How To Build A Personal Brand

Some of you, as business owners, are wondering what is the best way, and the fastest way, and the most elegant way for me to build a very, very successful business that makes lots and lots of money and has lots and lots of impact. Well, on this video, that's exactly what I want to talk to you about: how you build a personal premium brand. Personal brand meaning it's about you and the influence that your name carries. Premium brand means you can sell what you want to sell for the price you desire to sell it for, and it doesn't matter what that price is.

So next Monday, me, my son-in-law, my daughter, and my granddaughter are getting on a jet; we're flying to San Antonio, Texas, to go to the Inc 5000 fastest-growing businesses in America conference. And we were invited to that by Inc 5000 because we were in the top 10% of the fastest 5,000 fastest-growing businesses in America, 2022 over 2021. And our business, even though in 2021 our business did over $6 million in revenue, our business grew by over 1,1300%. So I wrap your mind around that. And we were number 427 or some 432 or something like that out of 5,000 businesses. The reason that happened was because of personal branding.

So then when we talk about branding, what is—what does that even mean, personal branding? What is a brand anyway? Cuz if you think about what a brand is, a brand is a name, right? When we think Rolls-Royce, we think brand; that's a brand, right? You drive a Rolls-Royce because you like the brand. I drive a Rolls-Royce because I like the brand, right? Um, but what is it? It's somebody's name, right? Henry Rolls and whatever the guy's name was, Royce, right? The two dudes started this company called Rolls-Royce, and they named the car after themselves. So, so um, Mercedes, same thing; it's a brand. And I'm going to talk to you about why we like—why people like premium brands in a minute. But so, so it's a name that reminds you of a story, and maybe the story was, you know, I—when I saw the Queen of England when I was in the UK, she was—she was driven around in a Rolls-Royce. And so that is the car that represents royalty or whatever, right?

So for me, one of my mentors, Ben—I won't say his last name—but Ben was one of my mentors in multi-level marketing, um, back when I was—back when I was um, in my multi-level marketing days in the mid-90s. Ben was making like $90,000 a month, when I thought that was like, oh my goodness, how do you make 90,000—what 90,000 a month? Oh my goodness, that's so much money, right? And and Ben, at $90,000 a month, had this nice moderate-sized mansion; he had two Mercedes, a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Bentley, um, a Maybach, and a Rolls-Royce. I'm thinking that's a lot of cars, bro. He had like $2 million worth of cars back in the 90s when it wasn't four cars, right? Right. So and I just—and because he was my friend, he was my upline, he was my mentor, but he was also my friend; he let me drive his cars. So, so and he—and like he would let me drive with him in the car, and then he would taunt me for not driving fast enough in his Lamborghini. Is that—that's the fastest you're going to go, dude? I'm going 157. How fast do you want me to go? I don't do that anymore. By the—that was when I was younger and a lot dumber, right? I don't do that anymore. I don't—no, I don't drive fast anymore. I'm not in that big of a hurry anyway. So and and one day I remember he—he drove to Jacksonville, Florida, where I lived, and he came by my house, and I had to go—go pick up my kids from school. He said, well, let's go get your kids from school. So we went to my kids' school and picked them up from school in my friend's Rolls-Royce, and my kids were so excited, and all their friends were like, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, your dad knows somebody who has a Rolls-Royce. And so that's the story that the Rolls-Royce reminds me of. And so I'm like, you know, I'd like to have a Rolls-Royce one day. And that was just—that was the name that reminded me of that story.

I remember probably six or seven years ago, long before uh—maybe eight—six, yeah, six or seven years ago, maybe eight, long before a Rolls-Royce was in my financial landscape—was on my financial landscape. I went to the Rolls-Royce dealership in um, in Pasco County, I think it's in St. Pete, um, and I went to the Rolls-Royce dealership over there, and I—we went over there, my son and I, and we—we got some drone footage of the Rolls-Royce dealership, and and then I test-drove a Rolls-Royce, and then I posted some pictures—my brother Rob took some pictures; he was in the back seat—he got some pictures of me driving a Rolls-Royce, and I posted on Instagram. And one of my friends, Alex, he's like, dude, are you driving a Rolls-Royce now? No, I'm not driving a Rolls; I was just test-driving—see if it's something I want to buy, right? Well, it reminded me of that story, but I'm like—but I remember the smell; I remember how it felt. It felt different than any car I'd ever been in, and I'm not—I'm not plugging Rolls; I'm just telling you that that reminded me of those things. And then all of a sudden I decided I'm going to buy a Rolls-Royce. And so we got the process started, and now I have a Rolls-Royce, right?

