Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Rusty Shelton on How You Build Your Authority Advantage EP 367

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

In this episode of the Passion Struck podcast, host John R. Miles sits down with Rusty Shelton, Chairman of Zilker Media and author of "The Authority Advantage," to discuss the power of personal branding. Want to learn the 12 philosophies that the most successful people use to create a limitless life? Pre-order John R. Miles’s new book, Passion Struck, which will be released on February 6, 2024. Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/rusty-shelton-authority-advantage/  How to Build Your Personal Brand and Create Your Authority Advantage with Rusty Shelton Rusty provides insights on why it's never too late to start building your personal brand and how being authentic and vulnerable can help you connect with your audience and make a bigger impact. Whether you're a leader, entrepreneur, or professional, this episode is packed with valuable advice on how to navigate the world of personal branding and become the messenger of your message. Sponsors Brought to you by OneSkin. Get 15% your order using code Passionstruck at https://www.oneskin.co/#oneskinpod. Brought to you by Indeed: Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed dot com slash PASSIONSTRUCK. Brought to you by Lifeforce: Join me and thousands of others who have transformed their lives through Lifeforce's proactive and personalized approach to healthcare. Visit MyLifeforce.com today to start your membership and receive an exclusive $200 off. Brought to you by Hello Fresh. Use code passion 50 to get 50% off plus free shipping!  --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/  Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! How  Connect with John on Twitter at @John_RMiles and on Instagram at @john_R_Miles. Prefer to watch this episode: https://youtu.be/NXngy9q126M  Subscribe to our main YouTube Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles Subscribe to our YouTube Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@passionstruckclips Want to find your purpose in life? I provide my master class on six simple steps to achieving it. Want to hear my best interviews? Check out my starter packs on intentional behavior change, women at the top of their game, longevity, and well-being, and overcoming adversity. Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/ 

coming up next on PassionStrike. This is not just to look how smart John is. Brandon, you had done completely the opposite, which is what I wholeheartedly recommend to your audience. And that is, I want them to be the messenger, not the message. In other words, this is not about building some kind of an ego-driven brand. This is about, you've got a message to get out.

If you're going to make an impact at scale, it's going to go further, quicker, cheaper, more effectively. If you as the leader are willing to be the messenger, if you're willing to be vulnerable, if you're willing to be authentic. Welcome to PassionStruct. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guest-ranging from astronauts

to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello everyone, I'm so glad to welcome you back to episode 367 of PassionStruck, which is ranked by Apple as one of the top 10 most popular health podcasts and the number one alternative health podcast. And thank you to all of you who come back to the show weekly to listen and learn how to live better, be better, and impact the world. If you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here, or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member which we love when you do.

We have episode starter packs which we carefully curate into our fans' favorite episodes. These episodes are then brought to you in playlist on both Spotify and on the PassionStruct website at passionstruct.com slash stutterpacks. Please check them out. In case you missed it, earlier this week, I head on Dr. Vanessa Bonds, a social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University's LRR School. Dr. Bond is the author of the eye-opening book, You Have More Influence than You Think, where she draws from her original research to shed light on the powerful dynamics of consent and influence.

I also wanted to say thank you so much for your ratings and reviews. If you love Vanessa's episode or today's, we would appreciate you giving it a five-star review and sharing it with your friends and families. I know we and our guests love to see comments more in listeners and those reviews give such a long way in bringing more people into the passion star community. Today, we have a special guest who is here to revolutionize the way that you connect with your audience.

As a thought leader or industry expert, you know that trust is the currency of influence. But in today's world, relying solely on your corporate brand to build trust is a thing of the past. Trust in institutions is at an all-time low, and it's time to take a different approach. The good news is that your audience is actively seeking to connect with you, not your brand. You have the power to create an authority advantage by positioning yourself as a mission-driven thought leader, something to teach, rather, and just a professional with something to sell, and to help us navigate this exciting journey into thought leader, something to teach, rather, and just a professional with something to sell.

And to help us navigate this exciting journey into thought leadership, we have a true expert joining us today. Please welcome my friend Rusty Shelton, who's a best-selling author, dynamic keynote speaker, and successful entrepreneur, who has dedicated his career to helping leaders build thought leadership focused on impact, not ego. Rusty has spoken at Harvard, written three claim books and addressed diverse audiences south by south-west interactive to Forbes. He is the chairman of Zilker Media, an award-winning agency in Austin, Texas, that specializes in

building people-driven brands. Rusty also serves as a senior marketing strategist at Forbes Books. His latest book, The Authority Advantage, building thought leadership focused on impact. Not Ego. His latest book, The Authority Advantage, building thought leadership focused on impact, not ego, who authored with Adam Whitty, is set to redefine how leaders like you create authentic connections and wield influence. In this episode, we'll delve into essential topics including why leaders can no longer rely on the organizational brand to inspire trust and stakeholders. The art of connecting your content to what your audience is already paying attention to, strategies for providing value in a volatile market

and driving lead generation through personal branding and publicity, unleashing the magic of publicity, and contributing timely commentary to a volatile news cycle. And how leaders can step up to build trust in the post-institutional environment. Are you ready for this new era of personal branding? You will learn why the authority advantage is your blueprint for success. Get ready for a conversation that will transform the way that you approach thought leadership

and trust building. Thank you for choosing PassionStruct and choosing me to be your host and guide and your journey to creating an intentional life now. Let that journey begin. I am so honored today to welcome Rusty Shelton to Passionstruck. Welcome Rusty. Thank you, John. I'm looking forward to this. Yes, this one has been months in the making, and I wish we could have done it in Austin because that would have been great.

