YOUR BRAND AMPLIFIED - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• and Yeah, Ever since I'Ve Been Building a Life and a Business Here
• It Can'T Be Theoretic

I just came back from, from a workshop that I ran for a client. The owner was so overwhelmed. We met the night before. She was just we came back to the hotel at around 10:30 and she told me she would have to work for clients until 1 a.m. at the office today. And so totally overwhelmed and it was really hard to see her that way. And she said something that really that really struck me. She said you helped us move from despair to hope within one day. And that is something that describes and it's a good answer to your question. That is what you do as a strategist. You help people create that future that they want to hold in their hands. And rather than giving them medication, you help them go to the root causes and change the root causes. And it's not about killing the joy in your business, but it's not about only focusing on business money and processes. Not at all. It's the opposite. It's standing in who you are as a business owner, being fully in line with the impact that you want to create and being on purpose. All the time that there is no bigger fun than that. So people sometimes feel they would pigeonhole themselves when they are too focused on some things because they are going to miss out again. It's the fear of missing out, miss out on some opportunities that might come their way. But the thing is, once you have that structure in place, every opportunity that comes your way, you can just take it, take a look at it and be like, interesting. Is that actually an opportunity or is that just a shiny object? And I just let it pass. So it's not that you've got to miss out on anything. You take conscious decisions, whether it is for you or not, not just because someone else says you should do benchmarking against your business and what you want to achieve. Yeah. And then you say, Hey, welcome to my world. Not on that fundamental level. The businesses that I work with are typically businesses, $1,000,000 revenue plus. So these people have been in business for quite some time. These are not newbies. They're not starting out with some side hustle or things like that. They're serious about what they do and they really know what they do. So it's not that they don't have clear goals or a lack of understanding of how business works. Yeah, it's but the first part of your question is totally relevant. They often don't really know exactly what they want to build and how it should look like in some years down the road. So they run a fairly successful business. They are profitable, but it's either that they have growth goals that they, for whichever reason, miss every year. And we help them get it straight or sometimes it's just that they kind of fell out of love with what they've been doing for so long, even if it brought them money that they want it and they realize that they have maybe ten, ten more years to go before they finally let go of work and focus more on, on. Yeah. The fun side of life. And so it's often about helping them fall back in love with their business by realigning who they are and what they want to see in the world with what they do for a living. And thereby you create that fun space at work where everything that you do resonates with who you are. What happens if you don't do it? I I worked for a business that has been neglected, the need for strategic planning and properly linking what they do to a greater good for way too long because they were so darn profitable that that that they felt there is no need for that. They just forgot it and became very complacent in the process. And when those high revenues and high profit margins sort of disappeared over time, the moment they reacted, it was already too late. And we tried to restructure the business. We tried everything that we could to save it. But in the end, restructuring is not strategy. Restructuring is cutting off pieces that don't work anymore. And I had to see how thousands of people lost their jobs. It make me feel horrible because my father at the beginning of his fifties also lost his job. And I realized what it does to a family and how extremely difficult it can be to get back into the workforce at that age. And I felt partly personally responsible for that, even if I only came into the business when the good times were gone. But we were not able to turn it around in a way that we want it. And that hurt me personally so much that I said, this is something that I can do. I can help businesses avoid to wait and to be complacent until it's too late. I can help these people and these businesses to create what we call curse reinforcing circles that build the future while the businesses are doing well, not wait until it's not going well anymore, because then strategy doesn't work anymore. Then we're talking about restructuring and you really don't want to be there. It's not about regaining balance. It's about reinforcing creating a growth loop, reinforcing circles that help you build something when you experience the good times, when you come to me and you say, Oh, our business is heavily under pressure, I will not work with you. I can only work with you when you have the mental capacity to focus on what's possible and you have enough runway to get it off the ground. If you run out of runway, you need a restructuring consultant. You don't need me. Let me put it that way. The work that I do and what I bring a certain knowledge on how to get to a certain point. So I bring my toolbox and in there, there are several tools and they are not made out of fairy dust. This is this is real stuff. And I'm not saying there are no fairies, so I don't want to offend. If you believe in fairies, go for it. It's just really about the process knowledge that I bring, the tools that I bring that are sometimes just like, oh, I didn't know that existed and now I get it. So and I don't use these tools. I just hand them over. I help them with these tools, but they work with them. And all of a sudden it's not only about understanding what's possible, but it's also understanding how to do it. So by going through these through these workshops with me, for example, not only do they build where they want to be and how to get there, they also know how to do it next time on their own. They don't need me when they want to do it again because they have the tools in their hands. They can just do it. Yeah, and that is pretty cool for people because they don't feel locked in if you know what I mean. They don't have to go back to me. I don't hold a secret key or anything. I give it up. So me it's really about taking the experience and knowledge that I have and packaging it in a way that it is accessible for as many people as possible that don't have a business background. So I don't what I really didn't enjoy and working for large corporations for a long time is the kind of lingo that's being used. It's often some sort of insights speak with terminology that is just not human. That's just weird words that some highlight strategy consultants feel they need in order to prove their value. I use normal people language when I talk about these things so that everyone understands that and repackaging it in a way and and building products around it and services around it that people can just use without me. That is currently what what I'm looking at. So if you already said anyhow, there's a lot of free stuff on my website just to experiment with it, you don't need me to start working on these things, but hey, maybe these tools help you. And for example, I just finished writing two books, so one will come out in 2022 the other one likely in 2023. Again I just give it away, I just write it down the entire process, how it works, the tools, everything. I just really want to help people get their businesses off the ground, build the future that they want, create the impact and the life that they want to see. And if I can have my $0.05, maybe two, that's also fine. I work for some of the biggest brands in the world. At the same time, I work with the smallest business I currently work with is run by two women. And I enjoy both. But I'm moving more and more away from the large businesses because I see that the impact that I can have is bigger with the small businesses. It's just that the personal connection, the individual joy is bigger with large organizations. Don't get me wrong, you impact thousands of people at the same time with the work that you do. But most of the time when the effects materialize, you weren't around anymore because they take so long to get these things done, because these are complex organizations. I've done that for more than 15 years, and I really enjoyed it. It's now time for me to help people that want to build smaller businesses that are still small. Not to say that they can't be big or that they won't grow, but