Welcome to Mic Unplug, where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insights, bold moves, and game-changing conversations. Buckle up. Here's Mic.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Make Un Plug. Today's guest is a powerhouse in the world of small business success, personal branding, and entrepreneurship. Actually, he has been a virtual mentor of mine for many years and hasn't even known it. As the author of the celebrity CEO, he has empowered entrepreneurs to become the face of their businesses and connect more deeply with their audiences. Please join me in welcoming the energetic, the insightful, the influential, my mentor, Mr. Ramon Ray. Ramon, how are you doing today, brother?

What is it, brother? I'm blessed and fantastic. It's good to be here, and thank you for that honor. I receive it as so many have been a mentor to me from a distance. Seth Godin, I've been to so many of his events. I've read so many of his books, so I understand the feelings. He knows me, but we don't rock every week. But yet I follow his journey, and I'm like, You know what? That's somebody I can aspire. So I'm honored to be that way. And thank you for having me here on your show. Appreciate Thank you very much.

Man, I am the honored one, and I truly mean that, talking about being a virtual mentor, a mentor from afar, because the things that you talked about, particular for me, personal branding, changed my life, I was a person who I kept everything private. I do things and it's like, I don't need the world to know what's going on. Then I started reading some of your insights, a lot of your books, following on social. And it's like, no, Mick, it's okay to give a glimpse into what you're doing. Your brand isn't a brand unless someone knows about it. Essentially, that's what I got from you, right? You can be the best person, but if no one knows, it doesn't matter. You can have the product, but if no one knows, it doesn't matter. How did you come to that realization, but more importantly, then teach that to other people? Because it literally has changed my life, and I'm being completely honest and transparent about that.

I'm odd. Well, I think the concept you're referring to, of course, is the celebrity CEO, this concept of, and I started this in 2019, I've been doing it for many, many years, but I started it, which is relatively recently, 2019, because people kept asking, Ramon, we see you on Fox business, we see you on MSNBC, you're in New York Times, you're in Wall Street Journal, you're on Inc, you're an entrepreneur, you're all over the place. I'm not literally, but for their pure purview as they're getting small business education material, I show up and I said, You know what? This is being the celebrity CEO of your industry. It's not being Serena Williams or Michael Jordan selling celebrity, global celebrity, President Trump, Vice President, Harris, President Biden, take your pick. Elon Musk. Those are uber different. But that means micromome in our industries, in the sphere of people we serve, we have the opportunity to be well known or not. Absolutely. Yeah.

And again, it was life-changing for me. And it's something that literally starting in like end of 2020, beginning of '21, I started saying, Okay, I have to build this brand now. A lot of people think, Oh, just do some social posts and tag some people, and then boom, you're there. But what you taught me is it's a lot of strategy behind everything that you do. I'd love for you to give the listeners and viewers some insight behind some of that strategy that you've helped me develop.

Sure. I think there's three core things, and I can talk about this for 60 These seven hours, so you let me know how much time we have. But the three things I think best people remember is, one, the aspect of attraction. What are you doing to get people attracted to your brand? Or it's a better way, actually. Key strategy is, what are you doing to get people to have attention to just know who you are and that you have a solution for them. Because most people just don't know there's a solution out there for them. So how can you get the attention of the right fit audience that you can serve? That's one. As you get that attention, we can talk about that more build it up, get the attention. Hey, I'm here. I can help you, help you, help you. Hope you're not a customer, the attention. Then what can you do to start to build trust? For me, I think trust is best defined. Mic is an education. How can I be on a program like this, Mick Unplug? How can I be on your webinar, on your Zoom, on your email list, follow you Any way I can just to build trust because trust is built over time, over and over and over and over and over.

