003: Getting Your Message Out To The World With Joel Boggess

00:00 Beau Henderson: Welcome to the richest conversation on the radio. This is the one place committed to helping you have the tools, the tips, the resources, the experts and the information you need to live your definition of a healthy, wealthy, fulfilled life on purpose. I’m your host, Beau Henderson, and I’m committed to joining you on this journey and making sure you have these things, and today is gonna be great because, we have a friend with us, Mr. Joel Boggess. And Joel has been a friend, a coach among other things, but one of the things we talk about on the RichLife show especially if you have this idea or you have this message inside you that just lights you up, you have this mission, that’s great, but the only way it’s really gonna get out and help the world is if you have the tools and you have the training, you have the coaching to actually leverage that message and get it out to the world and I couldn’t think of somebody better to talk today about that than Mr. Joel Boggess. How’s it going Joel?

01:00 Joel Boggess: Hey Beau, this is going to be such a blast. I’m so excited to be on the RichLife show. Richest hour or richest half-hour or however long it is.

01:11 BH: Richest conversation, we got it all, it doesn’t matter. So let’s do this Joel, let’s jump right into it. Let’s… In 60 seconds, your rich life minute, what is your “what you do, why you do it and who you serve” statement?

01:31 JB: Sure, yeah I really appreciate that. You know I help podcasters, I help content creators, authors, speakers. Really share their voice through different mediums, podcasting, being one of them, so that they can increase their visibility, share their message and grow their business.

02:00 BH: I love it and let’s go ahead and throw out there, you talked about helping with podcasting, that quote you gave me on another show, that “podcasting is the new networking,” that’s been the tweet I’ve got out of your quote of the day from the summit we did together.

02:14 JB: Yeah, I appreciate that. I actually saw that in my Twitter feed, so thank you.

02:18 BH: Absolutely. So our listeners out there, okay I get it, I need to have a platform or I need to have a way to leverage my message or maybe the old way of meeting face-to-face one-on-one, it’s a little too slow in today’s world, so what are some of the things you’d tell somebody that has something in them that they know is what they’re supposed to do in the world, but they need to get it out in a bigger way?

02:46 JB: Well first thing, I think every one of us has something within ourselves. We have some skill, we have some knowledge, we have some wisdom, we have a personal or professional experience that frankly, Beau, I think it’s our responsibility to share with other people. I straight up think that that’s the case, that it is actually our responsibility. And when you’re able to add value to other people based on what you’ve personally experienced yourself, the good, the bad and even the ugly. Well, that is your way of paying it forward and helping other people learn from your mistakes. And a podcast is a wonderful way, it’s actually what I believe, one of the most cost-effective ways to establish a room full or a stadium full of people. And that’s not to say that everyone has to have a podcast. If that’s something that doesn’t excite you, then you’d probably wanna look at something else, but if that is something that excites you, that’s definitely a “Sure. Fire away,” to build an audience and to get your voice out there.

04:00 BH: So that’s one great tip, if you need a way that’s cost-effective and that can truly leverage your message, doing a podcast, so somebody says, “That sounds great and I’ve heard a lot of talk about podcasting, but it can be daunting,” and I can be the first to say I put off podcasting even though I was doing radio for a year, just because there was some resistance around doing something new. So how do you get somebody that’s maybe feeling some of that resistance and feeling like, “I’ll never be as smooth as Joel and Pei,” to just start? What do you tell that person?

04:35 JB: Sure, you know that’s a great question and it’s actually a pretty easy answer, Beau. One of the things that I’ve found and you’ve probably found this out too, helping people sort through the clutter of their finances and their life issues, that sometimes people can hang like a life and death decision, in the balance. And one of the things that I encourage people to do is, okay let’s breathe normally, let’s step back and let’s realize that, “You know what, this isn’t a life or death situation, as long as we don’t let it become one.” And you know, give yourself the gift of experimentation. Try something out, kind of like trying on a new pair of shoes, see if it fits, walk around the store, maybe jog up and down the aisle a few times and see if it’s going to be a fit for you, and if it’s not for whatever reason, well, that’s okay, you can take it off and then find something else to try on. So, when people are looking at, you know, establishing a new platform or maybe establishing, building a new career or a new lifestyle, well you don’t have to think of it as a life and death situation like, “My gosh, I’ve gotta get this right or he’ll leave me or she’ll leave me or my family will turn their back on me.” Those are extreme examples, but if you just give yourself a little bit of permission to try things on for size, it actually can change your whole prospective.