So, so why did I tell you that story? Because the name Rolls-Royce reminded me of those stories, and those stories conjure up good memories, and I'm like, I would like—and back when Ben had a Rolls-Royce, I couldn't afford to buy one. So that represented what a past perceived void, which created a present perceived value. Back when I test-drove it, I didn't have enough money to buy one; didn't have good enough credit to buy one, right? But it represented a past perceived void, which represented a present perceived value. So when I got enough money to buy one, and now I've got both the credit and the money, and I can pay cash for it, or I can go get it financed. So we ordered it. So my brother is a dealership—my brother is a dealer; he's got a dealer license. So we—we found the Rolls-Royce that I desired to have; we just told the auction, okay, well, take it. Well, when you tell them you take it, that's like buying it, right? For a dealer, when a dealer says I'll take that car, you bought it. So then I started working on financing. Well, they all wanted to loan me the money in my personal name; nobody wanted to loan me the money in my business name. And I didn't want it in my personal name; I wanted it in my business name. And so—and even though we had good business credit, like, banks don't want to loan you money—your business money—to buy a Rolls-Royce. I can't imagine why. Anyway, so I ended up paying cash for the car, even though I think it's dumb as a box of rocks to pay cash for a car. I said, I'll just pay cash for it and refinance it later. Well, I paid cash; I never got around to refinancing it. So anyway, but I probably will now. I've got a new finance source; I'll probably refinance my next one because I'm about to get it. The last year they made The Wraith, which was 2022, I think, so—or 2021 was the last year they made The Wraith. So I want a 2021; I have a 2018. Anyway, so why am I telling you that story? Because that—that name reminds me of elegance, sophistication, opulence, abundance, right? And and I don't do it to show everybody else that I'm elegant and sophisticated and abundant and opulent; I do it to show me. If they want to watch or not, that's their business, right?

And so, so how do you build a brand that people are willing to pay hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to be a part of? See, because a brand, whether you know it or not, you've already built a brand. Your name reminds people of a story. So here's the thing about personal branding: you are either going to build a personal brand with intention, right? You're going to—by—by—by intention, you're going to decide, I'm going to build a personal brand; this is what I'd like for my personal brand to represent. Or you're going to build a personal brand by neglect. And if you build a personal brand by neglect, it is going to cost you in every important area of your life. If you neglect to keep your word, then this is a person who doesn't have integrity becomes a part of your personal brand. Okay? If you—if you don't do what you said—like if you say I'll be there and then you don't show up, this person is not trustworthy becomes a part of your personal brand. If you say you're going to do something and then you don't do it, this person doesn't keep their word becomes a part of your personal brand. It's what you become known for. When somebody says your name, the first thing they think of is this character flaw that you have, right? If the only time they ever see you or hear from you is when you want to borrow money, that becomes a part of your personal brand. Are y'all picking up what I'm putting down? And so if I don't—if—if we're—if we're going to use the garden analogy, if I don't—if I—if I allow my personal brand to be built by neglect, then my brand is like a weed in the lives of other people's gardens, okay? But if I use intention—I decide in advance what my brand is going to be and what it's going to represent—what my name is going to represent—then it's like a beautiful flower—a fragrant—a fragrant flower in somebody else's garden. So how do I create a brand that is valuable instead of one that is despised? Okay, so here's how we do it.

