Ep 287: How To Break Through The Noise with Lindsay Czarniak | Recap Episode
RV (00:07):
Hey brand builder, Rory Vaden here. Thank you so much for taking the time to check out this interview as always, it’s our honor to provide it to you for free and wanted to let you know there’s no big sales pitch or anything coming at the end. However, if you are someone who is looking to build and monetize your personal brand, we would love to talk to you and get to know you a little bit and hear about some of your dreams and visions and share with you a little bit about what we’re up to to see if we might be a fit. So if you’re interested in a free strategy call with someone from our team, we would love to hear from you. You can do that at brand builders, group.com/pod call brand builders, group.com/pod call. We hope to talk to you soon.
AJV (00:54):
All right, y’all welcome to my recap of my conversation with Lindsay Czarniak loved this conversation and I love her. I think she’s so cool. And she’s so down to earth and it’s just an awesome, conversation like if you’ve ever wondered, like how do you get to be doing the things that you see people on TV doing, which I often do and be like, how, how did you get into this? And, you know, how did you get to be the one to report on this or do this? This is a really cool behind the scenes sneak peak on what I would say, like Lindsay’s rise to all the things that she’s done, both sports related and non-sports related, which I just so cool. Right. and I loved it and I just think she’s just an awesome human being, so, okay. I could go on and on about that.
AJV (01:44):
So I’m gonna give you my top three takeaways at legit. I’m holding up a notebook, have like 10, so I’m gonna have to narrow it down here as I’m actually doing this recap episode. But here’s the first thing, and this is just a great reminder to all of us is the importance of building relationships. Not because you need them are not because you think you’re gonna need them one day, but because you genuinely care about other human beings and I love what she said. She goes, you build relationships, not, not because you think you’re gonna need ’em one day. But you build them because there’s a, a genuine desire to just know other people. And she said, it’s, it’s been a constant reminder throughout her life, as it is mine, and probably yours of the way you treat people matters. And it’s a reflection of your heart.
AJV (02:34):
It’s a reflection of how you view yourself. And that means a lot to other people, right? I was actually in a call with, I don’t know if it was a webinar. I can’t remember what it was. Oh, I D know what it was. I was at a conference. I was at a conference on customer experience and I was sitting in the audience and the speaker who up, who also happens to be a close friend and an amazing author, John de Julius he said, what if you lived every day, like the way you treated people today is how you would be remembered. And that just hit me in a really profound way of if today was my last day on earth, is how I’m treating people the way I want to be remembered when I’m gone. Or, you know, is today a day where I’m being short or, you know, just flippant because I’m tired or overwhelmed or, you know, is today the day that I actually had time in patience and stop to say hello and get to know someone or help somebody with, you know, a bag of groceries or whatever it is.
AJV (03:43):
And I think it’s just, it’s, it’s a sign of your heart. And that was like a big thing to me is how you treat people as a reflection of how you view yourself and how you view others. And people take note of that. So build relationships, not because you think you need, ’em not because they’re gonna do something with you, but because you generally care about humans, right? You, you generally care about the people around you, what their name is, what their story is. And at the very least, you know, it’s, you, you care enough to say hello, right. To give them time and respect. I think that really matters. And that it shapes your reputation. It shapes how people view you. So just a great, never ending forever, always reminder of the importance of relationships and how you treat people. Second thing is this is tactical.
AJV (04:29):
Just a quick tip for any of you who get nervous on camera or who our camera’s shy. I thought this was really great. I love this. And it’s what I have noted here in my notes is the, the post-it rule, right? So it’s like your entire script for your video should fit on a post-it note. In other words, it should not have many words and it should be really short. And I love that. It’s like pick out three things that you wanna talk about in any interview, ironically, we talk about three things in our recaps, but talk about three things that you wanna talk about in any conversation or any video that you’re doing. And just write down the words that are gonna make you remember that point and then be you. And that’s the key it’s like, what people really want on camera is not some long scripted, highly produced animated video.
AJV (05:18):
What they want to hear is from someone they can relate to someone that’s personable, someone that’s being authentic, someone that’s genuine that you can listen to and go, man, it’s like, I’ve had questions like that. Or I wondered things like that before. Whether it’s educational inspirational or informational or just entertainment, it’s like, keep it to the, keep it to the basics. So you let pressure off yourself, right? The more you force yourself to stick to an outline or memorize something, the more pressure you put on yourself. And quite honestly, it’s like when we have a hiccup, that’s when we get even more nervous and it just makes it worse. So what if you just had a post-it note with like three or four key words that will help you remember the points that you’re trying to make, and then you can just have a conversation.
AJV (06:06):
You can just be yourself and share because that’s what people really want. And she talked about how she did this when everything happened with George Floyd and she interviewed her mother-in-law and she’s you know, and she just said, I just, this wasn’t anything to do with sports or my professional career, but I had questions. And I figured if I have questions, other people like me have questions. So I’m gonna ask them and I’m gonna record it, and I’m gonna share. And that won her a Gracie award for women in sports who are making, are creating influential movements that, that wasn’t scripted or highly produced or animated, and didn’t have pretty bumpers or graphics. It was a conversation amongst two people who were having real live conversations around real life challenges in, in like live in the moment in real time.
AJV (06:59):
That is what people are looking for. So just remember that the next time you go to do an interview or make a video, it’s like, people want more of who you are. Don’t, don’t get consumed with having it scripted and outlined just have a conversation. So the post-it the post-it rule, right? Three words on a post-it note, that’s all you need. And the rest is just be, you just be you all right. Last thing super, super short, super simple, but really significant is the more relatable you are, the more fans you create. I love that. And it’s like it will simultaneously create non-fan that’s okay. That’s not your audience, but the more relatable you are, the more fans you will create. Y’all go check out this episode. It’s so cool. She’s awesome. You know, she, she gave us her handle. She said, follow her on Instagram. It’s Lindsay C, Z not her full names. Aniak but just C, Z. So go check her out, follow her on Instagram. You’re gonna learn really cool things about how she loves fishing and early mornings and telling silly dad jokes, like check her out, check out this interview. So good. Come back next time and get more tips on how to build an influential personal brand.
Ep 286: How To Break Through The Noise with Lindsay Czarniak
RV (00:07):
Hey brand builder, Rory Vaden here. Thank you so much for taking the time to check out this interview as always, it’s our honor to provide it to you for free and wanted to let you know there’s no big sales pitch or anything coming at the end. However, if you are someone who is looking to build and monetize your personal brand, we would love to talk to you and get to know you a little bit and hear about some of your dreams and visions and share with you a little bit about what we’re up to to see if we might be a fit. So if you’re interested in a free strategy call with someone from our team, we would love to hear from you. You can do that at brand builders, group.com/pod call brand builders, group.com/pod call. We hope to talk to you soon.
AJV (00:54):
Hey, y’all and welcome to another episode on the influential personal brand. This is AJ Vaden. One of your co-hosts and I am so excited to have our guests on the show today. Lindsay is a newer friend of mine, but we have a really good friend in common Stephanie show stack. And as Stephanie was so kind to introduce us a couple of months ago, and ever since then we’ve had emails and conversations and honestly, Linda, like one of those people that as soon as you have a conversation, it kind of feels like we’ve been friends for a really long time, even though we just met a couple of months ago. And I love that about you. I agree. I think that’s so awesome. All right, so everybody, I’m gonna give you a super high kinda background on who is Lindsay Sarnia, and then I’m gonna let her introduce herself, but here are some of the professional accolades that you should know is that she is both an Emmy award and a Gracie award-winning broadcaster.
AJV (01:56):
She has been on NFL reporter with Fox, a NASCAR contributor, which means so awesome being from the south, you know, there’s always good NASCAR. I love around here. But she was also with ESPN for the best part of half of a decade. She was anchoring sports and sports nation NASCAR. Now she was the first woman to host the network’s coverage of Indianapolis 500 on E NBC. I mean, I could go on and on and on. She was, had this awesome podcast. She’s an artist, a future children’s book illustrator, which you said, just talking about. But also I think this is really cool. It’s like you didn’t just kind of fall into the world of sports broadcasting and journalism. You kind of grew up in that, right? Cuz your dad was a sports editor and a reporter. You’re also an athlete yourself.
AJV (02:52):
You played college lacrosse and field hockey. I mean I could go on and on and on. It’s like a two page highlight reel of all things Lindsay Sarnia but that’s just a high level and those are really just the professional things, not the personal things about who you are. And I’ll just tell everyone listeners, if you were just tuning in, stick around for this interview Lindsay is so down to earth. She’s so humble. She’s so cool. And she’s also done things in a very male dominated world, but somehow find found a way to break through the noise and really stand out in a pretty, I would say busy and noisy space and a really competitive one. So if you wanna figure out how to stand out, you need to stick around and listen to this episode. So Lindsay love show, oh my gosh.
LC (03:42):
I don’t even know how to follow that up, AJ. That was so nice.
AJV (04:32):
Oh, well the feeling is mutual. This has been so fun. Alright, so I’m gonna start with this same question I ask every single guest and this is really your chance to help our audience get to know you, but also kind of give us a highlight reel of how did you get to where you are in such a fiercely competitive industry. One that’s not saturated with lots of women. I imagine there’s been lots of peaks and valleys through this journey, but you have ended into this really amazing place and created a really amazing reputation for yourself that you are now going to be able to take and leverage through these all, all these amazing things. So I just wanna like give us a background story.
AJV (05:22):
Like where did you start and how did you get to where you are?
LC (05:25):
Thank you so much. I I mean on when I think about that and that question, I think about one specific moment in my career journey, because it was the moment that for me really was the pivot point that I didn’t, I never saw coming. I didn’t expect it. And it was so random because I simply joined some folks from my TV station I was working at to go take in a NASCAR race. Okay. So that’s where this whole thing took place and I’ll, I’ll get to that in a second, but I really do, as I look back the things that I think have helped me get to this place where I am now is it’s really all about the relationships. I mean, I, I really, and I don’t mean relationships of who, you know, to get to where you are.
LC (06:16):
I mean, the way you treat people, I really do believe that. And I think that that is so important and every step I’ve taken along the way at every different job I have had, I’ve, I’ve seen some example of that. I feel like from someone who has been either a mentor or someone just that I looked up to and I really, really believe in that I started out you know, I graduated from James Madison university. I wanted so badly to move to New York because I wanted to be on MTV
LC (07:15):
I think, you know, how you look back at different parts of what you’ve done and you’re like, oh wow, well that was what was getting me ready for this. Or that’s the first place that I experienced this. So I didn’t get a job in New York and out of college, I was trying to figure out where I, where I wanted to go. I had whittled it down to, I either wanted to work in like film. I was really interested in writing and I thought, well, maybe I could learn how to be a writer. And then eventually like create screenplays or I definitely, I have a passion for art and I thought, well, maybe I wanna go the direction to be, you know, an animation somehow and all that. But somewhere along the line, my senior year of college we had an opportunity to do a TV show.
LC (07:56):
And within that class, basically it was a practicum. We had to learn every single part of putting on a TV show of a broadcast. And when it was my week to do the hosting with a co-host, that was it like that’s all I needed. I was so hooked. I loved every second of it. I would’ve stayed in class for five hours if you could’ve let me, like, I was just so into what we were doing. It like lit something up inside of me and I was, and, and honestly I wanted to be like the music review person on our show. I just I’ve always had this interest and connection in like music and the way music makes people feel and the power it has. And it’s funny cuz now I see that also in sports, but to get to my pivot point. So I left JMU, I got a job at CNN in Atlanta and it was a behind the scenes job.
LC (08:46):
They have a program where you can start out and you’re called a video journalist and you start out, it’s all for kids that have come in recently graduated and you’re doing these entry level roles. Right. So I was really lucky to like to land one of those spots. But that also when I think back I’m like, man, I sat there on my computer. We barely had internet. I was like, just looking up these jobs. I don’t even know how I did it. And, but like somehow I found that job. So I moved to Atlanta and then being there at CNN, you know, I realized, yes, this is the industry that I wanna like definitely continue in, but I’m obviously not going to be on air and really earn like hone those reporter chops being at CNN. So I put together a tape. I helped like really by leaning on people that I was working with and being like, Hey, can I come in on a Saturday or can I come in on my day off and just rewrite this story that someone did and you can critique me or maybe I can pay my camera crew that really works at CNN, but I would pay them with six packs of beer in my grandma’s cookie
LC (09:52):
You know? And like I can, and then I would, I would pay an editor basically to put it together for me. And that’s how I put my tape together. And I ended up working in Jacksonville, Florida. That was my first on air job. And I really thought I wanted to do news at that point because I, I never saw sports on my radar. I loved sports. My dad was a sports journalist, but that wasn’t my, like not what, what really fueled me. Right. I was like, I wanna be a news reporter anchor, or I wanna do entertainment, something within that. Anyway. So I got a job news reporter in Jacksonville and around a year into that job, which was great, but it was great because it was the morning show. I could mess up a ton, which I did. And not that many people saw me.
LC (10:39):
LC (11:26):
It was men and women. We were hanging out with, it was a concert. We were where they were playing. And these guys happened to be with speed channel and speed channel was a channel that put on racing. And from that one interaction, they knew I was reporter. And in February, a few months later, Dale Earnhardt senior died the legendary race car driver. And they called me because I had met them and they said, we need reporters to talk to fans about what he meant to them. And we know you’re in Jacksonville, are you available? Could you come work for us? And my station, let me do it. And so that became this random thing where that snowballed into, Hey, we have an opening for a pit reporter in our really entry level racing series called ACA, are you available? And at the time in Jacksonville, they were like, well, yeah, if it’s on your weekends and you wanna go do it, go do it.
LC (12:17):
So I worked 13 weekends out of the year going and leaving my news job to go be this pit reporter. And I knew nothing about racing. I mean, I was walking into the garage being like, I mean, I can’t even tell you how green I was. And like what an idiot. I probably looked like asking the questions I was asking, but anyway, really to wrap this up, cuz now I’m so sorry. This answer’s like seven minutes. I.
AJV (12:41):
That’s awesome though.
LC (12:42):
Well, the station that I was working at where I was a news reporter that probably my last year there, they were going to cover the sports department. The guys were going to cover one of the races at Daytona and they were like, Hey, we know that you’re into racing. If you wanna come with us and just help us out. I was like, I would love to, I would love to go to Daytona.
LC (13:03):
I don’t have anything that day. Let me come do, I’ll just carry your equipment and bring you water, whatever. So we’re in victory lane waiting for the driver who won the race to interview him. And this camera crew from Miami, we we’re just talking, cuz we’re waiting. And we strike up this conversation and we were waiting for like an hour and near the end of the conversation, they were like, you know, we actually have an opening in our sports department in Miami. And the main part of that job would be to cover the dolphins. But we think that maybe you’d be really a good fit with us and would love for you to put your tape in. And I was like, what? That’s ridiculous. It’s sports. It’s not like that’s. They were like, well you’d be our third sports anchor. And anyway, so that was it.
LC (13:46):
Like I had I not gone to Daytona, had I not gotten that elevated interest in racing because of that meeting by happenstance in Daytona when I was just there on a weekend with one of my girlfriends none of that would’ve happened. And so I do think when I think back to my path, a lot of it is saying yes and just going for it, but also listening to that little nudge of, yeah, try this. Like don’t, you know, like, I guess in a way it’s like finding your gut and I used to be really, really, really horrible at that, but now I figured out how to identify it. Which is a whole different story in itself anyway. Wow. I know, I think there’s a lot of insight into that and you know, it’s like I literally pulled out my notebook and started taking notes because I think these are the great stories that are so often never told.
AJV (14:42):
And that’s what I love so much about getting to do conversations. Like this is a great reminder for both me, but also every single person listening that there is no such thing as an overnight success, you know, it’s like, I think the biggest challenge that we face in this world of instant gratification is we compare our step one to your step 1000. Yeah. Somehow think right. You know, we see Lindsay on ESPN or covering the Olympics or doing all these amazing things. And it’s like, oh, I wanna do that. But what we forget is, oh no, no, you started behind the scenes doing nothing on TV and working double time on the weekends, keep people in six packs of beer and saying yes to your weekends, giving up, you know, a third of your free time to go. What’s next? What’s next? Just saying yes.
AJV (15:35):
And it’s like, I was trying to count like how many moves you made before you got to be doing what you’re doing? Like that’s a lot of work. That’s a lot of commitment over a lot of years. And we it’s a lot.
LC (15:49):
That became like a in, in our industry. I think a lot of people have a similar background with that. And I, but I I’m always intrigued to hear people’s path and when they stopped because you do really, you know, the traditional path is that you’re hopping and you’re, you know, and I think also with that something you said made me think about expectations. That’s a really big lesson that I have learned and that I think for young people or folks coming up really in any industry, other people’s expectations, you know, it took me a long time before I realized like, oh, that wasn’t, that’s really what they thought.
LC (16:33):
I thought I should be doing that because that’s what everyone was saying. Or I can identify when people have said something that I got really excited about because I felt like maybe they were giving me an expectation or like they were giving me confidence by saying, oh no doubt. You’ll be here in 10 years. No doubt you’ll be there. And then what happens when you get to that point and your path has been different? Like there are so many ways that I think you can let expectations that other people have just kind of soak in there. Like we don’t even do it intentionally. You just, so I think that’s a practice that I have tried to figure out ways to squash is what are my expectations? What are like now that that life bulb went off for me. What, how do you in a healthy way, live with what my expectations really are for myself.
AJV (17:23):
And I think if I had learned that earlier, maybe I wouldn’t have been so neurotic and paranoid over stuff because also part of it is like those steps, most of them early on in my career, it’s like this drug, you’re like, oh yes, I got an offer from this place and you’re moving up and that’s the traditional measure of success. But there are definitely moves in there where it was like, this, this didn’t feel like a move up. This actually felt like a failure, but it’s gotta set you up for the thing that you don’t know because you’re not in charge.
AJV (18:07):
Totally agree with that. And it’s like, the moment that we start just, it’s just that the, the challenge of comparison.
AJV (18:13):
Right. And it’s like even comparing our expectations to what other people have for us and somehow going well, that’s what everyone else has done. Right. And it’s like this internal battle. And so I’m curious, like throughout your journey, do you think that there was ever like a time in your kind of career path and even maybe it’s still today, it’s like, like, was there a moment when you were like, this is my big break? Like, is there like a moment where you’re like, okay, like this is what I’ve been waiting for. So I wanna know one, have you had that? What is it? And then what do you think led you to it?
LC (18:50):
That’s a great question. I think I along the way, well, so I should probably give context on, I was in Miami working, you know, following the Miami dolphins. And the other thing with that job is I, it was part-time when I took it.
LC (19:08):
So it actually felt like a bigger risk because I was leaving a TV station. That was the first station that I was a reporter at, but it was there was just something about it. Like I knew the plus side, if I could make it work, if I could really like work my hardest and turn it into the kind of role I would want it to be as much as I could, that I felt like the upside really outweighed the risk. And so I also had, I have like a circle, you know, of people that I’ll I’ll bounce off of. Right. And it seemed like, okay, this is pretty much a no brainer at this point, but I will say also the expense of that was relationships. There’s no question like it was, I was a disaster at dating, like because well, I, I actually had a really great long term relationship and, but I, I made the decision to follow the career and that impacted things in a horrible way.
LC (20:03):
And how could it not? Right. But like, that was just a lesson that I learned early on and it was like, so it’s funny cuz there, it also sometimes feels like there are so many different lives that I’ve lived
LC (20:52):
But for me, that Washington move because of the man that I went to work for, his name was George, Michael, and not the singer, but the, the sports broadcaster. And he had a show called the George Michael sports machine and in the nineties it was in the late eighties, it was legendary. It was honestly on before sports center and it definitely played a role in the way that ESPN came on the map and did things because he was showing people highlights before they could do ’em. Anyway, he was a legend in DC and he called me out of nowhere and he called me, I found out years later because he saw me when his son-in-law was watching racing coverage at his house with his daughter. Okay. And they, and I came on TV as a pit reporter and they needed to fill a role, the woman that they had had left.
LC (21:43):
And he liked my work, I guess, and, and was like, so he called me out of nowhere and it was awesome. It was an awesome, like compliment and a great opportunity. And you add to that, that it was an opportunity for me to go home. But I got so terrified because that was the first place that I had been in my career where all of a sudden things were going really well in Miami. And they were saying, Hey, stay here. This is what we’ll offer you to stay here. And it was this weird, like I found myself in this sort of like conflict of negotiation for the first time and I turned it down. I turned the job down and I think I know in my heart, part of the reason I turned it down is because at that time I looked at going home as a quasi.
LC (22:26):
I don’t wanna say failure, but like I, to me, I was on this role in this drug of like hopping every two years, where can I go? I’m thinking like, oh my God, could I ever make it to New York? Or could it be LA or could it be Chicago wherever? And I never saw the amazing opportunity to go home cuz it was a huge market, but there was something in my psyche that was like kind of worked with that thinking. And so I turned it down cuz I was like, I’m gonna, I wanna stay in Miami. I, I would like to do some morning TV. They were offering me a role to do that. And the second I turned that job down, the second I made the call saying, no, I knew I had made this horrible mistake. Like I knew there was. And that was for me the biggest eyeopening moment period in my career that helped me identify like something about myself.
LC (23:15):
Because up until then everyone would be like, well, what does your gut say? What does your gut say? And I’m like, I don’t know. That’s the problem. And my problem is I realized what I do is I will pull people until the person that I want, like until the person gives me the answer I want to hear. And that’s what I was doing. I was like going around and around and trying to get someone to say, go to DC. Like this is such a great opportunity. Go, go, go, don’t look back. But I feel like people, even in my circle like agents and whatever, they were like, mm, I don’t know. I’m not sure. So anyway, I’ve kind of gone off on a tangent, but that was a absolute big break for me because he brought me into that market and really just did it in such a way.
LC (23:58):
I had to go back on my decision to not go and call him and, and find out if the opportunity still existed. And I don’t re recommend that for anybody like my own dad told me not to do it. My dad was like, do not do that. That’s ridiculous. And I was like, and, and actually someone I worked with at the time in Miami was like this, you will, you will kill your career. If you do this, if you call him back and I couldn’t not try it, I could not not try it because I just knew. I was like, this is, that is where I need to be. And if there’s any way to be there, then I need to do it. So I sat at a car wash and I wrote down my conversation points on this napkin. And I called George and I think I got his voicemail and I left him this, what I thought was succinct, but probably like really long message and was like, I have made a mistake.
LC (24:48):
And if there is any chance that that opportunity is not filled, I would like to talk to you about it. And that was it. He called me back and he was really gruff. But at the end of the day, he was like, we’re gonna bring you up.
LC (25:47):
And the security guards there, like loved George because George would, he knew everything about them. Like he knew about their families. He treated every single person, the exact same. And, and he also did things behind the scenes that nobody ever knew. He did like just being a good person. So really long tangent,
AJV (26:04):
That may be the favorite part of my story. Like your story that I have heard is the fact that you said, I don’t care what it costs. I know I’ve made a mistake. I have to call this person back. And he went against everyone else advice and said, no, I feel it in my heart. Like I have to call him back.
LC (26:24):
It was so bad that, I mean, I literally remember that person, you know, a friend of mine looking at me and saying, this is, this is career suicide. And I knew that when my father was like, don’t do it.
LC (26:39):
Like I really put stock in what my parents say. And especially my dad cause he is in this industry, but I woke up the next morning after making a decision to stay there and listen, I love Miami. It’s my top three places to vacation. It was such a dream to live there. I love the people I worked with truly and the bosses and the crew I was with every day. But I was like, I just, I know with every fiber of my being that this is not what I’m supposed to be doing, but I knew also that if the ship had sailed and if I couldn’t get it back then I okay. But like I just really needed to try. And I had one person at the station who was feeling familiar with George, who actually I leaned on. And he was like, I think if you really want to open that door again, I think he will listen, but you have to know that he might not.
LC (27:30):
And you also might have to know that this is going to be very bad here, like meaning. And I do take that very seriously. Like that was not a professional move to go back. And to like, that was a painful conversation to have to go back to the news director and the general manager that really believed in me and say, I have made a mistake and I, you know, want to investigate,
AJV (27:53):
Oh my gosh, like, this is like, I think this is revolutionary for every single person who is listening, who makes choices for their own life out of fear of offending someone else. Yeah. I think this is hugely how many people are in the country right now in the United States, in a job, in a situation where they know they shouldn’t be there, but they don’t have the courage to do something that’s uncomfortable.
AJV (28:21):
Like that’s, that is the, that’s the era that we’re living in. It’s like, instead of having a difficult conversation, we’d rather make ourselves miserable or live and regret instead of going for what could be a life changing experience.
LC (28:37):
Yeah. You know, and to that point, I think it’s interesting because I do think some of the younger professionals are catching on quicker to that because, and I, I don’t know. Maybe you can lend your thoughts to this, but like my husband and I will talk about this sometimes because we are sort of, you know, coming up in the traditional old school era of, of this. Right. But some of the younger professionals who are like coming up as entry level, or they’re maybe a step above that, I do find that they’re not afraid to talk a lot more about what they need in terms of mental health.
LC (29:15):
Right. In mental health, in that aspect. I think that’s hugely important. But I also, I do give kudos to them because things, some things that I see people doing now I would never do. Cause I would’ve never had the guts to say, wait, I they’re, they’re asking for a day off because X, Y, Z you know, I think to a fault I would not have done that. Right. But yeah, you know, that, that decision, I think if it didn’t have the home factor of it also, it would’ve probably been a, a, I don’t know how it would’ve turned out. I think that definitely was a big piece of it. Because it ended up that that was just such a wonderful experience, you know, but it was definitely a growth,
LC (30:05):
I was people off, like to get to the place where I, I, like, I basically had to decide for myself, is it gonna feel better at the end? What I’m weighing this PO like potential on, is that possibly better than what I know I’m about to do by making a slew of people really mad and also about your business, about the reputation. I mean, that, that matters. And so I just think that that is really important to listen to, like, and I guess for people that are in a similar state, it’s like, is there something gnawing at you that you do realize is it’s a gut feeling or it’s just a feeling of taking a chance. Like sometimes also, I don’t know if you ever felt this way, Jay, but it’s like, I’m so grateful for my, for being so naive in certain circumstances early on and now, but like there are rooms I walked into sometimes and I’m like, just thank God that I didn’t take an extra moment
LC (31:10):
And like, I just feel like there’s so many ways that I sort of protected myself by just not realizing the gravity of something. I don’t know it’s at all.
