How to Build a Personal Brand That Survives the AI Era ft. Teresa Heath-Wareing

If you aren't building your personal brand right now, I'm going to be really honest with you. Your business is at serious risk of becoming completely irrelevant in the next three to five years. And I know that sounds dramatic, but I'm going to break down why it's not because we are now living, whether we like it or not, in a world where AI can do pretty much anything. It can write your content, it can build your offers, it can do your marketing for you, it can literally generate an entire course.

on a subject that you know nothing about in minutes. So if your business is built just on information and what you know, then you are competing with someone that can do it faster, cheaper, and much quicker at scale. most people are building businesses based on, have this knowledge, I can teach this, I can package up this. And there's nothing wrong with teaching what you know. However, the reality is there is no new knowledge.

everything you're teaching already exists. And now AI has made that so much more obvious and accessible for everybody. the question on building a business that stands out in a market like this isn't about what you know, it is about why someone should choose you to teach them what you know.

And if you don't have an answer to that, that's going to be a real problem for you in the next few years, because the only thing that AI cannot replace is your personal lived experience, your personality, your unique quirks, your opinions, your energy and your story and the way that you see the world. And essentially all of those things form your personal brand. having a personal brand isn't about becoming an influencer.

having loads of followers, it is all about building trust and credibility with your ideal customers so that they know to come to you because they resonate with you and your story. Because in a world where anyone can do anything and everything can be generated, people are gonna buy from people that they feel connected to, not the person with the most information. They're gonna be buying from the person that they trust. And we're already seeing this. We're seeing businesses that look great on paper,

but that have no personality, no connection, no depth. And those businesses might work for five minutes and they might make some quick cash But in the next few years, they are going to struggle because AI is going to expose them for the missing factor of that personality, personal branding piece. So if you've been avoiding building your personal brand up until now and you've been thinking...

or maybe that's something I'll do later, or I'm a bit scared to put myself out there and be authentic and vulnerable online. This is your sign to get yourself on it because doing that later might be a bit too late. And the shift is already happening. it's here. And AI isn't just gonna go away. This isn't as small as a new social media platform.

This is a whole movement. This is a whole shift in the way that we are going to be living.

And in today's episode, we're going to be covering why building a personal brand in an age of AI is going to be so important. And my guest today has had a hugely successful online business and not just through strategy that she's built and the things that she knows, but by building a personal brand through visibility, credibility, and showing up consistently over time. Today, I'm speaking to Theresa Heath Waring,

who is an award-winning online business strategist, a TEDx speaker and host of Your Dream Business podcast, which has featured some of the world's biggest names in the online business space, including Amy Porterfield. But what I love today about talking to Theresa is that She didn't start with the idea of creating herself a personal brand, but she was an unemployed single mom needing to feed her child. And then she went on to create herself

opportunity after opportunity by networking and building relationships with people that she wanted to be in the room with. And she ended up creating herself a multi six figure business online. She spent over a decade helping course creators, coaches and online business owners grow their audience, increase their visibility and sell their offers all through building themselves a personal brand.

So in today's episode of the Freedom Method podcast, we're be breaking down what a personal brand actually is and why it matters more now than ever.

You're gonna walk away today knowing exactly what you need to do to start building your personal brand if you want your business to still exist in the next few years.

Now I've been immersed in the world of AI now for a while because I'm surrounded by AI experts in my day-to-day life. So I have incorporated ways to use AI in all of my online programs, particularly my Freedom Model Method Foundations program, which is my signature online course and coaching hybrid that helps you to start an online business that actually works for you, not feel like one you're working for.

if you are at that point right now where you are starting an online business and you want it to succeed the long haul, I'll pop the link in the show notes and you can go and check that out.

today you're gonna hear lots of conversations around the subject of AI and personal brand. And I'm super happy to introduce you to Theresa Heath wearing.

To kick off, would you mind explaining for anyone that doesn't understand the concept of personal branding, what does that actually mean?

Great question to start with. Thank you for having me. What it means is that you have created a brand for yourself. Now, I want to kind of caveat a little bit, a few things. First off, lots of people think they're not personal brands where they are. If you have a business that you are or need to be the face of, you are effectively a personal brand.

I think maybe where it's skewed a bit and where people are like, no, that's not me is because they see personal brands as celebrities or they see personal brands as influencers and they think I'm not either of those things. So I am not a personal brand. But the truth is if you have a business where either you are the brain, you're selling your brain, like in the online education space, or

You are the reason people are going to buy, if, even if you're selling a physical product, then you have a personal brand. And that doesn't necessarily mean you have a particular logo or you need some particular font or whatever. It's basically you as a person and how you put yourself across.

great explanation. And I really want to hear about you and your personal brands. Did you want to tell us the story? Because I know that you've been a TEDx speaker and your award-winning keynote speaker. Tell us a little bit about that journey to get in there. Because obviously to get those gigs, you probably needed to build up your personal brand. So I'd love to hear your journey of building your own personal brand.

