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How to Build a Personal Brand AI Can't Copy
296 Plays9 hours ago
In this AI marketing podcast episode, Dan Sanchez and Ken Freire discuss why personal branding is the ultimate hedge against AI automation. They dismantle the common misconceptions that branding is merely about logos or "just being yourself," and instead offer a robust three-part framework—Values, Stories, and Future Self—to help marketers build genuine authority that no algorithm can replicate.
My Favorite AI Tools
Transparency Note: I am an independent affiliate of these tools and may earn a commission if you click the link and sign up for them at no cost to you.
- Tella (AI screen recording app I record all my solo episodes with) - https://danchez.com/tella
- High Level (My all in one marketing platform) - https://danchez.com/highlevel
- Zencastr (Best AI podcast tool) - https://danchez.com/podtools
- n8n (my favorite AI automation tool) - https://danchez.com/n8n
Resources Mentioned
- Primal Branding by Patrick Hanlon - https://amzn.to/4oVx4II
- Start with Why by Simon Sinek - https://simonsinek.com/books/start-with-why/
- Nothing is Wasted Podcast - https://www.nothingiswasted.com/podcast
Timestamps
- 00:00 - Why AI can never replace the human element of a personal brand.
- 02:49 - The two biggest lies in branding: The "Logo" Fallacy and the "Just Be Yourself" trap.
- 07:51 - Pillar 1: Values and Beliefs (The foundation of your brand).
- 13:50 - Pillar 2: Stories and Experiences (Why origin stories matter).
- 18:48 - The Gary Vee Example: How stories of transformation create superfans.
- 21:58 - Pillar 3: The Future Self Science (You are both discovered and created).
- 27:55 - How to handle audience capture without compromising your values.
- 33:10 - The "Stake in the Ground" strategy for building authority.
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Transcript
Intro
00:00:05
Dan Sanchez
If there's one thing AI cannot be ever, no matter how smart it gets, no matter how much it can actually do, even when it's a robot and can actually go and clean our houses for us, there's one thing it can never be, Ken.
00:00:17
Dan Sanchez
And that is it can never be a person. It will always ever be a robot, which is why I think that's going to be a competitive advantage for us.
00:00:24
Ken Freire
Yes.
00:00:26
Dan Sanchez
It can never be a person and maybe it's doing better at everything for us, but it can never be a person and therefore it can never have a personal brand. But when it comes to personal brands, that's kind of a soft and loosey-goosey topic because, honestly, brands are kind of loosey-goosey. What is a brand exactly? Is it just reputation? Is it just what you're known for?
00:00:49
Dan Sanchez
What is it exactly, and how is it a personal brand? There's a few different even pieces of advice out there that oh it just makes me cringe, but they're like the kind of prevailing wisdom people just kind of throw around in comments or in books all the time. So in this episode, I thought it'd be good to actually sit down and talk about what a personal brand is so people can actually use it as leverage in this age of AI to actually become an authority so that the the kid who mastered ChatGPT at 16 doesn't steal your job as a consultant. right? Because that's what we're working against. We're working against the whiz kids who are good at AI and don't know nothing about nothing. So how do we stand out?
00:01:25
Dan Sanchez
Well, personal brand is one of those ways. So welcome back to the AI-driven marketer in our series here for our podcast, a book for the book, Own the Show.
00:01:35
Dan Sanchez
this is This is chapter, shoot, I don't even know what chapter we're We're many chapters in now. i think it's chapter 11 into this book creation process.
00:01:42
Ken Freire
either chapter 11, 12, 13. think thirteen
00:01:44
Dan Sanchez
It's 13? Dang, we are well on our way.
00:01:46
Ken Freire
like so yeah
00:01:47
Dan Sanchez
We're almost done. Three-fourths of the way in. Into our our book here. and
00:01:54
Dan Sanchez
It's been exciting to talk about the things that are a little bit more on the softer side, the things that we can still lean into with our experience, with our stories, with our values in order to actually stand out as well as mastering the tools. We want to master the tools, but we want to figure out what the tools can't do in order to become the authority out there. So I'm Dan Sanchez and I'm joined by my co-host Ken Frere.
00:02:16
Ken Freire
What's up, bro? This is going to a good convo today.
00:02:20
Dan Sanchez
And we're going to dive in deep here. And hopefully by the time you finish this episode, you will have some practical steps on how to actually start building your own personal brand and continue working on your brand. going a big part of this conversation is that it's not it's not a one and done thing. Like this thing continues going. and how to actually use it. And I think it's going become more important. And I think you need to know how to build one. So let's get into the bad advice first, right? Because there's essentially two massive lies out there when it comes to branding in general. But of course that pulls into personal brands, Ken. And this one it stings a little bit because I used to believe this since I have a background in graphic design, but like a brand essentially was the logo.
