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Providing Service Through Speaking with Israel Duran · We Built This Brand

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Like, for example, Nelson Mandela.
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A lot of people know what he stood for.
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He stood, he spoke, he was silent, but he spoke, and he moved a whole nation.
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People like to talk about Martin Luther King.
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"I have a dream." Well, where did you hear that from?
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You heard it in a speech, right?
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He used the Service of Speaking now.
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No, not everybody agrees and likes Vanessa Mandela or Martin Luther King.
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I'm not necessarily supporting them completely either.
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I'm just bringing it up because these are names that people know.
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So it's like in this life, if you have a message and you don't communicate
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that message, and you know it's a solution, and it can help others, for me,
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that's called a crime.
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Welcome to We Built This Brand, the podcast where we talk to the
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creators and collaborators behind brands and provide you with
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practical insights that you can use in growing your own business.
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Today, we're talking with Israel Duran, an entrepreneur who is helping purpose
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driven leaders discover, design, and deliver their gifts to the world in a
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way that empowers them to build generational wealth, leveraging the internet.
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Now, in today's episode, we talk about Israel's journey from
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working in cyber security to a life altering car accident,
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which helped him discover the power of the service of speaking.
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Israel is a dynamic speaker, and if you've ever been interested in
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talking to a large audience, I think you'll get a lot out of this episode.
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So, without further ado, here's my conversation with Israel Duran.
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Israel, welcome to the podcast.
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Thank you for having me, Chris.
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Great to have you, and I'm excited to learn more about you
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and what you do with the Service of Speaking and how you have
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built your own brand, but also how you help other people think
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about themselves as speakers and building their own brand.
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So really excited to dive in that into that today with you.
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So, I always like to start these off getting to know a little bit
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more about your background and kind of what led you to where you are.
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So yeah, tell me how you got your start and how you got here.
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Yeah, Chris, first off, I just want to thank you for the
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opportunity of being on and being able to speak into the
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lives of the listeners and super excited for this, this show.
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I already feel that's going to be great, and to answer your question,
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Chris, you know, for me, I had a weird childhood growing up to
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say the least, but I kind of fast forward into my college years.
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Because that's really where things shifted for me.
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You know, I, my background is in cyber security development and
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that's, I originally wanted to work for the FBI actually, Chris.
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That was what I, what was what moved me, right?
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To get my master's degree in cyber security, but because I got
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married and I had a child, I didn't want to go into the FBI
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because then they would, they can ship you wherever they want to.
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So I went to the private sector, and one of the first businesses I
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started was a company called Hack Solutions and the Security Space.
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And you know, I had, I didn't, I had an event that happened to me, Chris.
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That was a car accident that kind of like, got me to go from what I was
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doing with corporate making some good money, but really wasn't fulfilling
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my purpose, into what I'm doing now with the Service of Speaking.
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And why did that car accident change you?
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Like, what was so significant about that?
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Well, you know, you know how, like when you have a feeling where you're
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like called to do something, but you're kind of like in your own way?
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Like, you know what you're supposed to do, but you're kind of like, you
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like to like at least where I, where I was, I was like procrastinating,
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like I know that I was called to, 'cause I had some businesses on the side.
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My first one was a cyber security firm, still
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working a full-time job at a consulting firm as well.
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And I was doing coaching too on the side.
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I was making good money, right?
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I was comfortable, but I wasn't really fulfilled.
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And, and I kept feeling that like, dude, you need to go into the space.
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You should go into the space of speaking, empowering others, and the car
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accident was kind of like used in my life, I would say as a catalyst to kind
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of get me out of my own way and finally do the thing that I know I was supposed
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to be doing, which is the Service of Speaking, helping people with that.
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So it was just kind of an epiphany moment for
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you of like, what am I doing with my life?
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I really need to be focused on these things, basically?
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Yes.
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People, they have a voice, but sometimes they don't
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know how to communicate that voice or get it out there.
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So like, for me, I
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have a responsibility to share the things
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that I've gone through to help somebody else.
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And what I found out, like in business and humility support, I
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wanted to make humility is not just about thinking less of ourselves.
