Rory Vaden

Intro: [00:00:00] This is Episode number 883 with New York Times Bestselling Author Rory Vaden on the Five Ways to Monetize Your Personal Brand.

[background music]

Lewis Howes: [00:00:09] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:00:34] 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 a very 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, and in relationships.

Lewis Howes: [00:01:08] So, you have the capability of doing many different things at a high level. But the challenges, 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:01:28] 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 what are we 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:02:05] And 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 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:02:50] 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 a 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 lewishowes.com/brandcall 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 lewishowes.com/brandcall.

Lewis Howes: [00:03:25] 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 is 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, lewishowes.com/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.

Lewis Howes: [00:04:00] Before we dive in, big thank you to our sponsor, Policy Genius. Now, if you’re a home owner, you know how tough it is to find the right home insurance coverage, and it’s stressful too. Even if your rates have crept up over the years, the idea of replacing your policy can seem exhausting. Who wants to go through that process? That’s what I love about Policy Genius. The thing with them is they will compare your policy against options from top insurers to make sure you’re getting the right home insurance coverage at the best possible price. And they’ve saved their customers an average of $690 per year just doing that. That’s crazy. Just by—all you need to do is go to a policygenius.com and answer a few quick questions about yourself and your property, and they can show you how you can save more money with your policy.

Lewis Howes: [00:04:48] And if you own a car as well, Policy Genius will compare your home and auto policies across different insurers, and even mix and match to make sure you are saving the most possible. So, whether you need home insurance, or a new place, or just want to reshop your current policy, make sure to head to policygenius.com today. You can get started on your smartphone right now. Check it out, policygenius.com. Policy Genius, when it comes to home insurance, it’s nice to get it right.

Lewis Howes: [00:05:19] And a big thank you to our sponsor, Zip Recruiter. Now, if you’re trying to build your personal brand, you know how challenging it can be to try to take on all the workload yourself and try to find the right people on your team. You’re sifting through different applications, you’re interviewing, and you don’t have the time to do it, and you don’t know which quality candidates to find. And that’s why I like using Zip Recruiter because it doesn’t depend on candidates finding you, it finds them for you. It’s got technology that identifies people with the right experience and invites them to apply to your job, so get qualified candidates fast.

Lewis Howes: [00:05:56] And it’s no wonder four out of five employers who post on Zip Recruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And you can see why Zip Recruiter is effective for businesses of all sizes by trying Zip Recruiter for free at this address. Go to ziprecruiter.com/greatness. Again, you can try it for free right now. You can start seeing qualified applications come through in the next 24 to 48 hours. That’s ziprecruiter.com/greatness. That’s Z-I-P-R-E-C-R-U-I-T-E-R dot com slash greatness. Zip Recruiter: The smartest way to hire.

Lewis Howes: [00:06:33] Thank you again to our sponsors. 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:07:04] Welcome back, everyone, to School of Greatness Podcast. We’ve got my man, Rory Vaden, in the house.

Rory Vaden: [00:07:08] Yes, again.

Lewis Howes: [00:07:09] Good to see you, brother.

Rory Vaden: [00:07:10] Hey, this is my third time here. Is that the most of anyone you’ve ever had?

Lewis Howes: [00:07:13] Third time on this show?

Rory Vaden: [00:07:14] On this show?

Lewis Howes: [00:07:15] Wow!

Rory Vaden: [00:07:15] It’s been over the span of many years.

Lewis Howes: [00:07:17] Six years or something. Chris Lee has been on, what, 13 times?

Rory Vaden: [00:07:21] Oh, yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:07:21] 13 times. I think there’s only maybe three people who have been on three times. Maybe. Maybe four. I’ve got a—I think Gary Vee has been on three times, I think.

Rory Vaden: [00:07:30] Never heard of him.

Lewis Howes: [00:07:31] Tony Robbins has been on three times. Tony Robbins has been on three times. I think Tim Ferriss, at least, two, maybe three, but-

Rory Vaden: [00:07:39] Well, that’s a good group I need to be in.

Lewis Howes: [00:07:40] Yes, a small group of-

Rory Vaden: [00:07:41] That’s good company.

Lewis Howes: [00:07:42] … maybe five people. And the last time we had you on, we talked about building an influential personal brand and the strategy behind building it. Why? 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, or a freelancer, employee, why is this important for everyone? Or is it not important for people to build their personal brand?

Rory Vaden: [00:08:13] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:08:35] Why is that?

Rory Vaden: [00:08:36] It’s because you can’t buy influence, right? Like in some ways, you can-

Lewis Howes: [00:08:41] You can fake buy it.

Rory Vaden: [00:08:42] You can fake buy it.

Lewis Howes: [00:08:43] With likes and followers.

Rory Vaden: [00:08:45] Yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:08:45] 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.

Rory Vaden: [00:08:54] Yeah. And the difference between like a dictator can 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 lot of paths, or I’m your boss, and you must do this. And I think 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, 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.

Rory Vaden: [00:09:28] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:09:56] I wonder if you ask people the 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-

Rory Vaden: [00:10:11] Which would you choose?

Lewis Howes: [00:10:12] Which would you choose?

Rory Vaden: [00:10:12] I mean, that would be a good question to put on Insta or something-

Lewis Howes: [00:10:15] I know, surveys.

Rory Vaden: [00:10:15] … as a survey. Maybe people can leave a comment down on the blog for this.

Lewis Howes: [00:10:20] We’ll do that. Well, send me a DM, also, of your reply, which you would do. We’ll share that out there.

Rory Vaden: [00:10:24] 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, you know, politely – they’re Twitter-rich and dollar-broke. As we say, you know, they have a big following, and they don’t have any money.

Lewis Howes: [00:10:42] They don’t know how to monetize it.

Rory Vaden: [00:10:43] They don’t know how to monetize it. So, we’re helping those people.

Lewis Howes: [00:10:47] And then, there’s people who have all the money in the world, but no one knows who they are.

Rory Vaden: [00:10:51] Nobody knows who they are.

Lewis Howes: [00:10:51] And they’re trying to build a following, and it’s so hard for them, right?

Rory Vaden: [00:10:55] And it’s different. Building a following is different than building a business. And there’s some commonalities, but, again, it’s like I think people with money, what they really are aspiring for is influence.

Lewis Howes: [00:11:10] Why?

