SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

Jeff Sieh: [00:00:00] to Creator News Live. I’m Jeff c and you’re not.

Conor Brown: and I’m Connor Brown, and this is the show that keeps you up to date on what’s happening in the creator space and more.

Jeff Sieh: Have you ever hit the point where you’re consuming podcast after podcast, reading all the books, and you still feel stuck maybe you’re wondering how to actually apply what you’re learning and maybe even questioning what success really means anymore. If that sounds like you, well, you’re in the right place.

’cause this week Connor and I are digging into two powerful books that helped us rethink how we work, what we chase, and why burnout isn’t just a side effect, it’s a signal. So we’ll be talking about Lean Learning by Pat Flynn and the Five Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom and what stood out to us, what challenged us, and what we’ve already started applying to our business and our lives.

So sit back, clear your schedule, clear your mind to get ready for this week’s episode of Creator News Live. Connor, I am so glad that you are. I, I love books, but [00:01:00] I’m, we haven’t really done this. Kind of thing before. So I’m really excited to talk with you about it. And on that note, I actually have once again a little promo for today’s show. That’s right folks. It’s the book report and we’re gonna be talking, well, hopefully we can bring this segment back. So,

Conor Brown: my gosh. Awesome.

Jeff Sieh: so I want you guys to know what do you guys think about these little intros and things we’re doing? I’m kind of doing it to keep my skills in editing and all the new stuff with ai. Of course, all that you saw, and heard was, uh, produced with ai.

So what are your thoughts about that? Should we keep, keep doing it? Is it a little goofy or do you like it? Because I want to know, even if it’s goofy, I’ll probably still do it just because I’m goofy. but we’ve got some of our friends popping in already today. Uh, Nazeem, one of my oldest friends even over on Google Plus is bring it on.

Amy. Keith says, happy Friday. I’m excited to hear your book reports. I hope she’s not gonna grade us. Connor, this may be bad. and, uh, Kira says, loving the Neon logo. Can’t wait for this episode. Thank you. Nazeem says, cool AI promo. The song was fun. [00:02:00] Everybody loves it, so we’ll keep doing it because it is a lot of fun to do and I think I’ve, I like, this is something I’ve always wanted to do before, but it was cost prohibitive and, you know, for a small time producer, it’s hard to have like jingles and logos and stuff, and I think I figured out a streamlined way to do this.

So it’s kind of fun to play with it. Maybe there’ll be a course in it later on, but we’re talking about, today these two books. The first one, Connor, we both really liked and I was luckily enough to see a pat speak at. craft commerce in Boise. He had an amazing keynote session, and I’ve been following Pat forever, and he just is so smart.

He keeps, growing his team, keeps putting out really cool stuff. But his book, lean Learning is one we both read and we were really impressed with it. We’ve talked about it in our mastermind, but, let’s just dive right into that because,

that’s one thing I think that we really, you know, as creators need to talk about is the best way to learn.

[00:03:00] So, just kind of give the, uh, listeners and viewers kind of your overview of what Lean learning is.

Conor Brown: Yeah, so Lean Learning by Pat Flynn is really just about diving in as quickly as possible so that you can iterate as quickly as possible as well to these learning things. So often I think everyone suffers from this in the creator space, in the entrepreneurial space is we get reeled in, get a taste of our own medicine, really.

We get reeled in by a course or a how to guide, or we go down the YouTube rabbit hole of how to do something, of how to implement something in our business. And what ends up happening is we get overwhelmed. We continue to try to learn, and we get to a point where, oh, I just need to watch one more video before I implement this new strategy in my business.

We also have the day-to-day of life and running the business as well. the notion behind lean learning is what if you just broke it down and you did small actions that can [00:04:00] incrementally when you build them up, really, really enhance and expand your business. So that’s what it’s all about.

Taking those small things, really putting ’em into place, starting them and practicing with them and seeing where it can take you. Yeah.

Jeff Sieh: So, I don’t know about, I love to research, like, I love, like going down rabbit holes, like finding out something about AI and going down that rabbit hole and playing with stuff. But I can also, that can also be a detriment because. If you are like me, you wanna get all the information, you wanna make it perfect and then, you know, you never do the thing.

And we’re talking a lot about this in our mastermind. We’re, we’ve, we’re all working on our tiny offers. Uh, if you’ve, listened or watched the show with ally Burke a couple weeks ago, a couple months ago, she talked all about this. And so we’re doing that as a, a mastermind group. And one of the things is something that we all struggle with, I think as creators, is we want to make it perfect.

And we overthink it and we really, in the group we’re, we’re like pushing each other. Like, okay, let’s make it simpler. You’re thinking, you know, let’s just get it done. [00:05:00] And so why do you think, Connor, we mistake con, you know, consuming content for progress? ’cause I think a lot of us do that,

Conor Brown: I think because it’s easy to get inspired, right? Like you watch one video, you’re like, absolutely, let’s do it. Let’s go. And then you go and get a cup of coffee and you realize, I totally forgot what I was gonna do. You know, like it’s, it’s really, really, really easy to get inspired.

Jeff Sieh: Mm-hmm.

Conor Brown: Good inspiration though, is when we’re inspired and we immediately act on it.

And something that I knew this was a good book, I listened to it. Shout out if you have,Spotify, you have premium membership to Spotify, you can listen to this book for free. I think you get 15 hours of audio book credits in your Spotify,membership. So I listen to this book, pat Flynn himself narrates it.

I encourage you to, if you’re gonna read it, also do the audio book. ’cause he stops at times and he is like, all right, I’m going off script and I’m gonna tell you a story so you can get more out [00:06:00] of it even that way. but the, I knew that this was a good book when he said something. I basically got out of the car after that chapter was done and I immediately started to put that to practice in action.

So that’s where we get bogged down. I think we get,analysis by paralysis. We’re like, just one more video and then I’m gonna know exactly how to do it. And in reality, we’re never gonna know how to exactly do it. We just have to do it.

Jeff Sieh: So was this book the impetus for you to actually go and do your challenge that you’ve been doing? Putting out a piece of content every day?

Conor Brown: Yeah. So in the book, pat talks about whenever you decide to do something new, you should basically commit to it for 60 days. Right? And that could mean any number of things, right? If you’re, if you’re doing. You wanna do one YouTube video a week? All right, well commit to doing that for, for two months, right?

