Welcome And Meet Brianna

Mark Harbert 0:16

All right, everybody. Welcome to the Fearless Influencer Podcast. And my name is Mark Harbert, and I'm the host of this podcast. I'm really excited for today's guest. I actually met this lady in Las Vegas and met her briefly. We didn't really get a chance to chat. And I'm like, yeah, you know what? She's one of the speakers. So I probably I want to talk to her and find out what she's doing. And I was like, well, I'm going to invite her out to my podcast and bring her out and ask her and talk to her about what she's done. And we're going to go there and see what we can do. So I'm super excited to have Brianna Thaxton out. Brianna, great to have you.

Brianna Thaxton 0:54

That's great to be here. Thank you, Mark.

Mark Harbert 0:56

Yeah, awesome. So let's get into it a little bit. Let's talk about you. That's why we're here to talk about you. So, you know, for those who may not know you or know your story, um, I was reading up a little bit about you. Obviously, you're a mom of four. You have my immediate respect right there. So you have five?

Leaving A Toxic Marriage

Brianna Thaxton 1:14

Five, yes.

Mark Harbert 1:15

Oh, geez, five. Okay. So yeah, that's that's immediate. I have one daughter, and so I'm like, you know, uh, it's very incredible. But yeah, tell us a little bit about you.

Brianna Thaxton 1:27

So, yes, I indeed have five children. Uh, very blessed, right? But um, a little bit about me. So just a few years ago, um, I never imagined that would be where I am now, having this business and traveling and speaking on stages. Uh, I actually was in a very difficult marriage for 13 years that really destroyed me. I was in the backwoods in North Idaho, very isolated from friends, family. Um, I tell people, you know, I had like two friends that I barely ever saw. I was very broken down, very insecure from how I used to be prior to this marriage. Um, but eventually kind of came to this place where I'm like, my life can't continue this way. Like it's really miserable. And if I'm here another five years, 10 years, like what's it gonna look like? It's gonna be the same thing, right? And so um, I really knew that God had more for me. So I left the marriage and I went all in on business. Now I had a business before that was kind of doing on the side, and I was doing great with it. Um I actually was selling little AKC and my like micro Pomeranian puppies for $5,000. That's where I really got into learning marketing. Because how do you sell a dog for $5,000, right? Um, but so that's where I really got into like business. I was studying, and then coming out of my marriage, I wanted to do something that felt more impactful. And so then I got into coaching, and that's what I'm doing now.

Mark Harbert 2:59

Yeah, that's awesome. And um, yeah, I I always kudos for you for moving out of a such a rough situation. I I honestly think that sometimes those types of situations are what shape us and make us good coaches, you know. I mean, honestly, when you go through the mess sometimes, you have the ability to kind of help other people navigate that too. Because once you've gone the path, those are really the best coaches. So, and I and I love that. You probably have such a perspective on that stuff that a lot of people don't, you know, because that plays into the success in business too. Yes, you know, yeah.

Brianna Thaxton 3:36

So it really does. Um, yeah, it does it does play into uh business in a lot of ways, you know. People that are getting into business, there can be a lot of insecurities, um, and just things that you have to grow through, right? It doesn't mean that you can't do it, it's just everything's a learning curve, right? And it's just one challenge that you can't run away from it, you have to face it head on. And as you do that, you're going to grow and do things that you never knew were possible for you.

Mark Harbert 4:04

Yeah, yeah, I love that. What uh okay, so let's talk about coaching. So obviously, you're a coach, you help people. What got you interested in doing coaching? What kind of kind of moved the needle for you to go, you know what? Uh, this is what I want to do with my life.

Brianna Thaxton 4:18

Yeah. So funny thing, you know, when I had my business and I was raising dogs, um, I loved it. Like, who doesn't love these little cotton balls with like big dark eyes running around the floor? Like they're amazing.

Mark Harbert 4:32

I have two Yorkes, by the way.

Brianna Thaxton 4:33

So, yeah. Yeah, are they the beauty ones? Like really similar.

