Authenticity in Branding: Mental Health, Vulnerability, and the Power of Truth

What happens when leaders of a successful company bare their souls about their deepest struggles at VeeCon 2023? In this episode, you'll uncover how a top executive at Athletic Greens transformed his personal battles with mental health into a compelling, authentic brand narrative. You'll hear firsthand how their raw honesty about dealing with PTSD, depression, and anxiety not only brought them personal healing but also forged a strong emotional connection with their audience, including Kevin. This isn't just about marketing—it's about the profound impact of being real and vulnerable in building a brand that truly resonates.

Join me, Kevin Shook, as I share my experiences from VeeCon 2023, hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk, and the unforgettable session with Athletic Greens' top executives. Discover why their genuine storytelling struck a chord with me and how it can transform your approach to self-branding. From the breakout sessions at Lucas Oil Stadium to their heartfelt confessions, this episode is packed with insights that go far beyond traditional marketing tactics. If you're looking to elevate your personal or business brand by being authentically you, this conversation is an absolute must-listen.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Life Inscripted with Kevin Shook. Let's make a podcast. I'm Kevin Shook. If you didn't gather that by the info, I have studios here called Global Media Enterprise. We are a creative agency in downtown Richmond, indiana. If you're on any of my socials which you probably are if you've seen this video you will know that I travel a lot and do a lot of various projects anything that involves caffeine and cameras. We are a digital marketing agency that provides solutions to numerous clients throughout many industries, from website development, videography, photography, virtual tours, podcasting. We can podcast through these studios, live streaming capabilities to YouTube, facebook, twitch. So that's my elevator pitch. Check it out. If you need anything, we'd be happy to help you. So we collaborate with and work alongside our clients to provide the best digital online presence possible for their business, and it takes a lot of caffeine and cameras.

Speaker 1: 0:57

So today I want to kind of talk about self-branding, why branding is important, why branding is important before marketing. This is a good example. So I have Athletic Greens, which is a supplement that provides vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals for your body right, because no American, including me, eats the actual, proper diet. I mean, I guess some do, but I obviously don't which I need to. We all need to 2024 of the year, I just don't want to get diabetes. 2024 of the year, I just don't want to get diabetes. But this supplement is athletic greens and why I bought this product wasn't because of the reviews on how good the product is on google, how skinny it made people, how better it made people feel. Right, it wasn't any of that marketing bullshit. Um, it's their brand.

Speaker 1: 2:08

So in 2023, I went to VCon, which, gary Vaynerchuk, that's my ride or die when it comes to um marketing advice. Uh, he offers a lot of great advice on YouTube, so check him out. Um, I'm just a little bit obsessed maybe, but anyways, he has a conference every year called VCon. So in 2023, vcon was at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and basically, if you've never been to one, it's a lot of breakout sessions throughout the expo, a lot of breakout sessions throughout lucas oil of um. You know, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians uh, entertainers, performers there's. You know, young gravy that's where I met young gravy and um, in the same token, drew barrymore. So, so it's pretty wild and it's really inspiring. But Athletic Greens, I walked in because each session you can just kind of walk in, walk out whenever you want.

Speaker 1: 3:13

So I walked in in the middle of their session and it was like their CEO, coo, cfo, cmo ABCs I don't know all the execs, cmo ABCs, I don't know all that execs and this guy was talking about how he was in a psych ward for 90 days and then when he got out of a psych ward he got arrested and had to do time in prison or jail and he goes into more detail. So he started talking about how he was diagnosed with PTSD and depression, anxiety, and I was like, oh shit, huh, okay, I better listen. And Then he talked about he had maniac episodes with this and so well, he had his breakdown, went to the psych ward, but then because of that breakdown, he physically abused somebody and then he had to go do time for that. So, like he literally opened up, made himself very vulnerable to the entire um expo hall, including his boss, you know, and his colleagues and everything else, because I mean they could have been like shut up, dude, like don't tell people that that might make us lose business. You know, most people would think by sharing your secrets not really secrets, but by sharing your darker days you might lose business. But, um, you know, when he looked around the room and said you know, I went through all of that and I made all of those mistakes and I got the help that I wanted and needed. Um, and here we are. You know I'm talking, I'm I'm talking to you guys on stage. So he just proved that you know, no matter how much you fuck up in life and, uh, do bad things, make bad decisions, whatnot, that you can still overcome all of those skeletons and stand on top of them and let them be the stage for your future. That's really a really, really cool story I have about brand. So that's why I bought athletic greens, right. It had nothing to do with, like, being healthy, even though I need to be healthy, but I was just like, well, this company hired this guy right, and they support him and they support him moving forward. So that's a good company to get behind. And that's what I'm saying Branding, self-brand.

Speaker 1: 5:56

We work with agencies that I wouldn't say, forget about branding, but they want and expect us to market, market, market, market, when, like, we need to really work on their branding, work on their why? Work on their internal operations. So we have a great business to market, right. So brand.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Another prime example is me Three, four years ago. You know, years ago, I really hit rock bottom and, instead of dealing with all of my labels properly, I drank a lot of alcohol and fucked up, and with that comes ruining relationships and losing business. But I lost business, right so? And I lost relationships why? Because my self-brand sucked. I wasn't being honest to myself or anybody else. And then, halfway through, without fixing it, I'm trying to, like, market myself, right. So I'm trying to I'm a great person, hire me and all this shit. Meanwhile, I'm not really working on what I should be working on internally my own self brand.

Speaker 1: 7:03

Okay, um, I still have my demons, and I was. I was sitting right next to him, hanging out with him. You know, I wasn't trying to get rid of him at the time, but I was trying to market myself as somebody else, you know, somebody glorious, give me your business, all that bullshit. But once I sobered, sobered up and, uh, like 400 and something days ago, I'd have to look on my app. But, uh, once I quit drinking alcohol, um, it's rough because you're not around people, but then it's also really good because you're not around people. So, um, there's pros and cons to that, but, um, I start getting more and more business and start building healthy relationships with the right people, okay. And then I see a lot more clarity level is increased. So I learn more about my family and my friends and toxicity you set boundaries.

Speaker 1: 7:55

It basically comes down to self-respect. So January 1st, I said 2023 was a year of authenticity. Okay, I was sober most of that year. I forget exactly when I started february, april maybe but I was sober, uh, most of that year. So it was all about being authentic, okay, and um, just being my most authentic self, not faking shit. I'm not faking my accounts, not faking my occupations or anything Right. And then, moving into 2024, I remember that social media post that 2024 was a year of self-awareness. Okay, so in my mind, that is to reevaluate that authenticity and see what I need to change about myself as a human being. So that's where we're at self-awareness. I'm very aware that I fell off my diet tremendously and got fat as fuck this year, but I'm aware of it. So I know what I need to do More athletic greens, less donuts Fortunately, we got a new donut place in town, but it is what it is, okay.

Speaker 1: 9:04

So I'm just really self-aware. I'm a great example of brand, of building brand, and I haven't marketed anything. If you increase your quality of services and you increase your quality of product, people are going to come to you by word of mouth. Okay, that's the business I want to run, Because I'm really hesitant as a consumer to buy athletic greens if all I get in my email is like buy athletic greens, buy athletic greens, buy athletic greens which they do have an email campaign. I didn't opt in. I didn't buy athletic greens because of the ads, right, it was an experience. We buy experiences, right. We don't buy because of the ads. If we did that, we would get wish t-shirts and just crazy shit of low quality throughout the world. To wrap this up brand over bullshit as you've seen my social media post, if you follow me on Facebook, let's wrap this up with brand before bullshit and I'll see you next time. Life Inscripted with Kevin Shook.