REAL AF with Andy Frisella - The Power of Personal Branding, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO123

Episode Date: January 31, 2017

What is personal branding? Is it only important for a chosen few or everyone? Recently, Andy Frisella was featured in an Inc. Magazine article on the topic. Whether it is being mindful of the online presence you have cultivated over time, transferring solid social skills from real life to digital platforms, or creating content that is an authentic reputation of who you really are, successful entrepreneurs have to be aware of the critical issues connected to personal branding. 

What is up guys you're listening to the MFCEO project I'm Andy I'm your host and I am the motherfucking CEO guys if this is your first time listening welcome we're gonna talk about some important practical steps today it's Tuesday that's what we normally do on Tuesdays on Thursdays we're gonnas, we're going to punch you right in the face with some motivation. So we get two different styles of content every week. Do we do this for free? The only thing I ask of you guys is if you enjoy the podcast, if you've got content that helped you during this podcast, I ask that you share with one of your friends. As always, I'm joined by my co-host, Vaughn, the pastor of disaster.

What's up, my man? Hey, man. I'm excited to be rubbing elbows with the titans of industry. Hey. Hey. Are you going to brag on yourself? I don't brag, man. Well, okay.

Pretty excited about your article in Ink. Yeah. It's Ink-credible. Yeah. Totally Ink-t Ink. Yeah, it was cool. It's Ink-credible. Yeah, totally Ink-tastic. Yeah. It's cool. It was a nice little feature.

Yeah. I think the content of the article is what's important. Yeah. Considering, I think that's what we're going to talk about today, just because it's a good time. If you hadn't seen the article, it's on it was on the home page uh for about a week um i got the link to it on my facebook page and i'll probably post it on instagram too but the basis of the article is this personal branding is very fucking important okay so many people take

personal branding as if it's for other people and they think that it's for celebrities or it's for influencers or for people who are becoming something and so instead of like being the driver of the car they decide they're going to be a passenger and they're going to be an observer you know they're going to be a fan in the baseball stadium instead of a player but what you have to realize is that everybody's a player now. It doesn't matter if you're a CEO, if you're a famous actor, if you're a famous influencer, or if you're just going to be an employee and that's what you're going to do. You still have to have a personal brand and whether you realize it or not, you do have a personal brand and that personal brand consists of the social content that you put out on various

platforms. The first thing I do when I go to hire someone, I don't care what the position is, is not to look at the resume. That's how it's been for the last 75, 80, 100 years. Now, the very first thing myself and most companies do is they go to people's social outlets. They go to their Facebook, they go to their Instagram, they go to Twitter, they go to people's social outlets. They go to their Facebook, they go to their Instagram, they go to Twitter, they go to their Snapchat, and they see what kind of person they're dealing with. All right. And so many people discount personal branding as if it's for other people, when in reality, it could be the very thing that gets you the job or gets you the raise or causes you to make that next step in your

career. And I think that a lot of people and a lot of you guys listening now, you really have no fucking clue what you're doing when it comes to branding yourself. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Absolutely. You kind of anticipated my first question, but guys, if you listen to the podcast for any length of time, you know that one of the things we like to do is dust off shopworn phrases and murder cliches. And one of the typical cliches, obviously, in the success space and in the entrepreneurial space is develop a personal brand. And I know that you hate it when people use phrases that they don't really understand, like self-awareness. So you already got into a little bit of my question but it's you know before we go much further what how do you understand personal branding you mentioned it's the content you put out there that reflects this is an easy way this

is an easy way to explain it 20 years ago when there was no social media all right if somebody put a magazine article out and there was a picture of somebody and you really thought that was a cool picture, that picture said a few different things to you, all right, and whatever that picture said to you is what you interpreted that person to be, all right? Now, they could be totally different. They could be the exact opposite, as a matter of fact, of what the picture said. But because the picture was posed in a certain way or taken in a certain light or, you know, it expressed a certain tone or feel, your interpretation of that person's brand was a certain way. Now, fast forward the

20, 30 years since that time when it used to be like that, now there's a lot more things that develop somebody's interpretation of you than just a photograph. Now it's what you say on Facebook. Now it's what you post on Instagram. Now it's what you post on your Snapchat. It's not just, you know, a picture. It's all this content that comes together to create something that people interpret you in terms of what you are or what you aren't. And if I'm hiring somebody, it's extremely valuable tool. And I'm telling you right now, and I'm stressing this on the people who aren't actually entrepreneurs, but they're

here for the personal development side. If you're not developing a brand, if you're not careful about what you're putting out, if you're not conscious about what you're putting out on a regular basis, you're likely hurting your chances to move forward in other areas of life. So I would say your personal brand is just a culmination of everything that you let people see about you in the public okay yeah so so would another way to think about that yeah how how mindless people are about what they put out you know they share uh you know certain content or they say certain things or they complain when they're emotional or they, you know, they do pity party shit or, you know, all kinds of goofy things that people do because they feel like this is a social outlet. And here's what these people say.

They say, well, that's but I'm using it for this. Well, just because you decide you want to use a screwdriver to hammer nails doesn't mean that's the right fucking tool for that. Right. OK, the social media is a branding space. You might think you're somebody who's a lurker, somebody who doesn't really put out much content, or somebody who doesn't use it for professional, but are you able to be there

when the conversation is had about your brand to explain that you don't take your brand seriously? Think about that. See what I'm saying? Yeah. So absolutely. Taking control of everything out there that contributes to your overall online presence. Right, because people are watching.

