Building Genuine Connections Through Bold Strategies with Jason Zygadlo | RR288

Janice Porter: 00:00:02

Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode

Janice Porter: 00:00:06

of relationships rule. I have a great guest with me today who I

Janice Porter: 00:00:10

think I met for 20 minutes and we never stopped talking, so I'm

Janice Porter: 00:00:14

really excited to have him on the show. Jason zygadlo, did I

Janice Porter: 00:00:20

say it right. You're

Jason Zygadlo: 00:00:21

very close. It's actually, it's okay. Z gatlow is

Jason Zygadlo: 00:00:25

Yep. You were good. You were good. Okay,

Janice Porter: 00:00:28

okay, Jason, welcome to the show. First of

Janice Porter: 00:00:31

all, thank

Jason Zygadlo: 00:00:31

you so much, Janice for having me. It's a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:00:33

pleasure to be here, and I have to echo what you said. I do feel

Jason Zygadlo: 00:00:36

like when we spoke the other day for the first time. It was a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:00:40

great conversation and felt like it, you know, could have went

Jason Zygadlo: 00:00:43

way longer. I'm happy to be here.

Janice Porter: 00:00:45

Thank you, and I think that speaks also to the

Janice Porter: 00:00:48

fact that we're both relationship people. And I think

Janice Porter: 00:00:52

that always makes it so much easier for me when I know

Janice Porter: 00:00:55

someone gets me right away. And yours, you know you you were

Janice Porter: 00:01:00

very passionate about the work that you do, and I'm excited to

Janice Porter: 00:01:03

share it with with my audience. So just a little background. Can

Janice Porter: 00:01:08

you give me a little give my audience a little snippet of

Janice Porter: 00:01:11

where you came from and what you're doing now?

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:14

Yeah, it's a good question. So I graduated from

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:17

Kent State. I was a first time first generation college

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:21

graduate, proud of that, and then wanted to get into sales. I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:26

wasn't exactly sure what. Jumped into pharmaceutical sales, very

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:30

tough industry to break into. I have a creative story of how I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:33

did it, of standing in a parking lot and handing my resumes out

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:36

and being different and memorable and creative.

Janice Porter: 00:01:39

It's a great story. It's, don't gloss over

Janice Porter: 00:01:42

it, because it's part of what made you what you do now. So be

Janice Porter: 00:01:47

for sure, share it.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:48

Yeah, yeah. So you know, I was it was getting

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:51

rejected, applying online, being told I didn't have any

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:55

experience. And so I felt like I needed to just mix things up and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:01:59

do things a little differently. And so I would go to where the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:02

sales reps were, and that was at a doctor's office. Basically

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:07

loitered around in the lobby. And this is pre LinkedIn. This

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:11

is early 2000 so when the Chevy and Palas and Ford Tauruses were

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:15

pulling in, those were the those are the company cars. Typically

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:18

at the time, I would approach a gentleman or gal in a suit who

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:23

was jumping out of their car and filling their bag up with

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:26

samples and pens to go take into the offices and approach them. I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:29

had a shiny folder that I had purchased Janice and made my

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:33

resume and printed my own business cards with simply my

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:36

name, my email address, my phone number, and would approach

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:40

these, these folks, and say, Look, can you help me? I need

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:44

help, and I don't have any parents or neighbors or anyone

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:47

that's in the medical space, but can you pass this along for me?

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:51

And I think some people probably looked at me like I was crazy,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:54

but little did I know, when someone got out of the passenger

Jason Zygadlo: 00:02:57

seat, it was a sales manager working with their sales rep for

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:01

the day, a ride along, common thing. And so you can only

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:07

imagine how they saw me, gritty, creative, different, doing the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:12

job and not afraid to cold call, right? And so my resume got into

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:17

those hands. I spent some a few years doing that line of work,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:21

pharmaceutical sales. And then I don't want to say I got bored. I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:24

just wanted a greater challenge. I was dropping lunches off and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:27

dropping off samples, and wasn't having the discussions that I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:31

really wanted to. And so similarly, I was labeled as a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:35

pharmaceutical rep. You don't sell anything. You drop off

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:39

lunches and bring samples. And I'm like, precisely, this is

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:42

kind of why I want to do something different. And so was

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:46

constantly being told, No, no, no, no, no. And again, I put my

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:50

thinking cap on and thought, how can I be different in a way that

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:54

I can capture some attention? And so I had an upcoming

Jason Zygadlo: 00:03:58

interview, after several interviews that that didn't go

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:00

anywhere, and I put the scrubs on, I took the suit off, I drove

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:06

out to a local hospital, which was in my area where I sold

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:10

pharmaceuticals. And I I'll never forget, I knew these

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:14

products that I would potentially be selling were in

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:16

the operating room or in the ICU, and I knew I couldn't break

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:19

into the operating room, so the next best thing was to figure

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:22

out a way to get into the ICU. And I held my breath. I pushed

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:26

the button. It said, Do not enter. I walked in, and I hear

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:29

all the sun with scrubs on, yes, and so I happened to just see a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:36

physician who was there rounding on his patients in the evening.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:40