00:03:05
Dan Sanchez
Right. It was the logos, the aesthetics. It was the look. It was the feel, the feel.
00:03:09
Ken Freire
The feel.
00:03:12
Dan Sanchez
And I've seen a lot of rebrands. We even call them rebrands. And really, they just redesigned the website with fresh colors, new fonts.
00:03:19
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:03:28
Ken Freire
Yes.
00:03:30
Dan Sanchez
Oh, bro.
00:03:30
Ken Freire
and Do you remember when Google did it?
00:03:38
Ken Freire
Oh. Yeah.
00:03:42
Dan Sanchez
Lots of rebrands out there are first brands like the the Olympics logo going on right now. for a lot of people, that's, that's the brand, right? And they say, good dude, do bo better branding.
00:03:51
Ken Freire
yeah
00:03:53
Dan Sanchez
That's usually kind of what they mean is the visuals.
00:03:55
Ken Freire
And I think when it comes to personal branding, there's a lot of people who struggle. And I was in the same boat where I struggled because I'm not like an artistic person. I was like, I don't know what colors work with my mood and my voice.
00:04:05
Dan Sanchez
Mm-hmm. It's the first thing you think of.
00:04:08
Ken Freire
Right. It's like I'm like, I like the color yellow and orange. does Should I add that or blue? Like and that's where a lot of people get stuck on personal branding.
00:04:14
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:04:17
Ken Freire
And that that's not it at all.
00:04:19
Dan Sanchez
It's funny because those things, the graphic designers will argue with me, but I find the visuals don't, they don't mean anything. They're just visuals. They might have meaning behind them, but like, what what are they? It's like,
00:04:34
Dan Sanchez
makeup, but you don't have a person to apply it to. It's like, okay, cool. We got some tools and you can apply some makeup, but what are we actually trying to come across as? Designers think about that a lot, but it's not actually the essence of what's in a personal brand.
00:04:45
Dan Sanchez
So it doesn't actually help us figure out how to build a strong personal brand. it just maybe helps us look cool. that's I guess that's something that's valuable a little bit.
00:04:51
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:04:54
Dan Sanchez
But the other piece is kind of the opposite of this. It's not necessarily, but it's my, one of my favorite sayings they see online is just be yourself. Just be you, boo-boo.
00:05:07
Dan Sanchez
And I'm always like, how confusing is that? Like which part of myself? Like the past self? My current, like as I am self, which is always kind of moving or the future self that I want to become, the aspirational self, the self that people actually see me as or the self that I identify with?
00:05:25
Dan Sanchez
Because there's a lot of different me's out there. And that's I don't know. Did you ever get any clarity from that statement? Or you're like, oh yeah, yeah, stop being fake. Yeah, I get that.
00:05:35
Ken Freire
No. Yeah, I wrestled with it because it's like more from a vulnerability standpoint. If most people who get to know me, I'm a really transparent individual about a lot of stuff. So it's like, who do I be myself with and how transparent do I go? Is it an appropriate time to be vulnerable and transparent every single scenario that I'm in?
00:05:55
Ken Freire
So like just being yourself can mean a lot of things. And even like just be yourself when it comes to how you dress. Yeah. like I would, hands down, all the time, would rather just wear a hoodie and shorts, and that's being myself, but I would never wear that to a funeral right or a wedding.
00:06:12
Dan Sanchez
Yeah. So are you being fake showing up to a funeral in nice clothes and black clothes when you usually wear a colorful clothes?
00:06:14
Ken Freire
Now, some people would do it.
00:06:20
Dan Sanchez
You don't usually wear colorful clothes, actually.
00:06:21
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:06:22
Dan Sanchez
But if say if you did, you're like, no.
00:06:24
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:06:26
Dan Sanchez
And is it weird to like be someone else around different people or to behave a little differently in different contexts? You know, if I like, if I go to youth group, but I'm like, like a little bit more boisterous because junior hires can be, is that inauthentic?
00:06:44
Dan Sanchez
I don't think so. So what does it mean to be inauthentic? Because we're here talking about like becoming a thought leader, an authentic thought leader. So it's got to mean something. And that's where I'm going to try to stack. I think we're going to try to simplify it a little bit. There's a lot of components to good branding and all that kind of stuff, but I'm going to try to boil it down into three things.