Yeah. And it's going to end up flowing down to your income level eventually. Right. It might not be today. It might not be your very next opportunity. But eventually, our value in terms of the marketplace is going to not be our resume, our degree, where we went to school, who our fucking parents are. It's going to be how influential you are on social media. And it's already becoming that. So if you're not

working on this in a conscious way right now, you're way behind the game. You need to catch up. Right. So we're going to talk about the issue of authenticity down the road here a little bit, but right off the bat, I feel like we need to make a distinction, if for no other reason than the asterisk holes among us, that what you are not saying, there's two different things here.

There's people who want to approach it from the standpoint, I'm going to curate this reputation and be very careful about what I put on social media, but it's not an accurate representation of them it's them being fake and putting something out there that's not what you're saying you're saying just be really careful about putting things out there right because you're going to be judged by them is that what you're yes you know because I don't want you I don't want someone to come come away saying wait okay so Andy you're saying I just have to

carefully uh construct this. Why would you complain in front of fucking, let's say you have 500 people that look at you, which isn't very much. Would you stand in front of 500 people on a stage and say what you're about to say on the internet? Would it help you or hurt you? That's a good question. Yeah. Because that's what you're doing.

Yeah. All right. So stop the fucking nonsense. Stop with the candy crush and the fucking bullshit. You know, and remember, now it's not just what you say. It's what you like, too. Right. Right.

You know, you have to be conscious of it. It's not something that people are conscious of yet. They think that Facebook and Instagram and all these tools, which is what they are, tools, are toys. And they're not toys. They're tools. Right. So before we get much further, I'll ask a question that i already know the answer do the same rules apply in direct messaging yes because people could snapshot your shit and show it to everybody

that's what i don't think people understand no they don't dude yeah um okay well let's talk a little bit about so it's clear from anybody you you know, if you read the article, which guys do, we'll throw up a link to it on the Inc. website, but we'll throw a link to it from our website on this particular episode page. But it's clear from the article that you believe, obviously, personal branding is something we should consider essential, not optional. But just playing devil's advocate, you know, Gary Vee has a personal brand. As far as I know, Warren Buffett does not have a personal brand in the sense that he's not out there creating the same kind of content that Gary is or using the same kind of platforms. And yet Warren Buffett clearly is far more wealthy than Gary. So in what sense, like, do you really believe like literally everybody in business needs to actively create this personal brand and tie it into their business? Or do you

think it is optional just depending on what, let's say what area that you're in or what, what field of industry you're in? You have to remember that we're in a transition phase. Okay. You've got a guy like Warren Buffett, who's made most of his money, you know, at least created most of his momentum before social media era. To say that he doesn't have a personal brand is inaccurate. He does have a personal brand. What do you think of Warren Buffett when you think of him? Billionaire. And what else? I think of investor. I think of a very smart, meek, but incredibly shrewd businessman. Right. I'm actually blanking the name of his.

Is it Pricewaterhouse? No, it's Berkshire Hathaway. Yeah, yeah. How about any stock market TV show? Yeah. Yeah, my point is that he's got a personal brand. Right. And you know what it is. Right. is right okay now Gary is in a different era

right Gary is in an era of social media so he's maximizing the tools available to him so while Gary you know is not as worth as much as Warren Buffett he's way more relevant right now in terms of his opinions on anything business-wise right and that's where the that's where the power lies. You know, you could argue, you could make some, I know people argue, oh, Warren could buy Gary. Yeah, he could, but he's not gonna. Right. You know?

Right. Right. So who do you see more of? Who do you recognize more? Who do you listen to more? Who's more relevant? You know, right now, Gary's more relevant because he's worked on his personal brand. And while he may not be, you know, Warren Buffett's fucking 80 years old. Gary's 40. So we're going on his personal brand and while he may not be you

know Warren Buffett's fucking 80 years old Gary's 40 so we're gonna see where Gary is in 40 years right that's the point yeah so basically your thought is if I mean you like to to uh use tires as an example so if you're the CEO of a multinational tire company your take on it is you better cultivate a personal brand, like actively doing what you're doing with social media followers and cranking out content. I'll just say this. There's a lot of guys who I talk to that they say, oh, I don't want to mess with that because blah, blah, blah.

They've been in business for a number of years. They're very successful. And they don't see it as something they need to do because today they're making money. But what they don't see is that young, hungry, active guy out there who's running a tire chain, who's starting up his personal brand, who's going to become the relevant voice, an expert voice in that space, who's going to have the most influential voice when he says, hey, this tire sucks and this tire is great. That's what they're going to sell. know because he's complacent now with the way that he's making money his his ability to influence people five years from now

or compete five years from now is gonna be tremendously hindered from what it is now right we're in a transition phase we're in a transition it's not the matter of what is actually you know know, relevant now, like big CEO doesn't want to have his social brand right now could still, he's still going to do well for a number of years. But we're talking to people who we're not talking to these motherfuckers on us. We're talking to people who are wanting to build something. Right. And that's how you can attack and be on the offense by developing an effective personal brand over the course of time. Do you think the people that are hesitant to do it are truly underestimating the fact that people are powerfully influenced

by at least a perceived connection with somebody through social media? I mean, do they just not see that that really is going to influence people? No, it's like anything. They don't think it's for them. They think it's for other people. You know, running a multi-million dollar company is for other people. I'm just a middle management guy. I don't need to have social media. What happens when a middle management guy who doesn't have social media goes up against a middle management guy who has social media in the space and a voice in the space of management and has become an expert on managing people, writing a blog and managing people, does YouTubes about managing people. What happens then?

