Please note : This transcript is automatically generated and provided for your convenience.

[00:00:00] Bob Gentle: a brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room,

you can't send someone an invoice for being famous.

There has to be a value exchange,

Comfort zones are elastic, but we don't need to run up all the way to the

edge and shove our hands in the thorn. We just prick it.

[00:00:15] Rob D. Willis: Welcome to Superpowered, the unique stories of modern leaders. I'm your host Rob D. Willis, storytelling consultant and facilitator. Today's episode features a bit of a different take on personal branding, and I'm talking to Bob Gentle, who's going to tell us about his journey from being someone who is painfully shy to actually becoming a sought after personal branding expert.

What makes Bob's approach so unique is that it is totally practical and it is business focused, stripping away the tackiness you often associate with personal branding.

If you're enjoying these conversations, hit subscribe right now, do it. As you get ready for today's conversation filled with insights about overcoming fear, finding your voice and building a personal brand that creates real value, Hey, Bob,

welcome to the show.

[00:01:08] Bob Gentle: Thank you for having me. I am really looking forward to this.

[00:01:10] Rob D. Willis: I've been looking forward to this recording as well as we've been in contact for some time. But for the listeners who don't know you that well, could you tell them a little bit about who you are and how

you help people?

[00:01:22] Bob Gentle: So my name is Bob Gentle. I am based in Glasgow in Scotland, which is officially the most beautiful country in the world. And my business is helping leaders, entrepreneurs, executives to build markets and monetize their personal brand, which sounds very grand and very self centered in many ways.

But. It really depends, I guess, on what it is that brings you to business. Is it mission? Is it money? Is it wanting to have an impact? There's lots of reasons people might want to show up bigger and bolder in the world in order that they can achieve their goals, whatever they are.

[00:01:59] Rob D. Willis: Yeah, quite agree. Also quite agree that Scotland is the most beautiful country in the world. I think it is my favourite country and I love visiting But let's just stick with what you were saying. About helping executives achieve a personal brand, how that kind of sounds grand. I'd also say that it has some kind of negative connotations. I mean, we think of the Kardashians as having big personal brands. So for the skeptics out there, have you maybe got a definition or a metaphor of personal branding for a normal person?

[00:02:36] Bob Gentle: I think everyone has a personal brand, whether they, Understand that or not, and I can't remember who came up with this definition of a brand, but it goes something along the lines of a brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room, and that's often considered in the corporate setting, and we spend corporations spent a lot of time and money trying to influence what people think about them, the brand sentiment, and we as you.

Individuals have the same thing going on. People think about us when we're not around them, but what are we doing to, A, intentionally cultivate what people think about us, and B, what are we doing to amplify how many people think about us and the strength of the feelings that they have about us? And as leaders, And anybody listening to this is probably a leader in one way or another.

It really matters what people think about what we think about because we need to motivate them. We need to inspire them. We need to lead and leading is not something that's done in the background. Some, it's something that happens out front. And I think in today's digital world, it's We have remote employees, we have customers we never meet.

I live in Glasgow now. I don't have a single client in Glasgow, this is really peculiar, but I don't. And I have to build an audience of stakeholders, suppliers, customers partners, strategic partners, sales prospects, all of whom. I've never met me in person. So I think a personal brand, a leadership brand, as I would like to call it, because it's a little bit more specific is really all about trying to make sure that as many people as possible who need to know about who we are and what we stand for.

No, us like us and trust us

[00:04:28] Rob D. Willis: what you said at the beginning there really resonates because it's what I bang on about with talking about storytelling, which is people have a story about you anyway. Whenever we see a set of data points gathered around one another, we make a judgment. A friend of mine and soon to be a guest on this show, David Pullen, he always uses the line, imagine if someone said to you, David's car was parked outside Jane's house again last night. What would you do? What would you start thinking about in those moments? But we don't really have the story, you just have the data points, so we form these judgments. And a brand, I guess, if you don't nurture it, will take some form. So with that, Let's think about maybe your own personal brand. You have said in your own content that you identify as an introvert. And I am, I'd like to think about like time before the brand, before you actually did any conscious effort around making something which you'd call a conscious personal brand, like you have nowadays, can you tell us a little bit about When you feel that was and what was kind of going on what opportunities were there or not there Like what was different in that before the brand stage?

