AJ and I are going to share some insights of our biggest wins and our biggest losses over the last 12 months. What we learned, what we’re leaving behind, and what we’re taking forward so you can apply the same kind of review at mid-year or at the end of the year. If there are problems in your company, it’s looking in the mirror and going, what’s my part? What do I have to own of this? We’ll show you how to take radical ownership, rethink how you lead your team, and rebuild a healthier business from the inside out. Ever wonder what it actually takes to build a reputation that generates revenue? Rory and AJ Vaden are the powerhouse duo behind Brand Builders Group, NYT best-selling authors, and the strategists who have helped some of the world’s most influential leaders scale their personal brands. Now, they’re pulling back the curtain on how to capture attention, build massive trust, and turn your expertise into a lasting legacy. Get ready to elevate your influence and your income. This is Wealthy and Well-Known. Most people determine the success of the year by whether or not they hit their empirical goals. But I’m going to argue and we’re going to argue that that is not the most important way to measure success. In fact, in this episode, we’re going to make the case and we’re going to share some of our personal insights about why success is not what happened to you. It’s what happened in you. And this is the part that almost nobody tracks. It’s not what you did. It’s who you become. And AJ and I are going to share some insights of our biggest wins and our biggest losses over the last 12 months. For example, a year ago, I actually believed that nobody would show up for live webinars. I kind of thought that people were over and done and finished with live webinars and that they just weren’t worth doing. And I have completely, radically flipped my belief on that this year. We know for sure that as much as ever before, people are showing up live. They’re wanting to build a relationship with you. And if you want to activate your email list, you want to invite them to live webinars. That’s an example of just one thing that has happened. Today, we’re going to give you a whole bunch more. Now, today is an episode where we’re going to be talking about the last 12 months, but it’s not a year-end episode for you. It’s a year-end episode for Rory and I because this is the end of the last 12 months as Rory and I are approaching our birthdays. Happy birthday! We’re only one day apart, July 25th and July 26th. For most of you, this will be an opportunity to have a mid-year check-in. But for us, this is an opportunity to review the last 12 months with you and help you understand how you could do your own. you know, year-end review, whether it’s your birthday, the end of year, or is this just a mid -year check-in? So we’re going to do some reflections on what did we learn? What are we leaving behind? And what are we taking with us moving forward? And hopefully you’re going to pick up some of the same things along the way. All right, Vaden. So first question is for you. What is one thing that this year taught you about yourself that you genuinely did not expect to learn? I have so, so many things. And I actually was in a mastermind meeting yesterday. And one of the biggest ahas that I’ve had actually in the recent months is that most of the problems in our business start with me. It’s like I am the biggest problem in our business. I’m glad they told you that and not me. Well, it’s not just me. It’s we. It’s we. Oh, shoot. Me too. And it was interesting to have that moment of reflection because it’s been an interesting start to 2026. The last six months, it was definitely a year that I was not expecting to have as much stop and starts, trying new things, things that aren’t working. The market is changing. The industry is changing. Technology is changing. It’s been moving at a rapid pace. And then on the personal side, we moved houses. you know, way past our move in date. We didn’t have time and plans for that. There’s just been a lot of transition. And I’ve literally been looking around going, what is wrong? What’s the problem? And literally the last 30 days, I literally have had the realization that all problems start with me. I’m the problem. And it really hit me yesterday. We were in a team meeting. And so any of you who are listening to this, who have teams of any size, maybe you can relate to this. And we have a board, we follow traction and we have rocks, which are just like our quarterly goals. And every week we have a weekly tactical, a check-in. And on that we put issues and opportunities and people can bring like, what are the most. pressing issues that we need to discuss as a team. But this particular issue was brought that was a question for me. It’s like, hey, I’m not clear what you want for this agenda at our upcoming mid-year meeting. And it hit me. I’m like, oh, this is what I’ve been journaling about. I have conditioned our team that I have the answer to every question. And so I am not allowing them to think for themselves. I’m not forcing them to