Rory Vaden: [00:11:11] 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, like, by how much money you have. But then, over time, you realize that-

Lewis Howes: [00:11:24] It’s not fulfilling me anymore.

Rory Vaden: [00:11:25] It’s not fulfilling. It’s not—like once you get past a certain threshold-

Lewis Howes: [00:11:29] The $10 million on the bank, or a million dollars, or whatever.

Rory Vaden: [00:11:31] 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, “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-“

Lewis Howes: [00:12:04] Gandhi.

Rory Vaden: [00:12:04] “… Gandhi And Martin Luther King.” And even, you know, we 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:12:31] Because a lot of people are able to make the money, but after that, they need something else.

Rory Vaden: [00:12:35] Then what?

Lewis Howes: [00:12:36] You got to do something else with your life, a purpose. And impact on people is usually the way to have that purpose.

Rory Vaden: [00:12:42] And so many people, the generation before us, you know, 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:13:04] Sleepy, at home, everything, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:13:07] Yeah. And, you know, 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. Like, I’ll go travel the world, and kind of surf, and Airbnb. And I don’t need to have a car. Like , 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.”

Lewis Howes: [00:13:29] I want to matter.

Rory Vaden: [00:13:29] 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, you know, 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. It’s 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 public—public speaker. And I basically did that. I came in second.

Lewis Howes: [00:14:20] You’re even a New York Times bestselling author.

Rory Vaden: [00:14:21] New York Times bestselling author. I wanted-

Lewis Howes: [00:14:23] Build an eight-figure business.

Rory Vaden: [00:14:24] Build eight-figure 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 is this sequential thing. And you realize, even being a New York 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 then tools of digital media have made that more available and accessible than ever before.

Lewis Howes: [00:15:15] Want to take a moment from this episode with Rory to talk about HempFusion. 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. Most of them just offer CBD. HempFusion is CBD, plus omegas, plus terpenes, plus other natural ingredients to help you feel a hundred percent. They do this because CBD works best for your body when combined with these other natural ingredients.

Lewis Howes: [00:15:52] HempFusion 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 HempFusion does add up to a better product, and that adds up to a better day for you. HempFusion, it all adds up. Available both online and at natural product retailers near you and shipped anywhere in the US. 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 HempFusion shipped anywhere in the US. Just use a promo code “greatest” today. And now, let’s get back to this interview with Rory Vaden.

Lewis Howes: [00:16:46] Why are there so many people Twitter-rich but money-poor them? 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?

Rory Vaden: [00:17:01] 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.” 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:17:37] It is.

Rory Vaden: [00:17:38] And, you know, to answer your question directly, there are five ways that we talk about, about how to make money. And so, when we’re working with a client, we’re basically gonna—we’re gonna lay out these five ways. There’s five primary ways. We call them the P.A.I.D.S., five ways to get paid, basically. So, to take a pile of followers or a pile of influence.

Lewis Howes: [00:17:58] And have them give you money.

Rory Vaden: [00:17:59] And have them—have that turn into money in your bank account. Okay. So, here’s what—P.A.I.D.S 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:18:15] Like a book.

Rory Vaden: [00:18:16] Like a book.

Lewis Howes: [00:18:17] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:18:17] 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 the 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:18:43] No.

Rory Vaden: [00:18:44] He brings awareness to the different ventures he’s involved in. So, anyways, you know, 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. Sara 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:19:11] Because her products are-

Rory Vaden: [00:19:12] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:19:18] Sure, okay.

Rory Vaden: [00:19:18] So, number two is ads and affiliates. Ads and affiliates. This is really fascinating, which is that you can monetize your audience without ever selling anything to your audience.

Lewis Howes: [00:19:32] Without ever having to create a product, a physical good, deal with shipping, deal with customer support, returns.

Rory Vaden: [00:19:37] Content creation.

Lewis Howes: [00:19:39] Product managers.

Rory Vaden: [00:19:40] Yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:19:40] Never having to deal with any of that.

Rory Vaden: [00:19:42] Yes.

Lewis Howes: [00:19:43] And what are some examples of businesses that do that really well based off of a personal brand?

Rory Vaden: [00:19:47] Yes. 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:19:55] Sure, sure.

Rory Vaden: [00:19:56] About, you know, the work that we’ve done together over the last 18 months. When you came to us originally, you had lots of these.

Lewis Howes: [00:20:04] Yeah, all of them.

Rory Vaden: [00:20:05] Yeah. You got like all of these. And one of the problems is that when you have diluted focus, you get diluted results. 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 realize that, actually, your long-term primary business model is ads and affiliates. It’s the podcast itself.

Lewis Howes: [00:20:30] Exactly, exactly.

Rory Vaden: [00:20:31] It’s the thing that you once thought of as just a traffic source that has actually become the main business model.

Lewis Howes: [00:20:38] Right, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:20:38] So, it’s the ads, right? It’s the sponsors of the show who make the show possible.

Lewis Howes: [00:20:43] Then, we’ll tell the rest of that story after we’ve done the other three.

Rory Vaden: [00:20:46] Okay, yeah. So, we’ll come back. But podcasts 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, you know, some percentage. The difference between ads and affiliates, by the way, is an ad is is not a pay for performance. It’s just a pay for impression, right? Like for so many impressions, you’re gonna be in front of these many people .

Lewis Howes: [00:21:08] I give you this much money if you post this on your social media.

Rory Vaden: [00:21:11] This many times.

Lewis Howes: [00:21:11] I’m going to give you as much money if share it on your podcast. I mean, whatever it may be.

Rory Vaden: [00:21:15] Exactly right.

Lewis Howes: [00:21:16] Based on the impressions, based on a calculation that you come up with, or that’s industry standard for that thing.

Rory Vaden: [00:21:21] Yeah. And it could be a whole platform. It could include your newsletter, and your social, and your podcasts, whatever. Affiliates is a pay for result.

Lewis Howes: [00:21:28] Yeah, you get a sale, I give you a commission.

Rory Vaden: [00:21:30] Yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:21:30] A lot of people do this with Amazon on books.

Rory Vaden: [00:21:33] You can do it with—yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:21:34] It’s like you link it with books, you get a commission from Amazon, Audible. You see it all the time from people.

Rory Vaden: [00:21:39] All the time.

Lewis Howes: [00:21:39] Okay. So, products, ads and affiliates. What’s the third way?

