66 Elevating Your Personal Brand - Tyler Mount May 9 2024

Tim Curtis: [00:00:00] Hello. Welcome to today's episode of the Digital Velocity Podcast. Erik and I are thrilled to have Tyler Mount, CEO of Henry Street on the podcast today to talk about the power of branding, storytelling, and content creation in driving results for your businesses and what he calls the single most important idea to empire-building, unapologetically being yourself. Tyler, welcome to the show.

Tyler Mount: Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Tim Curtis: It's great to have you. So, you've got a really cool background, everything from Broadway to real estate. So, would love to hear how that all kind of wove together to get [00:01:00] to where you are today at Henry Street.

Tyler Mount: Yeah, well, look, it never, weaved or wove, however we want to say it, the way that, um, we thought it would be, right? We might have to do, like, a four-part series, so buckle up. In all seriousness, I grew up in small town Texas. I never felt that I belonged there. Look, I had a great childhood. My parents were super supportive. I wasn't the stereotypical bullied, you know, high schooler.

But at the same time, I always felt a little different and I found solace and I found community in theater at the time. Ultimately, I pursued that professionally. I went to school in Austin for theater. And then once I graduated, I immediately moved to New York City. It was always my goal for as long as I could remember. Since third grade, I told my parents I was moving to New York City, and I did just that, right?

I was fortunate enough and very lucky in the right place at the right time, as I like to say, to get my first big quote unquote Broadway break in the first six months that I lived in New York City as a production assistant, doing the [00:02:00] antithesis of what I was put on this earth to do, which was carpentry.

If you knew me, you could not choose a worse job for me. But guess what? I showed up, I painted the back of sets and I said, I'm going to have a really good attitude about this. And lo and behold, that got back to the production supervisor who sends my information to an executive producer, who then called me in for an interview to be her executive assistant.

This woman, a woman named Daryl Roth, is a titan in producing on Broadway. I was sitting in her gorgeous office overlooking Central Park with her multiple Tonys sitting on her coffee table as I silently panicked. And she said, look, Tyler, you seem qualified, but this isn't the right job for you, but I can get you a job in one of my on or off-Broadway companies by the end of the week. And by God, did she.

So, I started to serve as a production assistant, and then I started to get informational interview after informational interview for some really major Broadway companies and Broadway shows. Cut to three years later, I had done five shows as a stage manager or a production assistant, and I was really [00:03:00] starting to live the dream that high school Tyler or junior high Tyler, you know, always dreamed of.

Little did I know that my life was going to get even better and even crazier. The life of anyone working on Broadway, you have no social life, you work all day, hours that no one else on Earthworks. And then you have, even the most successful people on Broadway, have massive layoffs in between contracts.

I finally got to the point where I said, I'm going to stop waiting for permission. All too often in life, we wait for a boss or a director or a producer or someone to give us the opportunity to create, to give us the opportunity to do what it is we're meant to do. And I said, I'm done. So, while I was waiting tables, I started a YouTube series, which was novel at the time. This dates me, and this was a long time ago.

I jokingly called it the Tyler Mount Vlog. It was me and a friend sitting on my couch in my Hell's Kitchen studio in New York City, drinking a bottle of wine, an entire bottle of wine, and playing a game. That's all it was. I did it [00:04:00] for my own validation and that's it.

At the time, cut to a very important day in my life. I was doing a show, at the time, with Gloria Estefan, and Gloria and I were close at the time and she said, Tyler, I hear you have a vlog. Why haven't you asked me to come on it? And I said, well, Gloria, you can come if you want.

So, I swear to you the next week she showed up with her entire entourage, her hair and makeup artist, Emilio, and she recorded an episode of this vlog with me. And we played Truth or Dare. And then TMZ and ET and Access Hollywood picked it up because we have one of the most successful if not the most successful Latin crossover artists in the history of pop music talking about her uterus and kissing me and like chugging really cheap Merlot, right?

It was a field day and that really changed my life because as you can imagine when I don't know, I'm guessing here, a 17-time Grammy award winner does your show, other people on Broadway will agree to do it as well. And that's really where my life changed. Over the course of the next three years, I continued to build this [00:05:00] series, and I got to live my wildest dreams in terms of all of the Broadway stars that I looked up to my entire life have come into my apartment, sat on this couch.

