Brave Biz Labs - 5th September 2025

Okay. I swear to God, I had to meet all. Okay. Good morning.

Good morning.

I swear to God, I. I carried this very full cup of coffee all the way upstairs to my office without spilling a drop. And then I sit down and I, like, rearrange my legs on my hair, and I whacked the inside of my desk with my knee, and it just went everywhere. Oh, we're just having a very elegant morning over here. How are you guys doing? Sorry. Kevin first, then Anil.

I said yay.

Friday.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Today's my Monday. It's your Monday. Oh, gosh. Okay. Well, hopefully it's good start to the weekend. Let's start off with celebrations. And how we're doing brave biz labs these days is that if you are a client in one of my programs, then you get to ask questions first. And then once you guys are finished, then anyone who is here who is not one of my clients can ask any questions. But hopefully you're learning from everything. Who wants to start us off with a celebration?

I guess I'm the only one who's unmuted, so I'll go first. Well, there's not much celebration from a business. Well, actually, there are things. I have been using AI to books, and I ended up writing, like four small books like last month. I think they're pretty good. I mean, of course I need to do other things, but at least I know what I'm. You know how to use that. And also I've been using AI to build an app, which is a big thing for me because about 10, 15 years ago, I had an idea for an app, and I'd spent a lot of money in India using developers there trying to get it, but didn't really work. And now I feel like I can use the AI thing with 25amonth kind of thing and build it, try it. So much easier, faster. So basically, yeah, I'm using AI to at least get some momentum in terms of content. And the app idea that I had, Amazing.

Cool. Thanks, Anil. And who wants to go next? What are you celebrating?

I mean, I've got two new negotiating opportunities in the last week, which is seven.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah. What. What part of the process are you in with them?

I've already sent them a statement of work, and we're just going back and forth on what the deliverable deliverables should be.

Fabulous. Okay, well done. Great. Anything else you want to add to that celebration list?

Me?

No.

Okay, awesome. Who wants to go next?

I can go next.

Ellie.

I Want to celebrate making it to and from the LA trip.

Good.

And so that was great to be able to meet some folks. I actually got to meet one of the authors and platform people I follow, Claire Walterman, who is. Who heads up Ladies Get Paid. And so it was, oh, amazing.

I love that organization.

Yes. And so she started up in New York, but now she's in la and I saw her and I was like, whoa, I didn't know you were going to be here. So I just had a chance to say thank you for the work she did, but rushing off to the airport so promptly forgot to take a picture and any of that. But it was great. And she was like, hey, make sure you let me know that we met and so, you know, we'll follow up with her. And I also had a chance to follow the holistic selling process to at least bring closure to an inflight opportunity that did not close, but at least, like, getting closure. Feel felt good to be able to say not right now, but like, being able to at least control the cadence and, like, did everything by phone, so I didn't feel like I burnt too much time and actually really enjoyed doing it by phone. So, yeah, yeah, those are two things that I was able to do this week that I liked.

Okay, awesome. Well done. And bummer about the picture, but next time you won't forget. Tia, do you want to celebrate anything this week? I don't know what I'm celebrating. I can try to celebrate me taking care of my car, but I'm not celebrating the, like, over $500 maintenance bill that I'm about to pay. Yeah, yeah, let's celebrate. The $500 is avoiding a $5,000 maintenance later. You didn't take care of it, right. Exactly.

Yeah.

Or a $25,000 new car. Yeah, no, thank you. Awesome.

Thanks.

Thank you. And Tommy, do you have anything you're celebrating this week?

Yeah, I just found it very useful last week, so I thought I dropping again. Welcome. And somebody's going to possibly introduce. Introduce us to a decently prominent podcast. So that's fun. No complaints.

