How to Monetize Your Personal Brand with Julie Solomon

It was kind of that, that rock bottom moment of like, oh, okay, now not only have I put myself in this situation, but I've hurt my husband. I've lied to him. I've, you know, even put our child— might— we had to take money out of our child's college savings to pay off the debt, you know. And it, it was unfortunately for me, I needed that rock bottom moment to really wake up.

Yeah.

And so I think sometimes, and again, that was just that, that was having that like snap into reality and that radical acceptance of like, I got myself here now. Now how do I get myself out of it? And so it was, it was the education of, you know, starting to work with financial planners and, you know, people that were really good with money and started listening to podcasts, going to conferences, anything that I could do to become better educated when it came to just the basics of whatever I was afraid of when it came to money. And that really helped me. So the detachment, the education, the deeper work, the therapy work.

Yep. Hey everybody, Dr. Axe here. Welcome to the Growth Lab Podcast, where each and every week we talk about how to grow yourself, your health, your wealth, and take your career and your relationships to the next level. Today we have someone I'm really excited about having, Julie Solomon. She's a bestselling author. She has a top podcast called The Influencer Podcast, and she's ranked as one of the top 100 brand marketers in the world today. And so, we're going to talk about everything today from overcoming limiting beliefs, how to get unstuck, how to experience a breakthrough in your career and personal life. And want to say, Julie, welcome to the show today.

Thank you. It's so great to be here. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. Well, you know, before we started rolling here, we talked about a lot of things. We talked about, you know, your husband was in the movie That Thing You Do.

That Thing You Do. He's been in over 90 films at this point in his career, but that is one that I think most people love and know. So yeah, people—

our family loves it. Yeah, it's great.

It's hard not to love.

Yeah, it's great. That's so good. You know, one of the things I, you know, I was thinking about— we were talking about this before— I didn't know that you were, um, grew up in Nashville.

Yeah.

And I know you lived in LA for a time. What caused you to, you know, you and John to say, hey, we want to, we want to move our family from, from LA back, back to Nashville?

Yeah. So I, um, I'm born and raised in Tennessee, originally from a small town, but pretty much spent my entire, you know, young adulthood, younghood and young adulthood here in Nashville. Moved to LA in the late aughts and was there for almost a decade. And there was a few years that were kind of creeping up. We had a child, my son, who's now almost 10, Camden. And we kind of just kept looking around and we were like, do we need to be here? You know, for Jon's work, he's been an actor for over 30 years. He, he doesn't quote unquote need to be here, um, for any kind of work-related things. How do we envision our family? How do we envision our future? Is this really where we wanna be? And I feel like we finally got to this place that we just said, I think we want something different, you know? And, uh, we want some land. We want, um, to have a different lifestyle and structure, which was really interesting for me. And I think I don't know if other people can relate to this, but growing up from here, you know, there was definitely that season in my life that was like, I'm getting out of this town and I'm never coming back.

Yeah.

And, and I did that. I lived in New York for a time and that's really— I really started my career, then came back here and then moved to Los Angeles. And it's funny, we were talking about this before that I now live less than a mile from the house that I lived in throughout my middle school and my high school years. And so it's interesting how, you know, the universe can kind of that full circle moment. But for us, it was really just wanting something different for our family. We only had one child at the time. We now have two. But I'll say, I don't know if we would have had our second child had we have not moved to Nashville. My family's here. There's a different support system here. There's a different way of life and living here. Yeah. And, and I loved LA at the time. It was perfect for me. But, but Nashville's been a wonderful place for us. And the other thing that we were kind of laughing about is that we were living in LA, but then my husband would be filming in Atlanta or New Orleans or Charlotte. Charlotte, North Carolina. And so he was spending so much time in the South, might as well be here anyways. And so that's kind of the way through that, that we got here.

That's cool. You know, it's interesting, I was, uh, we had Carrie Underwood on, uh, about a week ago. And so they, her and her husband have a lot of land out in the, uh, kind of south of town there, there in Franklin. And then I was just reading an article about Jessica Simpson was here because, um, just, you know, her family. And, and she said it was kind of a relief to get out of LA. And then I was talking to somebody, there's a lot of the NFL players. There are so many people coming to Nashville. And generally, you shared some of your sentiments. Why do you think there are so many people migrating from, you know, LA to Nashville?

I mean, I would say the first thing about Nashville is that it is open for business. So from an economic and community development standpoint, Nashville's open, it's thriving. There's no state income tax. Yeah, that's a plus. That's right. And I can say this as someone who actually was raised here, it is an amazing place to raise a family. Yeah. You, you don't really get much better than the hospitality, the food, the culture. Now more, way more so than when I was growing up here. And for me, I think that Nashville really has everything that you would need if you are someone who really wants to have what I would call just as much optimal balance and a family dynamic that you possibly can. It's also a thriving city for young entrepreneurs. I mean, I know a lot of people who haven't started families yet. They may never start families, but they're wanting to come here. And more so than anything, you know, we're all seeing this mass exodus out of a lot of these major cities. And I think a lot of people are just tired. They're exhausted. They don't want to feel like, you know, a city like LA, millionaires can tread water. And that's not really the American dream. So I think that there's still a little bit of that. Aspiration and that desire to have more of a full life that you can find here in Nashville.

That's so good. I remember I did years ago, before I moved to Nashville, I did an internship right before I moved here in Chicago. And I remember as an entrepreneur just feeling like everywhere I went, the door was, you know, shoved in my face. And it was like, I felt like I was just fighting everybody for everything. And I remember coming to Nashville and I feel like everybody was like open arms. And again, it's that Southern hospitality. And I remember just thinking, oh, this is this is where I'm supposed to be. And I think that, you know, one of the things I hear from a lot of people who, who move to Nashville is that it's the family thing constantly over. And I think the sense of community here is just so great. I could list off 100 people that are just, you know, incredible human beings. And so anyways, I think it's, uh, it's, it's something I love too. And one of the unique things about Nashville, and this is what's so unique about what you do, is it's a city that is thriving for career and for entrepreneurs and people who want to be influencers. In fact, some of Chelsea and I's closest friends, Sean and Andrew East, they have a whole business where they have built up this incredible— they have about 14 other families they've partnered with to create a media station and get a lot of great content out there for families specifically. But it's a great place for influencers. And this is one of the things I know that you spoke at an event we had not too long ago, but you're an expert in helping people help gain more influence and use their influence for good. And I think, you know, when I think about everyone listening here, some people may want to become an influencer because they want to do it as a full-time career. In fact, you've probably— you've seen the stats, I'm sure. Gen Z and millennials, I mean, it used to be, you know, fireman and astronaut and president of the US. Today it's like, what is the number one, you know, career profession, right? Yeah, YouTuber, TikToker, an influencer. So talk to me a little bit about this trend of becoming an influencer and how can people gain more influence.

