August 11, 2025 • 15 mins
🚗 A dead car battery. No phone. And an unexpected lesson in branding.
This week, something happened to my girlfriend that reminded me why some brands stick in your mind… while others fade into the noise.
Here’s what I mean:
Your brand doesn’t stand out because of your logo, your colors, or even your marketing funnel.
It stands out because of how it makes people feel.
And in this episode, I’m sharing a short, true story that proves it, plus a simple way you can create those unforgettable moments in your own business.
If you’ve been looking for a way to connect with your audience that actually builds trust (instead of just more content for the algorithm)… this one’s for you.
Because when your brand earns real trust, everything else gets easier.
I made a short training called The Art of the 5-Minute Video—shows you how to say something powerful without rambling. Get it here, it's FREE!
Ready to turn your expertise into visibility and demand—without becoming fuel for the content machine?
📞 Schedule your FREE “Standout On Video” call here: standoutcall.com
Because when you start showing up with clarity, confidence, and the right content—your ideal clients won't just notice you. They'll choose you.
Thanks for tuning in. If you found this episode helpful, share it with another expert entrepreneur who’s ready to stop blending in.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brad Powell (00:06):
When it comes to branding, most folks are
thinking they're standing outbecause of things like their
logo or the colors on theirwebsite and what they wear and
that kind of stuff.
I just want to put a littlewrench in that kind of thinking
because I believe reallystrongly that your brand and
(00:28):
your business and your whole wayof being stand out because of
the way that you make peoplefeel.
So today I am going live on aSunday morning.
Today's theme is all about whyyour business and why your brand
needs to feel different and howthis one thing that happened
(00:50):
this week, one real world momentit kind of drove this whole
point home for me.
I got reminded of this in thisreally quite unexpected way and
I want to share that story withyou and how you can use this
same principle which will makeyour business unforgettable.
So if that sounds good, buckleup, because here we go.
(01:16):
Welcome to the StandoutBusiness Show.
This is the show for expertentrepreneurs who want to make a
bigger difference by showing updifferently.
I'm Brad Powell and I'm a videostrategist who helps experts
turn one hour of their life intoan entire month of
(01:38):
trust-building video.
Content without becoming fuelfor the content machine.
Content without becoming fuelfor the content machine.
So I decided to go live today,on a Sunday.
This is something I haven'tdone in actually quite a long
time.
I really feel like this is oneway that it can make your brand
and your business and yourpersonality feel quite different
(02:01):
, just by showing up live.
I remember and this is probably12, 15 years ago there was this
app called Periscope.
Do you remember Periscope andthe thing with Periscope?
It was only on mobile and whatit was was a live broadcasting
app and you would go live.
But what would happen is thatpeople who join like randomly
(02:24):
would join from anywhere.
The app algorithm would pushpeople to you when you're live
and if they liked what was goingon, they would hit the little
hearts button and so, as you'retalking, you'd see all these
little heart things, you know,popping up and going whoa, we
love it.
Popping up and going whoa, whoa, we love it, we love it, and it
(02:48):
was a real kind of dopaminerush and a real just feeling of
oh, I'm doing something andpeople love the experience.
Unfortunately, periscope is nolonger with us.
I think there's a dark side toall that liking and little heart
stuff going off.
I remember seeing RussellBronson on a periscope and he
(03:09):
was just shouting at peoplegoing click, click, click, click
, click, click, hit, click thosehearts, click those hearts, and
you would see these thousands.
Like the whole screen was beingfilled with hearts and he was
literally just playing thealgorithm and I don't know what
about how many people werefeeling about all of that, but
it just seemed like he wasplaying a game rather than doing
(03:30):
anything of particular value.
So that's not what I'm talkingabout, but just showing up and
sharing something real in realtime, like in this moment.
Whatever is going to go onduring this stream, it's for
real.
There's no edits, there's nowhatever it's, you know I'm live
and you're joining me live andyou get to be part of this
(03:53):
experience.
