Becoming the “Chosen One” – In Just 7 Minutes with Marc Ensign

Resources/Links:

• Take this 90-second assessment to measure the effectiveness of your personal brand. Based on your score, you will receive a custom action plan from personal branding expert Marc Ensign: http://marcensign.com/assessment/

Summary

Marc Ensign started out his professional life as the bass player for the Broadway Show Rent. He was completely unqualified (his words, not mine) but had a gift for marketing himself and the rest is Broadway history. Fast forward a bunch of years later and Marc has since leveraged that experience and is now “The Big Cheese” at LoudMouse, a personal branding agency specializing in making some of the world’s most inspiring speakers, authors, coaches, and entrepreneurs impossible to ignore.

In this episode, Marc shares how his life has revolved around mastering the art and science of branding and marketing people, why personal branding is important for your business success. Figuring out what makes someone tick and how to get the rest of the world to fall in love with you, your service, what you stand for, making and you the ‘chosen one’.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:30 – Marc’s ideal client: We mostly work with speakers, authors and coaches, and entrepreneurs. But also, we have some clients that are executives within existing companies or musicians and artists like basically anybody that wants to reach more people, make a bigger difference, and leverage their personal brand, their person, in order to do so.
• 01:54 – Problem he helps solve: Mostly, its results, like, they’re not getting the results. They see other people, like, the Gary Vaynerchuk’s of the world running around, you know, with huge audiences, growing their business, you know, by being out there speaking and whatnot. And they’re just not quite getting those same results.
• 02:27 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Marc: It’s just like throwing spaghetti at the wall, you know, like something will stick, enough to keep you in the game. But it just becomes a very frustrating experience because there are people out there that aren’t as good as me that are getting, much further than I am. My competitors are killing me, they’re stealing my cheese, and yet I offer so much more value than they do. Like that kind of stuff, like, you know, where they just can’t quite grasp the fact that others are doing better than they are, you know, considering their position.
• 03:36 – Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem: I think the mistakes that most people make is they find one aspect of it that they really like and then they throw all their, you know, all their attention on that.
• 05:02 – Marc’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): Focus on all three of these aspects (identity, visibility, and authority), as well as consistency. Like consistency is real key when it comes to branding.
• 06:13 – Marc’s Valuable Free Resource(VFR): Take this 90-second assessment to measure the effectiveness of your personal brand. Based on your score, you will receive a custom action plan from personal branding expert Marc Ensign: http://marcensign.com/assessment/
• 07:12 – Q: “If I’m not a speaker, author or a coach, do I need a personal brand??” A:In this day and age, you know, absolutely. I mean, we’re bouncing from job to job. We have kids that are in college that have these opportunities to get out of college and actually have a brand while they’re, you know, sitting behind a desk and learning, they can be building their brands. When they do get out, they have a better shot at getting a job as opposed to fighting the masses who are graduating at the same time. Yeah, in this world, like it’s not just for speakers, authors, coaches, and entrepreneurs. I think everybody really needs to put some focus on that personal brand, in order to get the job of their dreams or move up and do the things that they really want to do.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Everybody really needs to put some focus on that personal brand, in order to get the job of their dreams or move up and do the things that they really want to do.” -@MarcEnsign Share on X

Info about our correspondent host: Travis has a background in sales, marketing, and strategy, and left the corporate world several years ago to start his own agency. As a copywriter by trade, his biggest skill is putting the right words, in front of the right people, at the right time. Travis has developed go-to-market strategies for grassroots apps to Fortune 500 and helped optimize up to $50k per day in Facebook Ad spend for one of the biggest startups in Asia.

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Travis Bennett:0:09
Travis Bennett 0:09
Hi everyone, and welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Travis Bennett and I’m rocking it to you out of Yangon, Myanmar, proving you can build a successful business anywhere in the world. I’m joined today by Marc Ensign. Marc, a very, very warm welcome.

Marc Ensign: 0:23
Thank you. It’s good to be here.

Travis Bennett: 0:24
Perfect. And where are you coming to us today from?