06:13 BH: It reminds me, Joel, of an analogy to working. And as you were thinking, it was painting a picture… I mean, as you were talking, it was painting a picture for me of before I found what I do now, the financial planning and the RichLife advising, I had a lot of jobs early on. I was a police officer for a while, believe it or not. I was a counselor for a while, and I was a bank officer for a while, and all those jobs, although each of them, I came to the conclusion that was not what I wanted to do for a career, each of them had some valuable things I took away from it and they did serve a purpose to help me get to what I do. So, it’s almost the same thing with the podcast. Just go start. And that might be the only way you find your perfect, if there is such a thing as a perfect, is by doing it, and kind of getting your hands around it and playing with it and seeing what your audience might need.

07:13 JB: What I found is that that’s really the only way you’re going to develop better clarity on what it is that you’re here to do, and who you’re here to serve, is to start to play, to practice, and to allow yourself the flexibility to decide what is for you and what is adding value to your life and what’s not. And it actually reminds me of something that one of my guests said. And he actually… We ended up becoming good friends and he’s a trusted mentor to me, and Larry Winget said it like this on my show. He said, “You know, Joel, you can’t steer a parked car.”

[chuckle]

07:58 BH: That’s right.

08:00 JB: “You know, you can leave it there idling, and idling and idling, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, burning up energy, burning up gas, burning up fuel, but at the end it’s just going to leave you exhausted.” But what Larry said is you know, you’ve got to go in a particular direction.

08:19 JB: Take a turn. Go in this direction and if it’s the wrong direction, guess what? You’re gonna find out really, really quickly that it’s probably the wrong direction for you, but if you go the other direction and guess what? If it’s the right direction you’re gonna find out really quickly that that’s the right way for you, but sitting there in neutral, using up all of your resources, your energy, that’s not gonna get you anywhere. So, can’t steer a park car makes a lot of sense from Winget.

08:55 BH: That’s right. All the energy it would take to go from stop to start, so much easier just to course correct if you actually got that momentum moving forward. Perfect. Perfect analogy. So, we have… I’ve got my message, and I want to give it to the world. So, we can do a podcast, and that comes up a lot on this show ’cause we’ve got a lot of podcasters listening to a podcast, and people know that. So there’s a tip. Get clarity around what you’re doing, get that clarity in action, in motion. Don’t sit there and wait for the perfect scenario or to get things all lined up before you take action, because guess what? This is what comes up a lot is you’ll never start, because you’re actually using perfectionism as a stalling tool or as a rationalization, so what else can we tell that person out there, Joel, that’s saying, “Hey, what do I need to do… What’s a tip I can do this month, this week, or to put in a plan to get this message I have in me to the world?”

10:01 JB: Sure. Absolutely. Well, I think it comes down to trusting yourself and trusting your own intuition, and if you’re 30, if you’re 40, even if you’re starting over at 50 or 60, you have a depth of knowledge and a range of experiences and wisdom, and you know some of the things that light you up that turn you on, that excite you and you also know some things that are kind of a dull fizzle for you and things that peter out. Well, take some action on the things that you know about yourself and let them continue to bring life to you. Here’s what my friend, Dan Miller said. He said, “A lot of times people with the best of intentions trick themselves into sitting in a closed room waiting for their passion to kind of hit them over the head.” Right, right. And really, passion doesn’t happen that way and frankly, I don’t know if God speaks to people that way. If he has, I haven’t worked with them yet.

11:16 BH: Right.

11:17 JB: However, but your passion will come to you as a result of participation. Participation in some of the things that you think might be related to what it is that really fires you up. So just start doing something.

11:38 BH: Yeah, start doing something that lights your fire. I love that. That’s part of the RichLife message. What is it? Let’s get really clear on what lights you up, and then you have the energy to actually do the work it’s gonna take to see that mission through.

11:50 JB: Absolutely. But you have to know what it is that lights you up or at least have a very good clue, because if it’s not life affirming for you, then chances are the enthusiasm will not continue as long as it needs to go.

12:06 BH: Well, here’s a good thought I think a lot of people have, or a good question I think a lot of people have Joel, that you’ll be the perfect person to ask, it’s, “Okay, Joel’s done these great book launches, number one books, number one podcast launches, he knows all these people, has all these friends, Beau has a has a radio show he’s done for a long time, and they have a platform, but I don’t really know anybody, or nobody knows me yet. So I don’t have that platform like those guys. Nobody really maybe even knows my name. So how in the world, Joel, if you’re in that position, do you go out and start making some of the connections to build that platform?”

