The Audio Entrepreneur

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What's up everyone? This is Mary Larsen and you're listening to the audio entrepreneur. I spent the last year and half doing podcasts and content creation for some of the fastest growing entrepreneurs today.

Their strategies and tests have been life changing once I took action, so I decided to take my audio industry to the next level by building a seven figure company that teaches people how to create, strategize, and repurpose their content like a throw. The question so new people are wondering is how is she going to do it?

This podcast is here to give you the answers. Join me as I explained marketing strategies to grow my online business. My name is Marie Larsen. And Welcome to the audio entrepreneur.

Marie Larsen:                  00:00                   Yo, what's up everyone in here? I'm excited because today I have a friend of mine who is really, really good at selling. Now a lot of you, you might be laughing and say, well, Marie, if you're in the digital marketing space, aren't you just naturally good at selling in? The answer is no, you are not. Um, there's actually an art form to it and I'm excited because today I have justin on here with me. Now Justin is a rockstar because he has gone through and really figured out how to sell and do it really well. You need to know your customers really well and know exactly how to sell and what's going to appeal to them and overdeliver like crazy. Now I'm, I was a long intro. Sorry Justin. But I'm so excited to have you on here. If you want to just jump in and introduce yourself to us a little bit, how you got started into all of this, that would be awesome.

Justin Stephens:              00:46                   Good morning everybody. My name is Justin. How I got started in sales. So a little bit about me. I run a Samar training franchise here in Meridian Idaho. So we help people who are frustrated where they are, they want to get to that next level, but they're not quite sure how and we do it through giving them the process and the tools they need to communicate better because that's all sales. As sales as simply communicating, you have to get it out there, so you got to figure out how can I communicate without building barriers? Because too often this is what salespeople do. They come in and they think, in order for me to convince you to buy my crap, which most of your stuff is crap. People do not care about you. What they care about is how you can help them. So when you go into an appointment, a meeting, when you're building out your funnel, all of that, if you're talking about your crap, they are not listening. You've got to be talking to them. Sales is incredibly emotional. Nobody. Nobody makes a decision intellectually. They justify their decisions intellectually. Your selling, you have to figure out how to get them emotionally involved, emotionally involved, and you're not selling your features and benefits.

Marie Larsen:                  02:23                   Yeah, I have. I agree with that so much. I think of some of the big purchases or big investments that I've made, even the little ones, right? I'm hungry. I buy the Kit Kat bar or I don't want to be before I buy. Did you come club x coaching? Right? And so whatever it is, like a, it's more of the wants then understanding the needs. Right? And a lot of, um, a lot of sellers out there don't understand how emotionally we buy as customers. And we got through it and we emotionally buy like crazy. I can't tell you how many times I have jumped in and bought something because, um, I ice cream because of a breakup or something, whatever it is I emotionally bought, right? And I do that all the time and it's fantastic. And I am so grateful to understand that that is a part of selling. Now, as you've gone through and tried to figure out selling a little bit, um, what tricks and tips would you give to people as they go through and try and figure out how they could sell better? Um, so that it's not just that they're, you know, out there trying, trying all these different tricks and tips from all these people, from someone who is an expert in their field in selling. Um, how would you advise people to go about doing that?

Justin Stephens:              03:34                   So the first thing you have to do, the first thing you have to do to become great at sales is stop trying to sell people.

Marie Larsen:                  03:45                   Yeah,

Justin Stephens:              03:47                   there's only one person qualified to actually sell someone. And that's the prospect. That's the person looking to make a purchasing decision. So when you go in and you're talking about how great your stuff is, you're talking about the widgets and just the different stuff that comes with your program. What you're doing is your just telling features and benefits. If you really want to get great at sales, you've got to become a master at asking questions. Thing for any salesperson to do is ask great questions. And honestly you can come up with probably probably between 25 and 30 questions and just ask those over and over again. Don't. You don't need to be a unique because what happens is people get engaged emotionally when you're asking questions because everybody has this one radio station playing in their mind every time. This station, it's pretty amazing what's in it for me.

Justin Stephens:              05:05                   That's what everybody is thinking about. So when you go in and say, Hey, I'm awesome, I've got this sales process and it's amazing and people tune out. It's like, I don't give a rip. I know stuff, but when you go in and say something like, I help people who are frustrated, they have a great product, I just don't know how to get it across the finish line when it comes to a sales role, more engaging, right? More engaging about them. They can mentally put themselves in those shoes and say, yeah, I do have a product and yeah, it should be easier than that. Right?

Marie Larsen:                  05:48                   Absolutely. Yeah, and I, I have to say that there have been times where I have thought that I know exactly what the customer wants, you know, and I think I know what they want. I'm going to create it because this is going to solve their problem. When in all actuality, I didn't go through and ask them what they wanted or what they needed by going through for myself and figuring that out. I was better able to sell my, not that you're trying to sell people, but I was better to sell my products and services to someone because I figured out what their pain points were and what specifically would be of most benefit to them of most value and what they would pay top dollar for. As soon as I figured that out, that's when I started to make money. Right. It wasn't beforehand when I went through and just said, I think so and so wants this, and I think so, and someone says, no. I went and I asked them what they wanted and as soon as I did that, it completely was a game changer and people came to buy from me rather than me trying to sell to them.

Justin Stephens:              06:44                   Yeah. It's more rewarding that way too. Right. They're super excited. They're like, you are solving this problem for me. Right.

Marie Larsen:                  07:07                   Money. I guess. Actually I want it back in a month.

Justin Stephens:              07:11                   Exactly. That's when you start getting chargebacks. That's when you start getting returns and not about the problems you solve.

Marie Larsen:                  07:25                   Absolutely. Now going off of that, I'm segwaying. I wanted to ask you a little bit about your customer service area and how you go through and help people when they need help with customer service and how to build out better support teams and everything like that because there have been some support teams where they're just awful and I've left products or services or whatever, just because their, uh, their customer service was awful and I was not getting the help that I needed. Um, and so what suggestions would you give to people to go through and build out better customer service?

Justin Stephens:              08:04                   Great question. So when it comes to customer service, people get stuck in trying to be right. So I think it was Steven Cubby said, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care and when you create a customer support team that is centered around how do I be right, how do I prove that the customer was wrong? It was not my service, it was not the product, it was urine idiot. When that's what your customer service is centered on, right? We've all called places like a table one direct TV, plug your line forever, so you got to. When it, when it comes to building your customer service team out, you've got to realize that the number one thing, and by the way an angry customer is a gift. It is a gift that you have an issue that you can solve, right? Most angry customers do not tell you. They just never show up and tell everyone else.

Marie Larsen:                  09:15                   Yup. It's interesting that you said that. I did a podcast episode just awhile back called Psi love my haters group and um, people, I got a lot of flak. All of a sudden as I started getting my voice out there, people started to get into my products and my services, everything like that. And I had majority of people say, I love you Marie. This is awesome. And then I had that small percentage that, you know, just had a little tiff with me or something. Right? And so I started getting messages on facebook and all this kind of stuff. And at first it hit me really hard, like Dang it, like there's this small little percentage of individuals that don't like me, like this stinks, you know, like I must not be doing my stuff right. I must be awful. And I really, really had a hard time with it.

Marie Larsen:                  09:59                   Um, but eventually, um, I came to the conclusion, I started asking some other influencers that I have within my circle and they said, Marie, this is awesome. Congratulations. And I was like, what are you talking about? I was like, people don't like me right now. Like, what does that mean? And they're like, yeah, but you have, you know, 97 percent of your customers and clients and stuff like that, love you. And that three percent, don't boo hoo, that stinks for you. But Marie, how great is that? You literally have a roadmap of people, the ones that are coming back to you or saying, Hey Marie, I don't like what you're doing. I don't like this, but I care enough about you to tell you what I don't like. And that to me was huge in order to understand. That's right. People, people who are going to come back and reach back out to me and tell me specifically what they didn't like about my products, my services or whatever. That's actually a gift for me to know exactly how I'm supposed to improve in the future and that was a huge lesson for me and so that podcast absolutely episode actually skyrocketed and did so well and people are like, yes, you love your haters group. And I was like, yes, I love them. Thank you so much for hating me enough, but loving me enough to come back and tell me what to improve on.

Justin Stephens:              11:05                   Right, right. That's awesome. Because again, if you don't know, you can't do anything about it. We have A. Okay. Not Okay scale. Okay. In general humans, I think it's like 98 percent of us humans want to be more okay than the next guy, right? We in our head, we want to feel more okay about our lives. Then their lives. When people call in to a customer service center, a lot of times what happens is the customer service rep has been trained to not take it personally and they've been trained to not let it be the company's fault and when that it makes the customer service rep more than the customer is why things escalate. That's why they're shouting. That's why we've seen that person got drug out of the plane. It's because of how they handled it. It's not the fact that it happened. Anything can happen. It's all in. How do you communicate it?

Justin Stephens:              12:18                   Communicate it. So in customer service, the most important thing to do is take lane. So when someone calls and says, Justin, you're ridiculous. You're, you're the stupidest person on the planet. I don't say no, no, no, wait, you just didn't hear me right? Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. That must be awful, right? I go negative, which is the opposite of what people expect and it extinguishes the fire a lot quicker, so much faster. You've got to constantly be aware of are they okay or not okay and if you have to become more not okay than they are because that's how they judge. They judge it based on you, based on everybody they're talking to. That's where they judge. Okay, not okay at becoming not okay. And it brings me back. This is, oh my gosh, can I get into a topic that is huge but can be very difficult of everything we trained. This is my favorite and I think the most important topic that we train and we call it identity role theory, identity. Your identity as a person. That's who you are. So Marie, I'm. This is a trap exercise, but who are you? Tell me who you are.

Marie Larsen:                  13:50                   Uh, my name is Marie and I'm from Denver, Colorado. Um, I have six siblings in total. There are six of us. Um, I do digital marketing online. I don't know, that's like the baby basics. I mean that's who I am.

Justin Stephens:              14:10                   That was awesome. It's a great example. So again, I said it was a trap. I worry about this at all. So identity, who she is, that's actually not who you are, what you listed, our roles, those are roles you feel you feel fill a role as a sister, as a daughter, as a podcast, as a digital marketer, right? These are all different roles, but who you are is different. When you were born on a scale of one to 10, you just, you were just born. What's your value? One is worthless. 10 is amazing.

Marie Larsen:                  14:51                   I mean

Justin Stephens:              14:52                   in this, the roles of society, I am very dependent, right? As a baby. But as being, um, the role of a child to my parents, I was everything. Oh, you can do as group and scream. You're the most wonderful thing in the world. As we grow up, our value gets tied up or our identity gets tied up into what we do. So we start thinking about what we do in terms of our role in sales, our role as a father, our role as a mother or a sister or brother. Our role as a swimmer, a golfer that becomes our identity. Have you ever heard of people? They go and retire and then die out there. Their identity is so tied up in the role they play at work that when they retire, they lose their will to live. It's all subconscious, but you got to figure out how can I separate who I am as a person from what I do? Because as long as your identity is tied up in your role, if you fail in a role, you fail as a person and you will never be successful. You'll never take the risks you need in order to be successful,

Marie Larsen:                  16:20                   so your identity to that role then

Justin Stephens:              16:23                   so you've got to shift your identity to the fact that you without any role at all, are awesome. On a scale of one to 10, you're a 10. No matter what. You can be a crappy digital marketer. You can be a crappy podcast, you can be a crappy friend, but you're still attend. You're still awesome because you were made in God's image. Your image. You have to do nothing to be amazing. You just. But we get so tied up in what we do and we tie what we do to who we are, that when we go out and we try something and fail, it ruins their lives. So once, once you can figure that out, it's so much easier to risk because now the risk doesn't make you a failure. You just failed at a role.

Marie Larsen:                  17:19                   No, no, no. I can't agree more with what Justin is saying. A lot of us do have these identity crisis, crisis, crisis. And I am so grateful for this conversation because guys, there have been so many times and a lot of, you know, that I am going to school, I am running my business. I'm, I'm still trying to have a normal college kid social life, which doesn't happen as much, but I am trying to do all these things at once and um, this is a good conversation for me. So more than anything, this is good conversation for me. I'm sure it will benefit others as well, but there have been times where I have identified my worst to the things that I'm doing. And um, and that's not true guys. Making sure that you know that 10 out of 10, that no matter what, no matter what you do, no matter what goes on in your life, that you're always going to be awesome, that you're gonna kill it.

Marie Larsen:                  18:14                   You're going to, you're going to be doing awesome things no matter what. And so make sure guys in this next little bit that you understand, you are not identifying what you do with your work. That is not the identity that you need to have. You need to be pushing directly to who you are and that you were at 10 a once upon a time when you were a baby and that's still to this day, although less, you know, you babyish or still awesome, you know, so I love it. That's so good. Now as people are going through and listening to Justin, what are some of the best places for them to find out more information about you so that they can not only have this identity, I guess this shift as well, but being able to learn how to sell a better to there or I guess find better buyers who want to buy. Um, and be a, you know, better at selling out to them where some of the best places for them to find your content and information.

Justin Stephens:              19:13                   I'd love to connect with you guys on facebook or Linkedin. My name is Justin Stephens. Stevens is spelled with a Ph. connect with me. I tend to jump around and be kind of crazy on my videos. So for me, I don't know about anybody else.

Marie Larsen:                  19:35                   I love watching your videos on facebook. I always kills me because I was watch everyone's facebook stuff on like, you know, three times speed and then you're already going crazy already. So then it's like the energizer bunny, you know, and just like going crazy. It's so fun and a little bit.

Justin Stephens:              19:52                   I've never heard of a couple of people who watch it without sound

Marie Larsen:                  20:00                   for sure.

Justin Stephens:              20:03                   Three times speed. So that's a great way to connect with me. Ask any questions, I'm happy to answer them. You can visit our website, which is https://www.crossroads.sandler.com/. We actually have an event coming up November 15th, one day bootcamp, and in this one day bootcamp, what we're gonna do is we're going to go over the entire selling process that we teach our clients, so it's actually pretty interesting.

Traditional sales is you go in and you first start by qualifying, you qualify based off whatever the prospect is telling you after you qualify. Now you your solution to their whatever they've told you, their pain, their issue, and then you try to close the business.

So in Sandler, what we're going to teach you is we teach you to qualify, but you qualify on three very specific things. First, you've got to qualify on paint. If they do not have a compelling reason to take action, chances are they won't and they probably shouldn't.

So if they don't have pain, it's not gonna go anywhere...

The next thing we qualify on, we call it budget and the financial investment, but it's also the time investment. It takes a lot of time to, let's say you're selling a software. Anybody ever changed software platforms? That's fun, right?

Justin Stephens:              21:34                   It takes time. It takes time to change these things so you've got to qualify not just on are they willing to invest the money, but also are they willing to invest the time, energy, the resources needed in order to make it as successful change thing we qualify on is the decision making process. The decision making process is not getting a yes or no decision. It's about how do they make decisions? Who's involved? Where does it happen? Is there a board of directors? Is it going to be next Thursday, next Monday, all of that information. Once you have those three in the sandler process, now we're going to close. We're going to close on. We have a solution that solves their problem. We're going to close on our solution, fits within their budget, and we're closing on our solution will work with their decision making process. After that, the natural conclusion is let's do a presentation and move forward. Takes all the pressure off of you as the salesperson because you don't deserve any pressure your purchase. It's then making the purchase. Quit making it hard on yourself.

Marie Larsen:                  22:52                   Oh, I love it. It's so good and so true. Now, so okay, so they can find you on facebook, your website and guys for this event, I'll be sure to put it in the blog as well so that you guys can go and make sure that you can jump in November 15th is when the event is so that you can jump in and really understand this selling process. It is so crucial. If you don't understand the art of selling, you're not going to be able to make the money that you're looking for within your company. It's just, that's how it is. And so there is an art and a science to selling for sure. Um, so make sure to check that out. Anyway, Justin, thank you so much for jumping on here with me. I really appreciate it. Um, and make sure to shoe over all of those links over to me and we're so excited to hear all about the good stuff that you're going to do. We appreciate it.

Justin Stephens:              23:41                   Marie, thank you so much for having me. You are a gracious host and freaking awesome.

Marie Larsen:                  23:48                   Well, thank you. Have a good one.

Don't forget to rate and subscribe. Do you have questions for me? Go to the facebook group, profitable podcasting strategies https://www.facebook.com/groups/PodcastingStrategies/?ref=br_rs , and I'll be sure to do an episode to answer your next question. Again guys. My name is Marie Larsen, the audio entrepreneur.

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What's up everyone? This is Mary Larsen and you're listening to the audio entrepreneur. I spent the last year and half doing podcasts and content creation for some of the fastest growing entrepreneurs today. Their strategies and tests have been life changing once I took action, so I decided to take my audio industry to the next level by building a seven figure company that teaches people how to create, strategize, and repurpose their content like a throw. The question so new people are wondering is how is she going to do it? This podcast is here to give you the answers. Join me as I explained marketing strategies to grow my online business. My name is Marie Larsen. And Welcome to the audio entrepreneur.

