Male Speaker: Cloris is a performance coach and online trainer specialized in branding and lead generation. Cloris helps authors, coaches, speakers, trainers, and consultants expand their reach and client base so that they can make a great living doing what they live. Her motto: Reveal your magnificence. Cloris, take a minute, fill in some gaps from that intro and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Cloris Kylie: Well, reveal your magnificence is my motto for that reason, because I feel that many of us have these great gifts to share with the world, and we don’t tell anybody, right? So you’ve got to really, you know, reveal it and just tell everybody what you can do, and that way you can feel great about yourself and also make a difference in the world. And I told you I didn’t reveal my magnificence for a long time, and I think personal challenge is also the fact that I love to do so many things that they allow me to focus in the past. Like, I’ve done everything, John. I have an engineering degree, but I never worked as an engineer. And I just went to engineering school because everybody told me that’s what I had to do. So I just followed what people thought was best for me and not necessarily what I knew was best for me. And I loved journalism and communications, and that’s what I wanted to do. But instead I went to the path that, you know, other people showed me; and I’m not going to say that it was a bad thing because I learned what I did not want, and that’s one thing I want to share with Fire Nation, that, you know, it’s okay if you try something and it doesn’t work out. Then you’ll learn what you don’t want so you can just keep moving and find something that you love.

Male Speaker: Cloris, I love all of this, and it kind of brings me back to a book I’ve mentioned a few times on EOFire and one that I actually probably should be rereading pretty soon because it just brings home such a solid point. And the name of the book is The Ten Biggest Regrets of the Dying. And this woman went around and she interviewed people that, you know, had just mere weeks or maybe months to live, and she asked them what their biggest regrets were. And it was so crazy that you almost coined that phrase exactly when you were just sharing that little spiel of what this book really hammered home, and that is that, man, people regretted following the advice of others instead of just saying what is it that I want, what is it that I feel, what is it that I really want to be in this world. Instead, again, they let outside influences control their direction. And that was their biggest regret. And Fire Nation, it’s time, if you haven’t already, to reveal your magnificence. I love that phrase. It’s simple, it’s short, it’s sweet; and the only thing worse about waiting to reveal your magnificence is never revealing that magnificence that you have inside. So we’re going to keep talking about this today, about Cloris’s journey, and how you, Fire Nation, can reveal your magnificence. Or if you already have, how to make it shine even brighter because that’s what we’re all about here. But before we get into your journey, Cloris, which is going to be a fascinating one, we talk about revenue, because you’re an entrepreneur. You’re a small business owner. You’ve created a viable business. How have you done so? What are your revenue streams?

Cloris Kylie: John, I generate revenue through two main ways. The first one is coaching. So I coach authors, consultants, speakers, seminar leaders on how to boost services already. So I help them basically find the best vehicle for them to share their message with the world. It’s a way they can build their list, which is something that many experts forget about. So I do that, I coach them one-on-one, also group coaching, and I offer digital training. So basically courses that people can take on their own. So that’s how I generate my revenue.

Male Speaker: Love it. And Fire Nation, you can see that Cloris has found what people who are successful are not being successful with as parts of their business, building email lists, expanding their influence, really making their brands even louder and larger than it is right now, and that’s what we can do. You know, we can add value to others. Now, I do want to talk about your journey, Cloris, and specifically what you consider your worst entrepreneurial moments to date. You’ve had some ups, you’ve had some downs, you’ve had a lot of stories, but what’s the worst moment? Cloris, tell us that story.

Cloris Kylie: John, my worst moment actually happened not that far in the past, and it’s one day -- or one night actually, I woke up about, you know, 3 in the morning. And the first thing I wanted to do was rush to the computer and cash out of my 401(k) and all retirement and savings I had and just escape. I wanted to take off and travel around the world and just kind of go where nobody knew me and start a new life. And then I actually thought about the future and said, well, you know, in a few years I’ll run out of money, it’s okay, I don’t care, I’ll just work at McDonald’s, do whatever it takes and I just want to get out of here. And of course I didn’t do it. I lay there in bed for a while, and when I got up that day I was pretty tired. So I was trying to think, you know, why do I feel this way? And what hit me is that I was burned out, and I didn’t really realize it because I had been working so, so hard and I realized that I hadn’t even listened to music in about seven months. I hadn’t played one song. I had done nothing except for work. And it had to, you know, all come together and brought me to that point. But I tell you, I don’t want to be there anymore. So it wasn’t a good place to be in. You know, Fire Nation, if you’re ever at that point, you don’t want to get there; you want to prevent it.

