[00:00:00] Dave Polykoff: So, you want to start a personal brand. Awesome! You're a smart cookie. But before you start showcasing your greatness to the world, you want to make sure you don't make these critical personal branding mistakes. Mistakes that could prevent you from starting, maintaining, or ever seeing success with your personal brand.
[00:00:15] Dave Polykoff: And to help me walk through them all, I invited on Erik Cabral to the show. Erik is the founder of "On Air Brands," a podcast and personal branding production company helping thought leaders craft their message and tell it to the world through their very own podcast show.
[00:00:29] Dave Polykoff: Erik and I chat through a ton of valuable personal branding lessons learned on today's episode. So get your pen and paper ready to take some notes as we outline the personal branding mistakes to avoid together on this episode of Brand Science.
[00:00:42]
[00:00:42] Dave Polykoff: Welcome back to another episode of brand science. This one's going to be a good one today because I have Eric Cabral with me, a founder of On Air Brands, who is also in The personal branding space, Eric, thank you so much for being on the show today, man,[00:01:00]
[00:01:00] Erik Cabral: Pleasure, man. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:02] Dave Polykoff: For sure. So, like I said, you're in the personal branding space as well. Before we started this, uh, this podcast, which we had about an hour conversation prior to this, just nerding out on, on personal branding, um, which could probably be its own podcast, but, um, I wanted to have you on today because I thought it'd be a really cool idea to have someone else who shares the personal branding service space to just kind of nerd out and talk about personal branding itself, but like common misconceptions and mistakes that a lot of people who want to start a personal brand are making.
[00:01:38] Dave Polykoff: Um, so. That's what today's episode is going to be all about. It's going to be a good one, but I want to start like a starting every episode with understanding what your story is because all personal branding really is, is sharing our stories. So let's start with yours. have a podcast agency. You've launched close to a hundred.
[00:01:58] Dave Polykoff: It sounds like [00:02:00] podcasts to date. And you have a strong personal branding solution. Now, I want to know how have you gotten into that space, um, and maybe even give some tidbits about where the, uh, the, the name podcast came from. Cause we had a re nerded out, nerded out about that a little bit before the podcast as well.
[00:02:18] Erik Cabral: Yeah, yeah. I, you know, I don't want to bore anyone with, uh, you know, Hey, back when I was in diapers or anything like that. So I'll try to make it as quick and entertaining as possible. Uh, but yeah, dude, I was stuck in corporate America as most people I'm sure can relate to. For 21 years, dude. And, um, you know, I was in the branding space, marketing, advertising, uh, did that for, for way too long.
[00:02:42] Erik Cabral: Uh, but you know, learned a ton, man. I loved it. I always wanted to be a creative. I'm a comic book nerd. So like I, my, my goal was to work for Marvel and, uh, draw Spider Man and do all those things. I was a
[00:02:54] Dave Polykoff: I don't know if you can see
[00:02:56] Erik Cabral: there you go,
[00:02:57] Dave Polykoff: comics back there, but.
[00:02:58] Erik Cabral: Yeah, I got a [00:03:00] Stanley signed amazing fantasy number 15, a reprint.
[00:03:03] Erik Cabral: It's not the original original, but yeah, dude, that like, I'm not surely considering selling my entire comic book collection probably worth. I don't know, a few thousand. I have no idea to just get the Holy grail, which is amazing. Fantasy number 15, but anyway, so we can geek out about that later. but there is actually ties to personal branding that I'd love to share later, uh, as you talk about some of the common, uh, trips and falls that people make along the way that are very related to, to, to me for comic books, but, um, yeah, I found that I wasn't great at it illustrating as, as, as people, I was going to school of visual arts in Manhattan and I would literally sitting next to, we had all drafting tables or weren't a lot of computers at that time.
[00:03:46] Erik Cabral: And they're, they worked for Marvel and DC and I was like fanning. I was just such a geek seeing them draw real comic pages. Um, and I was nowhere near as good. So I went the graphic design route, uh, and just got [00:04:00] really good at creating logos and brands. Uh, so I became an expert in that. Um, but then it got to the point where I wasn't getting fulfillment out of that.
[00:04:09] Erik Cabral: Like I, I felt like it was a machine. It felt like. Uh, everything I was doing was just, just a commodity and I still loved doing it, but I just didn't love serving who I was serving, which was corporate. And they did me a blessing by laying me off and I re evaluated my life. We were about to have our second child and, um, separate, separate story.
[00:04:32] Erik Cabral: She, she, she decided not to, to come into the world in a hospital. Like she decided to do it on the side of the road. So I delivered my second baby on the side of the road. Um, and then. I was like, what can I do? They gave me three months. I was leading the team as a creative director. And, uh, they were like, you have to lay everyone off and you're the last to go.
[00:04:54] Erik Cabral: So shut the light off and lock the door behind you. And, uh, you know, nice knowing you. [00:05:00] Uh, but I had a lot of job offers. I specifically one really big one where they were like, Hey, we're going to give you a blank check. Can you help us create a. A creative studio in Ohio and in Manhattan, dude, that was a dream job.
[00:05:12] Erik Cabral: I was like, of course I want to do that. But then my life flashed before my eyes. I looked at myself in the mirror, dude. I was like probably almost a hundred pounds heavier than I am now. Uh, I was drinking, I was smoking. I was not nice to my wife for sure. Um, and I was like, I got to do something else with this.
[00:05:29] Erik Cabral: Like, if I take that job, I'll probably never home. I'm flying back and forth. It was Chicago, actually, not Ohio. And, uh, I asked my wife, I was like, Hey, do you mind if I just take a break? And she's like, what are you going to do? I was like, I'm actually considering real estate investing. She's like, are you out of your mind?
[00:05:45] Erik Cabral: What are you talking about? You don't know anything about investing. Uh, I was like, I'm reading up on it. I'm listening to this podcast, bigger pockets. I'm
[00:05:51] Dave Polykoff: As we all do. We've all gone through that.