[00:05:46] Bob Gentle: a lot was different. I think the most fundamental difference was my opportunities were far more limited. So back then I was running what you would consider a local digital marketing agency. I Honestly, if you'd come in and said, Bob, can you walk my dog? I'll pay you to do it. I probably have been, I would have had to do it because that's the nature of local business.

You don't really have enough audience to allow you to do the things that you necessarily love. I could see people around me in the online ecosystem, if you like, who I knew I was technically as competent as, but I wasn't as confident with my visibility, and I saw the opportunities that they were having, and I was thinking, I feel like I'm letting myself down.

And alongside this I was a, I wasn't just an introvert. I would identify as painfully shy. So for me, visibility was at the very back of my list of desirable things. And it was a very hard journey for me. It. began with me probably buying a podcast mic five years before I recorded anything. I probably made and deleted a hundred videos before anybody ever met me online.

And I guess the one thing that really helped me was being around other people who were on a similar journey, getting to know fellow travelers and normalizing what was essentially very strange behavior for anybody. So my personal brand. Journey began with a podcast, which was audio only. It was just as easy as making a phone call, but it was terrifying.

Gradually that became easy. And what was interesting is I think a lot of people start with a very fixed idea of what the destination is. This is why I'm doing what I'm doing. So I'm going to build a personal brand and it's for this reason. But what I found was that. The more people knew about me, the more they reflected back to me what they valued about me, the more I course corrected and lent into those things that they reflected back as being valuable, which led to me now really operating a lot of the time in a flow state.

I love what I do, and I do a very limited range of things for a very special kind of person. And I love it. It doesn't feel like work anymore. And for me, this is really what it's all for. Does that make sense?

[00:08:13] Rob D. Willis: It makes sense, what i'm curious about though is That sort of call to action because i'm seeing you running this little marketing agency in scotland being very competent of what you do You And that's kind of feeling unable to, to, to, to speak out, to start sharing your voice. And I see the fear there, but like, what made you think I actually need to do this?

[00:08:38] Bob Gentle: Two things, mission and money. I was unfulfilled in what I was doing. And being blunt, that business was unpredictably, unpredictably profitable and precarious a lot of the time. And I think this is one of the things when you are known as the guy who does the thing, people have to exclude you before they include somebody else.

There may be lots of people who can do elements of what I do, but if I'm the guy who's known for the thing and I have a very high profile doing that and I'm aligned with visible experts who say Bob's really good,

[00:09:12] Rob D. Willis: Yeah.

[00:09:13] Bob Gentle: then

I'm the one to exclude. Whereas previously I had to fight to be included and I knew that that was the case and that that was what I wanted.

So I was very motivated that I wanted my business to be reliably profitable. So being able to niche in and just focus on doing one Focusing on one transformation, I'll put it, and doing and being the companion on that transformation and really doubling down on providing value in that was what I wanted to do because I knew that that would allow me to I guess in business, there's a simple formula.

The more valuable you can be, the more value you'll derive. And I knew that for me to really connect with the people who needed what I did the most, my local community was, was insufficient in terms of audience. I needed to build it out.

[00:10:01] Rob D. Willis: Yeah, it definitely resonates the idea of an unpredictable income. And to me, what this sounds like is maybe there was a moment where you, it just, it wasn't one of the good months and the good months, you're probably thinking it's fine. I'm doing okay. But then there would be this sort of, okay, what I've tried everything.

What do I do now?

Kind of moment.

[00:10:22] Bob Gentle: Honestly, there was a flipping the table over moment. There was a, there was a period

of rage and there was There's a very personal story I won't go into but I had kept that business going through my own personal funds to the extent where if I look back on it now, I feel a lot of shame around that and I was avoiding that shame at the time.

I've made all that money back and more than doubled it now, so the shame is kind of gone, but I am embarrassed that I let that happen. And I'm glad I listened and I'm glad I made the change because a lot of other people would have just kept making the same mistakes again and again.

[00:10:59] Rob D. Willis: Yeah, I think it's probably more common than we like to admit. I think even not just amongst entrepreneurs, people in jobs as well. I mean, that was definitely a pivotal moment for me in the music industry. I kept going out of my own funds. I was basically doing other work to fund this dream. And I remember this one meeting we had at the studio where we wanted to like, do it up and everyone was talking about this investment for the future. And it clicked in my head, like, what investment? I'm just paying more money to then pay more money later. And that was when I realized, okay, I have to pivot. I have to try something completely different. I also loved, What you mentioned earlier, though, about finding, meeting some sort of fellow travelers, put it like that.