[00:00] Yo, what's up everyone? This is Mary Larson. I'm so excited because today I have a friend Sherry Thacker is on here with me guys. Sherry is so awesome guys. She has gone through and really created an industry that. Well, she's, she's part of an industry that is pretty cutting. I guess there's, it's really cutthroat, you know, there's a lot of people within this industry and she's done some distinct things to be different as she's in the health and fitness industry and that industry guys, it's so hard to get your voice out there to really be loud, to be different, you know, just because there's so many people out there who really wants to excel in this industry as well. And so I wanted to bring her on here because she's been crushing it. She got, she's been doing so well and I want to go through and really figure out, really pick her brain more than anything. How she got started. Um, especially in an, in an industry that's really saturated, right? And, and how she's getting her voice out there to stand out, be different and um, and create a company that's actually, it's crushing it guys. It's so fun. Anyway, Sherry, thank you so much for being on here. [00:57] Oh, I'm super psyched. Thank you for having me, Maria. It's awesome. I love it. [01:01] Yeah, absolutely. So tell us a little bit, Sherry, how you got started, everything like that. Like tells, tells the Nitty Gritty, like what tells the pain story and everything like that. How you got into this. [01:11] Okay. Well, originally I got into health and fitness. By fluke I had decided to make my health non negotiable but 18 years ago. And uh, that was pretty much after I was in this Rut like you, I was in my early twenties smoking, drinking 180 pounds, suicidal, attempted suicide three times a really in the depths of despair. And uh, so I started to take my health into consideration more seriously. But for me, my Aha moment was when I went to visit my grandmother in the hospital one day and this particular day just hit me like a lightening bolt when I saw that she was living in a jail cell for six years, she had a stroke and a heart attack. She was paralyzed from the left side down and she was so vulnerable dependent. She couldn't move, couldn't do anything that you wanted to do in this particular day. [02:07] Just made me realize that I did not want to spend my last years, last 20 years, you know, peeing my pants for getting my name drooling on myself, feeling in pain, living with disease, and in her case, living in a jail cell of her hospital bed with no life. So 18 years ago I said, my health is nonnegotiable. I literally wrote a contract in my mind saying every single day I will do absolutely everything I can to be as healthy as possible. Wow. I've been an entrepreneur for the last 25 years and I've run multiple businesses over that time. So I doubled into the fitness industry about a decade ago. And completely by fluke I was in between projects and I was just like, Eh, I'll take on a few personal training clients, you know, well I'm making a few dollars trying to figure out what my next Gig, 10 years later I'm living my passion, living my dream, loving every minute of it and having a blast really, [02:58] I love it. And [03:00] something that I want to hit because you have done such a good job at this is creating a culture and all of that and so people love hearing your story and how you. You did have this Aha moment of I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm going to live clean. I'm going to live healthy. And My, as you said, my health is not negotiable. And so being able to influence other women into that or you know, people just in general into a lifestyle like that is a. It takes a lot of strategy more than people probably think. And so I want to hear more than anything. How you build out a culture of winning. I mean there are people who love to follow your stuff. They love your stuff. They consume it, they're taking before and after pictures, they're really, I guess, in, in, grows into your stuff. [03:43] They really love it. And uh, and so I want to hear how you built that out and what the strategy behind that was to really make a family out of it rather than just like a, let me sell you this program, you know, instead of a lifestyle decision. And how did you do that? A well that it kind of started for me back in 2003, to be honest with you, I was an introvert. He had no friends, no life, you know, was watching reruns forever. I'm basically watching TV from Friday night until Sunday night until one day I was just like, I am so sick and tired of being alone and not having a social life. And I founded a woman's entrepreneurial network. Um, and I operated that for six years and that's when I really developed this keen sense for networking. And I've just been a matchmaker ever since because I really identified with the fact that community creates longevity and you know, when you want to nurture an environment, not only is it amazing gift to give to people because I'm not truly the rewarding part. [04:49] When people find a community where they all connect in, it's a beautiful gift to offer a community, but at the same time it's beautiful for business, right? Because people don't want to leave their friends once they've made connections and they've, they've created a community. It's their places, their tribe, and you know, it's very trendy today to say tribe and you know, you don't build this community. All those kinds of build your tribe, all that stuff. From a marketing perspective, it can be kind of cold and kind of like build a cult the same time. Right? My beautiful women are in fact that there they're amazing people and being in there is bliss. It's just being surrounded by likeminded women who are all sharing the same struggles. They all have the same goal in mind. They motivate the encourage, the inspire. They just make so many people's Day. And to me, that's the blessing, the gift. [05:45] I love that. Now I love that you have created a community where people feel comfortable to come in and say, these are my weaknesses. Can we please accomplish the same goal together? Even if you know, I want to lose x amount of pounds or whatever it is that like everyone feels comfortable to jump in in, in that as well. And so I have to ask, as far as when when you decided to go through and really push out a culture, what was the first, or I guess a tribe or family or whatever people want to, you know, say these days, what was it that you like? What were your first steps in order to really create that community? Um, so that for people who are listening, they, they can understand that they too can create a community if they followed some of your steps. Wow, that's, [06:29] that's an awesome question because for me, because since 2003, it's kind of come very natural to me to pair people up. First of all, you know, creating those initial one-on-one connections. And then those small group connections and then creating that community, um, you know, and there's a danger to creating a community as well. I, I can be, I have created a community within the fitness industry, you know, for the last five, six, seven years in my studio that you see behind me and it can also come to a crash, right? Because when you create a community, you're building a house of cards and if one little thing goes wrong and, and one spark of it can be, can be catastrophic. And it was in fact catastrophic to me in the community that I built here in this studio, which came to a crumbling. How's the car? [07:20] It's just all fell to the ground, completely lost my entire business. I had to build everything up from scratch, but that didn't prevent me from starting community community again because that's the essence and the magic of creating that culture that creates, um, the beauty within this industry as a whole. So people don't feel isolated. So yeah, as much as a community can work for you, it can also work dramatically against you. Um, so for about seven years I ran a vibrant community. They all came here to my studio and we were tight, we were family and it was an amazing community for like seven years. And you know, in a, in a forest fire flash, you know, it literally ignited like a house of cards came tumbling down. So, um, you know, especially when you're dealing with women and there's gossip and cattiness and brutality, you know, sometimes you need to be very careful when you're creating your communities. [08:18] You've got to figure out what is the foundation that they're standing on because it can blow up in your face if you're not careful. So, um, you know, the question was how do you start a community, how do you ignite it, how do you keep it alive? And you know, when we first started our six week challenges, our anniversary is coming up next month. Um, we had 40 people, so it's not a lot. And we constantly gave them activities to engage. So it was like, you know, do your intro video because we want to see your face and we want to hear your voice. You want to see your expressions, don't just do a little tight, you know, a little text. We were saying, get out of your comfort, you know, get out of your comfort zone and pushed a little bit further than what you're used to. [09:02] And that immediately connected a lot of people. It made it very real. So the video definitely helped make people connect with one another. And then we motivated them constantly to post, you know, after they'd finished a workout to post their meal plans or their fitness plans that they had for the challenge to post the progressions, their struggles. Um, you know, I did live in there all the time, so, you know, I would also do like challenge story lives where I would invite people on like this. So it was a one on one interview, um, and had people telling their story. So for sure, you know, it's consistency. You need to be in there, you know, you need to be in the nitty gritty. Don't just leave it for like an admin person to look after. Like they need to see you, they need to feel you. They need to know you care and it saves you from, you know, all those one on one connections that take up massive amount of time go in there and really, you know, like post comment on posts, do live videos, get other people to do live videos. Um, and yeah, we were, were thriving in it now. [10:02] Yeah, absolutely. And I liked that you said the, um, that building out that culture is like being on a house of. It's like building a house of cards. Right? And I, I couldn't agree more with that. It's funny how people will be so excited about your stuff and then one little thing will be commented or said and it can blow up in your face. Right. And uh, I actually just had that happened to a friend of mine recently and um, he put one comment or post on it and the whole thing, he was getting death threats, like all this crazy stuff, you know, and it was just so crazy and I feel so bad for him when that wasn't his intention, you know, it's not like he was trying to make people's life, you know? Absolutely awful or anything like that. He was just stating opinions and stuff and so it really important. [10:47] And so I have to ask them in the ways that you've experienced, I liked that you said that you have to be really involved with your people, which I think is so important. Um, but as we all know, it takes a lot of time to do that one on one stuff. And so in order to build out a culture or build out a family, a circle, whatever, have you, um, what ways have you been able to figure out to build that out will also not losing a bunch of your time also, if that makes sense. [11:13] So that's a loaded question. It's all about balance, right? Because you, I definitely operate on a schedule. If you're not organized when you wake up during the day, you can get lost in an email, you can get lost in messages, you can get lost in the comments. Pardon me? [11:29] I said I'm guilty of that. Guilty. Yeah. [11:33] So first of all I'll run through my day with you if you're interested. Um, I get up at about 4:30, 4:15 in the morning. Uh, well I, I'm not one of these people that step until 2:00 AM, right. So I'm the reverse. I go to bed early. Yeah, I, I, I, I am most awake, alert and fresh first thing in the morning and that is my education time. So I'm up at 4:15. Uh, I got these little pals of mine that literally, you know, they should just stay there like jewelry because they live there. Um, and I'm, you know, there's always a book or a course or there's something that I'm listening to and that's my education time. Uh, from there, I, I'm either teaching classes or I'm doing my own fitness workout a by seven. I'm getting my son on the bus and then when I get back I've got a two hour window from 7:30 until 9:30 when it's absolute productivity time. [12:28] So I don't, all notifications are still off, like I have not been notified of anything. Uh, I'm still living in my own little world right now. I work really hard at not addressing anything now because I need to push the boulder forward and that's the biggest stressful thing as an entrepreneur when you don't feel like there's progression and you don't feel like the project that you want to build on is happening. We need to feel like everyday you've just rolled that boulder one notch further down the road, so 7:30 to 9:30 is my is my productivity time to move the boulder at one notch and you know to take after the book, the one thing it's mandatory. You need to focus on that one thing and you do that first thing in the morning before you even put a toe nail down on the ground. You know, after you've kind of done your, your gratitude and you've kind of centered yourself and you've looked into your day and you're saying, okay, I need one target today. If I get a whole lot of shit done, great, but I need one target that that pushes the boulder folder folder for further. What's that going to be? So it could be for me, I just finished writing a book right now. I'm working on all the accompaniments that, yeah, it's got picked up by a publisher, so it's going to be available. [13:41] My health is nonnegotiable, baby. Uh, so the book comes out on Black Friday for people who are listening because I'm sure there are people who are like, oh, I want to like check out this book or whatnot. Where do, where do we go find it when it's ready and available. Should be anywhere there should be at your local bookstore, should be on Amazon, should obviously Amazon for sure, but it's definitely a hardcover published book by a Professional Publishing Company. So a super jazzed, but that might help is nonnegotiable. Your six week guide to total transformation. So psyched. Yeah. So it's very, uh, frustrating some times when you know you've got, as an entrepreneur, you've got all these ideas forming around in your head all the time. You need a notebook beside you at all times. You have to be writing because there's stuff that comes into your mind that you really want to do. [14:33] It may not be the time place or even, you know, timeframe to do any of that right now. It may be something you do in six months, but you write it down, otherwise your brain is just constantly circling around this stuff at once, do as well as the stuff that it has to do and it's very overwhelming. So push that boulder folder for pushing the boulder further at that point. I then have a daily podcast as well, Monday through Friday. My life is not negotiable. Stop working for someone else's Mercedes and that, uh, gets published live on facebook Monday through Friday and then uploaded to all the streaming vices. So I have to prepare for that. So from 9:30 until I go live, I am focusing on content, create something of value that it's just not me nattering like I am now, but really focused on delivering a solid message. [15:19] And then from one until three is, that's the customer service time. That's the facebook notifications, that's getting into my groups, commenting, getting into messages, dealing with customer service, any noise that I need to hear because by then my creativity is much further down. Right? I'm like, well into half my day. Don't forget I've got up at four. So I'm like well into the day and yeah, it's a full day. A energy level is still high actually, but you're not, you're not as, you know, your brain's not as fresh. So this is when I deal with my beautiful people and this is where I get perked up in the day because I get to go inside my group and see what's going on and watch videos and see what's going to do the latest thing going on in there. Then I pick up my son, so from three until six, it's family time, nonnegotiable, put down the phone. But Don everything, all digital just make that eye contact with him and play with them on the floor and take them to the park. All that kind of stuff. And then I work nights. I teach, I teach classes at night or I'm doing masterminds or, or webinars or what have you. So until 9:00 I'm working and then lights out. Non Negotiable. Absolutely. I do not step past nine, 9:30. I'm in bed and sleep and around it goes to the next day. [16:32] Well I am so impressed. I think it's probably just because I'm a college kid and you know, the idea of getting in bed at 9:30 and they're still six hours the day for me at that point, but [16:41] it depends where your productivity hours are, if you know that those times are not being lost and you know, I don't watch TV at all. Right. So like there's no time for anything. Um, you know, I have boyfriend time in some time and work time and like that's it. Right. That's what I do. [17:00] I love it. That's so awesome and I think it's important that we also hit that you said to, to push that boulder further to push it forward. I think for me anyway, I've had to. Sometimes I will get so stressed out, especially on a big picture kind of person. And so I love to sit down and see the huge picture that's in front of me and I love to see, okay, well, you know, if I build these funnels and do this and then do all that, well then in between that I have email sequences to build out an email lists and all these things and it just, it stresses me out. Right? And so if I, in order to get that boulder forward, um, I have to sit down and think what are the top three things that I need to accomplish from this time to this time? [17:39] Right? And if I can go through and accomplish those three things, I know that I've pushed it, you know, push that boulder, even if it's just an inch or, you know, and just a little bit further, then that's, um, but I know that that's what I did and I can feel good about that day and that I've been pushing forward as an entrepreneur. And so if I don't sit down though and say, okay, to be successful today, if I accomplished x, y, and Z, then that's how I know I, I had a productive and successful date. Um, but if I go through my to do list can get so long and it can go, you know, bill, that email sequences, go through and build out webinars, slides goes through and get your webinar scripts go through and your, and I'll have all these things and there'll be like, don't forget to buy apples and don't forget by the time I finished it, my list is so long. [18:21] And so in order to have successful entrepreneurial day, then I'll have to sit down and be like, to be successful as an entrepreneur today. I need to accomplish x, Y, and Z to be successful as a student today. I need to finish x, Y, and Z. and still in college. Right? And if I sit down and prioritize my top three things for every little aspect of my life, even for her, my social life, if I accomplished x, Y, and z today than whatever it is, I don't care. I just need to know that I've accomplished it and then that's how I know my day was productive because I prioritized and it was nonnegotiable for me, right? So being nonnegotiable for me to finish those things and to push forward and I think it helps [19:00] to, um, if whatever you're doing on a weekly basis that is routine that you just repeat every week, then you always botch it and you block it. So if, if you are a funnel builder and you're building funnels all the time, then Tuesdays, funnel building days, right? Wednesdays or email sequence days, you know, and then you, you block it out. And I do find that, you know, even 20 minutes, 40 minutes, even an hour in a certain head space and your brain drains, right? So being able to get up, you know, move around, do some jumping jacks, what have you, you need to completely shift. Some people are very adhd and they need to kind of bounce from one thing to another and sometimes they just bounce, you know, to take her like too much all over the place, right? They need to, um, you know, segment their days in blocks and then just repeat those blocks every day. [19:48] Yep. And I totally have blocks where the mornings for me is where I get to be an entrepreneur in the afternoons and evenings is where I'm a student and it's really funny for me because I will work really hard in the morning so I can know that I've accomplished everything that I need to. And then I'll tell my clients, I'll tell my, you know, my people, Hey, I'm really sorry at this time, like, I'm not going to answer your stuff because if I don't then I'll be sitting and I'll be doing homework and every text message under the sun will be coming through and I'll just sit there and I'll respond to all this stuff. And two hours have gone by. I've been still working when I'm supposed to be doing school. Right. And so I've had to shut everything off and shut, shut down the things that are within words so that I can sit down and really focused on one thing at a time. [20:27] And if I do that, if I really schedule that out and really make that, as you say, non negotiable, then I can be successful and you know, in my job, you know, my own company and then I can be successful as a student. I can be successful as I'm trying to be social and I can, I can be those things. I just have to focus on one thing at a time. And when I do, I'm so much successful than, you know, I have my assistant come in, she, she kills me. She's always like, like I'll come in, I'll just meet x, Y and z from you. And I'm like, listen, figure out what you need from me for, you know, for the first three hours of the day, then come to me and ask what you need from me. I'll sit down and I'll accomplish those things in 30 minutes so that I can get everything that you need from me. And then I can't have you come through and like asking me all these things because I won't get anything done and I have to get things done if I'm going to survive. So [21:14] No, I love it you, you know, defining your rules and making them clear with their clients and staff is mandatory and setting expectations and Tim Ferris will say this in his four hour work week book where he's very definitive, I answer emails at this time and this time and that's when you'll hear from me and you won't hear from me otherwise and it's just probably managing your time. It's setting expectations with clients and stuff and everybody's happy because there's clear communication and Marie, I mean total Rockstar, right? Like owning your own business, going to school, managing life. You're 20, 22. Okay. After my own heart, right? My first business, I started at 22, but how many kids do you know? And you're just like, oh yeah, they're hanging out at whatever place and just chatting and flexing and gaming and all this bullshit. Right? Like look at you like on your worst day, Marie, that's the first thing you got to tell yourself. I on my worst day, I kick as more than on their best day, right? [22:08] Oh yeah. But it's so hard. It's so hard. There are moments and there are times where it seems like the easier thing would be to give up. Right, and I'm sure that you've been able to go through that. I'm sure you felt that, but at times it seems like the easiest thing that you could do would be to give up when actually that is the worst thing you could probably do for yourself and that was a lesson I had to learn for myself and especially as I really got into this world and it really was like pushing out my company and everything like that. My brother Steve and I remember at one point I was ready to give up and he looked at me and said, but what else would you do, Marie? And I was like, Dang it, you're right. And he's like, you can go get your nine to five if you want. [22:46] You can go work for someone else. You can go do your, your other thing if you really want to. He's like, but why would you do that? And I was like, oh my gosh, you were so right. Like, what else would I do? Like I have no idea what else I would do. Like this is my passion, this is what I'm excited about doing is being able to get people out in their industries and so again, wrapping it back up, that's why I love so much what you've done is to be able to create a culture and a community of people. Although at times the house of cards can come tumbling down. You can always rebuild it. You can always try again. There's always ways that you can keep trying and I guess that's kind of the essence of all of this is that in the end like you can keep trying, but building out that culture is going to be crucial within your business if you are trying to do that right. Being being an influencer does not just mean, look at me and watch me take pretty pictures. It means creating a community that trusts you enough to come and ask you questions. [23:34] Exactly. Right. Exactly right. [23:37] Yeah. Anyway, thank you so much. We're probably going to wrap up here in just a little bit, but for people to find you and your information, if they are wanting to jump on and understand more about your culture or your tribe that you've built out, where's the best place for them to find you and understand a little bit more about you. So they also can have a six week challenge, uh, that they can take as well. Absolutely. [23:56] So anyone who's interested in my fitness week, uh, my, my, I should say, well, what we do is we operate a six week transformation program to women who have neglected their bodies while caring for the people that they love and we help them make their health non negotiable after spending so much time in pain and low energy dealing with disease, being on medications. So we use a lot of functional medicine strategies. We use fitness and we use nutrition to help heal their body from the inside out. We focused a lot on the cellular level. We focus on the science and then we teach people how to build out their own program over 42 days so that when life gets in the way, you have that lifestyle embedded into your everyday life. So we do that over at Sherry's challenged. Yeah.

Don't forget to rate and subscribe. Do you have questions for me? Go to the facebook group, profitable podcasting strategies https://www.facebook.com/groups/PodcastingStrategies/?ref=br_rs , and I'll be sure to do an episode to answer your next question. Again guys. My name is Marie Larsen, the audio entrepreneur.

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Perry Power Shares HOW To Create Viable Stories...

Marie Larsen:                      00:02                       Yo, what's up everyone? This is Marie Larsen. I'm so excited because today also I have a friend with me who is, how do I say this? I'm a master at storytelling and how to create your personal brand. Now, for those of you who are looking on how to create a personal story or your personal brand more than anything and bring yourself out to an audience and this is exactly what you should be doing. Hud, sitting down taking notes because I know I will. I have my notepad and paper here with me to go through and listen on how I can also improve on my personal story and brand to get it out to all of you guys and also just to audiences in general to help my clients. So anyway, this is very power. I'm so excited to have Perry on here.

Thank you so much for jumping on here with us. And if you could jump on and just introduce yourself to us and um, and then how you got started into all of this first. Then we'll, uh, we'll, we'll move onto the rest of this as well. So anyway, very. If you could introduce yourself, that'd be great.

Marie Larsen:                      00:56                       Well thank you for letting me jump on and I'm really looking forward to it. So Perry power. I'm from London, the UK for never been before. Have you been yourself?

Perry Power:                        01:11                       I have, I've been to London.

Perry Power:                        01:12                       Nice. Nice. So yeah, from London I had a background in fitness. I started off as a pet and then it went into online fitness training. So I got into entrepreneurship nearly five years ago now. And what's crazy is like that for the first four years of entrepreneurship I wasn't getting anywhere. I just wasn't getting anywhere. I kept on failing of so many things. Anytime the shiny ball floating pegged out, just fly by and I want to grab it.

Marie Larsen:                      01:42                       Right. I'm guilty of that so many times as an entrepreneur.

Perry Power:                        01:50                       So I'll start something else and people are like, superior, what new thing you're doing now? I'm like, oh, okay. So it's gotten that comment as it, so I'll just try everything and anything interesting. And then I went from being a pet and then went on to facebook advertising route because I felt like that's what I should be doing because everyone else was doing it. Right. So, um, got, brought into Tai Lopez, bought his program, got Dan Henry's program and then when I was in the face with category and that was great, I was going to do not for a while, about a year and a half. And then I was like, hold on a second, I was in a gym being in front of people all day and now I'm upstairs in my office seeing nobody all day. I was like,

Marie Larsen:                      02:37                       what am I doing? I don't know if you've ever felt this way, but if it were my choice at times I could literally sit in my apartment and sit here behind my laptop with my microphone, doing all this stuff, filming, doing everything that I need to building out courses and not see anyone for like weeks. I like I really did. I had to stop and force myself to get out of the apartment to go, like socialize. Anyway. Continue. Yeah, I totally get that.

Perry Power:                        03:06                       You have to force yourself to do it. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. So I was like, okay. And I just had the honest conversation, right. So this isn't a need. I was like, why not leave, leave the fitness industry. So I was like, I don't want to go back to a gym and I'm back in prison as I wrong. And I'm coming online coach and I found somebody who I trusted and I went on a loss. This is way I can change me.

So I mind bent, which was a five day event and when I was there, so basically know. Let, let me, let me take a step back. So, January, no, January, June. Uh, the first. So this was last year, 2017. I'm just sort of shortened story. Might my 13 year old brother, he sent me a message or two pictures. One was an ambulance, swollen like that in the bedroom.

Perry Power:                        03:56                       I was like, what's going on here? Um, and it's an all or nothing to worry about. Your Dad's just, his blood sugar levels is off the chain, so they just need to take him to the hospital with the EU and the mountains. Okay, cool. And then a couple of hours later call me up again and he's like that. Uh Huh. Does, has gone said what'd you mean?

And basically what had happened was when he was in the ambulance on, he had a heart attack and he didn't make it to the hospital. And then, um, and then me and him, we were best friends because my mom left when I was four years old, so he raised me and um, and I remember I was a joke crabs like this guy, this ain't real, this isn't real. So I went down there and obviously it was.

Perry Power:                        04:36                       And um, and I went on a bit of a journey off of that. I needed to analyze what happened to him in like three years prior to his death, he, I just went on a rollercoaster ride and he started to drink more and becoming an invisible alcoholic. And I was like, well, hold on a second. Nobody just becomes an alcoholic. As I said, why? And I remember texting one same way, drinking so much. He said there's a fight, would have demons. He was battling some mental issues and as.

Okay. So he had a trouble with his past and I, my dad was a man's man, right. So he wouldn't talk about anything. You want to let those emotions out? I that. Okay. And I was the same. So what I'm trying, I'm getting onto is that I saw myself in the future, like if I carry on the way I am, den may be a chance that in 15 or 20 years time I'll pick up a bottle of vodka like my dad and I drink.

Perry Power:                        05:26                       It just seems a bit more and just a little bit more, a little bit more until one or two recorders on my desk is, is alcohol poisoning in my kidney and my liver as I make a change. And um, and I knew what was holding me back is that like we, not all, but the majority of us have a dark secret. I mean never want to share for some reason. And when I was at this mastermind event, I'll sit in there still fairly fresh in regards to what I realized that my dad's death and I remember sitting on the couch couches me and for other people and I know it was like James is wholeness.

I right guys. I want to introduce yourself. And I was hoping I was going to be first because I like when we first or last I was on the outside, he said it started on the arbitrariness.

Perry Power:                        06:04                       I thank God and then I didn't hear anybody else talk. Right? And when he got to by periods. So introduce yourself and the reason why I was finding it holidays because I was trying to fight with myself back from sharing the real me because my whole life I've been living as a mosque and as an identity. And then I just came out and just started talking and I basically said that my dot zuckers when I was 10 years old for over a year, I used to get sexually abused when my granddad and dust and I came out of it and I wasn't killed. I wasn't burned in life by these people.

I was welcomed them as warmed up and they said how much he loved me and how I opened up the group. Has That, huh? Okay. So I haven't been fighting the world. I've been fighting myself for 14 years. Right. And I'm on my drive home. I was still in the pumped up. Like I said, I'm so pumped up. I want to share my story. I shared it to four other people. I don't want to now go home, settled back into the old Perry and just look at as. Oh yeah, I remember that. I experienced. That was nice.

Marie Larsen:                      07:08                       Yeah,

Perry Power:                        07:09                       I wanted to continue it. Even I was shit scared. I went to continue it. Right. So I as like, I've got 40 minutes left to get home. The voice in my head was like, yeah, just share it and get home. I was like, no, that 40 minutes I want to talk myself out of it. So I just swerved into housing, estate and, and um, put my phone up on dashboard. Took me about six takes. But then I shared my story of the sexual abuse in my dad's passing away and, and finding forgiveness and give it an f and that posted a video and put it on facebook. Um, and that is when everything is transformed for me because I realized that those would have changed, that were holding me back. It was the abuse is because I will, I was blaming myself for never speaking out about it. I know when I shared that story, people started to approach me and asked me to help them, their personal story. How on earth did I give a hug or to find the courage and the confidence to do that, x, y, and zed. I've literally just rode that wave and that's how I got to where I am now and manage a ton into a business.

Marie Larsen:                      08:06                       I love that. And I was just talking to someone earlier about the power of vulnerability and um, and if you know who natalie Hodson is. Um, she is amazing. I'm doing, I'm working with her right now. But she, um, she spoke at funnel hacking live a Russell Brunson's event this last year. And um, she talks about vulnerability and when she stood up and started talking about that, my jaw literally dropped and I realized that there were a lot of things that I was looking like the instagram perfect girl, the girl who, who had got all her crap together, that she was just crushing it, you know, doing everything that she's supposed to and it was just awesome.

And um, and I realized that I'm the, I was actually hurting myself more by not being vulnerable with my audience. Now these last two months for me have actually been pretty, pretty hard for me. And as I got on my facebook groups and stuff like that and started sharing and saying, guys, I'm not going to lie.

Marie Larsen:                      09:13                       Like I'm, this is really hard for me. And I'm actually like really struggling right now. I learned that that had so much more power by being, I guess able to stop and share with people that I was not doing well and that I actually needed help. And I got more support from that, from having the courage to go through and say something. Then if I just suffered in silence, right, and I actually received the comfort and the need for and support from other people that I was looking for, um, than if I had just kept my mouth shut. Right. And so, um, I also totally understand that being vulnerable with your audience is it's crucial and it's important because it shows them that you are human too and that you're not just this picture perfect person on instagram or that you have all of these successes on facebook or whatever it is that you're a human and that you've actually, you know, you struggled and that you had to learn how to become the better person by being okay with sharing your story.

