Skip to content
    ← Watch
    PERSONAL BRANDING
    50m 12 min read 255,949

    The New Approach to Personal Branding That Changes Everything (Forward Event)

    Chris Do reveals a new heart-centered approach to personal branding focused on closing the gap between your real self and your public persona.

    Chris Do

    Chris Do

    Founder, The Futur™ · September 29, 2024

    Watch on YouTube →
    Become a Member →

    Stop Performing, Start Healing

    Most people get personal branding wrong. They treat it as a tool for client acquisition, a slick way to leverage personality for a sale, or a trend to jump on. This is a fundamental mistake.

    “The problem is most of us are building a barrier between our true selves and the people who want to see like who is that person behind there,” says Chris Do, founder of The Futur. This gap, the space between your public persona and your private reality, is where trust erodes and authenticity dies.

    The real work of personal branding is not marketing. It is a process of self-discovery and healing. “It’s a process of discovering who you are and getting in touch with that,” Do explains. It is about confronting the unresolved trauma we carry from being raised by imperfect people, the same trauma that makes us afraid to show up, create content, or simply be ourselves.

    We are all children in adult suits, operating from a place of fear. The fear of judgment, the fear of irrelevance, the fear of failure. This fear dictates our actions, leading to inconsistent content, a generic voice, and a brand that feels interchangeable with a thousand others.

    The new approach to personal branding changes everything. It is not about selling. It is about closing the gap. It is about showing up as the real you, even if that person is socially awkward, introverted, or weird. As Do, a self-proclaimed Loud Introvert, argues, his success is built on this very principle. “I want to be known before I have to walk into the room because I'm just super weird like that.”

    If a socially awkward introvert who started YouTube at 42 can build a following of millions, anyone can. But you have to start from a place of radical self-acceptance. You have to stop performing and start being.

    The Uncomfortable Truth of Being Unremarkable

    In a live event, Do conducts an experiment. He asks the audience to network for a few minutes, meeting three new people. After the whirlwind of introductions, he asks a simple question: “Who do you remember and why?”

    The answers are telling. One person remembers Hope, a psychiatrist, because her name was unique and her profession was different. Another remembers Lee, because he didn’t talk about his career at all. Another remembers Matt, a fellow gamer.

    The lesson is immediate and unavoidable. We remember what is different, not what is the same. When everyone talks about business, talking about family stands out. When everyone is buttoned-up, geeking out on video games becomes a memorable hook.

    “The uncomfortable truth is this,” Do states, “it's like we're being like everybody else so we become really hard to remember.”

    Are you showing up the same way on social media? Are you being unremarkable, not worthy of being remarked upon? It takes very little to change this. Don’t try to be better. Try to be different. This is a core idea in building a brand, one that separates market leaders from the forgotten majority. It is the art of positioning yourself in a category of one.

    This path is not easy. It requires courage. When a friend and professor once advised Do to soften his aggressive and opinionated style, he refused. “I believe the only reason why people were in that room in the first place is because I'm this way,” he countered. “I would rather have 10 people who follow me for being for me being me than a 100 million people following me for not being myself. What is the point of life if you can't even be yourself?”

    The fears are real. You will be judged. You will be criticized. Worst of all, you might create something and have no one show up. But here is the paradox. “The reason why people aren't showing up is because you're not showing up,” Do says. Your true self is absent, replaced by a safe, generic, and ultimately unremarkable persona.

    The Architecture of Trust

    Authenticity is the currency of the modern economy. Without it, you are just noise. But what does it mean to be authentic, and how does it translate into a brand people will follow and buy from?

    Do points to the Trust Triangle, a framework developed by Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei and her co-author Anne Morriss. Originally detailed in their book Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader's Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You, the model identifies three core drivers of trust.

    These drivers are:

    • Authenticity: Are you who you say you are? Is the real you present? Do people feel they are interacting with an honest representation of you, not a curated persona? Authenticity wanes when there is a large gap between your public self and your private self.
    • Empathy: Do you genuinely care about the well-being of the other person? Or are your questions and interactions merely a thinly veiled path to a sale? People can sense when they are being maneuvered. True empathy prioritizes their needs over your agenda.
    • Logic: Is your reasoning sound? Can people follow the argument you are making? Logic provides the structural integrity for your claims and offers.

    Of these three, authenticity and empathy are the most critical and often the most compromised. We are socialized from a young age to conform. Don’t do that. Don’t say that. Sit still. Raise your hand. Go along to get along. School, Do argues, beats individuality out of us.

    The result is a persona self, a carefully constructed mask we wear to navigate the world. “The real you is when no one's watching,” Do clarifies. The bigger the gap between that person and the person you present to the world, the more you are faking it. Personal branding is the work of bringing those two selves together.

    This is why so many sales calls feel hollow. A salesperson may present logical credentials, but if they lack authenticity (they feel scripted) and empathy (they only want the close), trust collapses. This is why a leader with a powerful vision still fails if their team doesn't believe they genuinely care. Without all three pillars, the entire structure is unstable. The path to building real connection, as explored in conversations around authentic sales, starts with genuine care for the other person.

    By leaning into who you are, caring deeply about your audience, and presenting your ideas clearly, you build an unshakeable foundation of trust. This is the engine that drives a powerful personal brand.

    The 9-1-1 Content Strategy

    Many creators and entrepreneurs fall into a vicious cycle. They feel pain and fear around creating content, so they procrastinate or remain inconsistent. This lack of belief manifests a negative outcome: poor-performing content with low engagement. The result confirms their initial fear, and the cycle repeats.

    The content flatlines. The brand fails to launch. The problem is a broken ratio of giving to asking.

    When you give value and immediately ask for something in return, it is a transaction. There is no goodwill, no relationship, no brand being built. To break free, you must widen the gap between the time you give and the time you ask. This is the central thesis of Do’s content philosophy.

    He declares: The strength of your personal brand is measured as the distance from the value to the ask.

    Play the long game. Social media is a value exchange platform. Your audience gives you their most precious resource: time. In return, you must provide overwhelming value. When you do this in abundance, you activate the principle of reciprocity. People feel a natural urge to return the favor.

