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Sean Michael Crane's Unstoppable Mindset
Sean Crane shares his story of Redemption and how his struggles early on in life helped him develop a mindset and perspective that he has used to cultivate the life of his dreams. Sean walks you through his most gruesome moments from seeing his mother overdose as a kid to watching his father in a standoff with police. After years of experiencing a living hell Sean was arrested and faced life in prison. Sean shares the most impactful moments behind bars and how they changed his life forever. After 5 1/2 years incarcerated Sean returned home a different person with a compelling vision to inspire the world. Now, a family man, successful entrepreneur and person of influence, Sean is on a mission to spread his message and impact lives across the globe with his lessons and the same breakthroughs that have helped him in his life to this point.
Sean Michael Crane's Unstoppable Mindset
Build Your Brand Story
The entrepreneurial journey is filled with unexpected twists. For Jordan Lung, co-founder of The Hub Network, his path to becoming a marketing strategist for trades businesses began with a football injury that forced him to pick up a camera instead of continuing on the field. That pivot would ultimately lead him to discover his true passion: helping skilled tradespeople tell their stories effectively.
In this revealing conversation with Sean Michael Crane on the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast, Jordan breaks down the exact formula trades business owners need to follow to build powerful brands through strategic content creation. While most contractors excel at their craft, they often struggle to articulate their value proposition in ways that resonate with potential customers. The solution isn't just more advertising—it's authentic storytelling that answers the fundamental question: "Why do you do what you do?"
Jordan's practical approach emphasizes starting with organic content to test messaging before investing in paid campaigns. By consistently producing one quality piece of content weekly and repurposing it across platforms, even the most camera-shy business owner can build a powerful personal brand. "You're going to not be very good at first. You might suck, you might stutter, but over time that repetition, just like any skill set, is going to help you to improve," Jordan explains. His message to those resistant to creating content is blunt but necessary: "Get ready for your competition to wipe you off the map."
As part of the rare 8% of Americans who are entrepreneurs, Jordan understands the discipline and dedication required to build something extraordinary. His insights provide a roadmap for trades business owners looking to differentiate themselves in increasingly competitive markets. Whether you're just starting your content journey or looking to refine your strategy, this episode delivers actionable advice you can implement immediately.
Ready to transform your business through strategic storytelling? Connect with Jordan at thehubnetwork.com or follow him on Instagram @JordanLeeLung to learn how to become the undisputed authority in your market.
You're going to not be very good at first.
Speaker 1:You might suck, you might stutter, but over time that repetition, just like any skill set, is going to help you to improve. And that's the key. And right now, with social media, it's the biggest opportunity people have to create more Right Bottom line if you're not doing it, it's because you're making excuses. Welcome back to another episode of the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, sean Michael Crane.
Speaker 1:We're here at the Santa Barbara Mastermind. I got my man, jordan Lung, came all the way out from Florida to support and represent. So today we're going to find out who is Jordan Lung, right? What I do know is he's the co-founder of the Hub Network. Go to thehubnetworkcom to check out what these guys are doing. Jordan Lung, reagan Weiss I said his last name, right, they're killing it. Right, they're going to help you with your content, your media, and I'm going to let Jordan share a little bit about what he's doing in the business world, for business owners predominantly. But I want to know, jordan, where did you grow up, man? What was your early life like Maybe high school, college and what got you on the path that you're on today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks so much for having me and I'm very thankful to be introduced to you. You've done some great stuff with Reagan Lance Bachman. So glad to be connected through that whole ecosystem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well and real quick. Sorry to interrupt, yeah, but we met at the first Moving Titan Retreat.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's right.
Speaker 1:You were speaking. I was speaking, was pretty skinny back then that's when I was running, which I miss, but I like being jacked too. But that was cool. We got to meet, I got to hear you speak. You did a great job that day, thank you likewise, but yeah, let's get into your story, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I grew up in a small little dairy farm in Western Illinois, had about a thousand people. So growing up I loved to work outside. I was involved in sports as well. One thing that kind of helped catapult me into what I'm doing right now is I actually blew my knees out playing football and I tore my meniscus in both knees.
