How to Build an EMPIRE With CONTENT CREATION | Tips From an Expert

That's what they need the most because everybody in their life is judging them and telling them what they should do and they feel like a piece of garbage. That's what they're telling themselves. You don't have to be the expert on all those things yet. You can just talk about what you're doing and what you've seen with those things. But the more you have the conversations and the more you start helping people, the discussions can become coaching or mentoring.

How do people know at all I exist?

Yeah, you're part of our Movie Makers program. As part of that, we're doing an IG Live together. So what do you got?

First, thank you very much for having like the honor to join the group. It's amazing. Also the book, love it. I wanted to ask a few questions on opening a new YouTube channel, which I'm planning to do.

Let's go.

Yeah.

Let's go.

I've been thinking about it for a long time already, but And then also I have a question I'll ask Evan. I know we're short on time, but I really appreciate it. So basically when I open, I'm not really a technology guy. Now, when I open a new channel, how do I get, my native language is not English, but I wanna do it in English. How do I get people to my channel if I'm not like really a social media guy and I'm not in those worlds? My goal is to light people's path and give them a feeling of empowerment and belonging.

And what is the business model ultimately? Like, you want to sell coaching or what do you—

Right now I'm not selling coaching. In the future, maybe I'll do that. But now my goal is 100% just helping people by— I believe I'll say in 2 seconds, if you invest, it's going to be called Invest and Smile. So if you invest in 6 areas of life, your path will light and you'll smile.

I like it, dude.

Okay.

So, and then, but where does that go?

Is that a course?

Is that a book? Is that a speech? Like, where is it?

Right now, only to help people like their path. In the future, maybe I'll take it for coaching, but I'm not, I'm not looking to.

Okay. Is coaching interesting for you?

Oh no, no. In the long run, I love coaching. Also, now people sometimes come for me, like if you're asking my vision, I could also see like having seminars weekends and like that, that's doing in the long run, maybe also a book, but I'm saying step by step right now, I'm thinking about it too much for a long time because I'm thinking maybe I'm not credible enough. Or things like that. So first I just want to start.

Sure.

Okay.

So, but I would start down two parallel paths. The first is you have your 6 steps to having happiness, right? So your videos are all about one of those 6 steps. So each time you make a video, it's got to touch one of those 6 steps. And in terms of making content, it could be from your own story, your own background, your, like how you got there, like history stuff, like way back of, who you are and where you came from. We're telling stories from our past. It could be stories from your present, you know, like how did you pick that plant behind you and why is there like a yellow, you know, rainbow on your wall? And like, I'm assuming they're there for some reason and intention. Your thoughts coming into doing this Instagram Live together, how does it touch on one of the six points in your happiness chart. And so we're— it's only 6 points, right? I mean, I say the same stuff over and over.

Yeah, it's kind of 6 points, but if you just let me, I'll explain it. So basically, I believe that if the mind is in the middle, but if you invest in the mind, relationships, uh, movement, activity, uh, sleep, nutrition, and relationships, so that will light your path. So every time is going to be a different one. I'm not going to do all of them, and I don't want to do only for my stories. 'Cause I also listen to a lot, like I learned from you, I learned, like I'm only one person. I also want to bring from other places, but how do I get to people? Like no one knows, like I don't want to put out tons of money in marketing before I started doing anything.

So in the content, I agree. You don't want to have a video that talks about all 6 things, unless you just, you can have a video that explains the, you know, the 6 things in general, like here's my philosophy, but then the future videos are diving more specific on each one. But basically everything that you're going to make, I have the same 10 to 20 themes that I talk about on repeat, but I have different stories that I'll use depending on what's going on. So you have your 6 themes and you can have different stories that you talk about depending on what's going on. It doesn't only have to be about you. I'm just saying you is important because It's your framework, right? So in terms of kinds of stories to tell, it's from the past, foundation stories, but also new stuff that's coming up right now. Something's going to happen this week that can fit into one of your 6 things that you can make a video on. Then we can also make content about other people, and something in the news that you see and that you like or don't like, or somebody, you know, an experience you had in Movement Makers or with a fellow Movement Maker, A livestream that you did with somebody else, right? That becomes a story. This is like, how do you take what's going on in the world, not just your world, but the world, and make it make sense in terms of one of the 6 areas of content? The reason why I suggested coaching, if you liked it, is you don't have to get paid at the beginning. Like if you're worried about your experience and credibility, you don't know what the answer's going to be, it doesn't even have to be coaching yet. It could just be conversations. You basically walk people through the 6 steps and wherever they're struggling the most, you have a, you have a conversation around it, which then eventually leads to more expertise, which leads to more, you know, could actually then become coaching, could then become something paid, could then become a book or seminar or something else. But when you're creating content in a vacuum, meaning if it's just you talking to the camera, you don't know how well your thoughts are being received or how to adjust them. But when you're talking to somebody, look here, example, look, okay, Arcano just wrote 6 areas. What are the 6 areas again, Yanir?

Mind, movement, relationships, nutrition, sleep, and I'm missing right now one of them. My movement relationship to sleep, I just got a blackout, but okay.

Okay, well listen, so that if that's at the core, then that's—

Oh, financial behavior, financial behavior.

Yeah, so that needs to be printed somewhere so that, you know, you remember it and you can refer back to it, and you can also give it to other people. And what happened right there when they asked the question, what are the 6 areas You don't have to be, I mean, you should know what they are, that's fine, but like, you don't have to be the expert on all those things yet. You can just talk about what you're doing and what you've seen with those things. But the more you have the conversations and the more you start helping people, the discussions can become coaching or mentoring. At the beginning, it's not, right? At the beginning, it's just gonna be a conversation. But in having those conversations, Like if he says, so we said those 6 areas, maybe somebody, like somebody's even, mind, movement, relationships, sleep, financial, and blacking out.

No, that was, what was it?

Mind, movement, relationships, financial.

Mind, movement, sleep, nutrition, relationships, and financial behavior.

Nutrition.

I'm used to saying it in my own language, in English it's different.

That's great, yeah, I mean, and that's awesome. And so now he's saying thank you, right? Maybe he has a follow-up question. Maybe he says, well, what do you, what do you mean by mind? And then you explain what you mean by mind. And then maybe that leads to another question. And you don't have to have all the answers yet because it's not a, it's not a paid coaching session, but it's a discussion that as people ask questions, it makes your model better. It makes the framework better. So I would be trying to do videos with people talking about different elements of those, of that framework, right? An easy one is already within Movement Makers to do the challenge that we do every month.

I'm learning how to use Discord. Me and technology are still learning how to work with each other. I didn't have Instagram until this second. I just downloaded because I knew I needed it for now.

There you go.

Well, and you made it happen. So it's great.

But I mean, that somewhere inside of mind, you know, there's, there's the answer. Every month in Movement Makers, there's a challenge that we do. And there's a theme. And part of that theme is then doing your own video on that topic, but then also 3 collaboration videos with other people in Movement Makers. So if the theme is going to be, you know, confidence or consistency or resilience or whatever, right? You know, if you take confidence as the theme, then how does confidence fit into one of those 6 things? And you have a conversation about it. And every time you talk about it, the model becomes clearer.

