How To Build A Brand On LinkedIn - Trevor Houston

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. Trevor Houston, what's up, dude? What's up, man? What's going down? You are, baby. You are, man. We finally connected here. We've been liking each other's posts and we've been commenting on over on LinkedIn, back and forth here. And next thing you know, we get a text message from a good friend, Shea Robotham. It said, You cats need to meet. And uh now look at us.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Isn't that crazy? Shay, Shay, if you're listening to this, man, I'm telling you what, you are the bomb.com.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

You are the the connector, the LinkedIn queen herself. And most people say, Oh, I'm not the LinkedIn queen. She'll go, that's right. So yeah, man, I first found out about you on LinkedIn. Of course, you're you're you're making moves with your content and who you know, and then breakfast with champions that I'm the the the newer guy of as the time we're recording this on here. But on this show, I like to tell people's story. I like to go back to the beginning of the story when it all began. And most of the time it's not as pretty as it is present day. And what brought you to present day and where you're at right now? So, for some context, let's back up to the beginning of the story. Usually we start right around high school, right after high school. Okay, wow, high school, shoot. It's so funny. It's so funny you say that. Glenn Lundy said the same exact thing like a year and a half. He's like, Man, high school, holy cow, do I have to remember all that? Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

No, no, high school. Okay, so I hated school, right? Like I did not like school.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

The hours sucked and so did the pay.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah, oh my goodness. Well, they want to cram a bunch of stuff down your throat that really you you you don't apply in the real world, you know? Yeah. Anyway, so I I have ADD, and I'm like, you know, they're trying to teach me stuff that doesn't apply to me, you know. And I and so I'm like trying to keep my focus and uh put my energy in a positive place uh because I I just got out of uh a world where things were really rough, and I was like as a juvenile, I was in and out of jail, and things were kind of crazy. And so I was at this point in high school, I'm trying to pivot and shift my life in a positive direction.

unknown 2:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

But education wasn't really that for me. Education, uh, especially not not high school, not college either. College didn't really um help me much. I did go for a semester, but um didn't really help me much. Uh what helped me to positively channel my energy was actually um automotive sales, believe it or not. I had to find something I was good at, and I got into the automotive industry at uh 22 and started crushing it. Started crushing it. It's funny we were just talking about uh Grant Cardone because uh I still have this. Uh I went to one of that sale. Yep, close that sale. Oh, wait, let me flip it over here. Yeah, I went to one of his conferences when I was uh 22 and changed my life as far as my production went through the roof, and I became the top producer, you know, every year that I was there. And so that's really where things kind of shifted for me because prior to that things were really rough. Things were uh not not the greatest.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Well, you talk about why you know you shouldn't be here right now, you shouldn't be here present day. You've I've seen some posts and some content from that. Um, and you know, by the grace of God you are, but but but let's talk a little bit about that. I mean, you know, there there is you know, there it it's humble beginnings, but also, you know, a series of bad decisions often leads us to to good decisions, I've found.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah, a hundred percent. So I was getting in a lot of trouble very early. Okay. Most people, you know, they might mess up like in high school or in in college, right? Like that's when they mess up. Me, I was messing up in like elementary and middle school, and I was getting in a like big trouble.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

I got kicked out of church camp one time. Oh, you did? Yep, twice actually. Yeah. So I don't know how bad you were, but I mean, yeah, how bad you have to be to get kicked out of church camp.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Uh, I was a felon at 13. All right, cool. So you were way worse. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I just got caught up in I I I got in a fight. Okay. I got in a fight. I was very um, very violent. Um I had issues with authority, um, telling me what to do, anything like that. I didn't like teachers, I didn't like because I needed a I needed a good male role model to to model after. And I didn't have that at the time. Uh, I was living with my mom. My mom let me do whatever I wanted to do. I was running crazy, running the streets, ended up getting in a fight. And this fight was a s was like a school fight. It actually started at the school, and then I got on the school bus and we rode the same school bus home. And uh Then it was really on, yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah, because everyone's oh yeah, everyone's instigating it, right? Everyone's like, Yeah, you know, beat him up, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so it just progressed and it progressed to his house, and that's where that's where um the whole felony thing came in. It was they called it burglary to a habitation, which is basically um either breaking in with the intent to um uh hurt or steal something. And uh the whole case is is interesting because I was invited in the home. They said I broke in, I didn't break in. I got invited in by his little brother and sister. So I walked in the house, and when I walked in, um I got maced in the eyes with with uh hairspray, and uh so that really threw me in a like fury. Sure. So we fought all over his house, and I went home, and the next day I got the handcuffs put on in uh in school. So I'm in middle school and I get the the cops come in the in the class and and take me out. And anyway, so I was in and out of uh jail doing a lot of crazy stuff in middle school, and then high school I was forced to move with my dad, and thank God for that. That was a saving grace for me. Um he taught me how to be a man, you know, and um so I shifted things. My life really took a turn uh when I got into high school, actually. Um and but I still had a lot of that wildness craziness that was like there, and so it was like this transition period that was awkward. Um so it was a challenging period of uh time in my life for sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

