Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
EP670: Alan McLaren - How To Create A Powerful Personal Brand
0 Playsin 14 hours
"Trust is not a campaign. Trust is making deposits, planting seeds, giving of yourself and your knowledge and your perspectives without expectation of return, and then return happens.”
“The human heart is all you have left. AI is coming.”
In today’s noisy world, trust is the new currency—and your personal brand is the vault. Building a personal brand isn’t about ego or fancy marketing campaigns; it’s about being deeply intentional, showing up authentically, and connecting through values, stories, and service. True influence starts with a clear message, delivered consistently and with heart.
Alan McLaren shares hard-won insights from decades of experience across leadership, marketing, and sales. He breaks down the shift from hiding behind logos to leading with personality and purpose. Whether you’re a solo coach or a CEO, it’s not enough to market—you must build trust at scale. Thought leadership isn’t optional anymore; it’s your only defense in a world racing toward AI and automation.
Alan McLaren is the co-founder of Strata Originals and a seasoned business leader with over 25 years of experience in sales, leadership, and brand development. With a passion for helping entrepreneurs become visible and trusted, he works with his business partner Leanne to guide leaders through the transformational journey of building authentic personal brands.
Expert action steps:
- Intentionality in networking:
“Networking doesn’t happen by accident. Systematize the people in your life that you want to stay connected to… If you’re trying to sell, if you’re trying to market… be positive when you do that, don’t try to sell anybody.”
- Celebrate others on LinkedIn to build visibility and trust:
“Go on LinkedIn and celebrate others… say something insightful… you’re now spreading audience when you’re doing it.”
- Get over your fear of posting content—it’s no longer optional:
“This is not a luxury anymore… AI is coming for you and the only thing that’s going to differentiate you is you… the human heart is all we have left.”
Lean more & connect:
https://strataoriginals.com/. Where Alan and his business partner Leanne help CEO’s, entrepreneurs, founders and executive teams build authority and influence with clarity, conviction and authenticity
Reach out to Alan on LinkedIn and tell him you’d like a copy of his personal branding worksheet.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanmclaren/
Visit https://www.eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Personal Branding
00:00:03
Speaker
Personal branding is not about your ego. It's about finding your uniqueness and sharing it in the service of others. You're nothing if not authentic, and your passions are very clear. All of those things line up to trust.
00:00:17
Speaker
You're building trust at scale. There's nothing better in the world than the relationships you have.
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six to seven figure practice.
00:00:44
Speaker
This episode has been brought to you by ecircleacademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
00:00:54
Speaker
Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. I'm your host, Nicky Ballou. And boy, we have an exciting guest lined up for you today.
Meet Alan McLaren
00:01:04
Speaker
Today's guest is a man I've known for over a quarter of a century.
00:01:09
Speaker
He's actually my last boss, the last boss I had when I was still in corporate. He's a great man. And coincidentally, coincidentally, he and i serve people thoroughly.
00:01:24
Speaker
with the same passion in the same arena. I am speaking, of course, of none other than the one, the only, the legendary Alan McLaren. Welcome the show, Alan.
00:01:36
Speaker
You know, I love you, but I could never have that enthusiasm, brother. just It's just beyond my age and my desire, but thank you. You're awesome, man. You're awesome. So, Alan, obviously, I know you well, but the folks that listen to the show, um i mean, you've been on once, but that was several years ago. is The longtime listeners might remember you.
00:01:57
Speaker
They really need to get to know you again. They need to get to fall in love with your story because the reason they listen to the show is they want to learn, they want to grow, and I'm here every week. So, you know, I'm not that exciting to them. But you, on the other hand, you're super exciting to them.
Alan's Career Journey
00:02:10
Speaker
Tell us your backstory. How'd you get to be the great Alan McLaren?
00:02:15
Speaker
Well, not a lot of people would call me great, but I appreciate it. and So I grew up on the sales side of the house in in corporate Canada and had a ah long career at Canada in Nikon Office Solutions where i got into my first president's job in 1999, if I can remember that. And that's when I joined YPO, an organization that Nikki, you know a little bit about.
00:02:36
Speaker
um yep you And then I moved where Nikki and I met was at had a company called Jaws back in 2000, 1999, 2000, which... That was quite a ride. We'll just leave that one alone. We'll put that in the... It was a hell of a ride. It was a hell ride. lot of lessons and a lot of crazy stuff.
00:02:53
Speaker
And then I also... But you and I, we got connected there. So that part was awesome. Exactly. And I also met my business partner, Leanne, there at JAWS as well. So that was... You look at your life and say, okay, what was the experience like? And who are the people that came along and that you still are with today? And Leanne and have been business partners for 25 years now, Nick, if you can believe it.
00:03:14
Speaker
Um, we went off and did a nice security spin out of jaws and we spent three years there and had a really good run. And then Leanne came to me and said, well, what are we going to do now? We're leaving white hat.
Launching Strat Originals
00:03:26
Speaker
What are we going to do? i said, what do you mean? We, I'm going to go find a job as a CEO somewhere. We're going to be friends for life. Just why don't we start a marketing agency?
00:03:34
Speaker
I said, we have no money. We have no ideas. Of course that makes a ton of sense. but so another but Started a business out of nothing. And, um, and mean our And then we had an 18-year run, and we had a lovely pivot around COVID, and everybody's heard the stories that, you know, there's a lot of good that comes out of COVID, and what came out of COVID for us was ah Strat Originals.
00:03:54
Speaker
And that, I have to tell you, of all the things I've done in my long career, is the most exciting thing I've ever done, because as Nicky said in the opening, we get to change people's lives.
00:04:06
Speaker
and ah And I can't wait to share that, but that's my journey, um and ah it's not over yet. So... Alan, part of what's changed in the last 25 years that you and I have known each other is that the role of the CEO and how a CEO operates has changed.
CEO as Thought Leader
00:04:26
Speaker
And a CEO can be a CEO of a one-man show yourself all the way up to Elon Musk and those types of companies. And in the past, you'd have ah CEO and the CEO would be thinking to himself or herself, and you know,
00:04:44
Speaker
I don't need to be putting myself out there too much. In fact, it's better if I'm in the background and my people and the company are out in the foreground. And there's not a whole lot of people that will have access to me because I'm busy.
00:04:58
Speaker
And really, it's it's all about me pushing a narrative ah of the company and what the company is trying to do. You know, the first CEO that I saw who looked at this and said, I don't think this is the right way to go, was Steve Jobs. There may have been others who did it, but this is the first one that I noticed. Steve Jobs was someone who put himself out there And his passion, his fire, his vision became Apple's passion, Apple's fire, Apple's vision.
00:05:30
Speaker
And in fact, it was beyond Apple because he also ran a few other companies like Next and Pixar and so forth. But he put himself out there and he spoke about things that mattered in a real, honest, authentic way.
00:05:44
Speaker
It wasn't a slick marketing message. It wasn't a slick marketing campaign. And wouldn't you know it, when he came back to Apple in, I think it was 1998, in the short time that he was there, like nine years, 10 years, 11 years, whatever it was, actually it was a little longer than that. He died in 2011. So it was a 13-year run.
