Michael Njiru

Helen: Thank you for joining us at this Author Summit. Write, Publish, and Launch Your Book. And I am thrilled to introduce to you, Michelle Villalobos. She is an amazing star. She's a superstar activator, a brand and business strategist. Hi, Michelle. Michelle:Hi, Helen. It's so awesome to see you again. Helen:Yes, you are incredible and a role model and a mentor to so many amazing people. You have created like thousands of entrepreneurs and helped them to get their expertise and their magic and their genius out in the world, and you just have amazing program. So I've been in awe of you for a long time. Michelle: Oh, thank you, Helen. And that's so beautiful to hear. I appreciate that. Helen: On top of that, you're a very successful author. You're a speaker, a presenter, and for those of you who are meeting Michelle for the first time, she is really good at helping busy professionals, especially women, to tap into their unique gifts and strengths and use them to attract more business and create more freedom, fortune, and fulfillment and fun in their lives. In 2011, the Miami Herald named Michelle, one of Miami's top 20, under 40, and in 2013 she won the Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge for co-founding the Online Personal Branding program, make them beg. She also founded the Women's Success Summit, which is a huge conference, and her clients include big corporations like American Express, Bacardi, Burger King, Audi, Lloyd's of London, and many other brands, world brands out there. So Michelle is going to be sharing with us today about how to build your superstar brand with your book. So I'm just thrilled to have Michelle here. So, Michelle, just tell us just generally, why is branding important for authors and for businesses? Michelle: Yeah. So the brand, the way that we look at branding, our definition of it is it's your identity that's packaged in a way for the world to see it. And so really, for us, branding is one of the three stools that your business sits on. You know, it's a foundational piece. It's basically the front end of your business. One of my mentors named Roger James Hamilton, he uses this analogy, he uses this analogy when he's talking about branding, but it really applies to branding. He said, "It's the difference between going out with a butterfly net and chasing butterflies and trying to catch butterflies into your net, and then sometimes, you know, the butterflies get away and you expend a lot of energy, you're tired, you're stressed out, chasing [inaudible 00:03:12], right? It's a similar analogy versus building a butterfly garden, a butterfly garden that attracts the butterflies. You plant the flowers that you know the butterflies want." And it's the same in business. Your brand is that butterfly garden. It's that thing that's so compelling and so it represents your message and your identity in the world in such a way that it attracts your clients. And so branding is really at the core of your business because it leads your business's identity out in the world. Helen: That's so cool. And your brand, of course, is superstar activator and you specialize in superstar branding. So how is that branding different than other types of branding that we see? Michelle: So superstar brand is basically a brand that relies on you, on you as a human. So it's one thing to brand like Uber or Google or, you know, laundry detergent or shoes, right? That's a brand that's associated with a product, right? When we're talking about a superstar brand, it's basically a brand that's associated with a thought leader, with someone who wants to bring a message out into the world. And so we actually define a superstar as someone who cultivates influence and generates income to make an impact. So the key items are influence, income, and impact. The influence part of branding is who are you being? Right? How are you showing up as the superstar? Are you congruent with your message? Are you delivering the message in an energy-rich way that's appealing and attractive? You know, how do you deliver that message through what channels? That's all about developing influence. The income part is how are you monetizing that influence? How are you generating revenues? And you know, Helen, from one of the presentations that you attended for us, you know, it's really important to generate recurring revenues because that builds stability in a business. And with superstars, especially where the brand is them, it can be very easy to get overwhelmed, to get overworked, to become a workaholic because the business is you. And so generating income in a way that's stable and recurring is really important part of building a superstar brand. And then finally the impact piece, it's all about contribution. A superstar in our definition is someone who is growing themselves and growing their business in order to contribute to other people and to contribute to the world in a positive way. So that's really what a superstar brand is all about. It's like what's the message that you're influencing people about? How are you generating income from that message and how are you using that to create a positive impact? Helen: That's so cool. So you're -- just to summarize it, I heard you say that a brand is about someone who has influence who has income and who has impact. And on top of that, it's not just influence, that's a one-off income -- Sorry, the income isn't just a one-off income, but it's recurring, predictable income so that the superstar, which is you isn't burnt out, right? Michele: Yes. Yes. Helen: It's a consistent [inaudible 00:06:43]. Michelle: Lifestyle friendly. Helen: Right. Michele: Yeah. Helen: Who are some examples of that that, you know, that we all know? Like, who would we think of? Michele: Well, I feel like, you know, one of the ultimate examples is Anthony Robbins, right? Like, this is