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Like, a lot of times people think about and they teach, right?
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It's like they say, servant leadership is about putting others first.
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Well, I see it a little bit different, Chris, if I could be
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honest, I see it in a way of, it's not only about putting
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others first, but it's not even thinking about yourself.
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That's what true humility is.
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True humility is not even thinking about yourself and
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making sure that you release the things that you're supposed
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to release because it's your responsibility to do so.
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Yeah.
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I think, yeah, I, that resonates with me and how we try to operate
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too, because we want to, you know, our goal is to elevate other people.
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We don't really think about ourselves in that process.
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I mean, there are times where you have to be vocal and advocate for
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yourself and things like that, of course, but for the most part, our goal is
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elevating other people, elevating their brand, elevating what they're doing.
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So, I love that perspective.
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It's like how Zig Ziglar said, right?
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He said, if you help enough people get to where they
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want to be, you will get to where you want to be, right?
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So, like in business, you know, for those of the audience that's
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listening, like if you're in business, and you know that you have
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a solution like they're, and many times people do this, they know
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they have a solution to help others, but they won't share it,
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Chris, because they think they're being humble, not sharing it.
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That's not humility.
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That's actually keeping the world's best kept
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secret from people that need your help, right?
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It would be it's humility to stand in your value, right?
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To actually stand and share the things that you're called to share.
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But also when it, when somebody says, "Thank you, Chris, for helping
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me on my podcast," you know, "Thank you, Chris, you've been amazing."
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You don't say, "Oh no, it's not me.
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It's not me.
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It was something else." You just take it face
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value, and you just say, "Thank you," right?
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That's part of the humility as well.
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And I see so many leaders, Chris, that were so good
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at giving, but it's very hard for us to receive.
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Yeah.
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Being on the receiving end is, is always, you know, a challenge,
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I think, you know, because you, you, you spend so much of your
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time just doing the work and be like, I'm helping other people
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when you actually get accolades for what you do or anything.
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Like, yeah, it's definitely, definitely hard to receive.
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So you got your start in public speaking.
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How, like you went from this car accident to just going and
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saying, "Hey, I want to do public speaking," or what was
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that journey like for you to get to that first opportunity?
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You know, let me take a little bit back to my
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childhood because, but really it started then.
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And my public speaking journey was getting in school suspension,
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Chris, because I was afraid of people speaking in public.
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Oh my gosh.
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I would be the child to go get in trouble on purpose, skip
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class because I didn't want to present for 5 minutes in front
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of my class because I was so introverted and so like shut down.
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And the reason was is because, you know, my dad, my father died
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at a very young age, 29-years-old of a massive heart attack.
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I was only about three months when my dad passed, and it did some
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things to me as a child where I didn't have security, I didn't
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have identity, and, you know, through the series of, you know,
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different events in my life, I was able to kind of get that identity
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through God and, and kind of restore some things in my life.
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And I started to do speaking, on just on the
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streets, you know, just speaking to people.
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Also, I volunteer in the prison systems as well.
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We go in there, and we also do a lot of volunteering there, and that's
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really where I learned how to connect with people and contribute and convey
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a message to probably people that most people don't talk to, you know?
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And because I've had that experience to speak in front of a
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business audience is like, for me, it's like a walk in the
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park, if you will, because as you, as you can probably see.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I can imagine talking to prisoners is probably not the,
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probably, probably a bit of a challenging audience to talk to.
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Yeah.
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You know, the prison that I go, that we go and volunteer is a
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federal prison, maximum security, and many people in there are
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doing, some of them are doing 200 years, some of them are doing
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50 years, some of them are doing 10, but most of the, probably I
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would say about 60 to 70 percent of the people will never get out.
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And what we do, you know, we go in there as chaplain
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services, but we, we inspire hope, we instill hope,
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and they also need someone to speak to them, right?
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That's also part of what our philosophy is
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when we talk about the Service of Speaking.
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I believe that speaking is everyone's responsibility and
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everybody has a different area where they're called to speak
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in, depending on what their calling is and their expertise.
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That's exciting.
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So, how did you land these early gigs and speaking?
