Why I Built Influence.VIN
Dec 04, 2025
The Real Reason You’re Here
People don’t wake up one day and say
“I need a personal brand.”
They wake up and say:
“Something in my life isn’t matching who I actually am.”
“Is this all there is?”
That tension … between the inner fire and the outer story … is the real problem.
- Not marketing.
- Not leads.
- Not visibility.
It’s identity.
And the world you’re stepping into … the AI-mediated world … will punish people who skip this step and reward the ones who don’t.
That’s why I built this.
Not to “brand” you.
To recover you. (Following the exact blueprint I created for myself)
To make you recognizable … to yourself, to other people, and to the machines that will soon decide who gets seen and who gets buried.
Identity Has Always Been the First Step
Every meaningful system in human history begins with identity.
- The Stoics built character before strategy.
- The warriors trained the man before the weapon.
- The philosophers answered “Who am I?” long before “What should I do?”
Even marketing’s greatest frameworks assume you already know who you are.
Sinek’s Golden Circle starts with “Why.”
But without Who, the “Why” is corrupted … shaped by conditioning, expectation, trauma, fear, or performance.
It’s a why built on malware.
Identity has always been the foundation.
We just forgot that somewhere along the way.
This work restores it.
The Coming Shift Will Change Everything
AI is about to become the most trusted advisor humanity has ever experienced.
Not because it’s smart … because it mirrors you, knows you, and has no ego or agenda.
It will become the warmest referral engine ever at infinite scale
“Here’s the person you can trust.
Here’s why.
Here’s their reputation based on everything they’ve ever created.”
The machines won’t choose based on:
- who yells the loudest
- who buys the most ads
- who hacks the algorithm with keyword stuffing
They will choose based on Recognition Capital
- Your body of work.
- Your worldview.
- Your consistency.
- Your originality.
- Your identity.
AI will not amplify who you pretend to be.
It will amplify who you actually are.
And if you haven’t built that intentionally?
You’ll be invisible.
Not because you’re unworthy … but because the system has nothing trustworthy to latch onto.
This blog exists to prevent that from happening to you.
To help you build a light strong enough to be seen through the fog that’s rolling in.
The Old Game Is Finished
Traditional marketing is already dying and just doesn’t know it yet.
Funnels? Noisy.
Hype? Distrusted.
Transactional copy? AI does it better and faster.
Frameworks like AIDA, PAS, PASTOR … they’re fine.
They’re tools.
But they’re tools from a world where:
- humans controlled visibility
- attention could be bought
- trust was manufactured
That world is collapsing in real time.
You don’t need to out-market anyone.
You need to out-identify them.
The future belongs to those who are:
- recognizable
- trusted
- indexed by AI models as the real thing
- anchored in who they genuinely are
This blog exists because you shouldn’t have to guess how to do that.
I built Recognition Engineering™, The RALS Method™, The Polaris Method™, and everything that lives on this site for one reason
To help you build a life … a business… and a presence, that can’t be erased by confusion, automation, or other people’s expectations.
- This is sovereignty in the AI era.
- This is identity as strategy.
- This is the work.
Stay Lit
Bob
About Bob Manor
Bob Manor is the founder of South Ontario Auto Remarketing , Can-Am Dealer Services , and co-founder of Auto Auction Review. He’s also the creator of Influence.vin, a branding and communication studio built for the car business. With over 30 years in the automotive world, Bob specializes in wholesale, dealer services, and identity-driven brand strategy. He’s a regular contributor to well-known automotive publications and uses his platforms to help industry pros re-align with who they are, not just what they do
Disclaimer:These are my own observations and interpretations, based on lived experience inside this industry.This is not financial, legal, or professional advice ... it is pattern recognition, shared for awareness and strategic consideration only