Rory Vaden: [00:21:42] So, the I is information. 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 media. On-

Lewis Howes: [00:22:16] E-books.

Rory Vaden: [00:22:17] E-books would be a great example of this. And in the last episode, was it 670?

Lewis Howes: [00:22:23] 670.

Rory Vaden: [00:22:23] 670 where we actually talked about D.A.R.E.S. We looked for things that are digital, automated, recurring, evergreen and scalable. The information line lends itself well to some of those-

Lewis Howes: [00:22:34] Yes.

Rory Vaden: [00:22:35] … to some of those D.A.R.E.S.

Lewis Howes: [00:22:36] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:22:36] So, yeah, video courses and things like that.

Lewis Howes: [00:22:39] Information products, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:22:40] 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 their main tank.

Lewis Howes: [00:22:51] Got it, okay. And the D?

Rory Vaden: [00:22:53] D is for deals. Deals.

Lewis Howes: [00:22:55] It’s like being an agent.

Rory Vaden: [00:22:56] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:23:42] Got it.

Rory Vaden: [00:23:43] This is why the 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-

Lewis Howes: [00:23:56] Corporations, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:23:56] … “What corporation would just license this content from me,” and, you know. So, those are brand deals.

Lewis Howes: [00:24:03] The opportunity.

Rory Vaden: [00:24:04] But yeah, traditional book publishing.

Lewis Howes: [00:24:05] So, like Darren Prince, would he be an example as deals because he’s an agent for all these athletes in Hollywood?

Rory Vaden: [00:24:11] Yeah. So, Darren Prince, as you met him when you had Rodney on the show.

Lewis Howes: [00:24:14] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:24:14] Right, right.

Lewis Howes: [00:24:15] I just had lunch with him yesterday too.

Rory Vaden: [00:24:16] Oh, that’s so great. Yeah. So, I love Darren. So, he’s a mutual friend. He’s a client of ours, right? So, yeah. So, Darren does deals. He’s on the agent’s 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:24:33] Yeah, the brand or the company that’s giving you money to the talent.

Rory Vaden: [00:24:37] The publisher.

Lewis Howes: [00:24:38] The publisher.

Rory Vaden: [00:24:39] Right, yeah. Or it could be a brand.

Lewis Howes: [00:24:40] Yeah, or speaking deal.

Rory Vaden: [00:24:41] Or a distributor.

Lewis Howes: [00:24:42] Yeah, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:24:42] 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. And then, the talent, you know, like Dennis Rodman and-

Lewis Howes: [00:24:57] Hulk Hogan.

Rory Vaden: [00:24:58] Hulk Hogan. He works with several Magic Johnson. He works with several celebrities that he manages. But he is also an author now.

Lewis Howes: [00:25:06] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:25:06] Right? So, he is off also getting-

Lewis Howes: [00:25:08] New products.

Rory Vaden: [00:25:09] Yes. 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:25:19] Interesting.

Rory Vaden: [00:25:20] And they’re different, and they have a different set of considerations.

Lewis Howes: [00:25:24] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:25:24] Right?

Lewis Howes: [00:25:24] Okay.

Rory Vaden: [00:25:25] So, 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-

Lewis Howes: [00:25:30] Exactly.

Rory Vaden: [00:25:30] Also, great benefits.

Lewis Howes: [00:25:32] Exactly, okay. So, deals. And the last one, the S?

Rory Vaden: [00:25:35] Okay. Last but not least is services.

Lewis Howes: [00:25:37] Services. So, would that be coaching servicews?

Rory Vaden: [00:25:40] Yes. Basically, speaking, coaching, consulting, training.

Lewis Howes: [00:25:43] Okay.

Rory Vaden: [00:25:44] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:26:03] 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.”.

Rory Vaden: [00:26:11] Literally, right?

Lewis Howes: [00:26:12] And you get $1000 client, a $5000 client, whatever it may be now.

Rory Vaden: [00:26:15] I mean, you could say, “Hey, you know, put out some piece of content. You know, DM me for a free call. You do the call this afternoon. Then, we’ll need some money. And we do our—you know, we do our first consulting,” or whatever, you know, like whatever it is. It’s just that—but any service, the problem with services is that it’s a time for money exchange.

Lewis Howes: [00:26:35] Time-consuming.

Rory Vaden: [00:26:36] 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 D.A.R.E.S – digital, automated, recurring, evergreen, and scalable. It’s not digital. It’s not automated. It’s not—well, it can sometimes be recurring. It’s not evergreen, and it’s not scalable at all. Your calendar is your inventory.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:00] Unless you’re now hiring and training other consultants to do the coaching and consulting for you, there’s a scalability effect, but-

Rory Vaden: [00:27:10] True.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:10] … you can’t scale yourself.

Rory Vaden: [00:27:11] True.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:11] That’s why.

Rory Vaden: [00:27:12] 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, they run people-

Lewis Howes: [00:27:22] Through the process.

Rory Vaden: [00:27:23] They run people through the process.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:24] And if they want you, they pay a premium essentially.

Rory Vaden: [00:27:26] They do, yeah, or they come to a group, like an event.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:29] Exactly.

Rory Vaden: [00:27:30] Like one of our little intensive boot camps.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:32] So, this would be—services would be speaking, coaching, consulting, training, masterminds.

Rory Vaden: [00:27:38] Yeah, masterminds would be.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:39] Group coaching.

Rory Vaden: [00:27:40] Yeah. I would call a mastermind still a time-for-money exchange. There’s some limit to the scalability.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:45] Would it be workshops too as same thing?

Rory Vaden: [00:27:47] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:27:58] Right.

Rory Vaden: [00:27:58] Right. My fee today is much higher. There’s people yet even still with speaking fees that are much higher than mine. So, you could get $100,000 to go stand on stage for an hour. That’s fairly scalable. I mean, but you still only have so many days a year.

Lewis Howes: [00:28:13] So many days, so many, yes, many hours in checking a-

Rory Vaden: [00:28:16] So many hours.

Lewis Howes: [00:28:17] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:28:17] So, you know, seminars are a little more scalable. I mean-

Lewis Howes: [00:28:20] With someone like, you know, Jon Gordon is a guy who he’s making millions every year just by speaking. And he’s got his-

Rory Vaden: [00:28:26] Yeah. Jon Gordon, Jason Dorsey, you know, Jay-

Lewis Howes: [00:28:30] They do it full time.

