#643 Core Values vs. AI: Tim Brownson on Authentic Marketing Success

Are you struggling to stand out in a world overflowing with AI-generated content? Wondering how you can attract clients without blending into the noise?

In this episode of Talking with the Experts, Rose Davidson sits down with Tim Brownson, founder of The Fully Booked Coach, to explore why your core values are the secret to authentic marketing success in today’s AI-driven world.

Tim explains that while AI can generate content at lightning speed, it cannot replicate your values, integrity, or authenticity. These are the very things that differentiate you from competitors and build trust with your audience.

You’ll learn how to uncover and use your core values to craft messaging that resonates deeply, how identifying your anti-values can clarify what you stand against, and why compromising your values could cost you clients and credibility.

With nearly two decades of coaching experience and as the author of The Clarity Method, Tim has guided countless business owners to position themselves authentically and succeed in an AI-saturated market.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “How do I stand out when everyone is using the same tools?”, this conversation holds the answer. By leaning into what makes you uniquely you - your values - you’ll find the clarity and confidence to market your business without fear of being drowned out.

👉 Don’t just compete with AI. Use your values to rise above it.

🔗 CONNECT WITH TIM

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timbrownson/

Website: https://thefullybookedcoach.com/

📌 PROMOTION: https://thefullybookedcoach.com/hire-tim/

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Transcript

Intro | 00:00
Business insights on talking with the experts. Hosted by Rose Davidson. 

 Rose | 00:10
Have you ever wondered why your core values are the key to your marketing success in the AI world? My guest today is Tim Brownson. He's going to be chatting with us about how solopreneurs and small business owners can understand that the only way they can stand out and stand apart with so much AI content is to know how to utilize their values in their messaging and in some cases, their positioning. Now, Tim is... The owner of Fully Booked Coach and has been coaching full-time since 2005. After building his blog, A Daring Adventure, into one of the web's most the web's top life coaching destinations, he pivoted in 2012 to help business owners master that no BS marketing technique. His book, The Clarity Method, is used by coaches worldwide, both as a client tool for uncovering core values and as a personal positioning system that helps them differentiate themselves in an increasingly AI-saturated market. After 14 years in Orlando, Florida, he now lives in Cornwall, England with his wife and his two Dobermans. Tim, welcome to Talking with the Experts. 

 Tim | 01:20
Thanks, Rose. It's great to be here. 

 Rose | 01:22
Tell me, how did you get into doing what you are currently doing? 

 Tim | 01:28
Well, I started coaching because we were moving to the US in 2006 and I'd worked in sales for 20 years and I was stressed senseless and I did not. Want to move to the saving grace in the UK in corporate is if you've been there a long time, you get five weeks paid vacation a year. I didn't want to move to the US and get one week's paid vacation a year and still having the same levels of stress. 
 So I decided to become a coach. I mean, it was a bit of a slower process than that, but I took some coach training. I called myself a coach, went to America in February 2006, sat around the pool a lot waiting for the clients because I'd Of course, people are going to want to find me. And nothing happened. And by the end of 2006, I was just in panic. Probably not as much as my wife was starting to panic, seeing me sitting around. 
 And then somebody suggested that I start blogging. And I didn't. Blogging was still relatively new. 
 And then I really dove into SEO and to online marketing and did a pretty good job. Some of it was a little bit of luck, you know, a lot of hard work and churning out content at a time when it was hard and painstakingly slow to churn out content and built a blog. I was getting 1500 unit visitors a day, full with clients. 
 And then other coaches started to come in, come into me to ask me if I could help them do what I'd done. This was over about a four or five year period. 
 So I started working with more coaches with no intention of doing that. And I kind of just morphed into that when in 2012, since 2012, I still do a little bit of life coaching. I've still got the site. I just haven't blogged for a number of years. 
 So and that's where I am now.- 

 Rose | 03:09
Right, so how can core values differentiate us or as business owners from our competitors? 

