Ep15 The Relationship Edge: Why Trust Beats Tech

Joe Blackburn  0:00  
My feeling of, you know, prosperity is through the roof. I just think there's a timeline on and that's why I said fierce sense of urgency. You have to have a sense of urgency. And it's proven to us, the timelines on these windows are short.

Jason Croft  0:14  
Welcome to sales assassins, the podcast that unveils the lost art of word of mouth marketing for professionals just like you, we cover everything from building relationships and nurturing connections to overcoming the challenges of modern marketing. You'll learn how to stand out in a crowded market charge confidently for your services and create an army of people recommending you without hesitation. Now let's dive in and make you deadly effective at sales. Welcome to sales, assassins. Today's, it's a fun, wild end of year sort of brain dump, a little bit of what's just been coming up for for Joe and I, and this, this idea of visibility and connection and where in the world is this world ours heading. And, you know, there's a there's a lot of fear on one side of it's there's so much uncertainty in it. Gosh, even to say those words sounds ridiculous because it's so over used. I roll my eyes at it when I hear it, because, yeah, of course, but there's always been a certain that's sort of my reaction to it. I think, with AI and technology and the shifting landscape, even on social and running ads and all of that, it's people are feeling that shifting ground so much, I always find the positive in these things, and I know that's maybe easy to say when I don't work somewhere full time that's Being completely upended by technology or outsourcing, or anything like that, and and I fully acknowledge that aspect. But even in the things that you know, in my particular industry, podcasting, video, media, I know that world is shifting so fast and so quickly. I've felt that for the last 10 years, on that being such a commodity now, but I've also found over these last 10 years that there's still a place for the human aspect of that, the creativity, the one on one connection to get what that other person is trying to accomplish. And it's just meant that my repertoire for fancy word is, is expanding. And I was about to say, has to expand. And I think maybe, maybe the word is, should, should expand, but also that's fun to me, and maybe that's that's wiring, and maybe that's part of the advice here in this episode that we, we didn't quite say, but are getting to as you listen to this that find a way to get excited about it, find a way to see what's amazing with what's in front of us, what's in front of you with your particular industry, and how you help people now, what's what's the amazing opportunity, and so much of it, and what we get into in this episode is that human connection, that is the, the biggest opportunity right now, And I think that's gonna just continue to be the opportunity again. I find that fantastic. Joe finds that fantastic. When something that that we enjoy, that human connection, it becomes even more of a superpower. All right, let's jump in.

Joe Blackburn  4:00  
We have a huge amount onboarding into assassins in the first two weeks. We have a huge amount onboarding into inner circle, and we have a handful of immersions. So like, January, February is huge. Plus we spent six months kind of figuring all that stuff out. So like, the pipeline has been built up, and now we gotta, like, relieve the constraint. Like, there's people coming in, so I, I would like to see if I can do it. I want to do it like, Okay, that didn't totally work. We know organic YouTube works. We know the long game in organic YouTube does work, meaning you're in it for the long haul. What we're doing on podcast helps, because it feeds into that where it's getting, I think disjointed is ads. And I will tell you the one that I caught this over a month ago, and Laura and I were looking at it all these what's interesting about it all? All these people this year offering high ticket one on one, small master, like the stuff we've been doing, and we we're working like we work with someone every year we got a new engagement we're gonna do, and it's pretty intense, you know, they talk about it, and it's like, well, you can either scale fulfillment or revenue. It's hard to do both. And if you try to skillful fulfillment, the demand on revenue is here. So we're looking at all right, let's scale the revenue and deliver a lot of value. And you see it with all these people that a year ago were just pumping ads, right because that it's like a cycle that ship has sailed, which takes me all the way back to something I knew better about, pillars. It does like that shit. I don't care what is going on. I don't care what the election is going on. I don't care what's going on in AI. I don't care what's going on anywhere. If you can connect and not be a total, you know, repellent douche that people hate, and not be selfish and arrogant and just be about being connected. Your odds go through the roof, and even in Assassins, I got a text yesterday that one of our assassins, and he's kind of quiet, and he he's put in there by someone in inner circle. He's kind of a quiet guy, but he works hard, and he's a good kid, and I call him kid, but he's probably 30 years old. He's good dude. He doubled his revenue doubled in a town of 12,000 people. So, like, and he did it by going out, getting in front of centers of influence, doing all the stuff we're talking about, and doing it consistently. And he got married. So, like a lot of people say, Oh, I'm getting married. I can't do this. Oh, I have baby coming. All right, I got a kid in there. Got baby do got married at the beginning of 24 and he did like, 40 million in life premium and 5 million in new assets. He's and he's 22 years old. I think he just turned 23 so they aren't doing it with ads that they certain, because they're regulated number one, but that's, I don't know. So my I sit here and I think, Okay, let's look out 36 months. Where are you going to put your chips? Like, I asked my like, where are we going to go? Like, we want to go to 5 million in EBITDA. That's just our EBITDA. That's not our gross. And do you know, like, what road? And I think we've got the synergy with assassins and lion to do it that way. I just don't know that. I want to go all in on ads that, quite frankly, six months ago, I thought was given the day, and that's going off data, by the way. That's just ROAs, right. Return on Ad Spend that's totally changed. Tells you another thing, social media and all these platforms are always moving the goal posts always, you know, we had one of our podcasts that we put on LinkedIn, Shadow band, or whatever they call that, where we went from 1000 impressions to 60, why we didn't change anything. And I know. I mean, I've watched our podcast, they're good, and I'm definitely worth watching. You're pretty good. But like, Why? Why in a weak swing? Does it go from this to this, and there's no difference in the process? Did we say something? Did we do? So I have no clue. So I like the control and I've always said the best way to build a business is word of mouth. You have 100% control view, and you're the product. So think that one through for a minute. The