[00:05:54] Erik Cabral: for sure. And she was like, okay, well. What's your plan? If it doesn't work, [00:06:00] I'm like, yeah, no, don't worry. We'll, uh, you know, I'll go back.
[00:06:03] Erik Cabral: I'll go back. Even though I knew I was burning the boats in my head, dude, I burned the boats. Uh, yeah, just, that's what got it all started. Dude. Got into real estate investing, got surrounded by amazing people who had an abundance mindset. That was not a thing in my world. I came from, and we, most of us from a scarcity mindset, especially if you were raised by boomers who, you know, post war era, they didn't have much.
[00:06:27] Erik Cabral: So, uh, it was so cool to be around people that were like, if I help you, it helps everyone I'm like, what? So that's changed and transformed my entire life and mindset. And it built my company because I served them. That's where I was like, Oh, wow. There's no creatives here. Everyone invests. They're all data driven.
[00:06:46] Erik Cabral: They're all, they, they don't know anything about branding and logos and marketing and social media. So I was like, let me just help these guys. And one became two. And then all of a sudden I had dozens of clients and I was like, wait, I think I need to focus here and pause the real estate investing [00:07:00] stuff.
[00:07:00] Erik Cabral: So yeah, that's what brought us here, man. Feel blessed.
[00:07:03] Dave Polykoff: That's crazy. Yeah. I want to nerd out on the, uh, the real estate side of things too. Cause I went down that same path, but again, for another podcast. Um, no, that's awesome. And, and, and so I guess from there you've kind of grown into this. Podcasting personal branding space. Um, and kind of vesseled into multiple is, is you mainly focused on real estate to date, or are you still kind of, you work with kind of a variety of different people?
[00:07:29] Erik Cabral: It's a variety, but, uh, it used to be, I'd probably 80, 20, you know, heavy on the real estate investing side. Uh, but now it's more of a 50, 50. So it's cool. Uh, we, we've expanded, you know, technology, uh, sector, uh, branding, coaching, um, clients, uh, a lot of them are wealthy individuals, high net worth that are trying to create the next thing.
[00:07:50] Erik Cabral: Because that business, either they're selling it or it's on autopilot and they're getting more freedom, uh, in their life and they like want to [00:08:00] get more fulfillment somewhere else and build something they really love. So yeah, that's, that's pretty typically the people that we help.
[00:08:08] Dave Polykoff: Well, I want to start, I think what would be good before we jump into misconceptions and mistakes is actually like defining personal branding, because I found that not everyone knows what it is. I mean, if you're listening to this podcast, I'm, there's probably Strongly, uh, believe that you would know what it is, but I think it would be good to define what it is because I sometimes means different things to different people, you know, when people think personal branding, sometimes I think like influencer or something like that.
[00:08:37] Dave Polykoff: So how would you define personal branding?
[00:08:41] Erik Cabral: Yeah. I mean, I could sum it up in one word and just like, spoiler, just get there, but if I could give you some backstory to it, um, but basically what I've understood and realized. Over time with personal branding. And the best definition to me is it's building your online reputation [00:09:00] when you're a brick and mortar and you work on a local level, um, that how, that's how businesses started, right?
[00:09:07] Erik Cabral: We didn't have internet back in the day and you had to build a reputation. Like that's word of mouth people going, yeah, use Joe. He's the best plumber, whoever it is. You had to like, make sure you did a good job and that you were somewhat passionate about what you do. So that. When you meet people, they want to be around you and they trust you.
[00:09:24] Erik Cabral: That's what you're really trying to do is build that trust over time. So what's happened with the internet and, uh, social media is it's, it's not the Oprah's and the Tony Robbins and the Emeralds of the world that have personal brands anymore because they had television to leverage and create their own shows and their own platforms.
[00:09:43] Erik Cabral: Now we have the platform and we have to build a reputation. While we sleep with content, with podcasts, with micro content, social media stuff. So yeah, it's really just making sure that you're very aware of what you're putting out there in terms of content and being consistent with [00:10:00] that. And that in terms, in some way, that heavy way becomes your sales force becomes your marketing force, where now you're like building this thing where people meet you in person.
[00:10:10] Erik Cabral: Hopefully they do in real life. They, uh, go, I feel like I know you. And you're like, yes, and you're putting, hopefully an authentic version of yourself out there so that when they do get to know you, they're like, there's a disconnect here. You keep talking about this thing, but you're, you, you, you, you live your life this way.
[00:10:27] Erik Cabral: Um, that's where you and I, I think really help people. It's like making sure you actually. Are putting the real version of you out there. Instead of all this fake, there's so much fakeness out there. It's disgusting. It's just like, I hate being on social media, to be honest, even though that's our business.
[00:10:43] Erik Cabral: But me personally, I just don't like seeing it, bro. Like, I don't like seeing all this fakeness. I'm like, I know this guy, that's not him. Oh, well, I feel like,
[00:10:52] Dave Polykoff: Right. Yeah. Um, yeah, and that's a whole nother rabbit hole too, in terms of like spotting that and such. But, [00:11:00] um, yeah, no, I, I think that, that really kind of summarizes it well in terms of, yeah, translating the authentic you. Into messaging that you publicly display, whether that be, you know, it can be online, you know, social media could be, um, you know, public speaking could be events and things like that.
[00:11:17] Dave Polykoff: But, uh, yeah, I think that's a good way to kind of summarize what it is we're actually talking about today. So why don't we start with this then? Um, Why don't we start with a common misconception or mistake that you've seen, um, your clients or just people who are inquiring about your service are commonly making.
[00:11:38] Erik Cabral: yeah, the big mistake that people make, and then I have somewhat of a solution to that mistake, uh, is, uh, You know, putting content and creating content and hitting record, you know, press record as Sean Cannell would say, uh, plug to my dude think media is, um, that's okay. I get that. You got to start [00:12:00] at some point because there is a lot of fear, you know, public speaking is the number one fear second to, to actually dying.
[00:12:05] Erik Cabral: And I love the Seinfeld quote where it's like, so that means the person would rather be the guy giving the huge eulogy versus he wants to be the guy in the casket and he doesn't want to be the guy. Uh, so. I get it. You know, it is scary and it is very similar. If you turn the camera on, you get in your own head and you start to think, how are people going to perceive?
