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Grow Your Business with Personal Branding (with Aaron Hunt) · The Daily Writer

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: What comes to mind when you hear the phrase personal brand?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Does it make you stressed out because it feels like one more thing to do in your already packed schedule?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Or could it perhaps be the hidden key that helps you speak the language of your ideal client?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks so much for joining me on this episode of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Kent Sanders, and I'm a ghostwriter and professor of communications.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: This is the show that helps you write amazing content so you can save time, stand out from the competition, and get more leads that turn into customers or clients.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm excited to bring you this conversation with my friend Aaron Hunt, who is a personal brand photographer.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: He's not only excellent at his photography craft, he's also an expert on personal branding.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron is the host of a fantastic podcast called Your Personal Brand, and I highly encourage you to check it out because it's one of the best podcasts on this topic.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron is a genius when it comes to using social media to connect with clients and build a following.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: In this conversation, you'll learn why a personal brand is important, tips on using social media, how to speak to your ideal client, and much more.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's get right to the conversation.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron, welcome to the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I've been really looking forward to this conversation.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for being on the show.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, happy to be here and uh really looking forward to it as well.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I I love the show, so I'm I'm happy to be a guest.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, it's funny because, and of course, since you have a podcast, you are dealing with this this now as well, but trying to decide who to ask to be a guest.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it is based on the topic and I look for somebody who's an expert on a topic.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Other times it's somebody who I I just want to talk to because I respect what they do or they're a cool person.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have to kind of navigate the way through how is this connected to the topic of the show.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: In your case, it's both things because you're not only a cool guy who I always enjoy talking to, but you're an expert on personal branding.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, yeah.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's it's it's interesting because to me, when I first learned about you and your show, I was like, I don't write much anymore, and I didn't listen much.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but then as I start getting into it, there's a lot of personal branding type material that you cover.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so when you asked me to be a guest on the show, I'm like, yeah, that that that makes sense.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to be here.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh, and I appreciate the the comments.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's been nice getting to know you over the last several months.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a show primarily for writers.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever writers hear terms like sometimes marketing or personal branding or things like that that seem more markety, uh sometimes we writers climb up a little bit.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe I'm just speaking for myself here.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm glad you're here to help us understand this whole range of personal branding stuff.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Can you start out with a definition of what exactly is personal branding?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because maybe it's good to begin there so we have a clear idea of what we're talking about.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I for I let me back up first just the idea of because I struggled for years with the idea of marketing myself and just marketing in general.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I marketing is something completely different than what I think most people think of with like ads and promotions and stuff.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, personal branding becomes a big part of how I actually market my business.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and you know, if you're a little bit older like I am, maybe sort of like you are, Kent, you know, the idea of 29.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so so when when you know, when I was growing up, you had a reputation, right?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe people talked about your character or your integrity.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, all of those things are things that go into personal branding.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, personal branding for me is just largely what do people think and say about you, not only when you're around, but when you're not around, right?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what is that that sense of character and that reputation that you carry with you, no matter what you're doing professionally?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: I like that.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've heard it said that people tend to put us in a box.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's only so many people in our lives that we can really know at a deep personal level.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: And many other people who maybe we met online, we tend to just think of that person and we think of one thing like this is a person who does XYZ stuff.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: So is that the value of a brand that it kind of gives people a way to label us in a way, in a good way?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you think about you, you know, to me, there are two people that pop into my head of the best personal brands in our contemporary era.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh those are Richard Branson and Oprah Winfrey.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Those two have done so many different things with the brand that they've built.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, if you say Richard Branson, there's a handful of things that may pop into your head.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're somewhat related, but not really.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: The guy started with a magazine, then he bought a music, uh, you know, a record studio to recording studio in 72.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then he turned that into, he eventually went into the airline industry, and people are like, this guy's absolutely nuts.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now that he just had, you know, what uh Virgin Galactic, he just had SpaceX and all that other stuff.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's that's Elon Musk.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, he's working on all those things, and he just everything that he wants to do, he can now do because he's Richard Branson, right?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's like the consummate personal brand, you know, and and so he wasn't held to the point of like, no, I'm I'm a bad student, so that's what I'm gonna be.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, I'm gonna start with my media company, and then I'm gonna get into recording, then I'm gonna get into travel, then I'm gonna get into hotels.