Episode 205 – Josh Elledge

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[00:00:00] Oh, guiding principles. Yes with the authenticity. I’m going to tell you, I’m going to always be very honest with you. I believe that everybody has a message that could positively impact the world. And I believe that I have a mandate. Why am I in the earth today? I am on the earth today because it’s my responsibility.

 

[00:00:18] I need to help facilitate that. And when I see someone that is a diamond in the rough and they’re awesome, and they’re amazing at what they do. And they’ve otherwise had some success, like, they’re absolutely good at what they do. I need to get them in a position where they can stop working from a space of scarcity and start working from a place of generosity, but really ramp that up so that, that generosity turns into great business so they can afford to continue to be generous. Cause it’s an amazing way to live.

 

[00:00:50] Heroes or an inspiring group of people. Every one of them from the larger than life comic book heroes, you see on the big silver screen the everyday heroes that let us live the privileged lives we do. Every hero has a story to tell. From the doctor saving lives at your local hospital to the war veteran down the street, who risked his life for our freedom to the police officers and the firefighters who risk their safety to ensure ours. Every hero is special and every story worth telling. But there was one class of heroes that I think is often ignored the entrepreneur, the creator, the producer, the ones who look at the problems in this world and think to themselves, you know what?

 

[00:01:18] I can fix that, I can help people, I can make a difference and they go out and do exactly that by creating a new product or introducing a new service, some go on to change the world. Others make a world of difference to their customers.

 

[00:01:28] Welcome to The Hero Show. Join us, as we pull back the masks on the world’s finest hero preneurs and learn the secrets to their powers, their success, and their influence.

 

[00:01:36] So you can use those secrets to attract more sales, make more money, and experience more freedom in your business. I’m your host, Richard Matthews, and we are on in 3…2…1…

 

[00:01:46] Welcome back to The Hero Show. My name is Richard Matthews, and today I have the pleasure of having on the line, Josh Elledge. Josh, are you there?

 

[00:01:51] I am Richard. Thanks for having me.

 

[00:01:54] So glad to have you here on the podcast today. I know we were talking a little bit before we got started. You’re coming out of Orlando. Is that right?

 

[00:02:01] Yep. I’m right here.

 

[00:02:04] That’s one of my favorite places in the world. I thought before we moved to Florida, we got stuck there in the pandemic. We spent 11 months in Kissimmee.

 

[00:02:10] Not a bad place to get stuck. If you must be stuck somewhere.

 

[00:02:14] Yeah, we had to get stuck somewhere. I was like, we got stuck in paradise and I thought Florida in the summer was going to be terrible. And it really wasn’t. It was like every afternoon it would like almost get hot and then it would rain and cool it off for the rest of the day. And I was like, it’s not that bad.

 

[00:02:28] Well, I live here for a few years and you’ll start to dread August and September and July. It is, it’s very humid, very hot, but it’s a package deal that said the winters are delightful, but I can tell you that I’m definitely starting to see the appeal of the snowbird lifestyle.

 

[00:02:50] Yeah. So for my audience, who’s following along with my wife and I’s journey on our RV trip. We are currently on the banks of the Colorado river between California and Arizona, and we’re on our way up to the mountains. So what I want to do Josh before we get too far is dive into your bio a little bit and then we’ll get in start talking about your story.

 

[00:03:06] So Josh is a U.S Navy veteran and launched UpMyInfluence.com to help entrepreneurs grow their authority of influence. UpMyInfluence builds seven figure B2B sales systems with zero paid ads. And what I want to do Josh is why don’t you start off telling me a little bit about what it is that you’re known for, what your business is like, who do you serve? What you do for them?

 

[00:03:27] Yeah. So kind of coming into this isn’t my first company, in fact, so my first six companies failed to some degree or another, I made some kind of an exit. But generally, they were not successful today. So, but that was great because I learned a lot. And it’s helped me gain a lot of empathy for the entrepreneurial journey because my seventh business venture did quite well. It became a month company savings.

 

[00:03:54] And was a real joy to do that. And I launched Savings Agent, which was at the time a membership based website. We just charged 20 bucks a month and folks could come in and we would help them cut their grocery bill in half. And it was very successful and it rose, it kind of rode a wave of interest in coupons because that’s what we would do is we would database all the best coupons and then kind of match those up with store sales.

 

[00:04:19] And we’re like, look, if you take this coupon into this store, you get Cheerios for 50 cents a box. And so, if you’re a mom, that’s just trying to save money for your family. It’s a great tool, but trends come and customer attitudes change. And so kind of after the Extreme couponing wave came through.

 

[00:04:40] People just lost interest in it. And it was okay because you know, I’m not any smarter than the market. You’re not any smarter than the market, ultimately the market rules. And that’s going to be a theme that I’m going to be bringing up a few times in our conversation. I suspect because if you go back and you look at my U.S Navy experience, I was a U.S Navy journalist and I had the opportunity to go to journalism school.

 

[00:05:04] And I got to learn from none other than Adrian Cronauer. Now, Adrian Cronauer, you may not know the name, but there was a movie in the Good Morning, Vietnam starting Robin Williams. This was the true story of Adrian Cronauer who got in trouble because during the Vietnam war, he had a crisis of conscience, right.

 

[00:05:25] Where he knew that he had a platform and that platform and a microphone, where he connected with his audience, he served his audience, he loved his audience. But the issue came about was, do I towed the company line or do I advocate on behalf of my audience? So in that case, you know, he was being told to lie about certain things during the Vietnam war.

 

[00:05:51] And he said I can’t do that. And so he stood up and told the truth, got in trouble. Short-term history, vindicated him, ultimately. So Adrian Cronauer who spoke and taught for a bit at defense information school. He wasn’t a teacher. He just came in frequently. But when I got the opportunity to learn from him.

