The Brand Agent: A New Era of Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs and Influencers with Alexis Quintal

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down The Brand Agent, a new era of personal branding for entrepreneurs and influencers. To drop these value bombs, I brought Alexis Kintal into EO Fire Studios. Alexis, founder of Rosarium, is a personal branding expert and former professor who empowers entrepreneurs through PR, combining a passion for teaching with over a decade of industry experience. and today information will talk about how personal branding can transform your journey a brand agent and what that means how to use your personal brand to create new opportunities and oh so much more and a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to alexis and our sponsors is now the time to grow a successful business attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by clay clark and now featuring football star tim tebow and president Trump's son, Eric Trump, at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire.

1:04Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Alexis, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hello, hello. Thanks so much for having me. This has been such a long time coming. I'm so excited. um I yeah I think unpopular opinion work-life balance is I think totally out the window I know a lot of people say you know if you're hustling too hard you know you have the run the risk of burning yourself out right you need to have this work-life balance I mean of course I can say that cliche you love what you do you don't feel like you're working but I legitimately mean it I mean when I'm going to networking events or speaking on podcasts, I mean, I guess this is technically work, but I'm enjoying the experience of really hustling.

2:03And, you know, maybe that's just because that's where I'm at in my career. But, you know, I think if you're willing to hustle and, you know, really work hard, there's nothing wrong. I think a lot of entrepreneurs resonate with that because at the end of the day, the reason why we chose our own path, the reason why we chose to become entrepreneurs is to do what we want to do. And what is that? I mean, it's something that lights us up inside that we're excited about, that we're passionate about. I mean, I'm not the kind of person that wants to just sit on a beach here in Puerto Rico, sip margaritas and read a romance novel by Daniel Steele.

2:31Like that's not appealing to me. After an hour, forget about it. Like I'm tired. I want to do something. I mean, sand's in my face. But for me, like having inspiring conversations with successful entrepreneurs, those conversations excite me. I look forward to them. They give me ideas. They give me inspiration. And that's why, you know, when earlier this year, I was the keynote at PodFest in Orlando. And we had the pleasure to meet because you were there and you came up after my talk. You shared a story that was very touching. I loved it. And I would love for you to share that story with Fire Nation about how listening to entrepreneurs on fire inspired you to start your journey in personal branding.

3:14Yeah, yeah. And that's why I started this off by saying this is such a long time coming. In 2021 was when I discovered Entrepreneurs on Fire. It was perfect timing, right? The heat of COVID, we're all at home trying to figure out what's next. I know listening to podcasts became quite popular and I'm lucky enough to discover Entrepreneurs on Fire. I've been hooked ever since, but really the biggest impact it made on me, there was one episode titled Why Personal Branding and the Future of Marketing with AJ Beden. She works for Brand Builders and she had discussed a study that they completed about how different generations interact with traditional marketing, advertising.

3:54They're really trying to understand what's next for the world of marketing and entrepreneurship. and they discovered that most, especially younger, you know, Gen Z millennials were more interested in getting to know the CEO themselves, right? Their story, what got them into their business, you know, why they started this product. You know, of course it's a whirlwind to become an entrepreneur, but if you know a little bit more, just uncover a little bit of that story of the founder themselves, it can make a huge impact on your brand and on your company. And I had this aha moment, right? Cause I'm in this stage of, I started my business probably about a year before I heard the episode.

4:37I was a marketing consultant. I was creating social media content. I was doing, you know, Google ads, all the traditional digital marketing stuff. And it was fulfilling, but there was something that I knew I could offer that was more unique, right? More just fit to my own personality. And listening to this episode, I had this aha moment of, wait, okay, let's look at the data. Let's look at the facts. This is the future of marketing. And by 2022, I went through an entire rebrand of my business. I added team members, I added services, everything we needed to really hone in on this idea of personal branding.

5:17and we just celebrated five years of Rodarium and we've really become known in the industry for being those experts in personal branding. And I have to thank you, John, for helping me understand that early on because a lot of people are starting to pick up on it now. But we're excited to maybe, you know, humble brag that maybe we were one of the first thanks to this study and thanks to this episode that we listened to. Well, I receive that. And I love when individuals get these aha moments from the amazing guests that I bring on. Because I bring on guests that are experts in their industry, and I want them to share their zone of genius, their zone of fire.

