146. How to Build Your Authority Advantage with Rusty Shelton

💭 Have you ever wondered how you can extend your impact across the world?

Rusty Shelton is the influential mind behind Zilker Media and the author of "The Authority Advantage”. He reveals the power of thought leadership and the profound impact books have in our hyper-connected world. From a fervent intern to a guiding light for authors and leaders, Rusty unwraps his own narrative and the pivotal role of authenticity in building a personal brand that stands out and resonates deeply.

Navigating the digital currents, we tackle the transformative force behind writing a book and how it serves as a vessel for becoming a thought leader in your chosen profession. We dissect how establishing trust through thought leadership is not just crucial but foundational for business relationships, using financial advisor Patty Brennan's story as a testament to the power of a robust online persona in forging trust even before the first interaction.

The conversation then pivots to the art of personal branding, highlighting the steps to emerge as a mission-driven educator and the importance of a LinkedIn profile that mirrors one's mission. 

Join us for an episode packed with insights that promise to guide you on your path to becoming a trusted authority in your space.

🌐 Connect with Rusty:
• Website: https://rustyshelton.com/
• Get his newest book: theauthorityadvantage.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rustyrshelton/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rustyrshelton/

📚 You can purchase Rusty's books at Amazon:
• The Authority Advantage:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1955884862/
• Authority Marketing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HKSFXHD/ 
• Mastering the New Media Landscape: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AYLJVR2/

Books Mentioned:
Daniel Goleman - Father of Emotional Intelligence
Speak-up Culture, Book by Stephen Shedletzky
The ONE Thing Book by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan

Transcript

Mick Spiers: 0:26

Hey everyone, and welcome back to The Leadership Project. I'm greatly honored today to be joined by Rusty Shelton. Rusty is the Founder and CEO of Zilker Media and he's also the author of a book called The Authority Advantage, which is about building leadership based on impact, not ego, and we're going to talk a lot about this, we're going to talk about this word impact. We're going to talk about ego, we're going to talk about what is thought leadership, and how do you build it and why it's important. So I'm really excited about today's discussion. Without any further ado, Rusty, I'd love to hear about your background through all of your career and what led you to be focused on this word impact, this word about ego and leaving your ego at the door, if you like, and what thought leadership means to you. Let's start with what led you into this work in the first place?

Rusty Shelton: 1:17

Sure, well, thank you so much, Mick, I've really been looking forward to this and appreciate you having me. So as I was mentioning to you, based here in Austin, Texas, grew up here went to the University of Texas. And while I was at UT, I did an internship at a book publicity firm here in Austin kind of didn't know what I wanted to do. I was a General Communications major, and jumped into that internship my junior year and just loved it. I was fascinated with the book industry, I loved the ability to help an author go out and make an impact at scale. And that's one of the great things about books from the beginning of time is it took ideas and instead of those ideas being limited to a one to one or one to few basis, it really set up an opportunity to make an impact at scale. And so I just was really passionate about it, I liked that job. So much Mick that I told the owner of that business that I would intern for free and work for free my senior year if he promised me a job as a book publicist when I graduated university, and so thankfully, you know, he accepted that pretty quickly. So I started out as a book publicist, and my job was to cold call radio stations, cold call TV stations, and try to charm them into having our authors on their radio show or on their TV show and had a blast with that I moved into business development pretty quickly and spent first seven years of my career at that agency, all we did was PR there, Mick, and so one of the things that I saw, that was about the time that social media was really growing, recognize that authors needed more than just PR. And so I jumped out and started my first agency in 2010, at the age of 29. We sold that in 2016 to Forbes books, where I still do a lot of work and Zilker Media, as you referenced is our new agency kind of taking everything that we learned about how to make authors into thought leaders, and now we're really applying that to coaches, to senior leaders to entrepreneurs and helping them understand, kind of the magic in not being positioned as an operator with something to sell. But instead of being positioned as what they are right, a mission driven thought leader was something to teach.

Mick Spiers: 3:19

All right, brilliant, Rusty, I'm really looking forward to this, I'd love to unpack a lot of that, what to start with why books, what about books inspired you?

Rusty Shelton: 3:26

I think it was the impact side of books, and I loved it on two sides. Number one, again, the magic of books from my perspective, and certainly other formats like your great podcast, but it's taking content that used to be confined to the people fortunate enough to be in the boardroom or fortunate enough to be in the room and the ability to make that impact at scale. So that was one thing I really love. The other thing I loved about working with authors is I felt like I had the opportunity to get smarter with each client that I worked with. I mean, we were fortunate enough to work with people like Gary Keller, so co founder of Keller Williams Realty and Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Tom Rath and Sally Hawks are just some of the best leaders in the world. And it was an opportunity not just to help them make an impact. But also, you know, I felt like personal development wise, it really was fulfilling to me to do that. But it also just if you think about the disruption within getting really at the intersection of kind of three industries. So the publishing industry, the media industry, as well as the PR industry, I mean, those industries have changed, like many others, just dramatically over the last couple of decades. And from my perspective, they've largely changed for the better. And what I'm really passionate about today and you referenced, you know, the new book, The Authority Advantage building thought leadership focused on impact, not ego. I mean, the magic from my perspective is a entrepreneur in Austin, Texas can talk to an entrepreneur in Melbourne, Australia, and have a conversation where we would never have crossed paths, probably outside of you know, this medium of the podcast. And so I think there's a lot of magic in that. And I also think for entrepreneurs and leaders who are really looking to take a little bit more control over their trajectory of their career, the growth of their business, this offers a great kind of offers them a great chance to earn their way towards doing that rather than having to wait for somebody else to say, You know what, it's their time.

