Podcasting Secrets

Welcome back to another episode with Dr. Leigh George. In the last episode, we discussed what branding is, why it’s important, and some of the benefits along with Leigh’s career, failure, and value-based pricing. In today’s episode, we’ll discuss the steps for creating a successful brand along with knowing when our brand is working, being in control of our brand, mistaking branding for visual identity, and some examples of successful brands.

Steps for Creating a Successful Brand

Here are two steps to create a successful brand.

• Know Our Audience and Brand Narrative

The audience is arguably the most important part of having a successful brand. Leigh recently met with a startup that needed branding help. She asked them some questions and learned that they didn’t have a problem they were solving for. They had a business idea, something they thought would be cool and useful, but they didn’t know how it was going to make their audience's life easier.

“To be a successful brand, there has to be something at stake for your audience, some challenge that they're faced with that you can help them overcome,” Leigh said. We have to find the intersection between what is motivating the founders and what the audience cares about. That intersection is the brand narrative; it is the story of how our business can help our audience.

• Create a Brand Manifesto

Once we know the narrative of how our business will help our audience, it is time to do our brand manifesto. A brand manifesto, purpose, or mission statement acts as an emotional representation of our brand purpose. It’s a rallying cry that crystalizes why we’re here and what we’re here to do. 

Nike has a great example of a brand manifesto. It reads, “Nike exists to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. Our purpose is to move the world forward through the power of sport—breaking barriers and building community to change the game for all. *If you have a body, you are an athlete.” (Source: purpose.nike.com)

Anyone who works at Nike could read this and be excited about what their company is doing. They likely feel like they are helping bring inspiration and innovation and are helping break barriers and build community.

Our manifesto should unify our company and our brand, so we’re all working towards the same purpose. It should bring us together to accomplish the same goals. It should also resonate with our audience and be something they want to support.

How do we know if our branding is working?

To know if our branding is successful, we have to talk to people, customers, and non-customers alike. We need to survey them to learn what they think of when they hear our name. We need to ask them to tell us about their last experience with our company. 

Through getting out there and talking to people, we’ll be able to learn about the general perception of our brand. What do people think of us? How do we come off? What are we known for?

Once they answer these questions for us, we can determine if their answers are in line with the vision we had for our brand. Are we aligned with our manifesto? Do our customers see us working towards our purpose?

If their answers match the vision of our brand, great; we can keep doing what we’re doing. If not, we likely need to do some rebranding. Rebranding must happen when there is a disconnect between how the company sees itself and how the world sees it. It usually happens when there is new leadership or a new vision for the company.

Do we want to be in control of our brand?

There are some people out there who think that branding doesn’t matter. They think we can just throw some text up on our website without creating a real logo or thinking about the company’s image. They think we can make just as much money without worrying about any of that.

Perhaps we can make just as much money, but that isn’t the important part. Leigh said, “Even if you commit no resources to a logo or colors or messaging, you will have a brand. Because if you don't create it, the public will.”

The question then is do we want to be in control of the brand? It will be created regardless of what we do, so do we want to have a say in how our company is perceived? Do we want our brand to just be black text on a white background? If we’re going for a minimalist image, then that might be a good option, but if we want to be known for something else such as creativity, it won’t be a good option.

Our branding and our design choices create expectations in our audience’s minds. If we don’t control our branding, we don’t control what our audience expects from us. We want to take charge of those expectations and tell our audience through our image and communication what to expect from us.

Mistaking Branding for Visual Identity

One of the biggest mistakes Leigh sees companies make is treating their branding like a cosmetic exercise. In 2021 many companies such as Pfizer, GM, and Burger King have come out with new logos, colors, typography, etc. This can make it feel like a fashion trend or a seasonal look.

To Leigh, branding is more about what you stand for. It can be expressed in visuals, but Leigh said, “You shouldn't reduce your company to a look and feel because then that sort of cheapens your value to a certain extent.” Instead, we should focus on the narrative behind our business and manifest that story in our design. 

Examples of Well-Done Branding

Here are a couple of brands Leigh and I discussed that do their branding very well.

