EFR 840: How to EFR 840: The SECRET to Building a Multi-Million Dollar Personal Brand and Why Trauma and Forgiveness Are Your Two Biggest Tools for Success with Emily Ford

00:00 - Chase (Host) The following is an Operation Podcast production.

00:03 - Emily (Guest) Every single one of us has a personal brand and it's what people perceive of us. It's what other people say about you when you're not in the room, and we have this ability with social media, with having a digital footprint, to, yes, control what people see of us and perceive of us. So whatever we put out is what people perceive. Whatever we don't put out is what they just don't know about you. And so building your personal brand whether you're a doctor or if you're someone that's like I'm a stay at home mom I don't really know what I want to do.

00:38 It's so important because I don't know in your life when something new is going to come out of you, a new business is going to be birthed or a new thing is going to happen, and your personal brand is like your built-in network. That's free. Free 74% of people nowadays they look at your personal brand before they look to you, even if you're a doctor. So this is huge. I don't know why people are sleeping on personal brand and it was so funny. This is too much, but here we go.

01:34 - Chase (Host) Hey, there it's Emily Ford and I am at Ever Forward. I was asked so many questions. I have never been asked. You're going to truly be moved by it. Be moved by it benefits.

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02:58 Hey everyone, welcome back to Everford Radio. I'm your host, chase Schooning, army veteran wellness entrepreneur, and today we are joined by the one and only the amazing, the lovely Emily Ford. I want to pose a question for you to get your mind ready for this conversation, and that is can personal branding transcend ego and offer meaningful impact for your life and, potentially, the lives of thousands, hundreds of thousands of other people? Emily Ford is a personal branding expert who shares her journey from humble beginnings to profound entrepreneurial success. In today's episode, emily examines the core values that define powerful brands and the lessons we can draw from them. And, in a world where authenticity is key, emily highlights the importance of building trust through relatable content. She's even going to challenge common misconceptions about personal branding, emphasizing that one's brand is not merely a tool for monetization but a means of self-expression and connection. And stay tuned towards the end, because we really get into a great spiritual conversation. Her perspective on spirituality really further enriches this conversation, showing just how personal beliefs shape our journey towards fulfillment and purpose and success and how they all connect.

04:20 If you've not yet done so, following subscribing to the podcast on your platform of choice goes a long, long way in supporting me and emily and helps me attract and get more even amazing guests. It also just helps others reach the podcast and helps others live a life ever forward. So if today's message or any other episode has added value to your life and helped you move forward in your life following the show, subscribing to the show would be an incredible way just to give a little bit of thanks back over here and I truly greatly appreciate it. Thank you. I'm going to have you rank these public speakers, in terms of their personal branding, from one to five, without knowing who comes next. You ready?

04:58 - Emily (Guest) Okay, so one is the best, or five yeah.

05:01 - Chase (Host) So, number one being the best, five being not the best, or just in that order Okay, okay. All right, so first up, Andrew Tate. Are you familiar with him?

05:12 - Emily (Guest) Of course. So I don't I, I'm not a fan at all, but he does well with his brand.

05:19 - Chase (Host) Interesting, take Okay. So where would you put them? One, two, three, four, five?

05:23 - Emily (Guest) two two. Okay, wow, pretty strong but I don't believe in his brand. But he does well with his brand.

05:28 - Chase (Host) I think that's fair. Yeah, yeah, okay, steve jobs. Oh one one, okay, barack.

05:36 - Emily (Guest) Obama oh, he's so good One one incredible speaker. So he's bumping Steve jobs yeah, okay, we'll push tate to three, brock to two and then steve jobs to one okay, next up joe biden.

05:51 - Chase (Host) Oh shit, five, yeah, yeah, yeah, last one, tony robbins oh, I would put andrew tate to five uh let's go five up. So so Tate is number five.

06:04 - Emily (Guest) He's number four.

06:05 - Chase (Host) Biden.

06:06 - Emily (Guest) Biden's four. Three Tony Robbins, Barack or Andrew, or excuse me, let's do Barack Tony two, and then Steve Jobs, number one. Okay, yeah, not a bad list. It's interesting that you gave Steve Jobs the number one spot for somebody that is no longer with us. Legacy, dude legacy. He crushed his personal brand and he made it bigger than himself, so inspiring.

06:34 - Chase (Host) Should that be the ultimate goal with a personal brand? To be able to no longer be alive and still make the top of the list for a branding experts? Personal brand hierarchy.

06:46 - Emily (Guest) Depends on what your values are.

06:47 - Chase (Host) Ooh Okay. What do you mean by that?

06:49 - Emily (Guest) So if your value is truly to impact and be in service of the lives of others, if that's your value, then I believe your brand should be out to serve others and eventually be bigger than yourself, and you're the Genesis of it. But it should go on above and beyond you, which Tony Robbins he's doing. I mean all these guys to an extent. I think Andrew Tate is very self-absorbed, so that's why I'd put him at five.

07:18 - Chase (Host) It's interesting that you still feel so strongly about Steve Jobs and you're talking about serving others. But a lot of people in Apple and friends and colleagues you know have said in his book and documentaries you know, he was really not the most pleasant person to be around. Some people call it, you know, being a maniac. Some people call it being a genius entrepreneur. Um, how do you kind of differentiate someone who is acting out of service and someone that is ego driven but still serves people?

07:50 - Emily (Guest) That's so good. I think we have to understand that everybody is having a different human experience. They have different gifting on them and some of us like or if you look at Barack Obama, his, his ability to communicate he's one of the best up there, you know. But then you look at someone like Steve Jobs and he's intellectually or was, on such a different level that he was playing though in his strength zone the madness of genius.

08:20 And I think the problem with a lot of people is we want people to be how we want them to be instead of who they actually are. So I think the best people that have the best personal brands, they're operating in their gifting and they're in their zone and they are. They're mad about getting it done, getting something done, you know. But when it's coming straight from ego, it's, it's for ourselves, it's me, me, me, and you can really tell there's a level of narcissism attached to it and you can definitely feel that over time. And I think even when I was super young and I got into personal development, I didn't know better. I was 23. Like who?

09:01 - Chase (Host) does it?

09:01 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, yeah, I was like reading all these books, sleeping on a mattress on the floor like a group, was a single mom. I knew nothing, no, dad, nothing, and so I was reading all this stuff. But the the more that I started to learn and get in the business world, I was like, okay, they're not my person, they're a little pretender. This is smoke and mirrors. You know, you could feel that as you grow your emotional intelligence and so I think certain people that operate from that, that like ego place, like they, they kind of get the earlier the I don't want to say bottom feeders, but maybe the people growing for like they don't know better, that's who they get.

09:40 - Chase (Host) How do you personally differentiate someone that is operating out of the madness of genius which I love that term, by the way and ego and narcissism?

09:51 - Emily (Guest) Their motives.

09:52 - Chase (Host) How do we differentiate their motives? How do we understand, get clear on their motives?

09:55 - Emily (Guest) You just watch how they operate. If you watch long enough, people tell on themselves. They really do and motives matter, they absolutely do. And eventually, if it's for yourself, you're going to destroy yourself. You really will and you'll make decisions that are so bad. And it clearly wasn't for the greater good of humanity, it was for yourself, and it's just. The truth always comes out and you know, I just think, like people, like they leave clues with their life.

10:28 - Chase (Host) Could not agree more. What do you think are some clues you're leaving right now in your life?