12:48 JB: Sure, that’s a great, great question. You probably know exactly where I’m gonna go with this answer based on the many, many conversations that we had. And I was actually in that boat. I was in that exact same boat, of what you talked about just now, and I didn’t know the people that were at the very top of their game. The Darren Hardys, and the Michael Ports, and the Bob Burgs, and Larry Wingets, and I didn’t know all those people, but boy I sure wanted to be one. I wanted to earn six figures, I wanted to earn seven figures, and I wanted to have influence, and more importantly, or just as important I should say, I wanted to be significant, and I wanted to do work that was significant. But I didn’t know those people. So one of the things that I did, which worked wonderfully for me is I actually started the show, and this is probably sounding like a commercial for podcasting, but it’s really not, it’s just what I experienced. And when I started doing the show and by the grace of God, it developed some traction. And the ReLaunch show has actually turned into a flame-thrower for us. Well, I started from the beginning by reaching out to people and inviting them to be on the show and no one ever says no to that, it seems like being on a show. And then that actually gave me the connections that have helped me get business, develop new friendships, relationships, and to advance my own life and professional career.

14:32 BH: Well, let’s drill that just a little bit further and we’ll move on to, I wanna get to know you a little better, or at least the RichLife-ers out there, that wanna know more about Joel Boggess. Let’s drill down that a little bit better. So you say having the platform of a podcast can make a connection for somebody that might not normally just get on a phone call with you otherwise. But what do you do? So somebody still… We gotta nail it down Joel, I mean we gotta give it plug and play, so how do I… I got this guy Larry Winget, what do I do to have potential to get him on my show?

15:07 JB: Okay. Well, one of the things that I did, Beau, and this will… This has been phenomenal for me is, once a person agrees to come on, and no one ever says no, so that’s actually pretty easy, all you have to do is make the invitation. And after we have a nice little chat, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes in an interview, well what I would recommend that people do, my guests, at the beginning of the show is hang out with me for two, three minutes afterwards, if you don’t mind. So that they don’t immediately hang up after the interview’s over. And then when… After the interview, well, we’ve all of a sudden become best friends because they’ve shared their starts, their stops, their fits, and the things that they’ve been through in their life. So it’s like we have a whole another level of relationship now. And then when after the interview, when we’re chatting I always ask them and say, “What are you working on right now that I can help you with?” And that opens up more possibilities.

16:13 JB: And then reciprocity kicks in and then they’ll say, “Well gosh Beau, what are you working on right now that I can help you with?” And that’s where the doors open on your side and you can give them the opportunity to help you out. It’s like, well, as a matter of fact, I’ve got a book coming out, that I would love for you to help me get the word out. Or I’m getting ready to launch a podcast, or I’m getting ready to launch a new video series, things of that nature. And frankly, I did exactly that. What I just said, asking people for help at the end of their recorded show, for the Finding Your Voice book launch, which actually ended up becoming a number one best seller, and also for the launch of the ReLaunch show, which actually ended up hitting number one repeatedly on iTunes. So that helped tremendously. Because frankly, I didn’t know enough people to pull off those number ones all on my own. But I knew that with enough help, I could. And that’s it.

17:22 BH: I think that’s the golden nugget that’s worth the price of admission that we pull out right here Joel, that’s… I think that’s the key to everything, it’s intertwined into everything is that, let’s not just do a launch, let’s not just do our show to mark off, “Oh, we finished 10 shows and we’re gonna go launch them.” But what if, this is what I see people do that have the kind of success that you have, what my goal is really, I use my show as an opportunity for my real goal, and my goal is to make friends, every interaction I have. Because you and I both know, that if we have enough friends out there, there’s nothing we really can’t do.

18:02 JB: You’re absolutely right. Relationships are the reason for success or lack of.

18:11 BH: Gold. So Joel, you are… I’m gonna share with the RichLife-ers listening now, you are my launch coach. You helped me launch books, you’ve helped me launch this podcast. And if there’s somebody out there that’s looking for an entry point of how to maybe learn more or connect with you, how would you want them to go about doing that?

18:32 JB: Sure. Well, gosh I really appreciate that. I really didn’t expect that, but relaunchshow.com is our website. Again, relaunchshow.com, and that’s where you can find all of our podcasts. We published episode 378 today. Just a few weeks ago, we passed 1,000,000 listens, which is a crazy number. It’s almost hard to, hard to comprehend. I know there’s a lot of zeroes in that number.

19:00 BH: That’s a big number.

19:01 JB: It’s definitely a big number. But the website has got all of our shows. It has some training resources, and of course contact information as well. And it’s a great place to go. And if you’re listening on an iPhone, and about 70% to 80% of our listeners listen on a portable device, probably the case for the RichLife show as well. But if you’re on an iPhone, right there in your Safari browser, you can enter relaunchshow.com/itc, and presto, it will actually open up the ReLaunch show in your podcast app, there on your iPhone, which frankly is another benefit to having a podcast because iPhone has now made the podcast app native on every single iPhone that walks out of the door at the Apple Store. And what that means for the podcaster and content creator is that everyone who has an iPhone has access to your material.