How did you find that community? Was that by chance or? Did you, was it like a masterclass that you did or where did

that come from?

[00:11:57] Bob Gentle: It was a range of things. I think the way I would describe it is you meet a couple of people and then they extend out through that. So yes, I was part of masterminds, part of online entrepreneurial groups focused on. Personal branding and things like that. I still am. For me, that is, I think a lot of people were quite isolated as entrepreneurs.

I've, I've heard this phrase, entrepreneurial loneliness quite often that business owners in particular, very rarely get to spend time with other business owners and we have a very particular experience of life. So for me, that's been really helpful, but yes, largely it was simply knowing I need to be around these people.

And I, in my business. I often use the analogy of the hero's journey, that the journey is yours, but along this journey, there'll be stages where you travel with other people, and there'll be stages where you're battling monsters, and there'll be stages when you meet princesses, and sometimes there's wizards and magic beans and actual spells that work.

And it's important to recognize this, but the journey is always yours. And it's supposed to be difficult. Understanding that the journey is kind of the point, the transformation is the point, not the destination. I'm, I'm digressing a little bit, but fellow travelers are really important.

[00:13:24] Rob D. Willis: just thinking purely about establishing your brand. What are maybe one of the, the big challenges that you faced in being able to differentiate yourself? Amplify your voice.

[00:13:37] Bob Gentle: Something a lot of people really don't understand is fear. We all have comfort zones, and we walk up

to our comfort zones, we touch them, and we run back to the middle where it's safe. And anybody that you see online that's doing really, really well has become comfortable spending time on the very edge of their comfort zone.

And it's surrounded by prickly bushes, if you like, and Sometimes they can push through those bushes and the rest of us are stuck inside and we wonder why did they get all this special treatment? Why does the world just work for them? It is because they found a way through the bushes at the edge of the comfort zone.

All opportunity lies on the other side of fear. And is not weakness. Fear is a signal. This is the direction you should probably be going. We've moved past the primal days

where fear is something that we should, unless there's obviously physical danger involved fear is like everything worth having.

Is behind a door with fear written on it and journaling your own fears. What is it that I have resistance to? What is it that I'm avoiding? Usually that's where you'll find your greatest opportunity. So starting to listen to fear and understanding that fear shrinks in the light, really looking at it is often going to give you the keys to whatever is next.

[00:14:55] Rob D. Willis: It sounds to me like the, the first big scary thing you had to do was this podcast, this audio only podcast, reaching out to people publishing. What was the, the last really scary

thing you've had to done?

[00:15:09] Bob Gentle: It never ends. I

have agreed. So I've done a lot of virtual workshops and things like that. I have speaker on my LinkedIn bio for the one simple reason. I want people to invite me to speak in public, in real life. I've done it, but not for a very long time and not about really what I do now. I've just agreed.

Somebody. Fell into my honeypot and has invited me to speak at a conference in March. Never done it before. Terrified to find a way through it. So something one of my podcast guests said to me, which has never really left me is your business will grow when you grow

[00:15:49] Rob D. Willis: hmm.

[00:15:50] Bob Gentle: and we need

to be looking for opportunities for personal growth in order to see the companion business growth.

[00:15:56] Rob D. Willis: Yeah.

[00:15:57] Bob Gentle: Additionally, I have clients that intimidate me. I. Get this is one of the things that I had to get over and I continue to struggle with my clients cover a broad cross section of Entrepreneur and executive. And from time to time I'll get hired by, I can only describe as a multimillionaire with lots of business.

And I think, Whoa, why the hell are you hiring me? And I fall into the trap of imposter syndrome

[00:16:29] Rob D. Willis: Mm hmm.

[00:16:30] Bob Gentle: and

I have to pull myself back and think, Formula One coaches, Formula One drivers hire coaches to help

them with one little thing. Tennis players will hire a tennis coach to help with one aspect of their game, and my job is just to help see an aspect of the game that they can't see, to fill blind spots, and I still struggle with that.

Because new level, new devil, they never go away.

[00:16:58] Rob D. Willis: Yeah. I, for sure, it never goes away, but the more you take action, I guess the more sort of frameworks and methods you have to, you know yourself and you know how to overcome those. Are there any tools or questions or things that you like to consider when you're confronted with something which is very scary?

