Finding Peak w/ Ryan Hanley - Branding Expert Reveals the Secret to Business Success in 2025 - Sara Connell

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Starting point is 00:00:32 And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcats 13. Just go to Indeed.com slash Podcats 13 right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash Podcast 13. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. We have a tremendous conversation for you today with Sarah Connell. She is the founder of Sarah Connell coaching, where she helps individuals with expertise,

Starting point is 00:01:10 with ideas, with experience, turn that into a bestselling book and ultimately a thought leadership platform, as well as so much else. This is a whine-ranging and dynamic conversation. However, there are some key ideas that we get into, especially. Sarah projects out our kind of forecast, as she calls it, 2025 and some of the trends that she sees coming. Specifically, we address five. There's one in particular that I want to tease out at you right now.

Starting point is 00:01:38 And that is the idea that we are moving from Simon Cynix. It's all about your why to it's all about your who. Who is greater than why. This is a big idea. It's a core concept to what she is helping her clients achieve in 2025. and I'll be honest with you, I have to agree with her. I have to agree with her reasons why this is such a big trend and that this is actually what is working in the market today, whether you're a small business, you know, you're

Starting point is 00:02:07 a coffee shop and a community and you're trying to grow and expand your influence and where customers come from in to buy your coffee or you're leading a large multinational organization or you're an entrepreneur or you are an author, right? These ideas are paramount. You're going to love these five forecasts that she has for 20, and especially I'm interested in your thoughts like like around this idea of who is greater than why this was this concept really caught me grab me I'm going to put a lot more thought into it and I think you are going to love it before we get to Sarah if you're watching on YouTube

Starting point is 00:02:41 like this video subscribe guys leave a comment I want to hear from you if you're listening on Apple Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts and you're not subscribed make sure you do leave a rating and review with your thoughts I read every single one I appreciate the lot of you. And if you haven't yet, if you're not in master of the clothes and sales is an important part of what you do every day, I released a brand new sales course, master of the clothes, where I teach the process that allowed me to grow multiple organizations across the technology, fitness, and insurance industries to scale massively using inbound leads. There is a different sales process for inbound leads. And if inbound leads are part of your process, master of the

Starting point is 00:03:24 Close is a no-brainer. Go to Master of theclose.com today. With that, let's get on to Sarah Connell. Rood Laboratory in the basement of his home. Sarah, it's a pleasure to have you on the show today. Thanks for taking the time. I'm so happy to be here, Ryan. So one of the things that we were talking about before we went live was, you know, we're still early in the year. You know, we're recording this in early February and at least I think it's February. And we talked a little bit about like what's going to happen in 2025. And, you know, that's kind of where I'd love to start. I'd love to start with like when you're looking out over what we have in front of us,

Starting point is 00:04:27 kind of where we are as a country, as society, business-wise, marketplace. And you're dealing with tons of clients, tons of successful people. Like what are you hearing? What are you seeing? Like where's your brain at for forecasting 2025? Yeah. I think, you know, it's very easy to be reactive, right? It's very easy to sort of say, oh, you know, what's going on in?

Starting point is 00:04:46 world and what's happening in the economy and there's you know we're at as as of the recording of this episode there's just a lot of churn a lot of uncertainty and so i think that while people can feel like oh what a drag you know you hear things like buyers you know clients are hesitant they're scared to make investments they're the the trust recession has happened right like there's this break in trust that people feel in themselves and in leadership and at all kinds of things right and when i listen to people who've been around a lot longer than I have and I'm not like a newbie to the world by any means. I've been, you know, coaching and being an entrepreneur for, you know, over 15, almost 20 years. And there's people who, you know, decades more than I do.

Starting point is 00:05:25 And when I listen to them, what I love is they say every single situation we're in is an opportunity, right? We all hear that. It's like, find the gift and everything. Like, really, what if we believe that? What if we practice that? And so what I'm really excited about for 2025 is saying, like, what does this particular moment call us forth to become masterful in, right? Like if we've got to dig deep, like if people are taking longer to buy, then how do we come masterful at building trust and playing the long game,

Starting point is 00:05:51 right? Like maybe as before, we've gotten really good at the midgame or the short game or and if people are feeling a trust break and a trust recession, like how do we create a trust ascension? And so I think that the people who are going to, you know, win as in, you know, be fulfilling and make an impact and make profitable, you know, big numbers this year and things like that are going to be leaders who are willing to get really resourceful, get excited, even if we have to fake it, because sometimes I do, but like actually say, cool, like, what, what am I going to learn here and get to become really masterful? Because one thing is for sure that creativity and innovation do not come out of the comfort

Starting point is 00:06:29 zone. They don't come out of like the, in general, they don't really come out of the thriving economy either. It's usually when it's hard and or challenging. And I don't think this is only hard and challenging. of a time of having a great year and it's and it's wonderful and there is a lot of people are just really in it like they're just in a lot of feelings and overwhelmed so I think this is an exciting time well one I love the idea of what if we just acted like everything was an opportunity like

Starting point is 00:06:56 there's so many things in our life that like cliches or you know whatever that we hear and I think we let them pass by us and I love this idea of what if we actually just embrace that cliche that that kind of tried and true mantra because it's It's been around for a while for a reason. Yet because of that, we seem to like dismiss these ideas. And it's like, why do we always want the new idea when there are like these, you know, 50, 100, 2,000 year old ideas that seemingly have lasted forever? And we're kind of like, eh, no, those ones aren't for me.