And so that being said, um, I'd love, I would love it if you could share with us how you decided to start teaching people. Well, you told us how you decided to, but what processes and what things that you have, I guess put together, um, to share with people how they can go about doing it too. And mustering up the courage to do so because it's not an easy thing to do.

Perry Power:                        10:41                       What you just said as well, here's the thing. So like when I shared my story on facebook, it wasn't like when I say script, I'm not saying a fake script, but it wasn't, it wasn't anything like that. Right. So it was a bit all over the place. Yeah, it was rural. It was, you know, I might have stumbled over some words, but it was emotional. It was a connection between me and the audience. Right.

And so what I'm trying to say is like for me to share that story, there was no process, but when I realized that there was potential to, to actually help people, I was like, well I can't help people because I remember my first person that asked me how to do it. I didn't actually have an answer for them because I didn't have a process yet. I just wanted to say just just, just do it.

Perry Power:                        11:28                       You might as well just be talking Chinese to them because I'd have no idea what you're saying. Right. So I'm very quickly, I realized that I needed to work out process, but I was like, but I don't want you to look at a random process. So it took me a while. I can sit down and sort of really dissect kind of what I went through and then be like, okay, what? And then basically what it does, so few drafts and then I can just find a job because if I go through this, but it's really helped or not.

She went through again and then it basically helped sort of solidify even more what my story was. Right. So in regards to, in a bit mature and virgin in regards to how more listeners and you as well can really get your personal story out there is I, I will say, well let's go back to the beginning.

Perry Power:                        12:12                       You know, so I got told to write out the chapters. So I was like rule books on the. Both of us walk around as a closed book. I even not vulnerable. We don't want to open ourselves up to make clothes books. As soon as we open ourselves up. We're an open book and you know, books or chapters, Siemens our lives, right?

So I get people to right down the chapters. Now some people might be like, well, what will qualify the chapter? Now? What will qualify the child is not like, uh, you remember your mom buying you your first ice cream, right? Yeah.

Perry Power:                        12:50                       So I would say that what experience, what experiences, but what experience did you go through where you went through it and you came up, you have a site and you learned something from the experience and it doesn't necessarily have the shape into the person that you all right now as you are listening to this, but the time he shaped you into something some way, shape or form, right?

So I get people to wow their chapters and I get into right out like a label, what the chapter's called via a brief description and then write out the emotions that, that, that, that they went through and how they feel like it changed them in some way. So I get into why those. So it'd be like little blocks of different chapters. Now you could have five chapters, you can have 50 chapters, depends, right, and then from there, from these chapters on insects in.

Perry Power:                        13:40                       Okay, cool. So now we have, this is where it really comes in Japan and I'm like, well I don't have your chapters now. Need to know and locate what you're defining luminous, what is your defining moment, what moment in your life and you look back on and define the person who you all right now, listen to this and it's put you onto this past and it straightened the vision for you looking forward and how you want to impact this world. There has been a defining non.

They could be two or three defining moments in my story does two defining moments. My first defining moment was going through the sexual abuse because that transformed me 14 years.

My second defining moment was seeing my dad passed away and realizing what I've been doing 14 years prior, so that's my two defining moments and they form my personal story or my signature story. So you need to get your chapters located to find a moment and then to work on that.

Marie Larsen:                      14:32                       Yeah, I think it's interesting too, I feel like just going through, I have also sat down and said this was a huge moment for me. This was a huge moment for me. Um, and really defining those as really important and something that I've had to accept as well is knowing that I could have future defining moments as that just says I have solidified two or three in the past that are like huge defining moments for me that that's fantastic, but I need to be okay and know that, that those aren't just the only defining moments that I'll have in my life that I have lots of life left, right?

I'm only 22, so I have lots of defining moments that will come in the future. Um, and that, you know, those might become more of a pinnacle moment that was more defining than what I previously thought.

Marie Larsen:                      15:19                       Right. And so having that mindset is going to be really important as well and going through and learning how to tell stories. Storytelling is, it's crucial. And if you've heard me in any of my courses are on the group or you know, just in general, anything from me or on any of these podcast episodes and you have probably heard me talk about the power of storytelling and how important that is. Um, guys, people are emotional buyers. They are the world that we buy emotionally all the time, more than for logical reasons.

And um, because of that, um, it's actually marketing strategy and something that you can totally use. Now I'm not saying you know, something that is so deep and personal and stuff like that. Yes, it's fantastic that you have it, but you can also use it to connect with your audience and really show that vulnerability and show them that you are human as well.

Marie Larsen:                      16:13                       Something that I've shared, Perry a few times, my audiences that I'm, it's the story that sells things and Russell Brunson says that stories sell, facts tell. And something that I love that my brother Steven shared with me once, is that if you go to the store and get an American flag, it's probably like 50 US dollars. Right? And you can get that American flag at your local store, something like that. But then if you think of, my family has a flag that flew on top of the White House, and because of that, that flag is worth, you know, hundreds and hundreds of US dollars at that point. Now, do you want to take it one step further?

There's an American flag that flies on top of the moon, right? And because of that flag, that flag is worth millions and millions of dollars. Now it is the same product every single time, but the only thing that changed was the story, right?

Marie Larsen:                      17:02                       It is a $50 flag every single time. However it is the fact that a different story was incorporated into it that provided the value for that. And so I totally agree that you need to be okay with sharing your personal story. I'm being vulnerable because it is your story that is going to be a blue. If you're wanting to sell product, great. If you're just wanting to share your story, fantastic. You want people to take value in that and learn how they can improve their lives. It's that story that's going to help them more than anything over the process. Right. It's the story of giving them hope or something that they can really push them to the next level. That's what was really going to change them and their desire to either buy with you or to go through it and decide that they want to make a change in their life or whatever it is. It's your story that's going to change something. I'm not so much. This is the direct process you need to do in order to do it. It's going to be the story that sells people every time.

Perry Power:                        17:58                       Very true. Don't they just underestimate that don't really touch on because it's because it's not sexy. It's not a special funnel. You know? It's not a special ad copy monster story overnight, you know, so it does take work. That's why it's not sexy.

Marie Larsen:                      18:27                       Yeah, totally. It totally is. And that's why podcasting is so hard for so many people because I'll tell them like, you have to learn the art of storytelling. You really do. And people are like, yeah, I think I'm just going to go, you know, learn how to do coffee or something like that, which is fine. Like you can totally do that.

However, learning how to tell a story, I mean from my first podcast episode to however many I've done now, there is no way in heck that my original first time that I sat down to do it, but I was able to tell a story to the point that I am now. I've had to practice like crazy and be able to express every little detail of, of my, you know, of my story and really think of when I'm sitting, you know, at a pizza shop and I can smell the grease in the air and all of a sudden there's the residue from the Coca Cola bottle, you know, run dripping down or something and being so good at telling the details and really getting good at that. That has taken time and practice. And that's not just something that you can think of on the spot. It's a something that you, you know, you have to practice over time for sure.

Perry Power:                        19:33                       Two things actually. One is that I always get my clients, so when they've created their signature story, I get into her house. It know I get them to continuously rehearsal. Yeah. I went to rehearse it. I want you to continuously say it. Keep on saying to you memorize the words until April.

Marie Larsen:                      19:51                       The emotion behind it.

Perry Power:                        19:52                       Yep. Yeah, exactly. And then start to play around with it because when I get them to do as well, so what that signature story usually from, from their own view. Right. And I get them to do two more copies of the same story I get into. Right? So the first ones in their own view. Then the second one is from somebody else's point of view, but on that same story, because I gets them out of their own shoes. Right? And then the third one is I get them to write it as if it's a children's story. Okay. So because then that forced them to get playful with their story because it is a thing that sometimes you have to adapt the way you like, the way you communicate your story depending on the audience that you're talking to. And that helps you create that skill.

Marie Larsen:                      20:28                       Right? Yeah. I love that. You know, and I, and I couldn't agree more there. There have been times that, um, when I was first getting into all of this, my brother Steven sat me down and said, I need you to get really good at telling your origin story. And I was like, why the heck do I need to do that? You know? And he's like, you're really good at telling your origin story, Murray, I want you to go through and say it in 30 minutes.

I want you to say it below, say in 10 minutes, five minutes, and in 30 seconds he's like, you need to be able to really expound it like crazy and have the emotion and the draw and everything you need to be able to at any point, if anyone was a snap of your fingers, if anyone said, tell me about your life and you gauged how much time they have or you know, what, what appeal that you need to convey with this person that you can sit down and say, well, it started like this.

Marie Larsen:                      21:18                       I served an lds mission and when I got home from living abroad, from living in Spain for a year and a half that I decided that I didn't want to be a dentist anymore. And that's what I was studying to be. That's what I wanted to do. And we get a yoga. Yeah, right.

And, and I could go on and I can tell you all of my story and how that applies and how I'm sitting in the pizza shop now. I'm sitting there just like distraught, you know, I could go through and I can tell you all of that with a snap of my fingers because I've practiced it so many times at this point where I can vividly remember and feel where I was sitting, what things smell like, what the situations were around me, and now be able to use my words to recreate that situation for the people who are listening to me. And so the story is really what sells a lot and being good at telling the story is amazing. And being able to tell the emotion behind it, I could not agree more is absolutely crucial.

Perry Power:                        22:16                       Yes. First four years of entrepreneurship, I was constantly chasing something which was income, right? I think it almost can relate to that when he first started. Now I'll show it off to the wrong things. I've got an acting background, so I've got an act. I actually got into entrepreneurship to help finance and fund my acting career. Right. And um, and I, I never realized for the first four years I wasn't doing anything related to because it's like I need to push that completely behind me. And then when I decided to take a step back and step into the shoes of who I really am, now, when it comes to storytelling, I can relate it back and continue my method and trainer [inaudible]. I have to use emotional memories, sense memory so I can, so I can really see and touch the things I say, my stories.

Perry Power:                        22:59                       I can help replicate that because here's the powerful thing as well, which I'm sure we quickly cover, but when it comes to the story, if you can, when you show your story, you'd give other people permission to share that story, right? Almost really going to help you sell is that if you can, if you can sort of help them step into their own imagination and see what the vision and the outcome is going to be of your particular service and what their life is gonna look like. Visual construct, good storytelling. You've got them hooked. They're a raving fan. They're going to follow you everywhere, which really helps me personal branding.

Marie Larsen:                      23:29                       Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that so much. And I have a secret actually, that there was a time that I'm just a couple months ago actually, I was sitting with my brother's big in the clickfunnels world as well. Um, and he told, uh, because I've been struggling with the idea of finishing school, you know, because I can do entrepreneur stuff and you know, provide for myself and everything like that and I just have really been struggling at the idea of finishing my schooling and I'm finishing here at this university. And he sat me down and he was like, um, think of it this way.

There are so many people out there that don't know the stuff that you're doing and they don't understand. I'm fully in, can fully grasp it. However, if you were to give up on school, he was like, you know, he was like, I will tell you, school does not teach you the entrepreneurial mind.

Marie Larsen:                      24:24                       It doesn't. And it, you know, there's, it doesn't do that for, for you these days. However, if you were just to give up on school, um, you'd be giving up a really great opportunity for an amazing story. And I was like, I mean by that, and he's like, think of how much pressure you're going to be putting in on your life, like trying to do classes by trying to do your business, by trying to do everything that you're trying to do. If you were to have 100 percent time to focus on your business, then that's great. But if you could add in a different twist to it, how much more effective would that be to your store, to your people, to your listeners?

And I was like, Dang it. I was like, man, I hope my audience understands I'm doing school for them. It's for the story, you know, starts laughing, but it's true. And um, what story are you willing to tell? And being able to create those stories for yourself. Um, however painful they might be pain as a good thing and going through those things creates a story that people can relate with. And being able to voice that story is going to be the most relatable thing. It's going to help you connect to an audience that otherwise you would not be able to.

Perry Power:                        25:37                       Yes. So many. So many. So if somebody is listening to this funnel builder content, there's no personality there is just about them and like results with them in a funnel that they're doing. Okay, great. And what differentiates you from them is your story, right?

Marie Larsen:                      26:08                       Yeah.

Perry Power:                        26:10                       I've got a second thing.

Marie Larsen:                      26:15                       I love it. Well thank you so much. Is there anything else that we can.

Perry Power:                        26:19                       That was it. This is going to be important. So the number one know that has to be. There'll be at least one person listen to this. Who will be like, well, okay. I haven't been for anything special. I haven't been through it. I haven't been for abuse. I Perry, I, I wasn't a shooting like Marie. I've just lived a normal life. But here's the thing, just it doesn't make anybody else's normal. I have, I have to say that when I stepped on this book calls because I actually had a message today, somebody reach out to me and he was in my group and then he was like, um, I seen him can, we just finished up a challenge.

He was like, I see that everybody's going through the chapters. It's also bad in our chapters. I've created my chapters, but there's nothing really bad in there. So it goes just like, well dude, like stop comparing yourself to other people's stories. There is no comparison because you can have it. Exactly. You can have two people, two boys. Let's say you could have two twins growing up in the same family and, and, and Zack, the same situation, same surroundings, but I'll have two complete different stories.

Marie Larsen:                      27:28                       I can't agree more. Well, thank you so much. Where, where is the best place for people to find you? To get in contact with you in order to, to get started. If they also are looking to build out their chapters and their personal brand more, where can they find you?

Perry Power:                        27:44                       Sure thing. So facebook, instagram, facebook on Instagram is the same pier Paolo and which is just people from the platform to share their story.

Perry Power:                        28:03                       Um, I, you have a perfect last name for that. What do you use it wisely? That was great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. We'll probably have you on here again soon because I'll like how there's so much value in this and I'm super excited to get this episode out because my audience, I feel like could really benefit from learning the power of storytelling. So I really appreciate it. And I'll probably have you on here again soon. So thank you so much.

Marie Larsen:                      00:01                       What's up everyone? This is Mary Larson and you're listening to the audio entrepreneur. I spent the last year and half doing podcasts and content creation for some of the fastest growing entrepreneurs today. Their strategies and tests have been life changing once I took action, so I decided to take my audio industry to the next level by building a seven figure company that teaches people how to create, strategize, and repurpose their content like a throw. The question so new people are wondering is how is she going to do it? This podcast is here to give you the answers. Join me as I explained marketing strategies to grow my online business. My name is Marie Larsen. And Welcome to the audio entrepreneur.

Marie Larsen:                      00:40                       You also have everyone Marie Larsen. I'm so excited because today I have a friend on here with me who is just a rockstar. She's just extraordinary. And so I wanted to get in and just explain a little bit, um, why I wanted to have her on here. And she has been able to create a business and with very small budget from her bed and um, and has done extremely well with it. And so I wanted to bring your on here. For those of you who are looking how to start a business on a very tight budget. Um, she's extraordinary. So this is Wendy. Wendy, thank you so much for being on here. We really appreciate you and if you wouldn't mind introducing us to you and what you do and how you got started into everything, that will be so awesome.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             01:20                       Sure, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for having me here. And it's great to be chatting on your podcast. I love your energy. I love what you do. So for those of you who don't know me, my name's Wayne Dickey, laid low on from Scotland. I am. I was very ill for a couple of years. I ended up bedridden with our medical condition that affects women, called endometriosis is a big mouthful of a word, but basically, you know those who have it know about it and those who don't basically pain with your monthly cycles the normal. So anyway, so I ended up bedridden very, very ill. I was an entrepreneur. I had my own answer, bricks and mortar business before now that had to be wound up buttons. I was just so incapacitated, became a recluse, couldn't do anything. Basically he could barely walk and a thing. So I knew that I the medical machine that I was, oh and I had to do something differently.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             02:07                       So I started to retrain from my bed. I thank goodness for the Internet and nutritional therapy, psychotherapy, psychology, all these different realms because I knew I needed to understand what was happening in the body. And then I developed the little protocols with which ultimately got me out of bed and got me back out of pain, reduced or eliminated the symptoms and put my conditions intermission. So, so on this journey I was taking notes and writing a journal all the time because it was like the only thing literally it was keeping me sane. It goes to the doctors, the medical profession to wash their hands of me. So as I started to crack the code and figure out why my body was in so much pain and why I was bedridden and why it wasn't killing itself, because our bodies are amazing. Literally they're trying to heal themselves.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             02:52                       We don't consciously go and body, could you please go and fix my finger that I caught yesterday? It does. It all by itself starts to scab and come over. So I knew that I needed to share what I was learning with people and what was stopping the body from healing. And then I, I on the, my main, my main thing was I didn't want anyone ever to have to go through what I went through to be bedridden for three years. It just wasn't me. You know? And I, I even look back when I say bedroom for two years, it's like it just seems almost incomprehensible that somebody could be. That did incapacitation for that period of time. And so that's been my motivator in my drive is to make sure that no woman ever has to go to those levels to have to be in that dreadful state.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             03:36                       I'm from my journal. I decided I was going to write a book, um, so that basically if only helped one woman and then what I've been through it, it wouldn't be an innovative at adobe for a purpose, a greater purpose. Um, but obviously I needed to get my book out there. So once I, I've written my book, I needed to get it published. I needed to get a website, I needed to get a coach, I needed to send marketing. I was in real estate broker to before, so I knew nothing. They totally schooled the Internet business. I knew nothing. So am I did read Russell Brunson's Dotcom secrets, which is a great book and was kind of like gave me this framework and foundations on sound, what, what, what was going on in the Internet world. And then I decided, well, I knew what I wanted to achieve and you will.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             04:23                       My aim was was to get my coat to women and to help them so that they can be empowered and you know, get this information because it's crucial to their health. But it's like, how on earth do I get out to them? And I, I kind of joked with you earlier before we came on here, but you know, I literally built a business from my bed on a budget I had had to wind up my previous business. I had little or no income coming in. Um, it was a really frightening time, you know, to feed me my kids to pay the bills, but I knew I needed to like, claw my way out of where I was and the only way for me to do that, not realistically it was via the Internet know to build a business that way, which could then at that stage, early stages work or in my health is cloud.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             05:05                       So I can let you work from my bed on my laptop. I mean, thank goodness for these progressions in our society because I don't know what else I would have done. So that's kind of where I started out. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. I think it's so interesting. Um, I've, I've had so many people in this last little bit when he who, who've reached out to me, um, whether, whether college friends, uh, you know, I'm just this 22 year old little kid and, or I've had adults, I've had it, I've had all these other people and reach out to me and say, how are you making money online? Like, please tell me what you're doing. And uh, there, there are so many ways to go about it. And I actually did a podcast episode a little bit ago that was about some ideas that people could think about in order to make money online. Now, whether or not they wanted to make thousands and thousands of extra dollars or just a couple extra hundred dollars a month, there are ways to go about that.

Marie Larsen:                      05:57                       And so I wanted to kind of pick your brain as far as what, uh, what initial first steps you took by sitting on your bed. And, um, I, you said you read Dotcom secrets that you got into the clickfunnels world, which I am too. And, and for those of you who are listening, please go check it out on it. Seriously is one of those things that completely changed my life and helped me really realize and recognize that, um, I didn't have to train a trade my time for money anymore, that I could really become something outside of that, you know. And so I wanted, I wanted to really pick your brain as far as the first initial steps that you took as you were sitting in bed. Um, as you're learning about all these different medical things, um, how you decided to turn it into a business, um, as you were learning about this content and this information and what steps you did in order to do that.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             06:50                       Sure. Yeah. I think, um, I think when you, you're, you're mentioning Russell Bronson, clickfunnels and Dotcom secrets, that's a great place to start because it gives you, if it depends where your, your educational knowledge is on the Internet world, if you're just starting out or you know, life has really thrown a little lemons your way. This is the time to turn those lemons into lemonade. You know, use your experience, however project troublesome and however awful I'm niche, don't what it is that you want to do. Let your passion drive your carcass, you know, let, let that be your business model because the reason I say that is because it's, it's tough sometimes, you know, getting, you know, getting your business up and running and you're going to have bad days and you're going to have days where you think, I can't do this or you hit a wall or whatever, but if you got us purpose for your, your passion, for your purpose, that will keep you going and you'll be coming from a place for your bills.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             07:40                       Really empathize with people. So whatever. You know, really, I would start with journaling and I say journaling because journaling can be a great way to get the different levels, the different pieces and parts of your psyche and your soul and your characteristics and what really motivates you. What really drives you forward. So for me it was like I, I mean, I still get emotional not, I've never won any woman ever to have to have gone through. I went through, it was brutal, there are no words really to explain. I lost almost everything, you know, and it was, I felt such shame and impotence and you know, failure at that particular time. So for me it was like that was my motivator. So I was able to have my journals to go back to. And that was when obviously I started to write my book. I knew I needed to have a vehicle to get that out there.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             08:29                       I'm not swear. Oversee Click funnels is again, insane building the business on a budget because you can start off, I think they're opening a level, like $97 a month and you can create this amazing vinyl, you know, I mean you don't have. I got quoted at the time in the UK something like 8,000 pounds to build a website and I was literally, and I have no technical knowledge, but it's so intuitive. Click funnels and I'm, by the way, a disclaimer here. I'm not being paid to promote. Click funnels are awesome, but the thing is for me, I was lost. I was alone. I have little or no money coming in and I needed to start somewhere. And so if someone's thinking like, well, where do I start on? Maybe I've got a job already and I don't have much money and many resources. It's a great place to start.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             09:16                       So for $97, you know, what does that update virtually nothing. You know, what you'd spend going out for a meal or the new iphone now is like one and a half. Those that, right? No, but anyway, so even just starting there, that will help and you will become the way that it's all set office. It's really user friendly. So it was very intuitive and you can, you know, in a short. So I was quoted 8,000 pounds to build a website. So for that money now I didn't have that money then, but I look back and I did get a coach because I needed someone just to keep me motivated and keep me going. Did. I'm just kinda like to be honest, believe in me because that's the other thing. When you start a business, you're like, can of really do this and what do I have to do?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             10:00                       What? Oh, and someone's being horrible to me and I've had a tool or a hater, you know, um, you know, just to, just to run alongside you. But for me it was just starting with click funnels, reading the book. I'm being really clear on what my message was and that I wanted to help women out of pain with endometriosis. I wanted to share what I had learned. I knew I needed to get marketing help. Set it on a clue where to start. So click funnels was the cheapest, most inexpensive, simplest. Um, I'm really user friendly way because if you even get someone to build a website for you, then how then you're tied into them for life to make any small changes or as click funnels, you just go in and go, actually, I don't like that word. I don't like that photo of me or I can just, when you change it in seconds, you know, and there's something very empowering.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             10:45                       But having that capacity with this vehicle to go in and do these kinds of things yourself. And so from there, yes it was, you know, uh, men also gave me the contacts and the information you have because there's so much information out there as well. That's the other thing. Why don't you start going online and it's like information overload. You need if I get where you're going to consent them, what you're time onto. Yeah. So, um, so I don't know if that answers your question. I don't know if I've gotten time to know that I have to add in there as far as like, if you guys are looking for a way to really budget out a business, I cannot agree more. Um, click funnels has everything that you're going to need to get started with, um, with, with your ideas, with stuff that you just want to try. Even if it's like you want to try something else, you want to try something new, like when he was talking about you're not going to have to go through and pay someone else to go create a new website for you can, you can split test a new funnel, right? And you can, you can try something else. And so, um, that, that right there are these skill sets. I've been completely life changing for me now. I will tell you when either what you said about having

Marie Larsen:                      11:54                       someone who believes in you was something so important for me, um, about four or five months, four months or so into the two Comma Club coaching nipples. So you and I are part of, um, I wanted to give up. I was really, it was, I had a really big emotional, a drawback and um, I called up my brother Stephen and I was like, Yo man, like I think I'm done. Like, this is really hard. I don't think I want to do this anymore. And he's like, really? Let me just ask you like, what else are you going to do? And I was like, oh shoot, like you have a point, like I don't know what else I was going to do. I just wanted to be done because that seemed like the easy way out, you know, just being done seemed easy, but in all actuality I was making my life harder by stopping and um, and so that was good for me.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             12:44                       But learning how to budget out just that extra, you know, tiny bits, amount of money to start with, clickfunnels was really important for me and learning those skills so that I could learn how to do a simple two step process or two step funnel, right? Because so, so easy, right? But I just started to learning and taking time, you know, a couple of minutes here, a couple of minutes there to sit down and learn, okay, now I'm going to learn how to do an application funnel. Now I'm going to learn how to whatever it was and just sit there and Russell's already done so many videos, so much content and teach you how to do exactly what you need to do to apply to your specific thing and say, Hey, all I have to do is do this today. Like, my one goal is to do this today.

