Why Personal Branding Starts With Identity, Not Image

The Financial Wholesaler Podcast kicked off 2026 by welcoming Kirk Wayman back into the studio for a conversation on creating and promoting your personal brand. Naturally, the discussion began were every good brand conversation begins: existentialism.

Ahem. Stay with us.

Executive Scheduling Associates CEO Mitch Santala started where most personal-brand conversations begin—mission statements and the exercise of writing down what others say about you. But Kirk pushed the conversation deeper, noting, “The work that really differentiates a person…comes down to things like identity.”

He explained that while personal identity sits beneath your personal brand, “it can’t possibly be all of it.”

Kirk encouraged wholesalers to reflect on their identity by asking bigger questions: Who am I? Why do I exist? What is my purpose? He emphasized that uncovering those answers requires honest reflection on lived experiences—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and examining how your responses shaped your outcomes.

From there, Kirk challenged listeners to go even deeper: explore your traits, own your story, and intentionally build narratives that highlight what makes you uniquely you.

Mitch and Kirk ultimately landed on the same conclusion: “The deeper the connection you make with yourself, the better the brand language gets.”

And that’s where a truly memorable personal brand begins.