[SAM CARVALHO] Welcome to the Marketing a Practice podcast with me, Sam Carvalho, where you’ll discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand new business visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. If you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design. Over the last 23 years, Rocky Buckley has helped his clients bring over 100 million in training programs and information products to the markets. He’s consulted on over 3000 projects for clients, ranging from billion-dollar brands like Wiley, PSN and McMillan to experts, authors, thought leaders, influencers and entrepreneurs in nine countries and over 100 different markets. Rocky is also the creator of a training program for experts called Platinum Path and a membership community called The Power Persona Project, where he has conversations with superstars like Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank, legendary authors and speakers like Bob Berg and internet marketing gurus like Stu McLaren, Brian Kutz, and Pedro and many more. Hi, Rocky, thanks so much for joining us today. [ROCKY BUCKLEY] Great to be here. Thanks for having me, Sam. [SAM] Yes, thanks so much. Can you share with us a bit about your story and how you got to where you are now? [ROCKY] Sure. Well, my story basically starts, I guess as a young kid I was a high potential kid. As a young, young person, I had a high IQ, I was talented and so on. I ended up skipping a grade in school, could have skipped a couple of grades. The reason that I mentioned that is because from an early age, I got burdened with this sense of high potential that other people put on me, so my parents and peers and teachers and things like that. From the time I was a kid, I grew up with this sense of pressure that you’ve got all this potential. You can do all these things, you could be anything you want to be. As a result growing up, and I went through many years of feeling like I really wasn’t fulfilling that potential, and it gave me a heart for people who are super talented, they’re bright and so on, but they find themselves in a place in life where they’re stuck and they know they’re capable of a lot more, they’ve had glimpses of that in their lives, maybe they’re doing pretty well, but they know that there’s a much, much higher level above them that’s possible for them, and they feel super frustrated, like that. They’re stuck wherever life has led them. They’re not in that place where they’re really becoming that best version of themselves that they can be. I know that feeling very well personally for myself, I struggled with that for many, many years. So it gave me a sense of passion for these talented people and was it possible to help people like that unlock themselves and really fulfill their potential, become that best person that they could be, live the greatest level of life that they can live, have the most success in their business and so on. So over a period of time as an entrepreneur, as you mentioned at the top, I’ve been in business over 20 years, that journey has led me to working with authors and experts and creators and thought leaders and people like that for a really long time. So my journey has really led me to focus specifically on those sort of people who have a ton of expertise and there’s things that they’re passionate about and interested in. They want to make a big impact on the world, typically. It’s not just about making a lot of money, it’s really about leaving a legacy and making a difference in the world. So I really focus on that a person. My journey in business took me through, as you mentioned, creating a lot of training programs and products and bringing a lot of stuff into the market, making a lot of ideas real basically as real products. So I view everything through a project management lens. My goal is to really help people go through this project of unlocking themselves as a public figure, becoming that that best version of themselves, create the best business that they really want to create and ultimately, it all chunks up to living that best life and really feeling like you’re really fulfilled and you’re making that difference in the world. That’s what lights me up every day, and that’s how I got here today. [SAM] Well, that’s amazing. I think it’s quite a niche target audience that you have there, but it’s also amazing that it’s something that you yourself went through. So obviously that’s something that you’re passionate about and helps you help these other people, which is really cool. Rocky, can you share with us a bit about the, in a game of personal branding, reinvention, and conscious identity design? [ROCKY] Sure. Well, looking at, that’s all bundled together in this idea of reinvention. We live in a very rapidly changing world where, and the rate of change just keeps going up. A lot of the industries that we’re in are constantly being disrupted and we’re trying to run our businesses largely online now through platforms that are constantly changing the rules, et cetera. So things work for a while, but six months later, like you might have something that’s working really well and six months later it’s obsolete, and you’ve got to keep pivoting and keep changing. So this theme of reinvention, of personal reinvention and constantly staying fresh and relevant to your audience so that there’s not audience fatigue. If you’re lucky enough to build the audience to begin with, you’ve got to sustain that and you’ve got to maintain it over time. So this principle of reinvention applies to two different kinds of people. The first one is the person who has never built an audience and has never, maybe they built their entire business like I did offline. They had no real social media following, they had no list, no audience. That’s how I started from scratch. You have to think about yourself now in an entirely new light when you start to go public. It’s like, how do I stand out in a crowd? How do I become a public figure that can attract people, can attract an audience of raving fans who love everything that I do and want to buy my stuff, essentially. So how do I take myself from a nobody to actually becoming a somebody, and what are the processes involved with designing that public version of myself that I want to be and do that for the first time? So there’s people that have to think about it through that lens, but then there’s other people, like I mentioned, who are already successful but you can start to feel like