AJV (31:21):
I think that, I think there’s a lot of weight in that. I remember we started our first business in a 2005. And for even listening at the peak of 2005 was really like, this is the heart of the recession. And here we are, these, you know, four naive, specifically three of us. I was 22 when we started our first venture, it was fresh outta college and was like, they can do it. I can do it type of mentality. And our ignorance, our naive to you was the number one thing that helped us move forward because we did not know what a good market looked like. This was just the market. This is just how you did business.
AJV (32:00):
It wasn’t until years later that we realized, oh, wow, that was like serious. But we were so dumb, young and naive that the gravity of the situation was so far over our head that we didn’t even understand it to our benefit, to our benefit. So OK. You brought up two things and I know I’m watching the clock be sensitive to your time, but you brought up two things that I wanna touch on. And you mentioned reputation mm-hmm
AJV (32:52):
I’m just like, I wanna know, like, what do you think are keys to building, you know, this, you know, rock solid reputation where even in the midst of decisions like this, and you’re people off your reputation stands because people know that, you know, you do what you say you’re gonna do, and you do it with kindness, but you do it with confidence and clarity.
LC (33:13):
Thank you. I think that you know, using that, that decision as an example, I didn’t have much other than being apologetic and explaining myself truth and honesty for the people that I was saying, Hey, there’s been a change. Here’s what I’m going to do. Right. I had to take it. I just had to suck it up and take what they said. And, you know, I knew that there was a great chance that they meant it when they actually said we would never hire you again.
LC (33:45):
I mean, that was true. Right. That’s what, what, and I, I understood, but I had sort of braced myself and I felt that like, I felt very badly about it. It wasn’t at all. Like, I felt like, well, here I go. I’m okay. It’s it like, that really kind of sucked. But like I said, I had already made up my mind that I’m going to, I’m going to push for this and I just have to be ready for what comes and then go. I think once I took that step and went to the station in Washington, it was all about me just feeling like I really had to start from the ground up in terms of everything that I was soaking in, everything I was being taught, the role I was gonna do, you know, I had confidence that I knew at that point then, like I was getting better at being on air because that’s a whole different thing.
LC (34:29):
Like when you’re in your first on air jobs, the first time I went live on TV, they turned on the red light and I like, nothing came out. You know what I mean? Like I was in a Christmas tree farm and I’m like, oh, this is, this is when I talk
LC (35:11):
Like I am going to teach you basically like my ways. You’re going to understand why, what we do, where we work is super successful. And like, and so, and I loved that and I was ready to soak that up. So I kind of went into that and was like, just, I wanna be a student. I wanna learn, you know, not like, I didn’t know anything, but I definitely had that kind of approach. So I think being open to those new experiences and again, just being a good person, but also, you know, in the nature of what my business is, a lot of businesses is it’s, you almost become like a family with the people that you’re working with. And that’s really important and truly like caring about those people matter. So that was something I definitely had mistakes. I mean, there was one time I remember I had voiced a story that I did on a baseball player, one of the Washington nationals players.
LC (36:08):
And I tracked my voice, which means that I laid my voice down over the story that people are gonna watch on TV. And I did it. And George was probably out doing like the five o’clock news while I was recording or something, five o’clock sports. And he heard what I had put down on tape. And I was halfway home to my parents’ house going to have dinner. Cause they had invited me to dinner this one night and he called and he was like, Zac, this is garbage. Get back here. So I had to turn my little Honda civic around and go back and track it. Like, I don’t think I ever made it to my parents’ house for dinner that night. But the reputation that was, that was how I had, I sort of had a new opportunity right away to build it, but it mattered how I performed.
LC (36:50):
And also it mattered because of the caliber of people that George Michael was like his group of people in the market and the people that were his sources, they were the coaches of the teams, the general managers. And so I had to really listen and learn how to carry myself and the way that was sort of to his professional standards, which is, was a great standard. Right. Wow. But so that, that was the immediate and I think long term after that is when I went to ESPN and from then on, it’s sort of like a different set of just different experiences and lessons that I’ve learned, but they all circle around that same thing. It all comes back to the way you treat people. I do think the competition grows. I had never seen competition. Like I saw at ESPN when I got there and for a large part of it was because also I wasn’t used to working in sports with other women so much, like you’re, you’re always working around other women who are at other stations and that’s awesome cuz you’re like, you become this like group of women that you see each other at a basketball game.
LC (37:55):
And you’re like, oh, Hey, you know, channel four, channel nine, channel seven. But at ESPN it was the first time that everyone has a role. And there are like so many people left over that also want those roles. And it’s like, EV you know, it was a great experience in terms of like the people I worked with and I loved the work. I loved the work. But like everyone found out what their schedule was through the same computer system. And you had to go at the same time and look, so there’s a level of competition that doesn’t exist other places because it’s this constant, okay. What, what am I on? What am I doing?
LC (38:33):
What is you know, so it was just a different beast. So I don’t know, but that, but definitely something that shaped. Yeah.
AJV (38:42):
Well, I’d say the thing that I wrote down, the thing that I captured that I think is really applicable universally is really coming with a student’s heart.
AJV (38:52):
Right. I think that learning mindset of, yeah. Yeah. I, it’s not that you don’t know anything, but you also realize you don’t know everything. I think that’s a really big deal of staying humble and going, like, no matter where I go, there’s more to learn. And I just, you know, I just think about like, even when, where, you know, recruiting new team members, it’s like, you know, it’s not only is it a core value, but it’s like personal growth is a requirement here. And it’s like for the person who thinks there’s nothing left to learn, it’s like, well then there’s just nothing left for you to learn here. So, but it’s like the moment that we have that mindset of I’ve got it all figured out is the moment where it’s like, that’s a slippery slope. So just even staying in this, like what can I learn from this situation?
AJV (39:36):
What can I learn from this person? What can I learn from this job? I think is really important for us all to go. There’s always going to be something else to learn no matter what it is, like every stage of life. And so, okay. So here’s the other question I have for you. And I wrote this down because I think this is a huge thing that everyone struggles with. And we live in this world of video. Like video is everywhere. It’s in emails, it’s on social it’s it’s, every algorithm is waited to video. And there’s simultaneously this huge fear of being on video. And, you know, it’s like to what you said, it’s like that red light goes on and all of a sudden, all of your personality goes out the door. It’s like, who are you? And where did you go?
AJV (40:20):
Right. I am, what are some best practices? Like what should people learn to do to be better on video? Like what should people be doing other than clearly doing it, but how do you, how do you actually get better? How do you be yourself on camera?
LC (40:37):
Well, okay. I’ve got one piece of advice that I, I learned when I was at CNN. I think it was the anchor, Darren Kagan. I remember where I was sitting when she told me this trick of the trade and I wasn’t even on camera then, but I was just picking her brain, like, what are you? You know, what, what are things to learn? And and I really do think that this applies to anybody who’s, you don’t have to be a reporter. You can be doing videos or whatever it is, but her thing, this did apply to a live shot.
AJV (41:05):
Okay. So in news, if I was doing a report taking you back to like the Christmas tree farm, right? Never memorize everything you wanna say like that. So here here’s what, and I still do this. Right? Cause it just made so much sense. She said, take what you’re trying to say. Okay. So we can say for our purposes, AJ, that it’s like a report that I’m trying to give, or maybe I’m trying to just shoot a video at my house of like how I cook orzo pasta salad with my kids. Right. Or think about what the three and just because rule of threes is pretty great for everything, but like think of three things that you’re trying to say, three things that are like the nuggets. I also just had a conversation with a girlfriend of mine where we were talking about simple something similar, cuz she’s launching a book and she was saying, I’m having a hard time talking or I wanna know better ways to talk when people are asking me about like the real nuggets, I’ve got so many I wanna pull from, but I get lost with the traffic of just trying to talk straight.
LC (42:03):
And I said, think of them like peppermint pets. That’s my favorite candy. Okay. So think of it. Like the things that you’re most excited to share are the little minty center. Okay. And you’re putting this chocolate coating on the outside of them. So what you’re doing is you’re picking three things like today, I’m doing a video about why goldfish cheddar are my favorite things on the planet. Okay. So the first thing I wanna talk about is the bag, because it’s so easy to open. The second thing I wanna talk about is the art on the front because I love art and anyone that is an artist should want these. And the third thing is the fact that it’s like a cheddar burst, right? Like in your mouth. So those are the three things that I would have in my mind. Highlighted. Maybe you take a post-it and you just write those three words on your post-it and the words only are bag to open, you know artwork and then cheddar pop.
LC (42:54):
Okay. So you are never memorizing the words that you’ve written out in sentences, but what you’re memorizing are the, like the points it’s like the passion points of what you wanna talk about because all like this day and age too, people really just wanna see people who are real and whether you’re doing a news report or you’re talking about a sports, you know, some competition that’s a little different because you’ve gotta follow, you’ve gotta get certain things out like the Xs and O’s or the, the details of whatever event you’re covering. But if you’re giving just a video or you’re talking to people or you’re doing a seminar, that is a really great way, I think, to build a strategy for just being conversational. And even if you struggle with being conversational, once a light goes on, you’re going to be 10 times more conversational, truly just sharing with me why you’re excited about opening this bag versus the bag on the top is very easy to open because there’s no way you’re gonna remember all those words.
LC (43:49):
So I, and I learned that too, the hard way after that my friend shared that advice. There were times I would go on the field and I would like write out my whole script of what I wanted to say, but I’ve had it happen definitely more than like 10 times where if you misspeak or you like skip a word, then you forget all the rest of it. So it’s sort of like a protection for that too. And I think the more conversational, the better, that was a really well, I love that. I love that of just like you should be able to fit your entire video script on a post-it note. Right. Because you should know the content so well that you’re just, and that also that exercise helps you speak it from what you know, and that in itself is being your most authentic about what you’re talking about.
LC (44:36):
And some stuff don’t get me wrong. Like if you’re doing a news report and you’re talking about an oil spill accident, right. You can’t, you’re not gonna go. Yeah. Right. But you can still do that. And then, I mean, to get like in the weeds with the newsy side of it, those facts that you do have written down are things that if you’re looking down on your paper, that’s okay. Just like any videos you’re doing. If there are times where you look down, because you’re trying to get stats out about someone you’re interviewing, that’s fine. Like you don’t have to memorize all the other stuff. You know,
AJV (45:06):
I love that. It’s like the more conversational, the more authentic, the more relatable it’s gonna be, but honestly the less pressure that you put on yourself. Yeah. And the more like I do think one of the things that I did when you mentioned at the beginning of this, how I made a note of this, because when you mentioned the Gracie award, that that to me was like such, just like an awesome unexpected honor, because first of all, that was like Gracie.
LC (45:37):
The awards are for it’s women who do things that are like influential news or otherwise, whatever. And I remember when a colleague of mine, when I was at ESPN won one of those awards and I was like, oh my God, that is the coolest thing. And I don’t even know, like, I forget what hers was for, but this was, that was for a conversation I had with my mother-in-law on Instagram. Okay. So it was when George Floyd happened and I felt really helpless and my husband’s African American, I felt like I, I didn’t know what I could do to like, just anything to make an impact. And I just wanted to be able to do something. And my mother-in-law has so many great stories and so many really important lessons and things to learn from. And so we were talking and I said, Hey, would you, how would you feel about doing a conversation about race with me?
LC (46:31):
And she was really open to it and we did it and it was shocking. I didn’t like, I never expected that that would happen, but it was so shocking the engagement of it, because I think people that were watching were like, whoa, I’m asking like really dumb questions. So I felt like I should really know the answer to, and I should have paid attention to a long time ago, but her answers were just, some of them were jaw dropping. So anyway, that led to them asking us to do a radio hour on that conversation. And I, she joined me, my mom joined me. I had a psychiatrist join us. And another friend of mine, who’s an author. Who’s anyway, who’s biracial. It was, but that, so that meant so much to me because that was something that was completely just super out of response to something that had happened.
LC (47:16):
And we weren’t trying to get engagement. I was just like, how can I have a conversation? So I think there’s a lot of that to be had now. And so I think like what we’re just talking about with practices of on video, anyone can do that kind of thing, you know? Right. That proved that to me because I was like, wait a minute, if we’re sitting here, someone’s saying that that was impactful to do that. Like, wow, look at the power of social media, you know?
AJV (47:42):
Wow. And let’s look at the power of real life conversation. Yeah, yeah. Is scripted. This is not planned out. There’s not high video production. We don’t have a film crew with graphics and bumpers and overlays and all this fluff that people get overly consumed with. And it’s like, no, have a real conversation about real questions and real struggles that real people are going through.
AJV (48:11):
And it’s amazing that that’s, that is what would take off and get so much engagement and get you to the place that people recognizing this. And it’s like, I mean, don’t, you sometimes think it’s like, think about how much you’ve done in a really planned formal professional setting versus the things that you do that are just from a place of deep desire of like, I just wanna do something. I just, I wanna help. I don’t, I don’t wanna sit in the background. I feel called to this and do that is what goes, quote, unquote viral. That’s what people want. It’s you said the word it’s like, I truly, the word relatable, I think is everything I really do. I mean, I’ve, I feel that way in sports. I think it’s what, it’s what creates fans around a team or a player, because there’s something that jogs, you know, that makes them feel like, oh, that person has something that’s speaking to me, but I think you’re exactly right.
LC (49:12):
It’s like the the calling feeling a calling to do it and then just taking the step to do it. And, and you know, what else, I guess, in a way it’s like using your, all you had to do to do it is using your God given ability. Right. Or like the ability that you’ve honed a bit or whatever. But I just, yeah, like, so that was really, that was a very eye opening thing for me, because I was like, here I am like, I, 10 years ago I saw that happen. I, and I actually was like, oh, I wish I could do that someday. And like earn one of those award. Like that was so weird that that would be what it is. So there, there is a definite lesson in that I think there’s immense power and you know, for us and anyone who’s listening of going like at the end of the day.
AJV (50:01):
And it’s like, we can hear it a hundred different ways. And I love hearing this perspective and this angle from you today. And at the same time, it’s like, we hear it all the time. It’s like be you right. The more relatable, the more personal will, the more authentic you are, the more people will love you or not, but that’s okay. That’s not your audience. Yeah. But like when we try to be somebody else or try to be what somebody else tells us to be, it is never gonna work in our favor. It’s like, cuz you’re not, you’re not being you like that to me is like, we just can’t hear that enough because there’s such a fear of, wow, I don’t wanna offend anybody or don’t wanna ruffle any feathers or what if I look dumb? What if I sound dumb? You know? And we don’t do it.
LC (50:51):
Yeah. A hundred percent, a hundred percent. I agree.
AJV (50:56):
I think that’s so, so good. Okay. All right. I have two quick, rapid fire questions for you. Yeah. This is such a great interview. Thank you so much. Like I love as we talk for another hour and I would be like, I know I have five more questions. I have five more questions, but I really, I’m only gonna give you two. I wrote this down in the very beginning. And this is just to help our audience get to know you. And one of my main things is I care much more about who you are than what you’ve done. And so I’m just so curious when you were this little kid sitting in front of MTV going, this is the dream. Like what was your favorite music video? So what’s your favorite music video of all time?
LC (51:32):
Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, so all time I would have this, this is like a measurement of a swath of time. It was the cars you might think foolish, you know, that song. Yeah. The cars because that was that symbolized. What MTV could do. They were flying the fly. Remember the Rick, what, what’s his last name? The lead singer of the cars. His face was on the fly. Do you remember that video? It was sort of video. Yeah, it was kind of like animated. There was that one and then there was the 99 red balloons, but this song that it was like, every time it came on, I was like, yes, it was sister Christian. Do you remember that song? I can’t remember that song, Christian. Oh, the time has come. And then also white snake here I go again on my own. That’s awesome. So yeah, so good. Like that’s what hooked me, but I mean, you know, as the decades went on and I continued to watch videos, I had plenty of other examples, but those were like my beginning ones that I was like, this, this is awesome. I love that. That’s so funny.
AJV (52:42):
Last question. What do you want people to know about you that no one ever asks you? Oh, that’s a really hard one. That is a hard one. Other than you love goldfish. What’d you say the gold that you love goldfish.
LC (53:01):
Maybe that I think everything in life relates back to fishing and I love fishing. Fishing is one of my favorite things to do. And it’s I think it’s because growing up, especially when I was a kid, we would always go surf fishing at the beach when my family would go to the beach in the summer. And it was something that I would get up and do with my dad. He would wake me up and I’d always be like, oh, because it was like 5 45, cuz it’d go really early. But I loved it so much and that I definitely am like a morning person and I love that time when no one’s awake. And if you’re out in nature, like if you are at the beach and you’re fishing, that’s great. I also feel the same kind of way when I’m in a race track and it’s early morning, there’s just something really special about the way that a garage or even like a barn, if it’s horse racing, like the seeing things come to life.
LC (54:01):
So I think that’s something I really just love that I love fishing and I love the act of when you feel like you have something on the line, there’s not much more, you know, in life like that. I think that’s a really relatable thing. Like you’re feeling the tug of catching something. And maybe that’s why I was a reporter and I got adrenaline junkie by like the boob every two years. You’re like catching a new fish. I don’t know. But but I really, really, really love that. I love it. Well, this is like the beginning of like this future life of you being like the spokesperson for like bass pro shop or something. Well, you know, I have thought like there have been a lot of fishing shows out there, but I have thought maybe there’s a type of fishing show that people haven’t seen that you know, maybe that’s in my future. I don’t know. That’s never, never, that’s probably not like the pro angler, but I do really enjoy just especially when you’ve got a good old fashioned Bober and you watch that thing go under the water. That’s pretty satisfying. That’s awesome.
AJV (55:07):
These, this is so much fun. Thank you. So for coming on and if people wanna learn more about you and if they wanna connect with you or follow you on social media, like where should they go?
LC (55:17):
I think the best place is my Instagram is Lindsay CZI, so I don’t, it’s not Zac full it’s Lindsay CZI. And that’s probably a great place to start. And so I just, I do I do a joke of the day that I started during quarantine with my kids. So if anybody has any jokes, suggestions, I’m all at ears also because we’re still keeping that going.
AJV (55:38):
So, oh, we got silly dad jokes for days over here. I’m gonna yay. Y’all, I’ll put all of these details in the show notes. I’ll put all of Lindsay’s handles in there. Go follow her, give her some good jokes. And Lindsay, thank you so much for being here. Love this so much. Wait again, me too. You’re the best. Thank you. So stay tuned for the episode and we’ll next time on the influential personal brand.
Ep 285: How to Double Your Business In 12 Months | Recap Episode
RV (00:07):
Hey brand builder, Rory Vaden here. Thank you so much for taking the time to check out this interview as always, it’s our honor to provide it to you for free and wanted to let you know there’s no big sales pitch or anything coming at the end. However, if you are someone who is looking to build and monetize your personal brand, we would love to talk to you and get to know you a little bit and hear about some of your dreams and visions and share with you a little bit about what we’re up to to see if we might be a fit. So if you’re interested in a free strategy call with someone from our team, we would love to hear from you. You can do that at brand builders, group.com/pod call brand builders, group.com/pod call. We hope to talk to you soon.
RV (00:54):
I love it. Absolutely love, love, love when we have AJ on this show as, as a guest and not just a host, she’s brilliant. And I like, I’m not just saying that cuz she’s my wife and she’s my business partner. Like she is absolutely phenomenal. At selling, I mean’s several things, but specifically at selling, you know, like she is a one woman wrecking crew and I’m talking about she, she has had multiple years where she’s generated over a million dollars in revenue by herself as a one person individual. And so getting a chance to interview her and talk about how do you double your business in the next 12 months? Fantastic conversation worthwhile conversation. Of course, if you didn’t listen to it, you kinda wanna go back and listen to it. I’m gonna share with you what my highlights are and take away.
RV (01:47):
And you know, I, I hope this isn’t weird for you. Like I love learning from her, like, you know, just as a friend and a spouse, but as a professional colleague, I really, really love learning from AJ. And I find her philosophies very like original and refreshing and different. She has a very different take on the world. So I, I wanna share what my three top takeaways were from listening to her and just sort of like being around this conversation. And obviously she, the reason that she, one of the reasons she came on the show is cuz she wanted to let you know that she put together a completely free training about how to double your business in the next 12 months. And if you go to double dot brand builders, group.com, double dot brand builders, group.com, you can watch the whole free training.
RV (02:37):
Like it’s a whole presentation and everything. And it’s, I it’s, it’s gonna be it’s phenomenal. So the, with that, going back to what we talked about in the interview, the first thing that came up, which to me really is this necessary switch that has to happen. If you are gonna grow your business, like if, if you’re be a successful entrepreneur, salesperson, personal brand, like insert whatever term you want there, mission driven messenger. You have to reach this point where you decide that you are not ashamed of what you do and that it’s also not humble to not tell people about what you do. Like there is a switch that has to flip in your brain and, and for as, as much time as the switch is flipped to, I don’t wanna intrude on people. I don’t wanna push on people. I don’t wanna have to interrupt people to tell them about what I’m doing.
RV (03:43):
Like as long as that switch is flipped off, like flipped in that direction, you’re gonna struggle your whole life. Like the rest of time. Like until we flip this switch, you are going, you’re going to be broke. Like you’re gonna have a hard time because you’re gonna always be shy and embarrassed and timid about telling people what it is that you do. You can’t be timid about telling people what you do and have people find out about it, right? Like you have to be bold. You have to be powerful. You have to be assertive. You have to be commanding. You have to be convicted. Right. And it’s, and it’s not humble to, to not tell people what you do like humility is to me is, is, you know, I, I actually did an Instagram reel about this. That like the difference, like the opposite of humility is not self-confidence the opposite of humility is pride, right?
RV (04:46):
Self-Confidence is being convicted in, in, in what you do. Pride isn’t is about who you do it for, right? So this isn’t about you going, oh, I need to tell the world how great I am. That’s pride. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about being convicted to tell the world how great the thing is that you have can be for them, right? It’s not about, it’s the difference between pride and confidence is who you do it for self-confidence is going. I am a capable person of helping you. It is in service of you and in when I’m operating in service of you, that gives me the permission, the confidence the, the openness, the power, the authority, the, the, the, the white space, the invitation to kind of boldly proclaim and say, Hey, I’ve got this thing that will change your life.
RV (05:42):
It’s about you. Pride is when it’s about me. Let me tell you how great I am. Let me, you know, you, you should know me, look at what I’ve done. Look at who I am. That’s different than confidence, which is, let me boldly tell you about this thing that I have for you, how it can help you, what we have put together for how it serves you. And, and until you flip that switch, you’re gonna struggle. You’re gonna be broke. It’s gonna be hard. You’re gonna have a hard time finding customers. You’re gonna your marketing campaigns. Aren’t gonna work. You’re not gonna sell your sales people. Aren’t gonna sell. Why? Because selling marketing enrollment registrations are a matter of conviction.
RV (06:27):
There is this transference of going and listening to somebody who believes what they’re saying and not just believes what they’re saying. They believe that what they are telling me about is good for me. It’s not about them, right? They’re just the messenger. But the message is for me, the message can help my life. And that is you have to get to that point. I mean, think about it. You, you can’t shy your way into the world, knowing about you. You can’t timid your way into changing lives. You, you can’t soft pedal your way into making a difference in the world. You can’t, there’s too much noise. There’s too much competition for attention. There’s, there’s too much competition in general. There’s too much negativity. There’s, there’s too much misinformation. If you’re gonna win, it has to be bold and assertive. And, and DEC declarative, like I am here with something that can help you not look at me.
RV (07:30):
It’s look at this. It’s not who am I? It’s what do I have for you? But, but you have to make that switch. You have to turn that corner. Otherwise you are gonna be the world’s best kept secret. I mean, you’re not gonna be the world’s best kept secret. You’re just gonna be a secret. You’re just not gonna be known. And, and this, I think is one of the greatest struggles that mission driven messengers have. And why do we know this? Why do we, why do we have so much clarity about this? Because this is us. This is what we struggle with, right? For us, it’s a spiritual thing as Christians, we’re going, man, you know, the meek shall inherent the earth. So how do I, how do I stand up and go listen to my podcast and, and, and, and tell the world like, you should listen to this podcast.
RV (08:16):
How do we, how do we go? You know, like, oh, it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, harder for a rich person to, or a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to inherit the kingdom of heaven. How do we reconcile that? Because we go those messages, that construct, that concept is not about being broke and, and hidden and shy. And that’s not what it’s about. That’s about positioning. What’s the position in your life. And where do you stand in the pecking order of the things that matter, right? And, and so if you’re a Christian, right? The what, what we’ve realized and have come to understand from studying this really understanding scripture and sort of the heart of this is going, it’s not about how much money you have. It’s about what position money has in your life, right? If money is number one in your life, that’s a problem.
RV (09:11):
That’s, that’s what Jesus is talking about. He’s saying, I want the number one spot. I wanna be first. God should be first. And that’s what he’s saying. You can be rich and God can still be first. You can be poor and money can still be first. And God can be second, right? Even if you’re poor and God is, but money is first, or your pride is first, and God is beneath that. That’s the problem that’s going on there, right? It actually is completely separate of the quantity of money you have. It’s about the position of that item in your life. This is a positioning issue. This is the positioning in your own mind. Like, and, and you, you, until you flip the switch, you’re gonna be living with this struggle of like, oh, I’m self promotional or I’m I’m, I’m, I’m, you know, I’m, I’m arrogant.