Yeah, for sure. I understand that, and I really appreciate the fact, you know, that there's a community. I think that's amazing. I didn't think about that. And what I want to do in the future is also have interviews because I do I chose those 6 steps through things that went in life, but there are people that are experts. So let's say I was in real estate, I didn't know how to take the hammer and build the wall or do drywall, but like knowing to bring the people to talk about this stuff. So I think what you said, that combination between right at the beginning talking to other people and then also bringing every time maybe an expert later on. But my first question is, how do people know at all I exist? Like you're saying, In the beginning, don't care about that? Like, just talk to people in the community and like, how do I reach out to people?

Almost by the nature, like if people don't know who you are and you're reaching out—

And then you get some— Then you get people to follow, right?

Yeah, sure, by making content, if it's good content and people want more of that good content. So, I mean, Movie Makers is your easiest start, that they will go live with you. They'll get like, just like now, we're going live right now. You just set up your account, people are now learning about you. If they like the— the 6 steps or they like you or they wanna learn more about your journey, they can now follow your account and find out more about you, right? At the beginning, I wouldn't, like the biggest thing is just momentum. It's just creating. And the more you can create with other people, the better, because it allows you to refine your thinking a little bit more. So I would do a mix of collaborations and the challenge is only 3 people, right? Coach Queen Kelly says, "I'll go live with you." Appreciate that.

There you go.

Go, go remember Coach Queen Kelly and send her a message.

I'll learn how to do that.

Right? Like, but that's it.

But you can learn that.

I mean, nobody knows any of the platforms at the beginning. You figure it out as you go. You didn't know anything about nutrition either. And you didn't know anything about finance either. You didn't know anything about the mind either. And how did you, you learned it, right?

Yeah.

So same thing. Instagram is—

you already figured it out. Look, you started, you just created your account today when we went live, the camera was facing backwards, you know, and now we're here.

You're already better than yesterday, right? That's how learning— that's how the learning goes. In our challenge in Movie Makers, which the requirement is to do 3 people, but I would—

a lot more, for sure. But when you say When you say Evan, like do a video. So when I do a video, I could put it also on my YouTube channel and also on Instagram, or you don't recommend to do it on both?

I would do both for now. Honestly, like, cause it's just momentum. You don't, you just set up your Instagram account. You, you don't have a YouTube channel. It's just about getting stuff up to, to know what it's like to get stuff up, like just to build the, It's like you're asking for the perfect workout plan and you haven't done a pushup. You're just sitting on the couch, right? And so it's that in terms of movement, what's the perfect movement plan? How about you start with a walk outside, right? Like if movement's one of your things and somebody has been sitting on the couch their entire life and they want a movement plan, you're asking like, what's the perfect movement? It's like, just go for a walk in the sun outside, man. Like, that's what we need. And then we'll figure out— it's not just the strategy, it's like, what do you like doing? So as you start talking to people and doing collaborations or doing interviews, if you interview, you message people, say, hey, I'd love to interview you, talking about real estate or talking about nutrition or talking about movement or talking about whatever. You just message them. Like, Instagram has just people from the community, you just message them. And not Whoever you want. Some people in the community, some people random. Like, the more you can make it personal, just like imagine you're sending an email to somebody. Do you only send email to people who you already know? No, you can reach out to other people too. You can even, you can even email, like use email instead of Instagram as the outreach and say, I want to do an interview with you. And people might ignore you and people won't see it, and some people will see it and say, yeah, let's do something.

You're saying to do a combination of me talking sometimes, and some videos also combined with other people. Like, sometimes it'll be only me and sometimes other people. And if I understand correctly, you, you're saying that the first video— and please correct me if I'm wrong— the first video should be like introduction of what's the goal of this channel.

It doesn't have to be, just make a first video. Like, the first video should be Hey guys, I've been sitting on making videos for a long time and I'm working on my relationship with technology, but I know I want to serve, so I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, here we go. Post, right? Like, and go. Like, there's no— doesn't— like, release perfect. It doesn't matter what you do in your first video. Ali Paws says you can interview me if you want. I'm a movement specialist with yoga. You know, like, look, Ali Paz, reach out to Ali Paz, A-L-Y-P-A-W-S. There you go. You got another one, right? It's like, you start, and here's the thing, as you do more, the reason why I suggest talking to people is because it starts to crystallize the thinking and it allows you to make better decisions going forward. Like, when you say movement, there's so many, just look at movement as an example. There's so many things you could do, right?

Do you salsa dance?

Do you go trampolining? Do you go skiing? Do you go to, to a gym? Do you join a running club? Like, and there's no right answer.

There's the right answer for you, but there's no like one right answer for everybody.

And how do you find it?

Like, don't worry about getting to become a professional salsa dancer yet. Get off the couch and go for a walk, right? And like, we start to build the practice in. And so in talking to people, what you'll find is maybe you want to do more of those kinds of people and those topics. Maybe you talk to Alipaz and talk about yoga, and now you like fall in love with yoga and you want to do a lot more with yoga, and, and you create a weekly series talking yoga, doing yoga, and it becomes like a big thing for you. Or, or that was one and done, and like you don't want to do any more yoga. By doing it, you start to learn if you liked it. And by doing the stuff that you like, then we can worry about the right strategy afterwards.

I understand that, and I do appreciate that. You know what's funny, Evan? When people come to me, it's really easy for me to tell them, listen, I think you should do A, B, C, D. But then when it comes to me, I'm like, you know what? So that's kind of funny. I realized that a few times. I want to ask you a question about 2 last questions because I know we're at the time. One is, is any way— like, I know you always offer hope to other people. Like, I would love to know what's, what's the way, uh, we— I'll say I can help you as a person. That's number one. And, uh, number two, uh, you talk about the book Always About Believe, and believe is, uh, 3 different types of belief. But my question is, Evan, how do you help someone believe in himself when he's in rock bottom? Because You know, when someone's running outside and having fun or dancing salsa with, you know, movement, so that's fun. But when someone's all the way down, like, how do you help him believe in himself? Usually people in that place won't want even to listen. Like, I hope I was clear.

Yeah, so you're not going to get somebody to go off and then join a salsa class.

Like, they're really down.

It's honestly be there with them. Like if they're really—

I think you have to be—

if you're at a ground level, then you're ready to grow. But if you're underground, then you're tired, you just have to get back to ground level. This is how I think about it. So there's the achievers who need the push and it's like they need the honest feedback to say, "Let's go, like build this." And yes, it's belief and positivity, but more like push, you got to go. Where somebody who is below ground right now, they don't need advice because the advice is only coming off as judgment. If you tell somebody who's at rock bottom that they should go and pick up a salsa class to get moving, it's love from you, but it's being interpreted as judgment.

Judgment from them.

Tell me what I need to do.

They feel it as it's internalized as judgment, even though it's love coming from you. Your advice is judgment. It feels as judgment, even though it's not. Like you're giving love, but it comes across to them as judgment because they can't hear anything. If somebody's already at ground level, ready to grow, and it's like, hey man, how do I grow? Like, I really need to boost my movement. And you're going to say, go do this. They can, they're ready for the message. But somebody who's on the ground just needs to get back to ground level. And so it's sitting with them and listening to them and just being with them and letting them feel heard. And don't give them any advice because you might be the first person to even ever listen to them. And they might tell you things that they've never told their spouse or their parents or their other family members. It's just creating a space for them to—

they need to—

you need to unburden yourself from all of the weight that's on you before you can start to run. And so I wouldn't even worry about what to say to them. Don't use your mouth, use your ears. Listen to them. Give them a space to be heard. And then you're waiting for them to ask for help. Like giving somebody help—

That doesn't help in any way.

