The Personal Brand Mistakes That Are Keeping You Invisible | Alex Shaw

Most business owners are creating content constantly and still getting ignored. The problem isn't effort, it's that nobody knows who you are.

In this episode, Matt Haycox sits down with personal branding expert Alex Shaw to break down why most people are invisible to the very audience they're trying to reach. Alex covers the difference between a personal brand that pulls people in and one that blends into the noise, why visibility and authority are not the same thing, and how the 60/30/10 content framework helps business owners stop posting randomly and start building real trust.

They also dig into the five biggest personal branding mistakes, and why the most powerful thing you can do is be strategically vulnerable rather than just showing results. If you're a founder, coach, or entrepreneur who knows they should be building a personal brand but isn't sure why it isn't working, this episode gives you the honest answer.

Chapters
0:00 - Coming Up
0:11 - Intro
1:04 - Why Personal Branding Matters: The Stats
7:48 - Personal Branding Isn't New: Tom Peters
12:48 - The 60/30/10 Content Split
14:50 - Best Platforms for Personal Branding
21:10 - Mistake #1
24:28 - Mistake #2
26:30 - Mistake #3
29:54 - Mistake #4
31:43 - Mistake #5
33:21 - Are There Dangers to Personal Branding?
34:24 - AI in Personal Branding
36:45 - Fake It ‘Till You Make It
39:08 - Where to Find Alex Shaw

Follow Alex:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexbenshaw/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexbenshaw
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-shaw1312/ 

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Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur.

I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win.

On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox, I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business.

Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I believe that you should be strategically vulnerable to show that you have come from one position X to then to Y and the journey you then went on to get there. And I think that's probably one of the most powerful things to buy something into you and your journey.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Guys, Matt Haycox here, and welcome back to another episode of No Bollocks with me, Matt Haycox, and today's guest, a fellow Brit. Indeed. Alex Shaw. Alex Shaw, personal branding expert. He wanted to describe himself as a consultant, but as a personal branding expert, he should know that consultant's a shit word. Battling coach, battling coach. Right. We're going to talk personal branding, we're going to talk corporate branding, why personal branding is so much more important than corporate branding and mistakes people make and how to blow up your personal brand. But I want to I want to set the scene. So this is particularly interesting for any of you guys listening who are sceptical about the importance of personal brands. But this is some stats my my good friend Claude gave me this morning. So numbers that business owners need to hear. Executives estimate that 44% of a company's market value is tied to the CEO's reputation. 77% of consumers are more likely to buy from a business whose CEO uses social media. 82% of buyers say that creative style content from individuals influences their purchasing decisions. Financial readers trust leaders with personal brands on social media over those without by a six to one ratio. So even though the bonkers, the Americans know it too. And LinkedIn users are three times more likely to engage with content from a CEO or a founder than the same content from a company page. I would imagine it's more than three times. 58% of B2B decision makers choose a vendor based on their thought leadership content, and finally 83% of B2B purchasing decisions happen before the buyer talks to anyone. So the brand is doing the selling while the founder sleeps. There's also some structural shifts that have come up here. So shift one, AI as the new front door. So meaningful share of buyer research happens in AI, chat GPT, Perplexity, Google's AI, overviews, etc. And those systems can't identify who you are unless you've got a personal brand because personal branding effectively is the form of LLM SEO. LinkedIn's algorithm tilts towards people instead of companies, and finally, distributed visibility beats single spokesperson visibility. So growth comes from a team of leaders posting, not just from one charismatic founder. So Claude needs a pay riser. Claude needs a pay riser, sending clients running to Alex. But look, if you were on the fence before, hopefully that pushed you over. And if you still still don't believe it after all of those stats, you are crazy. But my audience know the value of personal brand, I am sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

How would you describe a personal brand? I think a personal brand is the perception that someone has of you when you leave the room or when you're not in the room. For example, a personal brand isn't what someone's Instagram pages or LinkedIn pages, these are just platforms that you show your personal brand on. For example, like I was using an example of I don't know what Enzo Ferrari looks like, but I know his brand. But I don't know anything about him, but the perception I have of him is he's a very reputable man, he's a very luxurious man, but I've never seen anything about him, heard anything from him. But the perception I have of someone without them being in the room or having a conversation or what the impact they leave on me is what I would define as a personal brand.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