So I think what's really interesting is if you'd said to me, like, what did you do to build a personal brand or how did you go about it? I would never have thought I was doing it. Right. And I think that's kind of that happened by luck for me, but we need to be more strategic now. So basically I had started, I'd worked in marketing for like 10 ish years and I decided to start my own business. I joke, I had an early midlife crisis because I was a single mum to a four year old.

really not a great time to then go, I know I'll give up my well-paid full-time job and start my own business, but I did. And I was getting clients and one of the ways in which I was trying to get clients is to show up as the expert. And again, I wouldn't even been able to communicate it this way at the time either, right? So, but all I knew I was doing was every time I volunteered to go and do a session at a local chamber event or

go and like train some people on how to use Twitter or whatever it was back in the day, I would get clients, right? So I was like, okay, so this works. So, and I really enjoyed it. I think there's another thing about that. Like I did like standing on stage is I did like being the person at the front. So the more I kept doing it, the more I was getting clients. And then I was kind of getting picked up in other places and I was really enjoying it. And

The more I was speaking, the more there were photos of me speaking, the more I started my own podcast. I had got some really key people in the industry on my podcast. I was getting seen in all these different places. And I often talk to people about building this personal brand is like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You have to work really hard in the early days to start to build it. But once you start to build it, it's kind of like a snowball going down the hill. Like it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger because the more you're doing it, the more you're seen. So the more I was speaking, even though I started, some of the speaking gigs I did, to call them a speaking gig is a bit of a laugh, but like it was literally like, I did one for some mums in a play barn and there was like three mums and me in a laptop, right? Like,

And then one of the crazy things I've done is like hundreds and hundreds of people in a room on a ginormous stage where like the organizers thought it'd be hilarious to get them chanting my name as I walked off, which is really funny, right? But like, I started really small and I built it and I built it and I built it. And again, the same with like the podcast and getting on other people's podcasts and getting known.

Wow.

The more you do it, the more strategic you are in doing it, the more you then get picked up. But you've got to take those opportunities. You know, the TEDx, I had to apply like everyone else has to apply. Like I had to put myself forward to do big scary things. And then by doing those big scary things, other people then see you and go, OK, so she must know what she's talking about. And

being able to build it. The other thing I want to add on this though, which I think is really important that lots of people don't think about when they're building a personal brand. When they think about building their personal brand, it's like, okay, how do I look on everything? Have I had a million photo shoots? Am I doing all the photos? Am I on Instagram? Am I on social media? Am I applying to go on stages? Am I applying to be on podcasts? But the other thing that was key for me in my personal brand,

was relationships. And I don't think enough people think about that. So really early doors, I spent a lot of time and money traveling to conferences that quite honestly, I have no place being at because I did not have the money to be traveling to go to these places to make connections with real people. And for me, that was one of the best things I could do because then not only am I

having conversations or am I meeting these people, but then they're getting to know me. So when someone says, oh, you should meet Teresa because she does blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're only doing that because they've met me and they know me and I've built this personal brand and they're seeing me online and they're seeing what I'm doing. So I feel like, yes, we need the outward stuff of a personal brand. We need the showing up, the speaking on stages, the...

having I, you know, I have a book that I was co author, but I've not written my own book as it were. But you know, some people have books which really help guesting on, you know, being interviewed for podcasts, but actually that relationship piece is just as key.

Yeah, I agree. They used to always say, obviously, it's like, what you know, who you know, not what you know. And I think that there is an element of that in business. And that's not to say that every single person that you know is going to give you an opportunity or should give you an opportunity. But it does help because if that person knows you, loves you, understands what you do, and they have somebody in mind that maybe you could go and speak at their event or you can go and coach that person or whatever the opportunity is.

Mm-hmm.

there's opportunity in the number of people that you meet. And I've definitely seen that like in my own journey as well. Like I am a big networker. I bring a lot of people together. That is one of my natural strengths. I would say I host co-working events every week here. I have an online community. I bring people together in a very organic way and the relationships that I see being built out of those events that I've just facilitated.

Mm.

Hmm.

put too much effort into it. I've just bringing people that have like-minded values together is amazing. I've seen so many businesses be born out of those relationships that I've been able to put these people in a room and even a couple. I'm very proud to say that one of the people, two of the people that came to my coworking event here, they're now in a relationship. moved to Australia together and I'm like, you never really know who you're going to meet and what opportunities they're going to bring you. So I fully back everything that you've said though, like building the relationships because you never really know.

No way!

what, what, direction they can take you in.

And

I think as well, like something you just said, and it's really important, like when you build these relationships, it's never in mind or intended to go, what can I get from it? Right. Because if that's the way you're thinking about it, you're thinking about it all wrong. It's about going, how can I build a genuine relationship? How can I build a genuine connection with someone with no expectations? So one of the, ⁓

Bye.

The stories that I tell a lot or I get asked a lot about is my very first two interviews on my podcast were Amy Porterfield and Pat Flynn. And in the online space back when I interviewed them, they were literally the top of the top, right? And they're still pretty big now, but they were literally my first two people that I interviewed and everyone was like, how the hell did you get them? Well, I didn't necessarily intend to just get them on the podcast, but

Yeah.

Wow.

What I did was I'd already been out to the States a few times. I've been to a few conferences. Again, it seemed to be a time where there weren't that many British people going over because for whatever reason, and I stood out because I was British, but I made sure I went and met them. made sure I had conversations with them. And I'd actually ended up speaking on a stage with Pat Flynn. He was on before me and then I was on after him. So I had met him. Anyway, I was at another conference and someone asked him on a panel.

How do you make real connections? How do you get big guests on a podcast? And he said, you know, invite them for a coffee, but don't do it around a conference because they're to be really busy. You know, try and make a real genuine connection, which, you know, was what he was saying about what we're saying. So anyway, I flew back to the UK and I sent him a video message, like a video on Instagram, basically saying, Pat, I want to take you for a coffee. Will you meet me? And I'm going to fly five and a half thousand miles to do it. And

Wow.