After you build that trust, by God's grace, people say, You know what? I've trust this guy. Let me vote with my money and buy something from them. Clearly, it don't happen all the time, but we'd all be cotrillionaires. But my point being is that you build up that attention of, say, 10,000 people, 100,000 people, 500 people. Build the trust then over time of half of them. We're talking about 200 people, 100 people over time because the flywheel keeps going, Jim Collins on the flywheel. Then 10%, 20%, maybe buy from you. You rinse and repeat that, you got a nice-size business going. You can easily build a $500,000 million business just on that. Now, to get over that level, of course, as my mentor Lamar Tyler and Damon John would say, that's what the strategy is, hiring the right team and more. But for a smaller business, you focus on attention, building trust, and having that trust generate to sales, you can do that all day long by this concept of celebrity CEO One of the things I want to add as well, nick, is that just be different. That's all the thing I want to add.

Thank you for your time on that. But just all that's important, but choose how you show up in different. It doesn't mean you have to be as garious as Ramona to be funny and all that, no. But there's got to be something that makes you pop and stand out. So I wanted to add that as well.

No, I love that. Another thing that you taught me, too, was you also have to have something that people would want to buy. It's one thing to be out there and to be silly and funny or even be serious and educational. But if you don't have something that people would want to buy or purchase, then it's also not going to work in your favor.

That's right, because that goes back to the aspect of being hidden, the journey you went through. Yeah, you can do referrals, word of mouth, on the DL. Hey, if you want to see me, just call me. Just meet me in the back of the room. You can do it that way. But if you want to grow some degree, Hey, listen, you said your pool is dirty all the time. My name is Jenny. We have some pool cleaning services you may want to check out. I'm giving any example. It doesn't have to be in the industry, speaker, coach. It could be it works for anyone. You said your child is misbehaving in school. My name is Robert. You know what? We can help your child possibly overcome that. So whatever it is, or in our case, that speakers, coaches, consultants, thought leaders. So yeah, getting the word out. So when people are ready because you built the attention and trust, and when they're ready, they're going to buy from you.

Love that, man. Love that. So I'll make them plug. We talk a lot about your because, right? That thing that's deeper your why, that really is your purpose and your reason. If we were to talk about Ramona, and I know a lot of times that changes over time. As we mature in businesses, we mature as individuals or because sometimes changes. If we were to go back to the beginning when Ramone said, You know what? I'm that guy, and I want to help others. I say help because I know who you are as a human. It was never about Ramone. It was about let me help others. What What was Ramones early because? What was that centerpiece that said, This is what I'm going to do?

Well, let me answer in two ways. If you don't mind with permission, I'd love to start with the because now. Because because now is different than it was at the beginning. I think there's two sides. We all need to make a living. We all need to provide for our family. I do want to say that part of my because, I must say, Mick, is and has been, I need to provide for me and my wife. I want to provide for my kids who are adults and out of the house. I want to build generation of wealth. I want to build my community. I want to have others. My why today, maybe because of maturity, I'm a bit older, I'm 52 this year. Maybe because of things like that, I'm seeing it, yes, I need to eat, and that will always drive me. But also as I get older, I want to help others. I want to help my aunt, my cousins. I want to give them things that they're trying to do. Not that they can't do it, but if I have more, if I have 20 pieces of fish and they have one, I can afford to give them five.

I think my because, Mick, that's why I have a fastidious, I think, a fire in me every time I wake Yes, got to take care of myself today. For whatever reason that's in me, I always will have that. I'm like a lion, I always wanting to hunt. But really, then it goes back to, I think, really, generation of wealth. Really, how do I provide? How do I help my church? How do I help us build a church in Dominican Republic. So I think that's the key of where I'm going. And go back to the beginning, really, I got fired from the United Nations, and it really was a simple aspect, not to disappoint people, but I had to survive. That was not because there. It was a very simple reason I had to survive.

Yeah. And I want to go back to that. You're with the United Nations. For those that don't know Ramone's background, we're going to get into that, too. But I want to start with you got fired for the United Nations, which at that point was a big deal in your life. Hard A lot of that identity for you was that. You could have given up. You could have blamed. You could have made excuses. But I know Ramone Ray. That ain't happening. What was that moment and what did Ramone do at that point that says, You know I'm going to keep going. I'm resilient.