Mark Harbert 4:38

Oh, they're they're they're tiny. I mean, my little one is she's like five pounds, so she's a little one. The other one's six pounds, but they're they're a blast. We love them.

Brianna Thaxton 4:47

That's adorable. Yeah. So I I loved it. I genuinely loved it. I got to stay home with my kids and um I was doing very good. I had a lot of uh referrals, repeat customers. People were flying from Alaska, coming over from Michigan, and I'm in the Pacific Northwest. I had people coming from everywhere to come and get my puppies. And um, you know, I really loved it. But with everything that I went through in my marriage, I'd been studying uh communication for a really long time. I started taking communication classes actually in college when I was 16 and um for interpersonal communication. Then in my relationship, I was studying relationships and how to save it. And uh everything that I went through in my marriage really, it really um opened my eyes to what a lot of people go through. Not just women, men go through this as well, but uh these kind of toxic relationships that will just tear you down. And then you have this feeling like you have to stay, you have to try to fight it out for your kids. And um when I came out of that, I was like, I really want to help the person that I was. And I think that's something that a lot of people get into coaching for that very reason. They've gone through something, they've experienced something, and they come out feeling like I've got to go back and help that person that I was. I want to help them the way that I would have needed help. And so that's really what drove me into wanting to help um as a coach, and then also just learning marketing, diving in. I came across uh a Russell Brunson ad for I think it was the one funnel like a one funnel away challenge, and it was it was so funny because I was really diving into marketing and I saw this, and that's where I first heard about being an online coach, and so I'm like, this is it.

Selling Premium Puppies Taught Marketing

Mark Harbert 6:36

Yes. Well, and Russell's so dang good. I mean, like I I've literally gone on Russell's stuff and I'm like, I am not buying anything, and as soon as I know it, I'm pulling out my credit card because it's like it just yeah, it's like this is the best $5,000 I've ever spent, you know. Uh but it he's just a master at it, you know.

Brianna Thaxton 6:56

He he definitely is, and I really something I really connected with him was that he talks about like his beginning story, right? Well, his hero journey, right? And he started out in Idaho selling, he's still in Idaho, but selling potato guns. And I'm like, when I grew up, brothers used to make potato guns, and I lived in Idaho when I first came across Russell Brunson, and so I'm like, this is awesome. Just these little connections, and yeah.

Mark Harbert 7:26

It's hilarious. All those little things play into like our you know, our journey, like those little things like Russell. I was a wrestler in high school, you know, so I hear him talking about that, and I identify that, well, you know, I identify with that, and I think that goes back to why it's so important to tell our story. Like you have a story, you know, about your marriage and what you went through, and like that, there's people out there that are that are going through those kind of things. And I think in the online world, especially today in AI, people need to hear those stories more than ever. Like, we need to hear the human side of things because I love AI, but we're still connecting with other humans, and to me, that's the most important thing is go out there and tell your story, you know?

Brianna Thaxton 8:08

Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I've had a lot of clients come to me because of my story, because I'm open and vulnerable. And when you do that, like you said, like AI is fantastic. I love AI also, but it can't relate to people on that same level, and we're human. We need actual um connection with other humans. And so when you are open and vulnerable, and it can feel really scary at first, but when you are, like other people are gonna see that and they will gravitate towards that.

Mark Harbert 8:42

Yeah. I think I, you know, this is something I've been saying for a couple years now, is like, because I'm such a huge fan. I think the big the best book ever written was How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. And you know, it's all about the human connection. And even today, um, I think those who are gonna win in the age of AI still will prioritize human connection over anything. AI is just gonna help us do things quicker, faster, easier, uh, but it's still your voice, your your thing. So, but with that, I definitely want to talk about it because I know you're you're real big on AI too. And but I I still see a lot of, and I wanted to ask you this question. I see a lot of people in this space that are still kind of struggling. And they're kind of struggling with maybe their niche or their message. You know, being a coach and being that you've worked with people a lot, what do you see are some of the pitfalls that people are coming up against, you know, some of the mistakes they're making that I think are are kind of holding them back. I'd love your perspective on that.

