Going From Identity Design to Brand Strategy—A Deep Dive w/ Melinda Livsey Ep. 12

hey guys welcome to another episode with Melinda live see if you haven't been here before you definitely need to know about Melinda there's a bunch of episodes that we'll link to somewhere I'm knocking a point because I always point in the wrong direction check those episodes out but Melinda give us a quick update who are you what's going on and I'm glad to be talking to you again hey Chris thanks for having me back oh wow an update it's been a little bit since I've been back on the show I first was on last year was a very confused designer I would classify myself as a graphic designer at that time since then I learned brand strategy and I've been focusing more on offering brand strategy identity and messaging since then it's a few things I had never offered before so my business has radically changed mm-hmm I had to get rid of some lower paying clients that I was more of an order-taker with and then coming in more as an expert people actually hire me for my expertise so fantastic there's a lot of people are gonna want to know how you transition from being a graphic designer to more of a brand strategist but that's not this episode that's not this episode this was just a quick recap if you curious like I said again go check out the video I might have screwed that up it's probably on the other side whatever side I point to I know it's on the other side anyways let's get into it it's been a little while what is on your mind what are we going to talk about today I would love to talk about specializing versus being a consultant who can solve any problem for a client because those two things seem completely different but I hear I hear you talk about both of those things a lot but I don't know how they live together okay can you give me a real-world example where those two are in conflict with each other when we had chatted he was last year and you were coaching me on how to go through the initial call with a client you had me ask the client why they're looking for that project and uncovering the why of what's propelling them into this certain deliverable or the initiative right and so to me I see that more as a consultant coming in trying to solve whatever problem it is that the clients looking for we're specializing if you specialize in something say or a type designer or you do something really well illustration a specific type of design to me a client's gonna come to you for that specific type of deliverable so then I don't see how those two things could live so I don't I don't have a specific example of someone coming to me for the deliver but it's also me you know trying to figure out how do those two things live because I have a lot of people that have asked me as well well should I specialize but then how do I solve my clients problem as well if I'm by offers so you're asking for other people it's not really for you because you're doing just fine me too well I'd like to know specifically for you so I can solve for your problem so we're not talking about somebody that's not in the room is that possible yes okay let's do that so you're making this transition from being a graphic designer essentially you design identity systems write a logo letterhead packaging collateral all that kind of stuff maybe even some web design but now you don't do that farm yeah go that far I don't know yeah that's what I'm saying the old you did that and now you've pivoted and now you're in the brand strategy space so we doing mean no I guess for everybody that's tuning in what does it even mean you're a brand strategist so I help a brand or business develop their personality which that would include knowing who they are and developing that personality so that it will be attractive to their ideal client and then also uncovering who that your ideal client is and how to communicate what they need to to the ideal client okay so that is essentially the true definition of branding right right okay so a lot of people are going to be watching this and they're gonna be asking themselves well I I do that so talk to the old you who didn't know this and speak to them to that and let them know what the differences are so big difference was I switched from a questionnaire to a strategy workshop so something where I sit down with the founder the key stakeholders in the business to uncover the things about the brand that makes them unique and so that's different than before the old me would just give a questionnaire and almost ask the client what exactly are they looking for versus me going in and meeting with them face to face and then uncovering those insights that maybe they don't see on the surface that's one big difference can you give us an example of some of the questions that you used to ask on a question there I would ask very similar ones that I do now things like who's your target audience what this is not like I do now but what type of brand do you want to be like what type of brands do you relate to that you would want to fall into that category as far as aesthetics are concerned what's the backstory okay of your business words with your name so Melinda so what you're saying right now is as a brand strategist as you're able to connect dots with the client that a questioner could not serve correct right okay and why do you think that is a couple of things when I was giving a questionnaire it was like homework for a client and I know for myself when I've had questionnaires like that when I've hired because I've hired a copywriter before from my own website and other other people that had questionnaires it was a daunting task and it's something that if you're just there filling out the answers by yourself you're only gonna give what's on top of your head and get really exhausted really fast and so there's only so many things that you can can give at that moment whereas if someone was asking me those questions it'd be a lot easier to make connections and start thinking of stories and it would it would ignite that part of my brain whereas I can't really do that on my own and I think that's what was happening with clients and so who advised you not to