How to Build a Personal Brand in 2025 | Neel Dhingra

Think about the opportunity you can count on, like, you know, one hand of the number of people who are super consistent and well known in your industry and your market. And so that's the type of opportunity you still have in 2025. Like, you could literally own a niche within your space today. Yeah, they want to hire somebody, just run the things, and then it just looks like canned content. How many people today are concerned with their car insurance? Like, I'm rich, and I'm concerned with it because it's that expensive. Like, we're spending thousands of dollars and it keeps going up. I'm like, what's going on here?

What's one thing you do with your content that no one's copying but they should be?

Oh, yeah, there's a lot. So one thing that. And I don't know why people don't do this more often is.

Welcome to another episode of the A1 Experience. I'm here with my friend, Mr. Neil Dhingra.

You guys don't know Neil.

Neil is an entrepreneur, mortgage expert, and a digital content pioneer. Reshaping the mortgage, real estate.

I'll just say professional industry. He's the founder of Forward, a massive event that he throws every year, and a mastermind, which I'm a part of, and he's just a freaking solid dude, man, that gives the world more than he takes. So, bro, welcome.

Thank you for having me, bro. This is awesome.

Thanks, man. Yeah, so couple things. You know, in my journey, I've had a few mentors that. That I feel like God has placed in my life for, like, specific seasons. And yeah, dude, you've been that mentor for me the last few years.

Thanks, man. Yeah, that's cool. Like, we got to connect in Cole's Mastermind, that was 2021. Maybe 2022, something like that.

And I remember you go up, you're like, hey, I'm. I'm trying to host an event or like a put on a massive event, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then. And then, boom, Forward.

Like, yeah, that was 2022. So when you were there was epic.

So.

So, bro, you. You share a lot that you were.

Broke until you were 37.

Yep.

And then I want to know or for already for the audience, what changed when you turned 37?

So basically when I say broke, it's not like we were poor living on the street, but it was like, you know, the middle class broke. You know what I mean? Which is, like, you just don't, like, you have enough money to cover your expenses and stuff, but you sweat money still like, you know, if something comes up, you're kind of worried about it or maybe you have maybe disagreements at home about money because you don't have enough or whatever. Like just you're not financially free and you're more things. So I thought of myself as broke is because I didn't, I wasn't, I was bringing enough money just to cover living. But then we weren't investing, we weren't saving, you know, for the future. So we owned a home and that was it. And so I remember thinking at the time, like, dude, I. There's got to be something else because I'm working really hard, but I'm just getting by, you know what I mean? I feel like a lot of people get stuck there. Maybe you're making like six figures, but in, in today's world, like, dude, that's not even enough to invest. That's just enough to cover your bills.

Right?

So that's my version of broke, middle class broke. And I know that I'm not putting shame on like if anybody is beneath that level and you're like, hey, I would be happy to have six figures. Great. Like there's levels, you know, to the game. But I remember being stuck there and then I was thinking, I need to do something different. And so what I realized was I was just spending all my time doing unscalable things, you know, like just doing one to one selling. I didn't have a team, I didn't even have like an assistant. I didn't have any scale. And then I wasn't, I didn't have a personal brand. So there was just a very small circle of people that could refer me business and that was it.

Okay.

And so that just kept a ceiling for years. And you know, like, you're always thinking like, well, I'll do something different. And then the next year goes by and it's the same shit, you know, and pretty soon like you could go a decade like that. So that's kind of where I was stuck. And then at that point I just kind of started going on social, seeing some new ideas and then I started going down the rabbit hole of like Gary Vee and content marketing and all that stuff. Okay.

You know, so funny, as you were talking, I remember, you know, you, you mentioned that you've had to really like seek opportunities, like they weren't just giving. Yeah, yeah. Kind of thing. And I remember I went to Albert Preciado's driven event and I remember, I remember we were hungry and we were like about to go to lunch and we're like, who's the next speaker? And then you. You were coming up, and we're like.

We'Re like, let's go, let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then I see you again at Cole's event, and that's where I actually listened to you. I'm like, dude, this guy's the real deal. Like, out of everybody that spoke at the. Maybe it was. I think it was Cole's event or. Yeah, yeah, Cody's event. And I'm like, dude, I took the most notes from this guy. And maybe it was like, what connected for me was were both in a boring, ish industry. Professional services, right? Like your mortgage. I'm insurance. And so I think that's what connected. And I was like, dude, if you crush. If he can make mortgage sexy, then maybe there's something I can learn from him.

Yeah, and this is the thing with. We just brought this up at our event too. So you take something boring and make it sexy. So, like, Cody Sanchez, one of the big speakers, you know, huge personal brand, online author, entrepreneur, teacher, and she's like, got millions of followers, and she's like, hey, the biggest thing I'm focused on is taking boring things, boring businesses and making them more appealing. So she gave an example of, like, a window cleaning company, and she's like, we bought a window cleaning company, scaled it, and we call it Pinks. And all the window cleaners wear these bright pink shirts, and like, they make it super cool with the branding and. And all that kind of stuff. So it's like. And I was just thinking live when I was sitting there talking with her, like, okay, well, we did the same thing with events. Like, conferences and events are boring af. And then we turned it into this, like, party that's fun energy, great impact, great learning, and that changed the game for that. And so you can do the same thing in any industry. And I feel like there. There's like, a big opportunity in these industries because, you know, like, just think about it this way. Like, let's just say you want to be a. You want to be a comedian. Like, you do funny videos. And let's just say you want to go to Hollywood and be a comedian. It would be very difficult. Like, you have stiff competition. You're, like, having to probably slave away and in standups for, like, years before you get your shot. And then even then, you may not even make it. Like, the game, the competition's up here. But let's say you want to be a funny guy, make funny videos in insurance, you can be the top person.

You don't even got to be the funniest.

You don't have to be the funniest, bro. You could literally ride. So it's like there's something to be said for taking your talent and applying it to a place where there is no talent. Like, there's not that many people doing it, you know, so you're looking for opportunities. So it just so happened for me. Like, hey, in mortgage, same thing like insurance, there's not that many people doing innovative things with marketing. There's not that many people teaching it. There's not that many people teaching the audience, teaching the customers, using video, using social media. So when I started doing it in 2018, even though social media was like, well on its way to huge numbers, there was like, barely anybody doing it. And even today, you think about the opportunity, you can count on, like, you know, one hand of the number of people who are super consistent and well known in your industry and your market. And so that's the type of opportunity you still have in 2025, like, you could literally own a niche within your space today.

Insurance agents. What is every agency's highest closing lead source?

Without fail?

Personal referrals. What if I told you I could help you turbocharge the frequency in which.

You got personal referrals?

