Building your LeaderBrand - Build a business you love in a category of one.

Bob Gentle Personal Branding & Monetization Coach
  • 5.0 (18)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

The personal branding podcast for consultants, coaches, founders and executives who want to turn their expertise into a business that grows. Each week, Bob Gentle talks with expert business owners, creators and leaders about what actually works: building authority and thought leadership, growing an audience on LinkedIn, digital marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing, and selling your services without being pushy. You’ll hear the real stories behind successful personal brand businesses, including how guests found their niche, packaged and priced their expertise, built visibility and turned reputation into revenue, with practical takeaways you can use the same week. Topics include personal branding, LinkedIn strategy, content marketing, sales and business development, leadership, positioning, monetisation, productised services, AI for business and building a lifestyle business on your own terms. Your host, Bob Gentle, is a personal brand business strategist and the founder of AmplifyME. He helps experts and executives build profitable businesses around what they know. He created the LeaderBrand Business Roadmap, a free step-by-step guide to starting, scaling or fixing your expert business: amplifyme.agency/roadmap. Building Your LeaderBrand is rated in the top 2.5% of podcasts globally by ListenNotes. New episodes every week. About Your Host: Bob Gentle is a globally recognized Personal Brand strategist, coach, and the driving force behind AmplifyMe, helping expert business owners scale their brands and businesses worldwide. He’s also the creator of the Personal Brand Business Roadmap™, a step-by-step guide to starting, scaling, or refining your expert business. Download it for free at amplifyme.agency/roadmap. Tune in to Building Your LeaderBrand, rated in the top 2.5% of podcasts globally by ListenNotes, and discover how you, too, can lead with impact and grow your personal brand into a powerful business.

  1. 4d ago

    The Lifestyle Business Isn’t Second Best - It’s the Smartest Business You Can Build, with Brian Herriot

    Most of the people I work with are very good at what they do. Busy, in demand and trusted. But ask them when they last had a proper block of time that was truly theirs - weeks, not days - and the answer is usually a long pause. The default deal is simple. Work hard for decades, save what you can, and enjoy life later. For a lot of experienced people, that deal no longer feels right. Not because they want to stop working, but because they want choice. Brian Harriott is back on the show for a second visit. He has spent the last two and a half years writing a book on time freedom. It covers how to combine flexible work, smart money and a clear view of your lifestyle costs so you can take real time off now, not decades from now. Areas we explored ✳️ The Time Freedom Formula - your yearly lifestyle costs, covered by a mix of investment income and flexible work, rather than savings alone. ✳️ Why Brian calls his readers Free Timers - people who work in intense, focused periods, take extended time off, and often choose to work for longer because they love the work. ✳️ Why a lifestyle business is something to be proud of - and how building for the life it supports leads to very different decisions than building for a sale that may never happen. Brian’s Amplifiers ✳️ Read Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks to tell better stories in your writing, speaking and content. ✳️ Invest in a personal trainer - Brian did it for the first time this year and says it has been worth it. ✳️ Pick up a new skill that gets you outdoors and away from work - for Brian, that is learning to sail. You can find Brian at timefreedom.life, where you can take the 9-question Time Freedom quiz to see how close you already are. The Time Freedom Calculator is at timefreedomcalculator.com. If this episode gave you something to think about, follow or subscribe so you never miss a conversation. And if you know someone who keeps saying “one day”, send it their way. More about Brian here : https://timefreedom.life/ & Buy the book here : https://geni.us/timefreedom Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 00:32 Welcome to Building Your Leader Brand 01:47 Brian returns - and the book he has been writing 02:16 Who the book is for and the 3-year promise 04:28 How this is different from The 4-Hour Workweek 06:09 Meet the Free Timers 07:16 The Time Freedom Calculator 08:06 Who this approach is not for 11:11 Why choice is freedom 11:58 The Time Freedom Formula explained 14:44 Lifestyle design or lifestyle hand grenade? 15:26 Measured risk and money confidence 16:52 A more humane way to work 18:41 When your business is one month from closing 21:38 Owning the lifestyle business label 23:21 What do you actually do with the time? 24:08 The catalyst - one thing that grows your business 10 times 26:23 Why relaxing is a skill 27:42 Amplifier 1 - Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks 28:25 Amplifier 2 - Investing in a personal trainer 29:04 Amplifier 3 - Learning to sail 30:04 Where to find Brian ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me.