Mick Spiers: 5:26

Yeah, really interesting, Rusty, in the world is changing and that intersection, and that's why I was curious. I mean, I'm an author myself, and I'm very proud of my book, obviously. And I did it for a reason. But the world is changing. And I wanted to hear from you whether you thought the book was still relevant. So what I want to share with you is what I think the power of a book is, or what I love about books, I want to test that with you and bounce off that and see where we go says, for me, when someone writes a book, through the very process, if they've written a book, there's a good chance that they are an authority in their field, Otherwise, they wouldn't have had the confidence to be able to get out there and write it. So the word author and authority sound pretty familiar, don't, there's a route there. But what I find is really powerful is if someone's gone through the process of writing a book, it means that they've taken that smart idea that they've got the clearly clever, but they've been able to codify it in a way that they can communicate it to the masses. And that very process is almost organizing those thoughts. And if you're listening at home, and you might either know someone that is one of those clever clogs, and you go, ah, you know, that person should really write a book, or you might have a book inside you yourself. One of the magic parts of this is the process itself is the process itself. So by going through and working out how you're going to structure your thoughts in a way that you're going to communicate it in a book, at the end of it, you're able to articulate with much more clarity, your idea, your concept, your beliefs, because you've been through that process, how does that sit with you?

Rusty Shelton: 7:01

It sits exactly right. I mean, the process of taking intellectual property and creating a framework that a reader can then take and personalize in their life that allows them to, you know, take those principles and apply them, I think there's so much magic in that. And I would guess 90% plus of your audience has had write a book on their to do list for the last couple of decades. I mean, for most people, it is one of those boxes, we want to check and in my experience, not just the process of actually writing the book itself, but the process of spreading the ideas, once it comes out. I mean, your books been out about 18 months at this point has gotten great reviews, I know the Amazon bestseller and you know, as has gotten a really good response, you're just getting started with that book. I mean, that book is going to be something that allows you to make an impact for the next decade. And so part of my encouragement to your audience listening to this is the enormity of that line on your to do list or write a book I know feels just overwhelming, probably to many people listening to this. And it really comes down to just like exercise, it is a daily activity where at first you're just getting words on the page. And you may not know exactly how they're going to be organized, but get that content out on a page. And what you'll find is a month, two months, three months, and you start to have the beginnings of a bit of a framework that can then be revised and edited from there. How did you approach it with your book? I mean, was it that kind of exercise type process for you?

Mick Spiers: 8:31

Yeah, I was pretty methodical. So I deeply thought first of all, I deeply thought about my avatar, who I was writing for. And my book was written for first time leaders and I had to wind back the clock and think about when I was a first time leader, and I had to learn to use one of your words for secondary, I have to pack my ego at the door and go what did I not know back then? And what did I need to know that I didn't know? And I wanted to think about almost a from two position of what does my avatar know before they read the book and what do I want them to know do and think after they've read my books, I started deeply getting into the mind of my avatar first and then from there, I had to remember that you know, I'm a leader with 30 years experience now you don't jump into the 30 year point you have to wind all the way back and remember the things that are second nature to you now but I'm going to be valuable to that person that's going through that tricky transition into leadership. So I had to be very kind of almost humble in all of that to go you know, these are the things I needed to know then I did a mind map when Okay, so if that's the journey I want to take them on here are all the topics from the mind map I did an outline to go okay like this we so on that topic they need to know this they need to know this. So the whole thing was bullet pointed before I wrote a single sentence if you like and then once I sat down in writing mode, I'm going to say rusty and maybe I'm gonna make an exception here but I'm gonna say that the words flowed out of me because I put in the work to get that structure right before I started writing.

Rusty Shelton: 10:02

Love it, and you know, the process that I use on my first book was something that another bestselling author Nef downs taught me and that was you know, once once you've got your table of contents for the book before you've written much, she recommended putting a poster board for each chapter around a conference room or around a room so you have 12 chapters you have 12 poster boards, and then you get different color, different color, put post it notes. So green post it notes are the stories you're going to tell in that chapter pink post it notes are the individuals that you want to interview or quote in those chapters etc. And so it allows you to kind of visually make sure ahead of time, alright, I have three greens, I don't have any Pink's there, I need to think about who I want to interview in that chapter. In other words, you plan it out ahead of time. And then as you mentioned it, it flows. So some people that works really well others, it's just more getting in the habit of just kind of starting the process of writing it. So I could not recommend even if you never publish the book, and I hope people listening to this will write and publish a book. But even if you never publish it, the exercise of kind of creating that framework, that intellectual property is going to make you a better communicator, it's going to make you a better coach, it's going to make you a better teacher. But if you go to the step that you know that Mick did, and others have have actually publishing the book, one of the things that you're going to find is there is no better way to extend your impact at scale, but also to empower people who know and love you to refer you because that book is such an easy thing to pass along to somebody that they know struggling with that issue or that somebody that they think is a good potential client for you. So it's a game changer, also in the business growth and marketing side as well.

Mick Spiers: 11:44

So I'm absolutely loving this word impact, and this is the next thing that I love about books is that they do stand the test of time, they will go on forever, podcasts, they will come and go. And they will sometimes they will be very timely, as in, they'll be relevant today. And they won't be relevant two years from now, et cetera. Not always, but you know, there are different media. But there's something special about a book that stands the test of time. And one of the things that you just said about the past on effect, there's also this element of third party trust that comes about now, here's an interesting thing, as an author, I'd love your view on this is I know, like my book is only 18 months old. But I know now I've got lots of stories of people that have bought it, have read it, it was impactful for them. And then they've passed it on to someone else. And people might be thinking, Oh, damn, that's a missed book sale there. But think about the impact of that. Because if someone has taken the time to go, Hey, Rusty, this book was impactful for me, I think it'd be impactful for you. It starts with third party trust before the person even opens it, and therefore the impact is going to be there. How does that sit with you?