think for themselves. And I think there’s a part of it of like, I enjoy having the answer. I can make quick decisions. And so we get to that part of the meeting. And the person who asked the meeting was like, I just, you know, what do you want here? This is what I have. But like, what do you want? And I said, you know what, team, I’m going to try something new today. I’m not going to tell you what I want. And they all literally stopped what they were doing and said, come again. And I said in the meeting, we have this on recording. I said, actually, I don’t think that’s working very well. Me telling you everything. So I’m not. How about we try this? You build out the entire thing the way you think it should be. And then you tell me what you think it should be. And the person who was asking the question literally paused and said, everyone, can you please document this? This is being recorded. Can someone confirm that everyone else heard her say this? And then it really hit me. Oh, this isn’t just I have the problem. They know I have the problem too. So I think that’s one genuine thing that I have learned recently. Can I ask an additional question on this? So as the leader, how do you overcome the fear of going, if you don’t tell them exactly what you want, then they might produce something that was different than what you wanted. Because there’s a, you know, the benefit of articulating exactly what you want is you get what you want. But that’s what I’ve realized. I often don’t get exactly what I want. Even when you say it. Even when I say it, because I didn’t take the time to give. Every specific nuanced thing. I have the curse of knowledge. They don’t have all the inner knowledge that I have to produce what makes it so clear to me what I want because I didn’t give them a three page instruction manual because who has time to do that? But are you letting go of actually what the finished result is as well? But I think that’s where this was where the big realization happens. It’s like I can’t continue to be the source of all answers. I don’t know it all. Surprise. I don’t. And I think one of the things that’s happening is, you know, the end result yesterday was you complete your entire draft. This is your deadline. Then we will review it together. I will give you simple feedback and we’ll carry on. But I’m not telling you what I want because that’s not actually working and it’s not helping my team grow as leaders. So what you have to be doing here is also yielding a little bit that the outcome will be. something you create together, you’re giving up the power of saying, this is going to come out exactly as I want or close to what I want. And I’m going to yield that power. But the payoff is I don’t have to make all the decisions. But what if it comes out so much better than what I thought I wanted? Because I don’t have the same opportunity. to have the same thought process, time, expertise that everyone on my team does. So that was something I learned this year that I genuinely did not expect is that if I have problems in business at the end of the day, I own the business, I lead the business, the problem starts with me. That’s a good one. I like it. Okay. All right. I’ve got a question for you. Hit me. Okay. If there’s problems in the business, it’s not because of me. That was my… That’s your key takeaway. That’s my key takeaway. That’s great. Okay, so if you reflect back 12 years ago to our birthdays last year, okay, that’s where I want you to start. Where did your plan and your reality diverge? And what did that gap show you about what you actually value? Ooh, that’s deep. Okay, so 12 months ago, the biggest thing going on in our world professionally was our book launch. And we were launching Wealthy and Well-known. And the goal was to hit the New York Times, which we did. And that was powerful because we established this book as like our flagship. Here’s who we are. This is what we believe. It’s the anchor. It did that. I thought it was going to bring a flood of customers. That’s right. It didn’t bring us a flood of customers. It did bring us a flood of leads. But that wasn’t what I was expecting. I was expecting people read the book and they’re like, OK, I’m in. I’m buying like we’re sold. And what it actually did was it brought us a bunch of leads. Now, the part that is here’s an honest thing to share. We’ve had a harder year financially in the last year than in the last several years. And part of that was because we had a hole in the back door of our business where people were leaving the program. faster than they used to. And I think what we realized is there were some things that we changed operationally. We were the problem. We were the problem. And I think this is a we thing, is you and I both said, we’ve got to fix the backdoor first. We’ve got to solidify keeping our current customers over delivering with the people who are here, and then we’ll work on bringing more people in the front. And so when I think of the big last 12 months and to the point you said, what we’ve realized time and time again in our meetings is we did this to