Building a Personal Brand When You Feel Like Hiding : Confident Communication with Curt Doussett

This episode rewrites the rules of branding. Just so you know, hiding behind your business logo is no longer enough.

Discover how to show up with authenticity, adapt to any audience, and turn rejection into fuel with Curt Doussett.

Whether you’re a small business owner, speaker, coach, or just trying to be heard in a noisy marketplace, this episode will challenge how you think about public speaking, personal visibility, and brand leadership.

📌What’s Covered:

• The overlooked skill that separates forgettable brands from magnetic ones
• How to turn fear of public speaking into your greatest strength
• What improv can teach entrepreneurs about leadership, trust, and adaptability
• Why vulnerability—not polish—is your most powerful brand asset
• A powerful mindset shift: rejection isn't personal, it's professional
• The art of storytelling in sales—and why facts alone won’t win over your audience

Curt Doussett is an award-winning actor and has been a host on TV shows for channels such as National Geographic, Discovery, and Travel Channel, where he learned the ins and outs of presentation, public speaking, and engaging audiences.

🌐Learn more about Curt at https://www.curtdoussett.com/

🌟Join the WAITLIST for The Faithful Founders Collective at https://reinventing-perspectives.kit.com/231f666d82

💛 Thank you for listening in! 😀

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a review! Much appreciated.

Transcript

[00:00:00]

Curt Doussett: You can be a great actor, you can be a great speaker, but if you don't know business, then you're not gonna be able to make yourself known. You can't market yourself. And I felt for years that I was really good at being up on stage in front of the people speaking or training or in front of a camera hosting a show or whatever that is.

But without the entrepreneurial side of that, there's no way for me to market myself and get my name out there. Years ago, it became a area of study.

It’s time to REINVENT [Tune].

Priscilla: Welcome to The Entrepreneur's Kitchen. Today, I've got a very special guest. I've got Curt Doussett

here. Curt please let us know who you are and what's your mission.

Curt: My name's Curt Doussett. I am a TV host [00:01:00] speaker. I do corporate training. My wife and I are entrepreneurs. We run several businesses and just trying to do as much good as we can out there.

Priscilla: you've been doing what. Is now shifting to the entrepreneur space For a long time, it used to be that the entertainment entrepreneur is a personal brand, but the business entrepreneur is just, hiding behind a business logo or business name, a business brand.

And now we're being asked to come forward as personal brands, which is something that is totally foreign. And I'm excited to have you on because you can speak to how to build that authentic personal brand and leverage it for a business. How do you transition, well from like actor entertainment, entrepreneur mindset to entrepreneur, and then for the person who's thinking of the other way, both ways, 

Curt: wow. I've always told people that you can be a great actor, you can be a great speaker, but if you don't know business, [00:02:00] then you're not gonna be able to. Make yourself known, you can't market yourself. And I felt for years that I was really good at being up on stage in front of the people speaking or training or in front of a camera hosting a show or whatever that is.

But without the entrepreneurial side of that there's no way for me to market myself and get my name out there. Years ago it became a area of study. To learn how to do business. And that means marketing, advertising, taxes the people on your team, all of that. It's a rare person that can come up with a great concept or have a great personal brand that also is great at the business side of it.

So usually it takes teams of people to do that,, to scale it to a huge number. But I'm not trying to. Make a hundred million a year, like Intel or Microsoft or any of those types of, groups. But the business side is something that also has to be worked on as well as the craft of whatever it is you're doing, and vice [00:03:00] versa.

If you're really good at business, but want to get into, speaking or acting or television or anything like that, you're gonna have to study, you're gonna take classes, you're gonna have to practice. And they have to go in tandem. And one usually precedes the other.

Priscilla: ​ we're being asked to, have a personal brand especially for small business owners, that drives people to whatever it is that you're doing, and a lot of people don't feel comfortable with, trying to be entertaining or having yourself be the face of something. How can you connect with an audience while also remaining authentic and also being somewhat entertaining? 'cause that's what will get people interested.

Curt: I feel that by making yourself authentic, you need to be vulnerable. But the most important thing , that I teach when I'm up in front of people to be authentic is to accept failure and accept it as fast as you can.

I've. [00:04:00] Done tens of thousands of live shows with a comedy club that my wife and I own, but I have failed so many times up on stage that I'm now comfortable in that space. It doesn't scare me, my mind doesn't freeze up, and it allows me to relax and be more honest and open. And when I'm up on stage trying to communicate with people. 

