How to Turn Your Voice Into Revenue: Dr. Sonja’s Playbook | #Success - Ep. 34
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This is the Russell Brunson Show. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to the show. We're here at Inner Circle. I've been pulling in some of my favorite people for some really fun, interesting conversations. For any of you guys who are at Funnel Hacking Live this year, we had someone who's newer to my community, my world, who came. I had a chance to meet her, how many months? It was a couple months before FHL.

Let's see. Yeah, two months before. And for the most part, Funnel Hacking Live, all the speaking slots were done. And I heard her speak like two times. And both times I was like, oh my gosh, I need to get her speaking Funnel Hacking Live. How are we going to fit? So we had to move things around. We had to bump people around. And we got her to come and speak right before I did my pitch actually, which is like one of the scariest spots to like, you know, interact.

And luckily she said yes, and she came on stage and gave one of my favorite presentations from Funnel Hacking Live this year. Someone who I have so much respect for, and it's been fun getting to know her over the last three or four months. And excited for those of you guys who weren't at Funnel Hacking Live to meet her and hopefully have a chance to follow her and see all the cool stuff she's doing. So her name's Dr. Sonja. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Thank you, Russell, for having me. When you say a couple months, brr.

I'm like, what? It feels like it's been years already. I know. It's only been a few months. Yeah. Well, you did come to Boy's Sake five times in those few months. I did. I did. That wasn't by choice. It was just like, hey, you need to go back. I'm like, okay. And I said, yes. Yeah. It's been so much fun having you. For those who don't know yet, I love you tell just a little bit of your history and backstory. Because you weren't in this industry for a long time, but in the short time you've been in it, you have done some amazing things and grown faster than probably almost anyone I've seen who's entered into it. So I'd love to hear kind of how you got started into this. Well,

I'll go backstory being from a little small country town, not Boise, Idaho, but from Wilson, Arkansas. And so I grew up having 12 siblings. I'm the youngest of 12. And so when I grew up, I knew I wanted to not stay at home because the only thing to do at home was work at a factory or do some other wild things, but I wanted to be legal. So I left and I joined the United States. I went to college first and then I joined the United States army. That was a thing that I knew I wanted to do. I needed to have legal rights to fight. Yeah.

Because it felt like that was all I could do. You're a fighter. Yeah, pretty much. But I didn't want to fight physically. It was just mentally going through so many things. My backstory, you know, child at a very young age and all of that. And so I joined the United States Army. And when I retired after 21 years, three combat tours.

I said, what do I really want to do when I grow up? And I remember sitting at a round table with some senior officers and they said, well, Stripling, you're about to retire. What are you going to do? And I said, well, I want to find something where I can go to work at 12 and get off at 1. And they just started laughing. I'm like, no, there's got to be a thing. I had no idea.

that I would ever come into this coaching world. And so I've been in this space for about a decade, but the last three or four years have been amazing. They seem like they just took off once I understood what was really happening and where I could just be authentically me. Yeah. It's interesting because a lot of people, I view all the time and come to my world and they're like, so if I do this, like how quick could I, how quick can I make money? And I'm always like, ah, that's the wrong question. Like the question is like,

you know, coming in and like learning it and understanding and who you want to serve and all the things that, you know, the foundation happens ahead of time. I'm curious when you, 10 years ago, when you kind of started, like, what were the,

I guess, what were the things you were going through trying to figure out before it took off? You know, like what were the seeds you were planting back then? So I was still having, like most of us that, well, I'll admit to mine, I was dealing with some emotional things. So, you know, retiring from the army, I was dealing with some depression and all of those things because that's all I've known all my life. And so, and then I went through a divorce. So I'm coming into a space

wanting to coach someone else, but I was still dealing with my own issues and my own limiting beliefs and all of that. And so it was very challenging because just like, you know, your clients came to you and say, Hey, how fast can I make money? I was just thinking like, how fast can I get through this? I didn't think I was worthy of helping anybody else. I started out as a divorce coach and most people didn't know what a divorce coach was. I started there because I'd been married 18 years and I wanted to help and

I wanted to really serve like many of us come into this space. I just want to help. I just want to help. And I quickly realized what is the very thing that I went through that I could help someone else go. And even my worst enemy, I did not want him or her to suffer the way I did because it was tragic for me. And so I came into this space coaching divorce and I would be in court with the attorney, with the judges and folks like, what are you? I said, I think I'm on to something.

