Episode 5
Ramon Ray - The Celebrity CEO
If you're looking to create success in your small business, or maybe build out your personal brand, this is the episode for you! Jim and Chris speak to the CEO of Smart Hustle: Ramon Ray, who is also the author of The Celebrity CEO. Ramon is not only an author, but a keynote speaker, writer and event producer who works with very large brands in the tech space to help them with their credibility and authenticity.
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Full Episode Transcript:
Are you looking to create success in your small business, or maybe build out your personal brand? We'll get ready because on this episode of Dealcasters , we speak to the CEO of smart hustle. Ramon Ray, who is also the author of the celebrity CEO. Ramon is not only an author, but a keynote speaker writer and event producer who works with very large brands in the tech space to help them with their credibility and authenticity. Also, here's a little known fun fact... Ramon loves ‘burnt pancakes!’ So get ready to be energized. Here's your master of ceremonies, Ramon Ray.
Chris - thanks for having me. Jim - thanks for having me. It’s great to be here and have fun with you all and I'm happy to serve. I think as you know, you all want to do release, provide value to our listeners for the time I'm on, I'll call it an hour for now.
So thank you, but I'm excited to be here for sure. It's our honor. Absolutely. And this'll be a, like a really good energy injection. Now it's time for the Ramon Ray Show. They're going to get some energy and they're going to find out just what makes you tick and your story. I know you're an author, you're a motivational speaker, and there's a whole lot that's going on with you. So, if you're going to let everyone know what Ramon Ray is all about and why you're here let everybody know the Ramon Ray story, if you will.
Sure. Absolutely. Today I'm a writer and speaker and event producer, author, and I work with very large brands and help them get authenticity and credibility. For their business. Can you take a look at what we're doing on Amazon? Amazon has “ca-trillions” of dollars that they can spend on anything, but they see value in having Chris and Jim to be personalities, to be real people with skin and flesh to represent the awesome work that Amazon stands for.
So that's what I do for large brands. Mainly in the tech space. Indeed, I've written four books. The latest one is The Celebrity CEO – I’m a speaker around the world, and I love to have fun and eat burnt pancakes and bacon on the weekends. So that's a summary of me or what I do.
You can't just throw “burnt pancakes and bacon” out there! When I saw that, when I went to your site, I was like, I like to eat bird pancakes and bacon. I'm like really? Burnt pancakes.
Chris I’m telling you, man, (I guess I won't take more than a few hours on this) but here's the thing, Chris, let me educate you a bit here.
Please do.
There is nothing Chris having three pancakes, this big little burnt, and please this is, it's really, you guys can't do this, but I take the pancakes and if they're not darker than me, then they're not dark enough. Thank you for laughing, Jim. Some people get don't know, we live in a P.C. world here so darker than me. And then you put that syrup, Chris and Jim, you drink that high fructose corn syrup on that bad boy. And then when the knife cuts and you hear (cracking soud) that plus with the bacon and OOOOOh!. (I know this is not the pancake show, but I had the defense. You allowed me, Chris). That's what I enjoy.
Hey, that's what I wanted to hear. That's why I tuned in today. I have to hear the burnt pancake story. It had to be a darker, you got it. That's awesome.
I guess if the syrup kind of makes up for the, you don't taste the burn, is that how it works? I don't know. So now you get it into the subconscious, some scientific, mindset, “Simon Sinek” way of it. I can't go with you. It's just, I guess it's like the barbecue chicken that your mama or the friend burned fuel on. Hardly. Anybody wants it. But you want that piece of you just, it just has that, yeah.
I like the edge of a burnt pizza. Like when the cheese goes over the edge of the pizza crust and a burns a little bit on the crust, I like that taste.
Ramon, what got you into writing? You've got four books. I can't even get my first one done.
Yeah, it's interesting journey. I've been in business for a while. I'm almost 50. So, I've been in business for over 20 years, doing some sort of content.
And when I say that meeting, I'm not into leadership, I'm not Mr. Diversity. I'm not into mindset. My thing is content world of what you both probably know very well. And I recall, I guess when I learned about what the internet was all about back in the day of dial up modems, AOL prodigy, that period of time, years ago, For some reason, content grabbed me and started to make my own blog at the time didn't know Chris and Jim, it was called a blog.
This is back in the days. And anybody listening to us live, I'd be curious if you've ever heard of Microsoft front page, if you have, you're probably over the age of yeah. See Chrissy. Yeah. You're yeah. You're either very much a techie or over a certain age. So, point is I would save it. Save the, the website in a publish it like three times a day.
That was my first blog. So that's how I got into it. And I recall Jim and Chris getting like an email from Inc, Hey Ramon, can you write a column for us? And I'm like a dollar per word. That's cheap. Who wants to do something for a dollar per word? Could you write 2000 words? I'll stop. Stop. Whoa.
