Sept. 26, 2021
Why Building a Strong Personal Brand Helps Your Business with Rob Levinson
In episode 95, host Eric Dickmann interviews Rob Levinson on the podcast. Rob is the Co-Founder of Leverage Advisors, a company that helps position businesses for long-term financial, operating, and market success. Rob has over 35 years of experience in branding, positioning, and storytelling. He helps companies when they need a laser-focused brand story that aligns with their business strategy.
Prior to founding Leverage Advisors, Rob was a Principal at Brand Blueprint, a brand strategy firm and was a “Marketing Strategies” columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Rob is a guest lecturer at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University and also helps clients and coaches develop their personal brand narrative.
For more information and access to the resources mentioned in this episode, visit: https://fiveechelon.com/why-building-strong-personal-brand-helps-your-business-s6ep14/
Send us your questions or comments
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WEBVTT
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Welcome to The Virtual CMO podcast.
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I'm your host, Eric Dickmann.
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In this podcast, we have conversations with marketing professionals who share the strategies, tactics, and mindset you can use to improve the effectiveness of your marketing activities and grow your business.
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This week, I'm excited to welcome Rob Levinson to the podcast.
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Rob is the co-founder of Leverage Advisors, a company that helps position businesses for longterm financial, operating, and market success.
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Rob has over 35 years of experience in branding, positioning and storytelling.
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He helps companies when they need a laser-focused brand story that aligns with their business strategy.
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Prior to founding Leverage Advisors.
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Rob was a principal at Brand Blueprint, a brand strategy firm, and was also a Marketing Strategies columnist for the Wall Street Journal.
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Rob is a guest lecturer at Boston University, and also helps clients and coaches develop their own personal brand narrative.
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I think you're going to enjoy this conversation with Rob, as we talk about the importance of story, and why it's important to build a personal brand for your business.
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Please help me welcome Rob to the podcast.
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Hey, Rob, welcome to The Virtual CMO podcast.
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I'm glad you could join us today.
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Hey, Eric.
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I am thrilled to be here.
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Thanks for having me.
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I'm glad you're here today because I think you are now the second or third guest that I've had on this podcast that has actually been a connection from Lunch Club.
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That has proven to be a very valuable networking tool.
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How have you found it?
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Oh, I totally agree.
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I've had wonderful conversations with people really all over the world.
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And because I'm in marketing, such as yourself, I can pretty much connect with anybody because every single person I speak to on Lunch Club either has bought my services before or needs them again.
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wonderful.
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No, that's great.
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You know one of the things that I'm interested in talking to you about today, because we're going to get into this whole idea of branding, especially around personal branding.
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And one of the things that I noticed on a tool like a Lunch Club, and it could be the same for a social profile on Twitter or on LinkedIn, or whatnot.
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But there are some people who have nothing.
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They don't load up a picture, they don't put anything in their description that says what their interests are or who they are, or what they do.
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They really just have their name, their position, and maybe the company that they work for.
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Deconstruct this a little bit.
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That's terrible personal branding right out of the gate.
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Well, it's anti branding actually is what it is.
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And the way I like to talk about personal branding, it is the story that you tell about yourself and you put out there into the world.
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So if you meet someone who doesn't have a title or doesn't have a photograph, or doesn't have any description, I just see that as a lost opportunity, because you need to do a lot of work to figure out who that person is.
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Now as a matter of fact, through Lunch Club, you know at the beginning of the conversation, people introduce themselves and say what they do.
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And I've had many people, successful people who just kind of trip, stumble, and fall when it comes time to talking about themselves, which also gives me a wonderful way to pivot to what I do which is basically helping people create a brand narrative that gives them confidence to walk into any room and feel really good about themselves.
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Yeah, because a personal brand isn't your job description, right?
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I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer, I'm a marketer, that's what you do that isn't who you are.
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That's not your brand.
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You know when you look out there and we should probably talk about celebrities because they are brands that many people would know and recognize, but who do you see out there that really has done a stellar job with their personal branding?
