personal branding advice from the book brand it like sir Hance don't be a perfectionist more often than not the person who focuses on volume will beat the person who focuses on quality now often the advice you get when you're doing something like content marketing on YouTube is that you should focus on quality rather than quantity but we do see that a lot of people who have built strong personal Brands including Grant Cardone and the author of this book saying that volume matters more so how do we reconcile that well I think one of the big differences is deciding are you in the entertainment space or are you more on the education side because I think in entertainment it's going to be much more about focusing on Blockbuster things big movies big books big novels Etc and putting a lot of marketing budget behind those Blockbusters but when it comes to education and building a brand in that way uh I would steer a bit more towards the volume game so that might be surprising for some of you create content in volume a post you don't expect to do well might get millions of views but you won't realize that unless you're producing a lot of different pieces of content some of uh the author's most popular YouTube videos are obvious simple things about how real estate agents make money and for me personally some of my most successful YouTube videos were tutorials basic tutorials for digital advertising nothing strategic nothing flashy and Sir H was surprised too that it wasn't anything novel that was getting a lot of views it was just basic education and you don't realize that until you put out a lot of content and collect data so now we're going to talk about some tactical personal brand tips so one thing is you can nominate yourself for awards a lot of people don't realize that they think somebody else needs to nominate them discover the special thing that makes you you so for example for me I tend to be a bit contrarian non-conformist I look at Trends and I'm skeptical and I try to figure out well where are the opportunities kind of like a good investor looking for something that's undervalued his brand needs to be nurtured and fed with consistent content which leads to more followers hence more leads throwing themselves at him so that's what happens when you start putting out content like this for example uh there was a client paying me personally for a bunch of calls Consulting calls and he did this because he had read a bunch of books that I had published and wanted to buy a course that I was selling so when you put out content and establish yourself as a thought leader and we'll talk about how to do that later it'll be much easier a much more lubricated process of getting clients and customers first thing that makes you stand out is something that is innately you it's something that's so honest so for me for example I'm very contrarian I do a lot of research I do a lot of experimentation so that's just innately what I do I love to learn and I love to try things things uh whereas for other people maybe they're just very good at project management or they're very good at sales whatever that is try to figure out what it is for you that innate thing for you whether it's being intellectual or being persistent Etc now so what is a personal brand really it's a carefully cultivated package made up of your strengths skills successes and accomplishments that serves as the foundation for your business a personal brand allows for an authentic connection with customers inspires trust and loyalty and creates greater awareness to attract more business now what you want to do is create an easy way for people to identify you for example the author of The subtle art of not giving an f and he became known as the F guy so it was something easily associated with you and later we're going to talk about how having things like a strong point of view to associate with your personal brand is an easy way to get publicity and memory for you think about what humanizes you what makes you memorable because it shows off your unique insights talents and curiosity what makes you different Infuse a part of your personality into your brand to differentiate yourself some people make that mistake when they start doing public speaking or speaking on camera they feel like they need to fit a certain Persona or uh present themselves in a certain professional way but you actually want a bit of your personality coming through and we actually see that with some very successful politicians there is something a little peculiar about them and instead of that leading to their demise it actually leads to their success because they stand out more what really drives us to select a specific brand is that Brand's personality humanistic qualities that create an emotional intellectual response develop Authority in your industry remind people constantly that you're right here and provide continual evidence that you are the go-to human for all things in your industry some more branding tips be bold and go bigger this is something Grant Cardone also talks about uh in his book spread reach as far as you can that's why I'm a big proponent of using things like YouTube ads and Facebook ads to amplify what you're marketing you can also do that with Tik Tok ads add momentum get more reach give speeches to huge corporations around the world write three books like publish more than three books publish articles in online magazines those magazines are already have wide reach you don't need to start from scratch form Partnerships and publish on other websites so for example HubSpot has a formal application process and it's much easier to get published if you have original data that you can get on there collaborate with other