A Plethora of Ideas For A Better Business: The Seventh ILM Zoom Meetup Featuring Lee Richter - I Love Marketing Episode #383

What is a result? What does a result mean? So that we know if we're doing it or not.

So I'm going to tie that back to what we were talking about. These groups. If you look at just, just what we've been talking about, I see in our screen right here, me and you and Lee and Ben, you were talking about those. Between the four of us, there's over half a million dollars a year that we've already just talked about between Strategic Coach and Gina's Network of Investment annually in our growth. Right. And if you don't come into something like that with a clear understanding of what is the result that you're looking for from it, then it's easy to get lost. It's easy to look at something like that as an expense. But when you look at it as an investment, that's what I look at it as, a capital investment that's, you know, sanctioned by the government. That gives you a tax break for doing it. To invest in ideas and contacts and relationships and being in what I call an abundance neighborhood. I'm Dean Jackson, he's Joe Polish and this is the I Love Marketing podcast.

Regardless of what the world is going through, your business can still crush it. Lee Richter, an award winning business innovator, leader and global visionary, shares how she has created multiple successful businesses over decades and has fun doing it. In this episode, Lee, Dean and Joe discuss marketing tips during tough times, how to bring together a rock solid team, and the 10 Ways method for attracting attention, making more money and blowing your clients away. If you'd like to join world renowned entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network annual event, then apply today for invitation to attend. If you'd like to learn more about the Genius Network annual event or to apply, go to geniusnetwork.com I've known Lee for a long time, but I'm going to do her official bio. Lee Richter is an award winning business innovator and global visionary. Global Visionary Recognized recently by San Francisco Business Times as one of their top 100 business leaders for the seventh year running. In addition, she's been featured on the list of the top 100 fastest growing businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past two years as the CEO of multiple companies, a number one best selling author, an Abundant Studios producer and a member of the Forbes Business Council. Lee's passion is to connect with innovative leaders making a global impact. Most importantly, Lee is a loving and devoted wife and mother. With Lee's help, her daughter Abby became a best selling author at the age of nine with her first of five books published. Lee's husband, Dr. Gary Richter, has become recognized as a global thought leader in the veterinarian industry for expertise in holistic health for pets and was voted America's favorite veterinarian. Lee and her family love to travel and explore the world together. So give it up for our dear friend, Lee Richter. What's up, Lee? Wow.

Happy to be here. Thank you so much for including me. You and Dean are two of my first dominoes in many, many ways. Every time I'm with you, I get an idea to bring back to the team and put in place. So you inspire me.

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. And Jamie was holding up a little heart, which is great. So as we get into this, why don't you share with me what are you working on and who are you, who you're helping right now? Because you have like give us a thumbnail sketch of all your different types of businesses and then what you're working on and who are you being a hero to right now and what are you focusing on? Because I know everyone's going to learn a lot from how you run your businesses.

Well, thank you for asking. Yeah, I do have several businesses, but there are two categories. One is my husband's category, which is veterinary medicine. And I've been supporting him in in veterinary medicine for going on three decades right now owning veterinary hospitals and building brands there. And actually I expanded some of my brands because of the Genius X Group. We've been able to even multiply some of the things we've been doing in the world. And then the other side of my business is in PR and marketing. Cause that's my true love. I love marketing. So it's super fun for me to collaborate with other leaders, global leaders, and bring their voices out into the world. I was having so much fun in our strategic coach group, doing a lot of work with other people that are in the Free Zone Frontier group because we're so like minded that it's a lot of fun to collaborate with everyone in there.

You know, let me Dean, this is a good thing to bring up when it comes to investment. So you've been in Genius Network for a while. Been in my 100k group. You're in free zone frontier. We all pay 50 grand a year to be part of that group. I mean, between us, just like we invest hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in our own marketing education, then when we do something like this, which we don't even charge for. Right. The I Love Marketing meetup group, we turn this into A podcast. We're also sharing whatever we have learned that we think we can pull from that. It's an incredible form of leverage and it's a great way to deliver stuff to people. Why do you invest? You're running multimillion dollar businesses. Why do you invest all that money in these different groups? Haven't you learned enough already, Lee?

You know, a big piece of it is access, right? Access to ideas, access to other brilliant leaders, access to even knowing how they solve their problems. One of the beauties in our group is when people do hot seats around a challenge and we get to pour into them on ideas on how to solve it. And that shortens my learning curve. That gives me idea and also lets me know which who I need to reach out to to help me with that project. So a lot of times I invest the community for shortening my learning curve. But it's really access. Just like you, Joe. I mean, how many people have you put in front of me that have changed my business and my life and my perspective just because I had access to them through you or access to people through Dean or through Dan Sullivan that I might not have reached before?

Yeah, yeah, no. And I just want to give some context. What would you recommend as a stupid or dumb or negligent way to spend money on, quote unquote, consultants, groups, personal development courses? I mean, because all of us not only have invested in a lot of good stuff, but we've also spent money on things that didn't work out or wasn't really aligned with. And more and more I'm just constantly annoyed by the level of marketing manipulation from some of the best marketers that don't have very good characters, they're very good at selling and they're very smart, but they're, you know, it's gotten, it's gotten really bad in some ways. So I've become more and more vocal about, you know, the snake oil salespeople that are also in the marketing world. And when you are in that world, you get thrown into that category, unfortunately. But again, it's all about, you know, operating with integrity and, you know, delivering what you say you're going to do and all that. But yeah, what advice would you have on smart ways to spend money? Dumb ways to spend money?

I will say one of the things I do is start people on projects, right? And I might even have a project that I give to three people at the same time and give them the exact same parameters. Maybe a five day sprint. Do this between Monday and Friday, turn in the Results on Friday. And with three groups, what I could do is compare side by side, who rises to the top, who followed directions, who's excited about it, and that third person, the one that's most excited about it and really doing the work, take them to the next level and do more. The other two maybe reassign or not use them anymore. But sometimes when you do side by side, you can really see the ones that excel and the ones that do show up and give you the dashboard with the results, and they're excited about telling you what they accomplished. My thing that I hate is when I have to go and ask someone, hey, what did you accomplish? I'd rather them be excited and show me before I even ask. So we get into a rhythm and a routine of basically sharing our daily wins, but also setting up our next day for success by outlining what do we do today and what still needs to be done tomorrow. And then we have a working document that the whole team can see, and we can see how we can help each other. But I think sometimes starting with two or three people on the same project and seeing who rises to the top allows you to then just work with the cream of the crop.

Love it. Now, one thing I want to get into is the entrepreneurial mindset, but I want to. I want to ask you and Dean something as a way to kind of frame what we're talking about. One of the things I've been doing with my team is asking everyone to share daily what's the results that they're producing? And I'm seeing how difficult it is for some of them to articulate what is actually a result. So what was going on? You know, we had this daily activity report, and I wanted everyone to produce results. And then I realized, well, I'm calling it a daily activity report, not a daily result report. Maybe that's why they're reporting activities. Right? Duh. You know, I mean, words have a lot to do with it. Dean's always talking about, if you couldn't get paid for what it is that you do anymore, like, if there was some sort of law tomorrow that said you can no longer charge for your products or services or experiences or whatever the heck it is you're selling, and you could only get paid for a result, what would the result be? And I've been talking a lot about thought leaders. Everyone talks about thought leaders, but I like result leaders because anyone can come up with a thought, right? So, Dean, how would you define a result? And I'd like to hear the same thing. From you, Lee, how would you define a result? Because everyone here, they want to produce results in their life. And in order to produce a result, they need capability. So I think they're here with us today to see what sort of inspiration, encouragement, how to ideas, that sort of thing. And then of course, you know, Ben Hardy here with the who, not how this is a great thing to, you know, frame this conversation. I want to hear what is the result? What does a result mean? So that we know if we're doing it or not. So you go first, Dean.