00:07:02
Dan Sanchez
And none of have anything to do with your logo. I literally think you could you could have no visual aesthetic.
00:07:06
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:07:09
Dan Sanchez
Of course, you're always to visual aesthetics. People are going to see you. You have a look. You have a face, right? You're going to be wearing clothes of some kind. Even if you're doing your whole website in Google Docs, well, I guess that's a look.
00:07:20
Dan Sanchez
It's the most non-look look.
00:07:20
Ken Freire
Yep.
00:07:21
Dan Sanchez
But you know you and I have seen websites that are literally just like pretty boring websites. There's just lots of copy. Just rows of copy document looking copy. It's not even organized, you know, and somehow they win yet. They have a brand. So what is it? I'm going to break it down into three things and then we're going to break each one apart.
00:07:42
Dan Sanchez
Your personal brand is built on your values and beliefs. This is the foundation, your stories and experiences, and then the future self that you're growing towards. That last one is a unique take. The other two are less so, like other people have said this, and I'll tell you where I've heard it from. But this last one's a little bit unique that I think is a missing puzzle piece for the whole personal brand equation that we're going to talk about. So let's actually talk about the values and beliefs first.
00:08:13
Dan Sanchez
actually heard this from a book, a guy named Patrick Hanlon, who wrote the book Primal Branding. And he didn't even phrase it quite this way. He's like, all good brands have these 10 things, essentially. And he kind of weighted them all the same. He's like, all good brands have a manifesto. They have a a leader. They have pagans, you know, people who stand against the brand. You know, these are good, strong brands. But when I, as I looked through his list, the thing that he had is like, I think he had as a creed. I'm like, a creed? what What is that? That's actually beliefs. Things that you believe to be true about your world. Even ones that might make you a little strange. Yeah.
00:08:55
Dan Sanchez
You know, if you're all in on one thing, uncompromising, they're like really hardcore beliefs, not the not the ones of like integrity, you know, which is like a permission to play. I think Patrick Lungione calls integrity. It's like, of course, you have to have some level of integrity to do business. Of course, you value integrity. But do you value integrity like 10x farther than everybody else? Right. that's that's Those are core beliefs.
00:09:18
Dan Sanchez
And I think those are like the foundation for a reason. On that, everything else can be built. On there, you can actually build out from your beliefs that make you a little strange, you can build out messaging. And from that messaging, you can build out all the visual stuff, which is really just representations of the beliefs.
00:09:36
Dan Sanchez
Kind of like you think of the Christian cross. It's just two lines. But those two simple lines have gotten people killed, you know, or or have caused people to change their whole lives or a lot of people to change their whole lives, right? Just those two little lines because those two little lines, well, they're not just two little lines. They represent something that's much bigger.
00:09:58
Dan Sanchez
stories that represent values, right? So to me, that's like the essence of a personal brand is those values and beliefs. And we've talked about this a lot in the series, the Own to Show series in the book so far.
00:10:11
Dan Sanchez
But now that you're starting to hear me talk about it, do you find you have a personal brand, Ken?
00:10:16
Ken Freire
yeah Yeah, you know, what I find most people will struggle with when it comes to values and beliefs is that in their mind, they're trying to organize them or prioritize which ones should be at the forefront and which ones should be lesser.
00:10:30
Dan Sanchez
Yeah. Yep.
00:10:34
Ken Freire
you know And you say this all over the place, that there are certain things that matter more and certain things that don't. But absolutely, i think when I think about personal brands as value, like what are our values and beliefs, it makes me say, hey, I want to bring all of myself to the interactions with people.
00:10:53
Ken Freire
And that's going to look slightly different, right? With who I'm hanging out with. Like if I'm hanging out with you or my wife, like you guys know me so well, right?
00:10:59
Dan Sanchez
yeah yep
00:11:03
Ken Freire
It's it's just like, I could be thinking something and you guys will point it out, right? Like it's just, but that's the beauty of personal brand, right? Like, you know, if you say something, Ken is going to react a certain way.
00:11:13
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:11:13
Dan Sanchez
Yeah. I mean, I could put you in a chokehold and I know you'll react in a certain way.
00:11:18
Ken Freire
yeah
00:11:21
Ken Freire
You know, it's funny, as even as you were, I was talking, the the thought that came to my mind was, remember that one time me you and Travis were playing Settlers of Catan?
00:11:30
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:11:30
Ken Freire
And i yes.
00:11:31
Dan Sanchez
And he dumped water all over your socks on Christmas Eve. Yes. It's funny.