10:33 - Emily (Guest) I am on a mission to heal and understand myself. I'm constantly going first. I believe in you know, leadership is leadership, is your example going first. And so, for me, I learn and then I do it, and then I teach it and I pay it forward, and that's always been my jam the last decade. And so it's like, okay, I'm having like this revelation or I'm experiencing this new thing in business, and once I cracked the code, I'm like it's not for me, it's for people. So let me, let me share what I've learned along the way. And there's this deep level of conviction, because I've walked through it, like I'm not going to sit here and try to talk to you about something that I just don't know the answer to. Right, I might tell you, I'm in the messy middle, trying to figure it out, but I'm always just on that pursuit of getting better and I believe that I have a gift of leadership and it's so selfish to keep it to myself, and so I'm just trying to help as many people.

11:41 - Chase (Host) All right, yeah, all right. You can't. I can't knock you for that. Can you answer these next questions in three to five seconds? Super quick, super succinct. What's the best advice you've ever received?

11:56 - Emily (Guest) To live life like you're dying tomorrow.

11:59 - Chase (Host) That came pretty quickly, so I feel like that probably sticks with you.

12:10 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, okay, yeah, because I I'm success minded and I want to do everything you know, the right way, and I can be very serious all the time. So that allows me to just like lighten up.

12:17 - Chase (Host) But also memento mori.

12:18 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, yeah, yeah Truly.

12:20 - Chase (Host) Who's your idol in public speaking?

12:25 - Emily (Guest) Definitely Tony Robbins.

12:27 - Chase (Host) I was going to guess yeah.

12:29 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, I, just I, I just love him and respect him so much and I love how he's all about transformation and vulnerability and he's just been a real gift to me.

12:41 - Chase (Host) If you could have dinner with any entrepreneur, dead or alive, who would it be?

12:45 - Emily (Guest) And why Whoa Jesus, and I think he's definitely not Jesus was an entrepreneur. Yeah, I mean he was recruiting Like he's the best recruit.

12:55 - Chase (Host) I mean Jesus was the OG recruiter.

12:57 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, I just. I was actually talking in the hot tub the other night with my designer about this. I'm like, what was Jesus like when he was walking the earth and she's single and looking for the right guy, and it was so funny. This is too much, but here we go. And she was like don't you think people would have been like women, like attracted to him, like he's at the well, like saving this prostitute? And I'm like straight up, like that's the kind of guy I would want. And we're like straight up, like that's the kind of guy I would want. And we're like, oh, so yeah.

13:28 - Chase (Host) I just think uh yeah, that's never thought about that. Well, leadership example.

13:40 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, yeah I, I'm just fascinated by his leadership. When I got into business just needing money and Sharky, I had to really learn humility and and stuff, and so I was like, well, who's the best person to learn from? I'm like, just like Jesus. There's a book called just like Jesus. I'm like, okay, let me read that and like figure out how to be more humble.

13:55 - Chase (Host) Interesting. Yeah, I want to get more into kind of a role faith plays in your work and life later on.

14:01 - Emily (Guest) I love that.

14:02 - Chase (Host) Very interesting response, Thank you. What's the worst thing about being a public speaker? You think?

14:10 - Emily (Guest) That, whatever you do for 60 minutes, that's what people perceive and think of you, and there's so much more to me than just that one message.

14:19 - Chase (Host) So then, how do you wrap up who you are and deliver that succinctly in a 60 minute, 30 minute public speaking engagement, but also kind of knowing that you don't want people to only know you or only judge you or only define you for this?

14:37 - Emily (Guest) I make sure that in the presentation that there's stories weaved within so they know facets of me, and I'm not speaking from like being a dictator. I'm speaking through again my experience and then pushing it back out, um, placing my highest values on what I'm speaking on, but knowing very well that I'm also only the, the messenger, and this is for them, it's not for me. So in a lot of ways, like even with my recent keynote, never be shaken, it's. I gotta like die to myself when I'm doing it, cause I'm showing a lot of my scars and all that stuff, but it's again, it's not for me. I'm, I'm the, I am the messenger, I'm the vessel. And so there's this dance of, of going with your ego of like, oh, I want to look good and I want to sound good, and then it's like, no, like this is for them to transform, this is for the human soul to evolve, it's not for you. So that's what I always have to remind myself of.

15:40 - Chase (Host) That's great. That's a good reminder, yeah, okay. So last question here what advice would you give to someone aspiring to be like you one day?

15:51 - Emily (Guest) You'll never be like me, because you're not me first of all. But I would tell you to get in the game much faster. I have done so many things for free. I am always showing up, trying new things, working harder, staying later, Like that whole mindset is what it really takes to figure out what you're gifted at. That's how doors open up for you.

16:16 - Chase (Host) It's like it's how you create doors. Yeah, it's like.

16:19 - Emily (Guest) I always say, like you see me like the Swan going across, but you don't see my little feet paddling underneath the wall it's just the truth. And so it's like stop thinking you have all this time. People think they have all this time. I'm like move faster, you know, and just realize. If you have that innate feeling of just wanting to build something, you want to do something so much greater with your life, you have to understand that most people don't think like you no-transcript.

17:05 - Chase (Host) I heard exactly talking about that. We're going to get to that in a little bit. I love that part of your story and I love that personal realization. I think it's an incredible piece of knowledge and a great tool for someone listening, especially in the beginning of their journey. Whatever that entrepreneur, passion, project, journey is, it's a crucial piece of advice. Yeah, so we're going to get there.

17:27 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, all right, love it.

17:29 - Chase (Host) So you get in an Uber and the Uber driver is like hey, what do you do? How do you reply to that Kind of give us the Uber driver. Response to the intro of Emily Ford.

17:40 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, well, I get in and I usually ask them like how are you, how long have you been doing this? And I love talking to Uber, lyft people and aren't there. They're usually like they're an entrepreneur in some way or they want. They're like, well, actually I sell homes but the real estate market's bad or whatever you know. And so that's really when I go into, you know, I help transform lives through um speaking and I have a podcast and that's usually my, my kind of um gateway to them.

18:19 - Chase (Host) And then you lead with I help transform lives. That's a heavy response. It's heavy. And how do they reply to that?

18:26 - Emily (Guest) They're usually like well, like, like what, and I say with mindset and dealing with trauma. But I also do a lot of skillset as well, teaching how to build your brand, and it kind of just depends on where it's going Like. I'm so heart driven when I speak, so it's not usually like this candid response, but I always want to leave them with my business card, which is like my podcast or my Instagram.

18:49 - Chase (Host) I do the same yeah.

18:50 - Emily (Guest) It's genius Cause. Then, when they spend seven or more hours with you, they're going to be like, oh, they feel way more connected and now you're really changing their life. Amazing, amazing. I expected nothing less.

19:00 - Chase (Host) Hey friends, quick break from my conversation today with Emily. If you were to ask me, Chase, what is the one supplement if you could only take one for the rest of your life daily, what would it be? It would be MitoPure from today's sponsor, Timeline Nutrition. What is MitoPure? Well, it is packed with this incredible postbiotic, urolithin A. Now, what is a postbiotic no-transcript? But that's probably not in the cards for me day to day.

19:53 So for me, when I take your erythin A, I notice just an incredible increase in my daily baseline energy, not to mention, in the last two years, I can think maybe on two fingers the times that I have had real muscle soreness. My endurance is up, my recovery is up and I credit all of this to Mito Pure. So much so I wanted to really see its effect on me Earlier this year. I went off of it for about four to six weeks and the dip in my baseline energy, my dip in recovery, was just not worth it. So I'm back on it and I'm loving the way that I feel.