Speaker 2:And so my coaches said you probably shouldn't continue to play football, but you should probably pick something else up, and if you still want to be on the team, you can either be the water boy or the video guy. And so I didn't want to be Bobby Boucher. So I was like you know what? I'm going to be the video guy. So they gave me this crappy little Sony camcorder that had a little DV tape for 90 minutes. They threw me up in the crow's nest. They said go film something.
Speaker 2:So I started filming week after week and actually fell in love with video production. And then I pursued it in college, with also a degree at my Bible college in theology. So I used both of those together, which I thought I was going to be a pastor my entire career, and so video was always something that stuck with me and something that was really, I love telling stories, I love being creative, and so I took those ideas, that same concept of just being creative and actually making value out of it, and eventually made a business out of it. So that was 2012. I started my first company called JL Video, and so we grew that business and then eventually I met Reagan Weiss, my business partner with the Hub Network in 2017. Did not like him when I first met him. Is that true?
Speaker 1:Yes, why didn't you like Reagan?
Speaker 2:He was very brash to me. He was not very, not Uncle Reagan. The first thing he said to me was he goes. What's your name? I was like I'm Jordan Lung. He said never heard of you.
Speaker 2:I felt very small. I said, okay, thanks, what's your name? He goes Reagan Weiss. I said never heard of you either and he was in contracting, so he goes. What do you charge for videos? I said what do you charge for a bathroom remodel? And at that moment he's like I like you.
Speaker 2:So we started connecting. That was 2017. And so we grew our relationship, doing work together, doing video production for them, and eventually he sold that company. But we just stayed very close and we always knew that our bond was just more than just contractual, that we would become business partners one day, and so an opportunity came for us to start another venture helping small businesses learn from what we had done in our other companies growing media, telling your story, building your personal brand, becoming basically a hometown Titan, if you will, in your industry. And so we built this company called the Hub Network. So, primarily, my responsibilities are the marketing side with Reagan and producing the video production content with my team the website, the ads. We also speak together a lot on TV, on podcasts, different conferences that Reagan's been able to build relationships with, and so then, that's essentially my roles, that I function at that company.
Speaker 1:I love that man, I love how a little bit of adversity getting hurt right, playing sports, turning you, finding a passion for videography.
Speaker 1:It sounds like, yeah, that's really cool. And you know you work predominantly with business owners blue-collar business owners right, that's my clientele In my coaching program, the blue-collar world. When I first got introduced to guys like Tommy Mello, lance Bachman, I knew what the trades were. But then, going to these conferences, seeing these massive companies and the success these guys are accumulating, I was pretty blown away, you know. And now when young people ask me like, hey, what should I do out of high school, one of my first responses is look to get into the trades. There's so much opportunity. There's so much opportunity. There's limitless amounts of opportunity versus going to college and now you're in debt and you don't know what you want to do with your life. How are you helping these guys to find success in their businesses or to leverage marketing or social media? What is it you're doing exactly?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what I find is, many times these individuals are really great at what their skill set is the actual trade but they suck at telling that story. So a lot of times, what we do is we help give them that voice. We always like to figure out who is their ideal customer, and then we talk to that ideal customer. I like to know their story as well, their core values, their business history, and so all these different aspects more or less on an intake interview process is what we utilize to then tell that story. So then, the way that that functions or is executed out is your brand story.
Speaker 2:Video is the very first thing that we always recommend that they do. It's about a 90-second long video and you answer the question why do you do what you do? And it should be very core, value-based. It shouldn't be. We've been here for 50 years. We're open from 9 to 5. Come see us, like you would see on TV back in the day. It should make you feel something. It should also be that one differentiator that makes you different from everyone else your, that one different differentiator that makes you different from everyone else. Your story is something that is yours and your story is something that no one else will have. So if we can tell that in a way that elevates that brand, that's the very first thing that we do, because that story permeates into all the different marketing capacities and platforms and opportunities for them to then keep sharing that story. It's such an impactful part. Other types of videos we then execute as well.
