How to Build Brand Awareness by Investing in Merch with Jessica Higdon

My guest today is Jessica Higdon; Co-Founder of The Higdon Group - the number one network marketing training company that provides personal branding and marketing strategies for home-based entrepreneurs. Featured in Inc. 5000 as one of America's fastest growing companies, The Higdon Group stands apart by always giving back.

Jessica is also the co-author of “Time Money Freedom” - a book she co-wrote with her husband Ray, her partner in business and in life. In it they provide 10 simple rules to redefine what’s possible and how anyone can radically reshape their life.

I invited Jessica to be a guest on my show to share her brave journey from living out of a car to running a multi-million dollar empire. I wanted to learn about her relationship  with money and how it has affected her success.  And I was curious to get her POV on the role merch plays in creating brand awareness.

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About Me
Hey there, I'm Joelly - the Branding Badass. My badass superpower is helping you build a brand that matters. From branded merch to brand consulting, when you work with me, you get results!

Need help creating brand awareness?
Learn more here BADASS MERCH

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website - BrandingMatters.ca
email - jgoodson@genumark.com

Transcript

Joelly Goodson : 0:10

Hi I'm Joelly, your Branding Badass and welcome to season two of Branding Matters. My guest today is Jessica Higdon; Co-Founder of The Higdon Group, the number one networking marketing training company that provides personal branding and marketing strategies for home based entrepreneurs. Featured in Inc 5000 as one of America's fastest growing companies, The Higdon Group stands apart by always giving back. Jessica is also the co-author of "Time. Money. Freedom", a book she co-wrote with her husband Ray, her partner in business and in life. In it they provide 10 simple rules to redefine what's possible, and how anyone can radically reshape their life. I invited Jessica to be guest on my show today to share her brave journey from living out of a car to running a multi million dollar empire. I wanted to learn about her relationship with money and how it's affected her success. And I was curious to get her point of view on the role SWAG plays in creating awareness. Jessica, I'm so honored to have you with us here today. Welcome to Branding Matters.

Jessica Higdon: 1:20

Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here. It's exciting.

Joelly Goodson : 1:24

Oh, it's really great to have you here as well. Before we get in, I noticed your T shirt. I'm all about T shirts. What does your T shirts say?

Jessica Higdon: 1:32

It says Super Spreader of love light, truth and gratitude.

Joelly Goodson : 1:37

Now that's a super spreader. Well, it looks good on you. I like that color. Oh, okay, so I want to dive right in. I read your book, by the way. Great book. I loved it so much. How was it writing a book with your husband?

Jessica Higdon: 1:53

Um, you know, we work really well together, we each have different things to bring to the table. So it's a it actually flows pretty smoothly. The only time that we have conflict when doing a project together is when our visions aren't the same. But for this, our vision was really the same. So it was it was pretty, pretty simple, pretty easy.

Joelly Goodson : 2:13

I really, I didn't know much about your story. So I found it really interesting when I read it to learn more about you. And so grew up from a single mom who had money, and then she lost all her money, which full disclosure, I can relate to I you know, personally, I went through I was married and went through a divorce and I made a lot of money. And then I lost all my money. And so I have two boys. And so I was really interested how it affected you. So can you share a bit about your childhood and how that experience affected you and how it affected your relationship with money?

