Living The Red Life - Expert Versus Influencer

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Why is it that some experts are broke as entrepreneurs? And why does it seem as though a lot of stupid people are the ones getting rich? Understanding what it takes to influence and create an impact in this online world takes more than just being an expert in your field. It takes the ability to know when to collaborate with someone who may be smarter than you at marketing. It takes introspection to know when it's time to learn the basics of another industry so that you can apply your skills there. In the battle of expert versus influencer, Rudy is showing us the way forward in terms of collaboration, as well as individual pursuit, by drawing on his years of experience thinking outside the box and knowing that sometimes to get to that level of 'expert' will just take too damn long. Whether you are an aspiring influencer or expert, you need each other. And you, personally, always need to be looking to improve your skillset in the areas in which you aren't that strong. How you do that is today's red-hot topic. Welcome to Wonderland. Let's get busy Red Life Living!  "Just being an expert, or just being excellent, sadly isn't good enough." ~ Rudy MawerThe first 1000 to click here and send the promo code from the podcast can claim one of my courses for FREE!  - https://m.me/rudymawerlife In This Episode:What level of skills do you need to become an expert? How do you pivot from being an expert to a marketer?Understanding your responsibility to share your knowledgeKnowing when to collaborate as an expert or influencerWhy 'best known' beats 'best'Finding the right experts to work with long-termAnd so much more!Connect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/rudymawer/Instagram - www.instagram.com/rudymawerlifeFacebook - www.facebook.com/rudymawerlifeTwitter - www.twitter.com/rudymawer

just being an expert or just being excellent sadly isn't good enough okay and there's many cases where you're the the best at what you do but you're not very known right and i shot another episode about being best known beats best my name is rudy moore host of living the red life podcast and i'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week if you're ready to start living the red life ditch the blue blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. What's up guys? Welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. I have just spent a couple of weeks off in Miami setting up our new office. So if you're following me on social, listening to this, when it drops, I would love for you to go check out that announcement and hopefully come down and see us in our second office down in Miami.

But I am back in Tampa shooting this episode today in our Red Life studio. And we are going to talk about why experts and really, really smart people are often broken and unsuccessful in entrepreneurship, right? And why stupid people are often successful and make a bunch of money and the differences. Okay, I realized this early on. I was becoming an expert. I was becoming really smart in my industry, which was fitness when I first started. And I saw all these world-class scientists, top in the world, leading experts. I was doing a master's degree and they were just professors with zero following,

making no money, you know, making a degree at a university, 60, 70, 80, 100 grand a year, maybe if they're lucky, working after getting a PhD, right? So 10 years almost in education, and they were making very little money, right? Whereas you had these, a quote unquote, stupid, right? You had these less intelligent fitness entrepreneurs or fitness models, and don't get me wrong, some of them and many of my friends are extremely smart, right? But then there are some that have very little business skills. They know very little about health and nutrition, but they're making millions of dollars, right? Why? Because they're able to understand the ability to influence, to impact. They have more entrepreneurial traits. And there was this massive divide, okay? So if you're

listening to this today and you are an expert you're super smart that's awesome and i'm not disencouraging the fact that you should know your skill and you should become an expert and become smart i did that right but i did see the writing on the wall of hey i've spent eight years getting a master's degree an undergrad degree studying traveling the world going to conferences and I have to be careful that I don't fall into that expert trap where I'm only ever going to make a small amount of money. So I pivoted pretty quickly into entrepreneurial skills and marketing skills. And then within a couple of years, I made a million dollars through those skills, right? Or I built a million dollar company through those skills. And I saw that writing on the wall.

So if you're listening to this today, hopefully this is the writing on the wall for you, right? Where you go, hey, I'm gonna fall into that expert trap or maybe I'm already in it, right? Maybe you're in that pit of doom or trap where you've become an expert, you've been doing it 10, 20, 30 years and you don't know how to turn it

into a million dollar business, right? You might do well, some coaching clients, consulting clients, a couple of maybe speaking gigs, and you're making 50, 100, 150, 200 grand a year, which is great, right? For many people, that's awesome. But there's probably part of you that goes, can I make this a million dollar business?

So I'm going to talk about what that takes, the differences. And if you're on the flip side, you're starting out in your career and you're not an expert, I'm going to talk about how much you need to really spend time crafting the skills versus becoming an entrepreneur and knowing how to run a business. And I believe there's a balance, right? And I didn't understand this balance when I started. I just went like 100% in, let me become super smart, expert blah blah blah blah blah and I realized after eight nine ten years and now in hindsight after say 15 years of being diving into all this that I didn't need quite as much expert skill set because really all those expert things

only mattered when I was talking to other scientists or now in marketing all the like little minute Facebook ad things, marketing things, that they're only sexy and cool when you're sat at a dinner table with a bunch of other expert marketers and you kind of geek out on it, right? When I'm teaching people, business owners and entrepreneurs, marketing, I don't even go into that expert advanced stuff because they don't need it. They need the basics. And I realized that in fitness too, when I, you know, helped hundreds of, well, tens of thousands, around a hundred thousand people transform their health and fitness, all the experts stuff and the deep science, it wasn't really used. A little bit was used, but really 80, 90% of it was, hey, go eat a salad,

right? Eat vegetables, eat fruits, healthy meats, right? And whole foods, and then go and work out more and sleep well and try and lower your stress, right? And I was like, it took me 10 years of studying to 100 grand of college debt to learn that. So there's a balance, right? And I realized, hey, well, now if I can shift my attention to like, how can I reach 100,000 people, I can use that knowledge to now impact the world. And I'm glad I did. And that panned out because I took up my skill set. And then I sold 10s of 1000s of fitness courses and helped 1000s of people transform their health. And now I became more of an expert in marketing and advertising and Facebook ads and building online businesses.