Awesome. Awesome. Cool. All right, well, I wanted to do just a quick little training for everyone this week based on my own up. I am learning from my own mistakes and I love sharing the things I do wrong and show you exactly how it can impact you guys. If you've been following my TikTok, my Instagram @ all, you'll notice I've created different personal accounts. So on TikTok, I have Katie no longer. That wasn't supposed to be like the, the username. I just didn't, I didn't intentionally change it to something that I was going to keep long term. And on Instagram I've created Katie Stop with the algorithm minus a lot of vowels. So, long story short, I've had my Instagram for a very long time. I've also had my TikTok for my business for about three years. Both have, have grown very slowly, incredibly slowly. And it wasn't until this past year. When did I explain this? I think I explained this on the Wednesday call, but I want to make sure everyone who, who was not there understands this. It wasn't until I started my political account in March and my gay birthday club. Oh, okay, good. I was like, I think I explained this to someone this week and it sounds very familiar coming out of my mouth. But anyway, I'm also just on my second cup of coffee, so started two different accounts this year and I was very intentional with the kinds of content that I was engaging with on those, on those platforms. So my political account, I was only engaging with other political accounts and other political commentary and stuff that was like local to my campaign. On my non profit account, I was only engaging with like LGBTQIA content and birthday content because the, for the gay birthday club, those accounts have grown to almost the same size as my professional account on TikTok in three months and, and six months. It's insane the amount of growth that they've experienced. And I realized the mistake that I was making that I kind of knew was a mistake when I was doing it, but I didn't think that it would actually impact my account this badly was I was using my business, TikTok and Instagram for all of my personal engaging. So I'd see a funny cat video and I'd send it to my friend Peter, who loves cats. I'd see a cool recipe that I knew my best friend would love and I'd send it to her. I'd see funny dog videos and I'd send it to my parents. And what this does is it confuses the algorithm. So what I should have been doing on my business account is only engaging with people who are starting their businesses, with folks who help my similar clients. And I kind of knew this. I've known this for a few years. Like that's how you're supposed to do this. But I didn't realize just, just how impactful it is and how like impactful it is when you don't do that, when you're sloppy with your engaging. When you do things that are outside of your niche and your industry. How it actually confuses everything because the algorithm is constantly trying to figure out how to keep you on longer. Right. And so, like, if you're engaging with all this other stuff, it's going to show you all this other stuff, but it's also trying to figure out what other people like. Right? So if you're engaging with dog stuff, it's going to show your stuff to more people like that, because it thinks that you guys have a lot in common. Right. But just because someone, like, likes a picture of my dog doesn't mean that they want to start a business. Right. Doesn't mean that they have any reason to follow the rest of my content. So if your part of your strategy is to be on one of these platforms, it is incredibly important that you stay within your vertical. And if you do want to use these platforms personally, create a secondary or tertiary account, depending on how many you already have to do that to send the funny.

Things. Except for.

LinkedIn. Except for LinkedIn, yeah. LinkedIn. It doesn't quite work that way. But. But.

On. I think you corrected me on that earlier. Yeah, that's.

Why. Yeah, Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

LinkedIn.

You. You want to engage with people who are creating content that are just getting a fair amount of engagement with people who are active on the platform. Because everyone on LinkedIn knows your ideal client. Any questions on.

This? Yeah. What would you do if you feel like you've already ruined an account like that? Start a new one or, you know, change your.

Habits? Either. I mean, either one, you can change your habits. You could also start over. It does take time to start over, especially on Instagram. But you can retrain an account. It just takes time. It takes. It takes you and it takes retraining yourself, Right? Because if you say, say on my Instagram right now, when I scroll, it's dog videos, it's recipes, it's here's a workout routine, here's something that's a little spiritual, like a meditation practice. I have to be very intentional about scrolling past those. I can't engage. I have to really, like, be intentional about. I'm not looking at this right now. You also have to very actively go and search for the things that are relevant to your business. Right. And then you have to force yourself to watch the full video. Right? Because it's not just paying attention to the things that you like and save and send other people. It's paying attention to what are you actually sitting there and watching. Right. And, you know, no Offense to my colleagues in the business coaching space, a lot of their content's boring, you know, so it is going to feel like work, but it, it's, it's partially like you're retraining the algorithm, but you also have to catch yourself in, in an activity that has become very like, second nature. Right. Because how often do we just open our phone and start scrolling without even thinking about it. Yeah, exactly. So if it's going to help you to start a new account so that you can be more intentional there and, you know, do your own thing here. Sure, go for it. Right. You know, and that's not to say you can't start a second account as your business account and try to do both and just repost the same content in both and see which one, you know, gets corrected faster. That's just, that's going to be more work. Yeah. Any other questions on this? No. Okay, awesome. All right, so let's open this up to questions. Any of my clients have any questions first before we open it up to the whole.

Group? I mean, I only have just the one you mentioned something about, on my, on my Google Doc about a storybook.

Form. I started responding and I was like, yeah. And then I got distracted. Yeah. So I mean, you have, you have four year.

Olds.

Right?

Right. Or almost four year olds. You have storybook, you have little picture books. You know, so like, Bob, like, you could, you could absolutely have AI or, you know, do stick figures or, or come up with like some kind of picture and, and like, do the graphic designers hire someone for this? You could do almost like a picture book of, like, of that. And I think it would be so memorable. It would be totally different from what other people in your industry do in their presentations. Right. But it would still prove the point. Right. So you could do a picture book of like, here's, here's Bob. And you know, he's the only person in this business who understands how this one business critical system works. You know, And Bob, Bob is also going through a divorce. And Bob also had to sell his house. And Bob also had this. And Bob had a little midlife crisis and decided, you know what, I'm going to retire early and I'm going to move to Costa Rica. Right. And like, how, but how funny would that be? And then, but the colleagues at the business, you know, are like, wait, Bob, you can't go. And then he has changed his number and he's gone. And no one knows how to use this, this system right here. You know, I think that would be Hysterical. I think it would get people to come up to you after the fact to talk to you about that. But then it would start that conversation in a light hearted way that you could lead into. Well, do you have any of those things going on in your business?

Right? Yeah.

Yeah.

So. I mean is as far as like an end deliverable? I mean do, do I really need to go to the, to the point of actually getting it published in, in paperback or hardback or like just do a PowerPoint kind of.

