When Your Brand Reflects Your Heart, Everything Changes—Clarity That Brings Hope with Rich Kozak

If your marketing feels loud but your message still isn’t landing, this conversation with Rich Kozak is a must-listen. In this episode of Hope Unlocked, we talk about branding vs. marketing, why brand clarity matters, and how unclear messaging can keep the right clients from connecting with your offers. Rich shares practical wisdom for entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, authors, and faith-based business owners on building a brand that reflects your heart, communicates value, and creates trust. If you want clearer messaging, stronger positioning, and more aligned visibility, this episode is packed with insight.

Rich's contact info:

Website - richbrands.org

Events:

60-Minute Masterclass - BRAND FIRST...OR DIE - brandfirstordie.com

Brand POWER HOUR - brandpowerhour.com

🎙️Hope Unlocked Listener Exclusive! Feeling stirred but not sure what to do next? Book a 45-minute Holy Spirit-led 1:1 coaching session w/ Hope Unlocked host Kristin Kurtz, founder of New Wings Coaching. This powerful conversation will help you move from stirred to activated—with peace, clarity, & a Spirit-led next step. Book your call HERE now–special pricing to listeners!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Welcome to the Hope Unlock Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Kurtz, and I'm also the founder of New Wings Coaching. I help and empower wild-hearted and adventurous women of faith feeling caged and stuck, unlock their true purpose and potential, break free from limitations, and thrive with confidence, courage, and hope. If you're curious to learn more about coaching with me, head to New WingsCoaching.net and be sure to explore the show notes for ways to connect with me further. Get ready to dive in as we uncover empowering keys and insights in this episode. So tune in and let's unlock hope together. Welcome to the Hope Unlocked Podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome Rich Kozak to the show. I am so excited to have him here today. I do have to share a little fun fact about him having coming on the show today. We actually had scheduled this two days ago, but we ended up talking throughout the time that we would have actually been interviewing because um just so much goodness on his side. And I know that he's gonna bring um just so much wisdom. And we ended up rescheduling for today. So this is two days later, and we're both in anticipation. I know the Lord's in anticipation of what's gonna be poured out here today. So all that to say, um, Rich, would you tell us a little bit about yourself before we get into your story and where he has you today?

The Umbrella Brand And Calling

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Well, I love to, Kristen, and thank you for having me on. It really is a blessing. I love your work, I love what you're doing, and I really love your heart and the reason you're doing what you're doing. And I pray God's favor on all of it. So um here's what you don't expect. Uh a man who reads the Bible every day and who believes that his work is not his work, but it's God's work, is a branding consultant. And I have been a branded consultant for most of the last 50 years. I have spent, I'm on my 50th year of creating, like thinking, defining what they are and languaging brands and launching them for myself, then for big companies, um, uh for business-to-business companies. I for 20 years I was an executive vice president and head of new business development and large client management at uh a high-tech ad agency that had partners in 21 countries. So I guess that gives me a little bit of pedigree, but that's not why I'm here on this podcast with Kristen Kurtz. Um, 10 years ago, I chose to only work with individuals. And so I'm talking to you, if you're listening to this, about you and about what you get to become, and about how you can become extremely successful in your whatever you call it, your business, your work, your vehicle, your calling. But there is more, and there is always more. God made us that way, and chances are your brand, which you think is your business or your consultancy, or your books, or your vehicle, or your expertise, really is a spoke in an umbrella. And the question is what's your umbrella? What's that highest level impact that you were made by the creator to make? How high does it go?

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

And so that's what I do these days. I am evolving individuals' brands with deep clarity, energetic longevity, and divine purpose. Praise God. And that's who I am and what I do and why I do it.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Beautiful. Well, I want to take it back a little bit because you mentioned you've been doing this for 50 years.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

I have. I've been married, 49 of them.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

And and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

And and before Valentine's Day. So that's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

So you you have that longevity, right? You've um I I want to, if you're if you're open to it, sure. Like, what is your age at this point? You've been doing this for 50 years. I'm I'm guessing that you didn't start when you were one. Possibly.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

I have people in my network who measure biological age and they will tell you, you know, okay, your body age, but you know, your your your uh the number of years you've been on the planet is this, but your biological age is a lot bigger than that, so you gotta fix that. Or I can shave 10 years off your biological age if you do the right things for the next year. You know, I have people on my network. But so I've been, I've been uh it was 72 years ago that I was born, but I feel like I'm going on 30. I have a lot of energy. I I am doing this work, thank goodness, all day long. It was sometimes into the evening, back to back with clients uh and with on on podcasts where my voice can reach people and they can go, you know, I never really thought of it that way before. That just makes a lot of sense. And that's my job. So I'm here uh to do that. And I as long as I can, and I pray this for everyone that I work with. I have clients who are in their mid 80s and they are not, they know they're not done. And they'll that's the first thing they'll tell you. You know, I'm not I'm not retired, I'm re-fired, you know. Like they're they're on it. And they just say, I just need a little clarity about kind of where this goes from here. And that's what I get to do. Um I love that.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

That's one of my favorite things to say to people. I mean, just even what would you say to we were talking about this the other day. Um, you know, the world would say, Oh, 65, there's your cutoff, you're done, like exit, retire. And I just say, No, you gotta refire. So whether that's you know, if you don't like what you're doing, yes, please find something different.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Well, I don't I don't mean to sound mean spirited, but I am trained in neurolinguistics programming, and I might have a tendency to use what we call sleight of mouth to say, you know, if somebody says, Yes, I want to be 65, and I don't have to worry about, you know, do doing that anymore. I I might say, How is how's that working for you in all the rest of the areas of your life? You know, it's like dude where you know, I don't have to learn anymore. Like, why would you even say that?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Exactly, exactly. And I love like you have um, you know, just so much energy, and I would never have guessed that you're 72. So way to go and just you know lean into all that he has for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

I was physically with Art Linkletter, the Art Linkletter, when he said to some lady who said, Mr. Linkletter, I cannot believe that you're 93. I can't even imagine being 93. And he looked at her and he said, Ma'am, that's probably because you've never been 92. Thank gosh, I love it. So that's the way I feel. I don't feel 72. People tell me I don't look it, so that's a guy, you know, that's a blessing. But um, I don't act it either, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Well, you have so much energy. I love it. So, like I said, let's let's kind of take it back a little bit. Um, I love to kind of capture, you know, where people, you know, you're you're in your calling right now, obviously. You're you're definitely living out what uh you know, part of what he created you to be doing. So, what did that look like for you to step into it? Was there a journey? You've been doing this for 50 years. No, definitely. Did you wake up at the age of four and say, I'm gonna do this when I grow up? Um, what did it look like for me to step into this?

