The SUPERHIGHWAY to Personal Branding with Ashley Stahl

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation! JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire! Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Created with John Ushai. Today, we'll be breaking down the super highway to personal branding. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Ashley Stahl and to EO Fire Studios. Ashley began at the Pentagon, evolved into a career expert and bestselling author. She's a top 100 TEDx speaker and coach who leverages TEDx Talks to amplify personal brands. And today, Fire Nation, we'll talk about the shift from the Pentagon to career coach and speaker.

0:37We'll talk about building personal brands. We'll talk about the mistakes people make and the top tips and how to find your style and oh so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Nudge, hosted by Phil Agnew, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Ever notice how the smallest changes can have the biggest impact? On Nudge, you learn simple evidence-backed tips to help you kick bad habits, get a raise and grow a business. Oh, and it's the UK's fast growing business podcast. A recent episode on how to win any argument shares decade long research into persuasion from a world leading neuroscientist.

1:12Listen to Nudge wherever you get your podcasts. Ashley, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. You know, I've seen a rise in the culture of hustle and so many people coming out there with big platforms saying that you should not have to hustle. Instead of leaning in, you need to lean out. And I just believe there are no shortcuts. There's too much out there around secrets and hacks. I do think there's better ways to do things, but I think real success takes hard work. And a lot of the times, the most important parts of the hard work do not have a shortcut.

1:52Value bombs already being dropped by your nation. As we talk about the superhighway, it's our personal branding. and Ashley, you used to fight terrorism from the hallowed halls of the Pentagon. And now you're a career coach and speaker. Talk to us about this shift. Yeah. I mean, I grew up in a house where the news was always on. And from a really young age, I just knew what was happening in the world because I had family that was super alive about politics. And so I kind of formed an opinion for better or for worse. And I remember where I was standing during 9-11 and I thought, you know, I'm always been a mama bear.

2:28I've always been a helper. I've always been a great communicator. I've always been somebody that gets a lot of trust from people when people share with me. And so when 9-11 happened, I thought I'm going to be a part of the solution for this. I'm going to protect the world. And the highest way I could do this is in national security. And I had a knack for learning languages. So I ended up making my way over to the Pentagon, going to grad school, learning the languages, doing all the steps. And what I learned when I was there is when you follow what feels right for your purpose, usually what's right for you is either right in front of you or it's on the periphery.

3:07And on the periphery of national security, I was an incredible job seeker. And everybody around me during the recession was saying, how did you get that job? I didn't just get offered a role at the Pentagon. I got three job offers and I tripled my salary potential through negotiating. So friends would ask for help and that lent itself to a 12 year career as a career coach where I would have online courses, a book that I wrote, my show, the U-Turn podcast, and so many beautiful things. And so it's interesting that national security got me into career coaching, but I'd walk in every day, there were barely any women in the room and I was really inspired to help friends.

3:46I had no idea what career coaches were. I thought it was like a hockey coach cheering you on outside your office. Like, what does it even mean? And I Googled it in 2012, and there were really not that many career coaches. It wasn't a trend yet. It was like a lot of purple websites with rainbows, and it just didn't look like what I wanted to be. But I eventually got the confidence to start it anyway. And my career coaching business was totally transformed, not only by me writing a book and becoming an author, but by giving two TED Talks, both of which went viral. Um, the first one I got when I was working under Obama administration, I got an award for my work in national security.

4:26And this woman came to the award ceremony and she said to me, I just spoke at TEDx, the UN. And I, I looked at her like, Oh, I would love to do that someday. I hope I can do that. And I remember she looked at me like a cartoon, almost like her tooth had like a, like a chine to it. Like, Oh, I'm sure you will. I ended up going to Istanbul that week for a work assignment and I was in a literal protest. It was 2012 in Taksim Square. Tear gas was in the air. My eyes were literally burning and I was kind of running for cover in a spice bazaar. And I got a text message from her saying she recommended me to TEDx at Berkeley.