00:11:34
Ken Freire
Oh my gosh.
00:11:35
Dan Sanchez
You didn't even have to say what it was. We've hung out. The three of us have been together many times and have played that game many times. And I know exactly what moment you're talking about. I just talked to Amy about that a couple days ago.
00:11:45
Dan Sanchez
Yes.
00:11:46
Ken Freire
it goes no Now, for those of you who are listening, you might be like, what's the deal?
00:11:49
Dan Sanchez
yes
00:11:52
Ken Freire
Like one of my biggest pet peeves is wet socks. And we're super competitive in that game. But they know me. They know my style. They know like what would get to me. And and Travis, you he's a co-host of this podcast too.
00:12:04
Ken Freire
He decided to mess with me before the game. And he's trying to throw me off.
00:12:08
Dan Sanchez
throw off his game. Yeah.
00:12:10
Ken Freire
But that's all that's all branding. That's who you are. That's who I am. Like I can't get away from from that.
00:12:16
Dan Sanchez
I think there's a couple different sets of values and beliefs too that I think are really important. There are your core values and beliefs. I mean like the root like problems, the answer to your worldview, like how did we all get here?
00:12:26
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:28
Dan Sanchez
What went wrong with the world? What do we need to do to fix it? Like everyone's got generally, if you've done any thinking, about those big things. Like you got general senses about those. And maybe you've decided like, maybe your belief is like, who could know?
00:12:40
Dan Sanchez
No one can know. And that's your belief, you know? So you have some stake in that. Those are big life things, but those are good. Those are foundational. Those are, those are important, but even so like narrow it in a little bit on your industry.
00:12:53
Dan Sanchez
What are the core things you believe about your industry? And I find a good a few good questions can actually reveal a lot. Like as a somebody who's done hundreds and hundreds of podcasts, one of my favorite questions that I learned at Sweetfish actually was, what's something that's what's a commonly held belief in your industry that you passionately disagree with? o That's starting to pour out some of those core beliefs that are actually pokey, that are things that a lot of people are agreeing on in a totally different angle. And you're like, no, it's this way.
00:13:23
Dan Sanchez
huh, there might be some core beliefs there. What do you believe about your industry that's different than everybody else? And they're probably based in the next thing, right? There's a reason why you believe it, which is why we have to unpack this. The values and beliefs are the foundation, but those values and beliefs come from somewhere.
00:13:39
Dan Sanchez
right which gets us to number two. So we talked about number one, values and beliefs, but number two is stories and experiences. There's a reason why you believe those beliefs. It's because something happened to you. Maybe something did something to you. Maybe something happened, or maybe you had to work through some stuff.
00:13:55
Dan Sanchez
And then you discovered a different way, a better way of approaching some of your industry's problems. And that's why you believe what you believe. Those stories and experiences, those are unique to you. Someone can rip off your font or your logo.
00:14:09
Dan Sanchez
but they can't steal your stories. Those end up becoming way more powerful. And i think that's why Simon Sinek's thing, start with why. They don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Like that phrase resonated with so many people.
00:14:23
Dan Sanchez
And I think that's still like powerful. I don't think it's the only thing because i think underneath the why you do it is is the is the but is the values that drive why you do it and how you do it, you know?
00:14:36
Dan Sanchez
But I still think that's a very powerful part.
00:14:37
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:14:38
Dan Sanchez
And you don't need any logo or fancy design, but it starts to spell out a little bit of who you are and why you're here and how you're different from everybody else when you start to share your stories and experiences.
00:14:48
Dan Sanchez
And that's starting to build a powerful brand.
00:14:51
Ken Freire
Yeah. And, you know, one question I love to to ask myself when I'm trying to figure out what are those stories or experiences that really shaped me? I would either ask my friends or just look at my my post or whatever. And I asked a simple question.
00:15:06
Ken Freire
When was the last time I got in my soapbox where I just started going off and ranting about whatever the thing is within my industry? It just reveals. you know, the story or this experience. And then once I know that experience, I can start asking myself, like, why does that experience affect me so much?
00:15:23
Dan Sanchez
That's a great question. I should do that more often every time I get on the soapbox. Why am I on the soapbox? Because it happens to me multiple times a week.
00:15:23
Ken Freire
And
00:15:28
Ken Freire
yeah, like, why am on this?
00:15:30
Dan Sanchez
And I usually like interact with somebody else's post or engage in the comments. And I realize I'm more passionate about it than I think. So I turn that comment into a post.