And now I don't spend as much time geeking out on the latest Facebook ad hack. You know, I have a team of seven or eight media buyers where they'll come walk over in the office or on a Zoom call, tell me, hey, there's this new feature on Facebook where you can change this setting. It's been working well. And I go, oh, that's cool. Great. Great to know. Right. So now like ascended beyond the marketing to being a big business owner, right? We got up to nearly 100 employees recently and then actually got past it at the start of this year. We just expanded into Miami now. So we have two big offices running. We're going to expand again soon. We're doing a lot on the celebrity side. So, you know, I'm spending more time now learning

skills around raising capital, leadership, asset protection, you know, how to grow, you know, more like how to grow this company into $100 million plus franchising models, licensing models, how to get more mainstream on TV and media and film. So, you know, my skill set and what my time and energy has gone has changed again. And that's my journey, right? And I'm sharing that with you. So you can kind of reflect on my 15 or so years. And hopefully you can see how what I'm saying here is, I'd probably have changed along the way a little more and found more of a balance. So if you're on the expert side, the balance and the shift over is learning the business marketing, impact, influence and attention side, because I think one of the saddest things in life for a lot

of you is you're great at what you do. You know, you can help people, impact people. You're super smart and you just don't know how. And you kind of get jealous and upset by these other people that this was me at least 10 years ago, other people that knew Jack all, but they had like millions of followers. They were selling tons of programs, making millions of dollars. And you're like, well, if only I could do that, I would be giving those people way better service and way better product. So it's kind of like you should be inspired and motivated. That's why I actually motivated me of like, hey, I could help these people so much more. So I need to go figure out what those people have figured out so I can actually help these people and give them a better product. So think about that for yourself. How do you stop being an expert? And it'll be hard, right? Like

stop reading all the latest hacks, tricks, tips, spend that energy and time on figuring out the marketing side, the business side, how to hire people, how to promote, how to use social media, right? Because if you really care about what you do, you want to spread that message, right? And then if you look at quote unquote, the stupid people, right? And I say that as a joke, but people that are less intelligent, less degrees and whatnot, and obviously smart in different ways, they've become really good at understanding the landscape of business, which these days is social media. It's the ability to gain attention. It's the ability to go viral. It's the ability to be controversial. It's the ability to make engaging content, right? And they might not know

as much about their industry, whether it's stock trading, a real estate, health and fitness, Facebook ads, but they have learned a very super valuable skill set, which like I said, makes them smart in a different way where they know how to influence people, right, and impact people. And if the experts could learn that, that would be the best of both worlds because you're great at what you do. And now you can impact millions of people. And that should be the goal for many of you. And obviously, the people that are great at business, social media attention, they should hire the experts to make sure everything they say is correct. Right. And they're giving great advice and they're able to help people

and they're not diluting and ruining their brand by selling crap, right? Maybe they're selling supplements and they don't understand what the supplement is because they're not the expert. And then a year later, they realize it was bad. And now that's unethical, right? Because they just sold it to maybe tens of thousands of people. So there's a collaboration between both sides. And you can either try and play on both sides and be good at both, or you can partner and create synergies between someone on the other side, right? So if you're an expert, partner with a big influence, right? If you're a big influencer, partner with an expert to come and back up everything you do. And I think just understand that one of my biggest light bulb moments, probably eight,

nine, eight, eight years ago was really one of the saddest things is having all this knowledge and not being able to share it with the world. And I think, I can't remember who it was, Warren Buffett or Steve Jobs or one of the super famous entrepreneurs and business builders said that one of the saddest things in life is having all this knowledge and experience and then dying without sharing and using that what you've gained over maybe 80, 90 years and being able to impact millions of lives through that knowledge. So that's why I do everything I do. I want to be able to share all my experience, wisdom and wealth. And don't get me wrong, there's people far smarter and more successful than me.

But I want to be able to do that and give back like I wish I had that mentorship 10 years ago. And you'll probably listen to that and want to do that too, right? For your audience, for your fans, for your members and share your journey. It's so important understanding how to play both sides. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. Before we go into the rest of this episode, I'm gonna interrupt abruptly and just ask you one big favor.