stop doing the questionnaire obvious answer Chris would be you okay okay I want to point out to everybody that's watching because I used to do the same early on my career I'll put out a questionnaire - I just stopped doing it because the answers I was kidding we're obviously not well thought out let me let me go over a couple of points just to drive this issue home for everybody else watching if you're guilty or still practicing them doing questionnaires let me just tell you why you probably should change your mind about this one is I just hired you and now you gave me more work to do I don't want to feel like you're doing the work with me that it's just not pushing it responsibility I mean and your hon percent right we look at the questionnaire as a chore we want to get it done quickly so we can move on with our life if you guys are one of those strange individuals where you get a survey in the mail yes can't wait to do it I love this you know so very few people are gonna put the time and energy into answering the questions the way that you want now here's the other problem is when I fill out a questionnaire I'm pretty much taking your order you know what would you like to order today for the appetizer you want to start with a soup and you just go down the list and it's like okay I'll be right back with your meal and that removes you as a participant in the conversation and really defines you as the order taker literally here are the questions I don't really want to talk to you fill it out good or bad I'm gonna deal with it I'm gonna make you what it is that you asked for so what happens is this is the power of conversation you're building rapport you're trying to get inside the person's head so on first glance if you ask them what are you what do you want your brand to be about and they're like yeah I wanted to be optimistic innovative and cool well if that were written in the questionnaire you'd lock we're optimistic innovative and cool and that could mean a lot of different things those are very broad words and you have to remember the client doesn't have the same design training as you they don't have the visual vocabulary to describe what it is that they want if they did they would hire a low-level designer and just give them the work and art direct them so you definitely want to be a part of the conversation this is super super important I want to just make sure you guys totally understand this so even though Melinda theoretically is asking the same types of questions she's getting different answers because she's shaping the conversation she's going into it and saying why do you say that can you give me an example that oh maybe the word that you were looking for isn't cool it's more conservative like yes you're right so this is where you're starting to build rapport with them and they're starting to feel like gosh this person in front of me really understands me and they care and they're able to get something out from me that I didn't even know that I wanted and that's the beginning of your transition from being a designer or an identity designer to a strategist okay let's get back into it then so now that we know and thanks for clearing that up give me an example where somebody's coming to you and asking you for a very specific deliverable and how you reframe the conversation so that you're like saying to them that's fantastic we'll make that but let me ask you about your motivations your why why are we here why are we talking about this in the first place where's the pushback Ben in terms of you positioning yourself as a specialist versus a strategist surprisingly there hasn't been as much pushback yes since I have positioned myself as a strategist hmm so I haven't run into as many now there's been a couple that have come to me for the deliverables and I have been successful at pivoting the conversation it ended up that some of those clients just a budget wise it wasn't a good fit but they understood and the thing that was really interesting like they didn't they didn't keep pushing me towards that direction but once they heard oh you do branch strategy and when I was asking those questions like what's the reason for this you know why now where are you why are you doing this now why why is why are you not just redoing your website where are you needing to redo the whole brand and so asking those questions and then once it got to the point of talking about brand strategy and they realized oh this is a much bigger deal than I had thought then they said well let me go back to the table and relook at budgets or let me rethink this whole thing so I so successful at pivoting the conversation but those clients I've noticed don't come in with the budget if they come in asking for just that deliverable okay I have many questions for you many many questions and I want to point something out that you just helped me to realize right now I'm reading Russell Brunson's book.com secrets and the thing that we realized is that we assume everybody that comes to us that comes knocking is a hot lead and then we start acting like okay let's get into it let's just sell the thing let's close the deal let's move on with our lives when in fact even though they're calling you even though they're reaching out via email it's actually a colder lead than you think because they're not even aware of the problem we need to make them aware of the problem so they're acting on what they believe to be the symptoms so they're saying oh this isn't working so therefore I'm going to self-diagnose I'm going to prescribe this solution they come to designer and said hey it looks like you do this why don't you do this for me and most people accept that at face value and do that and that's fine many people know how hopefully having watched this show and have absorbed the content take a moment to say let's let's take a pause here and let's try to understand what the problem is and what they realize it's something much deeper than that so we're treating the symptoms let's say like let me make an analogy real quick let's say you have a rash or some kind of dry spot on your skin and you just kind of you come to the farm and you're like give me