Speaking was not my thing, man. I mean, I think
it's the number one most feared thing, uh, second
to, to dying. Can you believe it? Like people,
I love, I love Seinfeld's bid on this. He says
that means that the person giving the eulogy
at the funeral more would like to be the guy
in the cast versus giving the eulogy. You need
a reason to get up every morning. You need a
reason. to not get tempted to just binge Netflix,
you know, and eat cheesecake and do whatever
I was doing before, right? Like, because now
I'm on my own and there's no one here to hold
me accountable but me. So that was a challenge.
Break old habits and start new ones. And mission
and why was always sort of... I'm gonna borrow
from one of my mentors that I look up to, Sean
Cannell from Think Media. So anybody who watches
YouTube, he's great. He always says, you know,
just push record. Started my podcast on my phone.
Like, so my very, very first episode was me walking
around in my basement, recording into my phone.
And then I just uploaded the file directly from
my phone. It's that easy. But yeah, getting started,
man. It's, it's easy. The hard part is the strategy.
Like put the time in, start with the end in mind.
Think about like, what's my ultimate goal? What
am I trying to do? And then work backwards. That's
the strategy. Eric Cabral is the force behind
some of today's most powerful personal brands.
Founder of OnAir Brands and more, he's helped
six and seven figure entrepreneurs find their
voice, clarify their message, and build brands
that make money and impact. Trusted by names
like Matt Higgins, Hale Elrod, and VaynerMedia,
Eric's the secret weapon behind the mic. Now,
with his new book and podcast, Be Your Brand,
he's on a mission to help purpose -driven leaders
rise. This is Eric Cabral. If you're listening
on the podcast platform, download the episode,
and if you're watching on YouTube, you know what
to do. Hit that like button, subscribe, and turn
on those notifications so you never miss an episode.
And as we always say, let's make thriving our
new normal. And Eric, it's good to have you on.
How you doing today? Oh, man. So honored. What
a blessing to be here, brother. I appreciate
you and the show and everything you're doing,
man. So thank you for having me. Yeah, thank
you. It's cool to talk to it. I've had a couple
of conversations with other podcasters in this
vein, and it sets me at ease a little bit because
I know that you know the world of podcasting.
And I mean, before you did all that, you talked
about your entrepreneur's revelation. from humble
local beginnings, and you were helping building
brands from, you know, the small business and
real estate investors and things like that. Can
you just go back just kind of talk about the
beginning of your journey into this world? Yeah,
honestly, Michael, I never would have guessed
say 10 years ago that I'd be here with you, you
know, having opportunities to speak on stages
here and there, uh, host podcast, be guests on
podcasts, because speaking was not my thing,
man. I mean, I think it's the number one most
feared thing, uh, second to, to diet. Can you
believe it? Like people, I love, I love Seinfeld's
bit on this. He says that means that the person
given the eulogy at the funeral more would like
to be the guy in the casket. versus giving the
eulogy. It's crazy, right? So that was me for
sure. I remember being in corporate America and
there would be opportunities where my manager
would be like, hey, I want you to present this
logo. I want you to present these creative options.
I would be so nervous, Michael. I would lose
sleep the night before. I would practice. I would
say the things over and over and over in my head.
I remember secretly recording meetings when the
phones finally came out. Um, and I would listen
to it in the car, like whatever the client was
saying. And then I would, I would highlight words
and phrases they would say in my mind. I'm like,
Oh, they say that a lot. I say that a lot. So
it's trying to speak their language. I was trying
to get all the necessary tools to give me the
confidence, uh, to speak in, you know, in a conference
room full of like less than a dozen people. Um,
even just one -on -one would make me nervous.
Um, it wasn't honestly truly until I left corporate
America where I was forced to swim. I had to
figure this out because now it was up to me to
put food on table you need to provide for my
family wasn't like i work for this huge multi
million sometimes billion dollar corporations.
Where wasn't required for me to speak but now
you know just forcing myself getting the reps
in over the years you know getting better and
better not realizing you're actually getting
better just like you know the analogy of being
at the gym when you when you work out. And if
you're doing it right, you're doing it consistently,
you're going to have some gains like legitimate
gains. You're going to look in the mirror a year
later. You're like, oh, who's that? Right. Right.
Right. I recognize myself. Yeah. And that's how
it was for me in terms of speaking and confidence.
And, uh, what I truly learned for anyone out
there who's like, man, yeah, I can't even imagine
myself doing this. If you start to do it little
by little over time consistently, you are guaranteed
to improve. Like your episode zero, your episode
one, you're going to look back. after 100 episodes
and look and go so cringe man I can't believe
how bad I was but it's always great in this day
and age with creating content started YouTube
channels. Don't delete those like leave those
up there to remind you how much you've grown
and to show others that they can do it like hey
I started from this you know just like you I
had nothing I just did it. you know, purely out
of, you know, out of need, no confidence. And
you know, it happens over time. So I would just
encourage people to, to take the step, take the
leap, don't worry about what people are gonna
think. And it'll work out for you. Take that
leap. Yeah, when you talked about I don't even
have to wait to episode 100. We're ever said,
I think this is gonna be episode 32. When I look
back at the first one. Yeah. And if you haven't
seen it, it was gracious enough to have, you
know, Denise G Lee, she came on and great conversationalist.
But I was like, almost like a deer in the high,
you know, headlights. I was like, let me just
kind of do what I think I know, which I was like,
I was in this box, right. And I didn't really
know how to have a great conversation. And I
asked her after, you know, after the camera had
turned off. I was like, so how was that? She
was like, it was good. She's like, but I like
the flow, you know, and she was, she was, let
me know, like, you know, you did have some great
questions. But, you know, there's some room for
you to grow, right? Yeah. And you want to surround
yourself, you know, surround yourself with people
like that, they're going to give you honest feedback.
Because if you, I always say, interview your
friends, interview people that you're most comfortable
with. In the beginning. Because then you'll be
at ease like you said but then they will most
likely not give you the real feedback you know
they're gonna be too nice are you good my car
remember remember when you used to try to do
this stuff we were kidding like they just know
you as a different person versus if you surround
yourself with people who are doing big things.
