Why Your Executive Team Can’t Scale What You Won’t Show the World with Alan McLaren (stage 5) - Ep. 351 - The Start, Scale & Succeed Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Scott Ritzheimer (00:00):
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again

(00:02):
to the Start scale and succeedpodcast. It's the only podcast
that grows with you through allseven stages of your journey. As
a founder, I'm your host, ScottRitzheimer, and I want to talk
about something that catchesjust about every stage five
founder off guard, and that is,you've done this stuff, you've
built your executive team,you've got a CFO coo all the C

(00:23):
suite and and you've wrestledwith the idea that your job has
fundamentally changed. You nolonger in the weeds. You're no
longer there trying to driveeverything forward. But you're
left with a couple of questions.First, what do you do? And the
second one, and this issomething that very, very few
people talk about, and that isthat you can have a great team

(00:45):
executing brilliant, brilliantlyon the inside, but if you're not
visible on the outside, they'regoing to be pushing a boulder
uphill. Now to talk about whatthat looks like, why that
happens, and how we can get overit, you don't want to hear from
me. You want to hear from theguy who's got this figured out,
and that is the one and onlyAlan McLaren, who's co founder
of strata originals. He leads alearning brand, a learning

(01:09):
branding, leadership branding,wow, can't get it out. Agency
specializing in working withCEOs, executives, entrepreneurs
and legal professionals with astrategic, intentional and
authentic approach. Alan hascoached or trained over 600 CEOs
just in the past two years. Hispassion for personal branding
comes from over two decades ofexperience in leadership roles

(01:30):
including public companies,partnerships and entrepreneurial
ventures. As co founder ofinfiniticom, a full service
marketing agency, he developeddeep expertise in public
relations and marketing, honinghis ability to craft and elevate
brands, including those of CEOsand their personal brands. He's
here with us today. Alan, beforewe hit record, you made a

(01:50):
distinction that I think is justa brilliant way to start off the
show, and that is that you haveyou've moved away from personal
branding and moved to leadershipbranding, just help us
understand what's the differencedefine leadership branding, and
why is that different frompersonal branding?

Alan McLaren (02:06):
So there's two reasons why we made the move.
One was, you know, whensomething gets popular, then
it's a race to the bottom right.So that personal branding now
everybody and his brother'stalking about it, so that people
are now saying, Oh, for 2000bucks, we'll do this for you,
and that for you. And we said,You know what? We need to
elevate this conversation. Thisis a leadership conversation,
not a brand conversation. And sowhen you raise it to the level

(02:29):
of leadership, people look atthat and go, I'll invest in my
leadership. I'll invest in mycommunication, and what we call
your leadership signal, becausethat is something I understand.
Personal Branding is something,you know, we all have one, but
it tends to be very personal.But leadership tends to be very
business wise. That's why wemade the move, and it's changed

(02:50):
how we think about it as well.

Yeah, I love that. So what's the cost of not
investing in your leadershipbrand? I mean, there's a lot of
successful CEOs out there who'vebuilt successful companies and
have done it to a certainextent, invisibly, I know I did
in previous ventures. What isthat costing us in our
organizations?

Well, I'll ask you this way, what does trust cost?
What is building trust cost ornot having trust? Everybody who
has been successful in businesshas done that by accident or by
what is by purpose,purposefully. But if you think
about it now, you're saying,Okay, well, if I invest in
trust, any outcomes possible? IfI'm not trusted, then it's

(03:33):
impossible. And I'll give you anexample. I have a friend of mine
who was in the trucking space,and he moved to M and A, and
when he moved to M and A, hethought, who's going to follow
me? Everybody followed him. Why?Because he built trust. He
didn't have expertise in the newM and A world. He had trust in
the trucking world, but becausehe had done that, people move

(03:55):
with him. It's the same in anybusiness where you're trying to
get new employees, or you'retrying to grow your business, or
you're trying to do somethingpolitical, trust is the name of
the game. So that's one aspect.The other one is you'll never
know if you're not visible.Opportunities cannot show up on
your doorstep because yourdoorstep doesn't exist. So

(04:16):
that's the two reasons. I haveanother story I'll share with
you in a minute, but that's thetwo key reasons why it's
important to do that.

This is so good, because one of the things
that's happening in Stage Fiveis especially more forward
thinking. Leaders are thinkingabout what's next, right?
They're thinking about a move toanother industry, a move to, you
know, being more of an owner,investor. And this is the exact
mistake. I mean, it'sembarrassing how bad I did this

(04:43):
coming out of my previouscompany, but I've actually
written it about it in my book,and that is the biggest mistake
I made while I was CEO of aprevious company. Was not making
this investment. Because when Imoved, no one moved with me,
right? I was like, I startedfrom zero and felt the pain of
it. So. For those, especiallywho are thinking of like what
they're going to do after beingCEO, that's such a big point. I

(05:08):
want to I don't like to do thisbecause it's like every other
guest feels the need to talkabout AI, and we've got a full
conversation that we've hadwithout talking about AI. But as
you're talking about it, thisidea of trust I have seen is, is
so important now more than ever,because of the age of AI,
because data is thereeverywhere. But like, what do

(05:29):
you trust? And so walk usthrough maybe a little bit
practically, like building aleadership brand around trust,
right, both for this stage andfor future stages. What are some
of the what are some of thebiggest mistakes you see folks
make when they start off on thatjourney?

