Kaplan Mobray's Top Secrets to Personal Branding, Career Advancement and Success | The Big Success Podcast

0:00Oftentimes the fear of imposter syndrome is can I bring something to this table that advances the business, the organization, the culture, the mission, or the team. You bring something by adding a new level of challenge to the way that you show up. The energy that Kaplan Mowbray brings is because of his passion. Award-winning author of the 10Ks of Personal Branding, how your brand represents you out there to the world. Seek failure. And what that means is seek the opportunity to do something that is not expected, not requested, not known outside your comfort zone. It's going to allow you to thrive in this new space.

0:34Once you define your purpose, you can live your life extending your significance. Live your life by design, not by default. That's Kaplan Mowbray's theory. So Kaplan, what's your definition of success? You know, on a very human level, when I get up in the morning and I take a deep breath, that is the most successful part of my day. That is the most possible definition of success that anyone can ever have. Literally, it doesn't matter where you are in your life, your business, your health. When you get up in the morning and you take a deep breath, that is the most powerful definition of success.

1:15On a human level, on a practical level, you know, meeting an objective, solving a problem, creating an opportunity, you know, doing it in the way that you know how to do it. You know, freedom, you know, all those things, I think, define success. But when you believe that you, based on your being on this earth, can advance something and to make it better, that is success. You know, it makes me think that there's a lot of people out there who give themselves a definition of not successful. Because, you know, I'm not successful compared to or compared with or based on. But with your definition of waking up, taking a deep breath, every person should wake up saying, I am successful.

2:01Absolutely. Because with that breath comes the opportunity to make something better, either for yourself or for someone or something else, because you have that breath. And I think oftentimes we miss that in the busyness of life and work. And we miss just the simple gratitude that gives us the opportunity to make something better. Buddy, where do you feel in your life you chose success? Was it as a young man, a boy? Where did it happen for you? You know, I think I have this motto in life, take a little, make it a lot. You know, my parents didn't have much. You know, we grew up on the islands, but they moved to the United States.

2:39And just to put us in the near vicinity of opportunity, not that they could provide it. You know, and I knew that as I did well in school, as a young boy, as I did well in sports, as I did well in just civic activities and started to get awards and things like that, I realized that I was doing something that was going to create a generational change. for my family. I was going to go to schools and be in rooms and be in scenarios that was going to create a different blueprint for what now life could look like. And that was our early underpinning of success for me. And I accepted that responsibility with a sense of pride and honor.

3:17Yeah. Do you find there's a formula for success or these are the ingredients for success? You know, I think when I think about success, I think about, first of all, gratitude is really important because you have to be grateful for the opportunity to make something better, which I think often people miss. I believe that you have to be intentional. And I'm going to say, I'm going to break it down like this, three Cs. Success happens either by chance, by choice, or by courage. Chance, you're in the right place, right time, right person, right skill set, right opportunity, and you walk in and success happens.

3:56That's chance. And that means, you know, by chance, you know, chance, you create success. By choice, you choose success. So sometimes success chooses you, but sometimes you have to choose success. That means you have to be intentional and committed. Most people have a goal that they want to achieve in life, but they don't sign up for the commitment that it takes to achieve that goal. So when you make success a choice, you're signing up for the commitment, the preparation, the work. I coach a lot of world-class athletes and leaders. And I realized that there were things that they did early on in their life that prepared them for elite levels of success later in life.

4:36Who do you think is, who do you think that of all the ones you've coached, who do you think's the best at that? You know, I'm going to classify it more in terms of the patterns of, you know, that I see. I've coached some elite athletes, many names that you would know, and CEOs and leaders who have tackled really tremendous change in their organizations. The one key thing was this discipline and this effort and this non-negotiable commitment to change something. So they were willing to make the extra call, to put in the extra thought, to make the extra preparation, but it's always something they did that was over and above what was expected, asked, or requested.

