David Knight: How to Build Your Personal Brand & Image with Intention?

Building your own personal brand from the ground up is no piece of cake. A rock-solid personal brand isn’t something that you can build overnight.

Not only will it take years to put your best foot forward but you’ll have to spend your valuable time and efforts on it.

And while you’re trying to build your personal brand, some critical questions you need to consider are:

How are you showing up in the world?
What messages and signals are you firing off?
Are they good or bad?

And these are the questions that our expert guest David McKnight can answer.

For more than 20 years now, David has helped many entrepreneurs, as well as executives, develop their personal brands as well as their image.

More about David:

David, the founder of McKnight Image Lab, has been helping high-achievers leverage their personal brand and professional image, allowing them to get higher salaries as well better opportunities.

With over two decades of experience as an image consultant, some of the top executives David has worked with include the executives from American Express, Goldman Sachs, and PwC.

Interesting Key Points from Discussion Between Adam & David:

David shares his background and experience in the branding space.
David explains what personal branding and a personal brand means to him.
David shares his insights on why professionals should prioritize their personal branding efforts – how can it help them grow their business?
What does a luxury brand mean in David’s opinion?
Adam asks David what are the kind of clients he works with?
David shares his six-step personal branding framework
David shares his thought on alignment between personal brand and company brand. Are there any alignments and considerations on how to represent company brand versus personal brand?
For people looking forward to building a rock-solid personal brand, David shares some key insights and tips that they can personally use to build their own process.
How important is it to be authentic and should you be changing who you are to build a strong personal brand?
How can people learn more about David and his processes?

Want to chat with David? You can find him at https://www.mcknightimagelab.com

Conclusion

In today’s ever-competitive world, you need to build a strong personal brand – doesn’t matter which profession or field you belong to. And we can’t stress this one enough. And that’s coming from two branding experts with years of experience in the field.

And if you are trying to build one yet are finding yourself stuck, allow Adam to help you out.

Schedule a strategy call with Adam at https://studio.changecreator.com

Tune in to Other Exciting Stories:

Episode Transcript (unedited, will likely have typos):

Adam G. Force 0:00

How do social entrepreneurs and small businesses create an authentic brand people love so they can get the edge they need to stand out, create Predictable Revenue and compete against the big guys. That’s what we’re here to discuss. I’m Adam forest, the founder of change creator and this is the authentic brand mastery podcast

What’s up everybody, welcome back to the show. This is the authentic brand mastery podcast brought to you by change creator. I love branding, it is a meaty, meaty topic, okay, you know, how are we communicating our brands, this is visual, this is through experience, this is through the messages that we have on screen or coming out of our mouths. Branding is just a very powerful and overlooked part of most people’s businesses. You know, we don’t most people I talk to they don’t have brand strategies, they don’t have their real depth of their positioning mapped out. You know, positioning is a game changer, because marketing is all about perception, and how you package up what you are, is going to be a huge, huge part of your success. So that’s such an critical part of the planning. And today, you know, we’re gonna get into some of the visual concepts, but it goes deeper than that. We’re gonna be talking to somebody by the name of David McKnight. Okay, so he is the founder of big night image lab where they have they do a lot of work with high achievers, alright, so this could be entrepreneurs, C suite executives, and the you know, they leverage their professional image and personal brands. So we’re talking about personal branding. And in order, this helps them drive higher, whether it’s if they’re working in a company, they drive higher salaries, move up the corporate ladder. And if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re building that personal brand, to bring yourself to the table, that next version of yourself right now, David’s been doing stuff for over two decades as an image consultant, and his clients include people from executives from like American Express, Goldman Sachs, you know, brands like that. And so I wanted to just kind of hear his perspective on these things and bring that to the table for you. Because we need to intentionally think about our personal brands. All right, so we’re gonna get into it in just a minute, guys, don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes. Are you getting any helpful insights? Is this show been helpful for you on your journey, right, we want to hear from you, it supports us. And that’s one way you can give back. And so show us some love. Also, we have right now, two spots open. So we have one spot for E commerce open, right? If you are an E commerce brand, and you’re in the social impact space, particularly, I love CPG brands, and we’re doing some really incredible stuff, we have 94% conversion rates with new leads that turn into buyers. It’s incredible. And we want to work with you. So we have a very unique sales strategy to implement. And we can be up and running in less than 30 days, we also are opening a spot now, if you are a coach or a service business, and you’re building your personal brand, and you really need to elevate your presentation online and you want to set up a sale system will talk to you as well. We’re looking to fill that spots, but act quickly. They do go pretty fast. So I’m throwing it out there guys, just you can reach out at Adam at change creator.com Or just go to change creator.com and go to our services and fill out the application. Alright guys, let’s get into this conversation. I hope to hear from you. Thanks. Hey, show me the heat. No. Hey, David, welcome to the authentic grand mastery podcast. How are we doing today?