Rusty Shelton: 12:46

Well, I think you're exactly right. I mean, this is part of what we talk about in terms of being positioned not as an operator with something to sell. But instead as that thought leader was something to teach. It's the authority by association that happens when I see your name on the front cover of the book, or I see you've been featured in Forbes or you've given a TEDx talk, and what happens there, to me, it is an unfair advantage that you create for yourself in your business area. And that is everybody else's position with a suit and tie bio, and kind of the same educational credentials. And when I google Mick's name, I can see okay, well, he wrote the book on the topic. He's a speaker, he's got a podcast, you know, there's a really different image that's created there. It's not a one of Mick's saying, hey, look how smart I am. It's actually instead of Mick as the guy with something to teach. It's somebody that I'm excited to get that appointment with. And so part of what I want leaders who are listening and watching this to really think about is, what kind of trust are you creating with potential talent with potential customers with potential partners before you get in the room? I know for many of you, once you get in the room, you're gonna close that sale, you're going to, you know, bring that potential employee on. And the reality for many of you that I want to make sure you understand today is the first impression most people are getting of you, it is not happening in person. It's not happening over the phone, whether you like it or not, that first impression is happening online. And number one, don't you want to own it? And number two, don't you want to be really intentional about what it is, and I would hope so.

Mick Spiers: 14:19

That's really cool, Rusty. I definitely want to unpack that in a moment. I want to confirm to you about the door opening effect. So it absolutely opens doors for meetings, if you like it also opens doors for things like I know you're a keynote speaker as well getting bookings for keynote, speaking gigs, all of these when you've got a book under your belt that performed well. It is a massive door opener and almost like an instant credibility check. So I'll tell you a story. A friend of mine, she listens to the show, by the way, but a friend of mine was taking me around her office and the business day was just starting. And we were about to have a meeting together. And she was just walking around and introducing me to a few people. And she said to this one girl that had started earlier that they are this has mixed beers and she's one of the author and it kind of floored me. So the first impression of Mick Spiers to that person started well before she had ever seen me face to face. So it is a door opener. It's a credibility builder. And the first impression is starting before you even arrive. That's three really key things there.

Rusty Shelton: 15:21

It's an ultra advantage. And you're exactly right. You are moving from being perceived again, as that, you know, leader trying to grow a company or individual trying to sell something and instead you're the author was something to teach, you're the thought leader with an impact to make. And I know, again, leaders who are listening to this, if you haven't written the book yet, if you haven't gotten visible, the reality is for most of you, you're making an impact behind the scenes at a really high level. You're a servant leader, you're serving your team, you're over delivering for clients. And the reality Mick as you know, that's table stakes. Today, of course, you've got to be a great leader, with your team with your clients. And I think the big thing want to advocate for today is the urgency for leaders to understand that it's no longer enough to just do that behind the scenes. Because we're in an environment right now, where trust in your company and your institution in your nonprofit is at an all time low, right with Gallup did a big study last year that showed trust in institutions in businesses is at an all time low. So we don't trust your company anymore. We're more skeptical than we've ever been. But we're willing to trust you, if you are visible to us in an authentic mission driven way. And so I think for, you know, Mick, some of the best leaders, I know, you mentioned, the phrase personal branding, or thought leadership, and they either either give me a grimace, or, you know, I can just tell it's a recoil. And the reason is, for most leaders, when you think of those phrases, our minds immediately go to people that are building, you know, ego driven, hey, look at me kind of brands. And so to be crystal clear for your audience, what I'm advocating for them to build thought leadership to get visible, I'm not looking to build a hey, look at how smart you are kind of brand, what I am looking to do is to have you be the messenger, not the message, because the speed to trust for you is dramatically quicker than it is for the business. And in my experience, Mick, it allows people to punch above their weight class, in terms of trust in terms of growth, when they kind of go in that thought leader was something to teach approach rather than again, kind of the more commoditized operator approach.

Mick Spiers: 17:26

Yeah, I think there are some limiting beliefs around that. Let's start unpacking a little bit more. Start with real basics. Let's say the average leader out there, why do you think it's important? What are the positive impacts that come from this thought leadership? Let's start with that, and then we can talk about this impact, not ego element of it.