People from Lin Manuel Miranda, Julie Andrews, Cynthia Erivo, Anthony Rapp. Like, these really, really big names ultimately started asking me to come on the show because they realized I could sell more tickets than traditional press. Why? Because before we knew the word influencer, I was really pioneering what is now known as Broadway influencing. I don't do it anymore because, I don't know, I wanted to pay rent.

But, long story short, it was originally, it was initially acquired by Playbill, the Broadway Legacy brand. We were sending it to a million people in 168 countries. I got to live my wildest dreams. Ultimately, that took me really to get my feet wet into the world of digital marketing and content creation. I transferred those skills, via a contact I had at Playbill, to NBC which was my next dream corporation. I ran [00:06:00] digital marketing for a portion of their organization.

What was remarkable to me was I was transitioning out of Broadway, this place that I loved and wanted to be in for so long, but then had really run the gamut. And as I was leaving, a lead producer named Hunter Arnold, a man who single-handedly changed my life, shot me an email and said, Hey Tyler, I think you would make an excellent producer. If you're willing to learn, I will teach you everything I know. And I said, Okay, well, it's rare that you get an email like this and you shouldn't say no.

So, not only did I go to NBC, but at the same time I said, okay, I'll learn how to produce. And learn did I. Again, it sounds like I won the lottery because I accidentally did. The first three shows I produced on Broadway were my first three Tony awards. I was, at the time, the youngest person in the history of theater to have been nominated for all four major categories of the Tonys as a producer. It was in part, or dare I say almost entirely, because of this man who I [00:07:00] didn't know taking a chance on me because of the brand I had built.

And that was the moment I realized, oh, personal brand, the idea of understanding who you are and unapologetically presenting that to the world is actually our greatest marketing strength. It's not LinkedIn. It's not your resume. So, from there, I took job after job, ultimately winding up being laid off during COVID because I was working in real estate development at the time. No one wanted office space in New York City in 2020 if you didn't know that.

So, ultimately, what ended up happening is I was consulting on the Biden-Harris campaign at the time. After he took the presidency, I obviously didn't have a job and a man named John Ledger, who was the former CEO of T Mobile said, you come highly recommended. Would you consult for me? And the rest is history. I've consulted for Fortune 100, Fortune 500 CEOs, and some of the titans of real estate, healthcare, lifestyle, and entertainment ever since.

Tim Curtis: It is sort of a storybook. Small-town Texas. [00:08:00] This is not where I belong. This is not where I fit. Finding your way with all of those stars, those A-listers setting on the couch to running digital for NBC and finding your way back into what I'm guessing is, you know, where you'd hope to be on Broadway.

When we talk about and we translate this into the world of business leaders. I did musical theater. I did musical theater for several years growing up, and I did it through college as well. What I began to really understand is there are elements of art that can be lifted from your experience in a theater setting and can be applied very, very effectively to the business world. Which is, I think, kind of where you came up with that, what is it called? The single most important idea to empire building is being yourself, but it's also allowing yourself the freedom to express yourself in some sort of a vein.

What I always tend to feel is that business leaders, the first thing they think of is Hello, Dolly. Right? That's so far out there from where I am today, but that's not really what you're advocating. In this personal brand-building direction that you've gone, I think, there's so much [00:09:00] there that you can personally lean on into taking into a corporate setting where these individuals could really leverage that to clearly broaden the scope of what they're doing and be more effective in leading that organization.

Tyler Mount: Absolutely. You know what I think is interesting to note? There are a lot of people who would disagree with me, but I feel like I am more poised to be successful in the New York City dog-eat-dog business market as a former theater major than I ever would have been as an MBA graduate. And I firmly believe that. The interpersonal skills that I garnered, my ability to communicate and relate and be empathetic with human beings is unmatched in comparison to traditional business majors.

Tim Curtis: Absolutely agree with that. Arts can be a rough and tumble business. Don't know that everybody necessarily always understands that. But you have a skillset there that is weaving and darting your way through things. Whereas business majors, they're not accustomed to that world. It's a completely different world. It's not a worse world, but it's just [00:10:00] completely different. And I think the insights and the experience that you have in that setting, that's really, really rich experience.