my audience is starting to dry up on me a little bit. They’re not responding as well as they did, and I have to somehow keep myself fresh and relevant and keep growing and bring my audience with me on that journey. So really the essence of reinvention is that it’s a skillset that you have to like you’re, as we go forward into this continually rapid changing future that’s changing at faster and faster rates. The shelf life of somebody who’s a public figure is going to typically dry up after a few years, unless you can stay on top of that and take some of these principles that we’ve learned from celebrities, whether it’s rock stars or it’s movie stars, or people like that who they’ve continually figured out a way to change themselves. Think about like David Bowie or Madonna or somebody like that. Every few years there was a new version of them and they reinvented themselves. I think a lot of those principles come into play for any of us that are public figures, and we have to be strategic about how to do that. So when you talk about conscious identity design, the identity is really the essence of that person that we’re projecting into the world as a public figure. We can either just let that happen organically, and some people are lucky enough to, they hit the market at the right time, and they’re just that right face, the fresh voice, and it just hits perfectly and they just become an overnight sensation. But for most of us, we really have to think through who is it that we really want to be in public? How do we stand out in our market? We can do that strategically by consciously designing that next version of ourselves. Who is it that I want to become? How do I really authentically embody that? How do I actually pull out those best parts of myself and design that and sculpt that as a public figure for other people to consume, essentially that other people can get us really quickly, our message resonates with them very quickly. But a lot of that has to be consciously designed. It doesn’t just happen. That’s what I mean by that is taking the step to actually think through the process and become very strategic about how we want to impact our market and stand out. [SAM] That’s amazing because I think it’s everything you just said is things that we know, but we don’t always take the time to step back and actually think about, as you said, the process and the steps in order to actually achieve this. Obviously then months go by and like you said, things change and we become stagnant and we don’t know why. So that’s really awesome that you help people to do that. Rocky, can you speak to how the audience can tap into their natural charisma in order to become a magnetic power persona? [ROCKY] Sure. Charisma is one of these X-factor sort of things that it’s, people think that either you have it or you don’t. Charisma becomes super important when, as I mentioned, the online space especially is becoming increasingly crowded and you have a lot of people who are essentially saying the same things, say in a market, you have an expert in certain areas, and they’re pretty much saying the same principles, tactics, strategies, techniques, but the difference maker ends up being the person whose personality resonates with other people. That’s an X-factor that a lot of people, well, it’s hard to create that, how do I capture lightning in a bottle? Or how do I make other people drawn to me in certain ways? One of the key insights into charisma is that we all have natural charisma and we all find ourselves being charismatic in certain states. That might be around a dinner table with friends, and we get on a certain topic and all of a sudden we light up and we we’re talking about our topic with a lot of passion and you can see the other people at the table really leaning in and paying very close attention to what we’re saying, and they’re riveted. So we’ve all had these moments in our lives where other people have been just magnetically drawn to us and riveted on what we’re talking about. Well, that’s a state that we get into. Typically the way to unlock that state is by connecting to our sense of purpose. Our purpose is typically the highest level of who we are. It connects us to that ultimate version of who we want to be and why we’re here, what our purpose is in the world, and when we’re really connected to our purpose, that maybe there’s a big problem that we care about and we really want to fix that problem, or we want to help a certain person overcome this thing and change their lives, or change their business or change the world. When we can get on those topics that we’re super passionate about, it moves us emotionally, it changes something inside of us and when we can get ourselves into that state, we naturally become charismatic. We don’t have to think about it or act, we’re putting on it like a character, like an actor. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about tapping into that deep sense of purpose that we have. When we’re truly connected to it, our natural charisma comes out effortlessly. That’s essentially what we want to do. We have to understand what our purpose is and what are those elements of our purpose that really emotionally move us. So at the top, I mentioned for me, it’s people who are wasting their potential and they feel that they’re wasting their potential. Every day they wake up in the morning and they’re may be depressed or frustrated that like they’re just, they know they’re not living the life they want to live. They’re not sure there’s a path out, or they feel stuck and trapped. And I know what that feels like, and if I can connect myself to that sense of a pain or a problem that other people have that I can help them with, it starts to change me inside. It starts to unlock something emotionally and I really start to care about it. It shows up in certain ways. Like, I can notice my hands move quicker when I talk, my breathing changes, my voice changes, my face changes. My body language shifts. All these things start to get unlocked when I’m naturally tapped into that thing I care about. So I think for anybody who’s thinking about, like, maybe I don’t want to show up on camera, or I’m very concerned about my appearance, or am I boring or something like that, I’m not entertaining enough or whatever. The core secret to unlock that best version of yourself is to get in touch with your purpose at a really specific level that moves you emotionally and unlocks that state that you