 Tim | 03:20
Well, you know, I was just saying, Rose, that you turn out content. One of the differentiators I had was the fact that, you know, I published a blog post most days. I had about 150 guest posts and did lots of podcasts back in the day when podcasts weren't particularly common. To do that now, to take that approach now. Isn't going to help you stand out. 
 So that helped me stand out just by being a prolific content producer. At the moment with AI, I can go and write 20 mediocre blog posts in about half an hour maybe I could churn that stuff out. 
 So doing that doesn't help you stand out. How I've managed to retain my position is sticking with my core values, recognising what my core values are. Okay, what are the things that are important to me as a human being? What are the things that I stand by and that's who I'm going to be come what may? And that AI can't replicate that. 
 Well, it can't now. I mean, let's be honest, it was in five years time, you know, but it can't recognize that human quality that we've got. And we want that. And I think as we get more and more AI, I had a good friend, a couple of days ago, send me an article and asked me to comment on it. And he's a really good writer. He's been a good writer for a long time. And I just, I don't know. I emailed him, I said, Rob, to be honest, I left him a voicemail. I'm just seeing so much of this stuff now because everybody's a good writer now and everybody can put content out. I said, you've got to get more of you in your background because it's unique. 
 So it's our story that people resonate. I'm going on a bit now, Rose, but all this comes back to values. What do you really think is important? And what are the things at the core of us as individuals that help us stand out from other people? 

 Rose | 05:16
Yeah, it's important too that, you know, when we're using AI for writing or for anything in our business that AI understands what our core values are so that they can write accordingly. You know, my AI, who I've named Scott, you know, understands me pretty well. 
 So if I ask it a question, it does. You know, pretty much, understands my voice and the way I want something to be told. And if I don't like what it's written, then I will, you know, tell it and I will say, well, you know, can you rewrite it because it sounds like rubbish? And, you know, and they will. 
 You know, it is, as I was trying to get the point across, is that whether you're using AI or writing from your heart, core values are very important. Right. 

 Tim | 06:05
Yeah, and there's something that I call anti-values, the things we push back, the things that we aren't prepared to accept. So, you know, there's certain, I, and you said in the intro, the messaging, which is what we're talking about now, your values bleeding through your content, but positioning. 
 So my, I use values in my positioning. I'm not saying this is right for everybody. 
 You know, I'm fairly, you know, I wear my sort of liberal tendencies off. On my sleeve and I've stood up for certain rights. I've done that through my blog and I will talk about politics in my newsletter. But when I do those things, I get almost no unsubscribes. I've got about two and a half thousand people on my list now that are all coaches and because they know me now and they know that's who I am. Now, you can't do that if everybody is a potential client. Starbucks can't do that. Nike can't do that. They can't. Start getting political. But for me, that's part of my position. Okay, this is who I am. If I don't mind, you know, I will work with anybody, presuming, you know, there are decent human being, but it's not that I don't want to work with other people, but I'm saying you're not for me. I'm just saying this is who I am. And if you want to work with me knowing who I am, then that's brilliant. Because it paraphrased John Lennon, it doesn't get me the most clients, but it gets me the best clients. And I think, you know, people who understand me, I think for a lot of solopreneurs, that where everybody's not, an ideal client, you can afford to do this. And it's going to be more important to do this. Is getting polarised and that's not a good thing I don't think but you know we have to adapt a bit like you know I'm not convinced AI is a good thing long time but long term but you know we've got to adapt and go with it. 

 Rose | 07:58
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I love AI. I think it's great. 
 I mean, when I come up with an idea for something, it will help me and it'll ask me questions. Because I've trained it to ask me questions if I'm stuck on something. 
 So, you know, that's why that's, To me, that's really helpful. But what are anti-values, Tim? What are they? 

