Latest / Beyond Fulfillment Podcast / The Transformative Power of Storytelling with Mischa Zvegintzov

Transcript

The Transformative Power of Storytelling with Mischa Zvegintzov · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:00
  Misha Zvegzentov is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence army and the host of the Table Rush Talk show.
• 0:09
  Misha takes us on a journey through his career, from his humble beginnings in sales to becoming a sought after expert in online marketing and podcast guest speaking.
• 0:21
  In this episode, Misha shares his powerful get your stories together framework designed to help individuals craft and organize their personal narratives to engage and inspire audiences.
• 0:34
  He delves into his own significant life transitions, including overcoming personal crises, embracing sobriety, and rediscovering fulfillment through spiritual exploration.
• 0:45
  Misha also highlights his entrepreneurial ventures, including his innovative system for capturing impactful video testimonials and his dedication to helping others increase their influence through targeted podcast appearances.
• 1:00
  Join us as we explore Misha's unique insights on storytelling, the power of personal reflection, and the importance of redefining success beyond material gains.
• 1:11
  Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to amplify your impact or someone striving for personal growth, Misha's experiences and practical tips are sure to inspire and motivate.
• 1:24
  As always, if you found value from this content, please like and subscribe.
• 1:29
  And now, here's my conversation with Misha Zvegzentov.
• 1:33
  Enjoy.
• 1:34
  Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Beyond Fulfillment Podcast.
• 1:39
  I'm your host, Dave Gulis, and this week my guest is the Chief Influencer Officer at Influence army and the host of the Table Rush talk show, Misha Zvegentsoff.
• 1:54
  Dave, Amazing.
• 1:55
  You crushed my last name.
• 1:57
  Thank you so much.
• 1:59
  Hey, thank you for being here Misha.
• 2:01
  We really appreciate it.
• 2:03
  If you could, for everyone, can you just tell us about your entrepreneurial backstory and how you got to where you are right now?
• 2:10
  Absolutely, I'd love to, Dave.
• 2:12
  So what I like to say that I do currently like today, where I am today is I help heart centered entrepreneurs increase their authority, their impact and their income by going on what I like to call an influence
• 2:27
  tour.
• 2:28
  And that all starts by guest speaking on podcasts, developing those relationships, exploding your network from there.
• 2:36
  We already talked pre call here.
• 2:37
  You love guest speaking on podcasts.
• 2:39
  I love guest speaking on podcast.
• 2:41
  There's so many benefits of guest speaking on podcasts.
• 2:44
  You know, the first one obviously is the call to action.
• 2:48
  So at the end of this you say, hey Misha, where can my people find you?
• 2:51
  And I say, hey, go to guesting guide where you can get my free guide on how to execute a profitable and successful podcast tour.
• 3:03
  Right?
• 3:04
  And so it's the call to action.
• 3:06
  That's amazing.
• 3:07
  But there's so many other benefits there's list swaps with hosts.
• 3:12
  There's oftentimes I'll guest speak on a podcast and the host will go, oh my gosh, I need to speak on more podcasts.
• 3:18
  I want to join your Influence Army.
• 3:20
  So that's my main vehicle.
• 3:21
  It's my Influence army membership where I teach and coach people how to go on a podcast tour and then all the other networking aspects after it, how to monetize it, how to dial in their message, all these fun
• 3:35
  things.
• 3:35
  Okay.
• 3:37
  And boy, what other benefits.
• 3:39
  I'll save that for later if we have time.
• 3:42
  My previous four lives.
• 3:45
  So I'm 56 years old as we record this and I'm a.
• 3:50
  I'm an old school sales guy.
• 3:52
  So I started in sales in mid-1990s.
• 3:55
  The in the mid-1990s telemarketing boiler room.
• 4:02
  I effectively my sales career career started when I joined a retail commodities brokerage firm.
• 4:14
  And retail commodities are the at the time were the most highly speculative markets you could play in.
• 4:21
  Okay, so it was like oil futures, gold futures, wheat futures, oil's going to the moon, gold's going to the moon.
• 4:30
  We'll still see ads like that.
• 4:33
  But these days it's bitcoin.
• 4:35
  It was NFTs for a brief moment.
• 4:39
  Now it's blockchain stuff.
• 4:42
  These highly leveraged opportunities.
• 4:46
  Point is, most people lose money in those.
• 4:48
  So I was boiler room telemarketing, started learning my sales chops.
• 4:54
  Tail end of the 90s, ended up in the tech industry.
• 4:58
  People were like, oh my God, you'll call anybody at any time.
• 5:01
  We need you selling for us.
• 5:03
  So then I started selling business to business, door to door, fast forward.
• 5:07
  Ended up in the loan business.
• 5:08
  Everything came together for me for 20 years where I had telemarketing teams outbound calling people with home loans.
• 5:17
  I'm amazing at finding the data, the niches.
• 5:20
  Right then I was doing massive flyer campaigns to get the phone to ring.
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  So having a ton of success.
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  Me and the teams that I built funded $1.5 billion in loans over a 15 year period through the ups and downs of real estate.
• 5:35
  Didn't matter where it was going.
• 5:37
  All of a sudden 2010, 2012 in there, come home one day, wife's gone, both my parents die.
• 5:47
  In rapid succession, more failed relationships, career upheaval.
• 5:51
  Overnight, everything I was good at became incredibly painful.
• 5:57
  I was like, man, I need to know what to do here.
• 6:00
  God, like I'm suffering, I'm burned out.