an ointment just give me a cream or lotion I'll put it on it and you do it and it makes the the itch tolerable but I never really solved this a problem when in fact had you gone to a doctor they might have tested you and find out you have an allergy to carrots or something like that so you got carrots out of your diet and now your skin looks better and you're healthy you have more energy and by the way that little dry spot has cleared up so that's what we're talking about here okay I hope people understand that so the question I have for you is is there is fear in most designers in making that transition from being a specialist designer towards becoming a strategist and we fear all these kinds of things like what if they ask me all these kinds of questions what if they say what proof do you have and what kind of guarantees can you make these are fears these fantasized experiences appearing real that we have this dialogue this negative self-talk that we have that keeps playing but somehow when you find the courage to act as which you have been able to do you realize oh my gosh the pushback isn't even there and people get it but it could just be that you're really gifted communicator so share with us a little of how those conversations go well I even before I get to the conversation part I do want to make note of something that you said because it I think it's very important to note it before you even get into conversations is that you had said not all leads that come in are hot that a lot of them are cold okay so before when I first came on the show with unis are going to talk to you I was in that mindset of every single TV is so burning hot it is really really hot and I love ya then as I positioned myself as a strategist where people actually understood what it was that I was doing they understood the outcomes that potentially could happen for them or they've seen it for others that once I started that I can tell the difference now between someone who's super cold like the hey how much would you charge for a logo when they're DMing me on Instagram versus someone who comes and says hey I heard that this is what you did for this other company I'm having a similar problem can we talk yeah so there's a it's a stark difference and I did not see that before that is a big big difference between even this time last year me this time last year now look at you there's a big mole whoa there's a difference at least what every lead is created the same you're growing up right now look the same but you're growing up so there is that so then once you get to the conversation it's been so much easier for me so much easier where I'm not having to pivot as much the conversation I will ask that let's say the founder can you tell me about your vision just just tell me about your vision about what you see for your business in the next few years or what you're hoping to do and one time I was on a call he goes on for 20 minutes very excited about his about his vision about his business what he wants it to do where he wants to go that by the end of it I had said nothing except maybe mirroring back what he had said and then he goes I feel really good about this let's do it and they did and I didn't I just asked the question what are you hoping to do what is do your vision cuz I could tell it he was he wasn't necessarily having a problem he just had a big goal right so that's what we focused on and then by the time we ended the call oh he convinced himself into it and it wasn't selling I've realized it's not about convincing it's not about persuading that when it's the right fit you're smiling cuz you know yeah then it really didn't feel like selling it was not selling it was a conversation and then I realized both of us that it was a good fit and then we move forward fantastic so if if I were a martial arts instructor if I was your Shifu and you and I were talking and we're doing a test I think you just graduated from whatever belt you were and I'm visualizing in my mind the reason why I'm smiling is like I'm putting that new belt on you right now it's like you earned this Melinda's and you've earned this okay very good very good okay wow what a what a radical transformation well let's keep going here the reason why you asked this question about generalist versus a specialist is you've not hit that wall you haven't hit that resistance so what is motivating you to ask this question I'm curious well I consider myself specializing in branding specifically brand strategy identity messaging I personally don't want to go past that I don't want to do the collateral I don't want to do the website I see people who do websites as specialists that hopefully they specialize in that and I don't necessarily want to do the whole gamut so I'm trying to see well how where can I draw the line and still be profitable and still grow and so far it's been fine but I'm sure that there's I don't know is there a line somewhere so we're talking about right now you offer logo identity and messaging as part of the deliverables of the strategy no it's now so no no I mean like as the deliverables meaning like you do strategy first right and these are the things you actually make and anything else that falls outside of that you'll refer somebody else right okay okay that's that's very good so even in your broad generalist strategy strategist mode you actually are very hyper focus right okay that makes a lot of sense to me now is your question should I open it up I am I thinking short sighted Chris what is the question here then I guess where to go from here because I have I have that specialty I have what I want to do now I'm thinking well then do i I don't know do I grow as far as I don't really want to manage people I don't want to have a big team mmm but then do I just establish myself as the expert and start putting out more thought pieces do I specialize in that sense like getting known for it maybe even something within the brand strategy branding realm because I was watching also Fabian who was on your show and he's he has his particular niche as well in the branding space and you guys have met each other in real life right we have yeah okay and have