It's just, it's judgment. It just, they'll feel worse because they feel like now you're another person who's judging them. So if they're actually at rock bottom, you're just sitting there and listening to them and being with them and helping them not feel alone.

Doesn't someone in rock bottom want you, of course not always, but sometimes like to throw the rope? That he'll need help, or throwing the rope is basically listening and having empathy, or not empathy. I'm not sure. I'm asking.

Yeah, I mean, like, throwing the rope isn't, isn't the advice you're going to give. Throwing rope again is just sitting with them. Okay, just listening, just being, allowing them to be heard. That's, that's what they need the most, because nobody, everybody in their life is judging them and telling them what they should do, and they feel like a piece of garbage. That's what they're telling themselves. And that person you can't go and start dancing with and doing a run with. So it's just being there. And if you're the only person who is around them who is not judging them and not telling them what they need to do and actually just hearing them, then what ends up happening is they say, hey, what do you think I should do? And then you tell them. But you're opening windows, you have to wait for them to go to the window, right? Or open the door, they have to go to the door before you can actually help them. And that's like, here's the problem. It feels like it's not enough. For the Achievers, when you can see them, you see this huge potential in somebody and you want to help them build and grow. It feels like it's not enough, that listening alone is not enough. But it's a tremendous step. It's the exact thing that they need, and it's more than enough. And if you can just focus on like, you're judging the size of the step. You want them to take a giant leap. For them, just like an inch forward is a giant leap. We're judging the size of the step. And so that first step is just listening.

Listening is amazing.

And then in terms of, I know we're kind of up on time, but you were asking, how can you support me in the belief in, I, I appreciate the spirit of that message. When a coach gives you advice, the best thing you can do for the coach is to follow the advice. So, that's the highest form of like if you're going to help somebody with their movement and then they go off and they actually start moving and they write back to you in 3 months and say, "Dude, like I did it and look at me now." That's the best form of thank you or gratitude more than buying your book or whatever else, right? So more than buying anything I'm making, the best way to say thank you or help me is to do it. Like start your YouTube channel, contact Alipaz and do the yoga interview together. Get things like, like that's the, and you know, from the other side, right? When people say, hey, you helped me and you did, they did the advice. That's, that's why we do what we do. It's the greatest feeling of all time. That's the best way to pay back a mentor more than buying their book or course or whatever else.

Okay. Consider this is done.

Perfect.

Appreciate it. I love it, dude.

And you're already, yeah, I mean, you're already doing it.

You did it here, right? You said yes to this.

It's like, I've never done Instagram Live before. I don't even have an Instagram account.

Your picture is like a beach or something. I don't know what's on there.

I went for a run on the beach, it was amazing.

But it's great.

And you did it and you're here and you took the first step, right? And that's the most, for movement, that's the most important thing is the first step. Now it's used out of, you know, once you're in motion, it's easier to stay in motion. So Coach Queen Kelly, and Ali Paws and everybody else, like, reach out and start it going. And that's like the greatest thing is for you in 3 months to say, look at all— here's everybody that I interviewed, and look at my channel, and look at where it began.

That's amazing.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it, Evan. Thanks.

Hey!

And there she is.

It's so nice to see your face.

How you doing?

I'm great. How are you?

I'm great. I haven't met Rhonda. This is the first time we're actually connecting, kind of, I guess we're not in person, but close enough. We have the same publisher that we share, Kara Paulson, and, uh, I saw you on her stories and I just love the energy and the vibe. And, um, there's just a little voice that said, you know what, you should reach out and, and do an IG Live together. I'm going to ask her. And you said yes. And so here we are, we're making it happen.

Well, the answer to how is yes. So I just said yes. And I, I didn't even know really what I was saying yes to, but it's just so great to to talk to you in person, as I've listened to your books on Audible and watched you with Kira. And you wrote a book in less than a week. Just huge, huge props to you and all that you're doing and the difference that you make for so many people.

I love it. So, so I was watching your stories just before we went live, and you said you did something difficult this morning that prepped you for this.

What was that difficult thing?

Uh, a cold plunge.

Oh, Okay.

Have you ever done a cold plunge before?

I've done a cold plunge, yeah.

So my husband loves the cold plunge and he's created a sanctuary on the side of our house that has an outdoor shower and a sauna and a cold plunge. And every morning I go out there and I say the hard things that I'm about to do in my life and my projects, my books, coaching, all of those things. And then I'm like, okay, if I can get in this, then I can do all of those hard things because it is really hard to take the step into the freezer.

Is that a daily thing that you do?

I'm trying to make it a daily thing as often as possible. Yeah.

I love that. That was a setup for this and teaching yourself that you do hard things, you know, first thing in the morning. We didn't really have an agenda for this. It was just more like I reached out and I thought we could do an IG Live together. What— where does your heart take you? Would you rather talk about your book and what you're doing in healing through relationships, or is there something that I can help you with where you are in your journey that would be of value for you? Either way, Where's your heart taking you?

Oh wow, that is like a hard split decision. Can we do a little of both?

Okay, cool. Okay, well let's start with how I can help. What, I mean, where are you at? What's— if you had to ask a question or two, what, what feedback could I, could I give?

I feel like I'm at this tipping point where like I have a few coaching clients, I'm in the middle of publishing these 3 books, one with my husband that I have been writing for like 8 years about our marriage, divorce, and remarriage to each other. And, and then as I was writing that book, this collaboration book with Kira came up where that's like creating some momentum. And then I have a children's book that's kind of about my inner child and, and my upbringing. So I feel like I'm at this tipping point where I'm gaining momentum on Instagram. I'm sharing my stories. I also feel a little bit like I don't know what else to do. I don't know where else to go.

In order to do what? What's the goal?

To help as many people as I can. Like, my message is forgiveness. It's hope through relationships. And it's building resiliency, even though you've had really hard things.

And ultimately, is it your business model is going to be the book or programs or coaches or consulting or what's the, what's the business ultimately going to be?

Good question. It's going to be coaching. And I have a couple of digital courses already. And then these books. And, you know, ultimately, I really love— I'm a born performer. I've been singing my entire life. I love being on a stage. I would love to speak. So that, that is my personal goal. I just wanna like be out there and be with people and be on a stage, maybe speak and sing. That would be really great.

Speak and sing. Okay, cool. So listen, whatever you wanna make money doing, the best content to make is show me the process of you doing it. So take all of those things that you love and now think, how can I show people how I do this? So, if singing is going to be a big part of what you want to do, then having regular singing content, like Rhonda singing content. If coaching's what you want to do and sell, then show me you coaching.

Like, okay, like live sessions with people like this.

Yeah.

This is like this.

If I wanted to sell coaching, this would be a great example. You know, it was like, I'm, this is it. I mean, I didn't even, didn't know what we were going to do when we went live. Just like, hey, just show up and we'll see what happens. But this is a great example of coaching. Uh, and so if it's about— your book is about relationships, right? Healing Through a Broken Relationship.

Yeah.

So you have people come on who are dealing with their relationship that they feel is broken, and they need some feedback and guidance and help and care and love. And you're— you know why I, I fell in love with your vibe? And I mean, like, again, I didn't know you. We've never met you before, before this, but your, your just the way you sink into your heart and the care and the energy is just really calming and peaceful and loving. And I could see you, I could see you if you're doing coaching sessions where people would open themselves up to you where they haven't told anybody else the things that they might tell you.