Well, they think that leadership or personal
branding or thought leadershipis just about content. Content
is the output that you see,right? But here's the thing that
we see differently. We only dovideo with our clients. Only
video, no written post. I mean,there's a written post
supporting the video, butthere's no post that we do. Why?

(06:06):
Because people want to spendtime with you, and
statistically, you've seen thatover 567, hours of watching a
video with someone, you get toknow them really well. In fact,
with the work that I do, whensomeone contacts me, they know
me. I don't know them becausethey've spent three hours with
me on video or watching apodcast or whatever it is. So if
you think about the first part,the first mistake is thinking is

(06:27):
just about doing content. And wesay, yes, it's about doing
content, but content that speaksfrom your strength or your what
you call your leadership signal.What does that mean? So in my
case, I'm a heart leader. I leadfrom the heart. So if I start
taking data and trying to spewthat out, I'm not in my zone.
Might think it's good, but Iwon't come over naturally, and I

(06:49):
won't come over authentically.So we work with our our clients
to get them in that zone andalso to eliminate their shadows.
Everybody has them things thatthey don't come across well when
they talk about once, you findthat then the content lands,
because it lands based on thetrust hormone, oxytocin. I don't
know if anybody knew this. We'velearned this in the last three

(07:10):
weeks. When you watch a videothat is from a trustworthy,
authentic person, oxytocin kicksinto your brain you trust, and
ergo, that person is nowtrusted, so that piece of
content is landed and issupported by neuroscience.
Imagine what that can happen ifyou do that 50 times in a year.
So that's the magic behind it,and we just discovered in the

(07:33):
last few weeks. So we're socharged about it that we have
that supporting us. So there yougo.

Amazing. We might have lost like everybody,
because I've seen so many folks,especially who fall in this
category. They they're wonderfulpeople in person, and then they
turn into robots as soon as thecamera turns on. And so that's
not a reason to not moveforward, right? How do you get
past that feeling of talkinginto a camera as opposed to

(08:00):
talking to another human being?

Well, there's a couple of ways. So if you're
doing it on your own, it'spractice, right? It's it's
practice record videos, untilyou think that, Oh, that is me.
The other one you know that wedo is we coach them to do that.
We were just with one of ourclients online, who is one of
the most brilliant orators inthe world, getting him in his
zone for that particular topicmattered, because I said to him,

(08:24):
Well, here's an example. Youcould talk about this, and now
you look like you're partisanwhen you talk about that, as
soon as you change the language,you're inviting people to think
about it differently. Ergo,that's what you want. Your
personal brand, your leadershipbrand, is all about. I want
people to think so. If you'repartisan, they're in their
partisan brain. If you'reinviting them in, then that's

(08:45):
what happens. So that's what wework people on, is coach them on
that that's hard to do on yourown, but if you are doing it on
your own, practice it till itfeels as comfortable as this. If
you and I were in a Starbucks,this would be how I would talk
to you. I'm not going to havemore hands or or trying to do
something silly. I'm notperforming. I'm trying to be me,

(09:07):
and you're trying to be you.That's what we try to get people
to do, because everybody'sauthentic. And the last thing
I'll say on this is, sometimes Iget people say, but I'm not
really good at this. I'm notcomfortable, I'm an introvert.
I'm going, Dude, you built abusiness worth $50 million you
had the alligators at yourankles all your life, and you're
going to take this learningopportunity and throw it away

(09:29):
because you're scared. Give me abreak. You've been scared all
your life as an entrepreneur,right? So now it's time to learn
a new skill that is transferableoutside of digital too, and
that's why we think it's soimportant. It's not just for
video, it's when you're doing apresentation to investors, when
you're out there doing an M andA when you're trying to hire

(09:50):
that coo. All of that mattersbeing in your zone.

yeah, it's interesting, and I think
especially coming back to thisroot of trust that. You talked
about it really is the core ofit. Because you see the CEO's
brand show up in things likeinvestment pitches, in things
like the CEO rating onGlassdoor, or whatever. The
other one is that I can'tremember off the top of my head

(10:16):
to, you know, what's on thewebsite. And you know, should
you choose to this company? Imean, how many people fell in
love with Apple because of SteveJobs? Right? Such a great
example of it. I think one ofthe challenges that folks might
have walking into that is like,how do you know if it's working?
How do you measure progress? Howdo you How does that translate

(10:39):
into success in our currentworld.