Male Speaker: Living a life out of balance, Fire Nation, is not living a life on fire. Like it’s not really just you emulating the type of entrepreneur that you want to be. And I’ve got to be honest; I’m guilty of the same thing, Cloris. I mean, 2012, ’13, and ’14, it was nose to the grindstone; I was building this business, I was working every day. And, you know, I looked up in 2015, and I wasn’t that happy with what I was seeing in the mirror. I was saying, man, I have let things slip that I shouldn’t. I haven’t been living the balanced life that I see other successful entrepreneurs living that I really admire, I want to change that. So, you know, it was well over a year ago now, but I made that massive shift. And it’s been everything. And Cloris, you made that shift, and it’s been powerful for you. And Fire Nation, if you haven’t yet made that shift, like what are you waiting for? It’s all about the living a life on balance. Now, Cloris, I kind of want to do a little bit of a shift into an ah-ha moment, but before we get there, you know, that was my big takeaway, was the fact that it’s so important to live a life on balance. In just one sentence, what do you want to make sure Fire Nation gets from the worst moment that you experienced, that 3 a.m. wakeup?

Cloris Kylie: I actually wrote an article about it when I had grown past that moment. I said I have to share with people what they can do, and the article would come out. It’s going to be published on [indiscernible]. Just I want everybody to -- well, nobody to ever go through that. And I quoted this three-S strategy, and the first S is stop. Okay, stop doing what you’re doing, stop working. I know it’s hard because what happens, we say to ourselves, oh, I’ll stop when I get X new clients or I’ll stop when I finish the website or when I go through my emails, and that’s not the way to go because you will not be productive. So stop whatever you’re doing. And then the second S is for switch. So switch to doing something entirely different. So in my case, I went the whole day to the coast. I love the ocean. So I just walked around. It was just beautiful, you know, the birds and the waves and just the fresh air. I felt like a different person just at the end of the day. It only took one day to change my outlook. So just switch immediately to something entirely different. If you’re sitting all day, then do something active. If you’re outside all day, then do something indoors, something different. And the last S is for strategize because, again, if you go back to your old habits, you’ll be in the same spot. So you don’t want that. You want to find a plan that works for you, like you said to live life in balance so you can succeed in your business, but also feel great. And when you die, you don’t have those five regrets of the dying that you mentioned before.

Male Speaker: Stop, switch, and strategize, Fire Nation. And Cloris, I love how you ended that with, you know, Fire Nation, how can you expect different results if you’re not doing anything different? Get out of doing that same thing. Get out of the rut. Get out of the routine. Switch things up. First stop, then switch things up, and then strategize going forward. Now, Cloris, when is that article coming out?

Cloris Kylie: It’s coming out in the next four weeks. It’s coming out soon.

Male Speaker: Okay, perfect. So by the time this interview is live, that article will be live. So Cloris, shoot me an email with the link to that article. We’re going to put it, Fire Nation, in the show notes page because this is going to be going live sometime in February, Cloris. So that article will be live, and we’ll link up right to that, Fire Nation. You can enjoy that at your leisure. And Cloris, now we are going to shift to your ah-ha moment, to a light bulb you had, to an epiphany moment that you’ve had in your journey. And of course you’ve had a ton, girl. But you know Fire Nation. Pick one that you know is going to resonate with us entrepreneurs, small business owners, and tell us that story.

Cloris Kylie: It’s a funny story because I thought I was doing a great job. I had my website and my social media profiles and just said, well, I’m all set, everybody knows what I do. So one day I went into a networking meeting. I knew I had to meet more people. So I meet this woman, and she said, oh, yeah, I checked out your website and your LinkedIn profile; and then she said, but what is it that you do? And that’s when it hit me. Like this is what happened, John: You always talk about focus, but that’s something I did not like or I just wanted to serve everybody. I wanted everybody to hear my message. I wanted to help everybody. And that wasn’t working for me because my site, my LinkedIn profile, all of my social media was just so broad that nobody really understood what I did. So that hit me. It was like, okay, I have to stop this. As tough as it is, it’s important to find an ideal customer, somebody who you really want to serve, just like you have Jimmy for the podcasts.

Male Speaker: Right.