The guy we know is supposed to be social because it's not for him because he's just a middle manager and loses his fucking job to the guy who's an expert. Right. So, and that's happening every day. Yeah.

I can tell you right now, on a basic employee level, our company hires people based off their social media as a huge aspect a huge aspect i don't give a fuck if you went to college i don't care if you have a master's degree i don't care if you're a phd i don't fucking care i care about if you're influential in our industry right right that makes total sense and i'm talking about 10 to 12 $12 an hour entry-level job, guys. I'm not talking about career positions.

That's happening now. That mentality, that way of filtering out employees is already happening, and people don't realize it. So next time you post on your social media about your boyfriend being a jerk and this and that, just remember people are going to see that. Right, Right. So, I mean, if you think about it, this really shouldn't even be an argument we're having with anybody in terms of the validity and the importance of this, of developing the personal brand. I mean, completely all policies, politics issues aside, we had two

candidates in the last election. One of them was way more active on social media than the other. Like personally, not just on Facebook. Donald Trump won the election on social media. He did. Period. Which is, frankly, is how Obama won it. But Donald Trump took it to a next level that instead of just using the platforms, he personally was engaging people directly through the use of Twitter.

And I don't care what you think about donald trump it was absolutely brilliant it's brilliant it's absolutely brilliant brilliant for anybody yeah it's brilliant for anybody um okay so we're going to go to best practices in a second but let's start with basic principles see here i want to say something real quick because back to the gary vaynerchuk warren buffett thing yeah look execution in the real world is never going to be replaced and this is something that people think like oh you develop personal brand and all this shit happens and you make lots of money no that's not how it works execution of the real world is never going to be replaced it can never be beat it can never be um you know defeated in terms of where you're going to do well and grow so you have to shake hands you have to meet people you have to get in with the right people're going to do well and grow. So you have to shake hands.

You have to meet people. You have to get in with the right people. You have to do the work and all the other shit that we always talk about. But what personal branding does is it allows you to get those opportunities much more quickly. That makes total sense. Yeah, it makes total sense. So in terms of basic principles, like let's say you've got a bunch of hungry young bucks in front of you. They say, teach us how to develop a personal brand.

Lay down some basic principles to get them started. Well, first off, you have to decide what it is you stand for. Okay, so it takes some self-awareness. It takes some reflective time. What are you trying to do? What are you trying to accomplish? And what do you stand for? What are you interested in?

What are you interested in is a very, very crucial question that because usually when you're interested in things, you already know quite a few things about those things. So you're sort of an expert, right? Most people are a lot more of an expert than they think they are. It's just that they suffer from imposter syndrome where they think that like they don't know and they need somebody to come by and tell them shit. Right. So you have to look at like what you're interested in what you're trying to accomplish where are your skills what content do you have to offer what value can you offer you know and people have a hard time saying that because they always feel like they're not qualified to start a brand because you know i'm not uh you know worth two or i'm

not worth 10 million dollars or i'm not making you know this or that or i'm not credible here because i've never been recognized by forbes or whatever it doesn't fucking matter you're gonna establish yourself as an expert perception is reality and you know coming up with that brand has to i can't tell you like where exactly your brand's gonna fit but what i could tell you is is that it's going to be what you're interested in because that's what's going to be the easiest thing for you to become an expert on okay and then you want to you want to backtrack from you know where you want this brand to take you what do you want why are you doing this how are you trying to use this to uh to project you know and and get your career on the right path how and then work backwards from

that you see what i'm saying right so so first two principles determine what you have to offer you know, and get your career on the right path. And then work backwards from that. You see what I'm saying? Right. So first two principles, determine what you have to offer. And secondly, determine where you want to go. Right. Exactly. Yeah.

So, I mean, and that's different for everybody, obviously. Yeah. You know, but there's tons and tons of people out there who have made huge amounts of, I mean, dude, Furious Pete. He's a competitive eater he's got a huge YouTube channel makes millions of dollars off of YouTube by eating shit

I mean like eating like you know like Kobayashi like fucking hot dogs fast he holds all these world records for food he's a friend of mine and like dude

the guy makes millions of dollars by eating okay now he's got a clothing line he's got a clothing line. He's got a supplement line. He's got all these other things that he built off his social media that he knew. He had this little weird skill.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. That was interesting. Yeah. That's it. I mean, that's it. Right.

And it's a reminder to anybody who thinks, well, this odd thing about me, I don't know that I could monetize off of it. Yeah, you could. It's just a weird party trick. Yeah. That all of a sudden turned into a fucking, you know, a booster to real business. Right. Right. So along with the idea of what, what do I offer? I know, you know, if, if people go to your, uh, supplement superstores website, and I'm sure it's on your first forum website too, but

there's actually a page that says the S2 story. And I love that because I think that's a huge part of the personal brand is knowing how to mine your story for the salient points that are going to help you connect with people. And you've done that with the story about the scar, with the story about the Pistain mattresses. You do that really well. You pluck stories from your life and you're able to to apply those, you know, just generally. Here's what's funny about that is that people tell they're like, oh, Andy, you're so good at telling stories. No, I'm not. I just tell my story. Right. You're just afraid to tell yours.