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, so that's sort of how the personal brand helps you push out of the box.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like for me personally, I had to make that switch from being a relatively well-known engineer in a specific field to I'm a professional photographer.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And there are some people who have struggled with that because they know me as one thing.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but there are many people that have said, no, I'm I like Aaron as a person, and so I'm gonna start using him as my photographer because I loved working with him as an engineer.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: So is there a sense in which this is really more about who we are as a person in our relationships rather than, oh, Kent or Aaron, they do XYZ work?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because many people think of branding as, okay, I brand myself as a, and we list whatever service or company that we work with is.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: You're saying it's really more about who you are as a person and and how you interact and engage with people.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so there's your professional brand, which to me is sort of your technical competency, right?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's maybe the, as you talked about, maybe sort of the somewhat more shallow relationship that we have with people.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like, oh, Aaron's a photographer, Aaron's an engineer.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: But the personal brand is what kind of person are you?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: What do you make people feel like when they're working with you?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you start intersecting those, if you're a business owner, if you're a freelancer of any sort, quite frankly, even if we if you're an employee, as you start taking the elements of your personal brand and saying, you know, combining those to your technical competence, I think what you start getting people saying is like, wow, Aaron's a great engineer because, you know, I love the way he works through this.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I always feel like he he understands everything that's going on, he knows how to solve that.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of my clients, when they talk about photo shoots with me, before they even see the final images, they're talking about I'm one of the best photographers they've worked with because of the way they feel during the course of the day.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like they have fun.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm showing them the images that we're creating them, I'm including them in some of the decisions.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm explaining to them why I don't like some of the things that we're doing.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show them shots that didn't work out and say, hey, this didn't work because of this.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see what I can do, but maybe we'll try this instead.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that communication and that relationship that we're building over the time that we're working together, it just raises somebody's confidence that, you know, I made the right decision.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the next time they want to purchase again, they're they're gonna make the decision to work with me one more time.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's really different than a lot of the advice out there, at least perceived advice that I have about marketing and social media and branding and everything, is that we think of it as I gotta be really strategic and putting out podcasts and social media stuff and blog posts and all kinds of this, and like just dumping a lot of content onto the world.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: But you're saying it's yes, we can do that as a strategy, obviously, but it's really more about the relational side of it, which does feel like sometimes gets lost in this whole mix of branding and content and online business and so forth.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I struggled with this for a while myself just because, you know, I think my first online business was around 2012.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just sort of like, well, I'll build a website and you know, people will show up, the old field of dreams model.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then I really didn't get social media because I valued relationships much more and I just wanted to talk to people face to face.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: But over the last year and a half, and I've really started to understand that social part of it, right?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Social media, we need to interact with people, we need to get to know people.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the way you do that is by making relationships.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you think of social media as like one big party, you know, if you were invited to a party at somebody's house that maybe you didn't even really know, you know, and his name was Instagram.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you go, you know, to to the Instagram party and you meet somebody there who you've never met before, how would you do it in real life?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so hey, I hopefully you're gonna show interest in them and say, hey, it's nice to meet you.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what do you do?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and then eventually you say, Well, you know, is there a way I can help you or or do something like that?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: What you don't do is like, hey, nice to meet you.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Aaron.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: You can work with me for X amount of dollars.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a photographer and I'll make you like great.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, you know, you know, you need photos now, don't you?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the first thing you're gonna say at a party.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you treat social media the same way, I you know, at least that's how I do it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I think you you end up with better results long term.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say, okay, if there's somebody listening, they well, I'll take myself as an example.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm a ghostwriter.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say someone is a ghostwriter or freelance writer and they want to connect with a specific person, maybe on Facebook or LinkedIn, but they shouldn't just connect with that person and start pitching their services.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: What are some ways that you would recommend connecting with someone in a natural relationship-driven way that is not just pitching them right off the cuff, but you're still, you know, laying that groundwork for possibly working with them in the future?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's interesting because I just earlier today I was looking through some of the people that, you know, I keep lists of people that I want to eventually connect with and and and get to know them.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I was looking through one of those lists and I realized that the top two people on one of my lists are not only do I have a relationship with them at this point after several months, but both of them are speaking at an event that I'm putting on in September.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so the one, it started with I liked what she did.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I, you know, posted a review on her podcast, I commented on her YouTube videos, I interacted with her on Instagram.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not I didn't even know what the the end goal was, other than I like this person.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know that it's somebody that I would like to have some sort of work working relationship with in the future, but she's putting out amazing content, so I'm going to support everything that I can.