Branding Expert Reveals the Secret to Business Success in 2025 - Sara Connell

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Terms and conditions apply. Hiring? Do it the right way with Indeed. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. We have a tremendous conversation for you today with Sara Connell.

She is the founder of Sara Connell Coaching, where she helps individuals with expertise, with ideas, with experience turn that into a best-selling book and ultimately a thought leadership platform, as well as so much else. This is a wide-ranging and dynamic conversation. However, there are some key ideas that we get into, especially Sara projects out, or kind of forecasts, as she calls it, 2025 and some of the trends that she sees coming. Specifically, we address five. There's one in particular that I wanna tease out at you right now, and that is the idea that we are moving from Simon Sinek's it's all about your why to it's all about your who.

Who is greater than why. This is a big idea. It's a core concept to what she is helping her clients achieve in 2025, and I'll be honest with you, I have to agree with her. I have to agree with her reasons why this is such a big trend and that this is actually what is working in the market today. Whether you're a small business, you know, you're a coffee shop in a community and you're trying to grow and expand your influence and where customers come from in to, to buy your coffee, or you're leading a large multinational organization, or you're an entrepreneur, or you are an author, right?

These ideas are paramount. You're gonna love these five forecasts that she has for 2025, and especially I'm interested in your thoughts, like, like around this idea of who is greater than why. This was... This concept really caught me, grabbed me. I'm gonna put a lot more thought into it, and I think you are going to love it.

Before we get to Sara, if you're watching on YouTube, like this video, subscribe, guys. Leave a comment. I wanna hear from you. If you're listening on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts and you're not subscribed, make sure you do. Leave a rating and review with your thoughts.

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With that, let's get on to Sara Connell. In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home. Sara, it's, uh, it's a pleasure to have you on the show today. Thanks for taking the time. I'm so happy to be here, Ryan.

So one of the things that we were talking about before we went live was, you know, we're still early in the year. Mm-hmm. You know, we're recording this in, in early February, and at least I think it's February. Yeah. And, you know, we talked a little bit about, like, what's gonna happen in 2025, and, you know, that's kinda where I'd love to start.

I'd love to start- Yeah ... with, like, when you're looking out over what we have in front of us, kinda where we are as a, as a country, as a society, business-wise- Yeah ... marketplace, and you're dealing with tons of clients, tons of successful people, like, what are you hearing? What are you seeing? Like- Mm-hmm ... like, where's your brain at for forecasting 2025? Yeah. I think, you know, it's very easy to be reactive, right?

It's very easy to sort of say, "Oh, you know, what's going on in the world, and what's happening in the economy?" And there's, you know, we're at a cer- as, as of the recording of this episode, there's just a lot of churn, a lot of uncertainty. And so I think that while people can feel like, "Oh, what a drag," you know, you, you hear things like buyers, you know, clients are hesitant. They're scared to make investments. They're...

The, the trust recession has happened, right? Like, there's this break in trust that people feel in themselves and in leadership and, and all kinds of things, right? And when I listen to people who've been around a lot longer than I have, and I'm not, like, a newbie to the world by any means, I've been, you know, coaching and being an entrepreneur for, you know, over 15, almost 20 years, and there's people who have, you know, decades more than I do. And when I listen to them, what I love is they say every single situation we're in is an opportunity, right? We all hear that.

It's like find the gift in everything. Like, really, what if we believed that? What if we practiced that? And so what I'm really excited about for 2025 is saying, like, what does this particular moment call us forth to become masterful in, right? Like, if we've gotta dig deep, like, if people are taking longer to buy, then how do we become masterful at building trust and playing the long game, right?

Like, maybe as before, we've gotten really good at the mid-game or the short game or... And, and if, and if people are feeling a, a trust break and a trust recession, like, how do we create a trust ascension? And so I think that the people who are gonna, you know, win, as in, you know, be fulfilling and make an impact and make- ... profitable, you know, big numbers this year and things like that are going to be leaders who are willing to get really resourceful, get excited even if we have to fake it, 'cause sometimes I do. But like actually say, "Cool, like what, what am I gonna learn here and get to become really masterful?" Because one thing is for sure, that creativity and innovation do not come out of the comfort zone.

They don't come out of like the... In general, they don't really come out of a thriving economy either. It's usually when it's hard and/or challenging. And I don't think this is only hard and challenging of a time. I'm having a great year and it's, and it's wonderful.

And there is, you know, a lot of people are, are just really in it. Like, they're just in a lot of feelings and overwhelm. So I think this is an exciting time. Well, one, I love the idea of what if we just acted like everything was an opportunity. Yeah.

Like, there's so many things in our life that like cliches or, you know, whatever that we hear, and I think we let them pass by us. And I love this idea of what if we actually just embrace that cliche, that, that- Yeah ... kinda tried and true mantra. Because it's been around for a while for a reason, yet because of that, we seem to like dismiss these ideas. And it's like why do we always want the new idea when there are like these, you know, 50, 100, 2,000-year-old ideas that seemingly have lasted forever. Right.

And we're kinda like, "Eh, no, those ones aren't for me. I need this new shiny idea over here." Right. You know, that's really interesting. I, I'd love for you to dig into this trust recession because I find that very interesting.

Yeah. I, I, I can see it. I haven't experienced it in my own business necessarily in that way, but, but I can see it. And, and I think if you're watching social media, et cetera, as well as, you know, everything that we just came through with the election, it, it, you know, and, you know, mainstream media's being torn apart. Right.

