How to Build Your Personal Brand | Rory Vaden

Building Your Personal Brand with Rory Vaden

In this podcast episode, Nathan Chan interviews Rory Vaden, a New York Times best-selling author and world-leading expert in influence. They discuss the importance of personal branding and how to build one.

The Genesis of Personal Branding

• The personal brand is answering this one question with one word: What problem do you solve?

Rory's Journey to Personal Branding

• Rory was raised by a single mom who sold Mary Kay cosmetics and grew up around women in direct sales.

• He got into direct sales while in college and made about $250,000 doing door-to-door sales for five summers.

• He leveraged that money to start his first business, a coaching company, which he scaled to eight figures with 200 employees before selling it in 2018.

• After exiting the company, he helped Lewis Howes with his personal brand and received over 500 requests for calls from people wanting help with their own personal brands. This led to the creation of Brand Builders Group.

What is Personal Branding?

• Personal branding is the digitization of reputation.

• A national research study found that 74% of Americans are more likely to trust someone if they have an established personal brand.

• Personal branding is not just social media or followers but something more fundamental at play.

Importance of Building a Personal Brand

• Building a personal brand helps entrepreneurs become more well-known and trusted by potential customers.

• It allows individuals to differentiate themselves from competitors and stand out in their industry.

• Personal branding also helps individuals attract more opportunities and partnerships.

Steps to Building a Personal Brand

• Identify your unique value proposition by answering the question: What problem do you solve?

• Define your target audience and understand their needs and pain points.

• Develop a content strategy that aligns with your brand message and resonates with your target audience.

• Consistently create and distribute valuable content across multiple platforms to build trust and credibility with your audience.

The Importance of Personal Branding

In this section, the speaker discusses how personal branding is important for businesses and how it affects consumer behavior.

Personal Branding and Consumer Behavior

• Consumers are more likely to buy from companies whose founder's personal values align with theirs.

• Reputation is what personal branding is all about.

Examples of Personal Branding

• Athleta vs Lululemon: Athleta's founder's values aligned with the speaker's wife, so she only buys from them now.

• Not all successful people have a strong online presence or create content regularly (e.g., Elon Musk).

Overcoming Fear in Personal Branding

In this section, the speaker talks about how fear can hold people back from creating a personal brand and how to overcome it.

Fear and Self-Centeredness

• Fear is self-centered; we only feel fear when we're thinking about ourselves.

Mission to Serve

• When the mission to serve is clear, fear disappears.

Adding Value to People's Lives

• The focus should be on adding value to people's lives rather than getting them to follow you.

Personal Branding and Reputation Formula

In this section, the speaker talks about personal branding and how it relates to reputation. He explains that personal branding is the digitization of reputation, and that results times reach equals reputation.

The Three E's Content Strategies

• There are three different content strategies: educational, encouraging, and entertaining.

• Most people have a mix of all three.

• As a founder of a company, you're giving people a chance to know you.

• You can deploy one of these strategies to enhance the value for other people.

Reputation Formula

• Results times reach equals reputation.

• Results refer to what you do and what you're good at.

• Reach refers to how many people know about what you do.

• Mother Teresa has huge positive results times huge worldwide reach so she has a huge positive reputation.

• Adolf Hitler had huge negative results times huge worldwide reach so he has a huge negative reputation.

Importance of Reach

• If nobody knows about your product or service, they can't buy from you.

• Reach matters for the sake of impact, not ego or validation.

• You can only impact people if you can reach them.

Mission-driven Messenger vs Influencer/Celebrity

• Mission-driven messengers care about their product or service because they started their company to solve a problem in the world.

• They don't care about being famous but recognize that reach matters for impact.

• Influencers/celebrities may not have a mission but focus on building their personal brand for fame or validation.

Building a Personal Brand

In this section, Rory Vaden discusses the importance of branding and how it differs from marketing. He explains that personal brands fail because people skip the branding piece and jump to marketing.

The Importance of Branding

• The number one mistake people make is skipping the branding piece and jumping to marketing.