Thing? You could do a PowerPoint. Do a PowerPoint. Don't, don't get it published as an actual book. But like if you're doing a presentation, I think that would be so engaging for you to do like a children's style, like you know, page turner book of, you know, with pictures to show just the point to carry people along because like how boring are a lot of those presentations? You know, we had this company that came to us and they had blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And there was this. It's just like, okay, cool. Like that's. People tune out, they're on their phones, they're like, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like they, they kind of know what's coming. But if you had like a stick figure with like a face on it, like different characters that are all stick figures with a face, I mean you could even design it.

Right?

Yeah. Then, and you like explain the situation. You can say obviously this is a made up situation, but it's not made up. It's based on like hundreds of situations that have happened across all different kinds of businesses. This actually happened at Cisco. When I worked there. There was so I worked for a division that had been bought out by Cisco. It used to be open DNS and then we got bought by Cisco and we got relabeled Umbrella and like the salesforce that open DNS had got integrated with the like behemoth Cisco salesforce. And it was a nightmare. And like as a salesperson it was miserable because you couldn't configure like how you reorganized your leads so that you could go through and do like the same action. And I'm going to our head of marketing and be like, hey, this is miserable. Can we make this one tiny change? One tiny change just so I can like reorder my pipeline so that like I can go through the people that I've had one touch with and then go through the people I've had two touches with and then three touches and all this stuff. And the marketer, the marketing manager was like, I, I totally see why this is important and I totally see how this would make your job easier and all this stuff. And unfortunately, we can't do it. And my question was like, okay, well, why? He's like, well, because there's this one guy who is the only person who understands how to integrate these systems, and he's kind of a dick. And we are already waiting on like 67 things for him to do, and he's holding us hostage on those things. I can't add another thing to his plate when we have all these other business critical things. And this guy was literally just like holding the company hostage to negotiate higher pay every single year, which. But bad for the business. Right? So like you. There are so many stories of that. Like, like you, you creating it into like a storybook kind of presentation. Everyone is going to be able to think of that one person in their environment who is that bottleneck. Right? But yeah.

Yeah. And that goes for the, the same for the other instance too, is you got, by the way, purely coincidence, I told my wife to say, give me, give me a girl's name. 1, 2, 3, go. And she said, Katie.

Okay? It's like named Katie. It's all.

Good. There are, there are other, other folks out there who are also like the, the single point of failure for things, but they have no intention of being. It just kind of gets thrust upon them. But they both create the same organizational.

Problem. Yep. Yep. Lauren Lefkowitz is a client. She shares this story all the time that, like when she fell and broke both of her shoulders at the same time because she was chasing after her rumba, thinking it was going to crash into a lamp and shatter.

It.

She. She was the only person in the HR department who could sign off on medical.

Leave. That's. That's.

Ironic. Right? Right. So literally, in the hospital, in the ER department or in the icu, you know, having had surgery, hopped up on drugs, trying to explain to the, the CFO or the CEO of this company, here's the document you need to find. Here's. Here's what needs to go on there. And you need to bring into me for signature because I'm the only one who can sign off on it with our benefits partner. Right? But, like, if she was the only one she was then out of work for for like three months in rehab because she, she had two broken shoulders, she couldn't do anything. Right? Like, with stories like this, you can either, like, bring out specific stories that are like that, and it's like, oh, my God. Yeah. That could happen. Or you can make it generic. But when you make it generic, you also have to find a way to make it.

Interesting. I mean, depending on how much time you have to speak, you could do both. Like, do the storybook and go, okay, let's look at where this, like, actually has.

Happened. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So anyway, so that was my idea for you when. Because when I read that, I was like, oh, my God, this has to be a picture.

Book. I appreciate that. Thank.

You. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. You know, it's. Remember you none. No one here has a marketing problem. What everyone here has, myself included, is we have a memorability problem. Right. People can't hire us if they don't know that we exist. Right. And also in the. In the world of I'm scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, I might follow you. I might subscribe to your newsletter. I might do all these things. But, like, if you're not showing up in my awareness sphere or if there's nothing about you that sticks out to me, like, how am I supposed to remember that you exist? Right. When we're creating content, when we're putting stuff out there and in ways that are meant to connect with our ideal clients, we want to make sure that we're doing it in a way that, like, sticks with them, that makes them remember us, even if it's something that's like, oh, that's. That's kind of a cute way to present this information. You know, there's a reason why I have, you know, a hot dog costume and. Which I haven't worn in a while, honestly, because it's been summer, it's hot, it's not a well ventilated costume. But it's not because, like, it's like such a great marketing tool. It's because it's memorable. Right. But a hot dog costume doesn't work for everyone. So you guys have to figure out what your own hot dog costume thing is going to be. Okay, cool. What other questions do we have for my clients? And it's not like you're going to lose your chance to ask questions. I just want to make sure you guys get priority before I open it up to the rest of the floor. No. Okay, then let's open it up to everyone else. What questions do you have? Where are you stuck in your.