00:06:03
Speaker
In that 13-year run, Apple went from being worth $6 billion dollars to being worth over a trillion dollars. Over a trillion dollars. And I've got to believe that a lot of this expansion in Apple had a lot to do with the fact that Steve Jobs was seen as an authority, as a thought leader, as an authentic authority.
00:06:28
Speaker
messenger for his message. I know you get this, but if you can expand on this and talk about why in 2025, CEOs of all sizes and stripes need to pay attention to thought leadership for themselves.
Marketing Dynamics & Social Media
00:06:44
Speaker
Well, let's think about this for a moment. In those days, ah you controlled your narrative because your people were all in one place, right? You had a company, You had staff, you controlled the story, and and everything was company out, right?
00:06:59
Speaker
The exceptions were the thought leaders that I'll call celebrities, which, Nikki, I put in a different category sometimes. Because sometimes personal brand built and you become a celebrity, then that's its own category. But most of us don't live in that world, right? We have we live in the world where we're scrapping every day for attention.
00:07:16
Speaker
Well, what's changed in a big way is this thing called social media and distribution. The podcast we're doing today existed, but not in the same way. The social media platforms that we have today is the opportunity for scale that we've never had before.
00:07:32
Speaker
What I would ask any leader that's sitting here right to right now, who they are the face of their business, why aren't you the face of your business? Why are you hiding behind the logo? Because here's the deal.
00:07:44
Speaker
Marketing, marketing as a rule is not trusted. Why? Because you're marketing. You're selling something. But Nikki or Alan talking about what they're passionate about could be parts of the business, could be something else, builds trust.
00:08:01
Speaker
When you do, whether we call it thought leadership, personal branding, pick a topic, it doesn't really matter. You're building trust at scale. There's nothing better in the world than the relationships you have. And I'll give you one last statement before I stop talking because I can go on forever.
00:08:18
Speaker
I want you to think about this for a moment as a leader. assuming for argument's sake, you have 2,000 people on your LinkedIn profile today. How many people actually know what you do for a living that can refer you?
00:08:31
Speaker
Nikki, take a guess. Maybe not you, but what do you think the average statistic would be on that number? How many people in a LinkedIn? Yeah, it's 10. who So do the math with me and say, what am I missing?
00:08:46
Speaker
Who am I missing? People who know me and love me Don't really know what to I had people 10 years ago when I had an agency buying stuff from other agencies and they forgot what I did.
00:08:59
Speaker
Al, I'm sorry. Yeah, I forgot. They don't forget now because I'm out there in a big way, building trust, giving of myself, sharing my knowledge with the world and building trust.
00:09:11
Speaker
And then those 2,000 people, maybe 1,000 now know what I do. That ups the odds quite a bit. And oh, by the way, That 2,000 gives you access to 750 others, 1,000 other people because of the relationships they have.
00:09:27
Speaker
So if that's not a big enough why, then I don't know what is. You know, that's pretty brilliant. And it's funny because I've been helping lots of people do this myself.
Nikki's Political Engagement
00:09:38
Speaker
um most of the folks I've worked with have been um smaller guys like, you know, coaches, consultants, smaller shops. and I've had a couple, but maybe, i don't know, half a dozen um CEOs that have come to us. most And most of those guys came to us. They weren't part of our marketing going, hey, we're going after CEOs. But just and one lady listened to me on a podcast talk about this. And she just, she she called me.
00:10:06
Speaker
And she said, hi, name is Jacqueline Samira. I own ah an IT t company in Austin. And I hear you are the thought leadership guy. That's your podcast. She said, first of all, I'd love to come on your show. She said, but I think I need your help.
00:10:19
Speaker
She negotiated with me on the spot, a price and everything for two days. like Like she was like that. Like, I'm like, I love people like you. How do I get more of you? we Like, we Alan, here's what I noticed.
00:10:31
Speaker
And this started to hit me in September when I went to a conference in Florida. I haven't done a good enough job of it for me, for myself. You know how the cobbler's kids have no shoes that bit. that bit Yeah. um And so a big part of 2025 is doing a better job of this.
00:10:50
Speaker
And yeah also in Canada, there is a federal election happening now. By the time this show is out, the election may have happened and we may know who who's won. But I was in ah in in a headspace where outside of voting, maybe donating a bit of money here and there, I'd never really done much at a, at a Canadian election before.
00:11:12
Speaker
And I decided this time I couldn't stay silent. I decided that the authentic Nikki feels this is an an existential election for our country and that we need to all hands on deck to speak as to why that is and why I feel we need to change and who I think people ought to vote for. So,
00:11:33
Speaker
I have some friends who are in alternative media here. One of them is a man named Ezra Levant. Ezra is the owner of Rebel News. yep And Ezra and I are friendly. I've tried to help him in a couple of ways, and he's been very appreciative of that.
00:11:49
Speaker
So I called him and I said, listen, will you have me on your show? I want to talk about this. And you know because of our relationship, he said yes. So I like got on the show and the clip's out.
00:12:02
Speaker
it's It's out there in the world right now, 16 minutes of me making the case ah for changing Canada and for not staying the course. um I got to tell you, that has done a ton for the trust factor in me because thousands of people have seen that.
00:12:22
Speaker
And there's people who are going to see that and go, no, I don't like your politics. Screw you. I'm i'm not going to do business with you. But I actually have thought about that. And i i I came to the conclusion that I'm okay with that. In fact, I want i want to i want to repel certain people.
00:12:34
Speaker
So if you hate and people because of their politics, I don't want to do business with you and good. But I also know that there's a lot of business people who feel as I feel about this need for change in Canada.
00:12:45
Speaker
And I know that me doing this 16-minute segment, them watching it, they're going to go, I like that guy. He's real. And they're going to wonder, why is a businessman going on TV when there's nothing in it for him?
00:12:59
Speaker
And I've had a few guys tell me that. What's in there for you? Are you thinking to make money from this? i I didn't do this to make money. I did to secure my children's future. You know, my brand, part of my brand that's coming out there is Nicky Bulloos for freedom.
00:13:13
Speaker
And he's he's going to stand up and talk about freedom. And I gotta tell you, man, I don't know if that'll make me any money or not, but i i I suspect that it actually will. I suspect it'll attract a certain kind of business person who's looking for the types of services I offer, but doesn't know most of those people what who they are besides the service they offer. And he's going to look at me and he's going to go, I like that guy. i like what he stands for. I'm going to talk to him.
00:13:39
Speaker
And I'm wondering what your comments are on that, because to me, this is a slow moving kind of process of figuring things out for me. Yeah, I have a couple for you. One is Dale Carnegie said a long time ago, find people that believe what you believe.
00:13:53
Speaker
And those are the, that's your tribe, right? You're not moving people. You're not moving people if they're a, you know, red and you're going move them but you're not moving them on. Now, Canada, you can move me easier than America, but you, you're not moving people. So sell to your tribe.
00:14:07
Speaker
We all have a tribe and and it's not, not a bad way tribe. I mean, in a perfect world, the world is our tribe, but in this case, you know, it's, it's important for you to sell that message. Now it's authentically you.
