Personal Branding—Most Important Thing You Do. Full Video AdobeMAX 2023
Summary
TLDRThis script delves into the concept of personal branding, emphasizing the human tendency to fall in love with personalities over corporations. It challenges the notion of sanitizing one's image to appeal broadly, advocating for authenticity and leveraging one's unique quirks and passions—termed as 'unmasking your superpower.' Through humor and relatable anecdotes, it differentiates between nerds, geeks, and other societal labels, ultimately guiding on how to build a powerful personal brand. By embracing vulnerability, defining one's enemies, and crafting a personal style, the script outlines a counterintuitive approach to personal branding that resonates with people on a human level.
Takeaways
- 😀 People connect more with personalities than corporations, emphasizing authenticity in personal branding.
- 🧐 Understanding the difference between 'nerd' and 'geek' can enhance self-identification and personal branding.
- 🎭 Embracing one's unique quirks and interests (like being a 'nerd') can be a superpower in building a personal brand.
- 🌟 Aaron Draplin's success is attributed to his charisma, authenticity, and approachability, showcasing the power of personal authenticity.
- 🔍 Analyzing the success of influential figures can provide insights into effective personal branding strategies.
- 📈 Building a powerful personal brand involves unmasking your unique superpowers, often through counterintuitive means.
- 👥 The importance of storytelling and connecting with audiences on a human level is highlighted for brand development.
- 🤝 Establishing a personal brand requires understanding your audience and engaging them with authentic content that resonates.
- 🚀 Developing a unique personal branding framework can involve combining passions, such as cinema and pop culture, with professional goals.
- 💡 The concept of 'ugly branding' illustrates how embracing imperfections and authenticity can differentiate and strengthen a brand.
Q & A
What is the main goal of the presentation?
-The main goal of the presentation is to help the audience unmask their superpower by building a powerful personal brand, emphasizing the importance of being authentic and embracing one's unique characteristics.
What key difference between a nerd and a geek does the speaker highlight?
-According to the speaker, the key difference is that a nerd must have high intelligence, be obsessed with weird things, and be socially awkward, whereas a geek is characterized by being really smart and obsessed about things without necessarily being socially awkward.
What led the speaker to research the difference between a nerd and a geek?
-The speaker looked up the difference between a nerd and a geek after realizing he had been using the terms interchangeably without knowing there was a distinct difference.
Why does the speaker mention the concept of people trying to be like corporations and vice versa?
-The speaker mentions this concept to highlight the irony of corporations striving to appear more human and relatable, while individuals often sanitize their online presence to appear more professional or corporation-like, which detracts from their authenticity and personal brand.
What analogy does the speaker use to explain the concept of building a personal brand?
-The speaker uses the analogy of comic book mythology, drawing parallels between the characters' origin stories, defining attributes, and the battles they fight, to explain how individuals can construct their personal brand.
What does the speaker suggest is necessary for making meaningful connections?
-The speaker suggests that being vulnerable is necessary for making meaningful connections, as it allows individuals to be authentic and relatable.
What framework does the speaker introduce for building a personal brand?
-The speaker introduces a framework that includes knowing who you are, your origin story, your community and allies, your defining attributes, and your 'enemies' or what you stand against, drawing parallels to comic book mythology.
How does the speaker suggest individuals can stand out and be different?
-The speaker suggests that individuals can stand out by being refreshingly transparent, embracing their full personality, and going in the opposite direction of trying to blend in, much like the example given of Aaron Draplin's approach.
What does the speaker mean by 'adversity is your ally'?
-By 'adversity is your ally,' the speaker means that personal challenges and adversities can be powerful elements of one's story and brand, making them more relatable and authentic to others.
What is the 'two-word brand' concept introduced by the speaker?
-The 'two-word brand' concept introduced by the speaker involves combining a shadow word (representing a personal challenge or perceived negative trait) with a transformer word, to create a unique and powerful personal brand identifier that embraces and transcends one's vulnerabilities.
Outlines
📣 Building a Personal Brand: Embracing Authenticity
The speaker introduces the idea that people are more attracted to personalities than corporations, highlighting a shift where corporations strive to humanize their brands, while individuals tend to sanitize theirs. A distinction is made between 'nerds' and 'geeks' through a humorous analogy involving a Venn diagram by comedian Don McMillan. The focus then shifts to the importance of personal branding and unmasking one's superpower, which contrary to popular belief, lies in embracing one's authentic, nerdy or geeky self. Through anecdotes and definitions, the speaker encourages the audience to reflect on their own unique traits that could strengthen their personal brand.
🌟 Discovering Your Superpower Through Transparency
The narrative progresses to the speaker sharing personal revelations about branding and identity inspired by Aaron Draplin's transparent and authentic approach at a TEDx talk. This transparency is posited as a key ingredient to Draplin's magnetic personal brand, leading to a broader discussion on the power of being genuine and vulnerable in building one's brand. The speaker challenges the audience to be refreshingly transparent in their own branding efforts, arguing that authenticity attracts and resonates with others, forming deeper connections and a stronger personal brand.
🛠️ Framework for a Powerful Personal Brand
Introducing a framework for developing a personal brand, the speaker outlines four components: knowing oneself, understanding one's community, recognizing defining attributes, and identifying enemies or challenges. This framework is likened to comic book mythology, where characters are defined by their origin stories, allies, attributes, and adversaries. The discussion is framed as a preparation for a detailed workshop aimed at helping individuals unmask their superpowers, with a focus on the unique and counterintuitive aspects of personal branding.
🧠 Leveraging Vulnerability and Self-Awareness
The narrative delves into the importance of vulnerability and self-awareness in personal branding, using an analogy of selling 'ugly' fruit to highlight how perceived flaws can actually enhance a brand's appeal. The speaker emphasizes that being open about one's shortcomings and embracing one's unique personality traits can lead to stronger, more genuine connections with others. This section reinforces the idea that corporations and individuals alike can benefit from being more human and authentic in their branding efforts.
💡 Turning Weaknesses into Strengths
Exploring the concept of transforming weaknesses into strengths, the speaker discusses the power of storytelling in branding, particularly through the lens of vulnerability. By sharing personal struggles and how they've shaped one's character, individuals can create compelling narratives that resonate deeply with others. The section emphasizes the effectiveness of authenticity and transparency in building a personal brand that truly stands out.
🎭 Embracing and Transforming Your Shadow Self
This segment introduces the concept of the 'shadow self' and the importance of acknowledging and embracing one's darker or hidden aspects to create a more authentic and powerful personal brand. Through personal anecdotes and exercises, the speaker encourages the audience to reflect on their own shadows and consider how these aspects can be transformed into strengths. This approach aims to foster self-discovery and genuine personal growth, which are essential for building a meaningful and impactful personal brand.