Speaker 1:Let me interject Sorry to interrupt you, but that's what I tell Tyler over here. And we have other guys that I work with who are business owners. People are going to buy from you, more so because they resonate with who you are and hobbies that you have and passions that they have that you share in common, more so than the fact that you're a fucking contractor or a plumber or whatever. It is right you got to build that, that trust, that real rapport with your audience. And so how is that one thing that you help business owners do it sounds like with the brand video you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Clear on their core values and who they are as an individual or what their culture is, and then you share that via social media. Right, and what platforms and like what channels of communication are you using?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot. We're using a lot of the meta platforms. So we're using Facebook and Instagram primarily, but we do a lot on YouTube. Some of our clients do use TikTok. I'm not a huge, I'm not super skillful in TikTok, be totally honest. It's a lot of consumer-based, a lot of shopping, live shopping that is done on there. Some businesses are growing their brands on TikTok, but it's primarily YouTube.
Speaker 2:Facebook and Instagram is what we do a lot. If they are B2B or they do have a commercial arm, we do also make sure that they're positioned on LinkedIn correctly. Linkedin is a goldmine If you are doing B2B sales. There's some businesses that are doing a large amount of commercial side, so they have to be on LinkedIn. Linkedin ads do cost more money than meta. However, you're going directly to that target audience that you can pinpoint what their job title is. So if you want to work for that CEO, maybe you have a large roofing company and you're trying to get big contracts for, say, gas stations around the area you can find those individuals that are CEOs of those or managers, if you will those fleets or those different types of businesses. So those are different platforms that we recommend.
Speaker 1:So do you start everyone off that you work with with organic content, or is it right into paid content?
Speaker 2:It's right into organic first. So if you were to ask me years ago, I would have said flip-flop. Right now it's almost all organic, and here's the reason why Organic content is the way in which you then decide what to pay for. So, in other words, if you have a message or a series of videos that the message is resonating well with the clicks, with the impressions, with the view rates, if your view is pretty much three seconds or less, you know your video probably is not resonating, it's underperforming.
Speaker 2:But if you have a longer watch time if you will, then you know, hey, what you're saying right here. You should completely exploit that and do that more. So duplicate that over and over and over different versions, different styles, so that that one message will get you more leads over time. So the organic side is then the justification for the paid side, and many years ago we would create commercials that we had no idea if that concept would actually work. So we would spend months and weeks on a $50,000 to $100,000 campaign for a company and then create multiple different 30 seconds with funny pitches and funny skits and such all, to launch it on TV, to then cross your fingers to hope that people actually perform the call to action that you're hoping them to do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, now you get to look at the metrics and know what's performing.
Speaker 2:Right, this is the Gary V model, or the Gary V philosophy, if you will. That's completely flip flop from what was happening years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was hearing Gary V talk recently and some other marketing people and you know they're saying even now more relevant as just individual pieces of content, versus posting all day long and just really like hammering your audience with repetitive content. It's the quality right and that comes back to being able to understand who your audience is and to communicate a message to them properly. You know, do you coach people on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because business owners.
Speaker 1:They're in the business to grow the business. They know that trade that particular business Do you teach them about. You know how to speak on camera, how to articulate themselves, what to do, what not to do oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a lot of times where our clients have the RBF face. We have to say, hey, you did a great job.
Speaker 1:What does that stand for?
Speaker 2:Are you allowed to say that? No, I'm not allowed to say that.
Speaker 1:My kids will watch this. Look it up, rbs.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it just means you don't look very happy. Smile, you need to smile. Yeah, you don't look very pleasant, no, so essentially we then coach them. One of our favorite things on set when we're coaching individuals is saying, hey, that was a great job, we're going to try that again and here's what we're looking for and we give them specific things.
Speaker 2:A lot of times it's smiling, with your eyes smiling, obviously, as you speak how to use your hands, how to enunciate yourself, eliminate the ums. I used to say um and I stuttered, sometimes a lot, and in seminary, thankfully, you had to record yourself doing speeches or sermons and you had to watch it back and then you had to grade yourself on what it was and it was absolutely humiliating, because you're watching this in front of the whole class and then you're all scrutinizing hey, you could have said this point better, you could have enunciated this part more effectively, and so, thankfully, that part helped me to then coach the individuals Because again back to what we talked about earlier they're great at laying down roofs or laying down the plumbing installations or HVAC units, but they just have to tell that story. They really have to be the megaphone, they have to be the main storyteller of that brand. Because if they're not doing that, their competition is. And guess who's going to fall in love with them? It's going to be the competition versus that other company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do you say to business owners who would kind of like have a rebuttal? Like, oh well, I run the business, I do these things, but I don't do content.