Cloris Kylie: Every business should have an avatar, somebody you could actually print a picture of him or her and just put it on a bulletin board, look at the picture; and whatever you do, ask yourself is this good for Jimmy here, would Jimmy like it. And that’s what changed things for me. Then I started to redo my whole site and all my messages so I could really serve a small group of people, and that -- once you get to that point, then you can probably expand, but not before you have really gotten to the point at which you know you’re serving your market 100 percent.

Male Speaker: Do you see what happens, Fire Nation, when you don’t listen to me? Kidding. Fire Nation, you know that I preach and preach -- and I’m actually looking right now at a great banner that one of you, Fire Nation, one of my listeners sent to me, which just says FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Success. And I get it. You know, that doesn’t sound sexy, doesn’t sound awesome because, you know, we want to be all things to all people. We want to be doing everything at once and crushing it in all areas. And you can do that down the road, Fire Nation, but you’ve got to get that initial motivation, that initial momentum, that initial traction, and that’s going to happen when you focus, when you niche, when you know that one perfect avatar. For me, it’s Jimmy. Cloris, what’s your avatar’s name?

Cloris Kylie: Dorothy actually.

Male Speaker: Dorothy. I thought you were going to say Doris because it rhymes with Cloris, and that’s actually my grandmother’s name, is Doris, so that would have been cool. But Dorothy is amazing as well. Now, my big take away from that, Cloris, is listen to [indiscernible]. But no seriously, my big takeaway is to know your focus and to really get into who your avatar is. In just one sentence, Cloris, what do you want to make sure Fire Nation gets from your story?

Cloris Kylie: Focus. Focus and target. And I would say that the more you can focus the better. It’s going to be tough, but make yourself do it because your success depends on it.

Male Speaker: Cloris, what’s your biggest weakness as an entrepreneur?

Cloris Kylie: Well, my biggest weakness is what led me to my poorest moment, which was that I -- I want to do everything. I want to control everything. It’s really hard for me to let go and to outsource things, and I just want to do it all. And I think that it’s not the best way to live and the least stressful way to live. I really have to learn how to delegate, how to have people help me, and I think it’s common for entrepreneurs. We’re independent people, so we want to do it at all, and that’s not good really.

Male Speaker: What’s your biggest strength?

Cloris Kylie: My biggest strength is my ability to persist. Because I tell you this journey hasn’t been easy; and instead of giving up, I just find new ways to do things. So if something doesn’t work out, which many times I’ve had courses that I worked months to create, and then I get one sale and say, oh, my gosh. So instead of feeling depressed, all I do is say, okay, what didn’t work? Can I market this course differently? And then make it -- because the concept is not good enough. Do I have to do market research? So learn from what I do, and that’s how you get over those bad moments.

Male Speaker: And another suggestion that I would give, hearing what you just shared, Cloris, is pre-sell. Pre-sell your course. I mean, before you actually spend months actually creating the actual content, you know, say, hey, this is what I’m going to create. My audience, you know, for me that would be Fire Nation. If you want to be part of this, if you want this to be creative, be an early bird. Be a founding mother or father of this group, and bolt with your wallet. Put your money where your mouth is; and if I get enough people to actually purchase this product in preproduction, then I’m going to go and create it. So you’ll be transparent about it, but bring people into this. They’ll have fun. You know, I’ve been talking about the Freedom Journal for over a year now, getting people fired up. Now, speaking of fired up, Cloris, what’s the one thing that has you most fired up today?

Cloris Kylie: John, I’m so excited about this new course that I’m releasing. And this one I actually did my research and I had people take it ahead of time. So yeah, it’s called Lead Generation Academy. So it basically has everything you need to boast your visibility as an author, as a speaker, a coach. And yeah, so actually I have a gift for all those people who are listening, and that’s at myplatform.info/fire, and you’ll see a social media template. Because I think it’s tough to write headlines that attract people to your social media post, so I figured I would offer that to Fire Nation just so they can get started with their social media.

Male Speaker: Lead Generation Academy, Fire Nation. Visit myplatform.info/fire, and, Cloris is going to have a nice little gift waiting for you there and some more information as well. And get fired up, Fire Nation, because we’re about to enter the lightning round. But first let’s take a minute to thank our sponsors. Cloris, are you prepared for the lightning round?

Cloris Kylie: Oh, I am.

Male Speaker: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Cloris Kylie: It was the expectations that everybody had of me to follow a traditional career, to work for a corporation. That’s what was holding me back, I would say all the external expectations.

