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You're listening to Mick Unplugged. Hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And if you are about fast scaling and growing your brand, this is the episode for you. He is the strategist behind some of the fastest scaling brands in digital today. Mastering lead gen like a surgeon and building magnetic identities that convert from building and growing the gym social to partnering with grow with us agency. Here he is redefining how brands connect and grow. He is the bold, he is the relentless. He is a visionary. My guy, Joe McCarthy. All about you, man. All about you. This is such an interesting discussion that we're going to have a lot of topics we're going to go through. But Joe, I love starting off my conversations by understanding what's your because that true purpose that you have today that's driving you to do all the amazing things that you're doing. So Joe McCarthy, man, what is your.
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Because I think someone asked me that and I really don't have a specific why. I really just think I'm a psycho in a way. I love the game, I love the hunt, I love the chasing my potential, right. I feel like God did bless me with just abnormal drive to want to achieve things and help people. But I guess to answer the question, like when I was growing up trying to build my personal brand, I had a lot of struggles with growing it and figuring out my identity and my finding my own voice confidence. So I just wanted to be that light or that point in the future for people to be able to look up to and be like, okay, I just need to follow this guy and just do what he says. Because I didn't really have that. I have a specific branding coach necessarily to get me that fast track result. So I just wanted to be that for other people who are either just getting started with branding or they're in it, but they're not really seeing the results that they want to be seeing.
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I love that dude. The fact that and you know that you're unique, right? Because a lot of people that have somewhat mastered brand try to keep all the sauce to themselves, right? And then when they go to help other people, it never goes like, like they plan on it because they've only figured out themselves and they've never worked with others and they never put others first. And that's why I appreciate you the most, because you genuinely do take the time to understand who people are, right? What's their mission?
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What's.
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What are they actually trying to accomplish? And you build those plans around that. And so when I say we have so much to talk through, man, we're at a time now where the algorithms and branding are so important to everyone, whether you are a business, individual, influencer, whatever it is that you're trying to do. Social validation is a thing, right? Like, I have this stat where 60% of companies research your brand on social and digital before anything else. They're not going to your website, right? They're trying to see who you are and your social media is going to tell them just that I love to get your take on the importance of everyone focusing on their brand first.
B
That stat is accurate. I also heard that they get paid more. So the ones that have solid brands, like, they're the ones driving around in the Bentleys, while the ones that don't really have a personal brand, you know, they're in the Honda. So it's, it's very interesting. I think, just all around having a personal brand, it's like your resume, it's like your business card. It's. It's just a way to show people on the front end, hey, these are my values, opinions, beliefs, skills. You know, this is what I can help with. So I don't, I don't think at this point I need to preach how valuable it is to have a, a brand. I think everybody understands. I think it's more. So how do I get started? And just like, where do I even start? Or even just like, maybe they don't know what they want to be posting about? It's like, okay, people are telling me I need a brand and it's important, but, like, what does that actually mean to you? If that makes sense?
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Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk to people about getting started. And I'm going to make this little caveat for everybody that's watching or listening. I don't care how long you've had social, how long you've been building a brand. If you're listening to this episode, it's because you're at the point where you actually need to get started or restarted, right? So, Joe, for those that are listening that are like, okay, how do I build this brand? What are the first two or three things I need to look for that.
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You need to get clear on would be, who is your target audience? What are your skill sets? What can you help them with? I think a lot of people, they choose a niche, they go super broad, and then they just start posting content because that's what people are telling them to do. They're like, okay, I'll post once or twice a day, because that's what all the gurus are saying. But. But they haven't done that deep work or that foundational work to figure out, like, who is my target audience? What are their pain points, what do they struggle with? What's that ideal outcome or core desire that they're trying to achieve? And then even just as a person. Right. I feel like a lot of, I'm seeing, at least these days, a lot of people regurgitating content or like taking quotes and other opinions and other viewpoints and just essentially indoctrinating that into themselves and just posting that on their feed so they almost don't have their own voice. And I felt like that was a big issue with me. You can even scroll back on my page at real Jim McCarthy and you'll see a lot of my first content was just Grant Cardone quotes or Robert Kiyosaki posts or whatnot. So it's like, I didn't, I didn't have my own voice. So I think it's also just getting clear on who are you as a person? Like, what do you stand for? What are your values? What are your beliefs? What are your opinions? Maybe you are in, like, a specific industry and you've, you've clarified that. Okay, I'm gifted at fitness, so maybe I'm going to dive into that. What are some things that I agree or disagree with in the fitness space? What are some misconceptions that I feel like exist that I could talk about? Because a lot of people, they don't have even, like a backbone to speak their truth or speak their opinions. And I feel like when you are able to do that clearly and you can convey that on your personal brand, it demands more authority. So I think that's the. Those are the first things you would need to just get clear on is just the foundational things, that it's boring work. It's. It's not necessarily scalable work. Like, I could tell you a sexy answer like, yeah, go spend 500 bucks on ads and then launch an offer and make a ton of money. But that comes way down the line after you've built the foundational, unscalable things first.