To give the context, I had a job at the United Nations right out of high school, before college. I don't remember the exact time frame, but maybe when I was 19 or so years old. They've told me I was one of the youngest hires at the United Nations, in fact, at that time. I was there and I worked there for a number of years, Mick, over 10 years. While there, I got the journey of technology, CompuServe, Prodigy, AI. Well, the early '90s would have been. The Netscape Mozzila browser was just being and modems, with the noise. I know you know that was there. Give people a sense. Early '90s is where I was. It wasn't the blogging and live streaming we have today. Camcorders were the thing. That was there. Then bottom line is I had permission to do some entrepreneurial, what they call side job hustles. I had permission for my boss. Due to some issues, there was an employee who was made a stink about it. He didn't like it. That permission was revoked, but I had a bite of the apple. I had a taste of entrepreneurship, and I didn't stop But eventually my contract was not renewed or fired.

That's the context on how that happened. When that happened, I won't forget the day. In fact, I think I have the DHL envelope a few feet from me in my garage that said, Ramon, your contract's not renewed. It was maybe a Wednesday, as I recall, and you're going to be gone on Friday. That's it. Sayonara. Thankfully, I had some side hustles and I had a little bit of revenue in there. But my wife would tell me every month, Ramon, 5,000 less, 5,000 less. At the time, our family income, household income, 5,000 To your point, I know you would do it, Mick, as well. I had to make it work. That's where this journey of me ramping up my speaking, being a paid speaker, which I'm now blessed to speak all over the world, in demand, motivational keynote speaker, working with some of the largest brands in the world, Dell, Microsoft, Verisign, AT&T. I could go on working with them on a variety of amazing campaigns, and then building niche publications. Started smallbiztechnology. Com, sold it. Started smart hustle. Com, sold it. Started the small business summit Sold it today in the publisher zoneofgenius. Com. As you know, Mick's celebrity CEO, where we help entrepreneurs build their personal brands.

Amazing, amazing, amazing. I know, again, through your work, you believe in the power of mentorship. I look at it like, when you get to a certain stage, a certain level, and it's time to level up, there's a mentor, there's wisdom that you seek out. My mentor is Les Brown, Dame Jim and John, Robert Irvine, Ramone Ray, they all taught me different things to continuously have me level up. The power of mentorship is so strong that I think everyone needs four or five mentors in their life. But I would love to hear from Ramone Ray, what's been the power of mentorship for you personally? Then my follow-up question will be, how does that reside in you to then give that back out to others to where you now are that mentor for people?

I love that question, No, thank you for asking that. Mentorship is everything. A few mentors in my life, some I mentioned one, Seth Godin. I know him, I can text him and he'll get back to me, et cetera. We're friends, professional friends, as it were. He's a mentor. He's been a mentor of mine for years. He was one of the first speakers at one of my events in 2006, 2007, something like that way back in the day and has done it a few times for me. That's one, Seth God. Number two, Steve Harvey. I've never met him. Met his daughter, Brandee Harvey. But Steve Harvey is a mentor of mine, just his swag, how he shows up, how he talks. He's talent and as a media company. Kevin Hart as well. Those are two of my distant mentors who I don't know. Then others, I'll just shout out. I'll talk about mentorship is Lamar Tyler. I'm in his program. I invest in his program. I'm his client. But Lamar Tyler is a mentor of mine. I think of Brian Hess in Pittsburgh. I think of Scott Simon. I think of Glenn Lundee. Those are a few people who I look up to.

About mentorship. Here's the thing about mentorship. It's different than having a client. It's different than necessarily paying for a coach or consultant because I could pay you 5,000 a month. You could coach me and leave. We do a whiteboard session in Panera or something. That's good. It's important. People should invest in that. But a mentor is like, Yo, Mick, I know it's 3:00 AM. My friend told me that my business is not going to survive, is going to fail and I should stop. What do you say, Mick? Mick knows me a bit. He may encourage me and say, Brother, that's okay. They're ignorant, intense, not ignorant, Igneant. Or he may say, Dude, you've had these calls with me for the last 10 years and it's not going nowhere. Maybe you should get a date. You know what I mean? A mentor has that feeling. They can just talk. There's nothing in it for them. I think that's the power of mentorship Often someone you trust and who trusts you, someone who knows you a bit personally would be great, and somebody who has a deft of interest in your success. My buddy, Jacob Yurinsky. That's another name I got a shout out.

