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Podcast #37Transcript

Hello and welcome to episode 37 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast

and as always, I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. This week there’s gonna be no

hanging about, we’re gonna jump straight into it, because I am batching content right

before I go to the States. I’m heading off to California and Laguna Beach for a conference,

so I’m trying to get ahead. By the time this airs actually I’ll be back, but I’m trying to get

ahead, get these podcasts recorded so that I can then relax, maybe, for a little bit while I’m

in California.

So the inspiration for today’s episode is all around how we’re standing out in a

really noisy environment. Social media world in particular is very noisy. There are a lot of

people that do it, there are a lot of people that do what I do, lots of people trying to build

their businesses, and I’m sure in your world, unless you’re in a real niche area, there are

also lots of other people that are trying to do what you do.

Back on episode 26, which we’ll link in the show notes, we talk about the five

tips of building a personal brand, which if you’re trying to stand out in a noisy industry,

building a personal brand can be a great way for you to do that. And one of the areas we

looked at when we talked about the ways to build your personal brand was speaking, and

how if you’re willing to speak and put yourself on stage, this can really help you stand out.

Now personally, I love it. I know it’s not for everyone, I know some people ... I think there’s

a stat that more people would be willing to bungee jump than speak on stage, I think. I

could have just made that up.

Anyway, I love speaking and it’s an area that I wanna grow in my business. That’s

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How to Stand Out in a World Of Social Media Noise with Brian Fanzo

Podcast #37


why I was so excited to interview today’s podcast guest, the amazing Brian Fanzo. Now

he spends about 80% of his time speaking and travelling all over the world to speak,

and about 90% of his revenue now comes from speaking on stage. And to think that my

business could be predominantly spent speaking would be like a dream come true.

So Brian is the founder of iSocialFanz, and he says that he translates the geek

speak and is on a mission to empower great people to connect with great people, and

ideas to create life changing experiences. He’s a millennial speaker and he mainly talks

around change, collaboration and community. He’s the proud dad of three beautiful

girls, and is the host of the podcast FOMOFanz and SMACtalk. He used to work for the

Department of Defence in Cybersecurity, so has taken quite a leap to do what he does

now. As I’ve said, he speaks for a living and has travelled to over 70 countries, and has

spoke at some of the world’s largest events, including Social Media Marketing World,

SXSW, CES Mobile World Congress. And Brian is a huge advocate of being authentic and

showing up as his true self. He was a pleasure to interview and I know you are going to

love him. So I’ll waste no more time and we’ll jump straight into that interview.

Well it gives me so much pleasure to welcome you, Brian, to my podcast. Thank

you so much for coming on.

Brian: My pleasure, excited to be here.

Teresa: Oh, and honestly I am really, really excited. I’ve been following you for quite some

time and watch your stuff, and actually last year you were meant to speak at Marketed

Live weren’t you, and-

Brian: I was.

Teresa: There was a problem with your flight in coming out and you didn’t, and you sent

a video. So this feels like it’s been a long time coming, which is cool, because I’ve been

watching your stuff ever since.

Brian: I know, I missed out on that opportunity but I’m glad we’re able to still make

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connections and I get to watch the event from afar for the last two years, and very proud

of those guys so maybe I’ll have to make a trek out there next year.

Teresa: Oh do you know we’d love that, and honestly it’s a great event. And one other

thing that’s really interesting, because one of the things I really want to talk to you about

in a bit is about you speaking, but the funny thing is the UK does not have a lot of good

events. We are not very good at it. You guys in the States do an amazing job, whereas over

here we are terrible at it. We tend to do quite boring conferences, so we’re starting to see

some of that cool stuff coming over from that side of the world and actually Marketed

Live is one of those that are really trying to up the game. We’ve got a couple of others

that are over here that are quite good, but yeah, I think that’s gonna be a really nice thing

to watch and hopefully grow and see how that goes. So fingers crossed you can come

across for that again.

Brian: Sure.

Teresa: Brian I love your story and I love hearing where you’ve come from, and what you

used to do, and how you got to do what you do now, which seems a little bit of a jump. So

I would love it if you would share with my audience where you started and how you got to

do what you do now.

Brian: Sure. I guess I’m known for digital marketing social media today, but I went

to school, I went to University for Computer Science, and I then I actually worked in

Cybersecurity for the Department of Defence here in the United States for nine years. So

it’s definitely not your tradition path to marketing. I actually joke a lot that my guidance

counsellors in school didn’t really tell me very much about marketing. They always

positioned it as, you just help the sales people sell. And to me I was like, eww I don’t

wanna do that, so I loved computers, I fell in love with computers, and then I had an

amazing job. I had 32 direct reports that worked for me, employees that are on my team,

and we grew a giant cyber security team that we were deploying training courses at all

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Podcast #37 Transcrit


different military bases around the world.

And so I got to travel, I’ve actually been to 74 countries, which is a tonne of

countries, and it was great. I worked for the government, I travelled on government

money, I did three trips to Iraq and two to Afghanistan during the early war years, and I

got to work with the military. And I know you said your husband is in the military-

Teresa: Yes.

Brian: And I have so much love for the military, I have military families that I love. I wasn’t

in the military, but for me it was my little ability to be able to educate them, help them

do their job better. I believe the sacrifice that the military makes, anyone that’s in the

military, is beyond amazing right? It’s something that I was able to do. I fell in love ... I

went to school, I thought I loved computers. But what I learned in that job over my first

10 years of my career, was that it wasn’t computers that I loved. I loved collaboration,

I loved community, I loved changed, and really computers were what were facilitating

collaboration, facilitating change, facilitating ... and so computers ended up being the

byproduct, and I started working outside that realm and people would come and tell

me, “Brian you don’t really help me with technology, sometimes you help me remove

technology, but what you’re helping me do is be better at connecting in this world that is

around technology”.

I think that’s the quick segue of how I left the Department of Defence. I decided I

just needed a change. I went and worked for a little small data centre company. I became

the face of that company, started speaking as the face of that company. And then about

five years ago, actually a little over four years ago, I become an entrepreneur with the

goal of how do I help connect people? How do I help people understand emergency

technology? And marketing just made sense, it was not only because they have budget,

but I think marketing today is so much more than sales enablement. It’s so much

about building trust, it’s so much about collaboration, it’s about connecting with your

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Podcast #37 Transcript


community.

And so it’s very interesting, ‘cause for me I think I was always a marketer in my soul

and what I loved doing, I just didn’t really understand what marketing was. And maybe I

wasn’t ready for marketing, marketing wasn’t ready for me and I now for the last-

Teresa: [crosstalk 00:08:26]

Brian: Yeah, I think it’s the happy medium because now I talk about trust, I talk about how

do we work together, how do we build authenticity, how can we be transparent online?