Starting point is 00:07:31 I need this new shiny idea over here. You know, that's really interesting. I love for you to dig into this trust recession because I find that very interesting. Yeah. I can see it. I haven't experienced it in my own business necessarily in that way, but I can see it. And I think if you're watching social media, et cetera, as well as, you know, everything that we just came through with the election, you know, and, you know, mainstream media is being torn apart. You know, all this kind of different stuff.

Starting point is 00:07:57 So maybe break down where you think that's coming from, where you're seeing that. And then I'd like to make this transition into how would you guide someone through flipping trust? If I did, if I was experiencing a trust recession, how do I. I flip that into an ascension. Yes. Okay. Well, I love it because this has been, luckily again, in our business, we've seen it less and, but a lot of people are either trying something new or in certain, I think, people who are running courses, things that have a less, like, relational aspects. So I think the first thing, is there a trust recession? Yes, in some industries. And it's again, it's not just, oh, Inc magazine came out and said, 904% of consumers right

Starting point is 00:08:34 now don't trust ads. Like, just don't trust. Like, Facebook ads, television ads, you know, whatever it might be. There are trust breaks with people. They either feel like even influencers, like that was such a movement for a long time. And I'll share something in a minute that I think is going to be really big for this year. That's sort of a cousin of the influencer and a way to overcome some of these. So whether you're experiencing it or you're not, we can all agree. People do feel uncertain and it's harder to make decisions when they feel nervous about whether it's political, you know, economic, whatever it is. So what I think we want to recognize is like leaning into that. Like I said, instead of being afraid and going kind of bunker, you know,

Starting point is 00:09:11 mentality, like, I'll ride this out until people want to invest more. It's like, what's really the opportunity? And I think a couple of things to create, you know, from a recession to an ascension. One is looking at what, how to be relational versus transactional. I think a big thing that happened last year. If, if 2024 had been sponsored by something, it would have been like sponsored by AI, right? Like it was like the year, you know, and AI is awesome. There's so many cool things and ways to play with it. But what I personally, just a choice, don't have it replace is real human contact.

Starting point is 00:09:42 Like, even in our marketing, even in, I write all my own books. I write, you know, it's like, I write my own emails because people can feel the difference. They really can't. You can make perplexity and quad and chat GPT. You could do a lot of stuff. But like people know when it's a robot and when it's a real person. And so I think that people are willing to say, I know it's going to take longer and cost more, but there is like a road.

Starting point is 00:10:04 So I think focusing on relationship versus transactional, but then using AI for automation, you know, using AI for systems and many different things. So I think like, but where does it make sense to be relational? It's going to go a really, really long way when there was this, you know, like sense of, I don't want to be with a computer. I don't want to be with the robot, right? I think another, another opportunity is going to be how we can show. show people, people are investing not just in the product or result anymore, but they want to trust

Starting point is 00:10:40 the person behind it. So what you're going to see, I believe, is a lot of leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs doing like what we're doing, having real long form unscripted conversations instead of just being behind a logo. So, right, you're going to see the seven Senate gave a famous viral TED talk a few years ago called, but many of you know it. It was about people don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it. And I think in 2020, five, people aren't going to buy why we do it. They're going to buy who they're buying from. And so really the importance of personal brand, the importance of being seen from behind, like people having a relationship and inside glance to things like our values and things we care

Starting point is 00:11:19 about even beyond the actual service that we provide or the niche that we're in is going to be a really powerful way to create that trust ascension. And then there's something called the ZMOT. Like I love nerdy stuff. So you might know this, Ryan. A lot of you listening might know it's like the zero moment of truths. It basically says, right, you know, how people make a purchasing decision. So the way to build trust is to give people the 7-11-4, which are the coordinates of the ZMOT, zero moment of truth. So that's, you know, the seven hours of interactive time, which is why long form unscripted

Starting point is 00:11:52 or books or audiobooks or podcasts are so important, you know, the 11 different touchpoints and then four different places. So that's interesting too, because if you're like, I'm always on LinkedIn, you know, being on multiple platforms, so people feel. the sense of you being around, you know, that omnipresence effect that that we hear in marketing. So I think those are some of the things. But the really cool one that I'm obsessed with this year is called user generated content. So some of you may, you know, already, you know, think about this a lot. But whereas an influencer or in an ad, it's very clear. Someone's being paid to market

Starting point is 00:12:26 something, to promote something. We all know what that is. They can still work. But user generated content is where people who are like using your thing, your method, your book, your product in an organic way in their own lives and and creating content from that. So the big example that happened recently was the Philadelphia Eagles. I think it's the wide receiver. A.J. Johnson was reading or A.J. Brown was reading a book on the sidelines of the Super Bowl playoff game. And it caught, you know, CNN and all the people. What are you bored? Like, why are you reading a book on the sidelines of a Super Bowl? And he said, this book is. what I use to get in the game. This book is what I use to get my mind right, to show up and make

Starting point is 00:13:06 the key plays and get us to the Super Bowl. So the book, you know, Jim Murphy's book went viral. It came out in like 2018. Yeah. You know, the revisage. But I've been talking with Jim a little bit about this because it's so, it's so cool as a book person. You know, it's what we do help people, you know, write books that help them do this. And so having someone using your thing in their real life to achieve in a result, I think is going to be one of those like absolutely it's going skip the trust recession and build right to trust. I want to go back to who over why. Because I think that's a really interesting take.