major brands to produce content and develop lucrative uh a lucrative education business that's what I'm doing right now I'm partnering with a large Association to put out a new course on AI for marketing be the number one go-to brand no matter what you do the second someone thinks I need to decorate work with a new SEO company hire someone to walk the dog buy a new car your brand pops up in their head this is like what Byron sharp talks about in his academic book about how Brands grow is you want to associate your brand with category entry points so it's those spontaneous moments when people suddenly have a need to buy something oh I need an SEO company or a divorce lawyer or somebody to deal with a merger and acquisition associate that need that trigger event that category entry point with your personal brand and what you can offer them whether it's coaching or walking dogs whatever customers don't even need to think about who to call what website to order from your brand is exactly what they need right now and it's the first one they think about that's really what brand awareness is it's not just are they aware of your brand it's do they think of your brand when a need arises start a new TV show or a YouTube channel get profiled in a New York ma in New York Magazine shout out about your accomplishments so a lot of people are timid they don't want to come across as braggy but people need to know what you do and they need to know why to choose you so talk about your and celebrate your achievements start getting the brand recognition you want right now be the go-to brand in your field that's what you want to be known as social media might be the biggest and easiest party to get into but it's not the only party in town I for example am a big fan of uh using other techniques like direct mail if you're going for large contract cont TR s or cold emails automated for businesses to business or advertising uh in various channels you're going to be guaranteed to get more reach if you do advertising expand everything that's possible long before you're able to make it a reality so you have to think bigger you got to think 10x before uh and before you're able to really achieve momentum momentum and huge success have high Ambitions think about what kind of experience you want to create for your clients and customers figure out what what you want to achieve in the next 3 to 5 Years be globally recognized in in the author's case for selling the world's most expensive properties with the world's wealthiest clients in the next 3 to 5 years what do you want to be known for be recognized as the leading expert in effective stud study skills for gifted children within 5 years whatever that is for you figure out what reputation you want to have and what I would recommend is you want to have a reputation that's closely tied to buying something otherwise you're just building Fame without necessarily building Revenue get featured in The Wall Street Journal for example this helped the author get a new client establish your Viewpoint a unique uh Viewpoint go where you're treated best for example is the slogan of a popular YouTuber that I follow he recommends that you move to a place where you have better taxes lower prices more freedom Etc gong is a company that has unique Viewpoint which is uh orienting all of their content around data to help you with your sales so sales advice that's based on actual quantitative research instead of just hearsay go big or go back to selling services this is the slogan I use when I'm talking about product marketing and how product marketers think too small you need to think about how you reach your entire total addressable Market staying on brand is crucial to success so make sure when you evaluate posts videos advertising that you're staying on brand is this is this the reputation you want to have are you building associations that make sense for your brand or ones that you're just doing to get views but not necessarily uh on strategy for you analyze what you watch who you watch and ask the question why maybe there are certain YouTubers you follow because they provide great advice and you don't really care about how flashy their videos are or maybe there are other people that you follow because they have beautiful videos think about why you're watching it what the value proposition is and how you can better improve your personal brand by employing those techniques have a properly branded email address so not having one can be a red flag for example I as an influencer I'm getting solicitations all the time to do brand deals but a lot of brand elicitations are actually kind of scammy they're from bizarre emails xxy uh strange countries where the brand isn't isn't located it's very unusual emphasize the brand image speak to the customer you want NE not necessarily the customers that you have right now now we're going to give some specific advice on thought leadership you become a thought leader when your commentary is viewed and valued by your peers that means you need to get distributed to your peers which may mean putting advertising cold email or direct mail behind your content having articles you've crafted on LinkedIn is evidence for journalists that you know what you're talking about so publishing on LinkedIn is one way to get noticed by journalists you can also use Haro which was recently rebranded as connectively to get connect it with journalists five ways to share thought leadership number one use what can't calls your and your and is a secret ingredient that helps your Viewpoint stand out for example why real estate agents need to embrace the metaverse so he's connecting uh real estate agents with something that's on Trend which is