# Swell AI Transcript: EP 46 AUDIO.mp3 SPEAKER_01: What if you could build a business in the modern world as big or as small as you want without having to compromise the things that were the most important to you in the very beginning? This is the Wealthy Consultant Talks podcast with Taylor Welch and Mike Walker. They share with you today their learning lessons from stories in their experiences over the past 10 to 15 years and share with you right here, right now. Let's get into it. SPEAKER_00: All right. All right. What's going on, my friends? Mike Walker here with TWC Talks. I got my friends, my buddies, my co-pilots. SPEAKER_02: Let me be you. Let me do it. All right. All right, my friends. Welcome back to a TWC Talks with Mike Walker and Taylor Welch. SPEAKER_00: Yep. And Taylor Welch here and our friend Jake. SPEAKER_02: Hey, so one thing about us, but we have so much fun and if you're not having fun, you should join us because you're not going to beat us. Uh, we're talking about, man, I'm going to give you the honors. What are we talking about, Mike? SPEAKER_00: Dude, we're talking about something. Yeah, we worked long and hard on this one. Audience control, how to engage and retain attention. No better person to have with us than Mr. Jake. Jake, what's up, my friend. Glad to have you here. SPEAKER_03: Yeah, man. Thank you guys so much for having me. I'm pumped to be here and chat with y'all. Well, you know, first, a friend of Taylor's, you know, we'll just, I'm just kidding. So I'm one of the partners of Femi Collective. We do, obviously, Taylor, you've probably heard of that brand once or twice. I think we've worked together a few times on that. But Taylor and I are partners on Femi, which runs a branch of different types of content for people. We do podcasts, we do YouTube, we do short form. And basically, we're just growing and growing all the time, figuring out how do we get content to work between YouTube and podcasts and short form, all the different facets as social media is changing so quickly. There's algorithmic changes, there's editing changes, there's attention span, things that are changing in the way that basic things work. We're kind of like a all in-house agency that allows people to work with us in a sense that we're able to help with the strategy from a human psychology standpoint, as well as actually do the tactical stuff and the boring stuff for them, the scheduling, all the data, all the dirty work that entrepreneurs don't like to do. They don't want to have to figure out how to Master audio and make sure it sounds good because if your audio is not good, no one's gonna watch So we kind of do all the dirty work and we also help the individual as a person Learn to understand their audience and communicate better over the long term SPEAKER_00: Love it, love it. Well, I've always been a big advocate of the concept that, you know, you can have the best product or service in the world, but if no one knows about it, it doesn't matter, right? And so to engage and then most importantly, retain that attention. I wanna underscore that word, retain attention. Yeah, you might be able to like grab someone's eye for a second, but to keep it and to earn it for them to keep coming back is a whole nother deal. And I know Taylor's passionate about that. And I know Jake, you're the kind of, the guy that blends both the science and art to make that happen. So all day long, I speak with our clients over here at MDC and TWC and Memo and Arena and everybody else that comes through our ecosystem of products and programs and courses and community. And I know that everybody understands the value that content, creating content can have, but it just seems like a really overwhelming task. Taylor, unless you're Taylor, Taylor's like a machine when it comes to content. But I'll let you guys jam on that whole thing. How do you produce the volume of content? How do you decide what that volume should look like? All those things people want to know. SPEAKER_02: Jake, you first. SPEAKER_03: I would say for people, I mean, it really starts with the time that you actually allot for content. I feel like one of the number one things for entrepreneurs is they kind of feel like content is a waste of time exactly for, like Mike, you said it perfectly, people will do one piece and maybe it does well or maybe they've never gotten a piece to do well. And so they just kind of give up and they think the only solution for content in general is just paid ads. And what I think is actually the opposite. We've had plenty of times where we got one piece of content to absolutely explode and it was epic and it was awesome. And then they stopped posting like nothing. And they were like, well, I didn't get any clients from one post. And I'm like, dude, you don't have any authority. No one respects you. No one thinks that you're consistent in the market. So why would anyone trust you? I want to buy a product from you. So. For a lot of entrepreneurs, it really starts in the mind of why do you create content in the first place? What's the reason behind it? Because you kind of have to convince yourself to talk to a camera, almost like a psychopath, and do it. And then spend time. Actually have time allotted to work on content. And then as that momentum grows for people, it becomes more and more fun. You start to get more and more strategical, the more that you analyze, and then your content just becomes this moat for you. So really, I believe it just comes down to, can