 

[00:06:13] That’s where I got it. Like he gave me the vision, until then I was like, oh, journalism sounds like something fun to do. And I think I’m kind of good at it, but again, it was from him that I learned just how critical it is that we’re always honest and authentic with audiences. And we always give value.

 

[00:06:33] Whatever you show up, whether it’s public speaking, whether it’s being a guest on a podcast, whether it’s being on TV you show up and if your intention is I’m going to make some money, I’m going to sell some things from the stage. Guess what? We all know it, whatever your intention is before you start speaking, you’ve already broadcast it.

 

[00:06:55] You cannot fool consumers today. Consumers. And again, this gets to my background from Savings Angel. Listen, I’ve been in the media now over 2,500 times speaking a lot about consumer skills and talking about consumer behavior. Hey, consumers, today have been experimented upon like never before in history.

 

[00:07:18] And we’ve been experimented upon by marketers and advertisers who are constantly bombarding us with noise to try to get our attention. So today you think about what kind of an impact that has on a population where according to American Marketing Association, the average consumer is exposed to over 700, particularly in the United States is exposed to over 700 brand or marketing messages every single day.

 

[00:07:47] So when you do that on a population, all of a sudden you create this audience of consumers who don’t want to deal with your nonsense. And if you are just selling at them, guess what? They didn’t have any part of it because we don’t want to be sold to what we want is to be entertained.

 

[00:08:09] We want to be informed and educated and enlightened and inspired. Right? We want things to move us emotionally, which is if you look at, let’s say, for example, super bowl commercials today versus. 10, 5, 20 years ago, radically different. Okay. A Really good book on this. If you want to kind of really understand consumer sentiment today.

 

[00:08:31] And by the way, I don’t care who you sell to. It’s all B to C B2B B to G B to whatever, right? Everyone is a consumer. You’re still dealing with humans. It’s human to human is what we do today, but they’re really good book. I highly recommend Mark Schaefer, Marketing Rebellion, fantastic book. If you want to know what top companies across the globe understand about consumers today, it’s a really good insight, but essentially you need to chill out on the advertising and marketing and you do just to start leading with generosity and that’s really, what’s going to help you connect.

 

[00:09:06] And that’s all I did with Savings Angels. I didn’t have money for ads, so I just, I did a bunch of media and I just gave a lot of value and just gave it all away for free. And because people appreciated that honesty and that transparency and that generosity. I’ve never had to pay $7 million in revenue. Never had to pay a dime for ads.

 

[00:09:26] It reminds me of my sales philosophy that I have when I get on with clients to do sales calls. And my sales philosophy is really simple I will just teach you everything that I will do for your business. Literally, like everything that you would need to know to do what we do, I will teach it to you over the phone and give you our templates and our tools and everything.

 

[00:09:43] By the time they’re done, they’re just like shut up and take my money. So I don’t want to learn what you know. But yeah, you just lead with the value. So they can learn what you know and it helps them make a decision instead of just trying to sell them on whatever it is.

 

[00:09:57] Cause I would rather someone say no to me and take everything we did in the sales call and go and be successful. Then try and force someone into a sale.

 

[00:10:06] Awesome. Well, good. That sounds like it’s working for you.

 

[00:10:09] Yeah, it is working so far. So tell me a little bit about your current business, the Up My Influence.

 

[00:10:15] Yeah. So while things were going well for Savings Angel I’m a big, big fan of not staying still. So while things were a little passive and a little easier, it’s like, I feel like when times are good.

 

[00:10:35] Even when times are not good, like one of the best things you can do, I think for emotional and spiritual is just to give. And so that led to me doing a lot of pro bono work in our local startup community. So I did a lot of work with SBDC, Small Business Development Center, SCORE The Business Owners in our Area, Business Owners, just helping out.

 

[00:11:01] And so my claim to fame was getting in the media. So it was like, okay, well I can teach on that. And so I would just go, I’d serve on boards. I’d serve, do one-on-one mentoring workshops. You’re just anywhere I could. And I just keep showing up. A funny thing will happen. And by the way, you know, if there’s anyone who’s listening and let’s say you’ve recently exited your business, you’re like, eh, what do I do now?

 

[00:11:22] Man, just go do volunteer stuff, honestly. And if you do it for a couple of years, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to figure out what you love to teach and do, and then what’s going to happen. Cause same thing happened to me is people will say that was valuable. Thanks for helping out, hey, guess what we got funded.

 

[00:11:39] Can we just hire you? And I was like, oh yeah, I guess, I wasn’t really looking to start another company, but that’s kind of the beginning about my influence . You know, I was just kind of doing nice stuff and then, some opportunities for some client came along, and here we are today.

 

[00:11:57] Now when we started out Up My Influence about seven years ago, It was primarily in and around how to become a media celebrity, because that was kind of what I did for Savings Angel and then part of the problem that I wanted to solve and it led to opportunities. Like I got to speak for the Tony Robbins organization, got to speak at a lot of marketing conferences, podcasting conferences. But in between those events, I’d get some okay business, but I wanted to grow in scale.

 

[00:12:27] Right. And so what do you do during the dog days of summer, for example, what do you do during slower periods of time when there’s not as much going on advertising for clients? Yeah. Good luck with that. Because I can tell you, and again, you know, we’ve got about 170, 180 active clients right now, and they’re all kind of who we were.

 

[00:12:49] Is a high authority, generally a very good success at what they do. Generally, high ticket you know, can you sell a 20 to $30,000 consulting package through cold DM’s and emails and webinars and white papers and buy my book for shipping and handling maybe, but it’s really hard today. And I’ve got a lot of great data behind that.

 

[00:13:17] So it comes down to honoring who people are. So you wouldn’t put a funnel where you’re going to be asking someone for $7, and I want you to hang out with all these people and then expect that that’s going to turn into a $20,000 client because $20,000 clients typically are folks that are like me.

