The Idea Climbing® Podcast

Creating and scaling your own networking group is an excellent investment of your time. The rewards can be great and far reaching. I discuss how to do that in this episode with my guest, Clay Hicks.

 

Clay is a serial entrepreneur with a portfolio of 5 different companies, an author, a speaker, and trainer on professional relationships. Clay Hicks founded his first company, H7 Network in 2008, in the hopes of positively impacting the many under-served entrepreneurs and all sales professionals.

Many years ago, Clay was searching for and trying out a variety of networking groups. More often than not he left each one more disappointed than anything else. Most of them judged people by how many referrals they were giving and how much money they made without much thought for meaningful relationships. They were very transactional and that didn’t sit well with Clay.

He decided to start H7 Network to do things the way he believed was right.

Build Your Leadership Team Early On

First, he surrounded himself with five leaders that helped him start the group. That support system was crucial to their early success. It wasn’t just one person trying to figure everything out alone. The team framed out their first style of networking group which was 60 second commercials and a speaker. He began to build more meaningful relationships and that changed everything. There was no pressure to give referrals, Clay and his team let that happen organically.

Clay has always looked for potential in other people. He doesn’t see them just for who they are, he also sees them for who they could be and how valuable having a relationship with them could be for both people. So, when he went to make those choices early on, he picked people he had or could have a good relationship with. Those were the early days of his “Connect, Serve, and Ask” methodology. He knew back then he couldn’t do it without them and knows today that he still couldn’t do it without his team.

He and the original board went their separate ways and Clay turned to his existing network from his real estate industry days. He invited the people to join H7 leadership that he already at least had a connection with, and explained what he was creating. Clay’s a natural promoter. The people he invited to join him also had relationships to share. Everyone was involved with invited people to the meetings.

Getting Traction for Attendance in Your Early Days

They started free so the traction gained was around getting people into the room. The attendees in turn brought more people from their networks to the meetings. Clay had to make the structure of the meetings interesting and valuable. The meetings started with attendees sharing celebrations of the good things that were going on in their lives. That immediately created positive energy in the room.

Then there was the value-add component. He shared strategies to network effectively with his “Connect, Serve, and Ask” methodology. They would do 60 second commercials with a unique, non-traditional format. He then encouraged the attendees to continue their conversations and set up 1-to-1 meetings after the event. The push for 1:1 meetings created value between the meetings because people were having more meaningful conversations than they had time for at the events.

Soon they began to charge and people began to see it as more valuable. They grew by 60 members in their first six months. Once they hit 60 members some of his support system left so Clay had to update his support system with new people. The big lesson here for you is to get some support from strong relationships, even if its an informal board of advisors, as soon as possible when starting your group. Lone wolf to pack. You can go fast by yourself, or you can further by surrounding yourself with good people.

Your relationships are the key to your success!

In this episode we dive into topics such as:

How to know if you have strong relationships.

The importance of being open to constructive criticism.

How to create engagement and collaboration in your meetings.

Why you need to know what moves your attendees’ needles to grow their careers and not just set your own agenda.

Why traditional 30 or 60 second commercials don’t help with engagement.

How H7 doubled in size in twelve months in the early days.

How to build relationships to scale when your group hits critical mass.

How to approach people to become Alpha Team leaders to help you run your group.

Advice for building and scaling your group through virtual meetings.

Suggestions for creating engagement in virtual meetings.

What, above all else, new networking group leaders need to do to scale successfully.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clay Hicks is a serial entrepreneur with a portfolio of 5 different companies, a bestselling author, a speaker, and trainer on professional relationships. Clay Hicks founded his first company, H7 Network (in 2008), in the hopes of positively impacting the many under-served entrepreneurs and all sales professionals.

His vision is to globally revolutionize the way business professionals “Connect” first, “Serve” with purpose, and “Ask” of their peers. H7 Network, a Franchisor, is a national B2B networking platform, In person and Virtual, for professionals to create their own network and develop champions for their business.

Clay's responsibility as the CEO is to innovate new programs, develop new markets internationally, training and development, implementing new processes for retention, business and relationship development overall. H7 Network currently has members in 48 states and 20 countries.

Connect with Clay!

www.h7network.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claytonrhicks/

Clay’s scheduler https://calendly.com/clayhicks

Today we’re discussing how to develop yourself personally and professionally to become a great podcaster. My guest is Junaid Ahmed. Junaid is the Founder of Humblezone and Creator of Home Studio Mastery, designed to teach you how to build your home studio.  He has two decades of video production experience, as well as designing websites & apps focused on a systematic process and seamless user experience.  He provides podcasters, speakers, and content creators with a comprehensive plan for their studio equipment, lighting, and layout.

 

 

Junaid started his creative career creating fliers for his uncle’s business over 30 years ago. He then grew into graphic design, mobile app design, he just found himself creating, creating, creating. It wasn’t until 2005 that he discovered podcasting, but he didn’t really get into it until 2012 when a friend of his wanted to start a podcast.

