How To Think Like An 8 Figure Entrepreneur w/ Ruth Soukup

When you first start off as an entrepreneur, you learn about things like basic marketing and taking sales and building audiences and posting content, and you can make thousands of dollars, sometimes millions of dollars doing all that stuff. But at some point, when you make the decision that you want to become really successful, you realize that the skill sets you learn at the beginning of your journey can be applied to do way bigger things. No one taught me that stuff. No one taught me that the things that I was learning early in my career could be leveraged to build companies that I could sell and make millions of dollars. And had I known that, I think I could have been successful much faster. And recently I met somebody who had a similar shift. She was a blogger, she had an audience, she was selling things, she was a full time entrepreneur, she was really successful. But when she learned that she could use the exact same skill set that she had been using early in her career to build really big businesses, sell them, have $100 million net worth, she was like, oh my goodness, I could be playing an even bigger game. There's so many people in our industry, there's so many marketers who are focused on the short term things and making quick cash, and they have no idea that the same skill sets that they're using to making quick, quick cash could be used to build generational wealth. And I wish somebody had taught me this stuff earlier. So I brought this person, her name is Ruth, under one of our coaching calls, and I asked her to share her story and I asked her to talk about her transformation and how she was using the skill set that got her to this point to build something much bigger. So if you're early in your journey, I want you to know that all the stuff that you're learning by taking courses or watching YouTube videos or following Gary Vee, you can use it to make extra money or you can use it to build really, really big projects, whatever you want to do. And I hope this inspires you to do big stuff. If you want to. Let's go.

You had your time in which you went full time online despite the doubts of people close to you. But you had, you had a moment where you realized you could go a lot bigger. And I think that moment was when you started looking at the comparisons of all the companies that had raised capital or who had had exits, and you were like, oh my goodness, like I've been doing all this work and I could be going way bigger. And I was hoping to hear about that transformation in your own words.

Yeah. So.

That, like, going back to you Know, just bootstrapping my whole business along the way. And I'll fast forward, I won't go through the whole thing again. But I started as a stay at home mom. It wasn't really meant to be like this business and then it became this business and then people started asking how I was doing it, which is how I ended up starting Elite Blog Academy, right? That after my husband quit his job, then I had so many people, so many friends and bloggers and people going and, and readers. Because I had a very large audience at that point of saying, like, how did you do this? Right? Like, I want to do this. I'm a stay at home mom. How can I do this? So I started Elite Blog Academy. I started teaching it. I first wrote a book called how to blog for profit without selling your soul and did that and then in then ended up creating a whole program, right? But all along the way I was. Everything that I always did was kind of like bootstrapped and it was in response to the next problem for my audience and not really thinking about like, it wasn't always created with this big vision in mind. And I think sometimes when that happens, when we are, you know, we're self funded and we're just like thinking like, what, what's the next thing that I have to do? And you spend a lot of time in the weeds. You don't have the ability to really like, have that big, totally that big vision or even to know what's possible, right? Like, I started thinking that like this was in, like making money on the Internet was an impossible dream. So to go from that 12, 13 years ago to all of a sudden go like starting it would actually happen. Like, I read your book, right, or listen to your book. I listened to audiobooks like every day. And that was this moment that I was listening to your book. And it wasn't. I've been making money on the Internet for a very long time. So it wasn't like everything that you said was things that I haven't heard before, but just the way like sometimes you need to hear the same things over and over or in a slightly different way to, to, to kind of like get that thing. And as I was listening to you and to this, to this book, I was all of a sudden it just like came to me, right? This whole idea for Thinlicious and this new brand. And I, I think I told you that like, I came home and I like just downloaded like the whole business plan, like wrote it out on like a Saturday morning. And of course my Husband who's now very used to me, right? He wakes up and he's like, what are you doing? Like, you have that crazy look in your eye. I'm very scared of you right now. And he. And he was. And probably rightfully so. But it was like the first time, I think in all the times that I've. All the. All the different things that I've been. I've done over the years, that it was like, this is like a whole vision and a whole plan and a plan to grow a brand that is, like, independent of me or will be eventually. And a brand that I'm growing for, for the purpose of an exit. And that, like, opened up a whole different side of my business. And I. And so that. And then you're right. Like, I did my assignments. I joined Cap Inc. I was like, who's this Ryan guy? I'd never even heard of you, Ryan. Which is amazing, right? Like, and so I was like, who is this Ryan guy? Oh, he's got a program. Oh, I'll sign up for the program. Like, I'm very. I don't, like, think you're an action taker, Ruth. Yeah, I'm an action taker. So I signed up, I started doing my assignments, I started preparing for pitch week and doing all the things, and it made me realize, like, holy crap, like, I'm playing small. And that was a huge wake up call. Right? I was a big fish in a little pond. But, like, I realized that there's a whole ocean out there that I need to be part of. And there's so much, like, the possibilities are so endless. And it has really. It's really. The last year has been a big transformation in just the way that I've approached my business, which has been a lot of fun.

