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Category: Podcast Recap

Ep 27: Capturing a State with Lewis Howes | Recap Episode

RV – Hey Brand Builder welcome to this special recap edition of the influential personal brand podcast I am joined by my wife and business partner CEO Brand Builders Group, AJ Vaden to give you our famous three and three recap and this is a special interview for us because Lewis

Howes is someone who has become a business partner, a client and a truly dear friend.

I thought AJ might start by just sharing a little bit of a behind-the-scenes clip of why he’s so important to us personally.

Well as our boys call him, Uncle Lou Lou.  For anyone in business or who’s in life for that matter, need someone who pushes them and believes in them and myths of chaos and that is exactly what Lewis did for us. There was a very sudden departure between us and our former business partners and our former business.

Divine intervention God placed Lewis in our lap during a very unique time a very challenging time for us and it was just a really interesting thing where it’s like you don’t really know what your next move is but someone says I do and this is it and literally he said those words this is your new thing and he pushed us towards it he believed in us he was like this has got to be it and then on top of that he was like I believe in this so much I’m gonna help you I’m gonna have you on my podcast I’m gonna email my list I’m gonna introduce you to my top level mastermind I’m gonna tell people they need to do this and between losing to very high figure incomes overnight starting over from scratch losing our social media not sure about an IP a lot of other things that happen over a six-week span Lewis single-handedly helped us launch our new business.

I can very confidently say if it hadn’t have been for Lewis I don’t know where we would be today yeah I don’t know if Brand Builders Group would be it I don’t know this company

I don’t I really don’t know and it was I really believe it was divine intervention I believe that God put him in our path at that very unique time and said we knew him but not in the way that we do now and he needed our help and we wouldn’t have had the capacity to help him

I’m will  forever be endeared and grateful and appreciative to Lewis and to Matt for their help in helping us launch Brand Builders Group but more than that what I’m so really eternally grateful for is someone who believed in us when we were kind of at the bottom of the bottom feeling a little lost a little unsure and they were like so sure of this is what you have to be doing this is your next job this is your business.

And if you don’t believe in you the way that I do then let me help you let me prove it. Let me promote this let me bring you on the podcast and let me let me help you and that’s really what he did and he was a huge part of the launch and the success that Brand Builders has had so expeditiously because of him

Yeah and the time that this interviews is coming out , like those of you that are keeping up with this in the life, Lewis just had us back on the podcast again recently so you should go listen to that I believe it’s episode 670 and I think the other episodes maybe 883 but so it was cool to reverse roles and get a chance to interview him.

I think one of the big points that segues is very much from what AJ the story that AJ was just kind of sharing is that one of the things that he said in this interview was he said you have to build meaningful offline relationships in order to build a large online following and that really hit me in a very real way and he wasn’t really talking about us specifically but even as he said that it was like wow had we not had this offline relationship that we had developed for years and we never wanted anything from Lewis we were just there to help him and support him and then all of a sudden that offline relationship it became a pivotal a pitiful thing for us that’s a really great point and Lewis.

I think is one of those unique people that spends a lot of time and his DMS he spends a lot of time engaging and interacting and commenting and he’s like he’s truly looking at what people are saying and how to engage and like he’s truly working to build a relationship which i think is also why he has a strong following he’s got millions of downloads a month in his podcast it’s it work right it’s not magically happening because he’s posting bunches of cool pictures even though he is and we’ll talk about that yeah um but he’s working like he’s building relations working at building the relationship like that takes a lot of time and intention and effort and he’s doing it and it doesn’t just happen because you make a lot of posts it happens because you engage in what he’s saying is offline and online

I would say that is Lewis’s true superpower he didn’t say that here but you know we’ve had that conversation with him we work very closely if you can’t tell with him and Matt and have for the last couple of years behind the scenes and he talks about that on the interview where he interviewed me recently of how much we’ve you know made a difference with them but I think his superpowers these offline relationships.

Another thing that he does really well you just talked about AJ was the photography so share some of your thoughts about the highlights of what he was saying related to using photography not just to showcase pictures of yourself but to really create an emotion that people fall in love with that people want to feel and it’s using photography to really a moat the feelings of your personal brand so it’s like if you think about your personal brand what emotion should people associate with it right and I think if you look at his a lot of it and this is just my interpretation but if I just go through and scroll through all his pictures a lot of it is adventure and freedom and aspiration and inspiration and motivation and success and victory and overcoming the odds and I think too there’s just there’s an element of intrigue and curiosity and inquisitive nature of seeing different things and doing unique things and I think those in itself kind of just to me

It’s like it’s a little bit of adventure both for yourself and actually experiencing new parts of the world as well as learning new parts of yourself which he talks a lot about and I just love that and never really associated the importance of high quality photography with the amount of impact that that has but clearly it’s a prime example of how that has really made an extraordinary difference in his personal brand and it’s probably not something that we have done well and

I know this would be at least for me I would say this is something I have never even thought about like this is the for him to describe it as such a major part of his strategy for someone of his level and for him for me to go I’ve never even thought about the power of photography it’s like something I do once every couple years to like update a headshot but for him to say this is this is the primary mechanism that I use to convey the emotion that is my brand that when people look at this imagery that they enter into the state that I want them to be in when they think of greatness

It just blew my mind and because of the value they place on it you know him and just let you use lots of different photographers but Nick OnKen who’s another Brand Builders client and someone that is one of our kind of recommended vendors and I have some imagery that Nick has shot for me which I absolutely love but they literally planned trips around the world to capture three images like they will go travel for a week and orchestrate all the stuff you know to get a couple shots and that is just amazing general to the importance with all of your marketing that you’re you’re conveying an emotion and just being intentional and being intentional about it the next best headshot and throwing some text overlay on it

That’s not it it’s about what do you want people to feel when they think about your personal brand that’s it does your imagery and photography actually align with that and I think that is the essence of something that was really unique and you won’t hear from any other interview yeah never it’s very distinct and so the other thing that Lewis said in this interview which was crazy to me I’d never heard him say this and all the interviews we’ve done the backstage the work he’s been to her house several times and we’ve been to his place working on like we work pretty closely with him and Matt and their team

I’ve never heard him say this until this interview that one of the most important things that a personal brand can do is every year create one or two big moments and as soon as he said that I thought oh my gosh that is so key and in the big years where we’ve had big jumps in our speaking fees and big jumps in social media following and like just sort of big jumps and media or whatever it’s because we have had these moments but we just sort of stumble upon them as they show up and this is something that yeah I mean I mean you know you plan a book launch but you don’t plan to go it’s gonna be my thing this year and I’m gonna have another one next year and one the year after and Lewis is going every every year there’s got to be a moment.

What do you think he meant well like how did you interpret the concept of a moment what do you think he’s talking about there to me I just think it’s something that people can associate with you in that year right it’s like if you’re constantly being associated with something that you did one year to year five years ten years ago which is very in line with my personal brand I’m a little bit you become irrelevant right

At some point your content is a little dated right your photography is dated you’re dated you can’t be banking the future on what you did in the past and it’s that importance of reinventing and staying relevant and being forward-thinking and to me it’s like as soon as I heard that I was like yeah this is a concept of constant reinvention which is what I’m really passionate about and it’s focusing on like the best I have to give is ahead not behind me and it’s also taking time to celebrate the moments that you have in those years and saying and this is the best made today and next time it’s gonna be the best me now not well my glory days were behind me you know high school football college football or whatever it was in the past it’s like no no no my glory days are still to come so you just wait to see what happens next.

