Importance Of Branding – Chris Ducker
SUMMARY
Chris Ducker owns several different businesses and has almost 500 full-time employees. He believes the reason why he grew those businesses quickly is that he built his personal brand.
When developing your brand, start with the long game in mind. Start with defining who you are by the things you do and the people you help.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There’s no reason to copy other people in this world.
An original is always worth more than a copy.
Originality should be at the core of what we do.
Originality will come out if you focus building your business based on you and it will form the basis of your success.
To define who you are, be very self-aware of what your strengths and weaknesses are.
Your brand or reputation is what people say about you when you’re not around.
One of the easiest ways to build our brands, and our tribe online, is through creating content.
There are many ways to create content.
After a period of being consistent, something magical happens, and people start to open up.
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers.
If you solve people’s problems well enough, you have the opportunity to put a price tag on it.
A business can be grown quickly by building out your personal brand.
People want to do business with other people not companies.
TRANSCRIPTION: IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING – CHRIS DUCKER
Kamala Chambers
On this episode, we’re going to be talking about the importance of branding, building your personal brand, your personal message, and getting it out there in an even bigger way.
Luis Congdon
Today’s guest is Chris Ducker.
The reason why we’re excited to have him on the show today is he’s built several online companies, manages over a handful of businesses now, and has over 500 employees worldwide.
Chris Ducker is an expert, hosts an incredible podcast, and joins us today on Thriving Launch.
All right, Thriving launchers, we’re here with Chris Ducker to talk about the importance of branding. It’s exciting to have him on the show.
Without further ado, Chris are you ready to launch?
Chris Ducker
I came out of the womb launching. I’m ready whenever you guys are.
Luis Congdon
You’re a very busy man. You’re all over the place.
Just before the interview, I was talking to Chris. Kamala and I were chatting with him. I’ve seen Chris in a lot of different places. He’s been on my radar for several years now, and it’s great to have him on the show to bring you all more content and something to help drive us and help us get more education around the importance of branding.
Today, we want to talk about the importance of branding, building a tribe and utilizing your story. That’s something you said you were excited to talk about. Why is this piece around your story important to you and using that to build a business and tribe and understanding the importance of branding?
Chris Ducker
Well, because it’s original.
I think this is one of the biggest pet peeves of mine is I see everybody copying everybody else. It just drives me nuts. There’s no way to sidestep or dance around it in any way whatsoever. There’s no reason to copy other people in this world.
Yes! I know there’s going to be competitors in every understandable niche out there. Yes! I understand it’s a competitive world and a competitive market. Pretty much everything you want to do, you feel potentially has already been done by somebody else, and nine times out of 10, it’s true.
Originality As An Importance To Branding
Chris Ducker
You, at the very sense of your core, are about the most original version of you on the planet.
There’s the old phrase of “An original is always worth more than a copy.” I believe that originality should be at the core of what we do.
As business owners, I think we should try to be different, not be better to paraphrase my friend Sally Hogshead.
I believe, if you focus building your business based on you, your personality, your experience, and the people you want to serve, that originality will come out. It will end up forming the very basis of your success moving forward.
Importance Of Branding And Becoming Future-Proof
Chris Ducker
If you build your business based on you, you will ultimately become not only competitive proof but future proof as a direct byproduct of originality.
There’s the only one you. There’s only one of your story out there, and it’s an excellent way to be able to build a business.
Kamala Chambers
This is such important stuff you’re talking about the importance of branding. It’s because one of the challenges some of our listeners, and our clients come up against is there’s this myopia where they’re just too close to themselves to see what makes them special and unique.
To tap into that and bring it forward in their business. What would you give as a tip? How could we start to unpack what makes us unique and creates that unique selling point?
Chris Ducker
I think what it comes down to is the very beginning.
Start With The Very Beginning To Know The Importance Of Branding
Chris Ducker
Before you can even get to a USP, you need to get to who you are.
To define who you are, be very self-aware of what your strengths and weaknesses are.
When we talk about our weakness, a lot of people see that as a negative. I don’t see that as a negative. I think you should double down on what you do great and not worry too much about the stuff you struggle with. That level of self-awareness is enough to help define who you are. [00:05:21.14]
Define who you are, what kind of stamp you want to leave on the world and what you want to be known for.
Chris Ducker
Answer that question for yourself. This is at the very beginning of everything. Respond to that question for yourself.
Importance Of Branding – Define Who You Are
Chris Ducker
What do I want people to say about me when I’m not at that conference or when I’m not at that dinner party or not at that coffee meeting? What do I want people to say about me? That’s your brand right there. That’s defining who you are. You got to kick start on that, to begin with.
Then, it comes down to defining who your perfect customer is. It comes down to building out a great online home to be able to attract those people, to provide incredibly helpful, resourceful, valuable, original content, and then further down the line, starting to monetize that.
Luis Congdon
One of the things I liked which were new for me to think about what do you want people to say and talk about in regards to you when you’re not there. That was a new shift in regards to finding your gifts or finding your talent, which I thought was cool. I thought you were going towards the 80/20 principle, the four-hour workweek type of principle.
Importance Of Branding – Focus On Your Expertise
Luis Congdon
One of the authors we have coming on the show is Richard Koch. He wrote a fantastic book called The 80/20 principle, which is about 20% of what you do creates a percent of your results. Richard Koch does a fantastic way of getting you to think about what you’re good at, and focusing on what you’re exceptional at or your zone of genius.
He emphasizes focusing in your area of genius and not trying to focus on everything else because it can get overwhelming, and we can even get lost trying to be like other people.