Male Speaker: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Cloris Kylie: The best advice is to build a platform, build a lift. Don’t think that because you put out a great book or a great program people are going to find it and buy it. You have to create a captive audience who is ready to purchase a product, your services, who loves your stuff. So this is a must for really every business.

Male Speaker: What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success?

Cloris Kylie: There is three things I do every day, John, and those are promote my stuff, partner with new people or maintain my current connections, and produce. So I produce something new, a new product, maybe a completed product and make it better. I promote what I have of course so I can have sales, and then I launch to my current connections or find new connections, and those three Ps are essential for success.

Male Speaker: I love that. She has the three Ss, Fire Nation, and of course those are really powerful for all the obvious reasons, stop, switch, and strategize. And she has the three Ps, produce, promote, and, Cloris, I’ll hand you the last one.

Cloris Kylie: Partner.

Male Speaker: Partner, baby. Produce, promote, and partner, Fire Nation. Now, what’s an internet resource like Ever Note that you can share with Fire Nation?

Cloris Kylie: I’d like to share two of them actually. The first one is Thrive Leads. And that is a wonderful plug-in that you can add to your work website so you can have light boxes, those pop-up boxes that allow you to grow your list. You can add boxes beautifully designed at the bottom of your blog post, so I love them. And it’s only $50 a year or something. It’s really inexpensive. And I also love Calva [ph], which I think most people who are listening might know about. I love Calva because you can do your own designs and you can make your site look as beautiful as you want.

Male Speaker: Love it. And the Thrive Leads is what you see on EOFire.com. Now, if you could recommend just one book for our listeners, Cloris, what would it be and why?

Cloris Kylie: I’d like to recommend the Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth by James Altucher. And I tell you if you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur and you’re not sure or you made the decision and you’re kind of having second thoughts, this is the book to read because you’ll learn that you’re on the right path. You’ll feel good about yourself, about what you’re doing, and you’ll have that mentality that would allow you to make a ton of money.

Male Speaker: Love that book, and I love James Altucher; he’s such a great guy. And Fire Nation, I know you love audio, so I teamed up with Audible. And if you haven’t already, you can get an amazing audio book for free at EOFirebook.com. Now Cloris, this is the last question of the lightning round, but it is a doozy. Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning in a brand new world, identical to earth but you didn’t know anyone. You still have all the experience and knowledge you currently have. Your food and shelter is taken care of, but all you have is a laptop and $500. What would you do in the next seven days?

Cloris Kylie: Well, this is related to what we talked about. You know, what is the best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten, and that’s to build a list. So I would find three ways to build my list so I could have a captive audience who will be ready to buy my stuff. And those [indiscernible] which I recommend 100 percent, just take advantage of other people’s platforms. You can be on podcasts, which is free as well, so to bring awareness of your brand. You could go on TV, local TV, become a regular on a local TV show, and it’s amazing.

Male Speaker: Which is easier than you think, Fire Nation. It’s not that hard.

Cloris Kylie: Oh, definitely. Just talk to -- page people. You have to get your word out there and reveal your magnificence. And I would say any way which you can capitalize on somebody else’s platform, it’s free, so I would do that. And get that list going and offer up some free -- not free, but cheap product so I can start getting traffic for at least break even or a low price so I can grow my business.

Male Speaker: Fire Nation, Cloris dropped the value bombs galore. And I want to end on fire, girl. So give us a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say goodbye.

Cloris Kylie: All right. Well, I’d like to say, Fire Nation, that remember that this is a journey, and it’s not like you’re going to get it done and that’s the end of it, because it’s a journey that you have to enjoy every single day. Today I told you you’re going to be at the pinnacle, the best part of your business right now, and that’s it. You would feel fine for a few seconds, but then what? What would happen next in your life? So remember it’s a journey, enjoy every part of it because this is the whole purpose of life. And if you want to connect with me, just go to ClorisKylie.com. That’s C-L-O-R-I-S K-Y-L-I-E.com.

Male Speaker: Fire Nation, you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You have been hanging out with CK and JLD today, so keep up the heat. And head over to EOFire.com. Just type Cloris, C-L-O-R-I-S, in the search bar. Her show notes page will pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today. Of course, you can go directly to her website, cloriskylie.com. You can get that great gift she has for you, Fire Nation, at myplatform.info/fire. And of course the Lead Generation Academy is something you might want to be checking out for obvious reasons. And Cloris, thank you for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, and we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Cloris Kylie: Thank you, John.