0 (1s):
Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation, JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like my first million stories about companies that grew from nothing into legit businesses. Today, we'll be focusing on your message mattering, how to rise above the noise and get paid for what you know, to drop these volleyballs. I brought Jonathan Milligan on the mic. He is the founder of MarketsYourMessage.com and Author of the new book: Your Message Matters - How to Rise Above the Noise and Get Paid for What You Know. And today Fire Nation we'll talk about the difference between finding your purpose and uncovering it.

0 (45s):
How to discover your life's message, the four primary influencer voices. And of course, what are the best ways for messengers to actually get posted and so much more Fire Nation. When we get back from thinking our sponsors hiring can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you post a job on ZipRecruiter, their matching technology finds these qualified candidates for you and invite them to apply. So while other companies give you too many options, ZipRecruiter finds you the needle in the haystack. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com/fire. Your expertise is unique in your online courses should be too. So build it your way with Thinkific. Introducing the first app store for online course creators on Thinkific.

0 (1m 28s):
Sign up for your free trial of Thinkific at Thinkific.com/fire free. That's THINKIFIC.com/fire free. Jonathan, say what's up the Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 48s):
First of all, it's great to be back on the show. I'm so excited and here's the thing. So I originally started, well, I say my second blog was called blogging, your passion, and that created a real frenzy and it's something that's always debated. Like, do you follow your passion? Do you follow what's profitable? How do you marry? Marry the two? And ultimately I think passion is something that's often misunderstood. So passion, yes, you need to have profit in it, but here's the thing. Passion is not like this one. And only thing I'd go find out there and find that one passion that I'm going to do for the rest of my life.

1 (2m 27s):
I believe passions change. But what I define passion is is it's a problem you're passionate about solving for the next two to five years. That is what an entrepreneur needs to focus on. So it's not, I'm passionate about pizza. So therefore I need to create a business on pizza, but is there an underlying problem that needs to be solved in something you're willing to dedicate for the next two to five years? So passion again, way misunderstood by a lot of people. But I think if you have the right definition, it can make all difference. Well, fire

0 (3m 0s):
Nation, as you know, from the intro, we're going to be talking about this theme a lot today, specifically all around the concepts within Jonathan's first, traditionally published book, your message matters, how to rise above the noise and get paid yo, for what you know, I added that yo, by the way, that's not actually part of the book, but listen, this is the deal. We're going to be talking a lot for our nation about purpose, about uncovering and about passionate about message. And I want to start there, Jonathan, kind of building off of what you already share with us here today. What is the actual difference between just finding your purpose and uncovering it? Cause at first glance it kind of seems like the same thing.

1 (3m 39s):
Yeah, it does. And you know, it took me, I would say a decade to figure this out. So as someone who launched from college, I became a high school teacher, both my parents were teachers, I'm married an elementary teacher. I just thought that was where I was supposed to go. But for some reason I had this unsettled desire to do something entrepreneurial and I just started doing things. I kept thinking, I got to find my purpose. And here's what I realized. After a decade of that journey, you don't find your purpose in a thing, a job, a career or a company, but you uncover your purpose. It's actually right underneath your nose all along.

1 (4m 22s):
And there was this, this old book called acres of diamonds. That was a game changer for me. It's been out of print for years, but it was basically about a person who, a farmer who owned some land and he wanted to go on a search for diamonds. He thought if I could just go find diamonds, that'll be what I, what I want in life is to be rich. And so he sold his farm land, went out to go searching for those diamonds, ended up broke and basically died, broke. I broke man. Meanwhile, the person he sold his land to was coming across the Lake or actually the, the river right there and notice something shiny and the river.

1 (5m 3s):
And it was a diamond. And lo and behold, that land was filled with diamonds. And the point of the message is oftentimes we're trying to find our purpose out there in the thing, but your hidden diamond is right underneath you. It is how you were made. I believe we're all factory installed with a gift, but we need to nurture it and use it. You've been given a unique ability by God, but you need to discover it and then start using it.

0 (5m 34s):
Factory installed with a gift. I love that phrase, Fire Nation. Think about that. You're a snowflake, you're unique. You're different. You have a gift that is unlike anyone else's in this world. So what should you do to go about finding your purpose and uncovering that purpose through what John's gonna be sharing here today. And that kind of leads us to the next thing I want to talk about, you know, which is this life's message. Like, do we, to even discover this life's message or, you know, I should even maybe more get specific and say, how can we discover this life's message?

