March 3, 2025 • 33 mins
Mastering your messaging is crucial for entrepreneurs looking to stand out in a crowded space. Michael Drew discusses the importance of understanding your soul purpose, developing clear brand values, and creating compelling narratives to effectively connect with your audience.
• Importance of mastering your messaging for success
• Understanding and discovering your soul purpose
• Overcoming self-limiting beliefs and societal conditioning
• Defining core values as a roadmap for business
• Utilizing storytelling to create impactful branding
• Creating a character diamond for clear brand identity
• Crafting memorable phrases that resonate with the audience
This episode is NOT sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links, meaning we'll receive a small commission if you buy something.
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This episode is NOT sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links, meaning we'll receive a small commission if you buy something.
===========================
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⚡️Need post-recording video production help? Let's chat ➡ https://calendly.com/elevate-media-group/application
⚡️For Support inquires or Business inquiries, please email us at ➡︎ support@elevate-media-group.com
Our mission here at Elevate Media is to help purpose-driven entrepreneurs elevate their brands and make an impact through the power of video podcasting.
Disclaimer: Please see the link for our disclaimer policy for all our episodes or videos on the Elevate Media and Elevate Media Podcast YouTube channels. https://elevatemediastudios.com/disclaimer
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Elevate Media podcast with your
host, chris Anderson.
In this show, chris and hisguests will share their
knowledge and experience on howto go from zero to successful
entrepreneur.
They have built theirbusinesses from scratch and are
now ready to give back to thosewho are just starting.
Let's get ready to learn, growand elevate our businesses.
And now your host, chrisAnderson.
(00:22):
Grow and elevate our businesses.
And now your host, chrisAnderson.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate
Media Podcast.
I'm Chris Anderson, your host,and today we're going to be
diving into why it's soimportant to master your
messaging, to stand out in anocean filled with other people
doing what you're doing, and sowe brought on an expert who does
just that, and he does itthrough marketing books, and
(00:45):
he's been super successfulmarketing his own books,
marketing books for others, andso we're super excited to have
this conversation.
Michael Drew, welcome to theepisode today.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thanks for having me, Chris.
It's a real pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Absolutely.
So you know with this what gotyou, we're going to dive right
into it.
So you know with this what gotyou, we're going to dive right
into it.
What got you so excited andpassionate about, you know,
marketing books and helpingpeople kind of get that message
out there and to stand out.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It's a really good question.
Part of it, I think, has to dowith my pedigree my grandfather
was the dean of the LibraryScience School at Brigham Young
University.
My father was a professor ofliterature at BYU.
My mother was a graduate fromthe Library Science School.
I've been in books since I wasa very young young boy, but I
(01:36):
think one of the things Ilearned later in life from one
of my clients his name isGarrett Gunnarsson.
He wrote a series of New YorkTimes bestselling books, one of
which is titled Killing SacredCows, which is his biggest book
on wealth management, and backin 2006, when I began working
with him, he indicated to methat he has a very unique
(01:56):
investment philosophy, which isaround an idea or concept called
soul purpose S-O-U-L purpose,called Soul Purpose, s-o-u-l
Purpose and he believes thateveryone that is born onto this
planet is born with a soulpurpose and that their talents
and skills and experiences, thelens through which they view the
world, is based on and aroundthat soul purpose.
And that soul purpose isn't foryou as an individual, but rather
(02:19):
your service of your fellow man.
But from a financial standpoint, his value, then is invest in
your fellow man, but from afinancial standpoint.
His value, then, is invest inyour sole purpose, know that
what you're investing issomething that you intimately
know, on a very deep level, sothat, whether it's your own
business or whether it's a stockthat you're investing in, that
you can actually look at andassess whether they're doing a
(02:42):
good job or not with your moneyright as an investor.
And so I took that to heart,and we've deployed that with all
of our clients and for myselfpersonally, and I've defined my
sole purpose as voice helpingpeople find, test and amplify
their voice, and so a book, then, is a very natural extension of
(03:04):
that amplification voice.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Sure yeah, and I like that, I think.
Why do you think so many people, though, struggle to find you
know that soul, that that brandmessaging?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, I think that actually has to do with um, um,
the, the dichotomy, and howwe're raised and how the the
theoretical left brain and righthemisphere of the brain work.
One of the things that we knowis that until you're about eight
, you're not really human.
You're not cognitivelydeveloped enough to be able to
know what's right or wrong andto make determinations.
(03:36):
The purpose of the lefthemisphere of the brain is to
filter out not essentialinformation.
The universe is bombarding uswith data loads of data to
filter out non-essentialinformation.
The universe is bombarding uswith data, loads of data, and
our species, the Homo sapiensspecies we process specific
types of that data.
Different species, differentanimals process different bits
of data.
We know that some animals havebetter hearing or better sight
(03:58):
or better smelling or whateverelse, based on the survival of
that species.
The Homo sapiens species has aset of data that is relevant to
our survival, thrival andexperience, and so the purpose
of the left hemisphere, then, isto filter out all of the
non-essential information sothat we can be focused on the
(04:19):
essential information.
This conversation that we'rehaving is happening through the
left hemisphere of the braininformation.
This conversation that we'rehaving is happening through the
left hemisphere of the brain.
Like taste, touch, sound, sight, smell, are all these visceral
left brain experiences right,and it's a really powerful thing
, this left hemisphere, becauseit keeps us from harming
ourselves by processing too muchinformation.
(04:40):
This is also where the humanoperating system, as some people
might put it, gets developed.
When we're a child, parents sayyes or no, do this, don't, do
that become the rule set for ourindividual operating system.
And so what happens?
Over time, as we're growing up,this operating system is set
and it creates what people inthe personal development space
(05:02):
would call self-limiting beliefsor eschatomas, which are the
electrical wiring in your brainthat connects thoughts and
feelings together, and this thencreates within the individual
the self-limited beliefs of whatthey can and they can't do.
Now, to directly answer yourquestion, I know that everybody
(05:24):
actually knows what their solepurpose is.
What happens is when you were akid, like five to eight, you
wanted to be a doctor, lawyer,fireman, a policeman, a member
of the military.
Whatever it was, you wanted todo something.
And there was a reason for thatand in that age range there was
no empirical right or wrong.
It was just this is what wasmost important and valuable to
(05:46):
you.
And so when we work with aclient, one of the things that
we do is we work at brushingaway all of the self-limiting
beliefs and learning in thatoperating system to be able to
get down to the core of theindividual.
But I believe it's there.
It's simply having the courageto accept what that means.
Because for many of us, when oneof the reasons that keeps us
(06:09):
from doing that is that if you,if you don't know your purpose
and you're not living into it,that means that you're not,
you're not living into thefullness of who you are, and
that's really scary because thatmeans that you are not living
into your complete abilities andyou're not serving people in
the way that you should, andthat doesn't feel good.
And so it's a scary propositionto be able to go and figure
that out, but I'm I'm confident.
(06:30):
I've never met somebody that weweren't able to define what
that is.
It's just, it's almost a formof psychology, to brush away the
, the cobwebs and the and theself-loathing beliefs to get to
the core of the core.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, no, I like that .
You know, when I was a kid, Iwanted to be either James Bond
or Indiana Jones.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So but why?