Starting point is 00:13:38 And I think that in some kind of marketing and brand building channels, that would be blaspheming at the highest degree. My question for you is what I've seen, you know, any influential voice thought leadership, I don't necessarily want to say just like influencer type people. But it's almost as if where we used to wear a pair of Nike's as a way. to like express our personal value through this physical object. Now you kind of express your personal position or like or your tribe by who you follow,

Starting point is 00:14:11 who you quote, you know, etc. Like is that the trend we're kind of grabbing onto? Well, that's so interesting. I don't know as much that it's the like the tribe or the community, but now I'm going to give that a lot of thought because now I actually want to like look at that and do some research and data on that. What I'm seeing it more is, you know, before it was really curious. You know, it was sort of like, I'm going to show sort of the dream life. And I still think you're

Starting point is 00:14:33 going to have that. It's like showing people that like what they could be or what they want. I think that's still crucially important. But sort of if we're making a Venn diagram, I think that that Venn diagrams with like more real talk. That's what I meant like sort of the unscripted instead of just the perfectly filtered photographs like really real like more unvarnished. Like the less like, I'm going to show you my beautiful kitchen where nothing's out of place and showing the mess and not in a way that's like distracting, but it's like, yes, it's the dream and the result that you're going to get from this product program service, but it's also like,

Starting point is 00:15:07 is this a real person or is this some kind of BS that someone, because I think again, that trust, that trust meter is really high. Like people signed up for things and they kind of sucked. You know, so who is this person? I think it's more, for me, I think it's less who we're surrounding ourselves with and following and more, do we have integrity? And do we, are we the real deal? and what is the real deal for each of us?

Starting point is 00:15:28 You know, because values. Some people value, here's my Lamborghini and my jet and my, you know, and like that can be really like exciting and sexy and cool. And other people value like, I want to know you're not going to like sign me up for your thing and then not show up.

Starting point is 00:15:41 And you, you know, you have a good, you talk a good game at the front, but the fulfillment's crap. And so more stories. That's why I think the stories of people using the thing or doing the thing matter a lot more to people

Starting point is 00:15:53 because they want like a real peek behind the curtain, not the perfect marketing. Yeah, that's a really good point. I think, you know, what's funny is you see, you see people almost trying to, like, jump that trend who have played the My Perfect Life or, like, I rent the Maserati game. And then all of a sudden they'll have one where, like, their hair is messy. But then you're like, wait a minute, but you still put, like, six filters on it. So I don't really, like, what are we doing here? Like, okay, I just woke up and their hair is messy.

Starting point is 00:16:19 And I'm going to go do some pushups. But, but, like, you perfectly framed it. And it's in one third and the light. And I'm like, come on. Like, right. It's just like, and I also think what's interesting about this particular trend, and I'm just kind of dialing in on this because I think a lot of people, it's very easy for people who have not created a lot of content, are new to the game or are trying to, they're starting to realize, hey, I can't run my local coffee shop on just word of mouth alone anymore, right? I need to bring in more traffic, et cetera. It is who you grab onto early and who you start to follow and try to do like that early mimicry, like who you mimic.

Starting point is 00:16:57 early, it really sets the tone for what you're going to be going forward. And my point in saying all of this is that I think those will call them rental influencers, those like, I'm going to, you know, whatever, like, they've become easier and easier to spot. I feel like that's part of what's happening is that you can't, there's, there's all these cracks in their narrative that we couldn't really see before or we weren't trained to see before. Right. And just we've been in market long enough that now the consumer goes, wait a minute. He's 21. He doesn't have a McLaren. Like, come on. Let's sell it to him. What are we talking about?

Starting point is 00:17:34 Right. And we weren't looking behind the curtain before. We were showing the show. And there's nothing wrong with any of it. Right. It's like, but you know, you see someone, again, we're in the book space, right? And as a way to, you know, build the brand and thought leadership and revenue. And you, there's these younger, sometimes on YouTube I've seen a lot at the end of last year. They'd say, you know, just you know, let AI write your book in an hour and make a hundred. hundred thousand dollars a month on book sales i'm like that is complete like i'm sorry no like first of all there's nothing in that book anyone wants you know like it's just not the internet can only chat chpt can only pull what's already been written and in by its very nature then that book is not going to be like unless it's a super basic how to you know manual of course yeah but like that there's no way you're doing 100k on book sales there i like i just have real suspicion i think a lot of us have our version of suspicion about those things now we say i want to see like the real things. You're going to hear people doing more like what Alex Ramose calls W's and L's, like the wins

Starting point is 00:18:31 and losses. It's like the more vlog style, which is what we're doing a lot more of now, which is like, I'm going to take you on this journey of it. You know, here's all the things that didn't work. And I'm going to show you the total fail and the, you know, not in like that boring like, oh, my weakest, you know, my weakness is that I'm a perfectionist. Not that crap, but like really going, I'm pulling my hair out. This sucks. I'm embarrassed. This didn't work. I'm scared about money because we launched and it didn't work in them pay. But you know, like, that's actually going to, I think, create connection and trust as long as you still, of course, can, you know, figure it out and give people the results versus before

Starting point is 00:19:07 it was like, it was just fun to watch the show. Yeah. There are people that I follow that I know are completely full of shit that I just think they're so ridiculous in the shit they do that I just find it. It's just entertainment. You know what I mean? It's entertainment. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:19:20 Entertainment and would you buy from them is the question. And maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't, but a lot, especially for something like really high ticket. It's like, ooh, I may not be signing up for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I don't think, but I will definitely keep watching because it's candy. It's fun. Yeah, it's exactly. And I keep coming back to this, but it's something that I think about a lot in my own work and with, you know, whatever, is, you know, the internet was so new that so many of these tactics, so many of these things that people did, these templated style videos where we're running the seat, you know, hook, turn, build, turn.