  2. Nov 2

    Introvert Leadership: How Quiet Thinkers Build Real Authority - with David Hall

    A lot of leaders and experts trying to build visibility and authority have quietly convinced themselves that it requires a personality they don’t have. They look at the loudest, most visible people in their field and assume that’s the template. This episode pushes back on that directly. I spoke with David Hall - author, educator, and host of the Quiet and Strong podcast - about what introversion actually is, how to use it rather than fight it, and why understanding your own design might be the most practical thing you can do for your leadership and your business. ✳️ Introversion isn’t about shyness or not liking people - it’s about being a deep thinker who processes internally before speaking. When you don’t understand this about yourself, the things that look like weaknesses are often just your natural process being misread. ✳️ Tools like Myers-Briggs and CliftonStrengths aren’t personality boxes - they’re maps. They show you where your energy flows naturally, where you’re likely burning out by working against your design, and where you have gifts you’ve probably been taking for granted. ✳️ Preparation is an introvert’s greatest competitive advantage. Whether it’s a keynote, a difficult conversation, a board meeting, or a podcast - giving yourself time to think first transforms performance and builds the kind of reputation for quality thinking that makes people wait for your answer. David’s Amplifiers ✳️ Read Introvert Power by Dr Laurie Helgoe - a well-grounded case that introversion is a strength, not a liability, and that introverts make up at least half the population. David credits this book as a turning point. ✳️ Subscribe to the Quiet and Strong podcast - nearly 300 episodes covering leadership, public speaking, networking, and everything else introverts navigate differently. If this conversation resonated, that’s where to go next. ✳️ Take the free TypeFinder personality assessment at quietandstrong.com - it gives you your four Myers-Briggs letters and a clearer picture of how you’re wired. ✨Find out more about David on his website https://quietandstrong.com/ Timestamps 00:36 Welcome and episode introduction 01:49 David’s background - from thinking something was wrong with him to helping others 04:25 The introvert disadvantage myth 07:03 Redefining introversion beyond energy 09:55 Thinking first, then speaking 12:50 Shyness versus introversion 15:20 Taking control without using it as an excuse 16:23 Using personality as a tool, not a label 19:22 Myers-Briggs and CliftonStrengths unpacked 23:09 Designing your work around your personality 27:00 Minding Your Time - David’s book on productivity for introverts 27:34 The Quiet and Strong podcast 29:37 David’s three amplifiers If you found this useful, follow or subscribe so you don’t miss what’s coming next. ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me.

  3. Oct 19

    Your business needs to work as hard as you do, with Gareth Everson ( topics - sales, marketing, small business, lemonade plan ) )