Yeah, so I would first love to kind of start with with how I, how I got into it and kind of what my experience has been into it. So one of the, the big positives that came out of living in Los Angeles was me being thrust into this world that we now know to be influencer marketing. So way back in 2013, I was barefoot and pregnant in LA. My husband was on set working and I needed to meet people and make friends. And so I started a blog because that's what every girl that moves to LA does. They start blogs, especially back in 2013. And I did that as a way to connect. And from that, I started getting invited to blogger events and things like that. And I started to not only meet other bloggers, but I started to meet brands. Now, mind you, prior to this, I had been in traditional public relations since 2007. It's what I majored in. It's what I moved to New York to do. So I had a very strong foundation and understanding of marketing, branding, and PR from that traditional sense. But then I was starting to see how people were starting to kind of create names for themselves online. And I started to wonder, there has to be a way to monetize this, just like how we would monetize magazine covers. How are we going to monetize social media? Now, again, this was back in 2013, 2014. So Instagram was pretty new. TikTok didn't even exist. But I saw this opportunity to take the content that I was generating from my blog and work with the brands that I was meeting at these events and that I would really kind of put myself in front of to meet, to start monetizing it. And so what I started doing was pitching myself. I would pitch myself to, let's say, a baby company called Mustela to say, hey, I would love to talk about your products on my blog. And from that and just my understanding of PR and how to network and how to pitch and how to build relationships, I started to monetize my social media and my blog pretty quickly. And I would have women that would come to me and say, Julie, I don't mean to be rude, but I have 100,000 followers, which in today's terms would be like a million. And you have like 3,000 followers and I'm making no money and you're making $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 a month. Yeah. Just off of these partnerships. What are you doing that I'm not doing? And that's when I really saw this opportunity of, wow, there's a lot of people that want to share their thoughts, their wisdom. They have something to say. They want to create the influence. But they don't know how to monetize it. And so that's really where the business that I have today started. Wow. I started to create courses and I started to consult these, what we call them now, to be influencers on how to actually monetize the content that they were creating. Because it's not just about being popular, it's not just about being Insta-famous, but how are you actually not only monetizing this and making money off of this, but how are you creating more sustainability and impact for the long run?

Yeah.

And so I really started with that foundational piece of laying the groundwork of teaching these influencers how to think about their influence influence as a business, how to think about their message as something that could really create impact and movement, and most importantly, how to really start rooting into their value and what they're worth and what they really envision this to be. And so from that came my understanding of influencer and what it really meant to influence. It's not just about, you know, selling, you know, gummy bear vitamins on a social media post or, you know, talking about what you're wearing, but how are you actually impacting the people that know you, because that really is what influence is at the end of the day. It's who knows you. And the only way to become more knowable is to really build more of that authority. And how you do that is by building awareness. And so that's really where I kind of start with the idea of influence, how I teach it, how I coach people through it, and hopefully how I shift their belief system a little bit about what it actually means to have this power that is influence and how we use it for good.

I mean, first, I, I love the last thing you said there, use it for good. I want to come back to that. I am curious, so how much could somebody make kind of upwards of if they have, let's say, 100,000 followers on Instagram or YouTube?

I'll just tell you this, I have students that have 300 followers on Instagram and consistently make about $10K a month off of their brand. So it's not just— because there's this whole other world called— yeah, called user-generated content. UGC. UGC didn't exist when I first became a quote unquote influencer, but it exists now. And UGC is simply just, if you are good at creating content, if you have a passion for it, if you're good at visuals, if you're good at messaging, if you're good at content, then you can actually take your content and you can essentially sell it or license it to a brand for user-generated content. So now there's brands that they'll say, hey, I don't care if you have zero followers. If you're good at creating quality content, that's going to move the needle for us. We will pay you for that. Wow. And so that's really what I, I now teach and support women on. Hey, it's not just about the brand that you're creating, but it's about you understanding message that moves people and messages— the messaging that evokes an emotion out of people. And so how do we actually get you to become a better, better storyteller so you can create better content so you can then make more money?

I love that. A message that moves people. And this is something— it moves people towards the good. And I love— I love that you said that because, you know, when we look at and You've seen this research. It's when you look at social media, you know, there's a study on Instagram and how a lot of adolescent, uh, girls, uh, and specifically in high school, how the more time they spend on social media, the worse it is for their self-esteem. And part of that is, is self-comparison to others and sort of using that in a negative way. One of the things I love about what you do is able to empower somebody and say, listen, we're going to use your channel for good to benefit people in some way. Do you have any stories or examples of, have you been able to help somebody who was in a situation where they came to you and their social media was, it wasn't optimized and also it wasn't healthy for other people and you were able to really turn that around?

Yeah, so, you know, there's been a ton of instances of this, but I'll share one that's the most common. If someone comes to me and they're just like, I don't know why I'm not growing, I don't know why, you know, people aren't kind of hanging around and staying longer, I don't know why brands wanna work with me. And let's say I go to their Instagram channel and the first thing I always look at is the first place that most people overlook and that is your bio. So, when it comes to influencers, most influencers I see, and even content creators, you know, the Instagram gives us 160 characters to make a splash and to make an impact. And most bios sound something like this: Mama to two, fur baby mom, lover of chocolate, you know, Psalms, you know, John 3:16. It's like, what does any of that mean? And why should I care? And so, let's actually use this Instagram bio to really create and share with people what it is that you're here for. So, I actually have a formula for it that I'll share with you. Yeah. It is who you are, who you serve, why that matters, and a, a call to action at the end. So, who you are or what you do.

Yeah.

Who you serve, why that matters, and a CTA at the end. And so, that is the first thing that I always, any students that come to me, whether it's my, my pitching program or my other branding programs, we always work on really crafting that elevator pitch, so to speak, to make sure that we're using it in ways that is going to easily captivate people. Because whether it's a potential client or customer or a potential brand, if they come to look at your Instagram and it just says, "Mama to two fur babies, lover of chocolate," I don't really know if that's going to compel them to actually want to look at your content. But if it says, you know, I am, you know, a, a, a content creator who focuses on keto brownies to help you optimize your health while also enjoying that sweet tooth that you have. Oh, that's a little bit more interesting. Maybe I'll want to kind of scroll through and see what content is here. So I always start there. And then the next place that I look at is the content itself. And where I see most people have an issue with really building that awareness and that engagement is when they focus too much on what I call me, me, me content. And that is, you know, look what I ate today. Look what I'm wearing. Look where I'm going. Look at this thing that I think that you should buy. Look at this thing that I think is important. It's all about them and not about who they're meant to serve. And so I have another method that I teach people, which I call the Spotlight Method, and it's about taking the spotlight off of you and putting it on the person that you're meant to serve.. And so the more that you can do that and you can start to generate your messaging and your content from that service-based place, the more that you put the spotlight on them. And so for example, if I was talking about, um, let's say that I was talking about a smoothie that I was making, instead of talking about like, oh, here's my cute smoothie and it's so yummy and it's so good, I would be talking about the benefits of why I put the certain ingredients that I do in my smoothie because it helps me stay more energized throughout the day. More optimized, gives me clarity. And if that is something that you're looking for, you should check out this recipe or you should check out these ingredients. So it's just kind of, it's just spinning it just enough to where you're always asking yourself that question, how can I come from a place of service with this piece of content instead of just generating content that is all about me?