Jacob Yurinsky. He would teach me, and I'd cry on his shoulders when I He would leave the United Nations for a lunch break, and he'd show me how businesses were built. That's the power of mentorship. Then me being mentored, absolutely, Mick. I have a number of young men who I call regularly, who they call me from time of the time. My son is my number one mentee. Yeah, it's not like I walk around, I'm his mentor. No, you can't. Not like that. But I think of my son who we talk several times a day and we sharpen each other. I think of my boy Josh Johnson, a tap dancer in New York City. I've known him since he was a little kid. I think of George Estrada, a construction company in East Side of Long Island. So these are just a few of the names and people who I vibe with on a regular basis. Was that helpful? How could I go too far, too long?

You never can go too long, Ramon. You can never go too long. One of the things I want to unpack and unplug that you said was they know you, they challenge you. One of the things that one of my accountability partners, Carl Esther Crumpler, always talks about is ironing sharpening iron. A lot of times when people hear and talk about iron sharpening iron, what they're really wanting to hear or feel is iron polishing iron. Let me pat Ramona on his back and tell him all the good things that he's doing and just give him some encouragement. No, when Ramona is talking about the mentors and ironing sharpening iron, there's friction. When you sharpen something, there's heat, there's sparks. To me, that's what mentorship is about. I know that that's what you do as well, too. Even when you're coaching, when Ramona is speaking, he's not there to just pat you on the back and tell you what's good. No, Ramona is going to get deep inside of you and challenge you. It's going to be some friction. There should be some internal friction. That's what I probably appreciate the most out of you, because that's what you did for me, and you didn't even know, was you challenged me, you made me look inside and really question Right?

Hey, Mick, you really want to go there? Is it really burning for you? Because if not, it's okay. Stay there. It's okay. You can make good money. Nobody knows who you are. You've got the word of mouth referrals. But, Mick, there's this other side, and this other side, where there's even more money. You can feed more than just yourself and your wife and your kids. There's communities that you can get involved in. But, Mick, a little friction. Yes. That's what, Jen, probably one of the things I've appreciated most is that you challenge.

Yes. No, I appreciate that so much. It's funny that me and my son argue and uplift the most of anybody in my life besides my wife, me and him. I mean, Dad, you are not focused. He may not sit exactly like that, but that's what I'm hearing. I'm like, No, I'm not. Then a few days later, Son, you're right. I need to focus more. Or him. I remember my guy, Jacob Yurinsky, with the same age, but he's done a few different things that mean bigger things to me in life. I remember one day, and this is more metaphorically, but like, Jacob, I did this deal. I got 120,000 in his Argentinian Israeli accent, Ramon, curious, why didn't you make 250,000? Dude, I just In a good way, he just challenged. You need these people in your life to hug you and to whip you both in a good way. They're definitely not whooping, but you get more so encouraging you to do the best you can do.

Yes, sir. Going Back to the celebrity CEO for a moment. It's one of those books that literally every entrepreneur should have. First and foremost, you need that. Whether you're a solopreneur or you're leading a Fortune 100 company, it's there for you. I'm going to paraphrase a caption of the book. These are the words of Mick, not Ramon, because he says it much better, much more eloquently than I could, but I'm going to break it down. One of the things that stuck with me, Ramon, is essentially you were saying when it thoughts to branding and how to build, keep the simple things simple. Again, those are my words. I'd love for you to elaborate, especially for the person that's just getting started or the business that maybe they're doing a makeover of their brand or their identity. Keep the simple things simple, man. Can you break that down for me?

