The Brand ED Podcast

The Brand ED Podcast EP 59
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Hey friends. Welcome back to the brand ed podcast. We're continuing in our series on the seven deadly dangers of building a personal brand. And I want to start us with the same quote from the last episode, because I think it sets up our conversation again today very, very well.

Here's the quote. "You see them on YouTube or Instagram wearing expensive sneakers, hanging out with celebrities, taking selfies at hip bars and restaurants, and they dominate the social media scene."

So, who are we talking about in that quote? Well, you guessed it personal brands. You're listening to the Brand ED Podcast and maybe explicitly kind of some of the heroes in the personal brand space. That's who the quote is about, right? Well, yes. Kind of, again, we'll get back to exactly where that quote came from towards the end of this series.

[00:00:58] Recap
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So let's recap where we've been. We're on the fourth of seven deadly dangers of building a personal brand. Let's recap those first three real quick.

Number one, personal brands have little to no accountability. There's no license or board that you have to pass. It's just wide open. Anyone who wants to can start one. So that's dangerous in that there's no real accountability on whether or not you should or could start one.

Number two personal brands play on a dangerous field. So if we think of playing like a game on a field, personal brands play on a dangerous field, and that field is the internet. Now, while it's wonderful and powerful, it's really, really fast. And that can be dangerous. It's far reaching and that can be dangerous. And it's fairly easy to be fake and that can be dangerous.

And then danger number three, we said the personal brand movement as a whole is still really very young. It has not been around all that long. And there's a fair amount of youth leading the way.

That's not inherently terrible or bad. It just adds an element of danger, like giving a car to a 15 year old, which I think about a lot these days, because I've got my last driver in the house that I'm trying to get prepared to go out in the world and drive this big, huge vehicle. Great power. But lots of responsibilities.

So that's a quick recap of where we have been.

[00:02:34] Imagine This Excercise
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Before I introduce the fourth of the seven deadly dangers of building a personal brand business, I want us to do a little exercise together. So here's what I want you to do.

First. I want you to imagine what your life would look like if you never started your personal brand business. So if you're a coach or a consultant, a creator, an author, a speaker, if you're in the personal brand business space, imagine what your life would look like if you never started your personal brand business.

Now, if you haven't started yours yet, imagine what your life will look like if you continue on the same track and don't start that personal brand business that you're really striving and desiring to start. Just take a minute, reflect on that.

What would your life look like--as you play that out into the future--if you never started your coaching consulting, speaker, author creator, personal brand business?

And now what I want you to do is I want you to imagine if the personal brand that you're working so hard to build, let's just imagine together... Let's have a little fun. Let's imagine that it was a big, smashing success.

So at some point out there in the future, someone comes up and asks you, "Hey, this thing looks great. This personal brand business that you have looks great. Is it a success?" And you say, "Yes. Absolutely it's a success." And they say, "Why do you think it's successful?"

I want you to take a minute and just think through what would that look like? What would that look like? Part one if this personal brand business you're wanting to build ultimately was successful, what would that look like?

And then I want to press in a little bit deeper. I want to ask you, what would your life look like then when this personal brand you're trying to build and you're working on when that's successful. What will your life look like, then? How will your life be impacted? I'd love for you to even hit the pause button and just spend a few moments thinking about that wherever you are.

If you're driving, hit the pause button, wherever you are, or just give a couple of minutes to just imagine your personal brand being successful. What's your life going to look like then when that happens?

When I recently asked some folks this question, here's some of the answers that I got. And many of these will probably resonate with you.

When this personal brand business that I'm building is successful there's going to be a new sense of just meaning to my life. There's going to be a complete freedom.

That was another statement that came out. The ability to focus on things that are really meaningful to me.

That's another answer that came out as we were working through this together in a group. A relaxation, the, the freedom to travel free from thinking about money and time. Relaxed as I think about the future. These are some of the answers that came out as we were exploring this together.

Time and space for self care. Plenty of time for vacation and relaxing and enjoying their family. Financial freedom. Somebody said literally being able to travel whenever and wherever I want to go. There was some talk about financial freedom, even for kids and grandkids like leaving that kind of legacy.

Personal health was another theme that came up.

So those may be some of the things that came to mind as you thought about, Hey, if this personal brand I'm working to build actually is successful, this is what my life would look like. This would be some of the fruits that, that come out of it.

Okay. So we're going to come back to that little exercise at the end of this episode and tie it all together.

[00:06:28] Danger #4
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So let's jump into danger number four. What is deadly danger number four of building a personal brand?

