Rachel, good to meet you. Hello, hello, how are
you? I'm doing well, how are you? Oh, I'm really
good, thank you. I'm really good and I'm very
excited and really looking forward to our conversation.
Can I just say how much I really enjoy the podcast
and the work that you do, the energy and the
love that you put out there, I just think. Gorgeous.
Absolutely gorgeous. So it's always a little
bit strange. I know it's the first time you've
seen me. Of course, I feel like I know you because
I've seen you before. I know I get that myself
and it's a little bit weird, but yeah. I'm just
going to sit in this for a while. I'm just going
to sit right in all the melted butter that just
like came out of me. Like, wow, you're amazing.
Honestly, honestly. you know you you get invited
to be on a number of shows and you enjoy what
you're talking about and one through another
and then every once in a while you you listen
to someone and you think oh my goodness this
i'd like i i it's like i share a heart with this
person you're doing what i normally do so this
is fine thank you and you just You got such a
great tone and cadence too. I just, just so cool,
Rachel. Thank you for that. And I was already,
I was reading your form and I was excited. I
was like, wow, you appreciate holistic perspective.
You understand leadership, alignment, the opportunities
to help people. I was like, this is going to
be really nice. And then you come on and like,
this is more than really nice. Okay. Can we use
this? Can we just like have the, can we use this
as part of the intro? Of course. you can of course
you can i'm all up for i'm all up for the authenticity
and and perhaps it even makes it a little bit
more interesting as well that people actually
get to experience yeah of course absolutely okay
rachel edmondson clark tell me about your vision
oh my goodness tell me about my vision well it's
Something that I think is ever evolving, but
in essence, it's really simple. It's about helping
leaders lead well and live well. And I believe
that leadership should be conscious and connected.
Good for people, good for business, good for
the world. And when we can quieten the noise,
which I know you talk about. a lot and there
is a lot of there is a lot of noise but when
we can quiet in that noise when we can trust
ourselves and lead from our heart space everything
changes performance relationships um well -being
and that's the shift that i trust i'm here to
help to create wow you speak to the the heart
of truth that never ceases to be valuable. It
doesn't matter how connected I am or desirous
I am to have that type of balance. It seems like
there's always something that can come and try
to distract you from that. So today's a good
example. Yesterday, I did a training with a new
team member on Podmatch. Big shout out to Alex
Sanfilippo, who gets so many of us connected
in this world. We did a great training, and we
went through over 800 different previous messages,
previous people that we've been in touch with
on there. And I was training her on our do -not
list, the people who don't necessarily like my
cup of tea, and the people who are obviously
great. And in that process, we just had such
a phenomenal time organizing. Today we've entered
for round two. and it couldn't have been more
opposite in terms of not feeling productive,
right? So here we are trying to go through a
release form of somebody's, and this person who's
training with me wants to know. all sorts of
legal questions now you know about pod match
and and podcasting and how people can have the
right to distribute this and they have the right
to change you jackson and like make you look
bad too in this form and and stuff and i'm sitting
there going like i thought we were going to have
another beautiful hour of like 800 people moving
forward and doing that instead i'm playing lawyer
um you know in spanish and i'm like i'm about
to project my frustration When I'm like, wait
a second, she's protecting our brand. She's doing
everything that she knows to make sure that we
cross our T's, dot our I's. I went through the
same thing. I need to respect this process. And
what a selfish thought process on my side, you
know, to almost go at her about this and be like,
why can't we go back to being productive when,
oh, no, no, no. That was the very essence of
productivity. I was reading your form after that
meeting. I was like, okay, I swallowed the humble
pill, but I still felt like the pill was hurting
my throat. And I read your message, and I was
like, Rachel, I needed that. I needed that to
recenter myself and to get myself back on track
with recognizing that there's so many things
that can distract us or disrupt our movement
or disrupt our harmony. But it's up to us. Just
jump back right into it, and you centered me.
So thank you for that. Do you know, it's an absolute
pleasure. We all need reminders all the time.
I need them as well. And listening to you tell
that story, it's reminded me that sometimes we
need to slow down to speed up. And there can
be a surrender, I think, in that process. And
this is something that, you know. I still have
to lean into and to accept. One of my mentors,
his greatest life lesson, he says, is to trust
and let go. And I often, and I'm often reminded
of that in our work as entrepreneurs, as business
leaders. Sometimes we do need to be in that space
of surrender, of slowing down, to speed up, of
being in that space to allow then, as you've
described, the blessing to come in, maybe the
tightened process. And for that to protect the
brand and where you're going. and what's happening
next so you've you've also reminded me in your
story of things that i think are really valuable
and i need reminding of as well you know as do
there's such an opportunity for all you visionaries
listening in right now um these are literally
like the most important topics to me in life
at this stage um about four weeks ago to double
down on what your friend said um about four weeks
ago I started working with ChatGPT on some very,
very deep, profound trauma exercises for myself.