naturally have. [SAM] That’s so true. So I think good for a lot of people in the audience to hear that everybody does have that natural charisma. It’s so great to have you explain exactly how to unlock that [THERAPY NOTES] Is managing your practice stressing you out? Try Therapy Notes. It makes notes, billing, scheduling, and tele-health a whole lot easier. Check it out and you will quickly see why it’s the highest rated EHR on Trustpilot with over 1000 verified customer views and an average customer rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars. You’ll notice the difference from the first day you sign up for a trial. They offer live phone support seven days a week so when you have questions, you can quickly reach out to someone who can help. You are never wasting your time looking for answers. If you’re coming from another EHR, they make the transition really easy. Therapy Notes will import your clients’ demographic data free of charge during your trial so you can get going right away. Use the promo code [JOE], J-O-E to get three free months to try Therapy Notes for free, no strings attached, including their very reliable telehealth platform. Make 2022 the best year yet with Therapy notes. [SAM CARVALHO] Rocky, you speak about creating a blue ocean. Can you explain what that is in reference to, and how it provides authority positioning within a raving fan audience? [ROCKY] Sure. Well, the blue ocean strategy was something, it was a strategy that came out. It was a popular bestselling book many years ago. The essence of the blue ocean strategy is that in every market, you have a certain middle ground of that market where most people are competing for business. So it might be that middle section, it’s not necessarily the lowest priced provider. They might be on the very, very low end, and they’re basically trying to get clients or get business based on price alone and then you have the higher end of that market where you have the people who are charging the premium prices, and they’re positioned in a very different way. Most people find themselves the vast majority, 80%, 90% of people find themselves in that middle ground where their pricing is like everyone else and their messaging is like everyone else, and they’re basically trying all compete for the same business. You end up having like a bunch of piranha in the water a bloody red ocean where there’s everybody’s fighting for the same stuff, and it’s just, it’s a mess. A blue ocean strategy means that you’re going to position yourself outside of where everyone else is competing and essentially create a category or create a space in the market that’s entirely your own, where no one can compete with you because you’ve essentially carved out your own special, unique place that no one else can touch, because you’ve configured it in a certain way where it’s all of your unique elements that people can’t replicate. It’s combining those together in a way where you’re essentially a category unto yourself, and you basically have this peaceful area in the market where nobody can touch you. That’s, to me, the essence of really where I think a personal brand ultimately would want to go in any market, really. The idea is, can I take the best parts of myself, the most unique parts of myself, and combine them in ingenious ways to basically be completely different than everyone else out there and in a different category. So that’s sort of the high level strategy of the way that I look at personal branding. How much can we take these resources that we have inside of ourselves, our life experiences, our life story, maybe the way that we look at our topic differently than everyone else? How do we strategically combine those together that make us completely unlike anyone else? Then you start to brand and label that and talk about it differently so that ultimately at the end of the day, you don’t sound like anyone else in the market. An example of that would be some of the stuff that I’m doing in this space, in the space that I’m in, working with experts, thought leaders, creators, influencers, people like that. Virtually everybody in my market is talking about that through the subject of marketing strategies and tactics. That’s 99% of the people in this space are entirely focused on what I call the outer game. It’s okay, how do you build an audience? How do you create a blog? How do you build a YouTube channel, make TikTok videos, whatever it might be. Everybody’s focused on those external things that you see. But in this space, I’ve discovered that you, none of that will be effective unless you figure out the inside part first, unless you get really clear on yourself, who you want to become, your message, all those resources that I mentioned, your life story, the way you look at your subject differently, the way that you position yourself a certain way. All of those internal elements have to be aligned really well in order to make the external stuff work. For example if, if you don’t have all of that stuff together, who you are, and your message is not going to come through with clarity unless you can actually speak to it really well. So to me, figuring out the inner game, it’s like the iceberg, the tip of the iceberg, the stuff that you see above the water is all of the external strategies, the outer game, but the inner game, the stuff underneath the water, that bigger part of the iceberg is essentially, that’s the stuff that makes all the outer stuff work, and nobody focuses on that. For me, I’ve carved out a little bit of a blue ocean for myself as probably the only person that I know of that really talks at this level about the inner game aspect of personal branding and positioning and all of that that makes everything else work. Like my stuff goes into personal development and habits and productivity, as well as these deep psychological areas like identity change, and it’s really those aspects that I think turbocharge all of the external strategies and tactics. I hope that gives a good example of what I mean by blue ocean strategy and ways to create that in your own business. [SAM] No, that’s great. Thanks so much. Obviously, you mentioned there when you were talking about the blue ocean, you mentioned the people before the blue ocean who obviously, like the price cutters and then the people above the blue ocean. If people did want to go platinum as a high priced expert, what are some strategies and mindsets that you would provide for