And here it is: *personal brands promise freedom. But let's be honest, freedom can be dangerous*. Personal brands promise this freedom out there, but we've got to at least be aware that freedom while there are great aspects to it.

Freedom can also be dangerous. What do I mean, what in the world are we talking about? Well, let's think a little bit more about freedom in relationship to personal brands.

When we start talking about what it looks like to build a personal brand, part of the attraction, part of the allure is this promise of freedom.

[00:07:17] Free from others
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For example, a common theme you're going to hear around the call to start your own personal brand business. Oh, for those that have already made the leap. You'll hear this come up. And it's one of them is, when you start this personal brand business, you're going to be free from others. Other leaders. Other executives. Others in the management and the CEO suite.

So there is this promise that you're going to be free, to be your own boss. You're going to be free from that other work environment that you left to start your personal brand business. Where there's just dumb decisions that are made.

Sometimes there's just stupid people. We wouldn't say that to their face, but when we're complaining to our friends after work or whatever man, they just, some of these folks they're just so dumb. I can't believe they're in management. I can't believe they're in charge. I can't believe that they're the boss or the founder of this company.

I have no idea how that works. They just keep screwing things up.

Part of the promise of a personal brand is that you're going to be free from that because now you're your own boss. And I just want to say again what we're doing in the series. We're not saying that that is not true. We're not saying that that's terrible.

We're just trying to give a little bit of a, a more measured look to say. There are some inherent dangers about building a personal brand. The spotlight rarely gets shined on them. And all we want to do is say, Hey, let's be wise. Let's take a full account of this thing that we're giving our lives to, to make sure that we're really aware of the whole picture, not just a part of the picture.

So that's what we're doing here.

So personal brands promise freedom. Freedom is great. Freedom can be dangerous. So one of the freedoms that a personal brand promises is, Hey, you're going to finally be free from all those knuckleheads that you had to work under work with, et cetera. Okay. I want to share a second one that goes hand in hand with that a lot of the times that you'll hear out in the personal brand space.

Hey, you should start a personal brand. When you do, and you're able to step away a lot of times, again, from some sort of, of a corporate world, you're going to be free from all that corporate greed that goes with it. You don't have to start a personal brand and business that's motivated and, and, fueled by the kind of greed of corporate.

And that is also true. That's also very true.

But I want us to stop here. As we think about those two, Hey, you're going to, you're going to be free from usually it's, management leaders, executives, CEOs, whatever you're going to be free from others, or you're going to be free from this corporate greed does often go hand in hand as we talk about personal brands.

You're finally liberated from that. Let's think though freedom comes from possessing power. Those in power are free. And those who are, have less power or a power less are the ones that wind up getting oppressed, enslaved, et cetera. All of the things that I think most of us would agree that is not good for humans. It's not good for the world.

So freedom comes from possession power. And when we say, Hey you should start a personal brand because finally, no one else is getting to be making these kind of dumb decisions for your company or for your business. That just screw things up that are just not smart decisions, business decisions, employee decisions, et cetera.

And you're going to be free from that whole corporate greed where all of those guys and gals up there at the top are making all this money. They have no idea what it's out. You know, like down here in the trenches, you're going to be free from all of that.

Well, freedom comes from possessing power. And when we promise that as personal brands and when we bite on that promise, give-in to that promise without reflecting fully on what we just said yes to what was subtly saying is that power best belongs in my hands. Not someone else's hands. Because I'm going to be the one that's actually going to wield that power better.

And that's going to help me achieve the freedom I desire that those knuckleheads or that corporate entity is not going to, it's not going to be able to take me there.

Okay. So we just need to, to look ourselves in the mirror and say that freedom of having and running your own personal brand. It's true. It's good. It's got great benefits. I'm not disagreeing at all with that. I just want to also bring on the table that freedom,- -like unlimited, unending, you-can-do-anything-you-want freedom--there is a dangerous side to that. And when we talk about the freedom from corporate or working for someone else where they're in charge and yeah, we're taking orders, you're under someone else's authority, freedom comes from possessing power. And we say a personal brand gets you breaks you free from that while it's true.

And there are great things. What we're really saying, subtly is, Hey, the power, instead of someone else having that, you should have that because you're going to wield it better than they ever did. And that's how you're going to get what you want, that freedom that you want in this personal brand business space.

So just be aware of that.

Because here's the reality. You can become the busy greedy, self-serving CEO that you love to mock.

