Get Rich Education 403: How To Build Your Personal Brand with Steve Sims
“You DO care about what others think of you. That’s your reputation.” -Keith Weinhold
People care about your brand when you create value for them. Next, you must reach people.
A construction worker in London decided that he wasn’t where he was meant to be in life. He’s our guest, Steve D. Sims.
He started asking others why they were wealthy but he wasn’t.
A personal branding expert, Steve tells us why the right brand for you is the “authentic you”.
When you meet someone, ask them about themselves. They are their own favorite subject.
“A brand is what people say about you when you’ve left the room.” -Steve Sims
Brands are either solution-based or aspirational.
Every person has a brand.
Donald Trump was well-branded because he had clear slogans like “Make America Great Again” and “Build A Wall”.
The lesson? Be clear about who you are or what you stand for.
It’s OK to know what you’re “not”. For example, I didn’t know how to hire a COO for GRE and still don’t have experience managing people.
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Partial transcript:Welcome to GRE! I’m your host, Keith Weinhold. There’s so much to pack into one show today - inflation at its highest rate in over 40 years, the Fed raising interest rates the most in 28 years, rents are going up fast, then GRE’s COO Aundrea Newbern & I on our favorite REI resources. Today, on Get Rich Education.
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Welcome to GRE! I’m your host, Keith Weinhold.
When it comes to developing your personal brand to it’s highest potential, what are those traps you might be falling into that have prevented you from doing so. And…
There was once a construction worker in London and one day he realized that this just wasn’t where he was meant to be in life.
He contributes to the personal brand discussion today too… on this week’s episode of Get Rich Education.
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Welcome to GRE! From Franklin, MA to Franklin, TN and across 188 nations worldwide… I’m Keith Weinhold.
With more than 4 million listens, though you’re tuned into one of America’s longest-running and most listened-to real estate shows, today, it’s about how to develop your personal brand which applies most anywhere.
There are a few definitions of a brand. A more strict one is that a brand is an intangible marketing or business concept that helps people identify a company, product, or individual.
OK, I guess that’s pretty good. Another definition of a brand I’ve heard that I like is: “Your unique promise kept over time.” That’s what a brand is.
A big part of keeping promises is doing what you say you’re going to do. Therefore, it’s a commitment.
In my mind, a big part of that is keeping your appointments.
If I’m going to collaborate with someone and we have a pre-determined date & time, I put that on my calendar and I would not change that commitment unless some inordinate or unusual circumstance came up.
That person trusted me with their time and I trusted them with my time. If someone tells me later that they’d like to re-schedule with me, well, often I don’t do it.
With all the choices I have for spending my time, their wavering commitment doesn’t really reflect so well on their personal brand.
Also, other people would have liked to have that time with me & they couldn’t get it because I already committed it to that person that wanted to cancel or postpone.
People that have their act together, well-branded people, commit and show up on time.
I’ll give you an example of a well-branded person that keeps commitments - whether you like him or not, in my experience, that is, yep, Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki.
Robert & I have done a bunch of collaborations in the past, I used to be a writer for the Rich Dad Advisors, he’s been a guest right here with us on the GRE Podcast four times.
Not once have we tried to re-schedule or cancel an appointment on each other.
Even if we plan something a month in advance, we keep it. We don’t have to send each other reminders. It was put on our calendar at the time we made the appointment, so what more do you need?
And you wonder why that guy is so successful. Well, one reason could be that he keeps commitments.
Now, when it comes to your personal brand - which includes your belief systems, your values, commitment levels, there’s one thing that some people need to “get over” - and I think that Hal Elrod & I touched on this here on the show 3 weeks ago.
It’s this myth. There are people that brashly say, “Hey, I don’t care about what other people think of me.”
Oh, that’s wrong. You do too care about what other people think. Because that’s your reputation.
It can be interesting to see the person that says they didn’t care about what other people think, say, have a fake social media account made up impersonating their likeness and embarrassing them.
You had better believe that person that said they don’t care about what other people think… frantically tries to point out that, “Hey, I don’t want you thinking that was me over there spamming you.” Someone is impersonating my account.
“Oh, well didn’t you just say that you don’t care about what other people think?” See you did care… and you should. That’s your reputation.
What if you own a restaurant & people leave negative reviews about your business & you as a businessperson, you care.
DO CARE… about what others think. That’s honesty. But yeah, don’t care too much.
People will care about your brand when they know that you can bring them value. When you start with creating value first, second is how are you going to reach people, and then thirdly, it’s how are you going to create income.
It’s value, reach, then income. 1-2-3
I’m reaching you right now with this show. In fact, there was a time, between 5 & 10 years ago, that even by having a show like this, one could create value, reach, and income.
For new entrants, those days are gone. The podcast landscape became saturated a few years ago and it’s almost impossible to get substantial reach today.
For startups today, a podcast is a lot like a website was 20 years ago.
Neither one stands out just by virtue of having one.
You can have a website just like you can have a podcast, but anymore, how would you ever get enough website visitors to make a difference or how would you attract enough podcast listeners to make a difference.
