Unknown Speaker 0:00
Hello and welcome back to the creative visibility podcast. I am Bret Shuford. This podcast is for those of you that are content creators or entrepreneurs who really want to uplevel your visibility and your creativity when it comes to becoming known online through digital marketing, social media, and building your business and your brand, making money doing what you love. And if that's you, make sure you click subscribe, and share this with somebody that you love. So I took a little bit of a break the last week, not purposefully, I continue to overestimate what I'm capable of doing with a three and a half month old so my best best friend from college, Scott Barnhart, if you don't know him is somebody you should know he is best known for being in the original cast of The Book of Mormon on Broadway. But for me, he's like a sibling. He is like the brother I never had. He's just a special special human being. And he married the love of his life. Our friend JP, Carly, AK, and it was just the most magical wedding with all these Broadway friends and college friends. And scouting, I went to college together. And we had to bring our son Maverick is three and a half months old. And it was just so fun to get to let all of these people from our lives, put their hands on him and love him and touch him. And it was just it was really, really magical. And then we went to of course Disneyland because if I'm within like a two hour radius of any Disney park, I'm going to go and we went with some other people who I consider family my friend Kate and her husband, Andrew and their son, Luke. And again, it was just like a really magical week. And I don't know, I thought I'll have time to record a couple.
Unknown Speaker 1:46
Silly me, but here we are, we're back. And I think it's okay. You know, I always even tell my clients, it's okay to take a break. It's okay to let yourself recharge and be fully present. Because if we're not fully present in our lives, what's the point of building a business? What's the point of doing all this content creation, right. So it was a wonderful way to really just give myself that summer break, right, we all need those little summers to do that, and, and heal. I think I shared in the past that there's this last few months of becoming a father and this transition into Fatherhood has brought up a lot of trauma of being a child and growing up, and it's helping me reflect on the kind of parent I want to be. And it's challenging, it's hard. And so being with people that love you and love us and accept us was really, really powerful. But most importantly, Disneyland because Disneyland for me has a lot more than just most people just sort of equate it to commercialism, of course, and, and money which one of the things I love about Disneyland is the fact that it is a very financially successful business theme parks can make a lot of money. And Disney really created that the basis of that money is based on this idea of creativity. And we're all capable. That's why I'm so inspired by the legacy of Walt Disney regardless of how you feel about his leadership, what he created was so forward thinking and continues to thrive to this day. And the reason why I'm talking about this is you know, Tuesday's is creativity Tuesdays, and I think it's really important to discuss the things that inspire us and not be afraid like, yeah, not everybody is going to be inspired by Disneyland. But there are plenty of reasons why you should be and if we just immediately shut down, right? When somebody says, Oh, I'm inspired by this, let's say wrestling, and we close ourselves off to like, why this person is inspired by it, we might actually lose out on some things that I think could really help unlock our message. Because when we're building a personal brand, which is really what I help people do unlock how to build your personal brand. As a creator as a creative. It requires us to be seen. It requires us to be vulnerable. I always say a successful personal brand bridges your credibility and your vulnerability. And it requires you to get really clear on what your message is. And a lot of people come to me just very stuck. I don't know. I don't know what my message is. I don't know how to create content that really penetrates an audience and gets people to engage and follow. But the truth is probably because you're overthinking, you do know, because your mess is your message. And when I look at Disney Land in regards to let's say Walt Disney because Walt Disney Disney Land is the sort of experience that he wanted to create in the world. That's all you're doing. When you're building a personal brand. You're creating an experience and you're building a reputation when you enter Walt Disney Land.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
You're walking into a time, right? Everything tells a story. That's one of the things I love about design. Everything tells a story. The architecture tells a story. The music tells a story, the smells the sense the garbage cans are a part of that story, right? It all contributes to the experience. And what Main Street is the first thing you enter on right? Main Street. The experience of Main Street is Walt Disney's pass. It is based on his childhood hometown of marsali, Missouri. He was born in 1901 turn of the last century so when you walk down Main Street, you're experiencing what he remembered his idealised version, you're also experiencing all of the values that he equates, he's his patriotic Americana. So you feel that right they play these sort of, you know, John Philip Sousa type music, the innocence of the smell of vanilla from the candy store, the old transportation, horse drawn carriages and trolleys that pull down Main Street, it all contributes to the experience of his past and whether you know it or not, whether you're rushing off to Space Mountain to ride a roller coaster or something else, you're being indoctrinated in the values that Walt Disney believed in his mess, is his message. Right? If we really dig deep into that time period in the history of America at that time, it wasn't a great time for many populations in our society, right. But for him, it's this idealised version, he sifted through those memories, and is willing to share the things that are valuable for people to create an experience that they'll remember and love. You get to do that, every single day, I get to do that in my content every single day. Sometimes I'm having a great day. And I feel like sharing joy. And sometimes I'm super hurt and frustrated and want to inspire people to take action to make a difference in the world, both of those things can be true. And you can see that in the experience in the brand of Disney. So I thought today just to kind of help you unlock you know, I go really in depth during the creative visibility programme into building your main street. What is your main street, right? It's different for every creative, what are the values, one of my favourite things to talk about is the people, every single window on Main Street has the name of somebody who helped Walt Disney become who he is. So the people the stories like your mess is your message, you need to get really clear on what your message is, and be willing to come to terms with that so that you can choose how you want to show up for your audience. So I thought I'd I prompt you today with some questions. And I want you just to brainstorm for yourself, doesn't mean you have to go out and make content around this. But just to unlock some of this creativity of what is your main street? What's the experience that makes you who you are? What was your biggest personal challenge?
Unknown Speaker 8:06
If you know my story, I talk very often about suffering from addiction from drug and alcohol addiction. That was a very big personal challenge. I also coming out was a hard challenge for many people in my generation, of course, but some personal challenges are relatable, right? And in sometimes vulnerable and painful, but you've learned something you've come through that time. So what was your biggest personal challenge in the past? And then ask yourself What was your biggest professional challenge? My biggest professional challenge, of course, was making it on Broadway i It wasn't until I got sober, that I was able to even do that. So those two things came hand in hand. Now my biggest personal challenge has been you know, it changes right. So was to have a child, it took us four years. And in order to do that I needed to shift what I was doing professionally. And now I coach people. So you might find like your story changes. Or you might have multiple stories, write them all down. And then you can decide what your message is. So take those two questions and then ask yourself, that's your mess. Let's look at your mess. Let's not be afraid to look at the mess and acknowledge you got through those times. Your message then on the other side of that is how did you overcome that personal challenge? What did you do? What were the steps within there? For me it was learning to be of service in getting sober learning to ask for help not do it alone. That was a huge challenge. And if you notice, when I overcame the challenge, that's now what I do for people I now offer to be of service in my content and my services as a coach right and help people realise they're not alone. So my message became my message. And then the last question I want you to answer for yourself is What is the greatest lesson you ever learned? What is the greatest lesson you ever learned? And what
Unknown Speaker 10:00
Right now I would say, the greatest lesson for me that I've ever learned is that not everyone's going to be happy for you. We talked about that in a previous episode, not everyone's going to be happy for you, especially the people who are closest to you because to watch you grow and watch you become the person you were meant to be. It challenges people's own definitions of who they are, makes them uncomfortable. So they're not going to support you necessarily in your growth. And the sooner I realised that the sooner I could start to own the person I really wanted to be and then choose to surround myself with people who saw that vision for myself. Right? What is the greatest lesson you've ever learned?
Unknown Speaker 10:41
Answer that question and then meet me here on Thursday. For the visibility episode of the week. I will talk to you then
