Ray Edwards Show
Ray Edwards is a sought-after Copywriter, Author, Speaker, and Communications Strategist. His clients include Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, Jeff Walker, Robert Allen, and more. On this show, Ray helps you start, run, and grow their Internet-based businesses. The show includes interviews with well-known experts like Michael Hyatt, Jeff Goins, Dan Miller, Cliff Ravenscraft, Michael Stelzner, Amy Porterfield, Don Miller, and many others.

Chris Ducker’s book Virtual Freedom is a best seller, he has employed over 450 full-time employees, and he has built multi seven-figure businesses. Chris is frequently featured in INC., Entrepreneur, Success, and Huffington Post.

He’s the founder of youpreneur.com (a term he coined in 2014). Youpreneur.com is an entrepreneurial mastermind community that helps experts become the go-to leader in their market.

“Whether there’s a transaction involved immediately, or whether it’s further down the line, they’re doing business with me because of the relationship they have with me first.”

By serving youpreneurs, Chris transcends the old rules of business and helps people build a sustainable business based on their experience, interests, wisdom, personality, and personal brand.

Today Chris shares his insights on personal branding and we discuss his recently released book, The Rise of the Youpreneur.

Click here to download or listen to this episode now.

Tip of the Week

My tip of the week is simply, buy Chris Ducker’s book The Rise of the Youpreneur.  Along with his book he has included hundreds of dollars of bonus material that you'll want to check out. 

Michael Hyatt said, “I’ve done pretty well as a personal brand. If I’d had this book I could have done it twice as fast.” Check it out at a bookstore near you.

Spiritual Foundations

Today’s spiritual foundation is based on Proverbs 11:26 from the ancient book of wisdom. “The people will curse him who withholds grain during a famine, but blessings will be on the head of him who sells it.”  So, I encourage you to think about that. God blesses the man for selling grain during a famine.

Feature Presentation “The Rise Of The Youpreneur, An Interview With Chris Ducker”

  • In reality, as soon as you start coasting, you start dying – Why it’s critical to face the fact you’re either growing or you’re dying. (1:12)
  • Want to be the definitive guide in your industry? – How to shorten your path to success by reading The Rise of the Youpreneur. (5:39)
  • “People do business with me personally way before they do business with any of my companies or businesses.” Chris Ducker (6:00)
  • Burnout – How it led me to recreate my business with virtual employees and write the book Virtual Freedom. (7:02)
  • People do business with me because of the relationship they have with me first –  How to build, market, and monetize your personal brand. (7:38)
  • Regardless of your niche, there is enough noise out there – What the world needs is YOU, they need someone like you to show them the way. (8:38)
  • Your goal as a personal brand – Why becoming someone’s favorite is crucial to your success in a personal branding business. (9:22)
  • There are people who will only respond to your voice on this subject – Why realizing you’ve been called to serve will help you build a future-proof business. (9:58)
  • When you build the business of YOU there are no real competitors, regardless of the industry or market – How being YOU is the unique factor for your profits and success. (10:31)
  • How you are 100% in control of your future – Overcoming being tied to or enslaved by your personal brand business. (11:12)
  • Build a business based on you – How to create a business that’s not reliant only on you. (11:20)
  • Michael Hyatt is the personal brand entrepreneur personified – Why creating a legacy that will live on past your time on earth is possible as a personal brand. (12:02)
  • The most unexpected, amazing Zig Ziglar impersonation – Why I still consume some Zig every month. (12:50)
  • Build a business based on you, your messaging, your philosophy, the impact you want to make on the world and the people you want to serve. (14:00)
  • How to create a smart personal brand without it being totally build on you. (14:15)
  • Why listening to the feedback from your audience and community is key – How filling the gaps helps you serve your community. (14:47)
  • Why I saw the need to create The Youpreneur Roadmap – How to build, market and monetize a personal brand. (15:15)
  • The genius of giving your community what they need rather than what you want to give them – How to serve by “on-ramping” your customer wherever he may be at the time. (18:00)
  • How to help your person-to-person businesses thrive – Why sharing behind the scenes with Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter (any social media) helps you connect with your community. (19:00)
  • The Personal Brand Building Manual – How to use this resource to rise up and embrace your calling. (19:41)
  • Why you help people – When you know you've been put on this earth to create this message you realize it’s your calling and it’s your duty.  (20:19)
  • The Youpreneur Summit – How Chris Ducker discovered his life’s work and created a movement that’s calling people to rise up and serve. (20:30)
  • “All the world’s a stage” – How to position yourself as an expert through coaching, speaking, being a podcast guest, and being featured in the press. (22:10)
  • No one can tell your story and get your point across the way you do. (23:10)
  • How you’re spearheading a movement when you take the gifts you’ve been given, and you share them – How to serve others with your expertise, wisdom, and experience.  (23:40)
  • “Let me serve you” or “Look at me” – How your motivation impacts your personal brand business (24:00)
  • Relationships should be treasured not used – How to avoid the spammy, wrong way of pitching yourself (in essence, how to honor relationships).  (24:40)