Why Coaching Became The Mission

Brianna Thaxton 9:42

Yeah. So I think first I should clarify that, you know, when I first got into coaching, I started in the relationship niche and then I transitioned into I'm helping other businesses, other coaches now, um, exactly like you're talking about with their niche, because that was one of the very first things that I really struggled with was like narrowing in and going all in on one particular niche and one particular ideal client, right? And it's really important in your messaging to be very clear on your niche and very clear on your ideal client so that you can speak to the person that you want to attract. Because if you're just speaking to everybody, you've probably heard it before. If you're speaking to everybody, you're speaking to nobody, right? Right. And so I had a lot of people coming to me and asking, like, how did you do this with your business? How did you get into coaching and how did you do all these things? Because I feel like there was this mass influx of coaches coming in. And I see a lot of them just doing circles and being stuck with really it's the very foundational things. They want to implement AI, they want to grow really quick, they want to get clients, they want to get up off the ground with their business, but they won't just pick one niche. And so uh for that, I would say really just finding a balance of what is something that you are really good at, something that you love doing, and then something that the market actually wants from you, something that people are coming to you for.

Mark Harbert 11:13

Yeah, and I and you know, that's a huge one because um, you know, I I work with clients too, and some of the times they'll they'll have me review like their funnel or their website. And I always tell them, like, if I can't see what you do or what you're about within like the first three seconds, like that's a problem. Like, we need to like know it needs to be very clear, you know, and I think that's that's a great message is that you need to get super clear on who you serve and what problem that you solve, you know. And I I'm sure you see that quite a bit too. Because that that is one of the things that I see often with people where they're struggling.

Brianna Thaxton 11:49

Absolutely. It's a it's a huge pain point. And there's something that people should also remember is just because you pick a particular niche or particular offer or particular ideal client does not mean that you're locked in for them for the rest of your life, right? Like Russell Brunson would still be selling potato guts if that was true. Right.

Mark Harbert 12:13

That's for sure.

Brianna Thaxton 12:14

Yeah.

Mark Harbert 12:15

Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's crazy, you know, and I think I, you know, and I would it it's totally fine to pivot. Like when I first really got started in online marketing, um, I and I still serve them to some point some degree, but I got started in I was in network marketing, and I still love a ton of network marketing products. I I I buy a bunch of them, but I I really kind of shifted toward affiliate marketing because that's where I really had my success. And um, but you know, when it came to serving network marketers, I just found I was aligned more with the affiliate marketing model. So I shifted, you know, with with what I was doing. And so it is okay to shift. And I think that's super important for people to know because sometimes you don't even know what it is you like until you try a couple things and see, you know, eh, I don't really like this. Let's try this, you know, let's move and and do a couple different things. So I love that. I think it's cool.

Brianna Thaxton 13:10

Absolutely. I know when I first got into coaching, I was, you know, I was helping people to reclaim their life after narcissistic abuse. And I I had so many people coming to me. My posts were spot on. Like when I got really, really clear on who it was that I was gonna be speaking to, my messaging was dialed in. And I had people coming to me and saying, Oh my gosh, it sounds like it was written about my life. And that's the power of having that dialed in, right? And then you just find the strategy that works for you. And so for me, I went into high-ticket coaching with this niche, and I got my first high-ticket client, it was a $3,000 client, um, in just four weeks. And then shortly after, I got three more in a single week. And so I'm like, all right, I've got this strategy down, I've got the niche down, I've got the ideal client down, my messaging is down, it was doing great. But I was like, do I really want to talk about this every single day though? Because you talk about their pain points, right? And I'm like, I love to help these people. I love the transformation that I was seeing in their lives, but I didn't personally want to talk about this for the rest of my life. And when people were coming to me and like asking about business and messaging, I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go that way and see how that goes. And I I love it. I think it's good to give yourself the the okay to pivot if you feel the need to.

