Personal branding is all about taking inventory of what you love and pairing it with something that people need. It is integrating your personality with content. Content is the value you deliver to your audience, while personality is the unique way you deliver your content to people. You are the reason why your business exists. Your personality is what keeps people coming back for more. People hire you for you. They come to you because of your perspective and way of doing things, and capitalising on the human element of your brand will give you more wins. In this episode with Phil Pallen, we will talk about personal branding, how to create a professional personal brand and the best tools to help build and position your brand in the market.   

Phil Pallen is a personal branding expert in a keynote speaker. His non-conventional approach to digital marketing and talent for social media has built him a global audience. As a brand strategist, Phil has advised hundreds of brands from over 30 countries, including a Shark on Shark Tank, a Nobel prize winner, politicians, and some of the most important names in entertainment. As a digital Nomad, Phil has delivered speeches on five different continents. He frequently appears as an expert contributor in media outlets around the world, including CNN, Hollywood, and Daily Mail. This is a conversation you don’t want to miss!

Let’s jump in!

What You Will Learn:

00:00 This week’s theme song

00:16 Episode intro and a quick bio of the guest, Phil Pallen

04:43 Phil's background and his focus on branding people 

06:48 Why you need a personal branding 

09:16 The role of a coach/strategist in personal branding 

12:19 Pairing content and personality in branding 

16:26 The benefits of having a strong professional personal brand

22:02 What personal branding covers 

27:21 Building your confidence as a brand 

29:00 How brand strategists help remove branding overwhelm

31:46 How to brand yourself without having a physical product 

33:30 Phil’s favourite tools for personal branding and his recommendation  

36:39 Phil's freebies and resources to help you position your brand 

37:32 The best ways to reach out and connect with Phil

Helpful Resources:

• Freebies
• 100 evergreen content ideas
• Brand archetype
• Phil’s projects
• Adobe Express for branding
• ConvertKit for email marketing

Show Notes

iag.me/197

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The Confident Live Marketing Show is a weekly live video show and podcast. It’s aimed at established entrepreneurs who want to level up their impact, authority and profits through the power of live video, webinars and podcasts. We’ll focus on knocking down the 3 main barriers these entrepreneurs face when creating live content - camera confidence/mindset, tech/gear and content marketing.

It’s hosted by Ian Anderson Gray. He is the founder of the Confident Live Marketing Academy and is the host of the Confident Live Marketing Podcast. He helps entrepreneurs to level up their impact, authority and profits by using live video confidently. He’s founder of Seriously Social - a blog focused on live video and social media tools. He’s an international speaker, trainer, teacher and consultant. He has a passion for making the techno-babble of live video and social media marketing easy to understand. As well as being a geek, husband, and dad to two kids, Ian is also a professional singer and lives near Manchester in the UK.

I wanna have a pro personal brand.

Have a pro personal brand.

Phil Pallen come on the show to show us how to have a pro personal personal brand.

Welcome to episode 197 of the Comfort Live Marketing Show.

Nowadays, we juggle two versions of ourselves.

That in-person experience and what's becoming everyday more important,

the online version of ourselves.

So branding is really achieving consistency between those two experiences.

In today's episode, we're talking about how you can create

a professional personal brand.

I've got my good friend, Phil Pallen on the show to talk about this.

Let's get on with it just after this.

Well, hello, hello, hello.

Welcome to the show, episode 197.

This is the show that helps you level up your impact, authority, and profits

through Confident Live video broadcasting on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

And of course, this is a podcast that comes out every single Friday.

If you haven't come across the podcast, then please do go to iag.me/podcast.

Well, just before I bring in my special guest today, just a

few little housekeeping things.

We are coming up to episode 200.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about what we're going to do for episode 200,

and basically I'm going to be relaunching this show and this podcast, going

to be doing some really cool things.

I'm actually going to be doing a bit of rebranding as well, so I might be picking

Phil's ears, or Phil's thoughts on this.

Phil's ears?

I don't know why I said that.

Phil's thoughts.

