 team. It's easier to diversify. That's that's exactly right. And I'll use 240 00:19:13.080 --> 00:19:17.860 myself as an example. The advantaged family. We have three different 241 00:19:17.860 --> 00:19:23.010 businesses operating businesses within our company, and we've probably 242 00:19:23.020 --> 00:19:28.300 authored between the three businesses, maybe a dozen total books, right and 243 00:19:28.300 --> 00:19:32.740 those dozen total books have easily been authored by at least 55 or six 244 00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:39.080 different people because they all have expertise on a different niche within 245 00:19:39.080 --> 00:19:44.280 those three businesses. Makes sense. I love it. So now that we kind of have 246 00:19:44.280 --> 00:19:48.470 that established and people are listening to their so like great, I can 247 00:19:48.470 --> 00:19:51.470 think of who those people are in my company that makes it makes a lot of 248 00:19:51.470 --> 00:19:55.280 sense. What are this practical steps someone could take to becoming a 249 00:19:55.280 --> 00:19:58.280 thought leader. Maybe they don't even not. They don't even consider 250 00:19:58.280 --> 00:20:01.880 themselves expert on a particular niche yet. But they're they're professionals. 251 00:20:01.880 --> 00:20:06.870 They're working at it actively from there. Where does someone go? Yeah, so 252 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:12.050 I want you to think about authority as a coliseum. Okay? My belief is that if 253 00:20:12.050 --> 00:20:17.370 you build authority for yourself, this is something that can stand the test of 254 00:20:17.370 --> 00:20:23.030 time and can be an asset for you for the rest of your career. Okay? And we 255 00:20:23.030 --> 00:20:28.210 used the analogy of a Coliseum because, of course, the Coliseum, which is of 256 00:20:28.210 --> 00:20:35.270 course, in in Rome is hundreds of years old. Okay, it stood the test of time. 257 00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:41.230 So at the base of your authority Coliseum, it's the foundation. We 258 00:20:41.230 --> 00:20:47.230 believe it's authorship. Writing and publishing a book does mawr to build 259 00:20:47.240 --> 00:20:53.450 authority mawr quickly than than anything else. I jokingly say you can't 260 00:20:53.450 --> 00:20:59.410 spell authority without the word author and and it's true, right? When you 261 00:20:59.420 --> 00:21:05.350 write the book on the topic, people instantly see you as an expert on that 262 00:21:05.350 --> 00:21:10.330 topic because they rationalize to themselves and we'll g if he or she 263 00:21:10.330 --> 00:21:16.010 wasn't an expert. How in the world. Could they write 150 pages on the topic? 264 00:21:16.020 --> 00:21:20.760 Okay. And as a great example, what brought you and I together today to do 265 00:21:20.760 --> 00:21:26.530 this interview was look a book. So we really believe that that's the 266 00:21:26.530 --> 00:21:32.440 foundation. Then there's pillars to the Coliseum that ultimately support the 267 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:38.180 roof. Okay, the pillars to that. And we think there's really four primary 268 00:21:38.180 --> 00:21:43.480 pillars. The first is what we call branding and omni presence. So building 269 00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:48.180 an authority brand doesn't start in with the book or any other. One thing. 270 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:52.450 Building an authority brand is lots of different things that come together 271 00:21:52.450 --> 00:21:58.720 over time. And today, now, more than ever, really. Where that starts is 272 00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:04.390 online with Google, right? When I type your name or I typed the name of your 273 00:22:04.390 --> 00:22:10.600 business into Google, what am I gonna find? And the question that I challenge 274 00:22:10.600 --> 00:22:16.470 your listeners with is if I google your name, am I gonna have to pack a lunch? 275 00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:22.640 And what I mean by that is, um, I gonna find so much about you online that I'm 276 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:26.850 going to get hungry. I'm gonna need to have a lunch, right? And for most 277 00:22:26.850 --> 00:22:31.380 people, the answer is No. In fact, most people you put their name into Google. 