🤺 Identifying and Embracing Your Enemies
The discussion shifts to the importance of identifying one's 'enemies' or the challenges and criticisms one faces, and using them as fuel to strengthen one's personal brand. Through creative exercises and examples, the speaker shows how negative feedback and obstacles can be reframed and embraced to create a more resilient and distinctive brand identity. This part of the narrative underscores the value of resilience and the power of turning adversity into an asset in personal branding.
🌈 Crafting Your Signature Style and Language
In this final section, the speaker emphasizes the significance of developing a unique style and language as key components of a personal brand. Through examples ranging from visual identity to signature phrases and monograms, the audience is encouraged to think creatively about how they present themselves to the world. The narrative concludes with a call to action for individuals to deliberately craft and curate aspects of their identity, turning them into powerful tools for personal branding and self-expression.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Personal Branding
💡Nerd vs. Geek
💡Authenticity
💡Vulnerability
💡Shadow Work
💡Comic Book Mythology
💡Adversity as an Ally
💡Two-Word Brand
💡Enemy Identification
💡Signature Style
Highlights
Yo Santosa emphasizes the importance of personalities over corporations in building love and trust.
The transformation of corporations trying to humanize and individuals aiming for a corporate persona.
Introduction to building a powerful personal brand by unmasking one's superpower.
Exploring the distinction between nerds and geeks through humor and Venn diagrams.
A personal journey of discovering Aaron Draplin's influence and charm in design and branding.
Aaron Draplin's TEDx talk showcases his transparent and authentic approach to personal branding.
The significance of embracing one's unique traits and imperfections in establishing a personal brand.
Analyzing the 'Ugly' branding strategy to highlight the power of storytelling and emotional connection.
Demonstrating the effectiveness of integrating facts, feelings, and fun in storytelling for brand engagement.
Introducing a personal branding framework that combines elements from cinema, pop culture, and comic book mythology.
Exploring the concept of cultural capital and its influence on personal branding through one's background and community.
The role of personal challenges and 'shadow words' in developing a more profound and relatable personal brand.
Emphasizing the importance of being vulnerable and transparent in connecting with others on a personal level.
Utilizing personal stories and defining moments to illustrate one's brand and character.
Encouraging the reclamation and transformation of negative labels or criticisms into strengths and unique selling points.
Highlighting the need for conflict and challenges in crafting compelling narratives and personal brands.
The significance of adversaries or 'villains' in defining and sharpening one's personal brand and values.
Advising on the strategic use of personal style, symbols, and color to enhance brand recognition and identity.
The power of naming and owning one's narrative, turning personal quirks into trademarks of their brand.
Transcripts
I'm going to share this quote with you
from my friend yo santosa who says
people don't fall in love with
corporations they fall in love with
personalities and here's the weird thing
as I look across the social media
landscape and people are posting content
all the time it's strange to me how
humans try so hard to be corporations to
sanitize everything that you do to wash
it to run it by a legal team or
something so that you don't offend
anybody you don't say anything so it's
really weird corporations are trying to
be more human and humans are trying to
be more like corporations so today I'm
want to talk to you about building a
powerful personal brand and my main goal
is to help you unmask your superpower
and it's counterintuitive it's not what
you think it is it's the opposite of
what you think it
is I've been using this term nerd or
sometimes a geek and I didn't realize
there was a difference and so I looked
it up did you know there's a difference
between nerd and a geek there's this
comedian this joke is totally stolen
from him so I'm gonna his name is Don
McMillan and he's funny because he's the
only comedian who uses ven diagrams and
this is his ven diagram he explains it
right so in order for you to be a nerd
you have to be really smart you have to
have high intelligence quotient and you
have to be obsessed about weird things
and you also have to be socially awkward
so not everybody gets to call themselves
a nerd okay and so you start to wonder
like well what are the other parts of
the VIN diagram so if you're really
smart and you're obsessed that's a
geek and if you're really smart and
you're super socially awkward that's a
dork and the last one's pretty funny if
you're socially awkward and you're
obsessed do you know what that's called
it's totally called a
stalker so you know I'm a nerd I'm a
nerd because I like to think of myself
as all these three things and some of
you are probably feeling like real seen
and heard right now I I see you okay so
uh in
2014 I didn't know a lot about brand or
personal branding and I Came Upon This
video and I have to admit I didn't have
any idea who this guy was and this
designer had asked me like do you know
who Aaron drin is I'm like no and she's
like you're just being so pretentious
like no I really don't know so I had to
go look up on the internet and I see
this video and the first video I've ever
seen of Aaron drin was him at tedex
Portland he gets up on stage and he I'll
give you a little bit of him drain's not
here is he all right cool cuz I make fun
of him the whole time okay he goes up on
stage and like my my name is Aaron James
drain I'm 40 years old and I'm a big guy
trying to make it in the little leagues
I'm not qualified to be here um I'm I
have no credentials look them up but no
warts no nothing and I don't even wear
pants so I was like this is the guy
everybody's talking about what is going
on what is going on here and what what
made him so special so lovable so
desired that people will buy anything
and get in lines like out the door
what's going on with him was it because
he's got some like god-given Talent or
maybe uh he's just really fortunate a
person at the right place at the right
time with the right opportunity or maybe
he won the genetic Lottery like with his
good looks or something so I have a
question for all of you what is it about
Mr drin Mr ajd that draws so many people
to him and you know who you are it's
okay if you just identify yourself right
now what is it Charisma Charisma
authenticity he's really hot he's really
hot he is that you you like the you like
him uh fluffy right
okay all right all right so I think I
know what the answer is and so what I
did was I stopped
shaving I started shopping at the skinny
and shorts store and bought a whole new
wardrobe so I was on my way to becoming
an influencer I swear to you right um
and I just I just want to say a couple
things you know like I know how to use
generative Phill and I'm not even sure
if Aaron even knows how to use Photoshop
so you know Adobe call me we can work
something out but the real aha moment
came to me when I started to study this
video I was like watching it over and
over and over again that's my nature I'm
obsessed like that and he did something
that up until that point I didn't see a
whole lot of other designers do so in
the SE of say when everybody's trying to
blend in we're trying to fit in with the
world he just went the opposite
direction and it doesn't take that much
for you to stand out to be different and
so here's what I came up with and I
think it might line up with why you're
all attracted to too that he was
refreshingly transparent if you just
look at the first 60 seconds of his head
talk he tells you his middle name people
don't usually open up with that he tells
you how old he is and that he's from
Detroit Michigan and he's into this kind
of music and this is his political
affiliation he tells you all of it he
tells you about his attack dog Gary and
he licks the ice cream he's like good
enough for his mouth good enough for my
mouth I'm like
oo overshare I think so there was this
high sense of self-awareness and he was
talking about it he's like everybody was
busy trying to go to India I was just
trying to go to
Indiana and it hit and I started to
understand this guy was bringing the
full weight of his personality and he
was not hiding from it he was opening it
up to show all of you and there's
something about that that I'm going to