That’s why I like this subject matter today Chris. You’re trying to get people to focus on what are your unique gift and your unique story? It’s essential since we’re in a world where we’re getting lost in a sea of so many suggestions of what we should do.
What do you suggest for people?
Getting your story out there and finding your gifts is overwhelming and can be so challenging when we’re starting to look out there in this world that’s full of suggestions. However, we need to go to that world to get suggestions and to learn.
What do you suggest to people?
Chris Ducker
There are so many different ways I could answer that.
I think Richard, and Perry Marshall wrote a book on the similar type of subject as well in regards to the whole 80/20 or the Pareto principle.
The fact is, yes. It’s been proven over and over again. The vast majority of what you end up achieving will end up being on that unique piece of work you end up doing on a very regular basis.
Do What You Do Best And Know The Importance Of Branding
Chris Ducker
Tim Ferris is a perfect example of what he does best. Tim could probably travel the entire world doing keynote sessions left, right, and center making anything between 50 – 100 grand/session without any major issues at all. But, it’s not necessarily what he does best.
In fact, I don’t think Tim’s a very engaging speaker at all. He’s got great content, but he’s up on the stage. Once his message is done in the first 10 to 50 minutes, he tends to lose me if I’m to be very frank with you. But when I sit and read one of his blog posts, I don’t care if it’s 500 words or 5,000 words. I’m reading until I’m done.
Tim knows what he does best, and he’s moving his needle so to speak. He’s a great writer and now, a great podcaster as well.
I think the 80/20 rule is bang on. However, there’s got to be a certain amount of flexibility involved. There’s got to be room for pivoting because that will happen whether you like it or not. Anyway, that’s business, that’s evolving. It is what it is.
I think one of the easiest ways building our brands and building our tribe online is we got to create content.
Everybody is always talking content marketing when it comes to the importance of branding. Content is king. The fact is, yes, it is. But, there are so many different ways to create that content as you attested to in the question there.
Importance Of Branding And Content
Chris Ducker
Do I do live streaming? Do I do blogging? Do I get involved with podcasting? Am I a going to be a vlogger on YouTube? Am I just going to focus on Facebook live? There are all these different angles, and I think it can become very overwhelming for a lot of people when they get started.
The fact is when you do get started, you’re only doing one thing, and that is you’re doing what you think, and that’s the keyword right there. You’re doing what you think your audience is going to want from you. You’re creating the content that you think is going to help them. You’re hanging out in the places where you think they’re going to be.
Importance Of Branding And Doing What You Think
Chris Ducker
After a period of being consistent doing whatever you’re doing based on what you think, something magical happens, and people start to open up.
That relationship is built over a period of weeks or months. Maybe it’s a series of live streams you do on Periscope or Facebook or wherever, and people start opening up. They start talking to you. They start telling you what their problems and struggles are, and things they’re having issues with currently that maybe you can help out with.
Finding Solutions As Importance Of Branding
Chris Ducker
At the very core of what we do, that’s what we’re about as entrepreneurs. We are problem solvers. Don’t get any delusions of grandeur. That’s all we do.
We just solve problems, and if we do it well enough, we get the opportunity to put a price tag on it, and everybody’s happy.
So what happens is people start opening up, and then they start telling you what they need. That’s the second keyword in this answer.
At first, you start out doing what you think people want. Further down the line, you start producing content that you know they need. Once that happens, you become their favorite blogger, podcaster, vlogger, live streamer, and that’s what we want to do.
Importance Of Branding And Becoming A Favorite
Chris Ducker
That’s something I strive for every day.
As a marketer, I’m launching every single day. I don’t care whether it’s a social media image. I don’t care if it’s a blog post, an email blast, a video, a hangout. It doesn’t matter what it is. I’m launching every single day. And so, I need to make sure I’m becoming somebody’s favorite every single day as well.
Kamala Chambers
Just backing up a little bit, what would say one tip that you would give the Thriving Launchers about the importance of branding that we could all go out and apply today to build our personal brand?
Chris Ducker
I think what you can probably do first is to write your business obituary whether it’s 5 – 20 years from now. Whatever it is, write out your business obituary.
Importance Of Branding And Business Obituary
Chris Ducker
How do you want to be remembered? How do you want people to talk about you when you’re not around?
Once you define who you are, it goes back. I don’t want to double back on my own, but it goes back to what I said before with being original, and doing the right things for the right reasons, for the right people.
It’s not about all the bells and whistles. It’s not about doing what you think people want to see from you forever. It’s about starting with the long game in mind. It’s about defining who you are, creating content you think is going to help people, and then building it out from there.
Building my personal brand was the most important thing I’ve done in my entire career. I’ve been an entrepreneur for 14 years now, and I own several different businesses. I have almost 500 full-time employees within those businesses. I have no partners. I own 100% of all my businesses.
Understand The Importance Of Branding To Grow Businesses Quickly
Chris Ducker
The reason why I believe that I’ve grown my businesses so quickly over the last five – seven years of being active online is because I built out my personal brand.
People want to do business with other people. The brands out there will want to do business with the other big brands, but people want to do business with other people. I call that my P2P Philosophy to building a tribe.
If you are you all the time and there’s no smoke and mirrors, that’s the best way to succeed.
Kamala Chambers
Thriving launchers, there you have it. We’ve been here with Chris Ducker talking about the importance of branding, building your personal brand, connecting in with your story, broadening your message and getting it out there in a bigger way.
I just encourage you all to go out and apply some of these principles about the importance of branding that Chris has blessed us with today, and keep thriving everyone.
