RTR EP09 - It's all about connections

In this episode of Revenue Through Reputation, Brandon Lee dives deep into why most content strategies fail CEOs and founders—and how the simple act of connection is the secret sauce to lasting growth.

Brandon shares his own experience about the challenges of digital content creation and why many executives still prefer live events and face-to-face networking over “content hustle.” But, as he explains, content done right isn’t about promotion or sales—it’s about connection.

This episode explores how the best leaders use content to build trust and emotional resonance, turning strangers into known and trusted peers before a single sales conversation begins. Brandon reframes content creation as an extension of real-world networking, reminding us that the initial goal isn’t to sell—but to be liked and trusted.

He also busts common myths about social media being too promotional or impersonal, showing how blending personal stories and professional insights creates authentic, memorable content that truly sticks.

You’ll learn why the familiar phrases “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care” still hold more power than ever—and how CEO-led content can help you build that crucial network.

🔹 Content for Connection, Not Promotion 

Leaders must shift their mindset from pushing messages to creating meaningful relationships through content that resonates emotionally.

🔹 Lead With Human Stories

Sharing your lived experiences, challenges, and lessons creates trust and memorable connections—more than just business pitches ever will.

🔹 Consistency Builds Trust

Just like showing up regularly at networking events, showing up consistently online fosters familiarity and credibility.

🔹 Emotional Decisions Drive Business

Buyers make emotional choices first, then justify them logically. Content that triggers emotional resonance wins attention and trust.

🔹 CEO Reputation Opens Doors

When CEOs lead content creation, their reputation accelerates sales, recruiting, and partnership opportunities—because people buy from people they know and trust.

🔹 Be Comfortable with Imperfection

Authenticity doesn’t mean sharing everything or being perfect. It means sharing enough to be relatable and memorable without oversharing or risking your brand.

At its core, reputation isn’t built on the loudest voice or flashiest marketing—it’s built on genuine connections that build trust over time. This episode reminds us all, especially seasoned leaders, that embracing a content strategy rooted in real human connection can accelerate growth, amplify influence, and open doors that cold outreach never will.

If you’re ready to stop shouting into the void and start building meaningful relationships that move the needle, this episode will give you the mindset and motivation to do it.

The Revenue Through Reputation Show
Hosted by Brandon Lee
New episodes every Tuesday at 11 AM ET | LinkedIn & YouTube
Empowering CEOs, founders, and sales leaders to build high-impact digital reputations that drive business growth.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction & Show Context
• 2:43 Content Fears and the Networking Analogy
• 4:43 The Power of Connection Over Promotion
• 7:43 It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who Knows You
• 9:43 The Importance of Caring to Build Trust
• 11:43 Why Interruptive Selling Doesn’t Work
• 13:43 Finding Your Core Content Topics
• 15:43 Sharing Human Stories That Resonate
• 17:43 Emotional Resonance Wins Deals
• 20:13 Building Your CEO Reputation Online
• 22:43 Final Thoughts & Call to Action

Transcript

0:00:00
 (Brandon)
 Hi everybody, I'm Brandon Lee and this is episode 9 of my new show, Revenue Through Reputation and a couple things. One, welcome. Two, this one is pre-recorded. I'm recording this on Saturday morning. You should be watching this on Tuesday around 11 a.m. Eastern. I had a great guest scheduled and I think we just tried too hard. We tried scheduling on Saturday of Memorial weekend to do a pre-recording, it just didn't work out.

0:00:29
 (Brandon)
 But I'm not gonna tell you who he is. Hopefully I can get him back. Great guy, I mean, great human and then amazing experience. Like 12 unicorns he's been a part of. Like that's something amazing, right? So, but I'm not going to tell you, we'll rebook it.

0:00:48
 (Brandon)
 We're going to talk about overcoming life's obstacles. We're going to talk about this whole digital thing around building personal reputation and network. And then we're going to talk a little bit about go-to-marketing. But what I want to talk about today, and I titled this, it's all about connection.

