Pax (00:00)
Hello everyone, I'm Paxton Gray, CEO of 97th Floor, and this is the campaign.

Thank you for joining us today for another episode of the campaign where we talk with marketing leaders about better knowing your audience, innovating beyond best practice, and converting visitors into customers. The campaign is produced by 97th Floor, a world-class digital marketing agency designed to build organic and paid channel strategies for mid-level and enterprise organizations.

You can find past episodes of the campaign on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, and 97thFloor.com.

Today's guest is Brandon Smithrick. Brandon is an award-winning marketer and creator of Content to Commons, a weekly newsletter sharing content playbooks for founders and entrepreneurs. has been named Forbes 30 Under 30 for marketing and advertising, and has had his work featured in Adweek, Bass Company, Adage, and Complex. In this episode, Brandon breaks down building a personal brand that actually gets you hired, developing a strong point of view even when you feel like you have nothing to say,

and how to turn your social media scrolling into intentional research. Let's get into it.

Pax (01:07)
Hey, Brandon, thank you so much for joining us today.

Brandon Smithwrick (01:09)
No worries, thank you so much for having me, Pax.

Pax (01:11)
Yeah, I'm really excited to dive in personal branding and building out content for that. I think it's something that so many people want to do, but a lot of people get hung up on.

could you walk us through your story with building a personal brand? where did that start? And what were some of the first things that you did where you started to have success?

Brandon Smithwrick (01:31)
Yeah, so actually it's an unusual start I'll say. So basically, I went to school for fashion actually. I didn't study marketing, which is the field I worked in my entire career.

But I was sitting at graduation, and I literally saw the thousands of students in the audience. I'm just like, oh, this is, and maybe it's a competitive thing, but this is my competition. We all just graduated. And in the fashion world, we're all going with the same big name companies in New York. We want Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Nordstrom. Everyone's really going after four types of roles, whether you want to be a buyer, you want to be a merchant. This was retail was so big, it's visual merchandising.

just like what's going to set me apart? So in very simple terms, my goal was when people think of X, I want them to think of me. And my X at the time was fashion. Like when people think of fashion, I want them to think of me. So whether that was through Instagram content or whether that was through going to an event, I wanted to make sure that when people thought of like men's fashion, they thought of me. And I didn't know it at the time.

but

that was really like my first step within personal branding like really having those associations and I never actually went like the buying World I studies are for like I actually did an internship. I was like, this is so much Excel

And then I got a internship doing like social media marketing for a footwear brand at the time and just loved it and then through that actually showed off all the marketing stuff I was doing We did a pop-up shop and they were like, hey Let's have the interns like come up with ideas like I came up with an idea for a pop-up shop and did that Or I would like manage the stores. All right, how can I make foot traffic come in like and like what experience do we do? And I figured out we can do like this a series where we shoot

customers like wearing the shoes in the shop and it was like a Humans of New York before like our little pop-up shop which was in Williamsburg at the time and I would talk about that online so I was never really too shy about sharing what I was doing but it was for the purpose of building because I knew I had a lot to prove.

Pax (03:42)
That's a really cool background. Tell me what you feel like your background in fashion has brought to your, way you approach personal branding.

Brandon Smithwrick (03:54)
Yeah, I think it's just even like beyond personal branding and marketing in general. I never look at like what my direct competitors did or do, right? So in fashion, when I worked at Ralph Lauren, we would always look at like what.

Valentino, what Tom Ford, what Prada is doing. And when I went into the tech space, I was also looking at like, what are the beauty brands doing? Like, because beauty is crushing it online. How can we do that for tech? So even when came to personal branding, like I wasn't so focused on like, what are other people doing within my niche? I'm still looking at the industry at large and figuring out like, all right, I want to take that from beauty, take that from the automotive industry, take that from the marketing industry and blend them.

think

even as I build my personal brand or I create marketing content and work with a brand, I'm always looking out the larger ecosystem because even though we're all in different niches, all have different interests, it's still one social app. It's still one social feed. So they're going to go from seeing a Toyota ad to a Nike ad to their friends content to my content, right? So I always think about it like, I'm not just speaking to my people. I'm speaking to people all over. And that's just like really informed my thought process, I guess.