Marc Ensign: 0:27
Tampa, Florida.

Travis Bennett: 0:28
Ow, nice. Nice, nice part of the world.

Marc Ensign: 0:31
Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s humid, but it’s nice.

Travis Bennett: 0:34
You miss the hurricane so that’s always good.

Marc Ensign: 0:37
Sure.

Travis Bennett: 0:37
So, for those of you who don’t know Marc, I’ll introduce him really quick. He started professional life as a bass player on the Broadway Show Rent. Completely unqualified (his words, not mine) but he had a gift from marketing himself and the rest is history, well, Broadway history. Fast forward, he’s leveraged that experience and is now “The Big Cheese” at LoudMouse. It’s a personal branding agency, and they kind of specialize in making some of the world’s best speakers and authors and coaches impossible to ignore. So very, very cool and very, very relevant to a lot of the people that are listening in today. Marc, it’s great to have you on the show.

Marc Ensign: 1:13
Yeah, it’s great to be I’m excited.

Travis Bennett: 1:15
Perfect. We are going to be talking about, “How to Become the Chosen One in Your Industry.” And we’re going to explain everything in seven minutes. So, I’m going to start this little timer. And we’re going to jump right into question number one, Marc, who is your ideal client?

Marc Ensign: 1:30

So, we mostly work with speakers, authors and coaches, and entrepreneurs. But also, we have some clients that are executives within existing companies or musicians and artists like basically anybody that wants to reach more people, make a bigger difference, and leverage their personal brand, their person, in order to do so.

Travis Bennett: 1:48
Very nice. And for these clients, what’s the main problem that you’re solving for them with their personal brands?

Marc Ensign: 1:54

Mostly, its results, like, they’re not getting the results. They see other people, like, the Gary Vaynerchuk’s of the world running around, you know, with huge audiences, growing their business, you know, by being out there speaking and whatnot. And they’re just not quite getting those same results.

Travis Bennett: 2:09
And so, we’ve got six minutes on the clock, we’re doing really good for time. Question number three, what are the symptoms that people experience when they’re not getting these results with their brand? They want to be Gary V, but they’re not quite there yet. What’s going on in their life that they’re experiencing while this happens?

Marc Ensign: 2:27

Basically, they see it as kind of a waste of time, right? Like, so they’re spending time on social media, they’re blogging. They’re putting out like the typical what you would think are personal branding type stuff. And it’s just like throwing spaghetti at the wall, you know, like something will stick, enough to keep you in the game.

But it just becomes a very frustrating experience because there are people out there that aren’t as good as me that are getting, much further than I am. My competitors are killing me, they’re stealing my cheese, and yet I offer so much more value than they do. Like that kind of stuff, like, you know, where they just can’t quite grasp the fact that others are doing better than they are, you know, considering their position.

Travis Bennett: 3:09
Okay. And that’s, that’s a tough realization to come to, right? Where you know you can be better and you know that there’s more, but you’re stuck on that, “How do I get there?” What’s the plan? How do I strategically look at this and say, “Okay, what is going to make me keep up with the competition? How can I do that?” And if you’re not sure of the path it can be kind of demotivating with all this stress on your shoulders of your own business and all of this, right?

Marc Ensign: 3:36

Yeah. So, the mistakes, I think the mistakes that most people make is they find one aspect of it that they really like and then they throw all their, you know, all their attention on that.

So, they’ll focus on the website and blogging or maybe they’ll put together a podcast or maybe they’ll, you know, double down on social media. Where your personal brand really excels is where you focus on, you know, like, all these different elements. So, and there’s three aspects to it. There’s your identity, it’s knowing who you are, what you stand for, and who your target audience is. And how you serve them in a way that nobody else does. Then there’s your visibility, how do you now communicate that in a way that’s visual, you know, such as your website, or your logo, your social media platforms and whatnot. And then there’s the last aspect which is authority, which is showing up being interviewed on podcasts, interviewed on TV, writing the book on your subject, speaking, monetizing your brand in some way. And what tends to happen is people tend to say like, “Well, I really like social media so I’m going to throw all my, you know, I’m going to double up my efforts in social media.” When meanwhile, they’re really suffering on authority, or really not clear about who they are in terms of their identity.

