Personal branding sounds like one of those smarmy buzz words until you really think about what it means.
Unfortunately, too many people stop at “this is probably something that a self-important jerk would care about.”
But, if its done right, personal branding can bring you massive opportunities, help you stand out in a field of overly qualified applicants, and a LOT more.
In this week’s video I take you on a journey through my own history of branding (hello Jonny Zavant!), and what it has done for me.
As a business owner, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is choosing the right legal structure for your business. One option is to start a Limited Liability Company or LLC. So, what exactly is an LLC and why should you consider starting one?
First and foremost, an LLC offers asset protection. When you start a business, you’re essentially putting your personal assets on the line. In the event of a lawsuit, creditors can go after your personal assets such as your home, car, and bank accounts. However, with an LLC, your personal assets are separate from your business assets. This means that if your business is sued, your personal assets are protected. Your liability is limited to the assets owned by the LLC, which can protect you from personal financial ruin.
Secondly, an LLC limits your liability. In addition to protecting your personal assets, an LLC also limits your personal liability. This means that if your business is sued, you’re only liable for the debts and obligations of the business up to the amount of your investment in the LLC. This is different from a sole proprietorship or partnership, where you’re personally liable for all business debts and obligations.
Thirdly, an LLC protects your identity. When you start a business, you’re required to register your business with the state. This means that your personal information, such as your name and address, becomes part of the public record. However, with an LLC, you can choose to have a registered agent receive any legal documents on behalf of the LLC, keeping your personal information private. Finally, an LLC can improve your perceived value. When you start a business, you want to appear professional and established.
Having an LLC after your business name can give potential customers the impression that your business is more legitimate and trustworthy. It can also help you attract more investors and partners who may be hesitant to do business with a sole proprietorship or partnership.
If you’re starting a business, consider forming an LLC to protect yourself and your assets.
When you start working on enterprise level opportunities, you’re probably going to be talking to more than just one person, and oftentimes that’s going to be an executive and maybe even the CEO or owner of the company.
If you don’t know how to speak the language of executives, you will literally talk your way out of huge opportunities. I wanna help you avoid that. So these are five things that you should keep in mind when you are going after giant opportunities.
Let’s get into it.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve done a lot of business to business consulting. I’ve done workshops, sales training, trade shows, you name it, I’ve done it. I’ve been brought in by BP to speak with the president and the entire executive suite. I have worked with CEOs and founders of companies to help them pitch their value to investors.
For four years, I’ve worked at one of the country’s largest marketing agencies, talking business with CEOs and executives at multimillion and billion dollar companies to negotiate very large deals.
One of my mentors was an executive at Sharp Electronics that took the company from making 📍 millions per year into📍 billions per year, and he has laid out a lot of this for me, and I want to share this with you. so that you can level up your business.
To that end here is the first thing,
which is
zoom out
as a subject matter expert. You are really, really good at managing the details that you need to manage to do your job and accomplish your goals. But that’s why you’re being hired, is to manage those details.
The people hiring. You don’t need to know those details. If you get into the nitty gritty details, well then it’s going to be too fine for somebody who isn’t a subject matter expert to understand what in the world you are talking about. They will very quickly be thinking, why do I even care about this?
So You’re talking to people who are big picture and visionaries more so than granular level KPIs and metrics and that kind of thing. Those come later, but when you are trying to explain how you’re going to help the company, getting too lost in the weeds will make sure that they lose track of why they should hire you.
The second thing that you have to nail is being confident. Business is challenging, it is difficult. It can be even brutal. And the executives, the CEOs need to know that they can depend on you when things are difficult. So when things are easy, when you are in the negotiation phase. The conversation about how you’re going to help them.
They might test you, they might push back, they might press in on some particular detail that you wish they wouldn’t, and they’re going to see how you hold up to the smallest bit of pressure. You might think that that was unnecessary and unreasonable, or they were being mean. They were basically just testing how confident you were in, how well you can execute at this level.
So if you fold, when they give you the slightest bit of pressure, they know for sure that they cannot trust you with the full weight of the success of their business. And that is one way that you can lose the opportunity is if you get flustered or you snap at them when they’re testing your resolve. So the right thing to do is to remain confident,
support your claims and to stand by your work and to weather that pressure. And then you might find out that, uh, you passed the test.
The third thing to keep in mind is to focus on value. Companies are a creature that live on profits and are hurt by liabilities. Not just making money and losing money, but employees can be liabilities. Debt can be liabilities. There are all sorts of liabilities that a company is facing, and the CEO is the partner of the company who wants the business as happy as possible with as few liabilities as possible because their payday is tied into the value of the company, not just their paycheck.
So the CEO and the executives are tied into how comfortable and happy the business is. That means that at every stage of the conversation, every detail that you are explaining, you should be able to then say, and that helps improve the profits or lowers the liabilities because this, this, and this.
So you should be able to say that if we run more effective Facebook ads, then we will be able to increase your exposure for the same ad spend. So that is more results with the same investment, which is more profitable, right? So when you speak the language of value, you’re speaking the language of executives.
The fourth thing is to extend your time horizon, focus on the long term. You might want to talk about the immediate wins, and we’re gonna do this tomorrow, but. CEOs are in it for the long haul. They have a long-term vision for what they want the business to be, where they want it to go and what they want to do.