00:15:37
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:15:38
Dan Sanchez
I should probably be like, there's a story here that I should be sharing with this.
00:15:39
Ken Freire
yeah
00:15:42
Dan Sanchez
Oh, well.
00:15:43
Ken Freire
Oh, but that that happens to us all the time.
00:15:43
Dan Sanchez
Sometime. Yeah.
00:15:45
Ken Freire
I mean, you catch me all the time when i get in.
00:15:46
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:15:47
Ken Freire
think you and I both get into soapboxes quite often, but I do it and you're like, Ken, it's not that big of a deal. And I'm like, it is that big of a deal. Like, we got to go this way. And you're like, I think what you really matter is this. I'm like, oh. You're right, like, you're you're helping me see why this thing is important or not important.
00:16:04
Ken Freire
And that that's what asking those questions help do is reveal the stories and experiences and clearly articulate the value of them within the industry.
00:16:15
Dan Sanchez
So if you can identify a few things that you believe that are different about what everybody else believes about your industry, maybe it's core to what you provide as a service provider, or a coach, a consultant, or whatever product you have. But if you're here and you listen to this, we've emphasized over and over that these principles are best for those who kind of sell with their expertise. But many companies sell with expertise and educate, right? That's a very common even B2B play and some B2C even.
00:16:40
Dan Sanchez
So- Think about those things and think about the why behind why you believe it. What's the origin behind that? Every belief probably has a story behind it. And you'll find that one or two, maybe even just one is like the core one. Like this is your main approach. This is your main thing. you believe, and that's the whole thing about your service that you provide or your product. This is the main thing, but you need to identify what's the origin story about what got you to think that.
00:17:07
Dan Sanchez
And then, so there's essentially three stories that I think everybody needs. There's the origin story of how you came to that conclusion. Then there's the story of what you had to do to persevere, to prove it, everyone's get there's the epiphany moment of like, oh, maybe we should try it this way.
00:17:22
Dan Sanchez
There's something that happened that led to that epiphany. There was a moment. And then it's the journey of figuring out and testing it and bringing it to life. That's a story in and of itself. And then there's one more story that I find that everybody needs. And it's like, what would the industry look like if everybody adopted it the and saw it the way you saw it?
00:17:40
Dan Sanchez
What would change in the industry big picture wise? That's the vision you're casting. That's that's where you're taking the whole tribe of your industry to go to. That's the big picture reason. That's the why everyone's getting behind. But they want to know why you why where you came from too. So those are kind of like three so succinct stories that I think everybody could start with. And you can build out many more that reflect all the different parts of your your stories and your values. I think of even like Gary V right he tells stories about his mom a lot because this is like a part of his origin story of how he came to be like how he is because of good parenting and he talks about the stories of his mom and praising him even though he was a C student right and just lighting him up over being kind or different things like that and then you think of like him buying the Jets and winning the Super Bowl is kind of like where he's going I don't know why it's compelling but it is you just like want to see him win to buy the Jets and win the Super Bowl
00:18:33
Dan Sanchez
But he's got quite a few stories he shares.
00:18:33
Ken Freire
Well, i know
00:18:36
Ken Freire
and I think the the reason that those stories are compelling, like even Gary Vee, the way he talks about getting the Jets is that those are stories of transformation that lead to a result.
00:18:46
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:18:47
Ken Freire
And it's like we want him to win that because it's like the culmination of his transformation transformation story.
00:18:47
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:18:53
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:18:53
Ken Freire
that we've been that if you've been following Gary Vee, you've been watching him for years, like, look how I'm growing, look how I'm developing. And this is what I'm going after. You enjoy the process, right?
00:19:03
Ken Freire
Like he's enjoyed the process.
00:19:04
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:19:05
Ken Freire
We've all benefited from his his process.
00:19:05
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:19:08
Ken Freire
But you still want the result. And for him, it's that and we're kind of like, let's go get after it, you know,
00:19:14
Dan Sanchez
Yeah. I remember now why he was talking about the fact that he got a knitted jersey, and it was like a homemade Jets jersey.
00:19:23
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:19:24
Dan Sanchez
And he was just like, this is my thing. And he's like from an immigrant family where they were so poor, they had to split the toilet paper and two into you know two so two piles and kind of getting there, trying to dream of like buying his dream company, his dream team, which is a sucky team.
00:19:29
Ken Freire
yeah
00:19:38
Dan Sanchez
So like buying it and then flipping that into a Super Bowl team is going to be a journey in and of them itself. But the big part is he just likes the grind and the journey of getting there, which is why he's not in a hurry to get there. He's going to take his time, be patient and go after it.