00:14:19
Speaker
So it works, but let me give you the other side of that. It's okay to repel people. As you said, why do you pick a persona in marketing? You pick a persona because everybody else is outside of it. It doesn't mean you're not going attract them, but you want that person to know it's you.
00:14:35
Speaker
Oh, and if politics are part of your brand, that's okay, and as long as it's consistent. Here's the other side. What I've decided to do is I have opinions as well, but I always have this little thing that says, is it serving me?
00:14:49
Speaker
If the answer is yes, then I talk about it. For me, politics, I'm as passionate as you are, maybe not quite as passionate as you are, but it doesn't serve my end of why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm singularly focused.
00:15:04
Speaker
on helping people transform by going through a process of personal branding, because it is a transformational process, Nikki. It's more, and we can talk about that, it's more than posting content. There's a transformation that goes on, and we can certainly talk about that.
00:15:17
Speaker
But I have a buddy of mine who occasionally posts content like that, and I said, dude, is it serving you? He goes, no, this so why are you talking about it? Talk to your friends about it. Talk your family about it. Influence people.
00:15:27
Speaker
But if it does serve you, Go and go hard, but recognize it's going to bring other stuff. And if you're cool with that, as you are, Nicky, it's great. But for me, I've decided I'm not going to do that because there's too much to comment on in the world, and it's going to distract from my message.
00:15:43
Speaker
So that's the the other side to to think about. it and there's and and I totally respect that. um And for many years, I was was in the space of not wanting to talk about it. But I got to tell you, when I when COVID happened and the lockdowns, especially in Canada, were very hard and very yeah severe. And the push to get people to comply and to to take this experimental shot that they pretended was a vaccine was at such a level that I I just thought my family escaped Iran to come live in a free country.
00:16:15
Speaker
And we were always grateful that this was a free country. And I didn't recognize it as a free country anymore. And I thought, I can't not speak anymore. I want whatever it is. Part of my part of who I am and part of my brand is I'm a man who speaks for that, which he's passionate about. And I want to move the needle.
00:16:32
Speaker
I went on this show because I wanted to move the needle. And I can tell you. I don't know if I'm moving tens of thousands of people, probably not, but if I'm moving ten people who are softly one way or another to be more firm on one side, then I'm happy with it.
00:16:46
Speaker
And at the end of the day, ah part of the brand that I want to put out there is that I'm a man who stands for freedom. And to me, freedom extends into business as well, because I see entrepreneurs as society's great heroes.
00:17:02
Speaker
Every good thing in our society happens. An entrepreneur has a dream. You and Leanne, you have a dream. Your dream was to bring your your beautiful expertise of transformation for ah for entrepreneurs to the marketplace.
00:17:15
Speaker
You've been able to to help people transform and grow their businesses. You've been able to hire people. You've been able to help, in a small way, move the human race forward.
00:17:26
Speaker
And to me, Standing up for the entrepreneur is standing up for freedom. And I say this to all entrepreneurs. I say, listen, you may like to say, you know what? I'm not really into politics and I don't want to talk about politics. and that's fair. That's your right.
00:17:42
Speaker
yeah But whether you're into politics or not, politics is in into you. And if the people that are on the side of limiting your freedom... Don't get pushback and they they will succeed at some point in completely eradicating your freedom.
00:17:55
Speaker
And then you won't be able to do what you do. So I say this, every entrepreneur, maybe you want to be bold like me and speak about it. Maybe all you're going to do is go vote and tell your friends and maybe that's all you're going to But don't ignore this because if you ignore this, the people that aren't ignoring it are coming for it.
00:18:13
Speaker
And they're coming for it in a big and powerful way. And I say this on every podcast I go on. And I've got to tell you, 98% of them will love it. There are about 2% of them will say, I wish you hadn't have said that. Then I'm going to go, okay. why it worksre Nikki, you know why it works for you to keep this on the thought leadership and personal
Core of Personal Branding
00:18:31
Speaker
branding? Because you're authentic and you're passionate about it, right? You're not, you're not doing it for your gain, right? At the end of the day, when you think about what we talk about with personal branding is a quote that we use all the time.
00:18:43
Speaker
Personal branding is not about your ego, right? It's about finding your uniqueness and sharing it in the service of others. That's what we do is we find the uniqueness of the people we work with and sharing the service of others. You're nothing if not authentic, and your passions are very clear, then that and it's not about you.
00:19:02
Speaker
All of those things line up to trust. Now, repelling is- Exactly. All of it lines up to trust. But someone, because we identify, and back to the tribes, tribes are both good and bad, but we are tribal as humans. We are tribal, right? We have, I'm from Iran, I'm from Canada, and we all have tribes.
00:19:21
Speaker
They're not necessarily bad, but they're bad when they're used in the way that we use them, especially politically. That being said, um in the personal branding thought leadership world, It's very simple.
00:19:33
Speaker
When I describe Nicky and Nicky's not in the room, what am I saying about him? Is it ah consistent with what you want people to say? If the answer is yes, then you're congruent. If the answer is no, you need to explore it further.
00:19:46
Speaker
That's it. That's the game we're playing. That's the game And authentically being yourself is what engenders trust.
00:19:57
Speaker
And I think in thought leadership, it's really, and you know, the quote from Dale Carnegie, I loved find the people that believe in what you believe and that's your tribe. And I think equally, you need to understand that there's going to be people that don't believe in what you believe and are vociferously against what you believe.
00:20:13
Speaker
And if you try to appease them, you lose what makes you trustworthy. You lose what makes you trustworthy. I think a big part of why certain people come to me and certain other people don't. i mean, I had someone that I had a a sales conversation with yesterday.
00:20:33
Speaker
And it was a great sales conversation. But at the end of the day, they said, I want to give you some feedback. I said, go ahead. And they said, I love everything about you except what I saw you wrote on your LinkedIn profile. I know you support so-and-so.
00:20:45
Speaker
I know you support so-and-so. And they said, and I hate so-and-so. And so, and I said, look, I respect your right to hate so-and-so. I don't hate so-and-so, and I support so-and-so, and I hope that you can respect, in a free society, my right to disagree with you.
00:21:03
Speaker
And at the end of the day, either you like me and trust me enough as a human being to want to work with me, and you don't. And if this is a deal-breaker for you, I understand that. I'll be sad, but I understand that. But I'm not backing off of that.
00:21:15
Speaker
In no way. In fact, if anything, I'm going to double down on that. The only thing... about this particular individual that I said I like and I support, that I don't like, you and I know is because some of the things he said about our home country of Canada, I'm not too too thrilled with.
00:21:29
Speaker
you know i wanted to shut up about that. In fact, when I went on Rebel News, it's one of the things I said. I looked in the camera and I said, hey, Sir, shut up about X, Y, and Z. And the sir is Donald Trump, and the X, Y, and Z is Canada is a 51st state. He said, we're never going to be your 51st state. Shut up.
00:21:48
Speaker
Stop it. Right? Don't do this. And in fact, you doing this is helping the wrong side in our election. So really shut up, right, is what I said. And my friends who know me go oh, my God, did he really just criticize Trump? I go, yeah, I criticize Trump.