I'm like, Oh, so that was literally, but if you get the kind of metaphor I'm trying to bring out, that was my stepping into this world of content. Can I write 10,000 words? Is that okay? I'm like every day when you get to do what you love, right? Imagine what we're doing here. Being able to serve people on video and add some inspiration and fun.
Hopefully a little bit of knowledge to people's day, too. But this is, so this is my world. I, that started many years ago, ink magazine, black enterprise. Some magazines that are no longer around smart office, I think, or office computing, something back in the day. So that's how I started my first writing.
And I must say though, Jim, I don't consider myself a writer, meaning, I have writers, I hire but I think, I'd like to think I know content and I have it here so I can write. Okay. There's those who call themselves professional hosts. And in fact, maybe even some professional hosts we find boring.
So, I don't, if that makes sense what I'm trying to say. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So, who are the types of people that you would work with individually? Are they content creators? I know that year, the book is called the celebrity. CE, are you working with C level people for content, I guess who would your ideal customers clients?
Sure, absolutely. Yeah. And focusing on, just bring that out. Celebrity seals really for those small business owners and entrepreneurs. Should be their brand. If you're working for, I don't know, American express or you're working for, let's say Amazon, we know the founder of Amazon, but they're not relevant to the situation.
It's the brand Amazon, but for us smaller businesses, jenny creates this cup it's Jenny's cup. She took the time to make it, if you get what I'm saying. So that's really who's smart hustles, sorry, celebrity CEOs for that smaller company that freelancer that entrepreneur, who's you know what.
I know I need to build up more of my personal brand. So, then who I work for predominantly it's the larger companies, but who's in the community of smart hustle. Chris it's truly us. It's those who are oftentimes they're not venture backed billion-dollar brands. So that's, what's, it's not, if it's helpful, it's not necessarily that fast-track startup was like, we have the cure for whatever, and we want to be bought by Pfizer, a billion-dollar company.
It's for small people. It's for smart hustlers. It's for those, I'm earning a hundred thousand, a million maybe 2 million. Us peeps as it were. I don't know you. You guys are probably like 10 billion a year people. So, category clearly you don't know what my bank account looks now, but I appreciate it.
I forget 9 billion, whatever. It's a goal. It's a goal, right? A little less than that. So, before we dive into some of the tools and feel free to shout them out, gentlemen, I can talk about each one really quick. So, I'm all about, as I said, what I'm not, but I'm firmly about personal branding, marketing and the brand.
You. This is what I do. Like Chris and Jim, I live behind this video camera, especially post COVID, pre COVID, still a lot of video camera and stuff, but we were in person, but I'm a firm believer. It's about, I don't have the money or the brand, or I don't want to smart. Hustle's a brand and that's part of it, but I'm comfortable it's me.
So those listening today, or afterwards, if you're in the position, accountant, doctor, lawyer, dog-walker whatever you are. And you're like my smile, who I am, my handshake, my brand, how I am, it's me. This is what we're talking about today. So, flywheel Jim Collins is a book called flywheel and Chris and Jim it's really helped.
I would say transformer uplift my business. Many times, a small business owner. We're stuck in the weeds about our business, but I found the Jim Collins flywheel. It talks about the short of it is what's that thing you do. Over and over, let's take Nike as an example, we invest a ton of money in a good shoe.
We work on the influential LeBron or whoever one day they'll call me and Chris to wear that shoe. And then, millions of people buy the shoe, the price drops, and then we do it again as an example of what your flywheel. So, Jim Collins' flywheel. Really, and I think it's called a mimeograph or something.
He doesn't call it a book. I forgot the word he uses, but Oh monograph. It's a really good book. I switched everybody go out and buy that to really know what your flywheel and up-level your business companies. Good to. Great. Is that the other book, right? Yes. Correct. Exactly. And good to great.
It's a good read as well in millions of read it, but I find that flywheel, maybe that one, that people didn't grab so much, but I find it's a short read. I have it in my bookshelf back here. Really good book, just to get you thinking. And he has a little drawings in there too. And I found that it helped my business to, to simplify, I don't know about you Jim or Chris, but I can go all over the place.
But when I do that, I go back to my flywheel. Okay. I'm doing a thousand things but let me focus on what's that thing I need to keep repeating. So, the book has been great. Yeah. And that's a great point. Cause I think a lot of times we have to stay consistent and that's where having that map in a sense of okay, what am I doing?
And I'd actually like to go back and talk about your book specifically, the The celebrity CEO. So, tell us a little bit more about what inspired you to write this book and really what are some of the lessons we can learn? Because Chris and I would say, even though we have company names, we are our brand, and you're probably like, this is probably the book we need to be read.