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, can you actually buy some of their courses?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Can you do some of those things?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: If it's that kind of person who has that, you know, they will they will notice you a little bit more.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just this constant interaction to the point where, you know, I got mentioned in one of her podcasts.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, I have connected people to her.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: There are people that she knows in her network that came through me.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that this summer in June, when I said, okay, well, I'm gonna have this personal branding summit, she would be an amazing speaker.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was an automatic yes.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, Oh, yes, you are such, she's like, she's like, you've added such value to my life.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what she said.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, I really appreciate having you part of my my groups.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sure, I'll do whatever I can to help you.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, so that's one way is just to support what that other person is doing first.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then eventually, you know, there may be a way to do that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if you go about in a way like, I'm gonna do this so that I get this result, I I think it's gonna change the way you do it.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think you just need to try to do this from a uh being a good person and just trying to support somebody who's doing good work.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of like what we all learned in grade school be nice to people, do for other people what you would have them do to you.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of those very basic things that sometimes it's easy to lose sight of when we're we're faced with the idea of I gotta post on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and I gotta do all these strategic content kind of things.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Which again, I know that's part of it, but but it all begins with really the heart, is what you're saying.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, and and that sort of leads to the other way that I make connections with people, and that's to you know, it's sort of some of the things that you talk about.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: You just like to connect with really cool people and and not even, you know, maybe if you don't even know that there's some sort of intersection to that.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So somebody that you and I both uh mutually know, Andy Storch, I've been getting to know him for a year and a half.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And when I met him, I thought of him as an HR guy.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's a consultant and an HR expert.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: But this summer, as you know, we realized that there's we have so much in common that there's actually four or five people that are now very important to some of the things that I'm doing that I've met through Andy.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that only happened because I had a relationship with a really good person.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and, you know, same thing.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: They got to the point where they got to know, like, and trust me.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so now he wants to help me be successful as well.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even have to ask for any of those things.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was just like, hey, here's what I'm doing.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's, you know, it's really we've created this cool virtual friendship through social media primarily, and just being able to talk to each other.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: We send each other Facebook messages on a regular basis, um, to the point where he knows that I like sunrises and sunsets.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So when he sees a really cool one, he takes a picture and says, Hey, I thought you'd appreciate this.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it and uh it takes some effort, but it's worth it, right?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I think most of life is about the relationships that you have.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so just because you know we're spread throughout the world doesn't mean I can't have great relationships with people in Florida or China or Australia or Sweden, you know, so just to think of some of the people that I talk to on a weekly basis.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: How would you how would you recommend that someone who is an introvert or who gets exhausted by interaction with a lot of people on social media, how would you recommend they go about this kind of a thing if they're not inherently a people person or they're not an extrovert, is there a way for for people to kind of grow their heart?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, because this this is where this all starts, is really with our hearts and our love for people and wanting to serve people and help them.
• 14:45
  unknown: Yeah.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: How have you seen people be able to do that?
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, it's funny you asked me because I'm actually an introvert.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it took me a while.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: But what I realized was is that you know trying to help somebody and trying to share some of the things that you know, it's a very rewarding thing.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, honestly, it probably started a little selfishly about 20 years ago where I'm like, oh, well, when I do this, yeah, they get a lot of benefit, but I actually feel better about myself, right?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And be like, I did something well today.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so I, you know, that may be a little bit of a shallow beginning to some of this stuff that I've done, but that's how it started for me.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I think more importantly, is you've mentioned it a couple of times, like we have to be on all these different channels.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: We have to do Pinterest and Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn and and whatever, Snapchat, whatever else is out there.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Pick one thing that works for you and just do that really, really well.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so, quite frankly, you know, as an introvert, you may be an amazing writer of emails and uh you may be wonderful at writing handwritten letters.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so take the time to connect in a way that makes sense for you.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh for me, the the one thing that I really got into as a photographer was well, I can start using Instagram as sort of like the beginning of my platform.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and then as I got comfortable with that, I started trying to figure out well, how can I have some of this more personal connection?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started sending video emails to people.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and you know, it's it's sort of neat because it's not live, you can you can record it, but you can be very personal that way uh and make a little bit deeper connection.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you know, it's a one-to-one communication, even if it's asynchronous, sending that video message to people for me has helped create a lot more um deeper and almost intimate relationships because you you really do get a more personal connection to somebody when you can see them talking.