Rich Kozak with RichBrands

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you. This conversation is going to be fantastic. You guys are in for such a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with RichBrands the man himself, Mr. Rich Kozak. Good afternoon, sir.

Rich Kozak: [00:00:39] Hey, Stone. It is great to be here with you. Let’s we’re going to deliver some neat value to listeners today. I can’t wait.

Stone Payton: [00:00:47] We certainly are. And I think a great place to start would be on this this word, this topic, this this thing that is so hard for so many of us to get our arms around branding. I’ll just ask you very simply, man, what is branding?

Rich Kozak: [00:01:03] You know, thanks for starting there, because you’re right, people misunderstand it because of the way the world uses the term constantly to sell marketing stuff. So here’s the simple version from somebody that’s done this and taught it for 45 years. I kid you not. If you’re listening, write this down. A brand is a perception. But it’s not your perception, it’s everybody else’s. So for your brand, the work you do in branding, so what is branding? It is everything you do that creates a consistent perception that moves your brand forward toward wherever it’s going. So it is strategic. It is u shaping the perception. That sounds like a textbook, but let’s get this real. You go to a networking event, somebody goes, what do you do? And you say something, and then somebody else comes up and says, What do you do? And you say it differently. You just created confusion. The first person thinking, Well, that’s funny, I thought you did this, but now you just said so. You don’t trust people that do things differently all the time, and people don’t trust brands that are not consistent. So that’s why it’s important that you hear that word. Branding is you creating a consistent perception of your brand to move it to where it needs to go.

Stone Payton: [00:02:42] So are you helping individual practitioners, small firms, larger enterprises? Is your work gravitating to a certain type of client?

Rich Kozak: [00:02:52] Thanks for asking. Today it’s individuals, but for 20 years I ran an agency with partners in 21 countries. I’m a certified global branding consultant, and when I turned 50, I resigned what I thought was a really addictive career to reshape my life, changing my prayer. Lord, I don’t think you created me to be a dead agency guy. So show me what you want me to do. I’m ready. And a few years later, people started asking me to help them individually. And I said, I don’t do this anymore. And they said, That’s not true. You never stop. Everybody uses your stuff and we want your help. And I literally start helping individuals. And I realized that those decades of experience shaping and creating and languishing brands gave me a powerful tool to help individuals to do two things to make their businesses or their work, or in many cases, their calling more successful and abundant, using branding wisdom, but also to turn that platform for them into a platform that allows them to step into their purpose. So today I only work with individuals who are determined to impact other people’s lives or the world through their business, through their work. It’s impact driven branding. It comes from inside you. It’s not a branding that’s slapped on the outside. It is totally authentic and an actually gives you access to your own authenticity in a way that makes your brand come alive uniquely. So. It’s powerful work and it’s work. Somebody put those desires for impacts in your heart, so perhaps it’s God’s work.

Stone Payton: [00:04:31] Stone So what are those early conversations like? Are they coming to you? I’ve got to believe maybe they’re coming to you. I don’t know. Misinform may not be fair, but maybe a little uninformed, not completely informed, maybe a little confused themselves about it. Are they embracing the idea? And it’s a blank sheet of paper. What are those early conversations like with a new client?

Rich Kozak: [00:04:57] They sound like this and I’m reading I’ll read like three or four from a list of what’s in their head that I literally used to title a podcast that I’m creating for people to get strategy nuggets and action items. So it’s like, I feel ready. I’ve been doing this for 40 years, but but my brand is not. I need to get more clarity about my brand. I need better ways to say what I do. What is our brand doing that’s hurting us? I want to get the branding right, but I don’t really know what that is. That gives you an idea of the kind of people they’ve never been trained on branding. They may be distrust it, they may be think it’s disingenuous, it’s tricks. You know, it’s fancy talk and pictures, it’s logos, but it’s not really, really good branding done really, really well. Let’s say done right literally is a process. It’s steps. I used to teach it to big, big companies. My largest was a $14 Billion client billion with a B today it’s individuals. So they could have done something. If you’re listening to this and and you feel you need more clarity in your brand or maybe you feel stuck at the starting gate of the next level of your brand and you’ve done it for 30 years and you want to take it to another level. You want to leave it as a legacy or teach others to do what you do or something You want to take it to another level. You want to use digital media to to have a bigger reach, to share your gift or your calling or your products or services. But the gate’s locked. You know, you’re at the starting gate of the next level and it feels like you can’t like, how do I build the stairs to get to that next level? If you’re if you’re about touching other people’s lives and you have something that’s going to make people’s lives or the world a better place, just hop on a Zoom call with me and let’s talk. I mean, seriously.