278 00:22:31.390 --> 00:22:37.240 There may not even be one or two search results that rank. That's a that's a 279 00:22:37.240 --> 00:22:41.230 problem. You don't have a lot of authority if I type your name into 280 00:22:41.230 --> 00:22:46.080 Google and I can't find anything. So building your authority brand online 281 00:22:46.090 --> 00:22:52.300 and creating omnipresence is the first pillar of authority. It's interesting 282 00:22:52.300 --> 00:22:56.810 you go into, like, a little bit of S e o more for your your name more than 283 00:22:56.810 --> 00:22:59.580 just being found for the topics that are related to the topic you want to be 284 00:22:59.580 --> 00:23:02.910 known for. You're thinking that it's better to be found for your name with 285 00:23:02.910 --> 00:23:07.400 those topics under there to be found in the post answering the questions people 286 00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:12.680 ask about the topic. Yeah, I I argue both are important. Okay. But again, if 287 00:23:12.680 --> 00:23:17.170 somebody tells me your name, the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go todo 288 00:23:17.540 --> 00:23:22.180 and I'm gonna put it in and see what I find. And if nothing comes up that I 289 00:23:22.180 --> 00:23:26.670 think is a real problem right now, obviously, if you want to learn more 290 00:23:26.670 --> 00:23:30.330 about authority marketing and you type authority marketing into Google What 291 00:23:30.330 --> 00:23:34.010 you're gonna find is you're gonna find a lot about Adam it. And if you type 292 00:23:34.010 --> 00:23:38.480 Adam witty into Google, you're gonna find a lot about authority market. So 293 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:44.680 it's really a two pronged strategy, But but building your digital footprint 294 00:23:45.140 --> 00:23:50.470 online is important. And now more than ever, you know something that we should 295 00:23:50.470 --> 00:23:56.060 talk about because it's very relevant is that that in this post co vid world, 296 00:23:56.640 --> 00:24:01.160 it becomes even more of a digital first world than it was at the beginning of 297 00:24:01.160 --> 00:24:06.240 this year, right? So over the last nine months, with Cove in people that were 298 00:24:06.250 --> 00:24:11.580 offline, consumers have been forced to move online. And, of course, with nine 299 00:24:11.580 --> 00:24:15.310 months, habits have been formed and most people aren't going to go back to 300 00:24:15.320 --> 00:24:21.340 the way that it was done before. Now, you might say, Well, G, you know, my 301 00:24:21.340 --> 00:24:26.230 product is physical. You know I'm a dentist. Of course, people have to come 302 00:24:26.230 --> 00:24:30.550 into my office. The Internet doesn't really matter. But that's not true, 303 00:24:30.560 --> 00:24:35.520 because even if the actual purchase, the consumption of the product happens 304 00:24:35.520 --> 00:24:43.330 offline, the search to find the provider to satisfy that consumption is 305 00:24:43.330 --> 00:24:48.870 now happening online. More than ever. People are searching, people are 306 00:24:48.870 --> 00:24:53.230 browsing, people are learning and educating themselves to be smart 307 00:24:53.230 --> 00:24:58.020 consumers online first. And then if they have to buy it offline, they'll do 308 00:24:58.020 --> 00:25:06.260 that second. So if you and your company aren't discoverable and relevant online, 309 00:25:06.940 --> 00:25:12.090 you're gonna probably miss 90% of the consumers that air searching for what 310 00:25:12.090 --> 00:25:19.870 it is that you dio poor. But it's more important. Now we've covered in bulk. 311 00:25:19.870 --> 00:25:23.450 Like Why? Why? It's important to be found it to be considered a thought 312 00:25:23.450 --> 00:25:26.670 leader in the lead with authority. E want to dive into like, But how does 313 00:25:26.670 --> 00:25:29.890 someone get there? So far, I have, like, we need to write a book. Is there 314 00:25:29.890 --> 00:25:33.620 something that comes before that? Are there some prerequisites you need to 315 00:25:33.620 --> 00:25:36.330 get to before you write a book? Or should you just like, Hey, no, let's 316 00:25:36.330 --> 00:25:40.450 write a book. Let's come up with unique position and write a book And are there 317 00:25:40.450 --> 00:25:44.010 certain formats of the book you're looking for? Um, I assume it's a self 318 00:25:44.010 --> 00:25:48.100 published book is probably fine. That's kind of like the standard nowadays, But 319 00:25:48.100 --> 00:25:51.490 is there Does it have to be a certain length? What do you have to do before. 