We, you know, all this kind of different stuff. Um, so maybe break down where you think that's coming from, where you're seeing that. Yeah. And then I'd, I'd like to make this transition into how would you guide someone through flipping trust? Uh, if I did, if I was experiencing a trust recession- Right ... how do I flip that into an ascension?

Yes. Okay. Well, I love it 'cause this has been... Luckily, again, in our business we've seen it less, and but a lot of people are either trying something new, or in certain, I think, people who are running courses, things that have a less like relational aspect. So I think the first thing, is there a trust recession?

Yes, in some industries. And it's, again, it's not just, oh, Inc. Magazine came out and said 94% of consumers right now don't trust ads. Like, just, just don't trust, like Facebook ads, television ads, you know, whatever it might be. There are trust breaks with people.

They either feel like... Even influencers. Like, that was such a movement for a long time. Mm-hmm. And I'll share something in a minute that I think is gonna be really big for this year that's sort of a cousin of the influencer and a way to overcome some of these.

So whether you're experiencing it or you're not, th- there, we can all agree prob- people do feel uncertain, and it's harder to make decisions when they feel nervous about whether it's political, ec- you know, economic, whatever it is. So what I think we wanna recognize is n- like leaning into that. Like I said, instead of being afraid and going kind of bunker, you know, mentality of like, "I'll ride this out till people wanna invest more," it's like what, what's really the opportunity? And I think a couple things to create, you know, from a recession to an ascension, one is looking at what, how to be relational versus transactional. I think a big thing that happened last year, if, if, if 2024 had been sponsored by something, it would've been like sponsored by AI, right?

Like, it was like the year... You know, and, and AI is awesome. There's so many cool things and ways to play with it. But what I personally, just a choice, don't have it replace is real human contact. Like, even in our marketing, even in...

I, I write all my own books. I write... You know, it's like I write my own emails because people can feel the difference. They really can. You can, you can make perplexity in Claude and ChatGPT, you can do a lot of stuff, but like people know when it's a robot and when it's a real person.

And so I think that people are willing to say, "I know it's gonna take longer and cost more," but there is like a ro- So I think focusing on relationship versus transactional, but then using AI for automation, you know, using AI for systems, and many different things. So I think, like but where does it make sense to be relational is gonna go a really, really long way when there was this, you know, like sense of, of, "I, I don't wanna be with a computer. I don't wanna be with a robot," right? I think another, another opportunity is going to be how we can show people, people are investing not just in the product or result anymore, but they want to trust the person behind it. So what you're gonna see, I believe, is a lot of leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs doing like what we're doing, having real long-form unscripted conversations instead of just being behind a logo.

So, right, you're gonna see... The, Simon Sinek gave a famous viral TED Talk a few years ago called, many of you know it, it was about people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And I think in 2025 people aren't gonna buy why we do it, they're gonna buy who they're buying from. Mm-hmm. And so really the importance of personal brand, the importance of being seen from behind, like people having a relationship, an inside glance to things like our values and things we care about even beyond the actual service that we provide or the niche that we're in is gonna be a really powerful way to create that trust ascension.

And then there's something called the ZMOT. Like, I love nerdy stuff, so you might know this, Ryan, a lot of you listening might know, it's like the zero moment of truth. Yep. It basically says, right, you know, p- how people make a purchasing decision. So the way to build trust is to give people the seven, 11, four, which are the coordinates of the ZMOT, zero moment of truth.

So that's, you know, you know, the seven hours of interactive time, which is why long-form unscripted or books or audiobooks or podcasts are so important, you know, the 11 different touchpoints, and then four different places. So that's interesting too, because if you're like, "I'm always on LinkedIn" You know, being on multiple platforms so people feel the sense of you being around, you, you know, that omnipresence effect that, that we hear in marketing. So I think those are some of the things. But the really cool one that I'm obsessed with this year is called user-generated content. So some of you may, you know, already, you know, think about this a lot, but where as an influencer or in an ad, it's very clear someone's being paid to market something, to promote something.

We all know what that is. They can still work. But user-generated content is where people who are, like, using your thing, your method, your book, your product in an organic way in their own lives and, and creating content from that. So the big example that happened recently was the Philadelphia Eager- Eagles, I think it's the wide receiver, A.J. Johnson, was reading, or A.J.

Brown was reading a book on the sidelines of the Super Bowl playoff game, and it caught, you know, CNN and all these people, "What are you, bored? Like, why are you reading a book on the sidelines of a Super..." And he said, "This book is what I use to get in the game. This book is what I use to get my mind right, to show up and make the key plays, and get us to the Super Bowl." So the book, you know, Jim Murphy's book went viral.

It came out in, like, 2018. Yeah. You know, the revised... But I've been talking with Jim a little bit about this because it's so, it's so cool as a book person. You know, it's what we do to help people, you know, write books that help them do this.

And so, so having someone using your thing in their real life to achieve a result I think is going to be one of those, like, absolutes that's gonna skip the trust recession and build right to trust. I wanna go back to who over why. Mm. Uh, 'cause I think that's a really interesting take, and I think that, you know, in some kind of marketing and brand-building channels, that would be blaspheming at, like- Oh, yes ... the highest degree. Yeah.