This is when I went. I felt like maybe it was a little bit more

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:44

sly to go in at night. And he's like, Jason, what the heck you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:48

doing in scrubs? And I said, Doctor, you know, here's the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:52

story. You actually written me a recommendation letter. You know,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:54

I've been looking from new opportunities. Here's the deal.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:04:58

These products I know are in the OR. In the in the ICU, and can

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:02

you show me what they look like? Can you tell me how they work? I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:04

want to come prepared to this, to this interview. And so, you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:08

know, to make a long story short, we sat down. I was taking

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:10

notes. Smoke was coming off the paper, and I wanted to document

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:15

everything Janice, because in this relationship building, you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:19

know, I talk about you've heard of everybody knows, know like

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:22

and trust. So when you're interviewing, you only have a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:25

small window of time to build some trust and likability. So

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:29

when I sat down with this hiring manager, I said, before we get

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:32

started, can I share a story? He said, absolutely. I pulled the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:36

scrubs out with the receipt to validate what I was about to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:40

say, and then I proceeded to explain to him the story. And I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:44

pulled a business card out from the nurse who had her name on it

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:47

and phone number again. And she endorsed the idea that if

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:50

someone needed to call and validate the story, by all

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:53

means, please do. And so this manager was just like, what you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:05:58

did what? And so that was how I broke into medical sales. I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:02

ended up getting that job. I spent 20 years roughly, selling

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:06

medical devices of all sorts of things. And in 2019 I was

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:10

diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. And so for me, it was

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:15

a time to, you know, simply reflect, is this what I want to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:17

continue to do as a career? And I chose to then pivot out of the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:21

cardiothoracic and vascular space into selling oncology

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:25

products a smaller company, and then I've always liked the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:29

smaller, privately held companies, and then pivoted,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:32

and, you know, the bigger carrot was dangled in front of me. I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:35

went chasing it to another job, and then it was quickly laid

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:38

off. That's kind of the high risk, high reward of medical

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:42

devices, especially in the startup world. And so from

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:45

there, I just over that 20 years that it was selling medical

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:49

devices, I was somehow anointed as the person to come to when

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:53

they were job searching because of my approach and being

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:56

different and unique and memorable. And so, you know,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:06:59

with the encouragement of my wife, she was like, why don't

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:02

you make this your your career, this is your real passion. I see

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:06

how excited you get when you help people. Why not do that?

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:10

And so I'm like, Well, I'm just a little old sales guy. I don't

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:12

really know and and here I am now started build your own

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:17

brand, and that's exactly what I do. Help individuals and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:20

businesses try to be different and memorable when it comes to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:24

prospecting or or whatever it is, and there's a lot of

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:27

creative tactics and tools that I use for for businesses and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:07:31

individuals to do just that. So it's

Janice Porter: 00:07:33

a great story, and thank you for sharing,

Janice Porter: 00:07:35

because there are, there aren't that many people that can be or

Janice Porter: 00:07:40

have that creativity and pull it off and, you know, actually go

Janice Porter: 00:07:44

through it. I had a friend who sadly passed away a couple of

Janice Porter: 00:07:48

years ago, and we've known each other since university, and she

Janice Porter: 00:07:50

was like you, she reminds you. Remind me of her in this in your

Janice Porter: 00:07:54

brain, because she used to come up with these wacko things that

Janice Porter: 00:07:59

definitely got people's attention, and she could pull it

Janice Porter: 00:08:02

off, and she'd spend a lot of time prepping for one of these,

Janice Porter: 00:08:07

you know, projects that she was doing to to make that happen.

Janice Porter: 00:08:11

And I hadn't, I haven't come across anybody like like her for

Janice Porter: 00:08:15

a long time. So that was one of the things that that I noticed

Janice Porter: 00:08:18

when I first talked to you, and I love the story about the

Janice Porter: 00:08:22

scrubs and having the guts to do that anyway as well. But being

Janice Porter: 00:08:27

prepared is really the motto there, being prepared, but doing

Janice Porter: 00:08:30

it in a different way. So I do know that today it's funny,

Janice Porter: 00:08:35

because when you were saying when you first did that, and you

Janice Porter: 00:08:39

got the the validation of the nurse and the doctor, whatever,

Janice Porter: 00:08:44

and today we just take a photo of them right, holding it, and

Janice Porter: 00:08:47

we'd have it with us, right, sure. So it's a little easier

Janice Porter: 00:08:51

today to make that happen, but, but one of the things that you

Janice Porter: 00:08:55

and I talked about, that I know that you are using to make these

Janice Porter: 00:09:00

things happen is video, and video is a big thing these days.