 Tim | 08:20
Anti-values. So they're things like hatred and violence and apathy and anger. And the things that just don't I wouldn't you know, none of those things resonate with people. 
 So conflict can be an anti-value of somebody. Now, I don't. But, you know, I'm. Not conflict averse. I don't mind conflict at all. And that is part again of my messaging really is that, yeah, well, I'll go into bat on this because I've got strong feelings about stuff. And that again, that separates me. 
 So anti-village, you don't hear them. I mean, I've worked with 500 plus coaches. I've never had a coach that's come to me that understood anti-values. But the things that we're really, again, are just important. Are core values. Now, often they can be the flip, you know, so if you've got a value of, I don't know, commitment, then not being committed may be an anti-value, but not necessarily. 
 Sometimes they can be quite different. And as a coach, when I'm working with other coaches or small business owners, I'm trying to find out, well, if that's something, you know, for example, if peace is of value of yours, we can't go steaming into getting into arguments with people online because that doesn't, that's going to feel awkward to you. 
 So it's having this balance is like yin and yang that understanding what you won't, what you need to bring towards you, the sort of states that you want, whether that's contentment, whether it's family or whether it's... Commitment or bravery or whatever, demonstrating those, but then pushing away and not getting involved into the anti values that really are anathema to you as an individual. 

 Rose | 10:16
That makes a lot of sense. And I think, you know, there are probably things that, you know, don't sit well with the general populace if you... Protecting them at, you know, on a continuous basis. 

 Tim | 10:30
Right, exactly. Yeah. 
 I mean, so it's, Like I said, I don't mind conflict, but the people who follow me understand that. If somebody comes into my Facebook group and gives advice that is demonstrably wrong, I'm going to step in there and I'm going to tell them it's wrong and I'm going to explain why. And people have said to me in the past, you know, you don't kind of sugarcoat it. You can seem quite harsh. I don't mean to be, I don't want to offend people, but when you're talking to a lot of people, you have to just be who you are. 
 And then the people that resonate with that will get the message. I never want to offend people, and I can do because I have a tendency, and I wouldn't come on your podcast and do that, but I tend to swear a lot. And some people say that's offensive. 
 You know, I'm sorry, but you just need to avoid my emails and meeting me in public. Because just get me on a podcast and I'm fine. 
 Somebody said to me, well, she cannot swear. Of course I can. 
 You know, I can. Some clients have never heard me swear. But in my normal life, I do. 
 So when I'm writing content, when I'm sending an email out, I do it deliberately. I'll drop an F-bomb in every email just to kind of test people. Just like, okay, if this is going to offend you. 
 Yeah, I'm probably not right for you. And that's fine. I'm not trying to say I'm right and you're wrong. I'm trying to say we're different. And we need to find the people who we gel with, who we're going to work well with, who we're going to resonate with, not be trying to persuade everybody to our way of thinking, which is what's, you know. Popular at the moment with a lot of people. 

 Rose | 12:15
Absolutely. Yeah, so why is compromising our core values, how will that lose us clients or customers? 

 Tim | 12:22
- Well, I think it looks, you see it a lot sometimes in corporate, you see businesses that claim to have this value, I know when it's LGBTQ, plus month, you will have brands jumping on that bandwagon and suddenly putting something pink on their logo, or what have you. And the community know that, and they will call that out straight away. You can't not talk about it for 11 months of the year, and then suddenly start talking about it and claiming you're an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. You just can't do that. There's been loads of faux pas by businesses over the years with that marketing that are usually because of core values that happened with Budweiser in the US when they did a transgender ad and you know that they were just attacked from all sides because it sort of came out of nowhere it was you could imagine that being thought through at a board level strategically rather than being who that is as part of their business and it's fine you know as a beer they don't need to be like that, but it looks fake. I don't know if you remember the Enron, when Enron went under and took all their pensioners back in the late 90s, I think it Yeah, it was a long time ago. 

 Rose | 13:37
Was. 

 Tim | 13:41
I keep forgetting I'm a lot older than most people on this planet. It was like they took, you know, hundreds of millions of people, you know, thousands of people lost their pensions and they got on their website that their core values were respect, integrity, communication and excellence. 
 So, you know, you put that on there and then behind the scenes, you're siphoning away everybody's... Everybody's pension and future, well, you know, that's not going to work. 
 So it's not a question of just putting your values up on your website. No, it's these are my values. And you're going to know what my values are roughly. You're going to go and read my homepage and know that I value honesty, humour and swearing. That's not a value, by the way. But, you know, you're going to get there and think, okay, yeah, this guy might be for me. And probably for 90% of people, I'm not, I would have thought. 95. 