Mark Harbert 14:32

Yeah, yeah. And that's that's the I I I gel with you here because I had no idea I would be such a geek for marketing. Like I love everything that has to do with funnels and email marketing and messaging and psychology, and how do I get somebody to buy something? And how can I do a presentation? Do it with ethics, because that's super important to me, and you know, do it in a way that provides ultimate value and really communicate that value to them where they think this is something I need that can, you know, can improve my life. And so, and um, you know, as again, I started in network marketing, but pivoted toward the affiliate marketing and the marketing niche because I love this stuff, you know, and I think once you dive into it, it's it's just super fun. The challenge of it, you know. Do you find that that's what you like about the marketing side is the challenge of it?

Niche Clarity And Messaging Pitfalls

Brianna Thaxton 15:24

I do. And you know, there's something I think about a lot of entrepreneurs are probably like this. They love to learn and they want to understand how things work. I don't know if that's accurate for everybody that's an entrepreneur, but I know um, at least for me, like I want to know how something works, why it works. And so when I start diving into marketing, you have to be careful because like the shiny object syndrome, right? But whenever there's a new tool or a new thing, you're like, gosh, I want to learn. Because you're always testing and you're figuring out, is my strategy good as it is, or should I tweak it and go this way a little bit, right? As an entrepreneur or business owner should always be growing, um, but not distracting yourself also. But I do, I really geek out on, you know, the the different softwares and the different programs and the AI. And it's it's easy to get caught up in it.

Mark Harbert 16:17

Oh my gosh. Like, you know, this is why I'm so glad we're talking because that's me totally. Like, you know, I was uh I've been so into vibe coding lately, you know. And um, I mean, I'll be sitting up in the living room and my wife's watching a show or something with my daughter, and and I'm like, honey, look what I just built. This is crazy. And she's like, Yeah, that's great, honey.

Brianna Thaxton 16:38

Nice. You just built one yesterday too, something else, right?

Mark Harbert 16:41

I know that's awesome. It's it's really fun. But so yeah, I mean, obviously, shiny object syndrome. I I always tell people you want to be a good marketer, you're probably gonna be a victim of good marketing yourself. Because you just, you know, I I find that, you know, with myself. But um, when it comes to like AI, obviously, you know, you know a lot about it too, and you coach people with it. Um, and I do too. I think, you know, from your perspective, what is the best way for somebody to kind of get started with AI if they're not necessarily 100%, maybe they've heard about it. Most people have gone, yeah, I've tried Chat GPT, I like it, it's pretty cool. But if they really want to kind of dive in and really learn it, I mean, what's kind of your perspective on you know how they could do that?

Brianna Thaxton 17:27

That is a great question. First of all, I do want to say that it's important. Like we were talking about earlier, it's important to be authentic and remain like a human when you're out there connecting with people. Um, people will buy you before they buy your product, right? And granted, if you have like a low-ticket offer or some product and you're just putting it out there, people want the product. But in a lot of coaching, people are buying you. So they have to know who you are. AI is never meant to replace us as a human, it replicates what we're doing. So if you don't have a good strategy, then it's going to replicate, you know, the things that are not going well already. If you think this is gonna get me clients, you're already not getting clients. AI doesn't always fix that, right? Because you don't know the right strategy already. So making sure that you have a strategy that is working and then dive into AI and to kind of answer your question, um, there are so many AI tools. I've been playing around with AI for a few years now and uh went to a month-long training with the CEO of Real AI Dynamics in Hawaii. Like I got to spend a lot of time down there just diving in AI. And you can get overwhelmed, and your mind will be blown by what it can do. But I'd say, you know, a lot of people, even some of my clients, they come to me and they're like, Yeah, I've already been using ChatGPT for a long time and it's nice, but I want to learn other things. And then you look at like how are they using Chat GPT? Like they're using it to create posts, but like I said, they don't have the right strategy, so their posts aren't performing very well. And if you can teach them how to actually do a good prompt and like what ways to um, you know, to guide the AI to give them the answers that they actually need, that's the biggest thing. You don't have to get into a bazillion different AI tools, but starting with like the basics, like Chat GPT is amazing. It really is. I use it for a lot of my posts, but you have to make sure you're training it, telling it, this is what I'm looking for. Like, this is the reasoning. I need you to act like this, don't do this thing. Like, I tell it none of the M dashes, the long dashes, that's a dent giveaway for AI. Like, don't overdire with the emojis, maybe one or two emojis, like a smiley face or like a finger pointing or something like that. But I've trained it on my voice very well. And I think for anybody getting into AI, start with the basics and then really learn that before you go opening your mind up to other, like probably thousands and thousands of different AI tools out there now.