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And that's what I want people to understand. All the things that you want to happen with the right work, maybe even with the right guidance of someone like Joe. Right. Can work, but it doesn't happen tomorrow, it doesn't happen next week. Honestly, it's probably not going to happen in 120 days. But there's some mundane stuff that has to happen that builds credibility. And honestly. And Joe, I know you know this. Like, that's what the algorithms look for, too. Like, the algorithm isn't going to take a chance on a wild card. And like, Joe had this very nice quote or this very funny segment. Let me go push this to 5 million people. No, the algorithm is looking at your history as well, too. And it's like, well, Joe's actually never talked about this before. Only his followers who are actually looking for his content are going to see this, talk about how the algorithm works. But some things that you can do for your favor that let the algorithms help you.
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Simple answer of like, oh, you just need to make sure, like, you structure your content properly, have a good hook, and, you know, all that stuff. But I feel like it really comes down to the messaging, right? I feel like, again, tying back into the foundational things. If your messaging is really clear and it's on point and you're speaking to your audience on such a level where they feel like you're almost like, in their heads, like, holy moly. Like, this guy really understands me. Like, you have to think about what makes you share a piece of content. Like, what makes you share it to your wife or share it to your story or repost it or save it for later. Like, what makes you do that? Typically, it's because you really resonate with that piece of content or it's relatable or, like, you can almost feel this level of resonance that it's like, this is so good. I need to, like, share it to other people. So you need to get clear on your messaging. Not just because, you know, we need to have a niche, obviously, and we need to know, like, what we're posting, but also if you do want to get views and you want to go viral, right? Like, obviously there's simple things like structuring the content properly and staying consistent. Posting every week, that's always going to help the algorithm. But at the end of the day, I've heard recently, at least, the most important stat for Instagram are shares and saves. And so people are not going to share and save your stuff if they don't resonate with it and if the messaging is foggy and unclear. So the way that you create content that gets out to more people, gets the right people on your social media, gets you more views, more followers, is by nailing that customer language and the messaging and the content.
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Love it, brother. Love it, man. I've heard you say this before. I'm gonna, I'm gonna paraphrase it in my simple minded approach, right? Cause Joe's the guru. I can't, I can't speak like Joe. Brand and Legion often get treated as like two different things, but actually they work together hand in hand to get the ultimate results and scalability that you want. Talk to us about the importance of brand and Legion and why people should be looking at it as a unified thing and not two separate things.
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So with the front end brand, which would be like, let's say the social media page again, if you don't have everything tightened up, buttoned up, it doesn't matter what you do with marketing or lead gen. Like let's say for instance, you're trying, like here's a scenario that I see all the time. People will spend a lot of money on outbound marketing or paid ads, but they haven't really refined and really optimized their social media or their personal brand. So it's like they're spending all this money on marketing or they're doing all this lead generation, but it doesn't convert because you haven't nailed down the brand. The brand should be the main thing. That's like speaking to those ideal clients. And I have my clients actually structure their social media in a way that, where everything is intentional. Like if you go to my personal brand, everything has a purpose and a place to almost create this hidden funnel to get people to my DMs. So like you said, I treat it as just like one in the same. Like I almost treat ads, marketing, lead generation as like fuel to the fire because I already get a good amount of business just organically through my content because I'm posting valuable information. It's targeted messaging is on point. And I have a way to convert Those viewers into DMs, DMs into calls, and calls into paid clients. And then once you find something that works with the brand, you put fuel on the fire with paid ads or outreach or whatever marketing tactics you use. But you can't have like one or the other, right? And I feel like a lot of people that dive into the lead gen, they dive into like trying to get calls booked or business because that's again, what's sexy. That's what sells. Like, hey, I'm going to help you book 30 calls this month and then you're going to make a ton of money. When in reality you can't do that unless you have the brand in check. So it's all like, you can't have one without the other.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So for the folks that are watching or listening and they feel like my page is looking good, but I'm not getting the actual lead gen or, you know, I've got the right messaging, and now I'm at that point of, how do I turn it into Legion? I don't know what to do without feeling salesy, right? That's always one of the first couple of things I get when I'm working with people is like, I'm not a salesperson. I'm like, well, then you're not trying to make money then, right? Like, at some point, something has to convert into a sale, a transaction. So let's talk to the viewers and listeners on that point of, okay, you've got the brand down. Your messaging is good. How do you start converting that into traffic or leads or someone that's like, yes, I want to have a conversation with you.