Uncle Terry Smells

Leigh recently got a candle from a company called Uncle Terry Smells. She usually doesn’t buy candles because she isn’t really a candle person. She doesn’t like clutter, and she isn’t sure what the point of candles is. However, when she saw Uncle Terry Smells’ social media posts, she became obsessed.

The company has a blue and orange color palette and they curate images from pop culture, kitsch culture, and high and low culture with the same color palette. Leigh said, “The brand was so much about identity and appealing to a certain kind of person. And I was clearly that kind of person because I was just totally drawn to that imagery. . . . This brand ostensibly sells candles, but they could sell anything because the brand is so clear and so strong.”

This brand speaks to a very particular audience. They're not trying to appeal to everyone. Their voice is very specific, and it's like a beacon to their people. You either get it or you don't. We don’t have to try to attract everyone into our audience. In fact, it is better if we focus on a specific group of people who we know will love our products or services.

Apple

Apple is all about creativity and innovation, and they just happen to sell computers. The strongest brands have a very distinct point of view and we’re never going to confuse them with another brand. Apple is very distinct; they aren’t afraid of being different. Just like Uncle Terry Smells, they’ve committed to who they are and they are never going to waver. They don’t care that there’s a whole group of PC buyers out there because they know who their audience is.

When Leigh was in college as soon as she could save enough money, she bought a Performa Apple computer. She’s bought Apple computers ever since. To write her dissertation, she bought the Apple Cube computer, which she still has because she thinks it’s beautiful even though it doesn’t work anymore.

Apple has created an audience that may even be loyal to a fault. We’re counting down the days until the next MacBook Pro comes out. We’re willing to pay more even though we could probably get better computing power for a cheaper price somewhere else. Leigh said the number one reason to have a brand is that we can charge more. People are willing to pay more for the brand they love.

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Leigh for sharing your stories and insights with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. The first step to creating a successful brand is knowing our audience.
2. A brand manifesto should unify our company and resonate with our audience.
3. If our audience’s perception of us doesn’t line up with our vision then we may need to rebrand.
4. If we don’t actively create our own brand, it will be created for us and may not line up with what we want it to be.
5. Branding is more than visual identity, but it can be expressed visually. We should focus on the narrative behind our business and manifest that story in our design.
6. Many successful brands don’t try to appeal to everyone. They pick a specific audience and focus on them.

Connect with Leigh

To learn more about or connect with Leigh:

• Connect on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Visit her website at Find-Freedom.co. 

Next Steps

Do you want to take your digital monetization to the next level?

1. Get a free ebook about passion marketing, and learn how to become a top priority of your ideal customers at PassionMarketing.com. 

Subscribe to Monetization Nation on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, our Facebook Group, and on your favorite podcast platform.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/how-to-create-a-successful-brand/ 

A huge chasm has opened up between companies and consumers. Many businesses think we’re still in the 20th century in an attention economy; they think they’re competing for as many eyes on their company as possible. They think they can gain sales from simply blanketing the media with enough messages. 

Technology, customers, and businesses have moved past that splatter approach to marketing. Instead of trying to catch the attention of every consumer we can, we should create a personal brand to target our products and services towards a specific niche audience. We need to be designing our products and services to bridge the gap between business and people.

One thing that can help us bridge this gap is branding. But what is branding and why is it important? In today’s episode, we’ll discuss this and other things Leigh George has learned in her career such as the small moments, failing forward, and value-based pricing.

Dr. Leigh George is the founder of Freedom, a strategic branding and marketing un-agency. She worked as vice president at Ogilvy for over 20 years, and she helps marketing teams eliminate noise, gain clarity, build consensus, and develop actionable strategies to reach and persuade customers. Leigh has a Ph.D. in branding, making her one of the very few people in the country with that distinction. 

What is branding?

Branding is often confused with visual identity: logo, colors, typography, etc. Leigh explained that a brand is more than that. A brand is why we started our business in the first place, answering these questions: Why are we doing this? What do we stand for? What’s the purpose of the business?

The reason we started our business can’t be that we want to make a million dollars because our customers don’t care about us making money. The purpose doesn’t have to be a social purpose, but our customers should be at the center of our purpose.