Marie Larsen:                      13:27                       You know, and, and that really helped me to start my business on a very, very tight, you know, college student. Oh, so, so, so tight. College student budget and really get started. And then as I decided to pay for two Comma Club x coaching, that right there was like, oh my goodness, how am I supposed to fill out an extra 20,000 US dollars into my, into my life for this kind of stuff? But it changed my life because of it. And I always was able to find a way to improve. I was always able to go about and to do it if you know, just by, by getting my voice out there, by, by sticking my neck out there and I'm really trying it. And that's really how I was able to start paying all this off, so I was really grateful for that. But being able to do that on a small budget is so crucial now. Um, something that I think is interesting that, that you were able to figure out what was going through and establishing those tiny little principles, you know, step by step of building out, building out this company on your red, which is so amazing.

Marie Larsen:                      14:38                       Have you been able to see an impact in these women's lives that you have? Have you been able to impact or can impact by you going through and voicing your, I guess getting your voice out there because of it?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             14:50                       Well, yeah, and again I feel quite emotional because when, when you start on something that you've been through and then you think, well, my motivation is to make sure that no woman has to go through. I went through and then you think of it only helps one woman. Then it's been more fit. Well, I published my book, I pressed, I pass, publish on Amazon and then do a, drove under the bed under the bed and hit under the Doobie like, oh my God, it's so scary. Putting yourself out there like that. So scary. So scary. I mean, there's nothing like, you know. But I knew I needed to grow. I knew I needed to change. I knew that for me to impact and help other women, I had to put myself out there. So that was part of my girl. So I relate to what you're saying, you know, I'm constantly sort of reassessing and kind of what, what am I doing, where am I going?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             15:35                       But yeah. So. And then I started to get feedback from women. Women were emailing me and saying, wow, this looks amazing. I thought, I just, um, I think I shared with the two CCS group just last week, I got a message from a woman who'd said she bought my boot for weeks ago. She's been applying the principles for two weeks. When she started, when she reached out to me, she was doubled over in pain, walking like an old woman. She was scheduled for surgery, she's not the school for surgery now she's standing up straight and then zero pain on listening. When I read these things, have tears coming down my face thinking yes, like saved another woman from surgery that they didn't need. So once I published my book and I was getting some feedback, it gave me a little bit of confidence because, you know, this was a new arena for me and we all have that kind of like fragile and vulnerable sort of aspects to us that we're like, oh my God, I don't know if I can do this.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             16:28                       And then, and then I, and then more of a more than emailing me and saying that your big spray. I've made some changes, feeling some progress, but I need more help. So that's when I developed my 12 week online foundation program and I did a, you know, I've worked with eight women, you know, on a ton of kind of pilot program. I had no idea where they're working one to one with women who was going to help them either. So I literally was sort of building on the hoof, as they say in Scotland, like literally week to week and it was intense work, am recording live, you know, providing masses of value and information and content and downloads and handouts and homework because I wanted them to have everything that they need to get well. And an all eight women who started with me all came, you know, they were bedridden to varying degrees.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             17:17                       Are they all got well, they all had their pain, reduced the old we're cycling on the yard going hiking. And I got amazing testimonials. So that for me was just like, wow, this, I might be onto something here. This, this is amazing. So, and again, all I built the membership site through click funnels again, and you know, a member, I'm doing this on the low, the low level entry into funnels, you know, I'm just kind of going on faith really. I'm like, you know, and then if I needed help and support from designers or um, or, or people that you know, to do my forums and things like that, I'd go onto fiverr.com, which is an amazing resource for out for it. And I would just post, I mean when I got my book published into a couple of different languages, I just say look, post something on network saying this is my current book in English, I need to get it translated and you know, I've only got this budget, I'm just waiting to see what came in, you know, and so been able to kind of have that capacity to grow as I was able to afford to do so.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             18:23                       Whereas some people were saying, oh, well you need to borrow from the bank, can you need to do this? And I'm like, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I had implants. You just get that overwhelmed. So I feel very lucky in that. Yes. To your question, you know, it was amazing. What I was doing was impacting women positively on they, you know, they were spreading that word and they were helping other women and there's a hundred and 75 million women suffer from this condition. You know, I've only just scratched the surface. I've only helped fair following sort of one to one of my groups and I was just in the, I can say thousands now. It's just been over 2000 of my own big window. But all of these aspects of the business, you know, the paper back, I mean, again, I managed to find out great resources of how to publish really inexpensively that it meant I didn't have to buy hundreds of books.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             19:13                       I didn't have to ship it myself. Um, you know, through create space which is a publishing platform of Amazon. They do all the shipping and they do everything for you, the printing, the shipping and everything. So it was, you know, and the same with kindle, getting that done and then my older books. So there was just learning as I was going. But Russell's boot can. Platform was always a great goto. If I felt I lost direction. And lost my way. Good. That's awesome. And I, I have to ask them, can you give us a little more detail on how you started talking about some of the resources that you were able to find like fiverr and whatnot to publish your book. What was that process like for you? For people who are trying to figure that out and see, uh, I guess how to go about to publish a book.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             20:03                       What were some of the steps that you took in order to do that? Yeah. Well, I, well I always say I wrote everything out myself and then I need someone to just edit it. I needed, that was my first kind of like scary, you know, pinky toe in the water of like, Oh my God, I'm going to give it to someone to read. They can be cruel and unkind. And so I, and again, I had a short, you know, very small budget, but what I did was, because I had such a small budget, I go to Edison, it's three times all the small budget because I needed just to have the confidence. So I would just post on fiverr or upwork or freelancer or whatever it was, cold at a time and just, you know, I think if you're authentic and genuine with your, with your purpose and you'll say, luke, this is my situation.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             20:45                       I'm not Bennington sell anyone. And then that was great and a lot of these platforms is, there's lots of people just starting out to like yourself and they don't have any reviews, they don't have any stars or any feedback or testimonials. So they're obviously looking and you can get some beautiful people on these sites that are just so heartfelt, you know, good quality people who are experts in their own field but maybe not online. So they want to build an online business as well through these platforms. So they will do, you know, work for you really good, cool. If he work for a fraction of what you'd normally pay for that. That was amazing. Building up relationships with people like that from a publishing the book. And then you go to get the cover designed and then you go to get the cover fit to fit the book.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             21:30                       And then, you know, like get it formatted, there's a number of different elements, you know, that you've got to go through a very systematic, um, but all of these resources are there. And I think just learning they might. I was saying to someone the other day, I think my biggest growth for me is learning. It's okay to ask questions isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength. And that was a big thing for me. I think my conditioning was, oh, you were somehow weak if you asked questions. There's so many lovely. There's not a lot of nasty people too. There's a lot of lovely people out there who if you just, if you're part of a group of people who've got the same common goals and you say, where should I find this? Or what would I do there? Or you go onto these online platforms like Fiverr, upwork, freelancer, and say, post a post a job and say, can someone do this for 30 ponds?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             22:19                       Or can someone do this for 50 pounds? I don't mean to insult you, but that's my budget. I've got a lady towns and translate my, my, My boot from English into Swedish for me and she's lovely and she charged me like, I dunno, a minimal and I compare it to the mountain of time sheets. She presented to it, but I've given her a rave review. I've given their feet, cope with my boot. She's not going to be doing my audiobook. So there's this new relationship with her and I can do it as I can afford to do it all the while she's building her business from it. So it's like scratching each other's back. Absolutely. I love it. And I will tell you when I got started into the podcasting world, that's totally how I got started was via fiverr and upwork and everything like that.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             23:03                       That's how I got started. I was just at the time it'd be I needed, you know, 50 to 100 extra dollars to pay my rent or something like that, you know, so that I could, I could stay in my apartment. Right. And so that for me was the way that I was able to start making some extra cash. And so again, if people are listening to this, when people are listening to this, that make sure that you guys understand that you don't have to establish this huge giant company or anything like that online to be successful or see any sort of cash flow and it can be literally in, in small ways or you can make it into something big like he and I have aspired to go into. Right?

Marie Larsen:                      23:42                       And so, um, just know that through via Fiverr, upwork, freelancer, all those different platforms that you can easily, easily, easily make, make extra money, uh, that, that could help benefit your family and in little ways. Right? And so that's, um, that's just amazing. And so anyway, thank you so much, Wendy. Is there anything. Oh, actually will you, will you tell us the name of your book and where people can go find it and find information about you so that, uh, after they finish listening to this, that they can, they can go find your information and stuff that, uh, that they can use in the future.

Wendy K Laidlaw:             24:18                       Sure, absolutely. Well, my website's a hue. Endometriosis naturally, don't call them. I know it's a big word or just Wayne, dk laidlaw don't call them that will redirect you to the website, but my book is healing to me to assist naturally without painkillers, drugs or surgery. So if you are, you know, hitting your head over brick wall and, and you're going to your doctor and with monthly pains and no one's able to tell you what it is going into my book, see if that resonates with you and my book explains my story, but also gives a step by step guide because when I was writing my book I remember reading other books, thinking so frustrating when somebody told me their story and then, oh, and then there were, well again and I'm like, what did you do?

Marie Larsen:                      24:57                       Can tell me your pain. Tell me how you went through that journey. How did you do that?

Wendy K Laidlaw:             25:02                       So my book is also a step by step guide will work for me. So, um, and then if you read the book, you know, and you want more support, I do offer an online, a 12 week foundation program. And then after that there's a 10 week program. And, and you can apply to art with me there. So, um, but if you are building a business and whatever realm, just um, I, I heard a phrase from Steve Job said there, you know, it's, um, it takes years to be an overnight success. I love that because it takes time and I think we can all put these unrealistic expectations on ourselves. Like why am I not a millionaire yet? But you actually have to kind of go through the growth. I think you mentioned that earlier because psychologically you have to grow as your business grows and there may be elements of things that come up for you. So keep journaling, keep focused, keep determined and just never give up. Yup.

Marie Larsen:                      25:52                       I love that. I love that so much. And I'm just going off of that. Um, I love sitting down and writing, writing down my, my pain points, the things that I've struggled with, things that I've done well as, um, but another really great resource guys is to make sure that you are doing a podcast, again, like being vulnerable with your audience, letting them know your ups and your downs. And just really getting out there and sharing that with them. It's your journey. People love. It's so attractive to people to follow along on a hero's journey, right? That's why we love hearing, you know, um, the creation of the light bulb and how many times he tried before he, you know, before he finally got it, you know, after a thousand times or so, he finally figured out how to, how to make it, you know, the light bulb.

Marie Larsen:                      26:37                       So guys, uh, we, we love the hero's journey. Make sure that you're sitting down and that you're writing down all information, all the stuff that you're doing as far as yours, euro's journey to get started and how you've, um, your fails, your ups and downs, your little winds, your big ones, your big fails, your little fails, the whole, the whole nine yards. Make sure that you go and that you do that as well. So anyway, when you think you so much for being on here, we're so excited again for every. I'm so excited for the, the other books that you have coming out here. And, and, uh, we will keep the, this audience posted, um, as far as when you, when you come out with new stuff, we really appreciate it. Absolutely. Unemployment. When I, when I published him to build a business from your band on a budget, I am, I'll be offering a free book plus shipping offer. So we committed again then. But yeah, thank you. So when that happens, we'll have you back on here. Awesome. Well thanks for having me. Thanks Wendy. Boom. Thanks.

Marie Larsen:                      27:35                       Don't forget to rate and subscribe. Do you have questions for me? Go to the facebook group, profitable podcasting strategies, and I'll be sure to do an episode to answer your next question. Again guys. My name is Marie Larsen, the audio entrepreneur.

Marie Larsen:                      00:01                       What's up everyone? This is Marie Larsen and you're listening to the audio entrepreneur. I spent the last year and half doing podcasts and content creation for some the fastest growing entrepreneurs today. Their strategies and tips have been life changing once I took action, so I decided to take my audio industry to the next level by building a seven figure company that teaches people how to create, strategize, and repurpose their content like a throw.

The question so new people are wondering is how is she going to do it? This podcast is here to give you the answers. Join me as I explained marketing strategies to grow my online business. My name is Marie Larsen and welcome to the audio entrepreneur.

Marie Larsen:                      00:40                       Yo, what's up? Everyone is so excited because today I have a friend of mine who's on here who is the king, the king of lead generation and I'm so excited to bring him on here because people ask me all the time why podcasting is important and I'll tell you, it is via lead generation that you can make money, go figure it and more people in generation that you have. The more that you can really push out yourselves, your services and things that you're trying to get out there.

I'm so excited because on here we have Russ Ward who is the king of lead generation and leads in general and so I want to jump on here and just have him go through his story, how he got into it and the reason behind a lead generation and why he chose leads. There are so many people that don't understand the importance of it and I've had so many people.

Marie Larsen:                      01:26                       Russ, sorry this is long intro, but I've had so many people jump on and say, oh Marie, like my sales, like I'm not selling really well. I'm not doing. I'm not getting out there a lot like what's wrong? And I'll ask them what's your email lists look like and what is your facebook look like? What is your instagram looks like? What is your presence within your audience within your industry look like? And a lot of them will say, Oh, you know, like I have 50 followers on Instagram, or Oh, I actually like, I don't have an email list. Oh, I don't know how to go through and build out my lead generation further.

I don't know how to build a culture and I'll just chuckle and say that's your issue, that's why you're not selling. Um, and so anyway, and this is Russ Ward. I'm so excited. Russ, thanks so much for being on here. I really appreciate that. You're on here.

Russ Ward:                            02:07                       Thank you so much. Marie. Thank you for having me on your podcast. I, uh, I appreciate the opportunity to come on and talk a little bit about lead generation and my story and just to give you a little bit of background about how I got into this.

A couple years ago, I was a salesman and I worked for a company called solar city that was eventually bought by Tesla, but at the time when it was solar city, they paid us a lot more money if we generated our own business because what we could do is we could go into the home depot and get people to come in for appointments, but we were paid just a little bit of money. So what I found was that if I can generate my own leads, I can make five times as much money. So I just started out by a little bit of trial and error.

Russ Ward:                            02:47                       It's posted in some facebook groups. I did a little bit of facebook ads and before I knew it I had just kind of come up with a trial and error solution to get myself a solar leads. I became a number one sales rep and the whole eastern out of 700 people for solar city. Out of that, that was the first sales award I'd ever been in my whole entire life. And it was because I was able to generate leads on my home.

Yeah. So that, that's the happy part of the beginning of the story. Now the story gets doom and gloom and it gets kind of ugly in the hero's journey. I'm so excited. Tell us how you felt. A source city got bought by Tesla. Tesla cut our compensation plan and generate my own leads. Didn't mean anything anymore. So I went right back down to that crap.

Russ Ward:                            03:31                       Uh, I went through some personal issues. I had a hundred and $19,000 tax lien filed against me, basically got out of a bad relationship. I mean all kinds ever could have possibly happened. Happened to me at that time. And within those next two years, between 2016 and right now, I actually became suicidal for a while.

Literally laying on the floor can contemplating death. I was um, I, I didn't know if I was going to a homeless. I didn't know what was going to happen. And along the way, you know, people got sick of me. They were like, you can't lend you anymore money. You're a smart guy. What are you doing? Um, and to tell you the truth, I don't know how I got through it. I went and saw a therapist because I'm a veteran and I was like, look, I don't want to kill myself, but I'm like, I mean, you know, I'm, I'm being real.

Russ Ward:                            04:17                       And just for anybody out there that ever feels like that way, there's help available. Men. Like people will help you if you say I want help your friends and family might not. They might say to you, they might say, Oh, you're a tough guy because everybody looks at me as just a big, strong, tough guy because that's what I look like.

When they looked at me written inside, you could be hurting, you could, you could want to die like I did. So they helped me get through that. But in the meantime I met some people and some networking groups. I'm Kinda got my confidence back up, kind of my Mojo back. And uh, I got a real estate license and there was a guy that was like, hey, you can be my buyer's rep. um, and I, I got, I got all excited about it and it didn't work out right.

Russ Ward:                            04:55                       But in the meantime, I started generating real estate leads and I started applying the same principles that I applied to solar to generating real estate leads. And I got really, really good at it. And what I did was at the very beginning I made it just a little course. It was like eight videos. And I started selling this little course on real estate lead generation just to kind of make ends meet.

Just, I mean, I was, I was making like 200 bucks, 200 bucks there, but it was enough to keep the lights on. It was enough to keep my car from getting rebuilt. Right. And as time went on, um, everything kind of culminated in a perfect storm on February 24th of this year. It was the day before my daughter's birthday, I had 80 bucks in my bank account, um, and I had to pick whether I want to get for my car or I wanted a birthday present for my daughter.

Russ Ward:                            05:38                       Right? And so I picked the birthday present and said, you know, what, God, then it from now on, this will never ever happen to me again. And um, I kinda just put the pedal to the metal.

I took, um, all the resources. I had connections, I had sold some things on craigslist. I did a garage sale and all that money I took it into, um, to just adspend. And I just started doing real estate leads and um, of course they don't close very quickly. It takes 30 to 45 days to get paid.

So what I did was I just started selling the leads and as time went on I started networking and networking and all of a sudden I have a formula now where I can pretty much generate real estate leads at will in any city in the United States for under $3 each. And so I started marketing that program and um, you know, here I am, I have not made less than $12,000 for the last three months.

Marie Larsen:                      06:25                       Wow. Oh my goodness. That is awesome. Holy Cow. I applaud you on that. 

I love that. I love that story. That's so amazing. And I'm first off, I'm glad that you're here and I hope you, I hope you are just, I hope you know how great you are. Um, and that is just amazing. Thank you so much for, for your example. Yes to your daughter, but also to people around me as well.

Guys are, there are better ways out there. Um, and, and you don't have to contemplate that as, as the end solution when there are other ways that you can, you can do it. And, and rest is totally an example of that. I'm Russ, I, I love that story and I think that something that is impressive to me is that you've been able to build out a program that has, that, that has less than $3 per, per lead. Right?

And I think that's amazing. I have several friends, I have a good chunk of friends, um, several clients as well who are in the real estate world. So what are some good ways that people can find you and be like, what, what would be the difference between them finding those leads versus you finding those leads?

Russ Ward:                            07:33                       Yep. So the best way to find me is, um, you can look at my facebook page, you just look up the leaking and all there. You can see all my most recent results. You can see I'm basically every way to contact me. I have, um, you know, I have a character of myself. It's like this guy here. Uh, I, I just, and this is another thing I made along the way and this is something I recommend to people in any business that is trying to brand themselves as brand yourself in some way.

My business took off and went through the roof as soon as soon as I invented this little cartoon character called the leaking. Before that I owned an llc called premium performance marketing. Right? And people weren't very excited about it, but they're excited when the weekend calls them, Hey, this is Billy King on the phone.

Russ Ward:                            08:11                       You ready to get started? Right? So, so that's how to find me, find me on the leaking. I'm on, on facebook, you'll see my little, my little character here. Um, and then the difference between what I do and what other people do like doing it yourself is, um, I dug deep into targeting strategic. I've watched facebook trends constantly. Facebook is always changing the game, changing. It used to be like you could just target, homeowners can generate tons and tons of leads. Well they took him away from us, right?

Used to be, I can target people that like different groups while they took those groups away and pretty soon they're going to take away the ability to target males and females. And to be honest with you, in real estate, probably 70 percent of my clicks are females. So a lot of times I'll just target females to save some money. Right? What does the future. I'm going to have to find a way around that. So I specifically all day long just look for hacks in the system.

How can I, how can I beat the facebook system is trying to beat me, you know? And that's, that's pretty much how I've become successful at this.

Marie Larsen:                      09:07                       That's so cool. I love that. You know, and I think guys being innovative and creative along the way is so crucial. It's so crucial as you go through and you're building out your own company, being able to be on top of your own system and then figuring out what systems are going to influence your. It's, it's crucial that you go through and really figure out what, um, what, what those are going to be.

And, um, that you stay on top of it. So, um, what, I guess what I'm, how should I say, what are some of the ways that you would, uh, or I guess tell people within this audience that a, if they wanted to generate leads just in general, not even specified just to, um, to real estate, but just in general, how would you go about what are some steps that you would offer to people to go through and actually start at their lead generation?

Russ Ward:                            09:58                       So the first thing I recommend is do not boost posts because what a lot of people do is they get on their facebook page, they'll run a post and then boost it and they'll just, they'll just like facebook and target whoever they want. And what happens is they target the whole entire country and that's not who you're looking to target.

So once you want to do is you want to go into facebook ads and you want to run an ad from the ads manager. And if you don't know how to do that, facebook actually has a full blown training course on how to do that.

You don't have to pay a guy with me, you don't have to, you don't have to pay any other guru if you just want to learn the basics of facebook ads, you can just go and get their full blown training program and then what you want to do is you want to target specific people.

Russ Ward:                            10:33                       You want to think about who is your, who is your perfect customer, and then just go through while at facebook allows you to search for and search for that person. Right? So maybe my perfect, um, say for real estate, my perfect buyer would be a female who is 28 years old who likes realtor.com and maybe she's married and has a toddler, right? I can ordinate all of those things and I can make it so only people who meet those demographics see my advertisement, which is really awesome.