SPEAKER_00 7:56

No, like age four. Uh my dad had taken a job at Penn State, and I knew I was moving from rural West Virginia to central Pennsylvania, and I was gonna be on the Pittsburgh Pirates. That's where I was at four.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

How did that turn out?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

No, it didn't turn out well. So uh I did I did win the punt pass and kick competition, but that's football. Uh sports uh other than tennis were not a place where I literally excelled. Um it was more the uh um uh music and the arts, theater. I played violin, um I played in the orchestra, played in chunk bands, you know, play played, did all kinds of things, played in pit orchestras. And um and business. I created businesses. Like I created a painting business and hired my friends to paint do paint contracts when I was four.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

What age did you do that?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

14. I started booking bands and fraternities and playing in a rock band at 14. Uh Filet of Seoul was the name of the band, by the way, Fillet of Seul.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Fillet of Seoul.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Oh, yeah. And there were 52 fraternities at Penn State and they all had budgets for parties. So I ended up booking all the other bands in town and even went to Harrisburg and got some bands from Harrisburg in case they wanted to spend more money, you know, on bands from far away. So I created this booking agency, uh, which I can say now, thank goodness, because I think the uh statute of limitations is passed, was not licensed, which is a requirement if you're gonna be a booking agent. I didn't know that because I was 14, but okay. But uh yeah, and uh I ran a really successful business until I chose, you know, to switch gears. It literally led through my first year in college and I was still there at Penn State.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

So is business like is that in the generation like parents, grandparents, um, is there a lot of business uh entrepreneurialism in your family?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

You know, I didn't think so in the beginning until I started to learn about my grandfather, whom I had never met, uh my father's father. Uh he was an immigrant from Moravia, which is now the Czech Republic or Czechia. And uh he and his wife came here uh to came to Pennsylvania around Pittsburgh. And he he had been to trade school in Brno, which is one of the largest cities in uh that area, uh, to learn to be a mason and a carpenter, build things, uh, you know. But my dad said he also raised rabbits for show, and he raised mushrooms in caves uh near where they lived, and he did things at the church. My dad said, I I knew my dad was brilliant when I watched him move a grand piano from the third floor of the church down to the street by himself with only ropes and pulleys. Really? Like, yeah, I guess so. So here's this guy who made a living and made a life for his family, lost his wife uh way too young. My dad was 14 when his wife died, when uh when his mom died. And uh and this guy, you know, came from a dip came to land of opportunity and made a life for himself by doing what he was looking, trade, you know, doing his trades and and other things. And I would say that's uh that's a good sign of uh you know, not wanting to be an employee.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Exactly. So had you, you know, you went you went to college and what did you go to school for?

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Well, uh I had to pick something. And so when you when you created a fireworks business when you were in fourth grade and you sold your used toys on the playground, you know, you asked your dad, what do you think I should do? And he goes, It's marketing, Rich.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

So you were selling fireworks too.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

I was making them. Oh, you were making basement. Yeah, I was making them. So I know all I know what's what what burns green and what burns blue and what you know, it's strontium nitrate burns green, you know, it's it's uh antimony sulfide burns blue. And if you want it to sparkle, you gotta put iron filings in it. If you want it to be so bright that it blinds you, you gotta put magnesium in light. I know all those things because I bought all these chemicals and mixed them together and did crazy stuff with them and sold them.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Did your parents know you were doing that?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

He my dad did, and he said, You need to put that in metal boxes and never get the matches anywhere near those things, okay?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Oh my goodness. I love your dad.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Well, you know, so did I. And frankly, here's a guy who had two master's degrees and a doctorate degree, and his doctorate was in education, and he taught math teachers, he taught students how to be math teachers in high school. So it looks like the guy had don't dedicated his life to education, but he was a musician back in the in the college of West Virginia. He wrote charts for a dance band, and they traveled during the summer and did gigs on the beaches and at White Sulfur Springs. And he he is so multifaceted and so well read. And so when I would say like dad, I I I was asked if I could be, I think I want to be in the International Relations Club because they go to a East Coast model United Nations. He goes, That sounds good. You know, some parents would go, No, you know, that's a that's a waste of time. You know, I know this is stupid, stupid, you know. But I never nothing was ever stupid.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

So he championed you.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Oh, well do you do you need to yeah, do you need to go to rehearsals? We'll take you. You know, it's like so they were they were always there for me.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Always I mean you so you get into school, like he's championing you the whole way, and and I I just want to highlight, you know, like uh that is incredible because a lot of people didn't have their fathers to, you know, I've heard many people in my life, you know, including myself, that that didn't really have, you know, whether their father was around or ones that were championing or showing up. Um, but yet still many overcame. And yeah, you had both. You you are coming, you're coming at, you're coming into college blazing, right? You've got your multifaceted, you've got the sales background, you've got your entrepreneurial journey, and then you're getting into marketing. So what did that look like?