This is what we're doing rightnow and I want to tell this
story because this was a realmoment that happened just a
couple of days ago and I thinkthere's a really good lesson,
which was certainly a reallygood reminder for me of what we
need to get back to and whatactually is fast becoming kind
of a lost art, especially in thebusiness world.
(04:15):
So my girlfriend her name isSusan and she went off to the
dentist and the dentist is halfan hour drive across town.
She goes to her appointment.
And the dentist is half an hourdrive across town.
She goes to her appointment,everything goes fine.
She comes out after theappointment's over, tries to
start her car and she finds thatshe has a dead battery.
Oh no, now what?
(04:36):
So the other thing that was alittle additional challenge was
that she had left her phone athome.
So there she is in this otherneighborhood, half an hour away
from home, by car, no phone, noway to call anyone, and she's
wondering okay, what do I do now?
Well, being the kind offriendly, gregarious person that
(04:59):
she is, she starts going up tothe houses in the neighborhood
and knocking on doors asking forhelp, and most people aren't
home, they're not answering.
So what happens is that thesetwo young guys pull up in a car
and they park and when they getout, she goes over to them and
asks them for help and they gosure, we'll help you.
(05:20):
Why don't we go down the roadto the place where we can buy
some jumper cables?
Because they didn't have anyjumper cables and we'll get a
pair and we'll bring them backto you.
She had like $22 cash to givethem.
And she said well, here, thisis all the money I have, I hope
this can cover it.
And then they leave.
(05:41):
And I'm like, wow, that wassuper trusting of her to do that
.
But this is what she did.
And then somebody who also livedin the neighborhood pulled up
and got out of his car and soshe went over and talked to him
and he was saying you know whatkind of trouble you're having?
She goes, I have a dead batteryand he goes.
(06:01):
Well, I can't really help youbecause my car is electric.
But they start talking andwhile they're talking, the two
young guys actually come backand they have jumper cables and
instead of buying the jumpercables, they went to a friend's
place and they borrowed thejumper cables.
And of course they're youngguys, they didn't know how to
(06:23):
hook them up, they didn't knowhow to use them.
But the other neighbor, theolder guy, he does, and so he
goes.
Okay, I can show you how to dothis.
So the two young guys pulltheir car up, they hook up the
jumper cables, they let the onecar engine run for a while and
within like 10 or 15 minutes,she starts the car and zoom, it
starts up.
Problem solved.
(06:45):
Then she drives home and itturns out that our neighborhood,
really friendly neighborhoodmechanic.
He lives just a block down fromwhere we live, so she went
right over to his place andshe's developed a really nice
relationship with this guy andhe goes sure, I'll fix this.
And within 15 minutes he givesher a new battery, puts it in,
(07:05):
new batteries, installed,everything's fixed, she's as
good as new and she gets backhome in time to attend a webinar
that she had scheduled toattend later in the afternoon.
So kind of amazing, kind ofamazing from totally stuck to
totally taken care of.
(07:26):
Here's the thing about that.
I believe that the people whohelped her, I believe that they
felt like they benefited I mean,susan got, you know, got their
gifts, got their generosity butbecause they were able to help,
because they were able to extendtheir goodwill and their time
(07:46):
and their patience, all of asudden they started feeling
really useful.
I think this is especially truefor the two young guys.
They're like oh my gosh, lookwhat we did today.
We're like the auto rescue team.
You know, if Susan had herphone with her, none of this
would have happened.
She just would have called meor she would have called AAA and
(08:06):
, you know, nothing out of theordinary would have happened.
But the two young guys, theolder guy, they went home
feeling like they really havebenefited from this interactive
experience that they had.
I just want to pause for asecond and kind of drill in some
of the lessons that I think arethe big takeaways from
(08:27):
something like this.
The first one is that in thetime that we're living, we
really default to our phones, Ithink, way too much.