Pax (05:04)
Do you have a systematic way of approaching that consumption or is it, you, do you just like spend time and that's really all it is.

Brandon Smithwrick (05:11)
No, I think over time right doom scrolling has become the term So now you're like who I gotta like stop the doom scroll as much as I can dude Like it's so bad. So now what I say is you can scroll intentionally

So I basically turn my Instagram, and I think we all do this to some degree, turn my Instagram, it's like a Pinterest board in the back end, right? So I save folders, but each collection or save folders for something different. Some is for ad copy, some is for content creation, some is literally for angles of content. I literally turn my scrolls into research. I love the way this content looks, I love the hooks. I actually have a folder just for hooks. When video stops me in the first five seconds, I can adapt that for my content.

just gonna save that hook. So it's now kind of formalized like my scrolling time and the same time I know I said enough posts for today that's good. So like now that's kind of how I'm viewing it but it's still again like we're all still using social media.

Pax (06:10)
Sure, yeah, yeah, but it's not just like

a passive consumption. You're like looking for things that sound like, yeah, cool.

Brandon Smithwrick (06:13)
Yeah, yeah,

it makes me just feel better about, you know, the hour or two hours I just spent scrolling.

Pax (06:19)
Yeah, yeah, I like that. So I know dozens, if not maybe hundreds of people who they really want to start building their personal brand, they want to start publishing some stuff. Maybe they've tried they they posted three, maybe five things didn't really get traction, they feel discouraged, and they just never get in. So I want to get into some of the roadblocks that I've seen pop up for for those people myself included, and have you kind of

Brandon Smithwrick (06:28)
Yeah.

Pax (06:46)
say how to like get over that roadblock. But I think a great place to start is like, maybe go through some of the benefits that you've seen for yourself and for other people of building a personal brand. So like, is what does the product gold look like at the end of that rainbow?

Brandon Smithwrick (07:03)
So just to give listeners more information, when I started building my personal brand, it was just for the purpose of getting jobs. Again, like that fashion student mindset, was like, we're all going to be applying for the same roles. How can I get the recruiters to see what I'm doing?

So I had this idea that if I was posting on LinkedIn, I talked about like Instagram just launched Instagram stories. Here are three ways brands could be using Instagram stories. And my joke, this was like years and years ago.

Pax (07:32)
.

Brandon Smithwrick (07:34)
And then if a recruiter from Google or Microsoft or Apple saw that, they would then want to come hire me. That was like a crazy idea, but that's really how I thought about it. And I intentionally connected with everyone that had talent, recruiter, people in their title, all these big companies. And I would just talk about content, talk about marketing, talk about my thoughts in the space. And at the time, LinkedIn had this domino effect algorithm, where even if you didn't

work in those departments at the company, if someone from marketing liked the posts from Google, their entire network of people at Google would see it. So this really kind of expedited my way of getting hired. So one of the key benefits I saw was there was times I got reached out to by recruiters because they saw my content. I didn't really apply for jobs, if I'm being honest with you. I focused on creating content that would get me hired.

And that's a, you call it strategy, tactic, hack, whatever you want to call it, that people don't consider. But what I think when we look at the job market today, that's still very prevalent. Most jobs are not always posted on a job board because they know thousands of people are going to apply. There's headhunters on these platforms. So if you're talking about something, connecting with people, kind of building your brand in a certain niche or topic, subject matter, that's how I think you can skip the line when it comes to getting hired for a job.

Yeah.

Pax (08:56)
Hmm. I love that. Yeah, I think a lot of people

got dive in because they're they say like, want to have influencer I want to go viral get a bunch of likes. And maybe they do but then it's like empty. You know, like, so what? You know? Yeah.

Brandon Smithwrick (09:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, I'm going win my first. Yeah, yeah,

never the first goal.

Pax (09:13)
Okay, so here's some roadblocks that I've seen pop up for some people as they've tried to dive into this. So the first is a little bit rudimentary, which is what if I feel like I have nothing to say? Like what do I say? I don't even know what to post. How would you answer that?