talk to you about so I started to know
these patterns and um I developed a
little bit of a framework okay and it
combines my love for Cinema for pop
culture and I say that because if I
don't I think there's some IP copyright
infringement here so it's really a
critical analysis of Pop Culture media
film and Comics Disney don't sue me okay
so I'm really into this stuff and the
framework looks something like this and
I do want to say something here which is
typically I'm doing personal branding
workshops that are 8 to 10 hours long
I've done my best to squeeze it into a
60-minute talk so that's I'm just going
to pull the highlights for you okay and
I'm going to share things that would
normally be interactive we would do this
together I'd make fun of you you would
try you would fail I would make fun of
you it would work something like that
but I'll just show you what some of the
answers look like you don't need to
worry about this because I'm just going
to pull it apart but there are basically
four components to this thing knowing
who you are your origin story where
you're born your parents all that stuff
that's cultural capital that we trade on
all the time you know how when you see
somebody like oh you're from the same
town that I I went to or you had that
teacher you went to that school or you
use that same software we connect with
each other that way and then there's
this larger thing the people that
surround us our community um the city in
which we live in our allies or Sidekicks
there's a lot of comic book references
it gets deeper than this okay and then
there's your defining attributes the
things that make you you your your
catchphrases your your quirks your
idiosyncratic nature those are the
things that you want to learn and tap
into and then there's this element that
most people ignore which we'll just call
the enemy the things that you stand
against the things that are that the
things that you're trying to get rid of
in in in terms of the world and that's
what it kind of looks like and I started
to see these overlaps between comic book
mythology and building a personal brand
so today I'm going to talk to you about
building a powerful personal brand the
Adobe Max 2023 version of this and my
main goal is to help you unmask your
superpower and it's counterintuitive
it's not what you think it is it's the
opposite of what you think it is and I'm
going to do this in a couple of parts so
part one is the ugly story now the ugly
story has a story too because my wife
and I were really good
partners um I I don't ever do the the
grocery shopping on occasion I actually
go into the store usually I just sit in
the car and wait for her uh because she
doesn't like to be rushed that's the
problem so I'm there like let's just get
this and move on so I go there and this
thing catches my eye off the shelf it's
just screaming at me at Whole Foods and
it says hello I'm ugly I'm like are you
talking to me wait who's ugly you're
ugly or I'm ugly and so I picked this
thing up purely based on design and
packaging so for those of you who don't
believe design and packaging works this
is an example and I'll tell you why
because now I'm telling their story to
you which you might tell someone else
and they paid me Zar for that okay also
available call me hash sponsor post okay
so I'm going to share a couple things
about this package their story and I
want you to pay attention to it as if
we're doing a workshop together okay and
there's this concept called the three FS
um it was introduced to me by this guy
named Brenan Kane who was able to grow a
million followers in 30 days or
something like that it's ridiculous what
he's able to do 30 days thanks thanks
Alex okay so he talks about when you
tell a story humans most humans connect
to facts feelings and fun so if you only
talk about facts you lose a lot of
people if you only talk about feelings
or fun then you you're potentially going
to miss a third of your audience so
whenever you tell a story you try to
include all three things so I'm going to
ask you to pay attention I'm going to
read to you what is on this package and
try to identify what is a fact what is
fun and what is feeling and then we'll
go over it okay as if we're working
together so here's what it says it says
beautiful on the inside 100% upcycled
peaches so that's a term upcycle I I
know that term I've not seen it used in
food like this before ugly fruit is
thrown out because of the way it looks
but you should never judge a fruit by
its
cover and by buying this package you are
preventing two and a qu pounds of ugly
fruit from becoming waste and then more
peaches are thrown away in California
than the state of Georgia produces and
ually right the state known for peaches
according to Justin
Bieber right and then lastly at the back
it say pit happens while we do our best
to remove all the pit traces from our
product sometimes Mother Nature just
won't let go so how did the ugly company
turn an unremarkable Bland ho hum
product into a charismatic brand one
that we will talk about and it's not
because of the product itself CU it is
pretty ugly there's small small pieces
of dried
fruit okay it's not because of that it's
not because it tastes any better so
number
one they were able to turn a weakness
into a strength that something is that
is discarded becomes something that we
value more than the discarded thing and
they trade on our guilt for landfill and
food waste and food scarcity into gold
quite
literally okay so were you paying
attention to the three fs and they told
the compelling
story okay so I broke it down for you so
the waste that's a fact that they throw
that we throw out more fruit in
California than Georgia produces that's
a fact and here's where it gets real
interesting judging on
appearance that's a feeling and so for
those of you who have ever been judged
or have judged someone and regretted it
you're going to start to connect to that
story there's an emotional bond that's
happening there and then when they say
pit happens we know what they mean they
don't really mean pit happens so that's
just them having fun so we wink at each
other we're in on the joke and we're
part of that story now and lastly it's
just full of Personality they humanized
a pretty bland category I've never paid
attention to drive fruit in my life I
don't know about you but now all of a
sudden I'm paying attention to it
because it made it human and it made it
relatable and I'm going to give I'm
going to share this quote with you from
my friend yo santosa who says people
don't fall in love with corporations
they fall in love with personalities and
here's the weird thing as I look across
the social media landscape and people
are posting content all the time it's
strange to me how humans try so hard to
be corporations to sanitize everything
that you do to was it to run it by a
legal team or something so that you
don't offend anybody you don't say
anything so it's really weird
corporations are trying to be more human
and humans are trying to be more like
corporations now that doesn't mean that
if you have a lot of personality that's
a guarantee for Success there is this
graphic that I want to share with you
doing a little research from the cut I
don't know what the cut is but they have
this ven diagram because there's plenty
of personalities that we hate apparently
so this is the diagram of people we hate
okay so it's a it's a diagram between
tries too hard doesn't try hard enough
and crimes against other celebrities
okay so you'll see it's kind of weird so
in the tries to hard category you have
Kim Kardashian Chris Jenner gwenneth
palra Madonna and hathway I think it's
pretty accurate I don't know why but
they're all women and there's something
interesting about this you'll see where
this goes okay and then there's some
people who don't try hard at all
universally agreed right Lindsay Lohan
like come on okay and then crimes
against other celebrities they're all
men John Mayor Jay Leno Jesse
James oh there's an argument happening
over here you okay with this graphic you
you want me to amend it okay we can do
that later all right anyways and then
the overlap is quite interesting between
the tries too hard and crimes against
other celebrities Taylor Swift Angelina
Jolie and Ashton Kutcher and doesn't try
hard enough and tries too hard at the
same time
he's able to pull it off kind of true
this is a damn good graphic isn't it
that's why I stole it now I want to ask
you who do you think oh I'm sorry I
messed that part up who who doesn't try
enough and commits crimes against other
people Kristen Stewart It's amazing so
who do you think tries too hard doesn't
try hard enough and commits crimes
against other
celebrities Kanye
Kanye I think he tries too hard mostly