In the last five years, I've written over 5,000 items and 3.5 million in premium from inbound organic sources. And it cost me nothing. How? Because posting on social media is free. If you want to turn your agency into a referral machine, then go to nicksacca.com creators and sign up for the insurance creators Mastermind, where me and my team will meet with you and your team twice a month to help you with something that no other agency is doing. Imagine having the guidance, the ideas, the trends, and the strategies that actually work in converting more business for your agency. Go to nicksocca.comcreators for more. Now back to the show.

And it's not a lot of competition. When I was doing YouTube content, I was looking up PNC agents or advice on YouTube and there's like, there's not that much competition.

No, Barda, the.

The standard is super low.

Yeah, bro, like, just go to YouTube.

One day higher now. But. But if the standard is still low.

100% and then like, just go to YouTube for example, today, anybody watching or listening and just like search up a video for a topic that your customer or you would be interested in. And then sometimes what you'll find for some of those topics is the last video a. It could be that no video was published, or it could be that the last video was published many years ago, and it's outdated and stale. And so that's like, bro, this. This is the. This is the opportunity. Like, you would think it'd be saturated. Well, nothing's saturated because most people don't even take it seriously. So I would just think that, you know, go places where, you know, the competition's lower. Yes, there's a lot of people creating content, but. But you can do it in a unique way. You could do it in a stale industry. There's so many different angles you could take.

Yeah. Here's a question. What's one thing you do with your content that no one's copying, but they should be?

Oh, yeah, there's a lot of things. So one thing that I do, and I don't know why people don't do this more often, is, is, you know, they should be telling more personal things like storytelling and sharing more about themselves. So creating connection with the audience. I think that in 2025, there's two types of content. There's memorable content, and there's forgettable content. And information is becoming just forgettable. Like, you can post a lot of information and you notice the engagements going down, and it just becomes kind of disposable. Like, there's so much information coming at the user. So how could you stand out? Well, what would you do to be memorable? Maybe you have a unique story. And so there's a study out there that says when information is taught in the form of a story, 65% people, like, remember it, versus if it's just the facts, 5% of people remember it. So, like, one thing that's huge, and it's going to be huge, is storytelling. And if you go to YouTube right now, or you go on social and you look up storytelling, it's like a V going up. A lot of creators want to get better at storytelling, so that's a big thing I'm focused on this year. And another thing is being just quick with the information. So I've had huge success lately, bro. This is super tactical right now, but I've had videos blow up in the last month by just bringing the news to the audience and literally not even doing much. But here's what happened. Here's what you need to know. Here's my personal take on it. Now, you do need to put your personal take on it, because otherwise it's just news and there's no reason to remember you. But I remember, like, News hitting about a new tax bill, news hitting about something. And right, by the way, there's always news coming out right now that affects the industry, that affects your market. And so you could just be that person to relay it to the audience and boom, you get a lot more views.

When you're structuring news videos, are you getting the help? Because obviously you've been teaching it for a long time and you're really good at it.

Yeah.

And so when you do it, it's pretty natural. When I did Content Day, you know, I learned a little bit more about it.

Yeah. Yeah.

But when I try to do it myself, I'm like, how do I frame this? You know? And I'm just like, yeah.

So like, I think people get using.

ChatGPT this, you were doing it before ChatGPT existed, but yeah, well, I mean.

You could, you could use ChatGPT to help you frame it.

I would.

You know, you have to get into the prompting better because if you just ask it for generic stuff, you get super generic output and people can even tell you robotic. You sound like AI. But I think the easiest thing to do is just to say, hey, did you guys see this? Or hey, this is breaking news. This just happened. And you want to do it in a conversational way, you know, and so this just happened and then relayed the most important information to them, like break it down. And that's, that is something that's valuable to the audience. If you think about news, say there's like a huge thing, tax bill that came out or something new that came out that affects clients. That's a lot of information for them to digest and figure out how it applies to them. And you could do all that for them in 27 seconds. You'd be like, dude, I, I read the 20 page thing. So you don't have to. That's a, that's a, that's a value to the audience. So you can be like, yo, I just read this a hundred page thing. I'm going to give you the, the biggest thing you need to know in 27 seconds or in 33 seconds. And then you tell them the things that matter to them and your take on them and then ask their opinion. That's another big thing for engagement, like actions always.

What do you guys think?

Yeah, it crushes. Because people have opinions, especially if it's on some new thing that people are divided on.

Yep.

And I don't even get into like debating politics or any of that stuff. Like, I don't even say what I'm for or against in the video. Sometimes. Sometimes they just lay it out there and it's like a bomb went off in the comments, bro. People are fighting with each other.

Yeah, we make funny videos. That has nothing to do with politics. And then sure enough, boom, you know, somebody gets left versus right.

Yeah. And you might. And that's just because people are kind of on edge lately, you know, with that stuff. But you don't have to get into it. Like, if you want to stay away from projects, totally fine. But they. But you're. As you said, people might bring it into your video anyways. And so it's cool to. I like hearing other people's perspective, too. Like, that's the part where they call them haters or fight, but, like, people who want to bicker with you. But sometimes it's like just an alternative perspective that I didn't think about. So I may be like, I remember doing, like, a video that was breaking news at the time, and it was trending, and it was about how people were financing their tickets to Coachella. So there was like a big festival and young people, like, I think two thirds of them or even 70% of them were on a payment plan to get their tickets. And I was like, bro, this is crazy. Like, this is probably a sign that the economy is cooling off, like, where people can't even afford their concert tickets. But then somebody in the comments wrote like, yo, bro, like, imagine yourself at 17 or 18 or 21, and you. You were broke. You live paycheck to paycheck, and you had a way to put your payments on four. Like, put your festival ticket on four payments with no interest. Wouldn't you do it, too?

It's true.

I'm like, yeah, good point, bro. Like, so sometimes it's cool to hear the opposite perspective and it just becomes a conversation. So that's the thing, like, I think about sharing more of is like, okay, here's something that's trending right now. Here's the information. What do you think about it? Now, that's different from content that you're trying to get customers from, but it just establishes you as a thought leader, someone who's in the conversation. And you know how they. What they say, like, the more hands you shake, the more money you make. So if I'm shaking that many hands, virtually having this many conversations, open comments, open, open dms, then when I offer them something, they're going to be more apt to listen and join and attend and all that kind of stuff. So you kind of have to warm People up and keep them warm. You can't just come out of nowhere and be like, hey, call me for. For this service. Like, they don't even. They don't even know you, bro.

Right. I think what's been doing really well with that is. I mean, especially being here in Vegas is all the local things. Like, somebody made a video in the downtown Summerlin parking lot in front of that building, and they're like, right here is where Mark Wahlberg is going to be opening a gym. And I'm like, yeah, I didn't know that.

So, yeah, so you could be that breaking news. The other thing you could do is, like, take certain topics and break it down and give them a unique perspective. So I was thinking about this the other day. You and I were texting back and forth on why are insurance premiums so ridiculous in Las Vegas? And you immediately responded saying, it's the freaking personal big piece is all these personal injury attorneys, and we should have been an injury attorneys because we'd be freaking killing it. We'd be on a private jet is what you said. And so I had a recent experience, bro, and I'll tell you, like, we had a minor fender bender last year in one of our vehicles, and nobody was hurt. Damage was minimal, but it was in a luxury vehicle. Okay. And afterwards. Yeah.