Starting point is 00:19:56 hook, you know, pain, you know, whatever. Like, like, and not that that stuff can't, not that those formats are wrong, but what I found is, like, if I find someone new and they're just using one of these kind of boilerplate templates that's been passed around forever in the, you know, the D to C space or the ad space or whatever, like, I can pick up on that template now like this. And it's not because I've, like, some template expert, it's because I've just watched enough content. we're 25 years into digital creation that like I think our audiences have just become more mature

Starting point is 00:20:31 and they're more they're able to figure out the bullshit more. Their bullshit meter is stronger and it's got more filters on it. So I think, you know, things like what you described going back to that Casey Nistat like 2015, 2016 vlog style video, it's a pattern interrupt because all of a sudden instead of, you know, the same hook template to this thing that every influence watch, they're getting, they're like, wait a minute,

Starting point is 00:20:59 she didn't start with the standard like urgency hook or the, she just kind of like started talking to me. Like that's really interesting. And I find it's just pattern interrupts. It's like, what is everyone else doing, figure out a way to do you inside a format that might be slightly different. But,

Starting point is 00:21:15 and here's kind of where my question goes to you in this. Is, okay. So if you're nodding along, I'm obviously saying the word, so I believe it. If that's true, why is it so hard for people to pattern interrupt or do different things? Everyone just wants the super secret template that's not secret. Like it just, why do we, why do we then cave to conformity? Why is that the case?

Starting point is 00:21:39 I think there's a couple key reasons. And I want to cave to it all the time. So that's why I'm just going to cop to it, right? Like, wouldn't we just love to say, if I just do my YouTube videos like this, hook, what I'm going to deliver, call to action, you know, da, da, da, Like, wouldn't that be nice? First of all, it's exhausting to think about with one more, all the stuff that we do as entrepreneurs and we're to think about, oh, and I've got to innovate a whole framework now.

Starting point is 00:22:03 Like, I can't even, it's enough to film the content with a template that you've already done, right? Or do a DM in the kind of normal way, right? So the idea of innovation, it takes a lot more energy and we're already, we're already kind of tapped, right? So I think one is that. The second is it does require creative things. thinking and in our world right now, I don't know about you, Ryan. Like, I feel like I have to

Starting point is 00:22:25 fight for my own white space. I know who am I fighting? Myself, it's, it's my own crap, right? If it's okay to swear on this show, I didn't ask, right? But like, I, it takes white space meaning thinking time, whatever we want to call it visionary time, creative time, CEO time. That is space that we often, we got this going all the time. We have a 2.9 second attention span. That's the stat of the average attention span right now in 2025. And so to actually get into a state where we are accessing new ideas and being innovative and creative is actually asking a lot of ourselves. Right. So I think there's a there's an undertow of just, oh my God, this is going to be, you know, tiring. It's going to take more time. It's going now the fruits will be so phenomenal and it's so worth it. But I even know

Starting point is 00:23:14 this. I mean, I, you know, teach creativity. We're creating creative thought. assets and I I know how hard it is to do it even when I know how valuable and crucial it is, right? So if you're not even sure and you're just going, well, I'm going to use the templates. So I think it's the fatigue. It's the, it's the, also the fear. Like, we're afraid, what if I can't innovate something? What if I'm not original? What if I don't have any creative ideas, right? That's a real freaking fear that we can feel like, do I have creative ideas after just derivative rinse and repeat, you know, to sort of grab something? I mean, If you have to think of new concepts and film a day of videos, that's a big ask.

Starting point is 00:23:52 Yeah. No, I'm with you. I think that most people who say they aren't creative, it's, that's, well, we know that that's not true. Yeah. It's just, it's just prioritization, right? So, like, it's way easier if you want to feel good about yourself at the end of the day to tick off 15 tasks on your to do list, then it is to have this block of four hours in the

Starting point is 00:24:14 morning or however much time you give it, right? that's free form writing, you know, researching, putting together a script or however you create, you get to the end. Now, what's interesting is if you get something out of that, right? Let's say you get something out of that. The feeling of fulfillment is a thousand times X more than the to-do list. But the difference is, and again, this is something that I talk about a lot in my work with leaders is uncertainty, right? You're uncertainty is such a paralyzing concept to us.

Starting point is 00:24:50 So we'd say, okay, I could spend eight hours doing tasks today. And I know at the end of those eight hours, I'm going to have this positive feeling of getting stuff done. Okay, I know that. Or I could spend four hours of open creative time to try to create a script for a new video I want to do. And I'm not sure if I'm going to love what comes out the back end. And even, you know, like we just said, even though the reward is, you know, 10x,000

Starting point is 00:25:14 X more, whatever it is. we just simply will not prioritize that and because of the uncertainty part of it. And so how do you start to coach your clients around this idea of leaning into this creative space? Right. So I'll just, you know, I always experiment on myself, right? And it's like I'm the first one to say like, oh, God, you know, I have a creative idea ever. So a couple hacks. I'm a big neuroscience person. So I love tapping in. So one of the things that I'm really big fan of is brain priming. If anyone's heard that term, right? It comes from neurolinguistic programming. There's different modalities.