20:11 BH: So take Joel up on that relaunchshow.com, look him up, he’s on Facebook, one of the most open guys to just connecting and helping if you have questions. And like I say, when I’m looking for somebody to work with or collaborate with, I’m looking for somebody that has done it. And you heard, you heard some of the numbers like the million, and I could also list people’s launches that he’s been a part of, he and Pei that have been these number ones, with a bunch of number ones beside it. So check out Joel and Pei, relaunchshow.com.

20:44 BH: But Joel the business, I got it. I got the takeaways. Thank you. You’ve already delivered on our promise to our listeners. I wanna get to know you a little better. So there’s a segment I call “Growth Factor.” And one of the things I find, our entrepreneurs, our mission-based entrepreneurs that teach us on this show like yourself. They’re all really big and personal development, and I wanna know what’s going on right now that might not be your business. It might be something completely different that you’re working on to grow just in an overall personal development sense.

21:16 JB: Sure, yeah. Thanks for giving me that opportunity as well. I’m a voracious reader and Pei as well. And we continue to just dive into the best resources that we can find because we have learned that to make any launch or relaunch successful, you’ve got to surround yourself with the right resources. And that could be the right books, the right training, the right podcasts like the RichLife show, for instance. And surround yourself with those resources that will add value to your life.

21:54 JB: And right now, I’m reading a book called, “Greatness” and it’s by Don Yaeger. And Don Yaeger is a sports illustrated icon, been a writer there forever. He’s interviewed everyone from Walter Payton to Emmitt Smith to Venus Williams. And he shared some of the highlights of how they think, how they prepare, how they play, and how they live. And that’s a great outline right there.

22:27 BH: Powerful.

22:28 JB: For… Right. For experiencing greatness or a rich life for yourself. Again, it’s how you think, how you prepare, how you play, and how you live. And that is, “Greatness” is the name of that book. I definitely… I would recommend if you get a chance to put that in the show notes.

22:46 BH: Got it.

22:47 JB: Or Beau or tweet that out.

22:50 BH: Sure.

22:50 JB: But it’s been a phenomenal resource.

22:52 BH: Well, most… When I ask that question on the show, I rarely interject my own ideas here. But since we’re such good friends, and we know each other so well, how about talking about personal development just as growing. How about this improv stuff you’ve been doing?

23:08 JB: Oh, that’s been a lot of fun. Pei and I are getting ready to finish up with our level one training ’cause we’re beginner, beginners, level one. And we both decided that we’re gonna set up for level two, which is the “advanced version”. And there’s actually five levels in all if I remember correctly. And it’s just a lot of fun. And it gives you the opportunity to just play with situations, and with people, and with the way they respond to you physically or verbally, and to deal with it. And it’s a great practice for life. But let me tell you something that my improv teacher told me. And this will relate, I believe pretty head on, spot on with the people in the RichLife audience. Our improv teachers told us that everyone in this room has enough experience to be a great improv performer, he said, “Everyone in this room has experienced ups, they’ve experienced downs. They’ve experienced… They’ve experienced the loss of someone that was dear to them. They’ve experienced the strengthening of a new relationship, something that was meaningful to them. They’ve been disappointed, they’ve been elated. And everyone has experienced… “

24:32 JB: “Or rather has all the experience that they need, to be killer improv performers,” and I’m not gonna lay that on you and on the RichLife audience, because everyone in your audience, this is just my personal opinion, but everyone in your audience has the experience that they need, already in their life, to live the rich life, to do what they wanna do, to love how they wanna love, and to experience and to be experienced, in the way that adds value to them, for them. The opportunity is to harness it. And that’s what we’re learning in the improv training. We’re learning how to harness the things that we already know.

25:19 BH: I love it, and it’s motivated me to look into Atlanta to see that, because I know our mutual friend, speaking trainer extraordinaire, Michael Port, has his… Some of his coaching he’s recommended improv in actual… Those skills to help you actually, not just give a speech, but perform, so that’s a little curiosity for me. Have you noticed in your speaking that this improv is giving you some skills that might even make you more effective there?

25:46 JB: Sure, it’s hard to say, we’re new in the improv training, so I haven’t really done a whole lot of speaking since I’ve started that to make a fair comparison. However, what I do know is that, if you go through any kind of personal development training, while you might not be able to specifically identify, “Oh, that’s because I did this,” or, “That’s because I went to this event or this training,” but it all kind of blends in with character development.

