RV: (00:06) Hey, we’re back with the recap edition of the influential personal brand, breaking down this interview that we did with our good friends, Kevin Harrington and Mark Timm about their new book, which I’m excited. It’s coming out right now this week. If you’re listening to this live as this episode airs, so let’s get right into it, babe. Why don’t you kick us off with your, your three takeaways? Well, one, and then I’ll do one and you know, AJV: (00:34) I know how it works. Yeah. So my first and biggest takeaway is that your personal brand is a business. And if you don’t treat it like a business, it will never be one. And I think so many people, at least that we interact with come into this, that they have this passion, I’m going to have a message and they want to build a personal brand, or they want to grow their personal brand. Without the context of that is a business like you are now entering into the world of entrepreneurship, which means you have to know how to acquire business. I E sales and marketing. You have to know how to collect payments. You’re going to have to know how to outsource staff. You’re going to have to know how to create content. You’re going to have to have a backend system, which means you’re going to have to have technology. I’m not to mention there’s going to be an investment, right? There are all of these things to create the infrastructure of how a business runs. And that is the same thing as building and monetizing your personal brand. And I loved how they talked about it. And they’re like, they’re, they’re the same, a personal brand is a business. So you must treat it like one. RV: (01:44) Yeah, that’s good. And, and it’s interesting to see someone so successful at business, Kevin now investing so much into his personal life for his own personal brand. And I mean, my first big takeaway, clearly, obviously the whole discussion about their book is about the power of mentors. And I think specifically, I thought it was so cool. You know, when Kevin listed off these mentors, it was listing off big ones, but then, you know, he talks about us and he talks about Russell Brunson. We’re both younger than him. And so I thought that was so cool. Just his open humility about the idea of having a doesn’t have an a and I mean, I feel honored to do it cause he’s, he’s incredible. And then also, also Mark, Mark is also a client of ours and also somebody that I would view as a, as a, as a mentor, but who is mentoring you like who’s pouring into your life right now. Who’s teaching you that is outside of your spouse. Somebody that’s like helping guide you AJV: (02:52) And believing in you RV: (02:55) And challenging you and, and warning you about things to look ahead and inspiring, you know, part of your vision. So you got to have a mentor and I, I actually think, you know, that’s kind of like what our business is in a way. I mean, it’s, it’s, you know, it’s coaching and strategy, but so anyways, I just, I love that. And I thought that was super humble. AJV: (03:15) Yeah. That’d probably stuck out to you because you have tons of mentors. RV: (03:19) Yeah, totally. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I’ve my whole life has been since you were little. Yeah. I mean just mentor, always multiple mentors at any given point. That’s a good, that’s a good point. Yeah. I mean, I am who I am because I’ve had so many mentors. AJV: (03:35) I think it’s really hard to find mentors. Right. I Rory talks about having mentors all the time and I am when I turned 37 this year 37, just a couple of months ago, RV: (03:48) Chicken you’re my young spring chicken. AJV: (03:50) Yeah. Well that was for as long as possible. And I thought it was really interesting too, because I knew that you were going to say that because you’ve had so many mentors, but I gotta be honest. I don’t think I’ve ever had one solidified mentor in my life. And I’ve had a really hard time about finding people that I want to be mentored by. And maybe that’s just because I have a mental block about it, or I haven’t tried hard enough, which is probably part of it, but I’ve instead invested so much more into like conferences and courses. And it’s like, I’m at the point in my life where it’s like, I really want a mentor. I was like, I’ve gone to the conferences and seminars and courses. And I love those. I actually really, really enjoy that. But I also, I know that I need a mentor. AJV: (04:33) So I’m actually really genuinely excited about this book and some of the resources that they’ve offered, because it’s like, actually I’m going to investigate that. And I think that takes really intentional effort because I don’t think you can just find one. I think there is a process to finding something and some one that is worth investing your time into, because it’s not just your mentor’s time, it’s your time as a mentee as well. It’s both people’s times. And I think so often we talk about the mentor, but Hey, the mentee is also has to be committed into investing all this time and energy into it. And perhaps, maybe that’s why admin, I haven’t had enough time or been willing to give enough time into it. But I think that’s something that you do really, really well side note, RV: (05:20) But that’s good. Yeah. That’s