People begin to invest in themselves, invest their money with me. And I was like, you know what? Let me just get better. I just don't want to be doing this and be a Toyota in the industry. I wanted to become a Rolls Royce. I wanted to be the elite of the elite. That's the competition side of me, the competitive side of me anyway. So you decided you wanted to do that. Again, I love that because so many people –

I'm sure you get this people. How did you grow so fast? And they miss that step in the middle where you're like, I don't want to just be good. I want to become the best. Like, I remember me specifically thinking through that. I was like, I don't want to be someone who's just doing this. I want to be the best that's ever done it. And it changed your mindset and changed. But I'm curious when you made that decision, like, yeah, I want to be the best. Like what, what does the path look like that takes you down there? Cause a lot of times you think like, I want to become best, but what do I do first? Well, you know, what's step number one. It's honestly getting in the rooms with people who are competitive as well. I don't, you know, I, it just hit me when you said that I was like, I clicked with

click with you right away. It's like he understands because sometimes being an overachiever is folks are like, okay, let me stay away from them. You're like, no, let's go. And I was like, I need that. But when I started, it was just, I had to understand what does the best look like?

Right. Did I have a representation in front of me? And that I honestly didn't see. I didn't see anyone who represented me. I didn't see one with a military background. And again, I was still dealing with my life and being way the military to train me and taught me. I just thought differently. And I just felt like this unicorn out there just operating by myself. And I needed to get around people who were OK being themselves.

And just being just very transparent and very vulnerable. And I didn't see that a lot in the industry. So the first step was getting into the rooms. The second thing was really understanding, well, how long, not how long is this going to take? How fast can I learn one thing and keep growing up on that? Yeah. Interesting. What were some of the transition from divorce courts to what you're doing now? Like when, when,

Because at first, I'm assuming you're trying to get better coaching in that process, but then somewhere along the line, or maybe you're still doing it on site. I don't know. No, no, no. Absolutely not. No, no, no. I began when I was doing the divorce coaching. People would see me online, Periscope and all those places. And I even got a television show on Bravo because I was doing speaking. I was going live and someone calls like, hey, we're looking for our next Oprah Winfrey. And I'm like, okay.

I don't want to be the next Oprah Winfrey. I want to be the first Dr. Sonia. And that set the course of I wanted to be the first in everything. Not second. I wanted to be first. And so when I went on this journey to do that, Russell, I would be speaking on stages. And I remember one particular event. It was like a thousand women in a room. I finished speaking. We were talking about relationships. And I saw the course. I've always been selling from the stage. That's what I just, not intentionally. It was just like, hey, come to back table. But you would see a mad rush of people. The first time I saw it, I'm like, what?

What just happened? Why are they responding that way? And this young lady walks up to me and she said, hey, Dr. Sonia, I've been following you on Periscope and I want you to coach me. I want you to teach me to do what you do. I'm like, what am I doing? I'm like just helping. She said, no, no, no. I said, well, go to the back table and sign up, you know, for the coaching program for, you know, life after divorce. She said, no, my husband and I are fine.

what is going on? That was the first sign. And that was the first time someone asked me to coach them in a different area. And she said, well, I mean, how much does it cost? I can pay right now. She said, you take American Express? Absolutely we do. The answer to that was yes. I put the order form all over on the side, wrote in the name of the program that I hadn't even created yet. It was $10,000. She paid right then and there. What did you call the program?