you be consistent with your content over a long enough period of time and know the result that you're trying to get? But Taylor, I think you'd be probably best in terms of, I mean, you've created so much content. I don't think I've ever met somebody who can create as much content as someone like you. You're like one of the people out there that just creates an insane amount of content. So I'd love to hear how your brain works when it comes to how you create content. Here's the biggest thing. How do you source so many original thoughts? You're one of the most original thinkers I know. How do you source so many of your original thoughts through your content? SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's a great question. I read and study, and I've got a lot of things coming in. Some, some people, they lack the ability to think originally because they actually don't have enough source material to put it together. Let's just define originality for a second. That really is not a thing. There's no such thing as true originality unless you are. inventing something that has never been invented before. Most intellectual property is actually combinations of other pieces of intellectual property uniquely fit together through experiences and, and et cetera. So like when you sit down and you study, you know, the last week I woke up early one morning and I started reading through Berkshire Hathaway's annual stockholder letters and we were reading the way that, that Charlie and Warren think and you take that and you apply it to small business. people think it's original like I've never heard it said this way, but it's not really it's really just taking an idea and it's refitting it into a different piece of the world when we did our series on theater Roosevelt. For arena is this idea of autophagy came up and Mithridate ISM came up people like what the hell is this? They never heard of it before. Yeah, it's you take it from this guy's life who who like. should have died a thousand times, but he didn't. How did he survive? How does the mind protect the body? And how does the body protect the mind? It's not that it's original. It's just that it has never been brought into this scope or this category. You're the first, um, drive-through restaurants like came from banks. They, they took the idea from another industry and put it into. And so you have all of these, the world advances together. And I think people get so siloed that they are like, they're, they're so desperate for original thinking, but they're not consuming any source material. So Jake, to circle back and answer your question, my, like my appetite for consumption is ridiculous. Like it's ridiculously high. Um, I'll read through books and podcasts and audios and funny thing, part of the reason I got that, uh, I mean, you guys may have seen like my giant six foot wide riding zero turn lawnmower. SPEAKER_00: Yes. The trophy, the trophy. SPEAKER_02: She's a beautiful creature. Part of the reason I got that. Cause I'm like, okay, dude, like, We pay people to clean our House of people to get groceries. We have a house manager and any like why in the world is what is Taylor was doing out there in a friggin field known as yard to make 0 cents. First of all it's fun as hell. So if you haven't sat on a 6 foot wide 0 turn lawnmower you haven't lived second of all though. I'll put in audio books and dude, I'll just, I'll mow the yard and I will just cut through material. And there's an old Jewish proverb or saying that goes like, if you work with your hands, then you Sabbath with your mind. If you work with your mind, then you Sabbath with your hands. And so for me, I work in the realm of the mind all of the time, like all of the time. Every key piece of work that I produce comes from the realm of the mind. So always on, always on, always on. So when it's time for me to rest and just kind of deconstruct and detox, I'll go for a walk or I'll paint something or I'll get on the mower and I'll work with my hands. I'll try to do that. And it frees me up to consume. at a different level. Am I answering your question or if I'm not, or if I'm on a rabbit show, really back in. SPEAKER_03: where we're understanding where the original thoughts come from. I think one of the things I'd also love to know is for you as a creator, one, how do you think about content? You create an absurd amount of content. I would love, I think it'd be really valuable to know why do you create as much content as you do? What's your mindset around it? When you're actually filming, are you like, oh, does this like, how are you viewing it? Because you spend your time very carefully. And so when you're taking time to create content, how are you thinking about how that time is being used? SPEAKER_02: Yeah. I think the motives are important. Part of the reason that I create content is not for the market and it's not for other people. It's for me. That's a big piece of why I'm a creator. And I love the folks who are like exclusively missional and like they only care about other people. The problem with those folks is they're liars and you can't trust them because all humans have this self-preservation, self-fulfilling script that will run at all times. And so what I try to teach people is the production of content is partly for your market and for your people, but it's partially for you. And when I produce and I create great work, I feel amazing. Like I feel really good about it. And when I don't produce great content or when I don't