NickVenturella.com 10-1-20 - The transparent path to trust

The transparent path to trust

October 01, 2020

Ready to talk about the first presidential political debate from the other night?

Yeah, me neither.

One thing I will say…regardless of who you choose to vote for, just get out and exercise your right to vote. 

Okay, that’s my PSA for the day.

One thing election years seem to do well is attract large numbers of people into the political landscape, and furthermore, into each specific candidates’ ecosystem (composed of their brand/message, regular content, and calls-to-action).

This got me thinking about my own personal brand and ecosystem, and it may be something for you to think about if you’re looking to organize and/or improve your own personal brand and its ability to earn revenue.

I’ll use myself as an example to illustrate what I’m talking about...

Below is a large part of what makes up my personal brand online, and related revenue streams.

I have a full-time day-job that I enjoy as a customer marketer for a software company where I get to use just about all the skills I shared in the last newsletter. Beyond that, my side hustles include the following...

I own or am part owner of the following sites:

  • NickVenturella.com (this is my personal brand umbrella site - overarching over the NV ecosystem online)

  • nickVmusic.net (this is my musician website providing music performance services, music streaming/sales, and commercial licensing opportunities to use my music in TV / film / etc.)

  • GrowLoop.com (this is where I provide customer marketing and employee engagement thought-leadership, coaching, and freelance services for B2B companies)

  • TurnUpToEleven.com (this is the website for Eleven Music Career Center of which I’m a co-founder with two others and we help musicians understand how to make more money from their music business)

Related to my personal brand, the following is how I primarily engage with people at scale, both at free and paid levels:

  • FREE Tier

    • my Investors newsletter (which you’re reading now), website content, social media content I share, music streaming content I’ve written/produced/recorded

  • 1st PAID Tier (ala carte) 

    • My products, services, and/or affiliate products/services I’m associated with

  • 2nd PAID / Fan Tier (subscription) 

    • Joining the nVIP Club on Patreon...my FAN CLUB for those interested in more access to my artistic outputs/processes (my advocates). This level includes exclusive content, perks, and products in exchange for ongoing subscription fee

  • 3rd PAID Backend Tier (backend income) 

    • This may include transactional relationships with people/businesses related to music streaming and/or publishing royalties as well as licensing fees collected

Why am I sharing all this with you?Because, for me to build trust with you, I need to outline my intentions transparently so you can decide for yourself if you want to participate in my brand/ecosystem.

You might find value in the free tier that I’ve outlined above, and knowing how you can progress into other tiers -- be them paid or otherwise -- provides you transparency around how we can grow together in our exchange of mutual value. You can then decide for yourself if the value you’re getting from my free tier is compelling enough for you to want to provide value in return -- via your attention, with money, loyalty/advocacy for me/my brand, or some combination of all of those.

That’s where I think a lot of politicians, businesses, and individuals get it wrong. They’re outward message is not transparent. It's not aligned with their actions, and the path you, on the other end of that exchange, can expect to further deepen the relationship to build more trust and value, is not clear. As human beings, when those things don’t align, we start to experience large amounts of skepticism, cynicism, distrust, and division.

I strongly believe that just about everything in the world among humans can be boiled down to communication and relationships...being heard, understood, and respected as a person regardless of whether or not we agree on various topics is fundamental, but none of that comes unless we start with some level of mutual trust and transparency from which to build upon.

How can you be more transparent in your communications to build trust towards mutual value that can start, grow, and strengthen relationships?

Stay positive. Stay healthy. Be kind.Sincerely,Nick VenturellaCreative Professional, andco-founder of Eleven Music Career CenterNickVenturella.comnickVmusic.netFacebookYouTubePatreon