1 (6m 6s):
So discovering your message really comes down to three things, purpose, which we just talked about, people and passion. You have to have all three of these together. If you want to create a message based business. And that's what I'm talking about in the book is how do you take your message, your story, and create a business around it. You have to have these three things. So purpose. We just talked about it to sum it up. It's how you show up best for others. Do you know how you show up best for others? Number two, it's people who do you want to serve? You can't serve everybody. You've got to decide the people you want to serve. And the more specific you can be, the more powerful your communication becomes.

1 (6m 47s):
And so you've got to figure out that people part, who do you want to serve. And then finally, it's passion. What problem are you passionate about solving for the next two to five years? Again, your passions will change. And that's something that I really wanted to get across in the book is that passions change, but your purpose remains. So don't put your identity in a passion because it's probably going to change. You know, when I first started online, it was a blog for career coach. It was a career coach blog for accounting professionals. I'm not doing that anymore. You know, I started talking about blogging and now I've moved on to marketing your message for messengers of all types, your passions will change, but your purpose remains.

1 (7m 29s):
And so if you want to put together your message, it's nailing down purpose, how you show it best for others, people who you want to serve and passion. What problem are you passionate about solving for the next two to five years?

0 (7m 42s):
Three Ps, Fire Nation. I'll say one more time because it's so critical. You are absorbing the specifics here, purpose. How are you showing up best for others? Like get real about that then people who exactly do you want to serve and let's get specific specific on this and passion. What problem are you passionate about solving for the next two to five years and something that you didn't even actually bring up, John, that I'm kind of curious for you to just kind of quickly respond to as the, yeah. What if there's a situation where you actually do solve that problem and like lo and behold, the problem solved. So that could be another reason why you don't want to get too tied up in this passion because you might actually even just complete the solving of that problem and move on to something completely different or something.

0 (8m 25s):
That's that next level.

1 (8m 27s):
Yeah, absolutely. And the thing is too, John you're growing as well. So you know what you're passionate about may change. You may feel like, you know what, I think I've helped bloggers start blogs, but there is a higher thing. There's that next level maybe I want to help six figure entrepreneurs become seven figure entrepreneurs. And so yes, that can absolutely happen.

0 (8m 47s):
So in the book you talk about these four primary influencer voices let's go through all four. Yes. Now this was a

1 (8m 57s):
Discovery I made from a weekend workshop that I did. So I kept it to like 15 people. This is about six years ago and I was primarily known as the blogging guy back then. And here we have, I am spending time with these 15 people for two whole days. And I kept hearing the same thing over and over again, Jonathan, I'm not really a writer. I struggled to write, but you put me in front of a camera and give me a topic and stuff, bubbles out. Or Jonathan, I love having conversations and interviewing people maybe like on a podcast. And I walked away from that two day event going, why is there not a personality test or influencers? Meaning if you desire to be an influencer of some type, is there a personality test that can help you discover if you are more motivated to be a writer, a speaker, a teacher or coach.

1 (9m 48s):
And so that was the Genesis of a 32 question assessment that I've used now for the past six years. And we have really dialed it in, in fact, we included the whole 32 question assessment right inside the book because I wanted people to be able to take action on it right away. And so what this does, John, is it helps you to identify your core motivations. It's not competency, but it's like, am I more motivated to be a writer, a speaker, a teacher, or a coach? And the final word on this, because I know I get this a lot is, well, what if I want to do all four? You can absolutely do them. You can't do them all at once, but you can develop competency in all four. I've been able to put all four into my business over time, but your fastest path to income and impact is leaning into your primary influencer voice

0 (10m 38s):
Fire Nation. This is the reason why I brought John on the mic today to talk to you because listen, these are four primary influencer voices that you need to understand, go through, potentially identify and resonate with so that you are speaking in the right direction. Now, John, before we move on anything you want to add to this part?

1 (10m 59s):
Yeah. One thing for messengers would be, once you identify this, it's going to help you understand two things. Number one, the type of content you should create. And number two, the income streams you should start with. So quick example writer, obviously blogging is there. And maybe as an income, you need to be writing a book. Or if you are a speaker, maybe you need to think of a YouTube channel. If you're a teacher, a live stream show weekly where you're interacting with people is a great place to start. And if you're a coach, maybe an interview podcast is a terrific personality, a style for you to lean into.

0 (11m 37s):
That was one thing that helped me out so much over the years was learning how to ask the right questions by interviewing so many people, which of course then made me a better coach, a better mentor, a better creator of courses, et cetera. Because the skill of asking the right questions was so key and Fire Nation. You even think we're close to being done, dropping value bombs. You got another thing coming. We're going to be talking about some of the best ways for messengers to get paid. Yo, when we get back from thanking our sponsors as entrepreneurs, we have unique expertise and goals. But one thing that we share in common is a desire to shape our business the way we want. And if you've ever thought about online courses, let me tell you from experience, they need to work for your business.

