Building Trust and Influence: The Secrets of Personal Branding with Casey Dowdell - Casey Dowdell

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey Uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast and I'm your host, john Gallagher. Today, I'm thrilled to have Casey Dowdell join us. Casey is a resident personal brand strategist with Brand Builders Group, the leading global personal brand strategy firm. Casey's got an impressive background, having worked with international startups, renowned performers, successful entrepreneurs and world-class athletes and musicians such as Alan Jackson, toby Mack and Taylor Lewin. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience in helping individuals cultivate their personal brand for success. So get ready to be inspired and equipped with the tools to build your own personal brand for impact in today's business world. Let's get started, casey Dowdell. Welcome to the Uncommon Leader Podcast, buddy. I'm looking forward to this conversation today. How are you doing, my friend?

Speaker 2: 0:46

I'm doing excellent. Thank you so much, john. It is a pleasure to be on with you and all of your audience. I'm excited, been looking forward to this for a long time. So thank you, sir, for having me on.

Speaker 1: 0:59

I'm looking forward to the time as well. Casey, absolutely, and I'll start you off with the same question. I always start off the first time guests on the Uncommon Leader Podcast and that's to tell our listeners a story from your childhood that still impacts kind of who you are as a person and as a leader today.

Speaker 2: 1:13

Yeah, that is a great question. So one story that consistently comes to mind. So I was born in Tucson, arizona. My mother and father are ministers and they were at that time too. So we moved a couple of times early on. So we went from Tucson Arizona to Indiana where we lived on a farm, and then from there we went to Gunnison, colorado, where we lived on a ranch. My dad rode bulls the whole nine yards. But I always, john, always felt this calling and this pull towards horses and cattle and I just dreamed of being a cowboy. I watched the Lone Ranger, I watched all the Westerns I could watch and it was just this. This consistent theme in my life was I just, I know I got very focused on where I got wanted me. One day it was very clear that Nashville, tennessee, was the clear answer of peace. I bought my dad's car, I had $900 in my pocket and I drove to Nashville and I just fully trusted that God would lay out the path. So when I was looking for jobs, I went and I Googled Stables, nashville, tennessee, and this place came up. That was a place out in Mountain Julia, tennessee, where they conducted trail rides for the public. So I drove out there. When I pulled up, they looked at me and they said who are you? And I said, well, my name's Casey and I would like to work here. And they said, okay, so you know how to ride. I said no, not really. They looked at me sideways and I said, well, you must know how to bridle and saddle. I said no, I definitely don't know how to do that. And they looked at me even more sideways and I said, but hey, give me a shot and I'll pick it up faster than anyone you've ever seen. They were like show up Monday. So I get there. It's a brisk fall morning. Little chilly, little crisp is in there. We're going to the barn and I'm kind of getting my feelers out and all of a sudden I hear four-wheelers and then I hear the beat of hooves as a herd of 55 horses thunders in in front of the barn and into a side corral. And this was like it might as well have happened in slow motion. It was gorgeous, so they had put down sweet feed, which is terrible for horses. They crave it. So it was like World War III, with these horses just all fighting over this, this sweet feed. And so I'm just sitting there, like you know, it'd been a while since I was around livestock and one of the girls said hey, go catch that horse. What does that even mean? So they oh okay, come on. They walked me out there, showed me how to put the lead rope around you know the rope halter around the horse's face take the lead rope and guide them into the barn and where we would time up five or six at a time, brush them, saddle them and then turn them out into a smaller paddock so that we could easily catch them and put people on them whenever they got there. So settled about 45 horses that morning, total baptism by fire. I'm having the time of my life. First group shows up early in the morning. We put them on their horses and they said Casey, just follow. So I'm in the back. This group of about 12 people are cresting over the hill and this girl's in front of me and she's having trouble with her stirrup and it's too short. So I get off to adjust her stirrup and I can't figure it out because I've never done it. Mm-hmm, close by, on a big green tractor, is the owner of the farm and I can just hear him grumbling over the hum of the engine. I'm frustrated. I'm basically breaking my fingernails trying to. I'm getting more and more nervous and anxious, trying to figure out how do I adjust this thing. All of a sudden he erupts and he says can't bridle, can't saddle, you ought to go home and burn that hat. And he was talking about my brand new black felt cowboy hat and I was really, really proud of that hat. I was embarrassed, I was humiliated and from the age of four, for the past 22 years, I had felt this calling for horses. I knew it was inside of me and all of a sudden this guy was telling me to quit, go home, burn my hat and give up this desire in my heart. So in that moment I considered it. But I said, in this moment where I can stick or quit, what am I going to do? Deep down in my heart I stood my ground and I just thought there's no way I'm letting this guy convince me to go home. The microcosm of that, john, is every day we're faced with some challenge when we have the opportunity to either stick or quit and we have to make up our minds whether we're going to pursue or pull back. So I look back on that a lot and I think, man, if I would have given up that day, what would have happened From that moment forward? I worked my tail off, I studied horsemanship, so I went from that to becoming one of the top guides at that place and then from there I went and started training people's horses privately, and then I eventually got my own horse and started working cows with friends and neighbors. So I look back and I think, man, this was such an integral part of my life. But if I had given up and not just trusted God and stood my ground, and you know what? God taught me how to lead when he taught me horsemanship, he taught me how to lead.