Maybe that is to make it as profitable as possible and sell to investors in three years. Or maybe it is to retire by the time that they are 40, or maybe it is, they’re building this business to provide for the next three generations of their family. That’s how long term that they are thinking, and you can figure out how to fit into that vision by helping focus on, I’m helping you today.
For tomorrow’s benefit into perpetuity. So when you extend your time horizon, you are helping them envision a longer and longer partnership instead of, here’s what I’m doing today. It’s more of we’re going to work together for the long term because we both have the same goal, which is helping make your business successful.
The fifth detail is know how your puzzle piece fits into the company. Another way of saying this is:📍 know your place
now, I mean that to say. See how you fit into the whole picture. Not to stay quiet because if you understand branding and marketing and sales and onboarding and delivery and client retention and business systems, you are bringing a lot more value to the table when you are still talking about your particular area of expertise.
When you can think strategically at a long-term vision, you’re a consultant who is a business expert with a, with a focus in your area of expertise. So that is how you’re going to be in. incredibly valuable to that company beyond just the level of skills that you’re bringing to the table for the thing you want to be paid to do.
So when you know how you fit in, you can be even more valuable to the company and that translates to higher pay.
So those are the five things. Zoom out, be more confident, speak the language of value, extend your time horizon, and know how you fit into the whole picture. When you bring all of those together, your sales conversations are gonna go much more smoothly and you’ll land many more opportunities.
Now, if you want more insights like this, I strongly suggest that you join my almost daily email society. I call it the secret email society because nobody else can see what happens inside of it. And I share tips, tricks, techniques, and strategies for, uh, landing more business of bigger and better quality. Uh, you can do that at I can read minds.com. And again, I’m Jonathan Pritchard, and remember, if you can change your mind, you can change your life.
I’m up early this morning to tell you about this video because it’s suuuuuuuper valuable to anyone working with large companies & large opportunities.
For the past 4 years I’ve been working with one of the country’s #1 digital marketing agencies.
Every day I talk with several business owners & CEOs about their goals for the company, and I get to hear their concerns about whether or not digital marketing will even work.
This video isn’t about digital marketing at all; it’s 100% focused on the 5 most important lessons I’ve learned after selling, pitching, and negotiating hundreds of multi-million dollar opportunities.
If you try to “sell” a CEO the same way you would with a middle manager, then you’re going to talk your way out of the deal.
Give it a watch, let me know what you think, and we’ll dive back into how & why the internet sucks.
If you’ve ever wondered how to live your dream life, this is the video for you. For the past 20 years I’ve been touring the world as as high-paid entertainer / speaker / trainer which is my way of saying “my best life.”
Lots of people ask me how in the world I did it, so this is the step-by-step approach that I’ve used & taught to clients over the years.
This system has helped thousands of people realize their dreams faster than they ever thought possible.
If you watch this & you want to know more about how I might be able to help, use my contact form to let me know you’re interested in learning more about the Future You Tools program.
Reading minds is cool and all, but what about seeing the future?
Or one better: seeing the future and then pulling it into the present moment.
How badass would that be?
I guess the level of badassery would depend on what you see.
Are you seeing Armageddon? Maybe leave the future in the future.
Seeing everything you’ve ever hoped & dreamed for? Bring it on in!
While I appear to predict the future on stage during my show, there are ways to shape your future in the present moment.
I 100% believe this is the most powerful kind of magic that a person can genuinely perform.
You can imagine the future that you want, go through certain kinds of “rituals,” and then live the future that you dreamt up.
I’ll be posting a video tomorrow that explains how it works.
It pulls on the approaches I’ve used to go from living in a trailer park to traveling the world as a high-paid consultant working on the coolest projects under the sun!
Then, for the rest of the week, I’ll be sharing more insights about it.
Have questions? I want to hear ’em! What kind of future do you want to create? I want to know! What would you like to know about how it all works?
If you are an entrepreneur, solopreneur, one person business owner, freelancer, or other kind of creative person then you might feel the need to know everything & do everything yourself.
This is a limiting belief that keeps you trapped in a pressure cooker where you feel like a failure if you’re not doing enough.
Fortunately there’s an easier way to do things, and I want to teach you a magic trick that will help you
Entertain your friends on the surface and
Understand a deeper truth to success at its heart.
If you’d like to see more business principles taught through the lens of learning magic tricks, let me know in the comments & I’ll make more like it!
The most effective personal management systems are too simple for anyone to believe they can work. This is exactly what I thought about this approach when I first heard about it years ago.
Since then it has helped me start two businesses, appear on television, radio, 200+ podcasts, and many more accomplishments.
If you’re looking to make a new year’s resolution, leverage a personal knowledge database, become an entrepreneur, or level up your life in some way then this video is for you.
My first job out of college was working at a magic shop in Universal Studios in Orlando Florida. I sold magic tricks to people from all over the world and I saw something that gave me a peek into the number one thing holding people back from success.
This might be the most valuable secret I’ve ever learned from that world.
If you want to start a Life Mastery Business, then this is step one.
The standard social narrative traps you in an escalator to an early grave. When you have the world’s most amazing technology at your fingertips, how would you go about building a life of control, freedom, and meaning?
These are the hard-won lessons I’ve learned from my own career, and I’m sharing for anyone & everyone who has dreams of creating their own life of adventure.
