The School of Greatness - 883 5 Ways To Monetize Your Personal Brand with Rory Vaden

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

IS YOUR PERSONAL BRAND MAKING YOU MONEY OR COSTING YOU TIME? The last time Rory Vaden joined the show, he shared some strategies we could use to create influential personal brands — insight that helped me shift the focus of my business and scale it to the next level. We hear a lot more talk about personal brands today than we did even just a year or two ago, but I still don’t think people are acting seriously enough when it comes to establishing, scaling, or monetizing their brands. I am not exaggerating when I say there is no way I would be where I am today, personally or professionally, if I hadn’t started getting strategic and intentional about branding over 10 years ago. And, as time goes on, personal branding is only getting more important — for all of us. Luckily, things are a lot easier for us today than they were for me back then. There are hundreds of successful personal brands you can model, online marketing tools are only getting more accessible and easier to use, and most importantly, we are being guided by one of the world’s leading experts on influence. In today’s episode of The School of Greatness, we discuss why personal branding isn’t just a fad, why it’s actually only becoming more important, and the five best ways you can start monetizing your brand today. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, freelancer, or employee, pay close attention to this episode, because Rory brings the heat (again) and his advice will be transformative — if you take action. And if you’re really serious about monetizing your personal brand, you can book a free brand strategy call with Rory’s team. Let out a sigh of relief, because you’re about to find clarity on how to monetize your personal brand and scale your business in Episode 883. Some Questions I Ask: Why is personal branding still so important? (7:57) What are the five best ways to start monetizing your brand (AKA how to get P.A.I.D.S.)? (16:46) How does someone know which of these five ways to monetize a personal brand is the best for them? (40:07) What is ONE thing that listeners can do now if they want to monetize their personal brand? (1:00:58) In This Episode, You Will Learn: How people become “Twitter rich but dollar broke” (10:20) How you can monetize your audience without ever selling something to them (19:20) What my personal branding journey with Rory looked like & what we did to make my business more scalable (28:50) The advantages and disadvantages of P.A.I.D.S. (40:30) Why “you need to make sure your influence doesn’t grow wider than your character runs deep” (1:07:10) Plus much more... If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at www.lewishowes.com/883 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes

This is episode number 883 with New York Times bestselling author Rory Vaden on the five ways to monetize your personal brand. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. George Lucas said, always remember your focus determines your reality. Bill Gates said, only through focus can you do world-class things, no matter how capable you are.

I want you to pay attention to that last quote by Bill Gates. Only through focus can you do world-class things, no matter how capable you are. You're capable of doing so many different things. You're very a talented human being. You've got a lot of skills. You're growth-minded, and that's why you're here. You want to learn how to achieve greatness in your life, in your business, in your relationships. So you have the capability of doing many different things at a high level. But the challenge is that can be one of the biggest distractions for high achievers or high earners or people that want to just improve their life is they try to do so many things with their focus and diluted energy gets diluted results is what Rory Vaden talks about. And in this episode, I think it's going to be one of the most powerful for you.

If you have influence, if you're looking to build a personal following, if you're looking to increase clientele, if you want to grow your brand, if you want to monetize your brand, this will probably be the most powerful episode for you at the end of this year, going into next year to determine the success of your business, your personal brand, your career, and your life. Because we're going to be talking about the difference between building a brand and building a profitable business. Because there's a lot of people who are audience rich, but financially poor. We're going to talk about how to change that. We break down the five kinds of businesses and what the benefits are of

each one. So if you don't know what business model you're in right now, we're going to break down the five different types of businesses for your personal brand and the benefits. So you know which one is right for you. We're going to talk about how using Rory's techniques, I was able to identify what I want in my business, what I want it to look like, and what I want for the future. And it wasn't until I reached out to Rory a couple of years ago and went through a number of his strategic processes where it allowed me to find clarity and focus in my business and personal brand. We're also talking about the power of narrowing your focus to create powerful results in your business and life. And we're going to be giving people a free call

to figure out your goals for next year, to figure out your business model, to figure out how to grow your personal brand even more, how to monetize it, how to build your following, how to get clear on your message, your uniqueness. We're going to give you a free call with Rory and Rory's team. And you can go to lewishouse.com slash brand call right now to register for a free call to get clarity on your goals for next year, to get clarity on your business and your brand and some more great stuff. So make sure to check

that out at lewishouse.com slash brand call. We'll talk about that more at the end, but make sure you check this out and share this with a friend. If you have a friend who's a coach or wants to be a freelancer or is looking to build their personal brand and is struggling, is trying to get more clients, whatever it may be, send them this link right now. Do them a favor. Help them out by sharing this valuable resource, lewishouse.com slash 883, and tell your friends to check it out and see what they got out of this. Ask them how much value they got out of this and what their steps are moving forward for their business and their personal brand.

I'm super excited about this. Again, Rory Vaden, New York Times bestselling author, world-class keynote speaker in the World Championship of Public Speaking, co-founder of Brand Builders Group, the world's leader in the study of reputation strategy with the mission to help every person identify their voice, tell their story, and share their unique message. So without further ado, let's dive into this episode with Rory Vaden. Welcome back, everyone, to School of Greatness podcast. We've got my man, Rory Vaden, in the house. Yes, again. Good to see you, brother. Hey, this is my third time here. Is that the most of anyone you've ever had? Third time on the show? On the show. It's been over the span of many years.

Six years or something. Chris Lee has been on, what, 13 times? Oh, yeah. 13 times. I think there's only maybe three people who've been on three times. Maybe. Maybe four. I've got, I think Gary Vee's been on three times, I think. Never heard of him.

Tony Robbins has been on three times. Tony Robbins has been on three times. I think Tim Ferriss, at least two, maybe three. Well, that's good company to be in but you're in a small group of maybe five people. And the last time we had you on, we talked about building an influential personal brand, the strategy behind building it. And today we're talking about ways to monetize your personal brand, the five different ways to monetize. But why is personal branding still such an important thing that everyone should be thinking about?

Whether you're an entrepreneur, freelancer, employee, why is this important for everyone? Or is it not important for people to build their personal brand? I mean, it's huge. It's the future, right? I mean, that's one of the reasons why we got in this space is just look at how your life has changed, you know, as the school of greatness has grown. And here's something that's fascinating about the world today is that I think in many ways people are aspiring more for influence than they are for income.

Why is it? It's because you can't buy influence, right? Like you, you, in some ways you can, you can fake by it, you can fake by it, likes and followers, but not real true influence is by how you create something in the world or the way people perceive you or that people really want to hear what you have to say. Yeah. And it's the difference between like, you know, a dictator can, can, can, you know, force things to happen, but somebody who has influence makes things happen. You know, Oprah has influence. She says something and people respond. That's different than I forced a law to pass or I'm

your boss and you must do this. And I think, you know, there's so many ways to make money. And I just think there's a big movement in the world where it's like, we don't need more money. And I just think there's a big movement in the world where it's like, we don't need more money. What we need is less stress. We need less complexity. We need more freedom. We need more peace. We need to feel more aligned with our purpose. It doesn't mean we don't want money, but like at Brand Builders, it's interesting because we say that our audience is mission driven messengers. It's people like you. I mean, I think it is no accident that we started working with you so closely because it's not that money isn't important. It's just that money isn't the most important thing. So we want to make money. The mission, it takes money to finance the mission,

but at the end of the day, the message is more important than the money. I wonder if you ask people a question, if they could have all the income in the world and no influence, and they couldn't use the money to get any attention or influence or all the influence in the world, but no money, and they couldn't use the influence to gain money. Which would you choose? Which would you choose? I mean, that'd be a good question to put on Insta or something as a survey.

