I'm Back. Here's What Changed.

Let's go. If you've been here since the early days, I just want to first say thank you genuinely from the bottom of my heart. It really means something to me. We've done 40 episodes already and we've got a whole plan ahead of us. It's been the busiest, craziest year of my life. Bottom line is I've been away for the last bit, but I'm back. And the reality is that I'm pretty much now solid to be back forever., and I genuinely just wanted to say thank you. You've been showing up when this is just a voice and some ideas and nothing else going out there, and that matters to me, and I don't take that for granted one bit whatsoever. And if you're new here, hey, look, it's perfect timing because episode 41's here and it's also in every way that counts episode 1. I'm Steve Lichtman and this show is unfiltered and unshakeable, and And it's back, not with a tweak, not with a new intro, probably never gonna do a jingle or an intro. That's not me. But back with a different level of purpose in many ways, because we're gonna step away beyond just becoming unshakeable in our personalities, in the way that we handle ourselves, in the way that we handle our business. But it's also about imparting all the knowledge that I've gained over the years of my career, both in community building. In technologies leading all the way from back in the day up to now with AI, which I'm very involved in, and marketing that I've done for over 3 decades now. It's really about helping people that don't have that person in their corner and they're running their business by themselves and they're running themselves down at all ends and they really just need somewhere to go and someone to listen to that's gonna give it to them with no bullshit. And just hit the ground running. So look, what's the thing that I've been kept doing in the shadows my whole career, right? It, it's, for me, it's something, and I wanted to tell you a little something, and I probably should have said this out loud ages ago, right? And I talked about it a little here and there in the last 40 episodes, but probably not enough. For decades, when I say decades, man, I really mean decades, going all the way back to the BBS days, bulletin board systems. You remember that? Like the movie WarGames with Matthew Broderick where You would see the dial-up modem go down into the coupler. Yeah, that was when I started on the early internet, when building community meant maintaining a bulletin board and knowing every single person by their handle, right? I've been building communities, building systems, and building content infrastructure and the marketing architecture that makes other people's businesses run for decades, always behind the scenes. And that was kind of by design. I really enjoyed it. I'm not going to lie. I enjoy just being behind the curtain and just doing things my way and rocking it out. And look, it's little details, right? Not everybody always needs to be the face of something to help other people be the face of something. I kind of enjoyed the vibe of being a secret weapon for people and the guy that nobody knew about, right? They're just lurking, doing things my way, living my way, enjoying my life my way. And at the end of the day, it really kind of made me the CMO that nobody could see. I'd walk into a business. Look, back in the day when we were hustling and going in places and doing meetings, shaking hands, kissing babies, I'd walk into a business, I'd figure it out faster than most of the people were understanding their own business. Just watching, paying attention. I used to go to offices and literally watch for half a day. I'd then talk to the business owners and the people that mattered in the second half after a lunch break. And I would give them a breakdown of what I saw, looking at all the different materials, looking at all their content, looking at all their products, just going like, just literally being like that mole in their business for a day to see where the mistake is, where's the gap, where's the part people are missing. And I love breaking stuff down like that. But the reality is, in the world that we live in now, people aren't going in places every day. We are still doing that to a degree, of course, but the internet has made it so much easier to help reach so many more people with so much more scale and quickness and agility than ever before. So what used to become a meeting that was scheduled 8 weeks out now could become something that happens 8 minutes later because of the amazingness of the world of digital that we live in this day and age, right? So Look, it, for a long time, that was fine. I enjoyed the work. I didn't need the spotlight. The last decade I've been doing it digitally, working with other people, other coaches where I'm their, see, I'm their secret weapon, both for themselves and for their client base, where I take on client calls for other people's businesses and help them with their marketing and help them with their branding and help them getting themselves out of their shell and understanding it's okay to turn a camera on and look at it and talk about What matters to you? That's just gonna get people to enjoy your content, your personality, see if there's