someone who's definitely cultivated influence and has a strong message. If you follow any of his work you know that he's all about self-reliance, responsibility, energy richness taking -- you know, being self-mastery in order to, you know, be able to do something in the world. He's definitely developed multiple streams of recurring income. He's got communities, a tribe of people who are loyal and eager followers, eager to spread the word. He's got partners that he works with. So he's really learned about that. He's really done the monetization piece beautifully. And he's definitely making a positive impact as most people who attend his programs, especially the ones that keep attending will tell you like he's had a positive impact in their lives. And, you know, just in my life, I've never attended Anthony Robbins event, but my mentors were actually saying right now they learned a lot from Tony Robbins. So he's made an impact on me indirectly through them. So that's a great example of a superstar and a superstar business, or rather a superstar enterprise because there are multiple businesses inside of his business. Helen: Do you want to name another one? Maybe a female who fits that other than you? Of course. Michele: Yeah. Well, obviously there's Oprah Winfrey, right? Helen: Oprah. Perfect example. Michelle: Winfrey is great example of a superstar, right? Like, so she's developed influence and she's done that by having, you know, strong core values, strong messaging, belief system. You know, she's putting positive messages out into the world and that's her butterfly garden. So she's attracting people who want to be better, who want to improve. She's developed multiple streams of recurring income all over the place. She's got a magazine, she's got a TV network. She's got books, she's got, I'm sure, a million other things that I don't even know about. And then she's doing all of this to make a positive impact in the world. So perfect example again of a superstar who's built a brand around herself, but who isn't so weighed down by that brand and executing every piece of it that she can't grow. And that's -- you know, I use Oprah as an example, a lot of a superstar personality because there's a superstar business, which is what we're talking about, but there's also a superstar or a star personality according to "Wealth Dynamics," which is a personality type business test out there. And the star profile is one of eight archetypes. And if you're interested in learning more, you know, I can send you resources or you can google "Wealth Dynamics." But essentially a star profile is someone who is highly creative in service of others, loves to help people, but loves to do it in a very creative and fun way. Oprah is a typical example of a star. And what happens with stars a lot is they can get burnt out because there's so many people that want a piece. When you build this butterfly garden and everybody wants a piece of it, it can be overwhelming if you don't build a business on the back end of it that honors your time, that honors your space. And so Oprah's a great example. She'll be up on a stage presenting, speaking, influencing, but she doesn't come off the stage and then go around shaking hands and making deals with people. She's got people that support her with that. And so that's really part of a superstar brand as well that we haven't really gotten into is like, who's your crew? Who are the people that believe in your vision and that are supporting your vision and that are helping you get to that vision? Because the superstar cannot operate by herself. Even if she's once star and building the whole brand around her, she can't be the one delivering everything associated with the brand. Helen:Indeed. And that's really, really good. For our authors who are watching and who are tuning into the summit, you know, an author is typically written by one person and the brand is one person, right? And you may have a business behind that book, you may have courses, you may have events you may have speaking, supporting that book, but you're still that one person with the team behind you, right. A crew behind you. Michele: Yeah, exactly. Helen: So talk to us a little bit about that because, you know, a book is a brand, right? Or it's an expression of your brand, it's an expression of your identity and that identity is so important. So how does that identity a filter through in a brand, in a book, in anything else that an author is? Michele: Yeah. So I would say that one of the core -- the most important pieces to look at, and there are a lot of -- it's a big question, right? It's a great question. And what it all kind of comes back to is what's the message of the brand? And really, I think even one layer deeper than that is what's the vision of the brand and of the message. So in other words, like, I think it's so important. People can write books about a million things and this is a mistake I made that we may or may not get into later, but I didn't -- like, are you really -- Is there a vision? Is there a long-term play here? Like, what is it that you're actually creating in the world? What is it that you actually want to put out into the world? What's that message? And I think the message is that kind of lightning rod or better yet the torch, right? This is a term one of my mentors, Nany Leah Diamond [SP] uses. So what's the torch that you're grabbing that you are going to lead with? Like, that you are going to lead the charge with? What's that torch that's going to attract your people? Right? And the torch is the message. It's the vision. And so I think that that's one of the most important ingredients of a powerful brand for influencing people, for inspiring change, for selling stuff, whatever it is that you want to do that requires people to take action, it's going to be you as the messenger, but what is the message? Does