Before we dive in…

Our team quietly launched a free 5 day course on how to build a business powered by community. If that’s your thing, sign up here.

The 5 day course has pretty beautiful looking website done by Dispatch. If you’re looking for a design partner, Dispatch is here for you. Dispatch is behind your favorite brands.

Enjoy this week’s post.

The Guide to Faceless Brands

If you’ve been hanging around the Twitter/X scene for a while, chances are you’ve seen these “guy” accounts aka as “faceless brands”

These brands can cash-flow millions per year.

• StripMallGuy

• NewsletterGuy

• CarDealershipGuy

• StripMallGuy

• RideshareGuy (I interviewed him on my pod, Apple Podcasts, YouTube)

• SweatyStartup ( I interviewed him on my pod, Apple Podcasts, YouTube)

And even if you haven’t noticed them, the premise is simple:

You can create a faceless brand around something that people want to get from point A to point B on. Then you monetize with products and services to help people on their journey.

It’s the easiest way to go from 0 to 10,000 followers on any platform.

Today, let’s dive deeper into faceless brands and the step-by-step process you can use to start one for your business.

1. Identify your transformation

What are you helping people achieve? The biggest benefit “guy” accounts have is it’s super clear what they help you with. The StripMallGuy doesn’t talk about getting better at pickleball, he talks about how to buy strip mall real estate.

Three questions to ask yourself:

1. Where have you personally transformed?

2. What can you talk about for hours on end?

3. What do you know better than most people?

2. Identify your competition

Is someone else already in the niche you want to talk about? Can you niche down even further into a sub-niche?

For example, instead of being the FitnessGuy, can you be the FitnessFor40YearOldsGuy?

At first, it can feel like you’re unnecessarily cutting out people who could use your advice. But the best brands usually start by monopolizing a sub-niche.

Dominate then expand.

3. Claim your category

Next? Claim your niche and social handle. Here are a few random name examples:

• Lawn Service Guy

• Keto Gal

• Dynasty Fantasy Football Dude

The best names are in between a media company and a human name.

4. Be a “reply guy”

Finally, interact with all the accounts in your niche. Reply with thoughtful responses to show you are an expert in your niche.

Here’s the craziest part: we ironically trust these faceless accounts more than we do personal brands. Without the face, all we know is the intention — get you from point A to point B.

Before we end, a few common questions about faceless brands:

“What if I want to start showing my face?”

Just because you start off faceless doesn’t mean you have to end faceless.

You can start off as faceless, stake the claim in your niche, and then transition to a personal brand. 

“Does this only work for Twitter/X?”

Nope. Building a video faceless brand is all the rage. The beauty is there are a lot of AI tools right now that can help you generate video and audio at scale to be faceless.

“Who should start faceless brands?”

A few types of people:

1. You work a full-time job but want to experiment building a media empire

2. You are in a “boring” B2B space but want to make it a little more fun

3. You don’t want to be the face of a brand

“How do I monetize a faceless brand?”

100 ways to skin that cat. I’d consider creating a value ladder.

The more the audience member gets to know you, the more likely they are to move down to buy more and more products.

❤️ Greg’s bookmarks:

1. A good way to make $100M is to invent a new sport. Easier said than done but interesting POV. Link

2. How one guy got to ~100k Instagram followers for his dad account. Decent tips. Link

3. A reminder that there’s a niche for everything on the internet. Even chocolate milk reviewers. Link

4. How do we know which videos are real anymore? This AI-generated video of my friend Roberto blew my mind. Link, I’ve talked to Roberto before on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

5. “If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business, you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic.” — Michael Gerber, The E Myth

That’s a wrap!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s post. Tag me on X if you did. I read every mention.

And if you want to learn more about building businesses powered by community, I’d check my Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.

And I’ll see you in Community Empire if that’s your thing. We’ll be increasing prices and limiting memberships soon.

It’s for people interested in building a cash-flowing business empire powered by community.

And it comes with a free Skool software subscription. Skool is a community platform for creators and brands.

Start a community, set a subscription price, share a link with your audience, and build monthly recurring revenue. Usually it costs $99/month but its free with Community Empire.

It makes grabbing a Community Empire membership a no-brainer.

P.S: I thought this tweet was interesting…

One of the most common questions I get:

Besides community, how do I avoid spending money on ads and get free customers at my door?

Answer: “boring marketing”

I use BoringMarketing.com so our portfolio gets lines of customers waiting to buy our products.

Ask them about their proprietary SEO sprint. It’s not listed on their website.

Disclosure: I’m an investor in the business

Be well,
Greg Isenberg