Why did you want?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
to be Indiana Jones.
Yeah, I think you know, I justliked uncovering secrets, like
not like in a like a gossipysense, but like unlocking things
.
Unlocking like what's out there, like finding truth, unlocking
things, unlocking like what'sout there, like finding truth.
And James Bond, I think youknow the excitement, the
adventure, the unknown, you knowfighting against evil for good
(07:13):
to prevail.
So like I think, and now kindof seeing that in what I do, I
really like talking with peopleand helping them uncover things
in their life that they mightnot see in themselves.
So uncovering those secrets,uncovering that treasure, um, so
then they can, you know, bringthat to the world in a good way
and make a positive impact.
(07:33):
So like kind of see how thatrelates a little bit um, so, so
really quick, would you say thatthat treasure in that, in, in
the, in the indiana jonas sense,um, for you is actually about
truth maybe yeah so would yousay that your sole purpose is
something like um uncovering apathway to truth definitely,
(07:54):
definitely think that could uhbe worded well, yeah, um, and
because that's what like lightsme up now is being able to to
talk with people and help themsee that like no, like you don't
think you can do that, but youreally can, because you have
these talents and abilities andskills.
Like I see them in you.
You just don't see them inyourself and you can bring so
much positive to the world bydoing that.
So, yeah, I would say that'sprobably spot on there, so it's
(08:18):
very interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, like I said to me, it's there.
It's just a matter of havingthe courage to do the work and
figure it out and then live intoit, because once you know that,
that knowledge bringsresponsibility.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
For sure, yeah, and so if people do find that, or
they have it like they're on thedirection and they understand
that a little bit and you knowwhat makes that, what makes that
kind of like uh become sticky,what makes that messaging stick,
that they can then go share itwith the world and make an
impact through their business orservices or whatever they're
doing.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Great question.
So one of the things that welook at in business, generally
speaking and this is somethingI'm sure you deploy with your
clients the first thing that youwant to do is to find outcome,
and then the measurement of theoutcome, and then the strategy
and then the tactic.
What most professionals inmarketing and advertising focus
on is on the tactical elements.
They do one thing really welland they want other people to do
(09:11):
that one thing, but that missesthe force for the trees, and so
what we do is we go back up towhat is the outcome and the
measurement of that outcome.
So the first thing you've gotto look at is you as an
individual, as the businessowner, you have to define what
is the outcome that you want tocreate and how are you measuring
that?
So the sole purpose then helpdictate the why, which was your
(09:32):
original question.
But then you need to go intovalues.
What are the values thatreflect that why?
And so we take our clientsthrough a process called North
Star Values, and it kind ofworks like this um, on the ocean
of life, there are four kindsof people.
There are your drifters, and youknow, just because they say,
(09:53):
yeah, man, I'm just going withthe flow.
Wherever the tides have beenset Sounds taken that.
Yeah, that's where I'm going.
Right, they're just they're.
They're thrown around by thewaves and they go wherever.
Where life takes them, takesthem.
The next kind of person on theocean of life is your, is your
surfer.
Now, a surfer is similar tothat to the drifter, in that
(10:19):
they're, they're, they'rebeholden to the waves, but at
least they're up and having funand they're doing something.
They're catching one wave orone trend to the next wave or
the next trend, and so that iswhere most people define success
.
I don't define success that wayat all.
You can create money and wealthand have a lot of fun surfing,
but that's not living into thecore of who you are.
(10:41):
The next type of person on theocean of life is your drowner.
Now, I'm not talking about thethree or four times in life that
we all drown.
We're helping hand someone tohelp us, help us from drowning.
I'm talking about theprofessional drowners, and we
all know professional drownersbecause they they come to us for
help today, we help them, andthey need help again tomorrow.
(11:02):
Like they're, this is theirprofession and really the only
thing that you can do with aprofessional grounder is hold
their head underwater until theystop thrashing, because there's
because that's there's no valuein life of those folks.
The final kind of person on theocean of life is the navigator,
right, and so the navigatorknows who they are and they know
(11:23):
where they're going, and theyhave a value set to keep them in
line with getting there.
Now on the ocean.
Um, before technology, you hadto navigate at night because
there are no fixed points, uh,on the ocean.
And so in the northernhemisphere, we use the north
star, and in the southernhemisphere, they use the
southern cross as the fixedpoint over the axis of the earth
to be able to define if theywere in the right trajectory to
(11:47):
where their destination is.
Life is similar to that.
It's a big, it's like an ocean,and we're on that ocean.
We know what the destination is, which is our sole purpose, but
we need to have a set ofguiding values, a North star, if
you will.
That keeps us in alignmenttowards that outcome, right, and
so the next thing you do isdefine your value, and the final
thing that we do with ourclients is we define what the
(12:10):
promised land looks like whenyou get there, right?
So what we do is we give them amagic wand, metaphorically, and
say fast forward to the end ofyour life.
And the day before your deathand funeral, and the day before
your death and funeral, there'sa party in your honor.
What are people saying aboutyou?
(12:30):
And people don't talk ingeneralities oh, he was a good
man, or he was helpful orwhatever.
No, they talk about specifics.
What exactly have you done forthe people at that party?
What exactly are they saying?
And based on that, what we thendo is we map out the things
from macro to micro, from end oflife to today, and we're
(12:54):
backwards, all of the thingsthat need to be created in order
to be able to get people to saythose things.
And so we're then able todefine what the business model
is for the individual.
Define what the business modelis for the individual.
So if you define sole purpose,your values and then the outcome
(13:15):
of what we're creating, thenit's very easy to see what that
messaging looks like.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Gotcha, so that messaging then can correlate
over to you know, your marketing, your social media, things like
that, correct?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Oh yeah.
So we have lots of tools andsystems that we use.
One of the things that we thendo from a client standpoint is
you've got you as a businessowner, you've got your customers
.
So we've got a couple ofdifferent processes that we
apply.
On the customer side, we deploya process called buyer personas
, which is a process created bymy clients, brian and Jeffrey
Eisenberg, where we borrow fromHollywood and create fictional
(13:47):
characters that representsegments of the overall audience
, create their backstory so weknow why they would be
interested in our clients'products or services and, based
on the backstory, what wouldturn them on or turn them off on
a buyer-person basis, on thepersonal brand standpoint.
After we create this definition, the next thing we do is create
(14:08):
what we call a characterdiamond.
This is also borrowed fromHollywood.
This is a tool that's used indefining characters for TV shows
, movies and cartoons.
Things to note is that whenyou're dealing in short form
(14:30):
content, when you're dealingwith marketing, advertising,
books, movies, tv shows, theseare short form content in
context of the totality of life.
People aren't able tounderstand the nuance of an
individual or character or brand.
Nuance is too complex and theydon't invest the time or energy
to understand those nuances.
For the most part, um, I mean,they're, they're Robert fans at,
(14:52):
might, but but most peopledon't, don't, um, really take
the time to understand thenuances of, of the characters or
the universe that they're in,or or what's going on.
They're just there for the, the, the entertainment that's for
marketing and advertising.
And so what we do then is we saycool, if they don't like the
nuances, they want extremespecifics.