So was it was it you you mentioned you growing up with your mom. I did the same thing too about middle school on. I I parents split when I was nine, but I ended up going to move with my mom right at the beginning of middle school on here, and I moved from two polar opposite type of parenting environments. I went from, you know, Southern Baptists, you will listen to me, and we discipline children in this home to just kick the cage door open and church is out, ladies and gentlemen. So I went from one extreme uh to to another and I did the same exact thing. I was a wild and I was in Miami here of all places. You know, I went from Orlando to Miami, which is a pretty wild place to be for, you know, a 14-year-old. But I never recognized it, obviously, that I was acting out because I was craving a rail a male role model. I later on started to understand that because I would cling to mentors and people that would, and I'm sure you've had it several times before, that take you under their wing uh and really keep an eye out for you. And and and I believe God provides those individuals because because we need that type of structure on there. But was was there a was there a you said it was a little bit of an adjustment there, but did you ever think back and think when you went to go live with your dad and you started to put the I'm getting my life on track mode? Did you ever wonder why why did why did this take so long? Or maybe I should have done this, you know, moved with my dad before, or maybe it wasn't an opportunity. Was there any resentment on either parent based on yeah, oh yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Like, okay, so at I think I moved to his house at 16, and I didn't want to move. Right, right. I mean, you gotta think about it in the middle of hell raising. You're like, do not disrupt this chaos. Like, I was getting to do whatever I wanted to do. I mean, I was I was on drugs, and you know, I was doing drugs with my mom. I mean, shoot, that's the kind of environment I was in, and uh so I got to do whatever the heck I wanted to at my mom's house, you know, and then here comes discipline. And I'm like, what what 16-year-old wants discipline? None, you know what I mean? It's just you don't want that. Um, and I did resent my dad. He he he was always there. He was always there. I just didn't want him. I didn't want him around. Why? Because he was he was the discipline, he was the structure. I didn't want that, right? And um, so I did rebel even when I got there, you know, it was like he kind of had to take me kicking and screaming, but I didn't have really a whole lot of choice because of the situation. It was like because of the whole felony situation, and I had violated probation and all that kind of stuff. Um, it was like, hey, you move with your father or you're gonna stay in jail for like years. They were threatening for me to stay until I was 21 and I was 16. I'm like, uh Yeah. Yeah, okay, I'll move to my dad's, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Like so is that how it happened?

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Was it was it out of like a court order type of thing, or was it uh I don't know if I I still don't know if it was a court order or not. I think it was. Um it could have just been an agreement, you know, but I know that um I got they they didn't want me to be with my mom because they knew I was doing drugs and crazy stuff with her. Like, you know, I remember that them drug testing me and all that kind of stuff when I went into into Juvie. And uh yeah, so anyways, that that was that was an interesting time period. And yeah, we had a lot of at my mom's, I had a lot of crazy people in and out. Okay, it was it was like a homeless shelter. Okay, my mom was disabled, uh, she couldn't work, so we were on all the government programs, we had food stamps and welfare and free lunch at school, and you know, disability checks, and but that didn't pay the bills. It still didn't pay the bills. So my mom had people move in, and we had look, man, I'm gonna tell you, I had every kind of ethnicity, every background, every color, every everything. We had gay people living with us. We had uh, you know, all just everything. I'm telling you, we had gothic people who were dressed in all black and had the had the fingernail painting and the and the you know, you look like Marilyn Manson kind of dress, you know, like listen to the heavy metal and uh Mosh Pitts, and and and then on the flip side we had the thugs. I mean, we had Crips living with us. I mean, it was like I had a opposite, but you know what I love about all of that? These were my male role models, these were the people I was modeling after. I was getting in a lot of trouble. But what I love about it is now that I'm on the outside of this, it's why I'm so adaptable. It's why I can relate to so many different types of people, it's why I can speak to anyone and I can feel empathy. And really because I I understand that it doesn't matter what color you are, you know, what your ethnicity is, it doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, it doesn't matter if you're goth or whatever. It doesn't, it doesn't matter. Like we're all flawed, we're all just uh, you know, messed up. Okay, all of us. And so that's what I really learned out of that situation. And so it allows me now to really be able to go into certain situations and talk to just about anybody. I I think I get along with with most everybody. I don't I don't know whole a whole lot of people that um that I don't get along with.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