320 00:25:51.490 --> 00:25:55.290 And then what does this book look like? Yes. So? So there's two questions that 321 00:25:55.290 --> 00:25:59.900 I'll unpack them one at a time. The first question of What do you have to 322 00:25:59.900 --> 00:26:04.280 do to get there? I mentioned building your brand and being Omni present. 323 00:26:04.290 --> 00:26:08.810 That's one of the pillars of this authority Coliseum. There's three more. 324 00:26:08.820 --> 00:26:14.130 They are creating content. So being a content marketer, right, being a 325 00:26:14.130 --> 00:26:19.600 prodigious creator of educational content on your topic that people want 326 00:26:19.600 --> 00:26:25.340 to consume. Okay, that's podcast. That's webinars. That's white papers. 327 00:26:25.350 --> 00:26:30.220 That's block post that could be books that could be YouTube videos, right? 328 00:26:30.230 --> 00:26:35.150 You've got to be a creator of content that people will consume. That's pillar 329 00:26:35.150 --> 00:26:40.150 number two, Killer number three p. R. And media. People don't believe what 330 00:26:40.150 --> 00:26:44.950 you say about yourself, but they sure do believe what the media and other 331 00:26:44.950 --> 00:26:51.200 people say about you. And so what that means is that being featured on radio, 332 00:26:51.210 --> 00:26:55.460 on television, in newspapers and magazines? Believe it or not, it's 333 00:26:55.460 --> 00:26:59.880 really important. It also makes you more discoverable online when somebody 334 00:26:59.880 --> 00:27:04.110 googles your name or the name of your company, okay, and then the fourth and 335 00:27:04.110 --> 00:27:10.110 final pillar is speaking and education right now, you could be speaking in 336 00:27:10.110 --> 00:27:14.920 person at a conference. You could be speaking virtually by Zoom. Or you 337 00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:18.960 could speak through a media interview like what you and I are doing right now, 338 00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:24.550 Dan. But if you were speaking, you were seen by that audience, is an expert and 339 00:27:24.550 --> 00:27:28.210 as a thought leader on that topic, otherwise you would not have been 340 00:27:28.210 --> 00:27:33.950 invited to lecture on that topic. So we start with the book, which we really do 341 00:27:33.950 --> 00:27:38.720 believe is the foundation. You then have these pillars that ultimately 342 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:43.200 support the outcome, right? The whole reason why you care about thought 343 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:47.870 leadership marketing is very simple. You want to grow your business, and how 344 00:27:47.870 --> 00:27:52.860 do you do that? You attract new leads. You convert more leads into clients, 345 00:27:52.860 --> 00:27:56.940 customers or patients and ultimately, those customers and clients and 346 00:27:56.940 --> 00:28:03.970 patients. They stay, they pay and they refer. Okay, so that's kind of the 347 00:28:03.970 --> 00:28:09.120 formula of how you do it. Now let's go back to where do you begin? And then 348 00:28:09.120 --> 00:28:12.900 specifically Okay, if it's a book, well, you know, what should the book even be 349 00:28:12.900 --> 00:28:18.470 about and what should it look like? The first is that? Where do I begin? I 350 00:28:18.470 --> 00:28:24.150 would say you begin with what you're most comfortable with. Okay? Now I will 351 00:28:24.150 --> 00:28:29.710 argue that probably pound for pound. When you write and publish a book, it 352 00:28:29.720 --> 00:28:35.840 probably opens mawr doors initially than offering a block. Okay, because 353 00:28:35.840 --> 00:28:39.830 there's something that's just credible about you having that book in your 354 00:28:39.830 --> 00:28:46.090 hands. But I want you to do what you're most comfortable with. So listen, if 355 00:28:46.090 --> 00:28:53.260 