    You give so much that you don’t even have to ask. They ask you. “Hey, how do I get into your program?” “How can I work with you?” This is the mark of a strong brand.

    To make this tangible, Do introduces the 9-1-1 Content Ratio, a simple framework for structuring your content calendar to build trust and authority.

    • 9 Value Posts: Nine pieces of content designed solely to help your audience. These can be educational, insightful, or entertaining. They solve a problem, offer a new perspective, or provide a useful tool. There is no ask.
    • 1 Personal Post: One piece of content that reveals the human behind the expertise. This is for your soul and for the audience. It builds relatability and shows that you are more than just a smart person; you are a person with a story, struggles, and unique interests.
    • 1 Ask Post: One direct call to action. Because you have earned the right, you can ask for the sale, the signup, or the follow without guilt or shyness. You are on the right side of the value equation.

    Do points to entrepreneur Alex Hormozi, who amassed millions of followers by delivering excessive value with a simple promise: “I'll never pitch you or sell you anything.” By delaying the ask almost indefinitely, Hormozi built incredible leverage and a loyal audience. The 9-1-1 ratio is not just a content tactic; it is a philosophy of generosity that underpins the most successful personal brands, a theme Do often discusses when analyzing what top creators do differently.

    Different Is Better Than Better

    A product or service without a story is a commodity. When you are a commodity, the only thing that matters is price. The lowest price wins. It is a race to the bottom.

    To escape the commodity trap, you must build a brand. A brand is a story, a feeling, a point of differentiation that attaches meaning to an otherwise interchangeable offering. Do illustrates this with a simple example: bottled water.

    A generic bottle of water is a commodity. But then there is Evian, which isn’t just water; it’s water “made by the French Alps.” That is a story. Then there is Fiji, which is “natural artesian water from the island of Fiji.” That is a more exclusive story. Then there is Essentia, which claims to be “ionized alkaline water” and, more importantly, “overachieving H2O.”

    Whether or not alkaline water provides superior health benefits is almost irrelevant. Essentia told a better story. They positioned their water not just as hydration, but as a tool for high performers.

    This is the power of perceived value. Rory Sutherland, the advertising legend and Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, has spent his career arguing that marketers focus too much on tangible reality and not enough on intangible perception. In his book Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense, Sutherland shows how human behavior is driven by stories and context, not just objective facts. People don’t buy the best product. They buy the product they feel best about buying.

    Your personal brand operates on the same principle. You must find your point of differentiation. Maybe it is where you are from, like the mortgage broker working from a farm. That single detail separates him from every suit in a city office. It creates a hook for connection based on shared values or aspirations.

    The more points of differentiation you can overlap, the stronger and more unique your brand becomes. It is not a trick or a hack. It is about building familiarity and trust at scale. As Do says, different is better than better. Be obsessed with leaning into what makes you different.

    Find Your Nickname, Find Your Brand

    Many people struggle to define their brand, getting tangled in abstract concepts. Do offers a refreshingly simple entry point: start with a nickname.

    The first thing anyone learns about a brand is its name. While you are given a name at birth, you can earn a name based on your story and personality. A nickname is shorthand for your character. It’s memorable, it’s sticky, and it tells a story in a few words.

    Consider these examples:

    • Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino: The Jersey Shore producers understood branding. The nickname immediately signals drama, trouble, and self-importance.
    • Israel “The Last Stylebender” Adesanya: The UFC champion’s nickname evokes his love for anime (specifically Avatar: The Last Airbender) and his unique, fluid fighting style. It perfectly encapsulates his persona.
    • Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović: The MMA fighter’s name is a nod to his past as a member of Croatia’s anti-terrorist police unit. It speaks to his discipline, origin, and formidable reputation.
    • MrBeast: Jimmy Donaldson’s brand name suggests he does everything in “beast mode,” going to the extreme. He doesn’t just give away a car; he gives away a Lamborghini. The name is a promise of scale and spectacle.

    Your nickname becomes a filter for how you tell stories and how you show up. To find yours, Do suggests a simple exercise. Just come up with a silly nickname for yourself. The criteria are simple: it should be true, unique to you, and memorable. You get bonus points if it is also a little vulnerable.

    A nickname like “Badass” is forgettable because it is ego-driven. A name like “The Lone DeLorean” (as one audience member suggested) is clever, memorable, and hints at a story. Do’s own “Loud Introvert” encapsulates the central tension of his personality and has become the foundation of his brand story. This is the essence of building a brand, a concept Do further explores in his 10 rules for creating a powerful personal identity.

    Write to Someone, Not Everyone

    If your content is failing, it is likely because you are writing to everyone. Writing for everyone is like writing a love letter that starts with, “To whom it may concern.” The phrase, which Do attributes to former AppSumo CEO Ayman Al-Abdullah, perfectly captures the problem. When you are not clear on your ideal customer, your message is diluted and ineffective.

    The solution is to get incredibly specific about who you are serving. A powerful tool for this is Empathy Mapping, a design thinking exercise used to build detailed buyer personas from the customer’s point of view. You are not describing them; you are pretending to be them.

    Do lays out a simple four-part prompt to create a mini-empathy map:

    1. Identity: Start with “I am a(n) [adjective] [job title].” The adjective is crucial. Are you a stressed engineer or an overworked CMO? The emotion provides the context.
    2. Struggle: Fill in “I struggle with [personal or professional challenge].” What is their core pain point? An overworked CMO might struggle with “getting noticed against bigger, more established brands.”
    3. Want: Based on that struggle, complete “I want [a solution, feature, or benefit].” The CMO wants “a scrappy branding agency that specializes in underdogs.”
    4. Pain/Risk: Finally, add what is at stake. “Or I risk [the negative consequence].” For the CMO, the risk is “getting fired, demoted, professional embarrassment, and future opportunities.”

    This exercise forces you to step into your customer's world and see their problems through their eyes. It gives you immediate insight into the kind of content that will resonate. Instead of guessing, you are creating solutions for a specific person with a specific need. For those struggling to define this, building a strong user persona is a critical first step explored in-depth in finding your starving market. If you can understand their wants, needs, hopes, fears, and beliefs, you can easily create content that meets them exactly where they are.