Stone Payton: [00:06:48] So when you made the shift from working with the larger enterprises to trying to serve individuals, did anything catch you off guard surprise you? Did you have to do a little bit of a shuffle, too, to get equipped to serve that group?

Rich Kozak: [00:07:04] It’s a fair question. The first person who asked me said that’s not true. You’ve never stopped helping people. You just don’t charge for it. So actually, I find myself I work for an agency, and I didn’t own the agency. I was the executive vice president. But and I wrote contracts and everything, but I didn’t find myself one on one where I had to sell things. And I would give branding away forever, but I had to teach myself to charge for it. And as human as that is, I literally wrote a script and it sounded like this. You came to the brand ranch for a beautiful lunch because I’m an I’m a chef, I’m an organic chef. And I would say people who come here, I won’t charge for the meal, and they would say, Good, let’s meet at your house. So we would sit there and we would we would look at at the view and talk about their world. And and and then I would say, Stone, based on everything I’ve heard from you, I want you to choose one of two things to do next. And and they both require money. But I’ll let you determine what you think is best for you. I literally had to practice that script and then say, you know, Visa or MasterCard, you know, it’s like I say, goodness. And I was you know, we had clients that were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars, but that was it wasn’t a struggle, but it was it was a retraining.

Rich Kozak: [00:08:27] I love to teach. I hired a coach to help me speak to sell so that I can literally reach people in a way that they’ll get what’s what’s going to help them. Because if you don’t teach to sell and you just speak, nothing happens. We have to move people to step into. In this case, their purpose. The tagline of My of Rich brands is impacts, which is all I focus on abundance. On purpose impacts abundance on purpose. That does not sound like a branding agency. The reason I’m back in branding and I will do it for years I’ve been doing it now seven years since I came back and only worked with individuals and the companies they own. But it’s because I get to help them build an abundant platform and then step into their purpose. Their second book, their third book has to do with why they’re here, not about the expertise of their business. So it’s strategic work that helps people thrive and then step into their purpose sooner, faster, easier. They become bigger contributors to their own lives, to their own families, and to the world around them, in the communities they serve. I’ll just say praise God, because I think we need more praise God’s in the world. And when people are touched by this work, they come to our one day workshop and they go, Oh, right, I’m watching my brand language, you know, on paper coming alive. Praise God. And I’ll go, Whoa, there’s another one.

Stone Payton: [00:10:06] So how does. You mentioned engaging a coach to help you on the sales side of things when you made this pivot. How does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a guy like you, a practice like yours? Do you have to get out there and sort of shake the trees a little bit? Do you have some strategy to just get those initial conversations going with prospective clients, or is it pretty much coming to you now?

Rich Kozak: [00:10:34] What an interesting question. Yes. If and I’ll make this relevant to everyone who’s listening, we can pray all day long. Lord put in front of me those people whose lives are business. As you want me to touch with this gift and give me the eyes and the ears and the wisdom to know who they are. But if I hide behind the curtain, or if you don’t step, take a step toward your gift because of fear, or because maybe you’re you’re on some day I’ll got into his work, you know? So it’s like it’s important that I’m out there. So I speak online at virtual events, I judge speaking contests I sponsor. And so I’m in a booth and on Zoom and people come and talk to me about their brand and then they go, Oh, I think we’re supposed to work together. So I’ve got to be out there. And being out there includes I do 18 events a year on Zoom. I do half day’s called Branding You with Impact that is like $47 or something like that. People come in and changes how they think about what it means to brand a person and the entity they create as an umbrella personal brand that’s that’s unique to them. And what happens when you do that and what happens when you don’t, and that resets them. And then they attend the workshop and then they end up in Brand Accelerator group and they’re sharing with people how they got amazing clarity and they have language they can use for three or four years, and then I get referrals.