5:19And that theme, that consistent theme of discipline and intention and commitment helped them to achieve extra levels of success. So I believe it's in the preparation. But the third C is courage. Success happens on the other side of fear. It's what happens when you take yourself outside your comfort zone, when you stretch yourself to go into an unknown perspective so you can learn, grow. And many times that experience of what's on the other side of fear that you do gives you this new level of growth, which creates a new level of success. What's your theory on why fear wins more than courage? You know, because fear is a vitamin, you know, vitamin F.

6:05And oftentimes, you know, fear, but it's one of those things like people don't want to take their vitamins. You know, a lot of times we don't want to take our vitamins or our vegetables, but we know we need them for growth and supplements. People oftentimes don't want to lean into what's not comfortable, what's not known. We're groomed in life to find comfort. That's why we have pillows at night. We're groomed to do things that give us comfort, but we're not really groomed to be and live and socialize ourselves to always be uncomfortable. Fear is an uncomfortable energy, but it's an amazing supplement, amazing nutrient.

6:41So I always have this concept. I talk about it in the 10 Ks of Personal Branding, my book, Seek Failure. Seek Failure. And what that means is seek the opportunity to do something that is not expected, not requested, not known outside your comfort zone. What's going to allow you to thrive in this new space, this new opportunity. but most people we we seek comfort and convenience you know over you know commitment and growth so where where in your mind then does the relationship between success and failure how do you see them going together or do they they they do they i think they are they are they are very good they're cousins you know and i think that then they work hand in hand and have a very close relationship So failure gives you a lesson learned, the gift of a lesson learned.

7:29It gives you the grit of resilience, meaning you had to push through something. And even if it knocked you down, you still had to get back up. So the gift of resilience and also give you the space of gratitude because you have to be grateful that you on the other side of that failure learned, expanded experience. But you're on the other side. So with success and with failure, the lessons learned. give you a new perspective, new confidence to do more. And if you define success, you know, defined by your ability to advance something, make something better, to do more in your life, in your career, in your health, in your business, fear and the experience of it and what's on the other side of it gave you the confidence, the courage, the perspective, the experience to do more.

8:14huh so how did when you coach someone and they're in that space of not wanting to use their courage how do you get someone to use their courage or even find it i guess yeah i mean it's a lot of people suffer from imposter syndrome you know a lot of them you know is imposter syndrome really real or is it just us faking ourselves out this is a question i've always had it's a buzzword but it is real. There are a lot of people who've been tapped for something that because of their skill, their tenure, and now they get into these rooms that they've never been in. And while they're, instead of saying, how can I bring something to this room?

8:55They're looking around the room. Does this room really accept me? Am I supposed to be here? Do I have the skill set? So it's a real thing. But I believe that the levels of success will be driven by a level of gratitude. And I go back to gratitude because if you're grateful for the opportunity to make something better because you are in it, you're in the room, you got the role, you got the assignment, you got role on the team, whatever it is, you got to be grateful for what you can do with your gifts. So what I do is help people to get back in touch with their gifts. What are you good at? What are you proud of?

9:31What are you passionate about? And what do you believe you can make a difference. Yeah. You know, the theory that you teach around personal excellence, and I want to go back to sort of the COVID. COVID got people, you're either fitter or fatter, you're either better or bitter. It's like, and you've used that whole center of personal excellence. Tell me more about why that theory, and then let's dive into the theory. Yeah. So, you know, I noticed, so for example, even me and my profession and working with organizations around the world, you know, most of the, during COVID, most of the activity was through virtual.

10:07And it was a sign that people had to have this common virtual presence. And what I saw in any country, in any country, in any organization, there were people who leaned in, present, vocal, on camera, video, going to give it the best that they can. And there were people who, what I call, were sitting under the table. I'm going to be in the back, not on camera. I'm going to be pushed to the balcony. Yeah, I'm logged in, but I'm not dialed in. And so I made the analogy. I said, it's kind of like when you don't give your best presence, when you have the opportunity to do it virtually, it's kind of like you were in a room.