    Your Content is Your Legacy

    In an age dominated by artificial intelligence, many fear the loss of identity and the rise of deepfakes. But Do offers another perspective. What if the content you create today becomes your legacy tomorrow? What if it is a form of immortality?

    He was once asked what would happen to his brand if something happened to him, since he is so present across all channels. He replied that he has created over 1,300 videos, hundreds of podcasts, books, courses, and notebooks filled with ideas. “All of this stuff is great training material for something else,” he reflects, “like for an AI.”

    We are just months or years away from being able to create a reasonable digital approximation of a person based on their body of work. Imagine your great-great-grandchildren being able to have a conversation with an AI version of you, to hear your stories, to learn from your wisdom, to know who you were.

    This transforms content creation from a marketing task into an act of profound generosity for future generations. It provides a powerful reason to start creating content now, in the highest fidelity possible, capturing your voice, your ideas, and your likeness.

    Even if you do not care about branding or marketing, think about the future you might want to connect with. Today is the day to start building that archive.

    The final takeaway is the simplest and most profound. Branding is about one key idea: different is better than better. Be obsessed with it. Lean into what makes you unique.

    But remember, all the social content in the world is garbage if you lose yourself in the process.

    It is so simple. We just want you to be you. Or as Do’s friend West McDowell once said, “Be the usest you you can be.”