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I know even for myself, like, I mean, I don't necessarily want to
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just go to speak to speak, but I've done some talks on podcasting.
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I know how challenging it can be to get doors
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open for you to, you know, to get in there.
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Like how did that start?
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How do you go about that?
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Well, that's a very good question.
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I think in today's society, I think social media is everything.
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I mean, people think about like, I think the times are
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changing too, Chris, with AI, because before people used to
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think as a stage or a platform only being in person, right?
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But we know COVID changed that drastically.
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And now we have this thing that's called a phone that we
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can, you know, go live and this is now a stage, right?
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I think it was, I forgot who it was this week
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that said we, the media no longer exists.
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We are the media, right?
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And like, when we use our, this right here, this is really the key.
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So that's what I've used, right?
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I've used social media.
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I use the internet to not only land other
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opportunities, but build my own stage, right?
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Build my own platform because I think if you have your
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own platform, it just helps you to, like you teach, right?
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With podcasts, right?
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It helps you build more credibility, helps you build authority.
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Sure, it takes a little bit more time than just borrowing somebody
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else's audience, but at the long run, it pays off in dividends.
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So, you started on doing some public speaking engagements.
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You grew that into something that was successful for yourself.
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And I've noticed that, I mean, this has basically become your
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business, your whole career and in what you help people with.
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So tell me a little bit more about, you know,
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the Service of Speaking and what you do there.
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Yeah.
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So the Service of Speaking was inspired through a vision that
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I had, where I had kind of been frustrated in my business
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once I had the car accident, and I launched some things.
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Things were going well, but some things were still
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kind of like, you know, not where I wanted it to be.
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If you make it like, like under my potential, if you will, and to be vulnerable.
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And I kind of like just put it out there, and I received this
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vision clarity, like a moment where I saw, okay, this is the
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message that I have to bring to the world, the Service of Speaking.
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And what that is, Chris, it's a five step framework
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that I teach on, and it's based on the following:
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Number one, your stone.
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So, when we talk about your stone, it's like, okay, what
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is your message that you're called to release to the world?
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And that's where I found that a lot of people they're stuck on.
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They're not clear.
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They need to refine their message.
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I'm sure you probably deal with this with a lot of the people you work with.
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And helping them clarify their message to market and then
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being able to have a plan to command the delivery of that.
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So I don't want to keep going to each step,
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but I just stopped there at step number one.
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But it's, it's really that five step process
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of helping people to grow through speaking.
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But it starts with really being able to identify your message to market.
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Yeah.
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Cause I mean, if you don't have a message, why would you go and speak somewhere?
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If you didn't have a purpose, why would you deliver something?
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Chris, you and I think the same.
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You'll be surprised how many people are trying to
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speak, and they, what are you going to speak on?
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Like, do you have a business?
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No.
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Do you, well, where are you going to take people after
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they want to, you know, they, they connect with you.
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Well, I don't know.
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I didn't think that much.
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Well, you guys, you should probably think about it.
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No, I can identify with that so much.
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I mean, we do podcast production, right?
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And people come to us all the time and say,
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"I want to do a podcast." I'm like, cool.
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What are we doing it on?
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I thought you would tell me.
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And it's like.
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Well, if it was that easy.
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Yeah.
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Like you either have to have a vision that we come and help
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you with, or we have to help you better craft that vision.
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So what you're talking about is very much in line with a lot of what we
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deal with when we're talking to people and getting people into that process.
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Now, we have processes to get people on several different stages.
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There's really three types of stages just
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for the audience to kind of like identify.
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Obviously you have online and an in-person, but what you have is podcasts.
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That's one stage, which we're on at one right now, we have association meetings.
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Which typically are monthly meetings with different corporations,
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teams, whether you're doing corporate or different association
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clubs or, you know, nonprofits, et cetera, et cetera.
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And then you'll have conferences like
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annual conferences or quarterly conferences.
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And I always tell people, like, the common question I get sometimes, and
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maybe somebody's asking this, like, "Israel, if I'm looking to do more
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speaking, where should I get started?" And Chris, you know where I tell them?
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Right here.