Erik Martinez: I would agree with that. Both Tim and I have gone to this workshop with Heroic Public Speaking. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they're a little outfit out of New Jersey and do amazing work, and they come out of that theatrical background. The one thing that struck me is really incredible in that process of going through their workshop is how precise they are in what they do.

You're talking about business majors, I was one of those business majors and I can tell you that the discipline that the folks in the arts have to develop in order to craft and hone their skills is absolutely impressive. If you look at it from a pure business standpoint, there's also that dichotomy of everybody sees the finished product on a TV screen or, you know, on a radio broadcast or [00:11:00] whatever it is, and they don't see the countless hours of actual diligent, detailed work that goes behind to build these productions in the way that brings them to life and makes them meaningful.

And I think what's impressive about this is it's also extremely competitive because you said at least twice, the word layoff. I got laid off between gigs. I got laid off when this production was over. And most of us don't have to deal with that. And if we're looking at our businesses from a standpoint of we are competitive environments, sometimes with ourselves, but certainly against the competitive set and the economic set and the government set.

What you guys go through in a theatrical side is a microcosm that really forges really good strength. I'm amazed and it frustrates me as a human being because I was a musician way back [00:12:00] when that the arts are getting cut from our school programs. Not to turn this into a political dialogue, but I think the question that then comes up is how do individual leaders when you're talking to a CEO of a corporation, this monolithic institution, Tim and I run relatively small businesses.

They're decent in size in their own right, but they're relatively small businesses. And you're talking about a CEO who's working with some of these really large institutions. How do you coach them on the things that we just talked about to elevate their personal brand that then translates into the business's brand?

Tyler Mount: Yeah, that's one of the million-dollar questions quite literally, right? That is the crux of my work. It's tough because there is no really easy clear-cut black-and-white this is what you do. Okay, we've succeeded answer. It really is a continuation and a series of building blocks to get us there.

[00:13:00] So, the first thing that we always talk about in corporate America is I don't care about the product and I don't care about the company and I typically will pitch my services and you'll typically see people why I'd like, does this kid actually want the job? I will die on this hill because I don't care what you sell, even if it's yourself, right?

As a real estate agent, you're selling yourself. If you are the CEO of T-Mobile, you are selling telecommunication services. Okay. Does that in itself make you special? No, we could go to Sprint. We can go to AT& T. We can go to Verizon. I could throw a rock out this window and hit 15 real estate agents in Manhattan. What I want to stress is the only differentiator in business, no matter what you're selling, whether it's a third-party product or yourself, is you.

What was so remarkable about John Ledger's work at T-Mobile was not the product he was selling. It was how he was selling it. He was unapologetically himself. Instead of the suit and tie, I'm going to be the [00:14:00] straight-laced CEO because that's what CEOs should do, he said, no. This is why I was hired to be myself and bring a fun and innovative, new, fresh perspective to what was a dying organization.

He was a massive, massive bet from the board of directors who hired him. They went from a traditional CEO to one who had long hair that he dyed bright magenta, that rode a Segway around the office, and made it his full-time job to trash-talk the competition. That was his M.O. because that's who he is as a person. And so, by owning that and doubling down on that, we were able to find his tribe of consumers.

What does it say about T-Mobile when the CEO is fresh and innovative? It means the product is fresh and innovative, at least that's the perception. Is that true? No, but it certainly is the perception. And I've built a career on the concept that user [00:15:00] perception is truth. The idea that no matter what is factually accurate, if the consumer perceives it that way, then it is.

And so, he was able by literally having magenta hair and riding a Segway scooter and also being an incredible, sensational businessman, he was able to revive a dying organization to be one of the best, if not the best mobile carriers on earth. Cut back to 10 years before that, who really started to grow personal brand in an eccentric and irreverent way? Richard Branson. He revitalized Virgin because he again said, I am going to be the figurehead of this company, and that is what is key.

Consumers, especially today, especially the next generation of consumers, care more about the figureheads who lead the company and what they stand for, and who they are versus the product. Because at this point we have gone through so many iterations of consumerism, your product is most [00:16:00] likely not that unique. Name a unique product today. Even if you think about the advent of AI. Okay, well I could use GPT, I could use Bings, I could use Apples, I could use Metas.