So it's good to be able to extract something out of, you know, take the like we always hear, you know, take the take the mess and turn it into a message, you know. And I just think that, you know, it was kind of sounds like you were forced to to go live with your dad, but it was the best thing to ever happen. But I'm I'm still curious on when, you know, I think of a of a wild horse, you know, how is a wild horse tamed? Uh why and I had somebody tell me that a while. I've had a pastor buddy of mine about 10 years ago, I'll never forget that. He said, um, you know, God's trying to get your attention and trying to to get some obedience out of you, but you just keep, you know, you continue to to to put to push back. And unfortunately, that doesn't work with God. Okay, with other people, maybe, because you just push them away, but there's no pushing him away. And I'll give you an illustration. It's like taming wild horses. Do you know how to tame a wild horse, Sebastian? I'm like, no, I've never been on a horse. And uh he goes, Well, wild horses are tamed by putting a metal bit in their mouth and they're walked in circles. And the more they buck, the more uncomfortable it becomes. God has put that metal bracket in your mouth and he's attempting to train you, but you continue to buck and jump in the whole nine, and life just continues to be more and more uncomfortable. So, my question to you is when are you gonna let God tame the wild horse you are? So I thought, well, that was an interesting, very honest and upfront conversation, but I never forgot about that. So the reason I bring that up is you moved in with dad, dad was able to maintain some order in your life, but you still had to make a decision. You still had to say, you know what, this this way is not working anymore. And I'm in a completely different environment now. When did that shift take place, or what really went in on in between your two ears to be able to help ease the transition into that part?

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Yeah, I think um, you know, what my my father gave me opportunity. That's what I didn't have where I was, right? I didn't have opportunity. And so when I go to my father's, he's an entrepreneur and a business owner, and he's you know, owns his own business, and I worked with him and gave me opportunity to save money, you know, gave me opportunity to buy a vehicle. Like we didn't have a car. That's the reason why I violated probation is because my mom wasn't taking me to the probation office. Right. Okay. So I didn't go see my probation officer and violated probation, you know. And uh we didn't have a car. I mean, we had nothing. It was I was living in poverty, straight up poverty, where um like a lot, there were a lot of times we had no electricity, no water, no food. I mean, I remember stealing water just to get the toilet to flush. Like literally, we didn't, you know. I remember uh drinking 40s with my mom under candlelight, you know. We we lived like camp style in a house. We were in the what's crazy is we're in the suburbs, all right? We're in the suburbs where there's money everywhere, but I got the one like super ghetto house in the whole block where it was like uh really, really bad. And uh anyway, so when I moved to my father, it was like, okay, now I got opportunity. Like I was able to save and I see money and I see okay, wow, okay, if I do the right things, I'm gonna be able to have a vehicle and a car. And then, you know, uh I say I I remember my I sat down with my mom or my stepmom and my my uh father, and I had like $20,000 in the bank. Wow. And I was like, I want to say I was 20 years old. It was 20 years old, and I had like and you weren't selling weed, which is always right, yeah, exactly, exactly that. Exactly. I was not selling weed. This was legal money. This is on the up and up. I had like 20 grand in the bank at 20 years old, and and I remember my my stepmom going, wait a minute, how how much money do you have? And I was like, Well, I got like 20 grand. I felt broke, I felt straight broke, right? And uh, and uh she's like, Oh, okay, it's time for you to start paying rent, right? Why did I say anything? I'm 20, and so I'm like, oh, okay. And my dad was awesome though. My dad always did things smart. He goes, he goes, All right, here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna pay me $500 a month, we're gonna put it in an account, and whenever you leave, that's your money. You can take it for buy furniture, whatever you need, whatever you need.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Super dope deal done. What am I sign pops?