Yeah. You know, for, I love this advice. This is so good. And so this is something actually I talked about something very similar with Donald Miller, who was on recently. And Donald talked a lot about how, you know, we try and make ourselves the hero where we should act as the guy, as the Gandalf per se, and make the person watching the hero, right? Do everything we can to inspire them to greatness, which is so much of what you're saying here, which I love. And this is something people need so badly. I, we both see social channels all the time that are just so under-optimized where again, they're just sharing their daily stuff versus if they would say, hey, as you said, I'm here to serve you, I'm here to benefit you, I'm here to, you know, help fulfill your dreams. And having that sort of mindset, just so, so important. You know, I'm curious, when I think about right now and I look at the social media landscape of influencers, um, some— there's some people that you and I have both seen just blowing up. You know, Alex and Leila Hermosi are growing rapidly. Guys like Patrick Bet-David, um,— you know, like Mel Robbins, she's another person just, you know, growing rapidly.

What are—

what's the difference? Like, if you had to pinpoint, here's the one thing that they are doing that's causing their influence to grow in just a, you know, in just such a massive trajectory, what's the biggest difference that they're doing versus the person who's stuck?

Yeah, I think it's twofold. I think one, it's they are— they are delivering consistent value. Period, hands down. And two, they have, through really figuring out who they're talking to and really tapping in on what their unique value proposition is, what makes them different, they have been able to make it easier to find them instead of their competition. And those are really the two pieces, I think, to that acceleration puzzle. You've got to really hone in on who you're talking to. What they need. It's not a nice to have, it's I need to have. What do they need? How can you be a provider for what it is that you need? Then how are you going to create consistent value around what it is that they need? And then why are they going to then keep coming back to you for that over anybody else that they could come to? And that's what I mean when I say competition, like what makes you the one? And people really need to start tapping into that. And what I seem to find is that when you're on this brand ascension, if you will, most people love to kind of jump the, the probably the first 3 steps. So the first step, it's, you know, most people think, well, it's about finding out my why or what my purpose is, or I need a logo or whatever they say. And all those things are important. But from my discovery of now working with thousands of content creators and entrepreneurs online at this point, what I have found that it is, is time management. If you cannot manage your mind and your time and really get clear on how you're using your time for optimal efficiency, you won't be able to do anything else. So, you gotta get clear on your time management. You've gotta figure out when are the most optimal times of day that you work. You also have to factor in just your life. Are you a mom of triplets that are 2 years old? Because that's gonna be a kind of different season, right? So, you have to really look at your life, your lifestyle, and the time that you have to get clear on that, create a really good consistent schedule that works for you. And then from there, the next step is going back to figuring out what makes me unique and different? What makes someone wanna come to me over anybody else? And now that I've gotten my time cleared and I have the space to actually create, I then have to know that first. I think a lot of times people just love to jump to, well, how do I make money?

Yeah, right.

Or let me just create content for the sake of creating content without having no time management skills in place, without having no idea who I'm talking to, without not understanding what my unique value proposition is. Therefore, I'm not creating clear content. I'm not creating valuable content. And then I'm sitting here stumped, wondering why, why I'm spending all of these hours in a day doing this work and it's not moving the needle. Wow. And so to me, like, those are really the foundational steps. And then if you can tap into that, then you go into actual content strategy. And you figure out a good content strategy by, again, getting really clear on who you're talking to and testing things out. And I think that that's what people are so afraid to do. They want it to be perfect. They're so afraid to test things out. And I was actually listening, I think it was a podcast recently, and I was listening to a story that I think happened at a university, but essentially it was a pottery class. And there was one subject of people who learned everything that you needed to know about making the best pottery in the world, right? Like they were studying it, they got the trainings, the videos, the the best pottery-making professors in the world were coming to teach them. And then you had this other subject of students who, they didn't learn anything about pottery. They were just given pottery and told to just practice, just like figure it out day in and day out. And they did a study over a year. And then at the end of that year, they had the two different groups create pottery. And you know who actually made the best pottery?

Practice makes perfect.

The ones that just did it. And so, I love that story because it really goes to show you that it is, it's not about, you've got to get out of the knowing and into the doing.

That's right.

And I think a lot of people get stuck again in, in, in the knowing and in the analysis paralysis and trying to just, you know, think it out. And that's again where managing your mind comes into play and where managing your time and your boundaries and how do you— what, what does balance mean to you and how are you doing that? And I think a lot of that does take coaching and mentorship and someone to maybe reflect back and, and be able to see the things that you can't see. Um, but to me it's, it's really just testing out, like you've, you've got to just throw out content, see what sticks. Is it hitting your target audience? Is it really showcasing your value? And then what do you learn from that? And more will be revealed over time.

You know, the first sentence that you, you said as you shared all this, uh, great information is, is consistency. It was one of the first things, you know. And I experienced this for myself when I, when I was— I, I started off as a full-time functional medicine practice in Nashville. I did that for 5 years. And after 1 year I said, you know, I really want to— I love educating people. I want to be able to get this message of food is medicine and, and helping people heal naturally. And I said to myself, what I'm going to start doing is taking Friday afternoons off. And so I don't have a lot of time to do this, but I'm going to take Fridays from 1 to 5. And so I have a 4-hour— 4 hours a week, and I'm just going to start doing one article and one video. And so that's how I eventually started DrAxe.com, which eventually turned into Ancient Nutrition and a number of other businesses. But it's your advice exactly. And then it starts to compound over time. If you have a message that people really need to hear and that really helps transform their life, and you just get it out consistently over and over and over again, eventually, you know, a lot of people hit this hockey stick moment where all of a sudden, wow, I mean, people will say, well, that person became an overnight success. Well, no, typically they had 2 to 3 to 5 to 10 years beforehand where they were kind of building up steam and growing. And so anyways, just want to say, like, I've experienced the advice you're giving is something I really experienced. In my own businesses, and I think it's just so important, is that consistency. Would you walk through if there are maybe 3 to 5 points, maybe, you know, over the course of a minute or two, what are those exact steps that people need to implement and consider?