RV (10:04):
I’m egotistical. Yes you are. If the mission is about you and as, and, and about elevating you and making people worship you and idolize you. Yes, that’s wrong. But if the mission is to push the message out to the world, if the mission is to solve a problem for the world, if the mission is to help other people, if it’s to elevate them, then you can do that and be bold. You have to be bold and powerful and assertive and loud and consistent and dominating because you won’t get heard. Otherwise, like you gotta, you gotta break through, like you can’t sit in a corner somewhere in a room and think the world’s gonna find out about the solution that you have, that you’re not gonna impact lives. You’re not gonna help people. So it’s rooted in service. It’s not rooted in pride. It’s rooted in service.
RV (11:00):
It’s not rooted in pride, but until you click until this clicks, you’re gonna struggle your whole life. Your business is always gonna struggle because you’re gonna be at odds. You are gonna be subconsciously self sabotaging because on the one hand, you want to grow your business. But on the other hand, you, you feel like there’s this spiritual battle of going, oh, I have to remain meek and humble. And until you reconcile this, you’re gonna struggle. And the way you reconcile it is realizing that they’re not remotely connected at all. I mean, even Jesus, like the great commission is go tell the world, proclaim it. Boldly. Not about how great we are, but how about how great he is about what he has done about who God is, but go boldly into the world. Why can we go boldly into the whole world? Because it’s not about us.
RV (11:56):
It’s about this cure. It’s about this message. And it’s about another person. It’s about him, right? That’s why you can do it. If you are at the center, that is a conflict. But if your expertise is at the center, if your service is at the center, if the product is at the center, if service is at the center, then you can proclaim it wildly and boldly and loudly and confidently without doing it. Pridefully you have to get this. If you’re ever going to grow your business, if you’re ever going to grow your reach, if you’re ever gonna break free of, of being financially poor, like this is, is a really, really big issue. So it was huge. Right? And so just hearing AJ talk about it and give her her take on it. Super powerful for me. The second thing is something we’ve been talking about a ton like AJ and I have been talking about this.
RV (12:56):
We’ve been talking about it with our own team internally. We’re getting, you know, we’re, we’re trying to like make sure our members, our, our messengers and our membership program like that, they’re all super clear on this. And, you know, wanna make sure that you’re in, in the loop on this too, which is this huge mistake that like the entire world has somehow been tricked, like misled. Like it’s like the entire world believes something that is so ineffective. It’s unbelievable. And here’s, here’s what it is. We have all been misled to think that the key to glory is selling to strangers on the internet.
RV (13:57):
Like no, the path to riches is not through strangers on the internet. The path to riches is through trust. And the relationships of the people who know you in real life, the people who know your character, the people who love you, the who believe in you, the people who have been there in your darkest moments, the people who you’ve delivered for, it’s not millions of strangers on the internet. It’s a few dozen people who know you in real life. Why? Because it’s about trust. Now, can you make money from the internet and social media? Of course you can, but only after you’ve built trust, right? And it takes a long time to build trust. When people only watch, you know, three seconds of your videos at a time, they gotta watch a lot of three second videos before they actually really trust you. So it takes a long time.
RV (14:52):
The, the, your next great customer is not a stranger on the internet. Your next best customer is much more likely to be in your cell phone or in the cell phone of your current customer’s cell phones. It’s the people that, you know, like the people who know the people, you know, it’s leveraging the, the relationships. This is reputation, right? When you, when you hear personal branding, please don’t think social media and logos and colors and websites and YouTube channels and podcasts think reputation, right? That is what our company is about. The digitization of reputation. Like, yes, it is digitizing it. Yes, there are these modern things that we’re doing, but the core is not the digital part. The core is the reputation part, the character part, the, the, the personality, the integrity part. And so when it comes to selling and doubling your business in the next 12 months, it’s not going, Ooh, there’s some secret hack that I’m gonna learn on social media.
RV (15:57):
That’s somehow gonna introduce me to millions of people who are all then gonna buy from me, even if it does introduce you to millions of people, which can happen. And that’s a great thing and good things come from that. They’re not gonna all suddenly buy from you. You have to develop trust. And that takes a long time, a long time, right? Like a lot of people who buy from us, we, we had a, a great friend sign up this, this guy’s really cool guy. His name’s Ray Higg. And he joined our program yesterday and he’s got, he’s really huge in the network marketing space. And he’s got this program called rank makers. And, and he’s a great guy like and you know, him and his wife, Jess, like they have business together, but like, he really helps a lot of people that are in network marketing.
RV (16:36):
Like this is what he’s done his whole life. We’ve gone back and forth for a few years. And, and he just now became a customer because it was just like, it just takes time. Right? And so we, instead of believing this sort of lie that, oh, if every, if you do it, all right, people are just gonna flock to you and buy suddenly over the, you know, strangers from the internet instead it’s relationships, it’s reputation, it’s character. And so work through your relationships, work through the people who already know you get referrals from those folks. Right? So obviously our, our pressure free persuasion training is one of the reasons why we’re talking about this now because of the exit of our former company, there was, there was a window of time where we were bound by a non-compete. And so we couldn’t teach sales training.
RV (17:22):
And so we, we, we didn’t for a few years, but now we’re free of that. And, and we created this, I mean, life changing sales curriculum pressure free persuasion, which, you know, if you’re a member, you’ve got access to it. And it’s just like, you know, we teach this stuff, but the psych, the tactical part, but the psychological part is right here is going quit thinking the riches are gonna come from strangers on the internet. And instead start working through in a deeper way through the relationships you already have and asked to be introduced to people that’s and specifically getting referrals from your customers. Like if you’re not getting referrals from your customers, even if you only have one customer or five, like if you’re not getting referrals from your customers, you’re missing on the best, easiest, lowest hanging fruit for more revenue in your business.
RV (18:12):
And just ask yourself this question on a scale of one to 10, how good of a job are you at getting referrals from your current customers? My guess is it might be zero.
RV (19:08):
And so at scale, all this stuff works. That’s why we do it. That’s why we teach it. But it’s over the long term in the short term, do it through the relationships of the people you have, unless you have some massive platform, right. Then that’s, that’s the reason you have it is cuz you’ve been doing it for a while and you do have trust and there’s ways to monetize it. But for most of us, most of you, it’s gonna happen through the relationships that you have with real people in real life. And then the third thing, you know, third, big takeaway here. And, and I got a fourth bonus one, but the, the third one is when AJ was saying, just give away so much value that people feel compelled almost that they have to pay you for something. And that is such a rare philosophy.
RV (19:59):
I think like, I don’t hear people talk about it, but that is how AJ and I have built our life, our businesses. It’s like, we give it away. Like we give it away. We, it, it’s a, it’s a tremendous amount of time and pain and money to just give away so much of this stuff. But like, you know, a great example here recently is, is Tom and Lisa BIU. If you don’t know them, they’re awesome. They, they have a they’re superpower couple. They sold a company for a billion dollars. It was called quest nutrition. They were co-founders and now they have a, a huge podcast called impact theory. Well, Lisa had a book come out called radical confidence. We didn’t know them very well. I had known Tom a little bit. And so, you know, she’s doing her book launch and I said, Hey, did you think about this?
RV (20:42):
And are you guys doing this? And did you know this? And have you tried this and, and have you met this person and that person and this person, right. And just like, you know, we don’t charge for PR. PR is something we do for free for all of our, just our friends and clients. That’s just how we add value to the community is introducing people all the time. Right? So like the more we get to know somebody personally, the more likely we are to ntroduce them. So we’re introducing them, you know, just making connections, but we share tips with everybody, right? Like we’re sharing the same tips with them that we have, you know, somewhere in, in the archive here of all these podcasts, like, and we’re just going, Hey, are you doing this? And what happened was they literally said this. I mean, this is the craziest thing.
RV (21:19):
This is a true story. It happened recently. Right? And they’re really big deal. I mean, they’ve got millions of followers. That’s one of the biggest personal development podcasts in the world and an amazing reputation. And they’re tremendous people like super smart, super successful, wealthy, sharp, inspiring, tons of people, all of these things. And basically what they said was they said, Rory, this has reached a point where we feel guilty. Like about how much value you, we have gotten from you. You’ve been so helpful to us in, in, in our book launch Lisa’s Lisa’s book launch the book is called radical confidence. Right. And they were like, we have to hire you.
RV (22:12):
The intention was just to be helpful, but it was amazing how good people, like really good people actually do start to feel a little awkward when you’ve given so much. Right. And you’re because at some point it’s like, golly, like you’ve done so much for me. Like, what can I give back to you? Like, how can I help you? Like, oh my gosh, like you saved the day here. I, I, I want to repay the favor. I need to repay the favor. It’s like their law of reciprocity. It’s not a manipulative thing. It’s, it’s a, it’s an abundance thing. It’s a generosity thing. It’s a person of character thing going, gosh, you’ve done so much. You’ve done so much for me. Like, what can I do for you? How can I help you? I wanna be a part of this. And that’s what happens, you know, so good people that that’s what happens.
RV (22:57):
And so like, that’s our whole strategy. I mean, that’s our whole content marketing strategy, give away everything for free. Like we teach you everything we know. And so anyway, so they hired us, right? So they’re, they are brand builders, group clients, and we made a huge impact even officially after they hire us. Like, so with Lisa, we helped Lisa grow her book sales 33% in 10 days, right. Of everything that she had done in the launch, we helped her increase it 33% in a 10 day window. You know, and then, you know, she hit the USA today, national bestseller list. It’s amazing. Right. So now we have another client who’s a national bestseller and all of this happened. She’s so cool. Like I love follower. She’s super sharp and sassy. You know, she’s, she’s really, really cool. And all of a sudden we ended up with another client.
RV (23:47):
That’s a very recognizable client. We’ve had a huge, added, a huge amount of value to their life. And she’s a national bestselling author as she straight up legitimately would not have been. If, if it, if it weren’t for us, like, like that’s a really cool thing to go. All we were doing was just trying to help. And, and as much as helping them, we were also helping our network. Right. Because it helps a lot of our friends and a lot of our clients to be able to get to interview somebody like Lisa and get to build a relationship with her. Right. So it’s, it’s not even like, Hey, let’s help her and see if we can get in, it’s going, how can we just help? How can we add value? And it’s, if you just look, it’s another switch here. Like, if you can flip this switch, if you can go, if you can shift from going, what can I get from you?
RV (24:32):
What can, what can you do for me? And you can flip the switch to go, what can I do for you? How can I help you? It radically changes your life and it changes your business, right? Like people are coming to us going. I heard you guys are the best. And it’s like, all we’re doing is trying to help. Right. you know, our stuff is really good. Like our content is really good. Like, we, we, we do, you know, we know what we’re talking about, but there’s other people in the world who do it, but I think it’s, it’s people are drawn to that heart of generosity and anyone can do that. And here’s, and here’s one of the reasons why I think we do it. I hated selling so much. Right. Like I went door to door and felt like such a scam artist.
RV (25:17):
And, you know, I learned some, some really shady techniques along the way about, about sales. Like just some, some, some pretty shady stuff. And I was like, I just don’t wanna be that guy. I don’t care if I’m not the number one salesperson, I’m not gonna be that guy. Like, it’s like the, I, the amount of money you could pay me, isn’t worth a compromise of my own character. Right? Like, I’m not gonna compromise my character just to earn a commission. I’m not gonna compromise my reputation just to grow my revenue. And AJ’s the same way. And I think, you know, that’s one of the reasons we end up married is like, we have this apparently unusual philosophy and belief system that it’s like, no, no, no. Like I know, I know if I use that technique, I could sell more, but I would feel horrible and I couldn’t live with myself.
RV (26:11):
I don’t care that much about money. I don’t care that much about recognition. I’m not gonna do that. So what we defaulted to was just like, how can we give, how can we serve? How can we help? And she became this multimillion dollar producer, like in, in her early thirties. And, you know, it’s just by giving. So how can you do that? Like how can you adopt that posture of, and, and the more reluctant you are about selling, the more, I would say, embrace serving, embrace, giving away, sharing what, know, give it away for free, just go speak for free, put it out on social media, teach it for free. And just test me on this. I promise you, the money’s gonna show up. I promise, like you cannot lose when you do this. Like you cannot lose. And, and this story with Lisa was pretty crazy because it was like, she literally was like we have to pay you something like for them, they were like, we can’t sleep at night knowing how one sided this relationship has been.
RV (27:14):
Right. Like and so it was like, okay, well, I guess, you know, send us some money, but it was literally like, it didn’t really change anything. We were, we were just helping, you know I mean, I guess it did, it made us block more time on the calendar to show up and sort of be on their schedule. Right. Rather than just kind of operating when it was convenient. But do that go, how can I give away so much value that people would want to pay me and make that, make that your posture make that, make that your prayer make that your position in the marketplace make that your reputation and, and just, and just watch. So again, those are, those are the takeaways, love this story, you know, congratulations, Lisa USA today, national bestseller, radical confidence is the book, pick it up, you know, take a, take a look if you haven’t gotten it.
RV (28:02):
Really, really awesome. It’s, it’s endorsed by Jay Sheti and Mel Robbins and Dr. Nicole lap, like all these really modern day, you know, thought leaders, the thought leaders of future of our generation, like really, really cool. And then the other thing is go to, if you go to double dot brand builders, group.com, check out this, this full free training that AJ put together about how do you double your business in 12 months. And then, you know, that brings me to the fourth takeaway, which, you know, I wanna tell you about is we, it’s hard to build a personal brand. Like it’s, it’s hard to be an entrepreneur in general, right? Like you gotta do the marketing, you gotta do the sales, you gotta do the delivery, the customer service, the accounting, the HR, the legal, the strategy, the operations, like the finance, like it’s hard to be an entrepreneur.
RV (28:50):
And that’s one of the reasons why our heart is for so many entrepreneurs. And you know, anyone who builds a personal brand, then it’s like, yeah, you gotta learn, you know, content creation and presentation skills and social media and branding and color design and graphic design and, and, you know, paid traffic and all the things we teach podcasting, right? Like all of the things in our whole curriculum. And so it’s, it’s not easy to make money in the midst of all of that. You actually have to create content and you have to go, man. I started out just wanting to impact lives. I just wanted to help people. And now I have to do all this other stuff that like gets in the way between me impacting lives. Like I have to do all of these things in order to just get to impact lives and, and to be able to make any money, right?
RV (29:36):
Like you have to take care of all that stuff really, before you make money and you create content. And so one of the things that we realized and, you know, our, the feedback from our community’s been awesome is that our content is really, really good, really, really solid and really powerful. And so one thing we’ve never done, we’ve never done this in our career. We are just doing it now is we have started a content licensing program where you can actually you pay a fee it’s moderate, very moderate. You pay this fee. And then what’ll happen is you get a, you get trained on how to use our content to help people find their uniqueness, build their personal brand, established their position in the marketplace. All of these, you know, these things from our, from our flagship brand builders group curriculum, and we give you the content.
RV (30:29):
So you can then you know, like when you become, when most people become a client, we’re taking you through the content to apply it to your own life. This is a program that we have now launched called content licensing, where we are giving you permission to take our content and go out into the world and sell it. And you can make as much money as you want from teaching our content. And you get, you know, the legal authority and the, and the right to do it. And we actually, not only that we train you how to do it. So you, you’re paying just, just a, a very moderate licensing fee in order to be able to use our content and go tell it to the world. And, you know there we give you the tools, right? We give you PowerPoints, we give you you come through the training, we teach you how to teach it to other people.
RV (31:15):
And you get all of these resources that are assets to help you, you know, have this sort of off the shelf service that you can, you know, either, you know, do as a do as a business, or in most cases, just make it a part of your business. It’s specifically for like coaches and consultants. And if you’re interested in that, like go to license dot brand builders, group.com, license dot brand builders, group.com. And you can read about that and, and get more for more information if you want. And it’s just one more way. We’re trying to like help close the gap between where you’re at and money showing up in your bank account. Because it’s, it’s difficult and, you know, to practice what I preach here, the content is incredible. Like we have developed a systematic process to help people figure out who they should be, the rest of their life and what the calling is, what the unique calling is on their life and how they can turn that into a personal brand and to help them figure out what is their uncapable difference?
RV (32:19):
What is their uniqueness? What is their identity that only they can, the, the space that only they can occupy in the world and then teaching ’em how to make a bunch of money doing it. We, I mean, you know, has God inspired, like we believe this system was given to us, but like, it’s incredible. And we’ve now taken 600 people more than 600 people through the process, you know, and a lot of ’em are these really great clients that, that you hear of that we work with. So anyways, go to license dot brand builders, group.com. If you wanna read up about that and just switch on, right, switch on, be proud of what you, you do, be proud of how you can help, you know, don’t, don’t try to get, make people just, you know, worship you and idolize you and fall in love with you and tell them how great you are.
RV (33:08):
That’s pride self-confidence is telling people how awesome this tool is. This service, this technique, you know, that you have this solution to solving their problem, and you can do that boldly and daringly and almost provocatively and aggressively and powerfully and go out and tell the world, be an ambassador, right. Be an ambassador of the problem you solve and be an ambassador of the solution that you have that can actually transform lives, flip that switch. And I promise you’ll double your business. Like that is what makes it possible. Don’t flip that switch, and I promise it’s about impossible to double your business. So hopefully you’ve enjoyed this. Check out the full training with AJ at brain builders, group.com and keep coming back here week after week on the influential personal brand podcast
Ep 284: How to Double Your Business In 12 Months with AJ Vaden
RV (00:02):
Oh, we have a special edition today. Super special very uncommon format where you actually are going to get to hear from our CEO AJ Vaden. My co-founder my wife, of course, and she is actually going to be our guest. So obviously, usually either her or myself are leading the interview today. I get to play the role of interviewer. AJ is going to play the role of interviewee and our guests, because we’re gonna talk about something that is really, really important and really, really powerful, which is how to double your business in the next 12 months. AJ, as you know you probably know many of her credentials for being with brand builders group, but one thing you may not know about AJ is that she also is a million dollar producer. She is someone who spent personally produced over a million dollars a year in revenue by herself, many years in a row, both in as a in a speaking business, a consulting business, a coaching business. And so she just has a lot of experience growing businesses, coaching businesses, consulting, speaking. And that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. Specifically, she’s gonna share some tips on how to double your business in the next 12 months, AJ made and welcome to your own show. We’re glad to have you,
AJV (01:23):
RV (01:29):
So yeah. So talk to us just a little bit about, I mean, obviously most of the people listening here know about brand builders group, right. They know what we do. But tell us a little bit about your past like pre brandand builders group. What were some of the types of businesses that you built? How were you a top producer and, you know, just what were some of the different business models that you were involved in?
AJV (01:53):
Well, it’s not me. It’s not just me. It’s us. It was our I think most of you probably know that brand builders group is Roy and I second business together, but a little known fact, I’m not sure how many of you listening know this, that we were actually business partners before we fell in love and got married. And so we started as business partners and then broke the Cardinal role fell in love, got married. Luckily 15 years later, it’s it worked out, it worked out in our favor. But prior to brain builders group, you know, we spent the first 15 years of our professional lives building a coaching speaking consulting, training business, but it actually started as a seminar business. So in the first four years of our very first business we lived on the road full time lived in 14 cities and five years was moving pretty much every 16 weeks for the better part of four and a half years putting on large motivational sales conferences.
AJV (02:57):
And that naturally involve evolved into a one-on-one coaching business, which then involved into a consulting practice. We started a speakers bureau brew. It, it was very successful. And when we departed from that company and sold back our equity to our former partners we had over 200 coaches. It was well into the eight figures business. On the coaching side, we had a healthy, a seven figure consulting business, a healthy seven figure speaking business. And so there’s lots of different components of, of what we did, but it naturally evolved over time from large public seminars to one on one consult or one-on-one coaching to full service consulting. Did training as a part of that, and then also built a speakers bureau.
RV (03:44):
Mm-Hmm
AJV (04:36):
Yeah, well, it’s not just double your business. It’s really niche down to a really important sub segment of all the audiences we serve, but it’s one that’s really near and dear to my heart and it’s coaches, speakers, trainers, and consultants. And part of why that’s really important to me is I could still consider myself one of all those things. But that’s really where I started. It’s where I grew. It’s it’s challenging, it’s hard and it’s as everything is challenging and there’s pros and cons to any business out there. I know this business, this world inside and out, and as a part of brand builders group, a huge part of our community find themselves in one of these categories. Even if it’s not their full time right profession, but they do consulting, they do training, they do speaking, they do coaching, they do all these things.
AJV (05:28):
And many of you want to figure out how to make it your full time gig, or maybe you’ve gotten into one of those. And you’re like, oh, I do not want this one particular piece to be all that I do, but I want to do these other pieces. And I think this is a really interesting, unique part of my life and my past and my expertise that I can really lend some really good solid tips and techniques. But also mindset to help any of you who are in that particular business model of a coach consultant, speaker trainer really truly help you amplify your business and, and double it in the next 12 months. And I think those are the things that are really unique. But I think they’re applicable to any business, as you said, it’s how to double your business, but we put together this training webinar hyper specific to that niche group of individuals, trainers, consultants, speakers, coaches to help them leverage five simple ideas, five simple. And I didn’t say simple, not easy, but five simple things that you can do to start doubling your business. But I do think there’s universal appeal and I think anyone can do that, but this specific training is really unique to that. So that’s what it’s all about.
RV (06:40):
Mm-Hmm
AJV (07:44):
Yeah, it’s, it’s a really simple answers. They try to do it all
AJV (08:27):
And at the end of the day, what, what happens and what I find so often for so many of these individuals, is that the reason you started this is cuz you loved doing what you wanted to do. And now it’s the least amount of time that you do it. It’s like what you did is you loved coaching or you loved speaking and you loved this, but it’s like, that’s not the only part it’s like, you gotta have contracts and agreements and signatures and sales calls and follow up emails and, and interviews. And you track people down and there’s customer service issues. And it’s like, there’s all the different things that start distracting you from keeping the main thing, the main thing. And that’s, that’s the biggest thing. And I find it’s distraction it’s that your, your attention is pulled in so many different areas so quickly, cuz there’s so much to do. And then in really in order to be really good at any of those things, you have to practice your craft, which means you need to be reading and learning and going to conferences and getting coached yourself and networking and learning in all these different atmospheres. And guess what? That takes time too. And let’s not forget any amount of time for yourself, your spouse and your families. Oh yeah. That’s important too. And so I think time distraction is really the number one thing that gets in the way of people scaling this kind of business.
RV (09:48):
Hmm. Yeah. That what you just said there, I think is absolutely true. Right? You start because you go, I wanna help people. I wanna make a difference in the world. Like I wanna change lives. I wanna meet people. I wanna like, see, look people in the eye and like share with them what I know and how I’ve helped. And then it’s so quickly can turn to invoices and bills and taxes and technology and operating systems and payroll and, and you know, documents and all of that stuff. Like this is a little bit of a dis a little bit of a disheartening reality, I think in, in, in many cases. So, so what are, what are some of these things that you’re talking about in terms of how to double the business or, or, or what are some of the tools that you think can help alleviate some of that pain and help experts, coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, help them actually make more money, faster, get back to spending more time doing what they love and, and return to the original reason they started in this space.
AJV (10:48):
Yeah. So in the training webinar that I host, there’s five things that we talk about that will help you double your business. I won’t probably have time to go into all five of those today, but we’ll cover as much as we can, but here’s one of the things that I thought was really interesting when putting together all of this information, which really just started as some value add for our brain builders group, community, our audience people like you who are listening. And I started looking at all these different research reports that were out there about the coaching industry and I found some really staggering statistics that made me stop in my tracks and go, I’m gonna spend a little bit more time here because I really just naturally got curious about, wow, like I wanna learn more about this phenomenon that is coaching training consulting.
AJV (11:33):
And where is it trending? And how does that relate to what we do in personal branding? Right. and I just think personal branding is applicable to anyone who has a reputation. All of you, everyone who is listening has a reputation. But there’s, then there’s a really unique group of people where the more dependent your business is on your reputation, the more important it becomes and being intentional about that reputation, which is personal branding. And so I was spending some time looking at some of these stats and here were a couple that really stood out to me that I thought were fascinating, is that right now coaching, the coaching industry is the second fastest growing industry in the world. Wow. It’s the second fastest growing industry in the world. And some of the backup statistics around that I thought were equally as interesting this year alone it’s, it is expected to exceed a 20 billion industry.
AJV (12:33):
Wow. And I thought, well, that’s a lot of money out there. How many people are involved in this? Right. And so on LinkedIn, and now this is just on LinkedIn, right? I thought this was so fascinating. If you just type in coach as a title on LinkedIn, there are more than 4 million people just on LinkedIn that have the title as coach. Wow. And then I narrowed it down to just the United States and in just the United States alone, it’s approximately 1.8 million people who have the title of coach. And so I got really sucked in one day like really sucked in and I probably spent an hour scrolling all these titles, scrolling all of them. Because I wanted to know like, what kind of coaches are these? Like who are these 1.8 million people? And how come I’ve been in this industry for this long? And it doesn’t seem that prevalent.
AJV (13:31):
Now I know there was a season a time where it’s like, everyone was a coach, right? You’ve got spiritual coaches, dating coaches, marriage, coaches, life coaches, business coaches. In fact, I remember being at a networking meeting. This was probably, gosh, it has to be 10 years ago. Right now has to be 10 years ago. And I remember being at this networking meeting, I think it was like a BNI meeting. I used to be like at every single BNI meeting I could go to. And I remember introducing myself and someone said, well, what do you do? And I said, I’m a consultant. And they said, oh, you mean you’re unemployed? And I was like, am unemployed. And they said, well, I just figured like most people who say that don’t have jobs is that the reputation that coaches and consultants have is that they couldn’t cut it at what they’re doing.
AJV (14:27):
So they go off and do something else, like the old saying, it’s like those who can’t do teach. And I was like, that’s some serious BS. Right. I was like, no, I’m employed. And I’m doing really well. And I’m a consultant. I was so offended.
