You're Kind Of A Big Deal: Level Up by Unlocking Your Audacity- Erin King

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Fr. Aaron King, what's up, girl?

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Hey Sebastian, how's it going?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

It's fantastic. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Doing great. So psyched to talk to you and see you live. I think we met on Clubhouse a couple months ago, but it's fun to finally connect.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

We did.

unknown 0:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

It is Clubhouse. That's where all the cool kids are hanging out. But it is a, I gotta tell you, it's been a very, very good place to meet new people and build new relationships. And uh haven't quite figured out where it's gonna fit in with the rest of the world, but there is some activity there. Everyone seems to be an expert, and um, some days I love it, and some days I'm like, eh. But I see Clubhouse. Spotify came out with Green Room, so all these additional platforms talking about social audio. So it'll be interesting to see where it goes. So you're in full-blown book launch mode right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yes, sir, we sure are. We just came from a book tour on the East Coast and doing book clubs and and broadcast television interviews. I don't know if anyone watches broadcast television anymore, but if they do, we were on it and we're just signing books and slinging copies and having all the fun. So it's been pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I love it. I love it. So tell us about the book.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Well, it is a book about audacity. It's about leveling up how you show up to the world and being more concerned about what your intuition is saying and being more prepared for people's reactions when they're less go-girl and more no girl. So it's about overcoming that pushback and that negativity to elevate to the next level.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Is it strictly geared towards women or can guys read it too?

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Dudes can read it too. It is a pink cover. And the second word of the second word of the book is tampon. But other than that, it's it's the sec.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

I love it. You actually had a direct answer for like, can men actually read the book? So if you're listening to this, just getting started here. We're just about to dive into the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Talking tampon's 30 seconds in.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Exactly. Exactly. It's gonna be an exciting show here. I'm sitting down with my good friend Aaron King coming to us from the one and only beautiful Laguna Beach, talking about her brand new book, You're kind of a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yes, you are.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

And I get that a lot, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Good. You are.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yes, you are if you're listening to this. So, how did the concept for the book come about? This is this is book number two for you.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Book number two. My first book is Digital Persuasion, and I was talking about this book all over the world. It's it's a sales training book, a method called the Pub Method, Personal Useful, Brief, Digital Communication Strategies. And I was talking about them and I get off the stage, and all these gals would DM me on Instagram. And you know, you're a big Instagram guy. I started diving into the DMs and they were kind of talking about the content. Like they were like, that was great, I'm definitely gonna use it. But then they were asking all these other questions, like, how do you raise capital to start a company? How do you public speak? How do you do this and that? And I realized that wasn't even in my content. And I'm like, okay, listen to your customer. There's something else these gals want from me. So I took all the DMs from three years and I bought it down to the top nine topics that I was asked about the most. And those formed the basis of the chapters.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Look at that. You're just con talk about content being repurposed for the greater good of more content. In this case, traditional content. Who would have thought if I came to you 15 or 20 years ago and said, hey, Aaron, I've been collecting these digital messages. They could, they're called direct messages. You'll see a lot more of them as time progresses. But I'm actually, I've got a collection of them and I'm going to turn them into a book. You would look at me like I had 10 heads and boogers. This was, you know, 20, just two decades ago. Now it's the norm, you know?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yeah. Well, it's funny that you say that. You know, it's interesting to think about taking these rich dialogues that are happening on these social platforms and then almost going backwards with them and like, you know, migrating them to a more archaic traditional format. But does it bring, I think, a sense of relevance to sort of an old school, you know, analog method of communication.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