And I don’t think transparency and marketing was a thing 10 years ago right?

Teresa: Right.

Brian: I think if I had jumped in at that ... so yeah, that’s where I’ve been. I did a little bit

of agency life as a marketer. Really wasn’t a big fan of that world, for me personally, just

the way that I like to deliver and the type of contracts and collaboration I like to enable.

I love long term partnerships in a lot of things. And so the last three and a half years I’ve

done some consulting and strategy work, but mostly I’m a full time public speaker now so

I speak at about 45 events a year around the world. I’m very blessed, I get to come to the

UK a couple of times. This year I was in Scotland, I was in Newcastle. I am working right

now actually on a gig that might be in London in early December, but for me I get to travel

the world now and speak. I host two podcasts myself, I create a lot of content, but I’m a

team of one so for me I kind of practise what I preach, I try to get out there and do that

side.

It’s a weird journey but it’s allowed me to kind of, I’d say disrupt marketing a little

bit as well, because I haven’t been trained in it for years, I’m not corrupted by the old way

of doing things and I’m not afraid to say that the way we did it in the past is not working,

and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. I get to enjoy being a little bit of a disrupter.

Teresa: No, I love that. So there’s a few things there you just said that blow my mind. First

off, that you’ve been doing this for four to five years, and I’ve had my business for four

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years and I am nowhere near as successful as you are, or as well known as you are. So I’m

just gonna go and cry a little big tonight. But that is crazy success, that is phenomenal.

Also, I love the fact that you have come from the kind of tech side, that you saw

that it was a way of connecting people, and I think you’re right. I think actually ... because

I am a traditional marketer, or I was a traditional marketer, I have a marketing degree, and

it looks nothing like it looks today. And I think for me, one of the reasons of my success in

my business is that I have moved on and I’ve realised that although the degree was great

and it gave me a good standing initially, the marketing I did even six, seven years ago is

nothing like I do today, and I have fully embraced the changes ‘cause I love the tech side.

Now I’m not the most tech savvy but I love the fact that we can prove things and track

things and follow people through these journeys, and connect with people. It’s amazing-

Brian: Well I think that’s a good point you brought up there, just to jump in. You don’t

have to be great at tech to understand the value of technology or the value of tracking.

And I think the old days of selling unicorns and rainbows is what I like to say ... but of fluff

right? Like marketing was through a billboard, project the amount of cars that drove by

and then link that to some number, which I still to do this if someone can figure out and

explain to me how billboards were proven ROI, I would love to figure that out, ‘cause to

me that still is the biggest marketing sham of all time because there’s no way you proved

ROI of a billboard based on cars and purchases. But you’re right, in today’s day and world

it’s you market and you have the ability to track and prove that what you do is valuable.

I mean how cool is that? I think that’s also part of what ... and I also think it’s part of that

world now where marketing always wanted that but technology now finally has caught up.

Now in some cases you throw technology at problems that we probably shouldn’t

even involve technology. Even for me a lot of times people assume because of my

background that I am so tech heavy and I believe that technology should be in all these

different places, and I don’t. Oftentimes I will tell people, for me it’s that personalised

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video right? It’s being able to have a hand shake with somebody. That to me is still the

king of the goals. I just think that we can do better things online to reach those right?

Teresa: Yes.

Brian: I think that’s important. And I love that one of the things you said there was getting

myself out there, telling my story. This is also, we’re living in a world now where you have

to be okay with telling the good and the bad right? You have to be sharing. And that’s not

traditional marketing, that’s not traditional business. Business was always about putting

out there how great you are, how you’re better than everybody else, you talk at people.

And now we’ve learned that we don’t trust anybody who says they’re perfect, we don’t

trust anybody that talks at us. We trust people and we trust people that are willing to

admit when they’re wrong, and in this world we’re living in right now, there’s so much

wrong, so many things that are going wrong, people that are doing wrong.

I think people end of being ... for me, I think one of the secrets to my success as

far as visibility, was that I was unapologetic about who I was. I was willing to share ADHD,

I was willing to share things that I wasn’t good at, I was willing to admit marketing wasn’t

my first love, it wasn’t my background. For many people advising me early on, they’re like,

“That’s gonna crush you, you’re not gonna be able to follow the path of Seth Godin or

what Malcolm Gladwell did”. And I was like, “I know and I don’t plan on it, and I don’t have

any goals or aspirations to be in their exhaust. I wanna do things my way”. And I’ve been

very blessed.

I can say it’s not always easy. I’ve had lots of backlash, even organisations that are

like, “you’re a little too diversive for me”. And they come back a year later and they go,

“Well we’ve been doing things the same way for a year and nothing’s working, so maybe

we need you to be a little bit ...” So sometimes people aren’t ready for me and I also have

to balance that. But I think that’s the fun world. I think right now marketing is as best

placed there is, because we’re able to highlight good stories, good people, good products,

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good services. And if we’re doing it right, it trumps the bad. You don’t have to worry about

your ... If you’re the best in your industry and you’re the best person, you’re doing good

things, you don’t have to worry about your competition because if we’re able to do our

job as marketers, we can put that story out there and you’ll beat Amazons, you’ll be better

than the big Goliaths that are out there.

And no one would have said that 10 years ago. If Walmart came in your town,

you’re screwed. But I think now, if Walmart comes into your town, it’s your job to tell your

story and get people to understand why they should buy from you compared to buying

from Walmart. We have social media and digital marketing and content marketing to do

that. I think it’s fun times.

Teresa: And I think it’s giving the smaller business and smaller people and those niche

businesses, the voice isn’t it? Because you know what ... gosh I bet it was pushing at least

10 years ago, I used to work for Land Rover. I ran their corporate marketing.

Brian: Oh wow.

Teresa: And I did exactly what you said. Our budget was massive, and I would do a

campaign and we’d go, “How many did we sell?” And we’d go, “Oh, we’re not really sure”.

And then it makes me laugh that we did that, because in those days that’s all you could

have done.

Brian: Right, there was no option.

Teresa: No. So we were doing the best of what we had, whereas obviously now the fact

that ... funnily enough one of the things I was gonna mention because we’re gonna talk

about your talking, is that I’ve just done a TEDx talk, which is kind of-

Brian: I know, congratulations.

Teresa: ... Really cool, and I’m proper excited about it. I gave an example in that talk,

because my whole premise of the talk was how social media has changed marketing and

how I want people to love it, ‘cause there is lots of negativity about social media. Don’t

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get me wrong, it’s perfectly justified, but there is some really positive stuff. And one of

the examples I gave was the Dollar Shave Club, how much they paid for their first video

- four and a half thousand dollars, and the fact that it went viral. Because they dared to

put themselves out there, they dared to do something different, and now a business that

potentially 10 years ago wouldn’t have even got a look in ‘cause there was no way they

could have advertised on TV, there was no way they could’ve got any kind of traction, but

now for businesses and marketers I feel this is the best time ever.

