Establish unique brand value before seeking the media spotlight

Jeramiah Solven knows exactly what he’s doing and for whom he’s doing it. A former Army Ranger who led raids in Afghanistan, he now leads corporate executives, law enforcement and business owners through a grueling team-building course in the Colorado Rockies. He also hosts the “Be the Leader” podcast, where he discusses the principles of leadership that carried him through deployments and now are the core of his business’ success.

Solven’s brand is distinct from the typical “business coach” because of his military background, his podcast’s disciplined focus and the mountains where his training takes place. Without these differentiators, he wouldn’t have 20,000 Instagram followers, thousands of monthly podcast downloads and clients flying in from as far away as Hawaii.

And he wouldn’t have stood out in a way which earned a feature published with Entrepreneur.com last year, or which led me to profile him in at Forbes.com.