Junaid ended up starting a podcast with two of his friends that lasted for four episodes. While that run ended abruptly, Junaid was bitten by the podcasting bug. He wanted to get back into podcasting, but he just didn’t have the drive until he read the book “Crushing It” by Gary Vaynerchuck. Gary wrote “Just go and document your journey…” Junaid started a podcast documenting his journey into becoming a podcaster, a beekeeper, and other hobbies he’s had.

Junaid says podcasting is elevating because when you empty your mind, when you put stuff down in Audio Note you’re releasing space in your brain to do other things and that’s how you start developing your personality.

What does using podcasting as a self-improvement tool mean to you?

When Junaid went to college for English Composition his teacher said, “Just free write, write whatever comes into your mind”. She was trying to get him to empty his mind because over time, your writing becomes more refined.

Junaid views podcast through the same lens because the more you record, the clearer your messaging becomes over time. As you’re recording the episodes you get to go back and listen to and critique yourself. You’ll get better as you do more of it. From that perspective it helped him develop his speaking voice, from his ability to talk about a topic or to teach him how to overcome something that he once struggled with.

What advice do you have for new podcasters about interviewing?

To become a good interviewer, you’ve got to be able to articulate the point of the interview. To get moving you can start out as a solo podcaster. When Junaid started his podcast, it was just him talking about what he was going through with his hobbies. The more he did that the more he understood how to tell a story.

It still wasn’t as refined as what he wanted it to be, so he started inviting his friends to be interviewed. The more he did that, especially with people he already knew, the better he got. It’s easier to talk to somebody you already know. It’s hard to talk to somebody brand new unless you have topics that you share a passion with.

Another way to be a good interviewer is to research who you’re going to be interviewing. We’ve seen some great examples of that, particularly people like Simon Sinek and Jimmy Fallon. They research the people they’re going to be interviewing. You can do the same thing. When possible, watch previous interviews of your future guests to know what other people are asking them and then ask different questions.

Suggestions for Finding Good Guests

A good guest is only as good as the topic that you’re going to come and talk about. It all comes down to the purpose of the podcast episode that you’re going to record. It all comes down to the focus of your podcast and what you are going to be talking about. This is decided by knowing who your target audience is. This will help the guest who’s taking time out to record the episode get a ton of value as well.

We also dive into topics such as:

How large or small of a niche should you pick as the topic of your podcast.

How to decide what type of podcast to have, self-help, business, etc.

Technology tips for setting up a podcast.

The story about how Junaid found his niche when he was just getting started in podcasting.

Easy ways to test the water if you’re thinking about podcasting.

How podcasting can be a self-development tool for the host.

Tips for being a great podcast guest and how to get comfortable being one.

How to “stick with it” after you become an established podcaster to avoid getting burnt out.

The one thing, above all else, to do when it comes to developing yourself as a podcaster.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Junaid Ahmed is the Founder of Humblezone and Creator of Home Studio Mastery, designed to teach you how to build your home studio.  He has two decades of video production experience, as well as designing websites & apps focused on a systematic process and seamless user experience.

He provides podcasters, speakers, and content creators a comprehensive plan for their studio equipment, lighting, and layout. He also enables video creators to create effortless content in a comfortable and impressive home studio setting.  He’s the author of Mastering iPhone Video Production, and Host of Hacks & Hobbies podcast. He also speaks frequently at national events such as Podfest and multiple virtual summits.

Click here to learn more about Home Studio Mastery!

Click here to connect with Junaid on LinkedIn!

There are almost too many ways to go about creating social media strategies. I discuss some strategies that actually work with my guest, Sophie Zollmann. Sophie is the Founder of FMD Strategic Partners. They take the guess work out of marketing to get real results for 7 and 8 figure service providers.

 

 

Sophie was a stay-at-home mom and got into online businesses instead of paying daycare all her money. Customer service, business management, clerical work, etc. Then in 2009, after a short break, she came back to the work world and launched herself as a virtual assistant. One of the first things she did to get in front of people was to get on social media. She got on Twitter and Facebook, and six months later after meeting other virtual assistants and business owners who needed social media help, she had a business model, and she formed an LLC.

She used digital marketing, especially social media, to grow her business. In the process, she fell in love with social media. It’s become the bread and butter of her business. Sophie built a team and leverages their skills to help her clients grow their businesses like she has hers.

Where People Go Wrong with Social Media Marketing

The biggest thing is that they don’t have a strategy. People are throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks, they’re trying the latest trends that may or may not work for them, and they may be on platforms that they don’t need to be on because they think they have to be everywhere. They’re also doing it themselves, even though oftentimes they dislike doing it.