Brian: [crosstalk 00:16:24]

Teresa: We are so blessed.

Brian: It is. It’s a level playing field. And not only do you not have to have the big budget,

but oftentimes I think the big budget gets in the way of doing the things that are most

value ... I’m a Dollar Shave Club member. My package came Monday this week. I’ve been

a subscriber for them for a long time, and I also think it’s one of those worlds where the

small businesses are really where the passion is, it’s where the story is, it’s where the heart

is. In the world, that’s who we want to spend our money with. Unfortunately the world

we lived in for a while, it was big budgets blasting everything, the small businesses falling

down.

I get to work with some great companies, and I get to work on both extremes. I

work IBM and Dell and Samsung and SAP, these big brands. But then I work with small

boutique companies and it’s fun because the big brands want to be nimble and do the fun

stuff the small brands are. The small brands wish they had the budget that the big brands

have and now I’m like, “Well, what did you want to spend that budget on? Let’s reach your

target audience”.

Little things. I’m sure when you were working with Land Rover, we have the ability

now to target ads and really know our customer, where before we were lucky to have

a random shot. We would say, okay we think this area is a great place, let’s throw up a

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billboard or let’s put an ad on the TV in this area because we think. And now we’re able to

have that data, and this is one of the things I talk a lot about on stage, is that for a lot of

people when they hear me talk about ... and we both share the same message. I look at

social media shrinking the distance between us and our customers online.

Teresa: Completely.

Brian: That’s what I believe. But a lot of people, they’re like, “Wait that’s not the case”.

And I’m like, “Yeah it’s cause of the way you’re using it”. These platforms have plenty of

down side and plenty of negativity that can happen, but same with everywhere else in

our world, in our lives. I think sometimes we forget, we blame social media for all these

things but then we’re like, oh right there’s all this stuff happened before, and it’s continued

to happen offline. But I think one of the other things that I talk to people about is, if you

listen to what we’re talking about and it scares you or it’s so different than what you’ve

been doing in your business, that’s okay. The way you were doing it before isn’t wrong,

it’s just now we have the ability to do it differently, and we have the ability to do it better.

We have the ability to do it in a more humanised way, where those tools, that technology

wasn’t there.

And that’s why even for me, I do a lot in the millennial Gen Z side and I will

always argue every day that if any other generation, Gen X and Baby Boomers, the older

generations, if they could have had social media in their prime in the 20s, when they

were 20 and 30, they would sign up for it today, because it gives people a voice that a

generation that you could have never had the voice that people have today. Even Mark

Zuckerberg from the standpoint of, he’s so young and what he was able to accomplish, but

I think that’s the fun part of where we’re living. So anyone that’s a small business, anyone

that’s an entrepreneur, it is a level playing field if you’re willing to put yourself out there.

Teresa: Totally, honestly, it really is a place where social media and business, it makes

my heart sing. It honestly is like, this is amazing, this is so cool. And every time I talk to

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anybody about anything ... I had it written already on the podcast and we literally geeked

out about Facebook ads the entire time, because we were just like, how amazing is this?

Coming from corporate world, which obviously you were in a very corporate

world, this just feels like how lucky are we. And I just want to ask actually quickly ... ‘cause

that was something else you said that I was interested in. I always joke that I’m like the

accidental entrepreneur, because I worked forever. I was corporate world, agencies, and

then I joked that I had an early mid life crisis, and somehow decided to start my own

business. Was it ever on the cards? Was that like a thing that you wanted to do and you

were heading to, or was it literally like, boom we’re doing this tomorrow.

Brian: Yeah, so that’s a great question, and for me I loved my enterprise company job. I

love my corporate job. When I left there I didn’t leave because I didn’t wanna work for

the man, which is what you hear a lot. I actually loved it. And then I decided I wanted

something different and I went and worked for a start up. I was at the start up for two

years and 10 days. We averaged 12 new hires a week.

Teresa: Oh my word.

Brian: We went from 250 employees to 610 in two years. It was some of the coolest

thing. My team, we were in charge of onboarding new employees and culture training,

so it was so much fun and I loved that job. And kind of like you said, I wasn’t ... I wouldn’t

say I was accidental entrepreneur, but when I left the government corporate job, almost

everybody told me, “Brian you should be an entrepreneur”. And I was like, “Oh that’s funny

you say that because all-

PART 1 OF 3 ENDS [00:21:04]

Brian: Ryan, you should be an entrepreneur. I was like, that’s funny you say that because

all of you that are telling me that aren’t entrepreneurs. That you’re all in your own ... and

they looked at me as the ... I was very much disruptive pioneer. I did things my own way.

Then I went to the start up and I loved the start up, but I had always heard in the

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start up world that they’re like Brian, wait till you’re the CEO, wait till you ... and then

what had happened was my start up got bought. They merged with a very large company

called Century Link, which is a global company. My role was very freelance; I was able

to do whatever I wanted. I had a fun ... and my CEO was like, “I don’t think you’re gonna

survive in this new world.” He’s like, “I think you need to leave, make today your last day.”

I was like, “Oh, you do?” Today is ... like I’m a [inaudible 00:21:45]. But he was great, he

was like, “but I want you to jump into marketing on yourself.” He’s like, “but I’ll be your first

customer.” I can tell you, that was the golden parachute that I really needed.

Teresa: Oh, that is amazing.

Brian: I was able to jump into it without being really lost at the beginning, and I was still

lost. I will say, and I don’t sugar coat this at all, entrepreneurship has been the hardest of

the three jobs. I did Enterprise for nine years, I did start up for two years without even

... not even close. I’d say the toughest things, the most trying things, the things that I’ve

had to learn about myself as an entrepreneur, it’s not even ... often times I recommend for

people, some of them my friends that are looking at me and my journey, I will tell them

no I don’t think you’re ready for entrepreneurship because there’s so many things in this

world that I think we don’t even realise, like chasing down invoices and managing taxes,

the backend stuff, or even handling frustrating customers.

For me, I feel like I’m in constant business development mode. I don’t love business

development, I don’t love sales. A lot of people throw around entrepreneurship as the end

all be all and I’m a big Gary Vaynerchuk fan, but Gary and I differ in a lot of different ways

and different things, and I say, if your goals and aspirations require that you need to be an

entrepreneur to accomplish them, I say go for it. But if you’re unsure what your goals are,

and you’re currently ... stick with what you got.