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So let's get back into the episode. I appreciate you guys. And let's dive back in. So how do we actually build those skill set? The experts, you know, they're built, they're studying their craft. And I encourage you to understand, even if you don't want to be an expert, understand the basics. And then if you're an expert, how do you build the skill set of being good at business and marketing? Well, it's just like you did to become the expert, right? You have to first spend time understanding the foundations, learning the industry. And then as you become an expert, you need to practice, right? So you've got to go post on social media.

You've got to do selfie videos, maybe. You've got to hire a couple of employees, okay? I'm not saying every single expert needs to be a social media star and doing viral TikTok, right? Many of them don't ever need to do that and never will, but they need to know how to grow a brand, okay? And look, the world is going online, hopefully you've noticed, right? I've shot many episodes talking about the future of wealth and branding and I'm writing a book on it. So I really believe we're just getting more and more into this online world, this metaverse eventually, right?

So the ability to take information and then distribute that information online is never going away. It's getting more and more and more and more important and you're gonna be left behind more and more and more if you don't adapt, okay? And I've talked a lot about being an expert, but it's the same if you sell a physical product. It's the same if you don't adapt, okay? And I've talked a lot about being an expert, but it's the same if you sell a physical product.

It's the same if you have a restaurant and you wanna, you create amazing food, right? It's just like you create amazing fitness plans or stock trading advice or programs or real estate programs. If you create amazing food, then you have like that responsibility and need to then share that with the world.

How'd you do that? Well, social media and marketing and influence and attention. And if you have a great restaurant, well, there's a lot of crappy restaurants that get all the customers. As you know, it's exactly the same, right? You're maybe the better expert in the kitchen, but you're losing customers because maybe they have a better brand, a better name. They have a big social media following. Maybe they pay for a better name. They have a big social media following. Maybe they pay for a better location. They get more traffic, right?

So you have to work even harder if you're three blocks away from the beach and they're on the beach to now build your name, to build your brand, to learn marketing, to do incentives. Maybe it's a free appetizer. Maybe it's free giveaways. Maybe it's an opening night or a relaunch or a new menu or figuring out the rankings on Google and TripAdvisor, right? And running Facebook ads and bringing in influencers to repost you and paying the local fan pages on Instagram for like Miami Eats, right? And paying them to come in and film and run an ad for you. There's so many ways. But again, if you do nothing about it, just being an expert or just being excellent, sadly, isn't good enough.

OK, and there's many cases where you're the best at what you do, but you're not very known. Right. And I shot another episode about being best known beats best. So I'll say that one more time. Best known beats best. So you can't just rely on your skill anymore. OK. You've got to become the best and most well known. Okay. And I've become very good at that. We obviously have our whole red thing, big social media followings is ever growing. We're partnering with celebrities that are the best known, right? To continually grow my brand and to grow their brands because I'm coming in as the expert on building online brands. So you see, you take someone with influence, someone as an expert, create an alliance, a synergy, and voila. So think about how you can do that more. Think about how you can develop and grow those skill sets. How can you partner?

How can you hire for your weaknesses, right? One of the best things to do is hire for your weaknesses. I wanted to start TV shows and a big YouTube channel and the two guys sat opposite me as I'm recording this right now one of them's grown a YouTube channel to a million million people and one of them's created TV shows and worked on big sets like Marvel and such like right so I'm not going to try and become an expert and spend the next six years learning YouTube and then spend another six years learning Hollywood, right? Instead, I did spend a few weeks understanding the foundations, right? So I could speak the language. And then I

said, who can I hire? Find me these people. And voila, these people are here now. So they're experts in what they do here to help me and my company grow using my influence, right? So think about how you can do that and understand it is your responsibility not only to yourself but to your family but to everyone in the world you could be impacting to figure out how to influence, how to gain attention, how to promote, how to attract leads and sales and appointments and reservations depending on what you sell and of course that's exactly what me and my company does. And if we can help you, we would love to, right? And all of our podcast episodes and our online

courses, and we have free content, $97 ads, everything is available to help you, right? And it obviously goes all the way up to $150,000 where we do it for you you but it's there to help you leverage and reach millions of people now the other side to finish is if you can reach millions of people but you're not making the money i see that a lot too you maybe make 200k 400k 600k but you could be making six million dollars if you knew how to grow a real product a a real business, not start just doing shout outs and sponsors, because that's also a waste too. So you have to understand those product development and how to build a brand around your influence. So there you have it, guys, in a nutshell. This is the battle between the expert and the influencer. It's how the expert can stop being broke, okay, and have

true impact in the world and hopefully make millions of dollars in the process. Of course, I can't guarantee that, but that is a win-win, right? Because the more money you have, even if you don't like money, you can reinvest it to help more people. And if you have the impact and the eyeballs, you can use all that attention to really help people with great products and service, which makes a great business and will make you more respected, more ethical, and more successful. And we try as a company to bridge those gaps. And often both of our clients, we have half the clients over here, half the clients on the other side. And what we do is bring them together and help fill those weaknesses. And that is what the red

life is about impacting more people, making money in the process and creating your dream life. I hope you enjoyed today's show and I will see you very, very soon in the process and creating your dream life. I hope you enjoyed today's show and I will see you very, very soon in the next one. Take care.