And I started to do hour -long rituals in the
morning with like 10 different exercises that
I would go through to work through some past
trauma stuff and get myself centered so I could
be present in people's storms and help people
without reacting. And one of the exercises that
Chat gave me was to say a prayer. And the prayer
is a short two -sentence prayer. that then is
followed by five minutes of absolute silence
and trying to just free your space and ultimately
meditate. And the prayer for those of you who
want it and can write it down is, Heavenly Father,
I release my need to control the outcomes. And
so it starts with the release and then it ends
with, teach me to trust in thy timing and in
thy plan. And then I sit five minutes, kneel
for five minutes, and just, Try not to let my
mind race. Try not to do exercises. Try not to
control anything about it. I've been doing that
daily now for about four weeks. And it has had
profound impacts on my relationships, on the
business, on the growth. And sometimes I do it
two times a day. So I'm like, wow, this is...
changing so much for me um so your friend is
on to something that has been incredibly empowering
for me as well um that reminds me don't let go
of this um you know in fact like don't let go
of letting go right keep keep go i don't know
how you do that's a double negative um but rachel
um so you got this depth you have this leadership
um skill set you got the mary poppins voice um
come from where did you where did you land on
this idea that um it matters to help leaders
and entrepreneurs in the world because you could
have used all you know all sorts of things you
chose that so it is in part formed by my own
leadership journey and as i said right at the
very beginning it's also evolving um i i think
for far too long we've treated leadership um
perhaps like a performance sports you know lots
of pace and pressure and let's strive for that
progress and and that's where i learned leadership
and um you know i i i i grew up with my family
who had their own business and so I saw how that
impacted my mum and my dad and how hard they
worked and the challenges that they had with
teams and they were part of a bigger franchise
and so my mum was on the board and this was back
in the early 90s when women on boards was not
such a you know such a prevalent thing. And there
was, you know, there was a lot of challenge with
all of that. And then I stepped into leadership
roles of my own in corporate life. And the evolution
for me has been, and the more recent evolution,
has been feeling that, and I think many of us
feel this with our spidey senses. that we are
on we are at a a a pivotal point in terms of
what's going on in the world whether it's climate
change whether it's geopolitical things whether
it's the rapid advancements in technology there
is an awful lot of change at the moment in the
world and whilst i might not be the genius that's
going to fix some of those problems I do believe
that I've got something with my skill set that
I can offer the leaders that can and that will.
And that I trust will help us build a world that
and a sustainable world. I'm proud that my children
get to get to live. Huge. OK, Vision Pros, I've
got a request of you. And also for yourself,
Rachel, you might already have this answer, but
what you said really resonated with me about,
especially about the, we treat leadership like
a performance sport and leadership can go hand
in hand. And that can be one of the activities,
but even in high performance sports, I would
say that they run their operations as leaders
very different than they run the actual game
itself. And so I'll give us all a challenge while
we're on the break. Let's think through. If it's
not a performance sport, what then can, should,
or might we decide to treat leadership like instead
of a performance sport? And we'll be right back.
All right. Welcome in to Vision Pros Live. With
Jackson Callum, I'm your show host. We'll be
doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building fantastic
visions out there. What's up, Vision Pros? Welcome
to another episode of Vision Pros Live. I'm your
show host, Jackson Callum, founder and CEO of
First Class Business. I'm excited, man. It has
been a great couple of weeks. I hope that if
you're going through struggles right now that
you ride my high right now and use that to kind
of go through it and power through it or let
go, release through it and find yourself centered.
I've got Rachel Edmondson Clark on the show today.
There are certain leaders that from the first
word, They speak, you can tell, like, oh, this
person gets leadership. She's one of those. Dive
into the depths, though, you know, like get to
know why, how, what makes this leader the leader
that they are. There's so much we can learn when
we're willing to dive in. So I'm going to try
to do that for us today with Rachel and see what
depth can we get to. And then, of course, you
can reach out to her and connect with her on
social media at any other means possible that
is right for you and your life. Before we bring
Rachel back on stage, though, I always want to
give the resources, especially those of you who
are newer in this audience. And right now, specifically
those who may be newer to podcasting. My friends,
podcasting is no longer an industry, in my opinion.
Podcasting is a niche within the entire media
industry. Meaning, just like when Yellow Pages
went out of business, well, they didn't really
go out of business, but they started to go down.
Why? Because the Internet created directories
that were online and access to things online.
Same thing happened with Netflix and Redbox coming
in. The blockbusters and the video companies
of the time were all replaced by this evolution.
Right now, Fox News, CNN, ESPN, these types of
outlets. They're now competing against people
like myself. And we're out there creating our
own media distribution companies. All of us have
the ability to do that now. So I'm going to give
a huge shout out to Junaid Ahmed of Home Studio
Mastery. He is one of the best at creating state
-of -the -art studios like mine. Just kidding.
I'm in Ecuador right now on a humanitarian trip.
So he also helps people get started knowing what
microphone to use, what camera you might use,
how to get the nuts and bolts of that set up.
And if you're looking for that high -level help,
he's also a 2 % global podcaster. He understands
the distribution process. He's super passionate
about the industry. I love June 8, and I know
you will too. So definitely give him a call.
