Power Activities to Boost Sales, Grow Your Personal Brand, and Stay in Your Zone of Genius as a Founder (Live Q&A)

None of it was for nothing. In fact, it takes one decision to make all of the work that you think you can't see right now all be prepared to make you skyrocket. And we're back with another episode of he said, she said.

Tee it up with a glossy tip, babe.

Well, we are about to board an international flight and I have been drinking glossy. Last night I drank it, this morning I'm drinking on the plane. Not only am I staying super hydrated because you guys know what the problems that come with international travel are you trying to say no poo poo dehydration and no poo poo. So definitely already making sure that I'm really hydrated, that I have my magnesium and for sure this probiotic when I'm going overseas and just eating all kinds of different foods. So I know I'm gonna feel great because this is my travel hack and I'm super excited to go.

We packed five closes a day, three a day for me, two a day for you, and for every day of this trip, we're headed to Europe. Super excited. Hey guys, listen, you're gonna love this episode because this is part one of a three part series where Lori was interviewed at our elite Mastermind. Now remember, that's the mastermind for everyone who has a business that is 500 grand and above. Most people are seven and eight figure businesses in there. And the whole mastermind interviewed Lori with myself up in front of the room. I answered a few things too. And we thought this was such good information that we want to make it a he said, she said. So this is part one of three. Don't forget to tune in next week for part two and the week after that for part three. And by the way, if you like what you hear the types of things we talk about, we are now officially starting to interview the new applicants for the 2025 class of our elite level mastermind. And we had the best announcement ever.

If you did not know, if you did not hear, I am joining Chris next year in his Elite Entrepreneur Mastermind. It's going to be Chris and I running it. From the beginning it's been just Chris doing this entire mastermind. We decided to divide and conquer earlier on and now we are in a place where we both really want to serve in the elite Entrepreneur Mastermind. So I'm so excited if you guys decide to join, you will get both Cool Chris and I in the room for two different events throughout the year.

Yep. So go to Chrisharder Me Mastermind. No joke. Hit pause Right now and then come back to this episode. Hit pause and go to Chrisharder Me. That's Chrisharder Me Mastermind. Get your application in, because we interview everybody in time. Order in the order that the applications come in. Now that it's Lori's mastermind right alongside of mine, it's going to be a whole new dynamic, and you don't want to miss this mentorship from her, and you definitely don't want to miss this mentorship from me.

So.

So hit pause, go to Chrisharder Me Mastermind, and come back and listen to this episode. When I was giving your intro, I was saying people don't know the half of it in terms of how special you are and the incredible accomplishments that you just knock out day to day to day. Yet you also beat yourself up like you're not getting enough done day to day to day, because they also don't get to see that side. Talk to everybody in here about what that's like to be a high performer, to know logically you're kicking ass, but to feel mentally like you're never doing enough.

Well, welcome to trauma responding. I think I'm talking to all of my people in here, and I know majority of all of you and have had amazing conversations or been on podcasts or gotten to really sit with everyone, and I think that we all. I think we can. Does everybody struggle with this, or is it just. Just me? Especially in this room? Okay. I'm at a phase in my life now, finally, where I'm really trying to enjoy all of it, and I'm learning that there is a really big part of me that does enjoy, like, being busy. Like, that's just how I'm built. And I think I used to apologize for it all the time because I was like, man, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me that I like to do all of these things? But I'm. According to, like, astrology, I'm like a triple Sagittarius. I just like to do it. I like to do all of it. So what does it feel like to, like, you know, always? It's because I want to. I want to do more, and I want to be doing well. And I want to be doing well because I think of what comes with doing well. I think that's what gets me really excited. So that's why I'm hard on myself, is like, oh, my gosh. If you really want to know how my brain works, it's like when I sell glossy, I can take that money and I can start like a fund for all of these women and we can be in a room just like this and we can really be moving their business forward. And so I feel like I'm not where I want to be yet. And that can bring a lot of like, you know, you can, it can bring a lot of anxiety with that and wanting to hit these markers because I'm always wanting to do kind of the fun that comes with the achievement like that next level of what you get to do when you achieve more.

If you could change anything about the way you approach your days or the way you approach your business or the way you approach your life right now, what would you change? Magic wand change all of it.