AJV (15:19):
And so when I saw that number 1.8 million people, I was just fascinated around who are all these people. And so I started going through there and, and where are they? Yeah. They’re apparently they’re everywhere. Apparently they’re everywhere. But then it, it was really interesting cuz I was scrolling through all these titles around, this is why people think we’re unemployed. And I looked at those titles and they were so vague and so generic and so general that as I was scrolling, even someone who was in this industry who dedicates her life to helping people in these industries grow and build their businesses, build their reputations in these fields. I was really thinking through here would never hire. You don’t even know what that means. And I was like, whoa, pause right there. And that was like one of the biggest aha moments of going, I’m putting a training together.
AJV (16:15):
I need to talk about this because these are the same problems that I suffered from our team member suffer from our clients are friends suffer from, is that someone says, what do you do? And he says, I’m a life coach. What is that? And what do you do? And you hear that term so often, or I’m a business coach, I’m a sales coach. And those were these like wide broadening terms that I kept running into. And then it just started like triggering the triggering, that old experience that I had from this BNI meeting where they go, oh, that means you’re unemployed. And then it just all hit me at once. It’s like, yeah, like that is the problem. It’s because we’re not clear on what we do and who we serve as the coach, the consultant, the trainer, the speaker. And instead we go, I can help anyone with anything which why they have this, these ridiculously broad terms like life coach, like what can you help me with exactly in my life?
AJV (17:14):
Like, what is it exactly, same with business. There’s so many different things. And we try to be, you know, the master of many thus while mastering nothing. And then I tie that on all in with what we do at brain builders group. And that’s one of these things, all these dots started connecting for me and it’s like really, truly to break through. She hands’ wall. We talk about this all the time. Like to break through the wall, you need to become known for one thing. Yet most of us try to do everything we say yes to everything. Right. I did that for years as a consultant, they were like, well, can you help me with this? Sure. Can I’ll figure it out before I invoice you. Right. It’s like I said yes to whatever it was leadership. Sure. Marketing, sure. Sales, sure. Retention.
AJV (18:01):
Sure. Can you help me with collections? I think so. Yeah, sure can do that too. It’s like, did it matter what it was? The answer was, I’ll figure it out. And I think there’s a time and a place for that and that’s really short lived and then you need to figure out what exactly am I supposed to be doing and who am I supposed to be doing it with? And for, and then I ran into a few of these titles as I was having, like these revelation moments of these are all the mistakes I made. Right. I did it for years and it was really hard and it was exhausting, but it doesn’t have to be that way. It really doesn’t. And then I started running into some titles that said this high business growth coach for young CEOs. And I was like, BA click.
AJV (18:47):
I wanna see what you do, why I’m in a high growth business. And I’m a young CEO. It was so clear. It was so clear. They had niche down so much that I could literally just read their title and go, I think they could help me. Right. And then I saw other ones that were like, you know, a financial growth coach for small businesses. I was like, what do you do? I wanna go to your website. And then I started like paying attention to which ones caught me. And the ones that caught me were really, really specific. This is actually something you say all the time I steal it, but I always give you credit. Oh, okay. It’s the more specific, the more terrific, right. It’s like, however cheesy that is. I have never forgotten it. The more
RV (19:33):
Cheesy, wait a minute. We weren’t talking about cheesy. We were talking about brilliant, but okay. I’ll take cheesy.
AJV (19:39):
Brilliant. Yes. But the more specific, the more terrific. And that’s a huge part of this. It’s like, if you really want to double your business and double your income, if you really want business finding you, if you want other people to explain what you do in layman’s terms, without them having to go to your website, it needs to be that clear. You need to be able to niche down so that anyone who knows you, who has heard of you, who has worked with you can say exactly what you do and who you do it for in one sentence. It is so important for the ability for other people to think of you and to refer you to people because they think about what you do and who you do it for. Right. And I think about like us at brain builders group, like we see all the time, it’s like we help experts become more well known. And then I thought about the first decade of my life as a consultant coach speaker, I had no clarity. I was like, I can help any sales team grow revenue. Oh, well how specific is that? And it was like, then it just dawned me as I was reading through all of is like, they aren’t clear on what they do. And for someone who’s just scrolling of going, what do you do? It’s gotta be that clear in your title. So it’s, it’s ne it’s, nicheing down. It’s getting so specific that someone can read your title, read your business card, right. Scroll through literally a one line statement on your LinkedIn profile and go, I want to learn about how you could help me.
RV (21:15):
Mm-Hmm
AJV (22:15):
Yeah. Like one of the things it’s like, and I think about this in my own life, it’s like, I have, as you know, I have a business coach and I have a life coach. Right. And it’s like, both of them, their reputation preceded them. Right. And it wasn’t like, I probably would’ve just picked a random business coach or life coach off of a LinkedIn title. But it’s enough for me to go. I want someone like that. And so I always think about it. It’s like, do my friends, family, acquaintances, you know, people that I’m in the community with. Do they know what I do that specifically? And it’s part of, it’s a conditioning. Like people ask me all the time. I get asked this all the time. How can I help you? And I’m like, the next time that you hear someone say this, refer them to me. And it’s like, you gotta help people think about you. It’s like, when they say this, refer them to me, that’s how you can help them.
RV (23:12):
Yeah. That’s really good. Those literal like kind of triggers like yeah. And I think about like our speaker friends, like when someone comes up to you after you’re on stage and they say, how do I get to be you mm-hmm
AJV (23:47):
It’s speech down. Do not in general, do not be broad. It’s like, you are not a life coach. You are not, you, you focus on some component of life. What is that? Is it spirituality? Is it health? Is it mindset? Is it nutrition? Is it relationships? You do not talk about life. There are so many things to life. It is impossible, right? So it’s like, tell me exactly what you’re gonna do for me in my life, in my business, with my financials, with my team and with my leadership potential, like it’s not a leadership consultant. Like what part of leadership, what part of sales? What part of marketing, what part of business get so clear that it’s polarizing? And that, that is like, it’s not just get clear on what it’s like, be so clear. It’s polarizing. People need to say, I don’t need that. Or where have you been my whole life? Right. It’s like, here’s my money. Or I’m just keep on going. It needs to be that clear.
RV (24:45):
Yeah. I love that. And again, so the, the URL is double dot brand builders, group.com, double dot brand builders, group.com. You can watch this whole free training. We got a couple minutes left here still.
AJV (24:56):
I got two more. I got, I’ll go fast. I got two more. All
RV (24:59):
Right, go
AJV (24:59):
For it. I’m gonna start, I’m gonna start the second one with a story. So about a month ago, I was on a podcast with this amazing interview with Mo tepo right. And we were talking about negotiation and sales and mindset, right? And the reason that people aren’t sometimes considered good negotiators mainly by themselves or good sales people. And the reason is why. And we have a, a a distorted view of what is negotiation and a distorted view of what is sales. And that’s really true, right. I used to be embarrassed to tells people that I was in sales because I didn’t wanna be viewed as you know, that old cliche, a used car salesman today is the proudest thing. I tell people I’m like, I might be a CEO and I might be these, but at the end of the day, I’m a salesperson.
AJV (25:47):
And I now hold it in such high regard because it’s a skillset that’s so few really possess. And I have come to learn that over the years. And I really took for granted the sales skills and sales training that I was able to get at a really, really young age and just get beat around
AJV (26:42):
So they don’t talk about it. And instead of leveraging the people who know us and trust us and like us the most to help us grow our business, we somehow think finding strangers on the internet is what’s going to be this, the solution. How bizarre is that? Just stay with movers for a second. Just take a moment and think about the people who love, trust and believe in you more than anyone else. How much time do you spend with them talking about what you do? Do they know what you do? The clients who serve their results, do they know? And then think about how much time and energy you spend on trying to attract complete strangers who have never met you before to buy your products and services.
RV (27:28):
Mm
AJV (27:29):
It’s bizarre. Y all it’s crazy. And it’s because we don’t wanna come across as salesy. We don’t want to rub anyone the wrong way or offend anyone. And here’s the real problem is you’re only concerned with yourself. You’re so focused on what, how I don’t wanna look, you pay no attention to, are there people right in front of me who need what I do or do they know someone who needs what I do? And so I believe in something called the six foot role and the six foot role means that you have to be willing to tell anyone within six feet of you about what you do it is that simple, not always easy, but simple. And that is because you feel compelled to talk about it because you were that passionate about it, because you believe in what you can do so much, that you cannot contain it because you have seen lives change.
AJV (28:25):
You have seen businesses change, you know, the transformation that will happen with the work that you do with people. So you feel compelled to share it. It’s not about a sale or marketing or being self promotional. It’s about being of the belief and of the mindset that I do. Something that has the power to change your business and change your life. So, yeah, I will tell any single person who is in six, within six feet of me, about what I do, because I believe in it. And that’s a di a slight shift in mentality. And I’ll give you two quick examples about this. And and then we can just like, kind of go from there, but there are two things that I have found
RV (29:00):
In that that was fired though. Like just to put a punctuation point on like that little clip, like we have to cut that clip for social media, like rewind that and listen to it. Like that was so powerful. And, and you nailed it. Like, we’re so afraid of how we don’t want to look to people that we are ignoring all of the people who are right around us, who need what we do like that is that so sorry to stop you. But that was just like,
AJV (29:31):
Why preach
RV (29:31):
It preach it? Vaden
AJV (29:32):
Believes that some sort of digital marketing tip or some social media formula somehow going to help your business grow it ain’t let me just be honest with you. It’s not, what’s gonna make your business grow is getting incredible results for people and having the courage to ask them to share it and having enough courage and belief in yourself to talk about it and to put yourself out there, right? You don’t need clients from around the world. You need clients in your own community. It’s amazing to me that some people and it’s amazing to myself, right? Our, our, our mindset is so limited. It’s frightening. And we were at a, a recent brain builders group event that I had the privilege of MC and one of our customers was in there. One of our clients and actually has a very expensive package.
AJV (30:19):
It’s a six figure package. And she needs like 12 clients who are willing to pay a hundred thousand dollars with her on retainer for what she needs to do to hit her goals. And and I just, I paused and I said, you know, Joe, can you just listen to yourself for one second? And you’re like, I need 12. And I’m like, no, you only need 12. There are 358 million Americans. You need 12. What’s keeps for some perspective here. Y’all and it’s like, we get so consumed. Where am I gonna find the next person? And it’s like, let me say that one more time. There are almost 360 million Americans. There are almost 8 billion people on planet earth. Most of us are looking for 30, 40, 50, a hundred clients. That’s it? Y’all, that’s it. You do not need to look outside of your own, you know, zip code to find 10 clients you don’t, but somehow we’re trying to far reach far and wide, and we’re not looking right in front of us.
AJV (31:21):
It’s a huge miss. And I just one I’m super passionate about the second thing that I was gonna share is that most of us miss opportunities, because we’re not present in the moment. And I’ve got two stories about this. I wanna share. We’re so sucked into our devices that we can’t see human beings all around us. We’re so sucked into catching up on texts and emails and posting on social and trying to get ahead that we forget the people who are willing to buy our products and services are sitting right next to us on the bleachers. So what if we’re a second, you actually engaged in human conversation? What would that do for you? If every single time you had a spare moment in line or sitting, or on an airplane that you weren’t sucked into some sort of technology and you actually engaged in actual conversation, how much business could you get from just that?
AJV (32:09):
And it’s free. Y’all two quick stories. One of the best consulting clients I ever picked up, I picked up at a softball game brewer. You should probably remember this story. Mm-Hmm,
AJV (32:51):
And he said, oh, they’re on the same team. And he goes, what are you doing here? And I said, oh, I’m here to watch my husband’s niece, Peyton play softball. And he goes, no kidding, Peyton, Gale. And I said, yeah, Peyton, Gale. He goes, that’s my daughter’s best friend. And I said, no way. I said, hi, my name’s AJ Dayden. I said, so what do you do that? You’re reading this book. He goes, oh, I’m the VP of sales for this, you know gifting company. And I said, really, he goes, what do you do? And I said, oh, I actually help individuals. Like you build and grow their sales teams. He goes, what do you mean? And I said, I work with a company that does sales consulting. That specifically is looking to help improve their sales team and their sales processes and sales philosophies.
AJV (33:30):
And he goes, can you tell me more about that? He ended up being one of my best clients of all time, that one conversation at a softball game because of a human conversation led to a book, being sent a conversation, being had a proposal being accepted and more than $350,000 in business, because I was willing to have a conversation with someone sitting on the bleachers at a softball game. It would’ve never happened. If I was stuck in my phone, texting, emailing it, would’ve never happened if I wasn’t just willing to say hi, how are you doing right? More recently we were in The Bahamas for mother’s day. I told my husband here on this interview with me. I wanna go to The Bahamas from mother’s day. So that’s what we did. And we were our second day and our also our second trip to the water park.
AJV (34:18):
And it was at the end of the day. And it was a long day. And so I walked over to the Dery shack because that’s what I’m gonna do on mother’s day. I’m gonna get myself a Dery. And there was this very sunburn gentleman in front of me who was very hot and sweaty. And he had his two daughters and he was like, had a whole tray of drinks. And he was getting these lemonades for his kids. And he looks back at me and he could tell, I was also really sunburn sweaty. And at the end of like the five hours at a water park, and he said, you’re having fun. And I said, I am sits in a long day, but I’m having fun. I said, how about you? And he goes, yeah, we’re here on a big family trip. And I said, that’s awesome.
AJV (34:53):
And I said, your, your little girls are so cute. And he said, thanks. And I said, I do have kids. I know I’m by myself. They’re over there in the pool. He said, where are you in from? I said, I’m in from Nashville, Tennessee. And he goes, let me guess, you’re a musician. I said, I’m the least amount of musical talent on planet earth. He goes, wait an actress. I said, Nope, definitely not that. And he goes, well, what are you doing in Nashville? And I said, oh, my husband and I have a personal branding firm. I said, we help entrepreneurs build their personal brands. And he said, no. I said
AJV (35:38):
And I said, guess what? That’s what we do. We help people actually build their speaking business, craft their content and become better speakers and get booked to speak. He goes, you do that for people like me. And I said, I sure do. And I said, do you have your phone on you? He goes, yeah. And I said, pull up your phone type in www dot brain builders, group.com. So he pulls it up and I said, go to the about S page. So he pulls up the about S page. I said, scroll down. He scrolls down to the very end. You see that person right there. He goes, yeah. I said, that’s me. I said, that look really different. Not in a baby suit. I said, that’s me. I said, that’s me and my husband. This is our company. And so I took him to the next page and I said, scroll down.
AJV (36:13):
You see that little button where it says, request a call. I said, click that button. And I said, there’s a little form there where we’ll actually give you a free call to see if we can help. And if not, we’ll send you a bunches of free resources. And if so then we’ll, we’ll, we’ll help you build your personal brand and we’ll help you go speak all around the world. And he said, are you kidding me? I can’t believe I’m staying online. And I just met you. I was just telling my wife about this. And I was like, I don’t believe in coincidence. So click that button. Y’all wow. You have to be welling to tell anyone about what you do. If you believe in it, the person sitting next to you in the bleachers or the, you know, sweaty sunburn person and head of you at line at the Zachery, you know, at the Dery shack at the beach, it’s gotta be compelling. It’s gotta be just coming out of you. And it’s like, maybe he got a call. Maybe he did. And I haven’t looked it up. The point is, is I’m not afraid and I’m not ashamed cuz I don’t find it as self promotional. I’m like, I believe it. So I’m gonna tell you about it until the point where you go. It’s not a fit and then that’s cool too, but you cannot be embarrassed or ashamed about it. You wanna know why your business isn’t growing. You’re not telling anyone about it. That’s why.
RV (37:26):
Hmm. Wow. That is so good, babe. Like you all need to go watch this training and spend time with AJ double dot brand builders, group.com. She’s gonna walk you through this and just give us like 60 seconds this free training. One of the reasons that we put it together is we, we are launching a program, something we’ve never, ever, ever done before. Just give us a little 62nd hint on, on what, what that is.
AJV (37:58):
Yeah. I mean, this it’s part of the webinar too. Is this doing all this research? And again, coincidentally running across this research report, which I truly don’t believe in coincidence. I believe God puts every single thing in my path. It’s just, am I alert and aware? Am I present enough to see what he’s doing in our life and in our business? And I don’t believe coming across that study and getting sucked into this deep dark hole of wow, like that is what I struggled with. I just don’t think that was on accident. I think it was well intended. And a few of the things that I think are really unique is that one of the reasons that people really struggle with this is they don’t solid content to jump off of. Right? It’s like they know that they wanna help people. They know that they wanna coach or train or consult or speak, but creating content is freaking hard work.
AJV (38:46):
Y’all like, let’s just like, it is, it is work. And it takes energy and time and resources. And personal branding is a really popular topic right now. And we get approached all the time by individuals who are going, man, I don’t wanna be like a personal brand strategist with you, but I wanna be able to teach personal branding to my executive clients. Right. And they’re, everyone’s asking about like, do I need a personal brand or what is it? Or you know, how do I become more well known or in this age of there’s a lot of distrust in the marketplace, how do I create more trust? And so one of the things we said is like, well, we may not be able to do everything for you, but what we can give you is a really solid set of content that we know works.
AJV (39:27):
And that we wanna be a launching pad for people who claim themselves as consultants, speakers, coaches in this world. And we wanna be a launching pad of giving the tools and the resources. We’re not gonna give it all to you. Right? Part of this is like your own unique twist, but we’re gonna give you the, the certification and a personal branding curriculum, finding our brand DNA to give you that launching pad of content where you can take someone through a really secure methodology and a process of helping them identify their reputation and use it to help ’em grow their business. For those of you wanna be speakers, it’s like some of the, the hardest work is like, how do I get everything I wanna say about something into 60 minutes, right? It’s easy to talk for hours. It’s really hard to talk for a little bit of time about something really important.
AJV (40:10):
So we’re gonna give you a keynote. We’re gonna give you a webinar. We’re gonna give you all these different tools to be a launching pad for your business. Now for us, it’s unique in that personal branding reputation space, but I really do believe it’s like everyone has a personal brand. If you have a reputation, you have a personal brand. It’s just a matter of how we, we leverage that to help you become an expert or be known as an expert in your space. And that was the Genesis for all of this. And then along the way of going, maybe our curriculum isn’t for you, but you just need some, you need some insights of what really works and what doesn’t. And that’s why we put this training. You know, this free training together for you whether or not ever licensing our content or being a part of, you know, our community is a fit for you.
AJV (40:54):
We wanna give you free resources. And I’d say, that’s one of the things we talk about in the webinars, don’t be afraid to give it away. People are like, I’ve had a few people who are really close friends of mine who were coaches watch this. And they’re like, aren’t you afraid that you just gave it all away? And I was like, no, no, absolutely not. I was like, I’m gonna give it all. If I had two more hours, I’d give away some more stuff. It’s like, don’t be afraid to give it all away. This is, if you, like, there are two simple formulas to building relationships, give value, build trust at the end, give so much value that the person says, oh my gosh, I feel like I have to pay you for this. Right. Give so much value that they feel compelled to go.
AJV (41:35):
What can I do for you? Like I just learned so much, like I cannot believe how much you gave away in 60 minutes. Like, why would you do that? That’s how I want you to feel. Cause that’s how you should feel. That’s how you garner trusted followers and you don’t need millions of ’em. You need a few, remember you don’t need millions of clients. You don’t need thousands of clients. You don’t even need hundreds of clients. Most of you just need dozens of clients. Right. and it does, you don’t have to do a whole lot of work to get that, but you gotta, you gotta do some right. You gotta do some strategic things to help minimize the distraction that you’ve got in your business. And so this webinar’s gonna give you five of those.
RV (42:11):
Oh, so good. Again, check out the webinar, double dot brand builders, group.com. AJ goes through us whole training about how to double your business in the next year. Also you know, at the end of that, she’ll talk to you a little bit more about kind of our licensing pro program and what we’re doing. And there’s so much it takes to start a business. Creating content can be one of the things that we can take off your plate. I mean, our content has been so proven and well utilized the last few years by very, very recognizable personal brains. And also those just starting out. So we’d love for you to be a part of that. And we have
AJV (42:43):
No shame in saying we believe it is freaking awesome. We have awesome contents.
RV (42:49):
Our content is awesome. You
AJV (42:51):
Should not be ashamed either, right? It’s like brag on yourself because you believe in what it does. I got no problems bragging on Roy Vaden, who is the mastermind behind most of our content. It is life changing. It works. It’s methodical, it’s systematic. It’s all the things it’s entertaining. I will, I will happily sing our contents phrases and yours Rory because I believe that’s, if you believe in what you do that much, that’s what you should be doing. I believe in ours that much.
RV (43:21):
Well, thank you, babe. And, and thanks all of y’all. If you, if you are interested in that you wanna go straight to learning about the licensing. If you go to license dot brand builders, group.com, license dot brand builders, group.com, you can go straight there and start learning about that right away. But if not go to double dot brand builders, group.com. Listen to this training with AJ. Thanks for being here. We love you. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand.
Ep 283: Turning Your Lifestyle Into a Business with Natasha Stoneking | Recap Episode
RV (00:07):
Hey brand builder, Rory Vaden here. Thank you so much for taking the time to check out this interview as always it’s our honor to provide it to you for free and wanted to let you know the there’s no big sales pitch or anything coming at the end. However, if you are someone who is looking to build and monetize your personal brand, we would love to talk to you and get to know you a little bit and hear about some of your dreams and visions and share with you a little bit about what we’re up to to see if we might be a fit. So if you’re interested in a free strategy call with someone from Martin team, we would love to hear from you. You can do that at brand builders, group.com/podcast, brand builders, group.com/podcast. We hope to talk to you soon.
AJV (00:53):
Hello friends. This is AJ Vaden here with another recap episode of the influential personal brand co podcast. I am going to be doing the cliff notes version of my conversation with Natasha stone king who was an old friend of mine. We went to college together and she has just really blown up on a social media, but more importantly it’s been a, a steady climbed for her, which is what I love is to hear the truth behind things. There’s and the truth is, is there’s no secret to overnight success. It is consistent. It is often gradual and there is always a ton of work happening behind the scenes, but she has built an incredible life and style business with incredible monetization with brand deals and all these different things she has going on online. And so we’re gonna talk about three things that she shared today that I think are really helpful, and it doesn’t matter if you are trying to monetize your audience.
AJV (01:59):
If you really consider yourself a, a blogger or an online influencer, an not, I think these tips really do ring true, no matter what your business model is. But just good, good old fashioned reminders of what it takes to become successful in business. No matter if that business is online or not. So here we go here are the first three or the first of my three things. And I love, I love that. She said that she has been blogging since 2008 y’all it’s 22, right? So she’s been at this for 15 years. This is something that she said, I started doing it because I loved it. I keep doing it because I love it. And my audience, my engagement, my followership has continued to grow because I’ve been consistent. And so here are a couple of things. I think it’s really important for us all to remember success.
AJV (02:55):
Success does not happen overnight. It happened through consistency. And if we’re trying to build something in a month or even in just a year, it’s like, that’s really not fair. It’s not fair to you. And it’s not fair to your message. It’s not fair to the people around you. We live in this era of instant gratification and that’s just not how it always works, especially in business. But it’s about consistency goes, I have been consistent this entire time. My topics have changed. I have changed my life has changed, but I’ve been consistent through the whole process. And here I have a couple things that she’s super consistent on that I thought was really important. She does a coffee a morning coffee live on Instagram every morning and does not miss it. She goes, I am almost always in my PJs with my coffee.
AJV (03:44):
And I’m just sharing a little bit of inspiration and optimism for the day, every single morning. That’s a big deal. That’s a huge commitment. But a part of that is she goes, I’m building a relationship. I’m building a relationship with my audience. Isn’t just for engagement. This is something that I am passionate about doing, I enjoy doing, which is why it doesn’t feel like work. Right? And I think those are just really good reminders when we get bogged down with, oh, I just have to keep doing it. It’s like, no, you shouldn’t have to. It’s something that you should want to do. Because even when it’s online, this is still relationship building. It just happens differently. Like we wouldn’t expect that the person that we’re married to, right, or the person that we’re dating or whatever, it’s like, tho those relationships were not built through just texts or through posts.
AJV (04:36):
Right. There was human connection. There was a consistency effort. There, there was get to know me. And I wanna get to know you, it’s this virtual element of relationship building that ti it does take time and it does take consistency, but it’s gotta be done in authentic, in an authentic way where you, you genuinely care about making a difference in doing what you’re doing, which makes it feel less of a burden and more of something that you get to do, not something you have to do, but it’s finding those things of like, what am I gonna be truly consistent with, right. And maybe it’s one post a week. Maybe it’s not a a morning coffee session. But maybe it’s, it’s one post a week, but you’ve gotta train your audience what to expect from you. Right. And that was kind of like the number one thing I thought that was really good.
AJV (05:20):
The second thing is she goes, I, I love on my audience and specifically her email list, right? So this is kind of like 0.2 and three. So I’m gonna stick to the love part. And then we’ll talk about the email list part. But I love on them and I loved what she talked about and you should go listen to this. She goes, I’m doing giveaways all the time. She says, I, you know, I have helped co-design different line for tons of different brands. And anytime that I get my, you know, my pieces of what I’ve designed is I always set one aside to be able to share and give away to my audience hyper specifically in her email list. But again, it’s like, what are the things that you’re doing to actually create excitement and share the love with your audience?
AJV (06:02):
And that could be your social media audience could be your podcast, subscribers, blog, subscribers, email list whatever it may be, but what are some things that you’re doing to infuse a little fun into your engagement, right? It’s like, I’m not a exaggerating, I, I did this podcast interview with Natasha yesterday and this morning. I literally pulled up my email and I was sent this to our marketing team. And I was like, all right, y’all it is time to infuse a little fun with how we engage with our audience. So I wanna be doing BG summer swag giveaways. We did this thing last year called the 12 days of B E B G for Christmas, where we gave something away for the 12 days leading up to Christmas. But it’s like, what are we doing to just create a little fun, a little engagement, a little excitement, a little giveaway to just switch things up to also make people feel a little loved on, and it’s like, you don’t have to buy anything from us to get this.
