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How does one become a full-time influencer?
Should you have a million followers?
Lots of well-known sponsors?
A long list of booked events?
According to my guest today — one of the world’s leading high-performance coaches and a three-time New York Times bestselling author, Brendon Burchard — an influencer without a business is simply a popular person who’s always busy.
During this first part of my interview with Brendon, we’ll discuss what high performers need to truly change the world, the role model mindset, and how to adopt it, live it, and get paid doing it. We will also touch on the subject of why your audience wants you to be transparent about your story, how to figure out who your market is, and how to develop your influencer method. This is an interview you don’t want to miss, so let’s get started.
Brendon Burchard has not only shared the same stage as Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, and the Dalai Lama, but he has also sold his books, such as The Motivation Manifesto, The Charge, Life’s Golden Ticket, and The Millionaire Messenger. Not only that, but both Success Magazine and The Oprah Magazine have named him one of the most influential leaders in personal growth and achievement.
Brendon has been in the influencer and entrepreneur game for about 15 years now. When he was still in college back in 2001, he was able to launch his first book — a student leadership guide. It was then that he realized he could become a successful author.
After college, he took a corporate job and invested in leadership development for about seven years. During those years, he had wanted to write his Life’s Golden Ticket book but felt discouraged, thinking that he might be too young and unprepared to write it successfully. But after seeing the checks he was getting every month for the student leadership guide, he soon realized that he was more than capable of writing Life’s Golden Ticket, and he launched it in 2007.
After his first big seminar in 2008, his first online course followed in the same year. While technology was still trying to perfect the software and apps for conducting online courses, Brendon got busy writing multiple #1 New York Times bestselling books, selling four to five million copies (including digital sales).
But Brendon didn’t simply want to sell books. He wanted to build a business through leads. To do this, he asked people for their email address on his website, promising to send them his books for free once they provided it. Brendon’s mission has always been to change people’s lives in whatever way he can, and by giving away his books for free, he was able to create an even greater impact.
Through his continuous efforts with his book launches, Brendon achieved 28 seven-figure online launches, with 19 of them being launched in a row. These online launches paved the way for Brendon to define the game of launching personal development online courses even before marketing seminars were popular. His online launches helped many people begin their own brands and taught them how to become great at building and creating content that goes viral and attracts an audience.
I was thrilled to have influencer expert and business leader Brendon Buchard on The School of Greatness. Read on to learn how you can follow in his influencer footsteps!
While Brendon’s online launches taught people how to become influencers who could attract audiences, sometimes they still didn’t have a clue how to make money from it.
“They [the influencers] think they’re changing the world. It’s like, you’re going to need a business and a movement to change the world. … [And] they’re like, ‘Well, I’m changing the world.’ [I’m like,] ‘No, you’re [just] popular.’ … To actually change the world, change people, you need a curriculum. You need to be able to give them empowerment and tools to be able to help them to do that. And if you are going to actually make it, I always tell people, ‘You can’t sustain the mission if you don’t make the money.’” – Brendon Burchard
It’s great to want to impact people and change their lives, but if you don’t have a business through which you can operate, then as Brendon said, you’re basically just a popular person.
“Please make sure you build a business because if suddenly you’re not as popular or you go broke or something happens, God forbid, if you haven’t built the infrastructure to carry your message, then you’re not being a responsible messenger. You know, an influencer without a business is a popular person who’s busy.” – Brendon Burchard
Modern influencers often encounter problems when they struggle to make money from the influence they’re building. You need a business backing your influence in order to make an income from your efforts while also making an impact on the people you’re serving. When you have a business behind you, such as a coaching program, then you can influence your followers with real results.
In addition to teaching people how to become successful influencers, Brendon also wants to help people achieve their goals faster and make them realize that they have a second chance on this planet every day that they wake up. He wants people to treat every day like it’s their “golden ticket” to live an extraordinary life. Every time you wake up, you’re faced with a second chance to live each moment with intention.
Brendon experienced a “second chance” first hand. For a long time, he was absolutely terrified of public speaking, and if he was going to become a full-time influencer, proficiency at public speaking was a necessity. Instead of succumbing to his fear, Brendon used his second chance for improving and learning every skill needed in the influencer business. He learned how to speak even though he was terrified of public speaking, and he also learned how to make online training videos, podcasts, and successful books. (which have now been watched for about 15 million hours).
No matter what dream you want to pursue — whether you want to be an elite athlete, renowned artist, or influencer — Brendon wants you to understand that each day, you have a golden ticket and a second chance to pursue your goals with intention.
“We can all live love and matter if we make that our intention. So let’s start measuring ourselves and being more purposeful. And then I had to figure out how to do it. Well, you have to master your mindset. You have to master your habits. You have to be better in your relationships. You have to live for something.” – Brendon Burchard
Incidentally, having this message in your heart and knowing that you need to build an infrastructure for your dream are some of the things you can do to start your journey in becoming a full-time influencer!
When you start making the decision of whether you should be an influencer or not, you need to ask yourself an important question: Who exactly am I influencing?