Love it those are some those are some tweetable bombs right there from wifey I think you captured personal brand summit yeah like this is one of our moments one of our launches for this year as it turns out we have at least one thank gosh well we did launch a company but the summit the summit which then became this podcast that you’re listening to now yeah it was our big moment for 2019 yeah oh yeah I guess we launched the company in 2018 yeah I think again it’s just having those things where it’s like the whole team rallies around like this is a big launch and this is a defining moment of who we are in this year but I agree it’s like you do need to have those otherwise you look back and it’s like man you’re kind of just doing the same ol same ol, you’re not reinventing and you slowly become irrelevant as technology is just moving everyone at the speed of light

yeah you got to kind of keep up yeah and I think in in the in our take the stairs book we talk about a concept called the harvest principle that you have to have these seasons of intensity to create the next breakthrough and that’s like what this is it’s like you have to a book launch or a new podcast or a new product or you know a new funnel like our summit funnel which wasn’t really selling anything was just giving away a ton of value but it’s like this moment where all of the resources align and there’s a reason to talk to the media and you create this like big boom and that’s literally how you break through and the level so anyways you know.

Lewis we love you we’re so grateful for you and I hope you listening that you got so much out of the interview of just seeing his heart and also you know some not I would say not so commonly heard strategies that that are obviously things that he does really

Well I agree and I would also say this entire debrief, this recap all I could focus on was how much shorter Rory is than me and why do I look enormous like Amazon woman

Sorry, I shrunk my chair all the way down so that we were …

Amazon you’re statuesque baby tall that’s us my beauty. That’s what we have for you today Brand Builder go out make a difference. Your message matters we believe in you we’ll catch you next time.

Ep 25: Building a Brand That Lasts with Dennis Rodman| Recap Episode

RV: Hey Brand Builder. Welcome to this special three and three recap edition of the influential personal brand podcast. I’m joined by my wife and the CEO of brand builders group, AJ Vaden. We’re breaking down our top three each. Our top three highlights of the most recent interview. This one with none other than the extraordinary and remarkable Dennis Rodman. I’ll let AJ first start by critiquing my performance on the podcast. She has something that she wanted to share with [inaudible].

AJV: No, I didn’t. I just said that you were really awkward…the whole time. Why is he being so weird on this interview? It’s like you didn’t know you were starstruck or

RV: A little bit. I was a Rodman. I mean, I was a Chicago Bulls. I mean, I grew up in the 1990s Chicago Bulls era, man!

AJV: For all of us listening, it’s the most awkward of all the interviews on Rory’s part. Not necessarily on Dennis Rodman’s part.

RV: Yeah. Well, thanks for pointing that out. So that’s good to know. If you want to hear me being awkward, go back and listen to the interview. If you wanted to get some valuable insights though.

Let’s talk about those all start off. You know, one of the things that he said was just, you know, it’s not necessarily super profound but a great reinforcement and it’s interesting to hear it from, from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, cause he said you always have to find new ways to keep people interested and keep people’s attention. And it, it really hit me deeply on the interview when, when he said that he, he said he was one of the first personal brands and that really hit me in a, in a big way because I never realized that before. I mean, think about it.

Dennis Rodman was one of the first non-musicians to build a massive personal brand and following off, you know, offset or off, you know, off-camera. And he really was one of the first people that ever did that. So that was a big thing for me was that you’ve got to just be thinking of new ways. No matter who you are, no matter how big you are or how well known you are, you always gotta be thinking of new ways to keep people interested. So I thought that was, that was good.

AJV: Yeah. I think one of the things that I thought was really interesting is he talked about even, you know back then, which is this is like what 20 years ago, kind of crazy. It’s 20 years ago or more. It’s like in addition to being the all-star NBA player that he was, he also wrote a book, he’s a New York Times bestselling author until prepping for this. He was in movies, he was in that was it all-star jam movie (animated). Anyway, but he was writing books, he was in movies and he was still a star player that he was in his field of practice, which is basketball and it’s like you really think about it. He was also one of the first to do that. I was like, he was really amazing on the court, but he was doing so many other things off the court, which increased his interest in his following.

AJV: And I think he was using part of his uniqueness to do all of these things. I mean he was fascinating, which encouraged people to follow him. And I think that was what was really interesting because I think so many people today, at least people we talk to, one category of people that we do a ton of work with are people who have built a really amazing online following. But that’s it. They don’t have a way of monetizing it. They don’t have a book, they’re not speaking, they’re not training, consulting, coaching. They don’t have a course. They don’t do all of the things that are necessary to actually make your following valuable and monetary capacity for yourself.

And I think that his point was really amazing. It’s like you can’t just do one thing and expect everyone to know you. And we were talking about that after and I said it’s true because even though I’m not a huge basketball fan, I know who he is,

RV: Right? Yeah, you were. Because it was like how many basketball players could you actually name?

AJV: And there were three and, and here’s what I said, it’s like I would recognize him regardless and I would recognize Michael Jordan. I think the other one I said, I was like, yeah, thanks. The other one with Larry Bird, but I couldn’t tell you who he was. Have you paid me

RV: From back then? Okay. All right. Just one LeBron. We love you. If you would like to come on the show, we’d be willing to have you. Or if you would like some consulting on your brand strategy and LeBron James. We’re, we’re big fans.

AJV: Yes. Is, but it’s like, and I know Steph Curry, so the two that I know today, but again to the point, like he stands out and he’s memorable and he’s lasted the test of time in terms of people in our generation. Do you know who he was from 20 years ago? And I think that’s just really amazing. I think it’s because he was doing more than just one thing.

RV: Yeah. And ESPN just released the 30 under 30 which was, it was just Epic. I’ve heard it was Epic. I haven’t sat and watched it, but several friends watched it and Darren Prince was one of our brand builders group clients. That’s how we met Dennis Rodman. You know, their team’s been working on that and, and Dennis is out in the media a lot right now to help, help promote that. So it was really amazing.

One of the things I wanted to underscore, which Aja just said, which was also one of my top three highlights, was that you have to be willing to put the work in or that he was willing to put in the work on the court. And that gave himself the right to, to express who he was off the court. And I think, you know, that’s really important is just always, you know, even though there was a lot of things that he was doing that might be viewed as like distractions, he was still dominating the whole time that he was playing.

I mean, he was the rebound King, like he made rebounding popular he and defense. Right. And, and that’s another thing that I love about Dennis Rodman. You know people, when they think of Dennis Rodman, they think about how flamboyant he is off the court, but on the court man, it was as like nitty-gritty and discipline and fundamental and basic and unexciting and rebounding and defense like the two things that nobody, everybody wants to shoot and pass and score and dunk and he just rebounded a defense.

I just hought that was powerful to hear him say that he was intentional with building his personal brand and his influence off the court, but make no mistake about it. His number one focus was to keep the main thing, the main thing and you should do the same and I should do the same and we have to do the same thing, which is in whatever your lane is, right?

RV: Like at Brand Builders, we call it your uniqueness. Once you figure out your lens, you’re the problem you solve in your uniqueness, you have to dominate that thing. You have to go deep into that exploration. You have to become like one of the world’s true experts in that thing. And then that is what opens the door to so many other things. It’s another parallel was she hands wall about breaking through the wall? Rodan and broke through the wall in basketball with rebounding and with defense, and then he expanded that into all those other things. So, so make sure you master your craft.