• 6:05
  Even though I have a bunch of money in the bank, like just that midlife existential Crisis, Right, Dave, I don't know if maybe you're headed there or been through a quarter crisis or you're a little younger than me,
• 6:17
  I think.
• 6:17
  Yes.
• 6:18
  Yeah, yeah.
• 6:19
  About 45.
• 6:20
  So.
• 6:20
  Okay, all right, so you're, you're, you're.
• 6:23
  Maybe you've been one through one already, but we'll save that.
• 6:26
  I'll have you on my podcast and you can tell me.
• 6:30
  But, you know, the, the answer that came from the universe was you have money in the bank.
• 6:38
  You're a single dad.
• 6:39
  Your young boys, two of them, Cooper and Waylon, who are not so young anymore, they need your support getting through school.
• 6:46
  Like, quit your job.
• 6:48
  And I was like, anything but that.
• 6:49
  I don't want to be the stay at home dad that I used to talk smack about.
• 6:52
  I don't.
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  My, you know, my identity was so wrapped up in my business career and being the closer and the successful guy and paying up bad enough that I went through this program with Kyle Cease, an amazing guy, kind of
• 7:07
  a find your purpose kind of a guy, and came evident overnight.
• 7:12
  I do need to quit my job, be a single stay at home dad, get those boys through school.
• 7:18
  And I love yoga, meditation, all that.
• 7:20
  So I became a yoga teacher at the time, basically because it provides a lot of flexibility.
• 7:26
  Fast forward.
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  My boys are graduating from high school.
• 7:30
  They're, you know, off into college, they have their girlfriends, their jobs.
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  And I had this intuition.
• 7:37
  I knew it would come one day where, all right, I get to get back into the entrepreneurial journey.
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  I get it back, get back into sales, marketing, all the stuff that I love and I'm good at and superpowers.
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  And so I start getting video testimonials for businesses because I joined Russell Brunson's.
• 7:56
  Have you heard of Russell Brunson?
• 7:58
  Sure.
• 7:59
  Joined his.
• 8:00
  I naively was like, all right, I'm going to go master online marketing now because I, you know, I'd done flyer campaigns, you know, telemarketing, that old school door to door sales, stuff like that.
• 8:13
  I was like, oh, this online marketing is going to be easy.
• 8:16
  I'm going to join Russell Brunson's $25,000 a year program and kill it.
• 8:22
  And yeah, $150,000 later, I'm like, boy, oh boy, this is a crazy game, man.
• 8:29
  And I'd found a little niche where I was helping people get their customer video testimonials.
• 8:36
  My first framework that I brought to market in the online space was my perfect video testimonial system, my five step system on getting your customers to Gladly do your selling for you.
• 8:51
  And so I would, you might have a successful.
• 8:54
  You have a client that you had helped Dave and they're like, heck yeah, I'd love to tell my, you know, give a testimonial to Dave.
• 9:00
  So I would interview them with my customer story arc framework, get their story packaged, package it up nice, deliver a video to you, and then now you've got the story to tell.
• 9:12
  You've got the video for your funnels, you can use it in your marketing, all this stuff, right?
• 9:19
  And I still had this wicked imposter syndrome where I was like, am I adding value?
• 9:26
  Like, I was seriously questioning it.
• 9:28
  But I got, I was getting flown around the world to interview people, got flown to Ireland, I was getting flown to, you know, Colorado, going to these different places.
• 9:40
  Aspen, Colorado.
• 9:41
  I.
• 9:42
  My big client at the time was Stacy Oliver and she has Mind, Body Soul magazine.
• 9:49
  And so she would fly me around to interview her cover girls, to interview her advertisers.
• 9:57
  I wake up to an email one morning from her and it says she's all pissed off.
• 10:03
  Not at me, but everybody she pays money to at her business.
• 10:06
  She's like, I'm so sick of, I'm so sick of this.
• 10:09
  And you're the only one that moves the needle in my business.
• 10:13
  I pay all the other, all these other people and you're the one that drives through revenue.
• 10:19
  And in that moment, I was like, oh my God, I'm adding value.
• 10:23
  Like, people are making money off of the services I'm delivering.
• 10:28
  So it's this breakthrough moment.
• 10:29
  At the same time, Ryan Lipsey, who has this big realtor audience, he had been asking me for months, speak on my show, speak on my show.
• 10:39
  This big realtor audience, they need to know how to get there customer video testimonials, they need to know how to repurpose their content.
• 10:49
  So I'm like, all right, I'll speak on your damn show.
• 10:52
  Speak on this show.
• 10:53
  I have this crappy little Google form opt in page that I'm guiding people to and I crush it and I get all these opt ins, right?
• 11:04
  And I'm like, oh my God, I have to go on a podcast tour.
• 11:07
  Like, I got a br.
• 11:08
  I got a story to tell.
• 11:10
  I got an opt in page, man, I'm going to market, right?
• 11:14
  So I start building out the systems because I'm a systems guy.
• 11:19
  I start building up the systems to go on a podcast or how to find the podcast, how to find the emails, what are the scripts.
• 11:24
  I'm all about scripts, script, script, scripts.
• 11:26
  Right.
• 11:27
  Telemarketing, you got to be working off a script.
• 11:29
  Inbound college, it helps to have a script building all this stuff.
• 11:33
  I do a Facebook post, I'm going to go on an influence tour.
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  I'm going to teach people how to get their customer video testimonials.
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  I'm making all this stuff so you can go on a tour, on a podcast tour.