I agree with everything you're saying, but how do we convert this from the macro to the micro? Right, and this particularly ties in with all those stats I've just been saying as well. Because obviously you're talking, you know, an example of let's say Enzo Ferrari, you know, other personal brands we can give will be Elon Musk, it'll be Jeff Bezos, you know, and any of these people. But you know, I guess for the SME business, you know, two to ten million quid turnover, which is still a still a great business, still is very unrelatable to a an Enzo Ferrari to you know to to a Jeff to a Jeff Bezos. And particularly when we look at some of those stats, you know, a a five million pound plumbing company hears the words 44% of market value is tied to this, they think, well, I'm just changing fucking toilets, mate. How does that personal branding translate on a you know on a smaller level to a you know to a startup business, to to a you know to a smaller SME?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Well, I think it's most important because the amount of people now that's starting businesses and going into startups and whatever else, there are so many plumbing businesses out there, and if you put yourself in a row of a thousand plumbing businesses, and the only thing you're sizing up against is the skill you have or the service or trying to undercut people and underprice people, you're playing a very tight game because you're then competing on things out of your control. It's like, oh, I I want to charge less to beat this person, but if you focus on a personal brand and how you can get connect people to you, see themselves in your journey or whatever else, they're then choosing the person which is then pushing away all the competition because the only people they see is the person who's leading that brand instead of becoming a row of a thousand plumbers, which which plumber has the best price is like this plumber, I fucking we're from the same place, he's had the same issues, like he got a dumpling because he wants to save his he wants to help his family and all these things, and he's failed multiple businesses, but now he enjoys this. Whatever it is, and the different levels of connection points you can bring into your personal brand is then what's going to be make you the obvious choice and in your own lane instead of a row of options, whether that's for coaches, consultants, or whatever else, or even if it's for service-based businesses, small companies, it's the more you can be seen as an individual instead of a row of options, the more unique your personal brand is, and the more effective you will be to everyone else.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

I think you know the important thing about being in that lane of one as well, is not just that it takes you out of the price game and that you don't have to undercut, you know, but let's let's say step step one, bonus bonus one. If you've got the right brand, the right content, the right percep perception, you don't just not need to undercut, you can put your prices up the other way uh and chart and charge a hell of a lot more.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

This this is more so the thing is like if you don't have a personal brand, let's say, and you are just doing the business, plumbing in this case, and the only option you have, let's say, is the quality of service or lowering your prices to undercut. But if you then take it to the personal brand level and get people to buy into you, your business, your values, like you said there, one of the stats was about people are more likely to choose a business based on how much their owner is in um involved, and if they have similar values, they then like this person, want to work with this person, so then because they already want to work with them, they're now going to pay a much better price than what they would do by just being like, I don't know who's gonna want me, but like my price is better than everyone else, so I'm gonna give you a deal. It's not about undercutting, like you say, it's about they already choose that person and just becomes an option of like how what service is best for them because they've already bought into the person and that business.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Well, I I mean it's making you magnetic as opposed to as opposed to going out begging.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

And that's the that's the word that I use a lot within the content. It's like that magnetic personal brand is like the put you're pulling people in to your brand, and you're no longer one of the things I say when I work with people is whether it is service-based uh service-based businesses or coaches and consultants that come on, a lot of coaches and consultants will make value content or educational content speaking on frameworks and the problems and how they solve, and it's like, yes, that content is good, but you're then sounding like everyone else. If you then mention all the things that make you unique, your story, your values, lessons, beliefs, experiences, insights, how you solve a problem and like story-led problem solving, that's how they then choose you instead of being in the options.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And see, one one thing I found uh interesting when I was doing a bit of research this morning, uh, because obviously everybody's heard to death personal branding over the last few years and almost thinks it's a word that well, not just a word, but a concept that only was created in the last five years or something, yeah, that prior to that yeah, but per personal branding never existed. Now you're probably far too young to have heard of a guy called Tom Peters. But Tom Peters was, I mean, he was like the original, the original guru before, yeah, but before the gurus existed. I mean, I remember being 10, 11, 12 years old, my dad had a business, and uh uh he would invite his senior staff around to our house uh on an evening, put curries on for them while they all sat in our front room watching Tom Peters' videos on uh on on VHS tapes. I don't even know if he's still alive, if he is, he must be 80 plus, but he's written a lot of phenomenal books on on leadership, you know, uh management, marketing, sales. This quote came from him in 1997, which is we are all CEOs of our own companies, Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be the head marketeer for the brand called You. And that was said 30 years 30 years ago. You know, and never has it been more relevant today in a in a sea of uh you know in well, in a sea of quantity and uh and and and people where it's it's it's a lot harder to stand out today than it's certain than it certainly was 30 years ago. I mean it's a double-edged sword, you've got the ability to stand out more today because you've got access to YouTube, Instagram, etc. etc. But everybody else has, so you've got to be better.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

