Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:19
All right, Rob. Episode 63. We’re back.
Rob Broadfoot 0:22
We’re back.
Don Mock 0:22
I feel like I say we’re back almost every every time.
Rob Broadfoot 0:25
Yeah.
Don Mock 0:26
What should I say instead of “we’re back.”
Rob Broadfoot 0:27
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with “we’re back.”
Don Mock 0:29
Okay, well, we’ll just stick with “We’re back.”
Rob Broadfoot 0:31
We’re back.
Don Mock 0:31
Do you ever watch that show Survivor? You know, the long running Survivor?
Rob Broadfoot 0:35
I gotta be honest with you.
Don Mock 0:36
You watch the first season like 20 years ago and then you’re out?
Rob Broadfoot 0:38
Yeah.
Don Mock 0:39
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 0:39
Is that Jeff Probst?
Don Mock 0:40
Jeff Probst. Yeah, he’s been doing it for like 45 seasons or something like that.
Rob Broadfoot 0:44
I was like a first season kind of- when everybody got excited about it.
Don Mock 0:47
Yeah. But for 45 seasons or however long it’s been, he basically says the same thing. I mean, it’s never changed. It’s like Come on in guys! You know, he has his catchphrases. When we watch it at home, we can literally predict what he’s going to say before he’s says it. It’s just part of the narrative and part of the fun of Survivor. So maybe, “we’re back.” Maybe I’m always just gonna say “We’re back.”
Rob Broadfoot 1:09
Welcome to American Idol.
Don Mock 1:13
All right, what I’m going to talk about today, Rob? What’s going town today?
Rob Broadfoot 1:16
I got two words for you.
Don Mock 1:18
I’m excited.
Rob Broadfoot 1:19
Tony Robbins.
Don Mock 1:21
I got nothing on Tony Robbins.
Rob Broadfoot 1:24
I say that because I was thinking about the idea of personal brands. And the idea of, there’s a whole cottage industry now, I think, of consultancies and places that help you craft your own personal brand.
Don Mock 1:38
Yeah, there are, aren’t there?
Rob Broadfoot 1:40
There certainly are, and so I got to thinking about that- good, bad or indifferent. Is it important to have a personal brand? What does that mean? What can it do for you? Can it harm you? I don’t know, just the idea of a personal brand.
Don Mock 1:53
Yeah. I think it can mean different things to different people at different stages of their life. I know that sounds like kind of a big, wide, broad brush, cop-out answer. But if you’re like an influencer, for example- if that’s like your job, like, Hey, I make revenue off of Instagram or things like that- obviously, mission critical of importance. Your personal brand would be, what’s your handle, you know what I mean? What’s the name of your YouTube channel? That type of thing. I mean, it literally will start with sort of a digital profile and then go out from there, I think.
Rob Broadfoot 2:25
Yeah, and I think even before digital was a thing, it was still a concept. I’ll pick on Tony Robbins. The guy’s been around for a long time.
Don Mock 2:35
Sure.
Rob Broadfoot 2:35
And he has built an entire career around his personal brand. That is his business. He does it really, really successfully and has built his brand up. Certainly with the rise of digital and the interwebs and all that, then it became, I think, a more critical thing or a more popular thing.
Don Mock 2:54
Let me interrupt, though. For those that don’t know who Tony Robbins says, just on the off chance, how would you explain-
Rob Broadfoot 2:59
Come out of your cave! No he’s, I would say, probably one of the world’s most successful motivational speakers.
Don Mock 3:08
Agreed, yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:09
And he travels the world and gives motivational speeches.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t he really tall?
Very tall.
Don Mock 3:16
Yeah, he’s like a super tall-
Rob Broadfoot 3:16
Very deep voice. Very tall. He’s a manly man. But yeah, travels the world and has an incredibly successful motivational speaking business.
