024: Personal Branding, Inspiration and Other Lessons from SXSW



This past month, David and Shane traveled to one of the biggest conferences in the country, SXSW (South by Southwest). They made the trip to Austin, Texas to stay up-to-date with industry trends, meet fellow creators in the digital space, and find ideas and inspiration to implement in their roles back in Atlanta.

On today’s episode of the Executive Minds Podcast, David and Shane are sharing their five key takeaways from the conference.

Welcome to episode 24 of the Executive Minds Podcast.

Links + Resources:

The SXSW Conference
What Happens in Vegas Stays on YouTube by Erik Qualman
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Get Backed: Craft Your Story, Build the Perfect Pitch Deck, and Launch the Venture of Your Dreams by Evan Baehr
Jessica Matthews of Uncharted Play
Imagine Step of the Launch Loop

Three Takeaways:

1. Your personal brand is both your stamp and your shadow.
David and Shane listened to a powerful talk on personal branding while at SXSW. In it, the idea of a brand stamp and a brand shadow was presented. Your brand stamp is what you say about yourself, but your brand shadow is what others say about your brand.

Sometimes brand shadows are really positive. Sometimes brand shadows offer authentic feedback and helpful critiques. The best and most effective brands pay attention to their shadow. They listen to what people are saying, take their feedback into consideration, and engage with those who are commenting.

2. Apps could be gone in 5 years.
Does that sounds dramatic? At first, David and Shane thought so too. But after listening to a compelling talk about how people will use different apps less and less and brands will instead integrate into customer’s social media experience, it made a lot of sense.

Whether or not apps will be around in five years wasn’t the biggest takeaway of that talk though, it was that the world of digital and technology is rapidly changing. A few years ago people laughed at the idea of Amazon using drones to deliver products, but now it’s something that’s happening. If, as either entrepreneurs or intrepreneurs, we aren’t thinking and dreaming about the future, we’re going to end up behind.

3. Good work needs good inspiration.
One of the questions Shane left SXSW asking was: What am I doing to be inspired? At every talk Shane and David attended, their speakers saw a problem and were inspired to create a solution. Because inspiration isn’t tangible, it can be a hard thing to prioritize when your to-do list already feels a mile long, but the books you read, people you meet, podcasts you listen to and trips you take all can fill you with invaluable inspiration.