When you hit.

Yeah. One of our vehicles. And so they viewed it as like, oh, shit, these. Maybe these people have money. And they. They went to an attorney and they looked us up. And then, like, six months later, after this minor bump, police didn't even come, bro. Like, it was like, here's my info. I don't even know if it's going to go through insurance. Like, bump, bump. And then. See you guys later. Like, we'll deal with it. Six months later, we get notified by our insurance company that they're suing us for, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars in pain and suffering. And I'm like, what?

They're coached to do that?

Yeah. And then they had all this stuff of, like, I think the people maybe had a preexisting condition. I don't really know what's going on. Or if they have, like, doctors on the. On the. In cahoots with them. I don't know. But they claimed, like, back injury and persistent headaches and emotional distress. And then they asked for, like, literally half a million dollars. And then they're like, but we'll take 300,000. And so the insurance company is litigating this with this attorney, and who knows? Maybe they're going to pay him six figures for literally nothing. And so it just. So that's just a crazy example. We don't have to bring up these details in a video. But like, you could say that the amount of frivolous lawsuits is insane. You can't go more than a couple of blocks in Las Vegas without seeing a personal injury attorney on a billboard. And this drives up the premiums. Yeah, like, that would be just a unique perspective. Like people maybe don't see the connection between attorney billboard every two, every mile. And my car insurance bill is skyrocketing.

Yeah, yeah, I, I knew, I knew that they worked together when I was watching one of my friend's stories and he's out partying, they're bringing Ace of Spades, all this stuff. And I'm like, who's this guy that he's with that he tagged? Right? So I'm like, I gotta click on his profile. So I click on his profile, says spinal surgeon, and I'm like, ah, okay. So they're all like in cahoots.

So of course. But then think about. So, so think about this. You could say something like that and you could be like, look, I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but it sounds a little bit weird, you know, like there's something going on here. And so if you feel like the.

Private jets, that they own stuff.

Yeah. Be like, why is attorneys making more than freaking athletes, bro? Like, there's literally an NFL athlete making way less money than the best personal injury attorneys in Vegas. Like, the Raiders make less money. Some of them. Yeah. What is going on here? So anyways, I was just thinking, like, you can pop on a video and say the thing that's on everybody's mind. So think about, like, what are people frustrated with? What are they concerned with? Put your mind in the viewers. Put your thoughts into the viewer's mind. What are they thinking about? So in your case, how many people today are concerned with their car insurance premium? Like, I'm rich and I'm concerned with it because it's that expensive. Like, we're spending thousands of dollars and it keeps going up. I'm like, what's going on here? I can only imagine, like the average middle class person who's dealing with their car insurance. Like, one of the guys in our office got a Tesla. He was shocked when he found out how much. Young kid who, how much it was to insure it. So anyways, like, if you said, you ever wonder why your car insurance is so freaking high, dude? How many people would connect with that message? So I think there's this thing called the dog whistle where when you start off a video, you call out the thing that people are thinking. Like, dude, if you're thinking about buying a home in Las Vegas, you might be wondering how the heck are you going to afford these prices with interest rates and all these things. Well, I want to show you this tool. I'm calling out the thing like I'm meeting them where they're at. So if you're like, man, if you're wondering, do you ever wonder why your hard insurance is so high? Well, check this out then maybe you tell them about that and maybe you tell them about a solution to it. Yeah, like, so here's what I think guys. I think that there should be a cap and a limit on the amount of these attorneys and what they can claim and all this. I don't know all the deals yet, but I just feel like something's got to happen here because this is unsustainable. What do you guys think? Let me know. Yeah, people fight against and for. Maybe you get a unique perspective, get a conversation going.

Yeah, it'd be nice. It'd be nice to actually just get that, that conversation or get the comment section arguing.

Because you should make this video, bro. It'll come from this episode. And then you could be like if it takes off, does, goes viral. Like that's content. That's the idea. Like it works.

I was sitting at a four way. I was filling up my gas at a, at a, an arco and this was like on like near the Meadows Mall. Like, or not Meadows Mall, but like Decatur and, and, and Charleston. And I'm feeling in my gas tank and I'm like, I see a billboard there, I see a billboard there. I look around and there's literally eight billboards within eyesight and they're all lawyer billboards. And I was.

Yeah, because every time somebody bumps into somebody they're claim a six figure lawsuit and they get like what, one third of that or more? I don't know. Yeah, maybe half in some cases. So this is just a racket. That's just one reason probably why insurance rates are high. What's another one? What's another one? These are, this could be a recurring series.

And then I think technology too.

Yeah, technology. All these kinds of things. And then you could also talk about driving habits and the level of accidents in your city.

Distracted drivers.

Yeah, yeah, that's a big thing. And so what are we going to do about this? Here's what I think we should do. You Know, because maybe you have an idea and you could say it and then it'd be like, oh, Nick's a freaking thought leader. He has an idea on this.

I'm bad at that, too. I'm bad at sharing my thoughts on. On things. But that.

That is literally your brand. Like, people would respect you for your thoughts on it. And you don't have to be right all the time. Yeah, but I just feel like nobody shares anything. They're just like, I'm scared if I'm wrong. Or maybe they. They're saying no for the audience. So I have a note on my desk that says, don't say no for the audience. You know, like, let them decide if a video is going to bomb. How many times you post a funny video and it flops?

Yeah, all the time. Yeah, like that.

But you can't make a banger without a flop. Right? You have to do that. So same thing is true with this type of content. You can share your thoughts, maybe resonates, maybe it doesn't, and then it's just another flop. I just think people, for some reason when it comes to sharing their thoughts, are really scared to share their thought. And it might be something like you don't feel like you're worthy or something. I don't know. It might be like a psychological thing. I don't know. But I just think once you get past that hurdle, whatever it is in your mental block, then it's like, off to the races.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think for me, it's more like articulating it, articulate. It's like, I know I have it. I know my. What my opinions are on it. But it's like, let me articulate this and get it out of here.

And.

Yeah. So then it's just a matter of.

Communicating it well on. In front of a camera, too.

Yeah.

So then it's just like talking with the homies. Then it's like, comes out. You know, for me, it's like, sometimes my points are too long. I said that way quicker.

That's everybody, by the way. That's everybody. That's the number one problem on social is it takes us too long to explain something. So Erwin told me this. He said, the person who can communicate their thoughts and ideas and the least amount of time, the fewest words, is the one who actually understands it the most.

How do you. So you just gotta understand it more.