Priscilla: Now you talk about bringing improv into the workspace. How does that work? I see the value in it, but how would that work? 

Curt: Improv is creating something from nothing or usually from some kind of suggestion. And improv is great because it trains your mind to look at all the most honest options. That are available instead of defaulting to something that you're used to or that you always go this route.

With improv, you can look at all the options. You can fail, which is I think, the most important thing when you're out there trying to create in a [00:05:00] business setting, you're gonna fail. You're not gonna hit a home run every single time. And it's the failures that probably teach us the most. And improv is, I think, one of the best things to help people either create a more creative mind or help communicate better or trust each other more.

So improv has been super important in the corporate setting. I.

Priscilla: Are you suggesting like improv in a meeting . I'm trying to understand like the training. 

Curt: The training when I come into a company, if they've hired me to come in and do a corporate training, I usually do it in their office space or someplace that they've got some kind of conference or something going on and. I'll have them actually get up and do improv exercises that kind of train our brain to open up and think creatively think quickly, think honestly.

Being honest is the most important thing as far as improv goes. And in the corporate setting, we actually do it. Now I don't teach people how [00:06:00] to have a sense of humor . Everyone has their own sense of humor, and that's gonna come out naturally if you're open and honest. So we do actual improv in a corporate setting, but then I'll process how it applies to what they do, whether they're managers, team leaders, whatever it is.

There's a way to show 'em how this exact skillset that we're working on applies to them in the workplace. 

Priscilla: Sometimes we struggle to communicate with other people, especially in the workplace some of those barriers that not consciously we've put up or that we don't see and communication is number one in any setting.

So that's very interesting. Thinking of building something that's, creative, experiential, and also like entertainment based. What are the drivers, what are you looking at that you should get right if you're thinking about a sort of entertainment based business?

Curt: I think you have to have a clear idea of what that brand is, and [00:07:00] once you know what your personal brand is, then have. A very clear idea of who your target market is. You can't put it out to a big wide net. Not yet. It's gotta be very specific. So first, determining what your brand is, and then who are you gonna market that to.

And then that's how you decide even where you're gonna go first. And then once you do, again, putting yourself in the most. Advantageous, position to be authentic and honest with that demographic, I think is the key to finding out how to create that brand.

Priscilla: Kurt, you are really masterful at, shifting your energy to match the environment. I looked at some of the things you've done and it's almost like you're a different person, but very authentic to what's happening at whatever the environment is, you switch and you flow with what's happening.

How do you make that shift to match the environment? 

Curt: It probably comes [00:08:00] from really failing at it so many times that you learn that you can be yourself. There's so many aspects to every single person that I'm not just one way all the time. I act a certain way when I'm with my kids, when I'm with other business colleagues on a business meeting or with.

My friends on a fishing trip, I'm still the same person, but they get different aspects of my personality. So you're still getting me, you're just getting me in that direction. When all of my energy's going towards this, and I'm not trying to be a coach to my kid because I do that as well.

They get different parts of me, , as long as I'm being honest and whatever I'm doing, you're gonna get that version of me. 

Priscilla: Are you thinking in your mind what does this situation require? I'm thinking to the person who's maybe giving a presentation in a different environment are you having a certain thought process to that?

Curt: Oh yeah. I was just down in Las Vegas speaking to about 300. Mid 20-year-old salesman, door to door salesman. [00:09:00] And of course, the thought I had up in front of him was, am I giving these guys specific value for what can help them? I'm not gonna talk to them like they're the CFOs of another company that I was working with.

They've got a whole different objective in mind. So , what value can I bring? And often. One of my keynotes is authentic imposter syndrome. Sometimes I'll feel like even now, , at this age, I can be up in front of a group and feel like, why are they listening to me? What do I have of value?

And all I have is my life's resume. Everything I've done, everything I've accomplished, I'm sharing that with you, and you need this particular part. So I'll give you this. 

Priscilla: You are matching what the people need, but you're also bringing a certain storytelling quality to whatever you are doing. 

Curt: Yes. Storytelling is key. I started out as a theater [00:10:00] actor. Outta college, I started doing community theater plays and I discovered the power of story and what that does for people, how we process information through a story versus just a bunch of facts. And I loved being part of a group of people that an audience would come into a theater and we as a small group of actors would tell a story and everybody in that theater.

Had a similar experience, even though it was different for them because of how they processed the story. But I loved the journey that we took 'em on and my mentor at the time, she was she was amazing. There's a theater chain here in the western States called the Hale Center Theater.