Brendan suggested that the one thing that you shouldn’t question yourself on is if you’re too introverted or extroverted for the role. You have to make it about wanting to be a person of influence in a world where you bring positive changes. It’s about the heart and soul of wanting to become an influencer, wanting to create a positive change, and becoming a role model that’s most important — not whether you think you’re introverted or extroverted. It’s about developing that role model mindset.
“But no one seeks to become an influencer — unless in some way they have the role model mindset … that says, ‘You know what I want to do good and have other people see that and maybe inspire them. You know, I want to lead my life in a way that’s an example for other people.’ And as soon as you decide to adopt the role model mindset, where you say, ‘I want to be an example for other people,’ it requires you to do the hard stuff to work out stuff. You don’t want to do it. … But to be a role model, you have to demonstrate integrity and discipline and service. And most people don’t, they won’t challenge [themselves] that much.” – Brendon Burchard
As a full-time influencer, Brendon wants to create positive change and become a role model for people. He also wants to inspire and empower people to achieve their goals. While many people who want to be full-time influencers will think of the same things, it’s still hard to navigate the various methods and platforms you can use to offer your service.
“Influencers sit on top of more publishing platforms than we used to have access to. But at the end of the day, we’re still publishing content. We’re still promoting and pushing work out into the world. But people go, ‘How do you make money?’ The problem is most influencers coming up today. [They] think they’re going to earn money just by doing brand deals. … But they don’t understand the model. … If you’re trying to figure out the influencer space and you want to know all 12 major ways to monetize your voice — your content and your message [and] your brand — you should learn that as a menu before you pick one.”– Brendon Burchard
One of the things that many influencers don’t realize is that randomness will end their online careers. They’re excited about posting everything every hour and talking about just anything and everything to their audience, but they do it without deciding on a cohesive message that will allow their audience to relate to them on a personal level. Influencers need to speak with intention so that their audience can understand their message.
Brendon also pointed out that influencers also don’t need to be perfect — especially when they start out. They will have mistakes to learn and they’ll grow through it. Their message simply needs to be congruent and consistent.
When I asked him about crafting your own message as an influencer, Brendon suggested that before influencers think about being consistent and intentional with their message, they need to think about what their message is first. They need to ask themselves what being a role model means to them, how their message would translate into another person’s life, or what they would say to help or inspire them.
“I think a lot of people have to go and dig down deep into their experiences … and say, ‘What were some of the gifts of the lessons that I learned?’ So some of the awful things that happened to us or the challenging things — those struggles — there’s a story there. And that story can reveal some lessons or things that you might be a role model to for people. And it doesn’t have to be so finite … because you’ll keep evolving. You’ll keep learning, but there’s hints there, and you can go dig into your past to find those hints.” – Brendon Burchard
When thinking about what your unique message is, follow Brendon’s advice and think about your life experiences. What have your struggles taught you? How can you pass these lessons to your audience?
Brendon also added that he often asks people to come up with the three words that describe the best of who they are. These inspirational words can also be words that best describe them when they’re with other people and how they treat them. After thinking of these three words which define your best qualities, Brendon said that you should write those words in your alarm clock description.
By reflecting on your life experiences and focusing on your three best qualities, you’re one step closer to crafting an impactful message for your followers.
It’s a known fact that no matter what your content is about, people from all walks of life will be able to discover it. Once you’ve got your audiences tuning in, you’ll be able to check the analytics for the number of people coming in, which country they’re from, what gender they are, and what ages they are, among many other details.
“That’s the old world of marketing — you had to speak to one specific person. … The reason that came up so popular in marketing back in the day was only for one reason, because in the 20s, sort of the golden age of marketing and advertising, you only had so much budget to run a certain ad on one platform. So you really had to get super niche and narrow.” – Brendon Burchard
These days, if an influencer wants to get the word out, reach a couple of billion people, and create broader conversations, they will need to get to know their market and understand the aspirations of the people they want to serve. Even though they are serving tons and tons of people, they need to get clear on who their audience is and what their needs are. Not knowing your market can easily pull your audiences away from your content, so get clear on who your market is and tailor your content to their needs.
“My market was an aspiration to go to the next level. And I always focused on that. It’s what made for me with our brands. Like, how did [I] do all those seven-figure launches — 28 of them? I spoke to that aspiration specifically. So people knew this is for [them].” – Brendon Burchard
While having a clear idea of what your audience wants, who they are, and what messages you want to impart with them are essential, influencers must also learn to develop a method to attract them.
Brendon believes that all the great artists, such as Picasso, Van Gogh, and Beethoven, had a method. He also believes that influencers also need to think about the method they want to use when they want to create artistic content like videos and podcasts. When influencers bring more intention and art into the method they’re doing, their content becomes more authentic and intentional.
“When I wrote The Motivation Manifesto, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to write a book that’s never been written before in its tone.’ … It was [like] an art project. If what you are doing as an influencer doesn’t feel like an art project, you’re just simply doing it wrong, and you’re going to burn out, and you’re gonna quit.” – Brendon Burchard
Influencers who put more intentions in their methods win — it’s as simple as that. Among the most notable influencers who succeed at using this kind of intentional method are Jay Shetty and Rachel Hollis. Jay Shetty is very particular and detailed about things like when the video will be posted, their lengths, and the different transitions of music in the videos he creates. As for Rachel, she writes everything down first before she gets started, she verbalizes her personal experiences in a very thoughtful way, and she always uses the words they use to describe the feelings that they have. Through the way they speak, it’s very apparent that they’re being very genuine, even with the most difficult topics that they need to talk about.