Rory Vaden: [00:28:31] Jay Baer, yeah. Carrie Loran, Sally Hogshead, these are people that are making multi seven figures or close to-

Lewis Howes: [00:28:39] Yeah, yeah, or at least, yeah, seven figures.

Rory Vaden: [00:28:40] … just in keynote fees.

Lewis Howes: [00:28:41] Then, they have their books.

Rory Vaden: [00:28:43] Then, you get books. And then, they may have some of these other things.

Lewis Howes: [00:28:45] Trainings, consulting, or coaching.

Rory Vaden: [00:28:46] But this is where the problem also comes-

Lewis Howes: [00:28:50] Diluted.

Rory Vaden: [00:28:50] Diluted focus gets diluted results.

Lewis Howes: [00:28:53] And so, this is what I came to you. So, for people who listened on episode 670, which is really powerful, I came to Rory about—was it a year and a half ago?

Rory Vaden: [00:29:01] Yeah, it was—yeah, it was about 18 months ago

Lewis Howes: [00:29:04] 18 months ago, I came to Rory because I was doing all of these, I think. I wasn’t doing software. Where would software be under here?

Rory Vaden: [00:29:11] Yes. So, software would probably set either under information or maybe product, depending on-

Lewis Howes: [00:29:14] Got it. Okay, yeah. I guess I didn’t have software, but I had membership site, courses, books, audio books-

Rory Vaden: [00:29:22] Self-published books.

Lewis Howes: [00:29:23] … self-published books, live events-

Rory Vaden: [00:29:25] E-books.

Lewis Howes: [00:29:26] … e-books, masterminds, one-on-one coaching.

Rory Vaden: [00:29:30] One-on-one coaching and podcast.

Lewis Howes: [00:29:31] Podcast.

Rory Vaden: [00:29:31] And speaking.

Lewis Howes: [00:29:32] 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 the 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’re doing everything at an 80% level. And that was frustrating me. I was like, “But I’m not like as 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 will be able to help me. I don’t know why,” which is you weren’t doing any of this before.

Rory Vaden: [00:30:23] Well, no, no. And we hadn’t talked in like-

Lewis Howes: [00:30:27] A year.

Rory Vaden: [00:30:27] … at least, a year.

Lewis Howes: [00:30:28] I don’t know why I thought of him. So, I remember calling you, and I was just like, “Hey, I want to come to Nashville and meet. So, I think you could help me gain clarity.”

Rory Vaden: [00:30:36] 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 one 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?”

Lewis Howes: [00:30:52] Yeah, and we came down. It was a day, a day and a half, two days, or something.

Rory Vaden: [00:30:54] Yeah, it was like two days. Well, you’ve been for three separate two-day sessions, plus the other stuff that we did.

Lewis Howes: [00:31:01] The first time was like a two-day thing. And we just mapped out the vision, the brand identity, the vision, and figuring out what is my uniqueness. We talked about this on the last podcast. And it’s like really getting clarity on what your uniqueness is as a personal brand and your-

Rory Vaden: [00:31:16] That’s step one.

Lewis Howes: [00:31:17] Yeah, and your vision for your business, and your mission, and everything moving forward. 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 was growing, and everything was great, and we are 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?

Rory Vaden: [00:31:57] Matt was there.

Lewis Howes: [00:31:57] Yeah, Matt was there. And we mapped out-

Rory Vaden: [00:32:00] Matt was there the first time and the third time.

Lewis Howes: [00:32:01] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:32:02] He bailed the second time.

Lewis Howes: [00:32:02] Yeah, that was the keynote one, right?

Rory Vaden: [00:32:03] Yeah, on the keynote one. Yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:32:04] And so, we can do, and we mapped out all of the P.A.I.D.S. Did we do that?

Rory Vaden: [00:32:09] We did.

Lewis Howes: [00:32:09] We mapped out all the P.A.I.D.S.

Rory Vaden: [00:32:10] Yeah, we looked at on it. We took you through something we call the revenue assessment. We graded them all out.

Lewis Howes: [00:32:15] And figure out what your business model is based on revenue.

Rory Vaden: [00:32:19] Based on actual data, right.

Lewis Howes: [00:32:20] And so, based on the data of like we’ve mapped out all of our revenue streams, I think courses or-

Rory Vaden: [00:32:27] At the time, video courses was your number one revenue stream.

Lewis Howes: [00:32:29] So, we were a video course company based on revenue

Rory Vaden: [00:32:33] Yet, it was the probably the furthest disconnected from your personal uniqueness in your long-term-

Lewis Howes: [00:32:39] And my mission.

Rory Vaden: [00:32:40] And your mission, right.

Lewis Howes: [00:32:41] Yeah. And so, that’s why I think it was like gaining that clarity was so powerful to me. It was so eye opening. So, we had products, we had deals, we had information, we had services, we had mastermind. And the least revenue-generating source was the podcast. It 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 impact. You know, how many people a week? It’s aligned to what you want to do of helping transform the world. And yet it’s a thing you’re kind of spend the least amount of time focused on.” So, we need to figure out how we’re going to transition and switch to being number one as opposed to the bottom.

Rory Vaden: [00:33:21] Right.

Lewis Howes: [00:33:21] And that was 18 months ago.

Rory Vaden: [00:33:23] Right.

Lewis Howes: [00:33:23] And it’s been like this transition. And you said to me—what did you say then? You were like, “This doesn’t have to change right now. You’ll let go of all these revenue streams now. But in the future, sometime, this will need to switch.”

Rory Vaden: [00:33:36] Yeah. This is—the analogy that we use, it’s like launching a rocket ship.

Lewis Howes: [00:33:40] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:33:40] Right? So, when you launch a rocket ship, you have like—it takes everything. Like to launch a personal brand of just like make enough money to pay the bills, it’s just like, in some ways, you’re just—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.

Lewis Howes: [00:34:17] It’s so hard.

Rory Vaden: [00:34:18] And you were literally hitting she-hands wall. So, if you all didn’t, you go back and listen to the episode-

Lewis Howes: [00:34:24] Yeah, 670.