I think back in the day it was a lot easier, let's say for example, 15 years ago, when a lot of the Instagram coaches and the first original guys would come on, fitness coaches that would just do comment the word X for value or like comment the word X for my free fitness guide, and because there was not many people doing online coaching or doing this fitness content, the value of old, which is the the advice of 10-15 years could just post value, value, value, value, leave magnets, whatever else. You would build a business from that because there's not a lot of people doing those things, or there's not a lot of people making that level of content. So the only people that people will be watching are the original fitness guys I can't think of anyone's name, but the guys 10-15 years who started this, whereas now people are then copying those guys from 10-15 years ago who had the results and saying all you need to do to build an online business, just value, value, value. So the point where everyone's regurgitating the same things now, which is why it's so important to speak on all the things that are outside of just the value, like what else can you provide, and how else can I choose you instead of like, yeah, okay, cool, I know how to lose weight. Like, I've seen a thousand other coaches tell me like the exercise tips, but why should I choose you? And all then back then was just value, whereas now everyone's saying it, you have to provide more than just value to be chosen.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

But I think that's you know an important point you make as well, because people, you know, whether business owners, coaches, whatever, you know, they they like to live under the delusion that they have a better way of doing something than everybody else. But the real the reality is the core underlying techniques to do this have been there since the beginning of time. So ultimately, the only differentiating factor we really have is is our our brand, our personality, etc. You know, who who we are. Um, and and again that's also so important when people think, Well, am I going into a a business which is a saturated market? And I would say every fucking market is saturated. I mean, there you know, in today's world there is not a single market that isn't saturated, okay, some more so than others, but everything's saturated. There's a market for all of us, but the only different the the only way for us to find our space with our defined market is to is to have that that personal brand and and show who we are.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, and I think it's definitely um one of the issues or struggles I say with most business owners I work with originally is actually showing that side to them, is actually opening up and speaking on all the things that make them unique because it's very uncomfortable, which is why I think a lot of people kind of blend into the noise of saying the value or just the frameworks and the education side. But a lot of people do actually find it difficult to speak on all things that make them unique because it's always mostly the uncomfortable stuff or the things they don't want to admit to themselves. But those vulnerabilities and those things where they are honest to themselves is what's going to connect with the audience the most to stand out in this crowd of a thousand people, the Andy Ellis, whatever you may be. These are the things, these nuggets, these gold nuggets information is how much you're willing to be honest to yourself, understand yourself, and be vulnerable, but not in a like again, tears and I I went to Bali and I had no money, sort of thing. But a lot of people now only really just show the results of their work and be like, you should work with me because I got X results with this person, but I believe that you should be strategically vulnerable to show that you have come from one position X to then to Y and the journey you then went on to get there. And I think that's probably one of the most powerful things to buy someone into you and your journey instead of being chosen this row of options that we're talking about with there being a person for everything and all you connect with is that person.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I mean, when you talk about obviously showing you and not hammering on about the educational content framework, what what percentage splits you know would you advise someone does? Because I mean, again, I guess there's there's got to be a fine line as well between let's say showing off what a lovely person you are, and uh you know your story and this and the other, but but also ultimately I need to know that you know what you're talking about as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