Okay. I'm going to say that again. In the personal brand space you're out there. You left that other thing behind. You're not working for anyone else anymore. You're not in corporate space, for example, anymore.

You're free.

True.

But you're also free to, without even recognizing it becoming the very busy, greedy self-serving CEO that you love to mock while you are back there.

_There is no inherent protection in personal branding that automatically prevents you from becoming that same kind of person._

Okay. There's nothing that's going to show up in running your own personal brand, that's going to automatically prevent you from becoming the very thing that you love to mock. And this personal brand is going to finally set me free from all. So just be aware of that. Just be aware that yes, there is freedom, but freedom from though other leaders, other people over me and in authority over me at the workplace or whatever, and freedom from the kind of corporate entity thing, there's benefits, but there's also dangers.

We just need to be aware of that. That’s all I'm suggesting for us.

[00:14:01] Free to express You
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Here's another one that you'll hear a lot around personal brands.

Start a personal brand business, grow this thing, build it up. And you're going to be freed to be able to explore and fulfill your own unique calling, purpose, role, different words will get attached to their kind of, depending on what stream you're swimming in. But the basic message is, you're uniquely you and a personal brand business allows you to uniquely represent that and get that out there in the world. And the world needs it.

The universe needs it. This is a lot of the talk you're going to hear around the personal brand space. No one is like you. Get it out there. Your spin is what makes it unique and different from everyone else's.

And I just want to say again, I affirm that the building a personal brand can enable you to do that in and empower you to do that.

But let's also add a little bit of perspective to that.

And we need to maybe take it down a notch or two. And we need to come to grips also with this is true, this truth you're free to explore and fulfill your own special, unique gifting when you start your personal brand business and bring that to bear on the world. '

Yes, but here is the sober reality. *Just because something is unique, like a personal brand does not inherently make it valuable.* Just because something is unique in the world-- like your personal brand will be cause it's you-- that doesn't inherently make it valuable. So that promise is out there. Hey, you're finally going to be free to be the special snowflake that you are. I don't disagree. I'm not trying to squelch that or burst your bubble.

But just remember just because something is unique, like a personal brand, it doesn't inherently make it valuable.

So we're free to go do that. But there is a danger in assuming that just by me being me as a personal brand business, that makes it valuable. It can be, but there's just because something's unique doesn't inherently make it valuable.

[00:16:14] Free to Build Your Dream Life
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Here's a, another very, very common one. And then we'll wrap this episode up.

So remember the deadly danger we're talking about is personal brands, promise freedom, but freedom can be dangerous. Freedom can be. Dangerous. So we've looked at that promise that's out there. Like you're going to be start a personal brand business, grow it up, and you're going to be free from other people, leaders, bosses, et cetera.

You're going to be free from this like corporate entity kind of thing, and free to go do it your own way. You're going to be free to go put your special, unique stamp on the world. Those are all true. They're all good things. They're things I enjoy about my personal brand business.

But freedom comes from power and what we're really saying sometimes the power best belongs in my hand, not in corporate hands and not in some other bosses hands.

And we're also saying, Hey, I'm a special snowflake. And that inherently makes me valuable as a personal brand business. Not necessarily.

Okay. Here's the last one that often gets dangled out there. *You should start a personal brand business because when this thing it gets up and running,* *you're going to be finally free to build the life you want to build.*

Now, this one gets dangled out there probably more than any others. If there's a star of the show, oh, it's this one. At it's maybe extreme you'll hear it as, "You can work from the beach. You can work a few hours a week." On and on the list, goes.

But there are some more maybe subtle versions of that, that aren't quite as hyperbolic, like way out there. You can walk on the beach, glance at your phone while the money just rolls in. Most of us probably aren't quite that gullible.

But the point is one of the most attractive promises is finally, you're going to have the freedom.

No one else is going to build the life you want to live for you. That power again is going to be in your hands. You are now free to build the life you want to build.

Again, I want to affirm that I've worked in nonprofit church space. I've worked in startup companies. I've worked for myself. Which do I prefer?

I prefer this one. And you probably do too, which is part of the reason that brings you to the personal brand space.

But the idea that you're free to build the life you want to build. Let's take a couple of minutes to reflect together on that and ask a few questions around that.

Because I'm not convinced yet. I'm not convinced that having a personal brand business we're quite as free as the promise that's often dangled out there by other personal brands.

Usually that are trying to help you build your personal brand.

That's to me a little bit of the irony is that oftentimes those that want to build a personal brand are looking to someone else who's in the personal brand space, whose business is to kind of coach and build up other personal brands.