Starting point is 00:25:47 And the idea is that everyone, I mean, Picasso said, you know, every child is born an artist. We are all creative. We all have access to what's called the genius zone, right? I believe that about every human being. There is no exception in my mind, like having, you know, been in this, you know, work and more powerful. I just, I know that that's true. I believe it's true. So then the question is, how do we tap in?

Starting point is 00:26:07 So, yeah, we can't control. We get a good idea at the end of the four hours. That's the rub. But you are going to get good ideas. if you keep making the space, the ideas are going to come. You're going to get that inspiration. I call them the downloads, right? You're going to get these downloads.

Starting point is 00:26:20 But how do we brain prime ourselves? So one of the things I think it can start the night before. There's many different studies about you can ask your subconscious mind before going to bed. You could say, you know, while I'm asleep, give me some cool ideas for content creation or my book or, you know, email marketing. And really just start to prime your brain at night to work on it while you go to sleep. and I even go to sleep listening to, you know, different, you can get up free on YouTube, different hypnosis, meditation things that I'll fall asleep to, binaural beats, you know, there's all kinds of really cool stuff. It's all free. You know, you can just listen to that stuff.

Starting point is 00:26:54 So you are really training your subconscious mind who has all the goodies, right? You know, to offer those up. And it's not that I wake up every morning like, oh, writing down, but throughout the day, they'll just start popping in. They'll start coming. In the shower is another, they call it the shower principle for a reason. You know, you're sitting there shampooing your hair. and but I use that time very strategically. Like I'll sit there and really say, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to tap in, you know, to, like, I'm going to let that be some white space instead of, you know, having a fight with whoever in your head or, you know, whatever other stuff where the mind might go. But then there's even, I record these for all of our clients, but you can, you can use different binaural beats to get into the genius zone simply is to brainwaves.

Starting point is 00:27:35 You want to hit alpha and theta at the same time. We've seen pictures of that probably. and so just making that that can be habit stacking you know again we can have alpha theta stuff on while we're making breakfast or getting dressed and you're just getting the brain you know as primed as possible to get those ideas i don't want to interrupt you on this point but i want to share something with you and the so i have i'm hyperactive bipolar so i'm constantly living either manic or hypermanic right so while i find myself to be highly creative because of that it's also like it's something Sometimes it's like getting a download from this huge cable. And sometimes it's like this time. Okay. So I've been researching a lot about exactly what you're talking about. Brain waves, how sounds impacted. I found this app called Endel.

Starting point is 00:28:24 E-N-D-L. It's like two bucks a month. And it has all these different modes and then the ability for you to actually make your own versions of this. Yes. And I'm telling you, I don't listen. I listen to music. is it half as much as I used to. I have chopped my podcast listening in half.

Starting point is 00:28:44 Because instead of walking around a house listening to a podcast now, I just have these beats in the back. And I'm like doing shit I hate to do. Like the dishes and folding laundry. And like I got down and I'm a single guy. I got two kids, but like I'm on my hands and knees washing the floor.

Starting point is 00:28:59 How many single dudes out there are on their hands washing the floor, right? Like it just doesn't happen. And I'm like, wait a minute. I'm like super productive right now. Let's go. I'll wash them. So it's like,

Starting point is 00:29:09 And it's crazy. It's the beat, right? So then I dug into the science of it. And it's everything you just said. The way the progressions work, the way they do it. Right. So if I'm in focus mode, it's perfect. If I'm in relax mode, sleep mode, reading mode, whatever.

Starting point is 00:29:21 So that's a really cool app I found. It's super inexpensive. I'm not sponsored or anything. But I use it every single day. Endel. End L. E-N-D-L. I am downloaded at the minute we get off this interview.

Starting point is 00:29:32 Because I'm obsessed with all my little, you know, because we record them. Like I have, you know, I just like put it to the music. And we'll do ones for creativity, for thought leadership. for content create. I mean, you're exactly right because we can create a genius state in our something. We think it sort of happens sometimes, wait to you get inspired, but there's so much we can do. And then I think just really reminding ourselves, this is the mindset piece, right? It's just saying, like, I write down every day. This is going to sound this is very embarrassing. I don't think I ever confess this anywhere. So it's just coming. I'm going to say, I write down. I do morning pages like journaling in the morning. And it's just sort of free writing,

Starting point is 00:30:05 getting all your stuff out. And I write down, I'm a creative genius. every single day. I write it out. And, you know, that can sound whatever. But the point is I'm reminding myself. Like, I have the ability to tap in to the same mind that tap through Steve Jobs and, you know, name your favorite genius. Einstein. Like, like, like quantum physics has shown. Like there's a field, right? We can tap into it. And so I think just reminding ourselves of that and getting and then getting excited for the treasure hunt. You know, when does that nudge? Like you said, I'm going to get down and watch this floor because that very zen-like chop wood carry water is going to bring in the ideas. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:43 It's why for most of my life was never a believer in manifesting. And I read parts of the secret. And frankly, I just didn't like the delivery. And it just was too wooey for me. And I just, I just never grabbed it. And then I listened to Andy Ficella, the MFCEO project. And he one day randomly did like went off on this tangent about how manifesting has been an enormous part of his life. Now, here's this like big burly swearing, you know, whatever guy.