20:26 If you'd like to learn more about why I love your Lithin A, why I love it in Mito Pure from Timeline Nutrition, head to timelinecom, slash ever forward to learn more and in fact, you're going to save 10% off of your first purchase when you use code ever forward at checkout, linked for you as always in the show notes today under episode resources. But again, that's timeline nutritioncom slash ever forward code ever forward to save 10% of of any product. So is how you started your business the same as how you conduct your business today, and what I mean by that are the same products and services. Then what you offer now or is kind of just like the delivery or the back end, kind of changed.

21:08 It's all changed, it's all changed, yeah, so how did you start and where are you now?

21:13 - Emily (Guest) So when I started I was already in this hustler mindset, being raised by a single mom. I had like this, this really janky website where I taught people how to eat clean. I was competing in fitness America. It was called essence of mcom. I was literally God 21. I bought a house in Minneapolis where I'm from. I had three girls live with me to pay the mortgage and then I made money, so I got it on a short set yeah, equity.

21:39 - Chase (Host) Yeah, I was the youngest. Live with me to pay the mortgage and then I made money so I got it on a short set yeah, equity.

21:42 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, I was the youngest of three and it's like we. I had to raise myself pretty much and so I was already trying things and I loved health and wellness and so I was working out at an LA fitness like getting ready for my fitness competition, and that's what led me into selling supplements. But it wasn't like the oh, I want to sell this one supplement. It was. I want to build teams of people that sell the supplements and then I get it. I want to make money of everything they do.

22:10 - Chase (Host) Well, I think this is a crucial, crucial point to point out. So, in the beginning of your entrepreneur, journey you were already aware that I don't want to grow this on my own and what I can do I. It sounds like you already had this bigger picture of I need the team I want to develop a team. I need that as much now as I do later. Leverage that's huge I needed.

22:31 - Emily (Guest) I needed leverage because I was waking up at 5am and I had multiple jobs. So I would drive to this plastic surgeon that I worked for and I learned everything from him Running a private practice. How do you work with wealthy people? I mean, I came from nothing. So I was like I don't know money and like who are these people? And like how do I talk to them? And like so, all those that street smart stuff I learned from him. How do I sell expensive skincare, all of that. Then I nannied four boys on the side that lost their dad and so I was just straight hustling. And when I saw and learned about leverage like how do you have leverage? How do you make money while you sleep, I was like oh God, I can do that. Like how do I? How do I do more of that? And I read the book secrets of a a Millionaire Mind by T Harv Eker. And that's when the lid was lifted and I'm like, okay, now it's time to really build teams and create real wealth.

23:28 - Chase (Host) You said you worked with a plastic surgeon. That helped you understand how to work with wealthy people. What do you mean by that? What lessons did you learn? How do you work with wealthy people and why is that different? Why should that be a different mindset or approach?

23:42 - Emily (Guest) yeah to, we'll say general public, middle class yeah, you know, I really just learned the skills of customer service, I should say. I mean, I grew up on the farm in a small town in minnesota.

23:54 - Chase (Host) We have a lot more in common I grew up on like 200 acres really with gardening I'd say small farm with my grandparents. Yeah, we ate, like majority of the food we grew.

24:02 - Emily (Guest) Same when.

24:04 - Chase (Host) Roanoke Virginia.

24:05 - Emily (Guest) Okay.

24:06 - Chase (Host) Like almost the border of North Carolina. Okay, yeah, so cool.

24:10 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, so that's how I grew up, where people didn't have like nice cars and nice. I mean, I grew up with a single mom and she worked multiple jobs to put me in sports and all the things, and so when it came to getting a job working with this plastic surgeon, it's, the people were different that came in Like they. They clearly had money and expectations and blah, blah, blah, and I didn't know how to like, how do I, how do I communicate to them and how do I, you know, go above and beyond? And so that was the best training ground ever.

24:41 - Chase (Host) Do they intimidate you? What was it about? Just the awareness of that, that difference yeah.

24:46 - Emily (Guest) First I was so intimidated and it was like, oh my gosh, I'm not good enough. And it was, but I was. I took it on with this. Oh my gosh, they're just humans. And this is what I realized. So I started rehabbing major weight loss patients and then people that, um, like this one client, her only one and only son, died in a tragic car accident and all the stress like literally changed her face, and so he gave her a partial facelift and so I rehabbed her, I did ultrasound therapy, and so that was when I really realized oh, they're just humans that have had success.

25:25 - Chase (Host) They have money Like it's, we're all the same you know they still go through problems and loss and trauma.

25:32 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, and you know, money's just an amplifier, and so I was just like, oh, okay now, and but what really? What it allowed me to do and I think everybody needs to be in customer service at some time in their life it just allowed me to go above and beyond and go back and say that again, yeah. Everybody needs to learn customer service and I believe everyone needs to go to a third world country, but that's another. Yeah, everyone must and should. Yeah.

26:01 - Chase (Host) Um, no matter what business you're in I think this is one of the the biggest through lines I've realized over the years of running my own businesses is that, at the end of the day, hell the beginning of the day and at the end of the day, I am always in the business of customer service, and then the products and services vary yeah yes, why should someone consider I'm in the business of customer service, no matter what business they're in, product they're creating or selling or service they're providing.

26:27 - Emily (Guest) You're always going to touch and be with people. You're always going to communicate with people. You're out. People remember you for who you are and how you communicate and I even said that to my husband on the way here about you. Like you when I came in. You know this is your company and you have clients using all your studios that you're expanding. You know you made an impression on me with.

26:52 - Chase (Host) I literally told my husband this I I'm like he stood out.

26:54 - Emily (Guest) He went above and beyond to connect with us. I'm like he stood out. He went above and beyond to connect with us. I'm like, who is this guy? To the point where I looked you up on Instagram. I'm like you're an Army vet. My brother's in the Air Force. There's so many little connections. But the point of me even saying this is I didn't understand. When I came here that day to do my interview with Michael, I didn't know that you owned this place. I didn't know that you owned this place. I didn't know that you own multiple places. I didn't know that you're a businessman. I didn't know all the layers, I didn't even know you. But I met you and you stood out.

27:29 - Chase (Host) But you were so kind.

27:31 - Emily (Guest) You went above and beyond, to the point where people follow people and I told my husband, jake, I was like I just wanted to know who Chase was. I'm like who? Who is this guy? Cause you stood out. And I told my husband, jake, I was like I just wanted to know who Chase was. I'm like who is this guy? Because you stood out, and I think that's what people forget. Like no matter if it's a phone call, an email correspondence, an IG DM, whatever, like you are a person and people connect to people and wherever you go, you take yourself with you, you know, so be memorable.

27:59 - Chase (Host) Thank you. Yeah, I really received that. I appreciate that.

28:02 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, and that's that's your, that's your strength. And it's so wild because sometimes there's that thing that we have that, you have that it's, it's innate to us. So we're like what do you mean? And then someone's like, no, that's your special sauce, like you got to tap more into that, you got to amplify that and drive the line and go deep instead of wide, which I feel, like in business, so many people are like there's so many opportunities. It's like no, zone in and drive the thing and build the thing. And then the one thing goes to multiple streams of income. Instead of you know, people have it so backwards where they're like multiple streams of income, instead of you know people have it so backwards where they're like multiple streams of income. I'm like, no, you, you got to build the one thing first. That's your cash cow, and then you can. Anyways, I digress, but I want to share something else with you.