For me, interestingly enough the segway into public speaking, I was speaking since

2005. I was the only non grey haired old white guy in cyber security and my bosses came

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to me, he’s like, “You need to be the face of cyber security.” I was like, “Well what does

that mean?” He’s like, “We’ll send you to training, you’ll get officially trained on how to do

public speaking.” I did that and I got to present at the Joint Chief of Staff in the Pentagon

here in Washington DC and I was mind blowing.

Teresa: That’s amazing.

Brian: That’s why no audience scares me today is ‘cause I had the highest ranking

generals. Yeah, the highest ranking generals were in the front row, full uniform,

no expressions on their face, and I had to get up there and talk in front of these

organisations. For me, I had always loved that, but I really didn’t even know it was a

profession. I would say, one of the things you said accidental entrepreneurship, for me, it

was accidental found my dream job, right?

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: As an entrepreneur, I was doing the marketing agency. Didn’t really like the agency,

started doing consulting, actually didn’t really like the consulting side of it, that was pulling

me in these weird ways. Then I started to realise that people really loved what I did on

stage. I was like, wait a second, how about I make that a business. I’ve gone all in. I foot

my business model, I posted about this recently. In 2016, I was 20 percent speaking

80 percent agency and consulting. Last year I flipped that to 80/20, and this year, it’s

at about 90/10, where at 90 percent of my revenue comes from speaking and 10 of it

comes from podcast sponsorship and a couple full time clients I have.

If I hadn’t done entrepreneurship, if I hadn’t been forced out and figured this out, I

probably would’ve never figured out the job I have now. When I look in the future, I don’t

want to do anything else for the rest of my life. I wanna be a full time professional speaker

and continue to stay in the grind. Sometimes, when people hear that, they’ll say well, oh

you just wanna go talk on stages. I’m like, no, I wanna still ... I edit my own podcast. I post

all of my own social media. I’m part of the IBM Watson Beta team. I’m on two augmented

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reality discovery investor groups where I’m helping them understand where virtual reality

and augmented reality ... I will always stay in the grind. I found my dream job. I love

talking, I love being on stage. Now, I get to do that full time.

It’s been an interesting journey. I like to tell people, you have to figure it out. Out of

college, I thought I wanted to do computers.

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: Ten years later, I thought I wanted to work in a start up around collaboration and

community. Five years later after that, I guess it’s been five years, I graduated university in

2003. 15 years later, I found my dream job.

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: For anyone that’s out there, you don’t have to follow on path. My number one

advice for everyone is be okay with pivoting and learn how to roll with the punches.

Anyone who asks me when I coach and mentor people, I ask them what would happen

if you lost this client? What would happen if you no longer were able to write books or

if you were no longer getting paid to do what you’re doing? Because in the world we’re

living in today, you have to be okay with rolling with the punches. If you’re okay with that,

the world is your oyster as they say.

Teresa: And you’re obviously travelling all over the world. I mentioned earlier, I follow all

your social, but insta stories is my favourite that I watch, and you are always in an airport

somewhere. I bet if you go back and look at all your insta stories, they’re probably 70

percent airport.

Brian: Airports.

Teresa: One of the things I love, now I never used to travel, in fact, I came from a family

where I don’t even think my parents have passports, which I guess is fairly unusual for the

UK.

Brian: Right.

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Teresa: They don’t travel a lot. I never went on holidays. I’ve never been on a plane. I did

a couple of your average holidays to Europe, then I met my husband and he’s in the air

force.

Brian: Right.

Teresa: As you can imagine, very [inaudible 00:27:06]. He has been to more countries

than I’ve had hot dinners. This guy has travelled everywhere. He started to open up my

world and I started to see these places and I love travelling. I don’t so much like sitting

on a plane for nine hours, but I love getting to places and seeing different places and

experiencing different things. As a speaker, and being able to do that, and that is part of

your job, I can only imagine how amazing that must feel.

Brian: It is, it is, and it’s also fun because I get to add context a lot to what people don’t

understand, right? You mentioned way earlier in our conversation about conferences in

the UK versus conferences in the United States. One of the things I always have heard,

and I’ve travelled a lot to the Middle East, I’ve done a lot in Asia, and of course a lot in

Europe. One of the things I’ve always tried to debunk is, I don’t believe when people tell

me Europe’s behind America, or the Middle East is five years behind, Europe’s two years

behind.

I think what happens is, Americans are really good at self promoting. We’re really

good at pounding our chest and telling people how great we are even when we’re not.

Even when we’re full of crap, we’re pretty good at doing that. For me, being able to travel

to ... I was in Scotland earlier this year and I was working with Chris Mar and the team

over there, and his community and what Chris has done and how he’s impacting people, I

kept telling him, I’m like, “People in America could learn from you.” Right?

What Chris Ducker’s doing and some of the stuff that he’s doing in the UK, and I

think this is one of those weird things, and it’s a great byproduct of my job.

When I travel, I get to travel so much and I get to actually hear the real stories, see

15



the real stuff. I was in Mexico last week at an event, and it was for hotel travel agents and

I was able to provide some context to them as they felt like they were behind the times. I

was like, well actually no, I’ve been working with all of these service based industries. To

me, I’ve always travelled, I’ve travelled since my second year out of university, so to me,

travelling is kind of just something I do truly enjoy. Like you, it’s one of those things where

we don’t enjoy conference calls, but we put up with them, like we don’t enjoy sitting on an

aeroplane, but we put up with them.

The ability now, and I’m very blessed. I just booked a gig in Dubai. I’ve been to

Dubai a couple times, but I’m amazed. I get to speak to almost 5,000 entrepreneurs in

Dubai in March of next year. They came to me and were like, Brian, the people that are in

here love your podcasts and we wanna bring you out. I was like, how amazing is it that I’m

able to not only touch people around the world, but they’re willing to pay for me to come

out there and speak to them. It’s a blessing and I don’t take it for granted.

For me, I hear a lot of times, people are like, well Brian, how do you bring the

passion, you know, being on stage every time 45 times a year and all those things and I ...

and I’m like it’s not a mistake. I truly love it.

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: But I also don’t for a minute take it for granted. When I go on that stage, it could

be the last time I’m on that stage in front of these people and I wanna make sure they

have a good takeaway. The travel part of it is an amazing byproduct of this job.

Teresa: Yeah. I love generally how people in the states, and it’s predominantly states, hence

why I keep saying that, but I love how they have a personality on stage. One of the things

that’s quite interesting with doing the Tedx talk is that there was some certain rules, not

necessarily from Tedx, but people organising it, there were certain rules around how you

should be or ways in which you can speak and things. One of the things I actually really

love about you guys is the fact that you are very natural with it. You’re not trying to be a

16



speaker or a ... you’re being you. What was really funny, my first rehearsal for my Tedx, I

was trying to be a Ted speaker, and I messed it up.