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Well, so there's the tactical route and then there's more like, the mindset. Because, like, what I heard there in that scenario, for instance, is there's a lot of, like, mindset things of, I don't want to be a salesperson, I'm not salesy. So clearly that means that you have to kind of dive into the mindset piece. I also think it comes down to your offer, and that's a huge piece of what I help my clients with is, like, structuring out really solid offers. And. And I never come at lead generation as, like, salesy or scammy or like, hey, I want to sell you this thing just to make money off of you. Every single thing I do is a service, right? Like, I'm spending time on this podcast because I'm just serving people. I'm not here necessarily looking to get business or get a ton of leads or make a ton of money. I'm just here to serve. And then by default, people trust me. They see me as an authority and they want to work with me. So it's the same thing with offers with the messaging in the DMs or that conversation exchange that you have to get them to a call. I always come at it with the angle of service. So if you don't want to sound salesy, you Know, stop selling on the front end and saying, hey, we'll have to book a call to sell you my product instead, you know, try to come at it and say like, hey, how long have you been an entrepreneur for? 5 years. Awesome. Do you get business through Instagram? Not really. Gotcha. Will actually help people. I've helped people for the past nine years with this thing, this thing, this thing. I'd love to hop on a call to show you what's working for me, working for my clients. If you know you can get value from that, like, would you be down? Yes. I book calls. Like I've been doing outreach for eight years now. So I know it scripts work, I know the targeting, the follow up processes. I never come at it as being salesy. But at the same time, even if I'm on a call and it's getting to like maybe the price drop and you know, we have to maybe go back and forth here and there, I never think for once, like I'm, I'm selling this person because I believe so wholeheartedly in my offer and my service that like they would be crazy not to take it. And it's almost like a, like I'm a doctor in a way. Like I figure out what's wrong. Like we try to diagnose them and then we give them a solution. Like, hey, this is literally exactly what you need step by step. And I know for a fact it's going to help you. So you almost have an obligation if you know your service is great and you know you have that value to provide. Like if you have confidence in your process and your transformation, like, why wouldn't you want to give that to as many people as possible who need it? Right? You're almost selfish. Thinking about you thinking, I don't want to be salesy. I don't want to come off wrong. I don't want to, you know, have this perception when in reality there's people out there that probably need your services and need your value and your process to hit their goals.
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Absolutely. And Joe, I know how humble you are, but this is going to be me giving you the opportunity to brag on yourself. Because I could do it. But I want people to hear it directly from you because I, I know there are folks that are like, man, Joe, that sounds awesome. Sounds amazing. Do you have any case studies? So can you give a couple of examples or let's just start with one of how you and your agency have, have helped an individual or a company start to scale.