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Oh, so many people come to mind, but one person I'm particularly intrigued by these days is Lady Gaga.
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Kind of came on the scene with her meat dress and being extreme, and very outrageous.
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And over the course of her career, her brand has stood for so much.
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I mean, she is famously loyal to her fans, has an incredibly loyal fan base, and they will follow her anywhere.
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So she could be singing at the inauguration, she could be singing at the Super Bowl, she could be singing on the Academy Awards, or she could be singing with Tony Bennett, they're gonna follow her wherever she goes, because she is a very consistent message, she's extremely inclusive, and she has a lot of integrity.
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And I think people respect that about her.
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I mean if you can get a hug from Julie Andrews after doing a Sound of Music medley, and then be with President Biden as inauguration, tells us a lot about someone.
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Yeah, and I love that you focus on the consistency out there and the things that people stand for as a way to really identify themselves to a cause that may be larger than they are.
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And I think that that's so important too as people cultivate their brand, whether you're posting things on LinkedIn, or you're posting things on Instagram, or whatever, we all know that that content is cultivated.
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But what direction are you taking it, right?
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What are you trying to tell in terms of a story?
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And you know, that gets to the whole idea of building that personal brand story.
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What are some of the elements that you think make a really strong personal brand story?
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Well, when I work with people to develop their personal brand narrative, the very first thing I say to them is, you're fine just the way you are.
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So be your authentic self, and if you try to put yourself out there as something that you're not, A it's not sustainable and B it's often not very credible.
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So the very first thing I tell people to do when developing a personal brand is take a really good look in the mirror.
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And identify what are my key strengths?
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What am I really good at?
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What do people turn to me for?
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What am I really proud of?
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List, all those things.
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And then on the other side of the paper, write things you know about yourself that maybe aren't so flattering.
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You have to understand who you are to tell a good and a strategic story.
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So the first thing, take a look in the mirror and really do an honest assessment of yourself.
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So what you think of yourself is interesting, but even more interesting is how you are perceived by others.
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Jeff Bezos famously said a brand is what people say about you after you've left the room.
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So, what I recommend clients do is do a survey monkey.
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And identify you know, 6 or 8, or 10 people who you really respect and ask them if they will answer some questions about your personal brand.
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Always tell them they can answer anonymously, but ask them questions like you know, what is Eric best at?
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If they were to make a movie about Eric, who would play him?
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If Eric was a car, what model would he be and why?
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And the reason I have questions like this, these are all associations.
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Because if it's someone you know, they're not gonna want to say negative things, but if you figure out the car and you figure out what you're best at, and you figure out who will play, a picture emerges of how you are perceived in the marketplace.
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So then of course you have to say, okay, this is how I see myself, this is how people I respect perceive me, where's their commonality?
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And where is the areas for improvement?
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And where can I go with this?
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So whenever I help people develop personal brands I always say be as aspirational as possible, because you don't want to be judged on who you are necessarily today, but the person that you could be or how you want people to see you.
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So that's the first thing I recommend is it's basically the same as doing market research.
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It's the same as I would do for any other client.
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So that's the first step I recommend.
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And once you do your research and have your data, the next thing that I suggest people do, and I did this as a very high level.
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Eric obviously.
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But there are certain building blocks that you need to tell your story.
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So what I suggest people do is based on what you've learned in your research and what you know to be true about yourself, what are the top three messages you want to put out there in the world?
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And I purposely say three, because if you tell people two things, it's not enough and four things, it's too much.
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People like threes.
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So what's the first thing you want people to know about you?
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What's the second thing, and what's the third thing?
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And once you kind of know those key messages, out of that can come a really terrific elevator speech.
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I think people still use that expression, but basically it's a short statement to describe who you are.
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And the reason why this elevator pitch is so important is that it is what you're telling the world you want them to know about you.
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So for example, when I tell people about my background, there are a couple of key things that I always mentioned.
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I mentioned having had a career on Madison Avenue, working on high-end lifestyle brands, I talk about being a marketing strategies columnist for the Wall Street Journal, I talk about being an independent art dealer, I talk about being a consultant, and I give them sort of highlights.