Uh, my question for you is, what I've seen, you know, any influential voice, thought leadership, I don't necessarily wanna say just, like, influencer-type people- Yeah ... but it's almost as if where we used to wear a pair of Nikes as a way to, like, express our personal value through this physical object, now you kind of express your personal position or, like, or your tribe by who you follow, who you quote- ... you know, et cetera. Is, like is that the trend we're kind of grabbing onto? Well, that's so interesting, right? I don't know as much that it's- it's the, like, the tribe or the community, but now I'm gonna give that a lot of thought because now I- I actually wanna, like, look at that and- and do some research and data on that. What I'm seeing it more is, you know before, it was really curated.

You know, it was sort of like I'm gonna show sort of the- the dream life, and I still think you're gonna have that. It's like showing people the, like, what they could be or what they want. I think that's still crucially important. But sort if we were making a Venn diagram, I think that that Venn diagram's with, like, more real talk. That's what I meant, like sort of the unscripted instead of just the perfectly filtered photographs.

Like, really real, like, more unvarnished. Like, the less, like, I'm gonna show you my beautiful kitchen where nothing's out of place, and showing the mess, and not in a way that's, like, distracting. But it's like, yes, it's the dream and the result that you're gonna get from this product, program, service, but it's also, like, is this a real person, or is this some kind of BS that someone... 'Cause I think, again, that trust, that trust meter is really high. Like, people signed up for things, and they kinda sucked, you know? Yeah.

So who is this person? I think it's more l- for me, I think it's less who we're surrounding ourselves with and following, and more do we have integrity, and do we, are we the real deal, and what is the real deal for each of us, you know? 'Cause values, some people value, "Here's my Lamborghini and my jet and my..." You know, and, like, that can be really, like, exciting and sexy and cool. And other people value, like, "I wanna know you're not gonna, like, sign me up for your thing and then not show up." And you, you know, you have a good, you talk a good game at the front, but the fulfillment's crap.

And so more stories, that's why I think the stories of people using the thing or doing the thing matter a lot more to people, 'cause they want, like, the real peek behind the curtain, not the perfect marketing. Uh, yeah, that's a really good point. I, I think, you know, what's funny is you see, you see people almost trying to, like, jump that trend- Yeah ... who have played the my perfect life or, like, I rent the Maserati game, and then all of a sudden they'll have one where, like, their hair is messy. Right. But then you're like, wait a minute, but you still put like six filters on it.

So I don't really- Right ... like, what are we doing here? Like, okay, I just woke up, and their hair is messy, and I'm gonna go do some push-ups. But, but, like, you perfectly framed it, and it's in one-third, and the light. Right. And I'm like, come on.

Like- Right? ... it's just, like, and I, I also think what's interesting about this particular trend, and I'm, I'm just kinda dialing in on this because I think a lot of people, it is very easy for people who have not created a lot of content, are new to the game, or are trying to, they're starting to realize, hey, I can't run my local coffee shop on just word of mouth alone anymore, right? I need to bring in more traffic, et cetera. They, it is who you grab onto early and who you start to follow and try to do, like, that early mimicry, like- Yeah ... who you mimic early, it, it really sets the tone for what you're gonna be going forward. And, and my point in saying all of this is that I think those, we'll call 'em rental influencers- Yeah ... those, like, I'm gonna, you know, whatever, like, they've become easier and easier to spot. Yes.

Like, that's part of what's happening, is that- Mm ... you can't, there's, there's all these cracks in their narrative that- Yeah ... that we couldn't really see before, or we weren't trained to see before. Right. And just we've been in market long enough that now the consumer goes, "Wait a minute. He's 21. He doesn't have a- Right ...

McLaren. Like, come on. Let's, they're gonna sell it to him. What are we talking about?" Right, and we- You know, like that kinda stuff ... and we weren't looking behind the curtain before.

Yeah, yeah. We were sort of enjoying the show, and there's nothing wrong with any of it, right? It's like, but, you know, you see as someone, again, we're in the book space, right? And as, as a way to, you know, build the brand and thought leadership and revenue, and you, there's these younger, sometimes on YouTube I've seen lot, a lot at the end of last year, they'd say, you know, "Just, you know, let AI write your book in an hour and make $100,000 a month on book sales." I'm like, that is complete, like, I'm sorry, no.

Like, first of all, there's nothing in that book anyone wants. You know, like, it's just not... The internet can only, ChatGPT can only pull what's already been written, and in, by its very nature, then that book- Yeah ... is not going to be, like, unless it's a super basic how to, you know, manual, of course. Yeah. But, like- That it, there's no way you're doing 100K on book sales.

Or like I just have real suspicion. I think a lot of us have our version of suspicion about those things now, and we say, "I wanna see like the real things." You're gonna hear people doing more of like what Alex Hormozi calls Ws and Ls, like the wins and losses. It's like the more vlog style, which is what we're doing a lot more of now, which is like I'm gonna take you on this journey of, you know, here's all the things that didn't work, and I'm gonna show you the, the, the total fail and the to- you know, not in like that boring like, "Oh, my weakest, you know, my weakness is that I'm a perfectionist." Not that crap.

But like really going, "I'm pulling my hair out. This sucks. I'm embarrassed. This didn't work. I, I'm scared about money because we launched and it didn't work and it didn't pay."

But you know, like that's actually going to, I think, create connection- Yeah ... and trust as long as you still of course can, you know, figured it out and give people the results versus before it was like it was just fun to watch the show. Yeah. There are people that I follow that I know are completely full of shit- Yes ... that I just think they're so ridiculous in the shit they do that I just find it en- entertainment. You know, it's entertainment. 100%.