David Knight 4:05

Adam, I’m doing really well. Thank you so much for having me.

Adam G. Force 4:10

Yeah, now we reschedule a couple of times I knew we I knew we’d find our way.

David Knight 4:17

Time is always a charm. And I’m

Adam G. Force 4:18

excited to chat with you. Because, you know, as a branding guy, I like to talk about personal branding as well. We’ve been doing a lot with, you know, ecommerce businesses and things like that. And I have also worked with a lot of people who are creating their personal brand, so coaches and things like that. So give us just a little bit of background and your experience in that space so we can understand where you’re coming from.

David Knight 4:41

Sure, absolutely. Well, as you said, my name is David McKnight. I’m a certified image consultant, as well as a certified executive coach. And I actually started my business in 2006. At the time, I was working full time as a consultant. I was working for a company called Accenture. In short, and I started like business really as a way of fulfilling my passion and my love of style and presentation. And I worked in corporate for 20 years, 15 years as a management consultant, and also five years on Wall Street. I’ve been full time in my practice my coaching and image consulting practice for the past five years, I’ve also written a book called The Zen of executive presence. And so I’m really known for three things I’m help, I’m known for helping people with their executive presence, their professional image, so their style, their periods, but also their personal brand. And I think that personal brand is so important. And I’m excited to dig into some details and share with your audience some practical tips about how they can really elevate and really leverage their personal brand more effectively.

Adam G. Force 6:03

Yeah. So to get people off on the right foot, how do you personally, I think there’s people throw around different definitions. So let’s define in your world, what a personal brand means to you.

David Knight 6:15

Sure, absolutely. Well, fundamentally, a personal brand is really the collection of images that people receive, or people collect about you over time. So those images could be the way that you dress or just the way that you act and things of that nature. So it’s really everything that you are projecting to the world. I think our personal brand is also comprised of things that we can’t see. So those invisible things. So it’s our attitude, our behavior, how we treat people. So in short, it’s really everything about you. And it’s important to think about our personal grant intentionally, because something that I always say, to my audiences, or to my clients is that we all have a personal brand, whether we think so or not. However, it’s either by design or by defaults. And so I think we both know that for a lot of people, they have a personal brand, that’s by defaults. And so my mission, my goal is to help people to think intentionally about their brand, so that they can truly design the brand that they want.

Adam G. Force 7:35

Yeah, I mean, we give off lots of signals. Right. And I’m glad you mentioned that there are a good amount that we don’t see. Right. And yeah, I think that goes a long way in capturing just the whole gamut of branding. And I. So I think, you know, when you’re talking about building this personal brand, I’d like to kind of get your thoughts on. Whoa, what like, what what, what does that mean to my work? Right? So you mentioned professionals, now we’re talking to entrepreneurs. And so they have personal brands, you might be a coach, you can be a service business, you might be the face of that brand, or you’re just the CEO, but you’re taking meetings, you’re talking on stage. So what is a personal brand? But by developing a personal brand, what does that do for you, right, as far as the business?

