Special Guest Expert - Carol Niemi: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Carol Niemi: this eJwVzl9rgzAUBfDvch_2ZA1b1YhQBl19KKwOKt3Yk4Tkqpn5Y5NUKaXfffp4D7_DuQ_gPfKhGfAOBU3yLKVpBNyagCY04T4iFFBBBNL4wAzHRgoo8oym6TajEbQSlWgM06trpcKFDjNznYfiATenlrgPYfQFIfM8x521nUI2Sh9zq4lwckIyvZG16skrm3xCfZv6v7Ks6XfuztXPNVNTrrPr57k_vTMVdhqFZC_e3hzHnbCzUZaJyzIVQZBBrZ-cjtVh_3X43V_qY1XW9eaDOasqiVrGekwW2VqnWVjoej6f_zQdWBA:1joefl:Vw1WgmOJ7eZnFNvCyHB4WFMWX7M video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Brian Kelly:
So here's the big question. How are entrepreneurs like us, who have been hustling and struggling to make it to success, who seemed to make it one step forward only to fall two steps back, work dedicated, determined and driven? How do we find the breakthrough and win? That is the question. And this podcast will give you answers. My name is Brian Kelly and this is The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show. Hello, everyone, and welcome, welcome, welcome to The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show. We have another phenomenal show lined up for you tonight, and it is because of this very, very special guest, Carol Niemi. She is coming on very, very soon. She is here with us right now. And she's waiting back in the wings, in the green room to be brought on. And I can't wait to share her brilliance with you. She is going to bring a ton of value. She does something very unique in the marketing field. So I'm especially, especially excited because marketing is the lifeblood of business. And we'll go through that a little bit more in the show. Real briefly, The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show for those of you that are not familiar with what the show is about. It is really a show for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs, and it's successful entrepreneurs that I bring on this show week in and week out from all over the world. And the name of the show MIND BODY BUSINESS. Those are the three pillars of what I call the three pillars of success. And that is a result of having studied only successful people for the last decade or so. I wanted to find out what was it that made them successful. You know more than, say, me or others. What were those special qualities about them? What made them special? Right. And it turned out after studying, working with mentors, reading books of both folks that are still with us and others that are not and really studying those that are successful. What were the commonalities and three patterns developed over time. And those three patterns are mind, body and business. Mind is mindset. Each successful person had a very empowered and flexible - the key there is flexible - mindset. And on some shows we go deep into mindset and other shows we don't. We do cover each of these categories. And body; that's literally about taking care of one's self, their body through both external exercise and through nutrition; what you ingest. And successful people take care of themselves, on average, a lot better than those who are not, who have not achieved success. And then there's business. My favorite, because, well, they're all my favorite. Business is so multifaceted. There's sales, marketing, team building, systematizing, leadership. And it goes on and on. The list is almost endless, it seems. And the interesting thing is, with these successful people, they had mastered the skillsets of all of these areas. But the good news is they didn't, nor do you, have to master personally every single one of those. The number one skillset is leadership. Once you've mastered that, now you can scale. You can bring in a team and lead them. Bring in those who have those skill sets. Bring in marketing experts like Carol Niemi. I can't wait to unleash her on you. This is gonna be amazing. And build a team of people who have the skill sets. You just don't want to spend the time to perfect and master all these on your own. It would easily take a lifetime. I, I kid you not. It takes a long time to master one skill, let alone multiple. And so that's what The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show is all about. I bring on incredible guest experts like Carol, who bring nothing but value, who will help show you how you can become successful. It's all about just modeling success. You will have permission by both, Carol and I - I'll ask her when she comes on - to copy what she does. Copies of - model is a fancy word for copy. And you know, as adults, many of us think copying is a bad thing because in school we were taught never to do that. Well, that's called cheating. Copying is not cheating if you're given permission and you have permission to copy a model - it's your duty. You must copy and model or you're gonna be in for a really tough road. And another wonderful artifact of very successful people is they are very avid readers to a person. And with that, I like the segue real quickly into a little segment I affectionately call bookmark.

Announcer:
Bookmarks. Born to read. Bookmarks. Ready, steady, read. Bookmarks brought to you by ReachYourPeakLibrary.com.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. There you see, ReachYourPeakLibrary.com and real quick note, before we continue any further is do yourself a favor and grab one of those old fashioned things like this. It's called a sheet of paper and a writing instrument, if you remember what that is. I'm just having fun because of technology these days. But a pen or a pencil or you can go ahead and open up a notepad, separate if you're on a computer and just take notes. And instead of you veering off and going and looking at websites and URLs because you're gonna be given a great wealth of resources on this show. The thing is, is to stay present in the room, so to speak, because the magic happens in the room. And if your attention is diverted, you may miss that one golden nugget that Carol is about to say because you're off typing in another URL to go look at the website. So do yourself a favor. I literally take notes while I'm hosting this show. So if I'm doing it, then definitely you can too. Just recommend that because you'll get the most out of the show if you do that. Now, real quickly, Reach Your Peak Library. It's a website I had built primarily with you in mind. And I do not kid when I say that. I put together this list of books that I personally read, personally vetted in completion. And they definitely had a positive impact on either my business or personal life. And so not every book that I've read is in this library. And so you'll see a little story there. You can watch that. Read it. But the good stuff is down here, where all the books are. You'll see many books by people I'm sure you recognized. You may have read many of these books yourself, but it is here for you to be able to pluck a new book if you haven't read one of these and just instantly start devouring it and absorbing the material because I learned at a late age. Way, way late, how important it was to read books like this. And then once I discovered this thing called Audible, I became a voracious reader. And I will tell you this. It has literally changed my life for the better. And I'm not a big drama person. It definitely is one of the secrets to success is reading not just any book, as you see at the top. It says the number one reason for lack of success is not simply the lack of reading books. It's the lack of reading the right books. It's okay, though, to read a novel now and then. Don't get me wrong. You've got to have your downtime. But with that, I want to say, you know what? Enough for me blabbing. And let's bring on the woman of the hour. Let's do it right now. Here we go.