What I'm trying to drill down to is we really care about the figureheads and the personal brands of these people, and it applies to everyone. If you're in high school right now and you work as a lifeguard, building your personal brand actually makes you more reputable and more hireable in the job market. Same as if you're the CEO of a Fortune 100 company. By focusing on your personal brand, you become more irreplaceable, which drives the value of your product, which is you, in the consumer world.

Erik Martinez: I find that a fascinating conversation because I think you're right when we look at the business school or the classic institutions, they are there to help educate you, of course, but there's also kind of this [00:17:00] normalization, and there's not the celebration of individuality, which is what you're talking about.

Tim and I have somebody we've had on the show a couple of times. Her name's Carla Johnson and she's done a ton of research into the innovation process. But one of the things that she talks about at the very beginning is like, why aren't we more innovative as individuals? Because to a certain extent, that normalization process drives it out of us and creates fear about being whoever we are. So, I think that's really, really interesting.

So, let's pivot now from the personal brand and its impact on a culture of an organization and the results of that organization, and let's talk about the storytelling part. How do you craft a compelling story that resonates? Now I've got this larger-than-life figure, now we're telling stories about that larger-than-life figure, how do you interweave that in digital media and [00:18:00] campaigns to really bring it to life and make it stick?

Tyler Mount: Yeah. You know what's interesting? I never set out to do this, but I have accidentally, through my education and experience, become an expert at storytelling. Learning to storytell effectively is far more impactful than going to advertising school. It's far more impactful than going to marketing school, at least the traditional sense. Why? Because consumers, you and I, crave narrative. We crave storytelling. Why? Because it involves us into the actual environment you, as an advertiser or a service provider, are trying to create.

So, the number one way that we really start to create storytelling is twofold. One vulnerability and number two approachability. My job is to be not oversharing, but to be vulnerable and show up as a human being. Why? Because if I'm relatable, someone can see themselves in me and want [00:19:00] to transact with me.

So, the first place that we start is from a place of, you've guessed it, authenticity. If I can be unapologetically authentic about my experience and who I am and forget who I am trying to appease or forget who I am thinking I should market to, and instead market to my authentic built-in consumer, that's when the storytelling really comes to life.

I have sat on thousands and thousands of calls with leaders and the things that come up in these meetings always stem from one word and the word is should. Well, I should dress this way. I should act this way. CEOs should present this way. Women should do this. Men should do that. And my question to them very simply is says who? Where is the rule book?

And so, by effectively turning that on its head and saying, I'm a human being, and I also have to [00:20:00] remember everyone seeing this campaign or listening to the stories of human being too. And they're more likely to resonate with the human experience versus a completely manufactured experience that I'm creating because I think I should create it to potentially appeal to a consumer artificially. That's where the storytelling happens.

What I've learned in my work, it's less about forcing and manufacturing and how do we create a story. It's more about stepping back and letting your authentic humanity tell the story in the first place. And I know that sounds hippy-dippy and I know that seems like ethereal, but it's such a nuance and that's what I'm really trying to get out of my clients. Who are you authentically when no one is watching because no one cares? That is where the magic really happens.

Tim Curtis: So, you have a good practical application of that in that hippy-dippy kind of ethereal theory or concept. It's quite interesting how often you will hear this from executives that inside they either have a personal fear [00:21:00] of living that out because I think they have conceptions of what that's going to look like living out that may not necessarily aligned to reality.

Or they're uncomfortable with, you know, quote-unquote, that ethereal aspect of that and how you take it out. So let's say, hypothetically, you've got a new client. This is someone who is we're talking zero grade. They're starting from ground zero and they're in a business setting. What does that look like for someone who doesn't have the Richard Branson, right? Doesn't have that kind of a larger-than-life personality. In practical application, as you work with that client, walk us through that and how that development occurs.