Exactly. Entertainment and would you buy from them is the question, and maybe you would, maybe you wouldn't. Yeah. But a lot, a lot, especially for something like really high ticket, it's like ooh, I may not be signing up for that particular- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... mentor if, if I don't think. But I will definitely keep watching 'cause it's candy.

It's fun. Yeah, it's exactly. A- and I, I keep coming back to this, but it's, it's something that I think about a lot in my own work and with, you know, whatever, is, you know, the Internet was so new that so many of these tactics, so many of these things that people did, these templated style videos where we're running the scene, you know, hook, turn- Yeah ... build, turn, hook, you know, pain, you know, whatever. Like, like, and not that that stuff can't, not that those formats are wrong. Mm-hmm.

But what I've found is like if I c- find someone new and they're just using one of these kinda boilerplate- Yeah ... templates that's been passed around forever in the, you know, the D2C space or the ad space or whatever, it's like I can pick up on that template now like this. Nice. And it's not because I've, like some template expert. It's because I've just watched enough content, we're 25 years into digital creation, that like I think our audiences have just become more mature, and they're more, they're able to figure out the bullshit more. Yeah.

They just, their bullshit meter is stronger, and it's got more filters on it. So I think, you know, things like what you described going back to that Casey Neistat like- Yeah ... 2015, 2016 vlog style video, it's a pattern interrupt 'cause all of a sudden instead of, you know, the same hook template to this thing- Mm-hmm ... that, that every influencer's watched, they're getting, they're like, "Wait a minute. She didn't start with the standard like urgency hook or the-" Right ... you know what I mean? "She just kinda like started talking to me.

Like that's really interesting." Yes. And I find it's just pattern interrupts. It's like what is everyone else doing? Figure out a way to do you inside a format that might be slightly different.

But and, and here's kinda where my question goes to you in this is, okay, so, so if you're nodding along, I'm obviously saying the words, so I believe it. If that's true, why, why is it so hard for people to pattern interrupt or do different things? Yes. Everyone just wants the super secret template that's not secret. Like it just, why do we, why do we then cave to conformity?

Yeah. Like why is that the case? I think there's a couple key reasons, and I wanna cave to it all the time, so that's why- Mm ... I'm just gonna cop to it, right? Like wouldn't we just love to say, "If I just do my YouTube videos like this, hook, whatever I deliver, call to action, you know, da, da, da," like wouldn't that be nice?

First of all, it's exhausting to think about with one more fr- all the stuff that we do as entrepreneurs and, and we're to think about, oh, and I've gotta innovate a, a, a whole framework now? Like I can't even... It's enough to film the content with a template that you've already done, right? Or do a DM in the kind of normal way, right? So the idea of innovation, it takes a lot more energy, and we're already, we're already kind of tapped, right?

Mm-hmm. So I think one is that. The second is it, it, it, it does require creative thinking, and in our world right now, I don't know about you, Ryan, like I feel like I have to fight for my own white space, and who am I fighting? Myself. It's, it's my own crap, right?

If it's okay to swear on this show. I didn't ask, right? But like I, it, it takes white space, meaning thinking time, whatever we wanna call it, visionary time, creative time, CEO time. That is space that we often, we got this going all the time. Mm-hmm.

We have a 2.9 second attention span. That's the stat of the average atel- attention span right now in 2025. And so to actually get into a state where we are accessing new ideas and being innovative and creative is, is actually asking a lot of ourselves, right? So I think there's a, there's a, an undertow of just oh my God, this is gonna be, you know, tiring. It's gonna take more time.

It's going, now the, the fruits will be so phenomenal, and it's so worth it. But I even know this. I mean, I, you know, teach creativity. We're creating creative thought leader assets, and I, I know how hard it is to do it even when I know how valuable and crucial it is, right? So if you're not even sure, and you're just going, "Well, I'm gonna use the templates."

So I think it's, it's the fatigue. It's the, it's the also the fear. Like we're afraid what if I can't innovate something? What if I'm not original? What if I don't have any creative ideas, right?

That, that's a real freaking fear, that we can feel like do I have creative ideas after just derivative rinse and repeat, you know, just sort of grab something. I mean, if you have to think of new concepts and film a day of videos, that's a big ask. Yeah. No, I, I'm, I'm with you. I think that most people who say they aren't creative, it's, it, that's w- well, we know that that's not true.

Yeah. It's just, it's just prioritization, right? So like it's way easier if you wanna feel good about yourself at the end of the day to tick off 15 tasks on your to-do list- Yeah ... than it is to have this block of four hours in the morning or however much time you, you give it, right, that's free form writing- Yeah ... you know, researching, putting together a script or however you create. It- You get to the end. Now, what's interesting is if, if you get something out of that, right, let's say you get something out of that, the feeling of fulfillment is 1,000 times x more than the to-do list.

But the difference is, and again this is something that I talk about a lot in my work with leaders, is uncertainty, right? Yes. We're re- Uncertainty is such a paralyzing concept to us. So we'd say, "Okay, I could spend eight hours doing tasks today and I know at the end of those eight hours I'm gonna have this positive feeling of getting stuff done. Okay, I know that."