    TRANSCRIPT

    the problem is most of us are building a barrier between our true selves and the people who want to see like who is that person behind there and I'll tell you what it isn't for me personal branding is not about how to get more clients it's not about a tricky way to leverage your personality to get a sales you know it's not because it's Buzzy or something that's on Trend right now personal branding for me is a process of discovering who you are and getting in touch with that and healing from this trauma that we like we don't even understand that we have we're raised by imperfect people then we become imperfect people [Music] [Applause] too all right where are all my introverts at can I see you guys okay it's a little different because usually the introverts are like so those are the pretend you're like the ampts over here okay well I'm an introvert and the reason why I share that with you will be apparently or abundantly clear by the time I'm done with this I have some some quick things um I just want to get off here before we get really into this thing uh did you guys hear about what happened last night the after hours bonus thing that was pretty cool right the rest of you guys you guys missed something because you just didn't show up and part of this whole thing is to show up but there's a guy who's going to be speaking after me his name is Phil Jones and this is a magic wand it's not a cigarette cuz he's magical with words he really is and I'm kind of setting this up but you know as as good as Phil is with words I'm pretty good with pictures so when I drew the cube I got a little Applause for myself you know so I just put that up there right okay and then um we we did something funny it was just kind of very impromptu and I wish I wish you guys were there because it was just it was gold right and I wish somebody was there to oh wait I believe we have a clip of it can I can I share it with you guys all hopefully the speakers don't blow me away okay so Phil was uh kind of freestyling he had this this uh framework this four-step framework on how to introduce yourself so it's relevant to the person and as he was doing I'm like wait wait my my buddy Dave who who do beatboxing like Dave could you just do this like what do it now I'm like yes right now so that's the setup for this it's just 40 seconds here we go okay do it one 2 3 4 well you know how many people in the mortgage space find themselves looking to try and stand out from their competition try to demonstrate their expertise and look to be out of put themselves in a Marketplace of one in a crowded Market which means that what they do is they find themselves needing to demonstrate like podcasts and books and need to put themselves and this is not distracting at all so I've just I mean Phil did that freestyle you guys right now we'll have to forgive him he's British so the timing was not quite correct but that was awesome okay so let me get into what I want to talk to you about today so I have this this observation about you guys and I'm not sure what it is but it's a really warm Community I come from a design and kind of branding community and we're all really weird so nobody ever talks to each other I mean I'm telling you the truth but when I see you guys you're hey I'm like me you go you want to talk to me okay this is cool and I don't know if You' gone to other conferences or belong to other communities it ain't like this so there's something special and maybe it's this other thing that I think that maybe trauma bonds people together and I know you're going through a tough time so I'm just going to that's how this whole thing's going to go okay everybody so just get ready for it seat Bel and all okay so yeah so I have a confession and and and I'd argue with you that I think I have the best job in the world because I get to help people achieve their dreams and I get paid a lot of money to do that what is better than that and it fills me up with joy every single day and I also want to let you guys know I'm extremely socially awkward and I just pretend not to be most of the time but if you didn't know me you didn't see me I'll just be like this the whole time and I have developed this life philosophy that if I'm just good enough at creating content then I don't have to develop social skills and and this is why my personal brand is a loud introvert I I want to be known before I have to walk into the room because I'm just super weird like that so so if I see somebody they smile at me I'm like there's nobody behind me must okay I guess we we know each other kind of and it's just just really neat and I share that with you cuz you know I'm just I think a lot of you guys are extroverts right so we'll do this we'll do this the opposite way introverts raise your hand quietly gently oh that's a lot more than I thought it seems like the extroverts are over here for some reason did you guys notice that yeah see that's what's going to happen Okay well the thing is I say this is because if a socially awkward person like myself can do this I know for certain that you can do it and you have the resources you have the personality typ so these strategies that I'm going to share with you we're going to do some work together I I think it's going to help you and one more quick story is that I just want to let you know that social media and creating content was the farthest thing away from my mind and my good friend and and former Mentor told me hey let's go make content together so in 2014 I made my first YouTube video like we're coming up on 10 years here so that's really cool and I was 42 years old at that time and I was I I told this to a smaller audience and there was this guy he was in the audience he's like bro what so after I gave my talk he said you should have just ended it there cuz then we you got to just drop the skincare routine and he's like and you're almost ready for retirement right you're going to collect your Social Security and pension soon right that's Alex is kind of bro stuff right and he didn't know that uh Asian don't raisin you know it's genetics you know but you know not to leave anybody out you all know you also know that um black don't crack you know that work the okay all right okay and then I was like well what else like Latin smooth like satin yeah somebody here yeah yeah okay right right right okay and then I was like what if you're white uh and I had to make up a rhyme for that so I'm like good night I don't know I'm sorry I'm sorry okay all right I I woke up this morning chose violence I'm so sorry okay but you know kind of all joking aside I am I'm here mostly cuz I want to help you find your voice and it's a very heart-c centered approach to what I'm doing and because I think we're all children uh in adult suits and there's like a lot of unresolved trauma and the result of it is like we're afraid to do things from business to content creation and everything else in between so I want to help you to lean into more of you because I think when you do that you're operating in your zone of Genius the reason why I tell you you need to lean into more of who you are what makes you different and unique is because I put this tweet out and it says and this was from last year I'm 52 now it says I'm 51 I started YouTube at 42 I got serious on Instagram at 46 cuz I learned it from my intern who was 20 and now or the YouTube stats were 2.1 million Instagram followers 880,000 whatever blah blah and I skipped to the part I said I did it you can too but you have to start and you have to start from a place of generosity you have to give before you get and if we focus on getting better and not the the the numbers everything can happen for us and we're all so much in a rush to scale and to get that engagement that we all want but we just need to learn before we move forward and the cool thing about this is this post on Twitter or X is my highest performing post it's been at the top it's got 17,000 likes you can see also 1.3 million views and that's bananas cuz Twitter's not like that friendly for posts like this and the reason why I share that with you is because most people would not share this kind of information and it's going to be a theme that I'm going to be talking about a lot that when you authentically showing up as yourself and you don't give enough what people think anymore what happens is you get the thing that you've been chasing this whole time you get the acceptance you get the love and you get the Gratitude so that's what I'm all about here and a friend of mine says this often times all strategy is autobiographical so of course I'm going to tell you the things that's worked for me you'll have to decide for yourself amongst the many things you've heard today and yesterday what's going to work for you it could be one person's plan or it could be a hybrid of many others so I know we're in the day two final stretch here and your energy or whatever extroverts I think you're fine the introverts like looking for the exit door I get it okay and maybe you're feeling overwhelmed or you've received too much information or inspiration so today I'm going to try to help you apply some of the things you've learned rather than just give you more information but I need your permission to do so okay so I'm just going to ask you this is a a Phil Jones question how open-minded would you be to doing something weird a little bit different today yes okay cuz it's going to get weird but I need your help I need your help with this because otherwise we can't do this I think we're here for a lot of different reasons not just to hear and learn because you can find most of this information on on the internet through gbt or through YouTube but to to really meet people and make a real connection to to not only just learn the things you already know or be