So Gary V wrote a freaking small Bible of Ask Gary V questions. And that thing, I mean, that was definitely his biggest, but I think it was gigantic. I remember he reached out, he's like, You want to buy some books? I bought like 15 books. I tell you, that box was heavy and I had giant books all over the place. And I legitimately was like four or five hundred pages of questions being answered about anything and everything that pertained to digital. So it's just incredible to see how I see a lot of podcast books being turned into podcasts and podcasts being turned into books. Somebody reached out to or somebody commented on my YouTube channel the other day and they said, I've got I've got a book, it's nine chapters, and those nine chapters are going to be the first nine episodes of my podcast, and I'm going to continue to build on it from there. So just such an exciting time to be alive in such an incredible way to be able to such a frictionless environment for us to be able to consume content while trying to mitigate the noise, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Yeah. And it's funny you brought Gary Vee, actually, because he's in the book. He's probably in like tension in most people's books.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Yeah, he's taken up a couple chapters in my books. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah. Well, it's funny. Actually, one of the second reason I wrote the book was because I was talking to one of my girlfriends who is a mutual friend of ours on Clubhouse, Laura Gastner Odding, who wrote this great book called Limitless. And she worked for the Clinton administration. She's like this 50-year-old jacked athlete with like a hundred children. And she's just like this cool, rad woman. And I was talking to her one day, and you know, she was just on Good Morning America with Robin, whatever her name is. And she's like big time. She's a big deal. And I was talking to her about public speaking, and she goes, God, I just want to get up there on stage sometimes, and I don't want to be perfect. I don't want to have this perfectly rehearsed takeoff and landing. I just want to get up there and rant. I just want to like go up there and go nuts, but I'm like afraid to do it. And I was like, well, why? Gary V goes up on stage and rants his face off, and people love it. And her immediate reaction, she goes, Well, I'm no Gary Vee. And I looked at her and I'm like, what are you talking about? You have the same pedigree as Gary Vee, maybe a better resume. Like all of a sudden it dawned on me. I'm like, the author of a book called The Limitless.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Even has limiting beliefs. And then I was like, if she struggles with it, I struggle with it. We all struggle with not thinking that we're Gary V enough when we are. Well, anyway, she ends up going and ranting, gets a standing ovation, she rocks it. It's one of the stories in the book where it's like, it doesn't matter if you're Gary Vee, the biggest badass, or you're struggling to find out who you are. Everyone in between needs a moment to be really intentional about questioning the stories we're telling ourselves, the narratives that we create and challenging how real or not they are to kind of break through and show up big. So that's one of the reasons I wrote the book as well, because it just stopped me in my tracks. I'm like, that is wild, right? So it's stories like that that are woven throughout the book to help women and a few good men kind of level up and and and really dig deep into what could be possible if we stop telling ourselves bullshit lies.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Sure. Right. Speaking to it from a different lens would be So what's the audience in the world missing out on? Because you are limiting yourself according to what your inner critic has to say, which by the way is an absolute liar. But the inner critic voice is loud and it's active and it's believable until we actually get in there and do it. There's not a time that I don't take the stage that I'm my knees aren't knocking and my palms aren't sweating. It's part of the gig, but you've got to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing. Are you on this stage to make yourself feel good? Are you on this stage to share a message and make others feel inspired and good about what you're talking about? There's a huge differentiator there. And I think that that two millimeter mindset shift can take place when we realize we're doing leaning, just like what happened with your friend to be able to get out there. First of all, none of us are Gary V. Gary has a talent that is one in and of itself unique, unique to Gary. Gary has the ability to just show up and just not give a fuck, like legitimately while while giving a fuck. So there's an ebb and flow there of being able to get up there and just relentless with your message because he's extremely passionate and he believes what he's talking about. Number one, number two, there is, and there's there's plenty of criticism. The amount of criticism that guy's gotten based on his word choice on stage and brands wanting to business with him and not he's just gotten to a point, you know, in the past few years where it's just been like it doesn't work, then it just doesn't work for you. Before, well, he was getting his career and building things and growing things, he kind of had to tailor things. But now, I mean, he's he's built an absolute empire based on authenticity. And I just think follow the roadmap. I met him about 11 years ago and he forever altered the path that I was on and really allowed me to step into this, you know, this space of I I am being heard, and I have a message to talk about, and people are here to be able to go and receive that. So yeah, if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking, I'm not getting on stage, are you crazy? But I got a message to talk about. Same thing happens to start a podcast. If you can't get on stage, you can't get behind the mic. Can't get behind the mic, can't get behind front of the camera. But what's what's the world missing out on?