Maybe people can leave a comment on the comment down on the blog for this. We'll do that. Send me a DM also of your reply, what you would do. We'll share that out there. But I would say this, a lot of our clients, so our clients typically fit into two different categories. It's people who are sometimes, and I say this politely, they're Twitter rich and dollar broke, as we say. They have a big following and they don't have any money. They don't know how to monetize it. They don't know how to monetize it. So we're helping those people. And then there's people who have all the money in the world, but no one knows who they are.

Nobody knows who they are. And they're trying to build a following and that's so hard for them, right? And it's different. Building a following is different than building a business there. And there's, there's some commonalities, but again, it's like, I think people with money, what they really are aspiring for is influence. Why? Because I don't, I think it's just because you make, they want to make a difference in the world. And you keep score at some point in your life by how much money you have. Right. But then over time, you realize that-

It's not fulfilling me anymore. It's not fulfilling. It's not. Once you get past a certain threshold, it's- 10 million in the bank or a million dollars or whatever. I mean, it depends on who you are. But it can be, I mean, for some people, it can be $100,000 a year. And it's just like, there's nothing more I aspire to have,

but there is always more that I aspire to be. There is more that I aspire to impact and to influence and to create in the world. And that is what is available through a personal brand. And people go, you know, I don't care to be the richest person in the world, but man, I would love to have the kind of impact that Mother Teresa has and Gandhi and Martin Luther King. And even, you know, you see the modern business moguls.

You mentioned Tim Ferriss and Gary Vaynerchuk and Tony Robbins. Like, those guys all make plenty of money, but they're not the richest people in the world, but they've made a tremendous impact. And I think that that is the currency of the day, that influence and impact has become more in pursuit than just income by itself. Because a lot of people are able to make the money, but after that, they need something else. Then what? You got to do something else with their life, a purpose. And impacting people is usually the way to have that purpose. And so many people, the generation before us, our parents and things, like so many people that worked hard to give us the things they never had, which was noble in many ways and wonderful, but it also taught us

that many of us looked ahead and we saw people who were not happy and they were trading happiness for prosperity per se. Safety, a home, everything, yeah. Yeah. And the younger generation has said, screw that. I don't care. I don't need to own a home. I don't need to even have a permanent residence. I'll go travel the world and couch surf and Airbnb and I don't need to have a car. I, you know, I'll share a car with somebody. But the thing that everybody across every generation has in common is I want my life to count for something. I want to matter. And I think, you know, if you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I was just having this conversation with a client yesterday, as a matter of fact,

and we were talking about how self-actualization is like the highest thing, right? It's like, I have become all that I can be, but I think there's a higher level than that. And it's not self-actualization, it's others' actualization, is that even when you become your highest self, which I think is a very valuable pursuit, there's still an emptiness in self-achievement. We quickly realize, I mean, and just to use myself as an example in some realm, right? It's like, I had the dream to become a world champion public speaker, and i basically did that i came in second um want to be a new york time best-selling best-selling author one is build an eight-figure

business your company like the next thing the next thing and it started when i was young it was my first thing was i wanted to be a black belt and then i wanted to be valedictorian i wanted to get a full-ride scholarship and my life was this sequential thing and and you realize even being a new york times Times bestselling author, as wonderful as it is, and it's a worthwhile pursuit, the deep satisfaction that comes from that lasts for about 10 minutes. Because what you really realize is it's like, I don't want to be on a bestseller list. I want people to read my book and have it change their life for years and years and years and years and have many, many people do that. And so it's really others actualization and the vehicle of personal branding and the tools of digital media have made that more available

and accessible than ever before. I want to take a moment from this episode with Rory to talk about hemp fusion. Now, perhaps you've heard about the potential benefits of CBD. I see stuff all over the place about the benefits of CBD, but know this, not all CBD is created equal. There's lots of different products and not all of them have the best quality ingredients. ingredients. Most of them just offer CBD. Hemp Fusion is CBD plus omegas, plus terpenes, plus other natural ingredients to help you feel 100%. They do this because CBD works best for your body when combined with these other natural ingredients. Hemp Fusion also adds other natural ingredients to create products that help specifically with stress, sleep, and energy levels. Now, our bodies already make cannabinoids and plant-based CBD helps naturally balance our body. Everything Hemp Fusion does adds up to a better product and that adds up to a better day for you. Hemp Fusion, it all adds up. Available both online and at natural product retailers near you and shipped anywhere in the U.S. Use the promo code GREATNESS for 20% off your first order and free shipping at hempfusion.com. Again, that's promo code GREATNESS. You can get Hemp Fusion shipped anywhere in the U.S.

Just use the promo code GREATNESS today. And now let's get back to this interview with Rory Vaden. Why are there so many people Twitter rich, but money poor then? Why have people who have started building a following been unable to monetize their personal brand? And what are the five ways to start monetizing your brand? Yeah, so that's a good question. So at the other end of the spectrum, right, is the Twitter rich and dollar broke, so to speak. And these are people who have developed influence

and now it's like, gosh, I would love for it to become my full-time job. Like I would love to have the thing I love become my full-time job. Like I would love to have the thing I love become my full-time job. And that is something that is available now, but it's like, well, how do you do that? And there's a big difference again between growing a following and growing an income. So you still need to learn the skills of making money. It's a skill. It's a talent. It is. And to answer your question directly, there are five ways that we talk about how to make money. And so when we're working with a client, we're going to lay out these five ways. These are five primary ways.

We call them the paids. Five ways to get paid, basically. To take a pile of followers or a pile of influence. And have them give you money. And have that turn into money in your bank account. Yeah. Okay. So here's what PAIDS is an acronym, right?

P-A-I-D-S. So the P stands for product. Product. So you can take a bunch of people and you can sell them a product, a physical good. Like a book. Like a book. Yeah. Yeah.

So a book would Like a book. Yeah. So a book would be a product, but I would say this, personal branding is not limited to just people who do information marketing. And I think that's what's fascinating. About half of the clients we're working with at Brand Builders Group are now executives, entrepreneurs, CEOs who never care to sell a video course or get paid to do a speech. They're just trying to bring awareness like Gary Vee. Gary Vee doesn't actually sell video courses and stuff. He brings awareness to the different ventures he's involved in. So anyways, your company might, you might have water.