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's funny you mentioned video email because and I probably it occurred to me I never told you this, but you gave me the idea of doing video messages, you know, whether it's on LinkedIn, email, Facebook, or whatever.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: So and I mentioned that before, but it's been such a hugely helpful thing to me.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that is actually what got the process going that got me my second ghostwriting book client.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: I sent someone a video message on LinkedIn, just a very short thing, basically bragging on them and how several people in my network had said some good things about them and just said, hey, I appreciate you.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: All these people are saying these cool things about you.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for your work.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that was it.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, then we connected and then things kind of went on from there.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that that one thing of just sending a video message is really, really powerful.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I agree.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's um something that that I've tried to do consistently every single week.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I'm amazed at how many people become very loyal um, you know, people in my network very quickly uh just because I took the time to record a personalized video for them.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's uh you know, once you have a system down, it doesn't take as long as probably most people think.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: It really doesn't.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it uh but it carries a much heavier weight than just simply sending a text or a Facebook message.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And really, doesn't this all come down to doing kind of a self-check as to why are we in business to begin with?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: What is it that we're really trying to accomplish?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: It should be about helping people.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, we can make money from this, obviously, but really it's about serving people and about creating value in the world.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: So if we're not about that, then we're gonna have a hard time really caring about people on a deep level.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 100%.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: The there was a quote, and I'm I'm I may misattribute it, but I think it was by uh a guy named Kent Germany who said that if you're not adding value, it's the same as taking it away.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and so it's just that like there's almost this moral obligation.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when I first heard about this, it was from uh a rabbi, his name's Daniel Lappin, and he wrote a book, Thou Shalt Prosper.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's such a great book.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and it's so it's this idea of you know, there's this moral obligation that if you can help people, you should be helping people.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the end result of that is is simply people give you money, right?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because the help that you're giving them is worth more than the little you know, certificates of appreciation, I think he calls them, um, you know, that that we call money.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, when I started changing my mindset with that, it's like, well, how can I just help more people?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: How can I make a bigger impact if I'm not making a connection with people so that they really get you know what I see in a way that, you know, maybe there's a gap in their business or or a gap in their marketing or a gap in their personal branding?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what can I do to get them to start seeing that so that they're more successful?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really my motivation is I I spent 25 years in the corporate world of you know, helping grow businesses and improve culture and profitability.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: But now I just love working with smaller entrepreneurs and businesses.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And like, how can we get to this point of creating this amazing impact?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And my favorite client, I think she's opened at least two new offices, maybe three in the last couple of years.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we do we do a minimum of four shoots a year for her and her team because she knows how much that that content helps make a connection with their clients.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, and and I jokingly call them the fun insurance agent because we have a blast when we do the the shoots.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think there's something in that that her her uh target client base sees the the energy and the fun that they have, and I think it just builds this little bit of a trust and and likability.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, health insurance, life insurance isn't the most interesting thing to talk about, but these people look like, you know, at least I wouldn't mind spending an hour or two with them.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: So assuming that that our hearts are in the right place, we still have to have some kind of a strategy for all this.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people, myself included, feel overwhelmed by all the social media channels and possibilities where we could be putting out content and and things that are related to our personal brand, hoping to connect with our ideal customer or client.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: What would you recommend for people who they don't know which social media platforms to pick?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll just use myself as an example.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm most active on probably LinkedIn and Facebook, most active on Facebook.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: I feel guilty because I'm not more active on Twitter and Instagram.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: I love Instagram, but I just get overwhelmed by the need to do all this stuff, and and I sometimes just feel a little bit paralyzed because I feel like I should be doing so much more, but I'm not.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Am I wrong in my approach?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And how would somebody like me who gets overwhelmed, how do we deal with this overwhelm?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I don't think you're wrong in your approach.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the beginning point for me is because I struggled with it too.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just I I do have a Twitter account, but I I probably haven't posted anything in two years on there.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So what I had to really start thinking about is you go back to who is it that you're trying to serve?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you need to start figuring out who that person is, and you know, get to the point where it's a little bit more even in depth.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for me, when I started really honing in on personal branding, like, okay, who is it that I want to do photos for?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Whose businesses do I Want to help transform.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I gave her a name and I knew her husband's name.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew what charities that she supported.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew what her dreams were for travel.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I knew what her fears were.