a fit and go from there. I kept having these conversations with coaches, consultants, business owners who were good, really good at what they did. Some of them absolute killers, but completely reactive when it came to their marketing, right? They had no systems, they had no community, no content that actually compounded any interest, just putting up random things. And now with AI and ChatGPT and everything else and Claude It's gotten far worse, as you've all seen on the internet, on LinkedIn especially. Wow, what an AI slop show that's been lately. And I know they're trying to make it better, but between that and the politics, LinkedIn is becoming pretty insufferable. And spending time within communities that matter is far more valuable than spending times on the big fish social medias where you're either gonna get drowned out in it or you're gonna have to pay your way to find any success. And all these folks just kept hustling and burning themselves out, trying to do it all manually, hoping for the best. I always kept saying the same things, the same ideas, the same frameworks that I've been using behind the scenes for years. And I'd watch that light go on. I love the light bulb moment. Oh my Lord. If there's a moment I love when I talk to somebody, it's when they get it, when they finally get it. And you could see that light bulb go on and connect where they're like, oh shit. This is what I've been missing and this is what I need to start doing moving forward. That's the greatest feeling ever because you know you're affecting a positive change in somebody's universe, right? And it's not just, I don't say life, I say universe because it's more than just their life. It's their employees. If they have employees, it's their family, it's themselves, it's their business, it's everything. Having a positive change in a business can cascade in such an amazing way for everybody surrounding. It could literally turn into raises for people. It could turn into a great example. When COVID hit, one of my biggest clients who I've had for over a decade, and I work with him daily, clients were leaving. So we built a community. We retained every single employee. Of his company in a world where everybody was getting fired. Let's be honest, the coaching market pretty much was bottoming out during COVID but we were able to keep every single person, every single employee and contractor paid. To me, that's more important than any marketing campaign. That's more important than any bullshit, any circus that you're gonna create digitally, whatever. Keeping people where they belonged, keeping people working well. It was great. And look, I've been literally building communities for other people, making them work, watching them grow. I know exactly why they work. It's not, I wasn't ever really doing it for myself, right? The only few times I did were maybe in the car communities. I've helped build a lot of car communities over the years in the automotive industry, and they're great fun since I'm a guy who used to race. That's a blast. But I don't anymore, and I'm pivoting all that, and I have been pivoting all that for the last decade plus into the business world. And it was, I don't even know really, there was just that moment where I had my own fuck it moment, or I flipped my own fuck it switch on something. It wasn't a crisis. I'm not having a breakdown. I'm already crazy. I don't need a breakdown. Just that moment where. And I know everybody says a moment of clarity and it's kind of bullshit, but it's also kind of true. It's that moment. It's not even a moment of clarity like people say. It's a moment of realization that I've been spending maybe the past 15 to 20+ years making other people always look brilliant, and I never do it for myself. I have more gear. I use it for my kid. I use it for her music and her social medias. I have more cameras and equipment and just crap everywhere to make it happen for other people. I could grab a handful of stuff, throw it in a backpack, hit the streets right now, find a random person and just go do a full day with them. Content creation, shooting it, getting there, who they are and what they're all about and who they help. We could do all that just randomly out of nowhere. Just load a backpack. Grab a juice box and hit the streets, right? But it's time I have to do it for me. And this podcast, in many ways, starting it last year was a big step in me doing that for me. So I get it. It started to rattle me. And that was the intent, was to get me to come outta my own shell of being comfortable, being behind the scenes, being comfortable, being that guy that people don't necessarily know even exists, which I'm cool with. And by the way, guys, this episode's longer than usual, so I apologize in advance. This is gonna be an actual podcast episode, kind of explaining to you the universe as I see it and how I, and what really my own universe has been. Because it's important people understand who the person behind the voice is, because it's all too often that people are just reading something. Off of some AI-generated script and they're just like, fuck it. And then they just read it and they don't care. And man, it sounds terrible. And I'm literally just sitting here pulling on my ponytail while talking and pulling it to the side. So I'm keeping this stuff really real and I wish I turned the camera on for this, but I didn't, cuz this is just a podcast and I'm just recording into my microphone. But yeah, look, what Unshakeable— let's talk about this. What is Unshakeable AF? To me, right? 