Or I could spend four hours of open creative time to try to create a script for a new video I wanna do, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna love what comes out the back end. And even, you know, like we just said, even though the reward is, you know, 10x, 1,000x more, whatever it is, we just simply will not prioritize that and because of the uncertainty part of it. And so how do you start to coach your clients- Yeah ... around this idea of leaning into this creative space? Right. So I'll y- I'll just, you know, I always experiment on myself, right?

And it's like I'm the first one to say like, "Oh, God, you know, I have a creative idea," ever. So a couple hacks. I'm a big neuroscience person, so I love tapping in. So one of the things that I'm a really big fan of is brain priming, if anyone's heard that term, right? Mm.

We... It comes from neuro linguistic programming. There's different modalities. And the idea is that everyone, I mean, Picasso said, you know, "Every child is born an artist." We are all creative.

We all have access to what's called the genius zone, right? I believe that about every human being. There is no exception in my mind, like, having, you know, been in this, you know, work and 04:11. I just, I, I know that that's true. Believe it's true.

So then the question is how do we tap in? So yeah, we can't control if we get a good idea at the end of the four hours. That's the rub. But you are gonna get good ideas. If you keep making the space, the ideas are gonna come.

The i- You know, you're gonna get that inspiration. I call them the downloads, right? You're gonna get these, these downloads. But how do we, how do we brain prime ourselves? So one of the things I...

I think it can start the night before. There's many different studies about you can ask your subconscious mind before going to bed. You could say, you know, "Gi- you know, while I'm asleep, give me some cool ideas for content creation or my book or, you know, email marketing." And, and really just start to prime your brain at night to work on it while you go to sleep. And I even go to sleep listening to, you know, different...

You can get it free on YouTube, different hypnosis, meditation things that I'll fall asleep to, binaural beats. You know, there's all kinds of really cool stuff. It's all free. You know, you can just listen to that stuff. So you are really training your subconscious mind, who has all the goodies, right, you know, to, to offer those up.

And it's not that I wake up every morning like, "Oh," writing down. But throughout the day they'll just start popping in. They'll start coming. In the shower is another one. They call it the shower principle for a reason.

You know, you're sitting there shampooing your hair and... But I use that time very strategically. Like, I'll sit there and really say, "Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tap in." You know, to, to, like, I'm gonna let that be some white space instead of, you know, having a fight with whoever in your head or you know, whatever other stuff where the mind might go. But then there's even, I record these for all of our clients, but you can, you can use different binaural beats to get into...

The genius zone simply is two brainwaves. You wanna hit alpha and theta at the same time. We've seen pictures of that probably. And so just making... That, that can be habit stacking.

You know, again, we can have alpha theta stuff on while we're making breakfast or getting dressed, and you're just getting the brain, you know, as primed as possible to get those ideas. I don't wanna interrupt you on this point. But do it. But I wanna share something with you and the audience. Yeah.

So I have, I'm a hyperactive bipolar. Mm-hmm. So I'm constantly living either manic or hyper manic, right? So while I find myself to be highly creative- Mm ... 'cause of that, it's also like at some times it's like getting a download from this huge cable, and sometimes it's like this tiny... Okay.

So I've been researching a lot about exactly what you're talking about, brainwaves, how sounds impact it. I found this app called Endel. E-N-D-E-L. Okay. It's, like, two bucks a month.

Yeah. And it has all these different modes, and then the ability for you to actually make your own versions of this. Yes. And I'm telling you, I don't listen... I listen to music half as much as I used to.

Yes. I have chopped my podcast listening in half 'cause instead of walking around the house listening to a podcast now, I just have these beats in the back, and I'm, like, doing shit I hate to do, like the dishes- Yes ... and folding laundry. And, like, I got down and wa- I'm a, I'm a single guy. I got two kids. Yeah.

But, like, I'm on my hands and knees washing the floor. How many single dudes out there are on their hands and washing the floor, right? Like, just doesn't happen. And I'm like, "Wait a minute. I'm, like, super productive right now.

Let's go. I, I'll wash the..." You know? So it's like, and it's crazy. It's the beat, right?

So I, then I dug into the science of it. Yeah. And it's everything you just said. The way the progressions work, the way they do it, right? So if I'm in focus mode, it's perfect.

If I'm in relax mode, sleep mode, reading mode, whatever. So that's a really cool app I found. Oh. It's super inexpensive. I'm not sponsored or anything, but I use it every single day.

Endel. E-N-D-E-L. I am downloading that the minute we get off this interview. Yeah. I, 'cause I'm obsessed with all my little...

You know, so 'cause we record them. Like, I have, I've, you know, basically, like, put it to the music, and we'll do ones for creativity, for thought leadership, for content create- I mean, you're exactly right because we can create a genius state in ourself. Mm-hmm. We think it sort of happens sometimes, wait till you get inspired, but there's so much we can do. And then I think just really reminding ourselves, this is the mindset piece, right?

It's just saying, like, I m- I write down every day. This is gonna sound, this is very embarrassing. I don't think I've ever confessed this anywhere, so it's just coming. I'm gonna say it. But I write down, I do morning pages, like journaling in the morning.

Mm-hmm. And it's just sort of free writing, getting all your stuff out, and I write down, "I'm a creative genius," every single day. I write it out. And, you know, that can sound whatever, but the point is I'm reminding myself. Like, I have the ability to tap in- To the same mind that tap- through Steve Jobs and, you know, name your favorite genius, Einstein.