Janice Porter: 00:09:05

It's big on LinkedIn, and I talk about it with video messaging on

Janice Porter: 00:09:08

LinkedIn and things like that. And I know that you do a lot

Janice Porter: 00:09:11

with some of your your clients, like job seekers in particular,

Janice Porter: 00:09:17

on LinkedIn, but with a as business owners and and sales

Janice Porter: 00:09:22

professionals, they have to stand out too, and we don't all

Janice Porter: 00:09:26

love video. So tell me how to make it easy and talk me into,

Janice Porter: 00:09:32

you know, finding ways to make that work for me. Yeah,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:09:36

it's a great question. So you have to first,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:09:38

you know, comfort is the enemy of growth, right? So, yes, you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:09:41

have to practice. You have to turn that camera on and just in,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:09:46

just practice. And before I launched my first video, I think

Jason Zygadlo: 00:09:50

it was like paralysis by analysis, right? I'm sitting

Jason Zygadlo: 00:09:53

there and I'm, I don't want to send a video, because I'm like,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:09:56

wait a second. I said an um or an uh, and I did, wasn't

Jason Zygadlo: 00:09:59

looking. Exactly at the camera. And so, you know, at the end of

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:03

the day, we're not professional video people, right? And and I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:07

think that's a part of the genuineness and authenticity

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:11

that people can see in the videos, is that what you see in

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:15

me right now is really who I am, and a good snapshot into my own

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:19

personality. So I just encourage anyone to, if they're interested

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:24

in using, or thinking about using that type of technology,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:27

to just practice. I sent my wife more videos than I really want

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:34

to acknowledge, but it was just to kind of get comfortable and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:38

get the flow down. And finally, you just have to say it's okay.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:42

Maybe I did leave off something, maybe I did have a number and a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:45

but again, I think that's just the way I speak, and that's who

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:48

I am, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:50

think we're hard on ourselves. And I gave a keynote

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:54

presentation not that long ago at a university, and there was a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:10:58

video that I had prepared, and it wasn't my best video, Janice,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:01

but I left it in there intentionally, because after I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:04

played the video, I paused and I said, I want to go back and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:08

watch the video, and I want to tell you all candidly, I almost

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:11

took this out, and I shot this same video probably 10 times,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:15

and finally, I just went with this version. And let me just

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:18

tell you a couple things. You know, you can see that I didn't

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:21

do this or I wanted to say that, and they didn't know that. Yeah,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:26

right, that's the beauty. Yes. And so it's okay to send a video

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:31

and and maybe not be perfect. That's, that's what I tell

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:36

people. And it's, it's just important to get past that

Jason Zygadlo: 00:11:40

hurdle. That's

Janice Porter: 00:11:41

a huge one. And I think that that that is really

Janice Porter: 00:11:44

great advice. My problem, I, I'll, you know, I always say I

Janice Porter: 00:11:48

it's, I see the real me on there, especially on my phone.

Janice Porter: 00:11:52

You know, on Zoom, I can have a little bit of a filter on it,

Janice Porter: 00:11:56

and I can't find a way to filter it on my phone properly, or I'm

Janice Porter: 00:12:00

but I have bought a a tripod, a little tripod, which is better,

Janice Porter: 00:12:04

because holding the phone is the worst for me, and so finding

Janice Porter: 00:12:08

little things to help along the way, and then doing what you

Janice Porter: 00:12:10

just said, letting go of it, having to be perfect, and just

Janice Porter: 00:12:17

realizing, like at the beginning of this episode, I had to

Janice Porter: 00:12:23

restart the beginning or do it over because I bobbled my words.

Janice Porter: 00:12:27

But again, even though I did that, I in the real version of

Janice Porter: 00:12:32

the in the second version of of the introduction, I got your

Janice Porter: 00:12:35

name wrong, and I thought, oh, but you know what? It's okay. It

Janice Porter: 00:12:38

is. We

Jason Zygadlo: 00:12:39

could have started over again, right? But

Jason Zygadlo: 00:12:40

you just choose to roll with it, and it's as simple, Hey, is it Z

Jason Zygadlo: 00:12:43

God low? Z God low, yeah, we move on and and that's the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:12:47

beauty of just being genuine and real and authentic. I think

Jason Zygadlo: 00:12:51

sometimes when it's too perfect Janice, it almost looks

Jason Zygadlo: 00:12:53

scripted, and therefore minimizes some of the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:12:56

authenticity in general. You mean, yeah, great point.