Ruth already had a following that she was able to launch this new brand to. But if you're first starting out, how do you do that?

Well, I say in my book that.

You only need a few hundred people.

Who really care about what you're doing.

In order to have a really successful launch. In fact, one of the goals that we have for our students is just build an email list of 250 people, because that's enough to pre sell your first good sales day and build up momentum from there. What Ruth says in this next clip is how to build the rating audience that cares whether it's the first 250 or the first 250,000. Ruth talks about the type of connection that you need with that audience in order to ensure that they buy because so many people focus on the follower count and the eyeballs rather than the stuff that really matters. So here's what she had to say.

Ruth. I can hear some people thinking, okay, Ruth's been blogging for 12 years. I really don't want to wait 12 years to build an audience that I can launch a brand to.

Yeah.

So how did you build your audience, and what advice would you give to the people who did it? The opposite of you. They started a brand that they want to grow and sell rather than doing the blogging for 12 years. So how did you build that and what advice would you give?

Well, first of all, you don't have to do it for 12 years. That's not like I have been doing it for 12 years. But that doesn't. I mean, I've been making millions of dollars for, for 10 years. Right. So I'm good. I think that there's, like, you don't have to wait that long. So. So that's the first. That's the first thing to understand. But also, like, I mean, the advice that I give every one of my students, and I mean, we literally teach this right in the Leap on Academy. But the advice that I give every one of my students is build a platform that you can control. Right. Use all the other stuff. There's so many different choices out there. But the thing that you need to do is build your email list. And it does not have to be.

Like this big giant audience that everybody thinks that it needs to be. There's this idea that you have to have, like millions of people or you're not going to make it. Don't pay attention to vanity metrics. Vanity metrics will kill your business. And vanity metrics are. How many people are watching your TikTok? How many people are on your Instagram feed? Right. Those are vanity metrics. How many page views are. Are on your website? The metrics that matter are your email list. And. And then getting people into your email list and then nurturing them and getting them to know you and like you and trust you so that they will buy from you. It's a very simple concept. And so you can use TikTok, but if you're going to use TikTok, use it strategically. Use it to grow your email list. Have a call to action so that people are coming to your. Your.

Your lead magnet or whatever it is that you have, and so that they're the coupon. If you want to give them a coupon for your product, whatever it is, make sure that you are sending people to your email list. Don't worry. Because guess what, guys? TikTok could go away tomorrow if your whole TikTok right now. Yeah, it liter. I don't even have my. I let my kids have it on their phones, but they're like, I. And I have. And see, because I'm an old lady of the Internet, I've been doing this for literally ever since basically the Dark Ages. I watched Facebook rise and fall. I've watched Pinterest rise and fall. I've watched Instagram rise and fall. I've watched every platform, like, have the big buildup. And everybody's talking about. Right. Does anybody remember what was the Clubhouse before Facebook Live? What was it?

Remember Clubhouse during the pandemic at Clubhouse? You ain't cool if you're not on Clubhouse.

Right. There was some live video streaming before, and now I don't even remember what it was. And I was. And. And that's what happened. There was vine for a while.

Yep.