Brandon Smithwrick (09:17)
for that.

Mm, that's like me right and

I would say speak to the you five years ago so if you're gonna talk to someone who wants to be a CEO and they don't know like how even takes to get to that CEO path

tell them what you wanted to hear five years ago. Like being a CEO isn't just for like the press and the glam glory. No, like you really gotta care about people. You really have to have a vision for the business. You really have to know how to grow people up. That way your company's always succeeding. Like I would always think about what did Brandon not know five years ago that he knows now? I would talk about how posting on social isn't just for posts. You wanna have a purpose behind that post. Whether it's something you

learned or one thing I do often is whenever someone asks me a question I see that as a content opportunity because if one person asks you a question they're not the only one on this planet with that question. It doesn't matter what niche you're in if you're in marketing, you're in sales, you're in finance, healthcare, if someone asked you a question about like how do I balance a checkbook I don't know why my example is so old right now but like if someone asks you how to balance the checkbook you could talk a hundred people how to balance a checkbook.

So now people are cool, how do I save my first $1,000? They're not the only person with that question. That's amazing fundamental content. That's one to reach the masses.

Pax (10:49)
I like that.

All right, here's another concern I've seen pop up for some people. The fear of putting yourself out there exposes you to risk. There's a bit of a downside like what if I say something wrong? What if you know, whatever like, how do you how do you think about that?

Brandon Smithwrick (10:58)
yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, can't be scared to look stupid. That's definitely part of the job. But I do hear that, you know, putting yourself out there, putting your thoughts out into the space, social media is still social media. So if I share something online, people can either like it or dislike it. can comment positively. can comment with negativity.

Not everything I say online people agree with. And it's not for the purpose of being contrarian or having a hot take, but I do think it's very important and powerful in your entire career to have a strong perspective.

If you're just a go with the flow type of person, building your brand is going to be tough. But if I have a distinctive view on something, doesn't mean everyone has to agree with it, but I have to stand on my morals, have to stand on my point of view. I've said things like, you know what, everyone should be starting a Substack. I think actually now, start a Substack is the new worst advice. And people are like, I totally disagree. But that's fine. I have points for you. I have ideas. But that's also just part of the job of sharing your

online yeah I would just say don't don't be too scared yes you bring yourself out there just gotta get comfortable and you have to stand on what you believe yeah

Pax (12:16)
Yeah. So that

brings up another common objection that I've heard people say, which is, it kind of tells the first of like, what if I feel like I have nothing to say, but maybe a little bit deeper, which is how does one develop that point of view? Or it's like, yeah, you could say what you would say to yourself five years ago. But when we're getting into a contrarian point of view, or a strong where you get that like fire in you, it's like, this is really how I see the world.

Brandon Smithwrick (12:32)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Pax (12:45)
Sometimes

there are people who are just like, I don't feel that, you know? And so how does somebody develop that?

Brandon Smithwrick (12:47)
Yeah.

I would say don't force it. Like don't try to have a hot take for the purpose of having a hot take. Like I think that's where you get a lot of pushback.

But there has to be something that you just don't agree with within your space. Some doctors recommend 10,000 steps a day. And you're like, I'm from the school of, it's not really about the steps. It's about the quality of what you eat. Whatever that is, you have a perspective that goes against someone else's narrative. Some people will say you need to post every single day. Social media is a volumes game. You don't know what person is going to hit, so you must just like spray and pray.

strategy is, well, I think it's more important that you optimize for saves and not likes. And I think as you do your job, start thinking about those things that maybe you see that other people may disagree with. Maybe it's just because like the marketer image is so critical. I don't know. Like when I just see things, I'm like, I'll do it differently. And like, maybe it's just a muscle you train over time. I think that's what it really is. It's probably just a muscle you train over time of just seeing a different point of

view or you're seeing things differently and you're just going to train like within your industry within your niche whatever topics you want to cover that you know what I have a difference in opinion to say and then you just have to be able to feel comfortable saying it and if people don't agree they don't yeah

Pax (14:12)
Yeah. Yeah.