And you ask them for honest feedback, they'll
give it to you. And it's good to be around people
like that. That'll give it to you, give you the
real, uh, the real deal. And then, uh, you can
grow from that. You know, you can start to really,
really say, Hey, break it down for me. Like,
what do you mean by that? And hopefully the more
and more you do of that, the more and more improvement
in a shorter amount of time. Cause that's what
we're doing is like, we're trying to Excel or
at least, uh, speed up time so that we don't
make all those mistakes. So if you're surrounding
yourself with someone who's got 20 years of something
that you're trying to learn, you're gonna leapfrog,
you know, over over the steps that they had to
go through and they had to make. Yeah. So yeah,
yeah, it's it's a big deal. Like I surrounded
myself with people who are really good speakers,
great on camera. I partnered with a guy who like
he was an actor. So he was very influential in
my delivery of especially when everything went
virtual. He was so good on camera. I was like,
man, I was just watching him and I was like,
man, just like you, he was an actor. He's in
sag and there's so much stuff from guys like
you that we can learn from as influencers, as
podcasters, um, that you guys just naturally
do like looking at the camera or not looking,
you know, or using gestures and overly animating
because if you record, once you hit record, you
can't step into the, the, the light with 4 %
energy. You know, you got to take it to 100 %
because it doesn't translate, you know, and even
though you feel like I'm crazy, I'm animated,
I'm overly energetic. No, because the camera
will pull that down by 20%. Yeah, no, because
I've had days when I would interview people and
I'm, you know, I'm there I'm present, but like,
whatever happened before will still be playing
in the back of my mind. And it would definitely
try I'm like, dude, Why are you looking like
this right now? I'm talking to myself. Like,
maybe the camera shouldn't have been on you at
all today. But yeah, it's important to just really
bring yourself to a pocket podcasting and you
you you do a lot of podcasting right now. And
then can you talk about you talk about mission
driven entrepreneurs? Can you talk about a little
bit about that? Oh, my goodness. We have a couple
hours on this one. Honestly, Michael, it's been
a long journey. You know, seven, over seven years
after I left corporate about eight plus. And,
but this company that I've been running has been
seven years. We're celebrating our seventh year
anniversary this week. And the person I once
was versus the person I am now, I understood
the Simon Sinek. If you haven't read his book,
you know, why eat or leaders eat last or, you
know, know your why certain things where it was
like, Oh, the why you got to know the why when
you step into the entrepreneurial world, because
you need a reason to get up every morning. You
need a reason to not get tempted to just binge
Netflix, uh, you know, and, and, and any cheesecake
and do whatever I was doing before, right? Like,
cause now I'm on my own and there's no one here
to hold me accountable, but me. So that was a
challenge to break old habits and then start
new ones. And mission and why was always sort
of, it was there. And it was constantly being
said over and over and over and over in our universe,
in social media. But the why for me was simple,
I need to make money, right? I was like, I got
to make money. I got to feed my family. Yeah.
The other why was I'm doing this from a family,
right? But after a few years, I started to realize
that's not enough. Because once I started making
the money, and once everything was straight,
or everything was in a good place with my family,
I was like, now what? And it was always a challenge
to get up and realize, what am I doing this for?
And it wasn't until two things started happening,
Michael. I was having the opportunities to speak
on these stages in front of hundreds of people.
And I'm like, how did I even get here, number
one? And then number two, the accolades, the
pats on the back, the people wanting to do business
with us, all blessings. But still, I felt like
I wasn't worthy. And also like where's the why
in this until this is basically my testimony.
I heard this voice that was like, I'm not going
to use the profanity that the voice did, but
it was like, you're the effing man. And that
was in my ear. And I was like, that doesn't seem
right. So I went home and I was like, at the
time it was prayer. And I'm sorry, it was meditation
at the time. And I was doing yoga, like breath
work and Tony Robbins stuff. And I was like,
I've been doing this for years, but I still feel
like I don't know what the why and the mission
is. Yeah. And it wasn't until that when I was
at my lowest because I was gaining success on
an individual level. But my company was failing.
My company was losing clients. And I thought
that I was going to have to fold the business
and that my whole identity was wrapped around
the business. So I was like, what am I going
to do? I got this here where it feels like I'm
on a high But then down here, in reality, behind
the scenes, everything's falling apart. Right.
So I felt a prayer, bro. Like all of a sudden
I was on my knees and I was getting real messages
from, from God. And it was like, that's not the
voice you need to listen to that says you're
the man. You need to come to me and this is your
mission and this is your why. And that changed
everything. or that I'm getting chills because
it was like that was a three year journey for
me to realize that I was doing everything for
everything for the Lord and I was doing everything
and all my business and everything was designed
to glorify him not me. Not my ego. Not your ego.
Right. I was gonna say that was like an ego versus
your like a spiritual spiritual spiritual awakening
maybe and then some purpose that was found within
that awakening. For sure. Yeah. yeah what was
the next step after that i mean like what what
what then kept driving you It was that man. It
was just diving into scripture Praying every
day getting into the habits all I did was I was
already in the good habits of waking up early
exercising journaling doing all the things that
Hal Elrod would say If you know if anyone's ever
read the book miracle morning, he's got this
acronym. That's great It's still a part of my
life called savers S A V E R S which stands for
silence every morning. He interviewed and talked
to dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of successful
business owners, and they all did the same things.
And he distilled it into savers, which is S for
silence, A for affirmations, V for visualization,
E for exercise, R for reading, and then the last
S is for scribing, aka writing, journaling. So
that changed my world. But all I did was replace
visualization, manifestation, all those things
into prayer and, and focusing all that silence
and meditation into prayer. And then the reading
became reading scripture, you know, reading the
gospel, reading the Bible, things like that were
less business books and more just the book and
starting to understand, man, all these stuff
that Tony Robbins and all this stuff to add my
lead and all these influencer are just regurgitating.
scripture, like Jesus's words, that's all they're
doing. It's just repackaged. The Go Giver, one
of my favorite books, John David Mann, he he
everything in there are words from Jesus just
re reimagined, re scripted, repackaged. So yeah,
I was like, Oh, wait a minute. That's when like
the aha moment came to me. I was like, Okay,
let me just go to the source. Let me go to the
real thing that everybody's just pulling from.
and see what that does. And that was it. It was
a game changer. That was your game changer. That's,
that's, that's good when you have that awakening.
And then, then your life is then led, either
led by or led to whatever what I call a fountain.
Because I was living in LA. Now I'm here back
in Atlanta. And I'm here, this is my fountain,
you know, things are thriving and growing and
finding a sense of who I am and my purpose in
life. And one of the missions that I have in
life is to begin to live my purpose be my purpose
so that I can help others, you know, support
others in living their purpose, and so forth
and so on. What is your what is your purpose?
Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's going back exactly
to what I was saying, and that, you know, I'm,
I'm not building for me. Yes, it's definitely
helpful that I'm able to provide I'm still able
to provide you know, put a roof over my kids
heads and and pay all the salaries for my team
members and What's that it feels good doesn't
it? Yeah. I mean when I I get to know the families
of everyone that works for us. You know, I know
their kids names, you know, I know where they
vacation, you know, I try to support and help
with that, like all the things. And then now
we're getting to the stage where we want to,
you know, create missions or give to charities,
like things that we just bigger than us. So that
has become my why is like, how does the company
become a vehicle for the kingdom? How does the
company begin to build and influence people?
to to to come to the light to to come to Jesus
and talk about, you know, how do we do this on
a massive scale? You know, it's been going on
for centuries, right? But you know, like, over
the past several years, especially after 2020,
I feel like the nation, even the world got lost,
you know, like it was crazy what was happening.
And a lot of us woke up. And that's when I woke
up because I didn't. Dude, I was not a self professed
Christian. I was just like, doing the thing man
committed drinking smoking, you know, women,
you name it, you know, I was I was doing all
the things that that you we necessarily shouldn't
be doing. And I'm glad I got it out of my system.