Dave Asprey is a good example of this, right? Like the bulletproof coffee. So it could be a food item. Sarah Blakely would be a good example of this with Spanx, right? Like the bulletproof coffee. So it could be a food item. Sarah Blakely would be a good example of this with Spanx, right? Like her primary business model is still a physical product. She's got a personal brand that draws attention to that. So physical product. Physical products. And by the way, there's no one of these five that are better than the other. They all have

advantages and they all have disadvantages. Okay. so number two is ads and affiliates. Yeah. Ads and affiliates. This is really fascinating, which is that you can monetize your audience without ever selling anything to your audience. Without ever having to create a product, a physical good,

deal with shipping, deal with customer support, returns. Content creation. Product managers. Yeah. Never having to deal with any, deal with customer support, returns. Content creation. Product managers. Yeah. Never having to deal with any of that. Yes.

And what are some examples of businesses that do that really well based off of a personal brand? Yeah. So, well, I think the school of greatness is one. I don't know how much you feel comfortable sharing your personal journey. Maybe we can talk about that. Sure, sure. About the work that we've done together over the last 18 months.

When you came to us originally, you had lots of these. Yeah, all of them. Yeah, you had like all of these. And one of the problems is that when you have diluted focus, you get diluted results. Yeah. And so we help people figure out what is what we call their primary business model.

And then we go, it is that which everything else should be in support of that thing. And in your case, we realized that actually your long-term primary business model is ads and affiliates. It's the podcast itself. It's the thing that you once thought of as just a traffic source that has actually become the main business model. So it's the ads, right? It's the sponsors of the show who make the show possible. We'll tell the rest of that story after we've done the other. Okay.

So we'll come back. So a podcast would be a good example of that. And affiliates, right? Like you have a following, you can sell other people's products and they're paying you some percentage. The difference between ads and affiliates, by the way, is an ad is not a pay for performance. It's just a pay for impression, right?

Like for so many impressions, you're going to be in front of this many people. I'm going to give you this much money if you post this on your social media. I'm going to give you this much money if you share it on your podcast, whatever it may be. Exactly, right. Based on the impressions,

based on a calculation that you come up with, or that's industry standard for that thing. Yeah, and it could be your whole platform. It could include your newsletter and your social and your podcast, whatever. Affiliates is a pay for result. Yeah, you get a sale, I give you a commission. Yep. A lot of people do this with Amazon on books.

It's like you're linking with books, you get a commission from Amazon, Audible, you see that all the time from people. All the time. Okay. So products, ads, and affiliates. What's the third way? So the I is information. Yeah.

This is the one that I think historically people have associated personal branding with because there's some elements of personal branding that sort of spun out of information marketing or even digital marketing. So this is the classic video course, membership site, assessments, certifications. These are information-based products. Basically, it's intellectual property delivered in a digital medium. E-books. E-books would be a great example of this. And in the last episode, was it 670?

670. 670, where we actually talked about DAIRs. We look for things that are digital, automated, recurring, evergreen, and scalable. The information line lends itself well to some of those DAIRs. So yeah, video courses and things like that information but also assessments and certifications are less common but like you know we have some friends that do assessments really well and it's like that is is their their main thing got it okay and the d d is for deals deals like being an agent so it's a third party deal that somebody is paying you. And it typically includes both an element that is not for performance in advance. And it usually includes a long tail royalty feature. So a book deal, a brand deal, a movie

deal, a TV deal. Some of the clients that we work with at Brand Builders Group are musicians, and we're actually helping them create other ancillary revenue streams, but their primary business model is their music deal, like their publishing deal. So there's a third party that's usually like a distributor who's paying you a guarantee regardless of performance plus a royalty got it um why this is why licensing deals would also fall into this which is one of the most underutilized forms of ip which is people spend all this time creating their ip and they sell it to their audience and they never think about going corporations what corporation would just license this content from me and you know so so those are those are brand deals but yeah

traditional book publishing so like darren prince would he be an example as deals because he's an agent for all these athletes and hollywood yeah so darren prince so you met him when you had rodman on the show yeah right right i just had lunch with him yesterday oh that's so great yeah so i love i love darren yeah so he's a mutual friend he's's a client of ours. Right. So, so yeah. So Darren does deals. He's, he's on the agent side of it. So when you do a deal, there's usually like three parties. There's usually like the publisher, the agent and the talent. Yeah. The brand or the company that's giving you money to the talent. The publisher. The publisher. Right, yeah, or it could be a brand.

Yeah, or a speaking deal. Or a distributor. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Then you have the agent, which would be like a literary agent or a speaking agent. You know, Darren is kind of like an all-encompassing agent, like a manager. Yeah.

And then the talent, you know, like Dennis Rodman and- Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan. He works with several, Magic Johnson. He works with several celebrities that he manages. But he is also an author now. Yeah. Right?

So he is also- The products. Yeah. So he's also selling a physical product. And the difference, by the way, a book that you self-publish would be a product, but a book that you traditionally publish would be a deal. Interesting. And they're different and they have a different set of considerations. Yeah. Right. So when you get a New York publishing deal, as you well know, there's a different

set of expectations and things that come with it, but also great benefits. Exactly. Okay. So deals and the last one, the S. Okay. Last but not least is services. Services. So would that be coaching? Yes. Speaking, coaching, consulting, training. Okay. Now for anyone that's listening, that is going, I hate my job. I want to quit and I want to pursue my personal brand. Usually when those people come work with us, we point them towards services in the short term because services are typically the fastest path to cash. It's easy to sell, go on Instagram and say, hey, I'm doing coaching or I'm offering consulting. Send me an email, we'll jump on a call if you're interested. Literally. And we'll get a $1,000 client, a $5,000 client, whatever it may be. Today. I mean, you could say, hey, put out

some piece of content, DM me for a free call free call you do the call this afternoon then give me some money and we do our you know we do our first consulting or whatever you know like whatever it is it's just a but but any service the problem with services is that it's a time for money exchange time consuming so it's the most monetizable in the short term with the least amount of barriers to entry and the least resistance, but it's the least scalable long-term. It has the least number of the dares,

digital, automated, recurring, evergreen, and scalable. It's not digital. It's not automated. It's not, it can sometimes be recurring. It's not evergreen and it's not scalable at all. Your calendar is your inventory. Unless you're now hiring and training other consultants to do the coaching consulting for you,

there's a scalability effect, but you can't scale yourself. True, which is what Brand Builders Group does, right? So our team, we have certified personal brand strategists who basically take our frameworks and they run people through the process. They run people through the process. And if they want you, they pay a premium. They do.

Yeah. Or they come to a group, like an event, like one of our little intensive booths. So this would be, services would be speaking, coaching, consulting, training, masterminds. Yep. Masterminds would be- Group coaching. Yep, I would call a mastermind is still a time for money exchange.

There's some limit to the scalability. Would it be workshops too, same thing? Yeah, like a public seminar would still fit into this. Now, to some extent, you can scale them quite far, right? Like, you know, when I first started speaking, my first speaking engagement, I got 50 bucks, right? My fee today is much higher. There's people yet even still with speaking fees that are much higher than mine. So you can get a hundred thousand dollars to go stand on stage

for an hour. That's fairly scalable. Yeah. I mean, but you, you still only have so many days a year, so many days, so many, yeah, so many hours that you can get paid so many hours. Yeah. Now, you know, seminars are a little more scalable. I mean- Someone like John Gordon is a guy who he's making millions every year just by speaking. Yeah, John Gordon, Jason Dorsey, you know- They do it full time. Jay Baer, yeah.