Speaker 1: 7:42

The choices that were and then even the journey. But that choice and it starts with that it really does. It's an ending of some sort with regards to that choice. So you're my microcosm and listening to that story, it's like an ending of one, but it's the new beginning of another. With regards to that choice that you made, and look at the power you had and the but. That journey is pretty cool, but it gets to those points in time, really quick moments, where you got a choice and someone can influence that as well. Someone in our life, like God, telling us nope, you're not, this is what you were called to do, but also somebody else, as an influence, is trying to stop you from doing that as well. So I appreciate you sharing that Absolutely. So let's get this thing started. You ended up there and you end up. How we got connected was through an organization Brand Builders Group. You're a personal brand strategist for Brand Builders Group, and so what in the world is a personal brand? You think about that and some of the things that you've gone through in your story as well. What's a personal brand?

Speaker 2: 8:50

Yeah, that's a great question. So for everyone who's listening, I would encourage you to think back on the last purchase you made outside of, maybe, the grocery store, maybe even the grocery store. But think back on the last purchase you made and think whether or not you bought that based off of an influencer or someone you know, like and trust suggesting it. A personal brand is essentially your reputation and if you back in the day, I think of gosh Dale Carnegie, his book how to Win Friends and Influence People. Back in the day we were limited to the amount of people that we could touch one-on-one. We'd go to a networking event We'd go to you know, we might go to a big what is the word I'm thinking of?

Speaker 1: 9:50

Like a big seminar or even kind of presentation. Yeah, and a big coliseum or whatever too.

Speaker 2: 9:58

Exactly. We might go somewhere like that to meet people, but really, on the day-to-day basis, we were building our reputation one-to-one one phone call at a time at a time, one meeting at a time. And while all of that is powerful, the opportunity that we have now is to digitize our reputation. It's the digitization of your reputation. So now you know, we like to work with people that we call mission-driven messengers. So these are people that have something on their heart, something that's been put on their heart that they wanna share with the world. Maybe there is a certain type of person that they wanna serve, okay. So personal branding is essentially building clarity in your life around who you want to impact Right, who you wanna impact and how you wanna impact their life. We build clarity around that and then we put you in a position to take your reputation and multiply it so that your impact cannot just be one-on-one although that's important and that happens it's not just one-on-one. You can change people's lives one-to-many. There's lots of examples of personal brands. Here's a great example my wife and I moved into a new house last year and we had to buy a cordless vacuum cleaner. We wanted one that could charge. You could easily hang it on a wall. You know, we got kids, we got hardwood floors. We needed something that was just, we could just pull it out and it would get the job done. Well, how did we make that buying decision? We didn't just buy the vacuum that we had always used, we didn't even Google it. Google is becoming more and more dead, by the way. People connect with more others that they know, like and trust. Okay, so we didn't even Google it. What's the best cordless vacuum for 2023? We. My wife has an influencer that she follows that cleans. Her whole brand is around like cleaning your home and being a homemaker, right. And so this influencer took 10 different cordless vacuums, unboxed them, put them together and tested them out in a variety of different tests. We watched her videos and then made our own decision on the vacuum that we were buying. That's a great example of a personal brand and obviously our lives radically impacted by that. Not radically, but think about, but they did solve a problem for us. So we all have a variety of problems, some big, some small. Some of us are trying to optimize, some of us are trying to build businesses, some of us are trying to improve our relationships and most of us will lean on someone else's personal brand as a thought leader, as an influencer that guide us, help us If you've ever bought a book that person is an influencer, they have a personal brand. They interpreted something, built an expertise and then wrote a book on it. And you read that book and you thought hot, hot, hot, darn, I get it right. Chris Vah never split the difference. Great book on negotiating. He's an incredible influencer. He has an incredible personal brand. So what is a personal brand? The personal brand, in short, is the ability to serve others in a dynamic way. Personal branding is the art of communicating.