Justin tv.

Yeah.

And the thing is, like, there will be sometimes there's opportunities. Right. You get it. I was an early adopter on Pinterest and I got millions of followers from that. I was. Had a moment on Facebook where, like, the Facebook gods turned on the spigot and everything I did would go viral.

Yep.

And then it went away. Snapchat. Exactly. So use those. Ride those waves when they happen, but always be strategic. The thing that I have always focused on is growing my email list and creating a relationship with my audience. And so that gives me the opportunity to do other things. If you want to do a podcast, do a podcast, but still send people to your email list. Right. Don't. If you want to do a YouTube channel, do what. And do what feels good to you and what feels natural and don't feel like you have to be everywhere. Do the things that really, like, really light your fire so that you can. And then make sure that you're building that relationship and giving people a call to action. Because then when you have a platform that you can control, you don't have to worry what happens when TikTok goes away tomorrow or what happens when Instagram goes away, because guess what? It will. I've. I. That's. The benefit of hindsight, is that I've seen every platform rise and fall, and the next one will rise and then it will fall and it will happen again and again and again.

Yeah. So I want to echo this with just a very practical example. So on my whiteboard right over here is my traffic triangle. If you've watched some of my recent YouTube content. I did a video about the traffic triangle, which is that you need to get people to see you in three places. You need an exposure source. That's the platforms, Those are TikTok, those are shorts, those are, you know, that's where people are discovering you. It can also be ads. There's just a way that you're getting in front of people. You need a hopper, which is like the container that you're holding them in. For me, that's YouTube and podcast. I'm going to do YouTube and podcast. Even if nobody's listening, I'm just going to do it. I can't help but talk. I'm gonna do it. I've been doing it for 12 years. And then you need a conversion platform which is always email, always. So if you, if for me, I focus on the hopper and the conversion because that's what I'm gonna do anyway. And then I have my team turn that into shorts and reels and do all that stuff. My whole work right now, all my focus, I'm developing a 30 day free course that is an email opt in. That is that first experience that people consume of mine that I can link all my traffic to. I wrote 6,000 words on Monday. That's a, that's, that's a, that's a tenth of a book. Yeah, that was my, that's, that's my job right now is writing this course that's going to be free.

Just to get to write, to write faster.

This is my AI.

You don't use AI. You haven't tried it yet. I've tried to do a whole other session on AI. Yeah.

But I'm, I'm not going to do it for my email list. I just, I'm not, I'm just not going to do it right now.

That could convince you differently.

It's not a principal thing.

It'S not a content thing. It's that my email list is like my expression.

Yeah, right.

That is where I am touching with people this morning. My business partner is staying with me right now. I went and sat at my computer this morning, goes, you're going to write your morning email. I said, no, I'm going to reply to all of the people who replied to my email yesterday. Right. So like that's my touch point. That's where I'm interacting with my people. So I know like I'm not against using AI to write. Just that's my personal expression.

It's a good, like there's places to use it in places to not use it. But I will say like, and you have. It takes some finesse to really, like, use it, I think effectively. But I like, I love using. Using it.

It's, it is, it is fun. But the, the, the point of this is my job right now is building my traffic triangle, which is exactly what Ruth is talking about. You can use all these platforms for exposure, but you need a place to engage with your following and to get your following on a list that you control so that they convert. That's how you build the audience. And to echo what Ruth said earlier, you don't need millions of people. You need a few hundred to have a really good launch. One of the people that I respect in the email marketing world is Andre Chaperone. He tells stories about how he crushes people with lists of 500. Other people have listed 50,000. He has a list of 500. And he crushes them because there's intimacy, there's.

That makes all the difference, right when, and that's where like, that comes in. That for the know, like and trust factor for people to really get to know you and like you. I mean, and I can't even tell you, like, even withinlicious, we're seeing that even though we're. The whole goal for this brand is to build a brand that exist independently of me. Right? And we will. And I feel very like that it's inevitable. But for now, when we, you know, when we interview our success stories, what, like every single one of them, I, you know, we'll be like, why? What made you decide to try this program? Right. Well, I've bought your other products and they're good. So I figured help me with. Help getting my house organized or rebuilding a business, you'll be able to help me with losing weight too. To. And that's it, right? Like, that's what you, where you start. You just start to get people's gain people's trust. And you're, you're great at that, Ryan. Like, you're. And I, And I think that that's so amazing when you can start to do that for people.