Rory Vaden: [00:34:25] … 670, where we talked about she-hands wall. You were hitting she-hands wall not from a messaging perspective as much, but you were from a revenue perspective. Your team was fragmented, and fractionalized, and you spread thin. And when we created that focus, I mean, focus is power, right? Like, I talked 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 is they’re—and it’s not like you weren’t making money. You were making more money than you’ve ever made in your life, but-

Lewis Howes: [00:35:10] But I wasn’t breaking through the wall. I wasn’t—it wasn’t all aligned to my vision a hundred 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 from my life and have more mission and purpose, I needed clarity.”

Rory Vaden: [00:35:34] Yeah. And it was—it’s first being clear on your dream. And then, it is having the courage to chase it.

Lewis Howes: [00:35:44] And let go of really good things that are already successful, helping people making money, supporting my team, paying for a lifestyle, all that.

Rory Vaden: [00:35:55] 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 that 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, the clearer you are on your vision, your long-term vision, the more obvious it becomes what short-term sacrifices need to be made.

Lewis Howes: [00:36:49] Wow!

Rory Vaden: [00:36:50] 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.

Rory Vaden: [00:37:27] And your discipline engages automatically as a byproduct of division. 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-

Lewis Howes: [00:38:00] It’s not because you don’t work hard.

Rory Vaden: [00:38:02] 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 the 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’re 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:38:45] That’s good. Just because of Jesus talk over here.

Rory Vaden: [00:38:49] 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, 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-

Lewis Howes: [00:39:07] This is the thing.

Rory Vaden: [00:39:07] You’re the one who told us, this is your next—best 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 creating content. It is social media. It’s building funnels. It’s copywriting. There’s Facebook ads. 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 probably skills. 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?”

Lewis Howes: [00:40:07] So, how does someone know which things they should be focusing on? How do they—is there step one, get clear on your mission, your vision?

Rory Vaden: [00:40:15] Well, yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:40:15] And then-

Rory Vaden: [00:40:16] My first thought was come work with us for two days.

Lewis Howes: [00:40:19] Yeah, exactly.

Rory Vaden: [00:40:19] We’ll take you through a process, but we can go through it now.

Lewis Howes: [00:40:21] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:40:22] So-

Lewis Howes: [00:40:23] How do I know if I’ve got—if I’m Twitter-rich and money-poor, cash-poor? Like, so, you would say first thing is-

Rory Vaden: [00:40:30] Let me-

Lewis Howes: [00:40:30] Go ahead.

Rory Vaden: [00:40:30] Yes. So, let me read through a few of them.

Lewis Howes: [00:40:31] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:40:32] 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. But the brand development it takes to get there-

Lewis Howes: [00:40:52] Hard.

Rory Vaden: [00:40:52] … the time and the logistical process of manufacturing, and distribution, and getting it, you know, in the proper places is not an easy feat, 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. But if I’m not good at that, then maybe I should look at something else. The ads and affiliate’s, here’s who this is great for. If you are great at throwing a party, which is you.

Lewis Howes: [00:41:30] Yeah, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:41:30] Right? Like if-

Lewis Howes: [00:41:31] Getting people together.

Rory Vaden: [00:41:32] Getting people together

Lewis Howes: [00:41:33] Rallying behind something.

Rory Vaden: [00:41:34] Community, right.

Lewis Howes: [00:41:35] Yeah, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:41:36] Let’s all like support each other. And like if you create community, 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:41:52] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:41:52] 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 know—we do a lot of execution like on the back end. But—so if you’re not—you know, if social media drives you nuts, ads and affiliates is probably not the right model for you.

Lewis Howes: [00:42:14] Yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:42:14] Right? Because you’re not good naturally at building audience. You should go find partners who are good at building an audience.

Lewis Howes: [00:42:20] Sure.

Rory Vaden: [00:42:21] And they’re going to love you because all the stuff you do gives them a freaking headache, and stress, and adversity.

Lewis Howes: [00:42:28] Right.

Rory Vaden: [00:42:28] Information. So, information 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, you know, is to create true thought leadership, which means-

Lewis Howes: [00:42:49] Intellectual property, IP for yourself, for your own ideas.

Rory Vaden: [00:42:53] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:43:03] For example, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, not just saying here’s Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but here’s actually what’s missing.

Rory Vaden: [00:43:12] Yeah. Like here’s from self-actualization to others-actualization.

Lewis Howes: [00:43:15] And that could be like furthering the conversation that’s already out.

Rory Vaden: [00:43:18] 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.

Rory Vaden: [00:43:44] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:44:01] Not scalable, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:44:02] But it can get you to a point, right? Like it could 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:44:28] And you’re paid to do it.

Rory Vaden: [00:44:29] 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 clients now become speakers. And I got two little, little kids. And so, I’m not one 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 I’m not—I’m doing fewer gigs because I’ve 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. So, there’s the strengths and advantages. And it’s like, what is your team and you’re just like—what do you love doing? What do you not love doing? The part of your uniqueness, we believe—you know, on that last episode, we were talking about your uniqueness-

Lewis Howes: [00:45:17] Finding your uniqueness.

Rory Vaden: [00:45:18] … as a message. 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.

Rory Vaden: [00:46:01] One of the things I love, this is a guy named Craig Valentine. He is 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-

Lewis Howes: [00:46:29] Wow!

Rory Vaden: [00:46:29] … to forgo the pursuit of what I am called to. And that takes tremendous courage.

Lewis Howes: [00:46:40] And discipline, and courage, and everything.

Rory Vaden: [00:46:42] And discipline.

Lewis Howes: [00:46:42] Commitment, everything.

Rory Vaden: [00:46:43] And commitment and execution, because it’s freaking scary.

Lewis Howes: [00:46:46] Scary to let go of certain things.

Rory Vaden: [00:46:48] And it’s not a guarantee that it’ll work, but here’s what I do believe firmly is that if you go all in on a goal, and 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:47:04] It did not work out.

Rory Vaden: [00:47:05] 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:47:17] Wow!

Rory Vaden: [00:47:17] But that was not my goal. My goal was to come in first. But here-

Lewis Howes: [00:47:20] If that would have happened, you wouldn’t be here.

Rory Vaden: [00:47:23] I may not be here. So, here’s the payoff. When you pull 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-

Lewis Howes: [00:47:40] And you went all in.

Rory Vaden: [00:47:41] 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’ve done this better.” In fact, not everyone knows the story. I went to the world championship twice. So, I made it to the top 10-

Lewis Howes: [00:48:02] Wow!