How could he say no, right? Because like, I'm

Yeah.

about to fly to the States just to go for a coffee. And so I did the same with Amy. Obviously in the same trip, I was like, I'm going to fly 500,000 miles. Will you meet me for a coffee? And she said yes. And Pat said yes. Now I'm not saying they would do that now. And I had already got a connection. They did at least know my name. And anyway, I flew over and the idea was.

Wow.

that I would go and meet them for coffee and I just really wanted to connect with them. They were the top of the industry. Like I wanted to really just be sat having a conversation with them. And the idea was I thought if it went really well, when I got back to the UK, I might ask them if they would come on the podcast, but that wasn't necessarily the intention. Anyway, I go and meet them separately and I meet Pat first and he takes me to his studio, which obviously I was like, this is insane.

And we ended up having this conversation and he, I'd said that I'd started a podcast and I was just doing solo episodes. And he's like, are you going to do interviews? said, yes, but I'm a little bit scared to reach out. And he said, well, if I'm on your list, I'll do it. And I didn't even have to ask him. And Amy almost said verbatim the same thing. Like it was amazing. And both of them were like, yeah, cool, great. And then because I got those two reaching out to loads of other people was so easy because it was like.

Amazing.

Wow.

It just, the minute, and this is the other thing, right? When you start building that credibility, when you start building the relationships and the stages you speak on. So like, you might have to work really, really hard to build a relationship with someone or work really, really hard to get on a particular stage. But sometimes those are the one thing that is going to tip you over the edge. That people are going to look at that one thing and go, wow, like this person's...

knows what she's doing because look, she's had such and such on the podcast. And from that, like I had a ton of people on there and a ton of people reach out to me. had Dean Graziosi reach out to me. had Denise Duffield Thomas reach out to me, like Ryan Dice, like all of those people asked to be on my podcast, which is wild, absolutely wild. But I did the work and I'm very happy to say that I'm still friends with Amy now and you know, I go to her house and it's awesome. Like it's brilliant.

Wow.

Super cool, that's super cool.

But I never did it with the intention of, what can I get out of Amy? Because like, that's just awful. Like no one wants to and you can smell that a mile off.

100%, you can definitely smell anything that's genuine, inauthentic. I think it's made a lot of people very wary. I don't know how you experience this if you're using social media platforms like LinkedIn or Instagram or whatever to connect with people. But I've definitely noticed that there is an element of discernment when somebody is, I'm quite a genuine person, I would say, and I connect and I try and have conversations with everyone because I understand

exactly what you've just said, understand you. all about building connections and getting opportunities out of those connections. It's a little bit like a numbers game. You have to connect with a lot of people, I think, to find the right people and find the right connections that either you're going to get nothing out of in terms of business-wise, but you are going to have a really genuine connection. never know where that genuine connection goes, or potentially also from a business perspective, what's going to come off the back of that. And I've found that

I really make an effort to speak to people online and try and reach out to a lot of people on LinkedIn. And that's coming from a genuine place. I want to get to know you. I want to understand you. If I'm going to connect with you, there's no point in you just being this empty connection online. I want to understand a little bit more about you. But I have noticed that there's a level of discernment. because we live in a world where pitch slaps come straight in normally into our DMs and people have clocked on to that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

there is this level of like, well, what do you want? Like, why are you in my DMs? I don't know. have you found that? And what are you doing to navigate and overcome that?

Yeah.

100%. And I would say on like, from my point of view, receiving DMs like that, I'm immediately like, what do you want? Every time, right? I'm so suspicious because like you said, we're in a world of first off, AI messaging. Secondly, often people only want something for them. And even when they come into the DMs with the like nice

Yeah.

you know, I listened to the podcast or I watched this video or I did this thing or whatever it might be. I'm immediately like, hang on a minute. Where's this heading? So I think it's really hard. One thing I would say is again, like the in-person thing, and I know this seems so weird, right? I'm an online business. I've been an online business for 10 years and like I teach growing a business online and I'm talking about in-person stuff, but I do think there is something to be said that like,

even if it's not in person, physically in person, it's that what rooms can I get in? What connections can I get? Like, and sometimes that means paying. Sometimes that means, you know, I did something with Ali Abdel a little while back. He put a thing out to his email list, basically saying, if you earn six and seven figures and you are in or can get to London for this date, I'm hosting a mastermind and you have to apply. And obviously it wasn't cheap. It was, I think it was like two and a half grand or something.

for the day and, you know, do you want to come? And basically I applied and yeah, you know, that was a lot of money for one day and I had to get down to London and da da. But I got in the room with Ali Avdol and I got in the room with other people and they know my name. And like, not that there was anything I was going to do with it. Again, it wasn't like I went in with the reason of right, what can I get from this? It was just a, this will be a really cool room to be in. And yes, that was a physical room, but sometimes...

it's an online room. Sometimes it's a kind of, you know, a networking online thing or just a networking thing like you're talking about. Because I think that you, when someone has a connection to you, that's got to be like the most easiest way in. And again, like who knows who. So for instance, if,

I'm a bit like you, I love connecting people. Often when I'm talking to clients, I'm like, you should speak to so and so, they would be amazing, or they do exactly what you need, or they have the life that you want, or whatever it is. having those kind of connections and being able to go, do you know anybody that's this? I've got, again, it's like the other way of like...