Anytime something's coming upand we need to find out the
answer to a question or we needhelp or we're looking for
answers of any kind, we justpick out our phone and it's
right there, it's too easy andwe go in and we find out
(08:48):
everything we want to know.
And, as artificial intelligenceis coming online and we have
access to basically all theinformation, everything like it
was sort of already there, butnow you have an assistant who
can help you find it and collateit and curate it and give it to
you in exactly what you need.
(09:10):
So you don't have to spend alot of time searching anymore.
You just say, hey, I have thisquestion and your artificial
intelligent buddy goes oh, here,here's exactly what you're
looking for.
So where's the human interactionin any of that?
What it's doing is it's leavingus out of the equation, like us
(09:30):
, and connecting with anotherhuman being is no longer part of
that puzzle.
Real human connection ithappens when you ask directly to
another human.
You ask to another human, andthe best case scenario is when
you're doing it face to face.
So you go out to a human andyou go hey, I need some help, I
(09:54):
have a problem.
I got this thing that I'mtrying to work out.
Can you help me figure it out?
Everything from can you help mecharge my battery in my car to
whatever complex thing you want,and in business the same
principle applies.
(10:15):
What could you be doing tointeract directly with your
audience?
You know we all go online, weall say stuff and most of the
time we're getting into thiskind of broadcast mode where I
have stuff to say and this isreally true for people who have
an expert business you put onyour expert hat and you go well,
I've got some expertise and I'mgoing to give value by sharing
(10:39):
everything I know for as much asI can.
That, I think, would be helpfuland there's nothing wrong with
that.
Like that's fine, but if youwant to interact in a personal,
connective, empathetic way withpeople, there's got to be some
back and forth.
And, of course, no matter howexpert you are, you can't know
(11:03):
the answer to everything.
And if you're any good at whatyou're doing, you're still
constantly learning, you'restill constantly exploring,
you're still constantly solvingpuzzles.
And while you're doing that,while you're solving those
puzzles, this is where you canbe interacting with your
audience and say hey, I'msolving this puzzle.
(11:24):
Wouldn't it be cool if we allsolved it together?
I need help to solve thispuzzle Now.
Your audience feels plugged inNow.
Your audience feels useful, andas they help you solve the
puzzle, they will benefitbecause they will be feeling
(11:44):
useful.
You will help them by makingthem feel useful, and this is
probably the most beneficialthing that you can do with your
audience Help them become likeuseful people, and this is a
mission that I've been on formany, many years.
I mean years ago I worked forOutward Bound.
(12:06):
In fact, I was the programdirector for a school in the
Pacific Northwest, and our wholemethodology was how could we
help young people feel moreuseful in the world, to go out
into the world as useful humans,and that was our main mission,
(12:33):
and we had lots and lots of waysto encourage usefulness, so
that this group of people wouldfeel like I can do amazing
things not just amazing things,but I can do things that are
genuinely useful and then go offand take that with them.
That's how the world changes.
If you are doing anything inyour business where you're
invested in the success, not ofyour own business, but in the
(12:53):
success of the entire communitythat you're engaged with and
you're getting them engaged infeeling useful, in helping to
increase that, you knowcommunity success, that global
success, oh my gosh, you'regoing to have a bunch of loyal,
(13:15):
amazing, connected people whoyou're interacting with on a
regular basis connected peoplewho you're interacting with on a
regular basis.
I would love to know when wasthe last time that you asked for
help, either in person oronline?
Just think about it for aminute.
(13:35):
When was the last time that Ireally went out and I asked for
any kind of assistance?
And it could be online, like itcould be in a post that you did
on LinkedIn, or it could be inperson, when you were waiting in
line getting coffee at a cafe.
As we wrap this up, I want tojust point out that your
business's real advantage, yourbrand's real advantage as you're
(13:59):
thinking about building yourpersonal brand, your brand's
real advantage as you'rethinking about building your
personal brand, the realadvantage is how it feels to
interact with you.