Okay, so I'm going to tie that back to what we were talking about. These groups. If you look at just what we've been talking about, I see in our screen right here, me and you and Lee and Ben, you were talking about those. Between the four of us, there's over half a million dollars a year that we've already just talked about between Strategic Coach and Genius Network of Investment annually in our growth. Right. And if you don't come into something like that with a clear understanding of what is the result that you're looking for from it, then it's easy to get lost. It's easy to look at something like that as an expense. But when you look at it as an investment, that's what I look at it as a capital investment that's sanctioned by the government that gives you a tax break for doing it. To invest in ideas and contacts and relationships and being in what I call an abundance neighborhood. You know, when we talk about this idea of surrounding yourself with the people who are going to be, you know, moving forward in the same direction that you're moving forward over the next 25 years. And I'm surrounded in three environments like that with Genus Network, with Strategic Coach and with Peter DIAMANTES with Abundance 360. I look at those three Abundance neighborhoods as where I want to hang out for the next 25 years. And so what I'm looking for is what is the ROI that my participation in those neighborhoods and that investment that I'm making going to yield. And the truth is that I've been playing with house money in those, in those environments for years. It doesn't take long before you get to a point where they're self sustaining. You know, I'm going to show an infographic because I'm super excited about it, that if everybody can see this, this is a seven year case study that I just got the results for last week for September, September of 2013 till September of 2027 years that we were doing A case study with one of our real estate clients in Toronto. And this just to illustrate how I think about playing the long game on investments that you're making, both in capital, time, energy, relationships, environments, everything that you're doing. I'm looking for what's going to drive this so the components of it. And you can use this as a model for how you evaluate anything you're doing. Along the bottom are all the months from September 2013 to September 2020. The red dots along the bottom here represent the cumulative investment in postcards, newsletters, following up with the people who respond to the postcards. These green dots going up and to the right and gaining exponential traction here are the cumulative commissions that he's earned from people who have responded to the marketing that he's been doing along the way. And these yellow dots connected by these lines here represent when people first responded to the postcards that we sent out. If you look here, this was exciting this year, the top line, somebody responded in September of 2013 and in September of 2020 sold their house with Tony. And so that. And you can see every month in between here people are going, and if I zoomed in, he took. It was five months before he did his first transaction, but when he did that first transaction, he reached escape velocity and he's been self sustaining. All of this has been self funding ever since that fifth month. And over time now it's been over a million three hundred thousand on $148,000 ad spend or investment at a 9.1 times ROI. When you start looking and evaluating your involvement in any sort of network, any sort of a mastermind, any sort of an educational thing, you start looking at how much have I invested in this over time and then you really pay attention and look what were the ideas that I got or the people that I met or the relationship that I forged or the supplier that I learned about that generated a real result in this. An ROI and ROIs of money are the easiest thing for you to track. That's really why we're in this game of business. That's how we keep the score for things like that. So that kind of mindset, if you look at it for something in strategic coach, how can you point back if you're honestly reflecting on things that you're learning and saying what was this? That what freedom did this bring me or what result did this bring me? Or what insight did this bring me or who did I meet that led to this decision that got me into this outcome where I ended up with money? So that is certainly one of the ways that we keep score. And if you start evaluating the relationships that you get into and you start looking at them and driving that roi, not just passively sitting in there to learn and to just take it all in, you've got to actually do something. You know, you got to do it. You got to find a who or tell your who's to do what you learned. I surround myself in those environments to be exposed to what's and who's that I can deploy to get a result. I don't want to do anything.

Love it. Love it. Thank you. So Lee, follow up on that one. What are your thoughts?

I love it because Dean and I think a lot alike. Of course I'm going to look at return on investment in dollars, time, passion and relationships. Right. For me personally, the roi, I'm fully content with the ROI I have in my companies already. So now it's just adding extra value, adding extra ideas. But the relationship piece, that's the most important piece to me in the communities. Like Joe, if you look back to my first Genius X meeting with you, very first founders meeting, people that I met in that group are lifelong friends. And not just that we're doing business together. We're talking behind the scenes. We're talking about what's really going on in our life and how do we improve and support each other through it. So I think that the connections is really the most important to me. I'm looking at return on investment on connections, but also what can I give? I'm more of a giver. I usually come into the meetings not needing anything, but I love giving and sharing and giving people public relations ideas and just building relationships. And so that's my most important piece.

No, totally. Well, you're a giver. So, you know, like my book Life Gives to the Giver, I mean, this is really about being a giver and it's about making an investment. I mean, the graphic that Dean just showed is really a visual representation of an investment in learning ideas, applying them, taking certain actions. And so, I mean, I think we all look at this from an investment standpoint in that the deeper you go with anything that is producing a result, the better the results tend to be, especially in the long term.

So how do you think? Really important though? Dean said he's looking at this and I am and Dan Sullivan teaches us this also, which is looking at it in a 25 year relationship. This is not just about one year. This is about building over time. And I think about my tenure in Genius Network from the first year to now. I mean, these are deep relationships that I have now, but it took years seeing each other, sharing problems, having hot seats, being in the meetings, going to Arizona. It took years to get to this point. And so now you can really see the difference between people just starting out and building those relationships versus already having them. So I think the ones of us that have been in Genius Network for years, we actually get to be mentors to the new ones coming in and shortening their learning curve and letting them know, which are great contacts for them. And I think that's one of our abilities to help blossom this group even more. Is looking at it almost like big brothers, big sisters to the next generation, coming in and really connecting and. And being part of that. I see Ben doing that all the time. Ben is so great about sharing those little things that inspire people, and they're like, oh, they feel so much more included and so much more seen, because he does share that with them. So I think we can all do that.

Yeah.

No, that's awesome. And by the way, like, let's make a contrast to different people that are on right now. So we've got a really wonderful, amazing, you know, charming, caring person by the name of Ben Hardy, who's, you know, you know, an author. He's written three books. And then we have Jeff Madoff, who also has been a guest on here with us. And, Jeff, do you want to say anything about Lee?

Hi, Jeff.

Where is he? Unmute yourself, Jeff.

I am unmuted. I am unmuted.

Did you like the one wonderful way I just edified you with love and caring compassion and honoring.

To be compared to Ben Hardy is such a rare honor, and to be mentioned by you in front of such an august group of people is such a rare honor that I am greatly humbled and horribly grateful.

Joe, oh, my God.

Thank you so much. I don't remember what I just said, but thank you so much.

Jeff wrote the book Creative Careers, which I would highly recommend you all go and get Jeff's book also, which I think a lot of you already have, because when Jeff was a guest on here a couple months ago. But you've known Lee for a while and you've interviewed her before.

I have had the pleasure of interviewing her. I met at one of the Genius Network events in Arizona, and she was great. And we talked also in the room where it happens, you know, outside there in the lobby. To want to be in the room where exactly? Yes, the Hamilton Room. And it was great. And as I had Sent you the text, Joe. I had wanted to learn more about Lee and talk to her, and it was just a total coincidence when I got the notice about this. So this is fantastic that I get to hear from her. As opposed to your distorted version of the truth.

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

Hey, Joe, there's a friend of mine on here too. Do you see Garb on there? Garab, Seamus. He's the founder of Comic Con.

Oh, really?

This is a new person. I don't even think you've met him before I get to introduce you. But Garb's amazing. He has done sold over 5 million tickets to events with lotteries in this world. He's converting and changing to online, and I just love bringing people like that in his community so they can see other rock stars just like them.

Garb's a friend of mine also, Lee. I've known Garb for a while, and yeah, he does really, really interesting work. It's very cool.

Well, Garab, you're welcome to pipe in at any point in time because he's so fun.

And I'm gonna see him in Sunday in person while I'm down here.

Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you.

Hey, Garab.

So what is your favorite. I'd love to ask you what your favorite comic is. What's your favorite book, and like, what's maybe like a favorite movie?

So from a character standpoint, it's always been Spider Man. You know, I was born in Queens. I have the same physical build, but I've always felt like someone that's had a greater responsibility than where I'm at. And. And when you put on. And I was very close with Stan Lee, and as he always used to say is like, when you put on the mask, anybody could be Spider Man. So I always had an affinity towards that character. As far as movies, the Last Avenger films, Infinity War and Endgame were just absolutely extraordinary masterpieces of film work. Just literally taking. Taking you on a 10 year journey to get to that point was just unbelievable.

And now he's a fan of the Boys.

The Boys is unbelievable. Yeah. So we're actually doing a private autograph signing with Antony Starr, who plays Homelander and Erin Moriarty. So we've got that coming up. So that's actually pretty exciting.

That's funny. Go ahead, Go ahead, Dean.

Garabby may be our one degree to Kevin Smith. Do you know Kevin Smith?