Words As The Engine Of Influence

Impact Driven Branding Explained

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Well, first I needed to learn how to spell it. I mean spelling wasn't your deal. I didn't call it well, no, it was my deal, but I didn't call it that. So the education prepared me to work for a Fortune 50 company and use the right language because I'd read the books and studied the processes, and you know, and so you know, language is very important, and it's one of those things that I deal with all day long, every day, and I absolutely love it. And my mother was an English teacher, and we used to open the reader's digest after dinner and you know, and read read about words, you know, so I have I love words. And you have to realize RAN high-tech ad agency, every industry has its own jargon, has its own language, and it's fascinating. And when you learn it, they respect that you care enough and that you're kind of one of them. And so part of being successful is being an agency pitchmeister, if you will, telling people here's what we know about your industry, here's what your clients say about you, here's what the industry says about you, and everything that's been printed for the last three years. There's some gaps, gentlemen. You know, you're using their language and you're talking in, you know, with their semiconductor integration on the new chipset for the new disk drive, you're right there with them. And they're like, you know what? I think these are the guys, right? It's like language is a key into people's liking you. Language is a key into people's being intrigued, uh, being attracted, uh wanting to hear more, particularly when it's about them, not about you. You know, I think that I think that I I you know is like you. And here's what we see for you. And uh I did that for years and years and years, you know, in small ways in the beginning, and it just got bigger and bigger. And for 20 years, some of these companies were my largest client was a$14 billion public company. And we overhauled their, we assessed all of their branding infrastructure. They have these different names of companies and products and that they patchworked, quilted together, you know, and we assessed that whole thing and ask all their key people what they thought about, ask their top customers what they thought about. I mean, that's some pretty you know, like one of their top customers was the head of FEMA. And I called him for an interview and he goes, hey, I've really been looking to talking with you, Rich, but I'm I just gotta call from the White House. I gotta go, you know. Yeah, Rich, the White House versus the White House. Yeah. So uh yeah. Um so learning learning l words and learning language and articulating and learning to deliver messages came increasingly naturally. Yeah. In the beginning, I would write what I was gonna say to the social chairman in the fraternities and practice it before I called them. You do that for a couple years, and things happen. You know, you can the human being is trainable to do anything, but I enjoy connecting. And language is a huge part of connecting. So let's take an example of today. A man who has uh has known me for I'd say seven years, just texted me right before, and so I kind of have him on the mind. He's a he's a man of strong faith, and he lost his wife from lupus at 46, way too young, beautiful couple, and she was over-medicated. The medication had a lot to do with her demise. Even the doctors agreed. He was somewhat angry, very disappointed, and started to rethink how he handled his own health. Wow. And started to become increasingly aware on purpose of alternative, let's call them modalities, okay, things that aren't pills made by a pharmaceutical company, things that aren't surgeries, but they're natural that create more of your own stem cells or that help your brain be sharper as you get older, or that use a natural product like hybrid mushrooms to cure cancers. It's like, wait a minute, what? So yeah, and he came to me, and now he is, you know, people used to say, What do you do? It was a hodgepodge mess. Now he is the founder of the legacy brand Mindful Longevity. Renew, rejuvenate, revitalize, holistic health mentoring that empowers lives that attracts uh his target audience.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

And that's you helped him uh discover this and bring it to life in some ways.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

The process that I teach and coach impact-driven branding, which is look, branding is steps. People don't know that they they think it's whatever they think it is, but it is a process. It's like it's like building a house. You leave parts out, it doesn't turn out well, you know. And if you and when you do all the steps, it's congruent with your heart. There's no language that you would not say yourself, and you feel very comfortable saying it. And it speeds you because you start with a picture of the impacts you clearly see making on those you really want to impact. It comes from your heart, which means everything you say and do after the work is done is congruent with those impacts. Where do you think you get faster? People resonate with it, they're attracted by it, and you attract those you really want to impact faster because there's clarity baked into it because of the process. You also attract a lot more people than the ones that you ask your heart to give you that you wrote down and use to build the brand. So this one-on-one with individuals and group work with individuals where they work on each other, even if they don't know each other, and it works out beautifully. It's like a focus group, you know, it's marvelous. Um has I've been doing that for 10 years, and it's gotten faster and easier and smoother. The process has I don't want to say refined, it has just become more and more solid. So uh typically I would not use a word like always, but I'm going to say it always works. When you start with what's in your heart, it always works. When you start with what's in your heart, and the beautiful thing, and I'm I'll say it's my opinion, but I believe God put the desire to make impacts on others in us. And when we end up focusing on that part of us, we're getting closer to why we're really here.

Branding Versus Marketing Made Simple

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Amen. Well, take me back to 62. So you were still working with corporations, like you know, bigger um, you know, corporate type um doing marketing, branding for them, correct?

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Yeah, so here's an example. So I'm in Heidelberg, Germany, meeting with a company that manufactured and meeting with their management and the other partners of our partnership, the the agency in Germany.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Who is their agency in Germany? But they want to sell their equipment in the United States, and the laws and the marketing things are very different here than they are in Germany. So they need a partner agency in the U.S. that understands their brand well. So I'm sitting on a global brand team looking at the results of the research of why we founded our company, who founded it, where did we envision it going? Where do we see it going now? How do we envision it growing? You know, the the birthing of it and the vision of it through the eyes of the people who've been involved, or if it's if it's second generation, those who are responsible now, the champions for the brand. And my job was to bring them into the United States, arrange a plan, a marketing communications plan to launch them in the United States and make their product entry successful. You know, so that kind of big boy branding, and then we weren't a big company, you know. We dealt with some other big companies. We dealt with uh, you know, Dassault System, that's a big French company that makes the Katia software that um architects use and and and people who design airplanes use to create uh uh multiple curvatures at the same time. Like if you look at the airplane wing where it joins where it joins the plane, it's like it's the curves change constantly. That's called a swarf. Well, there's there's only one software in the world that could deal with that, and it was Katea. And so the get the uh when the Getty Center was, or not Getty Center, when the uh Disney Center was created in downtown LA with these beautiful curved aluminum, you know, side panels, it's like it was like, wow, how do you do that?