you shared information and learned from each other yeah okay fantastic so it seems like you're attracted to his style of business which is run really lean and light and have a lot of flexibility and freedom is that why you don't want to grow in terms of having more people yeah and is there a bad experience in your past where you did that and he just tainted the whole idea in your mind as far as growing as far as hiring people and then it's just like.how got that sucked that's stressful I don't want to do that anymore uh not a absolutely horrible experience but I've never really liked it I like collaborating with other agencies in that respect but I don't necessarily like hiring hired hands who just put out the work I don't like the management of it I just which part bothers you what parts you struggle with because hasn't preneur I think I think we need to learn to scale we need to scale and the only way we can do that is if we can offload and basically sell some of our time or buy time something like that right now your selling time you're not buying any time right well that's that and that's where I think my my thinking gets halted because yes scaling I do see that yeah but then the other there is scaling as far as being an expert and just getting paid more and more and more for your expertise right so there's that scaling I would like to go that way rather than people scaling okay you want to be able to charge more for your work basically you want to sell at a higher price to more clients and do less that's so add a higher play price but keep clients low I don't want a ton of clients these more clients okay so you just want to sell okay I see so I think you want a lifestyle business is that okay what does that mean that means that you're comfortable working and making a certain amount of money and you're not really going to be a world beater you're not going to look at changing and revolutionising everything like we just had Seth Godin on and he's up what a one-man team I know he doesn't do I realize that he's not in the same space as us but why couldn't I be the Seth Godin why can't it be but I don't know if you listen to his story he sold one of his companies or thirty million dollars okay so he can do whatever he wants but does that well then we get into like he went through that arc early in his career and he actually was part of I think some pretty major disruptions and innovations like corporate email there's a couple of things that he innovated so that was in the early part of his career so if you want to jump to the latter part of his career I'm gonna assume this and I'm not saying that he's getting old because he's not but he's moving into that you know how he talked about on the edge the early adopters and he's moving towards the middle now like Apple we have to do what Apple did before we can be in the middle part of Apple because otherwise we're just moving into retirement but you can have a beautiful lifestyle business we you can only work four months out of the year and make a certain amount of money and have only a handful of clients and be totally contented with that and I think that's a great model if that's the model you want I just think we need to be cognizant of the decisions we're making today and what the pros and cons are for tomorrow so let's let's put this into perspective I know it's hard to tell but I'm an old dude I know it's not that hard to tell I am an old guy okay I'm 46 years old so I'm gonna be 50 pretty soon and as I approach 50 it's like I put in a lot of time energy and effort I've done all that stuff the blood sweat and tears the late nights the all-nighters I've done all that stuff and the moving is a different part of my career I'm not saying I'm Seth Godin but I'm moving into different part I'm innovating a different way so I can be smarter about how I work on how I sell my time so is that the thing that you want because this is the thing that my wife and I debate about all the time because we know given the pro community given the products that we sell given the speaking engagements that I have I can actually make more money just work out of my house by myself maybe with one assistant but that's not what I'm interested in so that's a lifestyle business where I go into cruise control I probably do three to four hundred thousand dollars of revenue a year by myself have more in my pocket have more time can spend more time with my wife and kids but that's not what I want right now because what I want is a much bigger mission a bigger goal and you know what that is I don't you get into that mm-hmm so that's why I'm like I'm going to punt that a little bit further down the road right I'm not ready to have a lifestyle business just yet well and I also think because I and I don't know if this is just me compartmentalizing things too but I see cert my service or my services they pay the bills that allows me the flexibility to innovate on the side to potentially build another business if that's what I want to also teach mm-hmm here you go there's there's a specific reason why I would want that flexibility it's not just to coast you make a nice cushy amount but it's actually to fuel other things that I would really would want to do fantastic you just walked into the hornet's nest or walked into the snare for the line you just did it okay so right now you're building one business to really create the business you that you want to have you're gonna do the service brand strategy work so that you can work on the side extra hours to do the thing that you really love to do so then the question is and I know you're smiling because now you know where this is coming and you now know why you stepped into the trap which is why aren't you just doing what it is that you want to do what's holding you back from doing that why how many careers do you want to have how many arcs and you're in your in your life in your resume in your LinkedIn profile do you want to write about oh as many as I'm interested in really don't think there's a number well I think let's talk about this I I don't know what that is I want the flexibility to experiment and to try things because I don't I don't have