 

[00:13:42] They’re busy, we’re running companies. I don’t have a attention to respond to cold email, it’s a non-starter for me. If you slide into my DM and start getting overly familiar with me and then start pitching me, I’m just, I’m good. Like, I’m not, I’m not going to do that.

 

[00:14:01] Right. And so it’s, it’s just a matter of audiences that have the kind of budget to pay for those kinds of things. Generally, you’re doing okay . It doesn’t mean that they don’t have problems that need to be solved. Generally, what I find is they tend to hire most of those, the people and the consultants, agency owners, service providers and the partners that they work with.

 

[00:14:23] Usually those relationships are fairly organic. In other words, like I think about, you know, I probably have, I would say seven to eight agencies or consultants that I hire or coaches that I hire on a regular basis for my company and every single one of them the relationship just happened, right?

 

[00:14:43] It was, we were doing something together. Somehow the universe connected us, it’s how it felt. And so then we started doing work together. So that’s what you want to replicate. If you want to be able to work with more high ticket, if you’re trying to get time with, if you’re trying to sell big ticket to decision makers that are very, very busy, you’re going to have to find a way to earn that know, like, and trust first through a personal relationship, move the needle forward there.

 

[00:15:15] Then maybe you could talk about ways that you could work together. So that’s essentially what we created for Up My Influence. Now for us, we just really just opened up our podcasts because another good, great book. If you haven’t read this one, I mean, I’m about to change your life in a big way. Bob Burg wrote a book called the Go-Giver and it is absolutely how big ticket business, if you’re B2B, this is how business gets done.

 

[00:15:42] I suspect the other, like the automated marketing systems can work. I just assume do ease. You know, I like doing things that are easy and I don’t like selling to people. I like meeting and building relationships with lots of great people. And then just letting what’s very natural do its thing. But Bob Burg, the Go-Giver particularly the Go-Giver sells more.

 

[00:16:05] I think is pretty on the nose if you’re trying to increase your revenue and increase your sales, I think he nails it. You have to lead with a lot of generosity, make it ridiculously easy for people to get to know you make it ridiculously easy for people to like you and trust you.

 

[00:16:19] And then fails is the inevitable and then natural outcome that.

 

[00:16:24] Yeah. It’s interesting. So my other business, I mentioned Push Button Podcast is my primary one, but my other business before we started push-button podcasts was all about building those automated sales funnels for companies. And we’ve sold more than $50 million of product online in the $37 to $8,000 price range.

 

[00:16:41] And I can tell you like a hundred percent certain that your limit on sales for that type of a funnel is right around $8,000. And I know your limits essentially like seven to $37 you can do with the funnels. You can go all the way up to like a webinar can sell you all the way up to about 1500. Once you get past $1,500, you need to start getting people on the phone.

 

[00:17:02] You got to be on a call. Yup.

 

[00:17:05] Be on a call for those sometimes a two or three closed call up to the $8,000 limit. And once you get past that $8,000 sort of price point you can’t do Ascension funnel stuff for that.

 

[00:17:18] Richard, some people don’t want to hear what you just said.

 

[00:17:22] Yeah.

 

[00:17:23] Well, the tough.

 

[00:17:25] I mean, that’s the way it is. Like I’ve sold a couple of $25,000 packages in my business with clients and they’ve all come from, like people I know in masterminds or like other things like that

 

[00:17:35] Very common.

 

[00:17:36] Yeah. Like the metaphor I use for those style of businesses and those types of people is the businesses that are in that zero to one and a half, maybe $2 million range, I call those like, they’re the baby businesses.

 

[00:17:50] They’re still learning how to basically put a product together and get their message to match their market. And they’re driving stuff and building teams and building systems. Those Ascension funnels work great for those people because the entrepreneurs are on the ground, doing the work, showing up every day, making sure that they’re pushing the business forward.

 

[00:18:09] And once you get into that 2 million plus range, then you’re talking to the people who like they have established businesses and their systems and they need someone to help them sort of like focus their business. I call it like the teenage businesses. And take everything they’ve built and figure out what they need to do to it.

 

[00:18:26] Cause the same stuff that they did to build it to a $2 million business is not going to take them to 10 million. And so they have to make changes and that’s where they don’t have the time to put into the business that like a younger entrepreneur or a younger company you know, founders gonna have to put into it.

 

[00:18:39] You know, so like you and me, same kind of thing. I get DMed all the time. People are like, I want to sell you this stuff. I’m like spam, I don’t care. I don’t have time for it. And I’m not gonna watch your 45 minute webinar. I don’t have time to watch 45 minute webinar.

 

[00:18:54] Let me just talk to the heart and soul of the person who listen, if you’ve done that in the past, it’s not your fault. That’s just probably you picked up on that. Some guru told you that that’s what you should do, but I just want to ask you, is that really the mark that you want to have in the world.

 

[00:19:13] I know ultimately the greatest mark you’re going to have is the impact to your services, but in how you get there, I mean, what do you want that to look like? What resonates, what makes you feel great about yourself? Listen, if it’s banging on doors, I mean, that’s great. I don’t know how sustainable that is.

 

[00:19:34] And if you’re cool with that fine, but for the person who’s uncertain about that, can I just ask you to maybe be a little introspective about who you are and and just how amazing you are rather than do you need to just become the consummate door knocker? I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but examine that just a little bit and again, go open up the Go-Giver and, and read that book and listen to that, or listen to that audio book and just try it on for size and say, huh?

 

[00:20:07] Maybe I do want to lead, kind of a values, integrity in everything that I do. And again, I’m not saying you’re an awful person. If you’re a spammer, I’ll let you decide, you know what that means. I’m just saying consumers are tired of it. You’re tired of it. Do you honestly like being sold at that way or would you much rather, like, for example, my neighborhood’s who has a landscape company.

 

[00:20:36] Like we became friends and they said, well, what do you do? And she said, well, we own a landscape company. Like, oh, wow. Well, why don’t I just hire you guys? She goes, we’re a little bit more expensive. I said, I don’t care. I like you guys. I don’t know these other ones, they just put a flyer on my door.