Even celebrities that have name brand recognition that have crossed over and started podcasts usually don’t get much traction anymore. They are drowned out in a saturated field.
So if you want your brand to reach people today, well, that’s a really long discussion and this isn’t a marketing show. So I’d start with just two pieces of guidance:
#1 - Look for that new media source that isn’t crowded today. It might be that “next” media type. For a while, people thought that it might be voice-activated media like Alexa or Siri. I don’t really know that that’s getting traction like some thought. But that’s the way to be thinking. “What’s next?”
Secondly, if you know of a thought leader that wants to get their message out with a podcast today, rather than starting their own show and entering a crowded field… gosh, starting your own show, you could spin your wheels with many episodes and unlike a website that doesn’t need to be constantly updated…
… a podcast takes regular releases, and production, advertising, sound engineering and marketing, transcription, and a support network of complimentary resources from video to social media and more.
Well, I’ve got a great shortcut to that… in the podcasting world that will save you a lot of time, money, and frustration.
If you know someone that wants to get their message out through a podcast today, the big shortcut is to be a guest on another show that already has a big following.
That way, you’ve outsourced all of the production and marketing and everything else to a proven channel. That can save you hundreds or thousands of hours in your life.
Rather than starting a podcast, be a guest on a few big name shows.
Now that you know how you’re going to provide value to the world, you’ve got your reach too.
Hey, I’ve got more thoughts like this for you on building your personal brand. Before I share those, let’s talk to today’s remarkable guest on how to build your personal brand.
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Oh, yeah, a really interesting interview with Steve Sims today.
One thing we discussed is that you can’t snap your fingers and instantly make yourself someone that you’re not. It’s about gradually being who you are becoming.
Now, here at GRE, our show keeps growing and about two years ago, I needed to make a new key hire to run the internal operations here so that I could have enough time clear to make the best content for you every week.
But, gosh, I really didn’t know how to make a quality hire here - like, to bring in an experienced pro.
Realizing I didn’t even know how to hire someone, I looked around my network of people… and I knew that Ken McElroy had employed a Hiring Manager, Jennifer, to help him and I tapped her so that Jennifer could find a COO for GRE.
Jennifer & I worked on the position advertisement, she interviewed the top candidates, narrowed it down to three, and Aundrea was selected.
Then I got Garrett Sutton to help me write the work contract.
So, I had acknowledged that hiring a top pro was beyond my skillset.
And Aundrea is such a professional here - she has her MBA too - that when GRE added more staff later, she’s the one that does the interviewing - not me.
And then… continuing in this vein of, “Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not.”
When we make a new hire here at GRE, I don’t pretend like I have some lofty corporate experience at knowing how to run things around here.
When I first talk to that new hire here, I simply tell them the truth. I say something like:
“I found myself with a show here that a lot of people seem to like to listen to… but don’t have any experience managing people. So I really want you to feel comfortable in speaking up when you think I could be doing something better.” Yeah, I tell everyone something like that.
Alright, well, what did that just do when I told them this?
- First, it’s honesty.
- It makes me more comfortable
- It made the new hire more comfortable
- And finally, I’m not pretending to be someone that I’m not. When I was in the working world, I didn’t climb up the corporate ladder. I didn’t get that corporate experience. Instead, I decided to leave that world behind.
Steve made a terrific point at the end about brand clarity - being clear on what your brand stands for - whether that’s your personal brand or your company’s brand.
I told you near the start of the show that commitment & respecting other people’s time is a big part of my personal brand. Certainly, attention to detail too.
GRE’s brand clarity is in four words: Real Estate Financial Freedom. Those four words tell you where you & I are going together & how you’re getting there too.
Once you’re in the GRE world and tribe, then we can get more nuanced, for example, with our strategy and brand of “FF beats DF”. And with that, you see how “RE FF” is achieved faster.
I sign off each show with “Don’t Quit Your Daydream” and it’s a trademark that we own here at GRE.
So the point is, be clear and memorable in order to have a successful brand for yourself.
This doesn’t have to be that well-developed and you don’t have to have terms trademarked to have a strong brand.
Juan, my landscaper wacks all the weeds along my fence and doesn’t leave any clippings behind. I can see that his brand was there - imprinted in my backyard.
Speaking of some other well-branded real estate figures, if you want to listen to Grant Cardone & I together here on the show, where we 10X your wealth together, he was with us on Episode 264.
Robert Kiyosaki’s latest appearance here on GRE was last year. You will find he & I together most recently on Episode 358.
As far as today’s chat, you might be interested in SEEING Steve Sims & I’s chat from today other than just listening to the audio here. It might help reinforce some of these branding concept for you.
He’s also just a really interesting figure to see and listen to. You can do that on your YouTube Channel… which is really easy to find and remember… because we’re - I suppose - consistently-branded - ha!
That’s because our YouTube Channel is called “Get Rich Education”. I’d expect that video to be published there by about now.
Personal branding means that there is… perhaps… a better investment than leveraged income property.
That investment… is YOU.
Until next week, I’m your host, Keith Weinhold. Don’t Quit Your Daydream!