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so now as I'm starting to get this person in my head.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a blend of like three real people that were sort of target people.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I, you know, as I had the chance to actually talk to some of those real people, I said, you know, this is sort of what I'm feeling.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yes, that's exactly, you know, and so I would just refine who's my ideal client.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then once you have that, where are they?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, where do they hang out?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because they don't use every platform either.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's just the idea of where are they?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And what I found out was is my clients are primarily on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: So as a photographer, Instagram uh became, you know, a little bit of a just like, well, yeah, that makes sense.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um but then I went to the next level and said, well, I just don't want to post photos, right?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so Instagram allows you to use 2,000 characters.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Most of my posts I struggle with figuring out how to edit back down to get to the 2,000 characters.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to share some sort of knowledge.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to connect with somebody.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to highlight my one of my customers, highlight a mentor in that post, but share something that hopefully helps somebody take a step forward.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so I decided Instagram was going to be sort of my hero platform.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And what that meant for me was one post every single day, six days a week.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't post on Sundays.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so then I just did that for a couple months.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And as I started gaining traction, I'm like, okay, now how could I start getting active on LinkedIn?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I had two months worth of good content that already had some feedback from the marketplace of what was good and what was bad.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so now I started taking some of those posts and editing them and changing them and putting them on LinkedIn.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, little secret, a lot of my LinkedIn posts are actually repurposed Instagram posts.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because there, I think it was Russell Bronson, you know, and this is really deep.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, But people who listen to podcasts, they listen to podcasts.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: People who read books, they read books, right?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: The odds of somebody, it's it's only my deepest fans that see the same post two or three weeks apart, and that's not even a bad thing, right?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: But they're that they see the same content on both platforms.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Facebook's the same way, it gets even less attention from me.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's usually it's either a very personal post because I'm posting it to my personal profile and it's more friends and stuff, but some customers see it, uh, or it's something that I'm resharing from uh from Instagram.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: And same thing.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's I can only think of a handful of people that I know comment on all three platforms for me.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So so I I think one of the strategies is how do you repurpose your content?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, find the one place that that fits for you that that you enjoy using, but also aligns with where your clients are going to be.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then just do that really well.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then take the next step.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Say, well, what's the next layer?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: What's the next layer?
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so for me, every month I'm sort of reevaluating and saying, okay, is there something I'm gonna cut out?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Is there something new that I'm going to add in?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um sometimes I the answer is no.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I don't feel like I have a good enough system down with all the stuff that I'm already doing.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna wait one more month before I take and add the next layer in.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: And over a couple years, you know, sure, you could probably be dominant on just about every platform.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, now I'm also starting to build a presence on YouTube.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but same thing, my YouTube is largely repurposed podcast information.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't even realize that.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: I was looking at your YouTube channel and to prep for this interview a couple days ago.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: It never even dawned on me.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I'm repurposing stuff all the time, but but I never look at anybody in a negative sense, even if I know they're repurposing something.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in fact, I appreciate it.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what exactly, because you know, sometimes you need to be reminded of it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, your favorite books you've probably read multiple times.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just that's I I don't see it as a bad thing either.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one thing I I don't like to do that much, but it this is me as a photographer, um, I highly recommend you you do it, and I see most successful people doing it, is I don't like to use images that I've already used before.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I mean a lot of times I'm creating 500 to 1,000 images a month with my clients, and so the fact that I highlight them, I I you know, that that's that's probably my one hang up that that makes my Instagram approach a little bit harder than what it should be.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you're saying it's okay to reuse images?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you just don't want to reuse them like you know, within like 15, 18 rows of each other, you know, because when people first bring up your your Instagram, they're gonna see three rows.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's sort of like your grid.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so you always want to try to make sure your grid looks half decent.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I actually did have one.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think I had shared it already, and so it's probably within it's probably within 10 or 12 rows of each other.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: I shared the same photo, completely different story.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, but um, and uh it it did really well the second time around, too.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: So what do you think of of social media posts that I'm just asking your honest opinion on this, that it's like a background of some kind, but it has a quote on there.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if I was gonna put something up about writing, here's a quote on writing by uh John Steinbeck.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Do those same do you seem think those are cheesy, or do you think those are can be inspiring and helpful?