Brian: Horrible right?

Teresa: It was awful. I was awful. I got off the stage off practising and there was three

people in the room that had already seen me speak in other places and they were like,

what was that? That was horrendous. And I said to them, well, I’m trying to do this Ted

talk and they’re like, why are you trying to do a Ted talk? Why not just be you doing a talk

for Tedx? Then, I went home, had a word with myself, and thought, do you know what?

I know this is a big deal, but I’m just gonna go and be me and I got on stage on the next

rehearsal and they were like, thank god for that. I was the only person who I think who

was like, got on stage and went hello ‘cause I was so excited.

Brian: Right.

Teresa: What I loved about the kind of feedback, and one thing that you just talked about

and you do is you raise the kind of level and energy in that room. This lady was so kind to

me, she was like, you know what? I thought the roof tiles were gonna lift. You literally like

... you know all this energy that you’re throwing out. I’m exhausted, days after I am really

tired because I have literally just given the world my energy. I love that, I love the getting

on stage and talking and bringing that energy to the room. Actually, I was sure you, ‘cause

you’ve obviously been to lots of places where there are speakers, I’ve watched talks where

you’ve sat there thinking, this is probably a really interesting subject but you are so dull

that I can’t engage with you.

Brian: Right.

Teresa: For me, how you’re coming across is so important and you do that so well.

Brian: Thank you.

Teresa: You have said many a time and stuff, watched quite a few talks on YouTube that

you talk fast.

17



Brian: Yes.

Teresa: And I talk fast and no one told me I needed to slow down. Then someone else said,

you don’t because that’s you.

Brian: Yup.

Teresa: And I get really excited and passionate and so do you. I think it all fits whereas

if you were trying to talk fast, it wouldn’t fit. That’s who we are and we can’t [crosstalk

00:32:47].

Brian: Without question, and I like the way you brought ... ‘cause I think that’s also ...

there’s an element where I think when we’re looking at speaking or even actually how we

started out this podcast before we went on air, one of the things you said was hey I gave

you some questions but I really think the conversations are what works.

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: Well the reason that is is because people that are listening wanna feel like they’re

in the room with us. Right? They want to be a part of it. When we go to an event, we

don’t want to be talked at, we don’t want to feel like it’s a conference call. We don’t

wanna feel like the person on stage is better than us. Right? We wanna feel like hey you’re

bringing us along, you’re helping us, inspiring us, educating us, and I think it’s a change,

right? It’s a change in the way we do things, even a change in the way podcasts are.

Podcasts aren’t trying to do what radio does, right? I do a lot of video. I do a lot of

video with my job and with my clients and I tell every time, do not compare me to what

you see on TV. I am not trying to be them. I think for a lot of people that’s what happens

when they’re speaking, right? They all of a sudden like okay, I wanna be either a Ted talk

or I wanna be as great of a narrate as President Obama, and I’m like, wait a second, no I

wanna convey my message in a way that really resonates with people. I appreciate you

saying that.

I also love that you ... there’s also an element where it’s very easy to do it the

18



way that everyone else is doing it, especially because it works, right? I go to a lot of

conferences. I was at a great event in Poland earlier this year called Info Share. It was a

massive event, all these great speakers and my friend Chris Kubby, I don’t know if you

know Kubby.

Teresa: Yeah, I know Chris.

Brian: Kubby over there in Denmark, but Chris and I were both there. We were both

speakers for three days and we both spoke multiple times. We are not the traditional

speaker, we are not the ...

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: It was amazing the amount of people that were like thanking us, right? For being

part of that event and really ... the interesting part was for us to get on that stage, people

had to be convinced that they could trust us, right?

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: But ultimately what the end result was, was we made everyone else around us

better, we made people ... and I think this is that weird world and I take great pride in that

is that as a professional speaker, it’s not about knowing my subject matter, and it’s not

about being an expert, it’s about being able to convey it in a way that my audience can

understand it, they want to learn more.

Ultimately for me, and that’s why my current keynote, what my first book will be is

called Press the Damn Button, is because I want people to not only listen and learn, I want

them to actually go do.

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: Right? And that is a big piece because I even think I’m a little disruptive in the

speaking market as well because those that have a book eight years ago that are quote

on quote inspirational speakers that toss things in the audience and make people stand

up and do a bunch of fluffy stuff, and that’s their way of getting ... I think those ways are

19



going away. It’s kind of a hybrid. Just because you’re an expert at something doesn’t mean

you’re gonna be a great speaker. Just because you can get people to stand up and clap for

you doesn’t mean you’re a great speaker either, right? It’s that happy medium.

I also think we’re in a world now where we trust people that look like us, that act

like us, right?

Teresa: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Brian: That’s why when someone says something like the talking fast thing. I used to

have a sticky note on my laptop that said slow down Brian. Literally, I wrote it in capitals

and then I finally just decided, you know what? Own it. I stay it on stage, I say it on my

podcast. I’m sure for many that are listening, I always joke, just don’t listen to your podcast

at one and a half speed.

Teresa: No.

Brian: ‘Cause i sound like Micky Mouse. It is a Micky Mouse ... as soon as I click my own

podcast, I’m like oh my goodness, what was that? I think that’s also one of those things

where ...

I will say this, I know the date, it was November 2nd, 2013. So 2013, November

2nd, I was having a discussion with my mom who doesn’t really know what I do or all that

space, she just said something very simply, and she said, Brian, in college, in high school,

growing up, you were never afraid to do things your own way. You were friends with

everybody, you were parts of all different groups, but you were never afraid to do things

your own way. It was that day that I wrote on my mirror, I wrote on my mirror in magic

marker, I wrote be yourself. I wrote it in all capital letters and I said, from this day forward,

my online presence will be me. I’m gonna wear a hat because I wear hats. I’m gonna talk

fast ‘cause I talk fast.

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: I’m not gonna be afraid to say things the way I do it. If I say something wrong, I will

20



apologise for it and admit to it, right? I noticed, three years prior, I’d spent social media

trying to be something I ... I was really trying to be Gary Vaynerchuk. I would craft my

messages, I would spend an hour on one Facebook status update because I wanted it to

be so good. When I hear people that are faking it, right? That are people that are doing it,

like you said, people are going out and trying to be a Ted talker and they do it well, I tell

them, good for you ‘cause that’s so much work. I could not be what I am. I do Instagram

stories, I have not missed a day of Instagram stories since it came out, right?

Teresa: Wow.

Brian: So for a year, I’ve been documenting my life on Instagram stories. I do that because

it’s just me. If I had to put on a persona that wasn’t who I was, holy crap would that be

hard. I think, for people that are struggling on social media, if listeners right now are like, I

don’t get why you two love social media. For me, the disconnect is are you really sharing

things the way that you would offline, right?