00:22:05
Speaker
good I said, okay. But for me, why I did that is, A, I want to move the needle on the election. I want to help my fellow Canadians, as many of them as I can, to move to to vote one way rather than another.
00:22:16
Speaker
And secondly, from a branding point of view, when I thought about it, I said, hey, sometimes it takes being part of a tribe to be able to criticize someone else in the tribe authentically, because that that'll land better when it's someone who normally would support people.
00:22:31
Speaker
what this is all about. If you're normally in favor of something and then you find something wrong with it and you're authentically speaking out about it, I think that helps the trust factor in your brand as well. It can for sure, but you got to remember the thing is back to that word I use, is it serving you?
00:22:49
Speaker
for what your object and if your objective is to move the needle to be more blue that because it's important to you then it's serving you it may not serve your business right because there's always a balance in life right when you take a position um you have other people that are be against it in every environment you take a position so and that's a choice you're making a conscious choice you're making that's okay you're allowed to do that understanding there are consequences to that decision.
00:23:20
Speaker
That's it. There are consequences every decision. But since I decided to come out as having a freedom-oriented brand, I've tripled my business.
00:23:31
Speaker
Then then found you found your niche. You found your tribe. You found your people. That's it, Nicky. You're not going to pull some far-left person and say, I want to work with you. As soon as they see Trump, they're going, not my people.
00:23:44
Speaker
And that's okay. Right? It's okay. You and I can be friends. You know, I'm not a big fan of that dude. ah It's different in Canada. But you why can't we be friends? You're allowed to have a different a different opinion. we're like absolutely We're absolutely fine to do that. But publicly, I don't comment on those things for my brand ah because that doesn't fit with where I'm trying to go.
00:24:07
Speaker
that And everybody can make that call themselves. yeah yeah yeah So moving moving on to the trust factor. So let's say there's a CEO, a coach, a consultant that's listening to this and they're going, okay, okay.
00:24:19
Speaker
I'm not going to be like political, like Nikki, you know, it's not my thing, but I do want to be honest. I do want to be real. I do want to be authentic and I do want to call certain things out. So how do i navigate how to do that in my arena?
00:24:35
Speaker
So what's your answer to this? So the first question is you let their last sentence. i want to call things out. So why would you say you have to call things out if you're a coach? Why would you, but why would you say that?
00:24:46
Speaker
So that's a good question. Um, I think that inside of the world of coaching people and advising people, you need to stand for certain things and you need to stand against certain things.
00:25:00
Speaker
I think that being only for things isn't helpful. Um, from a branding point of view, everyone needs an enemy to go against. And that enemy doesn't need to be a particular person.
00:25:14
Speaker
But as an example, if you're a, um say you're a um ah relationship coach, the enemy you're fighting against is marriage breakdown. You don't want to see marriages break up. You want to see marriages be successful.
00:25:27
Speaker
And so you could be a coach who's out there and going, okay, I'm a relationship coach. My name is you know James Smith. And um what I'm calling out is too many couples go to divorce as the first option when things go rough rather than the last option.
00:25:43
Speaker
And I want to say to you, That is bad because the first option means your family breaks up when it could have been saved. And the impact of a family breaking up that didn't have to break up is if you have children, it's going to affect them.
00:25:57
Speaker
And these are all the statistics on how it affects them. Why? If you have a, ah you know, if you get divorced, it's going to cost you $100,000 plus lawyer fees, plus set you back, blah, blah, blah. So ah yeah the enemy is premature divorce.
00:26:13
Speaker
You know what I mean? That's the sort of thing we're talking about. So without the enemy so let me let me flip the switch for you for a moment. I agree with the objective. Maybe there's a different way to build trust.
00:26:26
Speaker
So if I come to, you know, we're friends, we've known each other. If I say, you should, Nikki, you react a certain way to the you shoulds, right? Versus let me share an experience that I had that hopefully you can learn from and grow out of yourself. Because people don't like to be told what to do. I don't care you're going to psychologist or or an expert or anything.
00:26:47
Speaker
So the way that I look at the world, and maybe it's just my view of the world is, I want to provide information and invite you to make change versus force you to make change. Different approach.
00:26:58
Speaker
So I don't call, now, what I'll call out are things like people saying, you know what, I'll look at my personal brand someday. But I'm not going to say, you're being an idiot. You realize you can't have the benefits until you start?
00:27:12
Speaker
I'm going to do like we had a post today on on our company where we said, what's missing here? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Sunday.
00:27:23
Speaker
What's wrong here? Some days wrong, right? It shouldn't be there. So we're inviting people to laugh, to go, yeah, and that's me. I'm putting it off. I should be thinking. So the idea what's your style? What's your brand? What's your, what do you stand for as a company?
00:27:37
Speaker
So we as a company with Strata, that's what we stand for. We call things out with an invitation versus a a velvet hammer or a punch in the face. So that's what we do. And and week it doesn't mean you can't be tough or it can't be- But out, Alan. It's still a call out. It is a call out, but it's not a you should because people don't respond, in our view, especially with something like personal branding or thought leadership.
00:28:00
Speaker
The first part of what we do is get the why done, right? Why should you do it? They go, yeah. Now, when they do it, and you know this because it happens in your business, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm too busy. I've got too much going on. I'm restructuring my business.
00:28:13
Speaker
Dude, we've heard every excuse on the planet. And we can't help them until they're ready. And ready is when they're ready. It's a buying objection. Yeah, it's a buying objection. No, that's a different story. Yeah. Anyway, so listen, I think what you're saying, I think we're saying the same thing here because like in this hypothetical example of the relationship coach, right?
Storytelling in Coaching
00:28:31
Speaker
The relationship coach isn't saying you're bad to get a divorce.
00:28:33
Speaker
Relationship coach is saying don't make divorce the first option. Did you make the divorce the first option? Did you try this? Did you try that? Did you try to realize the consequences of a divorce? Here's what will happen as soon as you get divorced.
00:28:45
Speaker
If your net worth is... A million dollars, kiss at least 100,000 it goodbye instantly. yeah Maybe you'd prefer not to do that. you know If your kids are under the age of 18, they're going to start to think to themselves, what did I do wrong? Why did mommy and dad break up? you know That sort of thing.
00:29:03
Speaker
That's not like you shouldn't get divorced. That's not like you're a bad guy. That's just like these are the very real world consequences of this step versus this step. And it might be a style thing, but let's think about this. So let's use a divorce coach or a divorce lawyer.
00:29:20
Speaker
Same kind of deal. They would produce content and tell stories about families without putting names together so people could see themselves in that world. And people go, oh, that's me. I'm having trouble. with and And maybe it's deeper than the couple. Maybe someone's broken or there's mental health or there's addiction. There's all kinds of things that come into any relationship that we have.
00:29:41
Speaker
These are experts that can get you to think about, is that me? Is there something I need to change? Can I be self-reflective on what what relates what part I have? Because in every divorce, it's, oh, it's your fault, right? In every divorce, it's it's their fault.
00:29:56
Speaker
But in fact, it's always the couple's fault. Something happened, the breakdown. So you teach people and you counsel them and you help them see themselves themselves. so they can make better decisions.
