In today's hyper-connected digital world, the question isn't whether you have a personal brand, but whether you are actively shaping it. If you've ever wondered what personal branding truly means, why building an authentic personal brand is non-negotiable right now, and how you can resonate with your audience to drive real business results, you're in the right place.
This definitive guide distills the wisdom of Curtis McCoy, a serial entrepreneur, author, and personal branding expert, from his powerful conversation on the Luxury Unplug podcast. We will deconstruct the strategies, trends, and mindset required to build a powerful and authentic personal brand that not only stands out but also scales your influence and income.
What is Personal Branding? Beyond the Logo and the Hype
Many professionals, entrepreneurs, and leaders mistakenly believe that personal branding is about a sleek website, a polished logo, or a catchy tagline. According to Curtis McCoy, this is a fundamental misconception.
He offers a powerful analogy: "You can have the coolest business. Imagine you built the most amazing shopping mall with every restaurant, car dealership, and an amusement park. But if you built that in the middle of the desert, nobody can do business with you."
Personal branding is the process of building the roads and highways that lead people to your desert mall. It’s about making yourself known, findable, and trusted. At its core, personal branding is the intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact.
The Two Pillars of a Powerful Personal Brand: Earned Media vs. Paid Media
Curtis McCoy breaks down the world of personal branding into two distinct, yet complementary, pathways: Earned Media and Paid Media.
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Earned Media: The Grind of Authenticity
This is the foundation for most entrepreneurs and coaches starting out. Earned media is about investing your time, not your money, to build credibility. It involves consistently showing up and providing value without an immediate expectation of return.-
How it works: You identify a specific audience and a problem you can solve for them. Then, you solve that problem for them publicly and repeatedly. For example, if you are a copywriter, you might host daily live videos on Instagram sharing tips on how to write compelling copy or how to improve SEO.
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The Outcome: By consistently providing value, you become the go-to expert in your niche. When someone needs your service, you are the first person they think of. This is the bedrock of an authentic personal brand. As Curtis says, "If you're focusing on helping somebody over and over and over again without ever asking for anything, pretty soon they see you as the expert."
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Paid Media: The Accelerator for Leaders
Once you've established a solid foundation and are seeing success, paid media acts as a rocket booster for your personal brand. This is where you invest capital to massively expand your reach.-
How it works: This involves strategic campaigns like being featured in major publications like Newswire Magazine, appearing on broadcast channels like Amazon Fire TV, or securing a spot on a massive billboard in Times Square. Curtis McCoy's agency specializes in this, helping already-successful entrepreneurs, authors, and speakers catapult to the next level. He shares a compelling case study: one client, after nine months of a targeted paid media strategy, is projected to generate an additional $1.2 million in revenue.
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Understanding the distinction is crucial. Earned media builds the trust and authority; paid media amplifies it to a global audience.
How to Build an Authentic Personal Brand: The "Secret Sauce" is Sharing
The most common fear entrepreneurs have is "giving away the secret sauce." Why would I teach my audience everything I know? Won't that make my services obsolete?
Curtis McCoy flips this notion on its head with another brilliant analogy. Imagine you own a fried chicken restaurant.
"If you got on Instagram every day showing how to season and cook the most perfect fried chicken, you're giving away the secrets," he says. "But when I'm hungry for chicken, I don't want to do all that work—I'm going to your restaurant down the street."
This is the essence of authentic personal branding. By generously sharing your knowledge, you achieve two critical goals:
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You Establish Trust and Expertise: You prove you know what you're talking about. People don't buy from vague influencers; they buy from proven experts.
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You Occupy the "Mind Space": When a specific need arises in your niche, your name is the first one that pops into your potential client's head. This personal branding strategy is about becoming synonymous with the solution you provide.
For coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs, this means shifting from creating content to documenting your journey. Stop struggling to hop on every viral trend. Instead, simply share your process. A copywriter can share a quick tip on improving headline hooks. A business coach can break down a real-life case study. This consistency and authenticity are what make an authentic personal brand resonate deeply with an audience.
Leveraging Emerging Trends: Video, Podcasts, and AI
The landscape of personal branding is always evolving. While the core principles remain, the platforms and tools change.
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Video and Real-Time Interaction: Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have made video content king. Live videos, in particular, offer an unparalleled opportunity for real-time connection, making your personal brand feel more human and accessible.
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The Power of Podcasting: Podcasts have exploded as a medium for building authority. However, Curtis McCoy notes that most podcasts fail to monetize effectively. He provides a golden nugget for entrepreneurs and coaches looking to leverage this medium.
Curtis McCoy's Pro Tip: How to Instantly Monetize Your Podcast with AI
This strategy is a game-changer for podcast hosts struggling to see a return on their time investment.