it's really more about the personal connection that I've built with the business owners that helps them to take the tools and do something with it. Without needing me all the way through. I feel like a Kickstarter or sometime, you know, some of them and how it's and then they just run on their own. I don't need to run with them all the time. If they want to have me around from time to time, that's fine. But I'm not doing these huge projects anymore that consume a big chunk of my own time. Because as you already said, I became a father two years ago, and that counts more than any money in the world. We don't know how to answer that question. Was it difficult? Yes, of course it was horrible. We moved in March 2020. It was Frankfurt Airport, one of the biggest airports in Europe, completely dark. No one there. Military police running around with machine guns and you're like, Do you want to shoot that virus out? What what's going on here? Doesn't make sense because we were also afraid no one knew anything at that point in time. And you pack your life up in seven suitcases and move. And of course, if you don't know anyone, I mean, Stephanie's family lives here. So we did know people and people helped us settle in. But it was super difficult to live on our other continent away from my family now. And just being afraid all the time of what's going on with them and how they are feeling. Of course, it was tough from a business perspective. The pandemic probably helped me. So when I when I remember taking an active just taking stock, asking myself what if what you did in the past 15 years, is this what you want to do in the future? And I consciously took a decision. No, it's not. I will take a certain part of that and I will I will pivot to serve a different target group in a different niche and use what I know and create valuable resources that I give people from books to toolkits to anything. Even this podcast, when you help women, when you, when you decide to do different things than before, I don't think that in normal times this would have been my go to, if you know what I mean. I needed this external trigger to take that look in the mirror and ask and ask myself, is there anything else you would like to do? Because right now the world has stopped. You have permission to think and to rethink. And that was that was a valuable learning for me. I believe many business owners should regularly and basically all business owners should regularly reevaluate where they are and whether this is really what they set out for. And if they find that they kind of lost their way, then recalibrate and ask yourself what it is that's missing and what it is that is good. Don't just walk away from it. There are too many business owners scared to walk away and pivot when it's too early or when pivoting is actually not the right thing to do because they kind of fell out of love or they found something that is truly hard and just because they don't have the tools in your hands does not mean you are in the wrong way. Sometimes it's really about finding someone that helps you make sense out of things. And if you then want to take a decision and walk away from it and start over and do something else, do it. But don't take that decision silently. On your own somewhere deep down in your thoughts. This is something that you probably build something of value. But let me put it that way Anika; the moment you bring me in, you can bet that it will be something afterwards that you have never thought of, because that's the whole point about bringing someone like me. And yes, you don't create a new strategy without massive change and opportunity. Otherwise it's not worth the paper it's written on. Then it's not a strategy, but a business continuity plan or or an operation excellence plan. If you bring someone like me in, you need to be prepared to go deep and allow yourself and give yourself the space to re-evaluate whether what you're doing is the right thing or whether you keep a certain core of it and build something that excites you again. Otherwise, you don't need me. It's not about hitting yourself over the head for not knowing something in the past. It's about just allowing yourself to grow personally and professionally and embracing the joy of it. I think, depending on where you are. So if you run a business that's around let's say, a million plus in revenue and you feel like you need someone like me, just give me a call, the contact details on the website and sit steady there. Just book a call and we talk. Yeah. If you run a smaller business, check out the free resources. You don't necessarily need to spend money you can take those resources and maybe start the process without me and experiment with it. And if you feel at some point in time you need a nudge again, go my work site book called It's Very Simple. And of course, I mean, there's tons of information out there. I don't know, maybe 100 podcast interviews. If, if you Google my name on Spotify or any other podcast platform, there's just things that can help you kick start your thinking, not necessarily the entire process, but some things that might inspire you. I hold keynotes and all these things that that help people see their business from a new perspective, and that's sometimes all it needs. You don't necessarily need to spend money, but that don't turn you away. So if you really want to work with me, have you be in touch. Be my guest. I just I just love working with people. No, those two businesses are and they don't have anything to do with each other. So the first book that will come out is a multi author; an anthology that I created with people that I ran a business summit with so we had a business summit in February 2022 where I invited 45 speakers from five continents to help people build businesses that they love. And some of these ideas were absolutely exceptional. And I asked these speakers and authors whether they want to contribute a chapter to that book. So the book will be all about entrepreneurship, leadership and self leadership. So the topic of How do I create a culture and a business that, yeah, this is on purpose. And these people they include Marshall Goldsmith, 100 coaches, New York Times best selling author. So they really do have very valuable messages. And my job is to weave them together and have this multi chapter book so that you can have a full meal in every chapter. But there's also a greater arc that I that I create where things come together. And my second book, which will likely come out in 2023 is based on the work that I do with my clients. It really explains every step of the way. It gives the way, the process, the elements, the exercises, the resources so I actually hope that people take this book and just do it. They don't, they just do it. They can, they can run with it and do it on their own. It will be an online course based on the content in the book that you can go through with a ton of exercises with it so that you basically- I guide you through the process, but it's not me doing it live with you on site. It's on your own. In your own speed, at your own time. And it's something that would probably help, especially new business owners that maybe not even have started that business. It's really about doing that groundwork, that million dollar mark that I mentioned that is not carved in stone. I also work with businesses that are smaller, but it needs to make sense for the state where the business is in if you come to me and you're thinking about building a business, take my resources, run with them, come back when the time is right for the work that I do, needs a realistic environment, needs it needs to be grounded in a business's day to day work. Don't go for second best, baby. And yes, that's the Madonna song reference. It's it's something that my ex wife once told me at the very beginning of my academic career, and I owe her the world for putting that into my head. Because from there, things massively shifted for me. If you if you ask yourself what you want in life and if you ask yourself at every step of the way, what would be the best thing to do, then you do the right thing. You don't go for compromises that don't make sense, that don't feel right anymore. You build something for the long term and not for short term gains. And yeah, you start playing the long game, not the hustle and bustle and daily busy stuff. And yeah, don't go for second best. And this comes down to personal relationships. If you realize that what used to be friends have become toxic relationships, let go. If it comes to your romantic relationships, never go for second best, go for what is the right thing for you. And that is something that inspires me every day. Think we covered basically a lot more than I thought. So this is an exciting conversation Anika, I really enjoyed it. If they don't, hey, reach out and tell me. I'm as curious to learn about everyone out there.