you're a podcaster, if you love opining on video on radio with a microphone in 356 00:28:53.260 --> 00:28:56.870 your hand, if you love interviewing other people, you're doing a great job 357 00:28:56.870 --> 00:29:01.340 of this, and it's clearly a very deep talent of yours. Then maybe you start 358 00:29:01.340 --> 00:29:05.590 with the podcast or, if you like to write, but don't think you get have a 359 00:29:05.590 --> 00:29:10.710 book inside of you, then you start blogging, so whatever you do, just do 360 00:29:10.710 --> 00:29:17.490 something and start with what you enjoy, because you'll actually stick to it and 361 00:29:17.490 --> 00:29:22.960 make it happen in the real world. So I say, Start with what you like. Start 362 00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:27.500 with what you're good at, start building content and start building 363 00:29:27.500 --> 00:29:32.010 assets. The best authorities at whatever it is that they're an 364 00:29:32.010 --> 00:29:38.590 authority on their omnipresent. They have books they've been on on TV, radio, 365 00:29:38.590 --> 00:29:42.970 in magazines and newspapers. They may have their own podcast or certainly 366 00:29:42.970 --> 00:29:48.590 there, interviewed on lots of people's podcasts regularly. They have a blawg. 367 00:29:48.600 --> 00:29:52.650 Maybe they have a newsletter. They off their white papers. They're doing all 368 00:29:52.650 --> 00:29:58.950 of those things almost simultaneous. So it's like a snowball when you start. 369 00:29:58.950 --> 00:30:03.760 It's really small, but with time is it moves down the hill. It should get 370 00:30:03.760 --> 00:30:07.520 bigger and bigger and bigger, which is what it's all about, because it's 371 00:30:07.520 --> 00:30:14.630 making your authority brand, ultimately making you larger than life. And again, 372 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:19.030 you being larger than life isn't about ego. It's about you being larger than 373 00:30:19.030 --> 00:30:25.770 life to exercise that position to benefit your business. So there's a lot 374 00:30:25.770 --> 00:30:29.090 of practical steps in there, and I think the biggest one is just getting 375 00:30:29.090 --> 00:30:32.400 started with something you find fun to put out the content that you're the 376 00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:35.640 most comfortable, most familiar with. It's almost like working out right, 377 00:30:35.640 --> 00:30:38.860 like it's hard to lift a lot of weight. But if you start exercising in small 378 00:30:38.860 --> 00:30:42.960 ways, it becomes easier and easier to get in the habit of producing that type 379 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:45.960 of content so that you can get to the point where you're publishing something 380 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:49.700 more substantial, like a book. You could take a lot of swings, its social 381 00:30:49.700 --> 00:30:53.890 on blogging so that by the time you've coming to write a book, maybe a 30 to 382 00:30:53.890 --> 00:30:59.070 60,000 page book, well, you've already written 20 to 30,000 block posts. You 383 00:30:59.070 --> 00:31:01.990 know, you've already actually written the book, at least in word count. But 384 00:31:01.990 --> 00:31:04.570 now you need to take another swing at it, refining it and all that. So it 385 00:31:04.570 --> 00:31:07.700 makes a lot of sense. I'm sure, in that process to your building, your 386 00:31:07.700 --> 00:31:12.190 expertise. There's nothing like building expertise just by having to 387 00:31:12.190 --> 00:31:15.370 teach something, which is, which is what you're doing with a podcast or 388 00:31:15.370 --> 00:31:19.400 with the block, solidifying your own expertise and getting your expertise 389 00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:24.220 out there as at the same time. So thought leadership. It's been a big 390 00:31:24.220 --> 00:31:29.360 deal for the last 20 years. Where do you see it going over the next 10 to 20 391 00:31:29.360 --> 00:31:34.010 years? Is it becoming less or more important? Well, I really think it's 392 00:31:34.010 --> 00:31:37.660 becoming more important, not less, and I'll tell you why. I think it's 393 00:31:37.660 --> 00:31:42.740 becoming more important. Number one uh, this is a great