AJV: And I think to kind of elongate that conversation, it’s like he did that through his skills, but he also did it through his uniqueness scene. The bro stood out, right? The colored hair, the tattoos, the earrings. It was like you stood out and it was really interesting. As we were talking to him, everybody was asking, I’m like, well how much did you do that intentionally? And he was like, I didn’t do it intentionally. I was just being me and I was, you know, unashamed

RV:  Tattoos were popular right back then. It was like, still pretty rare to see like,

AJV:  I’m going to have to start, I’m going to carry a ruler around with me. And every time that already interrupted. [inaudible]

RV:  We’re going to, we’re going to score. We’re gonna S we’re gonna do a time

AJV:  For all of you who are watching, who don’t know. We are married and we do like each other.

But I think that that’s really fascinating. It’s like he wasn’t trying to be intentional of letting me do this to get this attention and let me dress this way. It’s like, no. He said I was just unashamed to be me. And that meant dressing in drag or getting tattoos or doing his hair or doing all of the things that were very uncommon or very kind of awe, shocking back then. It was like, wait, you do what in the NBA now? It’s super common. Then it wasn’t, but

I love the whole point of he was, I wasn’t trying to do it to get attention. He goes, I was just really comfortable being me. And that got attention because it was so outside of the norm. And I think that’s just to living into your uniqueness and what it did for him in addition to being a massive expert at his field. It also made him stand out from everybody else. And that is why we still know and recognize him today even though he hasn’t been playing the game for almost 20 years.

RV:  No, I think over 20, over 20 years that we don’t, we don’t so another, that was a similar, a highlight for me. My third one was that he said that you have to love what you do so much that you’re never afraid to share it with the world. And I think it’s just being convicted in what you do that to where you don’t have this resistance.

I heard Dean Graziosi talk about this one time that we don’t know Dean, but I heard him talk about this at an event. Has he said, you know, like everybody likes talking about their thing until it comes time to like actually ask for money and then they all, every, we all kind of like shrink and tower and like just disappear and he’s like, that’s when you need to activate. Like that’s when you need to light up. That’s when you need to like play big and be confident is because you’re so convicted and in both what you do. And in Rodman’s case who you are, that you just, you’re not afraid to share it. And that’s hard to do. Like it’s easy to say be yourself, but it’s, it’s actually hard. Like it takes a tremendous amount of security and constant

AJV: Cause you know, you’re going to get the haters.

But to that point, I think it is really important. It’s like you better be so secure in who you are that it doesn’t matter what the haters say, you’re just being your true and authentic self. And that is, that is hard. It’s like that really, you know, can be a blow to a lot of people’s self-esteem. And it’s like, Hey, here’s the deal. If people don’t like you, tell them not to follow you. Like not everyone’s going to like you. That’s just the truth, right?

Not everyone’s gonna like you and they don’t have to like what you have to say. But that doesn’t mean you should change who you are and that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t speak your truth. That just means you have to be so confident and so secure in it. It doesn’t matter. And I think that is what he did and what he’s doing still today.

AJV:  Yeah. All right. My last one, and I thought this was just a testament to what all of the other people have been saying too, and he said in that little bit of a different way and he said, man, if social media would’ve been around when I was at the height of my game, I would have been a billionaire.’

And I think that’s true, but here’s the thing that really stuck out to me. He goes if it was around then, but it’s, it’s about the test of time of who got in and who has stayed in, who’s been consistent, who is doing it because it is so cluttered now you have to post more, be loud or be more unique, be more of yourself because there is so much to cut through, which is why I think when there are new pieces of technology coming out there, you better know what they are.

AJV: And this is your profession of choice is this. If this is what you feel like your calling is, then you have to know how to reach people. And when the most popular platforms like Instagram they announce new things. Like it’s giving you the opportunity to get in in the beginning, right? The big thing right now is IgE TV, right?

You’ve got all the things they’re wanting you to, they’re directing you towards video and now it’s live video. But it’s like, even though you weren’t in the beginning, you know, however long ago, was it go college, was that 1516 years ago with Facebook. That doesn’t mean you don’t have the opportunity to get on new platforms and new mediums today, but many times they’re the micro pop forms within that bigger platform and I think that’s a lot of what he was saying.

It’s like, man, if I would’ve been, if that would have been around back then, I would have been a billionaire and that just like hit me in a way. But you have that opportunity today. It just looks a little different. So don’t let it slide by. Don’t be like, well this is how I do it. And it’s like, no, it’s actually your job as a part of this industry to be on the cutting edge of how do you reach people.

RV:  Yeah. I love that. I love that. I’ve not thought about a new feature is almost like a new platform. I really love that insight. And, and like Jay said, it is your job. Like, remember the reputation formula. And if you, if you don’t know what we’re talking about, if you, if you actually go to Roy Vaden, blog.com there’s a free video course that explains the reputation formula, but it’s results times reach equals reputation. And hopefully, you have good results. Hopefully, you’re good at what you do. Hopefully, you develop your expertise in your neat uniqueness. These are things we talk about a lot, but a part of your job is to also work on your reach.

People have to know about you, if they don’t know about you, that can’t do business with you. And so with that, it’s like AJ doesn’t even have to give her own quotes. I talked so much, I can give her quotes for her and I don’t know if that counts as my time or her time, but it’s good stuff that you need to know. So build your reach, be it unique, be yourself, be more of who you are. That’s what we got for this [inaudible].

AJV:  And then don’t forget to go out and check out the full the full interview with the one and only Dennis Rodman.

RV:  Thanks everyone. See ya.

Ep 23: Understanding the Seasons of Business Models and Personal Brands with Michael Hyatt | Recap Episode