Um, I wouldn't be able to do all the things I'm
doing each and every day if I didn't correct
and course correct. Uh, but yeah, man, that's
my mission is to continue building for the kingdom,
to continue pointing to people, uh, pointing
people in direction. Um, if it's, if it's, if
it's, if it's relevant to the conversation, you
know, not, not, I'm not going to knock it on
doors, you know, like trying to hand people Bibles
or anything. Um, but yeah, we, we just love,
man, this mission that we're on collectively
as a company now, uh, with that clarity. Nice.
Thanks for sharing that. And all that turned
into your brand building, right? And you built
powerful brands like for yourself and others.
And so how did your personal brand journey begin?
Like you talking about brands and building a
brand? Yeah, it was an accident. Honestly, Michael,
I mean, I incorporate I got had 20 over 20 years
of branding. corporations, companies, a lot of
these corporations have businesses and companies
and brands within the corporation. So I would
work. So say example, like Big Pharma, I worked
for the number one and the number two, I was
always jockeying in the top 10 of all these pharmaceutical
companies. And they own a lot of brands, you
know, like stuff you see on the shelves, you
know, dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of different
types of brands. So I was able to create the
logos, create the marketing, create the websites,
all the things that, um, I cut my teeth on and
got really good at, you know, you can imagine
I got way beyond the, uh, uh, um, Malcolm Gladwell,
10 ,000 hours to become an expert at something
probably hundreds of thousands, you know, after
20 plus years doing so much. Yeah. Yeah. So I
just transfer that knowledge. Um, and that's
what I always recommend to anyone who's starting
a business. It's what has someone already it's
proven. What is someone? paid you to do you know
whether you know it's it's it's designing something
whether it's cooking something whether it's whatever
it is you got paid from someone at that level
when now you like i don't want to do that anymore
i wanna work for myself wanna make my own decisions
take my own destiny to my own hands take that
skill set that someone paid you for and then
apply it to whatever business that you wanna
build so that's what i did at first i'm gonna
start a creative agency so when i did that started
getting a handful of clients and then the podcast
was really just a vehicle for me to have conversations
like this. I would be at meetings, local networking
meetings, having amazing conversations with guys
like you in the hallway. So inspired. I was like,
man, and I would think to myself and started
saying out loud eventually, man, if only I had
a microphone. It'd be so cool. And everybody
would agree. This is 2017. Everybody would be
like, yeah, man, if you recorded this, it'd be
so much fun. Finally, I started doing it. Yeah,
and then eventually people started pointing to
me at these meetings going. Oh go talk to Eric
He's the podcast guy, but it wasn't a podcast.
I was going live on Facebook. That's all And
then eventually I became known as the podcast
guy people started listening to my show and saying
man I love your show when can I be on it or the
people that guested were like How can I start
a podcast? I was like, Oh, well, I figured it
out systems and teams and you know, because you
got to have all this stuff in place. It's hard
to maintain it without with when it's just you,
you eventually burn out because it's a lot, you
know, you know, I eventually started hiring people
to do my show, not others. And then eventually
123 and I was like, just giving it to my editor.
I was like, Hey, you mind doing this? You mind
doing this? I'll pay you this and boom, all of
a sudden I was like, it's not a creative agency
anymore. It's, it's a podcast agency. And that's
when everything shifted. Everything shifted.
You know, for anybody, the people that are listening,
like that are entrepreneurs that want to start
a podcast. I think it's a great, great thing.
Right. Just, just real quick before the question
I have, um, like when we started, well, I started,
um, I just, I didn't, you know, as an actor,
You know, that's one world. But then as a podcasters
like, Oh, well, maybe these can go together.
But then as I'm like, I have my business and
I'm trying to grow my business, I was, I never
put that the business and the acting together
as being a podcaster. And then just one day I'm
sitting, I'm like, maybe, maybe, uh, maybe I
should podcast. I didn't, I didn't want to do
it at all. There was no notion, no idea, no inkling
that dropped in my mind to do it. for years until
six, seven months ago. Um, and then I brought
on a friend of mine who lives in Detroit and
she's that she produces Yvonne and thank goodness
for her because oh my God, if it wasn't for her,
when you talk about, you know, the burnout, it
could be there like quicker than anything. So
having people that supports in the podcast world,
um, behind the scenes is great. And like you
said, you started hiring people, you know, Same
here. I was like, okay, I can, I love editing,
but continually doing it over and over again.
It gets to be a lot. Right. Especially when it's
your show and you're already there. Yeah. Right.
Exactly. Exactly. Do it all over again. Do it
all over again and over again. And so for her,
for anybody that's like really like in the business
world, why would you say is important for them
to start the podcasting and what is the best
way for them to begin that podcasting journey?
Yeah, I mean, I'm going to borrow from from one
of my mentors that I look up to Sean Cannell
from Think Media. So anybody who watches YouTube,
he's great. He he always says, you know, just
push record. So. That's the easy part, right?
Is hitting record and just talking. Hopefully
you have some talking points. You don't just
ramble like I did. Just have some ideas in mind,
even if it's a few bullet points so that you
can stay on track, especially if you like to
talk, especially if you have a lot of ideas and
you usually jump on different tangents. It's
good to have a roadmap for you when you're creating
content. But yeah, hitting record is the easy
part. And then when you do that, What you're
going to recognize is all the technical aspects.
People are always asking me like, what camera
do I get? What microphone do I get? What lighting
do I get? Like that doesn't happen. I'm like,
you're getting caught up in the tactics. You
need to worry about the strategy. The strategy
is the high level thinking. Anybody can do the
tactics. You can literally hire VA for three
to $5 an hour. That's going to take all that
stuff and chop it up. But the thing is what you
need to worry about and what we spend the most
time in is like, what are you talking about?
Is it valuable to someone and if it is, does
it solve a problem? Does it reduce a pain point
in someone's life, right? And then you can start
to deliver that message. But here's the part
out back of one extra step, Michael, is you've
got to know who you are. Because if you start
opening and stepping to the mic and the camera
and you're babbling and talking about all this
stuff and you're inconsistent with who you are,
people are going to instantly distrust. They're
not going to believe in you because now you're
saying this, you're saying one thing one day
and you're saying another thing the other day
because you never got yourself straight because
you're always, you know, trying to move towards
a trend or you're trying to appease other people.
You're like, what is someone going to think?
I got to be this. I got to play this character
when it's not you. So everybody understands and
knows the word's been overused nowadays, but
you know, authenticity, it's still it's it's
it's still a jet like you have to be yourself.
So if anybody ever met me from this show, like
you say you met me at Michael's event. I'm me
like this is exactly who you're gonna meet somebody
like when you're in an acting world. I met so
many actors when I lived in New York City. A
lot of them were not nice, you know, because
I expected them to be a certain way, but they're
playing a character. That's not this world, thought
leadership. podcasting youtube is not you playing
a character you have to genuinely be yourself
in order to do that you gotta figure yourself
out what are your systems and beliefs what are
the pillars you stand on that you'll die on what's
the hell you gonna die on and then stand for
those things don't worry about what people think.