statistic that 394 00:31:42.740 --> 00:31:48.300 everybody should know. Over the last nine months in this co vid economy that 395 00:31:48.300 --> 00:31:55.620 we've been living in, online search and online commerce has grown MAWR in nine 396 00:31:55.620 --> 00:32:01.080 months, then over the previous 10 years combined. Okay, that's really important 397 00:32:01.080 --> 00:32:05.840 to know. So why do I think it's becoming more important? Because Mawr 398 00:32:05.840 --> 00:32:13.460 and Mawr research discover ability and actual purchase of business to business 399 00:32:13.460 --> 00:32:17.620 and business to consumer goods and products and services are happening 400 00:32:17.620 --> 00:32:25.230 online. So if the search, the discovery and the purchase all happens online and 401 00:32:25.230 --> 00:32:29.980 your offline, how are you going to compete? Well, of course, you can 402 00:32:29.990 --> 00:32:35.780 advertise and advertising cost money. You know you can try to do your best to 403 00:32:35.780 --> 00:32:40.340 dominate Facebook and LinkedIn and Google Search. But the truth is, 404 00:32:40.340 --> 00:32:44.770 there's plenty of businesses that have far deeper pockets that you do that 405 00:32:44.770 --> 00:32:52.200 will outspend you. And people trust organic content much so mawr than 406 00:32:52.210 --> 00:32:57.150 advertising right. It's no different in a magazine. If there is an editorial 407 00:32:57.150 --> 00:33:00.540 that's written about you and your business, people trust that a whole lot 408 00:33:00.540 --> 00:33:04.770 more than an advertisement in a magazine that's on the adjacent page, 409 00:33:05.140 --> 00:33:10.650 so I believe that it's imperative Mawr imperative now than ever before that 410 00:33:10.650 --> 00:33:15.580 you make yourself and your business, because in most cases you're the leader 411 00:33:15.580 --> 00:33:18.830 of that business. Is either the founder of the CEO or one of the senior 412 00:33:18.830 --> 00:33:22.670 executives. I think it's really important that you become discoverable 413 00:33:22.670 --> 00:33:27.110 online. And when you pursue this journey of authority marketing, what 414 00:33:27.110 --> 00:33:32.630 you realize is that the common thread about all of this is content creation, 415 00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:37.620 right? You're an expert, which means you're talking about what you know so 416 00:33:37.620 --> 00:33:42.810 much about and talking about that is writing a book. It's having a podcast. 417 00:33:42.820 --> 00:33:47.050 It's being interviewed on radio and television. It's having a blawg. It's 418 00:33:47.050 --> 00:33:51.870 having white papers. It's social media. So it's Twitter. It's Facebook. It's 419 00:33:51.870 --> 00:33:56.920 linked in its sharing that education through those social media channels. 420 00:33:56.930 --> 00:34:02.630 And all of those things make you more discoverable and more relevant online 421 00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:08.120 for what it is that people are searching for. You combine that with a 422 00:34:08.120 --> 00:34:13.679 continued eroding of trust that people have in institutions, and I think the 423 00:34:13.679 --> 00:34:18.870 combination of that plus the move toe online, I think it makes this authority 424 00:34:18.870 --> 00:34:23.280 marketing thing far more important today than it ever was before. And if I 425 00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:28.239 project 5, 10 years into the future, I think that trend continues. It makes a 426 00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:32.130 lot of sense. I am a fan of paid advertising because it's fast and 427 00:34:32.130 --> 00:34:35.370 actually find that it's cheaper than everything else because everything else 428 00:34:35.370 --> 00:34:39.760 usually requires a lot of time, and that time costs a lot of money. But you 429 00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:42.960 know, it's easy and easy out. All of a sudden, Facebook changes their 430 00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:46.320 algorithm, and your ads don't work so well anymore. And it's often it's 431 00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:49.630 always a battle of Facebook, specifically because generally it could 432 00:34:49.630 --> 