Next Level Business. No, it was Build Your Business Empire. That's all I did. Just like that. I wrote it on there. She signed it. Then we got our official contract after that. I was like, oh, man, I got to go build this. And so I've taken that model, anything that I launch, I just need the outline and I need a name and I'll go build it afterward. And it forced me to get into this space. I just start showing her to do what I do. So now my whole thought process, Russell, is let me just teach other people how to do what they already do.

And teach other people how to do that. You'll make more money teaching other people how to do what you do than you will doing it is my thought. Yeah. Have you noticed like a lot of times the problem people have is they're really good at the thing. And so because of that, they don't value it because they're like, oh, well, this is easy. And then other people look at externally. Like the woman there, right? She sees you and you're like, that's a superpower. Whatever you do on stage –

Like that, you know, and almost for you, you're like, I didn't do anything special. I just did my thing, you know? I think that's what holds a lot of people back is understanding that like your superpower is usually something that seems very common to you. It is. It is. And we begin to make an... We don't think it's valuable. So we think...

there's more value in giving it away for free. Honestly, I call it the free 99. Everybody have a free 99 and they just think, and you're trying to figure out, well, it's free. Why don't more people get it? Because people are starting to look at not, we don't just want your free. There's some people who want more from you. They want your best.

the best version of you. And so the best version of me, there's, you have to have skin in the game. And so I believe that people are out here now have great ideas, have content that they can share, but because they don't understand who they are and their value, they just decide, I'm just going to give it away. And they get burnt out because after a while, when you give a lot of stuff away, you're going to get tired. Yeah, for sure. You gotta make it worth it. Fun.

Funnel hackers, let me tell you a story that still makes me cringe a little. We were gearing up for a huge launch, funnels were done, landing pages were tight, copy was dialed in, everything was ready to rock. Except for one thing. We were looking for more support people to be able to handle the launch. And we figured no big deal, we're going to find somebody quickly. But that didn't happen. We spent weeks trying to hire the right person. We put listings on all the typical sites, but they got buried under a flood of random applicants.

who weren't even remotely qualified. It delayed our campaign, slowed our momentum, and ended up costing us tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales. That's why now I tell everyone to use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all that you need. It's built to help you find quality talent fast, especially with sponsored jobs.

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Indeed.com slash clicks. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. All right, funnel hackers, let's have some fun for a second. One of the hardest parts about B2B marketing isn't getting attention. It's getting the right attention. I'm sure you know what I mean. Isn't it a pain when you see the weirdest ads showing up in your feed? Ads for things you know you would never use in a million years, and you start thinking, that person is wasting so much money targeting me for a product or service I will never use.

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Just go to linkedin.com slash clicks. That's linkedin.com slash C-L-I-C-K-S. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads. So, okay. So that transition, how many years ago was that when you sold the very first? Ah, it's been a decade. Yeah, it's been a decade. A decade when the business coach. That's eight years. That's eight years. Okay. Eight years as the first business coach. Yes. Okay. And then tell me about that journey then. So then now, now you've got an outline, you've got a name and $10,000. Yeah.

Most people would freak out at that point. Like, oh, no, I don't want to do this. How many more of them can I find? How many more? And I just start looking at things differently. I didn't stop at that immediate point of the divorce side. I decided to have an event. I've been in that space. I didn't know everything, but I am definitely a risk taker. Calculated risks are better, but I'm a risk taker. And I'm like, what's the worst thing that could happen? Nobody shows up for an event. That's, you know, that whole thing. But people showed up. I had less than 100 people after that. I was like, wait, what?

Let me see how many more of her can I get into a room? And I just had a small event. I invited people in. We were talking about life and relationships. And I made an offer, the business side. 60% of the people wanted the business side. And that was just a whole awakening of, wow, I'm on to something. But who would have thought? PhD or not, that didn't matter. I still had, you know, the self-doubt like many people have. I just had the self-doubt. Well, can I really do this?