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Yeah, I'm like, cool, but then I start looking out there on the market, and back then I was like, wait a minute, yeah, I can get an apartment for $500 a month, right? Right, right. Right? But I never had to pay him not once. As soon as they told me that, I was gone. Deuces, yeah, right? Uh huh. And so now I'm on my own, right? And um, at that time I was selling Harley Davidson's. I was I was selling Harley's, and uh and then I got in a motorcycle accident that almost killed me. And um, and then I moved into the automotive industry where my my career as far as like income and and hitting top producer and all that kind of stuff, like really, really took off. Um and I started making like 150K by by the time I was 23, 23, I was making $150,000 a year. And I bought a house at 24. And you know, just like things just kind of took off from there. And I really feel like it was the work. Work is what really, really helped me because I'm the type of guy that if I'm not putting my energy in a positive place, yeah, it's probably gonna go somewhere and it's not gonna be in the positive place, it's gonna be in a negative place. Like, I need that focus, I need to be doing something all the time. Uh, people call me a workaholic or whatever. I'm like, but listen, I'm gonna get in trouble if I'm bored. Right. Like, you don't want me to be bored. Yeah. Like, I can't just sit around and watch Netflix. I can't do that.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

I literally just told my daughter yesterday that my grandma, my grandmother used to say that the an idle mind is the devil's playground. And it is so, it is so, so true. That and familiarity breeds contempt. Those were her two favorite phrases to always in it. Oh, twos a couple, three's a crowd. That was the best advice she ever gave. Yeah, but yeah, no, I got you. If I'm not, if I'm not occupied doing something productive, chances are it's going to become destructive. Destructive can mean ice cream on the couch and laying around all weekend. Destructive could mean a six-pack of beer. Destructive could mean, I mean, this is Miami. It is not hard to find destruction at all. So I completely, you know, I completely understand. You know, you can are we popping bottles or are we going to connect group? You know, there's there's choices all over the place here.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

100%. 100%. Yeah. I mean, and so that was what that's what saved me. And and then finding something where I remember the my first year in the auto industry where all of a sudden like I was in the running to be the top producer. Like this, I finally found something. I'm like, wait a minute, what you're saying, I'm like right here, I could I could win? Like I could beat this guy. This guy's been here for 15 years. I'm like, this is the veteran. You're you're I'm this is my first year in the in this business. You're telling me I I have a chance. Oh man, that little fire under me. Sure. Just just knowing that you could do it, that possibility. And that's happened to me a few times. I remember when I made a transition into financial services, same thing. My my second year, uh, they they I got this email and it's like, hey, you're you're in second place. And I'm like, what? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

What? Get a little taste of it. You're like, it's possible. You see what you get a little taste of what's possible, and then it's game on.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Boom, and like, oh man, oh you it I'm gonna you you will not beat me. There's no way you will beat me. Like, if I if I get that taste in my mouth, you're you you're gonna lose. Like, there's no possible way.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

And um has probably improved a little bit going from the car business to the financial business, huh?

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Uh yeah, I mean, that was uh that my first year was rough, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:57

Oh, it always is. First couple, it usually Is it's it's absolutely brutal because you know you're calling complete strangers and saying, Would you mind giving me your life savings so I can plan it for you? And you know what I mean? But the car business, I mean, you know, seven days a week, nights and weekends. You didn't know weekends, you didn't know nights, you didn't know any, you knew mornings real well, you knew during the day real well. But I'd say, you know, after lunch to the place closes seven days a week, and that's probably why I never got in the car business. I was like, I don't know if I want to get those hours or bananas. The payoff's great.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