Okay.

I don't know if you've already experienced that with friends or family or other people, you know, in your life, but where you just create a safe space for people to share things that they are afraid to admit to anybody else.

Yeah.

Which makes her a great coach, cuz it's like great listening, but then also being able to give great advice. And so some people, uh, will not want it to be public. You know, some people may not wanna be coached on an Instagram video, right? Like a YouTube video. And that's cool. You don't need everybody to say yes. Um, but the fact that you're an author doesn't mean you're gonna be a great coach.

True.

but you are, but like people don't know that, right? Like the fact that you wrote a book doesn't mean that people will think I want to hire her as my coach. So the best way to get coaching clients is to show me you coaching. The best way to get book sales is to show me you with the book and teaching lessons from the book. The best way to get more speaking gigs is to show me you speaking. So you start booking speaking gigs. Even for free, like go speak at your local YMCA or library or high school or TEDx talk. It doesn't have to be some giant Mel Robbins on stage in front of an arena full of people. Just the fact that you are speaking makes me think, oh, she's a speaker. I might hire her to come and speak at my next event. And so it's like the more you can have fun in doing the content and the more that it actually in showing the process leads to a business result that then like the ultimate goal is impact, right? It's like, how do I reach more people? And if you can turn it into a business and you can reach more people, right? If it's like you part-time on the side doing it, then we don't want it to take another 8 years to like get the next thing out. Right.

Right.

But if you're making money doing it, then you can have a team, then you can invest more in people, then you can reach a lot more people with your message and your content.

Yeah, that makes so much sense. It seems like as you say it, it's so logical. Okay, like that just— yes, duh, why does that not make sense and why does that not come into my mind? And can I just say, the reason it doesn't come into my mind to begin with is because I get stuck on the trajectory of where I'm going and it feels so far away, like I don't know how I'm going to get there, and then I get stopped. So stop steps like you're talking about.

Yeah, yeah.

So like, how many people— how many people follow you on Instagram right now?

I think I'm at 1,400.

Perfect. The first 1,400 is the hardest 1,400. So you're already on your way. You got, you got the momentum, um, to, to my new book coming out. Uh, the way to do it is to message the people who are following you and say you're going to start a new show once a day or once a week or whatever, you know, feels right for you of coaching. And do they want to be your guest? Where you're going to coach them for free, where normally they would have to hire you to do coaching, but here it's free coaching, but it's going to be public. And hopefully in that person's story, other people can learn from them as well. And some people will say, no, I don't want it to be public. They might ask you, can I hire you though to be my coach? You know, now all of a sudden, now we have a coaching, like, are you actually coaching people now and getting paid to do it?

Yeah.

Perfect. So it's a good lead-in, right? That you can offer them the free one on your Instagram, but if they, they say no, they might want to just hire you to be their coach anyway.

Yeah.

And then you'll get some people who say yes, and then that's how you start your show. And the beautiful thing with that is you just have to show up. You don't need to prepare. Like if you think about making an Instagram video or YouTube video, there's a lot of work to prepare and script and like, what am I going to, you know? Where coaching, you just show up. You say, hey, Susan, welcome. How can I help? What's on your mind? What's in your heart? And Susan shares, and then you go help her. And it's actually fun because you feel like what you're doing matters and helps and is having an impact. And maybe Susan ends up wanting to work with you and hire you to be her coach. Cool. But if not, then all the people watching, as you continue to build up the momentum behind it, will, some of them will say, hey, that's really cool. I love how, I love what she did. I love this random person. I've never heard of her before, but maybe she's the coach for me.

I love that. Thank you.

And it's just the most fun. You know, it's like you feel like it matters because 1,400 people is a lot of people, but it's hard to, it doesn't feel tangible.

Right.

Like that's a small town. You got 1,400, you had an entire town of people who are following you. but it's hard to feel tangible. But when you see one person and you see her eyes like, oh my gosh, that you're so right, Rhonda, and your little tweak then sets them on a different path cuz you gave them, gave her the answer. Um, it makes you feel like what you're doing really matters.

Right. Well, and that's like, that's the point is to be able to witness and listen to someone and acknowledge where they're at and validate where they're at. And then be able to assist them in tools that I've learned and tools that I'm certified in. Like, that's, that's the whole point.

Yeah.

So you already have enough people who are following you. You just video message them one by one and say, hey, I'm starting a new show. This is what I did at the beginning when I started my show. I was on an airplane from LA to Toronto and I messaged people one by one to say, do you wanna be my, my guest? I'm gonna start a new show. I went live every day. I did it in Toronto, so they had to be in— we did it on Instagram Live, but they were sitting next to me.

Oh, cool.

I had a smaller pool of people to pull from because it had to be local, where doing this could be anywhere in the world. And I booked the first 5 people to do my show for the first week and built momentum. It's scary, but worth it. And if it feels right, then the best thing you can do is go like for momentum, you know, immediate action. Like right after this, go book your first person for tomorrow and launch a show. I'll tell you, because when I had the idea on the airplane from LA to Toronto, and I was 100% like, this is going to be so much fun, I can't wait to do this. And then come the day, that was a Friday night, I was flying back to Toronto, and I was going to start my show on Monday. On Monday morning, I show up and like, I don't want to do the show. 0, 0%. I'm too busy, I don't have time for this. What if I don't know how to answer their question? What if I can't help? All of like the insecurities and doubts, right? 100% on Friday night turned to 0% on Monday morning.

Mm-hmm.

And it was only because I had booked the first people that I had to, I'm not gonna not show up. Like somebody who's in my studio, right? I had to go there and, and meet them. Right. So I'm more likely to actually follow through.

Um, yeah.

So yeah, it's like, it feels right. Then it's booking your first people and asking if they want to do the show.

I feel like you're reading my mind because I'm asking questions in my mind and then you're automatically answering them.

Well, that then, you know, it's the right path.

Yeah.

And so it's really as easy as after, right after this, you spend an hour sending messages to people on Instagram. And I like a quick video message and just 10 seconds, you know, hey Susan, thanks for following me. I'm starting a new show coaching women through their relationships. Or is it just women or you coach guys too?

No, men too.

Cool. You know, but obviously, you know, if it's Susan, you're saying women. If it's Bill, you're saying guys. But, you know, hey Bill, I'm starting a new— thank you so much for following me— starting a new show, uh, helping people through their relationships. If you have any issues and you'd like me to coach you one-on-one, uh, I'm starting a new show next, next week. If you want to be my first guest, let me know. And then again, hey Susan, I like— I even do it walking. I like getting fresh air and like walking and get a vibe. So I'm walking on the street while I'm doing it. But yeah, just like 10-second videos at a time to the people who follow you. And at worst, it's a touchpoint to thank them for following you.

Right.

And nobody sends personal messages like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that. And I like being in people's space like that with a video. It's so much more personable than a text.

Yeah.

And fun, and they'll see it. And even if some people will say yes, like if you send 5 messages, you may not get somebody to say yes, right? So we got to send more, you know, like let's put 50 on our list of 1,400. Let's send 50 messages. You'll get some people. But even for the ones who don't say yes, you're building a relationship. Somebody might write back and say how much they love your content or looking forward to your book or all of these things that are built. It's crazy how much a 10-second video message impact somebody because nobody's reaching out to their followers and just thanking them.