okay but you're you're pretty good here
um Chris
Brown right okay so what is the moral of
this lesson besides me just trying to
steal a joke is I guess the rule in life
is to try but not too hard and just
don't hurt other people pretty good rule
to live by so we want to make some
effort but we definitely don't want to
hurt other people on our way up okay
part two of this is the 21st century
brand and that's what we're here trying
to help you do so that you can become
more influential so you can create those
kind of opportunities so you can
magnetize yourself and draw those things
to you it's a wonderful thing when it
starts to happen for you and so we're
all using the same language I'm going to
refer to Marty newers definition of
brand a brand is the person's gut
feeling about a product service or
organization so it's not what you say it
is it's what they say it is right so we
we know this products are made in
factories where brands are built and
made in the hearts and the minds of
people hearts and Minds just remember
that and then I came upon this article
at in the Harvard Business Review uh and
there was this thing it like build your
personal brand what an amazing okay not
that great of an article but they said
that your brand is built basically
around every
interaction that you have that people
are forming an opinion about you and if
that is true like there are a couple
hundred people in this room and
everybody here will have a separate
opinion about me and each other so does
that mean there are possibly infinite
versions of
ourselves possibly
well I had to do that because I needed
to show the slide that maybe we're
living see how it works you guys in the
Multiverse and you notice the last
couple of years maybe the last 10 years
the conversation on the Multiverse is
increasing across different media it's
really interesting I'm I'm fascinated by
these kinds of Concepts well at least in
the Marvel Cinematic Universe the
Multiverse is a bad thing like there's
one true you and then there's alternates
right and so season two Loki's out
that it's awesome the best series you
know the other one's not so good that
there's a whole time variance Authority
that's trying to prevent these variants
from existing so much so that he who
remains is trying his sole job is to
maintain the sacred timeline the one
version and actually eliminate the other
versions of you so we're kind of at war
with these different versions of
ourselves that's at least my
premise now I want to ask you this
question
What If instead of us fighting against
these different versions that we are all
meant to be a more unified whole that we
can learn to live in peace with these
different
versions and so that we can go from this
disjointed self that's misaligned to
something much better something more
cohesive and whole I'm going to talk
about
that so this is the new brand Roi this
is a big concept because a lot of times
when people see me they hear about
branding personal branding they think
I'm going to teach them social media
hacks how to hack the algorithm what you
to post it ain't about that that was a
trick to get you here I want to do
something that's more meaningful more
Soulful to you so it takes a little bit
of work for me to establish the
foundation for this but I tell you it's
completely worth it okay so I believe in
this idea that there's karmic equity and
if you think of a bank it's like you
make a deposit every time you do
something that's good and you expect
nothing in return and the more that you
can do this over time without taking
anything out it builds in a compounded
way it builds exponential
but every time you ask for something it
resets back to zero your account gets
drained back to zero does that make
sense so when you post a piece of
content and it's to Market your course
or to hire you or to give you an
opportunity or to review your portfolio
or your resume you are emptying your
bank out again and to me karma is just
the energy you use to reset that balance
that's what we're trying to do so I Came
Upon This the old rules of brand
awareness and it's pretty solid here
make something for everyone tell our
story attract customers and to build
brand awareness a lot of you are doing
this very Playbook right now the the new
rules look something like this
understand the customer story make
something that they want not what you
want give them a story to tell and
create brand Affinity so I take you back
to the ugly company the ugly fruit
company what they did was they
understood my story what I want to do
which is to reduce
waste and to um not fill up uh the the
dump with things that we we don't
necessarily need to throw away so it's
like into conservation all those things
and it's now I'm going around telling
their story and that's what you really
want and so we're trying to find this
balance between the things you have to
do for money versus the the long-term
game which is to build massive brand
value and these are at odds with each
other so that's what the Harvard
Business review article talks about that
Performance Marketing is good for
short-term Revenue but it comes at the
cost of long-term brand building value
so it's Revenue versus value and I'm
going to show it to you and how it looks
okay so instead of playing the
short-term game we're going to go play
the infinite game the game which we get
to play forever for as long as possible
and that's the whole point of the game
in itself now I Came Upon news piece for
Reese Witherspoon and I think she's a
pretty awesome person a pretty awesome
actress but not like the best and I
didn't realize this but she has grown a
massive social following 29 million
followers on
Instagram and here's what she's been
able to do with the the 29 million
followers on Instagram she's turned this
into a book club with two and a half
million people reading books anybody
here part of her book club okay a couple
people all right all right you don't
have to be shy about it I see you I they
can't see you I see you it's okay all
right yeah okay it's all right to be a
you know
so here's what she's been able to do she
takes her her General brand awareness
and the connection she's being able to
build with fans of films that she's been
on she creates a book club and she
recommends books now here's the really
interesting thing in order for you as an
author to have your book circulated
within the book club you have to Grant
her the media
rights rude woman so she can make movies
TV shows or whatever she wants but then
you're thinking isn't that exploiting
the author how many authors would like
to get their book in front of two and a
half million hungry Minds that would be
fantastic for the author so it's a
win-win and optioning your movie rights
doesn't mean they don't get money either
they get money when the movie's made as
well so she has this ultimate data
collection machine which is I think
these books are good you read them then
they tell her these books are great and
BAS on that she knows what TV shows and
movies to produce so she sold her
company her production company hello
sunshine for $900 million good on you
girl girl next door does all right so it
got me to think like okay so you're not
in movies uh you're not a nepo baby
whatever so what can you do to become a
more attractive character okay so I've
been thinking about this and I usually
would do this in Workshop so I would ask
people think about somebody throughout
time in history that has held a a place
of high esteem and Regard in your mind
right so you might think of some people
like Mother Teresa Gandhi or the Dal
Lama and then I asked now now really
think about them why are they so
attractive to you what is it about them
and I would do this with a large group
of people and we almost always end up
with the same three
characteristics they are they're
self-confident they're self-aware and
they're
vulnerable think back to ugly fruit
company they're confident they're
self-aware and they're
vulnerable so we can borrow these
Concepts and we can start to apply them
when we look at our own personal brand
so now I'm going to break down the more
specific components of it okay the first
really counterintuitive idea is that we
must be willing to be vulnerable to
build meaningful connection that's a
Berne Brown quote I have a slide for
somewhere so you're Perfectly Imperfect
the way you are it got me into looking
into Carl Young and he describes like
ourselves in a very different way than
Freud does that there's this Persona and
all of us are in our Persona right now
it's how we want the world to perceive
us it's what we do to get along with
everyone else and then the ego regulates
the Persona our front-facing self versus
our real self our shadow self this stuff
that is private that we rarely show to