Don Mock 3:25
And I assume has a whole bunch of books and things that he’s-
Rob Broadfoot 3:28
They’re are books. I believe there are seminars. I’ve never attended. I don’t subscribe to Tony Robbins. Nothing against him, of course. But I just it’s not something I-.
Don Mock 3:37
Yeah, probably one of the millions- the same as me out there- familiar with the name, familiar with the brand and whatnot, but can’t say that I’m an avid follower and have read anything.
Rob Broadfoot 3:46
Yeah. There’s actually a great documentary on him and sort of the business side of things.
Don Mock 3:51
Okay, interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 3:52
I forget what it’s called. But it’s actually really interesting. He’s incredibly successful. So yeah, I think with the rise of digital, certainly that allowed people to then… and it almost became, if you think about the idea… there’s the Tony Robbins, right and the Joe Rogan’s, and the people of the world, that’re big influencer, sort of people.
Don Mock 4:15
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 4:15
But then there’s also, hey, I need to go get a job. I’m fresh out of college, and I’ve got my degree, and I need to work on my LinkedIn profile. Make sure it’s nice and buttoned up. I mean, certainly if we think about, when we go to hire people…
Don Mock 4:32
What’s the first thing we do?
Rob Broadfoot 4:33
We go look at their-
Don Mock 4:35
We cyber snoop them online.
Rob Broadfoot 4:36
We cyber snoop them. We go to their LinkedIn page, we go to the thing and we see what they’re all about. How people present themselves is important, in a job setting and an employment setting.
Don Mock 4:47
Absolutely. I’m a big Twitter guy. I’ve been on Twitter for 10 years or so or maybe even longer. That’s one thing I always do go and look at. Just to go back and see what people are tweeting about. Just out of curiosity.
Rob Broadfoot 4:58
Yeah. I’m a big fan of… I mean, obviously, you have different types of people. You’re a big Twitter guy. I don’t know that I’ve ever tweeted anything in my life. So it’s not so much that we look at people based on how much content they put out, or how active they are or not active. But I think that certainly in this day and age, there are certain places that you go to check the box a little bit.
Don Mock 4:58
Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Rob Broadfoot 5:02
Do you have an Instagram account? I don’t care if you do, or if you don’t. But certainly you have a LinkedIn profile, if you’re out looking for a job. It’s important for that to be nice, clean and buttoned up.
Don Mock 5:38
What’s interesting, something we never had to really worry about, I guess growing up, in the beginning of our careers and whatnot. When you’re talking about this whole digital aspect of what’s your personal brand, and your- dare I say online relationship- with all the digital profiles and whatnot, it’s interesting to think about. Something I just thought about was reputation management. How that is an entire history, too.
Rob Broadfoot 6:04
Oh, yeah, I hear radio ads for that all the time.
Don Mock 6:06
Do you really?
Rob Broadfoot 6:07
Yeah.
Don Mock 6:07
If you get if you get goofed up, or if something’s bad about you online, you can hire companies now to go in-
Rob Broadfoot 6:14
Just scrub.
Don Mock 6:14
Yeah, and try to help scrub the Internet to remove some of the the topline bad news out there. If you want to kind of change and steer the narrative of your digital persona.
Rob Broadfoot 6:27
Which is terrifying, because somebody can come-
Don Mock 6:29
It’s weird.
Rob Broadfoot 6:30
-Act nefarious.
Don Mock 6:32
Well, what’s scary about it for me, is that it doesn’t even have to be true.
Rob Broadfoot 6:35
Well, right. That’s what I’m saying.
Don Mock 6:36
I don’t know. What’s that? I’m gonna totally goof this up. But it’s the expression of like, “a lie goes all the way around the world before the sun comes up for the truth,” or what’s that expression? I don’t know. It’s horrible.
Rob Broadfoot 6:48
I don’t know. The shortened version is “the lie becomes the truth.”