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  Who would want it?
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  And I get this flood of engagement.
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  Oh my God, I want it, I want it.
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  I want your scripts, I want your templates, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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  And I was like, ah, this is how I can use my superpower.
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  I can help people bring their message to market.
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  You know, in effect, I'm all about helping people that, that are moving from the heart, mission centered, purpose driven.
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  All you hear these kinds of things.
• 12:13
  And I feel that if I can help them get their message to market, I can help literally change the world.
• 12:19
  So that's what I'm all about.
• 12:20
  That's what I'm doing.
• 12:21
  I've been going gangbusters for, I don't know, 10 minutes here.
• 12:27
  What you got for me?
• 12:29
  Yeah, lots unpacked there and appreciate the walking us through the whole journey there.
• 12:35
  Um, okay, so you started in sales and when you said boiler room, right.
• 12:39
  That you really were in like, like a.
• 12:41
  The movie boiler room.
• 12:43
  Right.
• 12:43
  That type of environment sounds like.
• 12:45
  But you know, excellent training just in terms of, you know, and I saw on your bio there too about the number of phone calls you've made in your career and you know, all these other stats.
• 12:57
  But I mean that, that sounds like a really important foundation of your career is just that that sales background, is that right?
• 13:06
  Absolutely.
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  I learned that well.
• 13:11
  I was listening to guys like Zig Ziglar.
• 13:14
  Those were my mentors back in the day.
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  This is the 90s.
• 13:17
  He was already old back then.
• 13:18
  Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy.
• 13:22
  My mentor in the loan business was Darren Riley.
• 13:26
  He taught me so much.
• 13:27
  But what I was learning, key foundational in the, in the outbound telemarketing was you've got to stay on point and you've got to have a script.
• 13:37
  And basically what the script does, as you learn the script and adapt your style to it, it keeps you on point so that as somebody is veering from the script, you can answer that question, get them back on
• 13:50
  path.
• 13:51
  Answer that question and get them back on path.
• 13:53
  Right.
• 13:53
  Or what I really, really learned was that in sales, the person that we're selling to thinks that they're pre qualifying us as the salesperson.
• 14:06
  But really what I'm doing is pre qualing you.
• 14:09
  I'm trying to figure out, are you a good prospect for me, do you have money?
• 14:15
  Do you, are you the decision maker?
• 14:17
  Do you have capability?
• 14:18
  Do you have a problem that I can solve?
• 14:20
  Right.
• 14:21
  So I'm just walking through that process.
• 14:22
  Does that make sense?
• 14:23
  And I hope I'm answering your question.
• 14:25
  Yeah.
• 14:26
  Then the other thing is consistency.
• 14:28
  Like you've got to be constantly building your network, like talking to people.
• 14:34
  I think these days people naively think that I'm going to throw up my Facebook page, I'm whatever, whatever social, I'm going to start posting and the leads are magically going to start coming to us.
• 14:49
  It's 99% of the time not the case.
• 14:53
  The reality is you do have one or two people get lucky and become an influencer overnight.
• 15:01
  But that's one out of what, a hundred million, right?
• 15:07
  Yeah.
• 15:07
  So those are some of the core things I started learning.
• 15:09
  Go ahead.
• 15:10
  Yeah, yeah, no, and absolutely.
• 15:12
  And you know, I trained and managed sales teams a lot in my career too.
• 15:15
  And you know, call reluctance was always a big thing too.
• 15:19
  Right.
• 15:19
  Like where you use.
• 15:20
  That's such a, a problem at the macro level with salespeople.
• 15:23
  So like you said too, just that ability to make the calls, to stay on point with the script, to understand the mechanics of a sales call transitions nicely.
• 15:34
  It's all, it's such a good foundational skill for entrepreneurship because when you're out there growing a business, you need to be talking to people all the time about your business, about what you do, about who you help and
• 15:45
  how you can potentially help them or, or whoever you're in front of.
• 15:49
  Absolutely.
• 15:50
  And I clearly, you have a business.
• 15:53
  Before we went live, you're like, oh yeah, I was just in Kentucky dealing with your business.
• 16:00
  I imagine people tell you, well, I know I'm a rainmaker and I do it naturally now because I've been in sales so long, I've had, I know how to have a conversation and I know how to use that
• 16:14
  conversation to when I'm, when I'm networking and let's say I'm learning a new thing that I want to sell or I have a new product.
• 16:25
  By having real, real time, live conversations, I'm getting real time feedback on what is resonating.
• 16:33
  What's your problem?
• 16:34
  I just try a hook.
• 16:35
  Did that resonate?
• 16:36
  Here's, you know, a solution.
• 16:38
  Does that resonate?
• 16:39
  Does that make sense?
• 16:41
  Sure.
• 16:42
  And I'm betting you have the same experience with what you do that having Managed sales teams, having.
• 16:50
  Being an entrepreneur, you're probably good at making it rain or finding clients.
• 16:55
  Does that make sense?
• 16:57
  Yeah.
• 16:57
  Yeah.
• 16:58
  So my previous career too, it was very pick up the phone and call people.
• 17:03
  B2B sales.
• 17:04
  Right.
• 17:04
  Commodity based medical products, that type of thing.
• 17:08
  But then in the logistics business too, it's just a different type of sale where you really need to be out there as an influencer, so to speak, or as the founder on social media where people can find you.
• 17:20
  And it's because you never know where the customers are going to come from.
• 17:23
  It's not as simple as just calling people.
• 17:26
  Yeah.