SPEAKER_02 24:54

Right. I've often wondered that actually.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

And so um uh one of my um one of my pre-agency periods was being in a Fortune 50 company in the field Salesforce, representing a company that sold aluminum. It was the aluminum company of America, and they were a wonderful employer. I loved the company, I loved the people, and I learned about corporate, and I had a very paternalistic and teaching uh manager in my sales office who had run Alcoa International for 12 years in Lausanne, Switzerland. So he was unwrapping for me what it is and how it works, I would never have known. So praise God for Pete. Um I uh we're all like that, but I will tell you the reason for my success is a continuous and nonstop um set of individuals who served me as mentors that cared about my success, taught me what they knew, allowed me to make mistakes, starting with my parents and teachers and bosses. And I didn't have too many bosses. I typically make my own rules, so I'm I'm not very employable.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

But but uh my time with Pete and the aluminum company America was blessed by people who really cared. And they they liked what they saw in me, and I really liked what I saw in them. And I was not raised in a corporate environment. You have to picture this. I'm raised by musicians and teachers, right? And I'm in now I'm touring factories. And I'm calling, like as a salesperson, I'm going into factories where they're bending metal or stamping metal or pouring metal in molds or plastic in molds, or they're making stuff, or the and it's and you're talking with the engineers that are designing the next things they're gonna do. You know, then it was metal at the agency, it was semiconductors and integration of chipsets, you know, and doctor groups, and it's and so the process of helping some helping a business, and that could be you that you're listening to this, whatever you do, you're an author, you're maybe you're an expert, or you've created a method, or you have uh you're a coach or a therapist. I mean, I'm surrounded by so many different types of people. It does not matter what you do for a living, what your vehicle is. Marketing is marketing, it is a process of steps. Branding is first, it is foundational. And people think something different. That's not the first thought in their minds. Whatever the first thought in their minds is not right because they don't realize that, and I'll speak to you if if you're listening to this right now, whatever you do, your brand, and maybe it's your name, or maybe it's a it's an entity name that you created, but you're the founder of it, your brand is a perception, but it's not your perception. It's the perception in the mind of your most important target audiences that you really want to impact. And you can clearly see the impacts. It's their perception. So you think that a brand is a look and a line or colors or stuff, and there's the story of the horse, or you know, and you want to talk three minutes or ten minutes about what your brand is. It doesn't matter what you say, doesn't matter what you think. Your brand is the perception in the mind of your most important target audience whom you really want to impact, and you can clearly see those impacts. And that could be a handful of different types of people or couples or businesses or whatever, but everyone's different. But you have them and you ask your heart, heart, whom do I really want to impact? And your heart will give you one. And by focusing on one or two or three, that's how the brand, its language, how it describes its expertise, how it titles and subtitles content, all of that is an outflow of the impacts you clearly see making and want to make, which makes everything, wait for it, impact driven.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

And can grow with your heart, with your heart. I mean, really branding? What is that? Are you kidding me? And when does branding become God's work? I believe it's when you pay attention to the desire for impacts because I believe you didn't put them there.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah. Wow. And as you're saying this, there's an eagle like soaring over, which is one of my part of my branding. Um, you know, I I would love for you to just take a minute. Um, because I think just even out on the streets, I have a business, and I know many people who have a business, and maybe as solopreneurs, um, some of us aren't like, yeah, I can create things. I can create, I love creating graphics, I love being creative. And I'm just thinking of somebody who's listening in today and they're like, okay, well, like I hear, I hear the word marketing and I hear the word branding. Like, could you just kind of very high level um simplistically share what the difference is? Because you hear a lot of people out on the street like, you gotta get your marketing down, you gotta get your marketing down. What's the difference?

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Well, they're right, but unless they say first. If they say first, you gotta get your marketing down, they're wrong. Marketing does not come first. Okay, and that happens a lot. A lot, yeah. You know, we just need some we just need some leads. We'll worry about the branding later. Right. That is uh let's call it what it is, it's folly, but see, they don't know that. And I don't want to offend people. Yeah. But here okay, so here's the simple, here's the simple explanation. Uh, first of all, a stake in the ground comment, which you can write down and put on your wall. Your marketing at it when it's at its best, I mean, really effective. It's working like crazy. Your marketing, when it's at its best, is the execution of an excellent branding strategy. I'll say it again, write it down. Your marketing, when it's at its best, is the execution of an excellent branding strategy. Branding is foundational, marketing is executional. Branding answers who are we, what do we envision, whom do we clearly see impacting, and what are the impacts we clearly see making that really, you know, give us a tremendous amount of joy in what we do. Oh, we're a law firm, we do this, oh, we're experts at uh at technology and we do this. Oh, we're therapists and we help people, you know, release what holds them back. Whatever we do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

And so you can partner really with any, like you could come in with any entrepreneur, any individual who has a business, no matter what kind of business is, and really help them with this, correct?

SPEAKER_00 32:46

If they have the right mindset, and if they aren't one of the people who already know everything, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

You know, it's the and there are two kinds. The oh I I know. Oh yeah, yeah. If they want to tell you what what branding is, they're not open to say, like, tell me something I don't know. Oh, and then there's the other ones, the non-invented here people. Like, if they don't come up with the idea, it's not a good idea. We step away from those, both of those. And and I suggest you do too if you're listening to this. It's just good life, uh, good life advice. Step away from the whiners and those who uh already know all the answers.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Who who are your favorite um clients to work with, you know, even in the last 10 years? And would you be open to maybe sharing a testimonial of you know somebody who came to you and you saw this branding transformation happen, the impact that came through you, you know, coming alongside them as a mentor in essence?