Now with that said, I want to, I want to be careful to say that it, you can also over target people to. Because there are some cities where I just target women 25 and over and then the facebook algorithm takes over and it shows the ad to the people who are most likely to click it based on the first ones who are. So you don't want to get to extremely targeted, but if you want to you can, you can actually look at those demographics.

Marie Larsen:                      11:21                       I love that. I love that you're saying that because I'm, a lot of times people think, oh, well I need to go hire a facebook guru. I need to go hire some sort of ads manager. I need to go. And I think that you make a really good point that guys, if you will, if you don't want to go pay for someone to do it. As he said, there is a course via facebook and, and it's all free. It's free content, free information that you can go and you can get trained on. Um, and then after that, you know, if you just want to get an idea of what's going on, yes. Is it helpful to get an as person a? Absolutely.

My, uh, my brother's ads person works miracles, I don't know how she does it all, but every, for every dollar they put it in, they get like a dollar and a half out, you know, or at least $2 out or something. And it's crazy. I'm super, super like they're awesome. Um, but there are ways that you can go about and do it on your own. So that's so awesome. Um, and then as you have gone through and figured out that lead generation was what you were wanting to do, what did you build out in order to really promote that out to people?

Like what, how did you, how did you go find those leads and then what platform did you use to put them on?

Russ Ward:                            12:28                       Do you mean the leads? The leads themselves are me personally my business

Marie Larsen:                      12:32                       within your own business.

Russ Ward:                            12:34                       So the two keys that took me through the roof in terms of building my own business was number one. As soon as I got those good results, I would put it out to all over social media, everywhere I could think of the post them. So see I've got 80 leads for a dollar 50 a piece. I would just show it to everybody. I would just be a total show off.

You cannot have any shame when you're doing marketing because somebody out there and say, oh my God, I want that too. How much do I have to pay you? So what I was doing in the beginning is I was taking work for 5,100 bucks and I was saying, Hey, I'll set up your facebook ads. I promise you I'll get you good results. I'll even give you your money back if you, if you don't like the results, but all I ask is that you let me post the results and you give me a five star review. And so what happened along the way was I have tons and tons of happy customers and I have tons. Yeah,

Marie Larsen:                      13:18                       all over the place.

Russ Ward:                            13:19                       So now what happens is people go into groups and someone asked, hey, who do you know generate leads? They always tagged me in it, right? And that's how you really start to build this thing. And you know, back when I first got started, I didn't have the confidence or really the credibility to charge nearly what I'm charging now.

I still remember it because I wasn't, I didn't have much money. And I was saying like, man, I would say to myself, I hope I can do enough of these.

So the first three that didn't like it, I can refund their money and still have money to put gas in the car. That's how, that's how scraping the bottom of the barrel I was. And then as time went on, I was like, dude, I got this, you know, I'm going to be able to do this every single time over and over and over until I really got to that confident point. It was so important to get reviews into, to get the post results.

And even if you're not making any money at all, you need to post resume reviews and you need to post results because that's how eventually you're going to make money long term. I have not run an ad to get business since I started.

Marie Larsen:                      14:12                       Isn't that interesting? I am the same way and I'm so grateful that you said that because as soon as I started getting my voice out there and it came, it came a lot when I wasn't ashamed to jump on my personal profile and post something about the stuff that I'm doing when I have friends and family who are on there, you know, it'd be like, what the heck is she doing? You know?

And I started building out my social media as and as soon as I started doing that, there was, there was never a time that I ever had to go through and do a facebook ad or anything like that for lead generation is, is, it's just never. It's never had to happen as far as getting clients. Right. Um, and so I was so grateful for that understanding that if I just really push myself out there like crazy and get loud about what I'm doing, then people will start promoting my name out for me.

Russ Ward:                            15:04                       Right. And people will start getting my name out there for me because they know what I do.

And so they're going to put my name out to other people who are looking for those types of things and because of it, it's completely changed my life in general and I've never. Instead, now I have a wait list of people, um, which is a really, which is a great, um, a great problem to have. And so if something isn't working with a certain client and we decided to go our separate ways, I'm fine. I can go through and hit that list up and like pick up from where I was and it's fine and it works super, super well.

Russ Ward:                            15:36                       Yeah, I completely agree. Like I said, I haven't. The reason why this has happened like me like this for me so well is because it's all happened organically. This guy told this guy, told this guy and now it's just. I have a group of all my own customers and then I have a group of people that I helped. Um, just in general, like I, I give special, special attention to my clients.

And then I have a group for everybody else that gets less special attention, but they still get in. And so both of those groups actually organically as people now coming to me and say, Hey, can you do this for me? How much would this cost? And the other thing that I'll point out too is you don't have to be a pushy salesman, right? When I get on a phone call with somebody, um, I just kind of say, hey, how can I help you?

This is what I offer. If you'd like to do it, you know, just let me know when you get started. I never push anybody. I never, because I'm to the point now where my results speak for themselves, right? Really need to get, like, you have to have those three keys, you have to have the social proof, you have to have the reviews and then you have to have a way for people to kind of share your name around. And that's what's really taken me to new heights.

Marie Larsen:                      16:38                       It's so good. It's so good. I cannot agree more with that. I think it's interesting how many times people go through and really think that they have to blow a ton of money on something to get results on. Something which, uh, the, I mean, depending on the situation and the person that might be the case, but um, but just even getting started. Um, I would say that the biggest thing to get started as you were saying, is it social proof.

If you can get started losing out your social proof like crazy, then when you do need extra leads or you are looking for specific type of client or customer or something like that, then yes, you can totally go to lead generation. You can go through and really see how you can boost that via facebook ads, via Instagram, via Ige TV, youtube, whatever. Totally. But the more social proof that you have and face on, um, on the Internet, the better.

Marie Larsen:                      17:28                       I actually had someone, I've had several people in this last little bit who run up to me in the grocery store who have run up to me. I'm in the airport who run up to me and all these random places and you're already Larson and I'm like, I am and you are. And they're like, I'm so and so and I love your stuff here. And I'm a big fan here and I love it when you do this. And I'm like, well thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I'm so. I'm so honored. Thank you.

Um, but I would not have had that if I did not have the social media approved. Some kid jumped on and he's like, Hey, you're that famous girl whose face is everywhere. I'm like, cool. Like, no, I'm not famous at all. I barely changed into a clean shirt today, but thank you so much.

You know, but I think it's so important. So. And what other tips and tricks would you give to someone who, as you said, you can go look at it and facebook ads and stuff like that. What other tips and tricks would you give to someone to get started on increasing their lead generation?

Russ Ward:                            18:26                       Well, one thing that facebook has allowed us to do recently, it's really awesome. So say whatever niche you're in, it doesn't have to be real estate. You can go to the page of accompany, it's running ads, kind of like yours. And you can just hit information and ads and you can see the exact ads they're running right now.

Marie Larsen:                      18:45                       I didn't even know that.

Russ Ward:                            18:46                       And, and you know, they say that, well, if you don't have the targeting for what they're doing, then it doesn't help you. Well, if you already know the target, if you already know your, your, um, you know, your target market, you can take those ads and you can, you can flat out copy them if he wants to operate on them and say, say you sell. So you sell a coke, right? A soda, and you wanted to copy Coca Cola.

You could just run their campaign and just put your coca cola can write in there. That's, you know, whatever kind of soda you're running. Real estate, same color, same applies to everything. You can just tape. Go ahead and take a look at what the ads that they're running. I, one thing about that is you can only see the ads running in your country. Um, one story that's really cool is, um, there was a guy in Canada who wanted to hire me to help him get leads for people that need pardons from the government.

And I'm like, Eh, I don't know if I can do that. But I was like, all right, I'll give it a try. I was looking all over Canada for ads that were already running and I couldn't find them. And that's how I found out the hard way that you can't see other countries adds. So only in the United States if United States.

Marie Larsen:                      19:45                       That's really good to know. I honestly have no idea. So I'm really glad that. That's awesome. That's so good. Well, we'll probably wrap up here in just a couple of minutes. Um, but as you were going through it and you discovered this process and stuff like that, I'm sure that they're, as you said, you've had your ups and downs even as you started up this company, um, what were some of those ups and downs and what are some of the ways that people can improve constantly so that they don't have to make the same mistakes that you've made within your own company?

Russ Ward:                            20:16                       Yeah, probably, probably some of the downs would be what things aren't working. I didn't stop quick enough. Right? I had a little bit too much belief in, in the quote unquote system, right? Usually within a day of running a facebook ad, if you're not getting results, if you're not getting leads, you should probably stop that and rethink it. Right?

Yeah. So what I, and you know, there's, there's, there's conflicting people, the real people to say, Oh, you got to let it run for a week, but I'm telling you what, like if I'm running a good ad, I'm going to get three leads within the first two hours. And I already knew that I, you know, from, from experience. But if you go a whole day and you spend like 20, 30, 40, 50 bucks, you want to make sure that you're to just kind of reevaluating.

Russ Ward:                            20:54                       Right? So that was one of the things that I, that I did that I wouldn't say hurt me, but it might have hurt my client's return on investment a little bit in the beginning and I had to apologize and say, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start a new ad, and then they got a little bit pissed off because, you know, I wasted their money.

So when you do that, just make sure that you're watching your ads closely in the first 12 to 24 hours because it's the most important time because you're going to see exactly what type of results you're going start.

Marie Larsen:                      21:19                       That's awesome. That's awesome. So my last question then, and then we'll probably wrap up, but my last question is, um, do you only work with people via real estate or do you do any sort of other types of lead generation for other industries as well?

Russ Ward:                            21:34                       No, I appreciate you asking that. Um, so what I've done recently is, is a lot of people that talk about leads probably know the name of Chad. How do you know, have you, you, your name? I um, I actually paid cat how old to be a mentor for me. Right. I want to expand my business, get better. And so what I'm doing is actually going through her academy. I'm learning to do any niche into, to be microtargeted anything at all. Somebody needs to do. So. Um, yeah, to answer your question, I've actually branched out. I'm doing currently I'm doing tattoo removal Canada.

Yeah, I'm helping people with solar. Um, well, you know, the reason why I still kind of steered toward real estate is because I have this system that's just so tried and true. Like I could literally put this ad up in any city in United States and get leads for like two bucks and it's just crazy not to do it if I can do it right. That's awesome.

So yeah, so that's um, that's kind of where things are going in the future. I'm going to try to build this into an all out agency staff that focuses on a different niches and then I Kinda just managed the whole thing.

Marie Larsen:                      22:27                       That's so great. I love that. That's so good. Is there, so the best place then for people to find you would be via social media board?

Russ Ward:                            22:36                       Oh yeah. The week you have to look up the leaching record or you could go to the [inaudible] dot net. Remember it's dot net because somebody was not common. He will not. Yup. To me for less than the guy. The guy actually sent me an email like two weeks ago. He said, dad, I was like, cool, I'll give you 200 bucks for it. And he was like, no, saying grant

Marie Larsen:                      22:55                       not paying you take the weekend.net. That's awesome. That's so good. Well thank you so much for being on here with us. I really appreciate it and we'll catch you again here next time. Thanks everybody. Thanks for listening.

Marie Larsen:                      23:12                       Don't forget to rate and subscribe. You have questions for me. Go to the facebook group, profitable podcasting strategies for entrepreneurs, and I'll be sure to do an episode to answer your next question.

Marie Larsen:                      23:23                       Again guys, my name is Marie Larsen and this is the audio entrepreneur.

That's Nice For Other People To Make Money Online, But I Can't Do It...

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[00:01] What's up everyone? This is Marie Larsen and you're listening to the audio entrepreneur. I spent the last year and half doing podcasts and content creation for some of the fastest growing entrepreneurs today.

Their strategies and tests have been life changing once I took action, so I decided to take my audio industry to the next level by building a seven figure company that teaches people how to create, strategize, and repurpose their content, like to throw the question so new people are wondering is how is she going to do it?

This podcast is here to give you the answers. Join me as I explained marketing strategies to grow my online business. My name is Marie Larsen and welcome to the audio entrepreneurial. Hey [00:39] guys, what's up? Okay. I have to tell you this quick story. So I was sitting on campus the other day and for those of you don't know this, I am still a college student while pursuing a seven figure business on the side, which is kind of funny. But anyway, I was sitting on campus the other day and as I was sitting there, I was sitting next to this kid who looked at me and started asking me a little about who I was and everything like that. Yes, there might have been some flirting.

And it was really fun because all of a sudden he goes, yeah, and I really admire those people who have figured out how to make money online. And I kinda, I kinda chuckled for a second. And then I said, well, what do you mean by that? And he was like, well, most people who go through and find ways to make money online, I really think that those people are awesome. [01:26] Uh, but I could never do something like that. And uh, I kinda smiled for a second and I said, hey, um, can I show you something? And he was like, yeah, sure, what's that? So I pulled up my facebook, my instagram, pulled up some sales funnels, um, little things like that and I just showed them some of the stuff that I have going on. Right?

And as he was going through and looking at this, his jaw dropped when he was looking at how my following numbers were starting to build out via instagram, via facebook, um, how I was organically going through and pushing all those things out.

Now he looked at me at one point and goes, you've made a lot of money online, haven't you? And I said, well, you know, I've, I've made, I've done a decent, you know, I've definitely, you know, I've definitely done a better than the average college kid on the online market for sure. [02:13] And he kind of looked at me and he said, man, I look like I looked like such a freaking idiot right there, deny.

And I was like, no, no, like, it's a, it's true. There are a lot of people who have no idea how to go through and make money online. Now, um, this is something that I wanted to talk about today because guys, there are so many ways that you can go and, and make money online. It's ridiculous. The amount of, of, uh, options and opportunities that are online are absolutely ridiculous.

There's so many ways that you can go about that. Um, and so I wanted to just kind of like, brainstorm where I guess throw out to you guys some ideas that might be helpful for you in the future as you go through to try and make money online. Now. I am pro podcast forever. [02:58] I will, I will forever be a pro podcaster, meaning like prolife. Well I guess pro podcasting, right? Like I will always tell you to go to your podcast, but some of the ideas that are out there and some of the things that I've tried and some of the things that I've been successful at, other things that I haven't done well at, I want to share with you because I know that these are ways that you could go through and whether or not you were trying to build out a big business online or whether or not you're just trying to make it an extra few bucks like this podcast episode is for you.

So I wanted to go through and just kind of, uh, I guess talk about that a little bit. So the first thing is, is that I would say there are, um, if you go, if you literally type in on the Internet and say how to make money online or money online at home or something like that, um, you will have so many options to go through and do that. [03:51] Um, the first thing being that I can think about is blogging, guys, blogging the blogging industry is huge and you can make so much money off of the online blogging industry. Now I have a friend of mine who does an online blogging as well and every month she makes an extra three grand for her family by being a cute mommy blogger. Right? And so that is an option.

Um, so she's been doing that for, I don't know, about like two or three years now and every single month she makes an average of like three to four grand extra for her family just by writing blogs and becoming a blogger and, and really going out and doing that way. Um, and you can, you can get some awesome paid writing jobs or something like that if that's what you're looking for. Another thing is copywriting guys, I'm always looking for a good copywriter. [04:40] Copywriters for sure. Um, because it's, it's so, it's so important now. There are a lot of freelance writers who offer both copywriting and blog writing among their services, which is awesome and you totally need those people. And so I would say copywriting is one of the best ones.

You can also become a virtual assistant now and I'm not, I can't remember what it's called and I'll have to go through and look for you guys, but there is a virtual assistant, a site that's called like mom's making it online or something like that. I can't even remember what it's called. I'll have to look at it. Um, but that is also a really great place where, you know, if you are a stay at home mom or stay at home parents just in general looking to find ways to go through and really push out your voice a little bit more. [05:28] Um, as far as like making, I guess making money online more than anything where you're fulfilling on people's needs and services that they're in need of. Then becoming a virtual assistant. Um, I have several virtual assistants, um, I couldn't function without them, honestly, it doesn't matter how big or small businesses they like, everyone needs help running their day to day administrative tasks. I promise you that is so true.

So virtual assistants were from a variety of tasks and traditional assistants or secretaries that like, you know, traditional assistants or secretaries would normally do, including, you know, like you want to have them make travel arrangements or paying bills or managing expense too expensive to reimburse or uploading content, optimizing images, a brief writers, etc.

If you need someone to write up contracts are a little things like that. They are fantastIc for that. I have some are virtual assistants myself and I would not be able to function without them. [06:25] And the next thing is, um, I would say you can go through and do website design editing for those people. You can do landing page designs, um, graphic design. You can create logos, you can produce info graphics or computer programming if you have a history of that or app development or being an online pa which are so, so interesting.

And you know, you know, a personal assistant, um, is so needed for so many people.

Guys, this is kind of where I chose to jump into a law also is becoming a social marketing manager. Now you can do that by really learning how to do social media via, I am a huge fan of, um, josh forties content. Um, and it's how I've gone through and really pushed out.

And if you go, if you guys go back and check out some of my past podcast episodes, you'll see that I've done an episode with him before in the past and there's so much value in those and exactly how you're supposed to go through and build out instagram or facebook groups or facebook in general, how you optimized profiles, how you go through it and really find your voice via social media. [07:34] And he goes through all of that. Now I am a huge fan of that. His, um, what is it called? His facebook group is called social media for entrepreneurs, which is so good. and I have loved going through and becoming really good at that. You also can become an online markeTing consultant if you have any marketing experience, then why not set yourself up as like, you can do like a free freelance marketing consultant or look at businesses who are, who need marketing strategies.

I'm advising on changing and improvements. I'm getting projects off the ground that are all jobs that will pay, will be well paid for, um, online seo, which I incorporate a lot into my podcasting as well. Um, thIs is another thing as well that you can do guys.

This next one that I wanted to explain it is fiverr, fiverr and upwork guys. [08:22] These have been my saving grace is I was getting started into my industry and I fulfilled on a lot of people's stuffy of fiber and it was awesome to go through and really figure out that I, you know, you can offer web design or digital marketing or you can do all those past things that I talked about.

This is a site that you legally can go through and be a freelancer and make money off of that. Now there were times that I would be in a pinch and I would think, oh man, I really, really need to do some sort of project or something where I can get an extra know 150 bucks or something for rent, you know, like I just really needed to pay for my rent that semester or you know, that month or whatever it was and I jumped on a fiber and I fiber being f I v e r, r, fiverr or upwork and um, it would have helped me get that extra cash. [09:12] It was so awesome. Um, another way to go find that extra cash online is, it's super easy, but you can go to online surveys now when I would be walking to class, I was such a, I'm such a funny kid, but I would, I'd be walking to class and um, I would put my headphones in. I'm a, I'm a huge music junkie, so I would be listening to music and then I'd be taking these online surveys as I'd be walking class.

Now usually they take like, you know, five to 10 minutes to take. And that was so good for me to know that In my five to 10 minute walk to campus I could be making money and I know that sounds so funny. And at the end of it, you know, it only pay like four to 10 bucks, you know, of per each, um, for each survey. [09:54] but it was helpful for me to know that no matter what I was doing, even though I just, you know, did a 10 minute survey and it, and I got paid four bucks for it. Like that was, that was worth it to me, you know, that's better than a minimum wage job.

And so that was really helpful for me and I got made fun of a lot by friends and stuff like that as they will go through and be like, what the heck are you doing? I'm like, I'm doing a survey on a huggies diapers right now. And they're like, what? Are you serious? Do you have a kid? I'm like, no, I don't have a kid. And they're like, why are you doing survey on that? Like pays for bucks or whatever it would be.

And it was so funny to me, but online surveys is a really great way as well that really, really helped me to really push out to my next level and be able to pay for those little things as I was really getting started in the business world. [10:37] Um, Another you can really go through and get paid to guest posts, you know, so if there are, if you have a blog or something like that, then people will pay you to advertise their stuff, right? Um, which is I guess a type of affiliate marketing if you want to get into that. Which guys, affiliate marketing. Whoa, okay. You guys need to go check out my brother steven larson's a affiliate outreach course that's completely free.

That just came out. It is so good. It's so good. He crushed it in the affiliate marketing. I'm 30 day challenge for russell brunson's thing in this last little bit and he crushed it. He did so good. So you have to go check that out. Um, the other thing is that you can go to be, you know, you can get paid to feature certain posts.

Again, affiliate marketing via amazon, you can do ecommerce, you can run webinars, offer paid courses. [11:32] I'm charged to view content, turn your blog into a membership site, right? And sell an ebook. Again, host podcasts because duh, I'm so awesome.

Create a video series to sell. Um, so advertising on your videos, display a service page. Guys that are literally, I'm going through and I sat down and I wrote out a different ideas that I could possibly, possibly if I were ever in a pinch, what I could do in order to make money on my laptop, which is so funny. And I again, I refer back to the kid that was sitting next to me and he's just like, oh yeah, it'd be so hard to sell stuff online.

Like those people that do that. And he pulled up. Oh, it was so funny. He pulled up a um, a, an excel spreadsheet that he had, you know, and it was, it was very detailed. [12:20] There was a ton of value in it, but it was all the cool things you could do in Washington dc. And he went through and said, you know, each week, because he was over in Washington dc over the summer doing an internship and he said, why does In Washington dc, he's like, every single week I would go and make sure that I could do something super awesome to really get the full experience in Washington dc. And I created a guide along the way in order to do it.

And I said, you know, this is amazing.

And I saw all the value of those in it and everything. I was like, you know, you could charge people 12 to 17 bucks for something like this and people would pay for it. And he's like, no, there's no way. I'm like, yeah, with a little tweaking here and there. And we pushed this out via a sales funnel or put it up in people's blogs, you know, travel blogs or whatever, have you, um, you could make money off of this. [13:08] And he was like, no, that's just for other people. That's not for me. So I still laugh about that. Again, going back to, you could do travel blogs, food blogs, you know, again, membership sites.

The photography, say a lifestyle blog, a parenting blog. There's so many different types of blogs, dating sites. There are so many things you can sell on ebay valet services, amazon, you can create your own products.

You can do white label products. You can buy and sell from alibaba. All my gosh guys, I go check out allison princess stuff. I'm alison prince was the reason that I almost got into ecommerce last year and I think I still want to do it just when things settled down a little bit in my life. I totally want to jump into ecommerce. Um, you can create your own site on woocommerce or shopify or etsy. [13:55] I'm drop shipping. There's seriously this list goes on forever and ever and ever. Um, amazon audio books. You can actually be paid for as professional help to for your voice and to sit down and read books out loud. And then you can create a, narrate people's audio books a yourself, and then go through and make money off of those books as well, which is so cool.

You can build free apps, design themes, wordpress plugins, a resale web hosting a, you can become a youtube vlogger.