You're good at telling your story. That's right. Yeah. You don't think you're interesting enough. You don't think you're smart enough. You don't think you deserve to be or on that level. But the thing is, is that nobody's going to tell your story except you nobody's going to come along and pull you out and say we need to tell your story right it's not going to happen man it happens in the fucking movies so it's still you start until you start telling it and getting some people interested in it and like dude the only way people are going to be interested in your story is if it's real and it's from the heart if it's bullshit people will know right you know but everybody has challenges they've overcome.

Everybody has things they're working on. Everybody has things they want to be and they're all too fucking scared to say what they are. Right. And that's the problem. Right. And guys, if you're working on your personal brand and you're thinking of developing your story,

let me tell you from my background as a writer, what makes the most compelling content is conflict. It always is conflict. I mean, think of any movie you ever watch. If there's no conflict, it's a boring movie. So if you're looking at your personal story, you're looking at your background, you're trying to figure out

what are the ways that I can connect with people, look for the points of conflict. Look for the pain. Just like you getting stabbed. That's a point of conflict. You wrestling with... No, you said something good there. Look for the pain.

Yeah, look for the pain. That's what people don't do. Yeah. Because they either don't think that their pain was great enough or they don't want to sound like a cry baby or you know but dude look you kind of have to think of yourself as like an entertainer you know what i mean like i have to like get people interested in me i have to develop personal brands so i have to like entertain them with with with my life absolutely you so and you have and you have to be okay with that yeah and like dude you're gonna have people who are gonna say weird shit to you like oh what are you

trying to dude i get this all the time oh what are you trying to do fucking be like tony robbins blah blah blah no i'm actually trying to be better than him right but you know the point of the matter is is that like although he's still a million steps above me he used to be two million steps above me right you're saying absolutely get what you're saying. Yeah. No. And I think that you would agree that the, the, the looking for the pain type thing is not just good about selling, you know, selling your story or, or, or promoting your story, but that's also what you do when you're selling something, right? You look for people's point of pain and how to, how to bring a healing to it or a solution to it. So that's great.

So telling people as far as developing your personal brand, what do you have to offer? Where are you trying to go? You know, determine the key points of your story. And also here, people want to connect with a real human. All right? You don't have to vomit your fucking story out every day. But take your story and chop it into 10 small stories. Right.

And put those out. And then tell them, and then interact with them when people say things. You know, most of these people who are listening right now have small amounts of followers, probably less than 1,000, you know, or less than 5,000 for sure. And they have a hard time because they put this work in, and then they get eight likes or ten likes. They're like, fuck, this isn't working. Well, the reason it's not working is because you're not being patient enough to let it work.

I started out in the same place you did. Nobody paid attention or gave a fuck about what I was doing whenever I started doing it. But what I did is I stayed consistent. I kept doing it. I kept improving. i kept improving i kept finding out different ways to improve how i would communicate i would interact with people not only on my posts but on their posts because if they think that you care about them they will

care back yeah right and you know all those things together over time is what puts it together so a lot of people won't do it because of how slow it is in the beginning. But man, once you get the hang of putting out good content, it can multiply very, very fast. Absolutely. So let's talk about that whole issue of being yourself, being authentic. Another overused phrase. What does it mean? Right.

So I. Well, here's what people have to understand. Well, dude, your your true self is. Interesting enough for other people to relate to whatever. And I'm not talking about the self that you put out in the public because you're afraid people are going to laugh at you. I'm talking about who you really are on the inside. If you didn't care about that shit, like who you are when you go to bed at night and you're thinking like, oh, you know, I wish I would have said this or done that. Well, then learn to fucking say that and do that. And that's what's going to create your authentic self.

It's, you know, it's presenting who you are to the world. And that in itself is extremely inspiring to people. When you show people like, hey, I really don't care what so-and-so thinks or what so-and-so has to say. I'm doing my thing and my thing is going to build a brand out of out of me right okay and that's inspiring in itself so you have to realize that now are you gonna have people to make comments absolutely so what who fucking cares they're gonna be doing the same thing five years from now you know you have to realize that if you try to pretend to be who you think society wants you to be you're going to be looked at as a normal human

you're not going to be exciting you're not going to be uh uh somebody who people want to follow because you're not interesting that's not interesting being like everybody else is not interesting being who you are without all those filters that the world puts on us is very interesting and i have yet to meet a person in life that if I can get them to put their filters away for a minute, isn't a very interesting individual. It just doesn't happen. No, that's a great point. Yeah.

So you have to, you have to learn how to remove all the, the, the filters that you put on yourself to try to present the perfect package and just present the package for what it is. It's not perfect. You're imperfect. I'm imperfect. We all have our flaws. But you know what? We're going to talk about those too.

And that's authentic. That's being the real you. And that's a journey, man. Like, that's not something it's hard to do for a lot of people. Right. It takes some onions. Right. Definitely.

Yeah. So. Can I share? I mean, I had a massive aha moment about two weeks ago because I downloaded that stupid app that, you know, like, I forget what it's called. It's like Instagram analysis or something like that. But it tells you, like, your highest post and it tells you trends. But it also tells you who unfollows you.