 

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

The Rise of the Youpreneur by Chris Ducker

Youpreneur.com

Jim Rohn Home » Jim Rohn Blog

How To Help

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Direct download: REP325.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Outsourcing is so hot right now. I blame Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4 Hour Workweek and Chris Ducker’s book, Virtual Freedom for starting the outsourcing phenomenon. In Tim’s book he tells you why you should do it and Chris tells you how to do it. In fact, Chris Ducker has a new book for entrepreneurs entitled, The Rise of the Youpreneur.

This outsourcing topic started during a recent consultation I had with Mike Kim. We discussed the theme of each of my recent years. 2015 was the year my fitness journey began, and I lost 70 lbs. In 2016 I lost an additional 15 lbs.

So, four years after my diagnosis, I realized the one proven weapon I had against Parkinson’s disease was exercise and fitness. Drugs and surgery only affect the symptoms of the disease.  Scientific evidence has proven that exercise slows down the progression of Parkinson’s disease and may even reverse the damage already done in the brain. I cannot outsource physical exercise. No one can do the pushups or road work for me.

Click here to download or listen to this episode now.

Tip of the Week

Today’s Tip of the Week is a toy, an iPhone app called the 8mm Movie Camera App. It will spice up your videos and make cool movies for Instagram and Facebook. Don’t overdo it, but use it when you want to create that special 8mm movie feel.

Spiritual Foundations

I’ve been having lots of conversations lately about grace and Christianity.

No, I’m not talking about the judging and protesting brand of Christianity. I’m talking about the grace-offered-by-Jesus-over-2000-years-ago Christianity.

Grace is “favor you get without earning it.” It’s possible to earn forgiveness, but it’s not possible to earn grace.

When Paul discusses grace in 1 Corinthians 6:12, he states, “All things are lawful for me but not all are helpful.”  When this was written, the Corinthian Church had gone wacko. They were engaging in outrageous sin such as the practice of sleeping with their mother in law and having sex with temple prostitutes.

Paul was stating that grace means all things are lawful, but all things are not going to grow you or develop you. Grace is not a license to sin. Although many people believe this concept of grace, they shy away from teaching it out of fear of appearing to give people permission to sin.

Feature Presentation “The One Thing You Can't Outsource”

Outsource things you’re not good at and don’t like – Why there’s one common denominator running through the one thing we can’t outsource. (11:18)

No one can do this for you – Why the power of habits requires self-discipline. (11:28)

We always have time for what we prioritize as important – How we make excuses for not doing the things we don’t value. (11:30)

You always have time for what’s important – How self-discipline is the key characteristic in each zone of progress. (11:32)

Paul struggled with self-discipline – Why the thing I want to do, I don’t do. The thing I hate, I do.  (13:10)

You aren’t born with a finite amount of self-discipline – How to increase your capacity for self-discipline with a 3-step plan. (13:43)

We are wired for our survival to avoid pain – Why human nature places chasing after pleasure as secondary. (15:40)

Why we allow momentary, fleeting pleasure to sidetrack our long-term gain – Learn how anyone can increase capacity for self-discipline. (16:19)

How expanding self-discipline is like building a muscle – Why the pain and discomfort of pushing against resistance are part of self-discipline. (18:00)

Practice polarity – How the pain/pleasure paradigm undergirds our motivations and actions. (19:32)

Why it’s not enough to know Tony Robbins’ pain/pleasure paradigm – Pushing yourself to do something uncomfortable increases your self-discipline muscle. (20:25)

Most people are not happy, yet they’re not unhappy enough to do something about it. (20:40)

Living in no-man’s land – How no attraction and no repulsion keeps you stuck in the pain zone. (21:02)

Do your actions make God want to vomit? Why being like lukewarm water makes God sick. (22:00)

Jim Edwards’ principle applies to all areas of life – “Love me or hate me, but there’s no money in the middle.”  (22:39)

The power of transformation hinges on changing your view of pain and pleasure. (23:09)

The practice of practice – How increasing capacity for self-discipline is rooted in just doing it…the power of habits and situational awareness. (24:15)

What we can all learn from Cliff Ravenscraft – How to stick to your commitments and change your life (even if that means running the stairs). (26:08)

The practice of perseverance – Why starting with momentum is never enough. (26:58)

Why steadfastness is the key to success – How to resume as quickly as possible (and avoid wasting time repenting).  (27:25)

The 3 practices to increase your capacity for self-discipline – How you can't outsource polarity, practice, and perseverance. (29:05)

Examine your goals – Why you will not persist in goals that aren’t worthy of you. (29:40)

 

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss

The Rise of the Youpreneur by Chris Drucker

Virtual Freedom by Chris Drucker

The Power of Leverage by Tony Robbins

How To Help

Subscribe to the show through Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will mention you on this show.