Because that opens up the possibility to do anything in, in life once you have people who know you and like you and trust you. But the key to that, I think, is to actually be a trustworthy person. Like, let's not forget about that, right? Like, don't be a douche and don't like and treat people the way they want to be treated or the way that you would want to be treated. And I think if you can just live your life with integrity and become a person that people actually want to trust. Because we talk a lot about that in marketing circles. Like, no, I can trust. Well, actually be trustworthy. And then you don't have to worry about it. I mean, that's my, like, that's my philosophy for life. Right? Live your life so that you never have to worry, what did I say? Right? Don't lie. And you never have to worry. Like, who did I tell say what to what person? And. And if you live with integrity, it just. It opens everything up to you.

Ruth, are you ready for some Q and A?

Oh, bring it on.

All right, let's do it. Jules, we're going to start with you, since you bailed me out earlier. So you're going to get the hot seat first. You're coming on in three, two, one.

What do you mean?

Good morning, Jules.

Good to see you.

It's good to see you. Hi, Ruth. Hi, Jules.

Give us an update. Tell us what's going on and how we can help.

My question was about the audience building part. So, Ruth, I want to. I'm interested to know.

What was the time, like, when you didn't have the audience, when you felt like you were still trying to build it and still trying to find it and still trying to find that base of Ravian fans, and you felt like, oh, I've got a community that backs me. What was before that?

That is a good question. So I don't know. I mean, I feel like even now, I don't take my audience for granted. And like, the. Because people can. People are fickle. They can go.

So I think that there's, like, there's never a moment where I don't think about growing our audience or that it might. That my team and I aren't focused on growing the audience. But I think that there's also, like, when you're. When you are growing your email list and you're focused on that and you're. And you focus on nurturing the people that are coming to you, that's going to be the best and fastest way to start to actually build a relationship right back to them. Right. Like when people write you right back to them, like, start. Like, I still have people that were my first followers back in 2010 who, when I was, like, writing about couponing and, and. And they would send me coupons in the mail because I would, you know, like, certain foods they knew that I liked, and they would find coupons for me, and they still follow me. They've gone through my business course, they've started their own businesses now they're in thinlicious. Like, it's amazing how that happens. So don't take anybody for granted. And if you. And again, like, that comes to integrity, right? Like, if you, if you treat people the way that you would want to be treated and you treat each. Every human that comes into your path with respect and gratitude, I think that just grows. That becomes so, like, obvious that that's the kind of person that you are, that it attracts more people into your orbit. That said, we. I mean, we didn't go into this because we. We went off on a different tangent. But, like, advertising is for me a must, right? Like, I'm constantly running ads to continually grow our audience and then to get people into, you know, we run ads to our lead magnet always. We never not have ads that are running and growing our list. And then once people come in our. Our indoctrination sequence and our. What that we call it, right. Our indoc or what welcome sequence sometimes people call it, is like, really meant to, like, create that relationship. So it's very personable and personal and gives people that opportunity to really get to know you. And. And then we have, like, we're very intentional about also nurturing people on that list as well. Does that. Did that answer your question?

I think so, yeah. And I. I want to sort of touch on, like, I guess the emotional side for you. Like, before that all that process was happening, what was going in your head, like, emotionally as. As. As you.

As me. Oh, like, am I worthy or that kind of stuff? Is it, like, more the. Like, I think for. Sorry, it's a little bit like, I would say at the beginning, I don't think that I had as much pressure on myself when I started. And I think that honestly, I've had to come full circle with that, right? I think, like.

