Dr. Jeremy Weisz 13:53
How do you decide on who to choose to write your Ford and by the way, I love so I’m at his book here. I love the first four words, it makes you want to read more of the foreword, right? He wrote, I was fired. Sack like you have to read on from that. How’d you choose him for the foreword?
Rusty Shelton 14:14
Well, that first those first four words are taken right from the script of a really good speaker, right? Somebody that’s open ended up pulling that that audience away from their phones. So David Meerman Scott’s always somebody that I have personally been a huge fan of through the years. He’s on the board for Forbes books, which is the publisher of the book and adequate he is my co author is the founder of that company. And so when we thought about Steve Forbes was kind enough to write the foreword to our previous book authority marketing and for this one we decided we wanted to go with somebody that we thought was a great case study and in doing this well as as Steve certainly as as well, but so he was awesome. He agreed to do it even recorded for the audible version. You know, his own version of of the Florida, which was really generous.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 15:02
I’m gonna get the audible though, for sure. Yeah, um, the quickest way to build trust you were mentioning. Yeah, so the quickest
Rusty Shelton 15:10
way to build trust is to lead not as an operator with something to sell, but instead to be positioned as a thought leader with something to teach. So this is really the core point for me in the book, Jeremy has Adam and I were looking at this the previous book authority marketing, I think it was more of a tactical book, right. And the challenge with that book for leaders is they saw the word marketing, and they threw it over the fence to the marketing team, right they, in other words, that’s for them. And really, this message, as you know, really well, is really more of a mindset shift for leaders. And so what we’re trying to do is speak to the behind the scenes, servant leader, the impact driven leader who for years has been over delivering for their internal team for their clients, for their partners for their community, they’re exceedingly well regarded, they have built great trust there. But they have taken a significant backseat to the corporate brand, right, or the institutional brand. And so the challenge that those leaders have in today’s environment, is they are essentially limiting the impact that they can make as a leader, because the only people that build trust with them are those that are lucky enough to come in direct contact with them. And so Gallup put out a study last summer, that that put on paper, what a lot of us had been feeling for years, and that is trust in institutions, in businesses is at an all time low. And so for those companies that are over delivering behind the scenes, if they’re leading with the logo, or if they’re marketing through the business, they’re marketing to, to an audience that’s more skeptical than they’ve ever been, it’s a part of what Adam and I wanted to do with this book is really grabbed that servant leader by the shoulders and say, Listen, the more you continue to just be heads down behind the scenes, the more you are costing your existing team, your existing clients, your existing partners, but because you are not in a position to accelerate trust for your business, and so that’s really what we’re trying to do is we’re not trying to pull the leader out in front of the corporate brand, or out in front of the institution, it’s really out alongside it. So the company’s in interstate, we want as many of the right clients talent partners on that interstate, and the leader has to be an on ramp back to it. And we can dive into this in more detail, Jeremy, but it’s really, it’s not only a mental shift for the leader to teach at scale, but it’s really shifting the way they’re positioned before they get in the room, because a leader today has to build trust before they get in the room.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 17:48
Yeah, it’s funny, because I’m going to pull up something in a second, rusty, but I was interviewing someone last week, and I went to their about page, and they don’t have a picture of themselves. I mean, there’s no pictures of themselves or anyone. And it’s just very, it’s not personal. You know what I mean? It’s just exactly what you said, right? In comparison. Let’s go to Zilker media for a second, you can see a bunch of people, I don’t care if it’s you or someone I want to see someone’s face. And it was just like one of those generic images, and it’s a successful, really successful company. And I was shocked that it didn’t have that personal feel to it, you know? Yeah.Why do people? What are the big objections you get from people?