    If you’re good at what you do, you’re probably busy. And if you’re busy, you’re probably not doing the things that would make your business work better without you. That’s the trap most expert-led businesses fall into - and it’s exactly what this conversation with Gareth Everson is about. Gareth is a systems coach who’s spent 15 years helping around 450 small business owners build better sales systems. He’s the author of The Lemonade Plan - a practical framework for generating predictable profit through refreshingly simple processes. He’s also a software developer and currently building a software product based on the Lemonade methodology. For any consultant, coach, or expert who has ever wondered why a less capable competitor seems to be doing better - this episode will give you some uncomfortable answers and some very actionable ones. ✳️ The sales cycle of doom is real - and most experts are stuck in it. You’re so focused on delivering the current work that you stop filling the pipeline, which means you take whatever comes next rather than what you actually want. ✳️ Most businesses are one-hit wonders when it comes to follow-up. Gareth’s research shows 85% of people who will ever buy from you won’t do so for over 100 days - yet most businesses stop following up after a week or two, leaving the field wide open. ✳️ Your website is almost certainly working against you. If the only calls to action are “get a quote” or “contact us,” you’re only ever speaking to the 1-3% of visitors who are ready to buy right now - and ignoring the rest entirely. Gareth’s Amplifiers ✳️ Strategy - Build to extract, not to sell. With only 0.3% of UK businesses achieving a meaningful exit sale, Gareth’s advice is to generate enough consistent profit to extract and invest - including up to £60,000 per year per director into a pension (SIPP). Start with the Rebel Finance School for a practical framework around this. ✳️ Tactic - Build your greatest hits sequence. Rather than following up once or twice, create a structured nurture sequence that runs for months - or even years - after someone makes an enquiry. Download chapter 12 of The Lemonade Plan free at lemonadeplan.com/chapter. ✳️ Tool - NotebookLM Web Importer. A £39 Chrome extension that lets you feed entire YouTube playlists into Google’s NotebookLM, turning hundreds of hours of content into a private, interactive knowledge resource you can query directly. If this episode got you thinking about what your pipeline actually looks like - and what it should look like - follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Find out more about Gareth here garetheverson.com - weekly email essay and blog LinkedIn, Instagram - @GarethEverson lemonadeplan.com/chapter - Chapter 12, the greatest hits sequence Time stamps 00:00 Introduction 00:34 Bob's intro and the Personal Brand Business Roadmap 01:51 Meet Gareth Everson - systems coach, author, and software developer 04:12 Why software thinking applies directly to business 05:33 What profit should actually look like in a small business 08:33 The universal vicious cycle of competence 09:10 The sales cycle of doom - what it is and why it matters 10:15 Two business coaches, two very different outcomes 12:39 Starting with the end in mind - working back from the experience 14:00 Pricing fear, proposals, and the danger of discounting too soon 16:21 Why prospects go quiet - and what to do instead 18:49 The Quote Not Booked sequence - following up for years, not weeks 21:00 Why most websites only serve 1-3% of visitors 22:06 The logical lead generation mix for service businesses 23:31 One-hit wonders vs greatest hits - Gareth's follow-up framework 25:00 The 85% rule - most buyers won't buy for 100+ days 29:44 Proactive lead generation - the mix that works 32:48 Paid media - how little you actually need to spend 37:49 Keeping the right clients and filtering out the wrong ones 40:25 Gareth's amplifiers - strategy, tactic, and tool 41:55 Amplifier 1 - Build to extract, not to sell (and the Rebel Finance School) 46:27 Amplifier 2 - The greatest hits sequence (lemonadeplan.com/chapter) 48:15 Amplifier 3 - NotebookLM Web Importer 51:01 Where to find Gareth 51:44 Bob's closing thought ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me.

