Andrew and Pete became best friends 15 years ago at uni, and have never held a job beyond running their own business together. How did they quickly build to the point where, in under a decade, they’d spoken on huge international stages, amassed a community of thousands, and created one of the largest conferences in the UK?

Well, you'll hear it from them, but a huge part of it is sheer gumption. They talk about how they made big asks, swung for the fences, and leveraged other people's kindness in the best possible ways. And of course, the way they received that kindness was by showing up with value first.

We’ll also hear about how they went from highly-paid speaking events and growing their global community to now hosting one of the UK's largest conferences for small businesses, ATOMICON.

(ATOMICON25 has now passed, but you can grab your early-bird ticket NOW for ATOMICON26! Use my affiliate link and I’ll buy you a drink in Newcastle…)

In this episode:

• “...that very first moment where I walked into the kitchen and Andrew is putting away his Crunchy Nut Cornflakes in the cupboard…”
• First business (motivational texts!)
• Branding agency
• “We'd throw chocolate across the room and we'd do little fun presentations and poems and wraps, and we'd do like, you know, some silly things to get attention.”
• From local networking meetings to speaking at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego.
• Big Domino Theory
• “We stalked those 10 people religiously for about two or three weeks..”
• Organizing their first big conference (online)
• “We were just gutsy. We had nothing to lose when we were 24 of putting ourselves out there.”
• Growing the Atomic community
• Focusing on doing one thing really remarkably at a time
• Launching Atomicon…with an expectation of 80 people
• Being really deliberate about putting on the best event possible, and never getting complacent
• Their current growth plan for the foreseeable future
• What lights Andrew up
• What lights Pete up
• What people get out of Atomicon beyond what’s on the tin
• Moving from a personal brand to a brand-brand

Find Andrew and Pete:

ATOMICON26 (affiliate link)

Atomic

Instagram

❤️

Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrand

Subscribe to theLet's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

❤️

Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrand

Subscribe to the Let's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anytime there's an update to Facebook (or even a rumored feature!), thousands hightail it to Mari Smith's profiles to see what she has to say about it.

But how did Mari establish such authority in the world of Meta marketing? How did she build her name professionally to become “the” Facebook guru? Why was Facebook the platform she chose to build her career on?

What did she do before Facebook⏤and what might she do after?

As with all good, aligned personal brands, the same motivating forces have guided Mari throughout her journey. Primary among those forces is her fascination with human relationships.

Relationships got her to the United States to begin with. Relationships enabled her to explore a variety of career paths. Relationships have always been the core of her interest in Facebook; she does love tech, but the thing that has always fascinated her most about Facebook is its power as a connection tool.

But as you'll hear, Mari's also looking more at the impact of social media on mental health, relationships, and society⏤for better and for worse.

This is definitely an interview that you have not heard Mari give before. We delve into her personal story, her varied professional background, and her unfiltered takes on Meta, marketing, and what’s next.

In this episode:

• Leaving Scotland for San Diego (with no money or job)
• Saved by the Cake!
• Bartering for legal help
• “From cakes to lawyers to a mobile disc jockey…”
• SEO Master
• “My love and my tech”
• “Mari, you, you can't be Miss Email Marketing, technology, internet and relationships⏤you gotta pick a lane!”
• Discovering Facebook
• Her first Facebook Marketing for Professionals course
• The power of early Facebook networking (and the DMs!)
• “I just love to teach and to explain!”
• Human Design and 10-year cycles
• “I'm going all in with this.”
• Mike Stelzner and Social Media Marketing World
• Why Mari has remained focus on organic social media
• Facebook vs. other platforms
• Mari’s current career transition
• “Mental wellness, mental health, and specifically, ironically, social media's impact and isolation and loneliness and depression…”
• “I just know how to market!”
• What has driven Mari in all phases of her life and career
• Why people trust her
• The public, the personal, and the private

Find Mari:

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Mari Smith’s Superstars community

❤️

Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrand

Subscribe to the Let's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today I'm talking to a fellow personal branding person (which means so many different things to so many different people!): Sophie Lee, founder of Electric Peach!

Sophie doesn't just want to help people who are interested in making money. She’s putting the powerful brand storytelling tools she’s learned how to leverage over her career into the hands of people who are trying to change the world for the better: mission-driven, impact-driven businesses and female founders with something to say.

(She is also a fellow disco-ball-loving, collaboration-not-competition, sparkly badass; you can see why we get along!) ❤️

One of the themes we discuss over and over in this episode is about what it means to use one's voice. Sophie is all about empowerment of people's voices, specifically people who want to make positive changes in the world, and helping them harness the power of communication to do just that. Hearing Sophie’s journey makes it clear not only that she really knows her stuff, but also that she’s finely honed her personal values, her sense of self, and her own commitment to using these tools for good.

In this episode:

• Teaching English to the Czech government
• Joining the Disney “cult” in Shanghai
• “Journalism” in China
• The UK press’s misery machine
• Accidentally becoming a marketer
• The entrepreneurial bug
• A toxic relationship, and a new business partnership
• Becoming known for UGC (user-generated content)
• Building The Joyful for actual purpose-driven businesses
• Becoming Sophie Lee and Electric Peach
• Communication instead of polarization
• Empowering people to communicate their messages with passion and clarity
• What Sophie shares

Find Sophie:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Electric Peach

❤️

Get Started on Your Personal Brand Journey with a sampling of Christine's Personal Branding Questions here: https://www.gritmon.com/talkaboutmybrand

Subscribe to theLet's Talk About Brand Newsletter that goes out weekly to ensure you don't miss a beat!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.