That's what you do.

You pick people's brains.

Oh, it's one of those days.

My brain's not working.

So, I'm thinking I might have a little bit of a gap of maybe two or three

weeks while we, get ready for that.

So it's just to let you know, let me know what your thoughts are and

what we should do for episode 200.

That would be awesome.

Well, let's see who we got in the house at the moment.

We have got Paul watching from Vancouver, Canada, THE GRAMMAR DETECTIVE.

Great to see you, Paul.

And we've got the fabulous Carl.

Carl's bearded banter saying "hellooooo."

Great to see you.

And yeah, you were here at episode 100.

You won second prize, I think.

Wasn't it, Carl?

In the big giveaway.

Yeah.

Thank you, Carl.

"Bend his ears.

Pick his brain."

I always mix my metaphors.

That's the problem.

Well, let's get on, as we get on with bringing in Phil.

Phil Pallen is a personal branding expert and keynote speaker, his

non-conventional approach to digital marketing and talent for social

media has built in a global audience.

As a brand strategist, Phil has advised hundreds of brands from over

30 countries, including a shark on Shark Tank, a Nobel Peace Prize winner,

politicians, and some of the most important names in entertainment.

A digital nomad and globe trotter, Phil has delivered speeches on five different

continents and frequently appears as an expert contributor in media outlets

around the world, including CNN, Access Hollywood and the Daily Mail.

Welcome to the show, Phil.

Oh, the applause, the metaphors.

I for one, like when you mix them up, because it makes it unique

and it makes them your own.

Ian, I'm so happy to be here.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

You're very, very kind there.

I'm always mixing my metaphors, but I want to note, you've been speaking

of five different continents.

When's your first gig in Antarctica?

To the Penguins?

It's going to happen?

I know.

Can you imagine that would be a very small audience?

I've had small audiences before sometime.

You never know.

But you know this, Ian.

I'm a little finicky with weather, so Antarctica is not

really one of my dream locations.

I can see why other people might want to go there, but I prefer sunshine,

as I say, in January in a t-shirt from Florida, which is where I'm based.

Well, there you go.

So you're in Florida, but you are not from the USA.

Are you?

So tell us a little bit about your background and also like how we met

as well, because we were talking about this just before the break.

We met back in...

well, I'm not going to tell you.

You already know that.

Let's talk about it.

Okay, sure.

So, I grew up in Canada.

I'm Canadian still.

I have my green card.

That's how I'm able to live here and work here.

But I've spent a lot of time, I'd say, I guess I've been

at this for about 11 years.

You met me when I was speaking at New Media Europe.

Our friends, Mike and Isabella Russell, used to run this amazing

conference and that's where we met.

I spoke, that was one of my first international speaking engagements.

and I've been a brand strategist for 11 years.

Helping people position, build and promote their brands.

And I say people more than companies.

I think that's what makes me unique, not necessarily in the landscape now.

There's lots of people who specialize in personal branding.

There are photographers that specialize in personal branding.

That's now a thing.

In 2011, it wasn't as much of a thing.

So, it's pretty unique that I have done this in terms of focusing on

branding people for over a decade.

That's awesome.

So, we started our businesses roughly at the same time.

I was about 2011 as well.

And yeah, New Media Europe, those were the days.

2015 and that was in Manchester.

Were you in Manchester or was it London?

I was in both.

Yeah, I thought you were in both.

So, that's cool.

Just to look at the comments, Carl is saying, "Nooo Ian we are

not a 100 shows older already."

We are.

We've got somebody watching on Facebook.

I don't know who you are unfortunately.

Because Facebook.

Saying, "Good afternoon from Toronto!"

Canadian..

I know we've got all the Canadians in the house today.

And Paul has got lots of questions.

I think we need to get started with this, with personal branding.

Because it's really interesting what you said about focusing on the people

because I know that I'm not alone here.

I have this feeling that I want to show myself as this company.

Because if I'm just a person, then other businesses might not take me so

seriously, or that used to be my thought.

I don't think that anymore.