Yeah, you gotta understand it more. And then just practice. So if you get like. If you're looking at a camera and you're like, man, whenever I do this, I start rambling. I get nervous. I don't sound like myself. Just capture it this way. Have this conversation with somebody and be like, hey, bro, could you sit down in the studio and just ask me why car insurance premiums are so high? And I'll answer. Then I'll be like, hey, Nick, why are insurance premiums skyrocketing? You know, dude, it's funny. You asked. And then you answer the freaking question. But, like, you might feel more comfortable and just. Just answer it there, right? And then you can clean it up and edit. Like, that's a cool part about. You know, video editing is like, I don't know if you guys ever use Descript or any of these new editing tools. You can literally put your video in there. It gives you the whole written transcript of your video. And then you can. If you can delete text. Like, if you can play in Microsoft Word, you're a video editor because you can just delete the parts you don't want, and it takes it out of the video. So when you rambled on and said something that wasn't relevant, or you want to skip ahead, just delete the text from the transcript, and boom, the video edits in real time. It takes, like, seconds. So there's so many different tools and ways you can do this. But, yeah, the key is to just practice more and try more. You take more swings.

Yeah. I've got a question. It is, if people are getting views but they're not getting business, what is missing from their content?

So the biggest reason why people don't get clients from their content is because they don't ask. They're just waiting for, like, lightning to strike. So you make a bunch of videos, and you're like, dude, my DM should be full of money. And then you check, and it's like, two hookers and some spam, you know, or whatever. Like. Like, dang, bro. Yeah, it's like, where's all the. Where's all the fame? You know? So what I found is there are people who will reach out to you. It's not like you don't get anything. People will be like, hey, love your videos. And then you post, like, something one day about insurance. Like, hey, I'd love to connect with you. I have a client for you. My sister needs insurance. Whatever. So it does happen. But what I found is when the market gets slower, it doesn't happen enough to, like, really move the needle for your business, especially if you don't have a lot of followers. So the better thing to do is ask, but people ask in the wrong way. So they're asking for the end goal. What you want to do is ask for one step before that goal or two steps before that goal. So let's just say your end goal is to get a client to do an application to get a quote. That's what you want. What would be one step before that? Probably like a conversation or some information would be one step before that might be just them getting to know the process or learning that there could be an opportunity to save whatever that is. And so what you want to do, and the smartest marketers understand it, is they're asking for that thing, not the end goal. So the biggest, the best marketers on social media, the ones that make the most money, are looking for signal, not sales.

First thing that came up is like, did your rates go up recently? Like, yeah, that's not asking them, but it's like, did your rates go up? Have you seen a rate increase? And yeah, but what if.

Or what if you did something like this? Like, do you ever wonder if you would if you're paying too much for car insurance or you're paying too much for home insurance? Well, I actually created a free resource that gives you a comparison on this. And so what you want to do is just like go here, you can fill in your information and you can type in how much you pay in what city and state you live in, and it will tell you whether you're under or over the median. That might be a bad idea. And then that's a lead capture.

Yeah.

So now you've got the signal that someone thinks their insurance is too high. Now you can market to that person. They've given you permission to call them, email them, follow up with them.

Yeah.

And like, so if you said, hey, I can save you money on your insurance, call me, there's certain people that reach out to you, but if you're like, hey, I made a free resource that tells you if you're overpaying. By the way, this has saved people thousands of dollars. It takes you literally 30 seconds to find out. I would do it. Because you might go here and like, you can cover this expense with this just by checking this out. So check it out when you have time. And then they're going to go to the free resource. They're going to learn about the free thing.

Right.

And it doesn't involve you. It's just something that they can do on their own.

Something I've always done is, is create a bunch of content that has nothing to do with asking for business. But then I just throw in my call to action, Like a weekly cadence of like, by the way, hit me up for insurance. Hit me up for insurance. You see it on my little notes, you see it on my stories. And so, like, I just pepper those in. But the majority of my content, I try to do it, you know, you teach, which is give value, give value, personal stories and all that. And so, like, that works for me, but I haven't necessarily mastered the asking in a certain way and providing the guide. And like, that's for me.

But yeah, that's the part where you would get like a windfall because nobody does it. So if you're at a basic level, just ask more. But every post can't be an ask. So you made a great point. Like, I post 10 posts, two or three of them might be asks, but the rest of them are just value connecting with the audience, being social on social media. So that's fine. That's one way. That's a basic way. And even that would get you more business. I always tell people in mortgage and real estate, I'm like, the number one thing you could do just to move the needle quick is, is just to let people know you're available this weekend, like on every Friday. Just be like, hey, guys, one of you know I'm available. Like, if you want to run numbers on a property, if you want to explore your options, if you see a property you want to see what, what, what your payment would be, just hit me up, I'm available, seriously, anytime. Text me, shoot me a message, and then just letting them know that you're not bothering me. Like, that's just a simple call to action that's direct. You're not going to, you're not going to get everybody because it's like, they have to be right place, right time. But dude, if you don't ask, you're not going to get. So that's worth doing. The other thing that I've seen from a direct ask that works the best is a success story. So this is the easiest way people can do this. We all have clients that we've helped get something. Like, they've gotten a great result with us. And those are success stories, right? So what you want to do is tell them about that, show them the success, Be like, okay, my client just purchased this property. Or you're looking at how much they saved. Put the number on a spreadsheet, put it on a sheet of paper, whatever, and be like, I just saved my client this much money or they got this success story. And now here's the thing. Like, if you are looking at this or you're considering this, check it out. Like, here's the information. And so when you do a success story and then you ask afterwards, the chances of somebody reaching out go way up because they can see themselves in that person, you know, so it's more relatable. So that's a direct ask that works way better than just coming out of the blue. And, yeah, make it about the people, not about you.

I have this thing called a gratitude post where like, once a quarter just. You're not asking for business, but you're just like, I just want to say thank you to everybody that supported me. Everyone that's. Oh, yeah, considered me in the thought of insurance because I always felt like it did two things, that it targeted those that haven't hit you up for a quote. You're also highlighting the people that have. And so it's kind of this, like, guilt, but also shout out.

And then the other part that people just ignore is in a local business, the biggest lift you'll get from social can sometimes be just converting your clients. So say, for example, you and I connect through whatever. Like, we just meet somewhere or it's a friend of a friend, and you're watching my videos, I'm watching your videos. And then now we're just connecting on social. Well, if I. If you're posting consistently and you're sharing valuable content about what you do and how you help people, then I'm going to be, like, more apt to do business with you. And then if you reach out to me or DM me or follow up on in some way with some sort of conversion, I have a way higher chance of converting at that point, you know, so those are, like, not cold leads. They're like lukewarm or warm leads. So you use social to warm up your leads, but then you still need to do the conversion. So that's the part, like, when people say, I'm not getting business. They're not doing anything to convert. They're not even asking, like, if I wanted to do, like, you get a lot of business from mortgage people, right? Or some business. So let's just say you and I became friends on Instagram. We're not really connected, but, like, we follow each other. Maybe I left a comment on a video. Maybe you left a comment on my video. Maybe you go through stories of people you're trying to make relationships with and you just engage with them. Like, you literally just Reply to someone's Instagram story or you leave a comment, maybe they don't get a lot of comments. So it stands out. Now, all of a sudden, if you reached out to me like, hey, bro, you ever. You want to go grab lunch? We could just talk shop, Whatever, dude. I'm way open to it because it's not cold. So does Instagram do the closing for you? No, but it made this whole thing possible.