Janice Porter: 00:13:03

Okay, so tell me about as a business owner or

Janice Porter: 00:13:07

sales professional, really, or how would I use video to stand

Janice Porter: 00:13:12

out from the crowd, from Yeah? What do you share, share with

Janice Porter: 00:13:15

people? How do you teach, yeah? So,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:17

so as a sales professional in the medical

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:19

device world is when I learned to start using these videos and,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:23

and I was trying to chase down busy doctors, and had a large

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:27

territory, trying to cover a lot of ground and, and the fact is,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:32

if you're driving all over God's green earth and just leaving

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:36

information because you stumble upon the gatekeeper, who you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:40

know doesn't let you see the the end user. And for me, at the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:43

time, it was the busy surgeons. I had to figure out a better

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:46

way. And so how can I now create a video, send it when I had

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:51

their email address or cell phone number, and text it, or

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:54

even through LinkedIn, multiple ways to send them. But the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:13:57

beauty was this, you and I send emails today, and we don't know

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:01

if they're opened, I mean, for the most part, but the video and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:04

the platform and the technology, there's some analytical

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:07

components to it that allow you to see when the video was

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:10

opened, how long the video was watched, and that become

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:13

extremely important to me. If there was a particular physician

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:16

that I was trying to, you know, really put a lot of energy into

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:20

tracking down, then I can gage, okay, he's watched some of the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:23

videos. He's watched them in their entirety. You know, I know

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:26

he's gotten some of the messaging. When I first took the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:28

job, I would send an intro video. Hey, Dr Janice, it's

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:32

Jason. I know we haven't met yet. I just wanted you to put a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:35

face with the name. I am your new sales rep for this product,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:41

and here's my contact information. And by the way, I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:43

did leave some information with Gloria, the gatekeeper. I just

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:47

want you to know it's there. Now I'm putting her on the hook a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:49

little bit too, and creating some accountability. That

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:52

message or that information better get to him. But I was

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:55

constantly just finding ways to add value, never sending

Jason Zygadlo: 00:14:58

anything. And so. So that was one way I would use it as a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:02

sales professional, and then secondly, as a thank you. If I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:05

were to work in the operating room with the physician, maybe

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:08

for the first time. Or, you know, I typically don't send

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:11

email thank yous anymore. I send a video that just simply says,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:15

Hey, Janice, it's Jason. I wanted to say thank you for the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:19

podcast time today and the conversation, it was great

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:23

listen. I could have emailed you, but I wanted to send a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:26

message in a more creative and personalized way to let you know

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:29

how grateful I am, and that's the differentiator. But it was

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:33

an email. It wasn't an email the video that you sent. Oh, so, so

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:39

the video that I would create could be texted, could be

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:42

texted, yeah, or it could be sent by email, or it could be

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:45

sent through LinkedIn. Oh, god, okay, yeah, okay, but, but my

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:49

point is it I could have, I always kind of like to say I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:53

could have sent a traditional email, but I wanted to send you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:56

some, send you something a little bit different and more

Jason Zygadlo: 00:15:58

creative and personalized, and I get a lot of feedback. Wow,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:02

that's so cool. How'd you do that? Can you show me how to do

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:04

that? And people like that, because you're seeing more and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:07

more communication being done by video.

Janice Porter: 00:16:11

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I, whenever I

Janice Porter: 00:16:13

introduce that video messaging on LinkedIn, people go, I didn't

Janice Porter: 00:16:17

know you could do that. Yes. So, and it does make you stand out

Janice Porter: 00:16:21

from the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:21

crowd. So it does. And for businesses, how do

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:24

you prospect? I mean, as a sales person, my example is getting to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:28

the doctor, getting to the end user. Maybe it's a nurse, maybe

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:30

it's a purchasing person in the hospital. You know, you can send

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:34

all of them messages in lots of creative ways. But as a business

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:38

owner, I you know when I talk to clients that are business owners

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:42

and trying to again, they have their own glory of the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:45

gatekeeper. They have their own, you know, gatekeepers that

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:49

they're trying to get past. How can we come up with the strategy

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:52

to send messages and tailor it to that respective business and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:16:58

get the message out? And then as a thank you. I think you know

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:01

oftentimes, and we may have talked about this when we spoke

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:04

the other day, if you watch TV for a few minutes, you'll see

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:08

commercials all the time geared towards the new customer. But

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:13

what about the customer that you work so hard to earn and that

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:17

you've had now for X amount of years? How nice would it simply

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:21

be to just say, hey, Janice, I just we haven't done a good

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:24

enough job to say thank you. You've been a customer of ours

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:27

for seven years. It looks like, according to the you know, the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:30

data here, and we just want to say thank you so much. We

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:34

appreciate your loyalty. And we just thought we would reach out

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:37

to you in a more creative and personalized way to let you know

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:40

how grateful we are for the relationship that we've built,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:43

and we look forward to doing it for several more years. Thank

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:46

you. And that's just a way to really recognize those folks

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:51

that you've worked so hard to earn. You don't want to lose

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:54

them. Then you play this game of lose customer, gain new

Jason Zygadlo: 00:17:56

customer. We got to give them love too, and it's just a very

Jason Zygadlo: 00:18:01

simple way to just let them know. Yeah.