[00:17:21] Bob Gentle: So I don't know if this is the right place to introduce this, but we spoke about it earlier on. So I

spent 15 years working in search and rescue, and I was really comfortable doing what for most people are really. I'm happily dangle under a helicopter while it's flying along or jumping into the sea and swimming out in the middle of the night in a raging storm or have a helicopter hovering six feet above me while I'm winching somebody up a cliff.

Those things, no anxiety whatsoever. And I remember. I was on a mastermind with a group of people before I was as comfortable with visibility as I am now, and I was explaining to them for me to achieve my goals, I needed to be super visible, and I was almost in tears because the reality of the situation was I couldn't even post a selfie online, which anybody who spends 15 minutes on my LinkedIn feed will find hilarious because for most of my friends, I'm the selfie guy now, but it wasn't always the case.

So I was. I literally had to punch myself in the face moment. I'm looking at, I can't post a selfie, and I'm looking at, you do all this really scary stuff, and I realized, how do we train people to do things that are inherently terrifying, logically, and it's through a gradual process of desensitization, desensitization over time, the way we train people.

In the Coast Guard, it's the same in the military is, let's take recovering a body from a bottom of a cliff. It happens, sadly. The first thing you have to do is you are on the job. You sit in the van while it's all going on. You don't get out. You're just around it happening. The next time you might go and chat to the police while everybody's doing these things.

The next time you might come to the top of the cliff and watch. The next time

you might come down just to help. And then by the time you're actually doing it yourself, it feels kind of normal. It never feels normal.

[00:19:20] Rob D. Willis: Mm-Hmm.

[00:19:20] Bob Gentle: But it doesn't hold the

terror that it should for normal people, and we can apply the same things.

That scares us. Comfort zones are elastic, but we don't need to run up all the way to the

edge and shove our hands in the thorn. We just prick it. And very quickly we realize it's not that bad. And our comfort zone has expanded out to a new space.

[00:19:42] Rob D. Willis: Yeah. And when you take those little steps, you suddenly find yourself in a spot which is totally different and it almost feels sudden in the moment. I'm wondering when that moment was for you, where you thought, I've got a personal brown now. Like, what, what was, what was

happening? Mm-Hmm.

[00:20:01] Bob Gentle: Well, it's still going on. I think, again, one of my podcast guests coined the phrase micro famous, which I really like. Most people in the street have no idea who I am. But if I go to a marketing conference, people will come up and say, Hey, are you Bob gentle? And for me, that was wonderful. It's obviously, it doesn't happen all that often, but it does happen now, complete strangers know who I am.

I met somebody in San Diego and she came up to me and she said, are you Bob gentle? And I said, yes, I thought I was in trouble and she knew everything about me. She knew what. My kids were called, she knew where I lived, she knew what my wife did, she knew where I'd been on holiday

and I thought, this is amazing.

When you're creating content online, not that much

comes back and I think everyone will recognize that you post something on LinkedIn or YouTube episode and it feels like it's going out into a vacuum, but over time that aggregates up and people that you don't know do get to know you. And I think the

more you show up as authentically as possible and the more.

There's a framework that I talk about from time to time that I call the scaffolding for the imagination. And if you think of anyone you know really well online, we know quite a lot about them. We know

[00:21:25] Rob D. Willis: Mm-Hmm.

[00:21:26] Bob Gentle: where they

live, we know what they do for fun. The Kardashians are a great example, they're an extreme example.

The people who are into the Kardashians know them very well because they give enough raw material for us to really get to know them.

[00:21:39] Rob D. Willis: Mm-Hmm.

[00:21:40] Bob Gentle: do the

same thing for our micro audience in order that they build this intimacy with us. Some people will

move away from that, but our ideal clients, the ones who are actually vibed with us, they'll be drawn to it.

And finding that work for me has been, Wonderful. I think one other very specific example that happened very early was I was invited in to pitch for some digital marketing for a software company and it went very well. And on my way out, the CEO came in, he wasn't part of the meeting and he said, I'll walk you back to the reception.

And on the way back to reception, he said, Oh, I've been listening to your podcast. I saw you, you know, these people and I kicked my podcast off with some big names in the marketing industry.

[00:22:30] Rob D. Willis: Mm-Hmm.

[00:22:30] Bob Gentle: And it became apparent at that point, he had already decided I was the guy to exclude because I, he'd never met me.

