The Influential Personal Brand Podcast

In today’s special recap episode, Rory and AJ revisit their conversation with entrepreneur and bestselling author, Kevin Kruse. They share their top three takeaways from their conversation and expand on the significance of Kevin’s unique insights into the world of entrepreneurship, business, and tech. Listening in, you'll learn about the three primary business valuations, how a service-based business is valued differently from a subscription-based business, and why building a business you want to sell is no different from building a business you want to keep. We also interrogate the ubiquity of apps and discuss how to efficiently design your app for the highest chance of success. Our conversation with Kevin is a must-listen for any entrepreneur looking to take their business to the next level. For all this and much more, tune in today! 

Our guest today is an accomplished figure, not only in the world of personal brands but also in entrepreneurial one. Kevin Kruse is a New York Times best-selling author of nine books and has built several businesses throughout his career. As an entrepreneur and executive, Kevin has a distinguished line of companies to his name, including being the Co-Founder of Connexa which was acquired by IBM. Today he is the Founder and CEO of LEADx, a fascinating AI-powered platform geared to helping companies scale leadership behaviors and employee engagement. In our conversation with Kevin, we ask him to share his entrepreneurial wisdom on how to leverage your personal brand in the current marketplace. He explains why those with a personal brand need to consider whether they want to hire employees or be a solo practitioner and why having employees adds considerable value to your company. Later we discuss why subscription-based models are valued at a higher rate than service-based models and how to leverage that for your personal brand. We delve into the earning potential of building an app for your personal brand as well as the real-world steps and challenges involved in getting an app off the ground. Join us today for a fascinating conversation on personal brands, entrepreneurship, app development, and much more! 

In today’s special recap episode, Rory revisits his conversation with Scott McKain, one of the world’s leading thinkers on what it means to be distinct. Tuning in you’ll hear Rory share his top three takeaways from their conversation and elaborate on why being distinct as a brand is reliant on your unique perspective. Rory reflects on the fact that no one is loyal to ‘generic’ and discusses why it’s necessary to do tough internal work in order to identify and refine the core ideas that inform your personal brand and business. Hear how Brand Builders Group is constructed to help entrepreneurs do meaningful internal work and why making a decision is the toughest part of taking action. For all this and much more, tune in today! 

In today’s episode, we speak with the leading expert on the concept of distinction in personal branding and business. Scott McKain is the author of ICONIC: How Organizations and Leaders Attain, Sustain, and Regain the Highest Level of Distinction which has been named as one of the Top 10 Business Books of the Year, he is a keynote speaker at events for top organizations and has the rare honor of being feature in both the Speakers Hall of Fame and the Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame. In our conversation with Scott, we dive straight into the concept of distinction and why it’s so important for your personal brand. We hear Scott’s breakdown of the four cornerstones of distinction: clarity, creativity, communication, and the customer experience focus. Scott places a particular emphasis on the concept of clarity and why it is in many ways the most difficult step since it involves identifying what makes you distinct and excluding potential business opportunities that do not fall within what makes your personal brand unique. Scott offers his advice and tips for finding your distinction and explains why we should all find out why people recommend us. Join us today for an edifying discussion on the concept of distinction and how to define it for your personal brand! 

In today’s special recap episode, Rory revisits his conversation with Juliet Funt, author of the new book A Minute to Think, and shares his top three takeaways from the interview. Rory breaks down key concepts from Juliet’s book, such as why we all need more oxygen in our lives and why having whitespace on our calendars is essential. He reflects on the elegance of her writing and how the phrase "interlacing moments of thoughtfulness throughout your day" is such a profound lesson. Hear why it’s important to ask yourself direct questions like “Where am I doing high quantity, low-value work” and “Am I comfortable being quiet?”. Join us today as we discuss some of the incredible work Juliet has been doing, as well as how to listen to your own wisdom, and much more! 

The rise in remote work as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic has left many of us living our lives in a whirlwind of zoom meetings, endless email chains, and urgent work tasks. Our guest today is a firm believer in the transformative power of integrating small moments of thoughtfulness throughout the day, and has the science to prove it. Juliet Funt is a renowned speaker, author, and CEO of White Space at Work, a training and consulting firm that helps organizations reexamine the norms of business to reclaim their creativity, productivity, and engagement. We talk with Juliet about the key concepts in her new book A Minute to Think and discuss why so many of us are prioritizing low-value quantity work over slow, deep work. Tuning in you’ll hear Juliet explain how our brains benefit from interlaced moments of quiet as well as why many of us may be addicted to busyness as a distraction from our own thoughts. Join us today for an essential conversation on productivity, creativity, and meaningful work! 

In today’s episode, we revisit our conversation with Chester Elton, a best-selling author, and co-founder of FindMojo, a global assessment company. Tuning in you’ll hear Rory and AJ discuss their top three takeaways from Rory’s interview with Chester and how they’ve seen those lessons reflected in their own lives and careers. The power of proprietary data is indisputable, especially as a means to gain dominance in your field. AJ discusses why accurately interpreting your data is an essential skill and how to share it with your audience in a way that is relevant to them. Rory delves into Chester’s lessons on creating an audience for your book and why it is ultimately up to the author to market and sell their publication. We had a great time catching up with Chester and hearing his many tips and insights. For all our highlights from the interview and more, tune in today! 

In today’s episode, we are joined by Chester Elton, the co-founder of FindMojo, a global assessment company. Chester has had tremendous success, along with his business partner, Adrian Gostick, in being a dominant presence in their area of expertise, namely workplace culture. They realized early on that data was essential to giving credibility to their research and obtained a sizable portion of proprietary data of over one million working adults. Together, they have written multiple bestsellers, from The Carrot Principle and Leading with Gratitude to their most recent title, Anxiety at Work. In our conversation with Chester, we delve into how they go about conducting research, why they hire outside help to assist in putting together their assessments, and why he believes that Anxiety at Work is their most important book to date. We hear from Chester about the importance of a competent team, why it’s ultimately up to the author to sell their books, and why it’s essential to leverage your personal brand to do so successfully. For all this and more, tune in today! 

In today’s recap episode Rory and AJ get together to discuss their conversation with Ken Coleman, a master interviewer and host of The Ken Coleman Show. Rory and AJ each share their top three takeaways from the interview and what they learned from talking with Ken. Rory notes Ken’s insight into the importance of being attentive, not only to what your guest is saying but how they are saying it. He reflects on how he was also able to sharpen that skill while working in sales and how it has benefited him as a transferable skill during interviews. AJ discusses the power you gain from not being intimidated by your guests and why experience and preparation are key, much more so than whether you have a close relationship with the person you’re interviewing. Tuning in you’ll hear a summary of Ken’s expert tips for interview preparation, how to be entertaining as an interviewer, and much more! 

Any good show host knows that, to conduct a great interview, your number one priority needs to be the guest and the audience, not yourself. On today’s episode of the Influential Personal Brand podcast, we get together with consummate interviewer, Ken Coleman, host of The Ken Coleman Show, to talk about the interviews he’s conducted with highly accomplished individuals like George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, as well as the skills and lessons he’s learned from taking almost 5,000 live calls live on air. In this conversation, we discuss his show’s philosophy that every individual has a unique purpose in how they contribute to society and the profound impact this belief has had on his work. We hear from Ken about how he gets to the heart of his callers’ problems in the short span of six minutes while still being entertaining and engaging to his audience, why he is not intimidated by the accomplished figures he has interviewed, and why intense preparation leads to reflexive performance. He also explains some of the key questions interviewers need to ask themselves while preparing and why thorough research is so important. Join us today for an informative episode full of wisdom and practical tips on the art of interviewing!