But is that a common thought?

And how do you as a brand strategist, talk to your clients about that?

So I don't think anyone is surprised or even this idea of personal

branding, I don't know how new that concept is for people now that it's

been around for quite a while, but I still, Ian, encounter friction or people

who say, "Oh, well that's not for me.

My job is selling insurance.

Why would I need a personal brand?"

And I would challenge you, or anyone that believes that.

Not you.

You have a business built around yourself like I do.

I would challenge anyone that that pushes back on that.

I don't think in 2023, got that one right, I don't think you have the

choice anymore to have a personal brand.

You have one if people are typing your name into Google, they're

looking for information on you.

People are trying to get the dirt, they're trying to get info,

they're trying to get context.

They're trying to get motivation to hire you, to contact you.

You have a personal brand, even if your job is selling insurance, we juggle two

versions of ourselves, the in-person experience, which is you and I had the

privilege of being together in real life.

Now we don't take that for granted after the last few years.

In November.

But you and I also can exist digitally.

This is very close to real life.

It's not quiet.

We have a camera that I'm looking into.

We have the internet that connects us and you got a camera on your end,

but technology really exists to help us recreate the in-person experience.

Nowadays, we juggle two versions of ourselves.

That in-person experience and what's becoming everyday more important,

the online version of ourselves.

So branding is really achieving consistency between those two experiences.

That's really helpful.

So, Paul is saying here.

He's been really looking forward to the show, which is awesome.

He's been struggling to grow his brand as a business for years,

trying to figure out the niche, the brand, the value, et cetera.

And he's also saying, "I have often considered hiring a coach, but not

sure what type of coach can help me."

And that's really interesting because I'm in the process of looking

to work with the coach as well.

I think often we are too close to our own business and our brand.

What are your thoughts on that?

Do you think that is the case that we sometimes need outside help

to look in at what we're doing?

And when it comes to our personal brand, what should we do when it comes to that?

Yeah, good question.

Call it what you want.

Sometimes people refer to it as a coach, a strategist.

I will sometimes call it an accountability partner.

In a situation where you've built a brand around yourself, I like to remember this.

You hear your own voice differently than other people hear your voice.

Because you are in your body.

You are living the experience.

I often describe the work that we do, we aren't necessarily coaches, we're

strategists, but it's the same thing in terms of holding up a mirror in front

of you saying, "Hey, here's what I hear.

Here's what I see."

Now, my focus is on personal branding, positioning your brand, building somebody

to show for them and promoting it.

Social media strategy is a big part of what I do because I work with people.

So, that's my job to hold up that mirror and say, "Hey, here's what I see.

Here's maybe the order that based on my experience in working with

people in all different industries, here's what I would tackle first.

Here's your number one priority based on your business goal."

I often say, even before hiring a coach or a strategist or someone to

help you, make sure you're crystal clear as far as you can go on your own.

Make sure you're clear on your business.

And if you're not clear, then that coach will probably prioritize that

as item number one on the list.

What's your goal?

What's your goal in all of this?

You want to create a new website?

Great.

What's the goal?

Why, ? Any coach in any aspect of your life.

Right now, I started this week a fitness and a nutrition plan that has nothing

to do with branding, but I have a coach.

And the very first question he asked, "Tell me, Phil,

specifically, what is your goal?"

Specifically numbers.

And I approach my work in the same way.

You got to get specific.

What is your goal?

And that's going to make working with a coach a whole

lot easier and more effective.

Yeah, so important to think about those big goals.

What's the point of this?

Sometimes it can be enjoyment, but if you've got a business, you're wanting

to generate money, but what's that for?

What is the goal?

The ultimate goal in your business?

And sometimes you might need a coach to help tease that out.

It's really interesting what you said about personality.

And so many people, they get into their forties and fifties and they

still really don't know who they are.

People struggle with that.

When it comes to your business, and because we're multifaceted,

what aspects of you do you want to amplify with your personal brand?

Carl's got a great question and maybe you can come into those questions

that I mentioned about which part of you do we put forwards in our brand.

