Episode 80: Masterminding & Monetizing Your Expertise with Chris Williams – Transcript
Rennie Gabriel 00:09
Hi folks, welcome to Episode 80 of the Wealth On Any Income Podcast. This is where we talk about money tips, techniques, attitudes, information, and provide inspiration. I'm your host, Rennie Gabriel. In past episodes, we spoke about how to build an Income and Expense Report, how to measure the level of pleasure based on where you spend your money, how to track your money in 5 - 10 seconds, what to look for on a Net Worth Statement to see how close you are to Complete Financial Choice®. Last week, we had Stephan Spencer, who wrote the book on Search Engine Optimization. And when I say he wrote the book, I mean, he wrote the textbook used by major companies. Today we have as our guest, Chris Williams. Chris has five kids, loves extreme adventures like shark diving, ice climbing, and running ultra marathons. When he's not riding his bike or skateboard, he works with digital agencies, and helps experts build wealth and uses masterminds as an alternative source of income and lead generation. He has his own digital agency, and has the most pleasure teaching experts how to generate leads, close high ticket deals, and build strong cohesive groups. Chris, welcome to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast.
Chris Williams 01:39
Rennie, it's so great to be here. Episode 80. Wow, dude, that's a lot of work, like congratulations.
Rennie Gabriel 01:47
Oh, well, like I talk about all the time, wealth creation, business growth - doesn't matter - it's a team sport, not a solo sport. And I have a VA, who does all the work for me after you and I have conversations. I don't have to do anything else.
Chris Williams 02:04
Well, to the VA, I know you're listening in. Thank you. It's truly a pleasure. It's so nice to have good people on our teams.
Rennie Gabriel 02:10
Yes, Susan is fabulous. So, okay, I think I have an idea of what you do - but tell me like, what does your agency do?
Chris Williams 02:21
Yeah, so I have two businesses. And I think that's probably common for the people who are listening in with us. We're entrepreneurs, you know, we can't help but do more things, right. We love it.
Rennie Gabriel 02:30
Yes, it's an addiction. Yes.
Chris Williams 02:31
It is, yeah - talk to Rennie for five minutes, you'll know what that's all about. So here's the thing. We have a "done for you" digital marketing agency that works exclusively with surgeons in sub specialties, in cash pay, cosmetic, and bariatric procedures only. Super niche down. Okay? What happened, and here's where this mastermind thing comes into play. I got really good at running businesses. I just like running businesses. It's not about the marketing. And it's not about the which niche or market we picked. It comes down to me, like, the systems and the people that carry out these plans that we think of as entrepreneurs. I love building systems and I love building really good teams and having fun with my people. So people started asking me questions about, like, how I don't work very much and how we do the things we do. Rennie, you and I have talked about it. We love to travel. I got five kids, I like to go out there and do stuff, but I have to have time and money at the same time to do those things. Okay. That's the backstory. Still have that agency. I work about an hour and a half a day in that business. Oh, sorry, an hour and a half a week. I've got a great team.
Rennie Gabriel 03:35
Oh, okay.
Chris Williams 03:36
Yeah, it's so nice. But what happened is people kept asking me, Chris, how do you do this? Like, how's it work? Now, everybody like listening in, when you hear people asking you, 'Hey, how'd you build that? How'd you do that?' That is a monetizable question and answer set. So what I did is I started trying to figure out how can I monetize what I figured out how to do? And that's where this whole masterminding thing came from. It was a way to express here's what I do. Here's how to answer your questions. And here's how to exchange value for the information that's really there.
Rennie Gabriel 04:14
Fabulous. So Chris, I donate 100% of the profits from the work I do to a charity called Shelter to Soldier. So obviously, that's a focal point of my interview. So is there a particular charity that you support?
Chris Williams 04:26
Yes, the Memphis Child Advocacy Center. So we're in Memphis, Tennessee, and wherever you are, there's a child advocacy center somewhere near you. And these folks help prevent child abuse and they help kids become kids again, help grownups who have been hurt, who got stuck, live a healthy childhood and heal that inner child within them. And that is a passion for Jill and I. We've supported that and volunteered in many forms there for years.
Rennie Gabriel 04:53
Oh, fabulous. Yeah. And it's you know, it's so funny because I remember taking my children to homeless service companies or feeding the homeless and doing stuff, passing out blankets. And I forgot all about that, that I did with my kids. They ended up reminding me because they do those things with their children now, my grandchildren. Okay, let's talk about... back to business. Who are your target market, or markets?