That Carrie Loren, Sally Hogshead. These are people that are making multi-seven figures or close to yeah yeah at least yes just the keynote fees then they have their books then you got books and then they may have some of these other things consulting or coaching but this is where the problem also comes diluted diluted focus gets diluted results and so this is when i came to you uh so for people listening on episode 670 which was really powerful, I came to Rory about a year and a half ago? Yeah, it was about 18 months ago.

18 months ago, I came to Rory because I was doing all these, I think. I wasn't doing software. What would software be under here? Yeah, so software would probably sit either under information or maybe product, depending on some of the features. Okay, gotcha. So I guess I didn't have software, but I had membership site, courses, books, audio books. Self-published books.

Self-published books, live events. E-books. E-books, masterminds, one-on-one coaching. One-on-one coaching and podcasts. Podcasts, sponsorships, affiliates, speaking. I was doing it all. Video courses, deals.

I was doing everything and we were doing great. But I remember feeling like I started looking out into the future and I was like, I don't know how to get the financial numbers I want to get to by doing all this. Unless I build a department and a team under each thing that we were doing so we could scale it all bigger. Because I was realizing my time and energy was limited by trying to do everything at the best level. So we were doing everything at an 80% level.

Right. And that was frustrating me. I was like, ah, but I'm not like the best as I could be. I'm not living at the highest quality because my energy was diluted, like you mentioned. So I reached out to you and I said, I just feel like Rory, you will be able to help me. I don't know why, because you weren't doing any of this before. Well, no, no. And we hadn't talked in like a year. I don't know why I thought of it. So I remember calling you and I was just like, Hey, I want to come to Nashville and meet,

because I think you could help me gain clarity. In fact, we were just in the process of exiting our former business, which did sales coaching. Like we were coaching salespeople one-on-one. This wasn't even on the radar. And then all of a sudden, Lewis Howes calls me and says, hey, you know, can I spend some time with you?

Yeah. And we came down, was it a day, day and a half, two days or something? Yeah, it was like two days. Well, you've been for three separate two-day sessions plus other stuff. The first time was like a two-day thing. And we just mapped out the vision, the brand identity, the vision, figuring out what is my uniqueness. We talked about this in the last podcast. And it's like really getting clarity on what your uniqueness is as a personal brand.

That's step one. Yeah. And your vision for your business and your mission and everything moving forward. Yeah. Because I felt like we were doing a lot really well, but I didn't know where, how I was going to take it all to the next level. So I was working hard for 10 years and it was growing and everything was great. And we were creating new products and opportunities and revenue streams, but it didn't seem clear for the future.

I didn't see the clear path. And for me, I'm really good at helping others with a clear vision, and I've always been good with myself of having a clear vision. It was the first time I wasn't clear. And that was a wake-up call where I was like, I need someone else to help see it from a different perspective. So we came to you. Matt was there too, right?

Matt was there. Yeah, Matt was there. And we mapped out. Matt was there the first time and the third time. Yeah. He bailed the second time. That Matt was there too, right? Matt was there. Yeah, Matt was there. And we mapped out- Matt was there the first time and the third time. Yeah. He bailed the second time. Yeah, that was the keynote one, right? Yeah, the keynote one, yeah.

And so we came to you and we mapped out all of the paids. Then we did that. We mapped out all the paids. We looked at them on a- We took you through something we call the revenue assessment. We gridded them all out. To figure out what your business model is based on revenue. Based on actual data.

Right. And so based on the data of like, we mapped out all of our revenue streams. And I think courses are- At that time, video courses was your number one revenue stream. So we were a video course company- Yet- Based on revenue. It was probably the furthest disconnected from your personal uniqueness and your long-term vision and

your mission. Yeah. And so that's why I think it was like gaining that clarity was so powerful for me. It was so eyeopening. So we had products, we had deals, we had information, we had services, we had a mastermind and the least revenue generating source was the podcast, was affiliates and ads, right? Sponsorships. And we had this kind of aha moment where I was like, wow, really the podcast is aligned to your mission of impacting a hundred million people a week. It's aligned to what you want to do of helping transform the world. And yet it's the thing you're kind of spending the least amount of time focused on. So we need to figure out how we're going to transition and switch it to being number one as opposed to the bottom. And that was 18 months ago. And it's been like this transition.

And you said to me, what'd you say then? You were like, this doesn't have to change right now where you let go of all these revenue streams now, but in the future sometime, this will need to switch. Yeah. The analogy that we use. It's like launching a rocket ship, right? So when you launch a rocket ship, it takes everything. To launch a personal brand and just make enough money to pay the bills, it's just like, in some ways, you're doing whatever you can do to get the thing off the ground. But then over the course of time, you should be getting clearer and clearer about where you're going. And those side rockets, they have to fall off. And this is the tough decision that you've been willing to make that most people are not, which is the hard part is not going from bad to good. The hard part

is leaving behind good to go chase greatness. So hard. And you were literally hitting Sheehan's wall. So if y'all didn't, you go back and listen to the episode 670, where we talk about Sheehan's wall. You were hitting Sheehan's wall, not from a messaging perspective as much, but you were from a revenue perspective. Your team was fragmented and fractionalized and spread thin. And when we created that focus, I mean, focus is power, right? Like I talk about this in the Take the Stairs book, that if you put a magnifying glass between the sun and a piece of paper, the piece of paper catches on fire because focus,

like literally, scientifically, focus is power. If you take the magnifying glass away, nothing happens. That is very, very much the description of how most people's revenue streams are. And it's not like you weren't making money. You were making more money than you'd ever made in your life. But I wasn't breaking through the wall. It wasn't all aligned to my vision percent. And I felt like I couldn't see a clear path to the future. And that was a challenge. So it wasn't like life wasn't bad or hard. It was just like, but if I want to continue to grow and make the biggest contribution for my life and have more mission and purpose, I needed clarity. Yeah. And you, and it was, it was, it was, Yeah, and it's first being clear on your dream, and then it is having the courage to chase it.

And let go of really good things that are already successful, helping people, making money, supporting my team, paying for a lifestyle, all that. And it's interesting, you know, so, you know, in Christianity, this is kind of a random parallel, but, you know, I'm a Jesus freak. There's a concept that is called sanctification. And that it's like, you know, when you become a Christ follower, that's not the end, that's the beginning. Even though like that day is when you go to heaven, so that's done, like heaven is a done deal. But then you go through, it begins a process of sanctification, which is a gradual cleansing, like a steady improvement, not to earn your way to heaven. So it's not the perfect parallel, but because you're grateful for what you have. Similarly here, when it's like, when you're clear on this vision, for what you have. Similarly here, when it's like, when you're clear on this vision,

the clearer you are on your vision, your long-term vision, the more obvious it becomes what short-term sacrifices need to be made. And inversely, the amount of our endurance is directly proportionate to the clarity of our vision. So if I can see something clearly, something that I want, something that matters to me, something that I believe in, something that I feel called to, like in your case, it's a calling. As you see that more clearly, then there is a strong connection to the decisions and the choices and the sacrifices that must be made today to forward you towards that vision. So it creates a context for action and discipline to take place. And your discipline engages automatically as a byproduct of the vision. But if you have a cloudy vision, or if you have too much stuff going on, or you have a clear vision, but you don't spend any time thinking about it,

then there is at best a convoluted connection to how the sacrifices and the choices and the decisions that need to be made today forward you towards something you care about. And so you get stuck. And it's not because you're lazy. It's not because you struggle from a lack of discipline. Most people think, this is really like take the stairs. It's not because you don't work hard. It's not because you're lazy. It's not because you struggle from a lack of discipline. Most people think this is really like take the stairs.