That you have, like, when you aren't six, when you haven't made it yet, like, made it. Right. I'm saying this in air quotes. There's kind of just like, I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna do all the things and I'm gonna. Like, I didn't. I wasn't slowing down long enough to really think about it. And then once I started to, like, actually have more success, I think I had so much pressure on myself to continue that success and to continually beat. Beat my last thing or to be better than I was before, to, you know, to see those numbers continue to go up and up and up. And I think that, like, actually was when I really started to have, like, imposter syndrome. And, like, who am I? And I. I don't feel like I'm qualified to do this, right? And now I feel like I've come full circle in a whole different way of, like, just let it. Just let it happen, right? Like, be the person that you want to be right now, and that will bring in, like. And it doesn't mean you don't work hard. It doesn't mean that you don't think about what, like, how to be strategic. It doesn't mean that you don't try different things. It doesn't even mean that you don't have frustrating days. But if you take the moment, like, the time now to be the person that you want to be, to be the, you know, I don't know if you have kids or a husband or whatever, to be the spouse you want to be, to be the mom you want to be, to be the friend that you want to be, to be that. Like, for me, it's the employer and the boss that I want to be. And I trust that all the right things are going to happen and that I'm going to continue learning and I'm going to continue growing, but I'm not going to put the pressure on myself to have it all happen right now. So maybe it's going to happen. And then I'm very impatient, right. I want it all to happen right now, but I also trust that it's going to happen in the moment, that it's. That it needs to happen. And maybe, I mean, going back to what happened today, Ryan, like, maybe that was the lesson that we needed to learn, that we. That we would trust that it's all going to unfold the way that it needs to unfold. And when you can do that a little bit more, it takes the pressure to feel like I. Like, I'm not enough. Right, because you are enough. Like, if you love your people and if you serve your people well, and if you are, like, treat everyone with that comes into your path with respect and kindness, that is enough. That's all anybody wants, that's all anybody ever asks for, is to, like, be seen. And if you can see a few of them, that will come back again and again and again to you.

I want to echo what Ruth said about at the beginning, there being no pressure at the beginning. When I'm building my audience and people are writing to me and I'm responding to them. It was just like, they ask questions like, I don't know, we'll figure it out together. And that amount of transparency really built a loyal following. I would say. Lately I have been more that with my audience and people, like, I really like you lately. Like, what do you mean lately? And people are like, well, around the time of your exit, you were kind of a dick.

Because there's like a. There's like, I've made it. You get defensive of having made it versus when you're always just sort of like humble in the process. The audience grows and that's like a test. It's like, are you going to stay humble in the process or are we going to need to humble you in the process? Where I think a lot of people fall short and is they're trying to build the audience in order for the status, in order for some validation. And so they actually never do the thing that builds the audience, which is just being in service of other people. So if you just stay in that vibe, you get everything that you want and then the minute you get defensive of it, it starts to go away. So.

And the way that starts is you caring about the six people who are showing up. It's the six people who give a.

Care because you can't, you can't fake that. Like, you actually have to care, right? Like, you have to actually be a good person. That's what it comes down to. Like, if you want people, if you want to grow an audience that knows you and likes you and trusts you, then be a person worth trusting then. And that's not like, you don't get to fake that. You don't. There's no book you can read on that. You just like, it has to come from within.

When you're first starting out, it's easy.

To look at people like Ruth or.

Myself or Alex or Mosey or Gary V. And see this big gap between where you are and where you think you need to be or where you want to be. And someone asked Ruth on this call about how they bridge that gap and saying, I have all these fears that prevent me from doing this. Ruth answered the question in a way that I've never heard anybody answer the question before. And it really gave the other person permission to close that gap. And I want you to see what she said.

So I currently run a coaching business. I have one on one clients that I work with. I work with them with managing unconscious patterns and beliefs. The product brand that I'm starting is in support of the people that I work with within those retreats and coaching spaces.

What's the challenge that you're what limitation do you feel like your approach is restricting you from doing?

I'm wondering if my current business model is too focused on a particular person that bringing in a product line that maybe speaks to somebody else would feel confusing or muddy.

The short answer is probably not.

The longer answer is, even if it confuses people, it's okay. People are confused by my work all the time.