00:19:50
Dan Sanchez
So it's, it's exciting. It's exciting to watch him enjoy it, do it. And like, I I've, I've never been to a professional football game, but you better believe I'd probably come to that Superbowl.
00:20:02
Dan Sanchez
I don't care how much it costs.
00:20:03
Ken Freire
Oh.
00:20:04
Dan Sanchez
I'm probably to be at that Superbowl when the jets are playing and Gary V's in the box.
00:20:04
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:20:09
Ken Freire
who
00:20:10
Dan Sanchez
That whole, that whole stadium would be packed with nothing but Gary V fans. It'll be fun.
00:20:13
Ken Freire
Oh, for sure. Well, and and the one thing would just add to that is that like if you think about that story, the origin story, right? He's he's bringing an underdog story. like He was the underdog. And there's something about us as humans that we love the underdog story.
00:20:28
Ken Freire
We want to achieve something greater. We want to beat the thing that's holding us down. and And that's the stuff that you want to find in your personal story that you want others to relate to constantly. And that's what makes part of your brand.
00:20:42
Dan Sanchez
I even related to a story even back. It was a story I heard from Jocko Willink, which is why I bought the product. It was a pre-workout he sold, and I told that whole story an earlier chapter. But like it was that story that I heard, and then when it came but time to buy something, his name was on the package, and I trusted him because his values that were reflected in the stories he shared. And I remember the stories because stories – I remember stories are so much more powerful than we give them credit for because it's easier to remember.
00:21:09
Dan Sanchez
So if you can pack the message and the values in the story, it's like shorthand for the strategy.
00:21:10
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:21:16
Dan Sanchez
Your positioning, your value prop can all get packaged nicely in a story. Easy to share, easy to remember. It's like you ingrain the message in the hearts of your audience and your buyers and your customers and your employees. That's why it's so powerful and why it's like, honestly, I think the biggest the biggest part of a personal brand is the story.
00:21:39
Dan Sanchez
Not the logo. Not the writing. Even you look back into every major religion, there's a story. There's always a story. Now we got there, right? Usually a collection of stories that share the beliefs.
00:21:55
Dan Sanchez
So in the last one, the future self-science. is a big part of the brand. Because I don't think any brand is done. Some people would say, I have a strong personal brand, but it didn't start this way. It got built a little piece at a time. Gary Vee, a little piece at a guy time.
00:22:12
Dan Sanchez
Ken, you're building it a little piece at a time. And it just takes time. And I think part of it is because you're building yourself a little piece at a time. So your brand is a reflection of that. Like there's things you don't even know about yourself that will be like a big part of who you are 10 years from now.
00:22:27
Dan Sanchez
You don't even know what they are yet. you haven't discovered it. It might be an inner so part of yourself. You realize you really enjoy encouraging people more than you you thought and you write a book on it and then you just started doing it and everybody like knows that about you 10 years from now. I find that people change, personalities change, a lot of things happen. Hopefully, the i think the thing that we have to keep in mind is that you don't change your values, change very slowly, if at all.
00:22:53
Dan Sanchez
But who you are is always changing because we're always pursuing some ideal version of yourself or to become that. And I think that's kind of gets wrapped up in your personal brand too. So I think that's the missing piece is people want to solidify it into like, this is this is my brand. But I'm like, no, just start with where you're at right now.
00:23:11
Dan Sanchez
And if you're learning in the light and you're publishing, it just kind of grows over time. What do you think? Is it a good missing piece?
00:23:17
Ken Freire
Yeah. i
00:23:18
Dan Sanchez
Do you see yourself growing?
00:23:20
Ken Freire
Oh, for sure. Because I've always felt like I had to arrive. And I think this is where imposter syndrome kicks in for a lot of people.
00:23:25
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:23:26
Ken Freire
They feel like they have to arrive somewhere. And it's like, we've never arrived. where None of us are perfect. So when you give yourself that freedom to just be like, oh I'm in this journey and I'm growing somewhere, it's going to be super helpful.
00:23:40
Ken Freire
I'll give a great example. This just happened to me two weeks ago or or last week, depending on, I don't even remember now, but I was on a podcast. I was a guest on a podcast and I was sharing my personal story with the the host and we're going deep into it.
00:23:55
Ken Freire
And he's asking a lot of questions and the podcast calls the Nothing Is Wasted podcast. And essentially he talks, he tries to find stories of pain and how do you go from pain to purpose?