26:17 BH: Right. As you grow, you become more effective. Period.

26:20 JB: Correct.

26:22 BH: Life-school, Joel. So, everybody that’s read ‘The RichLife’ book knows I spend a lotta time, or heard the ‘The RichLife’ radio show, I spend a lotta time talking about this idea of life-school that, what if we look at life just like a high school or college curriculum, where we just have courses to get through, and if we fail, we might have to take them over, or to get to the next level, we’ve actually got to… We’ve got to graduate and get through our curriculum to get to where we’re supposed to go or to graduate so to speak. So in this idea of life-school has there… Has something in life come up that’s ever just been a lesson that was really hard, something you wouldn’t have necessarily have wished for, or might’ve even just been down-right, a very negative situation, that now you can look and share with our listeners that, you learned a lesson there that you wouldn’t really trade for anything.

27:14 JB: Yeah, and I appreciate you asking me that as well, and I’ll do this for this, because I want to respect your time and of course I want to respect the time of the people that are in the RichLife audience. But when I was five-years-old, Beau, I was out on a nature hike with my dad and some friends, and I ended up climbing on top of a bridge. It was actually a 30-foot bridge that extended over a gorge in the middle of the Texas Hill Country, and to make a long story short, I was in the middle of that bridge and a train came, and there was a near fatal fall that involved that train coming across my path, that fall, a massive blood loss, and some divine and heroic medical intervention… I’m sorry, some heroic, divine and medical intervention there. That sounds right, and then… My relaunch, I guess, or my learning again the things that a kid needed to know, started right there. And what that taught me, the recovery, is that I had to go all in, in pretty much anything that I was committed to doing. And that’s actually a good training for what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

28:45 BH: Absolutely.

28:46 JB: Because to be an entrepreneur, to be a successful one, you gotta go all in, and you’ve gotta be at peace with that. That’s why it’s so important I think, for a person to really go through your material and… The RichLife materials, to really zero in on, “Okay, what am I… What am I prepared to go all in on?” Because sometimes that’s what it’s going to require.

29:17 BH: Yes.

29:18 JB: Now… Exactly.

29:19 BH: No, and I think that idea of, if you can’t commit to go all in, that might be a big clue there, that it’s not worthy of your time and energy.

29:28 JB: Correct. Absolutely.

29:30 BH: Now I think that’s a big takeaway right there, is you can’t half push a mission forward. You can’t half build a business, because I promise you, if it’s not something, like Joel told us he learned as a young boy, that if it’s not something I can commit to fully and go all in, then it’s not worth it.

29:51 JB: That’s absolutely right.

29:53 BH: Well, let’s wrap. Three questions, and this is kind of rapid-fire succession, to be true to some of the themes we’ve always had on The RichLife show “Success in Life and Success with Money”. So first question Joel, best money advice you’ve ever received and who gave it to you?

30:09 JB: Best money advice I ever received? Sure very… A lot of people have said this to me as a child and a teenager and growing up and my best money advice would be, “Don’t spend it all in the same place,” and you probably had similar advice when you were a kid as well. But I just… I remember that, so I’m cognizant, I can’t say that I always follow that, like I need to. But not spending all of your money in one place is very, very, it’s true today just like it was way back when.

30:44 BH: Perfect. Best advice for just success with life you’ve gotten and who gave that to you?

30:51 JB: The best, what? Okay, let’s see. The best advice for success is… Roger Staubach said that, “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” And what he meant by that is if you go all in, what you’re going to find is you’re in a category of one, there is no one else in that lane and that’s pretty powerful. So if you are launching your business or your book or your podcast or whatever your product or service is, if you invest all of your efforts and all of your talents and skills in whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish, well you’re gonna find out that not only is there no traffic, but you’re also in a category of one.

31:49 BH: Perfect. Now your definition of a rich life.

31:54 JB: Sure, now that’s probably the easiest of the three questions you gave me. A rich life is doing what you want, when you want, where you want and with whom you want. If you’re able to pull those four things off, then you are truly living a rich life.

32:13 BH: That sounds like a great definition to me. Joel, thanks again for joining us on the RichLife show and I hope you’ll join us again in the future to give us some more of these meaty, actionable tips on how to take our idea, our mission and help us move forward on this journey of living our definition of a rich life. Thank you my friend.

32:33 JB: It’s been a pleasure, Beau. Thanks for having me on.

32:35 BH: RichLife-ers to get the tips, to get the quotes, to get the books, Joel gave us so much. Go to the show page at richlifeshow.com/joelboggess and you’ll find all that there. And I’ll see you next time, same place, right here on the RichLife show.