And I'm just, I'm not quite convinced yet that that promise of freedom. Is is quite yeah, as free as often gets presented.

And here's what I have now I noticed probably most recently . When we start to unpack that. What you're going to find is much of what I shared in the opening exercise.

Hey, imagine if your personal brand business were a smashing success, and that is very fun to think about, and I encourage you to do that. Picture and think about what that success looks like, what your, what you're pursuing don't be walking blindly towards something that you don't know where you're headed.

Hey, what would your life look like? Then when you see success?

This is what you're going to hear. And I'm not saying it's wrong, but this is what you're going to hear. Th those phrases. I mentioned, I'm going to have complete freedom to blah, blah, blah.

There's going to be rec relaxation. There's going to be travel. That's involved. There's the freedom from worry or stress about the future and about finances, time to enjoy a family, personal health, self care. There's going to be time. I'm going to have this team around me. That's going to handle the stuff that I don't really want to mess with, et cetera, et cetera.

Well, what we're seeing. And so many of those answers is what I think is the massive allure. And yet the very elusive it's really hard to get your head hands around REST.

It's it's rest like with a capital R R E S T.

You boil some of those other things down. It's the ability to rest.

This is the very subtle promise, I think, that's hanging over there in the shadows of the personal brand space. Hey, if you have a great successful personal brand, you're going to be free, free to do what free to build the life you want. What kind of life is that?

It's a life where there's rest.

Where you're not overwhelmed, where you're not overworked when you're not overstressed, where you're free. Is that true? Absolutely. Parts of building a personal brand that, that brings some of that. And there are some highly successful personal brand folks that maybe get to enjoy more of that than others. But overall, it is not uncommon to find successful personal brands that would say they're they haven't arrived yet. But they are certainly more successful than they were three years ago.

And one of the common challenges or pain points or struggles is a lack of rest. It's a lack of rest.

Like some sort of alarm or trigger somewhere should be going off, I think, for us and the space. To say, "Hmm, this thing that is supposed to bring more freedom than the other alternative that I was going to pursue, or that I used to pursue many of us in the space still..."

We enjoy it. Like I wouldn't go back. I'm telling you, I, I'm not interested in going back.

But rest is elusive that rest and allure that we dreamed about at the top of the episode is very, very elusive.

I think we just need to get that out on the table. Personal brands, promise freedom. Some of that promise is very, very true.

Much of that promise is I think good. But freedom, wholesale freedom. Do whatever you want whenever you want. However you want. I think most of us would agree and at least in theory, That kind of freedom can be dangerous. In the wrong hands that kind of freedom can be dangerous.

What we tend not to think as well.

I don't have the wrong hands. Yeah. And the wrong hands is dangerous. My hands aren't the wrong hands. I think it would do us well to at least be a little bit reflective on that.

[00:23:22] Closing Reflections & Questions
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So let me close us with a few questions for reflection. We've been doing this through each of these episodes. It's really the point of this series.

It's not to cast stones at building a personal brand. I have one. I love it. I help others build one. It's just to stop and reflect on the fact that just having one or building one doesn't necessarily mean you're going to arrive at the destination you want to arrive at. We need a full whole picture. It's not all rainbows and mountaintops.

And we're not just talking about the challenges of running a business. Yeah. Every business has a chance. Like we said, some folks will bring attention to that. I'm saying, Hey, we need the whole picture.

So here's what I want you to do. The first thing I want you to do is I want you to think back to your own answers from that opening exercise.

When I asked you to take just a few minutes to think through, Hey, when your personal brand is a success, what will your life look like then? What will your life look like? Then think back to a few of the answers that I shared that came out of a recent exercise where we did this together. And yeah, here's the question I want to ask us.

So you might need to sit down, may need to pull over my need to drop the weight. So you might need to turn the volume up a second or two. So I want you to think back to those answers. And I want you to honestly ask yourself how much of that list, of what your life will look like then, when your personal brand is a success, *how much of that list is focused on making *_*your world*_* a better place versus making *_*the world*_* a better place?*

How much of the list was focused on making your personal world a better place versus making the world a better place?

What I see a lot and my own challenge, as I think about man, I'm want this personal brand to succeed. Then my life is going to look like this. What you'll hear a lot is the person at the top of the personal brand, their life looks great.