“And a lot of the messages that actually do help people are acknowledging things … [that] I didn’t want to tell people — that the beginning of my career went bankrupt. I told them how much I struggled. It was hard. And I had to get out of my own way and all these other things, but I didn’t want to use the word ‘bankrupt.’ [But I changed my mind and] describe[d] what had happened [to me] and [was] not … afraid of it.” – Brendon Burchard
Influencers can choose to change their methods, too! They need to be able to ask themselves about what they want to convery and how they should do it to appear unique and different to everyone else in the market. While finding your own voice can be tough at first, that voice needs to change from time to time when the method you’ve used to develop it isn’t quite working for your audience.
Becoming a full-time influencer means you have to be constantly evolving to the needs of your audience. A lesser influencer can easily decide to live off easy money, easy access, and stay in that bubble for a couple of years, but these days, greater influencers need to constantly reinvent themselves and their methods to reach greater heights.
Brendon Buchard is the perfect example of a successful influencer who is leading with purpose and impact. He has so much wisdom to share about influencing and leadership, so definitely check out his website for more resources.
Also, stay tuned for Part Two of our conversation! We’ll talk more about how to become a full-time influencer, and he’ll share his definition of greatness.
If you enjoyed this interview, be sure to let us know! You can tag Brendon, @brendonburchard, and me, @lewishowes, on Instagram with a screenshot of the episode and your greatest takeaways!
Remember friends, influencing is about creating a role model mindset, having a positive message to share, thinking about your audience’s feelings and needs, creating your own method, and constantly evolving not just to keep your audience hooked and engaged, but to create a positive impact in someone else’s life.
You are capable of making a huge difference!
To Greatness,
Lewis: This is episode number 805 with number 1 New York Times best-selling author Brendan Burchard. Welcome to the school of greatness my name is Lewis Howes, a 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.
“The problem human beings face is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim to low and succeed.” That was said by Michelangelo.
Welcome to this episode I am super excited this is a 2 part mega series with the one and only Brendan Burchard, where we discussed what it really means to become an influencer by building through a traditional business model. The business model has not change people just call it influencer now. We go through these 5 key themes by developing your message, your mission, your method, how to monetize and work through the mayhem. I’m gonna break this down in 2 parts we’ll have the first one today and then a couple of days part 2 will come out.
I am so excited for this for those who don’t know who Brendan is, he is one of the world’s leading high-performance coaches, 3 times NYT best-selling author whose books include ‘the motivation manifesto, the charge, life’s golden ticket, and the millionaire messenger.’ Brendan is also one of the top 100 most followed public figures on Facebook with over 10 million fans across his page. His videos have been viewed more than 100 million times, he is one of the most request motivational speakers in the world.
In this 1st part we talked about what high performers need to truly change the world. The role model mindset how to adapt it, live it, and get paid doing it. Why your audience wants you to be transparent about your development. The method of dialing in on the art of what you’re doing every day, and Brandon’s bankruptcy and how it taught him how to fight for who you are.
I’m very excited about this again it’s a 2 part make sure to share with your friends. It’s gonna be a big one it’s gonna help you if you want to really monetize your message and your influence or become more of a monetization messenger.
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Some of my favorites to check out are ‘emotional agility and you are a badass.’ And Blinkist is constantly curating and adding new titles from the best list so you’re always getting the most powerful ideas in a made for mobile format. 5 million people are using Blinkist to expand their minds 15 minutes at a time and right now for a limited time Blinkist has a special offer go to blinkist.com/greatness and you can start your 7 day free trial now.
Also make sure to check out influencermagazine.com/lewis. If you want to learn more about how to become an influencer and monetize your brand and your influencer message, again go to influencermagazine.com/lewis for more.
I’m excited about this one this is part 1 with the one only Brendan Burchard.
Welcome everyone to the school of greatness podcast we’ve got my good friend Brendan.
Brendan: Let’s go.
Lewis: You were here 2 years ago?
Brendan: It was 2 years ago.
Lewis: Was that the first time I met you?
Brendan: I think that was the first time we had a conversation.
Lewis: Here’s what’s funny I feel like I’ve known you for a decade, even though we were only really hanging out for a couple of years, I feel like I’ve known you a decade because we’ve gone deep and done like intimate work together, collaborations together.
Brendan: Trips.
Lewis: Whenever you go on a trip with someone and a group of people and you share these unique experiences and you feel like bond faster.
Brendan: I took you fishing and you beat me at it.
Lewis: I beat you because I had a good partner. We went to Wyoming and you invited a group of 10 to 15 high-level influencers. We went to your new home in Puerto Rico.
Brendan: That was a week ago and it already feels like 3 weeks so many happened.