Yeah.

So I think people just aren't closing that circle. They're getting it all the way there. And then they're like, oh, I would actually be required to do some work to finish this and make the money. And they're like, yeah, I'll just lay home and watch Netflix, you know? But that would be the step that's. Everyone's missing. Yep.

And that's like manual hard labor. And so some people.

Most people, well, it's like, you're supposed to be doing that shit anyways. And I was like, hey, if it would just make everything easier, then, like, let's just say I gave you a way that would make people not reject you. Like, 90% of the people would say yes. Wouldn't that be a lot easier in sales?

Yeah.

Like, so. But you still need to make the call and make the meeting. That's the part that I think people just skip. Yep.

So what do you say to people who expect content to work overnight or they expect, like, a certain roi? Because I know in my industry, it's like, well, I posted a couple times and I didn't see it. You know what. What do you say to those people? Or what are the expectations that you kind of set? You do you tell people it's going to take three months of.

Yeah.

Of consistency or.

Well, I would just say this. The. The things that have the biggest upside, the most money, the most rewards are things that take long. Like, the things that take the longest. Like, think about anything. Like, if. If you're like, hey, if it's quick money, bro, it's like, yeah, you can get lucky sometimes. I'm not saying that you can't get results in 90 days, but with personal, brand and content, the biggest benefits are happening, like, nine months ahead, 10 months, 18 months, three years in the game when everybody's quit and you're the only dude left, like, then it's the doors just start opening it up. Like, even you that you talked about, hey, I'm speaking all these stages, I'm doing all this stuff. I didn't even think that was possible two, three years ago. Why because you just stuck with it. How many people did we see come and go over the years? You see them for, like, three months, you never see them again. Right. They just. They're just like, come and go, like fads. And so if there's something to be said for just sticking with it longer than other people. And so the only way you can do that is you have to find something that you enjoy about the process. So I know you make. You have fun making some of the funny videos.

You.

You enjoyed the conversation, the engagement. So you have to, like, get that. Get to that place. Like, I actually don't mind making a video. Someone's like, hey, dude, how. How do you find time to make the videos? And I'm like, I don't know. How do you have time to brush your teeth? You know, like, it's not that hard if you. If it's just part of your process.

Yeah. And if you enjoy. I think that's the. Because I don't think I enjoy making the content, but I think when you.

Enjoy the results, I enjoy the.

When people are laughing and they're like, this is hilarious. And I'm like, yeah, yeah.

Well, it makes you feel like, just be honest. It makes you feel good. Like, everybody likes good feedback.

Yeah.

When you make something and some pat you on the back and said, nice job, that's what the heart button is, you know, so it's like we're chasing that feedback loop. And so if you make better content, you get more. Better feedback, and then you kind of chase that going. So, like, yeah, I think people say you should enjoy the process, but it's okay to say, like, yeah, I enjoy the benefits of this because I think a lot of people will watch and say, well, I'm not really passionate about starting a podcast or starting content or shooting more videos. But it's not that you get motivated. It's like, you need to start doing it, and then as you get results that result the results and the feedback motivates you to do even more. Right. I'm not motivated and like, at. To go to the gym. But, like, when I'm there and already doing, I'm like, okay. And I'm motivated.

You know what's more important? Posting daily or posting intentionally?

I think more intentionally. I say daily is good if you have a plan, because it'll get you through a lot of the period of like, okay, I'm testing this out. What's going to work, what's not going to work? I need to find my voice. So once you're past that, I think then it's more about being intentional. Okay, but in the beginning, like a challenge works really well. Like, hey, I'm going to post every day for 30 days or I'm going to post 10 days. Like, we have so many people in our group who got to where they're at now in content because they took a 10 day challenge. They're like, okay, I haven't been posting. I suck at video. I'm going to make a piece of content every day for 10 days. And then they notice by the 10th day they hate the video less. You know, they're like, dude, I kind of, I could post this. This is actually good because you just, the repetition, the reps, you get a little bit quicker with it.

Okay, what's the worst advice? Being pushed about content creation right now?

Worst advice? I don't know, like, it's just diff. I think the worst advice is thinking that one thing is going to work that worked for somebody else is going to work for you. You know, have you ever seen this where maybe somebody posted something that's crushing and they're like, here, I'm going to give you the blueprint and then you try and it doesn't work because maybe there's things though, in the way they set it, their audience type. There's so much nuance to each strategy that there's no like one size fits all approach. There's definitely tactics that you can use and we give them to people all the time and they're proven and they work. But then at the end of the day, you kind of have to find out what works for you. And so that's, that's the approach I would take.

Okay, what, how important is in person connection when, when growing your brand and growing your, your business? Is it possible to succeed without in person stuff?

I think you can. Like in certain industries you can just do everything online or through zoom. But I found that in a world where everything has shifted to online and AI and all this stuff, like the in person things people actually crave, they actually want good in person experiences. And, and then also I've just noticed I don't like doing in person a lot of times. Like I would like if somebody's like, hey, come to this networking thing or go here. I get uncomfortable. I'm an introvert. But then when I go to those things, I get the most growth and I'm like, oh, dude, I'm glad I showed up. I'm glad I had those conversations because it leads to more connections, more opportunities Coming your way. So there's just certain things where like if you're in the room, you get the benefit and if you're not, you just. Are you kind of left behind.

Yeah.

And so that only happens in person. You can't replicate that on zoom, on social media. Like we can all connect with people, but at some point you have to move it offline.

Yeah.

So I think it's a huge thing that people ignore.

Yeah, yeah. I think in person it just creates a different experience. Like during COVID we saw like how miserable that time frame was for sure.

Yeah.

And people were like eager for in person interaction.

Yeah, yeah.

How should every professional be using AI right now? What are the top three apps or programs that like are non negotiable?

So obviously, you know, everybody watching or listening is probably using chat GPT. I think the thing that they need to do better is make better prompts, you know, go back and forth with it. One simple thing that you could do to get way better results from AI is just simply ask it to ask you questions. So when you prompt it and you ask it to help you with something, say before you give me the results, what questions do you have? And it will start going back and forth with you and then the output you get is like 10x better. So it's just a small step, takes you an extra five minutes or less and people skip that, so they get generic response. So that's one thing. The other thing that works really well from an AI perspective. There's so many AI tools right now, it's insane. We could probably talk a whole episode on it. But just from the basic level, using Claude for creative writing, so like scripts and content and all that kind of stuff, I found that Claude is way better at copywriting than ChatGPT. So I don't know what it is about that model, but it's just, it's just a little bit better with the creativity part. So if you're wanting to like take a. For example, you want to tell a story like you said, and it's just too long. You ramble on, just word vomit the whole thing into the. Into the app.