the metaverse since he is a luxury real estate and media expert he can offer a unique perspective what's the unique perspective you can offer what are those two things that you uh can be known for perhaps that other peers of yours can't be or other competitors can't be be an outlier share a non-standard opinion fresh insights for example Gardens are the new Lawns that's a fresh Insight that's publishable Insight three make predictions oh the media loves if you're willing to make predictions what's going on in your industry right now and where will it take things so predicting the future is a very easy way to get published and the other strange thing is that nobody really holds you accountable very few people are going to go back and say was he right or not so you can take risk here and just make your best guess use unique facts for example even though interest rates interest rates were way higher in the 80s it's harder to enter the housing market today due to housing prices and salaries that's one that he keeps as unique fact in his pocket and number five the rule of five five things to focus on for your reader for an article or post five things to expect from home expect inspections for example promise five tips listicles are one of the most successful proven ways of creating content so five tips to do something now how to transform industry commentary into thought leadership what do you think the next thing will be so um so looking at my industry for example AI is very transformed of what's going to happen after AI or what is the next phase of AI what drives you crazy what thoughts about your industry keep you up at night what do you wish you had done differently when you were starting in your field what do you wish people understood about your industry what are myths in your indry what is a unique fact you can share elements of an engaging speech unique point of view people don't want to hear the same old drab commentary keep up to dat new developments and how it impacts your topic be an authentic human not a professional robot post about every talk you give you'll get invited to give more speeches if you do this now sir Hance bran let's go through the the details here he's the grayhair broker on that re reality TV show that's how people think about him in their minds sir hant is The go-to Brokerage for buying and selling luxury prop properties all over the world I am always the go-to person for buying and selling luxury properties think about your dream reputation broker who can get listings in front of the most people your brand is your foundation brand is what other people think about the company you have built look at your values what you stand for what your purpose is look at your visual identity and build a Content calendar now looking at competition social media basically makes us compete with the whole world I also want to say that businesso business companies are competing with business to Consumer companies journalists are competing with marketers basically everyone is competing for attention so it's getting harder and harder to stand out and that's that's why you really need to capture attention and capture attention quickly we are bombarded with new content constantly and it makes us work to get noticed that's why the very beginning of a video the hook for example or the the headline if you're not doing a video and you're doing an article is critical all right some tips for copyrighting delete zero added value words like Dependable hardworking and honest instead use power adjectives like influential Unstoppable Dynamic electrifying it standing uplifting unbeatable inspiring and use these in every social post chisel out who you really are and be crystal clear on what you have to offer I can't highlight that enough a lot of people they just want to create content that gets views that gets some f but you have to figure out what are you selling what is the offer not enough people focus on that transition to the sale many influential people do a poor job monetizing and that's true I would say uh most influencers probably struggle with monetization not so much with uh getting followers I'm I'm an exception I'm an influencer who's particularly good at monetizing uh my my fame or my expertise I know a lot of influencers who are far bigger than me in terms of followers and Views but not so much in ter terms of monetizing that audience all right now imagry which is it seems very tactical but is actually very critical when it comes to developing brands have good head shot not static poses with per boring backgrounds the way it used to be in the 90s angle your shoulder slightly Cross Your Arms is a safe pose I used to think crossing your arms oh that's bad it looks like you're being in a protective mode but it actually has a very professional power like pose smile lean in slightly have action shots as well for example you teaching a class exploring a city up on stage uh giving a speech that's one of the ones I use with a microphone your visual identity shouldn't be based on how you feel or peculiar interest so for example you like leopard print well does leopard print have anything to do with your brand is that what you want to communicate or is it just a taste that you have distinguish between your taste and what's good for your your brand your professional brand Jim shark used a shark with big biceps on their clothes which was very eye-catching create a style guide to ensure consistency tell stories with purpose avoid topics that have nothing to do with your brand for example when I worked for American companies they always seem to talk about irrelevant topics like particular holidays or politics even though those really had nothing to do with what