We caught up with the brilliant and insightful James Patrick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

James, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I actually started with a question. Why do some individuals seem to possess the capacity to consistently achieve great things in their lives, while others tend to struggle? For years this question led me to study the habits of the most accomplished and successful individuals to understand their methodology so I could reverse engineer the process.

What I discovered was creating the change you seek and turning the impossible to possible comes down to three essential pillars: Vision. Purpose. Legacy.

It was through this research that I created the first draft of what would eventually become The Legacy Planner. Over the course of a decade I refined the planner until it was reader to share with the world.

Available now, The Legacy Planner helps individuals create annual goals, turn those into quarterly plans, monthly actions, weekly sprints and daily tasks.

The Legacy Planner is how you can ignite the change, growth, and success you’ve always imagined for your. most successful and accomplished year ever.

The annual planner is available in paperback, hardcover or even as a free PDF at https://jamespatrick.com/legacy/

James, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started as a photographer at the age of 19 working both for various magazines and newspapers. Upon getting my degree in journalism, I took on a career in marketing for 7 years while simultaneously building up my freelance photography business.

I left my corporate job during a recession to focus on my creative endeavors full time as I was able to 2X my business within the first year, despite the economic conditions.

In my career as a photographer, I’ve photographed more than 600 published magazine covers. Leveraging that experience I started to help health and fitness entrepreneurs leverage the power of earned media through my coaching practice, events and more.

I’ve been honored to write two best-selling books. Fit Business Guide: The Workout Plan for Your Brand and Fit Business Online: Establish, Market and Profit from your Brand in the Fitness Industry are both available on Amazon.

In 2020 I took my career full circle and got into the publishing field launching a digital news network ICON/REFINED. A year later I launched both ICONFIT Magazine and Ricochet Magazine to compliment the digital network.

My podcast, Beyond the Image, has been hitting charts in more than a dozen countries and is more than 400 episodes in with nearly 400 5-star reviews.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

A lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners want to focus exclusively on their trade or craft. However without marketing and without sales – there is no business. It is require that we are the leaders of our business seek out and connect with our target clientele.

My approach can be summed up in six words – be seen, be heard, be read.

It is the foundation of omnipotent marketing. We want to be seen by our target clientele. That means we have to be an active participant within their lives. We have to be heard by them. We cannot just be a passive attendee standing in the back of the room. We have to be the individual speaking on stage. We need to be read by them. This is all about ensuring that we are giving immense value through our content marketing so there is now a reason for them to pay attention to us.

Attention is required to grow a business and that attention must be earned.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Audience growth requires two things. The first is attraction and the second is retention.

The best, and really the only reliable, way to gain attraction without being lucky and hitting the algorithm lottery is by creating content that others are willing to share. When others share your content to their audiences (whether it is someone reposting your content or another account sharing your information, your story, your value) – they are doing the marketing for you. Thus you have to create content worth sharing. That is content which is either educational, inspirational or entertaining.

Once you attract the attention, you actually have to retain the audience or they will simply move onto the next platform which does provide more value. That means you need additional content which reinforces why your audience should pay attention to you. Once again that is content that educates, inspires or entertains – but there needs to be enough of it and it needs to be of a good enough quality that people want to consume it. Great content works, bad content gets unfollowed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jamespatrick.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpatrickphoto/
• Facebook: Facebook.com/JamesPatrickPhotography
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jpphotoaz/