David Knight 8:29

Yeah, absolutely. Great question. Well, really, by having a very clear, strong, and I’ll even throw in the word premium, personal brand, what you can actually do is you can increase your rates, you can charge higher prices, if that’s the world that we’re living in, where it’s about increasing your income, which for a lot of people, I’m sure they would want to so. So when you focus on your brand, and you develop this premium brand, like I said, you can actually charge much more for services. It’s also important to think about as we just stick with the concept of a premium brand. It’s important to know what’s important to your market or to your audience. And so for example, let’s say FedEx, I don’t consider FedEx to be a luxury brand. However, the employees are not dressed in suits or ties. They’re dressed like delivery men and women. But in terms of what’s important to their audience, it’s about making sure that that package is delivered overnight within 24 hours, and it’s something that they do better than a lot of their competitors. So I think it’s important to also understand what’s important to your audience and making sure that your brand is Be consistent and cohesive to their expectations and to their perception of what they’re looking for.

Adam G. Force 10:07

And why would you categorize something like FedEx as a luxury brand? What does that? I guess? I’m not?

David Knight 10:13

Yeah, because it’s a premium service. So for example, if you think about the United States Postal Office or postal service, I would not consider that to be a premium service. And so therefore, FedEx is able to charge probably two to three times the amount that we would pay to have a package delivered at the United States Postal Service.

Adam G. Force 10:38

Gotcha, gotcha. Okay. So premium. Yeah, that’s, that’s a good word for it. Okay, and so tell me, I guess have you know, who do you most commonly work with at this point?

David Knight 10:53

Yeah, I’ve worked with a lot of executives, CEOs, C suite professionals. And for them, given the role that they are in the visibility of their role, a lot of them are starting to think more about their personal brand, because it’s not just from an internal perspective, but also the brand that they’re projecting externally as a representative of the organization. So last year, or actually, maybe it was the end of 2020, I had someone come out, reach out to me, he was recently promoted as the chief medical officer of a large healthcare organization. And he’s a medical doctor is that David, you know, I’m reaching out to you because I feel like I need to elevate my image, my personal brand and be perceived as a leader, this is a huge promotion for me. And he said, I’m really good at what I do. But I also acknowledge and know what I’m not good at. And so he said, I’m reaching out to you to help me in this area. So long story short, we worked on his personal brand, we worked on his wardrobe, we worked on some coaching around leadership style. And he actually came back to me a year later. And he said, David, I wanted to thank you for everything that you’ve done. Because as a result, I’ve been promoted to president of the organization. So if he did not click back step, if he was not intentional, about the brand about the image that he was projecting, chances are, he may not have received that promotion. And so that’s just one little quick story about the importance of controlling, and really being intentional and strategic about the brand that it is you’re putting out there.

Adam G. Force 12:52

So tell me a little bit about the process. Maybe we could stick with that story for a minute. So what does it look like? Like? What’s the conversation that kicks off that relationship? And how do we like what kind of, you know? What kind of insights do you need? And then what kind of changes does that lead to? For somebody? Curious, I can, obviously, I can make the obvious a point of like, well, we may talk about how we dress and how we present ourselves. What’s What’s the impetus for driving those decisions? And is there a behavioral change as well, like, well, maybe like the way you’re carrying yourself? Is their body language? I can you get into some of these ideas? And and tell us a little bit about that process?