10:46If you were in the room back in the office, it's kind of like you're in the room, but you're sitting under the table. Yeah, you're in the room, but you're under the table. And people are like, hey, while you're on the table, we need your contribution. We need your input. We need your presence. We need your energy. You had a choice and you chose to fall back. So COVID really was the divider between being present in the opportunity or just being logged in. I like that dialed in versus logged in. I think I might use that at some stage with some of my teams around the world. You know, when you think about performance excellence then and that what are the key characteristics of someone performing at their best?

11:27Well, I think it comes from a level of commitment and discipline and intent. So if you look at commitment, discipline, and intention, you have to decide that you have embraced the non-negotiable to be better, to give 150%, whatever it is. But you've got to decide first in your mind that I'm going to give maximum effort, maximum preparation. How is it then, Kaplan? because when you look at the high-performance athletes, they've already chosen that. Why do they bring someone in like you then? What is that? And maybe give us an example of one or two ways that that helps. Yeah, so we think of, and I look at CEOs and high-level leaders in organizations and elite athletes in a very similar plan.

12:18And when I look at that group of, you know, that population who've already achieved a certain level of excellence, and what keeps them going and wanting more, doing more. Oftentimes that intrinsic motivation is you have the opportunity to create the unthinkable if you just focus in a different way. So sometimes it's how do I achieve a personal best as a milestone in terms of my achievement? Sometimes it's how do I create a new strategy to open a new market segment for our business? How do I take AI? How do I take new technology and really change the game for how we drive culture and organizations?

13:00So there's got to be a focus on elevated excellence. And what that means, sometimes you have to rethink what's possible. Rethink what's possible. You have to change the environment and the context to drive new purpose in what you do. And then you have to say, how can I think about what this looks like 10 years from now? You know, it's like with health. I always tell people, think about your health journey as a 10-year journey. Who do you want to be? What do you want to look like 10 years from now? Yeah, yeah. You know, when you sit back and you start thinking about that imposter syndrome at one end and the challenging yourself to achieve things that haven't been done before at the other end, how does someone make that leap?

13:42I mean, to challenge yourself at that level. Yeah, I think that's the first thing. And the powerful word you just said is challenge. So people get up every day and they're either managed by a routine or circumstance or they're inspired by the challenge of a new opportunity. So every single day, the mindset of give yourself a daily new challenge will push you into the zone of new opportunity, new exploration, new discovery. And so that daily challenge, and especially if you do that with your team as leaders, I coach a lot of CEOs to give teams new challenges daily that elevate their thinking, that brings them up to a perspective of their contribution, their gift inside, which now says, I belong at this table because I brought something to it.

14:29oftentimes the fear of imposter syndrome is, can I bring something to this table that advances the business, the organization, the culture, the mission, or the team? So what do I bring? But you bring something by adding a new level of challenge to the way that you show up. Yeah. Often I think of that as the role of a coach or the role of a manager or leader is to pose the questions, not so much give the answers. Yeah. And there are three powerful questions, you know, Brad, that I think that we, you know, during, again, during COVID, you know, I started to coach leaders on these two questions. You know, what's the question you wish someone would ask you?

15:13Oftentimes empathy, you know, what was missing with teams and leaders is the empathy, you know, leading with empathy during a time where there was a lot of unknowns. You didn't know what's going on behind the screen of your employer, leader, or team that was logging in. There was something else going on in the backdrop that you didn't know. So coach leaders on leadership empathy, which is, what's something that you wish I would have asked you? What's the question you wish I had asked? What's the question that you haven't asked me, but if you did, it would unlock new understanding? And what are the questions we're asking ourselves every single day to push us further towards success?

15:45Yeah, questions are tank powerful. They really are. So let's think about this, then how do, if we move down that road and we say, okay, I've got to clarify where I'm going, set my purpose. How do we do that? And how do we get better at clarifying our purpose in life? Or maybe even in work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, purpose, you know, it's a very heavy word because it involves contribution, impact, perspective, and meaning. Everything that I do in life, what does it add up to? What's the equation? What's my equals? What does it equal? And oftentimes people get into perspective in life where later in life, they say, what does it all mean?