a specific thing I could tell you oh I want to build this type of business I want it to be this big I want to sell it it you know there's not any let's do this are you familiar with the Dan Sullivan question the three year question yeah yeah okay so I'm asked you your three year question I don't think I have an answer for that you don't Nani I would fire you is fun you realize that it is bogeys like you have an answer to I walk you only get one chance to answer the question with Dan CEO good thing you're not dealing here's the thing is like I think often times that we're looking at Maslow's hierarchy of needs we're looking at the bottom which is food shelter clothing that kind of stuff and we're busy just dealing with the bottom parts and we don't spend enough time thinking about the top parts where it's about self fulfillment and and self-awareness those kinds of things right and why is that because we're just like busy bodies maybe Seth is right we've been trained to be obedient machine and we say like well this is the model my parents taught me this is the model Society has told me to pursue this is what I must be doing right now but maybe instead of going on autopilot mode we just need to pull that emergency brake and say stop just take a moment take this Thanksgiving holiday and sit there and think boy what is it that I really want if I can't see my future in three years what am i doing because what happens is we put our blinders on we look to the ground that's why I'm looking down and we don't know where we're going we're just going and then we look up and one day we're 40 and one day we're 50 and 70 and we we're on our deathbed and we sit back and say well I could have done this I should have done that but I didn't so this one life this miracle of life that I was given that a won the genetic lottery and I threw it away I have I think I realized where the roadblock is for me okay tell me please it's gonna get deep it's gonna get deep so going back to the Seth Godin example so when I hear you say well he built his business to X X big you know sold it or whatnot so that he can do this that tells me oh so then I have to build my business to X you know however that's well that's what I'm hearing from what you had said that's so that's just how I'm filtering the information that you had said so then I think well because I heard Seth say I What did he say I make a living out of noticing things and yeah I love that I think that's why I love brand strategy so much is that I can make connections I can I can get information filter it and then make connections I love that I think that's one thing I love about brand strategy so that I think is what I would want to do all the time whether it's in branch strategy or whether it's just like obsessed said I make a living out of noticing things yeah but then when you said well he built his business too so big before he's able to do that then I think well then I guess I have to build my business to a certain point so that I can do more of like the thought pieces and that give you a little more perspective yeah I love that and I believe if people are watching this right they're gonna comment go Malinda hashtag show him what's up call him out on that nonsense and that's fantastic so let's talk about this I told you about I didn't tell you about Seth I think initially you brought up Seth and said he has a wonderful lifestyle business this is what he's doing it's fine and it's not the one that you described Chris he's not selling into the sunset I said Werner no you skipped over the first 30 years of his career we're only seeing what we want to see and that's all I meant to say about that okay now I'm gonna make some assumptions here the opportunities that are present to you everybody that's watching is here in 2018 are radically different than they were five years ago completely different than they were ten years ago and not even thinkable thirty years ago so you have to live in the time that you're in I have a theory based on zero information just when I like to say that big asterisk right here right based on no information but I can see in the patterns in the books that Seth has written it's about marketing he's deeply passionate about that he wants to share that information with the world so over his lifetime he's written a lot of books at least eighteen bestsellers so in the beginning I think some of the ideas that he created or an offshoot of his passion this is what I want to do with my life it just so happened that somebody put a price tag on that a 30 million dollar SiC fantastic I'll sell it and I'll do this again and it keeps evolving keeps changing but what what the core of it is I mean his last book is called this is marketing right so eight however many years later 18 books later or 19 books later he's still talking about the same thing okay here's what Seth has done that I would encourage you to do and you've heard me say this before what you have to do is you have to be able to convert your knowledge and experience into capital and equity now currently the way you convert is you sell it on a one-to-one basis you meet an executive you make a connection and you sell your services your time essentially hopefully for a very high price and probably higher every day which is fantastic right but until you do something else with that until you write a book until you're vlogging or blogging or speaking at seminars or putting together a video course you're not able to sell your knowledge anywhere else except for a one-to-one relationship now I know you have some products out there and so you are doing that so the question for you is if you love noticing things for a living how can you best optimize that and I would build your business around that idea so in three years from now you're you are where you're supposed to be now one of the things is and people see this and I know it's a very conventional way of looking at it and nothing wrong with that okay this is not for everybody it's for the risk takers it's for the entrepreneurs the square pegs in the round hole the troublemakers the ones who see things differently they're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo if you are like you know what I want to do this this is the safe path and then when I do that I'll do this so each time you kind of move laterally you're not quite starting over but you're rebuilding each and every single time now you could be looking at me like you hypocrite Chris you hypocrite you spent 20 X years in the service business and now you're here and so it's easy for you to say but I would say this to my son who's 12 this is the path you want to go down now that's why I'm helping him learn how to speak how to communicate how to create content how to take photographs and how to talk about things and tell stories because I want him to be able to skip all that to live in this time and not read the playbook from a generation or two generations ago that's a key difference right you're still relatively young woman the the world's ahead of you so I want to encourage you to do the thing that really excites you the thing that makes you jump out of bed every morning's like darn it I can't wait to get started today and then at night when your body can't stay awake anymore he tells you time to go to sleep that's when you stop now set sounds something really interesting during our interview or a conversation together he said something about artists when we're doing art we say how can I do more and when we're doing work we say how can I do less that's the difference between our didn't work but it puts people into two categories people who have jobs or people who are artists and artists and that term is a title that I don't think a lot of people feel comfortable wearing but you may not consider yourself an artist so I've been thinking about that a lot I think the difference is how you see things do you see things as work or do you see things as play and there are very smart people I think Einstein said something very smart about play so if you can create a life design a life for yourself where you feel like you get to play no matter how much you get paid your life will have been well spent so I want to help you design your life so when we talk about this somebody had asked me recently like Chris what does it mean to be a business designer how's that different than being a graphic designer right because what we want to do is help businesses design to their potential and then a life designer is the same thing I want to help design your life to your potential and what you want this has nothing to do with me and if you don't want this then I want to help you to achieve whatever it is you want but I heard it in you so as soon as you said that like I'm gonna do this I'm gonna get paid more so I can build a runway and sooner than later I think you'll start to realize something it's like golden handcuffs you've heard that term mm-hmm or the job or the thing you're doing pay so well it's like you can't let it go because the money is so good it becomes addictive so you if you actually achieve your goal you'll sit there and say well why am I doing this other thing why am i grind it out for 10 hours every night making $2 why am i doing that I'd rather just go to sleep and use those same ten hours make 20k so I'm thinking here there is a transition period between what you're doing now currently just to pay the bills and help support your life and your family but there might be this other thing for you where you feel like every day it's like play so what does that look like to you three years from now if you get to play and make money what does that look like looks like a couple of things I think doing strategy still but without any design so purely making those connections with people one on one and then spending time analyzing and thinking about how all of those experiences that I've had especially with brand strategy how they relate what problems have I seen over and over then seeing connections amongst the broad experience that I've had and then sharing that and sharing those insights that I've seen then from my own experiences so if that's writing if that's speaking so there's still an element of me working one-on-one with clients and the other thing is collaborating with other creatives on pet projects so similar to the cat hater survival kit things like that where we can just think up something and we don't have a client we're the client and we create whether it's something like that where it's actually designed or maybe it's a business I don't know but working and collaborating with other creatives do you know the knock knock company no her name is Jen Billick and she has OCD she's clinically diagnosed with OCD not like one of those like oh I'm OCD like a graphic designer okay and she created a company called knock-knock and it was basically therapeutic for herself it was organizational tools so she would have notebooks and notepads and little stickers to remind her what to do what not to do to help her stay super organized in her life and now she's built a fantastic business around that so she took an obsession of passion even an illness if you look at it and she was able to solve it for herself and she realized she connected with so many other people so she she has a whole line of products out there you know she has all kinds of wonderful things like the brain dump pad so she's been able to create a whole business around this and so when I hear you talking about making products and designing ideas to solve problems or things that you're passionate about like the cat hater box that could be your business make connections of things that are missing in the marketplace where you're like I love to do that why don't I just get together and start a Kickstarter project and make these things wouldn't that make you really happy works yes no no I don't mean specifically just this one thing but as as your business as the core of what you do see that yes but I don't know how much I'd want to be involved past that so past the initial idea designing the prototype yes I don't know if I'd really want to be involved than in running the business okay so would you rather come up with the idea design it and sell the idea to somebody to make yeah so everybody every problem you have has a solution so you can conceptualize