Once we know the purpose, our brand should be the story around that aim. Our brand should show how our purpose relates to what matters to our customers, a central challenge that they face, so we can show the impact we can have in their lives.

Our brand should be there from the very beginning of the business. It isn’t something we tack on later to make selling easier. Once we know our brand we can express it through things like logo, colors, tone, products, services, etc.

Why is branding important and what are the benefits?

“Your brand should act as a foundation and a touchstone for every business decision,” Leigh said. Should we develop a new product? Is it in line with our brand? Should we open an office? Is it in line with our brand?

A brand helps us differentiate from someone else who's selling the exact same thing. It sets us apart from the competition. Customers have many alternatives to choose from, including alternatives that aren’t in the same space. 

For example, if someone is shopping for a car, an alternative could be taking public transportation, riding a bike, walking, carpooling with someone, or living somewhere they don’t have to worry about transportation. “If you don't have a brand, then it's very difficult for someone to weigh why and how you're valuable to them versus an alternative,” Leigh said.

Branding is also important for our company internally. If our purpose is just to make a bunch of money and our employees are making minimum wage, they won’t have anything to believe in, and they’ll feel like they don’t have a purpose within the company. Branding creates something our employees can be excited about. It can give them a reason to wake up and come to work every morning. It can help them feel like they’re making a difference because they have a greater purpose in their work than just a job. 

Customers are the Disruptors

Sometimes in companies, we are so focused on our own products or services, but customers are the ones who are able to disrupt industries. “If you think about Apple, or Blockbuster, or any of these case studies that people tend to turn to as examples of big technology, innovation, or disruption, what's behind that is really a change in customer behavior that was just accelerated by technology,” Leigh said.

This is an idea that Leigh is super passionate about. In everything she does with the companies she works with, she strives to develop a deep empathy, understanding, and interest in her clients’ customers to really understand how the customers’ passion intersects with what is unique and special about the brand.

Leigh’s Entrepreneurial Journey

When Leigh was in graduate school, she thought she was going to be a professor. However, over the course of her studies, she became fascinated with the branding work of the companies she was studying. She also felt that academia could be isolating and separate from the rest of the world, so she redirected her career towards branding. 

Leigh made a big pivot, working at many different agencies, big and small. She got to a point where she felt the agency model was not keeping up with the needs of clients. Agencies were more interested in their awards, their egos, and talking about themselves. “To me,” Leigh said, “my job is to help clients improve their business, help them change the perception about the brand, help them get more attention, help them attract and engage and spur action among customers. So it's really more about clients than it was about me.”

One night, Leigh was complaining about this to her husband, and he said, “Why don't you just do something about it instead of just complaining?” So Leigh started her un-agency, using that word on purpose to show that it is different from traditional agencies. For example, unlike most other agencies, she doesn’t bill by the hour so that she can focus on the value of the work and build strong relationships with her clients without either of them worrying about tracking time.

The Little Things

The moments in Leigh’s career that she’s most proud of are when she is able to see the difference she’s made for her clients. One of Leigh’s clients was a global company. One day, she was presenting to the company’s president and board, showing them the findings and analysis from some customer research she’d done with the marketing department. The presentation went well, and as Leigh was leaving, the president ran down the hall after her. He had a look of wonder on his face, and he said, “Thank you so much. That was so valuable.”

Leigh also remembers a time when she was working with a different company, and a member of the marketing staff told her, “You've hit the nail on the head. It's like you reached inside our brains and you intuited exactly what makes us us. I'm already imagining how I'm going to be using this.”

For Leigh, these small moments are the best moments in her career. She can see that she’s helping people and making a difference in their companies. Sometimes we get caught up in having big results or making big changes, but we need to remember to appreciate the small things too.

Failing Forward

Leigh believes in what she calls failing forward. She said, “Anytime something doesn't go as planned or goes sideways, to me it's a moment to reflect and say, ‘Hmm, why did that happen? What does that allow me to do or not do?’”

One of the biggest mistakes Leigh made was with managing her time and energy. Because she runs her own company, she has a lot more control over her time than many other people, but she often gets caught up in the needs of others. 