Don Mock 6:51
Yeah exactly. Exactly. So claims can be put out there, or things that aren’t even necessarily true, but then Boom, they’re all over the place. And reputation management. It’s kind of a weird thing, your personal brand. Now that I think about it, actually, it’s probably more important for everybody, regardless of what industry you’re in. I mean, personal brand, I think of like late night hosts, like Johnny Carson, obviously, and all of our late night talk show hosts. Those are brands. You think about celebrities and sports guys. Whether they want to be or not, I’ll go against Charles Barkley. Whether they want to be or not, they are considered role models. Kids and young adults and even adults look up to ridiculously amazing feats of sports. And follow athletes. I think Cristiano Ronaldo, I believe was the most followed social person.
Rob Broadfoot 7:46
I think that’s right.
Don Mock 7:47
For years and years and years, across all things. So Charles Barkley, obviously famous for saying, “I’m not a role model. I’m just a basketball player.” It’s like, well-
Rob Broadfoot 7:54
You are a role model.
Don Mock 7:55
Whether you want to be or not, there are people out there that are following what you do and things like that.
Rob Broadfoot 8:01
You are a person in the public. By default, you are going to be a role model to somebody.
Don Mock 8:05
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It’s interesting, though, Chuck has kind of steered his personal brand in an interesting fashion, through being on TV and everything. He is his own brand.
Rob Broadfoot 8:22
A lot of those guys, like Steven Smith, you think about him. I mean, he’s an aggressive…
Don Mock 8:26
Loudmouth.
Rob Broadfoot 8:27
Loudmouth, wild man. He’s unapologetic, and he’s authentic to who he is, and does not deviate from his brand.
Don Mock 8:36
Absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 8:37
I don’t know why tthis Just popped into my head. But if you think about doing damage to your personal brand. I think about Ray Lewis. I don’t know why. But Ray Lewis came to our lovely town for the Super Bowl.
Don Mock 8:52
I have strong opinions on what happened there. I think being covered in-
Rob Broadfoot 8:58
Blood?
Don Mock 8:58
Yeah, being covered in blood and not participating in any of the police… trying to be careful here. But not participating in the process. Then going to jail, and then coming out and being celebrated. Literally being on the cover of Madden. It’s quite an interesting turn of events. Juxtapose that with OJ for example, the Juice had a great personal brand.
Rob Broadfoot 9:25
The Juice is loose.
Don Mock 9:26
But now “the Juice is loose” is considered “oh my god, there’s a killer on the loose.”
Rob Broadfoot 9:32
Okay, so So if we think about damage done. There’s those two examples. You’ve got Ray Lewis and OJ, both completely unapologetic, no admission of anything. Unapologetic, just living their lives. I think a large majority of the population probably still holds them in a negative light. Let’s say that.
Don Mock 9:53
Sure.
Rob Broadfoot 9:54
Unlike, potentially, somebody like… we’re gonna stick with the athlete, Michael Vick.
Don Mock 9:59
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 10:00
Michael Vick did a bad thing. We can all agree Michael Dick- well, nope.
Don Mock 10:04
Cuyler, edit that one out
Rob Broadfoot 10:07
Or leave in? I think, leave it in. Michael Dick did a very bad thing. No one likes cruelty to animals.
Don Mock 10:13
Exactly, exactly.
Rob Broadfoot 10:14
But I do think that, again, and this is just my personal opinion. He served his time, he admitted, he’s done the work, and I think now is back in sort of a more favorable light.
Don Mock 10:28
Yeah, I agree.
Rob Broadfoot 10:29
You can turn it around.
Don Mock 10:30
Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think part of that is the apology tour, and acceptance of what happened. Whether you agree with what he did, whether you agree with his apology or not, there is that… we love the comeback story.
Rob Broadfoot 10:45
Only after we love to crush people.
Don Mock 10:50
If you talk about reputation management and personal brand, here’s what we love to do. We love as a society to build people up, and then absolutely shred them and tear them down.