Yes. And before I get there, I do want to say, because it's important, I could imagine that there probably are people, you know, driving in their car right now, or maybe they're walking around, they're listening to us, you know, talk, and they're probably thinking, well, easy for them to say, you know, they've got a team, they've got this, they've got that. And we didn't when we started. I didn't when I started. You know, I didn't come from a wealthy family. I started my business $30,000 in credit card debt that I hid from my husband. That's a whole other conversation. And so I think that what it really boils down to, I was just, you know, a woman DM'd me yesterday and she was like, how do you find the time to do all this with two little kids? And I was like, well, you know, she was like, what about when you have to drop them off? And I just said, look, your excuse for like your reason for wanting to do this, your reason for wanting to pick up your phone every day and share something with the world has got to be greater than any excuse that you would have to not do it. And no one can teach you that. I think that that comes from a greater why purpose. What we were talking about earlier, that comes from, from something greater than yourself. And, you know, and I shared with her, I said, well, I have drop-off at 7, then I go straight to Pilates and I come home, then I show— it's like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. This is what my day looks like. But I also do have help. And whether that's my husband, a babysitter, family, neighbors, like, it's insane to think that you're supposed to do this alone. And I think that that's the pressure that people put on themselves, is that they make up and say, like, well, I'm supposed to do all of this by myself, or I don't have the means to get help, or I can't afford this or that. And so therefore it just can't happen for me. And so you have to really get honest with yourself about like, how bad do you want this? How, how bad do you feel this greater calling? Um, you know, I really, I really jumped into it as if like my, my kid's life depended on it. That's how serious I took it. And I think that you do have to take it that serious. So that's kind of my rant about that.

Well, so, and let me say, this is so good because that was my mindset. Like, and by the way, what turned me on to this, and I'm sure you've read the book, I read the book 4-Hour Workweek. Yeah. And so, at first, I'm like, "Well, I got a full-time clinic and I'm already working 50 hours a week. How can I do this?" And I said, "You know what? I realize I'm going to take 50 of those hours and take 4 of those hours. I'm going to say, 'Okay, I'm going to find 4 hours to just give it my all, do everything I possibly can, and do this undistracted, just totally focused.'" I think there's a lot of people, I think about my wife, Chelsea, for instance, where Chelsea's pregnant with our second and she's busy, has a lot going on. But if she really wanted to build something, it would, you know, we, we, it would be, hey, I'll watch the kids for, yeah, let's block off 4 hours for you a week and just go at it. And let's write down what are those top needle movers of what you could do with your time, 4 hours a week of recording videos and creating content. And then just do the best with, with, with what you can 4 hours a week and let's see what happens.

Right, right. And I think what can happen is that people will say, okay, I've got my 4 hours. Now what do I do? You know, and it's because they haven't laid those foundational steps.

So let's walk through those.

So we could, we could walk through those. So I, I talked about the first one, time management. And, and mind you, I, I tend to work with a lot, a lot of moms, a lot of women who, we don't have time. We've got the kids, we've got the life, we've got the this, we've got the that. That's always the, the excuse. I hear it more from, from women that I do from men that they just don't have the time. So, um, I really root into the time management thing. I could go on more about that, but the next step from that is that that brand clarity piece and really getting clear on who you are as a brand. And that is you should be able to share, and within 30 seconds of thinking of it, if I ask you, hey, what makes you unique and different? What would make someone want to come and consume your content before anybody else's? And if you can't give me a response pretty quickly, then you probably need to sit with that for a minute and kind of root into that and figure out, well, what does make me different? What does make me unique? What about my past credentials or experiences or life story, or, you know, those horrible shame— shameful moments that I wouldn't want anyone to know, like me hiding $30,000 of credit card debt from my husband, that maybe if I had the courage to root into it and to share it, maybe it would make me a little bit unique and different. So that's the next step is really getting clear on that UVP and that differentiation. And then from there, you can go to actual like content planning. And batching out your content. And what kind of content do you connect with? What kind of content do you actually want to create? And what's really going to move the needle based on your goal? Like, what is the goal? That's another great question to ask yourself. What is the goal? I always think about that movie with Tom Hanks, who we love. Where is it? Apollo 13. And I remember he's, he's in the shuttle and— or no, he's not in the shuttle. It's, um, It's another actor that's in the shuttle. Maybe it's him. But anywho, Ed Harris is back in Dallas.

Yep.

And I remember he looks out the window and he says, you know, keep your eye on Earth. Like, that's the goal. The goal is to get back to Earth. And so I always think about that. We always kind of have to keep our eye on what that prize is. And a lot of times I'll ask people, what's the goal? What's the goal of your business? What's the goal of the— and they have no idea. They've never really rooted in to think about it. And so even though these sound very simple, A lot of times people love to skip that foundation. So that's really the next step. Like, what is the goal with the content that you're creating? What kind of content do you really connect with? A great way to figure that out, cuz people will come to me and they're like, I just don't know what kind of content to create, or I don't know what kind of content my audience is gonna resonate with. I always ask people, I say, I want you to go to Instagram right now and I want you to start, to start just scrolling. And when you stop scroll, I want you to ask yourself, what made you stop scroll? Because if it made you stop scroll, something about the visuals, the song, what you saw, what you read, what you heard, it may make other people stop scroll too. So that's a really just easy tool that people can use if they are in kind of a content creation rut.

Yeah.

And so that's the next step. And then the step after that is engagement and like Legion and how are we really calling people to us? Because again, to me, it's, it's really networking and influence. And we talked about influence. Influence is who knows you. Networking is who you know. And so really building, how can you build relationships? How can you build the networking? How can you use the people that you know or the people that you know you to really build up engagement? And so, um, I teach a lot about that. And then after that, then comes the monetization and the revenue that everybody wants. And so that's kind of at the top of the pyramid, so to speak. So good. Um, and, but you can't really get there unless you've laid all those other core foundations. And if anybody wants to see this pyramid, cuz I, I don't have a— you can go to juliesolomon.net/profit, and we have a downloadable for that pyramid, and you can see the steps and how they work.

Uh, we'll put it down, uh, we'll put a link to that in the show notes. So good.

Thank you.

I mean, this is so good. And I, I think, I think the other thing I wanna kind of demystify everything is that like when I started out, um, I, I didn't, I didn't have much time. I didn't have much money, didn't have any of this. And so again, it's that thing of, I had 4 hours and I went through a very similar process to what Julie walked people through. And you'll see, you know, when we talk about the people that have— again, we mentioned Patrick Bet-David and Mel Robbins and Alex Hormozi and all these people. They, they, they do a, you know, they do a version of this, but you're making it accessible to anyone and everyone. And you talk to me, even people have 300 followers total on Instagram. Even you can leverage it and follow what Julie's talking about. That's so important. Can you gimme an idea? And I asked this earlier, but I, I do want to get a sense of this. If you were to help somebody go from, let's say they've got 1,000 followers and get up to 10,000 followers and they follow the steps you're talking about now, outside of the giving away, creating content for a brand model, how much could somebody make if they had 10,000 followers on Instagram and were very, very, you know, specifically focused on a specific niche?

Sure. Depending on the deal, the opportunity, the terms, the exclusivity you could make with 10,000 followers, I've seen anywhere from $5,000 upwards to $15,000 for that one project.

And that's a month.