Hey, thanks for watching this video; I hope you're enjoying it. But I want to take some time to invite you to join us at the Make More Offers Challenge. The Make More Offers Challenge—we do it once a month where I invite a bunch of entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs to come and have me teach them in detail the four moves that can scale any business. I want to invite you to join us on the Make More Offers Challenge. Click the link in the description below; you will be glad you did. Join as a VIP and make the rest of your life the best of your life. And now back to the video you were watching. That a name brand equals name. So your name is already a brand. Now here's what's interesting: your name is going to mean one thing to you and a different thing to people close to you. Are y'all tracking? So how do I make my name mean more to the people around me? I have to first make my name mean more to me. I have to make sure that I am so hyper-intentional on what I do with my name that I don't do anything with it that would cause other people to look at my brand and think that it's less valuable. Are y'all tracking? And I can only do that through character. Like I can do it through talent for a short period of time, and talent is my God-given ability to do something that people value, right? It's—for some people it's hit a ball; for some people shoot a ball; for some people it's dance, sing, whatever. But—but the kind of character that the people who are close to you know you for—like what do people say about you when they're not around you? Because like it or not, if that person is not just somebody who hates you for no—they're not just a hater—what they believe about you when they're not around you and what they say about you when they're not around you, there's a really good chance you—you're the one who created that impression. See, even when you're not watching, people watch you; they're still watching you. So here—here's my question: when you're not watching, people watch you; what do they see you doing? When you're not watching, people watch you; what do they hear you saying? When you're not watching, people watch you; who do they see you being? Like I like to watch how people—not—I'm just—I'm letting you in on one of mine, right? One—one of my ways of watching people: I like to see how people treat people who they think have nothing to offer them. I watch that very closely because if you treat me better than you treat the server at a restaurant, I don't trust you. Just keeping it real. Y'all tracking? So your name—your name—your brand is a name, and it reminds—reminds of a story. Some of you can remember the first time you saw a video of mine and you had a wait, what response? Wait, what, right? So how can you create a positive—not a negative wait, what response—but a positive wait, what response? Now, granted, got some haters who had a negative wait, what responses; still have negative wait, what responses. I'm okay with that. Like everybody didn't love Jesus. If you think everybody's going to love you, you're delusional, right? Okay. So, so how can I make my brand worth more? I can become a person of my word. So my name is who I am. So like my word equals my bond. If I tell you I'm going to do it, it needs to be as good as done. See, there's this—for instance, there's a guy who called us and wanted to buy something from us. We sent him all the information he needed, and then he started backpedaling. Okay, well, I'm not trying to get you to buy it; you called me. By the way, I say there's a guy—there—people do this all the time. I'd like to buy XYZ from you. Okay, well, here's how it works. And then, oh, well, I'll get back with you later. Oh, I'll call you next week. Oh, and everything is—all you're doing is telling me—okay, this is a person who hasn't even paid me that I did not seek out. And every time they say they're going to do something, they do something other than the thing they said. All they're letting me know is I can't trust you because you don't do what you say. You don't—if you can't believe you, how can I believe you? Are you tracking? And so, so um, when somebody buys something from you—when somebody buys something from you, this is part of your brand. When somebody buys—what they get has to be greater than the amount of money they spent to buy it. If this is you—they buy—somebody buys from you, and then it's less than the amount of money they spent, all you did was let them know that they don't ever need to buy anything from you again in the future. Every time somebody buys something from you, it must be a wow. And then it needs to be backwards wow, and don't hurt if it's upside down and backwards, mom wow, right? So, so, so your word is your bond. When somebody buys something from you, you actually deliver on the promises. It's—it's amazing. People think that because—well, I spent time with them. It's—it's interesting. So coaches—like some of you are co—anybody in here a coach? Okay, we got a couple coaches. Um, when—when somebody buys coaching from you and then they come back, they're like, yeah, but I didn't get the result you—well, maybe you're not telling them they're going to get a result; that's a mistake, right? There are no—there's no clear expectation of outcome. But then, as if that's not bad enough, you—you promise them a result, and they didn't get the result, and then you—they want their money back, but you don't want to give them their money back, and you're like, but I spent all this time with them. Let me help you understand something: your time is valuable to you. How much time you spend with me is not valuable to me necessarily. I mean, it could be, but it's not necessarily valuable just because of your time. Like my time is—shouldn't be valuable to you necessarily. My time is valuable to me. I don't charge people $40,000 an hour because they value my time at that—that rate. I charge people $40,000 an hour because I value my time at that rate because I know there are a myriad of things that I could be doing in an hour that make way more than $40,000. So how did you—how did you come up with that price? Well, like I can go speak for an hour and make $300,000, and I've done it multiple times—speak for a couple of hours and make $150,000. Like—and—and here—okay, let's say your desire is to make $100,000 a year. If you make $100,000 in a day, you can take the rest of the year off and do what—with—with that year—whatever you want to do. Now that sounds funny, but think about—think about it. So, so if you're making money really, really fast, you don't have to do something. $40,000 an hour might be a lot to them, but it's not a lot to me. And I'm not—I'm—it's not a lot to me