So you’re working for it for, for 60 days. I [00:07:00] followed this because he tells a story about how he started, deep Pocket Monsters, which was a YouTube channel all about Pokemon cards. And he then started a shorts, a dedicated shorts channel for it. and he decided to stick to it by his rule for 60 days.

He was gonna post one short form piece of content to the shorts channel every day for 60 days. And basically how the story goes is he was posting and posting and posting, and he’s like, this is going nowhere. And like on the 37th day he posted a video and it went crazy. And then after that, the floodgates opened.

But it was because he stuck to it for so long and consistently did that. I took that in, I said, I’m gonna do the same thing, and I’m in the thick of it right now. I’ve challenged myself to post one short form video piece of content a day for 60 days, and I think I just surpassed like day 35 or, or something like that.

I’m really, really, really enjoying it. Yeah, but the cool thing about that, Jeff, is I’m just measuring [00:08:00] my output. I’m not yet measuring how that uh, uh, is impacted by it. Right? All I have to do is post one video a day, and then at the end of 60 days, I’ll see how my subscribers grew. I’ll see what types of content really resonated with people.

I’m not worrying about anything other than just creating and outputting one piece of content a day,

Jeff Sieh: So if people wanna follow along, they can go to at Vacation Kingdom. What is it on Instagram to, to see your content.

Conor Brown: Instagram at Vacation Kingdom. So I’m posting the same thing basically. to all the short form, uh, platforms. So it’s on YouTube, vacation Kingdoms. My Facebook page, vacation Kingdoms, Instagram and TikTok at Vacation Kingdoms.

Jeff Sieh: Mm-hmm. So I wanna kind of pull this thread a little bit ’cause we’re talking about, you mentioned consistency. a lot of creators, they’ll say, you know, the secret of success is consistency. Well, I just read a really good, you know, I’m a big fan of Justin Welsh and I read a great article where he pushed back a little bit about that.

It’s like. There’s a difference between consistency and commitment. And Pat [00:09:00] talked about it in his book about commitment. And there is a difference between that. Like, and I think this is really important to think about as creators. So you can say, I’m gonna be consistent. I’m gonna do this every, you know, and then you that can lead to burnout, which we’re talking about today.

But if you’re committed to something, you, you put yourself into it, you have the plan, you have the dream. and it’s okay if you miss something. Like for example, I am committed to this show. Like we try to do this every Friday at 10:00 AM Central every Friday, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. I’m traveling or like it was the 4th of July on one of ’em and we went anyway on that one.

But you know, sometimes, you know, life happens, but that doesn’t mean my commitment to the show is gone. Commitment for me is part of consistency. Does that make sense? And I thought it was a really cool article that Justin wrote about, like, there’s a difference and just being consistent doesn’t mean you’ll be success ’cause you can burn out.

Conor Brown: Absolutely. I, I totally agree with that. I’ve definitely shared this story before on this show, but I’ll, I’ll share it again. Jerry Seinfeld always [00:10:00] talks about how your job as a comedian is to write one joke a day. Once you start doing that, then your job actually becomes to not break the chain. Right? So you just wanna continue to do something every single day and continue to get better.

If you miss a day, don’t worry about it. Go on to the next day, and then the new chain begins with that. So you’re committed across the board to this thing, but things are gonna happen, you know, in the

Jeff Sieh: the flu or something like you can’t.

Conor Brown: Yeah. This isn’t going, the thing that I’m doing right now, the challenge that I’m doing isn’t to basically get me into a system where I’m gonna post one piece of content for the rest of my life.

No, that’s, that’s crazy. That’s wild.

to experiment, get to 60 days. And I think more importantly, Jeff, it’s to get comfortable producing content, right? I know I have to do something every single day, so I have to live with myself and know, hey, this is only 60% of the way there, but I still gotta post it.

It’s getting [00:11:00] comfortable, not posting just perfection, but just posting in general. Even something that’s only 60% of the way there.

Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I think that’s a great point. Amy Keys has a great point. She goes, I think everyone learns differently too. I know that, I get to a point where I need to start trying to do it myself for it to LinkedIn, and Pat talks a lot about that in the book about how teaching makes you, you know, a better student and it makes the, the learning happen faster.

And so a lot of times he will take something, he’ll get really focused, learn what he needs to do, and then teach it. And that makes him learn it even more and incorporate it into his systems and processes and, something like that. And so one of the things that he said in this book that I wrote down, and I’ve heard variations of this all my life, like, what got you here won’t get you there, right?

Like, We all have some level of success. We’re at a certain place. Like, if you want to grow, you can’t be complacent. Like you continue to have to learn. And his whole thing about lean learning, I thought was really, really, really, really cool. So, I thought [00:12:00] that was a great point by Pat in the book.

so what do you think, how can creator spot, when they are hiding behind learning, instead of doing, like, what do you think some of the signs are that you can, like maybe if you’ve even noticed them yourself, that you do, you’re like, okay, you know, I’m, I’m letting fear me back from where I need to go.

Conor Brown: I think there’s something like deep down in inside a creator where it’s basically like. You know, if you’re stuck or not. Right? And if you’re in this rut of just continuous learning and not doing, or, or, or not going through with action, you can feel that. I, I think you just have to be true to yourself and know I’m not going anywhere.

Right? Like, to your point, Jeff, nobody wants to be the typewriter salesman, right? You have to adapt. You have to continuously grow and try new things. I, I think the, it’s the toughest thing in the world, right? But if you wanna run a marathon, how do you do it? You go out and you run the one first mile, and then [00:13:00] you’re run the second mile, but you have to run the first mile before you can get to the 26 mile, right?

That’s what it is. It’s, it’s, you’re in this rut. But if you feel like you’re in the rut, you just have to do something. Just do one thing and let that momentum start building and building and building.

Jeff Sieh: Right. Another thing he says in the book is he says, this is very convicting to me. He says, information without action. Is a waste. So I was thinking what’s a recent piece of advice or insight you acted on that made a real difference? So I, I think for me, I mean, I’ve, I tried your experiment. I think it was the beginning of the year and I couldn’t do it, which was fine.

Like I learned that I could not produce what I wanted to do every day. Right? Like, it just didn’t work. And so that was great. But was there a piece of advice that you acted on that made something for you? And the other thing was for me is like, I guess it’s been almost a year, is we started a mastermind group that we’ve been in, which for me is like, I was always scared to do that ’cause [00:14:00] it’s community.