It's not how much you know,it's not how much you share,
it's not how much informationyou can give.
It's how it feels to interactwith you if people come away
(14:20):
after they interact with you andthey feel like they benefited,
particularly if they benefitedby making themselves feel useful
.
That's one of the greatestgifts that you can give to
anyone.
And if you want more ideas formaking your brand stand out and
(14:44):
feel different and be absolutelyunforgettable, follow the show,
subscribe and uh, tune inregularly every week.
The standout business show goeslive every single week.
We talk about this stuff allthe time and until the next time
, so long.
When it comes to branding, most folks are
thinking they're standing outbecause of things like their
logo or the colors on theirwebsite and what they wear and
that kind of stuff.
I just want to put a littlewrench in that kind of thinking
because I believe reallystrongly that your brand and
(00:28):
your business and your whole wayof being stand out because of
the way that you make peoplefeel.
So today I am going live on aSunday morning.
Today's theme is all about whyyour business and why your brand
needs to feel different and howthis one thing that happened
(00:50):
this week, one real world momentit kind of drove this whole
point home for me.
I got reminded of this in thisreally quite unexpected way and
I want to share that story withyou and how you can use this
same principle which will makeyour business unforgettable.
So if that sounds good, buckleup, because here we go.
(01:16):
Welcome to the StandoutBusiness Show.
This is the show for expertentrepreneurs who want to make a
bigger difference by showing updifferently.
I'm Brad Powell and I'm a videostrategist who helps experts
turn one hour of their life intoan entire month of
(01:38):
trust-building video.
Content without becoming fuelfor the content machine.
Content without becoming fuelfor the content machine.
So I decided to go live today,on a Sunday.
This is something I haven'tdone in actually quite a long
time.
I really feel like this is oneway that it can make your brand
and your business and yourpersonality feel quite different
(02:01):
, just by showing up live.
I remember and this is probably12, 15 years ago there was this
app called Periscope.
Do you remember Periscope andthe thing with Periscope?
It was only on mobile and whatit was was a live broadcasting
app and you would go live.
But what would happen is thatpeople who join like randomly
(02:24):
would join from anywhere.
The app algorithm would pushpeople to you when you're live
and if they liked what was goingon, they would hit the little
hearts button and so, as you'retalking, you'd see all these
little heart things, you know,popping up and going whoa, we
love it.
Popping up and going whoa, whoa, we love it, we love it, and it
(02:48):
was a real kind of dopaminerush and a real just feeling of
oh, I'm doing something andpeople love the experience.
Unfortunately, periscope is nolonger with us.
I think there's a dark side toall that liking and little heart
stuff going off.
I remember seeing RussellBronson on a periscope and he
(03:09):
was just shouting at peoplegoing click, click, click, click
, click, click, hit, click thosehearts, click those hearts, and
you would see these thousands.
Like the whole screen was beingfilled with hearts and he was
literally just playing thealgorithm and I don't know what
about how many people werefeeling about all of that, but
it just seemed like he wasplaying a game rather than doing
(03:30):
anything of particular value.
So that's not what I'm talkingabout, but just showing up and
sharing something real in realtime, like in this moment.
Whatever is going to go onduring this stream, it's for
real.
There's no edits, there's nowhatever it's, you know I'm live
and you're joining me live andyou get to be part of this
(03:53):
experience.
This is what we're doing rightnow and I want to tell this
story because this was a realmoment that happened just a
couple of days ago and I thinkthere's a really good lesson,
which was certainly a reallygood reminder for me of what we
need to get back to and whatactually is fast becoming kind
of a lost art, especially in thebusiness world.
(04:15):
So my girlfriend her name isSusan and she went off to the
dentist and the dentist is halfan hour drive across town.
She goes to her appointment.
And the dentist is half an hourdrive across town.
She goes to her appointment,everything goes fine.