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Oh, I have so many that come to mind, but um, you know, the purpose of the question is for me to pick one or two. Um so a woman actually I speak I speak at a um helped a woman write a book and it made her helped her make her life come alive, but she was had been struggling for years, and uh I promised her and her husband that it would occur, and I worked for two and a half years and I was really glad. But it's not about me, it's it's about uh why uh it's one of my favorites. It's uh I had spoken at a business conference, and a woman who's helped people write books, particularly uh the story of your family, you know. So make sure that you don't die and not tell the story of your family so you can pass it on. It's a legacy write that person. And so she book coached and she purchased my brand accelerator mastery program and started in it. She was into it for there, there's it's a seven-week program, and she was in the fourth week, and she said, I just I'm gonna pay you what I owe you to this point. I don't learn that this way, but I like love what you do, and I can see you helping on people. I think I'll refer people to you. You know, and my I'm just look, you you've seen what I do. I point up and I say, Who shows up? It's not up to me. It's up to God. I pray every morning, put in front of me those people whose lives you want me to touch with this gift, and give me the eyes and the ears and the wisdom to know who they are. And if I get to look up and say, Lord, is this one you know, this woman, what is this man one? And so with her, it was like, yep. So, but but she uh so the the book coach lady reaches out to me in four or five weeks after she had you know paid me and went her way. And she said, I have I have somebody I want to refer to you. She told me she wants to write a book, but frankly, she needs a brand before she writes the book. So I told her to talk to you. And I talked to this woman and her husband. Um I don't want to go into too much detail, but she had some issues that uh some significant issues in the mental um well in the mental wellness area. And um um two different conditions that worked against each other. Uh very difficult. And so but I I took her through brand accelerator mastery. We defined the brand true become, and we're working on step five, which shows the very first category of expertise that you must get credit for. And then the next one, and then the next one, it's a roadmap for the brand. And the first one said she's a woman of faith, and and her relationship with the Lord had pulled her out of a cult and out of a downward spiral in her life. But she was like in her mid-60s. So she had this, I've wasted my life. You know, I, you know, I I've I've held these secrets that I've had of all these things that have happened to me, and I've never told them, and you know, and I just you know, I don't want to be ashamed, I always shame people. But I gotta tell my story, I gotta tell my story. Well, what's the book gonna be about? Well, her husband thought it was gonna be about she is she was in a cult. I said to both of them, no, it's not gonna be the cult lady book. It's not, that's not why God made you. God didn't put you through that, he didn't put you through that and get out of the cult for you to write a book about a cult. Okay, he did that to strengthen you to step into helping other people's lives to overcome the stuff that's holding them back. So let's get this book going. So the first category of expertise, and I'm doing this by by memory. Um, I'm on visual, so I'm closing them up with it, is the original source for mental wellness. The name of, you know, the woman speaking at the higher level life conference is an expert at the original source of mental wellness. Whoa, that's intriguing. It's an intriguing.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

The original source of mental wellness.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

It's an intriguing. I want to know about that. It's an intangible brand promise. And what it is is Christ on the cross. But we can't say that, and we can't come out of the chute saying that because she'll get pigeonholed, and only the people that talk that way will listen. That's not why she's here. She's here for all the other people. So we decided that that would be the first book, the original source for mental wellness, and a subtitle. That was gonna be the first. So we're in the process. We had gone through defining language in the brand, and we're in the process of writing the creative brief. What are the objectives? Who are the target audiences? How do we achieve the objectives? What strategies do we use? What mandatories must be in the book? Writing the creative brief of the book. And something prompted her to say, Well, because you know you know what they say, uh, the secret you hide holds you back. And I'm like, what did you just say? She said that I said, The secret you hide holds you back. I said, now there's a book title. And she pointed at the screen and said, I had write that book right now. And I said, You are on. That's book one. Because it will touch everyone. Because I my gut is that everyone has a secret they've never told. And they understand that feeling. Turns out when we got into writing it, there's one of the Ivy League schools that has longitudinal research and secrets people hide. And they've categorized 35 of them. So what we realized is she's writing, she's not writing this book for herself to heal. She's writing this book for everybody to heal. And two and a half years later, when we had finished writing the book, she froze and chose to not publish it. And it hurt my soul. And she backed off from me and she said, you know, I'm gonna coach anymore. I'm not gonna be a minute now. Well, two years later, I see herself publishing it. And you know how you know the two words that came out of my mouth?

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Tell me.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Praise God.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Okay, and so and so and and the book is titled The Secret You Hide Holds You Back, How Letting Go Sweetens Life and Sets You Free. And there's a picture on the cover at sunset, reds and yellows, bathe, light, bathe, and a shot shooting a uh a petite woman. It looked like woman's with long hair. You can't tell it's a woman, but there's a skirt, so you think it's a woman because there's a little skirt right, and she has her hands open, her arms left and right, and she's bathed in light from the front, but you're seeing the back. It's Christ, but they don't know it. Yes. It's it's such a metaphor. I mean, we killed it. And for that book to not come out, oh my God. So that's the first one I think of. And the other one I think of, and look, they're all my favorites. I mean, I could I could I could I literally could talk and come to tears about everyone who has defined and languaged their brand and stepped into their highest level impacts. I it just it makes me tearful because I get to do this. That it's remarkable. So here's the guy who comes to me and says, Hey, I heard you speak at the at the luncheon. And um, it was a Christian business, Christian uh speaker lady who had the luncheon, and I was there, and she let everybody stand up and say what they did for three minutes. And I stood up and explained what I did, and he came up to me afterward and said, I think you might be able to help me. I said, Well, why don't you come over to the brand ranch? I'll make you breakfast. Why don't you come over back? You know, because if you don't make me drive, I'll cook. That's my deal in Los Angeles, so I don't have to drive. And so he comes over, we have breakfast. And um, it turns out he's a financial advisor. Now that's boring.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

That's boring. I mean, let's just be real. No, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

