Transcript:

Brad Powell: 0:00

So here’s a cool story. A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through Instagram and I wasn’t looking for anything in particular and I stumbled on this video. It looked like your typical man on the street interview. You know the kind where there’s a guy in the street with a microphone, there’s a busy sidewalk, there’s a lot of street noise, but this one was different.

Brad Powell: 0:20

The guy in the video was listening, like really listening. He was asking New Yorkers about their rent, their childcare, about what they thought, about what was going on in Gaza, who they voted for. This was stuff that’s kind of hard to talk about and it wasn’t until the very end that he said it. I’m Zoran Mandani and I’m running for mayor and I remember thinking wait, what? This wasn’t a campaign ad. This was something really different. It felt native to the platform. It didn’t feel like marketing. Then it made me, and apparently thousands of other people, stop and actually pay attention. Meanwhile, his opponent, who is this well-known political name with millions of dollars to spend on ads, he was running all these ads on television. What happened next wasn’t even close. Madani won. He won big time, and here’s why I’m telling you this If you’re an expert trying to build reputation, trying to break through online, trying to earn trust, when you’re not the biggest name in the room, this story matters, because the same exact tactics that helped a no-name candidate take down a political juggernaut are the same tactics you can use in your content.

Brad Powell: 1:37

Today’s story isn’t about politics. It’s about attention and how a little guy can win. It’s really a perfect David and Goliath story told in 60 second videos, and today we’re going to break it down how to earn attention in a world that’s tuning you out. I’m Brad Powell and this is the Standout Business Show, the podcast for those who want to make a bigger difference by showing up differently. This is episode number four in our current series on ditching the content machine. If you missed episodes number one through three, definitely go back and check those out. We covered why posting more won’t make you visible, how your expertise is already enough and why your content isn’t building trust and what to do instead, but today I want to show you a real-world example of someone who did everything differently and broke through. This episode is for every expert entrepreneur who feels like the little guy going up against louder, flashier or more well-known competitors. By the end, you’ll walk away with five specific lessons from a political campaign that turned short-form video into a giant killer. So let’s get started.

Brad Powell: 2:56

So what we have going on here is a collision between two attention strategies. On the one hand, you had the old way. You’ve got former Governor Cuomo. He’s got big name recognition. Everybody knew who he was. He had all the money he needed to spend on ads, and he did a lot of traditional media buying. He literally spent millions just blanketing the airwaves and on the other hand, you had this unknown guy. Like nobody knew who Mamdani was before he started running for mayor. So this was truly a David and Goliath contest, but instead of a slingshot a hero of our story. He had a smartphone and he knew how to use it and guess who won.

Zohran Mamdani: 3:42

Did you get a chance to vote on Tuesday? I didn’t vote. And why did you not vote? Because I don’t believe in the system anymore and did you get a chance?

Zohran Mamdani: 3:49

to vote on Tuesday. Yes, and who did you vote for Trump? Ah, the million dollar question, trump. Hillside Avenue in Queens and Fordham Road in the Bronx are two areas that saw the biggest shift towards Trump in last week’s election. Most of these people are working families. They’re working one to two, three jobs, and rent is expensive. Foods are going up, utility bills are up and that’s your hope to see a little bit more of an affordable life. Absolutely, gaza. Who should I vote? Either side, we’ll go ahead, send bombs from here to kill my brothers and sisters. You know we have a mayor’s race coming up next year and if there was a candidate talking about freezing the rent, making buses free, making universal child care a reality are those things that you’d support? Absolutely, he’d have my vote all day. We need child care that is affordable. Buses should be free. The hike in the MetroCards is totally unaffordable.

Zohran Mamdani: 4:41

My name is Zoran Mamdani. I’m going to be running for mayor next year. Yes, yes, sir, and I’m going to be running on that platform. I’m going to vote for you. Your energy is Thank you. Thank you. My energy is getting up to inflation.

Brad Powell: 4:55

Now, as I said, this show isn’t about politics. This is a show about standing out. So let’s break down exactly why that clip and Mondani’s whole approach worked so well, and how you can do the same thing even if you don’t have any kind of following to start with. So here’s five standout lessons that we can take away from this example. Number one use familiar formats.

Brad Powell: 5:19

Mondani didn’t invent a new genre when he started making his videos. He borrowed from things that were already out there. So in this case, he took something that people already recognized the man on the street type of interview and he used it in his own content. And the reason this works so well is because people already know the format. It’s casual, it’s candid, and the other thing about this is that it’s absolutely authentic. You see him talking to real people and you see him listening to real people. None of this is made up. None of this looks like a typical political campaign ad at all. It’s just hey, what do you think about this? And then getting an honest opinion. Don’t worry so much when you’re making content about overproduction. Stop overthinking your content. You don’t need a lot of creative. You just need something that’s familiar and native to the platform.