Using AI Without Losing Your Voice

Mark Harbert 20:12

Yeah. Oh man, you you just hit on something so good. I'm so glad you said this because I literally just put a post out about this like two days ago. How how AI, I think personally, is making marketers very lazy. And what's happening is um people are going to you know AI and saying, hey, do this for me, but without giving it the right instruction, like you know, a good example would be like, you know, we hear Russell talk about all the time hook story offer, you know, that specific framework of how to put something together. If you don't know how to guide AI to say, hey, use this framework, here's what I want you to do, you know, give it this, it's not gonna, it's not gonna do that, it's just gonna give you some random thing. But when you really build your skills, and I saw Russell actually just put this post out today, he said something like, um the method will always change, but skills compound. And the goal is to work on your skills so that your skills are always with you. And I think that's the greatest investment you can ever make. Learning how to write a really good email so then you could turn around, do it without AI, and then you could turn around and guide AI to write it so that you can eventually save time, I think goes way further than than anything else, you know? 100%.

Brianna Thaxton 21:38

Yeah. Well, and AI is a tool, you can use it for other things besides like writing your posts. I was um playing around with Claude yesterday, and I had it go through my email and like you can get Claude on your Chrome as like a Chrome extension, right? And I had it going through my emails and looking for all of the promotional email senders. And I'm like, okay, some of them I have subscriptions with like Zoom and um ClickUp and a bunch of others. I have subscriptions, but they also send me promotional emails from their promotional email address. So I had it going through my email for me while I was doing other

Mark Harbert 22:16

work and unsubscribing from from all it's crazy it's insane I'm starting to feel like you've been spying on me because I've been watching Claude videos like crazy lately. Oh really like I'm all about Claude right now. I think it's one of the greatest tools man. It's wild.

Brianna Thaxton 22:34

That's so funny but I was talking to a friend about it yesterday and they were showing me some stuff. So I'm like hmm what else can it do?

Mark Harbert 22:41

So I know it's wild. Like there's so much Claude can do. It's it's pretty crazy. Yeah. So yeah I love that and I love your perspective on that because I'm so aligned with that. Like I think people really should just focus on building the skills and then tap into the skills and then use AI to really help you do it quicker and faster and more efficient. But um I I love that. So you know I wanted to um you know as we get ready to close this out this has been awesome. I love chatting. We could probably sit here and talk all day especially marketing stuff. But you know I think a lot of people like they come online and I was actually listening um to a video today you know obviously we're we have more information at our fingertips than any point in history like you know it's super easy to get overwhelmed with all the stuff it's like you said the AI tools are there's a gazillion of them out there you know and I mean I think the biggest part is people kind of feel overwhelmed right now you know and I hate using that word but it's just the truth like people are really um kind of just over inundated with information. And um you know I would love to kind of get your perspective we talked a little bit about it but I think you know if people really want to get started in online business and really understanding how to market maybe their business online what would you give them as like kind of like the next step or the first step to take um obviously I know and maybe you can hit on this I was you know reading your site a little bit you've invested heavily in your own skills like you're you're not just a coach like you believe in coaching too like you've had a coach you know or still do you know and I think that's important to really highlight too oh for sure definitely I would say having a coach.

