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This episode was recorded as a guest appearance on Michael J. López's show, now called The Top Voice Podcast and known as Top Voice Tuesday when we recorded. Shared here with his blessing. Go and subscribe to him: https://www.youtube.com/@michaeljlopez9

Michael asks Bobby to trace the whole arc, from motivational speaking twenty years ago to where thought leadership actually sits now, and the conversation keeps circling back to one question. If your story is the strategy, what do you do about the part of the story you would rather not tell?

Bobby is direct about the early blocks, the years when vulnerability felt like a liability rather than a tool, and what changed. He talks about the 80/20 split he runs his content on, and makes an unfashionable argument about virality: it buys awareness, not conversion, and the two get confused constantly.

On getting started, which is where most people stall: if you can just start, that is something. If you can keep going, that is another thing entirely.

He also names the worst career decision he made, which was choosing a path because he was good at it rather than asking what he actually cared about. It is the question he now puts to his own kids. What problems do you want to solve?

The Power of Connection is hosted by Bobby Umar, 5x TEDx speaker and Inc Magazine Top 100 Leadership Speaker. For weekly insights on personal branding and thought leadership, join his newsletter: https://bobbyumar.substack.com