And what's really interesting is, like, I noticed that for the first time and I got on and I saw, man, there's a pretty decent amount of people that unfollowed me. And at first I was like, man, I must have pretty decent amount of people that unfollowed me. And at first I was like, man, I must've done something wrong. I screwed up. But as I was looking over the people that unfollowed me, I realized, yeah, this person wouldn't want what I'm offering. This is not the kind of person that's going to want what I have to offer. And what was interesting to me, and this was the aha moment, is that the more I got comfortable in presenting what I want to present, yes, I have started to build more of a following. And there's people who don't want what I offer and they fall off. But that's actually a sign that I'm doing the right thing. I'm pruning my audience. And so I would say to people, like, if you see that

happening, if you start really presenting content that you know in your heart is authentic to you and you start having drop off, there's people who are falling off. That may not be a bad sign. That could be an actual good sign. No, they're going to be replaced by people who identify because those people probably identified with the person that puts on the filters. Right. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. And by the way, I don't even look at that stuff for me.

Like I don't look at who unfollows me or who follows me. I don't even look at that stuff for me. I don't look at who unfollows me or who follows me. I don't care. Yeah. The less I care, the easier I find it to be true to who I am and just post the fuck I want. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, and that makes sense. A lot of people focus on that, and it starts manipulating their brain on how they should post.

And you don't want that. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Well, I'll delete the app. Yeah, I would. No, I will.

I mean, in fairness to myself, it was more just morbid curiosity, but it did end up being a negative thing until I turned it into a positive thing. All right, where were we at? So authenticity, sharing. We've talked about this before, but I think it's worth repeating the difference between being inappropriately vulnerable and being appropriately transparent. To your mind give

give some examples of what that looks like well i think inappropriately vulnerable is people who who do the poor me shit on the internet right they tell a story with the explicit uh intent of people to be like oh i'm so sorry that happened to you blah blah blah blah like dude don't do that like don't tell a fucking sob story you know people people might say you know oh you know i'm so sorry and then they're gonna you're gonna start getting looked at as like a negative nancy right you know what i mean right so maybe another way i put it is is if you're sharing a story to gain pity you're doing it wrong but if you're sharing a story to inspire people with your with your struggle yeah then maybe that's yeah that's different you

know it's real easy. Wrap the end of it up with like, hey, I'm going to kick ass anyway. I don't fucking care. Right, right. So let me raise a specific issue on this issue of being authentic that I've wrestled with, and I think a lot of people have wrestled with this. So we've worked together for the last two years doing the MFCO thing.

I've often thought to myself, like, you want to be authentic, but you also have to meet the needs of your audience. And sometimes your audience is very different from you. I mean, I'm a middle-aged guy who likes 80s music and the Karate Kid, and I'd say 95% of the people that listen to us are young bucks who probably listen to Drake and Lil Wayne and whatever. So in your opinion, like if you were, you know, give counsel to me, but we'll apply it to everybody. Well, first of all, you've got to remember.

How do you stay true to who you are and your interests, but also connect with people? Because here's what you're missing. When you're like them, why do they need to follow you? I just said that before you know what i'm saying right you're being you you're interesting they're like oh here's this pastor who's got a good sense of humor and he's on the you know an mfceo show with a dude who cusses a lot and has a lot of aggressive things to say you know it's interesting dynamics so if you start

trying to be like the young dude that listens to fucking drake and little wayne and and abandoned they're gonna be like who the fuck is this guy think he is right it's gonna be disingenuous yeah totally yeah so they're so so they look and they say oh man this guy's pretty cool you know you get what i mean right right and and that makes a lot of sense i guess my one of my questions though is if you're if you're speaking if you're connecting if you're trying to communicate a concept to them, in your mind, is it better to use a topic that I'm interested in, like, oh, there's a great scene in Braveheart, or is it better to say, well, you know,

it's like that lyric from that Drake song that you all like. Both. You could do both. Both, yeah. You think both are effective? Yeah. Either one. Cool. So, I mean, it is an interesting dance, like being authentic but also meeting the needs of whatever audience or market you happen to be giving. Yeah, I agree. But still, at the end of the day, you shouldn't be manipulating yourself to meet those needs. Right. Because eventually what's going to happen is the audience is going to. So you talked about pruning your following. You know, when you first start doing something, you have 50% of the people

who are going to fucking be like, what the fuck is this guy doing? Right. And then a year from now... You had that, absolutely. A year from now, that's going to be only 25% because 25% of the 50% that hated you

is going to leave and it's going to be replaced by people who really like you and then it's going to eventually get down to where it's a very, very small, minute percentage of people because you've pruned out all the ones that don't really see what you are and those people following you are following me because you are who you are right follow follow me right yeah yeah yeah so like trying to manipulate the voice or the message

or the means of communication i'm not a believer in i know guys that do it i see guys that do it it's very obvious when they do it and I think it's very corny when they do it I don't think it comes across right you know you got to be who you are man right and let other people be who they are and you guys still connect right that makes sense yeah that makes sense all right so let's talk about the the content is king right people have been saying that forever so let's forever. So let's just start just on a broad level in terms of what kinds of content do you think people ought to be working to post? Obviously, positive, not poor me, right? That's one of your major issues. But in terms of, you know, you mentioned the other day that Gary said that a lot of social media should be documentation or something like that, like documenting your life, make sure you have an interesting life or strive to be interesting. But obviously there are times in your own social media platforms where you're not documenting, you're actually sharing your

thoughts on a topic. So what should be in the portfolio? If somebody's trying to build a personal brand? Well, I think the first question is how can my content affect other people? How can it teach people? How can it help people? How can it make people laugh? How can it entertain people? Because if it can't do those things, it's worthless, right? So am I trying to be a comedian?