Speaker 1: 13:48

Hey listeners, I wanna take a quick moment to share something special with you. Many of the topics and discussions we have on this podcast are areas where I provide coaching and consulting services for individuals and organizations. If you've been inspired by our conversation and are seeking a catalyst for change in your own life or within your team, I invite you to visit coachjohngallaghercom forward slash free call to sign up for a free coaching call with me. It's an opportunity for us to connect, discuss your unique challenges and explore how coaching or consulting can benefit you and your team. Okay, let's get back to the show. No, that helps out a lot and I think a lot of times, especially some of the listeners, will be saying that personal brand has this feeling of marketing and social media only in terms of how I have my personal brand and how I show up. But what it really is about is solving a problem. What problem do you solve? As we've gone through that journey, look, it popped up on my time hop today that it's been one year since I was quote introduced to brand builders group, to personal branding. There was a podcast I was listening to and Rory Vaden, the CEO or co-CEO of brand builders group, said people are most powerfully positioned to help the person they used to be and it popped up on my time hop because I had taken a picture of it on my car radio the rental car radio on my way to the airport in Chicago and almost wrecked on the way there trying to figure out. I'm like holy smoke, like that couldn't have been anything better with regards to how do we set up a personal brand Is who is it that we help and what problem do we solve and who else do we help? But that person that we used to be in terms of going forward, it just so started to align with regards to growing champions and developing leaders and understanding that so that personal brand, the mission driven messenger and the reputation that exists, absolutely is a powerful. Now you're a strategist, so personal brand strategist how do you? What is a strategist and what do you do on a daily basis to help folks find that?

Speaker 2: 15:54

Good question. So we have been certified and trained in our. You know, whenever you come and work with a brand builders group, you're assigned a strategist. There's a journey that is customized depending on what you need and when you need it, and then we walk through. We walk alongside our clients through that journey as a strategist, coach, mentor, guide, you know. So my day to day is spending time with clients like yourself, john, in helping them navigate the large series of things that happen on a daily basis within someone's desire to brand and build right. So what we do is we teach people how to utilize their personal brand as the vehicle for impact in business development. So and all this stems from a study that we did in 2021, and there's a lot of incredible takeaways from that, but it was a nationwide, phd led study and essentially what it showed us was, if there are two products side by side that are the same, 74% of Americans will choose the one that has a personal brand behind it, and they'll even pay more money for it. So when we saw that, first of all, we were relieved right Cause we had already started the business well before that, but when we saw that, we realized that there has been a massive shift in the way people are making buying decisions, and this is even more powerful than we ever imagined. And personal branding is the marketing of the future and we're living it right now.

Speaker 1: 17:42

I believe that I really do. It's become clearer to me over the year. Now I'm an entrepreneur, so I started my own company three years ago and if you had told me that personal brand definition 10 years ago, in a traditional company it's a. You don't need to build your personal brand, you have the company logo. Okay. But that study and what it talks about is that people buy from people. They don't buy the logo, they buy from people. They buy from influencers, they buy people with a reputation. So, again, you may be dealing with a lot of entrepreneurs, but when you're talking about that person inside of a company who talks about their own personal brand and how that works, how do you talk to that leader that squelches at and says, no, we don't need personal brands, we got the logo that sells that thing.

Speaker 2: 18:30

Yeah, it's kind of one of those things where it's like, if you don't want it now, there's a point in time where you'll look around and realize that the people that are you know your competition around you has a better personal brand than you. All right, so it's one of those things where I'm a little Wayne fan, lil Wayne fan, and when his mute he was starting to get big, really big, there was controversy over his music and he just said you can laugh now, buy later if you want. And that was. There's nothing vindictive about it From my standpoint. It's just simply you know what if you tried to run a business without the internet? Right, it is just such a fundamental piece of the way that people do business these days. The stats and the statistics are overwhelmingly showing that people are 74% more likely to purchase something that has a personal brand behind it, because people don't have the same amount of trust and loyalty they used to have with big corporations. Nowadays, people wanna connect with an individual. They wanna buy from an individual, point being Victoria's Secret. Everyone knows who Victoria's Secret is. They've been on top forever. Every mall you've ever been to, grona probably had Victoria's Secret and they were booming. They were always booming. They hit a dip where their sales started to plunge and they were one of the companies that we focused we did a focus study on. Within the study, they were plunging in sales and everything that they were doing wasn't working. Finally, they decided to rebrand through fitness influencers and professional athletes, and their sales skyrocket. You know, there have been moments. There's a guy, ronaldo, something or another I'm blowing, my mind is going blank on his name. He's in a press conference. There's a Coke cup sitting right in front of him during the press conference. He's a huge soccer player. He takes the Coke cup, he moves it and replaces it with a bottle of water and Coke's stock dropped out of the bottom.