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Podcast, because if you still haven't spoken on at least 20
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podcasts, 30 podcasts to refine your message, you shouldn't
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be trying to land a thousand to 5,000 person conference.
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First build the momentum doing podcasts, and a lot of
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people, Chris, unfortunately they're missing the boat.
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They're missing out on podcasts.
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It's a mistake.
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Tell them.
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I'm like, guys, you need to, you need to either develop your own podcast.
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Chris can help you with that.
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Or you need to learn to get on podcasts, right?
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Because that's the name of the game in today's age.
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It really seems like it's becoming that.
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I mean, even to, and not to, not to harp on it too much, cause this is not a
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political podcast, but like, even with this last election cycle, the question
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remains how influential were the podcast that Donald Trump went on and what
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influence and impact will that have on future elections, future politics?
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Like there's all kinds of questions that are
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going to come out of this situation, but.
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Chris, I think you're touching on something politics or not.
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I think you're touching on a principle that's so important.
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I think it's relevant because you know, people want authentic conversations.
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They want to just listen to people talk unedited, you know, and I think, I
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think we all agree that the media, whether whatever people like the mainstream
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media, let me say that is not as transparent as we thought it was right.
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And people are looking for more content like this
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authentic conversations that people get to know you.
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And they're able to learn, they're able to
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discover and it inspires something in them.
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Yeah.
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And I think that, you know, I mean, there's a lot of
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other things that come out of that both good and bad.
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But it does create a bond with the speaker when you listen
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to them, even if the host doesn't do a lot of the talking.
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Like I've learned over time, like people that listen to podcasts and engage
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with these shows, they tend to connect with them and listen to them more.
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I mean, the statistics are all in, you know, advertising and everything.
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It's one of the top forms of like influential, host-read advertising is
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one of the most influential forms of paid advertising there is right now.
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And so, how do you, you know, that also goes on to imply like a lot about
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the influence they have on their audience just from the content they create.
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So yeah, you're right.
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But it does take having a strong, powerful message.
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It does take being able to craft that.
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Whether you're a host and you're hosting, like you have
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to have a theme and a focus and a message for your show.
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Or if you're on the guest side and the speaker side,
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like you have to know what you're coming in to talk about
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and be prepared to have your mission to talk about too.
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So, yeah, it takes a lot.
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I think when people, some people may be asking, "Well, I get it.
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Well, you know, how do I start my podcast?
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Chris can help you with that.
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How do I get on more podcasts?" That's primarily what we have
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empowered people to do through the Service of Speaking framework.
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Step number five is the stage framework.
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It's where we show you.
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And teach how to land, first off, build your
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own platform, your own like platform to teach.
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We don't do podcasts primarily.
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I'll leave that in Chris's hand.
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We do more of like helping people to show up as a speaker as webinars
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and challenges and things like that, but then we show them how to
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get on podcasts, how to get on association meetings, how to get in
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other groups, how to get on conferences once they have the track
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record, and we show them how to build the business behind speaking.
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But it's funny, Chris, because everybody just wants to get on stages.
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But then I ask them, I say, "Do you have step number 1?"
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They're like, "No." "Do you have step number two?" They're
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like, "No," and then three to four, they don't have it.
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I'm like, okay, so you want me to go put you
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on the stage, but you don't even have a bio.
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I think it's another statistic that's also interesting.
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You know who Dan Kennedy is, right?
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I don't think I actually do at this point.
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No.
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Dan Kennedy was, he's one of the godfathers in marketing, but he wrote a book.
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And this is relevant to what we teach with the Service of Speaking.
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He wrote a book, No B.S. Marketing To the Affluent.
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And there's three things that he essentially encapsulated around
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like high ticket, high premium buyers and what they consume.
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Like what, what is the material that they
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consume before making their buying decisions?
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And what's crazy, Chris is.
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The top three things were number one, it was magazines, right?
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It was like luxury magazines.
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Number two, it was, videos like video content.
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And number three was podcasts.
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And podcasts, it's not that podcast was number three podcast was one of the main
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ones, as he's shared, and this is why I tell people, if you have a message, if
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you have a business, if you have a nonprofit, it is a message that you have.