(15:15):
And so what we do is we createfour different parts of a
character diamond that cannot becollapsed together, that are
all antithetical to each other,that make the extreme nature of
the business owner and theirbrand, so that we can express
that to the client.
A fictional example of thiswould be did you ever see the TV
show house?
Okay, so let's, let's talkabout his character.
(15:41):
He was a diagnostic genius,yeah, he was an asshole and he
was an addict, right?
So those are, those were thepoints that they taught, that
they showed from that characterin every single episode.
(16:01):
You knew what you were to getfrom him.
Yeah, but you know House workedbecause historically that
character, which has been donemany times in the past, always
worked.
Do you know what characterHouse is based on?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Cool, so let's go back.
Someone who's neurotic, someonewho is antisocial, someone who
is a genius at doing research,somebody who is an asshole and
someone who is also an addict.
Can you think of any othercharacters?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Oh gosh, I probably know one, as you say it.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
One of the most famous characters of all time.
I don't know.
Let me give you a clue.
What?
What is another name?
What is another word for house?
Uh dwelling living placesimpler than that four letters
oh gosh home home, huh, can youthink of a character with that
(17:05):
name?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
oh, no, putting me on the spot uh how about sherlock
holmes?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
oh okay, yeah, uh-huh right, so let's talk about
sherlock holmes yeah he wasneurotic yeah he was an asshole
yep uh, he was a a genius atdoing his research.
In his case it was crime versusmedical cases and he was an
addict.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
What was his best friend's name?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, I was going to say Watson, what was?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
his best friend's name.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I forget his friend's name and how.
Yeah, Wilson, that's right.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Right.
So they were the same characterand, in terms of writing, we
know that in communicationengaging with people, that we
most human beings most of thetime glob onto those specific
things, and so what we look atthat is what are relatable
characters from the past thatpeople would recognize those
(17:59):
characteristics of, and then tryto create an alignment with
that in terms of ourcommunication.
So, after we define solepurpose, north star, yep, um,
and then the, the magic wand outoutcomes and it's like cool,
let's build that characterdiamond and from there, then one
of the things that we do is acool based on those character
diamonds.
What is the 15 phrases thatrepresent this character diamond
(18:22):
?
Okay, and then what we do isand they have to be standalone
statements that don't overlap,and what we then do is we put,
we we sprinkle in three to fiveof these statements into
everything that we put out.
Right, it doesn't, and weshould be able to do it like
rolling dice and whatever randomone pops up yeah, one that we
(18:43):
put in Okay.
The idea is that then thosephrases would use over and over,
and, over and, over and overagain, create the mental hook
within, within the audience, sothat they could identify with
that phrase, and those phrasesthen tie back to the character
diamond, which is what we're,which is what we're branding.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Interesting.
So cause this is reallyinteresting, cause I literally
just looked up characterdiamonds, um, like last week, I
think, to kind of dig into thata little bit more uh, for we can
improve our content going out,and so this is really like
timely for us too, and likefreeman is the is the inventor
of of uh character admins.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
He um, he's a consultant to hollywood, um, and
also now to uh the video gameindustry, because there's a lot
of video games, sure, um, andhe's a, he's a genius, but he's
the one that created that, thatprocess it's really interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So how do you pick those?
So my mind goes to thosephrases like how do you?
Because I'm trying to wrap mymind around that part like those
phrases, what could that looklike, that could be used
interchangeably, kind of thing.
I guess I'm not, I can't graspthat, so I'm one of like so one
of my clients is roy h williams.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
He's known as the wizard of ads.
He owns the fourth largest adagency in north america for
buying radio and he's a livinglegend in marketing and
advertising.
Okay, he is a polymath, he is.
He is direct, okay, and he, hegenuinely cares about people.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Okay, so that's his diamond.
That's his diamond.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Okay, um he.
One of the statements that wehave for Roy is the risk of
insult is the price of clarity.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Hmm, okay.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Right, and so what we know is we can use those words
to define what, and then theindustry that they're in and who
they're talking to.
Sure, what are the relevantpieces?
So it takes work and planning,but if you know the character
guide, you know thecharacteristics and you know the
industry, then what are thethings that that person, if
they're not saying?
And in part they may already besaying some of those things.
(21:00):
So, typically speaking, we tryto get them to give us some of
their catchphrases to start offwith, to give us some direction.
But any creative contentcreator or writer should be able
to use the information fromsoul purpose, north star, magic
wand uh, uh, magic wand and thecharacter diamond to be, and
then the industry, that thatthat the the individual works in
(21:22):
, to be able to come up withwhat those phrases are.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Okay, no, it's interesting.
No, yeah, it just it's justperfect timing Cause you, I said
, just looked this up, so Ithink it's a and I think I think
it simplifies like having thosepieces and like, like you said,
house and then, uh, sherlockholmes having that.
Are there other characterdiamonds that are like that?
We should aim to kind of fitwithin like that, like
(21:46):
psychologically, like people.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
no, I said, be who you are and then define what the
not the nuance rates of who youare, but the perceived extreme
traits.
And the thing about perceptionit may not, it may not be
reality, it could be just what'sperceived, but that's what
people are seeing.
Yeah, right, and so they.
People aren't just buying whatyou're selling, they're buying
who you are, and so we want toperpetuate those things.
(22:11):
Once you figure out thosethings and they need to be not
there needs to be very littleoverlap, that you need to have
contrast between them.
But once you've created that,it's not that difficult to then
be able to have that influence,all of the messaging and
communication moving forward.
It also necessarily impactsthings like design and colors
(22:33):
and uses of fonts and all sortsof things, because the character
of a thing, of a person or abusiness or a brand that
character can be expressed inmany different ways.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Okay, I like that.
Yeah, then it'd be interestingfor us to use for our stuff,
because, again, it's theperceived perceived what people
perceive you.
As I think it's the importantpart, they're not necessary.
I mean, who it's who you are,but what people perceive outside
is what should be in thediamond.
So how do you?
How do you figure that out?
How do you figure out what theperception of you is versus how
(23:06):
you maybe see yourself?
Is that different?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
so there's a saying I'm sure you've used with with
folks that you work with it'sdifficult to read the label from
the inside of the bottle, yeahRight.
And so this is where folks likeyou and I need to come in,
where we need to look at theindividual from the outside and
look at what their customers andothers are saying, to be able
to analyze what that is.
It's very difficult for you, asan individual, to have the
(23:28):
perspective to be able to dothat.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, that's a great point and you know I've already.
I'm like I just need to ask myteam and I'm sure they'll tell
me how big a pain I am, orwhatever.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
For some people.
For some people, if you onceyou once you know what that is,
then it's very easy to personifythat, to live into, into those
things.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, no, I think that's good and I think some of
that does.
Do you see people like theyfigure out those perceptions or
they see those things, but thenthey still struggle to create
around those due to maybe lackof confidence or, like you
mentioned earlier, the theimposter syndrome type things
limiting beliefs?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
So for me, the folks that I work with have a level of
success to begin with, Sure,and so to be able to get to that
point they have to have a levelof confidence in themselves to
be able to to have that success.
So I don't normally run into aconfidence issue in the regard
of imposter syndrome.
(24:27):
Actually, where we normallyhave any issues at all is sole
purpose, Because getting intothat and that depth of the why
can be a really emotionalexperience for a very confident
person.