Yeah.

So it's something I do every morning. I'll go for, I call it a believe walk. I go through my believe walk and I'll just randomly pick people who follow me and send personal messages and just—

I love that. That's awesome.

Yeah.

And it feels good. It's like, it's not just a good strategy. It's a good strategy, but it also feels good that It's like, these are 1,400 real people. Maybe some of them are bots. Maybe there's 100 bots. So it's like 1,300, but they're real people. Those are real people who've got goals and dreams and aspirations and relationship problems and all of these things. And they're following you because you posted something that touched their heart in some way. And so just being able to say thank you and reach out will lead to all sorts of crazy good things, but especially booking people for your show.

Thank you. Thank you.

Like, that's an easy one. That's a no-brainer. And then you can clip the content and do like, you know, take highlight moments and reuse them or take one-liners and put them up on your channel. Speaking should be you speaking.

Yeah.

So like you're ideally it's with some, at least it looks like in front of some kind of crowd.

Okay.

So you're booking high schools or universities or again, YMCA is like, I got started at the YMCA and 3 people came to my first event. But it doesn't matter. Like you go and you serve, you help those 3 people, you know, and action is action. Yeah. Um, and then the other one's what, the book or the courses?

Um, yeah. Yeah. Digital courses.

So another great thing to do is you have somebody, um, like, is the course already ready to sell or are you working on it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And are, are like, you already made some sales on, or are you working on it?

I, I have made one sale.

Perfect. This is great. Hey, the first sale is the hardest sale, you know, as long as it's not to your husband or your mom or something. But no, that's like, that's the great start. And what you can do is for the, for the early people who buy the course, offer to do an Instagram Live with them too.

Okay.

Do you know, you know, let's not say her name, but like, you know, let's, let's say her name was Jill, right, who bought your first course.

Cool.

You reach out to Jill and say, hey Jill, thank you so much for buying my course. I hope it's being valuable for you. Do you want to do a bonus Instagram Live with me where we, whatever questions you've got, whatever you want to talk about, I'm here to serve. And hopefully your questions can also serve the audience watching too. Again, maybe Jill is super introverted or shy and doesn't want to come on camera, but like at the very worst case, you're building, you're saying thank you and she's going to feel recognized, which is always great. But if she says yes, then she's gonna come on your Instagram Live. You're gonna go and create content together. And then what's she gonna say? She's gonna say, oh, I just bought your course. It's amazing. Thank you so much. Now you're talking about the course without talking about the course.

Yeah.

So now anybody watching can learn about, oh, she's got a course. What's the course all about?

Right.

So anybody new who's getting into the course, you can offer— it doesn't scale incredibly well, right? Like you, you can't do it for everybody if you're gonna sell. We're going to sell a million of these courses, right? So, so Raina's not going to do a million IG Lives, but for the first people who come in and it could still be part of, you know, if you had like once a week coaching from your followers and then once a week coaching from people who bought the course as you start to make more sales, um, even once a week coaching people who bought the book. Do you have any books for sale yet or not yet? They're all in development.

Not yet.

Cool.

Yeah. They, they're all slated for September.

Okay, well, we're not that far away. Like, you can even do pre-orders, right? You already have the book title. Do you have a cover or you're working on the COVID I have a cover.

Yeah.

Cool. So you have a title, you have a cover. Um, you could do pre-orders that if somebody buys 10 copies of the book, they also get an Instagram Live with you or 100 copies or 1,000 copies or whatever. Um, and then we start, we start talking about the book, right? Even though The book's not ready yet until September. She bought 10 copies and so she gets the IG Live with you and then she's gonna come on and say, I'm so excited for your book. It comes out in September, right? I can't wait to get a copy. So now we're talking about the book without talking about the book and still serving her to help her or him with whatever issues they've got going on. It's just fun. Like it helps promote the thing that you're trying to promote. And it doesn't mean stop doing, I'm not super deep on your content and like what you've been posting and frequency, but are you, how, like, what's your cadence? How often are you actually posting content right now?

I'm probably 2 or 3 times a week.

Okay.

And does that feel good? Does that feel a lot? Does that feel—

It feels like not enough. One of those, I have a podcast. So one is a podcast every week. I'm trying to ramp that up and do reels and and add more content that way. So, I feel like 3 to 4 would be a manageable number for me, a good number.

And, what do you talk about on the podcast or what's the format?

Gosh, I have my husband on there. It's whatever spiritual message downloads to my brain. It's not pigeonholed to one thing.

I love it. That's great. So you have the podcast and then it really just depends on the, on the cadence and how much you want to put in and how much it builds you versus drains you. This is an example. This builds me. Like today's my mentoring day. All I'm doing is mentoring the people on my team. We've got 40 people on the team and it's just all day, like 25 minutes on, 5-minute break, 25 minutes on, 5-minute break, like into the next person. Yeah, but then, but then like 2 o'clock Eastern, I break to do this because it, it doesn't— I'm going to leave this with more energy than I came in. You're giving me energy, you're not taking energy. And that's most of the time. Like, I guess sometimes you have somebody, it's not as great, but for the most part, like, I leave more connected to the mission and why I do what I do than less. And it's because of having somebody on with you who who you feel like you helped. Like if you feel like you served today and not just at home with the computer, it makes a big difference. So the cadence is up to you, obviously, but if you had a regular series around coaching people who are following you, a regular series around people who bought the book or pre-ordered the book, a regular series around people who bought the course, that could be 3, 4, 5 Instagram Lives a week.

Yeah.

It could even just be a regular show that you go live with and start taking questions from people. That's what I do. Like, it's just 2, uh, 2 o'clock Eastern, we're going live either Instagram or in one of my other communities, 2 o'clock Eastern, we go live. And I just set that in my schedule for half an hour and it's like right in the middle of the day and it really works for me for my flow. And then it doesn't feel like work or I have to make content or I'm struggling with like, what do I come up with next?

Right.

As you're helping somebody, you're going to say something genius. Hopefully in some, in this, I said something genius that then we can cut and turn into a reel or turn into something else, right?

Yeah.

Hopefully, you know, hopefully when you're helping somebody, you say, you're going to say a lot more genius things that then turns into maybe 10 reels that you can use for your content. And most importantly, it doesn't feel like work and it doesn't feel like you're not doing enough. Because you have your regular show coming out that's actually helping people.

I love that. Okay, I'm going to do 50 reach-outs today and I'm going to call the YMCA.

I love it. There you go. Yeah, like the speaking is harder because you have to do more outreach and not everybody's going to say yes. And just make sure you're filming it, that we see you on stage. But YMCAs are great. School assemblies are great. School, yeah, I mean, now school might be hard, but I don't know if summer school is still doing like assemblies and stuff, but libraries, awesome. Any community groups, clubs, meetups, like anything where you can basically be on any kind of stage and then film it. Like, oh, she's a speaker. You know, so even if you had just one a month of those, at the very early stage of my career, I did it. There was a group called Enterprise Toronto that's in my city that supports entrepreneurs. And I would speak there for like $50 for an hour and a half. And there'd be 12 people in there or something. You know?

Yeah.

I did it more just to serve and to help the community. I wish I had content. Like now I would do it for free just to get content so that I have something for my Instagram and YouTube channels. But there's a lot of different community. Like, are you in a decent-sized city?