I'd never met him. He'd never even heard of me, but he had already decided that

he knew, liked and trusted me enough that I was actually the only person who was quoting for business.

[00:22:48] Rob D. Willis: Yeah,

[00:22:49] Bob Gentle: And that was within six months of launching the podcast.

[00:22:53] Rob D. Willis: that's quite a transformation. Let's say if you were to wrap it up, let's say that you were to turn this journey into a sort of business book, what do you think the title would be?

[00:23:03] Bob Gentle: Well, I have two books that I've nearly finished writing. The first one, the second one is probably going to be the first book. And. For me, it sums up my philosophy for, it's a dirty word, selling, because

at the end of the day, that's what we're for. We all want, we were talking about this earlier. Some people will say sales, other people will say buy in.

At the end of the day, We need to exchange value with people.

So I have a book called the generosity engine at the subtitle is a social selling framework, which adds to your brand, makes everyone feel great and gets results fast. For me, that's really important because you can't send someone an invoice for being famous.

There has to be a value exchange,

[00:23:52] Rob D. Willis: Yeah.

[00:23:53] Bob Gentle: providing a way for people to do that in a, in a way that feels good to them and good to To the person who's being sold to or being invited by him

is really important. And then the other book is called

the seven blades of good fortune. And it's much more focused on, I've done nearly 300 podcast interviews with some of the most amazing business owners in the world and trends emerge. And I, I was sitting down one day thinking, what is it that makes these people really thrive? And alongside that, I'm looking at thinking, one thing that's common is that the people they were at the beginning of their business journey are completely different to the people they are now.

And what happened there? And I distilled it down to these seven qualities we can all cultivate. And I called them the blades because these people all keep these, kept these blades sharp and that was why they excelled and we all have these blades and if we understand, okay, which blades do I have sharper and which are blunt will allow us to then understand, okay, now I need to focus on here rather than here.

And. Everything will just become easier once these blades are sharpened up a little bit. So that was very much a passion project, but I didn't want that to be the first book. So I went to something more practical.

[00:25:18] Rob D. Willis: They sound very practical and definitely something that I would be keen to see in, in the shops. You've got to bring those out for sure. But I'd like to now just pivot to talking a little bit about helping someone else. Cause I think we've heard your journey and sometimes it's really becomes more evident to see what the underlying principles are if we apply it to someone else. So. Just let's take a hypothetical example and go very, very high level. But let's say there's someone out there who says that I'm not interesting. I sell solar panels or mortgages or whatever. No disrespect for people in solar panels or mortgages. But let's just say they don't see that as being a glamorous job. But they still think that they are the best kept secret in their industry and they've heard a bit about you and they're interested in doing it. What's, where do you get them to start? What should they do first?

[00:26:16] Bob Gentle: There's a few ways to look at this, but I think what I would like that solar panel guy to understand and is best communicated with a story. So I was doing an in person workshop with some business owners and we were talking about Content marketing, video marketing, and there was an accountant in the room and we started talking about video and she sat, sat up.

She's just, oh, there's this other accountant. He does these videos. They're terrible. Now, I was well embedded in a local business community at the time, and I thought, I know who she's talking about here. So I said, okay, everybody stop. Who here knows? Who this lady is talking about, everyone put their hand up, said, okay.

And other than your own accountant and this accountant here in the room, how many other accountants do you know? And the answer was, well, none. So who's winning here? This guy doing what this, his competitor was calling a terrible videos. Now I know the net effect of that has been over the years. He has a thriving business now.

He was making terrible videos, but the price of good videos is bad videos. That's just how it goes. You can't make good videos without having made bad ones. At the end of the day, any business owner will benefit from being better known, liked, and trusted. And this is really the foundation of, of, Everything is what can we do to amplify being better known, better liked and better trusted, not necessarily by everybody, but by the people that matter to you.

And the other side

of this,

for me, this was huge. When I realized this, we don't have to please everybody. In fact, it's important that we don't. When I realized that doesn't matter who you are. One third of people will not like you. One third of people will ignore you, but one third of people will probably really like you.

[00:28:18] Rob D. Willis: hmm.

Mm

[00:28:20] Bob Gentle: Oh, so all these people I'm worried about negative reactions from actually aren't relevant. So I can put all my energy into the number of people that are going to like me.

[00:28:31] Rob D. Willis: hmm.

[00:28:32] Bob Gentle: Suddenly I feel free.

That was really important. So that's one thing for sure.

