In this episode of The Ray Edwards Show, we ponder on the balance between niching down and maintaining personal authenticity in a brand. While specialized services and products offer a greater focus, personal charisma gives your brand its unique charm. But which one should prevail? Let’s find out. Key Points ​Defining your personal brand does not mean you have to stick to one specific niche. ​While services should be hyper-focused on a niche, personalities should be diverse. ​Ambition and products being pushed by vendors often cause the overwhelm and confusion in branding. ​Everybody has their unique thing to sell, but none of them should dictate your brand’s direction. ​To succeed, your business and personality need to resonate with each other authentically. ​Implement a strategy, set goals, and use the necessary tools for effective branding. ​Also, consider having a guide and companions to help you along the way, but remember that it will take time. ​Always keep being true to yourself and share your true passions with your audience. Links ​[Austin Kleon - Show Your Work] ​[Mike Kim - You Are The Brand] ​[Work With Ray] Video And Transcript https://www.rayedwards.com/628 How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

This week is another Q&A with Ray episode where I offer my answers to these questions:   How do I get more people to open my emails? ​Can I use copywriting on social media without seeming sleazy? ​Are old-school sales pages dead? Those are some great questions, to which I believe I have some helpful answers. If you would like to win a free, signed copy of my new book, Read This Or Die: Persuading Yourself to a Better Life, check out the link below to get the code I mention in the podcast. I'll be doing more prizes in future episodes, so make sure you're subscribed to my YouTube channel for an even better chance to win. [00:00] Intro - More Q&A [00:22] Question 1: How do I get more people to open my emails? [03:25] Question 2: Can I use copywriting on social media to make sales (without seeming sleazy)? [05:37] Question 3:   Are old-school sales pages dead? [07:51] Win a free, signed copy of Read This Or Die: Persuading Yourself to a Better Life Links Read This Or Die - Learn more about my new book, Read This Or Die: Persuading Yourself to a Better Life Get the Video and Transcript https://rayedwards.com/627 How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

In case you're not familiar with Lee Cockerell, here's a quick snippet from his bio: Lee Cockerell is the former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World® Resort. “As the Senior Operating Executive for ten years Lee led a team of 40,000 Cast Members and was responsible for the operations of 20 resort hotels, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, a shopping & entertainment village and the ESPN sports and recreation complex in addition to the ancillary operations which supported the number one vacation destination in the world.” When it comes to team-building and leadership techniques, Lee has one of the best resumés on the planet. A few weeks ago, I received a note from Lee saying that he had read my new book, Read This Or Die, and enjoyed it so much that he purchased multiple copies to send to friends and family. To receive a note like that from someone I respect and admire was both humbling, and inspiring.  Lee also extended me the honor of being a guest on his Creating Disney Magic podcast (linked below), which is where this week's audio comes from. [00:00] Intro/explanation [00:14] Welcome back to the show [00:45] How Read This Or Die impacted Lee [02:39] The missing chapter [04:11] It's about the reader's challenges...not Ray's [05:44] Changing your input/output [06:55] Your wife's review (The Cranial-Rectral Extraction Method) [10:04] No need to wait for disaster [12:42] A lesson in brain science [13:48] A trip to Galaxy's Edge [15:25] More about "The letter" Links Creating Disney Magic Podcast - Lee Cockerell shares his wisdom and experience from his time as the Executive Vice President of Operations for Walt Disney World. Along with host Jody Maberry, Lee discusses how you can apply lessons in leadership, management, and customer service to create magic in your organization. LeeCockerell.com - The best place to get in touch with Lee. Learn more about his training, speaking, and mastermind group. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

In this Episode of the Ray Edwards Show, I'm going to show you exactly how I'm using AI every week in my workflow. How I am using AI in my business to make more money with less work, and produce better copy (meaning copy that converts better). And how you can do the same thing. This episode is specifically made for business owners who want to write copy for their own business. Even if your business is a copywriting business – there is plenty of opportunity for all of us. These are the days of limitless opportunity. But you certainly don't have to be a copywriter-for-hire to use this same workflow. This will work for any online business, including personal brands, authors, speakers, coaches, and course creators. [00:00] My workflow for creating this podcast (and who this will work for) [03:13] Step 1 - Research the topic most on the minds of my viewers/listeners [04:17] Step 2 - Put my research into a working document [04:35] Step 3 - Write my "Human Generated" outline of the episode [05:10] Step 4 - Run my text through ClarityScribe [06:31] Step 5 - Read the A.I. generated text out loud (seriously...do this) [07:56] Step 6 - Record the video version for YouTube [10:03] Step 7 - Polish up the video (See link below for TimeBolt) [11:47] Step 8 - Run the audio through ClarityScribe's Podcast module [12:18] Step 9 - Put the video through Opus Video AI (link below) [12:55] Step 10 - Load Podcast post on YouTube, the blog, and socials [13:27] Step 11 - Launch The Video Links ClairtyScribe - The ultimate copywriting A.I. not only generates copy for my podcast, but also parses the finished audio to create show notes, a verbatim transcript, social posts, and emails.  TimeBolt - This is what I use to "clean up" my videos. Removing any dead spaces, bad takes, and various stumbles. (affiliate link) VidIQ - I use this software to analyze my channel and get the insights necessary to keep my content focused, and relevant to what my audience expects. (affiliate link) Opus Clip - This incredible software will analyze your long form videos and create sharable highlights.  Jeff Walker - The inventor of the "Product Launch Formula" coaching program. You can find many of these principles and techniques in his book, called Launch! My Content Creation Checklist - A summary of the process described in this episode in pdf format How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice. Get The Transcript and Video https://www.rayedwards.com/625