that make sense? Helen: Yes, absolutely. So the message is sort of like a freedom for all as in South Africa, right? Freedom, equality for all. And the messenger was Nelson Mandela, right? Michelle: Yes. And the key is that the message and the messenger be congruent and aligned. And this is where, if you want, I can get into sort of where we can find incongruency and misalignment and what that can look like. Helen:Absolutely. Now, at this point though, I'm just so curious about you, Michelle. I mean, you obviously are superstar brand. You are, you know, very fun. You present these great ideas in amazing ways. Tell me a little bit about your story. How did you get into this and how do you become a brand expert? Michele: It was, I think, kind of by accident really. So my story, the condensed version of the whole thing was I was a child of Cuban immigrant parents, more or less. Like, there are nuances to that story, but essentially my parents came out of an era and a culture where you had to -- like, it was tough and it was scary and things weren't easy. And in order to survive, you had to compete, work hard, be the best, rise to the top, get good grades in school. You know, there was a lot of success and achievement orientation in the way that I grew up in the schools that I went to, the cultures that I grew up in, the family I had. And so for the... Helen: They sound like Asian parents that have to say. Michelle: [inaudible 00:15:18] heard about Asian cultures and growing up in an Asian family, and I felt, "Like that sounds like my Cuban family actually." Helen: Okay. So, anyway, keep going. Michelle: And so, you know, I did it. Like, I was a good girl and more than anything what I wanted in my life was for my parents to love me and approve of me and tell me that I was amazing. Like that's, you know, that's what most of us want when we're little. So I just totally bought into this is the way to get your needs met, is gets straight A's in school, get a good job, get a good -- you know, get four point O in college, get an MBA. Like, I did the track and I did it really, really well until my early to mid-30s. And at that point, I was burnt out. I was, you know, I'd had a series of jobs and, you know, I had the last one. I had risen to the top, I had the money, I had the title, I had all this stuff that you're supposed to want and that my parents were really proud of and would brag about, but I didn't feel good. I wasn't fulfilled. And I didn't even know that that was the problem. I just thought I needed more success and more achievement. And I thought -- you know, and I was so miserable at my job. I thought, "Let me -- You know what? I'm going to start my own business and be an entrepreneur." And so that's how I started my business. And, you know, long story short, it wasn't fun. It was terrible actually. It was a struggle. It was hard work. I was a workaholic work long hours and you know, I didn't have clarity on my business. I didn't have any of that. But what happened was I joined the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce, and I was invited to join the Young Leaders Council called the Emerging Leadership Council. And they decided to do a workshop called the Perfect Tenant Sales. Now, one thing that I thought I knew really well at the time with sales because I'd been in sales jobs, I had been the publisher of a magazine, I'd sold art. I'd sold real estate. And so I raised my hand, I was like, "Let me, I want to lead this workshop." And that was the first time I ever spoke in public or lead anything and it was a game changer for me. I loved it. I was good at it. People told me that I was great and they were like, "Wow, is this what you do for a living?" And I was like, "Not even close." They were like, "Well, you should consider it." And I was like, "I will." So I started to position myself as a speaker and in order to do that I had to rebrand myself from scratch. I was known for being, you know, in the Hispanic marketing community, not a speaker, not a trainer, none of that stuff. So in order to rebrand I had to be very intentional about, you know, choosing how I was going to position myself. And that sort of began my personal branding journey, which over the years evolved. And then, you know, I just started sharing it with other people, what I was learning and as I shared it, my brand improved and, and people started asking me, "Well, can you help me brand myself?" And so I started offering those services and one thing led to another and here we are many years later. Many years later. Helen: That's awesome. That's super, super awesome. And one thing that I really love about your story too is that along the way you became an author too. I mean, you're a speaker, e an author, right? And that that brand has evolved as well. You know, I mean, your identity has grown. Do you want to talk a little bit about that, about how that changes and all that? Michele: Yeah. This is something that, you know, the old version of me would have said, "Man, that was the big mistake." Right? And the new version of me is like, "Wow, that was the step along my journey." Right? So back in 2013, I had experienced some tough times. I had gotten the wind knocked out of me so to speak in my business. I had long story short, I'd had an experience where I co-founded a women's organization and about a year into it, the person who I co-founded it with basically, there's no other way to put it. She stole it. She stole the whole thing, and I was left shocked, upset, angry, resentful. And as part of that, like, I'd come out of a culture, before my business, I'd come out of a culture of magazine publishing industry, which was also very like women hurting other women, gossiping and all that. So I'd come out of that culture. I had this experience and I had this belief that, you know, this was a big problem in the world. And I'm