Yeah that's the first step honestly before doing
the work instead hitting record and then figuring
out who do i serve who do i wanna help what pain
points do they have record. Here on the Thriveville
journey, we talk a lot about not just surviving,
but thriving. And a big part of that for me has
been understanding my health on a deeper level.
That's why I partnered with Livegood and brought
it under my company, Orion's Health. Not just
because I believe in the products, but because
I've seen what they can do firsthand. I've walked
through some hard health chapters in my life,
including cancer, and a kidney transplant. And
I know what it feels like when your body's working
against you. That's why we're offering two free
tools that help me and can help you too. First,
go to MyFreeHealthReport .com, forward slash,
Oriane's Health. Take our quick health questionnaire
and get a personalized report created by Dr.
Ryan Goodkin, LiveGood's Director of Product
Development. It's clear, actionable, and totally
free. Second, visit myfreedetox .com and get
a free chlorophyll and zealot detox bottle with
your first product order. It's a gentle, natural
way to clear out toxins and start fresh, something
I personally use and stand behind. This isn't
just a sponsorship. It's part of my mission through
Orion's Health to help people thrive and body,
mind and spirit. Of course, of course, always,
always, always consult your physician before
starting any new supplement or health regimen.
Your body is unique and your health care provider
should always be part of the conversation. The
links are in the show notes. Now tap in and take
your next step toward thriving. Now you're good.
Over the long haul, it's gonna work for you.
Yeah, I found that to be very important. First,
genuinely authentically being yourself and bringing
you bringing who you are to the camera and what
reason or reasons you have for being behind the
camera and what who you're serving. I think it's
really important. And so in the world of podcasting,
I know, I started last year 2024 last year to
do it December, November, I think that maybe
a couple months before that, I think we put the
first episode out in November. but I would look
at so many different podcasts and I'm like, man,
there's so many, you know what I mean? And you
feel like the whole space is like overcrowded.
But when you have an authentic message that can
serve people, it will stand out in the crowd.
What do you say about that world of being, the
podcast world being overcrowded? Yeah, I love
this question because it is a common one. And
I always say, I liken it to walking into the
bookstore, you know, you know, thankfully, you
know, they still exist. Amazon for sure was gonna
shut them all down. But say you walking into
Barnes and Noble, the only one I know of that
still exists. When you go to go to look for a
certain type of book, you know, whether it's
a novel or whether it's a self, you know, improvement
book, whatever it is, whatever genre. There isn't
just one book on that topic, right? There isn't
just one book cover. There's hundreds, if not
thousands in certain categories and niches. The
same thing applies to podcasting, specifically
because every time someone's talking about, say,
finance or faith or fitness, whatever it is,
there's no one that's telling the story through
your life experience. There's no one that has
your experience. and no one that can share those
things other than you. So of course, like that's
if if if if we apply that same sort of question
to books, there would be no more books. They
would have stopped centuries ago. Oh, somebody
wrote a book on that already. Right. So so think
of it in those terms. And it should hopefully
inspire you to do it. I like that. I didn't think
about it that way. But I personally I like that.
I mean, you did it right? What What got you past
that barrier? Um, I think I'm a, I'm a guy that
once I say I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it.
You know what I mean? And it's not unless I choose
to just stop for whatever reasons. Then I'll
just stop. But because I see possibility in what
we're doing, I see that it is serving an audience.
I see that it's serving people. I see that. people
are getting something from this. It's like, okay,
well, we're doing we're doing a service, we're
doing something. And it's not just a hobby. It's
actually a business building kind of thing. Can
you actually talk about the separation between
a hobby, a hobby podcast and a business building
podcast? Yeah, yeah. Well, I want to get into
that. But I want to address what something you
said there. And that, you know, podcasting isn't
an overnight thing. You know, you can't start
a podcast and think to yourself, I'm going to
see how this works for two, three months. That's
not how it works. You know, you have to be in
it for the long haul. And the number that I always
put on it is do it for a year. If you're doing
it once a week, that's 52 episodes. So at least
50, okay. You got two weeks off, you know, for
the holidays, give yourself 50 episodes. over
the span of a year and a half, even sometimes
it takes people that long, uh, and then reflect
on it. You know, look at the numbers, look at
the relationships. Cause I always say, it's not
about the ROI. People are always like, Hey, Eric,
when I started a podcast, what's the return on
my investment? You know, cause, cause we cost
30 K a year in order to produce your podcast
every year. So they're like, what, when am I
going to get back? You know, am I going to make
that money back? And this is what I always say.
It's like, if you reframe ROI, to our return
on your relationships, your ROR, because that's
everyone you mentioned in my bio, working with
Shark Tank, working with Gary Vee, you know,
working with Hal Elra, all these people I met
because of my podcast. Now, can you imagine if
I didn't have one that I wouldn't even be here
right now with you, right? It was because of
the podcast that created my business. It was
because of the podcast that created relationships
where I text these authors who I know and love
now, Because that's what happens. It's like you
get you form a relationship with people. And
that's what I was in it for, versus like, am
I going to make money doing this? So if you're
in it, and your heart's not in it for the right
things, it's got it's gonna fade, you're not
going to be able to sustain because you're not
in it for the real truest reason, which is to
love on people, to pour into people, to build
relationships and not go in and go, what's in
it for me? What's in it for me? Me, me, me, me,
me, me, me. As soon as I step into a room, whereas
a bunch of people like that, I get drained, man.
Like I'm like, Oh, cause I'm, I'm wanting to
give pour into people. And everybody's like,
me, me, me, me. Then I'm like, okay, I'm out.
I can't come back to this conference anymore.
I'm going to suck the life out of me. But yeah,
I forgot your question, but yeah, I'm going to
stop there. No, it's good. You know, so it's
was it yesterday today? I don't I think was today.
Say again. No, I remember now your question was
hobbies versus Yeah, but go ahead. Oh, good.
Well, I'll talk about the ROI. We have another
show called the grid network with me and another
brother of mine. We're both fraternity and fraternity
brothers. And I was telling him about how much
it costs and everything like that. And he was
like exclamation marks as a response. And I was
like, well, it's really a return. I'm getting
a small return. I'm beginning to get a return
on an investment. But when you said that, it's
really not only about the return. It's not really
about the return on investment itself. but also
return on relationships. And the relationships
that I'm building as we move forward, you know,
is really priceless on how I'm connecting with
people. And it's a beautiful thing. And I wouldn't
have those relationships and continue to build
those relationships if it wasn't for this. So
that's another thing that I know one it could
be, again, going back to your question was, you
know, what makes the difference between a hobby
and a business? a business -driven podcast. Yeah.
There's so many things. I want to answer that,
but I also want to address something you said.
I got to come back. Hobby, business versus business.