[00:12:25] Erik Cabral: How are we going to think of me? Oh, what if I say the wrong thing? What if I look weird? Like once you get past that, I love the fact that you're actually hitting record, so that's good for you. But the thing is over time, if you don't have clarity in your message and who you serve or who you are and your core values, you're going to start to confuse people.
[00:12:42] Erik Cabral: That's what I did. So the biggest mistake I made was doing that for too long for years. I would just turn on the thing and like, show myself networking, show myself here, show myself at a real estate thing, show myself flipping a house, show myself, uh, podcasting. And it got to the point where people would [00:13:00] meet me and go, dude, I love your content, bro.
[00:13:03] Erik Cabral: Amazing. I love it. What do you do again? Like, I don't know what you do. Big mistake, dude. That's when I started to realize, Holy moly, I am screwing this up. Like people should know what I do so that I can help them and then create, you know, grow my business. So that's when I doubled down, tripled down, just went all in on just creating content around what I do and how I serve the community.
[00:13:26] Erik Cabral: Podcasting, personal branding, podcasting, personal branding. I did that for, I was like, let me try it for three months, six months. Now it's just all I do a little bit now is, is, is leaking out, uh, you know, with my fitness stuff and my faith, but for sure made sure that I landed the, you know, the, the, and the platform and making sure that it was this consistent thing, most people make that mistake.
[00:13:49] Erik Cabral: One example I'll share really quick is, uh, I would have friends come up to me and go, dude. Um, uh, why are people asking me how to, how to develop a cold plunge? How, how to build a [00:14:00] cold plunge in my house? Like, well, that's because you keep posting yourself in saunas and, and your cold plunge stuff. I'm like, yeah, but I'm a real estate investor.
[00:14:08] Erik Cabral: Like, well then stop posting lifestyle. Do you want to build a lifestyle brand? No. And I'm like, I'm an investor. I want, then I like, then Don't put that content out there, put it out there, but maybe less of it and more of your actual projects and what you're doing. And that's when people associate you with that thing.
[00:14:23] Erik Cabral: So. Yeah, those are the biggest mistakes I think people
[00:14:26] Dave Polykoff: Yeah, no, I, uh, I relate to that very, very much as well, especially coming in, like you're saying, there's so much to consider when you're starting a personal brand and starting to create content that like the strategy of what to, to post. Can feel overwhelming, not, you know, take also taking into consideration, like what camera should I be using and my lighting and backdrop and all that kind of stuff.
[00:14:49] Dave Polykoff: So, um, yeah, we get so overwhelmed, but to defeat those, I guess, limiting beliefs and actually press publish. Yeah. Is step one, but then like, what are [00:15:00] you actually publishing? How often? You know, are you guiding people to an offer? That's the stuff you end up figuring out later on. But, um, sometimes, you know, it can be too late and you get so fed up with the whole thing that you just quit anyway, before you get to that point.
[00:15:15] Erik Cabral: Yeah. You mentioned something cool there though, Dave, uh, is people get so tripped up, um, the hardware of it and the software of it, you know, like, Hey, Eric, I want to start a podcast, Dave, I want to start this thing. Uh, what camera do I buy? What lighting do I buy? What microphone? I'm like, why don't you put that energy and effort into your content strategy?
[00:15:36] Erik Cabral: Why don't you figure out who the heck you are first? Like, what do you stand for? What, what do you, what, what do you, what are you against? Like figure those things out versus that's the easy stuff. There's so much content out there on what cameras to buy. Like you're focusing on the easy thing instead of the hard thing.
[00:15:53] Erik Cabral: So that's where I'm always like, stop folks. Don't worry about that. Like just, just go with the hard [00:16:00] thing and then everything else will fall into place.
[00:16:02] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. I mean, we talked about it at the beginning before we started really recording was this, uh, your word podcasting started and how early on it was, you know, you really had to record something and upload it to a stream and you couldn't even see the person and all this kind of stuff, and it was just very bare bones.
[00:16:19] Dave Polykoff: But all they cared about was just like getting their voice heard, you know, it wasn't, there wasn't a lot of glam and glitz to the whole process. It was just, this is my voice out there. I have something to say. So starting there with just like showing up and actually knowing what you can say, because you've done that self awareness.
[00:16:39] Dave Polykoff: Um, but yeah, just showing up and actually pressing record and publishing is like, just focus on that is step one. And then the how of like, The quality of the video and the lighting and all that kind of stuff, stuff you can build on over time. Um, I actually, so I, on my end from a mistake, I have something kind of similar.
[00:16:58] Dave Polykoff: I want to piggyback off of that [00:17:00] because you mentioned a lot of people will, you mentioned like different types of content that you're publishing and confusing people on a similar note, I think. You know, there's, there's kind of three pillars of types of content to be publishing. One of which is, you know, your value content, providing insights, things we're doing today in terms of like mistakes to avoid and all that kind of stuff.
[00:17:24] Dave Polykoff: Um, things like, you know, personal life, you know, I want to understand who you are beyond just your business outside of the office. And so I can understand if we share core values and things like that. And then the other thing, you Being that, okay, you can have all that stuff, but at the end of the day, you still want to translate convert an audience follower into a sale.
[00:17:47] Dave Polykoff: So you still need to show up and say what you do and why you should use you and give sales type content. And one of the biggest things I see is. People are typically only [00:18:00] doing one of those types of content, right? So they're too worried about being a know it all or shoving value in your face, so they only post personal content.
[00:18:11] Dave Polykoff: You know, cause they, they feel icky trying to like sell you something or come across like they're, you know, they know everything or they're creating content that is just strictly value and just spitting facts at you. And they're just like a talking dictionary that you never get to understand who they are.
[00:18:30] Dave Polykoff: Like, you would, I want to use you as my coach, but do I like who you are as a person? So, yeah, one of the areas that I commonly see is just that they're not being like diversified with the types of content you're publishing so that we get the full understanding of who you are. And I think a lot of it is because it is that like mindset where again, you either don't want to come across as a know it all or you're worried about being too personal with your content.