OK, so I was raised by a really brilliant man. He was- had a bachelor's in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. in biochemistry. And he was a product inventor. But he was also a really gregarious and he raised me to be a chemical engineer; think like a chemical engineer. I can remember the process he took me through. So I wound up at college and had signed up for business as my major like the week before I went to college. And I said I, I don't, I'm not really interested in, in business that is. What do you think about me going into chemical engineering? And he said, it'll be a good background. It'll never it'll never fail you. And so I went into chemical engineering. I spent two years in chemical engineering because of other stories. And we'll probably get to a one or two of 'em. Brad, you need to call these people. You're already doing this. You might as well get paid for what you're doing. So that's the quote, right? Couple of months later I got involved in the program. It was like stepping into my favorite set of shoes. It fit perfectly. I automatically knew everything except maybe the sales closing part. That was a little tough, but I learned that. I called it. I called you know, I said this for a long time. I live on epiphany juice because what happens is when someone lights up with an epiphany, they're different permanently. It's like it's not if it's there, they're aligned. All their neurons in the brain have lined up, their emotions have lined up, and they see the world differently and they behave differently. And what I get to do, that's why I named my company Stellar Insight, because I take them from insight to insight to insight. When I listen to them. I had a friend of mine early white, 40 years ago say to me, Brad, when you listen to me, you listen with your whole body. And what I do is I listen, not just with my ears. I saw this quote yesterday on the Internet. People have three years. They have the left ear, the right ear and the ear of their soul. And what I do is I listen to people. I listen to their hearts. I listen to their character. I listen to the words they say. I listen to their intent. And if their intent and their business model were the things that are doing are misaligned, I will feel the difference and then get them to get down into the articulation of what that difference is. So the gap between who you are, everybody has a gap I have this girl and I am not, and I'm here. My goal is over there. Sometimes there's this big Grand Canyon between and sometimes it's just a little step little step pieces are fun, but the big ones are huge. So what happens in that? And this is the other description of why I get lit up when I listen to someone and I take them through their epiphanies, I help them restructure who they are, I restructure, help them restructure who their business is, who their business is, not just what their business is, but who their business is. And then we get down into the what and what I do is I go to help them. And then we measure that by the amount of, you know, profit and over revenue, you know, for revenue. So if I can help them double the growth rate of their company, we will hit places where they've not just doubled their income on an annual basis. Sometimes I have these really crazy grants where we can double that on a monthly basis. A few of those monthly basis, right? Those are early, right? But later ones that are like, you know, ten, 20, hundred million dollars you add a zero to $100 million, you've accomplished something. OK, you add a zero to $1,000,000,000 company, you've done something significant. So those are- and that lights me up because not only is the business different and the person is different, everybody that that company touches is different. I've a couple I had a client in Minnesota, and when he first came to me, it was a 12 year old company 12 year old company. There were three executives and he was the leader, president and CEO, I don't remember. And we took them and they'd been in existence and had an average for the last ten years of two new clients a month. That was the average for the year, two clients a month when we finished and I took about three years, we rebuilt the executive team. We rebuilt literally every process in the company well, but at the end of that three year period, the last month I worked with them, they added 54 new clients a month, a month. And they had been doing better, wasn't a fluke and had been incrementally stepping up to that every month. So 54 new clients a month, the year, the month before, they've done 52. Right. And so we progressively added it wasn't just the growth of the company, it was the growth rate of the company, but that was fun. And he was fun to work with. Well, it's different for how I identify and how the other person identifies. First, I require ambition, like, high levels of it. They have to have drive, they have to be ambitious and they have to be curious. If they're not curious, coaching won't work for them. They don't take ideas in from outside. It won't work for them. Every human being lives inside their own bubble. All of us, everyone. And the best you can do is run out to the edge of it and shove the edge of it out a little further every day. And if you've got somebody like that, but if you're ambitious and you're curious, you're learning constantly. That's what I require in a client now when I talk to someone or literally this is me, when I'm hearing their voice for the first time, I go through all the process they use for speaking and dissect their character just from their voice. And I will know from their voice whether they're going to be a good client or not. Not everybody can do that. But for them to approach me do they like the sound of my voice? It does. It does it is it warm and inviting? And that's how you build rapport. Listen, think about your very best friends. Your very best, best friends are people that you have rapport with. You wouldn't have them as a good friend if you didn't. Those are good friends, people that you trust with your life. But there's a there's a modulation in vocal tones process that makes the difference for those dear people who are out dating. Listen to the quality of the voice that you have and the quality of voice they have. If you think of each word as a block. Each word comes out as a block. Some people have rounded edges to their voices, to their words, and some people have really sharp edges and short gaps between them. So if there's room for you to put a word in edgewise and there's a reason why you have that right, there's a reason why that's their own right. If you if there's a way to put words and start, you know, interact conversationally, then there's a way for you to be friends. There's a way for that interaction to work some people are so driven that they have no- and I apologize to the industry used car salesmen. If they're really selling- push selling, they have no space between their words and their sharp edges to their words. So I listen to the quality of their