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And all of those highlights that I share are conversation starters, because there's always a point of commonality with someone.
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So my recommendations when you're developing your messages and you're developing your elevator speech, give people just a little cat nip, give them something that's going to intrigue them and ask them to explain more.
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And that's when you can tell your authentic story.
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And once you have those brand elements together what I recommend and I know that you know this because you do it so well is to go go narrow or go wide, but tell your story.
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So it's all about being extremely consistent.
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So when I see you on LinkedIn and then maybe I see you on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, what are you consistently saying about yourself?
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Because if you are putting disparate messages up there, it's very confusing.
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And here's sort of my premise for doing all of this.
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You know, we are so divulged all day long with alerts and news and headlines, and all this stuff.
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People just get news alerts all day long.
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So you need to tell a story that is short, unique, and compelling.
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And what I always have to tell people is that even though I'm personally very long winded, my expertise is helping make a long story short.
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Because that's all people have an appetite for today.
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I love that.
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And I love the way you frame that because I think that's very digestible to people.
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And you know you started out talking about asking people sort of what they think of you, and I love the fact that you do that through associations because people don't like to say negative things, but sometimes through an association, you can start to say something about somebody without actually saying it.
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And I love that.
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I've also heard from people, why do people call you on the phone?
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What advice are they asking you?
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What are you a perceived expert in?
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And if you start to look at that, even though it may be hard to identify for yourself, there are clues all around you, right?
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From your friends, from your family, as to what people really think your skills and attributes are.
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Well let me give you a recent example.
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So I work with a lot of financial services professionals and lawyers.
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They are trying to differentiate their expertise from the zillions of other people that do the same thing.
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was working with this one guy and he was like, you know late fifties, he had a good business, but he wanted to catapult into a different area.
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So he said, Rob, my brand narrative is nowhere, can we work together?
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So a perfect example of what I just said to you is when I asked him, well, if you were an automobile, what make and model would you be?
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And he said, oh, I'm a Ferrari.
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I'm fast., I'm sleek, I'm cutting edge, and catch me if you can.
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Okay, so when someone tells me something about themselves, I tend to believe him.
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And then we did the survey monkey to some of his clients.
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They did not see him as a Lamborghini, him as a Toyota Camry, a Honda Accord, you know a Buick Regal, real middle of the road, reliable, get the job done from point A to point B.
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And I said, okay, you've got a huge disconnect here.
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You think you're here, your clients see you here.
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So we need to give them some data points so they see you more as the Lamborghini and develop a narrative that basically markets against what their perception of you is.
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And I think that gets to that whole authenticity as well, right?
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You can see people, especially online, this is so common, that are clearly trying to portray themselves one way, but it comes across as inauthentic.
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There's just something that you say, this doesn't match this, isn't a fit for this person that I know, but they're trying very hard to present a certain image that just isn't who they really are.
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And it's not sustainable, but you know what, Eric, I got to say., when I turned 50, which was a couple of years ago, all of a sudden, I felt very different.
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I mean, I'd been in the corporate America for years and years and years and a 50, I just said, you know what, I'm going to be exactly who I am.
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And my clients will, will find me.
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And they will like me, or they won't like me.
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And it's extremely liberating to, to be authentic to who you are and then put that.
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Unabashedly put that persona forward in areas that you can have your most success.
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Yeah, there is something very gratifying and rewarding about just being an authentic person, just really being yourself.
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And that doesn't mean you can't grow or you can'twork on areas of your life that you want to change and make better, but if you are really true to who you are, that doesn't mean you have to show all the bad stuff, right?
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You don't have to sort of let everything hang out there, but yeah, you, you want to accentuate the things that are truly the best parts of you.
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You know, you brought up how people put themselves out there.
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And I'm a huge LinkedIn user, supporter, believer, because in business, in these times, if you're speaking to someone on the phone, you've already gone to their LinkedIn profile and that tells you everything that they want you to know about you.
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And what I've discovered is a lot of people are doing a really lousy job of positioning themselves.