Janice Porter: 00:18:04

I think it's a great tool to have in the

Janice Porter: 00:18:05

toolbox, I think. And we're going to talk a little bit

Janice Porter: 00:18:09

offline about this, I think, afterwards, but I think it's a

Janice Porter: 00:18:13

good fit with people. My audience know that I've talked

Janice Porter: 00:18:16

about sending cards and gifts to people as well and dripping on

Janice Porter: 00:18:19

them when they're not expecting it, or sending them a card when

Janice Porter: 00:18:22

they're not expecting it. And I think the video does the same

Janice Porter: 00:18:26

piece, and I think mixing it up is really good. I do think that

Janice Porter: 00:18:30

the key, going back to the know, like and trust factor that you

Janice Porter: 00:18:33

mentioned earlier, the key, though, is to be sincere. And I

Janice Porter: 00:18:38

think sometimes with the, I don't know, maybe with bigger

Janice Porter: 00:18:41

companies, because when you just talked about, you know, sending

Janice Porter: 00:18:45

that video to the to nurture your clients, and I say, Be

Janice Porter: 00:18:50

sincere. Don't just do it like once, do it every, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:18:54

like I used to know this guy. Well, I still know him. He was a

Janice Porter: 00:18:57

client of mine with Send Out Cards, and he is an insurance

Janice Porter: 00:19:03

agent, and he had a rhythm and a system with his phone calls. And

Janice Porter: 00:19:09

he every three months, he would call me just to say hi, probably

Janice Porter: 00:19:13

leave a message, because I nine times out of 10, we don't answer

Janice Porter: 00:19:16

our phones, although I think that's coming back a bit, I

Janice Porter: 00:19:19

hope, because that's always showing my age. That's always my

Janice Porter: 00:19:24

first go to is I want to phone someone, but I do always say,

Janice Porter: 00:19:28

Now, is it okay to talk for a minute, or do you have a minute?

Janice Porter: 00:19:31

You know, if not, I'll, you know, we'll go another route,

Janice Porter: 00:19:34

but, but I think that, in his case, he did it on a regular

Janice Porter: 00:19:40

basis, not just like that one time in the year kind of thing,

Janice Porter: 00:19:43

and that's what makes it special to me, and better, it's

Jason Zygadlo: 00:19:47

so true. And shout, first of all, shout out

Jason Zygadlo: 00:19:50

to you. I received my thank you card well, and I got my thank

Jason Zygadlo: 00:19:53

you video card. Yeah. So we exchanged pleasantries, but the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:19:58

the card ID. It is so awesome in its own way. It's sitting on my

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:04

desk. It's a constant reminder that Janice reached out in a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:07

very kind way, and it is just a neat way. The snapshot that you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:12

take from the Zoom call that we had is just a neat little touch,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:17

but what I'm thinking

Janice Porter: 00:20:18

of us combining the two. So when you take a

Janice Porter: 00:20:21

video, can you, can you upload it to somewhere like YouTube, or

Janice Porter: 00:20:29

somewhere where, or maybe it doesn't have to be on YouTube

Janice Porter: 00:20:32

where you can make a QR code of it, then that QR code can be in

Janice Porter: 00:20:36

a card.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:37

Interesting, I don't know the answer to that.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:39

We should, we should look into that, because that's a fantastic

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:42

idea. Yeah,

Janice Porter: 00:20:43

so there's there, you're combining both, and

Janice Porter: 00:20:45

they're getting the card in real life. So they're, yes, actually

Janice Porter: 00:20:50

going to open it, and then they'd be curious, is, what's on

Janice Porter: 00:20:52

the QR code? So I could see there being some in Yeah? Be

Janice Porter: 00:20:55

fun.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:56

Absolutely, my answers would be peaked if there

Jason Zygadlo: 00:20:58

was a QR code. And I'm like, Well, what is that I got? Of

Jason Zygadlo: 00:21:00

course, what am I going to do? I'm going to scan it. Yeah? So,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:21:02

great idea. Yeah, super

Janice Porter: 00:21:04

cool. So I mean, lots of ways to to draw

Janice Porter: 00:21:07

attention to yourself, to show that you care, as I said, as

Janice Porter: 00:21:11

long as it's done authentically, right, absolutely, which you

Janice Porter: 00:21:16

did. And yeah, it was fun that we were both trying to share,

Janice Porter: 00:21:21

and we couldn't. We can explain it, but it's much better when

Janice Porter: 00:21:24

you experience it. It's 100% true.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:21:27

I everyone likes to get mail. I shouldn't speak

Jason Zygadlo: 00:21:30

for everyone, but I know I love mail. So when I see something

Jason Zygadlo: 00:21:33

that has my name on it, it looks like a card and not a bill.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:21:37