00:34:52.630 be working great for a couple of months and then bam like it just starts 433 00:34:52.630 --> 00:34:54.900 tanking. And then you have to scramble to figure it out, and if you're 434 00:34:54.900 --> 00:34:58.300 dependent on it, becomes a problem. But what I like about what you're saying is 435 00:34:58.300 --> 00:35:02.480 that authority kind of transcends that. Not only do people trust and believe it 436 00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:05.400 more, but it's it's there for the long term. It takes a long time to build, 437 00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:09.860 but it goes a lot further right. It will outlive your current company. If 438 00:35:09.860 --> 00:35:13.320 you going to start your next company, that's that's all equity you get to 439 00:35:13.320 --> 00:35:17.510 take with you which I think is more powerful. It's like it compounds after 440 00:35:17.510 --> 00:35:22.810 time, right? You yourself could move on from the family advantage, move onto 441 00:35:22.810 --> 00:35:25.020 your next thing. But all the credibility you've built in your 442 00:35:25.020 --> 00:35:29.700 thought leadership comes with. Yeah, And you know one thing. I just want to 443 00:35:29.700 --> 00:35:33.040 add to what you said, Dan, because you're talking about paid advertising. 444 00:35:33.050 --> 00:35:37.140 I'm a big believer in paid advertising as well. We do a lot of it within our 445 00:35:37.140 --> 00:35:44.680 companies, but instead of advertising, go here to buy, we advertise, request 446 00:35:44.680 --> 00:35:51.200 our free book or download our white paper or listen to our podcast. So the 447 00:35:51.200 --> 00:35:57.840 actual paid advertising we're doing is driving people to educational content 448 00:35:57.850 --> 00:36:04.700 versus trying to get them toe by So you can supplement paid advertising Thio 449 00:36:04.710 --> 00:36:10.570 amplify thought leadership marketing that you've been doing absolutely as 450 00:36:10.570 --> 00:36:14.500 has been a very fun conversation. Adam, is there anything else that you want to 451 00:36:14.500 --> 00:36:20.040 leave with our audience before we wrap up the show today? Yeah, I do authority 452 00:36:20.040 --> 00:36:24.470 marketing. As I said earlier, it's amazing to me how many people they get 453 00:36:24.470 --> 00:36:30.640 it, they grasp it and they don't do anything. And I think that there's two 454 00:36:30.650 --> 00:36:35.380 big reasons that many people sit on the sidelines. The first is what we talked 455 00:36:35.380 --> 00:36:39.140 about earlier in the show, which is a lot of people, quite frankly, think 456 00:36:39.140 --> 00:36:45.200 they're just not worthy right. There's fear in trepidation that keeps them 457 00:36:45.200 --> 00:36:51.290 from putting the spotlight squarely on themselves. Perhaps it's being seen as 458 00:36:51.290 --> 00:36:58.280 a fraud. Perhaps it's being challenged by peers or other people. Perhaps it's 459 00:36:58.290 --> 00:37:04.520 what we learned as kids that, hey, it's not savory to call attention upon 460 00:37:04.520 --> 00:37:09.510 yourself. You got to get over that. I mean, if you're an entrepreneur, if 461 00:37:09.510 --> 00:37:13.820 you're CEO, if you're an executive, you know we live in a world where it is a 462 00:37:13.820 --> 00:37:19.600 free market place, and the best man, woman or company is gonna win. And if 463 00:37:19.600 --> 00:37:23.120 you're not willing to invest in authority marketing to benefit yourself 464 00:37:23.120 --> 00:37:28.900 in your business, your competitors will, and they will simply jump in front of 465 00:37:28.900 --> 00:37:36.620 you and over you. So you've got to be willing to crown yourself King. I know 466 00:37:36.620 --> 00:37:41.400 that sounds arrogant, but you really have to be willing to put that crown on 467 00:37:41.400 --> 00:37:46.450 your head, because if you're not, when your competitors walks down the street 468 00:37:46.450 --> 00:37:49.470 and picks up the crown, they're not gonna put it on your head. They're 469 00:37:49.470 --> 00:37:55.250 gonna put it on their own. The second big thing is that start somewhere, 470 00:37:55.630 --> 00:38:00.410 right? Maybe a book is too daunting or too intimidating as a place to start. 