Announcer:
It's time for the guest expert spotlight, savvy, skillful, professional, adept, trained, big league, qualified.

Brian Kelly:
And there she is, ladies and gentlemen, the one, the only Carol Niemi. How are you doing to night, Carol?

Carol Niemi:
I am doing very well. And how about you?

Brian Kelly:
I am ecstatic. I am beyond excited. I am doing stellar. Thank you so much. Real quick before we jump in. A quick reminder for everyone that just came on. Stay with us live to the very end and you will have the ability to enter, to win a five nights stay at a five star luxury resort. Compliments of our sponsors. You see them up. If you're watching on video, you see them up in the corner. The Big Insider Secrets. Wonderful, wonderful company. And friends of mine who offer this up. We give it away every single show. And I hope you win so stay on till the end and you'll see how to enter. And now to the woman of the hour. I'm so happy we finally got here. Having worked more than 50 brands, Carol Niemi PHD has learned several immutable laws of marketing. If your brand doesn't stand out, someone else's will. I love that. And the way to stand out is to stand for something is great. And then stand for something your customers and employees understand and respect. Be authentic. This is this is this is gold. The enduring brands all know this. And when everyone inside and outside your company knows what you stand for, you will have loyal customers and employees. Now, who doesn't want that? With that, the official welcome to the show miss Carol Niemi. I am so happy to have you. Thank you for coming on.

Carol Niemi:
Thank you for having me.

Brian Kelly:
Now, one of the things I love to open with, Carol, is, you know, the the bios are in themselves very telling and give us a good background of a level of success and experience. And what I like to do is dig a little deeper and we're going to. But initially, I want to dig deeper and find out what is what makes you tick and what makes you successful, like what is going on in that wonderful, beautiful brain of yours that has catapulted you and kept and helped you to maintain your success and even increase it over time. And by that, what I mean is, like, I want to get into your mind in a in a gentle way and say when you get up in the morning as an example and, you know, being an entrepreneur, we are faced with challenges in and out, day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out. And it can knock you back. You being anyone. And for you, when you get up every morning and you know, the day is about to come and you start to come to and you're getting consciousness, what is it that's going through that wonderful brain of yours that is motivating you to power through any challenges and reach that finish line each and every day?

Carol Niemi:
I wake up every morning - and it's a cliche - with an attitude of gratitude. And along with that, I am an optimist and I always think that just around the corner is an opportunity. And, you know, with all that going on, I, I, I know I have many blessings. I have wonderful clients. I mean, I'm at a position where I get to work with people I like and respect. I am grateful that my parents both gave me an example of a life of service. And I live that. And in many ways I feel I serve my community. And it's an opportunity. I'm blessed to have that. I've got a wonderful daughter who also believes in service. And, you know, I just I'm just so grateful. And like I said, I have wonderful clients. I'm just I'm so blessed to work with all these wonderful entrepreneurs who are brave and resourceful and focused. And I think they like me, which helps. And they trust me. And I guess also, I have to say, I've been lucky to have some people who believed in me along the way and gave me opportunities when I first got into the business and became a creative director at a major ad agency. I was the only woman in Atlanta and it was the boys club. And I had a mentor - can I say his name?

Brian Kelly:
Absolutely.

Carol Niemi:
Frank Compton, who just turned it all over to me. And this day, I love that man. And I you know, I hope he's listening. But I don't know, but umm, that and I would say and I also have an editor, Dick Williams, who was a great mentor to me, and I don't think I'd be able to do the things that I've done if it weren't for the two of them.

Brian Kelly:
I love the attitude of gratitude. And it can be cliche, it doesn't matter. You know, and anytime someone wants to say it's cliche and I'm not beating on the fact, you said that's just it, it lessens the power of it. But the thing is, the results are what matter. And obviously, they're working for you. And that's all that matters. That's how - I always go if the results are there. It can be cliche, but if the results are there, that's a fantastic thing. So I'm just.

Carol Niemi:
(Inaudible), can't control what happens to you but you can control how you react to it. How you (inaudible). And that's kind of, that's my mantra. And to be honest, I'm really happy to say - I hope my daughter's listening; I think she is - she has that same point of view. And if anything, if I could pass anything on to her, that is the thing, so.

Brian Kelly:
That's that is a very powerful statement. It's like you can let your circumstances control your attitude or you can let your attitude control your circumstances. And yeah, you're exactly right. It's how you how you react to them and how you do that on a habitual basis, not just on once here or there. And you know, the attitude of gratitude. It works. The fact that you're aware and saying words like blessing left, right and sideways. These are all - I hope people are listening to this and taking this very seriously, that these are some of the ingredients of a recipe to success. And if you're not doing it, so, get up in the morning and be thankful of even the smallest things. Gosh, I'm thankful I have this desk. That means I had some money to buy it. And I have a place to write on. I'm thankful for the fact that I get to see colors because not everybody can see. I mean, whatever comes in your mind, no matter how, wild it is. The more grateful you can be, the more crazy things you can be grateful for, the better, because it trains you to become grateful on a consistent basis, like Carol has already mastered. So that's phenomenal. And it's great advice, Carol. You're giving great advice and you just answered a question. That's all you did. Now, I'm going to have to guess on something because it has to do with reading. But I see a a bookcase behind you that looks rather large and rather full. But I'm going to ask anyway, would you consider yourself to be an avid reader? And if so, what book might you be reading at the moment?