That's fun, right? So I tear open the card and I'm like, wow,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:21:40

this is really well, I'm

Janice Porter: 00:21:41

also thinking about those gatekeepers,

Janice Porter: 00:21:43

Gloria's in the world. I love that GLORIA The gatekeeper, and

Janice Porter: 00:21:47

how sending her a card and a gift to say thanks for helping

Janice Porter: 00:21:53

you out, then makes her love you even more when you want to go to

Janice Porter: 00:21:57

that you know, that manager or that business owner and say, by

Janice Porter: 00:22:00

the way, Gloria has some material. I said, you know,

Janice Porter: 00:22:03

Gloria is going to just tell, you know, so many cool things

Janice Porter: 00:22:07

about what a nice person you were. So there's lots of ways to

Janice Porter: 00:22:11

put it all together. So can you think of a business situation

Janice Porter: 00:22:17

where you you coach somebody else to doing something that was

Janice Porter: 00:22:23

a great success with this, yeah,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:27

with the videos. So, yeah, I think it's the first

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:31

story that comes to mind for me. Is my my fraternity brother, who

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:34

owns a painting company, and, you know, I was at the Chamber

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:38

of Commerce, he's the President of the Chamber, and we were

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:41

having this discussion. And, you know, I was explaining to him

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:45

that sometimes the videos get pigeon holed into being more of

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:49

just a white collar kind of tool, right? And so he as a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:56

painting company. And what I was explaining to him was, and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:22:59

coaching him was, listen, imagine if in your blue collar

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:04

world, you can put a white glove touch with a personalized video.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:09

So for example, you're sending Janice a quote because she wants

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:15

her house painted. Now, you know, here in the Cleveland Ohio

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:18

market, there's a plethora of other painting companies. But

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:21

how different would it be if I said, Hey, Janice, it's Jason,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:26

the president of the painting company. And I just wanted to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:29

say thank you for letting my team and I come into your home

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:33

and evaluate what project you want. We know in this market,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:37

there's a, you know, a plethora of other painting companies.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:41

Here's the quote that you had asked for, and I could have just

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:45

sent it over, but I wanted to send you a message to just say

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:49

thank you, on behalf of our entire team for allowing us to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:53

provide you a quote. And we really look forward to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:55

hopefully, you know, working with you that is so different,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:23:59

yeah, as as it relates to just providing a quote that most of

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:04

the companies that I know of in that space and beyond aren't

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:07

doing that. And again, it's just a way attention is the new

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:12

currency, right? I preach this, yeah, like, gotta find a way to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:17

stand out. And so that is one way for a title.

Janice Porter: 00:24:24

There's a title. What's that? A title for the

Janice Porter: 00:24:29

podcast episode? Oh,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:31

yes, attention is the new currency. And and so, I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:36

mean, at first, you know, like most people, they're, I don't

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:40

know, and I'm like, Just give it a try. You have nothing to lose.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:43

And so this, this conversation was very recent, so, you know,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:48

we're scheduled to kind of speak again, so I don't have a good

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:50

answer as to whether or not it was adopted and how successful

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:53

it's been, or maybe it wasn't even adopted. But that, to me

Jason Zygadlo: 00:24:57

was, let's not just limit this to a certain. Certain audience,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:25:01

Oh, for sure, so versatile that it really can be used in so many

Jason Zygadlo: 00:25:06

different creative ways.

Janice Porter: 00:25:08

Well, I would take that one step further, by

Janice Porter: 00:25:10

the way. And if that painting company did send that video and

Janice Porter: 00:25:16

they, they, they didn't get the contract, okay, first, if they

Janice Porter: 00:25:21

didn't get the contract, sure, then they send a card or a video

Janice Porter: 00:25:25

that says, Thanks for giving us the opportunity. Maybe, maybe

Janice Porter: 00:25:30

next time, you know type of thing, we're still here. And the

Janice Porter: 00:25:33

other one is, if they got the contract, of course, then they

Janice Porter: 00:25:35

would send one saying, Thanks for your trust in us. And they

Janice Porter: 00:25:38

would probably send something after the job. But yeah, so I it

Janice Porter: 00:25:44

just makes me think of this guy that I used to know in in LA,

Janice Porter: 00:25:48

that he had a company that he adopted the the card system for

Janice Porter: 00:25:55

his company, and it was a props for the movie business he used

Janice Porter: 00:25:59

to be in like outside traffic cones and things that the the

Janice Porter: 00:26:04

movie companies had to for on location. They had to rent all

Janice Porter: 00:26:08

this stuff. And there were, there was a system for how they

Janice Porter: 00:26:14

how they did it in LA and they had a book with all the

Janice Porter: 00:26:17

different or, like a directory with all the different

Janice Porter: 00:26:19

companies. His wasn't the cheapest, it wasn't the most

Janice Porter: 00:26:22

expensive, but it was higher than than average. And when he

Janice Porter: 00:26:26

saw the card system, he said, This is great. I'll use this for

Janice Porter: 00:26:30

like, my direct mail. And just started to blast stuff out.