• Before designing a logo or website, you need to figure out who you are. This is called identity or branding.

• The goal is to find your uniqueness and exploit it in the service of others. Celebrate what makes you unique and promote it in the service of others.

• If you don't have clarity about your uniqueness, you will get absorbed into the noise.

Sheehan's Wall

• In any industry or market, there are two groups: those who are unknown and those who are known.

• Most people try to emulate what successful people do without figuring out their own uniqueness. This leads to diluted focus and diluted results.

• Sheehan's wall is an invisible wall between those who are unknown and those who are known. Most people throw a lot of stuff at the wall but bounce off because they lack strategy.

Finding Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

In this section, Rory Vaden talks about finding your unique selling proposition (USP). He explains that USP is not just about being different but also being different in a way that matters to your customers.

What Is USP?

• USP stands for unique selling proposition.

• USP is not just about being different but also being different in a way that matters to your customers.

• Your USP should be something that you can own and defend. It should be hard for others to copy.

How to Find Your USP

• To find your USP, ask yourself these questions: What do you do? Who do you do it for? Why does it matter?

• Your USP should be based on what makes you unique and what your customers care about.

• Once you have identified your USP, use it as the foundation of all your marketing efforts.

The Power of Focus

In this section, Rory Vaden talks about the power of focus. He explains that focus is essential for success and provides tips on how to stay focused.

The Importance of Focus

• Focus is essential for success. Without focus, you will get diluted results.

• Most people struggle with focus because they try to do too many things at once.

• To stay focused, identify your top priorities and eliminate distractions.

Tips for Staying Focused

• Use a timer to break down tasks into manageable chunks.

• Create a distraction-free environment by turning off notifications and closing unnecessary tabs.

• Schedule time blocks for specific tasks and stick to them.

The Importance of Focusing on One Thing

In this section, the speaker emphasizes the importance of focusing on one thing and gives examples of successful people who have done so.

Examples of Successful People Who Focused on One Thing

• Gary Vaynerchuk focused on one platform (YouTube) to build his personal brand.

• Brené Brown spent 20-30 years studying one thing (shame).

• Dave Ramsey built a multi-nine figure personal brand by solving one problem (debt).

• Rory Vaden broke through the wall with his first book, which was focused on procrastination and distraction.

Rory's Experience with Procrastination

In this section, Rory talks about how he broke through the wall with his first book, which was focused on procrastination and distraction.

Rory's Experience with Procrastination

• Rory's first book, "Take the Stairs," was focused on procrastination and distraction.

• His TED Talk, "How to Multiply Time," also focused on procrastination but specifically addressed priority dilution.

The Four Phases of Building a Personal Brand

In this section, Rory discusses the four phases of building a personal brand: identity, body of work, marketing, selling, and scaling.

The Four Phases of Building a Personal Brand

• Phase 1: Identity - This is where the deepest work happens. It involves identifying your uniqueness and what sets you apart from others.

• Phase 2: Body of Work - This is where your uniqueness is extrapolated into a process or methodology, such as a book or course.

• Phase 3: Marketing and Selling - This involves creating a digital ecosystem around your personal brand and teaching offline sales skills.

• Phase 4: Scaling - This involves building the entrepreneurial infrastructure to take your personal brand to the next level.

Monetizing Your Personal Brand

In this section, Rory discusses the five ways to monetize a personal brand.

The Five Ways to Monetize a Personal Brand

• There are five ways to monetize a personal brand, which Rory calls "the paids."

• These include selling products, services, experiences, access, and licensing. It's important to focus on these areas in order to turn followers into cash.

The PAIDS Business Model

This section discusses the PAIDS business model, which stands for ads and affiliates, information products, deals, and services.

The Components of the PAIDS Business Model

• PAIDS stands for ads and affiliates, information products, deals, and services.

• Multiple streams of income is bad advice when starting a business. Focus on one stream that works well before diversifying.

• Lewis Howes reduced his 17 revenue streams to three by focusing on his podcast as the main source of income through ads and affiliates.

• Information products include courses, membership sites, assessments or certification programs.