And the sole purpose may besomething that you want to
express in your business, butit's not explicitly stated.
Oftentimes our clients don't saywhat their sole purpose is.
(24:48):
They simply live into it andmake sure that their values,
which should be known byeverybody their employees and
vendors and customers and whattheir outcome should be known.
But the sole purpose is oftenoften kept private to the
individual.
But that's normally where wehave that problem getting in.
Look again, if you have anymeasure of actual success, the
(25:11):
things that we're talking abouthere, they should be
self-apparent, right, they'rethere.
It's just a matter of someonehaving the the understanding and
perspective on how to look forthose things.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
Where would you, where wouldyou recommend someone starting,
if maybe they don't necessarilyhave that success yet, like
they're just starting out intheir business, but they want to
start putting these in place sothey can grow?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
This is where I go back to sole purpose.
First, and here's the thing,people don't do things that they
don't have some innateconfidence that they can do for
some reason, whatever that is.
And that reason is usually tiedto the sole purpose.
So if you can really clearlydefine the why and the
supportive values and then andthen have a really clear picture
(25:56):
of what the outcome is going tolook like, then then confidence
is is illusionary.
Right, it's, it's, it can bethere, it's a subconscious thing
that you can feel, but you'relike, no, if you know sole
purpose, values, outcome, you'vegot and you've got the plan to
be able to get there.
It's just, it's just aboutdoing it.
(26:17):
At that point the realdifference between someone who
lacks confidence and hasconfidence is in the doing.
So if you define these things,you're confident in those points
, then just go and do and do ituntil you are confident.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
For sure.
No, I think that's spot on andum, it's like for me, and
running, like I know I can run Imean I'm not the best, I'm not
the fastest, but I know I can gorun a marathon, I know I can do
it it's gonna suck, uh, it'sgonna hurt, um, like I I've done
it before.
So it's like I have thatconfidence.
And you know, my first one Iwasn't probably as confident.
(26:50):
And now you know, now I can.
Just, I know I can do it, um,despite any pain, or you know,
whatever, my first one I wasn'tprobably as confident.
And now you know, now I can,just I know I can do it despite
any pain, or you know, whatevermight happen.
And I think that's kind of youknow most most people have.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
They don't do things because they have fear, and fear
is when you envision somethingthat isn't reality happening
right it hasn't.
It hasn't yet happened, andwhat I would say is, most
failures aren't even seen byanybody outside of yourself.
Right, yeah, right, like.
(27:20):
So the biggest critic that youhave is yourself, a hundred
percent.
And so you know, one of mybeliefs is is to fail, and fail
efficiently, because you'regoing to.
You need to fail your way intosuccess.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, yeah, Cause you can't get better unless you you
know take it, take a shot andmiss yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
So for me, the only way that failure is actual
failure is if you do it in a waywhere you don't have any
learning and you don't have anygrowth, and that can happen.
So what I would tell you is setout to fail.
Fail efficiently and fail in away that assures that you're
learning and growing.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
No, I like that.
This has been fantastic.
I really, you know, I love thedirection this went.
Again, we don't we don't scriptanything here on this podcast.
We kind of just let the we havea main topic and we kind of
just see where it goes, and thiswas, I think, a great direction
that it took.
And so, michael, super, superthankful for you sharing all
that and diving into those stepsof building that character
(28:21):
diamond and things like that formessaging.
So I would love for you toshare, maybe, things you're
working on where people canconnect with you for sure if
they need more help.
Yeah, so where's the best placefor people to go?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
sure if they need more help, um, yeah, so where?
Where's the best place forpeople to go?
So, so what I'm most well knownfor for the savior audience is
promoting 131 books to the newyork times, washington journal,
us today, business week andsuccess bestseller lists yeah,
um, and so I've been in bookpublishing now, uh, by the end
of this year will be 27 years,um, and so I mentioned that my
sole purpose is voice, helpingpeople find, test and amplify
(28:54):
their voice, and so certainly werun the bestseller campaigns
which people can find out atpromotabookcom.
I try to keep things simpleP-R-O-M-O-T-E-A-B-O-O-Kcom.
But one of my clients, t HarvEcker, who wrote a book titled
Secrets of the Millionaire Mindwhich we put to number one in
the New York Times for him, acouple of years after we ran
that campaign, harv said to meyou know, mike, you do a really
(29:19):
great job putting folks like meon the best sellers list and
supporting our voice and helpingus change industries in the
world, and he said you shouldkeep doing that.
It's wonderful.
But he said there's a lot ofpeople who can't afford to do
what we do, that don't have our,that don't yet have our level
of platform, that need whatyou're doing, you need to go
(29:40):
figure out how to be able to dothat, and so what I did then is
I developed for myself a modeland a system for being able to
extract ideas and turn them intocontent that we could then turn
into value for customers, whichthen would generate money.
One of the things to note is Isuffer from 26 learning
disabilities.
(30:00):
I'm a high school dropout, andso when I developed this model,
I had to do it to be able toaddress all of my learning
disabilities so that I could getit out.
I suffer from more than twokinds of dyslexia, so this model
was developed for that, andwhat I've done over the years is
codified that andoperationalized that to the
(30:21):
point where, for people who areeither just starting out or who
have small to medium-sizedbusinesses, aren't quite at the
ready to go for the New YorkTimes, but are working towards
that route, we do a retreat inGuatemala one or two times a
year, where it's a month longretreat at a place called Lake
Atitlan, which is a former supervolcano that is now a lake, and
(30:44):
we spent a month there.
The first week we go through myoutlining process and at the
end of the process.
The outline is so detailed thatit eliminates the thinking of
the content creator.
I'm not a natural writer.
I have natural writers on staff.
I pay them, but I'm not anatural writer.
(31:05):
Most of my clients are notnatural writers.
I have a couple of sectionslike Roy Williams, but most are
not natural writers.
What we are are storytellers.
We're amazing storytellersbased on the experience that we
have.
And so what we do then in thewriting process again this goes
to the left right hemisphere ofthe brain is we get the
logicking done first, so that wecan satisfy the left hemisphere
(31:26):
of the brain, so that the nextthree weeks in the retreat
they're able to just answer andflesh out all of the little
micro parts within the outline.
So it's just bite-sized bits ofinformation that's being
written on a daily basis, and atthe end of the month they'll
have a book written, and thepromise of the retreat is, once
(31:47):
the book is written, my teamwill do the editing and the
designing.
And this is important for acouple of reasons.
Number one Hemingway saidthere's no such thing as a good
writer, only a good editor, andso with that we then offer that
editing so that the attendees atthe retreat, don't have to
worry about that.
The other is that because we'redoing the editing and design, I
(32:08):
have several publishers who arelined up who are willing to
publish the books that come outof the retreat.
So we'll guarantee a publishingcontract out of that retreat.
So if folks are at that levelthen I would suggest that they
go to again.
I keep it simple bookretreatcomB-O-O-K-R-E-T-R-E-A-Tcom.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
That's awesome.
Yeah, everyone, if you're readyfor his help, if you're at that
level, definitely reach out,check that information out, get
connected with Michael andcontinue to grow and elevate
what you're doing.