AJV (06:54):
Like, this is something we wanna do because you give us to your time and attention, however frequently that is, it’s like, thank you. There’s a bunch of other things that can be getting your attention out there. Thanks for giving me a little bit of yours. I love that. And she says she does it all the time and I’m like, no, I’m gonna be like, I’m gonna be following her a heck of a lot more closely because there’s this element of fun. And so a prize that we all enjoy and it’s like, what are we doing to actually share the love back to our audience, back to the people that are engaging with us, that we’re trying to build these relationships with. And that was like one of the biggest takeaways for me. I literally spent like 20 minutes writing up this detailed outline of, okay, this is what we’re gonna do on a quarterly basis.
AJV (07:37):
And these my annual fun things. But I think that’s the key word. It’s like, what are you doing to create fun with your audience? Like, how are you creating this in excitement that we all wanna be a part of? So I loved that. I love that so much. And then my third thing, and I love what she said. She goes, I was just taught really young, really early in the business, that the most important thing, always your email list. And, you know, if you follow myself a brewer or brand builders group, you know, this is something that we are already true believers in. It’s like, if you are only building your platforms on social media then you are been building on rented real estate, my friend, and building your email list is probably now even more so than before ever increasingly that much more important owning that first party data is a huge part of today and into the future.
AJV (08:25):
So it’s like, what are you doing to compel someone to want to give you their email, right. But what kind of unique, original content are they gonna get in your email list that they’re not getting on social media? Are they not getting on your blog or they’re not getting on your podcast? And I think those are really, and I think different things that we hear is so often what we hear so much about is how do you multiply time by taking one piece of content and splicing it and using all these different places. And I will say there is a time and a place for that. There’s also a time and a place not to do that. And I believe this is a part of that, of what kind of original unique content are you creating for your email list that is only for your email list.
AJV (09:05):
Like that’s the only place you’re gonna get it, right? And perhaps part of those giveaways are just for your email list, but it’s creating original unique content that you’re not gonna get anywhere else. You’re only gonna get it. If you’re a part of my email list and it’s nurturing that list and treating that list is different and unique from the other platforms. So again, it’s creating intention, it’s building these online relationships. It’s infusing excitement into fun and y’all, these are just three things that we talk about, but we also talked about her brand deals and how to know if a brand is right for you, things that you can be doing. If you’re trying to get brand deals way before you go after them. The art of proactively reaching out called prospecting called sales and not waiting on other people to do it for you, how much you should be doing versus having an agent or a PR team. Now that we talked about so much in 45 minutes this is a interview talk full of real life. Like here’s what you do. Here’s how you do it from someone who’s doing it right now. So hope you enjoyed this. Please go check this out. Check out Natasha at hello, happiness, blog.com. And then always stay tune and come back and visit us again at the influential personal brand.
Ep 282: Turning Your Lifestyle Into a Business with Natasha Stoneking
AJV (00:02):
Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode on the influential personal brand. This is AJ Vaden. One of your co-hosts here CEO of brand builders group. And y’all, this is such a special treat today because I get to have an old friend on the podcast and you guys are about to meet Natasha. But she and I actually went to college together and completely lost touch for like several years. And then we both ended up in Nashville. And most recently I think this is like at the beginning of the pandemic. I don’t even know if you remember this, but we ran into each other at Starbucks. And I was like, I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen you like 10 years. And then from there I started following you online and following your blog and you’re doing so many cool things online. And then one day I remember being at green Hills mall and I was walking around.
AJV (00:49):
I was like, pretty sure that’s Natasha on that.
NS (01:55):
Well, I’m thrilled to be here with you guys. Thank you so much for having me.
AJV (01:58):
Oh my gosh. It’s gonna be awesome. And so we start every episode with this kind of same, and, and I told you right before we started, you’ve had approximately two minutes to prepare for this
NS (02:17):
Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, a lot of people in social media kind of just stumble into it. And I was working in, in corporate media marketing for a big consulting firm and was just kind of doing the eight to five Monday through Friday, but not getting to use my creative brain, you know, which is what you and I studied at UT in advertising. And so I started a blog in April of 2008, which is crazy. Like I’m about to celebrate almost 14 of blogging, which, you know, back then there was no hashtag ad. There was no, you know, sponsored posting. There was no monetization of blogging whatsoever. It was mainly me sharing recipes, media events, things going on in my life in Nashville, just as a way to kind of document my life and serve as an online kind of creative journal, if you will.
NS (03:08):
And so I started doing that on the side and it really kind of picked up in 2010 when I got engaged to my now husband, Jeff. And that was pretty much when Pinterest started becoming extremely popular and everybody wanted to know all about wedding inspiration. So that was pretty much one of the early focuses of my blog and all the social media channels. And that’s where I developed, you know, an audience in a community of people who wanted to follow along. And so from that, it was all things wedding. And then we, you know, got married and got pregnant and that it was instantly all things, pregnancy and motherhood and nursery and home design. And so the cool thing about my social media channels is that it has absolutely followed me through a lot of the chapters I love and all of those peaks throughout my life. So it’s fun to see. So many of the people that have followed me since day one, believe it, or, and they’ve seen me, you know, go from a corporate marketing manager to running my own e-commerce business to a full on life and style blogger and kind of navigating all of those different paths.
AJV (04:11):
Oh my gosh. And you said something that I think is so important and it’s actually something that we talk a ton about at our company brand builders group, as we talk about how it’s like to really become known for anything, you have to become known for one thing. And to hear you say that it was like really where your following started was in that wedding niche. Yeah. And then was
NS (04:32):
So crazy to me, but there wasn’t a lot of bloggers back then. Yeah. There was a handful of us. And so I think obviously the pickings were a lot slimmer
AJV (04:41):
But it’s like, I think that that’s prove such a great point. It’s like, it’s like go all in on one thing that you’re super interested in that you’re super passionate becomes really easy to you build a falling with that and then let it naturally and organically evolve from there. Yep. And I,
NS (04:56):
It actually resonates with your audience a lot more and you build that relationship it and that rapport, and most importantly, the trust.
AJV (05:05):
Yeah. Well, I think that’s huge. And it’s like, because now it’s like you, do you talk about so many different things? It’s like, you’ve got cooking recipes, you’ve got fashion, you’ve got tips, trends, favorite things that you love, you know, you still have your girls on there all the time, which I love, of course it’s such, such a family component. But you talk about travel a lot. And I love, you know, learning about your properties that you have in 30 a, and it’s like all these different cool things that it’s evolved to. And so I’m curious, and rather this is just what you’ve done naturally, or maybe there was some logic and science to it. I don’t know. I’m so curious to see what you’re gonna say, but how do you decide what is gonna be the thing and the topic that you’re focused on?
NS (05:45):
Well, obviously I think a lot of that comes from just real life. What do I have going on in any, you know, any given day, week or month? And, you know, I sit with my assistant Ashley and we kind of, you know, strategize on a social media content calendar, what things are coming up, you know, obviously Easter’s on the horizon or summer. So we’re thinking of family stuff. We’re thinking of spring break plans. We’re talking about upcoming summer destinations. So all of these things a lot, you know, just go along with this season, but I’m also thinking about what do people wanna hear. I mean, a lot of times people come to social media for an escape from the real world, but I’m also just very blatantly honest. I think, you know, I kind of show different facets of my life, which is how I’ve kind of moved more into life and style rather than just family or just fashion. You know, I get, I can get kind of bored of just showing fashion or just showing my family because I think there’s so many different things that make me, me, and I hope that that kind of, you know, helps people to understand I’m just like them.
AJV (06:45):
Yeah, no, I think that is true. And I it’s like, like even I had all your stuff pulled up even before getting on here. And it’s like, I love too of like how much of it just reflects your personality. It’s like, it just everything you do screams you. And I think that’s really a huge part of just being authentic and probably why your followers continue to grow, grow and grow as they are. So I have a couple of like odd questions that I think would be just really interesting for all of our audience of do you find that there are certain things that you post that you just know, I know this is gonna, this is gonna be a win or are you always still kind of guessing of like, I don’t know, I don’t know what’s gonna be the most liked or the most shared or the most engaged. I have no idea.
NS (07:27):
Oh my gosh, I wish I knew the algorithms and how they’re always changing. And I wish I could predict all those things. I think if there was one source of content that I know is always is going, you know, to get lots of likes or comments or feedback, it’s gonna be me posting the kids. Everybody wants to see Caroline in Carson. I mean, I’m biased, but I think they’re adorable.
AJV (08:47):
Oh, I love that. You know, and I think that speaks true. It’s like, you know, and one of the reasons I’m asked is like, we’ve been doing a lot of split testing with our different social channels and I can post a piece of content and then I can post pictures of me and my kids in our Halloween costumes. And that will get 100 times the engagement that my piece of content did. And I, I think it speaks a lot too. It’s like people really want to know more of who you are versus what you do. Yeah.
NS (09:15):
Right. And I think that’s also why videos, reels, and stories are. So I think more and more brands and retailers are really spending their, you know, ad dollars on the more video type of things, because you can really get to know somebody, you can see it in action and use, and it’s not just a pretty picture. And, you know, kinda like what you said, the ones where from doing, you know, a selfie of an outfit in my office, they always get better engagement rather than a style photo shoot because that’s not real life.
AJV (09:41):
Yeah. I love that. So, okay. So this is a good transition then. So some tips for people out there who are building this life and style kind of business, and they’re trying to figure out how to monetize it, which we’ll get to that in just a minute, but for, for everyone who, okay, how do I increase my followership? How do I increase engagement? Do you have any best practices on the type of post or the type of reel, the type of video or the type of copy that you’re using to increase followers and engagement?
NS (10:14):
Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, a couple things that I do very frequently I ask a lot of questions on static posts so that I am getting that engagement, you know, people are answering or if I’m doing a giveaway, I say, you know, list your favorite three things about the beach or whatever the subject matter may be. I think that always helps. One thing I am I do will never hand off to someone else as I respond to each and every DM that I get, it’s very time consuming. I will admit to that, but I do it throughout the day so that it’s not stockpiled for me. You know, when I’m in bed at night and the relationships and the rapport and the community that I’ve built with those people, because one, they know they’re talking to me and two, they know I’m going to respond as they, and it exemplifies what is missing in social media right now.
NS (11:00):
And I think, I hope that it, you know, really shows them that I’m not just walking the wall, but I’m actually, you know, if they ask me, how does that blouse run, I’m gonna text them back and say, you know, it’s true to size or, you know, this is how it fits or whatever it may be, but people remember those things. And like I said before, I think it’s all about building trust. And if you don’t continue to build that trust, they’re gonna go somewhere else. So I definitely think that’s helpful in kind of building that rapport with your followers. I think being open and upfront and honest is also, you know, I think people come to me for positive and, you know, happiness quotes and all those things and color. But I also am honest when I’m having a bad day or, you know, if I’m somethings go going wrong because they wanna know that you’re just a regular person. And so it’s all pretty to have a, you know, a, a very aesthetically pleasing fee, but that’s not real, I think, long gone those days. And as long as you’re staying true to who you are, brands will know that. And it’ll show, it’ll definitely start to show. And so your numbers will follow and you know, just, that’s all I can just, you know, that’s all I have to say about that.
AJV (12:03):
I think that’s good though. It’s like authentic engagement of not outsourcing it, not using bots. It’s like, Nope, this is real life human relationships that I’m working at building. And in order to build a business, you need to do that, right. Yes. Frankly. And
NS (12:16):
Quality over quantity. I think gone are the days where people are just seeing an engagement rate or a conversion rate, or how many followers you have brands really don’t care about that anymore. Yeah. More and more I’m seeing that, which is very great for somebody in my kind of niche, because they’re like, wait a minute. That doesn’t mean she’s not engaged. That doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have, you know, loyal followers. That just means that she’s really paying attention to what she’s doing. And you’re not gonna see me taking on brand partnerships and deals with products that I don’t wholeheartedly back.
AJV (12:46):
Yeah. I think that’s awesome. So, okay. So that’s a great transition to the next thing is monetizing, right? How do we do all this? Cuz I think so many people are fallen into one of two buckets. They have an amazing business and not enough people know about them or they have a huge audience, but they’re not monetizing it. Right. And it’s like marrying those two things is a really big deal.
NS (13:25):
Yeah, so obviously the biggest would probably be through like, to know it because it’s easy, it’s accessible, you know, many people I think through the pandemic had to become even more familiar with shopping online, whether they wanted to, or not, especially in those eight, those older age demographics specifically. I mean, my mom would come over and she’d be like, how do I do this?
AJV (14:14):
Right. Instagram
NS (14:15):
Ram changes, Facebook changes, LTK changes all of these change, things change. And some of these people are gonna be out there without a bone when things change. And they’re like, oh my gosh, I don’t own any of this content because I’ve shared it to only these platforms. So I always try to drive people back to my blog is kind of the hub yeah. Of everything, whether that be recipes or my travel or packing tips, or obviously the life and style component or my home design, anything like that. I always try to bring back to my blog and that way it, how it stays there forever.
AJV (14:46):
Yeah.
NS (14:47):
And I think that’s extremely important is having that platform that you own the rights to another thing is that’s been tremendous in, you know, growing my monetization is email newsletters. Again, that’s information that you solely own on your, by yourself. No one has privileged data to that. I also work directly with brands. You know, a lot of times you have to go through these middle media people. And a lot of times I’ll reach out to brands directly, whether that, you know, be searching for their PR or media email on their website, or if that’s actually sending them a DM on Instagram. And a lot of times that’s how I’ve gotten some of my longer term partnerships like Soma intimates. I work with them on a monthly basis and have done so for a couple years now. And it was me taking a chance and saying, I’m interested in working with you. I think I would be a good fit. And so I think it’s not being afraid to hear. No, I love,
AJV (15:39):
Hear, love, hearing that.
NS (15:41):
I mean, you’re gonna hear no, I hear it all the time still. So don’t be, you know, don’t get upset if you hear a no, because that just means that’s not the right fit. And I’ve, you know, been able to work with some household names over the years and sometimes it simply is, you know, sending them a DM. Yeah. Cause I think that shows ins and a lot of people don’t,
AJV (16:00):
I think, I think a huge part of, and I speak for at least the brand builders group community that we work with. It’s like, I think people forget the art of outreach. It’s like don’t expect the you’re just going to have all these followers and people just come and find you, maybe that happens sometimes, but you actually need to do some good old fashioned sales outreach. Right. Email someone actually pick up the phone and call them, DM them, do the research pitch yourself. Right. Don’t forget that there is a, still a sale to be made here. So you’re still finding, so that’s a great question. I would know. How do you know when a brand is right for you and when you are right for a brand?
NS (16:38):
Yeah. Well, depending on the brand I’m working with, so let’s just say, okay, right now I have a couple collaborations going on with anthropology, which every year I make a list of five to 10 brands that I wanna work with this bucket list brand, you know, that’s been included, Lily Pulitzer, that’s included Disney, that’s included you know, different cruise lines. I mean literally the full spectrum, Nordstrom, Sephora, whatever it may be. And honestly I reached out to anthropology and said, listen, I have a ton of your items. Not only in my wardrobe, but in my home, my audience knows I’m all about color. I think, to be an absolute win. And I just kept kind of building that rapport. I would tag them in outfits that I wore. So they know it’s very organic. Yeah. And then they’re like, okay, wait a minute. Natasha actually is not only a customer, but she supports us. See, she talks about promotions we have or new arrivals or whatever that may be. So I think it’s just, you know, obviously continu putting that kind of bug in their ears so that you do come top of mind when they think about the add dollars that they have to
AJV (17:40):
Spend. Yeah. And it’s really just, it’s reaching out to people that you already love. Exactly. It’s who you’re already using, but I love what you said. It’s like, you make a target list of like, these are my bucket list, clients like this is, these are the brands I already love. I’m already using might as well have a partnership with them and we mutually benefit.
NS (17:58):
Exactly.
AJV (17:58):
Yeah. I love that. And
NS (18:00):
They’re looking, I mean, they’re actively looking, they have a group of people, these huge brands have people looking to find, you make it easy to find, find
AJV (18:07):
That’s right. That which is tagging them. Right.
NS (18:10):
Exactly. Don’t be ashamed. I mean, everyone starts with zero followers.
AJV (18:15):
Yeah. That’s so good. Well, and there’s that, there’s this rise of these micro influencers. Yep. Right. These people that kind of have like that 10 to 30, 10 to $40,000 followers. Yes. There’s a huge rise in the importance of it’s like, you don’t have to have huge followers to make huge incomes by just, not at all, having an engaged Royal following. Cause that millions doesn’t mean anything if they don’t have engagement. And
NS (18:40):
Exactly. And I think more and more, you know, brands are seeing the bots. You know, I was in Dallas a couple weeks ago with the brand and they were showing me how they have access to all of these influencers, statistics through a, you know, a platform that they subscribe to. And it was eyeopening to kind of hear how things are ranked and you know, the response time with these influencers and how many of their followers are real and brands are starting to see this and get really smart. So it makes me very happy to know that staying true and myself and being honest, you know, is definitely gonna pay off in the long run
AJV (19:13):
Preach. Always, always.
NS (19:15):
Exactly.
AJV (19:16):
So, I mean, and you said something too, that we talk about all the time, which is, you know, if you’re only building on social media, you’re building on rented real estate, the only real, the only virtual real estate you own is your blog, your website, your email list, right. Those are things that you own. And some tips to people who are going, I mean, I cannot tell you how many people I know who are like, what do you mean an email list? Like that’s so that’s so old school. I’m like no, no, it’s not. It’s the only thing that you really own. Right. Otherwise you’re just building Zuckerberg’s platform. Right. You’re,
NS (19:47):
You’re helping them more than we have already done. I think they’re good.
AJV (19:51):
Right. I think they think they have hit their, their peak. I think we’re good there. So some tips on how do you convert followers into email addresses?
NS (20:00):
You know, a lot of times I’ll simply ask, you know, how kinda you said, ask for the sale, simply say, Hey, I would love for you to sign up. A lot of times I have added content on I email newsletter that I don’t have anywhere else. So they feel like they’re getting something special. You know, I include all my special discount codes that I’ve worked in partnership with brands to have. I keep those live on my email newsletters. I talk about my target Thursday favorites there. And also I recap a lot of things going on in my life. So I kind of do a little bit more of a deep if so I think people wanna know if they know you on a personal level, but they wanna continue to know you and develop a better relationship of who you are. That’s when they always, you know, wanna do that. I’ll do giveaways to get them to sign up. You know, that’s easy and fun and everyone loves something free. So just little things here and there and I dabble it, but you know, I make it easy to subscribe on my website. I have a popup that comes when you go to hello, happiness blog.com. So you just have to make it overly easy for them to be a part of it because people will continue to ask,
AJV (21:03):
Well, you said three things that I’m gonna highlight that I think are really unique and really important to make sure everyone who is out there listening, you pay attention to this one is create unique content for your eing, right? It’s like if it’s just regurgitated information that they can get somewhere else, you know, it’s like, I think there is a huge trend right now of creating unique content for each platform versus taking one piece of content and displacing it and putting the same piece everywhere. It’s like, are you creating unique content for each platform? And then making it really unique, special content, you can get nowhere else, nowhere else for your email list. I love that. I think that’s so smart. Second thing is giveaways. So are you providing giveaways to make it enticing for someone to want to give you your email? So any quick tips on like, what are the best giveaways that you’ve ever done that made like a huge difference?
NS (21:59):
Oh goodness. Okay. So as you mentioned earlier, we have rental properties down in 38. And so a lot of what I try to do is I like to haul out a lot of small businesses. That’s something that I’ve done for years. It’s super important to me, it’s the backbone of our country. And so I partnered with a lot of Rosemary merchants and catering companies and wine distributors. And I gave away a stay at our Roia boat property for somebody to come and experience 30 a. And so we had the buy-in of all of those different communities and brands and shops. And so they were just thrilled, not only because of the, you know, potential income that they were getting from that new followers, new customers, new people on their websites. But then it was also giving back to my community and saying, thank you for being here and doing this. So that was probably one of the most successful and way. A lot of the items that I design I’ve, you know, collaborated with social threads on Nerine totes, I’ve created custom collections of swimwear for the family, with the Oaks. I’ve done accessory, concierge, jewelry collections. So a lot of times I’ll buy those for myself and then kind of put them aside for weekly or monthly engagement giveaways, just to say, give back and say, thanks
AJV (23:12):
Love those ideas. And it’s like the next time you do a giveaway for a free vacation on 38, me who
NS (23:19):
Doesn’t want that. So, and it really helps those small businesses and, you know, it’s, if there’s anything I can do, that’s one thing I like,
AJV (23:27):
I, I love that. And it’s due, it’s like, it’s finding ways to that compliments what you’re already doing. So everything is still so synergistic and so connected. I love that. And so, so I do have a question tactical, a tactical question. So you’re these giveaways, is it only for new email subscribers?
NS (23:45):
Sometimes it depends on what the specific brands I’m working with asks for not necessarily, but most of the time I try to do it to everybody. Who’s a part of my email,
AJV (23:56):
Their list, but that’s just great incentive of why you wanna be on there and stay on
NS (24:00):
There. Great.
AJV (24:02):
Yep. I love that such good. And then the third thing that you said that I think is just really important, I’m just gonna hit it home one more time. Is that make sure you’re actually building your email list. Right? All of these things don’t matter if the algorithm can change and leadership changes. I mean, that’s such a big deal. It’s such a big, so
NS (24:22):
Make sure, make it easy for them. Have it on a dropdown on your blog, having a dropdown on your, you know, Instagram bio on your Facebook group page. Literally every place they can find you, you need to have a way for them to subscribe.
AJV (24:34):
Love that. So good. All right. So last, just couple of questions. I know when we have like five more minutes together, but a last couple of quick questions and these are just personal, just for fun. What is your favorite thing to talk about? Like when you think about this, all the things that you can be talking about, is there one that just like pulls at your heart of like, man, I love it. When I get to do this,
NS (24:57):
I think, you know, every day I get on stories and I share optimistic quotes and positive things. And I think right now, even more than ever, there’s so much negativity. And if I can bring a smile to someone’s face with just some heartfelt words that I have found from Pinterest that morning, I think it really helps start people’s day out. So I do a morning coffee chat and people, you know, tune in by the thousands to see it. It’s not me doing a hashtag sponsored event. It’s not so fancy thing. It’s me, literally in my PJ is drinking a cup of coffee and that’s something where I feel like I really kind of build that rapport and that relationship. And it’s super important to me.
AJV (25:33):
Do you do it every day?
NS (25:35):
Every day?
AJV (25:36):
I mean, if
NS (25:36):
I don’t come on, people are like, Natasha, where are you? Do the girls get on the bus? OK. What’s going on? I mean, so it’s just, it’s not anything fancy. It’s just me.
AJV (25:46):
I love that, but it consistency,
NS (25:49):
Consistency. And that is key. Yes. You gotta train your audience about when you’ll be there. How many touch points, what are you posting each week? So I think it just always, you know, goes back to being consistent.
AJV (26:00):
Yeah. But it’s like consistency and training. I think that’s a really big deal, but you love doing the more inspirational C that you do it every morning,
NS (26:09):
Every morning and then showing color. I think that’s probably another thing that really separates me from the majority. If you were just scrolling through your Instagram feed of, you know, life and style bloggers, everything is so neutral and that is not my life
AJV (26:31):
I love that. I love that. So. Okay. Two other questions then I promise I’ll let you go. I love this what’s what’s one trend that you would say I see everyone else doing this, but I’m not gonna do it.
NS (26:45):
Oh gosh. Well, one kinda touches on what I just said about everything. Neutral, every home looking the same, I’m just over it. You know, I would have wallpaper in every single room in my house. If I could, my husband would want to kill me, but he knows he’s pretty much taken a backseat to all things, design and decor. So I do take risks when it comes to that stuff. And I love it. Another thing I am not a biker short person.
AJV (27:22):
But I will tell you, it’s a, like, I think the color like makes you pop. Like if you scrolling your feet, anytime you pop up, it’s like, it’s always like just bright and colorful and just it, you know, it’s like, hello, happiness is such a great title for you. It’s like, because everything you are is like so joyful and happy. But like a part of why I wanted to ask is because I think so much of what you’re saying, just rest with who you are and it really does come through. So if you were trying to just play with the trends that are popular, it would be, you know, inauthentic to just who you are. Yeah.
NS (27:52):
You gotta stay true to who you are and
AJV (27:54):
Including no bike shorts. So including
NS (27:57):
No bike shorts. So if you shorts, you can come at me because I guarantee you, this is gonna,
AJV (28:04):
I love that. I love that. Okay. This is my last question. And this is more of a tip for the listeners for anyone who’s listening, who’s going all right. I really, I wanna make that jump from just building my audience to actually monetizing my audience. What’s one thing that you would tell someone to do. Who’s just kind of like trying to figure out how do I Mo this thing that I’ve accidentally built. What’s the first thing that they should do.
NS (28:29):
First of all, I would find the top three things that you wanna post about so that you can have a niche. I think people get so disoriented with, oh my gosh. And having to put, you know, balls in each bucket, find three specific subject matter areas and focus on those. That would be my number one tip. My second tip would be really engaging with your followers.
AJV (28:53):
So good. It’s simple that it’s not right.
NS (28:56):
I know it’s not easy. And it’s something that I’m constantly having to work at. So it’s an ever evolving marketplace and that, but that also makes it fun. Yeah. Makes it not feel like work. And I love what I do. And so it doesn’t
AJV (29:09):
And boring.
NS (29:10):
No, it’s not. It’s never boring.
AJV (29:14):
Oh, this has been so good. Y’all if you, if you don’t know Natasha please go follow her. I would say I’m gonna drive you to hello, happiness blog.com. Sign up for email list, get some get some free tips. There
NS (29:28):
You go. Ask for the cell.
AJV (29:31):
I’ll help you with that. But from there you can check her out on Instagram, Pinterest, all the places, but hello, happiness, blog.com. We’ll put all of her social handles in the show notes. We’ll put the, the blog link in there too. You’re doing amazing stuff. Thank you so much for coming on. It’s dually exciting for me to get to learn from you and also do reconnect with an old friend. So thank you so much.
NS (29:55):
Likewise. Thank you guys so much for having me a means a lot.