 

[00:20:51] I have no emotional connection to them, but I have an emotional connection to my friends. Like if I were a local realtor today, my goal and my aim in life would be to develop 500 meaningful relationships with centers of influence in my local community, who is the center of influence? Everybody. Everybody is a center of influence today.

 

[00:21:17] Everybody’s got social media, everyone’s got at least a few dozen people around them that they communicate with on a regular basis, certainly on social media. And so if you could become the person, if you’re a local realtor and every time that question gets asked, who do you know that… and all of a sudden you get tagged over and over and over again, because you’ve invested into those relationships.

 

[00:21:48] You didn’t have a big sell, right? Just don’t be the me monster with people. Just where are you listen, and if you’re tweeting right now, you can tweet this. Or if you’re taking notes, you could note this, right where you plant your seeds is not necessarily where you’re going to reap your harvest.

 

[00:22:06] Anyone who’s been in business for any length of time has had that moment where you get an introduction. We’re like, well, how did you find out about me? Well, so-and-so recommended you. I don’t even know so-and-so but then you find out it was like three, four layers deep. And all of a sudden, now you’ve got someone who’s like coming to your front door and saying, I need what you have to offer.

 

[00:22:26] And I’ve already gone through all your stuff. Like, those are great, but see if you’re a local realtor and you have 500 centers of influence that know you and like you and trust you guess what my friends it is, game set, match. Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable. So, if I can just convince you to start being more remarkable, more giving and more impactful in your daily life, it might be, listen, I know this feels like a little bit of a long game, but once you can get on the other side of it, you never have to work again.

 

[00:23:01] You just keep on showing up and being an awesome person.

 

[00:23:04] Yeah, it’s interesting. So I started this podcast a couple of years ago. Now we’re like 200 episodes in and I run podcasts professionally and I regularly get asked, like, what’s your monetization strategy for that podcast? And I tell people, I don’t have one.

 

[00:23:18] My monetization strategy for this podcast is to show up and be valuable. Right. And what’s interesting is my entire business has been grown off the back of relationships that have come from this podcast. Which is really interesting because it’s not advertised. I don’t do any advertising for it and I don’t even do any hard calls to action or anything for our services on here.

 

[00:23:37] It’s just mostly we talk and make friends. You build relationships with people. And those relationships, the clients that we have haven’t even necessarily been like people I’ve met on the show, it’s like it’s referrals from those people. And the networking is really, really the thing that is valuable on a platform like this.

 

[00:23:57] Yeah. Well, listen, Richard, I mean, I’m just so grateful that you had me here and obviously your audience loves you. That’s why they listen. And so for me, well, the jury’s out on me. They don’t, you know, but that’s a part of it too. Right. And so, you know, background in media, one thing I’ve learned is that you know, when we’re on these platforms and when we’re out serving, if this is the first time that someone’s hearing you for the first time, like we are just now beginning of the relationship, if you’ve never heard of me, you’ve never seen my name and trust me that would be totally normal if you hadn’t.

 

[00:24:35] Right. I’m just over in my corner of the world doing my thing. But look why we do this thing? Is the authority of what we do is generally undervalued compared to the visibility, which we tend to overvalue. So a lot of times people will be out there doing their thing and they’re hanging out on clubhouse or they’re doing whatever, right.

 

[00:24:59] They’re creating content, they’re showing up on stages, man, keep on doing that. Keep on serving and the best you can hope for today, if we’re looking at how consumers behave is consumers are more skeptical, more protective than ever before. So just know, obviously, you know sales quite well, Richard, and you know, that it just takes a lot of touches and you gotta be cool with that.

 

[00:25:30] So I just want to dispel the notion in sharing this that if someone convinced you that you can automate everything, and ultimately that’s going to lead to a big ticket sale. It’s not. But you got to keep a lot of movement throughout the whole flow of the customer journey.

 

[00:25:47] And just know that a lot of times people may hang out at the very top of your customer flow or the very beginning of your customer flow for years before they ever engage, keep serving them anyway. I promise it will pay off many times over.

 

[00:26:05] Yeah, absolutely. That is the thing that I tell all of my clients when we’re building those Ascension style funnels, right?

 

[00:26:11] If you’re serving that smaller end of the market, is that the number one reason people don’t buy from you in your funnel right now is because it’s not the right time. And the reason they’re even in your sales funnel for one reason or another, is because they have some interest in what you do or what you teach.

 

[00:26:27] So if you want to eventually close a sale, you need to keep showing up and keep providing value to them and keep making that deposit into what I call the the Goodwill bank. And when the time comes for them, they’re going to step up and buy from you because you’re the one who’s been providing the value.

 

[00:26:42] Yeah. And there’s only so many ways that we can fix a problem. So if someone says, like, for our audience, for example, right. Is generally the problem is I need consistent introductions to high level decision makers, let’s say, okay, well, how do you want me to help you with that?

 

[00:26:58] Are you looking for someone that you’re willing to make investments to solve that, or you just want to read a book or watch some free videos or something like that. And so I’m cool with all of the above because my high end working with me, it’s not cheap. And so it’s not for everybody.

 

[00:27:15] I’m totally fine helping audiences for free. And it would be inappropriate for me to start throwing these big ticket things in front of them, because they’re just not at that level in business. So to your point, you want to meet people where they are and honor where they are, because I’ve been early stage in business a lot of times, I didn’t have tens of thousands of dollars to make investments. I had no money. Any dime I got, I need to do invest in keeping my electricity going, or, not getting kicked out of my house. So look, I respect that because that’s the entrepreneurial journey.

 

[00:27:55] And if you can get through that and God bless you for doing that, God bless you for staying in the game and making those sacrifices and keeping moving forward in faith. It’s not for everybody. And if you can stick with it for any length of time, man, that puts you in a very special club. It really does.