Lewis: You got a new home there, it’s incredible. Some new people join the mastermind that you put together. You had an incredible career you’ve been in this game for 15 years now.
Brendan: 2006 is when I launched my first website, first book came out in 2001 which was ‘student leadership guide.’ I was still in college I wrote a book [?], which is what helped me realize I could do books. I did leadership ventures for 7 years, but that whole 7 years I wanted to write life school ticket and it was kind of my waiting and kind of maturing and wasn’t ready and sometimes telling myself lies. So, 2007 life school came out my first event was 2008, my first online course I did came out 2008 and this is like not seem that long ago.
Lewis: No
Brendan: Our number 1 refund in 2008 was because people couldn’t play a 45-minute online course because buffer speed, like nobody knows what that means. It would take 20 minutes to watch a 2-minute clip and we were doing online courses in 2008, so it was like we were early.
Lewis: Hosting videos on like Amazon S3 like there were no software systems then. You have a multiple number 1 NYT best-selling books, I think you sold a couple of million copies?
Brendan: Yeah.
Lewis: How many millions of copies do you think range?
Brendan: If you count digital 4 or 5 and partly though because we sell on our own website, like one of the things we were early on was taking the power back from the publishers. So, even if we have a great deal with the publisher I still might do a big promotion where I might really the PDF or I might do a big promotion with [?]. We do a big promotion on kindle for a dollar 99. So, we kind of changing up the model because my ambition is I want people to read my book, I don’t want to worry about the gatekeepers.
Lewis: You were really looking to build a business through leads and it wasn’t just about the book, it was about the book and what’s next?
Brendan: I mean after the books have been out for 7 or 8 years ‘give me an email.’ The mission has always been, change people’s lives in whatever [?] I can figure out or learn to do that.
Lewis: And you’ve done I think you said you did 15 or 17 7 figure launches in a row online.
Brendan: 28. The only reason I do that is we have a presentation where the info on magazine things were trying to talk about it and it was 28 7-figure online launches, 19 of them were in a row. So, that 2009 to 2015 we kind of defined the game of launching especially on developing online courses.
Lewis: So, you’ve been doing that you’ve helped so many people launch their brands from their influence because there’s a lot of influencers in the world who are really great at building content that goes viral or that attracts an audience.
Brendan: They think they are changing the world. It’s like you’re gonna need a business and a movement to change the world, and that’s where they are like ‘well, I’m changing the world’ ‘no, you’re popular.’ But to actually change the world and change people you need a curriculum, you need to be able to give them empowerment and tools to be able to do that and if you’re actually gonna make it. I always tell people you can’t sustain the mission if you don’t make the money, which is a big thing for me because I came from nothing.
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: We just had nothing you know grew up in poverty and my parents working super hard between two of them raised us 4 kids. So, my ambition was someday maybe I can make 40,000 dollars because the richest people in our town didn’t make that kind of money, but that also can get in the way because a lot of times people set their ambitions or their financial hopes based on what they grew up and they let their past or their current circumstances dictate the dreams for finances they want in the future. And then what happens? They do something it becomes really popular. The number counts they’re watching is the fans and the followers which is great, but what I’m saying is that please make sure you build a business because if suddenly you’re not as popular or broke or something happens god forbid, if you haven’t built the infrastructure to carry the message then you’re not being a responsible messenger. An influencer who is popular without a business is busy.
Lewis: I was having a conversation with Jay [?] a year and a half ago, because I was always trying to earn more. He was like ‘I never felt like I needed to make more money because I felt like I just want to serve people, I want to give as much as I can.’ And I said ‘well, you’re really doing a disservice unless you start earning more, because you can hire more people and transform those lives.’
Brendan: People have to get out of their way about money and it’s the hardest thing, there was like when we do that first seminar after I went broke because I didn’t know how to do it or so much complete went broke. I had to live with my girlfriend who is now my wife, she was supporting me and the only person who knew what I want to do and really the person believing and sharing it on. I had a car accident that smacks my head and made me say ‘I want to live my life’ luck number 2 I had great parents, luck number 3 a girl that believed in me when I didn’t even quite believe in myself.
Lewis: What year is this?
Brendan: I met Denise in 2003, so we were together for 5 years and I proposed so we’ve been together for a long time, even sitting there when I was bankrupt and she’s sleeping in the bed and I’m on this little desk next to the bed. I would say none of us would want to be responsible for the pain in other people’s lives, I just hadn’t taken action but I also I just didn’t have any attachment to money. What I do have an attachment to is the mission and I want to help people to achieve their goals faster, I want to help people realize they have a second chance in this planet every day if they wake up. And if you have a second chance every day that’s like evergreen. So, my whole this is ‘hey, you have a second chance.’ This time in your second chance in your next relationship the next job and the next moment be more intentional, be more service driven.
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: If I really believe that as I tell it to you then I would have to build the infrastructure to sustain it. And there was nothing about this business I was attracted to like literally.
Lewis: You’re very introverted.
Brendan: Very introverted. I had to learn how to speak, I was terrified of public speaking I wanted to do a video which was super hard thing. Now, we have 250 million video views but the number I’m really proud of is 15 million hours of my online training has been watch.