Rusty Shelton 18:40
Well, I think the biggest objection that I get from the kind of leader we’re trying to talk to who is a servant leader who is over delivering impact or than the biggest concern is always I’m worried people are gonna think this is an ego trip, right? I’m worried people are gonna think that I’m building a, Hey, look at me kind of brand and and by the way, I get that. And some of your audience members when they hear that phrase, thought leadership, or personal branding, you know, they’re they’re either grimacing in their car or their stomachs turning a little bit and, and we all get the reason why I mean, for many of us, our minds immediately go to people that are doing this the wrong way, right? People that are building ego driven, hey, look at me kind of brands. And so to be crystal clear, when Adam and I talk about creating an authority advantage. The idea here is really to be the messenger, not the message, right? So in other words, if you have a message to get out to the world, if you’re communicating that message through the business, if you’re communicating that message through the logo, it’s going to cost you a lot more money take you a lot more time and be a lot less effective than if the leader is willing to get out and instead of being positioned as selling something, they want to be positioned as a mission driven thought leader, right. So I think that’s the biggest hump that we’ve got to get people over Jeremy what I find for a lot of those leaders As as they start going down this road, would immediately Phil’s okay, this is it, I don’t want people to think this is about me, they start to see the impact that it makes. At scale, they start to get feedback from people who, you know, it’s, it’s a life that’s changed, or it’s somebody that’s, that’s off in a different direction on the business front. So definitely hands down. Ego is the biggest push back. I’d love to hear
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 20:24
some real world examples so people can hear them and then learn how to implement as well. And by the way, we’re looking right now at audible at the authority of Amazon, but I just bought it real time. So it’s very easy. Especially you have an Audible account. So I’m looking forward to listening to it. Thank you. One of the people from the book that you talk about is Dr. Jamie Reynolds. Can you talk about what happened with with them?
Rusty Shelton 20:50
Yeah, so Dr. Jamie Reynolds heads up one of the fastest growing orthodontics practices in the Midwest. So I was up there a couple years ago, speaking at an event that he was putting on a Detroit he did an event for all of the local dentists that are big referral partners for him. And I went up there and kind of talked about this concept of building thought leadership the right way, on the way to the venue, he dropped by, you know, his newest practice location, and we walked in the doors, kind of all the normal stuff that you would expect to see from a modern orthodontics practice, the thing that kind of caught my eye, Jeremy was there’s a huge golden Gong that was in there, like in the middle of the exam room? And I’m like, What’s the deal with this? And he said, Well, you know, like most orthodontics practices were built almost entirely on the back of referrals. Most practices, the way they generate referrals is or the way they try to generate referrals, is, you know, kid gets the braces off, parents go up to pay the final bill, front desk clerk is kind of trained to put a couple postcards up to the counter and say, Hey, we’re built on referrals. Do you know any other parents that are thinking about putting braces on their kids? Right? Super awkward for everybody involved in that conversation? And so what they do instead is they kind of map the patient experience and set right at what point are they the happiest with us. And of course, it’s super easy for an orthodontist, right? It’s when the braces come off. And so what they do in their practice is when the braces come off, everybody stops what they’re doing, you could be mid exam, and they’re going to stop what they’re doing. Teenager goes up, bangs, the gong, everybody cheers. And of course, the mom can’t get that video on Instagram quickly enough or on Facebook quickly enough and what they’re doing, of course, when they share that video is they’re waxing on about their experience with Dr. Reynolds and his team. And so what they’ve facilitated with that is they have empowered, somebody that already knows and loves them to talk about them in a way that they’re winning as they do it. That’s one of my favorite things that you guys do at Rice 25, with great podcasts is you empower people to share information to engage in a way that the prospect or the client or the investor is winning as you do it. And so that’s one of the big things I want to encourage people to think about as within your business. Is there a gong moment? And if there’s not an obvious one, like Dr. Reynolds, how do we facilitate some of those Gong moments with a podcast or by featuring certain people in your book, there are a lot of different ways to do that. But this for me is a lightbulb for a lot of leaders who you know, Jeremy, when I mentioned thought leadership, their responses. Rusty, I’m too busy. I don’t have time for it. Well, one of your most important things as the leader of a business is building relationships on behalf of the business. And this is a great way to do that.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 23:34
is at the top of your next book, the gong moment. I think you have another one maybe so
Rusty Shelton 23:38
maybe so I can see the cover already.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 23:41
I love what you talked about, you know, mapping the patient, or or the client or customer experience, and then finding that moment where people are the happiest, and it makes it the most shareable and how do you create that moment, that is something that they can share in? That sounds like for any company? For sure. I
Rusty Shelton 24:02
mean, you think about go to any coffee shop. In most cities in the US, there’s probably an Instagram wall. At some point in there. There’s a mural with brandy for that coffee shop. And what they’re trying to do with that Instagram wall is create something that’s interesting enough that you just want to take a picture in front of it, you’re excited to push it out, you go to a conference, if there’s a back photo backdrop with logos, there’s gonna be a ton of people taking pictures in front of that backdrop, you’ve empowered them to talk about it in the way that they’re winning as they do it at Zilker. What we do if we’ve got an author that we’re working with, when their book publishes, we send them a box of cookies and their cover of their book is an icing on the on the cookie right and it facilitates a great moment that they want to talk. They’re going
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 24:46
to take a picture that they’re going to post it somewhere and it makes it special.