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And you want to get it out there, developing
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content that can be consumed as a speaker, right?
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In a video platform or podcast can help you not only grow your impact
19:45
in terms of how many people you reach, but also grow your influence,
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and if you like, I tell people, try not to speak and see what happens.
19:54
that's fascinating.
19:56
I'll have to look him up ,and we'll put him in the
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show notes too, so people could check that out.
20:03
Yeah.
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So I mean, definitely as you build that audience, I mean, podcasting,
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I always like to say too, is, you know, a bit of a magic wand.
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Like when people get into it, just saying you have a podcast will open
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up doors that maybe you didn't have before, even without a huge audience.
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You know, people don't look at the numbers when they look at podcasts, right?
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As long as you've got good branding, and they listen to it, and
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it sounds legitimate, they're not going to question too much.
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They're going to trust you and they're going to be like,
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"Alright, cool. You got a platform, and you want to put me on
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that platform. Great." So there's a lot of advantages there.
20:38
So that's another way that I know that your audience would benefit for sure.
20:42
Tell me about what a little bit more about the Service of Speaking.
20:45
So people get involved.
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Is this like a course that they go through?
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Is this a consultancy?
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Like tell me a little bit more about how it all works.
20:55
That's a very good question.
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So the result of the Service of Speaking is simply to help leaders,
21:00
entrepreneurs, coaches make more sales through speaking, land more
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clients through speaking, and building their brand through speaking.
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How we serve our audience is a little bit different, right?
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We have a book, the Service of Speaking book, that is essentially
21:16
a do it yourself way that they can go through the, you know,
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my framework on how to, you know, do that on their own.
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Then we have a, we do a challenge that we conduct, which is
21:26
kind of like a training, a five day training where I'm literally
21:30
revealing all of my secrets in that five day challenge.
21:33
We've probably done a little bit over with our clients combined and ourselves,
21:37
probably a little bit over $7 million in sales over the last five years or so.
21:42
It's not a lot of money and, you know, compared to Amazon, right, and
21:46
all these other companies, however, it's still been a blessing and been
21:52
a way of being able to serve people and also make an income, right?
21:56
So I share how we've done it and the whole framework in the five day training,
22:01
and then we typically have an offer where people are able to join our mastermind
22:05
coaching where we serve them, and we work with them hand in hand to, you know,
22:09
to build, launch and scale their business through the Service of Speaking.
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But I love it, Chris, because I'm in the servant leadership,
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and I believe that the highest level of service is speaking.
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Tell me more about that.
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I mean, think about it, right?
22:26
When we just study history, I'm a, I'm a big student of history.
22:31
Like you said, good or bad, right?
22:34
They use speaking to get their agendas done.
22:37
Like, for example, Nelson Mandela.
22:40
Lot of people know what he stood for.
22:42
He stood, he spoke, he was silent, but he spoke and he moved the whole nation.
22:48
People like to talk about Martin Luther King.
22:51
"I have a dream." Well, where did you hear that from?
22:55
You heard it in a speech, right?
22:57
He used the Service of Speaking now.
22:59
No, not everybody agrees and likes Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King.
23:03
I'm not necessarily supporting them completely either.
23:06
I'm just bringing it up because these are names that people know.
23:09
So it's like in this life, if you have a message, and you
23:15
don't communicate that message, and you know it's a solution,
23:20
and it can help others, for me, that's called a crime.
23:24
Why do I call it a crime?
23:26
I had one of my mentors, his name was Dr. Miles Monroe.
23:29
He passed in 2014.
23:30
Do you know who Miles Monroe is?
23:32
I don't.
23:33
He passed in 2014.
23:34
He passed in a plane accident from the Bahamas.
23:37
And he used to say this all the time, Chris, and this is something
23:40
that I always like to bring up when I'm being interviewed.
23:44
He said the richest and most wealthiest place in the world is the graveyard.
23:52
When I first heard it, I was like, well,
23:53
what do you, what do you mean the graveyard?
23:56
And he talks about this concept.
23:57
Well, he's like, well, that's where the books
24:01
that were never written are still there.
24:03
That's where the podcast, Chris, that people
24:06
were supposed to launch, they took him with them.