Carol Niemi:
Well, I have about six books I'm reading at the moment. And one of them is actually a book of humor published by a small publishing company here in Atlanta. They're short stories of humor. But actually the library goes all the way across the room. But I would say that in terms of, you know, what I do for a living, the most important book I ever read was Positioning The Battle For Your Mind. And it's been published in almost every language on the planet. And I think it's in its fortieth publishing now, something like that. And when I read it, it changed my life and my career. So even though it's maybe a little dated because it was written before the digital age, much of it is still true. And, you know, when I say if your brand doesn't stand out, someone else's will. That's the essence of positioning. If you don't position your brand, the market will do that for you. And you may not like the result.

Brian Kelly:
Fantastic. And do you happen to remember the author?

Carol Niemi:
Recent trout. Ries and Trout. R-I-E-S and trout. It's called, Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind. And they wrote a lot of other books, Guerilla Marketing, I mean, quite a few books, but that was their first book. And it was a groundbreaker and it was a game changer.

Brian Kelly:
And, you know, anything that has to do with mind or mindset is absolutely core to the success of you and your business or your personal life, both. And I learned this at a late stage in my life; later stage, I'm not that old. But I was around forty seven. I'm fifty five now. I'm not ashamed about it. Every year's a victory, so the more the merrier. And I learned about mindset in the importance of it, because everything - and I'm talking to the general audience here, Carol - everything you have right now is a direct result of what's going on up here in your beautiful brains. It's not anyone else's fault that you are where you are. It's 100% due to what is going on here on a regular basis, on a habitual basis. And so once you write that mental ship and there are great tools and resources like a new science, relatively new science, that is unbelievable is NLP; neurolinguistic programing. I actually went through that, got certified. And it - I will say - this is the only time - the second time I say it is that changed my life completely, thoroughly. I mean, inside out. And I am so excited about life every single day, even through the hard times, I snap back so much faster than I used to. I used a mire in it and go "ugh, woah it's me." No, I haven't done that for seven years now. And it's been a rocket ship to success in both business and success. And I saw you doing a nodding in agreement there. Carol, what do you have to add to that?

Carol Niemi:
Well, it's just if - and if more people realize the control they have in their heads, we wouldn't have so many people being depressed. Probably not so many people using drugs and not so many people feeling that they're victims. Because there are real victims in the world, but most of us are not. Even when someone does something really terrible to us. I mean, it's how we deal with it, how we process it. So that's overly simplified, but it certainly helps. Sometimes it's good to be simple minded.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And whenever I bring on a new team member into my company, I take them to an exercise of being at cause and it's about, you know, bad things happen. Like you said, things can happen to you. One way to quickly reframe that is. Well, could it happen, perhaps happen for you? Hmm. I wonder what good could have come out of that. Or I wonder if in some way, somehow, even beyond the largest stretch of imagination, that you could somehow have played a role of responsibility in that happening. And the more you take cause and take control over it, the more you control your destiny. Like you are starting to say, Carol, that you can control your mind. And then when you control your mind, you control your destiny. Either successful or unsuccessful, it's all up to you. It's a decision so -

Carol Niemi:
Be accountable to yourself.

Brian Kelly:
Pardon?

Carol Niemi:
Be accountable to yourself.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, augh. I love this. This is phenomenal. So let's, so you can see we've already touched on mind, mindset. And then let's shift it over to body. Now for you, Carol, how important would you say physical fitness has been to you, your business and your personal life?

Carol Niemi:
I can't live without it. I go to the gym. I actually haven't gone back to the gym for the last three weeks or so. When we did open a little earlier in Georgia, we opened a little earlier than some of the other states but I'm not going out every day like I used to. I'm not going to push my luck, but I've been going two to three times a week so I can work out with weights and then I walk the other days. But I mean, to me, the fitness is just as good for my mind as it is for my body.

Brian Kelly:
That is absolutely true. I love that because I often say the mind and body are a team.

Carol Niemi:
Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
More importantly, the mind and body are your team. So imagine if one member of your team is not operating at a peak level of performance. How is the team as a whole operating? Not at its peak level. And so both mindset and physical fitness. And we're talking both external and internal are equally as important. So though, like I said in the opening of the show, mind and body are two of the pillars of successful people. They have a flexible, powerful mindset, and they they take care of themselves physically as well. All right. We have some comments coming in.

Carol Niemi:
Here's something too. During the shutdown when the gym and everything closed. So I signed up to do this online exercise classes but I felt - you know, my stress level was getting worse, and worse, and worse. And when I went back to the gym, the first time I went three weeks ago, I could not believe how my mind - everything in me just opened up and felt free again so.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And I think Wanda Reynolds agrees. Fitness is good for the mind she says. That is fantastic. Oh, that's a nice picture. I love dad on there. That's awesome. And then a good friend of mine who has been on the show before, "Mr.Biz" Ken Wentworth. How are you doing, buddy? All the way from LinkedIn. That's awesome. Yeah. So that's the beautiful thing is, you know, fitness, I, I came from that industry. I was in the fitness industry for seven years. I just recently changed last year. I'm now into automation for businesses using, you know, automation from web based software service - it's a long story, but fitness was, you know, and it's still near, near and dear to my heart. And what happens is it is like the best drug on the planet without side effects. The only side effects are side benefits, as you just stated. You know, it's like you feel better. Your stress has got - your energy is up. It does nothing but good for you. So why don't more people do it? "It hurts when I do it." Well, you know, there's a saying no pain, no gain. But guess what? The pain isn't that bad. It is in the very, very beginning a little bit. And you'll get sore. And like I like to say is, OK, get sore, then get over it and then keep going because it only does everything good for you. Everything. And just like you said, there'll be less people drinking, less people doing drugs when they have that state of body. As a result of exercising and putting in good nutrition. So I appreciate you for saying that because it's so true.