David Knight 13:39

Yeah, absolutely. So I do have a six step process or framework that I’ve used to walk my clients through in terms of elevating and kind of creating that more premium personal brand. So step number one is to assess where they currently are. Because in order for us to make improvements, we need to know where we currently are, how are we currently perceived? Where are the gaps, the deficiencies until we spend some time really understanding where they are and where they want to go? What are their goals? The next step is that we get really intentional about designing their personal brand. So how do they want to be perceived? What are some of their core content pillars because if you think about a personal brand, usually we want to be perceived as an expert, or our ability to solve a problem or deliver service. So really thinking about it from a core content perspective. A lot of times I work with people and they’re not able to succinctly communicate their value or what their personal brand is. So, in this step, the second step, we really get very crystal clear on how to be able to communicate and articulate that. Then the third step is, it’s important to design what I call your digital dossier. So it’s looking at the LinkedIn profile, it’s looking at the website, it’s looking at your online photos, your online bio, and making sure that it’s all aligned. And it’s harmonious to the image that you want to project. So those first three steps, I really call them the clarity steps are getting really clear about what you want to present to the work. Yeah, yeah. Then the second phase is all focused on visibility. So we’re really clear. Now we need to make sure that we’re showing up and what people see is really aligned to the, to our messaging. So one of the things I do is I do a visual audit, I audit their wardrobe, I audit their background, I audit the things that sometimes we don’t think about, we don’t think that there has important as our service or qualifications. And those things are very important. But we also need to think about the visual communication. Because Adam, you can walk into a room and not say a word, and people will form opinions about who this guy is just based on what they see. And so I think it’s so important to remember that to remember the visual communication. And then the last two steps is to leverage the network. And then to make sure that we are promoting the brand, in the right spaces, the right places to the right audiences, because a lot of my clients have this fear of self promotion, they don’t want to be seen as bragging or showing off. And so how have you really kind of balanced that line between promoting, but not coming across as braggadocious. So those are really the the high level steps that we

Adam G. Force 17:04

get, yeah. And how long as that process take for you to get through.

David Knight 17:09

That process can typically take, I would say, anywhere from three months to six months, depending on the client’s goals and how fast they want to move. Some clients are okay with moving slower, the example that I shared with you earlier, but doctor who was promoted, that was a three month process. And so we were actually very aggressive because we wanted to be able to get it done within 90 days. I like to help my clients think about a 90 day Transition Plan, especially when it’s a new big promotion. Or if they’re entering a new company, you want to really hit the ground, very kind of you want to be strong when you hit the ground. And so that’s really the plan that we came up with the timeline that we used,

Adam G. Force 18:02

okay. Now, let’s say you know, even doctors, like I’ve worked in the medical space for 10 years, WebMD did all kinds of stuff. And we worked with a lot of doctors, so they might be doing video shoots as a thought leader, they might be on stage for an event or, and same with entrepreneurs, right? Videos, events, like all the stuff they’re doing which creates publicity, gets attention from people. And so you’re always you’re putting yourself out there when those things are captured digitally, they’re spread around the internet. And that’s kind of like touch points, right. And so having a consistent personal brand that is at each of those touch points is important. So it sounds like to me, you’re helping people get clear just on, you know, what is that visual representation? What is that message? Because that will trickle down into all these assets? Right? Yeah, and yes. And so, no, you’re good, you’re good. I’m just kind of thinking through your thought process here. And so how does that now do a lot of times these companies, you know, I’m thinking about the entrepreneurship space, and you may be working with some of these executives, but you work on personal brand. So, to me, you know, there could be a brand that’s already developed for a business, right? And then you have that CEO who is kind of developing the personal brand. So are there alignment and considerations, I guess, how are we representing the company brand versus the personal because now you’re saying personal brand, it seems like you’re aligning that more to the person. Right. And so is there synergies there? Is that like, considered through the process?

David Knight 19:53

Yes, absolutely. I think it’s really important to think about the company’s culture. their values, their mission, their vision. I’ve worked with some clients who didn’t necessarily align with the organization that they were working. They go, yeah. And and so we actually discussed, okay, what are the options, while one option is we can stay there, and really create ways for us to try to feel as if we belong. However, if that really isn’t gelling, then we look at the alternative, which is to really create an exit strategy. But I think creating the exit strategy is a bit extreme for most people. But it can be really important, and it definitely is a viable option. However, it’s important to also make sure that your brand is somewhat aligned to the industry or the organization that you’re working with, if it is, if there is a good fit. Some people don’t think about this, they think that so a lot of especially some of the more junior audiences that I’ve spoken to, it’s really about being authentic. And yes, I will say, authenticity, authenticity is extremely important. And we should always be authentic. But being authentic doesn’t mean that you have the right to just show up at a meeting and a T shirt. If you’re working for a financial services company. That’s a little more formal. And so I think it’s really important to be able to read the room, but also read the organization read the culture, and not really we need to remove these blind spots around what the organization’s values are, what they stand for, and what we stand for, and seeing, how can we create that synergy? How can we create that alignment, that harmony? Knowing that if that just doesn’t exist? Then it could be time for us to maybe make a move?