products and then you can go and you can talk to one of our pro members Seth who basically does that he license ideas to company so that he didn't have to deal with any of that he collects a royalty from every product that's sold yeah I would be open to that I'm sure you'd be open to that so you get to be this Dream Maker Dream Factory and you get to just make wild idea of products and then you can have somebody like Steph even pitch it for you and just collect a royalty cheque would not get you up every single morning yes and then when you have one or two hits you can talk about the process and you can teach other people how to do that I think that would be a pretty amazing life I do like that you see so one of the other big shifts that we have to make is we have to move away from trying to solve other people people's problems to solving our own problems we can be our own client and that's the promise of the future you can do that too okay we've taken a really meandering walk in the mind of Melinda and you started out asking questions about generalists and strategists and how to position yourself maybe and we've actually explored something much deeper and how do you feel about that how does that feel in your bones right now what I just said to you I feel excited it's definitely been something I've been thinking about and acting upon it's definitely not something I'm just put to the side I think I do get stuck in the old old way of thinking about what the business should like this and it needs to be serviced base and it needs to grow like this and I'm just stuck in that not fully you know maybe 25% is solid in that mindset of well just get the client's and figure out where your target market is and the other is playing and making things and and or writing and making those connections and sharing the connections that I've realized or I've learned especially through strategy so I am doing those things and it's just a matter of shifting more of my weight or my attention to those so it was exciting yeah so do you feel like you're kind of inside the bottle yeah I feel like I'm kind of on the edge like I'm kind of see I can kind of see the label I think I can I'm holding on that bottom like Melinda there's this thing that you want to do that makes you really happy then you just told me that I didn't tell you that I'm like huh from the outside what you described to me is this so guys we just got super meta here we were using Melinda's own analogy for her against her with her that she used to say like okay I come into an organization as an outsider I have this fresh and objective perspective I help them understand who they are and what they need to do with their business and I'm able to provide this as an insight to them as a company before that I'd like to get paid a lot of money so if you're watching this episode you may have just seen it happen in real life unscripted in real time and that's kind of what a strategist does or a therapist you know I'm hearing a lot of different things a-movin is like how do I do this so she's coming at me with self-diagnosed and self-prescribed solutions and she's like well help me figure this part out Chris so all I have to do is ask her a series of questions allow her to speak and listen and notice things notice things for a living and how am I going to this is going to get super super meta how am I going to make money on this well guess what I'm sharing my knowledge and experience I'm converting that into video format for you guys to see so each and every single person who sees I'm able to build equity in that not necessary on a one-to-one ratio where everybody that watches I make a dollar that would be nice but that's okay so if Melinda and I were having this conversation privately I've exchanged my time for a finite return but now we're doing it publicly and now you guys get to benefit from that okay I think that's it for this episode I'm gonna wrap it up right here Melinda it's always good to see you and this I believe is the beginning of a new series where you and I will have these kind of conversations when we chatted we said what's the problem of getting you to be a regular guest on our show and you're like I don't have time and really you don't because the drive from Orange County to Santa Monica is murder it's like an hour and 45 minutes without traffic and then to go back again with traffic would just destroy your day so I get that to come in and record for a one hours worth of content it doesn't make sense so let's use technology let's solve the problem like what's holding you back well it's the commute dude it's killing me so this what we're gonna do we're gonna continue serious guys please let us know what you think of this episode go ahead and give it a like comment and subscribe did I give Melinda good advice what would you do in her situation what other questions can we ask them so they they can comment down below Melinda how what was their three-year plan oh that all good one okay so you guys let us know what your 3-year plan is and the Dan Sullivan question goes something like this okay three years from now if you and I are having this conversation looking back on those three years what has happened for you to be so happy both professionally and personally in your life that's the Dan Sullivan question so guys think about that for a little bit and have a plan towards your three-year goal it's a perfect question it's a Dan Sullivan question and I want to thank you guys for tuning in I will see you guys next time bye bye

Channel: The Futur

Views: 80,625

Rating: 4.9753008 out of 5

Keywords: the futur, futur brand, chris do, how to, melinda livsey, dan sullivan question, maslow's hierarchy of needs, being busy, seth godin, lifestyle business, small business owner, identity designer, brand strategist, transformation, busy making a living forgot to make a life, california designer, marks and maker, business advice, strategy, consulting, consultant, career advice, self realization, brand strategy explained, graphic design, design of business, logo design

Id: 3el7kOfTPK4

Length: 44min 2sec (2642 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 22 2018