not saying it's not, but the belief was, you know, "You can't trust women and they will stab you in the back." Now here I am like I'd started a women's organization. So I also loved women and wanted to support women. But I also had this experience where I'd gotten hurt and, like, I was angry. So I wrote this book called "The Stiletto In Your Back." And I did a lot of research for it. There's a lot of scientific research around it. And I basically wrote this book to help women deal with certain women who can be, you know, caddy or, you know, [inaudible 00:20:38]. Helen: Yeah. It's kind of like that movie in the '80s, 9 to 5 or something like that. Michelle: Oh, I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Helen: Where the woman boss stole the idea of the women's [inaudible 00:20:52] only, right? Yeah. Michelle: Yeah, and that stuff happens. And the more evolved version of me understands that that's just part of the culture that we've created and, you know, it is what it is, but it doesn't mean that that's how all women are. And it doesn't mean that's how you are or I am and it doesn't even -- you know, it's even worth writing a book about actually. That's kind of what I believe today, right? Helen: Right. But back then, you were motivated by... Michelle: Back then, everybody needed to hear about this. I needed to share this message and the book has good reviews on Amazon. But actually, it doesn't align with who I am today or with what I believe today. So, you know, I'm in the process actually of writing a new book, a different book that is a line. And taking actually taken that one down off of Amazon simply because I don't want that to be my message in the world, you know. Helen: Right. Especially now that you're about influence, income and impact, right? You want to have a different kind of impact. Right? Michelle: Exactly. Helen: So for our authors who are listening to this, I mean, take us back, right? What we're saying is that as an author, your message might change, your brand might change, but as you become more solid in what you're about and you're more sure about your message, that becomes more of your brand. Is that what you're saying, Michelle? Michelle: Yes. Well, and also, like, really think about what is the message, what is the torch that you're leading the world with? Like, for me, if somebody had said, "Michelle is really the message that you want to put out into the world that women can't trust each other? You know, like, is that really it?" Nobody -- I didn't have a mentor at the time that asked me that question. Right. So, you know, I, I feel like if I had really thought about it in the right way, I probably would've said no, the message that I want to put out in the world is how can we be good to each other and love each other and support each other and collaborate, you know. And here's the thing, that's what the book is about inside. Once you get to the, like, actual solution of it, it is about that at its essence, but that's not what it sounds like from the title. And that's -- it's really important to think about how will your clients, how will your readers, how will your prospects relate to your message when they just see it upfront, you know. Do you want to lead with a really negative thing like the Stiletto in your back? It attracts attention for sure. The question is, is that truly aligned with what you believe you were put on this planet to share with people? Helen: Right. So being really clear about your message, being clear about what you have the torch for, being that and being the Messenger for that message so that you can influence generate income and have impact. Right? Michele: And so that your brand 10 years from now, you can look at that book and say, "Yeah, that was my first book and I'm proud of it. You know, it's aligned. I've evolved, I've learned, there's new stuff, but never having to disavow anything that you've ever done. Helen: Yeah. Building on each other. Right? So your brand may evolve, but it's building on your brand and being a better expression of [inaudible 00:24:09] expression of who you've been along the way. Is that what you're saying? Michelle: Totally. That's it. Helen: Awesome. So you really talk about having that brand also generating consistent income for the person, or for an author, for example, right, for an author and the brand messenger. And what exactly is the business model for doing that? Michelle: So, obviously, there are a lot of different models that can do that. The one that we've developed, discovered, learned, iterated, is what we call a retreat driven model. So in our model -- and it really, it doesn't have to be a retreat model, it's really, it's about having two key elements, alright? One key element is having a foundational program, like a step one, something that people can come into and get, you know, in a succinct way, get an outcome from. Like a foundational program. In our case, our foundational program, we have two, we have a three-day retreat, and we love retreats as a foundational program because they're impactful. I love to lead them. They're fun. You know, a lot of people who are speakers, coaches, authors really can put their book, put their content into a three-day format and have it be really impactful, valuable and fun. And then from there -- and in your foundational program, another version of that that's not a retreat that we also have is a six-week course, so like a six-week virtual course. So you can have kind of both of those things living together or you can start with a retreat or you can start with a six-week program. And the reason we like, you know, three days is because that's like a really good amount of time for people to sink in and bond and connect and to want more. Okay? And that's the other piece. The second key component is to having an ongoing monthly recurring program. Now the way we