Jessica Higdon: 2:42

Yeah, absolutely. When I was about 11 years old, first of all, when, earlier in my life, when I was growing up, we had a very comfortable lifestyle, which I think made the whole circumstance even harder. We had a big home, I never wanted for anything I remember had, I had this big corner of stuffed animal toys in the corner and just had a had a great life. And all of a sudden, my mom started acting differently. And as a kid, you pick up on those things. And I didn't know why. And then a police officer came to our house several times and I I didn't understand why Well, lo and behold, we had been foreclosed on, which obviously I get that now. And she had lost her job and didn't know how to land back on our feet. And so we literally lost everything. So we were in and out of it started with apartments in and out of different places, then went to motels then cars. So it just kind of progressively got worse. And there were times where I didn't the only thing I had to eat was one pack of hot dogs for the week. And that was it. So it you don't realize as a kid, you don't know what's not normal, right? To me, that was just, oh, this is how life is now and I didn't really get what was happening. But as an adult, I now realize how going through that experience made me so fearful of losing everything. And it taught me two things. Number one, I'm grateful because it taught me to push harder to have the lifestyle I want and never have that happen again. So for a long time, I was working really, really hard, pushing really, really hard, not out of hey, I love doing this. And this is amazing, but out of fear, because I didn't want to end up in that situation again, or my kids end up in that situation ever again. So that was stressful. Even though we were making a bunch of money. That was that was pretty stressful. And then once we made a bunch of money, it's not like that feeling ever goes away. And so I had to take a step back and say wait a minute. It doesn't matter how much money you make. You're always going to have that feeling with you if you don't deal with it and come And so the more money we made, the more fearful I became of losing it. And the more fearful the more I courted the more the more self sabotage I engaged in. And so my childhood experiences really taught me that if you have everything in the world, you could always lose it. And it was embarrassing. That was the most embarrassing thing to me in the world, not being poor, not never having money. To me, it was making a bunch of money. And then losing it all was the worst thing that could happen because I saw what I would my mom had gone through and the friendships she lost the family issues we had, and you know, she would borrow money over here. And so I can share the the good part and how I got through that. But that's, that's where my childhood really had an impact on me as an adult. And it came to a crashing halt when I realized how ft up for lack of a better term, I really was how screwed up I really was.

Joelly Goodson : 5:59

I'm curious to know, so your mom, she was a single mom, how old were you when your parents split?

Jessica Higdon: 6:04

My parents were never married. So my dad, she was always a single mom. And my dad was in the picture, I was very lucky to have that role model. Because he was very wealthy. And he was kind of like my security blanket. However, I didn't understand as a child, I understand now as an adult, but I didn't understand his child why he wasn't helping her more. Because we're living in and out of cars and things like that. And come to find out he really had no idea. So I had those two dynamics going for me. But she she had a lot on our plate. She had a lot on our plate.

Joelly Goodson : 6:40

No, I can relate to that. And I mean, I think probably big thing. There is shame, right? You talked about that. I mean, making it when you don't have it, we've never had it, you have no idea. You don't know anything different. That's just where you are. But when you've had it, and then you lose it. And I'm not kidding. I went through experience, like the shame is terrible. And you think I'm such a loser, like, what is it about me? How did I go from there to here? And then what I find niching? Is that how it affects my kids to want to hear you talking about how it affected you I think about I have two teenage boys, right. And I think how it's affected them. So I think what you share in your book is really valuable and really important. So why do you think our relationship with money is so essential, both in business and in our personal life?

Jessica Higdon: 7:19

Well, thank you for sharing that. Number one, I'm so glad it's helping. And by the way, I my mom and I are very close. And so it's I don't blame her for me. Oh, for sure. And I am with my boys too. I just you know, your mother, I hear your story. And I hear you know, what, a lot of who we are today. And I mean, Ray and I had the same conversation. I mean, his was very negative, unfortunately. But how what happens to us when we're children, it affects us as adults, you know, people, but it's the roadmap to how we become who we are today. Right? 1,000%. And it served me more than hurt me, I think in a lot of ways. But I wanted you to know that personally, because I think as a mom, that's good to know, you know, we're very close. And I don't blame her for what happened.

Joelly Goodson : 8:01

Yeah, yeah. Some of the guilt, right?

Jessica Higdon: 8:05

Totally, totally. But when you are focused on finances, and especially if you don't have any, if you're struggling, it's nine times out of 10. Your relationship with money, money is just energy, it's just a flow. It's just a way that we conduct goods and services, right. But when you put almost too much importance on it, which is kind of counterintuitive, right? People say well, you if you want to make money, you got to really, you know, focus on it and concentrate on it, really make it your whole world. And when you do that, you put too much importance on it. It tends to flow out of our lives. I don't know if you've experienced that. But I certainly have. But when you're having fun, and you're enjoying working hard for it, and you realize that it is just energy. And you you you almost put less importance on it than the impact of the work that you're doing. It flows to you 10 times more. I'm not saying that you can't make money by working really, really hard. But what I am saying is that you'll burn out and so your relationship with money is extremely important, not only for when you don't have any, but also when you have a lot of it because you can you can lose it by focusing too much on losing it or too much on importance on it. Your relationship to money brings up a lot of things, not just with your financial world and your business world, but in your personal life. It shows up everywhere because money as a society has become kind of the overarching, most important thing, right? So whatever you think the first word that comes to you when you think of money, what is it, write it down, don't even hesitate. Don't think of that stupid, that can't be it. That's not the first word when it comes to money, write it down. And whatever that word is, know that you can dig deeper there and there's probably a layer underneath that you need to work on both financially and personally. And once you clear that, and it's constant, right? You're never like, okay, I'm good, I'm clear, everything's great. It's a constant thing you have to work on. Because it is such a big, personal deep issue that we faced from childhood. But once you are aware of it, it makes your life so much easier. I promise you in clearing that becomes simple.