What what what what's the balance? So the guys I work with, I have them do three types of content. There's only three types of intent they should post with. It's either to connect with their audience, which is normally about 60%, which is the the top of funnel, which is like connect with their existing audience or connect with a new audience, connect with people, but that will be their current audience, and it'll also be finding more of their existing audience. And again, it's all focusing on human connection. So it's connection content, which is like the top of funnel, your story, your values, your beliefs, your experiences, insights, lessons, um, the things that have happened to you, your belief shifting moments, like your rock bottoms, and how you turn that into prosperous things right now. These are all top of funnel stuff. It's how to connect. That'd be like 60%, so you can stand out amongst everyone else. I would then say 30% of your content should be educational, nurture style, problem solving, show yourself as an authority, the problems you went through, where you started, how you got here, and the exact process you went through. 30% is again these are rough numbers, but that's how much I would say you need to show that authority, and then 10% should be bottom up on all like purely the results, case studies, breakdowns, testimonials. Because as long as someone sees you as an authority and they can see you can get results, it's like cast a wide net to the people who are um interested in your service that you would connect with, and then this is for the people who are already nurtured and be like, okay, I can see he's a problem solver, I can see that he's actually helping people, he knows the stuff, and then that bottom 10% is like, Oh, he's actually getting results, and he can help someone like me, and he's helped this person who's also my position. And it's like casting that wide net to bring the pool of people in, and then funneling down to the people who are then like, okay, so this guy's serious, and then that final bit is where they go, okay, I want to work with this guy, and that's how you build a brand as well as still building that business and showing as much authority to still be seen as someone to be buying into. Do you favor particular platforms? I think Instagram, I mean, well, it depends what for. So YouTube is obviously like goated and the best one to convert people because you can do, for example, I've seen many people not even do middle funnel content or bottom funnel content, but they just do 100% of connecting, building an audience, and then pushing on stories to YouTube, and it actually still works relatively well. I myself think Instagram is just amazing because you can make Instagram content on the connection nurture and conversion, push them to YouTube, come back, and this like Instagram YouTube connection I think is like the best. I know there's I've seen a lot of people now and I'm looking a lot into LinkedIn, but I just think Instagram is the best for the amount of reach you can get and how easy it is to then get a good video and push out. But YouTube, if you can nail that, is probably best overall.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

But would you not say it depends on on who your ideal like ideal customer is?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

And uh if we're talking all businesses, absolutely, of course, it's it depended. If we're talking like online business coaches, consultants, Instagram, YouTube, but then if we're talking the guys making two to ten million a year, you're probably looking only really at LinkedIn and Instagram as well and YouTube. But I'd say LinkedIn is probably most important. But I would be lying if I said I was a master of personal branding on LinkedIn platform, but the side the psychology of it all is still going to be the same sort of thing of how you are perceived by someone interested.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

So when you sit down, let's use LinkedIn as an example, which or or or or even even Twitter, which I mean, yes, you can do video on both of those, but I would argue that they are more heavily uh written or text-based platforms. If someone comes to you and says, Look, I know I need to grow my personal brand and I want you to help me with it, but I do like doing this and I don't like doing that. Like, you know, for example, I just fucking hate being on camera. What are you gonna say to me? Are you gonna say, well, you're gonna have to get over it and you're gonna have to you're gonna have to start to like being on camera, or or would you say, Well, look, let's like what are you good at? Okay, you don't mind talking, you just don't want your face to be seen. Or you you you like writing, you're good at writing. I mean, do you do you think you can have as much success in each of these different areas, or would you just have to say fucking man up love and uh get on camera?

SPEAKER_00 16:59

I think obviously the most in order to build the business, in order to get someone to trust you to pay you, is just about getting as much trust as possible. And how much trust are you gonna build from a 40-minute long YouTube video or a couple paragraphs on a LinkedIn post? It's like, let's say, for example, the you're trying to get as much trust per post. The number that's thrown around is if you watch seven hours of someone, they're more likely to be bought into you. How many LinkedIn posts are you gonna have to write to get, let's say, the amount of eyeballs or viewership that would you would do of say 10 YouTube videos or 30 Instagram videos? So can it work? Absolutely. Is it gonna be better for some products and businesses specifically? Yes, but for the majority of businesses, it's I think it's always just going to perform a hell of a lot better and faster with speaking on camera because the same way, like the majority of the time, people aren't gonna pay $10,000, $20,000 without seeing someone. Like if you write in a LinkedIn post, again, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think anyone's gonna go pay twenty thousand dollars by writing a few Twitter posts. But if you see a couple YouTube videos and you get on a call with someone and you feel like it's congruent between what they say, it's gonna be a lot easier. Can it be done?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Yes, I think it's like you say, is is it do you have to be on video? No, but it's but it gets you to the end result quicker. Like, for example, I mean I'm an avid consumer of content and newsletters and videos and you know all kinds of things. So I mean you're the there's a lot a lot of people I've bought different things off for different reasons. Have I ever bought something from people I who don't do Instagram content and YouTube videos? I have, but the depth of let's say relationship I've had to get with them has been six to nine months of reading their very high quality content because I mean the content is unbelievable, you know, they'll write amazing newsletters or they'll write, you know, very almost like books as LinkedIn posts. But like you say, you need more and more and more and more and more of it. Whereas you can see some people who you know take it Hormosy, for example, I mean a cliched example, but you take him and you watch him talk for six minutes on on a video, and someone else could spend six fucking years never never never getting to where it yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