Carol Niemi:
It's instantaneous too like -

Brian Kelly:
It is.

Carol Niemi:
That first time I went back to the gym. I couldn't, I was like magic how much better I felt and I was lifting really heavy weights, too. That way I believe in working out with weights.

Brian Kelly:
I love that you said that too, because a lot of women, and I being from the fitness industry, had this misconceived notion that if they lifted weights, they were going to get big and muscular like Arnold used to be. And the truth of the matter is, it's not going to happen unless you supplement heavily. And by heavily I mean that you nearly pay your mortgage worth in supplements? I'm not kidding. Female bodybuilders do it and it's not going to happen. What you're going to do is feel better. And when you feel better, then you're going to start looking better. It takes time for the transformation. You'll be firmer and weight lifting - resistance training is another word for it - is one of the, if not the best forms of exercise you can engage in. It's better than cardio by far. I kid you not. So if you're a woman and you've not done weight training, consider getting into that. And Carol might be able to give you some tips on that, because that's what she does. And she just she just said it, I ain't have to say it, this is awesome. So definitely ladies incorporate some resistance training, whether it's weights. It could be resistance bands, the rubber bands. Anything that resists your muscle is good for you. And just be careful and go at it slow in the beginning and then increase as needed. But I'm so glad to hear this from you, Carol. This is fantastic. Let's jump in the business and what I wanted to do on the business side, because what you do is very intriguing to me. One of my favorite topics on the planet is marketing because it is such a creative space. And yet it's so it seems so difficult to grasp and succeed at it because it's so multifaceted in its own right. And I want to find out and could you please tell everyone watching and listening what it is you do exactly and what is your client base, you know, like your avatar or your ideal client?

Carol Niemi:
Well, my company is called Stand Marketing. And my theme line is stand for something. And I work with - well, let me backtrack, for most of my career I worked with Fortune 500 companies at large ad agencies that paid three and four hundred dollars an hour for me to just talk to them. And I learned a lot. I did TV, radio. You name it. Did it all. Worked with some really amazing people, both, you know, with me and that I worked for. And after taking time off to raise my daughter, I decided to do my own thing. And what I realized was there are all these companies out there, entrepreneurial companies privately owned that don't need full time marketing, but they need help and they don't even know where to go. And so what I do is I work with them. I would say and they're all B2B or considered purchase. And I prefer to work with the owner, the president, the CEO or the V.P. of sales. And when and what, what I help them do is figure out what they stand for. And that is not features and benefits. That is what they believe in and what they offer their customers or clients that they believe in. And then we make sure it becomes the company culture. And I would say, you know, one example of that would be if you go back in history, in 1962, Hertz had created the rental car industry and by the way, they just declared bankruptcy, unfortunately. Avis was an also ran. And so Avis decided they'd had enough of that. And they did a campaign called We're Only Number Two. We try harder. And their employees wore buttons that had that on it. They had counter cards when you would go into the rental office. And eventually that became their culture. And they for quite a few years overtook Hertz. And it was because they stood for something. But it wasn't they weren't just words. They weren't just marketing that became their corporate culture. And that's what I try to help my clients do so that if everybody knows what you stand for, they know how to answer the phone. They know how to talk to a customer. You don't have to. You know, when you when you talk to editors who want to interview you for an article, you've got a framework in which to tell your story. And so that's what I do. And I have some clients that I just love to pieces who get it. And they're doing it. And it's just very rewarding to me because I know I'm helping them. We're making a difference. And I'm just really, really proud of it. And I'm honored to have clients who get it and want to do it so.

Brian Kelly:
I just love how you continually talk about how much you appreciate your clients and how much you love them. And just imagine that all of you that are watching and listening that, you know, what if your business was like that? Maybe it is already. But what if it's not? And what if it could be? I mean, look how happy she is. It's very genuine and authentic.

Carol Niemi:
Well, (inaudible) too. There are plenty of I have worked worked at places, you know, where people bad mouth the clients. Oh yes. And I always used to think, "oh, let's see here. Where would you be without them?" We exist for them. I mean, that's what we do is is to serve them. And I will say my goal with Stand Marketing is to serve these companies up to 10 million dollars in gross revenue, maybe up to 50 employees to serve them better than anybody else can or will.

Brian Kelly:
I love it. That's fantastic. It's kind of like when I'm around with other men who have wives and they start they're trying to be funny, but by doing that, they're belittling their wives as part of the joke. And I just I can't stand for that. I'm like, why would you do that? What? What does that serve? I mean, it's just it's rough. I, I just. I'm not wired that way. I don't get that. If you love your wife, why would you ever demean her in front of other men or anyone else for that matter, as a matter of getting a joke out there and trying to look funny? I just thought, wow, that's horrible. I always lift up my wife anytime I can, among other people for sure. And I love how you - so I'm equating what you do with your clients, with how I treat my wife. And I love that. Because here's the thing, Carol. This is phenomenal. A business and a personal life. They're very slick. They're very similar because they are all about what? Relationships.

Carol Niemi:
Yeah, absolutely.

Brian Kelly:
And look at this. We have a visitor from the Philippines. It's a laser thing. Good morning. I actually know her personally. She was an apprentice on my company. She's an amazing young woman.

Carol Niemi:
I used to live in the Philippines.

Brian Kelly:
Pardon?

Carol Niemi:
I lived in the Philippines.

Brian Kelly:
Oh, my goodness. Maybe you guys crossed paths this -

Carol Niemi:
It was a long time ago when I was a kid.