vocal speaking, how they speak, and that's important. And I know almost instantly within at least two or 3 minutes of talking to someone, well, I'm going to be a good fit. And then we have the adventure. So ambition, curiosity, and willing to take risks like be an adventure. Couple of my heroes from early in my life, like age nine or ten, I read Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, and they were constantly going on adventure. You know, they're my heroes. Yeah, I love heroes. So I love adventures. So if you're willing to go on an adventure and make more money and have fun, OK? All right. Well, there's only one, Brad. Yeah, I can teach. I can teach what I can do. I can teach other people how to be that way. I can clone myself for four business coaching. I know how to do that. But for me to have impact, my next goal is and I have three things I'm working on right now. First, I have to build credibility. Then I have to build reputation. Then I have to build reach those three things. Well, cheap branding and marketing kind of helps with that, right? But beyond that, I'm I'm starting a podcast of my own. I'm calling it the, the Visionary Leader's Mind. The Visionary Leader's Mind is that's an outreach for something that I want to do behind that, which is I've been studying being a human being and how all the underlying causes- core belief? I believe in cause and effect. There's an effect in the world. There's a cause for visionary leaders. They dead flat have to have intuition and fairly high access to it. I know how to teach people how to deepen that. It takes about a minimum of two years. So it's it'll be a two year weekly program not cheap but I will transform the people in it, transform their character and deepen their ability to reach into intuition. We all have that ability, all of us. You're a human being, and you have a brain, you have intuition available to you if you work at it. Now, I know the science behind it. So that's one goal, right? Teach it is the second one. And then I want to coach governors. And then in order to do that, I'm writing a book, so I have a few things. I'm, I'm mapping out who are the neuroscientists that I'm going to have. You can measure it physically, brain wave wise. I just haven't got the equipment yet. So it's not if every human being is this brilliant being, and I have deep insight into how we got to be who we are and where we could be let's put it this way. If everyone on the face of the planet had self-worth, deep self-worth and deep self understanding, there would be no insecurities in the world. All of our negative, reactive emotions, including murder, were all of those stealing and whatever all comes from insecurities. That's the foundation of it. If none of us had insecurities and we could all be authentic, with each other, wouldn't this world be amazing? Somebody said to me early in my coaching, training, it's like when you hit a certain goal, what's next? Mm hmm. And so I constantly have what's next in my mind. I have goals that will reach through the end of my life, if you would. Through the end of my life for me and for other people, but specifically for me, if we get to the end of this, you know, this life and what I want is I want to grow me. I think of Earth as a power over dimensions. You want it certainly for but 12 I think I've read somewhere that some of the scientists think there's like 12 dimensions involved. You're amazing. If there's 12 dimensions right this entire Earth experience is for learning. Think about the hardest things you've ever gone through. And when you restructured yourself afterwards, divorce, death, child loss, bankruptcy, getting fired- All of those really major things each one of those is designed to say those are a brick wall you didn't learn before you hit the brick wall. So if you if you have to learn one brick wall at a time, then you'll have to learn. Then that's how it is. I don't choose to learn one brick wall at a time. I choose to learn from the whispers. Oh, Brad, you need to do this. But that's a lot of work and it's a lot of time. And I don't think about it really carefully, Brad. And then then test it. Go do that for a little while, see what happens, and go do that for a little while and see what happens. What are the results you create in yourself so that in learning you've become better and different. You know, a better husband, better wife, a better parent. Those are the key pieces. A better boss, a better employee, a better business owner, a better global leader. And yes, I want people to understand who they are right now, who their whole character is, just a set of very deeply set habits. Each one of them can be changed there's parts of myself I don't like. One of them was hiding out. And so it's taken me a year and a half to two years of hard work to get myself to a place where I'm absolutely comfortable. On your show is one of them, comfortable with the idea of standing in front of a group of people I don't have interaction with or writing a book and putting my ideas out and having them transform in a way I'm not personally engaged in. That scared me. And so in order to grow my self to that place, the moment it ran across my brain, I said no. And then it's like, No, Brad, it's time it's time. That's the next thing. Well, everybody that calls me up and wants to maybe work with me gets a free session. OK, that's what we'll call it. The interview process. You get to interview me, see if they like me enough, and there's enough if we can do enough traction in an hour. So my website is Stellarinsightinc.com. It took me a while to get to, and all my contact information a way to schedule an appointment with me is on that website. OK, so we're inside or I'm on LinkedIn, which is how you and I connected yeah. Well, I have several. We'll start with one. Socrates, here's one from Socrates. He said Smart people learn from everything and everyone. Average people learn from their experiences. The stupid people already have all the answers. So if you're willing to learn, it means you're and not one brick wall at a time. It means you're in the smart category that's. That's one of my favorite quotes. I like that a lot. Yeah. Yes, I want everyone to. One of my other statements is best, one of my personal goals. It's a statement. It's like it's a question is excellence or a lifetime pursuit. And what comes out of that is if excellence is your lifetime pursuit, think of your best self, the very best person you are, and the very worst person you are, and take your best self and grow like mad, learn, learn, learn and make your very best self, your worst self. Do that. Everyone around you will be different. Yeah, you will be eventually some way or another, happy constantly. We live our lives from the insight from the outside in. That's what we call success. And the true measure of an adult is living from the inside out. Define yourself, define your goals, define your impact, define your emotions and your attitude because emotions your mind, your inklings, your intuitions.