Rich Kozak: [00:12:09] Oh man, you’ve got to talk to him. This is it always works over there. It’s amazing. It’s impact driven. So I’m getting more and more referrals these days. But I personally have been hiding behind the marketing curtain. I’ve been helping launch brands, but I have not been launching myself. A lot of things are underway right now. I’m I like to say I’m building a world class team these days. That often means a virtual team. So I have people who are coaches in several areas, I think nine who coach me to strengthen me in areas where I’m not as good or experience as they are. That includes a lot of Internet things. You and I were joking about knowing how to use Zoom and so forth. The this is an digital society. It’s important that we’re out there. It’s important that we reach people’s eyes, ears these days with audio brand, that the voice of impact driven branding and what it can mean for people and the impact they make and the abundance they create and how they step into purpose that that message gets out there. So I’m about to start a podcast that will be funded by a media group, so it’ll get a lot of play.

Rich Kozak: [00:13:27] I’m speaking at places like I’ll be speaking at the Best Expo in Los Angeles on the stage with Bernardo Moya, and you’ll introduce me and I’ll speak there twice and I’ll do a book signing my own book Impact Driven Branding Seven Steps to Ensure Your Brand Impacts People’s lives in the world is coming out in the next few months, so we’ll be launching that and I have several books planned after that that will take me toward my purpose not just about branding, but about my purpose of helping people as well as myself step into purpose. It’s time. And and this is this is branding in a way that refreshes people and and lets them be themselves completely and get credit for how unique they are and the work that they get to do. So it’s very referable when people learn what it really is. But if I stay behind the curtain, no one will ever know. So we have to be on the Internet, we have to be on websites, we have to speak. And I believe running events is a really powerful way to hand people value quickly who really want it, and they’re ready. We’ll also record trainings in lots of areas aspects of branding, logos and taglines and integrating marketing, communications and all those things that I could speak on for weeks.

Rich Kozak: [00:14:54] We’re recording chunks of those so people can hear them in three in the morning if they want to. So I will be out there in a lot of ways. I just will say it’s always Straight Talk podcast I’m doing says Bring your vision and bring your challenges. What you’re going to get is straight talk that you can trust. That doesn’t sound like branding. That’s a lot of funny talk out there. You know, it’s as if you think that you need a micro niche is wisdom, and that’s from a guru. It’s introducing double talk. Frankly, you don’t need a micronation, but some people will tell you you do. What you need is clear vision and a heart for whom you really want to impact. What we do all day long here is we define the brand you must become. We define and language the brand you must become to make the impacts you clearly see making when you thrive. It’s all connected to impacts. And so what do you think is going to happen? You’re going to get those impacts faster. You’re going to attract exactly whom you really want to attract. Isn’t that what people want? Yeah. Isn’t that what Brandy is supposed to be? Yeah, but does it have to be fake? Not can be absolutely authentic to your heart.

Stone Payton: [00:16:20] It is crystal clear that this work is on your heart. What are you finding the most rewarding about the work? What are you enjoying the most?

Rich Kozak: [00:16:30] Three things come to mind. One is it doesn’t feel like work. I enjoy it. It flows through me like water, through a river. It feels like love, Stone. And I, I spend a lot of hours. I just recorded ten guest podcasts in the last three days. Ten. It doesn’t feel like work. I get to do this, I believe I’m made to do this. I realize it’s a gift and I get to do it. Second thing is, I get chills down my spine when we land on language, when we land on language that we know will be compellingly attractive and speed people along. Wow. The testimonials that I get from people who have been touched by the work are remarkable about the clarity they got, the relief they feel because they don’t have to struggle with how branding seemed to intimidate them or they didn’t understand it, or they thought it was something else. And now they realize they’re the champion of their own brand. They understand the steps because they walk through them to get it done. And it’s just a process. It’s it doesn’t have to hurt. It doesn’t have to be complicated and it doesn’t need all that jargon. It’s just steps.