Oh, I know Kevin very, very well. Yeah, I kind of grew up with Kevin when he first did the movie Clerks. Yeah, I became a huge Fan, because he was the one that was hit all these comic book references. And then when he did a book called Chasing Amy, which was about a comic book, he created these characters called Jay and Silent Bob. And when people wanted, he wanted them to feel like they were real comic book characters. So when I spoke to Kevin, he asked me to do at the time. So I published a magazine called wizard. If anybody was a fan of comic books growing up. So for over 20 years, I published the magazine. We were in 75 countries and dozens of languages and sold, you know, lots and lots of copies of that book. So we put Jane Silent Bob on the COVID of the magazine, which he then handed out at Sundance so that he can show everybody that, hey, these are real comic book characters.

That's awesome.

Wow.

Small world. Well, so there you go. I mean, it all goes back to relationships and ideas and, you know, putting them out into the world, which has to do a lot with. This may sound like a sidebar, but we're on. I love marketing. Right. So this is an I love marketing virtual meetup group, which this all started from Dave and Charlie doing the Scottsdale meetup group. And that's how it ended up becoming these ones we've been doing over the last few months. So, Lee, how would you define marketing and why do you love marketing?

Well, marketing connects people. And for my companies, I'm always looking for a way to allow people to see what do we do, how do we do it and how we can serve them. So, like in veterinary industry, in the veterinary industry, we have a holistic hospital. So we're looking for that top 5% of people who love their pet so much they will do anything and they come to us and we teach them proactive care and we teach them how to have a longer, healthier life with their pet and people who want to do better in the world. I just absolutely love supporting them on their journey.

Great.

Yep. So, Dean, we're going to talk about mindset. So I wanted to ask Lee, what is your perspective on the entrepreneurial mindset? I mean, what does that actually mean to you and how do you think about mindset? Because, you know, we can give people all the different strategies and ideas all day long, but their ability to do something with it, I think has a lot to do with their mindset.

100% starts in mindset. And we actually just did a five day auction online, a five day challenge online. And one of the things that we learned is the very first day, we brought in a mindset expert to help the entire Community have the same frame of reference around how to approach things. And the first thing is, you know, I start every single day in a gratitude circle, sometimes with my team, sometimes with my family. But every single day, I'm looking for the good. I'm looking for the things to celebrate. And I realized that in anything, you could look at a perspective one way or another. You could look at it that it's empowering you and helping you have a better life, or you can look at it that it's hard and a struggle and everyone's going to have things that are difficult and struggles. But how do you convert it to something that's more empowering in your life? Right. A friend of mine, Brandy Gilmore, taught me years ago to look at my stories, whether it's in work or personal, look at my stories. And as I'm telling a story, looking for the piece that's most powerful and most amount of love for myself and stop the story there. Don't continue the story to when something went wrong or that something didn't show up or somebody disappointed me. She says, why are stories in your brain? So that it's the most empowering, filled with the most love, so that you're carrying those stories forward with you.

Yeah.

Great.

All right. So with that, let's talk about something that me and Dean have spent hundreds of hours discussing on I love marketing, which is how to get more customers. So what are some of the best ways that you've discovered in your careers, your businesses, to get more clients?

20 years ago, I bought a veterinary hospital that had already been around for 40 years, right? So it was 2001. It started in 1961. When I bought the hospital, it had 3,500 current clients. In the following 10 years, I took that 3,500 and turned it into 25,000 clients who literally came and saw us in person one at a time. And what I learned is it really is consistent action every day, every single day, we had different ways that we reached out. And in the center of my mind map, it says, attracting new clients. And then we had 13 different ways they could find us. Right? We had a mind map. 13 days, 13 ways. And the reason there's 13 ways is because there's 13 weeks and a quarter. And every we deep dive on one of them. One might be networking, one might be JVs, one might be social media. Doesn't mean we ignore the other ones. But each week we deep dive on one and get really crystal clear on our plan for that quarter. And then we repeat it the Next quarter. But it started with the mind map I wrote maybe 20, 25 years ago, and I still use that foundation. But in 2008, when the market crashed and veterinary hospitals were empty, they had hallowed halls. They were taking clients and making them part time employees. We were bursting at the seams and the group was wondering, how did we always have more clients coming in, even in a down market? And it was because consistently, every single day, we were doing marketing things. Every day, no matter what. Something I would test might be Facebook ads in another city and then count how many new clients we got from that city. But I made it fun for the team too. I will give them ways that they can participate, kind of gamify it at the front desk. How many calls did they close and turn into appointments for the team? How many people came to us from Yelp? And counting it and seeing how they converted it. And the more we gamify it, make it fun for the team and they get to win as well, the more fun it is for me.

Love it. Well, you know, you're quite familiar with elf. Go ahead, Dean, what are you saying?

I was gonna say that's a lot like ipower, like getting your team members involved in the process because everybody's got great ideas. You just need good direction. By framing the question that's going to elicit the great response. I remember reading there's a great book about Albert Lasker, who was one of the old original advertising men. And when they were selling refrigerators, you know, back when refrigeration was brand new, one of the things that people were afraid of is that they didn't want to have something that was plugged in all the time and sucking electricity because they were new to the whole. You had this meter outside your house that you could see it moving, and when that's moving, it's costing you money. So people were weighing the benefits of having refrigeration versus their fear of this bottomless pit of electricity spent. And they said, he tasked the entire company. He said, we need some phrase that makes people comfortable with Frigidaire as the brand that they can trust for refrigeration. And somebody who was like the equivalent of in the mail room came up with the idea of that every Frigidaire is equipped with meter miser technology. And just those words, meter miser said exactly what you need words to say to say, it's watching your back. It's not going to take any more electricity than it absolutely needs to. And that was really the thing that made people Comfortable choosing Frigidaire over all the others because all the others are just money pits. But you better get that meter miser, because that one will save us the most money.

There's a really big key you said in there, Dean, too. And it's Genius, which is coming up with the right phrase that allows your customer to feel comfortable with their decision. They want evidence. They made a great decision. Right. And one of the things I taught my front desk, Joe, which was really important in the shift in closing clients at the front desk is no matter what the client asks them, the first thing to say is, yes, I can help you with that.

Absolutely.

Because then it puts their mind at ease that they have the right person and the right person who really cares about helping them. And just by using that one phrase, even if they have to say, you know what, I have to check on the answer and call you back, it's okay, because they set up the relationship of I do want to help you. And I think that that's just been really key in my business, is that my clients feel like the team sees them and listens and cares.

Hey, Joe, I just saw Evan Carmichael's here too.

Yes, we need to do a shout out for Evan and we. Evan is just a master at YouTube videos. If you don't follow him, follow him on YouTube. He's got 2.6 million subscribers, over 385 million views. I know that because he was just a guest on the Genius Network meeting we just had. And we're going to be doing a jam session with him at the Genius Network annual event November 6th, 7th and 8th. Because it was such a big hit.

He had a great interview on his channel right now with Kevin o' Leary from Shark Tank. He brilliantly did a two parter with him where it's one half of the interview on his channel, 1/2 on Kevin O' Leary's channel. So what is a great model for collaboration there?

Well, Evan, why don't you pop on and explain what that is and then post it in in the link so people can watch those interviews. And if there's anything that you want to say to either make fun of Dean or to ask Lee or mention anything, feel free wherever you're at out there bouncing on his trampoline. I'm sure where you at right now?

I am on my trampoline. And you know, I just discovered Dean is a fellow Torontonian. So we can't make fun of him. We gotta only show love. Shout out to Lee and her website too, because I was on and she's got this. If you haven't seen Lee's website, I popped it in the chat and it's this epic video across the top of her coaching and speaking and with Oprah and high fiving and it's like, wow, how did she do that? I want to, I got to get these website people on board, but I think that's a great. Joe's on there too. Joe, you made your appearance. You're like right after Oprah on there. The link, I don't know where the link is. I'm sure it's somewhere off my YouTube channel. But Kevin O' Leary is trying to grow on his YouTube channel and he wanted to do something. He wanted to do more collabs and he happens to be in Toronto as well. And he wanted to do something in person because all of his stuff has now been remote and Covid era. And so we connected and we did a two part series. We had two hours or so of time to talk. And what we did was we took questions from both of our audiences. What do you want us to answer? And then we went through about 11 or 12 questions and we put half on my channel and half on his channel. And since I edited it or my team was editing and filming it, we took the favorite, our favorite questions and then gave him the rest. But they're still good on both channels. And one of the great things you can do on YouTube is there's a thing called an end card, which in the last 20 seconds of every video, you can call things out and it's clickable. So that could be your PDF download, that could be your lead magnet, that could be sign up for your email, that could be your website, that could be your offer that you want to send people to. And so what we did was we did a thing at the end where we said, hey, if you want to see part two of this interview, go check it out on Kevin's channel or on Evan's channel. And we call it the Kevin and Evan show for that day. And it's just great to do collaboration. So anybody who's doing YouTube, I always love Genius Network events. They're great, amazing people. Huge warm hearts here. And so I'm looking forward to the annual event and jamming out with all you guys.