reminded of them but to really learn new things so you can get unstuck and so what we're going to do is we're going to we're g to ask you to do this and the introvert means like I'm so sorry I apologize I want you to talk to each other okay so we're going to do a little speed networking exercise so here's what we're going to do okay we're going to pair up okay you need to go talk to somebody that you're not sitting next to that you've already spoken to you got to find somebody new and one person's going to just give it their introduction and then at 30 seconds you switch okay and we do this three times so you know just go somewhere near you some and I have a Graphic so we we can stay time I need your help here CU otherwise I can't get through the rest of my presentation it's dangerous but we're going to do this are you guys with me okay so you understand you cannot talk to somebody that you already know so when when you see this it means go when you see this it means switch and when you do this it's next okay and then I say stop this is I'm going to ask you a really important question right now ready everybody here's the question I'm going to ask you is who do you remember and why okay cuz she's awesome sa phibe she's awesome hope you said hope her name hope okay why do you remember her's okay well that's really interesting what does she doal Health wait what is it mental health me mental health mental health what Psy like psychiatrist psychiatrist okay so she's psych okay cuz and you said cuz she's different okay and you like her name well hope and psych that's pretty cool that worked out well I don't know maybe your parents knew something pretty good right okay who did you remember Lee cuz he didn't talk about his the career okay is it l e e okay yeah Lee uh well that's really interesting because you didn't talk about work either so it's personal hm okay this might work out the way I planned I don't know okay like way back there go ahead oh Peter yeah what who's who's the person Matt Matt okay and why do you remember Matt a gamer a gamer you dorks God I knew I shouldn't have called on you Peter gamer bro all right okay all right so here's the thing right I'm going to share with you an uncomfortable truth and the uncomfortable truth is this it's like we're being like everybody else so we become really hard to remember you see it's like when we just do something a little bit different it's much easier for people to remember us so the uncomfortable truth is I have to ask you this question just be honest with yourself is are you showing up the same way on social you're being unremarkable not worthy of being remarked and it just takes a little bit to change now I went to the extreme like the pant skirt and everything else that I'm doing that Trevor is going to make fun of me for it's cool I'm not going to take my fashion advice for him that's all right so what we need to be is to be remarkable right we need to be remarkable and it doesn't take a lot when everybody's talking about business talk about family when everybody's talking about real estate geek out on your games I guess right it you just need to be a little bit different to stand out so it should be pretty easy right everybody standing out on social making a difference uh I didn't think so most of you probably not I've seen your socials Neil shared it with me okay so I want to just tell you a really quick story back in the height of Clubhouse I was hosting calls three four times a week I love being on there and one of my friends she's a professor from Art Center her name is petrula and we're hosting a room together and the room got a little spicy I'm one to speak my mind and tell people of my opinions and then there was some kind of funk in the room I can feel it it's okay and then petrula cuz she cares about me she calls me up afterwards we do our postmortem and we're talking and she goes Chris I think people misunderstand you I'm like how so well you're kind of aggressive and opinionated and I think people would appreciate you more if you were just to modify that a little bit I said patrula I don't want to do that at all I believe the only reason why people were in that room in the first place is because I'm this way and we come from two totally different worlds she's in the academics and I'm in the real world and you know what sorry that wasn't even a joke I mean all right I'll take it right okay thank you you guys are very generous right so I I mean I feel this way like I would rather have 10 people who follow me for being for me being me than a 100 million people following me for not being myself what is the point of life if you can't even be yourself we think we have to show up a certain way at work or with our family and it's like this is supposed to be an expression of your art and for me I feel like it's my art so don't tell me what to do right these kids on the internet telling me Chris you should do this no why don't you start a channel and you do what you want cuz I'm going to do this if I'm not for you that's totally okay thank you right now it's e right it's e easy for me to say and you're like okay what's the real part well there a real fears and I've had these fears like when you put out content you're going to be judged people are going to think something about you that you don't know what you're talking about they don't like the way your face looks or or your hair whatever it is they're going to say something and maybe some of you are just like who am I I don't want to take up all this space somebody else should be doing that I'm not as good as them so I'm not worthy of that or probably the worst part is if you do something and no one shows up and that is devastating and I think the reason why people aren't showing up is because you're not showing up sorry shots fired okay and I was sharing this with my friend Dr Christine lucer and she goes Chris the reason why you can get away with the stuff that you get away with is because you have high trust Factor I'm like I do so she shared this this triangle with me which was something that was in Harvard Business Review that I didn't know about from Francis fry and an Morris which is this triangle of how we build trust and that's really all we're doing that's what we're trading on every single day do people trust us do we trust them and she goes on the top is authenticity and then there's empathy and logic I'll go into it right so auth authenticity shouldn't even be a thing that we need to talk about at all because you should just be able to show up as yourself but because of all the fears that we have we have changed we've been socialized to go along to get along that we learn to speak a certain way and if you have little kids you're like don't do that stop doing that don't look at people don't say that's rude and after a while that person becomes really lost they just start to conform then we go to school and schools like the worst thing that happens to all of us sit in a certain way raise your hand when you want to speak oh you're moving to too fast you're moving too slow you're distracted oh you're doodling you're taking too many notes I don't know what it is and then this just gets beaten out of you so to me to be authentic means the real you is when no one's watching when no one's around like when your hair is not done and your face a little dirty and maybe you're in your underwear that's you we don't want to see that but that is the real you okay so I have this whole theory that we all show up as our Persona self versus our real self and the bigger that Gap is to degree we're all living in that Gap like I'm not laying in bed like this the belt would hurt me I'm just putting it out there right but when we start to have a bigger gap between all this stuff then we're just faking it and that's the real problem so we're trying as much as possible to bring these two separate selves together and that's what I really feel is like my thesis for personal branding I know in the marketing world you want to sell and all the marketers are saying the opposite thing of what I'm saying so to them I'm the anti-christ right cuz I say this is not about marketing it's not about everything that they keep telling you it's about and the other part is empathy and the way they Define it is do you care about my well-being when we look at salese in terms of authenticity and empathy and logic which I'll explain in a second when someone calls you up the first question you're asking yourself is are you who you say you are what are your credentials what have you done Alex talked about this earlier today with Neil right what have you done are you just talking about it that's why he his joke is I'm not going to hire a 20-year-old life coach it doesn't even make sense those two ideas don't belong together and then the next part which is really important is do you care it's as simple as that do you care so if I show up authentically as I've accomplished X Y and Z and there's all the evidence okay and I'm being myself but if all I want is the sale or your follow or your comment you don't care care about me and I do a lot of sales role plays with people I feel like they're asking fake questions all the time you've been on a sales call before when someone says hey are you doing this are you doing that it doesn't really matter all the questions are designed to drive into the thing they want to sell you I don't feel cared for the last part is a little bit easier is do you have logic is there a way that I can follow what it is that you're saying okay and I think for some reason somewhere along the way I figured out my life and I'm like I'm just going to going to be me I've been living that other life for long enough I'm tired of that and now I have agency and autonomy and I'm going to do what I want to do if you don't like it