But, michael, again, thanks somuch for being on the Elevate
Media podcast today.
Thanks for having me yetsubscribe to the show, follow it
(32:54):
, like it all that fun stuff andthen share this episode with
someone, someone who might betrying to figure out how to
streamline their messaging andget it even more sticky out
there, master that messaging.
So together we can do so muchmore and help so many more
people through sharing, and weappreciate everybody who listens
in and shares.
But until next time, continueto go out there, elevate your
life, elevate your brand, andwe'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media
Podcast.
Don't forget to subscribe andleave a review.
See you in the next episode.
Welcome to the Elevate Media podcast with your
host, chris Anderson.
In this show, chris and hisguests will share their
knowledge and experience on howto go from zero to successful
entrepreneur.
They have built theirbusinesses from scratch and are
now ready to give back to thosewho are just starting.
Let's get ready to learn, growand elevate our businesses.
And now your host, chrisAnderson.
(00:22):
Grow and elevate our businesses.
And now your host, chrisAnderson.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate
Media Podcast.
I'm Chris Anderson, your host,and today we're going to be
diving into why it's soimportant to master your
messaging, to stand out in anocean filled with other people
doing what you're doing, and sowe brought on an expert who does
just that, and he does itthrough marketing books, and
(00:45):
he's been super successfulmarketing his own books,
marketing books for others, andso we're super excited to have
this conversation.
Michael Drew, welcome to theepisode today.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thanks for having me, Chris.
It's a real pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Absolutely.
So you know with this what gotyou, we're going to dive right
into it.
So you know with this what gotyou, we're going to dive right
into it.
What got you so excited andpassionate about, you know,
marketing books and helpingpeople kind of get that message
out there and to stand out.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It's a really good question.
Part of it, I think, has to dowith my pedigree my grandfather
was the dean of the LibraryScience School at Brigham Young
University.
My father was a professor ofliterature at BYU.
My mother was a graduate fromthe Library Science School.
I've been in books since I wasa very young young boy, but I
(01:36):
think one of the things Ilearned later in life from one
of my clients his name isGarrett Gunnarsson.
He wrote a series of New YorkTimes bestselling books, one of
which is titled Killing SacredCows, which is his biggest book
on wealth management, and backin 2006, when I began working
with him, he indicated to methat he has a very unique
(01:56):
investment philosophy, which isaround an idea or concept called
soul purpose S-O-U-L purpose,called Soul Purpose, s-o-u-l
Purpose and he believes thateveryone that is born onto this
planet is born with a soulpurpose and that their talents
and skills and experiences, thelens through which they view the
world, is based on and aroundthat soul purpose.
And that soul purpose isn't foryou as an individual, but rather
(02:19):
your service of your fellow man.
But from a financial standpoint, his value, then is invest in
your fellow man, but from afinancial standpoint.
His value, then, is invest inyour sole purpose, know that
what you're investing issomething that you intimately
know, on a very deep level, sothat, whether it's your own
business or whether it's a stockthat you're investing in, that
you can actually look at andassess whether they're doing a
(02:42):
good job or not with your moneyright as an investor.
And so I took that to heart,and we've deployed that with all
of our clients and for myselfpersonally, and I've defined my
sole purpose as voice helpingpeople find, test and amplify
their voice, and so a book, then, is a very natural extension of
(03:04):
that amplification voice.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Sure yeah, and I like that, I think.
Why do you think so many people, though, struggle to find you
know that soul, that that brandmessaging?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, I think that actually has to do with um, um,
the, the dichotomy, and howwe're raised and how the the
theoretical left brain and righthemisphere of the brain work.
One of the things that we knowis that until you're about eight
, you're not really human.
You're not cognitivelydeveloped enough to be able to
know what's right or wrong andto make determinations.
(03:36):
The purpose of the lefthemisphere of the brain is to
filter out not essentialinformation.
The universe is bombarding uswith data loads of data to
filter out non-essentialinformation.
The universe is bombarding uswith data, loads of data, and
our species, the Homo sapiensspecies we process specific
types of that data.
Different species, differentanimals process different bits
of data.
We know that some animals havebetter hearing or better sight
(03:58):
or better smelling or whateverelse, based on the survival of
that species.
The Homo sapiens species has aset of data that is relevant to
our survival, thrival andexperience, and so the purpose
of the left hemisphere, then, isto filter out all of the
non-essential information sothat we can be focused on the
(04:19):
essential information.
This conversation that we'rehaving is happening through the
left hemisphere of the braininformation.
This conversation that we'rehaving is happening through the
left hemisphere of the brain.
Like taste, touch, sound, sight, smell, are all these visceral
left brain experiences right,and it's a really powerful thing
, this left hemisphere, becauseit keeps us from harming
ourselves by processing too muchinformation.
(04:40):
This is also where the humanoperating system, as some people
might put it, gets developed.
When we're a child, parents sayyes or no, do this, don't, do
that become the rule set for ourindividual operating system.
And so what happens?
Over time, as we're growing up,this operating system is set
and it creates what people inthe personal development space
(05:02):
would call self-limiting beliefsor eschatomas, which are the
electrical wiring in your brainthat connects thoughts and
feelings together, and this thencreates within the individual
the self-limited beliefs of whatthey can and they can't do.
Now, to directly answer yourquestion, I know that everybody
(05:24):
actually knows what their solepurpose is.
What happens is when you were akid, like five to eight, you
wanted to be a doctor, lawyer,fireman, a policeman, a member
of the military.
Whatever it was, you wanted todo something.
And there was a reason for thatand in that age range there was
no empirical right or wrong.
It was just this is what wasmost important and valuable to
(05:46):
you.
And so when we work with aclient, one of the things that
we do is we work at brushingaway all of the self-limiting
beliefs and learning in thatoperating system to be able to
get down to the core of theindividual.
But I believe it's there.
It's simply having the courageto accept what that means.
Because for many of us, when oneof the reasons that keeps us
(06:09):
from doing that is that if you,if you don't know your purpose
and you're not living into it,that means that you're not,
you're not living into thefullness of who you are, and
that's really scary because thatmeans that you are not living
into your complete abilities andyou're not serving people in
the way that you should, andthat doesn't feel good.
And so it's a scary propositionto be able to go and figure
that out, but I'm I'm confident.
(06:30):
I've never met somebody that weweren't able to define what
that is.
It's just, it's almost a formof psychology, to brush away the
, the cobwebs and the and theself-loathing beliefs to get to
the core of the core.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah, no, I like that .
You know, when I was a kid, Iwanted to be either James Bond
or Indiana Jones.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So but why?
Why did you want?
Speaker 2 (06:52):
to be Indiana Jones.
Yeah, I think you know, I justliked uncovering secrets, like
not like in a like a gossipysense, but like unlocking things
.
Unlocking like what's out there, like finding truth, unlocking
things, unlocking like what'sout there, like finding truth.
And James Bond, I think youknow the excitement, the
adventure, the unknown, you knowfighting against evil for good
(07:13):
to prevail.
So like I think, and now kindof seeing that in what I do, I
really like talking with peopleand helping them uncover things
in their life that they mightnot see in themselves.
So uncovering those secrets,uncovering that treasure, um, so
then they can, you know, bringthat to the world in a good way
and make a positive impact.