Am I trying to be an expert on aerospace? Am I trying to be an entrepreneur? What am I trying to be an entrepreneur? What am I trying to do? Right. And you have to make content relevant to people in that space. That's going to make, like I said, inform them, make them laugh, you know, help them, motivate them, teach them, you know. But if it doesn't do those things, it's worthless.

Right. So it's always about them. It's not about you. It's not about you just telling your story and people are going to like it it's about you telling the story and then accompanying your story with the lesson you learn and how other people can also learn from your lesson right right right so it's mixing the two together so this is the hardest part for people is content because they don't have and they'll say this like, Oh, I don't have a camera guy to follow me around. Well, even if you had a camera guy follow you around, would you be very

interesting? That's a great question. You know, I mean, yeah. So the easiest way to be relevant on social media and to build a good brand is to live an interesting life. Go do things, go be things, go meet people, go be a part of things and document that shit. Right. You know, if you're sitting at home on your couch all the time and you're a big bookworm and that's all you do is read you could still develop personal brand but you you know some of the platforms that you that we have now like snapchat or uh you know insta stories they're not going to be really that good for you because you're not showing anything interesting you know or you're going to get on snap and you're going to teach a lesson that you learn or something like that right i mean there's really unlimited ways to do it but the easiest way

to do it is to be an interesting human right right um there was a great quote post the election and again i'm not trying to be political but there's a great quote post the election people were trying to wrap their minds around like how is it possible that hillary clinton with all of her resources lost to donald trump because politically she had this billion dollar, multi-billion dollar machine. I'll tell you how. Yeah, go ahead. I'll tell you how. She spent most of her money on fucking traditional media.

And that's not where decisions are being made anymore. Right. People are making decisions off of social media. Right. They're making decisions off of what they buy, how they spend their money, how they spend their free time, what clothes they wear, what style they have. All of that's based off social media now. It's not based off traditional media.

We don't watch TV ads. We don't listen to radio ads. We don't read the newspaper. And we sure as fuck don't decide what our personal style and the decisions we make are going to come from those things. We see other people. Usually the most valuable opinions on social are micro influencers. They're not the biggest people like the rock or the Kardashians. It's the people in between us and them.

It's the people that might have one or two or 3 million followers that are not a superstar, but they're cool as fuck. And we identify with them and we're trying to like undercover kind of steal their, their image and brand and mold ours. You understand what I'm saying?

Absolutely. So things are changing, dude. And she lost because she fucking didn't capitalize on social, and she's not a marketable person. Well, and that was what he said. Listen, she's always scowling. She always comes across negative. Nobody likes her.

She's not likable. It's not like, oh man, I really like to hang out with Hillary Clinton. No. There's nothing about her with her brand that was attractive. The only thing that was attractive for her, for herself and her brand, and she even tried to ride this as a competitive advantage, is that she wasn't Donald Trump. And that's not good enough Donald Trump. Right, right.

And that's not good enough to win. No, absolutely. What the guy said, and I thought, and this is to your point, is he said, all the political machinery and billions in the world will do you no good if you don't have a candidate who knows how to connect with people. And to your point about,

you can have a cameraman following you and if you're not a good product. But that's what the social good product about social is not just about what you post or what you say, it's how you connect. It's how you bring people together. Entrepreneurship and business is totally different than it was 30 years ago. It's not, you know, three piece suits, boardrooms, big fancy dinners and, you know, conferences. You know what it is? It's social influence and connecting with people, helping people and bringing people together. And if you can't understand that and you're still trying to operate the old way

and you think that's what business is about, you are going to get beat by somebody who understands how to connect with people. It's just a matter of time. You could be winning now, you could be winning today because you're riding the wave of something that was created for the last 30 years. But that's why you're seeing all these major corporations die, because these younger people who understand how to connect people, build culture,

create solutions in real time are winning and beating the shit out of the bigger corporations. Right, right. So I don't want to miss this point because I think it's huge and it's sort of tucked into what we're talking about, is that what Andy was saying was it doesn't matter if you have all the machinery in the world, if you're not an interesting person, if you're not living an interesting life, it's going to fall flat. So here's some practical tips. Develop yourself as a person, have hobbies, read widely, develop great interests. Meet with interesting people. Yeah, meet with interesting people. Document those things. Here's the other thing.

You better learn how to have social skills in real life because that's going to translate over into social media. It's amazing how many people don't realize that. That's what's interesting to me too, dude, is that a lot of people think they can build a social media company or brand by just posting shit. And this is where i'm very fortunate you know our companies have built success pre-social media and our companies have built success post-social media and i don't know any small business that's been able to do that i don't know any big business has been able to do that big businesses are starting to do that but the key to social media is using the values that you would have learned

pre social media, right on social media, right? Like shake a hand. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much. I appreciate your business. What else can I do for you? Right? Get it, right. But you can't just make a post and think these people like you're fucking celebrity, because you got 10,000 Instagram followers or 100,000 or a million. Right. And think you're going to maximize your opportunity. Will you get some business because you have a lot of momentum? Yes. But that's nowhere near what it could be if you actually put the time and understanding to bring people together, connecting people and creating real relationships.