No, I'm just kidding. There's a lot of it right now that I would change. But I'm also in a unique season. Like my right hand woman just went, or she's on maternity leave still. We just switched out. I was telling you I had to switch out essentially like three teams. It was an agency doing three different things. Now I had to hire three new people. So right now I'm just in that place where it feels crazy and it feels busy, but I'm arranging it. So I'm in the middle of changing it right now so that I can get more time to get back in the creative. Because in my business, my zone of genius, like you guys all know what your zone of genius is, I'm sure in this room to bring in the most dollars. For me, it's to be in a little bit more of a flowy space to think of the big ideas and to give myself room to go and reach out to those women and get in the rooms with the women who are going to be my partners for like whitelisting ads. Which means, like, if I can get someone with some, a great audience to get that partnership, write out what they're going to say, create those scripts so that they can go and, you know, advertise for me. So things like that where the very things that I'm supposed to be doing right now are like on the bottom of the rung because I'm so in the like tactical. And the day to day and the decision making where it's like, can you look at every single one of these emails and this new email flow and go through and edit it and make sure it's all good. I'm like, oh my God, like I'm gonna get out of this so soon. Which I am. We've got some great people that literally just came on board this week that I really trust. So getting back into the things where I can make the most money in the business is what we're arranging the schedule to be like. And we've done really, really well, you and I, with making sure that for my mental health and anxiety, like I have to walk in the morning and I really need to bookend at night. So I wouldn't change that at all. I would just change how my day to day looks and have like minimum two days that are open for creativity and for partnerships. And that's what we're working on.

The question I had asked was, what would you change? And it sounds like you'd get back into your zone of genius. Sometimes you're just in a season where you have to work also outside of your zone of genius due to circumstances, maternity leaves, that kind of thing, especially when it's a small team. I feel like you touched in the answer, but I also want to ask this follow up question. What do you absolutely knock out of the fucking park that you would keep doing and you recommend other people try in their life and business?

You know, for me, I feel like I knock it out of the park on relationships and really like making sure in my schedule that I am booking time, creating like spaces where women can drop in. And that was my goal this last. So in 2023, I had started doing it where I'm like, oh man, I'm gonna get really bold and just start asking women who I feel are ahead of me on these weekend trips, like, what can I do? What's my zone of genius? I can totally facilitate a weekend and be like, and no, this is easy for me. I'll plan all the things. I'll plan the restaurants. Is it easy for me? Not necessarily, but I really wanted to make it a no brainer. Yes for them. And so making big bold asks starting in 2023 was huge for me and really, really game changing. Because, you know, getting in rooms like this, like, this is really important to me too. But I'm. I'm also a very, very one on one connector or like one on. I think a really sweet spot number is like five to six people in a group for like two or three days. And so facilitating those people who are like, man, if I could just put a group of women together, what would that look like? And working up the nerve to do that, like, that has been something I've gotten really good at. I get nervous every single time because it's rejection. Right? You. I did get rejected by a lot of people who said no, but I just kept asking until it was like, well, it doesn't mean they don't like you, or it doesn't mean whatever. It's just not the right time for them, or they're not looking for that in their life. So I would say that's been really huge for me and a needle mover.

Why do you think we're never successful in every single area of our life, but where you are and where you have been, aside from relationships? Because that's probably your number one answer. Why do you think that you've done so well? Why do you think that you've been so successful? What is something that they can borrow from that?

You know, for me, I think the foundation of fitness has made me realize how results actually come. So because it took so long in the fitness world, or like, when I was making a body transformation to understand how it actually worked. Like, I think, you know, I came from an overweight family, and I had started exercising at, like, 8 years old, but never saw results until I was, like, 27. Like, why is that? But what I started to understand is it wasn't that there wasn't a result that whole time, because when I finally dialed in my nutrition, guess what happened in, like, six months? The years of me working out showed up. So what happened for me with understanding that in my brain was none of it was for nothing. In fact, it takes one decision to make all of the work that you think you can't see right now all be prepared to make you skyrocket. Because how did I go from like, nothing and not winning to all of a sudden understanding a nutrition piece and in six months winning three national titles? Like, it wasn't because of that six months. It was because of all of the years prior. So I think of that in terms of business all the time. Like, all of these things that I'm doing right now in Gloce and trying out and my willingness to fail and fail publicly is huge. Like, my risk tolerance now for that is massive. It's like, I want you guys to look back and think about all the times you got rejected from sports, all the times you got rejected from your friends all the time. Like, that is just making you so much better. And so I. When your rejection tolerance goes up and your risk tolerance goes up, it's just that that speed from failure to failure, my comeback rate is so incredibly amazing because of, you know, all of the incredible people I have in my life. So I really believe that your community and your level of connection is your comeback rate. Because I don't even have time to sit with like the poor me or oh my gosh, that person said this horrible thing to me or I was rejected in this way because I, I make sure I have connection points with girlfriends who are like, okay, they're an idiot or you're amazing, like get over it. Who cares? Wow. Congratulations that this happened. So I think community has been a huge part of that too.