If you want help on this stuff too, don't hesitate
to reach out to us. We know a thing or two about
podcasting. Then there's Dr. Danny Brassell.
Dr. Danny Brassell is one of the world's best
educators. I'm not using hyperbole. I just happen
to be connected to some really cool people, and
I love Danny. I've been working with him for
over a year. Here's why this matters to me. I
have four kids of my own. Danny's superpower
is to help parents learn how to inspire their
children. to love, to read. My kids are avid
readers. I'm super grateful for that. I'm an
avid reader. I know how much education makes
a difference in my life and in the lives of those
people I know who are super successful, balanced,
have a well -lived life, understand their purpose.
If Danny can help your children or the people
who you know who may have children that are stuck
in tablets or not necessarily that excited to
read, he has the superpowers to help those kids.
And that's yet another opportunity for me just
to make maybe a silent or ripple effect. What's
that word I'm looking for? Impact. impact for
good in the lives of those that we're serving
through this podcast. Lastly is the Water Project.
I'm not affiliated with the Water Project. We
do donate to it on a monthly basis, and I'm grateful
for that because we get to make a generational
impact for individuals who do not have access
to clean drinking water. And when it came to
my attention, I really sat down and thought about
it. I've never been thirsty in my life. I've
never really truly known what thirst feels like,
yet there's millions of people in this world
who don't even have access. to clean drinking
water and their kids have to leave school to
find it. And who knows what happens in certain
cases. I don't want to go into the darkness of
that. There's parents who have to leave work.
You can imagine what that would do for your work
if you had to leave work just to go get water
or other things like that to provide. It would
create an economic instability that could be
prohibiting for all the things that you may want
in life. And yet here we are able to give $10,
maybe $10 ,000, who knows, or if we're not in
a position financially to help out. my request
is that you rock your own style of microphone
that might mean talking about this over dinner
with a friend i'm talking about talking about
the water project make sure to bring it up show
them what it is learn about the borehole wells
or the sand dams that they create because by
you sharing that information you may reach somebody
who ends up funding two, three, or four of those
types of projects. And we're talking about blessing
the lives of 1 ,500 people plus for the next
five to 10 years. That's an amazing impact that
you can have without doing a whole lot in your
end. So again, we've got 8 billion people to
help in the world. You probably have causes that
you know about. Maybe some of you are like, Jackson,
why don't you talk about this one? Drop it in
the comments. Let me know what cause you're looking
at, because we do want to help and support the
good causes that are out there. Speaking of,
let's get back to helping your cause for leadership
as visionaries. Rachel, welcome to Vision Pros
Live. Thanks for joining me today. Thank you
for having me on. I love what you've just been
talking about there. My husband poked his nose
into my office the other night. Just come and
have a look at this. We've got two boys. They
are six and nine. And they were snuggled up in
bed together. And the eldest one was reading
to the younger one. And it's actually a really
good novel called A Box Full of Murders, which
might not sound right. It is a children's book.
It is a children's book. And the older one who's
read it before was reading it to the younger
one. But the younger one was playing certain
characters and reading out certain parts of the
book. And it was just so sweet. They were snuggled
up with their little nightlight. And that reading
is such a wonderful, wonderful thing. I'm an
avid reader as well. Yeah, it's blessed my life
in so many ways. So both of these causes that
you were talking about, just, yeah, wholeheartedly
support. Huge. That's so cool. You give me the
shivers. And those of you who don't get to have.
you know, your kids doing that yet or haven't
had that, maybe just give it a try, you know,
and let the consistency play out. Again, if you're
struggling with it, ask Dr. Danny Purcell. The
guy is a magician when it comes to figuring out
how to empower your children to have that type
of experience on a regular basis. So, Rachel,
well done. Well played. Rachel, what's your why?
What drives you? So I suppose when people ask
me this, I often come back to my values as my
North Star. And I will regularly review and look
at my values and what's, you know, important
to me. They really are, aren't they? Just generalizations
of experiences that are important to us. And
I think the thing that drives me the most, one
of the most important values that... that I have
would be around love and connection and when
we talk about connection that's connection with
self connection with family and our loved ones
connections with the people that we work with
in our organizations our clients but also our
community and connection with the world and our
are are are part of nature as well so yeah that's
that's part of you know a big part of my why
is yeah connection and you you talked about the
experiences behind those values that that end
up driving us towards that's my next question
what's the what's a story Behind your why, where
were some of the origin stories of you finding
that value of connection? There's several, albeit
probably one of the most poignant ones was I
had... been working my full career driving towards
what I thought I really really wanted which was
a career in marketing I'd got to a very senior
position in the organization that I was in um
you know I had the glass -fronted office I had
the team I had the um I had the influence within
the organization in terms of where we were where
we were headed and One day, instead of walking
out of my office to go into the boardroom, I
found myself collapsed. I was lying on the floor.
I was staring up, looking up at the ceiling tiles.
