We have another great interview episode today with Chris Hines (a.k.a. Coach Chris), host of the Personal Branding Playbook podcast. He’s been podcasting for six years now and helped hundreds of shows launch grow and generate revenue. He’s a speaker at different conferences, such as Pod Fest, the Outliers Podcast Festival, and several other events for content creators.
Today we’re diving specifically into podcasting and personal branding. We nerd out about podcasting as the catalyst for your personal brand and why a personal brand is important.
We also discuss why podcasting is the easiest, fastest, most powerful way to build your personal brand, especially when you are just starting out.
WHY BRANDING WITH PODCASTING WORKS
Brandon Birkmeyer: We are on the same wavelength in terms of a lot of the things we believe. That’s one of the reasons I was excited that we get to talk today. We get to talk about one of my favorite marketing topics and I’m sure yours, which is personal branding and podcasting.
I want to hear from you, what you’ve seen in people you’ve worked with and how you’ve seen it help people. What’s the value of personal branding? Why does it matter?
Chris Hines: Personal branding is just so important because it’s what people will think about you when they don’t even know you.
My personal brand has been able to help me get in a lot of doors, get a lot of opportunities, and build some amazing relationships because people knew more about who I was before we even shook hands.
PODCASTING SHOWS YOU ARE COMMITTED
When you have a great personal brand, people get to talk about you in a positive way to people that don’t yet know you and introduce you. It works the same way if you have a bad personal brand. If you’re not well-known for positive reasons, then the negative rumors are going to move faster than a positive word.
I think people have to take personal brand more seriously now than ever because we have so much access and the ability to put our personal brands online. I think it’s really important that you understand what personal branding really is and how to use it.
FIND YOUR DIRECTION FOR YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
Brandon Birkmeyer: I couldn’t agree more. I think a lot of us don’t build our reputation for our professional life the same way we do for our personal lives. Maybe it’s just more difficult to figure out.
What are the steps you should take? What have you seen stopping people from investing in themselves or doing something that will help their personal brand?
Chris Hines: I think it comes down to direction first. Direction, focus, alignment, however you describe it, just putting your energy and focus into one specific area.
I will tell you this, I’ve been in entrepreneurship my entire life, but I started podcasting and that’s what helped me build my personal brand. I was into business and all this other stuff, even basketball at one point, which is my first love, but now it’s kind of second place to podcasting.
My focus had to shift from all those other things to podcasting to build a reputation there. I think the main problem is we try to build a reputation in ten different places at once.
Brandon Birkmeyer: What do you mean ten different places? Do you mean ten different platforms or with ten different subjects and niches?
Chris Hines: Sometimes it is platforms. Sometimes it’s niches. Sometimes it’s markets, it’s industries, it’s everything.
What I mean is when you’re building your personal brand, you have to decide what is that one thing you want to be known for?Is it being a great author? Is it helping other people be great authors? That’s an option. Do you want to be known as the best tap dancer in the world?
It’s about finding that one thing, getting down in there. Even the platforms can be a problem. Some people are trying to build their Instagram accounts to 10,000 followers, then get a million connections on LinkedIn, and then get ten million likes on a Facebook page.
It’s just too much. The advice that changed my life with social media is to focus on two platforms at a time. That was a life-changer for me.
CREATE YOUR FUTURE PODCASTING SELF
Brandon Birkmeyer: I think it’s intimidating to figure out what you want your niche to be, or figure out what you want to be known for.
I struggled with this. If I just look at my immediate history, when I was leaving agencies, I just worked on a national restaurant account for three years. I thought I guess I’ll be the restaurant marketing guy.
However, when you think about yourself as that person, you may realize you don’t really want to do that. There is this future you that you want to be versus the experience that you’ve had.
Figuring out where you’re going and what you want to be known for eventually, or what you are known for now is tough to put a stake in the ground on.
TAKE TIME TO LISTEN TO INTUITION
Chris Hines: It really is. I think it can be. One exercise I do that really helps me, (and this is how I get ideas or take action when I receive ideas,) I really listen to my intuition better.
This year I just really started listening more than ever, and it’s been helping me really live life on a different level. I’ve been making progress a lot faster towards the things that I want because instead of trying so hard to get where I want to go, I just sit with myself and I just relax.
I really ask myself, “Hey, what’s the next step? What do we have to do here to get to this place?”
You sit quietly for five minutes, no phone, no TV, no computer, just five minutes of silence by yourself. At the very most, take a notepad so that you can write ideas down. You will be shocked by how many great ideas come to your head.