Chris Williams 05:22
Yeah, so for us with Group Coach Nation, that's where we teach people how to build high-ticket masterminds. If you're an expert, and you know what you've done, like, you've like cracked the code on something in life. You've helped somebody make more money. You've built something. You figured out how to save time, whatever it might be, you can sell that. So our target market for Group Coach Nation, for lack of a better way to say it, the people in Group Coach Nation are experts. A lot of them are coaches, authors, speakers, some "done for you" service or agency. And they're trying to figure out how to monetize like - 'I know so much, how do I turn that into something that's scalable, where I don't have to continually do the work, but I get to actually teach and transfer knowledge and information and transfer that life change to the next person?' That's a super cool thing.
Rennie Gabriel 06:06
I love the idea that you have a super-niche with plastic surgeons and those who are doing bariatric surgery, because yeah, I had my nose fixed about 23 years ago.
Chris Williams 06:18
Cool.
Rennie Gabriel 06:18
Paid cash for it, plastic surgeons, you know, they're not taking insurance for this stuff. And now building Group Coach Nation with another set of... a completely different set of experts. I'm sure none of them are doc... - well, there could be doctors there.
Chris Williams 06:35
Well, most of our markets don't really crossover. And, you know, here's what's, what I wish, if I could go back and redesign this whole thing. You know, you can't. So I would, if ideally... and in a lot of people in Group Coach Nation have this, this opportunity, when they use it well, they have a "done for you" agency that does work for people that are in their market. And they also have a mastermind that teaches and helps people in their market do their own work. And it's nice to have that combination in a market where you can do the work for them or teach them how to do it. Either way it works out because people kind of want to interact with that differently depending on their personality, or their team size or whatever.
Rennie Gabriel 07:16
Yeah, cool. So now, I'm sure not everything was a success. So let's talk about whether it was personal or business, your biggest failure.
Chris Williams 07:26
Oh, my gosh, dude, biggest failure for me, absolutely, is trying to build an information sales product line, doing it backwards. So we spent five years and over $100,000, in just ad spend alone, launching five different eProducts like online courses. But what I learned through that process was valuable, you know, everybody wants to say, 'Well my failures have been so valuable...' But I mean, come on, I could have stopped all that. Eventually, what happened is I went to a mastermind as a student with a whole, I like bought into this thing. I paid 30,000 bucks to be in somebody else's mastermind. And we had to qualify based on our income level. And we had to qualify based on lots of other business characteristics, and had to have a certain size team, all that kind of thing. So I had my "done for you" agency, I was trying to sell how to do that. And I was failing - $100,000 in at that point. Five years in. I went to this mastermind with a whole bunch of people who were pretty successful at already selling eProducts. And I got up on the first day and said here's who I am, here's what I'm trying to accomplish in this mastermind, you know, open to new ideas. They're like, 'Well, Chris, how do you like the mastermind? How's it going?' I said, 'Well, great. I've been here like, a day.' 'No, no, not this mastermind. How do you like the one you're leading? Like, how's your mastermind going?' I was like, 'What? I don't have a mastermind. I'm trying to build eCourses.' 'Oh, you're doing it backwards, dude. You got to have a high-ticket mastermind where you can confirm people want to buy your information before you ever start building all this stuff.'
Rennie Gabriel 09:03
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Williams 09:04
Oh my gosh.
Rennie Gabriel 09:06
It's not the build it and they will come. It's find out what they want and provide that.
Chris Williams 09:12
Yes. And prove that they want it by swiping your credit card. If somebody is like, Oh, I'd love your help', but they won't pay you $1, then they don't want your help. If they say 'Oh, I'd love your help. How much is it?' You say it's 5000 bucks. They're like, 'Awesome. When can we start?' Get their credit card, swipe it, and then now you know, it's time to build something.
Rennie Gabriel 09:31
Yep. Yep. I can't agree more, because that's the stuff that works. So, it sounds like your biggest insight from that was you built it wrong, and now you built it in the right order.
Chris Williams 09:45
Mm hmm. Yeah, you got to build the right way around. I wish, even though I've learned so much with like, building my own and struggling to figure it out, I wish somebody had told me that earlier. And that's kind of one of the beauties of leading your own mastermind and being in other people's masterminds. Now that's the only way I consume expert information is by signing up for someone's mastermind. I will be in a mastermind with other leaders. Or I'll just wait and focus on something else. Because I've learned the hard way that reinventing the wheel over and over and over again. We've all heard those phrases. Don't reinvent the wheel. It's a common phrase for a reason, because people do it. And I don't want to do that anymore. There's lots of wheels out there and lots I want to try to spin. So go find the person who's good at it, that's built a community around teaching it, join in, get it over with in a few weeks, and have your own wheel and skill to have fun spinning it. It's so much faster, easier. And I'm sure, Rennie, you talk about it with investments and in financial information. Oftentimes, it's not the money we make that's so impactful, it's the cost of not doing something, that's so impactful. And trying to reinvent the wheel is an opportunity cost. If it takes you two years to save yourself 30,000 bucks, so you don't want to go to the mastermind I went to to learn something. Awesome. Well, glad you saved 30,000 bucks. But how much could you have made in the two years if you just cracked the code and got on with it?