She comes out after theappointment's over, tries to
start her car and she finds thatshe has a dead battery.
Oh no, now what?
(04:36):
So the other thing that was alittle additional challenge was
that she had left her phone athome.
So there she is in this otherneighborhood, half an hour away
from home, by car, no phone, noway to call anyone, and she's
wondering okay, what do I do now?
Well, being the kind offriendly, gregarious person that
(04:59):
she is, she starts going up tothe houses in the neighborhood
and knocking on doors asking forhelp, and most people aren't
home, they're not answering.
So what happens is that thesetwo young guys pull up in a car
and they park and when they getout, she goes over to them and
asks them for help and they gosure, we'll help you.
(05:20):
Why don't we go down the roadto the place where we can buy
some jumper cables?
Because they didn't have anyjumper cables and we'll get a
pair and we'll bring them backto you.
She had like $22 cash to givethem.
And she said well, here, thisis all the money I have, I hope
this can cover it.
And then they leave.
(05:41):
And I'm like, wow, that wassuper trusting of her to do that
.
But this is what she did.
And then somebody who also livedin the neighborhood pulled up
and got out of his car and soshe went over and talked to him
and he was saying you know whatkind of trouble you're having?
She goes, I have a dead batteryand he goes.
(06:01):
Well, I can't really help youbecause my car is electric.
But they start talking andwhile they're talking, the two
young guys actually come backand they have jumper cables and
instead of buying the jumpercables, they went to a friend's
place and they borrowed thejumper cables.
And of course they're youngguys, they didn't know how to
(06:23):
hook them up, they didn't knowhow to use them.
But the other neighbor, theolder guy, he does, and so he
goes.
Okay, I can show you how to dothis.
So the two young guys pulltheir car up, they hook up the
jumper cables, they let the onecar engine run for a while and
within like 10 or 15 minutes,she starts the car and zoom, it
starts up.
Problem solved.
(06:45):
Then she drives home and itturns out that our neighborhood,
really friendly neighborhoodmechanic.
He lives just a block down fromwhere we live, so she went
right over to his place andshe's developed a really nice
relationship with this guy andhe goes sure, I'll fix this.
And within 15 minutes he givesher a new battery, puts it in,
(07:05):
new batteries, installed,everything's fixed, she's as
good as new and she gets backhome in time to attend a webinar
that she had scheduled toattend later in the afternoon.
So kind of amazing, kind ofamazing from totally stuck to
totally taken care of.
(07:26):
Here's the thing about that.
I believe that the people whohelped her, I believe that they
felt like they benefited I mean,susan got, you know, got their
gifts, got their generosity butbecause they were able to help,
because they were able to extendtheir goodwill and their time
(07:46):
and their patience, all of asudden they started feeling
really useful.
I think this is especially truefor the two young guys.
They're like oh my gosh, lookwhat we did today.
We're like the auto rescue team.
You know, if Susan had herphone with her, none of this
would have happened.
She just would have called meor she would have called AAA and
(08:06):
, you know, nothing out of theordinary would have happened.
But the two young guys, theolder guy, they went home
feeling like they really havebenefited from this interactive
experience that they had.
I just want to pause for asecond and kind of drill in some
of the lessons that I think arethe big takeaways from
(08:27):
something like this.
The first one is that in thetime that we're living, we
really default to our phones, Ithink, way too much.
Anytime something's coming upand we need to find out the
answer to a question or we needhelp or we're looking for
answers of any kind, we justpick out our phone and it's
right there, it's too easy andwe go in and we find out
(08:48):
everything we want to know.
And, as artificial intelligenceis coming online and we have
access to basically all theinformation, everything like it
was sort of already there, butnow you have an assistant who
can help you find it and collateit and curate it and give it to
you in exactly what you need.
(09:10):
So you don't have to spend alot of time searching anymore.
You just say, hey, I have thisquestion and your artificial
intelligent buddy goes oh, here,here's exactly what you're
looking for.