00:30:07
Speaker
That's what I do in thought leadership. That's what I do in personal branding. That's what I do in leadership. I tell stories so people can go, that's me. Yeah, I should think about that differently. That's Absolutely.
00:30:17
Speaker
That's the game.
00:30:23
Speaker
I can segue into the podcast world right now. When I go on podcast- What's that? Podcast world? What's a podcast? What's that? What's that? Yeah, yeah, there you go, When I go on a podcast, one of the things that I tell people about how to be an effective guest is you can't just share your expertise without stories.
00:30:43
Speaker
Because facts tell, stories sell. Facts tell, stories sell. People are going to listen to your stories, and inside of those stories, they're going to go, oh, that's me. And so one of the reasons when you go on a podcast, you can't just tell one story is because not everyone relates to that one story. You've got to tell ah minimum of three stories.
00:31:05
Speaker
Unless like it's a five minute podcast and you're not going to tell three stories, right? But I'm talking about if you're on a 20, 30 minute, 45 minute, hour long podcast, going to tell three to five stories, each of which um is going to be different in that it shares a different pain point.
00:31:23
Speaker
with the listener. And once you've done that effectively, the listener, including even the host, is going to go, oh, that's me. Oh, that's me.
00:31:34
Speaker
And that will that's what can prompt them to go, maybe I need to buy his book, jump on his calendar, watch his video content, listen to his podcast.
00:31:46
Speaker
Because the stories are the only way someone's going to do this. So I wholeheartedly agree with you. And I think too many people in thought leadership don't tell stories. They just don't. What they do is they just talk about this brilliant methodology this brilliant expertise. have Let me share with you from up on high what I know.
00:32:05
Speaker
doesn't work. It doesn't work. And i remember, the the trust factor comes when they spend time with you. And what's really cool, what you discover over time, that when you're out there on podcasts, on social, binge speaking gigs, whatever it happens to be, you're building relationships with people you don't know.
Unique Perspectives in Marketing
00:32:26
Speaker
They're building trust with you, and you don't even know who they are. And then when they reach out to you, as you have had, as happened to me, for speaking gigs or for opportunities, they get on the video call with you.
00:32:37
Speaker
They already know you. they already trust you because they've reached out and want to know more. because they've spent time with you at scale. You're sitting as a coach today and how are you marketing yourself?
00:32:52
Speaker
Well, you say referrals. If I can be very direct in the non-Allen way, bullshit. What you need to do make you would your build your life at scale with the stuff that you know that nobody else knows.
00:33:07
Speaker
I will tell you this, Dr. Seuss was right. Only you are you. Everybody else is taken. So you know things based on your perspectives that nobody else knows.
00:33:18
Speaker
And you can challenge me on that. And I will promise you, you will lose. Because, Nikki, we worked at the same company. Our perspectives are completely different based on where you came from, your life, your immigration, your this, your that, your perspective.
00:33:32
Speaker
All of that is different. yeah We can still be friends, but your perspectives are different. And we honor each other's perspectives. As a coach, you have a different perspective on where you came from.
00:33:43
Speaker
that is valuable to your tribe. No, 100%. I agree with you. We're saying the same thing on this. you you you oughtta the The power of thought leadership is the individual, right?
00:33:55
Speaker
The power of your personal brand is the individual. But you see, I make a distinction between a personal brand and and and thought leadership. They're similar, but they're not exactly the same in my view, right? Tell me about it.
00:34:08
Speaker
So a personal brand really can be built with you dropping a whole bunch of content out there into the world, right?
00:34:19
Speaker
And if that content is packed with some good stories, if that content is on podcasts as a guest, on your own podcast, in a book, in social media, on stages, on videos that you put out, right?
00:34:35
Speaker
All that can create a personal brand. People can look at all that and say, Let's just use an example of someone a lot of people and know. Patrick Bet David of Valuetainment. He's got a strong personal brand, right? And they they say, okay, Patrick's a guy who's you know high energy, built a business.
00:34:51
Speaker
He talks about entrepreneurship. and And now he's moved into politics in a big way too. That wasn't part of his personal brand, but now it's becoming part of his personal brand as well. But that's Patrick. Yeah.
00:35:02
Speaker
But that's a cursory look at what Patrick's about. Thought leadership is the depth behind all that. Thought leadership is when someone not only puts out a lot of content, but has taken the time to deeply consider the things that they're putting out there. So there's people there who have personal brands who, quite frankly, in my view, are very shallow. They don't say much. You know what I mean?
00:35:23
Speaker
They're not deep. But then there's people, Alan, like yourself, as an example, like John Maxwell, like ah Jack Canfield or Brian Tracy. These guys have thought very deeply about, and you yourself have thought very deeply about certain issues.
00:35:37
Speaker
They've taken the time to fully form their concepts and put them out there. I'm a fan of the personal brand, but I'm a bigger fan of thought leadership married to that because that means that you're not just a sizzle, you're also steak.
00:35:52
Speaker
And I'm in i mean i'm in the in in the mode of thinking that more people would rather have steak and not just bite into sizzle. So let me see if I can i can unpack what you just said there.
00:36:03
Speaker
First of all, I agree with a lot of what you said, but the way that we work, so just our little world, You don't post anything without deeply thinking about it and doing it. So acting like a thought leader. But here's where I think we might have a little difference.
00:36:20
Speaker
I don't think I can ever call myself a thought leader. I think Nikki would call me a thought leader. No, but I'm never going to say I'm a thought leader in personal branding.
00:36:31
Speaker
I want people to tell me I'm a thought leader in personal branding. The difference is I think – That's your personality. you're you're you're You're a humble guy, right? I know I'm very humble. I get that. And I've been told I don't celebrate enough. So that's a whole other psychological thing. That's whole other conversation for another time. But you are a thought leader, Alan. Whether you agree not, you are.
00:36:51
Speaker
ah But what what my point is this. There are people who ascribe like a a thought leader like a Steve Jobs or an Elon Musk. There's big personal brand celebrities, Gary Vaynerchuk, pick them all, Maxwell, all those people.
00:37:03
Speaker
They have done some amazing. Some have built a business and built a brand because of that. Now they're ascribed the title thought leader. So at the end of the day for us, to me, it's about if you have expertise that people want to listen to,
00:37:18
Speaker
right? Because you are credible to them. Then I don't care what you call it.
Building Trust in Business
00:37:24
Speaker
You are giving of yourself and you're reaching your tribe. And then the benefits will be ascribed back to you hundredfold. As we know, that always happens.
00:37:34
Speaker
If one of two things happen, consistency, longevity, consistency, longevity, people who are out there who think, well, this is a campaign.
00:37:45
Speaker
I will use the BS word again. this is Trust is not a campaign. Trust is making deposits, planting seeds, giving of yourself and your knowledge and your perspectives without expectation of return.
00:37:59
Speaker
And then return happens if you are consistent and you do it for a long time. for the For me, the last 18 months have been crazy. The first eight months, I didn't get a lot of interaction.
00:38:11
Speaker
The last year, oh my God, it's really kicked up. Why? People have spent time with me now. So that's my point. To build on what you're saying is absolutely true. You want to be, but I don't really care how we label it.