Rusty Shelton 24:51
Yeah, exactly. It’s Forbes books. When somebody publishes we send them a autographed cover of their book with the team that’s worked on it that It has signed it. And so those kinds of things work exceedingly well. Jeremy was part of what Adam and I talked about in the book, though, when we think about a podcast or when we think about relationship driven content, the magic in inviting somebody on your podcast, or you know, you’ve got a Forbes blog, and you let somebody know you want to quote them. And that article will, there’s a lot going on there, right? I mean, it’s the person that gets that email is thinking, Oh, I didn’t realize rusty as a podcast, or wow, I didn’t realize Jeremy’s writing for Forbes. And so it’s there are two things that happened. And one is a bit of a perception shift in the way they’re looking at you, from operator to thought leader. The second thing is, you are leading with a win for them. Right, you’re and that’s the shift. But it really allows people number one to curate stories that they think others DD here, right and put a spotlight on people that they think can bring in value. It’s there’s a lot of fulfillment in that. But it also works toward pragmatic business objectives.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 26:05
Yeah, no, I love what you said there. Because that’s what I love about a podcast. It doesn’t have to just be a podcast. But like leading with a give, I’ll always like leading with give, it could be as simple. I tell you, most people say to me, as you all I say, if you never want to sort of podcast, that’s cool. If you never want to write a blog, that’s cool. If you never want to write a book, that’s cool, even though I think all of them are great things to do. You could just simply post about someone on LinkedIn, right? And you can use LinkedIn or social media to give to people to profile people to give shout outs to people. So there’s lots of way to do it in a very simple fashion. Like you said, Now, obviously, if you’re like, hey, this is my book, there’s a lot of authority that goes into that. Obviously, this is called the authority advantage. But like there’s a lot of authority in a book. And then like you said, putting people in the book. I mean, even David, David Meerman. Scott is an example. He’s the first thing that I read in your entire book, you know what I mean? And so that’s a huge gift, I’m sure. I mean, it’s it’s great stuff. But it’s, it’s beneficial to both parties.
Rusty Shelton 27:11
Yeah, it definitely is. And you’re hitting on something, I think that’s really important, which is, there are really specific things that elevate your authority in almost an irrational way. One has been the author of a book, and other is it being featured with namebrand media, whether it’s a Forbes or an HBr, or others. And I think part of what I want leaders to think a little bit about. So back to this idea of building trust before you get in the room with somebody Patty Brennan, we talk about in the book, she’s a financial advisor. Up in the northeast, she’s got one of the largest female owned financial advisory firms in the whole country. And it’s interesting, if you kind of put yourself in the shoes of somebody that’s gotten referred to five different financial advisors, four of the five that I Googled their name Jeremy, I’m gonna get a suit and tie picture on an Edward Jones website, or Morgan Stanley website, or XYZ Financial Services website. There’s nothing negative about that. It’s just they’re the most commoditize thing that could possibly exist. I’m in the position of power. I’m interviewing them about why they’re the fit for me. But when you google Patti Brennan’s name you land on her website, key financial. The first thing you see on that website is not you know, a stock photo of a couple of grandparents walking their grandkids down the street, right or down the beach, or something else you might normally see. The first thing you see there is Patty Brennan up on stage, and you’ve got a Forbes logo, right behind her she is mid speech. Well, what’s happened there, those four of the five again, I’m in a position of power. When I call Patty’s firm, oh, you need me to wait six weeks for an appointment. I’m just feeling lucky to get in the room with her. And so again, what’s