That dislike is reflected in what’s produced and only ends up hurting them in the long run. If you don’t love it, you really shouldn’t do it because your distaste come through in your copy. Last but not least is people don’t have a strategy and a clear plan. They aren’t creating initiatives and campaigns that have measurable components such as KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), goals and objectives.

Success comes from knowing what works. You’ve got to be able to measure what you’re doing. Once you know what works, then you can maximize that. But you can’t figure that out without strategy, hiring people to do it for you, and having measurable campaigns and initiatives that you can know if it’s working or not.

How to Get Started with Creating a Social Media Strategy

It involves a lot of research. You’ve got to know who your ideal client avatar is. In most cases there’s multiple client avatars. Even in one industry you will have different demographics, psychographics, income levels, all the things that make them human beings. We are marketing to human beings. You must speak to them in a way that they can hear you. Knowing them deeply is a key component of your strategy, that’s your first step.

That research dictates what platforms you’re on, what you offer, how you speak about it and what you do to get them in the door. Your strategy must also have your competitive analysis. You must know who your competitors are, how you stand up against them, and how you can beat them. Because if you’re just doing the same thing that they’re doing you’re going to be lost in the sea of all the other people doing those things.

You Have to be Unique

And then of course once you’ve done that, there is making sure you have a very solid and unique value proposition, that’s a part of your research. You’re going to be looking at branding, do you really look good? Is it consistent and does it appeal to your ideal client? Branding is very important.

It all works together. When you have a completely defined strategy that takes in all the aspects of online marketing and what it takes to succeed then you have the monthly marketing plan. That’s where you get your measurable initiatives, you get your content strategy, you figure out where you need to be and where you don’t need to be, then you rearrange everything to make it fit together so that it all feeds each other. That makes your efforts more effective and also more measurable so you know what’s going to work and what’s not.

We also dive into topics such as:

How to pick an ideal client avatar and not try to be everything to everyone.

How to create a foundation to end up in a successful place to launch your social media marketing strategy.

How to know what content to put where and when in your monthly marketing strategy.

The components of a successful monthly marketing strategy.

How to stay consistent with your marketing efforts and not burn out.

What to get started with when you build out a team.

How to know when to change course and when to stay the course on your social media platforms.

When and why to leave a social media platform.

The one thing, above all else, to do when it comes to creating a successful marketing strategy.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophie Zollmann is the founder of FMD Strategic Partners, a digital marketing expert, best-selling author, and speaker with 20 years of industry experience. She leads a fractional marketing department that delivers enterprise-level strategy and execution for 7+ figure businesses.

As a pioneer of the fractional marketing department model, Sophie specializes in helping CEOs and 7-8 figure service providers scale smarter, not harder. Her team provides comprehensive marketing solutions, from strategic planning to full implementation, that drive sustainable growth and position clients as industry leaders. Her data-driven approach combined with innovative strategies has established her as a trusted partner for businesses ready to scale.

In her spare time, Sophie loves reading Harry Potter, relaxing on beautiful beaches, and doting on her grandson.

Website: https://fmdstrategicpartners.com

Email: [email protected]

Mentoring programs can skyrocket your organization’s success if you have the right strategies. I discuss those strategies in this episode with my guest, Ken Rusk.

Ken is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, and blue-collar advocate that proves there is no degree needed to achieve comfort, peace, and freedom. Ken spent his younger years digging ditches and working in construction.

 

 

He is passionate about helping people achieve their dreams regardless of their educational background or past. In Ken's book, Blue-Collar Cash, he shares his insights from over 30 years of working in blue collar trades as an entrepreneur, mentor, and life coach.

Why is Mentoring Important?

Ken believes it should be incumbent to anyone who is successful to give back to the people that are following in their footsteps. He believes that it’s a good idea to shorten the learning curve of those who follow us because you can prevent them from making a lot of expensive mistakes. That’s just part of being successful to share that kind of advice; especially if those people work for you. To grow your company there’s a lot that you can do to help people within your company that are intrapreneurial at heart to be successful. They win, you win, everyone wins at that point.

The Case for Mentoring Intrapreneurial People

As the owner of a business, your goal should be a couple of things. Number one, it should be to become as irrelevant to the business as possible from a mechanical daily standpoint. If you’re going to be a visionary you can’t be involved in doing the day-to-day stuff. You need to hand it off to people and make them feel they have some ownership of the results. He’s said in front of his staff of over 200 that he can’t get what he wants, his company can’t get what it needs until all of his employees get what they want first. The more they win the more you’re going to win in the end.

Advice for Leaders

You must be planning what you want to do with your business, meaning drawing it out to the most minute detail. It’s like creating a brochure that is about yourself. You must have a clear idea of the goals your company is moving towards and why. Once that reason is clear then passing that goal along to the people in your company that you’re mentoring is paramount. You want to get your team to feel like they’re in it for themselves and they relish the fact that they’re allowed to swim in that intrapreneurial pool. When they create results and share ownership of those results your business is poised for explosive growth.