AJV (29:58):
All right, everyone. We’ll catch you next time. I’m on the influential personal brand.
Ep 281: The Power of One More with Ed Mylett | Recap Episode
RV (00:03):
Wow. That conversation with Ed Mylett man, I am humbled. I don’t know if you picked it up, but the, what he said about working with us and our team man, that was, that was powerful and edifying to, for him to say those things about us and, and, you know, we really feel the same way about him. I mean, ed, I, I have really gotten to know ed. I mean, we have talked on, I, I mean a daily at least once a day for the last several months, like 6, 4, 4, 4 or five months at the time of this recording, like and I really love this guy and I believe in him and that’s part of why we have lent our like you know, time and our resources and our, our, you know, strategies to be a part of it.
RV (00:56):
And what just, what an amazing guy. And, and y’all it, it’s he’s he has, is operating a level of success. That’s just extraordinary. And it, it, I wanna share with you, of course, the three, the three big highlights or takeaways from the conversation from the inter from that interview specifically some point maybe I’ll do another training. That’s just like what I’ve learned from Ed Mylet over the last several months, cuz I’ve learned a ton from him also. I’ll keep this focused on just the interview, but one of the things that, you know, I want to start with that is encouraging to me is it’s it’s encouraging to see people like, you know, I think of like, you know, ed Mylett or you know, whoever Dave Ramsey, like these, these huge, very successful influential people and to realize how much of their life has been dedicated to personal development, not just teaching, but learning, not teaching.
RV (01:53):
I mean, learning it, I’m talking about the people you probably most respect a huge portion of their time is personal development. Like this stuff actually works. I mean, this stuff actually changes lives. And, and, and these people who are changing the world are living by the, by the principles that, that we teach and talk about collectively in this industry. And that’s why brand builders group exists is we want to help mission driven messengers, get their message out to the world because the world needs it. The world is desperate for this, for this help, for this encouragement, for this education about how to live a positive life, how to be successful, how to control your thoughts, your money, your time to have better relationships, better health, have more joy and peace. And it’s, you know, it’s age old principles, but they’re delivered through new modern day messengers.
RV (02:48):
And that’s what ed is. And that’s what we believe you are. And that’s why we believe that you’re listening. And that’s, you know, it’s super fun to work with people like ed. I mean, you, you, I mean I tell you, I don’t remember what the number was when we recorded the podcast, but right now, as I’m recording this we just hit 50,000 units. Pre-Sold of Ed’s book 50,000 when we still have a week before it launches like this is a massive, I mean, this is someone, you know, literally affecting millions of people, all the, all the people he’s reaching through his own platform. Plus all the people who are promoting it, this event that we’re doing with Eric Thomas and Mel Robbins you know, Jim quick, John Gord, Marie Forley Odine Graziosi. I mean Jenna Kucher and Rob Deard deck and Maria Manos.
RV (03:38):
I mean, the list goes on Andy fr like it’s gonna be this huge event and it’s reaching all these people. But I say all that to say, he’s a student of personal development, which, which, which tells me two things and hopefully tells you two things. One, you should be a student of personal development, right? Like you may not wanna own multiple private jets and own islands like ed does. But like, you know, maybe you, you wanna have money to give away, like you wanna do something, right? Like pretty much anything big in the world takes some money like, and, and, and, and impact and reach and go, man, I’ve reached a lot of people. Well, that means there’s you’re student of personal development. And the second thing is you should be a teacher of it because the world needs you. That’s why you’re here. Right. That’s why you’re listening. There’s there’s a calling in your life. There’s a prompting saying, you’ve got some message inside of you. And if you’re not doing it, my guess is it’s because there’s a, there’s another voice which I would call the devil who immediately follows up and says, yeah, but someone already said that, but like, who would listen to you?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Who would listen to ed mylett
RV (04:44):
Five years ago, ed Mylet
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Was posted. Did you hear this story about Tony Robinson? He was posting videos of hash
RV (04:50):
Brown. So
Speaker 2 (04:51):
My gosh, that video, that story of him with Tony Robbins on his backboards, he thought Tony Robbins said, you have to use hashtags. Ed thought. He said, hash Browns. You have to post pictures of hash Browns. Are you kidding me? Like what in the world? Like that is crazy. So, you know, nobody knew who he was even like five, seven years ago. So it like,
RV (05:18):
It just, it, I don’t know. That’s inspiring to me and I, how inspiring to me and the fact that I hope it inspires you and it inspires you to go, your voice matters. Like somebody else out there needs it. It may not be millions of people. It may be 10 people. It may be one person, but like, that’s a person that’s a life. So anyways, let’s get on with the three highlights. I I’m ranting I’m ranting cuz I just moved. Ed. Ed is in powerful, powerful dude. So my three biggest takeaways from the interview with ed Mylet all right. First, first one here is his premise of this book. All right. The book’s called the power of one more. The, the event’s called max out. So we, you know, we’re helping run the, the book launch the event, you know, Ed’s following our playbook by those, by the way, those of you that are brand builders. Like I said this in the interview, but like he is following our playbook to a T he’s executing it at a bigger scale because his platform, but I mean, he is following our playbook to a T is working. This is gonna be one of the biggest book launches of this year. Like it works and, and his premise of this book is you’re a lot closer to the dream life than you think you are.
RV (06:31):
That’s a powerful thought. You’re a lot closer to the dream life than you think you are. Right? The, the, the devil, the self doubt tells you you’re far away says this impossible says, okay, that could happen for ed, but not for me. That could happen for Rory, but not for me. That could happen for Marie or whoever, but not for me. Like, and Ed’s going, no, you’re closer to it than you think you’re one decision away. You’re one, you’re one piece of knowledge away. You’re one relationship away, you know, AJ and I had this conversation and, and, and I told her, I said, I don’t know this was, this was several months ago, right? When I first met ed. And I said, babe, I don’t know. But I feel God telling me that we’re supposed to go all in on helping add my lead. This is before he is a client.
RV (07:21):
This is like, right. I first met him like before any of this is taking shape. And I don’t, you know, even by the time you hear this, like there, the, the, the, the trajectory that this is on is becoming a really massive thing that he’s doing like, and, and going, I don’t know, but I, I feel like we’re supposed to go all in on this. It’s very possible that this one relationship with ed my lead is gonna change our whole life. It certainly did with Lewis, right? Like brand builders, droop would not exist if it were not for Lewis howes inspired this business, he asked for it. And then he’s the one who said, you guys need to create this. I know a whole bunch of people who need this, and I’m gonna help you meet ’em. I’m gonna light the spark to kick this thing off one relationship.
RV (08:02):
Now you might go, I don’t know, a Lewis Howes or ed mylett. It doesn’t every, but every relationship we met, like every relationship we had led us to the next one and the next one and the next one, you’re a lot closer to the dream life than you think you are like, it’s right there. Right? One relationship away. One moment away, one big shot. 1, 1, 1 missing piece of the puzzle of, of the knowledge you need. And you go, ah, it clicks, right? I’m I’m there licks right on, on there. It might be one video post, one podcast post, like, but we just don’t know when it’s gonna happen. And people give up too soon. That’s a powerful, powerful premise. And that’s this whole thing. The power of one more is like, you’re, you’re closer than you think. So do one more. Just like, if you just keep doing that, it’s it’s in the moment, it feels like you’re behind. But over course of your life, it’s like, you’re guaranteed. It’s the success is guaranteed. Like if you follow all these principles, it’s not like that are not gonna work. Like they’ve worked, you know, for millions and hundreds of millions of people to accumulate millions and billions of dollars. Like the principles of success are timeless. They work for, I like they work. Like there’s a reason why people teach them follow them and stick with it. Second big takeaway from ed was that identity is the thermostat of your life.
RV (09:27):
What you think you’re worth is what you’re going to get. So whatever the story is that you’re telling yourself about yourself is going to continue to be the true story for you. Right? If you’re telling yourself I’m a victim, I had it harder than everybody. O O other people have pushed me down. I’m not in control of my circumstances. I have it. I have it harder than everybody else. If that’s the story you’re telling yourself, then that is your certain future. Like, that’s what he’s saying. There is like, whatever is going on in your head, the story you’re telling yourself. If you know, if you say like, I’m the, you know, I’m an overcomer, like I’m, I rise above. I figure it out. I find a way, then that is your future. Like, it’s not just your present. That is your future. That is your identity, right? If you think I’m not good enough, nobody cares about me. I’m not smart enough. I’m stupid. I don’t have what it takes. That’s your future. Not just your present, that’s your future. And if you say, man, I’m loved. I’m a child of God, God creates. And so in me is the power to create, right? That God lives in me. He created the world. Then I too have the power in me to create things with my own breath, to speak creation in into reality.
RV (10:55):
Then that’s your future. So what is the story you’re telling yourself about yourself? You’ll never exceed your identity. You have to grow your identity. And I love how open that ed is about Jesus. Not that you know, you have to be believe in Jesus to be successful. There’s lots of successful people who don’t believe in Jesus. Ed happens to believe in Jesus. I happen to believe in Jesus, but what matters is even people who believe in Jesus, like what he was saying is they go to, they go to church on Sunday and they go, yeah, I believe in God. And then they go out in the, we work weekend, go, ah, I don’t, I don’t have what it takes. And it’s like, no, no. Like if, if you following scripture saying, God is in you, right? Like the holy spirit is with you inside of you, you have the ability to create, to make, to multiply.
RV (11:41):
And he and ed believes that like, he believes that about himself, which what’s funny is like, whether, whether it’s true or not, it’s true. Like it became true. Like whether it’s true or not, it becomes true because it is the story that you’re telling yourself. And, and, and, and if you stumble across success, if you happen to get to lucky break, you happen to get a big moment. But your identity is at odds with it. Then you’ll, you’ll turn the air conditioner on in terms of your thermostat. And, and you’ll, you’ll, you know, you’ll start heating up and getting success. And you’ll cool yourself off. You’ll self sabotage because that’s your identity. Your identity will say, ah, that was just luck. I didn’t deserve that. That lucky break. Right? Couldn’t do it again. Right. Anybody could do it once. Can’t do it twice. Like you’ll self sabotage.
RV (12:24):
And that’s why he’s saying like, you gotta understand your identity. You gotta rewrite your identity. You gotta be mindful of the story. You’re telling yourself about yourself. That’s what’s gonna change your life. And, and here’s, what’s crazy is like, whatever is your present story is your future story. But also whatever is your present self is your past story. Like in many ways, like mostly, I mean, there are circumstances, right? There are some things that happen to people that are unavoidable. Like I’m not, I’m not suggesting that you are making the horrible, every horrible thing that has happened in your life. But, but there is some truth to that to go, who I am today is in part the result of the story I’ve been telling myself about who I have been in the past and who I will become tomorrow is largely in part affected by the story. I tell myself today about who I am today.
RV (13:22):
And if you wanna change your life, rewrite your story. If you wanna change your life, rewrite your story. And then the third big takeaway from that conversation with ed for me, was just sort of the, the profound thought of, you know, this idea of one more, like, what if this is my last conversation, right? Like what if, what if this is, what if this is my last podcast? Like, what if this is the last podcast recap I ever do? What if this is the last, tonight’s the last date night I have with my wife? What is, what if, what if this is? What if this is my last shot to introduce myself to somebody who, you know, has the knowledge and the relationship to change in my life? What if this is my last shot to learn from somebody? Like, what if this is? What if this is my last shot?
RV (14:13):
Like, what if this is it? What if this is my last day? Am I living with it going like, man, what if, what if this is it? What if this is my last, my last moment? Am I capitalizing? Am I maximizing it? Am I even appreciating in a small minuscule percentage of how I would, if it were my last, because it could be our last, it could be my last, it could be your last, we don’t know. And this idea, the power, one more is going, look, I should be grateful because I got one more. I have one more day. I got one more breath. I got one more. I got at least one more podcast episode of me. I got one more, one more chance to meet somebody. I got one more opportunity to change somebody’s life. And if there’s a calling on your heart to go out and serve somebody and help them, it might be because there’s at least one more person out there
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Who still needs you
RV (15:07):
One more. And what if this is our last chance we would view it differently. We, we would think about it differently. We would act differently and, and we would be more grateful. I, I think I would, I would be more grateful. I’d be more thankful. I’d be more precise. I’d be more deliberate. I’d be more intentional. I, I I’d, I’d put more in, you can do that. You can do that sooner or later. That’s gonna be true. We don’t know when. So you might as well enjoy the richness and the fullness of life that is available to you right now by treating everyone as if it’s your last and just being grateful for the power of one more. So by Ed’s book everybody else’s,
RV (16:13):
I mean, it’s like you reminds me of the early days when I was learning from Zig Ziegler and like, man, this is an amazing, this is an amazing person. This is a world changer. You know, like a lot of our clients, I feel that way about Lewis. I’m like, man, this guy’s a world changer. Like that’s that powerful stuff. And we have other clients, some of them can’t tell you who they are, but like, I’ll go, man. They’re amazing. And all of our clients, I go to our events. Every time I go to one of our brand builders group events, I’m
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Like, gosh, I you’re amazing. You, people are amazing. You have so much more working for you than I did. Like you have so much more working for you than so many of the people that I have seen be successful in this industry that I’ve seen impact millions of lives. Like you have so much more going for you where you are at now than when, where they did when they were, where you are, but they, they, the difference is just
RV (17:09):
Believing it and telling yourself the story that it’s
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Possible instead of telling yourself the story that it’s not possible.
RV (17:24):
So I hope that this podcast and that brand builders group and that my life and AJ’s life and our team and our family and our kids, I hope this is a place you continue to hang out in because I hope we’re a people who help you believe what’s possible for you. I hope that everything you experience from us and our family and our team
Speaker 3 (17:48):
And our community helps you write the story that you were meant to write for your own life and thereby the lives of so many others. So keep coming back, we’ll catch you next week on the influential personal brand podcast.
Ep 280: The Power of One More with Ed Mylett
RV (00:00):
To one of the great honors of my life is getting to play a role behind the scenes for some of the most influential personal brands in the world. I’ve actually found it much more enriching and fulfilling to be behind the scenes and be a part of the team. That’s coordinating that for other people than I have, even for us building my personal brand in our company. And today is truly one of those moments for me. A few months ago, one of my O other mentors, John Gordon introduced me to a gentleman named ed Mylet, who you’ve probably heard of. And ed and I started talking and I found out he had a book launch and book launches is something that we know something about. And so ed and I became friends and it has been an absolute honor and privilege to work alongside of ed here for a few months now and a pretty close working relationship, helping him launch this book.
RV (00:56):
That’s coming out called the power of one more. And we’re gonna talk about the book, but if you don’t know, ed just really quick I’ve known ed, I’ve been following him for years. He’s one of my favorite people to follow online. He’s got over 3 million online followers at, at the time of this recording. He is in the Forbes fiftys wealthy under 50 years old. He’s the host of a podcast called the ed Mylet show, which has had, I mean, everybody Terrell Owens, Mel Robbins, Dabo Sweeney, John Maxwell, Jay Sheti. It goes on and on and on. Ed is one of the best speakers that I’ve ever seen. And I’ve personally learned so much from him. And he’s also the real deal. I mean, he has a, a net worth that is in the nine figures, which is not his focus by any means, but a Testament to the fact that he’s the real deal. It’s not, it’s not fake. And he loves Jesus. He’s humble. And man, what an honor to introduce you to my new friend, ed mullet,
EM (01:58):
Hey brother, Rory, great to be with you. And you’re understanding your involvement and role in my life now. You’re the centerpiece of this book launch. You’ve been leading it from the front the entire time and I’ve been in business for 30 years. I’ve never worked with anybody like you before you are remarkable. He is just so you all know his brilliance is only exceeded by his generosity. And he’s a remarkable man. I actually can’t even believe as I’m saying this, I’m getting a little bit emotional. I did not think I would, but I’m very grateful for you brother, grateful for your friendship and mentorship. Cause I’ve learned so much from you for the last 60 days. And I know it’s just the beginning of a lifelong friendship and, and also business relationship too, so great to be with you today.
RV (02:41):
Well, thank you, man. That means just so much coming from you and, and I want, I want people to hear your real story. Like your life story is tremendously inspiring. Thank you. Also, you know, I hope you don’t mind me sharing this, but like ed is working his butt off. I mean we are running him, we are running him ragged. He is following our, our, you know, bestseller launch plan, which we take our clients through. Can I share how many units we’ve pre-sold ed? Is that okay? Or,
EM (03:11):
Yeah, that’s fine. Sure.
RV (03:12):
40,000 units of this book have already been pre-sold and we have, at the time of this recording, we got about six weeks to go. We’re doing a huge event in Raleigh, but so ed, take us back to like, I wanna hear the story of how you started building your personal brand. You’ve got this great story as a kid. Yeah. You crushed it in business. You still crushed it in business. And, and just, but like, take us back to where do you, where do you demarcate the Genesis of you building your personal brand?
EM (03:43):
Yeah, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I, I had been an entrepreneur and a speaker for a number of years and I sort of resisted the, I wanted to stay private. I really, you know me well now, like I buy homes where I’m very private. It’s not that I don’t love people. I actually adore people, but I’m introverted. And so, and just exposing the, my life, I, most of my friends are famous, unfortunately. Right. And so I knew what came with that and I didn’t want all of it. And so I did it very reluctantly, but the encouragement of a lot of the people that I coach, some people like Tony Robbins also like, Hey man, you need to, you need to go out there and share what you know. And and so I made the decision. It was a really funny story.
EM (04:19):
I’ll tell you this, cuz you’ll laugh. Tony Robbins told me, Hey man, you need to, you need to get on social media and I’m I’m idiot and I’m not very good at posting. And he challenged me in a way that sort of made me want to do it. So we’re sitting on my balcony. My son was in the other room and he goes, I said, max, you’re now the head of my social media team.
RV (05:01):
Nice.
EM (05:01):
And I called Tony, I’m going, Hey, this stuff doesn’t work. And my son, like I thought you knew who you were doing four views. And only one of them even liked it. I, this is not for me. And this is what I hear Tony say, I Rory, I swear to you on our friendship. This is what I hear him say. He goes, dude, you gotta post at the right time of the day. You gotta post at breakfast time. So if you watch my social, I post every morning to this day at 7:30 AM. Yeah. Pacific time. Every day, every post on my main feed that’s cuz back in the day, Tony Robbins told me to post at breakfast time. This is what I think he says to me next worry. And by the way, you gotta post at breakfast time and you need to have hash Browns in the video.
EM (05:38):
This is what I hear him say hash brown. I’m like, and I don’t wanna sound stupid. I’m like really breakfast and hash Browns. All right. Okay dude, I’ll make another one. So I call max and go, Hey, I thought you knew about this stuff. Tony says it’s gotta be breakfast videos around breakfast table and there’s gonna be hash Browns in the video. Max is like, daddy, I don’t, why would there need to be a breakfast? I go, I don’t know. But that’s how this stuff works. So the next video you can go to my social media. It’s a video of me with a plate of eggs and hash Browns. And I make a video. I swear to you, you don’t know this story. And then, then that video gets like three views and no likes. And I tell Tony, I go, Hey man, I call him up. I go, this is crap. The hash brown thing tanked. He goes,
Speaker 3 (06:20):
He goes, what did you just say?
EM (06:22):
I go, I did the breakfast post with the hash Browns.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
He goes dummy.
EM (06:30):
Hash Browns.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I said, well I
EM (06:32):
Heard hash and breakfast. He goes, no, it’s the time of the day with hash tags. I’m like what? The heck’s a hashtag. He goes, I don’t know. It’s like a pound sign with a word. And it helps him find your video. I go pound
Speaker 3 (06:43):
What? He goes. I, he goes, dude, just
EM (06:45):
Do the hashtag thing years and serious up. That was my start on social media. And I wake up like a year later cuz the content’s good. Right? I wake up a year later, I got a million followers on Instagram. You know, I’m getting, I’m growing like crazy. And I’ve ended up growing to these millions of people, man. And as you know, I’ve never run an ad. It’s completely, it’s completely authentic growth. Like it’s spiral can.
RV (07:06):
I’ve never, I need a, I need to say this right now because this is important. I’ve actually, I haven’t, I don’t think I’ve told this to you directly, but I’ve said this to several people since you know, working so closely with you, which is that one of the thing there’s so many things about you that amaze me. But one of the things that amazes me most is like everybody else out there in the space doing this, this is their full-time job. Right? They got teams, they’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s, it’s all they’re doing. And, and you, you don’t like you have a pretty thin team. This is like a side project, which it’s like almost a distraction for you, which makes me admire you. And it also really me off, like it really, really jealous, but like it, it
EM (07:53):
Is that’s where, that’s why you’ve come into my life. I mean, we’ve become one of the, you know I think influencer magazine named me the fastest growing businessman in the history of social media. And as you know, I have very few people on my team. It’s here’s the good news. It’s been content driven. And I don’t say that to brag. I just say that like my content’s good and in a diverse amount of content and that’s, what’s grown and now I’ve met a pro in fact, I’ve met the best in you. And so now between the book, the power of one more, that’s coming out, the event we’re doing with it that, you know, that’s pretty significant. And then what we’ll do with my social going forward, I actually feel like I’ve now met the best people in the world. It’s gonna get real scary. What’s gonna happen when you take the best content. Now married with the best team of people who know how to build a brand, which is you. And so I’m fired up, man. I cannot wait for this thing to explode even to another level.
RV (08:40):
Yeah, for sure. Well, I, I also, you know, another part of that little story is how coachable, I mean, for you to be somebody who’s incredibly successful. I mean, that’s a vast understatement to, to say Tony Robbins says post a video with hash Browns. And without even thinking about it, you just, you just do it. What year was that?
EM (09:02):
That was probably seven years ago.
RV (09:04):
That’s when I started. OK.
EM (09:06):
But by the way, you know me well enough now I’m still that way I’m coachable to you and other people look, I’ve built lots of wealth and lots of different businesses by knowing I’m not the smartest guy in the room. I know what I’m good at. In fact, I talk about this on the book, taking advantage of your giftedness and allowing the gifts of other people to flourish around you. I think what does strike people when they start to interact with me? I’m a confident dude. I’m an intense dude. Mm-Hmm
EM (09:42):
Well, where I need to be, believe me, I’m dominant. And I assert myself, but I’m I’m. I just, I laugh at people who think they know everything. Look it, you are the, you’re the premier guy. What you do, I’m blessed to have you in my life. Why would I not let you do what you’re great at? And I’ll do what I’m great at. I’ve built and sold many, many different businesses on the premise that if you surround yourself with great people, take advantage of their giftedness, use your giftedness. You’re unstoppable. And that’s really the lot, which as you know, that’s, there’s a lot of that in the book and you’ve watched me do it with you. I’m like, Hey, I don’t know what should we do? And I listen. Now, if someone proves themselves consistently not to be equipped to do the job, that’s a different story altogether with me, I’ll make a switch. But until that time comes in your case, every single thing you basically told me to do is worked. And you’ve exceeded what you told me you were going to do when we first met one another. So why wouldn’t I give you more space to lead? I think that’s how you build something. Great.
RV (10:37):
Yeah. It’s, it’s an interesting dichotomy like ed, cuz it’s throwing me for a loop cuz you’re, you’re both physically intimidating. Like you are, you know a very behemoth of a man, your stature, but your reputation is huge. Your track record is huge you’re and you are very intense, but then you are very open and re and receptive to this. I mean it it’s, it’s really interesting. It, I, it actually inspired me to make a post recently about the difference between like confidence and pride. And I was just basically saying how you know, confidence is how you do something mm-hmm
EM (11:40):
I’m also doing what you’ve asked me to do on the book, different things. So my favorite people, Roy, I talk about this in the book and how to establish self confidence. The whole chapter on it’s pretty detailed. It’s not, this book is heavy. I mean, it’s a very heavy everyone who’s read it. That’s friends of mine’s like, whoa, this is there’s no breathing room. It’s cont I mean it’s specific stuff, but my favorite people have this nuance and it’s a very, very difficult line to nuance. In fact, the ultimate person who’s ever exemplified this is Jesus, but there’s this line of tremendous confidence combined with humility. So the people that I love most have a lot of self-confidence, but their humility, it causes ’em to be curious, kind, open grow. We all know people with tons of self-confidence have no humility. They, they, their, their egos outta control.
EM (12:25):
They eventually burn out. They eventually make a mistake. They eventually self-destruct. We also have friends with tons of humility with no self-confidence and you have to carry them through, like, you can do it, you can do it. So it’s the, it’s the, it’s the nuance of the two. Jesus knew who he was, but he was humble enough to present himself as a man. He was humble enough to submit. He was humble enough to feed the masses. He was humble enough to give his life for us. Talk about the ultimate level of sacrifice and humility yet at the same time simultaneously knowing who he really was. And so the, the best people that I know that I, I like to get close to. They tow that line. Sometimes you arrow one side or the other, but I’d love to. I hope that I continue to have a very level of, I know how to build self-confidence.
EM (13:07):
I detail that in the book, I know how to help you become self-confidence I’ve helped the top people in the world do that. I know how to do that. The humility part is a character of trait. You have to want to grow. You have to know that you, that for me, man, like it’s weird to write a book called the ultimate guide to happiness and success. And I give all these keys yet. At the same time, I have a whole chapter on faith. I also know that there’s many times in my life brother, where the truth is, I don’t know what happened. My reflections are vague. And the truth is all I conclude is that during those difficult times, the Lord just sort of picked me up and carried me for a while and then set me back down in a better place. And then I went to work and then he picked me back up and carried me for a while. And it’s why it makes me so emotional because it’s odd to write a book about here’s how you become happier or more successful, knowing that so much of it wasn’t me. And so much of it was, was God in my life was favor, was blessing. And so it’s, I’d be remiss if I said I have all these answers, cuz I, I actually know I don’t the older I get, the more I realize what I don’t know mm-hmm
RV (14:16):
To grow there. Well, your, your, your faith is another example of this humility, right? Like you’ve got the money, you’ve got the influence. You have the followers, you you’ve got the most famous people in your cell phone. Mm-Hmm
RV (15:04):
And I see you doing that and it’s inspiring to me. It’s also impactful kingdom work. I mean, you’re a secular author. This is a business. This is a business book. But man, if ed, my let is, you know, if Jesus is good enough, like for an ed, my let or, you know, to hear somebody like you go, no, this is, this is what it’s really about. For me, it’s inspiring. And it also, it makes, it makes me more excited to be a part of what you’re doing, cuz you’re reaching a lot of people who would not hear that message.