And I’m like, what if I’m not like enough? Or is am I, why would anybody wanna listen to me kind of a thing. So getting past that fear and just doing it. And I think somebody told me, you just need to do it. And I did it. And I think that’s kind of, I guess a, a recent piece of advice that I acted on. What about you?

Conor Brown: I think one thing that I’ve recently done is understand the importance of reaching out to other people too. Like we can’t do this alone, even though most of this is solopreneurs and solo creators and you know, teams of one and those sorts of things. I think just. Something that I just keep hearing time and time again is, oh my gosh, I learned so much when I was with these people.

Right? Just happened to me before the, the, the start of the show. We were talking about the, travel agent training. I just went on, I was in a room of 30 other travel agents that are, that are high potential travel agents. Right. Getting to hear how they’re doing things. [00:15:00] It’s all different. It’s all totally different from one travel agent to the other, but it’s just reassuring to hear what they’re doing and understand and, and learn from them.

So something that I’ve started to,do more and more, and it also goes back to the mastermind that, that I participate in with, with Jeff, is reaching out to people and connecting with people more and more and more because that’s, that’s what’s really helped me, I think, grow in the last couple of years.

Jeff Sieh: And we’ll touch on that when we go to our second book, the Five Types of Wealth. ’cause that is one of the types of wealth. And I want to, I do wanna touch on that ’cause I think it’s super important and one, as creators we really don’t think about and give a lot of, you know, we don’t put a lot of time in it, we just kinda let it happen to us.

But next,

Conor Brown: I have a question for you. You, you talked about how you were nervous to start a mastermind because you didn’t know if you had enough or if you were good enough, or if you could provide value. How’d you overcome that? Like what made you finally just start to do it and, and get it rolling?

Jeff Sieh: Because every I and I tell my kids [00:16:00] this, that every time I’ve gone to the next level or up, whatever you want to call it, like it’s a, you know, a graph or whatever is that it’s doing something hard. Like you can’t stay the same. If you want to grow, you can’t stay the same. You have to do those hard things.

And, I still, I mean, hone, I mean, every Friday I’m like, why am I doing this thing? No one’s cared, you know? But then I have so much fun doing it. It’s just something that I know I have to tell that voice to stop. And I have other people in my life that tell me, you know, Hey, you should do this. Like our mastermind group is a great example.

They’re like, you know, very encouraging. and that kind of leads in, you know, that question Connor kind of leads into this next one that we’re, we’re taught that more complexity equals more value. And this is another thing, pat that really resonated with me in his book. So why do you think simple solutions are so hard for creators to accept and even to teach?

Because, you know, we’re always like, okay, we see all these packaging things like, you know, when you look at a landing page, it’s like, value is $400, but you get this and this and this, and that’s an added value of [00:17:00] $900. And you’re like, okay, so I have to, I have to stack everything and make all this like flow charts.

And we’ve seen it like even, you know, when you’re trying to put together a email sequence, like we’re trying to do too much. We’re like, it’s a choose your own adventure novel By the time you’re like, that’s just not the way it should be. So what do you think, what, why do you think simple solutions are so hard for creators to do?

Conor Brown: Because we think the next client is gonna be the last client, and if we lose it, then it’s done, right? So if it’s a simple solution, we think, oh, by definition, that means it’s not gonna work as well as the complex solution. So if I start with the complex solution, I have a much higher. Percent chance that I’m gonna capture that person or that lead or that new client or, or whatever it is, when in reality, the simple thing wins out nine times outta 10.

Right? And it’s also this thing of the reason we’re in this is because we provide unique value because [00:18:00] we are uniquely you. Right? All of the complex systems that you see online and in YouTube videos and those sorts of things probably work for that one person. But at the end of the day, all the training, all the education is just simply, an example.

It’s gonna be different for you and the service you’re doing and the people that you are providing that service to. So starting simple means you can scale up. It’s a lot harder to scale down when you’ve invested all this time and effort in this complex system. But, but starting simple I think is, is the best way to do it.

We’re just fearful that it’s not gonna work, but the complex solution could also not work. What’s definitely a hundred percent not gonna work is if you don’t do either.

Jeff Sieh: Right. Don’t do anything. and we, we’ve talked about this, uh, pat says this overthinking, overlearning, and asking too many questions, waste time. And so, I think we’ve all seen that in our own lives. And then, you know, we’ve talked about a lot of this in the [00:19:00] Mastermind, and I know that for me, that’s a, that’s a overthinking is a, is a big hindrance.

And I, and my wife is always telling me people don’t know what, you know, like I think that, oh, that’s, oh, everybody knows how to do that. I don’t need to teach that, or I don’t need to do a, you know, a training on that. And everybody knows how to do that. And then my wife is going, no, you don’t. And so if you, if you honestly think about people in your circle that aren’t solopreneurs or normal people other than like us who are creatives,they don’t have any clue like what it takes. They don’t, and that’s what masterminds are so important for, is you have those people around you. And, and even Amy Keys says, having others support me and encouraged me is such a huge reason for the success of my solo business. And, does pretty well.

I mean, she, uh, works for, she’s done a lot of stuff for the Smithsonian. and she’s,

yeah, I’ve heard a little, I’ve heard of it. I’ve never been, but I’ve heard of it. It’s amazing. And she has built a business of, of this, but she even says [00:20:00] it’s important to have, people around you to do that. But I mean, I, I still overthink.

So what do you think are the warning signs that you’re overthinking or you’re stuck in prep mode and instead of progress mode, Connor, what, what are your, what are your signals that kind of pop up on your dashboard?

Conor Brown: I mean, you know, you know it, you haven’t done anything. You, you’ve woken up. You have your to-do list that says, publish this piece of content, write this new blog article, send out this email and it doesn’t get done right. But you know what always gets done watching nine videos, right? Watching, reading a bunch of blogs or newsletters or, or whatever.

I mean, I think it’s easy to know when you’re not doing anything right. but doing something and succeeding are, are very, very, very different. But again, you gotta do the first thing in order for the second thing, success to happen.

Jeff Sieh: So I, I think it’s easy for, this is for me, I can curate, like I know I need to talk like on chat, GBG image generation. [00:21:00] I’m do wanna talk about that so I can curate all these great people talking about on YouTube. I can find all the articles and I, I’m great at curating, it’s that next step. And I, so I can know in my mind when I am, if I’m curating more than a day, like I’m, that’s really procrastination.