produce a high volume of content, I don't feel as good. So it's the classic, you know, it's the classic chase for pleasure that can, we can use that and we can rig that to our advantage. But when I'm driving, Jake, like when I'm driving, I record daily mind medicine when I'm, taking a pre-workout and sitting in the car ready to go in, I'm writing about ideas and concepts. Everything that I think about I think can be turned into content. This morning I woke up a little bit late and I hopped into the cold plunge because I'm a freaking titan. I'm a beast and it was the worst experience of my entire life because I'm exhausted and I got in and I get out and I begin to write and I could turn that experience into a lesson because it's not when things feel easy that it's important that you do them, it's when things feel hard that it's most important when you do them. So there's just a random example. We're sitting at home and Jake, you asked me, why are you at home? Why are you not in the studio? Well, sometimes the most creative thing that you can do is to reconfigure your environment. Go the slow way to work because there are more trees on the way to work. Go to a different gym. Try a different lunch spot. Creativity is sparked through exposure. And when you have little or no exposure to new things, you have little to no creativity. Well, there's another piece of content that I just took from a life, a random thing. We could do this for days. You're like, this is what happened. Tell a story and boom, we'll turn it into a piece of content. I've trained my brain to be able to do this. So whether I'm sitting in traffic, whether I'm at the gym, whether I'm at a conference or an event or having coffee by myself, there is always something to teach through the story of your simple existence on Earth. But most people don't develop the muscle. And so they sit in front of a camera like, I've got to make this perfect. Yo, forget perfect. In fact, quality is actually secondary. It's not primary. How can you produce good quality if you have a quantity of zero? Imagine Harrison's my eight-month-old, and I'm like, do not take a step unless it is a quality step. But he would never take a step. The only way he learns how to take a step is that dude falls over. That's the only way. So I think we have to redefine it as process. You're just in process. So if I produce 10 pieces of content, and five of them are good and five of them are bad. Well, that's an awful hit rate, but I produce five great pieces of content. If I produce no pieces of content, then I have a hundred percent failure rate, a zero percent quality rate. So I think people are too focused on quality at the moment. Um, man, go out and produce. Like we just did this with our socials not too long ago, Jake. It's like, let's produce a hundred pieces of content and only use 10 of them. top 10%, let's only put out the top 10%. But the key is getting me engaged so that I'm producing so much content that we have enough to pick from this quality. People got to start there. SPEAKER_03: Which is a huge key because if for a lot of people, they're creating, they're creating like the minimum amount of content. There's so many offers out there right now, especially they're like, create all your content in one hour per month. And I'm like, bro, all your content has like a hundred views on it because you haven't created enough to where your communication, your messaging is really dialed in. And Taylor, that's one of the things that you're really good at is your messaging. is super dialed in across the board. And so when you're speaking, it naturally comes through. But even you as somebody who edits most of your content, like there's still plenty of content that shouldn't be getting through because it's not the top 10%. And you only get that top 10% with having a lot of quantity, which leads to quality. SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Well, I know it can be, you know, an intimidating thing for some people like, oh, I'm scared of the camera. You know, you get people that are just intimidated or don't feel confident speaking in front of the camera and that. So what do you, what are your guys' thoughts on, on people that are, you know, to your point, Taylor, like you got to fall over multiple times. Is it just suck it up, get good at it? Or is it focused on a different medium? What would your guys' suggestions be to people that maybe aren't as confident in front of a camera as they would be maybe on a different type of platform? Is video all imperative nowadays, to put it succinctly? SPEAKER_02: I'll say this first, because I know what Jake's going to say. I think whatever you're most comfortable with is going to be the one that kicks first. You can tell when somebody is on video and they don't feel comfortable. Femi does a lot of training and consulting for people. When people come in, sometimes they really, really suck, like really bad. I've been in those conversations where the crew is kind of like, You're amazing. We can't post this. It's like, we can't post this. And so they have consulting and coaching for people to do that. But I am a writer. And so if you look primarily at my favorite platforms, they're writing platforms. We use Instagram, but I'm gonna be really honest, I hate Instagram. It stresses me out. I like to write. So you look at Facebook, Twitter, those places pop, the email list, the articles. Some people are very good on video and they're also very good writers. I feel like I'm