Yeah, awesome. Yeah. And there's a bunch of Genius Network members that are here too. So Evan's going to do a whole session on just how to really build and grow a sustainable YouTube channel, which is awesome. So Lee, you know a lot about elf Easy Lucrative and fun. Running an ELF business versus a half business, which I refer to as hard, annoying, lame and frustrating. What does an elf business mean to you? Because you tend to have a lot of fun in what you do.

It's true. And that is the actual criteria when I'm taking on a project. Is it easy? Is it lucrative, Is it fun? MIT knows it as well. They run it through the same filter. I actually spoke to 8,500 event planners last month and I drilled this home so much that one of them sent me a gift with Lee Richter. Easy, lucrative and fun. I'm like, well, it's actually Joe Polish, but I just have heard it so much because I think why make it anything else than easy, lucrative and fun? Especially at this time in my life when I have so many choices. And that is literally the filter I go through first for every project it has to meet those three criteria. Seems so simple, but there's things that don't meet that criteria and I cut it out.

Yeah, I love it. And that actually that term was given to me by my friend Mark Schneider, who recently passed away. And you know, it has been a great criteria on not just marketing because I've actually trademarked ELF marketing. Right. And so if you do use it, you have to give me credit because else we're going to, we're going to just sue you.

Really?

No, I'm kidding. Well, it depends. We may see you. It depends if you totally plagiarize my shit. But I love the term elf and I recommend using it as a criteria, use it as a process and it's helped me. I used to think of it just as marketing, doing automated robotic types of marketing methodologies. But I now apply ELF to people, projects, anything. Because if it's not money, is it easy, liberating and fun? I even applied into my personal life. So I'm going to take next year as a sabbatical. And so there's going to be a lot of things that need to be diself for me that aren't money related, but they're, you know, it has to be liberating. So I highly encourage it as a filter because the genius network members that we have a tool called ELF versus Half where they list what are the people and the projects and things in their life that are ELF and what are the things that are hard, annoying, lame and frustrating. And really take a look at how do you eliminate the half and how do you get to the elf? So one thing I want to, I have this question I wrote down here and then I'm going to ask Jeff Madoff to ask you a question about pr. How can people utilize tough times? As many people in the world have been going through incredibly difficult times with the pandemic, how can people utilize tough times as a springboard for greater success? And what does that word that gets thrown around a lot success mean to you?

Well, success is that I have freedom of time, and I can make choices on how to spend that time. That's what money buys me, is freedom of choice, period. That's how I see it the way right now. You know what? Looking at tough times, the first thing I did, I remember on March 16, I sat down with my manager. I'm like, what has changed in our world right now? We wrote a list of 25 things that have changed based on Covid and the Pandemic, but immediately turned it into what can we do about it? And then a week later on Slack, they were celebrating how things were actually getting better. But it was because we were identifying the challenge and overcoming it together that they were excited about it. Right? They weren't afraid anymore. And they also knew if any changes happened, they'd find it on Slack. So they didn't have to worry about us making different changes and doing things in the customer company unless they were included. But I tell you, we have had so many more opportunities come out of this pandemic. Our company's up 31% this year. The team feels essential. They feel excited. They feel like people really need them and want them. And so what I do is I highlight that every Friday, I write, here's 10 things we're celebrating right now. And one of the things I've learned is to share that list with our clients coming in, too, so that they could see the value of the team. And by sharing it not only with the team, but with the clients, they could see we're celebrating the team, but also what we have to overcome as well. Because the clients are coming with their perspective of what they have to overcome, but they're not thinking about all the things we have to do to be there ready for them. And so I think by highlighting that it's now elevated on both sides, the appreciation, the clients appreciate the team more, and the team appreciates their position more. They have seen so many people lose jobs, lose opportunities. And even last Friday was Bosses Day. And they came in and they wrote me this book, beautiful card. And each one of them is like, thank you for being a leader and helping us be happy rather than scared. And I think a lot of that is just being consistent, sharing what is the challenge and then overcoming it together.

Awesome. Dean, I can keep barreling. You want to. You want to ask Lee anything? Because I've got a whole bunch of things that I could always.

Let's keep going.

Okay.

You're doing a good job.

Let me do this. Jeff. So spoke earlier, those of you that don't know, we did an interview with Jeff. If you didn't see that one. Jeff's responsible for almost everything that you've seen on TV in terms of commercials for Victoria's Secret over the last 20, 25 years, however long that's been. So he's a producer, he's a director, he teaches a class at New School Parsons in New York City. So he knows a lot about pr. He's worked with some very big brands. So, Jeff, you had a question you had sent me privately earlier. It's a great question for Lee, because Lee's done a lot of pr. So you want to ask that?

Yeah. And thank you for saying that. I'm responsible for everything that's ever been on tv. I appreciate that.

I don't often say every bad thing that's been responsible. By the way, let me mention this, Jeff. What year was it when you did the. The biggest Internet launch at the time for the Victoria's Secret fashion show? What year was that?

That was in 1996. And we crashed the Internet at that time. Broadband wasn't that available. And we partnered with aol, which gives you an idea of how long ago it was, and Yahoo, because nobody had sufficient bandwidth. And it was really interesting because I said, tell the people from Victoria's Secret what's going to happen if we hit the number of viewers we think we're going to hit. And they didn't say anything. And I said, tell them or I'll tell them. And the people from Victoria's Secret said, what's going to happen? I said, you're going to crash the Internet, which is what happened. And I said, but then you can turn that lemon into lemonade and say, the concert was sold out, we've archived it, and you can come see it later on the Victoria's Secret channel. And so it ended up getting more publicity than the show did, the fact that it actually crashed the Internet. So, Lee, that's kind of damage control. That went well, you know, so it was very interesting.

Pr, even negative pr, you can turn into something good. But what you showed is how many people wanted to be there.

That's right.

I mean, that's why there's lottery tickets for Comic Con is because there's more people that want to come than room for people to go. Right. So you had the same issue, but turning it around and making it positive for you is key.

Right? Exactly. So here's the question for you, Lee. What is the greatest misconception that people have regarding PR in terms of what it can and can't do?

That is a great question. And recently I was with two CEOs at each of their companies went over $500 million. And one of the things we did was we reverse engineered. How did they get to those points? One is taught Tom Shoes and the other one is Shazam. Right. So I'm with the CEOs and we reverse engineer it. Do you know each of these milestones that took them and added a zero had a PR component involved. Right. When I look at Tom Shoes, he said once he got on the Today show, he started seeing people wear shoes that weren't just people he knew. But every single time the company was struggling and trying to get to the next level, they would just infuse a PR opportunity and it would just catapult their sales, catapult their vision. The misconception about media is media people are still real people, Right. These are journalists that have a job to do, which is to fill a hole in a paper. So they often run out of time. If you can show up and be a person that actually builds a relationship with your media in your like. For me in veterinary medicine, all of them know me personally, right? So me and veterinary medicine, when I call them, they want to hear what's going on in the industry. But also, if they have a hole in the paper, they will call me and ask me if I have a story that they could just put in. So the more that you build a relationship with media, the more that they will call on you as a resource. But they're also going to trust you. They're going to want to include you. But it's still a relationship. And the number one way to build that relationship is actually read their stuff and then write them a note and tell them how you read it and it affected you. Don't sell them something, don't pitch them something in the beginning. Let them know you actually read what they write. Let them know that you actually care about what they write. Let them know if you don't agree with it. They want to hear that. But the number one thing media want is to know you're actually paying attention. Don't just call them and pitch something unless You've read it, made a comment and built that relationship. So the more that you do that, the more you'll get actual bang for your buck in media. Yeah. The other thing is for pr, I wouldn't really start outside of your company. I mean, you could do your own pr. In the beginning. Joe always talks about like, do not delegate your marketing. Right. Because it's your voice and what you're doing. I think in the beginning, a lot of people hire somebody else to do their PR and their story isn't even really set in place yet. If you do your own and you talk to the media and you ask them what are you working on right now and then figure out a way that you can add value to them. That's how you build the relationships and just build it for them first before you ask for anything. And I think that's been really valuable for us. And now media just come knocking on our door. CBS News came the other day and they're just like, can we interview you right now? But it took years to get to that point where they see us as the resource and they're so comfortable, they'll just show up. But you could build that. It's just like building any other relationship. It just takes a little time and consistency.