Rob Broadfoot 10:59
Build them up real quick, I feel like.
Don Mock 11:01
Yeah, exactly. Then wait for them to do something inappropriate, or say something wrong, and then shred them down. Then make them sit.
Rob Broadfoot 11:09
Yeah, hold down for a while.
Don Mock 11:10
Yeah, hold them down for, whatever that little period of time is. Then let them come back, and revitalize that career. It’s interesting. What else about personal brands and things? I mean, what is your personal brand?
Rob Broadfoot 11:22
Yeah, so…
Don Mock 11:22
Do you have a personal brand?
Rob Broadfoot 11:24
Mine’s kind of a mess. Here’s what I mean by that. I wouldn’t call mine a finely-crafted, purposeful brand, at least as it as it relates to online activity and things like that. I’ve kind of haphazard with that sort of stuff. I have a love-hate relationship with social media from a personal standpoint.
Don Mock 11:48
I think all of us do. I think it’s okay to say, all of us do. There’s a time and a place for everything. But all of that stuff crosses over into the nethers and bad things. There’s bad people out there.
Rob Broadfoot 11:58
I think, if you were to look at me… if I were to step outside of myself, and look at the picture of me that is out in the world. This is weird exercise.
Don Mock 12:12
Yeah, this is kind of strange to think about. Are we getting meta?
Rob Broadfoot 12:14
I would say my brand would be Oh, he appears to like the outdoors.
Don Mock 12:18
Yeah. You’re an outdoorsman.
Rob Broadfoot 12:20
He appears to like his dog. Oh, he spends time with his children. He likes to travel.
Don Mock 12:27
These are all positive thing.
Rob Broadfoot 12:28
I mean, these are all positive things. Well, we don’t put our negative things out there for people to see.
Don Mock 12:32
No.
Rob Broadfoot 12:33
Oh, my goodness. I think that’s what my brand would be, I guess. Yeah, those are just kind of random descriptions.
Don Mock 12:40
Well, Facebook, Instagram, you know, even even LinkedIn, to a certain extent… to your point, it is only the curated good stuff that we share.
Rob Broadfoot 12:49
Generally speaking, yes.
Don Mock 12:50
That is part of why there’s so much mental anguish around socials for minors and things like that. Which is an interesting aspect to what the social platform Be Real. That coming out, right. I don’t know how familiar you are with that. But it’s-
Rob Broadfoot 13:05
Isn’t that, you take a picture of yourself, where you are, right, then and there.
Don Mock 13:10
Yeah, exactly. So the alarm goes off, boom, you open it up. and it basically takes two pictures. It takes a picture of you, and then it takes a picture from the other side of your phone. In terms of the situation you’re in.
Rob Broadfoot 13:16
Your 180 degree.
Don Mock 13:20
Yeah. Now again, influencers can craft the timing, they can force the story.
Rob Broadfoot 13:25
Always going to be that.
Don Mock 13:26
Yeah, but theoretically, it’s to share more of a realistic experience of your holistic life, versus what you have selected and curated.
Rob Broadfoot 13:34
Are you in groups? Like the B Real?
Don Mock 13:37
Yeah, you have friends and all that stuff. Share it out in the world and whatnot.
Rob Broadfoot 13:41
I don’t do the Be Real.
Don Mock 13:43
I’m not gonna Be Real, either. So but I’m familiar with all this. I try to keep up with all the socials and things like that. So yeah, you’re an outdoorsman, and you like your dog and your family and whatnot. I think that my personal brand, if we shift to me a little bit, try to be a little bit meta about myself… it is intrinsically tied with the business. Unfortunately, if someone was to Google me, obviously, the name of the company would be tied from that aspect. But the thing that I hope that I’m the most proud of is, obviously, being a dad. I mean, that’s hands down the most important aspect of my life.
Rob Broadfoot 14:18
I get that vibe. I get that vibe from your socials I’m picking it up.