like to do it is leading with the retreat and then going into a higher ticket monthly recurring programs. So with us, it's a three-day retreat into one-year coaching program. Okay? Another way it could look is you could have a monthly recurring program that's a low ticket item and then, you know, that's monthly recurring, but that has to be, if it's low ticket monthly recurring, it would generally have to be much more mass, a much bigger volume in order to generate good stable income. So that's why we like this other model a lot because you don't have to have a ton of clients in order to generate a really good living. So our model, we invite people to consider doing four retreats a year into a one-year program. Helen: So you're saying there's a foundational program which can be either a three-day retreat or a six week course and then there's a recurring program which is like a monthly ram over a year or a lower end monthly recurring program, but is shared with the masses so that [inaudible 00:27:19] incomes theory. Is that right? Michelle: And you can have both. Like, you don't have to have -- so the way that we built ours that I liked a lot and that works for a lot of our clients is to do the retreat part first, then the upsell into the higher ticket monthly recurring, then we introduced the lower ticket foundational program so that if people aren't a fit for the retreat, they can buy our foundational program and then we let them apply what they paid for the foundational program towards a retreat if they choose to do one in a year, and then the next phase that we haven't introduced yet will be a lower ticket monthly recurring program, probably around $100 or $200 a month. So with those four elements, we can basically cover the whole market. Helen: Got It. Really, really good. And again, for authors, what you can do is take that subject that you've written about and turn it into a foundational program. We're turning it into a monthly recurring program, right? Michelle: Got it. Yeah. Yeah. Helen: And, you know, let's build that out a little bit from an author's point of view because I hear so many people say, "Oh, how can I sell more books? How can I sell more books?" Right? Michelle: Yeah. Helen: A book is -- You're going to make what? Twenty or $25 a copy at most, whereas a program -- give me the numbers on this, Michelle. Michelle: Okay, I'll lay out some ideas. So first of all, the way I like to look at it is your book is your best marketing tool. It's a low-cost entry point into somebody's heart and mind and a way to see if there's alignment. So, like, I would personally give books away for free and, in fact, that's what we're doing. The book that we're publishing at the end of this year is called "Retreats to Riches." And we're going to give away the e-book of it for free behind an opt-in in order to build out our list. Why? Because we know that this list of people is going to be interested in retreats and then we can communicate with them, share tools, share tips, share resources, webinars, whatever, and then they might percolate up into saying, "Oh, well, I want to attend your retreat." Right? So the way I see it is your book is a really great marketing tool to get to those people and find them. And then though the real money is made on the back end really by selling, like, a retreat into a backend program. So, you asked for numbers. So imagine what we've seen for a three-day event. Okay. We've seen clients charge anywhere from about, on the low, low end, from about 750 to 997 around there. Loss flow end. Helen: Seven hundred and fifty? Michelle: Yeah. Which is super low. Or does that sound low to you or does that sound high? Helen: Oh, I don't know. I'm not in the market, so it's hard to know. I mean, yeah, we do have retreats, but I don't know what the range is right out there. Michelle: Okay. So that's at the low end of the range. That's what we've seen. And then at the end -- Yeah. Helen: Yeah. So 750 to what was the number you said? Michelle: So like around 750-997 on the low end all the way up to about 7,500 on the high end. That's what we've seen for a foundational in-person retreat style program. And so what we've seen is like the sweet spot really like the numbers we like are like 1,500 to 2,500. All right. And that's what we've seen. Because here's the thing for everybody, super important. You don't need a lot of people to make this model work. Okay. So let's say that you have a $2,000 price point, okay, on your three-day retreat. And parenthetically, alright, if $2,000 sounds like a lot then you have some work to do, right? Either from a mindset perspective or in figuring out what it is that you offer that could be worth that because all are saying about a retreat is that it's a delivery mechanism. It's a structure, a way to deliver some sort of outcome that's at least worth that to people. So, I'll give you an example. I'll give you a few examples. We have are our retreat at the outcome of our retreat. Our retreat is in that price range. The end of that retreat, people have a business plan, they have clear pricing and packages. They have their speech outlined, they know how they're going to market themselves. They have a 90-day plan, so they walk away with clarity in their business and a plan of action to go execute them. Right? And we make decisions on site and all that stuff. So that's an outcome that's worth that to our audience. On a completely different note, we have a client who's doing something called Man Camp. And in Man Camp, it's basically a fulfillment beyond achievement. It's for men to come and basically have a transformational experience to find more joy and happiness and fulfillment in their lives right now. So it's a completely different thing than what we do and the price range of that, you know, ranges from about $1,000 to $2,000 as well. So, you know, you can have