Tyler Mount: Absolutely. Whenever someone on boards with me, they expect a lot of business acumen, right? It's a lot of business talk and scaling and how do we grow the org and like synergies and like all of these like fantastic corporate keywords. Instead, where we really start is the persona, the personal level. In our discovery calls, yes, I find out about you and your business and what you're doing, and what your goals are. Okay. But [00:22:00] the questions that really move the needle in business, whether you know it or not, are the nontraditional questions.

So, outside of your business, let's say you're a real estate agent. Outside of real estate, who are you as a human being? What are your dreams, aspirations, goals, hobbies? What do you do in your free time? You claim that you don't have free time. Fine. I'll placate you. If you had free time, what is this look like? That is so telling because so many people suppress this.

Well, I really love horses. I don't know. I really, really love horses, but I can't because I'm a real estate agent and I don't want people to think that I'm giving mixed messages and I'm not fully invested in my business. My answer is so what? By you actually loving horses, I don't know why I'm on a horse diatribe, but you loving horses makes you resonate more with people in general because you're a human, not a sales machine, but most importantly with other horse lovers.

We know statistically that if you can bridge [00:23:00] a commonality with the consumer you are more likely to sell to them. Tim, you are more likely, statistically, to work with me because I have a theater background, because so do you. Not because I'm better. Not because I'm worse. Not because you still do theater or I still do theater. It's because we have something in common. I can speak your language.

And so, when we work in real estate or any type of service organization, I remind people they have to talk the language of their consumer. It's much easier to sell to an affluent person if they perceive you to be affluent. I'm not saying be fake. I'm not saying act affluent if you're on food stamps. What I am saying is that like-minded people transact with like-minded people. So, by owning those things that make you unique, you bring your consumer to you.

Gone are the days that we have to focus on outbound advertising, throwing a thousand offers out and seeing which one sticks. Instead, I resonate with the fact that I am Tyler, and this is who I am, and I'm unapologetic [00:24:00] about that. And if you love it, fantastic. Flock to me. If you don't, that's fine. You weren't going to work with me in the first place. So, what I really start by doing is level setting on who you are as a person and how we can leverage that.

The next thing really from a mental perspective is I have to get people to first intellectually understand. Because all too often in business, we obviously are thinking with our emotions a lot, and so I level set with people. I remind them first and foremost, no matter who you are, if you are Republican, there are Democrats who do not want to work with you because of that. The opposite is true too.

Tim Curtis: Yeah, opposite.

Tyler Mount: Right, the opposite is true. There are some men who don't want to work with women. Because they're weak. There are some women who don't want to work with men because they're abusive. There are some people who don't want to work with gay men because they're promiscuous. There are some gay men who don't want to work with straight men because they're domineering. You understand where I'm going.

No matter who you are authentically, there will be a faction of people who will not work with you because of it. Once we [00:25:00] understand that and realize that appeasing the masses is a statistical impossibility, it opens up our ability to actually communicate and be who we are. Why am I going to be something I'm not, and still have people not want to work with me? I'd rather be who I am and have people not want to work with me. And you know what I say to them? Be my guest. Right?

The people who are meant to work with you will flock to you just implicitly. Once we realize that, and then we put the cherry on top, which is everyone is so concerned with themselves, they're never thinking about you. Once we combine all of these things, we start to realize I really have nothing to risk.

So, a new client, a client who's starting from ground zero is my dream client. I don't have to rework tons and tons of years of business training and reputation management. We can start with who you are from the ground up, and realize like, yeah, is that going to ostracize some people? Sure, but being who you're not is also going to ostracize. And so really approaching it from that [00:26:00] methodology not only allows people to understand intellectually but also emotionally and connect the two, which I find to be the most important portion of our work.

Tim Curtis: I kind of see, I don't know that it's intentional in terms of the education, but especially through coming out of MBA programs, you'll see graduates that come out of MBA corporate and some of the most prestigious universities, and it's almost as if they have been trained to paint themselves beige, in an effort to fit into that role. It is so counter to the concept of being authentically who you are. Now, of course, there's obviously there's paradigms and there's norms. We understand that. No one is arguing the other.

But just the other day, I was doing a keynote and we were talking internally here at the agency about, is there walk-on music or not. And I said, gosh, I don't know. That was one thing they didn't stipulate. And so the question was, well, what would you have if you could take your pick? I said I don't know, probably something from one of the Studio 54 remixes because why not? That would be incredible. And it floored them. They didn't know that about me.