Oh my gosh guys, I just talked to a huge youtube blogger the other day and he has crushed it and he said, if anything, if you were to tell the audience, if you were to just completely collapse and fail, the first thing he would do was to build out his youtube. Now you kind of laughed at them and I said, I will do a youtube channel if you do a podcast. [14:50] And he was like, all deal. So in this next little bit I definitely need to do that. And the other thing has become an instagram influencer.

If you guys, I think if you haven't checked out, make sure that you go through and listen to the podcast that I've talked about, content creation and how I do a content calendar and that one right there, I go through and talk about the importance of getting to 10,000 followers.

How you can go and repurpose your content via podcasting. I'm anyway, that one is so awesome. Now you can continue on and promote your own products, as you said, advertise affiliate links. Uh, you can do sponsored tweets for twitter. Um, you can list items on sale for fate on facebook. I have a friend actually who goes through and buys all the textbooks and advance as far in advance as he possibly can. [15:38] And once he has all these textbooks and advance, he goes through and he, he'll buY them online for like five to like 15, 20 bucks, right? and then he'll go sell them online too.

Desperate college students who waited too long to go through and sell them, sell those books to those kids who all have a sudden need that book so, so bad. And so get those booklets and he'll then mark it up to be like 120 bucks or something like that, which college kids hate, but you know, they wait it out and you combine. So cryptocurrency, you can teach online.

My mom does that. She teaches, um, chinese kids online, um, expert, uh, sorry, you can become a life coach or do virtual events. Again, if you haven't heard, I have a virtual event or I guess the summit that I'm part of that it's going to be live on monday. [16:26] It's called the click for newer summit. I'm so excited. It's 30 experts who are jumping on and going to be able to push out like crazy.

All of the content information that they have spent years and thousands of dollars to learn and they're giving it out for free and I get to be one of the speakers. I'm so excited. It's going to be awesome. You can learn day trading and you can become a bank if you really want to, um, you can enter competition again.

I said, fill out surveys, get paid to review music, get paid to watch videos, a type of audio goes. Um, I'm always looking for transcribers who are really awesome and know how to do show notes.

You can go through and become PA worker or tests, websites and apps. Guys, this list literally goes on forever and ever and ever, so I won't bore you anymore with all of the ideas that you can do, but if you have certain ideas that you think that would be valuable to make sure that you jump on to my facebook group, profitable podcasting strategies for entrepreneurs and be sure to let us know what ideas that you think that also you can do via the online world and how you can make money online. [17:36] Now. I think it's so awesome that we live in a day and age or literally we can sit on our butts and make money.  I think that's seriously the coolest thing on the planet. I'm to a point where you're not changing your time for money anymore. Right? Which is so cool. And I love that.

 I wanted to share these ideas with you just because I think that there are a lot of people over here who have a ton of false beliefs, whether or not that they, they themselves can, uh, not only podcast or more than anything, make money online. There are so many ways that you can go about it.

Now. I've only chosen a few of these things that I've wanted to become really, really good at and I need other people like this who are crushing it and doing super well, you know, doing well as a freelancer or how they monetize their blogs, their ecommerce, social media, how they go through and do that every we need those types of people. [18:27] And so this is like your shout out call that you sit down and you figure out what of those things that I listed out for you. And again, these are, those were just a few ideas, but these, these things for you are for you to sit down and figure out what of those things would you actually be compassionate about. Now, passionate in what you do is super important.

Yes, you can just make money online...

But, uh, having passion and purpose behind it will be so important. Now, the reason that I do podcasting and the reason why I chose that over all the others is that I've had experiences in the past where I felt like my voice was never heard and because of that I wanted to give people the opportunity to be heard and to be heard and get really loud. I'm getting loud so that the world has no option but to hear them and that has a big purpose behind my whole podcasting bit and the reason that I do it. [19:16] And so go through and really figure out why you want to do these things. Yes, it can be to just make a few extra bucks, but if you want to turn it into something that is absolutely incredible, something that's extraordinary and different, create a purpose behind it and create a purpose of something that that is super, super important and influential.

Now again, as I said, if you have more ideas that make sure that you jump onto my facebook group, profitable podcasting strategies for entrepreneurs and you let us know what those other ideas might be and if it's awesome and if you have experienced in it, then we'll probably interview you, hear on this podcast here.

So anyway guys, I hope you have a fantastic day and I will chat with you soon. Have a good one. Boom. Thanks for. [19:58] Don't forget to rate and subscribe. Do you have questions for me? go to the facebook group, profitable podcasting strategies for entrepreneurs and I'll be sure to do an episode to answer your next question. Again guys, my name is Marie Larsen and this is the audio entrepreneur.

With Poster Child Gone Rogue, Mark Stern...

Click Above To Listen In iTunes...

Get YOUR FREE TICKET to the CLICK-Preneur Summit by Registering Here: http://bit.ly/CLICKPreneurSummit-marie

Marie Larsen:                      00:00                       Yo, what's up everyone? This is Mary Larson, so excited because today I have a friend of mine on here who came to me a couple months ago out of boise event and said to me, Hey Marie, I'm doing a summit and I would like it if you will be a speaker at it. Now guys, I've done a summit once before and it completely went plop, right?

Like it was, it was, so, it was so bad. I really didn't do a good job at it and it was really, it was kind of embarrassing for me in all honesty. Um, I was really starting to figure out what my voice was and everything like that. Um, but I got really excited for this because he started to sit down and said, you know, all these different types of people are going to be in the summer.

And I was like, Whoa, like I get to be part of this, this is so cool. And I got super excited about it. So yeah, I have to introduce mark because I, I feel like as a, there are a lot of people who don't understand the value of a telesummit or summit in general if it's done properly and correctly. If you do it right, it can generate so much revenue, generate so much, so many leads and really boost out your audience like crazy and you cross pollinate like crazy.

So I have to introduce mark just a little bit and say, well first off, mark, thanks so much for being on here.

Marie Larsen:                      01:09                       I'm so pumped for this and I'm so excited to hear all the cool stuff that you're going to share with us as far as like how you decided to do this because these are daunting tasks. I've done it and you've done it in such a manner. If I'd only learned from what you had done a I, I seriously feel like I would have done things so much differently and I wouldn't have gotten my, you know, easily. Like I think I got like 400 leads off of it or something like that. Like I was.

Anyway. I'm so excited. So we introduce yourself a little bit to us who you are and kind of your journey and then we'll hop into how you got into the whole summit world.

Mark Stern:                           01:50                       That was an amazing introduction. I appreciate that so much. I am Mark Stern. I'm the host of the click partner summit, which is crazy to be able to say that now has literally three months ago I was still in like fully immersed in the corporate realm. So my back story just real briefly is um, if there was a poster child for someone who followed the path and we're always like born and raised with this idea of there's this path that you follow.

You Graduate High School, go to college, you graduate college, then you get the dream job, then you go to Grad school and then after that like life is great. Everyone's happy. You have the kids and the white picket fence. Like the past I was the poster child

Mark Stern:                           02:34                       not to mention that, like if there was like a, like a, a sign on the wall that said like, like be like this guy. Like that would be my picture. I was president of my high school, I was president, my college, same thing in Grad school. Um, I like excelled at every corporate job I did and I loved it and I loved the people I wanted to work with. Um, and then it was, what was it, 2012 I graduated, got my Mba at duke graduated. And where did I find myself?

Well, um, when I enrolled at Duke, it was kind of the wave that was right after the bubble burst in 2008. So scholarships weren't were spares. And I find myself like I've done everything right up to this point. Um, and in 2012 I graduated with $165,000 in debt and a contract with a consulting firm that, um, you know, it was basically a clique committed to that firm for at minimum two years.

Mark Stern:                           03:25                       Um, and the reality is like the corporate experience in the journey I've been on has been awesome. But the problem is, especially with my last line of employment, um, I had an incredible job in corporate consulting. Um, but uh, when you work for a big firm, they truly control and own everything you produce. So the idea of starting a business, the idea of, um, like even if you want it to speak at an event, you'd have to get approval if you want it to buy a stock. If you wanted to join a board of directors, everything was very much. Um, so they take care of you.

But like if you have this entrepreneurial itch, you can't scratch it because everything you produce. And on top of that, it was a road warrior lifestyle. So every Monday I was at the airport every single week living anywhere but home. So, you know, this idea of being an entrepreneur is something that I've been chasing for years, but I haven't been able to do it.

So I've been that fly on the wall, learning everything that I could for years. Going to every conference and knowing like this is like my, I don't know, it was like my medicine to take care of me. Like wanting to live this life. And then finally it was being able to shear and I said now or never, I've got to take the leap. So flash forward today took the leap officially in May

Mark Stern:                           04:42                       and you know, the first call to action that I did, it was the summit. So this has been, you know, there was a couple of different things. I tested it out along the way, but the summit is really the big first thing that I'm really putting out there.

Speaker 1:                              04:55                       No, I think it's interesting because I've talked to several people that there is absolutely nothing wrong with people who want to live the corporate life at all. And uh, and I feel like a lot of times us as entrepreneurs, especially the digital marketers we get on here and you know, crashed and everything like that, which you totally can.

And guys, there is nothing wrong with that. However, if you were looking for a different aspect or different ways that you are not putting all of your content, all your ideas, all your aspirations pretty much into a different company where your content is no longer yours, then this is, this is great.

You know, listen to listen to mark here because as, as we go through and chat, like I really hope that you stop and understand that the more that you try to push out your content and really get your voice out there, like you really can, um, but, but you have to do it in a way that, you know, your corporate job is okay with it and instead you could just become your own person. You know, you can become your own boss, you can become your own self, which is really big. And Mark just within the last couple months you, you decided to leave corporate. Isn't that right?

Speaker 2:                              06:08                       When you worked for, like I call it deep corporate, like a big consulting firm. I worked for the world's largest consulting firm, you know, I put my notice in January and it wasn't until May that I was finally able to leave. Um, so it was a bit of a process to even make the transition out. But everything you just said, Marie, I, I couldn't agree with more like nine to five to be honest. In the realm that I came with from nine to five is actually a pipe dream. Anyone that I knew in anyone in my network, no one worked. Nine to five, we worked 24 slash seven.

It would have been like a, like a, a, a gift to have a little bit more balanced. But the thing that you did say also was entrepreneurship is not. I think that a lot of people like build the image of entrepreneurship being like, like this utopia or this haven that you know is for everyone and the reality is there's nothing wrong with a corporate or nine to five.

Speaker 2:                              06:58                       It's just understanding like what if you're unhappy in your situation? Is it because you're unhappy with corporate or you're unhappy with who you're reporting to or what you're working on? Because there's a lot of stability and a lot of protection that when you jump into the game of entrepreneurship, it's like the wild, wild west.

You really have to learn and rewire your mind to be able to apply a brand new game. So that's just like one of those things that until I really immersed myself, I always saw the writing on the wall, but it's a completely different rewiring. It's not about like I have a corporate skillset that I'm really good at. I can just translate that to entrepreneurship.

No, you've got to learn the game of entrepreneurship and then apply your corporate skills or whatever skill set you have to that. So how do you get back to the basics of learning? Hopefully a new game?

Marie Larsen:                      07:41                       Absolutely. Because the nine to five, like I remember I left my part time job as, as a college kid and I was like okay, like I'm going to have absolutely no money like and I, and I quit my job and within the first two hours I was like, awesome, okay. It's Monday nights, I have two hours. Like what, what do I do? Like I'm just gonna like, you know. So I sat there and watched like a Netflix show or something and I was like, I don't know what to do with my time, like nine to five. Okay. How can I fill my time for from nine to five and then within one ideal later, you know, within that two hours I was hustling and grinding and it was no longer nine to five. It was like, and then to 2:00 AM, right, like every single day and it was no longer like that.

Marie Larsen:                      08:31                       And so I always laugh when people are like, where you're always working, you're always doing stuff. I'm like, yes, because I'm the one in charge of it, you know, like I have to not then, you know, I don't have someone back there to do it for me.

Now my team has built out a little bit more, which has been really helpful, but when I first started I was like, Holy Crud, this is all on me and I have no idea. I have no leads. I have no email list, I have nothing. What do I do? And I was freaking out about.

I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, but within a very short amount of time, that time filled up with a ton of content and stuff that I should be building out people that I should be reaching out to clients that I should be trying to attain my dream 100 list every. Everything just started pushing out like crazy and it was so hard. But now it's, um, it's, it's becoming, you know, more bearable now instead of, you know, from like 6:00 AM to 2:00 AM now it's like 6:00 AM to like 1230 or one, you know.

So it's nice like we even proved. Um, but anyway, enough of that I have, I really want to get into, um, your, your, uh, your summit and how to do that. What was the inspiration behind that?

Mark Stern:                           09:45                       I was going back and forth of like, where do you begin? And I tested a couple of different concepts, but for those of you who aren't familiar with the concept of a virtual summit, it's where you basically create a platform that's around the central theme and then you go out and solicit speakers to provide value on that thing.

Um, so imagine if you've ever been to a live conference, how would you take that live experience and make it virtual? The benefits of doing.

There's a lot of benefits of doing a virtual summit, um, but for me, like the, the key ones to call out, one, if you're really starting from ground zero and you're trying to build your name, it's a great way to get leads. So as you said, Marie, it's a great lead generation platform because essentially when you do it, your leads become the leads of all of your speakers as well.

Mark Stern:                           10:28                       So anyone that has converted, um, if you provide a high value, you can find yourself pretty quickly going from zero leads to tens of thousands of leads. Um, so that's one, two, m for relationship building. For me, that's probably one of the most important parts of this. I have gotten to know the speakers so much better as a result of this know to provide an opportunity to provide a platform for them and this is like one of those things like having a plot for Marie.

You have several platforms that, um, you're able to engage with people.

It's such a powerful thing. People love to be part of a platform because I'm, the way I always put it to them as my goal with hosting a summit for you as a speaker is I want to elevate you, so how do I take you and elevate you further and make you an authority figure in your space? So they love the platform. And then when you have like 25 to 30 speakers, their platform is just not their platform. In my platform, it's that times 25 to 30 because now you increase that reach really pretty drastic.

Marie Larsen:                      11:23                       You get to cross pollinate like crazy. This is exactly what I've been talking about, about repurposing your content. If you are looking to repurpose your content, oh my gosh, how much, how much content, how many hours have you produced with all these speakers? In this last little bit,

Mark Stern:                           11:39                       so I think you and I could probably go on for an entire day with all the things we can do with the content because when you're talking about this alone, like we could easily nerd out for hours and so I actually think I'm going to create a course on this just because there's like people will like your imagination is the only thing that's going to limit you with how you can repurpose content with things like this. Because when we talk about like not only have I interviewed 30 speakers, you have the video and Maria is like the queen of repurposing, so you are like golden when we're talking about repurposing content, but you have the live videos.

So some people it resonates with them to watch live videos. You didn't have the MP three recording. So some people it resonates to listen to it like, like a podcast. You can get it transcribed. All of the sudden when you get it transcribed, I'm now becomes an ebook. When you collect in stock, all the speakers here so you can easily create a book.

This is what 30 days did, so the 30 days some of the click funnels put together, they took everyone's interviews and created this 600 page book, this massive book as a result of that book.

Mark Stern:                           12:39                       Me Too. I can't wait to get that book, but then you can start taking it a step further. One of the things I did was, um, I made all the speakers into animations and um, I'm going to turn all their interviews into infographics. So now it's just visualizing the data and that's going to become another product as well. I can take in creating action plans and fill in the gaps to make it super actionable for my listeners. And then on top of that I can document the entire strategy of a virtual summit and how every purpose content and how I put it together.

And that becomes another offering as well. So like the possibilities are truly endless, you know, when, when it comes to. So if you're someone who was like, I've never really put myself out there, um, I'm stressed out by like the amount of content that I feel like I need to produce. Like instantly as a result of this summit, I easily have enough content, if not for the next six months for quite some time.

Marie Larsen:                      13:31                       That's amazing. You know, there have been times or it has stressed me out like crazy with the amount of content that I have to produce. I have hours and hours of interviews of people that you know forever and then my own and it's just like so much content that I'm getting on instagram and it's like, Yo, what's up guys? And then I'm like getting on facebook and it's like, Yo, what's up guys on facebook live?

And then a lot of cats and it's, it's everywhere and it's so much. And so, um, this is such a great way that now, I mean mark has ammo. He has enough ammo to really build out an army. He had so much content information to be able to build out an army that not only is with some of the, I don't want to like include myself in it, but like some of the top entrepreneurs right now that are, that are trying to, you know, that are crushing it in their industries and he has them as friends now. Right?

Like that's genius because it's so smart to be able to go through and have not only your, your, your army of content be awesome and like so value packed, but you also have an entire group of people that are crushing it in their industries and would do anything and stick their neck out for you just because you did the summit. Right? Guys, that's so smart and you should totally do this, but make sure that you go and really figure out who you're going to interview or whatnot within, you know, within

Mark Stern:                           14:52                       your summit, because everyone will just say, oh, I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. So how did you go through and figure out who you wanted to interview and, and the people that you wanted to involve in this. So this is, I actually think is one of the most important elements of it, that there's a lot of people who go after influencers with the largest list and that's, that's what they do is they have their, like, I'm creating this platform, I'm just going after influencers with the largest list.

And the only thing, the reason I struggle with that just a little bit is sometimes the people with the largest lists are not necessarily the people who are going to really push it out there because they're very protective of their time and they're very protective of the content that they put out there.

Mark Stern:                           15:32                       Um, and so, and, and if you do that, there's a relationship element that you may be sacrificing because you're getting people who have very limited time and you were like literally just interviewing them and they're just kinda going through your system. So for me, relationship was so critical in the way that I started out.

The summit was reaching out to people who I knew were on the journey of where I was a little ahead of me all the way up to really killing it right now in the marketplace and it was people that I had relationships with or people that I started to build relationships with. So for me that was pretty like, especially after our security, the first, let's just say 10 to 15 speakers.

I knew them all personally. I could call them friends. I knew what they represented. I knew that they had a lot of. I think everyone has a lot of value to add. It's just about honing in on your message.

So having this group of people that believed in my vision for the summit and I knew that could provide a lot of value on my topic. That was critical, but once that started happening, what you're going to see, what happens, and this is what I. I've seen like Dax and I were just talking and talking about this and I know taxi was, I'm on your show not too long ago.

Marie Larsen:                      16:35                       I love that. Daxy is awesome.

Mark Stern:                           16:37                       It's this idea that as you start to build your foundation, thinking about sacking Lego blocks, like as you get to a certain level of influencer and you have this platform, then when you go to the next level up, like it quickly builds. So did I go after the biggest name right away?

No, I wanted to start to build that foundation and build that platform and I'm telling you, especially when the website started to go live and we started to get big name sponsors to be a part of this event. Um, which is a whole nother strategy in itself. It became so much easier for me to then retail to people that had those larger list and get them excited in them. Seeing the energy and the momentum that was being built by having speakers that I knew could provide value and that I had relationships with.

And when I'm saying relationships, it doesn't have to be the person that's like your best friend that you hang out with every week. It's people that you've actively followed. You've commented on their stuff. You're, you're in tune to who they are. You may drop them a ping every now and then, but it's like, like even through this process, people who I've never met, I become close with just because they sold them a minimum of what I was building and they wanted to be a part of it.

Marie Larsen:                      17:38                       I love it. It's so good. And I think it's important that you said that you had to establish a foundation before you reached out to some of the bigger names. And uh, and, and I think that's really crucial. Guys. I'm, I'm done kind of the same with my podcast. You guys will totally see that as you go through and I've seen some of the other people, not that they're not big names, but you'll, you'll see that they, these are, these are, you know, always building my foundation, you know, um, I just recreated a new podcast I'm like two months ago, um, and that's what this one is on and it's super awesome and I love it.

And because of the foundation that I've been able to establish, then I can reach out to those bigger names and say, hey Yo, you human, you know, and all your falling want to come be on my podcast.

Marie Larsen:                      18:27                       And they're like, yeah. And then a lot of times they'll say, do you want to come be on my stuff too? Right? And because of it, it builds this relationship, this friendship that you can really grow and nurture to be something way more than just like, hey, be on my podcast. No, okay, it will be on yours. And like back and forth, back and forth in, instead, you can have a ton of interaction with bigger named people guys. People love a toot their own horn, right? Like they love it. It's like it's just human nature. It's how it is. And so being able to bring people onto your stuff is flattering. It's so flattering and it's like, Oh man, this person thinks I'm cool.

Well then I think they're cool. You know, like it totally works. It totally is. Um, and so I've been on so many podcasts so I've been on so many things, but I know that those people that I've interviewed me, if they had called me up at any time instead, henry what's up, I just have this course and I was wondering if I could just, you know, like share it to your audience or anything like that.

Marie Larsen:                      19:25                       But yeah, are you kidding me? Totally. And it's all because like we've done each other these solids, right. And uh, the summit is totally the same thing. He's built out an army at this point of people who are crushing it in their industry, would seek out their neck for mark at anytime. That's awesome. Awesome.

Mark Stern:                           19:40                       The best part, tune into the summit. You're going to see me taking notes during some of the interviews because like this is a huge benefit. If there's things you want to learn more about the interview people who are experts in it.

So talking with Marie about podcasting and building the foundation, like you're going to watch me take notes because it's an able content for me. I like to joke and say, I don't know if anyone ever watched a TV show heroes, but like the villain and heroes was called the, the watchmaker because what he would do is like really absorbed the other superheroes, um, uh, their superpowers.

So for me, there's an element of like just being able to absorb all this information and learn their craft and their expertise and then it also becomes a thing like, because it's not about creating a product to compete with you, it's about creating elements and ways to elevate you as a speaker. And for me, I just love to be in that state of learning. So the content is so powerful that I want to master it to just so I understand how to do it. And then I'm going to hire you to help accelerate that journey.

Mark Stern:                           20:39                       The other thing I was gonna mention to you though is, and this is just like a court, like you've got to do this with the speakers and this is just critical for anyone. It's the most important things for me is the relationship aspect of um, you know, bringing on speakers. Because this is not about just the summit and so that's why like if you do this and put this into play, you want to take care of your speakers like they are your greatest assets.

They're the ones who you want to get excited and get loud. So that's why like I created a facebook group to cultivate the speakers, to bring them together. It's constantly looking for ways to make things easier for them and get them excited. So even the simple thing of like, one of the things I'm doing with all the speakers is I'm turning them all into cartoons and the images look incredible. The artist is doing this and then ultimately I'm going to be turning them into trading cards. So think of collectible trading cards just to have a cool little fun asset to like have your own, whether it's a baseball card or a ...

What does that pokemon cards or trading card. It's like, it's a fun little thing that just gets people excited that in this day and age is, is anyone can do it. You know? It's just about having an idea and putting it out there.

Marie Larsen:                      21:47                       That's so good and, and I will tell you as a speaker, I have felt cared for throughout the entire process. Now that is something that I feel like and the previous song that I did with a different company, that's something that we didn't do as much. And so guys having a facebook group really nurturing.