28:47 - Chase (Host) I want to get your take on this. Um, one thing that really helped me kind of realize that my secret sauce was actually through unraveling or diving deep into um childhood trauma. And I was going back to, going back to probably my first memory ever. I was trying to think what is the very first thing I remember, what is as a child, as a young boy, whatever? And there were two. One was a funny story regarding a blanket, and the day my brother was born they ran out of like cloths to swaddle babies in the hospital, go figure, and so they actually took my blanket, my favorite blanket, and used to wrap him up, which I think was the beginning of like the brother rivalry. You know, I was like who is this kid stealing my blanket? I hate him already.

29:31 Yeah yeah, yeah, I don't hate Max, by the way. And then the other was. And this is where connecting this core memory, this early childhood memory, to my business, transformed everything. I remember being about four years old on my grandparents' property and I was climbing up a little path in the front of the house and I witnessed what later I figured out was the conversation, the argument, where my parents then decided to split up and I couldn't really tell what exactly they were talking about, but I was facing them. They were backs to me, facing the back of the house, and I remember my dad trying to, like, console my mom, my mom being very upset, and I just heard these, you know faint words of like what are we doing here?

30:16 Money, we don't have money. Just, you know what's going on. So immediately I latched onto confusion of the family unit and that confusion being directly related to finances. And then, in that moment, I looked over the front of the house. There was my grandmother and my brother and my sister and, like my whole family unit, my whole world I was witness to in one moment. And then, in that same moment, was, like literally two days later, where my parents separated.

30:44 - Emily (Guest) How old were you?

30:45 - Chase (Host) Four, oh wow, four, like four and a half kind of thing, and so that made sense to me as one. It was just a cool memory, but also made sense to me because that's why it matters so much to me for everyone to get along, for everyone to be connected. I felt like I would. I had this god's eye view of my entire world, and only I know what is going on in these individual components and only I know how to kind of like connect everybody.

31:14 After the fact, it's wild, and so now that I'm like oh, that makes total sense as to why I'm always trying to support the missions of everybody else trying to like I want to know what's going on in your world, because I feel like michael's got another thing going on that y'all need to come together on or just you? Know this kind of like connector aspect, but it's so like childhood trauma yeah, no, it is, and it that's four years old. Four yeah.

31:41 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, and it's like you were kind of like watching your life. I was like on a trail up above.

31:47 - Chase (Host) I was literally in aerial view of my entire world. And then trying to keep that world together. After the fact, and you know, I'm the older brother of three, so there's that whole dynamic, yeah for sure.

31:57 - Emily (Guest) That definitely shaped you so much. I feel like for me in a different way with childhood trauma. That's what's given me so much empathy for other people in such a heart, like watching things or going back, let me just shove all this trauma into a box and under the bed. It's like no, no, no. You actually need to feel it because time doesn't heal all wounds. What heals it is what you deal with, and it's very interesting and introspective when you can really look back at these moments and I actually like went back to Minnesota and sat with my mom and asked her so many questions Cause I'm like I really want to know. I was so young, I think I know, and that's traumatizing.

32:46 - Chase (Host) Yeah, what you remember, what you think was truth compared to now, hey, just, I'm sure, adult to adult, yeah, yeah, and so I asked her all that stuff and I'm like, wow, this to your point.

32:56 - Emily (Guest) I'm like this makes sense of why I feel like I'm such an old soul or why I I feel everything so deeply. It's like a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it wears you out, but it's also such a gift to feel so deep and it's because of what I witnessed as a young girl and it's just, it's so interesting If I, when you look back and you look and I have people do this. It's called the ACE test.

33:22 And it's called adverse childhood experiences and a couple of doctors from San Diego put together this study. It's like one of the largest public health studies. People don't know about, but they should. And you look at, there's 10 questions and it's what happened before the age of 18. Right, yeah, and so I do this in stadiums. So I am in with business predominantly usually businessmen, some women entrepreneur conferences and I run them through 10 questions. Did your parents ever separate? Did you ever feel unsafe? Did your mom ever get um hit or used on a knife? Were you ever like unsafe? Did your mom ever get hit or used a knife?

34:01 - Chase (Host) Were you ever like a physical abuse or mental abuse victim? Some of these questions you have, yeah, recently became familiar with this.

34:08 - Emily (Guest) So I go through and if you're a four or higher, that means that you have significant trauma and it shows up in different ways. A lot of times it's people's health, it's why they become overweight, all the things. It's why they can't allow a love in, they have relationship trauma, daddy trauma, mama trauma, all the trauma. And I have people stand up in the room that are a four or higher and it is typically 70% of the room dealing with that much trauma and I sometimes have tens and it's like people are just bawling.

34:45 And one thing that was wild in the last event I was speaking at in Mexico, there was a couple and they're like married and she was like I didn't know that he was raped when he or he was molested when he was little. I didn't know. Like, here I am married to the guy and we never have talked about any of this and so I'm so big on. Let's talk about it, let's understand, like you know, it's just, it's just matters and what you can do is when you heal, like you have you've you, you have this introspection of what happened to you when you were young, and then you can heal from it and then now you can give back to humanity in the beautiful way that you are, and you have a better, deeper understanding of oneself.

35:31 - Chase (Host) And use it instead of it, you know using us, like it tends to do yeah, victim, yeah. That's beautiful.

35:38 - Emily (Guest) That's beautiful.

35:40 - Chase (Host) And you know, in preparation for this interview, when Emily was on her way into the studio here in Los Angeles which, by the way, if you want to check out the video, I've got it linked for you in the show notes. You can always find us on YouTube or everfordradiocom. I've got my little, my pre-interview ritual, and for me this was a morning interview and I hadn't yet had my cup of coffee and I don't want something that's going to get me too wired or too jittery because I need to focus. I want to be very present, cool, calm and collected with my guests. But maybe that's you If you're looking for something to help you kind of just wake up, if you're looking for something better to put in your cup, but you don't want to be overstimulated because you have very important work and very important things to do. Well, let me put you on what's in my cup, and that's Strong Coffee Company's Instant Latte and Collagen. This is a nutritionally complete, all-in-one coffee mix.

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37:44 - Emily (Guest) We'll say daily work is showing up for myself and then showing up for other people and and being honest, and that's daily. It's the best personal brands know themselves and they're willing to share it. I think you know, and so for me it's almost like this is like keeping me accountable.

38:07 My personal brand keeps me accountable. It really does. And you know, because I want to help people, it's like it's constantly keeping me on that path and once you start to build it and you have people counting on you, it's like the best accountability and that even me. I'll be like yo. It's been a couple of days I haven't been able. You know here's what I'm dealing with, whatever. So they know I'm human, you know, yeah, yeah. So it's like this daily thing. But for me it goes back to leadership. I got to work out, I got to read, I got to. You know what I mean. I got to put the work in and be that example. If I'm ever going to preach anything. It's so important to me.

38:49 - Chase (Host) So then do you think other parts. So it sounds like there are many contributing little variables to your daily work. That makes up your personal brand and then are there things that maybe you're, like, top of mind, aware of or can think about. Oh, I really just check in on this part of my personal brand annually biannually, quarterly, whatever.

39:10 - Emily (Guest) Yeah Well, the the way the my philosophy, the way I teach personal brand is you are the brand, you have a business okay, but your business is not your brand. You are a human being, but you may have a business, and what a lot of people do is they'll start building their personal brand, but it's so business dominant that I'm like I don't know who you are. That's why, when I was explaining Tony Robbins, when you're asking me those questions like I would love to know deeper, not just expert Tony, but I would I want to see different little sides of him. And so, for me, I'm a businesswoman and I'm impact driven and I understand marketing. If you're talking about 50, 100 different things, a stranger is not going to follow you, but you need this overarching theme, this dominating thing that you're about, so that a stranger rolls on your page and they're like I don't know her, but I'm going to get something from her. It's like I'm going to learn about personal branding with my mindset. I'm going to. You know, she's obviously into transformation. It is not optional, it's essential. Like she's going to help me transform, Follow Right.