Speaker 2:I'm not good on camera, I don't want to do that, yeah, I would just say get ready to work at Home Depot. I would say, get ready for your competition to wipe you off the map. I'd say you're probably not ready for business and you don't understand the implications of running a business in 2025. You have to be in front of the camera. You have to be there Also, lifting up people. You got to lift up the community. You got to lift up your employees. You got to praise them, encourage them. You know men right now are so. They've always been.
Speaker 2:But especially with media, men have always been so drawn to the respect as the great thing that they can get from the work that they do. Yes, the money's awesome, but you tell a man how much respect that they're going to get, or give them respect based off the kind words you say on video in front of your entire audience, hundreds of thousands or thousands of individuals in your community. That stuff really means a lot. That stuff will last for years and years and years to come. So if they can keep telling again, organic content, that's going to make an impact. Tell their story, lift others up through it. It's just amount of time before people in their community are just going to keep falling in love with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those are all really good points. What would you tell somebody right now who's watching this, who's not putting out content to promote their business? They're not building relationships with people online. Where do they start?
Speaker 2:Well, it's one of those old adages that the spark is always going to light the flame. I like to listen to different individuals on YouTube. Omar El-Khatoury is an individual that I love to listen to on YouTube, cody Sanchez I enjoy her, alex Hermamosi, and it's interesting. One piece of advice that I've been hearing over and over that I really agree with is that if you can give one long form piece of content that's around eight minutes or so long per week, that you can also trim down into multiple reels out of that over and over and over, absolutely Over and over and over, for six months as a minimum You're doing that every week, so you've done that 26 times Then you, for sure, are going to start seeing a positive impact that you're going to make.
Speaker 2:So that would be. The first thing is just start with that one piece of content that you can do long form every week and all you have to do is batch content, just like what we're doing here, two to four hours per month, with an individual that actually knows what they're doing either a higher production staff, a company or someone that works for you and your company Per month. You're going to end up crushing it online. It's that consistency. It's exactly why you have the results that you do physically, why so many people have results in whatever said service that they do very great in. It's that consistency, that dedication of doing that, even when you don't see the results right away, you know that you're having the discipline to do the right thing, which is grow your brand through video.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even if they only have four viewers watching them.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember when I first started doing Facebook live videos, I'd have like 10 people watching, but I always acted as if a million people were watching.
Speaker 2:Well, I saw this cool picture the other day and it said right now, like we get down or people get down on themselves, that they just think, oh, I only had a hundred views. But then they showed an image of a hundred people in one room. You're like that's actually not that bad.
Speaker 1:And they showed them from stage Right. And then they showed a thousand.
Speaker 2:You're like 1,000.
Speaker 1:Actually feels like a lot, that's a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Some of my reels organically. I was showing one of your team members. It has just a couple thousand views and sometimes you just take that for granted, but then you go 3,000 views. That's a decent crowd size. So, yes, even though you're going to get better, no matter what, you're going to take other benefits besides just the views itself. A lot of times, too, one of the biggest negative things that I would uh just highly advise against is just don't get down when you don't see those results. Uh, come to fruition like what you think. Take away your expectations. If you're not paying for it, you're still going to get the organic views, but over time you will grow that out and you gotta be good at that, right.
Speaker 1:So so if someone's listening to this, like, all right, I'm gonna start posting, like jordan said, every day I'm gonna create a podcast or go live on facebook or instagram or whatever it is. What do they talk about?
Speaker 2:biggest thing they talk about is their story. Their story is is what makes them unique. Uh, your struggles are unique to you. Your accomplishments, your family, your core values, your principles that you run your life by that's all unique to yourself. So I would definitely talk all those different parts. The other thing, too, is I like to listen to Robert Herjavec. He's one of the sharks off the shark tank. He's my favorite shark to listen to even though I like Mr Wonderful quite a bit and Robert Herjavec. He does this whole series on what I learned from billionaires.