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yeah, you know, I agree. And it's funny because this gal, Lara Gassner, odding our friend, she is also doesn't give a fuck. I mean, she gets up there and she just owns it. And so she's definitely like a female Gary Vee kind of vibe. And it's just anyway, but heard someone say this the other day. I forget, I think it was on club. I mean, I feel like I'm like pitching clubhouse. By the way, I haven't been on it for like two months. I don't know why I'm saying like I'm on it all the time. I was on it for a long time and then I took a break.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

It's common, it's common. Someone's verbiage these days.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yeah. Well, someone was saying like anyone who has never experienced imposter syndrome is actually for sure an imposter. Yeah. Like the people who never experience that imposter syndrome. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah, a psychopath, sure.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Right, a psychopath. It's interesting. Actually, I'm actually experiencing major imposter syndrome right now, even writing this book, because you know, my entire career I ran like a social media agency and I started a tampon delivery service, e-commerce. I had a web development agency. So I've been an entrepreneur for 15 years, working in digital marketing, sales, I've done sales training, marketing. So when I'm talking about, you know, what I know, I'm so confident because I'm like, I have a million stories, I've learned a million lessons, I've screwed up a million campaigns. Like I can just speak from real experience running all these campaigns from all these Fortune 100 companies. I'm so confident. Well, then I took the hard right and moved into kind of this mindset space, you know, guru, pink cover, go girl space.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Say by the bell.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

I'm constantly like, yeah, exactly. And I'm constantly like, gosh, do I have what it takes to belong here? Like, how dare I think I have anything to share with people? So I'm fighting it big time. And, you know, it's it's interesting. I'm speaking at the National Speakers Association event, Influence 20 days, and I'm the mainstage. I was about to say that on the main stage. I have even whoa. Yeah, and it's kind of crazy because it's like, it's like the you know, they're all like awesome people and they're all professional speakers. Oh, I know the crowd. I have not written this speech. I have not practiced it yet. I have no, because I've been working on the book and all this stuff. And so I've been so nervous and so freaked out, but I know that it's going to ultimately like fuel the experience. And like you said earlier, all I have to focus on is showing up to serve these people as best I can, palms up from the bottom of my heart with what I know. And as long as you do that, I don't believe it can go wrong. I'll let you know if that is true or not in 20 days. But I am sweating through my spanks at the thought of it. You should be.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

That's it's that's that listen, that is the stage. So we're talking 2,500 people that are peers. And that but I've seen two friends crush and get a CNN.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Now I'm getting more nervous.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

So here's here's here's a reassuring fact. I have two friends. You may know them. Jay Bear's one of them, and and Bruce Traquel is another one. Both of them absolutely crushed that stage and got a standing O. So it's enough to be able to crush the main stage in NSA, but to be able to get a standing O, usually you do. But girl, you got nothing to worry about. Why?

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Because you're Sebastian. Oh my gosh, yeah, Jay's the man. I was actually texting him the other day. We both had our first gig. Yes, so our first gig back after COVID the same day. And we were texting back and forth. I'm like, oh my gosh, it was so exciting, but like I kind of forgot how to do it. And it was like kind of weird, not just talking, like laughing at your own jokes and talking to a video camera, and they were like humans, and it was exciting, but whoa. And we were kind of catching up about the world coming back, which is really exciting. I mean, for our industry, especially, it's like thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Oh well, he's a he's a he's a great one to have on speed now to be like, hey, I'm hitting the NSA stage in 20 days. Any pointers, Jay? Oh, I need to message him. Good idea. That's a phenomenal. I like text him today. I I uh I I he wrote the forward for my first book. Oh, cool. And uh great friend and mentor. I'll never forget when I first met him, someone said, think about Jay Bear. He's always got time for you. And I thought and I learned the same thing with Gary. Gary told me that early on. Sebastian, always make time for people.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

I don't know how they do it.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

I feel like I can barely call my mom.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