5:56And when they're doing that, I mean, man, it's just going to connect with the right people at the right time. And then there you were, like you mentioned in 2021, it was the right content at the right time. And the important thing here is you took that content and you put it into action. And here you are, you know, five years in now, which is an unbelievable accomplishment for any business. I think we even talked about this a little bit at Orlando at PodFest is that like 96 % of businesses don't get to five years, which is a crazy stat. You know, there's a lot of reasons behind that. I mean, a huge majority of them, you know, don't even get off the ground in the first place and don't have any traction.

6:32But the ones that make it five years, it's just such an accomplishment. And I love that. And that's why Fire Nation, I brought Alexis on to talk specifically about the brand agent, a new era of personal branding for entrepreneurs and influencers. And I want to dive into some value bombs, Alexis, because you know I love value bombs. You know Fire Nation loves value bombs. So share how personal branding can transform an entrepreneur's journey from unknown to unforgettable. Yeah, absolutely. I even want listeners to think of a recent either commercial they saw or, you know, something that really inspired them when it came to a brand.

7:12And, you know, consider, did you, was partially because of the person on the screen, right? We're noticing now a lot of influencers are breaking into the world of advertising, commercials, even movies. And the reason why is because we all start to, you know, recognize faces. And you feel more comfortable listening to someone whose face you recognize. It sounds weird, but it's just true, right? If you've seen someone either online or on a TikTok or on stage, you know, or listen to their voice on a podcast, you feel more comfortable opening up and having a conversation with them. And so that's just high level.

7:50But now let's think about in a business aspect, right? So you're, of course, out there, you're selling a product, you're selling a service. and it's what you lead with when you introduce yourself to someone, right? You shake their hand and say, hi, I'm JLD. I'm with Entrepreneurs Uninspired. You know, hi, I'm Alexis. I'm with Grotharium. Great. But, you know, unless you are Nike or, you know, have a really well-known brand, what most people actually connect with is you as a person. So by being open to, you know, putting yourself out there a little bit more, it can be a little bit uncomfortable.

8:24you're even going to share some some personal moments in your life you know you're truly going to focus on this personal branding and transform your journey you need to be comfortable sharing a little bit about your personal life so your family your recent trip you know a hobby you'd like to do outside of work that should be within the first five minutes of a conversation with someone even in a business setting even on linkedin most people think is very corporate it, you'll notice the walls come down and suddenly you're having a real conversation that could very well turn into business because you've made them comfortable, right?

9:03You've maybe found something they can relate to. Um, you know, they also visited that same location. They also enjoy that same holiday. Now you're coming together with relatable qualities and that's what people want to do business with, right? They want to support a brand that, you know, has a true authentic leader who's a good person, right? Who's also just human at the end of the day, you know, or especially if you're a service provider and your personal brand is your product, it's even more important that you're willing to share a little bit more about yourself in a way to just build that relationship, right?

9:38Build that trust. Trust is a key term. We all know entrepreneurs, right? But how do you actually build it? This is finally the answer. So I love this. And, you know, I'll just give you a random example. when I was just at PodFest, I was talking to a fellow speaker and I didn't know this person at all. And we were kind of having an initial kind of like semi-awkward conversation backstage. And then he just happened to mention that he lives in Providence, Rhode Island. And I'm like, oh man, I went to Providence College for four years. Like I love Providence. I love Waterfire. I love Providence Place Mall.

10:09And all of a sudden, like you just saw like this wall drop. And it was just like, we had this one single common connection. And it was like, I went to Providence College back in the early 2000s. Like it wasn't even like I live there now, but even though it was like over 20 years ago, like this instant connection was made because he shared something that was kind of personal. And then I was able to connect with that and then boom, we were off to the races. And now we've actually continued our conversation and now friendship, you know, past that event where if we hadn't had anything like that, it probably would have just been that awkward, stilted backstage kind of conversation before we both went on stage to speak.

10:41And we probably never would have thought of each other again. So it's like, it's so incredible to connect with things like that. It can be such a small, small situation or a small opportunity that you can just crack into and take advantage of that. And that's why whenever I'm interviewing founders and CEOs and they're on Entrepreneurs on Fire, I'm always like, hey, by the way, you can take this interview and you can put it on your About Me page. In fact, I should be saying like, you should put it on your about me page because nobody wants to go to an about me page and like read like two paragraphs of boring text and maybe a couple like stilted, you know, studio pictures of like you smiling awkwardly at the camera.