'Cause it's what I'm building. And why is it different in my perspective? 'Cause look, we all build something and think our stuff's the best. That's normal. We should be that way. If you don't think what you're creating is the best, then fuck, you gotta recreate it. And I've told people that a lot of times when they don't own the magic of their own content, like, fuck, you gotta really be in— if you're not really delivering it for yourself, then how the hell are you delivering it for anybody else, right? So what's Unshakeable AF to me? Why am I building it? Man, that's, it's interesting cuz the intent is, if I'm gonna say like that top level line or your one-liner or whatever you wanna call it, it's a community, obviously. It's, I work with coaches, consultants, and business owners. Those are the three main people I work with in different fields. It really doesn't matter, but it's typically people, a lot of times solopreneurs that are always reactive in their life and they really need help. Just having a plan in place where they're able to say, okay, this is what I'm gonna do every week for my business. This is what I'm gonna do every week for my marketing. I'm not gonna overthink it. I'm gonna make a map. I'm gonna draw it out on paper, piece of paper, a bunch of sticky notes. I'm just gonna go boom and I'm gonna do this every week. And this is something I'm gonna do to build my business up in a positive, honest, ethical, people-first way. I'm a human-first kind of guy. As much as I enjoy messing around in AI, at the end of the day, if I had to be told humanity or automation, I'm taking humanity every time. And I know we live in a society where a lot of people pick automation first. I'm just not that cat, right? So what else is Unshakeable AF? It's who's it for? It's for those people, right? It's for those coaches, consultants, and business owners, but it's people that are really good at what they do. You've already got clients. And you've already got results. So you know what you do works, but at the end of the day, your marketing is a bit of a disaster. You're posting, like I said, with no system, no plan. You're using AI tools just because you saw a video or just because you saw an X post or a LinkedIn post or what have you, and you're trying to replicate it. You're copying and pasting the same prompts everybody else is using. You don't really have a compounding content engine. Which is important in this day and age where you're just, you're sitting there, you're doing it all yourself. You have no, no real sounding board, nobody to talk to. And a lot of times it really is just that simple, that you don't have somebody to bounce ideas off of that's been there, done that for 100 people in 100 industries and can actually give you some real feedback of what's right, what's wrong, what your next steps should be. And that's where I come in. That's where I've always come in for people. The only difference is I've never done it like this outward and publicly. Even when I first made Unshakeable, Unfiltered and Unshakeable, this podcast, the whole idea was just to kind of be motivation. But I realized quickly, like, that's a dime a dozen. It really is more important for me to dig in of what I'm good at, and that's helping people get away from themselves and build this community around that virtual CMO model where you're gonna get access to me. And to my frameworks and the actual systems I've been running behind the scenes for 20 years. And keep in mind, 99% of them are custom per person. So I build a lot of custom stuff all the time cuz every situation's different. So even though I have a specific framework in mind that I use, it is never the same for two people. And I think that's one of the realities of why people do so well when I work with them. I don't force square pegs into round holes. Because too many people are already doing that and you get commoditized and then nobody knows who the fuck you are. You just disappear, right? It's just, you just go into that vast wasteland. You're gonna look, we're going to have other people there. Obviously the whole goal is there's going to be people in this community. So we're all going to be here together, helping each other. It's the whole point of it. And there's going to be two tiers. I've thought about this a lot of how I'm going to plan this community out for people where I'm able to give back. But look, it's community. I'm, I plan on putting a lot of work into this. This is something where I've already put a lot of work into this, and I intend on putting a lot more work into this. And I intend on having weekly events and a lot of ongoing things to help people, content, ongoing courses getting added on a regular basis. I have a plan right now that is, man, it's 100 hours of work. When I look at it and I think to myself, how the fuck am I gonna get through all this? But the greatest thing about a community is it's a