RV: (00:06) [Inaudible] Hey, welcome to the special recap edition of the influential personal brand podcast. Breaking down the interview with Amanda tress, our friend with Amanda AIJ, my wife and our CEO brand builders group. And she was born in the 1980s. There was a lot of Amanda’s that came out of it. The 1980s. You want to kick us off? AJV: (00:31) Yeah, no, I thought this was so good. And there were so many different things that we picked up from this. And I just love to, it’s like when we really get to interview people who are doing it and people who have turned a personal brand and to a full fledged eight figure business is such an accomplishment. And just to learn about how they’re doing it. I think she’d be very insightful and hope inspiring for everyone listening. And that should be reflective of my very first point, which is you can have an eight figure business. And in her case, a $30 million in annual revenue business and still be doing most of your tracking and reporting off of spreadsheets. Right. And I think that was like, it’s so humbling to sometimes be reminded of you when you look around and you see everyone doing all this stuff, you think that you’re behind you think somehow somebody else has it all figured out. AJV: (01:25) And the truth is they don’t. They really don’t. They had an amazing idea with really good content and they were consistent and persistent day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. And she such a Testament to that. Now she didn’t take that many years to do it. It happened really quickly, but you can still be super successful and not have all of the parts figured out in your business. That is a growing evolving process that I think for all of us, it’d be great to take a step step back and do a little self reflection and be like, alright, where am I killing it? And where am I not? And just focus on where you’re killing it, right? She hasn’t had the time to step back and figure out new ways of reporting because I’ve been focused on keeping the main thing, the main thing, which is revenue. AJV: (02:15) And as she was talking, I was like, that is such a great point because we get so caught up and to the comparison of, Oh, I need a pretty website or, Oh, I’ve got to launch this new thing, or we’ll have to keep up with the competition and you lose sight, you lose focus and you get distracted and then you don’t get a seven figure or an eight figure business. Not because you can’t, but because you didn’t do the right things and you didn’t keep the main thing, the main thing, and you got distracted with all of these other little things that weren’t as important. And I think that was such a great reminder to me. And I remember for, for like the first full year at brand builders group, we didn’t even have a website y’all and is like, and I was like, so pressuring where I’m like, that’s so embarrassing. How can we be a branding firm without a website? But so yeah, somehow it was working and now, now we have one and we’re actually redoing it because we got one that was kind of janky and just to have one. And I think that’s a great reminder. It’s like, sometimes you don’t need the things that you think you need to be successful. What you need is great content and people who are willing to listen, that’s where you need. And that’s what they’ve got. And I just thought that was a great reminder. RV: (03:28) I love that. I, for me, it was a good old fashion. My first takeaway was just a good old fashion reminder that anything is possible. And I’m in what a world to live in, where you can go from zero to 30 million in revenue a year and still be operating off of spreadsheets. Like to your point, like, that’s not like we got it all perfected. It’s just like raw passion, quality product, you know, something that works that people need. And it’s such a simple, you know, it’s, it’s the age old, old problem in her case. And she just really felt figured out a simple way to do it, but just in our mind to go, my goodness, anything is possible. And how would you act differently right now, if you knew you were going to have a $30 million company two years from now, right. And I’m sure like that may seem far off for a lot of us, but it’s possible. Like it’s possible. If you get half of that or 10% of that, like you’re going to be doing great and just go most of the time, the people that don’t get there it’s because we limit ourselves. It’s not because it’s not possible. It’s because we, we don’t believe it’s possible. And gosh, I just, I was encouraged by listening to Amanda. Talk of just her story. I just thought was incredible. AJV: (04:47) Yeah. All right. Well, my second point is this whole concept of micro influencers. And I kind of feel like this is the new rage. I felt like this is where marketing is going. I have no doubt that five, 10 years from now traditional marketing, as we know, it will no longer exist. You already see immense trends with traditional advertiser dollars, decreasing an influencer, you know, kind of what we could say, sponsorships or brand deals, or you can see my bunny years brand deals or sponsorships increasing. You already see that influencer marketing is already everywhere. And that that’s only going to enhance and grow as our digital, you know, landscape grows. That’s just the nature of it. And I love how this whole concept of who is the best customer base to have our, sorry, the best for Salesforce to have. And that’s your customer base. AJV: (05:44) Your customers are your best Sales force, right? There’s no one who’s going to sell it better than someone who was like, I had no idea about this. I bought it. And it worked. And now I’m, and you have to know about it too, versus someone who was paid to sell it, who may not have even used your own product. Like, I find that fascinating. How so often? You know, my, my former life was in corporate sales consulting and sales coaching. And I worked with so many organizations where their salespeople did not even use their own products. And I was like, that is so bizarre. Like, shouldn’t it be like, mandatory that you have to like the product that you’re selling and that’s just not how it works. And I just love this because it’s, your sales force has already in love with your product. So why wouldn’t they be promoting it and thus getting paid for it. So you’ve got this builtin, passionate Salesforce with these micro influencers. I just think it’s genius. Absolutely genius. Yeah. RV: (06:43) That was my second takeaway too, was turn your customer force into your Sales force for all the reasons that you’re saying. And I think the, the, hopefully that’s true that your customers are the most passionate. And so I think to me, the, the, the part that, that makes us live up to as entrepreneurs is that the sale doesn’t end when you capture their money, the sale ends when you deliver the result, when you deliver the