To me, I [00:27:00] was like, okay, gosh, I guess maybe I need to let them know a little bit more about me or whatever. I didn't, had never thought about it, but it was just sort of indicative of, okay, well, you know, maybe there's those things that even I am still guilty of kind of trying to do that, I don't wanna say sterile, but sterile is the word that kind of keeps coming to mind. And I just think sterile doesn't move anyone. Sterile doesn't sell anything. It may sell sanitation equipment or supplies. I don't know.

Tyler Mount: That's true. It's certainly would.

Tim Curtis: I guess it's got its place. But it's just so hard coded, or if it's not hardcoded, it's hard taught. We end up sending out these leaders who can handle the financial aspect of the business, but there's so much more, vastly more, to running a business than the financial aspect of the business.

Tyler Mount: What's interesting to that point, I would even argue it's no fault of the higher institution exclusively because they have to teach to the masses, which automatically ensures mediocrity and uniformity. I know there are obvious exceptions [00:28:00] here. One of the most fatal flaws in my opinion, especially coming from a program that is based in a trade like performance or welding or advertising or public speaking, there are obvious exceptions to what I'm about to say.

But overarchingly, I would bet my career, the majority of higher institution leaders who are teaching the next generation have not worked in that field professionally at the level they are training people to work at in the last 20 years. No one and I mean no one, I worked with in school was professionally operating at the level I was aspiring to. And that is a natural byproduct of the institution. They can't because their full-time job is teaching.

And what that does is creates a group of beige individuals who are coming out of higher institutions being taught practices that were reputable quite literally 25 years ago. If you're a [00:29:00] tenured professor, 40 years ago. And that doesn't obviously drive innovation, it doesn't drive commerce or business. So, we have to also look at how are we teaching the next generation and how are they learning.

Like I said, did I go to quote-unquote undergrad marketing school? No, but with all due respect, I'm far more qualified, in my opinion, having worked at the highest echelons of marketing than anyone coming out of traditional marketing school today. Not because I'm better, but because of the experiences working with seasoned professionals who are doing this right here, right now,

Erik Martinez: So Tyler, you bring up a really good point I'm kind of thinking about. If I'm a person that's coming to you. I just stepped into an organization or I've been part of this organization for a while, and I'm stuck. And I'm stuck to help move the needle for my organization in terms of their marketing performance or their branding messaging, whatever it is that those objectives [00:30:00] are. What's the first thing that you advise them to do? How do you help them get unstuck?

As many of the listeners know, I coach fast-pitch softball. When I look at these young women, they're stuck, right? They're getting drilled down by all these norms and expectations of young women and what they're supposed to do and what they're not supposed to do. They often fail to realize they have way more potential, right?

So, one of the very first things that we try to do when we're coaching is say, Hey, you have a lot more potential, right? Just because you're not where you want to be today doesn't mean you can't get there. So, when you're starting work with somebody who's in one of these organizations, whether they've been there a while or they're brand new to the organization, how do you kind of get them over that first hurdle?

Tyler Mount: I'm so glad you brought this up in this specific lens because I use the gym mentality and the [00:31:00] gym methodology every day. The first thing that I desperately need my client to see is the smallest glimmer of a win. Whenever you go to the gym and you show up for the first day on January 1st, New Year, new me, you don't leave disappointed that you don't have a six-pack. It's not realistic, right? And it is increasingly difficult to go the next day when you're sore and still fat.

You know, what's interesting here is like, whenever you start to see results, it's so much easier to go to the gym. This is coming from someone who in college, I graduated college under 120 pounds. I desperately wanted to look like something I didn't, right? And I would stop going to the gym because I would go for a week and I'd be sore. And I'm like, well, I, I don't look like Zac Efron.

So, ultimately what ended up happening was it wasn't until I said, no, I'm going to commit to myself that I started to see results, not fantastic results, but like results. I'll take what I can get people, right? Ultimately, what I started to find is, oh, it's easier [00:32:00] to go to the gym then, right? The same thing with your pitchers, right? It's easier to show up to practice when you're the best. It's really, really hard to show up to practice when you're the worst. But every person who's the best started the worst in their bracket at some point.

