The Five Ps Of A Key Person Of Influence
Pitch, publish, product, profile, partnerships — the founder's actual job description.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 95%
Priestley's answer to how you build a brand from nothing is a five-part role definition. Pitch: the entrepreneur journey is a journey of a thousand pitches, and you either pitch an average pitch and end up with nothing or pitch a phenomenal one and end up with a ten-to-hundred-million-dollar business. Founders are the spokesperson for their business and have to be able to excite people about an idea through their words — in person, to camera, on stage, one-to-one or to groups. Publish: take the elements of the pitch and put them into different formats — video, podcasts, a book, LinkedIn — which is the 7-11-4 machinery. Product: too many people sell time and skills; you have to sell intellectual property, media, data, software or productized services, because your time as founder belongs on the demand side, not the supply side. Profile: social platforms, live events, awards, traditional media, third-party platforms. Partnerships: capital partners for investment, distribution partners for sales, product partners who incorporate what they do into yours. His framing matters as much as the content — personal branding carries a stigma and sounds like photographing your breakfast, but sensible people with successful businesses look at pitch, publish, product, profile, partnership and say that makes sense.
Origin
Priestley wrote Key Person of Influence in 2009 and published it in 2010, during a period when the global financial crisis had taken him from millions in revenue down to a few hundred thousand — a 90% loss in one year, with a Christmas party that went from 17 or 18 people to three. Writing about what he still knew to be true produced the conviction that the world was shifting from institutional to personal brands.
Core principles
- 01The entrepreneur journey is a journey of a thousand pitches.
- 02Publishing is the pitch repackaged into other formats.
- 03Your time belongs on the demand side, not the supply side.
- 04The goal is key person of influence, not influencer.
- 05Idea promotion beats self-promotion.
- 06You do not need a huge following — 5,000 to 50,000 in a high-value niche is enough for seven figures.
How to run it
- 1
Pitch
Learn to get people excited about an idea through your words, in any format — video, camera, podcast, live, one-to-one, to groups. Founders are the spokesperson and cannot delegate it.
Pro tip Priestley's examples: Zuckerberg has done hundreds of pitches for Facebook and its features over twenty years; Jobs did it on stage and then the video went out.
Watch out An average pitch ends with nothing; the distribution of outcomes here is not linear.
- 2
Publish
Take the elements of the pitch and put them into different formats: videos, podcasts, a book, LinkedIn posts. This is the machinery that produces 7-11-4.
Pro tip Only about 1% of LinkedIn users publish weekly, so the competition is a fraction of what it appears to be.
Watch out Publishing is making public — private writing does not count toward the role.
- 3
Product
Build a scalable product ecosystem — intellectual property, media, data, software, or productized services. Something that does not require your time and effort to sell again.
Pro tip The reason is structural: your time as founder has to be on the demand side, not the supply side.
Watch out Selling time and skills caps the business at your available hours regardless of how good the brand is.
- 4
Profile
Social media platforms, live events, awards, traditional media and third-party platforms. The visible surface area that makes you findable and credible.
Pro tip Third-party platforms carry borrowed credibility the owned channels cannot.
Watch out Profile without product is fame that cannot be monetised.
- 5
Partnerships
Once the first four are in place, do joint ventures. Capital partners for investment, distribution partners for sales, product partners who incorporate what they do into your product.
Pro tip Priestley's ordering is deliberate — partnerships come last because you need something to partner with.
Watch out Seeking partners before pitch, publish, product and profile exist means negotiating from nothing.
In the wild
Priestley's 2009 thesis, radical at the time, was that big faceless companies would decline and individuals whose personal brands exceeded their institutions would rise.
→ His current evidence: Brian Cox has more followers than CERN, Richard Branson orders of magnitude more than Virgin, Elon Musk more than NASA, and Trump more power than the Republican Party.
Priestley draws the distinction sharply. Influencers with a million followers notoriously cannot sell hoodies — audiences see them as entertainers, not as people directing serious spend.
→ A key person of influence with 5,000 or 10,000 followers in a high-value niche says this is the thing to buy and everyone buys it. Priestley says that is enough of a brand to make seven figures.
He names three types of personal branding: idea promotion (here are the insights, the data, the problem, its nuances, the achievable outcome and how to get there), deficiency promotion (here are all the ways I am flawed), and self-promotion (my car, my abs, my dinner, my lifestyle).
→ Idea promotion is the most effective and is what makes someone part thought leader, part entrepreneur. Self-promotion is what people object to and what marks an influencer.
Common mistakes
Selling time and skills
Priestley says too many people do this. Without a scalable product, the founder's time is consumed by supply, leaving nothing for the demand side where it belongs.
Chasing follower count
Influencers with a million followers frequently cannot sell anything, because the audience relationship is entertainment rather than authority. Niche and positioning beat scale.
Doing self-promotion and calling it a personal brand
Lifestyle, car and abs content reads as narcissistic and marks you as an influencer rather than a key person of influence. Idea promotion is the version that converts.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders working out what their own job actually is, and experts building authority in a niche.
Not ideal for
Operators in businesses where the founder deliberately stays anonymous.
From the transcript
“the entrepreneur journey is a journey of a thousand pitches”
“your time and effort as a founder has to be on the demand side not the supply side”
“the goal is not to be an influencer to be a key person of influence and there's a difference”
From the episode
The Money Making Expert: The 7,11,4 Hack That Turns $1 Into $10K Per Month! This 90 Day Rule Will 10x Your Income! Daniel Priestley
Daniel Priestley