ourselves. Every ratio that has changed in our business, we can point to a decision that we made, a change we made in technology, a change we made in leadership, a change we made in protocol, process, belief, something we wanted to try. And then we just didn’t monitor the data and error correct quickly. And that is the theme is going, crap, we did this to ourself. We are the problem. I liked it better when you were the problem. So a question for you, give me a moment, a specific moment where you realized we need to change things here. Roughly January 31st, our accounting manager came to me and said, I can’t be a manager. I need to be managed. And this is I’m over my head. And we made the mutual decision to part ways. But what hit me is like, why did it take her having to come to me when I knew six months ago that she was in over her head? I knew well in advance of her coming to her own realization, which I so appreciate because she didn’t have to do that. Right. Because how long would it have gone if she didn’t bring it up? To go, I am not a manager. I need to be me. I need to be managed. And I was that was the moment of like she said it and I’m like, oh, I know. But I had known for months. And that was really the turning point for me of like I have not faced the reality of the hard things to do because I’ve been so I’m using bunny ears. If you’re listening. busy doing other stuff that I didn’t have the time and capacity to handle the bigger things. And I think a lot of that was there was two realizations. One, it’s like, oh, I’m not doing things proactively. I’m having to react when they finally come up, even though I know well in advance. Wow. This isn’t working. And I’ve paid the price a lot this year of inexperience and reactive leadership. OK, so. One of the things that’s really a delicate nuance of this that I want you to comment on is, so this marketing manager was a young woman. Accounting manager. Sorry, accounting manager. And as a leader, you want to give people a chance, right? There’s a positive part of this where it’s like, I want to give someone a chance to step into what we need. But then you got to reconcile that with the going, oh, they’re in over their head. So, you know, you were you were doing you were trying to do a good thing for that person and for the business. Well, I would caution that I don’t necessarily reflect back and think I was. OK, interesting. And I think that’s more of an honest reflection of for all of us as leaders. Are we stepping people into leadership who aren’t ready because we need them to be ready to get things off of our plate? because we need them to be ready because we need to fill that seat? Or are we stepping them because they’re actually ready? Like qualified to do it. I think about this a lot. I’ve been, you know, as you know, but maybe others don’t, I have a really specific journaling and prayer time every morning with the Lord. And like one of the things that I’ve been praying a lot about is a good father disciplines his children. And a good father doesn’t give his children every single thing that they want. And I pray for a lot of things that God says no to. And then later I’m like, thank you so much. Thank you for knowing better than me. And if I were to give my kids every single thing they want, it would be a disaster. And I think a lot of times as leaders, we relent to what our team members want, even when they’re not ready. And that does more damage to them and the team and the company and to you as the owner than it does giving them what they want. See, I put this person into leadership before she was ready. I should have taken the time to go, here’s a path to leadership. Here’s the training and the knowledge that you have to have in order to embrace that one day. And that would have given her the opportunity to opt in or opt out, which she later did. at a much larger detriment to me, her, the team and the company, because now I have this huge open wound in the company that I had to step in and fill. Because I think if I had done it that way, she would have never said yes. She would have been like, oh man, I’m so glad that you made me take these classes or read these books or step into this slowly because I would have realized that’s not for me. Right. You mask it as like, hey, I’m creating this opportunity. But in reality, what’s going on is this person’s not set up to succeed for what we need. And ultimately, we all know that. And then it eventually fizzles out. Oh, yeah. Like how many times am I going to have this exact same encounter before I change how I’m leading my leaders? Yeah. That’s good. I mean, I will say I have become a different leader, a different business owner in the last five months because of this. One of the things we say a lot is what got you here as a performer won’t get you there as a leader. And I think what got you here as a leader won’t get you there as an owner. And I think you’re really stepping into being an owner and going in order for you to be the owner, you’ve got to have. real leaders. And so it’s like, it’s like a second rung of a big transformation that