(07:33):
So like kind of see how thatrelates a little bit um, so, so
really quick, would you say thatthat treasure in that, in, in
the, in the indiana jonas sense,um, for you is actually about
truth maybe yeah so would yousay that your sole purpose is
something like um uncovering apathway to truth definitely,
(07:54):
definitely think that could uhbe worded well, yeah, um, and
because that's what like lightsme up now is being able to to
talk with people and help themsee that like no, like you don't
think you can do that, but youreally can, because you have
these talents and abilities andskills.
Like I see them in you.
You just don't see them inyourself and you can bring so
much positive to the world bydoing that.
So, yeah, I would say that'sprobably spot on there, so it's
(08:18):
very interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, like I said to me, it's there.
It's just a matter of havingthe courage to do the work and
figure it out and then live intoit, because once you know that,
that knowledge bringsresponsibility.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
For sure, yeah, and so if people do find that, or
they have it like they're on thedirection and they understand
that a little bit and you knowwhat makes that, what makes that
kind of like uh become sticky,what makes that messaging stick,
that they can then go share itwith the world and make an
impact through their business orservices or whatever they're
doing.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Great question.
So one of the things that welook at in business, generally
speaking and this is somethingI'm sure you deploy with your
clients the first thing that youwant to do is to find outcome,
and then the measurement of theoutcome, and then the strategy
and then the tactic.
What most professionals inmarketing and advertising focus
on is on the tactical elements.
They do one thing really welland they want other people to do
(09:11):
that one thing, but that missesthe force for the trees, and so
what we do is we go back up towhat is the outcome and the
measurement of that outcome.
So the first thing you've gotto look at is you as an
individual, as the businessowner, you have to define what
is the outcome that you want tocreate and how are you measuring
that?
So the sole purpose then helpdictate the why, which was your
(09:32):
original question.
But then you need to go intovalues.
What are the values thatreflect that why?
And so we take our clientsthrough a process called North
Star Values, and it kind ofworks like this um, on the ocean
of life, there are four kindsof people.
There are your drifters, and youknow, just because they say,
(09:53):
yeah, man, I'm just going withthe flow.
Wherever the tides have beenset Sounds taken that.
Yeah, that's where I'm going.
Right, they're just they're.
They're thrown around by thewaves and they go wherever.
Where life takes them, takesthem.
The next kind of person on theocean of life is your, is your
surfer.
Now, a surfer is similar tothat to the drifter, in that
(10:19):
they're, they're, they'rebeholden to the waves, but at
least they're up and having funand they're doing something.
They're catching one wave orone trend to the next wave or
the next trend, and so that iswhere most people define success
.
I don't define success that wayat all.
You can create money and wealthand have a lot of fun surfing,
but that's not living into thecore of who you are.
(10:41):
The next type of person on theocean of life is your drowner.
Now, I'm not talking about thethree or four times in life that
we all drown.
We're helping hand someone tohelp us, help us from drowning.
I'm talking about theprofessional drowners, and we
all know professional drownersbecause they they come to us for
help today, we help them, andthey need help again tomorrow.
(11:02):
Like they're, this is theirprofession and really the only
thing that you can do with aprofessional grounder is hold
their head underwater until theystop thrashing, because there's
because that's there's no valuein life of those folks.
The final kind of person on theocean of life is the navigator,
right, and so the navigatorknows who they are and they know
(11:23):
where they're going, and theyhave a value set to keep them in
line with getting there.
Now on the ocean.
Um, before technology, you hadto navigate at night because
there are no fixed points, uh,on the ocean.
And so in the northernhemisphere, we use the north
star, and in the southernhemisphere, they use the
southern cross as the fixedpoint over the axis of the earth
to be able to define if theywere in the right trajectory to
(11:47):
where their destination is.
Life is similar to that.
It's a big, it's like an ocean,and we're on that ocean.
We know what the destination is, which is our sole purpose, but
we need to have a set ofguiding values, a North star, if
you will.
That keeps us in alignmenttowards that outcome, right, and
so the next thing you do isdefine your value, and the final
thing that we do with ourclients is we define what the
(12:10):
promised land looks like whenyou get there, right?
So what we do is we give them amagic wand, metaphorically, and
say fast forward to the end ofyour life.
And the day before your deathand funeral, and the day before
your death and funeral, there'sa party in your honor.
What are people saying aboutyou?
(12:30):
And people don't talk ingeneralities oh, he was a good
man, or he was helpful orwhatever.
No, they talk about specifics.
What exactly have you done forthe people at that party?
What exactly are they saying?
And based on that, what we thendo is we map out the things
from macro to micro, from end oflife to today, and we're
(12:54):
backwards, all of the thingsthat need to be created in order
to be able to get people to saythose things.
And so we're then able todefine what the business model
is for the individual.
Define what the business modelis for the individual.
So if you define sole purpose,your values and then the outcome
(13:15):
of what we're creating, thenit's very easy to see what that
messaging looks like.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Gotcha, so that messaging then can correlate
over to you know, your marketing, your social media, things like
that, correct?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Oh yeah.
So we have lots of tools andsystems that we use.
One of the things that we thendo from a client standpoint is
you've got you as a businessowner, you've got your customers
.
So we've got a couple ofdifferent processes that we
apply.
On the customer side, we deploya process called buyer personas
, which is a process created bymy clients, brian and Jeffrey
Eisenberg, where we borrow fromHollywood and create fictional
(13:47):
characters that representsegments of the overall audience
, create their backstory so weknow why they would be
interested in our clients'products or services and, based
on the backstory, what wouldturn them on or turn them off on
a buyer-person basis, on thepersonal brand standpoint.
After we create this definition, the next thing we do is create
(14:08):
what we call a characterdiamond.
This is also borrowed fromHollywood.
This is a tool that's used indefining characters for TV shows
, movies and cartoons.
Things to note is that whenyou're dealing in short form
(14:30):
content, when you're dealingwith marketing, advertising,
books, movies, tv shows, theseare short form content in
context of the totality of life.
People aren't able tounderstand the nuance of an
individual or character or brand.
Nuance is too complex and theydon't invest the time or energy
to understand those nuances.
For the most part, um, I mean,they're, they're Robert fans at,
(14:52):
might, but but most peopledon't, don't, um, really take
the time to understand thenuances of, of the characters or
the universe that they're in,or or what's going on.
They're just there for the, the, the entertainment that's for
marketing and advertising.
And so what we do then is we saycool, if they don't like the
nuances, they want extremespecifics.
(15:15):
And so what we do is we createfour different parts of a
character diamond that cannot becollapsed together, that are
all antithetical to each other,that make the extreme nature of
the business owner and theirbrand, so that we can express
that to the client.
A fictional example of thiswould be did you ever see the TV
show house?
Okay, so let's, let's talkabout his character.
(15:41):
He was a diagnostic genius,yeah, he was an asshole and he
was an addict, right?
So those are, those were thepoints that they taught, that
they showed from that characterin every single episode.
(16:01):
You knew what you were to getfrom him.
Yeah, but you know House workedbecause historically that
character, which has been donemany times in the past, always
worked.
Do you know what characterHouse is based on?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Cool, so let's go back.