Oh yeah. That would just be off one project. So, if you did 4 projects in a month, you know, 4 extra.

That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, one of the things I think more and more people are realizing, I'm, I'm still realizing this and it's so funny because, you know, I've got a podcast and, and, uh, and, and fairly substantial social media following and, and we're doing, You know, I'm constantly, you know, talking about my favorite products. In fact, we've got a product coming up. It's sort of— it's this grass-fed beef where they mix in liver and heart. So organ meats. And so, so that's just the latest one we were talking about. I have AuraRing. It's another brand. But all that being said, it's, it's amazing just to think about how, how, how, how marketing has changed so much. And so, and how really things are shifting from even more written content to way more video content, video ads, and influencer. Everything is influencer marketing. I mean, it's, it's, we've seen this shift over the past couple years, but it's the absolute future. So, if anybody's listening to this, and again, if you want to create more wealth for you and your family, again, following these steps is you got to start somewhere. But if you really invest and implement this over the next 1 to 2 years, you can put yourself in just an incredible position and just absolutely shift your financial destiny.

Yep. And I've seen so many different people from so many walks of life do this through, I mean, scuba divers. I have one, I'll tell you a story quickly about a student named Cassie that I have, and she came to me and she had, I want to say like 4,000 followers on Instagram. And you know what her brand was? Her curly hair. That was her brand. And she figured out how to create really good quality content on how to keep curly hair healthy, like tendrils of curly hair. This little company called Ulta called her up, or she actually pitched them. And she is now— she was at least, I think it's still there for like 18 months. She was plastered all over every Ulta store nationwide with 1,700 followers for her curly hair because she created content and did a whole project with them on how if you are a curly hair girl, how you can keep your curls healthy. And so for people that come to me and they're like, well, I don't have anything. Well, do you have hair on your head? Yeah, maybe not. Maybe you're bald. And then that's gonna, that's gonna be the content that you create. But you know, I had a scuba diver create a huge travel brand because she pitched really high-end hotels, she said, that were on the coast, you know, hey, I'll come to your resort, I'll scuba dive, I'll take photos, I'll create the content for you, and I'll deliver that content for you. How much is that worth to you? And so at the time, that was really valuable to her because traveling the world was really valuable to her.

Yeah.

And so there's so many ways that you can skin that cat. I think the most important piece, though, is A, giving it a try, you know, learning how to put yourself out there, learning how to pitch yourself to brands, learning how to create better quality content. And at the same time, you know, really be open and transparent with sharing. I think that a lot of times what happens is people don't know how much to charge or they don't know this or that. And, you know, marketing budgets have to go somewhere. They don't disappear. They're just reallocated into other avenues. And the more that we are open and the more that we can share about our experiences or, you know, I worked with this brand or I had this project and this is what the terms were and this is what I did in exchange for this kind of compensation or this kind of trade, then the more that everyone is just going to win. Because what we don't want to happen is that people keep devaluing themselves, which means, you know, we're not— no, nobody's making as much money as they could.

I mean, one of the things— this is such a good point because people constantly devalue themselves. I, I think if people would realize their, their full potential, which almost nobody sees their full potential But I think if somebody's actually able to see that, they're able to do so much more because most people give up before they even start. Right. And we see this happen all the time. And I love thinking about this example you gave earlier, the pottery, right? It's like, just practice your pottery for a year. Okay? You don't have to be perfect. It's, you don't, you don't have to have every single step, you know, thing already figured out. It's like, just get in there for a year, try and follow some of the steps, try and learn from people like you and other people and just practice your craft, practice doing things for a year, and just see what happens. And I think for a lot of people, they'd be surprised. Now, one of the things I know that gets in the way, and this is something that I love that you do, is you help people both with growing their business, helping them with, with professional development growth, but you also help them in aspect of personal growth because often they go so hand in hand. Talk to me about what are some of the biggest personal issues that keep people from having professional success?

The biggest one that I see is lack of worthiness. Wow. I mean, that when it— when I really boil down to it. So before any of those places, though, money, money mindset. People are afraid to ask for what they want. They're afraid to negotiate for what they want. They're afraid that they are going to offend someone if they ask for what they want. They're afraid of money. Yes, people are afraid of money. Especially, I've seen, um, in my experience with a lot of women that I've worked with, it's one of two things. They either make money and then they don't feel worthy of the money that they've made, so they spend it faster than they can keep it, which is what happened to me when I first started, you know, figuring out my way. Um, and that's what got me in $30,000 of credit card debt. Or they'll make the money and they'll be so afraid to lose it because they don't have this worth in them that, that, that it's abundant and that they can generate more of it. So it's kind of like they stash it in their metaphorical shoebox underneath their bed and then they don't look at it. And this really comes back down to what, um, old school marketer named Brian Tracy. I remember reading a book from Brian Tracy and he talked about the self-concept of money., and it was fascinating. And he, he, um, attributed it to a similarity of if, if you think about your self-concept of money, you think about a thermostat in your home, right? And you know, you may feel good about money and you may be able to kind of like hustle to get money if, if we're not at that self-concept that we want. So let's say that you are, your self-concept of money right now is, is $50K a year. You're a $50K a year earner. You are either going to you proceed in scrambling behaviors to get to the $50K, and that's when we hustle harder and work harder, or once you get to that $50K, you're gonna relax, or if you make more than the $50K, you're gonna spend it. So you can get back down to the $50K. And so he was attributing it to like a thermostat, that if your house is set at 75, it's gonna always find its way back to 75 degrees. And he said, so the only way that you can change your self-concept of money is really start working on the inside. And you have to start thinking and believing that you are someone who can go from making $50K a year to $100K a year before it actually becomes a reality.

I mean, so many of these things are tied to— what you're saying here is it's tied to our identity.

Yes.

And our identity influences our beliefs about ourselves and the world and about things like money, creating a scarcity mindset. I mean, this is, this is big.

Yeah. And a belief is just a thought that you think over and over and over again. And we can change our thoughts, which means we can change our beliefs if we want. And so it's really about— you have to become the person who believes that they can fill in the blank before you can actually start working on becoming that person.

You know what's so interesting? And I've spent a lot of my career, especially the past 5 years, studying psychology. And one of the things that tends to happen is these things tend to happen because of an event in childhood that that we have a memory of that then starts this sort of neurological cycle. So it could be, you know, when I was a kid, I had a relative who said, you know what, people that essentially, people that are rich are evil.

Mm-hmm.

So, so if people start, and by the way, I've seen this cuz I grew up in a house of, of, of, of, uh, people of faith and was around a lot of Christians growing up. But it was really interesting. It's like you, you got a one group who is, you know, sometimes it's like, hey, you know, there is no limit to, to money in, in terms of how it should be used. And there's another group of, of people that have money are evil. And I think the real balance here is, is what you talked about. It's no, use it for good. Listen, it's okay to take care of yourself and family and have nice things, but also you should be ultimately conscious of giving back to God and giving to, you know, the poor and, and for missions and things like that. So I think people's self-concept of money is so, so important. But that worthiness thing you said is this, these things are so tied into identity. Do you have any things when you're working with people people in helping them overcome this? Do you have any sort of practices or things that you help them with in how to change a limiting belief?