I mean he's written out email sequences for as he's written, like there are so many, there's copy, there's all, there's graphics, there's all these things and constant live videos so that we can be updated as far as what's going on. That was so crucial.

Now to pull it back, I have to ask, when you decided to create a summit, what was the very first step that you took?

Like what were the first couple of steps that you took in order to get this ball rolling?

Mark Stern:                           22:29                       I can walk, we can walk through the whole process if you like. So first step is you really need to know your message. So it starts with like what is the message that you want to get out there? Um, so it's really understanding your why of like what message you want to get out in the marketplace. If you were to start a business around a centralized topic, you want to know where you want to take your audience.

So for me, like the core message that I really wanted to get out there coming from corporate especially was um, this idea that, um, it was, it was an eyeopener for me to realize that when I left corporate and came into entrepreneurship, how different the realms where like it literally was like starting from scratch to a degree because I'm influencer is, it's not about like having a corporate or hr or some processes in place that if something didn't go right, you can just escalate it to a manager.

Mark Stern:                           23:17                       No influencers who have audiences of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, they can however they like. So if they wanted to do things that I would look and say, you can't do that to your customer where they can do it because it's their ship so they can operate however they want to. So that was like a core message knowing me and knowing people like me who were in my situation, how do I make that transition easier for them?

So the core message for me is corporate versus entrepreneurship is like checkers versus chess. The gameboard may look the same. The rules of the Games are completely different. So if you're going to become an entrepreneurship, let me teach you the game of entrepreneurship and let's get back to the basics. So that's how I'm going to escalate to you and protect you in a way. So that's the message I went to get out there.

Marie Larsen:                      24:07                       That was awesome. I'm going to quote you on that. I'm going to use that. Go for it. Go ahead, sorry.

Mark Stern:                           24:14                       Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's part one is just know your message because then everything else gets so much easier when you're communicating in. And part of that is also knowing your audience. So my core is going after someone in corporate who's looking to make the change into entrepreneurship, but the lesson really is applicable to anyone who may or may not be corporate if they want to become an entrepreneur.

Marie Larsen:                      24:37                       Absolutely. Figure out your message and I tell that within my audience lot too, as far as guys go ahead and make sure, and this is actually part of the weekly challenge that I have going on in my facebook group, um, is that you go and figure out what your messaging is, your brand messaging, who you are, what you're doing, and uh, why, why do you want a podcast, what message you want to try and share with people?

And so as going about and doing that, it's going to be so important for you to figure out, you know, what you're doing. We want to help, why you want to do it and how you're going to go about doing that. Because those are the four topics that I talked about in this, uh, this last week for this, a weekly challenge that we were working on.

Marie Larsen:                      25:19                       And a bunch of you, you know, have said, oh, that's really nice and everything. But like guys don't move on past that. Like that was the very first thing that marked it. He sat down and figured out his message. And if you don't do the same thing, you're going to have a purposeless, you know, you know, people, people will think you're cool for a little bit, but they'll lose interest, you know?

And so having a message that really resonates with an audience, I'm doing that customer research, figuring out what people are looking for, it's really important. So it makes sure that you're doing that. Anyway. Sorry to cut you off.

Mark Stern:                           25:50                       That was great. I think that was awesome. I mean this is like what memory is preaching right now is like, if you don't have a foundation than anything else that you do is just pumping money into a system. You're wasting time and you're wasting money because you're kind of just like walking blindfolded. You don't know where you're going. You're hoping something sticks and it's just like, this is where like when people start like throwing, this is the new platform that everyone needs to be on. It costs 10 bucks a month and it's a recurring revenue.

I've seen so many people start with like buying tools and then forcing their business into it rather than getting clear on their message. Getting clear on what they want to deliver and then selecting the tools that would help accelerate their goals.

Marie Larsen:                      26:27                       Exactly. I've been guilty of that for sure. And just don't do what I did to get started. Like, seriously, I went through and was like, okay, well I need this and I need this and so and so said I need this and I need to read these books. And yes, that's great. And yes, you totally need to do your research. You need to study it out. However, if you go through it and you pump, I have, I have so many things that I still have, you know, monthly subscriptions to the.

I swear I've never used that software before or you know, I have so many books that are seriously sitting on my, on my desk collecting dust and I've never read them, you know, but I mean there are others that yes, have changed my world and others where I'm like, so and so said I needed this book, I bought this book.

Marie Larsen:                      27:08                       It's sitting here, you know, um, so don't, don't waste all of the amount of time and money that I did. Um, and I'm sure mark has experienced, really figure out what, who your mentor is, listened to them and figure out what you're going to do along the way. Coaches, math coaches are so important.

And I, and I had to learn that lesson at funnel hacking live, how important a mentor was having coaches were. And without that, like I know I would not be on the route that I am if I did not have someone say you need to do this, execute, you need to do this, execute. And so I'm so grateful for that because it completely changed my world. And so anyway, uh, your next step, I'm sorry, I keep cutting you.

Mark Stern:                           27:56                       I could not agree more with what you just said. And, and just to say to everyone listening, I'm a don't do what I did which was buying online courses and trainings is like a form of medicine, like wanting it. So I would just buy another course.

Like you probably know enough already, take action, like stop buying courses unless, unless it is critical to what you're trying to achieve, you should know your objectives of what you want to do. And then like, you absolutely want the mentors, you want the right leaders, um, but just don't keep buying every course that comes your way. I was guilty of that at one point.

Marie Larsen:                      28:29                       Absolutely. I can't tell you how many courses I bought and have never used, so totally guilty of that as well. Make sure that you guys are dedicating your time and your scheduling out when you're actually going to use it. If you buy it, you know, and really find the value in it and not just buy it, just buy it.

Mark Stern:                           28:47                       Ready, ready? So this is where I'd say like, once you have like a clear message, um, the next thing I kinda like to do is to name your summit because it's like naming your baby, it becomes real. So, so when you start to name the summit, naming the summit, it's actually pretty critical as well because you want to keep it really simple so people get what the summit is right away.

Now I named my summit the Click prenuer summit.

That may be a little bit more of a stretch than probably what I should've done, but I actually really just loved the word click preneur. And really if you break it down, click this. Just saying that like I'm teaching you how to transition out of corporate to become entrepreneurs. And really this is about the, the digital age. So it's about building your digital presence, the age of the infant foreigners.

Mark Stern:                           29:30                       So that's where it came from. Pioneer just means basically that, you know, to start and set up and operate a business, it comes in as a, as a suffix. So bringing those two together, I think people get the gist of it when they hear the word click for Noor. I think that people are very familiar with other uses of whether it's click funnels or other uses of prenuer like infopreneur Solo, preneur, wantrepreneur.

So, so I think it's, it's, you want to name it, like if you want to bring together, um, uh, a list of women's weight loss experts than naming your summit. The women's weight loss summit is like crystal clear what you're trying to represent. So you don't want to overcomplicate it with the summit name, um, but to me, naming the baby starts to make it real. So that's what I would say as a part two, part three.

Mark Stern:                           30:20                       This is where you start to really craft out your delivery plan. So this is where you break down the strategy of what you want to do. This is the making it real.

What are the dates that you want to trend towards a executing the summit?

How many speakers do you want to target?

What is the overarching story you're trying to tell across the course of your summit? So to make that piece of real, for me, the overarching story I have is based off of another product that I created, a called entrepreneurial elements, um, which was I created this periodic table of elements that every entrepreneur should know.

So this is about getting back to the basics. It's still fits the theme of the summit. And this publication I put together is broken down into four parts, build Your Business Foundation, then your strategy, then select the tactics, and now implement.

Mark Stern:                           31:07                       So the story arc of the click printer where summit is those four phases and as you transitioned throughout the week, like you'll see there's a clear story arc about I'm taking people through it.

The reason this story is important and putting people on a journey is it also helps you structure the type of speakers that you're going to get because you want to have a nice balance of speakers and if you have a theme or a framework for how you're spending the five days or however many days you're selecting for your summit and it just becomes a clean path to make sure that everyone's talking about like not everyone's talking about launching an agency that everyone's talking about social media.

Like people are talking about a wide range of topics and that just helps you and it helps the listener to to get value from what you're doing. So you want to lay out that strategy. You want to really plot out that timeline. So here's the thing, when you have a date that you want to hit, bye bye. That's what this is, just making it more real. It's coming to life. You have a deadline, you need to take action and put yourself out there

Marie Larsen:                      32:03                       a plan to do in order to attain that plan those goals.

Mark Stern:                           32:09                       Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's probably the part that people don't enjoy, but it's like the most critical thing because then this is again, making it real. Um, so yeah, so I would, I would say that's part three. Part four really can gets into, I'm starting the outreach of speakers and really the strategy you want to do with the speakers as you really want to make sure that the value prop to the speakers is clear. So if you're just starting out, there's a lot for the speakers.

The core message that I was putting out there to speakers I reached out to them is, um, this is a platform that I'm building. We're going to have about 25 to 30 speakers on it. Here's the core message, here's the core target audience, here's why I think you're a good fit for this. Um, but really to me it's about how do I elevate you as a speaker?

Mark Stern:                           32:54                       How do I bring your message to the next level? Because that was what was most important to me, um, I didn't want to give, I wanted to give the speakers and enough to understand the story arc of my summit, but I didn't want to force what topic they were speaking on because the topic that they're going to provide the most value on is the topic of like what they're working on and what they care about right now.

Um, so, uh, really that whole transition was about here's the benefit to you, here's a platform for you. Um, I also offered all speakers.

You set them up as an affiliate. So the more you get into the entrepreneurial space, you'll really realize the importance of affiliate marketer. And really every entrepreneur should be an affiliate in some way, shape or form. So they can get financial benefit that if this is something of value to them, um, they could also make money off of it.

Mark Stern:                           33:42                       On top of it. They have a free ticket that they can offer their audience. So now they have something that if the message would resonate with their audience and they're a speaker, they can get back to their audience and show like I've elevated them as a speaker of this summit and as a speaker, they've gotten them their audience, a free ticket to the event that just adds value to them. So the audience is pretty happy about this as well.

Then there's two other things that, this is where you start to really make it clear that if there's a clear benefit to the speakers, oftentimes they'll jump right onboard.

And I'll tell you, I think with this summit, um, I think I had one no from a speaker early on, but because I think my messaging was really on point, almost every like a good 90 to 95 percent of the people I engage with. Hudson. Yes I can't. And that's just about like really making clear the value prop and the benefits to them.

Marie Larsen:                      34:39                       Uh, you guys have totally seen my posts on about the summit. You've seen all the stuff that I've done for it. You see that on my instagram right now. Um, as like the website for you guys to check out guys, make sure that you go through and you check all those things out because in all honesty, as these are people, these are entrepreneurs who have made thousands and thousands of dollars on online, right by sitting behind their computer and doing that.

And so it's really important that you go through, if you, if this is something that you want to do, the options there, like you could do it, there are so many people have done it before and want to guide you through that process and they're going to do it for you for free. Right?

And that is so cool. You know, like there's so many people as my coachings and stuff like that are thousands of dollars, you know, and so to be able to go through and say, Hey, I'm going to put so much on the line right here and provide as much value as I can because I know that this will benefit people and then there's 30 other speakers that are doing it.

Marie Larsen:                      35:36                       That's huge. Such a big deal. Um, and, and so I'm so grateful for that. Well, we'll probably wrap up here in just a second mark. I am so grateful that you jumped on and that you're able to show a little bit of this process and I'm excited. We'll probably do some facebook lives. Guys, make sure you check those out. They're going to be so good. But what is the best way for people to get out? They have questions or concerns, um, I guess on how to how to start a whole summit.

Mark Stern:                           36:06                       So first and foremost, my apologies. I have a puppy dog that I just got these last couple months, so my apologies for the barking in the background. Um, yeah, the, the best way. There's a couple ways you can follow up with. I love connecting with people and meeting New People.

Um, so you can look me up on facebook. This mark stern go. It's pretty easy to find me right away. Um, I invite everyone to get involved with our click for newer summit community.

So there was an official click preneur facebook group. Um, and uh, aside from that, yeah, this was probably the best avenues to learn more about me. That's probably where I'm most active. Um, but yeah, flew, please reach out.

Marie Larsen:                      36:42                       Hey, thank you so much for the value that we provided. I really appreciate it and we'll have you facebook lives and stuff like that. Again, and guys, if you found value in this, make sure that you rate and subscribe below and this is so important at the end. If you have any questions or concerns, make sure that you, that you go through and you leave a comment or something and we can go through and make sure to really help you understand the process that you should be going through your online journey.

So anyway, thank you so much, mark. I really read it.

Mark Stern:                           37:11                       Yeah, yeah. No, I love. I love what you're doing, marine. So very grateful to be a part of this podcast.

Guys go check out the: CLICK-Preneur Summit

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Marie Larsen:                      00:03                       Alrighty. Okay. Yo, what's up? Marie Larsen here, so excited because today I get to talk to my friend Todd Gaster. Now Todd here has been doing financial wealth and going through and really helping people as a, as a wealth coach for a good chunk of time now and has helped a lot of people monetize their lives to be, what was it, 25,000 extra a month or something like that that you, that you were doing?

Todd Gaster:                        00:30                       I've had people do $100,000 a month extra.

Marie Larsen:                      00:33                       That's incredible. That's incredible. I want, so I've been dying to have taught on here because it's so fun to hear people's story of how they go and help other people make money. Now. I love making money. I think it's a fun activity. Um, but I also love finding ways that I can continue to bring value to other people and help them out. And Todd has done just that. So Tom, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it. I'm so excited to get started. Just kind of pick your brain a little bit.

Todd Gaster:                        00:59                       It's my pleasure, I've been watching you and following you now for a while as well, and just seeing the amount of value you bring to other people in their lives. And so I'm really excited we've finally been able to put this together.

Marie Larsen:                      01:12                       It's time. It's awesome. Um, so I want to jump on and I just want to hear a little bit of your origin story per se, just kind of how you got started into this whole world because it is a different world. It's not your typical nine to five. Um, and so, uh, anyway, tell us a little bit about your backstory and how you got into deciding to be a wealth coach for people.

Todd Gaster:                        01:34                       Sure. So a couple things on the wealth coach before I get right into the, the origin story is I don't give people are, I know how to invest in real estate. I don't give people how to do trading. I don't know. I've done all those things, but that's not what I do. I'm not a tactics guy.

I specifically work on the mindset and you hear the origin story, that'll make more sense. So I was actually working three jobs and I was working 100 hours a week and I was in the realm of the hustle and grind, you know, you just, you just gotTa Hustle, you gotTa Hustle, you just got to work, you just got to work and I had married my wife and told her how great life was going to be and all the promises and everything that we were going to make and I couldn't pay my bills.

So I had her get a second job...

So she was working two jobs. I was working three jobs. We were never seeing each other. We weren't, weren't having any time. We've had a, my five month old son at the time and we were living in our house was about to be repossessed.

Marie Larsen:                      02:41                       Hmm.

Todd Gaster:                        02:42                       And when I say repossessed, people always say, you mean for clothes? And they're like, no. Repossessed were you were living in the 900 square foot trailer. And think about those 100 hours a week for me. Eighty hours a week from her. We couldn't pay our bills. Oh, well you must have this extravagant. We were living in a mobile home.

It wasn't an extravagant lifestyle, it wasn't we were spending and crazy, it just wasn't working and the thing that I couldn't understand was I was doing everything that society told me to do. I was hustling, I was working, I was saving, I was doing all these things and it wasn't working. Hmm. And I couldn't figure out why. So of course the night I was like, all right, the only thing that's consistent here is me.

So I've got to dive into what is me and what is going on. So I really went into the personal development field and so I started reading every book I could get my hands on, you know, whether it was think and grow rich or as a man thinketh or richest man in Babylon.

Marie Larsen:                      03:38                       Yeah, exactly.

Todd Gaster:                        03:40                       I'll also have my favorite and then I went into the seminar junky and I was going to all the seminars and people said, well, if you, how, if you couldn't pay your bills, how would you get there? I sold my car at one point to go to a seminar because I knew there was something I was missing. I knew that it wasn't there. Yeah. And, and I had to go and so I always. It always cracks me up when people tell me that they can't afford to invest in themselves. I was like, I sold my car.

Don't, don't tell me you can't. You can't do it. It's a choice. And so that led me down this. All right, there's something, there's something right here that isn't quite working. And the challenge is most people don't want to admit it. Most people don't want to admit that they have a mindset issue. They, they, they'll tell you. And it's funny because everyone always says, oh, I know it's 80 percent mental and 20 percent tactics. Hey, can you tell me what the next best tactic I can use this? Can you tell me what the next shiny object is?

Marie Larsen:                      04:38                       Yeah.

Todd Gaster:                        04:38                       What we all do it because the last thing we want to say, no, I've got an abundance mindset. I know I can't pay my bills, but my. Everything's good with my mindset.

Marie Larsen:                      04:46                       Yeah,

Todd Gaster:                        04:47                       we're all good there. It has nothing to die. Oh, I did this morning. I actually wanted to call. It was a threat I was on the guy posted that is absolutely true that you can't get extreme wealth without exploiting people. And I'm like, that's going to keep you broke. That belief right there because I've identified over 100 different beliefs that people have. They keep them broke, that we don't want to admit

Marie Larsen:                      05:12                       what they're interested in that.

Todd Gaster:                        05:16                       Oh sure. You've got the standard, you know, the cliches. The rich get richer, the poor, the poor get poorer. The money is the root of all evil. Um, I mean, you know, just the standard cliche, cliche things that go on. Uh, there's also, um, yeah, so I've got these 12 questions or sentence fragments that I'll have people's fill out to get an idea of what their beliefs are. And so one of them is people with money are. And then so you need to answer the next thing.

Marie Larsen:                      05:46                       And I, people usually comment on that,

Todd Gaster:                        05:50                       oh, well, you know, you get greedy. I'm greedy is probably the most common one, but I had this one guy who said dangerous. Now it's like people with money are dangerous. He says, absolutely. And I said, um, can I ask you something? He says, what?

I said, are you dangerous?

He says, absolutely not....

When I said that, I'm guessing you don't have the amount of money that you want. Kind of stopped. And he says, what are you talking about? How? Why would you say that? I said, well, if people with money are dangerous and you're not dangerous, there is no way your mind is going to allow you to get the money that you want to get

Marie Larsen:                      06:25                       because you were not dangerous. I love it.

Todd Gaster:                        06:33                       You just gotTa understand how it is that you're thinking and what, what the beliefs are that drive that.

Marie Larsen:                      06:38                       Yeah. You know, and I've got to relate to your story as far as just like you're not living a lavish life or anything like that at the, at the beginning, you know, living in a mobile home, working, you know, hundreds of hours. I too, it's so funny. I had the mindset and it was all the mindset shifts for me, but I had the mindset that I just couldn't afford things right. And I'm, and I was sitting at funnel hacking live this last year and Russell Brunson stood up and said, hey, here's my two Comma Club coaching for 22 grand. Right? And I was like, that's so nice for people.

I'm so glad that they get to do that. That was literally what I said to myself. I was like, that's so. I'm so glad that people get to do that. Good for them. And my brother leaned over to me and he goes, so you're going to do it.

Marie Larsen:                      07:21                       And I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, are you going to do dude, I'm a college kid. Like I'm trying to pay for college right now. And he was like, he's really just. He's like, those who pay pay attention, are you going to do it? And I was like, holy crap, he's so right. He's so right.

And I freaked out and I realized that if I was going to let one little thing like money stop me from the value that would be in there to change my life, then I would be working my nine to five for the rest of my life. And it wasn't like, not that there's anything wrong with nine to fives because there are people who love their nine to fives and that's fantastic for them. But I knew that wasn't the route that I wanted to take in my life.

Marie Larsen:                      08:00                       And if I hadn't gone and have that complete mindset shift of more, um, oh, I can't afford it to instead saying, how can I afford this was just like, it completely changed my world now to the point where other college kids complain about, you know, spending a couple grand a semester for school and I'm over here paying thousands of dollars a month on, um, on these trainings and these coachings that I'm part of. But it's completely changed my life.

And my friends are here working at their yogurt shops and, and working, you know, for their $10 an hour job. And they love it and that's great for them, but I definitely don't have the normal college route and I know that it's because of that one moment where I decided how am I going to afford this? How am I going to make this a possibility rather than, that's so nice for people. I'm glad that they get to do that. And that completely changed my world.

Like that moment right there I can pinpoint was my mindset and I know I can afford things if I just figured out how, you know, and, and a lot of people they don't realize that. So anyways, just relating back to that story,

Todd Gaster:                        09:05                       it's amazing story. And as you said, what, what shifted? There was a thought. It was a belief, it was something, it wasn't a new tactic, it wasn't a new shiny object, it was just a simple change in the thought which then altered the direction of your life.

Marie Larsen:                      09:19                       And it completely has. It will never be the same because of it.

Todd Gaster:                        09:24                       So I had, I had a client you mentioned that, you know, I can't afford it. And which again is another one of those common things I can't afford it, I can't afford it and so forth. And so I had this client who was a doctor so he definitely could afford it, but one of the things he said, and it didn't matter what he was buying, if it was, you know, a purse for his wife or if he was buying a new Maserati, it didn't matter what it was, I can't afford it. And that was the belief that he had.

And so we got talking and we went through some of the processes and everything and change those beliefs. And so then when I went back and asked him the question, he says, well, I'm an excellent money manager. That's it. Okay. And if you're an excellent money manager, what does that mean? He says, then I can afford anything that I want. And that was just, again, it was just a little shift in his life, changed in the direction of where he was going because now it was from the scarcity model of I can't afford it, to like what you were saying, how can I,

Todd Gaster:                        10:17                       what can I do? And in his world, he's an excellent money manager.

Marie Larsen:                      10:21                       He can afford anything. You can't afford it. Right? Exactly. Exactly. And a lot of people think that by doing that, that means I'm over here saying, oh, how can I afford? Oh, then I'm just going to go buy all these fancy cars and all these things and stuff like that. Like, I totally can go do that. But, you know, obviously at this point, like I'm, I'm being, I'm being a good risk taker, you know, I'm, I'm doing calculated risk.

And that's really what the entrepreneurial world is, is learning how to take really awesome calculated risks and run with it and just hustle the crap out of it. Right? Like you just go with it. Um, and it's true.

And so, and just going through and really figuring out what specifically your mindset is, what the big thing is that stopping you from being financially successful. It's not, you know, you can't blame your boss, you can't blame whatever, like it's playing those other things. It's gotta be, it's totally on you to make that mindset shift and figure out specifically what your thing is that, that makes you so that you can't afford things. Right or in your mind that you can't afford, should say. And that's totally, it's totally a thing. So

Todd Gaster:                        11:26                       I had a mentor of mine, he talked about the mindset shift in just the change in beliefs. And so, you know, my, my group as well, we brought, we've all gone through this. Yeah, I remember there was a time where I was like, man, if I could just make $5,000 a month, if I could just make $5,000,

Marie Larsen:                      11:41                       my goodness, it would be amazing. Yes.