5:03I'd never spoken on a stage in my life. I was scared. I ended up asking one of the speechwriters in the administration, can you give me some tips? I don't know how to speak. And they gave me a speaking structure of how they were writing talks, you know, for prominent politicians, including the president. And I took it, I ran with it, and my talk ended up going viral. And granted, it was my first talk of my life. So I cringe to this day, that my first try at something went viral, but it it transformed my business and ended up doing about a million dollars in private coaching revenue, directly tied to this TEDx talk applications that I got to work with me.

5:39And that opened my eyes to the power of personal brand. Fire Nation, I hope you realize that the first time we do anything, of course, is going to be cringeworthy. Why would it not be? Why would we naturally be good at something we've never done before? It's all about putting in the flipping reps, getting a little bit better every single day, every single time. It's interesting how we're on a similar timeline, actually, because it was back in 2012 when I myself was like, hmm, this podcasting thing sounds interesting and kind of Googling, who's doing daily podcasts with entrepreneurs and nobody was doing it.

6:11I was like, literally nobody's doing this. I'll be the first. And still, by the way, 12 years later, the only show doing this seven days a week, 365 per year. And I also came from that service background. Like I was an officer in the US Army for eight years, did 13 months in Iraq. And I really said, you know, man, like it's my only career path, this, this, and this, which is what it seemed like was really strict for that military personnel. But I mean, it doesn't have to be that way for our nation. Like look what Ashley's done. Look what I've done. I mean, you can go in different directions when you have the inspiration, the opportunities, but at the same time, Ashley, you keep seeing people make the same mistakes over and over again when they're starting off on their journey and they're trying to build that personal brand.

6:53How can we avoid this? Okay. Well, it's really powerful. You just talked about starting your podcast and thanks for your service. I love meeting people who've served too. Here's the thing. The internet is like a bunch of islands. And when you think about your personal brand, you want to think about it this way. There's, you know, TikTok is an island. Instagram is an island. Being on TV all the time is an island. I just met this woman who's on QVC all the time. She's living on an island of QVC. You know, I think podcasts are an island, whether you are a guest on many of them, you create a brand island through being a guest everywhere, or you have your own show and you create a brand island through accruing episodes.

7:33These islands are really critical to pay attention to because I think what mistake people make is they try to be everywhere. And omnipresence is at the cornerstone of a great brand. But I've really looked at my, when I was in career coaching, and now I have Wise Whisper Agency, and we've written more than 100 TEDx talks, and we booked more than 1 ,200 people on stage for TEDx. and what I've learned is that the people who have the strongest brands and granted some people come in and they're doctors or surgeons and this is the first thing they've done for their brand but the brands that I've seen are very successful the people have looked at it like layer cake they've looked at it like all right my first year of business here's my brand goal I need to establish myself on Instagram I need to start my podcast and get the first 30 50 episodes up you really want to treat your brand and the islands you want to pick the island that really matches up with your skill set so my book U-Turn I wrote the message don't do what you love do what you are and what that really meant for me as a career expert for all those 12 years before I started my TEDx focused agency was that you want to honor your skill set more than what you what you're passionate about.

8:46Like I'm passionate about cupcakes, massages. I would be a horrible baker and a really bad masseuse. But when I looked at my zone of genius, it was words. And so I built an island on Forbes. I have more than 600 blog posts on there. I, and that was over nine years, right? Like every single month consistency, but it wasn't until the first year of Forbes that I was able to systemize that in my business. Like, okay, now I know what this island for my brand needs for me. I can allocate my time and optimize. And now I have enough cognitive energy to grab onto another island. So it wasn't until I got blog posting on the internet, blog posting for Forbes solidified that I then thought to myself, okay, now let me go figure out this Instagram thing.