That's when it began to kick in when people, more people started to pay me. Wait, I'm an imposter. I shouldn't be doing this all of my past. So I had to deal with that internal beast that wants to show up when you're doing some amazing things. And I started to realize, Russell, he, she, or he is always going to show up for every level they show up just to test you. How do you shut that down then? Because a lot of people struggle. They never get past that, right?

I'm smiling because I don't want to yell too loud in the mic. It's like the voice that speaks the loudest wins. Yeah. That voice that speaks the loudest. And I'm very cognizant of what that voice sounds like. That voice will say, you can't do this. Russell's going to have you on his podcast. Are you sure you're ready for that? Like that, that voice wants to speak loudly. I'm like, what, what are you talking about? Just sit down somewhere. I'm, I'm worthy of this. Right. And so just really listening to the voice and which one is speaking the loudest.

I am not saying I have mastered that, but I've become very good at recognizing that the truth, your brain cannot tell the difference between the truth and a lie. So I want to feed myself the truth at all times, but I want it to be positive regardless if I think it's not going to work, but I can't imagine something not working. It's going to work. I'm going to learn something from it. And so that's how I see everything now. So cool. When you said that, remind me, um, Annie Grace is writing another book right now and I had a chance to read one of her chapters and she says something that was so fascinating. She said that, um,

um, she was talking about thoughts and, but she said, first off, she's like, you know, our heart beats all the time. Right. And our lungs breathe. And this stuff's happening subconsciously every single day. And she's like, just the same way that your heart beats and your lungs breathe, your brain has thoughts. It's the same thing. And they just show up and they show up and they show up. And a lot of times we think that those thoughts are, you know, it's like, it's something, but it's not, it's just, it's just an impulse. It's like breathing, you know? And so would default the default thought for most people is,

even if you're successful is the negative thought that keeps coming in right and like what you just said about like the loudest voice wins is fascinating because we the cool thing about thoughts is we can choose our thoughts like we can say i want to think this instead and then you can drown out these other ones but by default if you just sit there all sorts of weird stuff negative stuff flies in instantly right every single time it's like learning how to control those because i can't control my you can control your breathing i guess your heartbeat you can't control but the thoughts we learn how to master that and control that

And then it, then it shifts things, which is such a cool. Anyway, I love geeking out that kind of stuff because it's so interesting. It is fascinating. Just think about it. Why are there some of the top one percenters? If you really sit down and talk to them or you and you sit down and have a conversation, the conversations are different. The thoughts are different. You know, you can tell where someone is in their life based on what they say.

Because when they say something, I'm thinking about what they said and what they didn't even say. And I'm thinking, oh, yeah, they're just getting started. Let's say business owners. They're just getting started in business. They're coming out of corporate America. Or wait, he's experienced. He's been doing this. And I can tell if they've been working on their inner thoughts, they've been working on their self-being and self-mastery is the word I'm looking for. So self-mastery is real. And many people won't tap into that. They want more skill. Russell, tell me how to do this. Russell's like, wait, work on this part.

No, no, no. I need to make money right now. But they're missing the most important part of the journey. We got to trick them and sell them what they want, but then give them what they need. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's funny because half the time in our programs, I know it's like they come in and it's like, okay, they want to learn blah. So we teach them blah. But then actually it was Frank Kern told me this was really fascinating. He had a, it was a $400 a month membership site and the turners really had people kept canceling. So he was trying like a million different things to keep people to stick and

And he's like, of all things I tested, the one that worked the best is I made module number one a mindset module. And then people like, then they actually implement it and they had success. But nobody, he's like, when I sold it as a benefit, no one wanted to go through the mind. I don't need mindset. I'm good, you know. Like, I'm going to skip that. I'm going to get to the good stuff. And we forced them to go through that. Then they stuck longer. They did better. Like, it's just, it's.