• 17:27
  I think that's what's so powerful about guest speaking on podcasts too.
• 17:31
  Right.
• 17:31
  An influence tour.
• 17:34
  Like the more I put myself out there, the more opportunities that I have to for somebody to see me and resonate with me and make that referral.
• 17:47
  You are dealing mostly with commodity based businesses, I believe.
• 17:52
  Right.
• 17:52
  Where I might be more in the info product space.
• 17:54
  I'm teaching, coaching, things like that, you know, online courses stuff.
• 17:58
  Right.
• 17:58
  But I believe the research I did on you your more commodities based.
• 18:03
  Yes.
• 18:03
  Yeah.
• 18:04
  We service e commerce sellers.
• 18:05
  E commerce sellers.
• 18:06
  Much better way to say it.
• 18:07
  Sorry, but that there's one of my favorite stories out there is because I have people that have e commerce products that are in my influence army learning how to talk about their products on podcasts.
• 18:23
  And one of my favorite stories is Fire Creek snacks.
• 18:26
  These guys, they started by doing the.
• 18:31
  What do they, what, what do you call it?
• 18:32
  Where you go to like the farmers markets, right.
• 18:34
  They're, they're selling their snacks at the farmers markets and then they figure out their niche is they start following the pro golf tours because their Fire Creek snacks are, they're like slim gems but they're super healthy and they're
• 18:49
  protein packed.
• 18:51
  Right.
• 18:51
  So the perception of health snack.
• 18:54
  Right.
• 18:55
  Stay energy, full of energy while you're on the golf course.
• 18:58
  So they learn how to talk about their products, sell it, they're selling it on the golf courses.
• 19:06
  They make a concerted effort to start talking about their product on podcasts.
• 19:12
  Somebody from it was either Walmart or Costco.
• 19:18
  Those are the two big like warehouse stores.
• 19:20
  Yeah.
• 19:22
  Heard their story and we're like, we need this product in our warehouse.
• 19:29
  Right.
• 19:29
  Like that's the thing.
• 19:31
  We, we can leverage the story and then we can splash those stories, these, these things that we're talking about all across social media.
• 19:40
  Chop it up.
• 19:41
  Right.
• 19:41
  Create that exposure of our product.
• 19:44
  Really learn how to tell the story of our E comm product.
• 19:48
  In a way, it's the story that adds value, right?
• 19:53
  Like, that's what adds value to the product.
• 19:55
  People go, oh, my gosh, there's the story there.
• 19:57
  I want that product versus just, here's my paperclip.
• 20:02
  Well, here are these paper clips.
• 20:03
  I don't know, save the orphans in Africa or something.
• 20:07
  Anyway.
• 20:11
  In my world, a personal brand is invaluable.
• 20:15
  A year ago, Easy DC was brand new with just a couple of customers and no online presence.
• 20:21
  Then I found Hicks Marketing.
• 20:22
  They helped me amplify my personal brand.
• 20:25
  Build a solid content strategy, publish my podcast, and 10x the number of customers we serve, all in less than one year.
• 20:33
  Do you need a marketing partner who.
• 20:34
  Gets you and cares about your success?
• 20:37
  Reach out to aliciaxmarketing.com for more info.
• 20:40
  And teller Dave Gula sent you.
• 20:43
  Sorry.
• 20:43
  Stories are so powerful in selling, right?
• 20:45
  The people, they stick, people remember them.
• 20:48
  And then like you said, right?
• 20:49
  That's.
• 20:49
  That's when people really say, wow, okay, like, the story sells it.
• 20:54
  Yeah, yeah.
• 20:55
  And even if you're selling a hyper commoditized product, it's like, all right, tell the story of how you got into the hyper commoditized product.
• 21:04
  Tell the pain of your story of.
• 21:07
  Man, I was about to go broke.
• 21:10
  My wife kicked me out of the house.
• 21:11
  I couldn't see my kids anymore because we were.
• 21:13
  I was so broke from trying to learn how to sell products online.
• 21:18
  And then I found my niche with, you know, office staples, right?
• 21:26
  And now, like, I live in the big house or whatever.
• 21:29
  My wife loves me, we go on vacations.
• 21:31
  My kids think I'm the best entrepreneur ever.
• 21:34
  And now people are going, oh, my gosh, like, I want that.
• 21:39
  Right?
• 21:40
  Yeah.
• 21:43
  Okay.
• 21:43
  A couple other things, too, I want to dial in on.
• 21:46
  So, you know, you had quite, Quite some.
• 21:49
  Some serendipitous experiences there too, right?
• 21:52
  Where, you know, you're doing great, very successful, bunch of money, but then, you know, wife's gone, kids need help, right?
• 22:04
  And you have this knowing, and, you know, you.
• 22:07
  This, I guess, sign from God that it's time to take a break, Right?
• 22:12
  And then about four years, you were on hiatus, is that right?
• 22:16
  Yep.
• 22:16
  Four or five years.
• 22:17
  Yeah.
• 22:18
  Okay.
• 22:18
  And so how much do you think that helped?
• 22:21
  Because you know what, it's like the grind of sales and the grind of working all those hours and all those calls, right?
• 22:28
  And you kind of just get used to it.
• 22:30
  But how much do you think that career break gave you clarity?
• 22:35
  Because after you came back, you went in a totally different direction and you had these epiphanies almost about what your purpose was going to be and what you're really good at and where your businesses went.
• 22:45
  But how important do you think that was in shaping where you are today?
• 22:51
  That's such a great, great question.