Business? Where am I stuck? Well, I have to start creating online content. I have been holding myself back because of personal reasons that I think I mentioned some of the calls. And my divorce finally got done this week, so I think Now I have to start being on social media with whatever I want to do instead of worry about all of that. That's it. So that's when I'm stuck or I need to move, I.

Guess. Yeah. What's. What's holding you.

Back? No, so what has been holding me back is I didn't want to be on social media and doing certain content about relationship coaching while my divorce was getting.

Finalized.

Right. For multiple reasons. But now I just want to be like, okay, it's done, over with and just start being yourself and doing more live video content and things like that. Yeah. Just kind of like get in a future. Growth oriented energy versus duck fight.

Energy. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the reason I asked what's keeping you, what's holding you back? Is because I know it got finalized a while ago because we talked a couple of months.

Ago. No, no, it just got finalized on Monday.

Tuesday. Oh, then what happened a couple of months.

Ago? No, that was like when the paperwork was all submitted, but I didn't know what the final decision and outcome was going to be. And the court gets nine months, the court gets three months to kind of make a decision. They took about two and a.

Half. Okay.

Okay. And yeah, I just got that. And then also just other personal things related to that. You know, like, for example, I get my house back in November, I'm still a nomad, you know, stuff like that. But basically there's all these other personal things that were essentially like a web.

Of.

Yeah. And I. Yeah. And now I'm more and more thinking, okay, I need to just start restructuring my whole energy focus and have my consulting work that I want to do, coaching work that I want to do. We have. Have a bigger part of the.

Pie.

Yeah. In terms of the.

Energy. Right, right. Okay, cool. So, I mean, So part of it is honestly like just going and.

Doing.

It, you know, going and making videos about. About your ideal clients. You don't have to talk about anything personal, but you can talk about the things that your clients want. You can talk about the things that your clients, your ideal clients are struggling with and starting to create content like that. Because here's the thing, when we're coming out of something that's like a real, I'm going to say drag, even though that's like a complete understatement for what you've been through. But like a complete drag on our energy is like there's no, I mean, you can absolutely wait until you work through all the emotions of it, but that's going to take years. You And I both know that it's going to be a ton of therapy, going to be a ton of work, and your business is not going to wait that.

Long. Yeah, yeah. That's why I was, like, just getting myself ready by writing those books, by doing some other things, so that I'm in that.

Space.

Right. Because my mind's working in that space. I'm not public yet, but I am still moving myself.

In. Yeah. Right, right. And. And there is the danger, and I say this to everyone, to when we get into that mode of getting ready, to get ready, to get ready, to get ready. It's very, very alluring to stay there. Right. Because you.

Can. Yeah.

Yeah. Because you can, like, write four books and you feel like you've been really productive and then you can do all this background stuff and you can work on the business and you can do all this stuff, but you haven't actually put yourself out.

There. Right. So I'm pretty clear that it's. It's pretty much getting there now where I need to put myself out there. And yeah, there is always the whole idea of on social media, like, I have a group on Facebook and I have my own personal page, and I haven't really use my personal page to drive people to my group, which is what I want to.

Do. You mean your personal Facebook.

Page?

Yeah. So you. Okay, so Facebook I have mixed feelings about because it has no organic reach. Right. Like, you can create videos and sometimes people will see those videos, but, like, then you have to connect with them. But you have a limit of 5,000 people that you can be connected with or friends with on Facebook. Right, right. And then the business pages on Facebook are garbage. Like, their reach is minimal. No one's going to see something you post there. Also, like Facebook groups, unless you already have one that is super, super engaged and has hundreds of people, no one's joining a Facebook group right now. Right.

Right. So, so then the other alternative is really only thing remaining is.

Instagram. Instagram or Tick Tock. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So Tick Tock. I don't really have anything, so I'll have to create a whole new thing and just kind of get.

Going. Yeah, but you know, like, the cool thing about Instagram and TikTok is that, like, you can become like a commentator. Right. You could. You could watch like a rom com and film a video, like a little portion of a video about that. That movie and say, here are the red flags in this relationship. You know, Here are the red flags in this relationship. I know, we love these characters. And we're, like, really happy they ended up together. But here's what I don't like about this relationship right here. Hi, Jason. You can also say, here are the green flags in this relationship. Right. And then bring it back to what your clients want or the relationships that you've seen go south because of those things. Right. You don't have to do a whole lot of heavy lifting when you do content for TikTok and Instagram. In that light, if you're. If you're trying to enter the relationship space. Right. You could build up a following with those two things. And. And we're talking about, like, popular books and. And TV shows and, you know.

Relationships. Right. That's a good idea. Because, honestly, there's so much bad advice out there that I can actually probably just pick on it in a way. That is why. Right. Like a. Yeah. It's kind of like the real red flag and the real green flag.

Right.

