Not Everything Worth Doing Scales
The Amplified Impact Podcast
August 23rd, 2023
We often wonder how building a business with solid systems matches up with creating a personal brand.
Back in the day, my focus was purely on money-making. I hustled transactional businesses, like window washing, then systematized and stepped back.
But every new venture meant starting from scratch, building credibility all over again.
Then came the epiphany…personal brand matters. I began building it parallel to my businesses.
Sharing experiences, lessons, and insights created momentum and credibility.
It meant transitioning from obscurity to recognition when starting new endeavors.
A personal brand isn’t as easily systematized…but it offers unique leverage. It invites opportunities and connections.
While not crucial initially, it’s a game-changer once you’re established. It doesn’t mean becoming an expert; it means sharing your journey.
Start by focusing on building your venture’s value.
When you’ve reached a certain level, weave in your personal brand. It’s an investment in your future.
Sharing your story isn’t just for others…it’s a personal growth journey.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“And so if you’re at that point where you’re like starting to think, should I create a personal brand, should I start putting out content? The answer is probably absolutely.”- Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino:
So I got a really fabulous question the other day on LinkedIn in the comments section of one of my posts where we’re talking about how to build and systematize a business. And the the commenter, I can’t remember your name, I’m so sorry for this that I don’t remember. But it was effectively this like there’s a juxtaposition, there’s a little bit of a paradox or a seeming contradiction perhaps between the idea of building a business and systematizing it in a way where you’re no longer necessary to the operations and to building a personal brand. These things seem to be at odds with one another. And he was just I think the question was something to do with which is better. How do you reconcile building this business over here and systematize it? Remove yourself, but then also building this personal brand where by definition, you can never actually remove yourself from the equation. So I just wanted to share a little bit of my experience that led me to this place where I’ve been building a personal brand now for the last handful of years. So to rewind back to the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, I was just trying to make money.
Anthony Vicino:
I just got into it because I was living in the back of the van. I had no other options. I was just trying to win the money game so that I could at least solve all my money problems. I could start focusing on solving the other problems in life, like relationships and self actualization, all those other things. So in the beginning, I just was trying to make money. And the quickest way to do that was through the very transactional nature of creating a product or a service and then going around and finding customers to sell the thing to. I wasn’t thinking about long term lifetime value of the customer. I wasn’t thinking about brand value or enterprise value if I was going to sell the business someday, I was just trying to get cash in the door.
Anthony Vicino:
And so starting that window washing company was a very easy way to do that. Very little overhead to go out there, buy supplies, and then just knocked on doors and got people to let me wash their windows, right? Now, when I sold that business, I hadn’t put any thought into brand or enterprise value or anything like that. So I sold it as a multiple of the revenue that it was bringing in, or the profits rather. And then I moved on to the next thing. And the next business was there was the climbing gym, then there was the manufacturing company. But in each one of these, I kept doing the same thing, which was I went into it in a very transactional way where I went in there, built a business with a product or service that I could sell to a customer. And then I focused relentlessly on systematizing the operations so that ideally, I wasn’t involved in any of the ordering, the shipping, the fulfillment process. I was passive.
Anthony Vicino:
That was my goal. And then when I achieved that goal, then I would step out of the active side of the business and go and focus on starting a new opportunity. And that’s what I did for many, many years. The last time I did this was when I walked out of escape climbing in 2020. I guess it was end of 2020, so beginning of 2021. So just a couple of years ago. And when I walked out, one of the things that I realized for the first time was that I had to start from zero again. See, each time I had been, like, exiting a business and starting a new one because I had built it in such a company facing way.
Anthony Vicino:
It wasn’t really about me. Nobody knew me as the business. It was just, hey, do you want your windows washed? Or hey, do you want this widget? Like, we built the companies in a way where they were the front facing thing. What happened then was when I left that business to go start a new opportunity, I had to start from scratch because I didn’t have credibility and nobody knew me. I was obscure. So hiring new talent or getting investor capital for the next operation, I had to start from zero because I didn’t have a brand. So I realized, like, oh, I’ve been doing this wrong, because each time I have to restart from zero and restart the flywheel, that’s the hardest part. What I started doing as of 2020, 2021, then was starting to build this personal brand, starting to talk about the things that I’ve done in the past, the things that I’ve achieved, and started talking about the building process of invictus capital and the real estate side of things.
Anthony Vicino:
So that when I inevitably move on to the next opportunity, which I will do because I have entrepreneurial ADHD. It’s what I like doing. I like building and then systematizing the operations so I can step out, I can go focus on the next thing that will inevitably happen. But I don’t want to have that startup phase to be quite so difficult in the future. And that’s what the brand allows you to do. It allows you to carry momentum and experience and relationship from one domain into the next domain. Also, it brings better opportunities to you because people become aware of who you are and what you’re capable of doing. They’re more likely to come to you and say, hey, would you like to partner on this thing? And so, yeah, building the personal brand is something that I’ll never be able to systematize and remove myself from the equation.
Anthony Vicino:
But some of the most important things in life, like some of the most valuable, are things that don’t scale and things that you can’t optimize to the nth degree. And something I’ve learned recently through reflection is that the most optimized life is rarely the most fulfilling life or the happiest life. And there’s a lot of things that you’re going to have to do that they just don’t scale in the most ideal way. And yet that’s okay, that’s still the work to be done. And that’s why I look at the personal brand. Is it the most highly leveraged and best way to build a business where I can sip my ties on the beach and retire and not have to be involved in the process? No, it’s 100% not. But it carries so much leverage for applying those, so much opportunity for applying leverage to those types of business opportunities in the future. To answer that question, should you focus on systematizing the thing and stepping out or the brand? Like, how do you reconcile these two things? I would say this in the beginning, you have no personal brand, you have no business anyways, right? Nobody knows who you are.
Anthony Vicino:
So really you just got to focus on doing the thing and proving that you’re capable of doing the thing. So just focus all your time and energy there. Initially, however, I don’t think it’s ever too soon to start trying to build in public, like to share your story and share what you’re doing. Just don’t do it from a position of like, I’m the expert or the authority on this. Just document. Don’t create where you’re saying, here’s where I am on the journey, here’s what’s working, here’s what’s not. Here’s my wins, my failures along the way as I’m trying to build this thing up. And that way when you do finally build the thing up, successfully or not, then you have a track record associated with that.
Anthony Vicino:
But in the beginning, don’t think the right way to do this is to put overly much attention on the brand quite yet, as much as it is just proving out the capacity to build the thing. If that’s where you’re at now, if you have already built a successful thing, then by all means, yes, start building the brand. It’s one of the best things that I’ve ever done for my career, for my businesses. And it’s just very, very fulfilling personally, like, creating this type of content, highly, highly fulfilling work. And so being able to give back and share my stories is helpful maybe for you guys out there, but more so it’s more helpful for me just to reflect on it and unpack the lessons learned so that I can grow as an individual, as an entrepreneur, and maybe hopefully become better. And so the value that I’ve personally gotten just from creating this content far exceeds probably any value that you will ever get from it. So I’m doing this in many ways for selfish reasons. And so if you’re at that point where you’re like starting to think, should I create a personal brand, should I start putting out content? The answer is probably absolutely.
Anthony Vicino:
There’s really no downside to it, as long as it’s not detracting you from doing the meaningful work to prove the thing out. If you haven’t done that yet. So those are my thoughts. Don’t know if they’re coherent, don’t know if they’re helpful, but hopefully there’s something. So thanks for being here, guys. I appreciate you, as always. Thank you. Thank you.
Anthony Vicino:
Thank you. I’ll catch you tomorrow. But until then, stay hyper focused, my friend.
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