We also dive into topics such as:

Characteristics of good mentees.

How to create successful mentorship experiences for intrapreneurs.

How to create a platform for mentorship within your organization.

How to approach potential mentors.

Why you want to hire people that are self-managing.

Advice for bosses about how to be good mentors.

Examples of what Ken’s mentoring programs look like.

The importance of recognition and bonus plans.

Why dropping the ego as a boss/owner will make your business more successful.

How to successfully co-create and achieve goals with your employees.

The criteria of good goals.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do as an owner/boss to create a mentoring program within your organization.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ken Rusk is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, and blue-collar advocate showing that there’s no degree required for comfort, peace, and freedom.

Ken spent his younger years digging ditches and working in construction. He never went to college. Instead, he made goals, planned, and worked hard for thirty years. Now, Ken is a very successful entrepreneur with multiple businesses and revenue streams.

Ken Rusk specializes in mentoring and has coached hundreds of young people in areas such as short-, mid-, and long-term goal setting, life visualization, career paths, and sound financial planning. He is passionate about helping people achieve their dreams regardless of their educational background or past.

Click here to learn more about Ken!

Self-sabotage runs rampant in many professions, especially entrepreneurship. We discuss how to overcome and eventually eliminate self-sabotage in this episode with my guest, Shiraz Baboo.

Shiraz is a multi-award-winning author, international speaker, and Reality Interventionist. He is known for helping people to rewrite their reality to overcome challenges in their lives. Shiraz has helped thousands of people to overcome illness, poverty and unconsciously addicted struggles.

 

 

Shiraz was stagnant for decades as an entrepreneur. He made about $100,000 a year; but when you’re at that level year after year and it never increases it becomes very, very frustrating. He knew he knew how to make money because he got from nothing to $100,000 but he didn’t know what was going on that had him stuck. Then he had an idea to earn $1 million in one year when he met the people from “The Secret”, including Bob Proctor, John Assaraf and more.

Shiraz got their contact information and was going to create an app that involved all of them and their mailing lists. While anticipating success Shiraz’s income went from $100,000 to $0 in two years. He left his business because he was so sure his plan was going to work and started working on the app full time.

So Close and Yet So Far

Shiraz experienced the effects of self-sabotage. It’s not that his potential business partners didn’t like him, the relationships just started to fizzle out and Shiraz and his app fell off their radar. Shiraz kept trying to develop the app and he kept getting delays. He’d have to go back to them and tell them it’s still not ready. Eventually they gave up and Shiraz gave up. He went back to his old business, and he went right back to earning $100,000 a year.

How to Prevent Self Sabotage

Many years later Shiraz was presented with another opportunity to start making more money. Shiraz was more self-aware and learned techniques to prevent self-sabotage. He realized the last time he took certain actions his income went down. He didn’t want his income to go down so he searched out and found the reasons his income declined.

Shiraz believes that most people don’t realize that you don’t self-sabotage because of circumstance and you oftentimes don’t do it because you’re afraid. You self-sabotage because you’re so comfortable and you’re addicted to that state of status quo.  So, when you leave that state your body goes through withdrawal and your body makes you do things to go back to that space where it’s addicted to, the status quo.

The exception is if what you’re trying to do scares you so much it pushes you in the opposite direction. That’s what happened with Shiraz. There was a big fear of earning a million dollars a year. Shiraz worked with a coach and found out when he was a teenager his family and friends told him they had zero doubt that he would be making millions of dollars. His brain went oh my god they’re going to leach off me. If I have a million dollars everyone will want my money. So, his brain decided that at $100,000 a year he would be safe from leaches so that’s where he stayed.

Once they got that belief cleared by the next year Shiraz had made over $200,000 and he was on his way!

In this episode we also dive into:

How to discover and clear your negative beliefs.

Why 95% of what’s keeping you from success in your business has nothing to do with your business.

How Shiraz got to $1,000,000 in sales.

How to match your conscious beliefs with your unconscious beliefs.

How to recognize emotional triggers that tell you something inside needs to shift.

How to start stopping self-sabotage.

Why the biggest things your mind tries to avoid are guilt and shame.

How to train your brain to think the thoughts you want and feel the feelings you want.

Ways to avoid the withdrawal from your self-sabotage addiction.

Once you “get out of the self-sabotage hole” how to maintain your success in just 10-15 minutes a day.

The power of visualization combined with positive emotion.

How to get into a feeling of gratitude every day.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to eliminate self-sabotage.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shiraz Baboo is a multi-award-winning author, international speaker, and Reality Interventionist. He is known for helping people to rewrite their reality to overcome challenges in their lives. Shiraz has helped thousands of people to overcome illness, poverty and unconsciously addicted struggles. Overall, he is a renowned personality in the area of reality addiction, and his book, How to Rewrite Reality has changed lives across the globe.