’cause I think, oh, there’s one more. Piece of information that I gotta put in my training, that’ll just send it over the top. I just gotta discover it. And that’s just me in my mind saying, uh, you don’t really want to do the hard work and sit down and, you know, put the bullet points together, then start writing content, then start putting the visuals together.

’cause I know that’s coming and I know that’s, that’s the ization kind of, idiot warning light that I see on my dashboard when I do that. So, Pat talks about, you know, pushed on a pull door in your business, right? Like, we’ve all done that, where we’ve got it. Why is this working? And we’re standing out there and we’re pushing and it, we’re just need to pull it.

So, have you ever done anything like that? Like, have you ever, you have a moment where you’ve actually, you’re, you’re doing something that’s actually getting in the way of [00:22:00] you moving forward. Like you’re standing there at that push door when you should really just be pulling it.

Conor Brown: I don’t know. I mean, I, I, I think it’s, I used to say in order to be a great content creator, you have to be a great content consumer. And the more I go on with it, the more I believe that’s true. But you can do that in like 30 minutes a day.

You know, like, You don’t have to be, you know, diving deep, spending hours and hours and over analyzing and being like, oh, well, they cut their video at this point.

I have to cut the, my video at this point and add in, you know, B roll or do this or do that, or have the, you know, the, the captions just so. So for me it’s, it’s been a lot more about, yeah, I can be a great content consumer so that I can become a great content creator, but I can do that in a much shorter timeframe.

And I just mean that, so that I can pick up on trends and learn from people and, and understand new ways of, of doing things. well what [00:23:00] about you? When, how often do you push on a door when you should pull? Other than going to

Jeff Sieh: every day. I, I had trouble getting in the office this morning ’cause I just like, Hmm. Um, and I, I’ve been here for 30 years. so I, I think mine is the spinning too. And, and, and I can also use, ’cause I like to read and I get tons of ideas when I’m reading. Like I, that’s why I read on Kindle is because I can highlight things.

In fact, I did it for this, these two books we’re talking about. I highlight things in there. It automatically goes to my Notion database and then I can go to the notion and look at it and, and pull out points that I wanna talk about. But I can do that and not do work. You know what I mean? Like that’s, that needs to be a scheduled time of my day.

And I do usually have that. But if I, if I see myself, oh, I’m just gonna read another hour. Like, okay, you’re procrastinating, you know, it’s fine to have scheduled time for, read for 30 minutes a day. You know? ’cause you wanna have that schedule and consistency and committing to, you know, growing your mind on some other subjects.

But I’ll use that as a crutch a lot of times. So that’s me going, Hmm, [00:24:00] you need to do some work. Amy, Amy has a good one. She says that, when you keep moving the, to-do, uh, item from one week to the next over and over again. Oh yeah. Who else has done that? Uh, me, I have, I have like a running task list that kind of keeps getting longer and I need to check some of those off.

But yeah. Amy, I, I feel your pain on, on that one. What about you, Connor?

Conor Brown: Check some of those off or just delete ’em, you know? I mean, I do it all the

time.

Jeff Sieh: Yeah.

Conor Brown: I mean, if it sits there for a couple weeks and it probably wasn’t as important as you thought it was gonna be, or you can take some time and, and really think through, through all that. Jeff, where are you keeping all of your, your to-dos and, and project management stuff?

Jeff Sieh: So I can have like two buckets. I have like the personal branding one, and then I have my business one. So my, my personal branding one, ’cause I have all these ideas, it’s basically just in like Apple Notes. Like I have this running thing and then I back it up every month. So I know I, ’cause I can easily delete a [00:25:00] note, an apple for some reason.

Uh, but notion is where I run most of like the task list, like I have for, for the Guy Kawasaki podcast. I have one for, all of Agora Pulse’s podcasts and all my other clients, they’re there and we, ’cause the team works on ’em, I need to see where everything is. And that has been a game changer for me, to move things forward because we can look at it and see where we’re at and then move it and address issues as they come up.

And. And so that’s kind of like I have that one thing in the business. The, the thing that I struggle with is, is the personal branding thing, because that’s you like, right? Like, and I read another, this is Rory Vaden has a good book right now that I’m reading, and he’s talking about how personal branding is basically just your reputation, right?

If you think about it, that’s what it is. And okay, what does that mean? How can I apply it to what I do? So, yeah,

Conor Brown: You know, you said, you said something there, Jeff, that made me think of a quote from a wise man, Jeff C when you told me a couple weeks ago, you said you have to treat yourself like you are a client. And in that instance there [00:26:00] you said, oh, you know, I have all of my personal brand stuff, you know, my

stuff in an Apple note.

But in Notion it’s where all of our, our client stuff is. But the business stuff in Notion, I would assume, has due dates on it, right? Where the Apple Note is probably just one long list.

Jeff Sieh: so I do have some, like I have my training stuff inside a notion because I do have that planned kind of out, like how I’m doing. It’s more of stuff like quotes I have or like, oh gosh, what do I have on there? Like, I gotta do an animation for this thing. I have like get more guests for this show is like kind of on the running task list, you know, that kind of thing.

but back to like, we’re kind of just telling all our problems, some things to help fix some of this stuff is, pat talked about having a certain times that you work on it, like you’re doing, like you’re spending a certain amount a day, you’re doing this experiment For me, I’ve been using like this 15 minute thing, like I’ll use 15 minutes to practice the piano and if I can do that and just do it a day, that stuff starts [00:27:00] stacking up.

So you don’t have to like block out. And he talked about like blocking time. Like you don’t have to block out six hours a day, you know, to do write your novel. I mean, you can, but most of us don’t have time for that. So setting up those little margins, but being consistent with those, that has helped me the most.

That and chain, this is, goes back to Atomic Habits, is chaining actions together.

Conor Brown: I was just going to bring that up when you talked about 15 minutes piano, doing some sort of, uh, tying it to another habit that already exists that I found has been so, so, so helpful. And one thing that I’m starting to do is, you know, on the weekends just coming up with a simple list. I don’t have to create the videos, but just a list of okay, for the next week. What are the videos I’m gonna post so that I know I’m not racking my brain at, you know, 1150 at night and I’m like, I gotta post something. What is it gonna be? What is it gonna now I already have an idea. So if you can do that and you stack it on [00:28:00] every, you know, Sunday I wake up at this time and I get my cup of coffee and then boom, I’m also gonna plan seven videos and then boom, you go on with the rest of your day.