00:24:04
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:24:05
Ken Freire
So then you know he's like, well, what's your purpose now? what are you doing now these days? and And I'm telling them and I'm sharing them and I'm getting really excited about the things that are really in my heart. And he said something to me that was so profound that like all weekend it resonated. And I texted you so at some point in that time, right? I'm like, dude, I was on this podcast and this guy said this thing to me. He's like, you really love to amplify people's purpose.
00:24:30
Ken Freire
And I was like, I've never used those words, but absolutely that's exactly what I love doing. And it's part of the reason why we're doing Own the Show, like the whole podcasting thing.
00:24:38
Dan Sanchez
Yep.
00:24:39
Ken Freire
I'm like, I love getting excited, finding someone who I i believe in, i trust in. And I'm like, I would follow you. Let's amplify you. Let's get you out there. let's Let's grow your influence. Let's grow your impact.
00:24:52
Ken Freire
That was part of like my branding that I've never had words to until just recently. So for those of you who are listening to this, just I'm sharing that because I want you to know you're always growing. You're always evolving in that way that you could find and be joyful, be excited about that.
00:25:10
Ken Freire
That like you're in this process and and it's going to be a good thing. It is a good thing that you're still growing. Because if you're not growing, you're probably dying or dead.
00:25:21
Dan Sanchez
So personal brands, they are both discovered and created because you're always growing into it. You're always figuring out new things.
00:25:34
Dan Sanchez
And there's a tension in that because you're trying to discover like what's unique to you, what's true to you, but that's kind of hard to discern too. As long as it aligns with your values and it's it's like a general interest of yours and it's like, is that unique to you? I think so.
00:25:49
Dan Sanchez
But it's also being created. And there's a tension in there because you're generally, if you want to have influence, it means you're a creator. You're putting out content and you know you're you're getting content out there into the feed and you're trying to get reach, which means you're trying to please the algorithm and the people.
00:26:06
Dan Sanchez
And this is where it can get hazy. Sometimes it's really helpful because you can put things out there and to be like, hey, like A or B to your audience, your audience will be like B, B. And then some of their comments might even give you insight into little things that become your personal brand. Like the whole Danchez thing for me, that, that you were like one of the few people calling me that as a friend.
00:26:26
Dan Sanchez
but you also had a different bunch of different nicknames because you're big into nicknames. But I was trying to make a personal hashtag back when that was kind of a thing in LinkedIn for a hot second.
00:26:30
Ken Freire
I am.
00:26:35
Dan Sanchez
And I was like, vote on my personal hashtag. And I had Danchez, I had Sanchez says, I had a bunch of different things. And, A couple of key people were like, oh, that Danchez thing. You should do that. that That needs to be your thing. And I was like, okay. So I started using it. And then it became a pillar of my personal brand is now Danchez, which is good because there's probably like 3,000 Dan Sanchez's out there in the world. And I don't own dansanchez.com. Danielsanchez.com was as close as I could get, but I freaking own danchez.com. So I own that name.
00:27:06
Dan Sanchez
It's memorable. It's simple. But that became like a branding thing for me. It was kind of influenced by other people, but it was also still something that I could grab and run with. And there's a bunch of little decisions like that along the process that some people will influence, but you have to also be careful because sometimes the algo or people might lead you astray too.
00:27:32
Dan Sanchez
when do you think some scenarios will run up where it's like you shouldn't actually stray after the attention, but actually pull back?
00:27:40
Ken Freire
I mean, i think if the attention doesn't obviously it contradicts with your values, for sure. Right.
00:27:47
Dan Sanchez
That's a big one.
00:27:47
Ken Freire
That's going to happen. i think a subtle one is when the attention actually dish pivots you away from either the business model or away from your family that you want.
00:27:58
Dan Sanchez
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:28:01
Ken Freire
You know, because there's a lot of things that you and i we've talked about from a business standpoint. We're like, we could do 15 different things to grow this business. But then we realize we don't want to work 60 hours a week. We don't want to work it. You know, I have five kids. Well, I'll have a five a fifth kid here pretty soon. You have four kids. Like we want to spend more time with our family, not away from our family.
00:28:20
Ken Freire
So we have to make sure that the attention doesn't drive us away from that.
00:28:24
Dan Sanchez
That's big piece. I think the values one is the thing. And I think that's where most people who get called out for being fake, they're fake because they're actually changing their values from one group of people to a different group of people.
00:28:35
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:28:36
Dan Sanchez
It's not just in the way they behave. Like remember it was Kamala Harris was getting called out for the campaign trail. for changing her like accent and it's like a word usage.