a whole bunch of different things that you can offer, but the idea is can you find some outcome that your audience wants and needs that is worth about $1,500, $2,000, $2,500? And you do that -- let's say you do that four times a year with 10 clients, right? So that means once a quarter you're just finding 10 clients that value this outcome that highly that they'll pay maybe $2,000. So $2,000 times 10 is $20,000, four times a year that's $80,000 just on the front end. And the cool thing is like this model is not about the front end. The model that I'm advocating for people to consider is really based on having the back end. So the back end is once they're in that retreat and they're getting these amazing outcomes and they're having these transformational experiences in these breakthroughs for you to be able to say, "Hey, listen. How would you like to continue to work with us for the whole year?" What would that look like? So I'll give you an example. We have a client who's doing on the front end. She's doing this thing called "Just Done It," "Just Done It" weekend. "Just Done It." Her name's LeeAnn Webster. "Just Done It" is a three-day experience where basically you map out your landing page, your lead magnet, your follow-up emails. You essentially leave the event with a basic funnel built and ready to go for your business to generate, you know, leads in your business. But when you're done with that event, you know, she also has this opportunity to join her "Just Done It" club where basically they'll continue to do all your email marketing for you for the rest of the year, month to month. So that's the big back end, right? That's monthly recurring revenue on the back end. Now, in terms of money on the back end, we've seen people do everything from about $500 a month to about $2,500 a month. That's what we've personally seen, either us doing it or with our clients. Five hundred to $2,500. So let's say on the low end of that we take $1,000 a month as the recurring back end. So that could be like, you know, her email marketing services or that could be coaching services. It could be a retainer for whatever. You know, it could be any number of things that people do over time. If you just sold two of those out of 10 people in each retreat, by the end of the year you'd have eight people paying you $1,000 a month. That's $8,000 a month in recurring revenue just from a 20% conversion rate from your retreats, which is actually quite low and it would probably be a lot better with those numbers. Helen: Awesome. That's great. And by the way, LeeAnn is one of our speakers on this author summit, so if you want to hear her speak, just click on her interview when we're on her day too, so you'll see her there. So yeah, that sounds really great. So, Michelle, I want to bring it back to branding because we're talking about branding for authors, right? I mean, this is a fantastic revenue model for recurring revenue and for authors. You know, let's bring that back. How does this all fit in? Michelle: So, I think the key with the authors is to take this, like, lofty mission message, vision and then bring it, you know, out into the world to attract people. And then, you know, it's where the brand connects with the business, right? Is like what is it that you're going to take [inaudible 00:36:33] this for brand out or what are you going to come for? Like, okay, great. You have this beautiful message about, you know, like if we used Albert who I mentioned earlier as an example. Like, he has this great message about "Fulfillment Beyond Achievement." He has an e-book that he's written. You know, he's got to speech too that he does. It's all beautiful, but, like, concretely, how does he help people? Right? And so how do you take that brand and then make it concrete and make it actually do something? And I think the key to doing that is really to identify what's your system that you're advocating that people implement. So there might be a system like we have a system for building a superstar business steps one through seven. LeeAnn has a system for, "Hey, here's how you get freedom through email marketing. Here's my "Just Done It system." Albert has, you know, his messages, "Fulfillment Beyond Achievement," but here's his "Fulfillment Beyond Achievement" system. So I think the key for your authors of taking that kind of brand that can be very ethereal and wonderful and lofty and like bringing it into the concrete world by making sure that they have a system that's baked into their book, that they walk people through in their book and then they can take that system and turn it into a weekend. They can take that system and turn it into a six-week program. They can take that system and turn it into a one year course. And really what the system is is how to get your reader, your client, your target audience. How do you get them from point A where they are today to point B where they want to be in the future and really identifying what point A looks like, what point B looks like, what are the key steps, in what order to get from A to B? And that's what I would say is really important to include in your book so that people can see, "Alright. Great, she's got this wonderful idea. Well, here's how I implement it." And I would caution people from -- because a lot of times people are like, "Well, I don't want to give it all the way in my book. I don't want to give all my secrets." Right? I'd say go for it. Nobody -- like only 20% of people are going to read your whole book anyways. Right? So go ahead and give everything you've got. Give your best. Put your best foot forward, give the most value you can, and then trust that if you got something good, people are going to raise their hand and they're going to want more. Helen: Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Now, you have a couple of gifts that you are giving to our