I love that, you know, that point about optimizing for saves. I've heard you speak about that a lot on different interviews. You've also talked a lot about value and being like the main thing that you strive for. Do you have a similar to how you have, you know, you find hooks that, and you save those hooks, you probably built some formulas for hooks. Do you have a formula for value or a litmus test or any kind of framework around?

Brandon Smithwrick (14:26)
Yeah.

Pax (14:39)
whether or not something is providing value.

Brandon Smithwrick (14:42)
I think I would say that's a really good question too. I've never thought about that. I would say I guess it's like live field testing. So over this past weekend, I did an AI workshop here in Jersey City. And when you're talking about AI, like the space is just so vast. Like there's an update every 30 minutes. Like it's hard to keep track of all this stuff.

And what I was sharing with people was just like my approach, right? My theology when it comes to whether it's prompting, whether it's come to work with AI agents, building workflows, systems, and I'm seeing people's thinking phase and people are like, whoa, I never thought about it that way. The things that are normal to me, people are telling me like that is mind breaking. And that's when I'm like, okay, cool, that was it, right? So if I'm just talking to myself, I probably won't know what's valuable.

Like I'm just doing what I do. It's my norm. But I have to go out there really in the field, talk with people, help them get their use cases. Because when I talk to a tech founder, it's going to be different when I talk to someone who's a travel creator. And when I talk to a travel creator, it's going be someone different than someone who's a marketing professional. And I have to really stress test all these different routes and strategies and tactics to kind of figure out what works for them. But I guess that's what really shows me

All right, there's value here. If it actually works for people, number one. And number two, if people literally just communicate with you like that, I've never heard it put that way. Like that's where you know, okay, I need to return to this.

Pax (16:07)
Yeah.

When it comes to value, AI gets brought up a lot in the conversation as like a proxy for low value. you

Brandon Smithwrick (16:16)
Yeah. You're right.

Pax (16:19)
know, I've seen

content and I feel like there are some ways in which you fully embrace AI. And there are some ways where you say no, this is not the place to apply.

Brandon Smithwrick (16:26)
Mm-hmm.

Pax (16:31)
what does that line look like for you when it comes to

personal branding, where does AI come in and play a strong role and where do you insist that, this is a me thing.

Brandon Smithwrick (16:41)
I heard someone speak about cognitive offloading and since then like my mind towards AI has totally changed Basically, the concept is like the more I have AI do task a for me the weaker I get at task a right So, you know, you're cooked when like you get an email, but I don't want to reply to this email It's on the front of my computer. I tell chat you need to approve this email Like you should be able to just write that email respond in the moment But you don't feel comfortable or you doubt your own abilities in this

thing until AI double checks your work.

That's when we know, all right, I'm actually losing the ability to do this. So if writing is inherent to me, I can't outsource all my writing to AI because then my words start to change and now I second guess my own voice and now I don't even know my voice. Let me just check, like, does this sound right? Like, that's when you know that you're really just kind of losing your sense of self. When it comes to building, like, AI workflows, like, yes, I want to save time. Like, for me, it's, I don't need to be putting this number

into a spreadsheet. That's not like my zone of genius. I can have AI do that for me. If it comes with, you know, maybe there's like an automation, I have something, this is like a super simple automation I've seen online.

I have an AI prompter agent where every Friday at 5 o'clock it scans my downloads folder and deletes anything that says screenshot. just as a market I just screenshot things all day. It organizes my desktop, my downloads folder and just if I haven't opened something in a couple of days, it deletes it. But like it knows kind of like how I also manage my entire drive. But that's just like it just clean things up for me. Like dragging a file to a trash folder. I'm going to ask what's that's AI.

But when it comes to your personal brand, whether it's writing, whether it's creation, whether it's brainstorming, if you feel like you inherently want to own those things, then use AI for the things that don't matter so much to you, but never outsource your true gifts. I think that's when we kind of go a little bit overboard, truly.

Pax (18:23)
Yeah.