It's not because you don't work hard. It's not because you're not working hard. And this is really like right out of take the stairs is that most people think they struggle with a lack of discipline. They're not struggling as much from a lack of discipline as they're struggling from a lack of vision. And so you have to get clear on that vision first.

And then you have to have the courage to chase it. And that is freaking hard, especially when you're doing great, especially when you're already, like in your case, you were already a multi-seven figure business. So for most people, it's like, why would I, you know, why not just play it safe and play it cool? And the answer is because that's not what you're called to. Ooh, that's good. You're speaking some Jesus talk over here. It's just, it's not what you're called to. And that's why, you know, so brand builders, one of the things that's, I think, also interesting and sort of unique about us.

also interesting and sort of unique about us. One of the reasons we got into the space beyond just that you called us randomly at this time in our life where we had this wide open space and then, and you said, you're the one who told us this is your next, this next, this next business. But everybody, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of skills needed to build a personal brand. You know, it's, it's creating content. It is social media. It's building funnels. It's copywriting. There's Facebook ads. There's, there's running webinars. There's marketing automation. There's SEO. There's graphic design. There's video editing, right? Those are all things that are, you know, probably skills. Yeah. But most of the people who teach them, they teach it and it's a singular tool in the tool belt.

And it's like, when you're a hammer, all you see is nails. So what we realized is we said, there's nobody in the space sitting on top of all that going, how do we coordinate all this crap in a focused direction to serve the person's mission, not just how do I get more clicks on my ads or get more downloads on my podcast, but how does this all forward to the mission I am called to live? So how does someone know which things they should be focusing on?

How do they, is it step one, get clear on your mission and your vision? Well, yeah. And then- My first thought was, come work with us for two days. We'll take you through a process, but we can go through it now a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then... My first thought was, come work with us for two days. Exactly. We'll take you through a process,

but we can go through it now a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So... How do I know if I'm Twitter rich and money poor, cash poor? Like, so you would say... Yeah, so let me run you through a few of them. Yeah.

Okay, so each of these has, you know, advantages and disadvantages. For example, products become extremely high margin after breakeven. So like once you've sold your breakeven point of Spanx, everything beyond that becomes extremely profitable. Yeah.

But the brand development it takes to get there, the time and the logistical process of manufacturing and distribution and getting it, you know, in the proper places is not an easy feat. Right. Okay? So there's, you go, one of the things we look at is what are my strengths, right? So it's like, okay, if I'm good at logistics, I'm good at building a brand, and I'm good at coming up with product ideas,

and I'm good at sourcing inventors and people, you know, and manufacturers, maybe products is good. Right. But if I'm not good at that, then maybe I should look at something else. The ads and affiliates, here's who this is great for. If you are great at throwing a party, which is you. Yeah, yeah. Right?

Like getting people together. Getting people together. Rallying behind something. Community, right? Let's all like support each other. And like, if you create community and, and this is, you know, if you're good at creating a bunch of followers and fans, then it's like, this could be really great for you because you know how to build an audience. You know how to

throw a party. This is one that I realized that I'm not that good at. Yeah. Right. Like I'm much better at creating content and structure and stuff. I'm not one of the cool kids per se. So I think you and I work well together because you know how to throw a party and we do a lot of execution on the back end. So if you're not, you know, if social media drives you nuts, ads and affiliates is probably not the right model for you.

Right? Because you're not good naturally at building audience. You should go find partners who are good at building an audience. And you're not good naturally at building audience. You should go find partners who are good at building an audience and they're going to love you because all the stuff you do gives them a freaking headache and stress and inversely information. So information is, is an interesting one. There's a low barrier of entry, which is why there's a lot of people getting into it. But one of the challenges is there's a lot of very mediocre information. And what we are going to encourage people to do is to create true thought leadership,

which means- Intellectual property, IP for yourself, for your own ideas. Yes. Except the challenge that we want to hold people to is to advance the thinking of what's already been done, not to regurgitate what is already out there in the space. For example, uh, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, not just saying here's Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but here's actually what's missing. Yeah. Like here's from self-actualization to other sexualization. That could be like furthering the conversation that's already out. Correct. And some people may disagree with,

you know, could disagree with that or whatever, but that's fine. That's thought leadership. It literally means you're spending the time to advance the thinking that has been done, not repackaging and regurgitating, although you can get really far with doing that as well. So in information, generally, are you tech savvy? Like if you're not tech savvy,

you're either going to have to hire or get a great tech team of people. Deals is kind of a special one. That's usually like once you have a huge platform or you have to be extraordinarily talented, extremely talented. Services is kind of a good one. It's low barrier entry, but again, it's not going to probably scale. Scalable, yeah. So, but it can get you to a point, right? Like it can certainly get you free of the job you hate or, you know, create more flexibility in your life or whatever. And some people, I mean, this is how I came up, right?

My dream was to be a speaker. Like originally, I never knew what entrepreneurship was. Personal branding didn't even exist. I wanted to stand on stage and inspire thousands of people. And so I dedicated like my life to that for a decade. And get paid to do it. And get paid to do it. Right. And you know, I still do that some, a few times a month, but you know, mostly we're helping our, our, our clients now become speakers. And I got two little, little kids. And so I'm not wanting to be on the road as much. That would be a good example of a downside, right?

It's like, you know, it's ironic. I just got inducted into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame. And more than ever, I'm doing fewer gigs because I got a toddler and a baby at home. So I don't want to be on the road 70 dates a year, like, you know, I have been in the past. Right. So there's strengths and advantages. And it's like, what is your team and your staff?

Like, what do you love doing? What do you not love doing? But part of your uniqueness, we believe, you know, on that last episode, we were talking about your uniqueness. Finding your uniqueness. As a message. Yes. So that's what that we were talking about your uniqueness. Finding your uniqueness. As a message. Yes.