Connect with Shiraz!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shirazbaboo/

https://www.youtube.com/energeticmagic/

https://www.tiktok.com/@energetic.magic

https://www.instagram.com/energetic.magic/

https://www.facebook.com/energeticmagic/

You need to stand out in the sales world to be successful and video is an excellent tool to leverage if you have the right strategies. I discuss how to do that with my guest, Jason Zygadlo.

Jason, a seasoned expert with nearly 20 years in medical device sales, now channels his unique skills into Build.Your.Own.Brand., where he helps individuals and organizations stand out creatively and memorably.

 

 

Jason has always tried to do things differently to be memorable. He spent his earlier career in medical device sales. Fast forward to 2024, in his business practice, he was still looking for ways to be different and be more efficient.

The video world was introduced to him by a friend who also sold medical devices. Jason was very quick to adopt the technology himself because he realized he could be more efficient by sending videos instead of regular emails. He particularly liked the analytical part of video technology. You could know if and when the video was watched and for how long. That allowed him to fine tune his messaging to get longer video views.

Getting to Know Him

It’s getting harder and harder to see potential clients. So how can you engage with them? If you’re not delivering your message effectively, then what good are you doing? If the information you’re trying to deliver to the potential client isn’t currently getting through, what other ways are out there? Email is the starting point. Almost everyone shares their email address now. You can also send the videos through LinkedIn.

Jason realized he could be very efficient and send a lot of videos in a personalized and tailored way and then know when they were opened. When he did end up getting in front of the potential client in person he would often be greeted with “It seems like we’ve already met”. They would know him from the value that he had sent. It was usually a video introduction followed up by some kind of white paper or other material.

Getting Your Message Past the Gatekeeper

The beauty of videos is how versatile they can be. Jason would stop by an office and leave some information with the gatekeeper. He would then follow up with his potential client by sending a video saying he had left the information with the gatekeeper. Then (in the video) Jason would introduce himself and let the potential client “get to know him”. The next video would be a demo of the product Jason was selling. Once the potential client met with him Jason would send a thank you video.

How Many Videos to Send

You can’t just knock on the door once or twice, it’s a persistence game. Jason talks about being “pleasantly aggressive”. The videos don’t replace the stop-byes, the drop-offs and the traditional ways of doing things. Videos are a supplemental tool to tack onto the other things that you’re doing to close the sale. There’s no magic number of videos you should send. It takes as long as it takes to get what you’re trying to get and what you’re trying to accomplish.

We also dive into topics such as:

What the first meeting looks like after you get past the gatekeeper.

Why you should create personalized videos and how to do that.

The power of curiosity in the world of video and sales.

How to be different and memorable.

Why different is better for breaking through the noise.

Examples of video platforms you can use to stand out.

Why you should send thank you videos after the sale is closed.

The importance of practicing being on video.

The one thing, above all else, that you should do to stand out in the sales world with video.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason, a seasoned expert with nearly 20 years in medical device sales, now channels his unique skills into Build.Your.Own.Brand., where he helps individuals and organizations stand out creatively and memorably.

As a Kent State graduate and active community advocate, Jason leverages his strategic prowess and passion for branding to empower clients to break through the noise.

When he's not crafting standout strategies, Jason is dedicated to his nonprofit, ZIGGYSTRONG, and enjoys family time, college football, and Lake Erie.

Jason's website:

https://www.careercoachbyob.com/

Social links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-a-zygadlo-9051311/

https://www.facebook.com/jason.zygadlo

https://www.instagram.com/jzig1978/

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to break the bank to get great PR. I discuss how to do that in this episode with my guest, Jill Lublin.

Jill is a 25+ year Media Magnet.  She is a world-renowned publicity expert, international speaker and 4x Best Selling author. Jill has made thousands of stage appearances alongside celebrities such as Tony Robbins, Barbara Corcoran and Jack Canfield, to name a few.

 

 

Jill got into the media like many people find their careers; in a circular and roundabout way. She originally thought the legal field was going to be her career. In college, she started working in the music business in promotion and publicity and fell in love with that. She turned her career around to be the director of promotion and publicity at four independent record labels.

She eventually opened her own business in publicity, wrote the book “Guerilla Publicity” and now she speaks all over the world. She also runs media master intensive workshops and helps entrepreneurs get their name out there without having to spend a fortune.

We dive into topics including:

Why publicity isn’t a “one and done” situation, it’s an evolutionary process.

What you need to do once you have your messaging down.

The power of local publicity and how to get it.

What “earned media” is and what it gives you.

How to approach media outlets to get publicity.

The power of “Seven Follow Ups”.

Two ways to publicize your publicity.

Why you don’t have to spend a fortune to get publicity.

How to do Guerilla Publicity.

When to think about hiring a publicist.