Like, like, like quantum physics has shown, like there's a field, right? We can tap into it. And so I think just reminding ourselves of that and getting... and then getting excited for the treasure hunt. You know, when does that nudge, like you said, "I'm gonna get down and wash this floor," because that very zen-like chop wood, carry water is gonna bring in the ideas. Yeah.

It's why for most of my life was never a believer in manifesting. Yeah. And I read parts of The Secret- Yeah ... and frankly, I just didn't like the delivery, and it just was too woo-woo-y for me, and I just, I just never grabbed it. And then I listened to Annie Fursela of The MFCEO Project, and he one day randomly did, like, went off on this tangent about how manifesting has been an enormous part of his life. Now, here's this like, big, burly, swearing, you know, whatever guy.

You know, you just wouldn't picture manifesting being in his toolkit. Uh-huh. So then I was like, "Well, shit, if it works for this dude," right, "then maybe I should look into it." And I did. And then I started looking into what you're actually doing.

So I, it's, I think manifesting does what's actually happening a disservice. So for those that don't understand, the core concept here is you're priming your brain to look for certain things. That's what's happening. So like, it's like when you buy a new car- Yeah ... and then all of a sudden you see that car everywhere. Or you get a green car and every car is green.

You're like, "I thought I was getting a unique color. They're everywhere," right? Like, so, so but essentially all you're doing is telling your brain, like what you're doing with I'm a creative genius, is it's saying to your brain, "Look for creative things." Yes. I'm a creative person, look for creative things.

Don't look for mundane things. Yes. Don't look for things that have already been said. Look for creative things. So, so manifesting is really hacking your brain- Correct ... to basically put like a special target on the radar for that type of thing.

And when you start to think about, like, and again, you've talked about neuroscience and these different things. I think it's so incredibly important we get to that level. When you... So many people got stopped at The Secret, like me, because they didn't love the way that that book was delivered. Yes.

But the, the idea, the what's actually happening to your brain is, is science. It's, it's neurology. The holidays are here, and that means it's the most wonderful time of the year to save with Rakuten. Use Rakuten to stack cash back from your favorite stores on top of holiday sales. That's savings on savings.

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All right, people. Serious question time. Did you know that driving high is considered driving under the influence? That's right, driving under the influence of marijuana is against the law in every state. That means even in states where marijuana is legal.

That means driving high could get you a DUI. And if you think law enforcement officers can't tell when you're driving high, well, you're wrong. If you're high, they can tell. Your friends can tell, your coworkers can tell, even your parents can tell. Everyone can tell.

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Because the bottom line is if you feel different, you drive different, and driving high is driving under the influence. So remember, drive high, get a DUI. Paid for by NHTSA. And if you can understand that piece, now waking up every morning and saying, you know, "I'm a, you know, I'm gonna be a great father, I'm gonna be a great leader, and I'm gonna be creative today," bam. And then you just write that over and over again.

Or- Yes ... you know, "I, I will be a bestselling author. I will be a bestselling author." 'Cause then your brain starts going, "What do bestselling authors do?" They connect with people like Sarah. They, they, you know, work on these projects every day. They block time to do these things.

Yeah. And, and also you think you're just, like... Y- you think you're just, you know, really motivating and getting things done. Yeah. But you just, you basically hacked your brain to do those things.

That's all it is. And what I love, like you said, so many people... I remember my husband was just like, "Ugh, The Secret." I mean, there's just like, he just made fun of it. It was just the word.

Because again, it didn't give the science, right? Yeah. And that's fine, because now lots of people have. But what's really fun is even knowing, 'cause again, I think our rational brain wants to, it needs to make sense of this kind of thing. Instead of just thinking, "Oh, I'm in the shower saying I'm a creative genius, what the hell is that gonna do?"

But the reticular activating system is even the part of the brain, and it's like a dog that will fetch whatever toy you throw. Mm-hmm. So if we throw the toy of like, "I'm overwhelmed, I'm tired, I'm broke," that's what The Secret was kind of trying to get at, then it's not that it's doing some magical thing. I mean, even though it feels kind of fun and magic. Yeah.

It's that our br- uh, we filter out 90% of everything that comes across our radar. We have to, because we're in... We get, like, hundreds of thousands of impressions constantly bombarding, so our brain has to fi- filter out most of it. And then what we do if we're conscious of it is we tell the reticular activating system, which is the filterer, right, what to go look for. Like you said, if we say, "Go look for creativity," it's gonna suddenly like, "Oh my gosh, I feel so creative."

Or you get invited to do a class, or someone recommends a book and it's really inspiring. Versus like, "Oh, I'm exhausted. I don't have time." You know, like it's, it's gonna fetch whatever we feed it. It's just, it's just that's what it does.

It doesn't judge it, it doesn't think if it's good for us. It just says, "I'll go get the bone you throw me." That's what we're doing. Have you read or heard about Abigail Shrier's book Bad Therapy? No, but I d- that's how I'm gonna have an app and a book now.

I wanna- Yeah ... yeah. So I have read the short form of the book. Yeah. And I've watched her do a couple podcasts 'cause I just didn't- Yeah ... you know, of all the time I had, I, but I wanted the concepts, right? Yeah.

So to be, to be, you know, Abigail, I'm referencing your book. I'll go buy a copy just to get you paid 'cause y- I should- I will buy a copy ... she, she's amazing, but I haven't read the full book yet to be honest. But I've gone through the, all the concepts and listened to her a ton. And the idea here is, you know, she basically calls out, and I'm gonna forget the year, it was somewhere in, I think, the '80s where the way therapy was delivered became, like, talking out your problems all the time. And essentially what, d- you know, if I'm pulling out her core concept at its highest level, it's what we're talking about.