anybody maybe to our only our trusted
best friend or a partner in life or
maybe a sibling or a parent and when
there's conflict between these two the
public and the shadow South at least in
the comic book world that looks
something like this I love the
Incredible Hulk because he is the
manifestation of a split personality
disorder you have the cold stoic Dr
Bruce Banner who is like an incredible
intellect and then you have the Hulk who
raging emotion the angrier he gets the
more powerful he gets so therefore he
has unlimited power as long as he
remains angry it's kind of an
interesting character not just Hulk
smash so here's the problem if we all
show up at as our Persona how we want
the world to perceive Us and how we get
along or how we show up to get along
what happens when you spend so much time
doing that and my fear and my belief and
observation is that we forget who we
really are you pretend to be somebody
long enough and you forget who you are I
this is also my theory that why people
like actors and actresses who pretend to
be lovers in a movie actually fall in
love afterwards cuz they go through the
same emotions that you would have have I
don't think your heart and mind can
figure out the difference so this is the
battle that we have to work through so
personal branding is not so much an Act
of Creation it's an act of
self-discovery your self story your
self-concept who are you and what makes
you
you so back to the world of comic books
there are characters who have no
difference between their public Persona
and their secret Alter Ego or identity
Reed Richards Mr Fantastic is the same
person he doesn't have to hide anything
in his world he's a hero he's wealthy
he's respected so I think that's a clue
cuz sometimes I think these stories are
designed to send a message to us in a
more palatable form that's easier to
consume and so what I'd like to do is do
a little Shadow work with you this is
the part where you're going to have to
take out a piece paper I think or just
write it with your iPhone or whatever
you have okay or pixel or whatever you
use um you know how I feel about that
okay so and I just want to say this uh
as I invite you to try to participate
and be vulnerable and EXP a different
darker side of yourself that I'm not a
mental health professional not even
close to one and sometimes when we do
these exercises we open cans of warms
that I do not know how to deal with I'm
not trained to deal with so I I just say
you you you need to do this under that
understanding that we can only go so far
here okay so here's the first prompt for
you it's the very easy prompt what we do
is we peel back the the the layers of
the onion we start easy and we get more
and more like progressively more
difficult okay how do most people people
see
you how would they describe you your
personality how would they describe what
it is that you do so you just want to
write like one or two Word answers to
this okay now obviously you're not going
to be able to work through the workshop
here in 90 minutes or 32 minutes left
now okay so just that's the easy part we
can always describe what it is we do I'm
a designer I'm a photographer I'm an
illustrator I'm I'm a social media
manager whatever it is that you do you
can write that and most people see me as
something okay so I'm going to share
with you happened when we were on our
European tour when I actually did the
workshop some of the answers some of the
people are in this room I won't say who
they are we'll see okay so my friend
Annalie she's a brand strategist she's
kind she's caring she's nurturing she's
deeply empathetic uh she's a public
speaker and instructor she's got this
really warm supportive inclusive tone
and she's she's this blonde woman so
she's like this ray of sunshine and that
might be literally the kinds of answers
you might write to that first prompt
as you can see it's just like what the
public sees now the second prompt to
this is but what they don't know is that
I really struggle with this
thing right so some of you might see me
as this gregarious outgoing person who
creates a lot of content it's everywhere
all the time what you don't know is I
just gasping for air over there with
stomach pains just minutes before coming
up on stage so now we start to kind of
show the world the other side the side
that we very rarely show other people
and there's this rule from entrepreneurs
organization EO and EO is an incredible
organization anybody here EO
members we got to work on that they're
all
millionaires okay so maybe you'll be
there soon or you're already there but
you didn't join yet they're all they had
this thing called a 5% rule so what they
say is about 90% of what you share you
share with the world right it's the top
five and the bottom five that you hide
from everyone so if you have an
incredible opportunity if you close a $3
million gig you don't go on Instagram
and share that cuz you're afraid people
judge you there's that expression that
people want you to see you do well but
just not better than them so it creates
feelings of jealousy right that's why
when you when you get a new whip you
might not want to post it because you
know your friends from your old
neighborhood might judge you in a
certain way or they might come and Rob
you either
way and then there's that dark stuff
like uh abuse uh divorce that you're
going through a really tough time
whatever it is that's the stuff you
don't share but in EO they say leave the
90% to the rest of the world show us the
5% your high highs and your low lows and
so I think that's a that's a hint for us
as to what we need to do and what we
need to get in touch with so an's going
to go a little bit deeper so she
struggles with self-confidence so
there's the opposite side the side that
she she shows people what they see and
then there's the side that's really her
so she struggles with self-confidence
that she feels guilt about wanting to be
in the spotlight because she's Swedish
and she there's this thing it's the idea
of the law of yante where you're not
supposed to stand out everybody's equal
everybody's the same a bunch of
Europeans here whether you're Swedish or
not know what I'm talking about they
feel the same way there's many
expressions for this in Europe in
America we love ourselves we praise
excellence and exceptionalism the rest
of the world they don't know what we're
doing here they think we're all crazy
okay so she has a lot of
insecurity that she's like approval
seeking and that she's like too
emotional those are her things so what
we want to do is we want to start to
generate a bunch of words that start to
make us feel really uncomfortable that
are us inside that we're afraid to share
with the
world this is really scary stuff but
this is your Shadow word okay um so when
we do this in Workshop forat you can
imagine because everybody's seeing
everybody like no one wants to say
anything but when it opens up the gates
just go crazy and then it's a flood of
emotion it's a beautiful thing for me to
witness I feel like when I run these
workshops if people are not crying I
failed I've totally
failed okay so Tom he was at one of the
workshops he says I struggle with being
a people
pleaser okay let's work with that James
struggles with substance abuse he's a
recovering addict Phyllis struggles with
age discrimination she's gone through
multiple careers in her life and so
people look at her like shouldn't you be
doing this by
now okay so I'm going to take it back to
analie here so her Shadow word is
attention
seeker and then I asked her like what
lesson did you learn from your Shadow
word I think all the challenges that
have been put in front of you were
designed to teach you a lesson the
problem with most of us is we don't
recognize that as a gift we see it as an
obstacle we don't learn what we need to
learn and guess what happens we're
doomed to repeat it over and over
again so she had a really difficult time
she goes Chris being an attention seeker
is really bad considering where I come
from the society and the culture in
which I was
raised but what did you learn from it
anal and how did you overcome this and
how did it make you stronger and this is
the path towards healing from this thing
that causes you pain to figure out where
you need to
go so if you're a recovering addict what
did you learn if you're a people pleaser
what did you learn now you've settled
into what your Shadow word is we're
going to change it by adding a
Transformer word a Transformer word
changes the meaning of original word so
your Shadow word could be one or two
words probably not more than that and
then you add a Transformer word and so
here's literally what Tom did at the
workshop and I was just so pleased that