[00:18:58] Dave Polykoff: And you don't want people to [00:19:00] kind of like know who you are outside of, um, you know, the office or something like that. So there's, there's just, you hit it, you hit a wall. And a friction point somewhere between each one of those things, but you need to kind of shed your skin a little bit and be comfortable with each one of those, you know, each one of those content types and,
[00:19:20] Erik Cabral: I love your, what you're pointing out here and for anyone, uh, and I'm just going to summarize what you said, and then I'll have a potential solution for people that, um, it's funny because, you know, we're, we're, we're blessed with knowledge, but also cursed with it too. Right? Because it seems obvious to me, but I think people out there who are listening to this might be like, oh, crap.
[00:19:38] Erik Cabral: There it is. That's the aha. So hopefully this is the nugget, uh, that you came for. And so you said that there's people out there that struggle, like they either go one extreme or the other, right? It's very binary. Like I'm really, really heavy on the data or the information that's valuable for you to learn and execute on.
[00:19:54] Erik Cabral: Right. But then there's the other side of things. And there's this specifically people in my head that are [00:20:00] popping up that are friends of mine, where they go super heavy on the personal stuff, like almost too much. It's like too much information about your personal life, but people love them, right?
[00:20:09] Erik Cabral: They're quirky. They're funny. They're beautiful, whatever it is. So you got that side and you got this side, but how do you merge the two? And easier said than done. This is really difficult. And this is where I'm like, wow, this is great because I'm, I'm decent at this. I'm pretty good at this. Um, and this is how people can do it and merge the two is you have to bring stories to the table.
[00:20:29] Erik Cabral: Personal stories that have lessons embedded within them. And the only way to do that is to actually reflect on your life and think about the things that you screwed up. You have to be vulnerable and you have to start seeing the zeros and ones that got you to where you are. It's really hard. I imagine going like I can't go to my, my, you know, say grandfather or somebody like, Hey, teach me what, what I shouldn't do.
[00:20:54] Erik Cabral: What are the things that you failed at? Most people like, they don't want to think about those things and they never [00:21:00] reflected on them. So they never extracted the good stuff, the, the, the valuable lessons that they had learned so that we don't repeat those mistakes. So that's the thing is go into your life and figure out where did things.
[00:21:12] Erik Cabral: Like where was some pain that you actually experienced and then share the pain after it's healed? Not please don't don't air that dirty laundry when you don't haven't figured out the lesson from it yet So if you can start sharing personal stories, that's the personal brand That's a huge element right there and then you can start to share it so people can understand Uh what lesson?
[00:21:34] Erik Cabral: That they can get extracted and so much value is way more than just the data. Go give me all that other stuff. The best personal brands out there have stories that they continuously share. Uh, and then we resonate with them on a personal level because now you're going to find your tribe of people that relate to that stuff.
[00:21:51] Dave Polykoff: and one strategy to finding those stories that I found was really useful for myself is because, you know, to reflect. [00:22:00] On your life, maybe there's like three or four life changing, altering things up that will immediately come to mind, but there are still kind of like micro stories throughout your life that probably impacted you much more than you actually realized, but you just didn't really put a pin in it to too much to really remember it.
[00:22:20] Dave Polykoff: So one strategy that I would say is easy to do. Go into your phone, go to your photos album, scroll all the way back to the beginning, and just scroll through your life. I mean, if you've had your phone since, you know, since the iPhone came out or whatever in 2008, you probably have a lot of photos in there, and you've taken photos of, you know, maybe it's, you know, Uh, back in the day on Instagram where we used to take photos of our, our breakfast and stuff, but other otherwise you've probably taken pictures of like vacations, places you've traveled, you know, events you've been to people you've met.
[00:22:56] Dave Polykoff: Um, these are like micro moments that really did play a [00:23:00] larger part in who you became and just reflect on those photos for a little bit and say like, did I take any, did I learn anything from that? Did I become a better person from this experience? And those are going to like shine to light. you know, the moments that you otherwise probably would have forgot.
[00:23:16] Erik Cabral: Yeah, the challenge there. This is the really hard part to Dave is, you know, it's a great exercise. Um, is we often highlight the good stuff, right? Everything that we post, mostly everyone, 99. 9 percent of people. It's the highlight reel. But the thing is, is to remember what's the pain in between? Like, where were the things where I struggled to get to that?
[00:23:39] Erik Cabral: Maybe I'm on that vacation, but what did it take to get to that? You know, maybe that is beautiful life. What did it take to get to that? You know, who did I have to become in order for that highlight reel to be. You know, published in, uh, uh, viewed. So it's, I think it's a great exercise, but then, you know, journaling or, or even just taking the [00:24:00] time out of, uh, your day specifically at work works for most, if you are a Hal Elrod fan, you know, with the miracle morning, you can, uh, you can take the time necessary to order, to, to reflect on the pain.
[00:24:12] Erik Cabral: Cause we don't want to visit that stuff. And you've heard them, uh, saying that, uh, your mess is your message. And if you could put that out there in a real way, you're going to attract more people because then now you're not this bulletproof person that no one can relate to like Superman, uh, can't relate to that superhero.
[00:24:28] Erik Cabral: I love Spider Man because he was a pimple face geek like I was that couldn't get the girl. Uh, so that's what we want to do is show that version of us where I, Hey, I'm just like everyone else. I'm not superhuman. Uh, so yeah, that's, that's what I recommend. Like, Visit the hard stuff, do the hard stuff.
[00:24:45] Hey, Dave here... obviously, but I want to just pause this episode real quick and say, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Brand Science. I hope that you're getting as much value as a viewer or listener as I've gotten as a [00:25:00] host.
[00:25:00] And if you are getting value from this episode, It must mean that you enjoy nerding out on all things personal branding, content creation, and strategy, which means you're my type of person. So I want to connect. Once you're done this episode, go down to the show notes where you'll find my LinkedIn profile. Click on that link, head over to my profile and send me a request. When you send the request, there'll be that little pop-up that comes up, that you can add a note in the request.
