Morning, Inbox Hackers. We’ve got a stack of Monday Marketing News and we’re starting with a great post on building a personal brand. I’ll give you the highlights from our peeps over at Copyblogger and my examples from the POV of a funny-man’s personal brand.

Personal branding for solopreneurs - but not just…

Personal branding can also be helpful for a leader looking to add eyeballs to a company he or she works for. 

How powerful is personal branding? Well, that idiot savant, Sam Bankman-Fried could get millions from investors the day he steps out of prison despite running FTX into the ground and being a habitual liar.

Why? People found his quirky persona intriguing, and he seemed like a genius. That was a carefully crafted personal brand. So, maybe the floppy-headed kid is a genius after all.

Anyway, here are the 6 main insights from the Copyblogger article on personal branding, then I’ll drop my two cents in with a comedian example.

6 Personal Branding Tips

1. Define your audience on a granular level 

The wrong audience won’t care about your personality if it doesn’t fit them.

2. Right platform for the right message

Flowers planted where they don’t fit the environment die off. Same thing with choosing the wrong platform.

3. Cheat to speed things up

Use repeatable content frameworks, else you’ll burn out trying to come up with new ideas and communicating those ideas.

4. Publish, publish, publish

The Googsters can point you to a million productivity hacks. They’re hacks. Only one way to publish a ton of content and that’s by managing your time (kill all phone notifications).

Last two tips in the article are:

5. Connect with other entrepreneurs

6. Build an email list

Which leads me into my example of…

How comic and podcaster Theo Von does personal branding

He now has one of the top podcasts in the world.

At one point, he was doing three or four regular podcasts as a co-host! And he was appearing as a guest on a ton of shows too. Dude was and is a grinder. Doing all those shows connected him with countless people and extra audiences. 

Theo also has an email list. Good thing because comedians can be kicked off YouTube and the Socials at any moment. Googsters, Zuckers, and less-powerful tyrants have no sense of humor. And this particular stand-up comedian is liable to say anything. 

That’s one piece of his personal branding. I’ve yet to hear a comic come up with the outlandish thoughts that roll right off his tongue. It’s a gift. 

What other aspects are part of his personal brand?

Fearlessly vulnerable: Talks about having an “ancient” dad growing up. And his mom, who lacks the ability to love him openly, he says. He did a 40-minute monologue about how substance abuse wrecked his one big moment early in his career. Years later, Theo was honest about his sobriety slip-ups during the pandemic years. 

Embraces his hometown: Louisiana sounds like the weirdest place on Earth even to me, as I’m surrounded by weirdos in my tiny town.

Rat King Mullet: Nuff said… ok, not enough. Dude could be Tom Brady’s twin if not for that magnificent mullet.

Finds unique guests: Sounds impossible with 7 billion podcasts out there. But he does it, interviewing undertakers, carny workers, and garbage men. He even makes chats with fill-in producer Riley Mau, who has nothing to say and zero personality, the most hilarious content on the web. 

Theo started his ride to fame on a silly MTV reality show. Thousands of others have had reality TV shots. But none had a personality like his, or if they did, they were too cowardly to let people see it.

Get your marketing emails opened for business

The key to increasing revenue from your email campaigns is getting more emails opened!

Inbox Mailers simplifies that goal. 3x your open rates, without the wait. Fixes deliverability problems too. Use the platform's triggered emails. Or check your list quality with our free Activity Checker to see your most active leads and the inactive ones you should avoid (check your list for free).

Thanks for reading. Please forward to another fired-up marketer.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin, Inbox Hacking