00:38:24
Speaker
Just get out there and share your knowledge and your tribe will come to you because of it. That's my point. i Listen, I agree with everything you said, but I'm going to push back on two aspects of it. So one is, look, humility, all humility set aside, what makes someone a thought leader is that they've taken the time in a particular area or in several areas, because you can be a thought leader in more than one area. Okay. And this is one of the things we teach inside our work. And when you and I get together, I want to show you some of this.
00:38:51
Speaker
If you've taken the time to really deeply understand an area and you've um thought it through and you've put it out there to be helpful to people, you got to consider yourself a thought leader in that area.
00:39:03
Speaker
And I don't think, you know you know, being modest is nice, but I don't think it helps because there are too many charlatans out there. Okay. There's way too many charlatans out there and the charlatans will get to the good people who need your help if you don't.
00:39:17
Speaker
And i I have seen this, Alan, too many times to even remotely, ah yeah you know, um be in favor of people being modest around this. You're a thought leader.
00:39:29
Speaker
I'll tell you what I see. You're thought leadership, and you've got thought leadership in three areas at a minimum that I see. So one is when it comes to selling and how to sell effectively in a relationship fashion, Alan McLaren is a thought leader. You've been doing it for...
00:39:43
Speaker
35, 40 years, you understand it, you do it every day, you you've thought things through, you've probably forgotten more about this than most people know. And I think the things you have to say around selling are very valuable. I don't know how much of that information you put out there, but you know my humble opinion is you should put it you should put that out there because it's one of your key areas of thought leadership.
00:40:03
Speaker
Secondly, um Personal branding, absolutely. You've been spending a lot of time on personal branding, on you know creating thought leadership, this whole like longevity, consistency, all of that. That's thought leadership, 100%.
00:40:15
Speaker
one hundred percent The third area of thought leadership is as a leader. You've actually been someone who's led organizations, led teams. You understand what it takes to develop people and all that stuff. So these are the three areas of Alan McLaren's thought leadership.
00:40:28
Speaker
Now, if I were like... If you came to me to say, okay, Nikki, how do we optimize me as a thought leader? I'd say, I need you to put stuff out on all three of these issues on a consistent basis, right? I'd want you to be on podcasts talking about personal branding, but also talking about sales. Cause some of the things you said on the show around sales are a lot,
00:40:49
Speaker
People don't know that. And many of these top level thought leaders and CEOs don't understand how to sell effectively. I think they can learn from this. And I'd want you to talk about leadership as well. So I'd put you, I'd have you write three books, one on thought leadership, one on leadership, one on sales.
00:41:03
Speaker
ah And I'd have you be on podcasts talking about all these things and put your content out there. And the reason I say this is because I know you, I've spent some time with you. You know, I used to work for you, all that good stuff.
00:41:15
Speaker
Why people need someone like you to work with them or you know you and Leanne, your partner, is because you can bring that same perspective once you've spent some time with these folks to help them understand what's really their thought leadership.
00:41:29
Speaker
I see too many people, even big CEOs, who are posting, excuse my language, bullshit on social media. They're talking about bullshit. they're They're actually trying the old...
00:41:42
Speaker
marketing media narrative crap. And I just like cringe. I go, stop doing that. No one will trust you if you keep this up and it's really not true. Be your freaking self.
00:41:53
Speaker
Be yourself and talk about the things you actually know something about rather than pushing the marketing message du jour down our throats because we aren't going to pay attention to it anyways, but we'll listen to you if you don't.
00:42:06
Speaker
I believe for myself candidly I believe that I'm successful to the extent that I am with the people that I'm working with because everyone that knows me one way or another says, that guy's real.
00:42:20
Speaker
He's not full of crap. He's not trying to shove an agenda down your throat. He's real. That's a big part of why I think it works for me. And the second reason why I think it works for me is because the message I have is a little bit in your face. It's not hugely in your face. There's others that are way more in your face than I am.
00:42:35
Speaker
But it's in your face enough that the people who love that, they're going to go, yeah, that's my dude. And I like what he's talking about. And the people who hate it are going to go, ah, I don't like that guy at all. Let me get away from him.
00:42:49
Speaker
And it used to bother me. I used to want everyone to love me. Now I'm like really glad when they say no. I actually feel relieved because it's hard to work with people that you're not fully connected to and are not fully buying what you're what you're selling out there. You know what I'm saying?
00:43:04
Speaker
And I love your comments on that. Yeah, yeah. No, I think you're absolutely right, but it comes back to at the end of the day when we think about marketing just simply, there's a reason we develop personas of our ideal client.
Values Alignment
00:43:18
Speaker
The people that want to work with us, we tell a story about them and say, Those are the people that connect with us. They listen to us. They love us. And we love them. And we build friendships and relationships with them. And that's part of what we want to attract in the world as well.
00:43:32
Speaker
Right. Because what you put out there, you get back. You pull people into your world. So you're 100% right. And and you know the conversation we had about politics earlier, you say, okay, that's the people I want to hang out. Well, that's okay. Dude, that's half of the world.
00:43:48
Speaker
That's okay. If you can't deal with half of the world as a potential market, you're screwed. So that's okay. My half of the world, but I don't include any of that. I have clients that are full-on Trump supporters and not, and we talk about it in loving ways, and it's great.
00:44:02
Speaker
And we can, because we have values that are lined up. That's what matters. Values, values, values. If someone has no integrity, I don't care who you support. If you're an asshole, I don't care who you support.
00:44:13
Speaker
I want good, loving humans that want to deliver great content to other people. That's what I want. So you're 100% aligned. and And people, again, back to trust.
00:44:24
Speaker
We wouldn't be talking to each other if we didn't have trust. We don't align politically. That's okay. I'm one of my best friends in Victoria. We don't align politically. We're two of my four mates.
00:44:35
Speaker
We don't align politically. We love each other. And we have great conversations. And I learn from them and they learn from me. Duh. Then we're done. That's all. In the Canadian sphere, I think you and I align more than we don't align. Maybe in the U.S. sphere, we don't.
00:44:51
Speaker
Probably. That's exactly, well, for sure, in America, we don't. In Canada, we probably do. In the Canadian sphere, I think we align. I really do. I am. do. Dude, look, I am wearing blue. So there you go. not i but I'm not making endorsements, but I'm wearing blue now. It's all good.
00:45:07
Speaker
like But i so i like I said, I suspect in the Canadian sphere, we we align more than we don't. And since we're Canadians, that matters a lot more than whatever goes on down South. That's just a spectator sport as far as I'm concerned. It's quite a sport. It's a spectator sport. canadian The Canadian field, that's our lives. That's our businesses. That's what that's our children's future. That's but sure that that That is what really ah matters to me. so ah So, Alan, we were speaking about podcasts podcast guesting.
00:45:37
Speaker
um I want to talk a bit about what mistake people make when they go on podcasts, and I want to get your comments
Effective Podcast Guesting
00:45:43
Speaker
on that. So a lot of people go on podcasts and their intention is wrong.
00:45:49
Speaker
And I'm not saying that ah wrong maybe isn't the right word because it's not that the intention is wrong. It's just it's it's not the strongest intention to lead with because it's it's a decent intention, but it's just not the strong intention.