The one thing you need to do above all else to get publicity.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

Why Entrepreneurs Need Publicity

Publicity is happening whether you want it to or not. It starts at the minute you walk out your door, enter a Zoom room or go out for coffee. Your publicity is happening so you should embrace it and make it authentic for yourself. Jill believes that’s really important. One thing she waves her flag about is having a great, focused message.

That means being resonant to who you are. Your reputation comes down to publicity so make it count. The message that you have should be attracting clients, referrals, trust in your industry, credibility, visibility, all the other things that publicity does for you. The results lie within being powerful with your own publicity and consistently being in the practice of sharing your message.

Why You Must Make Publicity a Conscious Effort

This means being conscious about your message. In other words, be clear about who you are. If you’re outgoing and extroverted, embrace it. If you’re shy and introverted, embrace it. Here’s what Jill knows from working with over 100,000 entrepreneurs: When you’re clear about your message, it gives you confidence to share it at networking events and in the media.

The confidence that it gives you helps you speak more concisely and precisely. People will be attracted to that because when you’re confident about what you do people will want to work with you.

Getting Over the Fear of Elevator Pitches

Sometimes it’s fear because you don’t know what to say, sometimes people think their elevator pitch sounds like everybody else’s. When yours is authentic to you and you push the right buttons with your message that is who you are. What’s wonderful about that is that it gives you the ability to say it anywhere, anytime no matter what you’re feeling, and it helps you successfully run your business.

And that's just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the episode for the rest of the story and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jill Lublin is a 25+ year Media Magnet.  She is a world-renowned publicity expert, international speaker and 4x Best Selling author. Jill has made thousands of stage appearances alongside celebrities such as Tony Robbins, Barbara Corcoran and Jack Canfield, to name a few.

She has worked with over 100,000 clients implementing her signature formula for getting media attention, creating next-level visibility in the marketplace that results in boosted sales.  These lead and profit generating formulas are included in her signature program, the Media Mastery Intensive and her monthly Kindness Circles.

LinkedIn:  http://linkedin.com/in/jilllublin

Twitter/X:http://twitter.com/JillLublin

Facebook: http://facebook.com/jilllublin

Facebook business page: facebook.com/publicitycrashcourse

Her free gift to you is here! https://JillLublin.com/guide

If you want to achieve peak performance, you can probably benefit from creating a Performance Bubble. I discuss how to do that with my guest, Craig Domann.

Craig is a veteran NFL agent who has negotiated more than half a billion dollars’ worth of contracts for more than 300 NFL athletes, coaches and now high school and college athletes for their NIL. His journey as a sports attorney has shown him that having a Pro Mindset is key to a successful pro-athlete career. Craig released a book, Pro Mindset: Be Your Best In Your Biggest Moments, and he has a podcast Pro Mindset Podcast where he discusses with guests on his show, the mental ingredients that are common for elite performers and then he transfers that knowledge in insightful stories and daily applications.

 

 

Your Performance Bubble Explained

The Performance Bubble is like a secret weapon that the best of the best utilize to create a mental space so that they can be “in the zone”. The Performance Bubble is applicable to all areas of life, whether you’re in business and you have a big-time sales call or if you’re an athlete and you have a big game. What it does is creates this safe zone where you block out all the things that work against you; fear, doubt, what happened the last time, what somebody told you, etc. When you’re in your Performance Bubble those types of things don’t throw you off your game.

Everyone has been in those situations where they had their act together, they had their game plan, they show up for whatever they need to show up for and their bubble got burst by some curveball, some unexpected comment, objection, whatever it may have been. The Performance Bubble creates a safe zone, a safe mental space where you can be your best in your biggest moments.

What Does a Performance Bubble Do for You?

Number one is the awareness that you have one. If you don’t have one you might be awesome for a short time because you’ve prepared for it, you strategized, you might have visualized it, you think you’re all set. Until they throw you that curve ball and then it blows up in your face. Or you have that pocket voice which is talking to you at the same time you’re doing the presentation that says “Hey man, remember the last time that you were in this situation? It didn’t work out so well.” And that negative thought comes in and now you’re operating on that negative thought.

The Performance Bubble is boundaries and anchors. The boundaries block out the noise, past failures, and so on. In business, if you’re counting your commission check before the sales meeting is over, most of the time you don’t get the check because you’re so attached to the results and the outcome.

When you can embody why you’re there and what you’re doing and let the results take care of themselves, the scoreboard usually tilts in the right direction. Your bank account looks pretty good. And so, the bubble is going back to the boundaries and anchors, it’s blocking out the things that don’t serve you and everything that does serve you gets to come in.

Craig always talks about how you step into that bubble on game day, you step into that bubble when you walk into the board room and the only things that come with you are belief in who you are, confidence in what you’re going to do, all the preparation you did, gets to come in. All the practice you did gets to come in. You visualized yourself on the drive to the meeting or the bus ride to the stadium. You visualized it maybe for the whole week. That gets to manifest itself in the Performance Bubble.