It’s so much easier.

Jeff Sieh: So the one thing that has changed probably everything, so I’ve been, I want I, for years I wanted to journal, right? Like I wanted to journal every day. And I’ve actually, I have an unbroken streak of over, over 1700 days. So how many years that is, I mean, you know, so, I use day one for journaling.

an app, but because it goes on all the devices. But here’s the cool thing, and this is the only way that that has been possible. I use those shortcuts, and this is really nerdy on, you know, on your phone you can add those shortcuts where you press one button and it does kind of a chain of actions.

Well, I have two of them and one is unlock my office in the morning, like so I can come out and I just hit a button, I can, it turns the lights on and super nerdy, Tony Stark kind of stuff. And then, right below that is right in the journal, and I can’t do one without the other. So if I, if I for some reason get in my office, I’m like, uh, I can until [00:29:00] I do my journal, because it’s right on top of the, the order of things.

So, that has, that’s the reason that I have over 1600 unbroken entries in my journal. Like, even if it’s a paragraph, like if I’m traveling, I’m like, I’m here with Connor, I’m doing this, reading it, you know. what’s the, the taco place we like,

Conor Brown: Taco Bell.

Jeff Sieh: no, not Taco Bell. bar Taco. Bar Taco, yes. Bar talk we’re having with bar tacos and, and we had a great time.

And if I, that’s it, that’s enough to keep the street going. I’m fine with that because I’m committed to having a journal. So

Conor Brown: Can I ask you, what has journaling done for you over the last 1700 days or, or whatever? How has it, how has it helped you?

Jeff Sieh: I think, I think you can see it reflected in the emails. And by the way, you can go to jeff c.com/news. Just signing up for that. think my emails have gotten a lot better because it’s made me write every day. So that’s what I think.

Conor Brown: I like it. I like it.

Yeah. I think there’s, journaling has always been one of those things where like if you listen to anyone [00:30:00] online, it’s like, you know why your life is in shambles ’cause you don’t journal. I’m like, it’s not a miracle

Jeff Sieh: I don’t think it’s that. Yeah, it’s just, it ha it has, you know, um, oh, morning pages. A lot of people do that.

Conor Brown: Gets you in the right head space too,

Jeff Sieh: it’s just, it’s, you can do gratitude. I mean, I, mine are sometimes just wrap up with the day. Sometimes what I’m getting ready to do, like today is like Friday show day talking with Connor.

This’ll be a fun one. Da, I mean, just kind of almost vomiting your thoughts and that, I mean, but then writing some stuff and then. I think it just makes you a better writer and knowing that you can write, like that was the thing like, oh yeah, I, I can write, I can do this. And so I can do it for emails. And so that’s, I think the big thing for me.

Amy says, oh, Amy, thank you. Your emails are the best. Thank you, Amy, I appreciate you. Thank you for subscribing. also says, I’ve learned that if you take a break from all the learning and consuming and give your brain space, it’s amazing what your brain does with the learning and the connections you make.

So agree with this, and we won’t talk about that book this, this time, but there’s another one [00:31:00] about creativity that talks about this a lot. And I think it’s, we all have to take breaks and a lot of times we don’t. And it, anyway, we’ll get into that, in a bit, but we’re gonna talk about kinda what you touched on a little bit, Connor, about how important people are.

and one of the themes in this book is learning faster by getting real, getting focused and finding community. Now we’ve talked about masterminds. we’ve talked about teaching ’cause Pat calls it the ultimate force function, by teaching or mentoring. And I know you teach new travel agents that come onto your business.

So how has teaching people in your industry helped you sharpen your own skills?

Conor Brown: I mean, it’s, it’s, I just recorded a video and, and shared it with, with all the, the travel agents, at our agency today. And I use the term that I, I love and, and I’ll continue to use it forever, which is to the kindergartner, the fifth grader is king, right?

if you are facing imposter syndrome, right? If you are, [00:32:00] oh, I’m just not good enough.

Oh, I don’t know enough to help other people, I would just say, just give it a shot. Just give it one shot and see if you can teach one person, because that all of a sudden boosts your confidence and all of a sudden the imposter syndrome is, is gone. So, like when I can, you know, teach a new travel advisor, the, what I think are, are basic things, but they’re only basic things.

’cause I’ve been doing it for so long and it opens their eyes, all of a sudden I have much more confidence in myself because I’ve helped that person. It’s so weird, Jeff, because in a way I love to help people because it. It helps them and it, and they can achieve their dreams. But it’s also selfish, right?

It’s selfish because you’re like, you have more confidence instilled in, in yourself. Jeff, you love to, to teach and, and mentor as well. When did you start doing that and, and under understanding how it’s been helping you?

Jeff Sieh: It’s, I think it is a lot, there is a [00:33:00] lot of selfishness to it actually. ’cause it, you know, it is when you’re getting ready for like a talk or a mastermind session like you are. ’cause I, you feel like, okay, I have to be good, be and, and know what I’m talking about. ’cause people are counting on me, right?

They’re, they’re paying for this service or I’m been asked to speak in front of people for this. And so it really does help sharpen. Your own skills to, to be prepared like it’s drinking from a fire hose. You’re putting yourself into stress and not all stress is bad. Some stress is good. And I think every time I have to speak or get on stage or even do a live show, it makes me better.

And that’s the other thing Pat talks about is this is not like I’ve gotta go to the master level all at once, but it’s getting that, and we’ve heard it before, 1% better each day. It kind of goes back to like even those little called ’em interstitials that I do at the beginning. Those, the AI stuff, because I’m trying to get better at that skill.

I wanna be able to share that with people so they can do it for their own shows. And [00:34:00] so I think doing stuff like that that you don’t know how to do, but you eventually wanna share to others is a big way to sharpen your skills because there is that kind of pressure you’re putting yourself under.