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Own Your Platform: Don't just direct people to Spotify. Have a dedicated domain (e.g., yoursite.com/podcast).
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Upload to YouTube: After recording, upload your video in 4K for better reach.
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Generate a Transcript: Use YouTube's built-in transcript feature (toggle timestamps off).
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Leverage AI: Feed the transcript into ChatGPT with these sequential prompts:
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Prompt 1: "Format this video transcript with proper spelling, punctuation, grammar, and a single space after each punctuation mark."
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Prompt 2: "Review this transcript and write an article outline using H2 headers."
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Prompt 3: "Using the article outline above, write a 2,000-word search engine optimized article about [Guest's Name] and the key topics discussed."
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Create a SEO Powerhouse: You now have a long-form, keyword-rich article. Place your YouTube link at the top and the article below. Tweak it to sound human, add your call-to-action (e.g., "Apply for my coaching program"), and publish.
This process transforms a single podcast episode into a powerful SEO asset that attracts search traffic for your guest's name and the topics discussed, directly generating leads and sales. This is a brilliant fusion of personal branding, content creation, and smart technology.
Staying Relevant in a Noisy World: Focus and Delegation
A major challenge for modern entrepreneurs is the sheer number of social media platforms. The key to effective personal branding is not to be everywhere at once.
"You can't run a successful business and be active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest... that's a full-time job," warns Curtis.
His advice is simple:
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Focus: Pick one or two platforms you genuinely enjoy and dominate them. Provide immense value there consistently.
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Delegate: Once you are successful, hire experts. Outsource your content creation to agencies like Plush Inc. or invest in paid media with experts like Curtis McCoy. This frees you up to do what you do best—run your business and serve your clients.
From Adversity to Authority: The Mindset of a Personal Brand
Curtis McCoy's own story is a testament to the power of mindset in personal branding. He survived brain cancer and grew up in a challenging environment. His philosophy? "Losers use their past as an excuse; winners use it as a reason to become something better."
An authentic personal brand isn't born from a perfect life; it's forged in overcoming challenges. Your unique journey, your struggles, and your triumphs are what make your brand relatable and powerful. This authenticity is what truly connects and inspires your audience.
Conclusion: Your Personal Brand is Your Most Valuable Asset
Building a powerful personal branding strategy is no longer optional for entrepreneurs, coaches, and leaders. It is the essential work of building your reputation, your influence, and your business in the digital age.
Start with earned media—provide relentless value to a specific audience. Be so generous with your knowledge that you become the undeniable expert. As you grow, strategically use paid media to amplify your message to new heights. Embrace new tools like AI to work smarter, but never lose the authentic human connection at the core of your brand.
Your personal brand is the bridge between your expertise and the people who need it most. Start building it with intention, authenticity, and consistency today. The world is waiting to hear what you have to say.
Ready to build your authentic personal brand? Share your biggest takeaway from this guide in the comments below!
Luxury Unplug Podcast: Building an Authentic Personal Brand with Curtis McCoy
Host: Neeti Keswani
Guest: Curtis McCoy, Serial Entrepreneur, Author, and Personal Branding Expert
Neeti Keswani: If you have been wondering what personal branding really means, why it is more important right now to build an authentic personal brand, how to create that brand, how to resonate with your audience, and what tips a master coach would give... you're in the right podcast episode. Today, we're talking not only about trends in personal branding but how to build that brand through various platforms.
Welcome to the Luxury Unplug podcast, where we dive deep into the art of living a successful and luxurious life. From mindset and business to personal growth and entrepreneurship, we have it all. I'm your host, Neeti Keswani, and today we are exploring a topic that is essential for entrepreneurs, consultants, coaches, and leaders.
Every week, we bring you incredible stories of successful entrepreneurs and artists, their lives full of luxuries, and the spiritual thought process that fuels that accelerated growth. So, get ready to dive deep into the minds of these CEOs.
Today, we are featuring Curtis McCoy. He's a serial entrepreneur, an author, and a personal branding expert. He has written amazing books—four of them—and the one that I really love personally is How to Be Successful: Think Like a Leader. Over to you, Curtis. Welcome to the show.
Curtis McCoy: Thank you, Neeti. I am so glad to be a guest on the Luxury Unplug podcast. Anybody that's searching, if you're looking to figure out if I'm actually legit or not, Curtis McCoy is the name. If you Google me or look on any social media platform, that's where you'll find me.
Neeti Keswani: Great to have you, Curtis, on the podcast. We have so many questions regarding the various aspects that you deal with. To start off, you have a very interesting background in terms of the health challenges you faced early on in your life with a brain tumor. How did you come out of it and then build this massive, flourishing career?