Often lots of people get lots of work from me because I talk about them because I love them and they're brilliant. And, know, and I, I want to host them or I want to put them on my platform or whatever it is. So again, it's that kind of constant having those connections and building your network and also being a, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but being a good person, like, you know, we, in the online space, there's often lots and lots of drama, which I am not here for. And I want a very quiet, easy life.

And just being a good person and showing up as a good person that someone can rely on, someone can trust that you're consistent with how you say you are. Again, your personal brand is about, if you get me on a call, am I the person that you see online? Right. And like we got on this call and we immediately started talking about where you live and all the travel and all these kinds of things. Right. And like, I'm like that, whether I'm in a room full of

Yeah.

300 people or literally having a conversation with someone I've just met. Like it literally is the same person. Whereas we all know that we've seen people online and unfortunately I have met some of these people in person and thought, you are not who I thought you were. And actually, no, I'm all right. Thanks. But again, it's like, are you showing up authentically? And I think one of the things we wanted to touch on, and I didn't really answer your question actually, I just realised about kind of the reaching out thing.

As we said at the beginning, quite like it when conversations are so much.

But one of the things that is like the most important right now is because we do have AI, I don't trust anything, right? Like I don't believe anything anymore because I tell you the thing that really tipped me over the edge. So I use AI obviously, and I do, you know, I think it's very smart and very clever, but I love dogs. I have three dogs, right? And I saw a reel, probably my husband sent it to me because the only things he ever sends me are dog things, right? And it was a reel where...

dogs were picking their owners and basically these dogs go into a room and all these people just sit there and the dog decides who its owner is going to be.

I saw that. I

saw that too. I a lot of dog content on my Instagram as well and I saw that.

It's

AI. I was devastated. I was like, that's it. You're done. I can't cope, right? Don't make up stuff like that. That's just not fair, right? So like, so we just don't trust anything. So the more we can show up authentically, the more we can show up as our real self. And I think people are so scared of like being real and being vulnerable. And vulnerable is a really overused word in marketing at the moment, but like,

so bad. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah.

What if people don't like me? What if people are cat people and they get so irritated by me going on about my dogs all time? Well, maybe I'm not for them. And I think that's the truth, right? When we come from an abundant place and we come from a world of there is so much out there and the world is so very big. For one person who goes, you are not for me, there are going to be 10 that go, you're exactly what I want. You know, and I think the only way they can know that is by showing up as us.

by showing up as real and being even more authentic when AI is coming in. you know, and again, I, there are some people that do this and I'm, you know, if that's cool for them, that's fine, but they all literally use AI versions of themselves. And I'm not cool with that. Like, yes, you'll never get me on a real or on social media without my makeup on, right? So it's not, I'm not talking vulnerability rocking up, you know, looking like I've just stepped out of bed. That isn't for me.

I'm talking, but I am talking, showing up as me speaking as I would like being a real person because, and talking as well about our experiences and what we think of things and how our opinions on stuff, because what AI hasn't got is it hasn't got our lived experience, right? And I think what your world is so interesting with what you do, right?

You, I looked at your Instagram before this and like, you you could look like you live in the dream, right? And you possibly are living the dream. It's amazing. And, and the internet and social media will have us believe that like it's everything is sunshine and roses, but it's not always like, you know, we talked before about, you know, having no internet or having no electricity and what that does for an online business. And, you know, so I think the more we can show up honestly, the more we can show

No.

the light and the dark. And I mean, I don't mean dark as in, you come on sobbing and falling apart, but like the more we can go, this is what it's really like, the more people can connect with us. Gone are the days where a personal brand is someone that we aspire like to be like, you know, we're not the Kardashians. They're, know, God, if I could look like them and have their money, I literally would be amazing, but it's very much out of my reach and I'm all right with that. That's fine. So

What we need now is content that we can relate to and content that we can go, yeah, I get that, or they understand me and show up a bit more real.

I agree with you. think there's a sea of AI content out there and you never really know what is true and what isn't true. And that is devastating about the dog videos. And there are some ones where it's like super obvious, but then there's things like that actually looked like it was real. I guess we can't escape AI, right? Like AI is coming. It is here. And I've been to many, I live in an environment where I'm surrounded by AI entrepreneurs. So I'm

Yeah, literally.

would say that I'm quite knee deep into the AI world. And from what I can see is personal brand in all honesty, if you have, if you don't have a personal brand, it's going to really be a detriment to your business in the next three to five, definitely in the next 10 years. So for me, building a personal brand is super, super important. And exactly what you just said, it has to come from a place of truth. has to come from a place of vulnerability, authenticity, because if it isn't

you sharing your lived experiences and attaching that to your business. All of the knowledge that you've got in your business in all honesty is available. it, there's no new knowledge. No, you're not teaching people anything they can't already access. So it has to come from a lived experience. It has to come from a point of view that somebody else is going to resonate with because otherwise your business is not going to survive in all brutal honesty.

There's no new knowledge. There's no new nothing, right? nope. Nothing.

Totally.

100%.

I agree with you 100 % because like you said, we could go to AI right now and say, write me a course on how to do blur, right? Whatever it is. And not only could we have a course written for us that we then use to learn something, but we could effectively build a course tomorrow on a subject matter expert that we are not the subject matter expert of. you know, I could do a course on how to fix bikes and I have the faintest idea how to fix bikes. I don't know where that came from.