somebody actually had some success so it
was great it was a good feeling for me
so Tom said I'm a proud people pleaser
is that okay Chris I'm say if that fits
with you and it feels good to you you
know run with that but it's interesting
because Tom builds communities and if
you don't know who Tom is Tom is the
founder of design Cuts he is the
community guy and he wrote a book on
this called the community guy or
something like that so that becomes a
thing of strength for him now let's go
back to
analie analie uh and we're trying to
work through this and it took a lot to
get this out maybe she's a reformed
attention seeker that feels a little
soft to me U maybe she's a conflicted
attention seeker or a conscious
attention
seeker it's not going anywhere so we we
have to kind of rethink this and then we
say like maybe she's an attention
Economist but then that takes away the
original Shadow word right now it's like
you're doing something different you're
like Gary vaynerchuk or something you
day trade attention all of a sudden
right so we have to be careful when we
add the Transformer word that we don't
wash it of the real meaning and the
power it has for
us okay instead of being an attention
Economist maybe you're an attention
Trader same meaning but then I started
thinking like what's another word for
traitor like a day Traer your an
attention broke her
and then we have fun with the way that
we write it so that it's a reminder for
herself that if you're not careful
attention will break you and that's a
lesson that she needs to learn in all
different ways and I think she's on to
something here okay so if you can do
this take three words you can turn them
into two words or you can combine two
words and make them into one hybrid word
you get bonus points if you can use
alliteration or rhyme but what I C you
against is making it cute when we do
this people are like oh I can use three
Rs but it means nothing or It Sounds
Clever but it has no real emotional
value to you I didn't ask James for
permission now there's lots of James in
the room I just say it's a
James I I can do it okay so he started
coming with ideas like design addict art
addict
tic that got some eyebrows James see
what I'm saying yeah but he likes that
he likes that it's sounds funny like
he's an arct maybe he has an an art
dition or maybe he's a designoholic
okay so when we do this exercise people
are like yeah but I'm still struggling
okay okay well there's more ways to do
this we can lean into the people who
hate us and we can just embrace them
with the warmest hug and we can take
back our power so another problem that
you can look at is what would your
naysayers your worst critics and your
cynics and trolls say about you
excluding family what would they say
about you so I'll show how this exercise
looks right so if you like like Phyllis
she they might say she's old she's past
her prime she's she's a has been washed
up a gezer Dusty ancient dinosaur
grandma Jerry atric remember she's a
late career switcher who's also a brand
strategist and she did this not with me
I'm just using her as an example here I
can't take credit for it so she uses
grandmother as
grandmother I'm like you're so clever
Phyllis you should run this Workshop
but she's not here so I'm running it
okay so here's what somebody uh who
talks about business and marketing a lot
a woman and so these are some of what
the critics might say about her that
she's business obsessed she's greedy she
doesn't have a priority straight she's
money hungry she's a gold digger a
capitalistic Covetous Material
Girl and she takes Gold Digger and she
turns into gold digger and this is Jenna
Kutcher she has like the number two
podcast for marketing I
believe I'm not
jealous not at all okay so my friend
Rick Morris he's a freelance designer
art director creative director so he he
calls himself a noble
assassin and then my other friend Ash
Thorp who's like had tremendous success
uh and an amazing body of work some of
you guys know who Ash Thorp is he calls
himself an art prostitute he's not
beating around the bush he's just
keeping it real and we we know people
who are ghost writers I'm like you're a
ghost writer shouldn't you just be a
growth writer so there's this thing that
if you if you say it by withholding your
tongue with a lith you can sometimes
hear it differently so if you're I'm a
go fighter then you can write it out
differently you can have fun with that
and then I saw this on a on um on a food
truck uh the guys who bake they're the
yeasty
boys that's pretty good right okay it's
who they are it's what they too and
there's this other person on social
media he's a real Fitness buff he runs
like militant workout programs he goes
by the name of Primos
swolder okay and and then I have a
friend who does speech uh he coaches
people on how to be a better speaker he
has a program called Mind Body Spirit
and he really believes in martial arts
and Jiu-Jitsu I'm like Marshall what
just call it martial art why you working
so hard okay so I said earlier that
staying vulnerable is a risk that we
have to take if we want to make a
meaningful
connection and here's the problem and
the reason why I would encourage you to
reduce down what it is that you describe
yourself not what you do but how you
describe yourself there's a big
difference here it's about you your
personality is to make it as simple as
possible to understand because
complexity is the enemy of comprehension
retention and execution and what you
want to do is be able to create
something that other people can tell the
story for you without you being in the
room that's how you know your story is
really good so it requires a lot of
editing for you to arrive at your
two-word brand the two brand is not your
entire story it's not even part of the
story it's just to get people to become
interested in saying tell me more what
does it mean to be a brandother what
does it mean to be a primal
Soldier so when when you arrive at your
two-word brand you can then now use this
as a way to tell stories and I'll give
you an example of how I do this okay so
story I'll give you some of the
structure too now when we look at story
I think like who are some of the best
storytellers who have multi-billion
dollar intellectual property of course
Marvel and DC and Stanley is the master
at creating characters uh he's created
some of the most iconic characters and
there was a a lecture that he gave I
think at UCLA on how he created
Spider-Man he goes what we have to do is
we have to just figure out the hardest
thing to do is figure out your
superpower and then once you figure out
the superpower you can give it a name
and then we have to invent some personal
problems so he was sitting in his room
and he saw a fly crawling up on the wall
he's like that's a superpower what if
you can crawl up on the wall so that he
figured out the superpower was the
hardest part he what we call him uh
Mosquito Man fly man that's not cool
Spiderman and as he tells the story he
runs to his editor he says I got this
hero it's called Spider-Man he say
that's the dumbest idea Stan don't you
know people are afraid of spiders he
goes what else you got well you don't
even understand like he's a teenager he
goes St no heroes are teenagers only
Sidekicks can be
teenagers well you know how this story
works out so he's the wall crawler he's
Spider-Man and he's a teenager and this
is a clue for you on how you can tell
your story your superpower begins with
your two- word
brand and it defi it starts to tell
people a little bit about who you are
and what makes you unique and different
so now we're able to to dive into the to
the origin story now he knows his powers
he knows what he's going to call him he
knows a little bit about his problems
and so a lot of people uh don't know the
full story of Spider-Man he was an
orphan raised by his uncle Uncle Ben and
Aunt May he's an ordinary kid who gets
picked on by a lot of people being
bullied um and he's kind of a really
super smart geek nerd and he's bitten by
a radioactive
spider and when he does so he
immediately uses this newfound power to
get revenge to seek Fame and to money to
to gain money and there was this pivotal
moment in his life in his storyline in
which a criminal was running out of a TV
studio and the cops say stop him and
Spider-Man's like or Peter Parker says
it's not my job not my job and you know
what happens to the rest of that story
right so a lot of people think Peter
Parker becomes Spider-Man when he was
bitten by radioactive spider that's not
when he became Spider-Man that's when he
gained the power but when he decided not
to
act and to do the right thing that's
when he became Spider-Man because what
happened was that criminal who got away
from him was the exact person who
murdered his Uncle