Someone who's neurotic, someonewho is antisocial, someone who
is a genius at doing research,somebody who is an asshole and
someone who is also an addict.
Can you think of any othercharacters?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Oh gosh, I probably know one, as you say it.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
One of the most famous characters of all time.
I don't know.
Let me give you a clue.
What?
What is another name?
What is another word for house?
Uh dwelling living placesimpler than that four letters
oh gosh home home, huh, can youthink of a character with that
(17:05):
name?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
oh, no, putting me on the spot uh how about sherlock
holmes?
Speaker 3 (17:11):
oh okay, yeah, uh-huh right, so let's talk about
sherlock holmes yeah he wasneurotic yeah he was an asshole
yep uh, he was a a genius atdoing his research.
In his case it was crime versusmedical cases and he was an
addict.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
What was his best friend's name?
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, I was going to say Watson, what was?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
his best friend's name.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I forget his friend's name and how.
Yeah, Wilson, that's right.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Right.
So they were the same characterand, in terms of writing, we
know that in communicationengaging with people, that we
most human beings most of thetime glob onto those specific
things, and so what we look atthat is what are relatable
characters from the past thatpeople would recognize those
(17:59):
characteristics of, and then tryto create an alignment with
that in terms of ourcommunication.
So, after we define solepurpose, north star, yep, um,
and then the, the magic wand outoutcomes and it's like cool,
let's build that characterdiamond and from there, then one
of the things that we do is acool based on those character
diamonds.
What is the 15 phrases thatrepresent this character diamond
(18:22):
?
Okay, and then what we do isand they have to be standalone
statements that don't overlap,and what we then do is we put,
we we sprinkle in three to fiveof these statements into
everything that we put out.
Right, it doesn't, and weshould be able to do it like
rolling dice and whatever randomone pops up yeah, one that we
(18:43):
put in Okay.
The idea is that then thosephrases would use over and over,
and, over and, over and overagain, create the mental hook
within, within the audience, sothat they could identify with
that phrase, and those phrasesthen tie back to the character
diamond, which is what we're,which is what we're branding.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Interesting.
So cause this is reallyinteresting, cause I literally
just looked up characterdiamonds, um, like last week, I
think, to kind of dig into thata little bit more uh, for we can
improve our content going out,and so this is really like
timely for us too, and likefreeman is the is the inventor
of of uh character admins.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
He um, he's a consultant to hollywood, um, and
also now to uh the video gameindustry, because there's a lot
of video games, sure, um, andhe's a, he's a genius, but he's
the one that created that, thatprocess it's really interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So how do you pick those?
So my mind goes to thosephrases like how do you?
Because I'm trying to wrap mymind around that part like those
phrases, what could that looklike, that could be used
interchangeably, kind of thing.
I guess I'm not, I can't graspthat, so I'm one of like so one
of my clients is roy h williams.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
He's known as the wizard of ads.
He owns the fourth largest adagency in north america for
buying radio and he's a livinglegend in marketing and
advertising.
Okay, he is a polymath, he is.
He is direct, okay, and he, hegenuinely cares about people.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Okay, so that's his diamond.
That's his diamond.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Okay, um he.
One of the statements that wehave for Roy is the risk of
insult is the price of clarity.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Hmm, okay.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Right, and so what we know is we can use those words
to define what, and then theindustry that they're in and who
they're talking to.
Sure, what are the relevantpieces?
So it takes work and planning,but if you know the character
guide, you know thecharacteristics and you know the
industry, then what are thethings that that person, if
they're not saying?
And in part they may already besaying some of those things.
(21:00):
So, typically speaking, we tryto get them to give us some of
their catchphrases to start offwith, to give us some direction.
But any creative contentcreator or writer should be able
to use the information fromsoul purpose, north star, magic
wand uh, uh, magic wand and thecharacter diamond to be, and
then the industry, that thatthat the the individual works in
(21:22):
, to be able to come up withwhat those phrases are.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Okay, no, it's interesting.
No, yeah, it just it's justperfect timing Cause you, I said
, just looked this up, so Ithink it's a and I think I think
it simplifies like having thosepieces and like, like you said,
house and then, uh, sherlockholmes having that.
Are there other characterdiamonds that are like that?
We should aim to kind of fitwithin like that, like
(21:46):
psychologically, like people.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
no, I said, be who you are and then define what the
not the nuance rates of who youare, but the perceived extreme
traits.
And the thing about perceptionit may not, it may not be
reality, it could be just what'sperceived, but that's what
people are seeing.
Yeah, right, and so they.
People aren't just buying whatyou're selling, they're buying
who you are, and so we want toperpetuate those things.
(22:11):
Once you figure out thosethings and they need to be not
there needs to be very littleoverlap, that you need to have
contrast between them.
But once you've created that,it's not that difficult to then
be able to have that influence,all of the messaging and
communication moving forward.
It also necessarily impactsthings like design and colors
(22:33):
and uses of fonts and all sortsof things, because the character
of a thing, of a person or abusiness or a brand that
character can be expressed inmany different ways.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Okay, I like that.
Yeah, then it'd be interestingfor us to use for our stuff,
because, again, it's theperceived perceived what people
perceive you.
As I think it's the importantpart, they're not necessary.
I mean, who it's who you are,but what people perceive outside
is what should be in thediamond.
So how do you?
How do you figure that out?
How do you figure out what theperception of you is versus how
(23:06):
you maybe see yourself?
Is that different?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
so there's a saying I'm sure you've used with with
folks that you work with it'sdifficult to read the label from
the inside of the bottle, yeahRight.
And so this is where folks likeyou and I need to come in,
where we need to look at theindividual from the outside and
look at what their customers andothers are saying, to be able
to analyze what that is.
It's very difficult for you, asan individual, to have the
(23:28):
perspective to be able to dothat.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, that's a great point and you know I've already.
I'm like I just need to ask myteam and I'm sure they'll tell
me how big a pain I am, orwhatever.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
For some people.
For some people, if you onceyou once you know what that is,
then it's very easy to personifythat, to live into, into those
things.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Yeah, no, I think that's good and I think some of
that does.
Do you see people like theyfigure out those perceptions or
they see those things, but thenthey still struggle to create
around those due to maybe lackof confidence or, like you
mentioned earlier, the theimposter syndrome type things
limiting beliefs?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
So for me, the folks that I work with have a level of
success to begin with, Sure,and so to be able to get to that
point they have to have a levelof confidence in themselves to
be able to to have that success.
So I don't normally run into aconfidence issue in the regard
of imposter syndrome.
(24:27):
Actually, where we normallyhave any issues at all is sole
purpose, Because getting intothat and that depth of the why
can be a really emotionalexperience for a very confident
person.
And the sole purpose may besomething that you want to
express in your business, butit's not explicitly stated.
Oftentimes our clients don't saywhat their sole purpose is.
(24:48):
They simply live into it andmake sure that their values,
which should be known byeverybody their employees and
vendors and customers and whattheir outcome should be known.
But the sole purpose is oftenoften kept private to the
individual.
But that's normally where wehave that problem getting in.
Look again, if you have anymeasure of actual success, the
(25:11):
things that we're talking abouthere, they should be
self-apparent, right, they'rethere.