  4. Oct 12

    Value Whispering: How to Market Without Being Pushy, with Melitta Campbell

    Many of the people I work with are very good at what they do. They just don't want to shout about it. The word 'marketing' makes them wince. 'Personal brand' feels like something other people do - louder people, people who love being on camera. If that sounds familiar, this conversation is for you. My guest is Melitta Campbell, author of Value Whispering and The Shy Girl's Guide to Networking. Melitta helps experts - many of them introverts - build marketing that feels like them. Not loud. Not pushy. Just clear, consistent and intentional. Here's what we covered: ✳️ Your value sweet spot - the overlap between why your clients matter to you and why you matter to them. Nobody else has that same overlap, and it should shape every decision you make, not just your messaging. ✳️ Think, feel, do and believe - instead of squeezing people through a funnel, map what someone needs to think, feel, do and believe at each stage before they're ready to work with you. Three to five stages is usually plenty. ✳️ Self-promotion done well doesn't look like self-promotion - when it's done well, people just say 'that's Bob being Bob'. You're not promoting yourself. You're promoting the way you help. Melitta's Amplifiers: ✳️ Read The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr - a natural next step after StoryBrand that explains the psychology of why some stories stick and others don't. ✳️ Try the Olympic Method - rank every task as gold, silver or bronze. You'll likely find around 80% are bronze tasks that just need to get done, not done perfectly. ✳️ Build self-compassion into how you work - self-respect helps you set the boundaries you need to do your best work, and Melitta sees a clear link between that and success. If this was useful, follow or subscribe so you don't miss the next one. And if you know someone who's brilliant at what they do but hates the idea of marketing it, send this their way. Find out more about Melitta, her work, podcast and her book here. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction - what is value whispering? 00:37 Welcome and meet Melitta Campbell 02:30 Why marketing feels uncomfortable for so many experts 04:31 Finding your value sweet spot 06:23 Mapping what people think, feel, do and believe 08:28 Why experts hide behind more qualifications 10:03 Clear signal over more noise 12:04 How repeated exposure rewrites what people believe about you 14:08 Whispering your value through every decision 17:08 Authenticity versus acting 19:22 When self-promotion doesn't feel like self-promotion 22:21 Why copying the loud voices attracts the wrong people 25:18 Owning your value in the corporate world 26:57 Burnout from saying yes to every client 29:24 Marketing as a process, not an activity 30:56 The ring binder system for staying in touch 34:07 Why we neglect the relationships we've built 34:55 Amplifier 1 - The Science of Storytelling 36:04 Amplifier 2 - The Olympic Method 37:16 Amplifier 3 - Self-compassion and success 39:55 Where to find Melitta 41:00 Close ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me.

  5. Sep 28

    How Leaders Can Stop Getting Left Behind by AI, with Martin Wheatley

    Most of the leaders I speak to are somewhere between curious and quietly anxious about AI. They know it matters. They're not entirely sure where to start. And the public narrative - redundancies, replacement, disruption - isn't helping anyone think clearly. Martin Wheatley works with senior leaders to rethink how work gets done with AI. His background is financial services - large teams, process improvement, regulated environments at scale. He brings a grounded, practical lens to a conversation that often generates more heat than light. If you've been dabbling with ChatGPT and wondering whether there's more to this than a slightly clever search engine, this one's worth your full attention. Three things we got into: ✳️ Psychological safety is the leader's first job with AI - before your team can experiment, they need to know it's safe to try, fail, and learn in the open. Leaders who build that environment move faster than those who don't, and the organisations that are getting this right aren't cutting headcount - they're creating roles that didn't exist before. ✳️ AI is brilliant at systems and pretty poor at emotion - most leadership doctrine already leans too far into command-and-control thinking. Doubling down on AI without balancing it with human judgment isn't progress. The leader's job is to provide the emotional and strategic intelligence the tools can't replicate. ✳️ Delegation is the hidden AI skill nobody's talking about - setting clear expectations, checking work, correcting course. That's already your job. It's also exactly what working effectively with AI requires. If you can master delegation, you're already ahead of most people using these tools. Martin's amplifiers - things you can do right now: ✳️ Read Empire of AI by Karen Hao - it covers the rise of OpenAI, how the models were built and trained, and some of the less visible human and environmental costs involved. Good context for any leader who wants to understand what they're actually working with, beyond the marketing. ✳️ Revisit Carol Dweck's growth mindset - Martin's seen people go from being the loudest AI detractors in a business to becoming its biggest internal champions. The willingness to be a beginner again is what separates those who adapt from those who get left behind. ✳️ Try WhisperFlow (or VoiceInk if monthly fees aren't your thing) - press a button, talk at your screen, let the AI distil what you're actually trying to say. Martin uses it daily for prompting. It's faster and more honest than typing because your brain stops filtering what comes out. If this was useful, hit follow so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you've got a moment before you get on with your day, a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts makes a genuinely noticeable difference. Find out more about Martin : https://www.theaileaderlab.com/ & connect with him on Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinjwheatley/ Apple Podcasts Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and episode preview 00:49 - Bob's intro - the Personal Brand Business Roadmap 02:00 - Why AI is a leadership conversation, not just a technology one 02:50 - Martin Wheatley - background and what he does 05:00 - Psychological safety and the AI narrative 08:09 - The creative explosion hiding behind the efficiency story 10:30 - What IKEA and Costco are actually doing with AI 13:03 - What you get when you strip people out to chase efficiency 14:35 - Command and control leadership vs what AI needs from you 17:13 - How the average leader gets started with AI 19:07 - Why structured learning matters more now than ever 20:34 - How Martin works with individual leaders 23:00 - Managing tool risk - don't put all your eggs in one basket 25:08 - Why most people still can't run a proper Google search 26:31 - Everyone is becoming a manager of agents 28:39 - The imagination gap - why we need a roundtable 29:14 - The Multiply Method Roadmap - PRIME explained 32:45 - Amplifier 1 - Empire of AI by Karen Hao 34:48 - Amplifier 2 - Carol Dweck's growth mindset 36:10 - Amplifier 3 - WhisperFlow (and VoiceInk) 37:51 - Where to find Martin Wheatley 38:46 - Outro and links---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me.