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: The number one compliment I get, when I get off stage, people will come up to

me and will give me a hug, we’ll take a selfie, we’ll talk a little bit, and the number one

compliment, it means the world to me, it’s like Brian, you are the same person you are

online as you are off line. I’m like, thank you because that’s why it works.

I think for everyone, it’s for your business. When I hear businesses tell me, if they

come in our store we sell them anything. They are amazing. We just need to get them on

the store, and I’m like well, what do you share, like whatever happens when they’re in the

store? You need to do that online.

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: It’s amazing how we forget that, right? We’re like oh, we’re online, let’s just blast

a bunch of messages, put out a bunch of crap, but when they come in our store, we tell

stories, we care about them, we give them eye contact, we’re humanised, we’re okay

21



admitting that they might go look in another store. But when we go online, we become

something that we are not. I think that’s probably the most exciting reward for me is that

my joke is that I used to have to hide my hat before I would go on stage. I would hide it in

the back of my pants and I’d go on stage and I’d put my hat on. That was like my way of

being a little bit the bad boy. Now, people write into my contracts, Brian, we want you to

wear your hat on stage.

Teresa: That is brilliant.

Brian: If you think of it that way, you have to break down the barrier, you have to change,

but you also have to realise that once people get it, they’re willing to embrace it, and that’s

why I’m very blessed. I’m not rewarded for some things that, really for a while, were things

that people were penalising me for.

Teresa: I think you said earlier about how marketing wasn’t authentic. That’s half the

problem. There was a great saying that’s ... now I have a different opinion of it. There’s an

agency in the UK and their strap line was a truth well told. Now I think about it and I have

a different view, but I used to think it was amazing, and now I think, well surely the truth

should just be the truth.

Brian: Yes.

Teresa: I hear what you’re saying that you obviously want to give the good parts of it,

but that has been the problem. You trying to conform and fit into this perfect world of

marketing yourself, like you said you’re not being yourself.

Brian: Right.

Teresa: And the worst thing anybody can do in any marketing is pitch something that is not

the experience they’re gonna have. If you go on stage, it would be quite hilarious actually,

if you got on stage and you were either the way you are now or a different way, and then

they met you and suddenly you speak with a British accent and wear a suit, you know?

People would be like what the hell? Where as actually what they see is what they get.

22



Brian: Yes.

Teresa: And as you said, it is so much harder to try and be something you’re not.

Brian: It is.

Teresa: Because you have got to put some work into that, haven’t you?

Brian: A whole lot of work. I look at truth as what is said and what’s not said, right? I think

for that saying, that’s part of it saying that you’re telling the truth. I would read into that

and saying what are you not sharing, right?

Teresa: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brian: I even work with brands a lot and I’ve been telling them this for a long time is like,

I am okay with brands admitting what they don’t know. If a brand is willing to admit what

they don’t know, it adds validity to what they do know.

Teresa: Yeah.

Brian: I will say that sometimes and some people are like, no I would never recommend

a brand to admit their downside and I’m like well the opposite of that is when a customer

finds it out. They’ve now lost all trust.

Teresa: Yeah [crosstalk 00:41:12].

Brian: Your business has been conveying that you know all of these things. Especially

today, I use this stat all the time and it’s a global stat where it says, three out of four

people under the age of 40 years old would rather spend their money on an experience

than a product. That stats from Eventbrite, the company Eventbrite, they did this

study last year. That’s three out of four people would rather spend their money on an

experience. When I look at marketing, are you talking about your experiences? Are you

sharing the experiences or on your website do you only talk about your product? ‘Cause

if you only talk about your product on your website or on your social media, guess what?

You’re attracting one fourth of the people under the age of forty. I don’t think anybody

wants to segment their audience to where they’re only tracking one fourth, but it is a

23



different mentality, right? I think that’s the other piece.

Then there’s also something you said, I think for those especially in the UK, I think

that when it comes to innovation

PART 2 OF 3 ENDS [00:42:04]

Brian: For those of us in the UK, I think that when it comes to innovation, when it comes

to a community, I think the UK is doing amazing things. I think there’s also an element of

where tradition has to meet innovation. There’s like a happy medium of creativity. I like to

say, one of my talks I give is I say limitations inspire creativity. And so I like to say when

someone told you at the TED Talk that you need to be limited to do all of these things,

you had two options. You could be creative and still be yourself or you could conform and

just fit in the mould, be disappointed on your product. And I think for those in the UK, I

would love to inspire more people. When you see everyone doing it this way, if everyone’s

digging, be okay with zagging.

And I’m a big believer if everyone’s playing in one market, even if that market

seems to be the right market, I would rather play in a smaller market with few people than

in the bigger market with everybody and I think the UK can do that really well. And every

time I’m there I leave inspired. There’s so many great stories, great business owners, great

leaders, great speakers, great marketers. And then I have to remember I’m like, “Well how

do we get that story out there? How do we get people to share that?” And that’s truly

my number one mission, I work with anyone. It’s like, you have a great story, let me help

you get it out there because I think we’re going to learn pretty quickly that there’s a lot of

great things happening and great events that could be possibly happening in the UK And

it’s just because people haven’t tried yet.

Newcastle Startup Week is an event that I went to out of the last two years and it

was someone that saw me speak four years ago and he was like, “Brian, I want to start an

event in Newcastle, they’ve never had an event that inspires startups and entrepreneurs.”

24



And I told him right there, I was like, “You don’t have to pay me. I will come out and speak

at your event. You fly me over, let’s make it happen.” It happened and it was an amazing

event and it was because Paul kept pushing through and he teamed up with Sarah and it’s

just one of those things where it takes some guts, it takes some things that are out there

but I think the rewards and benefits are astronomical.

Teresa: So it would be a complete unjust to my audience and me if I didn’t ask you how

have you grown the speaking side of your business? Because as I’ve said, I love speaking

and loads of people don’t and that is so cool, that’s absolutely fine. But for me that’s when

I come alive, that’s the thing. And when I do a podcast, because again, I love speaking. So

how did you really make that shift? How do you get the gigs? How did you build that side

of your business?

Brian: So for me it’s no different than I think all marketing but I think from a speaking side

it seems a little bit different is it comes on a really relationships. I would say a majority of

my speaking leads come in from people that have been following me on social media for

five years. More often than not, it’s that side. The other part of that is putting myself out

there as a speaker, but also kind of doing every little thing around it. I think the interesting

thing is what you do on stage as a speaker is the most fun part about it. But putting out a

speaker reel or working on a media kit or replying to RFPs and I’ve also noticed for me, the

more times I speak, the more speaking gigs I get. Speaking gets speaking.