His question's a really simple one.

What does branding a person actually mean?

What does it mean?

I think I touched on this in my own definition, but

I'll take it a step further.

What does branding a person mean?

It sets you up.

The exercise of it sets you up for success, I think, to achieve

whatever those business goals are.

It's entirely possible nowadays to build a brand, build a business as a person.

On Instagram this morning, I posted a reel giving my formula.

When I break this down into a science, for Carl and for everyone

listening, content is what you say.

Ian, you brought up a second ago, personality.

Personality is the unique way that you and only you deliver that

content and personality is what keeps people coming back for more

Content.

What you say, personality, the unique way that you and

only you deliver that content.

Those are the two variables with every single person as a brand.

So, why would we do personal branding?

Think about your goals.

Think about how you enjoy spending your time.

It is my goal.

It is my mission on planet Earth to help as many people as possible,

identify what they love to do, and pair that thing with something others

need and ideally are willing to spend money on, so we can turn this into a

business, create a livelihood out of it, doing something that brings you joy.

And I know you feel the same way about your job as I do.

I absolutely love my job.

And let me tell you why I love it, because I do what I want.

I don't sit here and write 10,000 word blog posts thankfully, nowadays, or

certainly the direction things are going.

We have technology.

We have AI to help us with that.

I like to talk.

I don't like to write, but as part of my job, I'd be sitting here, I'm sitting

at my home office in sweatpants, can't see them, but you got to trust me,

literally on my own schedule, talking to you through a camera, sharing ideas.

This is my job.

Obviously there are other parts to my job, but I have created a career

that has so many elements, layers of it, doing things that fulfill me, and

that's the joy of personal branding.

It's taking inventory of what do you love?

That on its own as a hobby, how do we pair what you love with something others need?

I'll finish this with this.The best online branding recreates

the in-person experience.

What makes you great?

What makes you memorable?

What is your goal?

How can we use the web, the digital real estate that we

have to achieve consistency?

Really good stuff there.

And this excites me.

I think it excites a lot of people watching of listening as well.

So Paul says, "Thank you.

I love the idea of 'holding up the mirror.'" And he also says, "On

our own, it's hard to know what, if anything, we have to offer."

And I don't know about you, Phil, but I went through this moment in my twenties,

I think it was, when I just didn't know.

I was like, what are my strengths?

What am I good at?

And sometimes we're too close to ourselves.

We need that help from other people.

Martin, I think, I assume this is Martin Buckland who says, "Hallelujah.

I know who I am."

Well done.

That's great.

Now you've answered my next question, well, partially answered

it, which was, what does having a standout personal brand do?

You've worked with loads and loads of people.

Almost 350 clients in 11 years.

Wow, that's a lot.

So I just wonder whether you could give some examples and you don't necessarily

need to name many names but I'm interested in the before and the after.

So somebody who didn't have a particularly solid personal brand before

and what their brand did for them.

What was the point of it?

What were the benefits of having a strong, professional, personal brand?

Oh yeah, I love this question.

Also, I try to answer it differently every time someone asks me for a

before and after, or an example of someone I've worked with.

There are so many, I have almost 70 projects on my website.

I don't necessarily show the before because that's someone else's work.

And that's not very nice of me to go, "Hey, look how much

better mine is than theirs."

Or if a client did it themselves, which is often the case.

But I have lots of afters, almost 70 projects on my website.

So philpallen.co/projects.

But on my website, first page is projects.

And there I have almost 70 examples of the types of clients that I've worked with.

So public speakers, coaches and consultants.

We're talking about coaches.

I've worked with a lot of coaches.

Food brands hospitality nutritionists, jewelry designers, media personalities.

I've worked, in over a decade, with a lot of different industries, which makes it

interesting for me to jump industry to industry, but a lot of the things that I

observe and the advice I give is the same.

An example of someone that comes to mind who really benefited from the

exercise, there are lots, but there's one on my website that I'll describe.

Her name is Kate Payne.

She's under coaches and consultants, that category.