Rusty Shelton: 17:44

Yeah. So I think the most important outcome that comes from thought leadership is what I would argue is the single most important thing that a leader has to be able to build within an on behalf of their organization. And that is trust. Trust is the foundation of every single thing that happens in terms of relationship building, growing a business. And for many leaders listening to this, they are doing this in a non scalable way, one to one one to few in a boardroom once somebody walks in the door of their business, etc. And what we're seeing is the game changer is if you can build trust on behalf of your organization, before somebody decides to raise their hand for that interview before they decide to take the meat just as a quick example of this mix. So one of my favorite examples we talked about her in the book is Patty Brennan. So Patty is one of the largest female owned financial advisory firms in the country, she has built a huge, huge book of business. And you know, like many areas, financial advisory firms, for most people are among the most commoditize thing that exists, it's hard to differentiate one from another. And let's say for example, that, you know, I just sold my business and I've gotten referred to five different financial advisors, what I'm going to do when I get referred to those advisors is I'm gonna go Google their name, right, I'm gonna make sure my friend is not the outlier and having a great experience with them. And so if I google those financial advisors, four of the five of them, I'm gonna get a bio page on an Edward Jones website with a nice headshot, the educational credentials, maybe I get a LinkedIn profile. In other words, it's not negative. It's just the most commoditized image that could possibly exist for a financial advisor. I'm in a position of power, I'm interviewing them on what's different that they can offer me when I do well, Patty's name and I land on Patty's website, instead of getting the stock photo with you know, the retired couple walking down the beach with their grandkids, kids, or, you know, some city skyline. I've got a hero shot a patty up on stage, and we got a Forbes women logo behind her. In other words, she's mid keynote speech and what happens there is, I don't know, Patti, I do have an image in my mind for somebody that's on a stage like that next to a logo like that underneath that I can see while she's been featured in the Financial Times in Barron's, etc. These other four again, I'm in a position of power with Patty, when I reached out to her firm, you need me to wait three months for an appointment. I'm just feeling lucky to get in the room with her. And so I think part of what I want people to think about here around trust is Patty has built trust to a level because she's working on a book because she has a podcast because she's a speaker. or that instead of coming in asking her to tell me why she's qualified, I'm immediately ready for her to prescribe a solution to my problem, because I already trust that she's the person to teach me on this. And so I think that's for me like one of the things and again, I'd like to dive into this in a real pragmatic way for your audience in terms of helping them to think through an online brand audit how they're represented right now. But that is a really different image than almost everybody else in her space has.

Mick Spiers: 20:56

All right, I want to share with you what I'm taking away from what you're saying, Rusty, and I want you to reflect on this and let me know whether I'm hitting the marquee or not. So whether you're a entrepreneur out there running your own business, or you're a VP inside a big multinational, etc, there's a good chance that you're in commerce, right? You want people to buy your goods, services, products, projects, whatever it is that you are doing, there's a good chance that you're in a commerce relationship with others. And what it comes down to is people buy from people they know, like and trust, to build know for them to know you, you need a presence, whether you like it or not, you need to have a personal brand. And you need to have a presence out there. Because just like Rusty said, before you take that meeting, people are googling you. They want to know who you are and what you stand for, like for them to like you they need to connect to something connecting to something could be Oh, yeah, that rusty, he talks about things on LinkedIn. Like I talk about things like, we've got common values here. Yeah, I like that guy. He's personable, there's a connection there. And trust is both professional and personal credibility. And that trust might come from third party trust, where they've heard others Oh, well, they're good enough to be on Forbes, they're good enough for me, or if they spoke at that conference, or I saw this review, etc. It can be from third party trust, or it can be just from trust, have credibility that yep, this person has written a book, they know what they're talking about. Other people have trusted them. So I'm going to trust them. So they need to know like and trust you, to know you, you need to be present to like you, there needs to be a connection to trust you, there needs to be credibility, how does that sit with you?

Rusty Shelton: 22:32

You nailed it, the one thing I want to zero in

Mick Spiers: 22:32

Yeah. All right, brilliant, Rusty. Now I want to on Mick, that I think is really important for leaders listening to this is the phrase whether you like it or not. In other words, I talk so many leaders who say I just I don't want to worry about social media, I don't want to worry about any of double down on that a little bit, and you spoke about it this, I want to put my head down and over deliver for clients and team members. And again, what I want to do just virtually it kind of reaching through here to your audience is sort of grab them by the shoulders and let them know, again, this is not about not over delivering for your team. Those are table stakes, you got to keep doing that. But what I'm really making sure that I try to hammer home for your audience is whether you before, there are some people out there that have limiting like it or not the first impression that people have of you when they are referred to you. And they're thinking about beliefs about this, I'm gonna say it's cringe worthy for them, taking the job, when they're thinking about taking the meeting is happening on Google from there, if we're lucky, it's then happening on your website, it's then happening on your LinkedIn profile. If that image is happening there, whether you that they really go to a half to this kind of thing, And part of like it or not, number one, don't you want to own it? And number two, don't you want to be really intentional about the image that's created there. And again, number one, this is about trust. But number two, if you've got a message that you want to get out, that can impact people's lives that you know, from the people who deal with you directly, this has sent their life off in a different trajectory. Don't you want to reach more people at scale? And so I think for me, those are the two motivations that I want people to think about here is number one, it's not a nice to have any more it is a must if you're going to build trust with an audience that doesn't trust your logo anymore. Number two, if you want to make an impact at scale, there's never been a better way to do it than this. that is because there are some people out there that either are they've seen others that are narcissistic, they're egotistical, etc. It's all about them, et cetera, et cetera. So unpack this impact, not an ego element for us.