it's okay I'm not for everybody okay so if you want to increase your trust you have to work on these three components and I think the two most important parts are authenticity and empathy do you care and I'm going to help you with that a little bit okay logic is pretty straightforward so we get stuck in this thing the Vicious Cycle which is we have a feeling we we hate making content we don't want to record and I myself my jaw tightens up just think about recording content too so we live in a state of fear we feel a lot of pain around creating this stuff so this is what's happening to our content right and then what happens is the action that we take is we procrastinate we're inconsistent we'll make two posts a year and think that's enough and then what we're doing is this doesn't work we don't believe it'll work so we're manifesting into our reality a negative outcome some of you feel this yes okay good so this this is what's happening again and the result is we get exactly what we wanted what we imagined which is poor performing content with low engagement that no one shows up so now our content is just completely flatlined and this is your content it's an awesome image don't look at all the hands there's some extra hands in there okay and what I I have this Theory and I want to share it with you today it's like there's a ratio that's kind of off you know when there's an emergency you dial 911 what is your emergency my husband my wife's on the floor she's not breathing your content is in like the critical care right now and we got to get it back online Okay so we've talked about this before okay when you give and you ask and there's no gap between the two it's called a transaction there's no feelings of Goodwill I gave you money you did a service I give you resource I got your email it's just like so fast that every time we ask what we need to do is to widen the gap between the time in which we give and the time in which we ask and I'll will tell you this right now I believe this and I'll fight you on it if you want to the strength of your personal brand is measured as the distance from the value to the ask that's it so you want to play this game for as long as possible without asking and the reason why is social media is really for shorthand a value exchange platform right you give value they give you their most precious resources it's not money it's their time so what you want to do is you want to create so much value that you don't even have to ask they will ask you and some of you already doing this and doing this really well you're crushing it because you've given so much value that the minute there's a hint of an offer or something they're like hey how do I get into your program I heard about you from somebody or you've helped to save me so much money and how can I return that to you so when we do this in abundance we activate reciprocity so what you want to do is you want to in ratio and you could go higher than this but at a minimum nine pieces of content that are value driven okay so there's a 911 so you're going to follow this right nine pieces of content that are value driven to help the other person without asking for anything but if you keep doing that and it's what I've done for a long time it's like feels like a cold robot has written all the post so you do need to add in one personal thing just for you and this is good for your soul it's good for the audience audience cuz all of a sudden they're like I know you're a smart person or you do what you do but there's this human behind it I'm starting to relate to that story and then you can ask one time and you don't have to be guilty or shy about asking because you've given so much already you're on the right side of this equation so 911 nine pieces of value one personal and then one ask and I think this is the big difference between winners and losers so making sure I didn't spell whiners okay you know Alex has pretty much gone from relative obscurity a few years ago to amassing seven or eight million followers across multiple social platforms he's figured out how to deliver excessive value how many hosi fans are here a lot of you guys now let me ask you this question has he given you value in abundance right and his promise thus far is I'll never pit you or sell you anything so far mostly good right up until recently right so so that's how he's been able to build this incredible leverage because he keep showing up and you say this is an authentic guy he made a promise to us and he's not broken this okay so I'm telling you R you can do this and we're going to help you do it okay so a couple things you need to know about branding a commodity is a product or service without a story this is a commodity it has no story and if you're commodity the only thing that matters is price lowest price wins so I know in many of you guys in the mortgage space I don't really understand your industry my wife deals with that it's about money and if you just trade on money it's a commodity now and they will just go with whoever can get them the better loan or the better rate so look at the look at what happens here so a commodity there's no perceived difference between you or someone else and it's actually not that hard to be different as we've just seen earlier right okay so this is another bottle of water and it's kind of shaped with the French Alps in there it says Made made by the French Alps now has a story most of us cannot tell the difference by taste alone the difference between all these bottles but they come in at radically different prices then there's Fiji which is natural artisian water from the island of Fiji and I like the next one the the most for what it's trying to do and this is all about positioning and packaging the next one is Essentia it says ionized alkaline water I don't even fully understand what that means but then they say overachieving H2O what my water don't work hard enough okay lazy bastard I'll go with this take my money so there there's a gentleman his name is Rory Souther Sutherland and he's a legend in advertising and he talks about we're focusing on the wrong things we need to focus more on intangible perceived value cuz there is no real value here right there are doctors who say drinking all this alkaline water your stomach is all acid anyways no amount of water that you're going to drink is going to balance this stuff out but they told some of you a really good story and we want to believe the story okay all right so I want to tell you about my antisocial Tendencies when I'm in a room with people I don't know I don't really know what to do so I just literally just stand there okay I I mean some of you might have seen it I'm like it's it's real and somebody asked me so you don't like to be around people I said no I love being around people people that I know people that I like people that I trust that feels real okay so what what happens there so if you look at the introvert and you can say what if the introvert were your client your next Prospect they can't talk to you unless they get to know you first and that's what you're doing with your content and you have to be willing to show them one point of differentiation maybe it's like where you come from maybe it's the city I was talking to Sean earlier where's Sean he's over here somewhere Sean's like hey I'm on the farm and it's working and it's because people who see that content Sean are like hey I'm like you we might have grown up in the same way and we have the same beliefs or values or I respect a person's work on the farm like you're all high and mighty here making a lot of money driving fancy cars you're going to get your hands dirty I haven't seen no content but I assume that's kind of what it feels like right or they maybe they see the sprawling Hillside or the the acreages that you have and they they they want your life now there's a point of differentiation versus everyone else so every one of you has multiple points of differentiation the more that you can overlap them the better your brand becomes okay there is not a trick it's not a hack so for me personal brand in the age of social media is build familiarity and and Trust at scale how do I become familiar with you social allows us to amplify it and if you keep showing up consistently that's where trust begins that's all it's doing right now so the problem is most of us are building a barrier between our true selves and the people who want to see like who is that person behind there and I'll tell you what it isn't for me personal branding isn't everything that maybe other people have talked about on the stage it's not about how to get more clients it's not about a tricky way to leverage your personality to get a sales you know it's not because it's Buzzy or something that's on Trend right now personal branding for me is a process of discovering who you are and getting in touch with that and healing from this trauma that we' like we don't even understand that we have right we're raised by imperfect people and then we become imperfect people too right so if you can lean into this and you know maybe another time I can get deeper into this then all of a sudden you are going to have a really strong personal brand and the great thing about this is more people buy from you you they'll be more inclined to give you money and trust you everything that you want you'll have if you pursue it with the right intention okay and there's this powerful Concept in Psychology it's called The self-concept Who are you what makes you you and this is what makes you unique so I don't want you just to be different I want you to be radic Al different when everyone is zigging I want you to zag or Zug now we're going to step into next exercise I'm I'm to need Trevor in a little bit here we're going to get into some stuff together how many words