You Are The Brand

Stu McLaren is a master marketer and the genius behind building some of today's largest membership sites. In this interview, we recount his unique journey from being the behind-the-scenes strategist to stepping "out front" to become his own brand. It's a journey that I've walked to a small degree, and one I know that many listeners are on right now.  A sneak preview: The difference between unconscious competence vs. conscious competence The two types of entrepreneurs and why businesses don't grow without both The fastest way to gain momentum in your personal brand Resources Mentioned in This Episode: • Join Marketing Mastery Insider: mikekim.com/insider • Stu's blog • Tribe - Stu's online course on membership sites • Rocket Fuel (book)

Having a product for sale is the pathway to profit in a personal brand business. Yes, you can sell your own time by doing coaching, consulting, or speaking -- but why stop there? In this episode, I talk about 4 products you can create in under 4 hours each: Affliate products Documents / Swipe Files Mini-Trainings Coaching This episode focuses on the first two types of products because they are easy to create and can end up being strong generators of passive income for you. Once they're created, they sell indefinitely as long as you drive leads to them. Resources Mentioned in This Episode: • Join Marketing Mastery Insider: mikekim.com/insider • Info on Marketing Mastery Workshop: mikekim.com/workshop • Paypal • Gumroad • Wave Apps • Stripe • Essential Business Forms (my client proposal templates)

Positioning is one of the most important, yet least understood, aspects of marketing. It's clear when you see top-tier brands like Louis Vuitton (luxury) vs. everyday brands like Wal-Mart, but things get foggy when branding a person. But that's exactly what a personal brand is: a brand built around you.  In this episode I take you behind-the-scenes of one of my private workshops where I help personal brand builders get clear on their positioning in a way that allows them to reach any market. We often start with these 3 questions: What pisses you off? What breaks your heart? What is the big problem you're trying to solve? The answers to these questions provide the basis on which you will build your positioning. • Join Marketing Mastery Insider: mikekim.com/insider • Info on Marketing Mastery Workshop: mikekim.com/workshop

This is a "back to the basics" episode as I lay out the 3 things you need to build a minimum viable platform for your personal brand business. I'm amazed at how many coaches, consultants, and speakers I meet who don't have all three of these in place in a way that allows them to leverage their exposure and referrals. Homepage Services Page About Page There should be 3x as many calls to action for the Services page compared to the About page. Also, you should consider how people are getting to certain pages on your website. For example, most of my clients go directly to my homepage, while most of my blog readers (who don't hire me for contract work) rarely to go my homepage. Over the past two years, I geared my homepage to private clients while still growing a blog readership since my readers usually went directly to posts that I wrote and found them via social media or through my email list. Resources Mentioned In This Episode: studiopress.com (which is where my blog theme is from) wufoo.com (which I use for client intake forms) [Podcast] What to Say On Your Website: 5 Things Your Customers Need to Hear You Say My About Page (use as a reference for yourself) Click Below To Subscribe to Marketing Mastery Insider: mikekim.com/insider

In recent weeks I've made some big changes in my business. The biggest change has to do with my paid mastermind group ... and the decision to shut it down. In this episode, I talk about the reasons behind the decison, as well as the things I've been working on since (including two new launches that have generated more than the mastermind group that I decided to close down). I mentioned a number of people in today's episode, and you can find out more about them here: Neal Samudre and his email funnels Matt Dobschuetz and Porn Free Radio Michael Hudson To get request access to the Facebook group, click here.  Click Below To Subscribe to Marketing Mastery Insider: mikekim.com/insider 

If you're in the business of "you", your story will end up being one of the most important components of your marketing plan. In this episode, you'll learn the 7 elements of a Signature Story: Paradise Disaster Reluctant Hero Fleeting Victory Devastating Defeat Moment of Grace Final Victory There are also components within a story that move the narrative forward: Elephant in The Room Story Behind the Story Breaking News Little Known Facts To read my Signature Story, click here. Click Below To Get on the MK Insider Email List: mikekim.com/mkinsider 