getting better on video, but I don't feel that I'm exceptional on video. And Jake might disagree with that, but that's just my personal belief. And so that belief can bleed through. I've got to have a lot more practice. Jake, what would your answer to that question be? SPEAKER_03: I would say that the direct answer is video is imperative, so you have to learn it one way or another. But just to kind of codify more of what Taylor's saying, it's where you're sourcing your video from is probably the most important piece. For Taylor, his writing is his source piece. Some people are way better on video than they are writing. I'm not very much of an eloquent writer. I take forever. But if I get on video, I can sit there and I'm more of a mental, like a verbal processor. and I'll be able to do more video. And that's more fun for me. It's different for everybody else. But I feel like video is very imperative. In terms of the first step for people, though, yes, you do kind of have to suck it up. That is a part of the process. But I think one of the things that can be most helpful, and Taylor did this a lot in the beginning, and it actually was one of the pieces that sparked some of the genius out of him, was Live stream, try to see if you can have an audience. Even if it's an audience of like three to five people, when you are, you're kind of getting, like I said before, you kind of have to be a little bit of a psychopath. Like you gotta have some sort of psychopath tendency to talk to this camera. It's like talking to a wall. It's not real. Like no one's talking to you, but you're acting like it's a human in front of you. So you gotta be a little crazy, but it helps if you have a live stream there Or here's a crazy idea. Right now we're using this thing called Riverside to record our, we're not sponsored, but we're using Riverside to record this podcast. You could go on Riverside to record your podcast or your video content and have your friend sit there right with you for like 30, 45 minutes and just talk to your friend. And they're like, hey, does that sound like me? Yes, no. Like when Taylor and I are in the room, he films a video and I'm like, that kind of sounded like you. Or that didn't sound like you. So having a human tendency or a human, uh, just having a human side of recording the content actually makes it a lot easier and a lot more fun to record content. I would say that probably needs to be your first step. And then over time you'll just get used to it and it'll become more and more fun. Nice. SPEAKER_00: Yep, for sure. So let's let's zero in on the keyword attention, right? Like you said at the top of our of the show, Jake, you know, people's attention spans are changing, it seems and obviously getting less and less and we're just we're constantly fighting for attention. It's like the modern version of gold or oil nowadays is engaging in and keeping that attention. So how do we capture people's attention when everybody's feeds are flooded with content? In our space in particular, I feel like everybody's content starts to look the same. They're using the same type of imagery and strategies. So how do we stand out amongst the noise? That's for both of you guys. SPEAKER_03: Now there's a million ways we could do it. Yeah, there's a million ways that we could address it. And there's different industries and different ways that different industries do it. I would say let's stay focused in on the entrepreneurs, the educators, the trainers, Taylor, unless you think there's another type of person we need to leave in there. But I would say first and foremost, creators nowadays, if they don't know what they believe in, they have no business creating content. Zero. zero business. There's a lot of people right now where they're getting fed scripts, they're being told what to say, they're talking about topics they have no business talking about, and we have the most awake generation in all of history. The most self-aware, but also the most mind-numb. So if you are reading a script, that energy comes right through. Everyone knows you don't actually know what you're talking about. Your hook's kind of generic. It's kind of boring. Everyone can feel it. I was going through content even this morning. I go, I do this all the time. I will scroll on Instagram on purpose and just see, I'll be like, this had great caption style. It had all the editing engagements, but why did I keep going? It's because the energy felt fake. And that energy feels fake when you don't actually know what you believe in. Maybe this is too deep, but I feel like there is such a hunger for truth right now on social media that business owners will say anything they need to to get people to pay attention. But it's really interesting to me when people will actually start speaking the things that they really believe. the things they actually believe. That's what seems to make the biggest difference overall. Like, yes, you need good hooks. Yes, you need to make sure there's not a bunch of fluff in your content. Yes, you need to make sure that once you get to the point of your video, you end it and you just let the video loop and you're not attached to the video, you're attached to the platform and the results you're getting. But more than anything, Entrepreneurs, I like to call them the hills that you are willing to die on, or as Taylor would call them, the sacred cows. You need to know the things that you're willing to die for and get the bullet for, because that's what brings the