It's fascinating. That's how I start out my programs. We go through some IEP initiative, the effort and the performance. We go through that and we share with them the percentage. This is if you're operating at this level, it is a whole master. And they're like, oh, my gosh, that's why I can't get this done. But it really helps set the next steps when they understand. And you don't really say, oh, you need mindset. Who's going to say, yeah, I need some mindset. Give me some mindset. No, I don't need that.

It's like, hey, if you want to get to X amount of income level, let's look at step one. What is the number one thing that most high achievers are doing? And you're thinking it's another skill. It's another strategy. No, they have really worked on themselves and there's self-mastery that's included in that. Yeah, 100%. Yes. Oh, yes. Okay, so now I want to talk about

As you start transitioning, right? Divorce coach, business coach. But there was something or somewhere, I don't know what happened, but I think you told me or FHL, some of the last two and a half, three years. Are you glad to say the number? Yeah, yeah, yeah. $28 million. In how many years? Three years. Okay, so what...

There's a pivot point there. Three years ago. What's the difference? So right before the pandemic, I started getting on stages. And I was traveling, speaking, but it wasn't a thing. It was just part of the journey. People hear me speak like, hey, can you come speak on my stage and whatever. But then I started to make it a business. What is this line of business? And I realized when I did some studies, speaking is the number one career in the world. It really is.

professional speaking people, you know, they're nervous about it. I want to be a professional speaker, but I get nervous in front of people. Hello, so do I, for three seconds until I get a mic. That's why you hear me say I've never met a mic I did not like for three seconds because I had a message. And so those three years I went

all in. And I was sharing earlier this framework that I use. I call it my $28 million runway of the five things, the platforms that I find myself. It's just levels, the coaching, the speaking and events. But what's happening with the essence of all of that? This is not what I do. This is who I am. I can't imagine, Russell. It's like being in the army. I stayed 21 years because I couldn't imagine getting out and retiring. But at some point I was like, you know what? I want to do something else. I've been called to do something else.

And so that pivot began to happen with all of the chaos happening in the world, all those things taking place. The pandemic was taking place. I'm like, like everyone else, what am I going to do? And I was like, just do what you're already doing, but take it online. We had thousands show up. And that's when I realized that Zoom can only get a thousand people on there. They can't get in. What happened? Yeah, we broke Zoom. But I began to do that and I just went all in. And it wasn't just business. I wanted to teach business from the inside out.

and I began to attract some of the most amazing people. And they gave me this title, the general to giants. They played on the military as a general and they are the giants. And then I just rocked that out until the wheels fall off. And we are still going through that same process. I haven't changed. I just went deeper.

into what I wanted to do in the business industry. And it's just been a blessing. It really has. Are you speaking mostly on your own stages? Other people's? Is it a blend? Like what's it? It's a blend. So I prefer my own because I can do it from the comforts of my home. I will go out and speak on other people's stages. I love that. And then I tapped into this thing that I can speak on other people's stages and sell their offers. So the very first time I did it, it was a Spanish speaking community.

And I was nervous about going to speak there. I'm like, oh my gosh, are we going to have translators? And I was like, well, how many people are going to be in this small group? I'm good. It's like, oh, it's 1,500. I'm like, what? And you want me to speak all three days? And they're like, yeah. And I was like, okay.

I don't believe I cannot do anything. I am definitely the CEO, the owner, and tell my team, okay, I'm jumping off this building. Just throw me the parachute and midstream, okay? As long as I don't hit the – right before I hit the ground, I'm good. So that's what I did. And I got on this stage, and it felt so comfortable. All stages feel comfortable to me. Even I had to slow down a little bit and not speak so fast so the translator could keep up.

But when I tell you energy rocks any stage, it does not have any barrier. It doesn't have a language barrier. It doesn't have a money barrier. It doesn't have anything. And they made their very first $2.1 million in one hour. $1 million, $2.1 million. And they said, well, how much do you want to make? I said, oh, about $100,000. I said, dude, no. Like, you need to get somebody else to do that. Let's see what you want to do. And so we did that. And that began the journey of I love energy.