[00:28:39] Rob D. Willis: get started and not worry about whether people like you or not. Do you have a particular favorite format or is it irrelevant? Just do whatever feels good.

[00:28:49] Bob Gentle: Honestly, do whatever feels good. I think. A lot of people struggle with saying, I'm not very creative. So one thing I would maybe suggest is looking at what's the most important question today. And if you've never posted anything on social media or any kind of online platform, remember this one thing, if you only take one thing away today, today's post.

Doesn't matter. Today's post is just the first stitch in a tapestry and it's the tapestry over time that's actually going to build your personal brand, your leadership brand. So it

doesn't matter if it's a red thread or a green thread or a purple thread. What matters is that you simply start showing up online and, and building the image over time.

Don't worry

about the unified theory of you. I think this is where most people get stuck in the beginning.

[00:29:45] Rob D. Willis: I've heard the same thought or kind of basic idea applied in music. Prince, His life's work was the vault and there are still something like two to three thousand unpublished songs by Prince in there. His love was making the music over time. He was restricted famously by the label of how much he could release, but his main job was turning up and making new things all the time. It's almost like the job is building the machine and what you actually publish is just the exhaust that comes out of it. What's, let's say, I mean, let's go back to this poor man or woman in solar panels. What strategies would you recommend for like finding a unique angle or a story for them?

[00:30:35] Bob Gentle: to find a unique story or angle. I think for me, when somebody said this to me, if this was huge, because there are a few psychological barriers to building a personal brand. One is imposter syndrome. We're all familiar with it. For me, That's ever present and becoming desensitized to your own imposter syndrome is important.

Comparison is another, and I think this is where people think it's important, unique. The unique element is you. So, and somebody said,

To me, yeah, it might've all been said before, but your people want to hear it from you. And that was huge. You'll bring your own perspective, you'll bring your own flavor. And this is another aspect that in most industries and most businesses, we're all busy trying to out normal each other. You'll see this in solar panels.

You'll see this in accounting. You'll see this in law all the time. Everybody's doing the same thing in the same ways. And so we become blind to it. When somebody actually shows up and has a bit of a character and a bit of a quirk, we'll notice it all day long. So just relax into being yourself, which is easier said than done.

And, but again, when I started my podcast, it was a bit of a deviation. Nobody had ever commented on my voice as an asset. I've gone through 40 years of life without anyone ever mentioning my voice. Then I start the podcast and people start saying, Wow, your voice is amazing. Really? Similarly, people say, I have a really laid back vibe, and I thought, wow, and I'm sitting there trying to be upbeat like Tony Robbins.

Maybe I could lean into being the laid back guy. That could work for me. And so the world reflects back to you what they value about you, but only when you're putting things out. So don't expect to have all the answers. The world will start to reflect back to you what they value about you and what they want.

So just start sending stuff out.

[00:32:39] Rob D. Willis: I'd like to just take a little turn now and go to some rapid fire questions. So just things that spring to mind that are maybe little tips or ways of looking things for listeners. Which platform for building a personal brand are people not using enough?

[00:32:58] Bob Gentle: I wouldn't say that there's one that people aren't using enough. I think there's, honestly, there, there is a 10 minute answer to this question. Which platform do you enjoy the most? If you're at the beginning of this, where you feel most, most comfortable playing? That's, that's the only way I would look at it.

[00:33:15] Rob D. Willis: Okay. So you make it easy again, not those big thorny bushes, just the little, the little pricks single best investment you've made in your personal brand.

[00:33:23] Bob Gentle: Oh, wow. Investment is a triggering question. So a lot of people look at content marketing and they get very confused. They look at, okay, there's social media, there's Facebook, LinkedIn, Tik TOK, there's Instagram, there's podcasts, blogs, what do I do? Investments. We have a portfolio. We have a range of risks, small, short term, medium term, and longterm investments, short term.

Ads, essentially medium term where most people play it's social media, social networking, the push platforms, putting out TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram today. It can work. It does work. But if you stop, you disappear. Podcast and blog. And you and YouTube blog, we can put that to one side. It's difficult to build a personal brand with a blog, but podcast and YouTube, these are genuine assets that build in terms of value over time.

For me, the podcast has been life changing for more reasons than I could go into in this brief conversation, but the podcast, best investment I ever made.