But but the thing is, is like like you said then, have you bought from people who've just done newsletters and posts, let's say, and just copy? Yes, but most of the time, these people when you are on the email lists, when you are on the newsletters, it's because you've watched a piece of content or you've opted into something like for someone to let's say, for example, start flat, someone is just posting um newsletters and someone is posting newsletters and doing videos, and they're trying to build an email list, newsletter list, which business is gonna grow faster. I'd arguably could be controversial, the person who's got better content, but a very mid um copy and newsletter is gonna make a is gonna grow a lot faster than the person who's got the best newsletter because it's like that best newsletter, you don't necessarily know the person who's written it. Like you don't know if that person has written it without seeing the proof they go on the camera be like, oh yeah, it's it's the same person.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Well, I mean frankly, I think the bigger issue is that um it's easier to consume videos that that than it than it is to read a newsletter. You know, look at that. I I'm uh I'm I'm old and old school, so you know I I I can still read and write. Uh but uh but but but but so many people today, you know, that they've got a four second attention span, and that is the only way they can consume content. You know, the the concept of them receiving a a newsletter that takes 12 minutes to read is uh you know is is is is alien. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

I would say I would say that probably from my perception of it, is also because of the generation I'm in. I just know everyone around me does is if it was to contact that is night and day. But again, to the older generation, the guys who are making multi-millions, they probably don't want to watch.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

How old are you?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

I'm 25. They probably don't want to watch 60 Instagram YouTube uh 60 Instagram videos before they buy. They're happy to just watch a couple of newsletters like this guy knows his shit and go with him. So it's probably interesting to look between the two generations of like you say, the people who read and write a lot more. I don't think many people our age read books at all. 100%. I love reading, but I don't think the many people I speak to are like, have you read this book? And like, no.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Oh I'd say they've read it when somebody they follow on YouTube has told them has told them to read this book. Yeah, yeah. Right, let's talk about mistakes. I've got for you Claude's five top mistakes that people make. Number one, trying to be known for everything.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah, I think that's definitely um it's obviously a very big problem because you're scattering yourself too wide, and like you'd rather be known for solving a specific problem or for a specific set of beliefs. For example, like even if you are in fitness, you'd want your own unique mechanism of like how you approach it, and it's all like based on your thing. So it's like if you say I'm a fitness coach or I'm a fitness coach who helps women lose 20 pounds during menopause, that person is gonna get a lot more people who are very hyper specific targeting than the person who's just saying I help people get in shape. So it's a definitely a big problem because if you scatter yourself too wide, again, you're gonna get if you're a woman who's independent menopause wanted to lose 20 pounds, you're always gonna lose to the person who's hyper specifically. specific and also there's we're talking as well the the uh specificity specificity side of being known for being a fitness coach not I'm a fitness coach in the day I do SEO at night oh I've got that oh yeah I've got I've got a podcast studio fucked fucked that yeah that so if it's that case I was even thinking like fitness coach who's not that specific if you're just talking I'm a fitness I'm a fitness coach who also runs an e com brand and um and I'm an give dating advice if you talk on like dating fitness coach and um well there are some people nowadays though like don't get me wrong I um okay this is interesting because I'm a firm believer that you are the niche I don't think you should specifically niche down like I only talk on fitness I think if you were to only like say you're starting off and you do fitness content dating content and e-com content and you're starting off absolutely horrid but what I get my guys to do is like whatever goal they're trying to achieve say they're trying to for example myself is back in the day it was 50,000 followers service level thing back in the day. But everything I do in pursuit of that whether it's content whether it's fitness whether it's business if I'm starting a business if I'm learning content like all these things would be in pursuit of the goal and I could speak on anything I wanted to but put it in pursuit of this goal that's how you like make yourself the niche it's hard to do for example if you just specifically speak on fitness then on dating then on e comm but like if you could think of a way where like it all attributes to say you're trying to build a generational amount of wealth and there's a figure tied to it because you want to help retire your parents and whatever else so I'm helping as many people as possible with these three things. That's what people have to say for attention isn't it yeah if it wasn't for you two there wouldn't the there wouldn't there wouldn't be all these people wanting to retire their parents yeah do they really give a fuck about their parents yeah but like don't get me wrong it's it's very hard but the the the main thing I get people on is like you are not the niche you are in you are the person you are so if you have got other interests you'd still speak on them but just make sure it's always pertaining towards one specific goal of your life at whatever it is at that time so you can speak on a range of topics but always loop it back to this pursuit of what you're trying to achieve and it allows you to then not be like okay I have to make a a weight loss video today I have to make a fitness video today because you might be speaking on relationships but then loop back how to the relationship with yourself is just as important as a relationship because that's why you should focus on fitness and how you can manipulate the things you speak on in the pursuit of your goals is what allows you to expand and then bring in other people to you but just specifically speaking fitness dating e-com without that in mind yeah you're good you're cooked mistake number two no plan just posting so see that's very popular nowadays though shit posting is probably my number one so I say people fall into free content traps it's either tactics and tips only lifestyle only or shit posting. So lifestyle only would be like the traders the people who just show the high the the villas the wins the lifestyle the the cars the watches the bitches and they're like buy my trading signals and make money whatever else but they don't show the journey or the failures or where they started or where they got to so they just show the wins and they expect people to trust them but when they keep showing that they come across as a guru they come across as untrustworthy come across as a scammer they could be the most trustworthy like incredible down to earth people as possible but they only show a certain side to themselves which is what doesn't build trust but they could be incredible people but the content they give off gives a bad perception of them or like life's um tactics and tips only might be sales guys just everything's objection handle objection objection objection objection but there's nothing else past the objection people might remember the objection handling they might use that in the next video but they'll forget the person because it's just always the same sort of stuff and it's like you want to add more depth to it the worst one of these three traps that I take up tell people is shit posting. It's just no intent behind the videos no reason why you post and you get an idea and you speak on it.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