EM (15:34):
I was just talking about this with a very, very, very, actually two of them, maybe the two most famous pastors in the world. I won’t say their names, but two of very famous guys. And I was talking about that. I said, listen, when they come listen to you, man, they know what they’re getting your pastor. What’s cool with me is they come for me for the jet or the island or the money or the other stuff. And they’re gonna get all that. I want them to have all that stuff, but then they’re gonna hear this other thing that they didn’t expect to hear. And I’m hoping that maybe that I can reach people to some extent that God’s using me to potentially reach people that maybe not everybody else can get to the other. You know? So that’s a, that’s a, you know, really significant thing in calling for me.
EM (16:10):
And I just, you know, I hope that I’m, I hope that I’m bold enough. I hope that I’m becoming more and more bold with it. It’s never that I’ve not been willing to be bold. It’s that I’ve sort of learned to express it more as I’ve gotten a little bit older and I just love the Lord man. Like you can’t, you have to conclude when you get to a certain point in your life like, Hey man, I’m not, this is not me. There’s no way this is me yet. I am. I here’s what I really think. I, I believe, you know, broader that I represent a little bit. I think there’s this notion in the world of faith world that you can’t believe in science or facts or details or strategies and still be a person of faith. And then I think secular people think that if you, if you believe in faith that you can’t believe in these other things, I believe in the brain, I believe in brain science.
EM (16:50):
I believe in neuroplasticity, I believe in the re particular activating system in the prefrontal cortex of your brain, brain and visualizations and neuroplasticity. And I believe in epigenetics, I believe in all these different things. I just happen to believe there’s a holy God in heaven that created all of it. I just happen to believe that I know where it comes from. And so I’m both a person of faith and a person of science. And by the way, oftentimes my faith confirms the science and my science confirms the faith. And so amen. Maybe that’s too deep, but I write about it in the book.
RV (17:20):
Yeah. So let let’s let’s talk about the book for a second. Y’all your story is moving ed. Like, can you take, just take us back to your dad? Yeah. Like the relationship you have with your father is like your earthly father I’m talking about is a important part of your life. It’s an important part of this book. And can you just talk about like where you started in your relationship with your dad and how that evolved and how did that influence the direction of the book?
EM (17:49):
Everything. And like most people were influenced by who raised us. Right? So I wrote the book after my dad died last year and it’s called the power of one more because my dad embodied this. My dad was an alcoholic. The first 15 years of my life was not living a great life. I believe so deeply that humans can change because I watched my hero do it. I watched my own father live, not as a great father or husband for the first 15 years of my life. And then I made, he made one decision and gave one more, try to get sober. Then my dad stayed sober the second half of his life and lived as magnificent of a life on earth as anybody I’ve ever watched in my entire 50 years on the planet. So I know humans can change because my dad made that one decision to get sober and everything that I am I’ve learned from my dad.
EM (18:33):
I really do believe the premise of the book is this. That you’re a lot closer to the dream life that you want than you think you are. And the fact that you think you’re so far away causes you to pace yourself like it and keeps it in the distance. But what if it’s true that you’re one decision, one relationship, the ultimate relationship is with your heavenly father. One thought one emotion, one meeting, one guy meet Rory. Rory meets me to completely changing your life. And then the question becomes if I’m right about that, and I know I’m right about that, then what are the two books I always carry with me are my book, the power of one more and think and grow rich think and grow rich is my second favorite book. Other than my scriptures. I love it. Having said that you don’t just think and get rich.
EM (19:14):
You have to do things. And so I wanted to write a book that told you what are the thoughts? And then what is the, the collective action that you do in congruency that create, change the thought. And then the action doing them together is what creates the change. I’m just tired of reading books, Rory, that it’s the same it’s think and grow rich, written a little bit differently. I wanted a book that’s modern and profound and links, faith, but also links the brain strategies you need in the techniques and the habits and the goal setting. How do you create standards? What’s equanimity, right? What’s the particular activating. What’s the matrix of your life? How do you build self confidence? What’s your identity, all these different things in the book. And I’ve done that because my dad, I learned these things from, and every day I believe in one more try. I believe in redemption. I believe that, you know, you’re saved. Not because you’re perfect, but because of God’s grace in your life and that no matter what age you are, what mistakes you’ve made or what baggage you’re carrying around, bankruptcy, divorce, a sin, you’ve had something you’re ashamed of. You can drop those bags at any moment in one decision in one moment and completely change your life. I watched my dad do it. The, if that’s true, then how do you, how do you, and that’s why I wrote the book is the, how do you,
RV (20:25):
Yeah, it, it, it is, it is fire. You know, I, I got obviously a little insider preview to a lot of this in these interviews, but you’re like the, the concept of identity mm-hmm
EM (21:37):
Well, the identity, part’s huge. It’s a, it’s the thermostat of your life. Your identity is sitting on the wall of your life and, and it it’s, it regulates everything. So it’s what you believe you’re worth. You’re going to get. This is a fact. So if you’re a 75 degree of wealth or happiness or faith and your results begin to exceed at 80 95, a hundred, you will find a way to subconsciously sabotage it and turn the air conditioner back down to get what you believe you’re worth. It’s a fact. I watch people, people think it’s coincident. Oh, I lost my money cuz of the market or my car broke down. I had to loan someone. Nope, not you turn the air conditioner on and you got it back to what you believe you deserve. So this identity thing is huge to heat up to 85, 90, a hundred, 120 degrees.
EM (22:15):
So that your results, your faith, your happiness, your abundance continues to grow. You will never exceed your identity ever, no matter what skill, what business, what real you gotta grow your identity. The question is, how do you do it? And in the book I go through detailed what I call the trilogy of identity. The first part of identity, believe it or not is faith. If I come from a all-knowing all loving God who made me in my image and likeness, aren’t I supposed to do something great with my life. There’s so many believers. They, they got God on Sunday. They got God on, you know, Bible study on Wednesdays. But when they walk into a boardroom or a sales call or a meeting, they’re alone, they forget all about it. Wow. And then their identity reduces. But if I’ve got Jesus with me right on my shoulder, he’s got my back.
EM (22:56):
Every single call, every single podcast, every single meeting, man, my identity, can’t be 75 with Jesus impossible. Second thing of your identity intention. You have to start to give yourself more credit for your intent. Too. Many of you are basing your identity on your ability or what you’ve achieved or who you are. And you’ll always be chasing it. In other words, it’ll never catch up. But what if you started to say, I intend to serve. I intend to do good. I intend to make a difference with this customer of mine or this client of mine or with my social media or with my brand. My intent is to serve right before we started. I swear to you. I say a quick prayer connect with my faith. Lord help me serve because I’m connecting to my intention, man. My identity goes through the roof cuz I know two things.
EM (23:34):
I know Jesus has my back. And number two, I know I intend to do well. I intend to serve third part of it is association. Who are you around? If you’re a 75 degree or, and you’re around somewhere 120 degrees of financial identity or faith, they will heat you up eventually through proximity to their thermostat setting. So if you combine faith intention and, and association, you can shift this identity and then your thermostat setting on your entire life. By the way you have a happiness thermostat too, you could start to achieve all the external stuff. You could even be a church going person or have all kinds of, but you’re just not any happier than you used to be. It’s because you’ve got a thermostat setting of happiness that was installed in you when you were a child at 75 degrees and you just reinforced it all your life with all these references. So I teach you how to change that in the book. So there’s all types of thermostat settings we have.
RV (24:24):
Yeah. I mean that is so huge. And, and what you hit on and I just want to Edify for everybody is this book strikes the balance of this thought and action. It’s the intersection of this high level sort of cerebral and science and visualization. And then also the practicality, the, the pragmatic nature it’s it’s palatable, right. Is to go, what do I do if I want to raise my identity, I need to remind myself of my faith and my creator. I need to remind myself and set the right intention. And I need to associate with the right people that takes such an obscure concept, like identity and makes it real. And that’s why y’all you, you need to go buy this book like, and, and buy the book now. I mean, you don’t get a chance to learn from somebody like ed and just even to pull out, like for someone like him to take a whole lifetime worth of lessons and, and dump it out. And I mean, the thing that blows me away is it’s like it’s 20 bucks or 25, 20 $8. It’s insane. Yeah.
EM (25:34):
It is brother and I wrote the book when my dad passed because you know, it dawned on me in that moment that I’m the next one, you know, I’m gonna pass someday. And I think, you know, Napoleon hill says in think and grow rich begin with the end in mind, you know what? That’s for a goal that’s true in life. Begin with the end in mind and work your way backwards. And so for me, I thought, you know what? I want my great grandkids to know what I thought about life. What I learned about success and happiness. And I wanna write about it until I’m dad and gone. And the truth is, if you wanna know the power of one more, let me take it from you. You wanna know the power of see the whole premises. If you’re gonna be in the gym, doing 10 reps, do 11, you’re gonna be 30 minutes on the treadmill.
EM (26:17):
Do one more. You’re gonna tell your sweet daughter. You love her. Tell her one more time a day, you start stacking up the one mores in your life, right? All of a sudden you’re a different human being. Self-Confidence is the process of keeping the promises you make to yourself. It’s a relationship with you. And when you have a reputation with yourself that you keep the promises you make to yourself, you are a self confident person, long term, but if you wanna be a world class achiever, build a relationship, a reputation with yourself where you do one more than you promise yourself. And all of a sudden you’re a monster of achievement, but you know what that power, my favorite thing to do, man, was play golf with my dad. And neither one of us are good golfers, but it was five hours with my hero and my best friend right next to me in the golf cart.
EM (27:01):
And we would talk deep about life and politics, which we disagreed on and all kinds of different stuff. Rory, do you know what I would give right now for one more round of golf with my dad? I can’t even tell you brother, one more conversation. I could hug my dad one more time and I can’t, but it shows you the power of how precious one more is. So if you do have someone you love here on earth, what if you started to look at her? Like what? This was my one last conversation with her. What if, when your wife walks in the room, what if, what, what was the last dance? What if was the last dinner? What if only had one more? What if you started to look at that call that sales call? What if this is my last shot? I only have one more.
EM (27:48):
When you begin to take the one more away, you start to understand the power of it. And so the power of it when it’s absence is magnified, the good news is we are still here. If you’ve had someone pass away and you can’t have that conversation, honor them with your life. But if they are here, make it more precious. It does matter. And I don’t know how many more you get to talk to your parents, but I know it’s not infinity. And so take advantage of the times that you have with the people that you love. Take advantage of the opportunities. Look for the relationships. Look for the decisions. Look for the thoughts. Look for the meanings. I just had to play golf, talking about money. I played golf two weeks ago. I’m talking about win one relationship in one decision away. I think I told you this, but again, here, the guy goes, Hey you’re gonna play golf with this guy.
EM (28:32):
Net worth are real similar. He did it in a really interesting way. So we first tee, I go, Hey man, I wanna know how you how’d. You build your fortune. He goes about 30 years ago, a guy asked me a $50,000 loan. He actually asked me and my other friend, I gave him the 50 grand. So did my friend, but my friend a week later asked for it back and he got the money back. I didn’t ask for the money back. He goes a 50 grand turn into about 700 million. Whoa. I went say that again. Cause he had about 700 million. I go, who’s the, who’s the guy you loan the money to. He goes some. Do we back in the day named Jeff Bezos
EM (29:14):
But in some way, the small ones like that end up stacking up and you really are. Think about if you’re married, that one relationship, how much has changed your life? That one decision to ask her or him out that one decision to get married, that child, you have that one relationship, how much it changed your life. So this ISN’ up for debate. The question then is how do I foster these new relationships? How do I make these new decisions? How do I uncover these new emotions? What are the new thoughts I have to have? What’s the one more thing I gotta do. And if you read the book, you’ll know
RV (29:47):
Where do you want ’em to go? I, I have one last question for you before that though. Where, where do you want people to go? Ed let’s we practiced. We’ve practiced your call to action. Where do you want people to go by the book right now?
EM (29:59):
We, we want you to go to the power of one more.com. That’s where we want you to go, but you can get the book anywhere, but if you go to the power of one more.com, you’re gonna find some cool stuff there as well. And I gotta tell you that if, if I’ve ever believed more strongly in something, I don’t know what it is. I just feel very strongly. I’m convicted that it can make a difference in your life. Whether as a mother, a father, a business person, a leader, an athlete, just as a human being, I think you’ll find keys to becoming more successful and happier. That’s why I call it the ultimate guide to happiness and success. So go to the power of one more.com and get the book. Anywhere books are sold.
RV (30:37):
I love it. Guys, go get the book. I mean, seriously, this is it’s insane. $28 and $30 to have access to somebody like ed, my lead and what’s going on in his head is, is incredible. Ed. The last thing I wanna leave, I, I want to you to leave the audience with is you talk, you have this I don’t know if it’s like a game or, but there’s this thing that you do in your life, where you, you about meeting your potential mm-hmm
EM (31:12):
A hundred percent. I do for sure. It’s how I live every day. It’s my dominant thought. We all have a dominant thought. The dominant thought running through my mind is that, listen, I know that when I get to heaven someday, I, all I need is the Lord to go, Hey, well done, good and faithful servant. Get in here. That’s what I want. Right? But I have this hallucination that he made me as image and like this, and there’s a destiny version of me. And I have this feeling. At least I let myself have it that when I do die, you’re talking about beginning with the end in mind. This is what I meant. When I said this earlier, I believe I get to meet the destiny version of me. The man I was born to be the man. He made me to be the guy who had the contribution, the moments, the memories, the feelings, the emotions, the experiences, the difference he made in life. I get to meet that guy someday. And every decision I make as I go through my life, one more decision is to catch that guy. I wanna catch that dude. And when I die and get there, I want him to look back at me and go, Hey, man, I seen you’ve been chasing me all your life. You caught me. And I go, dang. It I’ve been after you forever. To me, heaven. Heaven is I meet the man. I was cable of becoming and we’re identical twins. That’s heaven.
EM (32:16):
Hell is we’re total strangers. And I can’t live with the idea that that might possibly happen. I don’t want that. I wanna meet the man. I was capable of becoming. And so when I’m thinking about making a decision or whether go for it or to have a new relationship, does it move me closer to heaven or not? And if it moves me to closer to heaven, then it’s a step I should take. And that’s why I live my life. Thinking that
RV (32:46):
Now follow ed, buy the book, listen to what this guy’s about. I’m telling you, we I’ve gotten the more I’ve gotten to know him. The more I’ve liked him. I’ve always been a fan. And the closer that we’ve gotten, the more that I’ve I have have developed a respect and a true admiration for this guy. I’m, I’m glad that he is out there in the world, doing what he’s doing, brother. We wish you the best of luck. Thank you for the compliment of being here. Thank you for the privilege of allowing us to play a tiny part in everything that you got going on. And we just wish you the
EM (33:17):
Best. Roy. It’s not tiny. The feelings are at least mutual and I love you. And I’m grateful for you, bro.
Ep 279: Building an Empire with Life Changing Content with Cary Jack | Recap Episode
AJV (00:03):
This is AJ Vaden. Your co-host of the influential personal brand. Welcome to the recap episode on the conversation that I had with a dear friend and just the ha the happiest hustler. I know Cary Jack such a good conversation and I would highly E you, if you were struggling with content or trying to figure out how to take that first step, or even trying to figure out, like, how do I curate my business with content? Like, this is the episode for you. So highly recommend it. Go listen to it. If you only have a few minutes today, that’s why we do these recap episodes. So here are a couple of my key takeaways from my conversation with Cary Jack. And this is the, the biggest one single handedly is that you only need one set of life changing content to build your business.
AJV (00:57):
I think there is a huge misconception that you need all these different sets of content and all these different topics, and you need a variety keynotes, and you need multiple courses, and it’s like, you can, but you don’t have to, you can build a multi-layered business off of one set of content. If you just focus on provide, providing very good content in real value, something that will actually help someone else it’s like, you can turn into a course, make it a podcast, make it a webinar, make it a membership, make it a coaching program, make it consulting make it a retreat, right? It’s like, turn it into a live event. Like you can do so much with one very good set of content, and you don’t need to change your content all the time, create content that is evergreen and universal. I, I liken it to Roy Aden’s first book take the stairs and it’s like, take the stairs sell pretty much as well.
AJV (01:55):
Today, 10 years later, as it did at the end of year one, it’s like that content hasn’t changed. It’s evergreen content. It is this great ever remind component that we have problems doing things that we don’t wanna do. And there is a discipline that is required in a mindset shift that is required that doesn’t get old, but that content is in a a membership called the focus 40. It was a course, a book it’s a keynote. Just, just a great reminder that you don’t need tons of sets of curriculum. You don’t need all these different content sets. You can do that, but you can also build at a very amazing business off of one core set of content, right? That one life changing set of content could be the, for growing your entire business. So I think that was really big.
AJV (02:51):
I think that’s very significant. The second most important thing is that, how do you decide what kind of business model that you would have if you have a content based company? Right. This is not the conversation for someone who is not a content based company, but if you are a content based entity, right. Then how do you know if it should be in a course or a membership or coaching program or a mastermind or retreats or live events or a book, or should it be, you know, what should it be, right? It’s like, there’s a lot of different options there. And I probably didn’t mention 10. So how do you choose? And I loved what he said when I asked him that question. He goes, look at who your audience is and think about how they would consume it. Start there. So simple but yet so significant, so important.
AJV (03:46):
It’s just stop looking around and look at the audience that you’re trying to serve, that you’re trying to help and go, how do they need this? How would they want this? And if you’re not entirely sure ask them, right, you have this idea persona, this like ideal avatar of who is the person that you’re trying to serve. You know, someone like this, right? Maybe they’re a personal friend or a family member go and ask them. It’s like, Hey, if I was gonna do this and like, really go after this and grow scale, or start this business based on this content, how would you want to get it? And then, then think about the different layers of that person. Like maybe what they would want in the very beginning is free content on a blog, or maybe they’d want it in a podcast. Then it’s like, well, maybe they’d want more consistent.
AJV (04:32):
So maybe it’s like a low level membership, or maybe it’s a course, or maybe they want one-on-one help. And you just gotta like, have these conversations, but completely centered on who, who is the person this is designed for, who is the person, this, this content is supposed to help and lean in there so wise loved it so much. And then the last thing, and it’s the very last thing that we talked about on the podcast. If you’re listen to it, don’t it to the very, very end to get this. But I loved it. And I just said like, what’s one life lesson. That’s had the most significant impact on your life as a entrepreneur business builder, just as a, an individual. And he said the book, the compound effect by Darren Hardy and specifically in that is the importance of doing the small things consistently, right?
AJV (05:24):
It’s, it’s doing those small things in a very consistent manner that, that snowball into bigger things. And so it’s just asking yourself, like, what are the, the small things that you can start to do right now that if you did them consistently could change your life. Most of us do not have these large grandiose huge things that we need to change in our life in order to feel extraordinary impact for most of us. And I do mean most of us, they, they are the little things like maybe you need to stop working an hour earlier every day. Maybe you need to start an hour later, right? Maybe you need to Institute a date night with your spouse or your partner. Maybe you need to start picking your kids up from school or taking ’em, or it’s doing a phone detox, a technology detox every Sunday.
AJV (06:11):
Like that one actually would be a really big one for me, but it’s like, what are those things that if started doing in a really consistent manner that are small in theory, that could be life changing if you actually did them. And then how do you do those in a very consistent manner? So that you feel the, the benefit and the impact of those small changes. So good. Y’all love this conversation. Love Cary Jack. His book just came out the happy hustle. He’s got an awesome podcast. I mentioned this in the podcast, but if you go to the happy hustle book.com, if you actually get the book, read it and DM Cary Jack online, he will give you 20 minutes free coaching. There is no sell at the end. It is just what did you it from the book and how can I help you on your happy hustle journey? I would highly encourage you to take up, take him up on it. So good. Go listen episode, go check out Jack. And we will you next time on the influential personal.
Ep 278: Building an Empire with Life Changing Content with Cary Jack
AJV (00:02):
Hey everybody. And welcome to another episode on the influential personal brand podcast. This is AJ Vaden. Here I am. One of your co-hosts as well as the CEO and one of the co-founders of brand builders group, along with my partner in crime, Rory Vaden, who is not here with me today, this is my solo episode, but my good friend, Cary Jack, whom I’m so excited to have on the show. And I know Cary personally, I got to be on his podcast a few months ago, which was probably one of the funnest podcasts that I’ve ever been on. And so total shout out to the happy hustle podcast. You should definitely go check it out. It was so fun and I love all the things that you do with that. But before we get started and I turn it over to Cary and help you guys learn a little bit about Cary, I do have a professional bio, but I will read because undoubtedly, I will forget some of these really awesome accolades, but I think are also fascinating about Cary.
AJV (00:58):
So, all right, I’m gonna give you kind of like what to me sticks out that you should really know listening to this, why you should stick around and why this is a really important episode for you. So Cary Jack is a lifestyle entrepreneur. He’s an author, he’s a podcast host. He’s also a professional actor and model. He’s a biohacker eco warrior, martial artist, humanitarian. I mean, it’s like, what aren’t you do? So there’s so many things going up, but when I say like he is doing really extraordinary things, he’s also worked with extraordinary brands. I mean, I’m talking about like he’s represented international brands like Burberry EZ top man, Corona Marriott Royal Caribbean Cadillac, Vogue home Depot, like the list goes on and on and on. So with all of that said, we literally could talk about just interesting things for the next 40 minutes, but in an effort to keep this call very focused, we’re gonna talk about some really unique things that I think are gonna help our listeners. So Cary, welcome. I’m doing the show,
CJ (02:05):
AJ, thank you so much for having me. It’s an honor to be here and yep. We definitely could go down many rabbit holes, but I’m all about adding value to the audience and ID. I have, you know, a really great insight to building and growing and izing your personal brand. And I really am excited to share. So some of the wisdom that I’ve acquired and the mistakes that I’ve learned from along the journey,
AJV (02:28):
Oh my gosh, this is gonna be such a great episode one, because I know your background and I know your story. And I’ve seen so much of it firsthand over the last few years, but also just because you’re so humble and you’re just such a, a joyful human being. I’m so excited for this. So all right. So I know a ton about you, our listeners do not so help everyone kinda get to know, like, how did you get to where you are? And then tell us a little bit about where are you, right? Like what are you doing? And how’d you get there?
CJ (02:59):
Oh yeah. So I grew up half in Sarasota, Florida surfing the beaches and you know, enjoying that, that Florida lifestyle and then half in the mountains of red lodge, Montana camp and fishing, hunting, hiking. And, you know, that’s where I first realized the importance of balance, you know, both balance with my environment, but also just balance, you know, professionally and personally, my, my childhood, wasn’t the easiest. Everyone has a story, but you know, I, I actually was dropped on my head as a child. I don’t even know if you know that AJ, but I had a very severe stutter. I couldn’t speak I was very angry. I a very angry kid because I couldn’t articulate myself. And my mom actually cured me with chiropractic and she would adjust my cranial SAC bones and I can speak okay now. And I, but due to that, I, I was very angry. I went to many years of anger management, which is odd because I run a company called the happy hustle now. And
AJV (04:00):
You’re so joyful. I said that,
CJ (04:04):
Yeah, well, I wasn’t always and then I got into some trouble when I was young, you know, there was a gut wrenching divorce mixed in and, and mental and physical and emotional abuse. And I actually ended up moving 24 times before the age of 18. So I was on the move a lot got into some, some crime. I’ll, I’ll leave a lot of that out, but I ended up in jail that’s for a
AJV (04:27):
Happy hour conversation.
CJ (04:28):
Yeah. That’s for drinks. And and you know, one on one where I can’t incriminate myself, but I learned the hard way basically. And I’ve always been a, a hustler I’ll say, but I ever, I, wasn’t always a happy hustler. You know, always been an entrepreneur at heart. Fast forward, you know, I changed my ways. I operate now with a hundred percent integrity and I really, you know, like I just completely did a 180 because I saw that path and where I was headed and I just didn’t want to go that direction. And I actually launched a company in New York city with my brother business partner in friend grant. And, you know, we were grinding AJ. I mean, we were working our, our tails off just a hundred plus hour weeks, you know, getting less than five hours of sleep and you know, all for what, for profit success, ego, you know, title.
CJ (05:15):
And I feel like a lot of people out there can resonate with, you know, grinding, but not necessarily for the right reasons. Yeah. You know, and, and I was no different. We had this big tech company that we were soliciting, these seven figure VC funding deals. And we actually ended up getting the seven figure VC funding deals. We inked partnerships with Microsoft and IBM. And we had everything for this like grandiose tech company that could have had a five year exit and multiple millions of dollars come with. And I just realized, right, when we were sitting down to sign the contract, that I couldn’t take the money, like my brother and I were just so unhappy, we were so burnt out and I just feel, now there’s an epidemic going on. Sure. There’s a pandemic, but there’s an epidemic and it’s this entrepreneurial burnout. Yeah.
CJ (06:00):
And I just made up my mission to solve that problem for myself. And I had to make a choice. I, I said no to the money, my brother and I folded the company in 18 months of hard work scrapped, you know, completely, I, I then moved to ANCO Thailand for 10 months and I just figured out a better way to work and live over there a, a way to truly be happy within the hustle. And that’s where the happy hustle was born. And that’s kind of where I’m at now is, you know, running this, this company that helps entrepreneurs mainly, but really anyone who’s struggling with balance imbalances. My one word, if you know, BBG, you know, your one word problem imbalance is the one word problem that I solve for people. And I do that in a multitude of ways, but that’s really kind of the journey in a nutshell.