Travis Bennett: 4:42
Yeah. And that’s kind of like trying to attack a problem, but you’ve only focused on the one part. You’re missing the bigger picture; you’re not actually seeing everything you need to be doing.

Marc Ensign: 4:51
Exactly.

Travis Bennett: 4:52
Cool. So then question number five, three minutes left, we’re really good. What advice would you give someone in this position to kind of start making progress?

Marc Ensign: 5:02
So, there are a couple of things, first, again, focusing on all three of these aspects, as well as consistency. Like consistency is real key when it comes to branding. You know, when you’re driving down the highway and you see ads for McDonald’s, you don’t see like a different logo every time you see a billboard, or you don’t see a different voice or different type of, you know, content every time, like, it’s the same.
Maybe they look a little different, different picture of a hamburger, whatever, but the brand is always the same. Coke always uses the same color red, it’s not like it’s red-ish. It’s not like you know, every time you see a Coke ad or a can of Coke, they’re not the same. And so, it’s that consistency of your message, that consistency of how you communicate that message. And just constantly staying on point. When you hit people over the head enough times with your brand, eventually it’ll start to stick. And once it starts to stick, then people really know who you are and what you stand for. And so now you’re at top of mind because they know what to expect.

Travis Bennett: 5:55
Perfect. Perfect. That’s actually really powerful. Consistency is key.

Marc Ensign: 6:00
Oh, absolutely.

Travis Bennett: 6:00
Perfect. So then question number six, a minute 40 left on the clock, if any of our listeners are interested and they want more help or they want to get some more information about what you’re doing and how you can help them, where should they go?

Marc Ensign: 6:13
So, before I or anybody can help you, you have to really know where you are and where you stand. And so, I have an assessment, it’s a free assessment if you go to marcensign.com/assessment. So, it’s M-A-R-C-E-N-S-I-G-N dot com slash assessment. It’s going to take you about 60 seconds, there’s about 10 questions, nine or 10 questions that scale of zero to 10 kind of thing. And it’s not only going to rate where you are within each area of your personal brand, it’s going to give you an overall score, and it’s going to send you an email with a bunch of advice on, you know, “Hey, here are some things that you can do right now to improve your score.” Once you’re clear about where you stand, then you can actually start taking action because that’s where you’ll find, like, “Hey, I’m really strong in this one area, but I’m really weak in this other area.” And it’s going to force you to gravitate towards strengthening the other areas that you’re missing.

Travis Bennett: 7:01
Perfect. To kind of focus on those three aspects that you mentioned before.

Marc Ensign: 7:04
Exactly.

Travis Bennett: 7:05
Cool.

Marc Ensign: 7:05
Yeah.

Travis Bennett: 7:06
So then 30 seconds left. Last question. What’s one thing I should have asked that we haven’t had a chance to talk about yet?

Marc Ensign: 7:12
The one question that always comes up or should come up more often, I think is, you know,

If I’m not a speaker, author or coach, do I need a personal brand?

And so, a lot of people that are either students or have jobs, do they need a personal brand? And in this world, in this day and age, you know, absolutely. I mean, we’re bouncing from job to job. We have kids that are in college that have these opportunities to get out of college and actually have a brand while they’re, you know, sitting behind a desk and learning, they can be building their brands. When they do get out, they have a better shot at getting a job as opposed to fighting the masses who are graduating at the same time. Yeah, in this world, like it’s not just for speakers, authors, coaches and entrepreneurs. I think everybody really needs to put some focus on that personal brand, in order to get the job of their dreams or move up and do the things that they really want to do.

Travis Bennett: 7:58
Powerful stuff. Marc, that’s it, that’s our seven minutes. Thank you so much. We made it. A little bit over, that’s okay. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Thank you, Marc, for joining us on the show. And remember marcensign.com/assessment, find out where you are so that you can start improving today.

Tom Poland: 7:49
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.