Joelly Goodson : 10:23

Yeah, it's interesting. I had a guest on recently, he's a Harvard Business School professor. And he was telling me about an interview he did with Deepak Chopra, if I pronounced Yeah. And they talked about the phrase, you know, "Your net worth equals your self worth". And he was disagreeing with that, you know, he's saying that is not the case. You know, a lot of people think that's the case. But it's actually not your self worth comes from so many more other things in your life other than that, and I think people get that misconstrued, right, that's what they think we think that you know, more money you make, the more successful and happy you're going to be. And he completely said, that's not the case at all. If anything, it could be the opposite.

Jessica Higdon: 10:59

I totally agree with that. There's so much more, you know, I always think about what's the worst that can happen? And can I live through it? And if the answer is yes, then it instantly places less importance on it. And it makes it more fun.

Joelly Goodson : 11:15

What's the worst case scenario? If you can actually put yourself in there? It's never as bad as you think it's going to be right?

Unknown: 11:20

It's not? I mean, could you if you're going to risk something in your business or in your personal life? Or maybe let's say you want to leave your job and become an entrepreneur? What's the worst that can happen? Well, I can sell my house and I end up living in this teeny tiny apartment for the next six to eight months, you know, or, well, I can, I don't have to buy this new car over here. And as long as it's, I'm won't be able to eat or drink and I'll die. Right?

Joelly Goodson : 11:50

Oh, yeah. No, I do that a lot. When I when I'm about to make a decision. I always like walk through like, Okay, what's the worst that could happen? And then I think it's really not that bad. I'm a bit of a risk taker, though. So I do, I'll do a lot of things because I never want to say shoulda, woulda, coulda right here. And so what was your first job at university?

Unknown: 12:07

I was working at an insurance company.

Joelly Goodson : 12:10

Were you working in marketing? Or what were you doing there? Actually, they threw me into accounting, which I thought was odd. Because I know nothing about accounting, that wasn't my degree. They throw me in, like, they just throw me into these numbers. And what this gave me is it really gave me the ability to adapt, because they threw me into this situation, I had no idea how to do accounting or what I was doing. But I learned, and it's very numbers driven, right. And then after that, I realized, okay, this is not what I want to be doing. And that company actually didn't make it. So like, I don't, I don't want to be doing this. And so I went to work for a makeup counter for a little bit. And that's where I met a lot of my, my first ever signups inside of my business at the time network marketing. And that's where I learned sales in a big way. So that's what I was gonna ask you. So then how did you go from that? How did you make the leap from that into Direct Sales?

Unknown: 13:08

Yeah, I had a friend from the insurance company that came to me and said, Hey, you gotta, you gotta try these products. And so I did. I didn't understand the model at all. I just looked at it and said, Oh, this makes sense. To me. I didn't have any stigma. I was young. I it just made sense. And of course, I had, I showed it to my dad, who was a mentor for me at the time, very successful. And he's like, I don't do that pyramid, pyramid pyramid, all these things that you you hear, of course, now he's my biggest fan, right? But back then, he was like, No, you're never gonna make any money. Don't do that. And I was like, Okay, well, that must be a challenge. So I decided, I accept Challenge accepted. I decided to do it anyway. And then later down the road, I switched companies when Ray became SEC successful in, in the one that we were in together and then but I had my own position and built that one up.

Joelly Goodson : 14:03

You say built that up. I think that's a bit of an understatement. Can you share a little about your success. You were how old 21 at the time?

Jessica Higdon: 14:10

Mm hmm. I was 21. And I actually didn't like social media at the time. I thought it was a waste of time. I thought it was just a place people went to post what they had for lunch that day. And I'm like, Why? Why don't people?

Joelly Goodson : 14:24

Can you give a timeline here? So what what year are we talking when you started?

Jessica Higdon: 14:28

Okay, so that was, oh you have to throw years at me.

Joelly Goodson : 14:31

I'm just trying to give some perspective, because the world has changed. Right?