Lewis: Wow
Brendan: 15 million hours. That’s like online content 15 million hours. So, that’s a lot of teaching we have a lot of online courses 27, 27 I’ve done and I was terrified of videos. I had to learn podcasting but all I had was after my car accident ‘I want to inspire people to understand we have 2nd chance. We can all live, love and matter so let’s start measuring our self and be more purposeful.’ And then I had to figure out how to do it. You have to be better in relationships, you have to live for something.
Lewis: Optimize your health.
Brendan: So, if I had to believe in that I had to step back at some point and not go ‘what are my strengths?’ high performers don’t often ask. They say what is required of service here and let me grow into that. I had to grow into a business owner like I had to grow into a communicator or writer or podcaster, I didn’t know how to do any of that.
I had to learn how to be a researcher and conduct original full scale of the psychological researcher which [?], I didn’t know how to do any of that. But if you believe you have a message in your heart you’ll know you have to build the infrastructure for it. If you don’t make the money for it you can’t sustain the message.
Lewis: It’s hard yeah.
Brendan: Your advice to Jay was really great because he’s doing great he’s changed that approach.
Lewis: Now, he still cares about impacting as many people as possible but he knows the business model he needs to be there and he’s been crushing it on both sides. Now, this is all becoming an influencer and you’ve got an event coming up and you got a whole influencer magazine, influencer event in 2019 coming up in October.
Brendan: October 10 through 12 in San Diego is the first big influencer event for our industry.
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Who should be thinking of becoming an influencer and who is it for and who is it not for?
Brendan: I’m just thinking in my head ‘how many of our friends’ you can’t write six books and not be an introvert. You can’t sit and do hundreds of hours of the curriculum without being introverted. I think introverts can come and extroverts can come. Two things, first is the heart and the soul of it. I want to create positive change, I want to be a role model and no one seeks to be an expert or be a thought leader which is what we used to call it, but no one seeks to become an influencer unless in some way that role model mindset. That mindset says like ‘you know what? I wanna do good. I want to lead my life in a way that’s an example for other people.’ And as soon as you decide to adopt the role model mindset it requires to do the hard stuff.
Lewis: It does.
Brendan: You don’t want to work out, you don’t want to push yourself but to be a role model you have to demonstrate integrity and discipline and service and most people they won’t challenge themselves that much. I think the role model mindset, so first I want to affect positive change, I want to be a role model for other people and inspire people. I want people to see the passions I have or maybe learn from those passions and I want to give people empowerment. And then the other side of it is ‘oh, well I wonder how I do that and get paid as a career’ because while influencers is the popular word right now this industry has been there.
Lewis: Right.
Brendan: For hundreds of years with publishing. Influencers sit on top of more publishing platform that we used to have access to.
Lewis: Right.
Brendan: At the end of the day we’re still publishing content, we’re still voting and pushing workout in the world and people how do you make money? Well, now you can earn money in so many ways.
Lewis: So many ways.
Brendan: The problem is most influencers come after they think they’re gonna earn money by brand deals, they don’t understand the model. It’s like what we say in Montana ‘the time you have the maps is before you enter the woods.’ If you’re trying to figure out the influencers’ base and you want to know all 12 major ways to monetize your content you should learn that as a menu before you pick one, and most people are earning like this much when they can be earning 10 or 12 times more if they just understood the model but they think they are so clever and they invented this. So, I think it’s for people who really have those 2 things.
Lewis: There’s more money to be made now as an influencer than there ever was before. The first thing you talked about is the message. As an influencer is it important to know what your message is and how do you find your message trying to become an influencer?
Brendan: Because the death of most influencers they don’t realize is their randomness. There has to be something that means something to you like one thing I admire about you is how you talk about greatness, that theme and messaging is so tight.
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: You know your word choice. That integrity of your message is being shown so you better be intentional about the kind of person you’re trying become.
Lewis: Right.
Brendan: You are the message the integrity of who you are and how you show up energetically and how you treat other people, that’s the message.
Lewis: The role model mentality.
Brendan: People are gonna watch you and go ‘are you congruent here and there?’ and if you’re not that message feels funny to them.
Lewis: Getting clear on your message and kind of theme of your brand the theme of your influence I think is key. For me with Greatness it’s like what are the core themes of living a great life and business health relationships and everything involve and it’s trying to do the best to live that all the time and talked about it consistently.
Brendan: Including the failures.
Lewis: Absolutely. I think when influencers showcase their mistakes failures it makes them more real. So, you got to get clear on the message first. Do you have a mechanism for I kind of like everything, how do you figure out what your message is? Is there like a process?
Brendan: I mean first sitting down what do you want to be a role model? Are you on? Like if you want to be a role model what is it about and how does that translate into a person’s real life? If you could put that message on a billboard like if something is written on your tombstone. A lot of people know it’s like live, love, and matter. So, live, love and matter became central in everything I did for 15 years. Like every message revolves around that because that was me and that was a unique experience I had.