100. Like, for example, if somebody says, hey, you know, you know, is asking a man, is asking a woman for a coffee date. And, you know, many of the advice, a lot of the advice is, oh, coffee date is cheap. The guy is cheap. Whatever, whatever. Don't. I will not show up for a coffee date. I want a dinner date. Right. But the other way to look at it is that, hey, he's being responsible with his money. He's being responsible with the process. He's not just throwing things around to get your attention. And he wants to know you because in coffee, you're going to sit and have a conversation. That's the center point. So that's it. So how that now, like, a red flag is really a green flag, depending on how you look at.

It.

Yeah. Just be prepared. People are going to fight in your.

Comments. Oh, yeah, I know.

That. Really a bad thing. That's. I'm not saying that as a. Yeah, I know.

That. I know that. But I mean, there are people who will take it. And then, like, I know. I know a coach that went on TikTok, my coach, like, for the relationship thing that I been using for the last couple of years, he tried TikTok and he got totally.

Killed.

Yeah. And then he left. Mainly because people just like to view everything from the lens of you being misogynist or you're being this or you're being that, or, you know, like, like, instead of trying to understand the point, they. They'll go and, like, just find a fault in yours. Reverse.

It.

Yeah. And label it, like, you.

Know.

Yeah.

Yeah. So. So again, like, you can point out to like the green flags, the red flags and what people want in relationships. And that will start getting people into the mindset of, oh, he's talking to people who want this kind of relationship. Because you can say clients want a relationship where you can have this kind of vulnerable conversation. Like these two characters doing this movie at this, in the, in this.

Scene. Right.

Right. Instead of immersing yourself in the like, I hate men, I hate women kind of.

Conversation. Right, right, right. Yeah. That's one of the biggest. That's one of the biggest things I want to tell people that is every time your mind generalizes men and women, you're basically away from a healthy.

Relationship.

Right. You're putting yourself away from a healthy relationship because you pretty much, you know, how are you going to fall in love with your enemy? Basically the other.

Gender. Yeah. Again, talking about those deeper topics on Tik Tok and Instagram. No one's going to get the, the nuance.

So. Right, that's where the issue is. Yeah.

So. So the issue is, yeah, do light level. Do like the high level. Like, here's what my clients want. Here are, here's what they're struggling with on Tik Tok and Instagram. Get people to a newsletter where you can talk about more in depth things. Because it's going to be longer form. Right, right. But to grow fairly quickly on these platforms with a relationship base, like people who want relationships, like, point to that lighter level stuff. Keep it fairly, not shallow, but keep it like top level. Right. Because what you don't want to get immersed in is the, is the war between men and women right now. Right. Because then get men's rights people who are. And then you're gonna get, you.

Know. Oh, yeah, yeah, we got both sides. And basically the whole, the know, the bear thing and the whole thing just crazy, like, you.

Know. Yeah, yeah. And you are going to be forced to take aide if, if.

You. Which. Which I refuse. Yeah. Which I want to not.

Do.

But. And then. Yeah, but I, what I'm saying is keep it focused on what people want and like, here's some red flags you need to look out for and keep it simple, overthink it. Don't try.

To. Yeah, so. So that's been my blocker, like trying to come up with content that is engaging and grows my base without trying to be heavy, without trying to be preachy, without like, you know, like, I don't take my book and just dump.

It.

Yeah. I mean, there are ideas in there, but people need to be Open up to it and be engaged enough for months before they will say, oh, send me your book, or I buy this or I do this or.

Whatever. Yeah. So, I mean, a really light way to do that is like, this is top of funnel. So TikTok Instagram people are not going to go unless, like, you say something that, like, really makes them want to do a deep dive on your plat, on your profile. In one go, they're going to follow you, they're going to see another video, they'll see another video, they'll see another video, or each video. You can say, if you want a relationship like this, download my.

Book.

Right. Just really simple. And then that's going to take them to that next.

Level.

Yep. Right, yeah. And also, you don't just want to send them to your book. You want to say, if you want a relationship like this, book a call with me. Yeah, right. Because download the book is safer for you because you don't get.

Rejected. Right, right, right. I'm not worried about, yeah, I'm not worried about having calls because I do really well. The moment I spend 15 minutes to 30 minutes with.

Somebody.

Right. It's the first. It's the social media part where getting, you know, I don't have the practice and skill to get attention and draw them in, but if I get one on one on anybody, then I'm pretty much able to get them to say, oh, wow, you know, like kind of in 15 minutes or 30 minutes and get them.

Going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But for you. So for anyone here who is in any kind of like interpersonal space or if there, if there's like a genre of movie or book or TV that that focuses on the type of like, outcome your clients want, then using those popular kind of images and, and storylines to make a point about what you do, it's going to be really easy for people to like, get engaged with and like, continue watching and then start winning you over. Because there's a thing that happens when we have like our sphere of influence. Right. Have you ever heard of this topic? So, like your sphere of influence. Like, like, I really like Rob Lowe. I like him as an actor. I like his work. I think he's like kind of a funny, like out there character in the world. I know he really loves dogs. If someone says something good about Rob Lowe, I'll feel a little closer to them. Right. I'll feel like, oh, cool. We have this thing in common. If someone says they really love coffee, I'm like, yeah, cool, we're both coffee People. Right on. If someone says something negative about Rob Lowe, I might be like, huh, I feel a little more distant from you. Someone says they don't drink coffee. Like, are you freaking sociopath? What do you mean? I know we have some non coffee drinkers. I forgive it in my clients, but anytime we. We create some kind of bridge with something that people are already familiar with, it makes it easier for them to feel closer to us. Right. So, like, nobody wants this. As a TV show on Netflix, that I absolutely love. It has a lot of green flags for relationships. You know, if you were to create some kind of content that uses that show and little snippets from it, oh, my God. Like, I would feel so close to you.