You can get an idea and speak on it but you should still have an intent of the video whether you're doing the direction like I don't know the traffic in Bali's fucking wild blah blah blah and that's and that's it and but you're an e com girl how do you bring it back to e com for example I mean with 10 seconds effort you can probably bring anything back to anything.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Exactly um but put the 10 seconds of it's just with that it's just with that conscious thought in mind of like why I say when you make yourself the niche you don't want to limit yourself to just talk on ad spend and row ads because you'd be a pretty fucking boring person. Like yeah you get people in but you want to be able to speak on a range of topics but it always has to be with intent or then how you can loop it back into serving your brand or what the goal of your brand is but if you don't have that second intent in mind and it's just posting for posting sake and getting a video out whatever comes to mind you will just shitpost and you'll build a scattered audience of just random people who are like oh that's all that's cool but you won't build an audience of buyers you might grow a brand but it'd be a pretty shitty brand.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Mistake number three is one I can certainly relate to accidentally for me and the the mistake is outsourcing the voice and I remember so I was using a uh you want to call it a PR agency PR lady probably 10 or 12 years ago again long before people thought about creating content posting content and unbeknownst to me they were making uh Instagram posts and LinkedIn posts um you know with pictures and and words from me I only even I didn't even know they were doing it until I had mates like taking the piss out of like messaging me these posts saying like what the fuck is that like you know you don't believe that or you don't think that I'm like what you talking about and I found out uh found out that they were doing these posts and it wasn't that the let's say the underlying message was wrong it was just that the tone and the delivery and the style couldn't have been any any any any any less me. One of the first things I would always say is that the clue with a personal brand is in the name i.e it is a personal brand if you can't commit any time whatsoever to your personal brand don't fucking bother doing it because you you've got to have your voice your everything in there otherwise it's it you may as well just stick with the corporate brand because it's so impersonal.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

And this was probably the main reason why I stopped the first Dumb for you agency is because I would write for them and consciously try so so hard to write exactly how that person would speak it but it is so hard to speak in someone's exact tonality. I would know there are certain phrases and certain ways of inflections or if they are a low speaker or a high speaker or energetic or tame or timid but it's just so so hard to write exactly how that person would do it because you aren't them. You can get as much information I go for an intense onboarding to get as much as possible to do it for them but it's just so so so hard to exactly 100% replicate someone and that personal touch you say requires effort from them requires a little touch so for example I moved it from instead of it being 100% done for you it'd be like 90% so like this is a skeleton this is everything that I would want you to say mention flow change this point this is the hook everything else but when you get this script read it out how you would read it not how I've written it because I've tried to write it how you would do it but don't take it verbatim because I just cannot write how you would read it and that was a lot of problem because then people wouldn't want to go over and do the reviews because I'm busy with this I've I've got whatever else and it just had a lot of friction and yeah if if you completely outsource everything like you will just again build a you're better off just building a corporate brand what kind of quantity uh I mean whether it was on the done for you or or uh now on the done with you what kind of quantity of content are you advocating for people to post I say minimum once once a week what I'm trialing with a lot of guys right now is trial reels there's a thing right now I'm not gonna sit here and say I've got this secret source because I'm trialing it myself but you can post up to five to ten trial reels a day which is something that I'm getting my VA to do given her captions, text and B reels just alter between it's all specific to try and find my audience and I would post one normal reel that I do myself to the main feed and then one YouTube a week. If you can post if you're a business again business owners if they're busy minimum five Instagram and one YouTube a week I think you're fucking sound. Daily stories five Instagram reels seven at best well seven if you can the more the merrier really but just you don't want to sacrifice the quality of what you post like talking on the barley traffic if you've just got an idea in mind.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Mistake number four confusing visibility with authority I mean just to flesh it out so people chasing virality follow accounts and viral hooks. So they get the reach but they don't get the business.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