24:09
That's where the businesses that were supposed to be launched.
24:11
That's where the nonprofits were supposed to be established.
24:14
The new ideas and new inventions that were supposed to be released are all
24:17
there because there's so many people that come into this world, Chris, and
24:22
because of one way or another, I say it's because of pride, and not humility,
24:27
they rob humanity from the greatness, the gifts that they have inside.
24:32
And many times it's because of fear.
24:34
Many times it's because the unknown.
24:36
It's a lack of belief.
24:37
But I think in this day of age, if you truly consider yourself a
24:41
servant leader, you have a responsibility to serve in your industry
24:47
as a speaker, bringing awareness to the problems that you solve.
24:52
For sure.
24:54
Well, that's great.
24:55
And I mean, yeah, definitely, definitely understand.
24:58
And get that a little better now.
25:00
So thank you for explaining that.
25:01
So we talk a lot on this podcast about branding, marketing, how to
25:05
present yourself, how to, you know, basically personal branding for
25:11
podcasting and, or not for podcasting, but for all aspects of life.
25:16
So what do you recommend people that are looking to book public speaking
25:22
events or go to that place where they're doing speaking, like, what
25:25
are some tips that you give them as far as like personal branding goes?
25:30
I love the question.
25:31
I think how do we define brand is where I would begin.
25:36
Like the way I define brand is probably a little bit different
25:39
than when most people have, most people teach out there.
25:43
The way I defined it is.
25:45
What do people say about you when you're not in the room?
25:49
That's how I talk about brand, and brand is business identity, right?
25:54
So that really determines everything.
25:56
I like identity is where everything flows.
26:01
So depending on how you want to position your business brand and your
26:05
culture that will then give clarity into okay, what stages are right for you?
26:11
Like, where's your audience, right?
26:13
People with like minded beliefs, is this a common principle?
26:16
They congregate in the same place.
26:18
So for example, let's say, let's just use you as an example.
26:22
You're somebody that's brilliant at helping people use podcasts and
26:26
building their own podcasts, video editing to get their messages
26:29
out there in a humble and most beautiful and authentic way.
26:34
So that's your, that's part of your business brand.
26:35
And please correct me if I'm wrong.
26:36
Is that that's the alignment though, right?
26:38
That's that's a big piece of it.
26:39
Yeah, for sure.
26:40
And I'm sure you have other services and products
26:43
that you could serve people at the highest level with.
26:46
That's a beautiful result.
26:47
Now, because that's part of your business identity or brand, now we can position
26:53
you to now go at, go in front of more of your audience, like different stages.
26:59
Perhaps different stages that literally have people that are authors, right?
27:04
That want to maybe take their book now and create a podcast, right.
27:07
Maybe you look for a podcast or association meetings or conferences that are
27:11
now based on, authorship because you know, those individuals are probably
27:17
most prone to launch their own podcast, leveraging their book, right?
27:21
It's just, it's an idea, but that's kind of like the philosophy of my
27:25
thought pattern to be able to just help someone answer the question you
27:29
just asked, but in a way that can, they can think about it for them.
27:33
You know what I mean?
27:34
Yeah.
27:36
What would you say to someone who says, you know, I want
27:39
my brand to be something different than who I truly am.
27:42
I want to brand myself or look a little different.
27:44
I want to, you know, be perceived differently.
27:49
I think that's amazing because I think like, for example, I use this example.
27:55
Let's say you go into a room, and there's a hundred people in the room,
27:59
and out of the hundred people, everybody's wearing the color black.
28:04
Now, I still happen to like the color black.
28:05
I'm wearing it today, right?
28:07
But then you have one of those a hundred and you as well, right?
28:10
And you have one of those individuals wearing the color pink.
28:16
Now from the out, from everybody else in the room, they're going to be like,
28:18
"Well, why is that person wearing pink?" But from the person that walks in,
28:22
that's neutral, who they're going to remember is not the people in black.
28:27
They're going to remember the person in pink.
28:29
Why do I share that example?
28:31
Because it's the same way with your brand.
28:34
The way you position yourself is by asking the
28:36
question, how do you want to be remembered?