• Deals involve getting paid by a third party to create something like a brand deal or book deal with royalties associated with it.

• Services are the fastest way to make money but are not scalable long-term because they require trading time for money.

The DARES Criteria

• DARES stands for digital, automated, recurring, evergreen and scalable.

• A perfect business model would meet all five criteria but some work against each other such as recurring and evergreen.

Personal Branding and Frameworks

In this section, the speaker talks about personal branding and how it is unique to each individual. They also discuss their coaching process, which involves creating frameworks that help people organize information.

Personal Branding

• Personal branding is unique to each individual.

• There is no right answer when it comes to personal branding.

• The speaker's coaching process involves working one-on-one with people to clarify who they serve, what their message is, what their position is, and how they make money doing it.

Frameworks

• People love frameworks because they help them organize information.

• The speaker's coaching process involves helping people create original thought leadership through exercises that create frameworks.

• Frameworks are unique to each individual.

• Pillar point formulas are used to create punch lines and catchphrases.

Captivating Content and IP Creation

In this section, the speaker discusses captivating content creation and intellectual property (IP) creation. They explain how they take clients through exercises to create frameworks that help them organize information.

Captivating Content

• Captivating content creation involves creating IP.

• The speaker takes clients through exercises to create frameworks that help them organize information.

Intellectual Property Creation

• Original thought leadership helps establish true thought leadership for individuals.

• Data studies can be used as a tool for establishing legitimacy in an industry or field of study.

• Founder.freebrandstudy.com offers a free download of trends in personal branding national research studies report.

Rhythmic Construction and Metaphorical Construction

In this section, the speaker discusses rhythmic construction and metaphorical construction. They explain how these constructions can be used as formulas for creating memorable quotes.

Rhythmic Construction

• Rhythmic construction is one of six formulas for creating memorable quotes.

• Almost every quote you hear is one of six different types of sentence structure.

• Once you know what those are, you can take your content and run them through the formulas.

Metaphorical Construction

• Metaphorical construction is another formula for creating memorable quotes.

• The speaker's most famous quote is "Success is never owned, success is only rented, and the rent is due every day."

• This quote uses metaphorical construction.

Personal Brand Building

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of personal brand building and why it is essential to put energy behind what you say.

Reasons for Personal Brand Failure

• The number one reason personal brands fail is due to distraction and dilution. People do too many different things in too many different directions, making it unclear what they are trying to communicate.

• To avoid failure, individuals must be clear on what problem they solve in one word. If they cannot answer that question, then there is a big problem because people buy solutions to problems.

• It is crucial to communicate quickly what problem you solve; otherwise, customers will not know either.

How Brand Builders Group Helps

• Brand Builders Group helps experts and entrepreneurs become more well-known by moving them from obscurity to notoriety. They help individuals get crystal clear on their uniqueness and teach them how to exploit it in the service of others.

• Finding your uniqueness can be tricky but once found, exploiting it becomes easier with tactics such as building a content schedule or sales team.

Shortcut for Finding Your Uniqueness

• The most powerful way to serve others is by serving the person you once were. All of us can look back and solve a problem that we have already solved for ourselves.

Building a Strong Personal Brand

In this section, Rory Vaden talks about the importance of having a strong personal reputation and how to maintain relevance once you have established your personal brand.

Importance of Having a Strong Personal Reputation

• A strong personal reputation means being clear about what you want to be known for.

• Consistency is key in reinforcing your personal brand.

• Velocity adds speed and power to your personal brand.

Maintaining Relevance

• Get clear on what problem you solve in one word and what makes you unique in one word.

• Curate everything you talk about through the lens of your uniqueness while still addressing different topics.

• Stay relevant by consistently curating content that applies to your target audience through the lens of their needs.

Where to Learn More About Brand Builders Group

In this section, Rory Vaden shares where people can learn more about his work at Brand Builders Group.

Learning More About Brand Builders Group

• Visit freebrandcall.com/founder to request a free coaching call with their team.

• Remember that sharing your message with the world is important because someone out there needs it more than you know.