Speaker 2:So another type of video that you can do is things that you learned along your way that were the positive things, then a whole other series that's the negative things that you learned or that you failed at along the way as well. You can do different challenges. You can do before and afters or contrast or exploiting bad services or bad things that happened that you saw. I know some guys, too, that they also talk about the jobs that they did for that week. Um, reagan and I were even talking about a while back um this this past week about, um the white house. The white house does their weekly updates. You know things that happened today in the or this week in the white house. You could do something like that in your business as well. Hey, here are the, the 10 projects that we worked on in our community, in these neighborhoods, this week, and this is what we fixed. Uh, you could talk about a deal that you lost. You know why I enjoy talking about why I decided to fire a client recently.
Speaker 1:That's an interesting part too. You're basically documenting everything you're doing Correct, both personally and professionally.
Speaker 2:I mean think of video production as the old school way they would teach you to journal, write things down. That's still fine, but you can do that via video and just as long as you have your series, like we just mentioned, and those different breakout points that you can discuss, in that that's your content. You can break these things down into literally hundreds of pieces of content to use.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, those are all really good points too, and I remember I forgot who it was, but they talked about creating content online. And they're like just pretend that you're in a reality TV show, you're the star, show people what you're doing every day, your likes, your dislikes, your hobbies, your wins, your losses, your family, how you're spending your time. And then every once in a while, when you're watching a reality TV show, at least back in the day on cable, what happens? It breaks to a commercial and now people are selling you shit.
Speaker 1:So every once in a while, you sprinkle in a call to action or you talk about your business or you talk about a promo that you're running, and so over time, you're not just hitting people with ads like trying to sell them stuff. You're bringing them into your world, you're building an actual relationship with them. Then when you offer something or they see you working a job or they hear you talking about your business, they're more likely to inquire about your services or remember you at least. Like you know, I tell guys that are blue collar guys are in the trades all the time, like the person watching your video might not be the one that hires you, but they might be at dinner with their grandma and grandpa and their grandma's sinks busted and they're like oh, I remember so-and-so.
Speaker 1:He's a plumber, he's actually in this neighborhood, like I saw his Facebook Live the other day and they're going to think about you. You're on top of mind. So if you're not creating content, you're just missing opportunities and a lot of people. They're just so worried about how they're going to look, how they sound. You're going to not be very good at first, you might suck, you might stutter, but over time that repetition, just like any skill set, is going to help you to improve and that's the key. And right now, with social media, it's the biggest opportunity people have to create more business.
Speaker 1:Bottom line. If you're not doing it, it's because you're making excuses and you got to grow, you got to evolve, otherwise you're going to lose to your competition, like Jordan said. The last point I want to make, based on what you said, is it does help to have experts in your corner, and one thing I've always done in my business is hire people, learn from others who are doing what I want to do, like I could spend all day long trying to figure it out, or all year long, or forever, or I could go to the expert and learn, like that, exactly what to do and what not to do, and then you go to work and, yeah, it's going to cost you money, yeah, you got to invest in yourself, but what you're doing is you're you're buying their certainty, their experience, their knowledge, and that's how you expedite your results. So if there is somebody that's listening to this, that wants to learn more about what you do and maybe hire you or ask you questions, where can they find you? Where can they reach?
Speaker 2:you. Yeah, I think the easiest route is to find us on thehubnetworkcom. We have a contact form. My other agency, tradeupmarketingcom, is another asset that individuals could use as well. Also, you can engage with me on Instagram. My handle is at Jordan Lee Lung and you can find me on there.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of content that I post about my businesses. A lot of it, too, is faith and business, and then some about my personal life as well, but those are the main ways that I would recommend people hang out with me. I do love to talk with business owners. I really enjoy that grind, that hustle. It's a very unique. There's only about 8% of us in the entire United States that do what we do as entrepreneurs. It takes 92% of the United States to facilitate our visions of the 8%. So individuals like us we're a rare breed. We like pain, we like discipline, but we love the results. One day, when we're sitting back on the beach smoking cigars with the mai tai, with our beautiful spouses and kids, knowing that we built something that people dreamed about building, that's right, dude.
Speaker 1:I love that man, uh jordan lung. You guys follow him. I'll make sure to post all his social media handles in the description below. Thanks for your time, brother.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. Thank you, man Appreciate it.