00:46:02
Speaker
And their intention is I'm going to go on the show and I'm going to have a great conversation. I just think that's table stakes. You should always want to have a great conversation or whatever conversation you're having your life. But if that's your main intention for going on a podcast, I think that's short-sighted.
00:46:17
Speaker
Because when you go on a podcast, yes, you want to have a great conversation. Yes, you want people to like what you had to say. But I think what you want to do is you want to move people. You want to impact them.
00:46:28
Speaker
So you want to move the audience. I think that should be a powerful intention. Secondly, if you're a guest, you want to move the host and they have the host go, wow, I'm so glad I brought Alan on the show.
00:46:38
Speaker
Alan was amazing. I want him back. Like that's the vibe you want the the the host to be left with. So that ought to be part of your intention. But thirdly, and this is where everyone misses. And Alan, I missed it for the first 100 shows I went on. So it's not like I'm some great genius who figured this out right away because I didn't.
00:46:54
Speaker
The host is a business person. The host is a potential client, vendor, collaborator, referrer. Like, hello, this is old-fashioned networking. Only you're doing it on a podcast.
00:47:09
Speaker
You get to build a relationship. Now, Alan, I know you and i understand this intuitively because you go, oh, yeah, I get a new relationship. Yeah. Great things happen when you build new relationships and people go on the show. i just want to a great conversation. That's not enough.
00:47:24
Speaker
Have this triple threat intention. yeah Move the audience, move the host and make him glad they brought you on and want, have them want you back and build a connection with the host that can result in good downstream activity for your business.
00:47:39
Speaker
And I'm wondering, what are your thoughts around this for podcast guesting? How could I not agree more with all of that? I mean, it's it's it's really clear. I would add a fourth ah to it is that if you have a tool that can pull people into your world that's helpful.
00:47:54
Speaker
So, for example, we have a worksheet and a landing page. So what happens there? We say, okay, please send that out as a link, get it back to you, and now collect an email address, and now you can communicate with these people so you have an opportunity to kind of close the deal if that's important to you, if that's what you're trying to do.
00:48:10
Speaker
Call to actions are critical. right but your But your three premises are really important. And and I'll tell you why in addition to. Because um ah I'm on a tool as as you know to try to get more and more podcasts. And it's working great. I'm doing three to four a week now.
00:48:24
Speaker
They're phenomenal. They're a lot of fun. The reviews that come back or are exactly what you've talked about. they They have five stars. And they go exceptional, amazing, impactful.
00:48:37
Speaker
What are they doing now? They're telling two friends about it too. Not just the guests. the park Now you're building influencers. If you do 100 podcasts next year and you do a great job, you have 100 influencers.
00:48:53
Speaker
That your job afterwards that a lot of people miss is to nurture those relationships after the podcast. Get them on LinkedIn. Make sure you click the little bell so that you know when they post something.
00:49:05
Speaker
Encourage them to post. I do it every time. And then they connect with me. And I said, and here's the beauty part that they don't even realize. I said, you're doing a podcast for a reason. Right? You go, yeah, I am. So if you're doing that and you're not connected to me and not celebrating my content, then why am I going to feel reciprocal to celebrate yours?
00:49:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah. said, do that. And you're doing 100 podcasts in a year. They all have audience, too. So that network effect, Nick, that you're talking about. So I could not agree more.
00:49:36
Speaker
ah i am loving doing this work because it's a blast. And you're touching tens of thousands of people. So yes, yes, yes, and yes. Absolutely. And the other thing is the call to action is important. You should always have a call to action on every show you're on. So that's 100% clear.
00:49:53
Speaker
People who don't go in without a call a call to action are making huge mistake. They're leaving an opportunity on the table. And connecting with the host post is very, very important. I think that's really, really good too.
00:50:06
Speaker
um One of the downstream effects for me, I've been on 730 plus shows since May yeah Yeah, that's an amazing. and Wow. You go on, too.
00:50:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, I know. So if you go on, um some of them don't publish on all the platforms, so you gotta go on a bunch of them to get them up. But if you go on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, whatever, and you type in my name, you're gonna see a whole bunch of podcasts come on That sounds really small, like not a lot of people watch it on YouTube or whatever, because most podcasts are actually more audio than video still even. But the cumulative effect of someone seeing that you've been on a lot of shows is yeah very credibility enhancing, right?
00:50:52
Speaker
Very, very credibility enhancing. And I think that if you go on shows and you do the things that you and I have suggested, it'll make a huge, huge, huge difference for you and for your business.
00:51:07
Speaker
So Alan, finally, let's let's kind of end off talking a bit about
Expert Actions: Networking & Branding
00:51:11
Speaker
books. Now, books are not as um well ah received by the market as they once were.
00:51:19
Speaker
Fewer and fewer people are reading less and less books. But the interesting thing is, um books are actually still growing in sales every year. So book sales have not been dipping.
00:51:31
Speaker
Book sales have been growing. audio book sales have been skyrocketing. And what are your thoughts on books and thought leadership? Well, you know, you said, you talked about it earlier.
00:51:42
Speaker
A book shows that you've thought about something. That's what it shows. It shows you've thought about something and, and you, you know, and you've done, and you have that. Now people can do that in several ways, right?
00:51:52
Speaker
So in my case, I have over, I don't know, 70 videos on my YouTube channel. So in the three categories you talked about, by the way. um And so people can go there and absorb my content that way.
00:52:05
Speaker
Right. All of those pieces of content, including the articles, the written, the blog posts and the other things that I'm doing can all be taken in a transcript and slept with a good book with a ghostwriter.
00:52:18
Speaker
And I could have a book in in in a week, like just take it all, put it all together, organize it. And we have a book. So my point, the book is credibility. The book is a lead magnet.
00:52:29
Speaker
The book is an opportunity. So I still am a big believer in books. And for people who are intimidated by it, Nikki, what I say is this. So we have a lot of authors that we that we work with. The book is your content.
00:52:41
Speaker
It's digitized content. You already have the written book. You have the audio book. You have Amazon doing its thing. You have the libraries doing their thing. You have Barnes & Noble do their things in the States. Okay, so once you take that content now and digitize it, make videos out of it so people can have little samples of who you are and drive them to buy the book and then drive them to drive through your newsletters so you can talk to them regularly.
00:53:03
Speaker
So there's a nice loop, a marketing loop that can work really well with a book. We are writing a book right now, as a matter of fact, Nikki, that we're going to have out in 26 on personal branding. Leon and I are doing that together.
00:53:15
Speaker
And so because we recognize it's going to be an important draw for podcasts, an important draw for speaking gigs, all of those. So fully a believer in books. And we will be getting one out in 2026. Excited about it.
00:53:30
Speaker
I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Listen, if you guys need any help, reach out to me. I'm happy to give you my thoughts because I put 11 of them out. so I know you have. I know you have, my friend.
00:53:41
Speaker
Yeah. um And I'd be honored. I'd be honored to help you guys out. Alan, this has been great. So if folks want to um find out more about you or if they want to take one of your amazing assessment tools, what's the best way?