Rusty Shelton: 24:40

Yeah, we've got a authority matrix that we use in the book and if you think about the x axis is visibility the y axis is leadership impact. So the bottom left quadrant is the top down leader so the behind the scenes leader who is just a terrible boss, and we call that is disdain that's limited to in person. The top quadrant which is high visibility, low quality leadership is what many people who hear personal brand or thought leadership think of making that is the ego driven influencer. In other words, the person that we you know, our LinkedIn might be littered with every week where they're sitting on a Ferrari or they're on a yacht. In other words, it's a hey, look at me kind of brand and so to be crystal clear, again, that may be where your mind goes. That is the last thing that I am advising you to do and anything where you're doing anything other than teaching giving value. Educating is not serving the outcomes. And I know you're looking for the bottom right quadrant, which is the one where I'm expecting most of your audiences is sitting is the behind the scenes servant leader, their heads down, over delivering for clients, for their team, they're constantly told, they're the best kept secret in their industry, they're probably 95%, referral driven, and they've got a solid business or they've got a solid career, but they are not moving at the speed that they want to move. And they've got bigger goals, and they want to try to really bend the curve on how quickly they're getting there. And where I want them to go is to really shift up to that top right quadrant, which is the mission driven, thought leader and the mission driven thought leader is taking all of the great stuff that's happening behind the scenes, and really putting it out at a bit more scale. So when I say putting it out at a bit more scale, really pragmatically, what I mean there mech is, you are finding a way through earned media rented media and owned media. And again, we can unpack each of those to do the same stuff you're doing right now behind the scenes, it's the same coaching that's taking place is the same wisdom that you're passing along to clients, but you're putting it out in a way that if I'm thinking about taking that job at your company, I can listen to a podcast interview that you've done, I can get a sense for what kind of leader I'm about to be working under. If I'm thinking about, you know, taking that meeting with you as a potential client, I can watch a quick video where I get a sense of, Do I like this person? Do I trust this person and so Mick, I think, again, for many of the leaders that I talked to, we've got to get them over number one, the immediate thought that this is an ego stroke versus what it is, which is a trust accelerator. And number two, the other big thing that I hear a lot is kind of imposter syndrome, and impostor syndrome. For me, it takes one of two, four subcategories, either it's somebody that just thinks, alright, I'm too late to the game. On this, I don't know what I would add to the discussion on leadership, I should have started that podcast when I first thought about it six years ago, or whatever it might be. And I can sort of talk through the antidote to that. The other thing is the person that thinks you know what, I'm not sure I've got anything valuable to say on this topic, I don't know that I can really pass along something that's going to build a big audience. And what I would encourage people who are, you know, maybe working through some of those limiting beliefs is just to understand that there's two things that you're bringing to the table that nobody else can bring to the table. Number one is your perspective, your unique experience, your intellectual property around whatever your topic area is. The second thing is your personality. And I find, you know, a lot of leaders, they think, you know, when we're asking them to get a bit more visible, a lot of them think they've got to kind of play this role of what they think a thought leader should sound like, or you know, how they should write. And actually what works is the opposite. So what I want you to do, if you're going to start that podcast, or get active on LinkedIn, I want you to be more of yourself. The only reason for me to follow, Mick, versus the other hundreds of leadership podcasts that are out there is because I like his personality, I like to storytelling, I like his perspective. And the more that he weaves that in and leans into his unique personality, the more he grows an audience around that. And so I find that to be for a lot of leaders empowering and maybe even a bit more fun than they thought it would be.

Mick Spiers: 28:50

All right, there's so many things to unpack there, Rusty, I love it, I've got this great picture of the quadrant that you're talking about. And I agree with you, I think it's the ones with high visibility and no value to not bring anything to the table. They're the cringe worthy ones that everyone worries about. And there are ones out there you made I mentioned before about you're not there to sell, you're there to spread a message and to have impact. When people go instantly to oh, I use social media to sell it actually, for me has the opposite effect. If someone starts a relationship with trying to sell to me, the chances of me doing business with them actually goes negative, not positive, it's gonna go backwards, right. So get out of that quadrant where it's not about being highly visible with nothing to say. But if you're one of those ones, that's got a message to say you've got some impact, you've got some value to share, and you're not visible, well, you're leaving things on the table, you're not getting the impact and reach that you could have if you were to park, your imposter syndrome at the door and some of your limiting beliefs at the door and get out there with your message. So if we go up into the top right hand quadrant, you said this word, mission driven thought leader. So tell me more about mission driven about purpose. How is this going to help the people out there channel what they might do?

Rusty Shelton: 30:11

Sure, you know, one of the first just pragmatic things that I want people to think about here, Mick, is think about the first image that somebody gets when they're referred to you. So if I land on your LinkedIn profile, just really pragmatically 99 percent of professionals that I see that LinkedIn profile is a rundown on their skill set, or just their experience. In other words, it's kind of a virtual resume, for lack of a better term and the way I want people to think about their position, don't tell me your qualifications, don't tell me your skill set, tell me the mission that you're on what are you passionate about, or you have to passionate about helping, you know, parents break through limiting beliefs or you're helping whatever your industry is, give me the missional side in a little bit of personality to it, and then mix that in with some of the authority by association that I was talking about there, Mick, I find that kind of a fine line, I want people to walk with their brand. Essentially, on one side of the point, I want the visuals to say what I don't want them to say about themselves, which is in a top of her category, thought leader mainstage speaker wrote the book on the topic. In other words, this is somebody I can trust to teach me on this topic. And then the flip side, the entirety of somebody's content strategy, from the book to the blog, and beyond is 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 read this blog post or listen to this interview. But as you probably know, Mick, you know, that audience is not interested in the teaching until they understand you're the person to teach them on this topic. And that's why we got to do both sides of that coin, you do this pretty well, on your website, from my perspective, when I land on, you know, mixed beers.com, I don't know Mick, that first image is, you know, he wrote shot of nicop on stage, given a speech. And again, I don't know, Mick, but I do have an image in my mind is somebody that's on a stage like that, given a talk like that. And so it positions him again, not as somebody selling me something, which he's not, but it's positions and as somebody I've learned from right to me that I'm about to get value from. And so that's an important hat. And we can go into the weeds of this if it's helpful. But the other thing that I want people to think about Mick, and this is going to sound really, really in the weeds, but is foundationally important for leaders. If I am looking for you by name, the first question I want you to ask yourself is can you be found? Okay, so David Meerman, Scott, who wrote the foreword to our books, you know, really well known PR and marketing author, his name is David Scott. And what he recognized really early in his career was his name is like a piece of digital real estate. And if you think about David Scott, as a piece of digital real estate, there's a lot of David Scott's standing on that piece of real estate. And when he got started, he recognized you know, several of them were way out front in terms of visibility. And what he knew was, if people were getting referred to him, or somebody saw him speak and wanted to go find him, you know, they had to pack a lunch and go eight pages deep on Google to find him. And so what he did was he added in his middle name, David Meerman Scott and when he did that, what he did, Mick, is he walked across the street to a piece of real estate that was empty, and with the first brick that he lays in that foundation, he owns search. And so Michael B Jordan, who's a really well known actor, just in creed, his name is Michael Jordan. And again, he recognized early on that was a piece of real estate that had a skyscraper on it, he was never going to outrun that. So if you are listening to this podcast right now, and you are not lucky enough to have a unique name, like Mick spears or Russ rusty Shelton, and your name is Michael Jordan, or your name's David Scott, one of the things I want you to think about pragmatically is does it make sense for you to change your name? In other words, does it make sense for you to add that middle initial or middle name so that number one, when I'm looking for you by name, I can find you, but also as I'd refer people to you that they can find you. And then one last thing I would say on that making that I'd love any questions that you might have, if you don't own your name as a.com first name last name.com, or first name, middle initial.com. When you wrap up this podcast today, go to godaddy.com. Set up an account, reserve your name, even if you're not ready to build a website for it yet, go ahead and grab it while you're there. Get your kids names, get your grandkids names that real estate's valuable today, it's only gonna get more valuable in the future.