It's the art of sales. And I call it an opportunity because I believe when you're on a stage, Russell, and you know this, I see you on the stage when you're talking, I'm just in amazement. It's just a natural thing for you. For some people, it's not. But for those of us who understand the art of speaking and sharing your thoughts and all of that for selling, it was it just became a piece of cake. So now it's this whole thing of I don't want to sell for everyone, but I want to sell for those who want to help their community, who want to help the people that they serve.

Yeah. Interesting. I didn't realize that's what you're doing a lot of is selling other people's stuff. And that was so ironic that you put me in a slot. I have no idea how to plan that from day one. I wasn't going to. I was just, yeah, we're in the future. And I asked your team, I said, hey, can I step on one of these speakers? And he thought I was joking. He said, you're serious. I was like, yeah. Can I step on a speaker? I'm only wearing a buck 25. He's like, let me go ask. He said, well, they say it's not. I was like, oh.

Oh, man. Because it's this energy to bring people closer to the front.

And I'd end up spending hours every day sorting, replying, getting distracted, and pulling off the work to actually move my business forward. But that all changed when I tried Notion Mail. And let me tell you, it's like somebody took my funnel brain and built an email platform out of it. This is the inbox that thinks like you. Notion Mail uses AI to organize everything based on what's important to you. It learns what matters, automatically labels and sorts messages, drafts, responses, and even schedules meetings.

It's personalized, automated, and completely flexible. And do you want to know what's become my absolute favorite feature? Custom inbox views. I've created views for my podcast outreach, my internal team, my JV partners, and even launch commissions. I can jump into a view and laser focus, no distractions, no noise. And when I need to move fast...

Snippets. I've got one click templates ready to go for followups, affiliate approval, speaker confirmations. It's like having a prebuilt funnel, but for email replies, if you're like me and your brain runs a hundred miles an hour, notion mail gives you a calm focus command center, and it just works.

Get Notion Mail for free right now at notion.com slash Russell and try the inbox at thingslikeyou. That's all lowercase letters, notion.com slash R-U-S-S-E-L-L to get Notion Mail for free right now. When you use our link, you're supporting our show. Notion.com slash Russell.

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Of course, we both know Myra and I went through a lot of his training. But, you know, Myra, I tell you, I was in this space and place when I met him. And so what I realized, how God has taken me on this journey, the more I want to become the person who could do a thing, the more he puts me in spaces and rooms with people like you all. Yeah. So cool. Yes. When the student's ready, the teacher's all right, right? That's how I always feel. Every time I'm like stuck at a level and then also like someone appears, I'm like,

Like, how have I not been aware of this person for so long? Like, you know what I mean? It always fascinates me when that happens. And it's exciting. That's how I got into Circle. I was like, where is the next person? I want to understand automation. I said, there's something going on. And I went to my own. I said, hey, what's going on in Circle? I didn't even know it existed. I told you the story of how I – Yeah, you were in ClickFunnels like a decade before. Yeah.

No, he was, but he, but I just didn't know, you know, I wasn't, I guess I wasn't ready or something was taking place. I was doing some other things and I just went, I said, Hey, what's going on in inner circle? I want to learn more about it. He said, yeah, absolutely. I went, um, I talked to Steve and circle and then I said, Hey, what's the highest one? He said, yeah, no, we kind of way. I said, dude, are you telling me? I can't talk about, do you know who I am? Yeah.

And he's like, yeah, you keep there. And so here I am. And this is where I know I belong. And I should have been here a long time ago, but time is perfect for now. Yeah, definitely. Okay. So someone who's listening who's right now, they're starting their coaching career. They're starting to go through here. You talked about, I think you said your five-step framework. Do you want to kind of go through that just like –

We have probably 10, 15 minutes to go through, but just so some actual things that people are like, what should I be doing? Because maybe they're at the spot where they've been doing this for a year or two and not growing, and they want to have a big pivot point like you were able to have. Perfect. I was just sharing this with someone yesterday. Matter of fact, today, that framework in itself, even if you're just getting started, you spoke even earlier about a brand.