My wife is using it to respond to people now. Yeah, funniest.

It's getting tough because like people are relying on it so much that you forget how to do it on your own.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, you're like, oh, I'm gonna, like, how do I reply to this email? And you put it in there and it gives it to you and then you make the TWEAKS and you send it and you start using it and then one day it's down and you're like, I can't speak anymore. You know, like you can't even type. So let me get back to you. Yeah, so you can't do that like at that level. But what I found is if you already have the information, you can use AI to make it better. But like if you don't have it. So like here's the thing. AI tools make a dumb person, like get to average. You know what I mean? Maybe. And then like it'll only keep you there if you don't go beyond a certain level. But then for someone who's kind of smart but just needs to increase their output or get to the next level, that's where you can really have a big shift using AI. So then like if your writing's decent, AI could even make it way better. Like more hard hitting, more connecting with the audience, all that kind of stuff. So you still want to get better at the thing, but then you can use the AI to just do more of the thing. So that's what I think Cloud can help people with. And then there's a bunch of tools like you know, for making presentations or putting together apps or different things. Like it's just endless.

I feel like everything is kind of implemented it by now. Like if you use the Captions app, there's AI.

Yeah, you can use AI B roll integrated into it.

So.

And it's going to get crazier. So video creation tools are getting wild. Like I don't know if you've seen like Google has a new engine called VO and it's like super realistic. Like you can make quick 8 second videos of anything just with a prompt. And it looks like movie quality. Like 4K. Like it's just insane.

So you can still tell it's a little bit AI.

Little bit, yeah.

But it's scary for what it might.

Yeah. And that's just quick, like free or very cheap. So imagine like if you actually get into some of the pro tools or how it's going to be a year from now, it's going to be pretty wild. But it's wild how you can create, use these tools to create unique ads and info for your content strategy. So we recently did videos for our event and we used AI to like place me in certain scenarios.

You know the coolest video, I went up to your videographer, Eric and afterwards I was like, bro, like even like the music, like how he like and not to go sidetracked yeah, but.

No, but it's cool. It makes it like you can if you want to tell a story and you're like, well, wouldn't it be cool if I was in a freaking DeLorean traveling through time? Like, well, I guess you could just get it through A.I. you know, like, you can make that video now happen. Whereas a few years ago you'd have to, like, rent a movies crew and, like, spend tens of thousands of dollars. Now you can get it for literally, like, almost free, which is wild. You just have to know how to prompt it. So there's this tools you can use for that. I don't know if, like, people need creative ways to do ads. One thing that I think people should use on the AI content front is there's a site called 11Labs. And so 11Labs lets you make custom voices. You can bring in voices. They have a bunch a library of them that you can use, and you can use these for voiceover content. So we recently ran ads for a particular service that we were doing, and the number one performing ad was 11 Labs voiceover. So I put B roll, which is just video image of me doing things, and then over that, we overlaid the voiceover, and it just told a quick.

Story that's performing better than one of your own voiceover.

Yes.

Wow.

So it's weird. Like, there's certain voices accent. No, it was just like, give them a British accent. It's like when people say you have a voice, you know, for radio or like that broadcast quality. I don't have that voice, you know, but you can get it on 11 labs. You know, like, they'll just give it to you. You type in what you want to say. There's accents, there's non accents, there's all kinds of different ones. If you want to make a version of a celebrity voice, you can as well.

Morgan Freeman, my life, bro.

Just make your version of Morgan Freeman's and do a voiceover ad. It will crush. It's like it's a cheat code because it's like people will be like, wondering, what is this? Or like, it's kind of sounds like that actor. And there's for certain iconic voices. Now, you can't steal someone's voice, but you can make your version of it, which is like a little tweak. And they even say, like, you can't use, like, somebody else's voice. There's all kinds of protection in there now, but even the ones that come just generic out of the box, they're great. So I've Been using that and certain voices just cut through the noise. You've probably seen them on social. There's been a bunch of them that ever been over the years.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Yeah. So go check out 11 labs. That's another great tool.

Okay, question I have is for people that want to be low key but still want to grow their brand or business using social media, is that possible?

They don't want to do it.

Like people just want to be low.

Key, but they want to use social media to grow their business.

Yeah, I think it's possible to build.

A personal brand but to still be low key.

I just think you're at a disadvantage because you're not going to share much and maybe you don't post as often. But like, let's just say you, you want to just share very little about one specific topic. You could, that's better than nothing. So I know people that share nothing personally but that they're super smart and they can talk about one topic that can work, you know. True. But you got to be really good at it. So if you don't want, if you're not world class at something and you just have unique perspective to share and you're, you have unique stories and you can connect with the audience, then it'd be better to just kind of like start sharing more. So you're kind of at a disadvantage if you're like, dude, I don't want to share much. I just want to be a private person. But like your job requires you to be public, so maybe you should have picked a different job. You know, like someone's like, hey, I'm not comfortable putting myself out there. I'm like, you're in a job that literally requires you to know the most people and shake the most hands and you don't like people. So maybe you just pick the wrong, you know, career.

Maybe you got to go be a software engineer or something.

Yeah, yeah, go hide somewhere, you know, like, and that's cool too. You could be like, you don't have to lie about it, but I think you kind of have to get real with like your job was to actually put yourself out there and you don't want to put yourself out there. That's a little, that's kind of like opposing thoughts here. Same thing with like calls. Like people don't want to make calls. Well, they probably aren't good at them. So maybe that's the first step is to like get good at them and be humble and like learn from other people, educate yourself, get better Practice, role play, all that kind of stuff, and then maybe you'd want to do it. But if you still hate making the calls after doing that, then you got to figure something else out. Maybe you're really good at the ops part and you could add value there. Like you just find your niche and then go in.

Yeah, yeah. I. I come across some people that they want to grow their business using social media, but it's like I just want to have nothing a part of it.

And so it's like, yeah, they want to hire somebody, just run the things and then it just looks like canned content. We have like people on industry that come to us to get better and they're like, I hired this company and it's just like Canva post infographics and then maybe some like generic stuff and it's like dead.

It's like merry Christmas from the soccer agencies. Yeah.

I think you're better off with nothing at that point. Like, I would say it's better than nothing. That's actually worse than nothing. Like if you have a soccer, like Memorial Day. Yeah, yeah. It's just like we do, bro. We signed up for this one thing at this. At the mortgage company at one point where the company bought this marketing service and everyone got a new CRM. And I didn't know this, but it came with like these canned marketing campaigns that were turned on, so it automatically started emailing our clients and sending them this type of stuff. My clients started unsubscribing from me.

Damn.

Because it was just like that can't. It was spam, basically.

Yeah.