She had to learn how to schedule things for her and her clients’ benefit. Her creative thinking is better in the morning, so she blocks that time off. Her energy is lowest in the afternoon, so she tends to schedule meetings then. She doesn’t have meetings on Mondays and Fridays because she knows she’s either recovering from the weekend or exhausted from the week and getting ready for the weekend. 

From her failure, Leigh has learned to not overpromise or overextend herself. Failure has been stigmatized in our society; it’s viewed as negative and shameful. Failing forward is a concept trying to destigmatize failure. Instead of thinking of failure negatively, we can turn it into a learning opportunity. “Failure shows that you tried,” Leigh said. “It's about experimentation, and not every experiment will be successful, [but] it gives you feedback and input and learnings that you can apply next time.”

Value-Based Pricing and Customer Loyalty

Leigh’s best monetization strategy is to use value-based pricing rather than billing by the hour. Value-based pricing is billing based on the perceived value of a product or service, no matter how much time it takes.

This kind of pricing helps maintain a stronger relationship with our clients because we're not having to nickel and dime them for every minute, and they’re getting a great result. They don’t have to pay a bill with perhaps not much to show for it.

It is a great way to create loyalty with clients and customers because it shows them that we care about them and that we’ll be there for them. Being there for our clients, especially during the hard times, is one of the best ways to foster deep loyalty. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Leigh for sharing your stories and insights with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Our brand should reflect the purpose and story behind our company, our why, and the reason we started it in the first place.
2. Our brand should inform every business decision we make.
3. A brand helps us differentiate between our competitors or alternatives.
4. With a brand, our employees will feel like they are working for something bigger.
5. Customers are the most important thing. They are the disruptors.
6. Often the small moments are our biggest successes.
7. We should look at failures as learning opportunities.
8. Value-based pricing is a great way to build strong relationships with our clients.

Connect with Leigh

To learn more about or connect with Leigh:

• Connect on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Visit her website at Find-Freedom.co. 

Next Steps

1. Get a free ebook about passion marketing, and learn how to become a top priority of your ideal customers at PassionMarketing.com. 

Subscribe to Monetization Nation on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, our Facebook Group, and on your favorite podcast platform.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/what-is-branding-and-why-is-it-important/ 

Rael Bricker is a professional speaker, mentor, and coach with a diverse work background. His career ranged from being 6,000 feet underground in a mine to start an education business that grew to have more than 4,000 students to spending years working in venture capital. Rael has listed multiple companies on international stock exchanges, and his financial services group has settled more than $3 billion in loans for the last seven years. 

Rael is also the author of Dive in Lessons Learnt Since Business School. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss some of those lessons and how we can foster a healthy company culture. 

Bottom-Up Culture

Rael believes company culture is driven from the “top” and the “bottom” of the company; however, while executives and CEOs have an impact on company culture, he believes the staff is the members who really define what the culture is. 

“The truth of it is, the actions of the majority of staff are what define the culture,” Rael said. “Culture only makes sense if it's actually reflected by the actions of the team. And that's what bottom-up culture is. The management and the C suite have to be defining the course of action, but really have to take dramatic steps to make that [happen] to get the team to come along.”

If we want to have a healthy company culture, we need to make sure every staff member reflects the values and morals we want to be known for. 

Rael interviewed 87 companies in over 25 countries about what makes their company culture great. To his surprise, he found that 25 of those companies talked about how toxic their culture was, while the rest of them talked about how great their culture was. So what was the difference between a healthy culture and a toxic one?

Rael found that the two driving factors that make great cultures are purpose and values, not a mission or vision statements.

“It's [about] having a purpose that's greater than the organization and the set of values that drives the actions of the team,” Real said. “The actions of the team drive the culture (bottom-up). And if you have a set of values that everyone buys into, then that defines the actions of the team, and therefore creates a rich and robust culture.”

If we want to foster healthy company culture, we need to make sure everyone on our teams has aligned their values with the values of the company. We shouldn’t be so focused on our mission statement that we neglect our values and central purpose. As we work with everyone on the team, our companies will see greater long-term success. 