471 00:38:00.420 --> 00:38:05.160 And because of that, you use that as your reason not to do anything but go 472 00:38:05.160 --> 00:38:09.690 back to what we just talked about. What is it that you enjoy and what is it 473 00:38:09.690 --> 00:38:14.820 that's easy for you? Maybe it's writing. Maybe it's podcasting. Maybe it's 474 00:38:14.820 --> 00:38:19.450 recording some short videos, do whatever is easy and natural to you to 475 00:38:19.450 --> 00:38:24.630 start to get it going. And that snowball will slowly but surely start 476 00:38:24.630 --> 00:38:28.910 to go down that mountain and it will get bigger and it will build momentum. 477 00:38:28.920 --> 00:38:34.370 But whatever you do, start somewhere and just do it makes a lot of sense. I 478 00:38:34.370 --> 00:38:38.250 mean, we're talking about, like the tyranny of the urgent writer, the 479 00:38:38.250 --> 00:38:41.250 things that consume our time versus thought. Leadership is always in the 480 00:38:41.720 --> 00:38:45.410 not urgent, but important, So a lot of people will skip it because there's 481 00:38:45.410 --> 00:38:48.730 always more urgent things to go after, and this is the long game. It makes 482 00:38:48.730 --> 00:38:52.220 sense to start somewhere because honestly, every time you do put effort 483 00:38:52.220 --> 00:38:55.960 towards that? The things start to compound every block post you writer 484 00:38:55.960 --> 00:39:00.320 tweet. You put out there still there that you can reference later and start 485 00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:03.990 to build your authority on may be less with social media but blogging and 486 00:39:03.990 --> 00:39:06.860 podcasting for sure, because those become the assets that supports you 487 00:39:06.860 --> 00:39:10.330 later. And it could take longer shorter, depending on how much time you want to 488 00:39:10.330 --> 00:39:14.120 put into it. So that's good. Thanks so much for joining me on the show today, 489 00:39:14.120 --> 00:39:17.740 Adam. It's been fun to learn more about authority, marketing and thought 490 00:39:17.740 --> 00:39:21.060 leadership. Where can people go to learn more about you and the work you 491 00:39:21.060 --> 00:39:25.500 dio? Thanks, Dan. I really had a great time, Aziz. Well, I mean, you know that 492 00:39:25.500 --> 00:39:29.850 this is my nirvana. This is fun to talk about. So thank you for this honor. 493 00:39:29.860 --> 00:39:34.640 Certainly. Toe learn mawr number one. I'd encourage you to look at the book 494 00:39:34.640 --> 00:39:39.380 authority marketing. It really does provide a blueprint for entrepreneurs 495 00:39:39.380 --> 00:39:43.430 and executives that air contemplating going down this road. You can do that. 496 00:39:43.430 --> 00:39:47.480 Of course. On Amazon, Just type in authority marketing. It'll come right 497 00:39:47.480 --> 00:39:52.380 up. You can also visit authority marketing book dot com where you can 498 00:39:52.380 --> 00:39:57.750 get more information. The company that I lied Advantage Forbes Books were 499 00:39:57.750 --> 00:40:04.500 online at Advantage family dot com And, of course, for anybody listening or 500 00:40:04.500 --> 00:40:09.080 watching feel free to reach out to me directly. I am on social media, but 501 00:40:09.080 --> 00:40:15.160 I'll also given email address, which is a witty eso that's is an Adam with D W 502 00:40:15.160 --> 00:40:22.840 I t t y at advantage. W w dot com Fantastic Again. Thanks so much for 503 00:40:22.840 --> 00:40:27.440 joining me on the show today, Dan. A real pleasure. A sweet fish were on a 504 00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:32.170 mission to create the most helpful content on the Internet for every job, 505 00:40:32.180 --> 00:40:36.090 function and industry on the planet. For the B two B marketing industry, 506 00:40:36.100 --> 00:40:39.970 this show is how we're executing on that mission. If you know a marketing 507 00:40:39.970 --> 00:40:43.670 leader, that would be an awesome guest for this podcast. Shoot me a text 508 00:40:43.670 --> 00:40:47.570 message. Don't call me because I don't answer unknown numbers, but text me at 509 00:40:47.570 --> 00:40:53.370 4074903328 Just shoot me. Their name may be a link to their linked in 510 00:40:53.370 --> 00:40:57.450 profile, and I'd love to check him out to see if we can get them on the show. 511 00:40:57.460 --> 00:40:58.820 Thanks a lot