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One client named Richard. So we Scaled him from I believe maybe a thousand followers to over the course of a 12 month period, about 800,000 followers. He grew his engagement started reaching way more people. He's connected with people like Bradley and all these other podcasters and entrepreneurs out there. I think he grew his school community from a couple thousand to now there's like 20,000 people in his school community. He helps people with closing deals. He's I believe he's like 10x his income. So that's one like large, large example. All are like more relatable. Example is I have another client named Sean and he had a decent following already, but he just wasn't getting leads. He was doing a lot of like in person fitness training. Wasn't really getting a ton of business. Never cracked more than seven or $8,000 in a month ever. And then he worked with me within five weeks of us partnering up together. He did 10K in his first week. So like pretty quickly he grew to 30k profit months, like consistently 90% profit margins because it's all coaching. And he's actually spending more time now with his family, which I think that's the biggest win is he was able to buy, you know, his dream house. He was able to um, retire his wife and like literally be able to spend more time with his family, but making quadruple the amount. I think that's the beauty about coaching is like whatever life you want to build, whatever lifestyle you want to live, coaching allows you to do that. If you're willing to put in the work and follow a process and then you can scroll through. I got a ton. Like you go through my highlights on my Instagram, my website, tons and tons of results. I had a client, Andrew, do 15 million views in September alone. I got tons of clients locking in brand deals, hitting their first high ticket clients. It's. Yeah, it's nuts.
A
So Joe, when did you know that you had a system that worked again, not just for you, but that it will work for. I'm not going to say anybody, but for the right person that's willing to do the things.
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I mean, I was confident just upfront that it was going to work for me because I did it. So I really, all I did is I just took what I did. Like I'm never one to necessarily say like, hey, this is always going to work or you have to do this or you know, that type of stuff. I just come at it as like, this is me documenting my journey. This is what's worked for me. This is how I grew my brand. How I locked in my first handful of clients, how I structured my offer. So like you said, like I didn't. There's no process that's going to work for everybody. They have to put in the work to see the results. But really all I did was I just took what I learned and I started getting people messaging me asking like, hey, do you have coaching? Like do you do consultation? Do you have like a course or a program? So I waited until people were like knocking on my DMs like saying like hey, do you have some sort of offer? And then I'm like, okay, that must mean I have some sort of credibility in the space or some sort of result that people want to achieve. So really I just deconstructed what I did over the past eight, nine years to hit that and put it into an actual program step by step.
A
Amazing brother, amazing. I know you're all about systems and tools. What are some of the tools that you're using or that you recommend for people that are again looking to, to get this launch and scaling happening for their business?
B
That's a good question. I mean in the beginning I feel like a lot of people overcomplicate it. I mean I did not have a ton of systems and like automations. Like I use GHL at go high level now and I hate it because it's such, it's just so overwhelming. So I just have my team handle it for me at this point. So I'm, I'm all about like simple skills. Like you could have a 50k per month business with 2 employees and chatgpt. Right? Like I would say chatgpt to answer your question, like dive head first into that. Like that software is insane. Like you can create scripts. Like that's a full time copywriter, you know, ea, like executive assistant really if you want it. So I use that like on a daily. I think really that's all you need at least in the beginning. Then there's small software that you can use to automate some things like fulfillment or onboarding or like I have some email workflows that I've created. But again I feel like that's the sexy stuff that sells. Like hey, here's a whole like system to automate it so you don't have to work. Right. Like it's going to take a little bit of upfront work but I feel like people over complicate a lot of the stuff in the beginning where they think they need all these crazy things, but in reality they just need a message, a camera, some Sort of offer and the conviction and confidence and courage to stay at it and get their first handful of clients.
A
I love that, brother. I love that. So now I want to, I want to tie it together now and talk about the offer because I think, well, one, it's something that I teach to a lot of my clients, right? Stop talking and using the term quote or proposal. Make people an offer. If you think you have something good, make them an offer and they'll tell you, right? Talk to us about the structure of a good offer.