Get The Transcript

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Direct download: REP324.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Today we discuss a unique method by which you can guarantee your business will always have a profit (even from day 1). You’ll never miss having a profit because you take your profit first.

My guest is Mike Michalowicz. Mike is the successful entrepreneur behind three multimillion dollar companies. He is the author of The Pumpkin Plan, Surge, and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, which BusinessWeek deemed “the entrepreneur’s cult classic.” He is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a former MSNBC business makeover expert. An advocate for entrepreneurs, Mike says his purpose in life is to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.

Click here to download or listen to this episode now.

Tip of the Week

I’m a little late to the Instagram party, but my tip of the week is an Instagram tool I find to be a big help, it’s called InShort Video Editor.

This app is great for editing videos on your iPhone and turning them into smooth, seamless Instagram stories. 

Check out InShort Video Editor in the app store today.

Spiritual Foundations

An indicator of someone’s character and integrity is how they handle their possessions. Paul stated in Philippians 4, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

Paul was actually talking about wealth in this circumstance. He was saying, “I've had a lot and I’ve had very little, and I’ve learned to be content in both circumstances. I can handle either situation through Christ who strengthens me.” Powerful advice! (3:00)

Feature Presentation “Profit First- An Interview With Mike Michalowicz”

Here are some snippets from our conversation:

  • The book Profit First revolutionized my thinking about my business. – How to change your CPA’s thinking about business and pocket profits like never before. (4:00)
  • Profit First is a new approach to cash management. – Discover how an old approach to cash management brought to business for the first time will increase your profits. (5:00)
  • Sales – expenses = profit. – Why this flawed definition has negatively impacted so many businesses. (5:25)
  • Accounting says profits come last. – How to change one simple formula and start making a profit immediately.
  • 83% of small businesses are not profitable. – Uncovering why entrepreneurs get so many things right but continue to make no profit. (5:40)
  • Is there a flaw in the formula? – How the Profit First principle will change your business (and your life). (6:01)
  • Sales – profit = expenses. – What to do every time you make a sale (truth is, practically no one does this). (6:45)
  • Sell, hide, pay. – Why this sequence works every time and guarantees you profits. (No, I’m not advocating illegal activity.) (7:09)
  • The 20/80 rule you’ve never heard. – How logic, emotions, and habits impact your business profits. (7:35)
  • Business says, “The more I grow, the more I spend.” – How to break this popular no profit system. (8:00)
  • Profit First leaves you less money for your expenses. – Why this forces you to make harder choices that lead to the appropriate decisions. (8:52)
  • Reverse engineer profits. – Discovering the secret for overcoming negative inertia and creating the habit of making a profit. (9:02)
  • Tony Robbins, “The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who knows how to make enough money to cover their mistakes.”  (9:10)
  • The mindset of just making more money. – What entrepreneurs do when they’re not profitable and why it’s such a bad idea. (9:29)
  • Too much month at the end of the money. – Why continuing with a flawed money management system is insane.  (9:37)
  • How Profit First forces you to define the path to profitability. – Why revealing outcome-based thinking is powerful. (10:30)
  • If you can’t pay your bills you never could afford your bills. – How we fall into the trap of stealing (and think it’s OK). (10:54)
  • How to run your business in a disciplined and appropriate fashion. – Why Profit First is required reading for every entrepreneur. (11:06)
  • Is Parkinson’s Law impacting your profits? – What naturally happens when your resources increase, and how to break this unprofitable habit.  (11:36)

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Philippians 4

InShot app

The Pumpkin Plan

Profit First

The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

Mike Michalowicz.com

Mikemotorbike.com

At Mike’s site you’ll have access to free chapter downloads, his Wall Street Journal articles, blogs, and podcasts.

How To Help

Subscribe to the show through Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will mention you on this show.

Get The Transcript

Right-Click and “Save As” to Get the PDF Transcript.

Direct download: REP323.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

Out of a hundred people who hear this, one of you will do this and you’re the one who will succeed.

I have a question that I would seriously like you to think about. Are you important? Are you? This is a vital question and it speaks to something we call self-image. It’s popular to believe that your self-image, having a good self-image, a strong self-image, a positive image of yourself is wrong. It’s popular to say that. This is the first line of attack of the enemy, trying to deceive your mind by convincing you that you’re not important.

Click here to download or listen to this episode now.