A brand is who we are. You are the brand, honestly. And if you want to look at just when you first get started, people are looking at particular area and they think, oh, but my industry is different. You don't understand, Russell. You don't understand, Dr. Sarnia. And I'm like, dude, there's hundreds of thousands of you that I've taught and trained. And it's the same. However, you may be different with different hair, different eye color, but it's still the same issues that you have.

So if you're just getting started, really consider where is your voice and where should it be more profound? What platform should it be? You know, we talk about social media. It's the number one free platform where you can just go viral and you can look up and hundreds of thousands of people are seeing and hearing you. Can you imagine, especially for those that are listening right now that truly believe, which camera should I look at? Because I need them to see my face. This one right here. If you're really in this space right now and you really want to help in

serve people that are out there, really consider what your brand looks like. And the brand is not just them building a business. You're beyond the business is what is that brand? It's going to last much longer than your business ever could. And so it is thinking about what does that coaching look like? What coaching program do you have that you can take people on a journey? And it's no longer even called coaching anymore. You're taking us on a journey. Where is the destination for that? And what are the steps we need to take? Right? And then we start thinking about speaking and

I always hear people, but I don't want to speak. I'm so nervous. I could talk one-to-one-to-one. You give them a mic, they won't shut up, right? And so it's just really what's that message? What's that one message that you could take to multiple platforms to get in front of millions of people to make millions of dollars? If you can understand and understand

apply that framework, this is a game changer. So you're coaching, you're speaking, you're writing a book. Always, see, can I tell you something that I talk about with you all the time? I said, if we sit down and look at what Russell is doing, he is doing these five, this framework is the same thing. I didn't even know who you were, right? When this was developed, but it was Russell's coaching. Yes, that's a yes.

Russell's writing books. Yes. Russell's speaking, whether he's having his own events or speaking on his own platform or speaking on somebody else's stage. Russell's having events all the time. And Russell's also has coaching programs that are out there.

That if we can really tap with that one brand and put it on all these platforms, God forbid, if ad ads go down or you get shut out or the ad cost goes. Oh, yeah. We're not going to talk about that. What else can you do? Right. You can be on a platform. You can write your book, a book that makes you millions of dollars, not just millions of sales for books, but millions of dollars because of the content and the I would say follow up that happens in a book.

That's really the framework that anyone that's just getting started, if they really learn to tap into that framework, it's game changer and it's game over. And you can pull up beside someone at a stoplight and you just pulled up and they're like, where are you from? And you're the new kid on the block. That's how I always feel. But I showed up in the fastest, not the fastest car, but the car that has the fastest engine. And I believe that framework has the fastest engine and that's speaking for sure. Yeah, for sure. Um,

Yeah, I think it's, it's the thing I see where people struggle is they come into this and they're trying to figure out, they use like a finish line, like how do I make the money? How to do the thing versus like, all right, this is a career. This is, I'm going into it, right? This is a career. You look at different, like I'm going to be writing books. I'm speaking, I'm selling, I'm creating, you know, and it's like, it becomes that. And I think if people look at it more like that,

it shifts in their head. You know what I mean? Like for me, like I remember writing my first book was really hard. It took me a decade to get the first one done. I was like, I'll never write a book again. And then two years later, the second one. And then I remember I had this really, I was hanging out with Brendan Brouchard. Me and him had a weird relationship. We didn't like each other for like a decade. And then we like remet and turned out we loved each other. And so we hung out for like a whole day. I was like, I'm so sorry. I was a jerk for a decade. He's like me too. Anyway, but it was really cool. We reconnected. And I remember, um,

he was finishing, he was about to submit a manuscript. And so we were in Vegas together and he was showing it to me. And, and I was like, you're writing another book. Like, are you tired of writing books? And he's like, what do you mean? He's like, this is my career. This is what I do. He's like, I read a book every two years for the rest of my life. And at first, like for me, it was like this resistance, like, I don't want to do that. And then it was like,

okay, if I'm like, if I really want, if I really believe in this, I really want to do this. I really try and change people's lives. Like that's the pattern, right? I got to write, I got to write books. I got to make a part of it. Like every, every for me, every two, well, this last book take me longer, but in theory, every two years, like, like a new book needs to be coming. Right. So then it becomes part of who you are and it's different. Right. And then like, I speak, I got to find speaking gauge and I need to be figuring things out. Like,