Jessica Higdon: 14:36

Oh, completely completely. So that was 13 years ago. Okay. Yeah, 13 years ago. So this was back when Facebook was just starting to be a thing. There was no Facebook Lives. They didn't have groups. There was no Instagram. There wasn't all the cool stuff that you can do with it today. There wasn't even ads. It was just like, this is where people go to post stuff and MySpace is just kind of phased out. If that's the timeline we're talking about here. Yeah. So but I saw people making money on it, like people who are building a business on it. And I thought, well, that's interesting. Because all my friends, all my family, they all think that I'm like, this cute little girl with this little business who's never gonna make it right. And, and that was kind of bringing my embarrassment from my childhood back all over again. So I had this, okay, I'll show you you'll see attitude. And I'm like, let me try me try looking into this Facebook thing. So I dove into Facebook, and I actually took a course, I don't even remember the guy's name. Now, I wish I could give him credit. But I don't, he's not around anymore. But I took a little course this guy had been doing sales on Facebook for insurance. And I thought, well, that's kind of cool. And I just started building my network. That was my number one goal. And still to this day, that's what we teach people to do is your number one goal is to grow your numbers. And there's a lot of different ways that you can do that. But whether it's online or offline, you need to grow your network each and every day. And so that was my goal each and every day was just to grow my network, a few more friends, a few more conversations. And eventually, it took me a little while. But eventually I started doing videos. And that's a whole other topic. But long story short, six months of no signups no success. But I just kept filling the pipeline, switching it up testing and tracking, having fun with it instead of trying to stress about it. And six months, I got one of my first signups after that couple months later, I recruited a guy who put in over $250,000 worth of volume into my business within a month, and then at 23, ended up making six figures. And then almost 24 became the number one female income earner of that company and went on to start training on that as well.

Joelly Goodson : 17:01

Wow, that's quite a quite a story. It's amazing how everything lines up. I mean, timing is really important. Because like we talked about, I mean, social media has changed so much. And you know, what I find really interesting, and I'm curious to get your opinion about this is there was a time when Facebook was pretty new and people were on there. Most of the people that were on there kind of social selling. I think we're direct sets, right as I think that's pretty fair to say, we're now and especially since COVID. I'm seeing all these traditional because everybody came online, everybody was in lockdown. We were all on social media, we're on lockdown. So now all businesses were doing what you were doing 15 years ago, and people like I don't use social media for selling, I use it to connect my friends. But now the whole world has changed. What's your take on that?

Jessica Higdon: 17:50

It's completely changed. I remember when Ray and I first started training on how we built a business via social media, we were the black sheep. Nobody was doing it. And in fact, most people were saying in the direct sales world at least Oh, that'll never duplicate, that'll never work, you'll see their businesses will crumble. And they just got bigger and bigger and bigger, because you can access so many more people. And when our training company hit Inc, 5000. A lot of direct sales companies started reaching out to us like, okay, what are these guys doing? And how are they doing it? So little by little, I saw more and more people opening up to to that where I think today, people have to be careful because of course social media, to me is the best way to do direct sales nowadays, I can't even imagine. And so many leaders tell me that even any entrepreneur that selling anything so many times,

Joelly Goodson : 18:46

Ya I think it's pretty much. It's social media, I think it's great for all entrepreneurs.

Jessica Higdon: 18:50

For all entrepreneurs, if you sell anything, I have so many people that tell me that they went door to door or they were doing meetings every night and they were exhausted and away from their kids and burnout. And now they just click a button, they go live or they do a zoom meeting or whatever. And they can stream it to the world and they have access to billions of people. It's just completely changed the game to make it much more doable for a lot of people. I will say the one thing that I think people need to be careful of is burning out of over information or overcome compare itis as we call it, comparing themselves to others and constantly trying something new, or trying to be better than everyone else. Not that you think you're better than everyone else. But you're trying to you're just chasing that next thing out there because you think oh, if they have that I have to have that. That's a big problem I've seen lately with social media because it is so vast there's so many different people so many different leadership's that you can follow now. You have to be careful of not burning yourself out and staying on your path. Having faith that it'll work and staying consistent.