Brian Kelly:
Thank you, Barbara, on YouTube. Good vibes. Love it. And then Eliza. Yes. Your you are made, cut from the same cloth. We all love marketing. You are on the right show. Let me tell you that. This is the best. And I love the fact that, you know, you're like a if I may say it, you're like a one stop shop, Carol, for marketing and more than just marketing. But, you know, like you were saying earlier, that websites are being built, that they look good. But the message and the branding and everything else, there is no continuity between it and how their personnel say, answer the phone. I mean, you went into great detail with me earlier of everything that it entails. I mean, can you pull out some of those details right now to let people know how deep you take this? Because I thought it was very impressive and I thought, my gosh, you could only own this could only result in incredible improvement in companies from what you do for them.

Carol Niemi:
Well, it has to be your corporate culture. And may I talk about a couple of clients that have done it really well?

Brian Kelly:
Absolutely.

Okay. One of my clients, Atlantic Gearworks - hello, Jack and Craig and Sherry. They knew they needed to tell their story, but they weren't even sure what it exactly was. And so I always start with a half day rain brand storm. And we bring in all the key people and we talk about the business, you know, what the challenges are, what the opportunities are, and just do a deep dive into the business. And Atlantic Gearworks repair's gearboxes and makes gearboxes and gears and their customers are big paper plant, pulp and paper plants, steel mills and so on. So if if a gearbox fails in a factory, the whole line can shut down. So we started talking about, well, you know, what does that mean? Well, if you're the plant manager, it could mean you lose your bonus. It could mean you don't get a promotion. It could mean a lot of things. So the more we talked, they talked about the things that they do when when a plant has a crisis, how they'll send people over there, they'll work 24/7, stay away for days, you know, till they fix it. And so what we finally decided is they're not just a gearbox repair company, they're a service company. And so we modified their existing tagline to be "Geared up to keep you running." And the idea is anything can cause a gearbox to fail; we'll do anything to get it up and running again, any time, anywhere, any place any model, any make. And so every time an editor interviews them, that's their story. That's what we put in our advertising. It's on the website. And it's true. It's absolutely true. And somebody at their major trade organization last week said, "oh, yeah, they're a leader in the industry" because they tell the truth and it's what their customers want and need. And I would say the other client I have that is doing a great job of that is a nonprofit in Columbia, South Carolina. Hello, Liz and Craig Transitions and they're not a homeless shelter, they're a homeless center. And homelessness is not easily solved, so they run this center, which offers classes. They have beds. People could be in the residential program or on the day program, but they you have to adhere to some rules if you want to be there and you take classes and you learn what it means to live independently and so on, and maybe you fail and maybe you get kicked out, maybe you come back, but it's a journey. And so we came up with the, what they stand for is the journey home begins here and everybody at Transitions believes that. And they use that. What, they're, they don't actually sell. They they go for donations. And so we do fundraising. And so that's the story that they tell. And it's true. And so they can say to someone, well, you know, maybe you're not going to make it this time, but we'll keep trying. And so it's their culture. So that's what I mean.

Brian Kelly:
And yeah, culture is such a important aspect that I know personally that a lot of companies neglect to put a lot of effort into developing, not only developing a culture, but ingraining it throughout their employee base and the management levels and everything else. And I've seen, you know, culture comes, always seems to come from the top. The person in charge, CEO, their values and their approach to business and the way they handle people are leadership skills all affect the entire company. The entire company. And when you have a leader that is not developing a symbiotic culture, you see companies struggle a lot more than they really need to. So I'm a big proponent of everything to do with culture and everything around it. And yeah, Eliza is asking, where are in the Philippines? Where did you visit? She might know where you've been and -

Carol Niemi:
(Inaudible). It was a U.S. naval station in the province of (inaudible).

Brian Kelly:
Very cool -

Carol Niemi:
Right across the bay from Manila.

Brian Kelly:
All right. She might know what that, where that is, I'm sure she does. We do have a question from Mr. Tom Whitfield who is watching on YouTube, and he wants to know. Hi, Carol. How do you define creativity?

Carol Niemi:
Good question. And creativity is a kind of non linear thinking. So if you're a mathematician or a scientist, you are a linear thinker. Creative people are weird. We are non-linear thinkers. So we see connections between things that aren't literally connected. You can call it metaphor if you want. But years ago, when I was first starting in the business, I had a creative director who said, every time you start a project could ask yourself, what does this product have to do with an elephant? They gave me not so much. But let me give you, go back to Atlanta Gearworks. So when we were talking, I found out that their tech people, the ones that go on site, keep their backpacks packed in a truck. And that actually became a metaphor for one of our case studies, because that that's create that backpacked backpack symbolizes a whole lot of things. That means something to a client. So that was. That is how I would define creativity. And the other thing, too, about creative people is not just seeing relationships that other people don't see, but you can look at a bunch of little things and put them together into something that's bigger than the sun. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Brian Kelly:
There you go. And I never view creativity as weird because I was more of a linear thinker. I've got a little bit of both. But I think it's a gift. I look at it as a gift because creative people - so CEOs they're the creatives, right? They're the visionaries. They're the ones that take the risks. That do what you do, Carol. That just jump out there and make it happen. And without them, without creative people, there would be, there wouldn't be any businesses out there for people to go to work and get them employment by so.

Carol Niemi:
You know what? One reason I like working with the smaller, more entrepreneurial companies is they're run by people who have imagination. They're courageous, they're focused and they have imagination. Whereas when I used to work with some of these big Fortune 500 companies, sometimes we would work with an ad manager who was terrified to do the wrong thing. And these entrepreneurs, I mean, they're out there risking everything they have. They're not afraid. I just, I just love working with them.

Brian Kelly:
I like this this Tom Whitfield, gentleman. He's got a follow up question, if you're ready for that. He said, What qualities do your best clients have? I love that question. Thank you, Tom.