I don't know how people have time. I mean, I guess they're just better time managers.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Meaning, meaning when you connect with them and you're in an event or you're at an after, you're at the you know, you're at the hotel bar, people see it ex at time. I'm not talking about like calendar or something, make time on there. But yeah, I want to say Jay's one of the smartest people I know. I've always said that. But I think the smartest people I know go, let's start with Jay Barrett.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

That's so nice.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Because the guy's, I mean, he's only been in the digital space since 1996.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

I love his story about the Budweiser, the case of Budweiser that he sold. Or he sold like Budweiser.com or beer.com or something to Budweiser for a case of beer back in the 90s. He had no idea it was worth like millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Yeah, right. Right. Well, that's exciting. Somebody, it's funny. This influence, it's the second time it's come up this week. Are you gonna go? Are you gonna be in Vegas in right now? What if it's in July?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

And I think by I think I mean I know. I think it's in like 17 days. I need to get my shit together immediately. I just haven't had time.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

That's a that's a that's a week long, that's a week long deal deal. Yeah, yeah. Like starts on like Tuesday and goes to like all ends with the gala, it's like a full blown. But you know what the cool part about NSA is that you are surrounded by your peers and within that environment.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

And people are really, yeah, and people are are really, it sounds really intimidating to be around all those big personalities, but people really are more generous than you would think. I mean, they really are. And some of my dearest friends in the world, I mean, Brian Panzo, Mike Ganino, Nean James, Tams and Webster, Tammy Evans, I can go on on like the greatest humans I've ever met. I met through NSA, Corey Pearlman. Oh my gosh. Like Jay introduced me to him. So if you are, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, because he wrote a book, he wrote a book about social media. He's like, I can't believe you guys don't know each other. You're in NSA too.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Corey and I will for like those friends, like, we will log some hours at Hotel Bar and just like, like, we'll just unpack life and then we won't talk till next year. And then we'll sit down and unpack life. It's like it's like the once-a-year, like the big download. And then for some reason, we just like won't talk all year. He's like one of my dearest friends, but I only really like have quality time. He's a dad, he's running around, but he's great. I love him.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

That's the power of NSA, though. You've got friends for life, and uh, I haven't been at a conference probably in four or five years now, but some incredible relationships out of the times that I did spend there and being able to really refine my craft. And I've had a ton of NSA speakers on the show as of late because I've connected with these other fellow MCs and people that are already within NSA and then I already know existing kind. But yeah, it's a powerful circle to run in. I may see you in Vegas, Aaron King. That sounds like a doesn't sound like a bad idea.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Cool. Yeah, and if you guys are listening and you're like, how do I become a public speaker? It's honestly the greatest first step. Like you can go and not even be a public speaker. You can just go and say, I want to understand this industry. I want to see what this is about. You don't have to be, you know, a Sebastian or J Bear or whoever. You can just go and meet people and explore and learn. And I mean, that's the first thing I did when I was kind of crossing over. I was like, I think I was speaking for like six months, and I was like, I'm just gonna go to this thing. Well, they had me do one of the breakouts, and I mean, they just bring you in right away. It's a really, it's not as intimidating as it sounds. It really is. It's good people.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Well, get ready to uh get ready to have an influx of business. Oddly enough. Because that's what's gonna happen. You get off stage and it's like, hey, I wanna talk, can we talk? Can we talk? Can we talk? Can we talk? Can we talk? Whatever it may be on the topic, whether it's I don't know what it is, but I've seen that happen several times. I'm sure his experience, Bruce Trackel, did it, and he ended up doing a weekend um like weekend like a retreat here in Miami and just brought everybody to his office, put them up for a couple days and just did a two-day or because he's like, There's no way I'm gonna be able to meet with everybody one-on-one. So it was a whole room. In fact, I spoke at that event and he had, I don't know, probably 15 people fly in, NSA peeps that just wanted to know more about branding and what it really, you know, what a little a peek behind the curtain. So I I'm fired up for you, Aaron King.

unknown 16:20

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

The main stage at NSA, that's that that is that is quite the accomplishment. I've got that's on the top of my goal as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Well, it's not well, let's let's let's talk after because I I have a lot of work to do in the next 20 days, 18 days or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

You're you're what we call a gnat.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

We'll we'll work it out.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Yeah. So um thanks. So so other than and you've had a lot of things going on. I mean, we just started talking about the book, it's been chit chat and whatnot. So what's what's the core focus of business right now? Or is there a couple irons in the fire?