we’re going through. We teach the stuff. We’ve had a fair bit of success, but it’s like, it’s, it’s hard. It’s hard. And we’re learning, we’re learning lessons. It’s always easier to see the log in someone else’s eye than it is yours. But that’s what you have to do as a business owner. You have to look in the mirror and go, if there’s problems in your company or as a parent, if there’s problems with your kids or as a spouse, if there’s problems in your marriage, it’s not about pointing fingers. It’s looking in the mirror and go, what’s my part? What do I have to own of this? And that’s humbling and that’s hard. And it’s overwhelming to go like, crap, right? This all starts with me, but. I just believe a healthy friendship, a healthy marriage, a healthy body, a healthy family, healthy kids, a healthy business. They all start with someone raising their hand and taking personal accountability of going, this is my part. I’m not going to own someone else’s part, but I’m going to start with mine. And I think that’s a hard pill for a lot of us to swallow. Yeah, definitely. That internal locus of control is definitely one of the things that successful people have in common. It’s like it’s on them. But I would say it’s like as hard as I would say the last 12 months have been in terms of transition and change and unmet expectations. There’s also been other things that have happened that have been amazingly positive. But I just I’m a big believer and I hope that everyone who’s listening who can relate to this. I have a ton of friends in the entrepreneur community that it’s been a hard 12 months. It’s been a hard six months to the year so far. Every conversation I’ve had, it’s like, whoa, we’re flat, we’re stalled. We can’t do business development the way we used to. We’re not getting leads the way we used to. We’re having to pivot. There’s been a lot of transition across the board in at least the circles that I’m a part of. But one of the things that I just believe, it’s like, for all of us, we are made better and stronger through the challenges. And it’s like, if I wasn’t forced to become a different leader, then I wouldn’t become a better leader. It’s like I would stay the status quo and growth is never fun. But that doesn’t mean it’s not necessary and there’s not fruit on the other side of it. And I just, I firmly believe that for all of us, all of our character is built in the valleys, not in the mountaintops. And it’s in the valleys where a strong team is made and the valleys is where a strong company is made, a strong family is made. But that also means you gotta muscle up. And you got to grit through it. But when you do, it’s always going to be better on the other side. I might take a minute, but it’s always going to be better on the other side. So that’s what we’re going to talk about next is on the other side. I want to ask, I want to ask the next question, but I want to answer it first. I’m going to ask it. Okay. So you want to answer your own question? And then you can answer it too. But here’s the question. What is the habit? or discipline that proved itself again this year what is the one thing you are never going to cut again oh i know my answer oh my gosh okay oh i know my answer so here’s what i did i we did as a company a law that we violated and it is the first law of sales and i learned this going door to door when i was 17 years old it’s a numbers game It is always a numbers game. No matter what you’re selling, no matter what the economy is, no matter what industry, no matter what price point, no matter what type of customer you’re selling to, sales is always a numbers game. That is the law, the first law of selling, and we violated it. And here’s how we violated it this year. We convinced ourselves. that we knew good enough about who would buy that we could use a fancy filter application in our free call pipeline, that we could filter out who the buyers were based on how they would answer some questions. And when we did that, the number of people who requested a call with us in one year who got on the phone with us was like 65 or 70%. That was like 2024. And then in 2025, that number went down from 70% to like 45%. And that’s because we convinced ourselves that we had enough data to be able to predict who was going to buy. Well, in all fairness, that’s not exactly why we changed the filter. Okay, well, you can give your story. But my story is going, however we want to slice it, we turned down a huge percentage of people who asked to talk to us for whatever reason. We filtered out. and didn’t talk to them. And that was a mistake because people will answer things on an application that are different than when you have a human conversation. And I will never do that again. So that’s how I interpreted it. Yeah. And that’s not the full story, but. That’s your version of it. It’s my version. It’s my version of the whole story. But the thing that you’ll never cut again is not just working the numbers. Just the numbers game. Never forget that sales is a numbers game. Sales is a numbers game. And if you did anything, if you did anything that