I think a lot of people have to go and dig down deep into their experience in life and say “What are some of the gifts or the lessons that I learn?” Some of the awful things that happened to us or the challenging things. There’s a story there and that story can reveal some lessons or things that you might be a role model too for people and it doesn’t have to be so finite.
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: There are hints there and you can dig into your past to find hints and just also ask “what are the passions I really feel in my heart that I just want to communicate right now?” Some people fashion to them.
Lewis: Being a mom.
Brendan: Educator everyday life, that’s fine because ultimately again you are the message. So, the most important thing is to figure out “What am I gonna say?” the most important thing is “Who are you?”
Lewis: Who are you is the key.
Brendan: Dig deep man. One of the things we do is I ask people 3 words to describe the best of who you are, like these are aspirational words. When I’m in my best these 3 words define me. And then I say “What are 3 words that describe the best of you when you are with other people?” and then I literally have them program in their phone.
Lewis: I still have that.
Brendan: Dynamic bold and confident.
Lewis: So 3 words that you would describe yourself and the 3 words that you would want other describe you?
Brendan: So, 3 words to describe yourself as and that’s just you, and then the other one is more like relationships, like 3 words to describe how you are with other people.
For example my word there is bold, like that can describe me as a person how I think.
Lewis: Just shaping your own internal identity with your qualities and reminding yourself of who you are.
Brendan: Labeling yourself in a positive way because most people they take the labels most people gave them. Like it’s not a thing that stops with people want to see you working that through.
Lewis: I think like 15 or 20 years ago like in my teens I used to say like ‘man, you suck’ to myself all the time. I’d say these words to myself like you’re never gonna do anything better than this person or whatever. I would say these things internally and those start to shape how you treat other people and reactions and how you treat yourself. So, I think this is a very powerful, simple exercise that we’ve done for so many years now that we kind of forget the power of this, but I’m glad you made this reminder because I never say those things to myself anymore.
Brendan: Yes.
Lewis: I never say anything negative.
Brendan: That’s the hard thing for people because they’re supposed to be kind and then one day they are a jerk and if I’m a jerk I’m gonna go that old bad label. But it’s like what your audience wants to see as an influencer is you working through the development of you, they want to be on that journey with you. You can’t be an influencer and not explore who you are, I mean the great presidents were always in motion of developing who they are. It’s not like Elon Mush has exactly been Elon Musk exactly 10 years ago as he stays, you’re seeing this evolution this change.
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: People want to be on the journey with you as you explore who you and if you’re not exploring who you are you’re not growing and if you’re not growing the audience is not growing.
Lewis: Starts to die. So, get clear on your message figure out your words and that’s a great start there. Now, the next thing if figure out your market what do you mean by that?
Brendan: I don’t like that term especially for guys like you and me who we do like so many walks of life.
Lewis: Multiple industry and markets.
Brendan: When I look the Brendan podcast ‘holy shit’ you can’t like if you come to these events you can’t do a demographic run of that audience.
Lewis: Not like all 32 male executives in the car industry.
Brendan: That’s the old world of marketing you had to speak with one specific person. The reason niche marketing came out the concept identifying one person talk to, and some people know to identify your customer avatar. The reason that became so popular in marketing back in the day was only for one reason because in the 20’s the golden age of marketing and advertising you only had so much budget to run a certain ad on one platform. So you really had to get super niche and narrow. Now, we’re able to reach a couple of billion people, now we’re able to have a broader conversation. So what you want to do with your market is try to understand what the aspirations of the people are? It’s about the aspirations not about the demographic.
Lewis: It’s the mindset. People are looking to achieve in their life but in a conscious way. They want to grow personally and want to impact people around them. If you have that mentality then you’re a part of the community.
Brendan: I love that. You have that and what I tell people at times like if you’re not out with your students, your fans and you’re not really getting to know them at some point you’re gonna lose that audience if you just don’t know them.
Lewis: That’s true.
Brendan: You need to know their heart not their age, you know it in their heart not every part of their background or where they are raised. That kind of marketing analysis is overdone and corporations love to pay for that. For me that’s it that is my market. I have always in the last 15 years marketed and talked to people who were in that transition moment in their life and ready to go to the next level. I always speak to people who are ready to go the next level, they already had [?]. So, they’re in that phase where like gearing up, they’re like here we go.
Lewis: So in like 20 seconds say you’re a video to attract the aspirational mindset or the heart set of this individual and you have a video that’s gonna spread out to the world and you know it’s gonna attract a certain type of person that comes into your offering. What would you say in 15 to 20 seconds a few keywords that would be leading people into kind of where you want them to go?
Brendan: You feel like you’ve tried everything, you’ve been at this for years you feel like you don’t have that breakthrough just yet, you’re doing good but there are many days you don’t feel motivated to really want to go to the next level and you feel like you really need that empowerment to go to the next level. You’re looking for really tactical solutions that will help earn more this will help you get to that next level.
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: The highest people on the planet what they do is very specific and if you’re honest you’ve been very specific you’ve been random. And because you’re good you already have some success you’re able to just go to the motion, but going through the motions is the killer of the high performer.
Lewis: True.