[00:25:28] Just tell me that you found me from a brand science episode so I know that you are one of those loyal, awesome listeners of mine. And let's connect and learn together. Anyway, just want to say, love you. Thanks for listening. Let's connect on LinkedIn and a yeah. Back to the episode.
[00:25:43] Dave Polykoff: Hmm Love it on your end. What what's, what's another mistake or misconception? And I don't want this to be kind of a bashing of, of people. So we'll, kind of, we should, we just got to put put this in
[00:25:56] Erik Cabral: I bash myself in this new dude. Cause I made all those mistakes. So I [00:26:00] just want to
[00:26:00] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. Yeah. We'll frame this as the mistakes that we know we've made.
[00:26:04] Erik Cabral: for sure. For sure.
[00:26:06] Dave Polykoff: What's one that what's one on your end.
[00:26:09] Erik Cabral: uh, another mistake, uh, dude, shiny object. I mean, you, you can relate, I'm sure. Um, I, you know, because when I got into it in 2018. You know, hustle, grind, you know, hustle your face off, you know, hustle porn, they call, um, Gary, basically the leading the charge to that.
[00:26:31] Erik Cabral: Um, I, I adopted that for real and I, it was cool and sexy to go, I own five businesses, but meanwhile, now I'm struggling like tax time and five LLCs. And like, you know, it's like having all these children and I can't focus on any of them because there's too many, there's too many voices and too many things.
[00:26:49] Erik Cabral: I need me, me, me. now to shed all of that nonsense. Yeah,
[00:26:54] Dave Polykoff: children, you can only give 20 percent to each.
[00:26:57] Erik Cabral: yeah, it's terrible, dude. So now I'm like [00:27:00] regretting that in the beginning, it was cool. I'm like, Hey, I got a real estate company. I get this, I get this, I get this. But now I'm like, no, I'll have one thing. It's like, it's on air brands.
[00:27:08] Erik Cabral: That's so that's all we got. Um, and that's just giving me so much freedom and peace, you know, versus trying to, you know, match and be the thing that everybody wants to be. Uh, now I've realized the, the, the reality behind that is, you know, You're going to, that's a quick way to burn out all those people that started businesses back when I did, they're, they're gone, you know, we're still here after six years, um, you know, hoping to get the 10, cause I know the five year stat, uh, is pretty, pretty meek.
[00:27:37] Erik Cabral: It's like pretty scary actually. It's like 90 percent of businesses fail in five years or something like that. Uh, so yeah, it's just those little milestones, big milestones, get to the five, get to the 10, still here, still kicking and screaming. Yeah.
[00:27:49] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. Yeah. And to, to kind of run with that too, I think that also correlates into one of the common things that, you know, even I, and [00:28:00] this is something that Gary Vee preaches a lot is like, you need to, you need to be on every platform, you know, content repurposing and being on every platform and like there is a, that is certainly something we want to build towards, but I think early on, When you're just starting your, your personal brand, you're starting to publish content.
[00:28:20] Dave Polykoff: It is hard to create content, especially when you haven't done it before. As we mentioned, there's so many things we need to consider. Let's not overcomplicate the process more by now needing to worry about five, six different platforms that we need to publish on. Let's just focus on one. And that one is where your ideal client is already, already.
[00:28:45] Dave Polykoff: You know, playing. So you just need to show up there and just focus on that. And I think that's a, that's a common issue is that we tried to, especially cause each platform has its own personality to it, you know, X [00:29:00] now has a very kind of like Reddit feel to it. It's, you know, public opinion, the public square type of thing.
[00:29:07] Dave Polykoff: LinkedIn is more professional Facebook's a little bit more blue collar, you know, loosen the tie a bit. And so you need to show up to each of those platforms with a certain, um, mindset to them and approach to your content and to try to spread yourself thin and try to be perfect across all of those platforms.
[00:29:28] Dave Polykoff: It's just going to be way too much for you to consider. Early on, just focusing on one platform, focusing on one message, you have your one offer and being consistent with that is like the ideal approach. Cause yeah, that shiny object syndrome, you might see like, Oh, tick tocks popping off. And I know this other person in my space is crushing it on, you know, IgE or something like that.
[00:29:50] Dave Polykoff: But, um, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't mean it's going to be right for you, especially too. Cause you know, if you're not necessarily someone who, Is comfortable [00:30:00] with, with video content just yet, but maybe you're more of a person who can write something that may be like LinkedIn text posts is like more for you.
[00:30:07] Dave Polykoff: Is that, is that what you find as well?
[00:30:10] Erik Cabral: yeah, for sure. Uh, I have since gone against what Gary recommends and I don't know if he still recommends that. I think he does, uh, you know, like be on every platform, you know, shotgun blasts, you know, hundreds of pieces a day. Um, but we also have to consider the source wherever any, whenever anyone recommends anything to you consider the source, like if, if, if there's a dude that's, You know, on his third marriage, I'm not taking marital advice from that guy, know, uh, or, or a guy that's like super heavy, uh, you know, he's like giving me advice on how to work out.
[00:30:42] Erik Cabral: I'm like, no dude, I'm not listening to you. So consider the source. Gary has a massive team. He's got 1500 people on his team. Uh, you know, 250 million business. It's easy for him to create that much content for sure. Uh, it's, it's easy for me. You know, my team is a fraction, a fraction of that. Uh, but they do all my [00:31:00] content.
[00:31:00] Erik Cabral: They create my content. They take things and they chop it up, but for the average person who's starting out, like hire a VA for sure. Do it, do it yourself and then pass it along, create the systems and process for yourself, and then give it to someone so that you can focus on the thing that matters most, which is the content, the strategy, the message behind it, when you get Doc in the tools, you know, be the architect and not the handyman in that situation and just like, give it to someone that can do it easily.