Rory Vaden: [00:48:02] … the first year and lost. And then, I—but I knew I had more to give. I went back the second year.

Lewis Howes: [00:48:09] You got a whole year to plan and prepare.

Rory Vaden: [00:48:11] A whole other year, did it again.

Lewis Howes: [00:48:12] And have a speech nailed. You had the stories every day.

Rory Vaden: [00:48:15] There’s nothing I would change about the speech. The speech could have won. I believe it was good enough to have clearly 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 I am—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 in 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:49:06] Thanks.

Rory Vaden: [00:49:08] 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’s locked. But then, there is a door to my left that is open that I could not see when I was down here.

Lewis Howes: [00:49:22] Until you got to the locked door.

Rory Vaden: [00:49:23] Until I went all in. And so, you know, again, this is my spiritual belief, right? Because I believe God is leading me in a direction. And sometimes, you know, like I 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 this—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.”

Lewis Howes: [00:50:10] Something greater.

Rory Vaden: [00:50:11] Something greater.

Lewis Howes: [00:50:11] And put me on a different path that I was meant to go on.

Rory Vaden: [00:50:14] Yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:50:14] This has happened to me in many areas of my life. I remember I wanted to be—I wanted to go to Ohio State to play football.

Rory Vaden: [00:50:20] Yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:50:20] I didn’t get an offer. They said I could walk on. But I was like, “I don’t want to sit at 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 to build 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.

Rory Vaden: [00:50:47] Yeah. You’re set. That’s a perfect-

Lewis Howes: [00:50:49] Everything, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:50:50] You’re a perfect living example of this.

Lewis Howes: [00:50:52] And then, I was like—but it lead me to-

Rory Vaden: [00:50:53] And it wasn’t like you weren’t all in on football.

Lewis Howes: [00:50:55] I was all in.

Rory Vaden: [00:50:55] You were all in on football.

Lewis Howes: [00:50:57] On everything, I was in.

Rory Vaden: [00:50:58] You had no other plan.

Lewis Howes: [00:50:59] Zero backup plan, no other skills. I didn’t have any other options. It wasn’t like, “Oh, I have all these talents.” And this is a lot of people will say, “I want to do all these things. I have ten great ideas.” I had 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?” And that was like a self-discovery period of transition or reinvention.

Rory Vaden: [00:51:25] That was-

Lewis Howes: [00:51:25] I was finding identity, yeah. What’s my identity now? It’s discovering my—it’s going on that journey of life. Let me go out and develop some new skills, new speaking, and salsa dancing, and all these different things, which led me to the next thing, which then led me to the podcast.

Rory Vaden: [00:51:40] It’s what led you here.

Lewis Howes: [00:51:41] It’s led me here.

Rory Vaden: [00:51:42] And you have a hundred million people-

Lewis Howes: [00:51:46] 150 million downloads.

Rory Vaden: [00:51:47] 150 million?

Lewis Howes: [00:51:47] Yeah, 150 million.

Rory Vaden: [00:51:49] Gosh, man.

Lewis Howes: [00:51:50] 150 million downloads. That’s not people, but that’s 150 million downloads.

Rory Vaden: [00:51:54] Well, you know-

Lewis Howes: [00:51:54] Audio downloads.

Rory Vaden: [00:51:55] … my podcast has tens of downloads.

Lewis Howes: [00:51:57] It’s great.

Rory Vaden: [00:52:00] It’s amazing, right? Like you would not be here if it weren’t for that.

Lewis Howes: [00:52:06] Exactly.

Rory Vaden: [00:52:07] And you had to go all in.

Lewis Howes: [00:52:08] Had to go all in.

Rory Vaden: [00:52:09] If you weren’t playing all in, maybe you never get injured.

Lewis Howes: [00:52:12] That’s it.

Rory Vaden: [00:52:12] And then, maybe you never end up here, right?

Lewis Howes: [00:52:14] Everything.

Rory Vaden: [00:52:15] 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-

Lewis Howes: [00:52:27] It may not be for you.

Rory Vaden: [00:52:28] It may not. There may be something better for you.

Lewis Howes: [00:52:30] Better, greater for your purpose, for your life, for you-

Rory Vaden: [00:52:33] And that’s—so, by the way, that, 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’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.

Lewis Howes: [00:53:20] Like I’m so grateful for the flat tire.

Rory Vaden: [00:53:21] I’m so grateful for the flat tire.

Lewis Howes: [00:53:23] Exactly.

Rory Vaden: [00:53:23] And that is how it is.

Lewis Howes: [00:53:25] I missed my flight. And then, the flight goes down. I’m so grateful I missed my flight.

Rory Vaden: [00:53:29] Yeah. If you—we don’t—and then, the thing is absent the ability to see the entire future, we are 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 with everything I can. And if it doesn’t work out, something better, something more extraordinary must show up in its place.

Lewis Howes: [00:53:54] And that’s why, for me, over the last 18 months, when we talked about, okay, you’re switching the P.A.I.D.S. and the opportunities to make money, you’re going to be switching them eventually, where the podcast is the focus, sponsorships, ads, 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, this is-“

Rory Vaden: [00:54:22] Have you shared that on the podcast yet?

Lewis Howes: [00:54:23] I haven’t shared it yet, but it’s like people have been applying for months to join. Someone who makes—had got a nine-figure business emailed me like the day afterwards and was like, “I want to join,” right? People—the—there’s two billionaires that have applied. It’s like there’s hundreds of applications where people want to be a part of this thing. Then, 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-

Rory Vaden: [00:54:55] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on a second because we need to back up a little bit because, like, that’s a pretty big bomb you dropped 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, you know, for those of you that are listening, Lewis, and Matt, and I, we actually have been talking for months about how we can help support the mastermind.

Lewis Howes: [00:55:17] Right, Partnering on it.

Rory Vaden: [00:55:18] Partnering on it, so that I could help, you know, you and AJ. AJ is 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.

Lewis Howes: [00:55:34] I love it.

Rory Vaden: [00:55:34] You love the people.

Lewis Howes: [00:55:35] The impact, the growth, everything. It’s like-

Rory Vaden: [00:55:37] And we started doing it. So, at the summit, I was there, led that one. And then, a couple weeks ago, we led another one. And it’s so funny, we made the decision.