No, it was a grind, it was a grind. And I mean, the payoff's great if you're producing, right? Because you could be in a lower average producer and you're making you know 50-60k. I mean, it's it's okay money, but you're gonna work 13 hours a day for 50 to 60k? Yeah, no, no, no, thank you. Now, if you're making 150K like I was, like, okay, you put the hustle, you make the cash, like, but it makes sense, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna do that. I was like, ooh, I got an opportunity, especially because I came from poverty. I'm like, I got an opportunity here, real hungry. Oh my gosh, so hungry. I was so hungry. And um, but yeah, I got into financial services and yeah, it was rough the first first year or two. And uh yeah, because you're right, you're it's a it's a whole new world with there because the auto industry, they had sales, uh, they had marketing, they had uh commercials, they had uh things driving traffic to the to the dealership, yeah, right. And I just had to be the best uh presenter. I had to present that car, wow them, get them excited, uh, be a good negotiator. I had to do all of that and close the deal, right? But in financial services, this this is relationship building. Yeah, like I gotta I gotta get people for sale. Yeah, I'm yeah, I gotta get people to trust me, to know I can trust me before they this isn't transactional. Yeah, and I came in, I was like, I remember trying to give people the best presentation, and I'd be on a whiteboard, and I'm like, let me show you how money works, and I'm like doing this whiteboard talk, and I'm like, and you the presentation was great. I had my talk down, it was great, but that was pushing people away. I noticed because they're like, Oh man, you're it was salesy, like to them, it was like sure, and I'm like, I'm like, what's the disconnect here? Why is this not working? Because when I was the best presenter over there, it was the yeah, they're like, give me the keys, right? Yes, I was gotta be excited, and I'm like, I'll do it here, and it's pushing people away. And I'm like, what's going on here? And so I had to re-engineer the all of that, right? And I and I figured it out, you know, it's it's um people don't want to be sold, right? They want to solve a problem, correct? And and it's almost like the the the better questions you ask in this industry. If I'm asking good questions, I get them talking. It's not about me presenting anything, it's about getting them to identify and to really say, hey, I have a problem and and I don't really know what I'm doing. I look at my statement every once in a while, I don't know what the heck that means, and you know, it goes in the trash. Um getting them to admit that they don't know what they're doing. Um, they set it and forget it, and that's about it.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

So anyway, yeah, that transaction sales versus consultive, more of relationship building was it was a huge adjustment for me. I sold artwork door to door as my favorite, as my first job. So, hey, Trevor started bothering you my boss, sent me over. We're clearing out our warehouse. We got these framed piece of artwork. 20 bucks framed in glass, monets, vangos, picasos, dollies, got a couple of uh velvet weeping elvises. Let's go, ladies, grab your cigarettes and checkbooks. Let's go downstairs. I got the pictures in the back of my truck. So you talk about getting some brass balls, you get that by doing door-to-door sales, but it's no different from the car car business. But that environment is also, and especially back there, early 90s. I don't know how old you are, but early nine, it was early 90s that are excuse me, late 90s that I got my first job where I actually started working. And that the the world of burn them down and bring them up was still something. It was still relevant. You get your ass canceled these days doing that, but it that was the environment. You know what I'm talking about. You get ripped by your sales manager in the morning, and by the end of the day, you're the hero, or vice versa, you know, and it's that constant burn down, build up, burn down, build up, which already adds to the hustle that's there. But then you go from there to I went from from from door-to-door sales to selling websites in 1999. So people like website. That's when Bill Gates said if you have a website, you don't have a website in the year 2000, you're not in business. So it was a good space to be able to be in, but to be able to to to to tell the guy, you know, listen, you don't need to talk to your wife, you know, you married her. You guys are on, you know, make decisions together, right? You know what I mean? Or hey, you know, hey, Bob, next time you see your wife, why don't you grab your grab her purse and uh and oh my gosh, hold on, hold on.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

On that note, you're gonna love this. You're gonna love this. So so you remember how I pulled this out earlier. I still go back to some of these closes because some of these closes are really they are genius, some of these are just phenomenal. I remember one about the the the spouse, right? Where the spouse card comes up, and I gotta talk to my wife. Uh, one of them in there was um does Batman have to talk to Robin to make a decision or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Right, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

It is like something like that, and then there was another close in there, it was uh the Ouija board close. Have you ever heard the Ouija board clothes? Oh my gosh. All right, hold on. Let me give it, give me get a pen. Okay, I got a pen. So this is what you do. You have if you've ever had a client that's like on the fence, okay? They're on the fence, they can't make a decision. They're like, honey, what do you think? Ah, I don't know, what do you think? And they're going back and forth, and you can tell that they're just teetering. Like they just need a slight nudge, okay? What you do is you say, you know what? I tell you what, I'm gonna take the pressure off. We'll make this really, really easy. Here's what we're gonna do. I got this pin, okay? So here's what I want you to do. I just want you to hold the pin. Just put the pin in your hand, just hold the pin, hold the pen, hold the pin. Okay. So you give them the pen and you tell them, okay, now I'm gonna put, I'm gonna put your the pin to the paper real quick. I'm gonna put it down on the paper. And on the count of three, I'm gonna take my hand away. Okay, at the count of three, when I take my hand away, if your hand starts signing, well then we're good to go. We'll move forward, everything's great. If it doesn't, then no harm, no foul. Okay, you ready? One, two, three, go. And nine times out of ten, they would just they would laugh, they'd start smiling, they would joke, and they would they would just sign. And if they didn't sign, right, you could say, okay, so you didn't sign, no harm, no foul. Now my question is, what was going through your mind when I let my hand go? What what was going through your mind that prevented you from signing the paper? Right? And I'm telling you, that close worked so many times. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