Adam G. Force 22:19

Yeah, I mean, but so a lot of people I’ve seen, they could be, let’s say, you’re a coach, and you’re running, you could be running a multi seven figure business, right? And you’re the CEO, but you as your brand, as the as like the coach who started that company, is the company, right? So they’re like, have you seen that? Like, have you worked with people in that situation much where it’s one in the same the company and the the person is one in the same? Which can make their life a lot easier? That’s for sure. And I’m curious if you have experience with with working with that?

David Knight 22:55

Yeah, I mean, I’ll take myself as a perfect example. Everything that I do everything that I say everything that I put out, it represents my company, but it also represents me personally. And so I need to think about what am I putting out on social media? What am I putting out on my website, and thinking back to does this really represent what I want to communicate to my audience, or not. And so I think it is important to be intentional about those messages that we talked about. But at the same time, I think it’s also important to show up authentically and show up as yourself and not feel as if you have to wear a mask when you are presenting and be someone else at home, I understand that we want to make adjustments. Again, it’s that term Reading Room. So when I’m, let’s say giving a presentation, I might be a little more formal, versus if I’m hanging out at happy hour with friends. But I’m still fundamentally at my core, the same person. And I think it’s really important to get clear on our values. In fact, there’s an exercise that I do with my clients, I’ve created what I call a personal brand canvas. And on this canvas, we identify what are your core values? What are your passions? What is your purpose? These are all things that really should not change no matter who you’re dealing with, what setting you’re in what you’re wearing. So it’s really important to understand the core elements that really make up who we are our identity, but the brand in terms of like just the visual messaging that can kind of flow and be adjusted according to the audience that we’re working with.

Adam G. Force 24:59

Huh, yeah. Okay. And, um, you know, as people are developing these processes, I’m curious, just on some of the most significant types of changes that are happening that maybe are pretty common across the board. So any, I’m guessing I’m looking for some insights or tips for people on? What are some just main considerations that they can walk away from this discussion and say, let me let me think about these three things, right, that are really important to my personal brand, that just kind of might help shift their perspective a little bit. So, you know, you’ve worked with a bunch of clients, and I’m sure there’s some commonalities that you might be seeing. And so are there any real big pieces to the puzzle that you could share? That could kind of get our audience thinking a little bit about their personal brand?

David Knight 25:59

Yeah, absolutely. Well, step one, I think is to really just pause and be honest with yourself and do almost like a self evaluation or self assessment. And to ask yourself, Am I happy with my personal brand? Are there opportunities for improvement that I see for myself? Something else that you can do along these lines is to identify three friends. And these may be colleagues, they could be social friends, but depending on kind of the audience that you’re looking to serve, identify maybe perhaps a cross section. But as these three individuals, how would you describe my personal brand? What are three words that you would use to describe my Yeah, and a lot of times this feedback is really helpful, because it really understood helps us to understand how we’re perceived, right? I think that in some cases, there’s a misalignment between our eye and our perception. And so we want to make sure that we are aligned with how we’re perceived and what we’re intending our message and our brand to be. So I think that’s something that’s very, very simple, it’s very easy and practical for people to under to be able to do and implement. So that’s one thing, I would also encourage people to really identify their strengths, I believe in taking a strength based approach to developing and refining one’s personal brand. Again, as I mentioned, some people come to me and they’re not able to articulate what their brand is, what they’re good at what their strength is. And so something that I encourage some of my audiences to do, when I’m, let’s say, speaking, and I don’t have the opportunity to coach everyone is I send them to a website called gallup.com. And I encourage them to take an assessment, it’s probably a 15 minute assessment, because 1999 is the Strength Finders assessment, Clifton jump binders. And that’s a great, great starting point to just identify what are your top five strengths? And then based on that, see how you can incorporate them or leave them and integrate them into your personal brand more intentionally? Yeah, because if you have a personal brand that’s based on your strengths based on your gifts, then that’s when it will come come across as as something that is authentic. And that’s when you’re most likely to resonate with your audience and develop a rapport when you’re leaving from a place of strength and natural strength that is, so those are two simple things that people can do. And then the last thing I’ll say is to realize that we’re living in a 2d world these days, many of us are still are, although a lot of the a lot of the mandates are being removed. Thank God, I think we’re starting to get out and striving to interact with people but still there are many of us who are working from home and many of us who have chosen to stay working from home. So I want us to think about what is showing up in this small little frame on our laptops or our computers and be intentional about what we are projecting because when you are online as you and I are and where looking at each other through zoom, versus being in a room, there’s something that’s lost. And so you want to make sure that you are really optimizing what people can see, and what they hear. Because they can’t really feel your energy through the screen. And so just thinking about these three areas that I just mentioned, I think that it will give people a better sense of what they can do to actually start to improve and own and design the brand that they want to have.