Joelly Goodson : 19:58

Yeah, I love that. And I want to add to that too. I mean, in one sense, it's never been easier. But I say it's also never been more challenging. And this is where the branding aspect comes in, especially with COVID. I think it really exacerbated everything, because all of a sudden, everybody was on social media, it exploded. And so I mean, one of the impetus for me to start this podcast was there was a lot of foreign entrepreneurs out there, and you saw everybody, you know, I use this expression all the time, like vomiting all over social media and buy my product and buy my service with not really understand the concept of what it means to have a strong brand and also good social selling and branding. And when you have so many people on there, it becomes digital saturation, right? And so how do you stand out from everybody else that's on there. And that's where I talk about how the importance of branding is, and I know that you're one of your specialties is personal branding, because I think now that you're on social media, that's great, and you have an amazing product or service. But now how do you stand out from everybody else, so people will notice you, people will start to fall in love with you and trust you and want to build a relationship with you whether it's to join your business or to buy your product. That's why I brought you on today because I see what you're doing. You're so authentic and low that I've talked to you, you're exactly what you are when you're out on social media. So can you share a little bit about personal branding, and maybe some advice that you give to your audience and entrepreneurs, whether in the direct sales or not, because when I talked to Ray, I said the same thing, I think a lot of the things that he teaches and shares and I think same with you. It's not just in the direct sales industry, it's just equally as important for traditional businesses as well.

Jessica Higdon: 21:36

1,000%, they're one in the same for the most part, I think the major difference that we have is you need a lot of duplication, but a lot of sales organizations need that as well. So if you're selling you're selling, right, it doesn't matter if it's your product, or you're connected to a company or you're an affiliate, it just is what it is. But yeah, I love this question. Because I really like to direct it back to the person. And what they love to talk about and what they love to do. Nowadays, especially with like tick tock and reels and all these different options that you have, right, you can duplicate a reel, you can use the sound of somebody else's reel, and make it your own, or somebody else's tick tock and make it your own, and do a different twist to it, which is great. That's all fun. Also, there's so many people who are dance maniacs, and, and entertaining and funny. And there's all kinds of stuff where it brings us a lot of joy. And that's great. But if that's not you, please don't try and copy it and make it you because it's just not going to work long term. You now everybody's trying to go viral. Right. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think actually, that's a solid strategy. If you do some, you know, you play with the algorithm a little bit, you do some tactics that make you go viral. Great. But that's not long term, if you're trying to be a one hit wonder which nobody's ever trying to be a one hit wonder, right. But if you don't follow up with the same content, because you're just, that's not you or you're not passionate about it, you don't like it, you're gonna lose people really fast. We're in an add society today, you have to really have a reason for people to go back to your profile, your page, your stuff. And when you find what that reason is, it just makes branding and videos and content so much easier. It really, really does. Like, let's say your passion is design. But you're talking about health all the time. Because maybe your product is health related. Okay, let's just say there is a way to turn your design passion into sales for your health product. All you have to do is mention when you're you know, walking around picking out designs or whatever mentioned how great your energy is, you're just you're feeling great. Or take a picture of yourself in your new home with you know, all slim and slender, there's a lot of ways in your stories and translating it behind the scenes that you can still sell that product. But don't talk about health all the time if you if you hate it, or don't try and be like somebody who's successful if that's not your personality. And I think that's the biggest thing I can tell someone, especially nowadays is be you. Some people are like, well, I don't know what that means. I don't know what that looks like. That's okay, but just start playing around with different things. What do you gravitate to the most? What kind of content do you love the most? And if you really play with that, you'll see that it actually becomes a lot easier for you than trying to just constantly trick the algorithm because that's not going to build you a long term sustainable business. When you are doing something people come back to you for and most likely for a lot of us it's not entertainment, we are not all entertainers I can say Ray is definitely an entertainer. Hands down I am not, and it still works. It's just different. If you look at the greats out there, I mean, the people who have humongous followings and are really, really solid in their business, I don't mean just huge followings and you have no idea how much money they make or what they do, but are really solid in their business. Most of them are not copying other people's reels. I mean, they might once in a while for fun, they're not hacking into the algorithm. They're sharing what they love in an authentic way, and making it fun for the audience.