Yeah, I'm in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Yeah, I mean, Phoenix is huge. So many, so many different groups, so many different clubs, so many different organizations that they would love to have a speaker. And you just don't be attached to, oh, I need to have 1,000 people in the room, you know, right? 10 people show up, you're there to serve and film the content so that you have something that you could put up on your channels. And I think it's also great just to show the journey, you know, just to Here's where I started, everybody. I didn't start— once you're on stage and Oprah's introducing you and you're doing your duet with Garth Brooks or whatever it is that's happening, you get to show the early starts and the humble beginnings and the early stage work that you did. And that was still— it was still just about helping people more than about I need to have 1,000 people or 10,000 people in the room.

Yeah. You and Kira in the front row.

Of course, you'll be— we'll be singing along.

Cool.

Well, I know we don't have, uh, we're actually a little bit over, but let's, let's talk quickly about your book, what, what you've got coming up. Um, Healing Through Broken Relationships, like maybe a, just a quick overview or some advice you've got so we can let my audience know about it.

Um, okay. If I could tell everybody one thing about these books, and I'm gonna, I'm actually just gonna put them all together. It's that wherever you put your attention in your relationships and how much you put in is what you're going to get out. So my husband and I were married 12 years, we had 4 kids, didn't put a lot of time and attention, got divorced while I was married with our 5th, got remarried 3 years later, and now we put in so much time and effort into this relationship that it may not work out. It may not. You never know what life's going to bring. But because we put so much time and effort, our relationship is so sweet. And I find that in every relationship, what you put in is what you'll get out. So wherever you are in your relationships, the brokenness is a gift because it opens you up for healing in other areas of your life and it shows you what you need to work on.

I love it.

Sprinkling the little tidbits in there. It's great. Well, everybody go check out Rhonda. Appreciate you. Book comes out in September.

September. Yep.

September. Go check it out. Rhonda, thank you for doing the hard thing.

Was this—

how hard was this? Was it, was it as scary as you thought?

No, you're amazing. You're amazing.

I appreciate you coming on. I'm looking forward to more of your content coming up and good luck on your new coaching show.

So we got Michael in the house. Michael's part of Movement Makers, been with us. For the year and, and it's back. And, uh, as part of that, we do, uh, IG Live to see how we can help and go further. So what do you got, man?

How can I help?

Uh, I have a question. Um, I want to be an author, speaker, and a coach, but as far— like, first I want to be an author, and I want to do, uh, fiction and nonfiction and infuse my message with that. So what, what my question is, what would be the best way to position myself to be an author.

So what's the first book?

My first book, I want to do a nonfiction book. It's called Bridging the Gap. It's a book about bridging the gap between able-bodied people and disabled people. And it's just telling my story and having messages like that.

And how far away from being done is the book?

Oh, A few months, being honest. I just started.

And have you worked through the process of like your, your cover and the layouts of the pages, or it's like a few months from a manuscript being done?

I know what the COVID is going to be, but I just don't have— I haven't worked out the layout because honestly I don't know how to do that. I'm just in the writing, writing stage right now.

Okay, cool. Are you going to self-publish it? Are you looking to Publisher?

I'm going to self-publish it.

Okay.

So the good news of that is, you know, you're in control of your own timeline.

Yeah.

And it makes sense, honestly, for your first book to just get it out there and build some momentum and you have something that people can go and check out. Um, couple of things. So is your question around just creating the book or your question is around marketing the book or where, where are you stuck?

Uh, marketing. 'Cause I want to let people know that I am an author and I'm doing this and just a great buzz around it so that when it's done, people know what's happening or happened and I can get it out to people.

Cool.

So you have two, there's a parallel plan of action.

Okay.

Okay. One is you're using other people's audiences. Whenever you see some new author come out or an author with a new book come out, they're going on other people's shows, spreading the message, and letting people know. You're hoping to tap into that person's audience. Anybody here watching, you're already tapping into my audience. They can learn about you and what it's all about. When you're in book launch mode, you're thinking anybody who's in your network, anybody who you've done an interview with, anybody who you've had on your show, you're asking for help and support in the book and on launch week.

Okay.

So whenever launch is out, you have a reason to go on people's shows and reconnect with people who you like. Make a list of everybody who has ever emailed you, who you've ever been on their show, any new connections, people who follow you on Instagram. If it's not that big a number, like for Instagram, for example, I'd be sending a video DM to everybody who follows you.

Okay. Okay.

Like how many people follow you on Instagram right now?

Uh, 2,500.

Perfect.

So 2,500 video DMs, you know, it's like you're doing 90 a day for a month and you get it out. Okay. So, uh, it's, it's a lot of personal relationships and just asking. And some people will say, some people won't respond.

Some people will say no.

And some people will say yes. And it's not, um, It's most of the time it's not personal. It's just timing and everything else. Angela says, I'll buy the book. So there you go. You already got, you already got someone. So like Angela, you should go on Angela's show.

Yeah.

When you've already been on Angela's show, right?

Yes, I have. And she's been on mine.

Right.

So round 2 should be like when you got a book to actually talk about.

She was my first guest.

Angela was your first guest?

She was.

Yeah.

Amazing.

I love it. What a first guest. That's great. Angela's awesome. So So phase 1 is, is you're tapping other people's audiences. And, um, the way to ask, uh, who just messaged me? Uh, I'm thinking about Lisa Bilyeu, who I just had on. Uh, her book comes out on May 10th, so I just interviewed her. We're in— and the video's gonna drop on May 8th. Um, and the message was, hey, I'm launching my new book. Uh, I mean, we obviously know each other, so it's it's not like a random Instagram follower, but she said, totally okay if you don't want to promote it, if you have space and time and it's open, I'd love to try to get more awareness, right?

And that's basically the approach.

It's like, hey, I've got this new book, here's what it's all about. Hopefully it's a fit for your audience. I appreciate your friendship. If there's any space to really come on and talk about it to your audience and do an Instagram Live or a Zoom, I super appreciate it. And no pressure either way.

Right?

And you do that for everybody who you've connected with. And so ideally in launch week and, you know, even that whole month, you are lining people up and doing as many interviews and shows as you can. And try to block off time from whatever other responsibilities you have, you know, that you're— that might get in the way so that you can do 5 hours a day of interviews with people.

Right?

Um, that's a short-term strategy to get the book out, you know, and hopefully in the audience you have people who then end up buying. So that's round one, right? People who you know, connected to, and people who follow you, you're reaching out and DMing and say you've got this new book. Phase two is a longer-term approach, which is making content.

Okay.

And the idea then is you're not just tapping into other people's audiences, but you're building your own audience in the process. Okay, because you have more than just one book in you, right? You've got multiple books coming out, you've got everything else that you want to do. So building up your own audience, and that's where the content comes in. You're making— you're doing your shows. I know you do your show with Lady Lexi, you got a new show with Nick now. You're, you're doing all this content, which is great, and that starts getting people into your world so that they are potentially interested not just in this book but in future books. So that if you have 2,500 followers now, by the time next book comes out, that's 25,000 followers or 10,000 followers or 100,000 followers or a million followers or whatever it is, people following you on your journey. It's the content game is a much longer-term approach.

Okay.

But it's worth it because you're going to be doing this for a while and you got a lot of books inside you. So it's usually that combination, like the immediate hit is the shows that you can go on right now, and then the ongoing long-term brand play for all your future books is you're constantly building your own audience up as well.