I kind of want to the course.

crazy brain. like, but like, we are knowledge

isn't anything that is the money anymore. It isn't because content is totally over commoditized. There is so much content and the truth is we don't need more. So where is in the days, you know, when I first came into this industry, it was like, you know, we need 10 videos at 20 hours long and 600 worksheets and look at all this workbooks we give you and look at all these things.

No, no, I don't want all that stuff now because I have content coming out of my ears. Everybody does. What I need is I need you to tell me how to do it and the fastest way you could possibly tell me, tell me, like, don't give me a free lead magnet with 500 things that you could do to make money. No, no, no. Tell me the top three. Tell me the thing that I can create in the next 24 hours. Like we want everything at speed, but exactly what you said, the, when I talk about launching, so

One thing I talk about a lot is launching online. So not necessarily launching for the first time, I just mean selling. So let's say you do a webinar, right? Yeah, I could go to an AI and say, tell me how to do a webinar, break down how someone really big does their webinar and tell me how to do it for mine. And that's fine. It could totally do that. It can totally tell you what's in one of my sections of one of my courses. However, what it can't tell you is what it's like to sit on that webinar, waiting for people to turn up on knowing.

whether anyone will turn up or not, what it's like to be nervous about the tech going wrong, what it's like when the car opens and no one buys, or when the car opens and people start buying and you're terrified then that they might ask for refunds or whatever. Like the AI doesn't have those experiences. It doesn't know what it's like to deliver a webinar to one person. I do. I've done that. Like, and that's the truth in every industry. It doesn't understand the nuances of things.

Again, like, it's really interesting. Someone builds, they came through, I do a bootcamp and on the bootcamp, I basically help you plan your launch. And I had a guy come on it and he was, he had a lot to do with like bots and creating like Theresa bots or whatever. And he created this bot that I didn't ask him to create. It was just something that he did for fun. And he put it into the chat, into the group.

And he was like, so basically I've plugged in Teresa's framework on how to do a launch and you can put in your details and it'll tell you what launch to do. And I was like, okay. So then I kind of said, so then people are, this is awesome. Right. So people in my challenge or in my bootcamp were doing it. And then I was like, come and ask me, come and tell me what it said. on the next call we had, they would come on and say, this is the thing that it told me to do. Right.

based on the information that had been put in, based on my own methodology. So I kind of get that. However, what AI couldn't do is read the face of the person who was telling me the thing, right? So when someone was going, yeah, it said I need to do a challenge. And I'd be like, yeah, and how do you feel about doing a challenge? I don't want to. I hate those things. So yeah, AI could tell you that might be the most. And sometimes I agreed and sometimes I didn't agree because again, nuances. But the only reason I understand that and the only reason

Yeah.

I can do that is because I've been through it. I coach people, I work with business owners. Like I understand all the parts. It's not just the knowledge part. So like you said, without a personal brand in the next, I mean, I think maybe you're being generous saying 10 years. mean, the next three to five years, think you're done because the only thing, the only reason why someone would come and buy from me as opposed to go to AI and get it is because they like.

for it.

Yeah, three to five. Yeah. Yeah.

me and they like how I do it and they like the way I teach it and they like my understanding of them and I think we're going to see a lot more in the online space of higher touch. Now a lot of my stuff is high touch. I do very little that's low touch and because it's high touch there's a high price point to it but because I like to get to know the person I'm dealing with I don't like personally

I would struggle if it was a faceless business, if I couldn't understand who was buying these things and what they were doing. so, but I do think we're going to see that more because I think the lower touch stuff is the stuff that we can get from AI super, super easy. So we need our credibility to be up there for lots of reasons. We need it to be up there so that we have the audience. We need it to be up there so that when we do charge a good amount of money for higher touch stuff that people are willing to pay for it because of the credibility that you have.

Mm.

Yeah, for sure. It's, it's all about building credibility and having that trust. And also for people to know that the content that you're putting out there isn't just regurgitated from AI. You haven't just pulled it. Like you say, you could go and create a course about fixing bikes, but then someone comes and talks to you. They're going to very clearly know that you know nothing about bikes.

Yeah.

Yes.

Like literally, what are you, you don't even own a bike. What do you know? Like literally. And unfortunately there are people

out there trying to do that, right?

I know and

give advice on that as well. going back to what you said earlier around like not really resonating with like the content that's been AI generated. have the same challenge where it's people sharing information around something that they, have no level of experience or, or interest or anything in. It's just like, let me make money. And my whole methodology is about like, if you build a business that's not in alignment with who you are and

Yeah.

the way that you want to live and the way that you want to show up in the world. You are that bit business is very short lived. That business is going to last five minutes rather than create you something that could be built into something really great in the future. Obviously no business is built overnight, but some people, because we live in such a fast paced overnight success desire, real world, and we can get Amazon orders on our doorstep within two hours. It's everyone wants that quick win. And the reality is.

100%.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, we can build something really quickly with AI, but it's going to leave you just as quickly. It might make you a little bit of money in the short term, but over a long period of time, it's really not going to be sustainable, particularly in this world that we're saying is coming. Well, it's here, essentially.

And running a business is no small feat, right? It's hard. Now don't get me wrong, are, you know, I adore it. I could never, ever, ever go back to getting a job ever. I love having my own business and I have lots of lovely advantages to doing, having my own business. However,

No.