And so, what I remind people is that this is part of the process. We cannot compare our chapter two to someone else's chapter 15. I hear all the time, well, insert famous celebrity here. I'm like, yeah, but what you're not seeing is they've been doing this for 18 years. We're on day four.

And so, my number one goal is to get them one win. And that win can be as small as, okay, the website is finally up and launched. Great. Now let's talk about the next step. We don't talk about website ever again because we're moving on to the next thing. Or, hey, you got in front of the camera and you posted your first Instagram reel and you don't hate yourself in it. That is a massive win.

From there, we'll just continue to build and build and build on that. Because once you are, you know, in the top one percent [00:33:00] of business, it's easy to show up. That's easy when you're the leader of the free world or the leader of a Fortune 100 company, that's easy to say. So, ensuring that we see glimmers of success and glimmers of hope, similar to seeing progress at the gym is what really moves the needle for my clients. And that's my ultimate goal because then progress begets more progress.

Erik Martinez: That's so true. And that's the exact same types of things that we try to teach the girls on the softball field, right? How to get over this first hurdle. You may not be able to field or catch or throw today, but you can tomorrow. And every day we work at it. So, I think that's a really important thing because I remember recruiters calling me when I was earlier in my career and passing on me because I wasn't quote the big hitter, but how did the big hitter become the big hitter? What's the process that they went through? How long did it take them? They didn't all come out of college or out of high school hitting 40 home runs a year and batting 350. It's not [00:34:00] realistic. So, I think that's a really good lesson for people to understand that this takes a lot of work and there's a lot of small steps in between.

Tim Curtis: I was over here writing as you were speaking and kind of what struck me, and I think you'll understand where I'm going with this, the way that you communicate in what you're saying is very evocative and experienced-based type perspective. Like the gym mentality. It is a commitment. No, you're not Zac Efron after a week or whatever. You also said, you know, don't compare your chapter 2 to someone else's chapter 15. I'm like, uh, that sounds like something my southern meemaw would say. These are southern isms.

There's just so much truth wrapped up in what you were saying. And no, it's really just a commitment to improvement and you're not comparing your chapter 2 to your chapter 15. And, you know, sometimes we have to be careful about comparing our chapter 15 to someone else's chapter 15. We can take even that step too far.

But in this instance, as we're kind of really seeing where that personal branding can sort of intersect with the corporate storytelling, I think it becomes much more [00:35:00] comfortable. Once you've walked a mile or 2 down that path and you're really beginning to get into, okay, this is who I am. I'm establishing my personality.

I do a lot of public speaking. I'm on stages constantly and I keep going through my mind, am I doing enough on my own personal branding in that respect? And the answer is no, I'm not. You know, line up 15 executives, probably 14 of them are going to give you a truthful answer. As those things are continuing to evolve, there's pitfalls or there's things that we need to be aware of or cautious about. What do you tell your clients? Now you've got your personal brand rolling, what are the guardrails maybe that you will put out there, something that may, for example, damage or have a damaged impact on a business setting?

Tyler Mount: Right. So, look, whenever I talk about authenticity and running your own race, I'm never ever implying that you should just do so carelessly and, you know, throw all caution to the wind. There are real ramifications of being a psychopath in today's world. Okay. What we have to focus on is, is my authentic self [00:36:00] also going to resonate with consumers? Now, let me be clear. I'm not saying to change that if that's not the case, it just means you might not be selling the right product, or you might be at the wrong company.

You know, I just always talk hyperbolically and in like extreme examples, right? But if you are a diehard staunch, pro-life advocate, you running Planned Parenthood is just not a good fit, despite your business acumen maybe being able to do it. Ultimately, there has to be some intersection between who you authentically are and what you're doing. So, my biggest takeaway here is, does your authenticity or freedom infringe on any potential consumer?

Now let me be clear. I'm not talking about free speech. That's not infringing, okay? I'm not talking about having purple hair and someone not liking it, that's not infringing. Don't look at my purple hair then, right? But forcing an organization or forcing your consumers to adhere to your [00:37:00] authenticity isn't necessarily always palatable. And so, we do have to be cognizant that some things probably just shouldn't be shared. Having an understanding and a social understanding and a business acumen that can help you navigate those oftentimes muddied waters is really, really important.