9:30But they were all guided by my core skillset. And, you know, I know a lot of people, when they think about where they want to put their brand, they have to think about their ideal customer. You don't want to put a bunch of content out somewhere where your ideal customer is not right. But you also want to honor your skillset and be mindful of, is this a platform like YouTube? It's demanding a lot of visual, a lot of video. I really don't like that. I don't do well with that versus I do well with podcasting. I love that. I don't have to be on a video camera making videos. It's just me talking to somebody that is my core skillset.

10:05And it kind of honors that message of my book about really being what you are. And what I am is somebody who's great at words. And so I think thinking about that and, you know, forgetting to think about that would be a huge mistake in building your brand. Fire Nation, there's a lot of value bombs that Ashley just shared. But one thing that I want to definitely go back and just share with you that I took away is how can you build your islands? What are you doing to build your island? What could that look like? That's definitely something to do some deep thinking on because it can be so powerful.

10:38And we have more to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Welcome to the world of entrepreneurship. More things added to your to-do list every day and less time to accomplish the things that matter most. Add to all that the number of tools it takes to run your coaching programs, online courses, growing team, and your physical product sales, and you've really got your hands full. Doing business has never felt harder. But what if there was a way to simplify everything a way to manage your entire business with a single platform. Sounds like you'll need a miracle to make it happen, doesn't it?

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12:29Get funding in as little as 24 hours with no collateral required. Visit fundera.com to see your loan options today. That's fundera.com. F-U-N-D-E-R-A.com. A big reason why Kate and I moved to Puerto Rico back in 2016 was because we were ready for lifestyle freedom. We love to travel and we love new experiences. So we decided to shake things up. After living here for over eight years, it turns out Puerto Puerto Rico has introduced us to way more than we ever expected, including becoming hosts on Airbnb. That's right. After traveling off island for months at a time during the summer, we realized that we could Airbnb one of our homes while we're away.

13:12So when we travel to Maine and California in just a couple of weeks, we'll be looking to share the beauty of Puerto Rico in one of our homes with travelers from near and far. So it turns out we had an Airbnb and we didn't even know it. Our own home. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. Ashley, we're back. And what if somebody listening, part of Fire Nation, is looking to make a significant career change or maybe even an advancement in that career? What would be your top tips for that individual? You know, when you feel disconnected, the first order of business is to get back into connection with yourself.

13:55And I think a lot of people, you know, get really uncomfortable with transition. And so they grab onto things with the intention of having a plan for the sake of having a plan. The problem with that is it doesn't really work. You know, I feel like in life, so many people think that they're moving forward when they're really moving backward. For example, I had a friend of mine, I was in the wedding. She thought she was marrying the wrong guy deep down, but she wanted her life to quote unquote move forward. She married him, had kids with him. Now it's not the right partner. She needs to undo it.

14:24I think it's the same thing with your career. We feel like we're moving forward when we grab onto things, but the truth is it can take years for an elegant idea to come through. And, you know, I, in my career coaching business, after leaving the Pentagon, I ended up scaling a course on how to land a job back in like 2014, 15, when Facebook ads were kind of new after a year of failure, a lot of debt and money spent trying to get success with a webinar and Facebook ads ended up doing$6 million in two months off of a course on how to get a job. And because I was like 26 years old at the time and didn't know how to manage money, I totally sabotaged my business, mismanaged my money, ended up in debt by the end of it.

15:07And the guiding light that got me back was taking that step back, having slow simmer energy in my business instead of saying, I need a team, I need all these things, simplifying and allowing space in my life for elegant ideas to come find me. And the truth is I moved to New York for multiple years. I moved home to Los Angeles again, and it wasn't until about two to three years into my burnout of being in a slow simmer energy in my business that it became clear to me that TEDx had changed my absolute career. Um, because not only did I give that first talk in 2013, um, but I gave a second one in 2019 and I kind of wanted to redeem myself with myself because I felt so cringe that my first try it something was all over the internet.

