[E254] Relational Brand Building, with Jarrett Thomas (Part 4)

Jason: Now for your host, Jason Cutter. Welcome to part four, the final part of my conversation with Jared Thomas. He does amazing work on the relational side, no matter what you're selling, no matter what you're doing, the key is relationships. The key is having the right framework. The key is playing the long game in those conversations, which for some people might be months and months. Some, it might be a couple of conversations, but what are you doing? If you focus on the longterm, you focus on value, you focus on giving first, then you will get what you want. That always holds true. That's why my number one favorite quote by Zig Ziglar is help enough people get what they want. You'll get everything. You want not some things, not partially what you want, but everything. So this is it. Fourth part, final part of the conversation with Jarret. Jarrett: Enjoy all those things. It takes time. So if you have somebody who doesn't have these type of responsibilities that I have, or my pie chart is so full and you can do it, go for it. But you're going to know one is going to outperform the other. All right. You're going to eventually hone in on one channel. Whichever one is grabbing the revenue is where you focus. Jason: And I think that's the key is where are your people at? And then I think this is always important to remember and focus on is self awareness. Each person out there in the world, who are you? What are you good at? What do you like doing? And then what's going to come most natural and feel the best for you and the other people, right? So maybe it's a podcast, maybe it's video, maybe it's not. Maybe you just like to write. So when you go on LinkedIn, you see all these videos. I do it as well. I look at all the videos that I scroll through on man, man, I don't like making videos, I don't want to do videos. And there's the algorithm and you got to play the game. But if that's not you, it will be terrible. So stick to what you can do and you will win. Even if you're just writing and that's all you do, do that if that's the home run. Jarrett: Whatever you're passionate about, man. Some people are too shy to do a video thing. Well, then if you are, then How do you get books on copywriting? How do you create some really good copy? Or how do you tell a really good story within these character limits? And just practice and practice and practice. Me, I would just scroll on my phone as soon as an idea comes up. I'm going to write my notes. Oh, that's tomorrow. As soon as something happens, I'll put it in my notes. Everything is content. It doesn't have to be a Steven Spielberg production. Just take out your phone and hey, throw some captions maybe. Something simple, right? Be outside, have people see your face, switch it up. So whatever works for you guys. Just happen to me. I'm not a video guy myself. I'm terrible at editing. I'm a good storyteller. I do music. I'm a rapper. I'm a storyteller. That's my thing. Jason: There you go. Well, and for the ideas, when I'm scrolling through things or reading anything, what I've found works best for me is I just take a screenshot, a snapshot with my phone, right, where it snaps the whole thing, and I just email that to myself, and I can't stand unread emails in my inbox, my work one, and so literally it sits there, and the next day I pull it up, I'm like, okay, let's work on that, let's do that, put that on the list, so. Jarrett: Yeah, same. Yeah, man. But there's definitely a lot of good creators out there, man, like, I see some of the videos now, like, I think we both talked about it offline, like Alex Sheridan, if you guys haven't heard of him, he's Good friend of ours. Please check him out. His videos are amazing. Like the way he did the founder versus the employee. Jason: Yeah, those videos are amazing. And the key is, is when you see something like that, make sure to not compare me like, dude, that guy's on another level. I can never do that. So I'm going to do nothing. It's about trying to do more. If that's something you want to do, not feel like you should or have to do. And that goes with any sales thing, right? Like, so maybe You don't want to do this one thing, try selling this other way, or maybe you're interacting better and also people like Alex and creators like that. They have courses. I know he has his bootcamp and there's things where you can learn and get help and get better over time. Jarrett: Yeah. But you hit the nail on the head. It's not a competition. I look at those videos. I say he's crushing it and you know what I'm DMing him. What's up, bro. I'm not comparing myself. It is what it is. You're only competing with yourself. If you don't post, then you're only doing yourself a disservice. So you get yourself out there, even if it does two, three likes, that's two, three people that I could connect with on another level. Then I wouldn't have, if I did nothing. Jason: Well, and that's where it's important. And that's where I won. I'm glad you brought that up because I was a little worried when you said about you went on LinkedIn, then you made a post regarding the editor's newsfeed. You got like 40, 000 likes the promise. Sometimes people expect that they do it. If they don't get that, they get depressed, right? They got zero likes or zero comments on their video. Is just do the content. It's also the phone calls, right? If you're making a hundred phone calls, nobody's saying yes. Don't get depressed unless it's you. If it's you and your message or what you're saying on those cold calls or what you said in the video, maybe that's it. It might just be, it takes