I wanted to start this out today by saying, we all have defining moments, and some of them come to us in profound ways. Can you share perhaps a pivotal moment from your journey that led you to focus on thought leadership that centered on impact, not on ego? I think for me, John, the biggest pivot moment was probably towards the end of my time at my first agency. So I started an agency here in Austin that did PR for authors and publishers right out of university of Texas. I actually did an internship there my junior year and my first job was as a book publicist at that agency and I spent seven years there, really learning the ropes and building relationships and getting a really good sense of what worked

in terms of building thought leadership for authors. And what I was finding from a lot of the authors that we were working with is they would go out and just absolutely have just an unbelievable amount of fulfillment through that campaign. They were teaching at scale. They were doing interviews. They were speaking. They were writing articles. And many of them were executives at companies. And what would happen is they would finish that book campaign, they would go back into their role. And I'd hear from them six months later or a year later saying how much they missed the fulfillment and the process of getting out there and teaching it a bit more scale. And so a light bulb for me, there was, okay, this is not really

so much about selling a book. This is not about marketing a product. This is about giving value and making an impact at scale. And so it really had a shift in my mind, said John, from, all right, let's help people promote books to instead, let's build visibility for impact driven leaders that allows them to make an impact not just with the people directly in their orbit, be it their team or their clients, but add a lot more scale. And so that was probably the biggest pivot point for me before I jumped out and started my first business. Well, thank you for that, Rusty. And as the leader of Well, thank you for that, Rusty. And as the leader of the Zilker Media, which is an award-winning agency, you've spent really a significant amount of time studying and forecasting trends in the workplace, what

major shifts do you foresee to the future of work that listeners should be preparing for? How might these changes impact the way they're approaching their careers? So many shifts are taking place as everybody listening to this and watching this nose. or how might these changes impact the way they're approaching their careers? So many shifts are taking place as everybody listening to this and watching this knows. I think for me, the biggest thing for leaders to understand is that potential team members, potential clients, potential strategic partners

are sizing you up, whether you like it or not, before they make the decision to raise their hand for that interview with your company or before they're making the decision to stick with your company if you're a leader listening to this and you're leading a larger organization where you're not directly in contact with all of the people that are working for an opportunity to get to know you, to figure out, are you in this for the right reasons? Are you authentic? Are you for real? And I think for a lot of leaders that I see, John, they're really good behind the scenes, right? They're servant leaders, they're over delivering for clients, for their team. But part of the reason we spent so much time on this new book is the reality, whether you like it or not, people are getting an image of you and trying to figure out before they get in the room with you whether or not you're a leader they want to work for, whether or not you're a leader that they want to do business with.

And so I think the biggest thing for me that I want to encourage people listening to this is even if you don't like social media or the phrase personal branding turns your stomach, that doesn't mean that an image is not being created before you get in the room. And so my encouragement for all of your audience is, if that image is getting created, whether you like it or not, number one, don't you want to own that image? And number two, don't you want to be really intentional about what that image is? And I think the biggest shift is you have to be able to build trust today before you directly interact with somebody. Leaders that are recognizing that and leaning into it are not only creating

a lot more leverage, but they're also creating a lot more impact. That leads perfectly into the next question I was going to ask you, which is, what is the key to creating trust in a distrusting world? One of the biggest things, John, is to understand that trust in your company, trust in your institution, trust in your nonprofit is at an all time low. Gallup put out a big study last summer that said, trust in institutions, again, in businesses has never been lower than it is today. So the reality of that for leaders, that for years have been conditioned to lead with the logo. In other words, lead with the corporate brand or the institutional brand. We've got two major problems with doing that today.

Number one, your target audience is more skeptical, is more distrustful than they've ever been of your business. So if I get an email newsletter from your company, or I see an ad, or somehow come across it, my guard is up. Right? I'm expecting, okay, this is a business marketing to me. This is an institution with an agenda. The second challenge that we have,

John, for entrepreneurs or small businesses that are listening to this is, if you are going head-to-head, logo versus logo, with a corporate brand or a business that has been around a lot longer, that has a lot bigger market share, a lot bigger marketing budget, that's a fight you're not going to win. It's really difficult to do that. And so part of what we really encourage for leaders in a prospect meeting, it's happening as you're coaching your team up. You're teaching people right now, you're just doing it in a format that's a one-to-one or one-defeu. If you're going to build trust in a distrusting environment where distrust has never been higher, you as the leader have to take a step out from behind that corporate brand.

By the way, not in front of it. It's not instead of the business. It's not instead of the nonprofit, but it's really out alongside it. And now, I'd like to use for this, John, as I encourage people to think about their business, their nonprofit, their institution as an interstate. We want as many of the right clients, as many of the right partners, team members, etc. on that interstate, good leaders today have to be on ramps back to that interstate. And so we can get into the weeds of exactly how to do that.

But I think at a high level, John, the biggest thing one encouraged for your audience is they've got to recognize that the longer they stay in a significant backseat in terms of visibility to that corporate brand, the more they're falling behind. I think this is a great opportunity to take a step back and perhaps for me to share my own personal story because people see the podcast as what it is today, what my brand is. I remember when I started this journey and it's only been about three years,

I had absolutely zero personal brand. Maybe a little bit more than zero percent, but I was the victim of living in a corporate environment where I had been told by various companies that I worked for that the emphasis is on the company. It's not about our personal brand. And I think when I worked for Lowe's, it was probably at its peak

because at Lowe's, you weren't even allowed to speak about Lowe's. So I went into a six plus year racoon during the most important time frame from when I was 32, 33 to 39. So a very important period of my career. And we weren't allowed to do any personal branding. We weren't allowed to do any speeches on behalf of lows, any interviews, anything else, just became dormant. And then when I was at Dell, we were able to speak, but it was still a focus on selling what Dell had. And then from there, it went into the private equity world

same story. So I looked at a couple of peers that were in different companies, different industries along the same trajectory I did, and they were able to establish a brand. And I think it did many of the things that you're talking about. For one, if they're meeting on a sales call with a prospective client,

I think anyone's gonna do their research on who they're talking to and it gives them an opportunity for better or for worse to see what this person is all about. But another key thing is if you ever need to change careers or if you're

looking whether it's to get promoted in your own company or to seek a new position, having a personal brand is absolutely critical, I think, especially now more than ever for many of the reasons you described, because it allows people to see the real you and what your message is all about outside of the work environment. I'm wondering how many people fell into the same trap that I did, and if that trap is changing, as companies are recognizing the importance of this branding. I love that you shared that. My experience, John, is that most leaders fall into that trap. For one of two reasons, either it's imposed upon them by the company that they're working with,

be it loads or whatever company that might be, or they fall into that trap because they feel like they miss the boat on it. In other words, I talked to so many leaders that say, all right, Russy, listen, if I just started this eight years ago, I'd be crushing it right now or 10 years ago, but I feel like I miss the boat. There's so many people now with podcasts or books or big LinkedIn

followings. And to your point, you started just a few years ago, right? Out of nowhere with it. And we're sitting here today. You're over 100,000 on YouTube in terms of subscribers. We've got more than 10 million downloads. In other words, a lot of people to say, okay, if you're starting this around 2019, 2020, you miss the boat, or that's the self-talk that I see from a lot of leaders. And the reality is just the opposite.