I already I've heard I thought I heard of all of them, but you know, that was um uh that with the BG board clothes I would, you know, the I'm I got I I gotta think about it. Was always uh that that's always a that's still still present day, but I I don't even believe I don't even believe that anymore about thinking about it. You listen, but I wish you to respond. Listen, you thought about it when you picked up the phone and called. There's not really much to go and think about on here, but and it that still kind of rings true to to this day because it's very rarely a money problem. So it's very rarely it's a it's a trust issue. Um, and when I, you know, when you see these, and it's funny, I and I've been selling since I've been knee high to a girl scout. So this day and age is a lot different. Selling podcast services, you there's no let's go, you know, lift up your skirt and let's rock and roll. No, they it's more of the consultative side, but I do get a lot of feedback from the people that I do sell things to um and enroll in our in our podcast program. And they always say, Man, that was an incredible sales pitch. And I always feel a little dirty when people are like sales pitch. I'm like, I'm not pitching, I'm uh this is my company now and like my own. But it's funny how you know it's in your blood, man. You're a born, you're a born salesman, born gift of gab. And I think we continue to refine that. And I think we, you know, I I wanted to parlay salesman into entrepreneurship, and which I did, but yeah, you know, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

You know what? You're absolutely right because I I am a born salesman. I was selling, I was A B C baby. Man, always be closing. Yeah, I listen, I was I remember um when I was living with my mom going to school, and I had uh backpack full of like rice crispy treats and different things.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

I had blow pops, blow pops and cigarettes.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had other things too. I got busted with some other things. Um, but yeah, it was um yeah, I was always selling something because I had to eat, man. We didn't have food, so I had to eat. And it was like, how what what's the new hustle? How can I get a how can I get a buck, you know? Yeah, um, but what I love about kind of like my life is that like when I got into the financial services world, I was done selling. Like the auto industry, man, I put in six years, 13 hours a day, six days a week, grind. I put that grind in. And when I left, I put this down. Like, I'm like, I don't want to sell. I don't wanna sell. Like, I'm trying to build my my business to where people come to me and they know like and trust me, and they're ready to go. Like, I don't want to convince, I don't want to sell, I don't wanna none of that. So my business is straight up um I give it all the value up front. People come to know like and trust me, and they they just come to me, right? And if you if you want to do business, let's go. If you don't, you don't, right? Like I'm not I'm not here to sell anyone anything. Like I don't want to anymore.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Yeah, you know, you don't need to. I mean, it's it's it's about figuring out how you provide a solution to someone else's pain and someone else's problem. And when you can do that, and you can do it with integrity, and you can do it through building a very transparent and authentic relationship, that in my opinion is is the true sale because it's got longevity to it, it's got integrity, it's got mutual respect, it's got no and I my head, my my my mindset on on sales in in general. I I never want to sell someone a service to start a podcast if they are not a fit to start a podcast. Yeah. My program, you know, it sells for a pretty penny, and I would love to close as many deals as possible, and I do, but I also like to know that I'm doing business with people that are aligned, that people that share my vision, people that are teachable and coachable and understand and seeing all of that. I I I heard someone say not too long ago, and in fact, it was on Clubhouse, and they talked about selling with integrity. And I thought that's interesting, especially from you know, even old school days. You didn't care who you sold a car to as long as they were willing to sign it and they had credit and they get the deal done. Same same thing. I don't care who I was selling a website with. You had a credit card, if you had a couple credit cards, we can split up a couple two, three payments. So didn't really care. I just wanted to close that deal. But integrity selling tells us that we provide that that we are selling something that is in the best interest of the customer. 100%. If it's not in the best interest of the customer, there's no deal there because I know that I just I it it feels great to close a deal. Everyone feels it's euphoric, incredible. It feels even better to know that you're selling it to somebody that you're aligned with that you actually sold with a piece of integrity. Listen, I know we're almost out of time here. I want to chat about what you're doing with with all your content, how we connected on LinkedIn before we wrap up here. I'm gonna have to have you back on the show. I know I'm getting on your show here in the next couple weeks. I'm just so grateful that uh that Shay brought us together, man. I feel like we should have met a long, long time ago, but uh uh here we are. So uh what got you into the content game? Talk about the show a little bit and what you got going on with all that.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