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So for example, we all have our picture right here and behind us is a banner.
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And I tell my clients, that's your billboard.
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So you might want a picture of a mountain range that looks evocative about, I don't know what.
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But instead, you might want to say, this is what.
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I do.
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So if you go to my LinkedIn profile, you'll see it says brand strategy, mission, vision workshops, and personal branding.
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Those are the three buckets of things that I do.
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And then people also fall down off when it comes down to writing their title.
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So if you put down VP of Marketing, that tells me everything, tells me nothing.
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It doesn't tell it.
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Doesn't tell me how you work, it doesn't tell me what the benefit is I would get by hiring you.
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It's not clever, it's not interesting.
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it's completely generic.
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And then the most important thing is that whole About Me section.
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Because a lot of times people say, I've done this, I've done that, I've done this, I've done that.
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And they keep on saying, okay, that's great.
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We can all read your resume, but we should really focus on is not what you've done.
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But what benefit do you bring others?
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Because that's basically what everyone is interested in.
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What can you provide to me?
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What can you give to me?
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And people don't realize that.
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Hey, it's Eric here and we'll be right back to the podcast.
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But first, are you ready to grow, scale, and take your marketing to the next level?
00:16:23.139 --> 00:16:29.499
If so, The Five Echelon Group's Virtual CMO consulting service may be a great fit for you.
00:16:29.769 --> 00:16:35.678
We can help build a strategic marketing plan for your business and manage its execution, step-by-step.
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We'll focus on areas like how to attract more leads.
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How to create compelling messaging that resonates with your ideal customers.
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To find out more about our consulting offerings and schedule a consultation, go to fiveechelon.com and click on Services.
00:17:00.098 --> 00:17:01.359
Now back to the podcast.
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No, that's such an important point because it really is about giving value and you want your personal brand to be giving as well.
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And one of the things that you mentioned earlier, as you built that personal story was finding things as ways that you can connect with your audience with people that you're speaking with.
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I don't know how many times I've been in a networking session where somebody is just going on and on, and there's no opportunity to grab on to anything that they're saying and contribute.
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It's a monologue, it's not a conversation.
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Well, that is a pet peeve of mine.
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When people, particularly at formal networking groups where people say, get up and introduce yourself.
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And I'm going to really date myself here, but I think people that slip in that diskette and they just.
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Blah, blah, blah, all over the place.
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And it's full of jargon and it's full of platitudes and it doesn't mean anything.
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And, you know, I'm a reasonably intelligent person, Eric, but I very often find myself in front of people who are going on and on about they do but I don't understand that at all.
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I can't track.
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Yes.
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Just last week I had a new client and she had just made a big investment in having her resume redone.
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She hands me this resume and it was just, it was a mess.
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On the left-hand banner, there were her expertise and there were 12, and then were her social skills, and then there were 10, and then there were some education things over here, and then there was her employment over here.
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And I said to her, okay.
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I'm reading all your titles, I don't even know what field, I think you're in healthcare?
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I can't really tell.
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So I can't tell what you do and I don't know where to look.
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And so that's an example of someone just throwing spaghetti against the wall and feeling as though they have to mention all the buzzwords or whatever that their industry is looking for.
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But in the end, it was just a big confusing mess.
00:18:57.493 --> 00:18:58.273
Yeah, I see that.
00:18:58.273 --> 00:19:15.703
So often, you know, intentionally on this podcast, we don't open every episode with me asking the guest tell me a little bit about yourself, because oftentimes when I've done that 15 minutes into the show, we're still going through that introductory paragraph of tell me who you are, right?
00:19:15.703 --> 00:19:26.384
And so we've got to take that offline now because so many people haven't developed that elevator pitch, that good personal brand story to sort of sum it up, get people interested.
00:19:26.533 --> 00:19:32.993
Instead, they go through a litany of accomplishments and what they've done and where they've worked, which quite honestly is boring.
00:19:32.993 --> 00:19:38.773
There's a, there's another show out there, it's another podcast, I won't throw under the bus, but it's another CMO podcast.