If you think about your podcast this way, you
have a vehicle now, you have a tool that you
can reach out to people and say, Hey, versus
back in the day, people go, Hey, would you have
a cup of coffee with me? maybe somebody will
go, yeah, but most people will probably say no,
like, Hey, talk to my my admin. But now if you
say, I would love to have you on my podcast.
Most people will say yes, nine out of 10, sometimes
10 out of 10 people will say yes. And for example,
and that is the opportunity to be like, ask any
question that you need answers to, right? from
the author, from the podcast or from the business
owner. So for example, I was talking to a friend
of mine yesterday and he has an opportunity to
work with the guy who remember chicken soup with
a soul, how big that was? Yeah. Victor Hansen
is his name. He created a whole franchise just
from the book and business empire, multi, multi
millions, small book. It was on everybody's bathroom.
I remember that everywhere. I had every version
of it. So he helps write books, but you know,
my buddy has an opportunity to spend 30 K with
him and work with him one -on -one, right? That's
a lot of money. But say you have a podcast and
hey, Mark, Victor Hansen, would you be a guest
on my show an hour? 60 minutes with a man that
costs $30 ,000. You're going to get for free,
right? And you're going to be able to ask all
the questions you need during that period of
time. And Garner and learn so much, so much as
a result of you having a vehicle, you having
a platform for them that also helps them promote
themselves, share their message and story. So
there's so many wins, uh, having a podcast. It
is work for sure. Uh, but you know, it's so worth
it. If you think about the relationships that
you're going to make and think about the opportunities
and potential partnerships, there's a lot of
people, not a lot, but people that I've partnered
with on a business level as a result of starting
the podcast, having a podcast and conversation
together. So that that's the first level of trust.
Yeah, you know, so it's powerful. Okay. I'll
pause there if you have any thoughts in the business
versus hobby. No, go ahead. Go ahead. Cause you
say some stuff is brilliant. And I'm like, Oh
man, that reminds me. I wanted to tell that right
now. I got notes, man. Cause these guys are expensive
to be around, right? They're cheap. If you want
to have them as a mentor, you have access. If
you have the money, you can gain access to anyone.
So here's another crazy story. I'm just going
to share. But I'm blessed to have access to these
people. But I don't always pay the money. But
my my tribe, a group that I'm in, went to Sir
Richard Branson's island. Oh, man, don't tell
me that. Don't tell me I didn't go. I didn't
go. I didn't put the 50k down to hang with him
for a couple of years. But can you imagine if
you did? How much you will learn by just having
dinner breaking bread with that guy? You know
who's a billionaire? billions would adapt capital
B. How much will you be able to download from
people like that and gain access? But you got
a podcast, you can gain access for free to some
of these guys. You know, it's crazy. Yeah, crazy
how it works. It's a hack. This is a hack mutual
mutual give and take there. And you know, you
mentioned Richard Branson never met the guy,
but that's my guy. That's my dude. You know,
I read his book and read his book and everything
like, you know, that's who that's one of my my
guys who I want to get on podcasts for sure.
There you go, man. I'm telling you, we'll talk
after. Okay, how we can potentially make that
connection happen. But so I think we've kind
of covered a little bit of like business versus
hobby. Yeah, if you think of it as a hobby, because
you have a full time job, or you're raising kids
and you know, you kind of just want to test the
waters. You're I would, for lack of a better
phrase, you're doing yourself a little bit of
a disservice because you're never really mentally
committing to doing this for the long haul. You're
kind of giving yourself an out, right? And you
most likely will go, eh, you know, it was a hobby
anyway, never really feel fully committed to
it. So whatever, I'm just going to sunset it.
Versus if you do it as a business, you think
of it as, okay, I'm starting a business and I
need marketing, but I don't know how to do marketing.
I'm not a marketer. I don't have the money to
hire a marketer. This is your marketing. Yeah,
you are the brand. You are the face of the company
very much like an Elon is to Tesla or, you know,
like, you know, whoever Bob Iger is to Disney,
whoever it is. There's always a face to a brand
like Michael Jordan was to Nike. So you have
to think of yourself as the face of your company.
And who better to represent your company than
you through conversations through stories, through
showing up and sharing So that people get to
know and love you, not necessarily what you do
first, right? Like they want to hear about you,
your story, your trials, your tribulations, all
the things that you've done so that now they
can be like, man, I really, I'm, I'm stand behind
what, what Michael says. I really love where
he comes from and, and everything he's learned,
man, I'm going to find out more. Oh wait, he
does that. I'm going to hire him, you know, versus
the other guy, the other CPA or the other attorney
that doesn't produce content. Nobody knows who
he is. But they know the guy who's sharing his
story. I'm like, Hey, yeah, you know, I grew
up in a crazy household. You know, my dad was
a workhorse. I was a turnkey, latchkey kid. You
know, like all that stuff creates a 3d version
of you. And then when people need your services,
they're going to go to the person they feel like
they know versus the guy they don't even know.
They get connected with the person. because of
the story. And who's behind that story, or not
the stair, but just the brand. And they get connected
with that. And I know you so you work in that
world. Is there like a success story from someone
who whose brand exploded after starting the show?
Yeah, well, the first one that comes to mind
is a good friend of mine, Matt. He was a success
is a successful real estate investor. uh, real
estate broker, you know, started out as an agent,
uh, became the biggest agent in, uh, in, in,
um, in South Carolina. And he grew a team, massive
team. And he started getting to the degree where
he was like, Hey, Eric, I think I need to start
a podcast. What's it going to be about? He's
like, ah, I want it to be about positivity, like
optimism. You know, I'm going to call it, uh,
the good mood show. And I was like, cool, let's
start it. So we started as an audio only podcast,
like three or four years ago. And he, he invested
a lot of time and money into it, but he didn't
try to figure it out himself. That's the other
thing is. If you figure it out yourself, right
out, write down the systems and processes that
you do every day as you edit. And with the mindset
that I'm going to pass this to somebody, I am
not doing this forever. The only reason I'm documenting
this is so that I could give the playbook to
a VA or to someone else so that I can go do things
that will build the business directly versus
continuing to do this. So anyway, he knew to
do that. So he hired me and he was like, Eric,
I don't want to figure out how to start a podcast,
launch it for me, produce it for me on a weekly
basis. And then I'm also going to invest in radio
spots. So he started putting in the money in
the radio. The podcast started blowing up. He
started growing. That became another arm of his
marketing for all his whole business ecosystem
to the degree where he wrote a book with the
same name. Now we evolved the brand to be called
Good Mood Revolution to match the book. So the
book is the same, the podcast the same. He's
building a whole community around it. That's
like one of the best examples of where your podcast
can go. If you start to follow the natural progression
and evolution of a podcast to say, Oh, maybe
I'll start at this and then this can happen.
Then this can happen and this can happen. Eventually
a community can grow into a conference. It can
grow into local meetups. It could do so many
things for you. And if you own the stage. man,
you have so much influence, everybody wants to
be around you, because they know, you know, so
many people that can help them in their world.