 

[00:28:15] So I want to transition a little bit and talk a little bit about your superpowers. We got to hear a lot of your story coming up from journalism and into starting your, your shopper coupon company. And now Up My Influence, I want to find out over that journey. You know, every iconic hero has a superpower.

 

[00:28:32] Whether that’s a fancy flying suit made by genius intellect, or the ability to call down thunder from the sky or super strength, In the real world heroes have what I call a zone of genius, which is either a skill or a set of skills that we’re born with or developed over your career that sets you apart that allow you to help your clients slay their villains.

 

[00:28:47] Come on on top of their journeys. The way I like to frame that for people is if you look at the skills that you’ve developed over your career, there’s probably a common thread that ties all of those skills together in that common thread is probably where you find your superpower. So what do you think your super power is that you’ve developed over your entrepreneurial career?

 

[00:29:02] Yeah. You know, there’s a lot of things out there that I’m pretty average at and then there’s some things I’m horrible at. You know, you want to ask my advice on paid ads, get ready to be disappointed. Cause I don’t have any good advice, but I’ll tell you there’s one thing that I’m probably one of the best on the planet of, and that is leveraging platform.

 

[00:29:24] Let me back up leveraging authority, platform and generosity to create a system that will allow you to have unlimited inbound introductions with high-level decision makers for life, this is what I do. Since November of 2019, we started really just kind of eating our own dog food and kind of testing this experiment of leading with far more generosity into building relationships.

 

[00:29:58] It’s not appropriate by the way, to lead with generosity, with the expectation that you’re going to sell them. Because that means you’ve just violated the biggest rule because your intention is off the mark. And guess what? Whatever your intention is. As I mentioned earlier, you’ve broadcasted before you ever started talking, like it will just come up.

 

[00:30:21] People will feel it. Right? So number one is your heart has to be in the right place. When you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor and your first thought is, oh, who am I going to sell to today? It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be really tough for you to achieve much success in business.

 

[00:30:39] It’s not that you can’t it’s just harder and, and especially, it’s harder to do that long-term because eventually something’s going to break. So but yes, to your question, my super power is authority, generosity, and platform, I can create a system that we give you unlimited FaceTime with your dream ideal customers.

 

[00:30:59] Now this is true relationship building time. It’s not sales calls now, if you assess that it’s like when you meet somebody, let’s say you go to an event. Really great event. Amazing. It’s just like your dream customers are also at this event. You go to a mixer and you’re hanging out, you’re talking over drinks or coffee or whatever.

 

[00:31:21] Right. Then, hey, what do you do? Oh, wow, cool. Hey, why don’t we chat next week? And maybe see if there’s some we should be doing. That’s what I create. I create for ourselves. I have about 10 to 12 of those all ACEs, like all six and seven figure business owners every single week.

 

[00:31:38] And I have been 100% inbound since November, 2019. So that is when we’re recording this it’s about 28 months. I do zero advertising. Again, advertising it’s the actual price, but the price you pay or the tax you pay for being unremarkable. So I would much rather invest into relationships.

 

[00:31:59] I’d much rather give my money to people that I like. And by my time, by my resources, rather than giving it to some punk and Menlo park or whoever else, right.

 

[00:32:15] Can you define your term for me? Particularly on the platform you said authority, which I think most people know what that means and generosity and the middle one was platform, which I don’t think a lot of people actually know.

 

[00:32:26] Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that, Richard. Let me break that down a little bit. Cause this is really important authority. Let me not be vague on this. Authority comes up in many different ways. If you Google me, you Google my name. I can tell you exactly what you’re going to find because I’ve paid my dues. I have been out there serving relentlessly, doing good in the world.

 

[00:32:52] My Google reputations is okay. It’s not amazing. It’s it’s good. Here’s the thing, forget what the percentage is, the lowest number I’ve ever seen today is 70%. I believe it’s closer to 90% of consumers are going to check you out before they spend much of any time with you.

 

[00:33:13] They’re going to do a few things everywhere from looking at the signature in your email, to looking at your website, looking at the quality of your branding, looking at your social media, looking for your social proof. All of these things are fair game. It is part of your customers’ buying behavior before the you will even know.

 

[00:33:35] Right. So it’s okay, if some of those things are early stage right now, right? Cause we’re all in that journey. Rome, wasn’t built in a day, it’s going to take many, many, many, many years to become a rockstar and you gotta be okay with that. And if you keep wanting to shortcut the system, I feel like first off, you’re going to stagnate.

 

[00:33:55] And secondly, I feel like you’re going to in a position where you’re gonna have to restart all the time. And I would much rather you become really, really, really amazing at one thing. Let me just ask you this question. Okay. If you had 10 times the industry authority that you currently have, imagine how your life would be different.

 

[00:34:19] Right. Think of speaking invites, joint venture opportunities, guest invitations for you to appear, partnership introductions, your conversion rate your, sales cycles, man, if you’re struggling right now to close deals and it’s taking you like 90 days to close deals. I promise you that if you have higher perceived authority and there’s a match between who you are as a person, because again, if you’re taking the time and you’re listening to me talking, and you’re still listening, I can tell you’re an awesome person.

 

[00:34:49] You have a lot of patients and you have a lot of curiosity and emotional curiosity, and that’s going to reward you long-term right. But we want to make sure that there’s an alignment that we lower, that digital barrier that people can get to know the real you. And it sucks, right? That we write people off so quickly today, but this is just kind of where we are.

 

[00:35:11] Right. And it’s not your fault. It’s the fault of stupid marketers and advertisers over the past decade or two, right? They’ve just been a. Honestly like they’ve been consuming way too much speed. And social media platforms and everyone else has just been enabling. So look, God bless you for that.