listeners. Michelle: I do? Helen: Yes. So one is a "Googlelicious 3.0," [SP] and you also have "The Beginner's Guide to Building Your Brand Business and Movement; Speak to Serve." So did you want to tell us a little bit about those? Michelle: Yeah, sure. So "Googlelicious" is man. I've been building "Googlelicious" now over time. It's been evolving for about seven years, maybe longer. Helen: Wow. Michelle: And so what it is, it's basically, how can you own your name online? How can you -- so that when people search for you, what comes up is compelling, is consistent, it says the right message. And this is like super tactical stuff. It's like step one, go do this, take a screenshot of that. Like, go buy this domain. Like, it really kinda walks you through steps. And I've had people come up to me that got it years ago that come up to me later and say, "My God. I spent one afternoon doing everything in Googlelicious and the result was amazing." So it's actually something I'm really proud of having created. And so it's a good tool. And then the second one is really about -- it's more of an inspirational possibility thing. It's less tactical and more like, "Hey, here's something to consider. Right? And here's how you could do it, of how to speak to serve. How to use speaking to drive your author business, your training business, your retreats, your seminars, whatever it is you're creating. How can you start using speaking to move more in that direction?" Helen: Awesome. These are fantastic gifts. And again, the link is down here. So go ahead and click on the link for those two gifts that Michelle is so generously giving. And so the other thing, Michelle, is that you've actually broken down superstar branding into seven steps. Like, that's phenomenal. In the time that we have, can you tell us what those seven steps actually are? Michelle: Well, sure. And so I'll make a clarification. It's basically it's the seven steps to building a superstar business where the branding is one piece of it. Helen: Wow. Michelle: So there are these seven -- I visualize it as a pyramid. You know, that's how we've constructed it and the foundation of the pyramid part one is identity. And it's really around discovering who you really are because a lot of times we can get to get away from that like I did over the course of our childhood, adolescence, and we don't even realize what our magic is or what we're so great at. And sometimes the things that come easy to us, we don't realize how valuable they are to people. So step one is this discover your identity, like really truly diving into who are you, what do you believe in, what are your core values, what are you great at, what are you passionate about, and what's the big thing that really drives you? What we call the North Star, right? What's your North Star, your purpose? The second layer is lifestyle. So, and what we're looking for is alignment among all of these different elements. So, you know, we start with this identity and then the next layer of lifestyle has to line up with identity. Like, how do you want to live your life? Where do you want to be? Who do you want to be surrounded by? How do you want to spend your time? If you're a mother, if your identity part of your identity, his mother and one of your parts of your values is family, then maybe your lifestyle needs to reflect that because maybe you decide you want to pick up your kids at 3:00 every day and then not work for the rest of the afternoon. So it's really crucial to understand what those lifestyle parameters are first before we really start to build out a brand or a business. The next layer is the business model, which we've kind of touched on. It's how do you convert your magic into money? Are you somebody who loves to work one on one with people? Are you like a coach type of person or are you someone who loves to create things and then build them into execution and then share them with the world or are you somebody who loves to manage projects and get a lot of stuff done and manage a lot of details? Are you somebody who loves to analyze things? So really understanding who you are at the identity level and then bring that into the business model such that you are working with your identity, with your gifts rather than trying to be somebody you're not all the time. The next layer is the brand piece. Right? So like once we're clear about who we are, how we want to live our life, and what kind of business model makes sense for us, now it's time to look at, "All right, how do I communicate that to the world? What's the message that I want to bring out? Who's the audience that I'm compelled to serve? What's the unique value that I bring into the marketplace?" Right? And really crafting a brand, a website, logo, materials, all that stuff that aligns with these other layers underneath. The next step after branding is marketing. It's putting the brand out into the world on a regular basis because branding is something we do one time, marketing is something that's ongoing. So how are we communicating? What's the platform that we're using? Are we going to podcast? Does that align with our identity, does that align with our lifestyle? You know, are we going to become a speaker? Do we want to be on a plane 50 times a year or you know -- So it's about aligning the marketing with all those elements that came before. After marketing it's sales. And sales is one of the areas that most people and superstars sometimes struggle with, right? Because it can be challenging sometimes to sell ourselves and to put ourselves out into the world vulnerably and say, "Do you want to buy what I'm selling?" And so what we've come up with is this concept of sales as service. How can you align your sales with all of those pieces underneath such that when you sell and how you sell, it becomes a value process all of its own, whether people buy or not? So