I like that. So kind of just like amplifying

your area of strength and then outsourcing the stuff which like I don't really care to get better at X, you know, numbers or whatever, right?

Brandon Smithwrick (18:52)
Yeah.

Yeah. And I guess like part of that equation to what you just said is also like knowing your strengths, Knowing like, you know, I'm really good at this strategy element. I can't just outsource strategy to AI. It's going to feel hollow.

I'm the person who understands strategy and I'm going to feed that to AI maybe, but really like I need to own this 360. So I did like a delegation task list where I wrote down every single task I did and said, don't want to own this or they want help in this area. Do I want to delegate this or do I want to own this? Like that kind of exercise, yes or no, if you want to outsource this or not, it's super helpful.

Pax (19:32)
Yeah. Another roadblock that I've seen come up for people is I want to get into personal branding, but I work at X company and I'm concerned that I can't say whatever I want or I'm so tied down or, know, if I misstep, there's one thing to have a personal impact, but it could now have an impact for this whole company. So you've been in kind of like all different situations as far as your personal brand with other companies. How would you overcome that?

that objective for people.

Brandon Smithwrick (19:59)
Yeah.

And this, I don't shy away from this answer because this is a delicate dance for a of people. The first thing I'd say is don't lose your job when we're trying to build a personal brand. You know, like I don't want you to lose your job prematurely when you're trying to test things out. I think a lot of people also forget that whether it's in your...

Contract or things you've signed you are still a representative of the company I can't just have a hot take for the ticket having a hot take and makes the company look bad So there are times when I was creating content on my own I still have to think about the company that I'm representing or if I was doing a brand partnership I can't do a brand partnership with a competitor of my company, you know, so you do gotta be super mindful about these things I know another layer of this people may not want to say is like I don't want my co-workers seeing like

everything I'm doing. And that's also another element of kind of this awkward phase. But really for me it was more about, right,

I'm going to use my personal brand to amplify what my company is doing. And that's more strategic, right? If we have a campaign, if we're doing a out of home ad, if we are having a physical presence at like CES or Comic-Con or whatever conference there is, how can I use my personal brand to also uplift the company? That makes them a bit more comfortable with like what you're doing outside of work. But yet again, I was also very transparent online and within my company that I schedule a lot of my

Like every Saturday at this time I sit down for two or three hours and I take all those questions I got earlier in the week. I take everything from my save folder. I take everything that I just thought about and I just write and I create all my content schedule out for the week and I go back to my day job and I did that for at least two and a half years and I was very transparent online about that. I think that kind of helped me but also at a certain point you get hired with companies knowing about your personal brand. So when I

started

having these interviews, I was very upfront that I am very visible online. That won't stop. And there some companies that were not OK with that, and there's some companies that were. But you had to kind make that decision for yourself.

Pax (22:06)
I like that. That's

a cool tip to, you know, spending a couple hours gathering the question, spending a couple hours writing out the answers. I'm curious, you know, building a personal brand means so many different things tactically to so many different people. You could be you get into speaking, you could get on the podcast, you could write articles, it could just be posting on LinkedIn or any other social platform.

Brandon Smithwrick (22:11)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Pax (22:29)
What would be like the first steps to building the brand? Where should they start getting louder?

Brandon Smithwrick (22:36)
I would say start with your story. And I might sound like an eclipsed answer, but I was talking to

VC founder. She had raised a $23 million VC fund and never told her story within her content.

She was posting constantly with a ton of stuff went from ex Facebook ex Google It's like running her own fund and then thinking about like I don't know if I have anything to say So like Lily someone at that level still struggles with everything else we all go through when it comes like personal brand content and I'm not saying your story should be post number one, but don't wait too long You know if I'm talking about working at Ralph Lauren it hits different versus me talking about that now than ten years from now

totally different. So before all that content on the fields out of date or that experience or those lessons expire, I think you should really lean into your story, your unique value. I'm going to still talk about fashion school. When I'm in my 50s or 60s, probably not. Like, I don't know anything about fashion at that point. Like, the industry's probably going to change. But right now, that's still very relevant because it's like part of my journey. When I worked at Ralph Lauren, Squarespace.