Yes. And to me, it really comes psychologically back down to detachment. So I'll give you a story that I had when I was young. I remember my mom coming in with shopping bags and running to the closet to hide them from my dad because she didn't want my dad to know that she went shopping.

Can I just say, this is so relevant because I actually picture my mom doing this.

So, so, and shocker, that I would have $30,000 of credit card debt from my husband when I became an and so it's, it's first about awareness. You gotta be really keenly aware as to what is your origin story around money. You know, what, what were you told about money when you were young? If you were told that it was evil, if you were told that, you know, maybe it caused your parents to divorce because all they did was fight about money. Yeah. You know, what is your money story? And really getting keenly aware of that. And then once you have the awareness to understand it, then you can start building more awareness around, well, how does my origin story around money actually dictate how I am living with and having a relationship with money now? And that's just fascinating in and of itself. Then once you can get to that awareness piece, and this is, this is like an old 12-step awareness, acceptance, action. This is like an old 12-step thing. So you can be aware of your money issues. Then once you have awareness, you can accept the reality on reality's terms. Okay, now can I be in acceptance of my part to play? Me in this and in my relationship with money and my fear of money and my overspending of money? You know, can I be in acceptance of it? And then from there, once you can accept your part to play in it, then you can start taking action to start really getting to the other side of whatever that issue is. And everyone's issue is going to be different to some degree, but also the same to some degree. So the action for me was detachment. I had to really start to detach detach what my parents' money issues were from what my money issues were. I had to start detaching what my fears might have been around my own self-worth and value around this just exchange of energy that is money. And then from that, I had to also get help. So, you know, therapy and reading books. And then I also had to get education. I had to learn, you know, I was also someone that told myself, well, Julie, you were, you were a C+ B- student. You were never good at math. So what makes you think that you can manage your own pocketbook? No, no, no, you're going to have some fairy husband person that's going to come down from the sky and just manage your money for you. That was also kind of a Southern mindset, me being born and raised in Tennessee.

So I went to— for undergrad, went to University of Kentucky. Yes. And I mean, the joke or the thing around, you know, school and undergrad was everybody, you know, all— a lot of the women there were there to find a husband, not to—

yeah, their MRS degree.

That's right. Yeah.

And that was— it's like, you know, I'm from a small town and that's what happens. You, you as a woman, you get old, you know, you grow up, you get married, you have babies, you stay home and your husband takes care of the bills. And I even still have family members, female family members in my family that they don't even know how much money they have. They— I mean, if something happened to their husband tomorrow, they would— they don't know how to balance a checkbook. They don't know. They have— they don't know how to access an ATM. And that's their reality, right? But I had to, when I kind of had my rock bottom moment of my husband refinancing our home and, you know, hey, what, this $30,000 credit card? My husband's like, what are you talking about? We don't have credit card debt. And, you know, the lender's like, yeah, you do. You've got $30,000 actually. My husband calls me up, hey, hun, when were you going to tell me about the credit card? So it was kind of that, that rock bottom moment of like, oh, okay, now not only have I put myself in this situation, but I've hurt my husband. I've lied to him. I've, I've, you know, even put our child— we had to take money out of our child's college savings to pay off the debt, you know? And it, it was unfortunately for me, I needed that rock bottom moment to really wake up.

Yeah.

And so I think sometimes and again, that was just that, that was having that that like snap into reality and that radical acceptance of like, I got myself here now. Now how do I get myself out of it? And so it was, it was the education of, you know, starting to work with financial planners and, you know, people that were really good with money and started listening to podcasts, going to conferences, anything that I could do to become better educated when it came to just the basics of whatever I was afraid of when it came to money. And that really helped me. So the detachment the education, the deeper work, the therapy work. And then allowing yourself to play and have fun. When you start making money and you can start to like give it to charities that you love and you can start to, you know, help family members maybe that need it. Like it's all relative. Like whatever you want to do with your money. If, you know, for me, I remember always thinking like, I want to be able to go on a trip and not nickel and dime it. Like I want to be able to just to go wherever I want to go and have the experience that I want to have. Without feeling that anxiety. Yeah. And, and to me, that, that kept me going to, to have to get to the other side of my issues.

It's so good. Yeah. I think the shift you talked about, it's, you know, you have to have a level of awareness, you have to sort of detach from, and then you need to take action. And if we're talking about limiting beliefs, create a new belief around that. You know, I had this shift, and I don't know when it was exactly, and I don't think I ever believed that money was evil per se in that way, but I do think I had this, uh, this doctor I was working for when I was in school. And, you know, in his mindset about money was, no, money can be used to save lives. It can be used to rescue sex trafficking victims and help orphans and do those things. And I thought, wow, like, as long as the person who's operating decides to— I'm going to be committed to using it for good, again, taking care of the security of my own family and some things we want to do, but also for creating safety, security, and saving the lives of others. Wow. Again, it's just, it's just a tool. So I think that the more that people can develop that mindset, as you're sharing, I mean, it, it is so important because there are so many people that have limiting beliefs around one single thing, and it, it creates a ceiling and they never get above it. It's that thermometer example you gave with, with Brian Tracy earlier. It's just, you know, people need to experience, uh, they need to have a mind shift in order to experience a breakthrough.

Yeah. And just like you said, I mean, you can't make the world a better place by being poor, at least in this capitalistic country that we live in. Right. And, and that's just the name of the game. And that's, that's a direct way of saying it. But, you know, me limiting myself, me having a poor mindset, me taking advice from people that haven't made money on how to make money is not going to put me in a better situation to give back to the world in the way in which I want to give back to this.

Yeah. So before we start the interview, we're talking about something else too, and I wanted to bring it up. So let's talk about— you were quoting a study and it was around C students. And so share that with me. And then I wanna share a little bit too, but th— th— I think this is really important for people to recognize and get.

Yes. So I, I think it was actually an Instagram reel and this person was walking through a study, which again goes back to the importance of, of value and content. Um, and, um, they were sharing how, um, most successful entrepreneurs today were C, were C, were C students, C+ average students. And the reasons why typically— and I connected to this because I, I was, I, I was a, a BC student— um, we're typically bored. Um, what we're being taught, we feel like it's not really that useful. We're the contrarians. We're always zigging when everyone's zagging. We want to take, you know, some kind of idea that somebody else has and kind of rock the boat a little bit and create a new way of doing things. And, uh, a lot of times I think with entrepreneurs, um, you can take something that's really complex and, and simplify it and make it kind of more consumable for people, which traditional education I don't think does a good job of. So it was fascinating to hear that and, and to also show that, you know, a, this, the standardized way that so many of us were taught in school, that what does it mean to be smart and successful is not really the way that we're seeing now. And so I think it's also, it lends to, I think, a lot about creativity, entrepreneurship, and how even though we might have been misunderstood or couldn't get it right on their terms from an educational standpoint in traditional American education doesn't mean that we can't be successful. So I loved that study.