Yeah, absolutely. So, here's the nutshell of it is you think of an average or typical celebrity, Beyonce who pick what you want, Prince dead or alive, whatever. They don't have to fight to get fans to them. They don't have to fight to make sales. Everybody comes to them and know them. My hypothesis, my message is that all small businesses, unless there's exceptions should aim to be the celebrity CEO of your business.
And that spans two things in your marketplace, Jim, Chris Wright, I'm assuming are well-known are getting well known in the e-commerce online, Amazon of market in this community. That's what your, one of your niches may be. So, in your marketplace, Or it could be geographically, maybe somebody listening today, they're known as the best podiatrist in a small town in Texas.
So, whether your geography or marketplace that's one being well-known in that. And then the second part of that is that the aspect of building a fan base community. Let's take a look at the show we're doing here, right with Jim and Chris. We're not trying to, we're here to serve. We want you to buy and all that in a good way if it's for you.
But the point is first we're building community. Everybody listening is not going to buy that's okay. Chris shouted out, right? He said, follow us like us. Just tell us about it. We're going to be here next week and next week. That's the celebrity CEO, before I get a sale, as I call it, I want to ask for a smile to build the fan base and build the community.
And I find Jim and Chris, that's what people sometimes miss I'm begging Jim too much first by the pen, please buy my pen or whatever the product may be, what it said. I should just say, Hey, here's some tips and writing, or if you get the silly example of trying to make, instead of me just.
Building a fan base. I love that. You're thinking first about giving. That's so much about what many people forget and, if you're trying to build your business and you're trying to do this, and you're trying to achieve whatever success, however you define your success in whatever business that you're always trying to be a little self-serving in that.
And I think if you flip it a little bit and you say, all right, let me give here, let me figure out a way to. Give something, and that will come back to you that's what you're saying. It's here's my pen, here's my pen. Here's my Panama first. Why don't you start giving away and tell people, this is what you'll get if you use this?
Yeah. And Krista ticket further, I guess also on that, let's take the pen example. I think some of the dumbest examples sometimes, but thanks for rolling with me, Chris. But for example, just sharing with people, here's how you can write better, Chris. I just want to help you. Here's how to write better or communicate, whatever it is.
There's that improve your currents of writing. Then now that I know cook with Chris is not a writer in this short example, no need for us to talk. But if he's yeah, I write 20 letters a day. Maybe I have a volunteer program. I help prisoners who are incarcerated, and I help them. I add life to their lives.
So, Chris writes handwritten notes or to the elderly in nursing homes. He has that ministry or mission, whatever he's working on. Now I can say by the way, So y'all know what I mean, but that's the expand on that match the service you could drive by on the road, you can drive by, and there's a billboard, that's advertising a submarine sandwich, but if you're not hungry, you're not going to pull over and buy a submarine sandwich.
You're going to drive right by it. And I think too, Chris we've talked about what we like to do with this Dealcasters show is we bring folks on, no, one's like Ramon, but we bring people on Ramon included because we want to hear. Their story so that they can share with people. And we like to use this as a way to teach people, right?
We're teaching people about personal branding today through the eyes of Ramon. We've had, Chris Kermit says, talking to people about how to start ugly, right? You don't have to be perfect. And Dave Jackson talking about how you can profit from your podcast. And then we will talk about live streaming and podcasting tips and.
You may not buy anything and we're okay with that. We just want you to come back. We want you to tell your friends and because you're right. It's all about adding value because yeah, we don't, it's funny. Sometimes people joke about Amazon live is like the home shopping network and it very well could be, but we don't want to be the home shopping network show on Amazon.
We want to be a show that people like, Hey, these guys have good content, and they happen to, If you want to buy something that's okay. And if you don't, we'll still be back here tomorrow and next week. Cause, because we liked just being out here and we love when people leave comments, engage with us, we really are enjoying the community building part of this, I think.
Would you agree? I just love that Ramon brought up Microsoft front page. I think at that point, like if I had a mic in front of me that wasn't hooked up, I would drop it. That was Microsoft front page was like, huh? It was awesome. What's an accident my back when they rolled the internet, right?
Yeah, no, it's awesome. So, for those of you who are tuning in, maybe for the first time, or maybe are already, already big fans of Ramon and are tuning in and are following him, Dealcasters live is about what Jim was talking about. We'll go live Often we'll talk to influencers like Ramon and great people like, like him and as well as podcasters content creators, and listen, not only listen to their journey so that you can learn some life lessons and some business lessons from them, but also like some techniques, some tips, some things that right now you may be going through and you may be struggling when you're creating your YouTube channel may be writing.
But thinking about writing a book thinking about going live streaming, think about doing a podcast, where