Let content Kickstarter for, but these are all things I can kind of lean on right now because they're fresh. And probably in a couple of years, I'm going to be a parent. I'm going to be.

Founder a CEO of another company and I'm gonna be running something else So I'm gonna want to talk about those stuffs like I don't want to cannibalize my future opportunities So leverage all your personal stories all your lessons career lessons how you got promoted how you got to the space you're in Even if it's you know content that helps people within like the day to day of what you do on the normal I'm going to leverage all of that right now

Because who knows when that's going to be obsolete. Yeah, for sure.

Pax (24:23)
There's an expiration date to that.

I want to know what is an app

or pieces of software that you just feel like you cannot live without. something that's like a little off the beaten path.

Brandon Smithwrick (24:37)
let me think of a good one. I mean, I can go on tools all day. The one I probably use the most, It's called Whisper Flow. It is probably the best

dictation app on the market.

I don't type a single thing anymore. From my newsletters to emails, I'm literally just talking everything out and it does it perfectly every single time. And now I'm creating AI workflows faster because I'm basically talking out for 10 minutes my entire system. Here's how my Google Drive operates. We go from year to quarter to partner name. Then the folder has subfolders or contract agreements. I literally talk everything out. That way I'm now...

this

might sound a little crazy. I gave AI its own email address and I told it whenever I forge an email address here based upon everything I've told you, you know where to put this file, what to do, what to add to which calendar and that only happens because I literally just like talk everything out now. So I think that's like the easiest tool I would use. Yes, I'm using Cloud like almost every single day at this point but Whisperflow is probably like one of like the just like the coolest ones in my opinion.

Pax (25:38)
Mmm.

That has been on my to-do list to download and start using for like weeks and I just haven't had a chance to dive. I mean, I've had a chance, but I haven't done it yet.

Brandon Smithwrick (25:51)
Dude. Yeah,

no, it's like a small one, right? Like that's like a super easy one, but you will notice how quick you're going through things. Like imagine instead of writing a brief, you're just like talking it out. Like it's just, it's so much easier.

Pax (26:12)
They just need to make it so that whisper flow talks back. now we're now we've got Jarvis, you know, you just walk in. like, sir, here's what you've got on the docket. Yeah.

Brandon Smithwrick (26:16)
yeah yeah oh gosh that's

it's gonna be soon early 2027 yeah for sure

Pax (26:25)
Yeah, yeah.

OK, and then I want to end by asking who has had the biggest impact on the way you think about marketing?

Brandon Smithwrick (26:33)
It's tough in a way because I never studied marketing formally. I just learned from experience. But I will say, like, I've had a lot of great managers.

And even when like they were tough on me, I knew they were super tough on me because of the potential they saw in me. So I would say my very first CEO, Ryan Babinsie, he started great and then he went on to actually start Jolie, the shower head company.

But that man understood like marketing timing, etc. And when I was super early in my career, I would, you know, be managing social media and the minutes I didn't perform. I was like, we got pivot. It's not doing well. Like I was like so optimization focused and he was basically just like breaking down to me that one post not doing well doesn't mean that the whole thing should be thrown away. Like keep trying, keep iterating. And so many lessons just like casually that we would chat about really shaped

how I saw marketing differently. To even market a shower head with a water filter in it is such a simple idea, but he did it in such a cool way. So honestly, props to Ryan. The lessons I've just learned over the years, just watching, really impacted the way I see marketing.

Pax (27:47)
What did he do to be hard on you, but also let you know that it was because of the potential he saw in you versus you just writing it off as, this guy's just, he's just a jerk.