Okay. Should I, as I'm writing the book, should I do videos on each chapter to like give me, give people an overview or advertise?

For sure.

Like tie it into your content. So, and not just your not just your own content, but the other content that you're doing. So if you go on somebody else's show, like, you should be tying it into this episode right now.

Okay.

So we can make it very meta. So we're doing— we're talking, you know, we're doing a coaching session here, which is great. What chapter in your book most relates to what we're talking about right now?

It's probably the beginning, like, just starting your story and getting yourself comfortable enough to go forward with your journey.

Great.

So you bring it up like this. So, hey Evan, I'm writing my new book.

It's called—

what's it called?

Bridging the Gap.

Bridging the Gap. So I know— and so you mentioned it before, but now like we mentioned it Tagline is starting a conversation with—

starting a conversation to end the stigma.

Cool.

So that, that's like the—

that, that you can get in. I wouldn't bring that up every time. Like, it's called Bridging the Gap.

Yeah.

So I'm writing my new book. It's called Bridging the Gap. And, you know, in chapter 1, I'm talking about just the comfort to share my own story and get out of my comfort zone and feel like my story has, has meaning and purpose. And right now I'm struggling with how do I get more marketing on my book. You know, like, so you're trying to tie in— we're talking about it without talking about it.

Yeah, yeah, I get it.

Yeah, so it's not a surprise that, hey, Michael's got this book coming up. So now you're orienting, like, me towards book, but anybody who's watching live or on the replay gets to hear about the book. And so you're trying to bring up the name, so bridging the gap. Now remember, because you said it twice, right? You said it the first time, I forgot it the first time, and I remember the second time, right? And so think about with your show with Lady or your show with Nick, there's always something that you're talking about on the show that's going to relate to something that's in the book.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

So you try to bring that up. It's not a— it's not a— don't think of it as like a promotion. I mean, it's a promotion strategy, I guess, but it's more about value to the conversation because whenever— whatever you're talking about with your co-host You could tell 5 different stories. You know, you've got lots of stories that you could share. So, so choose to pull one from the book. So it allows you to talk about the book. And then hopefully one of the hosts picks up on that and then asks you, oh, so how's the book coming along, Michael?

Where are we at?

It's like, oh, I still got 3 months away and I'm still working on my design and my cover. And I'm looking for somebody to help me. Oh, maybe that sparks like, you should talk to this person.

Okay.

You know, I work— or maybe someone in the audience says, oh, how about connecting to that person, right? Um, I mean, you should talk to Terry for sure. Terry does a lot of the book stuff. Um, even, even in you asking the question, like, it starts guiding the host and the conversation towards now talking about the book. And it doesn't have to be heavy-handed. It's not like you come in and said, I need to talk about my book, and it's the only thing we're talking about today, right?

We're not going to do that.

But making sure to try to bring it up wherever you can inside content, but the structure being not just your own content, it'd be other people's content too, or your co— like, your co-hosting shows on the co-hosted content as well.

Okay.

All right, I got it.

I like that.

Okay.

And that starts now. I mean, you're 3 months away from having a manuscript done, and then it's editing, and then it's copy and cover design and uploading to Amazon and getting approved and all the, all of the, take people in on that journey.

And wait that long because all that time will be lost and wasted.

Not necessarily wasted. I mean, it's, it's, it's going into the writing, but it's not going into the marketing. It's not going into the storytelling. And you could have people, who knows, maybe somebody watching this becomes the next great connection for you. I mean, I introduced you to Nick.

Yeah, that was—

2 days ago? Was that good?

That was amazing, by the way. Thank you.

What a great guy, huh?

The first few minutes we knew we wanted to do a show.

And that's great.

I don't even know how we— I mean, you joined my livestream while I was playing League of Legends, and I don't even know how I got to Nick and you. But for whatever reason, you being there made me think of Nick. It's like, these guys should connect. And now you're hosting your own show together. It's fantastic.

That was great.

Yeah. So it's that.

It's like, it's showing up, being on people's shows, and then talking about what you're going through and what you're excited about and what you're struggling with in terms of the book project. And it'll start to align people towards wanting to help you. With the book project.

Okay, that's good. That sounds good. Um, yeah, that's, that's all I really need help with. I'm gonna, uh, keep going with the, uh, with after writing, I'm gonna transition to speaking and coaching, but that's later on because I'm honestly— the reason I'm doing— part of the reason I'm doing the shows is because I'm not as good at the speaker as I want to be. And I'm trying to become a better speaker. Sure.

We're always in the— I'm getting better as a speaker too.

Yeah, right.

We're always in a constant journey of improving and getting better, which is part of the fun. I think doing shows is great. It helps. A lot of speaking is more like having— almost have it not quite a set speech, but it's not as interactive. You know, like when you have a co-host, it's a different vibe than if you're the guy on stage doing it. So if the goal is to be a speaker, you'll get better practice probably just talking to the camera. Because when you step on stage, it's Michael solo, you know, there'll be somebody introducing you, Michael, you know, whatever. And then you, you get on stage and start doing your thing. But it's, it's mostly you. And so the best practice would be direct to camera, or even better is like going and speaking at YMCA or Lions Club. I mean, I started at the YMCA, but libraries, like anything that whether it's paid or not, you have a live audience of 7 people to go and talk to.

Not so much to pay. So it's just about the doing right now. Getting the message out.

So you like, what, where do you live? What city you in?

Las Vegas.

You're in Vegas.

I knew you were in Vegas because we're talking about meeting up when I come and Zane's there too. I mean, there's so much in Vegas, uh, and not just like Strip, but just even just schools and libraries and YMCAs and Lions Clubs and whatever. Um, yeah, that if that becomes a goal, then obviously the book is priority right now, but I'd be looking at how do you— I mean, that can help sell the book too. Like, you go and speak, and part of that, they may not pay you to speak, but they might buy your books.

Yeah.

You know, a lot of that, a lot of, a lot of authors end up selling their books from speaking gigs.

Okay.

Where you could be at the back afterwards taking questions and signing books. Like, it could be a book signing event where you're speaking and then people who want can buy your book and get a signed copy because you're there.

Okay. The reason I like Empowering Discussions so much is because it's— I'm the only host, so it's just me and they— and the guests I have. So that's a lot more, you know, just me talking, which helps me out, helps a lot.

Yeah.

And when you end up speaking, you'll, again, it's you without, unless you're going to bring a guest on with you on stage, but you know, it's mostly going to be you. It doesn't have to be the skills that you practice and work on a lot now, but that'll be your, for anybody who wants to be a speaker, you should be out Speaking like once a month, go out and speak. And what's usually great is if you have, even if you're, the bar is pretty low for most speakers, for most of like the small events, like to speak at a library or a high school or a community club or something, the bar is pretty low. And a lot of the organizations are just craving for people to come in and share their story and help because a lot of people are really struggling. So if you go in and do a good job, even a half-decent job, you know, they'll probably want you to come back.

Yeah, I get that. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's once you get the ball rolling a little bit, it's not that hard. If the goal was to speak every 2 weeks, you might get that just from 2 different organizations where you're coming in once a month and talking to them.

Okay, that's good.