And Kate came to hesitant about the idea of personal branding.

That's why I'm bringing her up in this conversation.

She.

was like, "Well, I obviously I have to brand as a company

so people take me seriously."

Doesn't that sound familiar, Ian?

And we said to her, "No, Kate.

People hire you for you.

They come to you because of your perspective, your experience,

your way of doing things.

And so we really need to capitalize on the human element of your brand.

That's you.

It's you.

You are the reason."

And she's like, "Okay.

I trust you."

So, we got photos done.

We built her website.

The website for me is the part that I'm the most involved

with in a branding project.

I've got an amazing team.

Most of my team members have worked with me for over five, six years.

So they're lifers, which is super cool.

Very small team.

We all have our roles.

I pretend I'm Picasso, so by the time that I make a website and

code and design and layout, my colleague Lauren writes the copy.

We work with a photographer wherever the client is.

My designer Sche* has done a really beautiful brand identity and I get

to just bring in all these elements together and create something awesome.

Kate, after we launched her website within six months,

said, "My business has tripled.

And there's no other explanation for it than my brand, my website, this new me."

So if we unpack that, it's more than just, "oh, look at how beautiful my website is."

It's also reflected in Kate's confidence as a brand.

Her ability to go, you know what?

Yes, I am a business, I am a brand.

It's clarity in her services and what I would often describe as access points.

How can people access you?

Is it one-on-one?

Is it group coaching?

Is it digital downloads, speaking on stage, virtual?

What are those access points and how do we clearly outline to someone, this is

how I can servee you and this is what it costs and these are the details?

So the website for us, I'm really excited by the output of the website, the

physical, the tangibleness of a website that anyone in the world can go to.

But I got to say it's the exercise of making one that's actually

more important than the output.

Because it forces you to think through how do I want to be perceived by someone?

We get to craft that, and that's why I, with so much

enthusiasm talk about my work.

Every single day, I get to be involved, with helping someone craft their

first impression, and that's so cool.

It must be so exciting to see that growth.

And I loved what you said about confidence, because

I totally agree with you.

When I rebranded, when I created, when I commissioned the branding that I've

got for this show and the videos, it's weird, but it did give me more confidence.

And you think, well, why would that be?

I think it also makes you more memorable.

So with so many people creating content these days, how do you stand out with so

many coaches and consultants out there?

How do you stand out?

And if your brand is memorable, then that helps you stand out.

And I think also the clarity.

What was the word that you used?

Touch points or these access points.

Access points.

Yeah.

points Yeah.

I'm going to be totally transparent and honest about this.

This is something that I've really struggled with in my business is I

don't think I do a particularly good job at it expressing, explaining what

it is that I do and I might offer.

I don't think I do a good job at my access points.

And I think that is one of the things I'm really focusing on this year, being much

better at explaining that on the website.

And I found that fascinating because my next question to you, Phil, was going to

be, what does personal branding cover?

And I've got here, well, it surely it includes fonts, colors, photos, logos.

I haven't actually put websites, but yeah, websites.

But you are expanding a lot more on what that is.

So, how would you fully answer that question?

What does a personal brand cover?

And then I'm going to come back to Carl.

And Paul have got some great questions that I want to come back to.

Great.

We'll come back to those.

You actually just described in completion.

I would say the second vertical of my business, or let's call it access points.

You like that, Ian?

So, we're going to use those.

But I work with clients in three phases.

Positioning their brand, so that's doing the work that we've touched

on today, positioning, how are you different from your competitors,

who are your brand heroes, what does your visual brand look like.

If people don't know, and are like, "I don't have a favorite color."

Great.

Walk over to your closet and pull out the 10 outfits that make you feel the best.

Lay them out on your bed and take a photo of it, and then tell me what

you see in that photo when you pull it up, certain colors that are repeated

or certain designs or textures, let that inspire your visual brand online.

So you described the area.

I have to say we probably shine the most, which is that second one.

Build.

Positioning is absolutely.

Essential.

It's like building a house.