28:38
But then you go deep with how you can pull on your history to
28:43
position yourself with authenticity, authority, and connection.
28:50
And it's exactly what I do, exactly what I've done, and it works.
28:56
It works because people, again, like going
28:58
back to that point, people want authenticity.
29:01
People don't want a counter copy of a counter copy.
29:04
We're tired of that.
29:05
We want people's truth and we want to be able to relate to each other.
29:10
And if you give that and you position it in your brand
29:13
and your, in your culture, the marketplace will respond.
29:17
That's great.
29:18
That's really good advice.
29:19
So as we think through things, you know, going back to this as a business,
29:24
the thing you're trying to grow, you know, there's always that moment with
29:29
building a business where you have what I call the moment of validation.
29:32
It's that moment where everything you've been working towards, everything you've
29:36
been doing really comes together and you say, "This is it. I know I'm on the
29:41
right path." Not just the car accident that maybe was the epiphany, but now it's
29:44
like, okay, all these things that I thought, all these things that I envisioned,
29:48
maybe the vision you have, like all these things are really coming to fruition.
29:52
What was that moment for you?
29:54
Well, you know, I think it's a collective moment of series
29:58
of events, and like, for example, I'll share a quick story.
30:04
This coach, he was in his 40s, came to me, and
30:07
he wanted me to help him to launch his brand.
30:12
He was, he already had some success.
30:14
He was making some good money, but he wanted
30:15
to kind of like break some records, right?
30:19
And in terms of revenue.
30:21
And I sat down with him, and I had an agency at the time.
30:25
This is where I learned a lot of the backend stuff when it comes
30:27
to building out the backend of this business of speaking, and I
30:32
was still coaching on the side too, but I sat down with him and we
30:35
were able to ID a seven day event essentially where he was going
30:39
to use the Service of Speaking to present his offer to the world.
30:43
And Chris, I gotta be honest with you.
30:45
I didn't think we were going to hit the numbers we hit.
30:47
I thought we were going to do, you know, maybe
30:51
100 K, you know, maybe 150 K, something like that.
30:55
We end up doing the event.
30:56
I consulted this team.
30:57
We put everything out for him.
30:58
I coached him on speaking on the presentation, all of it.
31:02
And this gentleman was able to do over three
31:04
quarters of a million dollars, 770 K to be exact.
31:10
In seven days, we got, we got about 19,000 leads for him for the event
31:17
and because people hear that number and they're like, well, "How is
31:20
that even possible?" It's through the Service of Speaking, right?
31:25
When like people are so used to selling one-on-one and just doing one-on-one,
31:30
but, and this is why I love podcasts, the beauty of podcasts is, yeah,
31:32
we're here one-on-one and people are listening, but this recording will
31:36
go out and go in front of other individuals that will also hear it.
31:41
So it's really a one on many opportunity to speak one message to many people.
31:45
And that's, when I saw the power of that, and how I was really the architect
31:52
behind developing A to Z, that whole thing, I said, this is powerful.
32:00
And I started to do several launches.
32:02
I mean, I've done launches.
32:05
It's not just about the money.
32:06
It's about the really, it's not just about the return on investment.
32:10
It's also the return on impact.
32:13
And that's really where I said, this is where I got to focus
32:18
in on, but there's something that even trumps that to be
32:20
honest, Chris, when I was at my recent mastermind event.
32:26
You know, when you do events, you do podcasts, you,
32:28
you ask people, Hey, what do you think about it?
32:30
So I took out my little phone here thinking that I was going to take a
32:33
video for 5, 10 minutes, you know, just to ask the students in the room.
32:38
"Hey, what do you get from this event?" Chris, I end up holding my phone
32:41
up for 2 hours of pure emotional testimony, like pure emotional results.
32:49
And my camera guy was like, "Dude, is your arm okay?" Like,
32:54
cause I kept moving it back and forth, but something said to me
32:57
after that, after that experience, it's like, "You need to go.
33:00
You have to focus in all in with this."
33:04
Because of the transformation, like I'm talking about emotional,
33:07
compelling, like, just, just things that bring you to tears.