Right?

Yep. So something to keep in mind. It's. It's kind of. You have to be careful with licensing things, but, like, there are ways around that, you know, if you're using it as commentary to prove a point or talking about it. Yeah, but I would start there, and I would start with just getting the platform set up and just getting consistent with them, posting and engaging and doing that before you worry about taking it to that next level. That.

Help?

Yep. Okay. Awesome. And welcome. Jason. I know you're joining late. Just so you know, we're at the portion where anyone can ask any question that's going on in their business. There's nothing too beginner, there's nothing too advanced, and swearing's allowed.

Tommy. Thank you, Katie. I. I've been quoting Hope it's been okay to do so that shared values versus smart people remark all week and, you know, really useful. Now, this might probably say, you know, not great things about me so much, but I. I can't fake enthusiasm very well. Right. I. I cannot, like, get really upbeat about something I'm not massively interested in. So what do you do when you've scrolled your feed, you've scrolled your curated list of people that you like to see and engage with and whatnot, and you can't find anything that gets your compulsion to, you know, like, type something in and engage and produce. Add something really good for the people who might come across and read it. Where do you go.

Looking? Which.

Platform? LinkedIn.

Specifically. Okay, so LinkedIn specifically. What I would do in that. Because this has been happening across LinkedIn for a while now, and it's driving me nuts. It's driving a lot of people crazy. What I would do is I would go to the profiles of people who, you know, spend a lot of time on the platform, and you who you know, have similar senses of humor or similar interests. And I would go stalking, I would go and see what they are commenting on. I would go to their activity on their profile, see what they're commenting on, go and start commenting on the same profile, on the same posts and profiles. What this will do is twofold. Like, it'll give you something interesting to look at and get you engaged on the platform, which will help the algorithm show your stuff to more people. It'll also start correcting the algorithm to show you more stuff like that. It takes a little more effort. You can't just open up the app and start scrolling and commenting, but it makes it a lot easier for you over.

Time. Oh, that's brilliant. As I said, I've got a curated list, but sometimes even that will run.

Dry. Right.

Right.

And. And so for Insta. I'm sorry, for LinkedIn, it's this. For Instagram, TikTok, any other platform that works more like a search engine at that point, what you want to do is you want to look for the specific topics you want to engage on. And then you just have to put in like the, put in the hours and put in the reps of like scrolling and finding the things in those topics that are interesting to.

You. Yeah, yeah, that's probably. That'll do.

It. Okay, awesome. What other questions do we.

Have?

It. Okay, if no one has any other questions, then why don't we do this? I want to look at what your goals are for the rest of the year. We're at the beginning of September. We have just shy of four months left until we hit 2026. And if you've already set goals for the year, I want to take out a piece of paper and I want you to write whatever that goal was at the top of the piece of paper. If you do not have preset goals, then I want you to think about what would you be so proud of accomplishing by the end of the year? And there's going to be a part of your brain that is going to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's not realistic. Calm. Calm the down. Like, what are you, what are you saying? We're never gonna be able to reach that goal? Back it off. And I want you to tell that, that voice in your head to go and take a seat and pick up a newspaper and just like occupy itself for a little while. Because we're not talking about that right now. So what is the financial goal? What is the client acquisition goal that you have for the next four months of your Business. Give you a minute to write that down. And when you've come up with it, just raise your hand or give me a nod or some kind of indication, do a.

Dance. I mean, I've got my goals for 2026. My plan for the next four months is all around trying to milk some of my partners from marketing.

Dollars.

Yeah. But like for, for, I guess the start of 2026 is that I want to generate, get a lead generation pipeline working that sources at least three to five leads per month, get at least one client to negotiating stage in my pipeline, just what I named it per quarter, and then close at least two projects in 2026. Or at least close one 12 month. 12 month.

Project. Okay. Okay, awesome. So to be able to reach that goal, what do you need to do in the next four.

Months? Well, I need to be producing more content. I need to work my, my current lead source, which is my network, a little bit.

More.

Mm. I don't know. Probably need to do that storybook thing and submit it to some.