Yeah.

My company was the same thing. It was like five ways to change your tire in this holiday season. Like what?

Yeah.

Or like how to avoid a fire in your house. Like little things.

Yeah. And like, some of them might be decent, but then you. You would need to make it more personal.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? So that's the key is it's like make it your own. I haven't really found a true way to automate some of the stuff unless, you know, we can get there with AI Using your voice and making it more custom.

Yeah.

So it'll get there eventually where you could be a little more hands off. But you still have to be part of the process.

Okay, you've worked with. Hold on. What's the most underrated thing that you do on social media that that compounds over time?

Underrated thing. I would say. So I see.

This is the.

This I just went over today, actually. So one of the most underrated strategies is to share a thought of the day in written format every day. You could use it on your Instagram story. So I don't know if you noticed, but, like, I'll share a tweet of just a thought I have and I'll put it as an Instagram story. And I've been doing this every day for years. Like, I might have taken three, four days off or something. You know, one time I was sick, one time something happened. But like, for the most part, I share something every single day in there. So what I do is I have. I just go to Twitter and I write my thoughts on X topic. So you just gather your thoughts, Start writing them.

You're just gathering them. Like, are you like in the. In this, in the zone? You're like, all right, what are the thoughts?

Or yeah, so maybe you need to.

About in your day. And you're like, ooh, you know, I.

Think, yeah, you start to recognize more the more you do it. So if you're not creative in the moment, you actually have to put yourself in the zone. So for me, maybe put on some music, put some headphones on, or go for a walk, whatever. Start thinking of the ideas. And so you could start sharing tips. What do you stand for? Beliefs. Some of your isms. Like, what are your isms? Like, you would tell the best advice you would give people. What would you want to teach your kids about money? What would you want to teach your kids about? Life? Whatever. Start putting those things down and then formatting them as written thoughts. Short. Written thoughts. Again, shorter the better, because people can read them. And then what I found is if you just share these on your social sometimes and many times, they will perform more. They'll perform better than talking. So, like, if I could tell you something in 60 seconds, which is a long time, if I could do the same thing in one paragraph of writing, that might get 10x mortgage.

You're talking about like just the hearts or.

Yeah, or views. Like on Instagram stories would be views. Hearts on. On threads or on X. You know, those are like how you can view. It gives you view count as well on there. Okay. And then so that would be like if it's performing. The other thing you can test is you can occasionally post these as reels. So we'll put a written thought over an image or written thought just on its own black background. And that will perform as a video, static image, as like a four or five second video. And so you kind of take your best stuff. The only way again to do this is to do A bunch of them and see which ones work better. And when I say work better, it's just like, slightly better. So maybe you get like double the likes or double the views on one video. I'm on one written thought, then that would be the one you'd want to lean on, you know, for an actual video reel. Things like that.

I like that you test a lot of different things. You tried. I've seen you lead with humor sometimes. I love when you lead with humor because I'm starting to see even, like, hormones. You just add more funny.

Yeah.

Stuff and it's more relatable. Make you, like, human, you know?

Yeah, for sure. I think that's a big thing. And then it's also a signal that this is real content. Because AI can't do some of that stuff.

Right.

Like, AI is not going to connect with the audience in that way or adjust on the fly. That's why I love in person stuff. Because you're not. You know, unless we get to holograms eventually. But yeah. You can't replicate somebody in person. You know, like, that's not going to work.

Like Tupac hologram at.

Yeah.

Coachella a couple years back.

Yeah. So that. That's not. We're not there yet for industry events. So that's a big differentiator right now. If you can actually communicate and people listen, that's huge. You've seen it too. Like, when you speak live, it's a big connection. You get with the people.

Yeah.

I mean, they respect you way more after that.

Yeah, absolutely. Heck, you even. You just shouted me out at. I was just telling these guys that you shouted me out at forward and, like, instantaneously just thought that little slide in my little handle, like, 40 followers just from the audience, like, that's quick.

And it's like. And then in the world where we're always going viral and stuff, it's like, bro, it's crazy to think, like, hey, sometimes it's just the right people.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, you don't need all the followers, but if you, you know, not all followers are created equal. Not all audiences create equal. I've seen people with a million followers where they can't get any conversion. And I've seen a guy with a thousand followers who's crushing it. So it's kind of like the quality of the audience is. Is more important than the quantity.

Mm. Okay, so just a few more questions. What's a mistake that you made early on with your content that cost you a bunch of time or Money.

So one of the things I did early on was, was taking all the different strategies and then doing it when I didn't. Like, it wasn't for me at all. Like I didn't have any passion at all. So I'll give you an example. One of these. I went to one of these conferences and they told me to make local business. They said this guy had blown up his brand going to the local businesses. And I was in Reno at the time, like highlighting these, like the local bar and this restaurant and this freaking pub or whatever. And then. I don't care, bro. Like, I'm not into. I'm not a foodie, I'm not into that stuff. And so I remember making these videos, not really enjoying the process, not getting much results from it because I wasn't even into it. And then just wasting a year doing that. Like it didn't even work for me.

Just like high quality YouTube interview style or.

Yeah, like we made a bunch of them and they were just worthless at the end of the day. Like I don't even know what I got other than I wouldn't say worthless because I got more skilled at talking on camera, interviewing. So like there was some benefit for sure, but I didn't get much business benefit. So it's like you kind of have to find where you. So I'm more of a nerd. So I love sharing information and coming up with new ways to share information. So that was my thing. Then I love writing more. So then I started getting into that more and then maybe I started to get comfortable sharing sense of humor. Like so then you start sharing more. So you kind of have to find your thing rather than just doing something because somebody told you it's going to work.

Right?

Yep.

That way your heart's in it.

Yeah. Because it's not sustainable otherwise. And the only way this really works is if you stick with it. Like, it's not like a. It's not a game where you just do it for 90 days and quit. You know, that's probably like on 92 day 92 you would have got your X opportunity and you quit right beforehand. So you kind of just have to keep doing it. And the only way to keep doing it is to find some part of the process that you enjoy.

Talk about how in the last couple years, at least since I've known you like you, you keep setting the bar higher and higher for everything that you're doing.

Yeah.

With that, how have you managed? Like, I remember texting you one time on the side and I'M just like, bro, I'm going crazy, like balancing everything out. It's like really, really hard. How have, how have you balanced. And I hate the word balance.

Right.

But how have you balanced taking things to the next level year after year with, you know, family and.

Yeah.

And making sure that the home life is good.