40:14 And so those are the things I check in on. What are my pillars what am I talking about? Did something change in my life? I'm no longer into something and no longer feels congruent, you know, and then I'll shift my content. Pillars based on businesses I'm building where and how. God is talking to me. Some things it's like old news, it's no longer is an alignment for me, so I'm just like okay, let's table that. You know, those are the things that I look in on probably every quarter.

40:44 - Chase (Host) Have you ever come across something that you know in this? You know daily or intermittent audit and you go this is no longer a part of my personal brand or this is no longer something I want to keep alive in my personal brand. So then, has that happened? Yes, and two, what do you do to kind of like let go of that? Because if your personal brand is what most people know you for and you're letting go of something that's probably got to land differently with people, right?

41:14 - Emily (Guest) Yeah. So transformation is the best business strategy. It's the best, and a brand that stays stagnant becomes irrelevant. None of us are going to be stagnant. You're about to be a dad. One of your content pillars is going to change because you're going to change.

41:32 - Chase (Host) Oh, it already has.

41:32 - Emily (Guest) I'm already talking about baby strollers, which is so beautiful, and I was just with a buddy of mine who's huge into business and I was coaching him and I'm like, tell me about your two daughters. And his whole face changed, his whole energy changed, and I'm like, bro, put that in your brand. Do you know how much like deeper you are right now than your little business tips? He was like okay, and I'm like, why don't you do that? And he's like I didn't think any of the guys wanted to ever hear, I'm like ever hear how to raise daughters, you know so, anyways, back to your original question, though has things shifted? Yeah, oh, my gosh, when, when I first started making money coming from no money I would post I took a fricking photo shoot with my Bentley. Who does that? I?

42:20 - Chase (Host) think a lot of people do honestly Dumb.

42:22 - Emily (Guest) No, but dumb. This Emily could give a shit less about that.

42:27 - Chase (Host) So why did that Emily need to do it?

42:29 - Emily (Guest) Because I needed validation and I needed in that area of my life. I wasn't healed from daddy trauma, so that was how I got validation and attention and approval. So clear to me now. But what's so beautiful, chase, is that I can say yo, look at this, who, why did I need to do this? I can die to myself and I have so much to go. I I did this cause I needed validation. That's why I I did this. That's why I took a photo shoot on ocean avenue in my Bentley with my freaking high heels and all the things like who did that give you validation?

43:08 in the moment. Yeah, yeah, but that was seven years ago. So so much. We change, we evolve, we grow, and that used to be like a big pillar of mine of like make money, and you know what I mean. Like now I'm like I'm just talking to you, I want to go to Italy and have just a couple of sundresses and just sit and drink coffee in the morning.

43:32 - Chase (Host) We're literally just talking before the report about just yeah, I'm ready to just like sell everything, move out and just. I don't care, be home base abroad.

43:40 - Emily (Guest) Yeah.

43:41 - Chase (Host) Yeah, that's so cool. I think I love hearing that. I love hearing that. For me, that's kind of the biggest telltale sign for somebody that you're at a point in your life and your business where you have such a at peace. Definition of success and success is the ability to even to even fathom that. You're at a point in your life to where you can just go. I think I could entertain the idea of doing that. And it's not some outlandish pie in the sky. Oh my God, how could this ever happen? Like you know how to make it happen, but you not only know how to make it happen, but like that equates to success yeah, in the same way.

44:21 Yeah, absolutely all right, so I'm ready to go.

44:23 We'll go in on a condo in italy or something yes, that sounds so good actually that's a running joke I have with our friends for years and I'm getting to a point now I really want to pitch everybody of like creating like a friend group, llc, going in on a like a broad home, and then we all have like a cause. We're all starting to have families and stuff now and how cool would it be for us all to have a devoted three, bet, two or three bedroom spot in like you know Paris or something, and then we just Airbnb it out so like it can serve our needs and also it can make us money.

44:56 - Emily (Guest) Genius. Yeah, sign me up and then it's all deduction anytime I travel. Yep.

45:00 - Chase (Host) I only give away all my tax secrets.

45:02 - Emily (Guest) Yeah.

45:06 - Chase (Host) I'm right there. So I heard another interview with you and I have a couple of quotes I pulled from you that I just love, and I would love to kind of remind you of them and have you expand on them.

45:14 - Emily (Guest) Okay.

45:15 - Chase (Host) I don't believe in having enemies.

45:17 - Emily (Guest) I don't believe in having enemies? Yeah, I don't.

45:20 - Chase (Host) What do you mean by that? What does that look like? How do you go through life in a successful business and not create or not keep or not even entertain enemies?

45:38 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, when someone pisses us off or betrays us or hurts us, a lot of times they go into the enemy category. And when we hate, there's an oppression attached to that and it actually does more damage for me than it does for them. And so, whether it's my father we're talking about, or a business partner who stole money from me, or whatever it does, Does that?

45:55 happen. Yes, I don't want to hate another human being. I don't want to have an enemy, I want to have peace. At the end of the day, like, what good is it for keeping an enemy? It doesn't mean that I have to be friends with them, it doesn't mean that I would ever spend time with them, but it just means like there's peace and love there. And if anything were to ever happen, I don't want there to be any hate or animosity and life is too short and I just want to love and forgive and even if it's just for me, right, it's just there's. There's a higher frequency to that and I just I don't. I don't want any drama in my life. And it doesn't mean there's not problems. You know problems are just lessons that I need to learn and you know I just look at problems differently as well.

46:48 - Chase (Host) So would you be willing to share the dollar amount that was stolen from you by a business partner? Was it a business partner or someone, someone took money from you.

46:57 - Emily (Guest) How much was it? Yeah, it was a little over a million dollars and you have no animosity towards this person no, I mean forgave.

47:06 - Chase (Host) Forgave this person take us to the moment you realize there's a million dollars missing in my bank account and I know, plus a bunch of headaches, plus much headache.

47:17 - Emily (Guest) So what was that? So what was?

47:18 - Chase (Host) that emotion? What was it like the day of? And then? How did you get to forgiveness?

47:21 - Emily (Guest) Oh, I had like a spaz attack, trauma, couldn't breathe, anger, I mean every human emotion, and I want to make that abundantly clear. I'm not over here like peace. You know. Peace, love, rock and roll, Like no, I was tripping Okay, don't make me mad Tripping and I went through every level of emotion of why did you lie, Like anger, sadness, all of it, and that did linger for a good amount of months as we were like figuring things out.

47:56 - Chase (Host) Did that cripple the business, or was it just? I mean, it's still a large amount of money.

47:59 - Emily (Guest) It crippled me and then I cripple the business, or was it? I mean, it's still a large amount of money. It crippled me and I, and then I crippled the business because it crippled you and then you crippled the business, yeah.

48:06 Cause I'm the leader, and so I wasn't able to focus. When you have drama, drama steals your strength so much. When you have any bit of it, it takes your attention from what you have to what you don't have Right, and so where attention goes, energy flows, and my attention was then now on what I didn't have. It was how am I going to kill this mother trucker and I'm just kidding, you know like it was like it was all the things, it was conversations about it.