Can I ask a follow up, Joe?

Sure, go ahead.

Okay. So the follow up is this. What can't PR do? I mean, there are certain things that people want exposure, but maybe it's premature, maybe they're not ready for it yet. And so what is it that it cannot do? We know what it can do if it works well.

Well, right now there's just so many stories out there. And so getting through the noise is the big part. Actually, Narina, who's one of my assistants on here, who does news releases with me, Narina and I send news releases through a press wire that's in London. So when we send our releases, it's a global release. We usually get about four or 500 hits. But of the four or 500 hits, maybe we pick a dozen and we deep dive with them. When we deep dive with them, that's when we have the opportunities to build a relationship. It's just not going to happen on its own. So it just takes some time and effort and consistency. Again, maybe you pick five media right now and over the next week, every day you do something to connect with them. Either read it or put it out there. It's not just going to take your company to the next level on its own without your effort. You have to be involved. And I think a lot of people make it hands on, assign it to someone else and think they're going to do it for them in the beginning. You want to be part of it. What's that?

I was going to say one of the most amazing things that I've seen is I start to pay attention to these things whenever I see something like that happen. And one of the ones that really stood out in the most recent memory is the state of Nebraska came out with their official slogan, which was we're not for everyone. And that was such a amazing thing that you talked about filling things at the end of every local or regional newscast thing. They're wrapping up and well, did you hear about Nebraska? They came out with talk about honesty in advertising. Their official slogan is we're not for everyone. And it's kind of like yo, ha ha ha. Everybody's joking about it, but when you follow up on it, we're not for everyone. Unless you like outdoor adventure and you like outdoor stuff and you like nature and you like this. All the wonderful things that Nebraska has. But talk about the millions and millions of dollars of exposure that that got with people talking about Nebraska, you know, so, so interesting how just thinking through what you really want to have happen with this.

Absolutely. It's powerful though, Joe. I will say Internet marketers have not figured this piece out. I've been doing it for years and it is definitely a game changer. Once you figure out what's your niche, who are your people, build that relationship. It has brought so many opportunities for us. I got my husband on the Doctors TV show. We were doing a project for two years trying to get a law changed in the state of California. I got so tired of it sitting on the governor's desk. I get him on Doctors TV show on a Tuesday, was signed on that Friday. That just shows the power of pr. Two years, nothing happens three days after it's on tv. Signed and moved on. So you use it as needed. It is a powerful tool. I will say sometimes I think the PR people rule the world because they rule the headlines. And a lot of news journalists run out of time and they'll take the entire news release and put it in there and then the PR person gets their whole story out there. But do not call media and just pitch. Do call them and be interested in them. They're not used to it and they will pay attention to you because they're just used to everyone calling them with a pitch and they're kind of tired of it.

I mean, look, I Think one of the best rules of thumb is just treat people like humans. People don't do business with a company, they do business with a person. They don't do business with an idea unless your idea is so earth shattering that they're willing to overlook any other thing. And there are those particular stories. But in terms of relationship building, if you want to be transactional, if you want to be episodic, it just doesn't have a lot of depth. And most people are very shallow with how they approach any business. And a lot of marketers are very episodic. And so they're thinking, you can make up with a good headline or a great offer or a great video or something shocking. The lack of substance. So a substance relationship is really critical. And just getting to know someone and being, you know, just caring and personable and useful goes a long way.

I'll tell you, it's really hot. One of the ways to look at how to address media, especially in magazines. Can I share a tip with you on a little way of getting stories placed?

Yes.

If you look at any magazine or anything, there's two parts to it. There's one side, which is the advertising, which they're selling advertising and they're reaching people for dollars. But there's the other side that is actually creating content, Right? And those are the managing editors that are assigning it and have teams there, but they're two separate parts of the company. They don't talk to each other. You can't go through advertising and get a story unless you pay for an advertorial. But the reason I bring this up is if you really want to know how to pitch to the editors, in January, they post the entire editorial calendar for the year. You could go on their website looking for advertising and see what's the editorial calendar, because they're selling to advertisers based on those categories. Like February is Valentine's Day, so they want Valentine's Day and love focused stories. Right. But they'll tell you in November and December, that's when you actually start pitching those stories to get in the February issue. So now in January, if you're looking at the calendar for the whole year and your topic is going to be hot in July, start nurturing the people that are going to talk about that topic in July. But a few months before it, position yourself to be part of that topic so you can go to the editorial side of it. You can get the information from the advertising side and then go to the editorial side and talk to them about, oh, I see in March you're doing a story about xyz. I have some context that could be helpful for you, and I have some ideas. Would you like to talk about it? So you stay ahead of it and help them fill their editorial calendar. They're going to love you because you're bringing them topics that are relevant for them to do their job.

So, Lee, what would you say to someone right now who has been hit really hard? Say they've gotten sick. Say they've lost a loved one, their business has been devastated. They're really in a depressed, struggling, anxious space, having a hard time with motivation. I mean, just someone that's just not in a good place. You certainly have been through some enormous struggles that you've overcome in your life. I mean, many people that are here have. And I think it's always valuable for someone to share how they overcame adversity and challenges and obstacles when they were in the worst state. So do you have any recommendations?

Well, again, it starts with mindset. So of course you're going to look for your most powerful people in your life to help you see the good and support you with the good. But also look for collaboration. It comes back to the who category. Right. If you have something, you're passionate about it and somebody's already successful, they're building their brands, they might need help. Why don't you come and say, hey, you know, I'm really passionate about what you're doing. I have this talent. If I'm of service to you and help you grow your stuff, now they have a purpose, now they have a place to be, and now they have an opportunity. So I think just look for other people to collaborate. Look for other people to help lift you where you could lift them. I have team members of mine that they come in and they're so focused on the brand, they're coming up with ideas, teaching me, and they're lifting me. So I think just look for other ways to be of service to other people. Don't make it all about you, and it'll be a lot better.

Yeah, it's great advice, actually. When? When? Whenever you. Years ago, I wrote a thing called how to have a Great Day. According to me, according to Joe, and remember that Dean. I don't know if you ever read that.

I did. Yeah.

Of course, that was over 20 years ago. And I wrote it because I felt like shit. And I went to a library and I just tried to think of, like, all right, if I had. So I spent a couple of hours writing down everything that I could think of that had allowed me at that point in my life, to have a good day. So if I felt depressed, I would write a letter to myself, giving myself a pep talk. If there was no one around to encourage me, how could I use my own brain to encourage myself? And then I talked about sleep and about journaling and about gratitude and. And about reaching out to friends and going to a recovery meeting, drinking a protein shake. I had a whole list of stuff. And then there's like, 20 something different things. You can probably do a Google search and find this thing online. But the PS section said, ps if none of this works for you and you still don't feel better, then volunteer at a animal shelter, a children's hospital, a homeless shelter, a burn unit, a recovery clinic. Because helping other people when you feel like crap is one of the greatest ways to pull yourself out of it. And I've witnessed this in recovery groups and 12 step groups and different recovery groups is when you feel hopeless, but you can show up and just be nothing more than a companion or a listening ear or someone that just can encourage someone. It is amazing how, when you feel terrible, there's always someone that in most cases is worse off than you if you seek it out. And I've always found that to be a very counterintuitive thing that most people don't realize, but it's an instant way to make yourself feel better.

Absolutely.

Eunice just walked up to me. You want to come say hi to everyone? Eunice, come here. Eunice, just get on camera here. Sorry. Because I'm talking about, like, so this is Eunice. Those of you that look. Oh, how to have a great day according to Joe. Thank you. So Eunice has been my assistant for 25 years, and someone's hold on, like, the Great Gazoo. Everyone's like, why doesn't Eunice, after all this stuff she's learned, go and run her own company? Because she knows every. Like, why would you not do that?

Because I love Joe Pollock.

This seems like a total setup. No, but like, someone was saying, how do we find a Eunice, I've heard that a hundred times. People want to hire someone to help you. What would. What would you say to them? Make sure you speak to the mic. How does someone hire, like, an assistant and stuff? Because everyone hire someone like you. Like, you're like, I don't know.