happened there is she immediately goes to doing what she does best, which is giving value teaching, right? Because I already trust her based on what I’ve found online, versus the others, again, are in a position where, you know, again, I’m interviewing them what you see right here. So I think another important thing right under Patty’s video, Jeremy so so these logos. Again, part of what I want people to think about with this online brand audit, when I go to your website when I go to your LinkedIn profile, if you are leading with stock photos, corporate logos, like your logo, or headshots. Great picture it does nothing to create an image in my mind of somebody that I’m trusting. When I get to Patty’s website, I may not know Patti, I get an image in my mind for CNBC and Fortune and Forbes and so what happens is Patty’s images along for the ride with the image in my mind for those brands now back to the not building a brand focused on ego? What I want your listeners And viewers to be really intentional about as we want to walk a very fine line with your brand. So on one side of the coin, I want the visuals to say what I don’t want you to say about yourself, which is top of her category, thought leader, mainstage. Speaker, man, I’m gonna be in the, I’m gonna be lucky to get in the room with her. And then the flip side, the entirety of your content strategy, from the book to the blog to the podcast. And beyond, is all mission driven thought leadership. If you never take another step with me, I’m going to leave you better off as a result of me read this. But as you know, Jeremy, I’m not interested in the blog post or the book or the podcast. So I recognize you’re the guy to teach me on this topic. And that’s why we do both sides of that coin.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 30:43
If you’re listening the audio we are showing her actual website and kind of showing exactly what Rusty’s talking about. And you you talk about this a lot to receive not just on the website, but you talk about on LinkedIn, right? Because sometimes when you search name, someone’s name, it’s usually within the first three search results is the LinkedIn profile. And you talk about this on LinkedIn too.
Rusty Shelton 31:08
Yeah, I would guess for 95% of your audience, when they do that online brand audit, Jeremy, the first thing that’s going to come up connected to them is that LinkedIn profile, and so again, put put yourself in the shoes of somebody that has been referred to you and they land on that LinkedIn profile. Keep in mind, there’s no image in their mind yet for you. So in that header image area, if you’re given me a man, the number of people I see that have like a sunset picture off the coast of California, I was listening
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 31:34
to you one of the videos a couple days ago, and you said about the sunset and I went to someone, I was researching someone. And that’s exactly what their main header image and LinkedIn was, was just a sunset image.
Rusty Shelton 31:50
It’s sunset pictures, you know, generic quotes. corporate logo, like their corporate logo, those things do nothing to build trust with somebody that doesn’t yet know You. So instead, what I’d like to see is a visual of you in a setting that connotes authority. So give you an action shot of you on stage. And ideally, there’s a forge logo or HBr. Just pick the event. And if you don’t have that yet, cool, right? Let’s work toward it. But the big thing there is you want to associate yourself with brands that your audience knows, trusts and respects. So LinkedIn, as you mentioned, Jeremy until somebody’s got a home based website is is kind of what I want them to think of as their home base online. And make sure that that profile is is both building trust, but also allowing you to get clear on on your mission and where you want to make an impact.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 32:42
No, I want to you know, we talked a little bit about Zilker media, but you had an agency before Zilker that you built up and actually sold. So can you talk about a little bit about the towards the end of that journey, or the beginning of the next path, the journey of that agency? What was going on at that time when you were going to sell the company?