Again, I'll get to that in a second, but you know, I'm someone that came to business kind of by accident. Entrepreneurship, I think was always in me because I watched my parents growing up being entrepreneurs. My father had his own practice. My mom always had a side hustle, like always, you know, whether it was the Airbnb antique selling antique shop, you know, she always had a side business. She made sure that we always had these old homes right? This old rockety porch on the back, this old screen door, and people would come up through the back door and it would see into our kitchen. And they would my mom would often have conversations through the screen door, like, why didn't you just come and sit down? I, we got to have a life. We gave it, gave it to everybody else. My business got some, my family got some, you know, like the dude across the street. Then you know, he got so ready, and it's like, I got nothing left to give myself, you know, and and of course, we find ourselves tired, fatigued, unmotivated, to take the action to do the things that we know will make us feel better. And of course, you know, you repeat that habit enough, and that becomes more of a ritual and not necessarily a positive one. And that's sort of where my TEDx talk that came out last year sheds light on a single story that happened about 13 years ago when I made a decision similar to that at 15 years old, when I made a decision to get healthy, I made a decision to get healthy again. But it involved me changing and challenging that habit around alcohol. And because it was affecting me professionally, but especially personally. The relationships are really challenged and so I made a big commitment, you know, and I can get into that if you want. But, you know, I want to honor the questions you said about the 5 F's. And after I made these changes and removed alcohol from my life, I started to realize I had a lot of personal growth yet to do, and I didn't have the tools or the resources nor the understanding of how to do that. So I had to learn how to ask for help. And believe me, at 33 years of age and I was not skilled in asking for help. But and to be fair, I didn't know I was going to go there either. But when I saw the five Fs, I realized that without understanding some of the context of what I worked through or what it was, you know, challenges I was presented with, it can seem like a very let's just say a rose tinted, you know, lenses, you know, rather than maybe overly optimistic. And I don't believe it as such, but it is rather simplistic as far as a philosophy is concerned on how we can prioritize things in our own lives. And so I and I think, you know, to get to your point of the action; I had to go through a period of really self-discovery again. You know, I had to get clear on some basic questions like who am I? What do I want? Why am I here? What is it I want to be doing? You know, who do I want to be associated with, whether the experiences I want in my life, what kind of dad do I want to be like you know, just clarity. Yeah. And actually create some space so I can not only ask the question and think about it, but actually respond to it, you know, and not just simply invent an answer, but rather truly discover it through that introspection and reflection. A lot of us don't take time for that, right? I mean, I'm guilty of it. Like, trust me, I never make time for that stuff. You know, even whenever I hire business coaches, we're talking about vision and stuff and I mean, like, right now, you know what? I'm just going to go do this. There's this and there's going to create this result. You know, I was just so scientific about it rather than leaning into more of the what if space yeah. And that was all based on where I was and because I was very limited, you know, I was dealing with a lot of stuff, let's just say. And but everybody was because I know this now because I had to learn how to ask for help. It's just I asked for help. And as soon as I started to share what I was struggling with, it was the weirdest thing there was like other people saying, Oh, you know what? I got that same problem. And I'm like, what you do? I'm like, for how long? What? Like, forever? And, like, what? You know, because I talked to a couple of guys, and it took me a bit to share with that because I'm, you know, gosh, I'm like looking at guys as competition, not as allies. Right? Like, often that's how I would just think about it, even though we would say we're friends, we're friends. But I never really, truly felt connected. I felt there was always this sort of surface connection. Right. And so it's easy. You open up, you start to practice vulnerability. And I say practice like any skill, vulnerability, skill, too. I realized that, gosh, there's so many of us, we're way more alike than we are different. We go about our lives thinking that no one gets me, no one understands it. No one's going to understand this thing. I'm working through right now. But the crazy thing is this is you open up and people start putting their hands up like, oh, me too, me too, me. Like, you look at the MeToo movement. I mean, it's a prime example of as soon as you start opening up, you start telling your story and as some people say, your truth, right? Like other people are like, hello. Thank you. Me, too. Because it takes one person that's got to go first. And I love that you say it like that because it's right to the point. And that is exactly what it is. And, you know, because in doing this, it's also clarity right? Like we gain that clarity when you feel clear on direction, not saying you have to have the absolute goal of where you're going, figure it out. Like that's that may not be a realistic initially, especially when you're just self-discovering again. Right? Like just learning about what motivates you, what you want to do and start dreaming again. But clarity can give direction and so at least you start to feel confident that, hey, you know what? If I start taking these steps, you know, one after the other going this direction, it's going to bring me closer to that area I want to get to, you know, again, we do not have pinpoint exactly where that is. You know, like if you listen to smart girls, I know you got to be very specific, right? Like, fair and I get it. That's appropriate, too. But when you're just getting started, it's really hard to sit down. And I'm going to write some smart goals right out of the gate. When you're not really connected to yourself, what motivates you? What you really want and especially when you can't answer the question, Who am I, like, you know, handling these other questions? Maybe do this one first, you know, and because it's that clarity that builds confidence. And when we feel confident, we take action and we procrastinate less. Right? Like if you think about when you progress to these often when we just don't feel confident about what we should be doing. You know, and so easiest way to kill procrastination is get confident and the only way you can build confidence is you have to get clear on what it is you need to do. You have to learn something might have to do something different, but either way, it's going to involve a little bit of change but change, it's it's usually hard. It's it doesn't take much, you know, it's really interesting. But these moments that we create and these memories that are attached to them, I they can happen in a simple, quick interaction, you know, like just bumping into somebody on the street and that person saying something kind you're doing something contrary or vice versa, stupid sometimes. And that like that, that one little action can forever change that person's perspective and their relationship with life. Like it's the smallest of acts that can often create the biggest ripples. And when you start to see this in action and you realize that we all are just pebbles ready to be thrown into that, you know, like that's all it is. But, you know, why wait for someone to throw us? Let's just jump in you know, let's go make some ripples. We all want to get there. And what I try to tell people and this is, you know, long my way of finally getting to the five F's is, I try I try to give people a framework, you know, and I'm a OK, so even though I'm in I went to school the university originally for the sciences and after the first year and failing calculus three times to the point of the Dean says, you know what we can't take your money anymore. Wow. You literally I got a dean's letter like you can't do this course again. And it was like one of the required courses for where I wanted to go- where I thought I wanted to go. And I was like, well, you just made my decision easy. I'm moving into the arts. And so I got into English literature and creative writing but more important, my major was in philosophy. So just to give you some perspective, as much as I love life and fitness and all that stuff, my my passions lay in the arts, especially in the classics. But where I'm going with this