• 22:53
  I would say it's 90% responsible for where I am today.
• 23:00
  Take it was about six years.
• 23:01
  So my youngest was, you know, a couple years from high school, so two years, then high school, so six years.
• 23:08
  Anyway, being a, a type salesperson, entrepreneur, I had an idea of how much money I was like goal oriented.
• 23:24
  As soon as I get a million dollars in the bank, then, right?
• 23:30
  And what happened was I was having a ton of success, obviously.
• 23:33
  Both my parents died.
• 23:34
  All of a sudden I inherited some money and I went past that number that had been driving me.
• 23:43
  A lot of us entrepreneurs are like, put the number on the wall or put the house on the wall.
• 23:49
  Like, stare at that house, stare at that car, stare at the vacation, the second home, whatever it is, or visualize, you know, the X amount of million dollars in the bank.
• 24:02
  All of a sudden I had it.
• 24:04
  And then also, this is going to sound super egotistical, but I'm a handsome guy, I can get girls.
• 24:10
  And I went through this other failed relationship of this beautiful woman and I was like, oh my God, money's not the answer.
• 24:19
  Chicks aren't the answer, right?
• 24:22
  So ironically, all that money in the bank was like one of the darkest days of my life.
• 24:27
  Because I was like, I'm trying to fill the God sized hole with everything other than God, whatever you want to call it, God as you understand him, higher power, whatever it is, right?
• 24:39
  I was like, man, I just, I did this exercise.
• 24:42
  Here's the real story, the rest of the story.
• 24:44
  I did this exercise.
• 24:45
  Thank you.
• 24:46
  Kyle Cease.
• 24:46
  I referenced him, but he's like, inventory a hundred things, you know, a hundred things you love, a hundred things you're good at, and a hundred things you understand, okay?
• 25:00
  And you inventory these things.
• 25:02
  And the first 25 are easy.
• 25:03
  Like 100 things that I love.
• 25:05
  Pizza, black, black haired women, you know, hair flowing in the, in the wind, right?
• 25:13
  All these things.
• 25:14
  What else was on that list?
• 25:15
  Like that cup of coffee in the morning, getting my kids to school, you know, things that I'm good at, Excel, spreadsheets, all this kind of stuff, what you do.
• 25:26
  And the first 25 of any of them are easy.
• 25:28
  But then you really gotta go deep and like do some soul searching on what are the other 75.
• 25:36
  And so you got to slow down, figure it Out.
• 25:38
  Think about it.
• 25:38
  Like, meditate on it a bit, maybe pray a little bit about it, right?
• 25:43
  And so I do this, and I realize, oh, my gosh.
• 25:48
  Like, I like that morning cup of coffee, tea, whatever.
• 25:53
  I like getting my kids to school, making their lunches, reading to them in classes.
• 25:58
  At the time, I was reading to my kids in classes, you know, to their class, and I was like, that's what's bringing me fulfillment right now.
• 26:08
  Like, quit your job.
• 26:09
  Get those boys through school.
• 26:11
  Hold that space for them.
• 26:13
  And so I did that, and holding my space for my kids through school gave me a lot of downtime.
• 26:20
  And I took that time of that downtime to really start daily inventorying, like, going deep within.
• 26:29
  There's a book over here called A Course in Miracles.
• 26:32
  I don't know if you've ever heard of that book, but, like, really, like, you know, what's my purpose?
• 26:39
  Like, what am I attached to?
• 26:42
  Like, where's my identity?
• 26:44
  And so just going deep and doing this work and, like, okay, so when I emerge out of the space, it's like, all right, I have a fresh perspective of what's driving me.
• 26:58
  And it's no longer money or women or.
• 27:02
  Not that there's anything wrong with that.
• 27:03
  Right.
• 27:04
  Like, money can be great.
• 27:05
  I've had plenty.
• 27:06
  I've had none a couple times.
• 27:08
  Or, you know, the relationships or.
• 27:12
  Am I answering your question, I hope.
• 27:14
  Yeah, yeah.
• 27:15
  It's just the clarity, right?
• 27:17
  It sounded like that downtime and that clarity gave you the space to do that work.
• 27:22
  And then what.
• 27:23
  What emerged when the time was right was this.
• 27:27
  This new direction in your life in terms of, like, you realize, wow, like this.
• 27:32
  I'm really good at this.
• 27:34
  And that tour.
• 27:36
  And.
• 27:37
  And here's the other thing, too I wanted to dial in on is, like, you had a lot of sales success, right?
• 27:42
  Had a bunch of money, weren't happy.
• 27:44
  You addressed that.
• 27:45
  You did the work, and then you start this other business, and you start really using your gifts the way it's intended, and you're having success, but then you're still having imposter syndrome.
• 27:58
  And I.
• 27:59
  I heard someone else, and I'm not recalling exactly who was someone famous said, listen, this is a naturally human.
• 28:06
  Like, everybody, no matter how successful they are, has imposter syndrome.
• 28:11
  But, I mean, just talk about that experience, because just hearing that sometimes just sounds like, wow, that's.
• 28:16
  That's crazy.
• 28:17
  He's doing all this, but yet he still doesn't think he's good enough.
• 28:20
  Yeah, it's wild, right?
• 28:22
  It was such an Interesting time.
• 28:26
  And I can still have it now.
• 28:28
  I think a lot of it too is I'm trying new things.
• 28:32
  Where before I had the standard metrics of fund X, amount of loans, you know, bank accounts, going up by X, things like this, where it's like, oh yeah, clearly I'm having success because I'm hitting my goals that were
• 28:47
  very dollar driven.