So where's the human interactionin any of that?
What it's doing is it's leavingus out of the equation, like us
(09:30):
, and connecting with anotherhuman being is no longer part of
that puzzle.
Real human connection ithappens when you ask directly to
another human.
You ask to another human, andthe best case scenario is when
you're doing it face to face.
So you go out to a human andyou go hey, I need some help, I
(09:54):
have a problem.
I got this thing that I'mtrying to work out.
Can you help me figure it out?
Everything from can you help mecharge my battery in my car to
whatever complex thing you want,and in business the same
principle applies.
(10:15):
What could you be doing tointeract directly with your
audience?
You know we all go online, weall say stuff and most of the
time we're getting into thiskind of broadcast mode where I
have stuff to say and this isreally true for people who have
an expert business you put onyour expert hat and you go well,
I've got some expertise and I'mgoing to give value by sharing
(10:39):
everything I know for as much asI can.
That, I think, would be helpfuland there's nothing wrong with
that.
Like that's fine, but if youwant to interact in a personal,
connective, empathetic way withpeople, there's got to be some
back and forth.
And, of course, no matter howexpert you are, you can't know
(11:03):
the answer to everything.
And if you're any good at whatyou're doing, you're still
constantly learning, you'restill constantly exploring,
you're still constantly solvingpuzzles.
And while you're doing that,while you're solving those
puzzles, this is where you canbe interacting with your
audience and say hey, I'msolving this puzzle.
(11:24):
Wouldn't it be cool if we allsolved it together?
I need help to solve thispuzzle Now.
Your audience feels plugged inNow.
Your audience feels useful, andas they help you solve the
puzzle, they will benefitbecause they will be feeling
(11:44):
useful.
You will help them by makingthem feel useful, and this is
probably the most beneficialthing that you can do with your
audience Help them become likeuseful people, and this is a
mission that I've been on formany, many years.
I mean years ago I worked forOutward Bound.
(12:06):
In fact, I was the programdirector for a school in the
Pacific Northwest, and our wholemethodology was how could we
help young people feel moreuseful in the world, to go out
into the world as useful humans,and that was our main mission,
(12:33):
and we had lots and lots of waysto encourage usefulness, so
that this group of people wouldfeel like I can do amazing
things not just amazing things,but I can do things that are
genuinely useful and then go offand take that with them.
That's how the world changes.
If you are doing anything inyour business where you're
invested in the success, not ofyour own business, but in the
(12:53):
success of the entire communitythat you're engaged with and
you're getting them engaged infeeling useful, in helping to
increase that, you knowcommunity success, that global
success, oh my gosh, you'regoing to have a bunch of loyal,
(13:15):
amazing, connected people whoyou're interacting with on a
regular basis connected peoplewho you're interacting with on a
regular basis.
I would love to know when wasthe last time that you asked for
help, either in person oronline?
Just think about it for aminute.
(13:35):
When was the last time that Ireally went out and I asked for
any kind of assistance?
And it could be online, like itcould be in a post that you did
on LinkedIn, or it could be inperson, when you were waiting in
line getting coffee at a cafe.
As we wrap this up, I want tojust point out that your
business's real advantage, yourbrand's real advantage as you're
(13:59):
thinking about building yourpersonal brand, your brand's
real advantage as you'rethinking about building your
personal brand, the realadvantage is how it feels to
interact with you.
It's not how much you know,it's not how much you share,
it's not how much informationyou can give.
It's how it feels to interactwith you if people come away
(14:20):
after they interact with you andthey feel like they benefited,
particularly if they benefitedby making themselves feel useful
.
That's one of the greatestgifts that you can give to
anyone.
And if you want more ideas formaking your brand stand out and
(14:44):
feel different and be absolutelyunforgettable, follow the show,
subscribe and uh, tune inregularly every week.
The standout business show goeslive every single week.
We talk about this stuff allthe time and until the next time
, so long.
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