0 (12m 22s):
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0 (13m 5s):
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0 (13m 45s):
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1 (14m 26s):
I really love talking about this. And the book itself is divided into two parts. Part one is a more of a self-development like we just talked about uncovering your gift. What is your message? Then the second part of the book is about the practical marketing tactics of rising above the noise. Cause here's the thing. There are so many distractions out there for messengers know, do I do social media, do do a podcast. Do I launch a blog? Do I do this, do that. And they just get so distracted and it really goes back to something. I know you talk about a lot, John and that's focused. And so for me in the book, I talk about the four focus habits.

1 (15m 8s):
These have been game changers for me and it, I really discovered this by watching other people I admired. So here they are real quickly. Number one is the create habit. This is where you are doing something you're creating free value in some way. That's a podcast, a blog, a YouTube channel, a live stream show. If we're talking about online, in other words, how are you going to get your message out to the masses? Because here's the reality. There's only two ways to promote your business. Either number one, promote yourself or to you promote your free, valuable content. I don't know about you, but I don't like promoting myself. It's just not something I feel, you know, some people have that gift.

1 (15m 49s):
I don't, but for me, promoting free valuable content is the key. So that's number one. What are you doing to create free value for people to bring your message to the masses? Number two, the capture habit. What are you doing to build your email list? This is so important that building an email list is still here. It's not going anywhere. Could it change one day? Yes, but I'm not putting my hopes into Facebook likes. I'm not putting my hopes into a Facebook group or Twitter followers.

0 (16m 21s):
What about all my TikToK followers? Yo,

1 (16m 25s):
Those are great outposts for you to reach out to people, but ultimately where you build the relationship and the income proven over and over again is with the email list. And so you got to have the capture habit going on. What are you doing every week to put people on your list? Number three, the compile habit. This is where you package your knowledge into products and services. What are you working on right now? That's going to earn income. And then finally, number four is the connect habit. This is the fuel that gets everything going. This is traffic, right? What are you doing to connect with other influencers?

1 (17m 5s):
What are you doing to, to promote yourself in this content that you have? It's one thing to create it, but you gotta get it out there in some way. And so those are the four. This is where I spend majority of my week. The create habit, creating free value. Number two, the capture habit, building that list. Three, the compile habit working on something that's going to get me paid. And number four, the connect habit, the traffic

0 (17m 32s):
Create habit, Fire Nation. What are you doing every day to give free value to your audience is really solving problems. Then what are you doing to capture that? I actually don't have a Ted talk account, John. I was totally kidding. What are you doing to capture these potential leads that you are building up to build a meaningful list that you control? Not that Mark Zuckerberg controls that you control, then how can you compile this to get paid? Or we talking about this in a second here and then the connect habit. This is the fuel to your fire. This is traffic. So John, I teased this in the introduction. I teased it once again, before the break, I just teased it right now. Again, 35 seconds ago, tell us the best ways for us messengers to get paid.

1 (18m 16s):
There are 12 that I teach inside of the book, but I think the easiest way to explain it is that they fit into four buckets. And it goes back to what we talked about earlier. Writer, speaker, coach, teacher. So rider income streams. You can, self-publish a Kindle book. You can do a physical book. You can do an audio book, a speaker income streams, a paid keynotes. You could do virtual or even in-person workshops or events around your message. How about a coach? You can offer one-on-one coaching. You can do group coaching. You can offer a high ticket one year mastermind. And then what have you say? I'm a teacher.

1 (18m 57s):
Jonathan, what can I, how can I earn income online with that? Well, online courses is a great way on a membership site where you're showing up and teaching every single month. And so those are just a preview. We go way more in depth on these, but here's the cool thing. You can only do one at a time, but over time you can have all 12 of these working in your business if you want. And it's powerful. When you think about the income and impact you can create with these 12 income streams

0 (19m 27s):
Writer, speaker, coach, teacher, Fire Nation, that's just four buckets that can expound and expands out to a total of 12. And where are all those 12 while they're in John's new book, your message matters how to rise above the noise and get paid for what you know. So talk to us about this book. I mean, if I'm seeing this correctly, I think that you might've made this book available for free for EOFire listeners for Fire Nation. What's the deal with,

1 (19m 59s):
I really want to get the message out there for me. And I know you're the same way John, with your book and the, the big hidden secret is for Mo most authors. It's not about making money on the book. It's about spreading that message and making an impact in difference in people's lives. And so what I did is I actually bought a couple of thousand copies of my book to, to give away for free. And all I'm asking is to pay for the shipping and handling. So again, this bookstore, you can go get the same paperback book for $17 at your local bookstore, but I'm going to get away for free by going to YourMessageMattersBook.com again, as YourMessageMattersBook.com and you can get a free, actual physical, physical copy.