So I can tell you, I still do a fairly large amount of gigs that only pay for my hotel

and travel and the way that I value that is I look at their audience, I look at their industry

and I say, “Do people in that audience already know me? Are they part of my tribe?” If

they are, I’m probably not going to speak there for free, this is my business. But if it’s

someone that doesn’t know me, these are industries or space that I need to break into,

I’m willing to do that, really willing to put myself out there. And then the other part of

that is I build relationships with sponsors. I build relationships with other speakers. When

25



an event organiser hires me for a gig, part of my goal is to help them hire a great speaker

the following year. Now, the reason that might be that sounds kind of like, wait a second,

you’re not wanting them to hire you?

Well now most places don’t hire the same speakers back like years, some do and

some don’t. But for me it’s like I want to be a trusted resource as well as a trusted advisor

on stage. And funny enough now two of my full time clients are my previous events

that have now hired me full time to consult with their company and say, “What speakers

should we hire? What’s our content? What type of topics should we have?” And part of

that is just because I really took heart. And this is something that I think as a speaker,

in the speaking industry I think it’s another piece that you also have to be willing to ... I

wanted to break in. I love being a speaker and I knew that I couldn’t compete because

I don’t have 10 books but what I knew was what I was really good at. I’m really good at

documenting on social media. I’m really good at live tweeting at an event.

I’m really good at amplifying other people, I’m really good at interviews. So all

of a sudden I started including that in my package. So when a company hires me, most

people you get hired for the one hour that you’re on stage as a speaker. For me, you hired

me for the day. I don’t have a one hour rate, I have a day rate and on that day I will be a

part of the events from the start of the event to the end of the event. I’m going to live

tweet the event, I’m going to post it on Instagram, I’m going to do a live video when I get

there. You’re going to get all of this content amplification, you’re going to get me. And

part of that became ... Before I became a speaker, there was a couple of speakers that

really inspired me because they were onstage great but they were part of the event. And I

remember Jay Baer was one of them, this was early on 2013.

I remember watching him. He sat in the front row for other speakers before and

after he got off stage. And I remember thinking when I make it, when I’m getting paid as

a speaker, I’m going to give that same value to that event organiser. And when I work

26



with an event, I will often tell them, “Who’s your favourite sponsor or who’s a sponsor

that needs a lot of love?” And they’ll tell me and I’ll share them on social media. I’ll reach

out to them and say, “Hey, you want to do a free interview for your blog? Let me get to

the venue at 30 minutes early, let me sit there and talk to you.” And it’s amazing because

for me, these are all things I love doing. So I think for anyone that’s a speaker, it doesn’t

have to be just social media but ask yourself, what can I do to make the event manager

life more easier? It’s amazing. Most of the time I will even push out my events, like if I’m

travelling in front of them, I have a day off in between.

Sometimes I will stay over and go to the event the next day and people are like,

“Brian, you’re living on the road, why would you do that?” And I was like, “Well, there’s

two speakers that are there that I want to support and cheer lead.” And they’re like, “Wait,

aren’t they fellow speakers?” I’m like, “Yeah, and guess what? These are speakers when

they see me celebrating, they want to get to know me better. Then all of a sudden I’m on

their radar and so when an event that hires them asks them the same questions that I get,

guess who they’re going to recommend?” So I’m very strategic, very methodical on that.

And I also play a long game. I can tell you there’s an event next year that I really want to

speak at and in 2017 I knew that I wanted to speak there. So they’ve been on my radar

for two years and I’ve been sharing their content, their blogs. I’ve been writing about

them, I’ve been amplifying them on Twitter, re tweeting stuff that they have.

Strategically spending that long game knowing that whenever they’re looking for

a speaker that matches me, I believe I’m going to be on their radar. So I’m also okay with

that arena. I can tell you I just recently signed with a speaker agent and she was laughing

because she’s like, “Your long game is a little too long.” She’s like, “It’s jab jab jab right hook,

not jab jab jab.” I was like, “Two shades, probably true.” But I think that’s the other piece of

it. And I also think to be a great speaker you don’t have to be a thought leader. You don’t

have to be an expert. You just have to be okay and good at telling your story and putting it

27



in those words. I think for a lot of people you can come up with one talk or you can come

up with one way of doing it. The question becomes how do you become a business? For

me a lot of times businesses will come back to me six months later and say, “Brian, we’re

increasing $50,000 a month over month once we implemented your ideas.” And for me

that’s the ROI, that’s the reward and it’s because you can talk about things that inspire.

Actually that’s the difference between I think a brand spokesperson and an

influencer, I hear this question all the time because I think influencer marketing is beyond

powerful. But an influencer actually inspires action. Someone that is just a spokesperson,

they’re giving you word of mouth that people know about it, but they’re not truly inspiring

action. When I talk about a product or when someone sponsors my show, they know that

if I talk about that product, people are going to go buy the product and it’s because of that

trust. And so that’s where speaking, it’s fun and I can tell you there is no one way to do

it. Everyone told me I needed a book, I needed a speaker reel and I needed an email list. I

can tell you I have no book. I’m just now working my speaking reel and I have a very small

email list and I’ve done it the other way. I’ve used my connections, my relationships. But if

you have an email list, if you’re writing a book, if you had a TEDx talk. I don’t even have a

TEDx talk.

I applied to two TEDx talks this year and both of them I got turned down for. And

interestingly enough, I think there’s a lot of professional speakers that have given really

bad TEDx talks because in this space and I love the industry as a whole, but there’s also a

lot of people that don’t get the TEDx talk and the authenticity of it. But so for me, I think

that’s the other most rewarding thing about speaking. I’m doing a video series right now

and it’s all about speaking. It’s precedent button, but it’s a 100% I’m going to do. Right

now I have 18 videos that I’ve story boarded out that is all about speaking, and it’s not

like how to be a great speaker on stage, but it’s all about the other things that I just kind

of talked about here. And part of the reason I love it is that we can all find our own way

28



to do it and I’m just sharing my way of doing it. I’m so blessed that I’m so in love with this

industry. Especially in the UK, I think the UK has so many talented storytellers and people

that can do it, it’s just a matter of finding the right events.

And the other piece of this is Chris Ducker and I’ve had this discussion, for him,

the industry and those places where he was at, there was no events so what did he do?

He created an event and that’s an element as well. And so it’s fun, there’s no one way of

doing it, but that’s kind of the way that I’ve done it. I also believe that there’s something

to be said about being really humbled every time you get on and off stage and I think

that’s part of the magic is that I love it, I truly love it. You and I think both can feel that

and public speaking it’s the number one fear. People fear public speaking more than they

do flying in aeroplanes . It is the number one fear but for those of us that love it, there

is something that there is no other place. It’s my most zen place. I’m recently divorced. I

have three young daughters. I’m running my own business by myself. My world is chaos,

but when I’m on stage it’s one hour of zen and nothing else I’d rather do in the world.