48:37 It was drama, drama, drama. And I don't do drama very well, I'm made for impact, I'm not made for these tiny well, this one was a big problem, and so for me I had to really realize, you know, after this person was deeply sorry, but living in their own little denial, it was like, oh, it was a whole thing.

48:59 - Chase (Host) Sorry, I stole a million dollars.

49:00 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, and a cool story.

49:05 Right, and there was every excuse under the sun. And I just realized, like Emily, you have the skills to make it back. And then some, you have the you, you, you. God gave you skills Like I learned, and that's the thing when you learn how to create and when you learn like you could put me in the middle of the street and I could find my way. Like dude, I'm from the farm, I can, you know, I can chop wood and carry water all day long. I'm from the freaking tundra, like I can milk cows. You know what I'm like. Am I going to waste another? You know, six months on this and then hating this person that I want to. I want to get everybody else to hate them too, like that's what people do, they recruit people to do. And I'm like no, this person has something mentally wrong with them, they need help. That's really what this boils down to, and so I took that approach of you need some serious help, sent them one of the best therapists that I know.

50:05 - Chase (Host) You sent the person who stole a million dollars from you and your business help. You sent them a therapist.

50:11 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, I said, please get help.

50:13 - Chase (Host) Unreal.

50:14 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, and that's just going to like do so much for you and you know, yeah, but that that took a lot, you know, and that didn't happen in the first 24 hours. It took me a few months and then, you know, I just realized, you know it's not happening to me, it's happening for me and let's move on.

50:33 - Chase (Host) How quick or how long did it take you, financially or in the business, to bounce back from that million dollar loss?

50:42 - Emily (Guest) I built a different thing. So that's what I do. I just I just find a different door. You know what I mean. And so, yeah, it actually caused me, caused me to step it up a little bit, because I got kind of comfortable.

50:56 - Chase (Host) Would you say you're grateful for that person taking a million dollars?

50:59 - Emily (Guest) I actually kind of yes, wow, I feel like we're in therapy. I am grateful this is a billable hour.

51:04 - Chase (Host) Yeah, yeah.

51:05 - Emily (Guest) No, I truly am grateful, I really am.

51:10 - Chase (Host) I'm with you, I'm a. I've never had someone steal a million dollars from me but, um, I was sharing with you earlier, or actually I don't know if I shared this. Ever forward is the mantra of my late father. He passed away in 2005. And this is how I kind of continue on his legacy, and now it's kind of turned into my own thing, my own meaning.

51:27 - Emily (Guest) So cool.

51:28 - Chase (Host) And so I am at a point where I'm I'm grateful for my dad dying, I'm grateful for knowing that loss, and I'm grateful for having such an incredible father to instill something in me so meaningful in the first 19 years of my life that it has now lived on another 19 years with him not around.

51:50 - Emily (Guest) Wow, that's so beautiful.

51:52 - Chase (Host) Yeah.

51:53 - Emily (Guest) Did you see? You had a close relationship to him, extremely close, really, yeah, losing him wrecked my life for 12, 13 years. Yeah.

52:03 - Chase (Host) Yeah, but I would not be here doing ever forward radio. I would not be here without that loss.

52:10 - Emily (Guest) Right, and when he passed, like, did it really cause you to go so deep?

52:15 - Chase (Host) Oh yeah, I was. I had. At that point when he passed I was already active duty for about a year or so. So I was, you know, 1000s of miles away in the middle of my army career and, just you know, literally hit the ground running going back to duty. After he passed, I got emergency leave to come home, came back about after a week of like the funeral and stuff, and then it was, just, you know, back to army chase for the next four years.

52:42 - Emily (Guest) Was it hard to heal. And then when you're serving the country, like and during service.

52:49 - Chase (Host) No, because I was so uh, uh, enable to process those emotions and I was so um, so busy and so focused and like, literally working on like the craziest missions and things. And, like you know, we were a nation at war and so I was just, you know, I couldn't be distracted. I didn't have the luxury of distraction, because if I was, then that could be life or death of me or other people or, you know, loss of career or just like extreme, severe penalties for not being here and not stuffing everything else down. So that worked for me for years until it didn't. And then it began to rear its ugly head in the form of, you know, panic attacks, ptsd, even physical health problems and, just unbeknownst to me, just why is my life falling apart?

53:42 And then I was like, oh yeah, I haven't addressed the biggest traumatic event in my life in 13 years?

53:46 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, Wow, so powerful. What tools did you use to to start to heal?

53:53 - Chase (Host) You know it started off pretty simple. I literally just began to look up self-help books. I began to just I guess you could call it journaling, brain dumping. I did. I just got a notebook and began to just write out thoughts and that next thing you know I'm just oh, streams of consciousness.

54:10 - Emily (Guest) Like where did this?

54:11 - Chase (Host) come from. Where did this come?

54:12 - Emily (Guest) from.

54:12 - Chase (Host) And then I kind of snowballed into a self-help you know, podcasts and going to conferences and getting back into regular therapy, mental health help, um, but also really just opening up to people. I began to really share with my close family members and close friends what I was going through, you know letting, letting that kind of floodgate open with my brother and my mother and my then girlfriend, now wife and kind of just letting the right people in to let me know that this is I'm getting goosebumps.

54:42 To like this is a safe time and space. To like go about that.

54:47 - Emily (Guest) So beautiful.

54:48 - Chase (Host) And then you know years later, after kind of doing that, I say not easy but simple work, you know very minimal time, minimal resources to years later going into very intensive therapy modalities psychedelic assisted therapy, um, just like the deep end kind of stuff. But only after I got to a level of readiness.

55:07 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, entry level, and then you went deep. Yeah, yeah.

55:12 - Chase (Host) Yeah, um, a couple more questions here as we kind of get towards the end. This is you're so easy to talk to this.

55:18 - Emily (Guest) You're such an open book.

55:19 - Chase (Host) I appreciate that always yeah people are not numbers, but it is a numbers game another emily ford original. Yeah, what do you mean by that?

55:29 - Emily (Guest) well, this was a sales quote in business and I have taught sales teams for over a decade and people get really hung up on this person said no, and you know whether we're trying to get clients to rent out the podcast studio or you know, get a brand deal or sell something or whatever. You know it's like people get so hung up and so what I always share with my teams and people it's like listen, this is a human heart in front of you. They matter, okay, but there, no, it's not a reflection of you. Just keep moving forward, go for no, and just just so you know it's. It's how many? How many times are you at bat? You know whether someone wants to be a speaker and they're trying to get gigs and, like, I did a call on the way here with someone wanting to be a speaker and I said well, how many times have you pitched yourself? How many times on LinkedIn have you reached out to corporations? How many times have you tried to get with an agent or just move forward? How many times have you actually recorded yourself speak? So it's like, again, it's a numbers game. It's the reps. It's the reps. It's the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours. It's the Steph Curry practicing the free throw and no one's there, like you have to put in the reps.

56:45 And in my first business, the reason I was able to grow so fast is because I just condensed timeframes and I was able to make the main thing, the main thing, which was I need people to do business with and I could sit here and I could draw this out over 10 years and go so slow, or I could go really fast and just go through the numbers. I needed more times at bat, you know, and that's with any business I do or any you know thing I'm trying to accomplish. It's like you need more reps. Are you willing to do it in the dark? Are you willing to do it when no one's watching? And that's why, with social, I love social media, but sometimes I'm like you don't see how many times and how many like I gave a presentation in a janitor's closet, inspiring, you know, two women you know, it's just like practice right.