AJV (06:48):
Wow. You know what I love so much about almost every single person who comes on this show and really anyone who has really ingrained themselves in the BG community is they all have done it over this like mission focused of, I wanted to make a difference for myself, for someone else. It’s like, it’s like money has always been the byproduct of it, not at the forefront. And I love that. It’s like I turned down the money because I wasn’t happy and I had to figure out a better way to live. And so I’m so curious what happened in Thailand? Like what did you discover in Thailand?
CJ (07:26):
Well, a lot of things happened in Thailand. You know, I traveled around a bunch went to all sorts of really cool places from Vietnam to Singapore, to Bali and everywhere in between. But what really had happened was I made my first dollars online, you know, and I was like, I rented this amazing penthouse apartment for like 400 us dollars, you know, and I was working from a laptop and I just realized that you don’t have to like sell your soul to make a living. You could actually make money and a difference, you know, if you get clear on who you wanna help. And so it kind of just came full circle when I was over there, like, okay, I want, I really want to enjoy my everyday, you know, journey. And I, I think what happens with a lot of people especially type a driven individuals is, you know, lack there of a better cliche. They get to the top of the mountain and they realize they’re the only one there. And they isolated everyone. And then they gotta go all the way back down and then climb a different mountain. And that’s kind of how it happened to me. And, you know, I just, when I was over there, I realized I can enjoy every single day. I can enjoy the journey, not just the destination, you know, as a happy hustle life that I actually love.
AJV (08:44):
Ah, I love that. And I’ve been there too. I felt like I, I spent 10 years basically putting myself in this like tiny little corner where I missed every wedding, every birthday party, every baby shower, all in the sake of revenue and profit ambition. And I’ve been there. I know that feeling. And so, okay. So you kinda like figured out, like, this is my life cannot be about money. If there there’s gotta be this balance here, I have to figure this out. You go to Thailand, you travel around, you start money online, right? Yep. So walk us through that for everyone’s listening, because we have a ton of people who listen that they are in the grind and they’ve got a full time, you know, corporate job and maybe they plan on leaving, maybe they don’t, but how did it all start? Like what did you start doing online? How did you generate that first dollar? Like what did that look like?
CJ (09:35):
Yeah. Well, for me, you know, I kind of evolved my, my brand and my messaging, which I think a lot of people out there will end up doing as well. You know, what you start as, will not be what you finish as, or even in the middle where you end up it’s, it’s honestly getting clear on like who you want to help first and foremost, and what problem you actually wanna help them solve? Just like, you know, the brand builders group, like core three questions is what’s the one word problem that you wanna solve for people who do you wanna solve it for exactly. Right. Customer, demographics and psychographics. And then what’s your uniqueness. And like, although I didn’t do it that specific, you know, with that specific terminology, although I am a BG client, as well as a BG evangelist, you know, I’m going back to Thailand. I wasn’t in that mindset. I just said, you know what? I can help these people just through a webinar. I just sold a webinar. And I just started, you know, open with like accountability and mindset. And it was just really like basic stuff, you know, but I, I just, it was, and it was a very low price point, but it, it gave me social proof that, wow, I can, I can do this. I
AJV (10:53):
Can do this. So for anyone out there, who’s going, would anyone actually want what I have to say? Would anyone sign up? Would anyone pay for this? Like, what would you tell for that person who just is hesitant to take that first step of saying, I’m gonna do a webinar, I’m gonna do it for free. I’m gonna charge for it. I’m just gonna start. Like, what would you say to them?
CJ (11:15):
I would say 100%. Don’t let the fear hold you back. You know, we all have that, that little voice inside our head. We all have the self-limiting beliefs and the compare and despair, who am I to share this message, you know, X so and so is so much more qualified. And as soon as you he R’s advice, which I love, you know, when the mission to serve is clear, there is no fear. And so I think if you can just get out of your own head and start to focus on service and realize that you have a message, you have a gift and the world needs it. Then you, you can push past that fear and, and really just start and, and that, and you nailed it, AJ. That’s what it is. It started like you have to take action and, and just start.
AJV (12:00):
Hmm. That’s so good. I’ve never actually heard it. Say I’ve never heard anyone say it that way. Compare and despair because that’s what happens when you compare, you immediately like self isolate and go, well, I can’t do this, this person’s already doing this. It’s like, the more that you compare, it’s like that fear just like takes over and tells you no, you can’t.
CJ (12:19):
Yep. Yep.
AJV (12:20):
That’s so good. I love that. Right. So that’s amazing. So clearly you don’t live in Thailand anymore. You’re back in the states. You’re in good. All of Montana. So tell us a little bit about like, what are you doing right now? Because you just recently had a major accomplishment with your first book. Right? I already talked about your podcast. So how did you go from, I think I’m gonna do this one thing online to now you’re a published author. You’re a speaker. You’re got this amazing podcast. Like, how did that happen?
CJ (12:54):
Yeah. Well, I do have to give credit to BBG. I, I went to finding your brand DNA and that was the catalyst. Like, it’s always easier to reverse engineer, you know, the process looking backwards and say, oh, that’s what the step was. And then the next step. Yeah. But truly when I look at my journey, you know, I was thrown to spaghetti on the walls for like the three years, you know, I was like, oh, I can help this person. And I can help this person. Oh, you need help. And fitness coaching, oh, you need business or entrepreneur, you know, and I wasn’t clear. And you know, when you try to be everything to everyone, you actually become nothing to know one. And so you have to get clear. And, and when I went to the finding your brand DNA event in Nashville, you and R you know, this was like, this was like, oh, G B B G, just when it started, it was like
AJV (13:37):
Very in the earlys.
CJ (13:38):
Yes, it was. And, and that, you know, that event really helped me crystallize my message. And it just helped me clarify the, the vision. And I’ve always been big into goal setting. However, when you actually go through and get someone like AJ or Rory, or the BBG personal brand strategist to help give you perspective, you know, sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know. And that is really what happened. It gave me perspective. It helped me identify, who’s my perfect target, avatar. Who, where do they hang out? You know, how do I reach them? What problem am I actually gonna solve for them? And I actually gonna solve a forum so fast forward, you know, I’ve, I’ve run high level masterminds for my perfect avatar of, you know, imbalanced entrepreneurs. I’ve I’ve done, you know, all sorts of online courses. I’ve done books and, and speaking and events right now, what I’m focused on is my podcast, which, you know, that’s been a great tool to build the know like, and trust with my tribe.
CJ (14:42):
Yeah. However, it’s also a great tool to network. And I know you and Roy talk about the power of networking through a podcast. I, so I essentially use my podcast to add as much value as possible. And then I have my free plus shipping book funnel, which my book acts as a lead magnet. And then it transitions into my online course. And I have this blisful bouncer whiteboard, fridge magnet that then par lays into a reoccurring membership model. And then I have a high level, a mastermind, epic camping adventure, where I actually take high level entrepreneurs into the back country, Montana wilderness for five days. And we, we camp out we hike in about 10 miles and we bring in a primitive survival expert, a fly fishing expert. You know, we have a back country chef and we have a business mastermind in the wilderness, completely connected.
AJV (15:30):
I’m gonna right here. Cuz I think this is really significant to anyone who is out there trying to build their personal brand, trying to monetize it. I’m just realizing it’s like, you really have one set of curriculum, but with that you have a podcast, you have a course, you have a book, you have a lead magnet. You have speaking, you have this membership program, you have this high level mastermind, but it’s all centered around one set of curriculum. And I think that’s a really significant thing of going. You don’t have to have tons and tons of tons of content. You need one set of life changing content that actually makes a difference. And then you just create it in a variety of, to meet people where they are.
CJ (16:15):
You nailed it. So how did,
AJV (16:16):
How did you determine which formats were best for you and your audience? Cause I think that’s a really important thing is people are trying to figure out with so many things that I could do. How do I know what I should do?
CJ (16:29):
Yeah. Well again, just echoing your point. You’ve really want to get crystal clear on your framework, your content, how you solve the problem. You should know who you solve the problem for, but how you solve. The problem is going to determine where you are going to solve the problem in terms of medium, right? Someone potentially who listens to my podcast, maybe isn’t ready to invest in the Montana mastermind, camping adventure. So I need to meet them where they’re at with free content, a free lead magnet, you know, all sorts of valuable things that build that no like, and trust. Then when they’re ready, I can nurture them to potentially joining my online course. You know, that’s a scalable offer that can really add a ton of value, but further nurture that relationship. Then when they’re ready for more, then they could, you know, ascend themselves or through my marketing to an online membership model. And I just think anyone out there listening, who’s struggling, you know, in, in terms of where to start, you have to think who is your perfect avatar? Like, you know, if you’re, if you’re working with busy entre who are, you know, maybe 40 to 50 years of, of age, well, they’re probably not gonna be on TikTok. Okay. They’re probably gonna be on LinkedIn. Right. Maybe they’ll be on TikTok. I feel like who knows these days? Who knows?
CJ (17:50):
I don’t, I don’t know. My team handles all that. I, I, I just can’t do the dancing as I love dancing, but that’s with my fiance and at the, you know, at the dance hall anyway, the point is, you gotta think about like, they’re not gonna think of where your avatar is and then serve them there where they’re already at. Like again, like BBG does these high level strategy days, you know, some people aren’t like, aren’t going to sit in front of a course. They’re just not gonna watch a video on their laptop on a Saturday. They, they want one on one hand holding, you know? So you have to think about where your perfect avatar is. And then where is going to be best to connect with them, to be relatable for them to share your story and your, your process and your message so that you can make a positive impact in their life.
AJV (18:37):
Oh man, I’ll tell you what I took away from that, that I think is so significant is stop looking around at what everyone else is doing and look directly at the people you need to serve, that you are meant to serve and go, what do they need need? How can they consume this? Yep. And stop trying to do the next trendy thing just because someone else is doing it, they may not have your audience. So focus on your audience, focus on the person that you’re trying to serve and build it for them.
CJ (19:05):
Yep. And into that,
AJV (19:07):
I love that. That’s so good. Now, speaking of this curriculum one of the things that I, I do wanna talk about, cause we mentioned this earlier is you don’t need five different sets of curriculum or all this content and five different keynotes. Like that’s not necessary to build an empire worthy business. You need one life changing set of content. So let’s talk about content from in it because yours is really good. And it’s, it’s really awesome. And I just want two things out of this kind of like last piece of our conversation. I know we’re almost out of time. So I think the first thing is how did you come up with this content? Like how did you actually go, this is a book, right? This needs to be in a book and in a course, and here’s what I’m gonna do. And then two, what is it like give us some of the fruits of all of your labor.
CJ (19:59):
Yes. Well, again, it starts by just, it started for me at least by scratching my own it, you know, I was outta balance. I needed to get back to flow in, in a, in alignment, you know? And so I just broke my life into these 10 different areas. I’m now calling them 10 alignments. And this was basically, you know, me just determining how I can get back to this state of blissful balance. And for me, I broke it down into an acronym. It didn’t start as an acronym. Obviously it evolves, you know, we
AJV (20:29):
Love an acronym, Cary.
CJ (20:30):
I know you love an acronym. Yep. And that’s really, you know, one of the things that I realized is acronyms and frameworks for everyone listening are so imperative because people have a lot going on. And if they can’t remember your content, well, chances are, it’s not going to positively impact their life. You know? So you have to think through this and you wanna make it so easy to consume and so easy to implement, but not necessarily, you know, repetitive, you don’t wanna like be a copycat. So for me, my framework’s not rocket science. I’ll be the first one to tell you, it’s not rocket science. It’s just, I broke my life down to these 10 different areas. It’s called the soul mapping, you know, framework it, it’s essentially your soul’s mapped to the blissfully bounce promise land. And you know, AJ, I’ll, I’ll run through this real quick for the audience, but I want everyone out there to actually quantify where they’re at in each of these 10 different areas, these 10 different alignments and AJ, if you wanna get put on the spot, I’ll if you’re feeling brave, I’ll ask you where you’re, where you’re at in these.
CJ (21:39):
But basically I want you to think about five is like an a you’re crushing it. You know, you’re, you’re really happy hustling in this alignment, like an F you’re failing. And as you know, what you measure you can manage. So it’s really important to measure yourself in each of these 10 alignments. And I do it every Sunday. I take my own medicine every Sunday and I look at where I am lacking in the week, you know, prior and where I need to prioritize change in the week ahead. And so it’s this cons ebb and flow of adjustments. Now S stands for selfless service. Are you living for yourself and your own personal gain or are you giving back to others, your, your expertise, your time, your money, think right now where you’re at in the last, just give yourself in the last seven days where you’re at in selfless service five as an a, as an F, write it down.
CJ (22:30):
Okay. And everyone out there listening, be an active participant here. I get the most outta podcasts like this. When I take action, I actually, you know, implement, but also do the work O stands for optimized health. Are you, you know, optimize mentally, physically, and emotionally or not so much, I are you, you know, shoving garbage down the, your pie hole at, you know, feeling sluggish and just not, you know, not nearly optimized and, and be honest with yourself. One to five, five’s an a, one’s an F you unplugged digitally. Are you constantly plugged in connected to your devices? Like looking at social media, watching Netflix and Amazon prime and all these other things that we’re inundated with, or are you being diligent and having barriers and using your tech, not letting it use you L loving relationships, are you, you know, having love in your life? I mean, what’s it all for, if you don’t have love in your life, right. AJ, I mean, you, you want to make sure that you’re connected with your personal relationships, your family, your friends, but also your lover, you know, making sure that that relationship doesn’t, you know, get sacrificed in the process of your Ascension. Right. So this is the sole part. Okay. In AJ, do you wanna run through yours for the so part real quick?
AJV (23:51):
Yeah. I have no shame in this. So and the Fs, I’m a four. I feel like I’m, I’m pretty good with that. On the O I’m a four to feel pretty good about that. Yeah. On the U I’m a one I fail. It’s a major, your F terrible I need help. And on the L I’ll give us a five, I got lots of love. I feel lots of love it’s all around so that I feel really good about.
CJ (24:14):
Yep, exactly. And that’s, and here’s the thing, guys, just give yourself grace, you know, right now this is just your baseline and you have to be honest with yourself, but you also wanna give yourself grace. Now we get to the map and part M stands for mindful spirituality, you know, are you connected to a higher power? Are you, you know, meditating and praying and, and, you know, practicing breath work, like, are you believing in something bigger than yourself, right. That’s, that’s an M rank five is an, a, one is an F a, a above financially, you know, are you living paycheck the paycheck, or are you doing what you want when you want with who you want? You know, are, are you abundant? And, you know, oftentimes many people think this is the most important alignment, but it’s not rank where you’re at. It is important, but it’s not the most important.
CJ (25:03):
They’re all equally important. First P personal development, are you growing every day? You know, learning and reading and, you know, listening to a podcast like this and watching inspiring and educational shows or not so much, you know, decide where you’re at in personal development. The second P which I find a lot of driven, you know, entrepreneurs and, and type a high performers lack is this one passion hobbies, you know, are you doing fun things for yourself? Are you like getting out there and actually enjoying things that you used to really enjoy? Maybe it’s a martial art or fly fishing or horseback lighting like me, or maybe it’s painting or singing or whatever it is for you rank where you’re at in passionate hobbies. And then you got eye impactful work, you know, are you getting up every day and really excited about what you’re doing infused in your passion, which is, you know, that, that inward calling on your heart strengths with your purpose, just that outward serving mission to make a positive impact, right?
CJ (26:11):
Like, what’s it all for, if you don’t make a positive impact, you know, so rank where you’re at, maybe you’re, maybe you’re not, you know, feeling very fulfilled by your work and that’s okay. But just, you know, recognizing it awareness is the first step to change rank where you’re at one to five in that alignment and then N nature connection. Are you actually connected to nature? Are you getting outside and, you know, tapping into Pacha mama, our beautiful planet and, oh, by the way, are you protecting it? You know, like this is where being a conscious consumer actually plays. Like, are you voting with your dollar and supporting B corporations? And I have a whole nother company with my brother and business partner and best friend, you know, called eco breakthroughs. And, and we’re fighting the plastic pollution epidemic. And we’re up to some very big things in this realm. And I’m really excited about this, but it’s so important now more than ever that we take care planet. So this all falls in nature connection. So, Hey, Jay, you should have your mapping scores. Let’s hear it.
AJV (27:10):
These are good. I love this. I love this kind of stuff too, because I think it’s so important to have that gut check. Yeah. And again, like back to what you said, what I love about this, and then I promise, I’ll tell you, my scores is that this came from knowing where you were out of a line. It’s like, if you know, you are, there’s a likelihood, someone else is too. So it’s solve the problem that you have, knowing that it’s simultaneously gonna solve problems for other people. And I love that. I think this is so clever on the M mindfulness. I gave it spirituality connection to God. Like I gave that a five. Like, that’s probably the strongest for me that, and love, I feel good about really a, I gave it a four, right. So pretty good. The first P I gave it a four feel pretty good about that. The second one I said at first I said, this was like the hobbies, right? Passions. Yes. I said one, but then I remembered not my goal for this year is half more fun. And then I was like, actually, I’ve been, I’ve been doing some new things. It’s like, went surfing.
CJ (28:09):
Oh
AJV (28:10):
Yeah, hiking. We’re in a little bike gang that my five year old has named whirlwinds where the whirlwinds we go biking. So I feel maybe I gave myself a two. And then on the eye of four, and then on the end a two.
CJ (28:25):
Mm, yes. Well, I will say you’re crushing it in many regards, but those ones, the unplugged digitally, you know, the nature connection and the passion of hobbies, you know, these are all very important areas of your life. If you want to achieve that blisful balance. And you know, right now, if you tally your scores up, everyone listening and, and you’re above a 37, congratulations, you’re happy hustling. If you’re a 36 or below, well, you got some work to do. And so this is again, a, a tool, a system and assessment will you, that I do every single week and the happy hustlers in my community do every single week be cuz balance. Isn’t this finite destination.
AJV (29:09):
You said 37 is a happy hustler. Yep. Oh, I fell short. I’m a 34. I got work to
CJ (29:15):
Do. Yep. You do. Hey,
AJV (29:17):
What I tell you about, for everyone listening to this too, like who doesn’t like to do stuff like this? It’s like, am I hustling, happy hustling? I don’t know. I need to take this quiz. So in things like this into your content, make it so engaging.
CJ (29:29):
Yes, exactly. Yeah. And it’s so important be that you do it regular because I’m gonna give ultimately one of the, the biggest, happy hustling principles that I could ever bestow upon the BBG community and anyone listening. And that is, you must give each area of your life equal importance, but focus on one at a time. Hmm that’s right. So you must give each area of your life equal importance, but focus on one at a time I’m on this podcast with AJ, I’m all here. Hundred, 10%. When I go on my date night with my lover later, I’m gonna be a hundred percent there. When I go to my martial arts karate class, I’m a hundred percent there. You know, it’s like people, I feel like where the, the disconnect is, is when they’re at work, they’re thinking about their family. And when they’re with their family, they’re thinking about work. And so we’re not doing anything to our a hundred percent capability or effectiveness. So it’s really important that you give of equal importance to each of these 10 different alignments, but you must focus on one at a time.
AJV (30:25):
Okay. So I have a question for you about that, because I think that’s that really plagues, most human beings is, you know, we’re at work, but we’re thinking about this problem at home, or we’re at home and we’re consumed with checking our emails. And so I’m curious, right? Just in your opinion, why, why, why are we such a distracted community right now? And it’s like, why can’t we put one thing down to focus on the thing right in front of us. And then two, any tips on how to do that? Better?
CJ (30:54):
Why one, I would say is because our human brains are not necessarily built to encounter thousands of notifications in one day or thousands of pieces of information. We were, you know, we were cave men and women, you know, for millennia. And here, we now have little smartphones that have more capabilities than, you know, like hundreds of thousands of years prior in our pocket. And so we’re just inundated constantly by these dopamine dumps. And we become addicted because the people who are designing them are, you know, these are that’s, their sole job is to help make sure that their product and services are addicting for you. So we’re, we’re outgunned, we’re outgunned as human beings. And so you have to create barriers, stance to, to parlay into the second part of this question. You have to create barriers. You have to have discipline. You know, I have rules in my life that I adhere to the majority of the time, you know, 60 minutes in the morning, 60 minutes before bed, no devices, right? Just Sundays, you know, 24 hour digital detox. For the most part, I just did a seven day dopa meeting detox where no social media, no you know, YouTube or like movies or stream shows or any of that stuff. And I’d made more money and was more effective than I have been in. I don’t even know how long, you know, and it’s like, we’re so distracted. So the, the answer is create barriers, have discipline to adhere to them and have consequences if you don’t.
AJV (32:24):
Those are good. Those are really good. Any specific examples, just one tip of like, what’s one barrier that you’ve said in your PLA in your life that you feel like has really made a significant difference.
CJ (32:37):
One barrier would be, I, I would say time blocking, you know, just in terms of work, we’re all trying to build, grow and monetize our personal brand and, and really spread our message and make a positive impact specifically, in terms of work, I have a be focused timer on my computer and I’ll, I’ll airplane mode, my phone, and I’ll do a 30 minute block and then I’ll do a five minute break, you know, and then I jump on my rebound as a break which I think is really important to shake out the lymphatic drainage system, going back to my biohacking days, you know, I used to run a biohacking company where for the top, you know, 1% highest performers. And I took a lot of those little biohacks and that, that one barrier, that one time block, I can be ultra productive and I work 20 hours per week. Like, that’s my, that’s like my sweet spot. And, you know, I’m a lifestyle entrepreneur, you know, so I’m not looking to like run this massive conglomerate, but I will tell you, you know, the reason I can work so little and still be where I’m at is because I time block and I, and I’m disciplined in those time blocks.
AJV (33:38):
Hmm. So all right. Last question. I’m just genuinely curious when you’re doing all the other things and the other 20 hours of your week, how are for, for all of us aspiring to one day, have a 20 hour work week and still be where we are. How are you spending the rest of your time?
CJ (33:56):
Well as I mentioned to you pre ATT, I was just at that hot Springs here, and I was soaking in thermal natural, hot water. And then I went and I, I do a hot and cold thermogenesis, so there’s a cold pool and a hot pool. And I, I, you know, get a workout in. And then I have you know, the ski mountain here in Montana where I go snowboarding regularly. And, you know, I IM training to get my black belt in Eastern Ru KA with my fiance. And, you know, I go fly fishing and horseback riding, and I stay busy. I volunteer with a, a bunch of organizations here. And yeah, so I find, I find things to do,
AJV (34:37):
But here’s what I know. It’s like, that is not a pipe. Your that’s a created intentional life.
CJ (34:44):
Exactly.
AJV (34:45):
Anyone can have it if that’s actually what you try to create for yourself. I believe truly that most of us are living a default life that we’ve just set into whatever has been around us. And we keep moving and going, actually that’s not the life I want.
CJ (35:00):
Yeah.
AJV (35:00):
And you’re living a super intense created life. I love it. You live your content, which is why it’s so successful. You can, it just exudes out of you. I love this soul mapping. I’m a 34. By the time we talk again, I’m gonna be a 37, Cary. I’m on it. Hit a
CJ (35:15):
Girl, get a girl. It’s
AJV (35:16):
So good. Right. My last question. And then we’re gonna wrap this and I’m so grateful. Thank you so much. So I would just want you’ve been building your personal brand for several years. You’ve also built and scaled companies like you’ve done so many successful things. I wanna know, like, what is one lesson that you think has made the most dramatic change or impact in your life that you think all of our listeners should hear
CJ (35:43):
The compound effect? Darren Hardy, great book. I know you guys know him, but that book really resonated with me little actions consistently. Over time, I live by this, this phrase, persistent consistency every single day, getting better than who you were yesterday. Don’t look at other people in compare and despair, look at who you were yesterday. And I know it’s cliche again, but I’m gonna hit you with the truth that persistent consistency every single day has that compound effect. And I wanna leave one question with everyone listening. And this is what allowed me to create this lifestyle. And it is what does success act actually look like for you? Because a lot of people chase other, you know, versions of success, society deems this successful. So we chase it. But truly that’s not what success looks like for you. So you end up achieving it and then you’re unhappy and unfulfilled. So you have to answer that question. What does success look like for you?
AJV (36:37):
Ah, so good. And it’s true in every area of your life small, consistent step taken over an ongoing amount of times. You hear this all the time. It’s like, what’s the key to content creation, consistency. What’s the key to growing your online, following consistency. What’s the key to staying outta debt, being consistent, right? It’s don’t spend money. It’s like be consistent with what we’re doing. What’s the key to staying in love. Be consistent with time with each other. It’s consistency, consistency, consistency. We can talk about that every single area of your life. And most specifically for this podcast, how it relates to your personal brand it, you have got to be consistent with what you do. It doesn’t happen overnight. This is a marathon, not a sprint Cary Jack. Yes. So good to have you on this show. Thank you so much. This was awesome. Yeah. So, so good. Love it. For everyone else please follow Cary Jack. We’re gonna put these links and the show notes, but we want you to go to the happy hustle book.com. You can get the free ebook. You can do his free plus shipping. You can check out his membership. You can come camping with him this summer in Montana. Whatever it is, check out his podcast, that the happy hustle book.com. We’ll put that in the show notes, Cary, we love you so grateful for this. So good.
CJ (37:56):
Let me give one, one special give to the BBG community, cuz I’m a, I’m a part of it. And I, I love this community, AJ, and I wanna do something special as you know, time is our most precious commodity. I very diligent with mine. I want to give anyone who does pick up a copy of the happy hustle book. If you read it and you send me a DM on Instagram with your biggest takeaway, I’ll have my team send you my Calendarly link and we’ll get on the 20 minute happy hustle huddle. I’m gonna help you happy hustle your dream reality, whatever that looks like. It’s there’s no ulterior motive except me to just give value to you. So take action. If you wanna connect with me and I I’d love to serve however I can. Oh,
AJV (38:31):
I love that. That should be another incentive. Go to the happy hustle book.com. Get it, read it, get that Kaly link. Schedule some call what they wanna only Cary Jack. Y’all so good. Catch us next time on the influential personal brand.
CJ (38:46):
Peace and love y’all.