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I think they can be very inspiring.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's it's sort of my corporate teams.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now some people thought it was cheesy, but every week we had a quote and somebody took it their turns to tell us what the quote of the week was.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: I live my life sort of by quotes and by movie scenes.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's it's uh, you know, or quotes from movie scenes.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's just sort of like that's how I see the world, is in these little vignettes and these little tidbits of wisdom.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so if you look at my Instagram account, you'll see that pretty much every other post is just a uh it's a quote on a white background.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I I just I I like the aesthetic of the uh because most of my images are pretty, you know, punchy and and there's a lot of color and and uh you know, I just there's a lot of contrast in my images.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so then to just have this black and white image for the most part, um, you know, with text, I I I like the way it feels, first of all.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why I started it.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: But some of my highest engagement posts every month are the the quote that I put out and then the story that I put with it.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I just had somebody, I think it was last week, that that said, you know what, I needed to hear this so much today.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and uh I had basically, I think in that post then I'd said, you know, you want me to send you a voice message?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Just tell me what you're struggling with today.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so she did.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh she sent me a message and I messaged her back.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, look, I just checked out your work.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: You were amazing.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: You need to share this stuff.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then she texted me a few more times.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, okay, I'm coming up with a new plan.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna share this with the world.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thank you for posting that on Instagram.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think it can make a difference.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and uh that's why I do it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think those those quotes work equally well on all social media platforms?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, so I I think they do relatively well.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't repurpose those quote cards on LinkedIn very often.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I will I will take the story and share it maybe with a different image.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sometimes I'll take the story and share it with a a link to a podcast episode, maybe with a uh a quote out of the podcast episode that ties into the story.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and honestly, I have a virtual assistant who does a lot of that for me now.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I can take those quote cards and put them on Pinterest and they do really well.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so just it's just a black and white quote that you know, you know, attributed to whoever said it.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and there's nothing really spectacular about it, but they really do well on my Pinterest account.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so I I think they have to they have to be making an impact on somebody.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that is a good point.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes in the midst of creating all this content for social media and podcast books or whatever it is that we do, I get caught up sometimes in just the the tasks of what we're doing.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: And okay, I gotta put this stuff out there and I'm on to the next podcast episode or whatever.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: But this stuff really does impact people's lives on many times a deep level, and sometimes I forget that.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I I mean, for me, and I I hopefully for most business owners and and I think for writers as well, uh, you know, the the goal is to to impact somebody, right?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's to make a difference.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And and I know um I've we've never talked about this before, but I actually did write a book and it was published in 2013.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: And my mindset on that was I just felt called to write the book.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if it only makes a difference for one person, it was worth doing.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh, you know, so so yeah, I mean, it's you know, how do we make the impact?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: How do we how do we get to the point where we make a difference in the world uh and and do what we can to make it a better place?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's enough negativity going on the way it is.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So just how do we create positive content and create positive change in the world?
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really glad you mentioned that.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's a book that I've been wanting to get to for about six months or a year.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't fit anywhere into anything I'm doing with ghostwriting or the smart business writing podcasting stuff.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's just something kind of based on my own life story.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and you saying that it makes me realize I really need to carve out some time to work on that, even though it has nothing to do with my business strategy or all that stuff.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's just something that I think could could maybe impact somebody.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: So who knows?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's I mean, and not everything has to be about business strategy.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know we got to do the certain amount of stuff, but you know, there are times when you just, you know, you have to take a little bit of time to do something that just adds value to the world.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know what?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I normally find that when you do that, it comes back to you anyway.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I, you know, so I it's it's never wrong to do the right thing.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, don't we all enjoy people who we follow their content, maybe we read their books or we listen to the podcasts, but they're also human on social media, particularly, and that works really well.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, LinkedIn is not really a great platform for being kind of goofy or that kind of thing.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: But Instagram and Facebook and and Twitter, you know, maybe those are great.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I love seeing the human side of people that I respect business-wise, but then when you see that they're human, you're like, oh, okay, that's that's really cool and it's refreshing.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and that takes you back to the personal branding versus professional branding, right?