Stone Payton: [00:17:57] Before we wrap, I want to hear some more about this new book. Can you speak to that, the structure of it, how we can get the most out of it? What compelled you to write yet another book? I’d love to hear more about it.

Rich Kozak: [00:18:10] Well, you know, it’s interesting you say another book. I have put chapters of big chunks of nuggets, like the last one was Cracking a Rich Code, co-written with coaching legend Jim Britt, Shark Tank founder Kevin Harrington, endorsed by Tony Robbins. My picture is on the cover of that book that came out and turned Amazon number one international bestseller last November. But that’s a chapter. It’s a 3000 word chapter in a book of entrepreneurs where they share their excellence. This book, that is the impact driven branding Seven Steps to ensure your brand impacts people’s lives in the world. It is not a book about branding, it’s a how to book. It says, Here, think about this. Close your eyes. Do step one. Hey, think about this. Close your eyes. Do step two, write these things down. It’s a step by step Examples Book. It has a workbook too, and we use the workbook at our one day workshop. It’s a how to book. And why is because if people knew, if entrepreneurs, if if people with businesses that they want to take to another level knew this process existed and they had access to it and they didn’t need a guru, they can get help.

Rich Kozak: [00:19:22] They have somebody help them with language because maybe they feel they don’t do that. But if they knew it existed, their world would be better. So I wrote the book so they knew it exists so that it makes it accessible. This step wise approach to championing your own brand to make your impacts faster and abundance faster and step into your purpose. So that’s why I’m writing the book. And one of the things you’ll ask me how people can get a hold of me. One of the things I offer is, is what’s called a blueprint. And the blueprint is simply, Hey, here are the seven steps. It’s kind of like a mini book and a document that says, Look, read this, it’s me talking to you in my language and it gives you things you can do right now to get this process going for you. So I love for people to email me and say Blueprint and send that to them.

Stone Payton: [00:20:14] I do want to make sure that our listeners can reach out, have a conversation with you on any of these topics. I want to make sure they can get their hands on the book when it comes out and begin to tap into your work. So let’s do leave them with some coordinates. What are what are some places they can go to start start learning more about these topics and maybe set up a conversation with you.

Rich Kozak: [00:20:37] Well, thanks for asking. I didn’t mention yet that I recorded eight very short, like one minute to minute videos answering frequently asked questions that people want to ask, and they should ask somebody who will give them straight answers. Tough finding somebody who will do that. So I recorded straight answers to frequently ask branding questions and you get it free. Just going to the brand you will become and the you is wiremu the brand, you will become dotcom. And then we send you, we email you a link and you download these and watch them. I think it’s certainly will be a blessing to your business and maybe your life. And it’s a little bit of infotainment, but it’s straight talk, which is a delight. And you can get the blueprint. Just email me. It’s rich at rich brands dot org. Rich at rich brands are ICI brands dot org and just C blueprint Blueprint heard you on the radio show Blueprint. I want the blueprint and I’ll reach out to you. And frankly, if you don’t have a branding person who does straight talk and connects with people’s hearts and really cares and isn’t capable of, if you don’t have somebody who’s capable of listening to what you do and really zeroing in on it and kind of falling in love with it, jump on a Zoom call with me and go to a Kalon Li dot com slash rich brands and it’ll put you on my calendar. I mean, do whatever it takes, but whatever you do, do not sit there and live on Sunday. I’ll. I want you to be moving toward your higher level of your brand and toward your higher level of abundance and stepping into your purpose. We’re all here for a reason. Get on with it. And I just get to do this work. So praise God.

Stone Payton: [00:22:34] Well, Rich, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show, man. Thank you for investing the time and the energy to share your insight and your expertise. This has been a this has been a marvelous conversation informing, inspiring, challenging. And you’re doing important work out there, man. We sure appreciate you.

Rich Kozak: [00:22:55] Stone, I love what you do. Thank you for your invitation. It’s great to be here, and I hope people respond to this. It will be a blessing.

Stone Payton: [00:23:03] All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today with Rich brands, the man himself, Rich Kozak, and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.