Episode #22: Marc Ensign (Leadership Keynote Speaker, Personal Branding)

In this episode of the RealLifeSuperPowers podcast, we speak with Marc Ensign. Marc has shared the stage with the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, Brené Brown, Simon Sinek, Chelsea Clinton, and many more. His writing has been featured in Forbes, The Huffington Post, CNN, The New York Post, and many other publications. And his theories on marketing, leadership and personal branding are currently being taught to people around the world.

Through Marc’s personal branding agency LoudMouse, Marc helps people build a brand around themselves. When done right, personal branding can be leveraged into positive media mentions, getting invited to speaking gigs (and getting higher paid ones), getting a wider audience and higher reach, and ultimately into generating more sales, whatever it is you’re selling. Marc knows how to make that happen and his knowledge stems from very early on in his career.

Marc’s background is in music, he’s a bass player. He went to Berkley college of music in Boston, graduated with a degree in music performance and moved in with his mom as an unemployed musician. He dreamt of working on Broadway, so he started creating a personal brand around himself. Fresh out of college, he was unqualified and with zero experience. Still, he started positioning himself as an authority. He created a logo for himself, got headshots done and started hanging around Broadway and networking (or stalking people as he also refers to it). He reached out to Bass Player magazine and told them he’s friends with all these people on Broadway and he could do a story for them about what it’s like to be on Broadway. They loved the idea and gave him 350USD. Now he was able to call people and say he’s writing an article for a prestigious magazine and offer to interview them. He went as far as to set terms: “an hour interview”, “get a copy of the music of their show”, “let him watch their show from the pit”. Those who disagreed were off “the list”. By the time the article came out he had successfully positioned himself as an authority. He ended up playing in the show RENT on Broadway for 10 years.

He made the transition to the marketing and branding world when he realised that marketing comes naturally to him and he wanted to help other people. He founded a company helping musicians and artists market themselves. At some stage someone at American Express saw his work with the artists, which was very creative, and reached out to him. That was a tipping point for his business. American Express lead to Nike, Berkshire Hathaway and other mega brands. It took him 10 years in that business to realise he hates working for corporations. “The world doesn’t need someone to sell an extra can of Pepsi. I want to make an impact in the world and, working for those companies, I’m not doing that”. That’s fascinating to us because it seems like an evolution many of our guests went through, when searching for meaning. He decided he wanted to work with people rather than being a cog in the wheel of big companies. He left that company and all of the benefits that came along with it and followed his true passion trying to help change the lives of people for the better. He gave up quite a lot by doing so because he left the company to his business partner back then and, due to a disagreement between them, he opted to walk away with nothing. That’s how passionate he was about this. And he has no regrets. “Looking back it was the best thing I ever did, things happened the way they were supposed to happen”.

He founded LoudMouse with a notion of doing for people what he did for companies. With years of experience, a natural talent and TONS of passion to do good, the success that followed seems natural.

Marc shared some practical tips on how to build your own personal brand:

– Be clear about who you are and who you’re communicating with. “Who are the people that are stuck awake at night worried about this problem that I’m going to fix?”. Understanding that is an absolute must. It requires digging in deep. If your only motivation is money and you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, who you want to help and why, people are going to see right through that. If you want to build a genuine community, be there for the right reasons.

– Have a clear visual brand (like he did from as early as his days as a college grad).

– The chase for as many followers and likes as possible is a distraction. It’s not about the number of followers that you have, it’s about how much they’re sold on you and love you. “I would choose 1000 raving fans over 2.5 million people that are half listening, every single day. With a 1000 raving fans you can make a really solid living”.

…and more.

We found his story truly inspiring, and we believe you will too. We hope you enjoy your listen.

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