[00:34:31] Rob D. Willis: Yeah, and it's a good one. I'll be linking that to that in the show for sure in the show notes. Have you got maybe a non business book, which is kind of about personal branding?

[00:34:43] Bob Gentle: I do. It is called the alchemist by one

[00:34:47] Rob D. Willis: Paulo Coelho.

[00:34:48] Bob Gentle: Yeah,

I can never say his surname. That book essentially is my heart, I would say. I'm not some, I need money to live. That book really sums up what gets me up in the morning and why I do what I do. Because that journey for anybody who wants to take it is the journey that I want to be the companion on and a personal brand, a leadership brand exists to serve a purpose.

It's not inherently valuable in itself and I want to work with people who have a sense of purpose. They maybe just don't know what that is right now. It's going to change. through whatever process of transformation they're going through, but I want to be there.

[00:35:34] Rob D. Willis: Yeah, that awesome, awesome example. Last one. Do you have a daily habit that you just can't go without?

[00:35:42] Bob Gentle: I do now. I mean, I have many. I, there's lots of fads. We've talked about this. For me now, the bullet journal, the official bullet journal method would be the way I would define it, has been incredible for helping me reduce my overwhelm, for helping me regularly reset my priorities and stay on top of things and capture ideas and become more creative.

It's just wonderful. I've really, really enjoyed that. I'm only six

months into it. The difference is incredible.

[00:36:18] Rob D. Willis: it's really good. And you don't need much to get started. I'd say you can even just watch the intro videos on YouTube and kind of enough for the beginning. The last section is the listener challenge. And I like to give listeners a short exercise or a ritual that they can apply for the next week to begin getting some results. Where do you think a listener should

start? Mm

[00:36:43] Bob Gentle: two and the first one is Is what really helped me get over my mental junk around video because most people, A, hate the sound of their own voice. The biggest barrier to podcasting is hearing your own voice. We have a visible, visceral negative reaction to it. Everybody does. If you don't, you're probably a psychopath.

It helps with that. But video is exactly the same. Most people have a visceral negative reaction to seeing themselves on camera. So, I started doing what I call the Captain's Log, where every day, I used a proper camera, not my phone at the time, record a video diary for want of a better word. And I've, it was just a couple of minutes long.

What's happening today? What have I done this morning? What am I doing tonight? What you say almost doesn't matter, but you have to watch it back. You never have to publish it, but what it does is it desensitizes you to the emotional reactions you're going to have. And you also very quickly become quite good at.

Framing yourself in the camera and then suddenly you think, you know what, I could post this. Video is probably the most powerful thing when it comes to building your leadership brand because people connect with us in ways on video that they just don't in other ways. People watch us on video and they will reach out and say, I saw what you did there.

I want some help. People react to video more than they react to anything else. And the other one is this simple practice of what's the most important question today? Because if you can think what's the most important question, the answers will usually present themselves. Most people never sit back and think for me to move forward, right?

What is the most important question today?

[00:38:29] Rob D. Willis: That's awesome. And we don't often spend long enough with asking, what is the question? Because we're so eager to get to the answer. So I think from a content perspective, from a personal life perspective, that could be a hugely powerful one, as is of course, the video diary. We'll be sure to share all the details of that in the notes for the show. Bob, where can people go to find out

more about you?

[00:38:56] Bob Gentle: I am officially the easiest person to find on the internet. Just search Bob gentle. The podcast is building your leader brand. Available on all good podcast players, but again, just search Bob gentle.

And the website is amplify me dot agency and connect with my LinkedIn. It's my favorite place to be.

[00:39:13] Rob D. Willis: Great stuff. Thank you very much for coming on the show, Bob. It has

been wonderful. I

[00:39:17] Bob Gentle: Thank you very much. I'm really grateful for the opportunity and honestly, one of the best organized and best prepared podcasts I've been on. So well done.

[00:39:26] Rob D. Willis: appreciate that. Thank you.

What a powerful conversation with Bob from buying that microphone five years before recording anything to discovering that the natural layback style was actually his greatest asset. He shows us that building a genuine brand is actually about letting the world reflect back what they value about you.

Now remember, as Bob said, video is going to be the most powerful tool for building your leadership brand. But start wherever you feel comfortable. ask yourself that question. What's the most important question today? enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and review the show wherever you listen to podcasts.

It really does help other leaders find these valuable conversations. This has been Superpowered. I'm Rob D. Willis, and until next time, keep sharing your unique story with the world. Goodbye.