Rusty Shelton 33:09
Sure. So so that was my first business and started it in 2010, grew it to 2016, we got acquired in 2016 by advantage Media Group Forbes books. So that first agency was called Shelton interactive. And Jeremy, that was a business entirely focused on Book Marketing and PR, we launched some of the biggest business books in the world, the one thing you know, worked with Tom Rath and chicken soup of the soul, just some of the biggest brands a ton of great work ton of just a fantastic team built great culture there. The challenge with that business was twofold. Number one, I made a lot of rookie mistakes as an entrepreneur and thought I had to wrap myself in the middle of every campaign and just did some things that really, I think, in hindsight, help help both my team in the agency back. But number two, the challenge with that business was a book marketing campaign is a transactional thing. You hire a firm, you launch the book, and it’s at the end of that relationship, which is usually a six month campaign. Rusty, thank you guys so much. You’re awesome. We’ll call you in three years. And so it was a very hard business to grow, because you’re always just replacing the books that just rolled off. And so we were fortunate to have a strategic buyer that was looking to add a marketing arm and that’s gone really well. It’s the rare case, Jeremy that, you know, I’m better friends with with the founder of that business that acquired me seven years later than I was when it happened, which doesn’t happen very often. It helps that that’s a fellow EU member. He’s also in YPO. But just somebody that to this day, you know, again, co author of the book they released yesterday, so it’s worked really well. But what we decided to do is Zilker was let’s take everything that we learned from launching books and let’s apply it to businesses to banks to law firms with the understanding that number one, they need this more than ever right now. For the Gallup study I mentioned earlier because most of them are still leading with the logo. But But number two, if it goes well, and we’re fortunate that it has really often, it’s a forever client, that’s a year over year over year client. And so that’s really what we’re trying to build at Zilker. One of the big things that we’ve done differently here, we’ve got a lot of the team back together and just great culture and just, you know, people that I’m fortunate to work with, you know, my partner in the business, our CEO page philosophy as buddy is, you know, a much more capable CEO just just miles better than I was in running Shelton interactive, and doing just a fantastic job with the business. And she’s doing a lot of the things that we talked about in the book, she recently had a TEDx talk here in Austin and beyond. So we’re having a lot of fun with the new agency, I’m still doing a ton of work with Forbes books, I love that. I get to do a lot of teaching and a lot of coaching there. But But back to the Shelton interactive piece for a second. It was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make in my life, hands down. And you know, to this day, I still think about on a regular basis, the feeling in my gut, as I talked to the team about that. So there were a lot of lessons that I learned through that. But But going back, I wouldn’t change anything about it. What are
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 36:18
some things, Rusty, that you think about looking back on the selling process for someone who’s going to be going through that in the future? What are some things that you learned from the selling process that you wish you would have known? Yeah, well,
Rusty Shelton 36:32
one of the big things that I did that I would encourage everybody to do is I really kicked the tires on on Adam and on the business. So I talked to a lot of people that, you know, I knew I had had connections or done business with him in the past, I spent a lot of time really vetting that out. The other thing that I did early on that I think was really valuable that I would encourage people to think about is kind of have a list in your mind of deal breakers. In other words, and not just financial? In other words, what are the things that pay I don’t want to waste your time in let’s not go any further unless these five things work for you. And I did that early on with Adam. And I think it was really helpful for both of us to get on the same page with, you know, hey, let’s let’s not go any further unless we’re pretty close on these. So those are two big things. The thing that I wish I had done better, is really think through kind of the emotional side of it and the identity side of it. I mean, those of us in EO YPO, WIPO, you know, our identities, in large part are really wrapped up, or can get really wrapped up in our position as an entrepreneur with the business. And so I didn’t think as much on what that would actually feel like, after again, that’s what they really awesome acquire that’s not with somebody that that did anything wrong. It’s just it’s the emotional side of that for most entrepreneurs that have been through it is really something that takes a toll. And so I wish I’d have been more prepared for that.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 38:07
If you’re comfortable sharing rusty, what’s an example of some of the deal breakers that you had?