RV: Welcome to the Influential Personal Brand Podcast. This is the place where you’ll learn cutting-edge personal brand strategies from today’s most recognizable influencers. We’re going to teach you how to build a rock solid reputation and then how to turn that reputation into revenue.
I’m your lead host, Rory Vaden, head founder of Brand Builders Group, Hall of Fame speaker, and New York Times bestselling author of Take the Stairs. Welcome to the special recap addition of the Influential Personal Brand Podcast.
In just a minute, you’re going to hear myself and my wife and business partner, AJ, do a debrief, recap, and summary of our most recent interview with our big takeaways. But before we dive into that, I just wanted to let you know that people often ask us what is the first step to building a personal brand. If that is you or someone you know, then you have come to the right place, because we have put together for you a free video short course to help you get started. Just visit firststep.brandbuildersgroup.com to get access.
In it, we’re going to walk you through what exactly is the genesis of a personal brand and the six key questions that every personal brand must be able to answer but that almost none ever do. So go ahead and visit, again, firststep.brandbuildersgroup.com to get started, and we’ll see you there. Now, on with the recap.
[EPISODE]
[00:01:52] RV: Hey! Welcome to the special recap edition of the Influential Personal Brand Podcast. This is Rory Vaden, joined by my wife and my beauty and my business partner, AJ Vaden. We’re breaking down the Michael Hyatt interview, which is just tremendous. To get a chance to learn from somebody with this depth of experience is absolutely extraordinary. We’ve talked about a lot of things author, but the first thing that jumped out to me was when he said that you need to be willing to let go of different revenue streams in order to grow one. That was somewhat a little bit maybe surprising to hear from Michael. I thought that was really key, because in our phase one experience we talk about what we call your PBM, your primary business model. We help people get clear, both in the short-term and the long-term. What is the number one revenue driver of your business? The one thing which all others should point towards? I don’t think most people know about it and most people certainly don’t do that. So it was edifying to me to hear Michael talk about that.
[00:02:58] AJV: Yeah. We call this our three and three, the top three tips that Rory got and the top three tips that I got. I think in conjunction with what you said in terms of you have to be willing to let things go, I think the very first thing that I got from Michael is the fact that you should treat every endeavor like an experiment. I love that because as you listen to the interview, which you should, it is chock-full of really important industry tips if you’re a speaker, author, podcaster, influencer, or whatever. But he’s done a lot.
[00:03:30] RV: A lot.
[00:03:30] AJV: He’s done live events. He’s done coaching. He has done online courses. He’s done physical products, speaking.
[00:03:36] RV: Keynotes, books, the planners. His number one thing is planners now, the physical planners.
[00:03:42] AJV: This is my turn.
[00:03:43] RV: Sorry.
[00:03:44] AJV: My turn. I loved what he talked about in terms of his approach, because he said, “Our team looks at this as we might do what we may not. It may make money. It may not. It may succeed. It may fail. But we’re going to treat every single one of these new business models as an experiment to figure out where should we land, what makes the most sense for my brand and what we want to be doing.” I love that, because having so many people go all in and be like, “This is what I have to do or this is the only thing,” and that’s not the case. Sometimes, you have to do something to realize it’s not your thing. I think a lot of us have to go through the pains of that, because you see what everyone else is doing, and we think you have to do it. Then when it doesn’t work, you think it just wasn’t meant to be. The truth is your message was meant to be the vehicle to share it. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be –
[00:04:36] RV: That’s a great way of saying it.
[00:04:38] AJV: I think that’s really important. So this whole idea of experimentation and experimenting was really powerful. Don’t get so attached to just thing. If that doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean your brand isn’t going to work. It just means that wasn’t that one tiny part of it, so now on to the next thing.
[00:04:55] RV: I love that. It could be the right message, the wrong vehicle, which is really great. So another thing that he talked about, you hear content is king, content is king. We definitely agree with that. I mean, you have to be putting out valuable content. But he said, content is king, but platform is queen.
[00:05:14] AJV: And you have to have both to rule the kingdom.
[00:05:16] RV: Yes. You have to have reach in the reputation formula. We say that reputation, results times reach equals reputation. Well, reach is the platform, and that word platform – I remember the first time that we were trying to get our very first book deal and the literary agent said, “We could never work with you. You don’t have a big enough platform.” I didn’t even understand what the term meant, but just think about it as your direct access. What is the vehicle that you have that directly accesses your audience and how many people can you directly get a message to that you are in control of getting a message to? That is your platform, and there’s a lot of different avenues for platform, but you have to have a platform. It’s got to be as big as possible, and it needs to be growing, growing, growing, growing, and you need to focus on your reach as much as you’re focusing on your content. That was a pro tip for sure.
[00:06:10] AJV: Yeah. I love that and I loved how he said it. It’s not one or the other. It’s both, and they rule together. But you have to have content and you have to have a platform, which is such a good segue into my second point. It’s almost like we planned this or actually talked about what we were going to say, which we did not. So my next one was is he talked a lot about the publishing industry, which from someone who is a CEO of a very successful publishing company –
[00:06:38] RV: Huge publisher.
[00:06:39] AJV: And then as an author, it’s really fascinating to get the internal and the external perspective from the same person who’s done both rules. He talked a lot about – He gets asked all the time. Should you traditionally publish? Should you self-publish? Now, you have all these hybrid models. What’s the best way? He talked about the traditional publishing path, the self-publishing path. They kind of have gone back and forth. What’s the best? What’s the best? They’ve really settled on, which is a lot of what we talked about, it depends on what you want to do it for.
[00:07:11] RV: Yeah.
[00:07:12] AJV: He still says, “If you still are trying to hit the list, the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. But if you’re trying to hit the list, a traditional commercial publisher is still probably the best way to go.
[00:07:24] RV: It’s the way to go.