Don Mock 14:23
That’ll always be the thing that I’m the most proud of, I guess. Irrespective of what happens with the company and whatnot. I mean, some days at work, it’s great. Some days it’s bad and or not, I shouldn’t say bad. But some days are better than others, that type of thing. But I think family is, obviously, the most important. Then I’ll go comics.
Rob Broadfoot 14:40
I also get I get that vibe, too.
Don Mock 14:42
Yeah. In terms of the social vibe, and that’s probably it, I think.
Rob Broadfoot 14:46
Soccer. Sports.
Don Mock 14:46
Soccer. Yeah, I do love sports.I do love sports. Sports, for me is the greatest. Sports is pain. That’s the greatest drama ever.
Rob Broadfoot 14:58
It’s got everything.
Don Mock 14:59
It’s got everything you ever need. So it is mostly 95% pain, and then that’s what makes that jubilant exultation. Exultation? Is that even a word?
Rob Broadfoot 15:09
Yeah.
Don Mock 15:09
Yeah. I it makes that unbelievable excitement so fantastic. Then sharing that with friends and family, obviously, kicks it to a whole other level.
Rob Broadfoot 15:19
Well and sports figures also, going back to them and tying it together… football players, for example, or footballers. Both sports, “I’ve got my endzone dance.”
Don Mock 15:31
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 15:32
That’s part of my brand. Putting it on TV for people to see.
Don Mock 15:35
Yeah. Think about TL.
Rob Broadfoot 15:36
Pulling the Sharpie out from underneath the cell phone.
Don Mock 15:39
We both immediately went there. I think most people aren’t going to have a personal stylist and a publicist. But, to your point, that is something to be considerate of, moving forward, moreso now than ever. In terms of, what is your personal brand? How does that tie to a digital reputation?
Rob Broadfoot 16:02
I think, if there’s any advice to be given, it would be to those job seekers and people wanting to get into the business. Just know that, when you’re being being interviewed, we’re looking. Everybody’s looking, looking at your- it used to be a sheet of paper resume. Now, it’s a digital resume.
Don Mock 16:22
Totally.
Rob Broadfoot 16:22
There’s a lot more involved. It’s important.
Don Mock 16:25
Yeah. Shout out to all those god-awful, terrible logos that designers put on their resumes, for their own personal brand, personal logo. We’re not allowed to say names, but we’re both thinking of exactly the same person.
Rob Broadfoot 16:38
Maybe they were crowd-sourced.
Don’t put a bad logo on your own resume.
Total tangent, but one of Don’s pet peeves.
Don Mock 16:41
Here we go.
Rob Broadfoot 16:42
When you’re just out of school, and you are the CEO.
Don Mock 16:45
Oh, god. Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 16:57
Of whatever company.
Don Mock 16:59
Yeah, whatever fake company you’ve set up, that has no LLC or anything. But you are the CEO of your company, man, that drives me crazy. I feel like that’s just over-promising and under-delivering.
Rob Broadfoot 17:13
Right.
Don Mock 17:13
Especially if you’re a young buck. That’s what it is. It’s like, trying too hard. That type of thing. Interesting. What a great topic. Rob. Interesting thoughts around branding as an individual. So all right. All right.
Rob Broadfoot 17:28
Well, that’s it for today. I think you can find us… I always end the show the same way too. “Where can the people find us?” That’s your line.
Don Mock 17:35
Where can people find us, Mr. Rob?
Rob Broadfoot 17:37
Well, on the interwebs they can find us, of course, at mocktheagency.com. Then on the socials, where you can learn a bit more about our brand.
Don Mock 17:44
There you go. But-dum-bum.
Rob Broadfoot 17:46
@mocktheagency, across pretty much everything. So take a look. Share your thoughts. Talk to you next time.
Don Mock 18:07
Thank, everybody.
Unknown Speaker 18:07
The podcast
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