And it's, you know, I'm very introverted. I still get scared every time I, before I speak. But then like you said, as soon as the mic starts, it's just like a wrestling match. You're so scared and you shake the person's hand and all the nerves go away. And it's like getting past that. But it's, it's like you had to be actively looking for those things, right? Like you don't get on a hundred stages unless you're like, people are waiting. Like no one's ever asked me to be on the stage. Like, what are you waiting for? Yeah.

Don't wait on them to invite you to the table. Create your own table. A hundred percent. Yes. You were a wrestler. I played basketball and I even placed in my pro basketball and I can remember playing in Europe and that there's a movie that was out and said the coach was speaking, but he was speaking in a different language. She was American. I think he was German. And I went through that same scenario and I would ask my teammate, like what did coach say? He said, make sure Sonia gives you the ball or put Sonia. I was a point guard. So make sure you do everything she says.

that's what she was translating to me. And that's really what I've done in this industry. I became a point guard passing the ball over to my two or my three or my four or my person down low so they can do whatever they need to do right under the goal. So this is really what we do. It's a sport. This is really a sport and I love sports. This is a game for us. Game of business. Yes. I joke with my kids because they're all video game, you know, and I'm like, I make business like a video game, but the end you get to keep

the money. Yeah. Yeah. You're playing these games, you're winning money, but you don't get to be like, we just spend it afterwards. It's so cool. And you actually help people and it's tangible and it's, it's the best game ever created. It's amazing. And, but Russell, thank you for creating this community. I just got to say, I, I, I believe one, it's not just for me to be here. I really want to open doors to, for more people that look like me, more women, more women of color. Cause I can't believe, and I hope this is okay on camera. I,

really want us to understand because there's some things that are sharing in these rooms that we're not learning anywhere else. I don't know anyone. I've been in a lot of masterminds, including Brandon's, and I needed to find someone who is, maybe it's just me, that's competitive, but not against other people, but for

themselves and they just keep going. And I said, I always wanted to be my coach's number one student. It's not being a teacher's pet. They may not know it, but I always want you to put something out there. Yep. I know Dr. Sonia is going to do it. Did you do it? Yep. I did it. Matter of fact, I did it five times. It works this way, but it is just, I thank you for creating environments like this because I've never seen anything like this in my life. Even the military can take something from this, from the training that we do with our soldiers and,

from every branch of service. So that's going to be my business. How fast can I get back to them to show them this is how it should be done, the training at least. Oh, thank you. That means the world to me. I appreciate it. All right, to end out with, for people who heard your story and they want to plug in and learn more about you, where's the best place for them to go and to...

be able to plug into you and your entire business in your world and see you speak and everything. Well, you know, I would say unless you, if you want to just be a Toyota, don't come over here, but if you really want to level up to the place where they want to be, they can find me on social media at I am Dr. Sonia for those that really want to become speakers. It says women speak and grow rich because that's where my heart is, but I do coach some smart men. So along the way, so they can find me on social media and they can go to drsoniabrands.com. Awesome.

Awesome. Thanks for being here and hanging out. And it's always fun having you in Boise. And thanks for being on the podcast. I appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate the invite for sure. Do you have a funnel, but it's not converting? The problem 99.9% of the time is that your funnel is good, but you suck at selling. If you want to learn how to sell so your funnels will actually convert, then get a ticket to my next Selling Online event by going to sellingonline.com slash podcast. That's sellingonline.com slash podcast.