Starting point is 00:31:09 You know, you just wouldn't picture manifesting being in his toolkit. So then I was like, well, shit, if it works for this dude, right, then maybe I should look into it. I did. And then I started looking into what you're actually doing. So I, it's, I think manifesting does what's actually happening in disservice. So for those that don't understand, the core concept here is you're priming your brain to look for certain things. That's what's happening. So like, It's like when you buy a new car and then all of a sudden you see that car everywhere. Or you get a green car and every car is green. You're like, I thought I was getting used to new color.

Starting point is 00:31:41 They're everywhere. Right. So, but essentially all you're doing is telling your brain, like what you're doing with, I'm a creative genius is it's saying your brain, look for creative things. Yes. I'm a creative person. Look for creative things. Don't look for mundane things.

Starting point is 00:31:53 Don't look for things that have already been said. Look for creative things. So manifesting is really hacking your brain to basically put like a special target on the radar. or that type of thing. And when you start to think about, like, and again, you've talked about neuroscience and these different things. I think it's so incredibly important we get to that level. When you, so many people got stopped at secret like me

Starting point is 00:32:18 because they didn't love the way that that book was delivered. But the idea, what's actually happening to your brain is science. It's neurology. The holidays are here, and that means it's the most wonderful time of the year to save with racketon. Use racketon to stack cash back from your favorite stores on top of holiday sales.

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Starting point is 00:33:17 Just go to rackaton.com. Download the app or install the browser extension. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N. Terms and conditions apply. All right, people. Serious question time. Did you know that driving high is considered driving under the influence? That's right. driving under the influence of marijuana is against the law in every state. That means even in states where marijuana is legal. That means driving high could get you a DUI. And if you think law enforcement officers can't tell when you're driving high, well, you're wrong. If you're high, they can tell, your friends can tell, your coworkers can tell, even your parents can tell, everyone can tell. So what makes you think that law enforcement officers don't know when you're driving high? You'd be wrong. They can tell too. Driving under the influence of

Starting point is 00:34:03 marijuana can slow your response time and change how you perceive time and speed. So even if you think you're fine to drive when you're high, you're not. Because the bottom line is if you feel different, you drive different and driving high is driving under the influence. So remember, drive high, get a DUI, paid for by NHTSA. And if you can understand that piece, now waking up every morning and saying, you know, I'm going to be a great father, I'm going to be a great leader, and I'm going to be creative. to that, bam, and then you just write that over and over again.

Starting point is 00:34:35 Or, you know, I will be a bestselling author. I will be a bestselling author because then your brain starts going, what do bestselling authors do? They connect with people like Sarah. They, they, you know, work on these projects every day. They block time to do these things. Yeah. And also you think you're just like, you think you're just, you know, really motivating

Starting point is 00:34:56 getting things done, but you just, you basically hacked your brain to do those things. That's all it is. And what I love, like you said, so many people, remember my heart. husband was just like, oh, the secret. I mean, there's just like, it just made fun of it. It was just the work. Because again, it didn't give the science, right? And that's fine because now lots of people have. But what's really fun is even knowing, because I think our rational brain wants to, it needs to make sense of this kind of thing. Instead of just thinking, oh, I'm in the shower saying I'm a creative genius, what the hell is that going to do? But the reticular activating system is even the part of the

Starting point is 00:35:23 brain. And it's like a dog that will fetch whatever toy you throw. So if we throw the toy of like, I'm overwhelmed, I'm tired, and I'm broke. That's what the secret was kind of trying to get at. Then it's not that, it's doing some magical thing. I mean, even though it feels kind of fun and magic, it's that we filter out 90% of everything that comes across our radar. We have to because we get like hundreds of thousands of impressions constantly bombarding. So our brain has to filter out most of it. And then what we do if we're conscious of it is we tell the reticular activating system,

Starting point is 00:35:55 which is the filterer, right, what to go look for. Like you said, if we say go look for creativity, it's going to suddenly like, oh my gosh, I feel so creative. or you get invited to do a class or someone recommends a book and it's really inspiring versus like, oh, I'm exhausted. You know, like, it's going to fetch whatever we feed it. It's just, that's what it does. It doesn't judge it. It doesn't think if it's good for us.

Starting point is 00:36:15 It just says, I'll go get the bone you throw me. That's what we're doing. Have you read or heard about Abigail Schreier's book, Bad Therapy? No, but I don't. That's not going to have an app and a book now. I want to do it. Oh, I have read the short form of the book. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:36:30 And I've watched her do a couple podcasts because I just. didn't, you know, of all the time I had, but I wanted the concepts, right? Yeah. So to be, to be, you know, Abigail, I'm referencing your book. I'll go buy a copy just to get you paid because I shouldn't. She's amazing, but I haven't read the full book yet, be honest, but I've gone through all the concepts and listened to her ton. And the idea here is, you know, she basically calls out and I'm going to forget the year.