57:38 - Chase (Host) Yeah, I love hearing that from people. This I can kind of tell very quickly. Um, for lack of a better term, I'll say who has it and who doesn't, or like the, the work ethic you have behind what you're trying to do is if someone asked me, chase, how do you do this versus? Here's what I have tried.

58:00 - Emily (Guest) Yeah.

58:01 - Chase (Host) Where can I go from here If you're leading with looking for an answer, leading with looking for a handout, leading with just an expectation that I can just ask someone who is a step or a thousand steps ahead of me and that I'm just going to get the a step or a thousand steps ahead of me and then I'm just going to get the answer, versus sharing with them, letting them know? I'm not saying, give me your whole life history, but here's what I've done.

58:22 - Emily (Guest) Yeah.

58:22 - Chase (Host) That, I think, is getting me closer to where I want to be, but not quite there. Yeah, I need to know what you've done and what you've tried, not what handout you're looking for.

58:31 - Emily (Guest) Exactly, and so many people come with this energy of get the what can I? You know, and I'm like so many times when I get pitches in the DMs for business things or whatever, I'm like if I can help you rephrase this you're such a needy energy attitude, you know, it's like having the mindset of what can I do for you instead of what can I get from you.

58:52 It's just it's like this little micro tweak, but it's everything you know and it's it's that mindset. But we live in this instant gratification, microwave society. I need it now kind of thing, and it's like you have to play the long game.

59:09 - Chase (Host) The infinite game. Yeah, exactly. If I were to ask you how successful have you been in your professional life, how would you answer that question?

59:22 - Emily (Guest) I've been decent, but I hardly touch the surface of what I'm going to do, and I know that.

59:29 - Chase (Host) How do you measure your form of success? How?

59:33 - Emily (Guest) do you measure your form of success, my growth rate personally and my capabilities as a human being not by money, but by my capacity? And so I know that God gave me this overabundant level of capacity to grow and to experience myself and my heart and what I can do for other people. And I am chasing my potential. I really am, and so I do believe I say this all the time the minute you think you've arrived, you have truly begun your decline, and I just know that I've just scratched the surface, because I just keep trying to get better, like I keep trying to understand more, I keep trying to hear people more, I keep trying to be more creative, like I mean I'm exploring all, like it's just always stay curious and stay humble. And I've only scratched the surface, and I just know that, like you know, and I just want to do more so I can give more.

01:00:37 - Chase (Host) Yeah.

01:00:38 - Emily (Guest) And yeah.

01:00:40 - Chase (Host) I love that answer Getting the party started, so we kind of touched on it throughout the conversation. Um personal brand branding, that's your area of specialty. That's really what you do and you know your core offer. You know. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when we say personal brand, how do you define that and where do you think people are going wrong in their personal brand?

01:01:05 - Emily (Guest) Every single one of us has a personal brand and it's what people perceive of us. It's what other people say about you when you're not in the room, and we have this ability with social media, with having a digital footprint, to, yes, control what people see of us and perceive of us. So whatever we put out is what people perceive. Whatever we don't put out is what they just don't know about you. And so building your personal brand whether you're a doctor or if you're someone that's like I'm a stay at home mom, I don't really know what I want to do it's so important because I don't know in your life when something new is going to come out of you, a new business is going to be birthed or a new thing's going to happen, and your personal brand is like your built-in network that's free free that you can use to A monetize or B impact or even C just learn how to self-express. It's very healthy for all of us to self-express and to use our personal brand as like that art form, that outlet. I think there's a stat that says 74% of people nowadays they look at your personal brand before they look to you, even if you're a doctor, if you're a realtor. So this is huge. I don't know why people are sleeping on personal brand.

01:02:25 Now a lot of people come to me. I just was on a call yesterday with a huge fitness chick and she's like I built my whole identity on helping women with weight loss. And she's like I built my whole identity on helping women with weight loss. And she's like my whole feed is all about weight loss. And she goes I'm so sick of talking about weight loss. She's like I thought she was going to cry and I'm like well, you built your whole personal brand on your business. Your business is an extension of you. What you do for them is one of your offers, but it's not who you are. It's okay, calm down. We're going to do a rebrand. We're now going to brand you. You're the brand, and we're going to implement other pillars that you are deeply passionate about that make no money, but people are going to gravitate towards you because they're going to know you. It's like how do you build trust?

01:03:13 - Chase (Host) I want to go deeper, right there, please. The making money part, I think, is where a lot of people get hung up about the personal brand aspect. If I introduce this part of my personal life as my personal brand, but I'm not pitching, I'm not having a hard call to action, it doesn't make me money, doesn't move the needle, then what am I doing?

01:03:34 - Emily (Guest) Yeah.

01:03:34 - Chase (Host) Would you agree with that? Or how should we kind of flip the script?

01:03:37 - Emily (Guest) I understand what they are thinking. I totally get it. But here's the deal. Nobody wants a pitch fest and nobody wants to be sold.

01:03:46 People want to trust you before they buy from you. So how do people trust you? By spending time with you and by learning from you. So if people spend time with you whether it's on a podcast and they're spending over seven hours with you and they're learning deeper who you really are when they see your day-to-day and not just you trying to sell them your offer they ultimately trust you more. When I know, oh, you're not perfect, You've made mistakes. You actually shared with me some very intimate details about your father and your life. I ultimately now I have a deeper trust with you, Chase, than I did even before, and so, when it comes to personal branding, we need to show these other things because it builds trust, and then it makes me lean in every five posts or whatever. When you do have something to sell, I'm like, oh, now I'll listen to you. It's also wildly attractive because you could be into me. I love style. Even if I was at home by myself all day, I'll sit in the corner and I'll put together an outfit.

01:04:51 - Chase (Host) You guys got to check the video video.

01:04:52 - Emily (Guest) She's got great style and I love I love helping women um on a budget, like you don't have to spend a lot of money, like you can piece things together, and I love helping people sharpen up their look on a budget. It's near and dear to my heart, because I started with nothing I could. I had to go to the consignment shop to buy, like a blazer. I didn't have money, and so I love teaching women this. And here I want to say this you're most powerfully positioned to serve who you once were. So everything I do is typically who I was five, 10 years ago.

01:05:22 That's why it burdens my heart, it's why I want to do it, it's why I want to share. And so, when it comes to personal brand, if you can mix up your passions, your interests, your skills and add value, the money is going to take care of itself. But if you are a sales pitch to me, if you were an infomercial to me, 24 seven, I will tune you out. I will not consume your content. Nobody wants to be sold. So that's why it's so important. And I think the game got a little blurred because we, you know, moved super fast. We moved from the information age to the relation age and people somehow are still in the information age, even though we're in the relation age.

01:06:02 - Chase (Host) I've never heard of this. What do you mean by this?

01:06:04 - Emily (Guest) So economically and marketing wise, the world has shifted. It used to be information Tell me you know how much what is in this product, and I want to know every freaking ingredient. Blah, blah, blah, information, information. Buy now, get these offer. You know what I mean. Like blah, blah, blah, blah blah, it was just like infomercials information, information. And now people want relation. I want to know who are you, I want to connect to you. You know millennials and younger?

01:06:39 - Chase (Host) they want to know if I'm going to this restaurant tonight or if I'm going to buy this new sweatshirt or this swag or this hoodie set. Who owns the company? Who do I like and who do I trust that has been here before? Worn this before? Yeah, what's their?