 

[00:35:30] Okay. But here’s the thing your authority keep working on that and I’m not saying fix it all overnight. I want you to put an hour a week into authority building activity. Here’s an easy one. Go get new headshots for your social media, go improve your LinkedIn profile. You know, ask someone, look at my website, tell me three things that suck about my website or three things that you go through.

 

[00:35:55] And you’re like, oh, red flag. You need to know that stuff. And by the way, your friends won’t tell you, your friends are just going to be keeping your friends. You need people that are going to give you some more objective information.

 

[00:36:09] And also media placements like, don’t do media for the visibility, do it for the authority. Showing up on stages, showing up as guest speakers, just anything you can get, and if it’s small potatoes right now, that’s fine because to get on the big stages. You got to start at the small ones and work your way up.

 

[00:36:27] So I’ve done national media, I’ve done syndicated stuff. I’ve done some big stuff. But you know how I got a national media was that I was on air in Chicago. How I got on air in Chicago is I was on air in Grand Rapids, Michigan. How I got on air in Grand Rapids, Michigan is I started in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

 

[00:36:45] Right. And it’s the same thing, just earn your way to the top. So anyway, that’s authority, generosity. I’ve already been talking about that final thing that you asked about was platform. All right, this is the fastest, in my opinion, the fastest path to cultivate a relationship with someone that let’s say in business.

 

[00:37:10] You might be about a three year or a four. And you want to spend time with a five or six. How can you do that? Here’s the shortcut it’s number two, generosity lead with giving value. Don’t make asks early in the relationship. It’s completely inappropriate for you to come in with sales breath when you’re approaching.

 

[00:37:33] So find out what you can do for them

 

[00:37:36] I like that.

 

[00:37:37] Oh yeah. Well guess what? We all smell it. You emanate it. Have you ever been to like a BNI or like a mixer or whatever like that? And you’re like talking with someone all of a sudden, a me monster strolls in. And they just start going into robo pitch mode.

 

[00:37:56] How does that feel? Please don’t be that guy. Just be cool. Just play the long game here, but, okay. So platform, okay. Platform. I’m very specifically talking about the fact that we’re all centers of influence today. Even if you have no audience, right? If you have a podcast that would be a platform.

 

[00:38:18] If you have a social media platform and you got Tamati’s, you’ve got a YouTube channel, that’s a platform. If you have an audience of in-person people in like you know, like, Hey, I run this local meetup or whatever, and I would love to feature you, blah, blah, blah. Like that’s a platform. And so here’s the thing, even if you don’t have any of that, this.

 

[00:38:39] This is crazy. Here’s a hack that you could do. So let’s say that you’re in a, let’s say a Facebook group and, and be careful, right? Don’t do this if you don’t have permission to do this, because the mods will hate you for doing this, but if it’s acceptable to create content within the group, no selling.

 

[00:39:00] Right. But I’ll give you a great example. So I was at an event where my wife was speaking. Richard, I am a nobody in that crowd. Like I am nobody. I am like a face in the crowd that nobody would ever know. My wife is a licensed marriage and family therapist and had to do with, I don’t know, just stuff.

 

[00:39:18] That’s not, not my domain of expertise. But what I wanted to do. Is I was like, well, I’m here anyway. I might as well do some good. I was a part of a Facebook group that my wife was a part of blah, blah, blah, blah. So I thought, hey, maybe I could just at least show some appreciation to one of the event organizers.

 

[00:39:39] And then if nothing else happens, I can do a good deed. But having done this enough times, I know that there are usually going to be, there’s going to be some value for multiple people in this thing, but I don’t care if it doesn’t happen. I’m totally cool with that. So what I did is I’m a part of this group.

 

[00:39:59] I found the event organizer, I say, hey, would you be interested into it? I don’t know how much recognition you get. Can I just at least do a live into this Facebook group and kind of celebrate the event. And if there’s people that want to still show up or whatever, and she was like, heck yes, so I love that response because if you go back to Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, man, Richard, you know this now people are out there working hard.

 

[00:40:28] They’re doing good stuff. They’re trying so hard to make an impact in the world. If I can just help them a little bit. If I can make them look good and I can celebrate them, you know how valuable that is, and I don’t care who it is. Like an influencer or whatever, you’re like, oh, they’re living the cats now.

 

[00:40:46] They’re living it up enjoying every minute of it. I can tell you, having had a lot of conversations with people that are big time content creators, like they get really burnt out a lot. They feel so bad when they get a negative review or a troll or whatever.

 

[00:41:06] Like it sucks. And so if you can be one of the good people to show them appreciation and thank them for the work that they’re doing in the world, I’m just saying, remember the thing about the seeds in the harvest, just go in and plant the seeds, who knows? But in this case I did this, I went live to this Facebook group and she was like, man, thank you so much what can I do for you?

 

[00:41:28] And I’m like, oh, nothing. Like, I’m just happy. And I really genuinely mean that. I said, I don’t know if you know my wife, Jenny, and then, you know, I just made a simple connection and she was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. And then, like nothing may ever come from that, but at least now again, just kind of networking my weight in, in a positive way.

 

[00:41:50] And being again, truly okay with the outcome that this may never turn into anything, but it’s again, be ready for when you live that kind of generous lifestyle, just be ready for the universe to reward you in ways that you can not outperform live that lifestyle. And you will love every day.

 

[00:42:10] You will make an impact in the world and people will appreciate you every day and you will live and run your business in gratitude in a way that gratitude will also precipitate through your team members. And you will love the people that you work with. You’ll love the kind of clients that you’re able to attract.

 

[00:42:28] And yeah, I am emotional because I’m just so appreciative of the risks and early on, right where I said, I think this is the right thing to do, and I’m gonna make this decision and I’m going to play the long game here and I’m just gonna do this thing in faith.

 

[00:42:49] And just hope that God and universe or whatever karma will recognize that this is the right way to live and that’s how I’ve lived. And I’m so, so grateful for every day that I get to work with just my dream clients and work with an amazing team of just loving, loving, loving people who also desire to make an impact in the world.