Before we can stage the house or we can build it, we need to

figure out where it's going to go.

So, that's the most important first step.

The second step is building something to show for your brand after

you've identified your positioning.

So it starts, for me, with photography, which people go, "Really?

You would start taking photos?"

Yeah.

Because we have to find a photographer that we trust that can deliver what

we need, the vision that we have.

But good photography can inspire the rest of the branding process.

So for example, an outdated profile photo on social media, that's

like showing up to a wedding in pajamas, in my opinion nowadays.

Like, let's be serious.

It means that you don't take your brand online seriously.

You don't take yourself seriously.

Good Photography is a really important investment.

I'd say it's more important than a logo.

For now if you're launching a business, you're not going to hire someone like me.

Put your name until you show, until you prove to yourself what we will

call proof of concept, that there is demand for your business, that it

can grow, that people need it, that it's something that fulfills you.

Put your brand name in a font for now before you design an intricate logo.

But brand photography is the most important part of the build.

So that's where I start, because so many aspects of it

inspire the rest of the build.

So photography, brand identity, and that's more than just a logo.

Within that, we're talking about multiple logos.

Your logo is going to show up in different ways.

And one of your graphics, Ian, for this show, when it shows us side by

side, you've got your logo up top and it's written horizontally and

it fills up the space really nicely.

For me, I don't have room for my name written out back here.

So I use my mark on the wall.

I have about six or seven different versions of my logo, depending on

different uses and where it's going to go.

And then we would call those logo lockups.

So you need logos, you need color, you need typography.

How many colors?

I don't know how detailed do you want me to go, but I'm

just going to give an overview

Go, go, go.

Generally, between three and five colors.

You want a white, a light, a bold, a dark and a black.

And I say a white and a black, not necessarily pure white and black.

On a screen, it can be a bit dark.

So typically, when I do black in a color palette, it's normally a super

dark gray, not quite a full black.

But yeah, colors, I'd say between three and five.

What else?

Typography.

You need a header font, and a body font generally.

So I normally will have two to three fonts just depending on what a client

needs and how we want them to show up.

And then you have to think about how's your brand going to look in real life

on a business card or physical signage.

That's physical, isn't it?

Now you know I'm a branding enthusiast when you see that tattooed.

You might have to explain.

Explain to the podcast listeners what's happening here?

I'm showing up my wrist, to the camera because I have

my logo tattooed on my wrist.

That is commitment.

That is commitment.

My colleague Lauren was like, "Oh, thank God.

Now he won't keep rebranding.

Put that energy into clients instead of our rebrands."

It's true.

I haven't rebranded since then.

You want to think about how your brand's going to show up online

in the email signature, website header, social media, all different

places that it can show up online.

And then in print physical, which I just gave a few examples, that's the build.

And then that final stage, I'll do super quickly.

That's like social media.

It's really anything to sticker for sale, sign out front of that brand that

you've worked hard to build that house.

How do we sell it?

I love the idea of starting with photographs.

I don't think that is what most people would think as you said.

And it's interesting because looking back, I didn't do this deliberately,

but I had this really good friend, who took photographs and they're

still what I use today, which reminds me this year I need to get some new

ones because they were back in 2016.

They're too old.

It's time.

It's definitely time.

But also Ian, you talked a second ago about your confidence as a

brand through that exercise and your brand feels very confident to me.

You also understand brand, you understand the merits of brand.

You show up with your exact color of red.

Even your glasses are super unique and identifiable as you.

And if I saw those glasses sitting on a table, I would

go, those are Ian's glasses.

We have a mutual friend, Kim Garst.

I met her last year for the first time and she's just one of the loveliest

people I've ever met on the planet.

By the way, she had really wonderful things to say about you.

Kim is similar.

She's got a brand, she's got her glasses, she's got her color.

And that's taking yourself seriously as a brand.

And it's cool when you arrive at this point where you have the

confidence to go, you know what?

I am something.

I am this.

And to be able to put that into words is even more exciting.

Definitely.

Well, thank you Paul.