Where are we are today, John? The audience you wanna reach increasingly wants to push traditional media out of the way and learn directly from individual leaders, people that they see as more authentic, more interesting, more trustworthy than what they can get elsewhere. And what I love about your brand, John, laying on your website, I would guess one of the highest traffic pages on your website is that my story link. And when I click on that my story link and I learn about the burglary that you walked in on, the shift that created in your life, this is not about building some kind of an ego-driven brand.

This is about, you've got a message to get out. If you're gonna make an impact at scale, it's gonna go further quicker, cheaper, more effectively. If you, as the leader, are willing to be the messenger, if you're willing to be vulnerable, if you're willing to be authentic. And I think you've done a really great job with that. I'd love to unpack at some point in this conversation,

some of the nuances of what I feel like you've done well with your brand. But I think at a high level, my encouragement to your listeners is similar to decision John made. He didn't lean into that self-talk around, hey, did I miss the boat? Or can I really do this anymore?

The reality is that audience continues to swell for individual mission-driven leaders. And if you can bring that personality, if you can bring value to the table, you're gonna grow quickly, too. Thank you for sharing that, Rusty. And I think one of the key learnings and later on, we can explore more.

When I started this, my natural inclination was to lean heavily on my corporate background. And to go in saying, I was the CIO of this or I was the CEO of that. But what I learned as I was getting further down this path is that's not what people care about. They care about what is your story and how can they identify with you?

A what creates emotions for them is your story and how can they identify with you? What creates emotions for them in your story that wants them to listen to what you have to say? Now, the fact that I had those other accolades is great from the standpoint of depending on what audience I'm speaking to, it gives me some credibility. That's just a small foundation. I think what really matters is that the message that you're putting out there is unique. It's authentic and you're representing your true self. And that's one of the biggest things that I think people fall into a trap of is they try

to regurgitate things that they see around them instead of creating their own uniqueness about something that only they can deliver to the world. And it's typically based on a problem that they previously faced in their life that now they've overcome. And they're an expert at teaching someone else to do the same thing. Not sure what your thoughts are about that. Oh, you nailed it right there. And that is the one of the most common mistakes that I see for leaders, well-meaning, would be thought leaders on their topic area, typically the tendency, unfortunately, is for them to try to play this formal role

of what they think a thought leader should be, or try to regurgitate something that might be somebody else's or water down their personality. And in fact, what works best is completely the opposite. So exactly what John said there and that is I want you to be more of yourself. I want you to lean into the things that in your journey are different. You're perspective. The only reason for me to listen to John's podcast instead of the other thousands in the leadership personal development spaces, because I've got rapport with him, because I enjoy the stories he tells.

I'm leaning in based on his personality. In other words, if you're doing something that you're not gonna get there. My encouragement for people is to lean in, be more of themselves. The other thing that I always encourage John is to bring in personal interests as well. And so a lot of people say,

if I've got a leadership or a culture or whatever their topic area is, that's all I'm going to talk about. And the reality is, people want to know what else you're up to. For me, it's not just the thought leadership, branding, marketing stuff. I'm talking about coaching my sons, little league teams. I'm whining about University of Texas football over the last few years. In other words, bringing in some things that are just really interesting to me. And what I find is the speed to trust for an audience is really accelerated when you're willing to bring that part of yourself. And I guess for you John, I'm

curious, did you go into it with that mindset or did you have to learn that kind of early on as you started creating content? I think it was a little bit of both to be honest, Rusty. I know a lot of people jump into a podcast or into what they're gonna do and they don't put much thought behind it. I actually did a good six to nine months of soul searching because I didn't wanna be one of those podcasts that started and then after 10, 15 episodes stopped.

So I wanted to make sure that when I went into it, I was going into it with the right mindset that I was in it for the long haul, and then I truly understood the enormity of what it was going to take. Now, that was just the starting point, and I have to say when I go back and I listen to my initial episodes,

I cringe because of all the mistakes I make, the way I was saying things, but I also found probably for the first six to seven months that I was doing these shows and I was actually trying to replicate hosts that I admired, whether it was Jay Shetty or Lewis Howes or Ed Millett or Rachel Hollis who's in your backyard. And what I discovered is that a person

doesn't go to on purpose because Barack Obama is on J-Show. Now, he might get some additional listeners than he would have for a typical guest that might not be his name worthy as a former president. But ultimately, the reason people keep coming back is because they like J-Shetty. And they like his message the way he asks questions, the way he interviews, the way he comes across. And I realized that I wasn't truly being authentically me when I really started to change the whole aspect of the podcast to really be focused on helping people find significance

in their life and the power of intentional behavior change. And that became the lens for which I started doing the show and all my solo episodes and the way I asked the questions. It completely changed everything. The popularity of the show went up, my confidence went up because I wasn't trying to emulate someone else. I was just being myself and talking from the heart. And I think people, when there's so many choices out there, they recognize someone who's being authentic versus someone who's not.

So that would be some of my key findings. I see a lot. And I'm glad that you made that pivot so early. And it's a lot more fun as soon as you make that pivot, isn't it? Because it's natural. It's who you are. And the audience can tell really quickly whether or not you're being that. Oh, they absolutely can.

Right. So one of the things I've seen a lot of, and it's actually a core component of the beginning of my book, which comes out here in a few months, is that the gig economy and freelancing, no matter how you look at it, are on the rise. I know I use a ton of freelancing to get this podcast and other things I'm working on off the ground, but I really see a Titanic shift that's happening. I think just as during the agricultural age going into the industrial age, we had individual business owners.

