Hey, before we jump into the show, I just wanted to take a second and say, thank you for listening.

I know that life is busy and you have a lot of options when it comes to the content you consume.

So whether you're new here or you've been listening to the Think Media podcast for years,

I just want to say thank you and I appreciate you.

Okay, let's jump into the show.

What does it really take to start a personal brand if you were starting from scratch today?

You don't start with why.

Instead, start with who.

The moment you get clear on who you can serve, every other downstream decision becomes clear.

Here's the misconception everyone has in 2026. Try to go viral.

It's terrible advice. You must have a large audience to make money. Multiple streams of income.

Run ads. If you drive traffic to chaos, you're multiplying chaos. If you take AI and you apply it to

chaos, all you have done is multiply chaos. There is almost nothing more powerful than

having a strong personal brand. If you want to make more money, have more influence, have more

opportunity in your career or launching out and starting something new. But at the same time,

in 2026, competition is fierce. It feels like there's somebody already doing what

you want to do. And so I wanted to have a real and raw conversation about what does it really

take to start a personal brand if you were starting from scratch today. And I brought back on the

Think Media podcast, the expert, Rory Vaden from Brand Builders Group. He's in New York Times bestselling author. He's helped

thousands of people go from obscurity to becoming well-known and well-paid, even with small

audiences. But I wanted to challenge Rory today to say, Rory, if you had to start over from scratch

and start a personal brand in 26, what would you do? And so Rory, welcome back to the podcast.

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