Thank you Carl, for being so patient.

But I did want to ask Phil those things, and we're going to get onto

a question about tools in a minute, because I love tools and technology.

Me too.

I know you do.

So Paul is asking, there are so many variables, websites, SEO,

YouTube, social media, coaching courses, et cetera, in a business.

And I can almost feel the overwhelm in voice there because there's so much.

Does a brand strategist help pull all of these pieces together?

I think that's a really interesting question because basically are you

the savior to all of us who have so many things all over the place?

Yes.

I'll be honest with you, I have no idea what other brand strategists do.

I think I saw that title in 2013 on LinkedIn and thought,

oh, that's a good title.

I don't pay a lot of attention to my competitors or what other people are

doing in my industry, because I've got my plate full with people that need my help.

And I focus on providing a service that gives them clarity.

That's the long answer.

The short answer would be yes.

This brand strategist certainly focuses on removing overwhelm.

So, branding is my arena.

I'm have fitness on the mind because it's January at the time that we're

doing this live and recording.

And when I walk into a gym without some structure or

guidance, I feel so much stress.

That is not the place I want to be.

But even this morning I did my workout all on my own, so proud of myself.

And my trainer who's virtual gave me a very specific list of what to do.

I even had to film myself to be able to give feedback.

That's what we do.

When you hire someone, you're hiring an expert that's super confident, has

authority in the area that you need help.

And that's the merit of it.

The downside is you have to pay for it because that's how we make a living.

The upside is you can probably have a really beautiful final

result if you do what you're told.

Not all of my clients necessarily do what they're told, but a lot of them do.

And I've noticed, Ian, in a decade of working, the two qualities that

my clients have that are almost guaranteed for success is, trust in

me, trust in my team, the advice that we give you, the framework to follow.

And the second would just be positivity, a good attitude, being excited, and finding

the joy as not all of it is joyful.

Trust me.

People hate getting their picture taken, but if we can find joy in the

process, those are the two qualities I've seen have led to the most

success, most successful final product.

Yeah.

I can definitely imagine.

Paul is saying, "I'm constantly overwhelmed and often discouraged."

I hear you.

you are not alone, Paul.

I think we've all gone through periods of that in our time.

But there is help and we really hope that this episode today is helping you.

And of course, we do know somebody who can help.

Carl is saying, " So I have 'Carl's bearded banter', posting to YouTube

and Facebook, my own content...

beard products & advice with a bit of fun and a few competitions.

But personally, I do not sell any products.

Can I be branded?"

You already have a brand, Carl.

So I think we know the answer to that.

But it's a great question.

People often think, oh, well I don't have a physical product, is this a

brand or is it just a hobby of mine?

You know what?

I do something pretty unique.

I post twice a week on YouTube, although I did once a week this

month because it's January and we're easing back into the year.

And then February I get back to posting two videos a week on YouTube for

free that help people with resources.

Having done that now for a few years, I get a lot from the exercise

of creating videos, researching, becoming an expert, almost like a

pilot doing their hours to train.

For me, I have this thing in my schedule that keeps me accountable,

that keeps me learning, that keeps me sharing and growing.

My email list has grown to over 30,000 in three years, and I don't

sell a lot, Carl, to my email list.

But guess what?

Brands will come to me and say, "Hey.

Would you be willing to put our brand in front of your audience?"

And that, my friend, is not free, and I have a lot of brands that do it.

It's a win-win.

I get paid.

My audience gets free resources.

So just because your brand is rooted in providing value for free

doesn't mean you can't monetize it.

Yeah, definitely.

Well, we are almost out of time and I want to get onto the bit that

we're both excited about, which is what are your tools of the trade?

So what are the tools that you use and what would you recommend?

We don't have five hours unfortunately, but can you tell us your favorite

ones when it comes to personal branding, but maybe beyond as well?

Let me give you my favorite tools.

This is one of my favorite questions because actually on YouTube I

get to satisfy my inner geek.

and I work with a lot of super cool brands, to try out their products and

to create content that promotes it.