 

[00:43:12] Yeah, it reminds me of the scripture where Jesus is up on the sermon on the Mount. And he’s talking about give first and you shall receive, and he’s got the rest of the beatitudes. And I think that a lot of people misunderstand those to be like this is the way you should do things.

 

[00:43:27] Like there are some sort of commandments and I don’t think that’s what he was doing there. I think what he was doing is like, hey, I’m sort of the author of the universe. And this is what the operating system says. The operating system says, if you give first, then the universe is going to turn around and give back to you.

 

[00:43:46] Not like, Hey, that’s what you should do. It’s just like, you can do whatever you want. But if you want to like work with the system, the way that it was built, this is the way we built the system. Right.

 

[00:43:55] Even if you don’t like religion, like that is some solid, solid philosophy for life that will just lead to joy and happiness.

 

[00:44:06] And honestly, if we all live like that, what would the world be like? So let’s all be a force for good for every little micro corners of the world. Right? Man. Richard, thank you so much. I am so grateful to be on the show. I’m so thankful to be able to have this conversation with you.

 

[00:44:24] Yeah, thank you for coming on. I want to talk about the the flip side of our superpower. You mentioned superpower is your ability to use that generosity and the authority and the platform building to help people run and grow their businesses. The flip side of all your superpowers is always the fatal flaw. So just like every Superman has his kryptonite or wonder woman can’t remove her bracelets of victory.

 

[00:44:43] You probably had a flaw that held you back in your business. Something you struggled with. For me, I struggled with a couple of things for a long time. I struggled perfectionism forever, it kept me from actually shipping products. And I struggled with lack of self care mode. Mostly that came out in not having good boundaries with my clients. So I let them walk all over me and not have good boundaries with my time.

 

[00:44:59] Ooh, Ooh. Yeah, ouch, ouchy, ouchy.

 

[00:45:01] I did at one point to try to see if I could work forever and not sleep or do anything else that lasts about three days in case you’re wondering, don’t do that. So you know, the lack of self care learning how to take care of yourself first.

 

[00:45:11] So you could show up well for your business was a big lesson for me in my career. But I think more important than what your flaw is, is how have you worked to overcome it? So our audience might learn a little bit from you there.

 

[00:45:21] Well, yeah. So clearly, listen, you know, kind of like what I was talking about with the influencer.

 

[00:45:27] I certainly not an influencer of any sort of, you know, micro influencer, like everybody, kind of mini center of influence of I’m big in Japan, as they say. So Listen, the thing that I an act, this comes from my early programming is I hate disappointing other people and unfortunately that’s my kryptonite.

 

[00:45:51] And so my ultimate worst fear would be someone questioning my integrity. Right. Or Josh, boy you’re really screwed up on that. But here’s what I’ve learned. Don’t try and snow anybody ever, because you’ll never get away with it. People know what your truth is.

 

[00:46:17] But I feel like that desire to be very transparent with people acknowledge when, like I said if you’re an agency owner or a consultant or a coach, man, sometimes things just don’t go and it’s some unforeseen force or whatever. And it sucks when that happens or maybe the client didn’t do what they were supposed to do.

 

[00:46:41] Right. And so you don’t want to get away from finger pointing. But I usually am pretty quick to number one, acknowledge the emotion. And address the emotion first. Man, I’m sorry, I know that this is really disappointing for you. I’m so disappointed too.

 

[00:47:02] And, obviously I want to be very solution focused here, but I want to acknowledge where my team and I, there’s some things that we can learn from this, and I hope you’ll accept my apology. And, here’s what we learned from this. And here’s how I want to do better from this. Like, I find that that sincerity has helped me to overcome my fear.

 

[00:47:26] And I think a lot of this comes from, I did a year of improv classes too. And that really helped me to trust myself in that, in the moment, you know what it’s going to be okay. We’re all just humans here. Now only once in a while, you have to deal with true jerks and they’re out there.

 

[00:47:48] Don’t work with them. Don’t take their money. And by the way, I can tell you, like, if you’re really adept at using platform, platform is a wonderful filtering tool too. And it’s a great tool to kind of help you discover the energy of people. And I could just tell you, hopefully you get to this point really quick if you’re early stage, but do not ever take bad money, don’t take the bad client, even if you need that money so bad.

 

[00:48:21] And almost every, I mean, literally I would say 99% of the time, trust your gut on that. Even if it means shoot, I need that money right now, but you know it means selling your soul to some degree. Don’t do it. And I know Richard, you’ll echo that you’ve been in business for a long time. You’ve worked with a lot of clients.

 

[00:48:41] Just listen, let somebody else work with them. Don’t do it. Just attract love, attract positivity, attract amazing people. They are out there. And once you resonate at that level, you will connect with them and you could do great stuff together.

 

[00:49:01] Yeah, I love that mentality of just owning up to your mistakes. One of the things that I’ve learned is that, as an entrepreneur and every entrepreneur knows this is that the path to success is paved with failure, which means when you’re working with other entrepreneurs into that B2B space, like you were just mentioning and you fail at something. Other entrepreneurs tend to understand that, especially if you step up and you’re like, Hey, here’s where we failed.

 

[00:49:26] Here’s what we can do better. Here’s what we’re learning from it. This is like our growth process. I have very rarely had a fellow entrepreneur look at that and not appreciate it because they’ve been in the same boat.

 

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[00:51:11] Yeah. Well, look again, thank you so much. I know we’re kind of at the end of our time here. I’m just so grateful, Richard, thank you so much for having me.

 

[00:51:19] Yeah, I know we didn’t get to the whole list of things, we generally talk about, but I do want to do two things to finish this off one, I want to ask you about your guiding principles as an entrepreneur. One of the things I just wanna find out the top one or two guiding principles, you run your life by.