00:19:39.104 --> 00:19:42.374
And they bring on a lot of Fortune 500 CMOs.
00:19:42.673 --> 00:19:51.644
And it's this love fest where they just talk about all the people that they've worked with and name drop this and this company that, but they're not giving anything back really.
00:19:51.644 --> 00:19:55.634
They're not giving anything of value that people can really relate to.
00:19:55.743 --> 00:20:01.413
You have to have those openings where people can really start to engage with you.
00:20:01.940 --> 00:20:10.430
Well, that's the whole thing, because you made a wonderful point at the top of this conversation is you want to have a conversation starter.
00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.519
You need to give someone something to hold onto.
00:20:13.879 --> 00:20:20.569
So you give them your greatest hits of your career and help with someone connect on something somewhere.
00:20:20.693 --> 00:20:26.064
I think we're all familiar with branding in terms of what happens for companies, right?
00:20:26.064 --> 00:20:29.693
What you want to do, your logos, your fonts, your colors, all of this kind of thing.
00:20:29.854 --> 00:20:33.777
How would you look at corporate branding as being different than personal branding?
00:20:34.491 --> 00:20:36.172
Well, personal brand is more personal.
00:20:36.771 --> 00:20:37.341
There we go.
00:20:37.372 --> 00:20:37.912
Okay.
00:20:38.961 --> 00:20:44.271
That's the whole thing, because you know the lion's share of my career has been in corporate brand strategy.
00:20:44.841 --> 00:20:49.581
And the way I got into a personal brand new was about seven years ago.
00:20:49.942 --> 00:20:52.882
I had rebranded a executive search firm.
00:20:53.182 --> 00:21:15.892
And when I was done delivering their brand blueprint, which they were going to use to update their website and sales and marketing materials, the CEO said to me, Rob, this has been super helpful and helping us, you know, move the needle in the company, but I'm having trouble with my consultants because they're on the phone, reading their scripts, and they're trying to connect with the prospects and there it's just not landing.
00:21:16.251 --> 00:21:19.071
Can you help develop a personal brand for them?
00:21:20.211 --> 00:21:22.942
So you know, when you're a consultant, the answer's always Yes.
00:21:23.581 --> 00:21:25.281
So I said, of course I can help you.
00:21:25.281 --> 00:21:33.561
And then I very quickly realized that the same tenants I use to brand a corporation can be nuanced and refined to to brand individual.
00:21:33.711 --> 00:21:36.862
So the approach isn't really that different.
00:21:37.251 --> 00:21:48.132
Um, A company might have to rely more on things like, you know, their logo or their imagery, or their theme song, or their website, or something.
00:21:48.132 --> 00:21:53.362
But with individuals, it's how you put yourself out there in the world.
00:21:53.384 --> 00:22:11.134
So, when I work with corporate clients and I give them a brand blueprint, I mean they are worried about things like messaging and positioning which is no different than an individual with corporations, they might be more reliant on things like logos or color palettes or fonts or theme songs.
00:22:11.494 --> 00:22:22.115
But with individuals, it really is about how you present yourself to the world because people will make assumptions about the things that you intentionally tell them.
00:22:22.744 --> 00:22:28.085
If you'll just indulge me for one minute, because this really was a mind blowing experience for me.
00:22:28.565 --> 00:22:32.315
So I have always driven BMW, so it was just my thing.
00:22:32.404 --> 00:22:33.125
I love them.
00:22:33.545 --> 00:22:38.884
And then I got divorced, I thought, you know what, I'm over the BMW, I'm going real practical.
00:22:39.845 --> 00:22:41.894
So I got a Toyota Avanza.
00:22:42.095 --> 00:22:42.904
Okay.
00:22:43.115 --> 00:22:47.285
Which I thought was a nice car, it was a new model, that was kind of cool, kind of SUV ish.
00:22:47.345 --> 00:22:59.404
Anyway, so I was pitching business with an agency and we met at a hotel, we pitched the business, and then we came down to the concierge to get our cars.
00:22:59.795 --> 00:23:02.105
And my car was the first one that came out.
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