0:01:10
 (Speaker 9)
 And what I want to talk about is content for connection,

0:01:14
 (Speaker 6)
 instead of content for promotion.

0:01:17
 (Brandon)
 Now, I have a question for most of you. If you've been a leader in a company or a founder or a CEO, or you've just been a leader for a while, would you rather create content, or would you rather go to a live event and shake hands and meet people? Most people would much rather go to the live event. I think this whole content thing scares the crap out

0:01:42
 (Brandon)
 of most people. And I believe content scares a lot of people and it confuses a lot of people because we haven't broke down a little bit. Like how are we really supposed to use content the right way?

0:01:57
 (Speaker 8)
 Okay.

0:01:58
 (Brandon)
 I believe there's been so many of these quote gurus and experts and all these people that talked about content for the last 10 to 15 years. I'm gonna go out on a limb and tell this, I think most of them have gotten it wrong. Now, let me caveat that.

0:02:19
 (Brandon)
 What they've done, what they've said has worked for a little bit. There was a minute there that it really worked, but it's not working anymore because it goes against our human nature. And let me unpack this and explain a little bit.

0:02:35
 (Brandon)
 Come with me. Think about this in your own experiences. If you're at a networking event, you're at a cocktail party, you're somewhere where people are hanging out and your target audience is there,

0:02:49
 (Brandon)
 people you want to meet are there. And you walk up and you introduce yourself, do you immediately start talking about your business? The answer, I hope is No We actually don't do that. We may introduce ourselves and say what we do

0:03:13
 (Brandon)
 But most of the time in fact most of us that know how to network and you know Believe in things like how to win friends and influence people. We know things like build rapport, start to get to know each other, ask questions about them, get to know them, make it about them. Why do we do this? Because the first stage of any new relationship

0:03:39
 (Brandon)
 is about connection. We're assessing, and maybe we don't even think about this anymore because it's so natural to us humans, but we're assessing, do I like this person? Is this somebody I'd even wanna talk to further? So that first motion that we do in real life

0:04:01
 (Brandon)
 is trying to assess, do we like them and do we have some sense of trust for them? Do we have some sense of like, like, is it worth it for me? Am I willing to take it to a next level, if you will, and move a conversation into something deeper. And that's usually where it comes something like,

0:04:18
 (Brandon)
 well, what do you do? Because the reality is if when we first meet somebody and we don't really care for them, they rub us the wrong way, we don't like their vibe, they're too aggressive, what do we do? We excuse ourselves and we go to the other side of the room

0:04:36
 (Brandon)
 or we go to the restroom or do something like that. That's human nature. And our content really isn't any different. I believe that when social media first started coming out, we had Facebook was personal and LinkedIn was business. And we put a line down the middle

0:04:58
 (Brandon)
 and we said, the two shall never meet. And there are people out there that say things like,

0:05:04
 (Speaker 7)
 LinkedIn isn't Facebook.

0:05:07
 (Brandon)
 And where I disagree with that is, I have never been to a dinner. I mean, I went to two networking dinners this week. And most of the conversation at those dinners was about life, it was about personal, it was about how fast Atlanta's growing

0:05:26
 (Brandon)
 and what do you like to do? And spoke with one lady and she liked to hike. I'm like, oh, I like to hike. And we talked about some of our favorite hiking places in Atlanta. And then eventually it would get down to work,

0:05:39
 (Brandon)
 but it didn't go there first. So with content being all about connection, if that first motion, that first action that most people are doing is really assessing, if they kind of like you enough and feel like they trust you enough to go to a

0:06:00
 (Brandon)
 deeper conversation, then our content should be following the same pattern. So I call it content for connection instead of what I see is usually content for promotion. And here's, here's how you do it. It's, it's not that hard.

0:06:21
 (Brandon)
 The hardest part is getting out of our comfort zone and getting out of our own

0:06:24
 (Speaker 6)
 head.

0:06:25
 (Brandon)
 But it's when you start to share content of things that you've lived, experiences you've had, things that you've learned or even what are you living now and what are you learning? That content not only does it get engagement and I know that's important, right? Do we get engagement?