15:53And there's a lot there. Like that first TEDx, I put a curtain behind me in a motel to make a speaking reel because they asked me for a speaking reel. I didn't even know what a speaking reel was. And so I was just so cringe about something being my first time and everybody seeing it. And so in 2019, I gave another TED talk, TEDx to be specific, and I knew it would go viral. I knew it would change my life and lives of the people who listen because that's what I learned is when it comes to personal brand, when it comes to taking a step back and getting these elegant ideas, we become pregnant with so much inspiration.

16:30And it was these slower years where I didn't force ideas upon myself that this TED talk came in for 2019. And I was able to write a script that I deeply felt would move people. And it's funny because I knew it would go viral. Like I expected it without like this egoic thing. It was just like, this is going to move. And I just feel that like a fact. And the first six months after it came out, nobody watched it. It barely got views. And then all of a sudden after the six month mark, it took off and it went crazy viral. And now it's in the top 100 TED talks of all time. And it has gotten me a speaking agent who's put me on a speaking tour, who's tripled my keynote fees, if not more.

17:11I started at 5K. I ended at 30K per speech. I got multiple book deals. I got an international licensing deal on my courses, the amount that happened for me because I was able to be in transition and not grab onto my next identity too soon was really important. And I know we live in a speedy culture where people want to be able to say things at cocktail hours of what they're up to. And I think we need to make it safe for ourselves to say, I'm in transition and here's what I'm tinkering with. Here's what I'm thinking about next. And obviously we need to pair bills, but there are many ways to do that, including the power of a simple part-time job to do so.

17:46if you're in transition. I remember there was a powerful quote shared with me early in my career, which was, John, pay the bills first. And for some reason, that always stuck with me because so often entrepreneurs, they don't run out of good ideas. They run out of time. They run out of that runway. Like the success is going to happen as long as they can stay in the game long enough. And actually, I love sharing real world examples of success. So share a story of someone that you coached through a TEDx talk and how it specifically transformed their career. My favorite clients who come in are people who actually don't have a brand.

18:25What I love about the TEDx platform is that it's a democracy. They're not looking for famous people to get on their stage. I mean, they welcome it, but they're really looking for, and there's a big difference between TED and TEDx, right? Like TEDx has a license from the TED brand and all these different. There's 13 ,000 TEDx events around the world versus TED, which is largely invite only. So I just help clients with nearly 100 % success get on the TEDx stages and we write their talk. And the thing that I've learned is the clients who come in who don't have a brand, but they have expertise are the ones where there's the most leverage, right?

19:03So we've had a lot of doctors, activists, corporate CEOs that are not big writers come in. I would say one in particular that stands out is a doctor. He had cutting edge research at Cedars-Sinai about obesity and he really didn't have a brand. He just had a lot of good research. Now with the TED or TEDx platform, you need to be incredibly careful because anything that's seen as new science is going to be seen by the TEDx stage potentially or TED brand as pseudoscience. You know, we came from the world of COVID where there was vax and anti-vax and all these controversial conversations. And what TED and TEDx don't want is for their stage to become a platform to spread new science that is not seen as widely accepted.

19:48And that's the case with any ideas, right? So the doctor came in and he wanted to talk about pioneering research that he had done. And I let him know that this is too new. If you give a TED talk on this, it's going to get pulled down from the TED channel and it's not going to give you the value. And you can't self-promote to the extent you think. So we ended up working with him to give a story about his life and why he became a doctor. and it was essentially about how his dad was suicidal when he was growing up and how he didn't feel very much like people really saw him because his dad was so unwell.

20:26And he decided to be a doctor to help other people be seen, especially obese populations that feel like they're hiding. And we ended up having him give his talk. And because of that, He got three book deal offers. We coined a term for him, which I wish I could share, but I know that that's not something we can. But we coined a term for him. He created online programs around that term and a book deal around that term. And to this day, he has an online membership with more than 2 ,000 people who are tied to this concept and this movement that we started with this TEDx Talks. That's the first thing.