Carol Niemi:
Well, you know, as I say, they they are entrepreneurs. So they are courageous. The other thing is they don't have big egos. They're not worried about, you know, somebody below them coming out and taking their job. They own the company. So they they are you know, they're wonderful to work with because they're open. They're open to ideas. They're not threatened by - you know, if you say some, suggests something that they've never thought of, they're not going to be threatened by it. They're actually gonna think, "Well, Judy, that might be a good idea." So that and they're trusting. They respect me. I respect them. I will say one of the things I learned from my mentor, Frank Compton, years ago was - I won't use the language he used about life being too short to work with a (inaudible). But you never want to work with somebody that doesn't trust you or treat you well. You just, that's not going to go anywhere. It's not going to lead anywhere, so. Yeah. You know, the people that I work with are, you know, they trust me. They respect me. And I feel the same way about them. So it's got to be a two way street.

Brian Kelly:
I love the fact that you brought up ego as part of that. And I think that goes very deep and also in even just as important. So you're talking about your clients that didn't have ego or that - Yeah. Didn't, uh, you know, they put it to the side and we're more open to ideas. And I think it's as vitally important for owners of businesses to do the same. And that was one of the keys that helped me propel my business forward, was to put the ego away. And it actually freed me. It was liberating because I now just, if I have a task to give someone, I just give it to them with minimal instruction. I don't micromanage. I sit back and let their beauty shine. And they will create something I would have never thought of creating. And I always look at it and go, "well, they probably wouldn't have liked what I created." So I'm using that.

Carol Niemi:
That's the beauty of standing for something, too. Because once people know what your brand stands for. That actually makes them more creative. It gives them a you know - like I would say, it's like when you're raising a child. Children do better with some structure. Yeah. Like the kids that have no structure are monsters and they don't usually create anything either. So, yeah, I mean, that kind of structure direction is good.

Brian Kelly:
Absolutely. And thanks so much, Tom, I love and all for coming on and commenting and asking questions. And yeah, Eliza has some - creativity for me, is having this out-of-the-box thinking wherein I am able to easily provide solutions out of those little things. Absolutely. Out-of-the-box thinking, you know, if and again, if you have ego, that it's going to hinder that out-of-the-box thinking as well. It's interesting because you think you have all the answers and every human on the planet has an ego. It's just how much of an ego are you willing to let go? Because the more you let go, the more successful you will be. Just saying.

Carol Niemi:
Speaking of ego, I would like to give a shout out to Claudia. Claudia is my design partner. And she keeps me from screwing up. She's very detail oriented. She's very creative, also detail oriented. Challenges me. And that's, she's another person I'm grateful for.

Brian Kelly:
Absolutely, yes. Eliza, agrees, structure is very essential. Fantastic. This has been phenomenal. Already we're only 15 minutes out from the end. This has been one of the fastest shows I can remember in recent memory. And that's a good sign. That's because I personally am having a blast, Carol. You are giving such incredible insight and value, and experience, and knowledge, that I know anyone who watches this, whether they're watching live or later on the recorded video or even on the podcast that comes later, they will get value and be able to model and put into action and practice a lot of the things you brought up tonight. And I mean, this is all just pure gold. Now, when it comes to being an entrepreneur, Carol, it's super simple, and rose petals along the way in a hammock and an umbrella drink everyday, right? It's just piece of cake.

Carol Niemi:
Yeah. Somethings are in your head but some things are not.

Brian Kelly:
It's actually -

Carol Niemi:
Just, every day is an opportunity. So I. Could I add something about covid-19?

Brian Kelly:
You may.

Carol Niemi:
Ok, so what I want to. What I want people to know is that even if you've gone through all this branding and everything and you think you know your customer, you probably need to do a check. And one of the things that has happened in my life that I've seen is. You know, I go to a gym, it's a large gym and it's privately owned, and the owner said to me when I first went back, nobody's coming back. And yet I did call a little gym not far from me that somebody else had joined and they had a waitlist and they had to repositioned themselves as the cleanest gym in Atlanta. And it used to be if you looked at your gym, you wanted the one that had all the bells and whistles like the big one I go to. So all I can say is some of our customers needs have changed. And so what we were offering may not be what we need to be offering going forward. And so that's just something people need to keep in mind.

Brian Kelly:
And like during covid, if you're a toilet paper company, you can start manufacturing bidets, right? Bidets and I saw a bunch of portable ones come out. I thought they were phenomenal. They just attach them to the toilet seat and you don't need toilet paper anymore. So a lot of great creativity came out of it. And I love how you said every day is an opportunity. And that's what entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs do, is in fact, successful entrepreneurs are the ones that take advantage of what others see as a tragedy or a really horrible event that and everyone else is wallowing in the bad news. While entrepreneurs are looking for opportunity. And these are the ones, like the Elon Musks and there's others that have taken advantage of downtimes and propelled themselves to astronomical success. And why is that? It's all because of this thing right here. It's how they think. That's it. Everything you have for everything you've achieved is all due to this thing right here. When is now the right time to change any stinking thinking you've got going on that would be-

Carol Niemi:
Creativity is an infinitely renewable resource.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. Oh, look at this. This is one of my greatest buddies on the planet, Mr. Jason Nast. So you all know, this is the founder of our sponsor, the Big Insider Secrets. I love this man dearly, like he's my own brother from another mother. He is an amazing guy. He says, woot, shoot. I think it was woot, woot. Branding and positioning is everything. And if anybody knows about this, my buddy Jason knows it. He's a serial entrepreneur. Brilliant man. And I just, I am blessed to know him and call him friend. Thanks for coming on, my man. And yeah, we're getting to that give-away here pretty soon. So big inside, TheBigInsiderSecrets.com. That is Mr. Jason Nast himself. There you go. You see that scrolling? I love to give shoutouts. I love to promote. I love to help. I love the pay- not even pay it forward. Just pay it, you know, just to keep moving. Here's another great question. Thank you for doing my job for me. All these wonderful people watching and listening because I love to see variety and the questions that are being asked. And sometimes, you know, it needs a little refresh. And so with that being said, Eliza has a great question. She says, what advice can you give those who are just starting up in terms of being successful in their own fields of specialization? What do you think is the best value an entrepreneur should have? That is a great question.