Brendan: You can be good but that’s not gonna take you to the next level. So, I’m gonna assume you already good but you’ve sense inside there’s a restlessness and there’s a struggle there that you don’t know what breakthrough feels like but you’re also very aware there’s a next level. You have a dream you have something you want to achieve just dial in your motivation and habits, but let’s give you the discipline and the willpower to make it happen.
Lewis: And that’s why you need to go to influencer 2019.
Brendan: I’m fired about being around you because we both really believed we can help people do that because that’s where our 10 footsteps have been the last 15 years.
Lewis: It’s amazing. So, get clear on your message and the market then there’s a method. What does the method mean?
Brendan: It’s like Picasso had a method Van Gogh had a method, like they were thoughtful about the art of what they did and influencers need to think about that. Actors who kind of just show up and read the words not good, but the greats they are so thoughtful about the turn of the phrase and how they’re gonna do this.
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: Greatness requires a lot of intention.
Lewis: It doesn’t have just showing up you got to have a clear on the results and the experience you want to create.
Brendan: The intention and placement of things of where this goes and how this goes, that’s a method. Like when I wrote ‘motivation manifesto’ I was like ‘okay, I’m gonna write a book that’s never been written before.’ It was an art project. If what you are doing as an influencer doesn’t feel like an art project you just simply doing it wrong and you’re gonna burn out and you’re gonna quit.
Lewis: So give me an example of methods like a Rachel Hollis and a Jay [Shetty]?
Brendan: Jay is super intentional about his videos like sit them down, we did an influencer thing with him I did 40 questions. He’s intentional from when the video is changing to the tone of the music and when it is lifting to when other people appear on the video versus just him. He’s intentional about the length of the video, he’s intentional about what day the post.
Lewis: The time and everything.
Brendan: Because what most people slap it together and throw it up. He’s like really trying to dial it down to a very specific process that draws emotion from people. And so that’s a method.
Lewis: And his thing is viral video, artistic video that creates an emotional feeling for some. It’s not just like this scientific videos or how to videos, it’s like an emotional feeling that people want to watch and share.
Brendan: And you’ve thought that too that’s why you got hundreds and millions of views and it’s just like versus guys like me who sometimes put up a very inspiring video, but we didn’t put the b-role in and didn’t put the music.
Lewis: Different method.
Brendan: And to those who put more into the method they win and they’re better artist, like an influencer has to understand you are in the art of impacting people. And if you are in the art of impacting people you better focus on the art as much as on the impact.
Lewis: What about someone like a Rachel Hollis?
Brendan: She’s great.
Lewis: What would be the method for someone like that you see or is it kind of more?
Brendan: It starts with being intentional about the art and what you’re doing. She came out to do this before and everything really took off, she came out to the house and we sat down together and it was clear she was asking me questions about like where her career could go that would really. And people don’t see that all the time because she might just post you know. She’s really thoughtful about where her career is going and she’s super thoughtful about talking to the women in her market from a place that she’s been there, like she gets it she knows that woman and she’s going to verbalize that and she’s very thoughtful about the word she uses to connect. Part of the biggest method in influencing is being very artful about your messaging.
Lewis: True.
Brendan: She doesn’t say a lot of things over here but she says things over here all the time.
Lewis: It’s like a formula, it’s like every six post you see another kid photo that’s talking about this something different.
Brendan: So she’s always in the audience’s mind and using the word they use and describing the feelings they have. She’s also part of her method her real art is her vulnerability to say start a book. That takes a lot of intention to go you know. I’m gonna reveal I’m comfortable with just like you did with the Mask of Masculinity. That took a lot of art versus just saying ‘let me tell you guys this.’ And what people don’t realize is the greatest artist of all time were incredibly vulnerable as much they were telling you what to do.
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: That’s why we love some of the real greats because they were thoughtful about sharing insight into their pain because people, the influencers who fail always are bright and shiny and they don’t realize a lot of art does come from pain, and a lot of messages actually come from people is acknowledging things. I wouldn’t know from that moment we would go on and build everything to be built by any means but I wanted to avoid that because it was painful to me. And at some point real artist connect to the pain and they give it voice verbalization or symbols.
Lewis: The greatest songs are not just like fairytales, there might be a beautiful ending but it’s also some darkness and struggles as well and that’s what you can give as an influencer.
Brendan: And you know what the great art always comes down to being a method is you learning to fight for who you are. The architecture of that actual messaging is live your life, show your truth. And that’s what always comes back to the message again for the message and if you keep on [?] on yourself based on what other people think of you or how you’re supposed to be then all of a sudden one day you wake up unfulfilled and you wake up unfulfilled and guess what not easy to be motivated, and guess what you’re not gonna create the content, the curriculum, the products, the programs, the business because people look at us sometimes and [?]. They have no idea of a huge. The impact that we had let alone what I do is what the other people [?], inspired that can’t come from a place of me being unfulfilled. I have to work so hard, happy, fulfilled and discipline man I can’t have that perpetuated across the brands and the business.
Lewis: What would you say is your method then? Is it okay to change your method?
Brendan: Yeah. I think it always does. I think it’s a tremendous amount of diligence and sitting down and asking “What it is I want to convey here and how in a way it’s unique to me and different in the market?”