33:12
And I said, you know, talking about validation, I said, this is not
33:17
only validation, but this is vision that's becoming a reality because I
33:21
decided to just speak my voice to the voids that I saw in the marketplace.
33:27
And having that bravery that, and the gumption to be
33:30
able to get out there and say, I'm going to do this.
33:32
I'm going to speak this.
33:33
I know it's what needs to be said.
33:36
That's gotta be really powerful and validating.
33:38
I've had moments in my business similar to where
33:41
it's like, I can't believe I just made that impact.
33:44
Like, you know, the, the impacts you have are you know,
33:49
for me, the emotional ones are always the ones that get
33:51
me of like, "Oh, wow, we helped somebody through this."
33:54
You know, we had a positive impact, like the content we created,
33:58
the content we helped the client create not only impacted
34:00
them positively, but also impacted their audience positively.
34:04
You know, and that, that to me is always a thrill.
34:08
So that's really great.
34:10
That's what it's all about, man.
34:12
Yeah, it's, there's nothing, you know, I had somebody tell me one of my mentors
34:17
when I shared that with him, he said to me, "You know what the good thing
34:21
about this and the bad thing is.?" And I said, well, what's the, you know, when
34:24
they tell you what's the good news and bad news, I said, "Well, what is it?"
34:27
He said, "The good news is that's how good as it gets." You can't really
34:34
go, I mean, when you get that emotional result, that's the highest level.
34:39
The bad news is you really can't go higher than that.
34:41
You just got to keep maintaining it and
34:44
you're only as good as your last success.
34:48
Yeah.
34:49
Well last question before we wrap up, I always like
34:52
to ask, cause this is branding marketing focused.
34:55
What is the brand that you would say right now is like the brand
34:59
you're crushing on the most or your favorite brand at the moment?
35:03
I'm going to say the brand, and thank you for sending me the question before,
35:06
and you know, I'm going to, I'm going to say the brand Amazon, even though
35:10
I know it's kind of like one of those like, like controversial brands.
35:14
But the reason why I just think that Jeff
35:16
Bezos is brilliant in his marketing ability.
35:20
I think, I mean, for those of the people that know that story
35:22
of Amazon, Amazon was going to go bankrupt several times, but he
35:27
was able to create a flywheel with Amazon that the more partners
35:31
he brings on, the cheaper the cost and the more money he makes.
35:37
This is why now Amazon's starting to get into every industry,
35:41
and I know it's not good for the mom and pop, right?
35:44
But you still got to respect the wisdom of the flywheel that Amazon's
35:48
created and how the more that they grow and the more that they sell,
35:53
the bigger they get, because that's just the way the business model is.
35:57
And that's, I really admire that about their brand.
36:01
And their, their rapport.
36:04
Yeah.
36:04
I had the, the opportunity to go to the AWS's re:Invent last year, so
36:10
I've seen a little bit of the craziness that they do, and it's impressive.
36:14
Thee scope, the scale,
36:17
the size of that event is just mind blowing for me.
36:21
I'm used to thinking of a conference is like a couple thousand people
36:24
at most, and then you go and there's like 40,000 plus people in Las
36:27
Vegas over four nights or whatever it is, and it's just, it's insane.
36:32
it's a wild event, but yeah, I've had a little bit of a taste of that.
36:36
So I can, I can see that.
36:37
I mean, they're, they're good in that regard.
36:38
And then of course the retail side.
36:41
It's fascinating too.
36:42
Well, Israel, thank you so much for coming on the show.
36:45
Where can people learn more about you?
36:47
Where can they find your book and connect with you?
36:50
Thank you so much for having me, Chris.
36:52
And I have some free gifts available for everyone at israelduran.com.
36:57
We have some free trainings there and also my book.
37:00
You can also grab it.
37:02
It's on the homepage.
37:03
But israelduran.com.
37:05
Excellent.
37:06
Alrighty.
37:07
Well, Israel Durand, thank you so much for coming on the show.
37:10
Thank you, sir.
37:11
Thanks for checking out this episode of We Built This Brand.
37:14
Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe on your player of choice.
37:18
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37:22
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