Yeah. I think the thing that people don't understand is your ability or capacity to do things and handle more things is not stuck. It's like elastic. You can, you can grow. Right. You get stronger. And so something that used to take me a lot of time, make me super stressed, can now be done on the fly. And so that's the thing that people don't get like a lot of times, like, how would you manage social plus this? Well, sometimes you'll get to a point where the thing becomes almost easy. It's never like super easy, where it's just hands off and it's. I won't lie and say, like, things are super automated. We still have to manually do some of the things, but it just becomes like less of a lift. And so I used to just try and do all the things and then get super spread thin and fail and then you're kind of in a bad spot. But what changed the game for me is getting better and doing these in sprints. So like, let's just say I want to do seven different things. Well, what's the one thing I would pick that's most important right now? Or what's the one thing that would kind of make the other six easier? What if I just did a 90 day or a six month sprint on that to get better at that and just forget about the other items for now. That would make everything else easier in the future. You know what I mean? So then I would do that and then before adding the next thing, I've got that thing down to where it's. It becomes almost effortless. Then add the next thing. So right now, like a couple years ago, if you're like, hey, I'd like you to speak somewhere or do this thing, I would have to spend a lot of time preparing, putting together frameworks, practicing, stressing out, taking my eye off the ball at work. And so there's all this collateral damage from just that one ask versus now. Someone could be like, hey dude, could you come do this to. And I could just do it because I have a bunch of things in my head to share or I could use a presentation that I've already perfected or whatever. We could do Q and A and you know, you're going to perform. So that thing became. It's not super easy, but it's a lot easier than it was years ago. So that allows me to do more of that thing and add more without getting stressed and taking up so much time.

Gotcha.

So your prep time goes down. I mean, you should still prepare. And the danger with this is, like, sometimes you think you can do stuff that you can't, you know, so you're like, oh, I've got that handled. And then you realize you can't. But the. The easy part is the thing that gets easier is your ability to add more things without taking up more time.

Gotcha.

And then the other part is just hiring more people.

Yep.

Like, you need help.

Totally. A random question that just popped in my head. What's your screen time?

Your daily average screen time? I don't even know. It's probably a lot because I'll check the apps, I'll research. I don't know if anybody's ever scrolling social media. If you're a creator or in business, you should not just be doomscrolling, you should be researching. And I don't know if you do this, but, like, you're looking at what's working. Obviously you enjoy some of the content too. You like it, you engage with it. You're networking with people and you're also researching. Hey, how could I apply this to my content? Or this looks good, or this sounded good. Let me apply this to mine and then you can kind of like save those videos. The problem for me is a lot of people use scroll time to, like, decompress at night. If I go on at night time, like, to do this, I'm going into research mode and all these things start going off in my head. Then I can't sleep. So, like, I need to not be on social before. Yeah. Because then it messes me up. Like, I can't fall asleep till midnight.

Gotcha. Okay. And the last question I have for you, bro, is the definition of a 1 is of the highest standards. And so I just want to know three standards that you live your life by.

So I would say, you know, start before you're ready is a big thing for me. Like, you know, just make a commitment and do it. Like, set the date is a big one for me. If you. If you're planning on launching something, just set the date, make a public promise and do it. A lot of us are really good at, like, letting ourselves down, but if you make a promise to the public, you show up. So if you're like, been putting something off. Just go online, make a video, and saying, by this date, I'm gonna do.

It, figure it out.

Yeah, and watch how you figure it out. Like, build the plane as you go, you know. And so that's one thing, I think a huge thing for me. And like, another thing is to keep track of, like, your best ideas and start in some sort of, you know, in some sort of organized way. So for me, it's like notes, app, keep track of, like, your best ideas. So sometimes people say, like, what's the biggest thing that you want to talk about? Or like, what's a framework you teach? I can just refer back to that. Things to teach or stories to tell, document, and I'll see the things in there. And so, you know, like, set up the conditions for success, essentially. So keep track of your ideas. I don't know if you. If you ever had an idea and then all of a sudden, like a week later or even the next day, you're like, what was that idea? I was fire. It was so good. And I don't remember what the freak.

It was or you wrote it down. You're just like, it was okay.

Yeah, but you got to write it down to be able to evaluate, you know? So I think some of the best ideas I've had came from this process. So, like, you think about raising the Bar A1. Well, how do you do new, innovative things? You have to, like, come up with time, like, come up with ideas, the new things, and then try them. And then, yeah, you're right. Sometimes you write down, you're like, dude, that's terrible. I'm not doing that one. But here's another good one I'm gonna try. And so we just try more things. You shoot more shots, you get more, you know, more benefit. And then I think the last thing is, you know, in terms of networking is, you know, I know it's super cliche about your network is your net worth, but I've had the door open for me by so many people who I've just got to connect with over the years. It's insane. It's like a cheat code for business and life. Like, if. If I was trying to get a hold of somebody for years, literally years, and then I meet the right person and they just send a text and it's done. And like, they 20 seconds, I'm like, bro, that's like the ultimate cheat code. So investing in relationships and, like, how you can really help each other and not have, like, an agenda right away, but, like, just you know, investing in the right relationships and then in those times, like where you need to contact or you need help, those people will help you out. It's like a huge cheap. It's like the fast pass, I guess, for. For moving up.

Yeah. And you've done a lot. You've done a lot of investing into a lot of different people.

Yeah.

Groups getting into the rooms and all. I think I'm like. It's like kind of. I'm like, always nervous about where or like, who. Whose real deal and.

Yeah, who should I. Well, I think we've all been, like, burned a little bit sometime. Maybe you bought something didn't live up to the standard, or you found out that the group or a person you invested in wasn't quite like they're on.

Like their local news, like, you know, frauding people.

Yeah, that could be the worst example. But yeah, that happens. I've done that before. And so you kind of like how to take the good with the bad. I've had a bunch that didn't work out and didn't pay off, but then I've had some that paid off incredibly well.

Got it.

And so I think today you have to be more selective, for sure, because you need to do due diligence and trust your gut on some of the stuff. So there's two things I would say on this topic. I'm glad you brought it up, is like, trust your gut is great advice when you're like, vetting somebody or like, what do you feel about this opportunity? But it's also bad advice because my gut says to, like, stay small sometimes. Like, don't go to the thing. Don't put yourself in an uncomfortable situation. So, like, if I trust my gut all the time, I'd sit on the couch and not do anything some days, you know, like, well, you got to put yourself out there. So I think people confuse that. It's like, yeah, trust your gut with certain things, but on other things, you almost have to ignore what you're being, like what your body or your inner thoughts are telling you and just go for the opportunity.

Okay, well, dude, man, I just want to acknowledge you. Thanks for, you know, the impact that you've made on. On me and, and all the things that, you know, you've helped me with. But not only that, just all the people, man, like I said, I really mean that. When you give a lot more than you take, it's, like, evident, you know, you ask anybody in the. In the forward mastermind, it's like, it's like you know, why are you here? It's like, Neil, man, like, just kneel on the vibe and everything. So. So thank you for that. And how can people connect with you?

So just shoot me a DM on Instagram @ Neil Holm. I go through all of them. All the spam ones too. But yeah, I go through every week and connect with so many great people. I actually use it to network. So would love to get a message and just connect with more people.

Awesome. Thank you so much, bro.

Appreciate you.