Starting point is 00:36:52 It was somewhere in, I think, the 80s where the way therapy was delivered became like talking out your problems all the time. And essentially what, you know, if I'm pulling out her core concept at its highest level, it's what we're talking about, going to therapy and talking about, you know, my wife doesn't love me, she doesn't respect me. I don't get respect at work. I can't get ahead. I'm always, all you're doing, to your point, is setting that in your brain doesn't know the difference, right?

Starting point is 00:37:22 If you couple that idea with, if you've read the untethered soul by Michael Singer. Yes, yes. So one of my favorite books, most of, I probably talk about the book too much on this show. it like define this idea that I could not get my head around but always believed for a long time where like once you realize that your mind, the thing that's talking to that voice you hear in your brain is not you. It's your mind. So if you think about it that way, right?

Starting point is 00:37:45 So you're your soul. You have a body and a mind. And if you think of the mind is not you, what you're then able to do is program that thing like a computer to do exactly what you want. So if you program it with I'm broke all the time. I can't get ahead. I can't get a good job. You know, men or women, whatever, don't like me, aren't attracted to me.

Starting point is 00:38:04 You know, whatever. I can't get fit. I'm not strong. Then that is, you're just, the mind doesn't know the difference. Your mind does not know the difference. All it's hearing is these things. If on the opposite side, you said, you know, I'm funny. I'm happy.

Starting point is 00:38:17 I'm filled with love. I connect. I grow. Your mind's going, oh, well, I guess that's who I am. And that's the way that I should act. And it's like, I just love these ideas. And I'm obviously, I nerd out. like you do. I'm just, when we can detach ourselves from like, this is who I am, right?

Starting point is 00:38:34 And start saying, this is who I want to become and who I want to be. You can program your brain in our mind to do those things just like you what a computer. It's so exciting, right? And this is what they talk about neuroplasticity. That's what is, everything's revisable. And I love what you're saying, too, of do you know even it goes a step further, which is, which is so fascinating to me that our immune system, I think it was Deepak Chopper who first said this. So I want to, again, always give credit. Our immune system is eavesdropping on whatever thoughts we're running all the time. Our immune system, our longevity, like, you're sort of, so our health, or how long we're going to be on this planet, our finances, our happiness level, our influence or

Starting point is 00:39:13 impact or success, whatever, you know, we want to call that piece. It's eavesdrop. Like, so your physical body is eavesdropping and getting the cues for how it should be in, like you said, you know, there's people that have struggled and I can't lose weight. I can't, you know, all this stuff. And then suddenly start working with this piece. And it's like, I didn't even try. One of our team members released 52 pounds in the last six months. Like not. And she's like, I didn't go to Weight Watchers. I didn't. I mean, she did change her movement and her food. But it came from that level of identity, which is what you're talking about. So who do we associate and what do we associate as me? And she started associating as a fit, healthy, strong, you know, amazing, powerful woman that was, you know,

Starting point is 00:39:54 and it wasn't people like, what did you do? Are you on a Zempex? She said, no. I didn't take anything. I just, you know, she had a new, she had a new idea. She was running a different program. Yeah. And that's what you're saying. We run a different program. And that's what's so cool.

Starting point is 00:40:05 This is available to all of us. It's here. I love it. So, okay. So I want to take our remaining time together in transition just a little bit. So I've been listening to this. I'm an expert in a field. I may not feel I'm creative, but I'm,

Starting point is 00:40:18 I'm believing our argument that I can be creative. Like, why a book? Aren't books like super old school and no one reads anymore? Right. Why would we, why would I take this expertise and use a book as the way to capture it and build a business around it? Yeah. I love this so much because we did it.

Starting point is 00:40:35 We did a webinar once on is a book worth it. Right. And obviously, you know, it's like a book saved my life 20 something years ago. So for me, I've got a whole history with that and, you know, paying that gift forward. That was my vow. You know, I loved your TED talk on that. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:40:47 It's like, you know, just knowing that that was one of those. Like we have these mission moments, you know, in our lives, right? But here's what's fascinating because you would think in it, I said earlier, a 2.9 second attention span world, why the hell would someone write a book? So I'm going to, I'm going to just, there's a lot of reasons, but I'm going to give the three that are most important to me in this year, just for 2025. So the first thing is so fascinating is that the human brain, because I care about this stuff, can process in 1.8 seconds. They see your book cover, your name, your topic. So under the attention span barrier, that 2.9 seconds, the human brain

Starting point is 00:41:21 will process, oh, Ryan's the expert on this. He has my solution. We get. have authority, whether that's deserved or not, because there's plenty of crappy books. But like, you know, we think someone knows what it is. They have a system. So if you're unknown, the reason to do a book is that it's a flag in the ground in your niche and in your industry to say, I've got my unique take on this piece and I have a solution. And because of this trust issue, we talked about, someone's going to get the ZMont moment with you. You know, they're going to have that time and that intimacy because you took a time and you couldn't just whip out a video for one second on Facebook. It's like a freaking book, right? So, so that's one thing. Then what's fascinating is at the

Starting point is 00:42:01 beginning of this year, I think Eckhart Tolly released a book with Oprah, Martha Beck, Mel Robbins, and Gabby Bernstein, if people know those particular thought leaders, they all did January books. And these are all women who have had multiple New York Times bestsellers. They make many millions of dollars a year. It's not like they, their household names to many people in certain circles and personal growth. So it's like, why another one, right? This isn't even the first book. But it gives them a reason to go on all the shows and all the podcasts and be booked as the keynote speaker for their six figures that they're speaking fee commands because the research is 80% of the time, people that get invited on a media outlet, a podcast, a keynote stage,

Starting point is 00:42:44 have released a book in the last year. Right? Sometimes it can be longer than that. But it's, so people keep writing them, whether you're really established or you're brand new, because it's, It's a door opener to the visibility and the ability to get back and be relevant. So that top of mind awareness we hear about, like, people will invest in one of the three people that last crossed their radar. How do we maintain top of mind awareness? The book still has gravitas. It still does. No matter even there's so many books.