Speaker 1: 21:02

That's the power of personal brand. That's the power of millions of followers on that guy and that's the power of personal brand. And you're exactly right influencers, that folks will pay attention to, love that.

Speaker 2: 21:14

I know I love him. He is a soccer star that I follow. I've got his jersey in my closet. Wait, he doesn't drink Coke. Ooh, I shouldn't either. That's it I'm gonna. No more Coke for me. I wanna be like Ronaldo.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Quite an influence. Well, you get a chance to do that on a daily basis. I mean helping folks to build that personal brand, and my guess is there are many barriers that you have to help them overcome, whether it's imposter syndrome, whether it's self-doubt, self-esteem issues, frankly, whether it's the ability to tell that story and put that together into something that they've always had, which has been really the story for me in terms of putting that story together into a process, into a system. Maybe talk about you know to give any names away but someone that you've worked with that you've had we'll call it a success that's had an impact on them, but also had an impact on you as a strategist as well.

Speaker 2: 22:09

Goodness, I'm so grateful for every client that I work with. You know I have the privilege of looking at I mean, at this point, hundreds. I've worked with hundreds of thought leaders, heard their unique thought leadership, everything that you can think of, from business development to overcoming obstacles, to performance techniques, to wealth and monetization strategies, to real estate I mean every industry you can possibly think of. I've had the pleasure of sitting down with people that have become thought leaders in that space and, you know, a lot of times I'm helping them brand. But I have the awesome privilege of learning also being able to look at hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of business plans, seeing what's working, what's not working, why, and being able to diagnose that, tweak it. And then all of a sudden it's like holy smokes. Now we've fixed the revenue pipeline, now the money's coming in. But you know, I've been so grateful. There's just so many opportunities that I've had to sit and listen and hear and just observe and what that does is it's just a world of growth. I mean, I don't even recognize myself. You know, from one 12 month period to the next it's like I look back and I go, wow. So you know, one of the big things that was. This happened recently. As far as, like my impact on a client, I can say this yeah, I could say no one of my clients is getting ready to. He was writing a book, right. And so one of the things that we do is we help authors through the book launch strategy to make sure that they can sell a ton of books right, we want. Even if we impact one life with one book, great, but let's impact tens of thousands of people's lives with your book, right. So we were going through titles for his book and he kept giving me this title over and over. He's like all right. So I got this new book and it's called the Head, heart, hands Equation and we go through a lot of we have to title a lot of things. We title books, we title podcasts, we do a lot of branding. We have to title courses. We title all kinds of stuff. So we have certain title tests that we go through. Great title the four hour work week yeah, I want. Who doesn't the work week? Right, that book was huge because the title was incredible. So we go through a lot of titling. I said Paulie, a lot of guys. I said buddy, that title doesn't make any sense it's unclear. The Head Heart Hands Equation yeah, like people that know you really well and people in your audience that love you, you're gonna buy it. But what about the guy that's walking by at the airport? Was he gonna stop and go? Oh, the Head Heart Hands Equation? Yeah, give me some of that. He said no, probably not. I said yeah, because it's just not clear. I don't even know what that book is about. I said what happens if you apply the Head Heart Hands Equation? He said well, that's easy, you'll make better decisions faster. He said that's the title for your book. And he's like, oh my gosh, you're right. So that became his title and, of course, the Head Heart Hands Equation became a framework that we developed within the book as a book for making better decisions faster. So there are moments like that where it's like, hey, I'm thankful to just get to show up and serve someone every single day, and then the work that we do has such a downstream impact, not only in the life of the entrepreneur or the author or the business owner or the speaker, but also in the people that they get to impact.

Speaker 1: 26:25

Absolutely. That's the fun part in terms of when you hear their story and who they're impacting with as a result of some of the work that you're helping them do.

Speaker 2: 26:33

And I love getting texts, Casey. I just signed another client, Casey. The sales strategies are working. Casey, my post just went viral.