00:28:46
Dan Sanchez
I was like, who cares? Like all good marketers do this. All good salespeople probably do this too.
00:28:50
Ken Freire
yeah
00:28:51
Dan Sanchez
It's not a big deal. I think it's actually considerate that she's doing that. She's communicating in a way that can be heard by her audience in different contexts. Fantastic. Nothing wrong with that.
00:29:02
Dan Sanchez
it's when you go and you have a totally set of values and you're like, a is she were like promising one thing to one group of people and then doing a completely contradictory promise. That's where it's like, okay, obviously that's an extreme case.
00:29:23
Ken Freire
No, I haven't seen it yet. yeah
00:29:34
Dan Sanchez
I didn't watch that band. I don't listen to those people. No, that's dumb. Oh, yeah. I loved him so much. Right. I'm like, that's the the best example of being fake because it's overdramatic and you can see what's going inside going on inside her head.
00:29:47
Dan Sanchez
Right. Because what makes her fake is not how be how she's behaving. It's that she changed her values. She became she essentially started lying about something that she was all for before. So that's the thing what people are saying when they're saying be you don't be fake don't change your values just to get views hold to them.
00:30:09
Dan Sanchez
But I also think one last rant one last soapbox that i have to get on when it comes to personal brands is a lot of people take just be you as permission to be them to be whatever their emotions tell them to be.
00:30:21
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:30:23
Dan Sanchez
And I'm always like, no, please. That is not the just be you. Just be you means you have strong values and you act according to those values. And hopefully your values are, I'm only, I'm only out for number one, me. So that's going to be a brand everyone doesn't like. No.
00:30:40
Ken Freire
Yeah, you won't grow influence with that that brand. and And ultimately, what we're pushing, if you've been following this whole process, is like, we want you to grow your impact your influence so that you can have a greater impact, a better impact impact on people.
00:30:56
Ken Freire
If it ultimately comes down to you and just what you selfishly want, man, it's going to crumble. you know Pride comes before the fall. And that's that's our mindset on this. It's like, how do you actually come fully yourself thinking about others at the same time for the for the betterment of society?
00:31:16
Ken Freire
And the more you can think about that, your brand is going to be contagious. I'll say this one one person that i I've lately been following. I've known about him, but i haven't been following is Tim Tebow.
00:31:29
Dan Sanchez
Uh-huh.
00:31:29
Ken Freire
I've always kind of like, he's cool. Like he's on our team. I'm like, yeah, that's awesome. But he's so huge into ending human sex trafficking and the drive and all the stuff that he's doing. And I've been listening to some interviews that he's in.
00:31:42
Ken Freire
I was so enthralled. that He was just being really authentic about who he is and the troubles and the struggles he's had about being in the limelight and how he's managed it. I'm like, oh my gosh. Like I resonate with him. And then the passion he had of just like, I'm going to be myself.
00:31:59
Ken Freire
And he's like on all these other podcasts that are not Christian podcasts. He's like, but I'm going to share the problem I see out there.
00:32:03
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:32:07
Ken Freire
And he was sharing about ending human sex trafficking in these stories. And I'm like, I'm at Walmart literally crying. Like I'm like trying to wipe my tears just because like he's sharing it with such zeal that I'm like, I wanna follow this guy. I wanna i wanna to give to this this cause because we resonated together. And that that's what's so important about just truly being yourself, walking within your values, not hiding them, right? But being who you are, knowing your audience and all that.
00:32:35
Ken Freire
and and sharing it and communicating in such a way that they would resonate with it.
00:32:39
Dan Sanchez
And to finish with one very tactical piece of advice for personal brands, one of the forcing functions that I find makes for a good personal brand is setting a stake, going after it, and then just talking about what you're learning, what you're experiencing, and who you're becoming along the way.
00:32:59
Dan Sanchez
You end up forming all those things. All three things that we talked about, whether it's the values, the stories and experiences, and the future self that you're aiming to become.
00:33:11
Dan Sanchez
If you just set a stake and then start working towards it. It also like simplifies everything because it's the one thing you're kind of posting about becoming known for is this one thing that you're trying to accomplish.
00:33:23
Dan Sanchez
And if you set out a goal in your industry, maybe you take that story of what you'd like to see happen in your industry and you have a way of measuring it and pursuing it and getting towards it, then people will know you for that.
00:33:33
Dan Sanchez
And as you share your stories towards it, they start to get to know why you're into it and maybe the epiphanal reason why you are going towards it. So it's a very easy way to clarify everything is just set a stake and start going towards it. Document it on the way.