time, right? Especially when you look at somebody like Alex or any great content creator. Keep in mind, like, they seem like a master now, but every master started out, like, I think the, what's the phrase, every master started out as a disaster. I listened to my first podcast, I don't know if this is any better, it might not be, but in my head, when I hear the first podcast I did, like, last year, it's like, man, that's rough. Jarrett: But, you gotta start somewhere. You have to. The best, the best way to not get a yes is to do nothing. To do really nothing. Once I got that 40, 000 views on that post, I think the next post I got like with seven likes Jason: and that's devastating. Right? That's what happens to child stars when they're no longer a child star. And then it can be terrible if you're not careful. Jarrett: To be honest with you, it depends what you're measuring, right? But I know I'm doing good when people don't like it. But then I get the dms, I get the call of actions or I'm in the street. I see an old colleague is like, Hey, I see you on linkedin, man. Chilling me. I love your stuff. But you never liked none of my content. So you just don't want to, who knows? Some people are like that, but the fact that I know it's visible, the fact that I'm top of mind. I've had old colleagues be like, man, I just saw your content. Some told me to just say what's up and call you, man. You're doing the right thing, man. So just get it out there. I don't care who likes my posts. I don't care. As long as I'm building genuine relationships, I'm cool with it. Jason: And really, likes don't matter. It's all about just getting as many business cards as you can, right? Isn't that all that matters? That's it. That's it. That's it. Collecting business cards? Isn't that, wasn't that the metric? Jarrett: That's it, man. That was a terrible metric. I hated it. I don't think we got any deals from that damn conference. Jason: One thing I've seen is that salespeople worry about only being able to win if they use manipulation, tricks, tactics, and hard closes. So they end up struggling to close deals. Make their quota or earn the kind of money that they want to make. If this sounds like your current situation, or maybe you want to make more money in sales without feeling like you're selling, then my upcoming book called Selling with Authentic Persuasion will help. In it, I'm going to take you on a journey to transform from order taker to quota breaker. If you're ready to become an authentic persuader, Crush your goals and create success in your sales career. Then go to Jason cutter. com again. That's Jason cutter. com and pre order the book today. Well, and here's the thing, right? For any leaders out there. One of the challenges is that if you set a metric like that, where it's this front end metric, which is important, you can only measure. And hold people accountable to activities and actions, not results, right? I can't go to the gym and assume and only require I'm going to get a certain result. Like I can just put in the effort, but I can't control what happens. But the problem is, is when you go so much on a metric like that, you're opening the door to people trying to game the system, right? Like phone calls. I've seen that too, where it's like, okay, make 100 phone calls. Okay, well, you make 100 phone calls where you pick up and hang up and pick up and hang up. It's like, cool, I made my calls, but. Like, what's the intent? What does that mean? Jarrett: Yeah, exactly. Like, first of all, who are you calling? Yeah. Right? Like, dig deeper. Who is the 100? If I have a quality 100 list and your list is just non decision makers of people who are not doing anything or not interested in your services, then it means nothing. You're just showing activity just to collect the paycheck. We're all salespeople. We want the commission and the sales, right? So that's what we're going for, right? So how do we run up the scoreboard? It's by being active. Not only being active, but being smart about it, right? Doing your prospecting, making your hundred dows, but relationships. If I'm everybody out there, if I'm an SDR right now I'm creating content. I'm not making 100 calls. I'd make 50, and then I'm connecting with that same 50 I called the very next day. And then I'm creating content geared specifically to that segment. So if they're all digital marketers, maybe I come up with something that was just on SEO Journal or something like that. Or maybe anything that's in their realm. I'm just going to share it. And if they like it, I gotcha. I'm not joking with you. Jason: But seriously, I mean, it's all about attention, right? So you want to get the attention and start the relationship. But I'm glad that you brought this up because I was thinking about the same time, uh, and then you mentioned it, the cautionary tale and the warning, and I mentioned this a lot, especially when it comes up with guests is to also balance it with not being that person on LinkedIn, that where you accept their connection request, and the next thing is an instant sales pitch that may or may not be a page long. It shows the intent. It might as well be a cold call, except worse because Like, it feels like a violation. Jarrett: It is. I feel like, for me personally, I have like a 10 touch rule. Like, I'm not doing anything, I'm not even asking for anything until 10 touches. So that's when you like my post, you commented on the post, and we had a DM conversation, I'm saying, Hey, how's it going? Hey, Jared. Each touch is a touch. So every time I say something, What's up? How's your day going, Bill? How's the kids? That's one touch. You respond, that's