They could have been blacksmiths or printers or whatever you have. I think more and more companies are sick and tired of working for the big institutions and more of them want autonomy and they're going to be solo entrepreneurs for lack of a better word. Do you see the same thing out there and that there's going to be a reshaping of the traditional employer employee relationship? And if so, what are some of the challenges

that you think it might pose to a listener about how they adapt to this new model? I think there's definitely a lot more choice and freedom for smart people in terms of how they want to make a living and in terms of how they want to structure their work, life balance and their work environment. It's been my experience, John, that as a company, you are going to give yourself a competitive advantage in terms of attracting an increasingly fickle workforce if you can create a fantastic culture. If you can create an environment that

people want to be a part of. And I still think that there's going to continue to be a huge advantage for companies that can do that and create the kind of team that people want to continue to be a part of and more of a traditional environment. But yes, more and more opportunity, I'm seeing with our agency, Zilker Media, we have a lot of people that used to have in-house marketing directors or in-house marketing teams that are now going out to find absolute specialists in whether a stock leadership or SEO or all of the different

areas that people look for help on the marketing side. So that is certainly happening quite a bit. And that might be because their CMO decided they wanted to jump out on their own to your point earlier, or it might be because they felt like it was a better fit for the business. So I think there has always been a competitive advantage for companies that build fantastic culture. And I think that will continue to be the case. And I think it's more of a competitive advantage today based on how hard it is to retain good talent

based on all the options that are out there. So my encouragement for leaders that are listening to this is the more you can do on that front, you're gonna give yourself competitive advantage. But again, back to the point we're talking about earlier, if you can build a brand as a servant leader, as a mission driven leader that is much more visible alongside your company, you are going to accelerate trusts with an increasingly skeptical talent base. And again,

John, I think that's what I would go back to for people listening to this is if you're a leader that's in a backseat to your corporate brand, or if you're a team member that's in a backseat to your corporate brand or if you're a team member that's in a backseat to your corporate brand, there's a huge opportunity to give your existing company value by getting more visible, but also for you, personally, it's going to provide a significant amount of leverage over the long term and you're going to have more fun and you're going to make a bigger impact if you're willing to get a bit more visible and serve others at scale. I think that's a perfect backdrop for you to describe for the audience. What is the authority advantage? Sure, so the authority advantage in our new book, co-authored with my good friends,

founder and CEO Forbes Books, Adam Whitty, and the subtitle of this book to me really summarizes it well. And that is, building thought leadership focused on impact, not ego. And I think the big question I would ask people that are listening to this or that are watching this, are you perceived as an operator with something to sell, or are you perceived as a mission driven thought leader with something to teach? And the answer to that question will tell you a lot about whether or not you are accelerating trust before you get in the room.

Again, I talked about this a little bit earlier, John, but what Adam and I have found, and we talked to some of the best leaders in the world behind the scenes, servant leaders that are over-delivering for their team, over-delivering for clients, over-delivering for partners. For many of them, they're consistently told, you're the best kept secret in your industry.

Your company is the best kept secret in this industry. What we often find for the leaders that recognize that, and number one, understand that getting more visible or building thought leadership doesn't mean that you stop over-delivering for your team, or team or that you stop over delivering for your clients or your partners. Those are table stakes as we all know to having a successful business. But if that's all you're doing, you're trying to do for servant leaders that for years, the mention of the phrase, way. And for many of them, that initial recoil keeps them behind the scenes. And it keeps them from making an impact. What Adam and I are showing in this book, we're helping them to build out their map, right?

So their master authority plan. The idea here is there's a way to do this the right way. And there's a way to do this where you focus more on being the messenger Not the message and again as I was mentioning earlier It allows businesses to punch above their weight class in terms of visibility because when you do this you earn Impressions you earn the ability to get in front of people instead of having to pay for those impressions with your corporate brand But also what I find, John, for leaders, if they can get themselves over that mental home and if they can start creating

content, whether it's LinkedIn, podcast, etc. What happens a couple months in is they start hearing from people that say, I made a different decision because of that LinkedIn newsletter that you wrote that I would never have made had I not read it. And now I'm off in this completely different trajectory as a result. And I would guess you get those kind of notes all the time from the podcast, et cetera. It is pretty easy to do this once you start getting those notes. What we find is that getting that leader through those first few months with the right plan is really the hard part and that's the focus of the book. One of the things that you talk about at the beginning of the book is something that you call map or master authority plan and that it's essential to have a map to be an authentic thought leader.

What are some of the key components of a successful map? Sure. I think you are a perfect example of the very first step in a map, and that is to get really clear on your brand. So we define branding in a really simple way. So branding is creating an image in the minds of your audience. There are two really distinct phases today. It's on to creating that initial image. So phase one is what we call pre-engagement. So this is before you and I meet, it's before we work together, it's before we directly interact. So that initial image is not created as a result of you being a great leader or you over-delivering on my expectations. It's created whether we like it or not, page one of Google, right? From there,

if we're lucky, it's been created on your website, on your LinkedIn profile, and that initial image for each person listening to this is either an image that's congruent with what I'm gonna get once I decide to take that interview or to do business with you, or it's an image that's either non-existent because I can't find you, even though I know your name,

or if I can find you, maybe it doesn't really give me a whole lot to differentiate you from the other options I have. In other words, you look like every other operator with a business to grow or with something to sell. Now, the first step that I want people to think about is what we call an online brand on it. And I want you to put yourself in the shoes

of somebody who's been referred to you. Okay, the first thing they're gonna do when they get that referral is go kick the tires on their friend's recommendation. They're gonna make sure their friend is not the outlier and have a great experience with you. And so what I want people to think about is if I pop your name into Google right now,

the very first question is, can you be found? Okay. And if the answer to that is no, there are one of two reasons why either, but you've just intentionally been a ghost online up to this point. And if so, all right, I can get you over that hump today. The second and much more common reason is you have a name that is so common that it's unlikely that you're going to own search for it or you're unlucky enough to share a really unique name with a famous Olympian or an axe murder from the 70s. John is a great example of this. most of the page one search results. And if you think about that name, the analogy I like to use Don is, it's not like a piece of digital real estate. And we look at John Miles, that's a pretty crowded piece of real estate

with a rock star way out in front in terms of visibility. And so what John did was make a decision that a lot of you should be making. And that is, do I need to change my name? In other words, do I need to add a middle initial? So John R. Miles, and what happens when John goes with that middle initial is he walks across the street to a piece of real estate that's empty

with the first brick he lays in the foundation, he owns search. David Mirman Scott, who wrote our forward, his name's David Scott. And what he recognized early on, if he went with that name, people getting referred to him, people who were recommended to him as a speaker, we're never going to find him. Michael B. Jordan, one of the most famous actors in the world, his name is Michael Jordan. And again, he recognized early on.