plan. And the plan is something where there's going to be different months with different themes to help people start just really picking a topic and attacking it in a blitz type of mode where you really just make a big change in your existence for a specific thing. And then you will lock that in, you move forward, then you go to the next thing that you're going to fix. So I'm going to have a free tier. At first I wasn't going to, I really originally planned on having two paid tiers only, but I'm gonna do one free tier to get people in the door. It's gonna have the message boards, it's gonna have some community content. The Fuck It Switch philosophy in that course, the 8-day challenge is gonna be there for free. I always wanted to give that away. That was always my intent. I think too many people charge for that similar type of get out from under yourself course that. To charge for that would be unfair for people. I think a lot of people just need to hear those words sometimes to empower themselves. And it's something I would say to somebody on the street to help them empower. So why wouldn't I just give that away? Right? And look, after that, there's gonna be so much. I've got a community course that I've just finished recording. I've got courses on AI that I've recorded that I still have to edit. And all of those are gonna be in the paid tier. The paid tier is going to be $99 a month, and it's where the work actually takes place. It's where we're actually going to have back and forth conversations, the full course library, weekly lives with me, the systems, the AI tools broken down one by one, things like LinkedIn and social strategy, which people just don't have these days. All of that stuff, all the deeper virtual CMO stuff will be taking place in the paid side. But I certainly plan on giving things into the free community as well, because to me it's about people just taking this opportunity to do better for themselves. And I want to be a part of helping that narrative no matter what. So if you're just a free member, that's— you're still an amazing person. I love you just as much for being a member of my community. And to me, it's— that's the gateway. That's like the gateway drug. That's the arcade drug dealer selling bag to somebody in the, in the '80s on the side of the arcade with a T-top Camaro and bad hair. And look, at the end of the day, I'm not here to just build a course and vanish. I'm here. This is what I'm building. I'm building Unshakeable AF to be that thing where this is where I'm gonna step through the door myself finally and tell the world, yeah man, I'm here and I'm available now to help people and to be a part of this once again. So yeah, that's just, so the podcast here, this is the front door. This is that moment where people get to learn a little bit about me, learn a little bit about how I help people. Every episode is always a real conversation. I talk to a microphone like there's somebody in the room, maybe a little too casual, but hey, if you want something super polished, there's a lot of bullshit artists out there. By all means, go jump in and listen. Some of it's great too, but at the end of the day, for me personally, I feel more connected when somebody's just shooting me straight. And yeah, it is a little bit of a longer run conversation. It's a little bit more drawn out, but at the end of the day, when we think about the things we do for ourselves, is 80 bullet points in 5 minutes going to fix you? Probably not. It's taking the time to let things just absorb. Absorption is everything. Think about just absorption in the human body for your blood. Even that, if you have low iron and you're eating iron and you're not having things that help absorption, like vitamin C, then you're still fixing yourself, but not as fast as you could. And this is about helping you fix yourself in all directions as fast as you could. And like me, look, it's me. So at the end of the day, there's going to be no fluff. There's gonna be no fucking crazy acronyms and bullshit stuff for the most part. It's just gonna be 20+ years of me doing this work and just saying it out loud finally. And if you've been circling my universe, if you've been on my LinkedIn, we've been connected, or you've been circling the universe of what we talk about here, like AI and community building, community building's so hot right now. The fact that people are not taking their content and building communities right now is bananas to me. And I think that was one of the things that motivated me the most because I've built a few really nice ones in the last year or two now, some bigger than others, but they're all doing really well. And building them made me realize why the hell haven't I built my own? It comes all the way back to that effort switch moment where I'm like, why didn't I do it for me all this time? I could have had mine out for 3, 4, 5, 10 years now, but I didn't, and that's on me, right? So I gotta eat that and move on. Maybe it's your LinkedIn strategy sucks and you wonder why you're never growing or wonder why nobody's ever commenting anything, wondering why it's just not working. We're going to have classes just on that because to me, we need to help people on all sides. Right? So look, at the end of the day, let's close this one out because it's been a bit. It's the longest podcast I've ever done, I believe. Right? We're, oh Jesus, we're at 20 minutes. I've never spoken this long in a row. Nobody believes that. So look, 40 episodes got us here, right? I'm proud of them all. I think every single one brings value, but this is the one where we're saying I'm flipping it all. Different energy, same energy. New focus is probably more, more what it is. 