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I've spent a lot of money with other coaches helping me refine my offer. I would say it boils down into a couple things. I would say the first thing on the very high level viewpoint would be you need to figure out, like, what is the process that you take your clients through? Like, what are the core pillars that you drive your clients through to get them from point A to point B? Then once you have that, you can dive into the deliverables, like what they're specifically getting, then we can dive into the price point. So just to give you an example with my offer, and this is important even just on like an enrollment call, so you can convey and communicate the whole process in a clear, concise way. I will basically say like, okay, to help you hit this goal, you obviously get their goals, you get what they're struggling with and you go through that whole sales framework on the front end with like asking them the questions. But once you have that, once you're going through your offer, first thing you want to cover is, you know, this is the process to get you from point A to point B. So for me, I help people structure out their offers so refine their price points, deliverables, timeframes, all that stuff. Second thing is, I help them optimize their social media, make sure the front end looks good, hios, you know, highlights, bio, pin posts. Like literally everything on the front end is again, like optimized to create almost a hidden funnel. Then on the back end would be more so the messaging and the actual content strategy. Thirdly would be lead generation and then fourth would be scale so they can already see like the vision, like, okay, he's going to help me dial in my offer, build my social media, help me get some lead generation going and then create systems and processes to save me time. Then you dive into deliverables, which you need to be clear on what would go into that. For me, I wanted to create something where it wasn't too much front end time, but it also had that one on One aspect. So for me, you get one on one calls, for instance, you get modules that I built out, for instance. There's a lot of content that you'll see trends and you might see your clients asking the same thing over and over again. Just create a quick video about that. Saves you time. So I want to optimize it there. So there's seven hours worth of content in there, action items, worksheets, and I have a group portion as well where we do weekly group Q and A calls. So in my opinion, like there, there is no right or wrong with an offer. But again, I spent six figures, more than six figures at this point into coaching. And I would say the best results I've ever gotten was when it was a hybrid. So there was like the group portion of it where they had like that group community aspect. There was the one on one aspect where you had like the one on one customizable support and guidance. And then there was like some modules that they could actually go through on their own time, watch the content, implement it, go through the action items. So in my opinion, I'm biased because that's how my offer is structured. People see great results with it. So I mean, obviously I'm going to tell you to go down that route. But then that begs the question of like, what do you want your life to look like long term? It's like maybe you want more of like a passive offer and you just want course material where you film it on the front end and then you just sell that. So it doesn't take coaching. Maybe you're scared to do one on one coaching because you just want like a group community. So that's one thing we figure out on the front end is like, well, what do you want for your life? Because again, beauty about coaching is it's, it's your offer, it's your structure, it's your life. Maybe you want a group community, maybe you want one on one. Maybe you don't want to talk to anybody, you just want to sell a course and be more passive about it. It's, it's really up to you. That's what I would say. Like, sorry for the long answer, but that's definitely what I would say is the, the gist of a solid offer.
A
I love it. I love it. All right, I'm going to ask you this question. I'm asking this for a friend of mine. Zero following, right? Not even really on social media, zero leads, but an amazing product. What's the first piece of advice you'd.
B
Give that person I mean, assuming they already know who their target audience is, they've already done that foundational work. I would just start creating content geared towards those people. So for instance, you want to create value based content based on the outcomes they're trying to achieve, maybe the pain that they're currently going through or goals they're trying to accomplish. And then I would try to do your best to position yourself as the go to expert in that field. So obviously with that would come just giving them overwhelming amounts of value on what that product entails. Really I would just say it's just, it's about creating that content posting and going back to the gatekeeping stuff. Like, I feel like the more you try to gatekeep, the worse it gets for you. Like I'll, I'll post stuff that I, I probably paid, you know, 10 or $20,000 to learn and it's literally in my pinned post. But I do that because if people see that, I don't know if it was maybe Alex Mosey who said this, but it's like if they see what your free stuff is worth and they see like all the value that that's providing, they're like, if his free stuff is this good, I can't imagine what the paid stuff is. Like that, that must be crazy. And then they see you as an authority. They can see like, okay, he knows his stuff. So I would just go crazy hard on like providing as much value as possible and trying to hone in on your, your target audience and just positioning yourself as an authority. And then most of my content, like, I'm at the point where I'm not afraid to like pitch or put in like, hey, if you're looking to grow your brand and dial in your offer, make your first 10k per month online. Like DM me, like, I'll do call to actions all the time in my content, in my story posts because I'm at the point where I'm providing so much value that like, it's okay for me to, you know, ask for an offer or like, you know, to offer them something. So maybe at that point where it's like, okay, we've posted 20 or 30 times, we're providing a lot of value. People see like, okay, he knows his stuff. I wonder if he has like a product or service, then you can start pitching that on your stories and putting it in your content in your captions. That's probably how I would go about it. Just on the front end.
A
I love it. And you segued exactly where I wanted to Go. Because again, I know you're humble, right? Joe pitches. What is working with Joe McCarthy like, man, like let's hear that pitch. Working with Joe. Because everybody, that's what this listening or watching, I know they're like, this is good. How do I get to work with Joe?