You know, You know, for, for, I've been thinking like there was a Toronto, I lived in Toronto, there's an Enterprise Toronto, which is a local, local government organization that helps entrepreneurs get their business started. And they had these morning seminars that they would run and I would speak at. And this is early days of my speaking career. And I just wanted to, I wanted to have human contact. It's not just me on YouTube, you know, it's like, oh, I get to see somebody, shake hands and help them. And yeah, I went in once and then they wanted me to come back, I don't know, every 2 weeks, every month, and just do it again and do it again until I just couldn't commit to the schedule anymore.

Oh, nice.

Which, I mean, that's the speaking game. Like, you start off, you do a whole bunch, you do it for free, You end up then getting paid $100 or $200 or whatever, and you work your way up to bigger and bigger opportunities.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, but yeah, that could be a great place to talk about the book, promote the book. If you can film it, even better, because now you have content for a YouTube channel and people see you as a speaker.

Okay.

Um, I don't know how high, like, priority level that is for you right now.

But probably right below author, honestly.

Well then, what's stopping you from reaching out to all the local libraries and high schools and saying, hey, I'm a speaker?

I didn't know that they did like speeches at libraries, honestly. I mean, I should look into it more. I've checked out the TED Talks, but I didn't see anything.

TED Talks are good too. TED Talks are a lot more structured. You know, you have to have it a certain amount of time and Still, in Vegas, there's still gonna be a lot of TED Talks that come through. Yeah, libraries for sure. Libraries have tons of stuff. High schools, you might have to just do more outreach. Like, libraries will often have on their website a list of activities, a list of events, and list of talks, and list of stuff that's happening. High schools is more obviously around the school year, so you're still good for now, but summer wouldn't be as good. And they have assemblies and people come in and speak at us. The easiest one— did you grow up in Vegas?

Oh no, New York.

I moved to Vegas about 20 years ago.

Okay.

Did you go to high school in Vegas?

I graduated in '97, so I've been out of school after, uh, since I grew up, since I've been here.

Okay.

I moved here in '02.

So I mean, any, any connections to high schools, elementary schools, friends, anybody. Like, hey, they have kids, I'd like to— or you can just email out to the schools themselves. Like, it's not that high. You just let them know you're focused on bridging the gap. Tell them a quick pitch. It's not like the highest bar to come in and speak at a high school assembly. But great, great experience. And dude, you've got such a moving story. It's definitely going to inspire some people in the room. Um, any, any organizations where people who, um, are recently disabled— I mean, I don't have to tell you how much people struggle with that, how to deal with—

oh yeah, adjusting.

So whatever. I don't know, I'm not as familiar with like what's going on in Vegas with community organizations, but there definitely are. Yeah, to come in and reach out and The unfortunate thing is, is there's people becoming disabled every day, right? And they're struggling with it every day. So you could be in there every week speaking to a new group of people and sharing your story and helping them. Um, I mean, that's a huge, huge need.

Yeah.

So getting plugged into that, again, you could be there every week or every month. It becomes whatever, whatever frequency you end up wanting to do it at. Um, yeah, I was like, I would start if that's your number 2 priority right behind writing.

Yeah, yeah.

Then, yeah, and they go very well together.

Oh yeah, I'm sure.

Yeah, speaker and author are very complementary things. Like, honestly, speaking will make you a better author because when you're speaking, like, writing a book, a nonfiction book, is basically they're both coaching. Like, you want people to learn something and then make an improvement or mindset shift in their life that they take home and change something in their life, right? Like, from your story, I'm going to be inspired to then make a change in my life. Otherwise, what's the point of writing a nonfiction book? Um, so you're coaching without any feedback. Or at least when you're speaking, you get feedback afterwards. People come up and say, hey, how about this? Like, the questions that people ask you afterwards might become new chapters in your book and make your book even better. That's a good idea because you're seeing what resonates.

I've written fiction before, but I've never written a nonfiction, so I'm just— I'm struggling with the structure right now, what the order of things should be.

Well, that's where speaking then can be fantastic because your speech has a structure to it. Yeah, so the speech should be a pared-down version of the book. Like, I could do a speech on Built to Serve, but then if they want more details, they can go buy the book. But the Built to Serve book is based off of me doing a lot of mostly coaching and some speaking around the concepts there. But then you know what works. If you go on stage and you tell the first story that's in your book, maybe that lands, maybe it doesn't land. You don't know until you actually start. I mean, I think all my stories are great, but you don't know until you actually start talking to people and testing it out. But when you go off and give a speech and you tell a couple stories, and then afterwards, the best part is afterwards people come up to you and say, "Hey, Michael, wow, that was so inspiring. How did X?" And they ask you questions. Whatever story they're asking the most questions around or whatever follow-up they're asking after listening to your speech, that's all great content for what you know works well that then should be in the book.

Okay.

That's a good idea.

So they work super well together. Even as you're playing through your material, which story should you tell? You can test it from a stage. Even if the stage isn't 1,000 people, but the stage is whoever is in the room. And then the feedback afterwards will definitely make you a better writer.

Okay. For sure.

My book Built to Serve came because I was on a speaking tour.

Yeah, I, I heard that.

Yeah, people kept asking the same question.

I wasn't even on tour.

I wasn't even on tour talking about Built to Serve. I was talking about something else, and people kept asking me the same questions in every city, which led to, I should just write a book on this, which then became Built to Serve.

Yeah, I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, it's a good idea.

So it's great to get the feedback. So yeah, I mean, I would just start making a list today of You're in Vegas, so it's not even noon yet.

No, it's—

so, so you got time. Make a list of, of high schools, libraries, community organizations, especially ones related to disability somehow, new, newly disabled people, um, and any other community groups in Vegas that might be a fit for what you're doing. Okay, build out a list of a couple hundred places, get their email addresses, and just start emailing people and say, I want to come, I'll come and speak for free to your audience. Here's my, here's my topic. You'll get, you'll get, like, if you only do 10, you may not get any, right? But if you make a list of 100, you'll get, you'll get at least 5.

I do 400 and get 10, 10 yeses. I'm good.

Yeah, yeah, that's, but that's it. So like, most people, they won't do enough of the outreach, they'll, they'll make a list of 4 and email all 4 and they don't hear a response. And so then, oh, I guess that strategy didn't work.

Yeah.

But if you can actually make a list of 400, you will get at least 10.

Yeah.

And then you're off and speaking.

Okay, great.

Like you. Yeah.

Cool.

Well, that's exciting, man.

Yeah. Yeah, me too. Yeah. I've been looking forward to this. Yeah.

Yeah. So you got, you got a couple months out. So, you know, strategies recap. We got reaching out to all of the shows that you've been on and all the co-hosts that you've had and all the guests you've had and asking for support. Video DMing everybody who follows you on Instagram and telling them that you've got your new book out and you'd love the support. No expectations, just let them know what you've done. You know, 90 people a day for a month.

Yeah.

Get those videos going. 8 seconds at a time.

The hand-to-hand combat.

Continue to make your own content and pouring in stories from the book and lessons as much as possible so it's not a surprise for people to hear that you're an author, that everybody knows you're working through this book. And then for speaking, it's starting to reach out to YMCAs and libraries and high schools. Make a list of a couple hundred and reach out and say you've got a story to share about Bridging the Gap and start getting some speaking gigs.

Great.

Thank you, man.

I appreciate it.

You got it.

If you want to see me coach another entrepreneur, check out the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. Just don't accept the way things are done as the way that it has to be done. So just because they stopped selling books, it doesn't mean that they can't sell your book.

You don't pitch them as help me sell my book.

You don't pitch them as we're not even selling a book.