because I'm so rich; it has nothing to do with it. It's not a lot to me because it's not the highest and best use of my time, but it's enough money to make them think twice about whether or not they want to waste my time. Are y'all tracking? So, so but fortunately for me, I've delivered on the promises over a long enough time period to a big enough group of people that when I charge $40,000 an hour, people are willing to pay it. Why—why—why do I charge $40,000? If you're going to make me do something I don't want to do, which is one-on-one coaching, I'm going to make you pay a lot. Now, if you pay me $40,000 an hour, I don't mind it, right? Um, and I'm going to enjoy helping you scale your business, but I'm not looking for $40,000-an-hour clients because there are better ways to make $40,000 than talking to one person at a time. They're more leverage ways to help more people in the same amount of time. Or I could do what I did yesterday—go play golf with my granddaughter and my son-in-law, which—to me is—and that took four hours. So I'd rather do that than make whatever that is—$40,000—$160,000 talking to somebody because it's my life. See, people think the quality of their life is measured by the number of years of experience they have doing a thing, but I believe the quality of one's life is measured by the number of experiences we put in our years. And when I got to the 18th hole and my granddaughter and her little friend, um, Kyla, they were riding with my son-in-law, and then my granddaughter came and got in my car. My pop—me and—me and Kyla are going to ride with you. Oh, y'all going to ride with me for one hole? Y'all rode—it's not just one hole. Yeah, this is the last one. But just having that interaction with my granddaughter was everything for me—way worth—way more than any amount of money somebody's going to pay me. So I'm going to let somebody—hey, if I give you $10,000, can we have coffee? Well, first of all, if I want to have coffee with you, I'll just have coffee. Uh, but if you're going to have coffee with me for an hour, you—and you want a coaching session, it's going to be $40,000. Let's don't be confused about it, right? So what am I doing? I'm making sure that my brand matches the words that come out of my mouth. Are y'all—is what I'm saying making sense? And so you have to sit down and—and with intention—decide—de—from—side to—cut—like decide what you'd like your name to represent when people hear it in the marketplace. So you know what people think when they hear my name. Okay, you see that up there—the MG—they think Million Dollar Day. If I want to have a million-dollar day, my best chance to have a million-dollar day is working with my—on—Golden. We give people a million-dollar day award, and guess what it has on it? It has a crown and a shield. The crown is the M; the shield is the G. What does the crown and the shield represent? It represents provision and protection; it's a kingdom representation. Yeah, it's my initials. I just, by the grace of God, had the right initials for a shield—for a crown and a shield. Who knew the name that I hated when I was a child was going to become a part of my personal brand around the world, right? But that's what people know me for. People know me because I could start naming people; I can start naming people like Andy and Dan and Dan and and Nicole and Eileen and and Neo and Shan—anyway, already said his name now—um—and—and Darius and all these people who are my coaching clients who, before they were coached by me, they never had a million-dollar day in their life, but since they were coached by me, they've had many. That's the brand: this dude obviously knows something other people don't know. And I—I don't even know that—that's true. I don't know things other people don't—I mean, I do know things other people don't know, clearly. Everybody knows things other people don't know, but it's not the stuff that I know that other people don't know that makes the big difference; it's I know how to say it in other—and ways other people can't say it. And if I say it better, they see it better. If they see it better, they can be it better. If they can be it better, they can have it. Does that make sense? Seriously, you want me to say that whole thing again? Um—um—I don't—I—it's not that I know more than other people—know the same stuff I know—I just say it better. And if I say it better, they can see it better. Does that make sense? If they can see it better, they can be it better. If they can be it better, be—do—have—they can do it better. If they can do it better, they can have it better, which means that how you communicate is a part of your personal brand; it's not just what you communicate that's a part of your brand; it's how you communicate what you communicate. And some people say, well, I'm not good at talking. Do you know why? You don't talk enough. You want to get better at something? Do it more; read more; write more; speak more. I promise you, you will become more influential. It's impossible for you not—if you read more, write more, and speak more, it's impossible for you not to become more influential. It's a simple equation. I've read more than most people about business; I've written more than most people about business; I've spoken more than most people about business. So the fact that I'm more known about business than most people who are in the same space is not surprising. Why? Because I set out with intention. I'm hyper-intentional on everything that we put online; hyper-intentional—our brand is not built on neglect; it's built on intention. And if you're not—by the way, if you're not building your brand based on intention, you're automatically building it on the why because progress requires intention; decline only requires neglect. You don't have to try to do worse to do worse; it almost seems unfair, right? As if fair was a real thing, right? I don't have to try to do worse; all I have to do is not try to do better—put no intention into doing better—and I will automatically do worse. In what area? Every area. So sit down, make a list of what you want your brand to be known for. I want to be known for high quality. See, I want to be known for high quality; I want to be known for high prices. So we—like some of—um—okay, some of you in here—Denesa and and Ryan, I think were at the event we just did last Monday and Tuesday and Pavel, right? Okay, you—I used to pay just about $40,000 to put on that event, which sounds like a lot, okay? And basically the majority of that—$25,000 of that—was the banquet; most of it was just like—and Mouth the Millions—the one we did last month—like in September—I used to spend I don't know, $15, $20,000 to put on that event. It's—