This isn't your carte blanche pass to do whatever you want. We still have to be leaders. We still have a fiduciary and ethical responsibility to our consumers and to our oftentimes, stockholders and to our employees who depend on us for welfare. Okay. When I say welfare, you know what I mean by that. But ultimately for their own welfare.

You know, what I think is important to note here is that good leaders are a perfect amalgamation of having both social understanding, understanding how to speak to a human being in a room and being a human being, and also authentically being who they are. Those two things have to intersect for synergy here.

Tim Curtis: If nothing [00:38:00] else, some things just shouldn't be said or shared. If we could just honor that principle universally. Wow.

Tyler Mount: There is a massive difference in stifling who you are, and sharing to get a reaction, or sharing because you have no social understanding, and this is something we probably shouldn't say in a room full of women. You know what I mean? Or people in general. That's something that unfortunately really isn't teachable. That's like a soft skill that maybe theater taught us, right? We have to have social understanding in the world of business and that combined with our authentic voice and our authentic truth is what really catapults us to the next level.

Tim Curtis: And there are things that pop into my mind and you just said it. I go back to when I was on the stage and I'm like, that's not my line.

Tyler Mount: I'm all for like towing line here. I really am. I am unapologetically myself. I probably say more than I [00:39:00] should often, but I at least have common sense people. Right. I'm not saying we have to be reserved and demure. Right. But I am saying like, there are certain places we shouldn't say things to certain people, and that's important to note.

Tim Curtis: Right. I get it. I get it.

Erik Martinez: It is sometimes important to keep the inner dialogue inside your head.

Tyler Mount: That's why it's called inner.

Erik Martinez: Tyler, before we move the closeout, this has been a fascinating conversation. I think what you're talking about is really helping people identify a path for themselves within the world and that they can have their own path, and it doesn't have to be somebody else's and it doesn't have to be constructed by anybody else. It is their path and they can choose to pursue it in whatever way they deem fit.

And I think that's a powerful message in our society today, where everything is getting so standardized at the extremes and in the middle. It's really, really [00:40:00] fascinating to see that. So, as we move the closeout, here's the question. What would you say, as a parting shot to the audience, that they really need to think that we haven't covered yet today? What would Tyler say unapologetically to the audience?

Tyler Mount: Two things are coming to mind. The first is life is too short to not authentically be who you are. There will be people who don't like it, but with all due respect, I don't really care because I can't appease everyone. And once I really started to understand that, I now no longer care what Erik and Tim are gonna think about me in this conversation. I don't care. Truly, I don't. I now am actually able to show up and be a human being and build a connection and build a relationship with two really incredible business people.

Not once have I been like, oh, will they like me? Do they think, what if they blah blah blah? Like, I don't care. [00:41:00] Right? And I hope you feel the same way about me. This isn't a conversation about a lack of respect or me not wanting to be valued and cared for. It's a, my life's purpose and work doesn't hinge on third-party people's opinion. Once we really start to grasp that, not only will we find more deeply rooted, incredible human connection, but we also will find our lives both personally and professionally really starting to thrive.

The second thing that I really try to lead my business from that I try to impart is the idea that lighting someone else's candle doesn't extinguish my own. All too often we're like, well, I don't want her to get that opportunity because that means I don't get it. That's not the way the world works. By so and so getting an opportunity, that wasn't your opportunity in the first place. It wasn't coming to you anyway.

By actually uplifting other human beings and showing them that you're generous and kind and therefore the greater good, you ironically make more money. So, [00:42:00] by showing up in that space and with that mindset and with a giving mentality, those are the things that I've really found, from working with some of the biggest thought leaders on earth, how they carry themselves and how they lead their business, to find success.

Erik Martinez: Amazing things to think about as we close out this session. So Tyler, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It has been a great conversation and I think one that will resonate. So, thank you everybody for listening to this episode of the Digital Velocity Podcast. I'm Erik Martinez from Blue Tangerine.

Tim Curtis: And I'm Tim Curtis from CohereOne.

Erik Martinez: Have a fantastic day. [00:43:00]