they were selling what their product was what they wanted to be known for uh and I think it's counterproductive to do so now some specific advice for Content marketing kick some or all of those Dusty old lackluster lead generation tactics to the curb so a lot of marketers there's a whole field of marketing people that believe everything is about direct response if you don't generate a lead you're having no impact that's not true it takes time to build a reputation if you really want to go big it's The Branding game that's the long game that's what the data show ultimately even in business to business business to Consumer certainly people buy the preferred brand for example I really like to get Ralph Lauren Purple Label which is the highest end Ralph Lauren but to be honest the materials just aren't as good as some of these lesser known Brands but I buy it because it's the brand there's a magic to having a brand and gone are the days where it's all about the best product or the best service it's really about what's familiar what brand stands out in people's mind Grant Cardone ALS also talks about this how uh being known is more important than having the best to offer drawing more business from social media can mean less time cold calling strangers open a revenue stream by simply posting and optimizing social media content on a daily basis YouTube one of the only platforms where content has true longevity so it's a long-term investment Tik Tok provides quick growth for now Twitter not good for Evergreen content but is very good for example for engaging with journalists content that received the most engagement also start receiving the most distribution from algorithms so there's been a huge change in what's happening with social media algorithms lately used to rely more on how many subscribers you had but the social media companies are more sophisticate it now and use AI to figure out well is the content what people want are they engaging with it is the watch time high so focus more on that than just getting subscribers social platforms now show you content from people they they think you might enjoy not just about having followers or subscribers algorithms no longer prioritize followers I don't care about how many followers you have I care about how good your content is and increasingly that's what we're seeing right now especially with ai ai is doing an excellent job of finding the right audiences whether you're running advertisements or doing organic marketing so where a lot of the marketing emphasis now is Shifting is more towards the creative and the creative strategy can you produce a good video can you produce an excellent article the Strategic targeting can Lear largely be handled by AI now so there's a dramatic shift happening I care about how good your content is so is it interesting is it fun is it engaging and there's a democratization a creating of a Level Playing Field because it's about engagement first and follower second so uh there's a chance you could beat uh bigger more established personalities out there in the social media world if you have great content or you have novel content interesting research Etc so consistency leads to a reputation which ultimately leads to referrals so publish that content uh that might mean for example you have one day where you record a bunch of videos or write a bunch of Articles and then schedule it so that those get uh spread out across each day or each week Etc now we're going to look at a Content Matrix which helps keep your content fresh fun interesting but also on brand on strategy so here we have entertain educate and encourage those are the three main outcomes he wants and then the three topics are real estate entrepreneur and Tech CEO luxury lifestyle and family man so uh he wants to do these three things and be known for these three things so for example in the real estate entertainment area he does property tours uh property Zoom walkthroughs deal stories like deals getting contracts for properties and crazy listings on the education Side Market updates and encourag side success stories now in the entertainment and more of his entrepreneur CEO status Day in the Life social media trends he does for education startup stories and routines and then motivational tips and now for the luxury style luxury lifestyle and family man he'll uh talk about luxury products for entertainment for Education work life balance workouts and nutrition and then for the encouraged side family moments now um personally my take on this is he I think he'll probably shift away from some of this personal stuff and move a little bit more into the uh the education side with real estate now now in terms of getting more publicity from journalists maybe he needs to put a little more of a peculiar spin on it with things like crazy deals but I I suspect it um he may he may make a a pivot more towards the education side uh but with the high volume game you can you can put out a lot of content with different angles all right now repurpose your content so for example there are AI tools like Opus clip and other software that can convert your long form YouTube videos into shorts you can also transcribe and create articles from that you can create an article and then convert that into a presentation video there's a million ways to repurpose how to create a video people will actually watch don't need to be perfect or highly produced a lot of low caliber videos that are just cameras and and not high quality production microphones like I have can still be effective the most important thing is be clean and be uncomplicated we want to hear your voice we want to see your face we want to see visuals for YouTube specifically 59 seconds to