In this episode, I share my approach to clarifying my purpose, vision, mission, goals, and tasks. Tune in, and you'll also hear about some big changes to the podcast, namely why I'm going to end this show at episode 150. There's no shortage of talk on concepts like purpose, vision, and mission and those words are often used interchangeably. For me, I see them in a certain hierarchy, which helps me see them sequentially. For example, this is my Purpose Statement in life: • The purpose of my life is to be love, enjoy abundance, and do generous deeds for myself and others. • The vision I have to manifest my purpose (at least business-wise) is to commit the next 25 years of my life to connect influencers for greater impact in the world. • The mission now might be a clear and compelling statement like, "I will host 4 events per year, 3 in the U.S. and 1 overseas, to connect influencers for greater impact so they can collaborate to solve big problems in the world." • The goals might then be something like "Have an average attendance of 40 people per event" or "Generate $250,000 per year with those events." • The tasks would then be obvious: book speakers, secure venues, create marketing campaigns, and so forth. If you're interested in doing this exercise for yourself, simply use the framework I've listed above and fill in your own thoughts. Borrow my purpose statement for now, and change out the words so it reads: The purpose of my life is to be ____, enjoy ____, and do ____ for myself and others. Join the Brand You Community on Facebook: Have you checked out this invite-only group? Click here to request access to the Brand You Community Liked this episode? Leave a review on iTunes and I'd love to give you a shout out on the show! Make sure to leave your website so I can link back to it. I'd love to connect on social: Twitter: @MikeKimTV Instagram: @MikeKimTV Facebook: MikeKimTV  

In this episode, I share the approach to goal setting that I learned at Tony Robbins' Date with Destiny seminar in West Palm Beach, FL. Date with Destiny was one of the most powerful and important events I've ever attended, and though I can't do the impact justice through a podcast, I felt one of the best things I could share would be Tony's approach to goal-setting. If you're anything like me, goal-setting is a mixed bag. There are a lot of good goal-setting frameworks out there, but they're also easy to get tired of. I found myself in that boat and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this one. The Tony Robbins Guide to Year-End Goal Setting: Set 4 categories: 1. Things & Stuff, 2. Experiences, 3. Treasure, 4. Contributions Write down 1, 3, 5, or 10 next to each goal to represent the years Write down your one-year goals and rank the top 4 Then ask 4 follow up questions for each goal The 4 Follow-Up Questions: Why to you want to accomplish this goal? What is the pain you will feel if you don't accomplish this goal? What is the pleasure you'll get from accomplishing this goal? How will accomplishing this goal contribute to others? Go to mikekim.com/141 to view these on a web browser.  Join the Brand You Community on Facebook: Have you checked out this invite-only group? Click here to request access to the Brand You Community Liked this episode? Leave a review on iTunes and I'd love to give you a shout out on the show! Make sure to leave your website so I can link back to it. I'd love to connect on social: Twitter: @MikeKimTV Instagram: @MikeKimTV Facebook: MikeKimTV  

I have committed to living everyday in my Zone of Genius. The Zone of Genius is a concept penned by one Gay Hendricks in a book titled The Big Leap. Hendricks contends that all of our problems in life stem from one BIG problem: The Upper Limit Problem (or ULP! for short). The Upper Limit Problem essentially prevents us from sustained enjoyment of our success … because we subconsciously don’t feel we deserve it. Thus, we end up sabotaging ourselves so that we somehow fall back into our lesser selves. The zone ABOVE the Upper Limit Problem is what he calls the Zone of Genius. The Zone of Genius is where we truly thrive, where our very best talents and abilities allow us to expand everyday in success, love and abundance - and by doing so, inspire others to do the same. There are 4 false beliefs that prevent us from living in our Zone of Genius: that we are fundamentally flawed in some way that by succeeding, we’re being disloyal or leaving people in our past behind that we are a burden to the world that we must dim the bright lights of our brilliance so we don’t outshine someone in our past Join the Brand You Community on Facebook: Click here to request access to the Brand You Community Liked this episode? Leave a review on iTunes and I'd love to give you a shout out on the show! Make sure to leave your website so I can link back to it. I'd love to connect on social: Twitter: @MikeKimTV Instagram: @MikeKimTV Facebook: MikeKimTV

On this episode, I peel back the curtain to share the opening keynote from my recent conference Influence & Impact. Part of the reason I'm doing this is because, well, I'm really sick and can barely talk right now! But I still wanted to add value to you this week and publish a fresh podcast episode. Tune in and you'll hear the heart behind why I hosted this event, and some key points that will help you gain clarity in your own personal brand building journey. I ask several questions in this session, and I encourage you to ponder them yourself. What pisses you off? What breaks your heart? What is the big, interesting problem you're trying to solve? When we get clarity on this things, we step on the path towards greater influence and greater impact. Join the Brand You Community on Facebook: Have you checked out this invite-only group? Click here to request access to the Brand You Community Liked this episode? Leave a review on iTunes and I'd love to give you a shout out on the show! Make sure to leave your website so I can link back to it. I'd love to connect on social: Twitter: @MikeKimTV Instagram: @MikeKimTV Facebook: MikeKimTV