Her name was Ruth Hale. She was probably in her eighties or nineties at the time, but she said , everyone comes here. To take an emotional bath, forget about their problems, forget about the money, life, all that, and we're gonna give them that moment, that sip of [00:11:00] breath in their life where they can breathe just for a second.

So I discovered how powerful storytelling is at that point, and whether I'm in a movie or I'm speaking in front of people, or I'm entertaining a crowd, I'm more of a storyteller. I can't tell jokes. I'm not a joke teller. I don't even know any jokes, but I can tell stories that'll convey something I think is more powerful as far as an emotion goes than just a joke.

Priscilla: You mentioned you were speaking to salespeople and you're teaching them how to story tell I'm just thinking top of mind, some strategies or some tactics. 'cause as entrepreneurs , that's a point where we really struggle, terms of sales or pitching, you're selling something. 

Curt: When you're selling something, I think the best way to approach somebody like I said, I was just in Vegas talking to these door-to-door salesmen and their biggest problem is that they were trying to sell their product instead of trying to solve the [00:12:00] customer's problem.

And if you've got the solution to a problem, then they'll have to buy your product. So if you just come up and tell somebody, Hey, our thing is great, it does this and this, most of the time people aren't gonna listen to you. Just throw a bunch of facts about your product Atem. But if, and here's the most important thing, I think, is how to listen.

Asking people the right questions and listening to them and then telling them how, through personal experience, how you can help them solve this problem, , people will buy , whatever it is. I had a really close friend say The best salesman are the ones who know how to ask the right questions, and it's just, genuinely being interested in solving another person's problem and.

Storytelling comes into that with how your product can help them solve , their problem. 

Priscilla: You mentioned that you have sort of signature stories. Maybe you can speak about that to the people who want to do speaking events or who want [00:13:00] to, expand whatever they're doing through speaking, how are you crafting it?

If you can just give an overview.

Curt: First off, I had to decide , what I was even gonna talk about. And through the TV shows I've hosted the improv shows, the movies and things failing as quickly as possible kind of became how I wanted to approach a crowd. Now, , there are different things I can talk about, but mostly I'm talking about how I, as a.

Person who I am today it's not who I was growing up. The person that I used to be went through all of these steps terrified of people. , one of my kind of core elements of my story is.

This theater that I started doing plays at the very first time I'd never acted before I was in school to do music. And a friend of mine said there was a play coming up and her sister owned the whole theater, but there was a character that was my personality. And she says, you have to do this play.

And [00:14:00] I had never ever thought of being in front of people, ever. So I went to the audition and I snuck in the back and I was watching, and a guy turned to me and he said, oh, I'm really nervous. I hope I get this role. And then they called his name down and he went down and was so big and so loud and all over the place, and he actually ripped the cover off a chest and broke it.

And I thought I can't do this. And I ran outside and I threw up and I went home. And then my friend she called me and said, where are you? And I said, I can't do that. I'm not an actor. I can't be in front of people. I can't do it. So after hours of talking me back, I got.

Into the theater that night. And Ruth Hale, this old matron theater saint, let me practice for an hour. And then I read for them and I went home and I said, never again. I will never do that. I'm not an actor. I should not be up in front of people. And then she called the next day and said, we'd like to offer you the role, the lead role.

And I said, Nope, [00:15:00] goodbye. And I hung up. And they called for three days until they finally convinced me that they would hold my hand, walk me through it, and I did the next 27 plays in a row for the next seven years without taking a break. It was transformative for me. So that was a turning point for me, and that's one of the core stories I talk about.

And I go into a little bit more detail when I'm up in front and I'll often bring people up on stage and interact with them as well. But that's a basic Kurt Dousett core story.

Priscilla: That's a powerful, transformational story. Fear of public speaking is a big thing with a lot of people, which is why even now, sometimes, you should do more, personal branding type things to make people aware of your business.

But people don't wanna be seen, they don't wanna be heard. They just wanna do the work. But you can't get the work if you don't put yourself out there.

Curt: Yeah.

Priscilla: So it's.

Curt: in that play at one point I [00:16:00] had to run across the stage in my underwear only. And I didn't know that when they offered me the role, that was something they surprised me with. It was a baptism by fire, getting comfortable in front of a crowd. And I realized in theater that when people are laughing in the play, they're not laughing at Kurt, they're laughing at the character and the story.