• 28:50
  Not that I don't have some ideas of how much I'd like to make now, but the feedback loop is a lot different as you're learning new things, as you're an old dog learning new tricks.
• 29:03
  I think it's easier when you're younger perhaps, or maybe it was for me, I don't know.
• 29:09
  But the, the success metrics are a little bit different.
• 29:16
  How could I say it?
• 29:22
  I was, maybe I was just used to success on a different, on a different scale.
• 29:27
  And so since I wasn't having it on a monetary scale like I was before, it was really hard for me to see how I was adding value.
• 29:36
  Right.
• 29:37
  Does that, does that make sense?
• 29:38
  And you've asked me this question and I'm honestly, you've got me thinking about it and it's great because I'm like, that's a darn good question.
• 29:46
  So let's riff on it for a little bit.
• 29:49
  Yeah, yeah.
• 29:49
  So like you said, right, Sales in old school, sales, very easy to track.
• 29:56
  Numbers, metrics, deals close, dollars coming in, bank account.
• 30:01
  It's very black and white is, you know, to track the numbers, but versus new business you're starting, you're, you're loving it, people are responding, you're getting success, you're getting views.
• 30:15
  But I guess it's just a different type of metric to where like maybe the, the funds aren't there in the beginning or that it's.
• 30:23
  But yet people are.
• 30:24
  You know, you're putting out kind of pre order type tests like who would want this course?
• 30:28
  And a bunch of people say yes, right.
• 30:31
  But then you're still, maybe because it's a new direction, you're still saying, I don't know, is this right?
• 30:36
  Can I do this?
• 30:38
  Feels awkward, feels uncomfortable, but yet pushing through you, you continue to take action, right?
• 30:45
  Yeah, exactly.
• 30:46
  That's such a great way to say it too.
• 30:48
  And then so I'm putting ideas out there, offers out there, people are saying yes and then I have to deliver.
• 30:53
  And so I'm like, oh my gosh, someone said yes.
• 30:55
  I want this course on how to get customer testimonials.
• 31:01
  A lot of it's in my head.
• 31:02
  I do it Naturally, I'm obviously having success doing it because people are paying me for it.
• 31:08
  But it's like, well, how do you create a course, right?
• 31:11
  And so you hit this wall after wall after wall.
• 31:14
  It can feel like a lot of two steps forward, one steps back, two steps forward, six steps back, right?
• 31:20
  And then again, since it's a lot of it's new, I'm comparing myself to others.
• 31:29
  So I'm in Russell Brunson's high end coaching.
• 31:32
  Well, Russell Brunson is the best online marketer, one of them that I know.
• 31:37
  And so he's just cranking it out, challenges going, you know, new offers all the time, all these things, or so comparing my insides to other people's outsides, which is the worst thing we can do.
• 31:51
  So I'm losing track really, of the little wins that I'm having along the way.
• 31:56
  Ben Hardy, Dr.
• 31:57
  Benjamin Hardy, speaks so good of that in the gap, in the gain.
• 32:01
  Like if we're always looking at the horizon, that end point of, oh, when I have the million dollar launch, well, I'm never going to be happy because as soon as I get to there, there's going to be the
• 32:14
  billion dollar launch or whatever, right?
• 32:16
  Versus looking at the gains, the incremental gains.
• 32:20
  If I look at my life, I'm much better at it now.
• 32:22
  I hired a coach that taught me to start looking at the wins, the little incremental wins.
• 32:29
  It's been so powerful.
• 32:30
  Her name is Stephanie Nichols.
• 32:32
  Like, did some serious work about that.
• 32:34
  Like, I went on a cruise a couple weeks ago and I just spent all this money, built a funnel.
• 32:45
  It's having incremental bits of success, right.
• 32:48
  And, and when I first launched it, I'm like, oh my God, it's working.
• 32:52
  And then upon further review, the conversions aren't as good as I hoped, right?
• 32:56
  So I can feel like, oh my God, I'm totally failing.
• 32:59
  But then I go on this cruise with 40 other marketers.
• 33:02
  I'm in contact with 10 or 20 of them.
• 33:07
  A bunch two people join my influence army, right?
• 33:10
  So that's amazing confirmation of what I'm doing, that people want what I have.
• 33:16
  But then I fixate on, oh, wait a minute, I thought somebody joined through my funnel, but somebody just referred my funnel to them.
• 33:24
  So they bought that way.
• 33:26
  And I'm mad because they didn't like opt in the way I wanted them to.
• 33:32
  Does that make sense?
• 33:33
  So it's like this weird, like, and it's like, well, wait a minute, I was just on this cruise, two people joined, like, literally Every time I go in a group of business people or entrepreneurs, people are like, I
• 33:45
  want in.
• 33:46
  I'll stop talking now.
• 33:47
  Anyway, yeah, you know, it makes sense.
• 33:50
  Right.
• 33:50
  And particularly when you talk about the A type personality and the being wired the way you are in the sales background, it's almost like the instinct is always to want to control the how.
• 34:02
  Right.
• 34:03
  And so many times you find in life you have to.
• 34:06
  Right.
• 34:07
  Things don't work out the way you intended.
• 34:09
  And when you let go of how it's going to happen.
• 34:12
  Right.
• 34:13
  Oftentimes a totally different way can be like, you know, I love what Chris Vaugh, I don't know if you know, Chris Voss is, but he says, never be so sure of what you want that you wouldn't take something
• 34:26
  better.