does it take to tell the story six zero well not zero that would be the introvert's answer go ahead one really one okay it's not it's not an auction I just five okay three okay two all right okay if you guys were here last time or part of the Mastermind you know I was giving you this exercise your two-word brand and Trevor where's Trevor he's over there Trevor was telling me bro easy for you to say not so easy to do right and so people are just mashing things together because we didn't I have a different way of doing it today okay my answer is two and I like allow me to make the argument okay but first i'm going to ask you this question what's the first thing you learn about any brand what's the first thing you learn about any brand just shout it out what's that name name right hey you should buy Nike shoes before I go to Nike so it's your name okay so I've I've been looking at this okay the answer's name and there's the one that you're given and then there's the name that you could be known for or known as now when you're growing up a lot of times your mom your brother sister your dad or your cousin they might have given you a nickname because that's shorthand for you and your personality so I've been looking at this okay now if you're if you if you know this it's fine if you don't know who these people are this exercise becomes even more powerful okay those of you guys that are old enough will know who this person is Mike The Situation Santino okay now okay the ones who are laughing are old enough you just outed yourself okay the situation what can we assume about this person's character or story what's the situation like if you don't know I would like to hear from the people who don't know for sure just yell it out wa do you know this already you do no I I ask the people who don't know who don't know when you hear the situation what do you think trer Troublemaker there's some issues going to create a lot of what the bomb M mob okay yeah like bad relationships maybe like a lot of drama the situation maybe self-important it kind of sums up this person what you don't know is the producers of the Jersey Shore ask each person what is your nickname and some of them were made up on the spot or they helped them to make up because they understand branding and storytelling okay we're going to run through a bunch of these I only want you to answer if you don't know if you know and it's not as fun okay do you guys know who Israel this the last style Bender arisna is okay well those people don't say anything okay what can you assume about this person the last style Bender you good at Brandon unique Asian Asian why do you say that don't look at me read the words ignore me yeah don't do this no style Bender does does this remind you of anybody the last air bender so there's like anime or something in there some martial arts some special power and if you seen Isel Adisa you'll know exactly this was the perfect name and he picked it okay and I know there's a lot of Fighters The Notorious you already know there's some trouble here there's a bad boy here right not B relax okay now this one Miracle crocop flip ofic do you guys know who this person is I'm dipping into like the Deep you know deep cut here do you know where crocop comes from somebody some some of you guys know but some like why what a weird name crocop because he's Croatian and he used to be in the police force and I've been watching him I don't even understand why he wears the Perina shorts Croatian right okay this one's too easy right and then everybody's talking about Mr Beast I think Mr Beast is brilliant Beyond his age why is he called Mr Beast because he doesn't do anything halfway he goes into beast mode and mean you think about all his videos like he doesn't just give you a car he gives you the lambo he doesn't give you the the house he gives you the island see so now it's consistent when you think of Mr Beast he goes to the extreme so I need a little help from all of you right now okay and I just want you to shout out the first thing that comes to your mind I'm sorry for whoever's going to get hurt by this exercise give him a nickname the wizard The Wizard okay hold on I'm gonna get my mark out sorry I'm a little slow okay Neil the wizard okay the Giver The Giver okay okay I heard Relentless over here Relentless authentic the nerd I was did you see that Montage on day one I was like who's that point Dexter with the hair in the middle what a dork I can't believe you guys follow that guy but it is the mortgage space maybe that's cool for you right I'm just going to write the dork okay the thing is we want to have some fun with with this okay so when we give ourselves a nickname we can't be so precious so when we think of something that's Relentless what character can we sum it up like is there a fictional character that you can think of that's Relentless huh the The Little Engine That Could okay maybe more contemporary you know adult like going back to Childhood here what the Hulk the Hulk the Hulk is not Relentless Hulk smash but good try Jerry Jerry I can't I have two people are talking at the same time Tom and Jerry Tom and Jerry okay all right all right guys we've stretched our creative level here you know what I was thinking the Terminator Terminator Vision right Sak he's not going to stop you cannot like he's got an army still coming after you sign up for The Mastermind he's coming out get away from me yeah you know what I mean next one this guy you know this guy don't say new what oh got the room got real quiet Trevor what Josh peek okay I didn't know who that is but all right oh did you hear that handsome I didn't know your brother was here hype man hype man okay wingman okay Robin okay okay to what toxic sorry Neil I apologize this is not working I cannot hear a single person okay okay we're we're good I like this I like like this okay and I'm like looking at my clock here I'm running out of time you know I was like go ahead dude say it turn turn it on you want to say something there's a personality here the more time I spend with him he plays like the wounded dog but wounded dog doesn't sound so good guys right so I think it's no love you know they they just pay me so I can give him a hard time and I hope it's working so here's the cool thing uh let me give you this other thing so many of you have done the two-e brand and you've failed miserably I've seen you you've dm' me I'm like no no stop it stop it so I had to think of a different way so maybe you can try just come up with a nickname there's a couple of criteria the same before it needs to be true it needs to be unique unique to you at least memorable and you get bonus points if it's vulnerable okay like if you call yourself Trevor badass York I'm like yeah okay come on you got to lean into a personality trait a character or some something a characteristic about who you are so here's what I want to do I'm going to give you just 30 measly seconds to come up with a nickname a silly nickname can you do that the time starts right now anybody want to share their nickname go ahead Mr liftoff okay he's committed to that he's got a tattoo on himself so I can't even critique that one who else has got one okay go ahead the lone DeLorean hey did you work on this ahead of time you sure it's pretty clever oh I get it no you're I get it so clever so clever this is real estate humor I get it okay someone else high definition okay high def okay can you imagine a fighter now introducing to the ring hi death okay who else okay go ahead unfiltered unfiltered is your name Phil okay I thought okay unfiltered okay uh let's go over here the extroverted group who surprisingly quiet got no love for you guys okay bad girl bad girl that that girl oh okay somebody else in the back I'll write it down go ahead mortgage professor okay okay let's try this man I'm stressing out over this clock that girl and mortgage professor tequ okay okay hold on hold on okay careb okay and then what one more tequila guy tequila guy yeah Rick okay all right so all I wanted you to do was to try this on for size to kind of loosen up a little bit and just come up with some words and and you know have fun with this come up with a silly nickname and here's the part you're going to have to eventually say this to somebody like known as the in my industry so if it sounds goofy just keep working on it and hopefully you can come up with something that might Inspire your two-word brand like remember mine's a loud introvert and it tells a part of my story and the reason why this works so well for me it becomes a filter for how I tell stories and how I show up it's woven into everything that I do and then that's how people get to know you and remember you that familiarity that we talked about and keep showing up just like that okay um Trevor the clock is completely stressing me out right now it says I have two minutes should we do you guys want him to stop okay we could add another 30 seconds okay I'm just kidding okay all right I I'm breaking the golden R I told them I'm Asian we do things on time and it's 1:48 so I'm going to do this either fast or we'll just get to the part that we can the problem that many of you have in creating you you could have five more thank you five more seconds yeah five more minutes okay five more minutes go five more minutes okay is that we're writing to anyone or to everyone when we really need to write to someone when you're not clear as who you're writing to and creating content for this was this came from my podcast with aan Al Abdullah he used to run appsumo he says writing it's like writing a love letter and starting with to whom it may concern like try that sometime I really care about you dear whoever right and if that's how you're writing your content because you're not clear on the Avatar or your ideal customer