There are two types of personal brands on the internet.

‘A’ and ‘B’.

When ‘A’ speaks, the audience goes silent.

*cricket noise*

Because no one cares enough to read it.

When ‘B’ writes something on the internet, he shakes the world.

People comment on their views on it. They repost it. They share it with their friends and colleagues.

There are many ‘A’s’ around us.

There’s no shame in admitting that 99.9% of people are, in fact, ‘A’s‘.

Guess who is ‘B’, then?

In other words, who has a personal brand strong enough to influence everyone just through the power of his words?

I'll tell you.

He is Scott Galloway.

Currently, a marketing professor at NYU.

If you don’t know his backstory, you have missed out on a lot. 

Founder of 9 businesses (sold one for $134 million),

3x bestselling author.

And host of The Prof G Pod (ranked #6 globally in business podcasts).

Arguably, one of the most valuable personal brands in the world.

Now, there’s a question that I know you have asked at least once (or twice, or a thousand times) in your life.

Why some brands are so influential that their audience is ready to die for them?

Well,

Scott has a theory to explain this.

He calls it ‘The Third Brain’.

Third Brain? Sounds like a disease. But it’s not.

The third brain is the part of our brain that operates under our primal desires.

Stuff that we are evolutionarily designed to crave.

Scott uses the third brain metaphor to describe the branding process of successful business empires like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.

“The difference between a moderately successful brand and an extremely successful one is if it can successfully leverage its audience’s emotions by mastering their biology.”

Biology?

How do you even master biology?

Well, the ultra-successful marketers and personal brands target what Scott calls their audience’s ‘irrational organs’.

• The lust for consumption → Amazon.

• The desire for sex and procreation → Facebook.

• The need for global connection → Google.

These brands can influence our behaviors and decisions by appealing to our primal desires.

If you look at it,

• Rolex makes watches.

• Louis Vuitton makes handbags.

• Nike makes sneakers.

And that’s all.

They make some products in exchange for money, just like others.

Yet, we act like buying from these brands steps up our game.

Gives us a social currency.

Some even define success in terms of owning these products.

Why?

Because even though we like to call ourselves rational creatures,

We really aren’t.

While we may think that we are influenced by logic, price, and utility.

In reality, we are just some slaves of what Scott calls ‘our third brain’, or our primal desires.

How can you do it for yourself?

Here’s a 3-step framework to attract Scott Galloway's level of influence by leveraging Third Brain:

Step 1: Crafting Gut-Hitting Stories

Mission:

Create genuine, relatable stories that emotionally engage your audience.

Actions:

• Identify Key Emotions: Determine the primary emotions you want to hit. (e.g., pity, trust, empathy, inspiration).

  Take the emotions that align with your brand values and resonate with your audience.

• Collect Personal Stories: Gather personal experiences that reflect these emotions.

  These stories can be yours, someone you know, or a famed celebrity.

• Give a robust structure: We have already posted a newsletter on this. Read here.

  Craft compelling narratives using a classic storytelling structure (We also covered this in a previous edition).

  Remember, it’s not the story that steals people’s hearts. It’s the storyteller.

Step 2: Integrating Emotional Triggers

Mission:

Embed emotional triggers within your stories to multiply the impact.

Actions:

• Attack the senses: Add clear descriptions and sensory details to immerse your audience in the story.

  Don’t just say it was December.
  Describe how the weather was so chilly that you trembled even after wearing a leather jacket.

  Stuff like this matters!

• Highlight Relatable Struggles: Emphasize struggles and conflicts your audience can relate to.

  This is the biggest skill.

  It will build empathy and make your audience feel understood.

• Create Moments of Triumph: Showcase a moment of victory or a win where the main character overcomes a huge obstacle.

  The goal is to give inspiration and satisfaction to the reader.

Step 3: Engaging Through Consistent Narrative Themes

Mission:

Remember, you’re not telling stories to entertain.

You are there to maintain a consistent narrative theme that reinforces your brand’s emotional connection with the audience.

Actions:

• The game's name is alignment: Identify core themes that align with your brand (e.g., resilience, innovation, community).

  Consistently weave these themes into your stories.

• Interactive Storytelling: polls, questions, or calls to action.

  Anything that turns your one-way conversation into a two-way.

  Involve your audience in the storytelling process.

  Encourage them to share their own stories and experiences.

• Analyze and Adapt:

  Finally, you should monitor the emotional responses to your stories through engagement metrics and feedback. 

  Adjust your narratives based on what resonates most with your audience.

I firmly believe that reverse engineering the top leaders of the industry can create magic for your personal branding journey.

And that’s what I promise to bring to your life. Magic.

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Let’s meet next Thursday.

Your Big Brand Theory,