Teresa: I know and the whole kind of like I get nervous and I think it’s important that I

still get nervous because care and when I get up there, when I’m done I’m like, can I do

it again please? And it’s genuinely like I just love the audience vibe, I love feeling and this

bit for me is one of the best bits, that when you get off stage and you do mill around and

you stay there and people want to talk to you and they say the nicest things and then

you get back to your phone and yours has to go mental all the time and suddenly there’s

all these messages, there are all these tweets and things and it’s like, oh my God. Just to

feel that you said something that has made a difference or that they’ve gone, “Hey, that’s

interesting. I didn’t know that existed.” And maybe they want to go and find more about

it or whatever. Or even if they’ve just sat there and being entertained, but an hour, that’s

good enough anyway. But honestly I love what you do and you are so good onstage.

You are so natural. And I think that for me is opening up the world, but the people to go,

29



“Do you know what I can go and say to the cap if that’s what I wear.” And often I look at

people, you know Andrew and Pete?

Brian: Of course, I love Andrew and Pete.

Teresa: So I am friends with Andrew and Pete and we often talk about the fact of while

you guys are crazy and quirky and I’m a bit dull. And they’re like, “Oh my God.” So he’s

like, “No, we have a love, we have such love for these guys.” They’re like, “You’re you.” And

if I tried to do what they did, I’d look like an idiot because that is not me. Whereas I can

have a love, I can be energetic and passionate about what I do, but that’s because that’s

naturally what I like and what I do.

Brian: And that is I think for anyone that’s out there. And also I think if being on a stage

scares people and this is my soapbox, I believe everybody has a story to tell. Every single

person, every business, every entrepreneur, everyone has a story to tell, but we all find

our way which is best for us to tell it individually. Sort of stage scares you but you love

talking, launch a podcast. If you love being on video and you kind of have fun with it, but

you don’t like producing a video and you don’t like editing go live on video, use live video.

If you are really good at editing and you like the creativity, go on YouTube. If you’re great

at sharing ideas and thoughts, but the idea of talking about it on a video scares you, start

a blog. I really want to inspire ... If I had to look at anything that I want to do, my global

mission is to inspire everybody to tell their story in their own way.

I think being on a stage for us is that vehicle, but it’s also why I say be yourself,

not just be something that is unique because I kind of argue oftentimes where I’m like

being something unique makes you require you to be outside of yourself. If you don’t like

wearing a hat, don’t wear a hat on stage. I’ll hear people say like, “Oh, Steve Jobs wore

the same shirt, you’re wearing the hat because you want.” ... I’m like, “No, the talk trigger

which is the hat, it’s because it’s who I am.” Your signature or what you are, Andrew and

Peter are appropriate example and I’m a huge fan of them. I believe they are either book

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content mavericks perfectly fits up who they are. I’ve been blessed to be on their podcast.

I’ve shared the stage with them multiple times. I think of them as two of the nicest, most

genuine human beings that there are.

But I also think they get it. The content marketing that they’re putting out, the

brands that they’re helping, the businesses that they help. They just help those businesses

be real and be themselves and they embody it. I think that’s a lesson learned. The reason

that date, November 2nd 2013, I will remember that forever because it was the day I just

told myself, “You know what? You’re just going to own all of your flaws as well as own all

the things that make you unique.” And when you said earlier it’s been five years and how

my success, I can tell you that five years success is because of that day. And if I had done

it any other way, I wouldn’t be near the amount of stages, I wouldn’t be near the things

that I’m able to do at this moment and I’m very blessed for that. And I hope that’s the

takeaway for those that are listening to this, is that we all have a story to tell, we are all

unique in our own ways and you just have to own it.

And it is scary. Trust me, when I first started mentioning about ADHD, I was

diagnosed ADHD at 31, I had two moms at one event come up crying and they’re like,

“My daughter is so ashamed of being a millennial and they’re also ashamed because they

have ADHD.” And they’re like, “I was taking a video of your talk and sending it to her.” And

the one daughter was blown away and I’ve actually had multiple Skype calls with her since

and for me, all of a sudden I took out on that as ownership and I started trying to be like

an ADHD expert. And then I realised like I’m not an expert, I’m just someone that has it

and I convey it. There is some scary elements of being yourself and putting yourself out

there but damn, the reward of doing it is, I mean that’s where we’re at today and I really

think that’s what’s going to make the world great. I say this on stage and I’ll say this now, I

think we’re living in the greatest time in history.

It doesn’t matter where you live, doesn’t matter your resume, doesn’t matter your

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background. We have the ability to impact the world and tell our story and no generation

before us has had that ability and we have it right now we just have to own it.

Teresa: That is the most perfect finish Brian and sits so nicely with my thought and how

things are. And I could just honestly, and I say this on most podcasts, I could talk to you all

day because it’s so fascinating and I love talking to you. So thank you so much for being

on the podcast. You’ve been an amazing guest.

Brian: My pleasure, truly my pleasure. That’s what it’s all about, connecting and bringing

things to light. So it was my pleasure being on.

Teresa: Thank you. Wasn’t that awesome? And it’s so nice to find someone who talks as

fast as I do. I really enjoyed having a chat with Brian, it was a great interview to do. I love

listening to his modern day take on marketing and how he’s completely unapologetic

about who he is, what he’s creating, and he’s really trying to curve his own path and his

own way and do it how he wants to do it which at the end of the day is exactly what we

should be doing. We can’t be someone else because we’re not someone else, we’re only

ourselves. I love the way we talked about how marketing today is different from years

ago, how it’s a level playing field and what a brilliant position we’re all in as business

owners and marketers now. He also gave some great tips on adding value if you want to

be a speaker so I really do hope you enjoyed today’s interview because I thought it was

awesome.

If you want to know more about Brian then obviously you can Google Brian Fanzo

or just head over to the show notes at www.teresaheathwareing.com/37 and you will

find links to all of his social media and his website and his podcast there. As I said at the

beginning of this episode, I am flying off to California tomorrow and I’m going to be doing

a conference in Laguna Beach. I’m part of James Wedmore’s business by design and this is

his conference that goes along with that course. I am so excited about it. I think it’s going

to be amazing because James is one of those people that just gives such good value and

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this is going to be three full days of really getting to work on my business and I can’t wait.

I’m so excited. Then when I get back, I’m going to make sure I record a podcast episode

that tells you all about it and how wonderful it was. Have an amazing week and I will see

you next time.

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E [email protected] H www.teresaheathwareing.com 34


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