Yeah. Going to therapy and talking about, you know, "My wife doesn't love me. She doesn't respect me. I don't get respect at work. I can't get ahead.

I'm always br-" All you're doing, to your point, is, is setting that in your br- your brain doesn't know the difference, right? Yeah. If you couple that idea with, have you ever read The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer? Yes. Yes, yes.

One of my favorite books. Most, I probably talk about the book too much on this show. It, it, like, defined this idea that I could not get my head around but always believed for a long time where, like, once you realize that your mind, the thing that's talking to you, that voice you hear in your brain is not you, it's your mind. Yes. So if you think about it that way, right, so you're your soul, you have a body and a mind.

And if you think of the mind as not you, what you're then able to do is program that thing like a computer to do exactly what you want. So if you program it with, "I'm broke all the time, I can't get ahead, I can't get a good job-" Yes ... you know, "Men or women, whatever, don't like me, don't, aren't attracted to me," you know, whatever, "I can't get fit, I'm not strong," then that is, you're just, the mind doesn't know the difference. Yes. Your mind does not know the difference. All it's hearing is these things.

If on the opposite side you said, you know, "I'm funny, I'm happy, I'm filled with love, I connect, I grow," your mind's going, "Oh, well, I guess that's who I am and that's the way that I should act." Yes. And it's like, I just love these ideas and I, and I, obviously I nerd out like you do. I'm just, when we can detach ourselves from, like, this is who I am- Right ... right, and start saying, "This is who I want to become and who I want to be," you can program your brain and your mind to do those things just like you would a computer. It's so exciting, right?

And this is what they talk about neuroplasticity. That's what is, everything's revisable. And I love what you're saying, too, of do you know, even it goes a step further, which is, which is so fascinating to me, that our immune system, I think it was Deepak Chopra who first said this, so I wanna, again, always give credit, our immune system is eavesdropping on whatever thoughts we're running all the time. Our immune system, our longevity, like, you're sort of, so our health, our how long we're gonna be on this planet, our, our finances, our happiness level, our influence, our impact, our success, whatever, you know, we wanna call that piece, it's eavesdrop. Like, so your physical body is eavesdropping and getting the cues for how it should be.

And like you said, fit, you know, there's people that have struggled, "I can't lose weight, I can't..." you know, all this stuff, and then suddenly start working with this piece and it's like, "I didn't even try." One of our team members released 52 pounds in the last six months, like, not... And she's like, "I, I didn't go to Weight Watchers, I didn't..." I mean, she did change her movement and her food, but it came from that level of identity, which is what you're talking about. Yeah.

It's who we associate and what do we associate as me, and she started associating as a fit, healthy, strong, you know, amazing, powerful woman that was, you know, and it, and it wasn't, people are like, "What did you do? Was, are you on Ozempic?" She said, "No, I didn't take anything. I just..." You know, she had a new, she had a new idea.

She was running a different program. Yeah. And that's what you're saying. We're running a different program. Yeah.

And that's what's so cool. We're, this is available to all of us. It's here. I love it. So okay.

So I wanna take our remaining time together and transition just a little bit. So I've been listening to this, I'm an expert in a field. I may not feel I'm creative, but I'm, I'm believing our argument that I can be creative. Like, why a book? Aren't books, like, super old-school and no one reads anymore?

Right. Right. Like, why would we why would I take this expertise and use- Yes ... a book as the way to capture it- Yeah ... and build a business around it? Yeah. I love this so much 'cause we did a, we did a webinar once on is a book worth it, right?

And obviously, you know, it's, like, a book saved my life 20-something years ago. Mm-hmm. So for me, I've got a whole history with that and, you know, paying that gift forward. That was my vow. You know- I loved your TED Talk on that by the way.

Oh, and it's, yeah. It's like, you know, just knowing that, that that was one of those, like, we have these mission moments, you know, in our lives, right? But here's what's fascinating. Because you would think in a, I said earlier, a 2.9-second attention span world, why the hell would someone write a book? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna just, there's a lot of reasons, but I'm gonna give the three that are most important to me in this year, just for 2025.

So the first thing that's so fascinating is that the human brain, 'cause, you know, I care about this stuff, can process in 1.8 seconds. They see your book cover, your name, your topic. So under the attention span barrier, that 2.9 seconds, the human brain will process, "Oh, Ryan's the expert on this. He has my solution." We give authority, whether that's deserved or not, because there's plenty of crappy books.

But, like, you know, it, we think someone knows what it is, they have a system. So for, if you're unknown, the reason to do a book is that it's a flag in the ground in, in your niche and in your industry to say, "I've got my unique take on this piece, and I have a solution." And because of this trust issue we talked about, someone's gonna get the ZMOT moment with you. You know, they're gonna have that time and that intimacy, 'cause you took a time, and you, you couldn't just whip out a video for one second on Facebook. It's like a, a frigging book, right?

So, so that's one thing. Then what's fascinating is at the beginning of this year, I think Eckhart Tolle released a book with Oprah, Martha Beck, Mel Robbins, and Gabby Bernstein, if people know those particular thought leaders. They all did January books. And these are all women who've had multiple New York Times bestsellers. They make many millions of dollars a year.