  6. Sep 21

    Your Board Ready Branding - With Lisa Tennent

    If you've ever been curious about board roles - getting your first one, making it work, or eventually sitting in the chair - this episode is worth your time. Whether you're a senior leader thinking about a portfolio career, or you're already on boards and wondering what the next step looks like, the world of non-executive directorships and chairing is one that very few people explain clearly. Most people learn by doing. That means most people make avoidable mistakes. Lisa Tennant has been working in a portfolio career for 17 years. She chairs the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the NHS Pension Scheme for England and Wales, and through the Chair Circle she works with current and aspiring chairs. She's done over a hundred board interviews and received feedback on every one she didn't get. In this episode we cover what it actually takes to get on a board, what distinguishes a great board member from the chair's perspective, and why the chair role is far more demanding than most people expect. Three things we explored: ✳️ Your board brand matters more than your CV. The board recruitment market is competitive, and a generic pitch won't land. The people who get roles can clearly articulate what problem they solve for that specific board - which requires research, positioning, and a willingness to niche down. ✳️ The chair role is not a step up from board member - it's a different job. Lisa talks about moving from board member to chair and realising the full scope and weight of the role. The buck stops with the chair, and at times the pressure is comparable to a full executive role. ✳️ Trust is the thread that holds everything together. Whether it's the board-CEO relationship, the dynamic between board members, or the chair's ability to lead - nothing functions without it. Building trust deliberately is the chair's primary responsibility, in and out of the boardroom. Lisa's Amplifiers: ✳️ Read The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch. Apply it to your strategy, your annual review, and your decisions. If you can only do three things, which ones give you the most leverage? ✳️ Simplify your choices with one clear rule. Lisa cut out processed carbs and reversed pre-diabetes. The principle is the same as 80/20 - one rule that removes decision fatigue and gives you the most impact for the least effort. ✳️ Put people first - at work and at home. In the boardroom, nothing happens without trust, and trust only comes from genuinely prioritising the people around you. Outside work, the same applies. The relationships in your life matter more than the career. If this conversation sparked something, follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don't miss a week. Connect with Lisa on Linkedin. Timestamps: [00:00] Introduction [01:39] Lisa Tennant - portfolio career and the Chair Circle [03:01] Who should be thinking about board roles [07:42] Executive boards vs advisory boards [09:09] What boards are looking for in candidates [11:45] Board brand and the elevator pitch [15:38] Why rejection is part of the process [16:52] How much operational work do board roles involve [19:24] Due diligence before you accept a board role [23:06] Is it easy money - setting expectations [25:48] What makes a great board member [28:11] What does a dysfunctional chair look like [30:46] The chair-CEO relationship [34:40] Amplifier 1 - The 80/20 Principle [37:09] Amplifier 2 - One simple dietary rule [38:21] Amplifier 3 - People first