Conferences. Yeah, yeah. So. So whenever we think about this, like, it's really easy to think in. Well, I need to do more of this. I need to do more of this. I need to do more of this. Like, that's great. Doing more is always great. But also, let's set up some metrics for success so that you feel like you're actually making progress every week. Right. So for instance, it could be three networking calls a week, right. With people in your network, folks that you've worked with previously, people that you meet on LinkedIn, people in your desired industry, you know, folks who are running conferences that you'd potentially want to speak at. Right. And then of course, like four posts, it could be like you're going to do four posts a week, you know, giving yourself that measurable win. Right. Because we, you know, at the end of October, say if you've been doing three networking calls a week and you've been posting four times a week consistently, and you're tracking to get to exactly what you need for 2026 goals. Amazing. You know, that's what it's going to take right now, say you've gotten halfway there and everything you've gotten has only come from networking, right. That's going to tell you something. You're, that's going to tell you that, like your networking is the thing that's going to deliver the most results. So you need to double down on that. So instead of three calls a week, it needs to be six. It also tells us that your work on LinkedIn, the things that you post has to be geared towards simply growing your network, growing the amount of people that could potentially refer clients to you. So I don't know if you track the metrics of like how many networking calls you've done for how many referrals. I know, I personally don't, I should, but I, I get distracted and I forget to do that stuff because I have adhd. But if you can start tracking that stuff and really figure out what it is that's most impactful and that's going to be the thing that's going to make you most successful in 2026. I did this, gosh, last fall. Last fall was the last fall or the fall before I did 100 days of posting. And I think like 66% of the time I had a call to action to book a sales call. So like 66 days I had a very hard hitting call to action. Book a sales call with me. Book a generating income strategy call with me. For every two posts I got a sales call. Right. So that tells me. So I went back and I counted and I figured out, okay, this is how many sales calls I got and this is how much content I pushed out. And here's how much of that content had a call to action. So I got 33 sales.

Calls.

Right. My closing percentage is a really solid like 35%, which is what I like it to be, you know, for various different programs that I have. Right. That tells me that if I want a client, I need at least two really hard hitting LinkedIn posts that has a solid call to action for a sales call. Right. And if my closing percentage is 35%, let's low, let's bring down to 33. That means that I'm going to have to do six of those really hard hitting called actions for me to get one. Yes.

Okay.

Yep. Cool. I know you raised your hand. What's your goal for the end of the.

Year, Michael? Is to be able to replace 80% of my previous income, including like accounting for.

Taxes. Okay, awesome. Are you open to sharing a number with the.

Group? Not at this.

Time. It's okay. So whatever that is, I want you to think of like how much like a deal is worth, what's your typical deal or how many clients would that equal. And then, yeah, at this point.

It could be, it could be one retainer client or it could be multiple clients, but if I'm able to close one retainer client, then that could get me more than halfway.

There. Okay, amazing. So then at that point, we're looking at like maybe two retainer clients in one.

Project.

Yes. Okay, amazing. So again, it's all in figuring out what are the actions that are going to specifically get you there. Am I incorporated as an S.

Corp? That's a question for.

Ellie.

Oh. If the goal is to, is to retain 80% of your current income, part of that could also be how your, how your company is structured as a tax entity. So I'm, I'm incorporated as an S corp, so I pay myself a salary and then I make up the rest of my income through what are actually dividends. And that actually has a better tax situation than if I wasn't an S corp and I was paying self, you know, that portion of self employment.

Taxes. Yeah, that's, that's a great. Kevin, that's. And Ellie, that's something that I want you to talk about with your accountant and your financial.

Planner. Yeah, I've heard that it makes sense when you hit a certain income.

Level.

Yeah. And I launched last month. I'm not there yet, but I hope to get there.

Soon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, back to like, how you get to that, like, figure out how many networking calls it's going to take or that it typically takes for you to get to a sales call. Figure out, you know, how much content typically takes for you to get someone, you know, to that point where they want to get on a call with you. How much speaking, for instance, you know, and I know it's early on. You're, you're very much in the guessing game portion of, of the process.

Because it definitely feels like spaghetti and wall phase right now because I've got speaking engagements, I have like social media stuff going on. I've got networking calls. And it does feel a little bit like a flurry of like. And most of it has been warm.

Intros. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah. And unfortunately, it's different for everyone. What works for some people doesn't work for other people. Right. So you're gonna have to do a lot of spaghetti throwing. But the important thing to remember and, and everyone instinctively shies away from this when they first start is you have to tell people that you are taking on clients. You have to invite people to book a call with you. You have to be very clear about if you want this result and you're struggling with these things. That's what I help with. And I invite you to book a strategy call with me where we'll look at these things and see if it's a fit. Right. Because otherwise people may not realize that you're accepting clients. They may not realize that they could potentially work with you. We have to make sure that we are connecting all the dots for them. We're doing all the mental gymnastics to help them figure that out. And even when it feels like you've been doing it a lot, do it again and do it again and do it again. And let me tell you, like, I do this. I, I coach on this stuff. And posting 100 days, I felt like I was asking people to be my client every single day. It shocked me when I went back and I actually reviewed my content and I realized, like, I didn't actually do a call to action every single day. I did it two thirds of the time and it felt like I was, I was bombarding people.

Deal? Yes, I will continue to do.