[00:07:25] AJV: Here’s what I loved about what he said that most people don’t talk about when it comes to self-publishing. It’s a lot of work.
[00:07:33] RV: Tons.
[00:07:34] AJV: It’s expensive.
[00:07:36] RV: Especially if it’s not going to look like chintzy. If you’re going to do it right, it takes a lot of work.
[00:07:42] AJV: So I think one of the questions that we usually don’t propose to people but I’m going to start is, yeah, it totally depends on what you want to do it for. Is it to make money? Usually, when people say that, I’m like, “Well, I don’t know.” Is it for notoriety and credibility or do you actually just need to get your ideas out there and make money? Usually, that really – I propel that into commercial, traditional, or self-publish. But now, I’m going to add in another question, which is do you have a lot of money to spend on it? Because if you don’t, self-publishing probably isn’t the way to go. Or if that’s still what you want to do, you need to start saving those dollar bills.
But as you said, but if when you think about it from the time that it’s going to take you to write it, then you need to get an editor, then you actually have to have graphics design, and you actually have to have it printed, and then you have to have inventory, then you have to have distribution, it’s like, “Oh!”
[00:08:30] RV: Writing the book is like 25% of the whole project.
[00:08:34] AJV: That’s a lot of money. If you’re not a great writer and you actually need a ghostwriter, then you’ve got content editors, copy editors, graphics people. Then you’ve got the print and the layout and the inventory. It’s like, “Yeah. Those are things that most traditional publishing people were thinking.” Like, “Oh! I don’t want to go with a traditional publisher. They’re going to take all my money.” They don’t realize, well, so does self-publishing. It still takes all your money. It’s just are they going to take it in the beginning or over time?
I think that’s just a really interesting perspective and view that is completely separate of why do you want to do it. It’s the actual money behind it. It’s do you have the upfront investment to make it worthwhile or do you want to forego that upfront investment and then just make less long term? But it was really, really insightful from an insider.
[00:09:26] RV: Love that. Yeah, you can make money doing both models, but both models are also going to cost you money. So it’s just about like what do you need.
[00:09:33] AJV: Where are you going to give it up?
[00:09:34] RV: Over time as this question has come up, I have thought more and more. It’s like when you traditionally publish, it’s like the rule of thumb I use is when you feel   confident you can sell 20,000 units. Like when you can move 20,000 units of your book, that’s when it’s like you can go to New York, get a great agent, get a great book deal. What do you need to do that? You need a platform. You need a big reach, which is what we were talking about.
How do you build a great platform? That leads to my third point, which is just creating amazing content that serves your audience. I wouldn’t say that this was an original idea from Michael Hyatt. It’s not original when you hear it from us. It’s not original when Jay Baer talks about it. But it’s important that you hear how consistent every bestselling author in every huge personal brand talks about this and what Michael said, which was super practical. Ask yourself every day, what does my audience need to learn? What does my audience need help with? Then answer that question for them and do it over and over and over and over.
That is the content strategy. There’s nothing more than that. You just have to do it consistently and as loudly and as many places as you can for as target of a niche as possible. Then hopefully, it’s aligned with what your primary business model is. But how can I serve my audience? How can I serve my audience? How can I serve my audience all day every day? Brand builder, that’s what you should be thinking about.
[00:10:58] AJV: All right. That leads to my third point, which actually has nothing to do with that. So completely separate of that but this was such a good reminder to me about perseverance and persistence. The reason it was such an aha isn’t just because he was a first-time author. But this was the CEO of a publishing house.
[00:11:18] RV: After he was the CEO.
[00:11:20] AJV: After. Again, my turn.
[00:11:23] RV: Hey! Sorry. Team, marriage. Marriage is a team, babe.
[00:11:28] AJV: But, yeah. This is so fascinating. I’m not going to get the number as exactly right. So I may be lowballing. I may be totally exaggerating. But it was something like when his first book, he was launching it. He got turned down like 24 times. So 24, 27 times. Y’all, this is somebody who had been turning down people for decades. That was like what he did was, “Nope, nope, nope.” He knew all of the other publishing houses. They all knew who he was, and he got turned down like 20 something times for his first book.
Then it went on to be a raging success, because his literary agent didn’t let him give up. They kept going. They finally got someone to agree that it was a good idea. Then it turned into a bestselling book with hundreds of thousands of copies sold. Now, that was interesting and inspiring enough. But then four books later, after he was already a New York Times bestselling book, after he already had a huge platform, after he had already done all of these amazing things and written three previous books, same thing. Got tuned down like 27 times, and it was like this last ditch effort to get this one book deal. Then it sold 200, 000 copies.
[00:12:46] RV: Boom!
[00:12:47] AJV: Just because some one weenie.
[00:12:50] RV: Person.
[00:12:51] AJV: Didn’t like your idea doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea. Just because one person said no one’s going to buy it doesn’t mean they’re right. Just because one person said you don’t have a big enough platform or that message isn’t exactly what people want to hear today or that book won’t sell or whatever nonsense people are saying, that means nothing. If you’re convicted in your message, then you need to stay the path. Do not veer from the path, because no one’s going to believe in it more than you do. So you’ve got to be the one that stand up and say, “No. This is going to happen.” Now, I just have to find the person to go on that journey with me.” It may take 20, 22, 25, 27, 29 times, but the point is somewhere amongst between 20 and 30, there’s a winner. You just got to find the right person who believes in your message as much as you do. It doesn’t always happen right off the bat. But it’s your job to persevere and to keep going, as if don’t get off the path.
I think that’s where most people fail is they give up too soon. They let one person dictate the validity of the power of their message and that’s not up to them. That’s up to you.
[00:14:04] RV: Yup. Many personal brands die on that road of patience and perseverance. It’s just follow through. Absolutely love it. So there you have. That’s our three and three recap from Michael Hyatt interview. Go listen to it.
[00:14:16] AJV: It’s really good.
[00:14:17] RV: It’s really phenomenal. Leave us a review. Share this with your friends, and we’ll catch you next time on the Influential Personal Brand Podcast. Thanks, everybody.