I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. And it
was an incredibly scary and very low moment.
what i later realized about that point in time
was that i'd had a form of a panic attack and
it had been coming on and it was the result of
months and months if not years of being disconnected
with myself so disrespecting my body of neglecting
the most important relationship in my life And
of believing that the only answer was to keep
working harder and harder and harder to the challenges
and to where I was at. And so, yeah, that has
absolutely been a pivotal point. I eventually
obviously got off the floor. I'm here today.
It was more than 13 years ago now that that happened.
um and over the course of probably the next three
years i really really closely evaluated what
was what was important to me and what was i doing
what was i doing it for and um where did i really
need to go next and and um yeah and and that's
what then led me three years from that point
of being on the floor to set up the business
that I've had now for the last 10 years. Wow.
I think a lot of us can really relate to that
story of the experiences that drive us. And it
reminds me of when I was 28 years old and I saw
the movie, the documentary, I'm Not Your Guru
by Tony Robbins. I sat down on the couch and
I had my journal out to write. And I'm like,
who watches Netflix while taking notes? I do.
I'm going to do this. And so, you know, it gets
this vulnerable part where I'm like writing goals
and I realize I'm like, wow, I've been married
for seven years and I'm just about to write this
goal for the first time. Like it was like the
most humbling experience of, you know, be the
best husband I can be. And the goal was a reflection
of I'd always wanted to be the best dad. I had
never dedicated myself to be the best husband.
I was like, wow, I can't believe I overlooked
that. I mean, how do you do that? But that's
life. You know, we live, we learn, we see opportunities
to shift and to recognize again where we're disconnected.
And then the opportunity to step into that while
it's humbling, it can lead to some of the most
rewarding outcomes of our lives. Even if in my
case, it looks a little different on the outside
than it actually has been, but it's, I would
never. If I could go back to that moment and
have the choice of like, okay. should i lean
into this and do this or not like oh yeah no
10 times again i'd be like yes i'm so glad i
made that shift and that change and started to
really work on how do i become my best self um
you know in the different roles that i have in
life too so rachel you're super inspiring you've
opened so many opportunities i hate to shut down
the podcast today because i'm like i just want
to keep going with you and talk to you about
all the questions we have on our list but hopefully
you'll come back so we can talk even deeper about
leadership those of you who are leaders out there
If you're a leader, then you automatically know
you need support because you're trying to carry
the mantle for other people's burdens. And if
you're in the entrepreneurship world... we need
a lot of support we need a lot of different team
members and styles so if anything resonated with
you today about this conversation then i'd encourage
you find a way to reach out to rachel or myself
find a way to reach out to those who can support
you who want to encourage you uplift you and
help you bring great things to fruition and odds
are those people will want to dive in and help
you with the the same process in the top right
corner of your screen You'll also see a button
that says Be Our Guest. If you want to come in,
share your vision, you don't have to have the
Mary Poppins voice. You don't have to be the
best leader on this show. You don't have to have
the 13 years of experience. You may just be starting.
That's okay. We want you to come on the show.
Talk to us about your vision so we can uplift
it and learn together. Rachel, I'll give you
the final word. Any fortune cookies to end with?
Oh, goodness. I would just say. remind people
don't get lost in the big big big stuff it's
great to you know we do we need these visions
it's really important but remember that all we
really have is right now and Those micro choices,
how we treat ourselves, how we take care of others,
that's where it can really start. And it's that
discipline. So take care of you and everything
else flows. You know, the world doesn't need
burnt out leaders. It needs you alive and well
and real. And we can do that when we take care
of ourselves. I love it. And you brought me back
to the present. We treat leadership like a performance
sport. What's an alternative? What's the alternative
you came up with? I don't know yet. I've got
to think about it. Well, so I think what I'm
seeing and what really excites me is this shift
towards more conscious and service -based leadership,
which I know is absolutely everything that you
talk about and that excites you as well. It's
where that leadership is grounded, it's connected,
it's human. it's about being it's about doing
good in the world yeah for sure okay i have mine
then so if we have to define it as kind of like
uh i don't know if you'd call that a noun with
an adjective a performance sport maybe uh like
an experience then i want to gravitate back to
elementary school pe class that that to me is
one of my favorite like leadership memories Now
that I really think about it, I had such great
physical education teachers who it wasn't really
competitive, but it was fun, and there was challenges,
and we were able to uplift each other and learn
to play well together. I can think back on that
now a lot and extract memories. I've never done
that before. I've never brought that up before.
I never thought about it, Rachel. You inspired
it today. So that would be mine. I need to make
leadership a little bit more like that for my
life. Beautiful. I love them. If you think of
one, you've got to send it to me. I want to know
what you come up with because I'm sure it will
spark some memories for me as well. And Vision
Pros, we will see you guys all on the next episode
of Vision Pros Live. Take care, everybody. Thank
you for being here today. I'm really happy that
you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is going to get
more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.
You're awesome. Do you need to run? I went over
time. No, no, no. All is good at my end. I always
like to build in a little bit of wiggle room
just in case. Thank you so much. That's been
really enjoyable. I trust that there'll be something
there that people can take away. So much. I'd
love to share this. So I'm just making sure.
