512. Stuck Building Your Personal Brand? Here's How to Break Through with Rory Vaden

The ONE Thing

NOVA Media

Entrepreneurship, Business, Careers

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What happens when everything you’ve built suddenly disappears? In this episode, Jay Papasan sits down with Rory Vaden—someone who knows what it’s like to lose everything and rebuild from scratch. After Rory and his wife, AJ, were forced out of the business they’d spent 12 years building, they had to start over with nothing but a non-compete, their expertise, and a lot of hard-won lessons. That painful reset led to the creation of Brand Builders Group, a business built around the exact process Rory and AJ used to reinvent themselves—one that now serves some of the world’s top personal brands. But at its core, their conversation with Jay isn’t just about strategy. It’s about identity, focus, and service. Rory explains why most people get stuck on the wrong side of what he calls “Sheehan’s Wall”—trying to emulate big names by doing too much, too soon, with scattered focus. True breakthrough comes from relentless focus on one thing: the unique problem you solve, in one word, for a specific “who.” Together, Jay and Rory break down the six key questions that define your brand DNA, explore how your past pain and setbacks can prepare you for your greatest impact, and discuss why the person you’re best positioned to serve is who you once were. Challenge of the Week: Get out your notebook and journal your answers to these questions: What challenges have I conquered? What setbacks have I survived? Who is the person I once was—and how could I serve that version of myself? Use this reflection as your first step toward clarity and breakthrough. *** To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods. We talk about: How to find your “one word” problem and the audience you’re meant to serve Why focus beats diversification—especially when building a personal brand The six questions behind Brand Builders Group’s brand DNA process Links & Tools from This Episode: Read Wealthy and Well-Known by Rory & AJ Vaden Brand Builders Group: freebrandtraining.com/TOT Read Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden Listen to The School of Greatness podcast with Lewis Howes Free Resources Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email [email protected] or send us an audio note at Speakpipe.com/the1thing. Produced by NOVA

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you've probably heard of one or all of these names, Lewis House, Ed Millett, Amy Porterfield, Lovie Jones, and I could go on and on.
0:09.3	These are really, really famous personal brands out there. They're running huge businesses. They're impacting millions of lives.
0:15.7	You may not be aware of the dynamic duo who sits behind a lot of them, and that is Rory and A.J. Vaiton.
0:22.6	They are a couple, I've known them for many years, and they started a business called Brand Builders Group.
0:27.8	And the story behind that, which is the central to this episode, is that they had to hit the
0:32.4	complete reset button. They had to start over when suddenly they lost their career pass. And they had to build
0:39.3	from scratch with all kinds of non-competes in play. And so the process they ended up building for
0:44.9	themselves is actually what they end up teaching to a lot of their clients. So you'll hear
0:50.5	their story and then hear how to apply it to your business and your brand.
0:55.2	And it really comes down to a handful of questions. And we love questions at the one thing.
0:59.9	But is it, who is it you ultimately serve? And what is the problem that you ultimately solve?
1:05.5	And Rory is ruthless about this. You can't be general. You have to be specific.
1:10.1	Get it down to a single word. And I was really
1:13.9	breaking my brain during this interview trying to think of what my word was. And you might be doing
1:18.6	the same. It's a great episode. It's very focused. And we kick it off talking about their brand new
1:24.7	book that's coming out in just a week called Wealthy and Well-known,
1:27.9	where they talk all about this process. So let's dive right in with Rory Vaden on the brand-building
1:33.1	process. I'm Jay Papazan, and this is the one thing. Your weekly guide to the simple steps
1:38.2	that lead to extraordinary results. All right, Rory, I'm so excited to have you here.
1:53.5	And I want to go right into this.
1:56.3	What's the first line of this book?
1:59.3	All right.
	...

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