A fulfillment event for my clients—well, not including the hotel room, the meeting room—just for the aesthetics and the experience of the event. I invested $275,000 on the event last month and $275,000 on the event that we did last week. Why? Because it's part of my brand, and everything has to match.

Like some of y'all remember—when you all, some of y'all have been coming here a long time—you remember when this side, this side of this building over here looked like that side over there? And then we made it a little better, then we made it a little better, then we figured out how to make it a lot better. We made it a lot better, then we made it a lot better again, then we made it a lot better again. And so, like we're getting—last week when y'all came, the—it had, we had wet mats out front because the sprinkler went off, and the mats got wet, and the concrete was like yucky. And so we got our porch painted. Why? Because everything has to match. We got the bathrooms redone; we got this room done. And then the B bathrooms had that 1975 brown cabinetry—right, no, it has to go. Why? Everything has to match the brand. And so every, like literally every day, we are working on ways to uplevel our brand so that when people think about us, they think top-notch, top-tier, best quality.

We did offer Mastery Live; that's the most money I've ever spent on an event in my life. I spent just under a million dollars to put on that event, but guess what? They felt it. Everybody who came felt it; they felt served, they felt cared for. Right now, offer Mastery Live next year; it's going to be more than $3 million, 200 people right here in Tampa; it's going to be crazy. Well, why am I telling you that? Because I'm willing to do what it takes, pay what it costs, work as hard as I must to give people the experience they paid for and more. Why? Because that's the only way I can control the story that my name reminds people of. Are y'all tracking?

So building a personal brand is bigger than just having a YouTube channel. You have to sit down and decide what you desire to be known for and make sure everything you do from that point forward is intentional, so that the brand is never misrepresented in the marketplace. So if you will hyperfocus on intention and become obsessed with ignoring distractions—what's a distraction? Anything you focus on that doesn't move the needle in your favor. Like I don't care who won the game if I'm not in the game. I don't care. I don't care. Like I, I can afford to care now, but I don't. I've already got so many years practicing not caring who won the game. Like I don't care. I don't—like I don't even know how to start making myself care. But see, you can either celebrate, watch professional athletes and celebrate them for playing a game, or you can figure how to turn your life into a game that you play, and then you can start making more money than those jokers, and then people can start watching you live. I know that's doable; we've already done it. How many of y'all track it? Okay.

So hopefully this video helps you in the, in the area, in the arena of building your personal brand. If you will do the things I talked about, it will take your life and your business to another level. What would you like your name to be known for from now on? That's what we've got to figure out. All right, hope this helps. Stay blessed by the best, and we'll see you in the next video.