I don't know.

Get in front of the camera here. All right, so what do you think?

What's your Colby 8732? That's so funny. My new assistant is at 8732. It's perfect. It's a perfect Colby. That's how. Strategic planner. That's what you do.

Yeah, it's true. Okay, that was. That was helpful. Get out of here.

Very focused. She knows she's in a great place, she's of service, she feels great, and she gets rewarded, and you do take her great places, and she gets to meet amazing people. There's a lot of benefits.

Oh, yeah. She's met so many famous people, it's not even funny. But I couldn't do what I do without Eunice. So Eunice literally runs the backstage of my life, and I'm like a front stage person. It's a great collaboration. People have come in and tried to steal her from me over the years and all kinds of stuff, but, you know, it's what a lot of people don't realize. It's not about money. You know, money, of course, is important. You know, if you're running, if you have a career, you have to make money. That's not the only criteria, though. There's. There's many other things, and certainly I'm sure there's hundreds of times where she's gone home to her husband and wanted to be like, I want to kill Joe. You know, that sort of thing. But it's. It's all part of the deal. You got to keep.

You inspired me so much years ago when you bought her her Tesla, and she's like, no, I don't need it, and you did anyway. And I'm like, that is the way to show up for your assistant. Of course she's going to really love you and take care of you when you're doing the same for her. You really care about her.

Yeah, well, the reason I bought Eunice a Tesla is because the fact that she doesn't expect one. There's nothing about an entitlement attitude in her. And she has brought in millions of dollars into my organization over the years, and she doesn't even think of herself as a salesperson. And the reason is because she just wants to help people. And so she helps our clients. She listens to them. She guides and directs them into the things that they need. And, you know, she's literally one of the best salespeople that I've ever had who does not think of herself as a salesperson. And I've had salespeople that will, you know, we've brought on over the years that will try to just pitch and they'll try to Sell. And it's. That's not what I want represented in Genius Network. Genius Network is not a place where we want, you know, people feeling like they're being, you know, sold some sort of like, you know, dream. I mean, it's a real deal. It's just, it's, you know, so a lot of the sale selling is attracting who you want and repelling who you don't. And I really do believe with. Well, let me ask you, Lee, I mean, you've hired many, many people. How do you find great people?

I love that you asked that question. I do use the disc and the Colby. A lot of them are referrals from other people. Sometimes I'll just put a note out. We just hired five new people this year. Chrissy is my gatekeeper for that, actually. She knows what we need on the team and she's been taking a lead on that. And I thank you for Chrissy.

And by the way, that's my ex girlfriend, by the way. So that's just some people that's kind of funny.

And she worked for Richard Rossi for years and that's how I knew her originally. But just seeing her and her genius, her knowing the network and knowing people has helped me. But she's basically the. Basically been the gatekeeper for who comes in now. And she knows what I need. And she's actually much tougher at interviewing and finding the right fit than I am. So I actually appreciate her a lot for being able to do that. And she tells them exactly what she wants them to do and she measures it and she's just really good at it.

Love it. Love it. All right, so what I want to do now, I want to give you guys an opportunity to ask Lee a question. We're going to go for about another 19 minutes and if anyone has a question for Lee, then go ahead and type it into the chat. I can probably assure you if we get a bunch of them, we won't be able to go through all of them. But if anyone has a question, now is an opportunity.

While we're waiting, though, I'd love to know Dean Jackson and Joe Polish. What are your Colbys?

I'm a 5293. So those that are not familiar with Colby, it's Colby.com, k O L, B E. And I've got interviews with Kathy Colby on I love marketing. So if you want to understand the whole process by the creator. She's now in her 80s. She's awesome. Real dear friend of mine, but a five follow through two research nine, quick start, and three implementer, which means kind of working with your hands. And so I'm a starter, not a finisher. So I have to find people that follow through because I come up with ideas. Same with Dean. I mean, Dean's a very high quick start. So what's your colby, dean or 4410?

1.

4, 410 1.

Mine's 5, 6, 9, 1. So I'm compatible with you guys. Exactly. But what I've learned is a lot of times I'll bring in someone who has the first two, but they don't have the visionary. So I've learned that I have to keep them out of the room when I'm doing visionary stuff because they don't understand it. But for the follow through in the research, the 89 or the 8, 7, follow through research is key for me.

And by the way, I would highly encourage everyone to read Ben Hardy's book, Personality isn't Permanent. How many of you have read that book? Show of hands. Okay, awesome. A lot of people. Yeah, a lot of people. If you haven't read it, it's really fantastic because. All right, so let's see. So let me look at the questions. Lee, you're on a deserted island. Do you bring Joe or Dean with you to create the plan to get off? I mean, that's pretty.

I mean, Dean would be great as a simplifier coming up with the plan. But Joe is going to know how to get someone there in 10 minutes in a helicopter to get us off. So I would go Joe. Only for the connections and action to follow.

Exactly. She's a smart woman. That tells you that we would just leave Dean. He's.

However, Dean would have a master list. We do this, then we do this, then we do this. Oh, and then we call Joe to get us to get us a helicopter to get out of here.

You know what, Dean? You would probably just sit there, you know, if my ties were available. Sitting on your ass on the beach, just kind of lounging. Right. Doing those little foot photos that you do. Like the little Instagram. Exactly.

That's it. I've ended up in a position where I'm going to get stuck on an.

Island without the way out.

Change of environment, too. I will tell you that the other thing we learned from Ben Hardy in changing your environment. So when you change your environment, you have other opportunities and you see things differently. So maybe that would be helpful. We might come up with a whole new company that way.

That is true. All right, let me see. Is this a Qu? Alright, so I think this is a question I've read. Okay, Kyle, you guys are the best. Thank you. Imagine you're looking at someone you want to connect with and you know what the project they're working on and you know what project they're working on right now and what's important to them at the moment. How do you know what to contribute to that and how do you approach it? Do you want to answer that one, Lee?

Sure. I mean, for me personally, like if Joe is doing a project and we even had conversations around this, I might come with two or three ideas and say, I understand that you're working on this project and I'm wondering if this might be assistance to you. Would you like to meet this person or do you know about this form where you can work on it? Dan Sullivan just did it with us with the these seven things have to be true. The right fit, the perfect fit that came out of a conversation like this. All these people were calling, wanting us to help. We wanted to make sure it was a good fit. And he came up with a form. These seven things have to be true for it to be a good fit. I think that's what you do is in situations like that, you create a system that makes it work for you.

I wanted to share this idea that you gave me, Lee, that I think everyone here can create a version of this, but you helped me do it for my foundation, which is geniusrecovery.org and it's 10 and it's actually 10 ways.

To help us right now.

Yeah, yeah.

And by the way, people could do this for anything. You could do 10 ways to help us right now for team members, 10 ways to help us right now for customers, 10 ways to help us to make donations. Share your time. The thing about people want to help people who have 501 C3s and a lot of times they don't know how to show up other than writing a check. And this top 10 ways you can help us right now can be an evolving list. It could be on a website or an opt in page that's constantly evolving. But a lot of people will come to Joe and say, hey Joe, how can I help you with that? Well, if he shows them the top ten list, they might pick two or three ways that they could help rather than just one writing a check. So I'm glad I got to share that. We've used it in our town for everything from Halloween parties to all different things like here's the top 10 ways to show up or top 10 ways to contribute or top 10 ways that you can support the team.

Yeah, I love it. Well, okay, so here's the card that we turned it into. So it's a physical card, and it's, you know, change. Well, so Gina posted it. Let me share my screen here, and I'll just show you the. Oops. Where did it go?

That is, by the way, when Joe got this idea, the first thing he did was text his team, say, put this in place. And by the end of the day, it was done. So that is the power of delegation. And a team that gets you is you have the idea, and by the end of the day, it's done. And then you put it in place.

Yep, exactly. So if you go to geniusrecovery.org 10ways, here's a list of. So people are saying, how can we help? And it's like, well, you can donate. You can do a company match. You can purchase copies of the miracle morning for addiction recovery.

Okay, there it is. Good.