Brad Powell: 6:17

Number two listen first and create second. Madani didn’t go out like what normal politicians do and talk at people. He started by asking questions and then he listened and then he used what he heard in his content. This is like market research 101. Go talk to your audience, find out what they’re interested in, find out what they need from you, find out all the things that you can about them and then take all of that and make more content in response. When you compare this approach to the typical campaign ad, this was so refreshing, it was so different, it was so distinctive. It made people think, oh, this guy actually cares. He’s actually hearing what we have to say. Imagine that your most powerful content wants to act like a mirror. You want to reflect the needs of your audience back to them. Go, turn your next piece of content into a question. Then use your audience’s answers as the raw material for everything else that you produce.

Brad Powell: 7:26

Number three look like you belong. How you show up actually matters more than what you say. In this case, ondani, he didn’t feel like a politician. He felt like every other content creator native to the feed. There was no stiff studio set. There’s no like fancy desk with American flags in the background, which is what most political people do. You know all this political polish. He just got rid of all of that and he went out on the street and he just acted like a normal human, which is what you can do.

Brad Powell: 8:02

You don’t need to quote unquote. Act like a business. Instead, you need to show up like a peer, be the face of your brand, do something that makes you recognizable. Like I show up with my glasses on top of my head, my white hair, and literally when people see me on the street, they go oh yeah, I’ve seen you, I know you, and this is the response that you’re looking for. You want people to recognize you. So be yourself, but with a lot of intent and a lot of your conviction.

Brad Powell: 8:36

Number four gain momentum over perfection. So using video, using vertical video on your phone, can be the to unforgettable. You don’t need to worry about fancy edits. You don’t need to wait for approval from someone else. You can just start shipping your videos as often as you can.

Brad Powell: 9:00

Instead of working on being polished, mandani worked on being present, and the takeaway here is be willing to show up scrappy, show up often and show up with your heart. So your homework is. Go out there, ask some questions and then start publishing, create some small, bold ideas. These are what I call mic drop moments, and do it often. Perfection is so forgettable, but your presence, your presence is powerful. So, number five you can’t buy trust, you’ve got to earn it. You just can’t buy attention in the way that we used to.

Brad Powell: 9:38

The old school marketing is now feeling kind of invisible. This is probably the most striking contrast of all between these two campaigns. Cuomo absolutely carpetbombed the airwaves with ads and they were done in a style that most people completely tuned out. All that ad spend, all those TV ads nobody watched that stuff, you know. They’d see the ad come up and like blank right out, whereas Mondani posted videos with messaging that mattered to people. Cuomo was trying to interrupt people and Mondani was inviting them into a movement. People, and Mondani was inviting them into a movement, a movement that they could join. So your takeaway here is stop trying to scale before you’ve connected. Remember that right now attention is earned. Take all the old school marketing tactics and throw them out the window. If you lead with your truth, people will feel the difference and they’ll start carrying your torch One of the most interesting things that happened with Mandani’s campaign was that, in addition to the videos that he made, other people, ordinary people, picked up the torch and they started making videos in response to what he was doing, because his message resonated so much that they literally wanted to share it.

Brad Powell: 10:58

They wanted to share what they thought about it. His main message was actually really simple. It was like hey, what it would be like if we could make this city affordable enough so that we could all live here. And people are like yeah, that’s a good idea. It’s something that resonated, it’s something they wanted to talk about, it’s something they wanted to get behind and it’s something they wanted to see happen. This is exactly the kind of resonance that you want to create with your own messaging. All right, so here’s my lightning round wrap up of what I think Mandani understood and what we can learn from it.

Brad Powell: 11:33

So, number one be findable. Know how your audience will discover you. Number two use formats that they trust. So find a format that works for you, borrow it and then own it. Number three go vertical. Show up where people actually consume content. Number four build a visual identity. Be recognizable. Be instantly recognizable. Number five earn attention. Don’t try to buy it. Number six, last one ditch the old playbook, start showing up like a native.

Brad Powell: 12:16

So what does this all mean for you? Well, you don’t need to post more, you don’t need to spend more, you don’t need to try harder to be everywhere. You need to say one thing clearly, with conviction, and do it often. You need to listen harder than anyone else in your space and you need to tell the truth and tell it on camera so people see your face. If you want attention today, you don’t go looking for it. You earn it by showing up like someone worth listening to.

Brad Powell: 12:50

And if you want help doing that, if you want to turn your lived experience into the kind of content that builds trust and gets shared, well, come talk to me, because that’s exactly what I help my clients do with Mic Drop Moments. They show up for one interview and we turn it into a video content that connects. Just go to standoutcallcom and let’s make something that matters Next week on the show. Your message isn’t boring, it’s just not sticky. Yet I’m going to walk you through how to make your audience feel seen in your story so your message doesn’t just land, it lingers. And until then, keep showing up, because the right people are waiting for you.