experience to the customer. And if you, if you take on this ambition, like Amanda has where you’re saying, okay, my customer force is going to become my Salesforce. Then you realize that, Hey, just getting them to buy is not what matters. It’s getting them to experience the result of, of what you offer. And if every small business owner aspired to that, if every personal brand aspired to that, then you’re automatically setting your self up to where your customer force becomes your Salesforce. But I think too often, we’re just focused on, I just want to capture them, capture the revenue and then, and then I’m like, I’m outta there and I’m, I’m done. And so I think that that aspiration holds us to a higher level of, of performance. AJV: (07:55) Yeah. I feel like micro influencers is like the concept. Yeah. But it’s, it’s like the ultimate NPS score. Right. It’s like the ultimate net promoter score where it’s like, yeah, I’ll promote you on every platform and to my email list and to everyone, I come in contact with like, it’s the ultimate NPS score. That’s what I was thinking in my brain. I was like, that’s exactly. Yeah. RV: (08:16) If you’re not familiar with NPS it’s, it’s like a standard AJV: (08:20) One to 10, how likely are you to refer us? RV: (08:22) Likely are you to refer us? And it’s like, who cares? How likely you are? Did you like, did you actually refer us to somebody who bought that’s, that’s what it’s really about. So then my third takeaway, I’m gonna jump in here. It’s a quick one. You know, it was something that actually didn’t come in the interview. So this is a little bit of a bonus tip. It was inspired by something when Amanda was talking about how all of our customers come in to this, this like initial course, and that’s how they start. And then after that, they, you know, they roll into a monthly membership. So they kind of graduate and you know, the term that most people use for that is upsell. And I just wanted to share with you a little term that I heard actually from an old friend and somebody that we were interviewing, she called it Upserve to Upserve. And I thought, you know, that between that conversation with Amanda, and then, then that conversation that I was having with our old friend, I was like, gosh, I liked that concept of Upserve. It really reinforces, like we’re going to overdeliver and then we’re going to serve you at a higher level. And that to me is like, that captures the essence of what it’s all about. And that’s how you grow a $30 million company apparently two years. So that’s what we want to do. And I learned it. AJV: (09:40) Yeah, I like that. And actually, it’s funny because my last point happened at the very, very, very end of the interview, I to watch the whole thing. And it was even after Roy said, how do you get in touch and all of that. And Amanda said this very, very thing, this very last thing at the very last minute. And she said, I want all of you to be successful so that you can go out and redistribute your wealth to your family, your church, and your community. And it hit me in that moment of the importance of helping people be successful. And there’s nothing wrong with helping people make money with the right intentions. And I was actually on a walk. I was on a hike. I listened to all my podcast on a hike and it made me think about something that happened at brain builders group about a year ago. AJV: (10:35) And one of our original taglines was become rich, famous, and influential. And we had a series of clients and even some of our own strategists who says, I mean, I don’t know, is rich the right word and is famous the right word. And it was kind of off putting an offsetting. And so we kind of succumb to the feedback and we said, okay, maybe that’s not it. Maybe it’s a, you know, grow your influence and grow your income. Or, you know, we softened it where the essence was still the same is that we want to help people become rich, famous, and influential, but not for the sake of being rich. So you can keep all of it. And what she said there at the end with just, it hit me in such a way that, you know, we succumb to just a few people said a feedback, but it’s because people misinterpret the word and I love that. AJV: (11:22) She said this, and it’s like, you need to be successful. So you can review redistribute that wealth into your community and to the right causes into your family and into the church. And I think so many people misconstrue, misconstrue rich, cause Amanda talks about growing an enormous business in a really short amount of time and how some of their top affiliates are making a million dollars, a million dollars a year. And, and I just, I think that’s really important and it’s not all about money, but it’s about what you do with money. Like who can you help? Who can you serve? Who can you save with that kind of money? But it’s all in the right context. And then she said, are, we said, you know, famous. And then it made me start thinking about how people misuse that in the terms of what we’re doing. AJV: (12:10) It’s like famous is just synonymous with being known, right? And we say this a lot, but it’s like, people cannot buy from you if they do not know you. And that is Amanda’s entire business model is micro-influencers spread the love, you know, spread the word, like help everyone know about this. It’s like they would not have been able to grow at this rate and this pace, this successfully, without millions of people knowing about them, another word for that is becoming famous within their audience. And I just think that there’s so many times a negative connotation with rich wealth, money, fame becoming known, and it’s all in the context of why do you want to do it? And that brings us back to the heart of building a personal brand and being a mission driven messenger. And it’s like, we want you to be successful. We want you to make money. AJV: (13:07) We want you to become known because if people don’t know about you, they cannot be changed by you. They cannot be saved by you. They cannot, they cannot absorb what you have to give them. Right. And hopefully what you’re giving them is a way to better their life, better their future, and better the lives and the futures of those around them. And it came at the very end in such a subtle statement. But I think it’s so impactful for us all to remember why we’re doing this and it’s to better our own lives, but also better the lives of those around us. And that includes making more money and becoming better at what we do. I went on a tangent. I’m sorry. RV: (13:47) No, what else? There’s that nailed it. So I got nothing else to add. We’re going to end on that. That was strong, babe. I love that. And that’s our desire is to help you serve and make impact and influence and income. And so we’re honored, honored to be able to do that. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand. [inaudible].