how do you provide so much value in your business, in your marketing that you don't really have to sell too much? People are like, "Yeah, I'm interested. I want to buy." And then the final piece of alignment is really the scale and how do you grow it? And one of the biggest parts of that is who's on your team? Who's in your crew? We use the word crew a lot. Who are the people that are, you know, rowing in the same direction as you and who have the same vision as you and how are you going to grow this business? Are you going to -- And from the scale perspective, we want to look again at business models, licensing models, certification models, franchise models, you know, online info product models. There's just a million things out there. Once you get to a certain place, you don't really want to think about how are you going to grow this thing so that you can have the biggest impact. Because if you think about it, you know, the pyramid comes up like a volcano and it's once you get that optimization piece organized and understood and strategize, then you can put it out into the world and that's when you can really have a massive impact. Helen: Wow, that's so cool. So let me get your pyramid model down. And for authors, this is fantastic because your book is part of this, right? So the first layer is identity. Knowing who you are, what you're about, what your values are, and of course, that goes into your book. The next layer is lifestyle. How do you want to live? Do you want to be out there, you know, on planes at speaking gigs all day long, 360, five days a year or do you want to be working from home? Right? What's your lifestyle? And then the third one is the model. What's the business model that you're going to use to actually deliver these services and shall we say, hold the torch and hold the message outright? Then it's brand. How are you going to take those -- How are you going to take that and translate it into a look and feel design website, book, cover, all of that stuff, the branding of it? Right? And then the next step is marketing. Taking it out on a consistent basis so that people get that message and people want to keep coming to your garden. And then the sixth layer of that is sales as service. Like, getting people into your programs and registering them. And the last one is scale. Going big, making a huge impact in the world. Did I get that right? Michelle: You got it, Helen. That was impressive. That's amazing. Helen: Well, you have an incredible, like, pyramid that really shows that and all of this is part of being a superstar brand, which is what you want to be as an author, a messenger, a speaker, an entrepreneur, everything is having that superstar brand out there. Cool. Very good. Well, for those of you who want to connect with Michelle more, I mean, obviously, she's a wealth of wisdom, knowledge, and strategy, click on that link below. She's got awesome gifts. I mean that "Googlelicious" piece, just that alone to me is so delicious and juicy. I think that's worth spending time looking at, not to mention, the other gift which is "Speak To Serve" Right? So that's really, really cool and being able to take that branding and being able to apply it to everything you do. So whether you're an author who's still working on your book, whether you're an author who already has your book out there and you need to go to the next level or you're looking at writing your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 10th books, these are all fantastic gifts and fantastic resources for you. So definitely, click on that link and connect with Michelle. So, Michelle, last words. Anything that I haven't asked you that you want to share? Michelle: Well, I would say that one of the things that keeps coming up for me is this idea -- I like to tell my clients, and they quote me now back to me, which is sell it first and figure it out later, which basically is about -- yo know, the first time I ever did a program or a product that I put out into the world. I spent months developing it, creating it, creating the DVDs for it, like, building out this beautiful program that it was so excited about. That by the time it actually got to me, and I was supposed to go out and market it, I was so sick of it. I didn't even want to look at it anymore. Much less market it and sell it. And then a few years later, I tried a whole new approach, and I basically I decided to on a stage at one of my events I offered this product and, you know, it was $2,000 product, and I had an audience of a couple hundred people and I said, "Who'd be interested in a program where you can do all this stuff yourself?" All these hands went up. I said, "I great. Well, I'm releasing this thing on April, 1st. This is all the things that it has, you know, if you're interested, you sign up today and then you'll get these bonuses if you sign up now." Well, I had 12 people sign up at $2,000 and so I earned $24,000 the very first time I ever presented it and then I just spent the next month or so presenting it, selling it up, offering it up. By the time I went to create the product, I'd already generated close to $50,000 in sales, and I was so much so excited to create the product. And I created it in so much less time than the first one because there was a time deadline. Right? I had a limit. I had to deliver it by April, 1st or I was going to be out of integrity with my word. So, you know, I don't know how relevant it is to this conversation about being an author, but I feel like it's super relevant to the conversation about building a business. Sell it first, then figure it out. Helen: Awesome. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you, [inaudible 00:51:28] Michelle: My pleasure. Thank you. Helen: Take hand. Michelle: I got you, girl. My pleasure. Helen: Thank you for joining us. Michelle: My pleasure. Have a good one. Helen: Oops.