So that's what that episode is like, your unique message. But this is, we believe that uniqueness also informs your monetization strategy. Like to use you as a great example, you're great at throwing a party. Look at how the podcast took off, even though it was sort of like an ancillary thing, like it gained all this traction. Imagine what would happen if you went all in. But the reason why people don't usually go all in actually is because of money, because they get, they're making good money, maybe better than they've ever done. And so it's a risk. It's a real risk to go all in. And there's no guarantee that even when

you go all in, you'll make more money. One of the things I love, this is a guy named Craig Valentine, who was one of my mentors and friends, a world champion of public speaking who mentored me early on. Craig shared this story one time with me. And the point of the story was that you have to decide that your dream is not for sale. You have to come to the conclusion that there is no amount of money that someone can pay me to forego the pursuit of what I am called to. And that takes tremendous courage. And discipline and courage and everything. And discipline and commitment and execution because it's freaking scary. Scary to let go of certain things. And it's not guaranteed that it'll work, but here's what I do believe firmly is that if you go all in on a goal, and I've actually,

I can think of two great examples where I have done this. I went all in and it didn't work out how I thought. It did not work out. It did not work out quite how I thought. One of them was winning the world championship of public speaking. As everyone knows, you always give me a hard time about,

I came in second in the world in the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking. But that was not my goal. My goal was to come in first. But here's- If that would have happened, you wouldn't be here. I may not be here. So here's the payoff. When you go all in on something, if it doesn't work out, you have the clarity and the blessing to know that it's because there must be some higher plan for you. But. And you went all in.

And you went all in. You had nothing left. The reason why I didn't go back to do the world championship was because I had nothing left to bring to it. Like I laid it all on the line. I honestly could not look back and say, gosh, I could have done this better. And I could have done this better. In fact, not everyone knows this story. I went to the world championship twice.

So I made it to the top 10 the first year and lost. But I knew I had more to give. I went back the second year. You had a whole year to prepare. A whole other year. You had the speech nailed. You had the stories, everything. There was nothing I would change about the speech.

The speech could have won. I believe it was good enough to have won. But here's the thing. It didn't work out. So I go, you know what? At least I know that's probably because there's something better waiting for me. But if you don't go all in, if you don't lay it all on the line and then your dream doesn't come true, you don't know if it's because it wasn't meant to be or because of a much more likely truth that you didn't show up and take the chance. You never took the swing. You never went after it. You never went all in. And so you will never know whether or not you were meant to do it. And sometimes you're not meant to do it.

Like the world championship is a good example. Thinking about it physically, it'd be like walking down your hallway here. By the way, I love your new place. Thanks. So it's like, if I'm walking down the hallway, I have a clear vision of this door at the end of the hallway.

And I get there and that door is locked. But then there is a door to my left that is open that I could not see when I was down here. Until you got to the locked door. And I get there and that door is locked. But then there is a door to my left that is open that I could not see when I was down here. Until I went all in. And so, you know, again, this is my spiritual belief, right? As I believe God is leading me in a direction. And sometimes, you know, like if you think about prayers,

sometimes when you pray, the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is wait. And sometimes the answer is no, but I've got something better. And that is faith, right? Like that is not even spiritual faith. That's just faith in the trust sense of the word is to say, I trust my calling. I trust my heart. I'm willing to take a shot and I'm going to go all in. And if it doesn't work out, I firmly trust that it will lead to something better. Something greater. Something greater. And it put me on a different path that I was meant to go on. This has happened to me in many areas of my life. I remember I wanted to go to Ohio State to play football. Yeah.

Didn't get an offer. They said I could walk on, but I was like, I don't want to sit the bench for four years or five years. And so I decided to go to a different school, and I transferred to three different schools. And I was a two-sport All-American and broke a world record. That would have never happened at Ohio State. I got to have all these different experiences

and meet people and travel the world and develop. I got to have all these different experiences and meet people in the world and develop myself as an athlete, all these different things. I wanted to go to the NFL. I went to the arena league and I got injured and it didn't work out. Yeah. And you're so that's a perfect, you're a, you're a perfect living example of this. And then I was like, but it led me to,

it wasn't like you weren't all in on football. You were all in on football, on everything. You had no other plan, zero backup plan, no other skills. I didn't have in on football. You were all in on football. On everything. You had no other plan. Zero backup plan. No other skills. I didn't have any other options. It wasn't like, oh, I have all these talents

and there's, because there's a lot of people who say, I want to do all these things. I have 10 great ideas. I have one idea. One dream. And so,

it was hard for me to not achieve it and be like, well, now what do I do? Because I have no skills. Right. And that was like a self-discovery period, a transition, a reinvention. That was sister scout. I was finding identity. Yeah.

What's my identity now? It's discovering myself. It's going on that journey of like, let me go out and develop some new skills and do speaking and salsa dancing and all these different things, which led me to the next thing, which then led me to the podcast. Which led you here. Which led me here. And you have 100 million people.

150 million downloads. 150 million. Yeah, 150 million. Gosh, man. 150 million downloads. That's not people, but that's 150 million downloads. Well, you know, my podcast has tens of downloads. That's great.

It's amazing, right? Like you would not be here if it weren't for that. Exactly. And you had to go all in. Had to go all in. If you weren't playing all in, maybe you never get injured. That's it. And then maybe you never end up here, right?

Everything. The blessing is not getting what you want. The blessing is going all in for what you think you want and being open to the idea that- It may not be for you. It may not. There may be something better for you. Better. Greater for your purpose, for your life, for your mission. And that, so by the way, in the Take the Stairs book, that's the perspective principle of faith. It's the seventh of the decisions that the most disciplined people in the world make. It's choosing to believe that what is happening now is somehow for a greater glory later on. You know, an example of this, we use this illustration as a flat tire, right?

So if I was driving along and I got a flat tire, you know, I would, I'd probably be, you know, most of us would freak out and be like, oh my gosh, I had this flat tire. And if somebody asked you inside of today, like what happened today, you'd probably tell them about the flat tire. Like that would be a big deal, but you could choose if you knew that getting a flat tire saved you from being in a car accident down the road, you would completely think about that differently. Like I'm so grateful for the flat tire. I'm so grateful for the flat tire saved you from being in a car accident down the road, you would completely think about that differently. I'm so grateful for the flat tire. I'm so grateful for the flat tire. Exactly. And that is how it is. I miss my flight and then the flight goes down. I'm so grateful I miss my flight. Yeah. And the thing is, absent the ability to see the entire future,

we aren't entitled to evaluate the reasons why dreams do or do not work out. The only choice that we have is to trust that if I'm called to it, I'm going to chase after it. I'm going to go after it with everything I can. And if it doesn't work out, something better, something more extraordinary will show up in its place. And that's why for me, over the last 18 months, when we talked about, okay, you're switching the, uh, the page and the opportunities to make money, you're going to be switching them eventually where the podcast is the focus sponsorships as affiliates will be the primary business model. I was like, but how am I going to get there? I was like, how am I going to let go of these things? And it's been one thing at a time, letting go of first, it was courses.

And then we just started we just last week we paused the mastermind we're like okay have you shared that on the podcast we haven't shared it yet but it's like people have been applying for months to join someone who's makes it has got a nine-figure business emailed me like the day afterwards and was like i was i want i want to join right people that the there's two billionaires that have applied. It's like there's hundreds of applications where people won't even be a part of this thing. But now I'm going to say, you know what?

I'm going to put a pause for a year and see how it feels and go all in on the podcast. Go all in on this mission and see what happens. And it's… Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on a second because we need to back up a little bit because because that's a pretty big bomb drop on people about stopping the mastermind. And I think it's important for people to know a little bit about why that happened and what happened behind the scenes. Because for those of you that are listening, Lewis and Matt and I, we actually have been talking for months about how we could help support the mastermind. Right, partnering on it. Partnering on it so that I could help you and AJ.