Speaker 1: 26:43

It's those are good feelings. Those are why messages that you save for a long time Absolutely Just had one of those myself recently when I was on site with a client last week in terms of one of those. You mentioned the books and some of the work that you all do and that leads me into maybe almost a more personal question for you so for you to stay ahead of folks, for you to continue to grow as well you mentioned you don't even notice where you are 12 months, for where you were 12 months ago and where you are today in terms of your personal growth as well, I'm sure one of the ways that you are as a reader. But what's one of the books that's probably had the biggest impact on you in your life?

Speaker 2: 27:20

I'd say the book that's had the biggest impact on me, that helps me stay ahead of the game and keeps me sharp, as by far the Bible. It is the book that has sold the most. It is the book that has sold the most copies worldwide of all time and no matter the day, time or hour. It is a truth that is everlasting. So you might not know the greatest and latest new Tony Robbins wealth strategy or the latest and greatest Grant Cardone real estate hack, but whatever it is that you wanna accomplish, whatever is in your heart, if you, the Bible is the book for all time that I mean. Look, at. Joseph from being betrayed by his brothers, from a pit to slavery, to Potiphar's house, to being unjustly thrown in prison, and then he went straight from prison to Pharaoh. There's only one self-help book that can do that.

Speaker 1: 28:35

It's a great self-help book, absolutely. I think that's something that's really cool. Casey, I wanna ask you a question, kind of as we kind of come up on our time here in terms of what I wanna commit and honor your time as well, Cause I think about that book and I think there's probably disciplines that you have in place, there's probably stories that you constantly share, but I'm gonna kind of if you will bring it home with regards to how you live your life. If I gave you a billboard somewhere and you get a chance to put anything you wanted to on that billboard message for people to see, what would that billboard say and why would you put that on that billboard?

Speaker 2: 29:11

Yeah, that's a great question. John Zig Ziglar said if you help enough other people get what they want, you can have anything you want. I'm paraphrasing it one or two words, zig, so I apologize, but essentially I've been working with Brand Builders Group for almost two years on the nose and through all that time I had revenue goals, I had my own personal goals, I had all these things that I was believing God for and accomplishments along the way. And then personal life stuff too right, hey, we need to move into a new home and we're trying to figure out what school to put our kids in. Right. All these things that we seek and all these goals that we set out, accomplishments we set out. For what I realized about three or four months ago was that so if we build, I would say if I had a billboard, I would say build your life around. Impact About 30 seconds with your son or daughter in the morning before they go to school. Go deep, for those 30 seconds. Impact their life. If you've got three hours on a jet with someone next to you as you're traveling on a plane or whatever, impact their life. If you're talking to your dentist, impact their life. If you're working with a client. Impact your life. Impact your life If you are a business owner or an entrepreneur. If you take all the focus off of yourself and you put all that focus on the person you want to serve your clients, your ideal customer. If you put the focus on them instead of yourself, your business will explode. There is no doubt about that. An impact can either go wide or it can go deep. A wide impact is, you know, kim Kardashian posting a gluten-free brownie recipe to her six billion followers. Right, she's impacted in a shallow way, many people. Deep impact is adopting a child, most people that are looking to grow and break through to great successes. They don't have the opportunity for impact on a wide scale yet, but that wide scale impact will come if they just continue to focus on the deep impact with the few they have in front of them. Focus on impact.

Speaker 1: 32:14

Love that. Casey, I appreciate you sharing your wisdom, your experiences, your stories with the listeners of the Uncommon Leader podcast. I know folks are going to want to stay in touch with you. How are they going to do that?

Speaker 2: 32:26

Yes, so I'll give you a link, john, if you want to put that link in the show notes, and that is for a free brand strategy call with Brand Builders Group. So you can just go to the show notes, click that link and you can book a call with me directly. That's the best way to do it. Or you can go to brandbuildersgroupcom and request a free call there.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Excellent. Well again, Casey, thanks. I hope you've enjoyed this conversation as much as I have, and I know you got a busy day coming up tomorrow with your third child on the way, so thank you for the invested time with me. You got a lot going on in your life as well. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 33:03

Yes, sir John, you're welcome. Thank you for the opportunity to be on your podcast. Thank you to all the listeners and I hope that we've been able to leave you better than the way that we found you.

Speaker 1: 33:19

And that wraps up another episode of the Uncommon Leader podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. If you found value in this episode, I encourage you to share it with your friends, colleagues or anyone else who could benefit from the insights and inspiration we've shared. Also, if you have a moment, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback not only helps us to improve, but it also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of Uncommon Leaders. Until next time, go with Grow Champions.