Brandon Smithwrick (28:00)
Yeah,

no, for sure. I was a junior in college and they basically, I wasn't full, I was a full-time intern, but I was interning three days a week and even doing some things on the weekends sometimes because like, I just like love where we're at.

and they just kept giving me more responsibilities. As an intern, I was planning photo shoot campaigns and styling photo shoot campaigns and doing pop-up shops. And they did the collaboration with Nordstrom's and they said, hey, like you're gonna travel with Nordstrom's on like this road show. So basically they just gave me like some weighty task. And as an intern, you wanna be handheld through everything. Like you don't wanna mess it up. You wanna make sure that you're

crossing every T, dotting every I. And you could go the pathway asking a question every 10 minutes, like most interns do. Or they're going to figure it out. We're all busy. We're all heads down. This is a culture where we move fast. We figure it out.

And almost them not babying me all the time at that level where I felt like I didn't know enough, they would just teach me to trust my gut. Like trust your instinct. Like you're here for a reason. And later on my SVP kind of broke it down for me where he said like a basketball in my hand is worth nothing. A basketball in LeBron's hands are worth 20 million, right? You have a natural talent where I don't have to coach you through every single thing. Like you actually really understand content. So when we're giving you this,

and maybe a manager doesn't understand or this person doesn't answer, you don't have anyone to go to is because you know the answer.

I just feel like that grew me up professionally in a different way. I didn't realize that until we talked about it right now.

Pax (29:40)
That's a really great takeaway. And as you know, have you led teams before? Like have you tried to be that person and

Brandon Smithwrick (29:42)
Yeah.

Yeah, you know, as a manager, I...

I try to do so much because I think we hear so many stories about bad managers that when you finally get the chops to be a people manager, you're like, I'm going to be one of the good stories. I used to have people read, like fill out a Google form so I could understand their communication style, how they like to be celebrated, how they want to be motivated. Like I kind of overdid it so I wouldn't get anything wrong. As a manager, sometimes you're still going to get things wrong. But my goal was to really observe and understand and adapt my style of

management to the person, but also help them beyond this job. And I think that's one thing at my first company they did when I even told them like, I have a new position. He said, like, where are going? And typically you don't tell your company where you're going. But I said, like, I'm going to go to Rob Lauren. And he was just like, wow. OK.

for these next couple of weeks, I need you to learn everything you can. Cause like he knew that was a big leaks. So he said like, whether you got to learn what amplitude does, the paid marketing does, like learn it now. Because that next company, they're not going to have as much grace as like you, we saw you as an intern, then we hired you full time. Like I really kind of grew up there for four years of my career. As I'm talking about this, my mind is actually like, boy, I never thought about these things ever. Yeah.

Pax (31:08)
Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, just

caring about people and their success, even if it means beyond your walls, you know, that's what a great leader is. OK, Brandon, tell us about what you're doing today. Like, what could we direct listeners to if they want to read more about you, read more about what you're doing?

Brandon Smithwrick (31:14)
Yeah, that was all though.

So because I am a writer at heart and I do care so much about the social media content space, I do have a soft spot where online today is so tough. Like if you run a business, if you have a product, whatever it is, you have to really be good at content to be seen. And I don't think that's fair. So I started a newsletter called Content to Commas, where each week I give you a free playbook to increase, scale, grow your revenue through content.

So content, the commas, you Google it, content, the commas.co is the site. You can subscribe. Everything is literally free. I have like over 60 playbooks on there. Everything from TikTok just got adopted. What do you do next? Instagram changes their toolbar. Like how should we think about our content charging? Everything from sub stacks to how to grow your first 1000 email subscribers, how to get your first $1,000 in sponsorships. Like whatever it is you're struggling with when it comes to content marketing and the social media space.

I'm a playbook for it.

Pax (32:26)
Okay, great. I love that. We'll leave a link in our show notes so that you guys can check it out. Brandon, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been a really great conversation. I appreciate you sharing your perspective.

Brandon Smithwrick (32:37)
It's been a great composition, so thank you so much.

Pax (32:40)
that's it for today everybody. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a five star rating and subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Big thank you to Brandon Smithrick for joining us today. You can find him on LinkedIn if you want to learn more about personal branding and content marketing. You can also find past episodes of the campaign and examples of our work at 97thfloor.com. There you can learn more about the agency and get in touch with the marketing specialist to support your own marketing campaigns.

That's it for now, thank you for listening. As always, keep innovating, keep converting.