just reduced the number of people you were talking to, you are setting yourself up for failure and you can’t blame it on the economy. You can’t blame it on your team. You can’t blame it on anything else. I agree with that. If you violate that law. And we violated that law, law number one. Yeah, so many of the people that we talked to, they’re like, well, my conversions are so great, but my business isn’t going. And I’m like, well, then you have an activity problem. It doesn’t matter how good your conversions are if you’re only talking to five people. Like, that’s why your business isn’t growing. It’s an activity problem. Mine is similar to that. And I would say one of the things that we have always believed in our entire professional careers in sales, which is now 20 years, is that there is power in a one-on-one conversation to make a sale. Oh, yeah. And I think mine is very similar to this because, again, I think this is really important that sometimes you can take the advice of one person or you can hear the desires of your sales team or a team member and you hear it even if it’s in micro. environment, it’s like, oh, well, this consultant said that, or, you know, I heard that on that one podcast and now my team is saying it. But in reality, that’s a very tiny group of people. Very tiny. But you can do that. We did that and we’re like, huh, maybe there’s something to it. This consultant said that no one is requesting one-on-one calls. This viral clip, this random paragraph from that one book, this speaker. It’s like what happens is your reticular activator kicks on. Yeah. And it works against you. Because you internalize bad advice as good advice because you hear it in a few places. Yes. And I do believe like this, it happened with a consultant saying it, then it happened in a small room. But ultimately, why we changed our application was actually in coordination with a back to a good father doesn’t give their kids every single thing they want. A good leader doesn’t say yes to every idea their team has. Yeah. I said yes to an idea that was presented by our team that was like, hey, we can’t be doing one-on-one calls with everybody. That doesn’t scale. But we have built our entire business, the last one and this one, on one-on-one calls. And we said, okay, well, how do we start to do this in a group environment? How can we scale something that we actually don’t believe in? And really got disillusioned to the idea of, well, let’s. make this easier for our sales team. Let’s help make this, this, this, this. And instead of doing one-on-one calls, what we did is we invited people to join a small group and we tried to do it in small groups. And it, I mean, I think we can say it failed. Oh, it epically failed and blew up in our face. And at the same token, it’s like in this, you know, also. Cost us a relationship with another individual because it was like we made these changes based on an individual’s desires, based on what was healthy and right for the team and the company. And I will never make that mistake again. So there’s two things. It’s like, no, there is a power in a one-on-one conversation. So much power. It’s a fundamental value that we hold that we will never waver on again regardless. And if you just don’t agree with that, then you’re just not a fit for this team. It’s like we believe in a power of a one-on-one conversation. That means something because we’re curating at Brain Builders Group a community, not numbers. And you cannot curate like-minded individuals that you don’t talk to. So that is important to us. And I think we got away from that a little bit. But then the second thing is that I will not ever make the decision for the benefit of an individual over the benefit of the group ever again. So that’s really two things I learned in that. But man, I will not do that again. It’s been a painful, long lesson that’ll take us a hot minute to recover from. Okay, here’s a question for you. Talk to us about a relationship, a mentor, a team member, a peer, a friend, me, whoever that showed up for you in a way that you did not anticipate in the last year and how it changed the way you think. The first thing that came to my mind, was all of the people who spoke at our event for our book launch. So that was Eric Thomas, Trent Shelton, Amy Porterfield, Michael Hyatt, Jasmine Starr, Julie Solomon. Will Gadara. Yes, Will Gadara was like, we’ve spent years building relationships with these people. And they came and they spoke at our event. And we did an event with the Wealthy and Well-Know Book Launch. And this was an important moment for us because this was our first book launch since starting Brand Builders Group. It was your first book. It was our first New York Times run with Mission Driven Press, our sister company, our imprint that’s distributed by Simon & Schuster. And this was like becoming our flagship book. And so it was a really important moment for us. And I would say both the speakers and the customers who were in that room. We had so many, because I don’t remember how many books you had to buy. It was like a package, but you had to buy a lot of books. 