Curtis McCoy: Yes, so everybody deals with different junk in their life. I survived brain cancer, grew up in an abusive household with an abusive dad... a lot of that kind of stuff. We've all got junk that we dealt with or that we're still dealing with. I don't know if you've heard, but a band out of Europe reached out and wanted a motivational quote from a personality on social media to write a song around. I did the recording for them, and the quote was: "Losers use their past as an excuse; winners use it as a reason to become something better." So, I try not to focus a whole lot on the junk. My story is not any worse than anybody else's struggles.
Neeti Keswani: What were the turning points for you? How did you start flourishing from that difficult point? It seems like it awakens something in your mindset. How did you manage to pull it off in your career?
Curtis McCoy: The way I got into personal branding was through building several successful companies. I built a cosmetic medical laser clinic, created a pharmaceutical company manufacturing bioidentical injectable research peptides, had a Christian clothing company, owned a cellular communication company with over 250,000 customers a month at its peak, spoke at Caesar's Palace, and consulted with the United States Federal Trade Commission.
What I realized later than I should have was this: you can have the coolest business. Take, for example, if you built the coolest shopping mall that ever existed with every restaurant, car dealership, and an amusement park. But if you built that in the middle of the desert, nobody can do business with you. People have to be able to know you and find you. So, personal branding isn't about having a sleek business or an amazing logo; it's something more.
Neeti Keswani: So, what is your way of teaching personal branding strategy?
Curtis McCoy: There are basically two parts: earned media and paid media. My business is focused around paid media. I work with people who are already successful—leaders, authors, entrepreneurs, motivational speakers, podcast hosts—anybody who's already crushing it in life and business. I help them get to the next level by doing massive paid media, getting hundreds of thousands of viewers per month to watch their show on Amazon Fire TV, read their article in Newswire Magazine, or see their face on the 96TB billboard in Times Square, New York.
That's paid media, where you invest money. Earned media is where you invest your time. I speak at events all over the country to provide value. My goal is to help you build your own personal brand high enough to where you're successful and profitable, and then you can hire a guy like me to expand it further. The start of earned media is just finding a group of people or a specific type of person that you can solve a problem for, and solving that problem on an ongoing basis.
Neeti Keswani: So, for someone like me at Plush Inc., where we do content creation and copywriting, the strategy would be to get on every single day and provide value, showing that I am the expert.
Curtis McCoy: Absolutely. If you get on Instagram or Facebook every day and do a live video or write a blog post about how to be a better copywriter, how to get your articles to rank, how to build incoming links... if you focus on helping somebody over and over without ever asking for anything, pretty soon they see you as the expert. When they need a copywriter, you're the one they'll hire.
Neeti Keswani: Search engine optimization really plays a big role in putting your videos, articles, and blogs out there to generate leads.
Curtis McCoy: Yes, ma'am.
Neeti Keswani: On having an authentic personal brand, a lot of people have value to provide and are willing to be consistent, but how do they present it in a way that people connect with authentically?
Curtis McCoy: I get questions a lot about algorithms or tricks to get a message to spread. People ask about how to create content in bulk and post every day. I can't give an answer on that because it's extremely difficult to create content that's not aligned with you. But if you, as a copywriter, share your expertise—something you love, are passionate about, and are good at—and you just share how you do that daily, talking to your perfect target client and solving their problem over and over, then they see you as the expert.
Neeti Keswani: So, the point is that if I'm putting in the work and showcasing my authentic value through articles and blogs on the right channels for the right audience, I will get leads and good business.
Curtis McCoy: You get the leads like that. People also worry about giving away their "secret sauce." Let's say you have a restaurant selling fried chicken. If you get on Instagram every day showing how to season and cook the most perfect fried chicken, you're giving away the secrets. But when I'm hungry for chicken, I don't want to do all that work—I'm going to your restaurant down the street. There might be another shop with a better sandwich, but you're the one posting tips every day, so you're the one I'll think of. It's about that mind space.
Neeti Keswani: It's about being in the customer's mind. So, consistency and sharing your own journey, rather than trying to figure out trendy content, is key.
Curtis McCoy: Exactly. If you're just documenting your journey, saying, "Hey, this is Neeti. Here's a quick tip on how to help your articles rank better," you're sharing the secret sauce and it still gets you business. It shows you're the expert.
Neeti Keswani: On emerging trends in personal branding, it's an evolving space. With video content and real-time interactions picking up, where do you think personal branding strategy is heading?
Curtis McCoy: Personal branding has always existed. Fifty or a hundred years ago, look at speakers like Tony Robbins and Grant Cardone. They built personal brands before social media was a thing through books and live events. It's about using the platforms available at the time. I'm not a social media expert, but it's about figuring out how to solve a problem and reach the most people possible. The more people that know about you, the better chance you have.
Neeti Keswani: Are there any specific case studies from your work that you're particularly proud of?