1 (20m 43s):
Sit to you. I'll ask us, you pay the shipping. Wow. So give us one breakdown

0 (20m 49s):
Here. What is the reason above and beyond all the awesomeness? We just shared that of courses and greater detail within the book that Fire Nation needs to consume the contents in this book.

1 (21m 1s):
So the, my main reason for writing this book is to help people who are on the fence. Quite frankly, they just don't believe they have value. They don't believe that they have a message to share. And what I want you to know is you have a powerful message to share, and I'll give you a quick example. So one of the illustrations I have in the book is picture, you're standing against this 30 foot high brick wall, and there's a single rope hanging down. And yes, it's going to require effort for you to grab a hold of that rope and scale this wall. But on the other side of this wall is a whole group of people cheering you on.

1 (21m 43s):
What's the point, here's the point. There are people in the future that need your help, but it hinges upon your present courage in this moment, a real quick story before COVID I had an in-person event and we had about 80 people that came to this event or two day event. And the night before I said, I want to show them my very first YouTube video, because it was terrible. It was horrible because sometimes people look up at influencers and think, Oh, they just could do this. It's just natural for them. I wanted them hear how creepy I was on my first video. So I went back into the archives and I found my very first YouTube video.

1 (22m 23s):
And it was exactly the same day, 10 years earlier. And I was just set back on my chair and I was like 10 years ago today. I would not imagine what I have here, a room full of people wanting to learn from me. And it's almost John as if I could, if I could hop in the DeLorean and go back in time and tap on that young, that younger me on their shoulder and say, Hey, listen, your present courage in this moment matters because here's the deal, their future health. I just came from the future. Their future help depends on your present courage right now.

1 (23m 3s):
And if that's true for me, that's true for you. Your present courage matters and their future help depends on your present courage right now, everybody you admire, you can trace their story back to a moment of present courage when they hit publish, when data cited to put their podcasts out there when they took those steps and your message matters and their future help depends on your present courage in this moment right now,

0 (23m 33s):
Fire Nation, there was a lot that I took away from this episode. I hope you were taking half as many notes as I was because there is so many value bombs that were shared. But if there's one theme, one, one takeaway that you really just absorb into your heart, your soul, your gut today that I think will really move the needle for you. Your present courage matters. It really does. And if you can just truly believe it because it's true. So it should be easy to believe. But if you believe it with your heart and your soul, you will be able to take the action necessary to be the success that you want to be. One year from now, five years from now or the 10th year from now that Jonathan just talked about where he could not believe what that present courage that he took 10 years ago had resulted in.

0 (24m 18s):
And you'll be in that chair as well. So Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And hello, you've been hanging out with JM and JLD today. So please keep up that heat head over to EOFire.com type Jonathan in the search bar in his show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about. These are the best shownotes in the biz. And by the way, you can also listen to past episodes that John's done on entrepreneurs, on fire. There's awesome value in that episode as well. So get back, listen to that one, enjoy it. And your direct call to action Fire Nation, YourMessageMattersBook.com YourMessageMattersBook.com,

1 (24m 59s):
head over to that URL. And just for shipping, you're going to get this book for free shipped to your door, make that happen. John's bought these books for you. Fire Nation. Let's make him use all of these books for you. YourMessageMattersBook.com. Get over there, invest in yourself with a shipping, invest in yourself with the time, energy and bandwidth. It's going to take to make your message matter to have your present courage. That's going to matter, Jonathan, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation today's value bound content was brought to you by Jonathan and Fire Nation success, launch viewers, they accomplish big goals, which is why I created the freedom journal to guide you and accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days.

0 (25m 50s):
And we're talking step-by-step visits the freedom journal.com use promo code podcast for a little $15 discounts. And thank you for listening to my podcast and I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side. Hiring can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you post a job on ZipRecruiter, their matching technology finds these qualified candidates for you and invites them to apply. So while other companies give you too many options, ZipRecruiter finds you the needle in the haystack. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com/fire. Your expertise is unique in your online courses should be too. So build it your way with Thinkific. Introducing the first app store for online course creators on Thinkific. Sign up for your free trial of Thinkific at Thinkific.com/fire free that's THINKIFIC.com/fire free.