Rusty Shelton 38:14
Yeah, so one of the deal breakers was I, you know, wasn’t interested in getting acquired if, if the plan was to lay off any staff. Or if the plan was to make anybody move out to Austin, Texas, where we were based, you know, so those were, those were two really key ones for me, because, you know, we had a great thing going, it’s obviously why they were interested in acquiring us. And so I didn’t want to disrupt where we were with that team, I had kind of a general idea in my mind financially of, you know, what was going to be something that I would entertain, and so I threw that in there as well. Those were really the main things and also trying to get a sense, Jeremy, just vision, right? Can we go one plus one equals three with this acquisition? And you know, again, fortunately, looking back seven years later, it’s it’s been that and much more as as we’ve continued to grow Forbes books. But those were some of the key things just at the start. Just just to make sure. There’s a ton of time and the due diligence process. There’s a lot of emotional energy that goes into, you know, getting excited, is this going to have their ups and downs throughout the process? So I just wanted to make sure we’re on the same page early.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 39:31
What did you find rusty? You don’t have to share specific numbers, but from an you are probably seeing what’s the valuation look like for a company for an agency at that point? What did you find the range of EBITA that I probably depends on obviously, what revenue level they’re at. But what did you find the ranges of EBIT over at four multiples of EBIT up for selling a company at that point,
Rusty Shelton 39:58
man, it’s it was all over place. So some people you talk to, they would base it on EBITA. So it’d be, you know, between two and five times, ie the other people within the service business, it’s more of a, hey, let’s look at, you know, point seven to 1.3 times revenue was something I was getting from a lot of people as well. And so I think so much of it, Jeremy depends on who’s got the who’s got the interest, right? Is it? Is the person trying to sell their business? Or is somebody trying to buy the business and, you know, how strategic is the by, you know, what kind of technology assets are coming along with it? So I think there’s in the service businesses as I knew, you will know, it’s a Wild Wild West in terms of figuring out what it what it can be,
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 40:42
you know, talking about the one thing and the some of the things you do with them.
Rusty Shelton 40:47
Oh, man, so this is one of the one of my favorite books that we have ever worked on through the years. So it’s written by Gary Keller and Jay Pappas and Gary’s co founder of Keller Williams, Realty J has been helping them build their thought leadership over there and has a great real estate business of his own also, I’ve actually got the your viewers can see this over here. The central question in that book is on our whiteboard here. So the central question in that book, what’s the one thing so that by doing it, everything else is either easier or unnecessary? In other words, what’s the high leverage play? What’s the thing you can do that that sends more dominoes falling in your way than anything else? So it was interesting. That was the first book that Keller Williams had put out that was really outside of their core real estate space. So they’ve been doing real estate related books for a while. Gary’s first book was a book called The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. And since you have heard Gary talk a little bit about what that first book did for them, that was back at a time where Keller Williams you know, some people may remember was was really chasing Coldwell Banker, they were chasing century 21 From a corporate brands a corporate brand perspective, they’re pretty far behind. And so what Gary talks about is, you know, he would walk in the door at a Coldwell Banker office or a century 21 office, and his books sitting on the desks of their agents. Right? Not not, because they’re perceiving him as somebody that’s trying to recruit them. Right. They’re leaning in to learn from him. And again, I don’t know if there’s a better because pretty powerful. Yeah, that’s, that’s the whole point of creating authority advantages. People lean in to learn from you, versus you having a fight through skepticism as you sell them something.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 42:30
There’s also a Gordon Ramsay story.
Rusty Shelton 42:34
So I’m a big Vegas guy. I love going to Las Vegas, Jeremy. So I had to put, you know, Vegas related branding lesson in in the book. So we talked a lot about Gordon Ramsay, and many people, I’m sure familiar with Gordon Ramsay, one of the most successful chefs in the world TV, books, etc. So he’s got to deal with Caesars Entertainment, where they operate. Gordon Ramsay branded restaurants and many of their properties around the world, including a lot of them in Vegas. So the contract per vital Vegas, in in Las Vegas requires Ramsay to be on site for at least 24 hours, one time each year. And so in other words, he’s not behind the counter cooking dinner, right? He’s more valuable to them, not as an operator doing the work but as somebody who creates a brand that people want to associate with through his books, through TV, etc. The other big lesson from from Gordon Ramsay that I hope a lot of your audience will really think about, for a lot of people, when when we encourage them to go down this road of building thought leadership, the initial thought is, Hey, I gotta play this formal role of what I think a thought leader should talk like or what they should act like. And if you watch Gordon Ramsay, I mean, there’s only one Gordon Ramsay in the world, right? He leans into his personality. And by the way, that that certainly recoils some people, but but it’s the reason for his success. And so in the age of chat, GPT and all of the different content. I mean, there are a lot of different podcasts I can listen to, there’s a lot of different books I can read. The only reason I’m following you versus somebody else is because you’re authentic to me, you bring your personality, there’s something different. And so I know you guys encourage that for your rise clients as well. But be more of yourself. If you want to attract a Maryland audience,
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 44:30
it takes time. I think even for myself, doing 1000s of these is still takes time and I’m still figuring it out and still leaning into it. Because sometimes it’s tough to do that. And just Yeah, I just find it’s difficult, you know, because you’re more vulnerable, in a sense when you put yourself out there in the real self out there. One of the topics I want to talk about I just want to mention to you that I know you speak to a lot of groups, you speak to EO you speak to YPO. So if you are an EO member listening, you can contact Rossi directly. He does speak to groups, what what kind of talks do you give to groups?