Conor Brown: Yeah, I love it. You gotta do something. Gotta

Jeff Sieh: about pressure. This is not a pressure sales, but if you wanna have a great show like this, you can go to ecamm.com/jeff, say 15% on your, uh, first purchase of Ecamm. And, got camp coming up. It’s gonna be amazing.

gonna be in a new kind of location, but we had Katie on, uh, last week talk about events. It’s just, it’s fabulous every year. So if you’re interested in camp, I think it is, eam.com/camp to find out more about that. Then we have a few more seats open, so make sure you guys go check that out.

But continuing the conversation about the book, lean Learning, the book talks about finding peer champions and community. So we’ve talked about this before in the show, the importance of community. But what do you think of the role of community as taking action versus staying [00:35:00] inspired? ’cause I mean, we’ve all joined those Facebook groups.

Where we saw a post, we were inspired by it. We said, okay, yeah, I’ll join your group. And then six months later, we’ve never popped in there again. So what’s the difference for you of like the groups that you kind of drive by, you sign up for and you never touch again, versus staying inspired and in part of a community that’s deeper and richer and you wanna connect with people?

Conor Brown: Well, I think it all goes back to like, how big is it, right? I think people want to be a part of something that’s that’s bigger than them, and that’s why you join. A huge organization. Right. For me, I’ve learned the most and grown the most from a more intimate setting. Right. Jeff and I first met at a, at a conference Momentum that only has 50 people.

Right. That has produced more relationships for me, both personally and professionally, and helped me grow more than any organization of 10,000 people could, could [00:36:00] possibly do. For me. That’s where I think this is, is starting to,evolve into the masterminds when you have four, five, maybe 10 people in it, the one-on-ones, just, you know, a group chat that, that you’re in with, with people.

For me that’s great because the accountability is much, much, much. Stronger, you’re no longer just a face in the crowd, right? You are a part of this group, and the group wants to succeed. So that’s what it is for me. I mean, Jeff, you’ve been in so many masterminds th throughout the years. How has like that smaller group,setting helped you more than something much larger, I guess?

Jeff Sieh: So, and Katie and I talked about this a little bit last week. I’ve been a part of a mastermind with Eric Fisher and Anthony, wit for over 10 years. Like I met when I first went to Social Media Market World. I drove across the country for the first time and went there, didn’t know anybody. I met Ian Anderson.

Great. [00:37:00] A bunch of awesome. Other people developed friendships with that. But, we started Mastermind because we were all podcasters at the time. And I had just started a brand new one and I wanted to have accountability and help and, you know, all that kinda stuff. And so we just show up every Monday.

Now. Every Monday we’re on a call. Sometimes we turn on our cameras, sometimes we don’t, you know, and then I’m in another group that’s probably been meeting four or five years that as a great group of guys. And so I don’t think anything has changed my business more than masterminds or connecting with those people.

We’re, we’re solepreneur a lot of times, like if you talk to people in your church group or your PTA or whatever, they have no idea what you do. They’re doing their normie jobs where they go and watch, like we have a lot of Eastman, uh, Kodak Chemical people. There’s a plant here in Longview. They They have no idea what I do. Like they, it just blows their mind that, you know, you’re online and you’re on a show. Like what? And so it was really hard to connect with people and talk about struggles and [00:38:00] problems. But now with technology and having these people that. They understand, like you understand what it’s like when you lose a client, right?

Like in its cash flow gets hit. Like, what does that mean? How can we create systems that mitigates that kind of thing? If some a client leaves, how can we build this kind of side hustle income? And, you know, you, nobody else can talk about that. And that’s why having these groups where you can support each other is so important that you’re, you feel like you’re not alone.

that’s I think the biggest thing for me. Abby goes, I still don’t know what you do and I work for you, so well, we’ll have to fix that. That’s a, that’s a thing on the task list we’ll have to do.

Conor Brown: It’s also great though, ’cause it’s a place where you can also vent about things, right? It’s not just, oh, I’m stuck with this, or, oh, here’s a win that I’ve had. It’s a, listen, guys, I’ve, I’ve had a tough week. This is what happened. Isn’t that the worst? And these people understand why it’s the worst verse if I explain it to, you know, God [00:39:00] bless her, my mom, who’s a second grade teacher for 32 years, she’s not gonna understand.

She’s like, oh, that, that doesn’t sound great. And then that’s that, right? It’s done and dusted. But that’s where I think it’s, it’s people who know what you are going through. Good, bad, and otherwise.

Jeff Sieh: Yeah. And that kind of leads into this other to topic we’ve touched on is the, you know, pat talks about how fear increases sometimes when we approach our goals and sometimes it even flips over into self-sabotage, which can is very negative. But why do you think sometimes success can feel scarier than failure?

Conor Brown: Because I think there’s this notion that, all right, so when we are a content creator or an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, a lot of the times we’re doing it because we want to do what we love and we wanna do it on our terms. And we put the umbrella of freedom. All of it, right? Like we’re free to do our own things.

When we reach a certain success, I think we might get scared because we think, oh, [00:40:00] this is what it’s going to be. Now I can’t walk away from this. Right? All of a sudden you don’t have freedom ’cause you have to continue to do this thing in order for the business to continue to thrive. Me personally, I’ve walked away from things before it got,that big because I knew it wasn’t going to allow me the freedom that I wanted.

Right? I think that that’s, that’s that. It’s also just an excuse, right? It’s like, oh, well once I have that much success, I won’t be able to do X, Y, or Z. That’s true. I, I think you just wanna, you have to know what you’re gonna focus on and, and why you’re going to do that. what about you, Jeff? Do you feel like, like it’s scarier to, to achieve a certain success than fail?

Jeff Sieh: I think for, for, it’s kind of a weird thing. It’s, it’s, it’s more of like, okay, let’s use the mastermind that we started as an example. Like, I really was excited and want this, a mastermind to be successful. And so you have this thing in the back of your mind. If you do it and it doesn’t work, what am I gonna [00:41:00] do next?

Right? Like that was, I have put all my eggs even in your mind, in my basket, like, or I’m gonna do this, this course, like this is the course that’s gonna take me to the next level and I, but if I do it and it fails, then I’m, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. And I think a lot of people get in that thing. They put so much.

Focus in, their worth in this thing that they want to work, and they’re scared to go for it because if it doesn’t work, they don’t have any plan B. And I think that was for me, it’s like, you know what? I’ve been doing this long enough. Like I pivoted a lot of times because I had to, like, it was just like I had to do it to survive.