16:33I've been working, working, working, working, working, working. What does it mean? And the question is, what's my purpose? So getting people to early on understand their unique contribution. I ask people to look around in the areas of their life where people are saying to you, thank you. Really take a look at the areas of your life where people are saying to you, thank you. That's going to give you a foundation for your meaning, the gift of your presence and being, which will connect to the bridge of your purpose. And then if you define your purpose early, meaning I help someone, like in my business, you know, I help people to change their careers.

17:12I help them to grow their careers, to change their life, to grow their brand, to grow their business. But I helped people. So my purpose and my being that I celebrate is I help people to grow. So once you define your purpose, you can live your life extending your significance. and that's a very powerful way to then walk with the being of your in this life you know the being of purpose in this life as this that word significance is really important i think that too many people do things and feel insignificant in the world you know they stand behind the counter at the store and they don't feel their significance you you touched on something there that i want to focus in on for a little bit and that is personal branding firstly why do we need a personal brand today?

18:00Why does not just some people, why does everyone need to create their own personal brand out there? Because I think when you have a brand, you can be known for something. A lot of people work head down, do good work, but they're not known and they're not celebrated. And oftentimes because they're not known or celebrated, they actually get stuck, stuck either mentally because they don't have the recognition that they deserve, stuck in their careers because they're not getting ahead for all the work that they do, or just stuck because they know that there's more that they could do or be or give.

18:34So when you have a personal brand with intention, which means here's what I'm known for, you're also celebrating the accomplishment and the contribution that you bring to this world or to your organization. So a personal brand is not just about, hey, I want to get it promoted in my job. It's about, I want to celebrate the significance of my time doing this and the meaning it had on you or your organization or our team. So I, you know, that I believe that's what I go. I love the question because it is about everyone. We should all understand our brand. Yeah. I think there's a misperception though, that it's like, let's create our Instagram brand, you know and and you know only show that i think our brand is more what you teach and what we stand for so where where do i start on the process of creating that personal brand you're absolutely right you know so the first thing is there's a difference between followers and influence a lot of people have followers but that doesn't mean you have influence you know so when you think about creating your brand it's really first of all you got to understand yourself Who are you?

19:42You know, what is it that you're passionate about, proud of? What is your gift to this world, to your organization, to your team? What do you want to be known for? That's a really, what do you want to be known for? And then what are you going to do consistently to create a unique way to be remembered? Like for me, for example, you know, as I speak, I speak all around the world. People know me for one thing, this green tie. They speak for this green tie. And I always ask the question, like, what's up with the green tie? Green is for growth. As a speaker, I want you to grow your life, grow your career, grow your business, grow your sales, grow your mindset.

20:15But I want you to grow because I tell people when you look outside, the things that are green are growing. So let's think that through then just for let's say I've got a job. I don't run the business. Why do I want to build my brand? Why do I want to do that? Because you are even though you don't run the business, maybe not making some of the critical decisions. but in your role, wherever you're at, you play an integral contribution to the inner workings of your organization or your team. And you want to know, oftentimes we talk about ROI, which is return on investment. But there's also this thing called ROE, which is return on effort.

20:56You go to work every day, you're putting in whatever amount of hours or time, or if you're running your business, you're working 24 hours, whatever it is, there's a return on that effort. So your brand means that you're known for the effort that you bring and the significance that you create because of your presence. And because there's no one else like you. There's no one. When you walk through the door, there's no one else like you. So intrinsically, when you get in touch with what you bring and then what you're known for, you build a brand to be celebrated because you are present. Yeah. And I think it's interesting, though.

21:31Like there's some people I know in my life, their brand, part of their brand is they're happy. You know, I think that we've got to get more value on that values rather than just, you know, they're a hard worker, they're this, they're that. Like when you say, what do you want to be known for? I think we need to open the door on that, don't you? Absolutely. Because there's qualities, a nice guy, hard worker, happy, thoughtful. There are skills, you know, I'm analytical, you know, I'm really good with technology. And then there's impact, which is what did you do to make something better, to make something grow, to make something in a different direction, to change a perspective, to create a new opportunity or to solve a problem?