Value Each Team Member

In 1962, John F. Kennedy visited the NASA space center for the first time, just seven years before the first man landed on the moon. While he toured the halls, he noticed a janitor carrying a broom. Kennedy paused the tour, walked over to the janitor, and introduced himself. He asked the janitor what he did for NASA and in response, the man said, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.” (Source: The Business Journals)

While the janitor may have been cleaning the building, he understood the bigger picture. He knew he was helping make history in his small role. “At NASA, they created a culture where everybody felt that they were part of the machinery in getting a man to the moon,” Rael said. 

Every team member has an important role. In our businesses, we should strive to create a culture where every team member understands the impact they can have on our business as a whole. 

Though Rael worked in management consulting, venture capital, financial services, education, and coaching and speaking, he learned one of the most important business lessons while he worked in the mines as a junior engineer. In the mines, he realized he needed to be a part of the bigger picture. Instead of solely focusing on his personal role, he learned how to focus on the impact of his role in the grand scheme of things.

“The defining thing of my life is understanding that everybody has an incredibly important role in the business, no matter what their role is in the business,” Rael said. 

One of the best ways to foster a healthy company culture is to help every employee understand the purpose of their role in the main goal of the business. Every employee should feel valued and important. If we can give every employee and team member a purpose in our business, our employees will stay longer, have greater satisfaction, and be more efficient and productive. 

Build Relationships 

The biggest monetization secret Rael has is to go back to the basics and focus on relationships. In our company, we should create a healthy culture by making sure every employee, partner, and team member know the importance of our customers. Our customers are our best asset and we should treat them as such. 

“The truth of the growth of my business and how we've monetized our business is through referrals and not being afraid to ask for referrals when a client is happy,” Rael said. 

Rael never had to focus on advertising for his mortgage business because he had customer referrals. When his customers were happy with his service, he would reach out to them and ask if they could refer him to others. “How do we monetize that happiness?” Rael said. “[By] asking them to refer other people.”

We can ask our customers, “Who do you know that would benefit from our services?” If we are spending all this time and money to gain a customer and make them happy, we should take it a step further to gain some return on investment. Statistics have found that people are 4X more likely to make a purchase when it is referred by a friend (Source: Extole). 

Building strong relationships with our customers is essential in today’s digital world. Our customers want to feel like they are buying from someone who knows their needs and wants. Even in the digital business world, Rael still sends out birthday cards in the mail to his customers instead of emailing a digital card. He goes out of his way to make his customers know they are valued. 

We should make sure every member of our team prioritizes the customer. While it is important to have healthy customer relationships, we should also make sure we establish healthy relationships within our business. As we go out of our way to make sure every team member and customer is valued, our success rates will increase. 

Give Up Control 

In Real’s book, he said, “Give up control to gain control.”

When Rael started his education business, he did everything. He sat on the phones, he did the marketing, he answered emails, he stood at the photocopier, etc. He had control of his entire business, but he needed to give that up. Rael explained that entrepreneurs are often control-freaks and so it takes a lot of courage to give up control, but it is necessary. 

As soon as Rael employed staff, he empowered them to make decisions and he gave up his own control. However, by giving up control of the simple day-to-day tasks, Rael gained control of his time. Instead of focusing on the small things to keep the business running, he could focus on the bigger picture and invest his time into what was raelly important. 

“It’s about empowering your team members to know that they're allowed to mess up. It's not about standing there with a whip saying, ‘You'd better get this right.’ It's actually [giving] enough space for them to get it wrong. That's how you give up control,” Rael said.  

As we give up control and show our staff and team members we trust them, we will see more growth in our business. Instead of relying on our ideas alone, we gain the thoughts and ideas of everyone that works with us. As we do this, we actually gain more control of the important things as it frees up our time. 

“It's about . . . empowering people with the ability to make a mistake, whilst you go out and generate more business because you are the most passionate advocate of your own business,” Rael said.

Create an Atmosphere of Inclusion 

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” - Nelson Mandela

It is so important to make sure everyone feels included and valued. No one should feel like a lesser person because of their background, race, skin color, religion, role, gender, etc. In our businesses, we should strive to understand others. Rael explained that it is only by reflection that we learn things, and if we don’t take the time to reflect and understand our employees or partners, we will never learn. 