that? [ROCKY] Sure. Well, going platinum is something that I talk about in the context of shifting one’s pricing specifically, and pricing and positioning in business. What that allows you to do, when you can shift your pricing, what you can charge, that’s a variable that will then change everything else in your business. Because if you can become a higher priced provider, a higher priced expert. It first of all positions, you’re really differently in the market, people begin to view you differently as a more premium elite person that they want to pay a lot more money to. So sometimes even just shifting your price and saying, okay, I’m tired of charging low prices, I’m going to now charge higher prices, that alone can sometimes entirely shift your business. And that’s typically for a person who has traditionally been undercharging. They know they’re worth a lot more, and they know their prices are too low and sometimes it’s just stepping into who you are and saying I deserve to make a lot more money. I’m much better at this than other people, and I deserve to be positioned a certain way, so I’m finally going to charge what I’m worth. Sometimes that alone can be transformational in a business. For other people it’s like you have to become a little bit more strategic about it. It may be that you have to somewhat take the expertise that you have and shift it slightly so that it’s worth more. That’s a process that, but once, the idea is that once you can shift your price, everything else changes you don’t have to take on as many clients. You can be much more selective about the clients that you take on. It frees up a lot more time to be creative and focus on other aspects of your business. So there’s a whole range of downstream effects that happen when you can raise your pricing. Now, as I mentioned for the, for a lot of people the way to do that first of all, it’s that person who just steps into it and says, I’m worth it. I’m going to charge more. Boom, case closed, it’s done. That can really shift their business. But for other people, it’s like, okay, how can I take what I’m doing and make it worth more? That may be, for example, let’s say a fitness trainer who typically helps most people, and they find that most of the clients that they work with, they just want to lose 10 pounds and so on, just get fit for the beach for that summer, or maybe for a wedding or something like that. It’s not super high level transformation. So maybe that person can take the same skills that they have to help a person get super fit, but now apply it to someone who maybe needs to lose 50 pounds or a hundred pounds. That going through the same basic process would be a major life transformation for that person and therefore you can, can charge a lot more because the value of the problem is a lot higher. So sometimes we just have to become more strategic and say who am I serving and how do I serve them? It’s requires some shifts internally in the business in terms of who am I serving? What problem am I solving? How do I solve that problem? So instead of, for example, just doing one-on-one sessions with people, it might be I’m going to create some a digital course that goes with the one-on-one training, and maybe I can teach that in a group setting instead of just one-on-one. Now I can leverage my time a lot more and these clients can all interact with each other and benefit from those group settings. It can take a number of different forms, but the idea is, can I do things strategically to make myself a lot more valuable? I think that’s where most people have to make that shift in order to go platinum in their pricing. But at the end of the day, that shift in pricing, it can be absolutely transformational in every aspect of your business from the top down. Once you make that change, like everything else changes if you can do it successfully. [SAM] Amazing. I think you’ve provided so much value here today, Rocky. Thanks so much. If people wanted to get in touch with you to find out more or to find out how they can work with you, what is the best way for them to do that? [ROCKY] Sure. There’s two very easy ways for people to get in touch with me. The first one is at my personal website at rockybuckley.com. On that site, you’re going to find access to all of the core offers that I have. The other thing is very easy, is just if you’re on Facebook, come into my free Facebook community at the Power Persona Project. You can get there very easily by going to powerpersonaproject.com and join the group for free. I’m in there all the time, and you can interact with me directly there and start the relationship from that point. [SAM] Amazing. We’ll be sure to have the links to all of that in the show notes. Rocky, if every private practice owner in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know? [ROCKY] I would say start by looking inward and some of these strategic aspects of differentiating yourself, how can you maximize everything that you are to become that best version of yourself? Be strategic and realize that there’s a conscious process that you can go through to really transform yourself, become that best version of yourself, and ultimately make the most impact in the world. There’s a step-by-step process to how to do that internally. [SAM] Awesome. Thanks so much, Rocky, for being on the Marketing a Practice podcast. [ROCKY] Thanks, Sam. Great time. Appreciate it. [SAM] Once again, thank you so much to Therapy Notes for sponsoring this show. It makes notes, billing, scheduling, and telehealth a whole lot easier. If you’re coming from another EHR, they make the transition really easy. Therapy Notes will import your client’s demographic data free of charge during your trial so you can get going right away. Use the promo code, [JOE], that’s J-O-E to get three free months to try out Therapy Notes for free. Thanks for listening to the Marketing a Practice podcast. If you need help with branding your business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand, or you simply want some print flyer designed head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. If you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design. Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon. Marketing a Practice podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Beta Male Revolution, Empowered and Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, or Faith in Practice, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.