When New York Times bestselling author and speaker Rory Vaden and his wife AJ were at the height of their career after 12 years at a sales coaching company, AJ spoke up about an important issue at work… and got fired. Overnight, they lost their 8-figure business, including a podcast with millions of downloads, 200 team members, a huge social following and a bright future. “We were forced to [ask]—how will we survive? We had a brand-new house, a brand-new baby and no income coming in,” Rory says, along with a noncompete preventing them from starting over in the same business.
Little did he know that this struggle would lead to the creation of Brand Builders Group and would teach him the skills to serve the top founders and brands today. Now, his motto to other personal brand founders is to “serve who you once were.” So, he serves that guy he once was, who knew he loved public speaking and writing but didn’t know what to say or how to rebuild after losing everything.
Today, he has surpassed his goals and, together with his wife, is releasing the book Wealthy and Well Known on July 1, and giving the audiobook away for free. In the book, he shares his secrets of trial, error and ultimate success in his personal brand strategy firm for “mission-driven messengers” or thought leaders. Thought leaders and wildly successful brand builders have endorsed the book, such as Jenna Kutcher, Henry Cloud, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Lewis Howes and others. He’s the author of other bestselling books, including Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success, and is participating in SUCCESS® magazine’s upcoming Mastermind speaker series in August.
Here’s what he learned on his journey and what he wants others to know about building influence and becoming well-known.
Diluted focus, diluted results
Personal brands like to “spread themselves really thin,” Vaden says, “trying to talk to too many audiences about too many different subjects on too many different platforms.” This causes a “diluted focus” and dilutes results.
“Find your uniqueness and exploit it in the service of others,” Larry Winget once told Vaden. Vaden helps people find just that. Brands should speak directly to a target audience, like someone saying your name—and getting your attention right away—in an otherwise crowded and loud room, he says. Instead, many brands are focused on “amassing a large volume of followers,” he shares, when they really need to provide deep value to one specific target audience.
Niche down your target audience from four-five groups to just one. Give yourself permission to serve a smaller audience. Vaden says aiming for multiple streams of income is terrible advice: “You get rich doing one thing really well.”
Try it: Ask, “What is the thing only they can do that nobody else can do quite like them?… What problem do they solve in one word? How would they solve that problem in one sentence? And what one revenue stream matters above all others?”
Build reputation through a ‘relationship switchboard’
If you could glance at Vaden’s computer screen on your average Thursday, you’d see a large spreadsheet with dozens of contacts down each side and across the top. Each intersection represents a relationship to be made through him introducing two contacts. Why? “Build relationships before you need them. How? Be so useful that people can’t ignore you.” This is one of his strategies for building his reputation.
He shares that many of his high-profile clients and brands come from introducing clients to each other, including to friends. “I spend an exorbitant amount of time introducing people to each other, and I get no immediate financial benefit,” he says. “But what I do get is trust.” Becoming a “great connector” and systematically tracking it is one of the lessons he teaches founders, as part of learning “pressure-free persuasion.”
Try it: Ask two people in your network separately if they’d find value in being introduced to the other. Then, do it, and keep track on a spreadsheet.
Watch for the typical roadblocks
If reputation building and serving a smaller audience more deeply is so lucrative and even intuitive, why aren’t more people doing it? Vaden points to some of the challenges he commonly sees people get caught up in as they build wealth and influence.
Distraction and disorganization without strategy
“Most personal brands fail not because they don’t have the skill or credibility—it’s because they are distracted. It’s a dangerously deceptive saboteur of a small business,” he says. AJ further describes it on their website: “There are so many things vying for and competing for your attention, that it’s almost impossible to keep a narrow focus with a clear direction on where you’re going,” and nobody knows where to start. Social media, newsletters, podcasts and opportunities abound, without a brand strategy.
Comparison and impostor syndrome
In addition, impostor syndrome, comparison, and trying to build a massive social media following can stunt progress. “Comparison is going ‘I’m not as good as somebody else,’ and impostor syndrome is ‘I’m not good enough.’” But, Vaden says, people compare themselves too often to someone else with an entirely different business model. “The secret strategy to overcome impostor syndrome is not courage—it’s service.”
Be dentist-rich not Oprah-famous
Brand builders can become intimidated by others’ large followings, instead of applying their real-world small business experience to an online setting. “We think, ‘If I’m not Oprah, I’m not doing it right.’” But, Vaden points to that the dentist down your street, who just might also make six to seven figures, isn’t someone people know about beyond your community.
“Most small business owners would double or triple their best year in income ever if they had five or 10 of their perfect clients… maybe 20. But you don’t need thousands or tens of thousands of customers.” But, he says, everyone is “chasing views” and trying to go viral instead.
Try it: Swap self-centered language and “throw yourself relentlessly into ‘how can I be useful to the person on the other side of the camera?” he says.
Serve who you once were
Josh Axe, a leading holistic health expert, has around 17 million unique monthly visitors, Vaden says. “How did he get into what he was doing? He was trying to cure his mom from cancer, then he turned that into a business,” he says. “Serve the person you once were, and you’re helping the people around you.”
He calls it a spiritual practice, and it even answers the toughest questions for him like ‘why do we experience pain?’ “Every amount of pain you’ve walked through has shaped you and molded you and made you into the person you were meant to one day be,” he says. “It’s what prepares you to become the person you need to be in the future, to one day reach back and help someone else.”
Vaden helped Lewis Howes grow his podcast from 30 million downloads to 500 million, starting with a two-day strategy meeting on the future of his business. Afterward, Howes told Vaden: “This is what you were born to do.” And that’s what Vaden wants others to find.
Try it: “Ask what challenge you’ve conquered, what setbacks you survived, what tragedies you’ve triumphed over, what problems you’ve pushed past.… [That’s] who you are most qualified to serve.”
Photo courtesy of Rory Vaden