• 34:27
  Yeah, right.
• 34:28
  And it's like sometimes too, in our head, we think it has to work this way, but if we let go of the how, we realize what, what God or whatever you want to call it can deliver in.
• 34:39
  In a totally different way that's even better than we would have even hoped for.
• 34:42
  Yeah.
• 34:43
  It's such a good.
• 34:44
  I love that, Dave.
• 34:45
  That's such a great way to say it.
• 34:47
  And, and it's true, right.
• 34:48
  If we can keep that open mind and let go of the expectations or that, that outcome that we think is so important and to be open for other new, different.
• 35:01
  Yeah, it's good.
• 35:02
  Chris Voss is the negotiator guy, right?
• 35:04
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 35:07
  That's good.
• 35:09
  All right.
• 35:09
  So, yeah, so just so influence army, you have this membership, you're showing people how, you know, how they can use leverage, podcast guesting to really grow their brand, grow their business.
• 35:21
  And I mean, I, I, me personally too, right.
• 35:25
  When I started the podcast, I didn't know what I was doing.
• 35:28
  I had the idea one day, I just started doing it, and before you know it, it really made a real impact in our business, even though it's so, so raw and so just thrown together.
• 35:39
  But I just keep interviewing people and then eventually in the same thing you, like, said with the system, and then I realized, oh, wow, when I got invited finally to go on a podcast, it worked out well.
• 35:49
  And I did another and did another.
• 35:51
  And then I realized the same system that I use to keep getting guests on my show, I can use to just keep going on other shows.
• 35:57
  And it's kind of same thing, right?
• 35:59
  Exponentially you grow.
• 36:01
  You just have to keep putting in the effort and doing it.
• 36:04
  And before long it becomes kind of like easy, right?
• 36:08
  Like once, you know, you do what where the you do what you fear and the fear goes away.
• 36:12
  And then before you know it, it's no big deal to guest on a show or to record your own show.
• 36:17
  But just, just talk about how.
• 36:19
  Because it's easy maybe for me and you to say that because we have our own podcast, right?
• 36:23
  And we're used to doing it.
• 36:24
  But for people that don't know, because that's one of the things I encounter so much is people that aren't used to doing it, there's so much apprehension about, oh, how am I going to sound?
• 36:34
  What are people going to think?
• 36:36
  What if this happens or that happened?
• 36:38
  But I mean, just, just talk about some of the transformations you've seen and how powerful that is when you, when people can just commit to doing this type of thing.
• 36:47
  Yeah, it's great question.
• 36:49
  So first off, I'll just say you asked me a couple of questions and I gave some very long winded answers, sometimes perhaps missing the mark.
• 36:58
  So anybody listening right now can go, hey, it is okay to ramble.
• 37:03
  I'll debrief on our call and I'll go, oh, he has some good questions.
• 37:08
  I might want to dial in my stories a little bit here.
• 37:10
  Does that make sense?
• 37:11
  So I think that that's.
• 37:13
  Anybody new, let's throw ourselves out there, start getting after it and then just iterate, iterate, iterate.
• 37:21
  Right.
• 37:22
  I will also say that for you and me, when we started our podcasts, we had no audience, right?
• 37:30
  So there was no one to offend or, or no one they irritate or whatever to look bad in front of.
• 37:36
  Right?
• 37:38
  And you know, fast forward for me, I'll jump on a mic anywhere, anytime.
• 37:46
  Because I've done hundreds of podcasts myself.
• 37:48
  I have a podcast with 700 episodes or what have you.
• 37:52
  So it's easy for me.
• 37:53
  I've been interviewed so many times that, that I'll go for it and I'm ready to fail or look bad or whatever.
• 38:03
  There's.
• 38:04
  I want to answer your question.
• 38:05
  I've got some frameworks for your audience that I think will help.
• 38:08
  Okay.
• 38:10
  And so the other thing too is I trust that somebody is going to hear what they need to hear.
• 38:17
  Right?
• 38:18
  Because.
• 38:18
  And you spoke to that like, if I can let go of how I think it's supposed to go.
• 38:24
  So I know that sometimes I need to fail on an interview so other people will go, it's okay to fail.
• 38:33
  Does that make sense?
• 38:34
  So it's like trusting that there's a purpose for everything.
• 38:39
  But quick.
• 38:40
  One of the things I teach people is My story bank, get your stories together worksheet so you expertly know what to say and when to say it to inspire the audience to action.
• 38:53
  Okay.
• 38:54
  And so basically, you just do some inventorying of the key story arcs of your life.
• 38:59
  You heard me speak to that.
• 39:01
  The death, the force, you know, career upheaval years.
• 39:06
  My.
• 39:07
  You heard me speak to my.
• 39:09
  What I call, like, like my family, grow your family success years.
• 39:13
  And then my other story arc is the rebirth into online marketing, right?
• 39:19
  And so then I inventory the stories within those arcs.
• 39:23
  I also have.
• 39:23
  I got sober when I was super young, 17 years old, so I've got my recovery years.
• 39:28
  I have an opportunity to speak on podcasts that are maybe not so entrepreneurial, but are a bit more, let's say, mindset or, you know, you know, rebirth kind of ideas.
• 39:41
  So I have stories around that.
• 39:43
  But then you just inventory stories within those story arcs of.
• 39:48
  All right, what are my stories within there?
• 39:51
  What are the inspirational people stories in there?
• 39:56
  So you heard me speak to Russell Brunson.