And so what's been great for me is now at this point in my career, I can be up in front of people and they're actually laughing at what I want them to laugh at. And it can be about me. That's fine. I've run across a stage in my underwear. Nothing can be worse than that, 

Priscilla: oh, that's great. You were in touched by an angel, which was one of my favorites. Characters like Della Reese and Tess, and, all these really talented people control your emotions as you are watching.

You work with a lot of talented people and I wonder the dynamics of that, what is that really like? 

Curt: When I first started doing TV or movies, I was told. Do not approach the main actors. They're gonna [00:17:00]come in and eat before you. You're going to eat last. Don't have a conversation with them. Don't look at 'em. Don't talk to 'em. And then as my career started to take off and the roles got bigger, then you get to spend time with the people that are playing the bigger roles.

And it was actually on Touched by an angel. I'm sitting at the table with Marian Ross, who played the mother , on the TV show, happy Days, Randy Travis Della Reese all these pretty well established actors and another one named William Mayer. We actually ended up becoming really good friends for a while, but, he has been in every Tom Cruise movie. He's Tom Cruise's cousin, and he was just telling me that he's just as worried about the next job as I am. And Randy Travis came in and sat down and sat next to me and just start talking about what being on a project like this was like [00:18:00] after having spent some time in jail.

I guess he went to prison. I didn't know that. And they're just, normal people, if you can get on that side of the table, they're just as worried about their next job. They're just as worried about their kids and making their mortgage payment. And they like some of the same foods. They like to travel some of the same places.

And it was interesting. I became pretty good friends with a guy, an actor named David Ogden Steyers. Who was on a television show called Mash. He played the character of Winchester and did a bunch of voices for Disney. And just having dinner with him one night down , in Los Angeles he said, it's just so good to talk to normal people.

I don't get a chance to just, everyone treats us differently. And I thought , I'm absolutely no one. I'm just. Kurt Dousett living in Utah, five kids. And he said, no, it's just good to talk to somebody else 'cause we're just normal people. And then he said, [00:19:00] we have people put on our pants for us one leg at a time just like everyone else, which was funny.

But he he just laid it out there that there's nobody who's above being talked to equally across the board. And I discovered that. A lot of the actors that are sitting at the small table are the most interesting people to go and talk to. And I've been the lead , in some movies before and talking to the day players, the ones that are there for just one or two days or just extras in the background, they're the exact same as me and the other actors.

And they've got questions. I've got questions. So it's fun to just. Honestly, just treat everyone the exact same.

Priscilla: Yeah. That's great. The advantages you have coming from entertainment to becoming an entrepreneur. I think you get used to no. A lot, which when you first go into business, it's hard to keep hearing so many nos.

Curt: You definitely have to get used to hearing the word no. They say you can go on a hundred auditions [00:20:00]and 99 will tell you no. And then they'll tell you why they don't want you. I've heard no so many times in the same day, one audition said, no, there's no way we could have Kurt. playing this role.

He's not good looking enough. We need somebody who's better looking. We just need somebody who's , more beautiful. And my agent told me that and I was like, oh, okay. And then I went to another audition and they came back, said, we can't hire Kurt. There's no way. He's way too good looking for the role.

So , it has nothing to do with me, actually. So you'll hear no. Constantly, and you cannot take it personal. Never take rejection personal.

Priscilla: Do you think that's made you better as an entrepreneur because you could have insulated yourself from the rejection part of it?

Curt: I think so, yeah. Again, in business, just like in the entertainment industry. People are gonna say no for their reasons, not because of you necessarily all the time. [00:21:00] And sometimes people saying no is a good thing. You'll come to find out that if they had said yes, it would've not been the best for you.

So turning any kind of a no, it's not really a business of who's the best. It's more in the business of the last man standing. Can you keep going? The value of not quitting is. Probably more important than your idea.

Priscilla: Thank you so much for that. People would hear public speaking and storytelling and maybe some tactical things. If let's say you're losing the audience what would you do, Kurt, if you notice that? Okay. People are not engaged.

Curt: When I'm up speaking in front of a group of people or I'm doing a corporate training or even a keynote, there's two things that help. One is to just talk to the audience, talking to specific people in the audience.

Once you look somebody in the eye and you're talking to them and you can actually point and say I'm talking to you, then people will pay attention. But one of the best things and one of my favorite things [00:22:00] to do is. To bring somebody up on stage, which I know a lot of comedians don't like to do.