“You can't have diversity without inclusion. A lot of companies just go for diversity, but don't do anything to build the inclusive nature of their organization,” Rael said. “If I've learned anything over the last 30 years in business, . . .  [I’ve learned] it's about having diversity and inclusion together. You can't have one without the other.

In Rael’s business, he had team members from six different country backgrounds, six different places of birth, and three different religions. He made it a priority to not only promote diversity but to also promote inclusion. We should make sure everyone feels comfortable in our business. As we do so, we will create a healthy company culture our employees will feel safe and valued. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Rael for sharing your stories and insights with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. The actions of the entire team drive the company culture. While management needs to define the course of action, they have to get the team to come along.
2. Every member of our team has an important role. We should strive to create a culture where every team member understands the impact they can have on our overall purpose.
3.  If we can give every employee and team member a purpose in our business, our employees will stay longer, have greater satisfaction, be more efficient, and be more productive. 
4.  We should make sure every employee, partner, and team member knows the importance of our customers.
5. As we give up control and show our staff we trust them, we will probably see more growth in our business.
6. We can't have diversity without inclusion. We should make sure everyone feels comfortable, safe, and valued in our business no matter their background. 

Connect with Rael

If you want to learn more about or connect with Rael you can find him on LinkedIn or visit  RaelBricker.com. 

Next Steps

1. Get a free ebook about passion marketing, and learn how to become a top priority of your ideal customers at PassionMarketing.com. 
2. Subscribe to Monetization Nation on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, our Facebook Group, and on your favorite podcast platform.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/how-to-foster-a-healthy-company-culture/ 

This is Entrepreneurs of Faith, a Sunday episode of Monetization Nation. I’m Nathan Gwilliam, your host. In today’s episode, I want to share with you a couple of stories that are on my mind and scripture that goes with them. 

Aaron and Amie Cook

Over a decade ago, I did a lot of consulting work in Brazil. I spent about half of three years in Brazil; I would go to Brazil for about two weeks, come home to the United States for about two weeks, and then go back. During that time, I was blessed to help build Azul Airlines and several ventures to provide for my family. 

Being so far away from my family for extended periods of time was very difficult for me, so I would call home as often as I could. One night when I was talking to my wife on a video call, in the background I heard a huge shattering of glass. In my mind, as the over-protective husband and father, I imagined that someone had just come through a glass door or glass window. 

My wife was very, very tired, and she was done for the day. She didn't even want to go check out the glass-shattering sound. Being on the other side of the world and not being there to help protect and take care of my family, I was really worried. After some cajoling, she finally went and checked it out and showed me on the video camera what it was.

In our master bathroom, we had a very large mirror that spanned two sinks. That mirror had not been attached to the wall very well; they had glued it on in an insufficient way. And so with hot showers and steam, that huge mirror fell off the wall and completely shattered that night when I was on the phone with my wife. 

My wife has some serious health conditions and it was just too much for her to deal with that evening so she closed the door, we finished our conversation, and she went to bed. The next day, some of our dear friends from the neighborhood, Aaron and Amie Cook, came and cleaned up the mess for her. And that wasn't the only time they helped our family. I believe, while I was traveling on business trips, Amie and/or Aaron came and helped multiple times when water flooded in our basement. 

It was very hard for me to have these emergencies as I was traveling and to not be there to provide and protect my family as they needed it. However, I'm eternally grateful for Aaron and Amie Cook who were there for my family, along with many others. Even though I was doing what I needed to do and I was where I needed to be, it was still hard to not be there for my family and I am so grateful that there were other people who loved my family to help out when I couldn't.

Josh Clark

I want to tell you another story about Josh Clark. While I was on a business trip in Texas, my daughter was driving to school and her car broke down on the side of the road. As I mentioned before, my wife has some serious health conditions. She's in a wheelchair and is not able to drive so she couldn’t go help our daughter. 

My daughter called me and asked me to help her. I was on the other side of the country, and couldn’t get there physically. So, I stepped out of my meeting and called a tow truck to help her in the best way I could. Just after I'd called and scheduled a tow truck to come, she called me back because a friend of ours from church, Josh Clark, had pulled up behind her. He opened her car’s hood, diagnosed the problem, fixed the issue, and my daughter was able to get her to school on time. I will forever be grateful to Josh Clark for being there for my daughter when I was unable to be there. 