Janice Porter: 00:26:33

Nothing happened, and it's kind of a sideline story as well,

Janice Porter: 00:26:37

because nothing happened because he was sending those cards out

Janice Porter: 00:26:41

to get to get business. And when he finally realized, after going

Janice Porter: 00:26:49

and listening to our CEO and the philosophy that you want to send

Janice Porter: 00:26:54

out to give, not to get, the law of reciprocity will do its job,

Janice Porter: 00:26:59

and things will come back to you, and that's where I got the

Janice Porter: 00:27:02

idea about the cards that I just suggested to your client, for

Janice Porter: 00:27:06

example, to send if he doesn't get the job. Because my friend

Janice Porter: 00:27:10

changed his whole philosophy and started to send cards to say

Janice Porter: 00:27:14

thanks for the business. Sorry we didn't get the business,

Janice Porter: 00:27:18

whatever it was. And it became more heartfelt, and that's why

Janice Porter: 00:27:22

we're back to authenticity. We're back to being sincere,

Janice Porter: 00:27:25

being honest, and those things come back in the right way. It's

Jason Zygadlo: 00:27:30

so true. I attended a business meeting not

Jason Zygadlo: 00:27:33

long ago, and they said, givers, gain, oh, that's BNI. That's

Jason Zygadlo: 00:27:38

BNI. Yeah, it's BNI. It was a BNI meeting. And I was, I was

Jason Zygadlo: 00:27:43

in, I was never, I didn't even know that existed.

Janice Porter: 00:27:45

Oh, okay, I was in BNI for four years. It's

Janice Porter: 00:27:47

like, it's almost like a cult. It's like, it's, it's a great

Janice Porter: 00:27:50

way to learn how to network when people don't know how to

Janice Porter: 00:27:52

network. It's also very time consuming and a specific way of,

Janice Porter: 00:27:58

you know, doing business, but doing business with people, you

Janice Porter: 00:28:01

know, like and trust, but that's their motto. And it's funny

Janice Porter: 00:28:03

because it stuck with me. Yes, it would. It's it absolutely

Janice Porter: 00:28:08

givers gain. That's exactly what they what they and it's a great

Janice Porter: 00:28:11

organization. It's worldwide. You can go anywhere in the world

Janice Porter: 00:28:14

and find a B and I meeting, just like an a meeting. You can go

Janice Porter: 00:28:17

anywhere and find one. But anyway, I don't need one of

Janice Porter: 00:28:21

those, but I just thought I mentioned that anyway, this is

Janice Porter: 00:28:25

great. This is all really good. I know that we both feel the

Janice Porter: 00:28:28

same way about how to stand out, and we just use different tools,

Janice Porter: 00:28:33

but it makes sense and it it works, right? It helps people

Janice Porter: 00:28:39

feel comfortable about referring people as well, right? Because

Janice Porter: 00:28:43

you know that they'll do a good job, and therefore your

Janice Porter: 00:28:48

recommendation was seen in a good light. And you you know,

Janice Porter: 00:28:52

because for me, when I recommend or refer somebody, I gotta make

Janice Porter: 00:28:56

sure that the person I'm referring to meets my standards.

Janice Porter: 00:29:03

If I'm bringing them someone from my database, right?

Janice Porter: 00:29:07

Absolutely,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:29:08

yeah, yeah, you're putting your name on it,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:29:10

right, and else, yeah, it's coming back to you. So you want

Jason Zygadlo: 00:29:13

to make sure it's someone that you you trust, and that Exactly,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:29:16

yeah, absolutely.

Janice Porter: 00:29:17

Okay. Just a couple of quick questions before

Janice Porter: 00:29:19

we we wrap up and away from what we were doing. So my favorite

Janice Porter: 00:29:24

word is curiosity, and I just like to ask you this two part

Janice Porter: 00:29:29

question. Part one, do you believe curiosity is innate or

Janice Porter: 00:29:33

learned? And part two, what are you most curious about today?

Janice Porter: 00:29:37

There's no right or wrong answer. It's just your thoughts

Janice Porter: 00:29:39

on it.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:29:41

Yeah, I it's a great word, because I think it,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:29:45

it fuels growth and it, it reminds me you just, you know

Jason Zygadlo: 00:29:51

Curiosity, you have a thirst for knowledge and want more. Whether

Jason Zygadlo: 00:29:56

it's innate or not, is such a such a good question? Question,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:04

I knee jerk wants to say, man, it's so tough. Knee jerk tells

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:10

me, no, okay, because and I don't really have a strong I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:19

guess what I'm what I'm trying in my own head to figure out is

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:23

when I was a little guy, was I very curious? Because now I am.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:28

I feel like my curiosity now is far greater than I what I

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:34

believe it was when I was a younger, younger person. And so

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:39

wish my mom was around to validate that. But I do feel

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:44

like it is certainly a thing in my, my adult life and

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:48

professional life, whatever is, is certainly there. And I'm

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:52

totally curious about a lot of stuff. So

Janice Porter: 00:30:56

curious about right now,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:30:58

um, I'm curious about the the election here in

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:03

the United States, you know, lots, lots going on around that.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:09