11:17But if they press play on a interview on a top business podcast in the world where you're revealing your personal story, your struggles, your obstacles, your challenges, they're out on a walk or they're running and they're driving or wherever they might be and they're consuming that content. after 20 minutes, they're going to feel so connected to you. You'll never have that connection from just a flat about me page text only. So like find ways to tell your story in a meaningful way. It can be so powerful. We have a lot more to talk about around this when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

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13:43See thousands of real success stories and learn about attending the Thrive Time Show two-day in-person workshop featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Become the next success story. Schedule a free consultation and request tickets to join football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump, at Clay Clark's next business conference today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Alexis, we're back. And one thing that I love to share with Fire Nation are step-by-step processes. And you have one of those, and specifically around the steps that entrepreneurs and influencers should take to build an authentic personal brand.

14:24Share that with us now. Yeah, absolutely. So hopefully at this point, you're, you're, you know, you're inspired, you're interested and excited about investing in your own personal brand, but you're wondering, where do I begin? Right? It's definitely an overwhelming experience and process, but there are some steps that you can, you definitely should and can take to get there relatively fast. It will take some internal brainstorming and workshopping. So anyone I work with, I sit them down with some very specific questions. So the first question and step you should take is really determining your why.

15:02So what got you into business or into the scope that you're in in the first place? Most of us have a story behind that, right? You saw a gap in an industry that, you know, wasn't filled or, you know, someone that went through a very, very traumatic challenge in their life. And you said, I can fix that for the next generation, right? Or maybe you just want to make the world a better place for your own kids. There's a lot of reasons why people get in the business. And, you know, for myself, I was actually a college professor and I was teaching the next generation of, you know, our workforce and helping them navigate the college landscape because it's so overwhelming to choose at 18 years old, right?

15:42What you're going to do for the rest of your life. I really appreciated being able to advise them and teach them. And I wanted to take that into a business setting, right? How can I help early stage entrepreneurs who are still learning? They want to do with the rest of their life and just need someone with a little bit more experience on the marketing and business side to help them take that next step. So do a little bit of workshopping, you know, really thinking about your why. And once you've got that in place, create a story. So kind of like this, you know, very short version of the story I just told that what got me into where I am today, you had a story as well.

16:18So really start to sketch that out. You can go as deep and as vulnerable as you want to get. Obviously, the more vulnerable, the better. But this is where, now that you've got your why and you've got your story, now you can create content. So you can start creating social media content, record yourself on video, go on podcasts. I mean, whatever is easiest for you and flows most naturally, you'll want to start practicing and getting used to and just telling that story over and over again until you're comfortable with it and you start to see the impact that it can make. Next thing you know, the next event you're at, say you're at PodFest next year, someone could come up to you and say, oh my gosh, I heard your story.

16:59I really resonated with it. I really relate and I'd love to grab copy, right? So at this point, you're using it as a way to build relationships and you never even had to pitch them or cold call them or do any of those uncomfortable things. But just by putting yourself out there, you started to build your personal brand and saw how it could grow your business. I mean, Fire Nation, these are steps that you can start implementing immediately at the next event that you're at, at the next networking little gala that you might be going to, to a mastermind that you're going to be jumping on a call with with some other people.

17:35I mean, there's just a lot of opportunities to start practicing this because once you put in the reps, it just gets better and it just gets easier. And before we take this home, Alexis, I want to talk about public relations because some people love PR and some people just aren't too sure about it. So how can we as entrepreneurs leverage PR strategies to stay ahead in the business world? This is my favorite part. I'm a little bit of a PR nerd. And I think like you said, a lot of people maybe even don't understand what PR is, right? And there's different things that it could stand for. It could be Puerto Rico.

18:12But actually what we're saying and describing is public relations. So really, it's anything that's public facing. And this is an industry that's evolved because everything we do nowadays is public facing, right? I mean, social media, all completely public. Anything related to your personal life could even become public on Google or really anywhere. And now there's AI that's gathering all this information and spinning it back out at us so it's even more public. So how can you leverage that? I'm not saying that in a way to be negative or scary. It actually opens up a huge opportunity that 20 years ago we never would have happened, right?

18:52So how do we take advantage and leverage these PR strategies? And a lot of what I do is after you've got your why and your story, and now you are really leaning into your personal brand, you're becoming an expert in your industry. Now's the time to get yourself really published, really out there through third party platforms. It doesn't always have to be your own. You know, you can reach out to your favorite podcaster like I did, you know, See if they're willing to have you on their show. You can reach out to your local newspaper in your town and tell them about something exciting you're doing or impact-tremating in the community.