250. 250. And we had a lot of people, like that package sold out pretty quickly or relatively easily. Like we had a lot of people show up for us. And that, when I think of the last 12 months, that’s the thing that jumps out to me. And one of our mantras is build relationships before you need them. Build relationships before you need them. Build relationships before you need them. And I think we do a pretty good job of not keeping score, of like, oh, hey, you owe me this because I did this for you. And we try not to ask for a lot of stuff. We try to give more. But man, it meant a lot to me, the speakers that showed up. because there’s no way we would have been able to afford to pay all their normal speaking fees. Like we would not be able to afford that. And there were only 30, 40 people in the room. I mean, did you say Michael Hyatt? I said Michael Hyatt. I’m trying to like make sure we didn’t forget about it. But it’s like when I was thinking about speaking fees, I was like, definitely cannot afford all of these people. No way. I mean, just, you know, Eric Thomas and Will Goodere alone. And it’s like, we’re out. But they showed up and then all of the people in the room, that was a magical room. It was some of our most loyal customers, our longstanding customers. our BBG OGs, as we say, the Brand Builders Group OGs. That was a special moment. And it, you know, it meant a lot to me for all of these things, but also, you know, our book launch meant a lot to me because it was your first book. That was really important to me, our team, our community. That’s the moment for me. Yeah. I think one of the things before you tear up and start crying over there. Um, as he often does, uh, one of the things that’s probably a good challenge for all of you who are listening right now, it’s, uh, who has been that person that showed up for you in a way that you didn’t expect in the last year or even this year or even last week. And it’s like, take a moment today and just text them or even better pick up the phone and call them, um, and let them know that like, Hey, you showed up in a way that I was blown away by, or maybe you don’t even know how much this meant to me. I just want to say, thank you. I think it’s a good reminder to never take for granted the power of a thank you because so often we just assume people know. They don’t. You still have to tell them. So maybe that’s a good action item for you to do today, Rory. And then for everyone who’s listening is like, hey, as you’re doing this mid-year check-in with yourself or maybe it’s your birthday in July and you’re doing an annual review, it’s like, who are the people I need to make sure know how grateful I am? for what they’ve done for me in the last year. Yeah, that’s good. All right. Well, I’ve got a lot of text messages to say now. All right, let’s do community question. Okay. So community question. So this is the segment of our show where the Brand Builders Group members, so our actual monthly members, get to ask their questions and they vote up on which question should be answered on the show. Today’s question comes from Carlos, one of our longstanding members. Carlos just spoke and actually crushed the stage at one of our events called the Member Showcase or the Speaker Showcase. So once a year or so, we have an event where our members apply to speak at this event in front of all of the other members. And so they get live coaching. I think we have like 16 or 18 speakers who will speak. They get like 15 minutes each. They get multiple camera angles and they get all the photography and the footage for their demo videos. And then they get coaching from me and AJ. And Carlos’s question is, what advice would you give to someone who is about to speak, who got selected to speak at the next Brand Builders Group Speaker Showcase? So although this is super specific to our community and our members, I would say for any of you who are listening, who are like, okay. I have an upcoming speech or a presentation. It could be a sales presentation, a presentation at the Chamber of Commerce. Maybe you got booked for a TED talk. Like it doesn’t matter what it is, but through the mental of like, what advice would you have? So we’re going to make it specific and general at the same time in order to prepare for an upcoming presentation. I will hit the specifics of ours. I’ll let Rory hit the general of anyone who’s going, hey, I have a very important presentation coming up. What advice would you have for me? But specifically to our member showcase, one of the things that I would really encourage anyone who’s listening, who’s a member of Brand Builders Group, in order to prepare for what we do at the speaker showcase, I think there’s three things that are vitally important. And I think for anyone who’s listening, you can take these and apply them across the board. But number one, as we say this all the time, is that the most important thing about your speech is that it’s a great speech. The content has to be good. And so make sure that the content is tight. This should not be the first time you do it. It