Carol Niemi:
I guess a combination of optimism, confidence, and literal skill. Whatever you're offering. You better be good at it.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. And like, I like to say a lot of times, as you want to have mastered that skill and not, you know, the wannabe. What do they call it, fake it till you make it. Now, to some degree, everyone who's starting out does need to do that. So I'm not trying to discount that whole idea, but know what the heck you're doing. If you have a service, if you're a personal trainer. Well, don't come in 50 pounds overweight with a big old sloppy belly and say, I'm going to get you in the best shape your life. That's an extreme case. But that's, you get the point. Don't say you're an extreme digital ad marketer and you're an expert, if you've just done ads for yourself or maybe one other client and had marginal success. So really hone your craft, get very, very, very good at it, and then you can sta- you know what's going to happen? I know you know this, Carol. You, that confidence you talked about will be automatic because, you know with all certainty that you are one of the best or at least you have mastered the craft that you are giving service to others for. I like the nods of agreement. That's really good. Thanks. The riches are in the niches, says Mr. Jason Nast. Absolutely. I miss that guy. Love it. Thanks for coming on, Jason. So awesome. Wow. Ten minutes out. OK, so being an entrepreneur, like I said, is super easy. We both get that. I'm kidding. Totally kidding. So. Right now, what would you say today if you were to think of today, Carol? What would you call your absolute favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur right now? For you personally.

Carol Niemi:
You mean, not business wise, but doing the laundry while I'm working?

Brian Kelly:
I like that,

You know, entrepreneurs are the ultimate, ultimate multitaskers.

Brian Kelly:
And you have the freedom to do that because you are an entrepreneur, right?

Carol Niemi:
And if I have an internet connection? I can work anywhere. I can work from the beach. I can work from anywhere. And. Well, that's priceless.

Brian Kelly:
Yes, it is. And my buddy Jason, who's been making comments, would always say living the laptop life, I think, or style. But the whole point was, you know, living your entire life, you can as long as you have it. Like you said, if your internet connection, Jason, was on a remote island, I can't remember the name of it. If you are still on, Jason drop that in. I think it was south of Panama and he was island shopping, looking for an island to buy. And he found one with internet connection and continued doing his work on this island in the middle of the ocean. And that's like the epitome of living on a laptop, right? It's amazing.

Carol Niemi:
I like that, living on a laptop.

Brian Kelly:
That's Jason Nast. He's the one that coined that as far as I can tell, he's the one I know that said it a lot.

Carol Niemi:
Rock's a pop song.

Brian Kelly:
There you go.

Carol Niemi:
Living the laptop life.

Brian Kelly:
Now, if you're anything like every other successful entrepreneur on the planet, you've probably learned from other people, right? You have mentors, maybe coaches, maybe book authors. If there was one person that's no longer with us, that you could actually talk to, you know, some person from history. Who would you choose to talk to and why, and what would you say?

Carol Niemi:
Well, this has nothing to do with business.

Brian Kelly:
That's okay.

Carol Niemi:
Okay. I wrote my dissertation for my P.H.D on William Gilmore Sims and Sims was a novelist, a poet, geographer, a politician. You know, all this stuff in the antebellum South. So we wont get into the bad stuff. But I mean, his first wife died during the Civil War. I mean, a lot of bad things happened. Actually, his second wife died, excuse me, couldn't get a doctor. Many children didn't live. And so when when the war was over, South Carolina, where he was from was decimated. And so he spent the end of his life and I have actually been to his home, every everything was burned down during the war. But this so it was rebuilt. There was this little outhouse with a desk. And his family just left it like that. And he was dying of cancer and writing. Here was this man who in his day, he and James Fenimore Cooper were the two great American novelists. And he was writing everything he could think of because all these people, white people, black people, so many had nothing. He was supporting all these people. So and he knew in his day, you know, when he used to go to New York and everything, he knew all the key people. So I've read all of his letters. Five volumes this thick. Each one. So, yes. I've always thought if if William Gilmore stands could come to dinner, we would talk all night long. So yeah.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, fantastic.

Carol Niemi:
Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
Fantastic, I love that. Wow. So we are six minutes out. There's actually one final question that I love to ask. And I ask the same question of every guest that's come on this show. And the reason I, I do is because after doing it a couple of times, I noticed something interesting. And it's a very powerful and deep question. Yet it doesn't have to be. It's a curious question. And some people have an answer immediately, when I ask this question. Others take some time to ponder. And I find that intriguing as well. But before we do that, I want to now, as I promised, for everyone watching live, this is the time where I am going to reveal how you can win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort. So now, remember I said, please divert your attention and go do other things. Well, now I give you permission to pull out that wonderful phone of yours and bring up your text messaging app. Do that right now while you're watching this. Hopefully you're not watching on the phone and you can or you can still listen to us as we go through. You'll need to listen to us so you can hear what to do. So here it is. I'll put it on the screen for those who are watching live. This is just for you that are watching live. What you want to do is, in your text messaging app, when where you type in the name of the person you're going to send it to. Then instead type this number, it's six six one five three five one six two four. So go ahead. Type that in. And then down where you would actually type the message, you know, where you put the emojis and all those cool things. No emojis.Just the word peak; P-E-A-K. And then tap on that little- it's usually like a triangular little send button that icon and you will instantly be entered to win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort. Again, compliments of the big insider secret Scott comment. Jason asks. And one more time, you want to send a text message to the number 661-535-1624. And in the message type the word peak P-E-A-K and you will all be entered for a random drawing. The winner will be announced by reply. Text to you. And we'll be asking you for email and phone numbers so we can properly get you in the system for that wonderful, amazing prize by TheBigInsiderSecrets.com. Thank you. Jason Nast and company. Appreciate much what you've done. Yes, Eliza, of course. Wow. I hope I can win that, too. Man, I love this. More questions. Tom, Tom is a goldmine of questions. Do you feel that covid-19, will force many small businesses to totally overhaul strategy? Do you have a quick answer for that?