Yeah. The open so, yeah. So share Joe's open letter, which is a letter I wrote about addiction recovery. Share and connect with genius. Recover on social media. Volunteer your expertise, research grants. Hire Andre Norman, who you know, some of you have met Andre. He's great. Spent 14 years in maximum security prison, and now he literally helps people that are in the worst situations. I mean, we've saved quite a few lives with him, I believe. Become a sponsor. Help us spread the word. So that's. That's the version of putting this online. But here's why I'm sharing this with you. What do you do that, you know, 10 ways that people can get involved with you or how can you help them? And if you just start. If you start thinking in that sort of way, I mean, if you had to say, okay, you know, I can help this person. What are 10 ways I can help them? People underestimate how quickly your brain can come up with solutions. If you just direct it with a piece of paper. I mean, you don't need electronics to do this. I mean, you just need to think.

Did it immediately. It was done before the end of the day. And that makes me happy, by the way, as an idea generator, as a nine, quick start. When I give someone an idea and they go implement it, I can't wait to give them the next idea. So I recommend to all of you, take advice from people who are investing in you. Put it in place, see if it works. Let them know, give him feedback. Like, I come back to Joe and let him know he's the point of origin on so many things for me. But when that takes off to the next level, I still go back to Joe and say thank you for making that connection for me. I always honor him, even with that person. In point of that I'm doing work with, I'll say, I'm so grateful that Joe Polish put us together. I'm so grateful that Dean inspired me. So I recommend that's a big piece for how you multiply things, is starting gratitude and really acknowledge the point of the idea or the point of reference or the point of connection.

Yeah, let me piggyback off that. Because anyone that is in the role of trying to help people build and grow their business is any area. I mean, it could be any area of expertise. Unless they're total narcissists, they totally appreciate when people utilize what it is they're offering, not use it. See, it's one thing to utilize a person, it's another to use them. And when people come at me with user energy, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. Like, there's. I think it's Emerson that said, you asked for a new idea when you haven't used the first one that I gave you. And so I would have people that are like, oh, yeah, give me the next idea. What about the last one you got? Fucking haven't done anything with it. Right. It's like, but when someone reads my book and says, oh, I implemented this. I created a consumer guide, or I did one of these things off your podcast that says more when than just saying, hey, I really think your stuff is good. I mean, knowing that your, you know, the stuff you've worked so hard to learn is being utilized and appreciated, that that shows a whole different level of appreciation.

So, yeah, I love it when I'm in an airport and I see someone buying one of my friend's books, I literally will take a picture and send it to them and say, look, it's working out in the airport or in, you know, places that are far from them. And it's super fun because that person also gets to see it's working in the real world. It's the same with the reporters I was telling you earlier. By reading their stuff and sending them a comment, they're like, oh, actually, someone's reading it, they don't know otherwise. And so you get to open that dialogue and being in gratitude. Enough people doing it will make a difference. You know, it makes a difference for that person to be inspired to keep doing what they're doing as well.

Yeah. And by the way, one way to help friends of yours that need help is you could take the 10 Ways Model and you can actually go and create something for someone else. Because it's that whole saying which I first heard from my buddy Clay Hebert, which is, it's hard to read the label when you're inside the jar. So it's a lot easier to deal with other people's marketing problems or business problems or life problems and deal with your own. And so sometimes you can be a great sounding board for someone you care about because they just don't know how to think it through because they're so close to it. And so if you really want to, you know, if you wanted to get someone as a client and, and you were to sit down and say, here's 10 ways to help X, it just did it for them and showed up and had it mapped out graphically or built on like a landing page, it would blow them away. It would freaking blow them away. Kind of similar to what you're saying with people that you hire. You know, you give three different people a project and see who does it. I mean, if you really want to know how capable you are, don't talk about what you can do, do it. You don't build a great reputation by talking about what you're going to do. You build a great reputation by actually doing shit. And so a lot of people want people to pay them money because they're talking about how they're going to help them. And if you hire me or, you know, as a consultant or as an employee or whatever, I'm going to do this, this, and this. Here's a better idea. How about you do the stuff in advance and then they're going to want more of it by hiring you. I mean, I could get any six figure job, you know, if I just. If I lost everything and just needed to go get a job, I would literally identify who I want to work for for free. I would figure out what's the most important thing that they need done. I would do it or start taking the steps to create it. And I would build that level of reciprocity. And then, I mean, I can't tell you how many people support me because of all the stuff I just do for free. So does it ever end up being free? No, it comes back. But I have a level of patience. And I also know, like Dan Sullivan, I've had podcasts with him on this thing I heard from years ago, all money earned ethically is a byproduct of Value creation. And if you can identify the value that somebody wants, create it for them, you know, then you basically are giving yourself some really, as you know Cal Newport, who we did this podcast with him, Career capital. That's how you get career capital. So, Marion, I'll just mention this just because you. Because Evan, he's a good guy, deserves it. I want to give a public thank you to Evan, who gave me some great YouTube advice in the chat. So thanks, Evan. And Evan, if you want to put your course. I know you have a course on how to do YouTube, feel free to put it in the chat because I know what you teach works. So if anyone wants to go through a training, Evan has a really good one. So pop that in there.

Guys, if you want the training, come to the annual Genius Network event. We're jamming out together. How long am I going for, Joe?

Two days.

Well, here's the thing. Two days straight. So the annual event is November 6th, 7th and 8th. It is not cheap. Okay? This is an expensive but worth it event. Right? And it is not just an event, it's actually a process. Because after Evan does, like about a one hour jam, I might have him do it with Chris Voss, who I just. He's the. He's my buddy that wrote the. He's a former FBI hostage negotiator who wrote a great book called Never Split the Difference. We may actually do him as a case study. Possibly. We'll see. But Evan's going to do a whole, like, jam session showing exactly what to do. And then if there's more that's needed, he's going to do a training after the event for Genius Network members. So, yeah, come to the annual event. And so. Thank you.

In the meeting, he actually helped Ben Hardy in front of all of us, which was so valuable. And that's why we're asking him back from the encore, because we're like, how do we share it with more people? Everyone needs to know this. In Genius Network, this is a way we could support one another in such an easy way.

Yeah, yeah.

And everyone loved it, too. And here's the cool thing. So I'm going on a sabbatical next year. And so Dean is going to be actually teaching people like email mastery and all of these different things that Dean is a expert and brilliant person at doing. And so what's interesting, when you have to make yourself not available in your own company. And I mean, I couldn't have done this in the very first year. I mean, you know, trying to take a one year Sabbatical with a business that a lot of it is built around me forces your brain to think like, okay, because I've never wanted to have a guru business. I don't like that. I don't want to, frankly. I don't even like fame. I mean, fame is useful to the degree that it can be leveraged for certain stuff. But I work with a lot of famous people and it's not all what it's cracked up to be. I'd rather be well paid versus well known. And so I've done my best to build Genius Network not around me, but around the people that are in Genius Network. So I've literally. We are setting up Genius Network to be run by the members, which I think is actually the ultimate form of collaboration. It's taken me 25 years to. Because I first started my. I first started my business in 1990. So I've now, this is my 30th, I'm 52 years old, I'll be 53 in February. And so I started my business in 1990 as a carpet cleaner, the Deborah Carpet Cleaner. And then I learned marketing so I could survive. And that's when I fell in love with marketing. And I Met Dean Probably 25 plus years ago. And I first started doing. The first seminar that I ever gave was in 1996, was the first boot camp. The first website I ever had was in 1996. Also most people weren't doing much Internet marketing back then. And then Dean Jackson invented the squeeze page in 1997 which is now spawned hundreds of millions of people to use opt in pages and things which started with that dude, which is really cool. And you think about the 25 year plan, Lee, that you were talking about earlier. I mean, it's. So I've now got 25 years of doing, you know, because my first group coaching group started in 1998. So I've been running masterminds and stuff for 22 years. And so I've sat through hundreds of meetings that I've run and many more that I've attended. And I'm sitting there going, how do you take all of that years of stuff and then start a whole new game? But you start a whole new game with all of the mistakes, all of the things you could and should have, would have. And we've had to come through like with me and Eunice and a few of my team members, we've come up with all these different services and results that could be offered to our members that don't require me to do it and all of the people that I've asked in Genius Network when I started, because at first I was like, man, I don't want to destroy something that I spent this many years building. And if I'm going to step away for a one year sabbatical, I'm literally, I'm getting a new cell phone. No one's going to have access to me for a year, including some of my very best relationships. I'm literally not going to talk to him for a whole year. And the reason is I want to immerse myself in music and art and recovery work and health. And I want to think about all of this shit that I've learned over the years. What's the best use of it? How do I help? Mostly in recovery because the thing that's most important to me is to change the global conversation about how people view and treat addicts with compassion instead of judgment. And so that's what's the most important thing to me. But I've got these marketing skills. So it's like, how do I apply that in the best way and start up with a new game? And that's what a journey I'm going on. And I have to have relationships to rely on other people. If I wasn't useful to a lot of people over the years, there's no way I could take a one year sabbatical and not have everything fall apart. So I'm going to do a deep dive in thinking about it. And so Dean's going to continue with I love marketing, Ben Hardy, I mean everyone, we're going to have this Genius Network. I hopefully become irrelevant in Genius Network. I want it to be known for the people in the group not to be known for me. And so that requires an identity death, that requires an ego death. Because believe me, I have low self esteem and there's parts of me that it's tied up. I hope people think I'm cool, I hope they like me. And I literally am going to have to step away from all of that and be like, what the hell really matters? And you know what really matters? Results. Producing results. Because that's frankly, at the end of the day, people may like me or dislike me, but if they're getting results and we can create something that produces a result, people, you know, people don't want to walk away from that. So it all ties back to what are the results that you're producing. And here's what I'd like to do. Can you write in the chat, everyone here, what's your Definition of a result. Write down your definition of a result. Just put it in the chat. Here's what I think a result is. I'm just curious to see what you guys write down. So go ahead and do that and then I'm going to find another question to ask you, Lee, as everyone's doing that. So let me see which one.