It is really tough at times. And if you aren't aligned, if you don't love what you do, like if I was trying to slog my guts off to sell courses on how to fix a bike and I don't even own one, like I am going to give up on that really quickly. So the people who I tend to work with, and I think you're really similar are super good at what they do. They love what they do. They have a real passion for it and they just want to serve more people. And

That's what I'm all right with. That's what I'm like, great, let's go and build a big business then, because you are gonna, you're gonna be happy to do the legwork. You're going to be happy to, you know, put the effort in to go through the hard times, because there are gonna be hard times. Whereas if you're not building those foundations, if you haven't built that personal brand, like I said, the first bump in the road, your business is gonna fall to pieces.

It is, it's a hard truth, but it's the truth. And I think a lot of people struggle when it comes to building a personal brand out of various different reasons. One, it's quite overwhelming to have to create a level of content, put yourself out there, putting yourself into a position of vulnerability and fear, essentially, like fear of how you're going to be perceived. And I think one thing that's always on the back of my mind is cancel culture, because we do live in a world where

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

cancel culture unfortunately is a thing, particularly with UK media, would say. I haven't seen it so much with like other media outlets that I've seen throughout the world, but the UK specifically seems to be really focused on cancel culture, calling people out if they think that they're even slightly wrong. How would you recommend someone to get over that fear?

of not necessarily cancel culture, but any fears that are coming up or the overwhelm of creating all the content and putting yourself out there because it is scary. What should someone do if they're in that position right now where they know they need to the personal brand, but these thoughts are holding them back?

Yeah.

Yeah, and it's such a good point. And I think generally in the UK, we are more like that as well. Like, we are more, we don't celebrate people, we don't, you know, cheer them on and go, look at what amazing things they're doing. We'd rather take them down. And that is just awful. And I do a lot of stuff in the States and it's not like that there. Like it's not nowhere near as bad as it is here. So I think it is particularly bad in the UK. And I think the fear is

Yeah. Yeah.

No, it's not.

a reasonable fear, right? Like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we are meant to be part of the pack, right? We're not meant to put our head above the pack and step out from it because that's not the safe zone, right? Back in the stone age or whatever it was where we were having to keep our lives going, we had to be part of the pack. So it is inherently built into us to not stick our head above the parapet, okay? So first off, we need to understand that, that there is nothing wrong with you if you are nervous.

or have a fear, even whether it's a conscious fear or not, it is perfectly understandable. There is a concern about what if I say something or do something that gets me cancelled because that would be an absolute horrendous disaster. I am, I joke that I am Switzerland where I basically don't get involved in anything. Now that in itself will upset people, right? The fact that I don't comment on

Yeah.

religion, wars, race, whatever the hot topic is at the time. Right. And my thing is I, what I do in my personal life and what I support, what I pay money to, what I, you know, rally against or whatever it is I keep in my personal life to do my job.

I don't need to talk about that publicly. And like I said, there will be some people that are very put off by that and will not want to be in my world because of it. And that's okay. That's fine. But I think the problem comes is you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, right? So if you do say something, someone's going to have an issue with what you've just said. And if you don't say something, someone's going to have an issue with what you didn't say. And I saw something the other day where it's like silence is complicit, you know, da, da, But...

Again, my thought is there is so much going on in the world, right? The world is a pretty crazy place. We are trying to deal with our own stuff. No one knows what anyone's dealing with, right? No one knows what is happening personally. And I saw this great analogy that's like your energy and your time are like marbles in a jar, right? And you can basically go, right, I've got...

20 marbles for work, I've got 20 marbles for personal life, I've got another 10 marbles to deal with this issue that's going on. Like when your marbles are gone, they're gone, right? We haven't got any more energy left. So just because someone isn't fighting the particular cause that someone is particularly passionate about, and there are millions of them, obviously, doesn't mean they're not interested or doesn't mean that they're actually against what you're saying. It just means that maybe they haven't got the energy

with what's happening in their own world. Maybe they're doing the best that they can possibly do for them at that point. And we've got to believe that. And then the other thing that I'm really passionate about, especially with like this council culture is we are so nuanced, right? People are so nuanced. We all have very different experiences with different understandings of things, with different upbringings. You and I had a whole conversation at the beginning before we hit record about travel and, you know, being surrounded by certain people and how if they're not doing something, they might not...

make you think to do it. Well, that is the truth for everybody and everything, right? So it's so easy for someone at an extreme, and it normally is the people at the extremes, to point a finger and go, you're not doing this or you did this or you did that, but they don't understand that, like, there's so much gray area. And the other thing is like, there's been lots of things where people have been pretty heinous and some people are just heinous, right? Some people are just horrible.

But sometimes there's a reason for that. And sometimes they have their own personal lived experience that means they have an opinion about something, which is their own thing. And that's right for them. So I just think for me, when it comes to anything that's slightly controversial, I'm not getting involved. I'm not commenting. I'm not, it's not going to benefit me. It's not going to benefit my business. I'm not going to make a difference. And I know that some people would be like by staying in silence that da, da, da, da.

What I do in my own personal world will make the differences that I need it to make. What I do in my business is I show up as a really good person doing what I do. And that's the other thing. I think if we're worried about it, we're probably not the people who should be. The people who are getting canceled are probably not thinking twice about what they're saying. Whereas I think when you, it's good to have a bit of fear. It's good to be a little habit.