AJ's my wife and she's the CEO of Brand Builders. But like our team, how we could come and help carry some of the weight to free you up. We had this whole plan to be like, okay, how can we support this? Because you love the mastermind. I love it. You love the people.

The impact, the growth, everything. It's amazing. And then we started doing it. So at the summit, I was there, led that one. And then a couple. The impact, the growth, everything. It's amazing. And then we started doing it. So at the summit, I was there, led that one. And then a couple of weeks ago, we led another one. And it's so funny. We made the decision.

And it was great. It was amazing. It was amazing. It was so fun. It was like growing everything, which keeps making me feel like second chance. Maybe we should do it. No, no. And then even the night before you were going to announce it to the mastermind-

We're up till midnight. You pulled me into the lobby. We're sitting there at midnight. And you were like, maybe we shouldn't. Maybe we shouldn't. Maybe we should keep it going. Keep it going. Because the people were like, this is changing my life.

This is amazing. The money is great. It was amazing. It was amazing. But it's not your calling. Yeah. Your calling is to reach 100 million people a week on the podcast. Yeah.

And impact lives and transform lives. And to impact lives. And for whatever reason, that's what your calling is. Yeah. And our job isn't to judge it. Our job is to support it. And one of the things that's super powerful is the clearer you are about your calling, the easier it is for people to support you in achieving it.

Yeah. And you have a shot. Like this podcast has a shot to become a monster mainstream, like more than it is to grow exponentially beyond where it is. And that is the thing that you're saying and have been saying ever since I've talked to you, ever since you called me and AJ and we sat down with you and Matt in our home, back then it was in our house, it was like the podcast is the thing. And ever since that moment, it's been like a gradual sanctification of going,

what do we have to eliminate? Not because we don't like it, not because we don't love the impact, but because I'm called to this one thing. And look, for any of you that are listening, if you've ever gotten anything out of this podcast, if you've ever gotten anything from this show, from any episode, Lewis doesn't need you to buy something from him. He needs you to share the episode with everyone. He needs you to email blast it to your 50 friends and friends, like your Christmas list. He needs you to share it on social media. He needs you to text a friend.

Like we have to get this podcast to a million downloads an episode. That's the next real target. And if we can get this podcast to break through that wall it it puts you in a position to to literally change the world right uh and to and to be a voice for our generation like right of of you know influence and interviewing people and and that is what we need and that that's what you you need because that's what your calling is. Not because anyone told you that, it's because that's what you feel.

And that's why it's like I felt called to call you 18 months ago to be like, I need some clarity because every personal brand is going to get a lot of opportunities. I could sell toothbrushes, shoes, like we can sell anything. You can sell anything. Once you build an audience and you have people

that follow you or support you in some type of way, listening, watching, you could really start to sell lots of different things, but you've got to figure out what your calling is and start going on that thing. Whether it's a product or book or ads, whatever it is, you've got to go

all in on it to the point where you know, okay, I've maxed it out. Then I can add the mastermind. I can add this. I can do these things, but we haven't maxed it out. You haven't taken the shot. We haven't taken the full swing. On the podcast. We haven't. I mean, we've been consistent for seven years almost. We've been showing up. Well, you're not a slackers. it's not the school of average. Yeah, it's not like we're barely showing up. No.

But we haven't fully dedicated every ounce of energy from everyone on the team on one thing. Which is crazy. Like, what does that look like? Going all in.

Yeah. So that boggles my mind that you got here without doing that. That's also evidence that suggests that this is the thing because it's like,

who else got their podcast to this size without like going all consuming in on it? Right. So it's like, what could it be? What could it be? What could it be? So you've got to take a shot. So that's, yeah, that's our mission.

2020 is going all in on the podcast. All in on the podcast. Taking a pause in the mastermind. And everything we do has got to support the podcast. Right. Like the goal is to write another book that supports the podcast. The goal is to keep doing the Summit of Greatness

because it supports the community of the podcast. It's the community of, it's the in-person event that supports the podcast. So it's like, it makes you, when you get clarity on these revenue streams and what your business is and what your mission is, which is what you teach in all the different workshops at Brand Builders, which I want to talk about in a second, because we've got to wrap up here in a second. When you get clarity on that, then it's

easy to say yes and no to things. It becomes clearer. Clear. You don't have to say, well, what about this opportunity? Yeah, it's not necessarily easier, but it's clearer. Yeah. You still want to say yes to everything, maybe, but yet you start to say, you start to draw a line in the sand and say, I'm no longer doing these things. I'm only doing these things. And that gives you more attention, more focus on the one thing, which, you know, Papasan and Keller talk about is like the book, The One Thing. The One Thing, yep.

How it supports everything else when you do the one thing. Great guys. So what can someone do right now if they've got a personal brand, they want to build a personal brand? You've got, I think, nine different workshops and sessions that help you gain clarity on your brand identity, your focus. Break us down really quick so people can go to you to get this clarity and support like I have

in three different workshops I've done with you. Yeah. So, okay. So Brand Builders Group, what do we do? We help mission-driven messengers build and monetize their personal brand. And I will say this too. For some of you listening, the best way for you to monetize your personal brand

is not to create a course and a book and become a speaker. It's to take your personal brand and direct all those people to the thing you're already doing that is making money, right? To your network marketing business, to your tech startup, to your financial advisory firm, to your accounting services, to your real estate. Like, that's always the easiest thing to do. If you love the thing you're doing, then just use it as a multiplier to drive attention to that. We're big fans of that. We don't think everybody should become a speaker and it's not like we have one formula. So we have nine different two-day experiences on

all different components of this. And we also do one-on-one coaching as a part of that. So we kind of like have events and then we kind of supplement. Accountability and coaching along the way. Along the way, just where people can have a strategist they talk to every single month to keep them on track. And then we have the events where myself and AJ and our strategists are in person. And they're smaller. They're typically like 20, 30 people. They're boot camps. Intensive trainings, boot camps, getting clarity on the

thing you need to work on. Yeah. And we're going through these frameworks, like a few of them we've shared here. And then we're taking you through exercises. It's not like sit and learn. It's a work. You're doing work on the spot and the ideas that you leave with stuff done. You've got one on crafting your perfect keynote, on podcasting, on... Yeah, so we have... Phase one is called brand identification, finding your uniqueness,

which is... We talked a lot about that on episode 670. Yeah, which is what I did first and gave me the clarity to be here now. Yep. The second one, phase two, is what we call creating your revenue engine. So that's like a lot of the monetization components.

We've touched into that today. We have one phase three is called high traffic strategy. So that's like, okay, now that it's built, now that the house is built, how do I get more people to hear about it? So that's where you get into more like the deep dive into SEO and Facebook ads and affiliate launches and book, you know, book launches and, you know, big, big time stuff. But that's, that's domino 86.