Love that. Last question for you before we start turning over to you guys is personal brand. We've talked a lot about it when Jen was here, when Jasmine was here, et cetera. You now have a physical product company, things like logistics, packaging, et cetera, which on the surface should have nothing to do with a personal brand. In theory, you should have to glow glossy as its own brand. And you do. But what has having a personal brand done for you in your different pivots? And if you were going to start fresh today, if nobody knew who you were, what's your fastest route to building a personal brand?

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Patrick Lencioni, author of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team and more than a dozen other bestsellers, created the working genius assessment to help you pinpoint the kind of work that gives you energy, the kind that lights you up, and it also shares the kind that drains it. So over a million people, including me, have taken it and completely changed how I lead and show up every day. If you're a CEO, an entrepreneur, or someone who just wants to level up in business and in life, working genius is going to give you the clarity and confidence to operate in your strengths and find greater joy in what you do. Because confidence isn't pretending to be good at everything. It's knowing where you're truly gifted. You take the working genius assessment today and get 20% off with code earn@workinggenius.com. that's working genius.com, you'll be glad you did it. I'll answer the first one. You'll probably have to remind me on the second one. A personal brand. I think it's just making your life easier with everything that you share, because when you're a personal brand, it's about whatever that person uses and does. So you get to sell anything that you love, use, do, believe in. Because it can always come back to, hey, this is me and my personal experience. That's why, you know, when you, you see these companies that are popping up that are just crushing it. Like, not, not necessarily popping up, but, like, Lauren Bostic can pretty much sell anything because she has been sharing what she does her whole career and making it look pretty and making you feel like you want to be a part of it. There's a woman who does. I believe it's called Divi. Like, these hair care products that are just crushing it because she is an amazing personal brand that people want to follow her life. And I get like, I guarantee Lauren Bostick could pivot into clothes. And how many of us in here would be like, great, I'm. I'm all for it, right? She could do. She could literally do anything because it's her personal brand. We just want to everything to have to do with her. And so, you know, for personal branding, you have to think of it in terms of when you are investing in growing your product, whatever it is, whether it's a digital course or whether it's a physical product, you have to allot money to marketing, right? So when you think about how you're marketing, if you can market a good percentage of that easily without dollars spent on ads because you have a large audience, you, you have a podcast. Like Liz could start a product right now and it could be fricking off the charts because she's got an incredible built in audience already. She doesn't have to buy it from a Facebook ad. So what happens in your company is the people love to attach to celebs right now. They love to attach to like a, they even like a strong personal brand even more because that feels more authentic because it takes away from the biggest budget that's typically in the company and that's marketing. So when I think about what I'm investing in, sometimes I'm like, oh my gosh, I need to go do these things over here for glossy. Except if I do a freaking amazing reel on my page sometimes that can convert glossy better depending upon how I've positioned it right. Because people are just so bought into, they're like if they're usually following me or it's been a long time, they're so bought into whatever I'm saying or doing that that's a better value spent than going and spending an ad from glossy and targeting people that we don't necessarily know. So a personal brand is a great way to just be able to take from that marketing budget. Which is also was a huge reason behind bringing Natalie Ellis on from Boss Babe is she's got the same thing going is you know, when she came on it's like she has that audience and that personal brand which also got to take away from our marketing budget because right now we're talking about black and instead of like we're going to do something for the public, like a sale for the public. But what we're really focusing on is like we're creating an internal Black Friday sale for her people like her email list specifically. That's not going to cost us a lot of money, right? It's just going to be like the discount that we're going to give because it's a list that's already there, they're already warmed up. We'd rather give this massive discount to these people who are warm, excited. We're going to do a little like co branded thing. So you can see already like where those Dollars are going to be spent a lot better because we have those personal brands.

