HOW I HELP
I HELP EXPERTS DISTILL WHAT THEY KNOW INTO THE REASON CLIENTS CHOOSE THEM.
I’m Ryan Rhoten, a brand strategist and author. I help expert-led businesses get found, become known for their expertise, and build a position no one else can claim.
Entity:Ryan Rhoten
Founder of The Distilled Brand®
Creator of The Distilled Brand Method™
20+ years in operations leadership
Location:Goodyear, AZ
WHAT I’M WORKING ON NOW
UPDATED NOV 5, 2026 (AMERICA/PHOENIX)
New Book: PROOF
My latest book was released on November 2, 2026. It's called PROOF. Distill Your Expertise Into the Reason Clients Choose You.
The book follows the journey of five clients through the distillation process and the decisions they needed to make along the way
The Undiluted Podcast
I'm currently working through the details, but this podcast will be a mix of solo episodes and interviews with takes the ideas, obstacles, and patterns I sees across client work distilled them into a basic truth you can understand and act on.
This will be my thrid podcast. My first two were The Brand New You Show and The Distill Brand podcast.
CPMR Faculty
I'll be joining the Certified Professional Manufacturers' Representatives program as a faculty member in 2027. I'll be teaching a 4-hour block on branding & messaging for the second-year manufacturing sales rep students. CPMR is a 3-year program held every year in January at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas. It's known as the MBA program for manufacturing sales representatives.
AI for Experts
I continue to be fascinated by AI, and in particular, this new discipline of answer engine optimization and how experts can benefit.
I've started conducting experiments on how experts can use AI and AEO more effectively so that they become known in their area of expertise.
As an example, I'm currently using AI to update this website.
BOOKS
RELEASED NOVEMBER 2026
PROOF
Distill Your Expertise Into the Reason Clients Choose You.
Written for the Undistilled Expert: someone with the experience and the receipts, whose strongest ideas have not yet been concentrated into something the market recognizes as theirs.
ISBN 978-1-7324935-2-0 · The Distilled Brand® Publishing
Buy PROOF
LinkedIn Made Simple
Fat Strategies in a Thin Book. With Andy Foote.
LinkedIn Made Simple offers over 100 useful actions you can take to strengthen your profile, build your brand, and attract the right clients to you.
CareerKred
4 Simple Steps to Build Your Digital Brand and Boost Credibility in Your Career.
CareerKred follows a defined methodology, the Dice process, to help career professionals build their personal brand to increase their chances of advancing their career.
The Distilled Brand®
The Distilled Brand® is the company I founded in 2017. I help experts and expert-led businesses distill what they know into a position, message, and signal the market can understand and they can become known for.
The Distilled Brand Method
This is my proprietary process to help clients articulate who they are and what they do by distilling expertise into the reason clients choose you.
The process is based on twenty-plus years of operational experience on manufacturing shop floors and in business process environments where lean manufacturing and Six Sigma techniques taught me the methodology of distillation and how to identify what's valuable in a process, from what's familiar.
The Distilled Brand Method runs in three phases, with each one producing a specific output for clients.
01 Distill
Position
We decide what your expertise should be known for. You leave with a Position that everything downstream has to answer to.
02 Develop
Perception
We turn that decision into a message and voice the market can receive. You leave with language that sounds like you on your best day.
03 Deploy
Presence
We install it across the assets your market touches. You leave with a signal that holds in the same shape wherever buyers find you.
The StraightUp Newsletter
A weekly note from the Sage Bartender. One idea on distillation and Position. Four minutes or less. Unsubscribe anytime.