Adam G. Force 30:42

Yeah, no, that’s helpful. And I wonder if people might start thinking, you know, through hearing some of these things, it’s like, am I am? Am I trying to change who I am? So how do you respond to that? When someone’s like, Well, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna change who I am and be something I’m not right. So you talked about authenticity. But we do like, I guess, before you answer that question. You know, when people are thinking about running a business, for example, and stepping into a new role, like the doctor who got that job, they are stepping into a new role, so they need to kind of become that version of themselves. Right. So that’s how I see it. I’m curious on your perspective of how this is related to changing who you are.

David Knight 31:35

Yeah. I love this question. And I get this question. Occasionally, in terms of people feeling as if they have to change who they are. Yeah. And it’s not about changing who they are. It’s about really teaching them to be able to adjust and adapt. So one of the things that I do with my clients is, depending on the client, depending on their role, is we might get into a session or two about their leadership style. And very simply, there’s an article that I really enjoy it, I refer to a lot of my clients. There’s a woman who wrote an article about leadership style. And fundamentally, she defines leadership style as really across two dimensions or two ends of the spectrum, one is leaning more powerfully. And the other is leaning more, what’s called attractive. So people who lean more powerful tend to be they can sometimes be the loudest person in the room, they tend to be fast talkers, they tend to talk more than they listen, they tend to be very bold, and somewhat aggressive. So these are all kind of traits of what’s called the powerful style. The people who tend to lean more attractive, they tend to be quieter, they tend to be more thoughtful, they tend to ask more questions, they tend to be a little more kind of strategic in terms of their thinking, analytical. And so which style is right, neither one, there’s no right or wrong answer. And guess what, just because you lean more powerful doesn’t mean that you’re always going to be successful. And just because you will be more attractive doesn’t mean that you won’t be successful, or you will be, it’s all about being self aware, and being able to adapt and adjust according to our audience. I call it having the ability to self modulate. And so without this ability, without this understanding of self, and this self consciousness, right, and I don’t mean self consciousness in a negative way. But just being self aware, then, I mean, it really impacts and impedes your ability to be a successful leader. And so there’s, again, nothing wrong with either style. It’s if you are someone who leans more attractive, what are the situations and the circumstances when you need to lead more powerfully? Yeah. And vice versa. So to me, that’s what it’s all about. It’s not about changing your personality. It’s not about changing your values. It’s about understanding who you are, but being able to adapt.

Adam G. Force 34:48

Yeah, I think that makes sense. And it made me think about like if you were in a room with three to five year olds, You’re probably going to change how you’re speaking to them and how you’re behaving with them. Because you are adapting to your audience in the sense of these are younger children. So I’m still add on, I’m still the same person, and a nice guy, but I am going to kind of change my tone a little bit and be a little bit more patience and understanding with their chaos. You know? And so kind of understanding the role that you’re in and becoming more aware of how to lean into being a better leader or, you know, whatever it might be. I think that makes sense, you know, so, and you use the word intentional, a lot that that stood out to me today. So I think whether you know, it being intentional, in general, to me is super important. So for your business, and for your own personal branding. And when you have intention, it means you thought about it. You’re honest about what the situation looks like. And now you can actually approach different scenarios effectively, because you’ve thought about it, you’re not just winging it. Right. So I think attentional is a powerful, powerful way to do things effectively.