Mick Spiers: 34:35

There's lots of great takeaways there,Rusty, I'd like to unpack three things there. So the first one was about coming back to the purpose driven thought leader and what I'm taking away there is your ability to communicate with clarity, you're about what you stand for, communicate with clarity about what you stand for. So it's an element of niching down and being able to articulate your purpose, your values and your beliefs because if you're able to do that with clarity, you will attract people around you that believe in the things that you believe right so it's not about selling again, it's about purpose. It's about values it's about beliefs and that's what's going to build know like and trust there. The second one was then I'm gonna say about the personal brand because you almost unpacking my website, it is an example. What are you projecting? Are you projecting of someone that's trying to sell or projecting someone that's got something interesting to say? If so you're out there to have something interesting to say not to sell, have a look at your LinkedIn profile, have a look at your website, whatever. And think about what is it projecting. And if it's projecting, I'm going to be a salesperson, I'm going to ram sales down your throat, you're going to be alienating people before you even start. And then the third one cannot be found. So purpose, values and beliefs. What is my brand telling about me, telling people about me and cannot be found? That's three really key ones there. I think we've got to go to a really curious one. Let's say that there is someone listening to this Rusty, and they going, Yeah, I don't really have a profile. And I don't do all of these things. And perhaps I should, where do they start?

Rusty Shelton: 36:06

Well, so I think there are a few things that they should think about doing number one, Mick, the quickest way for somebody to own search around their name, if they're not ready to build a website, obviously, it would be the greatest thing they could do with rustyshelton.com, or mickspiers.com, etc. If you're not ready to do that, the quickest way for you to own search is a LinkedIn profile and a LinkedIn profile that is created around a name that is not on a crowded piece of real estate. So again, if it's David Scott, we've gone to David Meerman. Scott, so get that brand name, right. And by the way, it's quick sidebar, Mick, once you decide what your brand name is going to be for going in with that middle initial for Michael B, Jordan, that is full stop your name that's on your email signature that's on your business card that's on the front cover of your book. In other words, don't scatter bricks on a bunch of pieces of digital real estate, let's get them all on one consistent piece of real estate. The second thing to think about though, Mick is that LinkedIn profile, as you know, used to be the virtual resume. I mean, in a lot of ways, it kind of looks like a website at this point. And so in other words, you can do that big header image, ie Roshar, you can do a full narrative bio. So max out your LinkedIn and again, the number of leaders, Mick, that I get to a LinkedIn profile, and I see you know, that sunset picture off the coast of California, or I've got a generic corporate logo up there. Again, we've got to keep in mind, somebody that's been referred to you, your logo means nothing to them, if they don't know your company. And so you're missing a golden opportunity to instead give me an image that puts you in a position that connotes authority. The gold standard, ideally is we've got that Patty Brennan hero shot and we've got Forbes or TEDx or pick the event, if we don't have something on that level, give me a picture of you with podcast headphones on and a mic in front. In other words, something in a setting that tells me I don't know, Rusty, I do have an image for somebody that again, is in that kind of setting. So something that presents you as that teacher versus the operator within that LinkedIn profile that just to spend another maybe 30 seconds on this, LinkedIn now gives you the ability in addition to the resume to do sort of that full narrative bio. And as I mentioned earlier, don't give me the rusty is great at xL and speaks three languages. Give me the mission behind what you're doing. Give me the why give me a little bit of backstory. And ideally, we talk about this principle of authority by association in the book, Mick, and that is, ideally what you want to be able to do is associate yourself with brands that your audience already knows trusts and respects. Right. And so that's where if you've been quoted in Forbes, if you've won XYZ award, if you've published the book, in other words, the more brands that you can say, okay, Mick has taken the stage at XYZ, well, what happens there is, I don't know Mick, I do know those conferences, and so he's along for the ride with that. So for the leaders listening to this, they may be thinking, yeah, Rusty, that'd be great if I had that Forbes head, or it'd be great if I'd been on the TEDx stage, and I haven't yet well, my guess is for many of you, there are clients you have worked with through the years, some of them you may not be able to mention, but some of them, maybe you can, and maybe you've you know, received that certain award. In other words, just look for brands and specific opportunities to associate yourself with some of those that your target audience knows trust and respect. And if you don't have any right now, cool, let's go get up over the next couple of years. And let's understand that the remarketing and those is really the magic.