[00:31:30] Erik Cabral: They want to do it for 5 an hour and they're happy to do it. All you have to do is guide them and give them, uh, you know, you know, instruction so that, um, you can start freeing yourself up to do more
[00:31:43] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. Let's, let's, uh, let's sit there for a second because I think that is an important element you mentioned. Start with doing it yourself. And then eventually scale out of that and you can kind of create the operating procedures to pass [00:32:00] on to other people and grow from there. Do you feel that there's like a certain point someone should, at what point should someone think, okay, I've kind of graduated out of my current status.
[00:32:12] Dave Polykoff: And now I want to start incorporating some additional resources into this so I can start doing it better, faster.
[00:32:18] Erik Cabral: Yeah, I think so. We're speaking to a specific person. That's probably a small business, maybe midsize. Uh, that's who I'm addressing here. And if you're building out something, that's going to, you're going to monetize. Put out a number, you know, say, okay, by six months to 12 months, I should be generating this amount of cash, which I am going to reinvest into this business.
[00:32:45] Erik Cabral: Percentage of that is going to be towards marketing. That is a marketing budget. A line item, you know, in the business. So then now you could say, okay, if it's, and if you don't know what that is, typical five to 10 an hour, a VA in the Philippines, let's [00:33:00] say, can do the editing. They're very skilled at creative stuff.
[00:33:03] Erik Cabral: I'm Filipino, so I can say this. We just naturally, you know, just gifted with creative solutions. Uh, so a lot of these guys can do this at that price point. So then what does that, you know, times 40 hours a week? What does that times, uh, 12 months? And then now start to think, okay, I'm going to create a business where I'm going to take that amount of cash.
[00:33:22] Erik Cabral: You know, it's 12, 000 or it's 20, 000 towards creating content for me. And then you can go from there, whatever it is, it's going to be different for each individual, depending on their business. Um, but I would at least say carve out a little bit and you can actually negotiate with them. I mean, I wouldn't lowball them as you know, poor folks trying to feed their families and stuff, so don't like
[00:33:42] Dave Polykoff: you get what you pay
[00:33:43] Erik Cabral: I'm 5 an hour, I'll give you a three, like I wouldn't do that.
[00:33:46] Erik Cabral: Uh, but just say, Hey, this is my budget. What can you do with that budget? If it's 200 bucks a month, I have a client friend who's like, Hey, Eric, I have two to 400 bucks a month. What should I do with that? And I'm like, that's who a VA so that you can stop [00:34:00] doing that thing.
[00:34:02] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. Rolling off this too. The content that we're producing early on, I think one thing too, that people get excited about is when they, or they are excited about creating content and they're willing to do it themselves. There's a lot of times we bite off more than we can chew early on. And I mentioned this early on, I've mentioned this on other podcast episodes where like, even with this podcast, I was kind of overly ambitious where I wanted to do like two episodes per week.
[00:34:34] Dave Polykoff: And we talk about doing a, a vodcast, a video podcast. There's even more layers to this whole thing. Cause we're incorporating video, not just audio. And then, you know, like we talked about download times and upload times for like 4k. Files is, can be like hours of time. And so dedicating your time to making sure all this. You're able to, to, to do the editing and uploading and downloading early on. [00:35:00] We we've, we've fought, we have such high ambitions. And then when it comes down, comes down to the execution, we don't realize how much part of our week is going to end up being eaten up by the whole thing. Um, so I think, you know, we're, we're in the podcasting space. I think what, what's great about. Having a long form like podcasting is that you can just record that once. And as you mentioned, splice that up and now you have not just one long form piece of content, but you can have maybe five to eight pieces of short form content that come from that. So you're not reinventing the wheel every time you want to go, Oh crap.
[00:35:40] Dave Polykoff: I need to go post a real. Let me go set up my lights again. Let me go do my hair and makeup and make sure that everything's great so that I can record and then edit that 30 second reel. And that takes you an hour in itself. You know, just to do that one reel or whatever. So I think early on to probably a good thing for [00:36:00] a lot of people is just like focus on one long form piece of content, splice that up and just get used to, like, you know, the process of creating versus trying to create multiple forms of content that you're, you know, Uh, not used to creating from the beginning.
[00:36:16] Dave Polykoff: And then that ends up taking up your entire week as you become like a full time content creator.
[00:36:20] Erik Cabral: Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's a challenge for sure. Um, getting caught up in the thing. And then eventually if you don't get to the point where you can hire someone to take it over, you get discouraged and you just don't do it anymore. Uh, but the thing is what we've come to realize is that. You know, the good thing that came out of the hustle, your, your face off, uh, era is that we can create, we, we have to become and understand that our businesses have to also be content creation machines.
[00:36:50] Erik Cabral: It has to be like your own media studio. And there are some businesses, a lot of them, um, that I work with that have realized that. But they don't want to do that. They don't want to build it. So they hire us. They're like, [00:37:00] Oh, you're our content media production team versus let me build my own. But we've had clients where we've launched their podcasts and then we've helped them go and build a media company for themselves.
[00:37:11] Erik Cabral: So yeah. And I know Vayner does that as well. They, they, they actually consult on, Oh, You don't, can't afford our 200, 000 a month. Why don't we just help you build a team that you need? So that's the thing. It's, it's really difficult, especially when you're starting out to, to do it yourself and then get it to the point where you could just pass it along.
[00:37:29] Erik Cabral: I, I get it. And then maybe it's just scaling back. Maybe it's just not doing it so perfectly. Maybe you don't have to be, you know, like I could tend to be a little bit anal. I I've realized, just let it go. It doesn't have to be perfect.
[00:37:41] Dave Polykoff: Well, I think that's a, that's specifically an issue when it comes to people who are in the creative space. You, if you're a very creative person, then you're like your harshest critic that you want things to be so well edited and refined. So if you're a creative person, it's, I feel like it's even harder to be.
[00:37:59] Dave Polykoff: Uh, [00:38:00] you know, starting a personal brand because everything you put out there, you're putting through the lens of like, this represents my ability to edit and create. So it's, it's not just what you're saying, but it's how you're saying it too.