And that's very easy to do on the internet. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. So this is great content. Let me recap just one more time. So determine what you offer. Know where you want to go.

Basically, pick out the salient points of your story. Basically, start developing yourself as a person. Right. I'm not covering everything. I'm forgetting some stuff. But develop interest. Be interesting. Don't rely on the platforms some stuff. But develop interest. Be interesting. Don't rely on the platforms.

You have to develop yourself as a person. Right. But then- Interact, connect. Interact, connect. Solve solutions. Solve solutions. Be involved with people's conversations, not just on your page, but on their page.

Develop social skills offline. Transfer them online. I mean, dude, there's all kinds of things that need to go into it. It's just not- I see this in the fitness industry a lot. People think that just because they're hot, they have a brand. Right. Like, dude, look, you girls out there with the big boobs and the fucking butts,

and you think that that's going to make you something. Dude, you might be getting a little bit of money right now for some Instagram posts, but what's going to happen in fucking five years when you're ugly? Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, absolutely. Like, you should be thinking about this. A lot of people aren't seeing a lot of people aren't seeing

the next step like i see so many people with millions of followers that don't fucking utilize their they're following properly and it's like dude they have this tremendous opportunity and they're just pissing it away right it's so it's very frustrating from my point of view right i would kill to have millions of followers no absolutely uh by the way you should follow me yeah absolutely well while we're on that so andy forsella at andy forsella on instagram if you guys like if you guys aren't following me on instagram yet and you like the content of the podcast i do like little mini podcasts every day you know so there's a lot of valuable content on that site if you're interested in the podcast. At Andy Fursella, you're at MFCEO-1. Can't talk today.

Snapchat. On Snapchat. Tyler's at mytyler, M-A-I underscore T-Y-L-E-R, and I'm at Vaughn Kohler, V-A-U-G-H-N-K-O-H-L-E-R, on pretty much everything Instagram, Twitter, and the like. So you said something I want to go back to just for a second. You talked about how, guys, in spite of the changes and, you know, the massive changes in business and the social media, execution is still all, you know, what it's at. And so is having a great product. a very interesting article that basically said that the Kardashian sisters together

have more social media followers than the entire country of Mexico. And yet, I guess two of the youngest ones, I don't know their names, but two of the youngest ones were behind releasing a book. But the book, whatever the book was, it was like a story or whatever. It is not what their followers wanted. It apparently wasn't that great of a book. And it literally sold less than 16,000 copies. Now, to give you guys kind of an idea, Andy released his Otis and Charlie book last month.

I posted twice for it. We posted twice, and we're pretty close to selling that many i mean and so the point being is that having a massive social media following is not necessarily going to translate into being able to monetize it's about how engaged you are with the audience right and whether what you're providing is what they really need and what so i didn't want to lose that on you know it's not just about raw followers it's very very small part it. It's about how engaged you are and how trusted you are by the people who follow you. Right. That's something I was going to bring up was that, you know, just like you say all the time,

just as important as social media is to your brand, to build it, it can destroy you overnight. You know, a hundred times quicker. We've seen it a hundred times, you know. Yeah. Very good. MC Salmon, everyone. Yeah. Checking in MC Salmon, everyone. Yeah. Checking in with the salmons.

Anyway. Okay. I've kind of lost my train of thought here. So we're talking about content, best practices. Are there any platforms that you're really high on right now that you would recommend people jump? I think Instagram's king right now. I mean, dude, the Insta Stories is dominating Snapchat, in my opinion. I find myself using Snapchat less and less.

Snapchat's still more fun. I still think it's a better product, but it's just so convenient to use Insta Stories. And the way Instagram's going, I just think it's the spot. It's the place right now. Yeah, absolutely. They're doing live video now. They're doing everything. They're basically taking all the other platforms and putting them together.

I think it's where the millennial generation spends most of their time in terms of social. They don't use Facebook as much. Facebook is great for direct Facebook ad ROI, direct sale type advertising. Put an ad out, see how many people buy it, blah, blah, blah. Instagram is the king for branding, no question. I'd say Instagram and YouTube are the only two I'm on. Yeah, YouTube is massive too for the same reason. Right.

And what's interesting too, and you've talked about this before, is Facebook is starting to have a culture problem in that people really are seeing it as the platform where people gripe about everything. Because that's all it is. Yeah. And Instagram definitely is the platform of motivation, success, positivity. You don't see people bitching on Facebook, or I mean on Instagram.

Right. I mean, dude, I can look through every single post on my feed and I'll see none that are, that are complaining. Right. But I can look through every single post, post my feed on Facebook and it'll be 80%. Right. Some sort of complaint. Right. And it's pushing people out. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I know. I remembered what I was going to ask you. It was a specific practical question about content, which is obviously you and your Instagram platform, you alternate. I don't know if there's any, I don't know if you're calculating it, but you alternate between, you know, hard hitting motivational stuff, some practical video type stuff, but you also share some, you know, behind

the scenes pictures of Otis and Charlie pictures to Emily. Cause I want people to understand I'm a real person. Right. So, I mean, I think people understand people understand that that that humanizes you that and so do you have a guideline like is there a ratio you know no no i just do what i feel man yeah you know i would say that my my little formula on instagram is pretty reflective of what i'm dealing with most of the time yeah you know i mean dude i think if you get too heavy on one subject or another subject you're gonna turn people away one subject or another subject, you're going to turn people away eventually. They need to see that you're not some sort of fucking motivation robot or, you know,