It's just a matter of someonehaving the the understanding and
perspective on how to look forthose things.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
Where would you, where wouldyou recommend someone starting,
if maybe they don't necessarilyhave that success yet, like
they're just starting out intheir business, but they want to
start putting these in place sothey can grow?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
This is where I go back to sole purpose.
First, and here's the thing,people don't do things that they
don't have some innateconfidence that they can do for
some reason, whatever that is.
And that reason is usually tiedto the sole purpose.
So if you can really clearlydefine the why and the
supportive values and then andthen have a really clear picture
(25:56):
of what the outcome is going tolook like, then then confidence
is is illusionary.
Right, it's, it's, it can bethere, it's a subconscious thing
that you can feel, but you'relike, no, if you know sole
purpose, values, outcome, you'vegot and you've got the plan to
be able to get there.
It's just, it's just aboutdoing it.
(26:17):
At that point the realdifference between someone who
lacks confidence and hasconfidence is in the doing.
So if you define these things,you're confident in those points
, then just go and do and do ituntil you are confident.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
For sure.
No, I think that's spot on andum, it's like for me, and
running, like I know I can run Imean I'm not the best, I'm not
the fastest, but I know I can gorun a marathon, I know I can do
it it's gonna suck, uh, it'sgonna hurt, um, like I I've done
it before.
So it's like I have thatconfidence.
And you know, my first one Iwasn't probably as confident.
(26:50):
And now you know, now I can.
Just, I know I can do it, um,despite any pain, or you know,
whatever, my first one I wasn'tprobably as confident.
And now you know, now I can,just I know I can do it despite
any pain, or you know, whatevermight happen.
And I think that's kind of youknow most most people have.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
They don't do things because they have fear, and fear
is when you envision somethingthat isn't reality happening
right it hasn't.
It hasn't yet happened, andwhat I would say is, most
failures aren't even seen byanybody outside of yourself.
Right, yeah, right, like.
(27:20):
So the biggest critic that youhave is yourself, a hundred
percent.
And so you know, one of mybeliefs is is to fail, and fail
efficiently, because you'regoing to.
You need to fail your way intosuccess.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, yeah, Cause you can't get better unless you you
know take it, take a shot andmiss yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
So for me, the only way that failure is actual
failure is if you do it in a waywhere you don't have any
learning and you don't have anygrowth, and that can happen.
So what I would tell you is setout to fail.
Fail efficiently and fail in away that assures that you're
learning and growing.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
No, I like that.
This has been fantastic.
I really, you know, I love thedirection this went.
Again, we don't we don't scriptanything here on this podcast.
We kind of just let the we havea main topic and we kind of
just see where it goes, and thiswas, I think, a great direction
that it took.
And so, michael, super, superthankful for you sharing all
that and diving into those stepsof building that character
(28:21):
diamond and things like that formessaging.
So I would love for you toshare, maybe, things you're
working on where people canconnect with you for sure if
they need more help.
Yeah, so where's the best placefor people to go?
Speaker 3 (28:34):
sure if they need more help, um, yeah, so where?
Where's the best place forpeople to go?
So, so what I'm most well knownfor for the savior audience is
promoting 131 books to the newyork times, washington journal,
us today, business week andsuccess bestseller lists yeah,
um, and so I've been in bookpublishing now, uh, by the end
of this year will be 27 years,um, and so I mentioned that my
sole purpose is voice, helpingpeople find, test and amplify
(28:54):
their voice, and so certainly werun the bestseller campaigns
which people can find out atpromotabookcom.
I try to keep things simpleP-R-O-M-O-T-E-A-B-O-O-Kcom.
But one of my clients, t HarvEcker, who wrote a book titled
Secrets of the Millionaire Mindwhich we put to number one in
the New York Times for him, acouple of years after we ran
that campaign, harv said to meyou know, mike, you do a really
(29:19):
great job putting folks like meon the best sellers list and
supporting our voice and helpingus change industries in the
world, and he said you shouldkeep doing that.
It's wonderful.
But he said there's a lot ofpeople who can't afford to do
what we do, that don't have our,that don't yet have our level
of platform, that need whatyou're doing, you need to go
(29:40):
figure out how to be able to dothat, and so what I did then is
I developed for myself a modeland a system for being able to
extract ideas and turn them intocontent that we could then turn
into value for customers, whichthen would generate money.
One of the things to note is Isuffer from 26 learning
disabilities.
(30:00):
I'm a high school dropout, andso when I developed this model,
I had to do it to be able toaddress all of my learning
disabilities so that I could getit out.
I suffer from more than twokinds of dyslexia, so this model
was developed for that, andwhat I've done over the years is
codified that andoperationalized that to the
(30:21):
point where, for people who areeither just starting out or who
have small to medium-sizedbusinesses, aren't quite at the
ready to go for the New YorkTimes, but are working towards
that route, we do a retreat inGuatemala one or two times a
year, where it's a month longretreat at a place called Lake
Atitlan, which is a former supervolcano that is now a lake, and
(30:44):
we spent a month there.
The first week we go through myoutlining process and at the
end of the process.
The outline is so detailed thatit eliminates the thinking of
the content creator.
I'm not a natural writer.
I have natural writers on staff.
I pay them, but I'm not anatural writer.
(31:05):
Most of my clients are notnatural writers.
I have a couple of sectionslike Roy Williams, but most are
not natural writers.
What we are are storytellers.
We're amazing storytellersbased on the experience that we
have.
And so what we do then in thewriting process again this goes
to the left right hemisphere ofthe brain is we get the
logicking done first, so that wecan satisfy the left hemisphere
(31:26):
of the brain, so that the nextthree weeks in the retreat
they're able to just answer andflesh out all of the little
micro parts within the outline.
So it's just bite-sized bits ofinformation that's being
written on a daily basis, and atthe end of the month they'll
have a book written, and thepromise of the retreat is, once
(31:47):
the book is written, my teamwill do the editing and the
designing.
And this is important for acouple of reasons.
Number one Hemingway saidthere's no such thing as a good
writer, only a good editor, andso with that we then offer that
editing so that the attendees atthe retreat, don't have to
worry about that.
The other is that because we'redoing the editing and design, I
(32:08):
have several publishers who arelined up who are willing to
publish the books that come outof the retreat.
So we'll guarantee a publishingcontract out of that retreat.
So if folks are at that levelthen I would suggest that they
go to again.
I keep it simple bookretreatcomB-O-O-K-R-E-T-R-E-A-Tcom.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
That's awesome.
Yeah, everyone, if you're readyfor his help, if you're at that
level, definitely reach out,check that information out, get
connected with Michael andcontinue to grow and elevate
what you're doing.
But, michael, again, thanks somuch for being on the Elevate
Media podcast today.
Thanks for having me yetsubscribe to the show, follow it
(32:54):
, like it all that fun stuff andthen share this episode with
someone, someone who might betrying to figure out how to
streamline their messaging andget it even more sticky out
there, master that messaging.
So together we can do so muchmore and help so many more
people through sharing, and weappreciate everybody who listens
in and shares.
But until next time, continueto go out there, elevate your
life, elevate your brand, andwe'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media
Podcast.
Don't forget to subscribe andleave a review.
See you in the next episode.
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