Carol Niemi:
They should. I mean, many of them should. Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
Yes, that was about as quick as it gets. But I like it. That's right, right down the pipe. So one more giveaway. We have one more giveaway. And guess what? It's by this wonderful young woman right here. Carol has something for all of you, a wonderful gift. So let me bring that up to the forefront so that those of you watching can get a visual. While Carol explains this amazing wonder as a gift that she is offering to all of you wonderful people. Take it away, Carol.

Carol Niemi:
If you e-mail me and tell me a little bit about your brand or your company, I will give you a half hour free consultation. And I'll also give you- it's basically a worksheet that you can use to help work through some of your branding issues. And, you know, it may not help you come up with the words of what you stand for, but it may help you get closer to that.

Brian Kelly:
Fantastic. What is that email address, per-say?

Carol Niemi:
It's Carol, C-A-R-O-L. And it's also on my website @StandMarketing.com.

Brian Kelly:
Look how magically that just appeared on the screen. That is amazing. Amazing. [email protected]. That's C-A-R-O-L, Just in case our different spellings of Carol for those of you listening. This is also good for you on podcast. @StandMarketing.com. S-T-A-N-D-M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G.com. Thank you for that, Carol. That is amazing. We have that one wonderful, amazing, beautiful, curious question remaining. This is oh, this is going to be a lot of fun. And here's the thing. I know I kind of built it up a little bit, Carol. And I'm going to leave that e-mail address up there for those of you that want to take advantage of that amazing offer, those of you watching. Here's the thing with this question, and I've asked that of everyone. As I said, I have done- this is like show number 102 or so if memory serves, maybe 103. And the cool thing is, after asking the same exact question of all these people, I realize there is no such thing as a wrong answer. It's impossible to answer it incorrectly. In fact, just the opposite is the case, Carol. It is the only correct answer is your answer. So hopefully that kind of takes any wonderment off the shoulders, even though you're probably curious as heck, what the heck is this question? Give it to me already. Let's see. Let me do one adjustment and then I will take care of that. All right. Are you ready?

Carol Niemi:
Ready.

Brian Kelly:
This is the big crescendo right here. The big kahuna. Alright. In all seriousness, here we go. Carol Niemi, how do you define success?

Carol Niemi:
Well, you might not know it till you get to the end of your life. But I think success is personal, professional, all of it. And I think you won't know if you've been successful until you get to the end of your life and you feel you've done all the things you wanted to do and you have no regrets.

Brian Kelly:
Gosh, that is so powerful. That is so powerful in so many ways. I'm thinking of things like, so that means we won't ever stop striving for a little more, a little better or more improvement. That is the definition of an entrepreneur. Because that's what we love to do.

Carol Niemi:
Yeah.

Brian Kelly:
We don't just want to lay back and be comfortable. We want to. What's next? Right. Well, there's got to be more. That's what I don't believe in this word called retirement.

Carol Niemi:
No, no, never, never, never.

Brian Kelly:
I don't have a dictionary with that word in it. I mean, you know, it's been cut out, but it's not in it. I'm kidding. Yeah, it's- there might be career transitions, but never retirement. As long as I'm alive and I can serve people, that's what I want to do. As long as I'm of good health and everything. That was profound, Carol. I'm not kidding you. That was- I have goosebumps. That was an amazing. Here's the other really cool thing about that question. This just blows my mind too, after a hundred and however many shows we've done; no two people yet have answered it the same way. Is that amazing or what?

Carol Niemi:
Interesting.

So later I'll be asking your permission and I'm dead serious about this, to enter your response into a collaborative book of yours and everyone else's answers called How Do You Define Success? Would that be all right? Yeah, that's fine. And you'll get credit. We'll have, you know, like five pages of authors in my book.

Carol Niemi:
Do I get royalties?

Brian Kelly:
That's an entrepreneur, right there. Alright, loving it. Well, we'll talk about that later after I invoice you for being on the show. No I'm kidding. So we can have a lot of fun. Well, it's been a lot of fun, Carol, and you've been remarkable. I cannot say how much I appreciate you spending your evening. I mean, you're coming all the way from Georgia. So it's 9:30 there. It's getting late. And you still have great energy, a big smile, and you have a great sense of humor. But above all, you have success and you are willing to share your secrets to success with everyone else. So for that, I appreciate you and I thank you for coming on and doing all this. I have no idea what that was.

Carol Niemi:
That's my daughter sending me a message. Thank you for having me, Brian. Really, thank you for having me. It's been fun.

Brian Kelly:
And the pleasure's all mine. And everyone whose been watching and stuck with us to the end. Thank you so much. I hope you win that that wonderful trip. That five night vacation stay. And until next time, which will be next week, this is your host, Brian Kelly of The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show on behalf of the amazing Carol Niemi saying good night. And we'll see you again next week. Until then, goodbye and blessings to all. Thank you for tuning in to The MIND BODY BUSINESS Show podcast at www.TheMindBodyBusinessShow.com. My name is Brian Kelly.

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