anything else. You know, they like a dynamic, not just one thing. Right. Now, for other things, you know, for like, there's theme pages, like, you know, some motivation page, that's all they post is motivation. Mm know some motivation page that's all they post is motivation car pages all they post car shit and and so it's it depends it depends on what you're trying to do right you know for me i do a lot of shit so i show a lot of shit you know i don't try to be like oh every clip of mine is some sort of fucking you know motivational clip i try to like

you know i show that you know I interact with people in a real way where, you know, I do that because I feel like most people out there who are quote unquote motivators on Instagram right now are not the real deal. They're fucking, they're regurgitating bullshit from shit that they've heard, pretending to be a millionaire when they're probably not and trying to teach people, you know, so I'm like, look, this is what I really do. This is what I from shit that they've heard, pretending to be a millionaire when they're probably not, and trying to teach people. So I'm like, look, this is what I really do. This is what I really am.

These are the cars I really drive to work. This is my real building. This is my real product. These are my real employees. This is what we really fucking do. Right. And it's important for people to see that. Absolutely.

So I think when you see a lack of diversity there, it's probably because there isn't any diversity, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. think when you see a lack of diversity there it's probably because there isn't any diversity if that makes sense so yeah absolutely well we'll come back to your final thoughts but guys a couple things first of all those of you who know if you've been listening to us for a while andy is committed to the long game and uh he wrote a children's book otis and charlie's hard-working tales book one has already been released it's called charlie the bulldogs fantastic fruit stand check out otis and charlie charlie is spelled e y o t i s a n d c h a r l e y.com and check out the book it's been it's we've had a lot of really incredible feedback for it and the way that little kids are getting the message that's the coolest thing it is the like i see so many emails and posts about like kids wanting to wanting to start a snow cone stand or a lemonade stand.

The book is a tool for you guys who want the next generation to be successful, but maybe you weren't taught those things, so you're not sure how to teach those things. That's why the book is designed the way it is. If you have kids and you want them to be successful, I don't know of another book out there, another book series that's going to be like this. And the feedback so far has been phenomenal. And again, I'd ask if you have bought the book, tell a friend. If you think it was awesome, tell a friend.

And leave us a review on Amazon because that's a big deal for us. Absolutely. And the other thing I was going to tell you guys is a lot of you guys have posted pictures of your kids reading it, which is awesome. But a lot of what I've got Make sure you tag me in those too. Yeah, tag us. And then if you would be so kind, I mean, it's a lot easier if I have them all in one place. If you guys could go ahead and just email, you can use the Ask Andy thing. Just use

askandyatthemfceo.com. In the subject line, say, pick of my kid with Otis and Charlie, and write your little comments, and then attach a picture of your kid. And give us permission, because I'd like to put some of those pictures on our Otis and Charlie website. Yeah, just email us, and like I said, make a note in the subject line. The other thing I'll say is that a lot of you guys have been asking about books that Andy recommends. We now have his reading list up at them MFCEO.com forward slash badass books. The MFCEO.com forward slash badass books. And you know what?

There's no Impaler Prize this week. I'm not giving out one because, I don't know, I just want people to audition for it. I didn't have time to really see who was killing it this week. Real quick, while we're on the subject of social media, did you see the approach that Wendy's has taken to their Twitter? Oh, my God. Yeah, but it's great. It's awesome.

What is it? Tell me. People who troll them, they're trolling them back. Like in a fun way. Hey, can you locate me in the nearest McDonald's and they post up a picture of a trash can? Yeah. It's funny. That's great.

But, you know, in regards to developing your personal brand, guys, the main thing you have to realize, and there's tons of, you know, in regards to developing your personal brand, guys, the main thing you have to realize, and there's tons of, you know, first of all, you should become a student of the people who are in your space and figure out what they do different that makes them interesting. Not copy them, but figure it out, because that's going to give you some insight as to how maybe you could become interesting. But the thing that you have to realize no matter what, guys, it doesn't matter if you're an aspiring entrepreneur, if you're a CEO right now of a big company, a CEO of a small company, or you're just a $10 an hour employee going in to get a job. Social media is replacing the resume. Social media is replacing the relevance of where you went to school and who you know and and all these other things that have traditionally ruled the workplace and if you don't understand that it's becoming important in five years you're going to be so far behind the ball that you're not going to have a

chance at fucking doing anything so you have to start now you've got to start practicing now you've got to start developing now and you've got to start executing now you've got to start developing now and you've got to start executing now so that when this totally replaces everything marketing branding your ability to recruit the people who work for you all the things that have to do with any sort of business which all of us are involved in business in one way or another because we got to get fucking paid and if you don't realize that social media is becoming the thing and going to bring direct value to your bottom line, you're way, way, way off course.

Bring it in. Figure out what your personal brand is. Start building it now. Don't get discouraged. Be patient and let things develop. Absolutely. Do you have any information for people? I've gotten a handful of emails about this,

about the 10 X conference and where they sign up for that. Um, I believe you go to 10 X con.com. Is it? Okay. All right. People have been asking if we have a page on our website, we don't just go directly to a grant Cardone's website,

a 10 X. Well, his is, I think grant Cardone.com, but I'm sure there'll be a, a link or a page to the 10 X conference. So. Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. Cool, guys. We appreciate you, man. If you found the podcast to be useful, tell a friend, and we'll see you Thursday. Take it easy.