Yeah. Just for points of clarity, VA means virtual
assistant, correct? Yes. Okay. So, um, well,
I knew that's what you meant, but I just want
to make sure I don't want to leave anyone behind.
Right. Don't leave them. Don't leave them behind.
So that I think one of the other things that
you had talked about was bringing strategy to
your plan, right? Just have a strategy. And one
of the things that we started to work on was
really creating a playbook. I don't know where
it is right now, but we need some work on that
playbook. Ivan, we need to work on that. For
the people that like that are starting, you know
in the in the podcast world Why I we talked about
what's important and why is it important? What
what is that? Financial part word, you know that
won't take them too much too far out of the game,
but get them started, you know In a good space.
Oh, you mean like what's the investment to to
start a podcast? Yeah, I know I know other tiers,
but what's a where where should they start? I
mean if you're gonna go the VA route the virtual
assistant route That could be phase two, you
know, the the phase one approach could simply
be a platform subscription to like a pod being
that's gonna Distribute your show to all the
podcast platforms because there are dozens of
them I mean everyone knows Apple and Spotify,
but there are others So we use two tools. We
use a pod bean, which I think is like maybe 12
bucks a month. And then used to be called anchor,
but Spotify bought them. So Spotify distributes
to all the platforms and they take video to YouTube
is free. You can do platforms where it's free.
I would even say like, if you don't want to spread
yourself too thin, focus on YouTube, like video,
video, video. That's where it's at. Yeah. be
less concerned with audio only, because audio
only is really good now, in this stage, as long
form content, for those that commute, you know,
like people who are commuting on a half hour
minimum, want to listen to a show that's the
length of their commute. But nowadays, people
listen to podcasts, it's growing every day, they
say they listen to podcasts on YouTube, not even
necessarily watching it, you can just listen
to it. you know, especially if you have the premium
version of it. So focus on YouTube, that's free.
Really, it's all your time. You don't have to
spend any money. The investment would be an equipment.
You know, I got $100 mic here. You don't have
to do that route. You know, you get a $20 mic
on Amazon. Yeah, that's where I started. Just
read the reviews. If you were like, this sounds
great. Look for YouTube videos that are featuring
that mic you're gonna buy if you want to hear
it. Hopefully they're doing a test in front of
you. Things like that. Uh, cameras, you know,
you can get a, you can get a webcam for like,
you know, less than a hundred dollars, you know,
uh, Logitech's a great brand, things like that.
Um, I recommend getting, uh, you know, I have
one here clipped on here is, uh, these, these
lavalier mics. Yeah. Yeah. These are great too,
you know, because you can just use your phone,
like put them, put the adapter into your phone,
use your phone as the camera and just clip, clip
the microphone onto your chest. There's a lot
of people I see on YouTube using it now as a
brand called Holly land. And it looks like a
little black button. That's my level that I have.
I mean, you can tell me how much so I think it's
like 150 bucks or less. So yeah, these things
are, are nominal, but you know, you could probably
spend less than a couple hundred dollars and
get, you know, get going with your podcast. I
started my podcast on my phone. Like, so my very,
very first episode was me walking around in my
basement recording into my phone. And then I
just uploaded the file. directly from my phone.
It's that easy. Yeah. So yeah, yeah, that's that's
what I'm talking about. If you want to go to
the next level, where's a lot of the clients
that we serve. Yeah, they spend 2500 to $3 ,000
a month, but they're not just getting a podcast,
they're getting marketing, they're getting social
media clips, stories, real shorts, trailers,
you know, everything, all the things that you
see the influencers doing. That's what we do,
high level clients. But yeah, getting started,
then it's It's easy. The hard part is the strategy.
Like put the time in, start with the end in mind.
Think about like, what's my ultimate goal? What
am I trying to do? And then work backwards from
there. That's the strategy. And being consistent.
Huge. Definitely. In order to be consistent though,
I recommend this. Block out time on your calendar.
You start using a calendar for your days, for
your weeks. So I used to block out and still
do every Thursday morning to afternoon, late
afternoon. is podcast time. And then that's when
people book on my show. That's when I record
content solo. I just make sure is so I get into
the cadence and that flow, knowing like, oh,
you can't book on my calendar, because that's
when I'm creating content. So that's the only
way you can get into the rhythm into the to the
habit. If you block your calendar, let everybody
know I do not and make sure you record you're
not you know, you're not eating potato chips
or doing something else during that time, right?
You're actually doing the thing that you're saying
you're going to do. Yeah, yeah, it's key. Well,
and podcasting is important to your brand, right?
If you if you really want to start to create
a brand, I think, but you you talk about your
branding framework here. And what's the first
thing you you you look for when assessing like
a brand's weakness. And well, before I ask that,
what do you say to business who are starting
and don't know how to really start a brand? If
you're already in business, and you're you're
you have some clients, right, you're actually
getting paid. You've already started. You are
the brand, you know, like, they are now talking
about you. Because to me, your brand is your
reputation. Right. And if someone's going, oh,
hey, you know, I want to go work with, they start
to say, Hey, I love Michael and what he does,
you know, he's, he does a great job, you know,
with, with my books or he does a great job with
my podcast, whatever it is that you do. If they're
speaking positively about you, that's your brand
right there. You're starting to build that reputation.
And regardless of people think about a logo,
right? They think about a website is the brand.
That's not the brand. The brand is really what
people are saying when you're not in the room.
And that's what you need to be very. very precious
and careful of is like protecting your reputation
so that you can start to build on that. Over
time, we'll start to deliver results for you
because everyone knows you as a good person.
Everybody knows you to do good work. Everybody
knows you're reliable. That's the key is like
I definitely stepped a little bit on top over
my reputation in the beginning because I wasn't
protecting and I wasn't being very, very thoughtful
of it. But putting that out there now so that
other people don't make the mistakes that I did
is protect that at all costs and ensure that
you're always doing the right thing. It's called
integrity, right? He's like doing the right thing
when nobody's looking. Yeah. Because it will
go out in the universe. People will sense like,
oh man, there's something weird happened there.
Like what did I, they don't see it, but they
feel it. It's something shady behind the scenes,
you know? It's a sense. Yeah. Yeah. So that's,
that's one of the main things that I would recommend.
Okay. And so the question after that was like,
how do you assess a brand's weakness? Yeah, so
so the one of the first things I do when I audit
a brand is I check out all the socials, right?
So I look at Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube.
And I try to see and I try to look for the main
thing is consistency. Are they using the same
headshot and photo? Are they using the same banners?
Is their message? You know, their, their, their
tagline, their slogan, their, their, their mission
statement. Is it the same or is it all different
on every different platform? Cause now I'm confused.
And what happens when a confused buyer is a confused
buyer never buys because they don't basically
you're, you're, you're trying to build trust.
But if somebody's doing one thing and versus
another thing and you're breaking that trust
right off the bat, because. They don't know what
the story is. So they're just going to go on.