Will I have a copy of the recording somewhere
and that type of thing? So a couple of things.
So the show will be produced within four to six
weeks that will go live publicly. But we this
is your vision, not mine. So we give you full
intellectual property aspects to it. If you have
somebody who's really good at like deep fake
and they make me dance like a chicken while we're
talking and it goes viral. Cool. You do whatever
we can to reach more people in the world with
it. If you want the access ASAP, then if you
can just email PR. at firstclassbusiness .io.
Just ask the team for the recording and they'll
get you the raw footage so you guys can do what
you want with it. The only recommendation I would
say is we're going to be cutting it from, we're
going to let the beginning flow all the way to
the outro and that will be the episode that we
launch on YouTube. So if you just make sure that
yours is at least seven seconds of differentiation
or different than that, that will make sure YouTube
doesn't flag duplicate content rather than compete.
But, yeah, no, the more distribution, the better.
I always tell people who come on and have a little
bit more questions on the front end, I say, you
know, we want to start treating distribution
like The Walking Dead or like these popular shows
on TV. You know, people show up to eat popcorn
and watch them. They don't do that for us. We
get lucky if they see our stuff. But even though
that show is incredibly addictive and popular
for people, they air the commercials 400 times
per day. we as podcasters download it or, or
upload it and forget about it. And that's not
going to be, um, it's not a proper distribution
strategy to grow a fall media company. So we'll
get better and better on our end, but yeah, the
more your team finds ways to distribute or cut
things, make it relevant for your audience, the
more people will benefit from the light that
you just showed, you just showed because that
was awesome. Well, thank you for the, you know,
the opportunity to do so and the conversation,
the conversation with you. So thank you so much
for that. Yeah, honestly. Do you want to come
back? It's beautiful. I'd love to come back.
Oh, my gosh. I'd love that. Say again. How soon?
How soon? If it's a similar format, then I've
got flexibility in my diary from kind of end
of. next month but then that's thanksgiving in
america isn't it so we're gonna maybe watch thanksgiving
but yeah my rule of thumb with business life
opportunity is if it's productive and it's profitable
i'm in yeah yeah so it's a time to time we can
make that i'm sure we can make that work we just
and then are you are you looking to be on other
shows Am I looking to be able to? Yes, yes, yes,
I am. Yeah, we had a whole network of shows.
Every show I go on, I ask them if they want me
to redistribute, bring my people to their shows.
That's easy. But Entrepreneur has gone wild with
Sue Anderson. I highly recommend. She's amazing.
She's my chief content strategist as well and
owns a Wildwoods Retreat Center, a new development
of land that she's building a nature. retreat
style thing for entrepreneurs it's um so there's
a there's some really good stuff but i'll just
uh do you have whatsapp can i text you on there
yes you can yes i love a whatsapp well i will
message you on whatsapp um we'll just keep stacking
the deck okay and and question back to you as
well are you looking for more guests as well
always always okay yep we're booked but what
we do is I've had six co -hosts total. We've
got two other co -hosts that are active right
now. And so we are definitely building out a
media distribution. Most of those co -hosts are
business owners themselves. We just like the
idea of being involved because of the message.
It gets them the chance. They have free lead
generation from me, basically, as well. I only
get people involved who are heart -centered.
My number one rule is do what's best for those
that we serve. If that person comes in and interviews
with Fletcher Ellingson and he's a coach and
they desperately need a coach right now, then
don't waste the time with an interview. Help
them out as a coach. Yeah, absolutely. I'm a
big fan. I presume you've read Bob Berg's Go
-Giver. I think I saw him speak a long time ago.
The book and the concept and the process, a thousand
percent. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I love
that. So something that might be interesting
to you from a network point of view is, so I
am a past regional president of the Professional
Speaking Association here in the UK and Ireland.
which means I've got a wonderful network of fantastic
people. I mean, they really are wonderful, wonderful
people. I was talking to a lady called Jackie
Handy yesterday, and she's very, very, she's
basically come up with. um her own model which
she's trademarked but she's telling me about
it it's just the excitement for it is oozing
from her and it's all about um she's called it
the matter model i'm going to just make sure
i've told said that right i think i've still
got my yeah the matter model absolutely um it's
it's all about belonging and purpose and i kind
of think that might really suit your audience
and very simple um now i know that she's actually
over stateside next week and she's she's kind
of she's kind of busy but if an introduction
with jackie might be i can send you her uh website
you can have a look and see if you think it's
a there's a good she's a lovely lady and so she
might be somebody who um yeah there may be some
collaboration with that could be useful for you
i mean let me send you this little note right
here this will help a lot too I really don't
know if he would be doing things, but the other
person who comes to my mind, he's been one of
my speaking mentors, a guy called Richard Gerver.