So in terms of branding, my number one tool for self-starters, people that

want to actually take action on some of the things that Ian and I have talked

about today, the number one tool I can recommend for you is Adobe Express.

For those of you watching, I have a little pillow over here.

Ian and I are both very proud Adobe Express Ambassadors, but

there's never been a tool like this that is so sophisticated.

It comes from Adobe, which is obviously the leading software in

the creative worlds, design worlds.

There's never been a tool that has democratized brand building in this way.

I get super, super excited about it.

Let me tell you where to go.

If you don't have a logo.

You go to Adobe Express logo maker.

It will ask you three questions.

What's your business name and the slogan, if you have one?

Choose a style.

So bold, decorative, colorful, modern.

It'll give you a few styles, choose one.

And then using AI, it already starts to create designs for you using Adobe

fonts, using Adobe Express, which brings in a lot of the amazing, features and

integrations from other Adobe apps.

Popular ones like Photoshop, illustrator, InDesign, et cetera.

Acrobat.

So, that's the best tool to get started right away.

I recommend going to my Instagram, instagram.com/philpallen.

I have a lot of posts that teach you how to do this on my Instagram

and obviously on YouTube, but that would be my number one tool.

I love all kinds of tools.

I love ConvertKit for email marketing.

The reason I love it is that it strips down all the design.

An email that looks super designed feels like junk mail that we throw out.

We rip it in half and throw it in the garbage and don't even look at it.

Your email should feel like a normal email, in my opinion, as an

individual, personal brand creator.

It should feel like an email plain textile emails.

Doesn't mean you can't have visuals, but I love ConvertKit for that reason.

What are some other tools that I like?

Oh, I have so many, Ian.

I post them all the time, almost every day on platforms like Instagram and YouTube.

So when in doubt you need a tool for something specific, type my name and

then that need, and there's probably something that'll come up for you.

I've put you on the spot with all of these things.

No, no, I love it.

I could list a hundred, but you said we're at the end of the show.

I know.

You're too kind.

Adobe Express is awesome and I have to say, I've not played around with

the logo maker, so I'm excited about playing around with that after the show.

And I know there are loads of other tools that we could talk about,

eComm live, all those things.

Welove that.

But we are out time.

So, people can find you.

You've mentioned lots of different things.

There's philpallen.co/projects for the projects, and also we've

got philpallen.co/ freebies.

So what's at the freebies?

Tell us about the freebies.

Yeah.

So here I have lots of digital downloads that I've created and

just made available for free.

Some of these, my most popular one is 100 Evergreen content Ideas.

It has been downloaded over 24,000 times.

I have lots of individual worksheets, eBooks, resources there that

will help you on your journey to identifying your personal brand.

I have a brand positioning, worksheet.

I have brand archetypes, all kinds of things there.

Some of them are more technical, some of them are really simple.

One is as simple as six questions that will help you position

your brand more effectively.

Lots of resources over there, and they're all free.

Awesome.

Well, you can't get better than that.

They're free.

Check out Phil's website, philpallen.co.

And also you can stalk him in a nice way on all the socials, Instagram.

Is Instagram your favorite?

Where do you prefer to hang out these days, Phil?

Yeah.

Instagram is the app I open the most.

I'm not as crazy about TikTok.

I don't go to Facebook these days unless I have to message you on Messenger.

For me, yeah, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.

Those are my three favorites.

Awesome.

Well, they are very visual tools.

Thank you so much, Phil.

It's been great to have you on the show.

It's been really awesome.

So, do check out Phil at his website.

But we are out of time.

I'm trying to do a much better job at, just making our shows a little

bit shorter, pack more into them.

That's the idea.

Let me know what you think about that.

Do check out the podcast, ieg.me/podcast.

But until next time, I encourage you to level up your impact,

authority, and profits through the power of Confident Live video.

See you soon.

Bye.

I wanna have a pro personal brand.

Have a pro personal brand.

Phil Pallen come on the show to show us how to have a pro personal personal brand.