Yeah. When I look at what me and Mick are doing right now, we're having this discussion with you. I'm talking to you. You. I have a discussion with you. Now, I don't know Mick's set up, but I don't think he's an NBC, Fox business with a thousand different cameras. But we look pretty darn good, people. He looks like a chocolate perfection right there. That lighting in his shirt and all this. Me, I got my little lights going on. I could show them to you, but then I mess up the... So my point is, it Simple. Just the little I can imagine what he's doing right now, I doubt I'm wrong, nick, but let me know if I am. Simple thing is what? We got to have good audio, got to have good lighting, got to show up proper, got to clean up a little bit. That's it. Go for it. Some people, Mick, they're not doing it because, Oh, it's not right. It don't look like Jimmy Kimmel. It don't look like a Tyler Perry Studio. People. That's the aspect of simple. Or your first podcast, maybe a dog barked back there. You're going to delete the whole thing.

Maybe your baby cried. We all been babies. So that's just some... I could go on, but that's just some concepts of, as Seth Godent even says, Stop waiting for perfection. It's never going to come. Come.

Amen.

Stop waiting.

Amen. Then again, this is how Mick paraphrases Ramone. He says it much eloquently than I do. Another thing, and I'm going to say it my way, don't major in minors. You almost just hit it with the, if you wait for perfection, it's ever going to happen. But don't major in minors. Ramone, the biggest thing that I had to step away from, literally was that, because you told me in the book, Mick, you're a CEO, act like it. Don't major minors, bro.

That's right. People do that. Again, it's like the airlines. The break's got to work and we got to have oxygen tanks and whatever else in the plane. But Let's let the plane fly. Some people can spend all day long trying to perfect the blue color of hue. This ain't Louis Vuitton, people, especially at a certain level. Make the sale. You can apologize instead of asking for permission your whole life. Because if you wait, ask for permission every step you go, Mick, you never going to move. You're going to be on step one, and I'll be on step seven, and you'll think I'm all that in the bag of chips. Well, we are, Mick, you and I are. But still, you get the point. You just didn't take a step.

That's great. You give a lot of insights. What are some insights that you've received? For those that are watching or listening, Ramones interviewed all of the sharks. Everybody on Shark Tanks interviewed them all. Interviewed presidents, have been interviewed by presidents, interviewed a A lot of big leaders have been interviewed by a lot of big leaders. What are some insights that Ramones received during this process?

I think some we've just said. One is definitely the aspect of, don't wait for perfection. That's why it's the biggest one, don't wait for perfection, rather. It's never going to come. I think number two, what do you really want to do? I've suffered with that lack of confusion over who I am, what do I want to do. Do I love kids, therefore I should work at a child daycare? Or do I I want to be an entrepreneur, a business owner, and run a daycare center? I say that because I just to my friend Brandee Wood, she has an amazing event called Child Care Millionaires. That's those who are looking for Child Care Millionaire Academy, I think, or Association, rather CMA, Child Care Millionaire Association. Point being, is that what do you really love to do? Is it that you just love being in nature, chopping wood all day? Or do you want to be a business owner of the Forest Society of America? I'm making stuff up, Mick, just to let people know this It works in everything. So I think that's number two, what do you really want to do? What's your real passion?

I think the number three, the best advice is understand that we only live once, Mick. We only live once. One of my buddies, Scott Simons, had a segment where he said, It must be nice. And in the segment, It must be nice, he was saying, Don't throw stones at me because I've decided in this season to work hard. I may miss a few games. I may miss a few this with my family, but I have something building towards. Yeah. And so when you look at me and all the nice things I have, don't throw rocks at me. In the same way, I won't throw rocks at you because every single one of your children's games you're at, you have date night every Thursday from 4:00 to midnight without a stop. You're there to visit your grandmama every day. That's great for you. I'm not going to throw stones on you because you're doing that and I can't or I decided not to. See what I mean? So I could go on with those tips, but I think don't throw stones at other people. Everybody has their own life. There are some things, Mick, that I think are bad.

If Mick saw me doing something nefarious, cheating on my tax or something wicked, call me out. But most things are knife. Me and Mick can make a dollar a thousand different ways. He wants to have a franchise? I don't. I want to scale to 10 locations. Mick wants to have a donut shop in a truck.

God bless America.

Take your pick, people.