• 39:58
  You heard me speak to my lone mentor, Darren Riley.
• 40:02
  You heard me speak about Zig Ziglar, things like that, right?
• 40:05
  And then the next thing we inventory within.
• 40:08
  Within that is who have we impacted?
• 40:11
  So this story bank, get your stories together worksheet, people jump into my influence army, and they start inventorying their stories like this, right?
• 40:23
  And then so Rick Hayhurst started inventorying his stories.
• 40:28
  So it helped him when he was guest speaking.
• 40:32
  But the testimonial he gave me spontaneously was, oh, my God.
• 40:38
  Like, I go out and network now, and I'm a much more powerful networker.
• 40:43
  Like, the stories come up at the right time naturally, and I'm crushing it, making these connections, getting new business deals, things like that, right?
• 40:52
  Clarissa Cadillac, she used that framework.
• 40:57
  She speaks on a virtual stage, has her stories dialed in randomly.
• 41:05
  Somebody who was watching goes, oh, my gosh, you know, you're so powerful with your stories.
• 41:12
  Gave her 25.
• 41:14
  It was $30,000 business grant for what she was doing.
• 41:17
  And I'll never forget the day she called me up.
• 41:19
  She calls me up and she goes, misha.
• 41:21
  And I wish I'd recorded it.
• 41:22
  I got the testimonial again later, but it wasn't as cool is when she was just like, oh, my God, I used your framework, and I was telling the right stories.
• 41:32
  And all of a sudden, this person was like, I.
• 41:35
  I want to support what you're doing.
• 41:37
  Here's a business grant, right?
• 41:39
  And it's, there you go.
• 41:42
  So we want to get good at telling Our customer stories.
• 41:45
  If we don't have customers yet, who have we inspired?
• 41:50
  Parents, brothers, sisters, people at work.
• 41:55
  Right.
• 41:56
  And then I'll.
• 41:57
  I'll say this one last thing, too.
• 41:59
  The impactful people stories.
• 42:01
  Like, I've literally stumbled across someone at a coffee shop, and they've told me something, and it's changed the trajectory of my life.
• 42:10
  Right.
• 42:10
  So if we can inventory those stories.
• 42:13
  So when we're on a podcast or we're networking, bam, it's very powerful.
• 42:20
  Now, clearly, I have a lot dialed in.
• 42:23
  Clearly, I've got work to do.
• 42:26
  Well, and then that goes back to that sales background with the scripts, Right?
• 42:30
  Because so often in a.
• 42:32
  In a phone sales environment, specifically, right, you want to have a script down, but then obviously add your style to it, your flavor, and then as it gets down, you're able to weave all this other stuff into it,
• 42:44
  but it come.
• 42:44
  It just rolls off your tongue.
• 42:46
  So sounds like you're having your clients with that background you had in doing that, create their own script based on their own stories and practicing and rehearsing that.
• 42:55
  So when it comes time to be on stage with it, wherever that is, on a podcast, at a networking event, whatever, people can just get used to telling their story, and it comes across so much more powerfully.
• 43:08
  Absolutely.
• 43:09
  And I like to encourage people to keep it simple as well.
• 43:13
  And that.
• 43:15
  And I did such a great point.
• 43:18
  Thank you.
• 43:18
  From all the scripting and my previous sales background, one of the first things that happened when I cut that first $25,000 check to Russell Brunson back five years ago, by now, when I started my, you know, my rebirth
• 43:32
  into online marketing, he said one of the first things he did is he said, start inventorying your stories.
• 43:39
  Right.
• 43:39
  Because story is what adds value to product is, in effect, what he said.
• 43:45
  He's got his hook story offer, right?
• 43:47
  So he's like, stories.
• 43:49
  And then his perfect webinar is all about story, right Stories, right time.
• 43:55
  And I think that what I learned from him and just.
• 43:59
  I didn't even know why I just literally started inventorying my stories, and it's three years later, all of a sudden, like, oh, I see.
• 44:10
  But anyway, to keep it simple, all we need to do when we start inventorying our stories is short little sentence or phrase.
• 44:16
  It's not like you have to write the whole dang story.
• 44:19
  Just write something that triggers your memory.
• 44:21
  Does that make sense?
• 44:23
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 44:25
  That's powerful.
• 44:27
  Okay.
• 44:28
  All right.
• 44:28
  So, Misha, clearly we covered a lot here and great conversation and appreciate you sharing your journey with everyone.
• 44:35
  And I know some of our audience is going to want to learn more and get in touch with you and, and find out how you can help them.
• 44:42
  So what's the best way people can reach out to you?
• 44:44
  Yeah, go to guesting guide.com guestingguide.com A lot of what we talked about is in the guesting guide, and it's my free guide on how to execute a profitable and successful podcast tour.
• 44:58
  Ton of great information in there.
• 45:00
  Give me your email, you get the guide, and then you're on my list.
• 45:04
  And then if you want to reach out to me or learn More about me, LinkedIn is my favorite place to play.
• 45:11
  So you can always just Google me on LinkedIn.
• 45:13
  Misha Z or Misha Zwagan.
• 45:16
  Soft.
• 45:17
  All right.
• 45:18
  And we'll link all that in the show notes for everyone as well.
• 45:20
  Yeah, perfect.
• 45:21
  All right.
• 45:22
  Well, Misha, thank you so much for being here.
• 45:24
  Appreciate the time.
• 45:25
  And that is all the time we have for now.
• 45:28
  We will see you next time.