I can handle this. Like, if it doesn’t work, okay, it’s not a failure, it’s an experiment that didn’t work, right? It’s like, you know, like you were saying, like you, you probably know you’re not gonna do a piece of content every day for the rest of your life, right? This is experiment to see how, and you’re fine with that, but letting that go and giving yourself the permission that if it fails, you’re gonna be okay.

That’s a think a mind shift that you have to have, have, or else [00:42:00] I see a lot of creators do that. They’re like, I’m gonna make this course, but if I’m, I’m procrastinating ’cause if it doesn’t work, I’m screwed. Kind of a thing. So that’s, I think a lot of fear comes from that.

Conor Brown: I also think on the other end of it, it’s like you set this goal and this goal becomes like you’re trying to reach the flag planted at the top of Mount Everest, but then once you get there, you’re like. What do I do

Jeff Sieh: Right,

Conor Brown: Like I got flagged, but that’s not how to look at it. It’s you just keep going and sometimes it’s, you know, you go down and you go back up, but it’s just you, you have to keep going no matter what level of success you reach.

I think that’s the other big thing too. It’s like when you put a finality on it, it it, it’s a lot scarier versus, no, let’s just put in a pit stop and, and we’re gonna keep going after that.

Jeff Sieh: one of the things that, pat talks about, and let’s just talk about Pat, like if you guys don’t know, you know, he started Smart Passive Income because he was fired from his architectural firm. He did this, he made a little course, it went [00:43:00] bonkers, selling that.

It’s still out there. It’s, he’s still making money off that stuff. But then he was doing, trainings his podcast, shot up all this stuff, and then he did what you talked about this, pocket Monster YouTube channel. This is, and, and in the middle of this, he’s also invented like the, what

is it, the Switch pod and some other things that he’s, like, he invented software for podcasting that I used to use for a long time.

he has not stopped. Like it keeps going up. And now he’s like something totally, you could, I could have not have guessed that he would have a Pokemon channel that’s even bigger than all this stuff that he’s done before. I, I heard some of the statistics that he shared. Like a couple videos. I mean like over a hundred K in revenue on just Google ad stuff.

So he’s doing okay. But he also talks about in the book Quantum Leaps versus Micro Mastery. Like when should creators focus on like the 1% improvements like we talked about, like we try to do with the show. We try to make it a little bit better each time. [00:44:00] And when should you pivot? Like, and we’ve seen a lot of creators, they’re now all in on ai.

Like I’ve seen people who are like really focused. They were all doing meta ads, they’ve scrapped that now they’re these AI experts, which is kind of out of the blue. But what are your thoughts about when creators, when should they make that pivot and when should they just, just try to keep doing better at what they’re doing?

Conor Brown: I mean, I think it’s a comfort level. It’s like how long are you willing to continue with it just being the exact same, right? Like, I don’t know. I, I feel like this a lot, a lot. Like if you do something for two years and you do it consistently and you’re not saving any success or, or whatever, it’s probably time to change it up.

It’s probably time to not focus on just getting 1% better. It’s, it’s time to go for a quantum leap and that might be pivoting entirely, doing something completely different, getting a job, right? Something like that. Like that can be a part of your story a along the way. [00:45:00] I think 1% improvements are also reserved for,more overall skills, right?

Like, I want to get 1% better at video editing. I wanna get 1% better at communicating. I wanna get 1% better at reaching out and connecting with people. Versus a quantum leap is I’m gonna launch this brand new thing, right? You can work on it every day to get to that, but it’s, it’s that sort of thing. it might also be about knowing your audience, I mean. For Pat. I don’t know how many Pokemon fans he had with SPI with Smart Passive income.

Jeff Sieh: Right.

Conor Brown: But you know what he had, he knew how to make captivating, engaging content and then the other side of him knew about Pokemon as a fan. So he took those two things and put them together. So I think that the Quantum Leaf was taking his personal and his professional life and putting it together.

and I would like to challenge you, Jeff, to what Abby is saying to name one Pokemon.

Jeff Sieh: I know what one looks [00:46:00] like. uh, I can’t even say Alazar. Um, Sal Alazar. Is there one?

Do you know? Yeah.

Conor Brown: I think you might be thinking of Salazar. Slitherin. Is that what

Jeff Sieh: No, no, no. But I don’t know. See, I can’t, because, but here’s the thing, Pikachu, I knew that one. I didn’t know it off the top of my head, but yeah,

I’m not a big Pokemon fan. I did do Pokemon Go when it was the craze, you know, when it first came out, uh, on the iPhone. But on that note, pat didn’t, like, he wasn’t a lifelong Pokemon fan.

He wanted to get in for his kids. And he even talks about in the book, like the whole thing about lean learning. He applied to Pokemon and then it just blew up. Like, but he knew, like you were saying, how to create a YouTube video that hooks viewers. He knew how to create content, short form and long form, and he knew how to experiment and he also knew how to learn.

And he did, he applied all that stuff to this new thing, and then it took off, even more than, you know, he thought it would. So I think that’s a, that’s a great, point. My daughter’s laughing that I was trying to figure out what a Pokemon name was, so. this [00:47:00] last couple of minutes, I wanna talk about another book.

Now, you didn’t read it? I did, but I I’ve been talking about it a lot. So you probably, in our mastermind, so you probably know it, it’s uh, Sahil Bloom’s, types of wealth. And those wealth types are time, wealth, social wealth, mental wealth, physical wealth and financial wealth. And I don’t really wanna talk about, financial wealth ’cause that’s kind of a thing, but it really got me thinking and, and what got him on this topic is somebody asked him you know, how many, how many times do you see your parents a year?

And they, he goes like, oh, maybe twice a year. And then he says, well, how old are they? And he, she, they told him and he goes, well, you’re probably only gonna see your parents 15 more times. That’s a real, like, that made me think about stuff. Now I’m lucky that my parents are here, my wife’s parents aren’t. So I’m like, oh, we need to this.

I mean, it got things, I guess, churning in me and. That it’s not just money you know, that’s not the only thing we should be thinking about, especially for solopreneurs and business owners. [00:48:00] We tend to, that’s our next thing. Like that’s where we measure success is like six figures or whatever. Like, and, and we have all these other things that we also need to be, you know, thinking about time, wealth, when you’re, when your kids are young, that’s super important.