I did a story on this yesterday there was a period where I got nine million views in a month and I made on one particular thing or on the month it was like three four videos did like a mil yeah it was like a very good month view wise but I was still at the time it was what 14 months ago I was still broke like I didn't have a business I was doing sales on the side like I didn't make anything from my brand but then there was a period like um last month where I got 18000 and I made like 2300 from that month but my view count drastically fucking dropped yet the intention behind my videos was a lot more hyper specific trying to solve a problem and actually push people through this connection nurture conversion and that's when people then bought from me but if you just find a viral video online like I can make that better which I did find us found a skit I can make it funnier go do it three million views but it doesn't then translate to then buyers I see a lot of people who build businesses like that and like you will get people you will get like you will get buyers from there but the people you get through will not be anywhere near as warm because they've just got attention of you they don't trust you yet and if you just go for virality and chase those views and followers well emptily just from like funny skits or chasing virality videos you're not going to have that trust and when you do get someone on a sales call you probably still will get a few people through but you'll be battling this person trying to drag them through the fucking screen because they don't actually know if they should trust you or like you whereas someone who's come through watched your stuff for three four months to get on a corner it's more logical of like okay what's the price how do we do this whatever else whereas a lot of people that come through cold from watching a viral video but that's not all they've seen you it's a lot lot harder to go through that if you just chase reality because you might find you funny but they don't trust you.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

And number five going silent for long stretches so posting intensively for six weeks getting no immediate ROI losing motivation disappearing for four months algorithm forgets you starting all over I mean obviously it's it's like starting fresh again.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yeah there was a period where I dropped um when I got to capacity with the Done for you side I stopped posting content as frequently myself and I did kind of fall into the category myself of shit posting because I was just trying to get out anything I could above the other ten guys I was writing their content for and I believe the work you you'll notice the work you do three to six months is what's going to come back in three to six months later. So I've noticed that the beforehand the amount of people are coming through consistently is way way way higher still things are good now but way way more higher after a consistent period of like eight to ten months whereas when I started this um when I carried on the business I had a period of like three months where it was like once or two times a week like I was doing my other guys content but I wasn't doing mine as frequently and there was a little bit of a dip. It's coming on the back now because I've been consistent for a while but if you kind of like you kind of lose that spot in Instagram like there'd be times where I put out a pretty shit video and it would just get guaranteed like eight to nine thousand views because of how often I've been posted. Whereas now I'd put out a video which is five times better more curated and like more raw everything of what I know to be a good video but because I hadn't been consistent it would just be at a lower range still get the same engagement but just not be pushed out as much. Still get the same metrics but the consistency you do over time Instagram would just keep ticking up and up and up and you can't really gain the algorithm but if you're just consistent long enough you will just compound upwards.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Are there any dangers of building a personal brand or you know is there ever a time that you would agree that someone shouldn't have one the only time I'd say someone shouldn't build a personal brand is when they don't know why they want to build it in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

I can't see a a world let's say where it isn't somewhat beneficial to someone in some degree.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

But even if they didn't know what they wanted to build it for I mean I guess so you so we're saying they don't have a business at this point do we?

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Yes. So they don't have a business and don't get me wrong you can don't need to have a business in mind to build a personal brand but it's like you should have some sort of aim or intention like what do you want to get out of this? Is it to inspire people to go and leave their jobs? Is it to you know like help mums with sewing like you you should still have some sort of an intention behind building a brand if you'd be like oh I should post content because content's good and like I see everyone else do it and like I don't really care but probably should do it then you're probably going to give up and burn out pretty soon because you've not really got a motivation behind it. But if you have like an actual in a passion for something or wanting to help certain people or build your brand for X purpose I think it's hard to find a disadvantage to to doing that.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

I mean we can't we can't have a personal branding conversation or rather we can't have a content conversation in general and not talk about AI the you know the the elephant in every room I mean in terms of your content creation in terms of what you advocate for your clients I mean look we've already said don't outsource don't outsource the job but where where does AI feature in your in your let's say tech stack and you know where do you draw the line?