interesting to have, I would say we’re on opposite ends of the spectrum and how number of mentors that we have had like yeah, AJV: (05:30) Yeah, yeah, totally, totally separate there. Which is interesting because my second point was the value of having a mentor, but what to look for in one. And that is really what I picked up on. And I loved what he said, and I had never heard this exact color quote before, and I loved it and I wrote it down and it, he says, Ziglar said this, and I think it was Mark. He mentioned this on the interview. He said, you do not by falling in water, you drown by staying in the water. And I thought that was just really, really good. And he said, he said, that is really important that you find a mentor who has experienced failure. That was awesome. And I love that because I think so often we searched for the people who’ve always done it. Right? And it’s like, well, one that’s impossible. AJV: (06:22) You can’t have, you cannot be Uber successful and have always done it. Right. And if so, I would just caution that. And I just, I am more interested in learning from the person who’s been to hell and back. I’m more interested in going, what happened? How can I make sure I don’t do that? So tell me what tips and tools and techniques and mindsets and tell me what to do to make sure that doesn’t happen as well as what to do, but then to also have the emotional and mental capacity of resilience and of just grace and fortitude and all the things that come with struggle and hardship and failure. And also by someone who lets you fail, I’m going fail. Failing is a part of the process and it’s okay. And in fact, I encourage you to fail do it more and do it often and then learn from it. AJV: (07:12) What do you do with a failure? But I feel like you can really only do that. If you are learning from people who are willing to say, I failed, I fail all the time. It’s a daily occurrence for me in some arena of my life and that’s okay. And it’s okay if you fail too, it doesn’t have to be perfect and right, the very first time that you do it. And I love just that whole concept of you need mentors who have failed that have not always gotten it right, but who have figured it out along the way, because you will not get it right every single time. And that’s okay. I just thought that was right. RV: (07:48) That’s great. Yeah. I mean, having someone there to give you perspective to help you pick yourself back up when something goes wrong, cause you know, it will. And that was really, really cool. So my, my second takeaway which I, I actually talked a little bit about in the interview is, is from Mark, Tim of, of just, you know, he actually incorporated his family, which I thought was interesting that it’s this mindset that you run your home like a business, because here’s the truth. Anyone who runs a household runs a business like running a household is running a business. There’s a constant, never close. Yes. Just a daily flow of things that happen in cyclical nature over and over. And it needs strategy and it needs systems and it needs money and it needs, it needs resources. It needs time and planning and, and some of y’all out there like, you know, mostly me, I’m gonna say mostly, I’m going to say mostly you mom’s like, you’re running, you’re running at least two businesses. RV: (08:51) Like if you’re managing a personal brand and you’re managing a, and you have a job, like you got three businesses going on, like you, you have to get help and, and think about it in that way and have permission. I think, to think about it that way. Because sometimes we think, Oh, it’s just like my home life, but it’s like, no, it does take so many people and resources. And, and to have them say it directly like run this like a business, do what you would do the way you would organize a business, do that with your family. And I just thought that was powerful and really a good reminder and just clear permission. AJV: (09:32) Yeah. Well, I feel like if husbands and wives, or even if you’re a single parent, but if you guys treated it like that, I feel like maybe that would incline more men to step into what are the functioning roles of running a household. Maybe if you were able to relate to it more. And that’s what Mark talks about. He goes, I was having a hard time. I was giving my best to work until I realized no, it’s like, my family is like running a business. My household is like a business. So how can I take what I learned at work, what I do at work and bring it home to better improve our home life and family life and all the things. And I thought that was really good. I love that. I knew. Yeah. I knew like way back when that was something that he talked about, that we were just in awe of then, and still now. RV: (10:19) And I think there’s a lot of men that would go, ah, run a family kids. Like I don’t know what to do, but if you go, Oh, run a business and just apply those things at home, you go, Oh, okay. I see that. I could do that. Yeah, he did. He’s looking at him here. I’m sitting here realizing I’m like, crap. I have a bunch more stuff I could. AJV: (10:39) Yeah, no, no. Not at all. Keep going. Yeah. So my third one is the concept of collaboration is this as something that Kevin talked