 

[00:51:36] Well if you haven’t gathered by now, generosity, integrity. And just honestly, just like authenticity and just like, listen, I’ll tell you where I absolutely am not very good at you don’t want to trust me when it comes to running your opera. Me personally, doing detaily operational kind of stuff. Right? That’s my kryptonite. That’s why I hire amazing team members. I have an amazing director of operations. I’m the Walt Disney, she’s the Roy. Elisa does a masterful job kind of orchestrating over employees.

 

[00:52:13] And then we have amazing project managers. They are really detail oriented. Man, I forgot the original question. I started thinking about how broad my answer is.

 

[00:52:22] Your guiding principles you run your life by.

 

[00:52:25] Authenticity, right? I’m going to tell you, I’m going to be always be very honest with you.

 

[00:52:30] I believe that everybody has a message that could positively impact the world. And I believe that I have a mandate. Why am I in the earth today? I am on the earth today because it’s my responsibility. I need to help facilitate that. And when I see someone that is a diamond in the rough and they’re awesome, and they’re amazing at what they do.

 

[00:52:50] And they’ve otherwise had some success, like they’re absolutely good at what they do. I need to get them in a position where they can stop working from a space of scarcity and start working from a place of generosity, but really ramp that up. So that that generosity turns into great business so they can afford to continue to be generous because it’s an amazing way to live.

 

[00:53:14] Yeah, absolutely.

 

[00:53:18] Did that cover it?

 

[00:53:20] That does. That does cover it. What I want to do here. Just to wrap this up is in comic books. There’s always the crowd of people who are cheering and clapping for their acts of heroism. So as we close, what I want to know from you is where can people find your help in the future?

 

[00:53:34] Where can they light up the bat signal, so to speak and say, Hey, Josh, I’d love to get your help growing my influence. And then the second part of that question is who are the right types of people to actually do that, to actually light up the bat signal and ask for your help?

 

[00:53:45] Yeah. Listen, I serve everybody. And I have lots o free resources. I don’t have anything. If you’d never buy anything from me, I am totally at peace because that’s not why I’m here. Like, I’m good. Like my bills are paid. Like I get to take vacations with my family. I love my kids. I love my wife. I love the life that I have. Yes, if it turns into an opportunity where maybe it makes sense for us to do business together, I would be honored, but I am still totally okay. And I work very, very hard to provide resources that are completely pro bono completely free. And when you go to UpMyInfluence.com again, that’s www.UpMyInfluence.com. There’s a link right there where you can take a quiz where I’m going to help you find your top lead generation blockers.

 

[00:54:34] Like I’m going to tell you exactly why you’re not, you know, if you sell higher ticket, I’m gonna tell you exactly why you’re not getting the volume of customers you’re getting. And then I have tons of free videos that I’ve got a free masterclass that you’re welcome to go through.

 

[00:54:48] And I actually am changing it. I did have an offer at the end and I’m actually just even pulling out the offer. I’m just like, listen, you know what to do. If you love me, then you’ll find a way to come work with me. Like so if you watch my videos depends on when you watching, I’m gonna actually going to edit that whole offer part out.

 

[00:55:04] I’m just going trust it, you’re a big boy, big girl. If you want to come work with me, you can knock on my door and you can figure out how to do that. But the masterclass is amazing. Cause I really drill down and get very actionable when it comes to authority platform in generosity so that it fills up your schedule.

 

[00:55:26] And so again, that’s all at UpMyInfluence.com. Oh, one last thing I’m always looking for great podcasts guests. As of when we’re recording this, I think I’ve recorded over 1,350 episodes. We have over 150 episodes, actually over 200 episodes in the can that haven’t been produced. I’m publishing two podcast episodes a day.

 

[00:55:48] That’s how serious I am about leading with generosity and in investing into other people and sharing their stories with other people. And that’s The Thoughtful Entrepreneur is the name of that podcast, but we’re looking for guests. If you’re rocking in business, again, you just go to my website, click on podcasts and you’ll see exactly who we’re looking for.

 

[00:56:11] And I would love to celebrate your story. We have over 130,000 on social media. I would love to celebrate your story to all of our audiences.

 

[00:56:19] Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on today, Josh. And if you have been listening and you’re looking to grow your influence, definitely check out UpMyInfluence.com.

 

[00:56:26] We’ll put the links to that in the show notes. I’ll see if we can find the masterclass, put a link to that in the show notes as well. Josh, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your story. You obviously have a tremendous amount of passion for what it is that you do. And I appreciate that.

 

[00:56:38] I love meeting other entrepreneurs like yourself. And yeah. Do you have any any words of wisdom for my audience before I hit this stop record button?

 

[00:56:45] Well, make sure you hit subscribe. Keep listening because I’ve gone through Richard, you and I were talking about your previous guests, man, if you have not just geeked out on this podcast, I can tell you, there are some amazing guests as you go back, just honestly, just start binge listening, because if you’ll binge listened to this podcast compared to look, I love doing stuff for entertainment, but I have to feed myself every single day.

 

[00:57:10] If I don’t do that, I stopped growing. And when we stopped growing, I mean, when we stopped growing, we stopped thriving. You become more valuable just by the learned knowledge and the modeling knowledge that you get by listening to great success stories. Sucess leaves clues do what other people have done and you will get the same results.

 

[00:57:36] That’s the way that it works. And so I just want to say, Richard, thank you for man. I mean, once you get over 200 podcast episodes there aren’t too many shows that get to that level. And so, yeah that’s my call to action is keep listening to my guest episodes like this hit subscribe, just make it, treat it like you wouldn’t want to go a day without eating some sort of protein.

 

[00:57:58] This is your protein for the day. And just protein.

 

[00:58:01] Unique protein.

 

[00:58:01] Yep. Absolutely. Just hang out these superheroes because they’re here to serve and again, it’ll just rub off on you

 

[00:58:10] Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on, Josh. Appreciate you.