  7. Sep 14

    Pivoting from a Position of Strength, with Luria Petrucci

    Most conversations about pivoting assume something has gone wrong. This one doesn't. Luria Petrucci has spent 20 years building audiences online - she started before YouTube existed, she's in the podcast hall of fame, and she has a thriving business. And right now she's doing something that most established people find harder than starting from nothing: choosing to move towards something new when everything is already working. That tension - between what you've built and what you know is next - is one of the most common things I see in the people I work with. The whisper of something more. The idea that's been sitting there for ten years. The version of you that's waiting for permission. Luria names all of it honestly, and that's what makes this conversation worth your time. Three key areas we covered: ✳️ Most pivots feel enormous from the inside - but from the outside, they're usually a small shift, not a leap. What makes them feel massive is releasing the identity and habits that served the old version of you. ✳️ The curse of expertise doesn't just affect your content - it affects your pivot too. Knowing too much can make you want to carry everything across. One video, one takeaway, three bullet points. The same discipline applies to how you communicate who you're becoming. ✳️ The "yapping" trend - casual, handheld, conversational video - works because it signals authenticity and builds parasocial relationships. For anyone in a pivot, it's one of the most accessible ways to build a new audience in parallel with an existing one. Luria's three amplifiers: ✳️ 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy - the 10x framework forces you to make genuinely different decisions rather than incrementally better ones. ✳️ Step outside, turn off the phone, and journal without AI. Getting your thoughts out in your own words - not prompted, not polished - reconnects you to who you actually are and what you actually think. ✳️ Release what served the old version of you. Old habits, old identities, old ways of operating become dead weight when you're levelling up. Recognising the difference between what got you here and what will take you further is one of the most underrated things you can do. If this resonated, you'll find more conversations like this every week on Building Your Leader Brand. Follow or subscribe wherever you listen, and if you're on Apple Podcasts, a five-star review goes a long way. Luria's Website : https://livestreamingpros.com/room/ Apple Podcasts Timestamps 00:00 - Welcome and introducing Luria Petrucci 02:27 - Twenty years in video - how it all started 05:34 - Introverts on camera - why it works better than you think 09:20 - The mirror problem - why we see ourselves so harshly 12:00 - The community mirror exercise - what others actually see 15:40 - Leadership, vulnerability, and the reluctance to start again 18:02 - Transmitting on an authentic frequency 19:23 - The curse of expertise - saying less to communicate more 22:31 - One video, one takeaway - the three-question framework 25:32 - Repetition in content - why saying the same thing again is a strategy 27:52 - The yapping trend - casual video and the three universal languages 31:55 - Yapping vs live streaming vs produced video 33:03 - Parasocial relationships and why they feel real 38:01 - Luria's pivot - building in public from scratch 43:40 - Pivoting from a position of strength - the confirmation bias trap 49:39 - Entrepreneurial loneliness and creating space for honest conversations 53:11 - The three amplifiers 58:01 - Amplifier 2 - nature, journaling, and stepping away from AI 01:00:19 - Amplifier 3 - releasing what served the old you 01:00:50 - Where to find Luria and how to join the pivot community ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me.