0:06:49
 (Brandon)
 Do we get likes? Do we get comments? How many views did we get? And we like those vanity metrics. And I don't want to put those down because those are important. But really the whole content strategy, the foundation of the strategy should be, are the right people getting to

0:07:07
 (Brandon)
 know you? Are you getting to be known by more people? And are you knowing more people? Because I'm a big believer in two big statements that we tend to use and we throw around in life, but I think they're really, really important. And one of them is, it's not what you know, but who you know. And I would add, and who knows you, right? That's about the reputation part.

0:07:37
 (Brandon)
 See, opportunities a lot of times don't come from what you know, but they come from who you know. I've had conversations over the last few weeks where I got introduced to somebody. they come from what you know but they come from who you know. I've had conversations over the last few weeks where I got

0:07:49
 (Brandon)
 introduced to somebody. So it was somebody I knew and knew me who introduced me to somebody said, hey, we're bringing this new opportunity technology and offering into the residential

0:08:03
 (Brandon)
 real estate space in the United States from the UK. And I got introduced because I built a couple of companies selling services to residential realtors and commercial realtors throughout the United States and had a background with tech. So I was kind of the perfect fit for this,

0:08:23
 (Brandon)
 but nobody would have known that I was a good fit for them for fractional type of work, unless we had this mutual friend who knew me. So it just supports like most opportunities come from not what we know, but who we know. And the second phrase that I think is just so, so important

0:08:47
 (Brandon)
 and we forget, but it's people don't care what you know until they know that you care. And I think that statement can be kind of an overarching explanation of when we meet people for the first time in any sort of event, that that first bit we're going like, can I trust this person? Does this person care? Are they a jerk?

0:09:11
 (Brandon)
 Is this person a douche bag? Do I want to get run away from them as quick as I can and not talk to them? Or is this somebody I actually want to go further with? I, I've had this story. I was at a networking event. It was just a few months before COVID. And it was kind of your typical, it was in a restaurant. Everybody had drink in their hand.

0:09:32
 (Brandon)
 There were about five of us standing in a circle, chit chatting, right? That early phase of getting to know each other. And this woman came over and I hadn't seen her before. And I just remember she was kind of short because she she kind of parted me and another person and said, oh, excuse me, because I don't mean to interrupt. That's exactly what you meant to do.

0:09:55
 (Brandon)
 Own it. But whatever. I don't mean to interrupt. But and she had a stack of her business cards in her hand, and she started telling everybody who she is, the company she works for, and what she does while circling, like right in the middle of our circle. And then she put a card in everybody's hand and said, okay, well, when you think of da-da-da

0:10:22
 (Brandon)
 industry, think of me, and I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. And she backed out and left. Do you think that worked? Do you think that we're all like, Oh my gosh, I want to go do business with her. No. In fact, there was one person in the group, total smartass. And I put my hand in with her card. I said, trash can In fact, there was one person in the group, a total smart ass, and I put my hand in with her card, and I said, trash can?

0:10:48
 (Brandon)
 And everybody threw her card in my hand, and I crumpled them up and threw it away, and we went back to doing our getting to know each other the proper way. Content for promotion is about sharing your experiences. And I know there's, Oh, be authentic and be transparent.

0:11:11
 (Brandon)
 And I think those words scare the crap out of people. And I think they should at least make you cautious because there's a lot of influencers out there that will say, Oh, authentic. You have to, you know, if that's not your style, that's not your style. Don't do it. But here's, here's what I recommend. Here's, here's kind of the, the methodology.

0:11:33
 (Brandon)
 We want to find three topics that are pretty consistent throughout your career and your

0:11:41
 (Speaker 5)
 life

0:11:44
 (Brandon)
 that you've learned a lot, you've experienced a lot. And make those your core content because you get to talk about what have you lived and what have you learned, what are you living, what are you learning. And here's the important part, so stick with me on this one. When we share that type of content, not only is it naturally authentic, but human hearts remember us. They remember us for our human stories way more than they'll ever remember us for our business stories.