Maybe their family's life looks great. I don't know that we're giving enough attention to, Hey, if you five personal brands go summit the mountain does that make the world a better place or just your world a better place? *I think that's something worth wrestling with that's inherently in tension with building a personal brand.*

That's one of the dangers, I think. So, give that some thought, take a walk to on that. However you do some self-reflection that's what the series is about is just take some time to think about what we're just like putting their head down and chasing after.

Another question for you is *where are you getting your definition of what success is for a personal brand?*

Where are we getting input from all over the place? Where are you getting your definition of what success is going to look like for your personal brand?

The definition of success for your personal brand is wide open to interpretation. It's not written in some book somewhere. But we need to recognize it's often shaped by our superheroes in the space.

So, where are you getting your definition of what success looks like for your personal brand? It's often shaped by our superheroes. Please give some thought to your own definition. Don't just assume or take everyone else's. That, that I think is dangerous.

Freedom is a wonderful promise of building a personal brand, a successful personal brand.

It is. Part of the promise and building a personal brand that's successful can deliver on some of that promise. But what I want to, I want us to think about *what are people in general, what are people willing to do in the pursuit of freedom?*

Think about your history books. What are people willing to do in particular to other people in pursuit of freedom? Okay. I don't know that in the personal brand space, I wouldn't say we're immune to that, right? It's easy. I wouldn't do anything nasty or terrible or whatever, really. What are people willing to do and pursue to freedom?

Freedom is one of the primary promises of building a personal brand. What are humans willing to do when they're in pursuit of freedom? Good and bad.

Here's another question for you to think about.* How much of your motivation to succeed and achieve that freedom is fundamentally about achieving rest quote, unquote-- someday?*

Think through that.

How much of what you're going after if you boil down the travel, the swimming by the pool, the hanging out with the family, the, working less hours. Like peel, peel the onion, layers away. Fundamentally, we're talking about rest, but we're talking about it someday out there.

Here's my question. How can you build in a rhythm of rest now rather than wait for that quote unquote, someday success. I think so many of us in this space, this is what we're doing. We're sacrificing rest on an ordinary day of building a personal brand business and pursuit of someday success rest.

And I don't know that we have to do that.

Here's the last question. If next week looks like this week for you and building your personal brand, and next month just looks like four of those weeks strung together. And then next year is repeating the pattern of those 12 months. *Who are you becoming in pursuit of building a personal brand?*

If next week looks like this week and next month looks like four of these weeks strung together. And next year, as a repeating pattern of those months, who are you becoming in pursuit of building this personal brand. Again, I'll say what I mentioned before. Don't become the busy, greedy self-serving CEO that you love to mock because there is no inherent protection or governor that keeps the speed down.

Like a governor will on a car. There's no inherent protection or governor in personal branding that prevents you. You from becoming the same busy, greedy self-serving CEO, you love to mock. The only difference is the context. Instead of you being the greedy overworked, busy CEO of a company, you're the busy, unhappy self-serving CEO of your own personal brand.

Remember the quote we shared towards the beginning of this series. _We become what we tolerate_. We tolerate a lot of this in the personal brand space. And we need to be on the lookout because subtly over time we become what we tolerate.

[00:29:55] Closing
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Thanks for joining me on this episode of know these a little deep, I appreciate you going there with me.

This is just what I'm wrestling with. As I'm trying to build my own personal brand space, like I said, as I'm a rounding the corner and looking to hit 50, not very long from now. This is what I've been wrestling with. I want you to know there's a new resource on the website. I've mentioned this a couple of times.

It's the seven simple secrets behind Bill's a personal brand website that get results and hopefully helping you build a healthy, personal brand business in line with this series, a that resource really condenses 20 years of web design. It's hard for me to believe that designed my first website in 2008.

So it takes 20 years of just my web design experience and really is the shortcut to making an unmistakably clear, attractive and strategic first impression with that personal brand website. Of yours. And I would love for you to grab that it's a free resource. You can go to Robbie f.com. I'll put a link in the show notes, grab it right there on the homepage.

You'll see it to scroll down the page a little bit. Also I'd love your help getting this out into the hands of more personal brands so that we're all building. Healthy successful personal brands on our own terms, not defined by somebody else. You can do that by leaving a rating or review on apple podcast.

Some of you have done that recently, and I really, really appreciate it. That just helps this get into the hands of more folks. So I'd love for your help doing that. If you have a question about the podcast, or if you want to interact on this series at all, of course, you can DM me on Instagram. You can reach out on email, but I would love to continue the conversation if this has sparked or peaked anything in your mind.

And until next time go and build a life giving brand.