B
I really work with coaches, entrepreneurs, even people that just know they have some value and they want to package it up and use social media to hit their first 10, 20, 30K per month. So to work with me over 12 weeks, it's essentially a 12 week program. In that 12 weeks you get a few things. Number one, you get six one on one calls with me personally. So every other week we would hop on individually to go over any customizable support that you need. Second thing is you get those modules that I built out like I mentioned, you get the video content, the course material, worksheets, workbooks, action items, and then there's that group portion on Slack as well. So like Sean's in there, a lot of my other clients that are crushing it or in that group and we do weekly group Q and A calls every single Thursday. So you can hop in there, ask me questions. And typically like I mentioned with the process, the first thing we'd want to build out over that 12 weeks would be the offer. So getting crystal clear on the deliverables, time frames, price points, like also just what are we charging? That's one thing I didn't really mention. And a good offer is need to charge the right price. So many people, they undercharged and they way overdo it on the deliverables. Like I used to have way more calls and I was like, okay, people are not taking the one on one calls because I've given them like 10, they usually take six and I'm overwhelmed. So it's not as scalable. So I show my clients from the get go. Let's create an offer that's scalable, makes us good amount of money, but also has our customer success and client success in mind as well. So obviously dialing the price points and just getting crystal clear on that. Then once we have the offer moving to social media like I mentioned on the front end, it's going to be like the aesthetics, the bio pinned post highlights, making sure everything is in check there and then really nailing the messaging in the content. Then once we have that, we can move into lead generation. I like to start with outreach again. I've been doing DM outreach for eight years at this point, so I basically just give my clients on a silver platter like the scripts I use, the targeting, follow up processes, literally everything that I've used and I'm still using to this day to book calls organically through my page. But we just want like a predictable, consistent lead gen method to get clients and get paid. And then the last thing is scale and that's creating processes for content creation so we can create a backlog of content so you don't have to like fly by the seat of your pants and thinking like, okay, it's Tuesday, what do I post? Like, we want to have systems in place to be radically consistent with that. So that's like the whole overview, I guess. People who are watching this, like, currently the price is either two payments of 3k or one of 5k. So you basically save a thousand if you're watching this. Like, I'll honor that price, but I'm always going to be increasing it because at this point, I mean, people have told me multiple times, supply and demand, brother.
A
Supply and demand. That's business.
B
One, oh, one, yeah. People told me I need to up that a little bit. But if you're watching this and you can prove it, like, I'm totally fine with sticking at that 5k price.
A
All right, so here's what I want everybody to do. I want everybody that's listening and you want to work with Joe. Message him that you, you heard it or you saw it on this podcast. He's not going to give you a price break, right? But maybe he won't raise the price on you because I can promise you in about five days the price is going to change. So let him know that you heard us here. Be clear with what you want him to help you with. Like, that helps him help you as a coach. I can promise you, Joe, like, and I know you appreciate this, one, I want you to want it more than I do. And two, I need you to be clear about what success looks like for me. You, it's okay if you don't know the journey. That's what you hire coaches for, right? But I need you to, to want to want it. And two, to have a clear vision of success. So if you can tell Joe that, that you want it. And if you, when you book that first meeting with him, if you can be very clear about what success looks like to you, I can promise you Joe can get you to that vision.
B
Biggest factors too is just like the, the clarity on what you want and like the willingness to do it. Because I've had people pay me 5k and then they disappear. They don't show up to call and it's like, well, I mean, I can't help you there. But yeah, if you. It's. I've built it out scientifically, like to a T, where it's like, if you follow this blueprint, if you take action on it and you have the courage to show up and stay consistent, like, you will see results. So that, I'd say, is a huge factor of success. It's just, you know, that dog and you wanting to achieve success.
A
Absolutely. Joe, I know how busy you are, man. I'm going to get you out of here with my Rapid 5. All right, here we go. If you could work with any celebrity on their social, on their brand, on their offer, who would it be?
B
Probably Elon Musk. I feel like he's kind of all over the place that could. We could hone in some things with him. He's also big on Twitter and not really Instagram.
A
Yeah, Elon. Yeah, Clarity, Elon. That's the thing. Clarity, Clarity. All right, what's your Get Hype song? Right? Like, you're in a. You're in a little grind, probably.
B
I'm a Boss by Rick Ross.
A
Okay. Roget himself. What's one piece of advice you've received that's changed the trajectory of your career?