Rusty Shelton 45:15
I love doing learning events for 11 YPO groups. And so I’ll come in and do you know, typically a 60 minute keynote on the authority events. So how to build thought leadership focused on impact, not ego. And then right after the talk, Jeremy, what we’d like to do is one on one quick brand audit. So we’ll set up a couple of tables and do individual brand audits for attendees that that, you know, don’t really understand. Okay, do I need to change my name? How does my LinkedIn profile look? So it’s a nice, really pragmatic, hey, here’s how it works. But let’s actually give you a plan that you can put into practice tomorrow.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 45:52
One thing that I thought was interesting with Zilker media, is you brought on a CEO. Okay, so what point did you decide, I’m gonna bring in a CEO for this business.
Rusty Shelton 46:06
Yeah, so So patient lost his buddy, who is the CEO was with us back at Shelton interactive, and has been with us really from the start here at Zilker. Initially, I wasn’t, you know, that wasn’t necessarily a definite thing. So I had it in the back of my mind that it was going to be a possibility. But she was somebody that I knew had the potential to be a fantastic leader at all, had always kind of naturally been that way, and made the decision that you know what, for Zilker, to do what we need it to do, it’s going to need somebody that can give their entire attention here, I will still, you know, foot in, in, and still am doing a lot of work with Forbes books and a lot of work with Zilker. And so it was a transition where we spent some time internally with her really riding shotgun with me for a while I was teaching her everything just in terms of the way that I thought about different things and wanted her to bring, you know, her own perspective to the table. But it’s been one of those things, it’s allowed me Jeremy to focus on best in highest use of my time, the stuff I do really well, I know, you know, I’m not a great one on one manager, I’m not a great, you know, kind of, there’s some operational things that there are plenty of people that are much better at that than I am. And so, what I’ve been really proud of with Paige is that she’s done a really fantastic job of growing the business but also has done a really good job of building thought leadership for herself. I mentioned, you know, TEDx, she speaks at quite a few WIPO and other events, she and I actually team up for a lot of these presentations. And it’s been it’s been a lot of fun. Glad to have her as a partner in the business. For us to have
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 47:43
one last question. I know we have a minute or so. But I do before I ask I want to point people to Zilker media.com. What other places do we want to point people towards to check out to learn more,
Rusty Shelton 47:54
for sure. So Zilker media.com is a great place to learn more about the agency, Rusty shelton.com is a great place if you’re looking to learn more about how you can come in and give a talk or a workshop or learning event. And then the authority advantage. book.com is the home base for our new book. And you can get a free digital download actually have the book there. You can access authority IQ assessment as a lot of great stuff there. And if you’re, if you’re thinking about writing a book, or you want to learn a little bit more about writing a book yourself, that’s a great place to start.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 48:28
So rapid fire for 30 seconds. I want to know your favorite books, right? I mean, as you saw, I had six credits available on Audible. I just bought the authority advantage. And I have five but rapidfire some of your favorite books that people should check out. Obviously, you mentioned the one thing what are some others?
Rusty Shelton 48:47
Yeah, the one thing is always at the top of my list in terms of recommendations for people. I’m a huge fan of Tony Robbins. So I love a lot of the stuff that he’s put out. You know, I think and grow rich is always one that I encourage I’m sure that’s something that you’ve gone through before. Those are some of the big ones. For me, Gary Vaynerchuk has been somebody that I look to a ton of his stuff through the years and I think does things really the right way. So those would be people that I would I would really encourage your listeners to look at if they haven’t already.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz 49:21
Check it out that and many more check out other episodes of the podcast and rusty thank you so much,
Rusty Shelton 49:27
Jeremy thanks for having me.