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Ep 21: How To Produce A Winning Infomercial with Kevin Harrington | Recap Episode

On today’s recap episode, we break down the core lessons and extract the golden nuggets from our interview with the original “shark,” Kevin Harrington. Kevin is a true American legend in the world of business, investing, marketing and sales. He is the original “shark” on the hit TV show Shark Tank, the creator of the […]

Ep 19: Managing the Beast That is Social Media and Making it Work for You with Jon Acuff | Recap Episode

RV: (00:00) Hey, welcome to this special recap edition of the influential personal brand. We’re breaking down the interview today with our longtime friend, Dan Miller, who I absolutely just love. I just love his energy, him and Joanne are awesome. And we met them on a cruise a few years ago and I’ve just been, been friends. So we got your top three takeaways from AJ and from me. So, get us going. AJV: (00:32) Yeah, I think the first thing he said this like really close to the beginning of the interview and I loved it. And he said if somebody or three different people ask me the same question more than three times, I’ll just make a product for it. I think the whole concept of what should I make a product about or where do I find content is really simply answered when you just figure out what do people already come to you for? And so instead of repeating the exact same thing over and over and over again, why not turn it into a product, a course or a video series or a book or a coaching program or certification or all the things that he has done and is doing really, he said most of that comes from just, you know, if I get asked the same question more than three times, then I really consider turning that into a product. RV: (01:24) Yep. I love that. I was one of my takeaways too, is just, you know, the power of listening to your audience. And I think one of the, one of the techniques or strategies that you can use is to ask your audience. So in his case, he’s just listening. But the other thing you can do, like if you need content ideas or you need product ideas, or if you need copy for like your sales page, send a survey to your audience, ask them some questions about what they want and what they’re struggling with, and then take their words that they write back to you and use some of their language in CRE in actually marketing what you’re doing and create a product for them. So that was one of my takeaways too. I just love that. It’s such a simple, a simple, practical, actionable thing that any of us can do, you know, right away. So that was good. So what was your second one AJV: (02:17) Second one was this concept of not doing the new and trendy thing that everyone is doing. And he said, I’ll try to recap it here. He said, but I, I resist the temptation to do every single new and trendy thing that is out there. And he talked about, he said, could I be missing out on lots of money? Maybe do I care? Not really. And I think that’s really just really powerful. It’s like, if what you’re doing is working, why would you derail? What’s working to do just what everyone else is doing. That’s new and trendy. And one of the things that I thought was really insightful and something that you don’t hear a lot about, he said, now I’m not saying anything is wrong with funnels or webinars or with anything he said, but you hear all these people all over social media promoting, I made six figures, seven figures in this launch. AJV: (03:10) He said, what you don’t hear about is how much money they had to give back and refunds. And I thought that was really interesting because you hear a ton of people. You see a ton of ads. It’s like how I made six figures in this funnel, or there’s this one out. And I don’t, I won’t say what it’s called, but it’s how do you have a seven figure funnel? And then he talks about how he came up with this whole thing. And yeah, probably you could do that. I’m sure people are doing that all the time every day. And Dan said, but what you don’t hear about is how much of that they’re actually giving back in refunds because a buyer’s remorse or they didn’t get what they thought it was, or it was a little bit misleading or a little bit of a bait and switch. And I’m not saying everyone is but I do think there’s some accuracy in the fact that you hear a lot of the revenue promoted and that a lot of the backend of what was it even profitable and how much did you actually give back and refunds? And I thought that was just very insightful. RV: (04:09) Yeah. I mean, you got the refunds, you also have affiliate fees and, you know, Facebook ads and paying your graphic designer. And, you know, at the end of the day, it’s like, how, how much do you really keep in? Which is but I think his thing into your point is more about the reputation and like the, AJV: (04:26) Oh yeah, no, I love when he said, he said it, he said, I’m way more about building a consistent audience than having huge infusions of cash said, I’m way more about the consistency time, over time, over time, that will last me 20 years than I am about this one time, big infusion of of cash. And everyone is different. Perhaps you are someone who’s looking for that big infusion of cash and like go for it, do it. But I loved what he said. It’s about playing the long game and making this a, a true, a true business versus this one time push. RV: (05:00) Yeah. So for me, the other thing that I thought was fascinating you know, we teach something to our brand new members that we call the fast cash formula, which is how do you, if you need to make money quickly. And we talk about how coaching a lot of times is the fastest way. If you need to replace an income is to offer coaching. And when he was telling his story, that was how he started. And still to this day, he does one day a month of one-on-one coaching work. And I love that because he was a real life example of what we talk about that, you know, coaching is the fastest path to cash in terms of replacing a large you know, income need, but it’s the least scalable longterm. And, and yet, so he sort of toward the story about how he started with that. RV: (05:51) And then after he had done enough coaching, he created a course for the people who couldn’t afford coaching. And, and so he was teaching this course and then people invited him to come speak because there were people seeing him teach the course. And that, you know, basically out of that coaching work came his content which became also his business model. And I just think that’s a really great way to do it is to do the work, to kind of get your hands in there. And obviously we love coaching. We, we believe in coaching in the power of one-on-one and I just, I just thought that was really encouraging. And, and, you know, he, he does have multiple streams of income, but it’s been developed over years and it’s, it really started from one great body of work, you know, that he flushed out with coaching and real life scenarios then applied it to a course, you know, then applied it to live events and speaking. So I thought that was just a great, a great example. AJV: (06:51) Yeah. There’s a great evolution of evolution. That’s a great one. And I think that’s somewhat similar to my third and final point, which is which I thought is very indicative of what you hear a lot. But yet there’s this mystery around it. He said, but I don’t count on any income from my books. And, you know, in his book is super successful and has been out there, just did a 20 year edition, right? 20Th year, RV: (07:18) 20Th or 25th. AJV: (07:20) Yeah. But a long time, right on. He said, but here’s what I have found. He said, it’s not the book itself that makes all the income, it’s the actual content within the book. So the book is the calling card. It’s the credibility source. Then not to say that you won’t make income. He just doesn’t count on that in his forecast or his budget. But it’s the content of that book that he then takes that and turns it into all these different curriculums. It’s a coaching curriculum. It’s a certification curriculum. It’s a course, it’s a video series, it’s a live event. It’s all these different things that are all circulated around the content of the book. And the book is at the center, but probably isn’t, what’s bringing in the most income for him. However, from that, there is just this entire huge circle of all these things that are moving to make this very successful, a very healthy business, even though most of the income is not from the center of it, which is the book it’s from all these other ancillary income streams that have become his primary revenue. RV: (08:27) Yeah. That’s good, good perspective on the book. For me, my third takeaway, which he talked a little bit about, but it’s more of, of what we know about him and Joanne behind the scenes. And I don’t know that he said this directly, but every time I’m with Dan and Joanne, it always occurs to me how they build their life or, or they build work around their life. They don’t build their life around their work. And so it’s, it’s one of the great possibilities of a personal brand is to be able to like fit work in and around your life. And it’s hard to do cause when you’re an entrepreneur, especially early on, it’s like a lot of times, you know, we’re kind of his life, but you, you want to get out of that and you can get out of that. And AJV: (09:14) I think that goes to a lot of what he talked about, where he resists the temptation to do all of the new and trendy things. Because, well, for what reason, it’s like, are you living to work? Are you working to live? And he talked a lot about his time and his schedule, but I think that is a part of it is resisting the temptation to do. RV: (09:34) Yeah. And I, and I hope for you, like, w w I wonder, I would bet if we could take all the podcast listeners and ask if you’ve heard of Dan Miller, I bet less than half of you have actually heard of him. You’ve probably heard of some of our other guests yet. He has one of the biggest businesses of everyone we’ve ever had on the podcast. And, and his example speaks to the power of steady consistency and just trust and playing the long game and plodding along. He’s the tortoise man. That’s a, that’s such a great that’s a great metaphor. And, and, and we mean that AJV: (10:14) It was his, he said, he said, I’m the tortoise. RV: (10:18) Yeah. That’s. And, and that is, you know, and we say that in the most honoring way, AJV: (10:23) He said it so we can say it. RV: (10:26) But even to that extent, it doesn’t mean you have to be slow. It’s just, it’s the idea of consistency. You don’t have to be the person with a million followers. And, and you know, this, these huge extravagant launches and given away cars, and like, you can do those things like, but, but you don’t have to be that person in order to be successful. Like you can just do the right thing for a really long time, and it will work out like you can’t fail if you just pour back into people’s lives. So I’m as encouraged by that. AJV: (11:01) Yeah. Well, I think it just, in general, there are a million different ways to build your personal brand. And Dan gives a one, one really great perspective of how to do it. And there are many other different perspectives that you will hear from other guests, but to what Roy is saying, it’s like, it’s, it’s all about. And what we talk about a lot, it’s playing the long game and Dan is a great example of the long game. RV: (11:26) Yeah. So there you have it. So hopefully you’re playing the long game and you’ll keep coming back here. We’re going to keep working to provide amazing guests for you and hopefully useful insights. We’re so glad that you’re here. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand.

Ep 17: Creating Your Signature Content and Body of Work with Jay Papasan | Recap Episode