I recently heard Josh tell a story of a time where the tables were turned on him. He had taken a job in North Dakota and was driving a truck in the oil fields. His wife was pregnant and while she was on a trip, she went into premature labor. They took her to a hospital and she and the baby were not in great condition. When his parents and his wife’s parents heard about this, they immediately got in their cars and drove to meet Josh’s wife at the hospital. They were able to be there for Josh's wife and his new child, to pray for them, bless them, and do the things that Josh wanted to do, while he was on the other side of the country. 

Josh was doing what he had to do to provide for his family, but it was tearing his heart out that he wasn't able to be there when his family needed him. He was so grateful for those extended family members that we’re able to be there for his wife and child when he could not be there. It's interesting to see how good works are often returned to us. 

Luke 7:47: Much Love

There's a scripture in the Bible I have been thinking a lot about this week in Luke 7:47.

This is the story of the woman who came to Christ and washed his feet. She kissed Christ’s feet, anointed his feet with ointment, and washed Christ's feet with her hair as well. While she did this, there was a man there with them named Simon. Simon was critical of what Christ had allowed this woman to do. He essentially said, “If you knew the sins this woman had committed, you would not have let her touch you and do this to you.” 

To this Christ said something very profound. He said, “Her sins which were many were forgiven because she loved much.” (Source: KJV Luke 7:47)

That gospel principle resonates with me. The woman was forgiven because she loved much. As we love, serve others, and bless the lives of others, we do what Christ would do if He were here and we often receive grace in our lives. We don't earn it, it doesn't come because we do X or check some box. It comes because we are seeking to love much; we are seeking to be like Jesus Christ. 

I think heaven is going to be filled with people like Josh Clark and Aaron and Amie Cook, who have shown much love to so many people around them. I'm grateful to have those kinds of people in my life and I'm grateful for their examples. I'm striving to be more like them and to love much. 

Thanks for joining me for this episode. I wish you success as you strive to love much.

Key Takeaways

Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. When we love much we are coming closer to and becoming more like God.
2. When we love much, we will often receive grace and forgiveness.
3. As we love, serve, and bless the lives of others, we do what Christ would do if He were here.

Next Steps

1. Pray to see opportunities where God would like you to love and serve others.
2. Decide on someone to whom you are going to show much love today.

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Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/love-much/ 

Jim Cathcart is the author of 20 books, including The Acorn Principle and Relationship Selling, which are both international bestsellers. His TEDx talk “How to Believe in Yourself” is in the top 1% of all TEDx talks with more than 2 million views. Jim was inducted into the Professional Speaker Hall of Fame and the Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame. He's a university professor, teaching in an executive MBA program.

In today’s episode, Jim and I will discuss his journey to become a wildly successful speaker. Jim will also teach us the acorn principle. “The seed of your future successes already lives within you. . . .”

Jim’s Passions and Advice About Speaking

Jim is passionate about many things—homemade ice cream, barbecue, fitness, and music among them—but he also loves helping people succeed. When someone says to him, “You’re just a speaker because you love the applause,” he says, “No; the applause is just a sign that it went well.”

Jim loves when a person walks out of one of his speeches or seminars and thinks, “Wow, I never thought about it like that before; that makes perfect sense. I can do that.” Often people send him a note a few months later, saying it worked. He loves when he can help people.

Jim said the key to good speaking is audience improvement. His advice for someone who’s nervous about speaking is to change their point of view. “Stop thinking about you, and think about the audience. Start thinking about how your message is going to help them, and help them understand it. Then you won't be nervous about giving your speech,” he said.

Thinking about the audience will shift our point of view and can relieve our nerves, and we’ll likely give a better speech because we’re trying to help them.

Jim’s Entrepreneurial Journey 

Jim grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father was a telephone repairman, who often had to be on the road, and his mother had her hands full taking care of Jim, his sister, and his grandfather. Growing up, there weren’t any high expectations for him. Jim thought he would be a good person, get decent grades in school, get a job, and live a pleasant but ordinary life.