People are like, are you a Christian or not a Christian? Like, are you a Republican or not? Or like, my personal brand is just me living life.

Right.

But the reason why I'm able to do that is because capitalism.com is a company.

Right.

And I am me. And the two play well together.

Right.

After many years of experimenting with, like, should it be under this house? Or so capitalism.com As a company, and I'm me. And eventually there will be me and other people on capitalism.com and I'll continue to be me.

Which is why I separated the two. Because long term, I want to have multiple people, and I want to be free to be me without me having to only post about business every single day.

Right, Right.

To be branded as this guy.

Right.

But that came from experimenting with some things, not enjoying it so much, feeling imposter syndrome, when I'm only talking about one thing. Feeling like I gotta be something. And some people are totally cool with that. I'm gonna be me. Right. And it drives my team crazy, drives some of my YouTube followers crazy that sometimes I want to talk about politics and religion. It's not always great for business, but there are some people who resonate with it that really resonate with it. And that's part of the game of having a personal brand that's tied to a business, but you can structure it however you want. That gives you the most freedom to be able to talk about what you want to talk about and serve the person that you want to serve.

Yeah. I mean, I agree wholeheartedly with everything Ryan just said, and I think, like, looking at my brand now is not the best way to, like, think about your building your brand from scratch. Right. Like, my 12 years started with living well, spending less, added another brand, added another brand, and then ended up with this big mess of multiple brands going. How the heck we, like, connect it all together. Right. And then that's where the Ruth Soukup Omnimedia brand came out of. And that is now our umbrella corporation. But that's been, like, a work in progress. And so I didn't. I didn't necessarily start with a personal. A personal name for my brand either. That was. It started as lwsl. And. And I think that's okay. Like, I think you should give yourself the permission, if you're in the face where you're figuring it out, to know that you're not going to, like, so. So many people are. Are struggle so much with, like, needing to have all the answers and to do it perfectly from the first moment. And that just doesn't happen that way, right?

Not at all.

Give yourself the freedom to grow and evolve and make mistakes. And the more that you're in it and doing things and making those mistakes, the more you're going to learn. I mean, that comes back to the conversation we were having earlier. But, like, I mean, my biggest mistakes in my business are, like, my greatest source of learning and humility, and they're the thing that, like, allow me to come to you now, 12 years, 13 years into my journey, and be totally chill. I haven't always been chill.

Like, that's okay. That's okay, too, because you. It's takes sometimes a while to, like, really learn those lessons and figure it out. Because my question for that is, like, what is that feeling like you need to figure that one thing out that's actually, like, in the grand scheme of things, not an important question. What is that distracting you from? Because I feel like that is actually the thing that's keeping you from doing the work that you need to do. There's something else that is scaring you that you're avoiding and so you're focusing on that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's so true. Like, I'm scared to even, like, talk about the product. I'm scared to put it out there. I'm scared to, like, be vulnerable. Like, clearly I'm gonna get emotional, like, and like, yeah, I guess that's what it is. So it's like, I can feel how I want to get all the structure in place to make sure the foundation is super awesome so that I'm like, I'm doing it right because I'm like, oh, my gosh, what if I talk about the product? And, like, it's like, crickets.

Yeah, it could be.

And no one will know.

And prepare yourself. Right. If it's crickets. Exactly. You're. Then you're feeling in front of a very small audience, so no big deal. Then you get your. Dust yourself off and you try the next thing, and you try the next thing. And that literally is the only way to. To build a business is to accept the fact that things will suck sometimes. There will be things that fail. There will Be massive lessons that you don't even know what the universe has in store for you to learn right now. But it's gonna happen, and it's probably gonna suck, you know, when. When it does. And yet it will be the best thing ever that you will look back on and go, man, I almost imploded. And yet now look how strong I am. And so give yourself that freedom. But, like, always ask yourself, if you're obsessing so much on needing to do it right, it's probably keeping you from doing the actual work that you need to be doing right now, which is just get the product out there.

Yeah.

I mean, do it scared. That's one of my brands.

Yeah. Right.

I recorded a video on Monday.