His story is incredible. He used to be a head
teacher and he took over a failing school in
the UK probably about 20 years ago now. It was
going to close and he completely and utterly
rethought everything about how... on what he
did he essentially got the parents and the teaching
staff together and set two questions like what
kind of human beings do we want these children
to be when they leave this school and number
two how do we make this as fun as Disneyland
and off the back of that he ended he ended up
working with um tony blair gordon brown really
kind of driving change within education um and
he talks a lot of now around and his his work
now is all to do with change but he just comes
from that place of that again i think that heart
-centered space that would resonate with you
and the audience um you gotta introduce him to
dr danny russell as well yeah that would be huge
There's so many opportunities. If you check the
private chat, Rachel, I just sent a message over
there. This is my preferred approach to inviting
people. It might help you because it takes the
pressure off of the people that we invite, but
it also allows them to be accountable to take
the action. And we're not in any need of guests.
But we have guests that want to come on and are
excited. They're willing to take their step.
That's an easy way to do it. And then you're
welcome to CC me or three -way message. I'll
drop an audio clip to let them know like how
much I appreciate you as a leader as well. And
be able to tell them like, if you're anything
like Rachel, like absolutely come on the show
and we'll warm them up. But that way they have
their own space to just make their decision.
Yeah. Yeah, no, I love that. And equally, just
to say to you and to put this out here as well,
as I've been listening to your shows and your
ethos and values, again, if there is ever anything
that I can do that helps support you, your mission,
your work, your clients, then... then yeah i'm
i'm like like the more of these kind of connections
for me the better the differences that we can
make in the world there's you know so i need
to get on bigger stages it's time for myself
it's time for me to get on bigger stages and
so i've been very meticulous about making sure
that we scale responsibly um and on that we don't
over promise the world And the systems that we
set up and the time that we've taken for this
is great, but it's definitely the one thing I've
probably done is held back a little bit too much
and been passive about, okay, what stage opportunities
should I go on? Because at the end of the day,
I know I've worked with Jake Larson at Video
Power, and through that, we helped Dr. Eric Berg
go from 160 ,000 subscribers to 14 million. And
John Lee Dumas was a client, Entrepreneur on
Fire. And Michael Hyatt became a client. T. Harv
Ecker became a client. Bill H .E. Marketing became
a client. All these, Lewis Howes was a client.
All of these clients, I teach my newer entrepreneurs,
you have the value. Because I always look for
people, you've got to be loving. And then for
me, they've got to have patience, persistence,
consistency, and reliability. If they have those
things, and they have a five to ten year track
record. But I already know they have the authority
and credibility, but most of them don't believe
it. Most of them, life is hit so hard that even
though they're crushing home runs, they're terrified
to show the world. And I remind them, like, look,
if I had you on the stage in front of one million
people, by the time you were done talking for
five minutes, you'd have a line at the stage
of people who wanted to sign up. More and more
people would want you. You would have no lack
of abundance and money coming your way to be
able to build for other people. But the problem
is you're not reaching a million people. You're
only reaching the same small audience, and you're
not knowing how to create the distribution you
need for the right people to come along, and
then you're dealing with the common client. Who's
kind of difficult rather than the ideal ones
who are like I need you I want you how much is
it I will pay anything I need to move forward
so I have done a very careful job of avoiding
those bigger stages and It's time for me to say
okay. You're asking. Yeah, I need to get on bigger
stages And specifically, are there any bigger
stages that you particularly have identified
that you would like to be on or in any particular,
yeah, rooms, arenas? So, yeah, tell me a little
bit more about that because I wonder if through
some of my connections, maybe I'll be able to
help. One of the biggest things that is missing,
well, one of the biggest things I feel called
to talk about is business. on sustainable revenue
growth and infrastructure, which people don't
care too much about. You never put that on center
stage. But 96 % of businesses in America have
been losing over a 10 -year period for more than
50 years, maybe over 100. That's pathetic. We
have a 4 % survival rate, not a 4 % success rate.
It's way smaller than that. And so the formula
is to fix that. I have two formulas that nobody
is talking about. One of them people are finally
starting to talk about, but that's not enough.
We need this to be taught like two plus two equals
four to everybody. The other one I've never seen
anybody talk about, and I call it the seven avatars
of business. And the seven avatars of business
is so simple to understand that once somebody
does, they can start to put it together. But
we're building what I call the light switch for
entrepreneurship. And what that means is I truly
believe that within five years, if I can pull
the right team together and pull this off, we've
got a system that any entrepreneur, no matter
what competency they have, can push the button
and the light for a successful turn on for entrepreneurship.
So the seven avatars are let's pretend you and
I had a pizza joint. People are going to walk
in that door and business owners don't know how
to deal with most of them. They usually know
how to greet the prospect. Sometimes they know
how to greet a client. But that's a different
procedure, resources, and template. And their
team has to know that. What are the other five?
You got vendors who walk in that door. And most
business owners and teams scream at the vendors.
Hey, we already have a POS company. Why are you
coming in here bothering us? You're always trying
to sell us. But they don't realize that John,
the POS guy, lives three blocks away. He has
a family. He goes to the nearby church, goes
to the nearby school. And now you're trying to
get the reputation. with somebody who was a multi
-avatar. So there's vendors, there's job candidates,
there's team members, there's PR and media personnel,
and there's investors. Those seven avatars, again,
nobody is teaching this to the business owner.
