Build An Authentic Brand With The Conan O'Brien Mindset

How an element of Conan's personality shows us an essential lesson in personal branding with open honesty.

What’s good, Hero?

Nice to have you back!

I was thinking back to when I first started on Twitter the other day.

Boy, it wasn’t pretty…

But enough about me - let’s focus on the tweets.

I came into this online sphere thinking that I had to come across as a super serious guru.

I had to possess this wealth of knowledge and expand upon it in a way that made me seem like an authority in my niche.

My method to doing this was going deep into theory on writing.

Possibly I was trying to manifest my inner Ernest…

I even had him as my PFP, for god’s sake!

Shoutout to the real ones who remember me from The Writer’s Gift days.

But there was a problem to all of this…

I didn’t feel like it was me being authentically me.

I bumbled and struggled to put across this information in a way that I thought would be the best chance of growth.

But it all lacked an element of my personality I adore…

My humour.

This is the part where you laugh, by the way…

I always wanted to include it in my writing, but felt like I’d detract away from my authority I was building.

Then, one day, I was watching Conan O’Brien give a graduation talk (I’ll include a link at the end of the newsletter)

And something struck me…

Conan is a comedian by nature.

His main goal is make people laugh.

But it goes much deeper than that…

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He places his humour at the forefront of his work.

He doesn't care about how he looks.

In many of his famous skits, Conan comes across as the rag-tag buffoon who is the butt of the jokes he seems to be creating.

But he doesn’t allow that to stop him from creating…

Instead, he leans into it.

Many of us in that situation wouldn’t bother trying to make the joke for fear of people thinking that we’d recently escaped from a mental asylum.

But, for Conan, it’s another day at the office…

Then I began to ask myself…

Why shouldn’t this apply to writing?

And it screwed a massive lightbulb in place for me…

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Let’s fit this idea through a different lens…

One of my favourite writers of all time is Bill Bryson.

One of Bill’s core tenets to his writing is a dry, sarcastic tone when meeting the various characters and describing the environments he encounters on his travels.

If you haven’t read any of his works, ‘A Walk In The Woods’ is a cracking place to start.

This excerpt highlights my point perfectly:

“Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old.”

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson

He created a humurous sub niche that revitalised the travel writing industry.

So, what’s so clever about how Bill and Conan approach the world?

There is no doubting the intelligence behind these two men.

Alongside Conan’s humour is his incredible knowledge of history and a vast plethora of scriptwriting credentials.

Bill’s ability to switch betweeen satirical takes and eye-opening realisations is second to none.

Their ‘authority’ within their domain isn’t questioned as they package their words in such a way that highlights it without question.

But the vehicle they use to create relatability?

Humour.

They entertain.

The fully embrace the Marshall McLuhan mantra I share regularly:

The medium is the message.

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So many creators I know take this serious tone with their work.

“I’ve got to be seen as the lecturer providing eternal wisdom to my students.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah…

But who actually LISTENS to these types of lecturers?

If you can incorporate humour into your work, you immediately break down the barrier of perception.

People don’t view you as this robotic figure spewing out a plethora of platitudes.

You become a person.

Relatable. Flawed. Embracing of the fact.

Let humour be the vehicle through which you deliver your accumulated wisdom.

Don’t be afraid to be the class clown as you revolutionise the understanding of your craft.

You’ll win your audience’s hearts, minds and stomachs (if the punchlines hit well enough…)

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That’s all for this week, gang!

Appreciate your pretty face tuning in as always.

As always, if you’re here, I have a special gift for you.

Humour is one of the key tenets to building a unique personal brand.

But when you combine it with another, your brand power amplifies 10x…

Storytelling.

If you’re wanting to learn how to get paid to share your authentic experiences online (while making people chuckle along the way…)

You don’t have to look further than The Storyteller’s Secret.

Inside you’ll find 3 hours of detailed video breakdown covering the essential methods and frameworks you can implement to grow your personal brand and collect an audience of genuine, engaged fans.

And for being a Turning The Page reader, you’re entitled to a 30% discount!

All you need to do is use the exclusive code from this week’s issue:

That code is CONAN30.

I hope to see you inside.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at will@itswillmyles.com

Until we ride again, gang.

Will

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P.S. Here’s that link to Conan’s graduation talk if you fancy splitting your sides this afternoon…

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P.P.S Django is super happy you made it this far. He’s wishing you a splendid day ahead.