Todd Gaster:                        11:47                       And then it became 10 and then it became, and then it became 100 and, and then it was just like, oh my. And so I was out, you know, again, I'm out in Newport beach, Corona del Mar and everything out here in California and we were walking around and I was looking at some of these, you know, $20, million, $25,000,000 homes and everything else, man, that is awesome.

And I happened to be with a, with a friend of mine and a mentor colleague, a Sofa Guy we were talking about beforehand often that we're making movies with.

And I was like, that would be great, but it's just not something that's going to be in my cart. It was $25,000,000 home. He looks at me and he goes, it's just paper and pennies. And it was again Dane. He's right. It's just paper and pennies. And, and so it was another shift in the thought that I had and that drove, drove my direction, my thought that I couldn't afford this $25,000,000 homes. And most people, maybe they don't want a $25,000,000 home. And that's fine.

Marie Larsen:                      12:48                       I didn't want that.

Todd Gaster:                        12:51                       No, whatever you want you want, but don't limit yourself to whatever it is. So if you want your dream car is a Toyota, awesome, but don't limit the reason that your dream car is a Toyota is because you don't think you can afford something else.

Whatever it is, I don't care what it is, but don't use the scarcity or don't use a belief or something that limits you to what, what your aspirations are. Go out and get them and if they're, and if they're working nine to five, like you said. Awesome.

Marie Larsen:                      13:19                       Great. Fantastic. So going off that, I had a, I had a friend recently who got pitched on like a $9,000 coaching experience, right? For like a year. And um, and she came to me and she was like, can you believe that? She's like, no, she's like, that was bad business, bad business to even pitch something like that.

And I looked at her and I said, but think about it this way. I said, I completely disagree with your comment, but um, if you were to invest $9,000 into this situation scenario and get 50 grand out of it, would that be worth it to you? And she was like, well, yeah, I mean 50 grand like at that, that's like 40 grand, 40 grand that I got up. And I was like, exactly. Now if you invested 18 grand into something and got a, I don't know, 100 grand out of it, would that be worth it to you?

Marie Larsen:                      14:14                       Would that change your world? You will. Yeah, it totally would. And so I had to kind of look and I said, well obviously you have to really study it out and make sure that you know, what you're getting into is good and correct and they're not scamming you, but, um, but you really do need to really imply and make sure that you understand that it's all about the mindset shift of is this going, is this valuable thing that I'm about to invest in?

If it makes me more money, will it be worth it? You know? And, and, and it was a funny conversation because she kept saying, well it's bad, business is bad business that they were pitching me on something like that. And I said, you're absolutely wrong on that. And he said, I totally have made the choice with minutes to spare to do coachings and stuff like that that have caused me lots and lots of money.

Marie Larsen:                      14:59                       And, and it's completely changed my world. Now I'm this little college kid. And at the time when I started doing these coachings and getting into it, the first time I purchased a coaching thing, I had $78 to my name right. And I was as poor as they come. You know, I, I seriously, I was, I was so bored and I was paying for college, I was paying for books.

So is, you know. And I was trying to do social things as a 22 year old kid does and it was, there was so much and I had $78 to work with to start a business. And I had to completely change my mindset because it was no longer, oh, you know, maybe this would be a good idea. It's like I have to do the side of survival at this point, you know? And I, and I had to survive.

Marie Larsen:                      15:39                       And it was a mindset shift that I changed my, changed my life. Um, but, but it completely, it was, it was a hard shift. So when people jump on and say that's bad business to do that, I laugh over it because that's not bad business. That's them forcing you into survival mode. If you really want to work then then you can, you can hustle, you can make it work, but you, you definitely have to figure out your mindset shift.

And what is the big reason that you're not going to pay for that. It's not because it's not going to be valuable to you, it's because you're putting this demeaning thought that it's not going to be good for you or something like that. Right.

Todd Gaster:                        16:15                       Funny you mentioned that because there's several things. If you think about that $9,000, if she would have been invested in the stock market. Okay. And that $9,000 even only became $10,000. She would have been telling everybody how awesome she was. If it became $12,000, she'd have been telling everyone she is a financial genius. If it would have doubled the 18,000, she would have been in the streets dancing, celebrating what, you know, everything that she got out of this, out of this windfall, but that's investing in the stock market versus investing in herself and see there's these things that we have. And this goes back to the mindset. We categorize money, we categorize money that we worked for a that we get in a job versus money that is awaiting fall versus money that is a gift versus money that. And based on how we categorize this money that came in, we have different ways that we'll use that money.

We have different ways that we will, uh, how we can spend it. And also this is right. You know, like when the tax returns, people spend their tax returns three times. Hey, you know what I'm getting, I'm getting a refund here for $1,200, right? I can buy this big screen TV. And then they'll go over, hey, I'm getting this, this refund for $1,200. Let me buy that couch. And they'll spend it three times and then they'll figure out what happened to my money.

Todd Gaster:                        17:38                       Yeah. And so here's, here's one of these, these little nuggets we have mental accounting and how, how we do things. So let me ask you, if you go into store, let's say you're going to go get yourself a new iphone. Okay? There you go. There you go. And you go into, you go into the store and once there it's no $500. We'll just pick a number of Nice, nice and easy. $500. And now the beauty of the age that we live in, you can go on your current phone and you can find if there's a better price round. Okay?

And you find out that down the road is the same iphone for four slash 75. Do you go, do you go get the iphone or not? Do you stay where you are and pay $500 or do you drive down the road and get it for four slash 75?

Marie Larsen:                      18:33                       It depends on who you are as a person, but I would to like drive down the road.

Todd Gaster:                        18:36                       All right. So you would go down the road. That's fine. Now let's go a little bit different. Let's say you are going to buy a car. Okay. And you go in to buy the car and it's $15,000. We're going to. We're going to go with those cameras and stuff. Were those Toyota's where you're talking about a minute ago, it's $15,000 and you get on your phone and you see a dealership down the road. It's $14,975. Do you drive down the road or do you stay where you are?

Marie Larsen:                      19:12                       It's only $25 difference.

Todd Gaster:                        19:16                       So here's, here's again and, and you know what? Ninety nine percent of the people answer the same way because in their mind it's a different percentage, but $25 is $25.

Marie Larsen:                      19:28                       It was $25 in the first one and it was $25 on this one. One you would drive for because the percentage of for 75 versus $500 a is a more of a percentage than $15,000 versus. But it's still $25 and these are the little things that we do in our mind. It's the same thing when people are talking about growing their business and they're talking about facebook ads. It's the same thing when you're talking about all the world.

Should I use Google ad? Should I do this? Twenty $5 is $25. But we have this mental accounting that comes in, changes how we actually operate.

Marie Larsen:                      20:06                       Well, that is so interesting and it's the percentage there. I mean, that's what really threw me. And the same thing goes with this is now interested like as you've, as you've gone through. And let me wrap this back. I want your, I want this audience to understand why you decided to become a wealth coach. Now that in a lot of sense can sounds scammy to people that can sound, you know, there's a lot of things that go into it. Um, what, what did you, what thought process did you have and what mindset shifted? You have to go from being in your, you know, 100, a hundred hours a week, you know, to changing your mindset. And, uh, and deciding that a wealth coach was what you wanted to go into.

Todd Gaster:                        20:56                       It was interesting. I've never had this in mind. I, this was never the plan. I never thought I was going to be coaching other people. I was an entrepreneur at heart. I open, you know, I, I opened my first business at 17. I had issues, like I said, then I ended up with the three jobs and, and so forth. But I, I've always been an entrepreneur. This wasn't what it was going to do. Uh, I've, I've owned a dog training centers, I've owned pet stores, I've owned a coaching businesses. I've owned, I mean, excuse me, all kinds of different things. And so with me, what ended up happening is I needed to fix my own life. My, my, I was 320 pounds. Um, so I, I had stressed myself, I became a stress eater. I stress myself out so much. I was drinking heavily because I was working 100 hours a week. You know, what I deserved to go out and blow off some steam.

Marie Larsen:                      21:52                       Yeah. So I would go out three, four nights a week for hours. There you go, there you go.

Todd Gaster:                        22:02                       And in some, some workout, some eat, some, you know, there's, there's all kinds of ways. And so my relationship with my wife was of course a shambles. We weren't seeing each other just because of the work. But then you add in the money stress, then you add in the fact that, hey, I'm going, I'm not coming home, I'm going out. And uh, so it just continued on. And so, and even got to the point where my wife men will be men. It'll be 26 years that we've been married in November.

Um, but we were, we'd gone over two years without sex. There was no, there was no connection, there was no just, it just was what we were doing. And, and you know, whenever I mentioned that I have people, I can't believe you talk about that, why it's truth, it happened and it happens more often than people want to admit.

Todd Gaster:                        22:46                       They don't want it. They don't. It's like most people have issues with intimacy and their relationships and they don't want to deal with it and since they don't want to deal with it that they don't end up talking about the symptoms and the causes and everything, and so that's where I was, so my whole focus was I've got to fix my own life.

I'm not thinking about you. I'm not thinking about anybody else. I got to fix my own life. And when, when I started making these shifts, of course people started noticing, they noticed there was a difference because here's another thing that again, people don't talk about is we have social contracts with everyone.

You have a contract with your brother, you have a contract with your father, you have a contract with your friends and based on these contracts it people are expected to know, act a certain way, and when you start growing, you changed the contract.

Marie Larsen:                      23:35                       It makes people uncomfortable. It makes people uncomfortable because this isn't the Murray. I knew who I'm I grew up with. This isn't the thing is that I'm a part. You've changed

Marie Larsen:                      23:47                       literally what I'm struggling with currently as far as it's, it's, it's awkward and hard to be a college kid who's supposed to be out plan and you know, was just goofing off and everything. But I'm over in my room, you know, typing away and building a sales funnel. Right? And, and people are like, where are you? We would seeing you, you know, you're, you're not the same marine. What's going on? You know, and Oh, you're doing podcasting stuff. That's awesome.

And it's just like, yeah, that's what I'm doing and I'm enjoying it. And uh, and they were like, anyway, it's exactly. This is exactly what I currently am struggling with and my audience is listening to this. They're going to laugh because I've jumped on several times and said I don't feel relatable to people at this time.

And, and it's hard because you want to relate because that social contract, exactly what you're talking about, that social contract is shifting and they don't understand that it's a shift that I have to grow and I have to keep going and if they're going to accept it or not, like that contract will either break or it will continue on, but it will have to change a bit.

Marie Larsen:                      24:51                       And so it's so hard to be relatable to people at this time when my friends are out, you know, doing crazy things and I am wanting to sit here and make money, you know, and it's. And it's hard and it's different but it's hard to be relatable in a situation, in a situation like this where everyone is doing the same thing and I'm trying to pull against the crowd and my social contracts are changing like crazy because of it.

Todd Gaster:                        25:16                       Let me pull it up. I had a chat with someone recently and I want to make sure I quoted correctly. Let me find it here. I had a former client reach out to me if they have. They haven't worked with them in, in a year or so, probably longer. Um, but anyway, let's see here. And I was talking about the social contracts and so she was, she, she said, I'm crazy how my life now is so damn great financially, but I feel all I have is my husband and daughter who truly want me. And, and let's see here. Uh, I've told you several, uh, whereas it

Marie Larsen:                      25:59                       in Wa Watch, can you flourish? Has Been Awesome. She says, I saw your video about your dad, um, which, you know, I do live videos from time to time and she said, so I know you understand how hard it is dealing with family. I said that I do. And then she said, it's so true what they say that it's lonely at the top now I couldn't just let that go. Yeah, that, that's, that's a story. That's just a whatever. And I said, now you just have to find different people. I said, I'm surrounded by friends.

And then I talked about the social contracts that we were just saying. They said we all have social contracts that we made with people and when we change, we break those contracts. When that happens, people get pissed and jealous, so we create new contracts with people who want to see us succeed and that. And that's really what it is. It's not, it's not lonely at the top.

It's lonely at the top because you broke all those contracts with the people who don't want to go out and put the work in that don't want to go out and expand that don't have the same vision that you have.

Marie Larsen:                      26:54                       Right?

Todd Gaster:                        26:55                       So you go out and you create new contracts with new people who were there supporting and excited and wants you to move and that. And that's what it is. And like you said, you know, you, you, you have a different environment

Marie Larsen:                      27:07                       and

Todd Gaster:                        27:08                       you still have the same vision, the same mission, the same purpose and direction that you're doing. So now you just got to find the people that fit into that vision.

Marie Larsen:                      27:15                       Absolutely. Which is difficult because the situation I, I physically am still here. It's not like I've left the scenario, so I totally understand that, but I'm, but I'm grateful for the good people who have been willing to change their social contract with me a little bit. Um, so that allows me to grow and are still wanting to be friends because of it. Right? But the ones that are just like, you know, Sianora Sia, right, those, those are the ones that aren't worth sticking around for anyway because they're, they're not, they're not, they're not there to help support you and grow.

And so that's been a, a harsh lesson within this last couple of months is trying to figure out how to befriend and people who want to and can be, um, but that they have an understanding heart and I have an understanding her and you know, that we're trying to work like that anyway. It's just the whole, the whole situation and scenario. The social contracts are real thing and it's lonely at times to change your social contracts for the purposes of wealth

Todd Gaster:                        28:18                       and take it, take it takes, goes back to that risk management you were talking about earlier, but it takes, it takes guts. And, and because as you said, is, it, is, it can be lonely. It can be, you know, people don't understand your vision and people don't believe your vision. Absolutely. And they're just, they're just waiting for you to fail so you can come back to the old Murray that they knew

Marie Larsen:                      28:43                       and beg for our original social contract. It makes me laugh because I, um, I had some friends a couple months ago when I was really hitting it hard, um, and starting to hit it hard that were making fun of me, you know, at times because of it. And there, you know, if they're listening to this so they know who they are, but there are kind of, you know, making fun of me and stuff like that. And then months later they see the, I've actually, I've actually done something, you know, and I've created something and they're coming up. And, you know, assuming up, hey, maybe we could, you know, go get lunch sometime and talk about your stuff. And I was like, weren't you the one that was making fun of me this whole time? Oh, well I'm not interested. You can pay for my coaching if that's the case, you know? And they're like, well, no, you know, we're, we're friends, you know, and it's like, it doesn't work like that.

Todd Gaster:                        29:35                       I appreciate the thought and here's the link to my coaching.

Marie Larsen:                      29:38                       Yeah, here's the link to my coaching upon to

Todd Gaster:                        29:42                       pay for it now. But in some words that you mentioned, and I think this, this, this is where most people, most people really don't understand what it is that I do, uh, which, which I love.

Marie Larsen:                      29:56                       I can attest to that too.

Todd Gaster:                        30:09                       See there? Yeah, it's this, it's this magic thing, you know, um, but see, most people, when I talk about wealth, most people think I'm talking about money

Todd Gaster:                        30:16                       right

Todd Gaster:                        30:17                       now. Money's a part of wealth. I'm talking about body. Where are you in your body? Are you wealthy in your body, your fitness? Where are you with your nutrition? I'm talking about where are you with your being, where are you with your spiritual connection, where are you with your, your, your vision, your mission,

Marie Larsen:                      30:41                       not just off of the financial stance.

Todd Gaster:                        30:44                       It's not. And, and so, you know, where are you in your relationship? So when we're talking about balance, where are you with your, your relationships that are important to you, and then where are you in your business? Where are you in your bank account? And so it's this whole process that gives there, which is why if you go and look at all my testimonials, none of them mentioned money.

Marie Larsen:                      31:04                       Yeah,

Todd Gaster:                        31:05                       they talk about I'm enforcing boundaries. I'm happier than I've ever been. Um, well there are some that mentioned money but, but you know, I've lost 30 pounds. I've been able to get out of a toxic relationship. They talk about all these other things which are part of becoming what you will never become wealthy. You will never make a bunch of money if you don't have the other stuff. So what it is I talk about is the habit all lifestyle. They have it all. No, do do all of these things.

Marie Larsen:                      31:36                       Yeah. You know, and it's, it's really interesting. I was sitting at, I'm Alex charfen event a two months ago up in Boise and Alex Charfen has done really great things and he's awesome. He has the billionaire code and I'm sitting there and he had gone through. He was like, make sure you're drinking enough water. And I was like, why are you talking about that? And then he's going to use like making sure you're exercising. I was like, why is he talking about this? I'm here to learn about money and then you go about this and he's going through this entire list of things.

And I sat there and I was like. And then at the end he finally talked about money and I seriously, it hit me so hard and I was like, if I'm not doing well physically, if I'm not doing well mentally, if I'm not doing well, you know, just overall in general in my life, creating relationships that are going to be lasting and really taking care of those.

Marie Larsen:                      32:24                       If I'm not going through and really a nurturing other parts of my life. Why in the world would I be able to nurture my finances, you know, and so it was a good, again, another mental shift that I had and I said, I'm more to listen to a man like that about money who is going through and helping me improve my overall life rather than just someone who says, here's the magic button that puts an extra 200 grand into your bank account just by living right?

Like those of people that doesn't work, you know, but instead having someone who really cares about you as a person and your wellbeing and who you are, those are the people that are gonna help you not only create a financial success but success in other ways as far as you know, your, your wealth status of, uh, your whole life.

Todd Gaster:                        33:13                       Yeah. I've got a six month coaching program that we're talking about and I tell people the first two months, all we're going to be doing for the first two months is clearing out the old stuff. Getting rid of the things that are in the way holding us back in all areas of her life. The next two months we're going to start building the runway, so the first two months were clearing the runway. The second two months we're building the runway and then the last two months is when we're going to take off. Now the interesting thing is people start making money, making more money way back up here in the first month.

Marie Larsen:                      33:47                       Yep.

Todd Gaster:                        33:48                       I tell them, that's not our focus. That's not our plan. That's not what we're doing until we get to these last two months, but it's a byproduct when you start feeling better, when you start understanding yourself, when you start, when you eliminate the belief that people with money are dangerous, it automatically changes your decisions that that shit. It just changes your decisions.

It doesn't mean you are all suddenly became a better closer. It doesn't mean you became all of a sudden a better you hustle more. It just changes your decisions which changed your context and you know everything that we do, so we we have these results that we want.

Whatever the result is, I don't care what it is or the results that we're getting and this result appear is based on the actions that we take right here. So these actions are a direct result, you know, or are directly change our results. Now, the actions though are determined down here by the amount of potential that we tap into. We all have them unlimited amount of potential. But here's the fun thing. What determines the amount of potential that we tap into is over here. And that is our beliefs,

Marie Larsen:                      34:59                       right?

Todd Gaster:                        35:00                       So our beliefs determine the potential, the potential determines the actions, the actions then determine the results. Now the funny thing about this is our results often to determine our beliefs.

Marie Larsen:                      35:08                       Yep.

Todd Gaster:                        35:09                       And so it becomes this circle the circle. So if you want to change it, you got to change your beliefs and nobody wants to talk about that.

Marie Larsen:                      35:16                       Nope, that's it.

Todd Gaster:                        35:18                       Eric. I need a better funnel. I need to give me another template. Let's me let me do this, or no, I know what it is, is it's my email copy. That's what it is. No.

Marie Larsen:                      35:28                       Which you will need to change those things, but there are definitely, those are things that can help you in a financial aspect. Um, but making sure that you have your beliefs changed as far as you know, who you are and what you're able to accomplish. Will you, it will become clear what you're supposed to be changing, you know, it will become clear what you should be changing just because you decided to improve yourself first.

Todd Gaster:                        35:52                       Yeah,

Marie Larsen:                      35:54                       absolutely. Awesome. Hey, well we're probably going to wrap up. You're saying is this seriously been like, guys, this has been so awesome. Make sure that you go follow todd gaster and like literally everything that he's doing. He has amazing coaching.

He just has so much stuff he's accomplishing so he's already accomplished so much. He's going to continue to accomplish a lot. So make sure that you jumped on what is the best way for people to like get in contact and if they found value in this, I mean I found value in this for ways that they can jump on. Find your coachings. Fine. Your social media a. We list those out for us here.

Todd Gaster:                        36:27                       Yeah, it's real easy. You know instagram. Oh, you can find me on facebook. God gaster. Everything's really easy to find me on twitter. Twitter, twitter is a little different. It's my wealth coach. Switch it a little bit there, but really I think what would be beneficial for people is everyone. Everyone talks about where they want to go, right.

I want to get here and so if I took you to a city, there was. You didn't have a map. There was no street signs, there was nothing and I told you I want you to get to x. could you get there? And people will say, well, you know, yeah. I get people say, yeah, I could get there this. Well eventually you may get there. If you go knock on door door, door door, you may figure it out, but see if you don't know where you're starting, there's no way you can get to where you're going because you may have already been there.

Todd Gaster:                        37:24                       So you've got to know where you're starting. And then once you know where you're starting and where do you want to go there, there's a gap in between. And you close that gap. So what I have is an opportunity for everyone to see where they're starting, if they want to get true with themselves. So if they go to escape the matrix training.com/assessment, there's a free assessment there. It's not even an optin.

You don't even have to opt in. You can just take the, take the assessment and see where you are and see where you are now after you take the assessment, you do have an opportunity to book a call with me and we can chat about it. But you're just go see where you are. Just be true and honest with yourself. See, the thing is, it's not a goal to make it worse than it is.

Todd Gaster:                        38:11                       It's not a goal to make it better than it is. It simply see where it is. And so when I coach people is, you know, let's say they want to lose weight or they want to make more money.

I don't care where, what, how much you want to make, but we need to know where you're starting. So how much did you make in the last month? Well, you know, somewhere around here, how much did you make the class more? I don't care what the number is. We just need to know the number and that's the same thing with this assessment. I don't care what assessment says, we just

Marie Larsen:                      38:36                       need to know where we're starting so we can find out where we're ending up in the process to get to get to that part or you get to get to the end. Right. I love it. Hey, thank you so much. This has seriously been there has been so much value in this. I'm so excited.

We'll make sure to tag in everything in the blog, guys that you can jump in and find this stuff. Uh, if you can't find them easily online, there was another resource for you there, but then you so much todd for everything. Really appreciate it and we'll probably have you on here. Again, this was serious value bombs and thank you again. Appreciate it. Thank you again for the opportunity. Yeah, for sure.

Get in Contact with Todd:

https://www.instagram.com/toddgaster

https://www.facebook.com/todd.e.gaster

https://twitter.com/mywealthcoach

https://www.pinterest.com/tegaster

http://escapethematrixtraining.com/assessment