And then a follow up question to that was, if you had to start today, nobody knew who you were, what would you do to build a personal brand quickly?

I would. You know what I mean? My personal brand really grew when I was doing Facebook lives every single day.

They're laughing because that was Jen's answer and that was Jasmine's answer. So keep going.

I mean, it's the fastest way to get. You could do it for 30 days and people would be like, oh, like, you know Dorothy, like she's, yeah, she does these Facebook lives and even if you've only been doing them for 30 days, they talk about you like you're a consistent, like, person already. It's the craziest thing. Like, yeah, she has these, like, Facebook lives. I love following them. And it's so funny how when people know you're going to show up, if they like really resonate with you, they will start showing up. And it starts small. It like everything starts small. I think that's the important thing to realize is whenever we've started anything, it's like, okay, here we are back at square one. We're doing it small, like with glossy. I started these subscriber calls and I'm like so excited about them. Except we've had three calls with like, you know, they start with like 30 people and then 50 people out of all of the subscribers. But it's like we're still at like 50 something people. That might happen all year long. Does it mean I'm going to stop them? No, because I remember these things start small. It might drop down to five people on at the holidays. I don't know. I don't know. But what I do know is that when you're consistent in your personal brand and when you're consistent with like trying to get a name out there or a brand out there, your first year or two is going to feel like, are people ever going to show up? Like, are they going to show up? So that's absolutely what I would do any way that I can get consistently on a platform. So I would do lives and also I, I would start a podcast. So I would do lives in a podcast. You could even make some of the lives quickies on your podcast so you could double dip.

Remind them real quick because most of them probably don't know about the year. Plus that you went live every single day. Tell them how you did it.

I started going live on Facebook every single day because it was kind of when social media, when Instagram, like, when those stupid bitches started getting photo shoots all the time, I was like, not that person at all. Like. Like, this Dr. Pilly coat, which. I'll just tell you, Dr. Pilly is a character I used to be when I was, like, 11 years old and I was a drug dealer, and I would.

So she was getting ready this morning. I'm like, oh, doctor.

I was like, Dr. Pilly. But anyway, so I did not like getting ready. Like, I. I'm such a. In my workout clothes type of person. And what I was finding is I was always waiting to get ready to go to, like, get online, to. To, you know, go live. Like, I needed my hair and my makeup done, except in my life, I was, like, never going to do that. So I had this realization that I'm like, I am the problem. Like, I'm the bottleneck. I'm the problem. And so I gave myself a personal challenge. This is how pretty much all good things in my life have started, is I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go live every single day. I think I chose, like, I don't know, 30 days for myself, and I made it easy for myself. I was like, okay, I'm gonna grab. At the time, Gabrielle Bernstein and Danielle laporte had these, like, cards out that you. They're like manifestation cards, or they're like, quote cards of the day. And I was like, I'm gonna pull however many it takes to keep the conversation going for 10 to 15 minutes. Sometimes I'd, like, ramble for 30, because it would just open up so much. So what I would do is I'd be like, hey, everybody, welcome to the Whatever the heck it was bathrobe sessions. Because I was always in my bathrobe drinking my coffee. I would just get up. Ten minutes later, I'd be on a live. And so I would pull the cards, and I'd be like, okay, I'm gonna, you know, pull, like, three of these cards. I'm just gonna talk about how this relates to my life and maybe how it relates to yours. And so I just busted through two of my biggest blocks. I have nothing to say. And I'm like, I just can't keep up with this. Like, I can't get ready. I can't do the makeup. I can't do the outfit. So I was like, all right, well, we're just gonna bust this for everyone. And, I mean, I'm sure Jen talked about it up here, but you're doing so much more than you realize. With that because you're giving everybody else who has those blocks as well permission to figure out how to do it. So in all of the things that I've done, I don't just do the thing, I tell them how to do that thing that I'm doing. And I think that's been a superpower for me because I'm like, let me tell you why I'm doing this and let me show you how you can do it too. And if you want to take this challenge with me, you should. And so that's always, it's like a basis for everything that I do. Like do the thing, tell them why you were doing it, what was blocking you, and then bring them with you and then give them the same exact challenge. And I think that creates that like cycle of them wanting to like really be a part of that because they're like, oh, first of all, that just empowered me. Second of all, this is giving me something to do and she's doing it too. We can come on here, we can talk about it. It's a little bit like a support group and that's been really powerful.