22:17So skills, qualities, but impact. Your brand is connected to the impact that it creates because of who you are and what you're known for. And that's where we have to get to focus on that, that impact. Yeah, I remember one time you talking about the fact that, how do I put this nicely? People are scared to push themselves forward. Like they're scared to say, I want to be considered for that promotion or scared to, you know, promote themselves, I guess. Tell me more about your theories around that and how do we get through that and want to promote ourselves out there in the world when needed? Yeah, it's interesting.

22:58People want to be seen for an opportunity, but they don't want to be seen on camera. People want to promote their skills, but they don't want to brag about their skills. At the end of the day, when you get hired for an opportunity or to advance your career or your business, people want to know that you are proud of what you do and that you bring excellence in what you do. So you can be humble and authentic and still be proud of the contribution that you make. That's why going back to gratitude and impact is so important because there's something that you've done in your span of life that puts you in a position to help something else be better.

23:39And you've got to be proud of that. And so when you talk about promoting yourself, you're not promoting yourself to say, I did this. I'm so great. It's not about that. it's about what I know and what I've learned I can have a tremendous impact on something else and that's why you want me for this job yeah and what gets someone to that though Cap 'on what's how do I get from I guess hiding under the table to dialing in how do I move from there to there first of all you got to want it you know the difference between people who I believe are achieve levels of success or get new roles in organizations, you've got to want it.

24:20You've got to want the opportunity and be passionate about the opportunity to make something better. Some people, they believe that they deserve it because of their tenure, but they don't necessarily want it. You've got to want everything that comes with it, the work, the time, the sacrifice, the personal sacrifice. You've got to want it to be able to then put yourself in a position to obtain it. So the difference between promoting yourself is you want it because you want the impact that you can have. You believe in yourself and you believe in your impact that you can have on others. Got it. So let's go full circle and Kaplan Mowbray, young man, where did you get it that you wanted it?

25:02What drove you in that? How did you get there? Was it an influence? Was it someone? What got you there? I'd always been a person who, some people don't mind being out front. I remember sixth grade, hey, they asked me to play the piano at the graduation. Yeah, I'll do it. I was an athlete. I started to get really good grades in school. And I just knew that I was someone who people were watching and observing. And I embraced that. I embraced the fact that my role in this legacy was to change the generational opportunity is to come here and create opportunity. So I wanted the opportunity to create opportunity.

25:47I wanted it. I wanted it because I knew that I had opportunities that were never presented to, if you go back in generations in my family, never. So I wanted the opportunity to do that. And I was willing to fail, to try, to do whatever it took. But what I learned early on this very particular principle. It's two things. One, it's if you take initiative, you create opportunities. If you don't take initiative, you lose your options. And so taking initiative, meaning, hey, you were invited to come to this meeting, and you're the youngest one in the office, go to the meeting. Or they're going to go play golf later, and I've never played golf before.

26:31I'm going to go play golf. And some people say, oh, I don't know how to do that. I'm not going to do it. But I took opportunity as a gift, you know, and I understood the significance of it. So that helped me. That mindset helped me. What did you do when you hit the self-doubt then? What was your strategy to get you through it? You know, I was always confident, you know, as a growing up, but there were moments where it's like, hey, you know, you've hit a wall, You know, as a, you know, as a athlete, as a runner, you know, and you're trained to compete. You're trained, you know, to compete, you know.

27:07So in life, the preparation of competing and discipline, winning and failing, learning from failure just as much as learning from winning. So a lot of times when I had self-doubt, you know, what picked me up was you can do this. You know, you can do this. And guess what? If you don't, you can learn from this. So it was your self-talk created self-action, which created new results. Hang on. Say that again. Say that again. I think that's important. Yes. Self-talk creates self-action, which then creates new results. And what you tell yourself really does create what you do. And then what you do creates who you become.