Joelly Goodson : 25:32

I think what you said right there hit the nail on the head is it's about being authentic and being yourself. And that goes back to brand new, because if you're trying to be like everybody else, and your reels, or your social media posts, or anything that you do with your brand, and your colors, you name it, I've seen that where I seen, you know, a post on, let's say, Instagram, and it's got a certain font and certain color and everything. And I think I know the brand. And then I look at who's posting it and like, Oh, that looks like those two other ones that I saw, then you're mixing it up, but when you stand out, so what I've told people is find out what you're I always say, you know, learn what your top three competitors are doing, like follow them, see what they're doing, see what they're posting, and then see what they're not doing that, you know, there's a hole there, and then lean into that. And that's what you should be doing. So you're sitting standing out, you're going to be different. Look, I'm 55 years old, I don't do dancing videos like I can't, you know, I'm not the millennial out there doing all those crazy dances. So I do whatever I'm comfortable with and what I want to do, right, and like you said, you know, Ray is Ray, and you're you and could you imagine if you try to do stuff that he was doing, how it would come across?

Jessica Higdon: 26:36

People can feel it, I can. And there's so many, there's some really big names actually, to that I follow. And I'm like this isn't you, I can feel it. This is not you. And it just it feels, it feels kind of icky to me, because I don't like the idea of people competing for attention, which, at the same time, you want to do that to a degree for your sales, but you should do it in an authentic way, like what is truly you and what you're going to have fun with.

Joelly Goodson : 27:06

Yeah, I mean, I'm going to challenge you on that. I think we are competing for people's attention. I mean, when you're on social media, I think unfortunately, that's just what's happening. But I agree with you, I think you can do it in a way that is just Just be yourself and share what you're passionate about everything you said, I totally agree with. I think that's what's gonna set you apart and then find something that's a little bit different that you're not seeing everything people do.

Jessica Higdon: 27:27

I think there's a balance, right? You have to you have to be competitive. I 1,000% agree we are we are competing for people's attention. What I don't want people to fall into the trap of is constantly doing what they do only to compete for people's attention, and not to actually fulfill what they want to do in their business and what's going to be fulfilling for them long term. How do I know that because I burnt out there was a point in my business where I was just so burnt out because I wasn't doing it how I wanted to do it. And when I switched and I started being, you know, I thought I had to be a certain way I thought I had to be honestly I thought I had to be more aggressive. I thought I had to be a more of an entertainer on stage, I thought I had to be all of these things, when in actuality, when I stepped into who I truly was, and shared that way more people could relate with that. And I just I never want people to fall into that trap. But it is important for you to really I love your idea of finding three competitors and falling into that portion or that hole, because that'll give you some ideas for maybe otherwise you wouldn't have had them and then turning that around spitting that to what would I do on a daily basis to stay consistent? How can I make this fun? How can I make it so that I love to do it each and every day?

Joelly Goodson : 28:46

Yeah. I love that. Because I always say it's all about the big F un because I work super hard, but I always try to put fun into it because that's what keeps me going and motivated. And yeah, I love that. Absolutely. No, that's great advice. Okay, so I want to switch gears for lowset for a second here. And I talked to Ray a little bit about this too. So I'm curious to get your point of view. You guys have some great swag you always have swag drops. So why do you think swag is so valuable? Such a valuable branding tool? And what advice would you give someone who's listening who's an entrepreneur or business owner as far as when they're looking to get swag, like how do you choose the swag that you choose? Because you guys have some great things.