19:29They're looking for those stories, and it doesn't cost you anything to be invited onto their next TV segment or included in their next newsletter. And now you're using that platform to really reach more people than you would have by just posting on your own social media. But social media is another piece of that. Think of it as your own, like every post you should think of as a press release. But you're putting it out there. It's basically permanent. It's like an announcement. So be really strategic and intentional with the content you're posting, especially, you know, on a business profile or if you've got a lot of connections that are clients or prospects.

20:09Every post should be very intentional and add value to their day, right? So we don't want to just suck up their feed with Motivational Monday because you felt like posting Motivational Monday. I mean, I love that, but what could you do to take it to the next level? So, you know, publishing, podcasting, and then speaking. Speaking is another great opportunity to build your platform, right? Get on a stage where you've got an engaged audience, everyone listening to what you have to say. And, you know, it's very, it's a great way to increase credibility of your brand as well. If you've been seen as a speaker, then at that point, you know, people feel like they can trust you even more.

20:54So these are all platforms that are honestly all free. I mean, you can reach out to an event in your local neighborhood or a conference and ask them, are you seeking speakers? I mean, most of the time they won't charge you to be a speaker. there may be a sponsorship opportunity, but these are all available platforms to entrepreneurs. And by the way, it really helps. I mean, it really helps if you take the following advice, which is become the number one solution to a real problem in a growing industry. If you can do those things, if you can stand out, instead of just posting, you know, like Alexis said earlier, Motivational Monday and doing some quotes that everybody else is doing the exact same quote or a variation of that quote on a motivational Monday, it all just blends in and it's boring because it's the same.

21:41But if you say, I'm gonna become the number one solution to this real problem in this growing industry, and I'm just gonna niche down until I can become that number one solution and I'm gonna become known for that, I'm gonna be unique as a result. When you reach out to those places to speak, when you reach out to individuals that come on their podcast, guess what? Present yourself as the subject matter expert on that. And that's what I look for. I look for the subject matter experts on certain topics for sure. And I mean, hey, you should be reaching out to a different podcast. I mean, I have open applications to entrepreneurs on fire.

22:14I mean, I will say it's a pretty intense application process. But if you guys want to learn more about it, eofire.com slash guest. It's a whole application. It's a whole process because we get a lot of them, obviously. But I love bringing on people at all stages of the journey from the Tony Robbins all the down to somebody who just, you know, got going and found traction, but that's inspiring to my listeners for another reason as well. So across the board, you should be reaching out. It's a numbers game. Put in those reps. And Alexis, you dropped a lot of value bombs today. We focused on a lot of cool things.

22:50If you could just share the one single takeaway from our entire conversation that you would really want our listeners to walk away with, what would that be? I would be, don't be afraid to put yourself out there and really start to think of your personal brand almost as its own entity, right? Because you are going to obviously live on. Your personal brand is what will leave a legacy. And you never know. The business you have today, maybe you're going to sell it. You know, things change and you still have to move on to your next stage, right? So really focus on how you can continue building and building the blocks of your personal brand for that long-term success and that legacy that you're looking for.

23:31And it just starts with putting yourself out there, right? Don't be afraid. What is your call to action for Fire Nation for our listeners today? My call to action, I'd love for you to learn more about our brand agent program. And so what we've actually created is a very similar to how an athlete has an agent, right? A celebrity has an agent when they have offers coming in for brands or you know commercials or ads their agent is kind of managing right and representing them and helping them negotiate rates and really determining is it a good fit for your brand right it just takes away from a lot of time suck for those celebrities and athletes for anything that's not a good fit for them but this is where I saw a gap in the industry right this is where I think we can make a difference is who's doing that for entrepreneurs.

24:21We get those emails as well. We get those calls and those offers and we don't know how to manage them, right? And so, and you're just busy. I mean, you may lose an opportunity because you didn't reply fast enough. So having a brand agent is such a great opportunity to really elevate your personal brand, monetize it and continue growing. And so we'll be offering some some complimentary consultations. We also have a personal brand whiz. So you can see where you're at today with your personal brand and where your future holds and how you can maybe continue to grow to that next level. So just visit romarium.work, W-O-R-K, online or on any social media platforms and reach out to us.

25:06We would love to chat. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with AQ and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Alexis in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Alexis, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Alexis for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world.

25:42If yes, we are now accepting applications for entrepreneurs on fire. To learn more about entrepreneurs on fire and becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest, eofire.com slash guest. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Is now the time to grow a successful business? Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring football star Tim Tebow and President Trump's son, Eric Trump at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at Thrivetimeshow.com slash EOFire.