In this episode we also dive into topics such as:

Two ways to lower the volume of the negative voices in your head.

How to create a regulator for your mental state.

How to turn up the volume for the positive voices in your head.

The three parts of the pro mindset.

How an entrepreneur can find good council to shorten their learning curve.

What to do create a Performance Bubble for success before a networking event.

Four ways to maintain the Performance Bubble once you’re in it.

The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to create your Performance Bubble.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Over my 30+ years representing elite NFL athletes and football coaches, I've dissected what sets the most successful professionals apart. I've developed a mental framework with actionable strategies that transcend sports, applying equally to business, entrepreneurship, and personal development.”

Craig's journey as a sports attorney has shown him that having a Pro Mindset® is key to a successful pro-athlete career. Craig released a book, Pro Mindset: Be Your Best In Your Biggest Moments, and he has a podcast Pro Mindset Podcast where he discusses with guests on his show, the mental ingredients that are common for elite performers and then he transfers that knowledge in insightful stories and daily applications.

Craig’s passion lies in sharing Pro Mindset® principles through both group and individual coaching, as well as keynote speaking. "This isn’t just another mindset book or program—it’s a comprehensive system designed to unleash your inner pro! With Pro Mindset, you’ll cultivate the optimal mental environment for excelling in your most critical moments. Pro Mindset guides you to:

(a) craft a new narrative that empowers you to perform at your best when it matters most,

(b) elevate your standards, devise innovative strategies, and implement new systems to reach your full potential, and

(c) create and thrive in your own invincible Performance Bubble™ to unleash the champion within you!”

At his core, Craig wants to see people shatter barriers, overcome limitations, and transform their future through developing a Pro Mindset.  Craig’s passion is to share how to unlock your Pro Mindset through his private and group coaching, keynote speaking and Pro Mindset Podcast.

For more information, visit www.CraigDomann.com.  You can also follow him @ProMindset on LinkedIn, IG, FB, X, YouTube, Pinterest, TruthSocial, and TikTok.  Or listen weekly to Pro Mindset Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts and SoundCloud.

People love to hear and listen intently to great stories. If you can craft them for your marketing initiatives, you’ll build your business faster. I discuss how to do that in this episode with my guest, Thom Van Dycke.

 

 

Thom is a business advisor for solopreneurs and small agencies and a certified StoryBrand Guide. He works to help his clients develop strategic offers that deliver huge value to their customers.

Thom was a pastor for 19 years. When you’re in that kind of role there’s a lot of storytelling already involved. In 2020 he left the ministry and started his own business after reading the book “Building a Storybrand” by Donald Miller. In the back of the book the author described how to get certified as a “Storybrand Guide”. Thom realized that the Storybrand framework is very powerful for organizing your thoughts around storytelling.

That sparked the idea: “I wonder if it’s time for a switch”. After getting certified Thom launched his business and started out as a copywriter. He fell in love with taking the genre of communication, marketing, and figuring out ways to interweave it with storytelling. Thom has been copywriting for four years and now and is starting to do more storytelling consulting work.

When it comes to storytelling and marketing, where do you begin?

Many people think storytelling is about telling their story and being autobiographical. While there is a place for that in marketing, that’s not necessarily what it means to tell your story in marketing. Storytelling in marketing really looks at what other parts of a story are and how do we can use them in our marketing strategy.

Storytelling begins with a hero who wants something and can’t get it, they have an external problem. Then frustration about that leads to internal problems for them. Then the hero meets a guide. The guide gives them a plan, paints a picture of success and failure, and calls the hero to action. The whole arc of the story is one of transformation. So, the idea is the framework for a story. The reason that is so powerful is that our brains are wired to recognize the patterns of stories. From the beginning of written communication humankind has used stories to make sense of their world. The more ancient you go, the more the stories are more supernatural in nature.

The Need for Storytelling

In modern times we’re still creating stories to explain the world around us. We are still using stories to make sense of the universe, often in scientific and naturalistic ways. It’s part of our DNA to make sense of the world that way. When Thom starts working with a client, he first makes sure they understand that concept. Then he helps them understand that when it comes to marketing, in order to be effective, you need to be extremely clear. The brain wants to find the shortest path to an understanding or meaning as possible.

When we put our marketing and messaging into a story format, we’re helping people’s brains get to the point we’re trying to make faster. It helps us land more deals and close more sales because it cuts out some of the brain’s confusion of trying to get to the point.

In this episode we also discuss:

How to get to the point quicker in your marketing strategy.

The case for making your clients to heroes of your stories instead of yourself.

The pitfalls of the least effective marketing campaigns and how to avoid them.

How to articulate your hero’s (customer’s) problems effectively and show them how you solve them.

The role of and need for compassion in marketing.

How to position yourself as the hero’s guide in your customer’s journey.