SPEAKER_00 16:49

For my business, it's primarily primarily speaking. I mean, during the pandemic, we were slinging courses. So we got 10,000 students to enroll in the social media spa, which is like my half-day workshop to detox, clarify, and refresh your online messaging and your online presence. So that was really interesting. I mean, I learned Kajabi and I was in the Amy Porterfield thing and the Jenna Kutcher thing and email marketing. I mean, it was my nightmare, all the programming and the tech and the links and the things and the lives and the I mean, I'm so glad I ran myself through it because I feel like a better marketer because of it. But people that run full-time online course businesses, I'm like, hats off to you because it is a ton of work, but kept us going when events were, you know, going virtual. And you can't get that big, huge mainstage fee when you're, you know, doing smaller, no one wants to pay full price for like a Zoom. So it was definitely, you know, we all struggled to make it work. But now that events are coming back, it's just been a total focus on, you know, booking my keynotes and and creating sort of my new keynote for this new book. I mean, I have I have digital persuasion pretty dialed in. So I'm gonna talk about this at NSA because this is my comfort zone. But this is kind of being made into a keynote. And I I'm giving it for the first time at a travel conference in August, virtuoso travel conference. I dare you to do it at NSA. I've just been trying to pick out the right stories, you know? You know what?

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Speaking of Jay Bear, Mr. Turn My Keynote into a book. That guy is that's his, that's like his thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

You know, I know. And I pulled, so I pulled a bunch of people that I really respect, like Patrick Henry, who I really love, and and like just everyone. And all of the like people have done the main stage, everyone that did a custom, like new keynote, they were like, don't do it. Because like you have to go come from a place of like where you've had so many reps in. Like, because I've done this keynote, you know, it's getting better and better and better, but they're like, you want to bring the thing you've worked the hardest on, you know, for the longest time that's gotten the most reps. You want to bring like your greatest hits because when you get on that stage and everyone's a public speaker, they're like, no matter how confident you are, you're gonna be like peeing in your pants. So you need to have it like in your bones. So I hear what you're saying, but I'm gonna stick with my my job.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

No, no, no, don't. I retract that statement. I retract that recording. I trust my retract, I'm 100% in alignment. Yes, I'm going to retract that recommendation from the record. I thoroughly, I thoroughly support all of it. I did it. No, don't do it. It was the worst. I'm like, oh shoot. Yeah. It's like that slow-mo, like, no. Exactly. Exactly. Well, hey, listen, I'm excited to uh hopefully I see you live in in person. I can make it out to Vegas in 20 days. That'd be fantastic. And if not, but I look forward to hearing the recap of how it actually went. You're listening to this right now and you're like, man, I need to connect with this, Aaron King. You totally need to do that. All of her, all of not all of her contact information, but how to get in touch with her. Her links, link to the book, et cetera, is all going to be included in the show notes. That's the description of this episode, in case you're wondering what the hell a show note is. Aaron, so great to see you. It's almost in person. We're virtually in person here, but uh, we're almost in person. But I look forward to meeting you in in real life. I feel like I know you already because we run in some similar circles. So always great to add new tribe members to an existing tribe of awesome people that are doing some really cool stuff. I love the work that you're up to. You're definitely a big deal and so grateful for Clubhouse. We've had a chance to be able to connect here and talk about the book launch. I know it's a little crazy right now, so I'm glad you were able to get me on your calendar here to chat for a little while and I make it out to Laguna Beach. We're gonna have to uh we're gonna have to meet up.

SPEAKER_00 20:21

Heck yeah, let's do it. Thanks for having me, Sebastian. It was great to see you.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

It was great to see you too. Come back soon, will you?

SPEAKER_00 20:28

For sure. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Alrighty. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.