Unknown: 29:23

Thank you Well, so I'm a big believer that things happen for a reason the right people will find you when you're ready. You don't necessarily have to go searching for them. And this has been true throughout my entire life. So I met this amazing lady just through her doing my nails and I actually met her through someone that had joined my team back when we were working in direct sales company. We sold our company since and only do coaching and training now but this lady had introduced me she wanted her to join the business so I met went and met with her to try and get her into the business fell in love with her. She also does nails so we just ended up becoming great friends. Well, lo and behold, I didn't realize that she had a sandal company. And she actually created a patent. And it was on QVC and has done all these amazing things and can source like pretty much anything that you need. And I started thinking about that. I'm like, what? You know, we've been I've known you for two years, and you never told me this, like, oh, yeah, like you were on QVC. Oh, yeah. And she showed me the clip and everything I'm like, that's super hard to get on. Right? So we happen to just coincidentally right, I put that in quotations. Nothing's coincidence, we happen to be looking for a way to launch our swag. And she helped us in a big way. And there's a lot of companies that do it. But if if you are looking to launch swag for your for your business, I'm a big believer that anything that you want to do if you put your focus and attention on it, not say this has to happen, or else my life is over. But say okay, this is what I'm looking to do. God universe make it happen for me, the right people will be in your path. So anyway, we we launched our first very first swag was a hat. And the hat was our group, which is ranked makers. So we just had it a blinky hat. And it went like that we only made a limited quantity went like that. And I'm like, Oh, this is cool. Now everyone in videos, is wearing our hat with our brand. They're talking about it, people stop them on the sidewalk and say, oh my gosh, that's really that's a really cool hat. And so we thought, you know, we could make it more mainstream, where we start doing little sayings, but also have our brand kind of subconsciously in the corner, right? And our big thing is, you have to be grateful. So I was just thinking about what kind of things can we do? What can we do? And so we started this line, basically, that is spawned off of default setting, gratitude and all the shirts say default setting gratitude. And I see these shirts at Joe Dispenza events, I see them at Tony Robbins events, I see them everywhere. And so it's not necessarily you don't do swag, necessarily to make huge money right up front, although you can, you definitely can. But the reason you do swag, in our opinion, is because everybody is now talking about it. If you make it high quality, and you make it a good product, and you stand behind your product, it has your logo on it, it's something that mainstream can get behind. And people ask them and people have them in their videos. So our our community wears the shirts and the swag all the time. And people I see I see in the comments. People ask them, where'd you get that shirt? What is that? What is that company? What do they do? So I believe swag is a huge and major tool if you have the right people to help you. When you do go to like just a oh, sorry, whatever looking forward just to like a low quality in and you're done type of shop where all you care about is the margin you're making on your swag. I will say like if it's low quality, to me, it doesn't have the same effect. So you want to be careful what you do and how you do it. It just really depends on what what you're going for as a brand.

Joelly Goodson : 33:12

Well, I just want to say check's in the mail. I love everything you just said. So here's the thing, Joe Scott, I don't know if you noticed or not. But that's my wheelhouse. That's what I do. Right? I do swag. I've been selling branded merchandise for 20 years. And it's funny because I reached out to Ray back in 2017 When I was first introduced him and I actually sent him a note and I said, Hey, I see you guys do swag. By the way, that's what I do. And if you ever want any, and he replied back, and he and I talked about this on when he was on and he said yeah. And I said, and he goes oh, thank you. So he was a he replied, which is amazing. Be he was very polite. And he said, Oh, thank you so much. We have someone that we have a great relationship and that we love but I love when I hear businesses like yourself talk about how valuable it is and how great it is. And it's all about creating that brand awareness, like you said, right? When you see people wearing your stuff, how cool is that? Or when they ask you. So I love that you share that. And I agree with you. It's all about making sure you have the right person and that they help you the way they did.

Jessica Higdon: 34:10

Yeah, well and if you're, if you're listening to this right now, obviously or maybe you did or did not know Hey, Julie does amazing swag. You know that that might not be by accident. If you're thinking about doing a launch for your brand or your business, this is a huge resource for you because I can tell you that there's a lot of people who don't put care into it. And when you find someone that does, that's huge. And it may i don't i don't know but it may cost a little more or be a little more time consuming because you do it right but in the end people appreciate it so much more. And it spreads like wildfire. So I love that you do that for people.

Joelly Goodson : 34:48

I love it. I mean and this is you know and it's all about branding and that's part of it right? It creates brand awareness like you said and you you said it so eloquently and I love that the proof is in the pudding and that it works for us. For me to say that means nothing because people think I'm just Trump. So when I hear someone who purchased it and sees the value, yeah, I love that, like I said, so that's great. Okay, last question before you go. And I asked Ray this question, so I'm curious to hear your answer. So if you could go back in time and change anything about your life, would you? And if you could, what would it be?

Jessica Higdon: 35:22

Um, yeah, I buy Bitcoin a lot earlier. So that's one thing. I think if I, I will, I know, I know what I would have changed. And it would have been, I would have tackled my fear of money, or losing everything a lot sooner. And it's, it's kind of a catch 22. Because I didn't really realize that that was my problem. So I couldn't have dealt with it earlier. But if I did, if I was aware, I wish I was aware earlier. And I wish that I would have tackled that problem sooner, because I see how that has manifested. In a lot of ways when I think we actually is, you know, as great as we, as we've done, I think we would have grown faster if I didn't have that inner belief about money. So I just would suggest to everybody that we all have issues around money, we all do, even billionaires. But I would find out what that is where that stems from and just work on work on that a lot sooner.

Joelly Goodson : 36:22

Yeah, that's great advice. So do you know what Ray's answer was?