Well, me too. Well, you know, I wish I could have got C pluses. I was a C minus student and barely got into college. And so until eventually like major ADHD issues and a lot of limiting beliefs around it. I was eventually able to follow the process you talked about, break through a limiting belief, and then did much better, uh, later on. But, you know, and I think about this too, I think about our school systems today and how they're not really set up— most of them are not really set up for people that are wired as entrepreneurs, as you talked about, zigging and zagging and doing things differently. And, you know, you look at our educational system, it comes from a more of an ancient Prussian model of— and this is interesting— Rockefeller, John Rockefeller, said, I don't want a— I, I, I don't want a, uh, to create a system of— I don't want to create our educational system to create thinkers. I want to create workers, factory workers, actually, from—

yeah, Industrial Revolution times.

Yes. And so it's like our school systems are not really set up for these entrepreneurial thinkers. You know, there are so many of these entrepreneurs Tim Ferriss, Mark Zuckerberg, I think even Elon Musk, who they got, they started college, none of them finished. Right. You know, and it's like, and look at what they're doing today. So I think that there's a process of learning that could be very, very different for, um, that could be very, very different. And I think too, like we were talking earlier, I know we both have 3-year-old daughters and I think about the way that I want my daughter Arwen to be educated. And I've really thought about this in terms of, you know, we're gonna send her to, to a great school. And I also think homeschooling can be great, but I think that it's so important for if we're gonna have successful kids that the parents, you know, share that, uh, model that, right? And ask them certain questions. There's a Sarah Blakely, uh, story I love where she said her dad would ask her every day, how did you fail today? You know, and it was sort of this positive thing of like, I want you to try, I want you to fail, and I want you to get back up and try again. Uh, is there anything that you could think of with your kids, things that you want to pass down and share with them that you think is really going to help them throughout their life and, and things that maybe schools may not address that you think like, this is going to be really important for, you know, our, our kids and their career success?

Yeah, you know, I think it's— you know, I'll talk about it with my son because he's almost— he'll be 10 next week. He's in 4th grade and he, um, is dyslexic. And my husband is also dyslexic, and my father-in-law is also dyslexic. Apparently it can be hereditary. But my husband was very adamant about us doing it differently with my son because my husband had had horrible memories of, you know, he had to, he had to ride the short bus to school. And, you know, they, he would, they would call him up to read in front of an entire class, and he would, you know, actually end up, you know, peeing on himself because he would be so nervous. So he had a lot of like trauma from that. And it wasn't until, because my husband's 54, it wasn't until his late 20s, I think, that they were like, oh, you're dyslexic. Like, that's what this whole thing is. And it really opened up this this just massive pocket for him. It's actually what allowed him to, to find sobriety. I mean, there was so many layers to this with that stemmed from his childhood of thinking that he was dumb and not worthy and couldn't, you know, offer anything to society. And so he was very adamant about our son not having that experience. And luckily, we have innovated as a society to understand about learning differences and to really be able to notice them as gifts and you know, necessarily these defects that someone could have. But with our son, we chose a very small private school for him to go to here in Nashville because they have a great learning services department. And so he's, you know, he's getting kind of the support that he needs. But one of the things that we always said is that, you know, we're not going to put the pressure on him to have to learn a certain way. You know, if he needs to listen to a book book in order to comprehend it. Yeah, we're gonna let him listen to the book. That's good. You know, I'm not going to be worried that my son's going to be living in my basement when he's 25 because I didn't make him read that book at— in third grade. I allowed him to listen to the book in third grade. And, um, I don't know if his teachers would necessarily say that's great for him, but at the end of the day, he's reading, he's comprehending, he's able to do his writing assignments, he's excelling at school. So I think it's working. So, I think it's just little things of that as parents, you have to let yourself, give yourself the permission to let your child reveal to you what it is that they need in order to be successful. We've tried to stay open to that as well. But I think it's really looking back as to what did we not like about our experiences and how can we make that different? My experience was, you know, kind of similar in the sense that I just, I never really loved being in class. It wasn't until college that I really got excited about about what I was learning. Um, I, I was always kind of bored and, and had other more important social things that I needed to do. And so, um, I think that, that finding that balance now— and like you said with homeschooling, um, I— we haven't experienced that, but we've had some friends that have and have had a great experience with it.

It's big in Nashville.

It is.

There's a lot of homeschoolers here.

But just allowing yourself to stay open and, and curious with things that may feel a little alternative but could actually be very beneficial for your child in the long run.

Yeah, it's so You got a new book out. I want to mention, and first of all, I love the title because this is something everybody wants is How to Get What You Want, right? So, so talk to us a little bit about how to get what we want. What are some of those key factors? And then talk to us a little bit about some of the things, some of the big highlights you cover in the book.

Yeah. So yeah, Get What You Want: How to Go from Unseen to Unstoppable. The title is in your face, which that was intentional. But I did have someone tell me that they were reading it. I don't know if it was like at a park or somewhere, but they they were reading it and someone came up to them and was like, ooh, like, Get What You Want? Like, how abrasive. Like, why would you read something like that? And the woman was like, well, what should I be reading? How to Not Get What I Want?

Exactly.

What's the alternative?

I mean, people can be offended by anything today, right? Just— I love the title. Love it.

But I think that it's interesting because that is a mindset for a lot of people, that you, you come in somebody's face and like, go get what you want, and they're like, well, no, I, I can't do that. I shouldn't do that. How dare you do And it can cause a lot of internal conflict. And that's really why I called it that and the messages throughout. And so I think that in order to get what you want, you have to know what you want. And in order to know what you want, you have to first know what you don't want. Yeah. And I think that really at the end of the day, the world, it doesn't give you what you want. It gives you who you are. And so if you want to get what you want, you have to really start rooting into those belief systems of who you are as a person and how are you reflecting that back into the world, because that's what you get. It's like a boomerang. Yeah. And so that's really the core message of the book is, is getting clear on that and then the steps to get you there.

That's so good. I was thinking about this too, just even for myself. And it's like, you know, I want to be a great great dad. I want to be a great husband. I want to be a great child to God. I want to be somebody who's faithful with my mission and a good student, you know. So for me, it just goes to, I can only think of the positive. But I actually, when I did read this, I thought there are going to be a few people that think that this is some sort of— but it's important. The other thing, the second part of this title, How to Go from Unseen— you talked about worthiness earlier. I think this is such a, a key part of this, is I think I've been reading all this literature on psychology recently and just epidemic around loneliness. I saw this study on Spotify, or about Spotify, that said the number one search term on Spotify right now is sad, because people are looking up sad songs. It's a generation of people who are really sort of basking in this sort of, you know, level of just being sad. But my point there is, is that one of the things I love so much about what you do is you help people get seen, you help them gain influence, and then using that influence for good. So it's such a— it's such an incredible thing. You know, one of the questions I wanted to ask you, as you've been exposed to— you talked about networking earlier. And by the way, this is— so I actually think we might have met through Rory Vaden.