Awesome. All right, who's got first question?

I'm really curious to hear what is currently working and not working for you guys with your affiliate program for glossy. Oh God. This is such a good question. Because everything I thought would work didn't work. I went in like the most confident person with a network marketing background. And let me just tell you, like crap changes real fast. And also within your company, you have to know the numbers and people. Okay, so, so let me start from the top. I thought that more people would be like, I just thought they would be more excited about the product and like jump on board like I did. But I had the realization. Meaning with network marketing, I had the realization not everybody is like self motivated like that at all. So in order for an affiliate program to work, you really need to have a lot of great stuff set up from the start with understanding that you are going to be bringing on a whole lot of people who don't do a lot in order to find the three who do all of it. And so that is the key to affiliate marketing. Don't get down on yourself with all of the people who share once it's about getting through all of those people to find the 3 to maybe 10. Right? We're lucky if we get 10 and 10 will 10 can create some crazy business from people. So having that realization was huge that like you're going to onboard a lot, you're Going to give. You want to have a lot of instructions and easy things for them, easy things to grab, easy things to share. You almost want a schedule and you want somebody following up with them on that schedule, like if they opt in for that. So depending upon how deep you want to make your affiliate program go, it's like to have somebody who is consistently checking in with them and maybe asking them and getting them excited about what could happen if they did that thing. I would say those are the main things with the affiliate program. And then also once you find those people who are doing better, like for us we're going to be, you know, down the road, kind of like having side conversations with people if they're doing really well on how we can work with them in different ways and give them a lot more money. So we're not going to intro that to the public at all because we want to find those people who are really like, oh, this is a go getter where if we put a lot of money towards them, that's going to come in return. So for us, when we think of finding those people, if they can really move the, if they can move the product for us, we essentially want to pay them the most money we possibly can knowing about the lifetime value of our customer. So once we know the lifetime value of someone who comes on subscription, I will lose money paying the affiliate in order to know that I'll gain money through the subscription down the road. So for a digital program I always like to pay like especially pending if you want a really good affiliate, I always like to pay the top amount that we think we can because you have to think of it with a digital program like you have no overhead, none. That is an audience that is so cultivated that if they're a warm lead, like if they're hot, if they love what the person's doing. If you can co brand something too digitally like so that that audience is like, oh it's hers and hers or you know, all of theirs together. I mean I'm not afraid of going anywhere from like 50 to 80% depending on the person. Like it just depends on the price of the product. So that, you know, some people want to be negotiated with obviously because they know their audience is going to crush it and that you wouldn't have, that wouldn't be an opportunity for you at all. And especially if they're, if they're a more seasoned like person or affiliate or a big business like they're going to want. They know that, they already know that. So it's Costing you nothing. And it's actually costing them marketing time away from their products. So it has to be like really worth it for them. Do you have any follow up questions on that?

You tell them what whitelisting is as well.

So whitelisting is when again. So like if Dorothy said, let's say Dorothy has like, she's a skincare influencer, she loves it. She just gets on and does her get ready with me every single day and shows us a ten step skincare routine. Okay, so Dorothy's. So Dorothy has this super engaged audience and Dorothy knows it and she's already getting maybe paid by other brands. So I would approach Dorothy and say, hey, we would love to be able to have you share a post about our product, but what we want to do is it'll be on your page. We'll get access to like, I believe it's the accounts manager, like back end of Facebook. We'll be able to put money towards her post, boost it like an run an ad through it and then all of the traffic, it's a bonus for her if she does it, all of the traffic will go to her page. So like every we could. People are putting tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars behind one post that they know did really well. So you test it. What happens with whitelisting is a lot of times the influencer would want like an upfront fee, so maybe 3,000, 5,000, 7,000, $10,000 depending upon who they are. And then they may also want a percentage of the sales that come through that particular ad. So for me, that's the dance that I'm in right now is like, I want to be out there like finding these people and negotiating with them what that payment is going to look like. So you find your people that you love to whitelist with, they create an amazing ad. We might help them write the ad content or if they're really, really good with it. We're like, you just run with it. Avoid saying this. You know, these are great things to say. But that apparently right now is what's really helping these product companies go, which, who knows if that could work for digital products. I haven't heard of that yet, but I'm sure people are doing it.

I think that could crush for digital products because people are doing that only with physical but not with digital. So the buyer doesn't really see it coming, you know.