cannot be, not should not. It cannot be the first time you do it. And that may mean it’s like you’ve done it 100 times on video to yourself or to your parents. to your friends or to your spouse or to your kids. Like, but it can’t be the first time. If it’s that important, you’re not going to lay it on the line and let it be the first time. So that’s the first thing is the content has to be tight. And then the second thing is it can’t be the first time. The third thing is that delivery matters and you can have amazing content and lame delivery and the content totally gets overlooked. I have seen so many of my favorite thought leaders on stage. and totally dozed off or left early because the content was so rich and so good in the book or on interviews. And I’m like, I cannot wait to see this person. And then I get there and I’m like, stay awake. I’m like totally zoning out because their delivery was so not there. And so it’s like, you have to remember, it’s like, this is edutaining. It has got to be part education, part entertaining. It has got to have a mixture of story and laughter and emotion and variety. You can’t just stand up there with a microphone and expect people just to get it. It’s like, no, we have to take them on a journey. So those would be my three things. It’s like the content has to be good and tight. You have to have practiced it. It can’t be the first time you deliver it. And then it’s got to be edutaining. Yeah, that’s good. By the way, just a little secret nugget. Ed Milet and I are going to be teaching a two-day event called Presentation Mastery this fall. We haven’t announced it, and I’m not officially announcing the details on it yet. But if this is a topic you’re interested in, you need to stay plugged into the podcast for when we announce it. We’ve never done this. We may never do it again. But we’re going to be hosting an event in November, Ed Milet and I, on this topic specifically. So stay tuned for that. I want to give you the single greatest secret of master presenters. And it still holds true today. And it is something, whether I’m listening to a sermon, a TED talk, a keynote speech, here is the mistake that every presenter makes. They try to communicate too many different things inside of one presentation. And when you have diluted focus, you get diluted results. Here is what you need to do instead. Start planning your presentation by answering this one question. What do I want the audience to think, feel, or do when I am done? Period. If you cannot answer that question, you’re not ready to start writing your speech. You start writing your speech by answering that question. What is the one thing I want my audience to think, feel, or do when I am done? Not 10 things, not five things, not three points. One thing. And if you have to have that as the clear backbone and spine of the presentation, and it becomes the litmus test by which you filter in or out all other stories, details, anecdotes, quotes, facts, illustrations, frameworks against that as the litmus test. So that must be there. It is the most advanced and most simple technique of all time, but it continues to be the thing that every speaker fails at. And I just cannot say it enough. Like most speakers can talk for an hour, but cannot answer that question in one sentence. And that’s why they fail. And that’s why they don’t break through the wall. And that’s why they get absorbed by the noise and they don’t become famous. It’s not because they don’t have enough good ideas. It’s because they’re not clear enough about the one great idea that they have. So you got to be clear on it. Otherwise, you’re going to get absorbed. in and among the noise. So if you are somebody who wants to grow your business, you want to become a better presenter, you’re learning from the lessons that the mistakes that we’re sharing here and also some of the tips and techniques, we would love to talk to you and we would love to meet you one-on-one. So if you go to freebrandcall.com forward slash podcast, freebrandcall.com forward slash podcast, you can request a call with our team and we will connect with you one-on-one. And I would just remind you for everyone who’s listening, as you have listened to us kind of do our own review of the last 12 months, I think this is a good reminder. It’s like, you’re not behind and you’re not late. And this year is still being written. This story, your story is still being written. And there is so much to learn. There’s so much to celebrate. And there’s so much to also leave behind. And I think those are really important parts of doing this mid-year check-in and going like, What have I learned? What do I want to carry forward? What do I want to leave behind? And make sure that there’s a lesson in all of it, right? And so I think that’s a really important thing. It’s you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. And there’s a lot of your story left to be written. Now, as a tee up for next week, it’s going to be a lighter, brighter episode as we talk about how having fun is a business strategy. So come back next week and we’ll see you then.