We did. Who— I was like, you can't, you can't say the word networking and not bring up Rory Vaden.

I mean, Rory is the ultimate networker. In fact, I think Rory connected me to— I mean, I could mention 100 people. I think maybe it was Lewis Howes and Donald Miller and Michael, all kinds of people that I know were—

He's amazing. He's so brilliant. He's so lovely. I adore Rory and I'm so grateful for him. And, and it's true, I've— he is, he is the master networker. He is in, in the most beautiful way.

Yes. Yes. So if anybody wants to learn about networking or brand building, yes, Rory is— he's, he's your guy. He's, he's pretty great. So talking about networking, you've got a lot of advice. I'm sure over the years you've both given a lot of advice, but you're walking in humility. You've got a growth mindset. You're wanting to grow. What is one of or what is the single best piece of advice you've ever received?

Hmm. That's a good one. I would say, honestly, go easy on yourself.

That is good.

Simple. But I have to remember that every day.

You know, I was, I was listening to this lecture on identity and And the, the, the, the, the lecturer is incredible PhD. He was walking through sort of identity today and people tend to fall in one, one of three categories. Uh, traditional identity. So think about like everything is about duty. We're giving ourselves for our community. There was the next one is modern identity, which you are at the center of everything. Mm-hmm. But because you're at the center, there's all of this pressure. And I think about a lot of the women you speak to, it's like, like, well, sometimes I think there's, there's a lot of women who feel like, well, I've got to be a 5-star mom and I've got to be an incredible wife and I've got to work 40 hours a week and I've got to volunteer and I've got to be seen as perfect from the outside. And he talked about this modern identity because you're the center and everything's about you. Well, the weight is just crushing for some people. And so anyways, that's my point though, is I, I love that piece of advice because I think a lot of people and a generation is feeling crushed because they have to be everything. And, and it's hard. And so going easy on yourself in that way, it's vital.

I think it's vital for survival. It's, it's, it's so unmanageable and unrealistic to think that we can be optimal in all of those ways. And so you have to take the pressure off yourself. And I think for me, that started with the, the most important question that I've ever asked myself before, which is how important is it?

That's good.

And like really getting clear on like how important is it really that like I do these 5 calls today or that I go to that event or that I sign up for this thing or that I volunteer for this thing or that I do this thing or that I fly to this? Like, how important is it really? How important is it really to even respond to someone right now? Yeah. Like, was— did they ask me a question? Do I need to respond? And so that's been huge for me is because when everything is important, important, nothing is important. So good. And so really getting clear with yourself on how important is it. And then when you, when you understand that for yourself, where, where can you go easy on yourself? I've, I've let a lot of the mom guilt go. That is one thing that thankfully I don't deal with on a day-to-day basis. I'm not going to be the, the, the PTA mom person. I'll come and volunteer at some things, but I'm not going to be the mom that's like all up in the school every day. I don't have the capacity or desire for that. Doesn't make me a bad mom. I know where I stand with my children. I love my children. They love me. And I don't need to prove that to anybody. Yeah. And so as long as I'm clear on that and I'm really listening to, to where God is guiding me when it comes to my parenting, when it comes to my work, it will be revealed to me what is important. So I can, I can kind of let my hands off the steering wheel a little bit.

It. That's so good. You know, that third identity, which I didn't touch on yet, it's called a divine identity, when— where it's like, I, I'm, I'm created for a purpose, for not even now, but for eternity, and impacting life. It's a very— so anyways, I just— even, even hearing you speak, there's a level of that just sort of within you. And I think also you're talking about here, it's like, what came to mind when you were sharing some of these things is, what good is to gain the world if you lose your soul, right? It's this thing of— in priorities, knowing, hey, these are the things that are most important in life I want to give to, and then And everything else, if I have time for, great. If not, it's okay. I don't need to, you know, I don't need to do everything or be everyone to be everything to everyone. You know, you've experienced a lot of success in your career and in your life. When you think about success for you 25 years from now, like paint me a picture, kind of visualization here. Like what does success look like for you in 25 years?

Ooh, 25 years. Serenity and just peace. And what that visually looks like is, you know, really working on the things that light me up, saying no to anything that doesn't, which I'm already doing now. You know, really putting my family first, which I'm already doing now. I mean, I'm— I think it's now kind of setting that, setting the stones, if you will, or the groundwork, the seeds, if you will, to have the fruition of that. And most importantly, I think just, just staying in the gratitude. When I look back on my life and the times that have been the hardest, or the times that I felt like I couldn't get to the other side of anything, I had lost my gratitude for what I had. And so for me, when I think of 25 years ahead, you know, I don't— if that's retired, I don't know. If that's living somewhere else, I don't know. It's like, you know, a beach house is always, you know, we love, we love our beach house and having that, but it's just, it's the gratitude of life and being able to live life because it's not promised. And, and we have to really honor that and honor the presence of that and what we're really called here to do, because it's not just about me or this thing. It's so much greater than that.

That's so good. Last question for you here. So I asked you just a minute ago, what would the best piece of advice you've ever received? What is the best advice you could give to someone listening today who wants to experience growth growth and success in life?

They want to experience growth and success in life. I would tell them to just trust the process and take action.

That's good. Yeah, I think a lot of people are standing by, kind of watching, like, rather than engaging and go taking risks.

Yes, it's kind of like when you're on a— if everyone, anyone's ever rock climbed, it's kind of like you're, you're sitting here, but you're like, but I really want to go, but I don't know, I don't know. And it's like, if you stay in the same spot for too long, you know what ends up happening? Your hands start to tremble, shake, and then you've fallen down. So you have to just keep moving forward.

Don't stop. So good. I want to encourage everybody to check out Julie's new book. It's called Get What You Want. And what's the subtitle? How to Go from Unseen to Unstoppable. How to Go from Unseen to Unstoppable. And, um, and especially if you're a person saying, I want to experience a breakthrough as an influencer, if you're saying, hey, I want to get to 10,000 followers and I want to be able to create is this book is so good for this. You can go to amazon.com, it's in bookstores nationwide, but check out Get What You Want: How to Go from Unseen to Unstoppable by Julie Solomon here. And Julie, want to say thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and for coming on the podcast today.

Thank you for having me. This has been fun.

All right, everybody. Hey, thanks so much for listening to another episode of the Growth Lab. Remember, check out Julie Solomon on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. She's on all the channels. She also has a great podcast called The Influencer Podcast. Make sure to check it out. And if you're not subscribed here to the Growth Lab, make sure to subscribe. Thanks for watching. We'll be back soon with another episode.