He was never going to outrun Michael Jordan Jordan who had that big advantage on him. So again, foundationally, if you're listening to this right now, do you have a name that you can own search for? If so, go to godaddy.com or go somewhere and actually buy your name. So rustyshellton.com for me, John, rmiles.com for John, own your name as a piece of real estate. By the way, while you're there, it gets your kids names, get your grandkids names, that real estate's valuable today, it's only going to get more valuable in the future. If it's not available, john, begin my encouragement to do what you did. And that is to go with that middle initial or that middle name.

I have another great example of this. I'm going to just put up this book for those who aren't aware of it, but my friend Scott Miller, who has been with Franklin Covey for decades, goes by Scott Jeffrey Miller, just because there's too many Scott Miller's out there. Honestly, a follow-on question to that is because after I heard you on another podcast, I did exactly what you recommended, and I bought both my kids domain names, but neither one was available and neither one with their middle name or middle initial was available. When it comes down to that, do you have a recommendation on if there is like .net or .org or something

like that available, which extension is the best to use? Well, it's very rare that I have somebody that doesn't have either a full middle name or a middle initial, but in that case, I would fall back on a .net as the next best option in most cases. But I deal you want to have, if you can, a .com, but if you can't have a .com, you go to the .net. Okay. And what do you think about something like John hyphen miles dot com?

The challenge with John hyphen miles dot com is even though you might own that real estate, the problem is the other John miles has so many of the search results that somebody that gets referred to you has got to pack a lunch and go eight pages deep on Google to find our John Miles. And so even if you go with a separate URL, it doesn't change the basic problem, which is the search competition around that brand name. Another thing that you did well from my perspective,

John, passion struck. I love passion struck as a brand name for a lot of different reasons, but from a pure marketing perspective, John, passion struck. I love passion struck as a brand name for a lot of different reasons, but from a pure marketing perspective, the magic of it is similar to James Clears' new book, Atomic Habits. You push two words together that haven't been together, that there's not competition around it, right? How many books have been written on habits through the years? And James Cleared squeezes a word with habits that we haven't heard before. It feels like what it is,

which is an amazing brand new framework. And so similarly with your brand name. And so that's part of what I want people to think about, if they're thinking about writing a book or creating a brand, how much competition is there around that name, but for the basic purpose of kind of that first step before we get to the fun stuff,

doing interviews or creating content foundationally, if you do not have a brand name that you can own, you're gonna go out and create a lot of impressions for people that are never gonna be able to find you unless they just happen to have a direct link that they can click on. And so this sounds in the weeds for some people listening to this. It is so very important to have that as a starting point. And kind of second question for me, John, is once you've got that name that you can

own, when somebody clicks on your LinkedIn profile, when somebody clicks on your website, the next question I want people to ask is, what kind of image are you creating in somebody's minds? And we've got to keep in mind in phase one, people that land on your LinkedIn profile, people that land on your website, there's no image in their mind yet for you, right? It's the very first time they're coming in contact with you. They've just been referred to you.

And so if I get to your LinkedIn and I cannot tell you John how many leaders I get to their LinkedIn and I've got, in that header area, a sunset picture off the coast of California, or I've got some kind of generic corporate logo there. Great picture, it does nothing to build trust with somebody that doesn't yet know you.

And so part of the fine line that we often talk about in terms of that initial phase one image is on one side of the coin, I want the visuals to say what I don't want you to say about yourself, which is top of their category thought leader wrote the book on the topic. In other words, this may I can trust to teach me on this topic. And that might be an action shot of you speaking or accepting an award or with podcasts, ear bones on right in front of a mic. Something in a setting that tells me, okay, this is not an operator who is something to sell. This is something that's about to teach me something. And then the flip side of your content strategy, the entirety of your content strategy from the blog to the podcast and be honest all mission driven thought leadership.

If you never take another step with me, I'm going to leave you better off as a result of having listened to this or read this blog. But as John, people aren't interested in the content until they recognize you're the person to teach them on this topic. And that's why both sides of that point are really important. You brought up lows before or Dell or going in your website, you can see a lot of the logos of some of the really substantial, well-respected companies that you've worked with through the years that you've spoken to. The value in that is what we call authority by association. And that is, I may not know John, I do have an image in my mind for Dell or for Lowe's

or for Kroger or some of the other places where you've taught. And what happens there is your image is along for the ride with the image in my mind for those brands. It's a trust accelerator. And so for people listening to this last thing I'll tie a bow on with this, John, is put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer, a potential team member who lands on your website, who lands on your LinkedIn profile. Are you beating them over the head

with stock photos, generic corporate logo, etc? In other words, images that don't mean anything to them yet, or are you leading with images that associate you and your brand with brands that they already know trust and respect? And what happens there is you accelerate trust to where people start to get immediately interested in what do you have to teach because I see you as somebody that I can trust to teach me. So many good points that you brought out there and I have to say when I found passion struck, I was shocked that it existed primarily because there's a perfume called passion struck and when I first started I really had some doubts even when I got the domain could I ever become number one search term when you got Victoria's secret having a perfume of the same name. And it took a while, I have to admit, but I remember about six to eight months into the journey after posting religiously between the podcast and blogs and

other things. Eventually I started to see us or eyes and today we are the number one search term when it comes to passion struck. So it can be done even if you think that there is a factor and you are right that I did change to my middle name because of that famous musician because I thought it was going to be just too hard to try to compete with that. And I would have been just one person out of many in that category. I also think it's important that you brought up that people really need to hone in on that image of who they are and then exploit it

for the best of their abilities in the service of others because it's one thing to have a background, but it's another thing to use it to help a person who's in need or to service mankind. And I think that's something I really look at when I'm looking at people who are out there building a brand is what they're doing just to make money. Or do they really have an inherent authentic purpose to serving their audience and to giving them something that can help them take their lives to the next level.

I think those are all very important points. Resty, based on what you've seen, what do you think it may be one or a couple of things are the most overlooked facet or facets when it comes to building a personal brand? Well, I think LinkedIn, for people that are listening to this, LinkedIn for many of you is like the most obvious thing to think about here, but I find for a lot of leaders,

they get hung up by trying to jump right to the more flashy stuff. So right to the podcast, right to the YouTube channel, right to launching a personal brand website. By the way, those are all great things, but for most people listening to this, the first step to actually owning search around your name is gonna be upgrading that LinkedIn profile.