Jason Croft  8:28  
biggest players, the OGS of this marketing space, who built the house on ads and doing all this stuff, they're saying, Hey, here's what's working right now. It's organic. Make helpful content get found, you know, because now playing that social media game.

Joe Blackburn  8:52  
The The good thing about tick tock and these others, they're, they're trying to chase that so they're putting you in front of strangers, you know. So there's a, there's a chance there, there's a play masterminds, the the OG of the OGS Brandon, a mansion in freaking California, and is hosting in person parties, which is a mastermind. And then all those guys that wrote up 2030, $40 million on Facebook, arbitrage, they're doing in person mastermind, or, you know, it's like, so to bring it full circle, I'm gonna go back to chemistry can be commoditized. And the market is saying they want the chemistry back the course, the course days are over. I mean, even in our assassin courses, I don't make hour long videos, they're like tactical. Watch this. Go do it. Bring it to the community. Let's hot seat it in the coaching call, and then go do it again, because it's a doing system. It's not a learning system. I mean, there's unlimited knowledge, but will you do it? And I had something said to me yesterday, if you know it, and you don't do it, you don't know it. So a lot of people, I know what to do, and you might, but if you're not doing it, you really don't know it. So. So I don't know I and, of all the things I've just said in the last 20 minutes, my feeling of, you know, prosperity is through the roof. I just think there's a timeline on it. That's why I said fierce sense of urgency. You know, like you have to have a sense of urgency. And it's proven to us, the timelines on these windows are short. That's

Jason Croft  10:21  
the the mature business mind, right to go, Hey, things are great right now. What do things look like in 60 days? Yeah, not the eternal optimist. Just like, Oh, I'm sure this is going to continue. Yeah. And we also don't get worried that, you know, the the sky is falling too. I think what's important, what we're feeling certainly, as the year changes, 2025, we're here. We're ready. This is, you are this absolute 31st I feel like I'm ready. I'm ready to Okay, so whatever comes it's it's gonna be fun. It's good to be an adventure, right? Oh, always is. What we're all feeling is the pull of of both sides so much. And for me, I get excited with that because of the opportunity, and I fully acknowledge the displacement, the change, the shifting ground that that is here. But there's so much opportunity. Oh, you've got, yeah, the world moving to AI, I love it. You can do it. You also got people who will be displaced because of it and are terrified of it. There's so much opportunity in what you and I have talked about so many times on this show, is that human connection, establishing pillars going in there and being that source of trust and connection. Well,

Joe Blackburn  11:54  
I think the one thing we haven't lost as people, especially when we're together, it's real hard to bullshit somebody when you're standing in front of them, unless you're trained to do, you know what I mean by that? Like, I don't know. I just I feel like you can't convince someone unless you're purposely trained to deceive them, like your authenticity comes from that. Like, okay, this is a real dude. This is for real, and maybe that will go away someday. But on it's hard on the internet, everything sounds great. I mean, seriously, like, I listen to people talking like, that's awesome. Hopefully people watch this podcast and like, that, dude's awesome. They don't know me, but at the same time, like, you know, I think those of us that are at conscious of the end result for the people we're trying to help versus the end result for us, which you should, as a business, be profitable. But if all you're trying to do because you, if you pay real close attention, people refer to themselves as marketers. Money's in the marketing. You know, it's all about the marketing. That's generally not about you. It's not now, word of mouth is a form of marketing, but you got to live and eat and sleep with these people and go to school functions and to the Gulf and to the restaurant, and you can't hide from them. So if you're in a community and your intentions aren't good, you will be sniffed out in a heartbeat. You know, I've talked about that in when you do your, you know, your networking, or your social prospecting, or whatever you're doing, you go in an organization with an agenda to just make money, you will get ostracized immediately. So go in there with the intent that I'm here because I'm passionate about this place, I'm gonna give first, and I'll help people if what I do is something that they need. That's a good way to approach it, versus I just trying to make the sale. That's why, I mean, even in Assassins, we don't spend an enormous amount of time on closing. People that want a service don't want to be closed. They want a relationship. So like, if your whole thing is I'm a closer, and I'm gonna close every deal. You shouldn't close every deal because that might be an asshole across from you. So I don't know, I'm it's December 31 I'm rambling, but I'm just kind of getting out my thoughts around the year. And I'll just go back to chemistry can't be commoditized. And I'll put a disclaimer yet and to