[00:38:11] Erik Cabral: Yeah, for sure. There's, I mean, it's, it's creating the standard and then also being okay with like, okay, it's a notch or two below the standard because we can't, we want to be here, here's the bar, but we understand the reality of it, especially when you're trying to scale something and do more of it.
[00:38:27] Erik Cabral: Something has to give, uh, but that standard, even though it's lower is way higher than most. So just kind of knowing your space
[00:38:36] Dave Polykoff: And, and, and the definition of way higher than most is that you actually showed up and press publish because you know, LinkedIn, they say what, like 2 percent of LinkedIn actually publishes. Posts anything, you know, and the other 98 percent is just, are just spectators. So the fact that you even post something one time a week, you're [00:39:00] already far beyond your competition.
[00:39:03] Dave Polykoff: So let's not overcomplicate it with the, the how of it too, right? Let's start with just staying consistent with it. Um, and speaking of kind of just showing up and, and having something to say. One thing I, I hear a lot too is. I don't feel like I have something to contribute to an already kind of noisy industry.
[00:39:28] Dave Polykoff: You know, if, if there's, um, if they already follow people in their industry and they see their feed and maybe some people within their industry are actively publishing, they feel as though, oh, it's already been said, you know, um, or sometimes it's, You know, oh, it's already been said, but I don't like the way they're saying it.
[00:39:48] Dave Polykoff: And that just turns me off. Cause I don't want to be more noise in other people's feeds. I don't want people to think. That of my posts or something. So it's this like this [00:40:00] friction of I'm just not going to post it all because I see that the conversations already being had. So why am I just going to contribute more noise to it?
[00:40:11] Dave Polykoff: And you know, my opinion there is that's the, the entire definition of personal branding is the fact that you have a specific unique angle or framework or take or method. To that conversation, right? If you really were to go through this, some of the reflection that we've talked about, you would find that you do have a good story to tell around it.
[00:40:32] Dave Polykoff: Um, or a unique opinion to it, because that's the personal side to you that only you can have. Um, so yeah, I would say you're not really creating noise. It's like your, your opinion's warranted and is, is wanted. Um, and by you not kind of showing up, kind of doing your audience a disservice. Do you have any thoughts on that?
[00:40:53] Erik Cabral: Yeah. It's a hundred percent what you're saying. Um, the, the, the thing I want to preface this. Before [00:41:00] I say it, not everyone needs to be creating content. It's good for our business for sure. I want to help people who want to create content. They're passionate about it. They know they need to do it to help their business grow their business.
[00:41:11] Erik Cabral: It's, it's, it's, it's pretty much necessary at this point, if you have a business, but not everyone is, is able to do it. Not everyone has a passion to do or the ability to do it. So I say, find someone. That can do it for you. Like maybe it's your business partner. Maybe it's your spouse. Maybe it's somebody that you see like, Hey, I'll pay you to be.
[00:41:31] Erik Cabral: I mean, I don't know why you do that in a small business, but there, but businesses need a face. People want to work with a person, not a faceless logo corporation. So, but I understand some people aren't great at it. So even if you did it occasionally by guesting on podcasts. And then, you know, having the, the, those hosts reproduce the content for you, or you can ask and do it and send it to your VA, you know, get some semblance of a personal brand out there.
[00:41:59] Erik Cabral: You don't have to [00:42:00] do it. And drive yourself crazy. Um, but like I said, I just want to make sure people like that is a thing. Just not everyone is you've seen it. There's some people out there creating content. I'm like, wow. I mean, personally to me, this is really boring, but maybe that's just, cause I don't really care about the topic.
[00:42:17] Erik Cabral: You know, there so many that actually cares, but, um, The thing is, you know, the, it's exactly what you said is your unique story. You know, I'll, I'll go back to the geeky thing. Um, cause I think it plays well here is if, if we, like how many superheroes are out there, there's hundreds, if not thousands of different characters.
[00:42:40] Erik Cabral: And if they were real in life, let's just, let's just play pretend here that what if Spider Man's like, Hey, there's so many superheroes out there saving the world. I don't need to do that. I have a, I have an ability. I have a superhuman power, but I'm not going to use it because. You know, uh, Captain America or Iron Man's saving the day, but literally [00:43:00] his character was the, your friendly neighborhood.
[00:43:04] Erik Cabral: Spider Man, he was the ground level superhero that no one, like everyone else was saving the world in the universe. Spider Man was the hero. Beating up thugs. He was the one that was like getting cat burglars. He was the one that was doing all this real low to the ground, easy peasy stuff. And that was him.
[00:43:24] Erik Cabral: That was unique to him. So like, that is what we have to kind of view ourselves at as is like, yes, there are many people that are doing the thing and saving the world and putting out content, especially in your industry, but who's. Your, who is your Spider-Man? What is your story? Where's the radioactive spider that bit you?
[00:43:41] Erik Cabral: And where's the struggles with Uncle Ben? We wanna know that stuff. We wanna know your unique origin story. I don't care about Ironman. He's an alcoholic billionaire. I don't relate to that. I wanna relate to the pimple face geek like So that's where I say, tell your story. Figure it out. Put pen to paper [00:44:00] and start sharing and not caring what people think.
[00:44:04] Dave Polykoff: And to piggyback on that too, I mean, I think it was Spider Man who said, when you can do the things that I can and the bad stuff happens, it's your fault. Now that's a pretty aggressive way to, to format what I'm saying here. But the idea being that like, you have an audience that, or a potential client that needs your service.
[00:44:28] Dave Polykoff: But by you being too afraid or or not wanting to show up, you're doing them a disservice because they have a problem that needs solving. You can solve it and by you not showing up, then they continue to live in hell essentially during that time. So another great, uh, Spider Man always comes with the, uh, or Uncle Ben with the, uh, with great power comes great responsibility.
[00:44:53] Erik Cabral: 100%. I was just about to say that, cause you said it. It's funny. Cause I could see the difference in our ages because [00:45:00] when, when I heard, was it Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland that said that version
[00:45:03] Dave Polykoff: was, that was Tom. Yeah.