Like, you wanna spend time with your kids and, I think I talked about this in the mastermind, but I feel very, very wealthy in my social, like, especially with my community, the mastermind people I’m with, the people I go to conferences with. I am very, very wealthy in that. There’s, people have actually come up to, you know, when we’ve been in Orlando going in a conference, you’ve been there too, Connor is, people have come up and have said, I wanna be a part of that group.

How do I do that? Like they see it and they want it because they want those social connect. And it really got me thinking after reading this book is that I can’t just be passive and like, oh, I’ve got all these friends. I have to cultivate those relationships. How do I do that? Well, I need to interact on their feed.

I need to do like [00:49:00] video calls or leave them a voice message and things that will enrich the relationship. So think about that from all those five different types. Like is there one you’re really strong in Connor and, and one you really wanna work on? I mean, I think we all wanna work on financial.

That’s kind of a, a given, but are any of the other four that you think like, oh, I could, I could invest some more time or, or resources in?

Conor Brown: Maybe physical, I think. Um, yeah.

yeah, thanks for that.

Jeff Sieh: No. Me, I was like, yeah, I need it from me, not you. Yeah. Yeah, you do, Connor, you’re pretty, pretty bad. Yeah.

Conor Brown: I think that that would, that could help a lot. One thing that I’ve, I’ve started to do is. I was talking to a friend, I, I, I just come up with this analogy. I was actually quite proud of myself, to be honest. We were talking about like, having a job, and when you work for a company, how you basically have like three buckets.

You have, okay, how much are they paying you? Right? In one bucket, what are your benefits? Right? Is it giving you health insurance, 401k, extra incentives, those sorts of things. [00:50:00] And then how fulfilled are you? Right? And I think the goal of a job is to not have any one bucket filled to the top, but it’s to have each of the three, like.

Filled as evenly as possible, right? And, and that’s where I’m trying to focus on these types of wealth as well, right? It’s like, okay, I’m gonna focus on, on my time, on having more time. That’s great, but what are you going to take away from one of the other buckets too, right? So trying to get everything as evenly balanced as possible.

that’s what what I’m trying to focus on, I think.

Jeff Sieh: Yeah, let us know in the comments where you feel you are the strongest right now. Mental, social time, physical or financial wealth. What is your, you feel, feel like you’re the, the best at right now? Let us know in the comments, ’cause I’d be really interested. One of the things I also wanna talk about, and Eric Fisher who does the beyond the to-do list, [00:51:00] and I have talked about this quite a bit, is the, you know, we all talk about, you know, work life balance.

Which to be honest, I really don’t believe work for me is very integral into my life. And like you can’t, it, it, you have to try to put in the buckets where you are in that season. So I think a lot of this stuff is very seasonal, like when you have young kids. you want to invest in the time aspect of it.

So I was very blessed that I had, you know, I had this office and I could hear them playing in the pool outside. You know, we had an above ground pool. It’s no longer there. I could see it though, very sad. but I had the time that I could invest because I made choices. Like I could have went to Dallas and we could have moved there and we could have worked for a big agency and all that stuff, but we made choices.

It was more important for us to invest in the time wealth than it was in the financial. So you had to give, like you were saying, Connor, you had to make decisions. And I think being okay with those decisions and understanding, I think it’s becoming more and more people are really starting to think about this.

Like, [00:52:00] it’s not just money. There’s other things that I really need to work on. Like, who cares how much money you are in if you can’t walk when you’re 75, right? So you need to invest. Like right now I’m thinking about that a lot because if you don’t move it, you lose it. And I’m like, I need to keep active because I don’t wanna be.

You know, having to get one of those electric carts that are in, like, Wally, I don’t wanna be that guy in Wally, just

Conor Brown: They seem to, they seem to move pretty quickly though.

they, look pretty up.

Jeff Sieh: I, I can move fast. But anyway, so, yeah, I, I, I think it’s really, it was a really good book for me to think about. Okay. And also gave me a lot of, clarity and, okay.

That’s okay. That I, I didn’t invest so much in this thing, which I can do now because I did make the right choice. But, anyway,

Conor Brown: I definitely wanna read it. It’s, it’s on my to read list. I just bought, um, StoryBrand 2.0 as well. I haven’t read that,one yet. Read the original StoryBrand not 2.0. [00:53:00] Um, a book you have on your bookshelf you’re about to read?

Jeff Sieh: I’m, I just, and one I wanna talk about, sometime is, where is it? It’s, It’s, it’s a one about, it’s Jay Bear. He, if you don’t subscribe to his newsletter, it comes out twice a month. It’s called The Bear Think. It’s called The Bear Facts. he does book recommendations and there’s not one in there that he, that I have read that, that has been bad.

He does really good ones. I read one called, the Case for More Bad Ideas, and it talks about kind of what Amy was talking about, having time and, and there are no bad ideas and how do to get creative and become more creative. It was really, really good and was from an author I never heard about. Right now I’m reading, uh, wealthy and Well Known by Rory Vaden, who I met before many times at Social Media Marketing World, and his wife AJ Vaden.

it’s using your platform. To make a difference. So it’s been really good so far. So that’s what I’m, I’m meeting. So, this is really interesting on this whole topic that we’ve been talking about. is the last quote I’ll give you.

[00:54:00] It says that more than 50% of full times creators surveyed by Neo reach earns less than 15 KA year. Only 15% make over a hundred K annually. So, if you are on the way, it’s okay. we compare ourselves to so many people. We need to stop that comparison trap and try to balance some of this stuff up.

But we are outta time Connor Brown. So where can people find the amazing where Unsinkable, Conor Brown.

Conor Brown: You can find more about me@vacationkingdoms.com and follow me at Vacation Kingdoms so you can see all of the short form videos I’m posting over the next 30 or so days. You can see my lean learning in action.

Jeff Sieh: Awesome. Yes. And you can find out more about me, join my newsletter@jeffc.com. You can find out more@jeffc.com. That’s I before e, especially in C-S-I-E-H. And don’t forget the sponsors of our show, ECA m you find out more about them at ecamm.com/jeff. Use code Jeff 15 to say 15% [00:55:00] on your first purchase. And with that, we will see you guys next time.

Thank you so much for all the great comments, Amy. and, uh, who else? Abby was here, all these different people, Kira, Nazeem, Caleb, thank you guys so much for watching. We will do the show without you. And with that, we’ll see you guys next time. Have a great weekend. Bye everybody.