I don't know when it will be, when it will go live, but I talk about how the fact that I'm. I'm scared shitless to relaunch. Sheer strength, right? Because, like, I wrote a book about it and I bought it back from the private equity group that ran it into the ground and resurrecting it. And, like, I might fail publicly. So, like, that. That doesn't really go away. You just get better at dealing it.

Anyways, at managing it.

You also. You also recognize, at some point, you recognize that.

It'S in the time of crickets that all the good stuff happens. Like in the time of crickets is when you build your raving fan base. It's in the time of crickets that you have no pressure, so you develop a product that's really good. It's during the time of crickets that you make the content that you're really proud of that's going to live for a really long time.

So during that time when no one's paying attention, that's actually when you have no noise to distract you from a really good work.

Right.

Of course there's going to be crickets at the beginning. Of course it's going to be slower at the beginning. You want it to be slower at the beginning because when things happen fast, they break.

Yeah.

And I love the idea, too, that if no one's listening, it gives you so much freedom to just do whatever you want, because it's like no one's going to pay attention anyways.

Yeah. Tim Ferriss talks about how he really misses the times when no one cared. No one cared what was in his podcast. No one. Like, he could just goof off. I miss that sometimes, too. I. I dread the day that I want to run for Congress and someone finds a podcast of mine from when I was 28, and I was a dick.

Right.

But no one cared back then. That's when you can say whatever you wanted.

Right.

All the good stuff happens in these phases.

Yeah.

You don't have to be anything. You don't have to become anything. You're just doing good work for the people that are paying attention.

Thank you. Go ahead.

Oh, go ahead.

I was just thinking. I think. I think the fear also speaks to the desire. Right. Like, I have the fear because I want it so badly. So there is this desire to get it right so that I can achieve this big vision I have for myself and for my family. So it really just speaks to that.

Totally get that. Like, you care. You care that much because it means so much to you. And I 100% get that. And I think that, like, if you can bring it. Bring it back to why. Like, not just knowing your vision and why you care so much, but bringing it back to why you care about helping people that you do. Like, what's that passion? And.

Pour into them. And the more you pour, the. The more you pour into your customers, into your avatar, and to giving to those people, the more it will come back to you in so many more ways than just financial. Right. Then it's because then you get to go to sleep, like, knowing that you actually made a difference in people's lives. You get to like the person that you're looking at in the mirror. And you and all of those things matter so much more than money. Right? Money's awesome.

Yeah.

More to life than money and. And success and traditional. The traditional understanding of success.

So, yes, Ruth is absolutely right that.

You will miss the times when no one cared.

When you get caught up in the.

Ego metrics of things, you start editing yourself. You start doing things for the numbers rather than because you enjoy them. I've dealt with this myself. I built a following at one point that was really responsive. And then when it meant something, when it mattered, I edited myself and had to go through my own transformation, if you will, of learning to not care about the ego metrics and what people.

Say and do things anyway.

And that's when you actually have the freedom that you wanted when you became an entrepreneur in the first place. This was a call with the 1%, which is our mentoring group for entrepreneurs getting to their first million. And.

Hope you liked this. And if not, you suck. That was a great call. People paid a ton of money to be on this one.

And Ruth is fricking awesome.

I'm fricking awesome is how good looking Ruth and I and the other people.

In the group are.

And you're sitting there and you watch.

This whole video and you're like, I didn't get any value out of this. You suck. Google it.

I'm just kidding.

You look great. I think you're very good looking. Have a good day.

If you found value in this podcast and you're ready to go Deeper, here are three resources where we can help you. One, you can grab my book 12 months to 1 million on Audible or Amazon. It has over a thousand reviews and it's the playbook to building a seven figure business. Second, you can join our community of entrepreneurs who are following a plan to build a 1% net worth by building businesses and investing the profits. You can get plugged in@capitalism.com 1. And third, if you're looking to go deeper and build a seven figure business that you can sell, you can work closely with us inside the Capitalism incubator and you can get on the waiting list and find out what we do over@capitalism.com inc. That's capitalism.com incident.