How to arrange the content on your website to create a hero’s journey.

The need for a call to action and how to create one.

How to balance explaining problems with explaining solutions in your marketing.

Two common storytelling mistakes most people make and how to avoid them.

The one thing that, when it comes to storytelling and marketing, that you need to do above all else.

…and more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thom Van Dycke is a business advisor for solo and micro-preneurs. After 19 years as a pastor, he launched his business at the height of the pandemic in 2020 and grew it to six figures in the first year. Already a certified StoryBrand Guide, Thom expanded his services to include business development consulting in the summer of 2023. He helps his clients to scale to $50,000/month of recurring revenue.

Thom is married to Tara and they have 7 children. They are both advocates for foster and adoption and have welcomed 30 foster children into their home since 2011.

Connect with Thom!

Email: [email protected]

Website: thomvandycke.com

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/thom-van-dycke/

Book a call: https://tidycal.com/thom/introductions

Monthly Strategy Design Workshops: https://link.thomvandycke.com/Strategy-Design

Everyone can be and probably should be a lifelong learner; that practice can change the course of your life. I discuss how and why to do that in this episode with my guest, Eric Pfeiffer.

Eric is the founder and CEO of MPWR Coaching. Eric has been in the leadership development space for over 15 years, having helped build a multi-million-dollar coaching business and trained over 150 coaches worldwide.

 

 

Eric says becoming a lifelong learner didn’t start early enough in his career. In his twenties and even into his early thirties he felt pressure to know everything, to have arrived, to have achieved, and to have whatever knowledge base he needed to be successful. He constantly ran into roadblocks and to different challenges that kept reflecting to him “You don’t know everything.” There was a long season when every time some inadequacy was exposed in him through some deficiency, usually by other people, he would take that as an insult as somehow diminishing his value, disqualifying him from something better.

This eventually changed with help from mentors. One day a mentor said to Eric “You need to get over yourself! You’re going to spend the rest of your life becoming a better version of you. If you see every exposure of something you don’t know or don’t know how to do as some kind of diminishing of your value, you’re going to stay plateaued and stuck. Then what you’ll do is create a world around you where what you know and know how to do currently is the only thing that’s required. That means your success level and trajectory are diminished as well.”

Something Changed

He says he “flipped that script” and recognized that every time some deficiency in him was exposed he decided to celebrate it. He realized that he could be grateful and appreciative because it’s exposing a potential new growth opportunity. If he can embrace the positive perspective, he sees it as an opportunity instead of being an obstacle. Then what happens is every time something’s exposed as a deficiency he gets to experience another area to grow in. He could go on another journey of personal transformation and development.

As that became more and more the norm for his life Eric realized that his trajectory radically changed, and he found himself on this continual growth path.

How Does Becoming a Lifelong Learner Begin?

At first, it’s a choice, it’s a mindset shift to “flip the script” by realizing we can always choose how we interpret an experience. When we experience an area of life that we’ve fallen short in we’re either going to self-protect and project responsibility on everybody else or decide in that moment to choose to see those circumstances as opportunities for our own personal growth and development.

That is the starting point because until we have that mindset, until we can control our mindset about our failures and shortcomings then we will always see those as roadblocks rather than the opportunities that they really are. From there Eric believes that we have to learn some basic mechanisms to squeeze the learning out of our life experiences, whether they be positive or negative.

It’s all up to you!

We also dive into topics such as:

How to flip the script on internal dialogue/shift your mindset.

The importance of and how to practice self-awareness.

How to shift your mindset from my failure is an obstacle to it’s an opportunity.

How developing and adopting small habits leads to big success.

How to know what to take in and what to leave out.

Words for time: Chronos (sequential/stopwatch/calendar time) and Kairos.

How to recognize moments that are most relevant to you and embrace them.

What are brains are hardwired to do in our best moments.

How to maintain a life of lifelong learning and not just have it be a blip on your radar.

The ROI of being a lifelong learner versus just being a momentary learner.

How to create a paradigm shift from obstacle to opportunity.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

 

 

 

 

Click here for more outstanding interviews with entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

About My Guest

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Pfeiffer is the founder and CEO of MPWR Coaching. Eric has been in the leadership development space for over 15 years, having helped build a multi-million dollar coaching business and trained over 150 coaches worldwide. He founded MPWR Coaching in 2019 to expand his efforts to unlock leaders' potential so they can grow their organizations and teams in new, never-imagined ways.

He is known for creating one of the only Leadership Operating Systems available today, which empowers the true engine of any business - its people. He has published two life-transforming books: Leadership Gravitas and Transform Your Trajectory, each introducing simple tools that give leaders a competitive advantage in any context. Eric speaks and leads out of the overflow of his own journey.

He is a fierce practitioner of what he teaches and is committed to becoming a better version of himself daily.

Click here to learn more about MPWR Coaching!