And for many of you, if I search it right now, that might be the only thing that comes up on a search for your name connected back to you. And so part of what I wanna encourage you to think about is LinkedIn used to be essentially a virtual resume. There wasn't a lot to it. LinkedIn today, John, as you will know, is really, in a lot of ways ways your own base as a leader,

as a professional and the LinkedIn profile in large part looks like a website now. You've got that hero shot landscape visual right away. You can go with the full bio there, etc. And so I would actually say the very first step in that I'll take you 30 minutes this afternoon for many of you is number one, let's figure out, do you need to add a middle initial or a middle name to that brand name so that you can own search around it? And if so, let's go with that. But going through that LinkedIn profile,

give me a full narrative bio there, something that really walks that line between establishing credibility with what I talked about earlier in terms of authority by association, but talks about your why for so many leaders, you go to LinkedIn and a title is CEO XYZ company president XYZ company and again, there's nothing wrong with that. That's the facts, but if that's all you're giving me. You're given that stack of commoditization. If that's what we've got and we've got the corporate logo up top. My encouragement for people is let's shift the image to be somebody with something to teach with the right kind of visual. Ideally, it's a speaking shot or you in a setting that can notes authority. Give me some featured links in there. You can give me a link to that 40 under 40 list maybe that you were nominated for a couple years ago or an article you wrote for an industry

publication. Do a couple of those things that help somebody say, okay, wow, I'm really excited to meet this. This is somebody who's clearly a leader in their field. And then the content that goes from their Jonathan is all giving value. It's that blend of what you talked about. Stuff you're going to have fun with and that you enjoy talking about, but also stuff that's really gonna make a positive impact on your audience. So I would say LinkedIn, for most people listening to this,

it either upgrading the current LinkedIn profile that you have or really creating something a little more substantial there. Okay, and for the listener who might not understand the media landscape today, can you go through what's the difference between rented, earned, and owned media? Sure, absolutely. So we have three categories of media in the landscape today.

We have rented media, we have earned media, and we have owned media. First category, they're rented media. So the definition there, these are all of the messages that go out where you control the content, but somebody else owns the audience, somebody else owns the real estate. So advertising is the obvious in that category, the other big one that lives in that rented category are your social media channels. So you two or LinkedIn or Instagram are all rented media assets. John, you've got a substantial audience on Instagram on really across social media. That is a fantastic asset. It's a number and we want each of those audiences to get bigger, but we got to be crystal clear that we've essentially gathered an audience on dirt that Instagram owns or dirt that LinkedIn owns. And again, it's not that it's a bad thing, but we're completely behold to Instagram's willingness to let us get to that audience or LinkedIn's willingness to let us get to that audience.

And so what Adam and I talk a lot about in the book, anytime, ideally, that you have a message going out, either on rented media or on earned media, you really want to do two things. So number one, obviously, we want to over-deliver with the message itself. We want to give a great speech, give a great interview, obviously. The second thing we're trying to do, how do I give this leader who is reading this article on real estate Forbes owns or listening to this interview on real estate, Lewis House owns, how do I give them a reason to get up out of their seat and follow me back

to real estate that I own? In other words, your website to get them on your email list so that we can extend our interaction with them. And I'll talk a little more about that here in a second. Second category is earned media. So earned media are all of the messages that go out on real estate, somebody else owns where the impression is you earned that message.

So PR interviews, speaking engagements, referrals, online reviews, awards, your book, all of that stuff is earned media. As we all know, there's nothing that does more for your credibility or your authority than earned media, right? A message just hits us differently there. As we all know, there's nothing that does more for your credibility or your authority than earned media, right? A message just hits us differently there. For that reason, John, I see a lot of people make the mistake of putting all of their eggs in that basket. In other words,

focusing only on referrals or only on PR, etc. And the risk factor is in that earned category, you don't have any direct control over whether or not the message goes out. Somebody else has to do something for that message to go out. So I do think for most people listening to this, earned media probably is the biggest area of opportunity, but I don't want you to focus only there. The last category really briefly is owned media. So that's all of the assets where you fully own the connections to your audience. This is your website, this is your blog, this is your email list. If you have a physical location and office or a retail location.

When I walk in the door, what I see in the wall is also owned media. So the big thing done that we encourage people to audit as it relates to their own media, most websites I see are basically virtual brochures. In other words, I can get there, I can read about your background, I can learn about the services you have to offer but when it comes down to it, I'm either ready to call or I'm ready to click there to get the appointment set or I'm not.

The reality is most people that come to your website are not there looking for your phone number, they're not there looking for your phone number, they're not there looking for how to set an appointment, they're looking to figure out, okay, who is this guy? Right? Is he in it for the right reasons? Is there something different here? Is there something of value? And so my encouragement for people listening to this is your goal when you get somebody to that website

is to extend your interaction with them. In other words, how do I give them a reason to get on this email list so I can nurture that relationship? So I can give them value so I could serve them. And over time, obviously, we want to move them toward some kind of action, whether it's buying your book, bringing you in to speak, book it in appointment, et cetera. And the last thing I'll mention

there, John, is we have seen the most success with interactive content. So offering a free assessment or a free quiz as a way for people to dip their toe in the water with the topic area. Also, free downloads or white papers can work well, but you want some kind of offer or exchange where you give somebody a reason to take a seat on that owned media real estate so you can nurture the relationship with them. Thank you for going through that. And one tip I would just give listeners if they are starting, whether it's a podcast or something else. I made the mistake at first when I was putting my show notes out on the hosting platform that I was putting everything in the kitchen sink as part of the description. And I

remember looking at Jordan Harbinger's and it was just so small and I called him up and since we're friends I said, well, why is it that you do that? Don't you want people to understand more about these episodes? He goes, I do, but everything I do is to drive them to my website because that is everything Jordan Harbinger there. And so I'd rather have them go there so they can discover more about me. I can sell them courses, teach them additional things, introduce them to my sponsors, whatever it is. And so that's a change I put in about 18 months ago as well. So I think that's a great way where you can go from the rented media to the own media

through that technique. And can you also elaborate on the concept of authority by association and it's importance in connecting with an audience that's already paying attention, the specific content that might be out there? Sure. So authority by association, again, in phase one, is the single most important principle that exists in terms of building trust with an audience that doesn't yet know you.