Mick Spiers: 39:41

Yeah, I love it, Rusty. So the key takeaway is I'm taking their consistency of brand starting with the thing you said about name, make sure your name is consistently everywhere in each channel that you're using. Then there's consistency of brand from what you're projecting, does every bit of image does your tagline does everything project what you're trying to project where you want to see yourself in the world. And then there's the alignment to purpose and mission again, I'll just share a few thoughts with heroes as I do this, right. So when I think of Simon Sinek, I think most people go oh, he's the Start With Why guy because he's very niche down and everyone knows what he stands for. And that's his big thing. Right? He's done a few other things like leaders eat last and all this kind of stuff, but a lot of what he does comes back to start with why I think about Someone like Daniel Goleman, and I instantly go up the father of emotional intelligence, right? So he niches down in emotional intelligence so far that his name becomes almost synonymous with emotional intelligence. If I think about, let's say, are they there's so many that I could be thinking I don't want to pick a friend and then a fence or one but if I think about someone that's gotten out there with the author with their book, etc, and you start just associating with the person almost becomes a walking tagline, ah, Simon, either start with why guy, right. So if you end up with this narrative that trails off your name, that means that you've niched down very clearly, and people know what you stand for, and they know what mission you're on. I will give one because it is different, Stephen Shedkletzky, so he's publishing his book right now, around SpeakUp culture. So whenever I think of Shed, I go, oh Shed, psychological safety instantly. It's instant, it's not even have to think oh, yeah, he's a nice guy, isn't it? No, it's Shed is psychological safety. So if you get that association with purpose, values and beliefs to your name, then you're really getting somewhere. And then to this point of where to start brand association. So if you've done the work to think about what you stand for, and what your mission is, and where you want to go, where you can start is actually brand association with those people. So if you're listening to this and go, Yeah, I am passionate about psychological safety. Well go and start following Amy Edmondson, Kim Scott, Stephen Shedletzky, go and make comments on their posts, start building some of your own credibility in that way, by being associated with the circles that they swim in. How does that sit with you, Rusty?

Rusty Shelton: 42:06

It sits well, and I think I would encourage people to even take a step further. And in addition to I think it's great advice to start commenting, and adding but think about so I talk a lot about relationship driven content. And if you're a leader in a space, psychological safety, let's say that's what you want to really wade into, you want to help people in that space, one of the best things you can do is start curating content from the leaders in that space. So whether you're doing a podcast like Mick, or you start a LinkedIn newsletter, and you review the big books in that space, and you do it from the perspective of somebody that's just bringing great expertise to the table, don't discount the amount of magnetism that happens to the people you want to build relationships with. When you bring value. I see a lot of people, Mick, that use a podcast or an interview series as a way to build, you know, peer to peer interactions with people. I coached college students here and there and one of the things I always encourage them to do is if you're a junior or senior in college, and you want to get a job in the engineering space in Austin, Texas, well, you could do what everybody else is doing, which is push resumes out or you could flip it and you could start a LinkedIn newsletter and pick out the 30 biggest engineering firms in Austin, where you would want to go get a job and reach out to the CEOs and say, Hey, I've got a LinkedIn newsletter, where I'm interviewing CEOs of successful engineering firms. I'd love to get your perspective on what's changed in the industry. And what happens there is it starts for a win. It starts with a win for the other person, and you start to pull those people to you. And of course, what happens over time, that is those CEOs are turned around, hey, what can I do for you? How can I reciprocate? How can I help and one of our biggest clients is one of the fastest growing regional banks here in the city of Austin, you walk in the door to the new branch in downtown Austin. It's all the normal stuff you'd expect from a modern bank branch, the thing that stands out, there's a podcast studio in the bank branch, and the bank president uses that podcast as a way to curate conversations with leaders here in Austin. And it's not about Hey, tell me why our bank is the best bank. It's not a endorsement. It's a pure peer to peer conversation that at worst builds goodwill at best drives business.

Mick Spiers: 44:26

I love it. All right, another great example of value driven, alright, so not selling but value driven, thought leadership that is going to attract an audience, it's going to attract a tribe, which I think's wonderful. So I'm going to summarize a little bit, Rusty, as we bring ourselves to a close Alright, so the first thing I want to say to you is you are a brand whether you like it or not. And a big takeaway for me today from Rusty is that first impressions in a digital age start before you've even met the person. So that's a scary thought, but it's one that you need to embrace first impression start before you even meet the person these days because they will Google you they will try to understand who you are and what you stand for that this is all about know like and trust. So building thought leadership is about building that know like and trust so that you can do business with people that say and business can come in all kinds of things you might be sitting there going but I don't sell well think about some of the examples Rusty said you might be looking to join a company in the future. know like and trust people are going to employ you if they know like and trust you. You might be trying to attract a talented workforce to your business, people are gonna join you on the mission, if they know like and trust you, or you could indeed be looking to do commerce and sell business to business or person to person, and people will buy from you if they know like and trust you. And how do they do that? No visibility, like connection, trust credibility. So get out there with a message, don't get out there trying to sell get out there with a message and build your thought leadership around something that's mission driven, where you can articulate your purpose, your values, your beliefs in a way that people will warm to you and want to do business with you get started, my next part is get started. So yeah, okay, Rusty and I are authors, we do podcasts, we're probably a little bit further down the track than a lot of you, but you got to start somewhere. So get started, go and find your tribe go and make your message in the world where people can start resonating going, oh, yeah, I remember that. I remember that person. I remember what they said and what they stood for, you got to get started, take the first step. Any final things that you would add to that summary, Rusty, before we get into our Rapid Round?