is I always appreciated good alliteration and metaphor and because it's a great way to take complex concepts really simple, you know, relatable as well as accessible. And so when I think about my life because I needed to make it something simple. Simple to identify, but simple for me to remember and hold that place in my mind. Because if you can maintain clarity of vision, it's easy to maintain direction, you know, and that's sometimes all we need. We just need to know I just got to keep inching forward in this direction. And I know good things are going to happen. And so I'm going to argue that no matter who you are, the foundation upon which anybody wants to build any type of lifestyle or life, it's going to be a foundation of health. All right. Now, people can argue me on this, but I'm like, OK, when you're not healthy, how good is life? You know. Are you limited? Is your quality of life limited now based on maybe vitality constraints? You're not having the energy to do the things that you want to do. Like really look at how the health plays into all that. And so when you look at health, there's different aspects, of course. But I like to think of this is the foundation upon which I'm going to build a home and that home is representative of my life. There's four walls, so I'm going to take us all back to kindergarten. And now we're drawing the old stick for the house, right? So it's really traditional here. So you got this square home, four walls, and you've got a roof, the walls all by a letter F you've got fitness, faith, family and finance. With an overarching roof of fun. And so this whole metaphor, you know, on this foundation of house is this house that I represent. Those assets are really clearly, to me, values. I encourage other people. You don't have to use alliteration. But yeah, clear. What is the home that represents your life? Those core values can represent the walls. I always invite people probably to have some sort of happiness or fun type of aspect as a roof, because if you're not having fun with everything you're doing, there's room for oppor- or room or opportunity for improvement. We'll just put it that way. You can tweak things. You can change things if you're not laughing and smiling at least once a day, there's room for improvement. OK, that's all I'm saying. And then you've got the four walls, right? What are those for? You don't have to use what I'm using you know, when I say faith, it's non-denominational. I mean, my faith is that humanity's resilient. We're great as humans and we have so much potential. I mean, when we can do hard stuff and we can evolve and it's really cool, right? And for me, faith is just knowing that the day that I leave this planet, well, wherever that is due next I can honestly look back and say, I left better than I got here, you know, living here today better than it was when I got here. So those are all little aspects, but they feed into that health foundation. Right? And one of the best ways to improve on your health foundation is you got to focus on the mental health, the physical health, the emotional health, as well as the spiritual health. Yeah, and and of course, financial health. But that's sort of a given. That's why I give finances. It's a wall because we live in a global economy. And if those aren't if finances aren't in a good place, we know how negatively that affects everything else. So I do bring that into the conversation, but that's that's it. That's the five F's. So Anika, what are your F's you had to give your house, what would yours look like? Great questions. Well, so my last business, yeah, we scaled up to eight figures a year, and that was with commercial and retail so B to B and B to C as well as e-comm. And so we were selling equipment all across Canada online. And then and then our brick and mortar, which is predominantly in western Canada, and that was over a period of 17 years. And to be fair, you know, the only reason my skill ability was there was because we had a great team of people, you know, we had some amazing leaders. We attracted some incredible talent and the company expanded as a result, you know, like we needed to expand because we had these people that wanted to expand you know, which, which made the growth even more exciting for all of us because everybody wanted it. And, but, you know, during that process I realized as well that my, my partner at the time, my first real business mentor and I'd go as far as to say a life mentor as well who was 20 years my senior and this is the CEO of the company and my partner and you know, I started working with him and he had another company previously and opportunity came for him to separate that arrangement with his former partners. And he wanted to go off as an independent. And I was his best guy, you know, and he's like, here's the deal. We're going to go out and do our own thing. You want, you in? You can be my partner and we'll do this thing. And I'm like, All right. I mean, you know, I did because he's my mentor. It's like a very influential person in my life. And the thing was, you know, this is in my early twenties and I got into this not even realizing that this would become such a big part of my life, you know, 17 years, right? Like a lot of us said, oh, you know, what an idea. And we think this is sort of what I think I want to be doing. And then we get down the path and all of a sudden it's like, be careful what you ask for because you just might get it. And and that was exactly it. So it was very quickly it became a very big pull on my life. Which took a lot of time. Like, a lot of my time. A lot of my energy. And you feel that responsibility for the businesses that we start or were a part of, you know, and will often and especially for those that are entrepreneurs and running your own business or consultancy agency, whatever it may be, but, you know, you're running your own thing. The buck stops with you. There's that pressure that the company doesn't perform. Whose fault is that? It's my fault. Right? And so that added pressure makes us want to do more. We feel this obligation that we have to do more. And we get to this place where we put on this nice shiny badge and it says, I'm so busy, you know, and it's this nice little badge. And we show it off to everybody, people to, you know, running up to us on the street. How are you doing? I'm so busy, you know, and and and we're proud of that. And that, Anika, is the biggest realization I had from those 17 years is that I really got to a place where my ego drove my decisions. And it was often formed around me wanting people to see me as something other than who I actually thought I wanted to be. Now, I know it sounds a little confusing, but let me put it this way. It was like, I just got so good at putting up this facade of trying to be the guy the dude, right? Like the man, you know, like this. It's so interesting, but wanted to be perceived as this thing, you know? And that's what I mean by, like, living in my ego, you know? Yeah, I was pretend I'm just going to pretend I'm this, like, dude, you know, and and it was weird because it just I, you know, at the time, it limited my ability to have deeper connections with people. Because I wouldn't open up and if I did open up, it was typically very inauthentic. All right. And so those are some of the things that I really took away from the experience. And I got very mindful, too, that I didn't want to do that anymore. I didn't want to be that anymore, because that was also what sort of led to more drinking as well because it was more lack of fulfillment. It would be the perfect of this. You know, I was what used to fulfill me wasn't fulfilling me anymore. And you know, when you start waking up and you start resenting the business and you started from passion you know, that's usually, you know, it's time to have a change or you're literally already burnt out at that point. It's probably burn out more than anything. Where we've just we've given so much to the business. We have nothing left for ourselves. And and I say this and in this game, people listen this and they may not like this, but it's one of those things like we can theorize about it all day long. We can say, Oh, never happened to me, believe me. You know, just wake up one day and you'll be there. You know, that's that was what happened to me. So burnout, though, is very real. And when you get to that place, you start resenting your business. That's when you really know it's time to make some changes. Yeah. Like you just know like, it's like you get to this place is like, I cannot take one more step in this direction because I really do recognize now it will kill me. You know, and and life's worth so much more to me than this. And I know it's a really fearful place to get to because then we're left thinking, gosh, now what am I going to do? You know, what can I do? And and sometimes getting to that place can actually be one of the best experiences that we ever endure, because it forces us to