Rennie Gabriel 11:23
It's so funny, and when it comes to the money, I have an example in my book that's very similar to what you're talking about. It's where someone has, let's say, $6,000 of debt. And they could pay it off at $300 a month. And then they could apply that $300 a month to an investment program.
Chris Williams 11:40
Yes.
Rennie Gabriel 11:41
And, I take it all the way out 30 years and say, okay, you've paid off the debt, how much do you have 30 years later, when, because you waited two years to get started? The loss is $200,000 in investment earnings, because he waited two years to pay off $6,000. He could have carried that debt for the whole 30 years. And still be ahead $170,000. So the delay, that's what you're talking about, the loss, the opportunity cost can be enormous.
Chris Williams 12:18
Yeah, for real. It's such a big deal.
Rennie Gabriel 12:20
Thank you. Well, we're coming near the end of the the interview. So what's the one question that I should have . . . Oh, no, wait a second before, I need to know how people can get a hold of you.
Chris Williams 12:31
Oh, super easy, groupcoachnation.com. We started this thing called Group Coach Nation to teach people how to do this. So at groupcoachnation.com, you can take a look and sort out, am I a beginner, an advanced or a pro level person in this whole information sharing and selling thing? And you can find out where you are, and it'll give you some clear next steps. If you're beginner or advanced or a pro at this, here's what to do next. Here's how to change and grow so you don't, so you don't reinvent the wheel. I mean, come on. Yeah.
Rennie Gabriel 13:02
I mean, the thing that stuck with me after thousands of dollars of Tony Robbins seminars was model what works. Really simple. And I know that you've got reviews on the website as well. I'll have this URL in the show notes, so people, if they can't figure out how to spell group or coach or nation, they can just go to the show notes.
Chris Williams 13:25
If you can't figure out how to spell that you're my people. I'm a horrible speller. So I am, oh my gosh, I'm right there with you.
Rennie Gabriel 13:33
So now, what's the one question that I should have asked you, that would also give great value to those who are listening?
Chris Williams 13:40
I think I would have asked me what's the best piece of advice I've ever gotten through all the coaching and expert level stuff I've received? And, Rennie, it's one coach, who told me 10-15 years ago, when I took him to lunch, we already had a successful practice, had "done for you" agency, like I said. I paid this guy 2500 bucks for his lunchtime.
Rennie Gabriel 14:04
Hmm.
Chris Williams 14:05
So I was already quote unquote, successful. I was already making money. And I was asking him how to do more, how to be more successful. I was getting a lot of referrals. A lot of goodwill passed on through community. We're getting a lot of business done that way. But I wasn't controlling where those leads and referrals came from. It was just happening to me. We were riding the wave of success in a really good economy.
Rennie Gabriel 14:27
Yeah.
Chris Williams 14:27
And he said, "Chris, if you don't have a way to predictably generate on profile leads, you don't have a business. You're just getting lucky. And your luck will run out eventually." And I took that to heart. And from that day forward, I started pushing me and my team to daily prospect in a predictable way so that we can drive our own success forward. Because the economy has gone up and down two or three times since then.
Rennie Gabriel 14:56
Yeah.
Chris Williams 14:56
Big world events have come and gone. Political cycles have changed. But I know that day in and day out, I get to decide what effort we put into the machine, and what results we get out. And that is a huge, like foundational piece for me in my business. As an entrepreneur, I think that's a huge piece to deal with. I would say the same thing, just that same principle can be used for financial planning, investment, retirement stuff. You got to, you got to have a predictable plan and work it. Hoping you get lucky, is just a great way to get heartache.
Rennie Gabriel 15:20
You got it. So, Chris, thank you for being on the show.
Chris Williams 15:34
Rennie, thanks so much, man. You're the best. It's so great to hang out with you and your community.
Rennie Gabriel 15:38
Thank you and to my listeners. Thank you for tuning in. You can listen to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast on your favorite platform. And please rate, review and subscribe. And if you'd like to know how books, movies and Society programs you to be poor, and what the cure is, then log on to wealthonanyincome.com/TEDx, you'll hear my TEDx talk and can request a free 27-page Roadmap to Complete Financial Choice®, and receive a weekly email with tips, techniques, or inspiration around your business or money. Again, that's wealthonanyincome.com/TEDx. Until next week, be prosperous. Bye bye for now.