Rusty Shelton: 46:32

I love that. I love what you just walked through there. And I think the only two things I would add is your brand is created before you get in the room or before somebody decides to reach out what's remarkable is this is even true when you're meeting somebody in person. So if I get connected to another CEO in Austin for lunch, what am I going to do before I walk in the door for that lunch, I'm in my truck, scrolling through a quick Google search on their name. And then initial image that I get from that Google search in the five minutes before I walk in the door is going to be really difficult for them to change and the next hour that we spend together. And so just understand that online image matters, even when you are meeting people in person. So that would be one thing. I love your know, like and trust kind of framework and just take that a step further. So no being the visibility at scale. Like I think when you look at building rapport with somebody before you get in the room, right, and it's easy to build rapport for many of you once you have a chance to deal with somebody directly. But the way that you build rapport and get somebody to like you is authenticity. And what I often will recommend to leaders is the more vulnerable and the more self deprecating that you're willing to be with your content, the quicker your audience is going to grow, right? Don't sit back and just teach me about all the great things that happened. If you're gonna teach me about culture, start me off with the biggest flat on your face mistake you ever made with culture, and then work me back to the off from there. So you're gonna build rapport much more quickly when you're willing to be vulnerable and self deprecating. And then the trust is that authority by association and Mick and I have talked about, it's leveraging things that irrationally, build an accelerate trust for you like places where you've spoken like media that has featured you and my encouragement for leaders is do not discount the enormity of trust that it accelerates when you are able to bring some of those things to a more visible place.

Mick Spiers: 48:30

Yeah, brilliant, Rusty, look, I've absolutely adored this conversation, so many great takeaways for everyone to really stop and think and reflect on where you are on this continuum, or call it a continuum, and what you can do is your next step. So thank you so much, Rusty, I'd like to take us now to our Rapid Round. So what's the one thing that you know now, Rusty Shelton, that you wish you knew when you're 20?

Rusty Shelton: 48:55

I think that it all worked out. I stress myself out a lot on you know, what am I not doing? And I should be doing? How is you know, am I going to make it is it and I still got a long way to go. But I think I wasted a lot of time stressed and anxious about career and providing for my family and that kind of stuff that you know, I wish that I had known that so that would probably be my thing. It's gonna

Mick Spiers: 49:19

Yeah, I love it. I read something yesterday that work out. stuck with me, which was no amount of regret will change the past. No amount of anxiety will change the future.

Rusty Shelton: 49:25

Yep. Love it. Exactly. Right.

Mick Spiers: 49:25

Really cool. All right, what's your favorite quote?

Rusty Shelton: 49:34

Favorite quote is culture eats strategy for breakfast, Peter Drucker, old school favorite, but you know, built both by agencies and our new one is really built alongside my partners around that as our central core philosophy.

Mick Spiers: 49:46

I love it, now as a publisher dangerous current here. What's your favorite book?

Rusty Shelton: 49:49

My favorite books this one behind me. The ONE Thing, this is a book written by Gary Keller is co-founder of Keller Williams Realty and Jay Pappas. And who's a friend based here in Austin, the central question in this book, I'm just gonna mention it really briefly, Mick, because I think it's such a game changing question for leaders. What is the one thing so that by doing it, everything else is either easier or unnecessary? And if you think about decision making almost across every area of your life, Gary credits that one question to how he focused on the high leverage activities in every area of his leadership, and I just I'm sort of manic about trying to ask that question around everything that I tried to do in life, and hopefully it's helpful to your audience as well.

Mick Spiers: 50:31

Yeah, I love it. It's like a meta version or a laser focused version of put first things first, what's the one thing that would change the game right now would make everything else better, yeah love it. Alright. And finally, there's going to be people in the audience right now some of them we're going to be challenged are going to say, by today's conversation, they're going to be thinking I need to do this, I don't know where to start. You know, there's going to be people out there that are going to be challenged by our discussion today, Rusty, if people would like to know more about you and and the support that you do the work that you do, how do people find you?

Rusty Shelton: 51:03

Sure. Well, thank you, and I do a lot of speaking, a lot of keynotes and private workshops. If you go to rustyshelton.com, you can learn a little bit more about that work. We also alongside the launch of the book, if you go to the Authority Advantage book.com. Fill out a little bit of information, we're gonna send you a free audio or digital version of the new book. So hopefully for members, members of your audience that hear this that want to go a little deeper. We're happy to do that in my agency here in Austin, Texas, zilkermedia.com. For those of you who have a company that's really looking to do this the right way. You know, I'd love to hear from you as well.

Mick Spiers: 51:38

Yeah, brilliant, Rusty. Well, thank you for doing exactly what we've said. You've brought a lot of thought leadership to our discussion today. Thank you so much for your wisdom and insights and for your very practical tips as to what people can do to get started or to move themselves down this continuum of mission driven thought leadership. Thank you so much. It's been great pleasure having you on the show.

Rusty Shelton: 51:59

Thank you so much.