0:12:26
 (Brandon)
 Does that make sense? I mean, think about some of the, just take a break and pause this if you want, and think about who are some of the online people that you remember, that you think about, or that you were excited to watch their following content, you know, content that was coming later. What was the topic that caught your attention

0:12:53
 (Brandon)
 and helped you remember them? Unless you had a really big need in business and they happened to talk about it at the right time and caught your subconscious and your conscious attention and go, I need that. Their business content goes, comes and goes like the wind, like just keep on going.

0:13:17
 (Brandon)
 But when people are sharing that lived experience and learned experience, especially when you're a leader of a company. Now, look, I got imposter syndrome. We most of us have imposter syndrome. We think, oh, what we've done is really not that big of a deal. And, you know, this isn't a brag moment. Hold on one second. I'm recording, but you know what? Neighbors mowing his lawn on a Saturday morning and I had my window up because it was a beautiful

0:13:50
 (Brandon)
 morning and I wanted fresh air and sunshine, but not mower sound. We all have imposter syndrome because there's always somebody out there that's done more, done bigger, done better. And I get all that, but if you can get, if we can get comfortable with sharing some of the experiences that we've experienced

0:14:21
 (Brandon)
 and the things we've overcome or the challenges we faced or the goals that we went after. Doesn't even matter if we achieved the pinnacle. More people are gonna remember us because of those human stories than they ever will about our business stories. Now, I know some of you are like, well, I, that,

0:14:47
 (Brandon)
 that sounds like Facebook sounds like Tik TOK. The way that we use this in business, just like people that are really good at networking, they talk about, they ask questions, they get to know people, they share funny stories. Maybe they tell jokes. And when people start to feel like they know questions, they get to know people, they share funny stories, maybe they tell jokes. And when people start to feel like they know them,

0:15:08
 (Brandon)
 then they'll bring the business element into it, or they'll just get to know people and then follow up a few days later and say, you know, we had such a great time the other day. Hey, I've been meaning to ask you, I've been thinking about this

0:15:21
 (Brandon)
 and bring the business portion into it. What we can do, and this is the strategy, and this is how we help customers at Fist Bump, and anyone can do it. So you get those two to three, really, areas of your life where you've lived a lot and learned a lot.

0:15:42
 (Brandon)
 And then you bring those into business environment. So here's an example. I think I've shared this before. If you've heard it before, I'm sorry. But I've got another story I'll tell. And this was a friend that I was helping several years ago.

0:16:02
 (Brandon)
 Sales tech, very competitive space, was trying and trying and trying to get this individual's attention because it was a good prospect, named account. And as I was working with him on like, hey, we bring in our lived and learned experiences into us.

0:16:23
 (Brandon)
 He did a post and told a story about how he was training for this specific bike ride, like, you know, one of those bucket list things that he wanted to do and ride a bike to some peak in France. And then he got sick and he didn't know if he was going to make it, but he is able to get out of the hospital and get back and he finished it.

0:16:49
 (Brandon)
 And he had a picture of him with this bike over his head at the top of this peak in France in the picture. And he was telling his story of overcoming. And guess who happened to be a cyclist also? And saw the picture, read the personal human story, and commented on it because they had this mutual bond with cycling.

0:17:18
 (Brandon)
 It was his hot prospect. Now I get it, I know some of you are gonna say, oh, that was lucky. Yeah, part of it's lucky, but you know what? The more we do the work, and the more consistent we do the work,

0:17:29
 (Brandon)
 the luckier we get, right? The harder I work, the luckier I get. There's another expression that we need to take serious. That is how we bring in, what have we done in life? What have we lived in what have we done in life? What have we lived and what have we learned? And how do we bring that into content?

