70 people in the room. 10 already knew who I was.

A few months ago I was invited to speak at a private event.

The guy who hosted it runs businesses that collectively do about $50 million a year with an agency that does over $20 million alone.

That room was filled with people cut from the same cloth, every possible operator doing CRAZY numbers and the kind of names you'd instantly recognize if you're in the online money world.

He invited me because we'd done good work for him.

> I walked in.

> Nobody knew it was me.

> I hadn’t been introduced yet.

> I sat down and just took in the room.

Then someone came up to me.

"Are you Wiz of Ecom?"

Then another person. Then another.

By the time the event got started, I'd had 10 separate people come up and tell me they'd been in Utopia. Some of them had been members three or four years ago.

Even one of the speakers on stage that day was an old Utopian.

A room of 70 people and 10 of them had been watching, learning, and building alongside me for years.

I know I talk a lot about the importance of a personal brand.

But it’s always such a wild experience getting to see its impact in the wild.

In that moment, the followers, likes and content could not have mattered less.

All I saw was all the people they had reached without me knowing.

It's the fact that when you show up somewhere whether it’s a room, a DM, a sales call, a cold email then a percentage of the people there already know you. Already trust you. Already made up their mind on giving you their money before you opened your mouth.

I was in that room because

> I had grown my personal brand

> Became a trusted authority in my industry

> Closed the $50M client

> Delivered exceptional results

> Been personally invited to speak at his event about what I know best (personal branding)

I gave my speech and every person in that room stood up.

That's what you're building when you build a personal brand.

A reputation that travels without you.

Most founders skip this because it's slow. Because you don't see it working until one day you walk into a room and ten strangers already know your name.

I'm not saying this to impress you with the story.

I'm saying it because I've watched too many smart founders spend years looking at the wrong things like more followers, more reach, better hooks when the real leverage was always in making the right people feel like they know you.

Making the people you want trust you, engage with you and eventually buy from you.

— Wiz

P.S I’ve got something fun in the works for those of you who've been watching and want to start building the same impact without hiring an agency, I'm releasing it this week. First time I’m doing something like this. Stay tuned.

P.S.S If you want to run up your authority and become a recognized name in your industry, let’s chat