By 23 years old, Jim was married and had a new baby at home. He was working a dead-end job as an assistant for someone who didn’t need one. He’d dropped out of college, he’d had about every job imaginable, he was overweight and smoking two packs a day, and he was bored to tears because his boss didn’t need him. 

One day at work while Jim listened to the radio, a five-minute, motivational show called Our Changing World with Earl Nightingale came on. Jim heard Earl say, “If you will spend one extra hour every day studying your chosen field, in five years or less, you'll be a leading authority in that field.” Jim did the math and figured that would be 1250 hours.

He asked himself, “What do I want to be an expert at?” He didn’t want to be an expert in urban renewal, his current job. A week or two later, it occurred to him that he wanted to do what Earl Nightingale was doing: personal development and applied behavioral science. Jim didn’t have any experience in the field, but he did have plenty of time at his job. 

He became a fanatic, reading every book he could find, listening to audio recordings, going to whatever seminar he could find. For the next several years it was all he wanted to talk about, all he wanted to think about. As he studied, his mindset changed, and he got better at his job and received many promotions. Eventually, he had the chance to move into the field of training and development, and after a few years, became a full-time speaker and trainer.

Jim wrote a book with Tony Alessandra, and they formed a corporation together. One day, Jim sat at the desk, and the phone rang. It was Earl Nightingale, the man from the radio. Earl told him he’d just read an article of Jim’s and thought it would make a great audio album. 

Jim sent Earl his and Tony’s audio program. Earl liked it, so they published this program called Relationship Strategies for Dealing with the Differences in People, the first widely published audio program on personality types. In the next two years, it made $3.5 million and led to speaking engagements all over the world.

Jim progressed in his career, becoming president of the National Speakers Association. Jim called Earl, asking him to join him speaking at a convention on the evolution of the personal development industry. Earl said he would consider it. Unfortunately, Earl passed away before it could happen. They decided to do a memorial at the convention. Earl’s wife asked Jim to speak. He didn’t feel like he was worthy, but Earl’s wife told him, “Jim, you are the product of what he was teaching. That's why you should speak at his memorial service.”

He and Earl’s wife were the only speakers at the memorial. Jim is truly a testament to the principles he and Earl taught. He went from a clerk to a worldwide speaker and author of 20 books using the principles he and Earl taught.

The Acorn Principle

Jim’s book The Acorn Principle dives into many subjects such as the reader’s type of intellect, their personality, their personal velocity, the values that motivate them, along the acorn principle itself.

“The acorn principle is, the seed of your future successes already lives within you. . . . An acorn is the universal symbol of potential,” Jim said. He explained that an acorn has three parts: the stem, the cap, and the seed.

The stem represents the legacy between us and all the people in our line that have ever existed. Their DNA imprint has been passed along the chain to us, and we carry it with us—the good, the bad, and the ugly—it's all part of who we are genetically.

The cap represents all the guides and mentors we have in our lives: our parents, teachers, role models, coaches, heroes, and mentors. They have also had an impact on us.

The seed represents the potential that lives within us. Jim said, “An acorn will never be a racehorse. It'll never be cedar or pine, it will only be an oak tree. But whether it's a wonderful mighty oak or whether it's a little scrub oak . . . depends on what happens with that acorn.”

Unlike an actual acorn, we can choose what we do with our seed. The seed that’s within us is destined to be exceptionally impressive at something, or multiple things, but not everything. We may not have the talent to play basketball like Michael Jordan, but everyone has a unique potential. “Every one of us has a gift in that seed, waiting for us to give it the opportunity and the attention so that it can grow fully into what it's capable of,” Jim said.

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Jim for sharing your stories and insights with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Thinking about how we can help our audience will shift our point of view, relieving our nerves, and we’ll likely give a better speech because we’re trying to help them.
2. If we spend one extra hour every day studying our chosen field, we can become a leading authority in that field in five years or less.
3. We all have the potential inside of us to become something great, like a mighty oak tree. If we effectively nurture our potential, we will grow into something exceptional.

Connect with Jim

To learn more about or connect with Jim:

• Connect on LinkedIn
• Visit his website at Cathcart.com 
• Check out his book The Acorn Principle

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Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/the-acorn-principle-the-seed-of-your-future-success-already-lives-within-you/