Joe, we will have withdrawals, though, with you being gone, because we do like access to you and your brain and your contacts and your ideas and just how generous you are. So just so you know, even though you're tipping off the scales for us for a little while, you will be missed very much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah.

So, Dean, is there any question or anything you wanted to ask Lee or say before I do all we could.

Go for three days. Sometimes we've got to end all the.

Different perspectives, ideas, insights that everyone gets from the exact same conversation, but everyone hears it in a different way. So whenever you're doing. I've been learning this more and more over the last few weeks. So our annual event that's coming up, it's not going to be around speakers, it's around topics. And so I've been having a lot of conversations during the Genius Network meetings, asking members, what are your biggest challenges? What are your biggest opportunities? What are your dangers and opportunities and strengths? We've been sending out surveys, so I've been asking a lot of questions. And I mean, I've already interviewed over 900 people in my life. I mean like over an hour long. And those are just interviews that's not just factoring in the hundreds of ones that I've done with me and Dean, just talking and the different stuff and all the different events. I mean, I'm talking just interviewing people. So I've, I've learned how to ask questions to people over the years and it has not occurred to me until the last month just how important it is to crowdsource questions from your clients. So I'm going to ask you all to do something for me and Dean Jackson, because many of you that I'm seeing here have some have listened to every podcast that we've ever done, over 300 and something podcasts. And there's a lot of you that have been with us for 10 years now that have been part of I love marketing and many Genius Network members. And I have this idea that I'm going to ask you to literally help me with it, but I want you to use the same idea in your own life and in your own business. And here's what it is. So sometimes, you know, it's hard to read the label when you're inside the jar. So explaining to other people what you do, what is the value? Well, if you had to explain to someone, what is the value of I love marketing, or what is this thing, this business? What is the result that you've gotten from it? What would that be? Meaning if you went out to your clients that have had a great relationship with you, and even ones that haven't, that didn't buy, why didn't they buy? You could use this in both ways. But I'd like you to post below. Just started with ilm, as in I love marketing Dash. What would you explain this is what does this do for you? So you've sat on here with us during this session with Lee Richter. You've been on other I love marketing meetup groups. You listen to the podcast. What does it do for you? Just put ILM and then if you could explain what that is, just take a minute to do that. If you had to explain this to someone else, how would you explain it? Or what does it do for you? If you could just do that for us, that'd be great.

I want to share something too, Joe, that you add credibility. So, like, when you introduced me to Peter Diamante the first time, I don't know, it was maybe six, seven years ago, and I enjoyed his book Abundance, and we were just casually talking, you're like, oh, let me just do a video and connect you guys. But by doing that, he's like, I'm interested in you because you're Joe's friend. So you add so much credibility. But you also stop. You do a video, you take the moment, you make it important, you make both people feel important, but you do it immediately. And I think that that's part of it, is that you really care about your members. But you also have spent so much time curating the best people. Like I said before, you had to kiss a thousand frogs to tell me about the one I need to know right now. I think you spent so much time with that and you know which ones are not the best connections. But you being able to curate that is so valuable. And I haven't seen it anywhere else at this level anywhere. And I go a lot of places. But it's because you care so much and because you have people like Dean Jackson in your life and he lets you know, like, oh, that one's not worth it too. So that's kind of good. He's a good indicator of, like, yeah, don't spend time there.

No, no. Thank you, Lee. Thank you. And you know, that point, though, is you have to be actually coachable. I mean, if you're going to ask people for advice and recommendations, you know, you're well served to actually listen to it. So. So, okay, so see, connections and ideas helps with my thinking correctly. They care deeply. Confidence. There's a way for me to reach out to my deal clients. Now think about asking your own clients or your prospects or your community or whoever it is that is your sphere of influence. You could even ask your vendors. You can even ask your team members, like, what is it that we do? What is the value that this provides for you? What do we offer? And now you are getting all of these perspectives and insights that. I could never come up with this. And think about it. This took me less than three minutes to have the conversation and get all of these things right here to give me insight and awareness of what people are actually interpreting this as. And so sometimes the very best copy in the ways that you're going to describe what you do is not going to come from a marketing consultant. It's not going to come from a PR firm, and it's not going to come from you. It's going to come from people that experience you, people that you interact with. And so I'm going to go through and read all of this and then I'm going to tell Dean that you need to turn this into a sales letter.

Dean.

Hey there.

Now, these are great, but also it.

Allows people to tell you how they'd be wonderful. These would be wonderful reviews on the I Love Marketing podcast on itunes.

Oh, my God.

Really nice. Send them. Get Bravo links so that they could put a little video together for you.

You know what? It keeps getting better by the second. Just a thought. Well, see, that's the seed of an idea. By the way, if anyone would like to go to I Love Marketing on itunes and put a review of what you wrote here, that would be awesome and greatly appreciated. Not necessary, nothing. You know, you won't die if you don't. However, I think it would be a really good karmic thing.

I'm not saying you won't either, though. I mean, that's.

Yeah, that's great. So, Lee, what didn't I ask you? What didn't we talk about? Any famous last words? Anything you want to share? How people follow you? Goasklee.com, your website, what? Anything you'd like to share before we wrap up?

I think my biggest, favorite thing to do right now is pouring into the next generation. As you know, I mentor my daughter who's 16 and she's an author. And what she does and what I love is mentoring her so she can help other people in her age groups adjusting to changes and things. So I think paying attention to the next generation. Dan Sullivan says to have friends in every single age group, have ones in the twenties, in the thirties, and the forties, and the fifties, so that as you're growing, you're growing together, but you get the different perspectives. I mean, that's part of the reason I put Scott Donnell in my group. Thanks to Eunice, who put him next to me. But I'm like, oh, this is part of the next generation and how they're thinking and how they're doing and how can I be a part of it in supporting and mentoring him so he can do it even better? So I think being part of, you know, other people's success is actually really rewarding.

I love it. Dean, what about you?

I love it. If we had asked Lee everything, we would be here for three weeks or more. This is great.

Yeah. So, everyone, as always, thank you. Me and Dean again, my annual event is coming up. That's November 6th, 7th and 8th. That will be virtual and it's geniusnetworkevents.com Gina Post. She can post that too. And if you've not read the book breath, this will be the last book recommendation Breath. It's by my buddy now, James Nestor. He's become a friend. I'm going to be interviewing him at this year's Genius Network annual event. He's awesome. This book is brilliant. It could change your life. It's truly one of the most valuable health books I've read in a couple of decades and I highly recommend this book. And of course, if you haven't registered already, who, not how, and get this from Ben Hardy. And you all are awesome. So thank you for spending your time with us. I hope you found it valuable. Do the big wave if you liked it, and we'll see you next time. Have a great day. Thank you so much, Lee and Dean and everyone else. And if I didn't do a shout out for you, I apologize because there's so many awesome people here. And we will talk to you next time. Take care. Don't miss another episode of I love Marketing. Subscribe today@ilove marketing.com subscribe if you'd like to access the show, notes, resources or the exercise to help you take action on what was discussed, please visit ilovemarketing.com forward/383.