And particularly if you're trained by the industry, it's not only boring. It's it's I won't I won't do that. It's not only boring, but you you have to grow out of it or you're tainted. And so, you know, you're taught to sell what's you're supposed to sell this week. You know, and there's I won't say anything else. But he said, Look, I've been doing this for 26 years. I don't want to do it this way anymore. He said, I really want to serve people who are pretty well to, you know, they're pretty wealthy, they have healthy Christian marriages. You know, male and female will sit down at a table, they know they they don't know everything, and and and they, you know, I want to help them because what I know and and the vehicles I use are the best ones, they're the most favored tax vehicles, and they don't even understand them. I want to help them understand what really successfully achieving their biggest goals for their family and their finances are. So, but I I just want to hear their stories, you know. So he's a great heart. So he's four weeks into brand uh accelerator mastery, and he at that time we were holding them in my big dining room around the table. There were about seven people there that time. I said, Frank, I've rewritten your your elevator speech.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

And I've cre I've written three book titles. And he goes, What book? Book? I don't, I'm not writing any books.

SPEAKER_02 43:55

You pull books out of them, too. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

And so uh, you know, okay. I said, Well, you know, it's Frank, Frank, you know, book is a stake in the ground that moves the brand forward. But we don't have to talk about the you want to hear the elevator speech. Yeah. I said, okay, you're at a conference, you have a nice tie on, name badge, Frank. Get in the elevator, and a guy goes, Hey, Frank, nice tie. What do you do? And you say, Well, for 26 years, I served as a financial advisor. But you know how many of them there are, and they both laugh and roll their eyes. He says, But I decided to serve people at a much higher level, particularly committed savers. So I I created my own company, a special company called Safe Savings Options, using your money's power. And today I serve as a savers wealth advocate. Does that help? What the hell does Frank do? I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

It's okay. You can say that. It's kind of sometimes we need to just say that.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

You don't know what Frank does. You know, uh and you but the response from his target audience who saves more than$100,000 a year but doesn't want to hand it to one of the stockbrokers that might not bring it back and they can't touch it while it's locked up and it's not, you know, they can't use it. And he's saying, using your money's power. And and the logo says educating, protecting, stewarding, a saver's wealth advocate. And you're like, I think I need to talk to Frank.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Yeah, you want to know more. You want to know more at that point. You're not just like, oh, you're just a cookie cutter or financial cutter, you know. All we did.

Turning A Financial Advisor Into A Movement

SPEAKER_00 45:37

Exactly. If all we did was to create unique language in intangible brand promise language that attracted people, you know, if if if you believe a safe savers option, if you believe um uh sorry, sorry, if you believe uh safe savings options it it can help you and your family, go on the website and click click to schedule a 20-minute safe savers questionnaire consult. It's like, what kind of talk is that? Well, we created it to make it safe. 20 minutes. Uh hey, 20 minutes, you know, if I hate this guy, I can go away. Whatever to attract, because he's not gonna teach how to buy Haoba Fields at a podium. He's not going to teach uh how to buy, you know, uh single premium life insurance, you know, at the networking event. Right. He's gonna teach John and Mary Doe at their kitchen table when they say, you know, Frank, we really like you. We think we need to understand better what retirement really means. Why don't you come on over and teach us?

unknown 46:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:43

That's Frank's people. And so he's eating breakfast with me, and he says, like, oh, you know what, I'd stay here longer, but I gotta go, I gotta get back to jail. And I'm like, excuse me. This is one of the reasons I like Frank. So turns out he volunteer his faith, he volunteers as a chaplain in the county jail system. So he's in there talking to guys that are all tatted up, many of them have gang background, and they're in there for 22 years because they slid down a slippery slope and and made some bad decisions, and they could have had other choices, but they made their choice. Anyway, so you want to hear the three books? First one is called From Broke to Six Figures: Steps to Success in Business and Life. Now, Frank pretty much wrote that book by himself with the help of a ghostwriter, and it said, I did this wrong. Don't do it that way. Here's how not to talk to people. Here's what it means. You know, here's the kind of things that really I want you to hear. And every chapter has a golden nugget and a Frank spotlight, because his name is Frank, and a QR code. So you can scan it and it says, here's what you're at about in chapter three, but here's what I want to tell you from my heart. So you get to know Frank, right? So that was book one. Book two, which is just got picked up by a New York publisher with Global Reach, and it's it's coming out September 1st, and it should be on everybody's life bookshelf, according to several people who have written endorsements. It's called The Power to Live Your Life. Seven Things to Not Interrupt. And I mean, I would love to go into detail, but let's talk about a couple things that people interrupt, but they don't think about it because it's a blind spot. Relationships that work out, their integrity. Mm-hmm. Their relationship with God, their trust in the Lord. Oh, okay. Stewarding their savings future. Oh, that's a big one. Oh, yeah, we have a guy. Oh, yeah, I'm good. They they have no idea. They're not good. They're just avoiding it, sticking their heads in the sand. And it's something that could literally change the way they change their kingdom uh outcome, right? And so, seven things to not interrupt. So that book is coming out, and the third book we're not working on yet, but we'll we'll work on it when this one comes out. It's called Doing Business with a Servant's Heart. Subtitled, The Name Above All Names. So notice the first one, six figures, broke to, you know, businessy has talked, yeah. It's kind of like, you know, what you can talk about what you know in business and stuff. The second one is a bridge category, but it's a it's a life book, and he's talking from his heart. And he's saying, look, don't just be aware. If I want you to recognize these blind spots, because once you recognize them, it might save your life. It might have saved the lives of some of these guys I go in the jail and talk to if they'd have paid attention to these. So please pay attention. And and then the third, he gets to quote scripture and talk about his relationship with the Lord, and that's where his brain is going. He's a financial advisor. Are you feeling me?

SPEAKER_02 50:09

Yeah, I mean, I I I think I listeners, I want you to kind of come up higher and just think if you're not just a little higher.