0:17:51
 (Brandon)
 And then, you know, just add a little touch of business because our humans, we remember the emotional, it's called emotional resonance. Can they resonate with us emotionally? They will remember us. They will remember us emotionally? They will remember us. They will remember us here. They will remember us here. But if we just always lead with business,

0:18:12
 (Brandon)
 man, it's like, it's a message. It's in the wind. Do you like that? It's just a message in the wind, especially now when there's so many messages coming at us. There's, you know, the, the cold calls, the cold emails and, and pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch and sell, sell, sell sales. We have to have the courage to be different. So I want to wrap it up with this. It's we need to create content for connection, for emotional resonance,

0:18:43
 (Brandon)
 emotional connection, so that resonance, emotional connection, so that we're actually remembered. We stand out in this massive noise. And of course it doesn't mean we live, leave business off on the side and never talk about it. Just like at an event, that's always the goal.

0:19:03
 (Brandon)
 We're all in this to make money. But we we we do business with those who we know like and trust and that really hasn't changed even in the say I world. You know, I think about I got it right here. Matt Dixon was on my other show. And we talked about the jolt effect. And we guys don't know Matt Dixon was the coauthor of the challenger sale before he did the jolt effect.

0:19:29
 (Brandon)
 And one of the big things I remember from the jolt effect was they did the study, they did the data and it was like 70, God, what was the number now? It's about 70% of the time humans do not make the most logical or the best buying decision. They make an emotional decision and then they support it with facts because we ultimately lead with our emotions. And let me play let me play this out. If, if you got two companies, company a, you know,

0:20:07
 (Brandon)
 maybe they're a little bit less expensive, but company B the buyers have a good report. Like they feel like they trust them more. They have a better rapport. And maybe they're missing a couple of features that this one has. It's the,

0:20:23
 (Speaker 4)
 you know,

0:20:24
 (Brandon)
 company a is actually the more the best decision or the more logical decision, but they'll go with company B because they felt better about that decision. And yeah, they had some logic and facts to be able to support it, but it was really emotionally led to create the justification for that decision. So what I hope you get today is I think we've gotten it wrong for the last 10 years. Content to promote and promote and promote. We've been in business a long time. We know it's not about promotion.

0:21:13
 (Brandon)
 It'll always be about connections first that will always dominate anything else. And yet for so long, we've hid behind content of being about our business, about our service, about our this, about our that. And just go and build relationships with people and you can accelerate the face to face with your content. I'm going to end with one last story.

0:21:35
 (Brandon)
 I was at a dinner networking event. Uh, this is probably about a year ago. Um, there's about 12 people invited. There's probably five or six of us there we're sitting in a room. Somebody walks in the room who I had not met before he walks in the room and there's again five or six of a sitting there and he walks in and he kind of scans the room and he looks knew me and he came over and introduced himself. We had a cocktail together. We talked for a while.

0:22:09
 (Brandon)
 I got to know him, got to know more about his family, about his business. And then I saw him the other night and he's like, I'm almost ready for you. My point of that is that with our content our reputation goes before us. We can leverage content when we do it the right way for our reputation to go before us. And I end with, it's not what you know, it's who you know. And people don't care what you know until they know that you care.

0:22:45
 (Brandon)
 And I know that it's easy to kind of take things like that and turn them into just trite expressions, but, and I think they become universal expressions because they're true. So, hey, thanks for joining me today on this pre-recorded session and all that went with it. I am Brandon Lee. I'm the founder of Fist Bump. I'm the host of Revenue Through Reputation. And by the way,

0:23:11
 (Brandon)
 I think I'm gonna change my show name here pretty soon because everything I talk about, it's about how do we create content that emotionally resonates with our network so they remember us? Because that's the most important thing first.

0:23:26
 (Brandon)
 If they don't remember us, it doesn't matter how good our message, our product, our service is, if they don't remember us. So that might be coming up too, if you have any suggestions.

0:23:36
 (Brandon)
 So, all right, everybody, I hope those in the US, I hope you had a wonderful Memorial weekend and took some time to actually remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country and for our freedoms. And of course, I know it's also a big time for grilling and barbecues with our family.

0:23:58
 (Brandon)
 I hope you had some really good family time and I will see you next week on Revenue Through Reputation.

0:24:04
 (Speaker 3)
 Thanks for joining me today. Thanks for joining me today.

0:24:05
 (Speaker 2)
 Bye bye.