I was recently interviewed for the Marketer of the Day Podcast, hosted by Robert Plank. In this episode, we dig into some core marketing principles that I use and teach, and discuss how they relate to the system covered in my new book, Read This Or Die. 00:00 Intro 00:43 Nerves 01:48 Ray's Unique Selling Position 03:15 What's something unique that you've written copy for? 04:58 Where do people fall short in the copywriting process? 07:23 The importance of storytelling 09:38 "Well, you've got it...Now what?" (The pain of Parkinson's Disease) 12:03 The missing chapter 12:40 DBS 13:51 Any surprises? 16:17 Are you exploiting this? 17:54 Copywriting's role in the life-changing process 20:37 Have I missed anything? 24:00 Where do they go? 24:26 On that quote... Links Read This Or Die - Click to order your copy of Read This Or Die, and claim your free, 6-video mini-course that I created to accompany the book. Marketer of the Day with Robert Plank - Get Daily Insights from the Top Internet Marketers & Entrepreneurs Around the World. Thank you to Robert for granting me permission to use this week's audio. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice. Get The Transcript https://www.rayedwards.com/624

This week, my friend and coauthor of Read This Or Die, Jeff Goins, joins me on the show for an in-depth conversation about the book, the collaboration, and the writing process. [00:00] Intro - A Face For Radio [03:50] Getting familiar with your own book [07:15] Where is your Vulnerability-Meter? [10:59] Describe our working relationship? [12:08] Am I your first? [14:56] What do you want the reader to get from this book? [15:43] Wakeup call from my wife... [17:00] How real change happens [19:34] The sales letter of the same name [24:49] Did you trust the process? [28:08] The 3 Rays [31:43] Why the denial? [37:40] Facing the hard truth [39:18] The ideal outcome for the reader   Links Click Here to order your copy of Read This Or Die: Persuading Yourself to a Better Life   Get The Transcript and Video https://www.rayedwards.com/623   How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

I was recently interviewed on The Cliff Ravenscraft Show about my new book, Read This or Die. Since this book is, by necessity, so deeply personal, this interview was equally personal and somewhat challenging to get through. However, I felt that it encapsulated the message of the book so well, I asked for Cliff's permission to use the audio on my own show. My sincere thanks to Cliff Ravenscraft (a.k.a. The Mindset Answer Man) for making this episode possible. If you're not familiar with Cliff's work, I recommend you take a look at the links below. Links Read This Or Die: Persuading Yourself To A Better Life - The book releases on May 23, 2023. If you're reading this before that date, you can still claim a valuable free gift for pre-ordering your copy.  Cliff Ravenscraft - This is the main site for the Mindset Answer Man, Cliff Ravenscraft. I am a huge fan of Cliff's work, his outlook on life, and his passion for helping others. You'll find Cliff's notes (hah!) on this episode at this link. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice. Get The Transcript https://www.rayedwards.com/622

This episode is definitely "off the cuff", but does have a clear inspiration. I've been listening to more intimate, less polished podcasts and started kicking around the idea of doing a secondary, more intimate, less polished podcast of my own. I hope to gauge my audience's interest in such a thing based on feedback from this episode...then proceed as planned regardless of the results. Have a comment to share about this idea? See the contact info near the bottom of this post. Links Train With Cliff Podcast - This is one of the inspirations I mentioned in the episode - definitely worth checking out. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments?Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice.

This week, I have a potentially unpopular answer to a very popular question: How do I upgrade my clients? The serial-refunders, the constant complainers, the manipulators...and of course, people who are downright rude to you and your team. How do you avoid them? Even more to the point: How do you get the kind of clients you actually want? [00:00] How do I upgrade my clients? [00:46] You're not going to like this answer, but... [01:48] My $5,000 problem [03:08] What your company avatar should look like [04:13] It starts at the top (with you and me) How You Can Help? Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice. Get The Transcript And Video https://www.rayedwards.com/620

How much "Authenticity" is too much? How much of your personal life should you share with your clients or followers? The answer depends on what kind of clients you want to attract, and that's what I'm talking about in this week's episode. [00:00] How much is too much? [00:23] Are you business deals transactional? [00:50] Or are they relational? [01:47] A real dilema [02:48] Here's the difference [03:40] My advice: Charge more, Work less [04:14] You set a higher price, AND... [05:17] I'm rebuilding my business to be E.P.I.C. [06:21] The truth about scalability [07:19] How to build an E.P.I.C. business of your own [08:36] I'm seriously considering this Links Interested in building your own Easy, Profitable, Interesting, and Carefree (EPIC) business? Send an email to ray@rayedwards.com with the subject "Epic Business" and let's chat. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you on this show. Questions or comments? Connect with Ray on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Visit Ray's community on Facebook – This is a friendly group of writers, entrepreneurs, and coaches who share ideas and helpful advice. Transcript and Video https://rayedwards.com/619