Jessica Higdon: 36:25

No.

Joelly Goodson : 36:26

Do you want to guess? Hmm,

Jessica Higdon: 36:28

he would have married me a lot sooner?

Joelly Goodson : 36:31

Well, this is interesting, because, you know, obviously, he's very open about his past and so on through growing up. And he said he wouldn't change a thing. Because he said it was in shape. First, he said, I wouldn't change a thing because it made me who I am. And I'm the person and then he and then he said, Actually, no, I would have started meditating earlier this morning. Yeah. I love those issues that he said he wouldn't change his childhood. You know, we all know how horrific that was. So, you know, I think he just embraced or maybe embrace isn't the right word. But you know, you can tell he's very passionate and pays it forward based on his experience. Right?

Jessica Higdon: 37:03

Yeah, he wouldn't have been able to help the people. Yes. Without going through that.

Joelly Goodson : 37:08

I think that's why he makes such a good trainer, you when you talked about him earlier, I think that's why you said because I really think he's paying it forward and trying to help people as much as you can, as much as he can.

Jessica Higdon: 37:17

Yeah, I'll tell you a quick, quick, quick story if that's okay, since you've read, you know, we had a reality show called play to win. And we had people come out and compete for a job with us. And by the way, it was good. Oh, good. Thank you. And so we just we had our media company, we went through the applications, and we gave them the ones we thought were good. And we had our media company just pick, you know, the the finalists that were coming to the show. And we had no idea because it wasn't about this at all. But I would say about 80 to 90% of those contestants had some type of serious trauma. And it came up on the show, which was so wild sexual trauma, abuse, verbal abuse, abandonment, all these things that we had never dealt with before. And like I said earlier, it's like, why are people and things brought into your path? Well, it's for a reason. And they come when you're ready. So Ray's been through a lot of trauma in that way. And so he can help a lot more people now. So if you have any type of trauma, you may not be ready to help others with it. And you probably won't be until you deal with it yourself. So that's kind of the next level and the next step.

Joelly Goodson : 38:29

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And trauma comes in different forms. Sure. I mean, that could be a whole other podcast. Sure. There's major trauma and I think Ray had 100% major trauma and abuse and I actually am a volunteer for this organization gems for gems. And it's basically it's a charity that helps victims of domestic abuse and it's an amazing charity but it also comes in other forms like the trickle down where you couldn't you look back and you don't think that you experienced trauma because it was like like neglect right is huge trauma being so many little things that people don't realize, but yeah, it's interesting. Anyway, I love talking about that kind of stuff. So well thank you so much for being here. I can't wait the time is gone already. It's been such a pleasure having you if people want to learn more about you and about the Higdon group, what's the best way for them? Are you on social media? Clearly you are?

Jessica Higdon: 39:17

Yes, I'm definitely on social media, Jessica Higdon, you'll find me although there are some like fake accounts going around at this time of the podcast, so make sure it's me. But the Higdon group or Higdon group comm is the best way to just find out more about us.

Joelly Goodson : 39:33

Okay, great. Any closing words? Before we sign off, I

Jessica Higdon: 39:36

just want to say I'm grateful for what you do and how you spread this information to people. I think the Information Age has helped so many people so fast, especially through these times and keeping it positive and productive is huge for people now. So thank you for what you do. And thanks for being having me on. I'm honored to be a guest.

Joelly Goodson : 39:57

Oh, you're so sweet. Well, thank you. Well, it's an honor to have you today. So I hope you'll stay connected.

Unknown: 40:01

Yes, absolutely.

Joelly Goodson : 40:03

Say hi to Ray for me. I don't know if he'll remember.

Jessica Higdon: 40:07

Oh, yeah, he totally does.

Joelly Goodson : 40:08

Oh does he?

Jessica Higdon: 40:09

Yeah.

Joelly Goodson : 40:09

All right. Well, we'll talk again soon. Okay, I and there you have it. I hope you enjoyed the conversation and maybe learned a few things to help you with your branding. But most of all, I hope you had some fun. This show is a work in progress. So please remember to rate and review on whatever platform you listen to podcasts. And if you want to learn more about me and what I do to help my clients with their branding, feel free to reach out to me on any of the social channels under you guessed it, Branding_ Badass. Branding Matters was produced, edited and hosted by Joelly. Goodson also me so thanks again and until next time, here's to all you badass is out there.