And people often start there. And that's why the whole thing explodes because they're working on domino 86 because they saw a webinar for it. And it's like, you need to go that your weight, you're spending money in the wrong places. Um, but then, yeah, we have world-class keynote craft, which you came through. Yeah, it was great. So that was working on your keynote, the psychology of why people laugh and helping you get your signature stories down. How to get standing ovations, how to captivate people, everything. And then we have one called full keynote calendar, which is the business of speaking. So keynote craft is the business of speaking. So, so keynote craft is the art of speaking,

but full keynote calendar is how to get booked as a speaker, how to negotiate fees, how to set your fees. Like, you know, how does that profession work? Um, we have one called bestseller launch plan, which is specifically for launching a book or a course or a company, but like, what are the steps to actually execute a launch? And then you went through captivating content was the other one. We sometimes call it bestseller book outline, which is creating your body of work. What is going to be the content of the book or of the course? So we've got- Which is where you help me create my own intellectual property and my own thought leadership. Exactly. Coming up with frameworks and diagrams and stuff.

And you're one of the best people that I've met that teaches strategy at a high level to make it simple for someone like me to go execute on and gain clarity. And that's why I love working with you. And we have, they can get, anyone listening right now can get a free call with someone, a brand strategist on your team. Yeah. Right. And that's, that's what we love to do is we love to just actually talk to you. We want to

hear your story and we have a team, people to actually that want to hear your vision and get on the phone with you. And so we have, we have a special link for you set up for your audience, right? Yeah. Lewis house.com slash brand call. So if you go to that link right now, you'll see a little video of me and Rory and then a little form to fill out to schedule a time to talk to see how someone on your team can help them. We may or may not be able to help, too. You may not be ready for it. You may not be ready for it. I would say this, though, that we work with some pretty big name people like yourself. There's other celebrities and influencers.

You know, semi-celebrity or celebrities, some big musicians and stuff. But we also work with the person that's just barely beginning, like doesn't have a ton of money. And so our program is designed to help you grow you to the next level. So if you feel called to build a personal brand, I feel pretty confident that we can help. And we're one of the best in the world. And let's just talk about it.

And if we're not, we'll tell you. Exactly. Yeah. So go to the link lewishouse.com slash brand call. Schedule a call ASAP. I'm telling you, just getting on the phone with the people on your team, they're going to ask you questions to see where you're at,

just to give you clarity. Whether you sign up with something you guys have to offer or not, they're going to help you gain more clarity just from the free call. Totally, yeah. We walk you through a little framework on the call. Yeah, just to see where you're at.

Yeah. So it's going to be worth it for the call alone. Schedule the call, lewishouse.com slash brand call and go there right now. Rory, every time I'm with you, we learn a lot. We connect a lot. I got one more thing. I got one more thing we have to share. Go ahead. On the topic of monetization, right? Again, we are all about making money. We don't dislike money. We're good at making money. We believe in helping money. We're good at making money. We believe in helping people make money.

But at the end of the day, it's about the message. And it's also about the messenger. And my pastor, Kevin Queen, shared something a couple weeks ago that really just blew me away. I think it's important to understand that when you talk about making money, there's a business side of it. It's processes and systems and structure and clarity and strategy. But there's also a personal side of it. There's a big heart side of it. And here's what Kevin said.

He said, make sure your influence doesn't grow wider than your character runs deep. Yeah, I love this. Make sure your influence doesn't grow wider than your character runs deep. What's that mean? It means that if you're going to serve an audience, make sure that you are developing yourself, that you are on your own pursuit of greatness and getting better and integrity and living out what you're actually teaching people to do or promoting to do is kind of like having a life that the more people know you, and if they could see every private moment or if they could hear every private thought, if they could actually hear your thinking, that they would be more impressed with who you are. That's crazy. And it's a high level to pursue to, but the reason it also matters is because

if it should happen that your influence grows faster than your character, then you run into problems. Problems. You have all sorts of stuff that comes, all sorts of issues and ego. Personal problems, press problems, whatever. Press, media, physical health. And so you, you, you have to be developing yourself. And I think that's one of the things I love about

the school of greatness podcast. It's just like, this is a place that people can come to develop their character, to keep growing in that pursuit. And that's why they need to listen. They need to stay here and they need to share it because we need to get to a hundred million. We need to get to a million dollars an episode. That's the key. Well, if you guys haven't checked out Rory's stuff, he's got a couple of great books. This one is a game changer.

Procrastinate on purpose. Really about being more productive and multiplying your time. Take the Stairs, also a classic New York Times bestseller. But get on the brand call. lewishouse.com slash brand call. Sign up right now. Let me know if you signed up. Take a screenshot after you registered for a call.

Let me know so I can support you and keep you inspired. A lot of people have gone through this from the School of Greatness community over the last year. Yeah, a bunch of people. When we did this in episode 670, hundreds of people have gone on calls and so many of them I've seen develop their brand over time and really grow in an amazing strategic, processed way

that you guys deliver and execute beautifully. So make sure you guys sign up for it. You can check out Rory on Instagram, social media, website. you can check it all out but we have all the information at lewishouse.com slash brand call and the show notes for this episode we'll have it all linked up there so Rory you're the man love you thank you brother appreciate it go build your brand change the world make some money let's go A big thank you to Rory for sharing his wisdom and his insights.

This is all the guy does. He works with leaders, influencers, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, people looking to build their authority, their reputation, and their brand. If this was powerful for you, and if you want more, you can check out the previous episode we did, where we talked about different strategies for building your personal brand. And you can also sign up for a free call with his team right now to figure out your goals for next year, to figure out the direction of your personal brand, where you want to

go, what you need, what's missing, how to get you to the next level. Go to lewishouse.com slash brand call. level. Go to lewishouse.com slash brand call. Go there right now and schedule a free call with one of their coaches to really help you get clarity on your positioning, on your offering, on your business, on your brand, on where you want to take your mission moving forward. So check it out, lewishouse.com slash brand call. So make sure to sign up for a call right now. And also share this with a friend of yours. If you know a coach, a consultant, an author, a podcaster, someone who does therapy work, a fitness consultant, whoever it may be, someone who's got a brand they're trying to build,

a personal brand, someone with a small following, a big following, send them this episode to help them get clarity on their business model, on how to monetize their personal brand moving forward. You can be a hero and a champion in their life just by giving them some clarity and some focus and direction. Again, Bill Gates said, only through focus can you do world-class things, no matter how capable you are. You might be saying to yourself, I've got a lot of skills, a lot of talent, a lot of education, but I'm not getting the results I want.

It's because you haven't focused on certain things. So that's what this is all about. Make sure to start taking action on this information today. Use this information for yourself and share it with a friend. Tag me on Instagram at Lewis Howes and let me know what you thought about this as well. And a big thank you to you for showing up every single week as we are obsessed with

finding the best insights, the best information, the most inspiring people to help you unlock the potential inside of you, to help you grow, to improve in your business, in your career, in your personal life, in your relationships, in your health, and in your mission on this planet. So thank you so much for being a part of this. If this is your first time, please subscribe over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, be a part of our community, and let us know what you think. You can leave a review, and we always love to see how we impact the different listeners around the world. Always remember your focus determines your reality, said George Lugas. And Tony Robbins says, where focus goes, energy flows. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you got a ton of value out of this. And as always, you know what

time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thanks for watching!