David Knight 36:11

Yeah, absolutely. And I’m so glad that the example that I shared made sense, because I just want your audience to know that I am not here saying that you have to wear the suit all the time. Or when you do your podcast interviews, you need to show up in the top No, absolutely not. So two more really, really quick examples. Sure. Mark Zuckerberg, he’s known for wearing his hoodies. He has. I mean, that’s his trademark. But when he was testifying in front of Congress, he wasn’t in a hoodie. He, I guess his team encouraged to, to wear a suit and a tie. And it’s very appropriate. It doesn’t mean that he’s not the same person. Right? It doesn’t mean that he still doesn’t enjoy his hobbies. It’s just all about really aligning to the audience. Because a lot of times we don’t align, when you don’t have that ability to be able to decipher and determine when it’s important to adjust and adapt, then a lot, a lot of times our messages will be lost. Yeah. Yeah. Because we’re so focused on like, I don’t know, maybe what this person is wearing, or how they’re behaving or their hand gestures, or what have you. And it could be an area that they’re completely unaware of. Yeah, so I do think that it has, it serves a purpose, and it can be helpful. And just knowing that it’s a tool, it’s a tool that you can choose to use when you need to go. Yeah, in terms of, I think we’re right now talking a lot about the visual piece. And so just knowing that it’s a tool, and that’s something that I I communicate to my clients, I believe that our clothing are just a form of non visual nonverbal communication.

Adam G. Force 38:13

It is I spoke to somebody who does analysis on like facial expressions and body language, and he said that facial expressions and how we carry ourselves body language, so non non verbal communications, you communicate way more than the words that come out of your mouth. So, all these things play a role in the impact and perception. And hey, entrepreneurs, guess what, when it comes to marketing, Perception is everything. So this is all part of this equation for you know, getting to your goals. So, yeah, that perception game is big. The funny thing we’ll wrap up here, I remember, I was watching American Idol, I don’t know, this could be 10 years ago. Now, I have never watched that show forever. But it was guy, this kid Phil Phillips, or something like that. And he won the show, he ended up winning this whole show. But during the process they brought in designers, so this is totally just physical, you know, aesthetics that we’re talking about. So how they dressed fashionably, and they were telling because he was the guy that would go out and like jeans and just like a gray rundown t shirt, and he was just, that’s what he wore. And they are, we’re gonna get you some color because it’s going to be better with you’re going to appeal to the audience more and all this stuff. And so they set him up, did this whole like session with like Armani or something, and they call him out on stage. And he came out in the gray t shirt. And I was like, man just stuck to his guns on that. And for some reason that always stood out to me. And he ended up winning that show. Now that’s just one small example of visual appeal and I’m a branding guy. So I know that the data says a lot about you know, the impact for first impression wins and trust, right? Trust is a big factor. And it really can make a significant difference in your business. So anyway, I thought that was a fun little story. So we’ll wrap up here. How do people learn more about, you know, your processes what you’re doing? And if they want to connect with you, where do they go?

David Knight 40:21

Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, Adam, let me just say again, thank you so much for having me on your podcast. I really enjoyed the conversation. It was a lot of fun. And I actually remember that guy from Yes, I thought I was like an American Idol fanatic. Yeah, of course, after like 10 years, you, we kind of get tired of it. So I haven’t watched it in a while. But that was a great example and great story, in terms of how people can get in touch with me and where they can find me or reach me a couple of ways. Number one, my website is a great place and I have resources, excuse me that your audience can download and kind of access free information. So it’s McKnight image lab.com. They can also find me on Instagram at McKnight image and also LinkedIn. i They can search for David McKnight. I’m pretty high in terms of the rankings if you search for David, I think I’m like the first one. So yeah, those are a few ways. And I would love to see how I can support your audience or what have you. So

Adam G. Force 41:39

cool. Well, I appreciate it. It was fun chatting with you and appreciate sharing your insights and what you’re doing and helping give some perspective to people listening. So thanks again, David, talk to you later.

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