Yeah.

healthy level of fear of like, okay, I'm just going to make sure I don't say anything really stupid. I think that's good. But I know I've interviewed some people who are very, you know, happy to be very controversial and it's made them money because for every one person that hated them, there was another few people that loved their opinion. So again, like it is scary putting yourself out there.

There is a worry what if people don't like me? Well, they might not like you. And if they don't, they're not your people. And I know that's hard, but that's okay. If you're thinking about something and the fear of, don't want to get canceled or I don't want to say something stupid, then the chances are you're probably not going to anyway. And I just try and be a good person. And hopefully that comes through. Cause I think if we are a good person, I think most of us are good people then.

We're not going to say anything that's really going to get us cancelled.

No, we're very similar. I am also very Switzerland and not because I don't always have an opinion. I do have quite a lot of opinions, but I don't always feel the need or necessity to share it. If it's not, I think there's so much noise in the world. There's so many things. And as you said, we've also only got so many marbles and so much energy. If it's not, I have to protect myself at the end of the day. I have to protect my energy. If I don't have the energy to show up for my business because it's being depleted because I'm

No. Yeah.

Yeah.

100%.

part of XYZ conversation and that sucking all the energy, that's not productive for me. That's not productive. So I think it's really about like picking and choosing what's worth speaking up about for yourself, not because anybody else wants you to speak up about it. If you've got something to say, share it in the way that you feel like you need to share it, but at what cost to you. And I think for me, every decision that I make now, and this has taken me a long time to learn because I didn't have boundaries for a very long time in my life.

Yeah.

And over the past five years, I've really worked very hard on protecting my own energy, probably in some cases, way too far to the extreme. But at the end of the day, I'm an empath. I feel absolutely everything anybody else is feeling. So I absorb everybody else's crap sometimes. And that makes me feel crap. And I don't want that. And I've learned that about myself. So now I have measures in place to prevent that. So I'm very much...

Yeah.

Me too. Yeah.

with you in the sense of like, we don't need to add to the noise sometimes. Sometimes it's okay to sit, observe, have your own internal opinions. Not everybody needs to put everything out on the internet. There's gonna be enough people that say their piece to make movements and you can make movements in your own way.

Yeah, just because we don't

share it on Instagram doesn't mean we're not doing it. And I think that's the other thing that's really irritating is like, you know, people make assumptions because they think they know people because of what they're putting on the internet. And I think often people, and I bet you get this too, because we do share a lot and we're posting content and we talk and we do all these things, people think they know you, right? They think that you are, I've been told I'm, you know, she's an oversharer. No, no, no.

Exactly.

Yeah. No.

No.

I share a lot, but I'm very careful about what I share. And there are certain things that people wouldn't know about me, wouldn't know I was going through, wouldn't know anything because I just don't, it's not, I don't need to share it. So again, that's what's so frustrating when it comes to kind of the cancer culture and you know, these big important world events that people need to support just because I'm not doing it on my Instagram doesn't mean I'm not doing it somewhere else, but people will make an assumption.

Yeah.

No.

rightly or wrongly, that because they haven't seen me do a post on social media, I'm obviously not all over that. And I think that's the, for me, if we could all just be a bit kinder to each other and all just go, I think Brene Brown, I think it wasn't her who said it, I think it was her therapist who said it to her, that everyone's doing the best they can with the tools they've got. And I think if we can believe that, then, you know, yeah, there are horrible people in this world, but everyone is genuinely trying to do the best they can with what

tools they have available to them. And some people who have done a lot of work like me have got lots of tools and other people have not got so many tools, but you know, it's just different lives, isn't it?

Yeah, everyone's got different, everyone's always going to have an opinion on anything, but I guess you've just got to, if you really believe in the way that you're putting yourself out in the internet is your true, authentic, vulnerable self. And that's all you can really do. If somebody doesn't like that, that's on them. It's not a reflection on you. You just have to put yourself out there and it gets going to get to a point if you're big enough that there's going to come with some level of hate. That's always the way, like there's no getting around that.

Yeah.

then go for it.

I fortunately haven't really experienced that so heavily at the moment I'm at in my career just yet, but I can see that that will happen at some point. And I have mentally prepared. And as you just mentioned about tools, I've got enough tools to regulate myself and know that that won't impact me where I'm sitting in my bedroom crying for days, if and when that does happen, right? But I know that not everybody has those tools. So it is really about like just making sure that if you show up as your true self on the internet and build your personal brand from that.

and

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

place of authenticity, you've done your part, you can't control the reaction, you can only control the way that you're presenting yourself. So if you feel that you're presenting yourself in the right way, that's the way that it needs to go. And don't worry about the external noise that potentially might come with that because it's just not even worth worrying about somebody else's problem, essentially.

on the consent.

Yeah,

I love it. I love it. And you're so right. It's not about you. It's about them. The stuff that gets us triggered, the stuff that makes us mad. I've never been mad enough to want to go and put stuff on the internet, which, you know, again, I think there's some healthy ways of dealing with things. But if someone is saying something about you, it says way more about them than it does about you. And honestly, I mean, I've I've had a few little bits, but nothing major.

But like, it's just, yeah, delete, block, see you later, bye. Like, not interested. Yeah, got better things to do. I mean, I'm, you know, we're coming into, it's April now, I'm coming into growing season. I grow vegetables. I'd much rather be tending to my vegetables than worrying about some troll on the internet, quite honestly.