YOUR SUB-CONSCIENCE KNOWS MORE THAN YOU THINK
Sometimes I get so many ideas I can’t get them all out at once. It’s almost overwhelming. This exercise is one of the best things you can do. I would advise people to do it every day. You don’t have to have a specific time. Just take time to sit with yourself. How do I feel about this? What’s the next step here?
Our subconscious minds know more than we do consciously and because we have all these distractions, we can’t really hear it all the time. Sometimes you just need to slow down, relax, breathe, and talk to yourself. I know it sounds crazy, but try it, just five minutes. Give me five minutes.
RELATED: Build your personal brand with the Content Marketing Starter Guide.
PODCASTING FOR YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
Brandon Birkmeyer: I think if people need to change their perspective. Podcasting is not the same as someone clicking follow on Instagram. It’s more like asking, “Would you be interested in having 200 people that are your potential clients wanting to hear what you have to say?”
Chris Hines: Right, it’s just like the numbers part. I get asked that a lot too. How long is it going to take me to get a sponsor?
If the money is your main driver for this, I feel sorry for you. It’s just not going to work out.
PERSONAL BRANDING BUSINESS MODEL
Brandon Birkmeyer: Let’s talk about that, the business behind personal branding for a second as we wrap up here.
Having a podcast can start to get expensive over time. Whatever they’re paying for, whatever it might be, (promotion editing, all the other stuff,) what is the business model behind personal branding? What have you seen work?
Chris Hines: I have definitely seen digital products. Those are always going to do well because of the access. Writing a book is going to do well.
However, I would say if you’re podcasting, the best thing you can do is connect with other experts in your industry. This is why I think everybody who takes their personal brand seriously has a podcast.
No matter what market or industry you’re in, you can build a show for that. Then just interview other people in your marketing industry.
What blows my mind now is I remember years ago when I used to look up to all of these great podcasters and all these company owners. I thought, wow, this is who I want to work with.
Now those people reach out to me to ask me questions. We’re like on a first name basis, we’re friends, we’re connected. I think, wow, I came a long way! It’s such a beautiful thing to have that kind of progress.
PODCASTING BUILDS YOUR EXPERT STATUS
When you get to interview other people in your market or industry, bring them in as experts. If you’re not an expert, that’s how you build an expert status. You start on ground zero, and as you interview people, you keep leveling it up every time you interview somebody else.
That’s the only time when I advise people to do a ton of interviews. If you’re trying to level up your personal brand in a specific market where you’re unknown, do interviews. Chase that.
If you want to sell products and services on your show, do more solo episodes and give away solutions to your audience.
CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOURSELF
Brandon Birkmeyer: Honestly, the people I’ve met like yourself and other people that have been doing this successfully seem to have two core values when it comes to running their business.
Either they’ve learned enough that they’re teaching other people. There’s some kind of coaching element to it. Teaching is a big one, and then creating community is the other, being able to gather people together could be what helps you monetize this.
It might be throwing events or masterminds. Bringing people together and being the host of the party might be your ticket.
Chris Hines: Being the host of the party has helped me in so many ways. I don’t think people understand just having people come to your show, and then having that response of “Oh yeah, sure. I’d love to be on your show,” from somebody that you never thought you would actually get. That’s a good feeling, man. That’s a good one.
FOCUS ON BEING YOURSELF
Brandon Birkmeyer: If you were talking to someone and they’re on the fence, what would you want to say to the people that are thinking about personal branding. They’re thinking about starting a podcast. What would you say to you right before you started to convince you to want to go?
Chris Hines: That’s a good one. There are so many answers.
Don’t be afraid of the way your voice sounds. I’m pretty sure you hear that a lot too. I hear that every day. People don’t like how my voice sounds. I sound weird, I sound like a baby; I hear that a lot.
That would be my piece of advice. Don’t worry about how your voice sounds. You probably sound all right. Just relax and be yourself.
CONNECT WITH CHRIS
Website: thecoachchris.com
Podcast: The Personal Branding Playbook
MORE ADVICE AND INTERVIEWS
If you’d like more content about how to build your personal brand, check out my free Content Marketing Starter Guide.
And here are some more of my most popular thought leader interviews!
- What Business to Start with John Lee Dumas
- Personal Branding Masterclass with Chris Ducker
- Built to Serve with Evan Carmichael
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Talk soon!