A lot of speakers don't like to do. I love it. I think the best moments come from when you bring somebody up on stage, because when you bring up one person up on stage, you're actually bringing up the entire audience up there. Now that person represents the whole entire room, and there's a lot of things that I love to do when I get somebody up on stage that will highlight them.

And hopefully entertain people, but use a skill or teach a skill that is useful to the group , whatever group I'm speaking in front of. But bringing somebody up on stage is really fun and it's terrifying for them and for me, , you can't have firsts anymore if you stop trying new things.

So I love to bring people up.

Priscilla: And I can imagine now everyone's worried they're gonna be called up next.

Curt: No. Typically I'll catch 'em off guard. And then usually you'll have somebody, volunteer. , My friend will go and I said you just fell into the old trap of when you volunteer your friend, you volunteer yourself. Come on up, everyone give 'em a hand. We'll [00:23:00] get somebody up somehow.

Priscilla: Oh, that's great. Someone who's looking to improve their communication, whether they're a business leader, a manager, what would you say the number one thing they can do, starting today .

Curt: One thing I have people do when I'm doing a corporate workshop as far as communicating. Is just do a reflexive statement. I think the biggest problem with leaders is that they don't listen. And oftentimes, I'll say leaders are called leaders because they go first, but leaders are leaders also because they listen more than they command.

And one little trick that I have people do , if they want improve in communication it's called a reflexive statement, if you say something to me like, I need that report done by three. And you could just reflect that by saying, so what I'm understanding.

You saying is that you need me to have that report done by three, what can I do to help get that done? Or what do you specifically need from me? So if you just reflect that and actually say it back to them, people like [00:24:00] to be heard. They like to know that they were heard and seen. So that's one thing. And then it's stuck in both your minds exactly what the need is.

An exercise I do. And I don't need to explain it now, but I send a pen around two different ways in a circle, and it usually ends up at really messy at a certain point. And we talk about communication, how people have to deal with two things at the same time. And when you try to deal with both things at the same time, neither one of them get accomplished.

The only way to accomplish a task is to. Focus on , that one task, complete it, then do another one. If you're going back and forth, you're not gonna do either one very well. And then an example of that is if you send an email to somebody, your job's not done. You haven't completely communicated everything, you need to understand that they received the email and that they understood what was expected of them in that email.

And then at that point you can, put the ball in their court to [00:25:00] communicate back to you. So there's lots and lots of little things .

Priscilla: Absolutely. We're in a culture now where you've got like hundreds of emails . And no one cares besides sending the email. What happens after that. And of course, there's no communication taking place there.

I'm wondering What are you finding exciting about the future with it? In your space or just in the marketplace?

Curt: Oh boy. For me personally, what's exciting is I'm working with a company next month to scale my speaking to, instead of going out once or twice a month, I want to go out four or five times a month. And so for me, that's gonna be a big project. To get my personal brand scalable with some employees to get the message out there and start booking a lot more of the speaking engagements, which I've never really aggressively marketed the speaking.

It's all been word of mouth and I've almost shied away from it for the last 20 years. Except for the last three years. Because I've been focusing a lot on [00:26:00] TV and movies and hosting shows, but as I'm getting older I'm done waiting for directors and producers to call me about the next project.

I'm going to create my own projects, but I still do have a couple movies that I've been working on this year. I've got. Two or three that I'm just finishing up, and then another show for Discovery Channel that's getting ready to come out. So lots of stuff. And then my youngest son is wrestling and I'm gonna be one of his coaches, so lots to do.

Priscilla: Oh, that's exciting. Thank you so much for giving us your time. Kurt, is there something that I should have asked, which I didn't ask, which you'd like to share with us? 

Curt: No, I hope the people that watch this will pull something out of this. And if they have questions, I want them to reach out to you. If you don't have the answer, have them reach out to me.

Yeah I'm happy to have had this time to talk with you.

Priscilla: Thank you. Are you active on social media, Kurt?

Curt: I, I. I've got an Instagram, it's just I think it's just Kurt [00:27:00] Downset on Instagram or Kurt underscore Downset. That's about it. I'm not posting as much as I should, but I am doing stuff through my website, kurt dowsett.com and that's about it right now. 

Priscilla: Thank you to the audience. If you could please go to Kurt's website. It'll be linked in the description. Thank you so much, Kurt, and it's been a pleasure. It's great to speak to someone who's, done as much as you have and I think you'll be leading in the personal brand era, and I'm looking forward to you seeing you do more of that.

Thank you so much.

Curt: All righty. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Priscilla: Thank you.