SPEAKER_00 50:17

What fun is that?

SPEAKER_02 50:18

I mean, I mean, take it take a moment just to kind of think about what Rich has just shared here. If you're in business, you have a ministry, like there's so much beyond what you're currently doing.

Common Branding Mistakes To Stop

SPEAKER_00 50:33

God has created each of us with unlimited power. Now, as a young child, or as a teenager, or as a whatever, we gave it away, or it was taken away, or maybe we just never had the we were afraid to step into it. But we have unlimited power. Faith, the size of a mustard seed, moves mountains. And we didn't, you know, but we're still here. And we were also given gifts, maybe some unique gifts, and the combination of the unlimited power, which means anything is possible at any time. Praise God. And we have gifts when we focus on what's inside of us that tells us we'd really like and we could really see making these kind of impacts on other people or on an industry or on a country or on a, I mean, make it for you, right? It's whatever yours is. And we step into that when you do it right, so that you don't create confusion or misinformation or don't get credit for what makes you outstanding is you don't create unique language that transfers energy. When you don't do branding right, you bounce off. And other people get, hey, you waste a ton of money and you think the marketing doesn't work, but it's not the marketing that doesn't work. It's the fact that the branding wasn't done so clearly that there's clarity baked into the way you show up. That's it, that's what always happens. After the work is done, everything you say and do is congruent with those impacts that you clearly see making and really want to make. I can't make it any clearer than that. That's what happens. And those things that people talk about in the beginning. Look, if you named 10 things that you wish were better, you know, in your business, you know, what would they be? Well, we don't get the right people coming to the website. Oh, we don't know how to position ourselves to charge what we're worth. Um, our business isn't growing fast enough. We need better ways to say what we do. Um, what do you think good content would be for our target audience? There's a list of 25 in the in the workbook that I send out for our work one-day workshop workshop intensive. But we use the top 10 when we do our half day once a month because I didn't make them up. I just hear people say them over and over and over. And all of those things either minimize or go away when a brand is clearly defined and languaged, like in the like in the seven steps of impact-driven branding. When you do all the steps, it turns out really well. When you when it's a process and you don't do all the steps, it's not going to turn out well. But people don't think like that of branding. They think it's something else. They think, you know, because they hear these books, you know, it has to, you have to have a story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it, that's the keyword, yeah, story. Oh, no, no, you have to have, you know, a gist toll. No, you have to have a, you know, avatar. No, yeah, essence of your essence of your essence. You know, there's all this entrancing brand jargon language that implies that you need a guru because you aren't smart enough or don't know enough about whatever, whatever, to understand how to brand. That's so untrue. It's just untrue. That's why I'm writing the book, Impact-Driven Branding. Seven Steps to Ensure Your Brand Impacts People's Lives in the World. Because it's just seven. And when you do them, it comes out right.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

And you when when is your book, baby, being delivered?

SPEAKER_00 54:38

Well, I believe, you know, you asked me that before, and thank you very much for asking. Um, it's not up to me. Um, first of all, it has to be turned, the manuscript has to be complete and turned in and internally prepared in the format of the publisher. Then they set a clock to it. And because the publisher, I want to publish it, I I don't have a contract yet, but I know who might want to publish it, um, they they sell through the channel. So I want this book to be in bookstores. This book is for every every one of millions of entrepreneurs, experts, specialists, you know, they could be doctors, they could be coaches, they could be it's whatever they're doing, that know there's more and feel that they're not done. And this says these are the steps, so they get in it. If they want, if you want to join a group or get help, you know, that's easy. But this book is being created so they can put the step one fill-in-the-blanks outline right next to chapter one and do the work.

SPEAKER_02 55:50

I love it. I had a feeling somebody would be wondering like when when it's coming out. So if you're hearing this now, today is April 1st, 2026, and you're hearing this, you know, later down the road, when his book launches, we're gonna be sure to have his book um, you know, link available in the show notes because I can't wait for that to show up in this world. Um, I would love to get it for myself and many I know in business. Um, but in the meantime, how can people whether work with you? Um, it sounds like you have some groups that you lead, um, some courses, how can they um first of all contact you, second of all get involved with you?

SPEAKER_00 56:32

I'm gonna make it really easy. Really easy. Um the name of my business and the name of the website is Rich Brands, R-I-C-H-B-R-A-N-D-S.org. Rich brands.org. Right at the top of the homepage, it says talk to rich for 30 minutes. You can literally put yourself on my calendar. Now, I've been doing this for 50 years, and people say to me, colleagues say to me, like, what are you doing? You should be on a beach. You should be on a beach or like on a boat. I'm on Zoom, okay? And so if you want to take advantage of that while I still haven't realized that I should be on a beach, uh, maybe, maybe now's the time. So if you're too intimidated by being one-on-one with me, because I'll just ask you questions and listen, and I'll share with you my reflections of possibilities for your umbrella brand because I'll connect with your heart very quickly and you'll feel it. Um then come to one of our 60-minute masterclasses. And I will give you the links right now. Uh, one is called, and it's the URL, right? So it's brand first, F-I-R-S T, brand first or die.com. I do that.

SPEAKER_02 57:53

Brand first or die?

SPEAKER_00 57:55

Yes, brand first or die.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

It talks about it.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

The need to evolve the perception that actually is your brand, or you'll bounce off. And you might not ever make those higher level impacts if you don't evolve. So brand first or die. It's a little bit, you know, edgy, but okay. I love edgy. Thank you very much. And the other one, and I chew these every month, and they are F R E E. Okay. 60 minutes, no more. You know, it's not like, oh, can we take another 20? No. It's 60 minutes, okay? And it's the end of the day. So if you happen to be East Coast, I'm doing it at five Pacific. It's eight. It's still, you can still fit it in the day, and it's only an hour. So here you go. So the other one is called brandpowerhour.com. Brand power hour hour being H-O-U-R, like one hour, like 60 minutes. Brand powerhour.com. And here's what happens there. I am very explicit about the four things that you must have, your brand must have, or it will fall flat. And I try to get at least seven things that are really common that brands do that hurt them, and you need to stop right now. That's an hour of brand power. Got it?