And so the business owner is not preparing the
assets they need to be able to streamline those
conversations, which is why they're falling on
the face in all those conversations, versus having
the automations necessary, the pipelines necessary.
and the ability to take care of if they would
start planning around all seven of those avatars
or rather if we could get our system built with
all 44 000 variables which is sounds like a lot
but it's again it's a combination of different
pipelines to nurture people from stranger danger
to committed in a healthy fashion the business
that leads to number two in the marketing funnel
if we look up the marketing funnel prior to about
five years ago the only thing we would ever see
Was unaware, aware, considering, intent, evaluation,
purchase. That was taught. One day I had a revelation.
I was showering and it came to me. Wait a second.
What is it about water? The best, the best thoughts
come in the shower for me. And so I was like,
wait a second. That's only the consumer state
of mind. All of those points are consumer state
of mind. And it doesn't teach us how to influence
the consumer state of mind in a healthy fashion.
There's nothing that says, what do you do to
move through this? So if you want to create awareness,
that was like you intrigue them, like a knock
on a door. But a knock on a door can scare you
too because survival instincts, you don't know
if it's your daughter or if it's a criminal.
And then, so intrigue moves to attract, moves
to inspire. The business world starts at the
next level. Invite, offer, and support. So we
get these really crappy LinkedIn messages from
people who are like, hey, Rachel, I can get you
leads, and I'll give you a guarantee, and I'm
going to support you even though you don't know
me. And that's like walking up to somebody in
Starbucks and being like, hey, you're kind of
pretty. Will you marry me? Yeah, I know. I know
we forget all. Yeah. Any of the relationship
building initially. I often like it's a bit like
dating, isn't it? I often use that analogy and
I think I wouldn't do this if I was dating somebody.
So why am I doing it with her? Why am I doing
why am I doing that with a client? And the sad
reality for the business is I don't think most
people want to do it. I think we're just trained
and we monkey see monkey do do this as part of
like the agentic state. We just fall into it.
But in reality, the people who are quick to commit
are also quick to cancel. Yeah. Well, he doesn't
exist in that room. And why? Because we didn't
create healthy boundaries. So if we would restart
our relationships and it doesn't take more than
a two to three week process to slow things down.
really appreciate each other from a healthy standpoint
and then realize like oh cool we're kind of doing
this for the right reason now and then you've
got true loyalty baked into it but we could get
the entire business world like once you hear
this you can't unhear it no nobody's talking
about these two different concepts i think i
need to be on stage talking about this at least
sorts of things so there's a couple it's just
a couple of ideas i don't know um so One is,
are you familiar with Vistage? Yes, I'm familiar.
I am familiar. You're familiar with it? Yes,
that's all I have. I don't know how Vistage works
in the US, but here in the UK, there is a speaking
circuit for Vistage. So the way that they operate
here in the UK is you've got... various regions
that each have a chair that um and and and i'm
sure you're aware it's the world's largest ceo
and peer support kind of networking group so
each chair might have let's say 20 for argument's
sake different ceos mds and they would meet on
a monthly basis And for at least seven, if not
eight of those months, they will invite speakers
to come in. But in order to and when I say speakers,
it's not in the in the UK. The speaking session
is more like a workshop and it's around about
three hours. This is how it works in the UK.
I don't know. It's very similar in the US. I've
met enough of them that if I were to join a network
like that, that the three that I would be interested
in joining would be Vistage as one option. EO,
Entrepreneurs Organized, or the Genius Network
with Joe Polish. Those would be the three that
I would consider. The commitment that it requires
is something that I'm like, I don't know if I
can do that with the South American stuff that
I do and the other nature of growth. It's big,
isn't it? And I get that. And also, again, I
don't know what it's like in the US, but in the
UK, it's not massively well paid. But it is more
of a marketing opportunity. And I do know people
who have utilised that network really well. They've
done seven or eight Vistage talks a year. And
that's built, you know, that's... built a very
nice business for them. It's that rooms thing,
isn't it? I did think to myself about whether
or not, particularly from an entrepreneurship
point of view, whether the Professional Speaking
Association community here in the UK and Ireland
would be a valuable community for you to speak
with. the only thing that i would say about that
community is that by and large they are um they
are mostly solo entrepreneurs maybe working with
vas perhaps they have a small team though rachel
and i and that's the thing is and i have to be
careful on this one i learned this the hard way
with the fact that i don't have a degree as well
when i was much younger um and kind of newer
it was a dog fight to stay in companies because
people wanted to undermine me because i didn't
have a degree and they knew i was right about
certain things but it might jeopardize their
position as they wanted to stay in their status
quo so the same is a reality for sure too with
the solopreneur world i'm a very outspoken person
about the nature of look the e -myth is right
solopreneurs are never going to win in 99 .9
% of cases. And they're often referred to in
the world of video power marketing where we're
working with these clients that made $10 ,000.