get clear again and ask some hard questions. Yeah. And it's not very comfortable work. I'll be the first to say that, you know, being that I've been there a couple of times now, you know, like it's not, but it's worthwhile work. And once you get through it and you will, you will get through it, it's amazing. All I can say is that it's amazing. But, you know, when you're in it, it ain't that much fun. OK, but but it's OK. You'll get through it. And as you get through it, you'll look back you'll be like, Oh, it's not that bad. You know, it's the funniest thing, you know what I mean? When you're on the other side of it, it's never as bad. And we look back on it as it was when we were in it. Ever it was actually a turn. I don't know what it is, but there's a psychological term that refers to that, that that ability of our minds to just sort of lessen trauma after we've lived it. You know. Well, so I left and I didn't leave at an optimal time. And so it wasn't like anything I could retire on, but I knew I didn't want to do it anymore. Yeah. Also knew I was very employable. My wife's very employable. So six years ago, you know, I had given roughly about 18, almost 20 months notice that I would be leaving the country. Two months after that, we pulled the kids out of school. Oh, wow. We gave away all our stuff. Yeah, we packed up the SUV with suitcases and whatever we wanted to bring. Everything else got rid of, sublet our place, and we started traveling south with with no real destination in mind. But this is the interesting thing. During those two months, as I was, you know, I had written a book, and it was being published right at the same time that we were planning to go traveling as a family. You know, we weren't sure how long we'd go for. And to be honest, we didn't have an endless supply of money. We had some savings, but not enough to to travel for the five years that it turned into. And yes. And two and a half of those years, we ended up living in Bali, Indonesia. And and then we came back right before the pandemic because we wanted to honor our kids. They had said they wanted to finish high school or so we came back to Vancouver City finish school here and, you know, and to my discontent. But I would have stayed in Bali if I had in mind. But but regardless, I'm happy to be in Vancouver too. But that that sort of, you know, I had to get very creative and learn new skills so I could create new income to support our family, especially in that that path that we were on. And so it just I went to work and learning new things and learning some new business strategy is and really went into a different area entirely. But it still involves helping people online. And I fortunately for us that it worked. And we've been able to sustain what we did and started scaling again. So it's yeah, it's fun. It's fun. Well, I just finished a beta round on a program I've been developing for the last couple of years based on my own mental health challenges I've lived through and working I continue to work through full disclosure. You know, I still deal with a bit of depression and share a bit of anxiety from time to time. And but I've learned to manage it and most of the symptoms don't manifest, but sometimes they do, you know. And so there are certain rituals and rituals that I maintain and honor, and it keeps me in a really good place where I feel like I continue to thrive thanks to that protocol. Super simple design. But when I started talking about it to people, they started saying Geez, this sounds like something I could do. And I'm like, maybe. I mean, possibly you could try it. And the more people I was having these conversations with that I realized, OK, well, maybe, maybe there's something to this, maybe I'll try this with some people. And so I just finished up a beta group testing this Merge 60 program. The results were phenomenal, and that's sort of the next phase. I think we're going to really bring that out in a big way. Wow. I'll just say that I think there'll be more on that soon as we lean into developing a full campaign and getting it out to the people so they can try it and that. But it's a full lifestyle program, but it's founded on mental health first. So, everything's prioritized around mental health first. And if you get that in a great place, everything else, it actually does feel easy and I hate saying it but it sounds like I'm, I'm actually the fittest. So last year, six months, last June, I said, you know, as I was approaching my 45th birthday, I was like, is it possible for me to celebrate my fourth or fifth birthday and end this year as the healthiest, fittest version I've ever been? That was a question that I posed myself. And I don't know. I mean, there's been certain goals I've wanted to achieve physically, you know, from a fitness standpoint and performance standpoint. It's like, well, could I do that? And so I just started to reverse engineer from there. And yeah, I did, and I've maintained it now for about a year with relative ease, and I'm like, there's something to the protocols. Yeah, you know, and we can have a separate follow up conversation later, but I'm excited to share that and get more info. And there's lots of stuff on my website that talks about there's lots of articles and free content; people go to town, enjoy. Diamanuel.com, you just go to my name dot com and in about actually, probably about the time that you released this, the new website should be live, so a lot easier to navigate and lots of cool new features being added but the developers of it right now so awesome. Oh, I like to think about it more as maybe I'll just shift your perspectives on what the world of your life might look like. And I invite people to take a walk through it all, take a look on the other side, see what you see and let me know what you think. What do you think? You know, and, and, and I love that opportunity, you know, and to be fair and because that's what you're doing with your podcast or you create this amazing platform for people to come and have authentic, transparent but connected conversations. And you provide this place for us all to be just a fly on the wall and absorb, you know, and I just to say thank you, thank you for helping us that we need more of this more. And I just really appreciate you doing that because I know it takes a lot of energy, a lot of time, a lot of a lot of love to produce this kind of a platform. You know, other than just keep smiling and just keep smiling? I know that life has a tendency to knock us down sometimes, and I'm not going to be so cliche to say just keep getting back up. But rather, you know, if you get into fitness burpees are perfect, like it is amazing you for a life, think about it. It's one movement from the ground up. And if you want to get knocked down, what better way to get off the floor? With a burpee. So if you've ever had it, how life is like a burpee now, you know.

Job Titles:

• Customer Focused Than VP Marketing
• It 's Grown
• It 's Very Powerful. Both House
• Like If You Only Remember People When You Need Them, Then We Have a Problem
• so There Is No Excuse. It 's Yours to Own

And I'm blessed with helping people that I could. Like you said, people who are working in all sorts of places that virtually we could connect and help them and see results. That's absolutely important. And LinkedIn is the probably the most traditional and business oriented platform there is. And if we need to think about the ways to amplify brands. So let's ask three simple questions. What are you happy with posting that we're using that photo and maybe the professional you looked at was really happy about that swimsuit one. But the second question should be, OK, is my network, when they see this, when they go and see what was he thinking what will they say? Yes, that's the person I worked with. That's really their style. And the third question is your ideal prospect when they see that, are they going to say, hey, this is not the kind of person I want to start exploring a business relationship with? And if any of those question, if your answer is no, then you need to change and be and be more conservative have been what you do on Twitter. Yeah, you're right. I was listening to an episode you released with Lisa Stephenson. Stephenson. And you mentioned Herro and other tools that junior PR people could, could, could use to to gain more, more business or more leads and I remember you wanted when you were in high school, you wanted to become a writer. So are you using the LinkedIn platform to write articles that would be published on LinkedIn OK, so the first distinction Anika would make is between posts and what LinkedIn calls LinkedIn articles. LinkedIn articles are native, if you like, search in published an article there. And I would say that articles are best for Evergreen Educational content that is on brand and that would serve you in 2025. It's important you can take six months to week to think about the ways you'd like to, to have it and about