Starting point is 00:43:11 But it still does have this ability to say there's something new, something big. You've got a reason to go out and be visible and be top of mind again. Yeah. I used to talk about this topic. In another life, I used to talk a lot about content marketing back in like 2010 to 2015. It's whatever, different story for a different day. However, an idea that I used to share a lot back then and I talked about in my first book, which please do not go look at the cover.

Starting point is 00:43:39 It's the worst book cover ever. That's a whole story for a different show. However, was time and attention, right? And what I meant by that was like you, if you produce something, say a long form video, right so this will probably end up being 45 minutes-ish whatever the whatever the length okay we could have also done this in five minutes like a clip from ABC or CNBC or whatever right and you could have a thousand people watch that five-minute video or you could have a hundred people watch your 45-minute video right my argument was always I'd rather have the 100 people watched a 45-minute video because what's happening is

Starting point is 00:44:14 every moment right that their their eyes and attention are on your content they're building a connection to you and a deeper connection. So it's like you either need, you know, nine, five minute videos, right? Or one, 45 minute video, right? And then, and get to explain your expertise. And to the book, you know, there's all, you know, blog posts used to be all the rage, obviously 15, 20 years ago, right? And while blog posts can still be interesting, right, how many, you know, in 2010, the guidance was 750 word bog posts. If someone sent you a link to a 750 word blog posts today and you looked at it, would you even scan it? You'd be like, there's no way they can deliver anything of value to me in 750 words. Right now, blog posts are like 4,000, 5,000 word,

Starting point is 00:45:03 you know, they're like chapters of entire books in a blog post. And it's almost like we have micro content and super long form content and everything in between is dying. Does that feel like a good? It's true. This year, it's going to be the micro two to get someone intrigued and And then it's long form. Long form is king, queen, wherever we want to call it, long form, long form. But we need, you know, the micro is important. But the middle form, it's like just almost.

Starting point is 00:45:29 I mean, you know what, like you said, a substock's big. You know, there are different things going on. And I still think the shorts like in a moose bouch, you know, a little hors d'oeuvre of us on YouTube or something is worth cutting the podcast that you already made, picking a nugget, a good sound bite, you know, having that short. But then the long form is everything right now. Yeah. Yeah. You just, I look at just the comments that I get.

Starting point is 00:45:51 very the, I get less comments and the comments I do get are often just like, good job or this is cool or I'm feeling this today, right? On the short form. But on the long form, I will get like epilogue emails from people like, oh my God, here's my experience similar to what you talked about, blah, blah, blah, but I couldn't get out of this. And here's what I did. And you're like, oh my God, I made a friggin impact. Look, look what's happening here. Right. Like, but that doesn't happen on the short form stuff. And I think we have to be very careful with how we split our time and attention. And really short form should be systematized unless you're like a TikTok creator is your job.

Starting point is 00:46:27 But I couldn't be more with you. I mean, to me, books, podcast series, long form podcast series, you know, really well done. You know, courses are tough. They can work and can be important. But I think we have to be very careful with those. But all this time on middle form content, five minute videos, blog posts, like, you know, short newsletters that aren't really super valuable. Like, it's just all that stuff is dying and you are unsubscribing.

Starting point is 00:46:55 And it's a really interesting time. Well, Sarah, I want to be respectful of your time. This has been a tremendous conversation. You're welcome back anytime. Yes. Consider us a friend. Anything you have going on, you know, please come back again because there's like a million more topics we could talk about.

Starting point is 00:47:09 But if someone's listening to this and wants to get deeper into your world, how do they do that? Yeah, definitely. I'm a big YouTube fan. So certainly you DM me on Instagram. Instagram just at Sarah Connell and I'm S-A-R-A-C-O-N-N-E-L. I know I don't have an H on Sarah. But our YouTube channel, we're doing a lot of cool stuff over there.

Starting point is 00:47:27 And I don't know if you all have heard this, how YouTube is going to soon have what it was like in Facebook in the beginning where you can really build community and have almost more like what Facebook groups that's coming soon on YouTube on YouTube. And so it's at Thought Leader Media is where we are over there. Guys, and whether you're watching the show on YouTube or listening wherever you listen to podcast, just scroll down into the description or show notes, etc. and I'll have links to all of Sarah's stuff, how you get deeper into her world. Thank you so much for taking this time. What a tremendous conversation. It's been a blast.

Starting point is 00:47:54 Thanks, Brian. Food Laboratory in the basement of his home. Happy holidays. Want to give your host a gift? Consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the show this holiday season. It really helps the show grow. From all of us at Believe,

Starting point is 00:48:36 have a Merry Christmas, everyone, and a happy holiday. If you like the show, please take a moment to raise. review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.

Finding Peak w/ Ryan Hanley - Branding Expert Reveals the Secret to Business Success in 2025 - Sara Connell

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