They're confused. They're going to go find somebody
else. So that's what I always do is make sure
that, Hey, it looks like you're using different
photos. Let's get those all the same. Oh, it
looks like you don't, you have an inconsistent
message. Make sure that's all the same. And then
from there, it's really, it's really about figuring
out who you are. That's the next step is like,
who am I? And what are my core values? What do
I stand for? And let me start putting it out
there with the intention of building trust. Yeah,
I was trying to find the question I had because
I was when I do the research, you talked about
clarity. And that really brought up a question
for me about clarity. And I'll just use my personal
story. Is that what you know, starting out, you
know, you had a sense of what I wanted to do,
but there was no clarity to what I was doing.
So I would hodgepodge things, right. And then
you talked about, you know, being consistent
with your messaging and your pictures and everything
that Can you talk about clarity and bringing
clarity to the brand and the essence of it? Yeah,
I'll sum it up in this and then I'll expand.
I always say, if you don't have clarity in your
message, how do you expect others to have clarity
in what you do? If you don't get it, if you don't
know and you communicate in a way that's super
clear, number one, who you are, and number two,
who you serve and how you help them. Like, what
problem do I solve for you? If you don't know
that, it's going to be really difficult to express
to others how you can help them. You're not going
to get them on board. So that's always the first
thing that I would focus on is like, and I know
when you're starting a business, it's hard because
you're kind of trying to figure out which piece
the market wants. Like you're doing a lot of
different things. You're testing a lot of different
waters. So But eventually when you do find a
thing that people are asking for and you're getting
paid to do a lot of that versus a lot of what
you say, you really want to do one thing, but
people are paying you more to do that. You got
to focus on the thing that's going to provide
the money that you need. So that's where even
if it's not long -term and you're like, man,
I can't, I can't do spreadsheets or I can't,
you know, manage people, uh, their accounts all
for years and years. But if it's working, commit
to that for a year and say, Hey, I know that
this is. Get in their head, get in their head
space and think about what is the problem that
they have. And how do I communicate that problem
to the degree where they're like, man, Michael's
so right. How am I going to, Oh, he knows the
answers. You're like, this is how I can help
you. Like, Oh, you feeling this pain? Yeah, let's
go. Let's go. Let me help you. Like, are you
disorganized? Like you need somebody to come
in and help you organize your house. Look at
me. Like I did all this. I organized it, got
my files right. You know, committed a, I need
this by the way. I created a command center in
the kitchen with the folders and the bills here,
the junk mail. I'm like, I saw people talking
about that. I'm like, yeah, that's me. I'm a
hot mess when it comes to organization. Yeah,
but if you're speaking about they will show up,
they'll raise their hand and go, Oh, man, man,
you're talking. That's me. Me. Thank you. Oh,
you help with that. Great. Yeah, I'm gonna call
you. If you have like as a business, you could
be the like I look at as a you'd be in the paying
pill You know what I mean? That's their pain
to their issue I mean, isn't that old -school
commercials, right? You see like hey you got
back pain and then they show all the people,
you know crouched over old people young people
whatever Okay, we got back Bay and whatever the
name is for the stupid friend, right? And you're
like, oh, that's me. Yeah, I need that So we
just have to do that for ourselves. We are the
commercial for ourselves. There's nobody that's
going to be a brand champion. There's nobody
that's going to promote and sell us the way that
we can. So we just have to step up to the plate
and not worry about what people think and just
go, this is what I do and say it with confidence.
Say it with authority. Say it with your chest.
I know I can help you for sure. And if you know
you can and you're confident in that, one of
the best tools that I used to use back in the
day, is, I would still use it, but haven't used
it lately. He's like, money back guaranteed.
Like if you're not happy with the services, we
literally gave back the money to a client. Like
here, here's a few grand, take it. You're not
happy? You know, I'd rather you walk away and
say, I didn't like the service. But they came
with integrity, and they gave me a full refund.
There's no way they can bad mouth you and ruin
your reputation. If you are willing to say, Hey,
I'm going to eat my own cooking and I'm going
to show you that I trust in this process. And
if it doesn't work for you, I'll give you your
money back. That's good. That's really good.
And I know that sometimes people like, well,
how do I find clarity? Where is that? I know
we talked about earlier, um, sometimes it's in
the silence, you know, that you'll find that
and, uh, your prayer meditation or whatever,
you may find that clarity in that moment. Yeah,
I have a tool for your audience. Hold on, let
me grab it. In the silence for sure. Silence
and prayer I think is great. But to come up with
the words is challenging. This is something I
usually give to my paying clients. is these core
values. If you've never read the book called
The One Thing by Gary Keller, I highly recommend
that book, The One Thing. Well, his company produced
these set of cards, which I think has three or
400 cards in it. And you can find this on Amazon,
you can find it on The One Thing's website. But
it's core values. And in here are words like
say, hold on, inclusion, or You know, it was
a balance upside down. Uh, you know, hope, whatever
it is, it's got hundreds and hundreds of words.
And what I have my clients do is I say, spread
this out on the kitchen table or the floor, all
of the words and then start turning. Cause the
other side is black. Turn it to the black side
and say, that's, that doesn't represent me. That
doesn't represent me. And what you're going to
find is a dozen to two dozen words that resonate
with you. And then now you, you've got your.
roadmap to creating your core values. And I always
recommend minimum of three to five. Cause if
you have more than that, it's hard for the human
brain to memorize a ton of words. And you want
to just be able to riff like whenever it goes,
yeah, Hey, oh, this is what I'm about. You know,
I'm about light and love. I'm about, you know,
fitness. I'm about whatever it is. You've got
these words and it's also content for you. You
can talk about your core values. That's the first
thing I do with my clients. I'm like figure out
who you are. and what you stand for. And let's
talk about it on podcasts. Why does it mean so
that much to you? Why? Yeah. So we talked about
podcasts and we talked about brand a little bit.
How does one, you can take a head take a sip.
I went for a minute. How do you help your clients
stand out online? Or somebody's beginning in
the world of branding their business or podcasting?
How do you help them stand out online? Yeah,
it's, it's what you said earlier. Uh, number
one thing is, is helping them gain clarity. Because
if you're not clear, others won't be clear and
they won't work with you. So we have to, that's
the very first step. And a lot of the people
think they are clear and then they say all these
things. And I'm like, I'm confused. Like you're
saying a lot, right? Let's distill this into
one phrase. You know, how do we do that? So that's
really difficult for people. It's becoming easier
with chat GPT. you know, AI, um, you, you could
definitely start leaning into that tool to kind
of gain clarity, just speak to it, you know,
say, Hey, this is what I'm about. Can you give
me some core values? That's another great tool.
A lot of people started using, when I gave them
these core values, these cards, people would
take the words and put them into chat GBT. But,
um, yeah, you gotta gain clarity on who you are,
uh, which will start to form your message. And
then from there, you can either create like a
mission statement, um, Or, you know, you can,
you know, at least the next step, start to figure
out who it is you help the most. Like who do
you serve? How do you help them specifically?