SPEAKER_00 34:46

AI is very beneficial and I think if you don't use AI you are just somewhat stupid especially of how much it can help you with your work but you definitely have to make sure you use it for the right things. If you try and 100% use AI to write your scripts write your hooks like you're going to sound robotic you're not gonna sound like yourself because it's a robot it's not you you can't this is a maybe it's controversial I don't think it is any in any way but AI will never be able to replicate you entirely people might say oh no but it can't I don't think AI will ever be able to replicate that human like how to sound exactly like a human like creative touch of the the jokes or the the spin-off the authenticity of like actually sounding how you would or the little uh personality quirks that you have so I use AI to research competitors have a look at the hooks find try try and find trends insights patterns how long are the hooks what are they contrarian do they are they specific do they show curiosity contrast contacts uh clarity like the sorts of things AI is good for trying to find patterns like what is this person doing is a similar topics people are doing to then inspire me okay I'm gonna write I'm gonna write a video now with a contrarian belief with a 12 a short hook and it's gonna be going with contrast at the end and I'm gonna make sure it's 40 seconds long and then speak on the problem and the context and the solution because this has worked 5x times before all the other people then yes but if you just get it to then write your stuff you should still always add in your own like inflections or whatever else but I use Claude to do the research um I use chat GBT literally just for story sequences only because it's I've just somehow nailed it. I don't like ChatGBT at all but I try to replicate it and it just can't be done. But Claude I wouldn't use ChatGBT but Claude is just great. It's the best one for creative writing especially and it can do like I'd say 80 to 85% you would always need to go over it I believe.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

I mean we've all heard from many you know from from the beginning of time the expression fake it till you make it and you know obviously many many many of us subscribe to it but where do you draw the line between authenticity and inauthentic in inauthenticity when when advising your clients you know if somebody really hasn't made it yet how much how much should they fake it?

SPEAKER_00 37:09

I don't think they should fake it at all. Because I only want to work for example when I work with people I'm not working with anyone just for the sake of like oh yeah we can we can make your money and we do whatever else because if someone can't provide a service or someone can't actually get results then yeah you can build a brand I can help you build a brand but you need to be able to know that when you get people in you can actually deliver value and you can actually get results. Otherwise if you just market yourself and be like oh I can do this I can do that you bring people in you're not gonna be able to fulfill them I don't want to work with a person like that. So I think absolutely you should build your brand speaking of things you want to help with and then get people on you know and do the hard yards if you haven't got experience like have to help some people for free for for cheaper than you'd like to to get the results to prove I actually got this result and then you can use those results to market and be like I did this and that but I think if you just straight away fake it like it's going to come back and bite you. I've never seen someone that would actually fake it and come around and actually have a great business of getting results from it. Well if they can get the results but they go and rent a Lambo for a photo shoot. I fucking hate those people everything everything I did when I I don't know if you've seen some of my early content but when I started first started growing my brand I actually didn't want to go into online business because at the time my vision of online business was so warped of the Dubai bros and the online gurus and the core sellers and the Lambo guys that I thought if I got into online business and started making online money that I would just somehow become one of them. So everything I did with my brand was like so anti-guru core seller Lambo guys because it's just against everything I believe in and I have no interest in any of the materialistic like stuff that again these lifestyles the lifestyle trap of the traders and the core sellers showing you all these wins do like they flex the lifestyle to people who want that lifestyle but the only way they get that lifestyle is by selling the courses and whatever else so it's like you're only attracting let's say a broke audience that just like want quick results like I'm in a Lambo so they pay a course get in there this guy then keeps going up and up and up and these don't really get that the major results so I'm very much like completely opposed to to that side of online business.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

How do we find you how do my what can my audience do with you how do they track you down and on Instagram it is at Alex Ben Shaw and on YouTube it is also at Alex Ben Shaw.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

My name's just Alex Shaw but I couldn't get the handle so I had to put my middle name in there Alex Ben Shaw.

SPEAKER_01 39:23

Perfect Alex thanks a lot for being here buddy thank you very much thank you very much lots of learnings lots of fun stuff and uh don't post any Lambos cheers pop pleasure thank you every day on muscling every day I'm muscling every day I'm muscling every day I'm muscling every day