RV: (00:00) Hey, welcome to this special recap edition of the influential personal brand. We’re breaking down the interview today with our longtime friend, Dan Miller, who I absolutely just love. I just love his energy, him and Joanne are awesome. And we met them on a cruise a few years ago and I’ve just been, been friends. So we got your top three takeaways from AJ and from me. So, get us going. AJV: (00:32) Yeah, I think the first thing he said this like really close to the beginning of the interview and I loved it. And he said if somebody or three different people ask me the same question more than three times, I’ll just make a product for it. I think the whole concept of what should I make a product about or where do I find content is really simply answered when you just figure out what do people already come to you for? And so instead of repeating the exact same thing over and over and over again, why not turn it into a product, a course or a video series or a book or a coaching program or certification or all the things that he has done and is doing really, he said most of that comes from just, you know, if I get asked the same question more than three times, then I really consider turning that into a product. RV: (01:24) Yep. I love that. I was one of my takeaways too, is just, you know, the power of listening to your audience. And I think one of the, one of the techniques or strategies that you can use is to ask your audience. So in his case, he’s just listening. But the other thing you can do, like if you need content ideas or you need product ideas, or if you need copy for like your sales page, send a survey to your audience, ask them some questions about what they want and what they’re struggling with, and then take their words that they write back to you and use some of their language in CRE in actually marketing what you’re doing and create a product for them. So that was one of my takeaways too. I just love that. It’s such a simple, a simple, practical, actionable thing that any of us can do, you know, right away. So that was good. So what was your second one AJV: (02:17) Second one was this concept of not doing the new and trendy thing that everyone is doing. And he said, I’ll try to recap it here. He said, but I, I resist the temptation to do every single new and trendy thing that is out there. And he talked about, he said, could I be missing out on lots of money? Maybe do I care? Not really. And I think that’s really just really powerful. It’s like, if what you’re doing is working, why would you derail? What’s working to do just what everyone else is doing. That’s new and trendy. And one of the things that I thought was really insightful and something that you don’t hear a lot about, he said, now I’m not saying anything is wrong with funnels or webinars or with anything he said, but you hear all these people all over social media promoting, I made six figures, seven figures in this launch. AJV: (03:10) He said, what you don’t hear about is how much money they had to give back and refunds. And I thought that was really interesting because you hear a ton of people. You see a ton of ads. It’s like how I made six figures in this funnel, or there’s this one out. And I don’t, I won’t say what it’s called, but it’s how do you have a seven figure funnel? And then he talks about how he came up with this whole thing. And yeah, probably you could do that. I’m sure people are doing that all the time every day. And Dan said, but what you don’t hear about is how much of that they’re actually giving back in refunds because a buyer’s remorse or they didn’t get what they thought it was, or it was a little bit misleading or a little bit of a bait and switch. And I’m not saying everyone is but I do think there’s some accuracy in the fact that you hear a lot of the revenue promoted and that a lot of the backend of what was it even profitable and how much did you actually give back and refunds? And I thought that was just very insightful. RV: (04:09) Yeah. I mean, you got the refunds, you also have affiliate fees and, you know, Facebook ads and paying your graphic designer. And, you know, at the end of the day, it’s like, how, how much do you really keep in? Which is but I think his thing into your point is more about the reputation and like the, AJV: (04:26) Oh yeah, no, I love when he said, he said it, he said, I’m way more about building a consistent audience than having huge infusions of cash said, I’m way more about the consistency time, over time, over time, that will last me 20 years than I am about this one time, big infusion of of cash. And everyone is different. Perhaps you are someone who’s looking for that big infusion of cash and like go for it, do it. But I loved what he said. It’s about playing the long game and making this a, a true, a true business versus this one time push. RV: (05:00) Yeah. So for me, the other thing that I thought was fascinating you know, we teach something to our brand new members that we call the fast cash formula, which is how do you, if you need to make money quickly. And we talk about how coaching a lot of times is the fastest way. If you need to replace an income is to offer coaching. And when he was telling his story, that was how he started. And still to this day, he does one day a month of one-on-one coaching work. And I love that because he was a real life example of what we talk about that, you know, coaching is the fastest path to cash in terms of replacing a large you know, income need, but it’s the least scalable longterm. And, and yet, so he sort of toward the story about how he started with that. RV: (05:51) And then after he had done enough coaching, he created a course for the people who couldn’t afford coaching. And, and so he was teaching this course and then people invited him to come speak because there were people seeing him teach the course. And that, you know, basically out of that coaching work came his content which became also his business model. And I just think that’s a really great way to do it is to do the work, to kind of get your hands in there. And obviously we love coaching. We, we believe in coaching in the power of one-on-one and I just, I just thought that was really encouraging. And, and, you know, he, he does have multiple streams of income, but it’s been developed over years and it’s, it really started from one great body of work, you know, that he flushed out with coaching and real life scenarios then applied it to a course, you know, then applied it to live events and speaking. So I thought that was just a great, a great example. AJV: (06:51) Yeah. There’s a great evolution of evolution. That’s a great one. And I think that’s somewhat similar to my third and final point, which is which I thought is very indicative of what you hear a lot. But yet there’s this mystery around it. He said, but I don’t count on any income from my books. And, you know, in his book is super successful and has been out there, just did a 20 year edition, right? 20Th year, RV: (07:18) 20Th or 25th. AJV: (07:20) Yeah. But a long time, right on. He said, but here’s what I have found. He said, it’s not the book itself that makes all the income, it’s the actual content within the book. So the book is the calling card. It’s the credibility source. Then not to say that you won’t make income. He just doesn’t count on that in his forecast or his budget. But it’s the content of that book that he then takes that and turns it into all these different curriculums. It’s a coaching curriculum. It’s a certification curriculum. It’s a course, it’s a video series, it’s a live event. It’s all these different things that are all circulated around the content of the book. And the book is at the center, but probably isn’t, what’s bringing in the most income for him. However, from that, there is just this entire huge circle of all these things that are moving to make this very successful, a very healthy business, even though most of the income is not from the center of it, which is the book it’s from all these other ancillary income streams that have become his primary revenue. RV: (08:27) Yeah. That’s good, good perspective on the book. For me, my third takeaway, which he talked a little bit about, but it’s more of, of what we know about him and Joanne behind the scenes. And I don’t know that he said this directly, but every time I’m with Dan and Joanne, it always occurs to me how they build their life or, or they build work around their life. They don’t build their life around their work. And so it’s, it’s one of the great possibilities of a personal brand is to be able to like fit work in and around your life. And it’s hard to do cause when you’re an entrepreneur, especially early on, it’s like a lot of times, you know, we’re kind of his life, but you, you want to get out of that and you can get out of that. And AJV: (09:14) I think that goes to a lot of what he talked about, where he resists the temptation to do all of the new and trendy things. Because, well, for what reason, it’s like, are you living to work? Are you working to live? And he talked a lot about his time and his schedule, but I think that is a part of it is resisting the temptation to do. RV: (09:34) Yeah. And I, and I hope for you, like, w w I wonder, I would bet if we could take all the podcast listeners and ask if you’ve heard of Dan Miller, I bet less than half of you have actually heard of him. You’ve probably heard of some of our other guests yet. He has one of the biggest businesses of everyone we’ve ever had on the podcast. And, and his example speaks to the power of steady consistency and just trust and playing the long game and plodding along. He’s the tortoise man. That’s a, that’s such a great that’s a great metaphor. And, and, and we mean that AJV: (10:14) It was his, he said, he said, I’m the tortoise. RV: (10:18) Yeah. That’s. And, and that is, you know, and we say that in the most honoring way, AJV: (10:23) He said it so we can say it. RV: (10:26) But even to that extent, it doesn’t mean you have to be slow. It’s just, it’s the idea of consistency. You don’t have to be the person with a million followers. And, and you know, this, these huge extravagant launches and given away cars, and like, you can do those things like, but, but you don’t have to be that person in order to be successful. Like you can just do the right thing for a really long time, and it will work out like you can’t fail if you just pour back into people’s lives. So I’m as encouraged by that. AJV: (11:01) Yeah. Well, I think it just, in general, there are a million different ways to build your personal brand. And Dan gives a one, one really great perspective of how to do it. And there are many other different perspectives that you will hear from other guests, but to what Roy is saying, it’s like, it’s, it’s all about. And what we talk about a lot, it’s playing the long game and Dan is a great example of the long game. RV: (11:26) Yeah. So there you have it. So hopefully you’re playing the long game and you’ll keep coming back here. We’re going to keep working to provide amazing guests for you and hopefully useful insights. We’re so glad that you’re here. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand.