Adios, ciao. Yes. Exactly.

Exactly. exactly

worry about your actual problems and things that you want to focus your energy and attention on. And I feel like we know that in the next, as we said, three to five years, big, big shifts are going to be happening even probably even sooner. If we're really honest, the rate that AI is developing at is probably going to come way sooner than we think it's going to come.

And we know that we need to start building a personal brand right now if we want our business to still remain and be successful in the future. So for somebody that's starting that online business right now, What do they need to know today about building a personal brand to make sure that their business is still relevant in the next three to five years?

So I think if you are starting today, I would start really simply and I would start by creating content. Now it's not ideal, like it's not gonna do massive things for you overnight. Like it's not some of the best things you do, but I would get really clear what do I wanna be known for? Who am I? What are my values? Get some of those base things really clear. And then what I'd say is,

start posting on social media, start creating content, long-film content if you can, YouTube, podcasts, blogs, whatever is your thing. And then start small because people want to be on the big stages doing the big things, but don't do them straight away. Because even if you did get an opportunity, if you mess it up, you've lost your opportunity to go in. So hone your skill, do some smaller stuff.

Put yourself forward to friends that you know, can I come and do a session in someone's group or can I, you know, come and talk to these five people about this thing and start building it and then, but you've got to be proactive. So every single week we are looking at where can I apply to speak? Like what are the big stages I need to get on? Who do I need to have connections with? So yeah, I think it's make sure that your personal branding activities are part of your normal marketing.

Yeah, I love that. is super important and it's definitely not one to be ignored. And ultimately, you building your own personal brand has enabled you to build a multi-six figure business, have all of these keynote speaking opportunities and have freedom, essentially. So I would love to know, just so we close the conversation, this is always a question I like to ask, I'm one nosy and two, I think it's inspiring to hear other people's stories of creating themselves freedom. But what does freedom mean and look like for you today?

So, and I'm really glad you used the word today because we have seasons of our life and as the seasons change, it means different things. So when I first started the business, my season was I was a single mom to a four year old and I needed to pay the bills. Like I had to pay my mortgage. So freedom would have looked very different to what freedom looks like today. Freedom today looks like I get to do something I flip in a door doing. Like I think there's a lot to be said for that, that I love.

my business and I love showing up. I love being at my desk in my office. Like it's ridiculous, but I do. it looks like the ability to travel. So my husband now works a full-time corporate job and has X amount of holidays per year and it sucks, man really sucks. So like, obviously I can work from anywhere, which is awesome. Like, you know, I don't have to ask someone to have time off. and it looks like the.

money to bring me the life I want, which I think is really important because it's not about being super rich or earning tons and tons and tons of money. I know my life is I travel and I garden and like, I want a nice, slow, simple life. And I don't want to work every hour that I have to do that. So it's about it giving me that balance. So

know, if I was just in it for the money, I'd be working myself into the ground, but I'm not, I'm in it for the life it can give me. So yeah, that's what freedom means to me.

Beautiful. I love that. That's such a good explanation of what freedom means to you today. And you're completely right. It changes depending on our season of life, depending on our season of business. And it should change. It shouldn't always stay the same because that normally means that you're quite a stagnant and you're not growing. So I love that you mentioned that piece as well. And for anybody that wants to connect to you after this conversation today, how can they find you?

Yeah.

Yeah. Nice.

You can search Theresa Heath wearing and you'll find me I'm on Instagram most, although I'm pretty rubbish on all social media. I really don't like doing social media at the moment. I'm going through that season. And then if you love listening to podcasts, you can head to YouTube and search for Theresa Heath wearing or go to wherever you listen to this podcast for your dream business. And you can hear me over there.

I really feel like the conversation we had today with Theresa is one of those conversations that is super relevant and people need to hear it right now because the online space is changing very, very quickly and it's going to be changing even more in the next few years and it's going to be really easy to get caught up in creating more content, more offers, more noise because you're going to start seeing things shift and you're going to want to try and keep up. But you need to ask yourself before you go and do any of that, why would someone choose you?

Why is someone gonna come to you over the competition? And that is really what building a personal brand comes down to. And personal brand shouldn't be optional anymore when you're starting an online business, particularly if you are a service business owner. This is the thing that's gonna build trust. This is the thing that's gonna create connection with your audience. And this is the thing that's going to keep your business relevant in the next few years.

and make you money. So if you're listening to this and thinking, okay, I get it. I don't really know where to start my online business right now, because is it going to exist in this world of AI? You're telling me I can't sell my knowledge anymore. I have to sell my personal brand. How do I do that? And you know, you want to start something of your own. You're just not entirely sure what that online business looks like just yet, especially in this new landscape. That's exactly why I created my signature program, the Freedom Business Foundations.

because this isn't just about starting an online business for the sake of it. It's about building a business that actually works for you and aligns with your lifestyle and your values and the level of freedom that you actually want. Inside the program, I'm gonna help you figure out what that business should actually look like, how to position yourself and create yourself a really unique selling point that you can go and start talking about to build your personal brand that feels authentic and not forced

And we are building you a business set up with really stable solid foundations to last you for years to come. I'll pop the link in the show notes and you can go and check that out. If you are starting a business right now, I'd really recommend this is where you begin. if you enjoyed today's episode, please remember to like and subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. And I will catch you in the next one.