And again, what I find from a lot of leaders and a lot of companies, they are leading with visuals that don't mean anything at all to their audience, whether it's a headshot, whether it is a stock photo or your corporate logo, again, that doesn't mean anything if somebody hasn't worked with you before. And so what does mean something is your association with brands that do create an image in their mind that they do already know trust and respect. Just as an example, John,

I was talking to a leader the other day who had done a TEDx speech before. And the only reason I found out of you had done a TEDx speech is because he told me about five minutes into the conversation. And I went to his LinkedIn and in his header area, there was a picture of him speaking. Clearly, in hearing from him, he said it was from the TEDx event but had he not told me I would have no idea that was from the TEDx event and so I encouraged him to zoom out on this picture so that TEDx logo is visible when somebody sees the picture and think about the difference there John. So the first picture, cool, looks like a nice speaking picture. The second picture, I can see, okay, well, I don't know this guy. I do have an image in my mind for somebody that's on stage at TEDx. And so what

happens is his image is along for the ride with the image in my mind for that brand. It's a trust accelerator. I listen to your interview with Arthur Brooks from a couple of weeks ago that I thought was fantastic. Harvard being the place that he teaches that logo and that brand says everything I need to know even if I've never heard of Arthur Brooks before. And so this for a lot of people listening to this tactically, the value in getting quoted in Forbes, the value in being featured on your local CBS station is not so much the people that are going to see that interview that day or the people are going to read that interview that day. It's the ability to remarket that logo on a logo belt on your corporate website where I can see, okay, well, John's been featured in XYZ and it's irrational but exceedingly effective as a way for somebody to essentially build trust with you so that they become interested in your content. They become

interested in your story. And again, tactically, one way to do it is the speaking picture. Another way to do it is to think about, okay, have you been featured in certain media? Have you won certain awards? Have you spoken on certain stages? And if we don't have those logos yet, my wholehearted encouragement to you is, there's a huge opportunity to differentiate your company from all of the others in your space if you can go out and get that stuff.

And again, we talk a lot about that, talking about the book. Resty, since you brought up Harvard, as I was looking into your background, you actually spoke at Harvard when you were just 23 years old. And since you have done a lot of keynote speaking in the past, what is your advice for aspiring thought leaders on establishing themselves as sought-after speakers?

So I think one of the most important things that I see, John, is you've got to create an image of somebody that's been there, done that as a speaker. So I talked to a lot of leaders who want to do more speaking or have done a little bit and they want to go to the next level. But when that meeting planner goes and Google's their name, there's nothing that's creating an image for them of somebody that's actually done some speaking or somebody that's been there done that it's the first thing I would encourage for people is if you are trying to speak at events and the link that is getting sent to the meeting planner for that event is your corporate bio on your company web page, that meeting planner is forwarding your email to their sponsorship committee to try to sell you a lunch and learn or try to sell you a table on in the trade booth area. Instead what you want to do is you want to create an image on LinkedIn within your website of somebody that is an active speaker. So I think that's one of the key things that I don't encourage

people to think about is, are you actually creating an image before you get in the room of somebody who has done some speaking? If you haven't done much of it yet, let's pull together an event with even just a small amount of people, the best $300 you'll spend in terms of marketing as a speaker is on a great photographer to take some really good stage shots of you.

If we have to do it at your church, we have to do it at a local community center and you're just getting some friends out there. That's a starting point and it's going to be the kind of image I'm going to constantly be wanting you to level up as you're on the next best stage, as you're on the next best one from there. The second thing that I would say John is just in my experience on the speaking front, the only thing that Trump's nerves is preparation. And so you mentioned that Harvard talked and I did, I gave that speech to the wall in my office

for two months straight ahead of that speech in Harvard. And when I hit the stage, I've never been so nervous in my life. I was probably visibly trembling a little bit up there, but I had that speech on autopilot. And it went great and it gave me so much confidence. So whether your audience is getting ready for a TV interview, a speaking engagement, et cetera, nothing Trump's nerves like preparation of my experience. I'm just smiling because when I was a CIO at Dell, I did a lot of work with Salesforce and the Salesforce execs asked me to be a keynote speaker during Dreamforce.

And so if anyone's been to Dreamforce, they're about 50,000 people only in the audience. And not only was I doing a keynote, I was doing the opening keynote with Mark Benioff. a keynote, I was doing the opening keynote with Mark Benioff. Oh my gosh. There for about 25, 30 minutes. And prior to going out on the stage, I had met Will I Am and Neil Young in the back and a couple other people who were there to support Mark. And Will I Am happens to be in the front row of the whole auditorium. So I get on stage, Mark is there. We have this whole script that he's

supposed to be going through that's on the teleprompters, and I had enough experience with him to understand that he likes to ad lib. But in front of everyone, he didn't ask me a single question that we had rehearsed. He completely ad libbed the whole thing, and in the middle of it, will I am, is in the front row, trying to get us both to crack up by doing different hand signals at us and had it not been the fact that I had been prepared. I knew what I was going to talk about and I had familiarity with Mark. I would have blown the whole thing, but I think so many of the things that you said were so important and that was the practice, the presence, not letting myself get caught up by the audience, but

realizing I was there to serve them instead of trying to serve myself or Dell in that circumstance. But a great example. That last point you made to me is such an important one for people listening to this and that is the best way to disarm anxiety or nerves before you hop on stage is just reminding yourself you're there to serve the audience. And all of that stuff you're telling yourself is going to keep you from serving that audience. And if you go out there with just the focus on giving value and serving the audience, the rest of the stuff is going to come along the way.

But I think for so many speakers that I coach up and talk to, that mindset is a fantastic way to will yourself out there early on. Russ, I was gonna throw out a name to you. Someone who is very notable to the Austin area and that is Matthew McConaughey. And the reason I'm throwing them out is I think over the past three years, Matthew has done an incredible job of rebranding or reinventing

his image, one through his book, but he has really become one of the most sought after self-imperiment people on the market. And you historically would have never thought that he would be sharing the same stage with Tony Robbins. You would have thought that they came from two different stratospheres. Can you just go through given what we've been talking about some of the things that he actually employed that allowed him to go from point A to point B? Well for your audience that's listening to this, I'm wearing a University of Texas polo here and he's our minister of culture for the University of Texas. He's got a formal title with UT. So Matthew McConaughey, I think it's done a couple of things that we can learn from.