Curtis McCoy: I've got one client we've been working with for about nine months. He was already successful, charging a $25,000 fee per new client. We featured him in Newswire Magazine, got him on the Times Square billboard, on Amazon Fire TV, and did SEO work. He told me the other day he's going to generate an additional $1.2 million in total revenue this year based on our work.
So, if you're in a position where you need to build your brand but don't have time to write articles every day, get a hold of a company like Plush Inc. and talk to Neeti about having her create content for you. That's where paid media comes in—paying an expert to do the work that will generate more return.
Neeti Keswani: That's one of our strategies for building our content business. This podcast is picking up well because of guests like you, bringing amazing nuggets that help our audience.
As the host of your own show, "Success Motivation," what memorable stories about leadership or perseverance have contributed to long-term success in business and life for you?
Curtis McCoy: I haven't hosted a podcast in a few years; we're syndicated on Amazon Fire TV now as a TV show. I got into it when I was living in the back of one of my retail stores, sleeping on a futon in the employee breakroom for about two and a half years. I'd go to the gym to shower, come back, put my suit on, and start the original podcast inside the cell phone store with a microphone that wasn't plugged into anything, recording on an old Android phone. As it took off, I started interviewing successful leaders. Now, if you want to be featured on the TV show, send me a message, and we'll research you and share your story.
Neeti Keswani: And that's how you bring in expertise for personal branding, by offering value through features on your show.
Curtis McCoy: Yes. We have Newswire, launched in 1997; I bought the company in 2018. We feature any type of leader in sports, music, politics, or SaaS platforms. We do the interview, ask questions, ensure the message aligns with our audience, and do background research to make sure they are legitimate and actually provide the solution they say they do. If you want to be featured, just Google "Curtis McCoy," send me a message, and we'll get connected.
Neeti Keswani: How do you feel professionals in any arena can stay relevant today with the influx of social media? How can they keep growing their influence in such a competitive landscape?
Curtis McCoy: There's no way you can run a successful business and be active on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and more. That's a full-time job. You need to be posting new articles, blogs, and email blasts. You can't do it all. So, start hiring people. Focus on the things you choose to focus on. If you love LinkedIn, go all in there until you can hire someone. Focus on whatever platform you like best, put out good content, solve a problem, become known as the expert in that small niche, and it will grow.
Neeti Keswani: One more question before we wind up. With AI, many people are getting into podcasts and YouTube using voice modulation and AI-generated images. What are your thoughts on that? Where are we heading in terms of personal development and branding? Coaches are irreplaceable, but how is the landscape changing?
Curtis McCoy: We've been using AI with Newswire since 2016 or 2017. I'll give a tip for podcast hosts listening. A massive percentage of podcasts never make it to their 20th episode, and many struggle for years without making a profit.
Here's a tip to monetize:
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Have a relevant domain name (yoursite.com/podcast) instead of just directing to Spotify.
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After your interview, upload the video to YouTube in 4k (upscale if necessary).
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Once processed, click "Show Transcript" and turn off the timestamps.
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Copy the entire transcript into ChatGPT and prompt it to: "Format this transcript with proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar."
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Next prompt: "Review this transcript and write an article outline using H2 headers."
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Then: "Using the article outline above, write a 2,000-word SEO-optimized article about [Guest's Name]."
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ChatGPT will write the article. Place your URL and YouTube link at the top, and the article below.
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You now have an SEO-optimized page. Tune it up so it doesn't sound like AI, add your call-to-action for your coaching or services, and you can start making money from that post.
I know a guy doing this with a $2,000 service. When someone searches for a guest's name, they find his show and see his call-to-action, instantly monetizing his show instead of waiting for platform ads.
Neeti Keswani: We are already implementing some of these strategies. It's good that it can help other podcasters testing the waters. It has been very interesting interviewing you and talking to you before the call. Lovely connecting with you.
Curtis McCoy: That's why I was mentioning other podcasts; I saw you have your calls-to-action and phone number up. Your site, Plush Inc., is really well laid out and looks great.
Neeti Keswani: Thank you! I intend to scale to a larger level, so I will be in touch with you offline. The knowledge you've shared is wonderful. Your expertise is evident. I'd be keen to work on the TV channel aspect.
Curtis McCoy: Let's stay in contact.
Neeti Keswani: Absolutely. Why not have more episodes where we can share more nuggets and collaborate?
Curtis McCoy: I would love that.
Neeti Keswani: Thank you so much, Curtis. It's been lovely knowing and connecting with you. It didn't feel like the first time, frankly.
Curtis McCoy: It's always good to connect with new friends on podcasts.
Neeti Keswani: Absolutely. Thank you so much.
Curtis McCoy: Thank you, Neeti. That was awesome.
Neeti Keswani: Thank you.