Coaches Skills And Investing In Help

Brianna Thaxton 24:35

So when I had a business on my own before with the puppies I had no idea what I was doing. I had never ran a business before and I'm like okay how am I going to sell these puppies for this much money? There's other businesses that are selling for this much and mine are like actually better quality the AKC register they're guaranteed on size and all sorts of things right and I'm like how am I going to get people to pay what I want for these puppies and so I started diving into marketing and when you don't know where to start you will look at everything at the same time and it's really hard to get any traction with your business if you were looking at everything. So I was YouTube videos and researching on Google how to like build a website how to do this and how to do that. And I was looking at what other people were doing on their websites and getting ideas. And granted I was figuring it out but it was taking me a long time right and so when I started learning about coaching and it's so crazy. I remember when I was going through the one funnel away challenge um I grew up very poor just yeah as a side note like I'm the baby at seven with a single mother and we lived in like the worst part of the worst part of town. So I have a lot of um difficulties limiting beliefs around money. And um but I felt like all of the all of the like wealthy people were out there all these business people were out there in these rooms together they had all the secrets and then the other people were just like out here. I literally felt like that. And I think that's kind of what it is that the other people don't realize you can actually get into those rooms with the people. You just have to invest in it right and so when I was going through a one funnel way challenge I remember getting tears and I was like um I felt like oh my gosh all these incredible business people with all of this knowledge are literally like hanging out in rooms together and they're opening the doors to me and sharing their knowledge with me. It blew me away and so from there I was like it's not just one there's other coaches out there and they all have different skill sets and you can mix and match and see what works for you, what aligns with you and the direction that you're trying to go. So I've had I've invested in a lot of different coaches for um public speaking writing a book marketing AI I've invested in so many different coaches and for accountability um I would absolutely say if you don't already have a coach like that is a really good place to start because you can spend all your time going through a hundred different freebies and free challenges they're great great information but if you don't have a clear direction and clear strategy for how to piece it all together you're gonna stay stopped for way too long like much longer than what is necessary right um I would say that's a really good starting uh starting place and then also as we talked about earlier like in order to attract ideal clients that are going to pay you money for what it is that you want to sell you have to start with the basic like the foundations and that is getting really clear on your niche.

Where To Find Brianna And Closing

Mark Harbert 27:50

It doesn't mean you have to be stuck with it forever but just pick one niche one ideal client one offer and focus on that before you do anything else yeah it's so good advice such great advice and um I will tell you the biggest breakthroughs in my business have always been around when I've hired a coach my first real biggest breakthrough was several years ago I had hit six figures in my business but I kind of ceiling doubt I was making just over six figures and um I decided to hire a coach and it was a lot of money more I mean it was 50 grand. I I was like I'm taking a huge leap here and I was nervous I mean I ain't gonna lie but I you know that investment um the end of that year I had tripled my income and not only that the following year I did over half a million dollars hiring the same person and they helped me get past a half you know past a half a million dollars and so for me I'm a huge believer in coaching and um you can never go wrong investing in yourself and getting through that that learning curve as fast as you can by getting some outside counsel helping you do it. So I am a hundred percent agree with you on that. Absolutely it's yeah it's like all the best they talk about it you know all the best sports players they've all had coaches the best um performers everybody businesses they all have coaches yeah and I I remember the first time I heard tiger wood tiger woods had a swing coach I'm like you're kidding me like a swing coach that's wild I was like hey you know he's the best in the world you know he's and I was like okay it makes sense well um Brianna this has been awesome like I I'm sure we could continue going on and on where can people find you um I'd love to let people find out where you are um and connect with you yeah for sure so I'm primarily on Facebook I have a personal profile and that is Brianna Thaxton official I also have a website Brianethaxton.com so you can find me either of those places reach out connect with me say hi awesome yeah guys go go check it out connect with her send her a little message say hey I heard you on the podcast um but she's great and I I look forward to us getting to know each other more too um I know um we kind of run in the same circles a little bit and I know we're both in the ClickFunnels community which by the way there's a huge announcement coming up I don't know if you've seen that so not yes on the 24th they're making a big announcement so I can't say what it is I do know because I was in Atlanta but it's big so it's exciting I I I feel I feel privileged that I I actually know what it is and I probably shouldn't but somebody told me what it was and I'm like no way like that's huge. So anyway oh my god Brianna on the 24th yep cool the 24th yeah the so we're we're recording this on March 18th but um yeah on March 24th so I would look in your emails see any emails from Russell and uh you know Todd and the ClickFunnels crew and and beyond there check it out it's gonna be great awesome thank you appreciate you thanks Brianna and everybody um appreciate you make sure you subscribe to the podcast and we'll see you in the next episode