Number one, I don't know that there's a better example that exists of being more of yourself in terms of the way that you approach serving others. He is so authentic. He is so genuine with what he does and people can feel it. So you can tell he's having fun with it. He's not trying to be something that he's not, which I think happened through a large part

of his acting career where he was playing roles or being this movie star that maybe it wasn't quite as natural for him as being the matrimicana that we all know and love from daysazing Confused and some of the other roles that he's had. So that would be one thing. Green lights his book. I think it's a fantastic example of vulnerability

and the willingness to be honest and the willingness to take people behind the scenes. And in my experience, the best way to teach others is to take your audience to the biggest mistake or the biggest challenge that you ever had with that particular issue. Start them off there and then work them back to the aha. In many cases, number one, they're going to lean in to learn from you because they can tell that you're being honest with them, you're being authentic with them, but also usually those stories or

what actually create a bobby pin for the lesson itself. In other words, that's what we remember that takes us back to the lesson that you just taught us. And those two things I think have been really huge for for Matthew and I think a lot of the leaders listening to this can learn from is you don't have to play a role that you think your audience is expecting. You don't have to act like you've done things perfectly. And in fact, if you do that, you're probably going to get dismissed pretty quickly, but lean into to more of who you are and be willing to be vulnerable. Okay, I'm going to just put this out to the universe. I keep asking for Matthew McConaughey to come on this podcast because the listeners keep asking for it.

So I keep asking he keeps saying no, but one of these days it is going to happen. So just putting it out there. And then lastly, how can listeners at any stage of their career benefit from understanding and applying the principles of the authority advantage into their daily lives? And what perhaps is the best first step to get started? Sure. Why I think the first steps that we talked about earlier that are foundational, to their daily lives. And what perhaps is the best first step to get started? Sure, why? I think the first steps that we talked about earlier

that are foundational, get your name right, make sure you're creating the right image, I think, would be really the starting point. But the second thing I want you to think about on the content side. So obviously, this comes down to, for most people listening to this, this is stuff you're communicating right now, right?

It's just happening behind the scenes. It's happening in a boardroom. It's happening in a prospect meeting. It's happening as you're coaching your team up. You're teaching people right now. You're just doing it in a format that's a one-to-one or one-de-few. And the challenge there is it's not making the impact you could be making. As a leader, it's also not building the kind of leverage that it could be building for you

that are going to drive a lot of opportunities in the future with your career. And so my encouragement on the content side is to look for the center of concentric circles. And one of those circles is going to be format that you enjoy. So for a lot of people that are speakers or naturally gifted that way,

podcasts is the right format or videos on LinkedIn or the right format for others, they prefer to write. So start off, what are you going to actually enjoy in terms of content format? And then you want to match that up with where your audience is looking for information. So again, LinkedIn, I talked about earlier, platforms used to be specific to the type of media. In other words, YouTube used to be for videos. Instagram used to be for pictures, blog used to be for text. As John, everything's for everything now,

but because videos pushing the same way, it's pushing the LinkedIn, it's pushing the YouTube, et cetera. And you can still distribute widely with your content, no matter the format you like. But my encouragement is always start with something that you're going to enjoy because that's going to help you get through those first couple of months where there may not be a lot of feedback yet. There may not be a lot of immediate gratification yet. And so if you're doing something you enjoy, that can be really helpful. The last thing I want to mention, John, is on the content side,

I find for a lot of leaders, the best way to think about it is to focus in on relationship-driven content. In other words, in your topic area, if you can interview others, if you can give them a chance to tell their story, if you're writing a LinkedIn newsletter and you can spotlight leaders or companies that are doing what you're recommending really well. That does a couple things that really serves your audience, but also the more other people you involve in your content strategy, whether it's Chapter 7 of your book, whether it's a podcast episode, et cetera, you are essentially empowering people to refer you in a way that they're winning as they do it. One of our clients is one of the fastest growing regional banks in the state of Texas, John,

you go in the bank branch in downtown Austin, it's all the stuff you'd expect from a modern bank branch. You turn to the right, there's a podcast studio in the bank branch. And what's happening with that podcast is the president of the bank is using it as a way to serve his audience, but also build really strategic peer-to-peer interactions with people that can turn around and share that interview, talk about the bank, do business with the bank, etc. And so I see that work really well as well. Okay, great advice. And Rusty, for the audience members, where's the central place they can go to learn more about you, Zilker Media, the book, etc. Sure, I do a lot of speaking. I love doing workshops and I love speaking at Our agency, as you mentioned, is zilkermedia,

Z-I-L-K-E-R, media.com. And then for leaders that want to get a copy of the Authority Advantage, if you go to theauthorityadvanagebook.com, and just fill in a little bit of information, there we'll send you a free digital copy of the book. It'll go a lot deeper on some of the stuff that John and I have touched on today. Rusty, it was an honor to have you and it was definitely worth the wait to get you on the

program. Such amazing guidance you gave today to the audience so much that they could take away. So thank you so much. John, thank you. I really appreciate you having me. It's been a lot of fun. I absolutely love that interview with Rusty Shelton and I wanted to thank Rusty and Zilker Media for him coming on the show today. Links to all things Rusty will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature here

on the show. All proceeds go to supporting the show. Videos are on YouTube at both John Armyles and PassionStruck Clips. I have extremely exciting news that my brand new book, PassionStruck 12 Powerful Principles to unlock your purpose and ignite

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live intentionally at either passionstruck.com or JohnRMiles.com. You're about to hear a preview of the PassionStruck podcast interview that I did with Michelle Mace Curran, a combat veteran and former F-16 pilot. Michelle's story is testament to the unwavering power of perseverance and determination. Michelle's story is testament to the unwavering power of perseverance and determination.

Michelle most recently commanded the skies as the opposing soloist in the Thunderbirds before becoming the lead solo number five for the 2020-2021 air show season. A lot of times people will be like you flew for the Thunderbirds the best pilots in the whole air force. Of course we like to be called that but it's not necessarily true. You're not always hiring the best hands-on pilot. There's like a certain level of proficiency that you of course have to have an aptitude to learn the maneuvers, but so much of it comes down to how you will fit into that team dynamic. We were on the road 240 days a year, so you are with those people far more than you're with your family. You are in those situations where you have to trust your life in their hands on a daily basis. You can't have personality conflicts that are creating like poison in the well that are just spreading through the organization.

That can be the most catastrophic thing to flying a safe demonstration and a good demonstration. So a ton of weight is put on creating the best team dynamic. The fee for this show is that you share it with family or friends when you find something useful or interesting. If you know someone who is really interested to how you build a personal brand, then definitely share today's episode with them. The greatest compliment that you can give us

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