Ep 15: Different is Better Than Better with Sally Hogshead | Recap Episode

RV: (00:00) Hey, welcome to this special recap edition of the influential personal brand. We’re breaking down the interview today with our longtime friend, Dan Miller, who I absolutely just love. I just love his energy, him and Joanne are awesome. And we met them on a cruise a few years ago and I’ve just been, been friends. So we got your top three takeaways from AJ and from me. So, get us going. AJV: (00:32) Yeah, I think the first thing he said this like really close to the beginning of the interview and I loved it. And he said if somebody or three different people ask me the same question more than three times, I’ll just make a product for it. I think the whole concept of what should I make a product about or where do I find content is really simply answered when you just figure out what do people already come to you for? And so instead of repeating the exact same thing over and over and over again, why not turn it into a product, a course or a video series or a book or a coaching program or certification or all the things that he has done and is doing really, he said most of that comes from just, you know, if I get asked the same question more than three times, then I really consider turning that into a product. RV: (01:24) Yep. I love that. I was one of my takeaways too, is just, you know, the power of listening to your audience. And I think one of the, one of the techniques or strategies that you can use is to ask your audience. So in his case, he’s just listening. But the other thing you can do, like if you need content ideas or you need product ideas, or if you need copy for like your sales page, send a survey to your audience, ask them some questions about what they want and what they’re struggling with, and then take their words that they write back to you and use some of their language in CRE in actually marketing what you’re doing and create a product for them. So that was one of my takeaways too. I just love that. It’s such a simple, a simple, practical, actionable thing that any of us can do, you know, right away. So that was good. So what was your second one AJV: (02:17) Second one was this concept of not doing the new and trendy thing that everyone is doing. And he said, I’ll try to recap it here. He said, but I, I resist the temptation to do every single new and trendy thing that is out there. And he talked about, he said, could I be missing out on lots of money? Maybe do I care? Not really. And I think that’s really just really powerful. It’s like, if what you’re doing is working, why would you derail? What’s working to do just what everyone else is doing. That’s new and trendy. And one of the things that I thought was really insightful and something that you don’t hear a lot about, he said, now I’m not saying anything is wrong with funnels or webinars or with anything he said, but you hear all these people all over social media promoting, I made six figures, seven figures in this launch. AJV: (03:10) He said, what you don’t hear about is how much money they had to give back and refunds. And I thought that was really interesting because you hear a ton of people. You see a ton of ads. It’s like how I made six figures in this funnel, or there’s this one out. And I don’t, I won’t say what it’s called, but it’s how do you have a seven figure funnel? And then he talks about how he came up with this whole thing. And yeah, probably you could do that. I’m sure people are doing that all the time every day. And Dan said, but what you don’t hear about is how much of that they’re actually giving back in refunds because a buyer’s remorse or they didn’t get what they thought it was, or it was a little bit misleading or a little bit of a bait and switch. And I’m not saying everyone is but I do think there’s some accuracy in the fact that you hear a lot of the revenue promoted and that a lot of the backend of what was it even profitable and how much did you actually give back and refunds? And I thought that was just very insightful. RV: (04:09) Yeah. I mean, you got the refunds, you also have affiliate fees and, you know, Facebook ads and paying your graphic designer. And, you know, at the end of the day, it’s like, how, how much do you really keep in? Which is but I think his thing into your point is more about the reputation and like the, AJV: (04:26) Oh yeah, no, I love when he said, he said it, he said, I’m way more about building a consistent audience than having huge infusions of cash said, I’m way more about the consistency time, over time, over time, that will last me 20 years than I am about this one time, big infusion of of cash. And everyone is different. Perhaps you are someone who’s looking for that big infusion of cash and like go for it, do it. But I loved what he said. It’s about playing the long game and making this a, a true, a true business versus this one time push. RV: (05:00) Yeah. So for me, the other thing that I thought was fascinating you know, we teach something to our brand new members that we call the fast cash formula, which is how do you, if you need to make money quickly. And we talk about how coaching a lot of times is the fastest way. If you need to replace an income is to offer coaching. And when he was telling his story, that was how he started. And still to this day, he does one day a month of one-on-one coaching work. And I love that because he was a real life example of what we talk about that, you know, coaching is the fastest path to cash in terms of replacing a large you know, income need, but it’s the least scalable longterm. And, and yet, so he sort of toward the story about how he started with that. RV: (05:51) And then after he had done enough coaching, he created a course for the people who couldn’t afford coaching. And, and so he was teaching this course and then people invited him to come speak because there were people seeing him teach the course. And that, you know, basically out of that coaching work came his content which became also his business model. And I just think that’s a really great way to do it is to do the work, to kind of get your hands in there. And obviously we love coaching. We, we believe in coaching in the power of one-on-one and I just, I just thought that was really encouraging. And, and, you know, he, he does have multiple streams of income, but it’s been developed over years and it’s, it really started from one great body of work, you know, that he flushed out with coaching and real life scenarios then applied it to a course, you know, then applied it to live events and speaking. So I thought that was just a great, a great example. AJV: (06:51) Yeah. There’s a great evolution of evolution. That’s a great one. And I think that’s somewhat similar to my third and final point, which is which I thought is very indicative of what you hear a lot. But yet there’s this mystery around it. He said, but I don’t count on any income from my books. And, you know, in his book is super successful and has been out there, just did a 20 year edition, right? 20Th year, RV: (07:18) 20Th or 25th. AJV: (07:20) Yeah. But a long time, right on. He said, but here’s what I have found. He said, it’s not the book itself that makes all the income, it’s the actual content within the book. So the book is the calling card. It’s the credibility source. Then not to say that you won’t make income. He just doesn’t count on that in his forecast or his budget. But it’s the content of that book that he then takes that and turns it into all these different curriculums. It’s a coaching curriculum. It’s a certification curriculum. It’s a course, it’s a video series, it’s a live event. It’s all these different things that are all circulated around the content of the book. And the book is at the center, but probably isn’t, what’s bringing in the most income for him. However, from that, there is just this entire huge circle of all these things that are moving to make this very successful, a very healthy business, even though most of the income is not from the center of it, which is the book it’s from all these other ancillary income streams that have become his primary revenue. RV: (08:27) Yeah. That’s good, good perspective on the book. For me, my third takeaway, which he talked a little bit about, but it’s more of, of what we know about him and Joanne behind the scenes. And I don’t know that he said this directly, but every time I’m with Dan and Joanne, it always occurs to me how they build their life or, or they build work around their life. They don’t build their life around their work. And so it’s, it’s one of the great possibilities of a personal brand is to be able to like fit work in and around your life. And it’s hard to do cause when you’re an entrepreneur, especially early on, it’s like a lot of times, you know, we’re kind of his life, but you, you want to get out of that and you can get out of that. And AJV: (09:14) I think that goes to a lot of what he talked about, where he resists the temptation to do all of the new and trendy things. Because, well, for what reason, it’s like, are you living to work? Are you working to live? And he talked a lot about his time and his schedule, but I think that is a part of it is resisting the temptation to do. RV: (09:34) Yeah. And I, and I hope for you, like, w w I wonder, I would bet if we could take all the podcast listeners and ask if you’ve heard of Dan Miller, I bet less than half of you have actually heard of him. You’ve probably heard of some of our other guests yet. He has one of the biggest businesses of everyone we’ve ever had on the podcast. And, and his example speaks to the power of steady consistency and just trust and playing the long game and plodding along. He’s the tortoise man. That’s a, that’s such a great that’s a great metaphor. And, and, and we mean that AJV: (10:14) It was his, he said, he said, I’m the tortoise. RV: (10:18) Yeah. That’s. And, and that is, you know, and we say that in the most honoring way, AJV: (10:23) He said it so we can say it. RV: (10:26) But even to that extent, it doesn’t mean you have to be slow. It’s just, it’s the idea of consistency. You don’t have to be the person with a million followers. And, and you know, this, these huge extravagant launches and given away cars, and like, you can do those things like, but, but you don’t have to be that person in order to be successful. Like you can just do the right thing for a really long time, and it will work out like you can’t fail if you just pour back into people’s lives. So I’m as encouraged by that. AJV: (11:01) Yeah. Well, I think it just, in general, there are a million different ways to build your personal brand. And Dan gives a one, one really great perspective of how to do it. And there are many other different perspectives that you will hear from other guests, but to what Roy is saying, it’s like, it’s, it’s all about. And what we talk about a lot, it’s playing the long game and Dan is a great example of the long game. RV: (11:26) Yeah. So there you have it. So hopefully you’re playing the long game and you’ll keep coming back here. We’re going to keep working to provide amazing guests for you and hopefully useful insights. We’re so glad that you’re here. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand.

Ep 11: Influencer Hacks From a Seasoned Pro with Chalene Johnson | Recap Episode

This episode serves as a recap of the ground which renowned influencer Chalene Johnson covered in her recent conversation with AJ. If you want to learn how to be unique, visible and disruptive as an influencer, you should definitely tune into that episode. Today, AJ and Rory highlight the main points they felt Chalene made. […]