Jason Croft  14:21  
me, again, that's the opportunity in that's your world so much. And where have you come up from that is that local aspect and human to human, and it's phenomenal. And I I feel 100% that you can also replicate that same energy and effort in the online space in certain ways. I think there's absolutely still a difference to that human to human being across but when you show up to a networking group, that's you know, for. People on a zoom call, you're gonna still with this intention. It's so rare. I don't know how much you do that at all, but in this weird

Joe Blackburn  15:11  
on Zoom Well, but, but

Jason Croft  15:13  
in in a room of strangers, let's say, right? And showing up, yeah, and I've walked away from so much of it, because it's just is so much nonsense out there, and people who just doing the opposite of what you and I talk about. If

Joe Blackburn  15:27  
your intention is to create something like that, it has a better odds of success. If your intention is to close a bunch of people, they're gonna know that too. And look, I you know, as I pontificate my chemistry, most of my work is done through the screen. Almost all of it, you know, we have three three in person masterminds throughout the year, a lot of people I've never met. I think you can create the chemistry through the screen to a degree. I think it just comes back to, what are you trying to do? Like, are you trying to sell somebody something? Are you trying to provide a service to them and create a lifelong relationship. I think that's the difference. And if you sell stuff, you sell stuff like I know. I mean, that's not bad or wrong, just like I told you earlier. Know the game you're in? If your game is to sell things, you better play the quantity game, sell things and move on. If your game is the service game, you've got to create relationships. And it goes back to, I mean, Helen financial services. It's when people went from transactions to fee for advice. It's the same paradigm. It was a sale. I'm divorced economically from the outcome, because I have to make the next sale to I'm going to make sure that you never run out of money, that your legacy is fulfilled. And if, God forbid, something happens to you, your family's taken care of. That's different than selling something, right? So that's, I think, that paradigm just and I love it. By the way. I have to share something with you at the end of this, our favorite, the number one Gary, our number one fan. In my Christmas gift from him, he made some his last sentence, it's, probably won't care. I'll just do it now. So he sent me this. It's called the silly ass planner. It's amazing. It's like, at the end of the month you want to says people I want to punch. So we, you know, in the inner circle, we have pretty good candidate. And he wrote me, it probably one of the best notes I've ever gotten. But at the end, he said, glad we were on this journey with nuances and paradigms. That's three drinks Gary fantastic. Oh, it's amazing. So anyway, I don't know this. This one's kind of gone up and down. I don't know if we're gonna put it out there, but it just goes back to people,

Jason Croft  17:33  
yeah. And I think what really sparked this, even before folks who are watching here, even even joined us, was this, this idea, just what's been coming up to this idea of visibility and connection being a cure for so much of what the world is worried about right now, yeah, with job displacement and AI and all of that, if you keep leaning into connecting with that other person, being a resource for them, and you show up with that energy, that's huge. Yes, of course, be smart about where you're heading and what you do. You know, if you're a programmer, maybe you're in trouble. If you're a graphic designer, maybe you're in trouble, or you're the best in the city that you're in because of how you connect with people. And there's still, there is a place for this. And I think, like so many things and so many years past, it's important also not to just get wrapped up into headlines, because the other thing that happens when you connect with these folks in person, online, whatever it is, the people that you want to serve, work with and help you. You figure out those opportunities you you realize really quickly, oh, the headlines aren't aren't true right now. They're at landish. This person still needs this service, they still want to work with a human in this area, and all of a sudden you're busy, pipelines full, and you're rocking and rolling all the while, like you're talking about, hey, let's look 60 days out, 90 days out, is this going to continue? And that's the balance. That's what makes this hard, but there is so much opportunity for and why not look for that opportunity, yeah, rather than what to be worried about? Well, and

Joe Blackburn  19:30  
that's a great way to end it, like look for the positive. And if there's a ray of light, there's sun somewhere, Joe Blackburn

Joe Blackburn  19:39  
  2024.

Jason Croft  19:40  
that's that's going in the that's going in the the next planner, perfect. In a sea of endless digital noise, your ability to connect and generate authentic word of mouth is your deadliest weapon, whether you're just starting out or you're looking to break through to the next level. The principles we discuss here are your blueprint force. Success. It's all about being the most trusted and valued in your network to maximize what you've learned today. Visit join sales assassins.com to see how you can become a true sales assassin in your industry. Until next time, keep sharpening your skills, expanding your network, and remember in the world of sales, the true assassins strike silently but effectively by doing what nobody sees coming, building genuine connections and powerful relationships. Stay deadly, stay authentic, and we'll see you on the next episode of sales assassins.

AI VO  20:41  
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