Right. Love it. So earlier, you talked about for the entrepreneur and how to build your email list, potentially build communities. I want to go to the community building aspect of it because I think this is a big miss for a lot of people. Again, I don't care if you're just starting out, if you're a solopreneur or you have a big brand, big company, building communities of like-minded people or people that are aspiring to be like this like-minded community is critically important, and you've nailed that. What's some advice that you have for people about, number one, the power community, but then how to get started?

I think decide now what community you want, because thank you, Mick, for that. I do have a community, but it's in very different ways. The community could just be a LinkedIn group. If that's the community you want, to build community and build your brand in it, to be able to see how you can serve them, as my friend Shay Brown says, sales is service. And that part of that service is you can be compensated for that. People will pay you for the service. That's one. Part of the brand building could be like my friend Lamar Tyler has, where he has a paid community of people. Thousands pay him every month to be in his community. Both are communities, but you can build community different ways. But I think the best way when I think of community, again, quoting from my mentor, we quote our mentor, Seth Godin, it's about knowing that people like us do things like this. It's about raising the flag. Seth Godin says that raising the flag saying, I'm here. I like to have almond and cashews with raisins, I don't know, and broccoli sticks. All who like that, come on down.

You get what I'm getting at there? Is that it's deciding, I do this, I show up this way. I'm willing to take the first step towards leadership, towards taking action. Those who want to join me, the doors open, come on and get on the bus. So I think that's what that aspect of community is like. Again, to underline that, community can go different ways to different people. There are tools and apps for community, school and Facebook and mighty networks and so many more. Or community can be the people at your church. You and a group of guys just vacuum after church on Sundays. That's community right there.

Yeah, that's amazing, brother. I'm going to do something for the viewers and listeners. The first 10 people, and I don't care the platform, I've got counters on all of them. The first 10 people that message me, the celebrity CEO, I'm gifting them a book, personally. Gifting them the book because- Thank you, Mick.

And I'll show you all this which you'll receive. You'll receive this from Mick? Exactly.

You're going to get that because it literally changed my life. For those that are listening and watching, the biggest reason that I'm here is because of that book. The biggest reason that I'm here, and I'm saying this on the record, so you can't hear me say something else because it is on the record right now. The biggest reason that I'm here is because of the celebrity CEO. I don't care where you're listening or watching. If this is a clip, the reason I'm here is the celebrity CEO, and I want to give that to someone. The first 10 people, you're getting it. I promise you, that's my 2025 gift to you. Here's the deal. Ramona is going to tell you, it's a playbook, but you got to put the action behind it. If you don't implement, it's just words on the paper. But I promise you, those words are so powerful, and you've got the blueprint If you take action, this is what you get.

Mick, what an honor to be part of your life. I am humbled, and I've never heard such kudos. I'll just receive it. I'll receive this gift quite like I have today. Thank you, Mick, for that. Thank you for being a light to so many others, Mick, that I bet you don't know who you're serving. Isn't it the power of being humans in the world? When life goes around beautifully, there's a few knuckleheads who muck up the gears. But if people like me and Mick and others can make the world a better place, Mick, thank you. If you receive that book, Celebrity CEO from Mick, make sure you tell Mick, thank you. Tell people to check out Mick Unplugged, and make sure you tag him on your socials, and tag me, too, and we'll all uplift Mick on Mick Unplugged.

I love that. Speaking of your socials, where can people find and follow? I'm going to say the good doctor, Dr..

Ramal Ray? Yeah. Two places I recommend people can go to ramonray. Com, ramonerey. Com, R-A-M-O-N-R-A-Y, and or check me out at zoneofgenius. Com, zoneofgenius. Com.

Ladies and gentlemen, he has been Ramon Ray, as he always is. Ramon, brother, again, from the bottom of my soul, thank you for everything that you mean to me and to millions of other people out there. This has truly been an honor, brother.

Mick, I received that. Thank you.

You got it. To all the viewers and listeners, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

Thank you for tuning in to Mick Unplug. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose, and chasing greatness. Until next time, stay Unstoppable.