Lewis Howes: [00:55:46] And it was great. It was amazing. It was like-

Rory Vaden: [00:55:48] It was so fun.

Lewis Howes: [00:55:49] … growing everything, which just keeps making me like second guess.

Rory Vaden: [00:55:52] Maybe we should do it.

Lewis Howes: [00:55:53] Not now.

Rory Vaden: [00:55:53] And then, even the night before you were gonna announce it to the mastermind-

Lewis Howes: [00:55:57] We’re up till midnight.

Rory Vaden: [00:55:58] You called 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.”

Lewis Howes: [00:56:05] Keep it going because the people were like, “This is changing my life. This is amazing. The money is great.” Like-

Rory Vaden: [00:56:11] It was amazing. It is. It was.

Lewis Howes: [00:56:13] It’s a great experience.

Rory Vaden: [00:56:14] It’s amazing, but it’s not your calling. Your calling is to reach a hundred million of people a week on a podcast.

Lewis Howes: [00:56:23] Yeah, And impact lives and transform lives.

Rory Vaden: [00:56:25] And to impact lives. And for whatever reason, that’s what your calling is. 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. 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.

Rory Vaden: [00:57:13] 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 need you to email blast it to your 50 friends and friends, like your Christmas list. He needs you to share it on social media.

Lewis Howes: [00:57:48] Text your friend, yeah, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [00:57:49] 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 puts you in a position to literally change the world and to be a voice for our generation, like, of, you know, influence and interviewing people. And that is what we need. And that what you need because that’s what your calling is. Not because anyone told you that, it’s because that’s what you feel.

Lewis Howes: [00:58:24] 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 gonna get a lot of opportunities where I could sell toothbrushes, shoes. Like we can sell anything.”

Rory Vaden: [00:58:37] You can sell anything.

Lewis Howes: [00:58:38] 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 got to figure out what your calling is and start going on on that thing. Whether it’s a product, or book, or ads, or whatever it is, going all in on it to the point where, you know, okay, I’ve maxed it out. Then, I can add the mastermind.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:02] Yeah, if you want.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:03] I can add this if I want.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:03] Bring you back.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:04] I could do these things, but we haven’t maxed out.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:07] You haven’t taken the shot.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:09] We haven’t taken a full swing.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:10] On the podcast.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:12] I mean we’ve been consistent for seven years almost.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:15] Yeah.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:15] We’ve been showing up in a big way.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:16] Oh, you’re not slackers. It’s not the school of average, I guess, you want to say.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:19] Yeah. It’s not like we’re—it’s not like we’re barely showing up.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:21] No.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:22] But we haven’t fully dedicated every ounce of energy from everyone in the team on one thing.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:26] Which is crazy. Like what does that look like?

Lewis Howes: [00:59:29] Going all in.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:30] 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? So, it’s like, what could it be?

Lewis Howes: [00:59:46] What could it be?

Rory Vaden: [00:59:46] What could it be? So, you’ve got to take a shot.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:48] So, that’s—yeah, that’s our mission on 2020 is going all into the podcast.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:51] All in to podcast.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:52] Taking pause in the mastermind. And everything we do has got to support the podcast.

Rory Vaden: [00:59:58] Right.

Lewis Howes: [00:59:59] Like the goal is to write another book that supports the podcast. The goal is to keep doing this Summit of Greatness because it supports the community of podcast.

Rory Vaden: [01:00:07] It’s the community of—it’s the in-person event-

Lewis Howes: [01:00:09] Yeah, of the podcast.

Rory Vaden: [01:00:10] … that supports the podcast.

Lewis Howes: [01:00:11] 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 a second because we 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.

Rory Vaden: [01:00:28] It becomes clearer.

Lewis Howes: [01:00:29] Clear. You don’t have to say, “Well, what about this opportunity and this thing?”

Rory Vaden: [01:00:32] Yeah, it’s not necessarily easier, but it’s clearer.

Lewis Howes: [01:00:34] Yeah. You still want to say yes to everything, maybe, but 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 Papasan and Keller talk about. It’s like the book, The ONE Thing.

Rory Vaden: [01:00:53] The ONE Thing, yeah.

Lewis Howes: [01:00:54] How it supports everything else when you do the one thing. So-

Rory Vaden: [01:00:56] Great guys.

Lewis Howes: [01:00:58] 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 we—so, people can go to you to get this clarity and support like I have in three different workshops I’ve done with you.

Rory Vaden: [01:01:20] 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 in 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-

Lewis Howes: [01:01:48] Yeah, right, your real estate firm.

Rory Vaden: [01:01:49] … to your accounting services, to your real estate. Like that’s always the easiest thing to do.

Lewis Howes: [01:01:54] Your fitness coaching, whatever it is, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [01:01:56] Right. 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. Like we’re not going to—we don’t think everybody should become a speaker, and that’s not—it’s not like we have one formula. Yes. 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-

Lewis Howes: [01:02:18] Accountability and coaching along the way.

Rory Vaden: [01:02:20] 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 strategy person—and they’re smaller. They’re typically like 20, 30 people there with boot camps.

Lewis Howes: [01:02:36] Yeah. Intensive training, boot camps, getting clarity on the thing you need to work on.

Rory Vaden: [01:02:40] Yeah. And we’re going through these frameworks like, you know, a few of them we shared here. And then, we’re taking you through exercises. It’s not an edge—it’s not like sit and learn.

Lewis Howes: [01:02:49] It’s not a lecture.

Rory Vaden: [01:02:50] It’s a work. You’re doing work on the spot. And the idea is that you leave with stuff done but-

Lewis Howes: [01:02:57] You’ve got one on like crafting your perfect keynote, on podcasting, on-

Rory Vaden: [01:03:01] Yeah. So, we have—phase one is called brand identification, finding your uniqueness, which we talked a lot about that on episode 670.

Lewis Howes: [01:03:08] Yeah, which is what I did first and gave me the clarity to be here now.

Rory Vaden: [01:03:11] Yeah. 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. Phase three is called high traffic strategies. 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, you know, 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 time stuff. But 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. You’re spending money in the wrong places.” But then, yeah, we have world class keynote craft, which you came through.

Lewis Howes: [01:04:00] That was great.

Rory Vaden: [01:04:01] So, that was working on your keynote, the psychology of why people laugh, and helping you like get your signature story become-.