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just the idea that, oh, this person's not perfect.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe I can attain some of what they have, and maybe they know some of the things that can help me get there through some of the services they offer.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think if we have this carefully curated life that is just a hundred percent, um, you know, I I think people might feel like, oh, well, they've got it all together and there's just no way, like I couldn't even see myself working with somebody who was that perfect.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: I worked with a with a client once uh for several years, just doing some some freelance writing stuff for them on a regular basis.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they were all business all the time on social media.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: And even though I worked with them for about three years, I felt like I never really knew them as a person because it was all you know, sponsored posts and putting up stuff about my business and everything.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I it was a little bit heartbreaking because I thought, man, I just I would love to know you as a person outside of your your business stuff.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, everybody runs their business their own way, and um, we all have have a choice in how we do that, which is the cool thing about the world we live in.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's and you know, there are probably people who just appreciate the straightforwardness of just you know, tell me what you're selling and let's get on with it.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's get on with life, you know, and and uh, but I value relationships so much.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: And and honestly, in my personal branding business, the you know, it it takes a good four weeks minimum for me to plan a shoot for somebody because we have to work through that.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there was um uh an episode recently where you're talking about you know how to craft better stories and and uh there was a ghostwriter, her name was Alice something.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Alice Seldon, huh?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and she was talking about like she needs to have the whole story, right, to be able to write the story.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's sort of what I feel like as well.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is like I want to know like what are we trying to create here?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want people to feel when they interact with your brand?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: What what do you want people to think when they see your images?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: What are you aspiring to?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because then we can think through like, okay, here's some ideas, and I can spend a few hours to come up with some creative shoots that create, you know, help you craft the images that tell the story that you want to tell within the visual image.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, one more question before we wind this down.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like I'm getting into the weeds on some of this stuff a little bit, but it's stuff that I generally am curious about.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I I could get the answer in two seconds if I just look at your Instagram feed.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: But whenever since you're here, when you put out those images of quotes on them, do you brand those with your like your logo or website or anything?
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you just have the quote and that's out?
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I I started off, I did not do that.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in the last, I don't know, probably three to four months, there is a little image on there that says the personal brand photog.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's up at the top of the quote.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I and that was because I started realizing that that they had some value on Pinterest.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so when when people come across them on Pinterest, they may not know exactly where it came from without going through the links.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's good.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's actually why I put it on there.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's small enough that I've had nobody comment on on the addition to it on Instagram.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and if anything, my engagement has picked up.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's probably just because the following continues to grow.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but even percentage of engagement looks like it's picked up since I added that little uh my my brand logo just at the very top of it.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and but it it fits in with the brand.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's still just basically black and white, you know, it's not like I did anything crazy.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and uh it's uh it's a very, I think a very professional, tasteful, tasteful looking logo logo, and it's just it's just text and with a little bit of graphics.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's it you know, there's nothing crazy with it.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I I do that um, and there was uh another photographer that I saw who I actually feel like she was she was missing the boat because she had a uh you know some sort of branded logo at the bottom of hers, but I don't know if she bought the quote cards from somebody else.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, I need to add my logo to those.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I could never figure out where her logo led to.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like it, I like if I search it, I can't I can't find it anywhere.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if people search for just what my logo says, they're gonna find my website.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, it occurs to me that would actually be a great service for somebody to offer is producing you know a hundred images for social media that just have quotes on them.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: And you can take their logo and put it on the bottom.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Those are super easy to make for I mean, for people who know how to use um stuff that you use to create images.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's not hard, but I mean that would be a valuable service.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: I would pay for that.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say if you think about it, I probably have 50 or 75 ready to go.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I could just turn that into a little um, you know, may not be a bad idea.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks, Kent.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll think about it then.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: It could be an awesome little uh, you know, lead magnet that's uh low price, but uh really help people out.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so my son is working with me now doing some podcast production and graphic stuff.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe maybe he's got a little side business idea going there.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a great point.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's uh so I I I'm I'm gonna run with that idea, man.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: Do it.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Aaron, this has been a lot of fun.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I appreciate you, and I appreciate your approach to business and of course all the great information that you shared uh here in this conversation today.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: I know you have a free resource for our listeners.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you can tell us where to get in touch with you and where to get that, that would be awesome.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the easiest place to find me is probably through Instagram.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's uh the personal brand photog, uh like photographer without the uh you know, fur on the end.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh or I guess the grapher on the end.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: But make you file us.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so and in my the link in my bio has a link to all the different places you can find me.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: So the podcast, um, you know, personal brand summit that you know right now is happening in September, but it will come back again.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so just keep an eye out for those kind of things.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my freebies, um, there's probably a couple other places you can find me through those links as well.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: I also need to put a link to the Personal Brand Summit.