another touch. So as soon as I get to 10, and if I read the room, I feel like it's a good time to ask it, then I'm going to make the ask. Or I won't even do it. I might even do a one sheeter where I do some research about your website or something like that, and I just give it to you for free. Like, hey man, I was doing some research, and there you go. Tell me what you think. And then people are like, damn, you took the time out to do this. You didn't have to. I know. And I'm just curious, what do you think about this? Because I have some recommendations, I have some suggestions. What's it like? If it makes sense, let me know. If not, yo man, let's get a coffee when you can. Jason: You know what I mean? Yeah. And I think that's important because one side, that abundance intention is key, which is there's enough business out there. I'm going to focus on relationships. I can always tell when somebody's doing that to me and they're queuing it up and they're trying to check the boxes on the touches before they're going to go in for the kill and then like try to pitch me something. And I could feel it. It just feels weird. Like even on online, I could just feel it or I'm always like thinking it's going to happen. I was like, why do you care? Like, come on. I see you coach consultants on how to get more clients. Like I know what your title is. Like I know what's coming. Let's just be real. But and so what I'll tell you is I also appreciate like what you said, which I think is important, which is, hey, I'm going to provide some value to you. This is what I do for a living. If you're interested in it or you want to talk more about it, if there's anything I can do to help you like that's what I do. And I think that's actually really important to do in that, which is to set the framework like there's no hidden agenda. The agenda is I want to help you. Let's just be clear. Jarrett: Right. Exactly. So instead of me just giving that right out the gate, I still want to know how you are and stuff like that. I still want to make relationships. So that's, people can tell, like, that's why the authenticity, the tone, people can sense BS from a mile away. But if you're just being yourself, like I said, like me, I am a genuine good person. At least I like to think so. You know what I mean? You are. Yeah, I'm a genuine. I just like to help you. I just had a conversation today. I'm on vacation and I was helping a gentleman who saw my podcast yesterday. He reached out. I was like, how are you doing sales during the pandemic? Can we just have a call? No problem. On the vacation. I'm like, let's do it, man. We had our conversation, man. He was so cool, but that's just me. Is it going to lead to a sale? I don't know. But is it going to be somebody who's going to be a champion? Somebody I still have a relationship with and. It could lead to something down the line. And if you get a hundred, 200, 300 of those 10 years from now, man, when my story and whenever I retire 15, 20 years from now, I'm going to say, damn, Jared, I remember back in 2018, 2021, Jared was the same Jared that he is in 2042. Jason: And it's about being authentic. And then again, I think even with a LinkedIn strategy, do the opposite of what everyone else does, do the opposite of what those people that hit with the cold messages, like figure out a different way and just imagine. I forget who posted this. I saw this a while ago, but you wouldn't do that at a party, right? You wouldn't walk into a party and meet somebody and be like, Hey. Oh, my name is Jason. I do consulting. Do you need help? Like, I can help you. You've got all these problems. I'm sure, right? I'm sure your sales team sucks. Like, no, you wouldn't do that, but people do that online. Just be a human. Jarrett: I get the party and it is the hot girl. Hey, how you doing? Let's go to dance. Let's go. That doesn't work. No, that's how it works. And that applies to everything. You should know when to ask, right? Read out the room, you know, have a conversation with the person first, understand who they are. And then. If it's appropriate, you go for it. Jason: Yep. Cool. Well, that's awesome. That's a great place to stop. It's funny because normally I ask people, where should they find you? Where can they go? I already know the answer because you sent it to me in advance and I was shocked because it was only one link. LinkedIn. Jared. That's the place to go. Obviously, it's what we've been talking about a lot. Jarrett: Yes, please connect anybody hearing this man. Thank you for listening. It was a pleasure for you having me, Jason. I enjoyed myself. Please feel free to connect with me. Send me a DM, say what's up, man. I'm super approachable and I'm looking forward to meeting new people, man. Jason: Just don't hit him with a sales pitch right away. Make sure to do 10 touches first. Jarrett: All the Forex people and all that stuff. Please don't. I have posts about this. And please, anybody who's DMing, don't in mail. As soon as I see InMail, I think sales pitch. It's over. Do not use it. Connect first, then do the deal. Jason: Cool. Jarrett, thanks for being here. Appreciate it. This was so fun. Jarrett: My brother, man. Have a great weekend. Happy Friday again, man. We're going to do this again. We need a part two. Jason: Yeah, for sure. And for everyone listening, make sure to go to CutterConsultingGroup. com slash podcast. Find the show notes. Find Jarrett's one link for LinkedIn, which I already know is going to be on there. But if you need it again, you can find it there. It's Jarrett Thomas. And keep in mind everything in life is sales and people remember the experience you gave them.