Lewis Howes: [01:04:07] How to get standing ovation, how to-

Rory Vaden: [01:04:09] Standing ovation.

Lewis Howes: [01:04:09] How to captivate people, everything, yeah.

Rory Vaden: [01:04:11] And then, we have one called full keynote calendar, which is the business of speaking. 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? 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 to 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-

Lewis Howes: [01:04:52] Which is like where you helped me create my own intellectual property and my own thought leadership.

Rory Vaden: [01:04:57] Exactly, coming up with frameworks, and diagrams, and stuff.

Lewis Howes: [01:05:01] 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—like anyone listening right now can get a free call with a brand strategist on your team if they want, right?

Rory Vaden: [01:05:18] Yeah. And that’s what we love to do is we love to 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 a special link for you set up for your audience, right?

Lewis Howes: [01:05:33] Yeah, yeah. LewisHowes.com/BrandCall. 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-

Rory Vaden: [01:05:45] Totally.

Lewis Howes: [01:05:45] To see how someone on your team can help them. It will ask you-

Rory Vaden: [01:05:49] We may not be able to help too.

Lewis Howes: [01:05:50] Right, right. You may not be ready for it.

Rory Vaden: [01:05:51] You may not be ready for it. I would say this, though, that, you know, we work with some pretty big name people like, you know, like yourself. You know, there’s others-

Lewis Howes: [01:06:01] There are celebrities and influencers.

Rory Vaden: [01:06:03] … 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, you know, 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, you know, let’s just talk about it. And if we’re not, we’ll tell you.

Lewis Howes: [01:06:29] Exactly, yeah. So, go to the link, LewisHowes.com/BrandCall, schedule a call ASAP. I’m telling you, just getting on the phone with the people on your team, they’re gonna ask you questions and 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.

Rory Vaden: [01:06:49] Totally, yeah. We walk you through a little framework on the call to help you with your organization.

Lewis Howes: [01:06:52] Yeah, just to see where you’re at.

Rory Vaden: [01:06:53] Yeah.

Lewis Howes: [01:06:53] So, it’s going to be worth it for the call alone. Schedule the call, LewisHowes.com/BrandCall. And go there right now. Rory, every time I’m with you, we learn a lot. We connect a lot. You’re amazing.

Rory Vaden: [01:07:06] I got one more thing.

Lewis Howes: [01:07:07] Go ahead.

Rory Vaden: [01:07:07] I got one more thing we have to share.

Lewis Howes: [01:07:09] Go ahead, go ahead.

Rory Vaden: [01:07:10] On the topic of monetization, right, again, we are all about making money. Like we don’t dislike money. Like 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 like blew me away. I think it’s important to understand that when you talk about making money, there is like 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 here’s what Kevin said. He said, “Make sure your influence doesn’t grow wider than your character runs deep.”

Lewis Howes: [01:07:54] Yeah, I love this.

Rory Vaden: [01:07:55] Make sure your influence doesn’t grow wider than your character runs deep.

Lewis Howes: [01:07:59] What’s that mean?

Rory Vaden: [01:08:00] 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. It’s 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 sit here thinking that they would be more impressed with who you are.

Lewis Howes: [01:08:36] Wow! That’s crazy.

Rory Vaden: [01:08:37] And it’s a high level to pursue too, 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.

Lewis Howes: [01:08:51] Problems.

Rory Vaden: [01:08:52] You have all sorts of stuff that comes, all sorts of issues, and ego-

Lewis Howes: [01:08:56] Personal problems.

Rory Vaden: [01:08:57] And personal problems.

Lewis Howes: [01:08:57] Press problems.

Rory Vaden: [01:08:58] Press, media, physical health. And so, you have to be developing yourself. And I think-

Lewis Howes: [01:09:04] I love that.

Rory Vaden: [01:09:04] … that’s one of the things I love about the School of Greatness Podcast is 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-

Lewis Howes: [01:09:19] That’s good, man.

Rory Vaden: [01:09:20] … get to a hundred million down—we need to get to a million downloads of episode.

Lewis Howes: [01:09:22] A million downloads of 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. This is about being more productive and multiplying your time. Take the Stairs, also a classic, New York Times bestseller. But get on the brand call, LewisHowes.com/BrandCall. 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.

Rory Vaden: [01:09:55] Yeah, a bunch of people, a lot of footprint.

Lewis Howes: [01:09:56] When we did this episode 670, I mean, 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-.

Rory Vaden: [01:10:13] Thank you.

Lewis Howes: [01:10:13] … 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 information of LewisHowes.com/BrandCall 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.

Rory Vaden: [01:10:28] I love you, brother.

Lewis Howes: [01:10:29] Appreciate it. Build your brand. Change the world. Make some money. Let’s go.

Lewis Howes: [01:10:33] 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.

Lewis Howes: [01:11:02] 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 LewisHowes.com/BrandCall. 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, LewisHowes.com/BrandCall. So, make sure to sign up for a call right now.

Lewis Howes: [01:11:40] 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 may be, someone who’s got a brand they’re trying to build, a personal brand, some 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.

Lewis Howes: [01:12:09] 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, @LewisHowes, and let me know what you thought about this as well.

Lewis Howes: [01:12:39] Also, big thank you to our sponsors today. Policy Genius. Again, policygenius.com. Make sure to go there right now. When it comes to home insurance, it’s nice to get it right. And they’re gonna help you make sure you save the most on your policy, whether it’d be home insurance or auto policies, across different insurance, you can mix and match to make you find the best savings. Go to policygenius.com.

Lewis Howes: [01:13:04] Also, big thank you to Zip Recruiter. If you’re looking to build your personal brand and your business, you’ve got to have the right people on your team. And you can use Zip Recruiter for free at the ziprecruiter.com/greatness. And Zip Recruiter is the smartest way to hire. So, make sure to check them out right now.

Lewis Howes: [01:13:21] Also, a big thank you to HempFusion. Please use the promo code “greatness” for 20% off your first order and free shipping at HempFusion.com. That’s promo code “greatness.” Make sure to check them out. Big thank you to all our sponsors.

Lewis Howes: [01:13:35] 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 an Apple Podcast, 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.

Lewis Howes: [01:14:17] Always remember, “Your focus determines your reality,” said George Lucas. 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.