00:53:56
Speaker
So reach out to me on LinkedIn, Alan McLaren. It's probably the best way. Just mention that you run this course. Say, I'd love a copy the worksheet. I can send you a link. Nikki, you can put it in the show notes if you want, and people can download it.
00:54:09
Speaker
ah and And it's really helpful. It's six six pages of questions you need to ask yourself to build your personal brand. And it's completely free. And we want to help people because part of our motivation is to help the world get out there.
00:54:21
Speaker
And those that need help and can pay for it, then that's the people who work with us. um But know everybody should be able to do it. Right? So, yeah. So that's how we can get all these.
00:54:32
Speaker
Yeah. Wholeheartedly. We'll put all that in the show notes. So, Alan, we end every show by asking you as our guest expert, what are your top three expert action steps? These are your three best pieces of advice in bullet point form that you want my listener to take on in their life, in their business right away.
00:54:53
Speaker
Go. So number one ah is intentionality. Networking doesn't happen by accident. Systematize the people in your life that you want to stay connected to.
00:55:05
Speaker
Simple on LinkedIn. There's a little bell on everybody's profile. If you want to follow Nicky, click that bell. Every time Nicky posts, you'll be notified that he posts and go engage with him.
00:55:16
Speaker
If you're trying to sell, if you're trying to market, if you're trying to and be positive when you do that, don't try to sell anybody. That's number one. Number two, along the same lines, is if you are afraid to post your go-home content, okay, I get it.
00:55:29
Speaker
I don't agree with it, but I get it. Go on LinkedIn and celebrate others. Go celebrate the people in your in your life that you already know, and seven words or more, don't just say, great video, Nicky.
00:55:42
Speaker
Say something insightful. Let me explain why. You know Gary Vaynerchuk is, right, Nicky? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. oh Every time he posts something, he gets 1,200 comments, 4,000 likes.
00:55:54
Speaker
And if you go comment, you think, well, that's going to get lost. He's not going to see that. Here's a little advice. He's not your audience. So not when you post, I had a post the other day. I responded to a comment, said something insightful. 522 people saw comment. 522 people saw my comment.
00:56:11
Speaker
five hundred and twenty two people saw my comment Because you're commenting, you are active. So comment on Nicky's and Alan's and Gary's and Richard Branson's and be insightful because you're now spreading audience when you're doing it. So that's kind of what I would say is number two.
00:56:30
Speaker
And number three, um if you are afraid to post content, um it is time to get over your fears. And now i'm going to take everything I said before about inviting people into the world and saying, you should think about this.
00:56:43
Speaker
This is not a luxury anymore. If you're a leader, how do you differentiate yourself? By the way, your marketing won't do that. Everything's bigger, faster, smarter. Our people are better. We have better technology.
00:56:54
Speaker
No, no, no. You are the differentiator because AI is coming for you. And the only thing that's going to differentiate you is you. That's it. End of story. Human and the human heart is all we have left.
00:57:07
Speaker
because everything else will be just squashed by AI or used by AI. We all use it. It's amazing. I love it. But the human heart will be the difference. And if you stay there, live in that world, you'll get more customers who believe that you believe what you believe, and I think life will be better. So those are the top three for me, Nicky.
00:57:26
Speaker
Those are three of the most brilliant expert action steps I've ever heard. And I got to tell you what you said at the end, the human heart is all you have left because AI is coming for you is so profound, so powerful, so true.
00:57:40
Speaker
um i had a couple of ideas for what to call this episode as we were going through this, you know, um, At first you said, why are you hiding behind the logo? I thought, man, that'd be a pretty cool title for the for the episode. I thought that was good.
00:57:56
Speaker
ah Building Trust at Scale, I thought that'd be a pretty cool name for the logo. But now I'm considering, for the logo, excuse me, for the episode. Now I'm considering the human heart is all you have left.
00:58:09
Speaker
AI is coming. Man, that would be- I think I might even trademark that one. You should. I'm R&Ding it from you, brother. Rip off and duplicate, man. It's totally, it's good, man. Wait a minute. I didn't sign any waivers here. What happened here? what There you go. it's an implied It's an implied sign, brother, once you come on the show. it's good, man. It's really good.
00:58:32
Speaker
I always give credit to people who come up with good statements that I didn't come up with because I want people to do the same for me when they use my good statements. But this is really, really good. Yeah. Alan, this is brilliant. I know you and I are collaborating on a bunch of things. um i When I'm back from my trip to California and we'll spend some time hopefully in May, we'll get together, we'll we'll we'll do some of our assessments together and we'll we'll collaborate on doing a few of these things.
00:58:59
Speaker
I think podcast guesting is really powerful. and And I think what you're doing to help people ah put themselves out there is super powerful and and and super important.
00:59:11
Speaker
There's aspects to what you do that we don't do. There's aspects to what we do that you don't do. So I think collaboration for us makes more and more sense as we go forward. And, you know, I was thinking the other day about our conversation and, you know, if each of us worked with 50 amazing customers, we'd have awesome businesses, right? We'd both be really, really happy.
00:59:32
Speaker
um Yeah. but if you think about that that's a hundred people just in our home city of toronto allen hundred uncle are you freaking gettingny there's probably a hundred thousand people who need us right like truth a hundred thousand people in this city imagine you know ah miami florida imagine new york city imagine chicago imagine houston The number of people in North America alone who need you and me to sit down and walk them through all this is probably in the neighborhood of four and a half to five and a half million people.
01:00:07
Speaker
Because yeah the other folks that do this type of stuff, they don't do what we do and they need what we talk about. They don't need ah the charlatan crap that those other people are giving them. I actually think our biggest problem in the next couple of years is once we get too busy is how the hell do we teach other people to do this so this can scale?
01:00:25
Speaker
Because- I have some ideas. I have some ideas. it's ah it's a It's good. I'm glad you do because that's a question that's going through my mind is like the number of people that need this is way more than I could possibly remotely get to.
01:00:38
Speaker
That's what I see. There are ways to do that. And it's part of our 2026 plan. You and I will talk about I'm already thinking of 2026. because look you know I'm not getting any younger, buddy, so I gotta ah got to plan ahead. Amen.
01:00:54
Speaker
God bless you, brother. Thank you so much for being on the show. Great to see you. I enjoyed spending time with you, buddy. Ditto. Cheers. And that wraps up another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. To find out more about today's amazing guest, the one and only Alan McLaren, go check out the show notes.
01:01:08
Speaker
Reach out to him on LinkedIn. And if you like this episode and you got a friend who you think would benefit from it, just do me a favor. Share at least one of the reels from the episode. Share the full episode with someone who needs to see this.
01:01:20
Speaker
Be a giver. You know, Alan talked about when you go on on on social media and you engage with people, spend more than seven words saying something to them. I think that's important and powerful.
01:01:32
Speaker
But also spend more than a minute when you listen to something good and just go, that was good for me. Share it with someone else who needs it, man. But that's just that's just good karma. That's just God saying, hey, you're getting brownie points for going to heaven. You did something not just for you, but for other people. Until next time, goodbye.
01:01:51
Speaker
This episode has been brought to you by ecircleacademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.