about, kind of close to the end of the interview. And he, I think you asked him like, what’s one thing that you would tell to aspiring personal brands. And he said, collaborate, like, don’t forget the power of a borrowed audience. Don’t get, don’t forget the power of the indirect connections that you get. Don’t forget that the power of two is better than one and five is better than two. And I, he talks about all these collaboration projects that he has been on and is on RV: (11:18) This whole career is basically one giant AJV: (11:21) Collaborations. He is the prime example of what that looks like. And I think that hit it home to me because collaboration is one of the core six values that we have here at brain builders group. And I hope our team doesn’t mind me sharing this publicly, but over the summer with our core team, we did these what we call core value check-ins and they rate themselves and we rate them and we say, all right, well, how are we doing on our core values? And collaboration was fifth out of six, was down on the list. And everyone self identified, like I’m not good at collaborating. Like I’m not, I’m not good. I’m a doer. I’m a, you know, I’m a high D task-driven a Thai person get stuff done. And it was like, I’m just a, let me Mark it off Melissa, go, go, go. And it was a very big aha moment to us to be like, Whoa, we have a, we got to slow down and create the space and time for synergy and collaboration and conversation and brainstorming and strategizing because that is what it is. AJV: (12:28) And it’s the concept of somebody else seeing something that you can’t see. And quite honestly, that is why Brett brand builders group exists, why we exist. It is the whole reason that we exist. And yeah, we can act like mentors and coaches, but really we’re collaborators on your personal brand. And it is time to step back and go, what am I missing? What am I not seeing? Or how do I do more of this? Or how does someone else do it? Or why does it feel like there’s some secret out there that everyone else knows that I don’t know, like who hasn’t filled me in on this. And I just feel like that is what we do, but yet our own team would be like, yeah, we suck at this. We need to do so much better. And I just kind of feel like for everyone, like if you’re not collaborating with someone, why not? And what are you missing? Because you’re not. RV: (13:23) Yeah, that, that is so huge. And it kind of comes back again to the power of mentorship and partnership. And that was my thing too, was, was partnership because it’s interesting. You’re talking about it from clients at brand builders, like as part of what we do is collaborate with you, but also brand builders exist because of our collaborations with our affiliate partners, like a huge percentage of our revenue, like 60% or 60% of our revenue is 50 to 60, 50 to 60 comes from someone else introducing clients to us. Like we go on their podcast or they do an email blast or some other campaign that we do. And because we offer one on one coaching, most of our affiliate partners, don’t like, they’re not in the business of one-on-one. And so we’re able to bring something to them and their audience that they can’t provide. RV: (14:14) And because we started the company from scratch, we didn’t have an audience, we have we’re, we’re rebuilding our audience. So they’re bringing the audience. And I think this is Kevin’s whole thing, which is always stuck with me is he said, the keynote negotiation is a win, win, and he will actually turn down deals because people are giving him too much of a percentage because he’s going, if you’re wanting me to take that much percentage, you’re expecting me to do more than I can do, and you’re not getting enough reward for what you have to do to make this successful. What I mean, that is a, like just a different way of thinking. And that’s why he’s like, you know, he’s, he’s not really a shark. I mean, it’s ironic that he was on the shark tank because he’s, he’s a collaborator. He’s not really like a shark in terms of where that term comes from. He’s he’s going, how can we partner to create something bigger together where we both win and what a simple philosophy that has AJV: (15:14) This concept of, you know, being equally yoked in the sense of, Hey, we have equal risk and equal responsibility and equal reward or relevant risk to are not equal per se. And yeah, but it’s like equal in the terms of, we’ve got both. We have something to win or lose here. We’re in it together. Yeah. It’s fair. I love that RV: (15:35) Anyways. I mean, it’s not every day you get to talk to someone who’s like sold billions of dollars of stuff and been on shark tank. AJV: (15:42) I’ve been a part of hundreds of companies hundreds. RV: (15:46) Yes. And then Mark, talk to me upon so listen to the interview, really, you know, some great wisdom in there, you know, you can tell how much we endear them or are in yeah. Endure them. AJV: (16:03) We’re talking about my life. And so I’m like, I’m personally so excited about this new book mentor to millions. They’ve got awesome resources. So make sure you check out all the links and just, you know, go, go get a mentor, RV: (16:20) Go get a mentor. Thanks for being here. Catch you next time. [inaudible].