Spiritual Foundations

Spiritual Foundations

The Book of Mark, chapter 12, “Then, one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well, asked Jesus, “Which is the first commandment of all?”

Jesus answered him,

1. “The first of all the commandments is, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”

2. “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

According to Jesus, if you want to love your neighbor, what do you have to do first?

• If we adopt the mindset, “I’m a worm and everyone else is awesome,” and then, we're told to love our neighbor as ourselves, we must first love ourselves. Not in the sense, “Oh, I guess I'm okay.” God is not contradictory.

• If you worship God as the all-sufficient Creator and Father, then, you're doing no service to the Artist by condemning His art. Now, think about this: you’re doing no service to yourself by calling something beautiful (you), ugly.

• “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and then, he said, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” That's strong language. No other commandment, not even your favorite one, whatever that might be.

Are you important?

In Romans 12:3, Paul says to the church of Rome, “Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.”

Now, this verse is often quoted to communicate, “Think poorly of yourself.” But it says, “Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.”  He's saying, “Take an honest assessment of yourself and think that.”

Just before that verse, Jesus gives you a plan of self-improvement. Paul says, “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world (the system of thinking that is present in the world today), but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” His will for you is for you to be good and pleasing and perfect, a plan for self-improvement.

Tip of the Week

I’m about ready to abandon Evernote. Evernote, of course, is a note-taking application.

Here’s the thing that’s been bugging me lately. Evernote has its own proprietary way of storing your stuff.

You’re locked in and I think of it as a “roach motel.” Your documents go in, but they never come out.

I think I’m going to replace it with a new note-taking application called Bear, B-E-A-R. Here’s the reason why:

• It uses plain text files to store all your documents.

• It uses markup to do any formatting, so it exports to any other application.

• There’s no translation problem getting into virtually any other application.

• They have a special function to help you export all your notes out of Evernote into Bear.

• You can preserve your tags.

• You can get your notes into plain text files so they’re portable. So, no matter what happens in the future, you future-proof your documents.

Feature Presentation “Are You Important?”

The three reasons to get your self-image healthy and robust:

1. We limit ourselves by the imagery we hold of what we're capable of doing.

2. Our self-image is self-constructed, made of our words, the pictures we hold in our mind and our actions or our physical environment.

3. You grow your life by growing your self-image, not just making it better but making it bigger.

Our self-image is self-constructed. Dr. Denis Waitley says, “Relentless repetitive self-talk is what changes our self-image.” What are you saying to yourself all the time?

The most powerful force in the human psyche is people's need for their words and actions to remain consistent with how we define ourselves.

If we have this belief that we suck and that we're bad, then, we will work very hard to make that consistent in our lives. Our brains want consistency. It all starts with how we see ourselves.

Our self-image is self-constructed made of our words, pictures and actions, our physical environment, and our beliefs, which lead to our values, which lead to our rules, which lead to our actions, which lead us to our destiny. Destiny is a big word that people think is grandiose, all it means is destination, where you're headed.

What do you do with all this super philosophical stuff? You should get out a journal and write this stuff down.

A friend of ours, Dave Lakhani, says, “Writing is the doing part of thinking.”

If you don't write it down and just think it, you haven't really done the work.

There's something about transferring it from your brain through your hands to the paper that solidifies and crystallizes your thinking and gives you a level of understanding and commitment to the ideas that you wouldn't have otherwise.

JOURNAL the answer to these questions:

1. If you had a bigger vision for your life, what would it look like now? Nobody else is going to read this, so go nuts.

2. Construct the person you want to become. Now, I'm going to offend some of my friends who teach goal setting, but don’t worry about specific outcomes. Concern yourself with who you want to become and the values that underpin that image.

3. Grow your self-image intentionally. Write out your plan for how you're going to grow your self-image intentionally.

Perhaps there are things that you want to do, you want to achieve, instead of just thinking about them. This is where people get all screwed up. They think, “Well, I want to travel the world and visit every continent.” They start immediately thinking about, how do I do that? When what they really should be thinking about is, who do I have to become in order to make that happen?

Because if you don't become the person who can achieve that thing, you will never achieve it.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Is this desire something that sustains my life?

2. Am I trying to win the approval of someone in my life?

3. Am I trying to prove to the world around me that I am successful?

Well, when you're on your deathbed, are you really going to care whether people thought you were successful?

What other people think of you is none of your business.

No, it doesn't matter. It's what you want in life, not what you think other people want you to want in life.

“Learn to value yourself, which means fight for your happiness,” Ayn Rand

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Bear note-writing app

How To Help

Subscribe to the show through Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will mention you on this show.

Get The Transcript

Right-Click and “Save As” to Get the PDF Transcript.

Direct download: REP322.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 3:00am PDT