So, my greatest art so far was motivation manifesto. You’ve read that and I’ve never read a book like this my entire life. You know it’s written from the founding fathers of our country kind of tone, no reason like the 1700’s but it punches you in the face every page.
Lewis: To be or not to be.
Brendan: It’s such a hard like you read it. There’s no fact in that book, there’s not one word you can take out. I worked so diligently on that and I think what that was an evolution of me saying “I don’t want me saying great books to make money and to inspire people in a specific way. I want to be challenged in my own artistic process.”
Lewis: Yeah.
Brendan: I want to push the boundaries of what my art can be, I don’t know how to write a book like this it’s not even my tone. I’ve never done a full-scale psychological science research-based book and I was like.
Lewis: You went deep in there like 3 years of research.
Brendan: Pretty much my entire life. The largest study ever on high performers even to this day no one’s beat it. That was an evolution of me getting better and stronger and nuance to what I was doing, and I tell people “You know you’re in trouble if you keep going through the motions.”
Lewis: Yes.
Brendan: The more you go through the motions the more you get miserable about the work. The more you’re intentional and you challenge yourself to push the boundaries the more you’ll stay alive.
Lewis: What’s the personal development quote by every famous person, development person which is like everything great is on the other side of fear? Over a certain period of time you’re like ‘this is getting easy now.’ And you have to constantly challenge yourself and force the challenge because you can just live off of this easy money and stay there for a couple of years. But guys like me and you and the people we hang out we’re constantly reinventing.
Brendan: And pushing.
Lewis: And it’s not easy and sometimes when you reinvent this is the challenge that people don’t realize like you reinvent and put something new than the thing that was doing really well and making money. You had something for years you know that was making you lots of money and how you’re reinventing it to a new model with influencer event coming up and it’s like ‘this things been working for 6 or 7 years.’ Impacting people it’s not broke why change it?
Brendan: People are crazy doing this little bit. Expert’s academy is the biggest [?], it’s the marketing trainer for all thought leaders the biggest the best.
Lewis: People built multi-billion dollar business just off coming there and implementing this information.
Brendan: There were years where 65% of the NYT best-seller list in a non-fiction category were expert’s academy graduates. We really focus on the business model but we are really talking to people who were experts or who identified as thought leaders. These days’ people don’t really see themselves as experts in many areas and many people don’t think of themselves as thought leader yet. Now, I’m an influencer like great I’ve got to change like we have to adapt. It’s the new phrase and language like they to learn a new skill or business model. I think that the willingness to change it up is so important in the method because I just tell people all the time ‘if you are miserable you have to know that neuroscience’ neuroscience lets us know that one of the biggest things that lights our brain up is a novelty.
Lewis: Mystery, novelty or something new.
Brendan: Everyone goes through emotions for 3 or 4 years and be like ‘?’ but if that goes on for too long you get miserable and then something has to break or challenge inside or your market or in your business, we need to change and that’s when the next level stuff comes up.
Lewis: That’s why I think it’s always important to be focusing and doubling down on what’s working and also working like things on the pipe plan that are gonna come out in 2 years.
Brendan: Which is awesome by the way. I totally didn’t even realize it was great, I appreciate it. I was just there to compliment you and they ask me, I thought I was doing a testimonial for you because I just want to speak and share how much I admire who you are and what you do and turn into this wonderful interview they did.
Lewis: The story was powerful you shared it was really powerful in the movie too. I think it’s important because it gives you something new to kind of reach for every couple of years.
Brendan: That’s it.
Lewis: But don’t let go of everything right away and say “I’m gonna switch everything” like use the momentum you’ve been building, double down on certain things that are bringing in revenue. To make sure you can have the resources and impacting people and creating like that. So, what is the model mean? How do you make money?
Brendan: Yeah, how do you monetize. What’s the model for monetization so you can have the business to sustain a message into your brain.
Lewis: A lot of influencers that have [?], they’ve built this following. I don’t want to figure out this business stuff it’s too overwhelming for me. What should be people thinking about as influencers right now and over the next couple of years as a business model? Maybe you can give a couple of examples and also talk about it.
There you have it, my friends, I hope you enjoyed this episode with the one and only Brendan Burchard. This is just getting started this is only part 1, we’ve got part 2 coming in a couple of days.
Get in the action, get tuned in to greatness if you are looking to make an impact today and someone else’s life then share this. Send them this right now it will start to transform the way they think about building their business online, becoming more influential and monetizing this. Part 2 we’ve got a lot more coming in part 2. I’m super excited talking about how to automate businesses. Why you must honor the struggle in order to scale. The importance of finding reverence for life and the unexpected ways to show up and the power of self-doubt and what it signals, that and so much more in the next part.
Make sure you guys check our sponsors again we’ve got Capterra. Visit capterra.com/greatness for free today to find the tools to make an informed software decision to help you monetize your business, optimize it and grow it. Go to capterra.com/greatness.
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And as Michelangelo said, “The problem human beings face is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim to low and succeed.”
Get ready for part 2 coming soon and you guys know what time it is, it’s time to go out there and do something great.
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