haters. And when you bring the haters, you got your fans. And when you got your fans, you got your community. And when you've got a community, you grow. And eventually, you start to blow up. But most people, it's too scary to actually say what you believe online. But right now, I think that's the real cost of attention is saying what you believe is true, being honest, being vulnerable, and saying the things that you believe are the most important to you. Taylor, what would you add to that? SPEAKER_02: Shameless plug. I don't know when this releases, but in November we have the workshop on belief architecture, and it's going to be packed. Mike, I don't know if you've seen the RSVP list for that, but There seems to be a lot of people coming in for it. But the key thing we're focusing on here is the things you believe and why you believe them, and then the meaning that you have attached to those beliefs. And for people creating content, you can almost instantly tell the people who need the engagement, or they're saying something because they saw someone else say it. You know, and there's a, there's this, an energy level to like, when, when I see people who like, I can just tell they do not actually care at all, whether you agree with them or not, they're saying what they, what they believe in and that's it. And, uh, there's just a different energy. Uh, when you study kinesiology or the way that, that energy fields work, man, energy goes through this screen and you guys are hearing words and that's tipping off energy. Like we're, we're Mike's halfway across the world and like China and we're, affecting his entire house with the quality and caliber of words because the words produce an energy. I think that it's important to like get yourself, like invest into the training to make sure you're healthy. This is not even about content. This is about like if you're an unhealthy person and you are insecure and you're riddled with disbelief and you're confused and you have no clarity and you put that shit online, people are just going to ignore you and or worse, they're going to really think that, And so it's worth the effort to fix the grounds first, the infrastructure first. And I think to this point, when you look at some of the recent. people, many of them are friends of ours who have just blown up and taken over. It's like, man, they went through like a crucible season. Like they got healthy. And then people were like, yo, what's different about this person? Something's a little bit different. And it's not exactly the things that they're saying is how they're saying it. It's the way their eyes look when they say it. It's just like, I can just feel different. And Jake, you've seen this because you've studied all of them, but you can tell the person who's like, they are just missional and locked in versus the ones who are just trying to hit a content checklist quota is a very big difference. You know, love that. SPEAKER_00: Love that. SPEAKER_03: Well, it's definitely, I would add, I would just add to what I would just, I just want to add something to Taylor said, you can get attention by saying things that you believe to be true, but you can get the wrong type of attention and earn the right in the earn the wrong type of reputation. Mm. based on the energy you put out into the market. That's another big piece, is that when you're a healthy human, you get attention for the right reasons, you can maintain it longer, and your reputation in the market's much stronger. Love that, love that. SPEAKER_00: Well, this was solid, guys. And I know when it comes to your audience, the attention that you're striving for, I think what we can all kind of agree to is the fact that it comes with integrity, clarity of your message, understanding your audience, and having the grit to push through any kind of uncomfort that you might feel. And just getting good, just doing the reps, putting out the content, whether it be written, you know, audio only video, whatever it may be. I think it's really, really critical for all business owners, regardless of your experience level to get out there, push your limits and just understand, get passionate about sharing things that you genuinely care about. and that you feel your audience needs to know. So Jake, I appreciate you being here with us, man. This is a good one. And I know people will really benefit. So let's do this too. Like if they need to know more about FEMI and about you, where do we go? Where do we send these people? Because I know for a fact, everybody in all our clients that have engaged your services and FEMI services are raving fans and their level, the quality of content, the ability to engage and retain attention exponentially, like, you know, gone way up. So how do other people benefit from that by knowing you and getting in touch with you? SPEAKER_03: Yeah, people can go to Femi collective.com. They can book a call there. It's real easy. If they want, they can DM me on Instagram at Jake Bryan or Femi collective on IG, whatever works for you. SPEAKER_00: Awesome. Awesome. We'll put the links below here, guys, so you can tap into that. And Jake, thanks so much, buddy. Appreciate your, your wisdom, your insights. and your skills behind the camera and on the buttons and everything else you do over there in the editing side, the Vimeo team and everything. I appreciate you, man. Look forward to catching up here later in the week. SPEAKER_03: 100% brother. We'll see you soon. See you. See you guys. Have a good one.