01:06:45 - Emily (Guest) beliefs? Are they giving a percentage back to charity? You know I'm not going to go there, I'm not going to buy, you know, uh, this hoodie if I'm not going to go there, I'm not going to buy this hoodie if I'm not into it. And so it's like those who dare to actually stand for something, they're going to see the growth in the build of their personal brands for their companies. Those that play Switzerland all the time and they're so vanilla are so boring. Nobody cares. People want to know where do you stand. And I'm not talking politics wise, I'm just talking what's your values? What? Who are you? And when you dare to show the real you and what you're about, you will attract the right people that eventually, if you have something to offer, are going to want to buy from you.

01:07:30 - Chase (Host) And that's how you stand out in a noisy market are going to want to buy from you, and that's how you stand out in a noisy market.

01:07:37 - Emily (Guest) That was an incredible response.

01:07:38 - Chase (Host) So well said. Thank you, a lot of great value there. As we kind of get towards the end here, before I get to my last question I want to get to. I know faith has a big part in your life and in your business and I don't know if you remember this, but when we first met the last time we met yeah, we were all in this room here in the studio.

01:07:55 he had wrapped up with the homie, michael Chernow, and kind of gotten into talking about faith yeah and spirituality and religion and connection to God, and I don't know if you remember this exactly and I'm kind of paraphrasing yeah but I believe Michael.

01:08:11 I walked in and Michael asked what is your? He was talking Chase, what's your relationship with God? How do you view God? Something along those parameters? And I believe I said something like this I think you are God, I think I'm God, I think God is everything and we were all connected to him, her, them.

01:08:31 We're all connected to each other as we are all equally connected to a source you know a higher power, ultimate level of consciousness, and I believe that connection and that highest level of consciousness is nothing more than love yeah and so that's kind of that was my, and I had never I haven't been asked that question in like a long, long time.

01:08:51 - Emily (Guest) I I had no precondition response yeah, that that just kind of came to me.

01:08:56 - Chase (Host) And that's coming from someone who grew up Southern Baptist, a Catholic dad, a very religious household, private Christian school from middle school, high school. So I grew up in the church. I read the Bible twice.

01:09:09 - Emily (Guest) Yeah.

01:09:09 - Chase (Host) Yeah, and so I it. Personally speaking, that's. That's kind of like my history with religion and connection to God and where I'm at now was or is this kind of more spiritual version. I absolutely feel like there is a higher power. God is, like I said, everywhere and everything, and that ultimately is love. How does that land on you?

01:09:31 - Emily (Guest) Yeah Well, I totally respect your opinion and how you feel. And God is love and we are called to love and I, I can feel love radiate from your heart and it's it's. It's so. It's so interesting to me because, like you, read the Bible twice and I'm trying to learn the Bible right now. Being a girl that didn't read the Bible, I didn't grow up with people like pouring on me like that. We went to a Catholic church a few times and I was scared out of my mind. I was like get me out of here, it's dark. And then they made me go into the confession booth and I was like, what's this guy going to do to me?

01:10:04 Literally like, like warmth covering over me, like why my mom would get beat up and we had to make up so many stories of like she'd had broken ribs and all this stuff and I didn't know if she was going to stay alive. At some points in my life in my early childhood, but I always had this warmth, this, this connection, and I didn't know what it was or who it was, you know like a connection of like everything's going to be all right. Yeah, like I, like, I just would have yeah.

01:10:39 Like I would talk and now I realized I was praying, you know, using my imagination. And then, you know, as I grew up and became an adult, I just realized I need God, I need something bigger than myself and for me, you know, I tried different churches and things like that. But when I went to LA and I went to this place called Mosaic, I was like wow, that don't feel like judged in here, it feels like everyone's just super human.

01:11:08 - Chase (Host) Is that like a non-denominational Christian? Yeah, it's Erwin McManus' church. He's freaking brilliant. He's one of the best communic McManus' church.

01:11:13 - Emily (Guest) He's freaking brilliant. He's one of the best communicators I've ever heard. He's such an artist. He's just amazing. And you know, people connect to people and messages in different ways and I really connected to him and I was at my really lowest of lows relationship-wise. It was when I came out to LA and I was trying to find myself and that's really where I had an encounter and for me it's just a relationship with the Lord, with. For me it's Jesus. He's my Lord and savior, and so I've just been on this process to learn about him. And the reason I'm super into Jesus is because I just feel like he, to your point, loved all people. And you know, I sometimes feel like in the religion world there's all these rules and shame and it's just so. I was so confused, chase, I was like you know I have friends that are like.

01:12:08 Mormon, and there's this and there's that, and like my mom could only marry my dad because he was Catholic and she was in love with another man, and like, granted, she got me out of the deal, but it was. It was a horrible. You know, just so much like weird stuff, right. And so I realized, wow, it's just, it's, it's me Like I do have a dad, because I felt abandoned my whole life. You know, I had another brother who passed away before I was born and under my dad's watch, and so when I was born, I was a complete accident and they didn't know if I was going to be a girl or a boy. I came out obviously a girl and my dad then said you know, like I'm done, he left my mom in the hospital because she had a girl yeah, and so left her in the hospital.

01:12:56 - Chase (Host) Like you're born.

01:12:56 - Emily (Guest) He's like I'm out so what my mom did wrong was when I was growing up she like told me this because she like obviously was mad at my dad, hated my daddy didn't pay child support, and so who tells your kid this? But I grew up literally like with this in my head, like you're not enough, you're a girl, you're this, you're that.

01:13:19 - Chase (Host) Probably like this. If I was a boy, my dad would still be here, yeah.

01:13:31 - Emily (Guest) And just like I just grew up with I was, I finally felt like I had a father a heavenly father that wouldn't abandon me and that, to me, has brought me peace beyond all understanding, and so I just believe God is love, god I'm forgiven. I used to walk in a lot of shame for things I didn't do to myself but were done to me, you know. And so I just love the, the values that come from walking, real Christianity, and you know it's just like anything in life. A lot of people make it, make good things look bad because we're human, you know. But that's, that's my belief system. And, yeah, I'm just growing every day closer to God and, to be quite honest, like when people ask me about like speaking and stuff, I'm like I just use all my power through God and I channel it and then I, as a conduit, yeah, and that's really been my secret sauce and you know, that's the principles I'm basing my life on that's beautiful.

01:14:34 - Chase (Host) It kind of reminds me of um. My dad was in the army as well. When he got out eventually wound up kind of opening up his own businesses with my stepmom. We were in the coffee house business. We had four or five coffee houses in a steakhouse back in Virginia and he had a mission statement printed out, framed in every location and I forget. You know it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, core values, customer service, all this stuff. And at the end he signed off almighty god owns the place, we just run it. Oh, he was. He was another kind of just like conduit yeah, that's beautiful.

01:15:08 - Emily (Guest) Yeah, there's something to that.

01:15:09 - Chase (Host) There is something to that's so beautiful my last question, speaking of pops, you know his mantra that he brought home from. You know this was a creed. His first unit in the military was ever forward. That's where he picked it up, and so it was something that he, he lived a breathe, modeled our entire life. And so this is why I ask everybody now I'm curious to get your interpretation ever forward those two words. What does that mean to you If I were to say I'm curious to get your interpretation ever forward those two words? What does that mean to you If I were to say Emily, how do you live a life ever forward.

01:15:39 - Emily (Guest) How would you answer that? Only forwards, not backwards. Focus on what's in front of you, not behind you, and that's how you're going to move faster in the world.

01:15:51 - Chase (Host) That's how you're going to have fulfillment, because progress equals happiness. For more information on everything you just heard, make sure to check this episode show notes or head to EverForwardRadio.com