Ben and that's a tragedy of Spider-Man
and he's one of the most tragic
characters in the Marvel Cinematic
Universe like every time I think about
him I just want to cry because he feels
so guilty for using his power for
himself that he's always putting his
needs second every single time and if
you haven't seen it uh across the
spiderverse and into the spiderverse i
ball like a baby I highly recommend you
watch that so this also kind of gives
you a clue as to why certain characters
are so sticky like why we remember them
and we'll talk about them and our
children and our children's children
will talk about them and how they
architect and design these things and
the necessity of tragedy and Trauma in
building up your story and Robert mcke
who wrote the book story who's a story
consultant he says there's if there's no
conflict there's no story stories have
to have
conflict and in the in the fictional
world we can see this and that almost
all these Heroes they're orphans or
they're abused and whatever is going on
black panthers father was killed in a
terrorist attack according to MCU uh
Clark kenel his whole planet was
exploded like all of his people died his
parents died is like that's a pretty
tragic
beginning Tony star parents killed Tony
Stark is an alcoholic Daredevil's mom
was the nun that he didn't find out till
much later in his life vision's father
homicidal AI robot blackbolt killed his
parents accidentally by
speaking you know Batman's
story so there's this part where I start
to wonder like why is it that some
characters go through a traumatic
experience in their life and emerge a
hero and while some become a villain do
you guys know why the adversity and
Trauma like how they process this so my
my feeling is the hero
overcomes and becomes stronger because
of the trauma whereas the villain stays
victimized and wants to get revenge and
wants to hurt other people as a
response so when you're crafting your
story and you're trying to tell your
story adversity is your ally tap into
that let people in you become much more
relatable and real for this so how do
you use this in storytelling now I first
came up on stage and I introduced myself
as a loud
introvert and it's not a great example
of a two-word brand but it's mine I'm
using it okay and the way I use this in
storytelling is when I want to make a
post I want to make sure that the post
ends on Chris is a loud introvert he's
socially awkward he struggles with all
this public speaking stuff okay so I was
going through a batch of my old files or
my old phot photos and I came ACR across
this one where I want an Emmy for a
title that I designed and I was like
what am I to write about this I'm not
going to write like yeah congratulations
to me I'm so proud of me my team
whatever blah blah blah so I wrote about
the story about how painful it was for
me to think about the 30 seconds that I
have to say when I accept my
award and then my knees are shaking and
I'm in the audience and a whole bunch of
weird things happen in that moment and
this is the post that is the most liked
and engaged post I've I've ever put up
on LinkedIn you can see has almost 8,000
likes or points of Engagement so if you
figure out what your two-word brand is
and you search for the stories it should
dovea into that that reinforces your
two-word brand does that make sense
everybody okay good you guys had more
energy earlier I get it end of day I
know I'm throwing a lot of stuff at you
it's cool okay um here's another way for
you to find out who you are in your
story because it's not easy to know
yourself it's one of the most difficult
things to do uh is the
mentor and some of you know this uh you
know Batman's Mentor his teacher is also
his enemy razag
Gul you know who my mentor was Jose
cabay and he and I are the exact
opposite and there was a period in time
where he became my Nemesis it's kind of
weird how that works so some of you have
a parent that plays both roles both your
mentor and your Nemesis and if that is
your story tap into that it's very
interesting for me to see like who's
whose teacher Tony Robbins one of the
most powerful wealthy successful
personal development people you know his
mentor was Jim ran he met Jim ran when
he was like 18 or 19 years old and that
changed his life and Jim Ron's Mentor
was a guy named Jay Earl scha whose
Mentor was also James beckenridge it's
quite interesting how the mentor shapes
You by just saying this was my mentor we
make assumptions about who you are and
your values and your beliefs just
because we know who your Mentor is is so
tap into that it's really interesting to
me that Gary ve often cites his mom now
more than his dad as his mentor first
half of his story was all about his dad
the hustle thing immigrant working
really hard now it's about empathy
kindness I already mentioned Bruce White
so here's the next promp for you who
shape your thinking your values and your
beliefs what did you learn from them and
here's where you add the conflict back
in how did you initially resist so for
me and Jose Jose is like let's go make
videos on YouTube I'm like dude I do not
want to do that I'm too
old I say things that piss people
off and I don't want to risk my business
you do it and you know when he told me
I'm not doing this unless you do
it I need you not behind the camera but
in front of the camera and him doing so
changed the course of my life and I'm
very grateful for him for that
so think about who your Mentor is figure
out the conflict and why you resisted
and what lesson you learned tell that
story I mentioned before about the the
the community and the culture the city
says a lot about you the city in which
you were born and the city in which you
choose to live in it's part of your
cultural capital so ask yourself like
okay what do these things say about me
where I live and where I was
born and so most of you here live in Los
Angeles right there's a lot of people
here from La this works better when
we're not in La so right so we we we
know what all the common stereotypes are
about people from La this this plays
much better outside that there's a lot
of
superficiality plastic surgery
everybody's Super Hyper health conscious
everybody's fit in drinking green juice
right not everybody here obviously not
judging that it's like everybody's
flashy and Loud city of stars or
celebrities everywhere where you can
live the big dream and horrific traffic
most of this is true so when we when we
lean into this like what assumptions do
people have about the city in which you
live in you embrace it you don't fight
it and I used to live on the west side
there was a church a very Progressive
church and they have the most amazing
messaging and marketing branding
campaign I've ever
seen this is what they say come in for a
faith
lift good right from a church come on
this is winning like gold Awards
writing remember that Lis thing it comes
in handy sometimes so the villains the
villains are as important as the heroes
in the story and I would argue probably
even more important in your story than
what you say you do because true fans
need true critics um Freddy O from snas
a Swedish agency he has a book and he
has this concept make enemies the order
is important make enemies and gain fans
because when we find out what you stand
against we we like okay the enemy of my
enemy is my friend so what you have to
do is you have to learn how to pick a
fight you have to fight against
something and so here's the interesting
thing I think the reason why these
characters I'm going to share with you
are successful is because look at
they're villains they're brilliant
they're usually the equal and opposite
of the hero Superman's all powerful he's
a little dumb he's the Boy Scout Lex
Luther's brilliant genius uh and and is
super wealthy but he's very weak
physically Batman's super strong Joker's
crazy Batman has a code of conduct Joker
has a Cod of
chaos and then Spider-Man's enemies go
on and on and on including just being a
misunderstood
teenager it's tough to be Peter Parker
so when you start to look at the
villains in your story ask yourself what
annoys me what makes me mad because your
complaint can become your
calling there's a rule that somebody
shared with me you're allowed to
complain about things one time if you
complain about it twice you're just a
whiner so whatever I tell my kids do
something about it stop complaining
invent the solution to your problem so
make a list of some villains in your
story and give them a cute
nickname when you label them you own
them and nobody's better at this to
Donald Trump he's the master this is a
master class Harvard CH teacher class
about this okay there's a guy who who
blew up on the Internet his name is
Andrew Tate a very controversial