They don't, it's not like they, they're household names to many people in certain circles in personal growth. So it's like why another one, right? This isn't even the first book. But it gives them a reason to go on all the shows and all the podcasts and be booked as the keynote speaker for their six figures that their speaking fee commands because the, the research is 80% of the time people that get invited on a media outlet, a podcast, a keynote stage, have released a book in the last year, right? Sometimes it can be longer than that.

But it's... So people keep writing them, whether you're really established or you're brand new, because it's a door opener to the visibility and the ability to get back and be relevant. So that top of mind awareness we hear about- Yep ... like people will invest in one of the three people that last crossed their radar, how do we maintain top of mind awareness? The book still has gravitas. It still does, no matter even there's so many books, but it still does have this, this ability to say there's something new, something big.

You've got a reason to go out and be visible and be top of mind again. Yeah. I used to talk about this topic. I, in another life, I used to talk a lot about content marketing back in like 2010 to- Yeah ... 2015.

It's, whatever, different, different story for a different day. However, I, an idea that I used to share a lot back then and I talked about in my first book, which please do not go look at the cover- It's the worst book cover ever. That's a whole story for a different show. However, was time and attention, right? And what I meant by that was, like, you, if you, if you produce something, say a long form video, right?

So this'll probably end up being 45 minutes-ish, whatever the, whatever the length, okay? We could have also done this in five minutes, like a clip from ABC or CNBC or whatever, right? And you could have 1,000 people watch that five-minute video, or you could have 100 people watch your 45-minute video, right? I- my argument was always I'd rather have the 100 people watch the 45-minute video. Right.

Because what's happening is every moment, right, that their, that their eyes and attention are on your content, they're building a connection to you and a deeper connection. So it's like you either need, you know, nine five-minute videos- Mm-hmm ... my math is right, uh, or one 45-minute video, right? And then, and getting to explain your expertise. And to the book, you know, there's all, you know, blog posts used to be all the rage obviously- Right ... 15, 20 years ago, right?

And while blog posts can still be interesting- Mm-hmm ... right, how many... You know, in, in 2010 the, the guidance was 750-word blog posts. Right. If someone sent you a link to a 750-word blog post today and you looked at it, would you even scan it? You'd be like, "There's no way they can deliver anything of value to me in 750 words."

Right. Right now blog posts are like 4,000, 5,000 word, you know, they're like chapters of entire books- Yeah ... in a blog post. Yes. And it's almost like we have microcontent and super long form content- Yes ... and everything in between is dying. Does that feel like a good- It's true.

It's just- Okay ... this year it's gonna be the micro to, to get someone intrigued, and then it's long form. Long form is king, queen, whatever you wanna call it, long form, long form. But we need, you know, the micro is important, but the middle form is like just almost do- Yeah I mean, no one, like you said, a substack's big. You know, there are different things going on. And, and I still think the shorts, like an amuse-bouche, you know, a little hors d'oeuvre- Yeah ... of us on YouTube or something is worth cutting the podcast that you already made, picking a nugget, a good soundbite, you know, having that short, but then the long form's everything right now.

Yeah. Yeah. You just, I look at just the comments that I get. Very, the r- the co- I get less comments, and the comments I do get are often just like, "Good job," or- Yeah ... "This is cool," or, "I'm feeling this today," right, on the short form.

But on the long form, I will get like epilogue emails from people- Yeah ... like, "Oh my God, here's my experience similar to what you talked about," blah, blah, blah. "I couldn't get out of this, and here's what I did." And you're like, "Oh my God, I made a freaking impact." Yeah. Like, look at, look what's happening here, right?

Right. Like, but that doesn't happen on the short form stuff, and I think we have to be very careful with how we split our time and attention. And really short form should be systematized, unless you're like a TikTok creator is your job. But I couldn't be more with you. I mean, to me, books, podcast series, long form podcast series- Yeah ... you know, really well done.

You know, courses are tough. They're, they can work and can be important, but we, I think we have to be very careful with those. But all this time on middle form content, five-minute videos, blog posts, like, you know, short newsletters that aren't really super valuable. Like, it just, all that stuff is dying, and people are unsubscribing, and it's a really interesting time. Well, Sara, I, I wanna be respectful of your time.

This has been a tremendous conversation. Uh, you're welcome back anytime. Con- you know- Yes ... consider us a friend. Anything you have going on, you know, please come back again 'cause there's like a million more topics we could talk about. But if someone's listening to this and wants to get deeper into your world, how do they do that?

Yeah, definitely. I'm, I'm a big YouTube fan, um, so certainly DM me on Instagram, just @saraconnell, and I'm S-A-R-A C-O-N-N-E-L-L. I know I don't have an H on Sara. And then, but our YouTube channel, we're doing a lot of cool stuff over there, and I don't know if you all have heard this, how YouTube is going to soon have what it was like in Facebook in the beginning where you can really build community and have almost more like what Facebook groups, that's coming soon on YouTube this year. And so it's at Thought Leader Media is where we are- Awesome ... over there.

Guys, and whether you're watching the show on YouTube or listening wherever you listen to podcasts, just scroll down into the description, your show notes, et cetera, and I'll have links to all of Sara's stuff, how you get deeper into her, her world. Thank you so much for taking this time. What a tremendous conversation. It's been a blast. Thanks, Ryan.

In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home. It is 3:00 AM, and I can't find it anywhere. Happy holidays. Want to give your host a gift? Consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing the show this holiday season.

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