So what we believe is that this is about
relationship building andrelationship trust. So you can
measure relationship acquisitionpretty easily, right? They were
in my life. They're not in mylife. They turned out to be a
lead. They turned out to be apartner, whatever it happens to
be. You can also measureimpressions, so on YouTube and
LinkedIn you can measure, okay,well, when I started, 10 people

(11:03):
saw it after my fifth video, 50people are seeing it, 100
people, so it's being served tomore people now. So I'm making
an impact. The comments that youget, the likes, the shares, and
the part that nobody talksabout. And this is not a secret,
if you're in any kind ofnetworking event, and in my
case, I'm in an organizationcalled YPO, Young Presidents
Organization. I go to theseevents now, and I cannot leave

(11:26):
the room without someone goingI've been watching your videos.
I've been watching it happensall the time. They don't engage
because that's not what peopledo. 90% of people will not
engage with your content, butthey will view it. So you can
measure empirically the KPIsthat are there. I measure the
relationships. I have them, situp and I say, okay, these are

(11:46):
people. I need to nurturepartnerships. Good to know,
influencers, potentialcustomers. When you have that
and you're saying, Oh, it'sworking, and when it works, and
in my case, I'm so lucky, I getleads coming in all the time
from places i It's not linear,it's abstract, because I'm
visible. Stuff comes fromeverywhere. Someone will

(12:07):
recommend me. I don't even knowwho recommended me on a WhatsApp
group somewhere else, in somecountry, somewhere else. Oh, you
got to talk to Alan. Who arethey? I don't know how I touch
them. So all of those things arethe magic that visibility
creates if it's done correctlyand authentically and big, big
piece, don't sell. Never sell. Idon't sell a thing. I teach. I'm

(12:30):
in service of others. I'm doinga podcast guesting thing in a
few weeks, and I was specific onthe video. I said, No bait and
switch. We're not going to tryto sell you a course. At the
end, we're in service to you,and if you like it, you'll come
back to us and go, these are thepeople I want to deal with.
That's what you do in yourbusiness, because that is what
differentiates you fromeverything, including AI.

Yeah, yeah. So true. So true. Alan, there's a
question that I ask them. Iguess I'm interested to see what
you have to say, especially inthe context of this
conversation. But the questionis this, what is the biggest
secret you wish wasn't a secretat all. What's that one thing
you wish everybody watching orlistening today knew?

So if you did nothing else today, after this
podcast, go on your LinkedIn andstart commenting on other
people's posts. What does thatdo? Well, there's a
reciprocation factor. If I wenton your post, Scott and did that
say, Who's this? Alan guy. He'spretty insightful. You have to
say something insightful, notjust great video or like, say

(13:32):
something insightful, becausethen Scott will go, that was an
insightful comment. He'llcomment back, and then other
people will see your comment,because impressions are also
measured on a comment. So I didone Gary Vaynerchuk. We've all
heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. Idon't need to reach Gary
Vaynerchuk, but he's got bigfollowing. I made a comment. I
had almost 600 impressions onthe comment. So what am I doing?

(13:56):
I'm building my brand. I'mbuilding exposure and people.
Oh, then I watch peopleconnecting from that post. So
that's the secret, and thatrequires 15 minutes a week, so
I'm really too busy. No, you'renot. You can do that. If you do
nothing else, do that and youwatch it start to build, and you

(14:16):
say, Wow, what if I addedoriginal content to this? That's
what I would say the secret is.

So good, so good, so simple, too. Alan, I
love that. Alan, there's somefolks listening and this just
the right thing, right time,right everything. And they want
to know how they can helpimprove their leadership brand,
and are wondering how you canhelp in that process. Where can
folks reach out to you if theywant to find more and get some
of the comment content youtalked about today?

Yeah, and there's lots. And there's lots of tools
we could help you with that arefree just to kind of you can go
our newsletter and you get lotsof great content there, but find
me on LinkedIn. Mention that youyou heard me on your show, Scott
and Alan McLaren on LinkedIn,and just connect with me. Tell

(14:56):
me why you know, so that I knowit's not no one's trying to
pitch me. And I'm happy to help30 minute conversation for free.
Excuse me. Happy to help you,and if you turn out to be
someone that we can work with,then we talk about that. That's
fantastic.

Yeah, fantastic. Great. Alan, thank
you for being on the show. Itwas just a privilege and honor
having you here with us today.For those of you watching and
listening, you know your timeand attention mean the world to
us. I hope you got as much outof this conversation as I know I
did, and I cannot wait to seeyou next time. Take care.

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Why Your Executive Team Can’t Scale What You Won’t Show the World with Alan McLaren (stage 5) - Ep. 351

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Why Your Executive Team Can’t Scale What You Won’t Show the World with Alan McLaren (stage 5) - Ep. 351