character and he basically says anybody
who doesn't believe what I believe
you're the enemy you're just the Matrix
and when press explain what the Matrix
is he doesn't even explain it but
there's a bunch of young men out there
like the Matrix Man The Matrix is out to
get me he's arrested indicted The Matrix
The Matrix and on a less serious note
there's this company that's done a
brilliant job in marketing I think
they're based out of San Diego called Dr
Squatch and I saw these ads they didn't
pay me I watched all of them from
beginning to end multiple times to study
so Dr Squatch the one of their funny ad
is a guy who's in the woods takes the
dish he throws against a rock and breaks
he goes you're you're a man you're not a
dish doesn't even make
sense and he goes do you know what's in
your soap it's mostly
detergents chemicals things you can't
even
pronounce so their enemy they just made
them up it's big soap they borrowed the
language of big farma big tobacco and
they just made it up and I became a
customer like 2 and half years is going
now it's the power of identifying an
enemy giving them a name and saying now
we're against this I'm against big
anything big government big soap
whatever You Got Me In Dove their
enemies beauty
standards brilliant
campaign I'm a Mac I'm a
PC right oh well okay all right we're
going to go there I think you might be
outnumbered friend but we'll see and
then there's this oat company called
Oatley oat milk it's like milk but made
for humans the Dairy Farmers sued them
for this oh yeah they won it's all right
and seven up the way they they launched
the brand stun
Cola Patagonia we're in business to save
our home planet you know who the enemy
is so what you want to do is you want to
Galvanize your community by aligning
them a common cause to fight against
something I think the only way that
humans will have world peace is when we
get invaded by aliens
now we'll put aside our petty
differences and we'll go fight the enemy
it's the only time we'll come together
so just ask yourself we're in business
to end
what not to make nice with but to end
this idea and so when we look at the
future when we describe ourselves I I
know I piss off people when I say this I
think of the future as private art
school without the crippling debt shots
are
fired okay style we're coming to the end
of the presentation here
style is like the icons and lexicons
your language and your symbols so you
want to start to develop and be very
intentional about how you present
yourself because packaging does matter
and this is the package because you are
the
package and style defined by John Prince
or prime is if you keep making the same
mistake long enough it becomes your
style so you look at da Punk seea wanted
to keep herself out of the media the
Limelight so she wears his wigging
becomes super iconic it becomes part of
her brand Warhol word is wig it just
becomes him Steve Jobs mock turtleneck
and mom jeans needs to consult somebody
on that but whatever you know and and
lizo right so you you embrace all these
parts about you the good the bad and
ugly and so you ask yourself and I like
to reframe it like this instead of like
what makes you ugly and bad like what
were you blessed with so I'm
bald I have shiny oily skin and I'm
nearsighted so I just think it's time to
accessorize based on that okay so I
start wearing hats and the hats becomes
my I like part of my identity and
opportunities have happened there we
won't get into that I'm nearsighted why
not make the most of your
eyewear so I wear these big bulky frames
so that you can recognize me they're
part of my identity so when I used to
work in the motion design industry I
studied animation and I don't know if
you know this but when they design
characters for animation they look at
their silhouette first before they
design any of the details you can tell
each and every single character who PO
is who's the Mantis who's the snake and
so you start to think about this and
then you start to think about color and
I want to show you how powerful color
can be in the Identity or design of your
identity okay here everybody looks
exactly the same all I'm have to do is
put Red Socks one person they stand out
but we can keep going we can give them
red glasses or a red hat a red watch and
a t-shirt with a red X over it so we
start to design our identities so that
people can see us and recognize us and
it becomes part of who we are and our
part of our personal brand so what can
you do with the color pink and
white well kareim Rasheed has built an
entire personal brand around this pink
and white if you don't know who he is
look him up so what you should do is you
start to design and develop your own
mood board collect the things that you
start to think okay this could be me not
now but maybe in a couple years and work
towards building these things this is a
mood board I built a while while ago and
then I eventually bought everything
that's on here okay set the intention
then do it did you know that your
signature can become your signature
style so just out of curiosity how many
of you guys would identify as graphic
designers just raise your hand and keep
your hand up a lot of you now how many
of you you keep your hand up if you're a
logo
designer okay so about half of the
designers okay thank you all right so
for you non-graphic designer logo
designers it's really interesting all
you have to do is take a bunch of
different instruments markers pens a
twig a brush dip them in ink and just
write your name over and over again like
a hundred times with different
instruments on different types of media
and eventually you'll come up with
this or this or
this you guys recognize that signature
right yeah I love Andrew Schultz bid on
this he says I can't vote for Biden he
don't got merch Donald Trump got merch
merch game is strong you can't even
argue that again whatever your political
affiliation is doesn't matter the thing
that you can do and and uh is to look at
your initials and design your own
monogram and so I have a couple here
just to share with you some of you might
recognize and then I will show you my
example here this is my name and so I
take the C the D and the O and I put it
in here this is my system my icons my
lexicon my phrases and the last bit I
want to share with you is once you know
who you are what you stand for your
story you can take a little snowflake
and you keep building on that until it
becomes an avalanche and it's a
beautiful thing um and whenever possible
in the world of ideas to name something
is for you to own it if you can name an
issue you can own it and here's evidence
of this More's laws Murphy's Law you get
the drill so what we want to do is we
want to take our own name our own
identity our logo our signature our
Expressions our beliefs we start to
create something from that so this is
how I show you so you could you can
screen capture this if you want I would
like for you to practice this once you
figure out your name and your personal
brand you you'll you'll come to
something here try adding something
before your name try adding something
after your name and see what happens
okay so now here we go so we call our
super fans the donuts our community
donation our office space the dojo the
newsletter that we don't write a daily
dose the the podcast maybe raw do my AI
robot is called doot a blockchain that
I'm not working on is called crypto and
maybe tools that I'll develop is called
Play-Doh and it can keep going right so
you can have lots of fun with this so
I'm going to work on a book called for
sales strategies called dofu the way
right maybe our models don't not worry
and if I started a software company
probably called
Adobe and what if you wanted to write a
book maybe it's called pocket full of D
it just works okay here's the summary
here here's all the things in one slide
here weak is strong perfect is boring
real is relatable stop selling start
serving complexity is an enemy adversity
is an ally not to to to run away from
figure out what you two word brand is
and your two-word brand is going to be a
shadow word that creates some pain for
you that's piece of truth and you that
you've been hiding from the rest of the
world add a Transformer and you can own
it I I'd like to end it on this before I
get out of here a quote from Picasso the
meaning of life is to find your gift and
the purpose of life is to give it away I
wanted to make an amend amendment to
that that you are the gift so here's my
resources everybody these are the
books I'll pause here so you can take
it okay I'll pause here and you can take
it thanks very much everybody I'm at
Booth b230 if you want to come by I'd
love to see you thank
[Applause]
[Music]
you
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