the headline and the images and the, and the flow, whatever you'd like. And once you have it another additional benefit of sharing an article versus a post address people to your website or to some other external source is that LinkedIn doesn't want people to go away from the platform. We mentioned you were you had two choices. One is to send them to AnikaPR.com to an article there and the second would be to send them to an article within the LinkedIn gated platform. So the algorithm is going to prefer the second option because they know that when they show it to more people, those people are not going to leave LinkedIn. So even one article could be a nice addition to a strategy and you can use it to show and strengthen your soft leadership. Yes, you're absolutely right. And educational content. If you go back to your ideal prospect and you ask yourself what questions are they struggling with and what would make them tick, perhaps producing content around that topic that is not salesy will make people discover your content and say they when they think about the way to grow their business, maybe the advanced PR strategies are not even in their awareness stage from their perspective. Maybe they think only about it. And so by showing them that there are pros and cons to paid ads and there is also another option, you can guide those who like that option to take one step with you from point A to point B, and at the very end you say there's also point C I could teach you, OK, I could guide you and you start, but you lead by example. You know, you answer the questions and those are continue are could become long term relationship of yours and long term clients of yours. Even today, most of my inbound inquiries are referrals, probably 90% and I found the referrals are the best clients that are, but I have. And in growing my business is not for me, it's not necessarily earning more dollars. It's deciding who I'd like to work with. And I'm happy to work with people I enjoy working with. I enjoy having a conversation with and and referrals. You know, their shows tend to be less price sensitive. They come almost presold because someone who was worked with you has told them in they appreciate a person's point of view and they tend to stay with you longer and eventually sending new referrals. Your wait. So referrals is a big marketing strategy for me. LinkedIn is just a tool. As much as I love the platform, referrals and relationship are more important than LinkedIn. There were many. Probably just one of the best kept secret in town is the way that the advanced search is run on LinkedIn. And in short, if you know who your ideal client is and if they are on LinkedIn, that then within minutes you can find them. And then there's a whole new game of whether you leverage if you have connect with people you know well, that means whenever you're on a search and you share a mutual connection with that potential prospect, then Anika, you can actually leave link team and converse with that person and ask them whether they feel comfortable enough to make an introduction. And if they do, then you get your foot in the door thanks to their name. It's not our name. It's the person that makes the introduction. And when they make the introduction, we get at least the ability to teach or to use to serve other people thanks to that mutual connection. And you can also lead by content if you if you should produce- I don't think our audience, your needs to produce content for LinkedIn. But what we could do is analyze the sort of content we have assessed, the content we have and make sure that the best content, the best educational content is well shared across the LinkedIn platform and that is much less time consuming than producing high quality content. But there on your website or on your social channels, you may have tons of pieces you can repurpose that are great. And maybe 10% of them were shared at one point only on LinkedIn. So take a look at the other 90% and decide that's also something you can delegate. You would do it for you would once you teach someone and by the third time they would know exactly what to do because the content has already been approved and it's, it's a no brainer. Well, I think the one aha moment that I had was realizing that if you're an introvert, there's a way for you to be yourself on LinkedIn and you can grow your business and you don't need to become someone else for the sake of the platform. And I'm using LinkedIn as an example, but it's the right for any platform. There's a way for you to be authentic and to gain business and to gain revenues and to gain new clients. And you don't have to become someone else. And a lot of very talented people, very talented people think that they need to become someone else because what they see on LinkedIn is something else. And then a simple question would be to do what's right and not what's popular. Well, for LinkedIn, whenever I run a workshop, I see the just an hour before the workshop. I need to make sure that everything works as LinkedIn has a nasty habit of discontinuing services just when I have some cleanup up some- So I can't really say what LinkedIn will become. And I think that looking ahead I'm very happy I fired for the lack of a better firm term, our clients were the fit was not- was less than ideal. And that helped me. I probably left a lot of money on the table, but I slept better and it was more than compensated by people I enjoyed working with who either extended their relationship with me or sent other referrals so deciding who you'd like to become and who'd like to work with this is the way I'd like to continue looking ahead. Truth to be told, it is challenging for not only the states. And one way we could probably start working with those people is speaking. And he's doing something that they are obsessed about or that they really care about. But as soon as we deliver that small project, we make a pause and we show them that in order to move to the next stage, there's something to be done and they need to appreciate what you've done before, that they're open to listen to what is what you can show them. And then if they're, if they are interested in taking their business to the next level, they would you have a buy in and they would commit the time. It's often it's, it's a question of priorities, one that once you show them the advantage of what it is you suggested there, they become a lot more willing to listen to you and to implement your suggestions. I really enjoy working with different people and each entrepreneur in each SMB is unique, and I'm open to help or to guide or do all sorts of free materials on my website that are showing my perspectives on LinkedIn and marketing and networking. If I had a quick topic we mentioned but we haven't really explored is networking and networking is probably the single most important element that we need to become better at as professionals, whether we are publicists or writers or professional athletes. It doesn't matter. It's what will help us pivot in 2027 and I have no idea what LinkedIn will becoming 2027 and maybe we'll have a chat about some platform that is being learned in the San Francisco Bay right now. I don't know. But if we manage to keep in touch with people we, we met without asking for their help all the time, then we're able to reach out to them like an insurance policy issue. Yes, it's a lot easier because it's just like acquiring a new client will take a lot more effort than nurturing an existing client. Nurturing an existing relationship is a lot easier and a lot less time consuming than, you know, going cold on someone and persuading them that you're the solution for problem they don't even understand they have. What quote would you like to share? What is the quote you live by or quote you like? Yes. So my website has links to the Amazon book and Twitter and my website is probably the place that is most up to date promise. So the book the truth is when I wanted to buy a book and when I bought the book, I saw an ad saying, are you an author? Click here. And then I said, OK, so if that simple and if I put my mind to it in three weeks, I can, I can write a book wow. And lo and behold, two years later, I had what. I was over overconfident. The draft was there within three weeks, but the editing and everything else took a lot more time. And it was an interesting experience from my perspective, trying to have- to write it in a way that would be easy to read and easy to, to implement. And obviously things have changed since the book was published, but it was an experience I really enjoyed.

It's a different George Clinton than everybody else knows. Right. But this George Clinton was a recording engineer in Nashville. Much loved, much beloved person. And I later found out. But George introduced himself and I told him what I was looking for. And he says, well, come on in, Dave. And as I stepped into the lobby, I look over to my left.

Job Titles:

• Boss, Conscious Couture, 2017