 Rose | 14:32
Maybe. Yeah, it's disappointing that, you know, as a corporation... 
 You know, they put these values up on their websites and, you know, they sprout them around with their team members and managers employees and whatever, but they don't live by them, which is, you know, such a disappointment, you know, I'm following these people on Twitter on Facebook and they you know, call out these bosses that are really bad. And I think, you know, they work for some big companies, some of them. And if, you know, that's the type of values that they're espousing, I mean, to me, you know, the company is just not worth anything. 

 Tim | 15:15
No, we look at what happened with the Coldplay thing with the or what was the name of the business? I can't remember the name of the company it was called now. Were they caught on camera? 

 Rose | 15:26
Whose business is it? To me, I thought that was hopeless. 
 I mean, it was no one's business but theirs. 

 Tim | 15:32
Right. But no, I agree. But it was a ridiculous faux pas to be doing that in public when it's HR. Again, that to me seems like a clash of values when you got ahead. 
 You know, if it wasn't, if it'd been somebody else who would have been fired doing that. And the fact that it's HR, the head of the department, that would fire somebody. 
 I mean, I felt. Well, I didn't feel bad for them because, you know, again, personal values, when you're at the top of the company, when you become a figurehead for that company, it's one of the reasons why I dislike medicine, which is because Zuckerberg's values and what he's done and how he treats people. I don't care what's going on below you. You're the top guy and you're acting without any form of integrity or decency, in my opinion. 

 Rose | 16:18
Absolutely, yes. And you've got to love their bots. I've just got out of Facebook today after being. There for a week for breaching apparently cyber security me cyber security yep Not a chance. 

 Tim | 16:34
Well, I got thrown in for three days because I called him out. I won't use the word, but it's the T word that we use a lot in Australia and England. And it can be a form of endearment. But obviously, in America, it's similar to the C word. They use it differently. 
 So I never use it when I'm talking to American clients and what have you. But I do use it a lot in the UK. And I called him a stupid one because he'd come up with this idea for mixing a new record. He's just been stupid. 
 You know, whatever. Next thing I know, I can't get into Facebook. And, you know, it's just by the time you've figured it all out, it's just not worth going through the appeals process for three days. 
 So I sat there, I've got a Facebook group with almost 7,000 coaches in it and no way of getting in. This was about three years ago. 
 So I've since set up a persona account so I can dive in and stop anybody spamming my group today. 

 Rose | 17:23
It's ridiculous, isn't it? Anyway. 
 Yeah. If you want to find out more about Tim and his coaching business, you can find him on LinkedIn and on his website at thefullybookedcoach.com. And he has a promotion where he's hired Tim. Tell me about that one. 

 Tim | 17:42
The Hayatin promotion is finished. It finished on the 31st. She finished it. But I'll tell you, here's what I'll do. Let me tell you what I'll do, Rose. If for the first three people that comment on the YouTube interview, I'll send them a free copy of the Clarity Method. It's going to be, if they're in the UK, you can have a physical book, but if they're outside the UK, it's going to have to be a PDF. 

 Rose | 18:10
Never mind. That's all right. Thank you for doing that. That's wonderful. All right, Tim. It's been a pleasure. Have you got any words of wisdom you'd like to share? 

 Tim | 18:19
No, I would just say to anybody, try to get an understanding. People often think they know the values and then when they sit down, they're actually not quite as clear as they thought they were. 
 So I would say to anybody, sit down and try and figure out what are the things that you're never prepared to compromise on and then don't compromise on them, basically. 

 Rose | 18:38
Absolutely no agree 100% Tim it's been a pleasure thank you so much for joining me today. 

 Tim | 18:44
Thank you. 

 Outro | 18:47
You've been listening to Talking with the Experts with Rose Davidson. The podcast that brings you real stories, bold insights and strategies that work. Be sure to subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast channel so you never miss an episode. And dive into our full library anytime at talkingwiththeexperts.com. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing and keep talking with the experts.