  8. Sep 7

    Stop Doing Productivity and Start Being Productive - with Mike Vardy

    If you're someone who has a lot to do, a lot of ambition, and a system that never quite feels like enough - this episode is for you. I sat down with Mike Vardy, productivity strategist and author of the new book Productiveness, to talk about something most productivity content completely misses: the person behind the system. Mike has spent decades in this space - from life hacker contributor to managing editor of LifeHack, to building his own framework called time crafting. And this conversation gets into the territory I find most interesting - not what system to use, but who you need to be to use it well. ✳️ Productiveness vs productivity - Mike draws a sharp distinction between the two. Productivity has come to mean speed and volume. Productiveness, the older word, means being in a state of producing - without sacrificing quality for quantity. ✳️ The nine principles of productiveness - Mike walks through the principles at the heart of his new book: humanness, grace, nuance, cadence, prudence, trust, will, efficacy, and tolerance. These aren't things you check off a list - they're ongoing states that, when practised together, create a genuinely productive person rather than just a busy one. ✳️ Why your system isn't the problem - you are - The tools, frameworks, and methods are only as good as the human running them. As Bob puts it: if you parachuted Gary Vaynerchuk's system into someone else's life, it would collapse in a week. Productiveness starts with understanding what you bring to the equation, not copying someone else's solution. Mike's Amplifiers ✳️ Journal daily - Not a weekly review, just a daily practice. The calendar tells you where to be. The to-do list tracks the details. The journal tells the story - and that's where course correction actually happens. ✳️ Walk regularly - Something about the kinetic motion of moving your body gets your thinking moving too. No agenda required. Just get outside. ✳️ Invest in a good pen - This sounds quirky, but the point is real. When you write with something you value, what you put on the page feels like it matters. It raises the stakes of the moment - and for journaling especially, that changes everything. This episode is one of those conversations I'll come back to. Mike's book Productiveness is available now - and I'd encourage you to pick up a copy. If you're finding the show useful, please hit subscribe or follow wherever you listen. It helps more than you'd think. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and why productivity matters 01:39 - Welcome Mike Vardy 02:24 - Who is Mike Vardy and what does he do 03:09 - The new book: Productiveness - and what makes it different 06:51 - Why systems need the right person inside them 08:04 - The nine principles of productiveness: humanness, grace, nuance, cadence and more 12:54 - Why you can't check these principles off a list 13:32 - Accepting you'll never finish everything - and the grief that comes with that 15:28 - Digital productivity systems and the problem of entropy 17:09 - Paper vs digital: why Mike moves tasks to a physical list 19:25 - The danger of optimising your system instead of using it 21:33 - Urgent vs important - and why we keep getting it backwards 24:17 - Fighting fires: the metaphor that's making your priorities worse 24:44 - Mike Vardy's three amplifiers 25:11 - Amplifier 1: journaling 27:02 - Amplifier 2: walking 27:02 - Amplifier 3: a really good pen 29:23 - Contentment as the goal - not happiness 29:48 - Closing reflections and where to find the book Mike Website : https://mikevardy.com Mike's Book ---- Get your copy of my Personal Brand Business Blueprint It's the FREE roadmap to starting, scaling or just fixing your expert business. www.amplifyme.agency/roadmap ---- Subscribe to my Youtube!! Follow on Instagram and Twitter @bobgentle Join the Amplify Insiders Facebook Community : www.amplifyme.agency/insiders Please take a second to rate this show in Apple Podcasts. ❤ It will mean a lot to me.

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The personal branding podcast for consultants, coaches, founders and executives who want to turn their expertise into a business that grows. Each week, Bob Gentle talks with expert business owners, creators and leaders about what actually works: building authority and thought leadership, growing an audience on LinkedIn, digital marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing, and selling your services without being pushy. You’ll hear the real stories behind successful personal brand businesses, including how guests found their niche, packaged and priced their expertise, built visibility and turned reputation into revenue, with practical takeaways you can use the same week. Topics include personal branding, LinkedIn strategy, content marketing, sales and business development, leadership, positioning, monetisation, productised services, AI for business and building a lifestyle business on your own terms. Your host, Bob Gentle, is a personal brand business strategist and the founder of AmplifyME. He helps experts and executives build profitable businesses around what they know. He created the LeaderBrand Business Roadmap, a free step-by-step guide to starting, scaling or fixing your expert business: amplifyme.agency/roadmap. Building Your LeaderBrand is rated in the top 2.5% of podcasts globally by ListenNotes. New episodes every week. About Your Host: Bob Gentle is a globally recognized Personal Brand strategist, coach, and the driving force behind AmplifyMe, helping expert business owners scale their brands and businesses worldwide. He’s also the creator of the Personal Brand Business Roadmap™, a step-by-step guide to starting, scaling, or refining your expert business. Download it for free at amplifyme.agency/roadmap. Tune in to Building Your LeaderBrand, rated in the top 2.5% of podcasts globally by ListenNotes, and discover how you, too, can lead with impact and grow your personal brand into a powerful business.

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