tell a story or relay or message there's no room for fluff that's increasingly what's happening there's more and more emphasis now being placed on the Hulk or the very first few seconds of the video which is particularly true with like YouTube shorts and Tik toks all right Formula First Step make an announcement for example five lessons I learned from a billionaire share your experience and then have a call to action people aren't on social media to see ads they want to be entertained entertainment is how you earn attention tell a story first and then give a punchline as your product or service Captivate the audience first always be captivating get emotional most copyrighting is boring its Drive most content is too dry and boring 90% of people go to the internet to solve problems help them solve their problem make it very clear what problem you're solving examples make Tik toks that are house tours go on YouTube go on Instagram go on television use Tik Tok to sell real estate all right now some kpis for reach Impressions followers audience grows and reach itself engagement likes comments engagement rate here are some engagement benchmarks Tik Tok 3 to 9% Instagram 4% LinkedIn 2% Facebook and YouTube are less difficult to Benchmark because Facebook is shown to people who opt in or follow a given page so that biases the data YouTube engagement relies mainly on viewership which isn't always easily discoverable conversion another type of kpi you're looking at conversion rate and CTR so basically three clusters of metrics that you're going to want to track your content all right another key thing is amplification establish some credibility if you want to get someone to listen to your message or hold your hold their attention the three C's credibility coverage and Community you don't amplify by making more noise you amplify by establishing credibility getting coverage over your band brand and creating Community around your brand instead of shelting build Partnerships and alliances that have a chorus of people echoing the same sentiments that are amplifying your message your message so basically becomes self fueling publicity provide quotes for magazines and newspapers I mentioned using har to do that or connectively and give speeches join Toast Masters if you haven't already to improve your speaking skills three ways to establish credibility and build this brand number one thought leadership two speaking engagements and three Awards which you can uh nominate yourself for PR kit press kit bio company profile Awards thought leadership credentials speaking engagements key topics focus on uh substantive rankings media list contact in info for reporters who cover relevant topic print newspapers blogs websites influencers business journals Local News television I recommend using spark Toro to figure out who are the top journalists Publications influencers that influence your target audience and then solicit them to get your content to get your reach your pitch offer data or specific info info about why your story is relevant now why is it timely Peg it to what's trending for example individualize to each recipient each journalist follow journalists on social and complement them on a story of theirs that you found helpful share your credentials offer help don't attach anything when you send an email to a journalist show your a reliable source public and you may want to hire a publicist at some point to pitch to Media Outlets turn your audience into a community the audience is the people you speak to the community is the people you speak with with bring in experts to share their knowledge on topics don't respond to very negative comments bad/ laaz questions favors go from audience to community by developing a newsletter and nurturing subscribers an easy way to build a community is build that email list and start inviting people to something like a workshop or like an executive Roundtable where it's not just you giving advice for people but it's also them talking to other people that are in that small group that you've created uh it's a very easy way to start building a community and monetizing your expertise all right some more tips what do you wish people understood about your industry and you can educate them about that to build you and Associate your personal brand with your industry nurture an audience on social media so nurturing people lead nurturing people think of it as email but it's also just what you're posting on social share helpful content reply to comments rely to reply to direct messages engage with other creators clo for example he closed a $15 million sale years after a speech was given so building your reputation now may lead to harvesting results far into the future because results are delayed and people don't necessarily have a need now how many times a year do you buy a $15 million property well not that often but when that need does arise you want to be the guy they think of for whatever that is in in your case provide value consistently make your audience feel like the company is a person and that's very easy to do with a personal brand you're the CEO or you're the spokesperson uh one of the most the research shows that the most memorable distinctive brand asset is the mascot the face the spokesperson is very easy to just use your face effectively as a logo as the most memorable brand asset brand is a lot more than what you're advertising and marketing it's the entire field of what it's like to interact with the company direct message people ask for help people with higher following than you they'll help you get to where you want to be your brand is like a compass that makes sure you don't stray too far from your desired course as you explore