When it comes to learning about leadership, I have a ritual of reading a specific book every December, Ashish Tulsian introduced me to this book in 2019, & since then it’s been a year-end ritual
Most people think “personal brand” is shouting loudly on the internet, its opposite of that
Brutal truths about leadership & personal branding from Trillion Dollar Coach, simplified for founders, content creators & leaders:
1) Your title makes you a manager: How your people talk about you when you’re not in the room makes you a leader
2) Authenticity is a strategy: Bring your full self to work:values, quirks, flaws, people follow the real you
3) Humility > authority: Respect isn’t a line in your bio; it’s how you show up when you could easily pull rank but you don’t
4) Care is real USP: Ask about families, health, struggles, people never forget leaders who genuinely care
5) Truth beats comfort: The leaders people trust most are the ones who tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear
6) Listening is a power move: Undivided attention is rare, makes people feel heard & they will remember you for life
7) Love + hard feedback: Great leaders hug with one arm & hold a mirror with the other. High challenge, high care
8) Protect the “trust envelope”: Do what you say. Keep confidences, one leak can destroy a decade of brand-building
9) Be a confidence amplifier: See potential people can’t see in themselves, lend them your belief until they build their own
10) Service over status: If you need the spotlight, you’ll lose the room, if you grow others, your reputation compounds
11) Treat everyone the same: Board member or barista, your brand is how you treat the person who can’t “do” anything for you
12) Show your scars: Admitting “I don’t know” or “I was wrong” makes people trust you more, not less
13) Feedback in real-time: Praise in public, correction in private, as close to the moment as possible, clarity is kindness
14) Kill ego politics early: Don’t tolerate drama, silos or “I, me, mine” behaviour, protect the mission ruthlessly
15) Build psychological safety: When people feel safe to speak up, they give you their best ideas not their safest ones
16) Use 1:1s for humans, not just OKRs: Start with life, then move to work, relationships first, dashboards later
17) Be aggressively generous: Time, intros, credit, opportunities, the market remembers givers more than takers
18) Crisis reveals true brand: Everyone watches how you behave when things break, that is your leadership identity
19) Only invest in the coachable: Energy is limited, pour it into the people who are hungry to learn, not those defending their ego
20) Live your 1st principles: Values don’t matter when it’s easy, they matter when it’s expensive
Bill never called himself the “Trillion Dollar Coach”
The world did, the best leaders who owned Trillion Dollar Companies did
Your personal brand isn’t what you say about yourself, it’s about what others think of you