'Cause my energy's even, my new energy is still my energy. It's always what I am. Even at a concert this past weekend, I, I got the entire section that we were in, my wife and daughter. We went and saw Youngblood, the young English boy, the sweaty English boy as I called him. That was jumping up and down for 2 hours nonstop. That kid put on a banger of a show, and I am a heavy metal fan, not an English pop rock fan, but credit where credit is due. That young fella absolutely destroyed the stage. He was just insanely him. And that was, you know, even then when I was standing there jumping up and down in my gold sequined jacket with, cuz I show up like a maniac. I like my section being seen by the artist because You'd be amazed how many times my jacket or my jacket collection, I have a few, have gotten us noticed at things. I like to have a good time with things, but one of the things he said was really empowering. I think it was empowering for my daughter too, who's a guitar shredding maniac and an ace in school. I think it kind of hit her too. I think it hit my wife too, and I know it hit me. And it was when he said, you gotta be yourself no matter what anybody does, no matter what anybody says. And no matter how anybody ever tries to hold you back, you have to authentically be you and just— and he curses a lot, so he's— and just always fucking be you, man. And that meant something to me, even though I'm at a show where music, whatever it is, what it is, I don't really care. I like heavier stuff, but that's a whole different topic. But it was the energy of him wanting to give back in those 2 hours to every single person. That showed up for him. That's the type of energy that I've always been harnessing with people and I've never harnessed publicly. So I think it's time that we step through from the shadows and step out into the light. One of my favorite bands, Kreator, who I saw 2.5, 3 weeks ago, I guess it's about 2.5, 3 weeks ago now. Heavy metal band from Germany. They've been around since the '80s. I've been a fan since the '80s cuz I'm, Old, and they have a song, an album title where it's basically out of the darkness and into the light. And theirs has evil imagery and whatever, cuz it's a metal band and it's loud and crazy. Fine. But it's stepping out of that darkness. I've lived in that darkness for the past 20, 30 years, and I've relished in it because people leave me alone. Right? That's the reality. As extroverted as I am, I'm a secret introvert. I like just being away from people at times. I like just being around my little world, my world of technology with my dog, hanging out, just doing stuff, making things. But I'm always making things with somebody else on the screen. My wife always jokes about it. She goes, the only person I never see on your computer is you. And you know what? She's right. My kids said it too. She's right also. So look, if you are really into this and you really wanna move forward in your life and in your business and just start taking or tackling one thing at a time and saying, fuck it, man, I'm gonna make this happen for myself, then come join me at Unshakeable AF. You can get to it right at stevelichtman.com. There's a button right on the top, join the community. It's not gonna be up for another week because I'm finishing editing everything. I'm gonna put a launch date, but the link is already on the website and you could join the waitlist there. So it, it's gonna be run through Skool and you could join the waitlist. I've run a million communities through a million different systems. Me personally, for my needs, Skool kind of fits it because it's one of the most manageable ones mobily, and I'm able to do video mobile, which is awesome. And it's something I want to be able to do more of. So I'm making it where it's the easiest way for me to give things back to people. So I find that's the platform that's gonna work for me. I literally built this community 4 different times already on 4 different platforms, and I came back to the one that I built it on first. So what does that tell you? Sometimes, sometimes your first decision's the right decision, right? Just go with your gut, as they say. I should have gone with my gut and I would've been, this would've been out 2 months prior. But we're here, right? So look, I just want to welcome you to the new Unshakeable AF. I'm super amped to have you here. I'm super amped that you're here on the Unfiltered and Unshakeable podcast. And look, we're going to keep rocking more episodes. I got a ton more episodes that we're going to be doing. And I absolutely look forward to seeing you in the community and seeing you on the boards. So until then, guys, I'm Steve Lichtman. This was Unfiltered and Unshakeable. And have an amazing day.