That. Okay, awesome. All right, we have time for one more or if we want to move on. Another question. Who wants to go? Any specific goals for the end of the year or any other questions about things going on in your business?

No, It seems really silent, so I'll just throw out there. So, you know, fill in the, the blank. But one of them is that I get nearly all my work by referral. I'm sure they check me out on LinkedIn as well, but I'd like to get like a certain number of people directly from that by the end of it. And just because of a pride thing more than anything. And also, one of the things I really don't like doing in my work is, you know, when it's asked for is it's funny enough. It's what people think is funny is all the graphic stuff, all the big bright things, you know, and imaging stuff. And at some point I'd be really happy if I could get somebody competent on the side to do all that thing because I just like, you know, getting deep into the cutting stuff. So that's where it's.

Going. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't do after effects. I'm not that.

Guy. Yeah, totally. Well, Tommy, I mean, like, you can make that change now. Figure out what it's going to cost to hire someone and change your.

Pricing. Yeah. Could they not feel about.

That? Yeah. You can also say, I don't do that. You could say, well, listen, I, I will come up with, I will cut it and I will make sure that this is really hard hitting. But, you know, your branding is going to change. Like my branding changed. Right. And I had to ask you to just do all that again, which now I feel really bad about knowing that you Hate that.

Stuff. No, no, that, that stuff. That's all right. I'm talking about like when you get into after effects is stuff that is a bit complex and drives you up a tree, you know, Although it's got a lot easier in the days of people being at conjure stuff with, you know, the generators and all that. But it's. It's still something that takes me away from the core thing I'm really known for and good at. And, you know, you can go down rabbit holes even when it's.

Fun. Yeah. So. So this is for everyone. You are the owner of your business. You get to decide exactly what the parameters are of what you provide. That's it. If you're doing something in your business that for your clients that you hate doing or that is just taking too much, you are the one who sets the rules here. So you can either charge more for it, you can say, hey, listen, I don't include this. It's an add on and here's who I bring in to do that. Or yeah, exactly 100%, Jason. Or you can say, hey, listen, this is, this is where I go. I go from point A to point N, want to go through O to Z. That's. You're going to have this provided to you that you can go and work for someone else for that. Right. But the clear here is you have to be a hundred percent transparent and like clearly communicate it so that people don't get confused, think it's incorporated, or think that, you know they're gonna get something different. Yeah, but it feels mean when you do that, but it's not. All right, so we're at times, let's do main takeaways. So whoever goes first is gonna popcorn it to the next person who popcorns it to the next person. And it's just like the. What's your one main takeaway that you're taking from? Be a sentence. It can be a couple sentences. You don't have to give a whole speech. Who wants to start us.

Off? I'll start.

Off. Yes.

Neil. Yeah. So the two main takeaways are, well, start creating content and being out there. Right. Get over that hurricane. And the second one is that keep it light but not.

Shallow.

Yeah. Thank.

You. And who are you thinking to go.

Next?

Kevin? You know, I kind of, kind of like the discussion we had about collecting metrics on what actions do what. I mean, I'm always a big fan of a data driven.

Approach. Yeah. Yep. Right on. Who are you picking.

Next.

Ellie? Mine actually is the same as Kevin's. I was like, I need to do a better job of tracking my metrics of, like, what leads to.

What. Awesome. And who are you picking next? Let's.

See. I don't know if Jason's there.

So. Yeah, Jason, I think walked away for a second. So.

Tommy, Just. You know, what you said earlier about going through who other people are commenting on? I thought that was really clever. And to be honest, takes you in front of some people I not would have thought of. And also the, you know, like you said, just add it. You know, add something on and raise the price if people want it.

Enough. Yeah.

Yep. You make it sound. You make it sound easy. And I'll believe.

That. You know, sometimes the simplest thing is not the easiest thing, and we. We often conflate the two. We think just because a solution is simple, it should be easy, and it's not. They're different things. Meditation is the simplest thing you could possibly do in your life. It's just sitting there with your eyes closed. But is it.

Easy?

No. It's one of the hardest things you'll ever.

Do. I. I agree with you, by the way. It's bog on. I'm just, you.

Know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jason, I don't know if you heard. We're just doing main takeaways. Do you have a main takeaway you want to share with the.

Group? I don't know if I have a main takeaway. I only caught pieces. But I found your material very.

Interesting.

The trying to price your offer and determine what you're.

Selling.

Yeah. So, yeah, my. My plan for 2026 is to try to put money into. Put my money into investing in more marketing for cleverly. But it's a lot of money, so that's my big.

Challenge.

Okay.

2026.

Yeah. So I don't know if you've ever had anybody use that on that you've coached, but it looks like you can get a lot more people. So that's my.

Challenge. Okay. Awesome. Thank you for sharing. All right, everyone, have an amazing weekend. For my clients, you know where to find me if you have any questions over the weekend. Otherwise, I'll see you next week. And as always, if you want to come to Brave Biz Labs, it's available for anyone every Friday. So come on back anytime you want any support. All right? All right. Bye, everyone. Have a great.