B
People are going to judge you no matter what you do. So you might as well do what you're meant to do and stop caring about other people's opinions.
A
Love that. Love that. Early morning or late night?
B
That's. My wife is a late night owl and I am probably more of a morning person, but that creates a lot of problems because she's keeping. Keeping me up late and then. Yeah, if I had to choose that morning.
A
Yeah, naturally. Get up early. Huh? What's one book you're reading right now?
B
This one Steve Jobs book is massive.
A
Yeah, there you go. There you go. Good stuff. Joe McCarthy, man. Where can people find and follow you on all socials?
B
Primarily Instagram, though. If you want to get the most value, I would check out my Instagram at real Joe McCarthy.
A
I love it, brother. I appreciate all the wisdom you dropped today. You're about to get a lot of calls or DMs, I can promise you that, man. Cause I. I know a lot of people that need Joe McCarthy so much.
B
Appreciate that, man.
A
Good stuff. And to all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it. That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged. If this episode moved you, and I'm sure it did, follow the show. Wherever you listen, share it with someone who needs that spark. And leave a review so more people can find there. Because I'm Rudy Rush. And until next time, stay driven, stay focused, and stay unplugged.
Podcast: Mick Unplugged
Host: Mick Hunt
Guest: Joe McCarthy, Brand Strategist
Date: January 15, 2026
This episode dives deep into practical, high-impact strategies for building a powerful personal brand and effective lead generation—unifying both for massive scalability and sustainable business growth. Host Mick Hunt sits down with Joe McCarthy, a branding visionary behind some of the fastest-growing digital brands, to deconstruct the intricate dance of personal brand development and converting that brand into a lead-gen machine. Joe unpacks actionable steps, habits, mindset principles, and real-world examples for entrepreneurs and leaders looking to scale.
“I love the game, I love the hunt, I love chasing my potential... I wanted to be that light or that point in the future for people... because I didn’t really have that.” – Joe McCarthy [01:22]
“Having a personal brand, it’s like your resume, your business card... a way to show people... these are my values, opinions, beliefs, skills.” – Joe McCarthy [03:27]
“Those are the first things you just need to get clear on...it’s boring work...but that comes way down the line after you’ve built the foundational, unscalable things first.” – Joe McCarthy [06:18]
“People are not going to share and save your stuff if they don’t resonate with it and if the messaging is foggy and unclear.” – Joe McCarthy [08:37]
“People will spend a lot of money on outbound marketing or paid ads, but they haven’t optimized their personal brand. So it doesn’t convert... It’s all like, you can’t have one without the other.” – Joe McCarthy [09:45]
“If you have confidence in your process and your transformation, why wouldn’t you want to give that to as many people as possible?” – Joe McCarthy [15:59]
“You could have a 50k per month business with two employees and ChatGPT.” – Joe McCarthy [20:54]
“The best results I’ve ever gotten was when it was a hybrid—group community, one-on-one, and modules so clients can take action on their own.” – Joe McCarthy [24:44]
“The more you try to gatekeep, the worse it gets for you... if people see what your free stuff is worth, they’re going to wonder what the paid stuff is like.” – Joe McCarthy [26:34]
On foundational work:
“It’s boring work. It’s not necessarily scalable...but that comes way down the line after you’ve built the foundational, unscalable things first.” – Joe McCarthy [06:18]
On outreach and lead gen:
“I always come at it with the angle of service. So if you don’t want to sound salesy, stop selling on the front end and just ask: how can I help?” – Joe McCarthy [15:05]
On mindset:
“People are going to judge you no matter what you do. So you might as well do what you’re meant to do and stop caring about other people’s opinions.” – Joe McCarthy, Rapid 5 [33:16]
“Primarily Instagram... @realjoemccarthy” [33:52]
Joe’s approach fuses deep, values-driven branding with practical, unapologetic lead gen. He challenges listeners to do the unsexy foundational work, serve relentlessly, and never gatekeep knowledge. If you’re looking to scale your brand and business, start with clarity, give value generously, and get personal with your audience and prospects. And if you want expert help—reach out while Joe’s offer is still at his current rate!
“Your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.” – Mick Hunt [34:09]
For more wisdom and future episodes, follow Mick Unplugged and connect with guest Joe McCarthy on Instagram (@realjoemccarthy).