it's dear whoever anyone will do everyone will do not just someone so the question for you is when you look at your content would you follow you if it wasn't you sorry hard truths uh I want to share with you this exercise that we usually do when we're doing uh Journey mapping and and building customer profiles it's called empathy mapping and it's a way for you to understand the customer profile or the buyer Persona a little bit better okay so we're going to do this together everybody okay I'm going to show you first and then you get to do it by yourselves okay like I said we're going to do some work today okay so what you want to do is describe your customer by pretending to be them I'm a something but an adjective okay so an adjective and a job title the way it would look is I'm an overwork CMO okay we need an add an adjective because that gives it a little personality so I I'll give you an opportunity in a second to do this okay so I'm an overwork Chief marketing officer and then you feel in I struggle with what a personal professional challenge what is the pain point for them okay so as a overwork CMO I struggle with getting notice against bigger more established brands that would be a possible answer I want something based on my problem or challenge so some solution a feature a benefit something like that I want a scrappy branding agency that specializes in underdogs because I need to move the needle to be recognized as Innovative then you have to add in the pain and what is the pain or I risk what's at stake if I fail or I risk getting fired demoted professional embarrassment and future opportunities okay so this is the part you you're going to do by yourself I'm going to give you a little bit of time to do this okay just try this on for a size okay we're trying to make this easier for you so you take a picture of this so I'm in so you're going to take the voice and the personality of the person you'd like to work with the most for Sean you're pretty clear on your avatar give this a shot okay you are I know you are so everybody we're going to give you like you know one minute of my precious five minutes anybody want to share anything that they might have gotten from trying to just imagine the world to the eyes of your ideal customer no go ahead Lee Anis paralysis and I out okay so I'm a stressed engineer that's super specific is that who you'd like to work with that's yeah a lot of Tesla people a lot of tech okay Tech okay wonderful that was super specific have you done this before been master I haven't done this okay so does that give you insight into the kind of content you want to create yeah okay all right so my my hope is when I learned how to build user profiles or user personas and customer profiles it gave me a lot of insight because before I was just making things I guess mostly to make myself happy but it became a lot easier when I was making it for someone so if you're Jo going to make the world's best meal you might want to find out what their uh maybe if they have any allergies what their preferences are what kind of dining style they like what kind of Cuisine and that's really what the content is it's to to for to suit someone's very specific needs and wants okay now I I wish I could just do a deeper version of this with you I cannot but I was going to do a ask you if you want me to try to whiteboard a user profile or we can just show you the GPT way to do it and then I think you probably just want the GPT version okay so I'm going to teach you how to just type this in and it'll create a user persona for you and then you just have to say is that somebody I'd like to work with with if not roll it and ask it to do it again and give it some parameters to work with okay and so the first part of the prompt and I I'll I'll share the resource with you later don't don't worry about screen capturing this right now act as a marketing expert with Decades of experience in the field across direct response funnels and copywriting create a comprehensive and detailed buyer persona for your Niche or your industry or your vertical or your job whatever it is okay and then you add to it I am you have to describe what you do working in X market like whatever City you're in I'm passionate about something we need to tell it something about you so it can match you with your ideal buyer type does that make sense so you can't just leave this empty a lot of people hate AI because lazy input equals lazy output you just need to give it some information it doesn't even need to be formatted or spelled correctly my company is and any kind of relevant detail we do $14 million a year we do 40 million 400 million we have four people we use x kind of Technology whatever it is you put that in there and then you have it create the profile for you and what you're looking for sorry I have to skip around here because I'm all over the place is this part demographics is like age gender education size of family all the things are very easy to measure but the psychographics are the most important things that you need to know okay they wants needs hopes fears dreams pain points beliefs values preferences affiliations and brand affinities if it can give you this information you can easily create content to meet them where they're at at not where you're at okay all right I realized the wrap-up sign is here so I'm going to wrap this part up is anybody here really concerned about their legacy like what you leave behind Okay I was asked this question recently and they asked me Chris you're so present in your brand what if something horrible happens to you what is going to happen because no one else is on the channel you're really the face of the of the company aren't you concerned about this yeah I've made a lot of content I've made over 1300 videos 200 podcasts so many coaching calls I've written a book I've written courses and my notebooks are filled with drawings and ideas and here's the thing all of this stuff is great training material for something else like for an AI so I would encourage you about something so I have a dad he just turned 82 years old yesterday and I was reminded of this when I was working on this deck that I need to fill my dad I need to ask him lots of questions about his life so that if and when he does pass his great great great grandchildren will have someone to talk to so they know their great grandpa's story and I think that's really wonderful like a lot of us are really scared about deep fakes but we're looking at the negative part of it not the positive part so we're really close if not months years away from being able to do this so a reasonable Pro proximity or proximity of you can exist that can help future generations of your family have some connection to you the thing is you have to start making that content like right now in the greatest Fidelity so even if you don't believe in marketing or branding and you don't you know you're well off financially just think about that future that F those future Generations might want to have some connection to you and I think that's a really good reason to make content so in the age of AI you can possibly live forever all right and I think that's really cool some form of immortality the Legacy that you leave behind your ideas your voice your likeness so here's the Real Talk part is none of us are getting any younger and today is a really good day to start okay now thank you thank you I'm going to wrap up here some resources to share with you this part you may want to just take a picture of I'm not going to have time to read it because I'm at over time so there's a gentleman his name is Robert blly he wrote this book called the copywriters handbook and he he gives seven amazing tips just seven that I can share with you right so I'm just going to step through it these are writing prompts what secret do some content know that you don't stay one step ahead of the stock market just like Martha Stewart but without her legal liability so you want to tie to current events right so here we go I'm just going to step through this okay I know I'm feeling the heat guys okay this is the prompt I said you can have there it is okay and these are the books I think you need to read so fast I warned you too fast okay okay all right here's what we do ready you know what if you turn on video mode you won't have to be that good you know what I'm saying you ready everybody it's going to go fast I warned you here we go ready here we go everybody camera's up Ys sorry I'm over time these are the books okay you can put your phones out we're done okay final thoughts final thoughts okay wait wait wait sorry hold on hold on hold on hold on Final thoughts there if there's one thing that I want you to take away from this I want you to know this that branding is about this one key idea different is better than better I want you to be obsessed with being different to lean in we're all waiting for you we're all waiting for you and the the last little idea is all of this social content it's all garbage if you lose yourself in the process so it's so simple and so stupid we just want you to be you or as my friend westcow said the usest you you can be that's it everybody thank you very much thinking of going to W Max's year use code M24 future to get $400 off a ticket then come visit the Futures Booth to see a live whiteboard session with Chris [Music]
    Download transcript

    Enjoyed this? There’s more where it came from.

    Get insights on creativity, business, and design from The Futur.

    You can unsubscribe anytime. By submitting, you agree to receive communications and to our Privacy Policy.

    “Different is better than better.”

    — Chris Do

    Key Takeaways

    Subscribe

    YouTube

    Details

    Length
    50m
    Views
    255,949
    Topic
    PERSONAL BRANDING

    Share