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's for anybody, correct?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's not just for photography people.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, so actually it's um the the the one thing that I have is I have so many photography people saying, like, there's not many photographers in this.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, because it's not about photography, right?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's about trying to help people um really elevate their brand so that you know we can wrap up 2020.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a challenging year.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how do we wrap up 2020 and and have a platform for growth so that 2021 is a better, better year?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then I know we're gonna probably reincarnate that in the late winter or early spring.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's uh right now we've got a little over 20 speakers on all types of aspects.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: So whether it's um, you know, getting ready for a photo shoot or personal finance or um you know copywriting.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've tried to pull in all of the different uh things that I can think that people need to focus on with their personal brand and then trust try to find some of the you know the experts that I have come to value over the years uh and and try to introduce everybody to each other.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: That is really, really cool.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_01: Can't wait to see the success that you have with that and all the other cool things you're doing.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned a ton with this today.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks again for doing this.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a lot of fun.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's it's been fun being here.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I uh always enjoy the conversations that we have, and uh I appreciate being off you know offered the chance to share with your listeners.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Kent.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Aaron.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: As you know, at the end of every conversation, I share three takeaways that I learned from the guest.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, this episode is no exception.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: So let's dive into the three biggest takeaways from this episode.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, people who listen to podcasts listen to podcasts.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this means that not everybody sees everything you create or post.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you post on social media, if you write blog posts, if you have a YouTube channel, if you have a podcast, if you write books, nobody's going to see all that material except for you, or if you have an administrative assistant or someone else who's helping you to create or post content, they're going to see all of it too.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: But pretty much nobody else is going to see everything that you create.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it's okay to repurpose material between all those different outlets and all those different ways that people can experience your content.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a really good insight that Aaron shared with us.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure that if you create a piece of content for one platform, that you find a way to repurpose it for one or two or three other places as well.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great strategy to use your time well and also get a lot more value out of the content that you're creating.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, create an avatar for the person you're trying to serve.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when we talk about avatars, of course, we're not talking about the gigantic blue people from the James Cameron sci-fi movie called Avatar from about 10 years ago or so.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: Avatar is simply a marketing term that means that's your ideal client or customer.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: And Aaron mentioned that he created his avatar as a blend of some real people that he knows.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now you can make your avatar somebody that you have in your mind.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's somebody that you know, and basically you're creating, you're writing, you're doing business for that specific person.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a really helpful thing because when you have in mind a specific person, real or imagined, when you have in mind that person, you can dig into what their what their needs are, what their wants are, and how your business intersects with their life.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's just helpful to have a specific person in mind when you're creating content.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: Then finally, takeaway number three, if you're struggling to be active on multiple social media platforms, figure out where your avatar hangs out and then focus on that platform.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: So my two platforms that I focus on are Facebook and LinkedIn.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I really like Instagram and Twitter.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're they're awesome and they're lots of fun.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: But Facebook and LinkedIn for me are where my ideal clients, who are people who would need ghostwriting services, uh, or people who are interested in business writing, who may become clients or who could refer me to some ideal clients, those are where those people tend to hang out.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: Instagram is not necessarily a platform for business writing.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a lot of business writing that happens on there, but it's primarily a photography and an image-driven platform.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Instagram is also, it just has kind of more of a fun feel.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's more lighthearted, it just has a totally different vibe than LinkedIn does.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: Where my ideal clients tend to hang out and are probably more active as they concern the things that I do, um, it's probably going to be LinkedIn a lot more.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: And Facebook, I'm just really active on Facebook anyway, and uh a lot of people are there already.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_01: So Facebook and LinkedIn for me are two natural places for me to hang out in terms of interacting with my ideal customers or clients.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now you might be different.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as Aaron mentioned, he is pretty much focusing on Instagram because that's where his ideal clients or customers hang out.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: He's a photographer and he speaks the language of the visual.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that just makes sense.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, don't feel guilty that you're not super active on you know all 687 social media platforms out there.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and I know there's not that many of them.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, maybe there is, I don't know.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: But just pick one or two and be active on those.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: So if you get nothing else out of this this podcast episode, just know that you don't need to feel guilty that you're not super active everywhere that's out there.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Just pick one or two, be active on those.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think it is good to have a presence on the other ones just in case, you know, prospective clients or customers or things like that, so they can see that you have a presence there and find you and at least have your website listed and maybe a lead magnet or some other things like that.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not necessary for you to hang out all day on all the social media platforms.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this was a really fun episode, and I learned a lot.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to give a huge thank you to our guest, Aaron Hunt, and I want to encourage you to make sure to check out his website, which is the Personal Brand Photog.com.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if you go to the show notes for this episode, you can also find the link to access his video series on the top five tips to boost your personal brand.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure to check that out.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: And as always, thank you so much for listening.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that you can find lots more resources for writers at cannon standers.net.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you in the next episode.