Yeah, so that that was my content really came from Shay. Um, so we we had the show, uh the Who You Know Job Networking Show, which is the community that I serve. I serve job seekers and I help them get back to their cash flow, right? They're in a period and time in their life where they're in between and you know, money's tight and uh, you know, they lost their income and their benefits and all these different things are going on, and you know, they're feeling hopeless, worthless, stressed, you know, all these things are going on. So my job is to help get them back to their cash flow. And so that's where the the job networking, right? I'm helping connect them to resources to get uh opportunities uh to present themselves and get them back to work. I love it. And uh during that period, because I'm in financial services, we also help them uh, you know, in that transitional period with the current cash flow that they have, right? To make sure that's being maximized and they're not just turning a blind eye to that as well. So it's about you know really helping to get these people back off their feet or back on their feet. And um, so we started the Who You Know Job Networking show about uh it was January of 2018, is when we started it. And so we had been doing this show for a long time, and then I I found Shay because I had been uh producing content, but it was pretty weak, to be honest with you. It was it was really weak. Um, I was trying to edit myself, I was trying to do a lot of stuff myself, and anyway, I found her course, went through it. Uh, she turned me into a content machine and really turned things around and got me a lot of visibility because you know now I'm you know people see what we're doing, you know. And um, so it's just been great. It's been an awesome journey, and and I I owe a lot to Shay. She's she's the real deal. If anybody's thinking about going, you need to get your content game up, you need to go see Shay Robotom for sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

That's she's the real deal. She really, really is. And I um I've had the similar experience. I haven't gone through a program as she would say, you don't need me. She needed me, but I didn't need her, she would say, because she said my content is Shay approved on there. Oh, but we got you know, we got her, we got her uh her her podcast up and going last year and really parlay that into a just an incredible friendship. And she's here in South Florida, it's just been grateful to be able to be able to connect with her. But she is hell of a story, and she is the real deal and not afraid of it at all, and has had a tremendous amount of success because of it. So, yes, if you've been thinking about figuring out your content game specifically on LinkedIn, as she would say, LinkedIn is lit. Uh then in fact, I'm gonna I'm gonna drop a link in the show notes for Shea Robottom's uh boot camp since we're talking about it right now. And you can click on that, just fill out that form. That's gonna bring you right to somebody on her team that will let you know all about it because I completely endorse and back it up. I know Trevor does as well, too. Well, listen, man, I I uh I it's just so great to connect with you, bro. I know that you and I work on a couple things behind the scenes here. I mean, I'm I'm the new guy in Breakfast with Champions, too. So it's good to see another familiar face. I was like, oh, I got another friend in there. But uh I just wanted to encourage you to keep rocking, brother, and keep doing uh what you do. It's clear that you're doing work uh that matters. People talk about you, people mention your content, and I see it in the community activating all of that. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Well, I really appreciate that. And hopefully we can get you uh a regular spot on the on the Breakfast with Champions crew. It'd be awesome, man. That would be great. So I'll put in a word for you.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

I I really appreciate that. I really do, man. I love what Glenn and and the whole team is doing over there. Uh Glen's Glenn is the real deal. It's amazing how it's just amazing how God shows up and says, Hey, listen, modern day disciples, you know, mount up. Yeah, mound up. Yeah, Trevor, mound up. That's it. Glenn Auto Industry, Breakfast with Champions, Rise and Grind, Trevor, who do you know? Financial industry, Sebastian, running around town podcasting, baby. But the consistent message is that, you know, to much is given, much is expected. And um, it's it's it's great to be aligned and in community with people, uh, not just sharing the same faith. I don't care what you believe in, just how it so happens, you know, we we we happen to be a Christian, you know, of the Christian faith on here, but we're here to love people and and leave them different. So I'm just so I feel so humbled and so grateful to be in the community um that I'm in here. And I look forward to what you and I can potentially come up with too. I know we're working on a couple two-three things regarding the stage, too. So let's go. Yeah, baby.

unknown 38:48

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Let's do it. We'll come back soon, will you, Trev? Keep rocking and rolling. I appreciate you, dude. Appreciate you. Yeah, man. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast Launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.