21:02I think the second thing that I'm really proud of with that is he ended up going viral, which a portion of our clients do. And it's been a really beautiful experience because there's so many people who are burnt out in their business. We are totally used to eating what we kill, for lack of a better term, as entrepreneurs. We get out there and we reap the benefits of whatever that is. And the beauty of a brand asset, a brand island like a TEDx talk, is that it is kind of set it and forget it. If you do it right, if you truly respect the platform, and I tell clients all the time, going viral is not easy, but it is simple.

21:39Simply write the best talk of your life and practice it until you memorize every word. And the clients who have come in and really honored that, they have learned, I think, firsthand that going viral is a lot easier than you think because the cream rises to the top. And there's a lot of people out there that are putting out content, but they're not giving it their soul. to the extent that something like a TED Talk can be given. Fire Nation, value bombs galore on today's episode. I mean, wow, there's so many powerful things. And I always ask my guests to share one key takeaway from the episode.

22:15But I'm going to change things up with you because in doing my research before, I came across a quote of yours that I just said, I need to have Ashley address this. It is, often we kidnap ourselves from the lives we actually want because we think a different path is going to help us survive. Bring us home with this quote's explanation. There's so much I could say about this quote, and I think the thing that's coming forward for anybody listening is that this quote is from my TEDx talk in 2019 called How to Figure Out What You Really Want. And I opened up that talk with my dad in the kitchen getting a phone call from somebody that I was kidnapped.

22:53And, you know, in that, it's interesting because good speech writers realize that the opening of a talk is kind of a top hat. And what I mean by that is that it can be swapped out. It's really about moving audiences outside of the title of a speech you give or a video you put out there. The opener is the thing that really contributes to virality, in my opinion, you know, on top of the content being good in general, but it's the title and then it's the opener. And this quote is in the opener of my TED talk because it's a talk about my dad getting a phone call from people who have threatened to kidnap me.

23:29And as a speechwriter, my job was to draw the tie between this story and my opener that I thought would get the most attention and the theme of my talk, which was how to figure out what you really want. So the talk was about like, what are my pieces of advice to really clarify your career? I hadn't yet stepped into wise whisper agency, you know, booking and writing TEDx talks. I was in a world of being a career expert helping people clarify their path. And so the tie I drew was far too often, you know, we become our own kidnapper. And in the TED talk, I talked about how I thought about these people because in the end, spoiler alert, if you watch the TEDx talk, the people who called my dad and threatened said that they had kidnapped me, it was a scam.

24:12And this is a scam that's happening all over the world, but he deeply believed it. And he almost wired them his life savings because He was so scared that, you know, because they had somebody in the background of the phone call screaming as if it was me. And he didn't even have time to call or text me or he was just so scared. So the point is I talk about this scam that happened to my dad and I reflect on it. And this is how I weave the thread in my speech. And this is the job of any good writer. And if you're not a good writer and you want to do a TED Talk, you don't need to work with a company like mine if you don't want to.

24:45but definitely get a writer to help you because this kind of weaving is very important. Have the opening story. And then I thought in the talk, well, in a lot of ways, there's so many people who feel so scared in their life that they choose career paths and ways of making money out of fear, out of panic, out of have to. And I thought about these kidnappers who scammed my dad. They're not even kidnappers, they're scammers who called my dad to get his life savings. And I thought, wow, they must feel really cornered in life to be choosing a career path to make money this way. This is like the worst of the worst.

25:18You're scaring perfectly good people every single day. Like your consciousness needs to be down, you know, down the drain to be able to do that. And so I kind of related to the kidnappers as a human on a human level, thinking to myself, wow, I'm my own kidnapper. I've kidnapped myself from the life I really want, just choosing career past that I don't really want. And that was how I drew the tie in my speech. And I asked the audience, how are you your own kidnapper? Where are you kidnapping yourself from the life you want? What are you doing that's pulling you out of what you actually want? And so that quote, John, came from having to weave my opening piece of my speech.