SPEAKER_02 59:18

Amazing. Would you be willing to just share one of those seven other people?

SPEAKER_00 59:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:26

Sure. Sure. One of the seven. What does somebody stop doing? It's very common.

SPEAKER_00 59:30

So let's say somebody somebody says, you know, I'm not really a marketer. So I'm high hired this marketing firm and they know the words to use. You know, they know how to get leads. So here's what happens they don't, they hire a marketing, a third-party marketer, to do stuff to generate what they think is leads. Uh, you know, good leads, like, but they don't even know enough to say qualified leads because they haven't defined them, that defined their target audiences so clearly that they know what a qualified lead is. But they hire a third-party marketer and they don't give them boundaries or guidelines. They just say, do your thing. It's so common. So common. And they know the top 15, you know, best words in marketing. Free because I mean, there's a whole list. And they just put it out there and they go, What do you guys have any books? Did you write any articles? Oh, yeah, we did a book about three years ago. Oh, yeah, that'll be great. I literally have heard took a book that they did three years ago that said the next level is something, and they used it to generate leads. It was already way outdated, but they used it because they had it, and they knew that they could, you know, it's like it's broken thinking, and they don't give, they hire a third-party marketer and don't give them guidelines. This is the way we say what we do. This is the language, this is the barrier that we must overcome. It's the number one barrier. It's the perception of no time. That's why we have to say today, finally, today, any parent can any parent can build character in each child in just minutes a day. Because the number one barrier, these parents, even the ones that would say, This is a phenomenal program, would then say, but we can't fit another thing on our plate. And you have to overcome it or you bounce off. So today, finally, today, any parent can build character in each child in just minutes a day. There's no excuses left.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:33

That's for kids who care in Cleveland, uh who has who has adapted national standards of character education and schools to little things parents can do at home in minutes a day. It is brilliant. It is world-changing for kids and families and communities. It is absolutely marvelous. Um she also has a book called Tools to Build Great Kids. And it's it's um she also got picked up by that same publisher. Oh, wait, did I have anything to do with that? Yes. Okay. And it's coming out September 1st. So her book is on pre-sale on Barnes and Noble, Tools to Build Great Kids. It's the closest thing you'll ever hear uh find to a parenting manual. It is phenomenal. And it's got uh and it's got the Lord built into it. It's beautiful. And Frank, the guy I told you about the financial advisor, his book, uh, The Power to Live Your Life, also got picked up by Morgan James. And it's coming out September 1st, and it's also on pre-sale. You would bless them and bless the world and bless yourself because you get a hold of these and you're gonna want to give them away as gifts. They are amazing. Um, and and that book is called The Power to Live Your Life, Seven Things to Not Interrupt. And the the the uh the writer is Frank Lahane, L-E-H-A-N-E. So it's like, just uh do yourself a favor and uh and you you will if once you get to know me a little bit, you will feel me coming through the pages of those books.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:07

I love I love you you're you know, you've had so many, you mentioned so many people have championed you along the way. And um, I just see you as championing many along the way as well, um, to just mention you know these two and and really want to get their name and and what the work they're they're doing. And it it's such a joy. Like I can just see the joy coming through you as you um as as you share what they're doing as well. So thank you for being a champion to many, and especially in this space where you know there is a lot of um misconception out there in the marketing branding world.

How To Work With Rich

SPEAKER_00 1:03:43

So there's a lot of hogwash too. There there is a lot of entrancement to sell things. People that really don't know how to get it done and really don't know the process are are tend tend to be lean on the creative side, and it's not about that. It's creative has a role, but it's strategy that has the role first. And you've got to start in the right place, and it's not with an idea, it's with a heart. Okay, human being that God made, we're gonna start there and let them open the open their what do you clearly see? How do you clearly see impact? Whom do you really want and what can you clearly see? You start there, it's gonna work out great.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:29

So beautiful. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. This has been so amazing, and I would love for you to just take a minute. I'm very visual as well, so um, I know you said you you close your eyes to see this visual, but just imagine this one that's listening in today that's just leaning in and taking it all in. Is there anything else that you'd want to um just share over this person? Any words of wisdom, encouragement, and then would you pray us out today?

Final Encouragement And Prayer

SPEAKER_00 1:04:57

I would love to. So I'm speaking to you who've been listening to this, and I want you to hear this deeply in your heart. You have been made for some very specific reasons, and when you step into your desire to make impacts on others, they're waiting. It is you that they're waiting for, it is your gift, it is your turn of the phrase, it is your encouragement, it is your method, it is your diligence, it is your care, it is your form of love that they are waiting for. So don't wait. There is more. You are the one. Just make sure you do all the steps. Because when you do, it will come alive faster. You will step into your impacts faster. The money is not the object, but it will come faster. And and speak from your heart. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing on these messages today, on each of us who are listening and speaking here on Krista, on me, on everyone who hears this right now, who here listens again. Help the messages that clear the deck from. You that says, You are my children. I have made you for a purpose and for a reason. My word will not come back empty. Help us to ask when we read your word, what is your will in our business, in our work? And help us to step into that in a powerful way that does branding, that does making known what we have, does it right and doesn't create confusion. It creates clarity for your glory, Lord. In Jesus' name, we ask this. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:14

Thank you so much. Wow. We're going to have to have you back again if you'd like to come back at some point, especially when your book baby births. So I am going to close with our Hope Unlocked anchoring verse. It's may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And that's Romans 15, 13. So thank you, Rich, for being a brave voice who's setting so many free. And I will be back with another episode next week. Have a great one, listeners.