They were investing $10 ,000 per month in YouTube
ads back in 2015. They were investing tons in
Facebook and elsewhere. And the term for solopreneur
in those markets was wantrepreneur because they
all knew that none of them were making it. There
might be one unicorn out there. was able to do
it. And meanwhile, I'm also very outspoken, as
gracefully as possible, but we don't support
VA relationships. We don't believe in virtual
abuse. No, and I listen to one of your systems
around that, and it's really, really, really
interesting. I do have two vet systems, but they
were recommended to me by my mentor who's worked
with them for 10 years, and I've worked with
them for the last three years, and I love them,
and they're amazing. I appreciate that, and actually,
I believe you more than I believe most, yet I've
had some amazing comments. friends and they are
my team and they are you know and again i i'm
like i bet you are one of those rare exceptions
um the the amount of clients i've had come in
who say their vas love them yeah and then we
get to do the 360 evaluation not the biased evaluation
not the hey i i'm here to they love me i probably
nope if they love you they'll they'll reveal
it um you know and there will be no need to worry
about the posturing of it. But my bigger, my
bigger key with that, with the speakers, right.
My goal is not to come in and be like, Hey, you're
all entrepreneurs. You're all screwing over VAs.
And you know, like I'm not here to Bible bash
at people. We can, we can have that same type
of conversation where we intrigue, we attract,
we inspire. If we can come with that angle of
intriguing, attracting, inspiring, helping them
see what they may not see currently, we can also
then feed them and invite them to understand
how they might be able to achieve greater success
while improving their own lives and the lives
of their team members. Step into a team mentality
more rather than I am great and you are not.
Move towards the we are great. and they are not,
that comes from tribal leadership, but really
towards the ultimate goal, which is the final
level of tribal leadership. Life is great. Life
is great. There's no fight on it anymore. They
can move past this I am mentality or we are mentality
and towards this greater opportunity to where
abundance can flow. They can get out of the scarcity
mindset that, oh, I have to be stuck with a VA
or I'm a solopreneur and that's all I am. No,
you're way more than that. And again, I think
there's a huge opportunity to help leaders like
that step up. Danny Brassell is one of the very
few speakers whose money I think he's I think
in the speaker circuit, five percent of the speakers
earn money. You know. Oh, yeah. And, you know,
we and you're right, because I've got dear, dear
friends who are fellows. they've been professional
speaking for you know 20 25 years they absolutely
combine it with training and you know workshops
and things like that and they and some of them
still get ups and downs and tough tough times
um so my thought around this is that if the the
way i think And I don't get to make the decision
on this, but I can make the introduction for
you. The way I the way I think this could work
in a way that's not too much of an investment
for you to test it out. So we have 13 regions
in the Professional Speaking Association. We
are one organisation, but we have 13 different
regions. One of those regions is a virtual one.
And so my thoughts. are that if you wanted to
test the water or to have a look at that as an
idea, then relatively low risk cost and everything
else for you to be a speaker at a virtual PSA
event. I prefer that. I've worked from home since
2010. Yeah. And you've got four children. So
that's I know what that's like. The world almost
joined us on the work from home movement because
of COVID. And now they're starting to kind of
reel in regret and some are trying to stick with
it. But I know why. Because when you get to year
three and year four and year five, there's cultural
challenges that don't exist in physical workspaces.
But my startups. ground it out. We figured out
how to overcome it. And so we know things about
virtual work environments that if companies would
lean into, they could fix the challenges that
they have. They could have a far more productive
workforce. They could have far more profit. They
don't believe that right now because they're
giving up, right? And Elon Musk's of the world
are like, no, no, no, everybody back to the office.
And there's some jobs where that's required,
but there's other jobs where it's not. And if
you empower the work from home force and you
understand autonomy and you know how to teach
autonomy and you know how to build culture through
virtual environments, which is almost non -existent,
we know how to do that. So there's lots of opportunities.
Yeah, virtual is my game. you say okay i've just
had a little pop -up to say my next meeting starting
i gotta run for mine too so um so i suppose um
next next step i loved the sound of um oh gosh
where's my notes gone yes sue anderson yes so
i love the sound of that i i will check check
out sue and and do that there's jackie and richard
as possible guests so i've got your Little clip
here. I can send that over over to them. Or would
you like to check them out first? I trust you
on that. And I promise to do my research as they
come through the process. That will save us all
the time. Rick is actually winding down to retirement.
So I'm not really sure if it will be his thing,
but I can I can reach out to them. No. And then.
Do you want to have a look at the Professional
Speaking Association and decide if I need to
remind myself who is the virtual? In fact, the
lady I'm meeting with in two minutes, she she
was the virtual regional president last year.
So she'll be able to tell me who is now. And
then I can make I can make an introduction if
you'd like that. That's amazing. We'd love that.
And I will WhatsApp you. Once I send you the
WhatsApp message, we'll keep stacking the deck.
We'll keep moving the dominoes. I'd love that.
I'd love that. Okay. All right. Have a wonderful
day. You too. All right. Take care. Bye -bye.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy
that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is going to get
more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.