I'm curious to see where, where the future kind of takes this

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:13

business. It's so new and in its infancy stages that I'm

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:19

exciting. Yeah, it's exciting. I'm excited about the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:22

opportunity and and, you know, to just give and help people get

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:26

better and businesses get better. We just had a little

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:29

one. We introduced a little guy back on September 6. So I'm

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:33

curious to know he his hair right now is like a blondish but

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:38

maybe a little reddish tint. So my wife and I were just talking

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:41

about this, we want to know, like, does he is he going to

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:43

have red hair or not? So that's just some kind of fun things

Jason Zygadlo: 00:31:48

that. So

Janice Porter: 00:31:49

I was going to say, when it comes to your

Janice Porter: 00:31:52

thoughts around curiosity, you I can tell you don't have kids

Janice Porter: 00:31:56

yet, like, you've got a newborn and and it's going to be a while

Janice Porter: 00:31:59

before you see, you watch. You watch whether, what's his name.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:32:03

He's a junior, Jason. He's going by Jay,

Janice Porter: 00:32:06

yeah. See how, see if he's curious, and how

Janice Porter: 00:32:10

curious he is. Because I'll tell you, it's really interesting

Janice Porter: 00:32:14

watching children, I think, and I was a teacher, so you can see

Janice Porter: 00:32:18

it. They're not all the same, but it's just, it's a fun place

Janice Porter: 00:32:22

to be to think about curiosity. So thank you for your question

Janice Porter: 00:32:26

on it. Yeah. And last question, sort of two parts too, is what

Janice Porter: 00:32:33

business advice would you like to leave with my audience? And

Janice Porter: 00:32:36

then secondly, where can they find you? And I will put it in

Janice Porter: 00:32:38

the show notes.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:32:39

Sure. So I would, I would like to leave the the

Jason Zygadlo: 00:32:44

message that, you know, being different and being memorable is

Jason Zygadlo: 00:32:50

is so important that sometimes better isn't necessarily better.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:32:55

Being different can be better and and that, you know, look for

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:00

different ways to stand out and and be different. Because that,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:06

again, I think there's some curiosity. I'm

Janice Porter: 00:33:09

sorry. I'm just I'm laughing because I just

Janice Porter: 00:33:11

thought of an old, an old, a former president of a company I

Janice Porter: 00:33:17

used to work for many years ago, and then he retired, and he went

Janice Porter: 00:33:21

out on his own as an entrepreneur, and he wrote a

Janice Porter: 00:33:24

book, and the book is called, be different or be dead.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:27

Oh, yeah, right. Pretty bold, yeah, yeah. So,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:33

yeah, you know the and again, I think the personalized videos,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:36

if it's, if it's something that's piqued your interest, you

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:39

know, certainly look into it. I think that, you know, I took a

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:43

course on it myself to learn how to do it. Shout out to my friend

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:46

Matthew Ray Scott, who really taught me how to use these

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:49

effectively. But, you know, just and I said it earlier, right?

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:54

You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. You know, comfort

Jason Zygadlo: 00:33:58

is the enemy of growth. And if you're not happy with where

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:01

you're at, then consider looking at doing things a little bit

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:04

differently. And that's what I did early on in my career, when

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:09

I was trying to get to where I wanted to go professionally. And

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:12

I think that any any business or any professional can can adopt

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:17

those same tactics and strategies perfect,

Janice Porter: 00:34:21

and they can find you@build.your.own.brand.com

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:27

correct? So, actually, so the website is www,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:31

dot career coach, oh, b, y, O, b.com, as career coach, build

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:38

your own brand, not bring your own beer, yeah, I need to make

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:41

that clear. Www, dot career coach, byob.com and then

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:46

certainly on LinkedIn. I love meeting new people and making

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:49

new friends, so feel free to connect with me. My last name,

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:53

as Janice said earlier, is Z, Gad low, Z, Y makes me just

Jason Zygadlo: 00:34:57

about last in every single thing I do. I. So maybe if you type in

Jason Zygadlo: 00:35:01

Jason's EY, I probably will pop up because I'm probably dead

Jason Zygadlo: 00:35:06

last in the LinkedIn database. Well, thank

Janice Porter: 00:35:08

you again, Jason, for being here. You gave some

Janice Porter: 00:35:11

great food for thought, for people and for people to get out

Janice Porter: 00:35:15

of their comfort zone. Do a little video show up differently

Janice Porter: 00:35:18

and not be dead. No, I don't know why I said that anyway,

Janice Porter: 00:35:23

thank you. Thank you again. And to my audience, if you like what

Janice Porter: 00:35:26

you heard, please let us know, and remember to stay connected

Janice Porter: 00:35:29

and be remembered.

Jason Zygadlo: 00:35:31

Thanks for having me. Thank

Janice Porter: 00:35:32

you. You're welcome.