Like, do you have a tool? Do you have a, you
know, some sort of course, you know, that, that,
that they can walk through, uh, that works. It
worked for you. It worked for others. You got
case studies. That's the thing too. Get somebody
to eat your cooking, get somebody to use your
product, your course, your, your framework so
that you can get a testimony, like do it for
free and say, Hey man, all I'm going to do is
ask you for like a testimony so I can create
a case study and then start this business, start
to tell others how it will help you. Yeah. Yeah.
They need proof, proof of concept. I was going
to say they need proof. People need proof. They
need, they can see you, but they, people still
need the proof of whatever we're delivering.
One other question is, what do you hope every
entrepreneur hears in their soul after working
with you and hearing you here on the podcast
today? What's the question again, Michael? I
wrote it down. What do you hope every entrepreneur
hears in their soul after working with you or
hearing you on the podcast today? Yeah, I'm going
to go back to that. It's in your soul, in your
heart. You know, there's something bigger right
something bigger than us And those are the people
I love to work with like people that know there's
something bigger Now grabbing onto and getting
clarity on what that is and who that is. That's
really up to each individual soul but they know
when they work with me what I believe in and
What my mission is which is which is great because
that's what we're talking about here Once you
gain that clarity you can put it out there without
fear And let people know because you will begin
to attract who you are, basically, just like
anybody who's married, anybody who has a spouse
or a girlfriend or boyfriend. It's like, everybody
wants a tent, like you want that, you know, you
got to become that you want to attract that type
of person, that type of look, you got to reflect
that. Right. So it's the same thing in business.
It's like, you, if you want to attract a certain
type of client, you have to reflect all the things
that they want to see. in a business owner in
someone that's going to solve their problems.
Uh, so it's not necessarily faking it to make
it, but there is a degree of that for sure. Because
if you're just starting, you know, you don't
have all those things. You gotta kind of still
have the swag. Um, and, and, and know that you
can deliver even though you haven't yet. So it's
a weird, it's, it's a weird transition, but eventually
you get there for sure. Yeah. Yeah, I had a,
I'll go with that. I just, I hate it. When people
told me that growing up, you gotta fake it till
you make it. And I was like, Oh, that would cringe
at that. But I get what you're saying. There
is a transitional space where you're becoming
this person that you that you're trying to, you
know, exemplify. And there's a bit of that. So
yeah, I get it. There's a, I know he's controversial.
and I was a huge fan up until he lost his mind.
But Kanye West, I always admired him because
I knew when he was young, anyone who remembers
the Dave Chappelle show, when nobody knew who
Kanye West was, Kanye was still Kanye. Like,
he acted like the success selling out to millions
in arenas with multi platinum albums, even when
he was a nobody. Like I was like, wow, look at
this guy with the confidence. If you go look
at the clips when he, I don't even know how young
he was. Maybe he was still a teenager, but he
would show up on Chappelle and there would be,
uh, you know, Erica Badu and there would be,
uh, you know, uh, a tribe called quest. There
would be all these successes. He was clearly
the nobody in the room. Kanye was Kanye. And
I always admired him for never, for always being
that, you know, fake it to make it because he
kind of manifested that he created that. As a
result of walking the walk and talking to talk
for years and years and years until finally he
became that thing. I mean, there is, there is
proof that it works. Um, I just say like, yeah,
don't, don't do it where it hurts people. Are
you doing it where it's really, you're never
going to become that, you know, don't do that.
Yeah. Oh man, Eric, everything that you've spoken
about, there's so much more that we could talk
about. Um, and, uh, you know, For you, the delivery
that you have and the experience that you have,
that you have, we can, again, go for hours. But
with respect to people's times, and I know when
people fall off. They'll listen, they'll play
it and get on the background, whatever, but they're
not watching. So we're going to wrap up. But
as your last words here on the Thrive World journey,
this go -around. Um, what advice would you give
to someone who, uh, feels like they're late to
building their brand, um, and too late to the
game of podcasting? Yeah, I always say it's never
too late. Uh, even though sometimes it may feel
like it's too late because if you don't start,
you know, you'll, you'll, you'll always regret,
you know, always look back and go, what if I
did this? What if I did that? Um, versus just
starting it, like I said, giving it 12 months,
seeing, um, what What produces, you know, from
that time and effort and, and, and it will create
something for you. If you do it consistently,
if you do it from the heart, if you do it with
a clear purpose and reason, you know, um, like
I said, those reasons can at first be money,
uh, but behind it, if there's something that's
more meaningful, you know, something with, with
a higher purpose, it's definitely helpful and
will become obvious to those who are listening
to those around you. Uh, but yeah, yeah, that's
what I would say. Just, just, just start it and,
and, and, and see where it takes you. See where
it takes you. Don't be scared. Just get into
it and, uh, just flow Eric. Um, would you like
to speak about like your podcast and how people
can get in touch with you? Yeah, you could find
me on Eric E. Cabral at YouTube. Uh, you know,
I'm not at YouTube, but you're on YouTube. I'm
Eric E. Cabral. Uh, find me there. You saw you
see my show. Um, I, I, I'm, I'm what they call
the Cobbler's kids, uh, have no shoes. So I produce
and create brands for many, many people. Um,
but we recently started taking our channel seriously,
my channel seriously. So it's growing. So if
you could subscribe, that'd be great. Uh, subscribe
to my YouTube channel, Eric E. Cabral. Uh, yeah.
And, and, and reach out to me if needed, you
know, through their comments or my email is eric
at onairbrands .com. That's an easy way to get
hold of me. let me know that you you heard me
on Michael show. Perfect, man. I appreciate you
being here. Sharing your wisdom, your time, your
energy. And it was respect, respect for what
you've done, what you've grown, what you're growing
and what you're building. And thank you for that.
And for all you listeners and watchers. The question
is, what's up? What one word that you want your
personal business brand to be remembered for?
Drop those in the comments, you know, leave us
some messages and speak to Eric, make sure you
go visit him on his fate, his YouTube page, or
channel rather, excuse me. And as we say, around
this time, let's make thriving our new normal.
Eric, thank you again. Appreciate your brother.
Thank you. Before you go, I just want to say
thank you. Thank you for being a part of the
Thrive Bull journey. Every time you show up here,
you're choosing growth, clarity, and the deeper
work of becoming who you're meant to be in this
world. And if you're ready to reconnect with
what truly lights you up, I created something
powerful that can help you. It's called The Empowered
Path, Seven Days to Reclaim Your Purpose and
Passion. It's a beautifully designed guided workbook
that walks you through a week of powerful prompts.
clarity building tools, and real mindset shifts.
Now you can get instant access to it today. It's
a small investment for a huge return. Your energy,
your clarity, your alignment. And if you want
to take it deeper, check this out. I'm offering
a limited number of free 30 minute purpose coaching
sessions. No pressure. No pitch, just space for
you to reconnect with your direction, your gifts,
and what's next. So you can grab the guide and
book your session at the link in the show notes.
Let's not just go through the motions. Let's
really walk this path on purpose. I appreciate
you. And like we always say, let's make thriving
our new normal. And I'll talk to you soon.