[00:45:05] Erik Cabral: It's Tom Holland. I was like, wow, he's saying so many words just to say with great power comes great responsibility, you know, because that's the saying, right.
[00:45:13] Erik Cabral: Um, and which is super powerful, man. It is true. And people don't want to look at themselves as, you know, we all have imposter syndrome. So it's like, Oh, I'm not superpower. I'm not a super human being, but you have an ability, you have a unique solution to something that somebody hasn't figured out yet. And no one knows unless you put it out there.
[00:45:31] Erik Cabral: Um, you have to do the work to see like, what problem do I solve? And then if if you ask yourself, well, what, what's unique about me? Figure out your story, right? Like I said earlier, your mess is your message. There's some stuff in there that you can unpack and not, not air dirty laundry, but figure out what did you solve for yourself that you can now solve for others.
[00:45:52] Erik Cabral: Yeah.
[00:45:52] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. And to that point too, this is, I wouldn't say like a misconception or a [00:46:00] mistake, but more so maybe like a, a bonus way of doing that process is like, while you are figuring out what makes you unique and what unique methods you have, once you've kind of had that solidified, then work on like the packaging of that.
[00:46:21] Dave Polykoff: And allow creating kind of a unique way of delivering that, whether it's through like coining the term, um, or how it's presented visually or something. So that, that then becomes associated with you. Right. So there's so many terms within the marketing industry. That are thrown around these days that are just part of our vernacular, but someone coined that initially and are associated with someone.
[00:46:52] Dave Polykoff: And so now when we think of that strategy or term, we think of that person. So who you are, [00:47:00] understand like your unique method, but also kind of not just brand yourself, but also like brand your unique method along with it. Um, So now we, we, we can kind of take that package and apply it to our own business.
[00:47:13] Dave Polykoff: And that's kind of like a gift that we're able to take along with us as well. So, um, yeah, a little extra tidbit there.
[00:47:21] Erik Cabral: Process Dave, though, um, I know it's difficult. That's why people hire people like us, you know, like if, if, if you're a financial person, you're an attorney, like this is not how your brain works. So you have to hire experts who live in this space and do it all day. Uh, but you're, you're absolutely right. If you can, you know, part of the branding exercise and part of the branding, personal branding is.
[00:47:42] Erik Cabral: Eventually finding your phrases. And the only way you discover that is by doing stuff like this, telling your stories over and over and over and over, somebody might point it out. So that happened to me, uh,
[00:47:54] riverside_erik_cabral_raw-video-cfr_guest_podcasts_0032: several years ago where someone was like, do you always say the magic happens when the mics turn off?[00:48:00]
[00:48:00] riverside_erik_cabral_raw-video-cfr_guest_podcasts_0032: I was like, yeah, I do say that. What do you mean by that? I'm like, I mean, like when you have a podcast, it's not about the podcast. It's about the relationship that happens after that. When the mics and the cameras turn off. Now it's a business partner. Now it's a client. Now it's a best friend. It's somethings.
[00:48:14] riverside_erik_cabral_raw-video-cfr_guest_podcasts_0032: And the relationship was formed in real time in front of cameras. It's so cool. And then now you're like, if I didn't have a podcast or if I didn't have a thing, or if I wasn't going on other people's shows. I never would have found that person. So it's like just creating that opportunity for yourself and then realizing, Oh, all of this stuff unfolds.
[00:48:32] riverside_erik_cabral_raw-video-cfr_guest_podcasts_0032: Once I just say yes.
[00:48:33] Erik Cabral: And do the thing that I don't want to do. It's really difficult. Yeah.
[00:48:37] Dave Polykoff: And that's become, I guess, like the, the tagline for you and your business now,
[00:48:43] Erik Cabral: It's, it's one of them. I mean, our tagline is we make the world better one mic at a time. But for me, one of the phrases, and it's funny because when you eventually, if you start to develop your personal brand, having your slide presentations, if you're a keynote speaker is having your own quotes up there.
[00:48:59] Erik Cabral: [00:49:00] Uh, and that is one of the, yeah, I'll, I'll have a slide that says the magic happened when the mics, when the mics turn off, it's And then I'll explain that if, if people need more context to that, but yeah, you're absolutely right. If you could start to develop your own sayings, your own phrases, or if you're using someone else's, that's perfect.
[00:49:15] Erik Cabral: Just give them credit for it. Like, Hey, I heard, you know, my mentor or I heard Gary V say this, um, you know, just so that, you know, same, just being morally responsible.
[00:49:27] Dave Polykoff: Yeah. Yeah. Cause people, people will call you out. The internet will
[00:49:31] Erik Cabral: Yeah, for sure. For sure. I need you to just feel crappy about it. And like, you know, you're ripping somebody off, but
[00:49:38] Dave Polykoff: Cool. Well, this has been awesome before we leave. Uh, I want to make sure if people want to learn more about you and your services, if they want to get into podcasting, if they're interested in growing their personal brand, where can they check you out? I
[00:49:52] Erik Cabral: yeah, you can go, well, I have this giveaway, which I'd love to update, um, Because I think it's still very relevant, [00:50:00] but there's more personal branding stuff I could probably give. But if you go to ericcabral. co slash guide, there is a giveaway, a PDF where it's like my, it's over 21 tips, even though it says 21, it's probably like 30.
[00:50:14] Erik Cabral: Tips on how to be a great podcaster host, or even how to be a great guest on other people's podcasts. So there's that free downloadable thing. And then also if you want to, I think there's a calendar link there. So if you wanted to schedule a consult, uh, that, that is there as well. So yeah, Eric Cabral, that's CEO slash guide.
[00:50:34] Dave Polykoff: love that. I'm actually going to steal that strategy myself for, uh, for this.
[00:50:39] Erik Cabral: Have at it, dude. Yeah. Abundance for sure.
[00:50:42] Dave Polykoff: yeah. Love it. Well, Eric, this has been awesome. I knew we were going to be dropping some gems today and I don't think we disappointed, so appreciate your time today, man.
[00:50:50] Erik Cabral: Appreciate you, man. Thanks for having me.
